The Mahavakya, Aham Brahmasmi, is found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The context is the seeking of Brahman by some aspirants who are disgusted with the transitory world and were longing to attain the highest good. They deliberated – since men think that by the knowledge of Brahman, they become all, what, pray, was it that Brahman knew by which It became all?
A disciple asked a question to Swami Vivekananda – If the One Brahman is the only Reality, why then exists all this differentiation in the world? To this Swami Vivekananda answered – are you not considering this question from the point of view of phenomenal existence? Looking from the phenomenal side of existence, one can, through reasoning and discrimination, gradually arrive at the very root of Unity.
This root of unity is our own Self. Swami Vivekananda says in unambiguous terms – what does the Advaitist preach? He dethrones all the gods that ever existed, or ever will exist in the universe and places on that throne the Self of man, the Atman, higher than the sun and the moon, higher than the heavens, greater than this great universe itself. According to him, the Self is the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists, and ever will exist.
Swami Vivekananda says that all kinds of weakness is the offshoot of ignorance of this glory of the Self. After a failed attempt to discover the divinity in various gods outside himself, a man comes back to the Human Soul, the point from where he started. And there, he finds the God whom he was searching for.
What is the practical implication of such a teaching? One who discovers the divinity within himself says will full faith – I am omnipresent, eternal. Where can I go? Where am I not already? I am reading this book of nature… . To who shall I go for help? Who can help me, the infinite being of the universe? These are foolish dreams, hallucinations; who ever helped anyone? None. … I am He, and He is I. none but I was God, and this little I never existed.
Swami Vivekananda in concurrence with the Vedantic scriptures, condemns every kind of weakness as the result of dualistic ideas. It is a weak man, a dualist, weeping and wailing, who does not know that the skies also are in him. He wants help from skies and the help comes. We see that it comes; but it comes from within himself and he mistakes it is as coming from without.
In simple terms, Swami Vivekananda is saying:
“You are asking why there is difference in the world
while saying that Brahman is One. But you are asking this question while
looking at the world from the ordinary, everyday point of view.”
Let’s break it down.
1. Brahman is One
In Advaita Vedanta, Brahman means the ultimate
Reality—the underlying existence behind everything.
At the deepest level, there is no real separation
between you, me, nature, and everything else. There is only One Reality.
For example, think of gold. You can make a ring,
necklace, coin, and bracelet. They look different and have different names, but
fundamentally they are all gold.
Similarly:
- A
person is different from a tree.
- A tree
is different from a stone.
- You
are different from me.
But according to Advaita, underneath all these differences
is the same Brahman.
2. Then why do we see so much difference?
This is the apparent contradiction:
“If everything is One, why do I see many things?”
Vivekananda's answer is essentially:
Because you are looking at Reality from the level of the
phenomenal world—the world of appearances, names, forms, and differences.
At this level, differences are real for practical
purposes.
For example, you can clearly distinguish between:
- a
chair and a person,
- pleasure
and pain,
- you
and another person,
- a tree
and a house.
Vedanta doesn't ask you to pretend these differences don't
appear.
3. But differences don't necessarily mean separate
ultimate realities
Here's the important point.
Imagine waves in the ocean.
You might say:
- “This
is one wave.”
- “That
is another wave.”
- “That
wave is bigger.”
- “This
wave is smaller.”
So there are clearly differences between the waves.
But if you ask, “What are all these waves fundamentally?”
The answer is: water.
The differences belong to the forms of the waves.
Their underlying substance is one.
Likewise, Advaita says:
The world appears as many different things, but the
underlying Reality is One Brahman.
4. What does “reasoning and discrimination” mean?
Vivekananda says that if we start from the world of
differences and carefully investigate it, we can gradually discover the
Unity underneath.
“Discrimination” here doesn't mean judging people. It means
learning to distinguish between:
what changes and what does not change.
For example:
- Your
body changes.
- Your
thoughts change.
- Your
emotions change.
- Your
circumstances change.
But there is an awareness that experiences all these
changes.
Vedanta encourages us to investigate:
“What is ultimately real, and what is merely a changing
appearance?”
Through this inquiry, one moves from many → one.
5. So Vivekananda's answer in one sentence
He's basically saying:
“The world looks divided because we are looking at it
through names, forms, and appearances. But if we investigate these differences
deeply, we can discover that they all have the same underlying
Reality - Brahman.”
A simple analogy is clay and pots:
Many pots - one clay
The pots have different shapes and names, but their
essential substance is the same.
Similarly:
Many beings and things - one Brahman
The differentiation is at the level of appearance; Unity
is at the deepest level of Reality.