People say I AM THIS or I AM THAT without realizing what the 'Self is in actuality. I AM represents the physical existence or the universe. Physical existence is an illusion therefore I AM is an illusion. The Soul, the Self is prior to I AM.
People think everything is energy but without consciousness, how can one know it is energy. It is only intellectual speculation.
Chandogya Upanishad:~ One who meditates upon and realizes the 'Self' discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantrams and meditation--all come from the Self.
The sun, the moon, the stars, planets shine because of the Soul or Spirit. The Soul shines and all things else shine as a result. Everything in the universe reflects but that light of the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness. Merely knowing the truth is not enough to escape from the tangle of illusion.
The mind is in the form of the universe. From the standpoint of the Soul the innermost Self the universe is merely an illusion. The illusion arises from ignorance. Enlightenment comes with detachment from the illusion by realizing the experience of the form, time and space are one in essence.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).
When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then everything is nothing but consciousness.
The Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the substance of the dualistic illusion because the dualistic illusion is created out of consciousness. :
Illusion’s "concealing power" merely means that when one looks at an ice block he thinks only of the ice block. But a Gnani will think of the substance of the ice block too. That is a wise man who has knowledge of the substance plus of the ice block.
Similarly, a Gnani has the knowledge of the universe and its formless substance also. The consciousness is concealed because of ignorance. As a man, one is not aware of the fact that his body, ego, and his experience of the world are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.
When one becomes aware of the fact that, the universe is an illusion then there is nobody no ego, and no world then there is only the formless Soul or consciousness, which is the Self. ~Santthosh Kumaar
