Mandukya_Upanishad

simply are. You have become That, and you are That; andthat is real knowledge. Knowledge is not expression, butBeing. It is not becoming or a process. It is called sattāsāmānya,in the language of the Yoga Vāsiṣhtha, theGeneral Existence of all things, as distinguished from theparticular existences of bodies, minds and individuals. It isthe Transcendent Being, which cannot be called either asthis or that. It is neither sat (existence) nor asat (nonexistence)in the ordinary sense of the term. It is not sat orexistence in the sense of some object being there. It is notasat or non-existence, also. We say that something is,because we see it; we can think of it; we can hear it; we cancatch it with our hands. And, Reality is not such a type ofexistence. But, thereby, you cannot say that it is nonexistence.It is beyond sat (existence) and asat (nonexistence).Anādimat param brahma na sat tan na-asaducyate, says the Bhagavad Gītā. This Brahman, the Originof all things is non-temporal eternity. Na asad āsīt no sadāsīt, says the Rig Veda. What was there in the beginning?Not existence, not non-existence. Definitions are given bypersons, and all persons who give a definition of Realitycame afterwards as an effect. Who is to define that whichwas prior even to the cause of all things, antecedent even tothe condition of Īsvara? Who can describe it, and what canyou say about it except only characterising it, tentatively, asekātmapratyayasāram? How do you grasp this Ātman? Byknowing it that ‘It Is’ – asti-iti-eva-upalabdhnvyah, as theKaṭha Upanishad puts it. Know it as ‘That which is’, saidSaint Augustine. What is the Reality of all realities? That105