32
Trimantra
this did not understand it themselves. ‘Aham Brahmasmi.’ One
should have the experience of ‘that’ first. You are pure Soul,
but first you need to have the experience of the Soul. You
cannot say you are pure Soul without the experience. By simply
uttering these phrases that relate to the Self, one bypasses all
the stages that precede them which are necessary for orderly
spiritual progress and understanding.
Questioner : So when he says ‘Shivoham’, he is saying
it in ignorance, is he not? He does not understand it.
Dadashri : Yes! He is saying it in ignorance. But in his
mind he believes that ‘I am Shiva’. So then there is no more
progress to be made. At least that much is understood. Others
say ‘So hum’. What is ‘So hum’ in Gujarati?
Questioner : ‘I am that’.
Dadashri : One can say ‘So hum’-‘I am that’, but one
cannot say ‘Shivoham, I am Shiva’. Sohum, ‘I am that’, means
that, ‘I am that which is.’ The ‘that’ in this sentence is the Self
or the God. One can say, ‘You only, You only,’ but one cannot
say, ‘I am’, ‘I am’, only. This is because; ‘I’ and ‘You’ are
always separate in ignorant state. The separation vanishes in the
Self realized person. So there is nothing wrong in saying, ‘Sohum’,
meaning I am that, in which ‘I’ remains separate from ‘that.’
Questioner : What does ‘Shivoham’ mean?
Dadashri : To become Shiva means he himself has
become the embodiment of salvation for the world; he himself
becomes Mahadevji. Such a one does not even need to chant
this mantra.
Shiva: Shankaras
Questioner : Is there a difference between Shiva and
Shankara? Shiva you say is an embodiment of salvation (kalyan
kari), so is Shankara in the deva loka , in the celestial world?