13 Nov What is ‘I Am That’
I Am That, Soham, सो ऽहम्
I Am That – Yoga is named after a yogic mantra. The sanskrit chant सो ऽहम् or ‘Soham’ literally translates into I am He, or I am That, which in Hindu, is one and the same thing.
It is a universal mantra, present within all of us as the sound of our breath (‘So’ as we breathe in, ‘ham’ as we breathe out), which detaches from the dualities that complicate and distort the ultimate and universal reality. It is the answer to the question ‘Who am I’ (Koham), which is weighed down by these dualities. Good or bad, lightness or darkness, happiness or sadness, anger or calm, satisfaction or disappointment. None of these matter as, in the end, I Am That.
Yoga, in all its 8 limbs, aims to do away with these dualities in order to bring you into the ultimate consciousness, where you are neither one nor the other, you just are.
Only once we arrive at a place where external circumstances feel neither good nor bad, happy nor sad, painful nor pleasant, can we reach a state of equanimity that ultimately results in peace.
I Am That.