Tat twam asi

Acharyal has composed a hymn in praise of Lord Ayyappa in which he extols the lord to be the bestower of knowledge (jnana) and liberation (mukti) as he is harihara sutan. Is Ayyappa bhakti an eulogy? Is it a cult? Is it spirituality? Well, the answer depends on the individual.

In my humble opinion, you call it eulogy or cult or whatever name you want. They are part and parcel of the end that one seeks (though he already is there). This is the very essence of sanathana dharma and upheld devoid of any ambiguity by the philosophy of ayyappa worship. One beholds the sign board "Tat twam asi" starring boldly in the entrance of all shasta temples. A lose translation of that is "Thou are that".

This philosophy is stressed time and again in our day-to-day activities. While performing achamana, we propitiate the lord in various parts of our body precisely to remind us of this only fact. While doing puja, nyasas are performed in order to remind us of this fact again. While performing all activities, sanathana dharama time and agaiin stresses this fact, sometimes subtly or manytime rather explicitly. Why are we to remind ourselves of this fact when we actually are that? There are several reasons given in our sastras. One being, getting rid of superimposition of non-existent on the existent, like the image on the screen. The other being, removal of trichotomy namely, the sense of doership, the act of doing, the purpose of doing.

Once this trichotomy is gone, tat twam asi will be clear otherwise blurred and would appear tattwa masi (the reality smeared with charcoal therefore apprearing blurred).

All the efforts are not to establish the truth (tatva). Because it is already there. The efforts are only to cleanse tatva of the masi so that it becomes clearly tat twam asi.