Deham Naham Koham Soham ↘↖
Deham Naham Koham Soham
In the Hindu vedas or the central teaching of advaita vedanta, the Sanskrit language phrase —‘deham naham;koham? soham’ — Sri Ramana Maharshi explains in his own words why and how this pure consciousness ‘I’ will destroy our ego.
The four words ‘deham naham; koham? soham’, each of which is in turn the first word of each of the four lines of this verse (in Sanskrit), mean ‘the body (deham) [is] not (na) I (aham); who (kah) [am] I (aham)? he (sah) [is] I (aham)’. The first sentence, ‘deham naham’ or ‘the body is not I’, denotes the initial process of self-analysis by which we gain the intellectual conviction that the body, mind and other adjuncts that we have superimposed upon ourself are not our essential self or ‘I’; the second sentence, ‘koham?’ or ‘who am I?’, denotes the practice of atma-vichara or self-investigation, whereby we will actually experience what ‘I’ really is; and the third sentence, ‘soham’ or ‘he is I’, denote the experience of true self-knowledge that we will gain by practising atma-vichara.
“That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings, who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being — I am that.”
Amritbindu Upanishad
“That which permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like the universal space around us, fills everything completely from within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman — that thou art.”
Adi Sankaracharya
Read more about the above topic - Deham Naham Koham Soham.
Also, read about Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the author of the book “I am That” which speaks on the above topic, which can be read online here: Part 1 and Part 2, or download the complete book in pdf format here.
