There is a Sanskrit teaching that has suddenly appeared to me in a new light: “Atmavat sarvabhuteshu yah pashyati sa panditah” — one who sees all beings as oneself is truly wise. I have often approached spiritual ideas through direct observation rather than through belief, and this verse now appears to me as one of the deepest philosophical foundations of what I spontaneously call my “Quantum Darshan.” What interests me is not merely its familiar ethical meaning, as though it simply advises us to treat others as we would like to be treated. Its deeper possibility is ontological. It suggests that beneath the apparent multiplicity of individual beings there may be a fundamental commonality of consciousness. In that sense, the verse becomes much more than a moral instruction. It becomes an observation about reality itself: many beings may appear separate at the level of body, mind and personality, while the underlying principle by which experience is known may not be as divided as the external world suggests.
Atmavat Sarvabhuteshu and the Mystery of One Consciousness in Many Beings
This understanding fits closely with the direction of my wider writings on Kundalini, meditation, awareness, non-duality and spiritual psychology. Again and again, my own experience has led me toward a distinction between the changing individual structure and the awareness in which that structure is experienced. Normally, the world encounters consciousness only through its association with a particular body. We therefore naturally think of consciousness as belonging to separate individuals: this person has consciousness, that person has consciousness, and every being appears to have its own isolated center. But when attention turns inward through meditation, this assumption can become less obvious. The body remains, sensations remain, thoughts may remain, but awareness itself can be experienced in a way that seems less restricted by ordinary personal identification. This is also connected with my earlier experiences of deep dhyana, breathlessness, Keval Kumbhak, Savikalpa and the movement toward states I have described in relation to Nirvikalpa. The essential question becomes whether consciousness is truly fragmented or whether fragmentation is largely a feature of embodiment and identification.
It is not limited to living beings but extends to non-living beings as well. All matter, whatever its nature or external appearance, also holds a deeper existence that remains unaffected by its outward form. In casual living, we generally consider outer forms as real, but their inner, deeper and pure existence is their true nature. This is why we speak of Paramatman as Atman present in everything.
Even in Sharirvigyan Darshan, the body’s cells, tissues and structures are contemplated as non-distinct from the meditator’s own sense of being. Quantum Darshan simply extends this inquiry further, to every fundamental particle, and ultimately even to the underlying space in which everything exists. A brick, for example, is not ultimately separate from the soil and material from which it is formed. In the same way, no material form can be considered completely separate from the deeper existence underlying it.
Therefore, there is a reason to regard Sharirvigyan Darshan and Quantum Darshan as practical modern extensions of the ancient insight expressed in the verse, “Atmavat sarvabhuteshu yah pashyati sa panditah.” This does not mean that only when the meditator reaches a purified state of the Self can he meditate on his similarity with the world. The sense of selfhood associated with every thought, emotion, bodily structure and interaction also needs to be included in this inquiry. Every cell and every fundamental particle participates in the innumerable interactions that collectively constitute what we call a human being, just as they participate in the interactions of the wider material world. Thus, the same principle can be followed progressively from the human level to the cellular level, from the cellular level to the quantum level, and ultimately to the very ground of space itself up to fundamental pure existence, extending the contemplative insight from the individual body to everything that exists.
From Kundalini Experience to a Quantum-Like Vision
My use of the word “Quantum” is therefore philosophical rather than a claim that ancient scripture has scientifically proved modern quantum mechanics. I am not presenting Kundalini or this Sanskrit verse as experimental evidence from physics. Rather, I find that some modern scientific ideas provide a useful language for expressing an intuition that arose independently through contemplation and experience. In my spontaneous formulation, the sequence is simple: one underlying consciousness, apparently expressed through many observers, each associated with a separate body and mind. The multiplicity is real at the empirical level, but perhaps not final at the deepest level of awareness. This is where the phrase “Atmavat sarvabhuteshu” becomes especially powerful. To see all beings as oneself can mean not merely developing sympathy toward them, but recognizing a deeper continuity of being. The individual remains individual in practical life, yet the ultimate subjectivity behind experience may be understood as less divided than the personalities through which it appears.
I even feel that this verse is the core of every secret of spiritual development. Without this understanding, there can be no real spiritual development, while with it, spiritual development can continue in every condition of life. It gives a direction in which every experience and every condition can become part of spiritual development. However, one still has to do good karmas, because the fruits of karmas are inevitable and have to be tolerated when they come. Spiritual understanding does not make one free from the fruits of one’s actions; therefore, good karmas remain necessary while progressing on the spiritual path.
I feel that my first awakening came through this verse, which entered my life naturally through a Sanatana family environment. My second awakening came through the same verse again, but this time in a completely different and unexpected form, disguised as Sharirvigyan Darshan and later as Quantum Darshan. The outer forms were different, but I now feel that the underlying insight was the same. This is what makes the mahima of this verse indescribable and apparently infinite to me.
Because of this personal experience, I find it difficult to compare this verse with other mantras or spiritual teachings, even with Gayatri Mantra. To me, it stands at the top of everything that existed, exists, or will exist. This is not a claim that others must accept, nor do I intend to diminish the importance of other mantras or paths. It is simply how the verse has revealed itself through my own life and spiritual development. Others may experience another mantra or teaching as supreme, and I have no doubt about that. For me, however, the same simple insight has appeared again and again in different forms, first through my family environment and later through my own contemplative discoveries, making me feel that its depth is far beyond what I had understood when I first encountered it.
The amazing thing is that it does not say that the Atma, or pure Self, is similar to everything, as many religions and sects do. Such an idea can become impractical because one cannot live ordinary worldly life while constantly remaining established in the pure Self. Instead, it says atmavat—whatever self-status you actually have is similar to everything. This makes the teaching practical, workable, and effective in ordinary worldly life. Interestingly, the same core message is carried by both of my nondual philosophies as their very foundation—not deliberately or intellectually, but through experiential understanding alone.
The beauty is that ātmavat does not necessarily point to an abstract, pure Ātma that no one can ordinarily observe; with paśyati, it can point to the self as actually experienced—whatever self-status one inhabits. Thus, instead of merely saying “the Ātma is in all,” it offers a practical principle: see others as you see yourself, making nonduality workable in ordinary life.
Had the intended meaning been the pure Ātma itself, the expression could have used ātmanam in an appropriate grammatical construction; the use of ātmavat instead emphasizes “like oneself” or “as oneself.”
The Core of Quantum Darshan
Seen in this way, the Sanskrit verse becomes a remarkably concise starting point for the whole inquiry. “Atmavat sarvabhuteshu” begins with the perception that the self seen within oneself is not fundamentally absent from other beings. From there, the question naturally expands: if consciousness is experienced as the subject here, what exactly makes it fundamentally different there? Individual bodies, memories, personalities, nervous systems and life histories clearly differ, yet the bare fact of awareness presents a deeper philosophical puzzle. My Quantum Darshan or earlier sharirvigyan darshan grows spontaneously from this tension between apparent multiplicity and possible underlying unity. It does not claim to have converted spirituality into physics. It attempts something more modest and, to me, more meaningful: to place direct meditation experience, ancient symbolic wisdom, non-duality and contemporary scientific thinking into one field of inquiry without forcing any of them to become something they are not. The Sanskrit sages expressed the insight in the language of the self and all beings; my own experiences have led me to approach the same mystery through looking at similarity between scince and spirituality.
