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"Tat tvam asi" (That thou art) is the most profound message of the Upanisads and constitutes the essence and the synthesis of the Advaita Vedanta and Asparsa Yoga teaching:
'That, which is infinitely subtle, is the essence of all this [universe]. That is the Reality. That is the Self and That thou art, Svetaketu - Please, Venerable Sir, instruct me still further - So be it, my dear - said he. (Chandogya Upanisad, VI, XIV, 3).
In this book a realizative dialogue takes place between Antonio, a seeker of the ultimate Truth, and Raphael, an asparsin. Antonio has participated in every possible kind of experience without finding fulfilment, or any solution to his problems. The way indicated by Raphael, at one with Tradition, teaches that being, in its essence, is nothing but the Absolute. Conflict, suffering, opposition and violence exist because one's attention is directed to the outside rather than within, where one's own real nature lies, which is Completeness.
About the author
Raphael having attained a synthesis of Knowledge (with which eclecticism or syncretism are not to be confused) aims at 'presenting' the Universal Tradition in its many Eastern and Western expressions. He has spent a substantial number of years writing and publishing books on spiritual experience, and his works include commentaries on the Qabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. He has also commented on and compared the Orphic Tradition with the works of Plato, Parmenides and Plotinus. Furthermore, Raphael is the author of several books on the pathway of non-duality (Advaita), which he has translated from the original Sanskrit, offering commentaries on a number of key Vedantic texts. After more than sixty years of teaching, both oral and written, Raphael has withdrawn into mahasamadhi.
