Acharya Prashant explains that the experience we have from our scattered stateโwhat is far from us, separate from us, all around us, inside us, and outside usโis called 'Jagat' (the world). We consider this scattered state to be our normal condition. For an ordinary person, whatever they can touch, see, hear, and relate to is 'Jagat'. The question of the difference between 'Jagat' and 'Brahman' is not an objective one, like the difference between sugar and salt. We must first ask who is talking about both. The relationship of 'Jagat' is directly with the one who experiences it. 'Jagat' is what appears to the experiencer in their normal, scattered state, where the mind is fragmented, running in different directions, filled with desires, illusions, and doubts. When this very experiencer's mind becomes calm, stable, and undivided, the distance between the object being seen (the scene) and the seer (the subject) vanishes. This distance is called 'Kamna' (desire). In our scattered state, there is a lot of desire, but in a resolved and stable state, there is a completeness with little room for desire. When the distance between the seer and the seen becomes very small, it means desire has diminished. The distance itself is desireโthe feeling that 'I am here, and that thing is far from me, I haven't gotten it.' Where there is desire, there are two fragments. In the stable state of the mind, the experience is non-dual ('Advaita'); 'I' and 'the thing in front' are not two separate entities. This non-dual experience is 'Brahman'. When you are stable, what is all around is 'Brahman'. However, in that stability, you do not exist as a separate center from which to look around. Therefore, 'Brahman' is not something to be experienced or inferred. As long as the ego ('Aham') exists, there is the world ('Jagat'). When this ego is purified and becomes the Self ('Atman'), then the 'Jagat' is 'Brahman'. At that point, there is no distance between you and the 'Jagat', which is what Vedanta calls 'Atman is Brahman'. The statement 'Aham Brahmasmi' (I am Brahman) can only be rightfully claimed by one whose ego has been purified into the Self. For the ordinary ego, there is a vast distance between itself and 'Brahman'. It is a great irony when the ordinary ego, which is the very source of suffering, starts considering itself 'Brahman' and declares 'Aham Brahmasmi', as this only makes the ego more rigid and unbreakable.
