“Atman is Brahman” / “I and the Father are One”
Both the Advaitic saying, “Atman is Brahman,” and Jesus’ declaration, “I and the Father are one,” point to the indivisibility of consciousness.
“Atman is Brahman” is a core tenant of Advaita Vedanta. Atman refers to the first-person consciousness that gives rise to the sense of a personal “I,” and Brahman is the all-encompassing reality of infinite* being. Accordingly, the apparent personal self is, at its core, nothing other than this infinite reality. In other words, there is only one consciousness going on here. The apparent distinction between them is illusory**. The insight of Advaita is not to become one with Brahman (the ultimate reality of consciousness), but to realize that the Atman was never not Brahman. The appearance of separation is only an activity within consciousness.
Jesus offers the same insight in the Gospel of John when he says, “I and the Father are one.” In this context, the “I” is not the human ego, but consciousness itself, true being. This is a declaration of oneness, where Jesus recognizes the fundamental oneness of his own being as the source of all being: the perceiving consciousness, the light through which all experience is known.