Beyond The Name
The concept of the name of God is one which has fascinated scholars and philosophers from the dawn of time. God reportedly revealed ‘His’ name to Moses via the burning-bush; as recorded in the book of Exodus 3:14. The name Moses heard was, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. Actually, it’s a phrase rather than a name, so what does it mean, and does it have any significance for us today?
In biblical Hebrew, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh is a deceptively simple phrase consisting of the relative pronoun asher sandwiched between two instances of the first person singular of the verb hayah — to be. Ehyeh is most commonly translated as “I am.” Asher is a remarkable Hebrew word that can mean, that, who, which or where, but in this context, is most often translated as ‘that’.
Therefore, generally speaking, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, or ‘I am that I am’, can be taken to indicate the self-existence and infinite eternality of God as the Source of all. It indicates the unity between the formless Divine Nature and the essence of all forms.
As Abhayananda comments in his illuminating book, ‘The Supreme Self’: “I am is an immediately evident fact — perhaps the most evident of all facts. It is not necessary to think in order to be aware I am — Descartes’ assertion to the contrary notwithstanding. I am is self-evident and logically prior to thought, for it is the I of ‘I think’.
This I am (Sanskrit: Aham; Hebrew: Ehyeh) is synonymous with consciousness in humankind. It is the constant underlying background, which serves as witness as well as substratum to all possible mental states….
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