#201 Tat tvam asi – the equation of oneness

The sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad of Samaveda well known for the mahavakya – ‘Tat tvam asi’. The Upaniṣad begins with the story of the son Svetaketu, now twenty four years, proud of being a learned man, having returned home after the study of the Veda-s.

His father, Uddālaka asked him, ‘ Did you ask about that teaching, through which the unheard of becomes heard, the unthought of becomes thought of, the unknown becomes known?’, to which Svetaketu asked how the teaching is imparted. Uddalaka replies, ..

यथा सोम्यैकेन मृत्पिण्डेन सर्वं मृन्मयं विज्ञातं स्याद्वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं मृत्तिकेत्येव सत्यम् ॥ ६.१.४ ॥

‘As by knowing a lump of earth, all things made of earth become known. All transformation has speech as its basis and it is name only. Earth as such is the reality’(6.1.4)

He further adds that knowing the lump of gold, all things made of gold are known and the same applies to the iron nail-cutter and all things made of iron.

Section 2 begins with a mahāpratijña, an opening statement which also reveals the subject matter from the teacher,

सदेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयम् ।

In the beginning, this was Existence alone, One only, without a second.

Before idam, before this jagat i.e. the world, all that is available for perception – known and unknown, manifest and unmanifest was there. How? It was there as sat.

Idam jagat, this world  was undifferentiated sat before. Now, it is differentiated sat. Like even the clay pot, the jagat with all the different forms is always the one satyam. Before any and all the clay pots came into being, they were all clay and continue being non separate from clay. This accounts for the material cause.

How about the intelligent cause?

तदैक्षत बहु स्यां प्रजायेयेति..

That Existence saw, I shall become many..

That Sat is cit, consciousness, indicating the efficient cause too. All that is here is only one satyam-ekam-advitiyam. Everything else is vikara, namadheya, dependent reality .

Sad eva aseet..All that was here was sat alone, existence and hence name and form are negated, not the sat. Meaning, sat was there and is still there in the form of name and form, nama-rupa.

Advitiyam is that which is accompanied by no second thing and cannot be divided. Sat, existence has no features, is not subject to location, is not subject to time and no object is other than it. Sat, Existence is not the result of any process. Existence is present in every object but is itself not an object. Existence is not limited by the boundaries of any object.

So the world as we know it is a product, an effect, a name and form and its cause is Existence.

Sat, existence is the cause and the jagat is the effect.  

In the third section Uddalaka, father gives examples of what makes up the world we experience. After setting this foundation,  Uddalaka states that heat, food, water, mind, breath and voice are not what defines or is at the essence of every living being, rather it is the Sat which is their content.

Each of the elements is pointed out as karyam, the effect and the last karyam, Fire is pointed out as from that sat alone. So Fire is Existence +(as though) name and form.

Pot is clay +(as though) name and form.    Ekamadvitiyam. One alone without a second.

Karanam, cause is only with reference to karyam, effect. Being born and being subject to destruction, the three mahabhuta-s are karya, effects but the karana, cause does not belong to the same level of reality.

Karanatvam is projected on sat because vācārambhanaṃ vikāro nāmadheyaṃ. Any vikara, product is only a name, centred on the tongue. There is no thing existing by itself. It is just a name for that which always exists which changes form. Creation, of names and forms including the body-mind-sense-complex is sat, the Ātma. The existence of the jagat is the existence of the Ātma.

Then what is satyam? “mrttika eva satyam“. Clay alone is the reality of the pot.

There are no two things – Clay and pot. It seems that clay is the cause of the pot form. Karanam and Karyatvam, Cause and effect are only in relation to each other. With respect to itself, sat is neither karanam nor karyam. Clay is neither cause nor effect. If Clay were to be asked, what is it like to be a pot?, Clay will ask – What are you talking about? I am changeless clay.  In any form I continue to be clay.

That sat  is the svarupa of the jagat.

That sat is the svarupa of the karyakaranasanghata.(body-mind-sense-complex)

That sat is the Ātma. 

By the karana-karya-prakriya, the methodology of cause and effect  we see that sat is the intelligent and material cause.

The teacher connects sat with tvam by referring to what happens when the person departs (6.8.6). The speech is withdrawn into the mind, mind into the prana, prana into tejas and tejas into the supreme deity. He follows this up with the mahavakya, for the first time.

स य एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदं सर्वं तत्सत्यं स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो …

That which is this subtle essence, all this has got That as the self. That is the reality. That is the Self. Thou art that, Svetaketu.

The Existence, sat which is the source of the universe is idam sarvam – all this. All that has got this Existence as its self, which is aitadatmyam.

The above mahavakya – Tat tvam asi is repeated nine times to establish oneness of the Ātma and Sat and to show the immanent reality of Sat. The immanent reality of Sat that is Ātma – The essence of all beings is same, the whole world is One Truth, One Reality.

Living beings are like rivers that arise in the mountains, some rivers flow to the east and some to the west, yet they end in an ocean, become the ocean itself, and realize they are not different but are same, and thus realize their Oneness. (6.10.1-2)

That Sat, pure existence which is the essence of the whole creation happens to be the essence of you also! What is the essence of the ocean, happens to be the essence of the wave also. Therefore, ‘ocean and wave’ – are they different or identical?.

Superficially, ocean and wave are different; One is macro; another is micro. One is more permanent; another is temporary. Thus, superficially speaking, ocean and wave are different; but, essentially, there is no ocean other than water. There is no wave other than water.

You are essentially sat brahman. And how is that Sat identified? That which is always present even through all my experiences, as the very content of the experiencer of the mind and body, as the witness-consciousness of it all but changeless.

The teacher says, “tat satyam – ‘tat tvam asi‘ “. You are that Sat. Asi is the verb used for present tense. Present tense reveals a particular fact, which is already obtaining. “You are that Brahman”. When? Tomorrow? Teacher does not tell him to become” brahman. You are that Brahman, the limitless reality.

Tat tvam asi

The literal meaning of ‘tvam’ is the one who has limited power, limited knowledge, dependent on karma, subject to both bondage and liberation and nitya aparoksah – known always as immediate,

The literal meaning of tat is the one who is all powerful, all knowing, all pervading, independent, devoid of bondage and liberation and known indirectly as the one who wields maya shakti.

Jiva’s upadhi, medium is the individual gross-subtle-causal body while Ishvara’s upadhi is the total gross-subtle-causal body.

Jiva is Sat, Consciousness conditioned by individual gross, subtle and causal bodies and Ishvara is defined as Consciousness conditioned by the total gross, subtle and causal bodies.   Since the upadhi, the medium is responsible for the differences between jiva and Ishvara, they can well be rejected because they are projected and do not have an independent reality of their own.

Tat is tvam just like the wave is the ocean, with only one reality, water.

The jnana, knowledge of oneness by the understanding of the mahavakya is the direct means for the destruction of ajnana, ignorance.

Tat tvam asi is the equation of oneness.