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by Jayaram V
3. Tat Tvamasi
Translation: tat = That tvam = You asi=
becoming or are
Meaning: You are That
The Context
This mahavakya is an expression of Uddalaka Aruni made to his son
while imparting
him the knowledge of self, which is recorded in the sixteen chapters of the sixth Prapathaka
(section) of the Chandogya
Upanishad. Uddalaka Aruni was
one of the earliest revealers of the Upanishads, who believed the knowledge of self to be the real
knowledge. When he saw his son returning home with pride after completing his formal education under a teacher for 12 years, he decided
to teach him the knowledge of self and put him on the
right path.
Using several examples and reminding him constantly that he (Svertaketu)
was indeed none other than That (the highest Being or the Self)
itself, he imparted to him the secret knowledge of the self. At the
end of the conversation
Svetaketu overcame his ignorance and understood what true knowledge
meant. The Chandogya Upanishad is considered to be one
of the earliest Upanishads ever composed and so in it we find
traces of some very early vedic concepts such as God, self and
creation.
The Moral of the Conversation
Parents usually take more pride in the academic
achievements of their children, but do not appreciate whole heartedly
if they show more
than ordinary interest in spiritual matters at an early age. Uddalaka Aruni
did not fit into this category of a parent. As an enlightened
father, he wanted his son to learn the knowledge of the self instead
of wasting his time on the art and science of rituals and scriptural
knowledge. As mentioned in the Bhagavadgita, a person is born in an enlightened
family by virtue of the merit accumulated by him during his previous
lives. Svetaketu was born in a family of spiritual beings as the son
of an enlightened master because
of his previous merit. The story of Uddalaka Aruni and Svetaketu
contains a moral lesson for all the Hindus that as parents they
should to take greater interest in the spiritual foundation of their
children and show concern for their spiritual welfare and
future lives rather than pushing them to become more ambitious, competitive
and materialistic. It is an irony that a good number of Hindus
today live and behave as if this is the only chance they have got to
live upon earth and try to make the best out of it without a care or concern
for their future lives or those of their children. This attitude
also manifests itself in the manner in which we treat our children
and what we expect from them.
The Highest Being
In the Chandogya Upanishad Uddalaka Aruni refers the Highest Being as That or That
Being instead of Brahman. The concept of
Brahman as the Highest Being
was perhaps not yet popular at the time of the composition of these
verses. According to Uddalaka Aruni, the Highest Being is eternal and
without a beginning. Because existence cannot come out of
non-existence, He exists eternally. While He himself is without a
cause and uncreated, he is the
cause and creator of all. Being alone, He wanted to be many and became many.
That the
Highest Being of Uddalaka Aruni is either Agni (fire god)
or a solar deity (Aditya, or Savitr or Surya), whose essence is heat
and light, is evident in the following verses:
It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent
forth fire. (6.2.3)
That fire thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth
water. (6.2.3)
When a man departs from hence, his speech is merged
in his mind,
his mind in his breath, his breath in heat (fire), heat in the
Highest Being. (6.8.6)
Now that which is that subtile essence (the root of
all), in it all that exists has its self.
It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.
6.8.7)
Considering the fact that Chandogya Upanishad is perhaps one of
the earliest Upanishads to have been composed, it is most probable
that the highest being referred in the Upanishad was one of the
following three deities rather than the supreme Brahman of the later
vedic thought.
A Solar Deity
According to Uddalaka Aruni the Highest Being
created fire before he created other things. Fire then created water
and water created earth. Fire is the essence of the sun in which it manifests as light,
heat and rays which pervade the
earth and the heavens and make life possible. In the Rigveda there are many verses addressed
to the solar deities such as the Adityas, Savitr and Surya confirming
their status as creators and rulers of heaven and earth. The
Adityas are the sons of Aditi (universal mother), eight or twelve in
number. Savitr, one of them, who is often identified as Surya or the
sun, is the chief deity of
the Gayatri mantra who is invoked for knowledge and
enlightenment.
Surya, another solar deity is the ruler of the sky who strides the
heavens in his ruddy chariot driven by seven horses spreading his
radiance in all the three worlds. He is the eye of Mitra, Varuna and
Agni and looks upon men with
the same eye.
Agni
The individual self is also described in the vedic
scriptures as a radiant effulgent entity or a flame (agni) of the
size of thumb situated in the region between the eye brows. Agni
resides in the body physically as heat, mentally as intelligence and
in its purest form as the inner self. Among the gods
Agni is
described as the first. Almost every mandala in the Rigveda begins
with a hymn to Agni. He is said to be the principal god in a
sacrificial ceremony who receives all the oblations on behalf of
other gods and then distributes what he receives among them. As a
devourer he exists in our bodies as the digestive fire and consumes the
food we eat through the heat he generates. He is the true bhogi (the
enjoyer) of our nourishment be it food or the sense objects that we
consumes through our senses.
Brahma
Brahma was the original creator, the highest of
all, the master of the worlds, a personification of the immensity of
space and time, the uncreated creator, the cause of all, who was also
known in ancient times as the master and architect of the universe.
He was Prajapathi, the father of all created beings, Lokesa, the lord
of the worlds and Dhatr, the sustainer of all. He was born from a
golden egg in a boundless ocean of primeval energy without a cause. He
was the original Hiranyagarbha, the golden germ, a title that was
later transferred to Lord Vishnu. He rescued the world once as a
boar, then as a fish and also as tortoise, incarnations which were
later ascribed to Lord Vishnu for reasons lost in history.
In subsequent times Vishnu and Siva were also elevated
to the status of Brahman.
Vishnu
In the early vedic period Lord Vishnu was one of
the solar deities, probably less
popular than either Savitr or Surya.
However in the post vedic period he rose to prominence and was
elevated to the status of Brahman himself as the Highest Being. His
followers recognized Him as the Purusha of
the Rigveda, the first awakened being and the creator of all. The
Vaishnavism of today is a product of many ancient traditions and so
is Vishnu in whom are hidden many ancient deities including some
aspects of Brahma. The
Bhagawan of the Bhagavathas, the Narayana of the Narayaniya sect, the
Vasudeva of the Vasudeva sect, the Krishna of the Vrishnis and the Gopala of the
Yadus were all identified with Him and integrated into Him. With the
rise of devotional tradition in the post Mauryan period, Vaishnavism
became a religion by itself and Lord Vishnu was recognized as the ruler
of the world, who had the material universe as his cosmic body and
his essence as the self in all. With the increasing popularity of the
movement, the name Lord Vishnu
became synonymous with those of other deities such as Parashurama,
Balarama, Narasimha, Rama, the Buddha, Ranganadha, Srinivasa, Mayan
and more.
Siva
The Rudra of the Rigveda was a god of rain and
thunder. He was feared and respected because of his association
with sickness and disease. However during the same period, the
tradition of Saivism existed independent of the vedic tradition
and probably enjoyed as much popularity if not more. The
Pasupathas, the Kalamukhas, the Adinathas and the Ajivakas were some
of the earliest branches of Saivism that enjoyed a good following in
very ancient times. The Indus people were probably worshipped of a
prototype of Siva. Some of the Saiva Agamas perhaps date back to
the time the Atharvaveda was composed and provided the basis for many
new scriptures that were composed later such as the Bhagavadgita.1
By
the time the Svetasvatara Upanishad was composed, Siva was an integral
part of vedic tradition and elevated to the status of Supreme Being.
The Emergence of Brahman as the Supreme Being
The vedic tradition was originally deity centered, as is evident from the
Rigvedic hymns,
which are essentially invocations to various gods and
goddesses, with fewer references to a single most universal god
presiding over other divinities and ruling the
heavens and the earth. But in the later vedic period, we find
increasing references to a Supreme Being, named as Brahman,
as the all pervading supreme self and the ruler of all, in whom the
sages found an excellent solution to the problems of human suffering, sickness, aging and
death. He was described with deep respect as the inmost and immortal self of the
individual beings and the container as well as inhabitant of the
entire universe. This new development was certainly not the
contrivance of scholars and academicians, but the product of the
direct experience of the transcendental state of unity by several seers and
sages. The rise of asceticism and the growing importance given to
direct experience rather than book knowledge contributed to it.
Besides, the concept of Brahman as the supreme ruler of the universe
fitted well into the broadening spectrum of the Hindu cosmology that
outgrew the traditional view of
Indra as the lord of the heavens.
The Individual Self
According to Uddalaka Aruni, the self or jivaatma is the essence
of the Highest Being and present in all beings, who return to it during
their sleep
and after their death. As the essence of the Highest Being, it is the
same as Him and by knowing it one knows all, just as by knowing one
clod of clay all that is made of clay is known. It has no death, but when it departs from the body, the
body withers and dies. The Self is true and its knowledge true
knowledge. It is gained only with the help of an enlightened teacher.
Uddalaka Aruni does not explain what happens to the soul after
death. He only says that the self return to the earth again and again
because of ignorance. However he confirms that when true knowledge of
the self is gained, one gains deliverance from the body and becomes
perfect (6.14.2). There is no mention of Prakriti or the tattvas in
this section of the Upanishad. The elements are mentioned but
emphasis is only on fire, water and earth. The role of Prakriti, more or less,
is taken up by fire, which is described as the first element or aspect to emerge
directly from the Highest Being at the time of creation.
Creation
The Upanishad explains how individual beings came into
existence. The Highest Being, who was alone in the beginning, wanted to be many and
wanted to expand. So he created fire (subtle body and heavenly
regions). Fire created water
(breath body and mid region) and water created earth (physical or gross
body and our world). Having created these three elements, the three worlds and the three
primordial beings (elements and divinities), he entered into them as their living Self (jiva-atma).
Using these three elements in their purest form and in combination
with other two he created many forms and names into whom he entered as
their inmost self. So in the heavenly beings fire became predominant. In
the beings of the mid regions air became predominant and in the beings of
our world, earth. Some of the verses in
the sixth and seventh khanda of the Upanishad do not make
sense logically or scientifically in today's world. Probably they are
incomplete or were edited or had a different meaning in ancient times
which we cannot
understand now because of the many new meanings the Sanskrit words
acquired in its long history of 5000 - 6000
years.
Illusion and Rebirth
In the following verses we find one of the earliest references to the
concept of illusion, rebirth and of the presence of self in
animals, insects and
worms also. These verses refute
the argument that the concept of karma, rebirth and illusion were
borrowed from other traditions such as Jainism
and Buddhism and integrated into
Hinduism.
These rivers, my son, run, the eastern (like the
Ganga) toward the east,
the western (like the Sindhu) toward the west. They go from sea to
sea.
They become indeed sea. And as those rivers, when they are in the
sea,
do not know, I am this or that river (6.10.1)
In the same manner, my son, all these
creatures,
when they have come back from the True,
know not that they have come back from the True.
Whatever these
creatures are here,
whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar,
or a worm, or a mid-e, or a
gnat, or a mosquito,
that they become again and again. (6.10.2)
Traces of Monism
In the exposition of Uddalaka Aruni regarding self and the Highest
Being, we can discern some concepts of the
advaita philosophy (monism), which was later expounded in much greater detail by
Gaudapada, Shankaracharya and others. This is evident in the
following arguments.
- The Self and the Highest Being are considered as true, an argument very similar to that of the
followers of advaita vedanta.
- The Highest Being is described
as the the root cause of all.
- Some verses state that beings return to the self in deep sleep and after death. This is
again in line with Advaita Vedanta though not exactly.
- There is no mention of separate selves. The Highest being exists in all as inmost
self or subtle essence. The separation or duality is with regard to
the combination of elements, forms and names
but not the essence itself.
- The Highest Being is described as the material and efficient
cause of all creation.
- The Highest Being is described as one without a second in the
beginning.
The Highest Self and the Individual Self
With the rise of asceticism and several individual schools of
philosophy, the concept of Brahman as the Highest and absolute self
underwent many variations. While outside the schools of Vedanta, the
very existence of the absolute self and its role in creation was
questioned, the Vedanta schools maintained the theistic stand that
Brahman was indeed the highest and absolute self and the cause of all
creation. The Vedic scholars borrowed many ideas and philosophies to
stay afloat in the middle of a great churning of ideas in a period
that saw the emergence such movements as Saivism, Jainism,
Vaishnavism and Buddhism. The concepts of pramanas (standards),
tattvas (principles) and prakriti were borrowed from elsewhere to explain
the nature of reality, types of souls, types of divinities, the role
of the creator, the process of creation and the roles of various
divinities in it. So was the concept of trinity which was
non-existent during the vedic period. The addition of new ideas and
divinities added more complexity to Hindu cosmology and cosmogony and
the nature of relationship between the self
and the highest self. It also led to diverse opinions about the role,
status and functions of Brahman, Atman and Prakriti in creation.
Different schools of thought emerged to explain the relationship
amongst these diverse entities which are described below:
Monism or Advaita
The philosophy of Advaita, which was made popular by Gaudapada,
the author of Mandukya Karika, Shankaracharya and others, asserts
that Brahman is the one and only reality. He exists in all as the self
which is the only truth. The rest is an illusion, from the highest
standpoint. The world is unreal not because it does or does not
exist, but because it is unstable, unreliable, impermanent and does not stand the
test of truth which is constant, reliable, indivisible and eternal. The illusion vanishes like a dream when one wakes up
in the consciousness of Brahman. So the self (you in this
mahavakya) of the beings is also the Self (That of the mahavakya)
of the Being. The advaita vedanta is a philosophy of no difference
(abheda) and one reality.
Qualified Monism or Vishistadvaita
The philosophy of
Vishisthadvaita evolved over a period of time in the south through
the writings and compositions of Alvars and followers of Sri
Vaishnavism and the Saiva Siddhanta school of
Saivism. Sri Ramanuja (1017-1137) reformulated it and gave it
a distinct identity different from
and opposed to the Advaita Vedanta of Sri Shankara. According to
Vishisthadvaita, also known as qualified monism, the jiva-atmas (living beings) and the achetana
(lifeless objects) are as real as Brahman, but not the
same as Brahman. They are at the best His modes (visheshana) or attributes
and dependent upon Him. In contrast to the Advaita Vedanta,
this school believes that Brahman has attributes and
that the world in which we live is real. The material
universe and all the jivas, which are real, constitute the body (sarira) of
Hari of which He is the soul. Prakriti exists eternally as a
mixture of three gunas or qualities. Before creation it exists in
an unmanifest (avyakta) form where the three qualities remain in perfect
balance. When creation begins it undergoes dissimilar
modifications caused by the imbalance of the gunas and becomes manifest (vyakta)
in the beings and the objects. The vishishtadvaita is a philosophy
of difference as well as non-difference (bheda-abheda) according
to which multiple modular realities center around and depend upon one
supreme reality.
Dualism or Dvaita
The philosophy of Dvaita was founded by Sri
Madhavacharya. who is also known as Sri Anandathirtha, a south
Indian Vaishnava Brahmin born in Udupi, Karnataka in the 13th
Century. As a system of philosophy, with regard to the status of the
Soul and God and their inter-relationship, it is perhaps closer to Christianity and Islam than any
other school of Hindu thought. According to Sri Madhava, Atman (soul) and Brahman (Vishnu-Narayana)
are real but different
and will remain so eternally. The souls are uncreated and eternal like God, but
unlike God who is independent (svatantra), they are dependent upon
Him. In order to sustain the worlds or out of love for the mankind,
God manifests himself as incarnations,
aspects and emanations from time to time. He also manifests
Himself as sacred images and symbols to help His devotees who worship
Him in temples and sacred
places. The souls are of different types and graded into a
hierarchy depending upon their roles, statuses and states of
liberation. Some types of souls are subject to illusion, karma, bondage
and in extreme cases eternal damnation, depending upon their actions The dvaita is a philosophy
of difference (bheda) in contrast to advaita vendanta which is a
philosophy of no difference (abheda). It emphasizes the difference between God and soul, between soul and soul, between
God and energy and between one
state of reality and another.
Practical Use
This third Mahavakya, which means that one is the inmost self or
the Supreme Being, is a very powerful mantra.
Used wisely it can bring a radical change in our outlook and behavior
and improve our understanding of ourselves and our relationships
with others. If we keep repeating this mantra silently in the company
of others, we will
develop respect for them and reach out to them unconditionally. We will become free from the negative qualities of pride, envy and
greed and develop compassion for all living beings
in general and for the helpless and the needy in particular. We will
learn to discern divinity hidden in every aspect
of our lives and develop a vision of the universe that
is based on unity, friendship, harmony and brotherhood, instead
of rivalry, competition and insecurity. By repeating it mentally we will be able to
see ourselves as different from our bodies, minds and senses and develop a new awareness
of ourselves different from our ordinary physical awareness. This
mahavakya is also very useful in exploring such complex subjects as the
relationship between the individual and his environment and the self
and the higher self which will help us become a more responsible
human beings.
Suggested Further Reading
1. According to M.R.Sakhare, Author of History and Philosophy of
Lingayat Religion, over half the verses of the Bhagavadgita and
some passages from the Svetasvatara Upanishad were borrowed from the
Parameshvara Agama
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