Śruti / The twelve Upaniṣads / Chāndogya · 9 of 12
9. That you are
Chāndogya (छान्दोग्य)
The Chāndogya (छान्दोग्य) belongs to the Sāmaveda, to the Kauthuma (कौथुम) recension. It is the last eight lessons of the Chāndogya Brāhmaṇa, often counted as chapters 3 through 10 of that brāhmaṇa. The first two lessons are a mantra-brāhmaṇa. The Tāṇḍya (ताण्ड्य) is a different brāhmaṇa. The upaniṣad a reader holds is those eight lessons. The sixth is the one that carries tat tvam asi (तत्त्वमसि).
Uddālaka Āruṇi (उद्दालक आरुणि) sends his son Śvetaketu (श्वेतकेतु) to study. The son returns proud, able to recite, unable to say that by which the unheard becomes heard. The father teaches with things a house already knows. A banyan (nyagrodha) fruit is opened until the seed is too small to see, and the father says the great tree stands by a subtle essence of that kind. Salt is left to dissolve in water. It is not seen, and it is tasted in every dip. Sleep, hunger, thirst, and death are then read the same way: the person merges into what is real, and does not cease. The sentence sat below is said, and said again, until the repetitions have done the work of the examples.Other teachings in the same book keep the same courtesy toward the concrete. Satyakāma Jābāla (सत्यकाम जाबाल) tells the truth about his birth, that his mother does not know his father, and is accepted as a student because he did not lie. In the telling this book keeps, a bull, fire, a swan, and a water-bird each give him a quarter, and the teacher completes it. Nārada (नारद) comes to Sanatkumāra (सनत्कुमार) knowing many sciences and not the self. The teaching climbs through a series of greater things until bhūman (भूमन्), the vast, where one sees and hears nothing else. Prajāpati (प्रजापति) teaches Indra (इन्द्र) and Virocana (विरोचन). Virocana leaves with the self he can see in the eye, the body. Indra stays, through the dream and through dreamless sleep, until the teaching reaches the one who is free of these.
The breakthrough is the sentence to the son. The subtle essence is not a second object beside the world. All this has that as its self. And the boy who thought learning was a possession is told that he is that. The words are sat in full because the mahāvākya is the whole sentence, not only the last three words.
स य एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदं सर्वं तत्सत्यं स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो sa ya eṣo 'ṇimaitadātmyam idaṃ sarvaṃ tat satyaṃ sa ātmā tat tvam asi śvetaketo
That which is this subtle essence: all this has that as its self. That is the real. That is the self. That you are, Śvetaketu. Chāndogya (छान्दोग्य) 6.8.7. The sentence is said again through the teachings that follow, often counted through 6.16.
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| saḥ (सः) | nominative singular | That one. Heard sa. |
| yaḥ (यः) | nominative singular | Who. Which. Heard ya. |
| eṣaḥ (एषः) | nominative singular | This. Heard eṣo before a vowel. |
| aṇimā (अणिमा) | nominative singular | The minute. The subtle essence. Heard inside aṇimaitad. |
| etadātmyam (एतदात्म्यम्) | bahuvrīhi | Having this as its self. Said of all this. |
| idam (इदम्) | nominative singular | This. Heard idaṃ. |
| sarvam (सर्वम्) | nominative singular | All. Heard sarvaṃ. |
| tat (तत्) | nominative singular | That. Heard tat satyaṃ, and again before tvam. |
| satyam (सत्यम्) | nominative singular | The real. Heard satyaṃ. |
| ātmā (आत्मा) | nominative singular | The self. |
| tvam (त्वम्) | nominative singular | You. |
| asi (असि) | present, second person singular, of as (अस्) | Are. |
| śvetaketo (श्वेतकेतो) | vocative singular | Śvetaketu. The son who is being taught. |
नेपालीमा
छान्दोग्य सामवेदको कौथुम पाठ हो। छान्दोग्य ब्राह्मणका पछिल्ला आठ प्रपाठक हुन्। ताण्ड्य अर्कै ब्राह्मण हो। उद्दालकले श्वेतकेतुलाई बरको (न्यग्रोधको) फलको बीज र पानीमा हराएको नुन देखाए। मसिनो सार देखिँदैन, र सबको आत्मा त्यही हो। तत्त्वमसि। पूरै वाक्य प्रस्तुत गरिएको छ।
सत्यकामले जन्मको सत्य भनेकाले उनी शिष्य बने। नारदलाई सनत्कुमारले भूमान्तिर लगे। प्रजापतिले इन्द्र र विरोचनलाई पढाए। विरोचन शरीर लिएर हिँड्यो। इन्द्र बसे, सपना र निद्रा पार गरेर।
Where it sits
The sung Veda is melody and Gāndharva. Yājñavalkya is the next sitting.