Tath Tvam Asi ( updated in pg3)

i would like to discuss about the sentence mentioned by dadhichi in today's episode

" TATH THVAM ASI"

this on of the four mahavakyas as classified by Shankara bhagavadpada.

each of this mahavakyas come from four upanishads which in turn are from four vedas respectively.


 It is the third one from the list and  it comes from Chandogya Upanishad which is itself part of Samaveda.

this line appears as a part of dialogue between uddalaka and his son svetaketu. if i have time
will post the whole conversation and the commentary on it.

as expected various acharyas have written different interpretation of this mahavakya and their interpretations are organized according to their philosophical disposition.

that is the beauty of upanishads you can spend whole life researching them but still you cannot exhaust the interpretations from them,

so lets see the interpretations according to the philosphy:

Advaitha Vedantha:  when you take the literal meaning of the verse it means

Tath:  that
Tvam: you
asi: are

when we we make sense of it, it comes out  " you are that"

here that represents which is not you, which is nothing but "Brahman"  so it comes out Brahman
which is the ultimate reality is you,.

you represents jiva or jivatma.

meaning of this is there is no dual existence of atma and paramatma they are one and the same
which is the advaitic thought.

from this point advaitha proceeds to describe the nature of the self, this world its perception etc etc

i like this version the most as it is literal translation of mahavakya with no additional add ins of course this is my opinion.

depending of the response and interest of the other forum members i will add other interpretations.

hopefully you all will like it. if there are any mistakes please mention them.

regards
Krishna
 


Edited by kkr531 - 11 years ago

Awesome post Krishna! Edited by narangi_77 - 11 years ago

Thanks for the enlightment 👍🏼

You might want to add that this line occurs in the dialogue between Uddalaka and Svetaketu...which is worth reading in its entirety...

Originally posted by: kkr531

Tath:  that
Tvam: I
asi: am

Originally posted by: narangi_77

You might want to add that this line occurs in the dialogue between Uddalaka and Svetaketu...which is worth reading in its entirety...

yes but i thought this might not be relevant to the forum, i mean its completely different topic so i thought just discussing  the line mentioned by dadhichi would suffice.

any way i am adding it as per your request

regards
krishna

Originally posted by: narangi_77

Oops Krishna...I just noticed this.

Tvam = you (Aham = I) 

Asi is second person of the verb "to be" in sanskrit so, it shd translate as "are"

tat = that

tvam= you

asi = are

you are right  😕  i will correct it my mistake. meaning is the same though.

Edited by kkr531 - 11 years ago

Originally posted by: kkr531

you are right  😕  i will correct it my mistake. meaning is the same though.

Originally posted by: narangi_77

True, but Sanskrit is a very precise language (most of the time!), and call me a pedant, but I don't like to see mistranslations 😆 

The phrase for self-realization is "Aham Brahmasmi" which in the show, they use (incorrectly IMO) for the god Brahma! 

thanks for correcting i too share your views. by the way talking of aham brahmasmi, since you are tamil

did you watch movie Naan Kadavul of Bala. it portrays advaithic thought in a very subtle way

Krishna

TFS dear really apprieciate ur work...