Brahman — from bṛh, to grow, expand — is the ground of everything. Ātman is the Self, the innermost witness in each being. The Upanishads declare them one — expressed in the four mahāvākyas (“great sayings”):
| Sanskrit | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| prajñānaṃ brahma | Consciousness is Brahman | Aitareya 3.3 |
| ahaṃ brahmāsmi | I am Brahman | Bṛhadāraṇyaka 1.4.10 |
| tat tvam asi | That thou art | Chāndogya 6.8.7 |
| ayam ātmā brahma | This Self is Brahman | Māṇḍūkya 2 |
How literally “is” should be taken divides Vedānta: identity for Ādi Śaṅkara, inseparable relation for Rāmānuja, distinction for Madhva. The Gautama Buddha denied the permanent ātman altogether (Anattā (No-Self)).
Sententiae
phrases in the originalTat tvam asi
Origin. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7, repeated nine times by Uddālaka to his son Śvetaketu. — Uddālaka Āruṇi, Chāndogya Upaniṣad
⚠ Some scholars (Joel Brereton) argue the grammar may mean “you are that (finest essence)” — the reading of identity with Brahman comes from the Vedāntic tradition.
For non-duality, the unity of self and cosmos, compassion grounded in identity (Schopenhauer).
Ahaṃ brahmāsmi
Origin. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10 — one of the four mahāvākyas. — Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad
For the realization of identity with the absolute — not ego-inflation but ego-dissolution.
Explore Next
related by shared connections
Chāndogya Upaniṣad
One of the oldest Upanishads, famed for Uddālaka’s teaching to Śvetaketu — tat tvam asi — and Satyakāma’s honest answer about his birth.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
The philosopher raised by the Theosophists to be a “World Teacher”, who renounced the role in 1929 — “truth is a pathless land” — and spent sixty years teaching that freedom comes only from seeing the movement of one’s own mind, without authority, method or guru.
Śaṅkara vs. Rāmānuja
The great Vedāntic debate — is the self identical with Brahman, and the world an illusion? Or are souls and world real, the body of a personal God?
Bādarāyaṇa
The author, by tradition, of the Brahma Sūtras — the systematisation of the Upaniṣads that became the root text of every school of Vedānta. Often identified with Vyāsa, compiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahābhārata.
The Dhammapada
423 verses of the Buddha’s teaching in 26 chapters — on the mind, the fool and the wise, anger, craving, the path and the true Brahmin. The best-loved Buddhist scripture, and the shortest door into the Buddha’s ethics.
Sri Aurobindo
The revolutionary nationalist turned yogi and philosopher of Pondicherry, whose The Life Divine and Integral Yoga teach that evolution is spirit’s ascent through matter, life and mind toward a “supermind” that will divinise earthly life.