Mahavakyas

What the Mahavakyas is

The Mahavakyas, the 'great sayings', are four short sentences lifted from four different Upanishads, one belonging to each Veda. Prajnanam Brahma, 'Consciousness is Brahman', closes a passage of the Aitareya Upanishad (3.3) of the Rig Veda. Aham Brahmasmi, 'I am Brahman', comes from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.4.10) of the Shukla Yajur Veda. Tattvamasi, 'That you are', is the refrain of the Chandogya Upanishad (6.8.7) of the Sama Veda. Ayamatma Brahma, 'This Self is Brahman', is the second verse of the Mandukya Upanishad of the Atharva Veda. None of them was composed as a hymn and none has a named author. Read in the order of the Vedas, the four move from a definition (Brahman is consciousness), to a first-person recognition (I am Brahman), to a teacher addressing a student (you are That), to a plain statement about the Self within (this Self is Brahman). Advaita Vedanta treats them as the summary of the whole Upanishadic teaching.

A father's lesson and a son's initiation

The best known of the four is spoken by a father to his son. In the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad, Shvetaketu is sent away to study at twelve and comes home at twenty-four, sure of his learning and rather pleased with himself. His father, the sage Uddalaka Aruni, asks whether he was ever taught the one thing by which the unheard becomes heard and the unknown becomes known. Shvetaketu admits he was not. Uddalaka then teaches through ordinary things: a lump of clay that explains every clay pot, salt that vanishes into water yet flavours every sip, the invisible essence inside a banyan seed from which the great tree stands. Each lesson ends with the same line, 'That you are, Shvetaketu', so the saying works as a refrain rather than a single announcement. The grouping of the four sayings as a set is later. The Shukarahasya Upanishad relates that Vyasa asked Shiva how to instruct his young son Shuka, and that Shiva taught the boy these four sentences, with Vyasa listening. According to that text, Shuka meditated on them and was freed while still living. In the Advaita monastic tradition the four are still given to a sannyasi at initiation.

The mantra, in six scripts

Mahavakyas lyrics in full

The four sayings on their own, without their surrounding passages, in the order of the Vedas: Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva.

All 4 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

The syllable people get wrong

In ahaṃ brahmāsmi the second word is brahma joined to asmi, so the long ā sits in the middle: say brah-MAA-smi, with the h after the r actually breathed, not 'bram-a-smee'. The joined vowel is what carries the meaning 'am', so shortening it blurs the two words together.

Questions