Tat tvam asi: The toothless Mayavada interpretation of the Chandogya Upanisad

Discussing one of the most iconic passages of the Upanisads and how the Mayavada interpretation distorts the meaning of it.

Text 3.1.3 of the Mundaka Upanisad brings us an interesting description:

yadā paśyaḥ paśyate rukma-varṇaṁ

kartāram īśaṁ puruṣaṁ brahma-yonim

tadā vidvān puṇya-pāpe vidhūya

nirañjanaḥ paramaṁ sāmyam upaiti

"When the enlightened soul finally sees the golden-hued Lord, the creator, the Supreme Person, who is the source of the impersonal Brahman, he finally becomes free from material duality and attains the Supreme destination, becoming pure like the Lord."

The words puṇya-pāpe vidhūya mean that the soul becomes free from both virtue and vice. In the material world, there is duality: good and bad, honor and dishonor, etc. but in the spiritual world, there is no bad, there are just different varieties of good. Becoming free from both virtue and vice means becoming free from material duality or in other words, attaining the transcendental platform. It also means that one becomes free from both the good and bad results of previous actions, completely closing his karmic accounts. In both cases, the practical meaning is that one becomes liberated.

What happens after one becomes transcendental? Nirañjanaḥ paramaṁ sāmyam upaiti: one attains sameness (sāmyam) with the Lord.

Of course, Mayavadis interpret this passage as meaning that one becomes one with the Lord, but the knowledge of the Upanisads is a little more nuanced than that. Even Sankaracarya is careful in his commentary, stating that the sameness described here means "that supreme equality which is identity with Brahman." In other words, in his commentary, he speaks about identifying with Brahman, and not merging into Brahman. The conclusion that one becomes homogenously dissolved into Brahman is actually a later interpretation by his followers, an oversimplification of a more delicate concept.

This can be understood in the context of the verses in the 6th section of the Chandogya Upanisad.

After studying for 12 years in the gurukula, Śvetaketu returns to his father, Uddālaka, who noticing the boy had become proud due to his education, asks him to describe the principle by which everything unheard becomes heard, by which everything unthought becomes understood and by which everything unknown becomes known. Puzzled by the question, Śvetaketu asks his father to explain this knowledge to Him. We can notice that this is similar to the question posed by Śaunaka to Aṅgirasa in the first chapter of the Mundaka Upanisad (Knowing what does all become known?). Śvetaketu had studied many topics in the gurukula, but he didn't study the nature of the absolute truth, which his father will explain to him.

Uddālaka starts by explaining the process of creation, mentioning that at the beginning only the Supreme Lord existed and from Him, the material creation was born. From this, comes the famous passage: tad aikṣata, bahu syāṁ prajāyeyeti, "The Lord then contemplated and spoke: Let me become many! Let me propagate myself!" He then explains the creation of the material elements and how from them are formed the bodies of different living beings, and other topics, explaining how the Lord (sat) is the origin of everything that exists.

The part relevant to the discussion starts in chapter 6.8 and goes all the way to chapter 6.16. In these chapters, Uddālaka describes to Śvetaketu the transcendental nature of the Lord and how everything is intimately connected with Him.

During sleep, the consciousness retreats to inside the heart, where the soul meets the Lord and rests. It is said then that one has entered unto himself. All living beings live on food, food comes from water, water from fire, and so on, culminating in the Supreme Lord who is the ultimate origin. Similarly, when a person dies, the faculty of speech merges into the mind, the mind into prana, prana into fire, and all subtle elements merge into the Lord. The Lord is thus the most subtle.

Just as bees prepare honey by extracting nectar from many different flowers (and when combined the nectar of a flower is not able to differentiate itself from the nectar of the other flowers), or as different rivers when merged into the ocean don't conserve a separate identity, similarly, when the soul merges into the Lord inside the heart during deep sleep, he completely loses consciousness and doesn't remember his separate material identity. However, after waking up, the soul returns to his material activities, as a human being, a tiger, a mosquito, etc.

Uddālaka then asks his son to take the fruit of a banyan tree, cut it up, take a single seed, and cut it in half. Śvetaketu is somehow able to cut the minute seed, but can't see anything inside of it. Uddālaka however explains that the essence of a whole banyan rests, unseen, inside that seed. Similarly, the Lord is the essence of this whole world.

He then tells him to dissolve a chunk of salt into water. He tells the boy to take sips from every corner and then from the center. From any part, it tastes the same: salty. He then tells him to throw the salty water on top of a rock and let it dry. The next day, he shows how salt has been deposited on top of the rock. The salt had not disappeared into the water: it was always there, unseen. Similarly, he explains, the Lord is everywhere and permeates everything, although we can't see Him.

He then explains how a blindfolded person brought to a distant, unknown place can't find his way home by himself, but if he is freed from the blindfold and instructed on the right direction to take, he can reach his home by going from village to village on the way. Similarly, one who has a spiritual master may still have to still for some more time in this material as he matures spiritually and the results of his part karma are destroyed, but his success is guaranteed. When a person dies, the connection with the body is severed and one's material identity is forgotten. One does not remember his relatives and friends anymore. Therefore, there is no need to care much about the superficial connection with the body. He concludes by telling Śvetaketu that when one knows the Lord within himself, he is not touched by saṁsāra.

In this way, all these passages of the Chandogya Upanisad describe the nature of ātmā, the Supreme Lord, the creator, maintainer, and essence of everything. The point that brings us back to the discussion about the destination of the soul after liberation is the words "sa ātmā, tat tvam asi śvetaketo iti" included at the end of each chapter.

Saḥ means "that" and ātmā means "Self". In the ordinary sense, ātmā is used to describe the individual soul, but that's the secondary meaning of the world. In the primary meaning, ātmā means the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Self. "Svetaketo iti" simply concludes the sentence, meaning "O Śvetaketo".

We come then to the important part: "tat tvam asi".

Tat means "that", tvam means "you". The word "asi" is often translated as "are", but in reality, asi indicates the verb "to be" in the second person of the singular. It indicates identity or similarity, but the usage is complex. One may identify with an actor or politician, but this does not mean he becomes him. Similarly, one can be like someone else in the sense of having similar inclinations or qualities, without merging with the other person. I can be like my father, but this does not mean we are one, and the fact we are all human beings doesn't mean we are all one. Just like the word "are" in English, the word "asi" in Sanskrit more often than not indicates similarity or identification, and not physically merging or dissolving into something or someone.

Therefore, translating "sa ātmā, tat tvam asi śvetaketo iti" as "You are that Brahman, O Svetaketo", as commonly done by Mayavadis is incorrect. It not only reveals a crude understanding of the language and syntax but also a poor conclusion of the conclusions of the scriptures. Nowhere it's mentioned that the individual soul dissolves into the Supreme Brahman. On the opposite, both the Supreme Brahman and the soul are described as eternal and immutable. The Supreme Brahman is not a piece of clay that can be cut and merged back, nor is it an impotent mass of energy that falls prey to a superior force called Maya.

This is directly indicated by Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita:

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī

mama māyā duratyayā

mām eva ye prapadyante

māyām etāṁ taranti te

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it."

The fact that Krishna refers to the material energy as "daivī" indicates the fact that He has multiple potencies and that these potencies are spiritual, which is also directly supported by the sutra "janmādy asya yataḥ" of the Vedanta Sutra. The words "mama māyā" (my energy) and "mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te" (those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it) indicate that Maya is completely under Krishna's control. Not only there is no possibility of Him falling into illusion, but He has also the power to give release to any soul who so desires.

The fact that the Lord and the soul are different individuals now, proves that they were different individuals in the past, and will continue being separate individuals in the future. This is a very elementary topic in the philosophy, described by the Lord right at the beginning of the Bhagavad-Gita:

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ

na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ

na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ

sarve vayam ataḥ param

"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

Mayavadis argue that the separate identity of the Lord and the soul referred to in the verse is related to the body only, and in the absolute sense, the Lord and the soul are one. However, they forget to consider that in the verse immediately before that, Krishna had already condemned bodily identification:

aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ

prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase

gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca

nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

"While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead."

Therefore, the argument that Krishna would embrace bodily identification immediately after calling Arjuna a foll for indulging in it is ludicrous. This is further reinforced in verse 15.7, where Krishna declares:

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."

The words "aṁśaḥ" and "sanātanaḥ" directly indicate that the souls are eternally fragmentary, both in the conditioned and liberated state. The only difference is that in the conditioned state, the soul struggles in the material world with the mind and senses, while in the liberated state, the soul recovers his original sat-tit-ananda nature. The fact that Krishna and the souls are eternally separated individuals is reinforced by the word mamaivāṁśaḥ, which enphasizes that the souls are parts and parcels of Krishna, and not an illusion or a temporary manifestation as proposed by the Mayavadis. This becomes even more evident when the sentence "mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke, jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ" is taken as a whole

This shows how Mayavada philosophy is based on a crude understanding of the scriptures. It has an agenda that is supported by examining each verse separately, taking them out of the context of the general conclusions of the scriptures. This creates a philosophy that is contradictory and can be sustained only by hiding the truth behind creative interpretations of the meaning of the sastras. Their philosophy, claimed to be profound, is ultimately hollow and contradictory. In contrast, the proper understanding of the scriptures, as described by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, leads to the highest realization: our eternal, blissful, and personal relationship with the Supreme Lord. As Prabhupada humorously mentions:

"Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand these simple facts explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and yet they are very proud of being Vedāntīs. Sometimes, therefore, we refer to the Vedāntī philosophers as Vidantīs, those who have no teeth (vi means “without,” and dantī means “possessing teeth”). The statements of the Śaṅkara philosophy, which are the teeth of the Māyāvādī philosopher, are always broken by the strong arguments of Vaiṣṇava philosophers such as the great ācāryas, especially Rāmānujācārya. Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya and Madhvācārya break the teeth of the Māyāvādī philosophers, who can therefore be called Vidantīs, “toothless.” (CC Adi 7.128, Purport)

The correct translation for the words "tat tvam asi śvetaketo iti" is thus: "You are like that Brahman, O Svetaketo" meaning that as a soul he shares the same spiritual nature with the Lord, and should thus identify with this spiritual nature, instead of identifying with the physical body. Śvetaketu is advised to recognize his constitutional position as an eternal fragmental part of the Lord, meant for service. He is one with the Lord in nature, not in identity.

Apart from being explained and defended by great acaryas and scholars in India throughout the centuries, this understanding is also supported by a number of Western scholars. Patrick Olivielle, who did great research in the syntax and historical context of the verses of the Upanisads, for example, translates this sentence as "that is the truth; that is the self (atman). And that's how you are, Svetaketu."

Both the Supreme Lord and the soul are transcendental, both are eternal, but the Lord is Supreme. Nitya nityanān cetanān cetanānām: amongst many eternals who are particles of consciousness, the Lord is Supreme. Just like many passages, this verse from the Katha Upanishad describes the distinction between the Supreme and the individual souls. I may be similar to my father in nature, but we are separate individuals, there is no question of merging with him.

When the soul attains perfection, he returns to his original spiritual nature, like the Lord, and in this spiritual nature associates with the Lord (just as we associate with Him every night in deep sleep), but now fully conscious, and ready to cultivate a loving relationship with Him, as Lord Caitanya encapsulates in the maxim "jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa" (It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa).

This is also directly confirmed in the Bhagavad-Gita (18.54):

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

"One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state, he attains pure devotional service unto Me."

The platform of bhakti is achieved after the platform of liberation, which indicates this is the final nature of the soul. This verse directly contradicts the proposition of mayavadis that devotional service is simply a provisional tool in becoming free from Maya and merging into Brahman. Rather, bhakti is pointed to as the final perfection and the original nature of the soul.

Tat tvam asi thus indicates the transcendental nature of the soul, as good as the Lord. It is a fantasy to use it to support the idea that they are one.

Another similar article: How the verses from the Scriptures can have unlimited meanings