tat tvam asi

Translingual

Alternative forms

• तत् त्वम् असि (tat tvam asi), तत्त्वमसि (tattvamasi) — Devanagari script

Etymology

Common transliteration of Sanskrit तत्त्वमसि (tattvamasi), literally meaning "that are you". Originally occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7.

Phrase

tat tvam asi

1. "That thou art" or "thou art that"; an assertion that the listener is one with the universe, or with an ultimate reality.
   • 1994, Stanley A. Wolpert, An Introduction to India (in English), page 85:

     Such mystic self-realization might take many lifetimes to attain, and various Yoga exercises could help prepare one's body for such enlightenment, or it might come in a flash of blinding instant illumination, that "All is One," that "Thou art That One" (Tat tvam asi).

   • 1997, Éric Le Calvez, Eli Franco, Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and Its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies (in English), page 587:

     The central theme of this article is the development of ethical thought in traditional and modern Vedanta (which he finds exemplified in the work of Vivekananda) and the possibility of an "applied nondualism, " or a "tat tvam asi ethics."

   • 1999, Carsten Colpe, Weltdeutungen im Widerstreit (in German), page 101:

     Schopenhauer gab auf das Bedürfnis des Menschen nach Erlösung aus dieser schlechten und illusionären Welt eine zweifache Antwort: der Mensch muß durch das upanischadische tat tvam asi über sich selbst aufgeklärt werden, er muß sich aber auch auf die metaphysische Flucht aus der Welt begeben (das ist ein okzidentales Verständnis des Nirvana).

     Schoppenhauer gave a binary answer to humanity‘s longing for deliverance from this bad and illusionary world: Man must be educated about himself through the Upanishad tat tvam asi, but he also has to metaphysically escape the world (an occidental understanding of Nirvana).

   • 1999, Raimon Panikkar, La plenitud del hombre: una cristofanía (in Spanish), page 149:

     Para descubrirse un tú, un tvam (tat tvam asi), es necesario que alguien, o sea el Yo, nos lo diga y que nosotros estemos en disposición de oír : "¡Tú eres!"

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2006, Sri Ramanananda Saraswathi, La esencia del Vedanta: Advaita Bodha Deepika y Kaivalya Navaneeta (in Spanish), page 13:

     Estas palabras, que se hacen eco del antiguo pozo de sabiduría India, proclama el más profundo mensaje del Vedânta: Tat tvam asi («Eso eres Tú»).

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2009, Vasudha Dalmia, Heinrich von Stietencron, The Oxford India Hinduism Reader (in English), page 173:

     According to Hacker, the 'tat tvam asi ethics', or the very principle of 'practical Vedānta', is thoroughly inauthentic.