The banyan seed: tat tvam asi
न्यग्रोधफलमत आहरेतीदं भगव इति भिन्द्धीति भिन्नं भगव इति किमत्र पश्यसीत्यण्व्य इवेमा धाना भगव इत्यासामङ्गैकां भिन्द्धीति भिन्ना भगव इति किमत्र पश्यसीति न किञ्चन भगव इति ॥
तँ होवाच यं वै सोम्यैतमणिमानं न निभालयस एतस्य वै सोम्यैषोऽणिम्न एवं महान्यग्रोधस्तिष्ठति श्रद्धत्स्व सोम्येति ॥
स य एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदँ सर्वं तत्सत्यँ स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो इति भूय एव मा भगवान्विज्ञापयत्विति तथा सोम्येति होवाच ॥
nyagrodhaphalamata āharetīdaṃ bhagava iti bhinddhīti bhinnaṃ bhagava iti kimatra paśyasītyaṇvya ivemā dhānā bhagava ityāsāmaṅgaikāṃ bhinddhīti bhinnā bhagava iti kimatra paśyasīti na kiñcana bhagava iti ||
tam̐ hovāca yaṃ vai somyaitamaṇimānaṃ na nibhālayasa etasya vai somyaiṣo'ṇimna evaṃ mahānyagrodhastiṣṭhati śraddhatsva somyeti ||
sa ya eṣo'ṇimaitadātmyamidam̐ sarvaṃ tatsatyam̐ sa ātmā tattvamasi śvetaketo iti bhūya eva mā bhagavānvijñāpayatviti tathā somyeti hovāca ||
Translation
"Bring a banyan fruit from over there." "Here it is, sir." "Split it." "It is split, sir." "What do you see in it?" "These rather tiny seeds, sir." "Split one of them." "It is split, sir." "What do you see in it?" "Nothing at all, sir." He said to him: "This finest essence that you do not see, my dear: from this very finest essence the great banyan tree stands. Have faith, my dear. That which is the finest essence, this whole world has it as its self. That is the truth. That is the self. That is how you are, Śvetaketu." "Teach me more, sir." "So be it, my dear," he said.
The story
Chāndogya Upaniṣad, chapter 6. Śvetaketu returns home after twelve years of study, proud of all he has memorised. His father, Uddālaka Āruṇi, asks whether he has learned that by which the unheard becomes heard and the unknown known; the boy admits he has not, and asks to be taught.
Uddālaka teaches by demonstration. Here he has his son split a banyan fruit, then one of its tiny seeds, until nothing visible is left: from that invisible fineness the whole great tree grows. In the next lesson he dissolves salt in water, which cannot be seen but can be tasted everywhere. Each lesson ends with the same refrain, "tat tvam asi, Śvetaketu", nine times in all.
Meaning
Tat tvam asi is one of the four "great sayings" (mahāvākya) of Vedānta. Śaṅkara's school reads it as an identity: "you are that", the individual self is the absolute. Other schools read it differently, and some modern scholars (notably Joel Brereton) argue that in its context it means "that is how you are": you too, like the tree, depend on that subtle essence.
The dialogue itself is lively and very human: short commands, the boy's polite "bhagavaḥ", the father's affectionate "somya".
Word by word · 14 words
| Devanagari | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| न्यग्रोधफलम् | nyagrodhaphalam | a fruit of the banyan tree (acc. sg. n.) |
| आहर | āhara | bring (2nd sg. imperative of ā + √hṛ) |
| भगवः | bhagavaḥ | sir, venerable one (voc.; bhagavaḥ before i becomes bhagava) |
| भिन्द्धि | bhinddhi | split (it) (2nd sg. imperative of √bhid) |
| अण्व्यः | aṇvyaḥ | tiny (nom. pl. f.) |
| धानाः | dhānāḥ | seeds, grains (nom. pl. f.) |
| न किञ्चन | na kiñcana | nothing at all |
| सोम्य | somya | my dear (voc.; "gentle one") |
| अणिमानम् | aṇimānam | the finest essence, subtlety (acc. sg. m. of aṇiman) |
| निभालयसे | nibhālayase | you perceive (2nd sg. present middle) |
| श्रद्धत्स्व | śraddhatsva | have faith, trust (2nd sg. imperative middle of śrad + √dhā) |
| ऐतदात्म्यम् | aitadātmyam | having this as its self (nom. sg. n.) |
| आत्मा | ātmā | the self (nom. sg. m.) |
| तत् त्वम् असि | tat tvam asi | "that you are" (tat "that", tvam "you", asi "are", 2nd sg. of √as) |
Pronunciation
sa ya eṣoṇimaitadātmyamidam̐ sarvaṃ tatsatyam̐ sa ātmā tattvamasi śvetaketo ||
Syllables are given for the closing sentence with the refrain.
- tattvamasi: double t then tv: tat-tva-ma-si.
- idam̐ and satyam̐ use the candrabindu: the nasal is a nasalised vowel before s, "idã", "satyã".
- ṃ (anusvāra) is a nasal: it sounds like m before p/b/m, n before t/d, ṅ before k/g, and a nasalised vowel before s/ś/h.
- jñ is usually said "gny" or "gy" in India today (jñāna ≈ gyaa-na); the older value is j + palatal ñ.