Tat Tvam Asi March 12, 2014 at 11:49am Tattvam Asi At this juncture, it is instructive to look at the advaitin interpretation of the Chandogya statement tattvamasi , following Sankaracarya. This is one of the four statements that have become well- known as the Upanishadic mahavakyas, which equate atman with brahman. The four most important mahavakyas (one from each veda) are: - ayamatma brahma (Mundaka) - tattvam asi (Chandogya) - aham brahmasmi (Brhadaranyaka) - prajnanam brahma (Aitareya) Sankara explains tattvam asi as follows. Tat is a common designation for brahman in the Upanisads, while tvam (thou) addresses the student. The sentence states an equation of two seemingly different entities tat - that, and tvam - thou, by means of the verb asi - are. In general, brahman ( tat ) is commonly understood as isvara (saguna brahman), with an infinity of attributes, including the power of creation. Tvam is the individual who is bound, who is embodied, and who is in need of liberation. The difference between tvam and tat seems to be a matter of common knowledge for all individuals. What is the reason for the Upanishad to teach an identity then? An identity cannot be stipulated, even in infallible sruti, if there is a real difference. Keeping in mind that sruti is infallible, advaita therefore concludes that really there is no ultimate difference between tat and tvam. The identity expressed in a statement like tattvam asi is therefore held to be Real, and its realization constitutes the height of knowledge (jnana). Direct experience of this jnana is in fact moksha. It also follows that since this identity is not perceived normally, difference arises out of avidya , ignorance of the true nature of Reality. Since sruti is superior to perception, this identity is indeed the supreme truth, all difference being in the realm of relative perception. If non-dualism is the true nature of Reality, why is this difference perceived in the first place? Given advaitas basis on the non-dualistic scriptures, the perception of difference remains, in the final analysis, inexplicable. This is labeled anirvacya/anirvacaniya in advaita - something that can never be fully understood by the human mind. Since perception of duality presupposes avidya , no amount of logical analysis, itself based on this duality, will satisfactorily explain avidya. Hence, Sankaracarya is not much interested in explicating avidya, except to acknowledge its presence in all human activity, and in trying to overcome it to understand brahman. Vyavahara and Paramartha This exegesis of scripture leads to the well-known advaitic doctrine of two levels of understanding: vyavaharika satya (phenomenal or relative reality or just reality, where duality is seen) and paramarthika satya (transcendental reality, or Reality, non-duality). One important upanishadic source for advaita vedantas theory of two levels of truth is the analysis of the atman as neti, neti - not this, not this. This is from the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad. This Upanisad also describes the highest state of the atman in purely non-dualistic terms - yatra tvasya sarvam atmaivabhut, tatra kena kam pasyet? ..... vijnataram are kena vijaniyat? - Where the atman alone has become all this, how is one to see another? ..... How is the Knower to be Known? Most advaitins point to the quotation from the Brhadaranyaka that immediately precedes this: yatra tu dvaitamiva bhavati, ... -where there is duality, as it were, ... - as the scriptural basis for saying that perception of duality is an appearance only, as it were and not the supreme Reality. This rejection of all characterization as partial at best, and ultimately untrue, means that the atman is beyond all duality, and all attempts to describe It fail, because language itself presupposes duality. This via negativa approach is very much favored in advaita-vedanta. This emphasis on identifying the atman with brahman by means of sublating the commonly understood characteristics of each term, to affirm the real nature of the atman, is central to advaita-vedanta.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:33:33 +0000
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