Last verified: April 2026 · Source: Chāndogya Upaniṣad, Sāmaveda · Trans. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford, 1998) and Swami Gambhirananda (Advaita Ashrama, 2009)

छान्दोग्य उपनिषद्

Chāndogya Upaniṣad

8 chapters. The home of Tat Tvam Asi — the most famous sentence in Indian philosophy. The dialogues between Uddālaka Āruṇi and his son Śvetaketu in chapter 6 are the most sustained and accessible teaching sequence in all the Upanishads.

Sāmaveda 8 chapters 9 Tat Tvam Asi dialogues ~700–500 BCE

The teaching sequence Chapter 6 of the Chāndogya is a single sustained argument. Uddālaka explains what sat — pure being — is. Then he uses nine different analogies, one after another, each ending with the same statement: That thou art, Śvetaketu. Nine analogies because one alone might be misunderstood. Together they leave no ambiguity. This Codex covers each dialogue as a separate page.

The Nine Tat Tvam Asi Dialogues — Chāndogya 6.8–6.16

6.8

First dialogue

सदेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीत्

In the beginning, only Being was — Sat

Uddālaka establishes the starting point: before creation, only Sat — pure being — existed. All things arose from it and will return to it. First statement of Tat Tvam Asi.

Read → 6.9

Second dialogue

यथा नद्यः स्यन्दमानाः

Rivers flowing to the sea

Rivers from east and west flow to the ocean, become the ocean, lose their individual names. The individual self, like the river, loses its separate identity in Brahman — and cannot be extracted from it.

Read → 6.10

Third dialogue

अस्य सोम्य महतो वृक्षस्य

The tree and its unseen life

If you were to strike a great tree to its root, it would bleed and live. The life that runs through it is Sat — being — which it cannot separate from. You cannot separate from it either.

Read → 6.11

Fourth dialogue

यत्र वै तत् पुरुषः स्वपिति

Deep sleep — the return home

When a person sleeps, they are merged in Sat — they have gone home, as the saying goes. That return to pure being every night is the evidence of your identity with it.

Read → 6.12

Fifth dialogue — most famous analogy

न्यग्रोधफलमत आहरेति

The fig and its seeds — the invisible ground

Break a fig fruit open, then break one of its seeds. "What do you see?" "Nothing, sir." "That nothing from which this great tree arose — that is the Self. That thou art, Śvetaketu." The most concentrated expression of the teaching.

Read → 6.13

Sixth dialogue

लवणमेतदुदकेऽवधाय

Salt dissolved in water

Put salt in water overnight. In the morning you cannot see it — but it is present everywhere in the water. Being (Sat) is like the salt: invisible, but present throughout all existence, including you.

Read → 6.14

Seventh dialogue

यथा सोम्य पुरुषं गन्धारेभ्यः

The blindfolded man in the forest

A man is blindfolded, taken into the forest, left there. He cannot find his way. When someone removes the blindfold and points him in the right direction, he walks home. Avidyā (ignorance) is the blindfold. The teacher is the guide.

Read → 6.15

Eighth dialogue

यत्र वै पुरुषः

The dying man — being reaches for being

A dying man, surrounded by relatives, is approached by each in turn — but his speech, sight, hearing, mind have already merged in the life-breath, and the life-breath in Sat. At death, the individual merges back into what it always was.

Read → 6.16

Ninth dialogue — conclusion

पुरुषं सोम्योपनयन्ति

The man grasping the heated axe — truth reveals itself

A man accused of theft is made to grasp a heated axe. If he has told the truth, he is unburned. Brahman — the truth-ground of all being — cannot burn what is already itself. The innocent man's identity with truth protects him.

Read →

Chāndogya Upaniṣad

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