Mahavakyas

Mahavakyas

Om-Tat-Sat-1

Though there are many Mahavakyas, four of them, one from each of the four Vedas, are often mentioned as “the Mahavakyas”. According to the Vedanta-tradition, the subject matter and the essence of all Upanishads is the same, and all the Upanishadic Mahavakyas express this one universal message in the form of terse and concise statements. In later Sanskrit usage, the term mahāvākya came to mean “discourse“.

According to the Advaita Vedanta tradition the four Upanishadic statements indicate the ultimate unity of the individual (Atman) with Supreme (Brahman).

The Mahavakyas are:

prajñānam brahma – “Prajña is Brahman”, or “Brahman is Prajña”
(Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda)

ayam ātmā brahma – “This Self (Atman) is Brahman”
(Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda)

tat tvam asi – “Thou art That”
(Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda)

aham brahmāsmi – “I am Brahman”, or “I am Divine”
(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda)

People who are initiated into sannyasa in Advaita Vedanta are being taught the four mahavakyas as four mantras, “to attain this highest of states in which the individual self dissolves inseparably in Brahman”.