Thath thvam asi - chandhogya upanishat 6.1

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The

statement that when you know the clay all things made of clay are known can be

explained thus:

 

There

is a Tamil quotation which explains this

very well.

 

maratthil maraindhadhu maamadha yaanai

maratthai

maraitthadhu maamadha yaanai

paratthil

maraimdhadhu paarmudhal bhootham

paratthai

maraitthadhu paarmudhal bhootham

 

A child seeing a magnificent elephant made of wood

exclaimed "oh an elephant and admired the elephant. There came a carpenter who also saw the elephant and

exclaimed " what a super wood." Seeing

this a saintly man said this verse which means that the elephant

disappeared in the wood and the wood disappeared in the elephant,

meaning that if you see the elephant you don't see the wood and vice versa. He

added the last two lines which means that the five elements disappear in Brahman and vice versa. This

means, if you see the world made up of five elements you do not see Brahman and

if you could see Brahman every where you do not see the world anymore. This is

the brahmajnana which the father asked hia son whether he had learnt it.

 

Then the father started to expound the knowledge of

Brahman.

 

Sadheva

soumya idham agra

aaseeth. ekam eva adhvitheeyam.

 

My dear in the beginning, agre, this universe, idham

existed. aaseeth, as Being, sath, one

only, ekam eva, without a second, adhvitheeyam.

 

The word sath,

thath and om all denote Brahman. The word agre means before creation. Before the creation of Universe Brahman

alone existed, one only without a second. This implies that everything came out

of Brahman only. We shall see that subsequently.

 

Idham, meaning this world existed as Brahman in the

beginning when sath alone existed.

The expressions Brahman alone sath eva

sounds sufficient to give the meaning

and the words ekam eva adhvitheeyam

seem to be a tautology. But it is not so. A thing can exist as one only but

there can be other things different from

it . Hence it is said ekam eva it is

one only and adhitheeyam there is

nothing other than that.

 

..The word sath

eva denotes that Brahman is mere

existence. Ekam eva excludes the svajaatheeya

svaaghatha bhedha.

 

Svajaatheeya

bhedha is a thing different from

others of the same kind. A pot is different from another pot. Here saying ekam eva, eliminates the difference

from something of its own kind since Brahman is one only and there is no other like

it.

 

Svagatha bhedha

is due to manifestation as an

entity like a man who has differences in the parts of the body. Brahman being pure existence, unmanifest, has no parts and

there is therefore no svajaatheeya bhedha.

 

adhvitheeyam, with out a second means the Brahman has no vijaatheeya bhedha. There may not be

one like the thing specified but there may be other things different from it.

This is also dismissed by the word adhvitheeyam.

There is nothing except Brahman. This automatically eliminates any other cause

of the universe except Brahman. For instance to make a pot, clay is the material cause. Potter is the efficient cause

and the Potter's wheel etc. are the secondary or auxiliary causes. But since

Brahman alone existed without a second there could be no other cause except

Brahman who is the material as well as efficient cause of the universe.