Thath thvam asi-Chandhogya Upanishadh 6

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uddhaalako aaruNiH Svethakethum puthram

uvaacha

 

Uddhalaka AruNi said to his son Svethakethu

 

svapnaantham

me sowmya vijaaneehi ithi

 

Know the ultimate stage of sleep from me, my dear.

 

yathra

ethath purushaH svapithi naama

 

When a man is said to be sleeping,

 

sathaa

soumya thadhaa sampanno bhavathi

 

then he has become united with the Sath, Brahman.

 

svam apeethah bhavathi

 

He becomes united with his own self.

 

thasmaath

enam svapithi ithi aachakshathe

 

Therefore he is said to be sleeping.

 

svam hi

apeetho bhavathi

 

He is indeed united with his own self.

 

As a prelude to the section dealing with the

mahavakya thath thavam asi Uddhaalaka AaruNi starts explaining

the nature of jiva, the individual soul.

 

There are four stages of awareness , namely, jaagrath, svapna, sushupthi and thureeya. Jaagrath

is the wakeful state when the individual soul enveloped by the

ego and identifying itself with the body mind and intellect as the effect of

it, experiences the world of plurality.

 

Svapna is the dream state when the there is no awareness

of the body but the mind and intellect are awake and that is why we have dreams. Sushupthi is the deep sleep which there is no awareness of body,

mind and intellect but only the ignorance , the cause of the ego which creates the

awareness of the body, mind and intellect, is present. Hence the individual

soul has no awareness of the egoistic personality which means that it is one with Brahman,

Sath, but is not aware of it because of the ignorance. As a result the `I' consciousness

persists even in deep sleep because its cause, the ignorance, is present. That

is why when we wake up from deep sleep we are aware that we slept soundly but

do not know anything then.

 

The word svapithi

here is used to denote the deep sleep stage, sushupthi, when the individual self exists in its true nature which

means that it is united with sath , the Brahman, but is not aware of it. The

statement that one is sleeping here means only the deep sleep stage. It is the

true nature of the self and hence Uddhalaka ASruni uses the expression svam apeetho bhavathi, apeetha meaning

merged in svam its own nature.

 

thureeya is the fourth stage as the name denotes, when the

ignorance is gone and the individual soul realizes its true nature as being one

with Brahman. This is the state of self realization of thath thvam asi.