The Encyclopedia of World Religions

462 S Upanishads

famous saying, tat tvam asi ( Chandogya Upanishad 6.8–16). For nondualists, such as the philosopher S ANKARA , this saying has three words, tat tvam asi, “you are that.” The reality that underlies the self that we experience (the atman) and the world that we experience (brahman) are the same. For dualists, however, this verse has only two words, tattvam asi, “Indeed, you are.” On their reading, the verse asserts that a self or soul (atman) exists distinct and independent of universal reality (brah man). The most common view interprets the Upa nishads from a nondualist perspective.

sacred syllable “om”—in Sanskrit, a+u+m. The first element is the state of being awake, the sec ond the state of dreaming, and the third the state of deep, dreamless sleep. Beyond these three is a fourth state, pure atman or self, which is the word “om” in its entirety. Because the Upanishads are compilations, they support many different points of view. Differ ent schools of thought have tried to give a system atic presentation of Upanishadic teachings, but in doing so they have given opposite interpretations of even the very same verse. A good example is the