Chandogya Upanishad

01The Upanishad of the singers

Chandoga means one who sings the chhandas, the Samavedi priest who chants the saman at the Soma yajna. The Chandogya Brahmana of the Kauthuma shakha has ten prapathakas. The first two are mantras for household rites such as vivaha; the last eight are this Upanishad. It is apaurusheya Shruti, heard by the rishis and carried in the families who still sing the Samaveda in its old melodies. Of all the Upanishads it is the fullest of people: kings and cart-men, fathers and sons, a boy with no gotra, a Devarshi in grief. The Brahma Sutras turn to it more often than to any other Upanishad.

02Om and the udgitha

As befits the Samaveda, the Chandogya begins with the chant. Meditate on the syllable Om as the udgitha, the rasa of all rasas: the rasa of beings is earth, of earth water, of water plants, of plants man, of man speech, of speech the rik, of the rik the saman, and of the saman the udgitha. The third prapathaka gives the Shandilya vidya: sarvam khalv idam brahma, all this is Brahman; the Self within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice and greater than all the worlds.

03Raikva under his cart

King Janashruti Pautrayana gave food and shelter on every road. One night two swans flew over his palace, and one said to the other, mind his light, it may burn you. The other replied, who is he, beside Raikva of the cart? The king sent his steward to find this Raikva, and he was found sitting under a cart, scratching his itches. Janashruti came with six hundred cows, a gold necklace and a chariot, and was sent away. He came again with a thousand cows and his own daughter. Then Raikva taught him the samvarga vidya: Vayu takes all things into itself outside, and prana takes all the senses into itself within.

04Satyakama and Shvetaketu

The boy Satyakama asked his mother Jabala his gotra. She did not know; she had served many in her youth. He told the rishi Haridrumata Gautama exactly that, and the rishi accepted him: only a Brahmin would speak such truth. He sent the boy off with four hundred thin cows and told him to return when they were a thousand. On the way a bull, the fire, a swan and a diver bird each taught him one quarter of Brahman, and he came back shining. In the sixth prapathaka Uddalaka Aruni's son Shvetaketu returns at twenty-four, proud of his learning. Have you learned that by which the unheard is heard? asks his father.

05Nine times, tat tvam asi

Uddalaka begins: in the beginning there was sat alone, one without a second. Then he teaches by things the boy can hold. Bees gather nectar from many trees, yet the honey cannot say which tree it came from. Rivers reach the sea and forget they were rivers. Break open a banyan fruit, then a seed, and in the nothing you see stands the great tree. Put salt in water overnight; in the morning the salt is nowhere and everywhere. A man led blindfolded from Gandhara finds his way home when someone unties him. After each lesson the father says the same words: that subtle essence is the Self of all this; that is the truth; tat tvam asi, Shvetaketo. He says it nine times.

06Narada and Sanatkumara

In the seventh prapathaka Devarshi Narada comes to Sanatkumara. I know the four Vedas, the Itihasa-Purana which is the fifth Veda, grammar, mathematics, the science of time, logic, ethics, he says, yet I am only a knower of words and I grieve. Sanatkumara leads him step by step from name to speech, mind, will, up to prana, and at last to bhuma, the infinite: where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, knows nothing else, that is bhuma. The prapathaka closes by naming the teacher: Bhagwan Sanatkumara, who showed Narada the shore beyond darkness, is called Skanda.

07Indra, Virochana and the mirror of water

The eighth prapathaka first teaches the dahara vidya, the small space in the lotus of the heart, as large as the space outside, holding heaven, earth, fire and wind. Then Prajapati declares that the Self is free from sin, age, death, grief, hunger and thirst. Indra of the devas and Virochana of the asuras come to him and live as brahmacharis for thirty-two years. Look in a bowl of water, says Prajapati; what you see is the Self. Virochana goes home content and teaches the asuras that the body is the Self. Indra turns back, doubting, and stays again and again, until he has lived with Prajapati one hundred and one years and learned the Self beyond waking, dream and deep sleep.

08Three acharyas, one sentence

Adi Shankaracharya reads tat tvam asi as plain identity: the sat of the beginning and the Self of Shvetaketu are one, and the nine examples remove whatever seems to divide them. Vidyaranya gives a whole chapter of the Panchadashi to the mahavakyas. Ramanujacharya, in the Vedartha Sangraha and the Shri Bhashya, reads the same words as Brahman with the jiva as his body: you are that because the Lord is your inner Self. Madhvacharya divides the words as sa atma atat tvam asi, you are not that, and reads the passage as teaching the jiva's dependence on Shri Hari. Each sampradaya keeps its own reading with devotion; the Upanishad holds them all.

09In the life of a Hindu home

Samavedi families of the Kauthuma shakha still learn these prapathakas by heart. At sannyasa in Adi Shankaracharya's order, tat tvam asi is given as the mahavakya of the Samaveda, and the Sharada Peetha at Dwarka holds it as its own. Two lines have passed into common speech. One is ahara shuddhi (7.26.2): when food is pure the mind becomes pure, and a pure mind holds firm memory of the Self, which is why so many homes guard what goes into the kitchen. The other is 3.17.6, where Rishi Ghora Angirasa teaches Krishna, son of Devaki, a passage Vaishnavas cherish.

What it contains

1. 1
   Prapathaka 1

   Om as the udgitha, the rasa of all rasas, and the meanings of the saman chant. It tells of the debate of Shilaka, Chaikitayana and Pravahana Jaivali on what the saman rests on, of Ushasti Chakrayana in a time of famine, and of the udgitha of the dogs.

2. 2
   Prapathaka 2

   The saman is seen in all things: in rain, the seasons, the worlds and the parts of the body, in fivefold and sevenfold forms. Khanda 23 names the three branches of dharma, yajna with study and charity, tapas, and the life of the student in his teacher's house, and declares that Om is all this.

3. 3
   Prapathaka 3

   The madhu vidya sees the sun as the honey of the devas, gathered by the Vedas as bees. Then come the Gayatri, the light beyond heaven that shines in the heart, and the Shandilya vidya, sarvam khalv idam brahma. It closes with man's life as a yajna and Ghora Angirasa's teaching to Krishna, son of Devaki.

4. 4
   Prapathaka 4

   Raikva under his cart teaches King Janashruti the samvarga vidya of Vayu and prana. Satyakama Jabala is accepted for his truthfulness and learns Brahman from a bull, the fire, a swan and a diver bird. His own pupil Upakosala is taught by the sacred fires while his teacher is away.

5. 5
   Prapathaka 5

   The senses quarrel over which is greatest, and prana proves itself chief. King Pravahana Jaivali teaches Gautama the panchagni vidya, the five fires through which the jiva returns to birth, and the paths of the devas and the fathers. Ashvapati Kaikeya then teaches six learned Brahmins the Vaishvanara Self.

6. 6
   Prapathaka 6

   Uddalaka Aruni teaches his son Shvetaketu that sat alone was in the beginning, one without a second, and that it became fire, water and food. Through honey, rivers, the banyan seed, salt in water and the blindfolded man of Gandhara he shows the subtle Self of all. Nine times he says, tat tvam asi.

7. 7
   Prapathaka 7

   Narada, who knows every science and still grieves, comes to Sanatkumara. Step by step, from name through speech, mind, will, memory, hope and prana, he is led to bhuma, the infinite, which alone is happiness. The teacher is named at the end as Skanda.

8. 8
   Prapathaka 8

   The dahara vidya teaches the space within the lotus of the heart, the city of Brahman. Indra and Virochana learn the Self from Prajapati; Virochana stops at the body, and Indra stays one hundred and one years to learn the Self beyond the three states. It ends with the life of the householder who studies, controls the senses and harms no creature.

Famous verses

ओमित्येतदक्षरमुद्गीथमुपासीत।

Meditate on the syllable Om as the udgitha.Chandogya Upanishad 1.1.1

सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म तज्जलानिति शान्त उपासीत।

All this is indeed Brahman, for from it all is born, into it all dissolves, in it all breathes. So let one meditate on it in peace.Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1

सदेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयम्।

In the beginning, my dear, this was sat alone, one only, without a second.Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1

स य एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदँ सर्वं तत्सत्यँ स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो इति।

That which is the subtlest essence, this whole world has it as its Self. That is the truth. That is the Atman. You are that, Shvetaketu.Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7

यो वै भूमा तत्सुखं नाल्पे सुखमस्ति भूमैव सुखम्।

The infinite alone is happiness. There is no happiness in the small. The infinite is happiness.Chandogya Upanishad 7.23.1