Shvetaketu and 'Tat Tvam Asi'

Shvetaketu was the son of the sage Uddalaka Aruni. At twelve he was sent to study with a teacher. At twenty-four he came home having studied all the Vedas, but carrying a great deal of ego as well. He thought himself very learned. His father noticed and gently asked, 'Son, did you ask for that teaching by which the unheard becomes heard, the unthought becomes thought, and the unknown becomes known?'

Shvetaketu was puzzled: 'What kind of teaching is that?' His father explained: 'When you know one lump of clay, you know everything made of clay. Pot, bowl, lamp: these are just different names; the truth is the clay. In the same way, by knowing one piece of gold, all gold ornaments are known.' Humbled, Shvetaketu said, 'My teachers must not have known this, or they would surely have told me. Please teach me yourself.'

His father said, 'Bring me a fruit of the banyan tree.' Shvetaketu brought it. 'Break it. What do you see?' 'Many tiny seeds.' 'Break one seed. What do you see now?' 'Nothing at all, Father.' His father said, 'Son, from that subtle essence you cannot see, this great banyan tree stands. Have faith.'

Another day his father said, 'Put this salt in water and come to me in the morning.' In the morning his father said, 'Bring me the salt.' Shvetaketu could not find it anywhere; it had dissolved. 'Taste from the top.' 'Salty.' 'From the middle?' 'Salty.' 'From the bottom?' 'Salty.' His father said, 'In the same way, that truth is dissolved in this body and in the whole world: unseen, yet everywhere.'

At the end of every example, Uddalaka said the same thing: that subtle essence, which is the Self of all, is the truth, it is the Self, and you, Shvetaketu, 'Tat tvam asi', you are that. The phrase is repeated nine times in the Upanishad and is one of the four Mahavakyas. It means the divine you search for outside is within you too, and is within everyone else as well.