Hinduism · Advaita Vedanta · Vedic tradition
Uddalaka Aruni
उद्दालक आरुणि
Historicity debated
Vedic sage of Kuru-Pañcāla, of the Gautama lineage, whom the Upaniṣads present as the teacher of his son Śvetaketu and of Yājñavalkya. In the sixth book of the Chāndogya he teaches through experiments — clay, the fig seed, salt dissolved in water — that everything comes from being, "one without a second", and sums it up in the refrain "tat tvam asi". He wrote nothing; his figure, of debated historicity, comes from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the oldest Upaniṣads, from around the seventh to sixth centuries BCE.
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Manuscrito de la Chāndogya Upaniṣad (1849) · CC BY-SA 4.0
In their words
«In the beginning, my dear, this was being alone, one only, without a second.»Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.2.1 (traducción propia)
Their central idea
Tat tvam asi ("you are that"): The refrain that closes nine of Uddālaka's lessons to Śvetaketu in the Chāndogya (6.8.7–6.16.3): that subtle essence (aṇiman) is what all this has as its self; that is the real; that is the ātman; tat tvam asi.
See in context
Biography
5 min read
A teacher in the lists of teachers
Uddālaka Āruṇi left no writings. He is a name that recurs throughout late Vedic prose — the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya Upaniṣads, the Kauṣītaki, the Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa — as a ritual authority, as a partner in debates and, above all, as a teacher. The texts also call him Gautama after his lineage and give him a father, Aruṇa Aupaveśi, and a son, Śvetaketu Āruṇeya; from these mentions Michael Witzel has reconstructed a four-generation family tree. He was a brahmin of Kuru-Pañcāla, the heartland of the Vedic world on the western Ganges plain, and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka's lists of teachers make him Yājñavalkya's teacher: "Yājñavalkya from Uddālaka; Uddālaka from Aruṇa".
The traveller in the north
The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa preserves an episode that portrays him as an itinerant priest. Uddālaka was travelling through the northern country as an officiant and carried a gold coin, because in olden times, the text says, whoever travelled in this way offered a prize to challenge others to a disputation. The brahmins of the north, fearing that this Kuru-Pañcāla brahmin would take their territory, sent Svaidāyana Śaunaka. He put to him a series of questions on the hidden meaning of the new- and full-moon offerings; Uddālaka handed him the coin, acknowledged his learning and later returned with firewood in his hand — the gesture of one who asks to become a pupil — so that he might explain them. In another passage it is he who answers, one by one, Śauceya Prācīnayogya's questions about the agnihotra.
Father and teacher
The teaching that made him famous is that of the sixth book of the Chāndogya. His son Śvetaketu, sent to study at twelve, returns at twenty-four, the text says, "swell-headed, arrogant, thinking himself learned". The father asks whether he knows the teaching by which the unheard becomes heard, the unthought thought and the unknown known. Finding him ignorant, he offers it: just as by a single lump of clay everything made of clay is known — and the pots are nothing but "a matter of words, a modification, a name" — so by being (sat) everything that exists is known. "In the beginning, my dear, this was being alone, one only, without a second." From it arise heat, water and food, which combine in all things.
Nine lessons and a refrain
Uddālaka teaches by experiment. He makes his son fast for fifteen days, drinking only water, and shows that he can no longer recite the Vedas; when he eats again his memory returns like an ember fanned with straw. Nine lessons follow: honey that gathers the nectar of many trees without any drop knowing from which tree it came, rivers that lose themselves in the sea, the tree that lives as long as life pervades it, the fig seed that, split open, shows nothing and yet gives rise to the great tree, salt dissolved in water that cannot be seen and is tasted everywhere, the man who, blindfolded, finds his way back to Gandhāra because someone shows him the road. Each lesson ends with the same refrain: that subtle essence is what all this has as its self; that is the real; that is the ātman; tat tvam asi, Śvetaketu.
What "tat tvam asi" means
The Advaita tradition, from Śaṅkara onwards, has read the phrase as an identity — "you are that": the individual ātman is brahman — and counted it among the four "great sayings" of the Upaniṣads. In 1986 Joel Brereton proposed another reading, attentive to grammar and context: the neuter pronoun refers back to the subtle essence just described, and the sentence would mean something like "that's how you are". Patrick Olivelle accordingly translates "and that's how you are, Śvetaketu". Both readings agree on the essential point — the son is made of the same invisible reality as everything else — but differ on whether the text states a metaphysical identity or an explanation of the nature of the person.
A brahmin willing to learn
The texts stress one trait of his character: Uddālaka is not afraid to become a pupil again. At Janaka's court he questions Yājñavalkya about the "thread" that binds the worlds and the "inner controller", recalls what he learned from Patañcala Kāpya in the land of the Madras and, after the answer, falls silent. When King Pravāhaṇa Jaivali humiliates Śvetaketu with five questions about the fate after death, the father goes to court, asks to be instructed and receives the doctrine of the five fires, which the king declares has never before reached a brahmin. When other brahmins ask him about the universal ātman, he admits he cannot fully answer and takes them to King Aśvapati Kaikeya. Brian Black has studied these scenes, in which knowledge passes from kings to priests.
What is known and what is not
There are no dates: Uddālaka's historicity is debated like that of the whole generation of the early Upaniṣads, which Olivelle places around the seventh and sixth centuries BCE and Witzel in the late Vedic period, before the Buddha. Ben-Ami Scharfstein counts him among the first philosophers in history, and the Marxist historian Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya saw in him the first "natural scientist" because of his method of observation and experiment. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad mentions an Auddālaki Āruṇi, father of Naciketas, whom Śaṅkara identified with him; Max Müller warned that the form of the name raises doubts.
The Āruṇi of the epic
The Mahābhārata gave him a legendary youth. Āruṇi of Pañcāla, a pupil of the sage Āyoda Dhaumya, was sent to stop a breach in the dyke of a field; unable to do so, he lay down in it and held back the water with his body. When his teacher called him, he rose, breaking the dyke, and Dhaumya gave him the name Uddālaka, "he who rose from the dyke". The same epic makes his daughter Sujātā the mother of Aṣṭāvakra and credits Śvetaketu with instituting marital fidelity. A late Upaniṣad of renunciation bears his name, the Āruṇi Upaniṣad, and Madhva quoted an "Āruṇi-śruti" now lost. The Chāndogya's refrain, meanwhile, has become one of the most repeated phrases of Indian spirituality.
Sources: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1. · Olivelle, Patrick (trad.). Upaniṣads. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 (traducción «And that's how you are, Śvetaketu» de Chāndogya 6.8.7 y ss.). · Müller, F. Max (trad.). The Upanishads, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879 (Khândogya y Kaushîtaki-brâhmaṇa-upanishad); y Part II (SBE 15), 1884, nota a Kaṭha 1.11. · Eggeling, Julius (trad.). The Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, Part V (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 44). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900. XI.4.1 (Uddālaka Āruṇi y Svaidāyana) y XI.5.3 (Śauceya Prācīnayogya y Uddālaka Āruṇi sobre el agnihotra). · Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad. Science and Society in Ancient India. Calcuta: Research India Publications, 1977.
Timeline
A life, year by year
Each point is a documented event. Click to read it, with its source and degree of certainty.
VIII century BCE – 600 BCEKuru-Pañcāla
Ritual authority of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
His opinions and debates appear in the later books of the Śatapatha (XI.4.1, XI.5.3) and in the Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa. The range is an estimate of the period of the texts.
ProbableEggeling, Julius (trad.). The Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, Part V (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 44). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900. XI.4.1 (Uddālaka Āruṇi y Svaidāyana) y XI.5.3 (Śauceya Prācīnayogya y Uddālaka Āruṇi sobre el agnihotra).
VIII century BCE – 600 BCE
Ritual authority of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
His opinions and debates appear in the later books of the Śatapatha (XI.4.1, XI.5.3) and in the Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa. The range is an estimate of the period of the texts.
Probable
VII century BCE
Svaidāyana's challenge
Travelling in the north as an officiant, he loses a disputation to Svaidāyana Śaunaka and returns with firewood in hand to be instructed (Śatapatha XI.4.1).
Tradition
VII century BCE
The teaching to Śvetaketu
Chāndogya 6: being, one without a second, the experiments and the refrain "tat tvam asi".
Tradition
VII century BCE
Pupil of King Pravāhaṇa Jaivali
After his son's humiliation at the Pañcāla assembly, he receives from the king the doctrine of the five fires (Chāndogya 5.3–10; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 6.2).
Tradition
VII century BCE
He questions Yājñavalkya
He asks about the "thread" and the "inner controller" and falls silent after the answer (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7).
Tradition
II century BCE – 400
The Āruṇi of the Mahābhārata
The epic, fixed between the third century BCE and the fourth century CE, tells the episode of the dyke and how his teacher Dhaumya gave him the name Uddālaka.
Probable
1862
First English translation of the Chāndogya
Rājendralāla Mitra publishes the Chāndogya with extracts from Śaṅkara's commentary in the Bibliotheca Indica.
Documented
1879
The Chāndogya in the Sacred Books of the East
Max Müller opens the series with the Chāndogya and popularizes the rendering "Thou art that".
Documented
1986
Brereton rereads "tat tvam asi"
Joel Brereton proposes reading the refrain in its grammatical context as "that's how you are", a reading Olivelle adopts.
Documented
Works
Essential works
The works without which their legacy cannot be understood.
Traditional attribution · VII century BCE
The teaching to Śvetaketu (Chāndogya Upaniṣad, book VI)
छान्दोग्योपनिषद् षष्ठोऽध्यायः (Chāndogya Upaniṣad VI)
Sixteen prose sections. Śvetaketu returns conceited after twelve years of study, and his father teaches him what he did not learn: how, by knowing one thing, everything is known. He sets out the origin of the world from being (sat), "one without a second", which produces heat, water and food; the threefold composition of all things; the experiment of fasting; and nine illustrations — honey, rivers, the tree, the fig seed, salt in water, the man from Gandhāra, the dying man, the thief put to the ordeal of the axe — ending with the refrain "tat tvam asi, Śvetaketu". It is one of the founding texts of Vedānta.
9 editions
Uddalaka Aruni
Chāndogya Upaniṣad (passages of Uddālaka Āruṇi)
Later compilation · VII century BCE
Chāndogya Upaniṣad (passages of Uddālaka Āruṇi)
छान्दोग्योपनिषद् (Chāndogya Upaniṣad)
Together with the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, the oldest of the Upaniṣads. Its first books interpret the chants (sāman) and the syllable Om; the following ones contain teachings on the ātman and brahman attributed to various masters. In book 5 Uddālaka receives from King Pravāhaṇa the doctrine of the five fires and the two paths of the dead, and accompanies other brahmins to Aśvapati Kaikeya to learn the universal ātman (vaiśvānara). Book 6 is his teaching to Śvetaketu.
6 editions
Complete works (9)
The question of the thread and the inner controller (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7)
650
The doctrine of the five fires (pañcāgni-vidyā), received from Pravāhaṇa Jaivali
650
The teaching of the universal ātman (vaiśvānara-vidyā), before Aśvapati Kaikeya
650
Uddalaka Aruni
Uddālaka's debates in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
The Conscious LibraryUddālaka's debates in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
700
Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad, chapter 1: Āruṇi and Citra Gāṅgyāyani
500
Āruṇi Upaniṣad (Āruṇeyī Upaniṣad)
Uddalaka Aruni
Āruṇi-śruti (lost text)
The Conscious LibraryĀruṇi-śruti (lost text)
Quotations
Quotations located in a specific work. Each carries its provenance and its level of confidence.
In the beginning, my dear, this was being alone, one only, without a second.सदेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयम् ।
VerifiedChāndogya Upaniṣad 6.2.1 (traducción propia)
Last words
There are no verifiable records of their last words.
There is no account of his death or last words in the Vedic texts, the epic or the Purāṇas. The only words of his that survive are the teachings and dialogues attributed to him by the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Upaniṣads.
Source: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
Ask
What their work answers
Twelve great human questions and what their texts allow us to answer, with references. We never put words in their mouth.
What is the Absolute? Does God exist?
In the beginning there was only being, one without a second
An impersonal AbsoluteStated explicitly
In the sixth book of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, Uddālaka Āruṇi teaches his son Śvetaketu that in the beginning there was only being (sat), one without a second, and rejects those who held that being was born from non-being. From that principle come heat, water and food, and from their mixture all things. He does not describe a god who judges or loves: he describes a single substance, so subtle that it is not perceived, which is the ātman of all that exists. His examples —the clay of which all pots are made, the dissolved salt that is unseen yet present in every sip, the invisible seed from which the fig tree grows— aim to make the disciple recognise that principle in things and in himself.
Compare this question with other teachersWho am I? Is there a true self?
The subtle essence of all is the ātman, «and that's how you are»
The Self is the AbsoluteStated explicitly
Nine of Uddālaka's lessons to Śvetaketu in the Chāndogya end with the same refrain: that subtle essence (aṇiman) is what all this has as its ātman; that is the real; that is the ātman; tat tvam asi (6.8.7–6.16.3). Śvetaketu's self is therefore not something apart: like the river that returns to the sea and no longer knows it was that river, or like honey made from different flowers, the individual comes from being and shares its essence. The Advaita tradition read the refrain as the great saying «you are that», a strict identity between the individual and brahman. The lesson is not presented as a theory, but as something the disciple must verify in things and recognise in himself.
Compare this question with other teachersWhy do we suffer?
He does not analyse pain; he speaks of one lost who needs guidance
Did not address it
The teachings the Chāndogya puts in Uddālaka Āruṇi's mouth contain no diagnosis of suffering. Their subject is the origin and essence of things, not the cause of pain. The closest is a parable (6.14): a man is blindfolded, led far from his land of Gandhāra and abandoned in a deserted place; he cries out that he has been brought there blindfolded, until someone removes the blindfold and points out the way, and he, asking from village to village, returns home. So, says Uddālaka, one who has a teacher knows that he will remain here only as long as he is not set free. The image suggests that the human condition is a disorientation that knowledge corrects, but the text does not formulate it as a theory of suffering.
Compare this question with other teachersWhat happens after death?
The body deprived of life dies; life does not die
What I am is never born and never diesInferred from their doctrine
Uddālaka explains death to Śvetaketu with the image of a great tree: if its root, trunk or crown is struck, it bleeds but lives, because life pervades it; if life leaves a branch, the branch withers. So, he concludes, it is the body deprived of life that dies; life does not die (Chāndogya 6.11.3). In another passage he describes the process: in the dying person, speech is gathered into the mind, the mind into breath, breath into heat and heat into the highest deity, the being from which all proceeds (6.8.6; 6.15). Death is thus a return to the subtle essence that never ceased to be. Uddālaka also appears, in book V, receiving from a king the doctrine of the five fires and of the paths beyond.
Compare this question with other teachersHow is liberation or salvation attained?
To know that by which the unheard is heard and the unthought is thought
Through direct knowledgeInferred from their doctrine
Uddālaka's teaching in the Chāndogya begins with a reproach: Śvetaketu returns proud after twelve years of Vedic study, and his father asks whether he knows the teaching by which the unheard becomes heard, the unthought thought and the unknown known (6.1.2–3). The goal is that knowledge of the being from which everything proceeds, and what follows are the lessons through which it is reached: clay, salt, the fig seed. The parable of the man from Gandhāra shows where it leads: one who has a teacher knows that he will remain here only as long as he is not set free, and then he will arrive (6.14.2). In the last lesson, the one who speaks the truth is not burned when he grasps the red-hot axe (6.16). Known truth protects and frees.
Compare this question with other teachersIs a teacher necessary?
One who has a teacher knows the way home
IndispensableStated explicitly
Uddālaka is, in the Chāndogya, the figure of the father who teaches: his entire sixth book is an instruction to his son Śvetaketu, made of questions, examples and small tests. And it is in that book that the need for a teacher is most clearly formulated. A blindfolded man is abandoned far from his land of Gandhāra; only when someone removes the blindfold and points out the direction can he return, asking from village to village. So, Uddālaka concludes, one who has a teacher (ācāryavān) knows: I remain here only as long as I am not set free, and then I shall arrive (6.14.2). The teacher does not replace the path, which the disciple walks himself, but without him one does not know which way to go.
Compare this question with other teachersIs the world real?
Being became many: heat, water and food, and entered into them
Manifestation of the divineStated explicitly
For Uddālaka, the world comes from being (sat), which, wishing to be many, emitted heat; heat, water; and water, food (Chāndogya 6.2.3–4). It then entered those three «deities» with the living ātman and made them threefold, so that each thing contains all three: the red of fire is that of heat, the white that of water, the black that of food (6.3–4). His most famous example is clay: by one lump everything made of clay is known, because the modification is «a matter of words», a name, and the real is the substance (6.1.4). The world is not a dream, but being itself under names and forms; what dissolves on understanding it is the belief that things are something apart from their source.
Compare this question with other teachersWhat is love?
His lessons concern being, not love; they ask for trust
Did not address it
The teachings the Chāndogya and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka put in Uddālaka Āruṇi's mouth do not address love. Their subject is the origin of things, the subtle essence that sustains them and the relation between that essence and the disciple. The closest thing to an affective dimension lies in the tone of the teaching: he is a father instructing his son, calls him «dear one» (somya) again and again and, when Śvetaketu cannot see the invisible essence of the fig seed, asks him for trust (śraddhā). But the trust he asks for is that of a disciple who accepts what he does not yet understand, not a love directed to God or to one's neighbour, and the text does not develop it as a teaching.
Compare this question with other teachersAre we free, or is everything determined?
He does not treat freedom; his last lesson is about truth
Did not address it
The teachings ascribed to Uddālaka Āruṇi do not address the question of freedom or fate. Their interest lies in the origin of things and in the subtle essence that sustains them, not in human action or its consequences. The doctrine of rebirth according to deeds, which the Chāndogya sets out in book V, Uddālaka receives from a king, Pravāhaṇa Jaivali, who warns him that this knowledge had not previously reached the brahmins. The closest thing to an ethic in his teaching is the last lesson to Śvetaketu (6.16): a man accused of theft is made to grasp a red-hot axe; if he has lied he is burned, and if he speaks the truth, protected by it, he is not. Truth is what frees, not a choice between alternatives.
Compare this question with other teachersWhy meditate or pray?
He teaches no meditation: he teaches looking and verifying
Did not address it
Uddālaka's lessons in the Chāndogya contain no practice of meditation or prayer. His method is different: questions, observation and small tests. He has Śvetaketu fast for fifteen days so that he finds that, without food, he cannot recall the Vedas, and that on eating he remembers them again (6.7); he asks him to dissolve salt in water and look for it by sight and by taste (6.13); he has him split a fig fruit and then a seed until he sees nothing inside (6.12). What is sought is not an induced inner state, but that the disciple should see for himself the subtle essence in things. When observation no longer reaches, Uddālaka proposes not a technique, but trust: «have faith, my dear».
Compare this question with other teachersCan reason know the ultimate?
Observe, compare, verify; and where sight fails, trust
Faith and reason help each otherInferred from their doctrine
Uddālaka's method in the Chāndogya is almost experimental. To teach Śvetaketu, who returns proud after twelve years of study, he does not cite texts: he has him fast for fifteen days to verify the relation between food and mind (6.7), dissolve salt in water and taste it (6.13), split a fig seed until he sees nothing (6.12). He reasons by analogies drawn from clay, copper and iron, and argues against those who said that being was born from non-being: how could that happen? (6.2.2). But observation has a limit: when the essence of the seed cannot be seen, Uddālaka asks for trust (śraddhā). Reason prepares and trust completes, in a knowledge the disciple must end up recognising in himself.
Compare this question with other teachersWithdraw from the world or transform it?
A householder who teaches his son; he does not raise renunciation
Did not address it
Uddālaka Āruṇi's teachings do not address the choice between withdrawing from the world and transforming it. His figure, as presented by the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Upaniṣads, is that of a brahmin householder, an expert in ritual, who debates in assemblies, travels to learn from others —including kings such as Pravāhaṇa Jaivali and Aśvapati Kaikeya— and passes his knowledge on to his son and his disciples. He sends Śvetaketu to study with a teacher, receives him on his return and instructs him at home. The knowledge of being that he teaches does not require leaving that life, but the text does not raise it as a question either. The renunciation associated with his name belongs to the Āruṇi Upaniṣad, a much later text.
Compare this question with other teachers
Affinities & tensions
Affinities and tensions
Calculated question by question from their positions. The reason for each agreement or clash, on click.
Thinks most like
Adi Shankara
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Huineng
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Dattatreya
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Leo Tolstoy
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Anecdotes and stories
Anecdotes and stories
Documentedépoca védica tardía (Chāndogya, ss. VII–VI a. C.)
Salt in water
Origin of the story: Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.13. "Documented" indicates that the story is in the text, not that the scene is historical.
Source: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
Documentedépoca védica tardía
The fifteen-day fast
Origin of the story: Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.7. The "scientific" reading is Chattopadhyaya's (1977).
Source: Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad. Science and Society in Ancient India. Calcuta: Research India Publications, 1977.
Documentedépoca védica tardía
The gold coin and the firewood
Origin of the story: Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa XI.4.1.1–10 (Eggeling's translation, SBE 44, pp. 50–54), with a parallel version in Gopatha Brāhmaṇa 1.3.6. The exact meaning of some phrases (the coin, the "head that splits") is disputed, as Eggeling notes.
Documentedépoca védica tardía
The king's five questions
Origin of the story: Chāndogya Upaniṣad 5.3 (with another version in Bṛhadāraṇyaka 6.2). Black (2007) analyses these scenes of knowledge passing from kings to brahmins.
Source: Black, Brian. The Character of the Self in Ancient India: Priests, Kings, and Women in the Early Upaniṣads. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
Hagiographic accountrelato épico (Mahābhārata, ss. III a. C.–IV d. C.)
The pupil who lay down in the dyke
Origin of the story: Mahābhārata 1.3 (Pauṣya-parvan; section 3 of Ganguli's translation). There is no Vedic parallel; the relation between this Āruṇi and the Uddālaka of the Upaniṣads is a traditional identification.
Oral traditionrelato épico
Śvetaketu and the law of marriage
Origin of the story: Mahābhārata 1.113 of the critical edition (section 122 of Ganguli's translation). It is an epic legend with no basis in the Vedic texts.
Teachings
Teachings
The notions that structure their thought, explained in context.
Tat tvam asi ("you are that")tat-tvam-asi
Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6; Brereton 1986; Olivelle 1996.
Source: Brereton, Joel P. «Tat Tvam Asi in Context». Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 136 (1986): 98–109.
Sat (being, one without a second)sat
Chāndogya 6.2.
Source: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
Trivṛtkaraṇa (the triplication of the elements)trivrtkarana
Chāndogya 6.3–6.6.
Source: Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad. Science and Society in Ancient India. Calcuta: Research India Publications, 1977.
Aṇiman (the subtle essence)animan
Chāndogya 6.8–6.16.
Source: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
Vācārambhaṇa (modification is only a name)vacarambhana
Chāndogya 6.1.4–6; Brahmasūtra 2.1.14 and its commentaries.
Source: Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
Videos
Videos
Recordings, interviews and documentaries. Videos play from YouTube; they are not hosted here.
Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art) | Swami Sarvapriyananda
Lecture· EN· 2021· 101 min
Vedanta Society of New YorkOfficial channel
Talk on Tat Tvam Asi - The Ultimate Equation by Swami Sarvapriyananda
Lecture· EN· 2026· 115 min
Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre U.K.Official channel
The Story of Svetaketu - Thou Art That - Chandogya Upanishad | Pravrajika Divyanandaprana
Lecture· EN· 2018· 20 min
VivekaVani
Chandogya Upanishad Chapter-6 01
Lecture· EN· 2022· 74 min
Chinmaya Mission San JoseOfficial channel
Chandogya Upanishad Ch 6 – An Exposition of Tat Tvam Asi | Swami Ramakrishnananda | Dis 01
Lecture· EN· 2026· 68 min
Shravana Mangalam
Chandogya Upanishad Lecture - 1 (Chapter 6 - 1 - 1 to 6 - 1 - 4)
Lecture· EN· 2026· 76 min
Vedanta Students
श्वेतकेतु और उद्दालक, उपनिषद की कहानी, छान्द्योग्यापनिषद
Lecture· HI· 2020· 35 min
G.V.B. The University of Veda
CHANDOGYA. VER LO INVISIBLE
Analysis· ES· 2022· 14 min
Vedanta en Español
El pensamiento en la India: Hinduismo
Documentary· ES· 2017· 25 min
UNED DocumentosOfficial channel
The Upanishads: The Sacred Text that Changed India and the West | Jeffery Long, Ph.D.
Lecture· EN· 2022· 56 min
Theosophical SocietyOfficial channel
Introduction to the Rig Veda and Upanishads | Kendall Sharp | First Friday Lecture
Lecture· EN· 2024· 78 min
The University of Chicago Graham SchoolOfficial channel
The Central Doctrines of the Upanishads
Lecture· EN· 2016· 37 min
Vidya-mitraOfficial channel
Gallery
Gallery
Images with verified licences. Each keeps its authorship and attribution.
Manuscripts
Manuscripts
Manuscript witnesses and ancient texts, with their custodian and conditions of access.
SA · Devanagari · c. ss. VII–VI a. C. (Olivelle)
छान्दोग्योपनिषद् (1.1.1–1.1.9)
- Surviving witness
- Manuscrito fechado en 1849
- Digitisation
- commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chandogya_Upanis…
SA · Grantha
छान्दोग्योपनिषद्विवरण
- Surviving witness
- Hoja de palma adquirida en julio de 1836
- Custodian
- Kahle-Austin Foundation (según la descripción de Commons)
- Digitisation
- commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1836_CE_July_pur…
Connections
Connections
Influences, discipleships and affinities. Documented relations are distinguished from similarities identified by analysis.
Teacher of
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka's lists of teachers make Yājñavalkya Uddālaka's pupil ("Yājñavalkya from Uddālaka; Uddālaka from Aruṇa").
Documented relation
Disagreed with
He questions him at Janaka's court about the thread and the inner controller and falls silent after his answer (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7).
Documented relation
Family of
Śvetaketu Āruṇeya
His son and pupil, recipient of the teaching of Chāndogya 6.
Documented relation
Family of
According to the Mahābhārata (3.132–134), Aṣṭāvakra was the son of Sujātā, Uddālaka's daughter, and of his pupil Kahoḍa; that is, his grandson. A legendary, not Vedic, relationship.
Similarity identified by analysis
Disciple of
Pravāhaṇa Jaivali
The king of the Pañcālas teaches him the doctrine of the five fires (Chāndogya 5.3–10; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 6.2).
Documented relation
Influenced
Śaṅkara commented on the Chāndogya and made "tat tvam asi" one of the great sayings of Advaita; he analyses it at length in the Upadeśasāhasrī.
Documented relation
Ideas akin to
Inquiry into the self as the substratum of all experience extends the Advaita reading of "tat tvam asi".
Similarity identified by analysis
Ideas akin to
Comparative philosophy (Scharfstein) has linked Uddālaka's search for a single principle behind change with that of the first Greek philosophers.
Similarity identified by analysis
Ideas akin to
The theory of three elements combining in all things has been compared with Empedocles' roots.
Similarity identified by analysis
Ideas akin to
The rejection of being arising from non-being (Chāndogya 6.2.2) is a frequent parallel in comparative philosophy.
Similarity identified by analysis
Influenced
Gauḍapāda's Kārikā develops, in terms of non-origination, the thesis that the effect is not different from its cause, illustrated by the clay of Chāndogya 6.1.
Similarity identified by analysis
Sources
Sources
Bibliography and catalogues consulted for this profile.
- Wikidata, «Aruni» (Uddālaka Āruṇi), QID Q2724299.
- Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Chāndogya 5.3–5.24 y 6; Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.7, 6.2, 6.3.7 y 6.5; Kauṣītaki 1.1.
- Olivelle, Patrick (trad.). Upaniṣads. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 (traducción «And that's how you are, Śvetaketu» de Chāndogya 6.8.7 y ss.).
- Müller, F. Max (trad.). The Upanishads, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879 (Khândogya y Kaushîtaki-brâhmaṇa-upanishad); y Part II (SBE 15), 1884, nota a Kaṭha 1.11.
- Brereton, Joel P. «Tat Tvam Asi in Context». Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 136 (1986): 98–109.
- Eggeling, Julius (trad.). The Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, Part V (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 44). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900. XI.4.1 (Uddālaka Āruṇi y Svaidāyana) y XI.5.3 (Śauceya Prācīnayogya y Uddālaka Āruṇi sobre el agnihotra).
- Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad. Science and Society in Ancient India. Calcuta: Research India Publications, 1977.
- Witzel, Michael. «Yājñavalkya as Ritualist and Philosopher, and His Personal Language». En S. Adhami (ed.), Paitimāna: Essays in Iranian, Indo-European, and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Costa Mesa: Mazda, 2003, pp. 103–143 (n. 13: árbol genealógico Upaveśi – Aruṇa Aupaveśi – Uddālaka Āruṇi Gautama – Śvetaketu Āruṇeya).
- Black, Brian. The Character of the Self in Ancient India: Priests, Kings, and Women in the Early Upaniṣads. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
- Ganguli, Kisari Mohan (trad.). The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, vol. 1: Adi Parva. Calcuta, 1883–1896; Project Gutenberg n.º 15474 (sección 3, Āruṇi y Dhaumya; sección 122 de la vulgata, Śvetaketu). Para Aṣṭāvakra, Vana Parva 132–134 de la edición crítica.
- Olivelle, Patrick (trad.). The Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1992 (Āruṇi Upaniṣad).
- Scharfstein, Ben-Ami. A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
- Wikisource en sánscrito, «छान्दोग्योपनिषद्» (texto por adhyāya; adhyāya 5 y 6) y «बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्» (6.5).
- Wikipedia (en inglés), «Uddalaka Aruni», consultada el 26 de octubre de 2026 (Āruṇi Upaniṣad, Āruṇi-śruti citada por Madhva, episodio de Dhaumya).
- Hume, Robert Ernest (trad.). The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Londres: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- Ilárraz, Félix G., y Óscar Pujol (trads.). La sabiduría del bosque: antología de las principales Upaniṣad. Madrid: Trotta, 2003.
- Wikimedia Commons, ficheros y metadatos de licencia consultados mediante la API (imageinfo/extmetadata).
- Mitra, Rājendralāla (trad.). The Chhándogya Upanishad of the Sáma Veda, with Extracts from the Commentary of Śankara Áchárya. Calcuta: Baptist Mission Press (Bibliotheca Indica), 1862.
- Gambhirananda, Swami (trad.). Chāndogya Upaniṣad, with the Commentary of Śaṅkarācārya. Calcuta: Advaita Ashrama, 1983 (reimpr. 2006).
- Deussen, Paul (trad.). Sechzig Upanishad's des Veda. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1897.
- Rights holder
- Los textos sánscritos son de dominio público. Las traducciones modernas tienen derechos propios: Oxford University Press (Olivelle; Hume hasta 2029 en España), Trotta (Ilárraz y Pujol), Penguin (Roebuck), Advaita Ashrama (Gambhirananda), Hastinapura (versión española de Nikhilananda). Las de Mitra (1862), Müller (1879), Eggeling (1900) y Deussen (1897) son de dominio público.
Pending confirmation
What this profile has not yet been able to settle. We would rather say so than fill it in.
- Mahābhārata: comprobar en la edición crítica las referencias 1.3 (Āruṇi y Dhaumya), 1.113 (Śvetaketu) y 3.132–134 (Aṣṭāvakra) frente a la numeración de Ganguli.
- Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.11: localizar la nota exacta de Max Müller (SBE 15) sobre «Auddālaki Āruṇi» y la identificación de Śaṅkara.
- Chattopadhyaya, Science and Society in Ancient India: confirmar paginación del capítulo sobre Uddālaka y la editorial de la primera edición (Calcuta, 1977; reimpresión de B. R. Grüner, Ámsterdam).
- Āruṇi-śruti citada por Madhva: localizar la referencia en las obras de Madhva o en un estudio especializado.
- Ediciones: buscar ISBN de traducciones de la Chāndogya al francés, alemán, ruso e hindi; identificar al traductor español de la edición de Hastinapura (ISBN 9789509102699).
- Relaciones: los slugs svetaketu y pravahana-jaivali no existen en el Atlas.
- Vídeos: no se ha encontrado un documental de televisión pública ni una clase universitaria monográfica sobre Uddālaka; los vídeos registrados son conferencias de instituciones vedánticas y clases generales sobre las Upaniṣad.
Researched on 2026-10-26