"Tat Tvam Asi"—“That Thou Art”—is one of the four great declarations, or Mahāvākyas, found in the ancient Upanishads. This particular line comes from the Chāndogya Upanishad of the Sāma Veda, where a sage named Uddālaka teaches his son Śvetaketu about the true nature of reality. The Upanishads, which form the philosophical core of the Vedas, are all about moving inward—away from rituals and into the heart of self-inquiry. And this phrase? It’s a laser beam pointing right at the essential unity between the self and the divine.
From the viewpoint of Advaita Vedānta, “Tat Tvam Asi” expresses a radical non-duality. “Tat” means “That”—referring to Brahman, the ultimate reality or pure consciousness. “Tvam” means “you”—the individual self. And “Asi” means “are.” Together, they reveal a truth that flips the usual way we see ourselves: you are not separate from the divine—you are that. To realize this is to dissolve the illusion of separateness (māyā) and see that behind all names and forms, there is only one eternal presence, and it’s none other than your own true nature.
