Upanishads · Varāha 2.19
॥
Devanāgarī
प्रज्ञानमेव तद्ब्रह्म सत्यप्रज्ञानलक्षणम् । एवं ब्रह्मपरिज्ञानादेव मर्त्योऽमृतो भवेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
prajñānameva tadbrahma satyaprajñānalakṣaṇam | evaṃ brahmaparijñānādeva martyo'mṛto bhavet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
प्रज्ञानम् एव तत् ब्रह्मprajñānam eva tat brahmaconsciousness itself is that brahman
सत्य-प्रज्ञान-लक्षणम्satya-prajñāna-lakṣaṇamwhose mark is true consciousness
एवं ब्रह्म-परिज्ञानात्evaṃ brahma-parijñānātthus, from the full knowledge of brahman
एव मर्त्यः अ-मृतः भवेत्eva martyaḥ a-mṛtaḥ bhavetindeed, the mortal becomes immortal
Translation
"Consciousness itself is that brahman, whose mark is true consciousness; thus, from the full knowledge of brahman, the mortal becomes immortal."
Version
c14a42dc2c59 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The great utterance prajnanam brahma, "consciousness is brahman," is cited — the first of the four mahavakyas, taken from the Aitareya (3.3). It deserves examination, for it is shorter than all the others and hence more disputable. It is read two ways.
The first reading: brahman is nothing other than consciousness; therefore everything that is not consciousness does not exist. The second reading: consciousness is a mark, by which brahman is known — that is, a definition, not an identification. The Vaishnava side holds to the second, and rests it on the very structure of the definitions in the Aitareya.
There the utterance stands at the end of an enumeration: "this Brahma, this Indra, this Prajapati, these gods, these five elements... all this is guided by consciousness, all is established on consciousness; the world is led by consciousness, consciousness is its foundation; consciousness is brahman" (3.3). That is, the utterance is placed as the sum of the list, where consciousness is named that by which everything is held and known; and in this form it is a definition by function, not an equation.
Let us add a second consideration, discussed when reading the Yajnavalkya (23): consciousness belongs to someone. To say "consciousness is brahman" and not ask whose it is, is to stop halfway; and the Aitareya itself does not stop, for it begins with the words atma va idam eka evagrasit, "the Atman alone was in the beginning" — that is, with an indication of the One whose consciousness this is.