---
type: Concept
bundle: upanishadic-core
bundle_version: "0.6.1"
id: mahavakya
title: "Mahāvākya"
iast: "Mahāvākya"
devanagari: "महावाक्य"
description: "The four 'great sayings' of the Upaniṣads — direct realization-statements, each drawn from one of the four Vedas, that the prepared student recognizes as a disclosure of their own non-dual nature; not theological axioms, sacred formulas, or propositions to be believed"
darshana:
  - Advaita Vedānta
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "Primary to Advaita Vedānta; the fourfold schema is Śaṅkara's synthesis"
text_source: "Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10; Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7; Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3; Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1.2"
tags: [mahavakya, upanishad, advaita, nondual, realization, pramana, shabda]
not:
  - term: "axiom or theological proposition"
    why: "Axioms are premises in a deductive system from which conclusions are derived. Mahāvākyas are not premises — they are conclusion-statements that dissolve the very question (Who am I?) rather than answering it within a conceptual scheme."
    instead: "Treat each Mahāvākya as a Śabda-pramāṇa event — the Upaniṣadic text functioning as valid means of knowledge that directly delivers its meaning to the qualified listener"
  - term: "sacred mantra or chant"
    why: "Mantras function through sonic power and repetition; their meaning may be secondary or absent. Mahāvākyas function through their meaning alone — their transformative weight depends entirely on the student grasping what is being pointed to."
    instead: "Receive the Mahāvākya as testimony from a Guru in the context of Śravaṇa, not as a formula for repetition"
  - term: "four equivalent or interchangeable statements"
    why: "Each Mahāvākya comes from a different Upaniṣad with a different grammatical structure and a different angle of approach to the same non-dual recognition. Prajñānam Brahma defines by quality; Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi is first-person identity; Tat Tvam Asi is second-person identity; Ayam Ātmā Brahma is third-person identity. These are not four ways of saying the same thing — they are four complementary facets."
related:
  - /concepts/aham-brahmasmi.md
  - /concepts/tat-tvam-asi.md
  - /concepts/prajnanam-brahma.md
  - /concepts/ayam-atma-brahma.md
  - /concepts/shravana.md
  - /concepts/laksana-brahman.md
  - /concepts/manana.md
  - /concepts/nididhyasana.md
  - /concepts/nirguna-brahman.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Mahāvākya — महावाक्य

**Not:** axiom or theological proposition, sacred mantra or chant, four equivalent or interchangeable statements

## What It Actually Means

Mahāvākya (maha = great; vākya = sentence, utterance) names the four utterances from the Upaniṣads that serve as the direct disclosure of non-dual reality. Each belongs to one of the four Vedas:

- **Prajñānam Brahma** — "Consciousness is Brahman" (Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3 / Ṛgveda)
- **Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi** — "I am Brahman" (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10 / Yajurveda)
- **Tat Tvam Asi** — "That thou art" (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7 / Sāmaveda)
- **Ayam Ātmā Brahma** — "This self is Brahman" (Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1.2 / Atharvaveda)

The fourfold schema, pairing each statement to a Veda, is Śaṅkara's pedagogical arrangement — it does not appear as a discrete list in any single Upaniṣad. The arrangement is later systematized in texts like the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi.

## How They Function

A Mahāvākya is not a sentence about Brahman in the way that "the sky is blue" is a sentence about the sky. It is a sentence in which the subject and predicate, properly understood, indicate the same thing — the undivided, self-luminous awareness that is both the student's innermost identity (Ātman) and the ground of all existence (Brahman).

Śaṅkara's commentary on Tat Tvam Asi introduces the concept of *jahadajahallakṣaṇā* (indirect indication that drops the superficial meanings of both "That" and "Thou" while retaining their essential reference) to explain why the statement is not a simple subject-predicate sentence. The same interpretive principle applies to all four.

The Mahāvākya delivers its recognition in the Śravaṇa event — formal hearing from a qualified Guru. It is not studied, it is received. Manana (reflective inquiry) then clears the doubts that arise after Śravaṇa. Nididhyāsana sustains the recognition until contrary-to-knowledge saṃskāras are removed.

## What the Mahāvākya Is Not Doing

It is not asserting that a person named "I" is identical to a cosmic entity named "God." This misreading projects a theistic subject-object structure onto a statement that exists precisely to undo subject-object structure. The "I" in Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi is not the ego, the body-mind, or the personality — it is the witness awareness that the ego, body-mind, and personality appear within.

It is not establishing a philosophical position to be defended. Vedānta uses the Mahāvākya as Śabda-pramāṇa — valid testimony that produces direct knowledge, the way perception produces knowledge of a visible object. Once the knowledge arises, the sentence has done its work.

## Audience Metaphor

Think of a Mahāvākya the way you might think of the moment someone says your name in a crowded room. The sound stops you — not because you are told something new about yourself, but because what was always true (you are here) is suddenly recognized by you. The Mahāvākya does not inform; it points back to what was never absent.

## Citations

1. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10 — home of Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi; see [references/brhadaranyaka-upanishad.md]
2. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7 — home of Tat Tvam Asi; see [references/chandogya-upanishad.md]
3. Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3 — home of Prajñānam Brahma; see [references/aitareya-upanishad.md]
4. Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1.2 — home of Ayam Ātmā Brahma; see [references/mandukya-upanishad.md]
5. Vivekacūḍāmaṇi vv. 254–258 (Śaṅkarācārya) — fourfold schema and pedagogical role of the Mahāvākyas; see [references/vivekachudamani.md]
