I Am the Salt

The Chandogya Upanishad is perhaps one of the more well-known Upanishadic texts that has made its way into the western traditions of philosophy as well.

Upa-ni-shad, in Sanskrit literally means, to "be seated down in front" of the teacher. It was a face to face, catechism of sorts, in which the teacher, the acharya would face the pupil, the shishya, and they would engage in a dialectic, not unlike the Socratic Method of teaching.

The Upanishadic tradition was a significant movement from the Vedic sacrifice/oblation-based religion in that the kashatriyas, or the warrior/princely class were the main proponents. The Upanishads were an exegesis upon the Vedas, but began to move away from the priest caste of the Brahmins as the spiritual guides towards what would ultimately become Advaita Vedanta, or the non-dualism "end" of the Vedas, removing distinctions in a synthetic process. Before that came the Upanishads as a process of analysis.

The Bhagavad Gita is considered to be a product of this transformation by many, especially since the protagonist is Arjuna, a warrior-prince who engages in a lengthy dialogue with the godhead Krishna, his charioteer.

In the Chandogya, the shishya is Svetaketu, and the acharya is his father who is teaching him about the all-important phrase, "Tat Tvam Asi," which is usually translated as "that thou art" or "thou art that," with the emphasis being on whether "asi" or "art" is the subject or the predicate. That is another philosophical debate for a later time.

At one point, the father asks his son to place salt in water.

The salt "disappears." And, the father asks, "where is the salt?"

You can still taste the salt, but it is not "there."

Svetaketu is instructed to leave the bowl of water, which after Time, evaporates, and behold there is the salt.

The father makes the analogy that the salt was there all along, obviously, just as the Universal Atman, or Soul, has always been with the Individual Atman. It was false perception that there was ever a sundering.

To this, the father says, "Tat Tvam Asi."

I Am the Salt.