Mahavakya Upanishad
The soul is like radiant sun, states the text.[1][2]
Devanagari	महावाक्य
IAST	Mahāvākya
Title means	Great proposition, sacred utterances[3][4]
Type	Yoga[5]
LinkedVeda	Atharvaveda[5]
Chapters	1
Verses	12
Philosophy	Yoga,Vedanta[6]

TheMahavakya Upanishad (Sanskrit: महावाक्य उपनिषत्,IAST: Mahāvākya Upaniṣad) is a Sanskrit text and one of the minorUpanishads ofHinduism.^[1][7] It is attached to theAtharvaveda, and is classified as one of the 20 Yoga Upanishads.^[1][5]The text describes the nature ofAtman (self, soul) andBrahman (ultimate reality), then asserts that they are identical and liberation is the state of fully understanding this identity.^[7][2][1]

Gavin Flood dates this text, along with other Yoga Upanishads, to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period.^[8] In theTelugu languageanthology of 108 Upanishads of theMuktika canon, narrated byRama toHanuman, it is listed byPaul Deussen – a GermanIndologist and professor of philosophy, at number 92.^[9]

The title of the text refers to Mahavakya, which refers to great summary sentence or sacred utterances found in the Upanishads.^[4][10]

TheMahavakya Upanishad is a short text that discusses nature of Atman (self, soul) and Brahman (metaphysical reality), their oneness, and the nature of knowledge and ignorance.^[7][2] The text asserts thatYoga and introspection is the way to spiritual knowledge, with the help of aguru.^[2][11] The Upanishad is notable for characterizing Vedic rituals and chasing sensual pleasures as a mark of darkness within,^[12] that this darkness can be shed with the radiance of knowledge, the discovery of self as light.^[2][13] This, states the text, is why yoga is started withGayatri mantra and yogins assert "hamsa-so'ham" (I am he, he is I).^[2][13] Supreme self issatcitananda, or "truth-consciousness-bliss", states the Upanishad.^[2][13] There is no other means to liberation other than realizing the identity of Atman and Brahman, asserts the text.^[2][14]

The Upanishad asserts thatSamadhi while being a yogic accomplishment is not Self-knowledge andmoksha,^[2] nor is it the dissolution of mind to external objects.^[14] The highest state is, translates Ayyangar, oneness with the inmost Brahman.^[14] This is when, asserts the text, the yogin fully feels and understands "the radiant knowledge of sun is in me,Shiva is within me, this transcendent radiance in the universe is in me", and such is the conviction with which he attains the union withMahavishnu within.^[2][15] This is liberation, nothing less, states theMahavakya Upanishad.^[14]

The state of singular self-awareness and consciousness described inMahavakya Upanishad, states Laurence Rosan, is similar to those found inChandogya Upanishad,Atmabodha Upanishad,Maitreya Upanishad,Maha Upanishad,Subala Upanishad,Adhyatma Upanishad,Brahmavidya Upanishad andTejobindu Upanishad.^[16] These ideas are also found inGreek Neoplatonic philosophy, states Rosan, particularly the works of 5th-centuryProclus.^[17]

• Nirvana Upanishad
• Yoga (philosophy)
• Yoga Vasistha
• Yoga Yajnavalkya

• Ayyangar, TR Srinivasa (1938).The Yoga Upanishads. The Adyar Library.
• Coward, Harold G. (2012).The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought. SUNY Press.ISBN 978-0-7914-7885-1.
• Deussen, Paul (1997).Sixty Upanishads of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-81-208-1467-7.
• Flood, Gavin D. (1996).An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521438780.
• Hattangadi, Sunder (2000)."महावाक्योपनिषत् (Mahavakya Upanishad)"(PDF) (in Sanskrit). Retrieved24 February 2016.
• Larson, Gerald James; Potter, Karl (2011).The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-8120833494.
• Rosan, Laurence (1981).Neoplatonism and Indian Thought (Editor: R Baine Harris). State University of New York Press.ISBN 978-0873955461.
• Tinoco, Carlos Alberto (1997).Upanishads. IBRASA.ISBN 978-85-348-0040-2.

• Upanishads

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• CS1 Sanskrit-language sources (sa)