Universal
Prajnanam Brahma — a mahavakya
प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म
Prajñānaṁ brahma
Simple reading: Praj-nyaa-nam brah-ma
About this mantra
The first of the four mahavakyas — the Rig Veda's great sentence, from the Aitareya Upanishad, where it answers the question its third chapter opens with: 'Who is this self?'
Meaning
Consciousness is Brahman. The sentence equates; it does not compare: the knowing present in every act of knowing — in a bird, in a thought, in this very reading — is not a window onto the absolute; it is the absolute. Of the four mahavakyas this is the definition, and its practice is immediate: whatever is aware right now has already been named.
When to recite it
Study and meditation — held while examining awareness itself; Upanishad classes open its territory, and contemplatives return to it lifelong.
Word by word
- प्रज्ञानंprajñānaṁ
- consciousness, awareness
- ब्रह्मbrahma
- is Brahman, the absolute
Source: Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.1.3