Universal
Prajnanam Brahma — a mahavakya
प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म
Simple reading
Praj-nyaa-nam brah-ma
Prajñānaṁ brahma
About this mantra
The first of the four mahavakyas, the Rig Veda's great sentence. It comes 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 the absolute itself, not a window onto it. Of the four mahavakyas this is the definition, and its practice is immediate: whatever is aware right now has already been named.
Learn it by heart
Say the first line until it comes without reading, then add the next line and say both, until the whole mantra comes on its own.
Whole mantra
This mantra is a single line. Learn it whole, then add it to your review deck so it comes back for a check.
प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म
Prajñānaṁ brahma
0not said yet
Aim for eleven. Stop reading as soon as the whole mantra comes on its own.
Progress stays on this device.
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