You Are That: Verses on Self-Worth

“tat tvam asi”

That thou art — the boundless Divine that pervades all is your own true Self.

Taught by the sage Uddalaka Aruni to his son Shvetaketu — again and again he repeats 'that thou art,' pointing to the boundless Self within.

“ahaṁ brahmāsmi”

I am Brahman — the infinite Self shines within you; you are never small.

A great saying (mahavakya) of the Upanishad — the realization 'I am Brahman'; whoever knows it becomes the very Self of all.

“uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet”

Lift yourself by your own self; do not let yourself sink. The self alone is the friend, and the enemy, of the self.

Spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra — the Gita sits within the Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva — as Arjuna, overcome with grief and unwilling to fight his own kin, laid down his bow before the war.