“You seem to have a swollen head, Shvetu!”

This book begins with these words addressed by the renowned sage Uddalaka to his son, the 24 year-old Shvetaketu, who has just returned home after twelve years of education at a gurukula. Uddalaka points out to his son (and to us) that conventional education is limited by its utilitarian approach. Although useful and necessary to achieve material progress, it keeps us bound to delusion and suffering, and does not give us the ultimate understanding and limitless freedom, called ‘moksha’, that we all ultimately seek.

“Do you have that understanding by which the unheard becomes heard, and the unknown becomes known?” is a key question Uddalaka poses to his son. Observing the sincerity and eagerness of Shvetaketu to realise this ultimate understanding, Rishi Uddalaka accepts him as a disciple, and engages with him in a series of enlightening dialogues. These are covered in a terse manner in the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad, which is said to be more than three thousand years old. The author of this book has imaginatively brought alive these dialogues in elegant English prose to enable present-day readers to comprehend the profound wisdom of the Upanishad. The wisdom is encapsulated in the famous ‘mahavakya’ of Rishi Uddalaka: ‘Tattvamasi’, literally meaning ‘You are That!’ This book is all about That, the all-pervading and timeless ultimate reality underlying all manifestation. There is only That, and we are That!

For those who have read the author’s earlier offering titled ‘The Awakening of Nachiketa’ (inspired by the Katha Upanishad), this book is bound to provide fresh insights regarding the way to Self-realisation. The reader is also likely to find it easier to relate to Shvetaketu than the prodigy Nachiketa.