How can this miniscule, fragile body whose size in the Universe is beyond ludicrous be, or contain, such importance? Because, the Upanishads and all the world’s great mystics insist, we are not that fragile body but that which causes it to move, breathe, and be alive: consciousness. In this Upanishad we have one of the four mahavakyas or “great utterances” that later tradition teased out as the sum and substance of their teaching: prajnam brahma, “All reality is consciousness.” And the same consciousness is the life of all: thus we have the explanation for both the sanctity and the unity of
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