Brahman
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- For other uses, see Brahman (disambiguation).
Here the underlined vowels carry the Vedic Sanskrit udātta pitch accent. It is usual to use an acute accent symbol for this purpose.
In the Vedantic (and subsequently Yogic) schools of Hinduism, Brahman is the signifying name given to the concept of the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality that is the Divine Ground of all being. It is regarded as the source and sum of the cosmos, that constricted by time, space, and causation, as pure being, the "world soul." Thus, it was deemed a singular substrate from which all that is arises, and debuts with this verse:
However, as the centuries passed and the first Upanishads (the primary Vedantic scriptures that putatively serve as commentaries on the original liturgical books of the Vedas) were written, the concept of Brahman fittingly grew in scope and complexity. Soon, the ancient writers of the Upanishads, around the 1st millennium BC, insisted that Brahman, in addition to being material, efficient, formal and final causes of the cosmos, was also utterly beyond all four senses of origin. Essentially, it is also beyond being and non-being alike, and thus does not quite fit with the usual connotations of the word God and even the concept of monism. For this reason, some authors use the word 'Godhead' for Brahman, to distinguish it from the usual usage of the word 'God'. It is said that Brahman cannot be known by material means, that we cannot be made conscious of it, because Brahman is our very consciousness. Brahman is also not restricted to the usual dimensional perspectives of being, and thus enlightenment, moksha, yoga, samadhi, nirvana, etc. do not merely mean to know Brahman, but to realise one's 'brahman-hood', to actually realise that one is and always was of Brahman nature. Indeed, closely related to the Self concept of Brahman is the idea that it is synonymous with jiva-atma, or individual souls, our atman (or soul) being readily identifiable with the greater soul of Brahman.
Connected with the ritual of pre-Vedantic Hinduism, Brahman signified the power to grow, the expansive and self-altering process of ritual and sacrifice, often visually realised in the sputtering of flames as they received the all important ghee (clarified butter) and rose in concert with the mantras of the Vedas. Brahmin came to refer to the highest of the four castes, the Brahmins, who by virtue of their purity and priesthood are held to have such powers.
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Etymology
Brahman or brahman, and similar words, have various meanings, mostly related to Hinduism.
These words come from a Sanskrit root brh = "swell", cognate to English "bulge". Some, including Georges Dumézil, say that the Latin word flāmen (= "priest") may be cognate to brahman. The Latin verb flāre = "to blow" may come from the same root. There is a possible connection with the Semitic root br' ברא "create, opening"
In the correct Indian pronunciation, the first a is long or short as indicated, and the h is pronounced as a consonant.
In Vedic Sanskrit:-
- brahma (nominative singular), brahman (stem)(neuter[1] gender) means "growth", "development", "swelling"; and then "pious utterance", "worship", perhaps via the idea of saying during prayers and ceremonies that God or the gods are great.
- brahmā (nom.sg.), brahman (stem) (masculine gender) means "priest".
- brāhmana (which literally means "pertaining to prayer") meant a particular part of the Vedas.
In later Sanskrit usage:-
- brahma (nominative singular), brahman (stem) (neuter[1] gender) means the concept of transcendent reality in Hinduism; this is discussed here below. It is called "the Brahman" in English.
- Brahmā (nom.sg.), Brahman (stem) (masculine gender) means the god Brahma.
- brāhmana means one of the Hindu priestly caste; in this usage the word is usually rendered in English as "Brahmin". This usage is also found in the Atharvaveda.
Brahm is sometimes found as a variant form of Brahma or Brahman.
Brahman and Atman
Philosopher mystics of the Upanishads identify Brahman, the world soul, with atman, the inner essence of the human being, or the human soul. In the Hindu pantheon, Brahman should not be confused with the first of the Hindu Trimurti (= trinity) of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer). Brahma is, like the other gods, fundamentally ego (ahamkara)-conscious, whereas Brahman is free from ahamkara.
The Ultimate Truth is expressed as Nirguna Brahman, or God. While Advaita philosophy considers Brahman to be without any form, qualities, or attributes, Dvaita philosophy understands nir-guna as without material form, qualities, or attributes.
In Dvaita, Vishnu is Brahman but the followers stress a personal God. Advaita, on the other hand, considers all personal forms of God including Vishnu and Shiva as different aspects of God in personal form or God with attributes, Saguna Brahman.
God's energy is personified as Devi, the Divine Mother. For Vaishnavites who follow Ramunjacharaya's philosophy, Devi is Lakshmi, who is the Mother of all and who pleads with Vishnu for mankind who is entrenched in sin. For Gaudiya Vaishnavas she is Radha. For Shaivites, Devi is Parvati. For Shaktas, who worship Devi, Devi is the personal form of God to attain the impersonal Absolute, God. For them, Shiva is personified as God without attributes.
- External link: Hinduism Today article
The phrase that is seen to be the only possible (and still thoroughly inadequate) description of Brahman that humans, with limited minds and being, can entertain is the Sanskrit word Sacchidānanda, which is combined from sat-chit-ānanda, meaning "truth - knowledge - bliss".
Enlightenment and Brahman
While Brahman lies behind the sum total of the objective universe, some human minds boggle at any attempt to explain it with only the tools provided by reason. Brahman is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond intelligence, beyond imagination. Indeed, the highest idea is that Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object.
Imagine a person who is blind from birth and has not seen anything. Is it possible for us to explain to him the meaning of the colour red. Is any amount of thinking or reasoning on his part ever going to make him understand the sensation of the colour red? In a similar fashion the idea of Brahman cannot be explained or understood through material reasoning or any form of human communication. Brahman is like the colour red; those who can sense it cannot explain or argue with those who have never sensed it.
Brahman is considered the all pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14.27)
Advaita concept
The universe is not just conscious, but it is consciousness, and this consciousness is Brahman. Human consciousness has forgotten its identity, that of Brahman, as if a drop of water from a vast ocean thought itself separate, and that the only path to merge back into that Brahman or supreme consciousness is through the paths of devotion, moral living, and/or meditation, often expressed in various systems of spiritual practices known as yogas.
If one seeks Brahman, Atman seeks truth and accepts it no matter what it is. Atman accepts all truths of the self/ego, and thus is able to accept the fact that it is not separate from its surroundings. Then Atman is permanently absorbed into Brahman. This is how one forever escapes rebirth.
Dvaita (Vaishnava) concept
Vedanta Sutra 3.2.23 states, tat avyaktam aha - 'The form of Brahman is unmanifest, so the scriptures say'. The next sutra adds, api samradhane pratyaksa anumanabhyam: 'But even the form of Brahman becomes directly visible to one who worships devoutly - so teach the scriptures' (api - but, samradhane - intense worship, pratyaksa - as directly visible, anumanabhyam - as inferred from scripture).
Dvaita schools argue against the Advaita idea that upon attaining liberation one realizes that God is formless since this idea is contradicted by Vedanta Sutra 3.2.16 - aha ca tanmatram: 'The scriptures declare that the form of the Supreme consists of the very essence of His Self'. And furthermore Vedanta Sutra 3.3.36 asserts that within the realm of Brahman the devotees see other divine manifestations which appear even as physical objects in a city (antara bhuta gramavat svatmanah: antara - inside, bhuta - physical, gramavat - like a city, svatmanah - to His own, i.e. to His devotees).
They identify the personal form of God indicated here as the transcendental form of Vishnu or Krishna (see Vaishnavism). The brahma-pura (city within Brahman) is identified as the divine realm of Vishnu known as Vaikuntha. This conclusion is corroborated by the Bhagavata Purana, written by Vyasa as his own 'natural commentary' on Vedanta-sutra. The first verse of Bhagavata Purana begins with the phrase om namo bhagavate vasudevaya janmadyasya yatah, which means, I offer my respectful obeisances to Bhagavan Vasudeva, the source of everything'. Vyasa employs the words janmadyasya yatah, which comprise the second sutra of the Vedanta Sutra, in the first verse of the Bhagavata Purana to establish that Krishna is Brahman, the Absolute Truth. This is clear testimony of the author's own conclusion about the ultimate goal of all Vedic knowledge.
External links
- AbstractAtom.com - Information on the philosophy of Brahman
- Essence of Upanishads: Atman and Brahman
Notes
1. ^ Not Masculine or Feminine (see Grammatical gender).
See also
- Atman
- Mysticism
- Hinduism
- Vedanta
- Varnas
- Caste
- Kshatriya
- Vaishya
- Shudra
- Dalit (outcaste)
- Aryan invasion theory
- Nirguna Brahman
