Thursday, 4 August 2011

Brahman


Impact of a drop of water in water, a common analogy for Brahman and the Ātman

In Hinduism, Brahman (ब्रह्मन् bráhman) is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe.  Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being. Brahman is conceived as personal ("with qualities"), impersonal ("without qualities") and supreme depending on the philosophical school.

The sages of the Upanishads teach that Brahman is the ultimate essence of material phenomena (including the original identity of the human self) that cannot be seen or heard but whose nature can be known through self-knowledge (atma jnana). According to Advaita doctrine, a liberated human being (jivanmukta) has realised brahman as his or her own true self.

The Mundaka Upanishad says:

    Auṃ - That supreme Brahman is infinite, and this conditioned Brahman is infinite. The infinite proceeds from infinite. If you subtract the infinite from the infinite, the infinite remains alone.

 'When we say that we are Brahman, it means that we are integral part of Brahma. It is like, if we are a drop of water in a sea, we can say that we are ocean. There is no difference between ocean and a drop of ocean. Brahma is also called Super-Soul (Paramtaman) as all the Souls of the Universe are part of it and it consists of all souls of the universe. '

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman]

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