Brahman and Atman
"Brahman" and "Atman" are generally referred to as "G-d" and "soul" but these terms come from a Western context that muddy the translation. It is better to understand them both as "spirit" with Brahman being the universal, macrocosmic spirit and atman being the personal, microcosmic spirit.
They are related in profound, mysterious, and heavily disputed ways.
Brahman
"Brahman" is the name often given to the one supreme reality - it cannot be fully or sufficiently explained in human words. It's name comes from the Brahmin cast. It is a basic understanding in Hindu thought that all reality is saturated with the divine. Brahman is the breath that created and sustained the world. They can be experienced in many formed.
A Hindu guru was asked how many devas (gods) there are and he answers "333,003." When asked again, he says "33." Again, he then says 6, then 3, then 2, and then finally states their is one G-d. The questioner asks which G-d it is, and the guru replies, "The prana (breath/life), the Brahman. He is called that."
Brahman is eternal, genderless, omnipotent, formless, and indescribable. They are the origin of all things, and each thing is a part of Brahman. Each god is an aspect of Brahman or Brahman itself.
Brahman has three qualities:
- sat (pure being)
- chit (pure consciousness/awareness)
- ananda (pure bliss)
Brahman exists, is aware, and is blissful, and avoids all other description.
There are two competing models of Brahman.
Saguna Brahman (G-d with attributes)
Brahman may have attributes similar to those of the Supreme Person, and given titles like Ishvara or Bhagavan (Lord). In the bhakti tradition, devotees to Lord Vishnu, for example, understand G-d with attributes.
The Dvaita (dualistic/monotheistic) schools consider the soul and G-d to be distinct, even though both are Brahman (spirit). G-d has spiritual attributes, like form, personhood, and activities. Different deities have different attributes.
Throughout smriti literature, like the BG, G-d is given characteristics. described as "busying himself with works" and "knowing all people".
G-d is tangible, manifest, anthropomorphic, relatable, easy to understand, and a likeable role model.
Nirguna Brahman (G-d without attributes)
Brahman may have no attributes or names because all descriptions would be limiting and incomplete. Some devotees say that because G-d is beyond human might, representations of G-d will only lead individuals astray.
The Upanishads were written in a time of dissatisfaction with gods (Zaehner: "the gods had failed.") With this, Nirguna came, along with notions of afterlife and a powerful, impersonal G-d who required discipline and was not open to everyone.
Described as "neti neti" - neither this nor that.
The Advaita (monistic) schools consider the soul one with G-d in all respects. Deities are considered more or less imaginary, representing aspects of formless, all-pervading Brahman. G-d is entirely impersonal, but represented anthropomorphically for human understanding.
G-d is apophatic, impersonal, supreme, esoteric, difficult to understand, and a transcendently higher level of truth.
Atman
The atman is the spirit within every living thing, providing it's "life force", consciousness, and awareness of the world. It is inextricably linked to Brahman.
A popular greeting in India is "Namaste" meaning "I greet the divinity within you."
Spirit is divided into two categories:
- Jiva-atman - the individual self r soul
- paramatman - the Supreme Self or G-d, the primordial self
It is mostly thought that the atman is eternal and beyond just this existence. It is the supreme reality, omniscient, all-powerful, free from all phenomenal characteristics such as hunger and thirst, eternal, pure, illumined, free, unborn, undecaying, deathless, immortal, fearless , and non-dual.
When a living thing dies, its atman transmigrates onto another life. The process of transmigration is thought of as a trap of the atman to the physical world. The goal for most Hindus is to be liberated from this cycle in order to re=identify with the Supreme Brahman, but this is understand in many different ways.
The atman is impersonal, sharing none of the characteristics of the life form it inhabits. When a person dies, so does their personality, ambitions, emotions, and thoughts. Only the atman continues.
Just like the Brahman, the atman is apophatic and all attempts at description will inevitably fall short.
Shankaracharya: "the word [atman] derived from the root ap, ad, or at, may mean respectively, to obtain or pervade, to eat or enjoy, or to move without ceasing."
The relationship between Brahman and atman
The relationship between the two is discussed thoroughly in the Upanishads. Some hold a monotheistic, dualistic view, believing that the atman is only a part of Brahman. Others take a monistic view, believing that everything is made up of one essence and Brahman and atman are one.
There are dualistic tendencies in the Upanishads, but it is widely monistic, based on the principle Tat tvam asi - "That art thou."
In the Chandongya Upanishad, in a conversation between a father and son, the father compares the relationship between Brahman and atman to water in which salt has been dissolved. Although the two cannot be separated or distinguished by eye, the salt is present all throughout the water.
Chandongya Upanishad: "you do not see Being. But it is there. It is this subtle essence. The whole universe is identified wit it, and it is none other than the self. And you are That, [son]."
Shankara + Advaita Vedanta
Shankara was a philosopher born in Kerala in 788 CE. He became a sannyasin (renouncer) at the age of 8 and spent his life developing his philosophy, travelling widely, establishing an order of monks, before dying at the age of 32.
He was a proponent of Advaita Vedanta - a monistic, atheistic/pantheistic, and impersonal view on the divine, Brahman and atman. He maintained that the atman of each person is identical with the Brahman. There are no separate atmans, only Brahman penetrating the entire universe. Moksha is achieved by recognising and experiencing this; everything else is maya (illusion).
Shankara shifted this philosophy by pioneering a detailed differentiation between Saguna and Nirguna Brahman. He suggested that humans contemplate Saguna Brahman, and that Nirguna Brahman is of a higher spiritual level.
Shankara argued there were three levels of reality
- Illusory reality - hallucinations and fantasies that we know are not real because of normal subjective experiences
- Mundane reality - the physical world experienced by the senses, examined by the mind. Includes conventional religious ideas like Ishvara (G-d) and jiva (soul)
- Ultimate/Absolute Reality - Brahman
The task of human beings s to reach unity and reality of Brahman, discarding all temporary characteristics and attribute to reach the innermost, authentic self.
Madhva + Dvaita Vedanta
Madhva was a Hindu philosopher in a Brahman family in the 13th century CE. As a child he went missing for four days and was discovered by his parents talking with priests of Vishnu. It is said that he walked on water on a pilgrimage to Varanasi.
He was support of Dvaita Vedanta, or "dual" Vedanta - dualistic, monotheistic or polytheistic. It is the belief that Brahman and atman exist separately and distinct from each other. Atman/jiva exist independently in all living things, and Saguna Brahman is a personal god underlying all reality (Ishvara).
Madhva rejected Advaita philosophy, especially the idea that the material world is maya or deceptive. He argued instead that although things are temporary and ever-changing, that does not mean they are not real. He used the term Prakriti to refer to matter, meaning temporary, but real. As Stoker points out, he refutes the Upanishads "tat tvam asi" with "atat tvam asi" or "you are not that".
He noted five fundamental, real differences that prove that not everything is Brahman:
- between Ishvara and jiva
- between Ishvara and Prakriti (matter)
- between jiva and Prakriti
- between individual jivas
- between types of matter
He believed that each jiva is an image of Ishvara, meaning they are distinct, separate, and unrelated but still have similar qualities.
He believed in eternal damnation and divided souls into three classes:
- mukti-yogyas who qualify for liberation
- nitya-samsarins who are subject to samsara and eternal rebirth/transmigrations
- tamo-yogayas who are condemned to eternal hell
Evidently, it was influenced by introductions of Christo-Islamic theology to the region.
QUOTE BANK!!
Rig Veda: "What is but one the wise call by many names."
Jamison: "There is a profound and mysterious relationship between Arman and Brahman
BG: "As a man casts off his worn out clothes and takes on other new ones, so does the soul cast off his worn-out bodies and enters others new."
Zaehner: "the gods had failed."
Fowler: "that this Absolute is called Brahman and everything in life, whether living or not comes from Brahman."
Katha Upanishad 5:2: "Brahman is the sun dwelling in the bright heaven; he is the air dwelling in the sky; he is the fire dwelling on the hearth; he is the soma dwelling in the sacrificial jar; he dwells in men, in gods, in sacrifice, in heaven; he is born in the water, on earth, in the sacrifice, on the mountains; he is the True and the Great."
Shankaracharya: "the word [atman] derived from the root ap, ad, or at, may mean respectively, to obtain or pervade, to eat or enjoy, or to move without ceasing."
Jones: Atman is "the supreme reality, omniscient, all-powerful, free from all phenomenal characteristics such as hunger and thirst, eternal, pure, illumined, free, unborn, undecaying, deathless, immortal, fearless , and non-dual."
Katha Upanishad 3:12: "The self is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth."
Bowen: "The Atman is clothed with, though not limited by, the psychological components of the individual personality."
Hinnels and Sharpe: "[Atman] is unaffected by what happens to matter, even when the body is slain, the soul is untouched."
Stoker: "By carrying over the ‘a’ from the preceding word, Madhva rendered the phrase atat tvam asi or “you are not that."
Katha Upanishad: "He is not slain when the body is slain."
Upanishads: "Tat tvam asi" "That art thou"
Huxley: "the indwelling Atman is the same as Brahman"
Zaehner: "in many passages, Atman is merely another word for Brahman."
Chandongya Upanishad: "The whole universe is identical with that Being which is the subtle essence, which is none other than the self [atman]."
Chandongya Upanishad: "you do not see Being. But it is there. It is this subtle essence. The whole universe is identified wit it, and it is none other than the self. And you are That, [son]."
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