What is Brahman?
Not a god in the sky, not an idea in the mind, Brahman is the Upanishads' name for the infinite reality that is the ground of all things — and, they say, of you. How do the scriptures describe what cannot be described?
The verse
The great, the expanding
Brahman comes from bṛh, "to grow, to expand" — the infinitely great. The Taittiriya Upanishad defines it as "satyaṃ jñānam anantaṃ brahma" — truth, knowledge, infinite (2.1). Later tradition summarises it as sat-cit-ānanda: being, consciousness, bliss.
Neti, neti
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that Brahman can only be indicated by negation: "neti, neti" — "not this, not this". Not this body, not this thought, not this world as we see it. But if Brahman is not anything we can point to, where is it to be found? The Upanishads' answer is startling…
The journey continues for members
- Brahman is your own Self
- With qualities and without
- Brahman, Brahmā, Brāhmaṇa
- For life today
Sources
- Taittiriya Upanishad — 2.1, 3.1
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad — 2.3.6 (neti neti)
- Mandukya Upanishad — 2