Concepts
Record
Root
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ब्रह्मन्
brah-man
Sound change: ṛ → ra.
Literally: The vast, the ever-expanding.
Dimensions
What the usual translation loses
God
"God" suggests a person who made the world. Brahman is the vastness the world is made of.
How the meaning grew
- Ṛgveda
bráhman, the sacred utterance and the power that swells in it.
- Brāhmaṇa texts
The force behind the ritual that holds the cosmos.
- Upaniṣads
The one reality from which all arises, in which all rests.
- Vedānta
Brahman without attributes (nirguṇa), and brahman approached with attributes (saguṇa), as a personal God.
In the texts' own words
“All this is indeed brahman”
Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14.1
“Brahman is reality, knowing, the endless”
Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1
“I am brahman”
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10
Word family
bṛhat · vast, greatbrahmacarya · the way of life directed to brahman; studentshipbrahma-vidyā · knowledge of brahmanBṛhaspati · lord of sacred speech
Easily confused
- Three different words. Brahman (neuter): the absolute. Brahmā (masculine): the creator deity. Brāhmaṇa: a priest, and also a class of Vedic texts.