KEYNOTES ON BRAHMAN AND ATMAN

BRAHMAN

The term 'Brahman' originally stood for the cosmic power present in the vedic sacrifice and chants which the priest has control over.

It is a Sanskrit word that comes from the root meaning, 'to be great'.

In the Upanishads, the word Brahman was expanded to mean a divine reality at heart of things.

Brahman, according to the Upanishads, ' is the sun, the moon and the stars'. He is the fire, the waters and the wind. It is ' the God who appears in forms infinite'.

Brahman is also referred to by three words that helps to describe its nature: 'Brahman is sat, reality itself;chit, pure consciousness; and ananda; bliss'.

ATMAN

It originally referred to the whole interior mental world that shows itself in consciousness, thought, imagination, trance and dream.

In the Hindu belief each person has an individual soul (jiva) but the Upanishads teach that all human beings share the same Atman.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAHMAN AND ATMAN

Atman, when experienced fully is identical with Brahman.

Both are divine, holy and timeless.

Often the term Brahman refers to the experience of the sacred and divine reality within nature and the eternal universe while Atman refers to the experience of the sacred within one self.