What is Brahman?

​

 

 

​
Brahman (meaning vast) is the name the ancient Rishis gave to the fundamental reality underlying all objects and experiences. This fundamental reality is pure consciousness and is existence itself. Note, it’s not that Brahman is existence, but rather, existence IS Brahman. Brahman is also referred to as Sat-Chit-Ananda. Sat meaning existence, chit meaning consciousness and ananda meaning bliss. This doesn’t mean Brahman has three different attributes. These three attributes are all one and the same. Brahman is attribute-less and hence non-dual in nature. It is pure existence devoid of anything else. Therefore Brahman is not an objective experience.  It is purely subjective since objective experiences through the perception of separation.

 

Given Brahman is devoid of separation, it only abides in itself as pure awareness and is non-dual. If Brahman is non-dual, this means there is no such thing as two. Hence, duality (i.e. two) is not fundamentally real. All things we experience in this world as the pair of opposites (such as: light/dark, love/hate, up/down, me/you, etc.) are not considered real but only a wrong perception of truth. 

So what exactly is real? 

Real is that which does not change. If anything changes, it is not considered real unless you recognize it for what it truly is.  The normal person however, who is ignorant of their true nature, will consider themselves to be real. They will also consider their homes to be real, their possessions to be real and their experiences to be real.  However, all of these things are transient and subject to change due to its impermanent nature. One day they will all disappear by transforming into something else (i.e. morphing into another form of energy). So then how can we consider anything to be real if one day they will be gone?  To identify that which is real, it must be something that is permanent in nature and cannot be subject to change or cannot be subject to transform into something else. It must be a static principle. Thus, the only "thing” that can be considered real is Brahman. Pure awareness does not change. It does however allow all changes to be known. It is this unchanging static conscious principle in the background that allows all things, movement, feelings, etc. to be witnessed in its own eternal presence and to be known for what they are. 

Since Brahman cannot change, this means it is an eternal principle that will exist forever.  Given existence is Brahman, how can something that is fundamentally existence begin or end? It is existence or awareness that allows a beginning or end to even be known. If there is no existence, what can be known? This means all there can ever be is existence and just by you existing, proves you are Brahman and that existence is real. There can never not be existence since existence is already here. If non-existence were true, we wouldn’t be existing right now to even ask this very question. Therefore, Brahman never began and will never end. In fact, we cannot even say that Brahman is eternal or forever because that would imply time is real.  Since time is just a concept within duality, it does not fundamentally exist within the principle of pure awareness. It is only the mind that thinks Brahman will be there forever when in fact, Brahman just IS. There is only is-ness. It is pure being. In this being-ness, there exists no concepts nor a framework to entertain the mind because there is no mind that exists to hold on to anything. It is only the mind that operates in this capacity.  It is the active mind that projects the world and prevents us from knowing Brahman as itself void of any type of phenomena or disturbance. 

Let’s take for example your favorite video game. In this video game, there is a character that exists. This character is on a journey through time and space. If the character dies, it is born again. However, all concepts such as the character, journey, time and space, lifetimes, etc. are all things that were naturally programmed into the video game. Thus, they only exist when the video game is on while identifying as the character. But what happens when you're no longer identified as the character? Are any of these concepts or laws still valid? If the game is shut off and becomes non-existent, then what is it that remains? 

 

It is common for people living in this world as video game characters to automatically accept the validity behind the conditions of the video game laws and to question Brahman within the video game. However, you cannot give these conditions strength when asking questions about Brahman since Brahman transcends the game. This means Brahman is indescribable. There is no such thing as Brahman being eternal or infinite. With the video game shut off, what is time? What is space? What is forever? What is infinite? None of these things are valid because the thought of them do not exist since asking any questions can only happen inside the game through the perception of thoughts! There is only Brahman. Therefore, Brahman just IS. This is the nature of the attribute-less Brahman which is also referred to as Nirguna Brahman. 

Nirguna means ‘without form’, i.e. absolute reality. However, when things appear to be dual, Brahman is referred to as Saguna meaning ‘with form’. In other words, Saguna Brahman IS Nirguna Brahman appearing to be conditioned by its own inexplicable and mysterious power of maya as the manifested universe with name and form, i.e. the vyavaharika reality (i.e. relative reality). This is the realm of duality which we perceive as the empirical world of experience. These two different names of Brahman is just a way to explain to those who are ignorant of their true nature and who are only seeing Saguna Brahman as their only reality. It is simply an aid or conceptual knowledge to be used in order to further expand your understanding in realizing Nirguna Brahman as the ONLY reality. With realization of your true nature, Saguna Brahman is negated as a false appearance.  It only existed as a concept when Brahman appeared to be something other than what it truly is. 

However, this doesn’t mean Saguna Brahman does NOT exist. It clearly exists because you are reading this article right now and perceiving it as such. You cannot deny your own experience and claim it to be non-existent since there is ONLY existence. Therefore it DOES exist, but rather it simply appears to be something other than what it truly is.  This means it is neither real nor unreal (mithya).  It is not real since Nirguna Brahman is real.  It is also not unreal because it's clearly here and perceived that way from your own unique vantage point.

 

With maya/ignorance *seemingly* causing Brahman to be entangled with the body-mind vehicle, we automatically assume ownership of our experience as a person, when all that is really happening is awareness witnessing the body and mind and mistakenly identifying with it. One has to turn inward and inquire within to know the truth of their real self in order to see beyond the veil of ignorance of misidentifying with a false character. 

​

To grasp this truth conceptually, think of any object. Can this object exist OUTSIDE of your awareness? Or does it only exist BECAUSE of your awareness of it? It is awareness that gives it its existence and therefore can only be seen or exist through your awareness itself. There are no objects, things, experiences or ANYTHING that exists OUTSIDE of your awareness as that would prove them to be non-existent. Since there is only existence, nothing can ever be separate from your awareness of it.  Everything only "appears" to be separate though it is all just being experienced within awareness itself. Furthermore, everything can only be awareness because things can only be known through awareness. This means awareness is being aware of itself but is under the delusion of being separate from itself. Once this hidden truth is known experientially, we come to understand from our realization that there was never such thing as Saguna Brahman. There was only Nirguna Brahman appearing as Saguna Brahman through delusion/ignorance or what we refer to as the mind.
This doesn't mean that the mind is separate from awareness.  The mind IS awareness in disguise and we only raise it as a concept when this truth is not known as such. There is ONLY awareness appearing as something it is not.  This is why we need to use the words Saguna Brahman or maya to explain this mysterious error. But just because we say the word maya, does not mean maya is real since it is negated through self-realization of the self (i.e. Brahman). Therefore you are NOT separate from Brahman. YOU ARE Brahman right now.  You just don’t know it because you are giving duality and the false self more credit than it deserves. Everything is Brahman because there is ONLY existence aware’ing everything up in its own awareness. This is similar to a dreamer who dreams up an infinite world.  What appears to be an infinite world is merely just a projection that resides within the own dreamer's mind. But it is only the non-dual dreamer that exists. There is no infinite world ‘out there’ just like there is no infinite world 'out there' when you're inside your own dream at night.  It is just a projection within singularity. There is only a very convincing world that appears to be external from us because of the dreamer willing it to be through its own power of being conscious. And now, it finds itself stuck inside its own dream questioning its very own existence.  

 

Awareness is thus the fundamental substratum of everything because everything can only exist because of awareness.  However, this doesn't mean that there is such thing as 'everything'.  Everything is actually nothing since it is a mere false projection within awareness itself.

Once we follow a path that best suits our state of mind, we will slowly begin to purify our mind to realize the interconnectivity of all things and how they are all dependent on Brahman to exist. Upon further and deeper inquiry, it is known that objects were not only dependent on awareness, but were never even real since there is only awareness. The ultimate conclusion is that there is ONLY BRAHMAN. This is the REAL YOU.