Brahman ~ “The word Brahman or Sat has no proper equivalent in English. The nearest is ultimate reality or ultimate truth.

Brahman ~ “The word Brahman or Sat has no proper equivalent in English. The nearest is ultimate reality or ultimate truth.

The word Brahman means ultimate truth or reality, which cannot be indicated by any word. The Brahman can be expressed through silence because it is beyond the experience of form, time, and space. Therefore, the word Brahman clearly stands for the essence of the three states, which is consciousness only. The final use of the pursuit of truth is to know that the Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara opposed the Buddhists only, who misunderstood Bhagavan Buddha and became atheists.

According to Sage Sankara, meditation always means the critical analysis about the Self to get salvation from worldly tensions. Due to the eccentric ego of the then atheists, Sage Sankara did not go beyond this since the atheists will not accept God beyond themselves. This limitation is not due to limited knowledge of Sage Sankara but is due to the then-existing situation of the psychology of the surrounding society.

Even Bhagavan Buddha kept silent about God because the society dealt by Him consisted of Purvamimamsakas, who were strong atheists. Bhagavan Buddha said that everything, including the Self, is only relatively real (Sunya). This is correct because the Self is a part of the universe, which is relatively real with respect to the absolute unimaginable God. Bhagavan Buddha stopped at this point because the atheists cannot realize the existence of unimaginable God indicated through His silence.

The point of Bhagavan Buddha is that if God is non-existent, the entire creation, including the Self, is non-existent. Sage Sankara wanted to establish the existence of the Brahman (God in truth). For this purpose, He made the Atman as the Brahman. He brought out the identity of the Self with the consciousness and made the Atman the Brahman. Since one will not negate the existence of his Self, he will accept the existence of the Brahman, which is the Atman or Soul, the Self.

Both Bhagavan Buddha and Sage Sankara kept silent about the absolute unimaginable God. The same philosophy was dealt with by them from different angles in different situations. : ~Santthosh Kumaar