Brahman as the Impersonal Absolute – a worldview-concept, the highest philosophical category, which arose in the early Upanishads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad and Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 8th century BCE), as a complement to its mythological-religious understanding.
1. The absolute substance, the sole independent supreme reality standing behind the empirical world, the innermost essence of reality.
2. The absolute primordial principle of being, the first foundation, the first cause and the source of the existence of the universe and of all that is, the beginning and the end of everything, of all things and living beings. “In the beginning there was only the Absolute, the One Absolute, there was no other.”
3. The supreme absolute creative power, the dynamic might and energy, the impersonal principle that creates the universe, sustains it, and governs it. The essence of the Absolute is dynamic self-expression, vital activity.
4. Transcendent pure consciousness, which constitutes the essence of the human being; the path of knowing Brahman is self-knowledge.
5. The supreme, transcendental truth, the source of truth, the truth of truths – absolute thought and absolute knowledge, originally present at the beginning.
1. Unity (eka), eternity (nitya), unchangeability (aparināma).
2. Transcendence and inexpressibility in positive characteristics: unthinkable, invisible, inaudible, unknowable, unchangeable, unmanifest, unborn, devoid of appearance and form, without beginning, infinite – summed up in the apophatic formula neti, neti (“not this, not that”).
3. Immanence as the profound content of all worldly phenomena, things, and souls, manifest in the fundamental vital forces: in speech, in vital breath (prāṇa), in vision, hearing, reason, and heart.
4. The dual unity of Brahman: dwelling within things and at the same time transcending all being. The self-overcoming of immanent distinctions, levels, and boundaries: of corporeality and incorporeality, origin and non-origination, motion and immutability. The manifestation of a new unity of Brahman-as-word and Brahman-beyond-word: that which cannot be expressed through speech and that by which speech itself is expressed; that which cannot be conceived by thought and that by which thought itself conceives; that which cannot be seen by the eye and that by which the eye itself sees.
5. The transcendence of all categories of time, space, and natural causality, while encompassing within itself space, time, and causality.
1. The Absolute as unity, the complete coincidence and identity of Ātman and Brahman, of the soul and absolute reality. “This Ātman is Brahman” (ayam ātmā brahma), “That thou art” (tat tvam asi), “All is Brahman, and Brahman is Ātman…” (Early Upanishads: Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, Chāndogya Upaniṣad).
2. The affirmation of a single, absolute, primordial reality, which is objectively defined as Brahman, and subjectively as Ātman; the understanding that man and the world are manifestations of one and the same Absolute.
3. Ātman is pure self-consciousness; it is Brahman that has attained self-knowledge (“I am Brahman” – aham brahmāsmi) and has become all that exists. Ātman (lit. the reflexive pronoun “self”) is the absolute subject, which can never become an object.
4. Brahman is identical with pure spiritual reality, the reality of consciousness; it is the “vital breath,” the very breath of the living being, the inner Ātman of all living beings.
5. Ātman is the self-generating, indestructible principle, embodying “the inner ruler who rules from within both this world and that world and all beings.”
6. The ground of Personhood: the innermost essence of man is the essence of the world. The individualized Ātman is the higher Ātman.
1. The Absolute as the supreme state of being, in which there is a complete merging of object, subject, and the very process of cognition – as the identity of objective reality and pure consciousness, which constitutes the foundation of the subjective “I.”
2. Identity is possible only in the supreme state of being, in the transcendental reality devoid of any properties and determinations, while distinction arises within the phenomenal worlds.
3. The unity of space. The one Brahman, encompassing the universe and simultaneously hidden within all beings. Brahman is the unity, fullness, and immutability of space both in the universe and in the human heart. “Verily, what is space outside man, that indeed is this space within man. Verily, joy is the same as space, and space is the same as joy.”
The attainment of the unity of Ātman and Brahman is the attainment of mokṣa, liberation, bliss, deliverance from the illusion of the finite, limited self, from burdens and attachments.
1. Failures and sufferings arise from the misunderstanding of one’s true nature, from identifying one’s “I” with body and personality.
2. The overcoming of one’s ego, the realization of the unity of one’s true Self with Brahman.
3. The continuous identification of oneself with Brahman is carried out through self-knowledge, love of Brahman, concentration, and meditation, leading to complete transformation and the acquisition of a new vision and way of thinking.
4. The attainment of identity and unity makes a person inaccessible to all enemies, contributes to the achievement of eternal bliss, and the fulfillment of all desires.
5. The path of ascent to Brahman proceeds through a sequence of its identifications – name, speech, reason, volition, thought, and contemplation.
1. Eka (Sanskrit: “one, unity”) – a fundamental Vedic and Upanishadic term denoting oneness and indivisibility.
2. Nitya – “eternal,” that which is timeless and unchanging.
3. Aparināma – “immutability,” often contrasted with pariṇāma (change or transformation).
4. Neti, neti – apophatic formula in the Upanishads meaning “not this, not that,” a method of negation used to approach Brahman beyond positive description.
5. Prāṇa – vital breath or life force, a key concept in Indian philosophy, linked both to physical respiration and the metaphysical principle of life.
6. Tat tvam asi (“That thou art”) – one of the mahāvākyas (great sayings) of the Upanishads, affirming the identity of the individual self and ultimate reality.
7. Aham brahmāsmi (“I am Brahman”) – another mahāvākya from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, expressing the realization of unity between self and ultimate reality.
8. The “inner ruler” (antaryāmin) is a classical Upanishadic designation of Brahman as the indwelling principle governing both the cosmos and the self.
9. Reference to Chāndogya Upaniṣad passages linking ākāśa (space) with joy and ultimate reality.
