Who is atman brahman

And like an absorbed actor, the divine spirit gets so absorbed in playing the role as to become it, and to be bewitched. So, as you can see, Vedantic views of God were much different than Hebrew ones.

Read: Know Your Atman Self. Tat tvam asi is a mantra that sums up this theme. Mantras help us understand these concepts, and we begin to experience their meaning the more we meditate with them. The atman, as well as the Brahman, are eternal states of being. This is really the primary goal of yoga—to attain the experience of "Atman is Brahman. In fact, we must attain this state of enlightenment if we are to escape the endless cycles of birth, death, rebirth.

We practice the eight limbs of yoga every, single day. In a sense, we become the Yoga Sutras. Each day we do yoga asana ; we meditate; we practice pranayama ; we master the yamas and niyamas ; and we practice pratyahara , dharana , dhyana and samadhi.

In this state of ecstasy, we merge completely with the Divine. The small self becomes the Higher Self. The atman becomes the Brahman. The Western concept of the soul envisions a spirit which is specifically linked to an individual human being, with all of his or her particularity gender, race, personality.

The soul is thought to come into existence when an individual human being is born, and it is not reborn through reincarnation. The atman, by contrast, is according to most schools of Hinduism thought to be:. Brahman is similar in many ways to the Western concept of God: infinite, eternal, unchanging, and incomprehensible to human minds. There are, however, multiple concepts of Brahman. In some interpretations, Brahman is a sort of abstract force which underlies all things.

In other interpretations, Brahman is manifested through gods and goddesses such as Vishnu and Shiva. According to Hindu theology, the atman is reincarnated over and over again.

The cycle ends only with the realization that the atman is one with Brahman and is thus one with all creation.

It is possible to achieve this realization through living ethically in accordance with dharma and karma. The first known mention of atman is in the Rigveda , a set of hymns, liturgy, commentary, and ritual written in Sanskrit. Sections of the Rigveda are among the oldest texts known; they were likely written in India between and BC. Atman is also a major topic of discussion in the Upanishads.

The Upanishads, written between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, are dialogues between teachers and students focusing on metaphysical questions about the nature of the universe. There are over separate Upanishads. Many address the atman, explaining that atman is the essence of all things; it cannot be understood intellectually but can be perceived through meditation.

According to the Upanishads, atman and Brahman are part of the same substance; atman returns to Brahman when the atman is finally liberated and is no longer reincarnated. This return, or reabsorption into Brahman, is called moksha. The concepts of atman and Brahman are generally described metaphorically in the Upanishads; for example, the Chandogya Upanishad includes this passage in which Uddalaka is enlightening his son, Shvetaketu:.

All six accept the reality of the atman, and each stresses the importance of "knowing atman" self-knowledge , but each interprets the concepts slightly differently. Now, that divine self may be hidden or covered over by hatred, envy, fear or other negative things. But, it is there nonetheless and it is our "true" and "eternal" selves. Maybe you've heard people say hello, goodbye or greet people with the word "namaste" accompanied by clasped hands and a bow.

What this greeting means is something like "the divine in me honors the divine in you. This concept is at the heart of much of the non-violent tradition in Hinduism, and is has spread throughout the world into other systems of thought.

For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King incorporated it into his own Christian theology and used it as a central idea in his theory of non-violent, passive resistance in the American civil rights movement. Civil rights demonstrators were not to strike back at those who made fun of them or harassed them for their stand for equal rights under the law.

Because even the worst racists - even the members of the Ku Klux Klan - have an atman, and that atman is Brahman. Therefore, they are divine in their deepest selves and that must be respected despite the hatred they express.

Whence are we born? Whereby do we live? On what are we established? The teachers of the Upanishads point the way to a profound realization: Atman, the inmost soul or breath of life, is also Brahman, the ultimate reality that pervades the entire universe. Reality beyond is also within. The teachers of the Upanishads teach by example and analogy.