Brahman

The scriptures state that only Brahman exists. Accordingly, everything we see and perceive is Brahman. And there is nothing other than Brahman. And we are part of this Brahman. The earth is part of Brahman. Space and the cosmos are part of Brahman. And the entire universe is part of Brahman. Nothing exists separately from Brahman. Brahman is so all-pervasive and transcends time and space. It is a kind of abstract concept that cannot be explained. Whatever we say, whatever we think, whatever we try to visualize—none of it is Brahman. It is beyond our comprehension. And yet the scriptures say that there is nothing in the entire universe other than Brahman. This implies a non-dual existence, beyond duality.

From this Brahman arose the divine will in the form of a desire. It was this: “I am one, and I shall become many. I shall expand myself into many.” Everything we see in this universe is an expansion of Brahman, and none of it exists outside of Brahman; it all exists within Brahman itself.

Prana—the driving force of Brahman

Through the divine will of Brahman, multiplication began to arise. As a result of this desire, the one Brahman expanded itself into many forms. And for all of this to continue, some motive, some force, is necessary. And so, the driving force behind this expansion is Prana. Brahman is simply the highest consciousness. And out of this desire, diversity arose. And the power behind this diversity is Prana.

Just as there is a universal Spirit or a universal “I,” there is also a universal Prana. From the supreme Spirit, small souls and space itself came into being. And when these individual souls came into contact with space, the cosmos was created. Spirit is life; space is matter; life came into contact with lifeless matter. And because a spark of life was present, various living beings arose. Around these small living beings, material elements and various forms of life emerged: birds, insects, animals, and humans. In this way, Prana entered the small universes.

Brahman is the great universal Prana; our Atman (soul) is equally a part of Brahman. Just as small sparks emerge from a large fire, all the elements within the fire are the same. The sparks are made of the very same element as the fire. Thus, the Atman and Brahman are of the same element. However, for the Atman, our body is the universe. And just as the universal force extends throughout all of creation, so too do we extend our conscious power throughout our body, from head to toe. Our consciousness is confined within this body; our limitation is our body. We cannot say that “I” exist outside my body. Everything that lies beyond the limits of our body is no longer “us,” but something else. Thus, we have our prana, which permeates our universe. In the same way, the universal Brahman has its own prana—the universal prana.

And prana is our driving force. When we move, we are alive. When we are unable to move, we are dead. Atman and its driving force (prana) are essential for understanding ourselves. Through this driving force, we can reach Atman. And this driving force can be used in two ways: to be introverted or extroverted. The more we become involved with objects in the external world, the further we drift away from ourselves. But if we increasingly direct prana closer to the Atman, one day we will be one with the Atman.

Brahman is incomprehensible

Our mind can only comprehend within boundaries. Any object can only exist within boundaries. You cannot think outside of boundaries. Thus, we also seek to understand space within some framework. But Brahman is boundless. And this explains why, even if we take something away from Brahman, Brahman remains unaffected and unchanging. The Upanishads state that when the whole is taken from the whole, the whole remains whole. This is Brahman; He never diminishes. And no one has the ability to add anything to Him. He remains exactly the same. He cannot be diminished or increased.Brahman is wholeness itself.