Brahman

Brahman is the name given to the concept of the immutable, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality that is the Divine Basis of all being. The source and essence of the cosmos, the pure being, a kind of Universal Soul. Brahman is something beyond all four senses of origin.

Brahman should not be confused with the first of the Hindu trinity, Lord Brahma, who like the other gods, is only a physical manifestation of the formless Brahman.

Hindus conceptualise Brahman as the all pervading consciousness which is believed to be the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and matter. It is believed that the universe is not just conscious, but that universe is consciousness, and this consciousness is Brahman. Brahman is the sole Supreme Reality conceived of as one and undifferentiated, static and dynamic, and that which defies all definitions; it is the ultimate principle which underlies the world. The Brahman is the Universal Spirit or the Param-Atman.

Brahman is identified with silence, Brahman is expressed by the monosyllable OM, fraught with the meaning of eternal words, within which all other sounds are contained.