Brahman
ब्रह्मन् (brahman)
In Vedānta, *Brahman* refers to the omnipresent, absolute, and infinite Reality, the foundation of all that exists. Neither a mere concept nor a divine personality among others: it is Existence itself, Self-Consciousness, Bliss (*Satchidānanda*), which upholds the cosmos without being confined to it. *Brahman* is simultaneously the uncommunicable transcendent and the immanent that dwells within every form—the One from which nothing is excluded.
Brahman est l'Un en dehors de qui rien d'autre n'existe.
The word stems from the Sanskrit root bṛh-, “to grow, flourish, be immense.” In the Brāhmaṇas, it first denotes the sacred power inherent in ritual; in the Upanishads, it becomes the groundless ground of all reality—the source from which everything arises, the medium in which everything abides, the end to which everything returns.
The Taittirīya Upanishad puts it this way: “the Truth, the Knowledge, the Infinity that is Brahman.” None of these three is merely one attribute among others; they express a single reality from three perspectives. Brahmanian reality is not a substance one could circumscribe; it is the horizon of all possible knowledge, the space in which the question “what truly exists?” dissolves.
In The Life Divine, Aurobindo synthesizes two often-opposed legacies: Shankara’s silent Brahman (without qualities, without a second, radically beyond the world) and the active Brahman that manifests in the universe as the Self (Ātman), the Lord (Īśvara), and Purusha. These two aspects do not contradict each other; they are the same One viewed from transcendence and from immanence.
Brahman ≠ a personal god among others. In Vedic polytheism, the gods (Indra, Agni, Varuṇa) are cosmic powers; Brahman is that in which these powers themselves are rooted. The confusion between Brahman and Brahmā (the creator god, first person of the Trimūrti) is common in the West: these are two distinct terms. Brahman does not create from without—it is the matter, the container, and the content of all creation.