Re: Brahman?
Originally Posted by
Storm
Do all Hindus believe in Brahman?
I ask because I thought that Brahman was universally regarded as the ultimate Reality of God, with Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as its primary manifestations, and lesser deities springing from them.
However, someone in my other thread just said that Shiva was the "Primal Soul."
Now I'm confused. I do understand that "Hinduism" is a varied collection of traditions, and that some revere one of the "big three" over the others. But I thought Brahman was something they had in common.
It depends on the school of thought. Some regard Brahman (impersonal feature of God) as the ultimate reality. Others see Vishnu or Shiva as the ultimate reality. In the Gita, Krishna explains that Brahman (all-pervasive consciousness), Paramatma (the Supersoul/Self within every individual) and Bhagavan(the personal feature/form) are equal aspects of God. They are also described as qualitatively non-different.
"For a bewildered person in the materialistic way of life, the body, the mind and the senses, which are engaged in sense gratification, are the cause of bondage to repeated birth, death, old age and disease. But for one who is advanced in spiritual knowledge, the same body, senses and mind are the cause of liberation"
Prabhupada.
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