Brahman finds special importance in scriptures. It is important to note that I am not talking about the caste called Brahman. There is difference in pronunciation: -
1. The pronunciation in which both a's of Brahman are short a's. This is the Brahman I am talking about.
2. The pronunciation in which the first a is long a and the second a is short; thus the pronunciation is braahman. This is the caste and English speaking people often use the spelling Brahmin for it.
Brahman is called as Supreme. Bhagavad Gita(refer to chapter 13) says the following things about Brahman: -
It is neither being nor non-being.
It has hands, feet, eyes, heads, mouths, ears everywhere. It pervades everything.
It shines through the functions of all organs but is itself devoid of all organs.
It is very far and yet very near.
It is light of the lights.
It neither acts nor is affected by any action.
Let us analyse what is written above: -
Brahman is neither being nor non-being. It may seem contradictory. After all, how can anything be both being as well as non-being? The answer is that Brahman is being because it does exist. Then, why call it non-being? This is because when we say that something exists, then we immediately think that we can perceive it using our senses. We start asking questions like: -
How does it look? How does it smell? If I touch it, then how does it feel? How does it taste? Does it make any sound? etc.
But Brahman is something, which cannot be known completely with our ordinary senses. That is why Gita calls it as non-being. Calling Brahman as being as well as non-being means that it exists but it is beyond perception by our sense organs.
What is meant by saying that Brahman has hands, feet, eyes, heads, mouths, ears everywhere? One meaning is that Brahman is capable of doing and knowing everything as if it has organs of senses everywhere. This tells about omniscience and omnipotence qualities of Brahman. Another meaning is that eyes, heads etc. here refer to eyes, heads etc. of creatures. If we combine organs of all the creatures, then we get so many organs. All those organs are said to be the organs of Brahman. Both meanings are correct.
The statement "it pervades everything" refers to omnipresence quality of Brahman.
Consider the statement "it shines through the functions of all organs but is itself devoid of all organs".
First Gita says that Brahman has organs everywhere and then it says that it has no organ. How do we resolve this contradiction. The contradiction is resolved by understanding that so many hands, feet etc. are not of Brahman in the literal sense. It is just that Brahman pervades everything, knows and is capable of doing everything, it seems as if it has so many organs. To give an analogy, if somebody hears even whispers, then we say "he has very big ear". It does not mean that his ear's size is really very big. "Very big ear" is a figure of speech. Likewise, saying that Brahman has organs everywhere is a figure of speech. Another thing to keep in mind is that even though hands, feet etc. belong to creatures and not to Brahman, but the creatures are capable of using their organs only because of the power of Brahman. In that sense, figuratively speaking, these organs belong to Brahman because Brahman has ultimate power over them. If organs bodily belonged to Brahman, then if any problem happened in an organ (e.g. if there is some cut), then we would say that Brahman has faced problem. Since the organs do not bodily belong to Brahman, therefore, Brahman is not affected when anything happens to any organ.
The statement "it shines through the functions of all organs" means that we get the indication of its existence when we observe the functions of organs. As an analogy, consider electron. Nobody has seen electrons (not even with microscopes). But, from experimental results, say that there is something called electron and it has such and such features. But, since we do not perceive electron directly, we cannot claim that we know exactly how electron is. Likewise, when we see organs functioning, then we remember Brahman because Brahman gives these organs power to function. But, just because we have seen organs functioning, we cannot claim that we know exactly how Brahman is.
Brahman is very far and yet very near. How can anything be very far and yet very near? There are two meanings, both of which are correct. Brahman is everywhere. If we take some very far location and ask, "Is Brahman there?", then the answer is yes. If we take some very near location and ask, "Is Brahman there?", then again the answer is yes. Another meaning is that far and near here refers to knowledge. For people who are not enlightened, Brahman is very far meaning that they do not understand Brahman. But, for enlightened people, Brahman is very near meaning that enlightened people have understood Brahman.
Brahman is the light of lights. Brahman does not need any other light like light of Sun, stars etc. Rather Sun, stars and all other sources of light are capable of giving light because Brahman has given these objects power to shine.
Even though all creatures get power to act from Brahman, still Brahman is not affected by what happens to the creatures because Brahman does not act.
To summarize, Brahman is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. All things get power to function because of Brahman. No matter whatever happens to an object in this universe, Brahman remains the same.
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