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Brahma is wholly present as its soul in every living thing, B.A. II. i. 16, iv., III. iv., v., Ch. VI. viii.-xvi. The Cosmic Soul, Hiranya-garbha or Brahma (masculine), enters into creation as firstborn of Brahma (neuter), or highest manifestation, B.A. II. v. ("the brilliant immortal Male," Purusha), Ait. III. iii. (Brahma-Atma is intelligence), Kau. I. Brahma is Cosmic Soul, universal subject of thought from which arise the principles of finite thought (mahan atma, Kath. III. 10, mahan purushah, S'vet. III. 19). The world is created from and by Brahma as the web from the spider, sparks from fire, B.A. II. i. 20, S'vet. VI. 10, Mund. I. i. 7, II. i. 1. Brahma is "the Eternal cloaked by (empirical) reality," B.A. I. vi. 3, cf. I. iv. 7, II. iv. 12, v. 18, etc., Ch. III. xiv. 1, IV. iv.-ix., VI. xiii., etc. The [p. 22] individual soul, according to the Upanishads, does not exist previous to the creation by Brahma. The universe is created from water, B.A. I. v. 13, Ch. VII. x. 1, Ait. I. 1. Three elements, B.A. I. ii. 2, Ch. VI. ii. (heat, water, and food, successively created one from the other, after which each was blended with part of the others). Five elements (adding ether and wind), Taitt. II. i., Pra. IV. 8. II. Later Vedanta.--S'ankara (on Brahma-sutra, II. iii. 1 f.) endeavours to reconcile the discrepant cosmogonic theories of Ch. VI. ii. and Taitt.II. i., by laying down that from the Self arises ether, thence wind, thence fire, thence water, thence earth, and that this process is reversed on the dissolution of the universe. With this qualification he follows the Ch. in its derivation of inorganic nature from heat (fire), water, and food (earth). These he regards as primitive subtle elements, which by being mixed together form the gross elements; a gross element is produced by the predominance of the corresponding subtle element in admixture with the other two. For his metaphysical explanation of creation, see section 12. S'ankara does not mention the theory of quintuplication (panchikarana) adopted by the later Vedanta. This doctrine assumes that there are five elements--ether, air, fire, water, earth--in both subtle and gross forms; in order that a particular gross element, e.g. water, may arise, [p. 23] it is necessary that a proportion of one-half of the corresponding subtle form of water be mixed with a proportion of one-half of the half of the other four subtle elements. These five elements, according to the same theory, arise from the union of the Cosmic Self or Is'vara with cosmic ignorance, in the order above mentioned (see further below, section 12). Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 10. BRAHMA IS ABSOLUTE BEING.--The question whether the universal substrate, or Brahma, should properly be called being (sat) or non-being (a-sat), already agitated the Vedic poets (see Rig veda, x. cxxix. 1), and passed through the schools of the Brahmanas to those of the older Upanishads. The debate, however, was merely over words. As Brahma is beyond all the limiting conditions of phenomenal being, either term may be applied to it; it is at once metaphysically existent and empirically non-existent. Brahma is non-being, B.A. II. iii. 1, Ch. III. xix. 1, Taitt. II. vi.-vii.; being, Ch. VI. ii. 1, etc. Brahma is "reality of reality," B.A. II. i. 20, iii. 6; "the Eternal cloaked in (empirical) reality," I. vi. 3. A reconciliation from the transcendental standpoint is found in S'vet. IV. 18, v. 1, Mund. II. ii. 1, etc. S'ankara (on Brahma-sutra, I. iv. 14 f.) rightly notes the twofold meaning of the terms "being" and "not-being." Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 11. BRAHMA IS THOUGHT.--The Vedic brahma, "prayer" or "spell," is naturally a function [p. 24] of intellect; and when it had risen to the rank of a cosmic Force, it retained this character. It is the universal subject of thought; but as it is itself the universe, and there is nothing beside, it is also its own object, like the Aristotelian noesis noeseus; and as it is above the conditions of space, time, and causality, we can say of it only that it exists, and is Thought. Frequently, from the natural tendency to conceive a higher sphere of existence as a realm of light and thought as itself light, Brahma and the individual Self identified with it are described as supreme self-luminous light: B.A. IV. iv. 16, Ch. VIII. iii. 4, XII. 3, Kath. v. 15, S'vet. VI. 14. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 12. BRAHMA IS ATMa.--I. Upanishads.--This idealistic conception became more marked when Brahma was identified with the Atma, the subject of individual thought. "The universe is an Idea, my Idea"--this doctrine is constantly preached in detailed expositions and in pithy phrases like the famous "I am Brahma" (aham brahmasmi), "thou art that" (tat tvam asi). Hence all phenomena are known when their substrate Brahma is known as the Self of the knower. For tat tvam asi see Ch. VI. viii. 7 f.; aham brahmasmi, B.A. I. iv. 10; cf. tad vai tat, "truly this is that," B.A. V. iv., etad vai tat, Kath. IV. 3-6. The most adequate treatment of this theme is B.A. IV. iii.-iv.: the Self is "the Spirit (Purusha) [p. 25] made of understanding amid the Breaths, the inward light within the heart, that travels abroad, remaining the same, through both worlds," wandering in waking and dreaming through this world, and in deep sleep or death through the world of Brahma; in dreams it builds up a fairy world from the materials of waking thought; in dreamless sleep it is merged in the "understanding self," prajna atma, viz. Brahma as universal subject of thought, without consciousness of objects distinct from itself (cf. section section 11, 15,18). Atma is pure consciousness, Kau. III f.; as a purely intellectual force pervading all being, it is compared to salt dissolved in water, B.A. II. iv. 12, Ch. VI. xiii. Atma known, all is known, Ch. VI. i. f.; the later view of it as impassive spectator of the subjects, objects, and activity of finite thought, Pra. VI. 5, S'vet. VI. 11, Sarvopanishatsara, etc. Ch. VIII. i. f. lays special emphasis on the presence of the whole macrocosm, the universal Self, in the heart of man, and hence on the absolute freedom of him who knows the Self within him. The whole world of cognitions exists for us only in so far as it enters into the range of our egoity; our pleasures are only for the satisfaction of our Self, which is the All; this recognition unites our soul with the universe and gives us control of all things from their source, B.A. II. iv., IV. v. The final reality of cognition is infinitude, bhuma, [p. 26] illimitable ideation, on realising which the soul wins absolute freedom, Ch. VII. xxiii. f. Very important in this connection is the theory of the Five Selves propounded in the Taittiriya Upanishad, ii., an attempt to interpret the phenomena of physical existence in terms of the Atma. The author conceives the first four Selves as sheaths surrounding the fifth. The first is anna-maya, "formed of food"; that is, it comprises the physical organs of microcosmic and macrocosmic body. Within this is the second, the prana-maya, "formed of life-breaths"; it is the Self as embodied in the incorporeal functions on which depends the activity of the gross organs in the microcosm and macrocosm. The third is mano-maya, "formed of will," namely of the Vedas and Brahmanas, which are the powers inspiring the life of the world for worldly ends, for they ordain rituals for the carnal benefit of gods and their worshippers in this and other worlds. The fourth is vijnana-maya, "formed of understanding," namely that phase of consciousness in which the vanity of this Vedic ritual is recognised and superseded by an intellectual worship of Brahma, which however still distinguishes Brahma as object from the Self as worshipper. Within this is the inmost Self, the ananda-maya, "formed of bliss," the incogitable spirit of infinite peace and joy (cf. Ch. IV. x.-xv., where Brahma is essentially space and joy). [p. 27] II. Later Vedanta.--The triad of attributes often mentioned in the later Vedanta, Existence, Thought, and Bliss (sack-chid-ananda), does not occur as a formula in S'ankara's writings; it is however anticipated by his definition of Brahma as "eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, eternally satisfied, eternally pure, intelligent, and free of nature, understanding, and bliss" (on Brahma-sutra I. i. 4). Brahma is the omnipotent and omniscient cause of the origin, maintenance, and dissolution of the universe, the intelligence forming the Self or true Ego of every being, of which the only possible predicates are absolute Being and Thought (on I. i. 2, 4, II. iii. 7, III. ii. 21, etc.). In accordance with his principles, S'ankara regards the creation by and from Brahma from both an esoteric and an exoteric standpoint. On the one hand, he remarks, the creation of the phenomenal world as described in terms of empiric thought by the Vedas and Upanishads has no absolute reality at all; it is intended to teach parabolically that the Self of all things is Brahma (see commentary on Brahma-sutra II. i. 33). On the other hand, the world of experience cannot be ignored altogether; it is a fact of consciousness, though only of unenlightened consciousness, and accordingly an explanation of its process must be found. Creation consists in a division of Brahma by himself into a boundless variety of "names and forms," intelligible existences [p. 28] which constitute the empiric world and possess determinate principles of being, formal and material potentialities (s'akti) that never vary throughout all the world's successive cycles (see section 23).