The God in Hinduism is “Brahman”. Brahman is NOT Lord Brahma, the Creator of this world. Brahman is above all Gods that we know – Brahma, Vishna, Shiva, Ganesh, Rama, Krishna, Lakshmi, Saraswati, etc. Brahman is the Supreme God. Brahman is the ONE that the sacred texts like Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita talk about. Brahman is the ONE that the great sages want to realize. Brahman is the ONE that we are destined to reach in this birth. From Brahman came the Gods Brahma, Vishna, Shiva for sustenance of this universe. From them came the other Gods as avatars for defeating the evil and helping the truth to prevail in this world. Through these Gods, we must reach the Brahman to attain “moksha”
The well known sloka below alludes to this
“gurur brahma gurur vishnu
gurur devo maheswarah
guru sāksāt parabrahma
tasmai shree gurave namah”
Meaning: Know the guru to be Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Know that guru is verily the Supreme Brahman. Offer thy salutations to this peerless guru
Brahman has no name. Brahman is “nirguna” or formless. Brahman is not male, not female and not neuter. Brahman is beyond gender. Brahman is transcendental – that which is beyond human knowledge. Brahman is Omnipresent, all pervading. Brahman is Invincible and Indestructible. Brahman is Invisible. Brahman is Infinite (limitless, unbound, endless). Brahman is Absolute (perfect, complete, whole).
Taittireya Upanishad describes Brahman as “satyam jnanam anantam brahman” which means ‘Brahman is Truth (real, not illusion, eternal), Knowledge and Infinite’
Brahman is the origin and end of all things, material or otherwise. Brahman is the “prāna”, the life force sustaining us. From Brahman, we came. To Brahman, we go. All is Brahman in manifest form
Brahman is indescribable. How would you call something which is indescribable? Let us take the example of the physical form of Lord Narasimha who has a lion head and claws with a human body with many hands. For a moment, assume that you do not know this form. Also, assume that you see this form while you were in a park. Now, you want to tell what you saw to your friend. How would you communicate? It will be like this: “I saw something strange today. It has a lion head, many hands and a human body. It was huge. I was scared on seeing that and did not know how to react”. As we cannot associate the figure to any known name, form or gender, we tend to use the words ‘it’ and ‘that’ to describe the unknown. In the same way, the sacred texts address Brahman as “tat” (‘that’) because it cannot be described. An instance of this appears in the following “mahāvākya”
Chandogya Upanishad: “tat tvam asi” ‘That thou art’ (transliteration)
Brahman is Infinite. This is beautifully explained in the first verse of Ēsavāsya Upanishad or Isopanishad
“oḿ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaḿ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate”
Transliteration:
Om ! That is the whole.
This is the whole.
From That whole has come this whole
Yet wholeness still remains
Meaning: Brahman (addressed as That) is Infinite. From Brahman has come this material universe which is also infinite. Though this infinite has come from That Infinite, It does not become less but still remains Infinite.
Analogy: Consider the sun. We proclaim that the sun is the infinite source of energy for our galaxy. But scientifically the sun’s energy is constantly reducing by the day and in few billion years, the sun would have no fuel to burn and eventually collapse. The measure ‘billion years’ is theoretically infinite for the human race but for this universe ‘billion years’ is a just another point in time and hence is not infinite. Note that the earth is 4 billion years old already. So, whatever we term as infinite is, in reality, not infinite. Nothing in this material world is infinite. Only the Brahman from which this material world originated is infinite
Brahman is “sat-chit-ānanda” which means ‘Truth, Consciousness, Bliss’
To sum up, “ekam sat” – ‘Truth is ONE’ and it is Brahman
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