prayer.
Eventually, the term brahman was developed in the Upanishads to mean “the All” or “Ultimate Reality.” An understanding developed that the individual self, or ATMAN, was identical to the brahman. These understandings developed in later VEDANTA into both theistic views, in which the brahman was tantamount to a god or goddess, and nontheistic views, in which the brahman was seen as an uncharacterized reality that constituted or underlay everything.
Often brahman is spelled as brahma, in part depending on grammatical context. Both forms
are commonly used in transliterating Sanskrit. In the latter spelling the word must be carefully dis- tinguished from BRAHMA, the creator god, whose name is pronounced with a long final a.
Further reading: Jan Gonda, Notes on Brahman (Utre- cht: J. L. Beyers, 1950); Stephen H. Phillips, Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Brahman (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.) G.
Sundara Ramaiah, Brahman: A Comparative Study of the Philosophies of Sankara and Ramanuja (Waltair: Andhra University 1974).
Brahmana
Brahmanas are texts that delineate the work- ings of the BRAHMAN in its oldest sense of the power, efficacy, or energy of Vedic ritual. They are considered SHRUTI or revelation and are part of the VEDAS. They accompany the MANTRA text of the four Vedas and are memorized along with them; the Brahmana of the Black YAJUR VEDA is interspersed with the mantras; the other three are stand alone texts. All the Brahmanas are written in prose.
The Brahmanas are designed to guide and explain the ritual sacrifice (YAJNA). Much Vedic mythology is found in the Brahmanas, explain- ing how particular rituals relate to the actions of particular divinities. For example, the SHATA-
PATHA BRAHMANA explains that goat hair is to be mixed with other ingredients for a ritual fire (AGNI), because the gods once collected Agni from among cattle. Brahmanas abound in much obscure, esoteric material that is not easy for the outsider to grasp, but that assure the effi- cacy and intelligibility of the Vedic ritual for practitioners.
Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975;
Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas).
Vol. 1, A History of Indian Literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975).
Brahmana 91 J
Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami
See ANANDA ASHRAM, MONROE, NEW YORK; MISHRA, RAMAMURTI.Brahma Sutra
See VEDANTA SUTRA.Brahmin
(Brahman)A Brahmin is a member of the hereditary priestly class of India. The term is derived from the Vedic word BRAHMAN, which means (among other things)
“prayer.” In Sanskrit the same Vedic word desig- nates prayer and the one who prays, the overseer of the Vedic ritual and its MANTRAS. In the ancient
VARNA or class system the Brahmin was said to emerge from the mouth of the divine being, the warrior from his arms, the ordinary people from his thighs, and the servants from his feet.
Originally, Brahminical status was ensured by Vedic authority. Brahmins were responsible for the transmission of the VEDAS over the centuries via oral tradition within Brahminical families.
This assured Brahminical authority over all ritual, since it was only through knowledge of the Vedas that the rituals could be performed. All public rituals had to be supervised by Brahmins and all private rituals could be learned only from Brahmins.
As the Brahminical tradition was challenged over the centuries to include more and more indigenous forms of religion, and the culture began to move away from exclusive reliance on Vedic ritual, Brahmins began to emphasize
“purity” as a new justification for their superior status. This entailed special norms of conduct including very strict vegetarianism. However, they always maintained their dominant role in the transmission of knowledge and, thereby, in realms of social authority. Such knowledge extended far beyond the Vedas themselves. If there is a stereo- typical or ideal role for a Brahmin in the modern world it is teaching. Transmission of knowledge is the traditional role of the Brahmin and remains so
today. Brahmins continue to perform the rituals at all the great temples in India, but the role of ritual- ist is now viewed as less important for Brahmins than the role of teacher or preceptor.
Further reading: Louis Dumont Homo Hierarchicus:
The Caste System and Its Implications (Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1980); Vasumath K. Duvvury, Play, Symbolism and Ritual: A Study of Brahmin Women’s Rites of Passage (New York: Peter Lang, 1991); Brian K.
Smith, The Ancient Indian Varna System and the Origins of Caste (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994); Glenn E. Yocum, “Brahman, King, Sannyasi and the Goddess in a Cage: Reflections on the ‘Conceptual Order of Hin- duism’ at a Tamil Saiva Temple,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 20 (1986): 15–39.
Brahmo Samaj
(est. 1828)The Brahmo Samaj (The Society of Worshippers of One God) was founded in Calcutta (Kolkata) A Brahmin priest wearing sacred thread at a village tem- ple near Benares (Varanasi), India (Constance A. Jones)
K 92 Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami
India, in 1828 by Raja Rammohun ROY (1772–
1833), a Bengali Brahmin. Roy was a central fig- ure in the “Indian Renaissance” and the “Bengali Renaissance,” which introduced an emphasis on rationality, women’s rights, and the uplift of lower castes.
The society aimed to reform Hinduism by banishing caste, idolatry, and other features it con- sidered debased in favor of reinstituting what it considered were the traditional elements of truth, spirituality, and the unity of religion. Influenced by Christian missionaries and Western ideas that entered India during British colonialism, the soci- ety was firmly theistic, appealing to the worship of one God, omniscient and omnipotent. Distinctly Hindu, the society believes that all truth is from God and that the prophets of all religions are to be respected. Raja Rammohun Roy, Devendranath Tagore (1817–1905), and Keshub Chunder Sen (1838–84) were influential in creating the creed and practice of the society.
After Roy’s death the society declined, but it was revived by Devendranath Tagore, father of the famous Indian poet Rabindranath TAGORE. Tagore was opposed to Christian missions, but he did not accept the infallibility of the Hindu scriptures.
Under Tagore, the society became an active Hindu missionary organization, attracting educated Hindus in a number of cosmopolitan centers in Bengal and other states. Under Sen, the society became more universal in outlook by drawing on world scrip- tures. While Sen was leader a number of schisms emerged; as a result, the Brahmo Samaj movement began to include several different organizations.
Today the movement continues to uphold the Brahmo teachings of faith in a personal God, congregational worship, and condemnation of idol worship and widow burning. The society operates the Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya, a school for girls in Calcutta (Kolkata), which has stressed the emancipation of women since its founding in 1890. The school began a Montessori Section in 1930, the first Montessori school in India. The society sponsors the Raja Rammohun Roy Memo-
rial Museum in Calcutta. Although very small today, the society provided a rational critique of traditional ritualistic observances that became part of the secularized democratic culture in Indian society. The society retains its affiliation with Unitarianism in Western countries.
See also UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES. Further reading: Piyus Kanti Das, Raja Rammohun Roy and Brahmoism (Calcutta: Author, 1970); David Kopf, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979); Spencer Lavan, Unitarians and India: A Study in Encounter and Response (Chicago, Ill.: Exploration Press, 1991); Sivanath Sastri, History of the Brahmo Samaj, 2d ed. (Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, 1993); Keshub Chunder Sen, The New Samhita: The Brahmo Samaj (Bombay: Navabidhan Chittabinodini Trust, 1980).
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
(c. 700 B.C.E.) The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is a classical UPA-NISHAD connected to the White YAJUR VEDA. It is probably the oldest of the classical Upanishads and retains much material on ancient Vedic ritual, which the later classical Upanishads ignore.
The work opens with a meditation on the ashva medha, or HORSESACRIFICE, seeing the horse itself as universal reality in all its particulars. This is a feature that is well established in the earlier BRAHMANA literature, which focused on the deeper meaning of ritual.
The Upanishad contains a cosmogony of the Ultimate Self or ATMAN as it differentiates into worldly reality. It also preserves several ancient dialogues about the nature of the universe, the atman, and the BRAHMAN. Particularly, it contains the disquisitions or answers of the famous sage YAJNAVALKYA to these questions.
In the course of this Upanishad, the doctrine of the two forms of brahman, the formed and the formless, is outlined (Bri. 2.3. 1–6). This doctrine is repeated in later Upanishads and is a central issue in the thought of later VEDANTA. Brihadaranyaka Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 93 J
also presents for the first time the image of the divine reality as a spider and the worldly reality its spun web or threads (Bri. 2.1.20).
In the course of one of Yajnavalka’s dialogues, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad also outlines, per- haps for the first time, the three levels of con- sciousness: waking (jagarita), dreaming sleep (svapna), and deep sleep (sushupti). (The fourth level appears to be a later development: turiya, the transcendent state of consciousness.) The work also outlines (Bri. 4.4. 3–6) the first extended dis- course on REINCARNATION and KARMA, as well as the karmic paths of the Sun and Moon: liberation is the path via the Sun and reincarnation is the path via the Moon (Bri. 6.2. 16). Finally, it introduces the negative description of the brahman as being
“Not thus, not thus” (NETINETI) (Bri. 4.5.15.).
Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975);
Swami Nikhilandanda, trans., The Upanishads, Vol. 1 (New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1975);
S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanishads (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1974).