Atman is Brahman When Vedic statements such as Ayam Atma Brahma declare the identity of the individual soul

with Brahman (God), you can take that as an example of God charging a mediumthe concept of an incarnation. God, who is beyond the medium, enters the medium of the human body which contains the soul. If Atman refers to the individual soul of the incarnation, like Lord Krishna, that soul is the greatest among all souls and hence can be called as Brahman. If Atman refers to the God who has charged the medium of the human body, then that God is definitely greater than any item of creation or the entire creation. He is definitely the greatest. So He can be called as Brahman. In both the above cases there is no problem in calling the Atman as Brahman because Brahman cannot be fixed to mean only a particular thing because the word Brahman is Yaugika.

The only difficulty is in recognizing the human incarnation such as Krishna , to be God. The medium (human body of Krishna ) appears just like an ordinary human being. But when it is said, This Atman is Brahman it refers to God who is beyond the medium. Now the question of knowable and unknowable comes in. Can we say that by knowing Krishna we have known God? The answer is no. Then the question may arise as to whether God even exists in the body of Krishna . Here it is said that God exists. In that sense, He is knowable; it is known that He is exists. It is Vijneya that God exists in that human body, but His nature or characteristics (Swarupam) is Ajneya.

In interpreting the words of God (Veda) one should keep in mind that there can be several interpretations because the knowledge of God is multidimensional. One has to take the correct interpretation based on the context of analysis. If one is analyzing only about the soul, then one has to take the appropriate interpretation. If one is analyzing in the context of God, then one has to take a different interpretation. One has to define ones goal in the analysis. Is your goal the analysis of the individual soul in a body, or is it the search for God in the world, or is it the search for God in a certain human body and so on. According to the goal, the appropriate interpretation can be chosen. Now the main point of Advaitins is that every individual soul is Brahman. In order to analyze the validity of this statement we have to go back to the definition of Atman. The soul is called the Atman, based on its root-meaning (pervasion). The soul pervades the human body and hence is Atman. The body pervades space. Awareness pervades the body (puri shete iti purushah) and hence awareness (soul) pervades space. Thus the soul or awareness requires the pre-existence of space. Once this is said, you cannot say that space came from this Atman (Atmanah Akasha Veda). Otherwise it would lead to an absurdity. This clearly proves that the individual soul (Atman) is different from the Atman referred to as the source of space. The Atman, which is the source of space, is used in a metaphorical sense to indicate God, the creator of space; whereas the individual soul is a created item which is created after several items after space as mentioned in the same paragraph of Veda (Akashat Vayuh.Annat Purushah). God is the first item in the chain and soul is the last item of creation. How the last item of creation can become the first item which is creator? Written by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami website address: http://www.universal-spirituality.org e-mail address: swami@universal-spirituality.org Jai Guru Datta