Are You Afraid of the Brahman?
I don’t know if there’s just something incredibly spooky about an all knowing, all powerful, always present force that doesn’t do much except hold reality together, or if it’s just the campfire setting. Either way, I am terrified.
Brahman is…complicated. Sometimes misunderstood as a God much like the ever watchful Christian God, Brahman is really something else entirely. As in other religions, there is a more technical and theoretical concept behind this strange force that pervades all of existence that I’m not sure the average believer is acquainted with (I’ve never had the chance to speak to native believers, regretably). I’ve heard it referenced in different books as a kind of god akin to the many others that are recognized in Hinduism and I’ve also heard it described as Lil K describes it in the strip: a kind of force that is both being and non-being, that gives structure and form to the universe around us, and that is a part of everything we see and experience. That’s a pretty complicated idea in a religion full of complicated ideas.
Really, it only takes that single concept of Brahman to really get your head spinning. How does one recognize a force that is and, simultaneously, is not? What does a force with no real direction of its own somehow maintain reality from without while concurrently holding it up from within? There are a host of seemingly implausible and inexplicable ideas surrounding just this one concept, never mind the sizable population of Gods and spirits that abound in Hinduism. Did I mention all of those Gods are meant to simply represent different paths to the same goal? That each of them are all facets of the same force?
And just what is the goal of all this?
Life is an attempt to recognize that one is not actually separate from one’s surroundings or that one’s surroundings are even necessarily real. If you can recognize that you are, in fact, Brahman (and this would only happen after many lives and reincarnations) then you can be free from the suffering of eternal reincarnation.
As I said above, I’m not sure how much the native believers of Hinduism adhere to these concepts. One of my dreams would be to continue doing this comic while I travel and talk to people about their beliefs and folklore so I could remedy that problem. Maybe someday that will happen. I know that Christianity, Judaism, and other religions more prevalent in my area are more complicated than most people give them credit for but it’s hard to see that when the average Joe boils it down to black and white.
I guess we’re all guilty of that sometimes. When you live a busy life and just want to hold on to your beliefs, it can be tough to parse out concepts like Brahman or a God that isn’t like us at all.
But if we could give these things a bit more thought, maybe we could make the effort to give other things some more thought as well. Maybe Hinduism has it more right than we know. Maybe we’re all just treading different paths toward the same goal.
After all, it can be hard to tell if other people are walking beside you when you’ve got blinders on.
If you are at all interested in a modern version of Hindu myths, done in a variety of styles, then may I present to you http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/ Sita Sings the Blues is an amazing work of art. It is an animated film, done by a westerner, about a Hindu story. It is autobiographical, as well. It is FREE, best price ever.
Have you ever thought of using kickstarter to fund a travel project like that?
aren’t Brahman also the two-headed cows in fall out?
No, that’s a brahmin. It’s based on brahman though, which is probably why I thought it was some sort of cow… XD
That is exactly what I was thinking. Battle Brahmin right behind you! *NO!*
This idea of Brahman heavily influenced Syd Arthur (I know how I spelled it) and the development of the beliefs and teachings of Buddhism, and not just ancient sects and practices. The concept form being emptiness and emptiness being form, as an expression or even an explanation of realizing the non-duality of yourself and universe (or that idea of you are not separate from the universe), is the major part of practice in modern Buddhism, from Zen to Tibetan and in liturgy to koans and stories.
It is bizarre, I think, because the human brain can’t quite wrap itself around the concept and therefore breaks, in a highly undignified manner. With sound effects too.
The concept reminds me of Hermetica…
I’m not Hindu but my grandfather is. From what I understand about the stories he told me during my childhood is that Brahma is part of everything and that’s what makes him omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient because Brahma is part of the natural world, including the human body. This kind of creeped me out knowing that a god is actually a part of you and you were a part of God. This is also why most Hindu’s are vegetarian because they believe when you eat an animal you are eating something that is a part of God. It was too complicated for my brain to acknowledge this, so I opted to not believe in anything. By the way Hinduism about certain Gods and beliefs vary from area to area, I know this is what the people in South India believe (at least I think they do). They call him Brahma there. OH I also know that Brahma is also a part of every other God too, this concept was also too complicated for me to comprehend as a child (it still is).
just finished reading up on a eastern philosophy (birthday present from a friend), and yeah, the ideas of Hinduism and where it came from (yay for india getting invaded too many times, each with an idea or religion being absorbed into the culture) just so much more complicated than I figured it be at first. Shame on me to assume.
Maybe there are other religions/philosophy/ideas just as complicated? My search continues.
I was just telling s friend today about how what I know of Hinduism fits more with my personal concept of the divine than any Western religion.
What I like about Hinduism is it’s potentially limitless inclusiveness, and that inclusion is a result of what I understand the nature of Brahman to be (although my understanding of Brahman is woefully underdeveloped). As my excellent religion teacher explained it, the Hindu gods are facets of Brahman as well as tools on the path to understanding Brahman. The gods exist partially to put a recognizable face on an unknowable concept. According to texts that I’ve read, many members of Hindu culture go entire lives without reaching beyond the concepts of a few chosen minor deities, practicing a polytheistic religion within a broader, and almost monotheistic one (rather like the way the Egyptians might recognize a major ruling deity, but mostly limit their worship and prayer to minor local deities).
Anyway, the point is that their can be an infinite number of gods within the Hindu religion – including the gods of other religions, which is probably one reason why Christianity maintains its following in post-colonial India. One subset of Hinduism divides the sort of “substance of the universe” into the two categories of atman (soul) and Brahman, which has been covered. Atman can represent gods or humans, in greater or lesser strengths, but atman is essentially just broken off piece of Brahman.
So the way I read is, you can’t fix a broken machine (your atman can’t reattach to Brahman) until you know the machine is broken. Hence why an understanding of Brahman and the human relationship of Brahman is necessary to achieve an end to samsara.
Haha, loved the strip! I’m a worshiper of hinduism myself, and I must admit, the concept of brahman is very complex. Hinduism is such an old culture, with so many influences and interpretations that the original meaning has gotten muddled. But, from what my understanding is and what I’ve been taught from my parents, is that Brahman is the source of all that is in this universe. It is both god, and something more. Maybe you can say it is sort of an essence that pervades through everything. The reason we believe in reincarnation is that as we lead each life to the utmost, to the best of our human abilities, we get closer and closer to being one with Brahma, one with the original source and achieve…harmony…perfection…nirvana, however you want to put it. Kind of matrixy, I know, but that’s how it is.
I think Brahman sounds kinda like Yukari Yakumo from Touhou; even though Yukari doesn’t hold up reality like Brahman, she’s able to manipulate the borders of anything; life and death, day and night, even reality and fiction!
Who’s the new friend, lil’ K?
been reading your webcomic for quite some time now, but never commented before…as a fellow myth-nut, i really like what you do…as a resident indian and non-practising hindu i can tell you that there is no such religion as hinduism…calling hinduism a religion is like saying that every religious/philosophical idea ever thought/practiced in europe is part of a religion called europism…there are hundreds of different thoughts and rituals that are called hinduism, and there is no canonical text or spiritual authority to say what is or isn’t hinduism…this is what makes hinduism even more complicated, even for born and raised ‘hindus’…i would love to tell you more about any ‘hindu’ ideas that you might have questions about…
Brahman is often seen as/compared to other gods because there is another form of Brahman that is like that. The Brahman that you’re talking about is Nirguna Brahman. The other one is Saguna Brahman.
Nirguna Brahman is a form of Brahman that can not be conceptually framed. Hence it can’t really be said that Brahman is because that frames it, and by the same token you can’t say that Brahman doesn’t exist.
This is similar to Taoism – “the Tao that is called great becomes small” or something to that effect.
But we’ve always been at war with eastasia…
and he looks like a giant train stretching into eternity that lives in the sun(according to digital devil saga)
nana-nana-nana-nana-nana-nana-nana-nana-Brahman, Brahman.
Well there’s an interesting story about brahma. He practiced wincest.
Hindu mythology uses her story to explain Brahma’s four heads. When Brahma created Shatarupa, he was immediately infatuated and pursued her wherever she went. Shatarupā moved in various directions to avoid his gaze but wherever she went, Brahmā developed another head until he had four, one for each direction of the compass. Desperate, Shatarupa leaped over him to stay out of his gaze even for a moment. A fifth head, however, appeared above the others. Thus, Brahmā developed five heads. At this moment Shiva appeared, cut off the top head and determined that since Shatarupā was Brahma’s daughter (being created by him), it was wrong and incestous of Brahma to become obsessed with her. He directed that there be no proper worship in India for the “unholy” Brahma. Thus, only the other two Gods of the Trimurti, Vishnu and Shiva continue to be worshipped, while Brahma is almost totally ignored. Ever since the incident, Brahma has been reciting the four Vedas, one from every mouth, in his attempt at repentance.
oh i also forgot to include this. stalker gods are scary.
Another version of the story describes Shatarupa as a deity with beauty in many forms. After Brahma had grown his fifth head Shatarupa had turned into a cow to avoid his lust. When Brahma found out he turned into a bull in order to continue to follow Shatarupa, eventually finding her. She hid in the form of another animal in order to quell his unnatural lust. But, alas, Brahma found out again and incarnated as the appropriate male animal. Again, she hid in the form of another animal. This continued until all of the animals of all kinds in today’s world were born and Shiva finally ripped off one of Brahma’s five heads to put an end to his lust.
We did a unit on world religion in Social Studies last month and we learned about stuff like that. Hindus don’t worship the Brahman directly, they worship it’s many forms.