Śabda-brahman

Śabda-brahman · śabda-brahman, “Brahman as the sacred word”

Jñāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jñāna.

Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of śabda (sound, word) and brahman (the Absolute; also the Veda): “Brahman that is the word”.

Meaning: Brahman as the sacred word, the Veda and the vidyā of the Vedas, known through āgama (scripture); set beside the Parabrahman, the imperishable.

In the scriptures: in the Brahma-vijñāna, Agnideva teaches the muni that speech (vāk), with its short, long and prolonged sounds and the rest, is itself the form of Purushottama. For attaining the Paramātmā there are two means, jñāna and karma. Jñāna is of two kinds: born of viveka (discernment) and born of āgama (scripture). Knowledge of Śabda-brahman is made of āgama; knowledge of the Parabrahman is given by viveka. Brahman is of two kinds, Śabda-brahman and Parabrahman: the vidyā of the Vedas and the rest is the Apara-brahman, the lower Brahman, and the akshara-tattva, the imperishable, is the Parabrahman (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379).

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: the word names the Veda as Brahman in the form of sound.

  • Brahmā‘s form: Maitreya tells Vidura that Brahmā has śabda as his very form. Śabda is twofold: vyakta, the spoken letters (vaikharī), and avyakta, the cause of the letters, which the commentary takes as parā, paśyantī and madhyamā, or as the Oṃkāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12).
  • The Veda as Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s body: in Śuka‘s telling to Parīkshit, Rudra praises Śrī Kṛshṇa: the Veda, the Śabdabrahma, sets forth the Parabrahma as a secret, and the pure-minded know it as non-dual, like ākāśa; “that is you” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 63). Sudāma too tells Śrī Kṛshṇa that śabda-brahma, the Veda, is his body, and that his life in the gurukula was only a līlā imitating men (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 80).
  • How sound arises: Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the Veda is Brahman in the form of sound. Sound rises in the navel as prāṇa-śakti, becomes saṅkalpa in the heart and outer speech in the throat (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 21). That śakti, as it enters the heart, is called paśyantī (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 12).

Related terms: Brahman · Parabrahman · Apara-brahman · Veda · Āgama · Viveka · Akshara

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12; Skandha 10, Chapters 63, 80; Skandha 11, Chapters 12, 21