Brahmavid
Brahmavid · brahma-vid, “the knower of Brahman”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of brahma (Brahman, the Veda) and vid (one who knows, from the root vid, to know): “the knower of Brahman”. Brahmavettā is the same word in another form.
Meaning: a knower of Brahman, one established in the knowledge of the Supreme and of the Veda; in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa above all the brāhmaṇa who has realised Brahman.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives three great teachings on the brahmavettās, from Śrī Hari himself and from Bhagavān Śiva.
Śrī Hari to the Kumāras. When his doorkeepers Jaya and Vijaya had stopped the four Kumāras at the gate of Vaikuṇṭha and received their śāpa, Śrī Hari said to the maharshis: “To me the brahmavettā is the supreme deity; if my attendants insult you, it is as if I have insulted you. I would cut off even my own hand if it acted against you. By serving you, brahmavettās, the dust of your lotus-feet has made me pure.” “By that service I gained the character by which Lakshmī Devī does not leave me. When a content brahmavettā, having offered me the fruit of his karmas, eats each mouthful soaked in ghee, it is I who eat through his mouth, and I am more satisfied so than by the havis of the yajña. I wear on my crown the dust of the feet of the brahmavettās, which purifies all the worlds, Candraśekhara included. Even if brahmavettās revile them, men should worship them with joy, praise them with sweet words and smiles, and please them as a worthy son pleases an angry father; to such men I become subject.” The Kumāras answered that he is the benefactor of the brahmavettās and holds them as the supreme deity, though in truth he is the one to be worshipped even by brāhmaṇas and by Brahmā; and that if he did not protect the brahmavettās, whose only protector he is, the path of dharma would perish (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16).
At Nābhi‘s yajña. When the ṛtvijas of Nābhi Mahārāja asked that a son like Śrī Hari be born to the king, Śrī Hari said that he is without a second and only he is like himself; “even so, the word of the knowers of Brahman must not become untrue. Among those who have the upanayana, the knowers of Brahman are like the devas; they are my very mouth.” So he himself descended by his own aṃśa as the son of Nābhi (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 3).
Bhagavān Śiva to Mārkaṇḍeya. Sūta tells Śaunaka that Bhagavān Śiva, praised by Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi, was greatly pleased and said: “The brahmavettās are devoted to the good of others and peaceful by nature; without attachment to saṃsāra they love all beings; with a bhakti for us that knows nothing else they have no enmity, and they see the Īśvara pervading all equally. The people of the worlds, the lokapālas, I, Brahmā Deva and Śrī Hari himself, the antaryāmī, all bow to the brahmavettās, worship them and serve them. They see not the least difference among me, Śrī Hari and Brahmā, nor between themselves and others; that is why we serve you. Waters alone are not tīrthas and lifeless stones alone are not devatās; if those purify after a long time, you purify by mere darśana. The brahmavettās uphold our tattva, which is in the form of the three Vedas, by composure of mind, tapas, svādhyāya and control of the senses; to them we bow. By hearing your words or seeing you even the greatest doers of pāpa and those who harm animals are purified; how much more those who converse with you and bow to you” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 10).
Related terms: Brahman · Brāhmaṇa · Brahmarshi · Brahmavarcas · Jñānī
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16; Skandha 5, Chapter 3; Skandha 12, Chapter 10