Parabrahman – the Great ALL

In Blavatsky Theosophy, Hindu Vedanta, and Buddhism there is no “personal god”, no all-powerful individual being that one can pray to and that “notes the fall of a bird,” and the “number of hairs on one’s head.” The Ultimate Source in Theosophy is Parabrahman, “beyond Brahman”, and it cannot know that one even exists or any individual thing relative. It is something that is undefinable, but perhaps intuition can be stimulated from analogies – all ultimately wrong and inadequate.

Looking at things from a hierarchical aspect might point in the right direction. In Theosophy the ultimate source of each individual is a monad, the Atman, by which a process of unfolding or indirect manifestation the individual human results. To us it is the ultimate source and Absolute and Universal, and of which no relative description is possible. It is the same for all humans as all monads in Essence are One. An experience of it is called by various names – Moksha, Enlightenment, Satori, etc. That it is Absolute to us in our comprehension does not mean that it may not be some individual consciousness and being in the larger Cosmos. In our human bodies the absolute for an individual cell might be our own human consciousness, which is forever beyond the meager consciousness of a cell, but not beyond us.

Each level of individuality in the cosmos may have its own Monad or Absolute – the atom or cell, human consciousness, the Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, the Galaxy, into infinity – and I believe even science and Physics now claims the universe in infinite. The abolute of the consciousness of the Solar System (and how can we in our pip-squeak understanding not say there is one, including inner invisible planes of consciousness as well as outer physically-based ones) – would be “Parabrahman” or Para-Atman to us – beyond Atman or our monad/absoute – the Great Beyond. ‘And so on infinitely – a consciousness of the Galaxy, and perhaps there are “galaxies of galaxies.” No individual being however Grand in the Cosmic scheme can realize Parabrahman. It is forever Beyond.

From the Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary:

Parabrahman (Sanskrit) [from para, beyond + Brahman (neuter) universal self or spirit.] That which is beyond Brahman; the self-enduring, eternal, self-sufficient cause of all, the one essence of everything in the kosmos. It is before all things in the kosmos, and is the one sole limitless life-consciousness-substance from which starts into existence a center of force which may be called the Logos. In the Vedic cycle of writing it is referred to as tat (that) as opposed to the world of manifestation called idam (this).

“Parabrahman is intimately connected with Mulaprakriti. Their interaction and intermingling cause the first nebulous thrilling, if the words will pass, of the Universal Life when spiritual desire first arose in it in the beginnings of things…. Parabrahman is no entity, is no individual, or individualized being. It is a convenient technical word with conveniently vague philosophical significancy, implying whatever is beyond the Absolute or Brahman of any hierarchy. Just as Brahman is the summit of a kosmic Hierarchy, so, following the same line of thought, the Parabrahman is ‘whatever is beyond Brahman'” (Occult Glossary,  p. 121).

The parabrahman of the Vedantists is likewise conceived of as an eternal and periodical law which causes an active and creative force to emanate from the ever-concealed and incomprehensible one principle at the beginning of every mahamanvantara or new cycle of cosmic life.

“Parabrahmam is an unconditioned and absolute reality, and Mulaprakriti is a sort of veil thrown over it. Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil is the mighty expanse of cosmic matter. It is the basis of material manifestations in the cosmos” (Notes on the Bhagavad-gita, Subba Row, p. 21). Parabrahman has the same relation to the Logos as our atman does to our karana-sarira; and parabrahman is the very foundation of the highest self.

Parabrahman is identical with the ‘eyn-soph of the Chaldean Qabbalah.

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