Prajnanam Brahma - Consciousness is Brahman

The Declaration

प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म (Prajnanam Brahma)
Consciousness is Brahman - Aitareya Upanishad 3.3

This is the shortest yet most comprehensive of the four great Mahavakyas. In just two words, it reveals the entire secret of existence.

Understanding Prajnanam

Prajnanam is not ordinary knowledge or consciousness. It is:

• Pra (प्र) - Supreme, primary, first
• Jnana (ज्ञान) - Knowledge, awareness, consciousness

Together: Supreme consciousness or Pure awareness

Not consciousness OF something, but consciousness itself—pure, self-luminous awareness that needs no other light to illumine it.

The Context in the Upanishad

The Aitareya Upanishad describes creation:

“In the beginning, this was Atman alone. Nothing else existed.
It thought: Let me create the worlds.
It created these worlds.”

Then it declares: Prajnanam Brahma

The creative power of the universe is pure consciousness itself.

What is Consciousness?

Most people think consciousness is something inside the head, produced by the brain. This is backwards.

The Truth:

• Consciousness is not IN you—you are IN consciousness
• The brain doesn’t produce consciousness—consciousness illuminates the brain
• You don’t have consciousness—consciousness has the appearance of “you”

Like space contains all objects but is not contained by them, consciousness contains all experiences but is limited by none.

The Self-Evident Nature

Consciousness cannot be proven—it is that by which all proof happens.

You cannot doubt consciousness because:

• To doubt requires consciousness
• The doubter is made of consciousness
• Even the doubt appears in consciousness

It is the one thing you can be absolutely certain of.

Descartes said: “I think, therefore I am.”
But Vedanta goes deeper: “I AM, therefore thinking appears.”

Levels of Consciousness

In the Mandukya Upanishad, four states are described:

1. Waking (Jagrat)

• Outward-directed consciousness
• Awareness of the gross world
• Subject-object duality active

2. Dream (Svapna)

• Inward-directed consciousness
• Mental world seems real
• Subject-object duality continues in dream form

3. Deep Sleep (Sushupti)

• Neither outward nor inward
• No subject, no object
• Pure undifferentiated consciousness
• Experienced as blissful peace

4. Turiya (The Fourth)

• The witness of all three states
• Pure consciousness itself
• Always present, never absent
• This is Prajnanam, this is Brahman

The Illumination Principle

Everything known is known BY consciousness, but consciousness is self-known.

Consider:

• You need light to see objects
• You need mind to know thoughts
• You need nothing to know consciousness—it knows itself

ज्ञानस्य ज्ञानम् (Jnanasya Jnanam)
The knowledge of knowledge itself

The Story of Uddalaka’s Teaching

A father teaches his son about honey:

“Bees collect nectar from many flowers and mix it into one honey. The nectars cannot say ‘I am from this flower’ or ‘I am from that flower’—they become one.

Similarly, all beings emerge from Pure Being (Brahman) and don’t know they have come from It.

Whether they are a lion, tiger, snake, or person—they are all that Pure Existence.

Tat Tvam Asi—That Thou Art.”

But what IS that Pure Existence? Prajnanam Brahma—it is pure consciousness itself.

How Can Inert Matter Exist?

Modern science says consciousness emerges from matter.
Vedanta asks: How can the inert produce the conscious?

The Resolution: There is no inert matter—what we call “matter” is a form of consciousness itself.

Just as:

• Ice is frozen water (appears solid but is still H2O)
• Gold ornaments are gold (appear as ring, chain, but are still gold)

So too:

• The physical world is condensed consciousness
• Thoughts are subtle consciousness
• Pure awareness is consciousness in its natural state

Everything is consciousness in various densities and vibrations.

The Witness and the Witnessed

You are aware of:

• Your body
• Your thoughts
• Your emotions
• Your experiences

But you are not IDENTIFIED with them in deep sleep, yet you continue to exist.

What are you really?

The consciousness that witnesses all of these—that is what you are.

And that consciousness is not personal, not limited—it is Brahman, the infinite.

Practical Recognition

Nisargadatta Maharaj’s method:

“Place your attention on the sense ‘I am’ without words, without images. Stay with that feeling of existence.”

When you do this:

• Thoughts come and go—you remain
• Sensations arise and pass—you remain
• The world appears and disappears—you remain

What remains? Pure consciousness—Prajnanam—Brahman.

The Ocean and the Waves

A powerful analogy:

The ocean creates waves. The waves think they are separate from the ocean.

One wave asks: “What am I?”

The answer: You are the ocean appearing as a wave.

Your form is temporary, your essence is the eternal ocean.

Similarly:

• You are consciousness appearing as a person
• Your thoughts are consciousness appearing as mental waves
• The world is consciousness appearing as matter

Beyond Subject and Object

In ordinary experience:

• “I” (subject) know “this” (object)
• There is a knower and a known
• There is duality

In the realization of Prajnanam Brahma:

• The knower, knowing, and known are all consciousness
• There is no duality—only one consciousness appearing as many
• Even the sense of “I” is a wave in the ocean of consciousness

This is Advaita—non-duality.

The End of Suffering

Why do we suffer?

Because we identify consciousness (which is infinite, eternal, and free) with a limited form (body-mind).

When you realize Prajnanam Brahma:

• How can consciousness suffer? It is unaffected by what appears in it
• How can consciousness die? It is eternal
• How can consciousness be bound? It is infinite

सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma)
All this is indeed Brahman - Chandogya Upanishad

When you know yourself as consciousness, you know yourself as everything—and nothing can threaten everything.

Living as Consciousness

Does this make you passive? No.

• The ocean still has waves, but it knows it’s the ocean
• Consciousness still acts, but knows it’s the actor, action, and acted upon
• Life continues, but without the suffering of false identification

You wake up in the morning not thinking “I must BE alive”—you simply ARE, and life happens.

Similarly, when you realize Prajnanam Brahma:

• You don’t “do” being—you simply ARE
• Actions happen spontaneously
• The question “What should I do?” dissolves into “What is happening through me?”

The Ultimate Teaching

Brahman is not something far away to be attained.
It is not in heaven or in a temple.
It is not achieved through years of practice.

You ARE it right now.

The consciousness reading these words—that is Brahman.
The awareness in which these thoughts appear—that is Brahman.
The “I AM” before all thoughts—that is Brahman.

Prajnanam Brahma is not a statement to believe.
It is an invitation to recognize what you already are.

Stop seeking.
Be still.
Notice the consciousness that is always here.

That is the truth. That is you. That is Brahman.