Brahman-Atman
Plate Lithograph
2012
18" x 24"
Over the fall semester of my junior year, I had the opportunity to take an Eastern Religions class with Dr. Imtiaz Moosa at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. During the course of the semester, the one topic that interested me the most was Hinduism. In this belief system, all living things are unified through their partaking in one supreme reality, an all-encompassing “sea of life”, referred to as Brahman. Therefore, within each individual is a divine center or soul, the Atman. Hinduism’s profound concept of Brahman-Atman believes that instead of relying upon a strictly outside form of divinity for help, we are capable of opening ourselves to inner sources for radiant living; that meditation allows us to access this divine cosmic energy within and channel it in our everyday lives. This belief of self-reliance, and yet of such interconnectedness among all things, especially between the most divine and the self, was very foreign to me. Previously, I had only understood the concept of a Transcendent God, a human-like god who is above and beyond you, who acts as a father figure, and with whom you form a personal bond. I was amazed by this notion of an Immanent God, a relevant yet emotionally removed cosmic energy that is within and around everything that was, is, or has yet to be. The profundity of this concept inspired me to utilize what I had learned in this class to perform further research in order to develop a visual representation of the Brahman-Atman relationship.
Starting at the level of the apparent reality, there are two mirrored figures. This reflection depicts the idea that although mankind is a seemingly diverse body of individuals, we are all the manifestation of the same underlying ultimate reality, thus we are all reflections of one another. In between the figures there are chakra-like forms to represent the Atman, the divine center or soul of each individual. Flowing outwards from this center is the same cosmic energy that powers the rest of all creation and constitutes the supreme reality that unifies each individual with God. The hundreds of tiny circles within circles represent harmony among the vastness and complexity of creation, while the fractal snowflake-like negative space is to hint at a supreme intelligence behind the creation and perpetuation of it all. Inside of this negative space is a triangular shaped pattern, designed to reference Hinduism’s Trimurti, which consists of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer (somewhat relates to the Holy Trinity of Christianity). The greater, all-encompassing figure represents Brahman. Comprising the individual, the universe, and the Trimurti, Brahman is the great unifying and sustaining life force of all being.