BRAHMAN IS NOT GOD

Author John B. Noss states that the early Upanishads generally refer to Brahman as a neuter something, "without motion or feeling, the impersonal matrix from which the universe has issued and to which it will in time return.  This It, this One Thing, is the substantial substratum of everything."

It is important to emphasized, however, that Brahman is not God, is not Pure Spirit, according to author Edward Rice.  Again, all words used in connection with Brahman are neuter--It not He.  Meantime, to call Brahman "the Ground of All Being," as Western Vedantists do, is to belittle the immensity of Brahman, says Rice.

The subjective or immanent aspect of Brahman is termed Atman.  The pair may be used as synonyms or otherwise appear together as Brahman-Atman.  Swami Prabhavananda states, meanwhile, that Brahman-Atman has nothing to do with everyday life, additional evidence of the way in which Brahman-Atman is not God.  It is worth noting that Hindus often use the word "God" in, for example, their writings, but this is for convenience only.  What they are referring to is Brahman.