TWO ARE ONE

The innermost reality of any particular creature or object is called the Atman.  When this reality is spoken of in its universal aspect, it is called Brahman. 

To Western minds this may sound confusing, but the concept should not be at all odd to them.  Christian terminology employs two phrases, God immanent and God transcendent, which make a similar distinction. 

In both Christian and Vedantic literature this paradox is often restated, that God is both within and without, instantly present and infinitely elsewhere, the dweller in the atom and the residence of all things. 

That in Vedanta there are two different words for this, Atman and Brahman, is simply to help us think about them.   They mean no sort of duality.  Atman and Brahman are one.