Paramatma
Paramatma (devanāgarī: परमात्म, paramātma) is formed from two Sanskrit words, parama, meaning "supreme" or "highest", and ātma, meaning spirit or self. In Hinduism it is normally understood as the absolute spirit or self.
H. P. Blavatsky defined Paramatma as the one Universal Spirit.[1] While ātman is essentially one with the universal spirit, once it begins to express itself as a Monad in the manifested universe it appears as different:
The Spirit (Atman) is one, of course, with Paramâtma (the one Universal Spirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the Buddhi, is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence.[2]
Thus the Monad (also known as Jivatman) differs from Paramatma, "as the Infinite differs from the Finite and the Unconditioned from the Conditioned."[3]
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 265.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 265.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. III (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1995), 326.