---
type: Concept
bundle: upanishadic-core
bundle_version: "0.6.0"
id: prajnanam-brahma
title: "Prajñānam Brahma"
iast: "Prajñānam Brahma"
devanagari: "प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म"
description: "The Ṛgvedic Mahāvākya from Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3 — 'Consciousness is Brahman' — a definition-statement that identifies Brahman through its intrinsic nature (Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa) as consciousness; not 'intelligence is omniscient,' not idealism, not a description of Brahman as an object"
darshana:
  - Advaita Vedānta
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "The definitional Mahāvākya; Advaita Vedānta reads Prajñānam as cit-svarūpa — the intrinsic nature of Brahman as consciousness, not an attribute Brahman possesses"
text_source: "Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3"
tags: [mahavakya, prajnanam-brahma, upanishad, advaita, consciousness, brahman, svarupa-laksana]
not:
  - term: "intelligence is God / omniscient mind"
    why: "Prajñāna is often translated 'intelligence' or 'knowledge,' importing the idea of a cosmic mind that knows all things. In the Mahāvākya context, Prajñānam refers to consciousness (cit) as the intrinsic nature of Brahman — not a cognitive faculty, not a knowing subject, but the very nature of self-luminous awareness."
    instead: "Read Prajñānam as cit — pure consciousness, self-luminous and non-relational — rather than as a knowing mind or cognitive capacity"
  - term: "philosophical idealism (mind creates reality)"
    why: "Western idealism (Berkeley, Kant) holds that reality is constituted by mental representations. Prajñānam Brahma does not subordinate the world to a mind — it identifies the ground of all existence as consciousness. The world is not a mental construction; it appears within and as Brahman-as-consciousness through the power of Māyā."
  - term: "a description of Brahman from the outside"
    why: "This Mahāvākya functions as Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa — the intrinsic definition of Brahman, not a description made by an observer. Brahman is not being characterized by an external viewer; the Upaniṣad is disclosing what Brahman IS from within the non-dual recognition."
related:
  - /concepts/mahavakya.md
  - /concepts/sat-chit-ananda.md
  - /concepts/laksana-brahman.md
  - /concepts/nirguna-brahman.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Prajñānam Brahma — प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म

**Not:** "intelligence is God," idealism, external description, omniscient cosmic mind

## Source

Prajñānam Brahma appears in Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3 (also rendered 3.1.3 in some editions). The verse reads: *prajñānam brahma* — a terse, aphoristic statement with no surrounding dialogue. Its terseness is its character: of the four Mahāvākyas, this is the most purely definitional.

Prajñānam (प्रज्ञानम्) = consciousness, awareness, pure knowing; from *pra-jñā* (deep or thorough knowing). Brahma (ब्रह्म) = Brahman, the ultimate ground.

## Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa: The Intrinsic Definition

Vedānta distinguishes two modes of defining Brahman (see also laksana-brahman.md):

- **Taṭastha Lakṣaṇa** (contextual definition): Brahman is the cause of the world — an indirect pointer that situates Brahman relationally
- **Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa** (intrinsic definition): Brahman is Sat-Chit-Ānanda — being, consciousness, bliss as its own nature

Prajñānam Brahma operates as Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa. It does not describe Brahman in relation to something else; it identifies Brahman through what it is. Prajñānam = Cit (the "Chit" of Sat-Chit-Ānanda). The statement reduces to: Brahman's nature is consciousness.

## Why This Is Not Idealism

Western idealism makes the mind the constitutive condition of reality — things exist only as perceived or as objects of possible experience. Prajñānam Brahma makes no such claim. Brahman-as-consciousness is not a knowing subject over and against a world of objects; it is the non-dual ground in which the appearance of subjects and objects arises. The world is not created by consciousness thinking it — the world appears as a modification (Vivartavāda) within and as Brahman, the way a wave appears within and as water.

## Consciousness as Self-Luminous

The concept that enables this reading is Svaprakāśatva — self-luminosity. Consciousness, in Advaita, is the one thing that does not require something else to make it known. A pot is known by consciousness; consciousness is not known by another consciousness. This self-luminous nature is precisely what Prajñānam points to: the knowing-quality of Brahman is not a relational knowing (I know X) but the pure luminosity that makes all knowing possible.

## Distinctive Among the Four Mahāvākyas

Prajñānam Brahma is the only one that leads with the characteristic (Prajñānam) rather than with an identity marker (Aham, Tat, Ayam). It is the definitional pivot of the group — the statement most directly equivalent to the Sat-Chit-Ānanda formula, and the one most useful for the student who asks "But what IS Brahman?"

## Audience Metaphor

Consider light in a room. All objects in the room are seen by light, but light itself is not seen by another light — it is simply luminous. If you were asked "What is light?", a physicist might describe its wavelength (Taṭastha Lakṣaṇa — defining it by what it does). But to say "light is luminosity itself" is Svarūpa Lakṣaṇa — defining it by what it is. Prajñānam Brahma says: Brahman is luminosity — the very self-luminosity by which you know anything at all.

## Citations

1. Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.3 — source text; see [references/aitareya-upanishad.md]
2. Brahmasūtra Bhāṣya 1.1.1 (Śaṅkarācārya) — Brahman as the ground to be known; Prajñānam in context of cit-svarūpa; see [references/brahmasutra-bhashya.md]
3. Vivekacūḍāmaṇi v. 254 (Śaṅkarācārya) — four Mahāvākyas; see [references/vivekachudamani.md]
4. Pañcadaśī 1.6–8 (Vidyāraṇya) — self-luminosity of consciousness; see [references/panchadashi.md]
