Professor Ananda WP Guruge: Are the Upanishadic and Advaita Vedanta concepts of paramatman and brahman compatible with the concept of God?

Sri Chinmoy: Paramatman and brahman of the Advaita Vedanta, purusha of Samkhya and Yoga, and God of the English-speaking world are one and the same. I may use the term 'God', or I may use another English term, 'the Supreme', or 'the Absolute'. To me the word 'God' encompasses all the concepts from the different systems of religion and philosophy.

When I use the term 'God', I am referring to the broadest possible concept of deity. 'God' is the Creator and the creation. He is at once cosmic Silence and cosmic Sound. 'God' is within us, all around us, far beyond us and, at the same time, He is us.

When we use the term 'God', our feeling is that He is on the top of the Himalayas, in the middle of the Himalayas and at the foot of the Himalayas. He is both inside the creation and beyond the creation. God is everywhere. But when we use the terms brahman, paramatman or purusha, unfortunately we feel that God is only stationed at the summit of the Himalayas. These aspects of God are for us, but we do not feel that they are within us or from us. It is the same God, but at the summit we feel He should have a separate Name. Here God is the witness, '/sakshi purusha". Like an individual who acts in various capacities, each time He plays a different role, He is given a different name.

To simplify everything, we can say paramatman, brahman, purusha, God — these all comprise one supreme Reality. This Reality is nothing other than Infinity-Eternity-Immortality's Light and Delight of the ever-transcending Beyond. A little child calls his father 'Papa' or 'Daddy'. These names give him much more joy than the word 'Father'. Again, the same child, when he grows older, may get more joy by using the word 'Father'. In my case, I use the term 'Supreme'. I know that my Supreme is none other than the Absolute paramatman, brahman and purusha. But when I use the term 'Supreme', I get tremendous joy, whereas when I use the terms paramatman, brahman and purusha, I get no joy. Knowing perfectly well that God and the Supreme are the same, I prefer to call Him 'Supreme'.