At Harvard’s Bhakti Yoga
Conference in 2025, a man whose Hindu name is Kaustubha spoke on the three
phases of ultimate truth: Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan. Is the absolute
truth an energy or a person? Is God a non-personal energy or a person. In
Vedanta Hinduism, this is a salient question. According to Kaustubha, absolute
truth is that which is not dependent on anything else; a truth from which
everything else comes. Kaustubha defined Brahman as being impersonal
energy, which is that from which everything else manifests. The Upanishads emphasize
the realization by a person that one’s true self is identical to the impersonal
energy of being itself that is infinite, aware, powerful, and blissful. Although the Bhagavad-Gita can be
interpreted thusly, as per Shankara’s commentary, but also as Krishna being the
Supreme Person, which is more ultimate than Brahman. What gives? Who, or what,
is on top in terms of ontological ultimacy (i.e., ultimately real)?
The full essay is at "On Absolute Truth in Hinduism."
