Difference between Brahman and Soul according to Bhagavad Gita

Difference between Brahman and soul is in volume.

In Bhagavad Gita, Brahman is used quite freely:

Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are already situated in Brahman. Bg 5.19

Intelligent persons who are endeavoring for liberation from old age and death take refuge in Me in devotional service. They are actually Brahman because they entirely know everything about transcendental activities. Bg 7.29

The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyatma, the self. Bg 8.3

Persons who are learned in the Vedas, who utter omkara and who are great sages in the renounced order enter into Brahman. Bg 8.11

Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested? Bg 12.1

When a sensible man ceases to see different identities due to different material bodies and he sees how beings are expanded everywhere, he attains to the Brahman conception. Bg 13.31

Brahman, the spirit, beginning-less and subordinate to Me, lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world. Bg 13.13

The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bharata. Bg 14.3

One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman. Bg 14.26

And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is immortal, imperishable and eternal Bg14.27

One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me. Bg 18.54



  1. Krishna is Brahman, He is the Supreme or Param Brahman. 
  2. Supersoul is Brahman as Krishna’s all-pervading aspect.
  3. The impersonal effulgence that emanates from Krishna’s form is Brahman. 
  4. The transcendental platform is Brahman.
  5. The living entities are Brahman because they are spiritual parts of Krishna.
  6. Truth is Brahman. 
  7. The material world is produced from Brahman so it is also a manifestation of Brahman.


If we want one word to cover the multiple uses of Brahman we could use spiritual. However, in general terms, Brahman is most commonly used as number 3. The impersonal, spiritual light that emanates from the Supreme Lord’s body.

Now for the soul.

The soul is certainly spiritual. Outside of India and cultures that understand reincarnation, the tendency is to think that a person is their body and they have a soul. This is not very intelligent because the body constantly changes while the person stays the same person. In India and elsewhere among followers of Dharmic religions, it’s understood that the soul is reborn in another body again and again, because the soul is spiritual and the actual life force of the material body, the person in the body.

The person is simultaneously the soul and not the soul. A person is a soul, but the soul is not the person based on the body. It’s a bit complicated but bare with me because it’s an important distinction and it’s not mystical, it can be understood logically.

In every different body, there is a living entity who is a person.

They are:

soul,
spiritual,
eternal,
Part of Krishna,
an individual.

We can think and desire separately from Krishna although we are part of Him, and we only experience our own experiences, whereas Krishna experiences everyone’s experiences because He is the whole and everyone else is a part of Him.

(I’m sure there’s a computer network analogy to illustrate this, you can figure it out yourself).

Now, with each change of body, the identity of the person changes, but the identity of the soul never changes. So the person we think we are right now, according to our body, is not the actual personality of the soul. I may have been female in my previous birth, I may have brown skin in my next, I will certainly not have the same name, DNA nor fingerprints. I will be, on one level, a different person, but on a deeper level, I am the same soul. The real identity of me, as soul, is hidden under the false identity - ahankara - of my material body which is the person I relate to the world as.

So this is the soul. As Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita we have always existed and always will because we are spiritual.

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. Bg 2.12

In this verse Krishna clearly indicates that individuality is eternal. We are also fragments of Krishna, not equal, but smaller.

The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Bg 15.7

This clearly describes that we are part of Krishna, and because we are fragmental, we are smaller parts, and eternally so. (That’s how we ended up in this mess. The Lord’s illusory energy is far more powerful than we are).

We are less a cup of water taken from the ocean, but more a snowflake taken from a mountainside.




Put together a lot of these and you get this.




Each snowflake is formed individually and I have read that each is different, but I don’t know who has checked that bit of information.

So we could call the individual snowflake the soul and the total mass of snow Brahman. A mass of snow is made of snowflakes only, but the totality of all the snowflakes is so massive that it dwarfs the individual snowflake, and the individuality of the single snowflake is hidden in the mass.






Related post:


Difference between Shrimad Bhagavatam and Bhagwad Gita


What is Meaning of Life according to Bhagwad Gita?


The Significance of Chapter 1 in the Bhagwad Gita


What does Lord Krishna says about death in Bhagwad Gita?


Karma, Vikarma, Karma Yoga, Akarma in the Bhagavad Gita

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