[Advaita-l] brahman

[Sundaresan, Vidyasankar (GE Infra, Water)]

>sir,
>IS IT CORRECT TO SAY THAT THE VEDAS DO NOT SAY
>ANYWHERE THAT BRAHMAN IS THE ULTIMATE REALITY
>OF THE WORLD? 
I must confess I am a bit confused by this question and also by the
response posted by Sri Srikanta, which says,
>the Vedas contain mostly the rituals to attain the other worlds like
heaven,
>and refer to the Hiranyagarbha Brahma."

The vedas consist of samhitAs, brAhmaNas and AraNyakas. The ritual
portions of the veda are in the samhitAs. Most of the upanishat texts
are in the brAhmaNa and AraNyaka portions, but a few are in the samhitAs
too.

The upanishads proclaim repeatedly that brahman is the ultimate reality,
e.g. sarvam khalv idaM brahma; sad eva; brahma vA idam agra AsIt; AtmA
... agra AsIt; etc. 

As the vedAnta texts are an integral part of the vedas, and as the
vedAnta texts proclaim time and again that brahman is the ultimate
reality, we can safely say that it is absolutely wrong to say that the
vedas do NOT say anywhere that brahman is the ultimate reality.

Regards,
Vidyasankar