Brahmavid āpnoti param, states the Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.1 , whoever knows brahman attains or obtains brahman. So knowing brahman is primarily ‘knowing oneself as brahman’.
Yet brahmavid is sometimes distinguished as a stage before brahmaniṣṭha, someone who is firmly established as free, infinite brahman. The difference is that the brahmaniṣṭha reaps the real subjective fruits because everything is known as brahman, which leads to ever-satisfaction (nityatṛpta) under all circumstances, because brahman knows no circumstances. And independence, (nirāśraya), because as a brahman you are completely and infinitely on your own, apart from any other reference point or basis (āśraya), than your attributeless self. That is freedom. Brahmavid, understanding how reality is put together, and that you are reality, without it being fully internalized, is the stepping stone to that.
After the jijñāsu stage, the conscious desire and search for knowledge and the knowing that it is knowledge that is the key to removing ignorance and becoming free, the brahmavid comes to know. However, he or she does not yet fully enjoy the fruits of knowledge, such as contentment, cheerfulness, non-otherness, wholeness, limitlessness etc. This is because there is a period before deep-rooted tendencies (vāsanā’s) and persistent traces of ignorance (viparīta bhāvanā’s) have been worked out, raged out and extinguished.
This is an important fact. ‘Vigilance is the price of freedom’, Svāmī Cinmayananda stated. When I realize what I am, I am not yet finished. Knowledge and ignorance are on very refined, mercurial terrain. Ignorance can raise its head very quickly. It determines a thought, a vision in the mind. That is why it is also called the seed or root of ignorance (mūlāvidyā).
Ignorance is faster than its sour fruits, the false human and world images in my mind. Fortunately, a brahmavid has the ability to recognize this in time and to have knowledge ready. James Swartz calls this stage, ‘blinking on and off’. As Vedāntins we must not become arrogant and lazy. Vigilance means that conscious work is still being done, to make my self-image as brahman permanent. This is contemplation (nididhyāsana): consciously considering myself as the only principle.
When this vision is fully automatic, when I am forever what I am, it is called brahmaniṣṭha, being fixed in brahman. This is not a phase. One is simply the whole, and the whole is single. The apparent person will then radiate contentment, love, spontaneity, cheerfulness, problem-freeness, effortlessness, objectivity, etc., although he or she may try to play the ordinary human being. Because when the person claims to be brahman, that is co-opting brahman into the small ego.