Is awareness the same as the brain?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on March 27, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Anil Antony asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! Instead of awareness, can we say that the brain is responsible for the entire process of knowing? The brain is the subject, the brain stores information, the brain retrieves the information, and finally, it is the brain alone that gets knowledge. The I-thought (ego) is also experienced by the brain alone.]

Swāmi replied: If you take brain as the main focus, let it be so in which the main focus is on matter. If you take the technique of the brain as the main focus, the technology involving both materialised brain and the energetic transformations, let it be so. In any case, only matter and energy are involved. Even if you take awareness as a special entity other than matter and energy, we say that such special entity is created by God. Even if you say that awareness is the product of matter and energy, the awareness is also created by God since matter and energy were created by God. In any case, awareness is either direct creation of God or indirect creation of God.