Posted on: 23 Nov 2008
Shri Ramana Maharshi snored in His deep sleep. A disciple asked Him about His ignorance in the deep sleep since snoring indicates intensified deep sleep. Shri Ramana Maharshi replied that He was quite aware of His deep sleep since He also heard His own snoring similar to His observers. This means that in deep sleep, the awareness of God exists because of the existence of God with continuous awareness. This indicates that He was the human incarnation. This is true because Vaasishta Ganapati Muni declared Him as the human incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya. But, in the case of any human being, this is not true because nobody hears his or her own snoring in deep sleep. Since God does not exist in every human being, such continuous awareness is absent in the case of any human being. This means that God does not exist in every human being since every human being is not human incarnation. In deep sleep, the awareness disappears and the inert energy is left over. Due to the rest state of the brain and nervous system, the inert energy cannot be converted into awareness. Work is also a form of inert energy.
Shri Ramana Maharshi joined a chorus song sung by devotees, which was in the praise of Himself. He joined that Bhajan and started singing the same song, which is in His praise. All the devotees were surprised to note this because He was praising Himself! The devotees did not understand this. A human incarnation is a single phase system with two components. The single phase is the visible body of human incarnation. The two components are unimaginable God and imaginable individual soul (Jeevatman). God is like the invisible component like copper in the visible gold mixed homogenously so that only one component (Gold) is visible as alloy. Similarly, the visible human being is one component appearing as single phase in which the invisible and unimaginable God is homogenously alloyed. Therefore, the visible Ramana Maharshi as one component is singing on the invisible and unimaginable God existing in Him. This concept of two in one system in the case of human incarnation alone can explain such activities. When the Gita was spoken to Arjuna, the God component spoke it. Since God is invisible and unimaginable, Arjuna thought that visible and imaginable Krishna spoke it. Therefore, Arjuna pressed Krishna after the war for the same Gita. Now, the visible and imaginable Krishna component spoke the Gita (called as Anugita), which cannot stand anywhere before the original Gita. Similarly, when Ramana Maharshi composed a prayer on Lord Arunachaleshwara for the health of His mother, it is the visible and imaginable Jeevatman component that composed the prayer because the God component has no mother at all.
God is Neither Awareness Nor Inert Energy
The working element is Karta and the work is Kriya. The walker is Karta and walking is Kriya. The awareness is work (Kriya) and the inert energy or the inert matter associated with inert energy is the working element. The reflection of the object is printed on the retina of your eye with the help of light rays and all the items here (object, image, retina, light rays) are inert. The process of reflection is the work. This image is carried to the brain through nervous cells. This process of carrying is also work. The neuron cells and brain are inert. Now the inert brain receives this image and this process of receiving, which is work, is called as awareness. The working element is the inert matter of the brain associated with inert energy. This process of knowing or knowledge (process of receiving) is awareness, which is simply work. The process of knowing is a verb or work. This verb in the form of an adjective noun is mentioned as knowledge. Walk is adjective noun and walking is verb. The verb and adjective noun are one and the same, which is just work. Thus, the word awareness is an adjective noun and hence, it is verb or work only. When I say that you are aware of a pot, the awareness is in the form of a verb. When I mention your awareness of the pot, the awareness is in the form of an adjective noun. There is no difference between these two statements since the adjective noun (walk) and verb (walking) are one and the same. Now, you tell Me, whether your awareness is work or working element? As it is very clear from the above analysis, awareness is work only. The work is not independent and is completely dependent on the working element. If you say that awareness is God, God becomes dependent on its working element, which is the inert energy. Since God is independent, you cannot call Him as work i.e., awareness. To avoid this danger, if you shift your side to the working element and say that God is working element, you are again in another danger. The working element of awareness (work) is inert energy and God becomes inert. Therefore, God is neither dependable work (awareness) nor the independent inert working element (inert energy). Both the work and working element are imaginable items and cannot be the unimaginable God.
If you say that God is doing the process of knowing due to the Vedic statements, which say that God wished to create and that God knows everything (Sa Eekshata…, Sa Sarvajnah…), this does not mean that God must be the inert energy, since it is clear that the working element of awareness is inert energy. There is no hard and fast rule that a work can be done by a particular working element only. The fire kills a man. The water also kills him by drowning. Killing is a work, which is done by two different working elements. Since work is common, the two working elements need not be one. Fire and water are quite opposite and independent working items. Therefore, the inert energy in the human being may be aware of something and God is also aware of the same thing. The awareness (work) is common. But, the inert energy and God are different. Due to common work, you cannot conclude that the inert energy in the body (soul) is God. In deep sleep, the awareness is stopped and the soul is left over in its original isolated state as inert energy. Now, in such human being, God with continuous awareness exists as substratum because God is the substratum of the entire world and soul is a part of the world.
Neither the substratum (God) is in the soul nor vice-versa. When the radio is on the table, neither is the table in the radio nor is the radio in the table. When that is the case, is it not the climax of stupidity to say that the table is radio or radio is table? Similarly, in the case of an ordinary human being in deep sleep, the soul and body (human being) are based on the God (Substratum). God is aware of your snoring in the deep sleep. Since God is not in yourself, you are not aware of your snoring. In the case of Maharshi, God entered His soul and therefore, the awareness of God exists in Maharshi in deep sleep. In your case, awareness of God exists outside of yourself. The awareness of God is independent of brain and nervous system. It is also independent of systems of respiration and digestion, which produce inert energy. Therefore, the process of awareness of God becomes unimaginable. The work of unimaginable God is also unimaginable. In the case of the human being, the process of awareness is imaginable and depends on many factors. Thus, there is a lot of difference between the background of awareness of God and awareness of the human being. The king is eating and a beggar is also eating. Since eating is common, the beggar is not the king! The king himself says that he is a human being and the beggar, who has not become even the king, says that he is beyond the human being!
Assumed and Real Advaita
Even in the human incarnation, Advaita is assumed Advaita from the angle of the devotees and is not real Advaita from the angle of the soul present in the human incarnation. Assumed Advaita means the soul in which God merged is treated as God just like a metallic wire charged with electricity is treated as the electricity itself due to inseparable existence of both electricity and wire. The Advaita philosopher says that in his body, the soul does not exist at all and directly God exists. He says that people have mistaken the God as the soul. This is real Advaita, which never exists in any case. It is not impossible for God to enter a human body in the place of the soul. But, the entry of God into the soul satisfies the devoted soul since there is no essential difference between soul (Para Prakriti) and body (Apara Prakriti). The existence of God in the soul may be temporary for few years as in the case of Parashurama (Aveshaavatara). The existence of God in the soul may be for a life time as in the case of Rama (Purnaavatara). The existence of God in the soul may also be permanent as in the case of Krishna (Paripurnaavatara). The soul charged by God has taken a similar energetic body and exists in Goloka after the destruction of the materialized body of Krishna. Whatever may be the type of Avatara (Incarnation), as long as God wishes to exist in the soul, God can exist because God is not bound by any rulebeing the rule maker. However, as long as God exists in the soul, the soul can be treated as God (Advaita) due to the inseparable association (Vishishtaadvaita) and we should not forget that fundamentally there are two components namely God and soul (Dvaita). All these three concepts co-exist simultaneously and therefore, there is no trace of difference between Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. You need not object that the process of merging of unimaginable God with the soul cannot be declared because the process of merging exists only between two imaginable items like sugar and water. This is not correct because when the devotee desires the merging of God with his soul, the Omnipotent God can accomplish it because nothing is impossible for Him. Your objection is overruled since we say that any work of unimaginable God is also unimaginable. As the unimaginable God exists, His unimaginable work also can exist. God can do any unimaginable work to give satisfaction to His devotee. He will see that all the souls in the creation accept this charged soul as God.
You need not say that the awareness is God because the Veda says that knowledge is God and the Knowledge is basically awareness (Satyam Jnanam…, Prajnanam Brahma…). The first objection to your proposal is that mere awareness is never called as Knowledge. The word awareness exists independently and there is no need of reducing the word Knowledge to awareness by force. If the Veda wants to say that awareness is God, it could have conveniently and easily said that awareness is God (Chaitanyam Brahma). The usage in the world is a strong objection for you. A stupid insect having mere awareness is not said to be the possessor of knowledge (Jnani). The second point is that the human incarnation having excess of divine knowledge is personified as knowledge itself. The same Vedic statement says that God is the Knowledge, which is true and infinite. The awareness limited to a petty body of the insect is not infinite. If the awareness is infinite, we should find every spot of this universe alive and aware. It is not so. But, the Knowledge possessed by Lord Krishna is infinite. The possessor of a quality in excess is mentioned by the name of that quality itself. Such usage exists in the world. The Veda follows the worldly usage because it is a message to the worldly people.
Uplifting a Soul
When Shankara or Ramana says that He is God, it is correct because the soul in that specified body is God since God charged that soul. You have extended their statement to your soul by generalizing it. If I show an electric wire and say that this wire is electricity, you should not generalize My statement and say that every wire is electricity. You can say that there is an equal possibility for every wire to be electrified. But, every human incarnation allows your misunderstanding for the sake of some good purpose, which is useful to you. The first purpose is to attract you towards the spiritual line by showing the fruit as if existing very near to you. The distance between you and the fruit is decided according to the intensity of your spiritual interest. If your interest is high, the distance is one mile. If your interest is average, the distance is half a mile. If your interest is little, the distance is just one inch only. When Shankara came, the whole county was filled with atheists who had little interest or no interest on God. Hence, Shankara maintained one inch distance by saying that you will become God simply by knowing that you are God. This raised the interest to average level. Now Shankara told that you have to worship the Lord to become God. The atheist has become a devotee of God. He developed lot of devotion and tasted the beautiful nature of God. Gradually he lost the interest to become God and wanted to remain as servant of God. Now both ego (Ahankara) and desire (Mamakara) disappeared. Now, God enters such human being to make him God. Thus, the soul is uplifted gradually.
The initial preaching of Advaita by Shankara is a chocolate given to the boy to go to school. After some years, there is no need of the chocolate. This chocolate is called as Arthavada, which means a lie expressed for some good purpose. The initial stage is always with such tricks (Sarvaarambhaahi… Gita). Another purpose of Advaita is to take the human being out of worldly stress of tragedies. This secret should not be revealed to the beginners but, this should be revealed and should be explained well if you ask for chocolate even after becoming a Post Graduate Student in a university. If you sit in the illusion of such tricks throughout your life, everything is lost by the time of your end in this world (MahateeVinashtih—Veda).