Posted on: 11 Dec 2019
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! There are three views regarding the relationship between God and the soul. They were proposed by the three Divine Preachers called Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja and Madhva, who came one after the other, in that sequence. Their philosophies are known as Monism (Advaita), Qualified Monism (Viśiṣṭa Advaita) and Dualism (Dvaita) respectively. The three Divine Preachers are like the school teacher, college lecturer and the university professor. This might immediately make you think that Śaṅkara had a low standard of knowledge, Rāmānuja had the middle standard and Madhva had a high standard of knowledge. It is actually the reverse because this school teacher (Śaṅkara) was a Ph.D. degree holder. The college lecturer (Rāmānuja) was a postgraduate degree holder and the university professor (Madhva) was an undergraduate degree holder. The highest-standard teacher taught the lowest standard students, who were school children. The middle-standard teacher taught the somewhat older, middle-standard students. The low-standard teacher taught the oldest, high-standard students, who were involved in research work. Śaṅkara was a Human Incarnation of God Śiva. Rāmānuja was the incarnation of Ādiśeṣa, the inseparable devoted servant of God Viṣṇu. Ādiśeṣa is an angel in the upper world having the form of a thousand-headed serpent and he acts as a bed for God Viṣṇu. God Viṣṇu and God Śiva are one and the same God (Śivāya Viṣṇurūpāya). The Veda also says the same (Śivaśca Nārāyaṇaḥ). Madhva too was an incarnation of an angel called Vāyu, who is a devoted servant of God. But unlike Ādiśeṣa, who is inseperable from God, Vāyu is separable. But Vāyu is closely associated with the serpent-angel Ādiśeṣa and both their philosophies are almost the same.
School students in the lower standards require a highly effective teacher because the teacher must be able to create interest for knowledge in even the most ignorant child. The teacher must make the child want to go to school and not stay at home. This is the most difficult task. Thus, the low-level spiritual aspirants can be successfully taught only by the topmost preacher, who is God Himself. Before the arrival of Śaṅkara, this country was filled with rigid atheists (Pūrva Mīmāṃsakas and Buddhists), who were like ignorant children. In the case of children, psychology plays a more important role in their learning than the subject-matter itself. So, many beneficial lies have to be told to them to bring them to right path. A child eats his food only when the mother says that the moon will come down for him if he finishes his food! The atheist has a closed mind and is very rigid, unlike a true scientist, who may believe in atheism, but, at least, has an open mind. If you say that God, who is different from him exists and that God controls all souls, the atheist will simply not agree. He will shout at you saying that God does not exist at all. How can you make the atheist say that God exists? If you can somehow make the atheist say that God exists, the operation has been most successful and you are the greatest doctor!
The only way to convince the atheist that God exists is to say that the atheist himself is God and that God does not exist separately from him. With this, the atheist will be forced to say that God exists because he knows that he exists. But how can any soul in creation dare to say that the soul itself is God? Only God can make such a statement. Rāmānuja and Madhva, being devoted souls of God, never said that the soul itself is God. But Śaṅkara was an Incarnation of God. With all boldness, He declared to the atheists that the soul itself is God and He succeeded in making them accept that God exists. Souls are afraid of saying that the soul is God because it is a punishable sin. Only the most egotistic demon claims to be God. But if God says this statement, He is not touched by any sin or merit. Moreover, nobody, including God, has any other way of bringing the atheist to the path of theism.
A scholar never bothers about the reformation of souls. So, he does not tell any beneficial lies to uplift souls. He is only concerned with revealing the truth, irrespective of whether it uplifts souls or leads to their downfall. The Satguru is the Incarnation of God and is always worried about uplifting worldly souls. He is not much worried about whether the concept preached by Him is true or false. Hence, Śaṅkara, the Incarnation of God Śiva, told this lie that the soul is God, without any hesitation. Which soul can dare to stand before God Śiva and ask Him why He told a lie? Even if a soul asks God Śiva about this lie, God Śiva will peacefully reply saying “Is there any alternative way of converting the atheist into a theist? What would you have done if you had been in My place? Would you simply state the truth and let them fall into hell? As a brother of those souls, perhaps, you might choose to do that. But, as a Father, I cannot let that happen. The Father will always go to any extent and try to uplift every child of His.”
Śaṅkara did not stop at converting atheists into theists. The father always helps his children progress to the highest state. So, Śaṅkara took the next step to further convert the atheist who had been recently converted into a theist, into a devotee of God. This effort of Śaṅkara can be better-understood through the following conversation between Śaṇkara and his disciple, who had recently accepted theism:
Disciple: Now I have become a theist. I believe in the existence of God since I know that I am God and I also know that I exist. On knowing that I am already God, I should have become God. But I have not become God because I have not acquired even a trace of His miraculous powers.
Śaṅkara: You are already God. So far, you did not know this truth. Now you have come to know the truth that you are God. With this, your theoretical ignorance (ajñāna āvaraṇam) has been removed. But your practical ignorance (ajñāna vikṣepa) has still not been removed. The practical ignorance is the result of the strong impression made on your mind, by the long-standing theoretical ignorance that you had. Even after waking up from a terrifying dream in which you were being chased by a tiger, you still continue to shiver. The practical effects like shivering and sweating continue, even though you have theoretically realized that the tiger was not true. The strong impression made by the terrifying dream on your mind remains for sometime, causing the practical effects. Similarly, the strong impression that you are a limited individual with a body and mind, still remains in your mind. This impression of ignorance must be removed from your mind. The impression is like an impurity and only when it is removed, will your mind become pure. Once your mind is pure, you will practically realize that you are God. In order to remove the impurity of the mind, you have to worship and serve God for some time with pure devotion.
With this strategy, Śaṅkara was not only able to convert the atheist into a theist, but also further convert him into a devotee. The reason behind the success of this strategy was the tremendously attractive idea that the soul is already God, even without doing anything! All the soul has to do, is to recognize that it is already God. Worshipping God is only temporary, for attaining the necessary purity of mind (citta śuddhi). With the mind pure, the soul would become God practically.
After successfully bringing His followers to the path of devotion, Śaṅkara left. He was like a professor teaching quantum mechanics to the class. He had covered the whole topic from beginning to end. Later, the devoted soul Ādiśeṣa, who is inseparable from God, incarnated as Rāmānuja to clarify the doubts of the devotees. He was like the senior research student of the professor coming to the class to clarify the immediate doubts of students on the topic. The level of ego of souls at the time of Śaṅkara was the highest. So, the only concept that souls were able to accept was that they are already God. By the time of Rāmānuja, the ego of the followers had reduced to an intermediate-level, due to their long worship and service to God. Śaṅkara, who was God Himself, instructed the devoted soul, Ādiśeṣa, before Ādiśeṣa incarnated as Rāmānuja, that he should preach the concept that the soul is a part of God and not God Himself. This gradual reduction in the status of the soul from wholly God to part of God, was the result of the corresponding reduction in the ego of souls from whole to part. Of course, the concept that the soul is a part of God, was also a lie, but it was a step closer to the truth. Rāmānuja, as a soul, would never have dared to tell even this partial lie, unless instructed by God. The absolute truth is that there is not even a trace of any comparison between the imaginable soul and the unimaginable God. But the partial reduction in the ego of the disciples had allowed Rāmānuja to bring them a step closer to the truth. His preaching had as much truth as the followers could digest. Rāmānuja told the followers, who had been converted into devotees by then, to continue with devotion and service to God. The new goal presented to them was to develop a personal bond with God, become the ‘son of God’ and enjoy divine bliss upon attaining salvation. In Rāmānuja’s philosophy, dualism between God and soul exists, but they are said to be inseparable (apṛthakkaraṇa). The soul being part of the world, the same inseparable duality was also said to exist between God and the world. The inseparability between God and the soul can be considered to be a type of monism. It is like the inseparability or monism that exists between the possessor (viśeṣya) of a certain attribute and the attribute (viśeṣaṇa). The possessor of the attribute is said to be qualified (viśiṣṭa) with the attribute (quality). The blue flower is viśiṣṭa (qualified) in which blue colour is the attribute (viśeṣaṇa) and the flower is the possessor (viśeṣya) of the attribute. The soul or the world can similarly be said to be the attributes (viśeṣaṇas) of God (viśeṣya). Ramānuja’s philosophy was thus known as Viśiṣṭa Advaita or Qualified Monism. Foolish souls in the world thought that Śaṅkara had been corrected by Rāmānuja and quarrels between the followers of both blazed much for some time.
After sometime, due to constant worship and service of God, the ego in the followers reduced down to a trace. The followers had started their journey as atheists. Aspiring to become God, they followed Śaṅkara and got converted into theists and devotees. Aspiring to attain a partial monism with God, they had followed Rāmānuja and become ardent devotees with a minimal ego. So, God sent another devoted servant, Madhva, who was an incarnation of Vāyu. Vāyu is the angel of air and is closely associated with Ādiśeṣa. Both air (Vāyu) and a serpent (Ādiśeṣa) are said to hiss. This represents the close similarity between the philosophies of Rāmānuja and Madhva.
God had told Madhva not to completely reveal the total dualism that exists between God and the soul. He was told to maintain a trace of monism between God and the soul because a trace of ego still remained in the devotees. Hence, Madhva preached to the devotees that God and the soul are totally separate entities, like master and servant, but that there was a trace of similarity between the two, in that both are awareness. In fact, as per all three preachers, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja and Madhva, both God and soul were of the nature of the same awareness. Nevertheless, Madhva stressed on the separateness of God and the soul. He gave the example of Rāma and Hanumān. Rāma was an Incarnation of God and was the Master, while Hanumān, the son of Vāyu, was His servant. The lack of any blood-relation between Rāma and Hanumān, represented the separateness between God and the soul. On the other hand, Rāmānuja had stressed on the inseparability of God and the soul. He had given the example of Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. Rāma was God, while Lakṣmaṇa was an incarnation of Ādiśeṣa, who was a soul. The blood-relation between Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa as brothers, represented the inseparability between God and the soul.
When we are discussing about the relationship between God and the soul, we must clarify whether the God mentioned is the mediated God or the non-mediated God. The non-mediated God means the absolute unimaginable God, who is the Creator. In the case of the non-mediated God, there is no question of any comparison with the soul since God is unimaginable, whereas, the soul is imaginable. The soul is awareness, which is a specific work-form of inert energy and is undoubtedly, a created item in the imaginable world. Fundamentally, there cannot be any commonality between the unimaginable and the imaginable. But if you take the first Energetic Incarnation of God, there is a relationship betweem Him and the soul. Mediated God means the first Energetic Incarnation of God, who is known as Datta. The unimaginable God merged with the first energetic being to become Datta. The energetic body and soul of the first energetic being acted as the medium for the entry of the unimaginable God. Datta is known by many names including Hiraṇyagarbha, Nārāyaṇa, and Īśvara. Rāmānuja and Madhva used the name Nārāyaṇa to refer to Datta, the first Energetic Incarnation.
The world consisting of souls and the rest of the inert world can be considerd to be part of Nārāyaṇa’s external body. The body envelops the soul. In the first Energetic Incarnation (Nārāyaṇa), His energetic body envelops His soul. But since He is present in the world. He is further enveloped by the world so that the world can be considered to be another body of His, external to His energetic body. It is like a person wearing a shirt and a coat over it. Both constitute the person’s clothing. Similarly, both the energetic body of Nārāyaṇa and the world-body around Him can be considered to be His bodies. Since the unimaginable God has merged with both the soul and the energetic body of Nārāyaṇa, we can consider both together as God. The mediated God’s body is also eternal since the body too is one with the unimaginable God. In that case, the world-body alone can be considered to be the body of God. The ordinary soul, being part of the world, is thus, a part of God’s body. Approximately, the soul can be said to be part of God. This is the philosophy of Rāmānuja.
In this philosophy, mediated God (Nārāyaṇa) present inside His world-body. This is similar to the soul being present in the medium of a human body. Both mediated God and a human being are called viśiṣṭas, since both are qualified by the respective bodies. The macro-viśiṣṭa is mediated God (Nārāyaṇa) and the micro-viśiṣṭa is the human being. The similarity between these two viśiṣṭas is said to be Viśiṣṭa Advaita. Thus, Viśiṣṭa Advaita, means that there is a similarity between the macro-viśiṣṭa and micro-viśiṣṭas. Of course, one must remember that the human being is part of the world-body of God. Rāmānuja used the word advaita here. Advaita means monism. But, in this context, it cannot be taken in the sense of an actual monism. The macro-viśiṣṭa (Nārāyaṇa), contains the unimaginable God merged in it, whereas, the micro-viśiṣṭa, which is the ordinary human being, does not contain the unimaginable God merged in it. If we want the word advaita to actually mean monism, we must take a human being in whom the unimaginable God has merged. It means, we must take a Human Incarnation like Krishna for comparison with the mediated God (Nārāyaṇa). We cannot take an ordinary human being like Śvetaketu. If an ordinary person like Śvetaketu is said to be God (mediated God), as in the case of the Vedic statement “Tattvamasi”, the suggested monisim between the two, can only be taken in the sense of similarity. Only the micro-viśiṣṭa like Krishna and the macro-viśiṣṭa like Nārāyaṇa can be exactly the same. True monism exists between the two since the unimaginable God exists in both. Since, in the case of an Incarnation, the soul truly becomes God, the word advaita used by Rāmānuja can be fully justified. From this, we can also say that Śaṅkara’s theory that the soul is God, was not a total lie because in the case of an Incarnation, the soul is indeed God. Śaṅkara only extended this true concept to every ordinary soul and only that part was a lie. Every soul has the possibility of becoming God. But only a selected soul becomes God and that too, only when God wishes to become the soul. So, to state it more accurately, God can become the soul, whereas, the soul can never become God. The soul is simply not capable of becoming God. The omnipotent God alone can descend (Avatāra) to become a soul. With no amount of effort can the soul ever ascend to become God.
The omnipotent God is capable of doing anything. He becomes a soul with a body to become visible to all human beings. God Śiva, God Viṣṇu and God Brahmā are Energetic Incarnations of the first mediated God (Datta). The soul of God Śiva became God. The same God Śiva further incarnated as a Human Incarnation called Śaṅkara. Both God Śiva and Śaṅkara, being Incarnations of God, have perfect monism with God. Hence, Śaṅkara’s philosophy is based on His own experience of monism. But, to clear the misunderstanding of His followers, He stated that only His soul is God and not every soul (Śivaḥ kevalo’ham).
Ādiśeṣa was an extremely devoted soul, who was inseparable from God. He even acts as a bed for God (Viṣṇu). Hence, His Incarnation, Rāmānuja expressed His own experience in His philosophy. Madhva preached dualism in which the same qualified God (Nārāyaṇa) is totally different from the world and souls. Nārāyaṇa possesses His own divine energetic body and the world is actually not His body. Madhva was the angel Vāyu who is completely separate from God. In His philosophy, He expressed His own experience that the soul is totally different from God (neglecting the trace of similarity that both are awareness).
In reality, an ordinary soul does not even have the relationship with God of being His servant. An ordinary soul becomes a servant of God only after God is pleased with the soul and blesses the soul, granting him the position of His servant. Service to God is not attained by the effort of the soul. It is a blessing given by God to the devoted soul. Hence, in the philosophy of Madhva, every ordinary worldly soul cannot be taken as an example of the soul who is the servant of God. Therefore, these three philosophies deal with the relationship between God and His devoted soul alone and not between God and any ordinary soul.
Rāmānuja and Madhva are said to be the souls, Ādiśeṣa and Vāyu, respectively, by their own original followers. One should not misunderstand that I am a disciple of Śaṅkara and that is why I am saying that He was God, while the other two preachers were souls. I am not being partial towards Śaṅkara. In fact, I preach that Rāmānuja was an incarnation of Viṣṇu and Madhva was an incarnation of Brahmā. God not only gives His status of God to His devotee, but He even gives the status of being master of God to the devotee! Hence, there should be no objection if I call devoted souls like Rāmānuja and Madhva as God. They even have the possibility of becoming masters of God for their divine service. This dualistic-devotion is greater than monism. In monism, God and the soul, being one, have the same status of God. Ādiśeṣa incarnated as Balarāma and is counted as one among God’s ten prominent Incarnations. But the same Balarāma was also given the status of being God’s master since He was the elder brother of God Krishna. There is no difference between Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, who are subsequent Energetic Incarnations of the first Energetic Incarnation, Datta. Nārāyaṇa, Hiraṇyagarbha and Īśvara are only the other names of the same Datta.
Datta is called Satguru, which means, God, who is the real preacher. The three divine preachers were Human Incarnations of God Datta. Śaṅkara was the Incarnation of God Śiva, Rāmānuja of God Viṣṇu and Madhva of God Brahmā. Thus, all the three divine preachers are ultimately the one original God Datta, the Divine Preacher. Since the three divine preachers themselves are the same Datta, there is no need to correlate their three respective commentaries. The commentaries too, are undoubtedly one.
| Shri Dattaswami | Shankara Vishishta Shivaaya Vishnuruupaaya Shivashcha Naaraayanah Puurva miimaasakas Adishesha Shiva Ramanuja Vaayu Ajnaana aavaranam vikshepa Chitta Shuddhi Apruthakkarana Visheshya Visheshana Vishishta Narayana Avataara Shivah kevaloham Vishnu Brahma