Posted on: 20 Oct 2010
The existence of any item is experienced in two ways.
In the case of unimaginable God, the existence of God is realized by indirect knowledge only. Observing the unimaginable events generated by God called as miracles, which mainly include the unimaginable knowledge, you infer the existence of unimaginable God in a specific human being. The Veda says that only the existence of God is realized (Asteetyeva…). Such realization is also due to inference only as said in the second Brahma Sutra. The knowledge of existence does not give the knowledge of any characteristic of the item. Even this knowledge of existence is only through unimaginable event, which shows the existence of unimaginable God. When you see the smoke coming from a far hill, you infer the existence of fire on it. Since you have seen the fire already, the word fire itself reveals all the known properties of fire. But in the case of unimaginable God, you have not seen God before and the inference gives only one property of God, which is the unimaginable nature only. The word ‘unimaginable’ does not allow even a ray of imagination into it. Hence, God is totally unimaginable as recognized by the unimaginable works of God. Therefore, whenever you say that you have experienced God, it does not mean that you have known anything about God except the existence of God. Existence does not reveal any property of the item unless the item is already known. Thus, inference also fails in the case of God because God is not known earlier like the fire inferred.
Therefore, it is very difficult to introduce the existence of unimaginable God directly under these circumstances. If such introduction is done, people will not believe it since God is unknown item from the beginning. This will easily mislead to non-existence of God or atheism. To avoid this fundamental danger, some medium should be selected to put the finger to show the existence of God. The medium should be such that God should enter it. If the medium is clearly seen by the eyes, then, such medium cannot give the eternal nature of God because any medium seen by eyes is not eternal. Keeping all this in mind, energy is selected as the best medium of God to introduce God. Energy is invisible to eyes and therefore, we can say that God is also invisible to eyes. Energy is eternal compared to matter and therefore, we can say that God is eternal. Energy generates, maintains and dissolves all the creation in to it. God also creates maintains and destroys the entire creation including the energy. Due to all these points, you should not conclude that energy itself is God. The defects that can be shown to deny that energy is God are
Energy is a number of waves traveling in a medium or even in vacuum. The nature of God is never perceived and even inference does not give His nature. Moreover, in the beginning of this creation, even before the appearance of matter, energy existed, created by God and God entered into some energetic forms like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Such mediated God is also called as Father of Heaven. Even though the energetic form is inert, due to the existence of Omniscient God in it, such form becomes alive and gets awareness. Due to all these merits, the energetic form is always the best for introduction of God. Therefore, Shankara has taken this cosmic energy, a formless lot, as the medium of God. Therefore, He declared God as formless and all-pervading since these two properties belong to the cosmic energy. The formless lot of inert energy is charged by the omniscient God and therefore, this inert energy becomes energy of awareness. Taking all these inherent properties of the inert energy like eternality, all-pervading nature, ability to create, maintain and destroy the universe etc, along with the induced properties attained from the charged God like awareness, Shankara showed God as Omniscient awareness having all the inherent properties of cosmic energy. You should not mistake this limited soul as God since it is neither all-pervading nor Omniscient. All this exercise was done by Shankara not to show the cosmic energy charged by God as the absolute God but only to show God by putting the finger straight at the containing medium. The absolute God is unimaginable and if you introduce Him in the pure original status, nobody can understand anything about Him and even His existence may be doubted. To avoid this danger, only mediated God can be introduced and the best medium is cosmic energy. Cosmic energy is not God because it is inert. The soul is not God because it is limited and not omniscient. You have to eliminate every medium by the defects and finally conclude that the absolute God is unimaginable to any soul except Himself as said in the Veda (Brahamavit Brahamaiva…). This means that knower of God is God alone. The Gita says that nobody other than God knows God (Mamtuveda nakaschana…).
Medium Chosen by Shankara, Ramanuja & Madhva
Shankara took the formless total lot of cosmic energy as the medium of God. Ramanuja took the same cosmic energy in a limited human form called as Narayana as the medium of God. Madhva took the materialized energetic human form like Rama or Krishna as the medium of God. In all the three cases, the medium only differs but the charging unimaginable God is one and the same. In no case, the actual unimaginable God is touched directly. There is no other way to show God directly except this indirect method of showing God through some imaginable or perceivable medium. If you understand this, there is no difference between Shanakara, Ramanuja and Madhva. The difference is only in the media selected by them depending on the psychological nature of the then existing followers. At the time of Shankara, the public was full of atheism. They did not believe even in the existence of God and to introduce the human incarnation as God was beyond imagination. They believed only in the existence of this cosmic world. If you take the world as God, which is seen by the eyes, the purpose of indicating God beyond this world will not be served. Therefore, Shankara selected the formless unseen cosmic energy as God, which is beyond the perceivable world and at the same time, it is a part of the world itself. The cosmic energy is the first manifestation as space, which is called as Shunyam. The word Shunyam does not mean nothing because even space or vacuum is the most subtle form of cosmic energy and is something and not nothing. Buddhists took this vacuum as nothing and the vacuum is something called as Akasha. Even the vacuum is perceived by senses and cannot be the unimaginable God, who cannot be perceived by senses, mind and even intelligence. Therefore, space or vacuum stands as representative model for God.
These two points stand for God also and hence, space is the best model to indicate God. Space cannot be taken as God directly because space is perceivable by senses where as God is beyond senses and even imagination. Another point that negates space as God is that space is inert and God has awareness. By this, you should not take awareness as God because awareness cannot create, maintain and dissolve the realistic world. Awareness is also limited to living body and does not all pervade like God. Again, awareness can be the best model for God because awareness creates, maintains and dissolves the imaginary world like God creating, maintaining and dissolving the realistic world. All this careful analysis proves that neither cosmic energy nor awareness is the actual unimaginable God. The cosmic energy and awareness indicate God by their merits and cannot stand as God due to their defects. Any item of the creation can be taken as God by its merits and should be rejected as God by its defects and limitations. All the items of the creation are preaching the greatness of God by their merits. All these are indicators (Ativahikah… Brahma Sutra) of God and not the actual God. The Narayana of Ramanuja and Rama or Krishna of Madhva also are not actual God since they are not all-pervading. The unimaginable God existing in those forms is the all pervading God. Again here, the unimaginable God becomes all pervading not by virtue of the all pervading property but by the virtue of unimaginable nature. We say that God is all pervading since He is unimaginable and not since He pervades all over the world as the space. We say the imaginable space is all pervading since it has the imaginable property of all pervading nature. In the case of God, He is unimaginable and His properties are also unimaginable. You should not say that God exists in space and hence, becomes all pervading through the space. By this, you are making God as imaginable item and you are offering the logical explanation for His property. Actually, God is unimaginable and there is no logical explanation for His properties. The psychology of the then existing public [human beings] at the time of Shankara was satisfied by the medium selected by Shankara. The cosmic energy standing as God satisfies the atheists, who are the present scientists.
The awareness standing as God satisfies the egotistic atheists since they are God by themselves and nobody is greater than them. Some how, the atheists accepted the existence of God and this was the achievement of Shankara. In course of time, the ego got reduced and people started accepting the existence of God, who is different from them. The human form was introduced as energetic form and not as materialized human form since the ego was not completely reduced. Thus, the next advanced category was treated by Ramanuja. At last, the ego and jealousy got reduced to almost zero and hence, Madhva introduced the materialized human form. The ego and jealousy were not reduced to absolute zero and hence, Madhva introduced the past human form of God. When the ego and jealousy are reduced to absolute zero, the contemporary human incarnation can be introduced. All these four concepts depend on the reduction of ego and jealousy. Even at the time of Shankara, there were few disciples, whose ego and jealousy were totally reduced to zero and hence, they took Shankara as God in human form before their eyes. All types of people exist in all the times. Depending on the majority of public, we can draw the line of the sequence of time from Shankara to Madhva through Ramanuja.