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Shri Datta Swami

 19 May 2018

 

Eligibility For Incarnation is Not to Have Selfishness and Have Sacrifice to Work For Welfare of Other Souls

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

Spiritual discussion of Shri G. Lakshman with Swami. (Shri G Lakshman came to Hyderabad and had a spiritual discussion with Swami, which is presented below:-)

Shri Lakshman spoke:- What do you think about the association of miracles with preaching the spiritual knowledge?

Swami replied:- Miracles are only basic steps of spiritual knowledge, in which an atheist is converted in to theist. After this step, miracles have no significance in the spiritual path since a theist is that person, who accepts the existence of God with unimaginable power (God accepted may be the unimaginable God or mediated God with whom the unimaginable God merged totally resulting in the unimaginable power of mediated God.). Hence, in the ancient time, the miracles were not given much importance in spiritual path since those are just like the alphabets to be learnt in the beginning. But, in this Kali age, the whole picture is changed. Even by the end of Dwapara age itself, Krishna has to do several miracles. In this Kali age, the incarnations of Datta also have done several miracles. In Treta age (before Dwapara age), Rama did not perform miracles at all. The standard of spiritual aspirants is falling so much that today even a sinner wants help from God to do the sin successfully! In the ancient times, no performance of any sin is the basic requisite even to look towards God! Hence, spiritual knowledge is to be preached in this Kali age. When spiritual knowledge is preached, the atmosphere of that time is very important since the psychology of receivers is always to be kept in the mind, if the preacher likes the knowledge served by him should be digested by the receiver. Today, almost all the devotees are in fixed psychology of expecting help from God to resolve the immediate problems with immediate solutions irrespective of justice and injustice. Every personal problem of a soul is always justified in its view! For an immediate solution, people are ready to change one form of God to another and one mode of worship to other. They are not bothered about the spiritual knowledge, which is for the phase after death and for the eternal uplift of soul. The human being is worried about the old age and its necessities so that he is careful about the prior arrangements like pension, provident fund etc. He is not worried about the life after death and about the future welfare of the soul in long range of time. The concept of care for future is limited to the boundary of this present life itself and not extended to the future lives of the soul. This limited attitude is due to the growth of belief on perception only in the minds in unknown way. This means that all these theists are basically atheists only as far as their practical behavior is concerned. What do you expect in the case of such theist about the place of miracles? Every theist is approaching God having form or no form or incarnation only for some help in his practical worldly problems. Hence, devotion to God without aspiration for any fruit in return is almost a mirage only in the case of almost all the devotees except a very few gems existing today also. When Shri Satya Sai Baba, as a boy, was doing miracles, His father shouted at Him asking Him to stop the miracles. Then, Baba told “I will attract devotees through these miracles and then preach the spiritual knowledge. If I preach without miracles, nobody will hear Me”. He is not supporting the exhibition of miracles. He spoke like that as per the existing atmosphere of devotees in the present time. The relevance to time and to psychology of the receiver is very important in not only preaching but also in teaching any subject. Today, perceptional authority has gained lot of significance due to tremendous development of science. In view of this also, miracles became very important in this present age and hence, every incarnation of God Datta has to perform miracles while preaching the spiritual knowledge. The level of ignorance of the present souls is of such low standard that a villager always pays attention on seeing the police in khaki uniform only. Miracles have become the essential uniform dress for the spiritual knowledge in this Kali age. Hence, God is also showing miracles to attract the devotees towards the spiritual knowledge. But, the devotees are more clever than God! They listen the spiritual knowledge very attentively to please the God so that the pleased God will solve their personal problems without asking, using His miraculous powers! They are only acting as receivers of spiritual knowledge for this purpose only. The proof for this is that the spiritual knowledge is heard from God like the food eaten, but, not at all digested since no trace of practice is seen in them! Like the spiritual knowledge, devotion also became another stage for acting! If we do our self analysis for the sake of our own spiritual welfare without any hypocrisy, this is the truth of truths!

Shri Lakshman asked:- Don’t you think that Shankara, an incarnation of God Shiva, telling that soul is God, is not to be believed?

Swami replied:- It should not be believed based on one single point. We say that God is omniscient. Such God forgot Himself! Who forgets himself? Only a mad fellow forgets himself. Madness is far lower state than ignorance since ignorance can be rectified whereas madness can’t be rectified easily. Such omniscient God from such highest state has fallen to this lowest state of madness! Even if you speak about the true identity of the mad person, he will not be cured to recognize himself immediately. The state of the present soul is also such worst madness so that even if he is preached that he is God, he is not becoming God! Even if the soul is constantly memorizing about his true identity throughout the life, he is still not becoming God! You may say that the soul has realized that it is God by such constant memorization (mananam). We don’t recognize the soul as God by its theoretical realization. If a beggar constantly memorizes that he is the king and realizes that he is the king, will you accept him as the king unless he sits on the throne? We want the practical achievement and not mere theoretical realization. If the soul has really become God, it should create at least one atom of the matter or a single ray of energy, not to speak of creating this entire world consisting of infinite matter and infinite energy. Even a demon is able to create a little matter or little energy because he has achieved the grace of God through penance or intense devotion. You are worse than even a devoted demon since, in spite of your constant memorization (that you are God) you have not achieved even a trace of practical result achieved by the demon. The reason for your failure through constant memorization of spiritual knowledge that you are God (aham Brahma asmi) is that you are not trying for the grace of God through devotion. You are thinking that God is your ancestral property hidden in the underground of your house and that you will get it simply by digging the floor of your own house for which no grace from any external agent is required. This is the climax of your ambition, which is simultaneously the climax of your ego also and totally the climax of your madness. It is not your ancestral property. It is a treasure to be given by God as per His liking towards you for a specific divine work. In this wrong path of knowledge, devotion is not generated, which alone can lead to the practice. The practice alone can give you the fruit. You are entering the LKG class with the chocolate given by Shankara and you are sitting in that LKG class throughout your life. After some time atleast, you are expected to reach the course of graduation of Ramanuja and then go to the PG course of Madhva to come out as qualified Post Graduate – certificate in your hand without any chocolate that was given to you to go to the convocation also! The PG certificate is that, which shows that you are the servant of God doing His service without the aspiration of any fruit in return.

Your basic point is that Shankara told that the soul is God. As I told above, the atmosphere of the receivers in the time of Shankara must be analysed so that the level of their psychology is identified according to which the fashion of implementation of the spiritual program is decided. When Shankara appeared in this country, the whole atmosphere was filled with atheists (Purvamimaamsakas and Buddhists), who never believed the existence of God other than themselves. To convert them into theists and to make them to say that God exists, Shankara followed the following program of three steps:- i) do you exist?- Yes. I exist. ii) You are God. There is no God other than you- Accepted. iii) God exists since you exist-Accepted. Now, the atheist told with his tongue that God exists. The atheists asked that why the soul is not practically becoming God, even though the soul recognized itself as God? ‘Practically becoming God’ means appearance of the power of creation practically. Then, Shankara replied that the mind must be purified by worshipping the God in order to become the God. In this step, the real intention of Shankara came out, which is that God and soul are different due to proved dualism. If the soul is already God, worship of God means self worship! Grace of God means grace on himself from himself! Everybody has grace on himself! Therefore, we must understand the first step of Shankara to kindle interest even in the mind of atheist to get infinite treasure present in the underground of his home! Everybody, including an atheist will be tremendously attracted by the infinite treasure present in his own house. This is the initial step of chocolate and the Gita says that every beginning starts with defects only. The second step of Shankara revealed that one should accept the dualism with God for sometime in order to become God to achieve the infinite treasure! This is gradual progress of the journey from inevitable wrong beginning towards right direction. We are avoiding both the extreme ends of flood and drought. Flood is extension of the concept by extreme dilution to say that every soul is God (Shankara). Drought is another extreme end, which says that no soul can be God (Ramanuja and Madhva). The middle golden path is that one selected soul by God will become God for doing some work for the welfare of the souls. You may say that monarchy is wrong and democracy is correct to say that every soul is God. Even in democracy, every citizen is not made collector. Only very few, who are qualified in the examination and interview, are becoming collectors. Democracy lies in saying that every citizen has open chance to become the collector. Similarly, every soul has open chance to become God through the selection done by God. The effort is only to purify yourself to become eligible for the interview. Only one candidate is selected by God to become incarnation and the criterion of the selection depends upon the estimation of intensity of the eligibility as done by God. The eligibility for the incarnation is mainly not to have selfishness and to have sacrifice to work for the welfare of other souls, which is the main program of the incarnation.

Shri Lakshman asked:- You said that in human incarnation the human being-component is seen as God by climax devotees. It means that the soul became God. But you said that God alone becomes the soul (descended God or Avatara) and not the reverse. Don’t you think that both are contradicting each other?

Swami replied:- God becoming human being is only correct and this is an irreversible equilibrium. Here, God is appearing as the human being to you, but, the human being is not appearing as God since you are seeing the human being only and not the God. When A is converted into B, B is seen and not A. If B is converted into A, A is seen and not B. The unimaginable God, due to His unimaginable power, can convert Himself into imaginable soul and appear in the imaginable domain or world. The imaginable soul cannot convert itself into unimaginable God to appear in the unimaginable domain in which unimaginable God alone exists. Hence, an incarnation is only descended God and not the ascended human being. Even in science, there are irreversible equilibriums in which the forward reaction alone takes place and never the backward reaction. Even in the process of creation, the unimaginable God generated the imaginable space. The link between unimaginable God and imaginable space is also unimaginable because in worldly logic we find only imaginable items generating imaginable products through imaginable links (mechanisms). You don’t find any example in the world in which the unimaginable item is converted into imaginable item. Moreover, when imaginable A is converted into imaginable B as in the case of worldly examples, A disappears and B appears. But, in this conversion of unimaginable A (God) into imaginable B (space), A remains intact as it is while B is generated! Hence, you should not apply the worldly logic to unimaginable God and His unimaginable links and actions. Whenever, you put any question dealing with unimaginable God and imaginable world, this point shall be kept in your mind. Your questions can be based on the parameters of worldly logic provided your questions are within the boundaries of the imaginable domain. When you touch the unimaginable domain (unimaginable God and His unimaginable actions), you should forget the parameters of non applicable worldly logic.

Shri Lakshman asked:- If I think that I am God, I am gaining lot of confidence and I am not touched by tensions. In view of this advantage, why do you oppose monism to spoil the peace of refugees affected by tensions?

Swami replied:- Using the assumed monism, if you are maintaining the confidence to come out of every tension faced in the life, we don’t oppose it at all since God Himself does not mind if His issues (souls) are benefited exploiting His position. But, you must remember that the tension does not end due to your false assumption that you are God. If you escape the experience of the tension, which is the fruit of your sin, you have escaped the enjoyment of punishment and hence, the punishment does not get exhausted! Then, what is the use of escaping the punishment through such false assumption and keep the punishment intact for future suffering along with the interest? You are unnecessarily bringing more complication to yourself due to your over-intelligence! If you are confined to this temporary advantage only, you can feel that you are God, but, you need not advertise openly that you are really God. For gaining such untouched state of peace in tensions, it is not necessary that you should feel that you are God. Even if you feel that you are not this body, but you are the awareness or soul, which can’t be touched by any disturbance, such peace can be attained. In fact, Shankara has proposed this attainment of self or soul (Aatmayoga), which is not attainment of God (Brahmayoga). You shall not advertise everywhere and every time that you are God since you have used this concept to temporarily come out of disturbances. If you want to advertise that you are God everywhere and in every time, you must at least, extend yourself with His nature. God doesn’t have limited family (wife and issues). For Him, this entire world is family. Can you maintain such nature of God everywhere and in every time so that the pleased God will grant monism to you? God is protector of justice and destroyer of injustice. Will you maintain this nature of God everywhere and every time of your life period? If you are exploiting His position to come out of tensions only, you must think that you are God within your mind and shall not speak it out, since you are not the God. If Shankara, the incarnation of God liberally donated His position to every soul for the necessity of a specific context (to come out of disturbances), it is not an insult to God since that insult was done by God Himself. On the other hand, if the soul speaks that it is God in every situation (other than the situation of coming out of tension), it is insulting the unique prestige of unique position of God. Even these refugees try for the solution of the problem by praying God claiming that they are in the second step of purification of mind through the worship of God. Since these devotees are basically in monism, God refuses to solve their problems. When the problem is not solved and while the tension continues, they shift to false monism to gain confidence to escape from its disturbance. Instead, they can maintain dualism in the basic heart itself to pray God sincerely and get rid of the problems. The other way to get rid of tensions (fruits of sins) is reformation by avoiding repetition of sins in practice, which is very difficult. These devotees are neither in heaven nor on the earth. They are devoid of fruits of both sincere devotion and true reformation!

Shri Lakshman asked:- You said that Gita says that ignorant people think that the unimaginable God is converted into imaginable human being in incarnation (Avyaktam vyakti maapannam). Now, You say that God is converted into human being in incarnation as descended God. How to reconcile this?

Swami replied:- In the Gita, the meaning of this verse is that the conversion of God into human being in the incarnation is not the worldly conversion, but, it is unimaginable conversion. In this verse, the imaginable conversion is denied. In the worldly conversions, when a lump of mud is converted into pot, the lump of mud disappears from its place or a part of it disappears if you made the pot from a part of the lump of the mud. This criterion of imaginable conversion is absent when God is converted into space and world in creation or when God is converted into human being in the incarnation since neither God disappears totally or partly by such unimaginable conversions. We always apply the worldly logic to the case of God and His actions. Whether it is apparent modification (vivarta) of Shankara or real modification (parinaama) of Ramanuja, the lump of mud or its part disappeared on the appearance of a pot from it. This basic point of disappearance of cause is forgotten and devotees are quarrelling in the unnecessary topic of apparent or real modification! Hence, the meaning of this verse that unimaginable conversion happened since God (cause) is neither totally disappearing nor partly disappearing after generating the world or after becoming the human being in the incarnation. Our brains are always influenced by the rules of worldly logic and we think that the cause shall enter the product to be present everywhere like mud in the pot or gold in the chain and this becomes true if God also disappears like mud or gold. This is the rule of the imaginable conversion. But, in unimaginable conversion, the cause need not enter the product and pervade the entire product by disappearing from its place. For the omniscience of God, omnipotence is sufficient and omnipresence in the world is not necessary. The exact example where this unimaginable conversion of God into world takes place is the production of a castle by the miracle of a sage, in which the sage is not really modified into the castle to disappear totally or partially. The sage did not enter the castle to pervade it everywhere. There is perfect similarity in the concept and the example since in both cases the unimaginable generator (unimaginable God or the unimaginable power in the sage) created imaginable product through unimaginable mechanism or link. If you leave this example of miracle, everywhere in the world, the examples are only imaginable generators generating imaginable products through imaginable mechanisms. Hence, sage Vyasa says in the Brahma Sutras that there is no exact example in the imaginable world for the unimaginable God and for His unimaginable actions.

Shri Lakshman asked:- Shri Ramana Maharishi also followed the monism of Shankara, which is refuted by you!

Swami replied:- Shri Ramana Maharishi is not at all the follower of Shankara if you take their concepts in strict sense. The first point is that you can compare the concept of Shri Maharishi with the concept of Shankara, especially when I said that such concept was created by Shankara for the sake of the then existing atmosphere around Him. You are comparing the true concept of Shri Maharishi with the concept of Shankara that was created for a different purpose. Shri Maharishi never said that you are God since He asked to search the source of ‘I’ and never said that ‘I’ itself is God. You may say that since awareness is the source of ‘I’ (a thought), the awareness is God. Even a child will say that the awareness is the source of ‘I’ like saying that gold is the source of the chain and mud is the source of the pot. Is there a necessity of research to find out this fact? Do you mean that Shri Maharishi is asking the people to do intensive research to find out that the gold is source of the chain or the mud is the source of the pot? The word search is used to find out the source of the ‘I’ or awareness, which is the unimaginable God, who can never be imagined. If you take a practical example, Shri Maharishi prayed Lord Shiva to cure His mother affected by illness, but did not say that since He is God, He is wishing for the cure of His mother. This clearly shows that Shri Maharishi believed in the existence of unimaginable God to cure a diseased soul through His unimaginable power and did not project himself (imaginable soul with imaginable power) as God.

Shri Lakshman asked:- If I say that awareness is God, it clearly satisfies the rules of conversion. A part of the awareness is converted into imaginary world consisting of both inert and non inert items and the rest part (the remaining awareness) is acting as the spectator of the imaginary world. This clearly proves that the awareness in the human being must be the divine awareness called as God. What do you say?

Swami replied:- If you take the case of human being, its awareness is restricted to the creation of items in its imaginary world only. If you take the case of God, His awareness is creating the items in this real world (which is His imaginary world). If the awareness in the human being is God, it should also create items in this real world, which must have been its imaginary world. Even if you treat the soul as a part of God, the soul should create at least the smallest part (an atom) of a small item in this real world. Absence of this capacity in the real world clearly proves that soul is neither God nor the smallest part of the God. Since God is unimaginable, the imaginable soul can’t be God or even a smallest part of God. Shankara told that soul is God for a different purpose to deal with the atmosphere of atheists. Ramanuja also told that soul is a part of God, but the God taken by Him is mediated God. He told very clearly that human being is a small part of the body of the mediated greatest unimaginable God (chidachit vishishtah), which is made with awareness (chit) and inert entity or matter and energy (achit). Vishishtah means the possessor of the body, who is the unimaginable God. Hence, the soul is not a part of the unimaginable God. While discussing the statement that ‘thou or that’ (tat tvam asi), He made a similarity between the human being and the body of mediated God in the form of cosmos. The greatest body (sthuulachidachit) of mediated unimaginable God is compared to the petty human being (suukshmachidachit) with qualitative similarity and quantitative difference. The human being is a part of the world due to quantitative difference and its qualitative similarity to the world in having both awareness (chit) and inert entity (achit) is also present. He told that the soul is a part of God by superimposing God on His body (as we superimpose our souls on our bodies). The soul felt happy that at least it is a part of God if not God while falling from the top of hill of Shankara to the ground of Madhva. Ramanuja made an intermediate stop in this steep fall from perfect monism to perfect dualism just like God Vishnu catching Prahlada thrown from top of hill (in fact, Ramanuja is the incarnation of God Vishnu in essence). You must analyze all the serpent curves in His explanation (since Ramanuja is the external incarnation of Adishesha, the Lord of serpents). Balarama is also external incarnation of Adishesha and internal incarnation of God Vishnu being mentioned in the ten incarnation of Vishnu. The revelation of curves shows the ultimate truth that the imaginable soul can’t be even a part of the unimaginable God! Shankara and Ramanuja have to apply these inevitable curves (twists) in view of the necessity of the ignorant atmosphere of receivers of knowledge.

Coming to the main topic, you must remember that you are studying the relationship between the unimaginable God and the imaginable soul. You have captured the soul or awareness as the basic entity in the starting point itself. But, you can’t capture unimaginable God since his basic entity can’t be imagined. How can you compare the known entity with the unknown entity? You can say that awareness is the basic entity of the soul. But, you can’t say that the same imaginable awareness is the entity of unimaginable God. If you carefully analyze the awareness, awareness (meaning just to know itself or something else) is only a property of some known or unknown basic entity. In the case of soul, you can say that the general awareness is the basic entity whereas the process of transfer of information from senses to brain is a property only. Same known awareness acts as basic entity and property of the soul through a small difference in functions that the awareness as the basic entity receives the information whereas the same awareness as property transfers the information from senses to the brain. In the case of God, you can’t take this known awareness as the material of basic entity, who is unimaginable. You can take similarity to some extent superficially in property in the sense that both God and human being know about the existence of a pot in a place. Even in this property, complete similarity is not achieved because in the property of transformation of information in God neither materialized nervous system nor the inert energy exists to generate awareness before the creation. Even before the creation, God made some thoughts in His unimaginable awareness or Himself. In the absence of both these inert energy and nervous system, even the basic entity receiving the information also can’t exist. Hence, you have to say that both the receiver and mechanism of transfer of information are unimaginable in the case of God whereas both are imaginable in the case of human being. Based on just one superficial similarity that both God and human being know the existence of a pot in a place, you can’t even draw similarity in real sense and not to speak of monism. The similarity between a lotus flower and a ruby gem is red color, which also differs quantitatively because ruby is strongly red and lotus is light red. This means that even in the similarity of knowing the existence of a pot in a place, there is lot of quantitative difference because God is omniscient and soul knows a little superficially. There are other differences, which don’t have even this qualitative similarity. Ruby is one stone and lotus is divided into several petals. Ruby is very hard and lotus is very soft. Ruby has no scent whereas lotus has scent. Similarly, the ruby like God is without internal division whereas the lotus like soul is a bundle of thoughts. God is eternal and the soul need not be eternal if God wishes so. God has no fascination-scent whereas soul has strong fascination-scent. Hence, based on one superficial similarity in one property, you can’t treat both entities as one in the light of several other differing properties and in the light that one basic entity is unimaginable whereas the other basic entity is imaginable.

The advaitins take the example of lean Devadatta seen in Kashi city and the same Devadatta appearing as stout in his native place being one and the same basic Devadatta (soyam devadattah). Here, the basic entity, Devadatta, as one entity, is already existing fact in the beginning itself and need not be achieved through analysis. Devadatta is a single imaginable human being. In the case of God and soul, you have to achieve the oneness through analysis, which is impossible since one is unimaginable and the other is imaginable. If you take God as mediated God, you can achieve the superficial similarity with human being in their forms because the mediated God created the human being similar to the form of His medium. This similarity between two formful entities (vishishtas) i.e., mediated God and ordinary human being is superficially indicated by the word advaita or monism used in loose sense. Of course, the actual word advaita in strict sense of oneness in the word ‘Vishishta Advaita’ between the two vishishtas (mediated items) can be obtained when the mediated God (unimaginable God mediated by first energetic being) merges with the mediated human being (human soul mediated with its gross body) to become the human incarnation. If Ramanuja wanted to indicate simply mediated God and ordinary human being, He should have used the proper word for similarity like ‘saadrushya’ and should not have used the word advaita, which means oneness and not similarity. Since He used the word advaita to exist between two imaginable entities (mediated God and ordinary human being), we have to take the word advaita in strict sense as the main intention of Ramanuja, which becomes true when mediated God merges with ordinary human being to become human incarnation. Hence, we feel that the main intention of Ramanuja is the example of human incarnation in which advaita or oneness between two mediated items is achieved strictly and not the superficial comparison between mediated God and ordinary human being. For clarification:- The possessor of the body is called as visheshya like God or soul. The body possessed is called as visheshana like the world body of the God or gross body of the soul. The world mediated-God or gross body mediated-soul is called as the vishishta. These curves (twists) created by Shankara and Ramanuja were the exploitations of the tremendous ambition in the devotees to become God directly without any effort or at least to become a part of God. Such exploitation of the most powerful ambition helped the devotee to enter the field of spiritual knowledge and study it thoroughly. Shankara threw the devotee from the top of the hill by suggesting that a soul shall worship God to become God thereby indicating the soul is not God. Madhva is standing on the ground to catch the falling devotee. Ramanuja created an intermediate stage for the devotee to have a halt for some time to avoid the sudden steep fall resulting in total discourage of the soul.

Awareness found in the human being is clearly proved by science as a specific work form of inert energy generated in a specific functioning nervous system. The specific nature of work is due to the specific nature of the system in which the inert energy is transformed into work. The same electricity is converted into grinding work in grinding machine and into cutting work in a cutting machine. Awareness is the work involved in the transfer of information. A specific system like nervous system and free inert energy liberated by digestion of food are essential pre-requisites for the generation of awareness. In a stone, the awareness is not generated due to the absence of nervous system and free inert energy. In the deep sleep of human being, the nervous system is not functioning due to imposed rest even though free inert energy is available. Hence, the awareness disappears in deep sleep and appears again in the awaken state showing continuous births and deaths (athachainam… Gita). Such awareness can’t be the eternal God. In the dream state, the awareness exists as dream and as its receiver, even though the awareness is out of the contact with the external world. A dream is created with the help of the sub-conscious state, which is a condensed group of previous strong ideas. Such imaginable awareness depending on free energy and function of a specific nervous system can’t be the independent unimaginable God. The entire system of awareness along with its entire background is duplicated by scientists in the form of a robot! The grasping of entire information in one step as in the case of a human being is possible when several micro processors function simultaneously in a computer. The reactions based on various informations fed are exactly similar to a robot and in the case of human being. This imaginable awareness of a human being can’t be the unimaginable awareness of unimaginable God.

The unimaginable awareness means the unimaginable God only (since two unimaginable items can’t co-exist). The basic entity is this unimaginable awareness or God, which is not the above spoken imaginable awareness at all. This basic unimaginable God (or unimaginable awareness) knows anything not because that this unimaginable God is the above mentioned imaginable awareness. In the imaginable domain, you are perfectly correct to say that the basic entity must be the above spoken awareness if it knows itself or something else. God knows about Himself and about everything other than Himself due to His unimaginable nature or omnipotence and He need not be the above spoken awareness at all for this purpose. This unimaginable awareness can do anything without being the corresponding relative entity, which is imaginable awareness. It is not the fire at all, but, burns everything in the end. Similarly, He is not the awareness at all, but, knows everything. By this clarified concept, imaginable awareness has no place at all in the case of God as the basic entity (knower or receiver of the information) due to absence of materialized brain and free energy or as the process of knowing due to the absence of materialized nervous system and free energy. The unimaginable basic entity as unimaginable knower and the unimaginable mechanism of the work of transferring the information refute totally the imaginable knower and his imaginable mechanism of transfer of information. Oneness between the imaginable soul and unimaginable God can’t be even dreamt based on this extensive analysis.

Shri Lakshman asked:- In Advaita philosophy, by the example of Devadatta, the problem is solved by Lakshanaa, which leaves difference and establishes the unity between God and soul.

Swami Replied:- In the example, same Devadatta stands as the unity and leanness and stoutness stand as difference and this is called as Jahat-Ajahat Lakshanaa. The awareness is taken as the common basic entity like Devadatta (Ajahat) in both omniscient God and little knowing soul standing like stoutness and leanness (Jahat). Lakshanaa solves the difference. Awareness is the common basic entity and omniscience of God is infinite knowledge whereas little knowledge of soul is finite knowledge. If you take both God and soul as common awareness, the awareness of God has infinite power whereas the awareness of soul has little power. The nature of God is not limited to this single point only. God has several powers as His properties. Another property of the same God is that God burns entire world in the final dissolution whereas the soul can’t burn even a small object. Just like knowledge is the property of awareness, burning is the property of fire. By applying the same above Lakshanaa, fire becomes the basic entity (unity) in both God and soul like awareness became the basic entity in both previously. In such case, the soul must burn a small object by difference just like the soul is having little knowledge by difference. But, soul is unable to burn even the smallest part of the small object. In this burning property, Lakshanaa fails. Hence, awareness is not the common entity of God and soul. You can’t confine God to only a single property of knowledge and by that you can’t confine God to a single basic entity called as awareness since the other property of burning is also seen with God and not with the soul. You can confine the soul to the single knowledge-property and say that the basic entity of the soul is awareness having little knowledge. In the same way, you can’t limit God to awareness only. You have to say that the basic entity of God is unimaginable item having infinite knowledge and infinite burning etc., as its properties.

Shri Lakshman asked:- Shankara said that mere spiritual knowledge (jnanayoga) gives the final goal. Does it not mean that devotion (bhaktiyoga) and service with sacrifice (karmayoga) are unnecessary?

Swami replied:- Shankara did not mean that devotion and service are unnecessary and that knowledge alone gives the right goal. He only meant that once the true spiritual knowledge is attained, devotion and practice (service) are the automatic consequential steps, which appear without any effort. If you hear all the details of Mumbai city, automatically you will develop the attraction (devotion) to see it and automatically the practical effort to take up journey to the city also appears. He only means that the true spiritual knowledge given by Sadguru or Human Incarnation will automatically generate devotion and service as sequential steps without any effort. Knowledge generates devotion, which is the force to transform the theoretical knowledge into practice. Devotion generates service since it leads theoretical knowledge into practical service. Spiritual knowledge is like water without which the plant dies. Devotion is like manure without which the plant does not grow. The service is like the tender mango plant, which becomes alive and grows into tree with the help of water and manure respectively to give the mango fruit directly. Only the action or karmayoga gives the fruit. But, if the water is absent, the plant will die. If the manure is absent the plant will not grow into a tree to give the fruit. But, even if we have 100 tanks of water and 100 bags of manure, you can’t get the mango fruit without the mango plant. Hence, all the three are interdependent with each other. The idea of Shankara is that true knowledge gives the right direction. Devotion and service are useless in wrong direction. At any time, devotion and service with sacrifice grew very well in this world without any effort and the reason for this is the wrong direction due to misinterpretations of true spiritual knowledge. Any human soul will worship God with climax devotion, sacrifice and service, just due to the aspiration of getting some desired fruit from God. This is the wrong direction of wrong knowledge. The right direction of true knowledge is that devotion and sacrifice with service shall be done to God without aspiration of any fruit in return. Every time, God comes down as human incarnation and establishes the true direction through knowledge. Immediately, after some time, the true direction is distorted by wrong interpretations of wrong preachers (yogo nashtah- Gita). Again and again, God comes down and establishes the true spiritual knowledge. It is just like cleaning the floor of house in the morning of everyday.

Shri Lakshman asked:- You said that the three divine preachers took God as awareness. Hence, the basic entity of God must be awareness only.

Swami replied:- If you take the unimaginable God as awareness, it means that we have taken the unimaginable God mediated by awareness. Awareness is a specific work form of inert energy only, which is imaginable and can act as a medium of God. As per the Veda, before creation, God thought to create this world for His entertainment. Such actions of thought and entertainment indicate that God is awareness as per worldly logic. The 5th Brahma Sutra stands for this. Actually, the fact is that God is unimaginable and omnipotent so that God can think even without being awareness due to unimaginable omnipotence. Hence, it is a mistake to think that the unimaginable God, who is beyond space, is awareness, which is a form of energy bound by space. God being the generator of space is beyond spatial dimensions and hence, is unimaginable only. You can take the imaginable awareness as the medium of God and not as God.

The divine preachers took God as mediated by awareness since unimaginable God can’t be grasped by any soul and this may lead to the negation of existence of God. Such awareness-mediated God is taken in an energetic body, called as Eshwara or Datta or Narayana by Ramanuja and Madhva. This is also in accordance to the need of a container for awareness. In fact, even this body is also charged by the unimaginable God (Antarbahischcha… Veda) and this is justified because the tender body of Krishna can’t lift the hill if His soul alone is charged by God. Hence, both called the body of the first mediated God as supernatural (Apraakrutashariiram) indicating the unimaginable nature of the body due to merge of unimaginable God with it also. On the other hand, Shankara stressed on awareness only without body to be the medium of God since He had an obligation to say that every human being is God. If He says that the body of every human being is also God, it contradicts the experience since no human body is supernatural. For this, He built lot of analysis to neglect the supernatural power of God and little power of human soul to take the basic awareness as common entity. This obligation arose since He was mainly dealing with atheists.

The 5th Brahma Sutra can be also interpreted in the actual sense like this:- Ekshateh— due to thought before creation, Na— God should not be taken as awareness, Ashabdam— God is having no name since He is unimaginable and He can think without being awareness due to His omnipotence.

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