Posted on: 24 Nov 2017
Chaturdasha Adhyaayah (Fourteenth Chapter )
[Only one concept is explained in several ways in different times to different sets of people following the nature of human psychology. The Veda says the same (Ekam sat vipraa bahudhaa vadanti). If you teach a concept, which is totally against the concept of the receiver, it will be repelled totally due to ego of receiver. The receiver feels that if he accepts your concept totally, which is against his concept, he feels that it establishes that you are the scholar of right knowledge and he is totally ignorant due to his wrong knowledge. This hurts the ego of the receiver and results in repulsion of your total concept. Hence, you should totally accept his concept in the initial stage and proceed with slight variation, which is introduction of your concept. As discussion proceeds, you must make him feel that his concept is totally wrong and your concept is totally right. You should not express this statement in your words at any time. By adopting such technique of psychology, the preacher can transform the other ignorant side into right path of knowledge. It is just like controlling a running bull with tremendous speed by catching it and running along with it for some distance to pacify its ego and then slowly controlling it.]
[An example for this is Shankara saying that soul is God to atheists surrounding Him. The atheist will never agree the existence of God beyond him. To make him agree the existence of God, the only way is to say that the human soul is God and hence God exists since human soul exists. To make an atheist agree to the existence of God, there is no other way than this in the initial stage. Then, the atheist questioned that he came to know that he is God and in spite of this realization, why he is not really becoming God to have the power of creation, etc. At least, he should get a trace of the power and shall be able to create an atom of matter or a ray of energy. Then, Shankara told him that the power of ignorance (vikshepa) is very strong and to get rid of it, constant meditation of this concept (that he is God) is essential. The poor atheist did lot of concentration on this concept, but found not even a trace of practical result! Then Shankara told that he should worship God to get His grace to get the result practically. Due to tremendous attraction of mind to the ambition to become God, the atheist became devotee and immersed in the devotion. He forgot original concept since Shankara told that the worship should be without any aspiration! Like this, the strong atheist became strong devotee of God in course of time! The real monism of God with human soul is projected as Krishna, who exhibited Himself as Creator, Maintainer and Dissolver of the cosmos through cosmic vision. The real monism between God and soul is true as in the case of human incarnation, but extension of this concept to every soul is not correct. But, every soul was said to be God by Shankara due to the then surrounding atmosphere of atheists. Even though the extension of the concept is wrong, the concept as it is, is not wrong in the case of human incarnation and hence, we should not say that Shankara told a complete lie!]
[Some devotees did not forget the original concept of becoming God to get the power of creation of world and Ramanuja appeared to satisfy them to lead them further. He told that the soul is only a tiny part of God and hence, may get some petty powers being a small part of God. By the grace of God (who was also willing to co-operate with the spiritual progress of soul), some blessed devotees got some small miraculous powers of creating small items, etc. Ramanuja reduced the ocean of ego of the soul into a drop by saying that the soul is not God, but a tiny part of God like a spark of the fire. Prahlada stands as an ideal here, who reached the climax of theoretical devotion and exhibited some powers while he was forced to death. Even though, the imaginable soul is not a part of unimaginable God, the imaginable soul is a part of the mediated God, who is the medium itself due to total merge. The imaginable soul is a part of the imaginable medium of God and can be treated as a part of mediated God. In this way, Ramanuja also twisted the truth without hurting the truth basically.]
[These devotees thought that they are at least part of God by achieving small miraculous powers and developed ego by distinguishing them from ordinary souls. They thought that they achieved a part of total miraculous power of God being parts of God and there is no necessity of His grace. Such trace of ego is also rejected by Madhva, who said that soul is an external item and not an internal part of God. He said that the soul is only a servant to God, who may be blessed with small powers by the Master-God. He kept Hanuman as the ideal, who felt Himself as servant of God only in spite of miraculous powers achieved by Him, which were felt achieved by the grace of God. This made the ego of the soul to evaporate completely. Prahlada is mentioned as God Himself in the Gita (since internal part can be represented by the whole like a police can represent the entire police department) and the miraculous powers exhibited by Him are inherent of the soul. This is the concept of inseparable part (soul) of the whole (God) mentioned by Ramanuja. Madhva says that the soul is not an internal part of God, but is completely external and Hanuman-servant (external soul) got the miraculous powers from external God-Master by the grace of God. In the philosophy of Ramanuja also, such perfect dualism can be found since God is mediated by this entire universe and soul with its body is a part of the external body or medium (world) of God. Madhva did not accept such cosmic form of God to avoid the concept of the soul becoming a part of God’s body. Madhva confined God to a specific divine form only so that this whole-part relationship does not arise. Ofcourse, Ramanuja also accepted such divine form of God as Narayana like Madhva. Thus, the difference between Ramanuja and Madhva is nothing as far as the dualism and divine form of God are concerned. The difference is only that Ramanuja treated cosmos also as a body of God whereas Madhva treated cosmos as an external item different from God. Even this difference can be resolved because the inherent power of the soul is not the miraculous power since every soul is not exhibiting miraculous power. Hence, even in the line of Ramanuja, the soul gets the miraculous power by the grace of divine form of God only.]
[Now, Datta Swami made the situation in such a way that evaporated ego can never come back into the soul by saying that God is unimaginable to any soul except God Himself and the soul is only a tiny part of His imaginable creation. The comparison between unimaginable God and imaginable soul shall never be thought since comparison is only between any two imaginable items. Like this, the same God Datta appeared in four different forms in different times and introduced the ultimate real philosophy step-by-step suiting to the digestion power of the receivers. Monism, inseparable dualism, dualism and unimaginable comparison are the four philosophies appeared, which are different styles of the same truth expressed by God Datta through different forms.]
[1) Krishna declared Himself as God, who is the human incarnation. This is perfect monism because the unimaginable God Himself became Krishna (soul) through perfect merge. The cosmic vision shown by Krishna proves that He is the ultimate unimaginable God, who creates, maintains and dissolves this world. 2) Prahlada represents very close association with God like an internal limb of body. God declared in the Gita that He is Prahlada, which means that the whole represents its inseparable limb in spite of dualism. 3) Hanuman is an external blessed servant of God Rama representing dualism. 4) An ordinary imaginable soul has no scope of any comparison with unimaginable God. This means that the above three philosophies (monism, inseparable dualism and dualism) are related to God and His closely devoted soul only. There is no close relationship (including even comparison between unimaginable God and imaginable soul) between God and an ordinary soul (except that God is the creator and soul is a part of creation created by God), which is the fourth philosophy of Datta Swami.]
[These four philosophies are seen in foreign religions also. In the first, the soul says that it is light (monism). In the second, the soul says that it is Son of God or the light is in the soul (inseparable dualism). In the third, the soul says that it is Messenger of God or it is in the light (dualism). These three philosophies represent Krishna, Prahlada and Hanuman (as a Messenger of God Rama to the soul Sita) respectively indicating the three Christian philosophies with respect to Jesus as expressed by Him to the concerned deserving devotees in different three levels. Islam represents only the third philosophy with respect to Prophet Mohammed since He wanted to avoid the extreme jealousy of devotees towards human incarnation. The fourth type of philosophy represents unimaginable God and the imaginable ordinary soul to be blessed by God.]
[The main point is that the same truth is expressed fully in one place, partially expressed in another place and totally twisted in some other place. The reason for such variation is the stage of the receiver and not the stage of the preacher. The preacher (Guru) cares for practical transformation of the receiver from his present step to higher step and does not care for the ultimate truth only without caring the psychology of the receiver unlike a teacher. A stupid was suffering with continuous headache since he believed that a chameleon entered his head through his ear. The pain is purely psychological and practically untrue. Every doctor (teacher) advised the stupid regarding the impossibility of a chameleon entering the head through ear! But, the stupid does not agree with any doctor, who is like the teacher teaching only truth without bothering about cure of his headache. One doctor, who is like a preacher, accepted the entry of chameleon into head, asked the patient to sit in the chair and made the patient to feel that the chameleon jumped out from his ear. The doctor took a chameleon into his hand secretly and threw it out by keeping his hand near to the ear of the patient. By this, the patient was totally cured of his pain. Such doctor, who cared for the treatment above the truth of diagnosis, is like the real preacher (Guru). This doctor also knows the truth like other doctors and is not opposing other doctors. Other doctors should not blame this doctor for telling a lie and cheating the patient. The difference in the philosophies of the preachers appears due to different stages of receivers and not due to total or partial ignorance of the preacher. Without realizing this background of the preacher, fools say that a preacher is ignorant and this led to quarrels between philosophies and religions in this world.]
[Basically, there are only two religions:- 1) theism and 2) atheism. We can correlate various sub-religions of theism taking into consideration parameters like the stage of grasping power of receivers in that time, need of practical transformation of souls for which truth may be hidden, etc. We can’t correlate atheism with theism. The atheists deny the existence of unimaginable God. God also does not care for anybody to believe in His existence like a politician since God is not elected by souls! The only reason for the necessity of God make any soul to believe in the existence of unimaginable God is that the unimaginable God punishes sinners through unimaginable ways even if they escape the law of the land in this world. The sin is thus controlled through the concept of unimaginable God creating hell here as well as in the upper worlds after the life. The fundamental concept of atheist is to enjoy in this world by doing sins and escape the punishments due to absence of unimaginable God. The basis of atheism is not mere absence of God, but, based on it, doing sins since punishments of sins are absent due to the absence of existence of God. The founder of atheism, Charvaka, speaks about the absence of God and subsequently says that you can enjoy by taking money as loan since once the body is dead, it will not return (runam krutvaa ghrutam pibet, bhasmi bhutasya dehasya punaraagamanam kutah?). In the absence of punishment for the sin by God, one can bring loan and need not repay the loan, if he can abscond himself from his address! If the sin is done and if the sinner escapes the law, what is the harm that can happen to the sinner?- this million-dollar question will come into the mind of any atheist in case inevitable punishment of sin by God is absent. Since all become atheists due to perfect acceptance of atheism, the entire society will crumble into pieces and chaos is the result.]
[If you say that you will allow the concept of inevitable punishment for sin from the unimaginable God for the sake of welfare of the society, such generosity of the atheist is of no use. Such expressed generosity can’t control the sin since everybody knows that the existence of God is only a created concept for the welfare of the society and not real. This point is useful to cheat the society by appearing as if interested in justice and welfare of society. This may help the atheist to escape from the law of government, but, the actual problem is not solved by such hypocrisy. Hence, miracles are exhibited and experienced by several souls proving the existence of unimaginable God, which is a concrete proof for the inevitable punishment of sin in unimaginable way by God, even if the law is escaped. The atheists must honour the miracles since their basic authority is perception.]
[Except atheism founded by Charvaka, which is called as worldly (lokaayatika) since it is based on enjoyment of worldly pleasures only, for which sins can be done without fear of any punishment provided the ruling law of the government is escaped, all other religions, which have kept silent about God need not be taken as atheistic. For example, non-Vedic religions like Buddhism and Jainism are also considered as atheistic since they do not speak about God, but, God is beyond speech as per the Veda (yato vaacho...). Even the Sankhya and Purva Mimaamsa religions, which are Vedic, are considered to be atheistic. But, these four religions spoke about justice (dharma), injustice (adharma), binding of soul by worldly bonds (bandha) and salvation (moksha or apavarga), etc., which are the fundamentals of pravrutti that need the existence of unimaginable God indicated by silence. These religions never supported injustice or sin in the worldly life like Charvaka. People mention all these five religions (Charvaka, Jaina, Bauddha, Sankhya and Purva Mimaamsa) in one category of atheism (Nirishvara) without doing this sharp analysis.]
[Buddha kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable and beyond words. This is mistaken by the followers that God does not exist as per Buddha. Buddha, Himself, is 9th incarnation of God and Buddhism mentions surrender to Buddha or God as the very first statement. The second and third statements say that one shall surrender to justice and society, which means that sin should not be done in the worldly life. It says that desire causes sin, which results in misery. Buddhism says that the Vedas are written by sages and not by God. The correlation here is that the scripture is written by sages (paurusheya) as dictated by God (apaurusheya). It only means that the writer of script is not God. From the point of authorship, God is the writer. Thus, correlation can be done.]
[The four statements of Buddha that everything is 1) momentary (kshanika), 2) misery (duhkha) and 3) nothing (shunya) and 4) anything is only a property (vastu svalakshanam), reveal the philosophy preached by Shankara, etc., in detail. ‘Momentary’ means that this world is always changing and ‘nothing’ means that this world is unreal for God in the absolute plane. Any item is only a property of God and the property exists as long as the possessor of property exists and this is the relative plane. Nothing also means subtle energy or space (aakaashah gaganam shunyam). It means, for the soul, this entire world is a modification of subtle energy or space, which is the first starting element. The four schools of Buddhism (madhyamika, yogaachaara, sautrantika and vaibhashika) gradually proceed from nothing to subtle energy or awareness called as prajna, the receiver of the existence of nothing or subtle energy so that the result is that everything is not nothing. All the worldly bonds are not eternal and hence, result in misery in the end. The momentary nature of the soul speaks that soul is also created by God as a tiny part of the world and hence, is non-eternal like the rest world.]
[Jainism also does not speak about the unimaginable God, who cannot be indicated by any word. Jainism speaks about the eternality of the soul (which is the relative awareness) and eternality of the world. The eternality means not real infinite eternality, but only means that it is not momentary. It accepts the existence of the fifth element (in fact first of the five elements) called as space as a form of subtle energy whereas Charvaka accepted only the other four elements only liberating awareness by mutual combination. Ofcourse, Charvaka accepts space as nothing (like Einstein’s geometrical space as nothing) because without space this creation cannot exist. To accept space as something means that space is not nothing but something, which is subtle energy. This point of Charvaka that awareness is only a specific work form of inert energy in the functioning nervous system is perfectly scientific and he should be appreciated as the first opposer of the concept that awareness is God. But, he neglected the existence of space as an element and Jainism must be appreciated for recognizing space as an element required for the generation of awareness. The awareness was misunderstood as God by the followers of divine preachers since the Veda told that God wished to create the world and hence, God is thought to be awareness. You can think so, but, such awareness of God is not this relative awareness generated by nervous system (which was absent in God before creation). God being unimaginable and omnipotent can wish so and for this purpose, God need not be awareness. You have to differentiate such unimaginable awareness or God (since two unimaginable items must be one only) from this relative awareness that was first generated from food as said in the Veda.]
[Jainism or Arhata religion accepts justice, injustice, binding and salvation of soul from worldly bonds. It believes in all good qualities required for salvation, which indicate absence of sin. A perfect human soul called as ‘Tirthankara’ is accepted similar to human incarnation and Mahavira is the last 24th preacher, who is actually the mediated God and not told as God since God is unimaginable. In this way, Jainism can be correlated with the philosophy of three divine preachers.]
[Vaisheshika religion of Kanada is special (the meaning of Vaisheshika word) in the sense that it accepts God as mediated God (Eshwara) causing motion between atoms for creation. He accepts the justice that causes purity of mind. The Nyaaya religion of Gautama is also theistic since it mentions pravrutti, involvement in pravrutti as defect of soul (dosha), fruits of good and bad deeds as happiness and misery (phala) and salvation through knowledge (apavarga) while discussing the 16 items. Apart from perception and inference of Kanada, he accepted similarity and scripture as extra authorities showing the necessity of correct interpretation of scripture through logical analysis. The simile is helpful in understanding that soul is compared to God and not the actual God.]
[Sankhya philosophy is projected as atheistic. But, sharp analysis shows that the Purusha or awareness is mentioned as a different item above all the categories of the root cause-space (Mula prakruti) in the name of ‘purusha’. Certainly, purusha means the soul and not the unimaginable God, who can’t be expressed by any word. This unimaginable God on merging with a soul (human or energetic being) becomes the incarnation. Above Mahat (this infinite creation), Avyaktam (unimaginable God) exists (Mahatah paramavyaktam). This means that unimaginable God is beyond this imaginable creation. But, the unimaginable God can’t be understood since He can’t be expressed even by any word. Hence, the expressed incarnation (human or energetic) is better than the unimaginable God (Avyaktaat Purushah parah). Beyond incarnation, there is nothing else to be a direct representation of God (purushaat na param kinchit). In this way, purusha can also be taken as the unimaginable God expressed through incarnation. In the book (Sankhyakaarika) written by Sage Kapila, the third and fourth chapters speak about the detachment from worldly bonds and about the detached soul, which indicate certainly the resistance to sin due to over-attachment to worldly bonds. Such stage is kept as highest called as detached soul (asanga purusha).]
[Yoga of Patanjali certainly accepts the mediated God called as Eshwara and concentration on such God (Eshwara pranidhaana) is mentioned as the main path for attaining purity of mind along with practice and detachment from worldly bonds. The five mental pains (klesha) are only due to the sins. The different existence of God and soul (Samprajnaata) and their unity in human incarnation (Asamprajnaata) shall be understood. The three disturbing modes of mind (kshipta or thrown out, vikshipta or agitated and mudha or ignorant) are the results of sins only and the two stable modes of mind (niruddha or controlled and ekaagrataa or concentrated) are the fruits of realization, repentance and non-repetition of the sin by reducing the attachment of mind to worldly bonds. Without understanding yoga in this way, trying to control mind for escaping the misery is almost useless.]
[The school of Purva Mimaamsa is to be understood in the right sense, which is that concentration on practical sacrifice called as yajna is the most important aspect of devotion to God in getting His grace that yields all the good fruits. The aspiration for fruit is the inspiration for any practical activity in the case of almost entire humanity (except the rare Nivrutti) and this is stressed here. All the deities are expressions of unimaginable God through mediation and these are called as mere words by Bhatta (Shabdamaatra Devataa). This means that the imaginable item always gets a word and various expressed incarnations are mentioned as words representing items, which are imaginable media of God. The founder is Sage Jaimini, who starts this school by the enquiry into justice (Dharma Jijnaasaa), which is opposite to sin. The practical involvement in a good deed always requires the absence of involvement in a bad deed or sin. Thus, taking the silence about God as the usual incapability of expressing the unimaginable God, we cannot conclude that sage Jaimini is an atheist!]
[The Uttara Mimaamsa-school of Sage Vyaasa, the author of the Brahma Sutram (which is the correlation of the Veda) and composer of the Gita as interpreted by the three divine preachers, stands as the final conclusion of spiritual knowledge. Since the original author (Vyaasa) is only one, the interpretations of the three divine preachers must be also one and the same. The differences are only due to the different stages of the receivers existing in their times. The Brahma Sutram deals with correlation (samanvaya), resolving contradictions (avirodha), effort in devotion (saadhana) and final salvation (mukti). The Gita deals with the importance of human incarnation for humanity while stating the fundamental concept that God is unknown to any soul (Maam tu veda na kashchana) and this is mentioned by several statements in the Veda (Yasyaamatam…, Namedhaya…, etc.).]
[Certain aspects were totally eradicated in certain times to avoid the negative reactions of certain concepts in spiritual knowledge. The human incarnation is negated due to falsely projected pseudo-human incarnations exploiting the innocent devotees and genuine human incarnations exploited by cruel devotees are also negated. Swami Dayananda rejected false human incarnations to save innocent devotees and Prophet Mohammed rejected even the genuine human incarnation in order to save the same from the cruel jealousy of ignorant devotees. Such rejections were emergent needs of those times.]
[The human rebirth of a soul was rejected by Christianity and Islam, which is the best for spiritual progress. Every soul will try to carefully succeed in pravrutti to avoid the hell and also try the level best in Nivrutti. If the human rebirth is assured, the soul becomes lazy. In fact, the human rebirth accepted in Hinduism is also misunderstood. Hinduism also says that the human rebirth is very rare and almost nil. The human rebirth may be sanctioned by God in a special case, which did not reach the goal in spite of very serious spiritual efforts. This should not be taken as a compulsory human rebirth after every birth! Thus, there is correlation in this concept.]
[To perform the ritual ceremony to the departed souls is essential, if it is understood in the real sense and not in the exploited sense. If the sacrifice of money, food, etc., is done to a really deserving devotee, the departed soul and the performing soul also get benefited due to the fruit of real sacrifice (good deed). If the receiver is not deserving, instead of good fruit, bad fruit reaches the departed soul and performer. Actually, the departed soul with energetic body does not receive this materialistic food since energy is its food, which is supplied by God. This truth is twisted by saying that the departed soul receives the food through the eater since it helps the performer to do this sacrifice with utmost care and even a greedy performer is provoked to do the sacrifice. Hence, the correlation between opposite arguments is achieved. Charvaka says that if this ritual is true, one should keep his old father/mother in the upstairs and feed someone else in the ground floor. Such criticism is meaningless if the actual background of the ritual is understood.]