Posted on: 19 Mar 2006
The meaning of the word Narayana is the Lord who has taken the shelter of a human body. The word ‘Nara’ means the human body. ‘Ayana’ means the person who has taken Nara as his shelter. This meaning of this word exactly coincides with the verse in the Gita “Manusheem tanumasritam”. The Lord is beyond the scope of even the intelligence and logic. You cannot understand anything about Him in any angle as said in the Gita “Mamtuveda Nakaschana…”. In the Veda there are several statements which say that He is beyond the words, mind, intelligence and logic. The only information about the Lord is that He is not known in anyway (Yasyamatam—Veda). God is completely unimaginable as He is beyond space and time. If you say that He is the life energy or awareness, He is understood at least by scientists or scholars having sharp imagination. All forms of energy are imaginable today. If you say that God is a statue on the seven hills, it is also very easy to understand and to even see Him with eyes. Whatever you imagine is only a part of creation and not the creator. Even the awareness, the subtlest and finest part of creation is called as Para Prakruti. Prakriti means the creation. The awareness is the material and also the designer in creating this universe. This awareness or Para Shakti is also called as Brahman because it is the greatest among all the items of creation. The word Brahman is used for Veda also because the Veda is the greatest of all the scriptures. The second Brahma Sutra also mentions about Brahman, which is the Mula Maya or Para Shakti. This is the first and finest part of the creation. It designs the whole universe and also all the scenes of this world-cinema. You cannot go beyond this. But God is beyond this Mula Maya.
What is the proof for such God? God gives us the experience of His existence. Therefore, we can say that God is unimaginable but surely exists (Asteetyeva—Veda). Such God is called as Parabrahman and this word means that God is beyond Brahman. Thus, this word also does not give any positive information about God. The sages recognised the existence of God by eliminating every item of the creation by saying “This is not God…this is not God…” (Neti Neti—Veda). They could only say what is not God, but could not say what is God. God gives us the experience of His existence by entering an item of the creation. The electric current gives the experience of its existence through a metallic wire. Similarly, God gives the experience of His existence through an item of creation. The best item of the creation is the human being. The human being contains inert matter (five elements) which includes inert energy also like light, heat etc., represented by the element ‘fire’. Apart from the inert matter and inert energy, life energy also exists in a fully developed state like life, mind, intelligence, bliss, ego and the chittam, which stores the information like a computer chip.
God is the greatest and therefore He enters only the greatest item of creation i.e., the human being. When the king enters a city, he stays in the most dignified palace. The human being is the most evolved living being. There are instances when God enters even the bodies of some animals for a limited purpose of killing a demon. When He enters such bodies of animals, He finishes His work and disappeares immediately because such bodies are not congenial to preach to humanity. Of course by using His special power He can preach even through the body of the animal. But when the easiest and most convenient way is available, even a fool will not use the most inconvenient way to get any work done. When the human body is available, which has all the natural facilities to do the work of preaching, why should He use the unnatural and inconvenient way for the same work?
Once, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa crossed a river by boat by paying a rupee. A yogi crossed the same river by walking on the water with the help of his supernatural power. The yogi told Shri Paramahamsa that he spent 30 years to attain that supernatural power. Shri Paramahamsa told him that the cost of his spiritual effort for 30 years was just one rupee. This story is sufficient to explain the logic of the entry of God into a human body rather than entering a statue, animal or some form of inert energy like light etc.
Parabrahman and Brahman
Some people feel that God is all-pervading like space. But space is also inert energy. If God becomes everything, or enters every human body, there is no meaning of creating this universe for entertainment. The subject acting as a spectator should be different from the object to be seen for entertainment. He can see everything in the world through His all-pervading awareness. You can call awareness as His power but you should not take any example from the world to understand the link between the source and power. In any worldly example the source and its power are imaginable items. Therefore, the link between the two imaginable items is imaginable. But the link between God and awareness is unimaginable because it is a link between the unimaginable God and the imaginable awareness. Therefore, it will be foolishness if you try to approach God through the awareness. It is the climax of the foolishness if you think that the awareness itself is God. You should not forget the awareness is also a created item though it is the subtlest and finest form of energy. When God enters the awareness, you can call this awareness as Parabrahman from the point of God or you can call this awareness as Brahman from the point of the awareness. You can call an electric wire as electricity or wire from different angles. Awareness is only the medium. Awareness charged by God is the super awareness. Mere awareness is called as Atman or soul, which can be also called as Brahman since it is the greatest item of creation. Therefore, you must be very careful about the terminology here. The awareness charged by God can be called as super awareness and not mere awareness. Thus, it can be called as Parabrahman and not Brahman.
Of course, you can call it as Brahman also from the point of medium but you must remember that it is not pure Brahman, which is Atman (soul), but it is the charged Brahman. Therefore, the second Brahma Sutra refers to such a charged Brahman by the word Brahman because pure awareness is separately called as Mula Maya or Para Shakti and a drop of this Mula Maya is called as Atman separately. When the word Brahman is introduced by the second Brahma Sutra, people misunderstand that Brahman to be pure awareness. Only the charged Brahman can create, maintain and destroy this universe. The pure Brahman or pure awareness cannot do anything by itself.
When even the pure awareness disappears, God can remain alone. In such a state there is no desire. In this state, pure awareness completely disappears. The pure awareness should be either aware of other things or should be aware of itself. In the waking and dream states, pure awareness is aware of other objects. In the waking state, the pure awareness is aware of this physical world. In the dream state it is aware of objects, which exist as its own imaginations. In the meditation state, the pure awareness remains aware of itself only. But in deep sleep this pure awareness completely disappears and only the physical body exists. In this state of deep sleep the awareness is neither aware of itself nor aware of other objects. In this state the objects in the form of imaginations do not exist but the objects in physical form exist. Therefore, when the awareness of itself or other objects disappears, we say that the awareness has disappeared.
To explain this concept in terms of science, we can say that in deep sleep, the chemicals of brain exist but the nervous energy produced by the chemical reaction of chemicals in the brain does not exist. This nervous energy is awareness. You will be clear if you analyse this state through science rather than through dry logical words. This indicates that God or Parabrahman exists even in the absence of the Mula Maya. In that state no one exists to even say that God alone exists! There is no use of even discussing about this state because it is beyond any discussion. Our discussion can start only with Mula Maya or pure awareness.
Creation by Modification
A very little part of this Mula Maya is modified into this world. This little world is just a state of imagination for the rest of the unmodified and unlimited awareness, which is charged by God. Therefore, the Mula Maya creates this world-cinema by designing several scenes as a series of pictures. This Mula Maya was called as ‘Parabrahma Mahishi’ by Shankara, which means that this Mula Maya gives entertainment to God as His wife. In these pictures she creates several roles [human incarnation] into which God likes to enter for further variety of entertainment. Such entertainment becomes complete only when each role is covered by full ignorance. Such role gets its self-awareness (awareness of Parabrahman) for the sake of the devotees who are to be uplifted. But God closes this self-realisation and enjoys the role with full ignorance in the association of His family members like parents, children, brothers and relatives. The closest circle of the human incarnation of God, like His wife and children are definitely liberated souls, who give entertainment to God with full ignorance in their own states. Such members of His close circle do not lose the chance of their upliftment because they will be liberated at the end since they were already liberated souls. The brothers, parents and other relatives of the human incarnation may be also liberated souls sometimes according to the requirement of God. Therefore, devotees need not wonder about the ignorance of closest circle of the human incarnation. An officer goes to a park for some change along with his family. If the family members also carry with them official files to be signed by the officer, the purpose of the picnic is totally lost.
The whole essence of your spiritual effort is whether the Lord can replace your wife, children and money. [Can you give them up for the sake of the Lord?] These three bonds are the strongest and are called as Eshanas. The day when all these three disappear and only God exists in these three places, your spiritual effort is over. But here God must mean the human incarnation and not a statue in a temple or the formless aspect of God. Some people can replace these three bonds by the bond with God in the form of a statue in a temple or by the formless aspect of God or by God in a celestial energetic body. Of course, they have realised the value of God completely. They should be appreciated. They have studied the course by regularly attending the classes and finally appeared for the examination but they have failed in the examination. They have realised the value of God but they have not conquered their ego and jealousy towards fellow human beings. The sages had sacrificed everything and everybody for God but could not recognise the human incarnation. They sacrificed all the Eshanas for God but their God was the energetic form like Vishnu, Shiva etc. When they were born as Gopikas and left everything and everybody for the sake of the human incarnation, then only was their spiritual effort completed. Thus they got the complete grace of God.
Why is Divine Knowledge the Most Difficult?
The whole complication lies only in the recognition of the human incarnation. Brahma Jnanam or Brahma Vidya (Divine Knowledge) is most difficult only due to this concept. The Veda does not mention much about the human incarnation because the Veda was told by God in an energetic body called as Brahma Deva. The Veda was told by Brahma Deva to angels who were souls existing in energetic bodies. Therefore, in the Veda the incarnations of God in energetic bodies like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva alone are elaborated. The preacher and the receiver were in the same medium called the energetic form. Therefore, the preacher explained only about the energetic incarnations, which are congenial to the medium of energetic forms.
But the epics like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavatam were written by Sage Valmiki and Sage Vyasa who were human beings. Rama and Krishna were the human incarnations. Human beings require such human incarnations alone, since they are convenient due to the common medium of human form. Krishna was God in human form and preached the Gita for human beings. The sages neglected such epics and gave importance only to the Veda. Therefore they worshiped the energetic forms. The main reason is their ego and jealousy towards the fellow human beings. There is no difference between the human incarnation and the energetic incarnation. God is common in both. In a human incarnation, the medium is made of five elements where as in an energetic incarnation, the medium is made of only one element which is called as ‘fire’ or energy. If the human body contains an ordinary soul, it is a human being and if the same human body contains God it is a human incarnation. Similarly, if an energetic body contains a soul it is an angel and if the same energetic body contains God, it is an energetic incarnation. Vishnu is an energetic incarnation and Indra is an angel. Krishna is a human incarnation and other people on earth are human beings.
An angel is greater than a human being but not greater than a human incarnation. A peon in a silk shirt is greater than a villager in a cotton shirt, but he is not greater than an officer in a cotton shirt. Indra is greater than any human being but not greater than Lord Krishna. The villagers in cotton shirts are unable to recognise the officer in a cotton shirt, who came to mix with them closely. They treat the peon in a silk shirt as the officer. The villagers of Vrindavanam were prepared to worship Indra and could not recognise Krishna who is the superior officer of even Indra. Even Indra could not recognise his own officer present in the cotton shirt![1]
Self Attainment or Recognition of God?
[Nikhil asked whether the Vedas speak more about the attainment of the self (Atman) rather than the recognition of the Super Self (God).]
The Upanishads speak more about self-realisation than about the recognition of the human incarnation of God. But the major earlier portion of the Veda deals with praying to energetic incarnations because the Veda was preached to angels by the energetic incarnation of God. Self-realisation is required for both human beings as well as angels. Even angels suffer with ego and jealousy. The state of angels is more dangerous than the state of human beings because they neglect energetic forms due to the repulsion towards common medium and they also reject human forms, which are in a lower state. The human beings, neglect God in a human form, but at least respect the higher state of energetic forms. Self-realisation is the first step in the spiritual effort, which was stressed by Shankara who came first.
The Eshanas (bonds) can be cut only by self-realisation and unless you are detached from these old bonds, you cannot form a new bond with God. The old bonds with wife, children etc., will compete vehemently with God especially when God is in the human form. These bonds are related only with the gross body, which is limited only to this birth. Unless you cross the gross body, these bonds will never disappear. Even if you cross the gross body, the effect of the gross body will be present in the form of feelings (Vasanas or Samskaras), which is the subtle body. Therefore, you have to cross the second hurdle also, which is subtle body. The source of feelings is the pure awareness, which is the causal body, the soul. When you identify yourself as the soul, your effort for self-realisation or self-attainment is completed. Now you are eligible for the formation of a fresh bond with God after hearing about His greatness and speciality. In this stage, you have also realized that you are only the self and not the Super Self. Therefore, self-realisation means not only the realisation of your soul but also the realisation that your soul is not the Super soul. Then only does the point of formation of a bond with God arise.
The urge, attraction or love for God is called as devotion, which is stressed by Ramanuja. For the development of such devotion for God, which is limited only to the mind, even a statue in a temple is sufficient. Ramanuja stayed in the temple of Sri Rangam for this purpose. In this second stage the human incarnation is just introduced but not stressed too much because the devotee is not completely devoid of ego and jealousy towards other human beings. Therefore, Ramanuja stressed on the energetic incarnation like Vishnu and His representative statue in Sri Rangam. When the devotion is completely developed and the ego and jealousy are completely eradicated, the devotee can recognize the human incarnation and render practical service, which is the devotion of mind translated to action as a proof of the devotion. In this state, Madhva, the final preacher, entered and introduced Hanuman.
Hanuman worshiped Rama, the human incarnation with practical service. Thus, the three preachers came in this particular order to show the three steps one after the other. The whole spiritual journey ends here when you become like Hanuman and recognize Rama, who is the human form of God. Please remember that you should not become Hanuman but become like Hanuman. If you become Hanuman, you will catch Rama, who is the past human incarnation. Please realize that Hanuman did not worship Vamana, Narasimha or Parashurama who were past incarnations for Hanuman. Therefore, become like Hanuman and search for your present human incarnation just as Hanuman searched for Rama, who was the human incarnation in His generation. Suppose you live long up to the next generation and suppose your present incarnation left His human body, then you must recognize the human incarnation of the next generation. Again here, you should be like Hanuman who recognized Krishna as the human incarnation in the next generation.
Islam, Voilence and Spirituality
[Mr. Steve asked whether Islam, which believes in spreading the religion through violence, can be treated at par with other religions.]
The Quran says that a Muslim should protect even an enemy belonging to another religion. It says that a Muslim can tell about the teaching of Allah to the enemy and then leave the enemy in a protected place. It never says that religion should be spread by violence. It speaks about the war for justice, which is not the war for the propagation of religion. For that matter, the Gita was preached on a battlefield of a war that was fought for establishing justice. Even the Bible says that the rigid fools who do not realize should be thrown to liquid fire, which is violence. Therefore, violence is not wrong. But the cause of violence should be perfectly justified.
When Mohammad came, there were three hundred religions, which were quarrelling among themselves with a lot of violence. He tried His best by preaching the concept of one God. There was no alternative way to subside the violence among them. Actually after Jesus, the concept of human incarnation was fully realized, but this concept was exploited by cheaters. Every fellow became a prophet and declared himself as the human incarnation. Their followers started preaching that their particular leader alone was the one God. You can easily imagine the situation at that time. When violence is justified, it is called as the punishment given by God. If the violence is not justified, it leads chaos due to ego of a demon, which can be subsided only by divine punishment. Actually in the end, Hinduism speaks about the incarnation of Kalki and Christianity speaks about the final punishment given by God. Both these situations are of terrible violence. The last resort of God is only punishment, which can alone bring peace at least temporarily when the world is filled with brutal conservative fools, who are wild beasts in human form.
The Lord says in the Bible “Revenge is mine” which means that the Lord punishes the unjust people. The Lord said in the Gita that He will destroy the evil person (Vinashaya cha….) God is a double-edged knife. Not only does He protect justice but He also punishes injustice. A rich weak human being may protect justice but may not be able to punish injustice. A poor strong fellow may punish injustice but not protect justice by giving compensation. Thus, human beings have limitations but the Lord is strong as well as rich and therefore is capable in both sides. This is what Jesus meant when He mentioned about the divine kingdom on earth. He means that one may escape from the king on this earth but can never escape from God.
When you are affected by injustice, pray only for compensation (“Ask that shall be given”—Bible) and not for the punishment of the enemy. You will be compensated. When you do not pray for the punishment of the enemy, you will soon see the punishment of your enemy by God. You may react to your enemy with equal or double force. But God will react with million times force. Draupadi pestered Krishna for the destruction of her enemies. The Lord fulfilled her wish but all her sons were killed by enemies and Lord did not protect them. Some times God punishes your enemy through you. Arjuna killed his enemies, forced by the Lord. But Arjuna did not have the intention to kill the enemies and was against the war. Since he was forced by the Lord, he fought the war for justice. When Muslims followed Mohammad in His war for unifying the religions, it was justified because there was a clear divine instruction. Since Mohammad was the last divine preacher, now the war for justice need not be carried on because in the absence of the divine preacher there is every possibility of misunderstanding every situation thinking that it requires a war for justice. Therefore, the instruction of Mohammad was limited to that time because He was capable of deciding the correct requirement for war for justice. Mohammad removed the concept of human incarnation because the effects of exploitation were severe in that time. Muslims should realize that human incarnation means that God enters the human body and not that God is modified into the human body. Mohammad objected only to a modification of God in to a human body. This is not condemning the concept of human incarnation. God only enters the human body and Mohammad Himself was a human incarnation because God entered in to Mohammad and gave the Quran. The Gita clearly says that God entered the human body (Manusheem Tanum Asritam…) and that God is not modified in to human body (Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam…). The Bible also says that God is in flesh and does not say that God has become flesh. Thus, there is no difference between the three religions.
[1] Goverdhana Giri incident