Posted on: 03 Jun 2018
75) Classification of Creation:-
Subtle energy or Mulaprakruti is the root source material of creation, which was created by unimaginable God through unimaginable link (mechanism). This original subtle energy is modified into matter and awareness through different imaginable mechanisms under the guidance and superpower of the unimaginable will of unimaginable God. You can say that God is intellectual cause (Nimitta) and subtle energy is the material cause (Upaadaana) as per Ramanuja and Madhva. You can also say that the unimaginable God is intellectual cause and also material cause since the subtle energy was generated by Him only and this is the concept of Shankara. Both are correct. i) If you include matter and energy also in the category of subtle energy, everything other than God is the creation, called as prakruti. The unimaginable God is called as Purusha. This classification exists in the Gita (purusham prakrutim chaiva...). ii) Another classification existing in the Gita is God, awareness (soul) and inert item consisting of inert matter and inert energy (Prakruti). God is called as ‘Purushottama’ to mean mediated God, charging inert (energetic or human) body and non-inert awareness and this classification was accepted by Ramanuja and Madhva. In this second classification, the awareness or soul is called as Purusha and Purushottama is God or Purusha charged by Datta. Both classifications are one and the same, if understood carefully.
76) Filtrations to Find God:-
Filtrations to find God in the human incarnation are i) primary filtration through miracles (Satyakaamah) and ii) Ultimate filtration by knowledge and love. In the primary filtration itself, 99 percent gets filtered, in which performance of the miracle is taken in the primary step. Krishna lifted the hill and this miracle filters 99 percent of human beings since no human being can do that miracle. Only two are leftover along with Krishna in this filtration. One is Hanuman, who lifted Sanjiivi mountain and Ravana, who lifted Kailaasha mountain. The case of Hanuman is not an obstacle since like Krishna, Hanuman is also a human incarnation of God Shiva. Only Ravana is leftover. Ravana failed in this miracle also since God Shiva pressed mountain by the thumb of His foot and Ravana fell down to fail in this miracle. Moreover, Ravana did not express any spiritual knowledge as expressed by Krishna in the form of the Gita. If you examine the love of Krishna and love of Ravana, there is vast difference. When Gopikas approached Krishna on hearing His sweet flute, Krishna warned them to go back advising that such approach is injustice. Still, Gopikaas insisted Krishna to dance with them. If you take the case of Ravana, he forced the wives of several people even though they (like Rambha, wife of Nalakubara) warned him against the injustice. Hence, in the knowledge (Prajnaanam Brahma) and in pure love (Raso vai sah), Ravana fails and can’t be compared with Krishna. Rama is totally a different case without any expression of miracles and hence, Rama comes down in the filtrate along with other human beings. The reason is that Rama wanted to preach the humanity acting as an ideal human being and hence, confined Himself to be a member of humanity. It is very easy to identify Krishna through miracles, but, it is very difficult to identify Rama since Rama was not at all willing to be identified as God by humanity since His wish was to be identified as ideal human being only (Aadarsha Maanusha Avataara). Krishna was identified as God very easily through His miracles from His childhood itself (Leelaa Maanusha Avataara). But, He also covered Himself by negative qualities, which repel the devotees from His identification. Rama was identified through His practical spiritual knowledge and pure love to Sita and other devotees even though miracles were not exhibited by Him. Krishna was identified as God through Knowledge (the Gita), pure love (towards Gopikas) and miracles, which are the three total identification marks.
77) Practical Tests:-
Practical tests are always done by God in the final level only. The sages did lot of penance in previous millions of births, which is theoretical by continuous discussions with lot of devotion to God. In these births, God never appeared before them for doing theoretical tests like asking “which is the beginning verse of 4th chapter of Rugveda?” in the knowledge or like asking a specific song to be sung from Samaveda in devotion. When the sages came to the ripened stage of knowledge and devotion, God tested them practically for their attachment to the three strong worldly bonds called as eshanaas (life partner, issues and wealth). After these practical tests only, salvation was granted to them by God.
When Krishna was preaching the Gita to Arjuna, which is the theoretical phase, on the flag of the chariot Hanuman was sitting, who is the embodiment of practical knowledge and practical devotion. Krishna is sitting on the chariot while preaching Arjuna, which is a lower level. Hanuman sitting on the flag is above the chariot, which is at higher level.
If you compare both the brothers (Bhima is brother of Arjuna as well as brother of Hanuman) Arjuna and Hanuman, there is no separate temple for Arjuna. But, separate temples exist for Hanuman in very large number. Why is this difference existing? The difference between both the devotees is that Arjuna used God for his work whereas Hanuman used Himself for the work of God!
78) Philosophy of Ramanuja:-
Philosophy of Ramanuja must be carefully understood, which has several curves (twists) of serpent since Ramanuja is the incarnation of the Lord of Serpents (Adi Shesha). Even Shankara made several superimposed twists (superimposition is His concept) in His philosophy, which are the curves of serpents existing (superimposed) on His body as jewels since He is the incarnation of God Shiva. All these twists were necessary for the then existing atmosphere of followers. The main points of Ramanuja’s philosophy are:- Shankara told that soul is God due to the atmosphere of atheists surrounding Him. But, when the atheists were converted into theists by accepting the existence of God, they asked Him the reason for not getting miraculous powers of God even though they were convinced that they were God! Shankara replied that they have to worship God to get purity of mind before becoming God. The followers understood His trick since God is always pure and need not achieve purity. Moreover, God need not worship Himself to get His own grace on Himself! The converted theists started falling down from sky to the earth suddenly! Then, Ramanuja prepared an intermediate platform between sky and earth for a middle halt! This middle halt is to say that the soul is not God, but, is an inseparable part of God. The doubt comes that God is one by not having all the three kinds of differences {i) Sajaatiiya-difference with another similar item, which is not possible since second God doesn’t exist. ii) Vijaatiiya-difference with another different item, which is not possible since there is no second different item like world or soul different from unimaginable God in the unimaginable domain. iii) Svagata-difference between its parts is also not possible since God has no internal difference like various limbs of human body}. Ramanuja said that soul is not a part of the God, but, a part of His body and hence, soul can be the part of body, which has internal difference due to its limbs.
Opponent:- The supernatural energetic body of Datta or Narayana can’t be constituted by pure and impure souls.
Dattaswami:- This world is taken as the external body of God (Vishwaruupa) like the outer shirt on the body and hence, defects do not enter His body. The human being itself can become a part of this external body of God. The human being contains awareness as soul and inert gross body and is called as ‘Suukshama Chidachit Vishishta’ or a micro system having both awareness and inert body. The world also contains awareness and inert items and is called as ‘Sthuula Chidachit Vishishta’ or macro system having both awareness and inert items. The similarity between these two vishishta items (God having world as body and human being having gross body as body) is said by the word Advaita. The result is the similarity between two vishishta items called as vishishta advaita. Vishishta contains two items:- visheshana, the blue colour and vishesheya, the lotus flower. Vishishta is the blue lotus flower.
Opponent:- Soul can be a part of God’s body and can’t be part of God and how Ramanuja told that soul is a part of God?
Dattaswami:- The body is superimposed on the soul as in the case of experience of all human beings and hence, part of the external body can be told as the part of the internal soul.
Opponent:- In the case of God, external world is body and internal energetic incarnation, called as Narayana is the soul. In the case of compared human being (like Svetaketu), the external gross body is the body and internal awareness is the soul. You are comparing Narayana (energetic body with soul) with the soul of the human being. This comparison is not valid.
Dattaswami:- In comparison, the two compared items need not be similar in all aspects. The internal position of Narayana in Vishwaruupa and the internal position of the soul in the body of human being is the common similarity and one similar point is sufficient for comparison.
Opponent:- The word Advaita means oneness and not comparison. If comparison is the intension, the word saadrushya must be used to say vishishta saadrushya but not vishishta advaita.
Dattaswami:- The oneness can be loosely used in comparison also. In metaphor or ruupaka, only two compared items are mentioned, in which oneness is mentioned. If both compared items are mentioned along with the similar point also, it becomes a special type of simile or luptopamaavaachaka. Since God and soul are mentioned along with the internal position as common similar point, it can be a type of simile. Even when you say that this person is lion by metaphor, really oneness is not there even though oneness is mentioned. Even though Advaita (oneness) is used in metaphor, there need not be real oneness, which means only similarity since any person can’t be really a lion. In fact, the oneness (advaita) is the real intension of Ramanuja in the context of incarnations resulting after Datta. The first energetic being charged by unimaginable God became the first energetic incarnation or Datta. In the case of further energetic or human incarnations, the unimaginable God will not charge the energetic or human beings directly as He charged first energetic being to become Datta because unimaginable God exists with His permanent address called as Datta. Hence, Datta only enters the medium to become energetic or human incarnation. Datta is one Vishishta having inner soul and external energetic body (both soul and body being charged by unimaginable God). If Datta entered, it means unimaginable God entered since unimaginable God never enters any other energetic or human being directly except through Datta. Unimaginable God entered and merged with the first energetic being only to become Datta. Energetic or human being is another Vishishta having the common internal soul with energetic or human body respectively. When Datta (one vishishta) enters the energetic or human being (another vishishta), total merge (advaita) results to form energetic or human incarnation and this is the real essence of vishishta advaita. This means that whenever energetic or human incarnation results, only Datta enters the medium directly and not the unimaginable God. When unimaginable God entered and merged with the first energetic being to become Datta, such merge is not vishishta advaita because unimaginable God being one only can’t be called as vishishta (vishishta requires both visheshana and visheshya to exist). The oneness (Advaita) of Shankara can be taken in the case of the union of unimaginable God and first energetic being since the unimaginable God is not Vishishta. Vishishta advaita requires the existence of two vishishta items. Since, the first energetic being is the only one vishishta, the word ‘vishishta advaita’ (Vishishtayoh advaitam— Oneness between two vishishta item) can’t be applied in this first case of oneness by merge of unimaginable God and first energetic being. All the other energetic and human incarnations only come under the concept of vishishta advaita. This means that even any other incarnation is not an example of perfect monism or advaita with unimaginable God, but, is an example of perfect monism (Advaita) with Datta only. Since Datta had already perfect monism with unimaginable God, the new incarnation has indirect oneness with unimaginable God. Only Datta has the direct oneness with unimaginable God. This difference between Datta and other incarnation brings dualism for name sake, but, shows basic monism in essence. Hence, both Shankara (Shiva) and Ramanuja (Vishnu) are one and the same with external dualism and internal monism!
79) Nearness and Dearness:-
Nearness is inversely proportional to dearness and this applies not only to human beings but also even to energetic beings (angels) as said by the Veda (parokshapriyaa iva hi devaah pratyakshadvishah). This is based on repulsion between common media. An energetic being (angel or human soul in energetic body after death in the upper world) is repelled by the external energetic body of energetic incarnation. Similarly, a human being is repelled by the external human body of human incarnation. Indra, an energetic being, even though the Lord of angels, showed negligence to God Shiva, an energetic incarnation, and lifted his weapon to kill God Shiva! God Shiva stared at him and Indra became an inert statue. The reason for this negligence of Indra towards God Shiva is the repulsion between common energetic bodies of Indra and Shiva. The cowherds, though kith and kin of Krishna proposed worship of Indra, who is the servant of God, but, did not get the idea of worshiping God Krishna. Again, the reason here is the repulsion between common human bodies of Krishna and cowherds. Krishna said in the Gita that this repulsion between common media will lead even to insult the human incarnation (Avajaananti maam). The devotion or dearness decreases due to repulsion between common human bodies of God and devotees and the added factor is nearness. If the devotee is constantly near to God in human form, the value of devotion goes down because the common properties of the common media make devotees to think that the human incarnation is also a human being like them. This strong impression of common properties of common media constantly appearing on the exposed side like hunger, thirst, illness, sleep etc., make the devotees to forget the hidden divine side of human incarnation (param bhaavamajaananto— Gita). Added further to this, when negative qualities are exposed to test the faith of devotees, insulting human incarnation reaches climax! Many Gopikas went to the mother of Krishna to complain that Krishna is stealing butter in their houses even though they have seen several divine miracles of Krishna exhibited in His childhood itself. The practical influence of the ignorance (Ajnaana Vikshepa Shakti) is very high in the human beings. To maintain the value of devotion in Gopikas to whom God Krishna decided to give salvation, God Krishna left them and never returned to Brundavanam. Gopikas suffered with agony due to separation, but, that agony is the force of devotion grown being far from God! Rukmini was constantly near to Krishna and Rukmini is considered to be the top most devotee of Lord. Every day, she was drinking hot milk and she gave the same hot milk to Radha, who came to Dwaraka from Brundavanam. Radha drank the milk as usual and both found the Lord becoming red due to heat. Lord said that He is in the heart of Radha and hence, He became red due to the heat of milk drunk by Radha. Rukmini understood that she was also drinking the same hot milk every day and the Lord did not become red on any day and this is due to her constant nearness to Him. In the case of Radha, Lord became red due to farness of Radha. Radha also understood this, went back to Brundavanam and never returned to Dwaraka. Of course, this is general rule and there are some exceptions to any general rule. Adishesha, the Lord of serpents is always in constant association of the Lord. But, when he incarnated himself as Lakshmana, he did tremendous service to the Lord by moving around the hut like a watchman for 14 years without food and sleep leaving far his young wife! Till you reach such climax of devotion, you must be aware of this general rule without thinking that you are an exceptional devotee, avoiding the risk by standing on the safer side.
80) Worshiping Statues and Photos:-
God is worshiped as a statue or photo by many devotees since it is very convenient to the nature of human being. The human being can place its request before God whether the request is justified or not. If human incarnation is in the place of statue, the incarnation will certainly preach that the request is not justified and such preaching is very inconvenient to the devotee praying for the fulfillment of such unjust request. When a thief is going to steal from some house, the thief prays God in the form of statue to help him in his effort. The statue will not reply saying that stealing is a sin. In the place of statue, if the contemporary human incarnation exists, it will certainly speak by saying that stealing is a sin and preaches a lot to stop doing the sin. If the thief succeeds in doing the theft, the thief becomes grateful to God. If the thief fails in his effort, the thief thinks that it is his bad luck. The thief can never be reformed since his entire life ends with worshiping the statue. The aim of God is to reform the souls through preaching. Hence, the statue is only a representative model of God and God never exists in it directly (na tasya pratimaa… Veda). The statue (or photo) is useful in developing the theoretical devotion to God, which does not involve any practical devotion. Even if the practical devotion like lit the oil lamp, burning fume sticks etc., is done, it is mere wastage since God does not enjoy your practical sacrifice in the service. When you offer a fruit to the statue, the statue doesn’t eat it and you can eat it after offering it to God as remains. The theoretical devotion is certainly developed, but, God is not enjoying your service. You want that God shall not enjoy your sacrifice and at the same time, God must give the fruit of enjoyment of your service! Suppose you go to a hotel and ask for the supply of meals. The server brings the meal and offers it to you in the same way as you offer the meal to the statue and takes it away to eat it. After this, the server brings the bill of meal and asks you to pay it. You will shout saying that it is the climax of injustice. Why don’t you feel the same when you ask God for boon through the statue for doing such false service? All this is done by you due to your greediness and you cover it by saying that God does not eat at all. If it is so, why are you offering the meal to God before eating it? Another angle is that you are not sure of the existence of God at all. By such services to God, you are not loosing anything in advance so that even if God doesn’t exist, there is no loss to you. If God exists, let Him be pleased by such riskless offer and help you in your worldly life. Even if He doesn’t help through such false offer, let it be so since you have not lost anything through such offer! This is the basic psychology in the worship of statues and photos. If you are doing practical sacrifice to human incarnation or even to a devotee representing God and do this type of worship to statues also in order to improve your theoretical devotion to God side by side, such path can be appreciated. The perfume stick burnt by you before the statue is useful to you only since it gives good scent in your house for the pleasant atmosphere of yourself and your family. If you burn the oil light in the night before the statue it will be useful for you all. But, you are burning the oil light in the day time, which is neither useful to you nor to God since God is the light of all the lights. This is certainly a wastage and God will be pleased with you really if you donate that oil to poor people, who can use it for light in the night or even in preparing their food. The oil is not wasted at all. If you keep flowers on the statue or photo, the statue or photo will look more beautiful to attract your mind by which your theoretical devotion on God develops much. Generally, ladies take away such garland of flowers from the statue to keep in their hair after some time as remains of God! The only important point in the worship of statues or photos must be that no food material shall be wasted in the name of God. Our tradition has certain defects followed by us from a long time without analysis. Elders threaten us from doing such analysis saying that God is displeased and the tradition shall be blindly followed without analysis. There are several good traditions also, which shall be also identified after analysis only.
(To be continued...)