Posted on: 04 Mar 2007
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
Shankara stated that awareness is Brahman irrespective of its association with intelligence or good and bad qualities. This means that birds and animals without intelligence and even cruel wild beings are introduced into the spiritual field since Brahman or God [by Shankara’s definition] exists in all living beings. Of course there is no use of spiritual knowledge for animals. But Shankara included all living beings in the spiritual field because even among human beings, there are some without intelligence and some demons having cruel qualities. Lord Shiva is worshipped even by demons and is said to be the Lord of animals (Pashupati). Angels with great intelligence and good qualities also worship Lord Shiva. Therefore, Shankara embraced all human beings irrespective of intelligence and qualities for spiritual upliftment. It is like a school program opened in a tribal area. The students are attracted for admission into the school without any admission tests and mere attendance is sufficient for the promotion to the higher class. There is also a scheme of free midday meals for attracting students. Any child is admitted into the school. Similarly, all human beings including bad demons and ignorant people are attracted to the Advaita scheme, which says that you are already God if you have the basic lump of awareness. Such liberal attraction is essential for that level.
Levels in Spiritual Education
The student of a certain level is called as an adhikari. The part of knowledge that suits his level is called as vishaya. Any number of assumptions and modifications can be done in that part of the knowledge so as to suit the basic psychology of the student, which cannot be changed all of a sudden. Such suitability of the part of the knowledge is called as sambandha. The final modified form of the suitable part of knowledge alone can be the subject (vishaya) since such a subject alone can be useful to uplift him to the next higher step. The use [of this subject] in the practical aspect of the progress of the student is called as prayojanam. These four parameters (adhikari, vishaya, sambandha, and prayojanam) are called as anubandha chatushtayam, which are the guidelines of a preacher either in worldly subjects or in the spiritual subject. All the modifications and assumptions introduced into the subject by the preacher form the part of the curriculum of the subject at that level. As the student is promoted to the higher class, he drops out such modifications and assumptions. But all these assumptions and modifications remain in the curriculum for the sake of the future students admitted into that class. Hence, once should not worry that the modified knowledge suitable to a particular level is destroyed when an individual goes up to the higher class. The Advaita of Shankara will remain forever in the level of the school for all the batches of students that are admitted every year. Thus the level of the philosophy is always eternal and cannot be discarded by anybody. He alone has left that level to reach the higher level. If one goes to the college level, the school syllabus is neither condemned nor destroyed. Therefore, no school of philosophy can be condemned by anybody.
Advaita—School Level
The Adviata philosophy is meant to satisfy the ignorant level of school students in whom the ego and jealousy are at the climax as in the case of demons. The concept of the soul already being God suits such a psychology and stands as an attraction like the scheme of free midday meals. In this level, the truth is completely masked on one side but the same truth appears at the climax level one the other extreme end. The highest level or angle of God is used in the lowest level as an attraction. Qualitatively, the same concept appears at the lowest as well as the highest levels. The concept is that a human being is God. This concept remains the same qualitatively, even at the highest level except that it is concentrated quantitatively at the highest level. This means that at the lowest level, every human being is said to be God and at the highest level, only a specific human being like Krishna is God. Thus the qualitative aspect is like the single coin and the quantitative aspects are like the two sides of the same coin. Therefore, qualitatively, Shankara stands in the same concept in the lowest level as well as in the highest level. This is the miraculous talent of the divine genius, Shankara who is the incarnation of Lord Shiva.
Lord Shiva is the source of the divine knowledge and represents the climax of Sattvam (Sattvat Samjayate Jnanam…., Jnanam Maheshwarat….) as Lord Dakshinamurthy preaching divine knowledge to the sages. He is therefore worshipped by the angels. He is in the climax of rajas while destroying the world as Rudra. He is in the climax of Tamas with all the habits that are anti-tradition, like staying in burial and cremation grounds, liking demons etc., Thus Shankara covered all human beings irrespective of knowledge, intelligence or good and bad qualities. He covered all the atheists too in order to convert them into theists, for which lot of attractive schemes were announced by Him. The promotion rule [promoting from one class to another] was also very liberal like mere attendance of the class, which is saying that you are already God and that there is no effort necessary to become God.
Vishishthadvaita—College Level
The next level is that of college where some strict rules for admissions and promotions were introduced by Ramanuja. He continued the same basic concept that the lump of awareness is Brahman, but He announced that the awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) alone is God. Now the atheists were already converted into theists and could not go back to the school level. The strictness is that the human being must leave Rajas and Tamas to please God. If this point were told to atheists in the beginning, they would not care because they do not accept even the basic existence of God. Now spiritual effort is stressed, to get rid of [that] Rajas and Tamas which disturbs the balance of society (Pravritti). This is the stage in which the spiritual aspirants perform their spiritual effort.
Even for the divine play, the establishment of Sattvam or justice is essential because unless justice is strongly established and unless the fear for injustice is established through punishment, there is no meaning in the violation of justice for God. If injustice is ruling as the natural and inherent policy, everyone can easily violate justice for the sake of God. Only when justice is strongly established, and one can still violate it for the sake of God in Nivritti, such a violation has value. Therefore, the establishment of justice is required even for Nivritti. In the beginning of the Gita the Lord stressed on the establishment of justice (Dharma samsthapanarthaya…) for Pravritti and in the end for Nivritti, He also recommended the violation of justice (Sarva Dharman…). Along with the strict rules in the college, some liberalization still continues in the college level like giving scholarships for paying fees. Similarly, though the concept of the soul being God is not extended here, the concept of the soul being a part of the God is introduced.
The concept that the soul is already God cannot be suddenly broken [It appeals very powerfully to people and once a person accepts this philosophy, it is very tough to give up this concept]. Thus the Vishistadvaita philosophy of Ramanuja acts like a bridge between the school level of Shankara and the university level of Madhva. The soul associated with sattvam and charged by God in the energetic body is Vishnu, who is fixed as the ultimate God. The development of the concept of God by Ramanuja is that the gross human body of Shankara’s theory is replaced by the gross energetic body, because ego and jealousy in the student are not completely removed for accepting God in the human body. In Ramanuja’s theory, every gross energetic body (angel) is not God. Thus the concept of God is not generalized to all souls but is concentrated to a specific individual soul. Even among souls, only that soul is chosen which has only one quality of sattvam and not rajas and tamas. This is almost like introducing God as completely different from the human soul. Of course the soul is one and the same in both a human being and Vishnu [according to this theory]. Even in the concept of the soul being a part of God, Ramanuja played a trick. The [human] soul is not actually a part of the Divine Soul. The soul is only a part of this creation, which is treated as the external gross body of God. Hence, it is actually clear Dvaita [duality] except that a consolation of soul being part of God is given through this trick, which is not also the truth. Thus there is no fundamental difference between Ramanuja and Madhva except for this one consolation, which is also not true upon analysis.
Dvaita—University Level
The third level of university with lot of strict rules and serious admission tests is maintained by Madhva, who proposed the Dvaita philosophy, announcing that the soul is completely different from God. The ambition [of the soul wanting to be God] is completely suppressed and only very little liberalization in the form of a few scholarships continues here. Even though the soul is not a part of God, it is rewarded by the grace of God as best, average and worst. The soul is always a servant of God, who is always the Master. The basic concept of awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) continues here also. Here, the trick of Ramanuja to console the souls was also avoided since the world is not treated as the external gross body of God. Therefore, the soul is no more a part of God. The soul is an external item like a servant who is not like a limb of the body of the master. The only consolation here is that God is pleased by the service of the soul and awards some medals to souls such as best, good, average, bad and worst. Here a development in the concept of God is made by Madhva. He stressed on Krishna, who is a human incarnation and stressed on Hanuman who worshipped the human incarnation. The concept of Shankara is brought over here qualitatively as it is (that a human being is God). But whereas Shankara had diluted the concept such that all human beings were said to be God, Madhva concentrated it to only specific human beings by saying that only incarnations like Krishna, Rama etc were God. However, even though Madhva stressed on the concept of the human incarnation, He could not dare to introduce the concept of the contemporary human incarnation because this concept is acceptable only when ego and jealousy in the devotee are completely eradicated. While introducing the concept of the human incarnation, He maintained the energetic form of God simultaneously. Thus He acted as a bridge between Ramanuja and Datta Swami, who not only gives a stress on the concept of human incarnation but also gives the final stress on the contemporary human incarnation.
Shri Datta Swami’s Teaching—National Research Laboratory Level
The fourth level is introduced by Datta Swami, which is a pure national research laboratory at the PhD level. In the university also research programs and the PhD level exist. In the level of Madhva, the concept of human incarnation exists. The final development in the concept of God is given here. Datta Swami changes the basic concept of God being awareness associated with either sattvam or the three qualities. Here, awareness is also treated as a quality possessed by God. Awareness is like the colorless cotton shirt having the three colors as qualities. But a colorless human being also possesses the shirt and the shirt is not the final possessor. The human being and the cotton shirt are beyond the three colors and this does not mean that the colorless shirt is the colorless human being. The soul (awareness) is beyond the three qualities and since God is beyond the soul, God must naturally be beyond the three qualities. God is not any known item of the creation including awareness, because awareness is also a known item, which is completely proved by science.
The practical authority for establishing the existence of an unknowable or unimaginable God is the unknowable or unimaginable nature that exists in a superhuman being like Krishna. The address of God cannot be obtained in every human being. It can be obtained in a superhuman being like Krishna. The human being and Krishna have all the common items (soul, subtle body and gross body) but the unimaginable nature established through His unimaginable knowledge (Gita) and His unimaginable miracles is an extra item. Hence, we consider that extra special unimaginable nature as the final Absolute God and He is the Possessor of the awareness (soul) also. The Veda says that He is the Controller of all the souls (Atmeshwaram…). Here the same concept of a specific human being being God is taken from Madhva but the basic concept of awareness being Brahman is modified. This is not a new concept introduced now. Several Vedic statements clearly speak that Brahman or God is unimaginable and the Gita also says the same (Mamtu Veda Na Kashchana…). God charging a specific human being is also mentioned in the Gita (Manushim tanum…). The actual essence of the Gita is the contemporary human incarnation, which is now rediscovered and stressed. When even angels, due to their ego and jealosy, reject the contemporary energetic incarnation as said in Veda (Devah pratyaksha dvishah….), what to speak of human beings rejecting the contemporary human incarnation! Only one like Hanuman and the Gopikas who have fully conquered the ego and jealousy can identify this climax of truth. Truth and the number of followers are inversely proportional. If you want a large crowd of followers, go to the climax of lies like saying that every human being is already God and say that there is no need of even a trace of effort to become God. Of course, even this climax of lies is in the curriculum, to cater to a vast majority of ignorant people, who have the climax of ambition [of becoming God]. It can be used as a weapon of attraction to uplift the downtrodden people to the next step.
Equal Opportunity to Godhood
You need not be discouraged that a specific human being has become God and that you have no opportunity to become like that in this very human life. The analysis of the human incarnation shows the coexistence of the unimaginable God and a selected soul who is suitable for the specific purpose of the divine mission of God (Dvaasuparnaa…). When the divine program needs various suitable talents, God can simultaneously enter into multiple human bodies to make simultaneously existing human incarnations. Therefore if you make yourself suitable for the divine mission of God, God can certainly enter your human body and do a specific task needed for the divine mission through you. In such a case you too are the human incarnation acting in a specific direction of the program. Datta Swami is a soul selected for the purpose of generating divine knowledge because He has the talent of the knowledge of both scriptures and science, which is suitable for that line of work. All the devotees who are working in this divine mission have different talents and God has entered their human bodies also and is working alone those lines of the program. Therefore, all the devotees who are already working in this mission are already simultaneous human incarnations of God. That is how Datta Swami views His devotees. The devotees of Datta Swami do not accept themselves as simultaneous human incarnations and this shows their submissiveness, which is the basic characteristic of Lord Datta. Datta Swami, sometimes declares Himself as the human incarnation of Lord Datta and therefore Datta Swami alone has to be doubted! The devotees who are going to join this mission in the divine service are the future human incarnations. The cosmic vision of the Lord (Vishwarupam) shows several heads and several hands. This means that the human incarnation is a complex of several divine brains planning in the mission and several divine hands working in the mission. Hence, the concept of Shankara is now concentrated only to some extent so that it is neither a single human incarnation nor every useless human being, who is the human incarnation. This is the golden middle path avoiding both the extreme ends.
This divine mission is a teamwork of a selected number of simultaneous human incarnations working through different channels like fans, lights, TV screens, etc., in a hall. The same electric current is working through all the different channels in all these electric instruments. You cannot say that an insulator, into which electric current can never enter, is also an electric instrument. At the same time you cannot say that a specific light in the hall alone is an electric instrument. Therefore, let us join together to carry on the propagation of this divine knowledge, using our various talents in the service of the Lord without any feelings of difference like superiority or inferiority. The difference in the channels of talents has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority. You cannot say that the light is superior and the fan is inferior. In the Gita the Lord mentions that He is the best talent among each category. If all these best talents are grouped together, this best group of talents, which is a team of the best divine personalities, forms the total picture of the Lord. The Lord says that He is Adishesha among serpents, Garuda among the birds and Arjuna among Pandavas. Adishesha, Garuda and Arjuna are sincerely involved in His divine service in all the times. Hence, His total personality is a composite of all these best souls. He is Krishna among Yadavas, as told by Him in the Gita. Therefore, He did not specify Himself to be Krishna alone, even though Krishna generated the divine knowledge (Gita). Krishna is also one of this composite.
Nara and Narayana
[Shri. Lakshman commented that Shri Datta Swami alone is the human incarnation and such statements declaring His devotees to be simultaneous incarnations only shows the love of God towards His devotees. Smt. Vasumati, wife of Shri Bhimashankaram, said that such statements are meant only to encourage the unity in the team and to remove any differences. Swami replied as follows:]
This angle may be also correct because God treats His devotees even more than Himself. Narada said in the Narada Bhakti Sutras that real devotees can be considered as God (Tanmayahite…). But apart from this angle, the other angle may also be true in which the human incarnation and the devotee may be simultaneous incarnations of God as in the case of Rama and Hanuman. Hanuman is very famous for His firm faith in the contemporary human incarnation, Rama. But while remaining as the most obedient servant of Rama, Hanuman was a simultaneous human incarnation of God. Apart from these two angles a third angle may also be possible where the master may be a soul and the devotee may be God as in the case of Sandeepani and Krishna. Sandeepani identified Krishna as the Lord but kept silent on the request of Krishna. Then there may be a fourth angle in which the master is a false human incarnation with ignorance and ego and the servant is a real human incarnation. For example Bade Baba, an egoistic soul, declared himself as the master of Shirdi Sai Baba, who was the incarnation of God. Sai Baba agreed to this and served Bade Baba as His master for some days. God will not mind His position in the bond with His devotee, provided there is love in the bond. God will act as per the desire of the devotee. Dasharatha acted as a father and Rama acted as his son based on the request of Dasharatha in the previous birth. In this bond, Dasharatha loved Rama without any ego, unlike the case of Bade Baba. In fact, Rama the Lord, is the Divine Father of all souls and Dasharatha was one of the souls. Yet Rama did not mind being Dasharatha’s son and treat the soul as His father to fulfill the desire of the devotee. Similar is the case of Krishna and Yashoda.
Therefore, the ways of the unimaginable God are always unimaginable and any unimaginable turn can happen at anytime. Parashurama was the human incarnation and Rama was a simultaneous human incarnation. Parashurama was affected by ego and God left him. He was then insulted by Rama. The human incarnation must also be very careful in resisting the ego to maintain the unimaginable God in His body. Sai Baba, the human incarnation, always repeated that He is the servant of God (Allah Mallik) to please God, who present in His human body and His statement means that He is aware of the truth. Sai Baba, Akkalkot Maharaj and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa were simultaneous human incarnations of God. For the devotees, the human incarnation should be [treated as identical to] God just like the live wire itself is treated as electric current. But, the human incarnation is always very careful about His angle, in order to maintain God in His body throughout His life. When Krishna gave the Gita, it is said that God spoke (Shri Bhagavan uvacha) and it is not said that Krishna spoke (Krishna uvacha). When Arjuna asked Him to repeat the Gita at the end of the war, Krishna expressed his inability. Krishna was the PA [personal assistant] and God is the Boss. Both co-exist in the same office room, which is the single human body. This does not mean that God is modified into Krishna or that Krishna is modified into God. When Arjuna insisted, Krishna repeated the Gita based on the knowledge that He had learnt from Sage Sandeepani. The second Gita given by Krishna called, as Anu Gita is not at all famous. This clearly shows the existence of both God (Bhagawan) and soul (Krishna) in the same human body. But this is the angle of Krishna and the same should not be the angle of the devotees of Krishna. For devotees, Krishna is God as the live wire is the current. If devotees take the aspect of separate God and soul (Dvaita) in the human incarnation, the devotees are lost. God has taken Krishna as the medium to give His experience to the devotees and there is no other way to experience God directly. Hence the angle of the devotees must be Advaita [non-duality] towards the human incarnation.
God selects this two-in-one system for His divine play also. When God has to act as a human being to test the faith of His devotees, He cannot act as a real human being acts and therefore the human being [the human part (PA) in the incarnation, which is a two component system consisting of human being and God] acts directly. Similarly, when human incarnation has to act as God, the human being in Him cannot act as God and hence God (Boss) in Him acts directly. Therefore, in the case of the human incarnation, whenever the context of direct action of God comes, God acts directly through the human being since in the human incarnation, the human being is only the expression medium. But some people misunderstand it because even though God is speaking directly, externally it looks as if the human being is speaking. They feel that the human being is boasting as God. In cinema, male actors play male roles and female actors play female roles. Hence, the cinema is very effective and attractive due to the natural acting of actors as males and females respectively. In olden days male actors also acted in female roles but in such female roles, they could not exhibit the natural actions of females. Hence the old dramas were not as attractive as cinemas. Thus this two-in-one system is a wonderful combination of Nara and Narayana in the human incarnation with natural actions to serve both purposes according to the contexts.
Choose Your Angle
Shankara was the incarnation of God and Advaita is the angle of God. God alone can explain the angle of God. Ramanuja was the incarnation of Adishesha who is one of the closest circle of God called as a liberated soul. The angle of a liberated soul can be best explained by a liberated soul alone. Madhva was an incarnation of Vayu [Lord of Wind, an angel] and claimed to be the son of Vayu and the younger brother of Hanuman and Bheema. Among Dharmaraja, Bheema and Arjuna, Bheema was the best servant since he had full blind faith in God. After recognizing the Lord through thorough analysis, logic must be stopped before the Lord, because God is beyond logic. Logic only helps to eliminate the false forms of God. When the Lord decided to wage war, Bheema simply jumped into the war. But Arjuna asked for a lot explanations from the Lord. When the Lord asked Dharmaraja, to tell a lie, he refused. Bheema told the same lie on the order of the Lord, even though it did not click. Vayu is an angel and one of the five fundamental elements and is only a soul. The angle of a soul can be best explained by a soul alone. Therefore, if you understand the background of the personalities of three Acharayas, the theories in their respective angles are well understood. The whole spiritual knowledge from the angle of God, from the angle of a liberated soul and from the angle of an ordinary soul are explained and thus there cannot be any contradiction between these three philosophies, since the angles of explanation are quite different but mutually coexist at the same time.
The unimaginable God is like the invisible management of a college, which is not seen on the campus. The visible Principal is only one and represents the entire invisible management as the final authority in the college. The management and the principal are quite different but the principal must be treated as the management for all practical purposes. Similarly, the human incarnation stands for the unimaginable God and such God is experienced through a specific human incarnation like Shankara or Krishna. There will be a few vice principals like the Vice Principal for Administration, Vice Principal for Academic Affairs and Vice Principal for Student Affairs. These three Vice Principals constitute the [components that make up the] total composite of the post of the Principal. Each Vice Principal can stand as a partial representative for the Principal. Similarly, the liberated soul like Adishesha (Shesha means part) stands for God as a part of the composite. He incarnated as Ramanuja. Ramanuja stated that the soul is a part of God. The Vice Principal is not the total Principal actually. Thus the difference is maintained and at the same time the closeness as a part, is also maintained. This is the case of a liberated soul, which stands between an ordinary soul and God. The third state of Madhva is a Lecturer working in the college as an employee without any power except doing service. Similarly Madhva represented Vayu who is an ordinary soul and a servant of God. He established the complete difference between the master and servant. Therefore, the angles of Principal, Vice Principal and Lecturer exist simultaneously in the same college with mutual correlation and there is no trace of any contradiction, just as the Principal, Vice Principals and Lecturers coexist in the college with mutual cooperation and without any contradictions. Then I do not understand why the followers of these three philosophies are quarrelling with each other? You have to decide for yourself, whether you are the Principal, Vice Principal or a Lecturer and you can speak and behave as per the corresponding angle, without any contradiction with the other posts in the same college and in the same time. If you are God in human form, behave like Shankara. If you are a liberated soul behave like Ramanuja as a part of God. If you are an ordinary soul behave like Madhva as a sincere servant of God.