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Shri Datta Swami

Posted on: 27 May 2019

               

Shri Dattaguru Bhagavat Gita: Kaalabhairava Khanda: Chapter-16 Part-4

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

(Song of Preacher – God Shri Datta)

Kaalabhairava Khanda—Part of Kaalabhairava

Sixteenth Chapter–Datta Matasamanvaya Yogah

(Divine Vision of Correlation of Datta-Religions)

God-Preacher Shri Datta spoke:

49)  Chaarvaaka said that the living body with awareness itself is the soul. There is no problem with this point because, after all, the soul is only a special work-form of inert energy associated with the material body. Since matter is also another form of energy, all the three phases, matter, energy and awareness, can be considered to be just one item, called creation. None of them is the Creator. Only the schools which treat the soul to be God have a problem with this claim of Chaarvaaka since they treat the soul, which is a created item, as God. The reality is that the unimaginable God alone is the Creator while the imaginable soul is a tiny part of creation. Actually, the soul is a form of energy and is slightly different from the body, which is made of matter. However, this slight difference is not a big problem because matter and energy are only slightly different. They are not totally different items. Chaarvaaka says that awareness is generated from a combination of the four elements other than space. He also accepts the requirement of subtle space for the existence of any created item. The existence or non-existence of space in awareness is not a major problem since space, after all, is only part of creation. Science too, analyzes awareness and we know that science can only analyze items within the universe. Thus, we must congratulate sage Chaarvaaka for discovering that the soul is only a created item or that it is a part of creation.

50)  Atheists and even some scientists say that God does not exist and hence, there is no heaven, hell or any other upper world. On this point, they are in line with Chaarvaaka, who too was an atheist. But the atheists and scientists claim to support the rules of justice in pravrutti or worldly life. It is only the hypocrisy of these people. Actually, they are fully convinced that even if they secretly break the rules of justice in pravrutti, they need not fear any punishment since, according to them, no God exists. But they externally claim to support justice. This superficial hypocrisy is only to cheat society and get a good name in spite of violating justice secretly. Their diplomacy is meant to help them in escaping the punishment from the law of the land for their secret injustice. These atheists maintain some external politeness even though they are actually cheating others. On the other hand, sage Chaarvaaka openly said that the rules of pravrutti can be broken and sins can be committed without any fear. We must appreciate both the frankness of the sage and the politeness of the modern atheist. Sage Chaarvaaka was a great scientist who discovered the essential nature of the soul. His discovery has helped us recognize that the soul is a part of creation and is not the Creator. God is very angry with this perverted ancient scientist not because he denied the existence of God, but because he totally broke the rules of pravrutti. These rules are the basis for maintaining the balance of society. After all, the fear of the punishment for sin intrinsically prevents a person from committing injustice. It is much more effective in controlling injustice than any external control such as the law of the land. This intrinsic fear of committing sins is based on the existence of God alone. It is God who punishes the sinner for his sins in unimaginable ways. The sinner may succeed in escaping the punishment from the law of land, but escaping God’s punishment is impossible since it is delivered in unimaginable ways.

51)  Sage Pippalaada, who was an Incarnation of God Shiva, found fault with the above point of Chaarvaaka regarding the soul. Pippalaada said that life (praana) is the soul. Here, the word praana indicates awareness and not the merely the inert air which is involved in the mechanical process of respiration. Plants too have the inert respiration. They even have inert energy. But they do not have awareness due to the lack of a nervous system. Since energy passing through the material nervous system gets converted into awareness, the energy can indicate the soul (awareness) that it produces. Thus, energy and its product, awareness, can be treated to be different from matter. In a strict sense, the word praana, of course, means the inert air involved in the mechanical process of respiration. Respiration supplies oxygen for the oxidation of food leading to a release inert energy. This inert energy is converted into the special work-form of energy called awareness only when it passes through a specific functioning device called the nervous system. Hence, mere respiration (praanamaya kosha) is not sufficient for the generation of awareness. Awareness (manomaya kosha) is generated through nervous activity which is the passing of signals among neurons. But since inert energy which is obtained through respiration is essential to produce awareness, the word praana can be used to mean awareness. Plants (botanical world) are living but they do not have awareness. But all beings (zoological world) on earth who have awareness need the processes of respiration and the digestion of food to release the inert energy. Awareness depends on both the released inert energy and the presence of a nervous system. Energetic beings from the upper worlds are exceptions to this requirement. In energetic beings, free inert energy is obtained directly from the cosmic energy, without any need for respiration or the consumption and digestion of food.

52)  Buddha, Kapila, Vyaasa and Shankara were Incarnations of God. Unfortunately, the three incarnations of God, namely Buddha, Kapila, and Shankara were misunderstood to be atheists due to the lack of proper and complete understanding of their concepts. Buddha kept silent about God because the absolute unimaginable God is beyond words. Even the Veda says that the absolute God can be explained only through silence. Buddha said that this entire world is nonexistent (shunyam), momentary (kshanikam), fully of misery (duhkham) and made of matter and energy (vastusvalakshanam). Vastu means an item of creation which is made of matter, which is gross. Svalakshanam means the property of the gross matter. It refers to energy which is subtle. Here, energy need not mean only the inert forms of energy. It also means awareness, since it is also a form of energy. The misery mentioned by Buddha, pertains to awareness, which confirms the fact that the term svalakshanam includes awareness as one of the forms of energy. Buddha indicated the absolute God through silence. The absolute God is the God existing alone before creation. With respect to the absolute God, creation was nonexistent before its creation and is actually nonexistent even after its creation. Hence, Buddha refers to creation as shunyam, which means ‘nothingness’. God is the absolute truth whereas creation is always nonexistent with respect to Him. Even though creation is actually nonexistent for God, it appears to be existent to Him only because of His unimaginable omnipotence. The nonexistence of creation refers to the state before creation. The same nonexistence being perceived to be existence through the unimaginable power of God, refers to the state after creation. There is no contradiction between the nonexistence and the existence of creation owing to the unimaginable power of God. While God is the absolute truth, creation, due to its apparent existence with respect to Him, is said to be a relative truth. The absolute God created creation for His entertainment. God watches the nonexistent creation as if it were existent and derives entertainment. Since God is eternal and has been watching creation for an extremely long period of time, any event in creation is only momentary for Him. Hence, Buddha calls creation kshanikam, which means momentary.

53)  The four disciples of Buddha took the four concepts preached by Buddha independently. They did not correlate them to bring out the total concept preached by Him. The Madhyamika school (or Madhyamaka school of Nagarjuna) took the concept of the nonexistence of creation alone. The Yogaachaara school took the concept that awareness or soul (vijnaana) is existent because, as pointed out by Shankara, awareness must exist to even grasp the nonexistence of the world. In fact, the soul is only a part of the world and hence, not only the soul, but also the rest of the world is existent. This point was grasped by the school of Sautraantikas. Finally, the school of Vaibhaashikas took the whole correlation of the above three as the total concept of Buddha. This means that the Madhyamikas took only the concept of the nonexistence of the world as stated by Buddha. The world’s nonexistence was actually stated with reference to the absolute God and not with reference to the soul. The Yogaachaaraas rectified this mistake and they realized the existence of the soul which perceives even the world’s nonexistence. The Sautraantikas further improved the concept by saying that the awareness which grasps the world and its nonexistence exists and the world that is grasped by the awareness also exists. This is because the awareness which grasps the world is itself a part of the world. The Vaibhaashikas added all these three steps to bring out the total correlation. They also noted the differences in the two points of reference, namely God and the soul.

54)  Buddha said that the world is nonexistent (shunyam) as well as momentary (kshanikam). These two characteristics of the world are mutually contradictory if both are applied to the world from the same frame of reference. That which is nonexistent cannot be momentary. Only an existent entity can be momentary. Only ‘something’ can appear for a moment. ‘Nothing’ cannot be said to appear for a moment. It means that the momentary entity cannot be nonexistent. For the unimaginable God, the world is always nonexistent. Certainly, before creation, the world was nonexistent. But after creation, even though the world remains actually nonexistent for the unimaginable God, it appears to exist for a certain period during which it provides entertainment to the same unimaginable God. The nonexistent becoming existent while still remaining nonexistent simultaneously is possible with the inherent unimaginable power of God. Hence, for God, the world, which is basically nonexistent, simultaneously becomes existent to give real and full entertainment to Him. These two mutually contradicting states of creation are possible only from the frame of reference of God. The soul, which is a part of the nonexistent world, is also nonexistent for God. Yet, it is also simultaneously existent for the God who is watching creation and being entertained by it. But from the soul’s frame of reference things are different. The soul thinks that it exists and so, the rest of the world also exists for the soul since the soul is only a part of creation. We cannot apply the word shunyam (nonexistent) to the world from the soul’s point of view because the world is never nonexistent to the soul. Both the soul and the world which contains it are nonexistent only from God’s point of view. But for the nonexistent soul, the nonexistent world indeed exists and is real. Hence, the frame of reference is very important in order to resolve such contradictions.

55)  The Maadhyamika took the word shunyam as applicable to the world from all frames of reference at all times. They said that the world is nonexistent even for the soul. The Yogaachaaraas took the word kshanikam (momentary) in the sense of existent and applied it to awareness or the soul, while continuing to apply the word shunyam to the inert world. This means that only the soul or awareness is existent while the rest of the inert world is nonexistent. The Sautraantikas, through the words kshanikam and vastusvalakshanam, said that both the soul as well as the rest of the inert world composed of matter and energy, are existent.

56)  The Vaibhaashikas accepted all the three concepts as applicable in different contexts. The Vaachyaartha means a single concept conveyed by a single statement. For example, the statement “The rains have started” means a single concept. It literally means that the rainy season has started and hence, it has started to rain. But this single statement has different implications in different contexts: (i) For saints, it means that they are now required to stop travelling and stay in one place for the next four months (Chaaturmaasyam). As per tradition, Hindu saints are supposed to constantly travel and preach spiritual knowledge and devotion to the public, without staying in any one place for more than three nights in a row. But for the four monsoon months (Chaaturmaasyam), they are supposed to stay in one place since travelling is inconvenient during the rainy season. (ii) For farmers, the same statement means that it is time for them to sow seeds in the ploughed fields and (iii) For the general public, the statement means that they have to procure umbrellas. These three different statements are the implied meanings of the same statement in different contexts. Such context-specific implied meanings are called adhikaranaarthas. The vaachyaartha or the literal statement of Buddha was interpreted differently by His different disciples giving rise to different context-specific adhikaranaarthas. The followers, unfortunately, limited themselves only to their own contexts. Not only that, but they also claimed that their selected context-specific meaning alone was the original statement or the vaachyaartha. They even went to the extent of claiming that their context-specific meaning is the heart of Buddha’s teaching. This led to the quarrels among the different schools of Buddhism. The same scene is also found in case of the different sub-religions within Hinduism. Each of these sub-religions or sects of Hinduism takes the same statement of the scripture, interprets it in its own specific context and then claims that its interpretation is the original meaning of the scripture.

57)  The world is made of energy. Energy propagates in waves which have crests and troughs. The distance between two crests can be considered to be a gap. The crests can, therefore, be treated to be momentary (kshanikam). It means that we are neglecting the trough, which is the negative half-cycle and treating it to be almost non-existent. Even if we take the particle-nature or the corpuscular-nature of energy, a gap between two particles or packets of energy is essential. This allows the application of same word momentary (kshanikam). Thus, the word, momentary (kshanikam), used by Buddha to describe the world is explained. For the eternal constant Spectator, God, a human life is momentary. The same human life, for a human being, is constant but non-eternal because the human being clearly knows that it is not eternal like God. Hence, the Arhata school (Jainism) said that the soul is constant even though it is temporary (sthiraṁ anityam). This concept of Jainism is not in contradiction with the concept of Buddhism because the original meaning should be viewed in different contexts due to different frames of reference.

58)  Shankara was criticized to be a Buddhist-in-disguise (Prachchanna Bauddha). Actually, it would be correct to say that Shankara was Buddha-in-disguise (Prachchanna Bauddha) because both Buddha and Shankara were the Incarnations of same God. Buddha is said to be the Incarnation of God Vishnu and Shankara is said to be the Incarnation of God Shiva. But Vishnu and Shiva are different names of the same God (Shivashcha Naaraayanah—Veda). Buddha kept silent about the absolute God. People thought that Buddha had negated the existence of God and they mistook Him to be an atheist. So, Buddha came again as Shankara and gave the explanation for His silence about God (mounavyaakhyaaprakatita parabrahma...). Since the absolute God is unimaginable, no word can reveal the identity of such a God. The same fact is also told by the Veda (Yato vaacho nivartante...). The Gita also says that God is unimaginable (maam tu veda na kashchana).

59)  Both Buddhism and Jainism gave the topmost importance to non-violence since non-violence to all beings is the climax of justice (Ahimsaa paramo dharmah). Both stressed a lot on justice and social service, which shows the extreme importance given by them to pravrutti. Jainism recognized space to be existent as subtle energy through the authority of inference like Chaarvaaka. The Sautraantika school of Buddhism also agrees that the inert world composed of the five elements is existent. It is not correct to say that Buddha and Chaarvaaka did not recognize the existence of the soul. Chaarvaaka called the living body itself as soul. The three schools of Buddhism, except the Maadhyamikas, recognized the existence of the world that includes space. Except Chaarvaaka, the others were not atheists.

60)  Sage Kanaada of the Vaisheshika school very clearly stated the existence of God. Hence, his philosophy is called Vaisheshika, which means distinct and clear expression. The philosophy distinguishes God from the soul. Sage Gautama of the Nyaaya school expressed the importance of the scripture. He accepted the ‘revealed word’, shabdam, as the fourth authority. Nyaaya means analysis. So, it means that it is very important to analyze the scripture because even Holy Scriptures may contain certain mischievous insertions. Both Kanaada and Gautama gave a lot of importance to logical analysis (tarka). Kanaada’s Vaisheshika philosophy is based on two authorities for getting valid knowledge, whereas the Gautama’s Nyaaya philosophy is based on four authorities. Both have given a lot of importance to justice in worldly life (pravrutti).

61)  Unfortunately, sage Kapila, the Incarnation of God Vishnu has been misunderstood to be an atheist. Kapila was referred to in the Gita through the word Saamkhya, which is the philosophy preached by Kapila. As per Kapila’s analysis, the world (prakruti) is made up of twenty-four items or tattvas. Over and above the twenty-four items of creation, the twenty-fifth item is Purusha, which literally means ‘person’ but it actually refers to God. The twenty-five items can be divided into four categories, which are based on whether the item is ‘nature as-it-is’ (prakruti) or its modification (vikruti). The twenty-five items in the four categories are as follows: (a) The first category is kevala prakruti or mula prakruti, which means pure nature. It is the primordial nature, which is the root material cause of creation and is the first item out of the twenty-five. (b) Kevala vikṛti is the second category which consists of sixteen items which are purely modifications of nature. It includes the five elements, the five senses of perception (eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose), the five organs of action (mouth, hands, legs, genitals and anus) and the mind (c) The third category is that of both prakruti and vikṛti. It includes seven items, which are the mahat (intelligence), the ahankara (ego) and the five subjects (vishaya) corresponding to the five senses. Each of these five subjects are also the properties of the five elements in creation and they are: sound of space (shabda), touch of air (sparsha), form of fire or visible energy (rupa), taste of water (rasa) and scent of earth (gandha) (d) Finally, the fourth category contains the twenty-fifth item which is Purusha, who said to be is neither prakruti nor vikruti.

62)  Kapila, being an Incarnation of God, could never have been an atheist. He mentioned God by the word Purusha and He called the world prakruti (nature). In Kapila’s Saamkhya philosophy, Purusha does not mean the soul as thought by some people. It actually means God. Even the Purusha Sūktam in the Veda speaks about God and not the soul. Apart from this twofold classification of Purusha and prakruti, there is another threefold classification. Accordingly, prakruti means creation or the world, Purusha means the soul and Purushottama means God. Both these classifications exist in the Gita (prakrutim purusham chaiva..., uttamah purushastvanyah...). Puram can mean both the body and the world. Purusha is the one who lies in the puram (puri shete iti purushah). Thus, Purusha can mean the soul or God. But Kapila followed the first classification consisting of two components. Accordingly, Purusha must stand for God because the soul is already mentioned as part of the world or prakruti. Intelligence, ego and mind are classified under prakruti by Kapila. Chittam or memory can be treated as a part of mind. So, the four mental faculties or internal instruments (antah karanams), which together constitute the soul, are found to be classified under prakruti. Purusha or God is said to be detached (Asangohyayam purushah) from the world by Kapila. If Purusha were taken to mean the soul, it would not be correct because the soul is always attached to the world.

63)  Patanjali was the incarnation of Adishesha, who is a devoted servant of God Vishnu. Kapila was the Incarnation of God Vishnu. The philosophy of Yoga established by Patanjali further clarified the place of God, who had been mentioned in the Saamkhya philosophy as ‘Purusha’. Yoga used the word Purusha to indicate the soul and a separate word, Ishwara, to indicate God. Ishwara was said to be the twenty sixth item. This follows the threefold classification of prakruti, Purusha or soul and Ishwara or God. Ishwara is also known as Puruṣottama. Krishna says in the Gita that both Sāṅkhya and Yoga are one and the same (Ekam Samkyamcha Yogamcha...). It is unfortunate that the philosophy of Kapila was said to be an atheistic philosophy (Niriishvara Saamkhya). In contrast, the philosophy of Patanjali was said to be a theistic philosophy (Seshvara Saamkhya). In fact, both are indeed theistic philosophies and none of the founders of these philosophies, except Chaarvaaka were atheists.

64)  Yoga means union. There are several steps in any union, starting from a mere association to perfect merging of the two items finally. For humanity, the Human Incarnation of God is the best and most suitable goal in all respects. Yoga, thus, means the soul uniting with the contemporary Human Incarnation of God in the sense of reaching the climax of aspiration-free devotion to the Incarnation. Yoga mentions rotating wheels or whirlpools known as the chakras, in which the soul is naturally stuck and keeps rotating in them. They are the whirlpools present in the worldly sea that trap the swimmer, causing him to rotate in them for some time and finally get drowned. The chakras are also represented as lotuses that attract the black bee by their scent and trap it by closing their petals. The worldly bonds similarly attract the ignorant soul and trap it, ending its upward spiritual journey. These worldly bonds which are pictorially represented as wheels or flowers, do not exist in a physical sense. They are worldly attractions of the mind that should be controlled (Chitta Vrutti Nirodhah) in order to escape from worldly miseries (klesha).

 

(To be continued…)

 
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