Describing Unimaginable God

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

God is always unimaginable and unknowable for any human being under any circumstances because He is beyond the dimensions of space and time and this is very much stressed in the Veda and the Gita. There is no second thought about this point and Shankara also told the same that God could be understood only in deep sleep. In deep sleep (Shushupti), there is no item that understands (Jnata) because the process of understanding (Jnanam) disappears. When the process of burning disappears, there is no fire. If you say that the process of knowing itself is the knower, then also the knower is absent because there is no process of knowing in the deep sleep. The knower can be no more a knower if the knower loses the process or quality of knowing. Then the knower is converted into inert item in deep sleep. In fact, this is true according to science also because the knower or process of knowing is converted into inert energy in deep sleep. Shankara means by this that God is unknown as indicated by the deep sleep, in which a state of total ignorance remains indicating that any one is totally ignorant about God (Sushuptyekasiddhah…). You cannot say that the knower or the process of knowing (knowledge) itself is God, because in such case God is not eternal who is daily vanishing (converted into inert energy) and is daily born (inert energy is converted into knower or knowledge). This is not acceptable because God is eternal.

To evaluate the unknowable answer, you represent the answer by X and then get the answer for X using the given data. But in the case of God, the answer will be always unknowable and unimaginable only. The link between the unknowable God and the knowable items of the world is also unknowable and hence, no related data of God can be knowable. In the problem, since the answer is knowable, the data related to the knowable answer is also knowable with the help of which the knowable answer can be evaluated. But that is not the case with God. Hence, any knowable item of the creation can be made as the representative of God. The only knowable experience about God is that God exists. This is established by the knowable experience of unknowable nature of God. The unknowable nature of God is experienced but such nature cannot be analyzed and hence, such nature is always concluded as unknowable. For example, a small boy (Krishna) lifting up the huge mountain is seen and the existence of the unknowable nature of the boy is experienced. Since, such nature could not be analyzed, it remains always as the unknowable item. Hence, the Veda says that only the existence of the unknowable God is experienced (Astiityeva…).

Since, there is full freedom in selecting any knowable item to represent God, the best suitable item for explaining the status of the unimaginable God is awareness according to Shankara. As long as the awareness stands as the simile, there is no harm in selecting it to represent God even though it is not eternal. If awareness serves the purpose of explanation of the actions of God, we need not worry about its longevity. The age of a doctor is immaterial if he is capable of doing the surgery needed by the patient. It becomes an irrelevant point. The awareness (soul) is like the current and Jiiva, a bundle of very strong qualities is like the chip of information. Jiiva is eternal because even during the deep sleep the information is stored in the inert chip, which is expressed as it is even after the deep sleep. Jiiva is eternal even during the time of death and after death also, he is eternal since he leaves the gross body. In the beginning of the Gita, the Lord described about this eternal Jiiva only and not about the awareness, which is born and dies daily (Athachainam…). The Lord referred to the ordinary human being only and hence, it is not the context of a realized soul, which is a fresh disc without any information, which was erased by lot of effort. There is no much difference between a fresh inert disc and inert current except that the former is matter and the latter is energy (the concept of storing information by energy is also indicated by the electromagnetic disc). Since matter and energy are essentially one and the same, you can call both these together as a realized soul. But once the information recorded on the chip exists, such chip of information (Jiiva) predominates and hence, is mainly referred in any ordinary human being. You have superimposed the information (Jiiva) on the disc (atman) and hence, the disc also means information only. The gross body is superimposed on Jiiva and Jiiva is superimposed on Atman. The gross body (deha) is separated from Jiiva and Atman but Jiiva and Atman are not separated and are together called as the possessor of the gross body (dehi).

What made Shankara to select the awareness as the representative for God? God created this world for entertainment and therefore, God must be treated as awareness to enjoy His own creation as in the case of a daydreamer who enjoys his own imaginary world. The mud cannot enjoy the beauty of pot though the pot is its own creation because mud is inert. I know you will immediately exploit this point without any patience and straightly say that the awareness is God. There are several opposing points for this, which are like the temporary life of awareness, the dependability of awareness on food, air and nervous system etc. Such opposing points will immediately control you from drawing such hasty conclusion. You must remember that awareness is only a representative of God to explain certain actions of God like entertainment etc. God can enjoy the creation-dream without being awareness. Do not forget that God is omnipotent. Do not bind God by your rules of physical world and its consequent logic. If God is a worldly item, definable by the four-dimensional space-time model, certainly your logic is valid. If I say some scene entertains a worldly object, certainly you can say that the object cannot be inert. The actions of unimaginable God are also unimaginable as stated by the Veda “Apanipado…”, which means that God can run without legs and can catch without hands. If you apply the same worldly logic, you will object to this and say that God must have legs and hands to run and catch. Similarly, when we say that God is wishing to create the world or when we say that God is enjoying His creation, you should accept that God wishes and enjoys without being awareness. Therefore, do not try to make God imaginable or knowable by applying the logic of the physical world. The Veda clearly says that He is beyond logic (Atarkyah…, Naisha tarkena… etc.).

The awareness selected by Shankara to represent God exists in lower living beings like birds and animals, average living beings like human beings and high living being like Human Incarnation. The awareness in birds and animals is ruled out because the birds and animals cannot create an imaginary world for entertainment like a daydreamer. Their logic is very much limited and minimum pertaining to search for food, shelter only. The average living being like a human being can imagine a world of its own and enjoy it with full control in a daydream. Therefore, the animals and birds are filtered from the doctrine of Shankara. The human being can be also in a state of simple awareness without imagination like a bird or animal. Hence, the bird or animal is also included in the human being, whereas the human being does not cover the range of animals or birds. You need not worry about ten rupees in a note of twenty rupees because ten rupees are included in twenty rupees. By the same logic, if you proceed to a superhuman being like Krishna, the ordinary human being is also included in the superhuman being. The doctrine of Shankara based on awareness and its imagination exists in the superhuman being also. In the ordinary human being, the doctrine of Shankara is purely theoretical only because neither the awareness in the human being is actually God, nor the imaginary world in the human being is actually the world. Therefore, the ordinary human being stands only as a simile for the concept of Shankara and as usual the concept is forgotten and the simile remains as the concept. The bride escaped from the house and the rose flower exists in her place ready for marriage! If you go to the case of the superhuman being, God charges His awareness and His imagination is exactly the physical world. Here, you are finding the bride with rose color looking like a rose flower. The concept and simile merged with each other. The simile acts as the medium to convey the concept.

When you are saying that awareness enjoying its imaginary world is Brahman, where is the free awareness without the human body? Since, independent awareness without human body is absent, it naturally means a human being only. Based on this, you cannot say that any human being is Brahman, because in any human being the awareness disappears in deep sleep and is not eternal. In the case of Superhuman being like Krishna also, the awareness may disappear in deep sleep but the extra unimaginable God indicated by the specially expressed unimaginable nature like lifting the huge hill, exists separately apart from the awareness. In ordinary human being, such indication of unimaginable God is not expressed and hence, God does not exist. In Krishna also, the awareness is creating the daydream as in the case of ordinary human being and this does not contradict the existence of unimaginable God as proved above. Ravana, who also lifted the huge hill (Kailasha) can be eliminated from Krishna because the unimaginable knowledge like the Gita is also expressed by Krishna, which is absent in the case of Ravana.

A deep analysis of the doctrine of Shankara clearly shows the concept of human incarnation only. Shankara clearly told that a superhuman being like Himself alone is God. He told “Shivah kevaloham”, which means that He alone is God. The awareness (soul) creating the dream as in the case of ordinary human being, standing as a simile for the creation of the world by God, also exists in Krishna because Krishna is an ordinary human being charged by God. The ordinary human being-part of Krishna can stand as the simile as usual for the theory of Shankara and for this purpose, the isolated human being need not be taken. The second part of Krishna, which is God, stands as the actual concept. Therefore, there is no need of a place for an isolated human being in the doctrine of Shankara. The statement in the Gita “Manushiim Tanumashritam” means that God entered the human being. It is a two-component system, which is a single system only. When a rose colored bride is available, who will marry a rose flower? The bride is most important since the marriage is with the bride to get the children. Neither the rose color nor the flower can give the children. The rose color of bride is an attraction to marry the bride and the final fruit of children is given by the bride and not by the rose color. The rose color of the flower indicates the rose color of the bride in the absence of the bride. The material and shining of the rose color of the flower is quite a separate item than the material and shining of the bride though both are similar with each other. This similarity is the helpful factor in understanding the color of the bride. Similarly, the awareness – dream concept (rose color) of the human being is quite separate item from the God-world concept (rose color) of Krishna. Both the concepts are similar. This concept helps you to get attracted to God and serve Krishna so that the divine fruit of salvation can be attained.

No Simile Represents God in Full Sense

The similes given for God are always worldly items, which are definable by space and time. God is beyond space and time and no simile can perfectly represent God in full sense. This defect brings the doubts in the minds of human beings since their minds cannot cross the dimensions of space and time. The Veda gives three similes (Tatha Aksharat…) in explaining the process of creation from God but no simile can convey the full meaning because all the similes are worldly items only. The world comes out of God like the net from spider, like plants from earth and like hair and nails from the human body. In these similes, the spider, earth and human body are imaginable worldly items only and convey partial concepts. In the first simile, the liquid from the mouth of the spider is very simple but the network is multi-dimensional. Similarly, from the single God, this complicated universe is designed in wonderful manner. The material of the net is nothing but the condensed form of the saliva of the spider. Both saliva and net are inert matter only in different states of liquid and solid. This means that the material from God is condensed into the world. But since God is unimaginable, the material of the God is also unimaginable and hence, the condensation of the unimaginable material of God into imaginable material must be ruled out. For this purpose, the other two similes are given to show the difference between unimaginable cause and imaginable effect. In the other two similes, the living matter (plants) is produced from the inert matter (earth) and reverse of this is also told in the third simile where the inert matter (hairs and nails) is produced from the living matter (human body). The difference in these two similes establishes the difference between God and world and through these two similes you can neither establish God as life (awareness) or inert. In the second simile, God is compared to the inert earth and in the third simile, God is compared to living human body so that you should neither conclude that God is inert or awareness. This proves that God is beyond awareness and inert nature. The third simile shows that the living matter reduces inert matter and this means that the characteristics of cause need not enter the effect. This proves the violation of the logic of physical world in the case of God and hence, the argument of Advaita (the awareness characteristic of the cause entered the creation as the soul) cannot be accepted in the case of God. At the same time, the Sankhya school also (which states that the soul is the product of the inert item called as Pradhanam) ruled out. These two similes are given to show that the logic of cause–effect fails in the case of production of universe from God. These three similes mean that this wonderful universe, which is constituted by imaginable items, emerged out from the unimaginable God through an unimaginable way, which is called as “Anirvachaniyata Khyati” by Shankara.

Shankara played different roles for the sake of different human beings for their uplift. It is a multi-dimensional dance (Tandavam) of Lord Shiva. He introduced the self-God concept (Advaita) to atheists to uplift them to the next step of theism. But the already existing theists started following Advaita and hence, Shankara corrected them by swallowing the molten lead and declared that He alone is God. For their sake, He composed several prayers on God. By that time, the atheists also became theists and worshipped the Lord through the same prayers. But the attitude of the already theists is to remain as the humble servants of the Lord forever. The attitude of the atheists converted into theists is quite different, which is that they liked to become God by the grace of God Himself. The former were made God because even if they are made God, they always remember themselves only as the servants of God (Dasoham). Hanuman was made creator (God) and Adishesha was made God as one of the ten incarnations (as Balarama) who is given the post of maintainer of the world. But both remember always themselves as servants only and they never felt that they became God (Soham) by sitting on the throne of God. The latter (atheists converted into theists) can never become God even if they claim that they are already God. They are worshipping God just to become God. They have accepted and worshipped God only to get rid of the Vikshepa (practical effect of the ignorance) since Shankara told that unless one worships God, the Vikshepa cannot be removed. This is a trick of Shankara make them worship God while continuing their desire to become God. If this desire is not maintained, they will reverse back. In course of time, due to long worship of God, Shankara expected them to slowly change and become the real devotees. The present Advaitins who are worshipping God have to be helped by God only in course of time who alone can give them the right direction. God only guides as Sadguru and will never put His finger in your spiritual effort. The teacher will teach well in the class and clarifies your doubts for any number of times but as the invigilator in the examination hall will never help you. Therefore, the result is with lot of variation, one soul getting gold medal, another soul getting distinction, another soul getting first class, another soul getting second class, another soul getting third class with just pass marks and another soul getting failure. The teacher is not all responsible for the result.

Shankara came as Ramanuja and Madhva to show the further path to the real devotees. After the school level, the levels of college and university are always subsequent. In the middle level of Ramanuja, a middle position is proposed, which is a state of reduced desire. The desire to become God is reduced to the composite-part relationship between God and soul. According to this, God is composite like fire and soul is a part of God like the spark. But remember that Ramanuja clearly stated that the soul is not the real part of God but is a thread (part) of the shirt (world) of God. However, the consolation in this level is that at least the shirt is on the body of God and can be treated as almost the body of God. This can treat the thread, which is a part of the shirt on the body, as a part of the possessor of the shirt. This is again another clear psychological trick to pacify the desire at least partly. Finally, Madhva declared the ultimate truth. The world is a cloth used to clean the divine feet of God and the soul is a thread of that cloth in this final level. This means that the soul is always a servant of God even if the soul is made to sit on the throne of God and is made God. Madhva kept Hanuman as His Guru who is made God (creator) but still Hanuman says that He is only the humble servant of God in the service of creation of the universe. The fourth and final Acharya or Sadguru is this very Datta Swami who is a research laboratory conducting the Ph.D. program. He continues the philosophy of Madhva as it is and the additional contribution is that God is in the form of contemporary human incarnation on the earth for the sake of living human beings. Only the dead human beings go up and attain the upper world in energetic bodies and for their sake only God in energetic form called as Narayana (as called by Ramanuja and Madhva) exists. If devotees conquer the ego and jealousy and overcome the repulsion between common media, they can understand God present in the human form before their eyes. Hanuman is a monkey and is lower than the human level. To worship Rama as God, Hanuman did not like to be a human being fearing the possibility of repulsion between common media. The nature of any soul is to neglect the common medium and worship the higher medium. The human being worships the higher medium of energetic form and the animal worships the higher medium of human form. Gopikas became ladies of lower caste and both these factors suppressed their ego because Krishna is man of higher caste. Arjuna is man of the same caste and hence, could not get rid of the ego in spite of the very first hearing of the Gita. Therefore, do not look down at women and lower caste. The soul has to take birth of a lady of a lower caste to get the final salvation as in the case of Gopikas. Otherwise, Gopikas were the topmost sages and need not be born as ladies in the lower caste.

Shankara aimed at the divine society in which every human being deserves to become God like Hanuman. For the sake of encouragement and to give confidence, He used Advaita in advance, the present tense can be used in the immediate future. When He stated that you are God (Tattvam Asi), it means the immediate future in which you are expected to become God. Lord Shiva is famous for unlimited kindness even towards demons. He revealed the whole truth gradually in the form of Ramanuja and Madhva subsequently. The Lord is always kind. Even the hell indicates His intensive kindness. The severe punishments in the hell indicate the transformation as early as possible so that the soul can be uplifted as early as possible. There is no contradiction between the three spiritual preachers. The intention in them is one and the same. The methods of treatment vary due to variations in the levels of the souls. All the methods of the three Acharyas are only subsequent steps to the subsequent levels of the devotees.

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