Equal-mindedness and Sacrifice

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

The individual soul (Jiiva) is a bundle of various qualities, which are different proportions of the three basic qualities called as Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas (Nanyam Gunebhyah… Gita). The material of these qualities is awareness or nervous energy called as Chit and this material is known as soul (Atman), which is beyond these qualities (Nirgunam) and the same is stated in the Gita (Gunebhyascha param…). The individual soul always contains the basic material and hence, can be called as Jiivatman, which is like calling water-waves. The awareness is a special work form of inert energy and this inert energy is produced by the oxidation of food. This inert energy on functioning in the nervous system becomes the awareness. When the nervous system takes rest as in deep sleep, the awareness is not generated in the deep sleep. In the state of dream, the awareness is generated and the qualities play as the dream. In the awakened state, the awareness is generated, which contains the qualities but the awareness is in interaction with the external world. In the state of perfect meditation, the awareness is generated but the qualities are subsided temporarily.

All the qualities constitute the plane of mind (Manomaya Kosha). These qualities may be strong or weak. The strong qualities constitute the eternal Jiiva (Ajo nityah… Gita). This Jiiva leaves the gross body in the death (Manomayah Prana Shariira Neta… Veda, Utkramantam… Gita) and the individuality of the Jiiva is maintained, which is eternal. This Jiiva undergoes the enjoyment of its good and bad fruits. The individuality of each and every soul is thus protected and maintained in this divine system of creation. However, the weak qualities disappear after sometime, which do not materialize into actions. Thus, the weak part of Jiiva or mind is not eternal and disappears every day after the deep sleep (Manastejasi… Veda, Natvam vettha… Gita). The Gita refers to this weak part when it says that Jiiva is born and dead everyday (Atha Chainam Nitya Jatam…). Thus, Jiiva is eternal as well as non-eternal in view of the qualities, which are strong and weak respectively.

Salvation of Advaita Philosopher

In the deep sleep, all the qualities exist as impressions in the plane of inert energy. Mind is the plane of qualities, which vary, and intelligence is the plane of qualities, which are fixed due to decisions. The impression of individuality (Ahamkara) is also a quality only. In deep sleep, the mind, intelligence and individuality exist as impressions on a cassette even though the current is absent and hence, mind, intelligence and the individuality are categorized under the inert nature only (Mano Buddhirevacha Ahamkara Itiyam… Gita). The awareness-current is called as Paraprakruti, which is the Chit or Chittam. The awareness is transformed into basic inert energy in deep sleep and thus, it is not eternal. Even the qualities are not really eternal because the Advaita Philosopher attains the complete destruction of qualities in the state of Avadhuta (Manolaya Yoga). The Avadhuta after death dissolves here itself completely and the individuality of the soul is forever destroyed. His awareness is transformed into inert energy and thus, such a soul is dissolved here itself (Ihaiva Pranah… Veda). In the case of an ordinary soul, all the weak qualities and the awareness are converted into inert energy in the body and finally, the individual inert energy merges in the general cosmic energy (Tejassati… Veda). However, the individual soul and the awareness existing within the individual soul as the material is not destroyed, which leaves the gross body to the upper world. But in the case of Avadhuta, the individual soul is also destroyed because even the strong qualities are destroyed and the awareness existing in the individual soul is also transformed into inert energy, which merges with the cosmic energy. The Advaita Philosopher claims such complete destruction of the individual soul as the complete salvation and this is the climax of foolishness! Burning the house containing the rats is the final solution of Advaita Philosopher! He removes misery of the soul by destroying the soul completely and forever! The solution is to capture the rats with the help of a cage and live in the house with happiness and enjoyment.

The Advaita Philosopher praises the primary state of God or Brahman before creation (Nirguna Brahman) and such state of God was without any entertainment, which was neither praised by the Veda nor appreciated by God (Ekaki Naramate… Veda). The advanced state of God is association of God with His own creation containing both happiness and misery like sweet and hot in the meals. If the meals contain only sweet, one gets bored. The hot dish is created to remove such boring and therefore, you should like the hot dish also. You do not like the hot dish (misery) and you are bored with continuous sweet dish (happiness). The solution of Advaita Philosopher in this case is to fast by avoiding the meals completely! The real solution is to enjoy both happiness and misery like God. God created both happiness and misery to have real and continuous entertainment. If you try to avoid the misery, you criticize God for His activity of this creation, which contains both happiness and misery.

A person (God) cooked food containing sweet and hot dishes (created world containing happiness and misery), served it on the plate (rules the world) and eats the entire food (destroyed the world). An ant (the human being) entered the plate (exists in the world) and tastes the food. The ant criticizes the hot dish and likes the sweet dish for sometime but gets bored with the sweet. The ant can neither cook nor serve and nor eat the entire food. If the ant enjoys both sweet and hot dishes, the ant resembles the person atleast qualitatively in this one aspect of enjoyment. Similarly, the individual soul can neither create nor rule and nor destroy this world. If the soul is able to enjoy both happiness and misery with equal attitude, atleast in this aspect, the soul can resemble God in a microscale (Matbhavayopapadyate… Gita). Otherwise, the soul does not resemble God in any way and if the soul says that it is God; it is the climax of foolishness. The soul can attain God atleast in this one aspect and such attainment is called as Yoga (Samatvam Yogauchyate… Gita). The human beings should understand that God created this world for His own entertainment and this is not for the entertainment of any soul. If some ants criticize that the person does not exist, the criticism of such ants is not even heard by the person. Similarly, God is not at all bothered about the atheists or theists who criticize the misery.

Shankara Composed Prayers on God Representing Devotion

The human being is like a tape recorder and the current in it is like the awareness (soul). The recorded cassette in it is Jiiva. A recorded cassette without current and the current without recorded cassette is useless. The cassette may contain a good song or a bad song. You have to replace the bad song by a good song in the cassette. Similarly, you have to replace the worldly qualities by the divine qualities in your mind. You are trying to destroy the cassette and tape recorder to remove the bad song and you are not prepared to enjoy any song. This is the state of the Advaita Philosopher. First, he removes the song from the cassette by erasing it and maintains the current in the tape recorder, which does not generate any song. Similarly, he erases all the qualities from the mind and the awareness without any quality is like the current with a blank cassette. After erasing the bad song, you have to record a good song in the cassette. Similarly, after erasing the worldly qualities in the mind, you have to fill the mind with devotion to the God. Instead of doing this, you are keeping silent with the pure awareness (clean mind) after removing the worldly qualities from mind. Your spiritual effort stopped in the middle stage only. First, you have to erase the worldly attachment from the mind. First, you have to clean your house by removing the waste, which produces bad odor. Such removal of waste is work (karma) and this is the first step in the spiritual path (Arurukshoh Muneryogam Karma Karanamuchyate… Gita). Now, the house is clean without any bad odor and in this state even the good scent is absent. This is the intermediate state of pure mind, which is devoid of both bad and good qualities, which is termed as perfect peace (Shama). This intermediate state is the pure awareness without any quality and is called as Nirguna Brahman or pure Atman. Here, the word Brahman does not mean God. Any greatest item in a category can be called as Brahman.

The Veda, the greatest among the scriptures, is called as Brahman in the Gita. Awareness (soul or atman) is the greatest item in this world due to its special quality of knowledge and hence, is called as Brahman. This possibility of calling any soul as Brahman was exploited by Shankara to attract the atheists towards spiritual path. Remember that Shankara was surrounded by lot of atheists in His time. Shankara called this intermediate state as Chitta Shuddhi or purity of mind, which is a pre-requisite for the knowledge and attachment to God. The cleanliness of the house is a pre-requisite to sprinkle scent in the house. If the scent is sprinkled in a dirty house, there is no use of it, because the good odor of scent cannot be enjoyed by anyone in the house in the presence of bad odor created by the dirt. Removal of everything in the house refers to the removal of bad material only. When Shankara used the word ‘Nirgunam’, it means only removal of worldly qualities from the mind. If the ultimate aim of Shankara is only Nirguna Atman or Pure awareness without any quality, He should have stopped His message with the commentaries only. Shankara composed several prayers on God, which represent the good scents to be sprinkled in the house after complete cleaning. You must take the total personality of Shankara and should not confine to His partial activity of writing commentaries only. You cannot confine yourself only to His composition of commentaries and neglect His composition of prayers on God. The God referred in His prayers was with qualities (Saguna Brahman) and this proves that the God associated with world for entertainment is a better-advanced state than the primary attributeless God (Nirguna Brahman). The commentaries represent the process of cleaning the mind and attaining pure awareness by removing the worldly attachment. The prayers represent the next process of filling the clean mind with devotion. You cannot enjoy the devotion when the mind is contaminated with the worldly attachment, as you cannot enjoy the scent in the presence of bad odor produced by the dirt. Therefore, the reason for your enjoyment of devotion is only the cleanliness of the house as stated in the Gita (Yogarudhasya tasyaiva shamah karanamuchyate…).

The perfect peace of the mind after removing the dirty attachment to the world is responsible for the bliss that is enjoyed in the devotion. Shankara, in His commentaries referred to the primary state of God before creation, which is the perfect peace without any quality or thought. His commentary was aimed at the atheists (Buddhists and Purvamimamsakas) who were attached to the world denying God other than themselves. First, Shankara wanted to remove the attachment to the world from their minds due to which only they were not interested in God. If you want to change the ignorant fellow in one aspect, you must accept to his other ignorant aspects. This is the psychology of ordinary human beings. For any teacher, the psychology is very important, which gives the tactful plan of removal of ignorance in a gradual way. You have to remove the layers of ignorance one by one only. When you are removing one layer, you must accept to all the other layers. Then only the ignorant student will come into your grip. For a preacher (Guru), the ultimate aim is not to establish the total truth in the beginning itself, by which there is no use in any way. His ultimate aim is to uplift the soul and for that, He follows the gradual process of removing the layers of ignorance one by one and in every stage, He accepts to the other layers.

Shankara, being the incarnation of God is the real Guru (Sadguru) and His aim is only to uplift the souls, which are His issues. Therefore, Shankara accepted to one point i.e., the soul is God and there is no God other than the soul. Even here, Shankara being the topmost genius used the word Brahman, which stands for God as well as the greatest item in any category. Shankara told that the soul is Brahman. Atheists took the word in the sense of God and were satisfied. They became friends to Shankara and liked Him. This brings the grip of the teacher on the students. Now, Shankara proposed the primary state of God, which is devoid of all qualities. It is obvious that God is having no quality or thought before creation. Therefore, to become God, one has to clean himself from all the qualities. Since, all the qualities in the atheists are worldly items only, all the qualities mean worldly qualities only in the context of atheists. Therefore, the word ‘Nirgunam’ (devoid of any quality) means removal of worldly qualities only since in the context of atheists, all the qualities were of world only. After Shankara, this word ‘Nirgunam’ is misunderstood for removal of all good and bad qualities because the context of atheists disappeared. Therefore, you can understand Shankara only if you can understand the context in which He existed.

God only Deserves Our Complete Sacrifice

You are leaving the misery of the world and on attaining God, you think that you will derive the bliss, which is the eternal happiness. By leaving the worldly attachment, you have left the minus. Then, you have attained the intermediate state of absolute peace, which is zero. Now, on attaining God, you have attained the plus, which is bliss in your view. The plus is a double minus in which, two signs of minus are arranged one over the other at right angles. This double minus indicates that you have to work more and face more misery in the service of God. The work and misery in the worldly affairs is very much less compared to the misery in work of God. The plus sign indicates the cross and the servant of God has to sacrifice even his own life to please God in the divine mission. You need not sacrifice your life for the sake of your family at any time. Unless, you have developed the attitude of enjoying the misery, you cannot face misery in the service of God.

Sugriva lost his wife because Vali has taken away her by force. Sugriva did not go to Vali to fight with him for the sake of his wife due to the fear for his life. His life is more valuable than his wife. But the same Sugriva went to Lanka to fight in the war, taking the full risk of his life for the sake of getting back the wife of Lord Rama from Ravana. Thus, one has to sacrifice even his life for the sake of God even though he may not sacrifice the same life in any worldly matter. Jesus says that unless one is prepared to carry on his own cross for the sake of the Lord, one cannot be His dearest disciple. The plus sign appears as double negative to threaten you by its facial expression. The final result of plus is not negative at all because its value is only positive. Similarly, if you are prepared for the double minus and intensive sacrifice in the case of God, you will derive the bliss at the end. God tests you to find out your attitude. God wants to know whether you have approached Him for bliss or to work and do the total sacrifice for His sake. Once God is fully convinced about the reality of your attitude, the result is quite different from the test. Finally, Sugriva was given a place in Brahma Loka (Vaikuntha), where Sugriva lived with bliss. The Ramayana is always taken as guidance in pravrutti (worldly life) by taking Rama as a good son, good husband, good father, good friend etc. Rama was always taken as a human being externally and the inner form of Rama as Lord was always hidden. All the monkeys were incarnations of angels and hence, they could recognize Rama as Lord. No Advaita Scholar has become Brahman so far except Hanuman who served Rama as the Lord in the form of the contemporary human incarnation. Only Hanuman became Brahman, who still says that He is the servant of Rama. Therefore, the Ramayana, which gives the path to any soul to become Brahman, is the only scripture of Advaita Philosophy in practical sense.

The total surrender of yourself is possible if you know that you are a tiny part of His movable property. A goat is a part of the movable property of the butcher. Every drop of the blood and every bit of the flesh is the property of the butcher only. The butcher is going to enjoy the entire flesh and blood of the goat and therefore, there is no individuality for the goat. Similarly, every atom of your gross body and every wave of the energy in your gross body belong to the God. All your qualities (subtle body) and your entire pure awareness (soul or causal body) belong to God only. Hence, total surrender of yourself is the complete justice (Tameva Sharanam Gachcha… Gita). To signify this concept, the Lord is called as Pashupati or the owner of the souls, which are like the animals.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★