Posted on: 02 Apr 2010
Even a real human incarnation of God will not say that He is God. Krishna never said that He is God except on one specific occasion, which is [during] preaching the Gita to Arjuna. The human incarnation is a two component system in one phase. It is like the alloy of gold and copper existing in single phase. The human incarnation results when God enters a liberated soul, which is a human being. The human incarnation appears as an ordinary human being only. When copper is alloyed with a trace of gold, it appears as copper only. Unless you see it through a powerful microscope, you will not be able to find out the existence of gold in it. Similarly, the human incarnation appears as human being only and unless you are capable of intensive spiritual analysis with the help of scriptures, you will not be able to find out the existence of God in the human incarnation. Even in the human incarnation, the human being continuously exhibits its own inherent characteristics like birth, death, illness, thirst, hunger, sex, sleep etc., for all practical purposes and one in millions only will be able to recognize God in It as said in the Gita (Kashchitmam…). This type of concept is required because human beings should be able to approach the human incarnation freely without anxiety and tension, to clarify all the doubts. The human behavior in the human incarnation puts down the tension since you treat him as a co-human being only.
Unless all the doubts are clarified, the right direction is impossible. Even in worldly affairs, right direction is the clue of successful achievement of the goal. The right direction is possible only through right knowledge. The right knowledge is possible only from God because God alone is the absolute truth. All the human beings are under the powerful influence of illusion and hence, cannot give the right knowledge. The absolute truth is God and the entire creation including all the souls is just illusion only. No part of the creation will be able to find out the absolute truth, since the entire creation including souls is only relative reality, which is the effect of illusion. Hence, the Veda says that God alone is associated with the true and infinite knowledge (Satyam Jnanam…). The right direction cannot be obtained by any way other than right knowledge. By doing penance, by singing songs, by fasting, by chanting any mantra, by performing any ritual or worship etc., you cannot obtain the right direction. By studying the scriptures also it is impossible to get the right direction because confusion and doubts crop up. Unless God, the absolute reality and hence, the knower of the absolute reality preaches you, you can never get the right direction. The absolute truth is beyond space and hence, God alone is the absolute truth and also knower of the absolute truth.
God in human incarnation is the first component, which is the absolute reality. The human being in the human incarnation is the second component, which is the relative reality or a part of illusion. Therefore, when you say that the human incarnation is God and that nothing other than God exists, it is true in the absolute sense. You can even say that the entire creation other than God is not true in the absolute sense. But, in practical sense, God is unseen and in fact, unimaginable and only the creation or the illusion alone exists as truth. You can take any part of the creation, which may be an inert object or a living being, to represent God as a model (Pratika Upasanam) and in such case, God is unimaginable and also far. In the case of human incarnation, God is unimaginable but exists before you. As long as God is unimaginable, you may say that there is no difference between God existing near or far. Even the human being, which is a liberated soul, existing in the human incarnation is unable to imagine the absolute God existing in it. In such case, how can the human beings existing outside recognize the absolute God? You need not worry thinking that there is no use of the existence of God near yourself through human incarnation as long as God is unimaginable. Even though God is unimaginable, the existence of God is very near to you. The human being charged by God can be almost treated as God just like the electrified wire can be treated as current. When God enters a human being, God remains as the absolute God and also becomes the human being as said in the Veda (Satcha tyatcha abhavat…). The current remains as current, which is a stream of electrons. At the same time the metallic wire also can be treated as current because the wire gives shock anywhere. Therefore, the concept of human incarnation is not a waste since the human being also acts as God. In the time of preaching the true knowledge, the human incarnation acts as God and in all other occasions, the human incarnation acts as a human being only. It is like the dual nature of electron. The electron acts as a wave in certain contexts and acts as particle in other contexts. All these examples like electrified wire, electron etc., are imaginable items only and no single item can stand as a complete and perfect example. You have to build up the total true concept of the unimaginable God with the help of all the partial examples, since, except God there is no unimaginable item. The entire creation is either manifested visible form or un-manifested invisible form. Matter is visible and the energy existing in the matter is invisible. Energy exists in visible form also as light. Both these visible and invisible forms are imaginable only. The trace of gold in the alloy is invisible but becomes visible through microscope. The wave nature and particle nature are visible through microscope only and both are imaginable to scientific logic. The unimaginable God is beyond space and has no spatial dimensions. Other than God, all the items in the creation including souls are imaginable because they have spatial dimensions. After all, the soul is nervous energy, which is in the form of propagating waves and it is only a specific special work form of inert energy generated from the inert energy in the functioning nervous system. It is just like the grinding work, which is a specific and special work form of current energy generated in a working grinding machine.
Nature of a Saint
A saint is expected to propagate the divine knowledge revealed by the human incarnation. He should never say that he is God. Even if he is tempted by such an idea, he should resist it as far as possible. In spite of maximum resistance, if he is forced to say that he is God, it is not his mistake. God must have temporarily entered him and such declaration is directly from God. God will take care of such statement and he need not worry about it. Even in the real and permanent human incarnation like Krishna, God alone spoke the Gita. Therefore, Vyasa named it as “Bhagavad Gita”, which means the Gita told by God. It is not named as Krishna Gita since Krishna did not tell it. Krishna is the second component or the liberated soul, who is an ordinary human being only. God is the first component. Later on Arjuna pressed him to reveal the Gita again and that Gita, called as Anu Gita or Uttara Gita, is actually Krishna Gita[1]. Krishna, as a scholar of philosophy trained by the sage Sandipani revealed this Anu Gita, which did not become famous. All this happened only to show that God and Krishna are the two components in the human incarnation. But, while preaching the Bhagavat Gita also, only Krishna spoke and God was not seen separately. Here, Krishna is the electrified wire. While preaching the Anu Gita, Krishna was simple wire only without electricity. Both, the wires with and without electricity look similar to the naked eye. Only experience based on shrewd analysis can differentiate both. Lord Krishna showed all this to establish that a saint should behave as Krishna and not as God.
Even if the devotees address him as Swamiji due to ignorance, he should not take it in the real sense. He should be aware of himself at all times. In order to avoid such false imitations, even the true incarnation hides Itself behaving like an ordinary human being only at all times. Even the true human incarnation claims Itself as a messenger revealing the knowledge from God like a mike of the speaker. The human being-component in Krishna told Arjuna that it will be impossible for him to reveal the Bhagavat Gita again. Similarly, the human being – component in Jesus told that he is a messenger only. In the Gita, the God-component in Krishna said that He is the Almighty. Similarly, the God - component in Jesus said that He is the Truth. Thus, you have to differentiate the two components separately by your sharp analysis as per the corresponding contexts.
[1] The version of Gita repeated by Krishna to Arjuna.