God, Medium and Worship

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

The unimaginable God requires a medium for expression. When the medium is charged by God, the medium is treated as God directly and service to such medium is the direct service to God. When the current charges the wire, touching the live wire is touching the current only. But if you touch the picture of a live wire on a paper, you are not touching the current. It is only an indirect representative model of the live wire. Service to the charged medium is called as Sakshat Upasanam, which is direct service. Service to the representative model is called as Pratika Upasanam, which is indirect service only. The indirect service is a total waste because neither you experience God in the model nor God experiences your service. This second type of worship is the worship of statues of God. Then, why not we do away with this second type of worship? No. It becomes necessary since majority of the human beings does not recognize the contemporary human incarnation due to repulsion between common external media or common external gross human bodies. For such majority, the model worship is maintained so that through such worship, atleast the psychological repulsion to the human form is removed because the statues are carved in human form only like Vishnu, Rama etc. Some people have repulsion even to the human form in the statue and for such people the Shivalinga, which has no human form, is established. Atleast the concept of formless God is removed here, since Shivalinga has a form. Some worship formless objects like light energy as representative models of God. Some worship qualities like love, bliss, etc., as representative models of God.

The human body contains awareness (soul), qualities (jiiva), matter (gross body) and energy as the shining and heat of the body and thus, is a complete medium. For such psychological treatment of the human beings to remove the repulsion to the human form, the rituals in the temples are being carried on even though the service part is a waste. The initiation of life in the statues in the temples indicates the concept of life in the inert material body (statues). This initiation of life (prana pratishtha) advises you to go for the live human form and it does not mean that the same inert statue became alive after such initiation, since no sign of life is witnessed in the statue after such initiation. The ignorant priest says that the radiation of life (pranakala) entered the statue but all this is a brainwash only, since the statue does not even vibrate once.

In the indirect worship, the worship is not aimed at the model but it is aimed at the God only. God is pleased to some extent in such worship also because the aim is God only. Of course, in the direct worship, God is extremely pleased because God, who always exists in the human form only and receives your service directly. God does not exist in the inert objects (Natasya pratima asti… Veda) but still He is pleased in such worship also because the aim is God only. People worship salagrama (a piece of stone) as a representative model of Vishnu. Here, the worship is aimed at Vishnu and not aimed at the stone. Sumati worshipped her husband Kaushika as God. Kaushika is the greatest sinner and was ready to go to hell. But, from such worship of Kaushika, Sumati derived superpower to stop the sunrise! Only God controls the sun (Bishodeti suryah… Veda). The wretched Kaushika cannot give such power to Sumati. This power is derived from God only because when Sumati worshipped her husband as God, the worship was aimed at God and not aimed at Kaushika. Kaushika was a representative model of God for Sumati like the petty stone (salagrama) representing the all-pervading Lord Vishnu. If that is the power of Sumati obtained from indirect worship of God, what shall be power of a devotee who worships God directly through the service to the contemporary human incarnation? Hanuman worshipped Rama who was His contemporary human incarnation and became God and controlled the sun forever. The Veda says that the sun moves constantly due to the fear of God. Even in His childhood, He was meditating upon Rama introduced by His mother and the result of that was the power to swallow the sun like a fruit!

Effect of Worship of A Human Being as God

In the spiritual field, there is one marvelous advantage. Assume that you have worshipped a human being as God under the illusion that he is the contemporary human incarnation. What is the effect of such mistake? Will it yield positive result or negative result? The answer is that it will not give any negative result but it will yield positive result only, which may not be the highest. The highest positive result is obtained in the service done to the correctly identified contemporary human incarnation. But just like Sumati achieved partial positive power of controlling the sunrise on one day, you will certainly achieve partial grace of God. Such advantage is restricted to the spiritual field only. In materialistic field, if you have served somebody mistaking as the king, you will not get any gift from the king. Moreover, the king may scold you for your foolish ignorance. But God, who is very generous and very kind, is quite different. God will certainly punish the human being who posed as God but you will not be a loser. Some clever people say that God does not require any service from anybody because He is the basic potential doer of any work in this world. But if you go to such fundamental stage, God alone remains and the entire creation disappears with which you will also vanish. But, you ask the help from God and hence, you are not in such fundamental state of realization. While asking for the help from God, you are remaining in the stage of ignorance-based dualism. You are going to the fundamental basic stage of realization of monism to avoid the service. This shows your intellectual interpretation to suit to your convenience.

A monkey may avoid the participation of itself in constructing the bridge on sea in the service of Rama stating that Rama is God and God requires no service of souls. When Rama is realized as the absolute God in such fundamental state, God alone exists and the monkey does not exist since the creation is vanishing in that state. While praying for the grace of Rama, the monkey joins with other monkeys standing in the first position! A student, who is ignorant of the subject, questioned by the examiner may say “Oh Sir! You know the answer very well. If I give the answer, it may look as if I am teaching you”. The examiner will not give marks for his smart obedience. The examiner is asking the question to test the student and not to learn the subject from him.

Hanuman was a devotee of God in human form in the highest level of faith. At such level, the tests of God also would be always severe. As soon as Rama arrived at Kishkindha hill, He started testing Hanuman who was waiting for Him there on the advice of His mother. Rama behaved like a selfish villain by making an agreement with Sugriva to kill his elder brother for getting help from Sugriva in the search for Sita. It looks very much selfish and Rama tested the internal faith of Hanuman. However, Rama had to answer Vali, who was going to die in a few minutes. Vali charged Rama for His selfishness. Rama revealed the truth by saying that He punished Vali for his injustice only. This clarified the confusion. Unless the clarification was given, Vali will not be convinced on his deathbed. Hence, there was no alternative for Rama and the test on the mind of Hanuman could not be continued. But He conducted the same test on the first day of war with Ravana. Rama told Ravana that if he returns back Sita, Rama would go back. This will appear as if Rama is very selfish about His personal work only and did not care for the social welfare. If Ravana returns back Sita, Rama will go away and Ravana can continue his crimes in the society. This confusion was kept on the mind of Hanuman forever. Rama acted as helpless on several occasions and was saved by Hanuman every time. By such tests, Rama tried to see the mind of Hanuman about the entry of ego and subsequent fall of His faith towards Rama as God. Again, at the end, Rama rewarded all the monkeys and neglected Hanuman acting as an ungrateful human being. Rama never told Hanuman that He will become God and this was a test till the last minute to see whether the aspiration for fruit arises in the mind of Hanuman.

Tests Are Very Severe and Continuous for the Highest Fruit

The highest level of spiritual effort will have the highest fruit and at the same time, the tests are also very severe and continuous. The digestion of the spiritual knowledge is reflected in the faith on the contemporary human incarnation. God told the same Gita to Sun in the beginning of the creation (Imamvivasvate yogam… Gita) and the same Gita was preached to Hanuman by the Sun. Hanuman was the student of Sun. God told the same Gita to Arjuna. But the assimilation capacities were quite different in both the cases. Hanuman saved Rama on several occasions in the war but Hanuman did not show any ego before Rama and claimed Himself to be the servant of Rama only forever (Dasoham kosalendrasya… Ramayana). Krishna saved Arjuna several times in the war but on the last day, Arjuna was sitting in the chariot with ego and did not get down before the driver Krishna gets down. Hanuman became God and was worshipped forever in temples. Arjuna was born as a hunter and was never worshipped as God. Sun was neither the energetic incarnation nor the human incarnation of God. But Hanuman understood the essence of the Gita and captured the concept of contemporary human incarnation. Krishna was actually the contemporary human incarnation and the Gita was straightly preached by Him. Still Arjuna could not catch the concept of contemporary human incarnation. This is the difference between a bright student and a dullard.

Neither Krishna nor Jesus told that since He is the final human incarnation, the future generations should worship His statues or photos only. If that were the truth, they could have told this very clearly for the sake of future human generations because they know very well that their human bodies will perish shortly. Therefore, whatever they told about themselves was only about the contemporary human incarnation for the contemporary human devotees. The Veda (Ishavasyam) says that the Lord can enter any mini-world existing in this infinite world (Yatkimchajagatyam jagat). The word ‘jagat’ meaning ‘world’ appears twice. If the repeated jagat also means infinite world, then the adjective ‘kimcha’ (little) cannot be used for the infinite world. If you say that the little indicates any little object, that little object cannot be the world (jagat) because a little object like a piece of stone is only matter, which is one component of the world only. The little world means the human body containing the nine items (five elements and four antahkaranams), which are categorized as apara (eight items, which are five elements and three antahkaranams) and para (one antahkaranam, which is chittam). Due to the common existence of the nine items, the human body is a mini world (pindanda) representing the infinite world (brahmanda). The Veda says that any such human body can be pervaded over by the Lord. Here, the verb is in future tense (vasyam) and is not in past tense. If you say that the income tax officer can enter any shop, it does not mean that he has entered every shop. Hence, the existence of God in every human being is ruled out and Advaita has no basis. If you say that the awareness existing in living beings is the cause (God) that has entered the effect (creation), this is also not correct. In such case, the cause should have been an independent entity and not a generated item. The gold that entered the chain is independent item and is not a generated item in the chain. The awareness in the human bodies existing in the creation is not independent and it is being generated by the combined function of inert energy that is generated by oxidation of food and the nervous system.

The Vedic prayer called as Mantra Pushpam is a clear explanation of human incarnation. The same little world mentioned in the Ishavasya Upanishad is referred here also (Kimchitjagatsarvam), which means the human body. Such human body existing now and existed in the past i.e., present and past human incarnations are referred to have the same methodology (Drushyate shruyatepiva). The Lord, who imagined this world, has entered this world in original state (Tadevanupravishat). But the objection here is that the person imagining can never enter his own imaginary world in his original state just like fire cannot enter water. Here, the Veda gives a beautiful simile of the existence of volcanic fire (badabagni) inside the ocean (Samudrentahpratishthitam). For omnipotent God, nothing is impossible and hence, any simile in the world suffers limitation. Here, God is told to be pervading all over the body (Antarbahischa) and at the same time, God is told to be confined to a particular region of the human body only (Tasyassikhayahmadhye). This means God is confined to His guest room whenever His involvement is not there. In this time, the individual soul who is the owner of the house (PA) is dealing with all the worldly matters as usual. The individual soul can alone act as hundred percent ignorant in the worldly matters and therefore, the worldly experience derived out of it is also hundred percent. God being associated with His PA derives that experience and is entertained. The directly superimposed ignorance on God can never be hundred percent and hence, the worldly experience can never be full. For this reason only, God enters the human body, in which the individual soul (son of God), who is His best devotee, is existing. The Son of God is also equally benefited by the association of God in divine experiences. Thus, the human incarnation is a two (Nara and Narayana) in one system (human body).

God’s Existence is only Imagined

Advaita means the unity of two items. If there is only one item, the word Advaita has no place because in such case, the word ‘ekam’ (one) is used. When two things exist and become inseparable, then only the word Advaita is used. If you take God and human being separately, God is one and human being is one. Current is one item and wire is another item. When the current enters the wire and pervades all over it, the word Advaita is employed. Shock is the property of current, which cannot be directly experienced from the invisible current. When the knowledge contains unimaginable clarity, it creates unimaginable happiness, which is called as bliss. The clarification of the confusion gives the real happiness to the climax. Removal of confusion and ignorance clarifies the soul resulting in bliss like removal of gas and undigested matter from stomach clarifies the body resulting in immense happiness. Such unimaginable nature of the knowledge is the property of the unimaginable God like the shock of the current. But it cannot be experienced directly from the unimaginable God. The unimaginable knowledge indicates the existence of God in a particular human body like Krishna, Jesus etc. Finally, only the existence of God is experienced because the unimaginable God and the unimaginable nature of His knowledge remain always unimaginable. Only His existence is imagined and such existence is called as Sanmatravada (Astiityeva… Veda). Since God and His nature remain unimaginable, you cannot say that God is awareness or awareness is His property and therefore, the Chinmatravada is not acceptable. Awareness in the creation does not exist independently since it is always a generated item by the combined operation of respiratory, digestive, and the nervous systems. Charvaka or science should be respected in this point.

The cause or the quality of the cause should be an independent item and should not be a generated item. The individual soul, is a bit of awareness, is neither the total God nor is the part of the God. The unimaginable power of creation or control of the universe by God is neither totally seen nor partly seen in any individual soul. In the ancient days, awareness was thought to be an independent item due to lack of scientific knowledge. But now, science has clearly proved that awareness is only an item of creation and not the creator. Thus, science cannot prove the nature of God directly but can prove the nature of any item of the creation as the non-God item as in the case of awareness. Science is very useful in rejecting any non-God item projected as God by the people who are ignorant of science. For that matter, not only science, even angels and sages cannot speak a single word about the nature of God. It is beyond words and can be best explained through silence only. Lord Dakshinamurthy, who is considered to be the best incarnation of Shiva in preaching the spiritual knowledge to even angels and sages, explains God through silence only (Maunavyakhya prakatita Parabrahma tattvam). Shankara used here the word Parabrahman and not the word Brahman. Any greatest item in a category can be called as Brahman. Parabrahman is a negative word indicating that God is not Brahman or God is beyond Brahman. Every word is denied in indicating God (Neti neti, Yato vachah... Veda).

The silence of Buddha is also the same. Buddha is also the best incarnation of Lord Vishnu to preach the spiritual knowledge. Science also keeps silent about God. In the above prayer of Dakshinamurthy, even Shankara told that God cannot be explained by any word. How can you say that Shankara means the awareness or an individual soul is God? If the individual soul is unimaginable, then, you can say that the individual soul is God. You are the individual soul, which knows itself and items other than itself. Awareness cannot be ignorant of itself and other things also simultaneously. In meditation, awareness is ignorant of other things but it is aware of itself. In deep sleep, it is neither aware of itself nor aware of other items because it remains as inert energy since the inert energy is not transformed into awareness due to resting nervous system. If you say such inert energy in deep sleep is God, then your argument that awareness is God, is contradicted by yourself. You must note one important point here, which is that Shankara used the word Brahman for the individual soul and not the word Parabrahman. Since Brahman means any greatest item in a category, several items can be called as Brahman. The Veda, food, life, mind, intelligence, knowledge, bliss, etc., were called as Brahman in several places (Brahmaksharasamudbhavam, Annam Brahma, Prano Brahma, Mano Brahma, Vijnanam Brahma, Jnanamantam Brahma, Anando Brahma etc.). All these statements mean that these items are greatest among their own categories. Similarly, the individual soul is greatest among all the items of the creation due to its specific property of knowledge (Jnanitvatmaiva… Gita).

The awareness can handle the inert energy in a tactful way but that does not mean that the awareness is having full control over the inert energy. For example, the powerful nuclear energy is controlled in the atomic reactors and is used by the scientist for various purposes. This does not mean that the soul can control the powerful atomic energy directly. If the atomic energy attacks the souls directly, the soul in the human being runs away due to the destruction of human body even though the human being is a scientist, who handled it tactfully. Therefore, if you take God as the awareness, God can handle the universe in a tactful way only like a scientist, but God cannot be the direct controller of the universe. But, Lord Krishna swallowed huge fire energy in the forest, which shows the direct control of God over the inert energy irrespective of its intensity and quantity. If you say that the awareness in Krishna is the controller, then the awareness or soul in every human being must be similar. This proves that there is difference between the awareness in Krishna and the awareness present in all human beings. The control is due to difference but not due to similarity. This means that the extra component existing in the awareness of Krishna is controlling and not the common general awareness. Such extra component is God or Brahman. Similarly, the huge Govardhana hill is maintained on the tiny finger of Krishna for seven days. The reason is again God who pervaded all over the body of Krishna and not the finger and not the power (inert energy) of the finger, which is common to anybody. Therefore, neither matter (finger), nor the inert energy (the power of the finger), nor the awareness (soul) is the controller of this universe. The unimaginable God existing in Krishna is the creator, controller and the destroyer of this universe.

The soul creates imaginary world or daydream, controls it and finally dissolves it into itself. The imaginary world is neither the total real world nor is the component of the real world like a hill, a river, a tree, etc. The capacity to create the dream is in no way related to the capacity of God in creating the universe. The soul, its capacity to create a dream and the dream can be compared to God, its capacity to create the world and the world respectively. A simile can never be the identity. God created such examples in the world to teach us the concepts related to Him. You can say that God created this real world, maintains it for entertainment for sometime and finally dissolves it in Himself just like the soul creates the dream, maintains it for sometime for entertainment and finally dissolves it in himself. Since the dream is not even a tiny part of the real world, the soul is also not even a tiny part of God. Since God is unimaginable, the imaginable soul cannot be a part of God. Today, due to the latest developments in science, the soul or awareness or the nervous energy flowing in the nerves as waves is even visible through a powerful microscope.

God is understood as the basis (adhara) of the universe (Brahma puchcham pratishtha… Veda) and this does not mean that the nature of the basis is understood. Assume that we understand that an object, which alone is visible, is standing on some support but whether the support is a table, or a person or some other object is not visible. In such case, we are inferring the existence of something as the support but the nature of the support is not understood. The cosmic energy is independent since the electromagnetic waves have independent identity. But even though it is independent, it cannot act as the designer. The awareness has the designing talent but does not exist independently. If the radiations of awareness or nervous energy exist independently in the space like the independent electro magnetic radiations, scientist could have tapped them and must have used them to raise the dead body, just like the cosmic energy is trapped to recharge a battery. Thus, both inert energy and awareness suffer due to these defects and cannot be claimed to be the defectless God.

If your goal is to become God, you must understand the Ramayana and practice it in your spiritual effort keeping Hanuman as your guide, who became God. If your goal is to become the master of God, you must understand the Bhagavatam and practice it in your spiritual effort keeping Radha as your guide, who became the queen of Goloka, which is above the abode of God. In both the cases, the direct worship of the contemporary human incarnation i.e., Rama and Krishna, is the main essence. In any case, understanding the Mahabharatam is very important, which teaches you the slips in your spiritual effort leading to your downfall. In any case, you must be careful about the inevitable cracks in your faith regarding the contemporary human incarnation. Arjuna was born as a hunter in the next birth because he could not believe Krishna who is God in human form before his eyes and worshipped the irrelevant energetic form of the upper world (Shiva) to win the war. Arjuna brought Pashupata weapon from Lord Shiva but Lord Krishna showed in His cosmic vision that He is simply swallowing all the Kauravas by mouth. The firm faith on contemporary human incarnation is very important and it is impossible also. The fundamental reason is the nature of negligence resulting due to repulsion between common external media. The Veda says that the incurable disease even in the case of angels is to like anything, which is not before the eyes and to dislike anything before the eyes (Parokshapriya ivahidevah pratyaksha dwishah). Lord Krishna clearly told that He will come again and again whenever there is a requirement. God comes in human form to guide all through divine messages and also to give experience about Himself to the devotees who cry for it in every generation. If He favored one generation only in the form of Lord Krishna, God becomes partial by which God remains no-God.

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