More on 'I'

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Awareness Is Not God

From the beginning of the creation of this world, man was searching for God. Some people were satisfied by realising the existence of God, which was experienced by them through some items of creation and through some important incidents in the life. They never claimed that they have detected God. They have only analysed the entire creation and found that every item of the creation is not at all the God. They declared that nobody could detect God. Therefore, they concluded that God is unimaginable. But they said that God exists because they have experienced the existence of God through some items of creation, which are imaginable and through some incidents, which can be analysed. The medium through which they experienced God can never be God. Therefore, God was unimaginable for them. This is the correct approach to God. But some egoistic people, who were very confident of their intelligence, analysed and declared that they detected the real nature of God. They said that the real nature of God is awareness. That means awareness is directly the God. Therefore, they have imagined God and for them God was imaginable for high intellectuals. But, either they were egoistic in detecting the real form of God or they were impatient to accept the unimaginable God. The so-called awareness discovered by these people can never be God because awareness is not completely unimaginable item. Ofcourse, one has to take lot of pains in imagining the pure awareness, which is very very near to the unimaginable God. The item, which is imagined by lot of analysis with lot of difficulty, can be only imaginable item with most difficulty, which can be treated as almost unimaginable and this cannot be the perfectly unimaginable God.

Several statements of the Veda clearly speak that God is completely unimaginable under any circumstances. Silence can only indicate God. Silence means that no word can be used to indicate God. In the creation every imaginable item has the specific name, which cannot be used for any other imaginable item. For example, the word pot means only a particular object. The word cloth means another particular object. You cannot use one word for any other object. But God can enter any item of the creation. Therefore, the name of every item can be used to indicate God because there is no specific word for God, who is not at all a specific object. Even if God does not enter an item, the name of that item can be used to indicate God, because you are keeping that item as the representative of God. For example, God never enters the inert planet like sun. But still Sun can represent God due to some similarities. God removes ignorance. Sun removes darkness. The lotus buds are opened by sun. The ignorant intelligence is also enlightened by God. Therefore, sun can represent God to some extent. Therefore, the word “sun” can also represent God. Thus, in one extreme end no word can indicate God (Yato vachah- Veda). At another extreme end, the name of any item into which either God can enter or any item which can represent God, can indicate God. All the prayers of God by thousand names (Sahasra Nama) indicate God. When a word indicates God, it is the name of medium into which either God entered or which stands as representative of God. This means you can experience God through a specific medium when God enters it. Alternatively, you can also imagine the experience of existence of God through a representative item like sun. You can experience the existence of God through Lord Krishna because God entered and exists in the human body of Krishna. In case of sun you can imagine the existence of God through the properties of the sun. Thus, there is difference between the worship of human incarnation and worship of the representative item like sun, statue etc. The Veda says that you can worship sun as God, which means that sun is not directly God (Adityam Brahmaiti… Veda).

There is difference between the direct worship of king and indirect worship of his photo. In both cases the king is pleased. But in the direct worship the king is extremely pleased because every bit of your service is experienced by king directly. When God enters the human body, God has not become the human body. God is in the human body. Therefore, the human body is not God. You can only experience God through human body. Therefore, by seeing the human body you have not seen God, but you have only experienced God through that human body. Therefore, God is invisible. Ofcourse, a devotee can be satisfied by treating the human body as God and can feel satisfied that he has seen God. From this angle the Veda says, “A blessed fellow has seen God” (Kaschit Dhirah…). This is only an assumption. You can assume an electric wire as the current because you experience current by touching the wire anywhere. Therefore, for all practical purposes the electric wire is current. Thus, there is a very narrow delicate margin between the reality and assumption in this case. To solve this very delicate difference, you can say that the wire is current from the point of experience of the existence of current and thus this assumption is perfectly correct. But if you say that you have seen the current, the reality comes and in this case, you have seen only the wire and not the current because current is invisible. Therefore, the conclusion is that you can experience the existence of current through the wire but you cannot see the current actually.

Thus, God’s existence is experienced through the human incarnation but God is not imagined. The Gita says that nobody knows God (Mamtu Veda Nakaschana…). This verse establishes the complete unimaginability of God. Again, the Gita says that one blessed devotee in millions can experience the existence God (Kaschit mam…). These two verses will contradict with each other if you say that the first verse means that nobody knows God and second verse means that one knows God. The first verse means that the real nature or form of God cannot be known. The second verse means that the existence of God can be known. The Veda also says these two sides. Several Vedic statements reveal that God is completely unimaginable and can never be known. In the Veda Lord Yama says that they have come to know that God cannot be known. This statement indicates the point that God is completely unimaginable. The Veda again says that only the existence of God can be known. This statement does not contradict the first statement. Thus, the Veda and the Gita are exactly synchronised in this context.

Awareness is indicated by the words like Atman (soul) or “I”. Advaita scholars feel that you have detected the real nature or form of God, which is the awareness. No doubt, awareness is almost unimaginable item. But it does not mean that awareness is completely unimaginable. Ofcourse, if you cross the awareness, nothing further is known. Awareness is in the climax position of the entire creation. It is the greatest of all the items of the creation and therefore it is called as Brahman. It is the greatest among all the imaginable items. These scholars say that awareness is unimaginable to majority of people. Therefore, they say that God is unimaginable with respect to majority who are ignorant. Since scholars are in minority, only scholars can know the real form of the God. This is their interpretation of the above two statements in the Veda and the Gita. They do not stop here. They go one step further and say that since awareness is in every human being. If any body knows and limits himself to the pure awareness present in his body, he becomes God because God is the pure awareness. To support this advanced step, they quote the Veda which says that the knower Brahman becomes Brahman (Brahma vit Brahma…). They also quote the Gita that the knower is God (Jnani Tvatmaiva…). Here, the Veda means that God is only knower of God. The scholars reverse this and say that the knower of God is God. Their reverse meaning contradicts the Gita, which says that nobody can know God. When the Gita says that the knower is Atman, it does not mean that the knower is God because Atman is not God. The Gita means only that by the self-realisation, one can become the self or Atman.

All the arguments of Advaita scholars are perfectly correct except one small point, that is the awareness or Atman is God. Awareness is not known to majority and therefore the soul is unimaginable to majority. The soul is certainly known to minority who are very sharp scholars. The Veda says that Atman is known only to sharp scholars and the Veda does not say that Atman is God in this context. The Veda says here that Atman is embedded in the human being secretly (Drusyatetvagraya…, Atma guhayam…).

Awareness requires the existence of two items. One is the inert energy that is obtained from the digestion of food (Annat Purashah- Veda). The second is nervous system, which alone can convert this inert energy into awareness on functioning. Thus, awareness is dependent on these two items but God is independent and does not depend on the requirement of any other item. Thus, the scholars who are based on the scriptures only are also answered about this concept through scriptures and logic (Tarka Shastra). Matter (food) is converted into energy and awareness is a form of energy. Thus, matter and awareness are inter-convertible. When a human being called “Ahalya” was converted in to inert statue and again when the statue was converted into human being, this inter-conversion is proved. When Ahalya became a stone, her soul did not go to upper world. It remained there only. Awareness is an item of creation and therefore exactly duplicate souls were created by Lord Krishna when these souls were stolen by Prajapati. All these points clearly show that awareness is a conversion of inert matter and a form of inert energy and an item of creation only. If one accepts science, it is very easy to prove that awareness is a special form of inert energy flowing through the nervous system while functioning. The robot is just a duplicate of human being. The current flowing in the wires is the awareness flowing in the nervous system. The information stored in the chip is exactly the information stored in the brain. The brain is a system of several microprocessors working simultaneously, which grasps all the points regarding an object in one instance.

You treat brain as a CD in which the information is stored in the form of written impressions on the matter or you can treat brain as the RAM in which the information is stored in the form of pulses by electro magnetic energy. This does not make any difference for a spiritual approach. That is a topic of science. Even in science a physicist does not differentiate matter and energy. Thus, in science it is clearly proved that awareness is inert energy only which on functioning in nervous system becomes a specific form by doing specific work. In fact, awareness is a form of special work done by the inert energy. Since, work is also a form of energy, all these specifications come under the topic of science only and has no spiritual significance. But science clearly analyses any item, which is not God and helps us to realise that it is not God.

Science analyses every item of creation and with the help of such analysis we can know that every item of creation is not God. Science cannot show what is God but it can show clearly what is not God. There is no item in the creation, which is not analysed by science. Therefore, any item of the creation is not God. Even the so-called philosophy has not shown God. It has shown only what is not God. the Veda says that the sages who were greatest philosophers rejected every item of creation as not God (Neti… Neti…). They have concluded that God is beyond words, mind, intelligence, logic and even any type of imagination. Thus, both philosophy and science fail to give any positive information about the God. Thus, you should not reject both philosophy and science because even if they have not shown God, atleast they have shown that every item in the creation is not God. Thus, these two have helped us in not falling in the illusion by which we may think that some item like awareness, which is very near to unimaginability is God. Atleast science and philosophy could protect us from going into wrong route. Therefore, every spiritual seeker should develop sharp analytical faculty of logic, which means science only. In fact, any student of philosophy (Vedanta) is supposed to learn logic (Tarka Shastra). It is just like that a student of physics must learn mathematics. Some people are misleading devotees by telling that since God is beyond logic, logic should not be entertained. This is a very dangerous statement.

This means that you should leave logic and blindly follow whatever nonsense is preached. Even though logic may not help in finding the real nature of God, at least the logic will help to identify and reject the nonsense, which is the matter of items other than God and thus prevent you in not falling in the trap of such nonsense. You should have the weapon of logic in your hands so that you are not mislead into wrong path, though logic does not show you the right path. Therefore, all the Acharyas like Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva were great scholars of logic. All their commentaries were dealing with the items, which are not God through powerful logic and thus they eliminated the wrong routes and wrong items that are claimed to be God. By this analysis only they could indirectly establish that God is completely unimaginable and He is beyond logic. The Gita says that the Brahma Sutras with logic can only draw conclusions (Brahma Sutra Padaischaiva…). Even in the Bible, whatever Jesus spoke was very logical and He was rejecting the wrong interpretations of priests through powerful logic only. Therefore, at least for this purpose logic is useful.

The existence of God is experienced by yourself due to the will and grace of Lord. Therefore, you are able to get that much information about God. Without His will and grace even that much information cannot be experienced by you. Beyond that, there is no will of God to realise His real nature. For this, the reason is that as long as you are having some deficiency, you will not be proud. If you know the real nature of God, you will catch the hair of God in no time like the demon Bhasmasura. By this you will fall in the spiritual effort. To save you from this fall God is keeping that one secret in His hand. The preacher of Marshal Arts keeps one type of shot as secret in his hand so that if the student fights with the preacher due to egoism, that one secret shot can be used to defeat the student and to destroy his egoism. A good student realises this and keeps silent about that shot and he praises the preacher for his love on the student. An egoistic student tries to know that one secret shot. After sometime, the student claims that that one secret shot is also known to him by his self-discovery. But the other student condemns the egoistic student and says that the secret shot discovered by him is already the known shot preached by the preacher. Thus, he proves that the secret shot is always with the preacher and that every student must be humble before him. Similarly, the Advaita scholar claims that he has discovered God as the pure awareness, which is the soul. But the real Vedic scholar condemns him by saying that pure awareness is one of the imaginable items of the imaginable creation only. Thus, the secrecy of the real nature of God is maintained and every human being must be humble before the God.

If you can succeed in proving that the soul is not God, the king is defeated and the war ends. The soul is the king of all items of the creation and it is almost unimaginable. In fact, realisation and achievement of soul by limiting yourself within the boundaries of pure awareness always is a very great achievement and should be highly appreciated. Realisation of soul is called as Brahma Jnana because the soul is Brahman or the greatest item of creation, which is also called as Atma Jnana or Jnana Yoga or Sankhya Yoga or Buddhi Yoga or Yoga. By this achievement (Yoga) one gets full liberation (Moksha) from all the worldly bonds and tensions. One will attain perfect mental health, which is the basis of physical health. Thus, Yoga is very much followed by even doctors. It is an important topic of medical science. It is Pravrutti only, but it is very important requirement for entering into Nivrutti. It is like the rank in the entrance examination to get seat in professional college. Shankara stressed on this first step, which is the basis of the other steps. If the first step is removed, all the other steps will fall down. Liberation from all worldly bonds (Moksha) is strictly the last topic of Pravrutti and first topic of Nivrutti. When you are detached from gross body, all the family bonds disappear. When you are detached from subtle body all the qualities disappear and therefore the jealousy and egoism which are the strongest qualities of the soul will disappear. Then only you are eligible to recognise and serve the human incarnation and please the Lord, which is the final goal of spiritual effort. Some people say that attainment of God is final goal. But it is not correct. Going to the office and finding the officer is not the final goal. To please the officer and by that getting your work done is the final goal. Ofcourse, in the case of God there should be no aspiration of any selfish work, in which case only all your works are done in a fraction of second.

[Shri Lakshman (Bombay) enquired about the source of ‘I’.]

‘I’ is a pulse either stored in the inert energy or being transported by the awareness–energy. The pulse itself is a form of energy or work. Work itself is a form of energy. Therefore, the inert energy is the source of I. The entire Universe is the design of this energy only. Thus, all the items of the creation are forms of this energy. Even matter is condensed form of energy. Space is energy according to the latest science. When the food is eaten, it is converted into energy during digestion. This is conversion of matter into energy since both are inter-convertible. You may treat the soul, which is indicated by ‘I’ either as inert energy or awareness. If it is inert energy it is eternal. If it is awareness it is born in the morning and dies in the nights during deep sleep. In any case there is no difference because awareness is a special form of work-energy that is produced by the association of inert energy and nervous system. I give a very good example here. The current stored in the battery is permanent energy. When this current flows into the electric bulb, the light is produced. When the switch is put off, the light disappears but still its source, the current is stored in the battery as permanent energy. The light is temporary form of the current energy. Here the brain is the battery. The inert energy is current. The nervous system is the electric bulb. The awareness is light. Light is a temporary form of current. Similarly, awareness is a temporary form of the eternal inert energy. The energy is in permanent as well as temporary forms.

Thus, the soul can be temporary awareness or can be permanent inert energy. The word “inert” is used in two senses. In one sense, the controller is always life energy or awareness and the controlled is inert which may be inert energy or inert matter. You can lit the fire or you can put it off by pouring water. Thus, the fire energy is in your control. But remember, when the fire attacks you, you are turned to ash against your will. Now the inert energy is the controller and the life energy is controlled. Similarly, you can change the position of a stone as per your will. You are controlling the stone. But when a big stone falls on you; you are crushed against your will. Now the stone is controlling you. Therefore, the life energy and the inert energy (or inert matter) are like the two roommates. One may follow other’s word and vice-versa in various contexts. From this point of sense, you cannot decide that awareness is always not inert. All the three items, which are the soul, the inert matter and the inert energy, are controlled by the Lord and from this angel the awareness is always inert. The other sense is that awareness is knowledge and inert is ignorance or absence of knowledge. In this sense also, knowledge is a special work-form of the inert energy done through nervous system. In the inert matter or energy such nervous system is absent and therefore such special work (awareness or knowledge) cannot be produced.

The Gita says that both the awareness and inert energy (Para and Apara) are Prakruti (Creation) only. The Gita further says that the Para is bearing this whole creation like the mud bearing the pot. This Para is material cause (Upadanam) as well as the designer-cause (Nimittam) of the Universe. You are finding either inert matter or inert energy everywhere in the world. Even the inert matter is inert energy. Therefore, this entire world is inert energy only. You are not finding the awareness everywhere in the world in this manner. The inert energy is continuous and awareness is discontinuous limited to living beings here and there. How such discontinuous awareness is bearing the Universe? Ofcourse, if you forget the difference between awareness and inert energy by treating both essentially as the energy only, you can call the entire energy as awareness. But remember that the word awareness here does not mean that specific energy produced in the nervous system. You do not find the nervous system spreading in the entire Universe. Therefore, the whole creation can be simplified, as one item called as inert energy and it is not the creator. It is only the creation. Therefore, the Veda says that God created energy (Tat Tejo…). Here energy means the entire Universe.

The different forms of this energy are space, air, fire, water, solid (earth) and finally the life energy and awareness. The Veda says that God created energy and the Veda also says that God created space, air etc., in the sequence. Fire is only the form of energy, which is a mixture of light and heat. Here fire should not be taken as the general energy. Since space is also energy, there is no contradiction in the Veda in these two statements. Therefore, in deep sleep, the pulse “I” exists in the brain which may be treated as the RAM or CD (Inert matter or Inert energy). Even in the awakened state you are not experiencing this pulse every time. You are speaking so many things without referring or experiencing this ‘I’. Thus, in such times, even in the awakened state the ‘I’ is stored in the inert energy-bank only. In the case of mad man, this pulse is erased after effected madness. In the case of child this pulse is not yet created and does not exist in inert bank. Thus, this pulse may exist in the bank even in the awakened state or may not exist in the bank or awareness. Therefore, this point is of no use in the knowledge of God and all effort of the Advaita scholar is only catching a rat after digging a big mountain. Several people are mislead by the imperfect analysis of these Advaita scholars. They are attracted by these scholars by this chance of big lottery through one rupee ticket. They say you can become God just by realising soul and limiting yourself to it. Anybody can be easily attracted by one crore fund through one rupee ticket. They further say that every one can get this fund by the one rupee ticket! Thus, this is bigger than lottery! By simply knowing one’s self, everyone becomes God! Who ever purchases ticket gets one crore fund!

The Advaita scholars want some common point between the Lord and the human being. He assumes that awareness is the common point because God also wished to create the Universe. Wish is the characteristic of awareness. Thus, he bends the Lord to the logical rules of nature. In nature it is perfectly correct to say that anything, which wishes, must have life energy or awareness. But this logic fails in the Lord. He can wish without being the awareness. He is all pervading without being the space. He goes everywhere without being the air etc. The Veda says that the Lord runs without feet and catches without hands (Apani Pado…). How can you detect any point in the unimaginable God? No point of God is known. Therefore, there is no question of any common point between God and human being. All the points of human being are known and are imaginable. Even the soul is imaginable, which may take lot of strain to imagine. Therefore, this path is totally absurd. Even if you assume that awareness is the common point, can you become God by just that one common point? You remove all the other points from God by saying that all the items other than awareness are not true and therefore God is limited to pure awareness only in the reality. By the same argument all other points in yourself are also not true and only awareness in yourself is true.

Now you say that the common point, which is awareness, is only the truth. Therefore, you say that your soul is God. This is similar to the following fantastic example. You say that both the king and yourself are human beings. Further, you say that all other items and points in both of you are not true. Therefore, it is true that you are the king. It is simply rejected by the practical experience itself. Where is the Lord, who controls the summer sun? Where is the human being who dies by sunstroke in summer? Therefore, the practical experience, scriptures and logic clearly prove that awareness is not God. But do not be discouraged by not becoming God. By becoming self, you are eligible to serve and please the Lord in human form and by this path you can be come even the master of the God and not to speak of becoming God. Radha became master of God and Hanuman became God. Both are liberated souls and both worshipped the human form of Lord only. Liberation is essential to enter in to the service of the Lord. Service means sacrifice, which pleases the Lord to the maximum extent. Sacrifice is nothing but liberation. By passing the entrance examination you are getting a seat in the professional college by which you can attain the professional degree in course of time. But by passing the entrance examination the Advaita scholars want to get the professional degree directly. Shankara meant this path only by stating that you can become God by realising self. Somebody says “You will become the engineer and you must first pass the entrance examination”. Here the intermediate step of getting the seat in engineering college and studying the engineering course for four years is understood. This intermediate step is hidden for encouraging the student to concentrate on the entrance examinations. Such encouragement is not cheating the student by hiding the truth. But it shows only the extreme interest and love on the student.

[Shri Nikhil (Florida-USA) asked that if a man loses the information stored in the brain by an accident or smashed in a nuclear explosion, which is capable of removing the information (Vasanas) being more powerful radiation, this might upset the theory karma because the vasanas are responsible for the action and fruits. This means the accident of nuclear explosion can give complete liberation and spiritual effort is a waste.]

Swami replied: The answer for this is that you must distinguish the three basic qualities and the Vasanas, which are the elaborated branches. No doubt the Vasanas (information) are erased by such shocks. But the Vasanas are reduced into their sources, which are three basic qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). When the Vasanas are erased, the intensity of basic quality increases and according to the intensity the fruits are rendered. The three basic qualities with specific intensities constitute the code language, which brings the fruits on decoding in the heaven or hell. This point can be explained by a small example. Two murderers are destroyed in the nuclear explosion. The information is erased from the souls. But the basic quality of the murderer, which is Rajas is increased in intensity according to the proportion of Vasanas. Suppose the first criminal murdered ten good people. The Rajas in him will be 10¹⁰. Suppose the second criminal murdered six good people. The intensity of his Rajas is 10⁶. In the hell Chitra Gupta decodes this basic quality and accordingly the punishment is ordered by Lord Yama. Thus, the detailed information of the case is not required in the divine system. Such information is required by the court here, which cannot detect the basic qualities. These three basic qualities are more powerful form of energy and cannot be erased by the nuclear energy. In the final destruction of the world also (Maha Pralaya), these three qualities remain in the subtlest state, which bear the entire plan of the Universe.

Such state of the qualities is called as Avyaktam, which means that the state is not expressed. During that time, all the individual souls remain along with their own information in the condensed form of the three qualities. When the creation restarts the whole Universe is expressed in the same design and the souls are also expressed according to their previous proportions of the three qualities as said in the Veda (Dhata Yathapurvam…). The word sat means existence. Since the existence of God can be realised, it can be treated as the real characteristic of God. Therefore, the Veda says that you must limit yourself to the existence only regarding God (Astiityeva…). In this statement the word Eva means “only”. Thus, this word does not allow any further word as the indicator of some more information of the real nature of God. Thus, the word Chit has no place in the case of God. Chit means pure awareness. Ananda (Bliss) is a quality of chit, since it is not found in inert objects. The soul can be Chit. It can attain bliss on liberation. Therefore, every soul is chit and the liberated soul is Chit–Ananda. Since the liberated soul exists very much (from your point) it can be Sat-Chit-Ananda. Therefore, the Veda says “Tat Sat” which means that God is only Sat, which means that the only information about the God is that God exists.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★