Narayana

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

The meaning of the word Narayana is the Lord who has taken the shelter of a human body. The word Nara means the human body. Ayana means the person who has taken Nara as his shelter. This meaning of this word exactly coincides the verse in the Gita “Manushiim tanumashritam”. The Lord is beyond the scope of even the intelligence and logic. You cannot understand anything about Him in any angle as said in the Gita “Mamtuveda Nakaschana…” In the Veda, there are several statements which say that He is beyond the words, mind, intelligence and logic. The only information about the Lord is that He is not known in anyway (Yasyamatam – Veda). God is completely unimaginable as He is beyond space and time. If you say that He is the life energy or awareness, He is understood atleast by scientists or scholars having sharp imagination. All forms of energy are imaginable today. If you say that God is a statue on the seven hills, it is also very easy to understand and to even see Him with eyes. Whatever you imagine is only a part of creation and not the creator. Even the awareness, the most subtle and finest part of creation is called as Para Prakruti. Prakruti means the creation. The awareness is the material and also the designer in creating this Universe. This awareness or Para Shakti is also called as Brahman because it is the greatest among all the items of creation.

The word Brahman is used for the Veda also because the Veda is the greatest of all the scriptures. The second Brahma sutra also mentions about Brahman, which is the Mula Maya or Para Shakti. This is the first and finest part of the creation. This designs the whole Universe and also all the scenes of this world–cinema. You cannot go beyond this. But God is beyond this Mula Maya. What is the proof for such God? God gives us the experience of His existence. Therefore, we can say that the God is unimaginable but surely exists (Astiityeva- Veda). Such God is called as Parabrahman and this word means that God is beyond Brahman. Thus, this word also does not give any positive information about the God. The sages recognised the existence of God by eliminating every item of the creation by saying that this is not God…. this is not God… this is not God (Neti Neti- Veda). They could only say what is not God, but could not say what is God. God gives us the experience of His existence by entering an item of the creation. The current gives the experience of its existence through a metallic wire. Similarly, God gives the experience of His existence through an item of creation. The best item of the creation is human being. The human being contains inert matter (five elements) which includes inert energy also like light, heat etc., under the name fire. Apart from the inert matter and inert energy, the life energy also exists in fully developed state like life, mind, intelligence, bliss, egoism and chittam, which stores the information like a computer chip. God is greatest and therefore enters only the greatest item of the creation i.e., the human being. When the king enters a city, he stays in the most dignified palace. The human being is the most evolved living being. There are instances when God enters even the bodies of some animals for a limited purpose of killing a demon. When He enters such bodies of animals, He finished His work and disappeared immediately because such bodies are not congenial to preach the humanity. Ofcourse by using His special power He can preach even through the body of the animal. But when easiest and most convenient way is available, even a fool will not use the most inconvenient way to get any work done. When the human body is available, which has all the natural facilities to do the work of preaching, why should He use the unnatural and inconvenient way for the same work?

Once, Shri Paramahamsa crossed river by a boat by paying a rupee. One yogi crossed the same river by walking on the water with the help of the supernatural power. The yogi told Shri Paramahamsa that he spent 30 years to attain that supernatural power. Shri Paramahamsa told him that the cost of his spiritual effort for 30 years is just one rupee. This story is sufficient to explain the logic of the entry of God into human body rather than entering a statue or animal or some form of inert energy like light etc. Some people feel that God is all pervading like space. But space is also inert energy. If God becomes everything, or enters every human body, there is no meaning of creating this Universe for entertainment. The subject acting a spectator should be different from the object to be seen for entertainment. He can see everything in the world through His all-pervading awareness. You can call awareness as His power but you should not take any example from the world to understand the link between the source and power. In any worldly example the source and its power are imaginable items. Therefore, the link between the two imaginable items is imaginable. But the link between God and awareness is unimaginable because it is link between unimaginable God and imaginable awareness.

Therefore, it will be foolishness if you try to approach God through the awareness. It is the climax of the foolishness if you think that the awareness itself is God. You should not forget the awareness is also a created item though it is most subtle and finest form of energy. When God enters the awareness, you can call this awareness as Parabrahman from the point of God or you can call this awareness as Brahman from the point of the awareness. You can call an electric wire as electricity or wire from different angles. Awareness is only medium. Awareness charged by God is the super awareness. Mere awareness is called as Atman or soul, which can be also called as Brahman being the greatest item of creation. Therefore, you must be very careful about the terminology here. The awareness charged by God can be called as super awareness and not mere awareness. Thus, it can be called as Parabrahman and not Brahman. Ofcourse, you can call it as Brahman also from the point of medium but you must remember that it is not pure Brahman, which is Atman (soul), but it is the charged Brahman. Therefore, the second Brahma sutra refers to such charged Brahman by the word Brahman because pure awareness is separately called as Mula Maya or Para Shakti and a drop of this Mula Maya is called as Atman separately. When the word Brahman is introduced by the second Brahma sutra, people misunderstand that Brahman is pure awareness. Only the charged Brahman can create, maintain and destroy this Universe. The Pure Brahman or Pure Awareness cannot do anything by itself.

Even the pure awareness disappears and God can remain alone. In such state there is no desire. In this state pure awareness completely disappears. The pure awareness should be either aware of other things or should be aware of itself. In the awakened and dream states, pure awareness is aware of other objects. In awakened state the pure awareness is aware of this physical world. In dream state it is aware of the objects, which exist as its own imaginations. In the meditation state the pure awareness remains aware of itself only. But in deep sleep this pure awareness completely disappears and only the physical body exists. In this state of deep sleep the awareness is neither aware of itself nor aware of other objects. In this state the objects in the form of imaginations do not exist but the objects in physical form exist. Therefore, when the awareness of itself or other objects disappears, we say that the awareness disappeared. To say this concept in terms of science, in deep sleep the chemicals of brain exist but the energy produced by the chemical reaction of chemicals in the brain does not exist, which is called as nervous energy or awareness. You will be clear if you analyse this state through science than through dry logical words. This indicates that God or Parabrahman exists even in the absence of the Mula Maya. In that state no one exists to say even that God alone exists! There is no use of such state for us to discuss because it is beyond any discussion. Our discussion can start only with Mula Maya or Pure awareness. A very little part of this Mula Maya is modified into this world. This little world is just a state of imagination only for the rest of the unmodified and unlimited awareness, which is charged by God. Therefore, the Mula Maya creates this world-cinema by designing several scenes as a series of pictures.

This Mula Maya was called as “Parabrahma Mahishi” by Shankara, which means that this Mula Maya gives entertainment to God as His wife. In these pictures she creates several roles into which God likes to enter for further variety of entertainment. Such entertainment becomes complete only when such role is covered by full ignorance. Such role gets its self-awareness (Awareness of Parabrahman) for the sake of the devotees who are to be uplifted. But God closes this self-realisation and enjoys the role with full ignorance in the association of His family members like parents, children, brothers and relatives. The closet circle like wife and children are definitely the liberated souls only, who give entertainment to God with full ignorance in their own states. Such members of close circle are not losing the chance of the upliftment because they will be liberated at the end because they were already liberated souls. The brothers, parents and other relatives may be also liberated souls some times according to the requirement of the God. Therefore, the devotees need not wonder about the ignorance of closet circle of the human incarnation. An officer goes to a park for some change along with his family. If the family members also carry the files to be signed by the officer, the purpose of the picnic is totally lost.

The total essence of your spiritual effort is that whether the Lord can replace your wife, children and money. These three bonds are strongest called as Eshanas. The day when all these three disappear and only God exists in these three places, your spiritual effort is over. But the God must be the human incarnation and not the statue of temple or formless aspect of God. Some can replace these entire three by God but such God is either a statue of a temple or the formless aspect of God or the celestial energetic body. Ofcourse, they have realised the value of God completely. They should be appreciated. They have studied the course by regularly attending the classes and finally appeared in the examination but they failed in the examination. They have realised the value of God but they have not conquered their egoism and jealousy towards co-human beings. The sages have sacrificed everything and everybody for God but could not recognise the human incarnation. They sacrificed all the Eshanas for God but their God was the energetic form like Vishnu, Shiva etc. When they were born as Gopikas and left everything and everybody for the sake of human incarnation, then only their spiritual effort was completed and got the complete grace of God. The whole complication lies in the recognition of the human incarnation only and the Brahma Jnanam or Brahma Vidya is most difficult only due to this concept. The Veda does not mention much about the human incarnation because the Veda was told by God in an energetic body called as Brahma Deva. The Veda was told by Brahma Deva to angels who are again the souls existing in the energetic bodies. Therefore, in the Veda the incarnation of God in energetic body like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is only elaborated. The preacher and the receiver are in the same medium called energetic form. Therefore, the preacher explained about the energetic incarnations only, which are congenial to the medium of energetic forms. But the epics like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavatam written by Valmiki and Vyasa were human beings. Rama and Krishna were the human incarnations. The human beings require only such human incarnations, which are convenient to the medium of human form.

Krishna is the God in human form and preached the Gita for human beings. The sages neglected such epics and gave importance to the Veda only and worshiped the energetic forms. The main reason is their egoism and jealousy towards the co-human beings. There is no difference between the human incarnation and energetic incarnation. God is common in both. In human incarnation the medium is made of five elements whereas in energetic incarnation the medium is made of one element only which is called as fire or energy. If the human body contains a soul, it is human being and if the same human body contains God it is human incarnation. Similarly, if energetic body contains a soul it is angel and if the same energetic body contains God, it is energetic incarnation. Vishnu is energetic incarnation and Indra is an angel. Krishna is human incarnation and other people were human beings. An angel is greater than human being but not greater than human incarnation. A peon in silk shirt is greater than a villager in the cotton shirt, but he is not greater than the officer in the cotton shirt. Indra is greater than any human being but not greater than Lord Krishna. The villagers in cotton shirts are unable to recognise officer in the cotton shirt, who came to mix with them closely. They treat the peon in silk shirt as the officer. The villagers of Brindavanam were prepared to worship Indra and could not recognise Krishna who is the officer of even Indra. Even Indra could not recognise his own officer present in the cotton shirt!

[Reply To Nikhil: Q) Nikhil asked that Vedas speak more about the attainment of self rather than recognition of superself?]

Swami replied: The Upanishads speak more about the self-realisation than about the recognition of incarnation. But the major front portion of the Veda deals with praying the energetic incarnations because the Veda was preached to angels by the energetic incarnation of God. The self-realisation is required for both human beings as well as angels. Even angels suffer with egoism and jealousy. The sate of angels is more dangerous than the state of human beings because they neglect their co-energetic forms due to the repulsion towards common medium and also reject the human forms as they are in lower state. The human beings, though neglect their co-human form, atleast respect the higher state of energetic forms. Self-realisation is the first step in spiritual effort, which was stressed by Shankara who came first. The Eshanas can be cut only by self-realisation and unless you are detached from old bonds, you cannot form a new bond with God. The old bonds with wife, children etc., will compete vehemently with God especially when the God is in human form. These bonds are related with the gross body only, which is limited to this birth only. Unless you cross the gross body, these bonds will never disappear. Even if you crossed the gross body, the effect of the gross body will be present in the form of feelings (Vasanas or Samskaras), which is the subtle body. Therefore, you have to cross the second hurdle also, which is subtle body. The source of feelings is the pure awareness, which is causal body, the soul. When you identify yourself as the soul, your effort for self-realisation or self-attainment is stopped. Now you are eligible for the formation of a fresh bond with God after hearing his greatness and speciality. In this stage you have also realized that you are only the self and not the super self. Therefore, self-realisation means not only the realisation of your soul but also the realisation of your soul not as the super soul. Then only the point of formation of bond with God arises. The urge or attraction or love for God is called as devotion, which is stressed by Ramanuja.

For the development of such devotion on God, which is limited to mind only, even a statue in temple is sufficient. Ramanuja stayed in the temple of Sri Rangam for this purpose. In this second stage the human incarnation is just introduced only and not stressed because the devotee is not completely devoid of egoism and jealousy towards co-human beings. Therefore, Ramanuja stressed on the energetic incarnation like Vishnu and His representative statue in Sri Rangam. When the devotion is completely developed and the egoism and jealousy are completely eradicated, the devotee can recognize the human incarnation and render practical service, which is devotion extended from mind to action as a proof of the devotion. In this state, Madhva, the final preacher entered who introduced Hanuman. Hanuman worshiped Rama, the human incarnation with practical service. Thus, the three preachers came subsequently to show the three steps one after the other. The whole spiritual journey ends here when you become like Hanuman recognizing Rama, who is the human form of the God. Please remember that you should not become Hanuman but become like Hanuman. If you become Hanuman, you will catch Rama who is the past human incarnation. Please realize that Hanuman did not worship Vamana or Narasimha or Parasurama who was His past incarnation. Therefore, become like Hanuman and search your present human incarnation as Hanuman searched the then human incarnation in his generation. Suppose you live long up to the future generation also and suppose your present incarnation left His human body. Then you must recognize the human incarnation of future generation. Again, here you should be like Hanuman who recognized Krishna as the human incarnation in the next generation.

[Mr. Steve asked whether Islam, which believes in spreading the religion through violence, can be treated in par with other religions?]

Swami replied: Q’ran says that a Muslim should protect even the enemy belonging to other religion. It says that a Muslim can speak about the preaching of Allah to the enemy and then leave the enemy in protected place. It never says that the religion should be spread by violence. It speaks about the war for justice, which is not the war for propagation of religion. For that matter, the Gita arose only from the state of war, which was fought for establishing justice. Even the Bible says that the rigid fools who do not realize should be thrown to the liquid fire, which is violence. Therefore, violence is not wrong. But the cause of violence should be perfectly justified. When Mohammad came, there were three hundred religions, which were quarrelling among themselves with lot of violence. He tried His best by preaching the concept of one God. There was no alternative way to subside the violence between them. Actually, after Jesus, the concept of human incarnation was fully realized but this concept was exploited by cheaters. Every fellow became a prophet and declared himself as the human incarnation. The followers started preaching that particular form is only the one God. You can imagine easily the situation at the time. When violence is justified, it is called as punishment given by God. If the violence is not justified, it becomes Chaos due to egoism of a demon, which can be subsided only by divine punishment. Actually, at the end, Hinduism speaks about the incarnation of Kalki and Christianity speaks about the final punishment given by God. Both these situations are of terrible violence only. The last resort of God is only punishment, which can alone bring peace atleast temporally for some time when the world is filled with brutal conservative fools, who are the wild beasts in the human form.

The Lord says in the Bible “Revenge is mine” which means the Lord punishes the unjust people. The Lord said in the Gita that He will destroy the evil person (Vinasaya cha…). God is double-edged knife. Not only He protects the justice but also, He punishes the injustice. A rich weak human being may protect the justice but may not be able to punish the injustice. A poor strong fellow may punish the injustice but not protect the justice by giving compensation. Thus, the human beings have limitations but the Lord is strong as well as rich and therefore is capable in both sides. This is the meaning when Jesus mentioned about the divine kingdom on the earth. He means that one may escape the king on this earth but can never escape God. When you are affected by injustice, pray for compensation only (Ask that shall be given. -Bible) and not for the punishment of enemy. You will be compensated. When you do not pray for the punishment of enemy, you will see the punishment of your enemy soon from God. You may react to your enemy with equal or double force. But God will react with million times of force. Draupadi was pestering Krishna for the destruction of her enemies. The Lord fulfilled her wish but all her sons were killed by enemies and Lord did not protect them. Sometimes God punishes your enemy through yourself. Arjuna killed the enemies, forced by the Lord. But Arjuna was not having the intention to kill the enemies and was against the war. Since he was forced by the Lord, he fought the war for justice. When Muslims followed Mohammad in His war for unifying the religions, it was justified because there was clear divine instruction. Since Mohammad was the last divine preacher, now the war for justice need not be carried on because in the absence of divine preacher there is every possibility of misunderstanding of every situation as requirement for war for justice. Therefore, the instruction of Mohammad was limited to that time because He was capable of deciding the correct requirement for war for justice.

Mohammad removed the concept of human incarnation because the effects of exploitation were severe in that time. Muslims should realize that human incarnation means that God entered in the human body and not that God modified as human body. Mohammad objected only modification of God into human body. This is not condemning the concept of human incarnation. God only enters the human body and Mohammad himself was the human incarnation because God entered into Mohammad and gave Quran. The Gita clearly says that God entered the human body (Manusheiim Tanu Ashritam…) and that God is not modified into human body (Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam…). The Bible also says that God is in flesh and does not say that God has become flesh. Thus, there is no difference between three religions.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★