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Only Brahman Knows About Himself, No Other Can.

[31-12-2002] The Shruti says "Parokṣa priyā iva hi devāḥ pratyakṣa dviṣaḥ." It means even the angels hate that which is present before their eyes. They like and worship what is not direct to their eyes. Then, what to say about human beings who are predominantly Rājasika? Even the angels and Sages are bound to fall prey to two great serpent couple, namely, ‘ego’ and ‘jealousy.’ The last of the six vices (Ṣaḍ durguṇas) of a individual soul is jealousy (mātsarya). No one can cross this bad quality. Even the Pāṇḍavas, who are the incarnations of Devatās, did not release Gaya, who was abducted by them, in spite of God Krishna’s direct advice to them. They rejected the ultimate devotion (Parābhakti) to Krishna, which accepts that whatever He speaks is the Veda and that whatever He practices is the Dharma. In every individual soul, there are three qualities, namely Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. A Sāttvika person is the one who has a higher level of Sattva-quality. Knowledge is born out of Sattva, says the Gita (Sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam). The one who has hundred percent Sattva guṇa is a perfect scholar and omniscient. That omniscient is none other than Paramātman only. Therefore, no matter how scholarly an individual soul may be, the soul must have some ignorance. The Gita says that this ignorance aggravates differently from an individual soul to other individual soul, at different times. Even the Sāttvika Pāṇḍavas, who believed that Krishna was Paramātman and who had perfect faith in Him, fell under the influence of ignorance in the case of Gaya. Hanuman is the best of all the scholars. He is called the wisest of the wise. But even Hanuman succumbed to the influence of ignorance in the matter of Yayati's protection. Mother Anjana Devi ordered her son Hanuman to save Yayāti. Lord Rama ordered Hanumān to hand over Yayāti to Him. For a moment, He was illusioned by Māyā that whatever ordered by Swami must be attended immediately to prove His ultimate devotion (Parābhakti). Is the human mother greater than the absolute Swami? There is none who is neither equal to Swami nor greater than Swami. Hence, the Shruti says - "Na tatsamaḥ".

The reason for this is that Swami being the human incarnation as Krishna and Rama existed in the form of a human being in front of our eyes which lead to negligence. That is why Bhagavān says in the Gita,

Manuṣyāṇāṃ sahasreṣu kaścit yatati siddhaye |
Yatatāmapi siddhānāṃ kaścin māṃ vetti tattvataḥ ||

It means that hardly a few in crores and crores of people will try to identify God in human form. But, only one or two of them shall recognize God and believe Him completely. Even those who believe Him completely, will be deluded for a moment sometime or the other. No matter however much faith you have, you will doubt the human form of God, even for a moment. Because, complete knowledge of the nature of Brahman (God) is impossible for any soul. That is why the Shruti says that ‘Brahman can only know about Himself’(Brahmavit Brahmaiva Bhavati). Unlike us, since He is the Brahman, He never doubts Himself even for a moment. In our case, ego and jealousy can be reduced by practice but cannot be completely eliminated by any soul. Therefore, no soul can know Brahman. Soul remains as soul and God remains as the omniscient God, always.

Some times, God may possess a soul for a specific purpose. Although there exists an advaita between the soul and God during that time, after achieving the purpose, God departs from the soul and the soul remains an ordinary soul. When the switch is turned off, the current does not flow through the wire. Then it becomes an ordinary wire. After killing the Kshatriyas, God Vishnu (electricity), was withdrawn and Parashurama (wire) remained an ordinary sage. This type of incarnation is called the ‘Āveśa avatāra.’ But Rama is not such a wire like Parashurama. From taking birth till breathing the last, Rama remained like an electric wire possessed by current. Therefore, Rama is called the complete incarnation. The same is the case with Krishna, too. After His last breath, Krishna's body was also considered a wire without electricity. That is why Arjuna cremated Krishna’s body. That body of Krishna, which had earlier swallowed a great fire and saved the Gopikas, was then burned by a limited fire. But one must note that the bodies of Rama and Krishna remained electric wires as long as they were alive.

Rama never said that He was God. Therefore, He is a full (Pūrṇa) incarnation. But Krishna declared on many occasions that He was God. Therefore, He is the fullest (Paripūrṇa-tamāvatāra) incarnation. When Lord Rama existed, the number of His devotees was higher than the number of His enemies. When Krishna existed, the number of devotees was very less compared to His high number of enemies. What is the reason for such a situation? Since Rama did not say that He was God, there were many who believed that He was God. There are very few who believed Krishna as God because He said repeatedly that He was God. This means that the number of people  who believe that God can exist in a human form is very less. 'How can God be a human being?' is their question. It is true, otherwise. The soul always remains as the ordinary soul; whereas God always remains as the absolute God. But when God merges in a chosen soul, then the ordinary nature of the soul becomes neutralized and the divinity is revealed. You can hold the ordinary wire with your hand and play with it. But when electricity enters the wire, it is not possible to even touch the wire. Though the ordinary wire does not appear to have lost its properties to our eyes, it has really lost its property and has acquired the property of electricity.

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