Posted on: 23 Apr 2023
[Prof Dr. JSR Prasad asked: Sāṣṭāṅga praṇāmas Swami. Please explain the imaginable awareness of the individual soul comparing with the unimaginable awareness of the unimaginable God. Often confusion is coming between the two due to the common word ‘awareness.’]
Swami replied:- If you see these two words ‘unimaginable awareness’ and ‘imaginable awareness’, anybody will certainly be misled by the common word awareness present in God as well as the individual soul. Everybody will certainly jump in thinking that both God and individual soul are directly awareness or at least possess awareness as common item. In the case of unimaginable God, neither God has an iota of awareness nor God is an iota of awareness. The individual soul is completely awareness that is imaginable. But, in the case of God, there is no trace of awareness. God is called unimaginable awareness just to satisfy the influence of Advaita philosophers on the mind of ordinary human beings since several generations. Awareness in the unimaginable awareness is totally absent. There is a vegetable by name ridge gourd and a specific type of ridge gourd is called ghee-ridge gourd. In this ghee-ridge gourd, not even an iota of ghee is present. But, people call it as ghee-ridge gourd! Similarly, unimaginable awareness does not contain even an iota of awareness. The word unimaginable awareness means unimaginable = unimaginable God (having) awareness = the talent of knowing anything in the world. The word ‘awareness’ has two meanings:-
1. A specific work form of inert energy in a functioning brain-nervous system and
2. The process of knowing anything in the world.
The word ‘awareness’ in the individual soul means both of above meanings. It is both subjective item as well as the property or process form of property of this subjective item. It means that it is both the material knowing any item in the world and the same also means the process of knowing any item in the world. The individual soul is awareness having the property of knowing any item in the world and this means that the individual soul is awareness, as knowing material and also as the process of knowing. In the unimaginable awareness (unimaginable God), awareness is present as the knowing process but not as the knowing material. This means that in the case of unimaginable God any item is known (second meaning of awareness) but the knowing material (first meaning of awareness) is absent. This becomes impossible because unless the awareness as material exists, the process of knowing any item cannot take place. But, here, without the awareness as knowing material, the awareness (as process of knowing) is present. Since this impossible thing is happening in the case of the unimaginable God, the unimaginable awareness of the unimaginable God contains the word ‘unimaginable’. How do you explain this impossible thing? We can explain this by saying that the unimaginable awareness of the unimaginable God is capable of knowing anything not due to the presence of awareness as material, but, due to the presence of omnipotence to do any impossible thing possible. Hence, the unimaginable God is knowing any item in the world due to His omnipotence even though awareness as material is absent. Awareness as material is generated when inert energy enters a functioning brain-nervous system. In the case of the unimaginable God, before creation, neither inert energy exists nor the materialized brain-nervous system exists. But, before the creation, the process of knowledge took place in the case of the unimaginable God since the unimaginable God thought to create the universe. For knowing any item in the world and for the process of thinking, the awareness as material (specific work form of inert energy functioning in an active brain-nervous system) must be present and here also God thought due to His omnipotence. As another example, the unimaginable God burns all the creation in the end and He does this burning even though He is not fire or some radiant energy. He burns due to His omnipotence. Though the knowing of an item or thinking a thought is common in both the unimaginable God and the individual soul, the reason for the knowledge of an item or for thinking a thought in the case of the unimaginable God is Omnipotence and the reason for knowledge of an item or for thinking a thought in the case of the individual soul is the presence of awareness as material as well as the process of knowledge. With this background, you are calling the individual soul as imaginable awareness and the unimaginable God as unimaginable awareness. Both are totally dissimilar even though the common word ‘awareness’ exists in both the unimaginable God and the individual soul.