Reconciliation of the Three Philosophies

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Shankara stated that the awareness is Brahman irrespective of its association with intelligence and good or bad qualities. This means that birds and animals without intelligence and even cruel wild beings are introduced into the spiritual field since Brahman or God exists in all the living beings. There is no use of such spiritual knowledge for animals. But Shankara included all the living beings in the spiritual field because in human beings also, there are some without intelligence and demons with cruel qualities. Lord Shiva is worshipped by demons also and is said to be the Lord of animals (Pashupati). Even angels with intelligence and good qualities worship Lord Shiva. Therefore, Shankara embraced all the human beings irrespective of intelligence and qualities for spiritual uplift. It is like a program for a school opened in city and tribal area. The students are attracted for admission into the school without any admission tests and mere attendance is sufficient for the promotion to the higher class. The scheme of midday meals also is for attracting the students. Any child is admitted into the school. All human beings including bad demons and ignorant are admitted with attraction of advaita scheme, which says that you are already God if you have the basic lump of awareness. Such liberal attraction is essential to that level.

The level of the student is called as adhikari. The part of knowledge that suits to his level is called as vishaya. Any number of assumptions and modification can be done in that part of the knowledge so as to suit to the basic psychology of the student, which cannot be changed all of a sudden. Such suitability of the part of the knowledge is called as sambandha. The final modified form of the suitable part of knowledge alone can be the subject (vishaya) since such subject alone can be useful to uplift him to the next higher step. Such use in practical aspect of progress of the student is called as prayojanam. These four parameters (adhikari, vishaya, sambandha, and prayojanam) are called as anubandha chatushtayam, which are the guidelines of a preacher either in the worldly subject or in the spiritual subject. All the modifications and assumptions introduced into the subject by the preacher form the part of the curriculum of the subject of that level and as the student moves to the higher class, the student who is promoted to the higher class drops out such modifications and assumptions. But all these assumptions and modifications remain in the curriculum for the sake of the future students admitted into that class. Hence, once should not worry that the modified knowledge to a particular level is destroyed when an individual goes up to the higher class.

The advaita of Shankara will remain forever in the level of the school for all the batches of students that are admitted every year. Thus, the level of the philosophy is always eternal and cannot be discarded by anybody. Only he has left that level to reach the higher level. Therefore, if one goes to the college level, the school syllabus is neither condemned nor destroyed. Therefore, no school of philosophy can be condemned by anybody to satisfy the ignorant level of the school students in which the ego and jealousy are in climax as in the case of demons, since the concept of the soul being already God suits to such psychology and stands as an attraction like the scheme of mid day meals. In this level, the truth is completely masked on one side but the same truth with the other side appears at the climax level of the other extreme end. The highest level of angle of God is used in the lowest level as an attraction. Qualitatively the same concept appears at the lowest as well as the highest levels. The concept is that a human being is God. This concept remains the same qualitatively even at the highest level except that it is concentrated quantitatively at the highest level. This means that in the lowest level, every human being is God and at the highest level a specific human being like Krishna is God. Thus, the qualitative aspect is like the single coin and the quantitative aspects are like the two sides of the same coin. Therefore, Shankara stands qualitatively in the same concept in the lowest level as well as in the highest level. This is the miraculous talent of the divine genius like Shankara who is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is the source of the divine knowledge and represents the climax of Sattvam (sattvat samjayate jnanam…, Jnanam Maheshwarat…) as Lord Dakshinamurthy preaching divine knowledge to the sages and He is worshipped by the angels. He is in the climax of rajas while destroying the world as Rudra. He is in the climax of Tamas with all the habbits of anti tradition like staying in the burial ground, liking demons etc. Therefore, He covered all the human beings irrespective of knowledge and intelligence and good and bad qualities. He covered all the atheists to convert them into theists for which lot of attractive schemes were announced by Him. The promotion rule was also very liberal like simple attendance to the class, which is that you are already God and there is no effort to become God.

The next second level is that of the college where some strict rules for admissions and promotions were introduced by Ramanuja. He continued the same basic concept that the lump of awareness is Brahman, but He announced that the awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) alone is God. Now the atheists are already converted into theists and cannot go back to the school. The strictness is that the human being must leave Rajas and Tamas to please God. If this point was told to atheists in the beginning, they will not care because they do not accept even the basic existence of God. Now the spiritual effort is stressed to get rid of Rajas and Tamas, which will disturb the balance of society (pravrutti), which is the stage for the spiritual aspirants to perform their spiritual effort. Even for the divine play the establishment of Sattvam or justice is essential because unless the justice is strongly established and unless the fear for injustice through punishments is established, there is no meaning of violation of justice for God. If the injustice is ruling as natural and inherent policy, everyone can easily violate the justice for the sake of God. Only when the justice is strongly established and if one can violate it for the sake of God in Nivrutti, such a violation has value. Therefore, establishment of justice is required even for nivrutti. In the beginning of the Gita, the Lord stressed on the establishment of justice (Dharma samsthapanarthaya…) for pravrutti and in the end for nivrutti, He recommended for the violation of justice also (Sarva Dharman…). Along with the strict rules in the college, some liberalization still continues in the college level like scholarship for paying the fees. Similarly, though the concept of the soul being God is not extended here, the concept of the soul being a part of the God is introduced. The ambition that the soul is already God cannot be suddenly broken. Thus, the vishistadvaita level of Ramanuja acts like a bridge between the school level of Shankara and the university level of Madhva. The soul associated with sattvam and charged by God in the energetic body is Vishnu, who is fixed as the ultimate God. The development of the concept of God by Ramanuja is that the gross human body of Shankara is replaced by the gross energetic body, because the ego and jealousy are not completely removed for accepting the God in human body. Even here every gross energetic body (angel) is not God. Thus, the generalization is concentrated to a specific individual soul. Even that soul is preferred with only one quality of sattvam avoiding rajas and tamas. This is almost introducing God completely different from the human soul. Of course, the soul is one and the same in human being and Vishnu. Even in the concept of the soul being the part of God, Ramanuja played a trick. The soul is not actually a part of the divine soul. The soul is only a part of this creation, which is treated as the external gross body of the God. Hence, it is only clear dvaita except that a consolation of soul being the part of God is given through this trick, which is not also the truth. Thus, there is no fundamental difference between Ramanuja and Madhva except this one consolation, which is also not true on analysis.

The third level of university with lot of strict rules and serious admission tests is maintained by Madhva, who proposed Dvaita announcing that the soul is completely different from God. The ambition is completely suppressed and only very little liberalization like a few scholarships continues here also. Even though the soul is not a part of the God, it is rewarded by the grace of God as best, average and worst. The soul is always a servant of God who is always the Master. The basic concept of awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) continues here also. Here, the trick of Ramanuja to console the souls was also avoided since the world is not treated as the external gross body of God. Therefore, the soul is no more a part of the God. The soul is an external item like a servant who is not like a limb of the body of the master. The only consolation here is that the God is pleased by the service of the soul and awards some medals as best, good, average, bad and worst souls. Here a development in the concept of God is made by Madhva. He stressed on Krishna who is the human incarnation and stressed on Hanuman who worshipped the human incarnation. The concept of Shankara is brought over here qualitatively as it is (that a human being is God). But the dilution was concentrated and a specific human being like Krishna, Rama etc is only God. However, even though Madhva stressed on the concept of the human incarnation, He could not dare to introduce the concept of contemporary human incarnation because this concept is possible only when the ego and jealousy are completely eradicated. While introducing the concept of human incarnation, He maintained the energetic form of God simultaneously. Thus, He acted as a bridge between Ramanuja and Datta Swami who not only gives a stress on the concept of human incarnation but also gives the final stress on the contemporary human incarnation.

The fourth level is introduced by Datta Swami, which is a pure national research laboratory at the Ph.D. level. In the university also the research program and Ph.D. level exist. In the level of Madhva the concept of human incarnation exists. The final development in the concept of God is given here. Datta Swami modifies the basic concept of God as awareness associated with either sattvam or three qualities. Awareness is also treated as a quality possessed by God. Awareness is like the colorless cotton shirt having the three colors as qualities. But a colorless human being also possesses the shirt and the shirt is not the final possessor. The human being and the cotton shirt are beyond the three colors and this does not mean that the colorless shirt is the colorless human being. The soul (awareness) is beyond the three qualities and since God is beyond the soul, God must be naturally beyond the three qualities. God is not any known item of the creation including awareness because awareness is also a known item, which is completely proved by science. The practical authority for the unknowable or unimaginable God is the unknowable or unimaginable nature that exists in a super human being like Krishna. The address of God cannot be obtained in every human being. It can be obtained in a super human being like Krishna. The human being and Krishna have all the common items (soul, subtle body and gross body) but the unimaginable nature established through His unimaginable knowledge (the Gita) and unimaginable miracles is an extra item. Hence, we consider that extra special unimaginable nature as the final absolute God and He is the possessor of the awareness (soul) also. The Veda says that He is the controller of all the souls (Atmeshwaram…). Here the same concept of a specific human being to be God is carried on from Madhva but the basic concept of awareness being Brahman is modified. This is not a new concept introduced now. Several Vedic statements clearly speak that Brahman or God is unimaginable and the Gita also says the same (Mamtu veda na kaschana…). God charging a specific human being is also mentioned in the Gita (Manushiim tanum…). The actual essence of the Gita is contemporary human incarnation, which is now rediscovered and stressed. Even angels due to egoism and jealousy, reject the contemporary energetic incarnation, not to speak of human beings rejecting the contemporary human incarnation as said in the Veda (Devah pratyaksha dvishah…). Only one like Hanuman and Gopikas who have fully conquered the ego and jealousy can identify this climax of truth. Truth and majority in followers are inversely proportional. If you want a large crowd of followers, go to the climax of the lie like saying that every human being is already God and say that there is no need of even a trace of effort to become God. Ofcourse, even this climax of lie is in the curriculum catering to a vast majority of ignorant people who have climax of ambition. It can be used as a weapon of attraction to uplift the downtrodden people to the next step.

You need not be discouraged that a specific human being has become God and that you have no opportunity to become like that in this very human life. The analysis of human incarnation shows the co-existence of unimaginable God and a selected soul suitable for the specific purpose of the divine mission of the God (Dvaasuparnaa…). When the divine program needs different angles of various suitable talents, God can simultaneously enter into the human bodies and make simultaneously existing human incarnations. Therefore, if you make yourself suitable to the divine mission of God, God can certainly enter your human body and do a specific work needed for the divine mission through yourself. In such case you are also the human incarnation acting in a specific direction of the program. Datta Swami is a selected soul for the purpose of generation of divine knowledge because He has the talent of the knowledge of scriptures and science suitable for that line of work. All the devotees who are working in this divine mission have different lines of talents and God has entered their human bodies also and is working in their lines of the program. Therefore, all the devotees who are already working in this mission are already the simultaneous human incarnations of God. That is how Datta Swami views His devotees. The devotees of Datta Swami do not accept themselves as simultaneous human incarnations and this shows their submissiveness, which is the basic characteristic of Lord Datta. Datta Swami, sometimes declares Himself as the human incarnation of Lord Datta and therefore only Datta Swami has to be doubted! Therefore, the devotees who are going to join this mission in the divine service are the future human incarnations. The cosmic vision of the Lord (vishwarupam) shows several heads and several hands. This means that the human incarnation is a complex of several divine brains planning in the mission and several divine hands working in the mission. Hence, the concept of Shankara is now concentrated to some extent only so that it is neither a single human incarnation nor that every useless human being is also the human incarnation. This is the middle golden path avoiding both the extreme ends.

This divine mission is teamwork of a selected number of simultaneous human incarnations working in different channels like fans, lights, TV screens, etc., in a hall. The same current is working in different channels through all these electronic instruments. You cannot say that an insulator into which current can never enter is also an electronic instrument. At the same time, you cannot say that a specific light in the hall alone is electronic instrument. Therefore, let us join together to carry on the propagation of this divine knowledge using our various talents in the service of the Lord without any feelings of difference like superiority or inferiority. The difference in the channels of talents has nothing to do with the superiority or inferiority. You cannot say that the light is superior and the fan is inferior. In the Gita, the Lord mentions that He is the best talent among each category. If all this best talents are grouped together, such best group of talents, which is a team of best divine personalities, forms the total picture of the Lord. The Lord says that He is Adishesha among serpents, Garuda among the birds and Arjuna among Pandavas. Adishesha, Garuda and Arjuna are sincerely involved in His divine service in all the times. Hence, His total personality is a composite of all these best souls. He is Krishna among Yadavas, as told by Him in the Gita. Therefore, He did not specify Himself to be Krishna alone, even though Krishna is generating the divine knowledge (the Gita). Krishna is also one of this composite.

1. Please comment on the following statements.

[Shri Lakshman commented that Shri Datta Swami is the human incarnation and such statement shows the love of God towards His devotees. Smt. Vasumati, wife of Shri Bhimasankaram, told that such a statement is only to encourage the unity in the team without any differences.]

Swami replied: This angle may be also correct because God treats His devotees even more than Himself. Narada told in His bhakti sutras that the real devotees can be considered as God (Tanmayahite…). But apart from this angle, the other angle may also be true in which the human incarnation and the devotee may be simultaneous incarnations of God as in the case of Rama and Hanuman. Hanuman is very famous for His firm faith on the contemporary human incarnation, Rama. But while remaining as the most obedient servant of Rama, Hanuman was a simultaneous human incarnation of God. Apart from these two angles, a third angle may be possible where the master may be a soul and the devotee may be God as in the case of Sandeepani and Krishna. Sandeepani identified Krishna as the Lord but kept silent on the request of Krishna. Apart from this, there may be a fourth angle in which the master is a false human incarnation with ignorance and ego and the servant is a real human incarnation. For example, Bade Baba, an egoistic soul declared himself as the master of Shirdi Sai Baba, who is the incarnation of God. Sai Baba agreed to this and served Bade Baba as His master for some days. God will not mind His position in the bond provided there is love and God will act as per the desire of the devotee. Dasharatha acted as a father and Rama acted like his son based on the request of Dasharatha in the previous birth. In this bond, Dasharatha loved Rama without any ego as in the case of Bade Baba. Infact, Rama, the God, is the divine Father of all the souls and Dasharatha was one of the souls. Rama did not mind to be his son and treat the soul as His father to fulfill the desire of the devotee. Similarly, Krishna and Yashoda. Therefore, the ways of the unimaginable God are always unimaginable and any unimaginable turn can happen at any time. Parashurama was the human incarnation and Rama was a simultaneous human incarnation. Parashurama was affected by ego and God left Him and He was insulted by Rama. The human incarnation also must be very careful in resisting the ego to maintain the unimaginable God in His body. Sai Baba, the human incarnation was always chanting that He is the servant of God (Allah Mallik) to please God present in His human body and His statement means that He is aware of the truth. Sai Baba, Akkalkot Maharaj and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa were simultaneous human incarnations of God. But, for the devotees the human incarnation should be the God just like the live wire itself is treated as current. But the human incarnation is very careful about His angle to maintain God in His body throughout His life.

When Krishna gave the Gita, it is said that God spoke (Shri Bhagavan uvacha) and it is not said that Krishna spoke (Krishna uvacha). When Arjuna asked Him to repeat the Gita at the end of the war, Krishna expressed His inability. Krishna is the PA and God is the Boss and both are co-existing in the same office room, which is the single human body. This does not mean that the God is modified into Krishna or Krishna is modified into God. When Arjuna insisted, Krishna told the Gita again based on His knowledge learnt from Sandeepani. The second Gita given by Krishna called as Anu Gita is not at all famous. This clearly shows the existence of both the God (Bhagawan) and soul (Krishna) in the same human body. But this is the angle of Krishna and the same should not be the angle of the devotees of Krishna. For devotees, Krishna is God as the live wire is the current. If devotees take the aspect of God and soul (dvaita) in the human incarnation, the devotees are lost. God has taken Krishna as the medium to give His experiences to the devotees and there is no other way to experience God directly. Hence, the angle of the devotees must be advaita towards the human incarnation. God selects this two-in-one system for His divine play also. When God has to act as a human being to test the faith of His devotees, He cannot act as a real human being acts and therefore, the human being (PA) acts directly. Similarly, when human incarnation has to act as God, the human being cannot act as God and the God (Boss) acts directly. Therefore, in the case of the human incarnation, whenever the context of the direct action of God comes, God acts directly through the human being only since in the human incarnation, the human being is only expressed medium. But some people misunderstand because even though God is speaking directly, externally it looks as if the human being is speaking. They feel that the human being is boasting as God. In a cinema, the males play the male role and females play female roles. Hence, the cinema is very effective and attractive by their natural actions as the males and females. In the olden days, males also acted the female roles but such female roles were not exhibiting the natural actions of females. Hence, the old dramas were not as attractive as cinemas. Thus, this two-in-one system is a wonderful combination of Nara and Narayana in the human incarnation with natural actions to serve both the purposes according to the contexts.

Shankara is the incarnation of God and Advaita is the angle of God. God only can explain the angle of God. Ramanuja is the incarnation of Adishesha who is one of the closest circle of God called as a liberated soul. The angle of a liberated soul can be best explained by the liberated soul only. Madhva is the incarnation of Vayu and claims Himself to be the son of Vayu and as younger brother of Hanuman and Bhima. Among Dharmaraja, Bhima and Arjuna, Bhima is the best servant with full blind faith. After recognizing the Lord through thorough analysis, the logic must be stopped before the Lord because God is beyond logic. Logic helps only to eliminate the false forms of God. When the Lord decided the war, Bhima simply jumped into the war. But Arjuna asked for lot explanations from the Lord. When the Lord asked Dharmaraja, to tell a lie, he refused. Bhima told the same lie on the order of the Lord, even though it did not click. Vayu is an angel and one of the five elements and is only a soul. The angle of the soul can be best explained by a soul only. Therefore, if you understand the background of the personalities of three Acharyas, the theories in their respective angles are well understood. The whole spiritual knowledge from the angle of God, from the angle of the liberated soul and from the angle of an ordinary soul are explained and thus, there cannot be any contradiction between these three philosophies since the angles of explanation are quite different but mutually co-exist in the same time.

The unimaginable God is like the invisible management of a college, which is not seen in the campus. The visible principal is only one and represents the invisible management as the final authority in the college. The management and the principal are quite different but the principal must be treated as the management for all practical purposes. Similarly, the human incarnation stands for the unimaginable God and such God is experienced through a specific human incarnation like Shankara or Krishna. There will be a few vice principals like vice principal for administration, vice principal for academic affairs and vice principal for student affairs. These three vice principals constitute the total composite of the post of the principal. The vice principal can stand as a partial representative for the principal. Similarly, the liberated soul like Adishesha (Shesha means part) stands for the God as a part of the composite, who is incarnated as Ramanuja. Ramanuja stated that the soul is a part of God. The vice principal is not the total principal actually. Thus, the difference is maintained and at the same time, the closeness as a part is also maintained. This is the case of a liberated soul, which stands between ordinary soul and God. The third state of Madhva is a lecturer working in the college as an employee without any power except doing service. Similarly, Madhva represented Vayu who is an ordinary soul as a servant of God and established the complete difference between the master and servant. Therefore, the angles of principal, vice principal and lecturer exist simultaneously in the same college with mutual correlation and there is no trace of any contradiction, since principal, vice-principals and lecturers co-exist in the college with mutual cooperation without any contradictions. Then I do not understand why the followers of these three philosophies quarrel with each other? You have to decide about yourself whether you are the principal or vice principal or lecturer and you speak and behave as per the corresponding angle without any contradiction with the other posts simultaneously in the same college and in the same time. If you are God in human form, behave like Shankara. If you are a liberated soul behave like Ramanuja as a part of God. If you are an ordinary soul behave like Madhva as a sincere servant of God.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★