Refuting Misconceived Advaita (Part-1)

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

Part-1   Part-2

Q. Why is there no uniformity in the preachings of different human incarnations as regards the ultimate goal?

[The following is a discourse given in response to questions asked by Dr. Nikhil as to why there is no uniformity in the preachings of different human incarnations as regards the ultimate goal. Even if they preach at different levels, can they not all agree on what the ultimate goal is? All science teachers, teaching at different levels, universally accept the highest concept in their science even though they may be teaching a lower concept to their students.]

Swami Replied:- Every human incarnation knows the whole truth and the whole concept because the same God enters every human body in the case of each human incarnation. The revelation of complete or partial truth depends on the level of the human beings, who receive that knowledge. For a scholar, revelation of the whole truth is sufficient and he does not bother about the level and grasping capacity of the student. A conference is different from a classroom. You can present your knowledge in a conference like a scholar because even greater scholars can be present there. But, in a classroom, the students have certain level of knowledge only and cannot grasp the whole concept. Therefore, a teacher teaches only conservation of matter in a lower class and teaches the higher concept in the upper class. The teacher in the lower class can say that the higher concept exists, which can be known in the higher class. The students are satisfied because the examination is only up to that standard. Only one in several may have anxiety for the higher concept and such rare student cannot be the state of the whole class. The whole class will not have anxiety. Even if the higher concept is not known at that time, no self-damage is done because the higher concept is not asked in the examination. Therefore, the class is not discouraged because it is the knowledge of the objective world only and not about the self. Since self is not harmed by not knowing higher concept, anxiety will not rise generally. Even in the case of such a rare student, the anxiety is not about the self because the ignorance of higher concept is not harming the self in any way in view of the limitation of standard in the examination.

If the self-damage is involved, the anxiety will result in tension, confusion and revolt. Suppose the higher concept is in that standard and the teacher did not teach it. Then the anxiety will rise in all the students leading to revolution against the teacher and they will demand for a new teacher. In the case of spiritual knowledge, if partial knowledge is only revealed and if the preacher says that something more exists to reach the goal, all the students will be discouraged. The anxiety will start because the concept is related to the self-upliftment. They will be discouraged since in this human birth itself everyone wants to know the final concept. Since, the life is uncertain, they want to know everything then itself and reach the goal immediately. The span of the teaching class is one year. But, the span of life is uncertain. Moreover, the concept belongs to the self and not to the objective world like matter and energy. Therefore, the teacher should not reveal the whole truth, which is related to the self. If it is fully revealed, tension comes due to the realization of the length of journey and due to the absence of grasping power of the whole concept. Suppose you are walking with Me to reach Varanasi. If I say that the goal is after hundred miles, you will drop from the journey. But, suppose you are not a traveler to Varanasi and you are sitting in the house leisurely. Now, if I say that Varanasi is hundred miles away, you are not discouraged because the knowledge about the distance is only objective and is not related to yourself in any way since you are not intending to travel. But, when you are a traveler the distance will discourage you. The spiritual knowledge is meant for travelers and is subjective. It is not objective information, which will never create tension. Therefore, the Lord in human form behaves like teacher in class but not as a scholar in the conference.

Even if you do not know the higher concept of objective knowledge, no significant loss happens to you. You may stop at the lower class itself and may get some lower job and can still live with happiness by earning some limited salary. But, in the case of spiritual knowledge, the goal should be reached before the end of this human life. The human life is not assured again. At the same time, the human life is uncertain and death may come at any time. Tomorrow is not certain. You want to know all the spiritual knowledge today itself and reach the goal by today itself. Such pressure exists in the subjective spiritual knowledge. Keeping this point in view suppose the whole spiritual knowledge is revealed now itself, you may not be able to grasp the total concept at your level. Even if you grasp you will develop tension due to length of the journey. Sometimes this leads to dropping out from the spiritual effort totally. Therefore, the Lord always behaves like a teacher and not as a Scholar. The Lord is given to the world in human form and therefore, such given Lord is called as Datta. He is given to the world for the main purpose of preaching the spiritual knowledge and therefore, He is called as Guru Datta. The word Guru means the concept of preaching the spiritual knowledge. A teacher sees the upliftment of the student from his step to the next step and for such upliftment, only partial revelation is essential because every concept is subjective knowledge. It is not like Physics, which is the objective knowledge. The whole knowledge can be revealed gradually step by step and this method avoids the tension at every step. In the objective knowledge, a student is always in detached mood. In the subjective knowledge, the student is always in the attached mood. Therefore, it is not better to reveal the whole subjective knowledge in one lot to create tension. It is better to reveal the subjective knowledge step by step. In the objective knowledge, the theoretical approach is sufficient. Even the experimentation in the objective knowledge will not create any tension. In the objective knowledge, the theory is independent and total. But, in subjective knowledge every theoretical concept is related to practice and is a point of tension due to attachment of self-achievement and self-progress.

Infact in every human incarnation, the total spiritual knowledge exists in fully revealed state only. But, it appears as partial knowledge because the knowledge related to that particular level is vehemently emphasized again and again. Before such stressed related knowledge towards that level at that time, the remaining part of the knowledge becomes invisible, which does not mean absent. Some rare student, who is fit for the remaining knowledge, can also grasp it and get the benefit. For example, let us take the Gita. Arjuna is at the level of karma (action) and not at the level of Samnyasa (sacrifice). Even after hearing the Gita, when Abhimanyu died, he wept so much that he wanted to withdraw from the war even though he was taught that the war is the work of the Lord. Therefore, he cannot be fit for the standard of Samnyasa in which the action is done for the sake of the Lord only and not for the sake of himself or family. When the mother of Shankara died He did not withdraw from the work of the Lord, which is the propagation of knowledge. Therefore, from the point of Arjuna’s level, karma was emphasized throughout the Gita by which Arjuna has to fight and get back his justified kingdom. Thus, the fight is for Pravrutti only. To destroy the injustice and establish the justice was with reference to the loss and benefit of Arjuna only. The fight is not with reference to the welfare of the world, which alone can be the work of the Lord. Krishna stressed on the fight to get back his kingdom. Thus, Arjuna was eligible for Pravrutti and not Nivrutti. But, still you will find Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga also in the Gita. Finally, you also find Karma Yoga, which is doing service to the Lord. Karma is doing service to yourself and your family. Krishna stressed on karma and mentioned about Karma Yoga, which is the highest and comes after Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga only. Therefore, the whole spiritual knowledge is revealed in the Gita. But, karma was stressed and Krishna showed the final goal i.e., Karma Yoga passing through Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Arjuna withdrew himself even from karma. He was prepared to do injustice to his family based on unjust love towards Bhishma and Drona. Bhishma and Drona are prepared to fight against Arjuna.

Therefore, the love of Arjuna on Bhishma and Drona was blind even within the boundaries of karma. Hence, Arjuna fell down even from the first standard, which is karma. In such case, the stress should be on the first standard. Arjuna did not mention Krishna while giving the list of relatives, who can be harmed in the war. He was worried about the death of Bhishma and Drona only. He never bothered about the possibility of the death of driver (Krishna) in the war. He did not treat Krishna equal even to Bhishma and Drona. Therefore, the Lord subsequently introduced the knowledge of God, human incarnation, devotion to Lord and finally service to Lord. These steps are Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga respectively. Thus, with respect to Arjuna though the first standard was stressed, He showed all the standards up to the P.G. Level. The stress on the first standard appears as if that Krishna taught only about the first standard throughout the Gita. Similarly, Shankara stressed on the attainment of self with respect to Buddhists and Purva Mimamsakas, who were atheists. But, He mentioned about the Lord, human incarnation etc., also in His knowledge, which shall be revealed in detail in the answers of your future questions because your future questions are completely concentrated on the preaching of Shankara.

There is some difference in situation of Krishna and the situation of Shankara. Krishna preached only one student, Arjuna, who is like a brilliant student. Arjuna was sage Nara associated with the Lord in several previous births. Arjuna fell even below first standard only for the sake of the world. Keeping Arjuna as an example Krishna taught the syllabus from 1^st standard to P.G. level. The Gita is universal because it covers all the levels from LKG to PG. The fall of Arjuna below the level of LKG is only for the sake of others so that the syllabus can be covered starting from the lowest level. The fall of Arjuna was not real and therefore, he rose to the highest level as the Gita proceeded. Even withdrawing from the service of God due to the death of Abhimanyu were also apparent. This was only to show that even a scholar will slip, when it comes to practice. Arjuna did not believe Krishna fully and was born as a hunter, which is a lower birth. This is again to show that the next birth will be based on the present samskaras only. Arjuna worshipped inert object (Shiva Lingam) and in the next birth, he worshipped again the same inert object. Thus, Arjuna showed the various types of states of a human being by taking those different roles. Otherwise, Arjuna was a fully liberated soul only. Thus, in the Gita you find the total concept built up in a sequence only. Ofcourse, stress was given on karma because Arjuna fell even below the level of karma. The first level is karma in which even there is no introduction of God. You have to work for yourself and your family. Your family should be greater than the public. If one is trapped by a prostitute to steal his money by false love, he is below the level of karma. He should be taught that his wife is far better than the prostitute. This is the lowest level and the knowledge of Pravrutti starts at this level. Similar is the case of Arjuna. Bhishma and Drona stated that Duryodhana is unjust. But, these two supported him and came to the war even to kill Arjuna. Arjuna loves such people! This is like loving the prostitute. He wants to leave the kingdom, which should be enjoyed by his family. This is foolish and blind love. This is pure Pravrutti without God. Krishna started preaching from this level onwards. He told Arjuna to kill such worst people and get the kingdom for the enjoyment of his brothers and sons, which is justified. In this field, there is no element of God or Nivrutti. In this level, Arjuna has to kill such worst enemies, who are in the disguise of relationship. To remove tension and relationship pertaining to body, Krishna taught Atma Yoga which also is not having any touch with God. By attaining self one loses tension and fights for justice. Thus, Pravrutti is just LKG standard. Passing LKG with first class is not getting PG degree. Attaining the self to stand in Pravrutti is not attainment of God at all. From this view, the Lord introduced the Atman and also doing actions without attachment so that tension is avoided. Today also when a spiritual preacher conducts a workshop for the present Jobholders, he is doing same preaching and the stress is released. There is no any element of divinity in this level. It is only perfect health of body and mind. It is just the medical science. Ofcourse, this is essential basis for the future steps.

Without perfect physical and mental health, one cannot even understand God and no chance of loving and serving God. After this first level, the second level comes, which is Jnana Yoga, which deals with understanding about God theoretically as well as practically recognizing the human form of Lord. Jnana Yoga thus, includes both theory and practical. Then development of love on God in mind and also on the human incarnation is the theoretical and practical stage respectively in the third level called Bhakti Yoga. The final fourth level is karma yoga, which is doing practical service to the human form of the Lord. In this fourth level, if repulsion to human incarnation is not removed, atleast serving a statue in the human form of the Lord is recommended as a training. In this fourth level, the training is meaningless unless it is transformed into the service of human form of Lord. What is the use of serving a statue in the temple, which is inert and does not feel for your service? At this point, Swami Dayananda objected the idol worship and you should take Him positively in this point and He is also the human incarnation of the Lord. His concepts should be taken with reference to that time in avoiding the exploitations in Hinduism. He would have not objected the aspects of tradition if they were in the right direction. When the direction of an item is opposed, you misunderstand it as the opposition of that item itself. Even Christianity and Islam object from this angle only. But, you should leave the service of statue only to serve the human form of Lord but not to keep idle without the very concept of service itself. You simply say that God is formless and does not require any service and concentrate your service to yourself and your family only. At this point, some say that serving the public is the highest stage. But, in what way the public is different from your family? Shankara condemned this (Loka sevaka mata Nirasah). Infact your family is also a part of public. Serving the family is also the public service. Infact, family is greater than public. You should not leave your family for the sake of public. Bhishma and Drona were worst than public. Arjuna wanted to leave the welfare of family for the sake of such Bhishma and Drona. Atleast public is neutral. But, Bihishma and Drona were supporting injustice and wanted to kill Arjuna for that. Ofcourse, serving devotees in the public is better than serving your family, who are not devotees. Devotees are just next to Lord. But, if the family members are also the devotees, then serving your family-devotees is better than serving outer devotee. After all, even the devotees are human beings (Jiivas) only.

Thus, Karma Yoga is serving the Lord or serving the devotees. Their position is greater than the position of your family members. If the family members are also devotees and if they compete with the outer devotees, your selection must be based on the degree of devotion. It means the Lord is higher than devotee and the devotee is higher than the family member. The family member is higher than the general neutral public. Thus, the position of the worship of statues and the position of the so called word “Yoga” coined by the moderns, which is improvement of physical and mental health have their own places of importance in the complete syllabus of spiritual knowledge. Since the spiritual knowledge is subjective, it is better to close the doors of the classroom of each level till the standard is finished. If it is objective knowledge there is no danger even if all the standards are conducted in a single hall. If you teach about the heart attack, nobody is worried, though every one hears the subject with attention. But, if you say that a particular person is having some symptoms of heart problem, the tension may be so much that he may get the heart attack immediately. Therefore, hiding the truth and stressing on the relevant partial knowledge is essential in the subjective knowledge.

In the case of Shankara, the students are many unlike the one Arjuna. Moreover, those students were below average and were ordinary human beings without any previous association with Lord. Therefore, stressing on the relevant knowledge and hiding the complete truth is essential. The aim of Lord is to uplift the humanity of that generation from their level to the next immediate stage. The aim is not to expose the depth of knowledge by disclosing the whole truth and get fame. The Lord has come down for the welfare of humanity and not for winning the noble prize by disclosing the entire knowledge. The students of Shankara were completely atheists who were Buddhists and Purvamimamsakas. The former believes in the absence of everything and do not believe even in the existence of soul. The latter believes in the existence of the soul and not in the existence of the super soul or the Lord. Both were atheists. The target before Shankara was to bring Buddhists to the level of the Purvamimamsakas and make the latter believe in the Lord. First, He attacked Buddhist and argued that there should be soul to know that everything is absent. The existence of soul (Pramata) is thus established. The leader of Buddhists (Dignaga) accepted Shankara and started the school of Prajnavada, which means the acceptance of knower. Buddhism disappeared and ran away crossing the boundaries of the country. Now, the second task was to establish the existence of God atleast theoretically. At this stage if Shankara speaks about the human incarnation, even the God will not be accepted. Now since Buddhism disappeared and Purvamimamsakas only remain, all the students accept the existence of soul. The next step is only introduction of Lord atleast theoretically. Shankara thought over about a way. Shankara told that since you (soul) exist God exists because you are God. Now, the Purvamimamsakas are trapped and had to agree to the existence of God. Mandana Mishra was captured in this way. Today, nobody knows how many problems I faced while I was in the body of Shankara at that time and today you say that I have hidden the complete truth. If you place yourself in that time and in that circle of Purvamimamsakas, you understand all those practical difficulties.

Yoga – Yoga Rudha

Shankara made a trick to avoid any damage to the total concept. He told that any soul is Brahman. There are two methods of expressing the meaning of any word. i) Yoga: the word is used in its root sense, ii) Yoga Rudha: the word is used in the root sense and simultaneously it is fixed to a particular item only. The word Brahman in Yoga means that which is greatest in a category. This word is not Yoga Rudha. If you fix the word Brahman to God only, you should not use this word for any other item. But, the word Brahman is used to mean the Veda also as we see in the Gita. Therefore, this word can be used to any item if the root meaning is satisfied. The soul, which is made of pure awareness, is most delicate and is the greatest item in the creation. Therefore, the soul can be Brahman. Since it can be used to any item on satisfying the root meaning, it can be also used to mean God. Therefore, the students thought that soul is God and by realizing the soul, they can become God. Since they believe in the existence of the soul, they have to believe that God exists. They cannot cross more than this level at that time due to their ignorant egoism and jealousy to a greater item called as God. If you open the trick, they will reject even the theoretical existence of God and they go to the original stage. Something is better than nothing. The mother makes the child to eat the food by telling that the moon will come down if the child takes the food. By this, you cannot say that the mother is trickish and cheated the child. The aim of the mother was the welfare of the child and the trick can be used due to the unavoidable ignorance of the child. The commentary of Shankara is thus a lesson for a classroom containing below average students. Shankara cannot reveal the entire syllabus because they were below average unlike Arjuna, who was above average.

But, a few students who became personal disciples of Shankara have become eligible to know the higher truth. Therefore, Shankara revealed the higher truth to such limited circle only. He swallowed molten lead for the sake of such limited circle only and established the concept of God other than the soul and the concept of human form of God. If you say that the students have not realized the self fully to perform such a miracle, it is not correct. They were trying for the self-achievement throughout their lives staying very close to Shankara. If they cannot attain self, nobody can attain self. They have attained the self very well and left their families and were detached even from their bodies. Such a miracle is possible even for a demon because demon believed in existence of God other than himself and did lot of penance. Such miracle performed even by demon indicates the power of Lord only in an indirect way. Such power could not come to the Advaita scholars because basically they were wrong in not accepting God other than themselves. If you follow the correct path, you can become God and can even become the master of God. Hanuman and Radha never spoke that they were God and they have become God and master of God respectively. Thus, I am not obstructing your chance to reach the goal. I am saying that you can go even beyond the goal if you travel in the correct path. Hanuman never expressed Advaita in the entire Ramayana. No Advaita scholar can be greater than Hanuman. Hanuman knows all the Upanishads in a better way than any Advaita scholar. This single point is sufficient to say that the path of Advaita is wrong, whereas Advaita and more than Advaita is also correct.

For the minority, who are the meritorious personal disciples, Shankara revealed the entire truth through prayers and His commentary was for the masses. The word Parabrahman was introduced by Shankara only. He stated that this is not a word because it means God beyond Brahman. It does not say what is God. It says that God is beyond Brahman (soul). Since this word cannot reveal any positive nature of the object, it cannot be a word at all. You must know the object by hearing a word. Therefore, God is beyond words and can be indicated by silence only (Maunavyakhya Prakatita Parabrahma tattvam… Shankara). Keeping Himself in the place of a fully realized soul, He stated that He is in the Lord but the Lord is not in Him like a wave in the ocean and the ocean is not in wave (Satyapi Bhedapagame… Shankara). Infact God is in Him but He stated this keeping Himself in the place of a fully realized Advaita scholar.

You cannot blame Shankara for not making His commentary like the Gita open to all levels. The Gita was only for Arjuna, who was a merit student and can grasp the knowledge from LKG to PG level. The situation of Shankara was quite different. All the students were below LKG standard only. He has to teach the LKG only for all through His commentary, which explains only about the self-achievement. All His commentary is only an elaboration of second chapter of the Gita, which is the knowledge of self only and not the knowledge of superself. Only one or two exceptional students were there and He preached the degree and PG level to that minority only in a personal level through small prayers and small miracles like swallowing the molten lead etc. As time passed on, the students raised to UG and PG levels. Thus, after Shankara gradually Ramanuja and Madhva came. Infact, the same Shankara who preached Janana Yoga of self at the school level came as a college lecturer in form of Ramanuja and preached the Janana Yoga of superself and the Bhakti Yoga of superself and again the same Shankara came as the PG Professor in the form of Madhva and preached karma yoga, which is the service to the Lord. Thus, if you sum up all the three commentaries of the three preachers, the total syllabus of the Gita results. Thus, the three commentaries are not simultaneous angles of the same subject. They are the three stages in sequence gradually built up. Each commentary stresses on the corresponding step throughout the Gita while nominally recognizing the other two steps. Shankara stressed on the achievement of self throughout the Gita while mentioning the other steps nominally. Ramanuja emphasized on the recognition of Lord and the love on Lord throughout the Gita while acknowledging the other steps. Madhva emphasized on Karma Yoga of the soul as a servant while the accepting the other steps. A schoolteacher gives stress on the school syllabus but refers to college and University. Similarly, the college lecturer refers to the knowledge of school and University but gives stress on the UG level only. Similarly, the University Professor. If you understand the Gita as an above average student like Arjuna, read the Gita without any commentary. But if you are a below average student read the Gita with the commentary of Shankara. Then become average student and read the Gita with the commentary of Ramunaja. Finally, you can read the Gita with the commentary of Madhva as above average student. Since the knowledge of self is inferior to the knowledge of Lord, the former is called as Sankhya Yoga and the latter was only called as the real Jnana Yoga. Kapila, the founder of Sankhya Yoga, also stressed about the self and did not speak about the God. Therefore, people misunderstood Him as atheist. Similar is the case of Buddha. Similarly, Jiddu Krishna Murthy emphasized on this basic step, keeping silent about God and that does not mean that He was an atheist. Even some blind followers of Ramanuja criticized Shankara as an atheist. People called Shankara as a Buddhist in disguise. When you want to lift a person from the pond of mud, he will be also covered by mud since you have to jump to his level in to the pond.

On the topic of self and Superself, Shankara was a basic schoolteacher and Ramanuja and Madhva were lecturer and professor respectively. But, when the topic of the creation comes, Shankara acted as the Lord from His own angle by stating that the creation is very negligible and almost nil. In this topic, Ramanuja and Madhva spoke like souls. The creation is negligible to God but the human being is negligible before the creation. The soul can explain well about the view of the soul. Infact, Ramanuja and Madhva were liberated souls and were devotees of Lord (Shesha and Vayu). The same Lord spoke through those liberated souls also but exposed their names only because the angle of a soul should be explained by the mouth of soul only. In that way, the same God gave the knowledge through the bodies of all the three Acharyas. The body of Shankara was created by the Lord Himself for His entry. The bodies of Ramanuja and Madhva were the bodies of liberated souls used by the same God. If you speak by sitting in your house or sitting in your friend’s house, it makes no difference in the contents of your speech. When God entered the bodies of Ramanuja and Madhva, they were also treated as human incarnations. Thus, the place of Balarama (Human incarnation of Shesha) in the ten incarnations of Lord is to be realized. This shows that a devotee also can become the human incarnation.

Sat – Chit – Ananda

The soul in the essential form as energy also exists as Sat. Even from the angle of God, the creation is only negligible and is not really absent. Soul, being the part of creation, also exists and is not unreal. The existence becomes negligible only in the sense of its power. If anything is very weak, you neglect its existence, which does not mean that is completely absent. God is Sat and He is not negligible because He is most powerful. Therefore, you cannot differentiate the God and soul form the point of existence. The prominence of the power gives the degree of existence as explained in the seven-fold theory of Jainism. If the soul (creation) does not exist, there is no entertainment to God. The soul is Chit, which means pure awareness. No objection. The power of God is also Chit but again there is difference in this aspect also. The chit of God is independent of the existence of a nervous system. The chit of the soul depends on the functioning of nervous system and existence of energy. The awareness is defined as that specific form of energy pertaining to a special part of brain that functions in the awakened state and dream state only. In the state of deep sleep, another part of brain may send electrical pulses so that heart, lungs etc., may work but such form of energy is only the inert electrical power, which is the same inert electricity by which the machines in the factory work continuously. Such electrical energy is in no way different than the heat energy that is present in the body even during the deep sleep. Ananda is continuous and intensive happiness only and therefore it has a limited boundary, because when the misery appears ananda runs away as we see in the experience. Therefore, ananda is a limited item (Kosha) only. Ananda is the characteristic of chit only and is not independent. Even chit does not exist independently without nervous system and therefore, ananda has the same fate of chit. The ananda referred in the Vedic hymn “Shrotriyasya…” refers only to the soul. The power of the Lord (Cosmic energy) is also having infinite bliss and that is not a limited item. Similarly, the awareness of that power is also infinite (Sarvajna) and does not require a nervous system. But, the ananda of a soul also requires nervous system because ananda is the property of Chit. Therefore, there is no objection to call the soul as Sat-chit-ananda. But, if you come to God, you are not realizing His nature positively in anyway. You are realizing the existence of the unimaginable God through His unimaginable power exhibited through human incarnation. You should not say that the power of God (Cosmic power) is independent and itself is God. Any power must have a source or substratum. Such source is God (Brahma Puchcham Pratishtha- Veda). Scientist feels that this power itself is independent and is ultimate. The devotees of Shakti also believe this concept. The Advaita scholar is in no way better than these people because he believes that the awareness form of energy is ultimate God. The sages have eliminated every item of creation as not God (Neti Neti) and this does not mean that God does not exist. A proof for the existence of God is given by the human incarnation exhibiting unimaginable power of knowledge and miracles. Such power is based on the human incarnation, which is practically seen. Therefore, the existence of the source of the power is thus proved. You are not seeing the existence of such powers without the individual, who may be the human form of the Lord or even may be a demon.

You should not try to separate Ataman and Chit. If chit is awareness, what is Atman? Only awareness and inertness are seen. If Atman is not inert and also is not awareness (Chit), then Atman is unimaginable and that is what we call as God or Parabrahman. When the same object is realized, what is there in prescribing any name for it? If you say that avidya (ignorance) is the causal body, it is to be carefully analyzed. The causal body means that which is the cause. The ignorance has two factors with which it is related i) The ignorance of What? ii) The ignorance of which knowledge? Suppose I say that I am ignorant of physics. This ignorance belongs to Me and this ignorance is regarding the physics subject only. Therefore, if you take avidya as the ignorance of soul and the ignorance is regarding the point that you are the pure awareness (soul). In that case, such ignorance cannot be the cause of this Universe. When you forget yourself, such ignorance is creating a dream but not the universe or even an atom in the universe. Therefore, the ignorance relates to the soul only and is regarding with the subject of soul only. In such case, avidya is certainly the causal body of the dream. In such case, the soul is certainly beyond the causal body or avidya because the soul is able to destroy the ignorance and attain itself in the case of a scholar. I have no objection even if you say that the soul is the possessor (Sharirin) but not possessed body (Shariram).

The Gross body disintegrates when the soul leaves it. The soul is able to subside all the qualities and therefore, the subtle body also cannot exist without the soul like waves without the water. If the soul does not exist, there is no point of existence of its avidya. Therefore, soul is the ultimate possessor of all these three bodies. This angle was stressed by Shankara because the then students can believe only up to existence of soul and not in the existence of the supersoul or the Lord. But, when you go to the higher concept you can understand that the soul is also a possessed body by the Lord when He enters it. Even otherwise a soul is maintained and controlled by Lord only. The Veda says that the God is controller of all souls (Atmeshwaram). If you analyze carefully, gross body is diseased against the will of the soul. If a vital organ of the gross body is damaged, it cannot control it. The Veda says that the supersoul controls even the sun. In the severe sun, the soul runs away from the gross body when death occurs due to sunstroke. The Brahma Sutra says that it is against the experience and logic to say that the soul is Lord (Anupapattestu Na Shaarirah). The table appears to be the support of an object on it but the table is supported by the floor. Therefore, the floor supports both the table and object. Thus, the Lord is only possessor or controller of all the bodies including the soul. Now, from this angle, the soul is also a body and you can call it as the fourth body.

I shall give the interpretation based on the philosophy propagated by the four disciples of Shankara. The soul being part of the entire Mula Maayaa, it can be called as causal body in qualitative sense because originally the Mula Maya (subtle inert energy) is the cause for this universe. If you neglect the dream, in quantitative sense the avidya cannot be a causal body. But, the universe cannot be neglected. Since the Mula Maya (Ocean of subtle inert energy) is the cause of this creation, a drop of it, which is the soul can be considered as the cause of the universe qualitatively though not quantitatively. When this limited Mula Maya charged by God (unimaginable awareness) forgets itself due to influence of God, this universe, a dream at that level, is created. The ignorance is only for the awareness (drop of Mula Maya or soul) and not for God. Thus, avidya at that level is the cause for the dream creation. But, avidya itself cannot create the universe. The universe is a form of energy only. Therefore, the soul integrated with avidya or the Mula Maya integrated with avidya can only create the dream or universe respectively. Thus, avidya is an integrated quality of Mula Maya in causing the creation or dream. But, avidya alone cannot exist without Mula Maya or the soul. Mula Maya or soul can exist without the avidya in the state of realization. Therefore, avidya can be treated as a quality that exists or that can be removed by realization and thus, avidya comes under the item of subtle body only. The Moha (fascination), one of the six qualities of Jiiva is nothing but ignorance (avidya). Thus, you need not give a special place for avidya in the higher concept where a soul is not the final item. But, when the soul is assumed as final item in a particular level of students, to count the three bodies, the place of a soul can be given to avidya because avidya is secondary cause for the dream. In that way it can be treated as causal body. By this way, Shankara showed the places of three bodies and kept the soul on the top position for the case of purvamimamsakas and declared the soul as God so that the believers of soul have to logically believe the existence of God. Though such belief is not perfect, but atleast the concept of God is introduced for the further journey. You will understand the greatness of Shankara because He has to keep the most ignorant child in the school. It is very difficult to bring a child to the line of knowledge. It is easy to develop a college student and it is easier to develop a PG student. Shankara laid the foundation for spiritual knowledge, which is the most important basis for the castle of spiritual knowledge.

Shankara spoke about the creation from the angle of God and Buddhists were happy by misunderstanding that as their angle. Shankara told that the world is Mithya, which means almost unreal in the angle of God. Buddhists were very happy because they say that everything is unreal from their angle only because there is no question of angle of God to them. For such extreme people if you say that the world is real from the angle of the soul, it becomes very difficult to transform them. With great difficulty they accepted the existence of soul. In such situation something is better than nothing. Instead of everything being unreal, let atleast the soul be real. This is the reason why Shankara kept silent about a clear analysis of the angle at that time. When the soul only exists and there is no other item, naturally it must be greatest and can be called as Brahman. But for Purvamimamsakas the world exists and Shankara does not want to tell that the world is really unreal like Buddhist because they will not accept it. They were fond of heaven in which luxuries can be enjoyed. If the world is unreal, the luxuries will become unreal. Therefore, to satisfy both these extremists, Shankara told that the world is neither real nor unreal. It is actually real but being very weak before God it is negligible and almost unreal from the angle of God. Thus, again He spoke from the angle of God and the students took it as the concept from their angle because no student accepts God.

For the Purvamimamsaka the world, which is object of enjoyment and the soul, which is enjoyer, are real. Therefore, their next step is only to accept God. But they will not accept God beyond the soul or world under any circumstances. Therefore, Shankara said that soul is Brahman and the statement was correct from the angle of the Yoga meaning of Brahman. But people have taken Brahman as a word of Yoga Rudha and fixed to God already. Therefore, they misunderstood that the soul is God. Do not say that Shankara cheated the students. No. No. No. He made those atheists atleast to utter the word “God” by their mouths atleast by speaking that any soul is God. For such people, who are attracted by pleasures of senses, such concept pacified their egoism also. In course of time, some of them having accepted the existence of God started thinking about the real nature of God. They started studying the scriptures and slowly realized that God exists beyond the souls. At this level, the Lord came as Ramanuja and helped them in transforming as believers and devotees of God. Slowly they started thinking about the path to please the God. The Lord came as Madhva and showed Hanuman as an example. If you look at Hanuman, the final concept is realized. If you walk in the footprints of Hanuman, you will reach Brahma Loka and become God Himself. Hanuman exhibited the final essence. He recognized the human incarnation of His time. He did the service of Lord in His work blindly without analyzing it as a personal work or the social work. According to the Ramayana, He never chanted the name of Rama. He never sat in meditation of Rama. He never said that He is God even after studying all the Vedas and Shastras directly from the sun. He attained superpowers but never attached any importance to such powers. He did not believe Ravana as God simply by his superpowers. Infact, He Himself was having more superpowers. He maintained good physical health by practicing Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama. He maintained good mental health by Pratyahara by detaching Himself from all the bonds of the world. He developed bond with the Lord in human form (Dharana) and maintained it (Dhayana) and was immersed in it (Samadhi). Such bond was expressed in terms of service and not in terms of mere words and feelings as in the case of a poet or prostitute. Without service the love in words, mind and intelligence is like offering water without meals. If water is associated with a plate of meals then the service is complete through Trikaranas (mind, words and action).

Reality of Kundalini and Chakras

I never rejected Yoga preached by Patanjali. I only rejected the funny concept of Kundalini and Chakras in its apparent sense and they are not mentioned in any scripture. If you realize what they represent it is good. The yoga gives perfect health of body and mind and is the basis for the whole spiritual path. Prayers and meditation with service, without aspiring anything in return is accepted. I only criticized prayer and meditation without service and aspiring fruits for such theoretical approach. I always emphasized the knowledge of scriptures and continuous logical analysis because the decisions become correct and firm by such Buddhi Yoga. It is the torchlight that should be present in your hand in the switched on condition till you reach the goal. But, without service, there is no need of switching on the torch always to waste the energy of battery. Without using practically, we should not waste the energy. I have appreciated the idol worship as a training of service to the human form of the Lord when egoism and jealousy are not completely conquered. I only criticized the lifelong training without joining the Job in which the knowledge of training is to be practically used. I have accepted all the concepts of tradition but plucked them out from the wrong places and reinstalled in correct path. Then only they grow like paddy plants and yield the final crop. It is only restructuring or revitalizing of the entire spiritual system. All these aspects were introduced by Me only through the previous incarnations. I will not condemn My own introductions. I am only placing them in proper positions, which were disturbed by ignorant and mischievous people. I support even the concept of telling the partial knowledge itself as final word at every level because that was essential in subjective spiritual knowledge. Infact, I only said like that previously and if I criticize that, I am criticizing Myself only. One must again and again realize that whatever the knowledge is spoken now, it is directly from the Lord Dattatreya existing in Me. The word ‘I’ refer to Him and not to Me (Soul), who is the owner of these external gross and internal subtle bodies. If a speaker speaks something sitting in his friend’s house, you cannot say that the speech is given by his friend, who is the owner of the house. Unless this misunderstanding is clarified at every stage, all the spiritual knowledge becomes waste like the scent poured in ash. God spoke the Gita similarly through Krishna. Therefore, throughout the Gita you will find “God spoke” (Shri Bhagavan Uvacha) and not “Krishna Spoke” (Krishna Uvacha). When Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gita, Krishna said that it is not possible. When Arjuna forced Krishna spoke the Gita (Anu Gita), which is not at all famous because it was not from God.

The concept of human incarnation and the concept of human being can be compared. When God enters the human being, it is the human incarnation. The word Parabrahman is Yoga Rudha and is fixed in God only. The subtle body in human being is called Jiiva in which the qualities are integrated with the pure awareness. In deep sleep, since the pure awareness is in its original form of inert energy, even in deep sleep Jiiva exists in his eternal form. Therefore, you need not make any essential difference regarding Jiiva in deep sleep and other states. Similarly, the soul, which is pure awareness, exists in its essential eternal form of inert energy in the deep sleep. Similarly, in the case of Jiiva also you need not make any difference of soul between the deep sleep and other states. Infact, the soul is in the Jiiva only as the water exists in waves. Krishna is the human incarnation and Arjuna is the human being. The common item in both is the human body, which consists of the gross, subtle (Jiiva) and causal (Atman or soul) bodies. God is the extra item in Krishna. If God exit from Krishna, Krishna is just equal to Arjuna. If the current leaves the electric wire, the wire is just an ordinary wire. In Krishna, the soul can be called as Brahman and the Jiiva can be called as Eshwara. The gross body of Arjuna and Krishna are having the same name except that the gross body of Krishna can be treated as a divine body since God pervaded all the three bodies of Krishna. You can experience God from the gross body of Krishna. There is homogeneity in all the three bodies. The gross body is made of matter and inert energy (fire and space). Matter is the solid earth, liquid water and gas-air. Thus, the gross body is made of five elements. The subtle body consists of qualities, which are work forms of energy. The soul is made of pure energy. The pure energy is also active and work form only. Thus, awareness, which itself is a special work form of energy, can be treated as energy or even the special work form of energy. Thus, there is no basic difference between energy (Shakti) and quality (Guna). Similarly, there is no essential difference between matter and energy. These three bodies are made of the same single essential item which can be called as energy, which is indicated by the word Tejas in the Veda (Tat Tejosrujata) and the entire creation is one homogeneous item only. The subdivisions of this Tejas are the five elements, qualities, inert energy, awareness etc. For the sake of convenience only, the sub-divisions are made and therefore, we are using separate terms like Atman, Jiiva etc. The soul in Krishna charged by God is Brahman. The soul in Arjuna without God is Atman. Similarly, the subtle body charged by God in Krishna is Eshwara. The subtle body in Arjuna without God is Jiiva. You can compare Brahman and Atman. The energy beyond the qualities is the common item, in both Krishna and Arjuna. Thus, the common item is not internal but external only. Similarly, when you compare Eshwara and Jiiva the external item (qualities) is common and not the internal item. When you say that the awareness (chaitanyam or chit) is the common item between Brahman, Eshwara, Atman and Jiiva, we have not gone to the deepest internal level. You are taking the common item that is present in the external cover of these four entities. Suppose there are four metallic wires, which are made of Gold, silver, aluminum and iron. Suppose current is flowing in Gold and Silver wires only. The common item in all these four metallic wires is not current. Here let us take the Gold as Brahman, Silver as Eshwara, Aluminum as Atman and Iron as Jiiva. Current is the Parabrahman or God. God is only in the soul and Jiiva of Krishna only. God is not in the soul and Jiiva of Arjuna. Now, if you say that if all the four wires are taken away the current remains as common item. But this is not correct. You leave the current and for some time assume that the current is taken away from golden and silver wires. For this, you can take Parashurama as an example instead of Krishna. God left Parashurama after the massacre of kings. Now, there is no difference between Arjuna and Parashurama. But, you cannot call now the soul and Jiiva of Parashurama as Brahman and Eshwara. But, still you can use these two words for the soul and Jiiva in any human being if you take these two words in Yoga but not in Yoga Rudha. In this way, you can call any soul as Brahman (because the soul is the greatest item) and you can call any Jiiva as Eshwara (because any Jiiva can control the mater in limited situations and the controller is called as Eshwara in that particular situation). Now, in this context, the difference between the four items disappears and the four items are reduced to only two items i.e., Brahman or soul and Eshwara or Jiiva. Now Brahman is Atman and Eshwara is Jiiva. But remember that the current is taken away and the current is not the common item between these two entities.

Now if you go back to compare Krishna with Arjuna, Brahman of Krishna is electric Golden wire, which is different from Atman which is the non-electric Aluminum wire of Arjuna. Similarly, Eshwara of Krishna is electric silver wire and Jiiva of Arjuna is the non-electric iron wire. Now current cannot be the common item between Brahman and Atman or Eshwara and Jiiva. Current can be common item only between Brahman and Eshwara. Therefore, you cannot get the common item in the deepest level between Brahman and Atman or between Eshwara and Jiiva. If Shankara says this, those students will not be satisfied because that day Arjuna wants to claim himself as Krishna by having some common item. If the common item is identified, he can reject the differentiating item and limit himself to the common item and also limit Krishna to that common item and say finally that he is Krishna. Unless his ego is satisfied, he will not sit before Shankara to hear anything more. Retaining him is the important point in that situation. Therefore, Shankara keeps silent about the current. Shankara goes only to a deeper level and find out the common item. The common item is the energy in all the four wires. The four wires are different metals and difference is only in the state of matter only. Since energy is condensed to become matter, we can say that energy is the common item between the four wires. We may go one step more and say since current is a form of energy, current is the common item. Therefore, energy or current (chaitanyam or God) is the common item. Therefore, in Arjuna Atman is God (Brahman) and the Jiiva is God (Eshwara). The difference between Brahman and Eshwara is again ephemeral only because water without waves is Brahman and the same water present in the waves as the same component is Eshwara. Thus, if the common chaitanyam or energy is called as God, the ego of student is pacified and he sits for some more time to hear the preaching. Tricks are necessary and are not wrong if the final aim is good. The common item, which is extracted by such analysis, is only an item of creation and not the creator. If we analyze this in the deepest level, we should assume that current is not a form of energy. God compared to current is unimaginable and all the other items are imaginable. Therefore, the simile is limited to the aspect of comparison only and should not extend to all the aspects. The face is compared to moon in the aspect of pleasantness and there is no comparison in other aspects like eclipse etc. Similarly, God is compared to current in one aspect only that it is completely a separate item. The concept that current is a form of energy should not be taken here. In that case, there will be no example in the creation for the creator because God (creator) is unimaginable and all the items of creation are imaginable.

This defect of creation brings a serious complication in the spiritual knowledge. Another serious complication is that whether the word is used in Yoga or Yoga Rudha. Any firm can have any name, but some firms have registered their names and such names cannot be used by other firms. When the name gives the sense of businesses of the firm, it is Yoga. When the name giving the sense of the businesses is registered, it is Yoga Rudha. Suppose the name does not give the sense of the businesses but still it is registered for that firm only it is Rudha. The fourth type of word is Yougika Rudha, which is a special registration of the word in the Veda only. In this spiritual knowledge we are concerned only with Yoga and Yoga Rudha. The word Parabrahman is Yoga Rudha and cannot be used to any other item because except God no other item is unimaginable. But the word Brahman is disputable. Sometimes it is in Yoga and some times it is in Yoga Rudha. This means that some times the registration is valid and some times the registration is not valid. When the registration is valid Brahman stands for the Mula Maya (ocean of energy) charged by God or the soul (drop of ocean of energy) charged by God. If the registration is not valid the word Brahman can be used to any greatest item in a category like soul, the Veda etc. Soul is greatest among all the items of the creation in a particular angle i.e., the aspect of knowledge. The Veda is greatest among all the scripture because the pollution is absent since it was protected by recitation only.

To be continued…

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