Posted on: 25 Apr 2010
The saffron color of the cloth of a saint indicates the color of ripened fruit, which stands for the ultimate knowledge in the spiritual path. Without such knowledge, the saffron cloth is meaningless. Krishna never wore the saffron cloth, but He had the ultimate knowledge even from the childhood as we can see from His discourse given to the villagers in resisting the sacrifice to be performed to please Indra. The cloth is only a symbol of the concept and symbol alone without the concept is meaningless. Krishna is the saint without symbol and every present saint is not a saint having symbol only. Shankara is the saint with the symbol. Krishna and Shankara are equal because the inner concept is one and the same and the symbol is not at all important.
The Christian or the Muslim or the Buddhist or a person belonging to any religion dies with the symbols and concepts corresponding to the specific religion. But in Hinduism, the person should die as a saint at the end leaving all the symbols and concepts of the Hindu religion. A saint means the universal human being rising above every religion including Hinduism. A saint leaves the sacred thread corresponding to the worship in Hinduism. A saint does not worship any form of God like Shiva, Vishnu etc., and is fixed in the unimaginable God, who is the creator beyond the entire creation including space. The saint respects all forms of God equally because no form is the real God. All the forms act like media only in which God exists like the current in various wires. The current is a stream of electrons and the wire is a chain of metallic crystals. Neither the current is wire nor is the wire current. Both are separate entities. But, when the current flows in the wire, the wire exhibits the property of current i.e., shock, while retaining its own properties like the color of metal, hardness, leanness etc., since the wire gives shock wherever touched. When the current exits, the wire remains as wire, exhibiting its own properties. When the current flows in the wire, the wire can be treated as current and there is no other way than this to experience the current. In the atmosphere, electrons flow but the current is not experienced. Similarly, the unimaginable God enters the imaginable medium and the medium becomes unimaginable exhibiting the property of God. God is experienced through the medium in this way. There is no other way to experience God if He leaves the medium. All the forms of the God are equal because the unimaginable God is one and the same existing in all these forms. When the same current flows in the wires of copper and aluminum, we say that both the wires are equal from the point of the same current flowing in them. This does not mean that copper and aluminum are one and the same. If you do not realize the current existing in these wires, you will find only the difference between wires and not oneness, which is the current. Unless one realizes the unimaginable God, he will see only difference in the different forms. Such state is primitive stage of knowledge and such person sees Shiva and Vishnu separately. Such a person naturally sees Shiva and Jesus also separately. When the Hindu saint sees Shiva and Vishnu equally, based on the same logic, he can see Shiva, Vishnu, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Mahaveera etc., also equally. This is the unique greatness of Hinduism, which stands as a mini model for universal spirituality. Thus, a Hindu is expected to die as a human being realizing the Universal Spirituality in the end and therefore, is expected to take samnyasa and become a saint in the end at least. Here, samnyasa means achievement of such knowledge of universal spirituality that alone brings peace and harmony in the world.
Duty of Saint
A saint is expected to propagate knowledge in the world and this means that the saint should propagate the knowledge of universal spirituality to bring world peace. Leaving all this inner sense, people leave the house and family and wear the saffron cloth propagating either wrong knowledge, which says that you are God or propagating devotion to capture worldly benefits. They preach that awareness is God. Awareness is only a specific work like cutting, grinding, chipping etc. It is only the work of transfer of information of reflections of received objects or concepts or stored knowledge from the senses to the brain. Awareness is just a specific work form of inert energy. It depends on the generation of inert energy by digestive and respiratory systems. When this inert energy enters a specific nervous system, a specific work called awareness is generated. When current enters a specific machine called grinder, a specific work called grinding is done. God is aware of everything and existed before the creation of three items called space, energy and matter. God is beyond these three items and hence, beyond the above mentioned systems, which involve space, energy and matter as they cannot exist in God, who is beyond these three items. In such case, the awareness of God is unimaginable awareness. The awareness by itself is a scientific work and hence, is imaginable. The imaginable awareness is generated by the unimaginable God, who does not possess any system. Therefore, the imaginable awareness is generated by the unimaginable source. The imaginable awareness in the case of a human being has imaginable source only, which is the group of these systems existing in the human body. Thus, the unimaginable awareness has two components. The first component is the unimaginable God, who is the source. The second component is the work, which is the imaginable awareness. Unless you resolve these two components separately, you will mistake the awareness as the unimaginable God Himself. Even in the case of imaginable awareness, the source is the imaginable human body and the awareness is the imaginable work. In both the cases of unimaginable God and imaginable human being, the imaginable awareness is one and the same, but the sources are different.
A king and beggar walk. The work of walking is one and the same, but the sources i.e., the king and the beggar are different. You should differentiate the work and source in this discussion. Otherwise, monism results in leading to the concept of awareness being God. You can differentiate God and awareness through another angle also, which proves that God is unimaginable and awareness is imaginable. In fact, all the items of the creation are a bundle of properties only and hence, the creation is said to be a bundle of three fundamental properties (Trigunas). The only source is the unimaginable God. Even the space, energy and matter are properties of that source only. Every item in the creation is a bundle of several properties that result by the combination of the three fundamental qualities (Trigunas) in different preparations. When you isolate a property from the item in the creation, the item stands as a source, which is the bundle of other properties. You are mistaking the bundle of un-isolated properties as an item or source. You may take an item, which is the bundle of ten properties and if you isolate one property, the other nine properties together stand as an item or source or object or substratum. If you isolate all the properties, all the items in entire creation are reduced to properties only and thus, there is no item or source that can be left over. The only source and ultimate item is unimaginable God, who can be achieved by isolation of properties in the items through analysis, which leads to the negation of everything in the creation as the source. This is said by the Veda (Neti Neti iti…) and the Gita (Naasato vidyate…).