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To accept any concept, there are four authorities: 1) Shruti, the scripture, which is the divine text and it is the Veda for Hindus, 2) The second authority is Smruti, which is the text written by sages, 3) The third authority is logical discussion to find out the correct interpretation of the scripture, 4) The fourth authority is experience of divine scholars.
Essence of Mahavaakyas: Shruti
Let us examine the first authority, the Veda, which is said to be the word of God revealed to sages. In this scripture, lot of importance is given to the four great statements (Mahavaakyaas). One statement says that the special knowledge is God (Prajnanam Brahma)...
Shankara gave two phases in His philosophy—1. Phase of Reality (Paramarthadasa): In this phase, the absolute reality and the relative reality are mentioned. God is the absolute reality and the cosmic energy is the relative reality, which is produced from God in the beginning of this creation. The cosmic energy includes vacuum also and vacuum is the original form of energy, which is very much invisible. The theory of vacuum generating galaxies supports this point. The special theory of relativity also supports this point, which says that the space or vacuum bends along the boundaries of an object. 2. Phase of Relativity (Vyavaharadasa): In this phase, the cosmic energy, which is acting as relative reality...
The scientific atheists say that the cosmic energy is the ultimate God from which this entire creation is generated through big bang, maintained and destroyed. He says that another unimaginable God as generator of cosmic energy is unnecessary. If we say that an agent of intelligence is required to maintain all this creation in such a systematic manner, the atheists disagree saying that randomness with probability based on theory of evolution can be the reason for such systematic administration. We cannot completely rule out this answer of the atheists. In such case, the unimaginable God disappears and the imaginable cosmic energy becomes God. The concept of energy is clearly understood only through intricate scientific analysis...
Krishna Ashtami Special Message] Krishna gave two statements in the Gita. The first statement is that He is unimaginable because nobody can know Him (Maam tu veda na kashchana…). The second statement is that He entered a human body (Manushim tanumaashritam…). These statements together give the total concept of God. God is beyond spatial dimensions and hence, He is beyond imagination. In order to preach the spiritual knowledge, to give the correct direction to the humanity, He comes down to the world of human beings by entering a human body. The human body means a human being. The inert material body associated with inert energy consisting of awareness with different feelings (jeeva) is the human body. Human body does not mean mere inert body...
[Guru Purnima Day] God wanted to create the universe and based on this reason God is thought to be awareness. Awareness can alone desire to do anything and not an inert entity. Another strong reason is that as the human awareness creates dream-space and the subsequent dream in it, the God-awareness created this real space and the universe in it. Just as the dream and its space are generated by the human awareness, maintained and controlled, and finally dissolved in human awareness, the universe along with the real space is generated, controlled and is dissolved by God-awareness. Another step was that the human awareness itself is God-awareness. As the dream-space and dream are real during the period of dream, the universe and real space are real...
The concept of unimaginable God is already mentioned in the Vedas and in the Gita. It was not elaborated since there was no need in the earlier period, when science was not so much developed. The energetic form of God was thought to be the original God, since the energy can remain in the invisible region as well as in the visible region by changing its frequency. The energetic form exists in the invisible region and thus, the energetic form of unimaginable God remained always invisible. By some severe penance, the invisible energetic form becomes visible by changing its frequency and devotees thought that the invisible God became visible to them for sometime. The people in the earlier period called this invisible form of the God as unimaginable...
The Gita says that God is unimaginable and that God enters the human form to be available for the human beings. These two points constitute the essence of the goal i.e., God (Mamtuvedana…, Manusheemtanum…). You should know that you are a part of the creation only and not the creator or [not] even part of the creator. The creator is unimaginable and you are the soul or the imaginable nature. You are made of body, qualities of the soul and the attributeless soul. The attributeless soul is the inert energy, which is isolated from any type of work. The Gita says that the attributeless soul or Atman is inert and workless (Sthanurachalah…) and the soul associated with qualities, called as Jeeva, is the inert energy associated with a specific form of work generated...
The debate should always be confined to the limits of relative reality and should not enter the level of absolute reality because none can even touch the absolute reality. In the absolute reality, God alone is real and everything else, which is the Creation including yourself becomes unreal with respect to God. This Creation is a process or activity or work of God. Energy is a form of work, since energy or power is dynamism of God. Matter is another form of Energy. Space is again another subtle form of Energy. Therefore, in the level of absolute reality, the entire Creation is just a relative reality, which is the work of God. Since you are also a part of the Creation, you are also a part of the relative reality. Therefore, you are just part and parcel of the work of God. Your body is matter and hence...
[Gurupurnima Message - Morning] The word soul (Jeevaatman) is composed of two components 1)Atman and 2)Jeeva. The component Atman is basic inert energy that is generated in the body by the oxidation of food with the help of digestive system (Annamaya kosha) and respiratory system (Pranamaya kosha). The component Jeeva consists of a complex mechanism of receiving the information from the external world, storing it, thinking about it in several ways, determining the correct path by logic and finally enjoying happiness. Ofcourse, if the path is wrong by bad logic, grief is enjoyed and all this also is part of Jeeva only. Receiving the information and thinking about it in several ways is Manomaya kosha...
[Gurupurnima Evening] The Advaita philosophy says that the ‘I’ of the soul should be transformed into ‘I’ of God. The process of transformation should be carefully analyzed. If the ‘I’ of the soul is destroyed, there will be no experience for the soul that it has become God. In deep sleep, the ‘I’ of the soul disappears and there is no experience at all for the soul. Moreover, the ‘I’ of God neither increases nor decreases at anytime. It remains constant. Even though God created this entire universe, God does not decrease by quantity because no part of God is transformed into universe. The worldly logic fails in the process of creation. Even if a soul merges in God, God does not increase. Since God is beyond spatial dimensions, the increase and decrease become meaningless since volume is the property of space. When you have not understood God...
[On the Eve of Shri Rama Navami] Dr. Nikhil told “Now the research is being conducted on the existence of Universal Consciousness. If there are some violent ideas in one place, they affect the Universal Consciousness and thereby, the minds of all the human beings are disturbed. The Universal Consciousness is Brahman, which is in contact with every human being as a continuous Universal Medium. Hence, the soul is in union with Brahman”.
Swami replied: If you want to beat somebody, call him as dog and then beat him. Even though he is not a dog; you have confirmed him as a dog for all practical purposes, in order to beat him. Similarly, you want to capture Brahman or God, who is unimaginable and cannot be captured even by intensive process of imagination. Therefore, you name some imaginable item as Brahman, capture it and then claim that you have captured God. Whatever you named or subsequently...
No example can be given from the world to explain the unimaginable generation of imaginable world from unimaginable God. We have to select imaginable items only to explain the concept. God creates, controls and dissolves the world like the awareness (soul) creates, controls and dissolves its imaginary world. To understand the concept, you have to place the soul in the place of God and the imaginary world in the place of the world. This does not mean that the soul is God and the world is imaginary world. If a son asks his father about the way in which he is his son, the father says that he is his son just like his grandson is the son of his son. To explain this effectively, the grandfather asks his son to keep himself in the position of the grandfather...
[In the below given discussion, Swami is Defendant, Misconceived Advaitin is the Petitioner and a keen follower of discussion is the Mediator. Shankara used to present the knowledge in this dialogue format.]
Petitioner: God is awareness because the Brahma Sutra (Eekkshateh…) says that God is not any inert item since the Veda says that God wished to create this Universe (Tadaikshataa…). If God is inert, He cannot wish at all.
Defendant: The Brahma Sutra certainly establishes that God is not inert. But, at the same time, the Sutra does not say that God is awareness...
[Crystal Clear Demarcation of three philosophies i.e., Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita] Shankara preached Advaita Philosophy to four disciples directly and those four disciples must have understood His philosophy to the best because they heard Shankara directly. Those four disciples must have become God (Brahman) and should not have served anybody as slaves because God will not serve anybody since He is served by all. But, the four disciples served Shankara like slaves. When Shankara asked Padmapada (one of the four disciples) to bring the washed and dried saffron clothes from the other bank, Padmapada obeyed the order of Shankara more than a slave and walked across the river without fearing death by drowning...
The five parts (Pancha Koshas) are to be analyzed carefully to understand that Awareness is neither the unimaginable God (Mayee) nor His unimaginable power (Maya). The straight reason is that the awareness is an imaginable item. The pure awareness can be easily understood in the state of meditation. When all the thoughts are dissolved, the awareness alone remains and this state is called as self-meditation. In this state, the self or the awareness alone remains. Shankara filtered all the five parts or sheaths (Koshas) and the final filtrate is this pure awareness or self of human beings. In this state, the awareness is aware of itself. The subject (Jnata) and object (Jneya) disappear...
There is only one God as per the Veda (Ekameva Advitiyam Brahma…) but the awareness is in multiple bits called as living beings. There is only one Ajay but the red shirts are several. If there is only one red shirt like one Ajay, the constant association is valid in both directions. It means, wherever there is Ajay, there is red shirt and wherever there is red shirt, Ajay exists there. Similarly, if there is only one bit of awareness like one God, we can draw the logic of saying wherever there is God, there is awareness and wherever there is awareness, there is God. In such case, we can say that God is awareness and awareness is God. But, in practical experience (Anubhava Pramana), the awareness is discontinuous...
Propagation of knowledge is the greatest task and hence, it is done by God only directly. To satisfy an intellectual is very difficult. To convince the greatest genius like Mandana Misra, it requires super-intelligence and so God alone can do it. No intellectual human being can convince another intellectual human being. Therefore, God Himself incarnated in human form as Shankara. To propagate devotion and service, such incarnation of God is not necessary. Developing devotion through praise and songs is easy work. Therefore, Adisesha, the most beloved servant to God, incarnated as Ramanuja. Propagation of service is still easier and hence, another devoted angel, Vayu incarnated as Madhva. Vayu is in constanant...
When the Veda says that God is not body (Akayam), how do you support the Human Incarnation of God?
[Reply to Shri Surya, Mumbai] God is not any medium or body (Akayamavranam… Veda) because God is unimaginable. The body or medium is a part of creation and hence, is imaginable. God is also not modified into the medium or body. God only enters the medium or body. The electric current is not the wire. The current is not modified into the wire. The current has entered the wire. As long as the current exists in the wire, the wire has to be treated as the current. There is no way to experience the current other than this. The wire attains the property of the electric current...
The individual soul (Jeeva) is a bundle of various qualities, which are different proportions of the three basic qualities called as Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas (Nanyam Gunebhyah—Gita). The material of these qualities is awareness or nervous energy called as Chit and this material is known as soul (Atman). The soul is beyond these qualities (Nirgunam) and the same is stated in the Gita (Gunebhyashcha param…). The individual soul always contains the basic material (soul) and hence can be called as Jeevatman [Jeeva + Atman], which is like calling water as waves. Awareness is a special work-form of inert energy and this inert energy is produced by the oxidation of food. The inert energy, on functioning...
[Shri Lakshman asked Swami to explain the reason for the twist given by Shankara in His philosophy because of which alone the differences in the interpretations of the scriptures arose.]
Background-Relevant Preaching: If you understand the background of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva and also the different atmospheres of devotees that existed over a span of time, the differences in the philosophies can be realized and the unity in the entire program can be perfectly appreciated. Before the arrival of Shankara, the Purva Mimamsakas were very ambitious to get heavenly pleasures...
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