Posted on: 25 Apr 2005
Shankara is Lord Shiva. Ramanuja is Lord Vishnu. The Veda says that Shiva is Vishnu (Shivascha Narayanah). People misinterpreted the Advaita of Shankara and called each person as Brahman (Aham Brahmaasmi). Very good! You are Brahman, who objected? But did you realize the meaning of Brahman as said by Shankara. Brahman means pure awareness according to Shankara. Every living being contains pure awareness. Even a worm in a drainage pit can claim itself to be Brahman. Even when you are beaten in hell, you can claim yourself as Brahman and later on when you are born as a worm in a drainage pit, you can call yourself as Brahman. The pure water is the common item in both the scented water and drainage water. If the drainage water says that since pure water is the common item, the drainage water and the scented water are one and the same, do you agree to this? Both contain pure water but now both are not pure water. Even if you remove the entire dirt from the drainage water, it can only become pure water and not scented water. Similarly awareness is common in both the Lord and the living being. By this common awareness, the living being cannot be the Lord. If the living being removes all the qualities from it, it can become Brahman but not Ishwara.
The Lord has infinite good qualities (Satvam). A human being cannot become the Lord even if he attains the infinite good qualities. The reason is that the Nirguna Brahman is present in the Lord, which is not present in any living being. Awareness is only the power of the Lord, which is called the Maya (Para Shakti) and is not the Nirguna Brahman. Matter is the shirt. The awareness with qualities is like the inner shirt. A living being is a couple of these two (outer and inner) shirts. The Lord or the human incarnation is the Nirguna Brahman, which contains both these shirts. Any living being is only the two shirts [Nirguna Brahman is absent from it]. Any living being has only two components. The Lord or human incarnation has three components. But the Nirguna Brahman can enter any living being for the sake of His work. Such a living being is the incarnation of the Lord. The Lord enters the living being for the sake of His work and not to satisfy your wish. Even if you are ready with all infinite good qualities, the Lord will not enter you because He enters only for His work. By all good qualities you can become Dharmaraja or the deity of justice but you can never become Lord Krishna. Moreover, just the good qualities (Satvam) are not the criteria of the Lord.
The Lord contains all the three qualities. Rajas is Brahma. Satvam is Vishnu and Tamas is Shiva. The Lord contains all the three forms i.e., all the three qualities (Satvam, Rajas and Tamas). But these three qualities which are the inner shirt will never touch Him. The world which is made of the inert five elements is the external shirt of the Lord (Ishwara). Similarly the human body made of the five inert elements is the external shirt of the human incarnation. In both the cases the internal shirt is pure awareness, which consists of the three qualities. Inside the internal shirt exists, the actual Nirguna Brahman, in both the cases. Therefore the Vishwarupa (Ishwara) is the human incarnation (Krishna). The Advaita is between the Ishwara and Krishna but not between Ishwara and every human being. Shankara proved this by swallowing molten lead. The Advaita is between Shankara and Lord Shiva. The disciples could not swallow the molten lead and therefore the disciples were not at all Lord Shiva. Yesterday, Shankara was born and today the same Shankara is born as Ramanuja to remove this misunderstanding in Advaita.
Shankara fell at the feet of the cobbler. Ramanuja gave the Narayana Mantra to people of all the castes and also left His wife, who showed the caste feeling [caste-discrimination]. This shows the same nature in both Shankara and Ramanuja. If you cannot remove the caste feeling, how can you remove the attachment to your family, your body and yourself. The attachment towards the race and nation should also be removed. The surrender of the body is Prapatti and surrender of the self is Bhakti in the service of the Lord. Both these put together is called seva (Service) as per Shri Madhva. “Sarvasva Saranagati” has two meanings. The word ‘Sva’ means both self and money in Sanskrit. When you surrender the self it is ‘Karma Sanyasa’ as done by Hanuman. If you surrender your money, it is called ‘Karmaphala Tyaga’ as done by the Gopikas. The Gopikas surrendered butter, which was their self-earned wealth (Karma Phala). Hanuman could not surrender money because He was a saint [monk]. Since the Gopikas were householders they could surrender their earnings. The Gopikas also surrendered their selves to the Lord in Brindavanam while dancing (Rasakeli). A householder is capable of doing both Karma Sanyasa and Karma Phala Tyaga. Hanuman attained Brahma Loka, but the Gopikas attained Goloka, which is at a higher level than Brahma Loka. Thus a householder can exceed the saint.
Vashishtha said “Dhanamulamidam Jagat”, which means that money is the root of the world. The Veda says “Dhanena Tyagena” and “Kasyasvit Dhanam”, which means that only by the sacrifice of money does the reality come out. The Gita also emphasizes on Karma Phala Tyaga which is the sacrifice of money. The Dharma Shastras say “Kanchanam Karma Mochanam”, which means only by the sacrifice of money can Prayaschittam (removal of sin) be done. The Shastra says “Adakshina Hato Yajnah”, which means that without the sacrifice of money the Yajna [ritual sacrifice] becomes waste. Guru Dakshina also involves the sacrifice of money. The Shri Chakram means the whirlpool of money existing in the ocean of this world. Shri Chakram is the most important Yantra [mystic patterns or symbols] because the bond with money is the most powerful. If this bond is broken all the other bonds are broken. Ramanuja also named His commentary as ‘Shri Bhashyam’ [Shri stands for wealth]. The bond with money is the root of all the injustice in this world. If this bond is cut, justice is established without any external effort. If this bond with money is cut, all the other bonds are cut and this is complete salvation. Therefore both, the establishment of justice (Pravritti) and the attainment of salvation (Nivritti), are achieved simultaneously by this and both these are the programmes of the Lord in this world. Therefore sacrifice of money is the root and essence of all the spiritual effort (sadhana).