29 Jan 2007
[Dr. Nikhil asked: How can one avoid the diversion of one’s attention towards bliss? People are attracted to bliss and not to God if God does not give bliss to them.]
The Veda describes the concept of bliss in the Ananda Valli. Certainly you must discuss about the subject of bliss. You must avoid the diversion of your attention to attaining bliss for your own self. But you must concentrate on the service to God that gives bliss to Him. This means that doing service to God in whatever way you like is not correct because God does not require your service in any way like a human being. One has to render the service in whatever manner God likes it. The service should be for the pleasure of God and not for the requirement of God because God has no requirement. Even pleasure is not necessary for God because He is the infinite of ocean of bliss (Naanavaaptam—Gita). He is only testing the devotion of the devotee regarding its quality and magnitude of intensity. God always asks the devotee to sacrifice the item with which he has the strongest bond. If the devotee succeeds in this test, God is not pleased for attaining that sacrificed item, but God is pleased for the love in the attitude of total sacrifice towards Him. For example God came in disguise to Shaktuprastha who was without food for several days along with his family in a severe drought. In that situation the strongest bond will naturally be towards food to save one’s life. He had somehow managed to get a little food and he was ready to eat it along with his family. God came in human form as a guest to test him. The Guest asked for the entire food to eat. Shaktuprastha gave the entire food and proved that God is more valuable than one’s life. The extreme abnormal behavior of the Guest in that situation, gave Shaktuprastha a hint that the Guest was none other than God. Here God was pleased not due to the food offered to Him since God has no hunger. But God was pleased only by the attitude of total practical sacrifice of Shaktuprastha in that situation.
God in human form as Lord Krishna asked Dharmaraja to tell a lie and God tested him whether he could sacrifice the bond with justice for God. In this case Dharmaraja had acknowledged Krishna as God already. But for him justice was above God and so he only had limited real love for God. God was pleased with him too but the pleasure of God was also limited and this was clearly seen while giving the fruit to Dharmaraja. Shaktuprastha was granted Brahma Loka for his unlimited real love, where as Dharmaraja got temporary heaven for his limited real love.
Therefore, unlimited real love can give bliss to the Lord and the Lord in turn will also love you in an unlimited manner. If the devotee can violate his bonds with anybody and anything including justice for the sake of God, God will also violate anybody and anything including His own constitution of justice for the sake of the devotee. If the devotee cannot violate certain bonds and justice, God also cannot violate the cycle of deeds for the sake of the devotee. The quality and quantity of bread will be according to the quality and quantity of the flour used to prepare it. However, one should not concentrate on the bliss of God thinking that God will bless him in return. The concentration on the bliss of God should be natural and spontaneous and one should really not aspire for any fruit from God in return. If an idea of aspiration is hidden in the devotee, God will keep silent after receiving the service without any reaction [He will not immediately reward the devotee]. The real color of the devotee will come out since God notes any secret hidden even in the subconscious state.
Real Love is Practically Possible
One should not say such love [real and free of aspiration] is not possible. It is not correct. It is definitely possible since such unlimited real love is seen in the case of the love of parents towards their child. You are working day and night for the sake of your child. At the end whatever [wealth] is stored by your work is totally dedicated to your child. Here both these are the climax stages of karma samnyasa and karma phala tyaga. The love for one’s child is the strongest like a gold medal. The love for one’s wife or husband is real but limited and is the next—silver medal. God is worshipped in these two ways (Aham Bijapradah pitaa…., Gatih bhartaa…, Gita). Between these two, the gold medal naturally overcomes the silver medal. If the wife asks the husband to give all the property to her alone, the husband may give it with the confidence that she will eventually give it to his child because she is also the mother of the same child. If the husband has any doubt on her love for his child, the husband will not agree to this. He may give some little property for her maintenance, but the remaining major portion of his property will be given to his child alone.
The sacrifice of fruit of work is the acid test of the reality and limitations of love. Hence, the Veda gave the top most place to this sacrifice of wealth (Dhanena Tyagena Ekena—Veda) and the Gita gave the final place to the sacrifice of the fruit of work. Since work is the source of the fruit, sacrifice of work is also as good as the sacrifice of fruit. Especially in the case of saints [monks], one can only do the former. In any case, the desire for God is the most important in the sacrifice because it tests the devotee’s total preparedness for the total sacrifice (Sarva Bhavena—Gita). Krishna desired for the dust of the feet of a devotee to be applied on His forehead as a medicine for His headache. The fulfillment of the desire of God alone can give Him the maximum pleasure because that alone proves your readiness for total sacrifice. Devotees offered several medicines other to remove the headache but Krishna did not accept accept and insisted only on the foot-dust. But all the devotees including His eight wives feared the subsequent hell that they would have to face by giving their foot-dust. Only the Gopikas gave their foot-dust in abundance immediately in spite of the warning from Narada regarding the subsequent hell for giving foot-dust. They told sage Narada that they did not mind going to hell if it would fulfill the Lord’s desire and please Him. The omniscient Lord directly catches your weakest nerve at the very outset so that the other weak points need not be tested in which you have every probability of success.
Analysis of Bliss
Bliss (Brahma Ananda) is defined as the continuous human-happiness (Manusha Ananda) multiplied by infinity. As per the Veda human happiness is that of a king who rules this entire earth and who is full of strength and health (Sa Eko Manusha Anandah). But the king also does not have this happiness continuously because several troubles often interrupt his happiness. Hence this human happiness must be made continuous and the Veda does not mention this continuity while describing the human happiness [implying that human happiness is inherently limited and non-continuous]. The continuity of human happiness can be attained by knowing the clue of enjoying both sweet and hot dishes in meals or both comedy and tragedy in a cinema. This divine clue is inherent only to the state of God and its successful and continuous application depends on the divine knowledge given by God along with His grace. By further unlimited grace of God, this human happiness gets multiplied by infinity and then such human happiness is converted into bliss (Sa eko Brahmana Ananndah—Veda). The final test of this final stage is that one shall be happy and enjoy even death, which is the most serious problem (Sthitvaasyaam Antakalepi—Gita).
One and Composed of Three
The soul should rise above the three qualities. The soul is pure awareness and is beyond the three types of feelings. The pure awareness itself is one of the three qualities, called as Sattvam. But any quality is never hundred percent pure. The other two always exist in it in traces. Hence, the soul is one quality from a quantitative viewpoint, but it is a group of three qualities from the qualitative viewpoint.
Mula Maya is the primary energy, which is the equilibrium state of the three qualities and cannot be isolated in that state. This is called as Pradhanam by the Sankhya school of philosophy. It is Sattvam due to its potentiality to become awareness, Rajas due to its nature of dynamism and Tamas due to its ignorance about the unimaginable God. This Mula Maya is expressed into Sattvam or awareness (Jnana), Rajas or work form of inert energy like light, heat, sound etc., (Kriya) and Tamas or condensed inertial force called as matter (Bala). Each one of these forms is one in quantitative analysis but three in qualitative analysis. Each form is called by the name of a single quality due the predominance of that quality. These three expressed forms constitute the second plane of Maha Maya. Again each one of these forms is expressed as three qualities. Awareness is expressed as feelings of three qualities [three types of feelings viz Satvic feelings or good feelings and Rajasic and Tamasic feelings which consitiute bad feelings]. The work form of inert energy is expressed as works of three qualities [three types of work or three types of deeds viz Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic]. Matter is also expressed as three types of food [Viz. Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic foods]. The feelings (Gunas), deeds (karmas) and forms of matter (Rupas) constitute the third plane called as Maya.
The lower plane is always relatively true with respect to the higher plane. Therefore, the pure awareness or soul is qualitatively made of three qualities (Naanyam Gunebhyah—Gita). Although it is only Sattvam by predominance, it is expressed as three feelings (qualities) and is beyond those three feelings (qualities) and in that sense the soul is beyond the three qualities or feelings (Gunebhyashcha Param—Gita). Any item is composed of three (qualitatively) with respect to its source belonging to the higher plane and the same item is one (quantitatively) with respect to its effects belonging to the lower plane. The three qualities in the plane of Maya appear as good and bad or happiness and misery. Certainly the soul or pure awareness, being of the higher plane, can be the absolute reality with respect to the lower plane. Hence the soul can be beyond the twins (good and bad or happiness and misery). Therefore, the soul is authorized to enjoy the twins in the world (plane of Maya) and can maintain itself happy continuously. The clue is thus perfect in the systematic scientific analysis but its successful and continuous application certainly requires the grace of God being the inherent owner of the clue. The owner of an industrial clue [trade secret] is not inherently related to that clue. This divine clue is inherently related to the state of God and is not a clue of an external subject as in the case of the industrial secret. Unless the state of God (Brahmi Sthiti) is granted by God, its inherent clue cannot be practically attained. This clue is a part and parcel of the state of God.
Advaitin’s Self-Realization is not Bliss
On self-realization if the Advaitin were to achieve the state of God, the above inherent clue must have also been attained by him simultaneously without any further effort. In that case the Advaitin would be in bliss throughout his life in this world. But if you see the practical life of the Advaitin, it is not so. Even an Advaitin-saint gets serious and becomes jealous of his opponent in an argument. He should really enjoy even his defeat in the argument. Shankara accepted the point raised by the cobbler and fell at his feet. These Advaitins are neither fully ignorant nor fully learned. They are like teen-age students of high school. They have just crossed the elementary school where they have accepted the existence of the unimaginable God through unimaginable miracles. Accepting God is knowledge but thinking of themselves as God is ignorance. Parents always enjoy a lot with their teen-age children. God also gets continuous enjoyment with these Advaitin-children because they will never hear the truth completely. They are better than atheists but lesser than devotees. To hear the truth, one should be either fully ignorant or fully learned. Even Brahma refused to preach these people (Brahmaapi Na Ranjayati—Bhartrihari). Only Lord Shiva came forward in human form as Shankara to deal with these people. The Buddhists and the followers of Purva Mimmsa were atheists and learned scholars in the scriptures. To deal with these teenage school students, psychology is more necessary than the deep true divine knowledge. Shankara had to act as a Guru; not merely a scholar.
Shankara, the Guru
The school teacher is always given training to teach students based on their psychology. The college lecturer or university professor need not be trained in psychology-based teaching techniques because his students are grown up and have good grasping power. They have become mature enough to grasp the truth and hence the depth in knowledge of the teacher is more needed here. But at the school level, the teacher’s talent in teaching based on the psychology of the teenage students, who have half knowledge, is more needed. Shankara acted more as a Guru than a scholar, though He was the topmost scholar. He made the atheists to accept the existence of God by twisting the true knowledge. He established the existence of the self to Buddhists who believed in the existence of everything as nothing (Shunya Vada). He made the followers of Purva Mimamsa (and newly convinced Buddhists), who had already accepted the existence of the self, to accept the existence of God, since the self itself was declared to be God. If Shankara had really meant that the self is God, then it would mean that He did not add any extra point to the belief of Purva Mimamsa except that He renamed the word ‘self’ by another word ‘God’.
Trapped by this twist, the atheists climbed the first step (accepting the existence of God) from the ground [ground level: atheism]. Now Shankara told the people who were on the first step that they should worship the Lord (Ishwara) to practically become God. This means that Ishwara is different from the soul, since the soul has to worship the Lord. He claimed to maintain this difference between the self and the Lord only through the angle of relativity (Vyahara Dasha). At the same time, He consoled the atheists that they are already God in the absolute sense (Paramartha Dasha). This is the biggest twist made by Shankara to make atheists worship the Lord continuously by simultaneously maintaining their attraction to His philosophy by saying that they are already God! This attraction was like a chocolate given to a child. He maintained the twist for atheists and the truth for scholars simultaneously in the same doctrine. This shows that there can be no greater genius than Shankara.
Ishwara is Hidden in Brahman
If you analyze the above twist from the point of scholars, to reveal the truth, you will be amazed to realize the truth simultaneously without disturbing the doctrine. If the soul is Brahman in the absolutely sense, it must be Ishwara simultaneously in the plane of relativity or creation. The same Brahman in the absolute plane became Ishwara with reference to the world. Now the individual soul is in the world and has reference to the creation. If the soul is really Brahman in the absolute plane in which the reference to the world is absent, it should also be Ishwara simultaneously with reference to the creation. When the soul fails to be Ishwara in the world, how can it be Brahman beyond the world? A military colonel is the head of the military office. He is also a soldier fighting with a gun in the war. Unless he is a soldier in the war, he cannot claim to be the head of the military office as a colonel. If he fails to be a soldier in the war and cannot hold the gun, how can he claim to be the colonel who was promoted from the rank of the soldier to the head of the military office? The colonel or head of the military office must have the hidden potency of the soldier simultaneously. Similarly, Brahman beyond the creation has the hidden potency of Ishwara, which is expressed as Ishwara in creation. When the potency is not expressed in creation, it must be concluded that the potency is absent and hence the soul must be called as Brahman without the potency of Ishwara. This means that the colonel lost the potency to act as a soldier in the war and then he is no more a colonel!
The definition of Brahman in the Veda and the Brahma Sutras is only based on the concept of the potency of Ishwara i.e., Brahman is that which creates, controls and destroys the world. The potency may not be an inherent characteristic of Brahman because no inherent characteristic of Brahman can be known since Brahman (Parabrahman) is unimaginable. In absence of knowledge of any inherent characteristic, you have to take the constantly associated characteristic i.e., the potency as Ishwara to be the only possible inherent characteristic of Brahman. Although the potency of Ishwara is the inherent characteristic of divine Maya, due to the constant association of the divine Maya with Brahman, you have to take the divine Maya as the inherent characteristic of Brahman. Otherwise, if you say that the soul is the unimaginable Brahman, your soul must be unimaginable to you. If you say that the knowledge of the self exists with self since the knowledge of Brahman exists with Brahman, the absence of the potency of Ishwara attacks your concept since the scriptures says that Brahman is the cause and controller of the world through divine Maya (Indromayaabhih—Veda). Let your self also control the world through divine Maya since we have no objection to your using the same divine Maya in this world for giving us the proof. The same Brahman acting as Ishwara in the world controls the sun through its constantly associated divine Maya (Bhishodeti Suryah—Veda). Then, the soul should also control the sun through the same divine Maya in this world. But the soul is insulted by even the hot radiation of the sun in a severe summer.
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