04 Aug 2008
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
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 existing in the form of several living beings in the world. If the awareness is continuous and homogenous, there should be no inert item in the creation. In such case, the air and earth should talk. When you put the leg on the earth, the earth should file a case in the court for insulting the earth with leg. Similarly, the air should react when you spit in the air. The Advaita philosophers bring a simile of conversion of mind (awareness) into imaginary world or dream. Based on the simile, they say that the inert world is also a modification of the awareness. In the imaginary world or dream, the inert items like a hill, a tree, etc., are also modifications of awareness. Similarly, they maintain that the inert items in the world are also modifications of the awareness. This is meaningless because there is a direct proof (Pratyaksha Pramana) for the conversion of mind into imaginary world or dream.
As you create the imaginary world more and more, which is a process of thinking, the awareness or mind gets exhausted. Your mind becomes weak and you get tired. You will take some food to supply the energy. If your total mind is ten calories of nervous energy, you feel energetic. But, after spending some time in imagination (creating the imaginary world), let us say eight calories are spent. You become tired with the remaining two calories of energy. A point will come when you cannot think further with headache. The nervous system, which converts inert energy into awareness, gets exhausted resulting in headache. If you say that such awareness is God, God must have been reduced in quantity by creating this world. God remains constant even after the process of creation. This is not the case with mental awareness. Therefore, the awareness and dream cannot stand even as a simile in this aspect!! You say that the awareness is totally God!! You can take this as a simile for God and creation. As the mind is completely free to create, maintain and dissolve the dream, God is free to create, maintain and dissolve the world. In this aspect, the above example can stand as a simile. A simile stands in a particular aspect only and not in all aspects. If the simile is similar in all aspects, there is no difference between the simile and the object compared. You can compare the awareness in one human being to the awareness in another human being in all aspects and say that the awareness in both human beings is one and the same. Here also, the similarity is qualitative. The awareness in two human beings is divided in two quantities by the boundaries of their bodies. The awareness in one human being may be more (twenty calories) and the awareness in another human being may be less (ten calories) in a particular time. Even in a single human being, the awareness may vary in quantity from time to time. In deep sleep, the quantity of awareness becomes zero.
God Assigned Particular Quality to Particular Entity
God created the awareness as an entity and created the process of thinking as a quality or work separately. By the order of God, this entity (awareness) and quality or work (thinking) are associated. If God wishes, awareness may dissociate with such work. A patient in coma has awareness but cannot think. An inert computer, which has no awareness, thinks like a human being. Therefore, the association of awareness and thinking is not constant even in the worldly examples. Even without the wish of God, the dissociation is seen. Therefore, when there is no constant association between these two, how can you conclude that God is awareness since He thought of creating the Universe? You can say that generally there is association between these two. Based on this, you can conclude that an item is awareness through the process of thinking. You must be careful about the exceptional case of the computer (robot). When even the robot violates your general conclusion, why not God, who is beyond the worldly logic, violate this conclusion? God can think even without being awareness because He is the creator of awareness as well as the creator of the very process of thinking. The Veda says that God is beyond worldly logic (Naisha Tarkena…, Atarkayah…).
Inference From the Unimaginable Boundary of the Universe
The unimaginable God can never be touched even by your intelligence or logic. When you say that God wished to create the world, you have not touched the absolute God. The God in your statement is only the absolute God embedded in the awareness. The awareness was created by Him in the beginning and He entered that awareness. Awareness is the medium (Upadhi) for God here. Now, ‘God Thinks’ means that the awareness controlled by God thinks. You can go up to this point only, which is the extreme edge. All the three Acharyaas went up to this point only. The medium indicates the possessor of the medium. The wire indicates the electricity in it. You can call the wire as electricity or the electricity as the wire. Similarly, in such case, you can call God as awareness or awareness as God. But, every wire is not electric wire. Similarly, every bit of awareness (living being) is not charged by God and hence, cannot be called as God.
The boundary of the Universe need not be made of the same material (five elements). A metallic wheel may have a plastic ring around its edge. Therefore, the boundary of the Universe need not be made of the same imaginable material. The boundary is unimaginable means that the boundary is made of unimaginable material i.e., God. Even if you say that the diameter of the Universe is some billions of light years, is there a compound wall in the edge of the boundary? If there is such wall, what is present beyond that wall? If you say that space is present beyond that wall, space is also a part of the Universe (one of the five elements). The theory of bending of the space around object proves that space is the most subtle energy. Therefore, the diameter of the Universe is infinite. The theory of constant expansion of Universe is also meaningless because expansion of any material requires the existence of space different from the material. When space or subtle energy is the basic material of the Universe, the word ‘expansion’ becomes ridiculous. The infinity of the Universe stands for the existence of unimaginable entity beyond the Universe existing from the boundary of Universe. Unless you accept the unimaginable region beyond the boundary of Universe, you cannot speak of the end of imaginable boundary of the Universe. All this discussion will clearly establish the existence of unimaginable region or God beyond the Universe.
The awareness is the most subtle form of cosmic energy and is given ultimate value. It is more valuable than any inert form of inert cosmic energy. Awareness is the most precious form of cosmic energy. This is the unique merit of awareness. Due to this, the three Acharyas preferred awareness to be the best medium of God. But, awareness has its own defects. Awareness is not an independent entity like the inert cosmic energy. It is a special work form of the inert energy. It is the consequence or the result or the product of inert energy in association with the functioning machine called as nervous system. It is a specific product of the basic inert cosmic energy. The other specific products of the basic inert cosmic energy are light, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, etc.
The basic inert cosmic energy is ‘Mula Maya’, which is the basic material of this Universe. The above consequent forms of Energy are ‘Maha Maya’. Awareness is one of the daughters of ‘Mula Maya’. When you say that God wishes or thinks, it really means that the unimaginable God wishes or thinks. The unimaginable God (Parabrahman) need not be awareness to wish or think. He is the source of the entire Universe, which constitutes of several entities and works or qualities. Awareness is an entity and wishing or thinking is a specific work or quality. Even the association of an entity with a specific work or quality is also due to God. God can dissociate any entity from its associated quality or work. Before God, the fire could not burn even a dry blade of grass. This event is said in the Veda. The Omnipotent God can do anything and hence, God wished to create this world. Due to wish, you need not conclude God as awareness applying the worldly logic, which fails in Him. A common man may not understand this due to the failure of worldly logic because his mind is always trained in the worldly logic. For the sake of such ordinary people, the three Acharyas have selected the mediated God (God embedded in awareness) and described God as the awareness. One should be careful that a specific bit of awareness charged by God only can be treated as God like a specific wire electrified is treated as electricity. Selfish human beings have extrapolated this and treated every bit of awareness as God. This is wrong because every wire cannot be treated as electricity. Only in a specific electric wire, the wire is electricity and the electricity is wire. This equation fails if it leaves that specific wire.
Imaginable Medium Can Indicate Unimaginable God
When a miracle takes place, there are two entities. One is the imaginable medium that stands as the basis and the other is the unimaginable entity i.e., conveyed about its existence. A tender boy called as ‘Krishna’ and a big hill called as ‘Govardhana’ together stand as the imaginable medium. When this big hill was lifted by the tender boy, the unimaginable event shows the existence of some unimaginable entity in the boy. The nature of the unimaginable entity cannot be understood but its existence is established through this event. If the boy or hill is absent, this unimaginable event cannot take place and the existence of the unimaginable entity in the boy cannot be identified. Therefore, even for the existence of God to be proven, an imaginable medium is necessary. The boy with a physical body is not much valuable because there is a general repulsion due to jealousy and egoism between human beings. The awareness is invisible and very subtle. When the medium is invisible, the point of jealousy disappears. Therefore, the Acharyas have selected the awareness alone without the physical body as the medium of God for the sake of psychological satisfaction. But for this purpose, awareness without a physical body does not exist at all. On deep analysis, one can easily understand that the awareness taken as God is nothing but a specific human incarnation because there is no awareness, which is continuous. It is only a temporary psychological trick of the spiritual preacher for the sake of beginners affected by jealousy and egoism.
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