Posted on: 12 Mar 2022
[Shri J.S.R. Prasad asked:- The Advaita philosophers say that the three Mahāvākyas say that I, you and he/she are God and that awareness is God. Hence, they say that no other philosophy can fit in the meaning of the Mahāvākyas of the four Vedas. Can You please throw light on this?]
Swami Replied: - It is true that the three Mahāvākyas say that every living being is God and the fourth Mahāvākya says that God is exceptional, excellent spiritual knowledge (Prajñānaṃ Brahma). First let us examine this fourth statement. Do you say awareness is the meaning for the word Prajñānaṃ? When a petty ant is moving, will you say that an exceptional-excellent scholar of spiritual knowledge is walking on the floor!! If you say this, people will say that you are an exceptional scholar of knowledge!! Hence, the word Prajñānaṃ stands for exceptional spiritual knowledge and the person possessing such exceptional spiritual knowledge can be called as the very embodiment of exceptional spiritual knowledge itself. This differentiates the exceptional scholar of spiritual knowledge from the other ordinary human beings. Even a human being having some moderate knowledge can’t be called as the possessor of Prajñānaṃ or exceptional spiritual knowledge. In such a case, how can you call mere awareness that is seen in insects, birds and animals as Prajñānaṃ? In this statement, the difference between human incarnation and a human being is exposed. The difference between Krishna and other human beings is that Krishna told the Gita, which is exceptional spiritual knowledge.
The other three Mahāvākyas establish the similarity between Krishna and other human beings and this similarity is merely in the external human body having the same properties of all human beings alone. The three Mahāvākyas state that Krishna is just like any other human being in external human appearance. If there is some similarity between two items, a figure of speech called ‘Upamā’ or simile is used. When we say that her face is like the moon, the similarity is only in one aspect, which is pleasantness. If the similarity is more, we can delete the Upamāvācaka or the word standing for comparison and such figure of speech is called ‘Lupta upamā vācaka alaṅkāra’. The face is moon. In this sentence, her face and moon have more similar pleasantness. If the similarity is extremely high, such figure of speech is called ‘Rūpaka’ or metaphor. Now, when Krishna and any ordinary human being have lot of external similarity like having similar limbs of the body, either as Luptopamā vācaka or as Rūpaka, we can say that God is an ordinary human being or God is very much like an ordinary human being. In this way, ‘I am God’, ‘You are God’, ‘He/She is God’ result showing extreme external similarity of God in human form.
When God comes in human form, there are several external similarities of the external medium and there is one strong differentiating factor, which is the exceptional, excellent spiritual knowledge of the human incarnation of God. The four Mahāvākyas say that the human incarnation of God and an ordinary human being have several external similarities by which the differentiation between the human incarnation and human beings becomes very very difficult, and can be done with the help of the only differentiating factor, which is that the human incarnation has exceptional & excellent spiritual knowledge, which does not exist with ordinary human beings. These Mahāvākyas speak about the reasons of confusion and the way of differentiation of the human incarnation from ordinary human beings. These do not speak about the absolute unimaginable God or Parabrahman and ordinary human beings because the unimaginable God and the imaginable soul are totally different without a single similarity. Hence, the claim of the Advaita philosophers cannot stand on this point.