02 Nov 2008
[A devotee asked Swami about ‘Aakasha Deepam’, which is said to guide the devotee after death to the abode of God if it is lit in this month of Kartika.]
Swami replied: “If this oil lamp lit by you has such power, let it prove a small fraction of its power now itself. You lit the lamp here and go outside in the darkness. Let this lamp show you the path outside”. If this lamp cannot have even such small power while it is burning, how can we believe that it has power after a long time when it does not exist? Everything in the creation happens according to Science only. The rules of Science are broken only by the will of God. Unless you please God and get His grace, such miracles will not happen just by doing certain actions. The word Aakasha Deepam has lot of spiritual message, if you analyze patiently in depth. The word Aakasha means Space (Aakaashogaganam Shunyam…). The word Deepa means Knowledge or analysis (Jnana Deepena Bhasvata…). This means, the analysis of space will lead you to understand the nature of God and then, you are near God. God is the generator of Space and Space is His first creation (Atmana akaashah…). God is just above the space since God is the cause and space is the first effect. Mud is the cause and pot is the effect. Unless you destroy the pot, its cause, the lump of mud cannot be visualized. Unless space is dissolved, God cannot be seen. You may try for millions of years to imagine the situation after dissolution of space. It is absolutely impossible to go beyond space. You can imagine anything with some minute spatial dimensions only, which may be very very small. Your intelligence is limited by spatial dimensions. It cannot cross the three co-ordinates, which are length, width and height called as spatial dimensions. This means, God is absolutely unimaginable to the intelligence and analysis (Yo Buddheh Paratah…).
The analysis to know that God is beyond analysis is also analysis only. Therefore, the direct meaning of the word Aakasha Deepam is that God is unimaginable since He is beyond spatial dimensions. The extension of this concept is useful to the spiritual aspirant. The entire creation is within the dimensions of Space. Since God is beyond Space, it automatically means that God is beyond creation (Neti Neti…). He is not the creation. He is only the supporter of creation. Pot is not mud. Mud is the supporter of the pot. If God is creation, the purpose of creation is lost. The Veda says that God created this Universe only for entertainment (Ekaaki Naramate…). If God is the creation itself, again God becomes alone and cannot have any entertainment. For entertainment only, He wanted a second item, which must be different from Him (Sadviteeyamaichchat…). The support is quite different from the supported item. You cannot say that both are one and the same.
Entertainment is of two types. In the first type, you see the drama from outside. In the second type, you enter the drama in a role and entertain yourself. While acting in a role, you also see the entire drama. If you are the single actor and become everything in the drama, you cannot have any entertainment. If you become everything, there is no possibility of entering the drama. The Veda says that God entered the creation (Tat Srustva Tadevaanu Praavishat…). Unless the creation is different from God, how can He enter the creation? One cannot enter himself. If you bring the statement of the Veda that all this creation is Brahma (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma…), this contradicts the other Vedic statement, which says that nothing in the Creation is God (Neti Neti…, Nedam tat…). Hence, the word Brahma in the first statement must have a different meaning other than God.
Brahma means anything, which is greatest among the items of a category. The Veda is said to be Brahma by the Gita (Brahmaakshara Samudbhavam…). Similarly, food is Brahma, respiration is Brahma, mind is Brahma, intelligence is Brahma etc., are the statements of the Veda. This Knowledge is supported by the above concept also because the imaginable creation cannot be the unimaginable God. God enters the creation in the form of a human being. God exists in that human being. The support enters into a supported item. You need not think that the other items of the creation have lost the support because the support entered into one item only. This problem comes only when the support is having spatial dimensions. Since God is beyond spatial dimensions, this problem does not arise. Without understanding this concept, some people feel that a part of the support only entered the particular item. The concept of ‘whole’ and ‘part’ again requires spatial dimensions. Therefore, God being the support of the entire creation can also exist in a particular petty item simultaneously. Now, the particular item into which God entered is identified as God similar to an electric wire identified as electricity. Identification includes both monism (Advaita) and dualism (Dvaita). The electric wire is current because you experience current by touching the wire anywhere and therefore, monism is true. Even then, wire is wire and current is current and therefore, dualism is also true. Therefore, both Shankara and Ramanuja are correct because the same truth is viewed in different angles. These angles exist only in an electric wire and not in a wire where there is no electricity. Therefore, it is meaningless to discuss about Advaita and Dvaita in the case of an ordinary soul, which is always separate without God like a wire without electricity. The Advaita philosophers should understand that the discussion about Advaita and Dvaita is confined to human incarnation only. When you experience God in human incarnation, God still remains unimaginable. Only the existence of unimaginable God is experienced and not God (Asteetyeva… Veda). You have experienced the existence of current by touching the electric wire and this does not mean that you have understood the electricity. Hence, the experience of existence of unimaginable God does not mean that God became imaginable. You can have two or more electric wires simultaneously due to difference in the works like a wire for fan, a wire for tube light etc.
Similarly, due to different programs, you can have many human incarnations simultaneously in the same time. If you mistake that a particular electric wire is only the current then the problem comes. Here, you have mistaken that the wire and current are one and the same. In this situation, the knowledge of Dvaita is required. Then only you can understand that the same electricity is flowing in different wires. Some people think that a particular electric wire in the past alone is the current, even though that wire was destroyed and does not exist today. These people are many, who think that a particular past human incarnation like Rama, Jesus, etc., alone is God. In the imaginable creation, both gross and subtle items exist. The subtle soul must be distinguished from the gross body. Both the soul and body are imaginable. The Advaita philosophers think that the soul is unimaginable God and the body alone is imaginable creation. Before the distinction between unimaginable God and imaginable creation, a prior training is given to distinguish imaginable-subtle soul and imaginable-gross body in the beginning chapters of the Gita. This distinction gives training to the spiritual aspirant to become capable in distinguishing unimaginable God and imaginable creation. The subtle soul stands for unimaginable God but is not actually the unimaginable God.
Direct and Indirect Worship of God
There are two types of worship of God. In the first type, an object is selected to stand as a representative of God (Pratika Upasanam). In the second type, an object pervaded by God like electric wire is worshipped (Saakshat Upasanam). In both types of worship, you must treat the object as God and this is Advaita meant for devotees. In the first type of worship, both living and inert objects can stand as representatives. A statue or a devotee can be worshipped. The extent of worship is limited in the case of the statue and is unlimited in the case of a devotee. You can give food, clothes, money, etc. to the devotee and these are not necessary for the statue. Only cleaning and decoration are required for the statue. God will never enter the inert objects (Natasya Pratima…). He enters only the human being (Maanusheem tanumaasritam…). Therefore, the extent of worship is unlimited in the case of a devotee or human incarnation. Hence, while worshipping you need not worry that whether he is a devotee or a human incarnation. Whether he is a devotee or a human incarnation, you should have full faith that He is God and the worship should be complete in all aspects. You need not do the complete worship for a statue. If you do so for a statue, the priest behind the statue will snatch away the fruits of your worship. If the priest is a real devotee, it is well and good since it becomes the first type of worship. The difference between a devotee and a human incarnation is that God entered the devotee to become human incarnation. The devotee is a tree (body) and its bird (soul). In human incarnation, this tree contains two birds (Soul and God). Whether he is a devotee or a human incarnation, the soul of devotee should be aware that it is not God and should pass on the credit to God. If the soul takes credit, even the human incarnation gets insulted by God as in the case of Parashurama. The devotee and human incarnation worshipped as God must always be in Dvaita. Every devotee has equal chance of becoming human incarnation. The devotee should rise to that level. Therefore, there is no need of any jealousy towards any human incarnation. Ego should never appear,theGod – bird will quit the tree as soon as even a trace of the smell of ego appears. The devotee becomes human incarnation for a particular work of the divine mission.
Today is Naga Chaturthi. People pour the milk in the abode of snakes, which is wasted in the soil. Milk is complete food. God created food to feed the human beings so that they become energetic to worship God. If you waste it, you are insulting God. The Veda says that no trace of food shall be wasted (Annam na parichaksheeta…). You are doing against the Veda, which is the constitution written by God. A Sanskrit verse written by a human being cannot be authority. Only the Veda, the word of God, is authority. No where in the Veda is this practice mentioned. Pour the milk in the hungry stomach (potta) of a devotee or a beggar instead of wasting it by pouring in a snake’s abode (putta). After drinking the milk, you will become energetic to remember and praise the king of snakes (Adisesha), who was born as Lakshmana and served Rama, his contemporary human incarnation. You will be tested in your faith in your service. Lakshmana left his wife for fourteen years and served Rama, who was with His wife. Rama showed intensive love for His wife by weeping continuously in her separation. Still Lakshmana did not feel anything for the separation of his wife and concentrated only in the search of Rama’s wife. This is acid test. You are leaving Maya to worship God but God appears to you associated with the same Maya! You have to identify Him embedded in the Maya rejected by you and maintain the full faith on Him! If you can understand this concept of Lakshmana, today, you have performed this festival successfully in the real sense.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★