26 Oct 2011
[Deepaavali Message] Buddha kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. This means that the existence of God is accepted but the imaginable possibility is not accepted. But, the followers of Buddha took that the existence of God is also not accepted. The reason is that anything exists if it is imaginable only. That which is unimaginable does not exist. This is the norm of the psychology of general public. Buddha also propagated that the creation does not exist with respect to God. Therefore, the followers of Buddha have taken that neither God nor the creation exists. This resulted in Shunyavada, which means that nothing exists. This is the result of misunderstanding of Buddha and the result is misinterpretation. When Shankara came, this was the situation and every one became an atheist of extreme nature. Generally, atheist negates the existence of God but not the existence of the creation. The followers of Buddha are extreme because not only God but also the creation is negated. The followers of Shankara accept the existence of God but negate the existence of creation. The atheists are vice-versa, who accept the existence of creation but negate the existence of God. The followers of Buddha negate the existence of both God and creation. The followers of Ramanuja and Madhva accept the existence of both God and creation. Thus, there are four categories:
Neither Buddha nor Shankara nor Ramanuja and Madhva misunderstood truth. But, their followers and atheists have misunderstood truth and misinterpreted truth. The truth is that God exists but is unimaginable. The creation does not exist with respect to God but exists with respect to the souls. The soul can not negate the existence of the world because it is a part and parcel of the world. If the soul negates the world it negates itself, which is meaningless. Therefore, you cannot give a single statement about the existence of the world. You cannot demand us to say whether the world exists or does not exist. A single angle is impossible in the case of creation. You cannot conclude about the existence or non-existence of the world. Such a situation is represented by Mithya, which means neither it is existent nor non-existent. It is a special case. This is the concept of Shankara about the world (Sadasat Vilakshana). This is the concept of Buddha, Ramanuja and Madhva also because all these four are incarnations of the same God. The total concept is known to all the four incarnations. But according to the then existing situation, a convenient part of the concept is stressed. This does not mean that the other part of the concept is negated. The silence about the other part of the concept is due to the requirement of the then existing situation. If the total concept is stressed, people may not digest. Therefore, based on the relevant requirement, the relevant part is only stressed. This mechanism is called as psychology, which must be followed by the teacher. This serves the purpose and the first generation of the followers were always rectified. But, the other generations of the followers of the same school always misunderstand due to the absence of the original preacher of the school. To clarify the misunderstanding, God appears again and again. This process is continuous and God also gets the opportunity of continuous engagement.
When Shankara came, the Buddhists negated both God and world. The immediate requirement was to establish the existence of God. The reason is that there is no dual possibility regarding the existence of God. God always exists. But, the world has the dual possibility. In one sense, with respect to God, world does not exist and the same world exists with respect to soul in other sense. Therefore, even if the existence of world is denied, it is correct with respect to God. But, the existence of God should not be negated in any sense. Therefore, Shankara accepted the non existence of the world and in such case it must be with respect to God. Shankara never touched the angle of souls here. If the world is unreal, there must be somebody to realize the absence of this world. That somebody must be God only because the world is unreal for God only. Therefore, the awareness of God only is referred by Shankara and not the awareness of the soul in this context. Awareness is only a property and is not an independent object. Therefore, awareness does not mean soul since soul is an independent object. Awareness is the possibility or capability or the process of knowing. A king and beggar see the rising sun and know that it is the rising sun. Since, both are aware of sun, both are not one and the same. Awareness is a common property of both king and beggar. Similarly, God and soul have the awareness. You say that awareness is soul and therefore, soul is God. Then, you have to say that awareness is beggar and therefore, the king is beggar. King and beggar are the two independent entities. Awareness is a dependable property of both king and beggar. Shankara feared that the soul may misunderstand that it is God and therefore, consequently may think that the world is unreal. If the soul is God and if the world is unreal to the soul, Shankara must have maintained one angle only and might have told that the world is unreal (Asat). But, Shankara told that world is neither real nor unreal in single angle since, it is real in one angle and is unreal in another angle. Therefore, He stated that the world is both real and unreal or neither real nor unreal since it is real in one angle and unreal in another angle. Both these angles are referred by Him as Paramartha dasha and Vyavahara dasha. The first stands for the angle of God and the second stands for the angle of the soul. The world is called as Maayaa, which means both wonderful (Maya- Vychitrye) and non-existent (Yaa Maa Saa Maayaa). For the soul, the world is wonderful and for God, it is non-existent.
All the above mentioned four categories are partially wrong and partially correct. Even the atheists are partially correct because the world is true for the soul. This aspect should never be forgotten by the soul because it is a practical experience. A walking human being is always obstructed by a wall since the wall is always real. The human incarnation like Shankara may pass through bolted doors of the house of Mandana Mishra because God is identified with the human being in that case and such context becomes the angle of God in which the wall is proved to be unreal. But, by this aspect alone you should not decide the human incarnation since a demon like Ravana can also pass through the wall. Both Krishna and Ravana can pass through the wall. But, Krishna alone can preach the Gita and not Ravana. You can understand the difference if you can understand the statement “all gentlemen are human beings but all human beings are not gentlemen”.
The soul should never think that the world is unreal. In such case, the soul itself becomes unreal since it is part and parcel of the world. The entire world including the soul is unreal to God but the unreal world cannot be unreal for the unreal soul. Unreal for unreal is always real. The God is always unimaginable and the soul can never catch God. If the soul thinks that the world is also unreal, then everything becomes zero including itself. The real God is grasped by the soul when the real God identifies Himself with a part of this real world. Such part is the human being and such part is called as Human incarnation. The reality of the world is indicated by the respect given to the Divine Mother by Shankara and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If the world is real, you can have real entertainment in this real world. You can also approach the unimaginable God through this real creation only. You can attain worldly pleasures and also the grace of unimaginable God through the reality of the creation only, which is the devotion to the Divine Mother. The aspect of unreality of the creation to God is always unnecessary and irrelevant to the soul at anytime because the soul is never transformed in to God even in the case of human incarnation. You may take wire as current as long as current passes in it, but the wire is never transformed in to current. However, this point should not mislead you to disregard the human incarnation since the electrified wire is electricity for all practical purposes. The Veda says that there is no other way than this to approach the unimaginable God (Nanyah Panthah…). The behavior of father towards mother should never be imitated by the son. The father may scold the mother but the son should always respect the mother. His relationship to her is quite different from your relationship to her. For Him, she is unreal, but for you she is real. You must always respect her.
Now I compose a verse on the Divine Mother for the sake of the worship of the Divine Mother, so that we can get some real entertainment with real objects in this real world, which is called as ‘Eihika’ and also the grace of unimaginable God through this real world only because a part of this real world becomes Human Incarnation for the approach and worship towards the unimaginable God, which is called as ‘Amushmika’.
Aartim Chindi manobhayam hara mahamaayee jaganmaatrukee
Praaptam vaardhakamaartimulamadhunaa chintaakaram santatam
Tvayyaamushmika maihikamcha kalayee Brahmaatmikohyaat paraa
Drushyaa panchavibhutibhutavapushaa sarvam madambaavasham.
Meaning: Oh! Divine Mother! Oh! Mahaa Mayaa! Oh! Mother of the world! Crash my suffering. Remove the fear of my mind. Now I have got this old age, which is the source of all sufferings and which always gives tensions. I find both the worldly fruit and the salvation fruit in you only. In the Human Incarnation the internal soul is the unimaginable God, Who is perceived through the human form only. This human form is a part of the visible world only. The worldly pleasures are derived from the visible worldly objects only and such world is your external body. Therefore, both super natural and natural fruits are in the control of My Divine Mother only.
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