16 Aug 2023
Dattamata Viṃśatiḥ: Verse 13
(Philosophy of God Datta in twenty verses)
नभश्चिदिह सर्वतो गतमिति ब्रुवाणा स्स्वतो
चिदूह इति दोषसङ्कलित गर्विता योधवत् ।
प्रमादृगखिलं मतं मनुज एव हि स्वप्नगम्
पुरश्शशिनि वक्त्रभा स्तदनु रोपितं वै बलात् ।।13।।
Nabhaścidiha sarvato gatamiti bṛvāṇā ssvato
Cidūha iti doṣasaṅkalita garvitā yodhavat ।
Pramādṛgakhilaṃ mataṃ manuja eva hi svapnagam
Puraśśaśini vaktrabhā stadanu ropitaṃ vaī balāt ।।13।।
[The Advaita philosophers say that Brahman is all-pervading awareness. But, if we see practically, the inert space is all-pervading and awareness is limited to a living body only. In such a case, all-pervading awareness is only their imagination. (This awareness is applicable to the imaginable awareness of the soul, but, not applicable to the unimaginable awareness of the Parabrahman. It is objectionable since the Advaitins have considered the imaginable awareness of the soul only as the unimaginable God.) They are far from practical reality. Such type of Brahman is only the imagination of their awareness. The individual soul of awareness is not all-pervading and the all-pervading space is inert. This is the main defect. It is logical to say that Brahman is unimaginable awareness, but, Brahman need not be literally all-pervading. Brahman is beyond space since it generated space. Any item becomes all-pervading only when it has spatial dimensions, which means that it must be created after the generation of space only. But, Brahman is the generator of space and is beyond space. These people pervade their awareness throughout space and this is only their imagination and not a practical fact. By this, they imagine that their imaginable awareness became the all-pervading unimaginable awareness or Brahman. Without pervading all the space, Brahman can be effectively all-pervading due to its omnipotence. By omnipotence, it can be said to be omniscient also. This means Brahman knows and controls everything in the creation without pervading all of creation. This establishes the highest level of omnipotence than Brahman knowing everything and controlling everything by omnipresence. These people are egoistic and want to become Brahman by logic just like a soldier tries to win through fight. These people say that awareness in dream is the knower and known object and hence, the awareness is all in all in the dream. We agree to this completely as far as the dream is concerned. They apply this concept to Brahman also saying that the Brahman or awareness is the knower and the known object in the world.
These people develop the concept from a simile without analysing the compared subject. For example, a poet wanted to tell the ugly face of a person to be pleasant. For this purpose, the poet selects the moon as a simile for pleasantness. Then, the poet says that as the moon is pleasant, the ugly face is also pleasant. The poet must observe the face of the person first and if it is pleasant, he should proceed to compare with the pleasant moon. But, these people are in reverse, proceeding from moon to the face. Their logic is that since the moon is very pleasant, the ugly face is also pleasant like the moon. The poet must start from the face of the person and if pleasantness exists in the face, then only, he shall proceed to the pleasant moon. In the case of the dream of a human being, oneness of knower and known object as awareness may be present. They should not run from the simile of human being to the subject of Brahman. They must first study and establish the concept of Brahman and then only they shall proceed to the dream of the human being for comparison. This is the blunder done by the Advaita philosophers. They force the concept of simile on the subject of Brahman, which is a reverse way.
The procedure of these people is just like telling “your grandfather is just like you”! They should say “you are just like your grandfather”. These people find unity in the awareness of soul and Brahman. This is totally wrong because the awareness of Brahman is unimaginable due to absence of inert energy and materialized nervous system. The awareness of the soul is based on the inert energy produced from the digestion of food and a materialized nervous system because the inert energy entering into a specific machine like nervous system is converted as a specific work, called awareness. It is just like the current entering into a grinding machine is converted into grinding work and while the same current entering into a cutting machine is converted into cutting work. In the beginning of the creation, Brahman thought to create the world and for this thought, awareness did not exist due to absence of inert energy and a materialized nervous system. Such thought was created by Brahman due to its omnipotence and not due to imaginable awareness that needs inert energy and a materialized nervous system.]
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