20 Mar 2007
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
God is always unimaginable and unknowable for any human being and under any circumstances because He is beyond the dimensions of space and time. This is very much stressed in the Veda and the Gita. There is no second thought about this point and Shankara also said the same when He said that God could be understood only in deep sleep. In deep sleep (Sushupti) there is no entity that understands (Jnata) because the process of understanding (Jnanam) disappears. When the process of burning disappears, there is no fire. If you say that the process of knowing itself is the knower, then also the knower is absent because there is no process of knowing in deep sleep. The knower can no more be a knower if the knower loses the process or quality of knowing. Then the knower is converted into an inert item in deep sleep. In fact, this is true according to science also because the knower or process of knowing is converted into inert energy in deep sleep. Shankara means by His statement that God is unknown as indicated by deep sleep, in which a state of total ignorance remains, indicating that one is totally ignorant about God (Sushuptyekasiddhah…). You cannot say that the knower or the process of knowing (knowledge) itself is God, because in that case, God is not eternal but vanishes daily (converted into inert energy) and is born daily (inert energy is converted into the knower or knowledge). This is not acceptable because God is eternal.
To evaluate the unknown answer [in mathematics], you represent the answer by X and then get the answer for X using the given data. But in the case of God, the answer will always be unknowable and unimaginable. The link between the unknowable God and the knowable items of the world is also unknowable and hence no data related to God can be knowable. In the mathematical problem, since the answer is knowable, the data related to the knowable answer is also knowable with the help of which the knowable [unknown] answer can be evaluated. But that is not the case with God. Hence, any knowable item of the creation can be made as the representative of God. The only knowable experience about God is that God exists. This is established by the knowable experience of the unknowable nature of God. The unknowable nature of God is experienced but such nature cannot be analyzed and hence such nature is always concluded as unknowable. For example a small boy (Krishna) lifting up the huge mountain is seen and the existence of the unknowable nature of the boy is experienced. Since, such nature could not be analyzed. It remains always as an unknowable item. Hence, the Veda says that only the existence of the unknowable God is experienced (Asteetyeva…).
Why Awareness?
Since, there is full freedom in selecting any knowable item to represent God, the best and most suitable item for explaining the status of the unimaginable God is awareness, according to Shankara. As long as awareness stands as the simile, there is no harm in selecting it to represent God even though it is not eternal. If awareness serves the purpose of explanation of the actions of God, we need not worry about its longevity. The age of a doctor is immaterial if he is capable of doing the surgery needed by the patient. It becomes an irrelevant point. The awareness (Soul) is like the electric current and the Jeeva, a bundle of very strong qualities, is like the chip of information. The Jeeva is eternal because even during deep sleep, the information is stored in the inert chip, which is re-expressed as it is even after waking up from deep sleep. The Jeeva is eternal during the time of death and even after death he is eternal, since he leaves the gross body. In the beginning of the Gita, the Lord described this eternal Jeeva alone and not the awareness, which is born and dies daily (Athachainam…).
Also the Lord was referring to an ordinary human being alone and not a realized soul. A realized soul is like a fresh disc without any information, since it was erased after a lot of effort. There is not much difference between a fresh inert disc and inert electric current except that the former is matter and the latter is energy (the concept of storing information by energy is also indicated by the electro magnetic disc). Since matter and energy are essentially one and the same, you can call both these together [Atman or Awareness] as a realized soul. But once the information recorded on the chip exists, such a chip of information (Jeeva) predominates and hence is mainly referred to [as Jeeva and not Atman] in any ordinary human being. You have superimposed the information (Jeeva) on the disc (Atman) and hence the disc also means information alone. The gross body is superimposed on the Jeeva and the Jeeva is superimposed on Atman. The gross body (Deha) is separated from Jeeva and Atman but Jeeva and Atman are not separated and are together called as the possessor of the gross body (Dehi).
What made Shankara select awareness as the representative for God? God created this world for entertainment and therefore God must be treated as awareness to enjoy His own creation as in the case of a daydreamer, who enjoys his own imaginary world. Mud cannot enjoy the beauty of the pot although the pot is its own creation, because mud is inert. I know you will immediately exploit this point, without any patience, and straightaway say that the awareness itself is God. There are several points opposing this conclusion such as the temporary nature of awareness, the dependence of awareness on food, air and the nervous system etc. Such opposing points will immediately control you from drawing such a hasty conclusion. You must remember that awareness is only a representative of God to explain certain actions of God like entertainment etc. God can enjoy the creation-dream without being awareness. Do not forget that God is omnipotent. Do not bind God by your rules of the physical world and its consequent logic. If God were a worldly item, definable by the four dimensional space-time model, then certainly your logic would be valid. If I say that some scene entertains a worldly object, then certainly you can say that the object cannot be inert. The actions of unimaginable God are also unimaginable as stated by the Veda “Apanipado…”, which means that God can run without legs and can catch without hands. If you apply the same worldly logic, you will object to this and say that God must have legs and hands to run and catch. Similarly, when we say that God wishes to create the world or when we say that God is enjoying His creation, you should accept that God wishes and enjoys without being awareness. Therefore, do not try to make God imaginable or knowable by applying the logic of the physical world. The Veda clearly says that He is beyond logic (Atarkyah…, Naisha tarkena…etc).
Shankara Implied the Human Incarnation
The awareness selected by Shankara to represent God, exists in lower living beings like birds and animals, average living beings like human beings and high living being like the Human Incarnation. The awareness in birds and animals is ruled out [as being God] because birds and animals cannot create an imaginary world for entertainment like a daydreamer. Their logic is very much limited and minimum, adequate only to search for food and shelter. The average living being like a human being can imagine a world of its own and enjoy it with full control in a daydream. Therefore, animals and birds are filtered from the doctrine of Shankara. The human being can also be in a state of simple awareness, without imagination like a bird or animal. Hence, the bird or animal is also included in the human being where as the human being does not cover the range of animals or birds. You need not worry about ten rupees in a note of twenty rupees because ten rupees are included in twenty rupees. By the same logic, if you proceed to a superhuman being like Krishna, the ordinary human being is also included in the superhuman being. The doctrine of Shanakra based on awareness and its imagination, exists in the superhuman being also. In the ordinary human being, the doctrine of Shankara is purely theoretical because neither is the awareness in the human being actually God, nor is the imaginary world actually the world. Therefore, the ordinary human being stands only as a simile for the concept of Shankara and as usual the concept is forgotten and the simile remains as the concept. The bride escaped from the house and the rose flower exists in her place, ready for marriage! If you go to the case of the superhuman being, God charges His awareness and His imagination is actually the physical world. In this case, you find the actual bride with the color of a rose and looking beautiful like a rose flower. The concept and simile merge with each other. The simile acts as the medium to convey the concept.
When you say that the awareness enjoying its imaginary world is Brahman, where is the free awareness without the human body? Since, independent awareness without the human body is absent, it naturally means a human being only. Based on this, you cannot say that any human being is Brahman, because in any human being the awareness disappears in deep sleep and is not eternal. In the case of a Superhuman being like Krishna also, the awareness may disappear in deep sleep but the extra unimaginable God, indicated by the specially expressed unimaginable nature as in lifting the huge hill, exists separately, apart from the awareness. In an ordinary human being, such an indication of unimaginable God is not expressed and hence God does not exist. In Krishna also, the awareness is creates a daydream as in the case of the ordinary human being and this does not contradict the existence of unimaginable God as proved above. A demon, Ravana, who also lifted a huge hill (Kailasa) like Krishna, can be eliminated [as not being God] because the unimaginable knowledge like the Gita was also expressed by Krishna, but was absent in the case of Ravana.
A deep analysis of the doctrine of Shankara clearly shows the concept of human incarnation alone. Shankara clearly said that a superhuman being like Himself alone is God. He said “Shivah kevaloham” which means that He alone is God. The awareness (soul) creating the dream in the case of an ordinary human being, stands as a simile for the creation of the world by God. This soul also exists in Krishna because Krishna is an ordinary human being, charged by God. The ordinary human being-part of Krishna can stand as the simile as usual for the theory of Shankara and for this purpose another ordinary human being need not be taken. The second part of Krishna, which is God, stands as the actual concept. Therefore, there is no need of a place for a seperate ordinary human being in the doctrine of Shankara.
The statement in Gita “Manusheem Tanumashritam” means that God entered the human being. It is a two-component system, but it is a single system. When a rose-colored bride is available, who will marry a rose flower? The bride is most important since the marriage is with the bride to beget children. Neither the rose color nor the flower can give children. The rose color of the bride is an attraction to marry the bride and the final fruit of children is given by the bride and not by the rose color. The rose color of the flower indicates the rose color of the bride in the absence of the bride. The material and color of the flower is quite a separate item from the material and color of the bride, although both are similar to each other. This similarity is the helpful factor in understanding the color of the bride. Similarly, the awareness-dream concept (rose color) of the human being is quite a separate item from the God-world concept (rose color) of Krishna. Both the concepts are similar. This concept helps you to get attracted to God and serve Krishna so that the divine fruit of salvation can be attained.
Three Similies for God
The similes given for God are always worldly items, which are definable by space and time. God is beyond space and time and no simile can perfectly represent God in the full sense. This defect brings doubts in the minds of human beings since their minds cannot cross the dimensions of space and time. The Veda gives three similes (Tatha Aksharat…) in explaining the process of creation from God but no simile can convey the full meaning because all the similes are worldly items after all. The world comes out of God like the web from a spider, like plants from the earth and like hair and nails from the human body. In these similes, the spider, earth and human body are imaginable worldly items and convey partial concepts. In the first simile the liquid from the mouth of the spider is very simple but the network is multi dimensional. Similarly from the single God, this complicated universe is designed in a wonderful manner. The material of the web is nothing but the condensed form of the saliva of the spider. Both the saliva and the web are inert matter alone in different states of liquid and solid. This means that the material from God is condensed into the world. But since God is unimaginable, the material of God is also unimaginable and hence the condensation of the unimaginable material of God into imaginable material must be ruled out.
For this purpose the other two similes are given to show the difference between the unimaginable cause and the imaginable effect. In the other two similes, living matter (plants) is produced from the inert matter (earth) and the reverse of this is also told in the third simile, where the inert matter (hairs and nails) is produced from living matter (human body). The difference in these two similes establishes the difference between God and world and through these two similes you can neither establish God as living (awareness) or inert. In the second simile God is compared to the inert earth and in the third simile, God is compared to the living human body so that you should neither conclude that God is inert nor that He is awareness. This proves that God is beyond awareness and inert nature.
The third simile shows that living matter produces inert matter and this means that the characteristics of the cause need not enter the effect. This proves the violation of the logic of the physical world in the case of God and hence the argument of Advaita (the awareness characteristic of the cause, entered the creation as the soul) cannot be accepted in the case of God. At the same time the Sankhya school also is ruled out since it states that the soul is the product of the inert item called as Pradhanam. These two similes are given to show that the logic of cause-effect fails in the case of the production of the universe from God. These three similes mean that this wonderful universe, which is constituted by imaginable items, emerged out from the unimaginable God through an unimaginable way, which is called as “Anirvachaniyata Khyati” by Shankara.
Multidimensional Dance of Shankara
Shankara played different roles for the sake of different human beings for their upliftment. It is a multidimensional dance (Tandavam) of Lord Shiva. He introduced the self-God concept (Advaita) to atheists to uplift them to the next step of theism. But the already existing theists started following Advaita and hence Shankara corrected them by swallowing molten lead and declared that He alone is God. For their sake, He composed several prayers on God. By that time the atheists also became theists and worshipped the Lord through the same prayers. But the attitude of those who were already theists was to remain as the humble servants of the Lord forever. The attitude of the atheists, who were recently converted in to theists, was quite different. They wanted to become God by the grace of God Himself. The former were made God because even if they are made God, they always remember themselves only as the servants of God (Dasoham—Ramayana). Hanuman was made Creator (God) and Adisesha was made God as one of the ten incarnations (Balarama), who is given the post of the Maintainer of the world. But both always remember themselves only as servants and they never felt that they became God (Soham) by sitting on the throne of God.
The latter (atheists converted into theists) can never become God even if they claim that they are already God. They are worshipping God just to become God. They have accepted and worshipped God only to get rid of the Vikshepa (practical effect of the ignorance) since Shankara said that unless one worships God, the Vikshepa cannot be removed. This was a trick of Shankara to make them worship God, while continuing their desire to become God. If this desire had not been maintained, they would have reverted back to atheism. In course of time, due to long worship of God, Shankara expected them to slowly change and become real devotees. The present Advaitins, who are worshipping God, have to be helped by God alone in course of time. He alone can give them the right direction. God only guides as Satguru and will never put His finger in your spiritual effort. The teacher will teach well in the class and clarify your doubts any number of times but as the invigilator in the examination hall, he will never help you. Therefore, there is a lot of variation in the results obtained by student-souls. One soul may get a gold medal, another soul may get a distinction, another soul may get a first class, another soul may get a second class, another soul may get a third class with just passing marks and yet another soul may be a failure. The teacher is not at all responsible for the result.
Subsequent Levels and the Final Level
Shankara came as Ramanuja and Madhva to show the further path to the real devotees. After the school level, the levels of college and university are always subsequent. In the middle level of Ramanuja, a middle position is proposed, which is a state of reduced desire. The desire to become God is reduced to the composite-part relationship between God and soul. According to this, God is a composite like fire and the soul is a part of God like the spark. But remember that Ramanuja clearly stated that the soul is not the real part of God but is a thread (part) of the shirt (world) of God. However, the consolation in this level is that at least the shirt is on the body of God and can be treated as almost the body of God. Thus one can treat the thread, which is a part of the shirt on the body, as a part of the possessor of the shirt. This is again another clear psychological trick to pacify the desire at least partly. Finally Madhva declared the ultimate truth. The world is a cloth used to clean the divine feet of God and the soul is a thread of that cloth in this final level. This means that the soul is always a servant of God even if the soul is made to sit on the throne of God and is made God. Madhva kept Hanuman as His Guru, who is made God (Creator). But Hanuman still says that He is only the humble servant of God in the service of the creation of the Universe.
The fourth and final Acharya or Satguru is this Very Datta Swami, who is at the level of a research laboratory conducting the Ph.D program. He continues the philosophy of Madhva as it is and the additional contribution is that God is in the form of the contemporary human incarnation on the earth for the sake of living human beings. Only dead human beings go up and attain the upper world in energetic bodies and only for for their sake, does God exist in the energetic form called as Narayana (as called by Ramanuja and Madhva). If devotees conquer ego and jealousy and overcome the repulsion between common media, they can understand God present in the human form before their eyes. Hanuman is a monkey and is lower than the human level. To worship Rama as God, Hanuman did not want to be a human being, fearing the possibility of repulsion between common media. The nature of any soul is to neglect the common medium and worship the higher medium. The human being worships the higher medium of energetic form and the animal worships the higher medium of human form. The Gopikas became ladies of lower caste and both these factors suppressed their ego because Krishna was man of higher caste. Arjuna was a man of the same caste as Krishna and hence could not get rid of the ego in spite of the very first hearing of the Gita. Therefore, do not look down upon women and the lower caste. The soul has to take the birth of a lady of a lower caste to get final salvation as in the case of the Gopikas. Otherwise, the Gopikas were the top most sages and need not have been born as ladies in the lower caste.
Shankara aimed at the divine society in which every human being deserves to become God like Hanuman. For the sake of encouragement and to give confidence He used Advaita in advance. The present tense can be used to indicate the immediate future. When He stated that you are God (Tattvam Asi), it refers to the immediate future, in which you are expected to become God. Lord Shiva is famous for unlimited kindness even towards demons. He revealed the whole truth gradually in the form of Ramanuja and Madhva subsequently. The Lord is always kind. Even hell indicates His intense kindness. The severe punishments in hell are for the transformation of the soul as early as possible, so that the soul can be uplifted as early as possible. There is no contradiction between the three spiritual preachers. Their intention is one and the same. The methods of treatment vary due to variations in the levels of the souls. All the methods of the three Acharayas are only subsequent steps to the subsequent levels of the devotees.
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