07 Jul 2009
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
[Gurupurnima Evening] The Advaita philosophy says that the ‘I’ of the soul should be transformed into ‘I’ of God. The process of transformation should be carefully analyzed. If the ‘I’ of the soul is destroyed, there will be no experience for the soul that it has become God. In deep sleep, the ‘I’ of the soul disappears and there is no experience at all for the soul. Moreover, the ‘I’ of God neither increases nor decreases at anytime. It remains constant. Even though God created this entire universe, God does not decrease by quantity because no part of God is transformed into universe. The worldly logic fails in the process of creation. Even if a soul merges in God, God does not increase. Since God is beyond spatial dimensions, the increase and decrease become meaningless since volume is the property of space. When you have not understood God, who is the product of transformation, how can you mention the process of transformation? Transformation is only between two imaginable items. If you say that soul merges in God, it should mean that the imaginable soul disappears and the unimaginable God is left over. This is not the process of transformation. When milk is transformed into curd, there is a physical change. When an element is transformed into another element by radioactive reaction, there is change in the configuration of atom by loss or gain of some fundamental particles. When two chemicals react, a third chemical appears after the reaction and this cannot be transformation because there should be one substance only for transformation. All this analysis pertains to the substances of creation only, which are imaginable items. This logic cannot be applied to the transformation of imaginable soul into unimaginable God.
Let us take deep sleep. The ‘I’ disappears in that state because the pulse of ‘I’ is not active. After the deep sleep, again this pulse becomes active and ‘I’ appears again. But as long as ‘I’ is not experienced, it is as good as dead. It is a temporary death of the pulse being inactive and there is no difference between the permanent death and temporary death of the pulse as far as the span of the time of the temporary death is concerned. Now, Rama is in deep sleep and the ‘I’ is destroyed since it is not experienced. Here, the entire experience of all the feelings disappeared. In the awakened state, the ‘I’ may be forgotten, but the experience of other feelings exists. Therefore, the ‘I’ may be inactive even in the awaken state and this inactiveness can be also considered as the temporary death. Let us take another person called Krishna, who is awake in both these states. Rama did not become Krishna in both these states. The ‘I’ of Krishna is also an imaginable item like that of Rama. When the transformation is impossible between the two imaginable items i.e., ‘I’ of Rama and ‘I’ of Krishna, how can you imagine the transformation of ‘I’ of the imaginable soul into ‘I’ of the unimaginable God? When your individuality is lost, you cannot experience the process of transformation or the final fruit of the transformation. Even though this is impossible, the transformation of ‘I’ of the soul is advocated by Shankara for good purpose. When the ‘I’ loses its strength in the effort of its dissolution, the ego and selfishness become almost zero and this state is necessary for devotion.
The ‘I’ of the soul is like the seed from which the tree with two main branches grows up. The two branches are ego and selfishness. The word Ahankara stands for ego as well as the basic seed. The basic seed is responsible to keep the experience of individual soul. The seed is not at all harmful. The ego is harmful and should be dissolved. It is impossible to dissolve the basic seed. Even after death, this seed is necessary for enjoying both good and bad results. But, in the efforts to destroy the seed, the ego and selfishness get destroyed. Therefore, the dissolution of seed is recommended though it is impossible. The dissolution of the basic seed takes place only if the total complex of feelings called as Jeeva is destroyed. To try for this is foolishness. If the Jeeva is destroyed, the basic inert energy called as Atman alone is leftover like the standstill water after disappearance of waves. This means that you are transformed into an inert entity like a stone. Hence, one should not aspire for the dissolution of ‘I’, which is the central component of Jeeva. The transformation of ‘I’ into God is not practically possible. God remains as Himself in the same status before and after your transformation. This means that you are simply destroyed and God remains as Himself. However, Shankara recommended the dissolution of ‘I’ for the sake of transformation into God so that based on this, the destruction of ego and selfishness can be achieved, which is essential for devotion. In the Gita, it is said that the soul enters God (Praveshtumcha...) and here, the word ‘God’ stands for not the unimaginable God but the imaginable energetic incarnation of God. The soul surrounded by energetic body after death can defuse into the energetic body of God.
Though the transformation of ‘I’ into God is not possible, the reverse is possible. The ‘I’ of imaginable soul cannot merge in God since the imaginable soul has to do that through imaginable process only. No imaginable process is possible here. But, the unimaginable God can be transformed into the imaginable soul through some unimaginable process. Even after the transformation, God can come out of the soul without any change due to His unimaginable power. In this process, since the ‘I’ of imaginable soul is retained, the soul experiences the transformation of itself into God and also experiences God after transformation. This is what happens when God enters the soul in its human body while taking the human incarnation. Here, God is said to be DATTA, meaning that God Himself donates Himself to the soul. You can say this as a transformation of soul into God and there is no need of dissolution of ‘I’ here. Such transformation is meaningful because the retained ‘I’ of the soul experiences the process of transformation as well as the final fruit of transforming itself into God. This is called as Jeevan Mukti, which means that the soul becomes God while its body is alive in this world. Even after death, such transformation is possible because after death the soul is surrounded by an energetic body instead of a material body. When such process happens, the result is the formation of energetic incarnation of God living in the upper worlds for the sake of departed souls surrounded by the energetic bodies. For the souls in material bodies (human beings) in this world, the human incarnation is relevant, who is called as Satguru. The past human incarnation is also not relevant to the present living human beings. The past human incarnations and the energetic incarnations can be worshipped in the form of photos and statues to develop the theoretical devotion. For the sake of practical devotion or service, only the contemporary human incarnation is meaningful and search for the incarnation is reminded by this auspicious function of Guru Purnima.
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