09 Jul 2007
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
The individual soul (Jeeva) is a bundle of various qualities, which are different proportions of the three basic qualities called as Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas (Nanyam Gunebhyah—Gita). The material of these qualities is awareness or nervous energy called as Chit and this material is known as soul (Atman). The soul is beyond these qualities (Nirgunam) and the same is stated in the Gita (Gunebhyashcha param…). The individual soul always contains the basic material (soul) and hence can be called as Jeevatman [Jeeva + Atman], which is like calling water as waves. Awareness is a special work-form of inert energy and this inert energy is produced by the oxidation of food. The inert energy, on functioning in the nervous system, becomes awareness. When the nervous system takes rest as in deep sleep, the awareness is not generated in deep sleep. In the state of dream, the awareness is generated and the qualities play as the dream. In the waking state, the awareness is generated, which contains the qualities but the awareness is in interaction with the external world. In the state of perfect meditation, the awareness is generated but the qualities are subsided temporarily.
All the qualities constitute the plane of the mind (Manomaya Kosha). These qualities may be strong or weak. The strong qualities constitute the eternal Jeeva (Ajo nityah—Gita). This Jeeva leaves the gross body in death (Manomayah Prana Sharira Neta—Veda, Utkramantam…—Gita) and the individuality of the Jeeva, which is eternal, is maintained. This Jeeva undergoes enjoyment of its good and bad fruits. The individuality of each and every soul is thus protected and maintained in this divine system of creation. However, the weak qualities, which do not materialize into actions, disappear after some time. Thus, mind or the weak part of Jeeva is not eternal and disappears every day after deep sleep (Manastejasi…—Veda, Natvam vettha…—Gita). The Gita refers to this weak part when it says that the Jeeva is born and dies every day (Atha Chainam Nitya Jatam…). Thus, Jeeva is eternal as well as non-eternal in view of the strong and weak qualities respectively.
In deep sleep, all the qualities exist as impressions in the plane of inert energy. Mind is the plane of qualities, which vary, and intelligence is the plane of qualities, which are fixed in the form of decisions. The impression of individuality (Ahamkara or I-thought) is also a quality. In deep sleep the mind, intelligence and individuality exist as impressions similar to the impressions on an audio cassette even though electric current is absent. Hence, mind, intelligence and individuality are categorized under inert nature (Mano Buddhirevacha Ahamkara Itiyam…—Gita). The awareness-current is called as Para Prakriti, which is the Chit or Chittam. The awareness is transformed in to basic inert energy in deep sleep and thus it is not eternal. Even the qualities are not really eternal because the Advaita philosopher attains the complete destruction of qualities in the state of an Avadhuta (Manolaya Yoga). The Avadhuta after death, completely dissolves here itself and the individuality of the soul is forever destroyed. His awareness is transformed into inert energy and thus such a soul is dissolved here itself (Ihaiva Pranah…—Veda).
In the case of an ordinary soul, all the weak qualities and awareness are converted in to inert energy in the body and finally the individual inert energy merges in the general cosmic energy (Tejassati…—Veda). However, the individual soul and the awareness existing within the individual soul as its material, is not destroyed. It leaves the gross body and goes to the upper world. But in the case of an Avadhuta, the individual soul is also destroyed because even the strong qualities are destroyed. The awareness existing in the individual soul is also transformed into inert energy, which merges with the cosmic energy. The Advaita philosopher claims that such complete destruction of the individual soul is complete salvation. This is the climax of foolishness! Burning the house containing rats is the final solution of the Advaita philosopher! He removes the misery of the soul by destroying the soul completely and forever! The actual solution is to capture the rats with the help of a cage and live in the house with happiness and enjoyment.
The Advaita philosopher prizes the primary state of God or Brahman before creation (Nirguna Brahman) and in this state, God was without any entertainment. This state is neither praised by the Veda nor was it appreciated by God (Ekaki Naramate…—Veda). The advanced state of God is that in which He is associated with His own creation containing both happiness and misery like sweet and hot dishes in a meal. If the meal contains only sweets, one gets bored. The hot dish is created to remove such boredom and therefore you should like the hot dish also. You do not like the hot dish (misery) and you are bored with continuously eating sweet dishes (happiness). The solution of the Advaita philosopher in this case is to fast by avoiding the meal completely! The real solution is to enjoy both happiness and misery like God. God created both happiness and misery to have real and continuous entertainment. If you are trying to avoid misery, you are criticizing God for His activity of making this creation, which contains both happiness and misery.
A person cooked food containing sweet and hot dishes (God created the world containing happiness and misery), served it on a plate (He rules the world) and eats the entire food (He destroys the world). An ant (a human being) entered the plate (exists in the world) and also tastes the food. The ant criticizes the hot dish and likes the sweet dish for some time but gets bored with the sweet. The ant can neither cook, serve nor eat the entire food. If the ant enjoys both sweet and hot dishes, the ant resembles the person at least qualitatively in this one aspect of enjoyment. Similarly, the individual soul can neither create, rule nor destroy this world. If the soul is able to enjoy both happiness and misery with an equal attitude, at least in this aspect, the soul can resemble God at a micro scale (Matbhavayopapadyate—Gita). Otherwise, the soul does not resemble God in any way and if the soul says that it is God; it is the climax of foolishness. The soul can attain God at least in this one aspect and such attainment is called as Yoga (Samatvam Yogauchyate—Gita). Human beings should understand that God creates this world for His own entertainment and not for the entertainment of any soul. If some ants criticize that the person does not exist, the criticism of such ants is not even heard by the person. Similarly, God is not at all bothered about the atheists or theists who criticize misery.
Remove Attachment and Replace with Devotion
The human being is like a tape recorder and the electric current in it is like awareness (soul). The recorded cassette in it is Jeeva. A recorded cassette without electricity and the electricity without the recorded cassette are both useless. The cassette may contain a good song or a bad song. You have to replace the bad song by a good song in the cassette. Similarly, you have to replace the worldly qualities in your mind by divine qualities. You are trying to destroy the cassette and the tape recorder to remove the bad song and you are not prepared to enjoy any song. This is the state of the Advaita philosopher. First, he is removing the song from the cassette by erasing it and is only maintaining electric current in the tape recorder, which does not generate any song. This means that he is erasing all the qualities from the mind and the awareness without any quality which is like maintaining electric current in the tape recorder with a blank cassette. After erasing the bad song, you have to record a good song in the cassette. Similarly, after erasing the worldly qualities from the mind, you have to fill the mind with devotion to God.
Instead of doing this, you are keeping silent with pure awareness (clean mind) after removing the worldly qualities from the mind. Your spiritual effort stopped only in the middle stage. First, you have to erase the worldly attachment from the mind. First, you have to clean your house by removing the waste, which produces bad odor. Such removal of waste is work (Karma) and this is the first step in the spiritual path (Arurukshoh Muneryogam Karma Karanamuchyate—Gita). Now the house is clean and without any bad odor. But in this state even good fragrance is absent. This is the intermediate state of pure mind, which is devoid of both bad and good qualities, which is termed as perfect peace (Shama). This intermediate state is the pure awareness without any quality and is called as Nirguna Brahman or pure Atman. Here the word Brahman does not mean God. Any greatest item in a category can be called as Brahman. The Veda, the greatest among the scriptures is also called as Brahman in the Gita. Awareness (soul or Atman) is the greatest item in this world due to its special quality of knowledge and hence is called as Brahman.
This possibility of calling any soul as Brahman was exploited by Shankara to attract atheists towards the spiritual path. Remember that Shankara was surrounded by a lot of atheists in His time. Shankara called this intermediate state as Chitta Shudhi or purity of mind, which is a pre-requisite for knowledge and attachment to God. The cleanliness of the house is a pre-requisite to sprinkling perfume in the house. If the perfume is sprinkled in a dirty house, there is no use of it, because the good odor of the perfume cannot be enjoyed by any one in the house in the presence of the bad odor created by the dirt. Removal of everything in the house refers to the removal of only the bad material. When Shankara used the word Nirgunam, it means only the removal of worldly qualities from the mind. If the ultimate aim of Shankara were only Nirguna Atman or pure awareness without any quality, He would have stopped His message with the commentaries. But later Shankara composed several prayers on God, which represent the good perfume to be sprinkled in the house after complete cleaning. You must take the total personality of Shankara and should not confine only to His partial activity of writing the commentaries. You cannot confine yourself only to His composition of the commentaries and neglect His composition of prayers on God. The God referred to in His prayers was with qualities (Saguna Brahman) and this proves that God associated with the world for entertainment is a more advanced state than the primary attributeless God (Nirguna Brahman).
The commentaries represent the process of cleaning the mind and attaining pure awareness by removing worldly attachments. The prayers represent the next process of filling the clean mind with devotion. You cannot enjoy the devotion when the mind is contaminated with worldly attachment, as you cannot enjoy the perfume in the presence of the bad odor produced by the dirt. Therefore, the reason for your enjoyment of devotion is only the cleanliness of the house as stated in the Gita (Yogarudhasya tasyaiva shamah karanamuchyate). The perfect peace of mind after removing the dirty attachment to the world is responsible for the bliss that is enjoyed in the devotion. Shankara, in His commentaries referred to the primary state of God before creation, which is that of perfect peace without any quality or thought. His commentary was aimed at atheists (Buddhists and Purvamimamsakas) who were attached to the world denying God other than themselves.
First, Shankara wanted to remove the attachment to the world from their minds due to which they were not interested in God. If you want to change the ignorant fellow in one aspect, you must accept his other ignorant aspects. This is the psychology of ordinary human beings. For any teacher, consideration of psychology is very important to make a tactful plan for the removal of ignorance in a gradual way. You have to remove the layers of ignorance one by one. When you are removing one layer, you must accept all the other layers. Only then will the ignorant student come in to your grip. For a preacher (Guru), the ultimate aim is not to reveal the total truth in the beginning itself since it is of no use in any way. His ultimate aim is to uplift the soul and for that, He follows the process of gradual removal of the layers of ignorance one by one. At every stage He accepts the other layers.
Shankara, being the incarnation of God is the real Guru (Satguru) and His aim is only to uplift the souls, which are His issues. Therefore, Shankara accepted one point i.e., the soul is God and there is no God other than the soul. Even here, Shankara being the topmost genius used the word Brahman, which stands for God as well as the greatest item in any category. Shankara said that the soul is Brahman. Atheists took the word in the sense of God and were satisfied. They became friendly with Shankara and liked Him. This develops the grip of the teacher on the students. Now Shankara proposed the primary state of God, which is devoid of all qualities. It is obvious that God had no quality or thought before creation. Therefore, to become God, one has to clean himself from all the qualities. Since all the qualities in the atheists are only worldly items, all the qualities means only worldly qualities in the context of atheists. Therefore, the word Nirgunam (devoid of any quality) means the removal of only worldly qualities since in the context of atheists, all the qualities were of world alone. After Shankara, this word Nirgunam was misunderstood for the removal of all good and bad qualities because the context of atheists disappeared. Therefore, you can understand Shankara only if you can understand the context in which He perached.
Double Minus is Plus
You want to leave the misery of the world, and on attaining God, you think that you will derive bliss or eternal happiness. By leaving the worldly attachment, you have left the minus [negative]. Then, you have attained the intermediate state of absolute peace, which is zero. Now on attaining God, you have attained the plus [positive], which is bliss in your view. The plus sign is a double minus in which, two minus signs are arranged one over the other at right angles. This double minus indicates that you have to work more and face more misery in the service of God. The work and misery in worldly affairs is very much less compared to the misery in the work of God. The plus sign indicates the cross and the servant of God has to sacrifice even his own life to please God in the divine mission. You need not sacrifice your life for the sake of your family at any time. Unless you have developed the attitude of enjoying misery, you cannot face misery in the service of God. Sugriva lost his wife because Vali took her away by force. Sugriva did not go to fight with Vali for the sake of his wife due to the fear for his own life. His life was more valuable to him than his wife’s. But the same Sugriva went to Lanka to fight in the war, putting his life at full risk, for the sake of getting back Lord Rama’s wife, who had been captured by Ravana. Thus, one has to even sacrifice one’s own life for the sake of God even though one may not sacrifice one’s own life in any worldly matter. Jesus said that unless one is prepared to carry his own cross for the sake of the Lord, one cannot be His dearest disciple.
The plus sign appears as a double negative to threaten you by its facial expression. The final result of the plus is not negative at all because its value is only positive. Similarly, if you are prepared for the double minus and intensive sacrifice for God, you will derive bliss at the end. God tests you to find out your attitude. God wants to know whether you have approached Him for bliss or to work and do the total sacrifice for His sake. Once God is fully convinced about the reality of your attitude, the result is quite different from the test. Finally Sugriva was given a place in Brahma Loka (Vaikuntha), where Sugriva lived with bliss. Ramayana is always taken as a guide in pravritti (worldly life) by taking Rama as a good son, good husband, good father, good friend etc. Rama was always taken as a human being externally and the inner form of Rama as the Lord was always hidden. All the monkeys were incarnations of angels and hence they could recognize Rama as the Lord. No Advaita scholar has become Brahman so far. Only Hanuman, who served Rama as the Lord in the form of the contemporary human incarnation became Brahman. Only Hanuman became Brahman, but He still says that He is the servant of Rama. Therefore, Ramayana, which gives the path for any soul to become Brahman, is the only scripture of the Advaita philosophy in a practical sense.
The total surrender of your self is possible if you know that you are a tiny part of His movable property. A goat is a part of the movable property of the butcher. Every drop of its blood and every bit of its flesh is the property of the butcher alone. The butcher is going to enjoy the entire flesh and blood of the goat and therefore there is no individuality for the goat. Similarly, every atom of your gross body and every wave of the energy in your gross body belong to the God. All your qualities (subtle body) and your entire pure awareness (soul or causal body) belong to God alone. Hence, total surrender of your self is the complete justice (Tameva Sharanam Gachcha—Gita). To signify this concept, the Lord is called as Pashupati or the owner of the souls, which are like animals.
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