14 Oct 2014
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
Shri Phani asked: “You said that the Veda says that God created this (Tat) and God entered this (Tat). ‘This’ (Tat) means this entire world. The same word (Tat) is again used. This means God created this entire world and also entered this entire world. Therefore, all this world is God as stated in the Veda (Sarvam Khalvidam..., Eeshaavaasyamidam...).”
Swami replied: If somebody says that you have entered a house, does it mean that you have entered all the 100 rooms of the house? After entering the house, you may sit in one room. People will say that you have entered the house and are present in the house. Nobody says that you have entered and you are staying only in one room of the house. Your entry into the house denotes that you are not present outside the house. Similarly, when God is stated that He has entered this world, it need not mean that God entered and pervaded the entire world. Even if you are in one room of the house, you will be said that you are in the house. Similarly, when God entered a specific human form in this world, it means that God entered the world. The main sense of this statement is that God came down to the imaginable state from His unimaginable state. The sense is more important than the verbal meaning. The word (Tat) means the imaginable state of the creation. It means that the unimaginable God created this imaginable state and also entered the same imaginable state.
In support of the wrong sense, you have showed two more Vedic statements. The first means that all this creation is God. The wrong sense is that God created this world and entered or pervaded all over this world so that you can say that this entire world is God, just like the electrified wire can be called as electricity. All this sense is wrong. The right sense is that this entire world is under the control of God as per the Sanskrit grammar (Tadadhina Prathamaa...). When you say that this specific state is Andhra, it means that this specific state is ruled by the king called Andhra. It does not mean that the entire land of the state itself is the king Andhra. Similarly, the second Vedic statement misquoted by you does not mean that this entire world is pervaded by God. It only means that God can enter (Vaasyam) any specific part of the world. You can enter any room of the house. It does not mean that you have entered every room and is present in every room. The second Vedic statement quoted by you means that any small world present in this big world can be totally pervaded by God (Jagatyaam Jagat). The small world is the human body and the big world is this entire creation. Both are qualitatively one and the same since the same constituents exist in both human body (Pindanda) and this entire world (Brahmanda).
The entry of unimaginable God into a specific imaginable human being speaks about the appearance of human incarnation. It means that the unimaginable God became not only imaginable but even visible God. However, this does not mean that the unimaginable God is really modified into imaginable God as ignorant people think (Avyaktam Vyaktimaapannam – Gita). This only means that the invisible electricity becomes the visible electrified wire since electricity pervades the entire wire and gets identified with it. First, you must know that God is unimaginable. This concept is very difficult since generally we believe that something exists only if it is visible or at least imaginable. The existence of unimaginable God, thus, may easily result in misunderstanding God as non-existent. Hence, the Gita says that one in millions only can understand the essential and basic concept of God that He is unimaginable (Kashchit mam vetti tattvatah). The same rare person after understanding that God is unimaginable can even see the imaginable God since such a rare person conquers his ego and jealousy towards co-human beings. This is told in the Veda (Kashchit Dheerah...). Unless one understands that God is unimaginable as said in the Gita (maam tu veda nakaschana), the same one person cannot understand that the visible human incarnation is the same unimaginable God due to all over pervasion and complete identification. In the second Vedic statement, the word ‘Sarvam’ means that both the inner soul and external human body are pervaded by the same God and hence, the human incarnation is totally God both in and out. This word ‘Sarvam’ is clarified by the Veda again (Antarbahishcha tat sarvam). Since the external human body also became the unimaginable God, the unimaginable finger of Krishna lifted up the huge hill. People generally misunderstand the word ‘Sarvam’ to mean this entire world due to hasty approach without analyzing further statement, which says that any small (Yat kimcha) world in this big world can be pervaded by God.
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