21 Apr 2023
[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Swami, You told that this world being created from Brahman stands for both Parinaama (real modification) of Ramanuja and Vivarta (apparent modification) of Shankara. Please clarify this in detail. – At Your holy lotus feet]
Swami Replied:- Sage Vyasa told that we cannot get a perfect simile for the unimaginable God in this imaginable domain or creation. Therefore, we shall not extend all angles of the simile when we take the example from creation because creation is imaginable and the creator is unimaginable. i) Parinaama is understood from the example of modification of milk into curd, the main concept is:- Milk produced curd, and milk and curd have different natures. Similarly, the creator God (milk) is unimaginable and the creation (curd) is imaginable so that both cause and effect have different natures. Here, when milk becomes curd, addition of a third substance (butter milk containing bacteria) is necessarily to be added. But, the unimaginable God is only one without any second substance to be added. ii) Vivarta is understood from the example of a wave generated from water. Here, water is inherently real, whereas, wave is inherently unreal. Water gives its absolute reality to wave and hence, wave appears to be real. Similarly, God is absolutely real and the produced world is inherently unreal but becomes inherently real due to the gifted reality by God. Here also, the above defect appears because when water is associated with some kinetic energy wave is appearing. In the case of God, there is no second item that is associated with God. In this way, both Shankara and Ramanuja can be correlated in the concept of God creating the universe. Since God is omnipotent, He has the powers to make any impossibility to become possible (Aghaṭana ghaṭanā paṭīyasī māyā, Māyinaṃ tu Maheśvaram).
Hence, due to the omnipotence of God, the inherently unreal imaginary world appears since God gifted His absolute reality to the unreal world. This mechanism of God gifting the reality cannot be observed by us and we feel that a real world came out from the real God. This satisfies Ramanuja perfectly. But, when the hidden mechanism of God gifting His reality to the unreal world is observed, Shankara is perfectly satisfied. Since energy (kinetic energy) is subtle, it appears as if the water itself became the wave without interference of any second item (kinetic energy) and this is proposed by Shankara. Since the mechanism of God gifting His reality to the unreal world is a very subtle process, it appears as if one real item produced another real item with different nature and this is proposed by Ramanuja. Both have neglected the two subtle items (subtle kinetic energy neglected by Shankara and the subtle process of transfer of absolute reality of the cause to the product neglected by Ramanuja). The third interfering substance exists in the examples, but, it need not exist in the case of the omnipotent God because even without the help of any second item, He is capable of generating a real creation for His real entertainment. In this point, even the Ajaativaada (creation is not created by God) is also refuted because the omnipotent God is not incapable of having real entertainment by creating a real world. The omnipotent God can become wave without association of kinetic energy and the omnipotent God can become curd without the help of butter milk containing bacteria.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★