15 Apr 2022

Ishvara Prakaranam (The Topic of First Mediated Unimaginable God)

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1. Bhaktyai nohyaṃ jagat sṛṣṭeḥ, puro jīvārcanārthataḥ |
Paramavyoma dehātma-sraṣṭṛ taijasakṛt param ||

[Parabrahman or unimaginable God wanted to create the world with souls for His entertainment, in which love and devotion with the souls is the essence for which meditation and worship are essential. Anticipating all this in the future creation, even before creating the creation, the unimaginable God created a little space called ‘Paramavyoma’ and a little quantity of inert energy, with which both body and soul of the first energetic form were prepared. This is the first energetic being created by Parabrahman even before creating this entire universe. Since Parabrahman is unimaginable and can’t be even meditated (not to speak of worship), Parabrahman created the first energetic being occupying some space for the sake of worship of the future souls. It means, Parabrahman created space, energetic soul or awareness and energetic body in the beginning. In case we like to say that ‘tat’ and ‘Aatmaa’ referred in Tattejo'sṛjata and Ātmana ākāśa ssambhūtaḥ respectively to be taken in the single sense of Parabrahman only – then we can say that the same Parabrahman created both gross energy or tejaḥ to prepare energetic body with soul and space for the occupation of this body together in the beginning.]

2. Ātmā paścāt kṛtātmaiva, dehātmānau ca śāśvatau |
Tayoraikyaṃ hi sopādhi, nirupādhi ca kevalam ||

[The awareness or individual soul created here is the same soul created later on in the process of creation of this world. Parabrahman merged with both the soul and the body of this first energetic being so that both the soul and the body became eternal. Even if the whole creation disappears, this energetic being merged by Parabrahman will always remain eternal and hence, there is not even the slightest difference between Parabrahman and this first energetic incarnation. Parabrahman is non-mediated God and the same God mediated with this energetic being is this first energetic incarnation.]

3. Śaṅkaro jīvamātrasthaḥ, Parau bhedagrahau tayoḥ |
Apṛthaktvaṃ yadaṃśāṃśi, pṛthaktvaṃ cāntimo'grahīt ||

[Śaṅkara took this eternal soul as Nirguṇa Brahman without any attribute as the ultimate God. The reason is that He wants to say that every soul in perishable body is also this God. Since body is perishable in one place (ordinary living being) and is permanent in another place (first energetic incarnation), He took only the soul, which is permanent in both places. Rāmānuja and Madhva took both soul and body of first energetic incarnation as the ultimate God since, they both differentiated ordinary souls from God. Rāmānuja took God and soul as separate entities with inseparable condition of whole and part and Madhva took God and soul in totally separated condition.]

4. Trayāṇāṃ taijasāraṃbhaḥ, nohyaṃ nāstika śaṅkayā |
Triṇāmā taijaso Dattaḥ, khyāta ssvarga piteti ca ||

[All the three divine preachers took the first energetic incarnation only as the starting point with little difference about this starting Brahman or God. None touched the Parabrahman with the fear that focus on the unimaginable item may lead to negation of God. This first energetic incarnation is called by three names, which are i) Hiraṇyagarbha as creator, ii) Nārāyaṇa as maintainer and iii) Īśvara as destroyer of the world. He is also called as ‘Datta’ to mean that the unimaginable God is given to the world of souls in imaginable and visible form (medium) for the sake of worship. The foreign religions call Datta as ‘The Father of Heaven’.]

5. Īśo Nārāyaṇo hyekaḥ, trikarmā trimukhai śśruteḥ |
Parabrahmaiva Datto yat, yaśo Dattasya saṃmatā ||

[Datta is called as ‘Īśvara’ in general to mean the ruler of the creation and in this stage, ‘Nārāyaṇa’ is His name. The two points of the Vedic definition about God are completely clear as pictorial representation in the form of Datta. The two Vedic points are that God is one only and the same one God creates, rules and destroys this world. These two points are clarified in His form through perception itself. He is one person only and the same one person creates, maintains and destroys the world as represented by the three faces of Datta. This Īśvara or Datta extended the creation of the world to such a great extent, so that He is called the creator, maintainer and destroyer of this entire creation. In fact, it is the Parabrahman merged in Datta, Who has done this extension of creation and the credit given to Datta is also totally justified because Datta is none other than the unimaginable God or Parabrahman in mediated condition.]

6. Ākāśatejaso rmūlaṃ, taccāyaṃ ca dvidhā śruteḥ |
Antarbahi stat sa iti, proktaṃ kartṛ tadeva hi ||

[The unimaginable God created a little space, which is the most subtle form of inert energy along with some additional gross energy. The gross form of inert energy is made as the material for generation of the soul and the body of God Datta. This is indicated by ‘Tat tejo'sṛjata’. Here, ‘Tat’ means unimaginable God, Who is neither male nor female. When God Datta was expressed, He created this entire creation by first creating the subtle inert energy as further space required for creation – ‘Ātmana ākāśaḥ’. Here Ātmā means a specific energetic form called ‘Datta’. Further creation up to the creation of soul comes under the purview of Īśvara (Datta). Actually, the unimaginable God present in the medium Himself is doing the creation etc., who is mentioned as ‘That’ since the gender is unimaginable. From the view of the external medium with masculine gender (Datta), the same God is mentioned as ‘He’ and hence, the Veda says that ‘It wished to create’ (Tadaikṣata) and also says that ‘He wished to create’ (sa īkṣāṃ cakre). This means that ‘that’ (Parabrahman) wished to create creation for entertainment and for the same purpose, God Datta created further creation. Here, ‘that’ is taken as Parabrahman and ‘He’ is taken God Datta. In the first verse, we have taken both ‘That’ (tat) and ‘He’ (saḥ) as Parabrahman only and showed explanation in that way also.]

7. Hiraṇyagarbho vedoktah, parau ca taijasatrayam |
Datta eva tridhā dṛṣṭaḥ, Brahma Viṣṇu Śivākṛtiḥ ||

[The first name of Datta is Hiraṇyagarbha, who was involved in the creation of the world in the beginning. His external medium or body was born from a single element called inert energy and He is the single Lord of this entire creation as said in the Veda (Hiraṇyagarbha ssamavartatāgre, bhūtasya jātaḥ patireka āsīt). This clearly means that Hiraṇyagarbha is not born from five elements as an ordinary soul because Hiraṇyagarbha is said to be the single Lord of this entire creation. Later on, this Hiraṇyagarbha (Datta) became Brahmā. After the creation, Datta as the ruler became Nārāyaṇa, who later on became Viṣṇu. In the end, Īśvara (Datta) to destroy the world, who later on became Śiva. Hiraṇyagarbha, Nārāyaṇa and Īśvara are the three names of the same Datta whereas Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva are three different energetic incarnations. In this way, Datta, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva are the resultant four energetic incarnations. Datta is the primary whereas the other three are secondary. Since Datta Himself entered and merged with the other three energetic incarnations (forms), there is no difference among these four forms since Datta alone exists as the other three energetic incarnations. Datta means single God having these three aspects and the three divine forms are the three incarnations of the same single God Datta resulting in that the three aspects are expressed in three separate forms].

8. Dravyādhāro guṇa ssargo, Brahmādhāro guṇa ssmṛtaḥ |
Datta ssākṣāt Parabrahma, vivṛtā''vṛta vajravat ||

[Datta is the mediated unimaginable God called as Saguṇa Brahman whereas Parabrahman is the unmediated unimaginable God called Nirguṇa Brahman. The word ‘guṇa’ stands for either the entire imaginable creation or a part of the imaginable creation. Creation is not considered as an independent item (dravya) since it depends on a dravya like God for its existence and hence creation (whole or part) is called as guṇa or quality that depends on a dravya always. The energetic medium (body and soul) is imaginable creation (since energy is a part of the creation), which is called guṇa or quality and hence, Nirguṇa means unmediated unimaginable God and Saguṇa means mediated unimaginable God. Saguṇa or mediated God is Datta and Nirguṇa or unmediated God is Parabrahman. An uncovered diamond and the same diamond wrapped by a cover are one and the same and hence, Parabrahman and Datta are exactly one and the same.]

9. Nohyaci nnirguṇaṃ nohya—mūlaṃ cittu na kevalam |
Anūhyaṃ saguṇaṃ Dattaḥ, tat Parabrahma Nirguṇam ||

[Śaṅkara took awareness without attributes as the original God. The unimaginable God also has no attributes (since attributes of unimaginable item are also unimaginable and can’t be told as existing. In the case of unimaginable God, He proves His existence through miracles and hence, He can’t be told as non-existent) and He can also be called as Nirguṇa. Since the awareness of God has no imaginable background (inert energy and materialized nervous system) as in the case of the human being, we like to call unimaginable God as unimaginable awareness (two unimaginable items are one unimaginable item only). Hence, Datta is the unimaginable awareness mediated with visible and imaginable medium and by this, the unimaginable awareness did not become imaginable awareness. Therefore, Datta is the imaginable and visible God with the continuing inherent unimaginable nature. Parabrahman is the invisible-unimaginable God whereas Datta is the visible-unimaginable God.]

10. Ūhyabāhyākṛti rnohyo, bahiranta rbhidākṛteḥ |
Datto viśvamateṣvekaḥ, tridhā nohyākṛti dvayāt ||

[If we examine the various natures of the original God, in all the world religions, we find two similarities:- i) The external medium of God is imaginable creation or a part of imaginable creation and ii) The internal nature of the inner-core God is unimaginable. The only difference is that the external medium may have different designs.

In all the world religions, the root God is taken as either unimaginable God or mediated God in two states (with form and without form) so that there are three ways of understanding the original God called as ‘Father of Heaven’ or ‘Datta’. The ultimate three states of the original God are:- i) Unimaginable nature, ii) Imaginable medium without form and iii) Imaginable medium with specific form. The first unimaginable state is re-discovered by Shri Datta Swami. All the world-religions present only the mediated God with or without form. (In Hinduism, root God is unimaginable and hence, can’t be said as medium. In other religions, the root God is imaginable medium itself, which may have form or may not have form.)]

Chapter-1: Matāntarīkaraṇa Prakaraṇam

Chapter-2: Parabrahma Prakaraṇam

Chapter-3: Māyā Śakti Prakaraṇam

Chapter-4: Īśvara Prakaraṇam

Chapter-5: Avatāra Prakaraṇam

Chapter-6: Ākāśa Tejaḥ Prakaraṇam

Chapter-7: Vibhūti Prakaraṇam

Chapter-8: Sṛṣṭilakṣya Prakaraṇam

Chapter-9: Jagat Sṛṣṭi Prakaraṇam

Chapter-10: Jīvātma Tattva Prakaraṇam

Chapter-11: Matasamanvaya Prakaraṇam

Chapter-12: Yoga Vicāra Prakaraṇam