24 Aug 2006
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
Knowledge and God: Spiritual knowledge or philosophy (Vedanta) is generally based on logic (Tarka). God is certainly above logic and thus logic cannot touch Him (Naisha Tarkena—Veda). Nobody can show God by pointing with a finger. The Veda clearly states that God is beyond words, mind, intelligence and logic and the best way of explaining about God is silence. If that is so, there is no necessity of spiritual knowledge, because God cannot be known or imagined. Then what is the use of all these scriptures? Why are there so many discussions and debates? Lord Yama says in the Veda that angels and sages are still discussing about God and have concluded that God is unknowable. Here unknowable means unimaginable even by logic. They have not conducted such long discussions to know simply that God is unknowable because God cannot be the object of knowledge as my friend says! If God is said to be unimaginable, what is the subject of the discussions? The answer is that the logic used in the long discussions is not about God but about all the the non-God entities (items of creation). Certainly, we cannot know God by logic or by any other means, but we can use the logic to reject a non-God item projected as God. When you say that awareness is God, we will use logic and see whether awareness is an item of creation. If it is an item of creation, certainly it can be analyzed by logic. If logic fails to analyze it, certainly we will accept it as God. Similarly we shall apply logic to several entities rejected for not being God and see whether any of the items is beyond logic.
Logic is the analytical faculty supported by practical examples, which stand as experimental verification. The ancient Indian logic was developed based on practical examples like mud-pot etc [this analogy was used as a model to explain the creation]. However, advancement in logic took place from time to time and the logic was sharpened more and more. The authoritative parameters [accepted valid means of knowledge; Pramanas] have improved in number and therefore the schools of Nyaya, Vaiseshika and Vedanta differed in the subject of logic. The number of Pramanas increased from 2 to 4 and finally became 6 [direct perception, inference, comparison, etc.] in Vedanta. This shows the improvement of logic in course of time. Today science is the most advanced logic since experimental verification was improved. Therefore, if I am explaining the philosophy based on science, it means that the philosophy is much clearer due to the advanced logic. I told you already that the logic (science) is only useful to refute any item of creation as ‘not God’. The Creator cannot be any item of creation. If the Creator becomes creation, there must be some other Creator for this creator to become creation. This argument continues ad infinitum (Anavastha). Science has disproved some conclusions of the earlier logic and this should not be misunderstood as science refuting God. God is in no way touched because the earlier logic was also dealing only with the analysis of created items and not the Creator. Tarka [logic] means the analysis of the items of creation, which are indicated and understood by their corresponding names or words (Tarkyante Padarthah Asminniti…). God is beyond all words and cannot be the understood meaning of any word. Therefore, logic cannot touch God.
The very first point that you raised about Vritti [modification of the mind] is disproved by science. The earlier logic says that the mind goes out through the senses and takes the form of external objects (Tadakara-Akarita-Antahkarana Vrutti). Today science proves that the light falling on the object forms an inverted image of the object in the eye [retina]. This image is communicated to the brain by another inversion. This has full experimental proof. Therefore, the modification of the mind (Phala Vyapti) of the old logic is discarded. If the mind takes the form of the object traveling out through the senses, a pot in darkness must also be known and light would not be necessary.
You say that awareness being the knower (Jnata) can never become the object (Jneya) and therefore the awareness of the self never becomes the object of knowledge. You say that the Jnata never becomes Jneya and therefore, the Jnata being completely different from Jneya, can be called as Ajneya. This is the meaning you have brought for the word unimaginable item (Ajneya)! This is the result of dry logic, which is a gymnastic feat of words, which has neither experimental verification nor practical experience.
Here, the word Ajneya means that item, which can never be known by any Jnata. However, you have twisted the meaning and called the Jnata as Ajneya in the sense that Jnata is always different from the Jneya. Let us take an example and see what the result of dry logic is. Let us take a statement “Physics is unknown (Ajneya) to me”. I am Jnata (subject) and physics is the object to be known (Jneya). The subject (I) is not the object (Jneya) and therefore, the subject is also non-object entity (Ajneya). Therefore, both physics and myself are unknown (Ajneya). Therefore, I can conclude that am the unknown physics. Since, I know myself; I should know the unknown physics. Now this dry logic gives the result that I know the physics without studying it, which is not at all true. Here, the word Ajneya in the case of Brahman (physics) is in the sense of unknown but not in the sense of the non-object entity—subject. You have combined both these senses in one word ‘Ajneya’ and created a wonderful confusion! The clarification is very long, which takes lot of time and energy to explain and you must have patience to go through the clarification. Confusion requires very little energy and little time.
Knowledge, which is a process of work, requires both the subject (Jnata) and the object (Jneya). If the object disappears, the work disappears and the subject also disappears. Awareness is the subject. External items are the objects. When you close your eyes, the external objects are disconnected from the awareness. In this case, the imaginations in the brain become objects and thus the process of knowledge is alive. For example, let us take fire. Suppose it is burning a certain external object, the process of burning exists. Suppose you have removed the external objects [firewood] from the fire. Still the burning continues because some sticks [or embers which are still present] in the fire remain as internal objects of the process of burning. Suppose you remove the internal sticks too. Now what happens? Both the fire (subject) and burning (work) disappear. In the state of deep sleep, the same thing happens. The awareness is disconnected from the external objects of the world and is also disconnected from the internal objects of the brain (imaginations). In this state, neither awareness nor knowledge exists. In the waking state, the objects are external items. In the state of dream, the objects are internal imaginations. In the state of deep sleep, neither external objects nor the internal objects are connected to the awareness. Work always disappears if any item of the system i.e., energy or the specified machinery is absent. The work of grinding stops if the power or the grinding machine is absent. The grinding-work is generated only by the association of the electricity and the grinding machine. The grinding-work can be generated only in the grinding machine and not in the cutting machine. Therefore, the specified design of the working material decides the specified form of work. The content of the work is only energy but the specified form of work is based on the specified design of the machine (working material). Therefore work is a general form of energy but a specified work is based on the specified design of the working material. Hence for a specified work, both energy and the working material with the specified design are equally important. The content of the work is energy. However, the specified form of the work results from the specified design of the working material. Similarly when the energy enters the nervous system, a specified form of work called as knowledge appears. When the process of burning disappears, the fire disappears. Similarly, when knowledge disappears, awareness also disappears. The process of knowledge is based on the energy that is produced by the digestion of food, brain, nervous system and finally on the object, which may be an external item or internal imagination. If any one of these is absent, knowledge or awareness disappears.
In the state of meditation, all imaginations are cut off and since the eyes are closed, the external objects are also cut off. Still, the awareness remains without the state of deep sleep. However, if you carefully analyze your experience, there is a very subtle point here. In this state, even though all imaginations are cut off, still a very subtle imagination of the very awareness itself exists in the brain. This imagination is the reflection (Pratibimba) of the subject and not actually the subject (Bimba). Meditation will lead you to the state of deep sleep after sometime, when this last imagination of itself in the brain also is cut off. In the state of meditation, knowledge or awareness is very weak and remains based on a single imagination of the subject, which is the only remaining object in the brain. It resembles the fire that remains due to some last pieces of burning coal [embers]. When this coal also disappears by becoming ash, the fire or the process of burning is completely extinguished. This represents the state of deep sleep. Awareness means knowledge and knowledge certainly requires an object, which is to be known.
A scientist said that the life is a secret like the sound produced from the drum and drumsticks. The sound is the work-form of the kinetic energy that is applied to the drum through the drumstick, and is propagated as mechanical vibrations between the colliding air molecules (again the ancient logic is wrong, since it says that sound is the characteristic of space or vacuum. However, only space having air or a medium can propagate sound). Thus sound is the specified work, which is generated by the combined effort of the drum, drumstick, applied kinetic energy, generated mechanical vibrations and molecules of air. None of these is sound. Sound is essentially the applied kinetic energy but the kinetic energy itself is not sound. Sound is a specified form of the kinetic energy and the specification is the combined effort of all these items. The same kinetic energy applied to a wheel produces circular motion of the wheel. These cases, (the circular motion and sound) are essentially the kinetic energy. However, the specifications (sound and circular motion) differ due to the difference in the other specified items. Thus awareness or knowledge is a specified work form of the inert energy that is produced by the oxidation of food in association with other items like brain, nervous system and the object of knowledge. The same inert energy entering the lungs produces mechanical work. The same inert energy produces some shine (light) on the face of a living body. Thus, any work is inexplicable form of the energy, which cannot be isolated from the system. This awareness, which is already a specified work-form of energy, is further subdivided into several specifications and each sub-specification is a feeling or quality. Thus awareness is a bundle of feelings and in general can be defined as the work-form of the same inert energy that takes a specified form due to the interaction with the brain, nervous system and the existence of external or internal objects. Each feeling, thought, or quality is a specified form of knowledge or awareness.
If you analyze the awareness with lot of patience and lot of careful analysis, it becomes very clear that the awareness is a form like the shape of a mud-pot. If the mud particles and their mutual binding energy are isolated, the shape of the pot disappears. Thus, if you take awareness in its apparent state (work), it comes to the lowest level of the like form and quality. When all the items like inert energy, brain, nervous system and object are isolated, the apparent work-form (awareness) disappears just like the shape of a mud-pot disappears when the mud particles and the binding energy are isolated. It becomes only an item of Maya and does not have even the secondary status like matter, light, etc., The awareness taken as a special form of the inert energy only can join the items of the secondary level (Maha Maya), in which, matter, light, etc., exist as different modifications of energy. Awareness as a type of work, separated from energy goes to the lowest third level of form and quality. At the maximum, in deep sleep, the awareness remains as the basic inert energy and thus can rise to the first level, which is the primary inert energy. Since space is this basic inert energy, the awareness cannot cross itself (space) even in its basic form i.e., as obtained in deep sleep. When awareness is unable to cross space even in its most basic form (inert energy), how can it cross space in its apparent work-form, which is called as awareness?
You are taking the awareness to be an isolated item and thus bringing it down to the third level because you are accepting it neither as the modification of inert energy nor as the basic inert energy. Therefore, awareness taken as an independent isolated entity (work) becomes an illusion like the shape of the mud-pot separated from mud particles and their binding energy. At least we have taken the awareness to the highest state of Mula Maya because we have considered it basically as inert energy. Even though we do not accept awareness as God, we have given the highest status (Mula Maya) to it in the creation. You called the awareness as God and brought it down to the lowest status in creation (Maya or illusion) by giving an isolated independent status to it. We have given awareness the status of God’s servant in heaven by not considering it as an independent item. You have made it the master of sinners in hell by giving leadership to it!
God is beyond even this primary energy (Mula Maya) and therefore, is beyond space. Therefore, the awareness taken in any state cannot become God. The awareness as an isolated work (Maya) is called as an illusory truth (Pratibhasika satta). Awareness as a modification of the energy is called as an existing truth (Vyavaharika Satta or relative truth). Awareness as the basic inert energy is called as the ultimate truth (Paramarthika Satta). You cannot find the address of the awareness beyond the state of deep sleep and therefore, its ultimate truth is only inert energy. The Veda says that the fourth state (turiya) is silence, which indicates the unimaginable God or unimaginability.
Thus, awareness cannot cross the space in any one of the three states because space (inert energy) itself is the ultimate truth. When all the external and internal objects are disconnected, the totality of the system is lost even though the inert energy, nervous system and brain exist in deep sleep. If food grains to be ground are removed, there is no work of grinding even if the grinding machine and electricity exist. In that case the grinding machine produces only mechanical form of work, which is not grinding work. Thus even if a single item is removed, the specified work-form disappears. Similarly, if the object is absent, awareness disappears. If you take an X-ray photograph of a person in deep sleep, you can find the brain, nervous system and the inert energy but no awareness is found. Even if you dissect the person by giving anesthesia, which is a state of deep sleep, you can find all these items but not the specified work form or awareness. Even if you take the photograph or perform the dissection of a person in the waking state, awareness is not found either to your eyes or by sophisticated electronic instruments. You can find all the independent items but not awareness. Work is abstract and cannot be isolated as an entity like matter, energy etc. Energy exists in the form of waves, which can be photographed or observed through a microscope. Mater exists in the form of atoms, which can be also visualized.
During the process of knowledge, the external object is made of matter and the internal object [imagination] is made of nervous energy. However, the work-process of knowledge or awareness cannot be visualized by any way even though you can only feel its existence as long as the total system continues its function. Therefore, if you isolate and give independent status to awareness, it disappears. Similar is the case of any work. Awareness can be the best example for comparison with God due to aspects of will and planning [of creation]. Awareness can be the best simile for God as far as the will of creation is concerned. God also exists and only His existence can be experienced (Astityeva—Veda) like work. God is also not perceived by the senses like work. If you observe the work-process of burning, the work is not perceived as an isolated item. You observe the stick and after sometime you see ash. You observe the fire in the form of light. The work-process of burning is neither the light nor the stick nor the ash. The work is abstract and only its existence can be experienced. Thus work stands as the best simile for God. However, there is a lot of difference if you consider the background of God and the background of work. God does not depend on any other item for His existence. However, work depends on the total system for its existence. Therefore, the simile is limited to comparing God and awareness (or any work) only in the apparent level and not with reference to the entire background. When you consider God as the designer of this world, you have to compare Him with the specified form of work called awareness or knowledge.
A simile is always limited only to a particular aspect. A person’s face is compared to the moon only in the aspect of pleasantness. If you take the other aspects like black spots on the moon, which do not exist on the person’s face or if you take the nose, eyes etc. present on the person’s face, which do not exist on the moon, the simile cannot be used. Therefore neither is the moon the person’s face nor is the face the moon. Similarly, if you consider the other aspects of God and awareness, the simile disappears. The other aspects of God are the creation of this entire universe, control and dissolution of it. The awareness does not have such aspects and can neither create even a small particle nor can it dissolve the particle. It cannot control even the function of internal organs like kidneys, heart etc. present in its own body. In the Veda, it is told that when God so wished, the fire could not burn even a dry grass blade. However, if your awareness wishes and even if it concentrates, the fire will continue to burn even a heap of grass! Thus neither is awareness God nor is God awareness. God is like awareness only in a particular aspect i.e., planning the design of creation.
You are applying logic, which is valid for the items of creation to God. You should not apply logic in the case of God since it is limited only to the items of this creation. The Veda repeatedly says that He is beyond logic. God can burn anything and this does not mean that He is fire (or burning) and therefore it also does not mean that fire is God. God is compared to the work of burning (fire) in this aspect only. Fire is a process of burning and fire is neither the stick nor the ash and nor the light. Similarly, awareness is knowledge. The Veda says that God can run without legs and can catch without hands (Apanipado…). According to your logic, He should have legs since He is running. Similarly, you conclude that He must be awareness since He designed the creation. He can design the creation without being the awareness. He can burn the world without being fire. He is not any item of the creation, which can be identified by its specified work or specified potentiality.
The word creation or srishti indicates the process of creation, which is work. It means neither the creator nor the created object. You can easily find that any worker or work material is also a form of work alone. The pot maker (worker), the mud (work material) and the pot (product of work) are matter and therefore, these three are energy alone, since matter is energy. The process of making the pot is directly work. Since energy is dynamic, it is also work alone in its basic sense. Therefore the entire creation consisting of the worker (Karta), process (Kriya), work material (Dravya) and product of work (Kriyaphalam) can be concluded as energy, which is basically work alone. The awareness present in the pot-maker is also inert energy in deep sleep and therefore the awareness is also work. In fact, awareness is proved as special form of work in the other states as well. For work, the worker is essential. If somebody is walking the walking-person (worker) and walking (work) exist. In this case, the work material and product of work are absent unlike the case of the pot maker. Therefore, the work material and product of work may or may not exist but the work always needs the existence of the worker. Even in the case of the pot-maker every item is proved as work alone.
Now when the entire creation is work alone, there is a need for the worker who should exist separately, beyond the work because walking requires the existence of the walker. Walking cannot be isolated from the walker and does not exist separately. The pot can exist separately from the pot maker. Therefore, the worker of this entire creation is the absolute truth and this entire creation is only relatively true as in the case of walker and walking. The God who is the worker is invisible because you are a part of the work and not part of the worker. In the case of the above two examples (walking person and pot maker) you are in the place of the worker. Therefore, you can go beyond the work in the case of world [since the example is of items in the world]. However, in the case of God since you are a part of the work, you cannot go beyond work and touch the worker. You can infer the existence of the worker from the work.
The Veda says that the entire creation is His power, which has mainly three items. The first item is awareness (jnanam). The second item is matter (balam). The third item is work or energy (Kriya) (Jnana bala kriyacha—Veda). Since matter and awareness are energy, the whole creation is energy or work alone. From this work, the worker is inferred because the work always requires the existence of the worker in any case (Janmadyasya—Brahma Sutra). From this inference you can only experience the existence of God, but not God (Astityeva—Veda). To experience God directly, you have to search the item of creation, in which He is exactly residing. By seeing the building, you can infer the existence of engineer but when you want to talk with Him directly, you have to search the room, in which the engineer is present. Such room is the human incarnation. The human body is the bolted room and you can talk with the engineer from outside through the bolted doors. The preaching of the knowledge and the purpose of the guidance is over by this. Therefore, when you approach the human incarnation the direct guidance can be received from the God hiding in the human body.
Suppose you want to touch the feet of God. The touch (sparsa) can be done indirectly as you touch the wall of the temple from outside and you can feel that you have touched the shrine [sanctum sanctorium] present inside the temple. Certain devotees like to touch the shrine (God) directly. When they deserve for such grace, God inside the human body pervades all over the three bodies as electric current pervades all over the wire. Such blessed devotees touch the feet of God directly because God in the human body acts like the electric current in the wire in such special cases. Some devotees want to have co-living with God and God fulfils that also in the case of such deserving devotees. However, God gives a break after some time because any devotee will fall in the illusion of the external human body of God by constant observation of the human body of the incarnation during co-living.
In the Gita, Lord Krishna said that nothing exists except Himself. However, immediately He says that all this creation is based on Him (Mattah parataram kinchit…). These two statements are contradicting each other. When there is nothing except God, how does God say that creation depends on Him? To depend on God, creation must be the second item. However, He says that the second item does not exist. How to correlate these two contradictions? The answer is like this. First sentence is from the view of God. Except the walking person, the walking does not exist independently. The walking is only a modification of the kinetic energy of the person. In this case you can treat the person also as energy and thus the work and worker can end in a single phase called as energy or work. Any simile in the creation cannot give the complete concept of God due to its deficiency. The Brahma Sutras clearly stated this and this is told in the Veda also (Na tat samah). Any item of creation, which acts as a simile for God is not complete, but only partial (Amsha). The awareness (Jeeva) can also be a partial simile (Amsha) as told in the Gita (Mamaivamso...). People misunderstand this and feel that awareness is a part of God directly. How can the imaginable awareness be a part of the unimaginable God? In one type of figure of speech (Rupaka), the simile is directly considered as the object [metaphor]. In a simile you say that he is like a lion. In Rupaka, you can say that he is a lion. This does not mean that he is actually the lion. Similarly, the awareness, which is partially similar to God only in making the will [desiring to create creation], can be called as Brahman [metaphorically]. Generally any simile is only partial. In the case of God, the link between the worker and the work is unimaginable (avyaktam), since God is unimaginable. In the world all the items are imaginable and therefore, a complete simile for God is impossible. Thus you cannot bring God and creation into the single phase of energy as in the case of walking and walker. Therefore the first statement [“Nothing other than the Lord exists”] is from the point of God. The second statement is from the point of the soul or Arjuna [“Creation is based on God”].
The soul cannot cross the limits of the work and therefore for the soul, the world is as true as he is. The second part of the verse is with reference to the soul. With reference to God, only God exists. With reference to the soul only the work (creation) exists. The first part is philosophy and the second part is science. Therefore, it is not possible to link these two parts and God should have said that only world exists and nothing else, from the point of the soul. However, in the second part God introduced Himself as Lord Krishna or the human incarnation from which God can be inferred. Therefore, the second part means that the work or creation is based on the inferred God, who is not directly perceived. The link between science and philosophy can be only the human incarnation. You can utter both the parts of the verse, if you are a human incarnation. Otherwise you should say “Tvattah parataram...tvayisarvamidam,” which means, “Except You, nothing exists from Your point of view. From my point of view, this whole creation, which exists separately, depends on the God inferred through You, the human incarnation.”
When the teacher calls the student a fool, the student should not repeat the same word [“You are a fool”] to the teacher, if the student is not really foolish! Thus with reference to God, you find the whole creation, including yourself, as work (vritti) alone. Only with reference to you, do you have the difference between the worker, work, work-material and work-product. The Paramartha dasha is with reference to God and the vyavahara dasha is with reference to the soul. The soul becomes inert energy in deep sleep, which can be treated as the highest sub-division (Paramartha dasha within the vyavahara dasha). The soul in the states of waking and dream exists as awareness and this can be treated as the lower sub-division of vyavahara dasha. The upper sub-division of vyavahara dasha cannot be taken as the viewpoint of God.
You have to reject every item of the creation which might be considered as God, by finding the defects of that item through logical analysis. If you take the all-pervading inert energy, the defect is that it cannot wish anything. If you take the awareness, which can wish, as God, the defect is that it is discontinuous and not all pervading. Therefore, due to these defects, neither energy nor awareness can even be complete similes to God. Where is the question of energy or awareness actually being God?
Petitioner (Purvapakshi or Advaitin): I will take both the merits and propose the all-pervading awareness as God, which does not exist in this world since it is beyond the world. Now the all-pervading awareness is fully qualified to be God.
Respondent (Siddhanthi or Swami): The complete nature of your proposed item is a mixture of the nature of two worldly items, which are only different types of work. A mixture of two works can only be work and cannot be beyond work. Therefore, you have not crossed the dimensions of work. Since you (awareness) yourself happen to be work, you cannot cross yourself. Even if you rise to the highest state within this Vyavahara Dasha, you can only become the inert energy at the maximum as in the state of deep sleep. This inert energy is also work and cannot cross work. Imaginations of the mind or analysis by intelligence cannot cross the limits of creation (Prakriti), since both mind and intelligence come only under the category of Apara Prakriti (Mano Buddhi revacha…—Gita). Even in this way you are unable to cross the boundaries of the creation, which is the work alone.
The soul (awareness) is only a form of work and that too in the lower sub-division of Vyavahara Dasha, in which matter exists in static condition and awareness exists as work in a dynamic condition. In the higher sub-division of Vyavahara Dasha, matter, awareness and other forms of energy are converted into a single phase of inert energy. The inert energy is always dynamic and is in the form of work alone. Therefore awareness is a form of work alone in both the sub-divisions of Vyavahara Dasha. In that case the soul cannot be a static source like matter in any stage. Therefore the soul is Vritti (work) alone. In the Gita, the five elements, [five elements: space, fire, air, water, earth. Three out of the 4 mental faculties:] mind, intelligence and egoism said to fall under category of Apara Prakriti. The fourth Antahkaranam [mental faculty], which is Chittam, is mentioned as Para Prakriti. In deep sleep only Chittam, which is the storing faculty of the mind, is in the form of inert energy with the stored inert impressions. Since only Chittam (inert energy) is left over in deep sleep, and it stores all the information, it is said in the Gita that the inert energy (Chittam) is the basis of this creation (Yayedam Dharyte Jagat). Since all the items of the creation are the modifications of the inert energy (Brahman), the world is generated from this inert energy. This entire world is maintained by the inert energy and is also dissolved into the inert energy. Therefore the Chittam, which becomes inert energy [in deep sleep], represents the cosmic inert energy qualitatively. In the Gita it is told that this Chittam, which is a bundle of qualities or feelings, is the Jeeva or subtle body. The content of the Jeeva is only energy in the state of awareness, which is stated as the causal body (Atman or soul). Therefore the self is one of the four internal instruments (mental faculties or Antahkaranams) and thus is a form of work alone called awareness. Thus the soul itself is Vritti and not a static matter even in the Vyavahara Dasha.
Therefore you need not fear that the process of your thinking (Vritti) takes the form of the soul. Your fear is unnecessary and you are proposing that only the thought takes the form of the knowledge and not the soul. The thought or work is the very essence of the soul and your argument of ‘Vritti Vyapti’ is an unnecessary exercise based on an unnecessary fear that the soul is not Vritti but the substratum of Vritti. Then how do you say that Brahman is the very knowledge (Satyam Jnanam—Veda)?
Knowledge is the process or work that relates the subject and the object (Jnata and Jneya). Even the Advaita philosophy says that the seer (Drashta) can be the seen object (Drishya) for another seer. Therefore the Advaita school concludes that there are only two items:
1. The seen object [Drishya],
2. The process of seeing (Dhrishti or Drik).
However, it is a surprise when you say that the Jnata is never Jneya and therefore the Jnata is Ajneya! The Advaita school further concludes that the seen object is relatively true (Mithya) and the process of seeing alone is true (Dhrishyam Mithya Drigeva Satya). This means that the process of seeing (Drishti) or the process of knowing i.e. knowledge (Jnanam) alone is the absolute truth within the boundaries of the Vyavahara Dasha. The conclusion is that the final absolute truth of Vyavahara Dasha is that work (energy) is the only ultimate truth from the point of view of the soul. Awareness is a modification of this ultimate energy or power of God as said in the Veda (Swabhaviki Jnana…). This ultimate truth cannot be from the point of the view of God. The inert energy creates, maintains and dissolves the universe by the will of God. The inert energy, taken separately, is called as the Mula Maya or Mahat Brahma. However, when it is charged by God, it is called as Brahman or Ishwara. There is no difference between Brahman and Ishwara because the first Brahma Sutra enquires about Brahman and the second Sutra says that Brahman creates, maintains and dissolves the creation. If you say that these three characteristics belong to Ishwara, how come the first Sutra mentions Brahman? It should have told about the enquiry of Ishwara. This means that there is no difference between Brahman and Ishwara.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali mentioning Ishwara as highest goal are not different from the Brahma Sutras. The cover of primary energy containng the hidden God is Brahman and the same Brahman involved in creation is Ishwara. There cannot be a difference between a person taking rest and the same person doing work. In both Brahman and Ishwara, the hidden Parabrahman with the energetic cover is the same. When you understand the Brahman, it is not God directly but it is God through a medium alone. Thus God and the energy-cover are common to both Brahman and Ishwara. Both come under the Vyavahara Dasha alone since both are understood by you through the medium of energy. The inert energy-cover is the material cause of creation and the awareness or will of God is the design-cause. Awareness is only a property, which is the process of knowing and it is not an item like energy. Of course in the absolute sense, the material (energy) and the designer (awareness) are forms of the work of the same God. Thus the work of God is the material as well as designer (Abhinna Nimitopadanam).
Since the awareness is a form of the inert energy, it can be in the same phase of the inert energy. If you take a human being, the external body, which is matter or a modified form of energy, it is inert. But the awareness pervades all over the body. Since the inert body is a form of inert energy and awareness is also a form of inert energy as proved in deep sleep, you can say that the human body is the total cause. The awareness creates a dream and the awareness is the result of the inert energy supplied by food. If you don’t take food, you can neither get sleep nor the dream. Awareness itself cannot create the dream without its source (inert energy from food). Thus the material of the dream is inert energy itself and the homogenously mixed awareness is the designer. The dream cannot be a proof for the creativity of the soul. God created the universe, which did not exist before in toto. When the soul creates the dream, it creates items, which exist in the world and are seen by the soul in the waking state. The Advaita philosophy argues that the soul can create an animal with eight legs and two tails, which does not exist and which the soul has not seen in the real world. The school says that by this it is proved that the soul has the power of creativity like God. However, if you carefully analyze, this argument is wrong. Such animal may not exist in the real world, but the legs, tails etc. which are the parts of that animal exist separately in different items. Therefore the soul has not created previously non-existent parts. It has only joined already existing parts and the composite animal is only a sum of those parts. However, in the case of God, before the creation, neither the composite items nor individual parts existed. Therefore God alone has the real and original creativity while the soul has no genuine creativity. Therefore based on this, you cannot say that the soul is God.
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