28 Mar 2009
[On the Eve of Ugadi] Diabetes by itself is not a disease but is the source of all dangerous diseases. An old king by himself cannot fight the war but by his oral order, the army will fight the war and brings success. Similarly, the mind (or its feelings) cannot bring any fruit either in the world or in the spiritual field, but it is the source of all actions that can bring fruits in the world or in the spiritual field. Action alone can bring the fruit, but, action is generated by the will of mind only. All the rituals and idol worship are actions only but these actions cannot bring any fruit from God because these actions are not doing any direct service to God arrived in human form. Then, what is the use of all these traditional actions? These actions are meant for developing the mind or feeling for God, which is devotion. The love towards God, which is a feeling of mind, is developed by these actions. This devotion, being the work of mind only, cannot have any direct fruit from God. But, this devotion or mind generates the action, which is the direct service to God that generates the fruit, which is the grace of God. Thus, action generates mind and subsequently mind generates action. The first action is traditional ritual, mind is devotion and the second action is the direct service to God. God in human form is detected by sharp analytical knowledge only. Therefore, the rituals generate devotion. The analysis of scriptures generates knowledge. Devotion belongs to mind and knowledge belongs to intelligence, which is an advanced faculty of mind only. Therefore, by the word ‘mind’, we also mean the intelligence and thus, both devotion and knowledge are attributed to mind only. Neither devotion nor knowledge can generate any fruit directly. But, both these can generate the action, which is the recognition of God in human form and subsequent service to such form of God. This service finally yields the fruit. Therefore, the knowledge and devotion by themselves cannot bring any fruit to anybody. But, both these are very essential to recognize the contemporary human incarnation and serve it with practical devotion or service.
But, the followers of Advaita do not like all this and do not want the grace of God. They want to become God directly without doing any service to God in human form. These people have become blind by their unlimited ambition, ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. They will respect a co-human being as Guru provided he shows the path to become God in this life. God is the kindest Father and provided an opportunity to fulfill their desire. The path for such opportunity is that one has to maintain the continuity of happiness in this world. In fact, the word Ananda also means the same. It means to be happy continuously without any break (Aasamantat nandati iti…). Generally, people think that excessive happiness is Ananda. It is a wrong notion of people who do not know the meaning of the word Ananda. It is not a quantitative aspect of happiness. It is only point of time i.e., one should be continuously happy in the entire span of the lifetime. If you take the quantitative aspect of happiness, a human being (soul) is nowhere near God. The happiness of God is Infinite Ocean and the happiness of a human being is just a drop in it. The Veda says the same (Sa eko Brahmana Anandah…). The power of God is unlimited and therefore, withstands the power of happiness-ocean. The power of the soul is limited and therefore, can withstand only very little happiness. A lottery ticket seller told a normal farmer that he got the first prize of one lakh rupees. Immediately, the farmer died with heart attack since he was unable to withstand the force of happiness.
Therefore, the only aspect in which an Advaita philosopher can become exactly God is to maintain the continuity of happiness without any break in the life. He is God in this human life and he should have the same practice of continuous happiness even after death in the hell also while facing the severe punishments. God is also continuously happy with His creation and never becomes unhappy. Similarly, if you can also become happy continuously in your life, entertaining yourself by the varying incidents of surroundings, you have exactly become equal to God from all angles of this single aspect, which is the continuity of happiness. When the tragedy comes, you have to enjoy it like enjoying a hot chilly dish in your meals. In such case, the continuity of your enjoyment is not at all disturbed. You must enjoy even your own death, which is like the hottest Guntur-chilly dish. In your death, your body is destroyed and not yourself. Similarly, when the world is destroyed, God is not destroyed and is entertained in the form of Rudra. The Veda describes the world as the body of God (Pruthivi shariram…) and this concept was much emphasized by Ramanuja.
Tricks to Maintain Happiness in Suffering
If you are unable to enjoy the tragedy in this way, at least be aware that the experience of tragedy is going to give you the real taste of happiness in future. Such awareness will not make you unhappy internally. If you are suffering by eating the chilly dish, you still continue to eat it because that will give a reinforced taste of the next sweet. This awareness will maintain the confidence of your soul even in suffering. Alternatively, you can think that God favored you with this suffering to wipe out all your bad deeds through experience. Or, you can think that the suffering faced by you is very little, which is given by God to you just to save the doctrine of karma theory and lot of suffering that you have to undergo is cancelled by God. All these are psychological tricks to make you happy in suffering. Anyway, by hook or crook, you must maintain the happiness continuously by seeing every negative angle in positive direction. If you achieve this, you are just God in this particular aspect of continuous happiness. After all, the final aim of God is also to be happy continuously through continuous entertainment with His creation. Once that final goal is achieved by you, all other aspects of God, which are only the means of such goal, become zero. The superpowers of God to create, maintain and destroy the world are ineffective and immaterial once the goal of continuous happiness is achieved. At this point, Shankara made the creation as zero and called it as Mithya, which means immaterial and hence, zero. A king has several powers like fighting the war etc. But, all these powers are only the means to achieve the continuous happiness. Suppose a beggar is also continuously happy. Now, in this aspect of continuous happiness, both the king and beggar are exactly equal. All the kingdom of the king becomes zero in this aspect, because the kingdom is only an instrument to keep the king continuously happy. Hence, if this aspect of continuous happiness is achieved by any human being, irrespective of surrounding incidents, he becomes equal to God, which is described as the state of God by the Gita (Esha Brahmi sthitih...). This is the only aspect in which a soul becomes God nullifying all the other aspects of God. This provision is created by God for such rigid children like Advaita philosophers. God provides everything desired by the children.
But, My dear Advita philosophers! Remember that you should confine yourself to this single aspect of continuous happiness only. Since you have become God in this aspect, do not think that you are God in all the other aspects. If you cross the boundaries of this single aspect, you stand nowhere before God. Even in the aspect of happiness, you should confine to the continuity only and not to enter the quantitative aspect of happiness. Therefore, you should not cross your boundaries and say that since you have become God, you are equal to God in other aspects like creation, maintenance and destruction of the world. You cannot create even a single atom. Of course, you have little freedom in maintenance like keeping a small stone in this place or that place. You are given some limited powers also within your range and therefore, you can withstand the quantity of happiness also in that range only. If you cross your boundary, the concept of Dvaita will stand before you with unlimited magnitude. Thank God for this little provision sanctioned by Him. Otherwise, if He wishes, you will be continuously unhappy and cannot move even a small stone. Therefore, you should not forget that even this aspect of equality with God in the aspect of continuous happiness is provided by the kindest Divine Father (God) only and that even this opportunity is not an inherent property of your self. God wants all types of His children to be happy always and makes different provisions in that direction.
When God in human form came to this earth as Shankara, all the children of God were found to be atheists (Buddhists and Purvamimamsakas), who denied God. They accept God only if they are already God. Even if a little practical effort is required to become God, they did not want to become God. Of course, they were prepared for any lot of mental effort like thinking etc. Shankara started the path accepting their desire completely and proposed the above said Advaita in which the soul can become God by maintaining the happiness continuously. Slowly, He wanted to bring them to the real path by which they can become really God. When a soul does not aspire to become God and wants to remain as a practical servant of God only, it will be selected to the Golden chance of becoming human incarnation in which it really becomes God like a wire is treated as current for all practical purposes when current enters it.
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