29 Nov 2010
[Dr. K. V. Prasad, a devotee, raised a doubt on the recent message given by Swami on Karteeka Poornima. The doubt is “You told that we should enjoy even misery like a hot dish in the meals. But, this is practically impossible”.]
Swami Replied: I will give an example to show that this is practically possible. A child enjoys the sweet, but dislikes the hot dish since it tasted the hot dish once and felt the pinch of it. This means that the child did not enjoy the hot dish even once and hence, does not like to taste the hot dish again. But, you take the case of an adult. He enjoyed the hot dish and hence, he tries to taste the hot dish again and again. The difference between the child and adult establishes the fact that the enjoyment and non-enjoyment of the hot dish does not lie in the dish, but lies in the attitude of the enjoyer. Similarly, misery also can be enjoyed as in the case of enjoyment of hot dish by the adult. All the souls in the creation, who do not like the enjoyment of misery, resemble those children. The human incarnation of God enjoys the misery and infact, God comes down to the earth in order to enjoy the misery, which is totally absent in His upper abode. In His upper abode, only happiness and praise of God persists by which God gets bored like in the continuous enjoyment of sweets. God called His gate-watchmen called Jaya and Vijaya and requested them to take birth as villains to give Him troubles on the earth so that He can enjoy the hot dish for a change. The hot dish not only gives a variety of enjoyment but also serves as a break between two sweet dishes. Infact, the sweet dish after hot dish gives reinforced enjoyment. Thus, the hot dish serves a double purpose and is very important.
You may argue that the tragedy in a cinema can be enjoyed since we know that the entire cinema is unreal. But, the tragedy in life cannot be enjoyed like that since we know that the entire life is a reality. God may enjoy the tragedy in the life of a human incarnation, since, for God, everything is unreal expect Himself. But, for a human being, the situation is quite different. Since the soul is a part of unreal creation, the unreal creation cannot be unreal for the unreal soul. Unreal for unreal is always real. This argument is ruled out because even the soul can feel the creation unreal. The entire creation is a modification of the cosmic energy. Matter is a modification of energy. All the static items are different forms of the energy only. All the actions are different forms of kinetic energy. Infact, the space, which we consider as vacuum is also subtle invisible cosmic energy only. This point can be proven through science. The special theory of relativity says that space bends along the boundaries of an object. If space is nothing, nothing cannot bend. Only if it is something, it can bend. Therefore, there is nothing like nothing. The vacuum acts as a source of generation of galaxies. Therefore, the entire creation is nothing but different modified forms of cosmic energy. Even the soul is a form of nervous energy, which is a specific type of kinetic energy only, since the soul or awareness is only transformation of information from the senses to brain. Thus, the soul can realize that the entire creation is basically a continuous quantum of cosmic energy only. In that case, all the forms like objects and all the activities are unreal with respect to the basic cosmic energy. When this is realized, the entire creation becomes unreal since there is only one real cosmic energy.
On realizing the unreal creation, the soul can enjoy the tragedy of life also as a tragedy of the unreal cinema. This monism (Advaita) is preached by Shankara to all the human beings. In His preaching to the souls, the ultimate absolute reality is cosmic energy, which can be called as Brahman. The word Brahman can be applied to the greatest item of any category. The Veda is called as Brahman in the Gita since the Veda is the greatest book among all the books. Coming to cosmic energy, it is the greatest among all the items of the entire creation. The word Brahman perfectly suits the cosmic energy since it is the greatest among all the categories of the entire creation. God is also called as Brahman because God is greater then cosmic energy. God is the ultimate absolute reality and with reference to Him, even the cosmic energy is unreal. As far as the forms and activities of the creation are concerned, they are unreal with respect to the immediate cosmic energy and they are also unreal with respect to the final God. Cosmic energy is the ultimate absolute reality with respect to forms and activities of the creation. But, the same cosmic energy is a unreal relative reality with respect to God, Who is the ultimate absolute reality. Therefore, both the God and the soul can realize the creation in the level of forms and activities as unreal. This point of unreality of forms and activities is common to both God and soul. The ultimate absolute reality may differ in the case of God and soul and that difference is unnecessary as far as the unreal relative reality of the forms and activities is concerned. For God, the absolute reality is Himself and for the soul, the absolute reality is cosmic energy. The soul itself is a part of cosmic energy. It can never consider itself as unreal. Therefore, the soul can never transcend the cosmic energy. Hence, the soul can enjoy the tragedy in the level of forms and activities like God in human incarnation. There is no difference between God and soul as far as the realization of unreality of creation in the level of forms and activities is concerned. The basis for comedy or tragedy in the life is only the level of forms and activities of the creation. The soul can never transcend space and can never imagine the situation beyond space. Since space is energy, it means that the soul can never transcend space or energy. Therefore, God, existing beyond space becomes unimaginable to any soul.
The producer-cum-director is watching the entire drama from outside. The actor is a part of the drama. The unreal drama, involving the created story of scenes, can be realized as unreal by the inside actor as well as the outside producer-cum-director. The unreality of drama is common to both and it does not distinguish the actor and producer-cum-director. The monism preached by Shankara is one and the same from the point of the soul as well as from the point of God. The only difference is that the cosmic energy of which the soul is a part becomes the ultimate absolute reality for the soul, whereas for God the ultimate absolute reality is Himself since the cosmic energy is also an unreal relative reality in the view of God. Therefore, the human incarnation of God and also the realized soul can enjoy the misery of the world since it is unreal to both.
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