Shri Dattaguru Bhagavat Gita: Kaalabhairava Khanda: Chapter-16 Part-4

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

(Song of Preacher – God Shri Datta)

Part-4: Kaalabhairava Khanda (Part of Kaalabhairava)

Chapter 16: DATTA MATASAMANVAYA YOGAḤ (Divine Vision of Correlation of Datta-Religions)

Contd...

God-Preacher Shri Datta spoke:-

49. Chaarvaaka said that the alive body with the awareness itself is the soul. There is no problem in this point because after all, the soul is only a special work-form of inert energy associated with materialised body. Since matter is also another form of energy, all these three phases (matter, energy and awareness) are one item, called creation or created item only and not the creator. The schools treating soul as God only have problem with this point since these schools treat the created item (soul) as God. The reality is that the unimaginable God alone is the creator and the imaginable soul is a tiny part of creation. Actually, soul is a form of energy only and is slightly different from matter or body. However, this slight difference is not a big problem because matter and energy are only slightly different and not at all totally different. Chaarvaaka says that the awareness is generated from the four elements (other than space) in combined state and he accepts the requirement of subtle space for the existence of any created item. The existent or non-existent space is not a major problem since space is included in creation only. Science also speaks about awareness and we must congratulate the sage Chaarvaaka for finding the soul as created item or a part of creation only.
50. The scientists or even atheists say that God does not exist and hence, there is no hell or heaven or any other upper world and in this point, they are in line with Chaarvaaka. These people support the rules of justice in pravrutti or worldly life. This is only a hypocrisy of these people because they know very well that even if the pravrutti is broken secretly, there is no fear of punishment from the non-existing God. This hypocrisy is only external to cheat the society to get good name and this diplomacy is also helpful to escape the punishment from the law of the land. Atleast, some external politeness is maintained even though it is really cheating others. The sage Chaarvaaka openly told that the pravrutti can be broken and sins can be done without any fear. We must appreciate the frankness of this sage and also the politeness of atheist. This sage is a great scientist in finding out the essential picture of the soul, which helps us to treat the soul as a part of creation and not creator. God is very angry with this perverted scientist not because he denied the existence of God, but, because the rules of pravrutti, which are the basis for the balance of society are totally broken by this sage. After all, fear for sin is based on the existence of God only since God gives the punishment for sin through unimaginable ways even though one escapes the punishment from the law of land.
51. The sage Pippalaada (incarnation of God Shiva) found fault with the above point of Chaarvaaka regarding the soul, who told that life (praana) is the soul. Here, the word praana indicates the awareness and not mere inert air involved in the mechanical process of respiration. Plants have the inert respiration but do not have the awareness due to lack of nervous system even though inert energy is available. In this way, the soul is indicated as energy, which is different from matter. In the strict sense, the word praana means the inert air involved in the mechanical process of respiration supplying oxygen to the system for oxidation of food in order to release the inert energy. This inert energy is converted into a special work form called awareness while functioning in a specific nervous system. Hence, mere respiration (praanamaya kosha) is not sufficient for the generation of awareness, called nervous activity by neurons (manomaya kosha). Based on the requirement of inert energy with the help of respiration, the word praana is used to mean awareness. Every botanical plant which is alive, does not have awareness but every item with awareness (zoological example) needs the existence of respiration and digestion of food (except energetic beings). Awareness is characteristic of available inert energy and existing nervous system. In energetic beings, free inert energy is available from cosmic energy.
52. Buddha, Kapila, Vyaasa and Shankara are incarnations of God. Unfortunately, the three incarnations of God, which are Buddha, Kapila and Shankara were misunderstood as atheists due to lack of proper and complete understanding of their concepts. Buddha kept silent about God because the absolute unimaginable God is beyond words. Even the Veda says that the absolute God can be explained only through silence. Buddha told that this entire world is non-existent (shunyam), momentary (kshanikam), misery (duhkham) and made of matter and energy (vastusvalakshanam). Vastu means item of creation made of gross matter and its property (svalakshanam) means subtle energy. Here, energy need not mean only inert forms, but also means awareness, which is a form of energy. Misery mentioned pertains to awareness and hence, awareness is also mentioned, which is a form of energy. Since Buddha mentioned about the absolute God through silence, who is referred existing alone before creation, the non-existent creation was referred by the word shunyam. With reference to the absolute truth or God, this creation is always relative truth or non-existent only. This creation was created by the absolute God for His entertainment. For God perceiving the non-existent creation as existent, every step of the creation is only momentary since God is the eternal spectator of this creation running for a very long time. The non-existence perceived as existence is possible for the omnipotence of God. The non-existence of creation refers to the state before creation and this non-existence perceived as existence through unimaginable power of God refers to the state after creation. There is no contradiction between non-existence and existence in the case of unimaginable power of God.
53. The four disciples of Buddha took the four concepts of Buddha independently and did not correlate them to bring out His total concept. Maadhyamikas (or Madhyamika school of Nagarjuna) took the concept of non-existence of the creation alone. The Yogaachaara School took the awareness or soul (vijnaana) as existent because the soul or awareness must exist to grasp even non-existence of the world as pointed out by Shankara. Infact, soul is a part of the world and hence, not only the soul, but also the rest world is also existent and this point was grasped by the school of Sautraantikas. Finally, the school of Vaibhaashikas took the whole correlation of the above three as the total concept of Buddha. This means that Madhyamika took only non-existence of the world told by Buddha, which was actually told with reference to absolute God and not with reference to the soul. The Yogaachaara rectified this mistake and realised the existence of the soul as the grasper. The Sautraantika rectified that the grasper as well as the grasped world are existent because the grasper is a part of grasped world. The Vaibhaashika added all these three steps to bring out the total correlation noting the difference in the references (God and soul) also.
54. Buddha told that the world is non-existent (shunyam) as well as momentary (kshanikam). Both these contradict each other if applied to the same reference. Non-existent can’t be momentary. Only existent can be momentary as only something appears in a moment, it cannot be said to be non-existent. For unimaginable God, the world is always non-existent. Certainly, before creation, world is non-existent. But, after creation even though the world is non-existent, it appears to exist during the period of entertainment to the same unimaginable God. Non-existent becoming existent while remaining still non-existent simultaneously is possible for the inherent unimaginable power of God. Hence, for God, the world is non-existent and simultaneously existent to give real and full entertainment. This is possible only when the reference is God alone. The soul, which is a part of non-existent world, is also non-existent and simultaneously existent for the entertained God. For the soul, which thinks that it is existing, the rest world is also existing. We can’t apply this word shunyam (non-existent) to the soul because the world is never non-existent to the soul. For the non-existent soul, the non-existent world (as per the view of God) is existing. Hence, reference is very important in such contradictions.
55. The Maadhyamika took the word shunyam as applicable to all references in all times and said that world is non-existent even for the soul. The Yogachaara took the word kshanikam as existent and applied this word to the awareness or soul only while keeping the word shunyam as it is to the inert world. This means that only soul or awareness is existent and the entire inert world (other than awareness) as non-existent. The Sautraantika took the words kshanikam and vastusvalakshanam and said that both the soul as well as the rest inert world (composed of matter and energy) are existent.
56. The Vaibhaashika took all the three concepts to be applied to different contexts. Vaachyaartha means a single concept conveyed by a single statement. For example: “rains have started” means a single concept, which is that the rainy season started and hence, rains have started. But, this single statement becomes different statements with different concepts in different contexts like (i) for saints, it means that they have to stop doing journey to stay in one place only for four months (Chaaturmaasyam) since journey becomes inconvenient in rains, (ii) for farmers, it means that they have to sow seeds in the ploughed fields and (iii) for others, it means that they have to procure umbrellas. These different meanings expressed by different statements are called adhikaranaartha. The vaachyaartha of Buddha is taken by different disciples in adhikaranaartha and the followers limited themselves to their own contexts. Not only this, the disciples have told that their selected meanings for their contexts alone stand for the original vaachyaartha statement and even went to the extent that such specific meaning is the heart of Buddha. This led to the quarrels in the sub-schools of Buddhism and the same picture applies to different sub-religions in Hinduism also, which take the same statement of scripture in different contexts applying to the same reference.
57. The world is made of energy, which propagates in waves with crests and troughs. If the distance between two crests is taken as gap (neglecting the trough as almost non-existent due to lowest intensity in the trough), the crest can be treated as momentary. Even if we take the corpuscular nature of energy, a gap is essential between two particles of energy allowing the application of same word ‘momentary’. In this way, the word ‘momentary’ can be explained. For the eternal constant spectator, God, a human life is momentary whereas the same human life for a human being is constant and non-eternal because the human being knows that it is not eternal like God. Hence, the Arhata School (Jainism) said that the soul is constant though it is temporary (sthiram anityam). This concept of Jainism is not contradicting the concept of Buddhism because the original meaning should be viewed in different contexts due to different references.
58. Shankara is said to be a Buddhist in disguise (prachchanna Bauddha), but, it will be correct to say that Shankara is Buddha in disguise (pracchanna Buddha) because both Buddha and Shankara are the incarnations of same God. Buddha is said to be the incarnation of God Vishnu and Shankara is said to be the incarnation of God Shiva. Vishnu and Shiva are different names of the same God (Śivaśca Nārāyaṇaḥ– Veda). Buddha kept silent about the absolute God. People mistook Buddha as negating the existence of God and took Him as an atheist. Buddha came as Shankara and gave explanation for His silence about God (maunavyākhyāprakaṭita parabrahma...). Since, the absolute God is unimaginable, no word can give the identity of such God and this is also told by the Veda (Yato vāco nivartante...). The Gita also says that God is unimaginable (māṃ tu veda na kaścana).
59. Both Buddhism and Jainism gave top most importance to non-violence, which is the climax of justice (ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ). Both stressed very much on justice and social service, which shows the extreme importance given to pravrutti. Jainism recognised space as existent subtle energy through the authority of inference like Chaarvaaka. The Sautraantika School of Buddhism also agrees to the existence of inert world composed by the five elements. It is not correct to say that Buddha and Chaarvaaka did not recognise the existence of soul. Chaarvaaka called the alive body itself as soul. The three schools of Buddhism (except Maadhyamika) recognised the existence of world that includes space. Except Chaarvaaka, others are not atheists.
60. Sage Kanaada (Vaisheshika School) expressed very clearly about the existence of God and hence, his school is called Vaisheshika, which means distinct and clear expression. God is distinguished separately from soul. Sage Gautama (Nyaaya School) expressed the importance of the scripture by accepting ‘shabda’ as the fourth authority. This means that the analysis of scriptures is very important because even the Holy Scriptures may contain certain mischievous insertions. Both Kanaada and Gautama gave lot of importance to logical analysis (tarka) while the former is based on two authorities whereas the latter is based on four authorities. Both have given lot of importance to justice in worldly life (pravrutti).
61. Unfortunately, sage Kapila, the incarnation of God Vishnu is misunderstood as atheist. Kapila is quoted in the Gita also through the word Saamkhya, which is the philosophy of Kapila. Kapila analysed the world into twenty four items: (a) kevala prakruti or mulaprakruti (1) or primordial nature, the root material cause; (b) kevala vikruti (16) or five elements, five senses of knowledge (eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose), five senses of action (mouth, hands, legs, urinal and anus) and one mind; (c) both prakruti and vikruti (7) or one mahat (intelligence), one ahamkaara (ego) and five subjects (vishaya), which are sound of space (shabda), touch of air (sparsha), form of fire or visible energy (ruupa), taste of water (rasa) and scent of earth (gandha); (d) The twenty fifth item is Purusha, who is neither prakruti nor vikruti.
62. Kapila being God, can never be an atheist. He has mentioned God by the word Purusha and the world is mentioned by the word Prakruti. Purusha is not the soul, but, the God. The Purusha suktam in the Veda means speaking about God and not about the soul. Apart from this classification of two items (Purusha and prakruti), there is another classification of three items in which prakruti is world, purusha is the soul and purushottama is the God. Both these classifications exist in the Gita (prakṛtiṃ puruṣaṃ caiva..., uttamaḥ puruṣastvanyaḥ...). Puram means both body and world and hence, purushsa can mean both soul and God (puri śete iti puruṣaḥ). Kapila followed the first classification of two items and hence, Purusha stands for God. Soul is mentioned in world or prakruti itself as intelligence, ego and mind by Kapila. Chittam or memory can be treated as a part of mind and the four internal instruments (antah karanams) can be realised. Purusha or God is said as detached (Asaṅgo hyayaṃ puruṣaḥ) from the world by Kapila and if Purusha is taken as soul, it is not correct because soul is always attached to the world.
63. Patanjali was the incarnation of Adishesha, who is the devoted servant of God Vishnu and Kapila was the incarnation of God Vishnu. The Yoga path established by Patanjali gave clarification about the place of God previously indicated by the word ‘Purusha’. Yoga kept the soul in the place of Purusha and God indicated by the word Ishwara is taken as twenty sixth item. This follows the classification of three items prakruti, purusha or soul and Ishwara or Purushottama or God. Krishna says in the Gita that both Saamkhya and Yoga are one and the same (Ekaṃ Sāṅkhyañca Yogañca...). It is unfortunate that the philosophy of Kapila was called as atheistic knowledge (Niriishvara Saamkhya) whereas the philosophy of Patanjali was called as theistic knowledge (Seshvara Saamkhya). In fact, both are theistic philosophies only and nobody was atheist except Chaarvaaka.
64. Yoga means union, which exists in several steps starting from association and ending with perfect merge. For humanity, human incarnation is the best suitable goal in all respects. Yoga mentions rotating wheels (chakras) in which the soul is fixed to rotate there itself. These wheels are the whirlpools present in the worldly sea that trap the swimmer to rotate for some time and drown him finally. These wheels are represented as lotus flowers that attract the black bee by scent and trap it by closing the petals. Similarly, the worldly bonds trap the ignorant soul by attraction and stop the upper journey. These worldly bonds are represented pictorially as wheels and flowers, which do not exist in physical sense. These worldly attractions for the mind shall be controlled (Cittavṛtti Nirodhaḥ) in order to escape worldly miseries (klesha).

To be continued...

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