06 Sep 2022
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
1) Generally, we care half a pin for somebody who cares a pin for us. But God being the divine Father of all souls (Ahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā) cares for the welfare of all souls. At the same time, you must know that God is not a blindly fascinated father for His issues. If the soul does not change, the divine Father does not mind throwing such souls into liquid fire as per the procedure. God is a wise father trying to change the souls, spending a long time for the reformation of the souls. We shall not try to exploit God thinking that He has the weakness of fascination towards His children. A wise father always maintains his limits.
2) The fundamental mistake is to think that all the three divine preachers were speaking about the relationship between God and every soul. This point is totally wrong. Those three divine preachers were speaking the relationship between God and theistic devotees involved in the journey of spiritual progress. You should not call a non-spiritual atheistic soul as God as per Shankara. You should not call a non-spiritual atheistic soul as an inseparable part of the whole God as per Ramanuja (here the inseparable part means a very close devotee, who is inseparable from God like His hand). You should not call even a totally different non-spiritual atheistic soul as the dearest servant of God as per Madhva (here the dualism of Madhva is not simple dualism, but, the dualism between the Master and His close servant). Hence, these three relationships proposed by the three divine preachers involve very close highly devoted souls and God only. Their relationships are special and not in general applicable to all souls. An ordinary soul dreams that it is related to God through one of these three special bonds and this is foundational ignorance. An ordinary soul must think that it is one of the general public and can’t claim any specialty based on such general public relationship. A citizen of India can’t approach the president of India saying “I am a citizen of India and you are the president of India and hence, give me a job”!
3) Shankara told that all souls are God. You must analyze the background of the time of Shankara. In His time, He was totally surrounded by full atheists like Buddhists and Purvamiimaamsakas. To preach an egoistic atheist, there is no other way except to tell that he is God. Even if Ramanuja or Madhva were there in the place of Shankara, They would have told the same. There is no other way because as atheist will go away if you say that there is God other than him. His ego and jealousy are in climax to accept some body other than himself as God. Shankara, the unimaginable genius employed a three step trick to bring atheists to the right path and that is—1) you are God, 2) You exist and 3) Hence, God exists. He made the atheist to say that God exists. The atheist asked Shankara “I have realized that I am God. Why am I then not getting even a trace of His power of creation?” Shankara replied “you are certainly God. By knowing that you are God, your superficial ignorance (Ajnaana aavaranam) is removed, but, the practical ignorance (Ajnaana vikshepa) is not removed, so you have not become God practically. Even though you awaken from a dream and even though the dream tiger disappears, the shaking of the body still continues. Hence, you must worship a senior student called God (Iishvara) to purify your mind from the practical influence of ignorance”. The atheist agreed and became a devotee of God. The atheist not only became theist! but also became a strong devotee of God.
However, Shankara revealed the ultimate truth to His closest deserving devotees. One day, He drank wine and every disciple took wine thinking that he is also God (Śivo'ham). Next day, He swallowed molten lead and asked them also to drink it. They fell on His feet and He preached to them saying that He alone is God (Śivaḥ kevalo'ham). Shankara practically demonstrated the real concept so that no disciple will be confused later on.
Raamaanuja stressed on devotion and revealed the truth partially by saying that the soul is not God, but only a tiny part of God. Having travelled so much distance in the spiritual path, the new devotee was convinced internally and proceeded in the path of devotion because his ego fell from 100 % to 50% due to worship of God. Now, Madhva came and found that the new devotee came down even more due to devotion to 1% ego. Now Madhva revealed the complete truth by saying that the soul is not even a part of God, but, a separate entity denoted by dualism. He advised practical service to God as the final stage of the path. He advised that God can do anything to His beloved servant, who is a true devotee. By this, the hope for self-development was still alive in the mind of the devotee and he became a servant of God.
4) All the three divine preachers agreed that both God and soul are having one common point, which is that both are awareness. The divine preachers maintained this minimum commonality in order to maintain the aspiration of the soul for self-development based on some confidence. Shri Dattaswami came and told “The unimaginable God and imaginable soul (imaginable soul is a tiny part of the imaginable creation) cannot have even a single commonality. You can’t say that since both think, awareness must be the commonality. Thinking is only an activity done by both God and soul, but, this does not mean that both God and soul are awareness. Awareness is based on matter (materialized nervous system) and inert energy since awareness is a specific work form of inert energy in a functioning nervous system. God thought before creation and then, there was neither matter nor energy. Hence, God is not awareness to do the action of thinking and He thought due to His omnipotence and not because He was awareness like the soul. If you like to call the process of thinking itself as awareness, then call God as unimaginable awareness and the soul as imaginable awareness. Veda (Yato vāco… etc.), Brahma Sutras (Janmādyasya yataḥ) say about associated characteristics of the unimaginable God and not about inherent characteristics of God), and the Gita (Māṃ tu veda na kaścana) clearly says that God is unimaginable. By the time of Dattaswami, scientific intelligence has developed a lot and people with 0% ego developed, to absorb the ultimate truth due to their improved IQ. The path is practical devotion helped by theoretical knowledge and devotion without aspiring for any fruit in return from God since the fruit is totally the wish of God and not the effort of the soul for the fruit”.
5) A soul can become God or a very close devotee like an inseparable part of God or a beloved servant of God, which is totally based on the wish of God only and the aspiration of the soul for the fruit becomes a total disqualification forever to achieve any fruit from God. We don’t say that no soul is God nor do we say that every soul is God. Both are extremities like drought and flood. Out of these three fruits, any fruit wished by God shall not matter because every fruit is essentially the service of God for the welfare of the world. Monism is possible based on the requirement of the program. The human incarnation is as good as any energetic incarnation and in fact, is the most relevant for humanity. Due to the ego based jealousy resulting in repulsion between common human media, if you miss the human incarnation here, you will miss the energetic incarnation also in the upper world due to same repulsion between common media since you will go to the upper world in an energetic body only. This results in a total loss everywhere (Mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ—Veda).
6) The policy of communism is good in Pravrutti, but, you shall not extend it to Nivrutti also. The human incarnation must be recognized for the correct guidance, which is simultaneously the ultimate goal also. Even in a communist country, is there no hierarchy like president of the country and common citizen of the country? Even there, how can the worldly administration be effective if the District collector and the peon are one and the same in all angles? Even Shankara recognized the quantitative difference of the force between a wave and the ocean (Sāmudro hi taraṅgaḥ…). The Advaita philosopher throws away even the quantitative difference between a wave and the ocean, and the wave thinks that it is the mighty ocean! What is the use of qualitative similarity? A wave cannot throw you down whereas the ocean can destroy the entire city! Even that qualitative similarity does not exist if you recognize that God is unimaginable while the soul is imaginable.
7) Even if you take the mediated God and the mediated soul for comparison, you can compare only the medium of God with the mediated soul because even the soul is a part of the medium (awareness or the soul is a specific work form of inert energy only and inert energy is modified as the entire creation). When you are comparing a person wearing a shirt and a shirt, remember that you have to compare the shirt worn by the person and the shirt. The person shall not be referred to in such comparison. Moreover, the unimaginable God merges perfectly with the medium and the medium itself becomes the unimaginable God. You can’t compare the electrified wire with an ordinary wire saying that the wire is common in both. What you say is wrong because the electrified wire is no more an ordinary wire and this point obstructs the comparison between an electrified wire and a non-electrified wire. Due to ego and jealousy, if you deny the human incarnation, what do you say about the verse in the Gita, which says that God in human form is insulted by ignorant people affected by ego and jealousy (Avajānanti māṃ mūḍhāḥ, Mānuṣīṃ tanu māśritam—Gita). In the beginning of the commentary of the Gita, even Shankara told that God is born in the womb of Devaki as human incarnation (Devakyāṃ sambabhūva…). Shankara Himself is the human incarnation of God and declared this (Śivaḥ kevalo'ham…, Ahaṃ Brahmā'smi) as Krishna who declared Himself as God in the Gita. The atheist feels humiliated to respect Krishna and Shankara because he feels that these human incarnations have the properties (like birth, death, hunger, thirst, sleep etc.) of the medium common to ordinary human beings. Due to this reason, the atheist mistakes the human incarnation as an ordinary human being. God does not interfere with the properties of His medium because He wants to mix freely with the human beings to remove any excitation about God from them.
Since the medium of God and the medium itself as the mediated soul belong to the creation, which is unreal with respect to God in its original state, the unimaginable God alone is leftover in the state of absolute reality and this is the actual meaning of the monism of Shankara. Monism means that God alone exists as the absolute reality and none or nothing other than God exists. Monism does not mean that the soul is God. In monism, there is no separate identification of the soul itself and in such a case, where is the opportunity to say that soul is God?
8) The monism of Shankara requires a special situation, which is before the first creation. In that state, the unimaginable God (we say that God is unimaginable with reference to the souls created later on) alone exists. Later on, such God wanted entertainment and created this universe, which is inherently unreal by itself, but, got the absolute reality of God due to God’s will based on the necessity of reality in the entertainment. This gifted absolute reality of the world is distinguished from the inherent absolute reality of God by naming the gifted absolute reality of the world as relative reality. God has absolute power to withdraw His gifted absolute reality from the world at any time, but, He never withdraws His absolute reality from the world because He is not foolish to destroy the film reel after projecting it as a cinema show. Similarly, the world is preserved in God Himself in subtle state (film reel) after withdrawing it from the gross state (cinema show). Hence, this world has a beginning but has no end. In this way, the soul is said to be eternal and this eternality shall not be confused with the eternality of God. The eternality of God has neither beginning nor end and is totally different from the eternality of the soul (creation). The eternality of the soul has a beginning, but has no end due to the will of God only and not by its inherent nature. Of course, the eternality of the soul is greater than the eternality of the body because the latter has both beginning and end. The eternality of the soul is praised with respect to the eternality of the body and not with respect to the eternality of God (Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre).
9) Whenever God becomes the human incarnation on this earth, a human being having awareness becomes His medium without exception, because God needs the human medium in order to preach the true spiritual knowledge to human beings. Wherever there is human incarnation, the human being-medium exists in the service of God. This means that the human medium follows God but God does not follow the human medium. A person wears the shirt and hence the shirt will be present along with the person. The person will not be present wherever the shirt exists. Hence, God is in human form, which means that every human form is not God. All human incarnations are human beings, but, all human beings are not human incarnations. All ores are minerals, but, all minerals are not ores. All gentlemen are men, but, all men are not gentlemen!
10) An ordinary soul must enter the service of God without aspiring for any fruit in return from God. After sometime, there is a chance for such soul to be recognized as a servant by God. This means that even to get a position in dualism, a lot of time is required for the ordinary soul. The word dualism does not mean simply two separate items, but, it means two items having the close relationship of master and servant. Hanuman, the servant of God Raama, is an example for this. In course of time, the servant may become closer to being treated as the dearest devotee like the inseparable limb of the body. Lakshmana, the dearest devotee of Raama is an example for such advanced relationship. Hanuman stands for the path of Madhva, whereas, Lakshmana stands for the path of Raamaanuja. Further, the relationship may become the deepest bond so that the God merges with the devotee to become one with the devotee resulting in a human incarnation like Shankara, Himself standing as the best example for His own path of monism. Hence, these three fruits are given by God in the path of spiritual progress and none of these three fruits is the relationship of God with an ordinary soul. The fruit is given by the will of God and not by the effort of the soul having aspiration for that fruit. The human incarnation results when God descends down to the state of the soul (Avatāra) and such human incarnation is not the result of an ascending effort of the soul (Uttāra).
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