THE ONLY POSSIBLE MONISM

[Krishna Ashtami] The essence of the entire message of Lord Krishna, the Bhagavad Gita, is to develop the highest state in which you can be in the state of continuous enjoyment and happiness through entertainment. If you can enjoy the problems also, such continuous state of happiness is possible. The human being has always the worst tendency to pick-up negative things only in life and go on brooding over those things. Either you should avoid thinking about those negative things (Dhyayato vishayaan…) or you should be able to enjoy those negative things also like the dish of chillies in meals. Avoiding the thinking of negative things in life is impossible since they touch and penetrate the mind in practical life. Therefore, the only alternative way is to enjoy those things also and be happy in every minute of life. Such state is called as Brahmi sthiti (Eshaa brahmi sthitih…), which means that you should continuously enjoy your life containing both positive and negative things, like God enjoys His creation containing both good and bad. You become equal to God in this state of enjoyment and this is the only possible monism (advaita). You are in the state of maintained creation and you enjoy the creation like God. You are not in the state before creation, in which you can be equal to God since He creates everything and you cannot create anything. You are also not in the state of final dissolution of the world in which He destroys everything and you cannot destroy anything. You are in the best state of maintenance of creation in which you cannot be differentiated from God since you enjoy the creation like God. There is no trace of difference as long as the aspect of enjoyment of the world-cinema containing both scenes of happiness and tragedy is concerned.

Even the extreme tragedy, the death, is not an exception to such entertainment (sthitvaasyaamantakalepi…). Krishna followed this in His life and His preaching, the Gita, was perfectly implemented in His practice. He enjoyed His own death while the foot was bleeding, hit by the hunter. He consoled the hunter and removed his tension over the incident. He enjoyed the genocide of His family members as a spectator in the end. He enjoyed the defeat in the hands of the enemies like Jarasandha, who flew away to construct a new city in the island present in the ocean. He enjoyed when Shishupala repeatedly scolded Him and was never subjected to any tension. He enjoyed when He was called as the thief of butter in other houses. Except entertainment and enjoyment, even a trace of tension could not touch Him in His entire life. You may say that God enjoys the world-cinema since He is away from it. You may differentiate from God by this, stating that you participate in the cinema. This cannot be accepted since God also entered the world-cinema as Krishna and participated in it like you. The only difference is that He acts in the role, where as you live in the role by completely identifying yourself with it. Such divine knowledge applies to you also and Shankara preached this. God is detached from the drama because He differentiated Himself from the role. You can also detach yourself from the role by identifying yourself as the soul of pure awareness. The detachment and its continuous knowledge are the ground for entertainment and enjoyment in the drama forever. Thus, the philosophy preached by Shankara is perfectly applicable as far as this state of entertainment through detachment is concerned. The perfect monism between God and a realized soul is achieved (Matbhavamaagataah…). This means that the soul and God are exactly equal as far as the detached enjoyment is concerned and this does not mean that God and soul are one and the same.

The difference between God and soul is clear when the two states viz., before creation and the end of creation are concerned. Even during the present state of maintenance of the world is concerned, God controls the entire world where as the soul is a part of the world and is controlled by God. The producer and director of the cinema is the total boss and can control even the running state of the cinema. But, his servant sitting along with him as the spectator of the cinema is exactly in equal state with him as far as the entertainment and enjoyment through detachment is concerned. The producership, directorship and control over the running of the show etc., are not relevant points and cannot differentiate the servant as far as the limited angle of entertainment is concerned. If you close your eyes serving the boss without seeing the cinema, you are hurting the boss, because he will be happy if you enjoy like him seeing his creation. Therefore, God is not pleased with those who run away from the cinema and engage themselves in His praise only. Your enjoyment of His creation without any tension shows that you are totally appreciating His work and talent in creating this universe. If you suffer due to some aspect in the creation that shows that His work is defective. Your tension indicates your dislike to some part of the creation. If you enjoy with every item and situation in the world, you have appreciated His creation totally in every direction. God will be extremely pleased with such state. He preached the detached participation of everybody in the practical life with continuous satisfaction and happiness. He never preached the continuous isolated devotion in the Gita. After entertainment and enjoyment only, the devotion should come as appreciation to God. Such devotion will be real, natural and spontaneous. The continuous entertainment should become the cause of your devotion.

Devotion Should be With Cause

Devotion without cause will be artificial. You have read an epic written by a poet and enjoyed it continuously. After that, you started liking the poet with immense love. Such love is based on a cause and will be real and natural. It is generated based on appreciation of his great work and is not based on any benefit from him. The love should have either basis of appreciation and attraction or aspiration for some benefit. Without either of these two, love cannot be generated. If you like God based on the appreciation of His creation, your devotion is real. The monism preached by Shankara is limited to this aspect of appreciation through entertainment of creation, which has no scope for any tension and is always characterized by continuous happiness called as Brahmananda or divine bliss, which means that you are happy like God through the entertainment from the creation. The essence of the Gita is totally reflected in the commentary of Shankara. The monism means only the similarity in the state of entertainment during the maintenance of creation and does not touch the differences outside the state. The creation, control during maintenance and dissolution of creation clearly differentiate God and soul.

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