04 Nov 2011
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
Shankara told that the awareness, which is filtered from all types of thoughts and left over with a single thought that it is awareness, is the absolute God (Nirguna Brahman). All the thoughts can be classified into three types, which are called as Trigunas. Awareness, aware of itself is a thought by itself, which is the inherent characteristic of the awareness and is called as awareness in general. Sattvam is one of the three types of thoughts. The type Sattvam represents all good and divine thoughts. The general awareness (jnanam) is also included in this first category i.e., Sattvam. The word knowledge (jnanam) basically means to know something including itself. The word jnanam is fixed (rudha) in special knowledge but it can be taken in this basic sense (yoga) also.
The basic material of every thought is general awareness. Therefore, the basis of all the three types of thoughts is general awareness, which should not be confined to the first type only. Based on this logic, Shakara isolated the general awareness from the three types of thoughts and called it as absolute God. Hence, the absolute God is above the three types of thoughts (Trigunas) and hence, called as Nirguna Brahman. This word means that the absolute God is beyond and separate from the three Gunas. But, the general awareness itself is a specific work form of the inert energy only, which is generated from the oxidation of food. The general awareness disappears in deep sleep and appears in the awaken state. Hence, the general awareness has daily birth and daily death as said in the Gita (Nitya jaatam…). You cannot call the general awareness as thoughtless entity and claim that it is beyond all the thoughts or Gunas. The thoughtless entity is the inert energy in deep sleep and therefore, cannot be the awareness. If you say that the awareness is thoughtless, the awareness itself disappears and becomes inert energy. It is just like saying that the lump of gold is formless and the ornaments only have the form. This view is allowed in normal way but the sharp analysis shows that the lump of gold also has some form, which may be irregular. Therefore, the general awareness can be allowed to be beyond all the thoughts (gunas) in such normal way.
What is the reason for Shankara to do all this exercise and promote the general awareness to the state of absolute God? Shankara knows very well that absolute God is unimaginable (Mouna Vyaakhya Prakatita…). ‘Unimaginable’ means that it is beyond awareness and also beyond inert entities. You cannot even imagine God and where is the possibility of attaining or becoming God? In such case, there is a free license to attribute any imaginable item as the absolute God and the license should be appreciated if some good purpose is served. If I say that a specific imaginable item is the unimaginable God, you can never negate My proposal. The reason is that you yourself cannot prove and define the unimaginable God on your side. When you cannot establish something, you cannot oppose anything.
The unimaginable status of the absolute God creates the pre-license to name any imaginable item as absolute God. This is the reason for the multiplicity of the schools of philosophy. Each school proposes some imaginable item as the absolute God according to its liking. This is the reason for the evolution of several religions and several schools of thoughts in the same religion. This is the basis for all the ‘sacred quarrels’! The reason is that the basic free license cannot be opposed by anybody since you cannot define the absolute God before opposing somebody. However, this free license is appreciated if some good purpose is served. The same free license should be condemned by the powerful logic establishing the unimaginable nature of God as the generator of the space in the context of avoiding these sacred quarrels, which lead to unsacred harmful results. Therefore, Shankara can be appreciated since He selected the general awareness as absolute God. It was necessary for Him since everybody became atheist by denying the existence of God based on the reason of unimaginable nature. Some imaginable item should be selected as absolute God to deny atheism. The atheists (Buddhists) concluded that everything is nothing based on the concept of relativity. In the force of relativity, the basis also became nothing. The theory of relativity became endless. Then, Shankara proposed the existence of awareness to grasp this relativity. Otherwise, the relativity itself becomes nothing. If the awareness is non-existent, this ‘nothing’ becomes nothing since nothing is not established, which is not grasped by the awareness. By this logic, Shankara stopped the endless concept of relativity at the basis of awareness. Awareness was used as the temporary stop gap by Shankara to stop the endless relativity, the result of which is endless nothing (Shunya).
Psychological Treatment of Patients by Advaita
Apart from the above essential good aspect, another good aspect is to remove the strain of tensions and to introduce perfect detachment and confidence in the case of general public. Everybody was strained by the mental tension, which is the result of continuous thoughts. When the thoughtless awareness is set to be God, everybody tried to enter this state of awareness without thoughts. This gives perfect rest to mind and mental strain is removed. Everybody gets attracted because such a state is the absolute God and you also become God by such state!
All this is the psychological treatment for the mental patients and every human being is a psychotic patient in reality. Shankara, the human incarnation of God is the psychiatrist, who came down to cure His children from the mental illness. Most of the people follow Advaita Philosophy for these good benefits only and we need not condemn this philosophy in the view of establishment of truth and spoil these good benefits given by Shankara to the society. But, once the human being is cured from these mental defects, the truth must be established so that it can progress in the true spiritual path to attain the ultimate grace of God. You must distinguish the mental patients attracted by the Advaita Philosophy from the greedy lot of human beings to become the highest God resulting in egoistic demons. We should sympathize with the first group and not reveal the truth. You must open the truth to the second group and rectify them.
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