03 Apr 2011
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
[Mr. Anil asked, “You said that God is beyond creation and at the same time. You also say that God is in a human body, which is in this creation. Is it not a contradiction?” Shri Swami’s explanation is given below.]
Unless the contradiction arises and you are unable to solve it through your analysis, you cannot call it as unimaginable action. Unless you recognize the unimaginable action, you cannot accept that God is unimaginable, who is the source of the unimaginable actions. For the establishment of unimaginable actions, there should be pre-established imaginable background so that the violation of such imaginable background can be identified as the unimaginable action. Therefore, God created the imaginable background, which can be understood by all the humanity through imaginable logic. Then, on some required occasions, God violates the imaginable logic so that people fail to analyze such violations through their imaginable logic and finally conclude that God is unimaginable. Now, you can understand the necessity of both the imaginable background and the unimaginable violation of it.
As per the imaginable background, the unimaginable God is beyond this imaginable creation. God is unimaginable because God has no spatial dimensions. This creation is imaginable since it has the imaginable spatial dimensions. Our logic is based on our senses and the sophisticated scientific instruments. Our senses can grasp the visible items. The scientific instruments can grasp the invisible but imaginable items and pass on the information to us regarding such invisible items. You can see a pot through your eyes but, you cannot perceive the invisible cosmic energy that pervades all over the cosmos through your senses. But, the cosmic rays can be detected through sophisticated instruments and you can understand the nature of the cosmic rays through such instruments. A pot is visible and imaginable. A cosmic ray is invisible but imaginable with the help of scientific instruments. Both these examples are parts of the imaginable creation. You can analyze the visible and imaginable items. Science can analyze the invisible and imaginable items. Science is sharper than human beings but, it does not mean that science can analyze the unimaginable items.
The violation of the logic of both science and human beings comes under the unimaginable action of God. The actions of God may be visible or invisible, but are unimaginable. Krishna lifting up the mountain is visible but is unimaginable. Krishna hid the sun with the help of His weapon (Sudarshana Chakra) and created a false sunset in the war. This action of hiding the Sun is invisible and also unimaginable. This does not mean that God is the source of unimaginable actions only. Both imaginable and unimaginable actions are from one God only. Krishna ate the food given by His mother. This is visible and imaginable action. Krishna stole the butter and this is invisible and imaginable action. Therefore, God is the source of all the actions. God performs the unimaginable action when there is a real requirement. Through such occasions, not only the requirements are met, but also the knowledge about His unimaginable nature is given to human beings.
Coming to the context of the present question, God has created this imaginable creation and remains unimaginable since He is beyond space. The generator of the space cannot have spatial dimensions. Therefore, God remains unimaginable always and cannot be included in the visible or invisible items of the creation, which are always imaginable. The Veda says that those who knew God rejected every item of the creation not to be God. It means God is unimaginable since every item of the creation is imaginable. But, the requirement is that the devotees of God want to see, talk, touch and live with God in this world. To fulfill this requirement, God enters a human being and gets identified with It like the invisible current enters a metallic wire and gets identified with it. In this example, current is invisible but imaginable. We can only bring some invisible item of creation to compare with unimaginable God since there is no second unimaginable item in the creation other than God. Therefore, you should not think that the invisible item is unimaginable. Even in the ancient logic, all the invisible items were detected as imaginable parts of the creation. But, somehow, the ancient logic could not detect the invisible awareness as imaginable item. Of course, some schools have recognized the awareness also as an imaginable item. Even the Gita mentions the awareness indicated by the word ‘Chetana’, which is included in the imaginable items of the creation. Even the word ‘Jeeva’ is mentioned as the precious part of the creation (Prakruti) only.
Necessity of Coining the New Word ‘Parabrahman’
Shankara also differentiated the awareness of all things (Sarvajna) from the awareness of few things (Alpajna) as ‘Ishwara’ and ‘Jeeva’ respectively. Here, the word ‘Jeeva’ stands for the ordinary soul and the word ‘Ishwara’ stands for the unimaginable God associated with created general awareness, which is specially qualified by the unimaginable quality of knowing everything. Here, ‘Ishwara’ should not be taken as the pure unimaginable God (Nirguna Brahman). Therefore, awareness should be understood as a quality or property or the created item existing in the creation. After all, awareness is an item that is understood by us and cannot be the unimaginable God. The general awareness existing as common essence in both ‘Ishwara’ and ‘Jeeva’ is only created item and not the creator. Shankara called this general awareness as ‘Brahman’ not in the sense of unimaginable God. The word ‘Brahman’ can be used for any greatest item in a category. Awareness is the greatest item due to its preciousness (Para Prakruti) among all the categories of the creation and hence, can be emphatically called as ‘Brahman’. But, it is only the imaginable item and the unimaginable God is always greater than it. Therefore, the unimaginable God or the creator is the absolute greatest item and should be called as ‘Brahman’ in the absolute sense in the first place. The awareness comes in the second place, which is not the creator but, the greatest item of the creation. Now, if you call both these items i.e., unimaginable God and awareness by the same word ‘Brahman’, definitely the confusion starts and as a result, you will certainly mistake the general awareness as the unimaginable God.
Therefore, Shankara created a new word ‘Parabrahman’, which means that, which is other than Brahman. The word ‘Para’ also means ‘other than’. He clearly mentioned the meaning of ‘Parabrahman’ as that, which is beyond words (Maunavyaakhyaa Prakatita Parabrahma…). Only the unimaginable item can never be expressed by words. In spite of His clarification, the advaita philosophers continued in the illusion that awareness is God because the attraction to become God is always a very strong ambition. Awareness is the process of knowing, which is just a specific work form of inert energy only and we must thank the modern science for giving such clarification so that now we know the mechanism of the process of knowing.
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