22 Nov 2022
[Smt. Chhanda Chandra asked: In continuation of Thrylokya’s question on why people are attracted by Advaita philosophy, many spiritual leaders after Adi Shankara have also given the same philosophy that God is within us. That means even after so many hundreds of years we are not changed. How will we move ahead then? At Your divine lotus feet Swami. Chhanda]
Swami replied:- The basic weakness is our ambition to get the highest fruits without a trace of effort! Of course, this ambition was exploited by Shankara for a good purpose because even through wrong means, right ends can be achieved especially in this atmosphere of Kali age, which is filled with wild tigers and cunning foxes. The method of application shall always suit the atmosphere and as an engineer you know well about this. When Shankara came, our country was fully filled with egoistic atheists, who don’t believe anybody else to be higher than himself. To turn such atheists in to theist, there is no other way than to say that he is God because awareness is God. After the intended purpose is served, Shankara dropped this concept. When the atheist-converted-theist asked Shankara about the absence of miraculous powers with him (soul), Shankara opened the new scheme and told that he must worship God to get purity of mind so that he can become God practically. In this new scheme, the old scheme is clearly demolished because if the soul is already God, how can he worship God? It means that the soul is not God already. Moreover, is God so ignorant that He does not recognize Himself even after being preached? Actually, how did God get the ignorance to forget Himself since even an ordinary fool does not forget himself? Hence, it is very very clearly proved by Shankara that the soul is not God already. Shankara proved this concept practically also by drinking molten lead and asking others to drink it clearly saying that He alone is God Shiva (Śivaḥ kevalo'ham).
But our ambition is so hard that it cannot be cut even by diamonds, that the souls blinded by the ambition to become God continued to worship God without thinking what they are doing! Do not think that since from the time of Shankara, nobody revealed the truth and that all scholars were supporting the philosophy of Shankara only. Shankara in the forms of Ramanuja and Madhva and their followers came to preach the truth that the soul is not God already. However, this shall not be misunderstood again that Shankara is completely wrong. The soul can become God provided it is not aspiring at all to become God and provided God wishes to make it God for the purpose of some spiritual-welfare program. The concept of Shankara is qualitatively correct and not quantitatively. Both the concepts that every soul is God and that no soul is God are wrong like flood and drought. God enters the world-drama as an actor through a role for the sake of the spiritual-welfare of devotees. Every soul has the opportunity to become God, but, no soul shall have the aspiration to become God, which is a permanent disqualification to become God. You become God for the sake of some valuable service to the world of devotees and not for your whims and fancies! It is not the post of the chief minister or the prime minister or an IAS or an IPS officer as in the case of worldly life. God Datta made several efforts to remove this misinterpretation and misunderstanding because even while Shankara was alive, He Himself made full efforts to remove this mad ambition. Finally, God Datta is putting His last effort through this Datta Swami!
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