04 Jan 2021
[Śrī Anil asked: A Muslim devotee said that Allāh is not Jesus and that Jesus is not God’s son. He gives the following explanation as reasoning: We all know that Jesus had a beginning. He ate food and slept like we do. He even prayed to Allāh. There is no doubt that these are created attributes. The Creator is not like the creation and does not have created attributes. We cannot attribute weakness to God. To say that God is a man or like a man is actually attributing weakness to God. When speaking about a father and a son, we always pose a relationship between the two. The father is human and the son is also a human. The father eats and the son also eats. The father was once a child, and the son will likely be a father by God’s will. Allāh made Jesus without a father and made Adam without either a father or a mother; yet we have not heard anyone call Adam God’s son. Some people insult Prophet Adam, who is a great Prophet and our father. It is against Islam to call Allāh a father or say that He has a son or that we are his children; this is the worst of crimes. The Creator is not like the creation. How could the Eternal be like the created? How could the One who is not in need of anyone be like the creation which needs Allāh in every moment of their existence. Swāmi, please give a response to this.]
Swāmi replied: What the Muslim said is correct, but not complete. He has to accept that Mohammad is also not the son of God based on the same reasons given by him in the case of Jesus. He wants to say that both Jesus and Mohammad are only prophets or messengers of God and not sons of God. In that case, there is no hope of he accepting that both Jesus and Mohammad are God Himself. Actually, both are Human Incarnations of God. A Human Incarnation will be viewed by devotees as God, son of God or as a messenger of God, based on the levels of the devotees. The first view of the Human Incarnation as God Himself is the monism of Śaṅkara. Only the highest level of devotees has this view. The second level is viewing the Human Incarnation as the son of God and is the special monism of Rāmānuja. The third level is viewing God as completely different from God; as His messenger. This is the dualism of Madhva. As you come down from the first to the third level, the value of the Human Incarnation is progressively reduced. This reduction in the value given by the devotee to the Human Incarnation reflects the reducing spiritual maturity of the devotees at each level. This change in the value given to the Human Incarnation depends on the percentage of ego and jealousy present in the devotee.
The three views of the Human Incarnation corresponding to the three levels of devotees described above are:
1) The view of monism: The Human Incarnation is viewed as God Himself by devotees if their ego and jealousy are 0%. The unimaginable God enters and merges with the selected devotee to become the Human Incarnation of God. The Human Incarnation is a single-phase system consisting of two components, namely God and human devotee, which are perfectly merged with each other. In this merging, the original unimaginable God remains in His original place, while at the same time, He merges with the devotee to become the Human Incarnation. This is possible due to the unimaginable omnipotence of God. Hence, there is no fear that the God in His original place is reduced or changed in any way. The same God existing in the Human Incarnation is also not adulterated in spite of the perfect merging with the human devotee.
2) The view of special monism: This is a partially monistic view of the Human Incarnation. This view lies in between monism and dualism and is held by devotees whose ego and jealousy are 50%. Here, the Human Incarnation is considered to be partially God and is treated as the son of God. God is treated to be the whole while the merged soul is treated as His son. Due to the unimaginable omnipotence of God, here also, God is not adulterated in any way.
3) The view of dualism: This view of the Human Incarnation is held by devotees whose ego and jealousy are 100%. Here, the Human Incarnation is considered to be totally different from God. He is treated to be the messenger of God or a prophet of God. In this case, of course, there is no doubt of any adulteration of God since both God and the messenger are totally different from each other.
As per the above analysis, we see that all depends on the angle of the observer. Even if you take Human Incarnations to be messengers of God, there cannot be any difference between the messengers because the same God is sending different messages through different messengers, which do not contradict with each other.
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