D
dattaswami1
Guest
Athiests and Shankara
The chocolate prepared by Shankara for the atheists in the initial stage shows the absence of qualitative difference between the soul and Ishwara because both are Brahman or awareness. Here the word Brahman is taken as God by the atheists and Shankara maintained diplomacy accepting the sense of God as well as the sense of greatest item for the word Brahman. The quantitative difference between the soul and the Brahman is also negated because the finite human body in which the soul exists and the infinite universe in which Brahman exists are also unreal with respect to the reality of the awareness. Here Shankara gave a comparison between the individual soul or space in a pot (ghatakasha) and the Ishwara or space in a room (mathakasha). Both the spaces are one and the same God or infinite space (mahakasha). Since the pot and the room are unreal with respect to the space, both are the same infinite space. Therefore, the individual soul and Ishwara are essentially one and the same Brahman in view of the unreal human body and the unreal world. This is the attracting chocolate prepared by Shankara to attract the atheists and the atheist thought that the individual soul is always Brahman and there is no need to do any effort to become Brahman.
He is attracted to this ancestral property, which was lying idle in his name due to his ignorance and the only step is to take over the position of it! The only effort is that the individual soul should know that it is Brahman. The atheist started accepting Brahman or God because he is already that forgotten Brahman! The golden chain is already on your neck (kanthachamikaranyaya) and why should you deny it unnecessarily? But the analysis reveals that it is only a chocolate prepared for the kids to lead them to the school and in reality the golden chain is to be presented by God only. If the pot and the room are unreal, the only one infinite space (Brahman) exists as said in Veda (Ekameva adwitivam Brahma…). In such case there is no point of talking about pot-space and room-space, since pot and room are unreal. Now Brahman (infinite space) created pot and room for its entertainment and if you say that they are unreal, the entertainment for Brahman also becomes unreal. This means God wanted entertainment but could not get it and then God cannot be omnipotent. If the entertainment is real, the pot and room should be real even for Brahman. How can the individual soul, then, say that the world is unreal when it is a part and parcel of the world? Assuming that the individual soul is Brahman, even then, the world must be real for the individual soul (Brahman) to have real entertainment. Before the creation and after the dissolution, the world may be unreal but during its existence it must be real even for Brahman for the sake of real entertainment.
To give reality to the world, Brahman imposes ignorance on itself and gets the real entertainment because the world gains reality during the ignorance of Brahman. Brahman is really not ignorant since the ignorance is only self-imposed. It is like the daydreamer enjoying his daydream forgetting himself. During such ignorance the self-realization is not lost and hence the dreamer (Ishwara) controls the dream while enjoying it under ignorance. The ignorance brings reality to the dream and the realization brings unreality to the same dream. Hence, for Ishwara the world is mithya, which is a mixture of reality and unreality (Satyanrutemithunikrutya… Shankara) and as a result the world is neither real nor unreal. Even if the daydreamer enters into complete ignorance and sleeps, finally and really the dreamer is not at all affected because when he wakes up, the original state is obtained.
The chocolate prepared by Shankara for the atheists in the initial stage shows the absence of qualitative difference between the soul and Ishwara because both are Brahman or awareness. Here the word Brahman is taken as God by the atheists and Shankara maintained diplomacy accepting the sense of God as well as the sense of greatest item for the word Brahman. The quantitative difference between the soul and the Brahman is also negated because the finite human body in which the soul exists and the infinite universe in which Brahman exists are also unreal with respect to the reality of the awareness. Here Shankara gave a comparison between the individual soul or space in a pot (ghatakasha) and the Ishwara or space in a room (mathakasha). Both the spaces are one and the same God or infinite space (mahakasha). Since the pot and the room are unreal with respect to the space, both are the same infinite space. Therefore, the individual soul and Ishwara are essentially one and the same Brahman in view of the unreal human body and the unreal world. This is the attracting chocolate prepared by Shankara to attract the atheists and the atheist thought that the individual soul is always Brahman and there is no need to do any effort to become Brahman.
He is attracted to this ancestral property, which was lying idle in his name due to his ignorance and the only step is to take over the position of it! The only effort is that the individual soul should know that it is Brahman. The atheist started accepting Brahman or God because he is already that forgotten Brahman! The golden chain is already on your neck (kanthachamikaranyaya) and why should you deny it unnecessarily? But the analysis reveals that it is only a chocolate prepared for the kids to lead them to the school and in reality the golden chain is to be presented by God only. If the pot and the room are unreal, the only one infinite space (Brahman) exists as said in Veda (Ekameva adwitivam Brahma…). In such case there is no point of talking about pot-space and room-space, since pot and room are unreal. Now Brahman (infinite space) created pot and room for its entertainment and if you say that they are unreal, the entertainment for Brahman also becomes unreal. This means God wanted entertainment but could not get it and then God cannot be omnipotent. If the entertainment is real, the pot and room should be real even for Brahman. How can the individual soul, then, say that the world is unreal when it is a part and parcel of the world? Assuming that the individual soul is Brahman, even then, the world must be real for the individual soul (Brahman) to have real entertainment. Before the creation and after the dissolution, the world may be unreal but during its existence it must be real even for Brahman for the sake of real entertainment.
To give reality to the world, Brahman imposes ignorance on itself and gets the real entertainment because the world gains reality during the ignorance of Brahman. Brahman is really not ignorant since the ignorance is only self-imposed. It is like the daydreamer enjoying his daydream forgetting himself. During such ignorance the self-realization is not lost and hence the dreamer (Ishwara) controls the dream while enjoying it under ignorance. The ignorance brings reality to the dream and the realization brings unreality to the same dream. Hence, for Ishwara the world is mithya, which is a mixture of reality and unreality (Satyanrutemithunikrutya… Shankara) and as a result the world is neither real nor unreal. Even if the daydreamer enters into complete ignorance and sleeps, finally and really the dreamer is not at all affected because when he wakes up, the original state is obtained.
