Ajnanatimirintasyajnananjanasalakaya Cakshurunmilitam yena tasmai srigurave namah ADVAITA VEDANTA D
APPENDIX 6 Notes No.33 – 48 Note No 33 - Iswara, karma and free will ( This is an elaboration of a topic already included in the main paper.) (1)
As already mentioned in the main text, jivatmas who have not attained
knowledge of jivabrahmaikyam are governed by karma. Iswara is the administrator
of the karma (karmaphaladata) and, through
Maya, creates the world including bodies and minds in accordance with
the requirements of the myriads of jivatmas to go through enjoyment
or suffering as warranted by their previous karma.
The physical and mental equipment a person is born with, in which
family he is born, in which environment he has to lead his life and
the major situations he has to face in life will depend on his karma.
Not all situations in life, though, arise solely
out of one’s own karma. Karmas of many people can combine to create
a situation. There is also what is called niyati, examples of which are drought, flood, war etc. which
affect all people in a region or the world as a whole. How a person takes the initiative to create situations
, how he faces situations created by others, how he makes use of the
opportunities available to himself to develop himself, how he reacts
to actions, behaviour and conduct of other people, all these depend
on his free will. In the same school, with the same teaching faculty
and library, one works hard and studies well; another with an equally
good brain wastes his time and fails to make the grade.
One manages his office, being a friend of all; another manages
the same office as a ring master. The situations we are faced with is
Iswara srshti. How we face it is Jivasrshti.
. (2)
Another factor which operates in our life is vasanaas,
tastes and attitudes resulting from the impressions of the experiences
of our previous lives. Vasanas govern our
action in the sense that towards the same objects
, different people have different likes and dislikes and the
same situation different people face with different attitudes. One loves
music; another can’t stand any music One loves swimming; another does
not want even to have a bath. One loses heart at the slightest obstacle;
another bulldozes through the toughest situations. Vasanas of the past can also be changed or overcome by free
will, with determination. Thus our life is an interplay
of Iswara srshti including niyati, our karma
and vasanas and jivasrshti. (3) The very fact that human beings have a choice to do a thing, or not to do it or do it in a different way, is proof of free will. A powerful argument for free will is that, unless you accept free will, moksha will be impossible. Aspiring for moksha and making use of the opportunities available for spiritual advancement are matters of free will. Punya karma may even give you birth in a family of spiritual seekers, but whether you yourself take to the spiritual path depends on your free will. Papa karma may give you birth in a family of materialists, but, with your free will, you can transcend those surroundings and , if your aspiration is intense, you will find the set up where you can pursue your spiritual sadhana. (4) If free will is not accepted, there will
be certain other problems – (i) The commandments and prohibitions of scripture will become
meaningless. Scripture is advising man to do good actions and avoid
evil actions only because scripture assumes that man has free will.
(ii) If man has no free will and not merely
our karmaphalam but fresh action is also impelled by Iswara, Iswara
becomes responsible for the good action and bad action done by man.
The problem then would be two-fold. By making some men to do
good action and some men do bad action resulting in punya and papa followed
by enjoyment or suffering as karmaphalam later, Iswara would become
partial and cruel. Secondly, if Iswara is responsible for man’s good
action and bad action, no one can be rewarded nor can any criminal be
punished. A murderer will say “I am not responsible for what I did. The Lord made me
do it.” (5)
Since no one knows what one’s karma is, the best way to act is to do
action according to Dharma. Dharma in, the modern context, should be
defined as principles of self-improvement, developing one’s potential,
putting forth utmost efforts to achieve legitimate goals, morality –
not only personal morality but what may be called social morality -
such as doing or not doing to others what you would like them
to do or not to do to you, working for the greatest good of the greatest
number, adhering to values like non-violence,, truthfulness, charity,
having regard to ecological balance
etc. When one is in doubt in
any situation whether what one is intending to do is right or wrong,
there are two ways; follow the example of great people, if available,
or see that your motive is pure and do what your conscience dictates. Note No.34 - Miracles and karma Apart from the physical laws governing the
universe, there are divine forces in the empirical plane. Evidence of
such forces is found in certain temples, churches, mosques, darghas
etc. We have authentic accounts of miracles in the form of the sick
getting cured in such places. There are also authentic accounts of certain
persons who have acquired or have carried forward from previous janmas
Yogic powers by which they are able to bring about changes in the life
of devotees. In regard to temples
etc., in certain cases, the powers are attributed to Yogis who have
attained samadhi there and have deliberately
left their powers to operate there. The
important point to note, in all these cases, is that not all who visit
and worship at the places mentioned above get the benefit of the divine
or miraculous powers. This can only be explained by postulating that
what happens in these places does not fall outside the law of karma.
Based on this premise, we should say that if a particular person gets
a benefit, by way of cure or some other material advancement, it is
predestined according to his karma itself that his suffering should
be over at that time. It is just as a matter of the medium through which
that takes place. In these cases, the medium for ending the suffering
is the divine or miraculous force at such a place, just as the medium
in other cases is a skilled doctor or a generous benefactor. Here also, free will comes into operation inasmuch
as the choice of and the decision to go to a place of worship, like
the choice of and decision to go to a skilled doctor is a matter of
free will. Note No.35 – Moksha means knowing one’s
Infinite nature Brahman is said to be infinite, space wise,
time wise and entity wise. When you talk of a thing that is attained
by you, it has to be a finite thing; before attaining it, it has to
be away from you. Conversely, there can be no such event as attaining
the thing that is infinite. By definition, ‘the infinite’ precludes
the existence of any second entity. So, to talk of your being away from
the infinite, to start with, and your attaining it, later, is illogical.
Therefore, ‘attainment of Brahman’ can only be a figure of speech. One
is ever Brahman; one has been ignorant of this fact and the ignorance
is removed through study of Sastra. Note No.36 – Mind is matter There is a certain logic in saying that mind
is also matter. Mind is affected by matter; e.g., administration of
electric shock for various mental disorders, the use of lie detector
and psychosomatic diseases. Note No. 37. Importance
of “asi” in “Tattvamasi” By
knowing the meaning of the word, “Tvam” (“Thou”) or “Tat (“That”) alone, you do not attain liberation.
By enquiry into the true meaning of “Tvam”,
you may understand that you are not the body of the mind but unchanging
consciousness available to be invoked as the constant “I” in and through
the changing conditions of the body and mind.
That is not enough. Because you may think that there are as many
consciousnesses as there are bodies and minds. Similarly by enquiry
into the true meaning of at, you may know that Brahman is the infinite
Exisence-Consciousness-Infinity, the only reality, the sub-stratum og
all false manifestations, but what benefit is there for you in it? Only
when the meaning of “Tvam” and “Tat” are tied by “asi”
and when the teacher says “Tat tvam asi”, you understand “aham brahma
asmi ( I am that Brahman), then alone you are free from samsara. Note No.37A – Duality – two kinds It is not enough to know that you, the Jivatma,
are none other than the Paramatma. This removes only one kind of duality
– the duality of consciousness. There is another duality – the atma
anatma duality. This is removed only when
you gain the knowledge that all that there is Brahman; i.e., the substratum
of everything, in the form of existence, is Brahman and what appears
as anatma is only nama roopa which is of a
lower order of reality. Note No. 38. – Denial of consciousness
– self-contradictory The existence of consciousness cannot be
denied, because the very denial involves the use of consciousness. This
is what is meant by saying, ‘the negator cannot be negated’. Note No. 39 – Mixing up orders of reality One should not mix up orders of reality.
Suppose, one convicted of murder pleads, “Atma neither kills nor is
it killed. I am Atma, so, I did not kill and, therefore, you should
not punish me.” The judge would turn round and say “I am not punishing
your Atma; I shall punish only your body.” It is in this strain that
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa relates a story of
a man thinking that the elephant is atma and I am atma and so, the elephant
cannot kill me. So saying he went and laid himself in front of a rogue
elephant. The body of the elephant came and crushed the body of the
man. Note No. 40 – Corollaries of Brahman being
infinite From the infinitude of Brahman, we can derive (a) Formlessness (niraakaratvam)
- (That which is infinite space wise cannot have any form) (b) Eternity (nityatvam)
– (That which is infinite time wise cannot have a beginning or end) © Relationlessness
(asangatvam) - (That which
in infinite entity wise cannot have any relation with anything, there
being no second entity.) Note No. 41. Description of Brahman in terms of contadiction. In The Upanishads, in certain passages, Brahman is described in terms
of contradiction and negation, such as, ‘farther than the farthest,
nearer than the nearest’, ‘tinier than the tiniest, bigger than the
biggest’ (anoyaniiyaan, mahatomahiiyaan’)
‘not this, not this’. Since our concepts are in terms of space, time
and causation and atma is beyond these, and since definition is possible
only in terms of entity distinction, species, function, attribute, and
relationship (roodhi, jaati, kaarya, guna and sambandha) and since Brahman is beyond these, Upanishads
take recourse to the language of contradictions. We have to interpret
those passages properly. As indicated
below. Similarly, commenting on Katopanishad
I.ii.20, ‘ Remaining stationary, It goes far; lying down, It reaches
everywhere’. Sankaracarya explains that this refers to the condition
in which consciousness is unchanging and the mind (reflecting the consciousness)
travels and the condition when the sense organs and the mind are dormant as in sushuptui ,
the all pervading consciousness remains. Note No. 42 – “Anoraniiyaan
mahato mahiiiyan” Kathopanishad I.ii.20 says that atma is the
subtler than the subtlest and greater than the greatest” (“anoraniiyaan
mahatomahiiiyan). This
seems to be a contradiction in terms. Sankaracarya argues that the contradiction
can be resolved if we take the substratum. As the substratum of everything,
atma (Brahman) is the substratum of the greatest as well as the tiniest.
Whether it is a mountain nama roopa or a microbe nama roopa, atma is
the Existence. . Brahman as Exisrence-Consciousnes
is not only in all beings and things but is also beyond them in two
senses, one in the sense of being infinite and in the sense of being
of a higher order of reality thanthe nama
roopas. There is a verse in Purushasukta
which talks of Brahman being in the world and beyond it. In this way
, Brahman can be said to be greater than the greatest. As regards subtlety,
both in terms of formlesslessness and unobjectifiability
Brahman is subtler than the subtest. Note No. 43 – Atma motionless Kathopanishad I.ii.21, talking of atma, says
“remaining motionless, It goes far and reaches all directions.” How
can this be? It is a symbolic language to indicate that, being infinite,
atma is motionless, but in the presence of atma, reflection of consciousness
is formed in the mind and the mind, with the reflection of consciousness
moves far and wide, cognising objects, through the senses. Note No.
43. Note No 44 . Atma is neither
the known nor the unknown In Kenopanishad, II.2, the student makes four statements – (a)
I don’t think I know Brahman. (b) Not that I don’t know Brahman. (c)
I know Brahman. (d) I do not know Brahman. Taken together they mean
that Brahman is neither the known (because it is not an object) nor
the unknown (because it is the very consciousness recognised as constant
I behind the changing mind). The meaning of the next mantra which says
that those who know do not know and those who do not know know
is also similar. Note No. 45 – “neti neti” When
faced with the advice, ‘neti neti’,in
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the unenlightened will ask, ‘if I negate everything,
nothing remains; so it is nihilism’. To that Sastra would ask ‘ What
is it that says that there is nothing? Even when the mind is not functioning,
there is one thing that remains. That consciousness is yourself, the
Brahman’. Cf. Brhadaranyaka Swayamjyotibraahmana,
Ushastabraahmana and Kaholabraahmana
Note No. 46 – Guru and Brahman synonymous A Jivanmukta identifies himself with Brahman. On the vyavaharika
plane, he is looked upon as Iswara. That is why guru is glorified as
Paramatma in the famous sloka “ gururbrahma
gururvishnu gururdevo
maheswara; gurureva parambrahma tasmai sri gurave namaha”.
Correspondingly, when a devotee does namaskara
to a guru, the guru accepts it with the thought that the devotee is
doing namaskara, not to his body, but to Iswara. Note No. 47
– Relative immortality An authority for saying that ‘amrutatvam’
should be taken in certain contexts as relative immortality is found
in Kathopanishad II.i.2 which talks of benefit of the knowledge of jivabrahma
aikyam as absolute immortality (“amrutatvam
dhruvam).
This implies that there can be ‘relative immortality’ in the
sense of enjoyment of a life of a vastly longer duration than the human
life. Note No. 48. The unnegatable
remainder You experience your mind. Whatever
you experience is not yourself. So, you negate the mind, saying,
“I am not the mind.” Then, when you analyse further, you come to know
that, even when the mind is not functioning, there is consciousness.
You recognise the consciousness that exists constantly, without your
experiencing it as an object, as yourself. This means that there is
only one thing that can’t be experienced but the existence of which
cannot be denied; that is the constant I, the atma. |