Nimananda Das Adhikary. The Way to God Realization (part 1)

The Way to God Realization
(part 1)

Journal 'The Harmonist'
Edited by
Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

(No. 6, Vol. XXV, November 1927)

FROM time immemorial investigations after truth are being made along two different lines — one the avaroha-pantha or the way of descending where the conclusion directly follows from a cause or proposition, and the other the adhiroha pantha or the way of ascending where the conclusion is sought to be established by argument based on one’s own experience.
In the first, deductive reasoning has been employed, and the investigation proceeds from the now inaccessible first principle to the known. In the second inductive reasoning has been employed, and the investigation proceeds from the known to the unknown. Those, who acknowledge the authority of God, have confidence in Him and His Acharyas or prophets and depend for their knowledge or gyana upon His will or mercy, are the followers of the first. And their cult goes by the name of bhakti or devotion. The three great religions, Hinduism, Mahamedanism and Christianity notwithstanding their differences with regard to the goal they propose to achieve, embrace bhakti as the only means to attain the final goal.
The followers of the second, on the contrary, depend, for their knowledge, upon their own exertion. They do not acknowledge the authority of God, and very often deny it. They are called empiricists or elevationists. From so-called theists like the karmi, the yogi and the gyani down to avowed atheists like Charvaka and Epicurus are all but elevationists. The first three, for the sake of expediency, sometimes make a display of devotion; but that is not to be confounded with real devotion or bhakti.
Of karma, yoga and gyana the last is a great argumentative philosophy. The followers of this cult seek to establish a conclusion by an inverse argument — niti niti. Their absolute truth is Brahma without any attribute or guna and jiva, in reality, is Brahma. They are therefore popularly known as so’ham-vadi. This class of thinkers are present among the Mahamedans also. They aim at ai-nal-huque i.e. oneness with God and are popularly known as Sufis. Although the founder of the faith was mercilessly done to death as cafir, his faith is still existent.
Their argument is briefly this — jiva is albeit Brahma and nothing but Brahma, and, nothing short of him. But his ignorance that he is so, is due to maya which, according to them, means not it (ma — not and ya — it). The English equivalent of this word is illusion. This illusion is twofold, — the intrinsic and the extrinsic. If a man suddenly comes on a rope and takes it for a serpent, he is under the intrinsic illusion. But when he goes to describe that it is so long, so thick, so coiled, he is under the influence of the extrinsic illusion. By the first the rope is taken for a serpent; and by the second the properties of the rope, such as the length, the thickness, the position of the rope are attributed to the illusory serpent.
Thus the first kind of illusion relates to jivas own self. Under its influence the jiva although Brahma, cannot think as such; or, in other words Brahma has forgotten Himself into a jiva. The second kind of illusion relates to the phenomenon of the earth. Under its influence the different names and forms, the different personalities and the individualities seem to have a reality of their own, to subsist by themselves, to exist by themselves, to be real on their own account.
But just as carbon appear in charcoal as well as in diamonds, so there is one divinity that manifests itself in all these different names and forms. If we can get beyond these names and forms, if we can rise above these, we shall see that we are everything.
Now let us discuss the merit of empiricism in the matter of investigation of the truth. Let us see if our intellect can at all triumph in this business. Take our senses through which the mind receives impulses from the external objects. These impulses are interpreted in the light of the experience of the senses and not in the light of the objects themselves; or, in other words, we interpret things not as they are but as they appear to us. So Kant, a western thinker says, “We know nothing about the external nature except as by the faculty of senses it is represented to us, and we take for granted the objects of our sense-perception”.
The senses are made up of five elements, and as such, they can bear witness to the elements only. Beyond that they cannot go, and, should not venture to go. The objects thus remain uninterpreted and unexplained. The thing in itself ever remains obscure to our intelligence.
Herbert Spencer, another great western thinker, comes to the very same conclusion. In his first principles ‘The unknowable’ he writes, “There must exist some principle which being the basis of science cannot be established by science”.
Now if this is true of a region that we see, how much more true it is of a region that we do not see and into which we have no access for the present. All reasoned-out conclusions must rest on some postulate, and to establish any such postulate with regard to the region now inaccessible, we must needs find a place in it where our intellect cannot go. Our intellect, although it has much to do in the empirical realms, is but completely helpless in the realms of metaphysics. The triumph of our intellect is thus apparent and not real. The empiricist simply founders himself against an ever impregnable region.
The Shruti rings a death knell to all the pretensions of an empiricist when it says,

nayamatma pravachanena labhyo
na medhaya na bahuna shrutena
yamevaisha vrinute tena labhyah
tasyaisha atma vivrinute tanum svam

which means excellent speech, intellect and vast learning in Shastras do not enable any body to realize Him. Only to him, whom He considers worthy, does He show Himself.
Now, why does not the empiricist triumph? In the conclusions of some of the greatest western thinkers we have tried to give the reason. Now let us see what reasons our Shastras offer. We shall briefly allude to them.
Underlying all these names and forms we find jiva or soul or atma. Herein all agree. This jiva is a part and God Vishnu is the whole. Thus in Geeta Lord Krishna says, —

mamaivamsho jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah

which means jivas are my parts, and as such, they are eternal. These jivas are many and are very aptly compared with the sparks of fire. God Vishnu being compared with the fire itself. Jivas, like Vishnu, are eternal and spiritual, and, as His parts, ever existent. Vishnu is sat-chit-ananda, and His parts possess in a proportionate degree, all these attributes. The Bible and the Koran agree with the Geeta in the postdeath existence of jivas as separate entities, as angels, along with God in heaven.
The greatest of all great teachers, Shri Gaur Sundar, who is Vishnu Himself, teaches us that jiva is jiva and Vishnu is Vishnu. Jiva can never be Vishnu nor can Vishnu forget Himself into a jiva. Forgetfulness is never the character of all-knowing Vishnu. Maya cannot have any influence over all-powerful Vishnu. He is above all, beyond all He is the highest unchallengeable truth, and ever the Lord of maya.
Maya, according to Shri Gaur Sundar does not mean illusion as the gyanis or mayavadins understand, but is the apara-prakriti or the material aspect of God. This is divided into eight elements such as earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egotion, and is the cause of the phenomenon of this world.
Maya, although it does not enter into the composition of jiva which is, like Vishnu, entirely an atmic principle, does exercise influence over him when Vishnu desires it. As a result of this influence jiva, the real self, is made to put on two mortal garments. One of these garments is sukshma-sharira or the subtle body which consists of mind, intellect and egotism, and the other, the sthula-sharira or the physical body which consists of the other five elements, — earth, water, fire, air and ether.
Jiva, in reality, is ever subject to his Lord Vishnu. His fundamental function is His service. But like his Lord, he has a free will also. So long as he does not abuse his free will, he will ever remain conscious to his function towards his Lord. There will be no wavering, no breaking away from it. But whenever he has the misfortune to abuse it and assume the attitude of a master desiring to enjoy things for himself without rendering them unto his Lord, there is breaking away from it. He then shows a mood to plunge into this world, and submits to endless torture from Mayadevi who is the presiding deity of this world. Mayadevi, at the command of Vishnu, her Lord, now wraps him up in the two mortal costumes above referred to, and casts her illusory gloom over him making him forget his real nature.
Oblivious of his true self jiva now identifies himself with these mortal garments or upadhis an I designates himself at one time as a Hindu and at another time as a Mahamadan, at one time as a male and at another time as a female, at one time as a tree and at another time as a wild cat, and so on. There is no end of this false identifications. It is confined not to his own self only but is extended to all things that he sees around him. He is equally blind to the real nature of objects he sees. He accepts everything for his own enjoyment without at all referring it to Vishnu who is the undisputed Lord of all.
The apparent self that now originates from this false identification tries to obliterate the eternal line of demarcation between self and not-self, between chit and a- chit, between reality and non-reality. Although in essence pure and eternal, he now comes to think that he is subject to births and deaths. But in fact the true self never dies nor is it ever born. Births and deaths belong to his mortal garments only but not to him. They are attributed to him by the apparent self. In the same way it is wrong to say that a man in a running train moves. The man in fact does not move. It is the train that moves, and its movement is attributed to him by those who are not in the train. If we get in the train we cease to say that the man moves. In the same way we shake off this false assumption as soon as we return to ourselves. With the recovery of the self the not-self vanishes and with it all worldly afflictions do so.
Now what is the thinking principle in the apparent self? Certainly it is the material mind. It is this material mind that hankers after wealth, fame and beauty of this world. It is ever imperfect, and is always guided by motive or desire. It cannot be made perfect any more than charcoal can be made white. And why? Because it is an offspring of maya. And as such it cannot be expected to overcome her influence. Whoever believes in its efficacy as a spiritual weapon is deceived. Mind never aims at a spiritual triumph, and we must not attribute any to it. On the contrary, our best endeavor should be made to extricate ourselves from its dangerous clutches.

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