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It is concluded that Lord Krishna, or Vishnu, is not of this material world, but that He belongs to the Spiritual World. Anyone considering Him as one of the demigods of the material world is a great offender. This is called blasphemy. Lord Vishnu is, therefore, not subject to perception by the material senses, and neither can He be realized by mental speculation. There is no difference between the Body and Soul of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. In the material world there is always the difference between the body and soul.
#$p#Anything material is enjoyed by the living entities because the living entities are superior in nature, whereas the material Nature is of inferior quality. Therefore, the superior quality of Nature, the living entities, can enjoy the inferior quality of Nature, matter. Because Lord Vishnu, is in no way touched by matter, He is not subject to the enjoyment of the living entities. The living entities cannot gain knowledge of Vishnu by enjoying their mental speculative habits. The infinitesimal living entities are not, therefore, the enjoyers of Vishnu, but they are enjoyed by Lord Vishnu. If somebody thinks that Vishnu is enjoyable, then he is the greatest offender. The greatest act of blasphemy is to consider Vishnu and the living entity on the same level.
#$p#The Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is compared with the blazing fire, whereas the innumerable living entities are compared with the sparks emanating from the blazing fire. So, although both of them are fire in quality, yet there is the distinction that Vishnu the Supreme is infinite, whereas the living entities, which are sparks, are infinitesimal. The infinitesimal living entities are emanations from the original infinite spirit. In other words, in their constitutional position as infinitesimal spirits, there is no trace of matter.
#$p#The living entities are not as great as Narayan, Vishnu, Who is beyond the Creation of this material world. This is accepted even by Sankaracharya—that Narayan is beyond this material Creation. So neither Vishnu nor the living entity are of the material Creation. Somebody may then enquire: Why were such small particles of the spirit created at all? The answer is that the completeness of perfection of the Supreme Absolute Truth is possible when He is both infinite and infinitesimal. If He is simply infinite and He is not infinitesimal, then He is not perfect. The infinite portion is the Vishnu Tattwa, or the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead; and the infinitesimal portion is the living entity.
#$p#By the infinite desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead there is the existence of the Spiritual World, and by the infinitesimal desires of the living entities there is this material world. When the infinitesimal living entities are engaged in their infinitesimal desires for material enjoyment, they are called Jiva Shakti; but when they are dove-tailed with the infinite, they are called liberated souls. There is no question, therefore, as to why God created the infinitesimal portions. It is the complementary and supplementary side of the Supreme. It is essential, without any doubt, that the infinite must have the infinitesimal portions. They are inseparable parts and parcels of the Soul.
#$p#And, because they are infinitesimal parts and parcels of the Supreme, there is a reciprocation of feelings between the infinite and the infinitesimal. Had there been no infinitesimal living entities, then of course the Supreme Lord would have been inactive, and there would have not been any variegatedness in spiritual life. As there is no meaning of a king if there is no subject, therefore there is no meaning of the Supreme God if there are no infinitesimal living entities. There would have been no meaning of the word "Lord," if there were none to overlord. The conclusion is that the living entities are counted as expansions of the energy of the Supreme Lord, and the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is the Energetic.
#$p#In all the Vedic literature, such as Bhagavad Gita and Vishnu Purana, there is innumerable evidence for this distinction between the energy and the Energetic. In Bhagavad Gita, Seventh Chapter, 5th verse, it is clearly stated that earth, water, fire, air and sky are five principal gross elements of the material world. Mind, intelligence and false ego are elements of the subtle matter. The whole material Nature is considered to be divided into these eight elements, which are the inferior quality of Nature. Another name for this inferior quality of Nature is Maya, or illusion. Beyond these eight kinds of inferior Nature there is another superior quality of Nature, which is called Paraprakriti. That Paraprakriti is the living entity, and the entities are found all over this material world. The purport is that the Supreme Lord is the Absolute Truth, the Energetic, and that He has energy also. That energy, when not properly manifested, or when covered by some shadow, is called Maya Shakti. The cosmic manifestation is a product of that covered Maya Shakti.
#$p#The living entities are factually beyond this covered inferior energy. The living entities have their pure spiritual existence, and their pure identity, and they have their pure mental activities. And all of them are beyond the manifestation of this cosmic world. The living entity, his mind, his intelligence, and his identity are beyond the range of this material world, but when he enters into this material world by his desire to lord it over matter, then his original mind, intelligence, and body become covered by the material energy. When he is again uncovered from these material or inferior energies, he is called liberated. And when he is liberated he has no false ego, but his real ego comes again into existence.
#$p#Foolish mental speculators think that after liberation even the identity is lost, but that is not so. Because we are eternally part and parcel, the living entity, when liberated, revives his original, eternal part-and-parcel identity. Aham Brahmasmi (I am not this body) does not mean that I lose my identity. At the present moment I say that I am matter, but in my liberated state I will understand that I am not matter, I am spirit soul, as part of the infinite. So to become Krishna conscious or spiritually conscious and to be engaged in this loving transcendental service of Krishna is the sign of the liberated stage.
#$p#In the Vishnu Purana, Sixth Chapter, 7th verse, it is very nicely and clearly stated: "The energy of the Supreme Lord is divided into three: Para, Kshetrajna and Avidya." Para energy is actually the energy of the Supreme Lord; the Kshetrajna energy is called the living entities; and the Avidya energy is called this material world, or Maya. It is called Avidya, or ignorance, because under the spell of this material energy one forgets his actual position and his relationship with the Supreme Lord. It is concluded, therefore, that the living entities represent one of the energies of the Supreme Lord. Such an infinitesimal part and parcel of the Supreme Lord is called Jiva. If the Jiva is artificially put onto the same level with the infinite Supreme—because both of them are Brahman, or spirit—that will certainly lead to bewilderment.
#$p#The Mayavadi philosophers are perplexed before a learned Vaishnava philosopher because the Mayavadi cannot explain the cause of bondage of the living entities. They simply say: "It is out of ignorance," but they cannot explain why the Supreme is covered by this ignorance. The actual solution is that the living entities, although qualitatively one with the Supreme are infinitesimal, and are not infinite. Had they been infinite there would not have been any possibility of being covered by ignorance. But, because the living entities are infinitesimal, they are covered by another, an inferior, energy. We can see their foolishness and ignorance when they try to explain that the infinite is covered by ignorance. It is an offensive attempt to qualify the infinite as subject to the spell of ignorance.
#$p#Sankara, although he attempted to cover the Supreme Lord by his Mayavadi philosophy, was doing so only by the order of the Supreme Lord. It is to be understood that his teaching was a timely necessity, but not a permanent fact. In the Vedanta Sutra this distinction between energy and the Energetic is accepted from the very beginning. In that Brahma, or Vedanta, Sutra the first aphorism, Janmadyasya, is a clear explanation that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Origin or Source of all emanation. Therefore the emanations are His energy, whereas He is the Energetic. Sankara has falsely put his argument in this way: that if the transformation of energy is accepted, then the Supreme Absolute cannot remain immutable. But that is not true; in spite of unlimited energy being generated, why not accept that the Supreme Absolute Truth remains always the same, even though there is the emanation of unlimited energies from Him? Sankaracharya has therefore incorrectly and wrongly established the theory of illusion.
#$p#In this connection Ramanujacharya has discussed the point very nicely as follows: "If you argue that before the creation of this material world there was only one Absolute Truth, then how is it possible that the living entity emanated from Him? If He was alone, how could He produce or generate the infinitesimal living entities?" In reference to this question the Vedas state that everything is generated from the Absolute Truth, everything is being maintained by the Absolute Truth, and, after annihilation, everything enters into Him. From this statement of the Upanishads, it is clear that the living entities enter into the Supreme Existence in their liberated state without changing their original constitutional position of activity.
#$p#We must always remember that the Supreme Lord has His creative function; and, similarly, the infinitesimal living entities have also a creative function. When they are liberated and enter into the Supreme after the dissolution of this material body, their creative function is not lost. On the contrary, the creative function of the living entity becomes properly manifested in the liberated stage. If the living entity's activities are definitely manifested when he is in this material condition, then how is it possible that when he is in his spiritual liberated stage his activities can be stopped? Entering is therefore understood in the sense that the bird enters into the trees, or the animals enter into the forest, or the flying vehicle enters into the sky.
#$p#While explaining Code Number One of the First Chapter of Vedanta Sutra, Sankara has most unceremoniously tried to explain that Brahman or the Supreme Absolute Truth is impersonal. Similarly, he has tried to twist most cunningly the doctrine of by-product into the doctrine of state of change. Actually, there is no change of state for the Supreme Absolute. It is simply by His inconceivable power of doing things that there comes a by-product. A relative truth produced out of another truth is called the transformation of a by-product. For example, when a sitting chair is produced out of crude wood it is the transformation of a by-product. Similarly, the Supreme Absolute Truth, Brahman, is immutable, and when we find a by-product—the living entity or this cosmic manifestation—it is called a transformation of that by-product of the Supreme. Another example can be cited in this connection: that of milk and yogurt. Yogurt is a transformation of milk. In this way, if we study the living entities and the cosmic manifestation, it will appear that they are not different from the original Absolute Truth.
#$p#But from the Vedic literature we understand that the Absolute Truth has various multiforms of energy, and therefore the living entities and the cosmic manifestation are only a demonstration of His various energies. As energies are non-separable from the Energetic, therefore this transformation of the living entity and the cosmic manifestation is an inseparable truth which is part of the same Absolute Truth. Such a conclusion about the Absolute Truth and the relative truth should not be unacceptable to any sane man.
#$p#The Supreme Absolute Truth has His inconceivable potency, and out of that potential energy this cosmic manifestation has been effected. In other words, the Supreme Absolute Truth is the ingredient and the living entity and the cosmic manifestation are by-products. In the Taittiriya Upanishad it is clearly stated: Yato va imani bhutani jayande. This clearly states that the Absolute Truth is the original reservoir of all ingredients, and this material world of the living entities is produced out of those ingredients.
#$p#Less intelligent persons who cannot understand the doctrine of by-products cannot grasp how this cosmic manifestation and the living entity are simultaneously one and different from the Absolute Truth. Without understanding this truth, if, out of unnecessary fear, one concludes that this cosmic manifestation and the living entity are false, by putting forward the example of mistaking a rope for a snake, as Sankaracharya does, or mistaking the oyster shell for gold, surely that sort of argument is simply cheating. The examples of mistaking a rope for a snake and the oyster shell for gold, mentioned in the Mandukya Upanishad, have their different applications, and can be understood as follows: the living entity in his original constitution is pure spirit. And when a human being identifies himself with this material body, that is a case of accepting the rope as a snake, or the oyster shell as gold. The doctrine of transformation of state is accepted when one thing is mistaken for another. Actually, the body is not the living entity; and to accept the body as the living entity is the doctrine of transformation of state. Every conditioned soul is undoubtedly contaminated by this doctrine of transformation of state.
#$p#This conditional state of the living entity is a diseased condition. Originally, the living entity and the Original Cause of this cosmic manifestation are certainly not in this state of transformation. But mistaken thoughts and arguments can overcome a person when he forgets about the inconceivable energies and activities of the Supreme Lord. Even in the material world there are many examples: the Sun is producing unlimited energies from time immemorial, and so many by-products result from the Sun; yet there is no change in the heat and temperature of the Sun itself. If the Sun can maintain itself in its original state of temperature—although it is a material product—in spite of producing so many by-products, then is it very difficult to understand that the Supreme Absolute Truth, in spite of His producing so many by-products by His inconceivable energy, is not changed at all? Therefore, there is no question of the transformation of His state.
#$p#It is learned from the Vedic literature that there is a material product which is called touchstone which, simply by touch, can transform iron into gold. The touchstone can produce an unlimited quantity of gold, and still the touchstone itself does not change its state. Therefore, to suppose that this cosmic manifestation and the living entities are false or illusory, as advocated by the Mayavadi philosopher, is ignorance. No sane man should impose ignorance and illusion upon the Supreme Absolute Truth, Who is Absolute in everything. There is no possibility of change or ignorance or illusion with Him. Supreme Brahman is transcendental and completely different from any sort of material conception. Therefore, in the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is every possibility of inconceivable potential energy.
#$p#In the Svetasvetara Upanishad it is stated that the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead is full of inconceivable energies, and no one else has such energy. By the misunderstanding of such inconceivable energies of the Supreme, one may conclude that the Supreme Absolute Truth is impersonal, but this is false. Such a conclusion is only a delusion experienced by a living being when he is in an acute stage of disease. In Srimad Bhagwatam also there are statements that the Supreme Atma, the Lord, has got inconceivable, innumerable potencies. In the Brahma Samhita also it is stated that in the Supreme Spirit there are many variegated, inconceivable energies.
#$p#In the Absolute Truth there is no possibility of ignorance. Ignorance and knowledge are conceptions of this world of duality, but in the Absolute there cannot be any ignorance. Therefore it is simply foolishness to consider that the Absolute becomes covered by ignorance. If the Absolute Truth has the possibility of ignorance, how can it be said to be Absolute?
#$p#Understanding of the inconceivable energy of the Absolute is the only solution to the question of duality. In other words, the inconceivable energy of the Absolute is the cause of the doctrine of duality. By such inconceivable energy, the Supreme Absolute Truth, without being changed, can produce this cosmic manifestation and the living entities, just as the touchstone can produce unlimited quantities of gold without being changed. Because the Absolute Truth has such inconceivable energy, the material quality of covering by ignorance cannot be applied to the Absolute Truth. True variegatedness in the Absolute Truth is therefore a product of that inconceivable energy. It can be safely concluded that this cosmic manifestation is by-product of that inconceivable energy. And when we accept the inconceivable energy of the Supreme Lord, then there is no duality at all.
#$p#The expansion of the energy of the Supreme Lord is as true as the Supreme Lord. In the manifestation of the Supreme energy there is no question of transformation of state. The same example of the touchstone can be cited again: that, in spite of producing unlimited quantities of gold, the touchstone remains the same. (We hear, therefore, some sages say that the Supreme is the Ingredient or Cause of this cosmic manifestation.)
#$p#The example of accepting the rope as the snake is also not irregular. When we accept the rope as the snake it is to be understood that one has previous experience of the snake. Otherwise, how can one mistake the rope as a snake? Therefore, the conception of the snake is not untrue or unreal. It is the question of application. When, by mistake, we impose our conviction on the rope as being a snake, that is ignorance. But the very idea of the snake is not itself ignorance. Similarly, when we accept a mirage of water in the desert, there is no question of water being a false concept. Water is a fact, but the application of water in the desert is a mistake.
#$p#Therefore, this cosmic manifestation is not false, as is stated by Sankara. There is nothing false here. To consider this material manifestation as false is another ignorance. The Mayavadi theory that this world is false is ignorance. The conclusion of Vaishnava philosophy is that this cosmic manifestation is a by-product of the inconceivable energy of the Supreme Lord.
#$p#The principal word in the Vedas, Pranava Omkara, is the sound representation of the Supreme Lord. Therefore Omkara should be taken as the sound Supreme. Sankara has falsely preached Tatvamasi as the Supreme vibration in the Vedas, instead of Omkara. Omkara is the reservoir of all the energies of the Supreme Lord. The accent on the word Tatvamasi by Sankara, as the Supreme vibration of the Vedas, is wrong, because this word Tatvamasi is a secondary word only. This word suggests only a partial representation of the Vedas. In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord has in many places given importance to Omkara. The importance of Omkara is mentioned in the Eighth Chapter, 13th verse, Ninth Chapter, 17th verse, and Seventeenth Chapter, 23rd verse. Similarly, the importance of Omkara is stated in the Atharva Veda. Similarly, we get the importance of Omkara vibration in the Mandukya Upanishad.
#$p#Srila Jiva Goswami has given great importance to the word Omkara in his Bhagavat Sandarbha. He says: "Omkara is the most confidential sound representation of the Supreme Lord." The sound representation or Name of the Supreme Lord is as good as the Supreme Lord. By vibration of such sound as Omkara, or of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, one can be delivered from the contamination of this material world. And, because such vibrations of transcendental sound can deliver a conditional soul, it is known as Tarak, or deliverer.
#$p#The sound vibration of the Supreme Lord is identical with the Supreme Lord. In the Narada Pancharatra also it is stated that when sound vibration is practiced by the conditioned soul, the Supreme Lord is present on the tongue of such a vibrating person. In the Mandukya Upanishad the same importance is given, in that whatever is seen as spiritual, with the addition of Omkara, is perfect spiritual vision. In the Spiritual World or in the spiritual vision there is nothing except Omkara, or the one alternate, Om. Unfortunately, Sankara has given up this chief word, Omkara, and he has whimsically accepted Tatvamasi as the Supreme vibration of the Vedas. By accepting such a secondary word of the Vedas as Tatvamasi, leaving aside the principal word Omkara, he has given up direct interpretation in favor of his own indirect interpretation of the Scripture.
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It is concluded that Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu, is not of this material world. He belongs to the spiritual world. One who considers Him to be a demigod of the material world is a great offender and blasphemer. Lord Viṣṇu is not subject to perception by material senses, nor can He be realized by mental speculation. Unlike in the material world, where there is always a difference between the body and the soul, there is no difference between the body and soul of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu.
#$p#Material things are enjoyed by the living entities because the living entities are superior in quality whereas material nature is inferior. Thus the superior nature, the living entities, can enjoy the inferior nature, matter. Because Lord Viṣṇu is in no way touched by matter, He has no tendency to enjoy material nature the way the living entities do. The living entities cannot attain knowledge of Viṣṇu by enjoying their habits of mental speculation. The infinitesimal living entities are not the enjoyers of Viṣṇu, but they are enjoyed by Viṣṇu. Only the greatest offender thinks that Viṣṇu is enjoyed. The greatest blasphemy is to consider Viṣṇu and the living entity on the same level.
#$p#The Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is compared to a blazing fire, and the innumerable living entities are compared to sparks emanating from that fire. Although both the Supreme Lord and the living entities are qualitatively fire, there is yet a distinction. Viṣṇu, the Supreme, is infinite, whereas the living entities, which are but sparks, are infinitesimal. The infinitesimal living entities are emanations from the original infinite spirit. In their constitutional position as infinitesimal spirits, there is no trace of matter.
#$p#The living entities are not as great as Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, who is beyond this material creation. Even Śaṅkarācārya accepts Nārāyaṇa to be beyond the material creation. Since neither Viṣṇu nor the living entity are of the material creation, someone may inquire, "Why were the small particles of spirit created at all?" The answer is that the Supreme Absolute Truth is complete in His perfection when He is both infinite and infinitesimal. If He were simply infinite but not infinitesimal, He would not be perfect. The infinite portion is the #i#viṣṇu-tattva#/i#, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the infinitesimal portion is the living entity.
#$p#Due to the infinite desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual world exists, and due to the infinitesimal desires of the living entity, the material world exists. When the infinitesimal living entities are engaged in trying to fulfill their infinitesimal desires for material enjoyment, they are called #i#jīva-śakti#/i#, but when they are dovetailed with the infinite, they are called liberated souls. There is no need to ask, therefore, why God created the infinitesimal portions: they are simply the complementary side of the Supreme. It is doubtlessly essential for the infinite to have infinitesimal portions which are inseparable parts and parcels of the Supreme Soul. Because the living entities are infinitesimal parts and parcels of the Supreme, there is a reciprocation of feelings between the infinite and the infinitesimal. Had there been no infinitesimal living entities, the Supreme Lord would have been inactive, and there would not be variegatedness in spiritual life. There would be no meaning to a king if there were no subjects, and there would be no meaning to the Supreme God if there were no infinitesimal living entities. How can there be meaning to the word "lord" if there is no one to rule? The conclusion is that the living entities are expansions of the energy of the Supreme Lord and that the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is the energetic.
#$p#In all Vedic literatures, including the #i#Bhagavad-gītā#/i# and #i#Viṣṇu Purāṇa#/i#, much evidence is given to distinguish between the energy and the energetic. In the #i#Bhagavad-gītā#/i# (7.4) it is clearly stated that earth, water, fire, air and ether (the five gross elements of the material world) and mind, intelligence and false ego (the three subtle elements) are the Lord 's energies. All material nature is divided into these eight elements, which together comprise His inferior nature, or energy. Another name for this inferior nature is #i#māyā#/i#, or illusion. Beyond these eight inferior elements is His superior energy, which is called #i#parā-prakṛti#/i#. This #i#parā-prakṛti#/i# comprises the living entities, who are found in great numbers throughout the material world. The purport is that the Supreme Lord is the Absolute Truth, the energetic, and that as such He has energies. When one of His energies is not properly manifested, or when it is covered by some shadow, it is called #i#māyā-śakti#/i#. The material cosmic manifestation is a product of that #i#māyā-śakti#/i#.
#$p#The living entities are factually beyond this covered, inferior energy. They have their pure spiritual existence, their pure identity and their pure mental activities—all beyond the manifestation of this material cosmos. Although the living entity 's mind, intelligence and identity are beyond the range of this material world, when he enters into this material world due to his desire to lord it over matter, his original mind, intelligence and body become covered by the material energy. When he is again free of the covering of this material, inferior energy, he is called liberated. When he is liberated he has no false ego, but his real ego again comes into existence. Foolish mental speculators think that after liberation one 's identity is lost, but that is not so. Because the living entity is eternally part and parcel of God, when he is liberated he revives his original, eternal, part-and-parcel identity. The realization of #i#ahaṁ brahmāsmi#/i# ("I am spirit, not this body") does not mean that the living entity loses his identity. At the present moment a person may consider himself to be matter, but in his liberated state he will understand that he is not matter but spirit soul, part of the infinite. To become Kṛṣṇa conscious, or spiritually conscious, and to engage in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa are signs of the liberated stage.
#$p#In the #i#Viṣṇu Purāṇa#/i# (6.7.61) it is clearly stated:
#dl##dd##i#viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā prokta kṣetra-jñākhyā tathā parā#/i##/dd#
#dd##i#avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā tṛtīyāśaktir iṣyate#/i##/dd##/dl#
"The energy of the Supreme Lord is divided into three: #i#parā#/i#, #i#kṣetra-jña#/i# and #i#avidyā#/i#." The #i#parā#/i# energy is actually the energy of the Supreme Lord Himself, the #i#kṣetra-jña#/i# energy is the living entity, and the #i#avidyā#/i# energy is the material world, or #i#māyā#/i#. It is called #i#avidyā#/i#, or ignorance, because under the spell of this material energy one forgets his actual position and his relationship with the Supreme Lord. The conclusion is that the living entities represent one of the energies of the Supreme Lord. As infinitesimal parts and parcels of the Supreme, they are called #i#jīvas#/i#. If the #i#jīvas#/i# are artificially placed on the same level with the infinite Supreme because both of them are Brahman, or spirit, then bewilderment will certainly be the result.
#$p#Generally Māyāvādī philosophers are perplexed before a learned Vaiṣṇava because the Māyāvādīs cannot explain the cause of bondage of the living entities. They simply say, "It is due to ignorance," but they cannot explain how the living entities can be covered by ignorance if they are supreme. The actual reason is that the living entities, although qualitatively one with the Supreme, are infinitesimal, not infinite. Had they been infinite, there would have been no possibility of their being covered by ignorance. Because the living entity is infinitesimal, he can be covered by an inferior energy. The foolishness and ignorance of the Māyāvādīs are revealed when they try to explain how the infinite can be covered by ignorance. It is offensive to attempt to qualify the infinite by arguing that He is subject to the spell of ignorance.
#$p#Although Śaṅkara attempted to cover the Supreme Lord by his Māyāvāda philosophy, he was simply following the order of the Supreme Lord. It should be understood that his teachings were a timely necessity but not a permanent fact. In the #i#Vedānta-sūtra#/i# the distinction between the energy and the energetic is accepted from the very beginning. The second aphorism of the #i#Vedānta-sūtra—janmādy asya yataḥ#/i#—-clearly states that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the source of all emanations. Thus the emanations are the energy of the Supreme, whereas the Supreme Himself is the energetic. Śaṅkara has falsely argued that if the transformation of energy is accepted, the Supreme Absolute Truth cannot remain immutable. But this is not true. Despite the fact that unlimited energy is always being generated, the Supreme Absolute Truth remains always the same. He is not affected by the emanation of unlimited energies. Śaṅkarācārya has therefore incorrectly established his theory of illusion.
#$p#Rāmānujācārya has discussed this point very nicely: "One may argue, 'Since there was only one Absolute Truth before the creation of this material world, how is it possible that the living entities emanated from Him? If He were alone, how could He have produced or generated the infinitesimal living entities?' In answer to this question, the #i#Vedas#/i# state that everything is generated from the Absolute Truth, everything is maintained by the Absolute Truth, and, after annihilation, everything enters into the Absolute Truth. This statement from the #i#Upaniṣads#/i# makes it clear that when the living entities are liberated they enter into the supreme existence without changing their original constitutional position."
#$p#We must always remember that the Supreme Lord has His creative function and that the infinitesimal living entities have their creative functions also. It is not that their creative function is lost when they are liberated and enter into the Supreme after the dissolution of the material body. On the contrary, the creative function of the living entity is properly manifested in the liberated state. If the living entity 's activities are manifest even when he is materially conditioned, then how is it possible for his activities to stop when he attains liberation? The living entity 's entering the state of liberation may be compared to a bird entering a tree, or an animal entering the forest, or a plane entering the sky. In no case are activities stopped.
#$p#When explaining the second aphorism of the #i#Vedānta-sūtra#/i#, Śaṅkara has most unceremoniously tried to explain that Brahman, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is impersonal. He has also cunningly tried to switch the doctrine of by-products into the doctrine of change. For the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is no change. It is simply that a by-product results from His inconceivable powers of action. In other words, a relative truth—a by-product—is produced out of the Supreme Truth. For example, when a chair is produced out of crude wood, it is said that a by-product is produced. The Supreme Absolute Truth, Brahman, is immutable, and when we find a by-product—the living entity or this cosmic manifestation—it is a transformation of the Supreme 's energies, or a by-product of the Supreme. It is like milk being transformed into yogurt. In this way, if we study the living entities in the cosmic manifestation, it will appear that they are not different from the original Absolute Truth, but from the Vedic literature we understand that the Absolute Truth has varieties of energy and that the living entities and the cosmic manifestation are but a demonstration of His energies. The energies are not separate from the energetic; therefore the living entity and cosmic manifestation are inseparable truths, part of the Absolute Truth. Such a conclusion regarding the Absolute Truth and the relative truth should be acceptable to any sane man.
#$p#The Supreme Absolute Truth has His inconceivable potency, out of which this cosmic manifestation has been produced. In other words, the Supreme Absolute Truth supplies the ingredients, and the living entity and cosmic manifestation are the by-products. In the #i#Taittirīya Upaniṣad#/i# it is clearly stated, #i#yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante#/i#: "The Absolute Truth is the original reservoir of all ingredients, and this material world and its living entities are produced from those ingredients."
#$p#Less intelligent persons who cannot understand this doctrine of by-products cannot grasp how the cosmic manifestation and the living entity are simultaneously one with and different from the Absolute Truth. Not understanding this, one concludes that the doctrine of by-products implies that the Absolute Truth itself is transformed. Unnecessarily fearing this, one then concludes that this cosmic manifestation and the living entity are false. Śaṅkarācārya gives the example of a rope being mistaken for a snake, and sometimes the example of mistaking an oyster shell for gold is cited, but surely such arguments are ways of cheating. As mentioned in the #i#Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad#/i#, the examples of mistaking a rope for a snake and an oyster shell for gold have their proper applications and can be understood as follows. The living entity in his original constitutional position is pure spirit. When a human being identifies himself with the material body, his misidentification is like mistaking a rope for a snake, or an oyster shell for gold. The doctrine of illusory transformation of state is accepted when one thing is mistaken for another. Actually the body is not the living entity, but according to the doctrine of illusory transformation of state one accepts the body as the living entity. Every conditioned soul is undoubtedly contaminated by this doctrine of illusory transformation of state.
#$p#The conditioned state of the living entity is his diseased condition. Originally the living entity and the original cause of this cosmic manifestation exist outside the state of transformation. But mistaken thoughts and arguments can overcome a person when he forgets the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Lord. Even in the material world there are many examples of inconceivable energy. The sun has been producing unlimited energy from time immemorial, and so many by-products result from the sun; yet there is no change in the heat and temperature of the sun itself. Despite its being a material product, if the sun can maintain its original temperature and yet produce so many by-products, is it difficult to understand that the Supreme Absolute Truth remains unchanged in spite of producing so many by-products by His inconceivable energy? Thus there is no question of transformation as far as the Supreme Absolute Truth is concerned.
#$p#In Vedic literatures there is information of a material object called a "touchstone," which, simply by touch, can transform iron into gold. The touchstone can produce an unlimited quantity of gold and yet remain unchanged. Only in the state of ignorance can one accept the Māyāvāda conclusion that this cosmic manifestation and the living entities are false or illusory. No sane man would attempt to impose ignorance and illusion upon the Supreme Absolute Truth, who is absolute in everything. There is no possibility of change, ignorance or illusion in Him. The Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, is transcendental, completely different from all material conceptions, and full of inconceivable potencies. The #i#Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad#/i# confirms that the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead is full of inconceivable energies and that no one else possesses such energies.
#$p#It is only by misunderstanding the inconceivable energies of the Supreme that one may conclude that the Supreme Absolute Truth is impersonal. Such a deluded conclusion is experienced by a living being when he is in an acute stage of disease. In #i#Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam#/i# (3.33.3) there is a clear statement that the supreme #i#ātmā#/i#, the Lord, has inconceivable and innumerable potencies. It is also stated in #i#Brahma-saṁhitā#/i# (5.5) that the Supreme Spirit has many variegated and inconceivable energies. Nor should one think that there is any possibility of ignorance existing in the Absolute Truth. Ignorance and knowledge are conceptions in this world of duality, but in the Absolute there cannot be any ignorance. It is simply foolishness to consider that the Absolute is covered by ignorance. If the Absolute Truth could be covered by ignorance, how could it be said to be Absolute?
#$p#Understanding the inconceivable energies of the Absolute is the only solution to the question of duality. This is because duality arises from the inconceivable energies of the Absolute. By His inconceivable energies, the Supreme Absolute Truth can remain unchanged and yet produce this cosmic manifestation with all its living entities, just as a touchstone can produce unlimited quantities of gold and yet remain unchanged. Because the Absolute Truth has such inconceivable energies, the material quality of ignorance cannot pertain to Him. The true variegatedness which exists in the Absolute Truth is a product of His inconceivable energies. Indeed, it can be safely concluded that this cosmic manifestation is but a by-product of His inconceivable energies. Once we accept the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Lord, we will find that there is no duality at all. The expansion of the energies of the Supreme Lord is as true as the Supreme Lord Himself. But despite all the variegated manifestations of the Supreme Lord 's energies, there is no question of transformation for the Supreme Lord Himself. Once again the example of the touchstone can be cited: in spite of producing unlimited quantities of gold, the touchstone remains the same. (We therefore hear some sages say that the Supreme is the "ingredient cause" of this cosmic manifestation.)
#$p#Also, the example of the rope and the snake is not irregular. When we accept a rope to be a snake, it is to be understood that we have experienced a snake previously. Otherwise, how can the rope be mistaken for a snake? Thus the conception of a snake is not untrue or unreal in itself. It is the false identification that is untrue or unreal. When, by mistake, we consider the rope to be a snake, that is our ignorance. But the very idea of a snake is not in itself ignorance. Similarly, when we accept a mirage in the desert to be water, there is no question of water being a false concept. Water is a fact, but it is a mistake to think that there is water in the desert.
#$p#Thus this cosmic manifestation is not false, as Śaṅkarācārya maintains. Actually, there is nothing false here. It is because of ignorance that the Māyāvādīs say this world is false. The conclusion of the Vaiṣṇava philosophy is that this cosmic manifestation is a by-product of the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Lord.
#$p#The principal word in the #i#Vedas—praṇava#/i#, or #i#oṁkāra#/i#—is the sound representation of the Supreme Lord. Therefore #i#oṁkāra#/i# should be considered the supreme sound. But Śaṅkarācārya has falsely preached that the phrase #i#tat tvam asi#/i# is the supreme vibration. #i#Oṁkāra#/i# is the reservoir of all the energies of the Supreme Lord. Śaṅkara is wrong in maintaining that #i#tat tvam asi#/i# is the supreme vibration of the #i#Vedas#/i#, for #i#tat tvam asi#/i# is only a secondary vibration. #i#Tat tvam asi#/i# suggests only a partial representation of the #i#Vedas#/i#. In several verses of the #i#Bhagavad-gītā#/i# (8.13, 9.17, 17.24) the Lord has given importance to #i#oṁkāra#/i#. Similarly, #i#oṁkāra#/i# is given importance in the #i#Atharva Veda#/i# and the #i#Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad#/i#. In his #i#Bhagavat-sandarbha#/i#, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīhas given great importance to #i#oṁkāra#/i#: " #i#Oṁkāra#/i# is the most confidential sound representation of the Supreme Lord." The sound representation or name of the Supreme Lord is as good as the Supreme Lord Himself. By vibrating such sounds as #i#oṁkāra#/i# or Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, one can be delivered from the contamination of this material world. Because such vibrations of transcendental sound can deliver a conditioned soul, they are known as #i#tāraka-mantras#/i#.
#$p#That the sound vibration of the Supreme Lord is identical with the Supreme Lord is a fact. This is confirmed in the #i#Nārada-pañcarātra#/i#:
#dl##dd##i#vyaktaṁ hi bhagavān eva sākṣān-nārāyaṇaḥ svayam#/i##/dd#
#dd##i#aṣṭākṣara-svarūpeṇa mukheṣu parivartate#/i##/dd##/dl#
"When the transcendental sound is vibrated by a conditioned soul, the Supreme Lord is present on his tongue." In the #i#Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad#/i# it is said that when #i#oṁkāra#/i# is chanted, one attains perfect spiritual vision. In other words, in spiritual vision, or the spiritual world, there is nothing but #i#oṁkāra#/i#. Unfortunately, Śaṅkara has abandoned this chief word, #i#oṁkāra#/i#, and has whimsically accepted #i#tat tvam asi#/i# as the supreme vibration of the #i#Vedas#/i#. By accepting such a secondary vibration and leaving aside the principal vibration, he has given up the direct interpretation of the scripture in favor of his own indirect interpretation.
#$p#Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has unceremoniously obscured the Kṛṣṇa consciousness described in the #i#puruṣa Vedānta-sūtra#/i# by manufacturing an indirect interpretation and abandoning the direct interpretation. Unless we take all the statements of the #i#Vedānta-sūtra#/i# as self-evident, there is no point in studying the #i#Vedānta-sūtra#/i#. Interpreting the verses of the #i#Vedānta-sūtra#/i# according to one 's own whim is the greatest disservice to the self-evident #i#Vedas#/i#.
#$p#As far as the #i#oṁkāra#/i# (#i#praṇava#/i#) is concerned, it is considered to be the sound incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As such, #i#oṁkāra#/i# is eternal, unlimited, transcendental, supreme and indestructible. He (#i#oṁkāra#/i#) is the beginning, middle and end, and He is beginningless as well. When one understands #i#oṁkāra#/i# as such, he becomes immortal. One should thus know #i#oṁkāra#/i# as a representation of the Supreme situated in everyone 's heart. One who understands #i#oṁkāra#/i# and Viṣṇu as being one and the same and all-pervading never laments in the material world, nor does he remain a #i#śūdra#/i#.
#$p#Although He (#i#oṁkāra#/i#) has no material form, He is unlimitedly expanded and has unlimited form. By understanding #i#oṁkāra#/i# one can become free from the duality of the material world and attain absolute knowledge. Therefore #i#oṁkāra#/i# is the most auspicious representation of the Supreme Lord. Such is the description given by the #i#Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad#/i#. One should not foolishly interpret an Upaniṣadic description and say that it is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot appear Himself in this material world in His own form that He sends His sound representation (#i#oṁkāra#/i#) instead. Due to such a false interpretation, #i#oṁkāra#/i# has come to be considered something material, and consequently #i#oṁkāra#/i# is misunderstood and eulogized as being simply an exhibition or symbol of the Lord. Actually #i#oṁkāra#/i# is as good as any other incarnation of the Supreme Lord.
#$p#The Lord has innumerable incarnations, and #i#oṁkāra#/i# is one of them, in the form of a transcendental syllable. As Kṛṣṇa states in the #i#Bhagavad-gītā#/i# (9.17): "Among vibrations, I am the syllable #i#om#/i#." This means that #i#oṁkāra#/i# is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa. Impersonalists, however, give more importance to #i#oṁkāra#/i# than to the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. But the fact is that any representational incarnation of the Supreme Lord is nondifferent from Him. Such an incarnation or representation is as good spiritually as the Supreme Lord. #i#Oṁkāra#/i# is therefore the ultimate representation of all the #i#Vedas#/i#. Indeed, the Vedic #i#mantras#/i# or hymns have transcendental value because they are prefixed by the syllable #i#om#/i#. The Vaiṣṇavas interpret #i#oṁkāra#/i#, a combination of the letters a, u and m, as follows: By the letter a, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is indicated; by the letter u, Kṛṣṇa 's eternal consort, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, is indicated; and by the letter m, the living entity, the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord, is indicated. Śaṅkara has not given such importance to #i#oṁkāra#/i#. But such importance is given in the #i#Vedas#/i#, the #i#Rāmāyaṇa#/i#, the #i#Purāṇas#/i# and the #i#Mahābhārata#/i#, from beginning to end. Thus the glories of the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are declared.
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