O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [Part of message delivered at world parliament on spirituality, 19-12-2012] The Veda says that God is unimaginable—beyond words, mind, intelligence and even imagination (Yato vacho…, Manasaa saha…, Yobuddheh paratah…, Atarkyah…). If God is thought to be imaginable, then due to the multiplicity in imaginable items, people consider different imaginable items such as light, sun, space etc. to be God, since each person is fascinated by different imaginable items. This leads to different philosophies and religions, resulting in quarrels, disturbance of world peace and sometimes even terrorism. There cannot be two ‘unimaginables’ since you cannot differentiate one ‘unimaginable’ from the other. The unimaginable entity must be only ONE. Hence, the unimaginable God must be only ONE. Moreover, there can be oneness only in the case of the unimaginable. Once an item is imaginable, it can be differentiated from another imaginable item in this world and this results in multiplicity. Every religion says that their God alone created this earth and humanity on it. But unfortunately, there is only one earth and hence, there must be only one God, who is the Father of this entire humanity!
The Human Incarnation of God
Since creation is imaginable, all these human beings are only imaginable items and they cannot even imagine God. Hence, the unimaginable God expresses Himself through an imaginable medium for the sake of humanity to give right spiritual knowledge, which gives right direction in the spiritual journey of a human being. This is the primary aim of God in descending on this earth as a human incarnation. For this purpose, the best and the most convenient medium is the human form alone; not inert objects. Hence, God will never enter into inert objects as per the Veda (Na tasya pratimaa…). Of course, any inert object can be treated as a representative model of God for the sake of developing personal theoretical devotion to God. But direct practical service to God is not possible, through such inert objects. Direct practical service to God is possible only in the case of the living human incarnation of God. Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Mohammad etc., are such human incarnations. God comes in human form in every generation. Sometimes, He even comes simultaneously in different countries. Thus, God is not partial only to one human generation without any reason. Otherwise, you cannot justify the partiality of God simply by saying that only one specific generation contained all the good people, who deserved God’s presence. In fact, every generation contains both good and bad people.
Buddha’s silence about God should not be misunderstood to be the negation of God like some of His followers did. His silence means that God is beyond words, since God is unimaginable. Mohammad, Himself being a human incarnation of God, did not accept the concept of human incarnation since His preceding human incarnation, Jesus, was crucified by His fellow human beings, who suffered from excessive ego and jealousy towards other human beings. A training of “Service to humanity is service to God” is essential for human beings to remove their jealousy towards other human beings. This helps human beings to recognize the contemporary human incarnation and do direct practical service to God. This meeting with the living human incarnation is called as yoga. It means a very fortunate union. The word yoga comes from Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ meaning union. Of course, for service, good physical and mental health is needed, but unfortunately today, yoga is confined only to health exercises.
The knowledge (jnana), which was preached by Shankara, leads to the devotion (Bhakti), which was preached by Ramanuja, and this devotion finally results in the practical service (karma), which was preached by Madhva. Knowledge and devotion are theoretical like water and manure. Practical service is like the plant yielding the actual fruit. Therefore, practical service alone yields the fruit. That is why these three preachers came one after other in this sequence.
At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad
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