We will start this subject with the writings of Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach.Feuerbach says there is no meaning
to the world,save what we create ourselves and impose upon the world.For Feuerbach humanity needs to find solace
in consoling thoughts such as the existence of God and heaven.Both in his view are complete fabrications,the inventions
of sad and lonely souls desperately craving for meaning in a universe conspicuously devoid of purposes and goals.
Karl Marx took the above views of Feurbach a stage further and argued that the human longing for consolation was the
direct result of unjust social and economic conditions.The miserable meterial situation of humanity was the direct cause
of its religious yearnings.Abolish social and economic misery,for example,through a communist revolution-and people would not
need to dream of heaven any more because it would have been created on earth in a communist state.
Karl Marx adopted the crude progressive scientific-materialistic outlook so popular in the early nineteenth century.Marx said religion is just outmoded superstition which dulls the ability of the working class to rise up and overthrow the ruling class.’It is
the opium of the people’ which enables them to endure their sufferings,when they ought to be throwing off the shackles that condemned them to such sufferings in the first place.We find Lenin(heir to Karl Marx)also expressing similar views-’Religion is opium for the people’,a kind of intoxicant in which the slaves of capital drown their humanity and blunt their desire for
a decent human existence….The class-conscious worker of today,leaves religion and heaven to the priests and bourgeois
(capitalists)hypocrites.He fights for a better life for himself here on earth.
The above thoughts of Karl Marx and Lenin influenced a vast section of working class all over the world,brought Russian revolution,and made Soviet union a super-power.This all could be called a progressive scientific-materialistic revolution,because Karl
Marx in his most valuable work’Das Capital’ proved all his ideas scientifically and mathematically,such as exploitation of workers and their labour,by creating’Surplus value’which went in to the pockets of capitalists as profit,making them richer and richer and turning the workers poorer and poorer.
Feurbach had explained why people believed in God.But the important thing Marx argued ,was to get rid of the idea altogether.
He said ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways;the point is to change it’.For Marx,the origin of
the spurious human belief in God was socioeconomic alienation.Religion dulled people to the pain and tragedy of life.People believed in God because they needed hope and consolation.Why did they need this ?Because they had been alienated by the iniquities and injustices of capitalism.Get rid of human alienation and the need for religion would disappear with it.Hence the coming of communist revolution would eliminate the factors that disposed people to believe in God and ultimately erode faith in God altogether.
Once materialism had been declared to lie,cheat,exploit the innocent,simple,straightforward labour,at the heart of soviet ideology,a rigidly hostile attitude to religion followed as a matter of course.
Like many young people growing up in the 1960s,i also began to become intrigued with Marxism and Leninism.I came to see religion in negative terms,as an evil force that held back intellectual and social progress.The events of that time seemed to signal that a new era in the history of the world was about to dawn,in which outmoded habits of thought-such as religion
would be replaced by more progressive ways of thinking and living.
But a sense of unease remained with me.My grand mother taught me ‘gurumukhi’language and to read ‘Guru Granth Saheb’and ‘Japji Saheb’became by heart to me and silent recitation of which was going on inside me repeatedly,throughout
even during the times when i was under the influence of Marxism.This i believe is the spirituality,the inner side of religion.As i wrote in my earlier blogs also that religion has two sides,external and internal.So even if we dismiss external side of religion,as the cause of conflicts,socio-economic or religious conflicts due to different faiths,internal side or spirit or soul will always ramain although medical science will not accept it.
We all know that Soviet union disintegrated and the crude progressive scientific-materialistic revolution could not sustain pace.One of
the most distinctive features of the last few decades has been a rediscovery of the spiritual dimension to human existance.
In many parts of the world there has been a surge of interest in the concept of the transcendent,with a growing reaction
against what are seen as the unsatisfactory reductionisms of various materialist philosophies and worldviews.Everyone
wants to find something that is really worth pursuing and possessing rather than the chimeras whose lustre vanishes once
they are secured.Scientific-materialism has given us communism and organized religion(outer side) has given us capitalism out of which we have already
seen the fate of the former,and we know that nothing is permanent,so we can very well predict that the future of capitalism
also is shaky.What will remain is humanity,love,the soul and the spirit inside the soul.I remember one song sung by late
Rafi saheb-
“Hazzaron rang badlega Zamaana ,
Na badlega mohabbat ka Fasaana ”
The meaning of the above couplet is that the world will change thousands of colours,but there will remain love,which will
never change.
This love is life,soul and God which is expressed in another song of Rafi saheb,
Mandir mein masjid mein tu aur tu hi hai eemaanon mein,
Murli ki taanon mein tu aur tu hi hai aazaanon mein,
Tere dam se deen-dharam ki duniyan hai aabaad,
Zindabaad-zindabaad ai mohabbat zindabaad….daulat ki zanjeeron se tu rahti hai aazaad…
The meaning of the above lines is that love is present everywhere,in temples, mosques, honesty,in the music of flute or the prayers,and this is love due to which all religions are existing.love immortal,you are free from the chains of capitalism.
Soul can neither be created nor can be destroyed,as science also says’Atom can neither be created nor can be destroyed’.Scientists doing research on ‘Big Bang’ have recently claimed that they have found the “God particle”.why are they
calling it ‘God particle’ although they are non-believers(athiests).So they don’t deny the omnipresent God and hence soul and spirit.The clash is between scientific materialism and organized religion or rather religions,and spirituality is emerging as the shining light out of these clashes.
The natural sciences have nothing to say concerning the existence or otherwise of God.The observation-driven agenda of the
natural sciences is constrained by its very methodology,to deal with only sensorily perceived reality.They can not simply comment with competence on matters that can not be observed or detected,directly or indirectly.’It can not be observed’ can never be restated as’It does not exist’.The distinctive character of the sciences thus means that they can say nothing about
the existence or otherwise of a transcendent reality beyond interesting but ultimately speculative assertion or conjectures
for example-that it is just another interesting invention of the human mind,resulting from certain neural configuration.
In the popular sense ,scientific materialism long ago discredited religion.Facts replaced faith.Superstition was gradually vanquished,that’s why we look to the’Big Bang’as the source of the universe rather than to a creation myth populated by
one or more religions.
But religion is not the same as spirituality-far from it.Organized religion may have discredited itself,but spirituality
has suffered no such defeat.Thousands of years ago,in cultures across the globe inspired spiritual masters such as Buddha,Jesus,Muhammed and Lao-tzu and later sant Kabir,Guru Nanak,Mira proposed profound views of life,they taught that
a trascendent domain resides beyond the everyday world of pain and struggle.The eye beholds rocks,mountains, trees and sky
which is only a veil drawn over a vast mysterious unseen reality.Beyond the reach of the five senses lies an invisible
realm of infinite possibility and the key to unfolding its potential is consciousness.Go within,the sages and seers instructed,and you will find the true source of happiness,your own awareness.
It was this possibility that religion failed to deliver on.If the kingdom of God is within as Jesus Christ declared,if nirvana means freedom from all sufferings as the Buddha taught,Every thing is inside and not outside and those who seek
outside are confused under illusion said Guru Granth saheb,and if knowledge of the universe is locked inside the soul
as the ancient rishis and upanishads taught,we can not say that those teachings bore fruit when we look around the world.
Jesus and the Buddha had no doubt that they were describing the reality from the position of true knowledge,but after
more than 2000 years,non-believers as during that period also say that’we think we know better’.
Even if we miraculaously eliminated pollution and waste,coming generations will still have no model for the good life except the one that has failed us;endless consumption,exploitation of natural resources,and the diabolical creativity of war-fare
(nuclear bombs,weapons of mass destruction).Religion can not resolve this dilemma.It has had its chances already,but it wasted them and preferred religious conflicts among various religions.But spirituality can resolve it.We need to go back
to the source of religion,that is consciousness.Wisdom traditions included an impersonal God(Parmatma) who permeates every atom of the universe and every fiber of our being and an impersonal God does not need to be a threat to those believers who want to believe their one and only personal faith.
Think of someone you love.Now think of love itself.The person you love puts a face on love,yet surely you know that love existed before this person was born and will survive after he or she passes away.There lies the difference between the personal and the impersonal God.As a believer you can put a face on God,that is a matter of your own private choice,but i hope you see that if God is everywhere,the divine qualities of love,mercy,compassion,justice and all the other attributes ascribed to God extend infinitely throughout creation.This idea is a common thread in all religions.Super consciousness allowed the great sages,sants and seers to attain a state that science feels threatened by but that is okay.Our common understanding of consciousness is too limited to do justice here.
Spirituality had been around for many thousand years and its researchers were pure souls,living in a higher plane of super
consciousness.They were the very Einsteins of their times.Anyone can reproduce and verify their results as with the principles
of science.The future that spirituality promises,one of wisdom,freedom and fulfillment has not vanished,as the age of faith,
religion has declined.Since the dispute between science and religion has persuaded everyone that either you face reality and
deal with the tough questions of everyday life or you passively retreat and contemplate a realm beyond everyday life.
The either/or choice was forced on us when religion(outer)failed to deliever on its promises.But spirituality,the inner deeper source of religion has not failed and is ready to meet science face to face offering answers consistent with the most
advanced scientific theories.Science could add to self knowledge by expanding its sights.It could take heed of Einstein’s core belief-’I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scintific research’.
Just because religion(outer) did not succeed does not mean that spirituality based on consciousness of inner self(self realization) won’t.We need to see the truth and in the process we will awaken the profound powers that were promised to us
thousands of years ago.Time awaits.The future depends on the choice we make today.
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances,the more certain it seems to me that the path
to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life,the fear of death and blind faith but
through the striving after rational knowledge.
-ALBERT EINSTEIN
Who looks outside, dreams !
Who looks within, awakens !!
-CARL JUNG
Koran sharif the sacred scripture of islamic faith,a religion with many historical attributes recommends tolerance
plularism,pacific mysticism and gentleness.Christianity the earlier religion was known for intolerance,coersiveness,persecution of jews,the followers of judaism(the religion before christianity the holy scripture belonging to this faith is old testament of Bible).In fifteenth century jews were far better off in muslim Baghdad or Alexandria or Palestine of Arab muslims than in christian Paris or Madrid,Berlin(Hitler of Germany who was a christian had murdered 6 million jews)Russia before the Bolshevik revolution.During the killing spree of jews in Europe,they took refuge in one of the muslim localities in the east.’There must be no coercion in matters of religion’is an ayat from Koran,’you follow your raligion i follow my religion’is another line from Koran.
So when did a militant islamic purism as the concept of jihad,originate?There is a battle going on within islam itself.
The islam which is tolerant,gentle and not spread by the sword but by love and kindness,and the islam that is not only
spread by the sword but by a fetish of martyrdom and murder.In recent years this second islam has been sanctioned by the
rulings of fanatical religious scholars for whom islam is locked in a duel to death with the rest of the world and with the impure elements of the muslim world itself.The theological basis for this point of view goes back many hundreds of years to the concept that the ‘umma’the muslim community,sometimes becomes internally corrupted and humiliated by foreign conquest(in current situation this can be read as American and British conquest)and that under those circumstances muslims should be summoned to wage holy war.In this view islam itself needed to be purified,brought back to its fundamentals and the foreigners(America,Britain and Israel under their patronage)thrown out.One very influential figure who espoused this doctrine was the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran who upon taking power in 1979 popularised the slogan’Death to America’.
There were other figures more famous in the middle east,one of them an intense charismatic palestinian religious scholar
named Abdullah Azzam.Azzam set up a store front office in frontier city of Peshawar in north west Pakistan in 1979 during Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,aimed at recruiting volunteers for an islamic army that would win historic renewal and glory
of islam.He gave a call to muslims all over the world to join him in a new ‘jihad’ or holy war.Azzam talked of his ‘untold love to fight in the path of Allah’.'Jihad and the rifle alone’ and’no negotiations,no conferences and no dialogues’.
Abdullah Azzam was born in west bank which is now an occupied territory,and fleed to Jordan during jews invasion of palestine
arab territories with the help of America and Britain in the 6 day war of 1967.In Jordan he joined the jihad against the forced occupation of Palestine arab land.According to some Azzam was a founder of ‘Hamas’ which is now a ruling outfit in Palestine arab lands,and is fighting the Israeli army to form a palestine nation.Azzam turned to ‘Hamas’ out of disillusionment with the mainstream palestinian movement.Many palestinian arab muslims are disillusioned due to the fact that they allowed jews in their lands with affection,treated them like their brothers,not knowing that these very jews with the help of British and Americans will snatch their land declaring it their own promised land and naming it as their own nation “Israel”and not only that but making the palestinian muslims like slaves in their own land.Seems to be quite a strong reason for’jihad’the holy war.Mainstream palestinian movement under the leadership of Yasser Arafat was secular in nature,not religious,but the ‘jihad’ started by Azzam is religious in nature,which believes in sharia,in martyrdom and that is what lead him to break with the mainstream palestinian movement.
Azzam used to tell stories of how palestinian fighters spent their nights listening to music and playing cards and only few went to daily prayers in the mosque.For sometime Azzam taught at king Abdul Aziz university in Jeddah,a place where religious islamic movement was favoured over the secular nationalist.Osama bin laden was a student in this university.Later both Azzam and Osama founded the office of services for the mujahideen(means’ holy warriors’)in Peshawar,which became a global network recruiting muslims to do jihad against the Soviet Union.Azzam and Osama communicated to their followers and
to recruits the cause by making audio tapes of their lectures and sermons’jihad must not be abandoned until Allah alone is worshipped’which would be heard in mosques all over,’jihad continues until Allah’s word is raised high…jihad is the way of everlasting glory’.
Mosques and islamic centres around the world reverberated to Abdullah Azzam’s call to do jihad in Afghanistan and tens of thousands of volunteers heeded that call for jihad.Several jobless youth saw the employment opportunities in the calls.Except oil rich arab countries most of the muslim countries in Asia or Africa or far east are economically backward,so unemployment of the muslim youth is the biggest problem of the world which has to be addressed sincerely.
What is extraordinary is the large number of figures who came to Peshawar during the Soviet war or shortly after it,later participated in terrorist attacks against the united states and India.
There are two sides to religion:the exotic or outer teachings,the ones we have dealt with about islam in the paragraphs above,in which people of one religion fight with people of other religion as their potential enemies,calling the fight as jihad or holy war.The other is esoteric or inner teachings which deal with the jihad with our inner self and the enemies here are within ourselves named anger,lust,greed,attachment and ego(kaam,krodh,lobh,moh and ahankar)which are to be won over.In islam also this esoteric side of jihad is dealt with in the revelations by prophet Muhammed.The esoteric side deals with exploration of the beyond.Saints and founders of the various religions had themselves traveled to higher realms and taught the method of going within self to their followers,which is self realization or God realization.Throughout the ages,there have always been enlightened souls who revived and imparted the esoteric teachings.Each of them have described the inner journey,while the language in which they spoke differed,the experiences described are the same,
St John has said-
And the light shineth in darkness,and the darkness comprehendeth it not ;
In the old testament it is said-
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,and a light unto my path ;
Sant Kabir has said-
The tuneful trumpet of thy doorway,sounds in the middle of my forehead;
Prophet Muhammed has said-
The voice of God comes unto my ears as any other sounds ;
Guru Nanak has said-
Within the heavenly light and from it Bani or sound doth proceed,
and it doth attune the soul with the true lord ;
In Hansa Naad upanishad it is written-
Meditation or naad or the sound principle is the royal road to salvation ;
Buddha,in the ‘Tibetan book of the Dead’says
O nobly-born,when thy body and mind were separating,thou must have experienced a glimpse of pure truth,subtle,sparkling,bright,dazzling,glorious and radiantly awsome in appearance like a mirage moving across a landscape in springtime in one continuous stream of vibrations.Be not daunted thereby nor terrified nor awed.That is the radiance of thine own true nature,recognize it.From the midst of that radiance,the natural sound of reality reverberating like a thousand thunders simultaneously sounding welcome.That is the natural sound of thine own real self.
Coming back to jihad of Abdullah Azzam and Osama Bin Laden,for which western christian world is squarely responsible,be it its hatred for jews or later forced settlement of jews in palestine arab muslim land and naming it ‘Israel’,or gulf wars 1 &2.If at all America and Britain were so much sympathetic to the cause of persecuted and tortured jews by their own christian brothers,then they could have given them a piece of land in their own western territories,why to bring them all along in eastern arab muslim lands by the use of force.So the movement of Azzam and Osama in Peshawar was spreading like wildfire.
Two more men who seemd to have played the key roles in bringing jihad to the rest of the world were Ayman Zawahiri and Omer Abdel Rahman.Both had spent years in Egyptian prisons and when freed had made their way to Azzam’s house in Peshawar.Both believed in expanding the concept of jihad to include the causes of the palestinians and of the poor masses in muslim countries ruled over by what they ragarded as apostate Arab and muslim rulers.Zawahiri was a doctor from a distinguished family in Egypt who gave up the easy life to wage religious war-fare.Abdel Rehman was a simple preacher from rural Egypt a blind man who had an avid,loyal,worshipful following among muslims around the world.
‘Muslims are burning with anger at America’Osama Bin Laden said on august 23, 1996.In an interview with CNN he said ‘We declared jihad against the U.S because it is unjust,criminal and tyrannical.It has committed acts that are extremely criminal whether directly or through its support of Israeli occupation’.He announced the American government,military or any American individual would be his target wherever they could be struck.He formed a new international islamic front for jihad against the jews uniting his Al-qaeda with Ayman Zawahiri’s group ‘Egyptian jihad’.Osamas declaration was ,
The ruling to kill the americans and their allies,civilian and military,is an individual duty for every muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it in order to liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque(in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque(in Mecca)from their grip and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of islam,defeated and unable to threaten any muslims.
This declaration was called a’fatwa’by Osama Bin Laden.
‘From august 1998 Osama was Enemy no 1′said Sandy Berger,Bill clinton’s national security adviser.
But America could not do anything to Bin laden or his dangerous plans till sept 11 or 9/11 happened,the most horrific day in the history of modern terrorism.
Richard.c.Clarke,white house counter-terrorism chief,put the abovestated happenings this way ‘Democracies don’t prepare well
for things that have never happened before’.
So,these exotic or outer teachings of modern day jihad can bring nuclear holocaust also in near future,which had actually
happened before also in the name of religion,but still we do not seem to be prepared well to avoid it.The solution to avoid this for the entire humanity is to go for esoteric or jihad(holy war)of our inner self to combat the enemies within.We have to fight the five enemies within ourselves,and win over them.That is the real jihad,the holy war.
Philosophical hindus developed an understanding of God as the source and pervader of all appearance who is present in humans as ‘atman’or the’soul’.The advaita philosophy,a school of hindu thought is non-dualist.It states that the appearance of distinctions in the world is an illusion.All things that we see the earth,sun,moon,sky,,birds,animals,people look different but in essence they are one.Advaita understands moksha as the realisation that the individual and God have always been one and moksha is union with God forever.
Advaita vedanta is a philosophy that was systemized in India around 8th century AD by adi Shankara.The essence of the teaching being based upon the material contained in the upanishads.The upanishads are a part of the sacred indian texts called the vedas,written around 1500 BC.There are three groups,as shown below,the three divisions of orthodox hindu philosophy,
1) nyaya
vaisheshika
2)samkhya
yoga
3)purva mimansa
uttara mimansa
Our concern is with the third group in which advaita is dealt with extensively.Mimansa means profound thought and examination of the vedic text.
Purva mimansa is concerned with the earlier parts of the vedas,those sections which talk about the rituals and behaviour,the ‘karma-kand’.It is associated with the philosopher Jamini,a pupil of ‘Vyas rishi (the original complier of vedas).
Uttara mimansa is concerned with the later parts of the vedas,the more philosophical,’gyan-kand’,the upanishads and is commonly known as vedanta-consisting of three main schools,
1)Dvaita-the dualistic philosophy associated with ‘Madhva’.
2)Advaita- non-dualism associated with Shankara
3)Vishisht advaita- qualified non-dualism associated with Ramanuja.
Sources of Teaching- Began with the original scriptures of upanishads.In the past 100 years there has been a resurgence of interest in advaita in the west.Ramkrishna Paramhans(1836-1886) was the most important and responsible teacher for increasing the popularity of advaita in recent times,with missions now operating all over the world.His principal desciple was swami Vivekananda(1863-1902),who toured the world with the aim of uniting all religions,the underlying truth of all of them being realized in advaita.Ramana maharshi(1880-1950)most famous of laterday sages has influenced so many modern writers such as Paul Brunten and Somerset maughm.Nisargdatta maharaj(1879-1981)the uneducated servant and tobacconist in mumbai was one of the most popular and Atmanand Krishna Menon(1883-1959)was one of the most logical preacher of advaitavad.
Original Scriptures-(Upanishads and other granthas)Shruti,Aitareya,Amritbindu,atma,brihadaranyaka,chandogya,isha,kaushitaki,kena,maitri,mandukya,
muktika,mundaka,narada parivrajaka,prashna,sarva sara,shvetashvatara,taittiriya upanishads
smiriti,bhagwat gita,nyaya prasthana,shankara’s brahmasutra bhashya.
Later commentaries and works-
Aparok shambhuti,Astavakra Gita,Atmabodha,Bhaja Govindam,Drrig-drishya-viveka,Pancha dashi,Sadananda’s vedantasara,Sarva vedanta sarvasamagraha,Tattva bodha,Yoga vasishta updesha sahasri,Vivekachudamini,Yoga sutras of Patanjali.
Historical Sages/writers- Gaudapada Patanjali,Sadananda,Shankara,Vidyaranya,vyasa.
Recent sages/writers/teachers- Robert Adams,Sri Aurobindo,Swami Chinmayananda,Jean Klein,Sri Atmananda krishna menon,Jiddu Krishnamurti,Swami krishnananda,nisargadatta maharaj,Swami Nikhilananda,Osho,Hwl Poonja,Ramana maharshi,Ramkrishna Paramhansa,Ranjit maharaj,Swami Satchidanandendra saraswati,Swami shantanand saraswati,Swami sivananda,Swami Vivekananda,Swami Dayananda saraswati,Wei wu wei.
Spiritual path and practice-
Various spiritual practices are advocated by advaitavad in order to prepare the mind for realization of our true nature.Yogas,meditation,mind control,being in the present,satsang shravana,manana and nididhyasna,guru-shishya relationship,all these are explained in sciptures of advaita.The ultimate goal is self realization,that we are not the body but we are soul and that is one with all around.It is described in Mandukya upanishad(verse 7)as follows,
Neither inward-turned nor outward-turned consciousness nor the two together,not an undifferentiated mass of consciousness,neither knowing nor unknowing,invisible,ineffable,intangible,devoid of characteristics,inconceivable,indefinable,its sole essence being the consciousness of its own self,the coming to rest of all relative existense,utterly quiet,peaceful,blissful,without a second this is ‘atman’,the self,this is to be realized.This state in Mandukya upanishad is called’turiya’,which means the fourth state,a state of superconsciousness.The other three states are waking,dream and deep sleep states.turiya is also reffered as ‘egoless state’ or the ‘transcendental state’.the Sat-Chit-Ananda is present as before but in this state it is known to be present.There is no longer any ego-process and the three states,waking,dream and deep sleep are seen to be mere appearances upon the one reality of the self.Should the three states be taken to form one long dream,’turiya’ represents the waking from this dream.Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep and more wakeful than the waking state.
Therefore our true state is that fourth one(turiya) which is distinguished from the waking,dream and deep sleep states.We are that only.That is to say’turiya’ is pure knowledge,which is not conscious of any object but not unconscious itself.Only he who has realized it has realized the truth.
What is there more from him who has gained the fourth state or turiya or state of superconsciousness?Practically it is not possible for any one to remain forever in that state. He or she who has realised this state this world is not as before for him.Now he is all,there is nothing distinct from himself,his eyes closed or open,howsoever the things may change,his state remains unchanged.this is the state of ‘self realization’,'God realization’ in advaita-vad.This is the natural eternal state.we are all that ever-true state.
Saguna and Nirguna-
Traditional advaita in upanishads speaks of reality in other ways as in brihadaranyaka upanishad addresses the ‘two forms of reality’.The active principal in manifestation,which we call’Ishvara’ is differentiated from the unmanifest,non acting principal called ‘Parmatman’ which we can call the absolute.The unmanifest advaita reality of ‘Ishvara’or ‘parmatman’is said to be without manifestation or attributes of any kind-nirguna.Guna-the three qualities of sattva,rajas and tamas.The manifest ‘Ishvara’ is said to be with qualities-saguna.
When ‘Parmatman’is said to be the efficient and material cause of the world’s existence it is ‘saguna’.To speak of ‘Ishvara’ as the cause of the world presupposes a duality of world and such dualistic thinking is grounded on ignorance of the true nature of ‘parmatman’and ‘atman’.Although God or Ishvara is characterized in various vedic texts as efficient and material cause of the universe,Adi shankara holds that these texts refer to ‘saguna’(with attributes and forms)and that thinking of ‘parmatman’as ‘saguna’ constitutes only a preliminary view of ‘Ishvara’,a view based on human need to explain the apparent existance of the universe.However in order to understand the true nature of atman and parmatman we must go beyond the preliminary view and understand the truth of oneness or advaita,in non-dualistic terms.At that level of comprehension,it is seen that the entire universe is nothing but a superimposition upon and mere appearance of the underlying truth of all that is.
Nirguna is thus the ‘parmarth’ view and ‘saguna’ is the interim assumption of ‘vyavhara’ made by the ‘jiva’ in his ignorance,prior to the enlightenment or reaching the state of self realization,or turiya,the realization that we are not body but soul,’atman’ and one with ‘parmatman’.For example the wooden table is to be seen as wood,a material that is earth.We need to understand that every thing is made up of earth,water,fire,wind and space.These five elements are known as causes and the products,table,cloth,cup etc all materials are the effect.So the whole universe is merely earth,water,fire,wind and space and nothing else,just a ’cause’ and ‘effect’.
Everything in this world is formed by earth,water,fire,wind and space.Likewise for humans,except humans have an additional quality-consciouness.Therefore a human being is made up of aggregation of earth,water,fire,wind,space and consciousness.Earth is our body,muscle,skin,hair,bones etc,these are all earth.After we die our body decomposes and it is a pile of earth.Water-our tears,blood,sweat and urine are all water.Fire-our body heat,our thermal energy,human digestion is an endothermic process and without heat energy we can not digest our food.Wind-our body needs wind as well,the air that circulates in our body.Space-the whole body is full of spaces.There are skin pores everywhere and all internal organs have spaces.
So all the objects turn out to be forms of something more subtle.The ultimate ‘object’(which is no object at all) is that which is itself formless.This is’nirguna’,'parmatman’.Consciousness in human beings is ‘atman’ which is to be realised,all else is body(earth,water,fire,wind and space) to which if we see through more subtly then it turns in to nothingness.What remains is ‘atman’ and ‘parmatman’ which are again one and not two.This is ‘advaitvad’.