God in Hinduism

 

(adapted from Swami Paramarthananda’s talk)

Hinduism is also called Vaidhika dharma or Sanatana dharma as it is based on Vedas. Like most other religions, Hinduism is also a God-centred religion.  It also instructs all its followers to lead a God-centered life.  This God-centred life of a Hindu is broadly divided into two stages.  The first stage of God-centred life is Iswara Aradhanam or worship of God. The second stage of God- centred life is called Iswara Jnanam or acquiring knowledge of God. Both these stages are important and must be followed in this particular order also. Without Iswara Aradhanam, Iswara Jnanam is impossible and without Iswara Jnanam, Iswara Aradhanam is incomplete. Therefore, everyone must go through both in that order.  Here a doubt may arise - When one goes through this order, in the first stage one will not have Iswara Jnanam. So what is the basis for Iswara Aradhanam?  For that the answer is; it is based on Iswara Shraddha or faith in God. The faculty of faith is there in every human being as Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (17-3): “Shraddhaamayo’yam purusho yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah (The man consists of his faith; as a man’s faith is, so is he)”. Even the rationalist is an embodiment of faith, only his faith is in reason.  And as for Iswara Aradhanam, one has faith in God whom he believes as; One who has created, sustains and will resolve the world, i.e. srishti –sthithi-laya kartha of the world.

At Aradhanam stage Iswara can be invoked in any form, male, female, animal, human-animal mixed, male-female mixed or in symbols as well. For example, we have male forms like Siva, Vishnu, Brahma; female forms like Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathy; animal forms like Mathsya, Kurma, Varaha; human-animal forms like Narasimha; male-female form like Ardhanareeswara; symbols like Saligramam, Siva lingam etc. This worship, puja, can be done as a kayika, or physical, puja and that too in an elaborate formal way or in a simple, informal way, or it can be done as a verbal, vachika, puja as parayanam or even mentally as dhyanam or japam.  Whatever be the form or mode, one does it daily with devotion seeking the blessings of Iswara.  Iswara is also called Bhagavan, the holder of Bhaga and Bhaga is defined as follows:

Aiswaryasya samagrasysa veeryasya yasassriyaha I

Vairagyasya atha jnanasya shannam bhaga itheeranaa II

Power, courage, fame, wealth, knowledge, detachment in infinite measures is Bhaga. 

So Bhagavan means the Lord of infinite power and resources and that is Iswara who is also called Brahman.

    This faith based Ishwara Aradhanam will prepare one gradually for the second stage, which is Iswara Jnanam.  For entering the second stage three factors are required. The first factor is a deep, sincere desire to know what or who is God, and Lord Krishna calls it in Gita as Jignasu Bhakti. The previous stage, where God is seen only as a means for achieving the material goals and the prayer is also aimed at getting things one wants or getting rid of things one doesn’t want is called Artha/Artharthi Bhakthi.  A Jignasu Bhaktha has an intense desire to know the answer to the questions regarding the number, nature, identity and location of God. The second factor is a mature mind and a subtle intellect to understand the nature of God because when one wants to know the real nature of God one is entering an abstract and subtle subject.  The third factor is one needs a spiritual guru to guide one in the quest for the knowledge of God.  Sincere Iswara Aradhanam i.e. worship of the chosen personal God with sincerity, shraddah and intense devotion will lead one to all the three factors; sincere desire for knowledge of God, a mature mind and a spiritual guru.

    The spiritual guru teaches the Jignasu Bhaktha, who or what God is, making use of the primary sources of this knowledge, the Upanishads and the secondary scriptures like Bhagavad Gita. In the first stage of Iswara Aradhanam one has the common knowledge that Iswara is Jagat kartha, creator of this universe.  Now from the study of scriptures he comes to know that Iswara is Jagat karanam, source of universe i.e. Iswara is the fundamental cause, karanam, and universe is the product, karyam, evolving from that karanam.  Once one understands the karana-karya relationship between Iswara and the world, then he proceeds to analyse the nature of both Iswara and the world on the basis of this relationship making use of examples like Gold and ornaments, clay and pot etc. given in the scriptures. From this study he learns the four important features of karanam and karyam.  They are – karyam is anekam, asaaram, anityam and asathyam and compared to it karanam is ekam, saaram, nityam and sathyam.  Applying this to God and universe one learns the nature of God as - Iswara is; ekam, one only; saaram, in-dwelling substance of all in the universe; nithyam, permanent, unaffected by the pralayams; satyam, the absolute reality. As a corollary to this nature of Iswara, the Jignasu Bhaktha learns that Iswara who is everywhere, must be in him also. Analysing deeply on these lines, he comes to the conclusion of scriptures that Iswara cannot be the ever-changing and mortal, body-mind complex but is the unchanging Consciousness that has these five features:

1.    Consciouness is not a part, product or property of the body.

2.    Consciousness is an independent entity which pervades and enlightens the body.

3.    Consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body.

4.    Consciousness continues to exist/survive even after the death of the body.

5.    The surviving Consciousness is not accessible because of the absence of the body-medium.

This unchanging Consciousness being the nature of Iswara he can now boldly counter the argument of the rationalist who argues that God is ‘nowhere’ with the reply touching his heart, the God is ‘now here’. The jignasu bhaktha with this realisation that Iswara is his real Self matures into Jnani Bhaktha and attains Purnatvam getting freed from the cycle of birth and death, at death.   Thus the devout vaidhika Hindu starts from Iswara Aradhanam; goes to Iswara Jnanam; attains Jnanam that Iswara is everywhere and pervades everything; understands that Iswara is in him also; and then comes to the conclusion that his true Self, Athma, is Iswara only, imbibing the message of the Mahavakya, “Aham Brahmasmi”.

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