Awareness and Soul of a human being, Excellent read.. Options

[dattaswami]

When the light rays fall on the object and get reflected, the image of the object falls on the retina of the eye and this image is transferred to the brain. The brain receives the image of the object. The process of receiving the image of the object by the brain is said to be awareness of the object. All the materials like rays of light, object, image of object, materials transferring the image like neurons, materials composing the brain, etc. are either inert matter or inert energy only. The process of transfer of the image to the brain is also inert work. Therefore, awareness is not different from the meaning of the word inert. Inert means that which is controlled by a controller. In the above explained system, the controller other than the above mentioned inert materials and inert work is not separately seen. If any of the above materials is absent, the work cannot take place.

Therefore, the materials control the work. The work or awareness is controlled by the presence of correct materials. Hence, you cannot say that the work or awareness is the independent controller. Each material independently cannot be a controller. The combination of these materials alone generates the work. But, the phenomenon of combination does not exist separately apart from the materials. Even the process of thinking of the brain is a play of different combinations of the impressions received through the senses from the world. Hence, a shrewd analysis also cannot capture the existence of controller in this system.

Science only speaks about ‘how the earth rotates’ and cannot speak about ‘why the earth rotates’. Due to inevitable necessity of a controller in this system, you have to accept the existence of the unimaginable controller. If the controller is like the human being made of imaginable inert materials and energies, again, the same problem is repeated. The controller should be beyond the above inert materials and inert work. Hence, the controller should be totally unimaginable. The will of such a controller should not be like the will of a human being, which is the inert work only controlled by inert materials. The will of God may resemble the will of the human being. But, the generation of that will in the absence of above inert materials is unimaginable. Since the process of generation is unimaginable, naturally, the generator is also unimaginable. Since the process of generation and the generator are unimaginable, such a will can have total independence. Qualitatively, the will of God and the will of human being may be similar. But, potentially, they differ from each other. The difference is lot and the similarity is very little. The nature of work may be same, but the potency differs.

Krishna lifted a mountain. You may lift a small stone. The process of lifting is same. But, there is lot of potential difference. Hence, you cannot compare the will of a human being, which is controlled by inert materials, to the will of God, which is totally independent with unlimited potency. Krishna is like an ordinary human being only. But, the potency is unimaginable since, He showed the entire infinite cosmic energy in Him through the vision of ‘Vishwa Roopa’. By external qualitative similarity, you cannot say that Krishna is an ordinary human being or every ordinary human being is Krishna. Similarly, due to external similarity of nature of work, you cannot say the awareness of God and awareness of a human being are one and the same. You are considering only one similar point forgetting the rest ninety-nine different points. The imaginable awareness can never be unimaginable God.

[majentis]

The process of transfer of the image to the brain is also inert work. Therefore, awareness is not different from the meaning of the word inert. Inert means that which is controlled by a controller.

The brain doesn't receive the image in the form of a postcard. It receives a burst of information, in which the image of the outside world is supposedly encoded. The brain then uses this signal to generate a picture of reality; it constantly paints a novel and subjectively unique image. I fail to see how this is inert work?

If any of the above materials is absent, the work cannot take place.

If some of the materials were absent, the work would take place differently. If all materials were absent, then quite obviously no work producing interactions would occur. This is quite obvious.

Since the process of generation is unimaginable, naturally, the generator is also unimaginable

Why then, are there so many words in your post pertaining to that which is unimaginable:

• The controller should be beyond the above inert materials and inert work.
• Hence, the controller should be totally unimaginable.
• The will of such a controller should not be like the will of a human being...
• The will of God may resemble the will of the human being.
• naturally, the generator is also unimaginable...
• He showed the entire infinite cosmic energy in Him
• you cannot say the awareness of God and awareness of a human being are one and the same

Your entire post could be written thus: "That which is, is unimaginable". But then why not just say: "That which is, is?"

I'm reminded of people that engage in long periods of speech deprivation. They reach a point where their internal voice too, is silenced, and they stop (or do it to a lesser extent) applying labels to all they perceive. It is said that witnessing a blooming flower in such a state is to witness the unimaginable beauty of reality. When that person goes back into society and speaks again - they return to the habit of labelling their experiences. They can never talk of the beauty of the flower, because that beauty they witnessed can only be experienced, not portrayed by mere wind and vocal chords.

[dattaswami]

I'm reminded of people that engage in long periods of speech deprivation. They reach a point where their internal voice too, is silenced, and they stop (or do it to a lesser extent) applying labels to all they perceive. It is said that witnessing a blooming flower in such a state is to witness the unimaginable beauty of reality. When that person goes back into society and speaks again - they return to the habit of labelling their experiences. They can never talk of the beauty of the flower, because that beauty they witnessed can only be experienced, not portrayed by mere wind and vocal chords.

Unimaginable is only God. God is unimaginable and even awareness is imaginable and controlled and depends on many parameters. Where as God is totally indepedent and He is the controller.

Absolutely there is no difference between the robot and a human being. Robot can be compared to the electrical train in which the energy is directly supplied as electricity. The human being can be supplied as steam engine train in which the coal burns and generates steam from the boiler. In this steam engine the generation of energy is an extra item. In robot the current is supplied directly as energy. In human being the digestive system and respiratory system (Anna and Prana) are the two extra parts to generate the inert energy. The human being was differentiated from the computer in the past, because the computer worked with a single micro-processor whereas the brain worked with several micro processors working at a time.

A computer concludes the cow after some gradual steps and the brain concludes the cow spontaneously since these gradual steps are simultaneously built up. Due to the invention of this clue the difference between a computer and a human being disappeared. The generation of various thoughts in a human being is from the information chip (brain) which stores various thoughts received from outside. Creativity is also nothing but a new combination of the existing thoughts as parts.

If you have created an animal with eight legs and two tails by creativity, the leg and tail are already existing parts of the information chip. Today the computer composes poetry! Like a human being. Since the information chip is controlling the imagination or mental behavior completely, the freedom of thought in the case of the human being becomes absolutely meaningless on analysis. In the absence of this analysis the freedom of thought, creativity etc. is only misunderstood concepts.

God alone has the complete freedom and hence the human being completely controlled by its chip has no trace of freedom. Therefore, the entire creation including human beings is totally inert and the Creator alone has total freedom. The human being tries to jump to the side of the creator due to the misinterpreted freedom. Therefore, God alone should be called as awareness. Immediately you should not say that the human being having awareness is God because it is already proved that everything in the human being is inert. If you fix the meaning of awareness as freedom, you are telling that the awareness is in human being since you have misunderstood the inert process as freedom. With this analysis the human being is not having even a trace of awareness. You should not say that God is understood because He is awareness or freedom.

Freedom is a quality of the power of God and not the source of the freedom. You should not say that the unimaginable power of God (Maya) is now understood since its quality (freedom) is known. This quality is not the inherent characteristic of the power. If you say that something is freely doing any work, it does not mean that you have understood that something. Therefore, God as well as His power is unimaginable. If you realize this analysis always, you will totally surrender to God. Realization of this analysis is penance. If you realize that you are totally a play doll in the hands of God, you will develop spontaneous and natural surrender to God. The ego disappears completely.

God is pleased by this and from that moment onwards starts giving you the real freedom as said by Veda (Aaapnoti Swaaraajyam…). You will start controlling the inert creation. You will be becoming God step by step. As long as you feel that awareness or freedom exists in you, the ego prevents the grace of God. The concept of Shankara that God alone is awareness is correct. But that awareness is not in the human being. The underlying substratum of the human being, which is beyond imagination, is God. The same God is the substratum of the entire creation.

In a human being the three parts (Manas, Vijnana and Ananda) are extra. Therefore, the human being is greater than the external creation. The inert energy is common material everywhere. In the human being certain specific designs of matter and energy exist as the three extra Koshas. This does not mean that the non-inert item exists. The specific design of inert matter and inert energy is also inert. If you are wearing a shirt with special design, it does not mean that the material of the shirt is changed. All the shirts are made of same material i.e., cotton and silk only. Therefore, the existence of extra designs of inert matter and inert energy in the human being does not establish that something other than inert matter and inert energy exists.