dattaswami Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 God enters human body known as human incarnation The human incarnation is God entering the human body as said by Gita (Manusheem tanumashritam….). The human body consists of three sub-bodies. The first is external gross body made of five elements. The second is internal subtle body (Jeeva), which is a bundle of qualities. The innermost is the causal body (Atman), which is the pure awareness or soul. Atman is like standstill water and qualities (Jeeva) are like the waves in the water. Jeeva and Atman are inseparable. Atman can exist without Jeeva, which is the steady soul in the meditation without thoughts. By effort, the thoughts (Qualities) can be completely destroyed so that pure soul remains. This is the Nirguna-Atman (attribute less soul) of Advaita Philosophers. But Jeeva can’t exist without Atman. When God enters the human body, the Jeevatman, a jointly associated system of qualities and soul together, which is the liberated soul exists there as the personal assistant. The Jeevatman is only a slave to God and can be considered as almost living doll. Veda refers this to the two birds living together on a common tree. The two birds are God and Jeevatman and the tree is the gross body of Jeevatman. God is visiting guest in the house of the liberated soul. God doesn’t come into mere inert gross body. God lives with the liberated soul selected by Him from His family of liberated souls, so that the liberated soul becomes happy due to visit of God. God and the liberated soul are homogeneously united like two metallic components in a single phase of alloy. God pervades even the gross body whenever it is required as in the situation of uplifting the hill. The human being consisting of gross, subtle and causal bodies acts as a wire charged by current. The live wire is treated as current for all the practical purposes and can be treated as current. Hence, the human being is treated as God and this is the monism of Shankara limited to the human incarnation and not to be extended to every human being. In human being the soul and Jeeva are the two birds as per Shankara and in such case, you can call the Jeeva as soul, but not as God. According to Ramanuja the interpretation is God and soul only referring to the human incarnation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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