Human incarnation alone is God not all

[dattaswami]

Human incarnation alone is God not all

 

Shankara told “awareness is God” (Prajnanam Brahma). It means that God always incarnates as a living human being and never as an inert object. This means that awareness is always associated with the incarnation of God. In such case, you can call the bearer by the possessed item, as you call the bearer of the apples by the word ‘apples’. But, the disciples took this as the possessed item itself to be the bearer. In such case, the bearer of the apple is the apple itself and therefore, God is awareness itself. Even if you take the word prajnanam to mean only simple general awareness, your interpretation is not fitting here.

 

Infact, the word prajnanam does not mean general awareness even in the normal usage. It means only the special divine knowledge that is associated with God in human form only. Therefore, the disciple misunderstood here also and took himself as God since he is associated with normal awareness just like any other living being. Hence, the disciples took that each one of themselves is God like Shankara.

 

One day Shankara swallowed the wine. The desciples also swallowed the wine thinking themselves as God like Shankara. Next day, Shankara swallowed the molten lead. But, the disciples went back to swallow that. Then Shankara preached them that He alone is God (Shivaha kevaloham). The word ‘kevala’ denotes that Shankara alone is God and not everybody. Then, the disciples realized the true knowledge and surrendered to Him by falling on His feet (Bhava Shankara deshika me sharanam). Every advaita philosopher should realize this truth from the practical incident performed by Shankara. One should know that practical knowledge is more valid than theoretical knowledge, which can be easily misunderstood. The misunderstood theory is always rectified by practical demonstration.