"The God Concept”
Letting Logic Lead to Faith
Adi Sankaracharya is considered the ultimate authority in matters of Hindu religious philosophy. Over1500 years ago, he worked to remove the superstitions and other malpractices that had corroded the Hindu religion at the time, which had led to new philosophies like Buddhism to take hold in the land. Sankara’s arduous efforts resulted in the re- establishment of the primacy of Vedantic religion as the pre-eminent philosophy in the country.
Sankara had generated great number of religious texts for the benefit of common people for
their daily prayers and rituals. These prayers and rituals are used to this day by devotees in every Hindu home. In the beginning, Sankara wrote about prayers specific to Hindu deities like Ganesha, Parvati, Shiva, Vishnu, etc. Towards his later years, he moved towards writing poems on Vedanta subjects which were not about any of these personal Gods of the religion; these poems were about the unity of the Self in human beings and the Universal Self, named Brahmam.
In this respect, these literary works of Sankara dealt with totally secular and philosophical
subjects. There was no mention of a God in a human form having extraordinary powers: a God dispensing favours to the devotees and punishing wicked. He wrote many commentaries on the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita and other texts of Vedanta.
There were other important religious books in Hinduism even during his years, such as the
Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, etc. All such diverse literature in Hinduism have only one common thread running through them: the unity of Self and the Brahmam. They all describe it a fallacy to think that the body, with its mind and intellect, is us. Sankara’s books like Viveka Chudamani, the Atma Bodha, the Upadesa Sahasri, etc. all explain the unity of individual soul with the Universal.
Unfortunately, the explanations given in all these books fail to provide a convincing basis for
their assertion of this unity. A common person is just informed of his being not the body but that he is the Brahmam, the Universal One. People do not feel themselves as one with the
Brahmam; they experience their body all the time. They force themselves to accept these assertions as true because the Guru has said so, because Krishna has said so, etc. One doesn’t dare raise any doubting question in this background. But blind acceptance has the drawback of people not following the teachings of the Guru or the God. People just continue to muddle along in their daily life, convinced that they are their bodies, and that God is The Power who can bestow favours on them when pleased by His devotee’s prayers.
Sankara’s “Manisha Panchakam” is a remarkable short poem, with just 5 stanzas. It
expounds the highest philosophy of Vedanta and declares that there cannot be any superiority or inferiority based on birth and the castes of individuals. In this respect it is a wonderful affirmation of modern-day thought that all people are created equal, nobody is high or low by the accident of birth alone.
Swami Aseshananda Saraswati of Chinmaya Mission, Palakkad, had given a tutorial on the
Manisha Panchakam to a class of his students. In this tutorial, Swamiji had given extraordinarily detailed exposition of the meaning of the poem’s subject. Without such detailed explanations, one would not properly comprehend the significance of each word in each line of the poem. By the time he finished the tutorial, we realise having gained knowledge of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta. His explanations also put to rest our confusion about words like Brahmam and Atma, demystifying the subject greatly.
Like the modern-day marketing slogans of buy-one-get-one-free, we realise having gained an
in-depth knowledge of the highly secular Manisha Panchakam PLUS a deep understanding of
Vedanta itself.
In this respect this discourse can be considered as Brahma Vidya itself.
In the opening pages of the book, an attempt is made to explain for a person new to the
subject the basic structure of Hindu religious practices and philosophy, their relative importance and the choice between the changeable and evolving practices for day-to-day activities and the unalterable foundation of the religion itself that is beyond human control to alter or modify.
Next, the encounter between Sankara and the Chandala is explained. The Chandala’s
amazing depth of knowledge is highlighted by Swamiji with detailed explanations on the Theory of Reflection and the Theory of Conditioning of Space. These explanations provide extremely deep understanding of the scholarship of the Chandala.
In the poem-proper itself, the first stanza is given exhaustive explanations so that we are fully
into the thick of Vedanta. Even though, at this stage, a sceptic may doubt some of the initial
statements in this first stanza (such as the presence of an over-weening Awareness in the three
states of Waking, Dreaming and deep Sleep), the detailed explanations that follow further down the pages give a firm basis of logic to what is being stated. Particularly, the Theory of Drik-Drishya Vivekam is an extraordinary basis for understanding the reality of Myself vis-à-vis my body. These explanations are further expanded/expounded in the stanzas that follow. The logic of the Infiniteness of myself as Self(and not my body) is fully established with reasoning that mimic the derivation of mathematical formula.
It is significant to note that there is no reference to any personal God of Hinduism in all this.
Even so, the realisation of Atman as God infuses a wonderfully energising realisation in us. The Swamiji declares that when we refer to God, we are in reality not referring to a God ‘somewhere out there’, outside of ourselves; we are actually referring to the very core of our own selves, our own deepest essence.
The change in our concepts of God as a separate entity must lead to less strife in society
between competing religious groups. None is superior or inferior. In this respect, Manisha Panchakam is the very apex of secular and logical teaching that can be studied by all religionists everywhere. All it takes is an open mind to consider the logic presented in the book and accept or reject the basis of that logic after fair consideration, depending on individual personal inclination.
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