Friday, February 12, 2010

19. Explaining Why GOD Cannot Have Duality and Form (Category:- Advaita)


Rigveda States, "There is only one Truth (God) whom seers call by various names". (Rigveda 1:164:46)
Svetaswatara Upanishad States, "“His eyes are everywhere, His faces everywhere, His arms everywhere, everywhere His feet. He it is who endows men with arms, birds with feet and wings and men likewise with feet. Having produced heaven and earth, He remains as their non—dual manifester”. ( 3:3 svetasvatara upanishad)"

But then we usually visualize Gods in various forms. Do multiple Gods exist? Do they have form? - Are few most common nagging questions in our minds. Let's analyze and try to find out answer though "Proof by Contradiction" method.

Assumption:

Let's assume the following things:
  1. God has form
  2. There are many Gods (Means Duality is true)

Axioms:

Let's consider the following beliefs/facts as axioms to build our analysis. Without someone satisfying these fundamental rules, one can't be called a God
  1. God is infinite
  2. God is Omnipotent (all powerful)
  3. God is Omnipresent (all pervading)
  4. God is Omniscient (All knowing)
Let's now proceed ahead and develop our analysis based on above four axioms.

Analysis:

Let's follow a case by case approach here.

Case -1: God has duality and has a specific form and all forms are equally powerful

Let's consider two Gods for analysis viz. God-A, and God-B, let's say they are circular in shape and exist in a space called as universal set "U". This can be seen in the below figure.


Now let's see if this arrangement of Dual Gods having a particular form meets the Axioms (Rules) stated above or not.
We see from the above figure that:
  • God A and God B both are not omnipresent since they have their separate existence as well as however huge they may be, since they have a particular form, there is still some space available outside their form (space tagged with - U) -> This contradicts rules no. 1 and 3
  • Since we assumed both Gods A, B as totally different from each other, there is no chance that either of them would know about each other. -> This makes the rule of Omniscience (Rule 4) false
  • Now since the Case-1 considers God-A and God-B as equally potent, the God-A can't influence God-B and vice versa. So this contradicts the axiom of Omnipotence -> This makes the rule no.2 false
Since this case (setup) has contradicted 4 basic rules (axioms), this case cannot be true.

Case -2: God has duality and has a specific form and all forms are not equally powerful (One God contains another in his form/body)

Let's consider two Gods for analysis viz. God-A, and God-B, let's say they are circular in shape and exist in a space called as universal set "U". This can be seen in the below figure.

Now let's see if this arrangement of Dual Gods having a particular form and one God containing another in him meets the Axioms (Rules) stated above or not.
We see from the above figure that:
  • God A and God B both are not omnipresent since however huge they may be, since they have a particular form, there is still some space available outside their form (space tagged with - U) -> This contradicts rules no. 1 and 3
  • At a time one God can contain another in his form. Assuming God A as superior to God-B, we can assume God-B contained in God-A's form as shown in above figure. However this again contradicts the rule of Omnip[resence since God-A "contains" God-B, but God-B is not "Contained" in God-A". This is similar to Heisenberg's uncertainity principle. Here at a time one got can contain another and be superior. Both gods containing each other and being equally superior erases the Duality hence there are only two combinations as shown in the picture above in case-2. In any case, if God-A contains God-B, then God-A is not contained in God-B thereby nullifying the rule of "Omnipresence" (Rule-3)
Since this case (setup) has contradicted 2 basic rules (axioms), this case cannot be true. Let's proceed ahead.

Case -3: God has NO-Duality but has a specific form

Let's consider two Gods for analysis viz. God-A, and God-B, let's say they are circular in shape and exist in a space called as universal set "U". Since Both Gods are not different from each other, let's draw them as overlapping circles to show their nun-duality. This can be seen in the below figure.

Now let's see if this arrangement of Non-Dual Gods having a particular form meets the Axioms (Rules) stated above or not.
We see from the above figure that:
  • God A and God B both are identical and there is zero difference in them. Hence they are just different in their names by which people recognize them (as God-A and God-B). So, this meets the Rigvedic axiom "There is one God whom people call by many names"
  • Go-A and God-B are contained in each other equally and hence became one with each other. This makes them omniscient about each other, and omnipotent equally. So, Rules no. 2, 4 are satisfied
  • Still then Rules no 1, 3 of being Infinite and Omnipresent are not satisfied since the God-A=God-B but they are circular and hence they leave a lot of space represented by "U" outside them
This case is very close to the Axioms and Vedic verses but still is not truly satisfying. Let's proceed with last case

Case -4: God has NO-Duality and is Formless

Let's assume the universal set- U itself as the God. Then it gives us a picture of non-Duality as well as Formlessness as shown below

Now let's see if this arrangement of Non-Dual God Formless God meets the Axioms (Rules) stated above or not.
We see from the above figure that:
  • There is only one God-A whom people call by the names God-B, God-U. Therefore it meets the Rigvedic verse
  • God-A (=B, U) is present everywhere without leaving any space unfilled -> Meets with the Rule of Omnipresence (Rule-3)
  • God-A (+B) is equal to the infinite universal set-U. Hence God-A(+God-B, U) is "Infinite". Therefore it satisfies the rule of God being Infinity (Rule-1)
  • Since there is only One God pervading everywhere, he is Omniscient and Omnipotent as well. Therefore rules no. 2,4 are also met
  • This arrangment of God being formless, it also satisfies the statement of Svetaswatara Upanishad that God has eyes everywhere, faces everywhere, arms everywhere etc.
Hence our initial assumption that God is Dualistic and has a Form is contradicted with this Case-4 which satisfies correctly all the four fundamental axioms and also remains inline with the Ridvedic and Svetaswatara Upanishadic verses.

Conclusion:

With this proof of contradiction we could arrive at the conclusion that God is essentially One and is formless. However whatever forms we see all are due to Leela (divine sport) and are created under his Maya (Illusion).
Only through Gyana one can damage this fabric of Maya and visualize that Supreme Brahman in his true formless Jyoti called as Brahma-Jyoti. This Brahma-Jyoti is the only truth everything else is illusion. This Brahma-Jyoti is also called as 'Param Jyoti', 'Apo-Jyoti', 'Shiva-Jyoti' and 'Jyoti-Sthambha'

3 comments:

  1. Hello

    in case one, please explain to me why the totally different Gods (A and B) can not know each other?

    eventhough God A and God B physically separate, knowledge is not a material thing and it is beyond the form, why do you assume the entirely separate Gods can not know each other?

    I am different from my friends, but still we can know each other..and we are not Gods..

    thank you

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Thanks for posting. Well, even if you think you know everything about your closest friend, you cannot predict when he would fart, when he would cry, also when he calls you before picking up the call you cannot know what for he called up.... Ans so on... Hope this clarifies.

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