Philosophy of Shri Shankara

[dattaswami]

Shankara gave two phases in His philosophy—

Phase of Reality (Paramarthadasa): In this phase, the absolute reality and the relative reality are mentioned. God is the absolute reality and the cosmic energy is the relative reality, which is produced from God in the beginning of this creation. The cosmic energy includes vacuum also and vacuum is the original form of energy, which is very much invisible. The theory of vacuum generating galaxies supports this point. The special theory of relativity also supports this point, which says that the space or vacuum bends along the boundaries of an object.

Phase of Relativity (Vyavaharadasa): In this phase, the cosmic energy, which is acting as relative reality in the first phase appears as the absolute reality. The relative reality is matter, which is generated from energy and is treated as a form of energy. In this phase, the cosmic energy should be treated as the absolute reality, which never becomes relative reality as long as this phase continues. It becomes relative reality only when this second phase disappears and the first phase appears.

When you put your finger on a solid occupying some space, which consists of millions of atoms packed together, your finger does not penetrate the solid. You feel that your finger is obstructed by the continuous phase of solid matter. This impression is only an illusion and the reality is quite different. Each atom consists of a large quantity of space called Atomic Space. All the sub-atomic particles put together constitute a very negligible portion of the atomic space. Therefore, your finger touches a large quantity of space only and the solid matter viz., the sub-atomic particles is only of very very little quantity only. Even the inter atomic distance is also space only. In such case, your finger should penetrate easily into the solid. But, your finger is restricted by the field of kinetic energy of sub-atomic particles and also the inter-atomic bonds, which are only bond energies.

Therefore, your finger is not obstructed by the solid state viz., the subatomic particles and instead your finger is restricted by the repulsion of their energy only. Inspite of the real interaction of energy, you misunderstand the reality of solid state. Therefore, matter becomes an illusive form of energy like a false serpent appearing on the real rope in dim light. If you take the minute sub-atomic particle, electron, it is now considered that the electron consists of sub-particles called as quarks. Tomorrow, the quark may be found out consisting of barks and day after tomorrow, the bark may be found consisting of darks and so on. This ad-infinitum leads to the disappearance of the very nature of particle. Even the electron is considered to have dual nature of matter and energy. Even the theory of particle nature stands finally on the fundamental unit of energy, a quantum. Therefore, the nature of particles slowly ends in the nature of energy only and you have to treat the quanta of energy as particles. Your finger penetrates in liquid and gas states of matter because the inter-atomic distances are long and the binding energies are weak to restrict your finger in penetration.

If you take the energy, its inherent nature is kinetic only because the energy is expressed as the multiples of frequency. Frequency is a kinetic parameter. The kinetic energy is always dynamic in nature. Even potential energy is the energy associated with a static particle and the potential energy does not mean that the energy is static. The essence of all these give the final information that energy means the property of dynamism only. Dynamism cannot be independent.

When you see that something is dynamic, you refer to a static substratum, which is dynamic. When you have arrived to a conclusion that the entire creation is only energy, it means that the entire creation is only the property of dynamism. This means that the entire creation cannot be an independent item since the dynamism requires its associated substratum. Therefore, this entire creation, which appears as matter, work, vacuum etc., is a continuous ocean of the single phase – energy. In such case, the cosmic energy or the creation cannot exist independently and requires the existence of its possessor or substratum. When a person is walking, the walk or dynamism cannot exist independently without its associated walker. The walk is generated by the walker.

Similarly, all this creation or cosmic energy is generated by its possessor or substratum. Such substratum should be named by some word and the word chosen is God. You cannot say that God should be the particle because the dynamism is always associated with a particle only. This conclusion leads to a serious problem. In case you treat God as particle, then God should also be energy in essence since the nature of the particle finally ends in energy. In such case, God should be essentially energy and there is no meaning in saying that the God is the generator of energy. The generator of energy itself cannot be energy. The generator of energy should be totally different and should not be energy again. If you conclude that God is not energy, God is also not space because space is essentially energy. This means that God is beyond the concept of energy or space. The conclusion of this logic is that your intelligence cannot imagine God, who is beyond the dimensions of space. Your intelligence can imagine anything, which has the dimensions of space only.

When your hand revolves, each revolution is kinetic energy only. The potential energy associated with the hand may be converted into kinetic energy for sometime. When the potential energy is exhausted, the fat associated with the hand may dissolve supplying the kinetic energy. This is conversion of matter into energy. When the fat disappears, your hand stops because there is no provision of conversion of any small portion of matter of the hand into energy. If some provision is made to convert the hand into energy, the revolutions continue till all the hand is converted into energy. At this stage, since the hand totally disappears, there is no revolution because the energy needs association of some matter as its possessor. You need not argue that the electro-magnetic radiation traveling in space is independent entity without possessor. The electromagnetic radiation appearing as independent entity has its unimaginable possessor called as God.

The electron revolves in its orbit and each revolution is an expenditure of some small kinetic energy. People say that since this kinetic energy is very much lesser than the fundamental unit of energy, electron does not lose energy and is not collapsing in the nucleus in long run. They say that the orbit is static. This argument appears in the following way. [Example:] Suppose somebody is selling 10 fruits for 1 paisa. You take only one fruit and you may say that since you cannot pay 0.1 paisa, the fruit is taken free of cost. In this way, you take each fruit and put in your bag.

The seller has to agree with your argument since the paisa cannot be divided into fractions. But, after taking 10 fruits, the seller will demand you to pay 1 paisa! Hence, you must conclude this point in two ways. The first way is that the energy needed for each revolution of electron is supplied from cosmic energy, since neither the potential energy associated with electron nor any portion of the particle nature of electron is converted into kinetic energy. The second way is to treat this point beyond logic of measurement of such infinitesimally small kinetic energy compared to the fundamental unit of kinetic energy that can be measured by the human being. This second point is covered under the topic of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, but even this point needs the requirement of the first point because the accumulation of several revolutions can become equal to the measurable fundamental unit of energy.

The final solution for this is to accept the unimaginable power of the absolute unimaginable God through this event, which can be called as miracle that indicates the existence of unimaginable God. You should not apply the tautology, which is the logic of the relative items to the ultimate absolute unimaginable God.