Refreshing awareness (divinities)

[Guest guest]

Namaste Harshaji!

 

>The Mind is divine. Individual Gods and Goddess are divine

>as well. The perception of arising of heavenly beings reflect

>the state of mind and an aspect of the mind. The actual form

>of the Goddess is formless or pure consciousness as Being ...

 

 

I'm glad you wrote that, since I wanted to say a bit more about

divinities myself, so as not offend any devout Hindus.

 

What you say sounds fine to me. We Advaitins really should see

everything as a manifestation of the Supreme Consciousness and

nothing as a distinct entity, not even the divinities. However, I

am more open to the mysterious and the supernatural than my

sometimes clinical comments may suggest.

 

Let me give an example. Here is a story which may very well be as

'true' as any 'fact', as far as I am concerned. I see no reason to

dismiss it out of hand. Somewhere on the web I read an account of an

American Ph.D. student and student of Advaita who went to India to do

a Ph.D. on Ganesha. He told himself that as a good philosophical

Advaitin, he could only believe in abstract Consciousness and not in

'divinities'. His research of Ganesha was only in his capacity as a

scholar of religion. He vowed to remain noncommitted and objective

regarding the 'reality' of Ganesha.

 

Well, to make a long story short, he had an extraordinary experience

in the temple. I cannot remember the details, but he was quite sure

that Ganesha communicated with him, and that this Ganesha was not

just his imagination. If I remember correctly, Ganesha winked at him

and displayed a sense of humor as well. Anyhow, this objective

scholar felt quite certain that he had some kind of supernatural

experience far beyond his mere imagination.

 

My feeling is that the same 'Infinite Consciousness' which projects

(not creates!) the world as a magnificent display in His

consciousness can do with this Lila whatever he pleases. I am sure

that the reason it always (or almost always) follows the laws of

physics has somehow to do with dharma, karma and our spiritual

evolution. It is like the rigid mold in which the cake is baked.

That is my view. (An implicit assumption here is that the 'laws of

physics' are, strictly speaking, incompatible with divinities, but

what do I know?)

 

Above all, the seeker is misguided if he anxiously awaits wonders,

miracles, and other divine tricks. This is a kind of immature

spiritual greed, unless we are talking about a pure soul like

Ramakrishna. On the contrary, we should respect that the world

usually operates according to the laws of physics, since there is

some profound reason for this, having to do with our spiritual

evolution.

 

Om!

Benjamin