- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by .
-
Posts
-
Hello Ashish,
I have so many questions and not sure where to start, so I’ll just choose this starting point. In the Samkhya model, where are the deities places? Is there a hierarchy among the deities in terms of subtle to dense ?
Also, is there such a notion as angels as in the Christian religion in the Samkhya?
Thank you,
MiraThere are many kinds of deities, but we can begin with the simplest. This kind of deity is called a demigod or a devata. It is an administrative position, as the president of a country. The position is permanent, but the person is not permanent. So, a different person can take the same position. Examples of demigods are Surya, Chandra, Indra, Yama, etc. They are the administrators of the universe. They occupy their posts for thousands of years, but they are not permanent. Just like in the government, there are different departments — finance, agriculture, commerce, education, health, etc. In the same way, these demigods are heads of these departments. Under these heads, there are also subordinates, which are also demigods but of a lower level. Just like a minister has a bureaucrat who executes the plans of the minister. So, there is a hierarchy of administration.
In Sankhya, causality has three parts — these are called bhautika or object, atmika or subject, and daivika or controller. When your eyes see an apple, the contact between the eye and the apple is arranged by the demigod. Not everyone can come into contact with everything. This contact is arranged by our karma and the demigods are responsible for delivering this karma. So, by our good or bad deeds, and the action of the demigods, we see what we see. The demigod or the controller is the person who arranges what types of objects come into contact with us.
There is another kind of deity, which is called Bhagavan or ‘God’. There are many forms of God as well; some are higher and some are lower. This ‘high’ and ‘low’ is simply the designation or the role that God is playing. For example, sometimes God appears to kill demonic people. This is considered a low-level role. The high-level role is when the same God plays with His friends or dances with His girlfriends. The ‘high’ and ‘low’ is the role, but since the same person performs this role, these deities are not considered different from one another. When you go swimming, you wear a swimming costume. When you go to work, you wear a formal dress. So, according to the work you are doing, you change your appearance. Like that God changes His appearance to perform different kinds of roles. But this is just a difference in role, not the person.
The term ‘angel’ can be employed both for servants of God, as well as for the demigods. Probably the most appropriate use of this term is as devotees of God because they transmit the message of God to common people. However, by that measure, there is no such thing as a ‘fallen angel’.
Angels play an important role in messianic religions, where one angel imparts the message of God. Angels don’t play an important role in Vedic religion because God speaks directly, not through an angel. Whenever there is a decline in religion, God appears to reestablish religion. So, even as angels or messiahs can come, they are not the only means to deliver the message. The message is directly imparted by God (in Abrahamic religions, God never appears in this world, and hence messiahs are the source of information about God). The Bhagavad-Gita is, for instance, spoken by God to His devotee Arjuna on a battlefield in front of everyone. It is not a private conversation and not a secret revelation. This is an example of why angels and messiahs have a secondary role in Vedic religion–the primary instruction is directly given by God.
Next question :
Can human beings come into contact with the divinities?
Yes, they can come into contact with us, but can we do the same? Can we communicate with them with language for example? Or through what form can we communicate with them?
If we can, can we knowingly receive information from them? As in, if they communicate with us, are they doing so in a way that we can comprehend and can we know that it’s this or that deity?
Thank you,
Mira
Can human beings come into contact with the divinities?
Yes, we can know and experience the divinities. In fact, we are constantly in touch with the divinities, but we don’t understand that. For example, Surya or the Sun demigod is sending us sunlight. If we go out during the day, then we are in contact with the Sun god. But we don’t know that we are. We just think it is light because we don’t understand that the source of light is indicated in the light particle, but as a deeper level reality. We just perceive light by the senses and don’t understand the source. Why? Because that source is perceived by the mind. Through the eyes, you can see color. But by the mind, you can see the source of light, present in the color. If mental perception is advanced, then by that perception we can see the source.
Yes, they can come into contact with us, but can we do the same? Can we communicate with them with language for example? Or through what form can we communicate with them?
Our thoughts are encoded in a common natural language, regardless of what language we speak in–English, French, etc. Just like in a computer, there is a native language of 1s and 0s, and then there are other human-readable programmable languages like Java, Python, C, etc. The common natural language is understood both by demigods and God. This is the basis of communication. So, yes, we can pray in our language, and the prayer can be understood by the recipient.
If we can, can we knowingly receive information from them? As in, if they communicate with us, are they doing so in a way that we can comprehend and can we know that it’s this or that deity?
If you see a white object in a room with blue light, and you rely only on sense perception, then the white object is perceived as blue. It is because we cannot distinguish between the sources of light, and we think that if we are looking at an object, and it seems blue, then it must be blue. Similarly, we are constantly communicating with God and the demigods. But this communication is received like the blue light. Even when it comes to us from the demigod or God, we think it is coming from the white object, and the white object, therefore, seems blue. Thus, the demigods and God are speaking to us constantly, but we are unable to distinguish what they are saying from our ordinary perceptions. So, we get two messages — a white light (from a material object) and a blue light (from the demigod/God) and we conclude that the material object is blue. So, it is sometimes said that “God talks to us through the world”. Factually He talks to us directly, but we can’t make out the difference because we cannot distinguish between the sources. So we mix up white light and blue light, and due to our materialism, we say that the object is blue. However, when someone becomes a devotee of God, then he/she can see which message is from the material world, and which one is from God. By distinguishing these two messages (because the source is in the message), such a person can communicate with God directly and constantly, even though other people will think that he/she is only doing and seeing things in this world.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
