God is not body but enters the body

[sridatta]

When the Veda says that God is not body (Akayam), how do you support the Human Incarnation of God?

[Reply to Shri Surya, Mumbai] God is not any medium or body (Akayamavranam… Veda) because God is unimaginable. The body or medium is a part of creation and hence, is imaginable. God is also not modified into the medium or body. God only enters the medium or body. The electric current is not the wire. The current is not modified into the wire. The current has entered the wire. As long as the current exists in the wire, the wire has to be treated as the current.

There is no way to experience the current other than this. The wire attains the property of the electric current and gives a shock, thereby giving the experience of the existence of the current. The experience of the existence of the current is not the experience of the knowledge of the original form of current. God entered the human body of Krishna and Krishna became God. Krishna lifted the hill on His finger. This unimaginable event indicates the existence of the unimaginable God in Krishna. However, by this, God did not become imaginable.

The Veda says that God revealed His body (Vivrunute Tanum svam…). Therefore, the word Akayam means “God is not the body”. It should be taken as a Nanyatatpurusha samasa (a mode in Sanskrit grammar). If you say that the meaning of this word is “God has no body” (Bahuvrihi samasa), then it contradicts the above Vedic statement (Tanum svam), which says that God reveals His own body. It follows that God must have His own body. There is another Vedic statement in which this word is used in the sense of a Bahuruvrihi samasa (Akayonirgunohyatma). Atma in this statement represents God because God is compared to the soul in the body in view of His importance in this world. The statement means that the original unimaginable God is not the possessor of the body or the possessor of the qualities before creation.

You have to take this statement to the state of God before creation. Otherwise, once creation is done, God becomes the possessor of creation, which is treated as His own body by the Veda (Prithivi tasya shariram). Any human body in the world comes under the possession of God after creation and then God becomes the possessor of any human body. Thus, you cannot interpret it in the sense of a Bahuvrihi Samasa after creation. The Veda also says that God entered into creation (Tadevanupravishat) and this refers to the Human Incarnation, where God becomes the special possessor of a particular human body.

The entire kingdom is the property of the king in a general sense. In a special sense, the royal palace is the property of the king. Similarly, although God is the possessor of the world in a general sense, He becomes the special possessor of a particular human body like Krishna. The vision of Vishwarupam showed by Him, indicates the general possession of the entire cosmos as His body. However, as a result of this, every human being cannot claim to be a Human Incarnation of God as is done by followers of Advaita. Every human being is under the control of God like every house in the kingdom. The human body of Krishna alone is the living place of God like the royal palace.

In the case of the Human Incarnation, the word Atman means the individual soul, which is not the body (Kayam) and not the Jeeva (Guna). The individual soul is pure awareness, which is neither the external gross body (Kayam) nor the internal bundle of qualities (Guna or Jeeva). Although pure awareness is also a quality (Sattvam), this fact is neglected, since awareness is the controller of other qualities. A king is also a citizen but he is said to be the Lord of all citizens.

When we refer to citizens, we refer to all other human beings except the king, even though the king is also a human being and a citizen. If you take this statement in the sense of God, there also, it means that God is neither the external gross body nor the internal Jeeva. Then, you may say that God means the pure awareness as per Advaita. Here the pure awareness is also a quality (Sattvam; refer Sattvatsamjayate Jnanam—Gita) included in the category of Jeeva, as said above. Even otherwise, the individual soul, which is bundle of qualities, includes pure awareness as the material of the qualities. A bundle of golden jewels includes gold. Therefore, here the statement means that God is neither the gross body, nor any quality and nor even the pure awareness.

All these three items (gross body, qualities and pure awareness) are the items of creation whereas God is the Creator, who is beyond the creation. The Gita says that God enters the human body (Manusheem tanumashritam). After the entry, the human body becomes His body. Christianity says that God is in flesh. God is neither the human being nor is God modified into the human being. God only entered the human being. Such a human being alone is to be treated as God. For human beings, the human being is the best medium for interaction with God in order to receive knowledge and guidance in the spiritual path.