How To Recognize Divinity ?
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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
avyaktaṃ vyaktimāpannaṃ manyante māmabuddhayaḥ paraṃ bhāvamajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam
Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the supreme personality of godhead, the Bhagavān, who was impersonal before, have become a human being now. They do not know that I am imperishable and supreme, even when I assume the body
Kṛṣṇa is supreme, illimitable and immortal. He does not become an ordinary human being by assuming a human form.'
nāhaṃ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyāsamāvṛtaḥ mūḍhoyaṃ nābhijānāti loko māmajamavyayam
I am never revealed to the foolish and unintelligent, covered as I am by My divine power; the ignorant do not know Me, unborn and eternal.
It is the awareness of that divinity in Him that makes Kṛṣṇa divine. If that awareness happens in you, you will be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
vedāhaṃ samatī tāni vartamānāni cārjuna bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni māṃ tu veda na kaścana
O Arjuna, as the supreme personality of Godhead, I know all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that is to happen. I also know all living entities; but no one knows Me.
We cannot know Kṛṣṇa unless we are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
icchādveṣasamutthena dvandvamohena bhārata sarvabhūtāni saṃmohaṃ sarge yānti parantapa
O scion of Bhārata (Arjuna), O conqueror of the foe, Parantapa, all living entities are born into delusion, overcome by the dualities of attachment and aversion.
Shedding attachment and aversion is the first step to awareness.
Kṛṣṇa gives the explanation: 'Unintelligent men, who are not mature, think I am just this form. Only an intelligent man understands that I am immortal. Even when I assume this form, I am that same consciousness. I have not become an ordinary human being by assuming a human form.' He declares His divinity openly. Kṛṣṇa says, 'All types of people come to Me. I fulfill them at different levels, to encourage their faith and to enrich them to grow. But only intelligent people understand, that even if I assume this body, I am the ultimate, I am enlightened. Unintelligent people think by seeing my body, by seeing my form, that I am not the Divine. So please be very clear: I am THAT.' He makes a clear statement again and again, so that Arjuna understands.
We need to understand two important issues here. First, the formless energy of Kṛṣṇa defines His supremacy, His divinity, His Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Second, in whatever form the formless is expressed, it is divine. It is the awareness of that divinity in Him that makes Kṛṣṇa divine, the supreme Master. If that awareness happens in you, you will be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, immersed in Him; and you will be divine too. The intelligence Kṛṣṇa talks about is the intelligent awareness of one's own divinity, not merely that of Kṛṣṇa. They are both one and the same.
It is only when we are aware of our divinity that we appreciate the Divine
Kṛṣṇa asks: How can you recognize divinity when you are covered in ignorance? How can you recognize Me when you are not aware? Out of the thousands who come to me, tens of thousands, the vast majority seeks favors of one kind or another. They come for the healing of the body and mind, or they come for repairing relationships, and for material benefits. Even those who do not look for material benefits may aspire to that intangible peace and bliss. It is the rare person who comes without asking anything. They are attracted like iron filings to a magnet. It is a call from their being which leads them to me.
In Mahābhārat, the Pāṇḍava princes could recognize the reality of Kṛṣṇa. No one needed to coach them for it. On the other hand, their cousins the Kaurava for the most part denied Kṛṣṇa. They rejected and ridiculed Him.
Duryodhana, who was offered the first choice by Kṛṣṇa to choose either Him unarmed or His Yadava army, chose the utilitarian army! That was all Duryodhana could see. That was his level of awareness, steeped as he was in ignorance. Arjuna jumped at Kṛṣṇa's offer. All Arjuna wanted was Kṛṣṇa, His presence, not His army, not His divine powers, nothing else.
It is a choice that all of us need to make, whether we wish to be Duryodhana or Arjuna. It is not a difficult choice, as it will be determined by our being and our awareness. Fear and greed are what drive us, says Kṛṣṇa. That is our delusion that leads us away from Him. Attachment and aversion, rāga and dveṣa, form the duality, the polarity of human life.
Even at the fundamental cellular level, biologists have shown that this tendency is exhibited. If you place a single cell in a petridish and place a drop of nutrient, it is attracted to it and moves towards it. If you place a drop of toxin in the same dish, the cell moves away from it. At the cellular level, attraction aids in growth and aversion in survival. A cell can either grow or protect itself. Unfortunately, what works well at the cellular level does not work so well at the human level simply because humans have greater intelligence. Cells obey Nature and are directed by Nature to recognize instinctively what is good and what is bad. They also automatically accept the consequence.
Humans are different. They bypass signals from their body, refuse to accept what Nature tries to tell them and indulge in or avoid activities or objects based on their logic. Logic overriding Nature always leads to suffering. Shedding attachment and aversion is the first step to awareness. Attachment and aversion are born out of our past; based on experiences and memories that form the root thought patterns, what we call saṁskāra in Saṁskrit. Based on these saṁskāras, we try to define our future.