The only knowable experience about God is that God exists

God is always unimaginable and unknowable for any human being under any circumstances because He is beyond the dimensions of space and time and this is very much stressed in Veda and Gita. There is no second thought about this point and Shankara also told the same that God could be understood only in deep sleep. In deep sleep (Sushupti) there is no item that understands (Jnata) because the process of understanding (Jnanam) disappears. When the process of burning disappears, there is no fire. If you say that the process of knowing itself is the knower, then also the knower is absent because there is no process of knowing in the deep sleep. The knower can be no more a knower if the knower loses the process or quality of knowing. Then the knower is converted into inert item in deep sleep. In fact, this is true according to science also because the knower or process of knowing is converted into inert energy in deep sleep.


Shankara means by this that God is unknown as indicated by the deep sleep, in which a state of total ignorance remains indicating that any one is totally ignorant about God (Sushuptyekasiddhah…). You cannot say that the knower or the process of knowing (Knowledge) itself is God, because in such case God is not eternal who is daily vanishing (converted into inert energy) and is daily born (inert energy is converted into knower or knowledge). This is not acceptable because God is eternal. To evaluate the unknowable answer, you represent the answer by X and then get the answer for X using the given data. But in the case of God, the answer will be always unknowable and unimaginable only.

The link between the unknowable God and the knowable items of the world is also unknowable and hence no related data of God can be knowable. In the problem, since the answer is knowable, the data related to the knowable answer is also knowable with the help of which the knowable answer can be evaluated. But that is not the case with God. Hence, any knowable item of the creation can be made as the representative of God. The only knowable experience about God is that God exists. This is established by the knowable experience of unknowable nature of God. The unknowable nature of God is experienced but such nature cannot be analyzed and hence such nature is always concluded as unknowable. For example a small boy ( Krishna ) lifting up the huge mountain is seen and the existence of the unknowable nature of the boy is experienced. Since, such nature could not be analyzed, it remains always as the unknowable item. Hence, Veda says that only the existence of the unknowable God is experienced (Astetyeva….). Since, there is full freedom in selecting any knowable item to represent God, the best suitable item for explaining the status of the unimaginable God is awareness according to Shankara.