Divine Discourses Vol -2

Shri Datta Swami Divine Discourses Vol. 2

i

Divine Discourse

Volume-2

By

His Holiness Shri Datta Swami

SRI DATTA JNANA PRACHARA PARISHAT

Mumbai Center: 10/553, Shreyas, 11th Road, Chembur, Mumbai – 400 071, Maharashtra, India

Ph# 2521 2467/2555 6441/25480137 [email protected] www.universal-spirituality.org


ii

Contact Information Donations (Guru Dakshina) may be made to: Sri Datta Jnana Prachara Parishath For propagating divine knowledge and devotion Registration No. 209/2004 State Bank of India A/c # 10454992764 U. T. I. Bank, India A/c # 069010100148542 Sri Datta Seva Samithi For feeding beggars Registration No. 210/2004 State Bank of India Aa/c # 30001015515 Address for Communication 23-31-2/1, Kommu Vari Street, S. N. Puram, Vijayawada 520 011, India Email : [email protected] Web Site: www.universal-spirituality.org Copyright © 2008 Universal Spirituality for World Peace, Florida USA This book may be freely distributed, reprinted or resold without altering contents.


iii

CONTENTS

1. WHICH KNOWLEDGE NEEDS PROPAGATION? .....................................1

Guru And God .............................................................................................2

2. AIM OF HUMAN LIFE...................................................................................5

Can We See and Talk to God? ....................................................................5

Consequences of Suicide ...........................................................................12

The Real Suicide........................................................................................14

Each Soul Independent in Sadhana ...........................................................15

Does Enjoyment Lead to Yoga?................................................................17

Meaning of Enlightenment ........................................................................18

Speciality of Divine Knowledge ...............................................................19

3. AUTHORITY OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE...........................................22

Truth And Validation ................................................................................22

Primary Standard in Spirituality................................................................23

Main Classification of the Veda ................................................................25

4. ADVAITA OF SHANKARA.........................................................................26

Shankara, the Genius .................................................................................26

Brahman is not Ishwara .............................................................................29

5. WORLD IS REAL TO SOUL........................................................................31

Mithya........................................................................................................31

Not Unreal to the Soul ...............................................................................32

6. SHANKARA AND RAMANA......................................................................34

Major Lessons from Minor Incidents ........................................................34

God and Soul: No Comparison..................................................................36

Confusion about the Source of I ................................................................41

Spiritual Chocolates...................................................................................44

7. O ADVAITIN! DIFFERENTIATE PEACE & BLISS..................................46

Reason for Continuous Happiness.............................................................47

8. CREATION IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT OF GOD....................................51

God’s Justice is not Sadism.......................................................................51


iv

Sun, Saturn and Yama ...............................................................................53

Conducting Enquiry of Departed souls .....................................................53

Message From History ..............................................................................54

Recognition and Value for God.................................................................55

9. COMMANDMENTS OF GOD......................................................................59

Sin and Punishment ...................................................................................59

Cycle of Deeds...........................................................................................63

Destroying the Seed...................................................................................64

God and Three Qualities............................................................................65

Generous Atheist or Selfish Theist............................................................66

Cause of Fear .............................................................................................67

Worldly Talents .........................................................................................67

10. SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF KARMA CHAKRA ........................69

Father of All Souls.....................................................................................69

Never Criticize Anyone .............................................................................69

Hidden Backgrounds of Souls ...................................................................70

Divine Banking..........................................................................................71

Action-Result in Karma Cycle ..................................................................72

Negative Blessings ....................................................................................72

Divine Medicine ........................................................................................74

Clarifications on Karma and Punishment..................................................74

11. COMPASSION IN PUNISHMENT ..............................................................77

God’s Endless Compassion .......................................................................77

Proper Utilization of Misery......................................................................80

12. EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS..........................................................................83

Opposing Aspects of Knowledge ..............................................................83

Punishment in Hell to reduce Materialism Madness.................................84

Lord Helps Both Devotees And Non-devotees .........................................85

13. LEARN TO ENJOY MISERY WITH EFFORT ...........................................87

Achieving Perfect Bliss of God.................................................................87

Real and Unreal Worlds ............................................................................90

Beyond Unreal Love & Hatred—Universal Spirituality...........................92


v

The Truth About Brahma Loka .................................................................93

The Secret to Rising Higher ......................................................................94

Best Worship of God .................................................................................96

Creation is Real For Souls .........................................................................97

Need for Ishwara and Avatara ...................................................................98

Necessity of the Correct Analysis .............................................................98

Training in the World ..............................................................................101

14. ASTROLOGY AND CYCLE OF DEEDS ..................................................103

Astrology .................................................................................................103

Enjoying Fruits of Deeds Mainly in Upper Worlds ................................105

Inner Meaning of Karma .........................................................................106

Karma of Past Birth .................................................................................108

Truth in Astrology ...................................................................................110

Ignorant soul - Realised soul – Liberated soul ........................................112

Source of Immortality..............................................................................114

15. HUMAN LIFE IS TO SERVE GOD ...........................................................117

Optimal Use of Time in Present Birth.....................................................117

Misery in Love And Service of Lord is Highest .....................................118

16. GOD IS MOST DESERVING OF YOUR LOVE.......................................120

Inevitability and Benefit of Worldly Stress.............................................120

Complicated Cycle of Deeds ...................................................................121

Rigid Dharma for Sweet Love.................................................................123

17. DEVELOPING DEVOTION .......................................................................126

Selfishness of Human Devotion ..............................................................126

Astrology Helps in Continuous Devotion ...............................................128

Ignorance of Knowledge Induces Fear....................................................131

18. UNDERSTAND INNER MEANINGS & PRACTICE ...............................133

Destroying the Buffalo ............................................................................133

Worship....................................................................................................134

Leave Blind Practices ..............................................................................135

Bonds are Chakras ...................................................................................136

Spread Real Light ....................................................................................137


vi

Meaning of Light .....................................................................................138

Feed Hungry Beggars Instead of Burning Lights....................................139

Stop Wastage ...........................................................................................140

Understand the Real Meaning .................................................................140

Light and Darkness..................................................................................141

Song of Datta ...........................................................................................142

Sacrifice for Liberation............................................................................143

Insulting Depictions.................................................................................145

Sacrifice Under Ignorance .......................................................................147

Interpretation of Symbolism....................................................................148

19. PURIFICATION OF BRAHMIN PRIESTS................................................151

Become Great Preachers..........................................................................151

No Need for Recitation............................................................................153

Do Not Disgrace Your Ancestors............................................................154

God’s Agents ...........................................................................................155

Psychology in Preaching .........................................................................156

The Great Declaration .............................................................................157

Caste Connection.....................................................................................158

Veda and Brahman ..................................................................................160

Divine Infrastructure................................................................................163

Nara And Narayana .................................................................................164

Rama And Krishna ..................................................................................165

20. PATHS OF JUSTICE & PLEASING GOD.................................................166

Preacher of Pravritti.................................................................................166

Sita, the Devotee......................................................................................167

Hanuman, the Servant..............................................................................167

Ideal Brothers ..........................................................................................168

God Is Beyond Criticism .........................................................................168

Meditation on Spiritual Knowledge ........................................................170

21. LORD OF PRAVRITTI AND NIVRITTI ...................................................172

Gratefulness in Pravritti...........................................................................172

Contentment in Pravritti ..........................................................................173


vii

Richness of Swami ..................................................................................176

Essence Of The Epics ..............................................................................176

Mahabharata ............................................................................................177

Ramayana ................................................................................................179

22. PATH OF PLEASING GOD FROM EPICS ...............................................180

Extent of Total Sacrifice; Not Potentiality ..............................................180

Essential Components of the Spiritual Effort..........................................182

God is Blameless .....................................................................................184

Two Parts of the Divine Constitution......................................................185

God’s Guidance in All Worlds ................................................................187


1

Chapter - 1 WHICH KNOWLEDGE NEEDS PROPAGATION?

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Guru… Guru… Guru October 13, 2003] Some people desire to

become Guru (Preacher) when they fail in every business. They want to succeed in the spiritual business. Some other people have the itch to become the Guru to get the disciples around them. But, for preaching and to become a real Guru in this world there are three requirements.

1) You should discover a better truth in the scriptures. 2) Due to lack of knowledge of your discovery, people must be

suffering already. 3) People should get benefit on knowing your discovery. If these three points are satisfied preaching is meaningful and such

a preacher is useful Guru (Satguru). If you can say, “Here is a new method to get rid of the headache without a tablet,” you can be a Satguru and your discovery needs propagation. Such real preachers are Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavir, Vivekananda, Saibaba etc.

The second type of Guru is useless Guru who preaches, “Headache disappears if you take the medicine”. Everyone knows this. He preaches whatever is already present in books. He is wasting his time and energy. He is only a teacher but not a preacher.

The third type of Guru is harmful Guru who preaches, “If you swallow the poison headache will disappear”. He harms the people. He does not know even the bookish knowledge. He spreads his ignorance.

God will punish a harmful Guru. God does not punish a useless Guru, but he is wasting his time and energy just to satisfy his itch to become the Guru. Instead of wasting his lifetime like this, let him join the service to propagate the knowledge of the Lord, who came in human form (Satguru). But, jealousy and egoism hinder him to do so. He wants to become Shankaracharya and get his fame. He does not want to become a disciple of Shankaracharya who is a human being like him. He did not discover any theory like Shankaracharya but he wants to get the fame of Shankaracharya. His egoism does not allow him to become


2

the disciple of Shankaracharya. He is very jealous at the fame of Shankaracharya. He wears the dress of Shankaracharya, and shaves his head similarly. He teaches the same theory of Shankaracharya. Then he is only a disciple of Shankaracharya but not the original Shankaracharya.

No one is greater than Hanuman in any aspect like knowledge, devotion, power, etc.. Such Hanuman participated in the service of the Lord in human form. He did not start his own new work to uplift the world by killing some other demon and did not want to become a hero like Rama. The reason is, he does not have even a trace of jealousy and egoism. So he recognized the Lord in human form and became His servant to participate in His work. Rama became Vishnu. Hanuman became the future Brahma. Vishnu is Brahma as the Veda says ‘Brahmascha Narayanah’. This means Hanuman got the same position of Rama. So if you participate in the service of the Satguru you will get the same position of Satguru.

So never be a harmful Guru. Don’t waste time and energy by becoming a useless Guru. Participate in the service of the useful Guru (Satguru) as a disciple and get the same position of that Satguru. Let every Guru and everyone who has the itch to become Guru think about My advice and do self-examination sitting alone with peaceful mind.

Then you will understand the truth.

Guru And God The right half of Datta is Guru and the left half of Datta is God.

Rama is God and Hanuman is Guru. The same Datta is split into two halves. Rama is incarnation of Vishnu. Hanuman is incarnation of Shiva. The Veda says ‘Shivascha Narayanah’ i.e., Vishnu is Shiva. So Rama is the left half and Hanuman is the right half of Datta. Guru needs the Supernatural powers (Ashta siddhis) for the sake of the disciples. Sometimes a disciple doubts the divinity of Guru. To prove His divinity the Guru has to perform some miracles. Sita doubted Hanuman. So Hanuman grew his body (Vishwa Roopam) and showed the proof. Similarly when Ravana lighted his tail with fire, the tail did not burn. That was a miracle showed to Ravana. Sita believed Hanuman but Ravana did not believe. For both Sita and Ravana he described about Rama, the God. Thus He is Guru for both. Sita is a good disciple and Ravana is a bad disciple.


3

In the case of Lord Krishna, He is both Guru and God i.e., two in one system. He preached and also showed Vishwaroopam to both Arjuna and Duryodhana. Arjuna being a good disciple believed. Duryodhana being a bad disciple did not believe. Krishna told that He is the God. So He is Gurudeva. This shows that preaching and showing miracles are useful only in the case of deserving devotees.

Sita represents an ordinary soul (Jeeva). After marriage she stayed with the Lord for about 12 years in Ayodhya. Due to continuous long association, negligence to Lord developed in her mind. When Rama was going to forest, he asked her to stay at Ayodhya. Then she criticized Rama saying ‘You are a female in the form of a male’. Such negligence weakens the bond with the Lord. The golden deer attracted her, which is nothing but the bond with money. The ten-headed Ravana who represents the various family bonds stole her and she suffered a lot. Then she cried for Rama who is the Lord. Then Hanuman in the form of Guru approached her. Hanuman described Rama from top to bottom. This means Guru explains that the real form of God is only the human form. Hanuman killed the demons there. This means that the Guru cuts all the worldly bonds, which trouble the soul. Hanuman burnt the Golden Lanka. Sita reached the Golden Lanka through the attachment to Golden deer. This means due to the bond with money the soul gets lot of wealth. Sita suffered in Lanka. This means that the soul suffers due to excess of wealth. Hanuman warned Ravana. This means Guru also teaches the family bonds of that soul to get salvation. Hanuman returned back and appealed Rama to save Sita immediately. Similarly a Guru recommends to God to protect the devotee. Rama immediately killed Ravana and saved Sita. This means the Lord will cut all the family bonds and uplifts you. Even after reaching Rama, Sita suffered due to her sins. She blamed Lakshmana in the forest and due to that sin she suffered. This means after achieving the Lord also, the devotee has to suffer his own sins. When Rama sent Sita to the forest Sita told ‘Kalyanabuddheh…’ i.e., “Oh! Rama you are kind. This is only due to my sins.” She never blamed Rama and suffered her sins silently. Similarly one should not blame the Lord while suffering his own sins. He should suffer the sins with silence. Rama also suffered after leaving Sita. Similarly the Lord also suffers for your sins. Atlast, Rama gave the permanent place with Him in the upper world to Sita. This means that if


4

you are prepared to suffer your sins and still love the Lord, you will get a permanent place in the heart of the Lord.

In the case of Krishna also, Yadavas neglected the advice of Krishna due to long association. They swallowed the wine and killed each other. Arjuna also criticized Krishna when he was fighting for the sake of Gaya. Arjuna gave more importance to Dharma than Swami in protecting Gaya. But Gopikas gave more importance to Swami than Dharma and danced with Lord Krishna in Brindavanam. Gopikas got salvation after that birth but Arjuna has to be born again as a hunter. When the hunter proved the climax of his love by offering his eyes, he got salvation. Similarly Hanuman also fought with Rama to protect Yayathi who was given protection by the mother of Hanuman. Hanuman gave more importance to his mother than Swami. He realized his mistake and rectified it in his next incarnation i.e., Shankaracharya. Both Hanuman and Shankaracharya are the incarnations of Shiva. Shankaracharya left His mother for the sake of Swami and thus rectified His previous mistake.

In all these cases, ‘Maya’ covers the minds of the disciples. Arjuna realized Krishna as God when he heard Gita and saw the Vishwa Roopam. But during the eighteen days [of Mahabharat War], Krishna behaved like a driver when the chariot comes back to the army tent. Krishna used to get down first and opened the door of the chariot and then only Arjuna as a owner of the Chariot used to get down. Such humbleness of Krishna misled Arjuna to think Krishna as an ordinary man. Already the incarnation is a human being. Due to this itself, one will be captured by the ‘Maya’. Further when the Lord shows such submissive nature the ‘Maya’ is doubled. On the eighteenth day, Krishna asked Arjuna to get down first. Arjuna hesitated but Krishna shouted at him and then Arjuna got down. Then Krishna also got down and immediately the chariot was burnt. So in this incident we can understand the behaviour of Arjuna. His ‘Maya’ affected even great devotees like Arjuna. Arjuna was Nara Rishi and was associated with Narayana during the past several births. When such Arjuna could not come out of the illusion, you cannot expect an ordinary human devotee to come out of the ‘Maya’ exhibited by the human incarnation of God.


5

Chapter - 2 AIM OF HUMAN LIFE

Can We See and Talk to God? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Purpose of Human Life:

In the materialistic plane, a person says that the aim of his life is to achieve a particular post [career objective] and then help his family members. Another person says that the aim of his life is to serve mankind. We appreciate the second aim as higher than the first one. The highest aim of human life can be known only in the spiritual plane. The sole aim of this creation is pleasing God through entertainment. Every human being is a part of the creation and so the same aim applies to every human being. Human life becomes fruitful if one serves the Lord and pleases the Lord through the service. Service means the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. Service is the proof of real love. The mother serves her child by sacrificing a lot of work like feeding, giving a bath, dressing-up the child etc., continuously for years. The father serves the child by sacrificing the fruit of all his hard work to the child [by providing for the child financially]. It is a clear practical point that the proof of real love is only service. If you serve your family, it proves that you love your family. If you serve the entire world, it proves that you love the creation. If you serve the creator, it proves that you love the Creator. It is a very simple point.

Love is the attraction of the mind towards anybody or anything. When illness attacks the body, you take so much care to serve your body. You love your body. Similarly you serve your father, mother, wife and children because your mind is attracted towards them. What is the first prerequisite for this love? When you love your child, you are aware that a particular small living being is your child and you have the differentiating knowledge of your child from other children who are similar. Similarly, when you love God you must be aware of the form of God, who must be differentiated from other forms, as your child is differentiated from other children. You identify your child by certain special characteristics like the shape of the face, voice etc; you do not


6

recognize your child by the clothes, which it puts on. Other children can put on such clothes too. Similarly, you must distinguish the Creator from the creation and then only love the Creator. You cannot love the entire creation as the creator. Do you love all the children as your own children? Therefore, the prerequisite of love is the true knowledge and the inseparable identifying characteristics of an object by which you get attracted towards it. Therefore, what is the real form of God? And how does it differ from other forms? What are the inseparable identifying characteristics of God? The answers for these questions constitute the detailed true knowledge of God. Only such true knowledge generates attraction and love. When you know the separate special details of Bombay, which are not seen in any other city, then only are you attracted to Bombay and like to see it.

Before proceeding to identify the true knowledge of God, you must also know the purpose of your attraction towards an object. You love your child, and there is no purpose in it. You also love a doctor when you are ill. But that love is not real. It is not love at all. It is only an artificial apparent love, exhibited for a purpose. You want the doctor to help you. Therefore, true love is that when there is no purpose in it. False love is that in which there is some purpose. Generally almost all people love God because God is omnipotent. He has miraculous powers to do anything that is impossible for anybody on this earth. When a problem comes and when one fails to solve it by all the means existing in this world, one starts loving God to solve that unique problem. Therefore, you love the position or power of God and not God Himself. A poet shows a lot of love and appreciation for a king by his spontaneous poetry because the poet loves the power and the wealth of the king. He expects the king to donate some land or to give him some money after being pleased with his poems. The poet does not love the person, who is the king. He only loves the position of king. Will he write the same poems if the king loses his kingdom and becomes a beggar? In his poetry, the poet praised the king for his very beauty, sweet voice and infinite wisdom. These qualities still remain with the king even if he becomes a beggar. But the poet does not praise the same qualities of that beggar because the beggar cannot donate anything to him. The post of the king and the kingdom are separable characteristics, whereas the qualities are inseparable characteristics. You can easily identify the person by these inseparable characteristics and if your love


7

for him is real, you will love him whether he is a king or a beggar. Do you not love your son and praise him whether he serves you or not? Sita garlanded and married Rama who was to be the future king of Ayodhya. The love of Sita may be for Rama or may be for the kingdom of Ayodhya of which she can become queen, or it may be both put together. Rama tested her love by discarding the kingdom and by going to the forest. Sita followed Rama to the forest. Her love was only for Rama and not for the kingdom. Ravana further tested this. Ravana offered her to become the queen. But she refused. Therefore, the love for God should be analyzed and should be decided whether God is loved or His omnipotent miraculous power is loved for our advantage.

Some people want to take advantage of this power in this world and some others want to take the advantage of this power in the upper world so that they can be protected from hell. In both cases the love for God is not true. It is only the love for his associated power. Shankara says that the true love for God should not have any desire related to this world or to the upper world (Ihaamutra Phala Viragah). If the love is only for the power of God, what is the use of the real form of God or the inseparable characteristics of God? The poet loves anybody as the king. For him whoever is on the throne is beautiful and wise. In such a case, if the king donates the desired land or cash by seeing the poem written by the poet, the poet does not bother to see or talk with the king again [because he has achieved what he wanted]. Therefore, when we love God’s power for some advantage, we need not worry about His form or about seeing or talking with God. You can just chant some prayers. He responds to your prayers and your desire is fulfilled. In such a case one need not see God and God too does not want to see his or her bloody face!

When a mother wants to see her child, she does not think about any advantage out of it. Infact the mother presents some cash to the son as a gift and if the son needs, she will even sell all her ornaments and sacrifice for the sake of her son. Similarly, if the person has true love for God, the person wants to see God not for any advantage, but even at the cost of great disadvantage. For such a person, God appears and only such a person can see, talk, touch and even live with God. Only for such persons is there a need for the enquiry of the real form of God.

The real form of God is unimaginable as said in the Vedas and there is no question of seeing or talking or touching the God. The Gita


8

also says that nobody can know God (Maamtu Veda Na Kashchana). Such unimaginable God cannot be said to have a form and cannot even be said to be formless. The Creator is beyond the creation, which is a four-dimensional network of space and time made up of with matter and energy. The creation contains both formless items like space, energy and air and also items with form like water, earth etc. If you say that God has form or that He is formless, then God becomes a part of the creation and not beyond the creation. The Veda says that no item in the creation including the pure awareness or life energy is God (Neti Neti…). But there are real devotees who have real love towards God and want to see, touch, talk with and live with God for no selfish advantage, either in this world or in the upper world. God, who has infinite kindness and infinite love, cannot reject such real love.

God is omnipotent and can satisfy the desire of such real devotees and the real devotees are crying for the fortune of His vision, touch, conversation and living with God. God is capable and the devotees deserve. Nobody can put his finger between these two. To satisfy the real devotees, God comes in human form and all these four fortunes are blessed upon the real devotees. If God comes in the form of space or energy, which is formless or He comes in the form of statues, He cannot grant these fortunes. He can talk, touch and live with the devotees only when He comes in the human form. Only the human body can do such things as per the laws of nature. Nature is His creation and the laws of nature are the rules of His own administration. He will not violate these rules except in the case of inevitable emergency. Why should He use His special power (Maya) and talk, touch, or live with you in the form of space, energy or statues? When the purpose is served through the normal routine [following the laws of nature], why are you so rigid in insisting on an abnormal way?

God need not pay any heed to the foolish rigid behaviour of some human beings. Infact they want to pray to the formless God or God in the form of a statue, only for the sake of their selfish convenience. You can offer food to the formless God or a statue and then you can eat the entire food. You are satisfied as if you have given meals to God and at the same time you have not even a grain of rice. There are many inconvenient losses and troubles with the human form of God. But the real devotees are not worried about such loss and are infact happy to lose anything if God can enjoy by that. They feel happy when God eats


9

the offered food. The mother visits her son and gives him some cash so that he may enjoy. When the son is happy with that, she derives infinite happiness and does not feel it as a a loss or trouble. The mother will stay with her son and serve him day and night if necessary and feels very happy about it. Similarly, these real devotees feel happy to serve the Lord and they are happy about the loss incurred in it.

The Lord came in human form as Krishna only for the sake of the Gopikas and not for others. Only the Gopikas could recognize Him and they served the Lord by offering butter. They felt happy in this sacrifice. They did not feel any loss in this sacrifice. Krishna was not their child. But they loved Him more than their children. They did not give butter even to their own children and offered it to the Lord. Their love for God crossed even their love for their children. When such real love exists, God comes in human form and reveals His identity to you. Your love must be real and must be practically proved by the sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) and the sacrifice of the fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) as emphasized in the Gita. Sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence, which are freely supplied to you by God is like offering drinking water to the guest, which was freely supplied by the municipality. But sacrifice of work and fruit of work are like offering meals to the guest and it is the sacrifice of your hard-earned money. Ofcourse the meals must be associated with drinking water also and at the same time, mere drinking water is almost nothing. Sacrifice, which alone is the complete proof of your real love, becomes complete, when you sacrifice mind, words, intelligence, work and fruit of work. Sacrifice of words is prayer, sacrifice of mind is meditation, and sacrifice of intelligence is spiritual discussion. Therefore, simply doing meditation is the sacrifice of the mind, which is supplied freely by God. Sacrifice of anything that is hard earned by your work, is the real main sacrifice.

When the Lord exposes Himself as the source of all the infinite super natural powers, all the people will run to Him with the same speed and will sacrifice to their maximum. In such a case you cannot differentiate the real devotee from a fraud devotee. The reason is that the super natural power attracts all the people with equal force. When acids are dissolved in water they show equal strengths because water being a highly polar solvent attracts the hydrogen ions from all acids equally so that their extent of ionization becomes same. The strong acid


10

cannot be differentiated from a weak acid. This is called as the leveling effect. When the same acids are dissolved in glacial acetic acid, which is a weak solvent, the acids will ionize to different extents as per their inherent nature.

When an important government official asks for some amount of money, all the merchants will run to him with equal speed and give that amount. In this case you cannot differentiate the real donor from the real greedy merchant. But when a beggar begs for some money, a real donor donates whereas a greedy person refuses. The real nature of the individuals comes out only in the case of the beggar. Similarly, when God comes in human form and exhibits super natural powers, all the people rush to Him with equal speed and show equal love for God. [Ofcourse God cannot be fooled in this way. He exactly knows who the real devotee is and who the selfish devotee is, since God is all-knowing] Even if God recognizes the real devotee by His all-knowing power and rewards him, the other devotees will find fault with God. They will argue that even though the extent of devotion of all devotees was equal, the Lord showed partiality. Therefore, God in human form will not exhibit miracles and will exhibit only His inseparable special knowledge, which projects Him only as a Guru [Teacher] and not as Bhagavan [God]. Datta means God donated to the devotees in human form. His right half is Guru and the left half is Bhagavan. Only the right half is projected and the left half is hidden. Only in this case can the real devotees be filtered.

It is easy to approach the human incarnation of God and praise Him as God. But the most important part is to retain the same faith throughout one’s life. When following Datta becomes practically inconvenient [He gives you problems to test your faith] your faith should persist. The faith should be practical and permanent. The recognition of the human incarnation must be done with the help of the sacred scriptures like the Vedas, Brahma Sutras and the Gita. You must take a long time to decide the human incarnation. Once you have decided, you must stick to your descision in spite of all the troubles and inconvenience, which you face practically. There is no use of catching somebody in haste and then withdrawing the next day. You will continue like this throughout your life. Therefore, you must study all the scriptures and be thorough with the divine knowledge, which generates devotion or love. If your devotion is real you must prove it by your


11

service. Real love is only a one-way traffic. Attaining the God, seeing Him and talking with Him are useless. Demons have seen and talked with God after doing long penance. What is the use of it? They were finally destroyed. Even if you don’t see or talk with God, if you please Him through your proven real love, you are blessed. Rama never saw Lord Shiva. But He was blessed. Ravana saw and talked with Shiva, but was destroyed. Therefore, pleasing the Lord should be our final aim and not mere vision or conversation.

If your aim is only to solve your problem in this world or in the upper world or in both, you have nothing to do with the formless God or the form of God. Your work is done when you pray for it sincerely. But mind that your love is not for God but for the solution of your problem. Then God gives the solution for your problems only in a temporary way, which is not good for you in the long run. He postpones your bad results and brings the good results from your future births to the present. By this, you only enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have done and you cannot enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have not done. It is like sending your application to the officer through a peon [office boy] after paying the necessary amount and getting back the application with the signature of the officer. You have nothing to do with the personality or the qualities of the officer. But when a girl loves the officer, she likes to see the personality and know about his qualities. His position as an officer is only one of the several aspects. Often, she neglects this aspect of the post, when the personality and qualities have attracted her. Similarly, a real devotee feels happy by knowing the details of God and he is not worried about the benefit from God. In this case, the Lord suffers for bad results of that real devotee and gives him eternal happiness.

Some people are not bothered about God and go on doing worldly works continuously. They only believe in themselves. Such people are either athiests or just neglect God. But the so-called devotees also do not love the God really. They show false love for God and all their real love is only for the solution of their problems. They want to visit the Lord and try to show their interest in the personality of the Lord. But all that is only to please the Lord, who may be helpful in solving their future problems. These devotees are not better than those atheists in any way. But the Lord allows these devotees, because there is a hope of a change in their attitude and their becoming real devotees. Prahlada was always


12

absorbed in the personality of the Lord and did not ask for any help even when he was tortured. He was only remembering the Lord in those situations. Hanuman served Lord Rama, not for any gift in return. Infact when Sita gave him a chain of pearls, He broke those pearls to see if Rama was present in those pearls. Rama never announced the gift given to Hanuman and Hanuman never aspired for any gift. Rama gave the post of the creator of this world and the matter was not revealed to anybody. By revealing that, Rama never wanted to reveal Himself as the Lord. Hanuman was not even aware of that post because His mind was fixed only on the personality of Rama. Similarly, Radha never aspired for anything and she was given a specially created topmost world (Goloka). Arjuna had partial devotion and therefore, the final fruit that he attained was partly happiness and partly misery. Duryodhana invited Lord Krishna for a big feast in His honour. Krishna never attended it and finally destroyed them. All the respect and love shown by Duryodhana were only to exploit Lord Krishna in the war. When Duryodhana found that Krishna was found useless for him, he was angry with Krishna and tried to chain Him. This shows that he did not even recognize Krishna as the Lord. Therefore, the Lord gives vision, conversation and co-living etc., only for the real devotees who do not aspire for anything in return. The worst devotees want practical fruits from the Lord by serving Him through words, feelings and intellectual discussions. The middle class devotees sacrifice practically for the Lord and aspire for practical results in return. These types of devotees are businessmen and the above types of devotees are prostitutes. A businessman invests some amount and tries to get back more amounts in return. A prostitute tries to earn money from a person without investing any amount but by investing only sweet words, sweet feelings and artificial discussions. The last type of devotees serves the Lord practically and do not aspire for any result from the Lord either theoretically or practically. For such devotees alone does the Lord come in human form, give His experience to them and save them in this world as well as in the upper world.

Consequences of Suicide [Shri Ramnath asked about the consequences of the suicide.] Swami replied: “As I told you, the human life is almost

impossible. The Christianity and Islam do not agree re-human birth. In


13

Hinduism the re-human birth is admitted but it is said to be very rare. When the same God is the speaker of all the religions, there cannot be contradiction. Therefore, this means the re-human birth is generally impossible. But the omnipotent God can sanction the re-human birth to a soul if there is a hope of its upliftment. The human birth is meant for the human being having interest in spiritual knowledge. It does not mean mere human form. Eating, sleep, emotions related to the environment and sex to produce children are common to both human beings and animals (Ahara Nidra Bhaya Mithunani...). The human birth with spiritual knowledge and coming in contact with the human incarnation happens only once. Such a human birth is called as Brahmana. Here this word is not at all related to the present caste system. The Brahmana means the human being belonging to any caste having full interest in the spiritual field and comes in contact with the human form of the Lord with faith so that he attains the perfect spiritual knowledge (Brahma Jnanam). If such chance is missed, he will be born as Kshatriya who believes only in his effort and efficiency with full egoism. The next birth is Vysya having over attachment to wealth. The next birth is Sudra who is always selfish. The next birth is fisherman (Ganga putra) in which he kills the fish in the water. The next birth is hunter (vyadha) who kills the animals in the forest.

The last birth of human form is Chandala who kills even the animals that served him. Thus, the soul descends by seven births and finally enters the cycle of animals, birds, worms etc. The soul existing as Brahmana will never commit suicide. The souls of other levels only commit suicides due to problems in the world. The Brahmana will never commit suicide because he is well aware of the main divine aim of the human life. Even if the soul of other types is alive there is very little chance of its upliftment. The Veda says that by committing suicide the soul enters the world of permanent darkness, which means ignorance (asuryanaamate…). This means that the soul directly enters the cycle of animals etc., on committing suicide. Thus there is only one chance of the birth of Brahmana for a soul, which means that there is only one chance for any soul to have the real fruitful human birth in which it can meet the human incarnation. In the other births the soul has only a very tiny trace of chance to meet and recognize the human form the Lord in true spirit. All ready when the possibility of the upliftment of self is a trace only, if suicide is committed, it looses that trace of chance also.


14

Thus, one in seven persons can only recognize the human form of the God in the right spirit of the upliftment of the self. The other human beings do not recognize at all and even if they recognize, they try to use the Lord for the worldly matters only.

The Real Suicide The real suicide is that when the soul is not trying for its spiritual

upliftment and always is dragged by the worldly affairs only. Such a soul will become a lizard which is always watching for an insect to eat. All its concentration is on the insect only. Gopikas jumped into fire after hearing the death of Krishna. But it is not suicide, because they have realized the main aim of the human life, which is the Lord only. What is the use of a soul, which is always immersed in worldly affairs and worldly bonds only? Such a soul has really committed suicide already because the soul killed itself (Naatmaana mavasadayet—Gita). When the sage Sanatsujata came to Dhrutarashtra, Dhrutarashtra asked him about the death. Then the sage told that the real death is that by which the soul forgets God and is completely immersed in the world (Pramadakhyo Mrurtyuh). Thus the soul, which leaves without any contact with God, is already a dead soul, which committed suicide. Gopikas are immortal even though the have committed suicide since the sacrificed their lives for the love of God. This gross body is just like a shirt according to the Gita (Vasamsi Jirnani...). Therefore, committing suicide is not a big thing for a realized soul. It is just like changing the cloth. But the purpose for which the suicide is committed is very very important. If the purpose is due to any worldly matter, the soul is thrown in to the permanent hell. The reason for this is that the soul has to detach from the world and attach it self to God. Instead of doing this, the soul is disturbed due to over attachment to the world and is committing suicide. In the memory of Krishna Radha became mad and wandered in the Brindavanam without food and water. She finally died in the madness of Krishna. That is suicide due to over attachment to God, but the consequence of such sacrifice of life is divine and has immortal fruit. Jesus also sacrificed His life for the sake of God. He said that if one does not carry on his own cross for the sake of God, he cannot be the dearest devotee of God. The Gita says that a real devotee will even give up the life for the sake of God (Matgata Pranah...). Therefore, the consequence of suicide for any worldly matter is only the permanent


15

hell. When Meera was given poison, she swallowed it and was saved by the Lord. Hanuman tore His heart with His own nails to show Lord in His heart. All these cases of attempt of suicide but have immense spiritual value. Dhrutarashtra lived hundred and twenty years but he has already committed suicide, even though he was alive, because he did not listen to the advice of Lord Krishna even in the worldly matter.

Each Soul Independent in Sadhana [Smt. Uma Ramanath asked that how a household wife depending

on the earnings of the husband can sacrifice the fruit of work especially when Swami says that each soul is completely independent in the spiritual field.]

Swami replied like this: Suppose the household wife is living in a joint family having a child. Suppose her husband is giving all his money to his father only who is the family head. Suppose the head is spending that money on the family in impartial way. Suppose in such set up the mother wants to do some special favour to her child, which involves some extra finance. In this situation what the mother will do? Will she say to the child that how she can help in that set up? No. Her strong love on the child starts investigating the paths. When there is a will there is always a way. She will say to her husband that the child belongs to him also and therefore, the special favour should be done. Similarly, the devoted lady can say to her husband that God is not only the creator of herself but also the creator of her husband also. God is the father of all the souls. Thus, she will convince him to do the sacrifice. Let us go to the simile. Suppose the husband refuses to do the special favour to the child in view of the disciplined system of the family set up. Now, the mother will choose even a wrong path like stealing the money by showing some wrong accounts of expenditure and does favour to her child. Therefore, the intensity of love will always reveal a path. The mother will not mind the injustice and the consequent hell for that. The extreme intensity of love (Moha) on the child will not consider the injustice and the hell. In this case since the Moha is on another soul, she will certainly go to hell. But, if God is in the place of the child, there is no trace of sin or hell because in whatever path, God is pleased, such path is justice (Aham tva Sarva Papebhyah – Gita).

But the biggest fun is that the mother will favour child in any path, but when God comes in that place, all the enquiry of the procedure and


16

justice starts. This shows the lack of intensity of love on God. Infact, unlike the child, God will create more and more hurdles to oppose the sacrifice. The devotee is expected to cross even those special hurdles. If the devotee is unable to cross even this natural hurdle, how can you expect her to cross the special hurdles? The elder Gopikas loved Krishna as their son whereas the younger Gopikas loved Him as their boy friend. The elder Gopikas were going to Madhura to sell the butter. When they found Krishna in the path, they used to feed Krishna with the butter. When they returned to their homes, they were giving wrong accounts. Similarly, the younger Gopikas were cheating all the family members to go and dance with Krishna secretly. There was no concept of injustice or hell in their brains. When Narada asked them to give the dust of their feet to be applied to the head of Krishna to remove His head-ache they immediately gave it. Narada told that they will go to the hell for giving such dust. They replied that they are ready to go to the hell for the happiness of Lord Krishna. This is the intensity of their devotion and therefore Lord gave them a specially created highest divine abode.

However, the sacrifice of fruit of work and work are one and the same and can be done according to the convenience. The saints cannot do the sacrifice of fruit of work. They compensate by sacrificing work. Infact they are more quickly blessed by God than the householders are. The requirement of God is the most important point for your sacrifice. When Rama is searching Sita, He needs the sacrifice of work. Hanuman, a saint, sacrificed work only and became God by His grace. Krishna as a boy required butter for growth and the Gopikas (householders) sacrificed the required butter (wealth). The fruit of work (money) is another form of work only. Money is matter and work is energy. Both are inter convertible forms. Therefore, one can participate in the mission of the Lord even by sacrificing the work according to the convenience.

It is true that the soul is independent in the spiritual field (Nivrutti). Only in Pravrutti the wife can share the fruit of good action of her husband. Pravrutti is the stage of drama. The queen in the drama has her share in the wealth of king. But when the drama is over and when the actors receive remuneration from the producer of the drama, the actor of the queen-role cannot have share in the remuneration of the actor played in the king role. The Gita says that in the spiritual field the self must uplift itself (Uddharedaatmanaa…). You must note that the


17

wealth of king in the drama is unreal and the remuneration of the actors outside the drama is real. Similarly, the share in getting heaven etc., is possible because the heaven is within the relative reality. The grace of God is like the real remuneration.

Does Enjoyment Lead to Yoga? [Smt Gayathri Chandrasekhar asked that people say that Bhoga

leads to Yoga and whether such concept is correct.] Swami replied like this: The word Bhoga [Enjoyment] by its root

meaning is taken as the meaning for even the basic enjoyment like eating food. If you do not eat food how can you serve the God? The Veda says that such basic enjoyment should be done (Bhunjeedhah…). This is the Yogic meaning (meaning obtained from the word) of the word Bhoga. But in Rudhi (general usage), the word Bhoga means the over-enjoyment of worldly pleasures, which leads to Roga (illness). This is proved by medical science also. If you become ill how can you serve God and please Him? Such Bhoga should be left. Tyaga (leaving) of such Bhoga will make you healthy and enable you to please God (Yoga). The Veda refers to such leaving of over-enjoyment (Tena Tyaktena …). Bhoga is based on the concept of intensive love on a co-human being or a worldly item. The process of such intensive love is good because God will be also pleased by such intensive love (Moha) only. The object of such Moha should be replaced by God. A person is running very fast in the opposite direction. Only the direction has to be changed but the fast running is appreciable. By such fast running only he will reach the goal quickly. Therefore, the basis of Bhoga, which is Moha should be retained and by the spiritual knowledge the object only should be changed. Thus, the essence of Bhoga, which is Moha will certainly lead to Yoga or attainment of grace of God. Bilhana was going in a forest immersed in the memory of his darling. He touched a sage by his foot by mistake. The sage was meditating upon God. The sage became angry to curse him. But Bilhana asked, “I am thinking about my darling and I did not know that my foot touched you. But, you are immersed in the memory of God like me and how you are aware of the touch?” The sage realized and directed Bilhana to God. The sage learnt the Moha from Bilhana. Thus God blessed both.

The attraction to the worldly bond can be directly transformed into attraction to God. There is no need of achieving the detachment from


18

the worldly attraction. The detached soul cannot have the attachment again because the soul is habituated to the continuous detachment only. Suppose a student is reading novels and not the class books. The reading-habit is good. You have to replace the novels by class books. This can be achieved by proper and talented counseling. Suppose you give sleeping tablets to him so that he will stop reading the novels. By this the student is not reading novels because he is always sleeping. Now after this stage if you ask him to read the textbooks, he will refuse, because he is habituated to sleep only without reading. Similarly, if you bring the soul to complete detachment form the worldly bonds, it is very difficult to development attachment to God. In Advaita philosophy such detachment is achieved by which the soul becomes inert like the tree or a stone. The devotion cannot be generated in such rock. The attraction to the world can be taken as the training of development of the very process of attraction. But the worldly attraction should take a turning point on one day and should be transformed into divine attraction. If the training continues for the whole life, there is no meaning of such training because the re-human birth is very rare and it means almost impossible. Moreover, the attraction to the world is accumulated form millions of births and it is very difficult to bring down the attraction to zero. Instead of this, it will be easy to replace the world by God. Any way, even after bringing the attraction to zero you have to again raise it to the sky. Therefore, conversion of the worldly attraction to God is easy and also desirable. If you ask the mother to cut her bond with her child, it is impossible. It is easy to replace her child by Krishna. Infact, the Moha etc are created only to help you in spiritual path. You have diverted it to the world and misused it. Now you say that Moha is a bad quality. Moha in its original aim of creation is a good quality. You have made it bad by giving wrong direction to it. Shri Ramanuja says that the relationship between God and a real devotee is “Bhogya-Bhoktru Sambandha”, which means that God is the enjoyable item (Bhogya) and the devotee is enjoyer (Bhokta). The enjoyment of God is the real Bhoga.

Meaning of Enlightenment [Shri Ramnath asked about the meaning of the word

“enlightenment”]


19

Swami told “The word enlightenment means finding the truth clearly after clarification of all the doubts. This can happen in any branch of knowledge. But this word is generally used in spiritual knowledge. The Gita is the enlightened knowledge of Upanishads. My divine knowledge is the enlightenment of the Gita. The enlightenment means that the torchlight is put on and the illusions disappeared. The truth is perfectly reveled and all the doubts are cleared when the soul and the intelligence are simultaneously convinced by the divine knowledge which analysis the spiritual concepts in coherence with the scriptures. The enlightenment comes resulting in the determination that leads into practice. Thus practice is the sign of enlightenment. The enlightenment of the Gita is the realization of the essence of Upanishads, which is the concept of the human incarnation. In the Veda, it is mentioned that God entered the world for real enjoyment (Tadevanu Pravasat). This point is clearly elaborated in the Gita because everywhere in the Gita, Krishna has stressed that He is directly Lord. The essence of Upanishads is this point only but it is stressed with full clarity in the Gita and this is the enlightenment of Upanishads through the Gita. In the Gita it is mentioned that the Lord will come again and again whenever there is requirement. This point is stressed with full clarity in My divine knowledge and thus the Gita is enlightened through My divine knowledge.

Speciality of Divine Knowledge [September 13, 2006] The Scripture says that among the ten

incarnations, Lord Krishna alone is the fullest incarnation (Paripurna Tamah Saakshat). If you compare Krishna with the other incarnations, the special point that lies with Krishna alone is the revelation of divine knowledge about God (Nivrutti) or Brahma Jnana. Buddha also gave divine knowledge. But He kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. All His preaching was concentrated on the behaviour of the human being towards other co-human beings and also towards other living beings. He concentrated on the elimination of desire, which is the basis of the path to please God (Nishkama Karma Yoga). But since the concept of God is absent, the elimination of desire is taken for achieving the happiness of self itself. The followers misunderstood Buddha and took all His knowledge for Pravrutti or social service only. By this, Nivrutti disappeared in His knowledge. Similarly, if you take Rama, He


20

did not give any knowledge about Nivrutti. He followed the Pravrutti to preach the humanity regarding the behaviour of a human being towards other co-human beings. Ofcourse He showed faith and worship of God and thus He cannot be misunderstood as an atheist. If you take Vamana, He also did not give any reference to Nivrutti. He was concentrating on the charity towards a devotee, which is only related to Pravrutti. His mission was to suppress Bali and protect Indra. If you consider other incarnations, all were involved in the war to kill the demons and evil people. Thus, there is no trace of Nivrutti in their actions. All their actions were only to save the balance of the society, which is Pravrutti.

The inherent characteristic of Parabrahman is spiritual knowledge as referred in the Veda (Prajnana…, Satyam Jnanam…). The real knowledge is only the philosophy or spiritual knowledge, which relates to God and regarding the achievement of His grace. Except this all the other branches of knowledge are related only to the achievement of worldly pleasures, which are temporary and unreal. Therefore, the spiritual knowledge is called as Prajnanam. The letter Pra means the best. In another Vedic statement the spiritual knowledge is told to be the true knowledge (Satyam Jnanam…). This means that it deals with the ultimate absolute reality i.e., God.

All the other branches deal with various levels of creation, which are relatively real with respect to God and become totally unreal if isolated from God. Therefore, based on this scriptural statement, Krishna is considered to be the fullest incarnation. Even in the field of spiritual knowledge, Krishna correlated all the levels and unified as a single ladder to attain the grace of God. Before the revelation of the Gita, some were thinking about knowledge (Jnanam) and some others were thinking about devotion (Bhakti) as the real paths. Some others were thinking that rituals (Karma) happen to be the path. Krishna correlated these three levels. In the knowledge, He fixed Himself as the goal, who is the then human incarnation. This shows that the unimaginable God expressed through a convenient medium like human body for humanity is the real goal. He clearly stated that He will come again and again, which means that every generation will have the opportunity of having the human incarnation. He explained the devotion to be fruitful when it is directed to the then existing human incarnation because such human form alone can feel and respond to your devotion. Finally, He has uplifted the service (Karma) to the top most place. A


21

ritual is worship of God. Worship means the path to please the God. When God is in human form, then only God can feel the service. He corrected the old path of the rituals by eliminating the selfish desire in it. Such, ritual or service happens to be the path to please God directly. When Arjuna fought the war as the service to Lord Krishna, Arjuna could see the pleasure in the face of Krishna directly. In other forms such direct evidence is not possible. The proof of real devotion is service only, which is the sacrifice of work or fruit of work. The Knowledge should lead to devotion and finally end with selfless service to God. Thus, Krishna brought out the essence of all the Upanishads and arranged a regular ladder. Thus, Krishna happens to be the fullest human incarnation based on the revelation of the Gita only. Simply doing miracles or destroying the demons is not the criterion, which is common in the other incarnations also. Vamana occupied the entire world and no miracle can be equal to this.

Again the conservative devotees say that Krishna is the only fullest incarnation in the entire creation till today. But the above verse was told with reference to the ten incarnations only because the preceding verse speaks about the ten incarnations. This means that Krishna was the fullest human incarnation among the ten incarnations. Assuming that their argument is only correct, how can they deny the appearance of God again and again as told by Krishna Himself (Yada Yadahi – Gita)? Thus, you cannot rule out the reappearance of fullest human incarnation in the world after Krishna. Whenever there is a need, the fullest incarnation will appear again and again. Infact, God is always pleased to take the fullest human incarnation as many times as possible because such incarnation deals with the revelation of spiritual guidance to His children. In the other incarnations He has to kill His evil children and He is always reluctant to do this unless the inevitable situation comes.


22

Chapter - 3 AUTHORITY OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE

Truth And Validation O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

Logic [Tarka Shastra] shows four types of authorities [valid means of knowledge] to decide any point. The first is perception (Pratyaksham), in which anything is directly experienced through senses in this world. The second is inference (Anumanam), in which anything is inferred based on a characteristic sign. For example, smoke is coming from a mountain and fire is inferred. In this authority also the perception is the basis because the relationship between fire and smoke is already perceived in the kitchen. The third authority is simile (Upamanam), in which an unseen animal is explained to us by comparing it with a known animal. Even here, the person who is explaining has seen both the animals and thus perception is the basis. The fourth is the statement of a well-wisher (Shabdam), by which we believe the existence of an unseen item explained by our well-wisher. Here also perception is the basis because the well-wisher has seen that place. Therefore, there is no authority, which is not based on perception. The scripture (Sruthi), supporting scripture (Smruthi), logic (Yukti) and finally the direct experience (Anubhava) are considered as the four stages of any authorized validity of a concept. The final stage of experience (Anubhava) is very important and forms the basis because it is again related to perception only. Therefore, you cannot say anything, which is beyond experience and perception. Even the unimaginable God (Parabrahman) is experienced through human form. In this case the experience may not be direct but the experience is through a medium (human body). The experience is same whether it is direct or indirect. The heat from the fire is experienced directly and the same heat is experienced indirectly from a hot iron rod. This experience does not reveal the nature of Parabrahman because the experience is based on a characteristic sign of the medium only, which is specific to the existence of the unimaginable God. Such characteristic sign is the specific special knowledge called as Prajnanam. The knowledge is the property of a


23

specific quality (Satvam), which is an associated property of awareness. Thus it is not the property of God and thus God is untouched by anyone. Due to His presence, this knowledge becomes special and wonderful by which we can infer the existence of God. The unimaginable knowledge indicates the unimaginable God. Thus, we have the perception of human incarnation in this world and thus God is perceived by us (Yat sakshat.., pratyagatmanamaikshat—Veda). Therefore, science, which is based on the perception, is the basis of the spiritual knowledge. The human incarnation showing specialties is satisfying the basic perception. The unimaginable talents of the human incarnation indicating the unimaginable God are clearly perceived. Therefore, the unimaginable God is perceived but the unimaginability is not violated. To deny the unimaginable God is unscientific and shows only foolish rigidity.

Primary Standard in Spirituality There are several religions and several scriptures corresponding to

these religions. We must fix a scripture as the primary standard so that other scriptures can be standardized with reference to that. The other scripture also becomes standard with reference to which some other scripture can be also standardized. This is called as the process of standardization in science. Such a primary standard can be the Veda. I know that immediately the colors of your faces will change. Immediately you will blame Me that I am not the preacher of Universal Spirituality. You will misunderstand Me as the preacher of Hinduism in disguise. This situation will arise even if I take the scripture of some other religion as the primary standard. The misunderstanding is inevitable and unavoidable. I have to take one scripture of some religion and I have to be subjected to the criticism. Therefore, I ignore the criticism. I know what I am in My inner consciousness. My inner Self is the real witness. As long as I am the preacher of Universal Spirituality to My inner Self, I need not fear any external criticism from any angle. The reason for selecting the Veda as the primary standard is that even today the Veda is being preserved by oral recitation with the help of thousands of families. If you go to older and older times, millions of families were reciting the Veda just to preserve it from any type of intrusions or deletions. In the Indian spiritual field, there are several branches of philosophy, which quarrel with each other orally. For all these branches, the Veda is the standard text. Such a situation never


24

existed in any religion in this world and does not exist even today. Even today different schools of philosophy in Hinduism fight with each other and all of them quote the same Veda. Such competition was and is unique in Hinduism. In such a competitive atmosphere, pollution of the Veda is impossible. If any word is added or deleted, immediately the other schools will shout because they fear that in such a case the Veda may support a particular branch of philosophy due to the possibility of a new interpretation for a new sentence.

Leave the past. Tell Me frankly whether such a situation exists in any religion in this world even today. This is the main reason why I have selected the Veda as the primary standard. The diversity in Hinduism has done lot of good in this direction. The sanctity of the scripture is well protected. In the olden days the books were in the form of written scripts of palm leaves. Printing was not there. Therefore, only a very few scripts were present. In such a case, it was very easy to introduce a new palm leaf or to remove an older palm leaf because hardly one or two scripts were present in a very large region. Except this one reason, there is no any other reason for Me to favour the Veda but you need not worry that the scriptures of other religions have to be judged with reference to the Veda only. Fortunately, all the scriptures of all religions agree with the Veda. The primary standard is useful in a very few places where there is disagreement. Even that disagreement arises only due to the misinterpretation of the statement. If the correct interpretation is given all the statements perfectly coincide with the Veda. Moreover, one can decide the final version of any concept based on logical analysis. If logical analysis fails, then the mere Veda need not be taken as the authority. If the logic disagrees you can reject any scripture including the Veda. Therefore, the Veda along with logical analysis alone stands as a primary standard. When you are convinced logically about a concept and when such a concept is found in the Veda, then only the concept is authorized. Therefore, I am not rubbing the Veda on any head without logical analysis. Therefore, one need not doubt about fanaticism. The primary standard means the original Word of God heard directly. But when other scriptures are perfectly in agreement with such Word where is the question of fanaticism? Every scripture becomes the word of God. This point supports Universal Spirituality, which says that the single God delivered the scriptures of all the religions. When the author is one and the same how can there be


25

difference between the scriptures? If there is any difference it is only by your misinterpretation. Therefore, primary standard is only for convenience but not for fanaticism.

Main Classification of the Veda The Veda is divided into three parts. The first one is Jnana Kanda,

which is the divine knowledge. This belongs to the intelligence. The second part is Upasana Kanda, which is devotion to God. This belongs to the words (Prayers) and mind (feelings). The intelligence, mind and words constitute the theoretical part of the spiritual effort. The third part of the Veda is Karma Kanda, which is practical. This belongs to the practical sacrifice of work and fruit of work. In the time of sages, the present concept of money and wealth did not exist. Preparation of meals from the procured grains was the greatest work. Offering such meals associated with ghee was the greatest sacrifice of wealth. Therefore, the whole Karma Kanda of the Veda was described in terms of gathering the materials to cook the food and offer the cooked food to the deserving devotee or God in human form, if available. Most of the Veda was concentrated on the description of sacrifice (Yajna) only. The deserving person was personified as fire due to the light of knowledge and heat of hunger. The fire is famous for light and heat. The ignorant and uneducated priests have taken real physical fire and are burning the food! Thus, the three parts of the Veda are concentrating on the five-fold service to God, which constitutes intelligence (knowledge), words and mind (devotion) and sacrifice of work and fruit of work (Karma Sanyasa and Karmaphala tyaga).


26

Chapter - 4 ADVAITA OF SHANKARA

Shankara, the Genius O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

Shankara is the top most genius in this world. He was the incarnation of Lord Shiva. He had the third eye, which is the eye of the knowledge that is always burning with flames. It is said “Jnanam Maheswaraat Icchyeth”, which means that only Lord Shiva can give the spiritual knowledge. During the time of Shankara, there were two types of atheists:

1) Purva Mimaamsakas: They are ritualists, who perform rituals without any analysis and knowledge.

2) Buddhists: They always argue with logic and say that everything is ‘nothing’ (Sunya Vaada). Shankara’s aim was to bring these two types of people to the path

of theism. Shankara made a big psychological plan. He called even the atheist as Brahman [One of the meanings of the word Brahman is God]. However He defined Brahman as pure awareness without any quality. Such awareness is present in all the souls, which are present in 84 crore-types of living beings mentioned in the scriptures. The soul is Brahman whether it is present in human beings, animals, birds, insects or worms. Every soul is basically pure awareness and so it is Brahman. Therefore, whether a soul is born as a divine human being like Shankara or whether it is born as a worm in the drainage (sewage), the soul is Brahman. Whether it is scented water or drainage (sewage) water, water is common in both. The scent and drainage impurities are the good and bad qualities correspondingly. When both the good and bad qualities are removed, only pure water remains. That pure water is the soul or Brahman. Therefore, whether one is born as a divine man or as the worst worm, he can always think, “I am Brahman”. The awareness is common in both the king and beggar. Both can say, “I am Brahman”. But the special qualities like knowledge, courage etc., are associated with the awareness in the king and therefore, he became the king. In the beggar the awareness is associated with qualities like ignorance, fear


27

etc., and therefore, he became the beggar. The king is respected and the beggar is neglected. Shankara is the scented water. The atheist is the drainage water. Both are Brahman. But the sandalwood scent and the drainage impurities are not one and the same. If both were one and the same, then scented water and drainage water would be used for the same purpose. Instead of scented water one should sprinkle drainage water on guests invited to a marriage function. A beggar also would be given the same police security as the king is given.

Shankara preached that this awareness (soul) is a substance, which is already attained by you without any effort or sadhana (Siddha Vastu or Prapta Vastu). In both Shankara and the atheist, this awareness is the common substance. Therefore, any living being in this world can shout, “I am Brahman”. Nobody can object. Don’t feel unhappy even if you are born as worm in drainage because you are that wonderful Brahman! Awareness does not mean happiness. Awareness can be associated either with happiness or with sorrow. Therefore, simply by being Brahman don’t think that you are happy. A person laughing with happiness is Brahman and a person weeping with unhappiness is also Brahman because both have the common awareness. By no effort can you ever lose this awareness and therefore, you will always remain Brahman. Even if you are beaten by a belt in hell and are weeping, please don’t forget that you are Brahman. You can weep without any worry because you are Brahman.

You have read so many Shastras and you have done such tedious meditation. Finally you have come to know that you are the awareness (Brahman) that was already present in you before reading Shastras (scriptures) and before doing the meditation. You have become what you already were before all this sadhana (effort)! Don’t you think that all your sadhana is a waste and that you did not achieve anything? The drainage water is forgetting its own impurities and is thinking that it is the pure water, which is a component of the drainage water. By such thinking, the impurities are not filtered and the bad odor does not disappear. To remove the impurities, work (filtration) should be done. Then the drainage water can really become the pure water. Thinking is not work. Filtration is the work.

When the Lord comes in human form, you serve Him and receive the knowledge from Him along with His grace. Then only are the impurities removed and does pure water result. Then by the association


28

of the Lord (scented water), some scent will enter you and you also become scented water to a certain extent although you will not be exactly equal to the scented water.

The Lord contains all the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas) when He comes in the human form as Datta. The three faces of Datta (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) indicate the three qualities. Brahma is Rajas. Vishnu is Sattvam. Shiva is Tamas. But, the Lord is untouched by the three qualities. The three qualities float on Him as a superficial layer. The pure water is not affected and it does not attain the odors of the three qualities. Neither does the pure water have a bad smell nor a good scent. The Lord is like the person wearing a tri-colored shirt. The color of the shirt does not touch Him. But a living being (soul) is different. It is like the scented or drainage water, which receives a good scent or bad odor of the three qualities. The soul is a homogeneous mixture of the qualities and awareness. You cannot separate the qualities (Gunas) and their odors (vasanaas) from the soul by any effort. The soul is the tri-colored shirt itself. Each thread of the shirt is impregnated with the color. Therefore, the Lord alone is capable of wearing the three qualities and at the same time remaining unaffected. He plays with the three qualities in this world. At any time, He can get rid of all His qualities in a fraction of second. But the soul cannot get rid of its qualities even in millions of births.

Shankara called the atheist as Brahman and equated him with Himself. The reason for the equation is that both have a common component called awareness, which was named as Brahman by Shankara. Shankara interprets the Vedic quotations like ‘Satyam Jnanam’ and ‘Prajnaanam’ in such a way that the word Jnanam means simple awareness. Actually the root meaning of Jnanam is “Janaati Iti Jnanam” i.e., that which is awareness is knowledge (Jnanam). As long as the root meaning (Yoga) is satisfied there can be no objection to derive such a meaning of a word. But the word Jnanam is not used in the sense of awareness in the world. A donkey, a cat etc., also have awareness. But the donkey or cat cannot be called as possessors of Jnanam (Jnani). Only a scholar who has the special knowledge is called as Jnani. Such usage in the world is called ‘Rudhi’. But one can use a word if the Yoga (root meaning) is satisfied and the Rudhi (usage) can be neglected. Therefore, nobody could oppose Shankara for such a yogic derivation of the word Jnana. Ofcourse He used such a derivation


29

for a good purpose i.e., to convert an atheist into theist. He did not misuse it.

If you call an atheist merely as a possessor of awareness, he will immediately shout, “Don’t I know that I have awareness? Why do you have to tell me that?” But if he is called as a ‘Jnani’ (knower; wise one) or ‘Brahman’ he will be pleased and will immediately run towards you. Infact awareness is the greatest subtle substance created in this world. The word Brahman means ‘greatest’. Therefore, Shankara proved by such logic that awareness is Brahman.

Brahman is not Ishwara The pure water is Brahman. The pure water mixed with scent

(perfume) or impurities, and yet not touched by them is the Lord. The soul is also the pure water but is homogeneously mixed with scent and impurities and has become a solution. Therefore, Brahman and the Lord (Ishwara) are different. In the Lord, apart from the three qualities, all the superpowers are present. In addition, He also has the three extraordinary superpowers, which are the powers of creation, ruling and destruction of this universe. These superpowers put together are called Maya (the wondrous, miraculous power of God). One can get the eight miraculous superpowers (Ashta siddhis) from God but not the above three extraordinary superpowers. Therefore, the soul can never become the Lord. Hanuman attained the superpower of Creation of the world. He became the future creator but one should remember that the inner form of Hanuman is already Lord Shiva and so it is to be expected.

A king and his servant have the common awareness. Both of them have common good and bad qualities. But the special courage in the battlefield and the administrative power in the court, are special to the king and cannot be attained by the servant. Thus the extraordinary Maya of the Lord is inseparable from Him. The knowledge (Jnana) is the inherent quality of the Brahman but in the case of the Lord, due to the association with Maya, the knowledge becomes wonderful. The word Maya (maayaa) comes from the root word ‘maya’ which means ‘the most wonderful and inexplicable’. Therefore, the knowledge of the Lord is wonderful and is not possible for any other human being to possess or exhibit. Therefore, such special knowledge is called as Prajnanam. Shankara said “I am Brahman” but He also said “Shivah Kevaloham” i.e., “I alone am Lord Shiva”.


30

Ishwara (the Lord) is always associated with Maya. The Gita says the same (Maayinantu Maheswaram). Brahman is devoid of Maya. Shankara swallowed molten lead as Ishwara but not as Brahman. When Shankara said that He was Brahman, the disciples said that they were Brahman too. Shankara did not object to that. But, when Shankara told them that He was Lord Shiva, the disciples said that they were also Lord Shiva. Then He swallowed molten lead and asked them to swallow the same. The disciples were unable to do so and fell at His feet as servants singing His praises “Bhava Shankara Desikame Saranam”. Therefore, He allowed everyone to call oneself as Brahman, which is like a post without salary.

A bill collector collects revenue as a clerk, when the consumer pays the bill, but he cannot issue the order to pay the revenue. A district collector issues orders for the payment of the revenue. The Veda says that the Sun rises due the fear of the Lord (Bhishodeti Suryah). But a human being, who calls himself as Brahman, gets a sunstroke and dies on standing in the Sun for too long. Scholars should understand the commentary of Shankara along with His demonstration of the experiment of swallowing molten lead. Both the theory and practical experiments are important in science. Infact the practical is more important than theory. The advaita philosophers do not even mention this experiment. They proudly raise their collars saying that they are Brahman. Let them say the same thing, raising their collars, when they are beaten in the hell or when they are born as worms in the drainage. Just by being Brahman, which is only pure awareness, they cannot escape hell or being born as worms in the drainage. After studying the Vedas and the Shastras, they have caught only a small rat after digging a big mountain.

The heart of Shankara is Ramanuja and Madhva. Therefore, when Ramanuja writes the commentary, He always says “Yaducchyate Shaankaraih” i.e., I am condemning what the disciples of Shankara say. He never said that He is condemning what Shankara said. The same Lord Datta incarnated as these three preachers. Shankara was Shiva, Ramanuja was Vishnu, and Madhva was Brahma. All the three are one and the same Guru Datta.


31

Chapter - 5 WORLD IS REAL TO SOUL

Mithya [January 6, 2006 Following is an abstract of a discourse given by

Shri Datta Swami in the town hall at Narasaraopet.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

Shankara preached that this world is Mithya, which does not mean absence of everything or vacuum. He Himself defined the word Mithya as “Sadasat Vilakshana”. It means that it is neither true nor untrue. It is true because it is giving entertainment to the Lord. The Lord created the universe for entertainment as said in the Veda (Ekaki Na Ramate…). If the creation is untrue then the Lord is again remains alone and thus there is no entertainment to the Lord. But the Veda says that the Lord is entertained and His wish cannot become false, because He is called as “Satya Kamah” by the Veda. But the creation is just His imagination and is not a materialized form. Therefore, the truth is negligible because imagination is made of the weakest mental energy. Imagination cannot be considered as an existing item. When you are walking with a person imagined by your mind, nobody says that you are two persons walking. Therefore, anything that is negligible can be treated as non-existent and hence it also cannot be treated as true.

In this angle Shankara convinced the theory of His preacher called as Gaudapada who propagated the Ajativada. Ajativada means that the world is not born at all. The reason for this as given by Gaudapada is that any thing is produced from something, which is also produced from some other thing ad infinitum (Anavastha Dosha). In other words, there is no beginning or end for this chain. He also says that the second reason is that we do not see anything produced from something, which has no birth. Therefore, these two reasons conclude that this universe is not at all produced. This is another form of the theory of the Buddhists called as Shunya Vada. Shankara modified this and gave existence as well as non-existence to the world through the theory of Mithya Vada. But this Mithya is from the angle of the Lord. The world is an imagination for the Lord but not for the soul because the soul is a part and parcel of this


32

universe. Therefore, for the soul the world is completely real. Infact the soul is Mithya compared to the world. The reason is that compared to the content of energy and power of the world, the energy and power of the soul is very negligible. Therefore, from the angle of the world, the soul is Mithya. The Advaita scholar’s standpoint is the reverse of this and he says that the world is Mithya from the angle of the soul.

Not Unreal to the Soul The drop is negligible from the angle of the ocean but the ocean is

not negligible from the angle of the drop. The ocean is negligible for the Lord, since it is His imagination. Even the ocean of imagination is negligible from the angle of the imagining person. Therefore, the world is completely true from the angle of the individual soul. Shankara preached the concept of the universe from the angle of the Lord because He Himself was the incarnation of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva destroys the entire world just by one wish. An imagining person can destroy his entire imaginary world just by one wish. Shankara also proved His theory by practical demonstration. He swallowed molten lead like a cup of drink. For Him the molten lead was just an imagination. Shankara entered through the bolted doors of the house of Mandana Mishra because the house was just His imagination. But His disciples could not drink the molten lead because they were individual souls and were just drops of this entire world.

Ramanuja preached the world as a perfectly true entity. Ramanuja was the incarnation of Adishesha, who is the serpent present around the neck of Lord Shiva like a garland. Adishesha is an individual soul. Therefore, Ramanuja preached the concept of the world from the angle of an individual soul. Again Madhva declared Himself as the son of Vayu, who is one of the angels governed by the Lord. Therefore, Madhva was also an incarnation of only an individual soul. He too supported the view of Ramanuja. Thus the concept of the universe is complete from the angles of both the Lord and the soul through the preachings of the three divine preachers.

Also, Shankara declared Himself as the Lord (Shivah Kevaloham). The word Kevala means that He alone is the Lord. Since He was the incarnation of the Lord, His theory is correct from His angle. Ramanuja and Madhva preached that the individual soul is completely different from the Lord. This is again correct from their angle. Thus the theory


33

becomes complete from the angles of both the Lord and the individual soul. Well! If you really feel that you are the human incarnation of the Lord, you can preach like Shankara. If you feel that you are an individual soul, you should preach the theory of Ramanuja and Madhva. Your inner consciousness is your best judge of your own preachings.


34

Chapter - 6 SHANKARA AND RAMANA

Major Lessons from Minor Incidents O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[March 5, 2007] Tomorrow Lakshman is leaving for Mumbai. Therefore I shall serve a food item, which is to his taste on this farewell day. I will serve the food item of his liking, which is prepared in a better way or in a proper way so that he knows its original true taste and his liking for that food item will be reinforced. The food item that he likes is the philosophy of Shri Ramana Maharishi, who is considered to be the human incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya.

Lord Subrahmanya is the son of Lord Shiva i.e. He is the incarnation of Shiva. Shri Ramana Maharishi was a follower of the philosophy of Shankara, who is also an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is the incarnation of Lord Datta (Shiva Datta) who is the source of all the three divine forms (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). When Lord Datta is in My human body, how can the spiritual knowledge given by Him through My mouth contradict the philosophy of Shankara and Shri Ramana Maharishi? If it contradicts, it becomes a self-contradiction. Lord Datta in Me is only clarifying the misunderstood Shankara and Ramana Maharishi. It means Lord Datta Himself has been misunderstood. The misunderstanding comes only when the total concept of Shankara and Ramana Maharishi is not conceived. Suppose a professor teaches school students for a long time during the day and handles his research students for only an hour. Based on the long time spent with school students and the work done by Him for them, can you conclude that He is merely a schoolteacher and neglect the one hour that He teaches research students? When the majority consists of ignorant beginners, the preacher has to spend a lot of time in preaching to their level and this does not mean that He is only a preacher of the basic standard. If you take just one incident from the life of Shankara or Ramana Maharishi, you can understand the high standard of those preachers.


35

Shri Ramana Maharishi prayed to Lord Shiva (Arunachaleshwara) to cure the disease of His mother and it was cured. Similarly when the body of Shankara was partially burnt, He prayed to Lord Narasimha and the burns disappeared. Now the question is why should they pray to Ishwara to cure the diseases? Their souls were Brahman and Brahman is the Creator, Ruler and Destroyer of the world. They have preached Advaita (Self is God) to a large extent through their commentaries and messages respectively. Based on the large effort that they have put on Advaita, you are concluding that Advaita is their final concept. Even though the above incidents are very small, the concept in those incidents is very powerful. A single gem is far valuable than a million gravel stones. They did not pray to themselves or simply wish to cure the diseases. They prayed to the Lord with different names. If you argue that those names of the Lord are also the alternative names of their Self, then they should have taken the name of the Self itself to cure the diseases. Only in that case could their Advaita philosophy have got direct practical proof.

Shri Ramana Maharishi used Advaita when a surgery to remove a boil on His hand was done and He did not require any sedative medicine. He confined to His self (pure awareness) detaching Himself from the superimpositions on the subtle and gross bodies so that the pain of the gross body was not received by the soul. The subtle body links the gross body with the soul and conveys the feelings of the pain. When the soul is detached from the gross body and when the subtle body (mind or a bundle of feelings) is destroyed, the link is cut and the feeling of pain itself gets destroyed. The soul or pure awareness becomes free from all the qualities (nirguna chit) and the ‘I’ is fixed in the pure awareness or the soul itself. This is the achievement of self-analysis by Advaita, which is called as Atma Yoga. The self could not cure the boil as Lord Arunachaleswara cured the disease of his mother. He did not pray to Lord Shiva for the cure of his boil. What is the message he conveyed by these powerful minor incidents, which are like rare diamonds? You are always pondering over the majority of gravel stones given by him to ignorant people, who are in majority. These minor incidents give a message to spiritual aspirants of high standard, who are always in a minority. The essence of these incidents is that the value of Advaita or Atma Yoga is just the price of a sedative tablet! It cannot cure the disease, which means that it cannot interfere with the


36

cycle of deeds and fruits. When the self cannot interfere even with the implementation of the constitution of cycle of deeds and fruits, can it create, rule and destroy this universe? These incidents also convey that only God other than the self can interfere in this cycle and cure the diseases and therefore such God only can be believed to be the creator, ruler and destroyer. Therefore, only God can be Brahman and not the self. If you are giving importance to the large quantity of messages and commentaries given by those preachers and if you are not worried about these minor incidents, it clearly means that you are one of the majority of school students and you are not one of the minority of research students.

God and Soul: No Comparison God, called as Brahman so far, and to be called as Parabrahman

hereafter, is unimaginable. It is essential to differentiate God from the Brahman because the word Brahman is not confined to God alone and is used for other items like the Veda, due to its root meaning of greatness. The soul, which is knowable or imaginable, can never be compared with the unimaginable God either in the qualitative sense or in the quantitative sense. Water present in two cups of equal volume is equal in both qualitative and quantitative senses. The water present in a cup and the water present in a pot are equal in the qualitative sense but differ in the quantitative sense. Qualitative comparison comes when the quality of the two items is known. When the nature or quality of God is unknown, there is no possibility of qualitative comparison. In the absence of qualitative comparison, quantitative comparison does not even arise because quantitative comparison is possible only when there are two different quantities of the same item that is qualitatively known.

The soul is a work form of inert energy and work is a form of energy. Therefore the soul is energy, which is inert in its basic form and this basic form of the soul is realized in deep sleep. The subtle body is nothing but the work form of nervous energy or pure awareness and is represented as a bundle of feelings or a bundle of various forms of kinetic energy. This means that the subtle body is also inert energy. The gross body is also inert energy because the matter of the gross body can also be converted into inert energy according to law of equivalence of mass and energy. Therefore the gross body, subtle body and causal body (self) are nothing but a quantum of inert energy in the basic sense.


37

Similarly, the entire cosmos is also an ocean of inert energy in the basic sense. Now you, as a composite of all the three bodies are a drop of inert energy in the vast ocean of cosmic energy. Ishwara is the unimaginable God covered by this sheath of the ocean of cosmic energy. You are a drop of that ocean of cosmic energy. Now there is a qualitative similarity between you [self] and the ocean of cosmic energy because both are inert energy. But there is a quantitative difference between you and the ocean of cosmic energy. There is no question of comparison between you and the unimaginable God, either in the qualitative or quantitative sense.

When Ramanuja said that the soul is a part of Ishwara, he meant just this. Since God charges the ocean of cosmic energy, it can be treated as God under the name Ishwara. The soul is said to be a part of Ishwara and this means that the soul is a part of the ocean of cosmic energy and not a part of God. Shankara also meant the same when He was praying to Lord Jagannatha, while taking a bath in the ocean. The verse He composed says “O Lord, even though the difference between Ishwara and that soul is gone, I am in you like a wave in this ocean and You are not in me because the ocean cannot be accommodated in the wave.” Here He means that even though the qualitative difference between the wave and ocean has vanished by knowing the qualitative similarity between the wave and ocean as both being water, the quantitative difference between the ocean and wave exists. He is only comparing the soul with the covering sheath (Upadhi) of God, which is the cosmic energy. The comparison is not between God and the soul.

You are a small piece of cloth. A diamond is wrapped in a large cloth. There can be a comparison between you and the large cloth qualitatively, because both are qualitatively the same cloth. There is a quantitative difference between the piece of cloth and the large cloth. This does not mean that the piece of cloth is a small particle of the diamond. There is no comparison in any point between the cloth and diamond.

The above concept of comparison takes a completely different angle when Ishwara is compared to Krishna [human incarnation of God]. Infact Adi Shankara is no way different from Krishna. But Adi Shankara said the above verse assuming Himself to be an ordinary human being. When you compare Ishwara with Krishna, the concept is quite different. Suppose, two diamonds qualitatively as well as


38

quantitatively similar, are wrapped by a small cloth and big cloth respectively. Krishna and Iswhara are those two similar diamonds wrapped by a small cloth and a big cloth respectively. The cloths are similar qualitatively but differ quantitatively. But the diamonds in both the cloths are similar qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Here the two cloths are the human body and the cosmos, which are small and big respectively. Both have qualitative similarity even though the quantitative difference exists. The nine items (Nava Avarnam, which are the five fundamental elements and the four antahakarnams namely ego, mind, intelligence, and storage capacity) are common to both the human body (Pindanda) and cosmos (Brahmanda). The two diamonds are the same, one unimaginable God. You should not think that there are two unimaginable Gods, similar to the two diamonds. The same unimaginable God, by His unimaginable power, can exist in both the places. There cannot be an exact simile in this world, to describe God, since the world is composed only of imaginable items. Due to this practical limitation, one should cooperate with us to understand whenever a simile is given for God.

The same above verse can be applied to the case of Adi Shankara and Ishwara also. Even though the qualitative difference is removed in the human body and the cosmos, the quantitative difference exists between the human body and the cosmos as in the case of a wave and ocean. In this second case too, there is no difference (qualitatively as well as quantitatively) between the God existing in the human body of Adi Shankara and Ishwara. Therefore, in this case the only difference between the human body and the cosmos is in the quantitative sense.

In the first case of Ishwara and an ordinary human being also, the same quantitative difference exists between the human body and the cosmos. The big iron box containing the diamond inside is Ishwara. The small iron box without a diamond is a human being. The big and the small iron boxes [representing the cosmos and the human body respectively] have qualitative similarity but differ quantitatively. As far as the diamond is concerned, there is no point of comparison because the small box is vacant. In the case of Ishwara and Adi Shankara, the small box also contains the same diamond, which is equal qualitatively and quantitatively. In this case the comparison is only between the two boxes, because there is no need of comparison as far as diamonds are concerned, since both the diamonds are one and the same. Therefore in


39

both cases, the comparison is only between the boxes and the comparison is also one and the same, in both the cases (i.e. the small iron box and the big iron box differ quantitatively and are similar qualitatively).

By this similar comparison of the boxes and by the similar absence of comparison in diamonds (there is no need of comparison in diamonds in both the cases since in one case the diamonds are one and the same and in the other case there is no second diamond), the above verse can be equally applied to Adi Shankara and an ordinary human being.

This led to the misunderstanding that the ordinary human being is also exactly equal to Adi Shankara. Hence, when Adi Shankara stated that He is Brahman (Aham Brahma Asmi) and that He is Shiva (Shivoham), the ordinary human being also started repeating the same statements. Then Adi Shankara swallowed molten lead and this unimaginable action indicated the existence of the unimaginable God (diamond) in Adi Shankara. The ordinary human being was unable to do that which clearly established the absence of the same unimaginable God (diamond) in him. Then Shankara modified His earlier statement and said that He alone is Shiva or God (Shivah Kevaloham). The word ‘Kevala’ means ‘alone’ which was absent in the first statement.

The word Atman means the pervading item [that which pervades]. Electric current pervades the wire and can be called as Atman. In Adi Shankara and Krishna, God pervaded all over their souls. Their souls pervaded all over their bodies (as usual in the case of any human being). Since the soul pervaded the body, the soul is called as Atman and since God pervaded all over the soul, God is also called as Atman. Here both God and soul can be called as Atman. To differentiate between these two, God is called as Paramatman and the soul is called as Jeevatman. In a liberated soul as per Advaita, the jeeva (subtle body) may be destroyed and in such a case, the soul can be called as simply Atman. However, in any case, Paramatman is different from Jeevatman or Atman. Therefore, God is different from an ordinary soul as well as a liberated soul. Here a liberated soul is taken only in the sense of the Advaita philosophy, because the actual liberated soul is that which is not simply free from qualities but that which is full of divine qualities like devotion.

The king is wearing a silk cloth. A citizen is wearing a cotton cloth. Another citizen is naked and has no cloth. The king is different


40

from both the citizens. Now let us take the case of Krishna or Adi Shankara. The Paramatman is pervading all over the Jeevatman or Atman and the Jeevatman or Atman is pervading all over the human body. The ultimate pervading item here is only Paramatman, which directly pervades Jeevatman or Atman and indirectly pervades the human body also. Therefore, the Paramatman is the ultimate Atman. The Jeevatman or Atman is pervading only the human body but is not pervading the Paramatman and hence the Jeevatman or Atman here cannot be the ultimate Atman. Therefore, when Krishna says that He is Atman (Ahamaatma—Gita), it means that Krishna is referring to Paramatman present in His human body. Since Paramatman is the basis of the entire world, He stated that His Atman is the basis of the entire world (Sarva bhutaashayasthitah…). If an ordinary human being repeats the same verse of Gita, what is the meaning of the word Atman in his case? In his case only the Jeevatman or Atman pervades the human body and there is no Paramatman in his Jeevatman or Atman. Therefore in his case the word Atman means only Jeevatman or Atman, which cannot be the basis of the world, because it is a tiny particle of the world.

A king said “I am the king who rules this country”. A scientist with certain scientific equipments started analyzing the king. He found only three items in the king. The external gross body, the internal subtle body and the ultimate innermost causal body (self) are the three items. Now he started analyzing the source of the word ‘I’ in his statement. With all his logical analysis he found that the word ‘I’ means the causal body in the king. Therefore he derived the conclusion that the causal body is always the king. With the same equipment and analysis he found that the same three bodies exist in him also. He concluded that since the causal body is the king, the causal body in himself must also be the king. Therefore, he wanted to rule the country like the king. Unfortunately, he was arrested and put in jail by the king for this.

What is the point that he missed in the analysis? The only item that he missed here is the invisible kingship, which is different from the causal body. Therefore, the causal body as the source of the ‘I’ is only referred to as the king because that causal body alone is charged by the invisible ‘kingship’. Similarly, the Advaitin analyzed his preacher Adi Shankara. As in the case of his preacher, he found the same three bodies in himself too. Adi Shankara said “I am Brahman”. The student thought


41

that the causal body (the source of ‘I’) in himself is also Brahman. Here the unimaginable Brahman exists in the causal body (self) of Shankara and the word ‘I’ indicates the unimaginable Brahman in the self and not the self alone. When you say that the live wire is electric current, the word current indicates the current flowing through the live wire; not mere metallic wire. If you misunderstand that the current indicates there mere wire, you will call any wire without current also as electric current.

The invisible kingship (and the unimaginable God) and the invisible current are misunderstood as the visible causal body and the visible wire respectively. You must differentiate between the live wire and any other [unelectrified] wire atleast by knowing the property of electric current such as giving an electric shock. You must call the live wire alone as current because it gives a shock. You should not call the unelectrified wire as current because it does not give a shock. Similarly Brahman is supposed to rule the sun (Bishodeti Suryah…—Veda). Krishna and Adi Shankara could control the sun since they swallowed the forest-fire and the molten lead respectively. Thus both are live wires [God had charged their bodies]. The Advaita philosopher, who will surely die of sunstroke in the hot summer sun, should be treated as an unelectrified wire.

Confusion about the Source of I The whole tragedy is based on the investigation of the source of

‘I’. In olden days science was not developed and the subject of physiology in which neurology is a chapter, did not exist in medical science. ‘I’ is just a feeling, as good as any other feeling. All the feelings including ‘I’, constitute the subtle body, which is a bundle of feelings or information. In deep sleep all these feelings are stored in a ‘chip’ called as chittam [mental storage faculty]. The awareness-current is absent in the computer. The information is exhibited only when the computer is associated with electric current [when the computer is switched on]. In deep sleep, the current (awareness) is absent because the nervous system or battery is not functioning. The state of meditation is that of a current associated with a functioning battery but the computer is not connected and therefore the information is not exhibited. In death, the battery stops functioning permanently and no current is produced. The information chip (jeeva) also leaves the computer after death. Now the computer is just the dead gross body


42

without the chip and without the supply of electricity. When the person awakens from deep sleep, the battery is supplying current and the information is connected so that all the information is exhibited again.

It is not necessary that everybody feels that he has slept well [One of the concepts in the analysis of the Advaita philosophy is that one wakes up from the state of deep sleep thinking “I slept well”, which indicates that deep sleep is a state characterized by great happiness or bliss, which is the nature of the Atman]. This feeling is generalized to every human being and therefore it is concluded that as soon as one awakens from deep sleep the ‘I’ [I-thought] rises in the first instance [before any other thought]. From this, it is falsely inferred that ‘I’ existed during deep sleep. You must note that several people remember very important information other than “I slept well”, as soon as they awaken from deep sleep. If a human being goes into deep sleep after suffering a tragedy, as soon as the human being awakens from deep sleep, he immediately remembers the tragedy and not the feeling of happiness after the deep sleep.

Even during the waking state, the feeling of ‘I’ does not continuously exist such as while feeling or discussing several topics [during any mental activity]. Even in the waking state, there is no continuous existence of the feeling of ‘I’. What is the use of your unnecessary effort of establishing the continuous existence of ‘I’ in deep sleep through inference? In the waking state, everything is established by direct experience and even in this state, the feeling of ‘I’ does not exist continuously. You are trying to establish the continuous existence of ‘I’ in deep sleep through inference, in which direct experience is absent! Infact the feeling of ‘I’ and other strong feelings are recorded in the chip (chittam) during deep sleep but during this state, awareness is absent. During this state of deep sleep the basis of ‘I’ and other strong feelings is only inert energy and not awareness. Hence, the source of ‘I’ and other strong feelings is only the chip (chittam) in which the information is permanently recorded. The association of electric current with the chip is not permanent and therefore the source of ‘I’ is the chip (inert energy) and not the awareness (self) or current. However, if you consider the inert energy as the basic form of awareness, you can hold on the policy [concept] of constancy of self or awareness. If you limit the self to awareness alone, the self is born daily and dies daily (Athachainam nityajatam…—Gita). But if you consider the self as the


43

basic inert energy also, the constancy of self can be accepted because the basic primary inert energy (Mula Maya) is eternal (Ajo nityah…—Gita). If you take the self as only awareness, the constancy of the self is lost. If you take the self as permanent awareness, the permanency is lost. You cannot have the self as permanent awareness because in deep sleep, awareness is disappears due to which alone the state of deep sleep is full of ignorance.

You either have to sacrifice the single constant nature (awareness) of the self or the permanency of the self. Since you fix the nature of the self as awareness, you cannot establish the existence of the same nature in deep sleep through inference. In the absence of this knowledge of neurology in olden days, our ancestors should not be blamed as blind conservative believers. They tried their level best and made the hypothesis of the existence of the self even in deep sleep through inference. They were correct in their hypothesis because the self exists in deep sleep too, but with a different nature—of inertness instead of awareness. They could succeed partially in imagining the constancy of the self in deep sleep and they failed only in finding the alternative nature of the self, which is inertness. In the absence of science, they were unable to know the interconversion of inert energy and awareness, which was not their fault. If the same ancestors were present today, they would certainly appreciate the truth and modify their concept with an open mind.

Today you must be blamed as blind because even though science has analyzed the whole concept, you are not accepting it due to your closed conservative blind mind, clinging rigidly to their hypothesis, which was made in the absence of science. The interconversion of inert energy into awareness is well established by science because the oxygen supplied by the functioning of the respiratory system oxidizes the food digested by the digestive system and the oxidation reaction of the food releases inert energy. This inert energy, associated with the functioning nervous system, releases awareness, which is a special work-form of inert energy itself. This awareness-current associated with the chip of information stored in the functioning brain, exhibits the experience of important past information and also gives the experience of events grasped from the external world [sensory perception]. The Advaita philosophy, based on the investigations of Advaita philosophers is only a partial development of neurology, which is a part of medical science


44

and this cannot be called as spiritual knowledge, because the unimaginable God is not at all touched anywhere. Even the concepts of the self were not completely established by them (which are now completely established by the present neurology) and such ‘self’ is misunderstood to be God, which infact is not as clearly established by the present neurology. Therefore they have not touched even the boundaries of spiritual knowledge, because spiritual knowledge means the subject related to God.

Spiritual Chocolates Shankara and Ramna Maharshi gave the Advaita philosophy as a

chocolate to the majority of people who were at a basic level of ignorance, to attract people into the spiritual path. Shankara prepared this wonderful chocolate made up of only the truth with some intellectual flashes as tricks that are useful for people’s welfare in long run. After all, it is not impossible for a human being to become God and every human being has an equal chance to become God (human incarnation) in this very life itself. Adi Shankara Himself was a human incarnation and God can enter various human beings and many human incarnations can exist simultaneously. The only twist given in this concept is that every human being is ‘already’ a human incarnation and this cannot be ruled out fundamentally because God can enter all the human beings simultaneously and this earth can be filled with only human incarnations. After all, the possibility of such a situation cannot be ruled out from the angle of the omnipotency of God.

This twist had to be given because the atheist does not accept the concept of God other than the self in the very first instance. Slowly for practical achievement of becoming the ‘forgotten’ God existing as self, Shankara introduced a procedure to remove the practical influence of ignorance (Ajnana Vikshepa). In this, Ishwara, introduced as a practically realized soul, is to be meditated upon. Shankara left the atheist at this point by connecting the soul to God (Ishwara), who will take care of the upliftment of the soul from that point. In this twist, there is no trace of a lie because it is only the twist of the truth. When a golden wire is twisted, is there any impurity other than gold that is introduced due to the twist? Such twists are appreciable in the view of their inevitability, for the welfare of the atheist in the long run. Even the followers of Shankara were unable to understand the twist in the


45

absence of the present advanced scientific developments in neurology. Therefore they made certain inevitable assumptions and their inevitable incapability of realization of the complete truth in its original state without twists is also justified.

But today you do not realize the truth even though science has given you a tremendous practical analysis of this concept and therefore your position is not justified. Even though the truth is clearly exhibited, you are unable to come out of this dream due to the climax of its sweetness that you are already God, without any effort. The utility of Datta, who is the Satguru in living form, is that all your doubts are clarified and such a possibility does not exist in learning the total concept by reading Shankara and Ramana Maharishi. The same God exists in Shankara, Ramana Maharishi and the present living Satguru but the present Satguru alone can clarify your doubts and give you the total concepts in the correct direction. This is the main advantage of the Satguru who is the contemporary human incarnation, present in your generation, before your eyes.


46

Chapter - 7 O ADVAITIN! DIFFERENTIATE PEACE & BLISS

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-4 October 2, 2006] The Advaitin says that by

attaining the self [Atman or soul], which is just pure awareness, one attains infinite bliss. This is absurd since it contradicts practical experience. In every living being the soul (pure awareness) exists but every soul is not blissful. If you say that the impurity in the soul hinders the bliss, one can easily achieve the pure awareness atleast temporarily during meditation with a little practice. In such meditation, peace is experienced but not bliss. Peace is not bliss. Zero is not plus. Even zero may appear as plus relatively with respect to minus. But with respect to plus, zero is relatively minus. In meditation you are relieved from worldly stress for sometime and such relief may appear as bliss relatively with respect to the stress you had. You may feel that it is bliss since you have not tasted the real bliss separately. If peace is bliss, God would have been entertained with such ‘bliss’ through peace without this creation [in the absence of creation God alone existed and there was nothing to disturb His peace]. If such bliss existed already there would have been no need for any entertainment. Bliss is higher than entertainment. In that case, the Veda would not have said that God was not entertained when He was alone in peace without creation (Ekaki Na Ramate). Entertainment is needed for happiness and hence, the state before entertainment must have been without happiness. If God did not have entertainment before creation, it means that God was not happy. In that state how can you say that He was blissful? Assuming that God was happy even before creation, He must have been bored with such continuous happiness and the state of boredom shows lack of happiness. Only after creating this creation, which consists of variety by alternating comedy and tragedy, did He derive continuous happiness as per the Veda. Such happiness continues throughout the existence of creation and therefore God is blissful.


47

Reason for Continuous Happiness The state of boredom is removed by the alternating disturbance in

creation. Bliss is defined as continuous happiness. The word Ananda (bliss) is a composite of ‘Aa’ and ‘Nanda’. ‘Aa’ means continuity. ‘Nanda’ means happiness. The reason for the continuity of happiness of God during the existence of creation is His detachment to the creation during tragedy. The tragedy removes the boredom obtained from the previous comedy and the detachment to the tragedy avoids misery. Together this means entertainment—deriving happiness continuously without boredom. God is like a spectator of a cinema (Sakshi cheta—Veda) and after sometime God is like the actor acting in a role in the drama when He enters this creation (Tadevanu Pravishat—Veda). In both cases, He covers Himself with the ignorance of Maha Maya and Mula Maya and becomes equal to the individual soul. But He is in full realization of the awareness of the unreal nature of Maya. God in human form restricts Himself to the lowest level of Maya like the individual soul. Such knowledge of the unreality of Maya in tragic situations keeps Him in the continuous entertainment (bliss). This technique is possible even for the soul because the soul is also above Maya and can attain the knowledge of the unreality of Maya by self-analysis. The difference between God and the soul is that God is really above the Maha Maya and Mula Maya also, where as the soul is not really above Maha Maya and Mula Maya.

Ofcourse, God also gets controlled by Maha Maya and Mula Maya like the individual soul by imposing ignorance on Himself. The difference is that God is controlled by apparent and artificial ignorance whereas the individual soul is really controlled and there is no point of ignorance in the case of individual soul. God crosses Maha Maya and controls the Mula Maya by simply removing His apparent ignorance when He has to perform some miracles in an emergency. Even a blessed soul can perform miracles by the grace of God. He too crosses the Maha Maya and controls the Mula Maya. But infact, the soul cannot cross really Maha Maya. The soul is awareness, which is a component of Maha Maya. The soul cannot cross itself. The soul cannot control Mula Maya because the soul can never dream of crossing Mula Maya. Therefore, whenever an individual soul performs miracles, God alone performs miracles in the name of the individual soul. Demons do not realize this and become egoistic thinking that they [souls] performed the


48

miracles. The demon-soul as well as the spectators [other souls in the world] are under the illusion that the individual soul is performing the miracles. But the devotee realizes the truth and reveals it to the public whenever a miracle happens through him. God can even cross the Mula Maya, if God wishes to withdraw the world including space. Mula Maya is the primary energy or space. Such a situation is possible but it does not happen. The primary energy exists continuously just as the roll of the film is preserved even after the show is over. The film [primary energy] contains the subtle impressions of the world (Avyaktam). The producer can destroy the film but he is not a fool to destroy it just to satisfy you regarding his capability to destroy the film! When God enters into this world through the human form, He remains only in the status of a realized individual soul by crossing just the Maya and keeping Himself controlled by the Maha Maya and Mula Maya. In this state, the entire drama of His divine play is also limited only to Maya. There is no need of crossing the higher Maha Maya and control the highest Mula Maya in order to do a miracle unless such emergency action is required, which is very rare. God is reluctant to perform miracles frequently because the miracles have a side effect on the devotees of making them selfish and tempting them to use the super power of God for selfish ends.

God stands just in the position of a realized soul to set an example for the ignorant soul, which is controlled by Maya. An ignorant soul laughs and weeps alternately, facing the corresponding scenes of happiness and misery. You can propose that such an ignorant soul can cross Maya and be in continuous happiness (bliss) like God by its own self effort (self attainment) following the above divine technique. But you cannot attain this divine technique of God without the grace of God. Otherwise, you might also say that God is unnecessary because such bliss can be attained by even self-attainment. But it is not correct because the soul can only attain peace but not bliss by self-attainment. You may say that peace can be treated as relative bliss and therefore real bliss is not needed. But even such self-attainment cannot be continuous without the grace of God. The higher Maha Maya disturbs your state by insulting you, since you cannot cross the Maha Maya. Since Maya is under the control of Maha Maya, you will fall again to the state of an ignorant soul and even the Maya will insult you under the instruction of the superior Maha Maya.


49

Even Maya insulted the sages, when a beautiful dancer from heaven appeared! The Maya of the beautiful form controlled them. Their self-attainment simply crashed! Totapuri is the best example of a realized soul; he had self-attainment. Yet he could not overcome the feeling (Maya) of stomach pain and tried to commit suicide. Therefore, one may cross Maya (forms and feelings) temporarily by self-attainment. Such a state is temporary because Maya will trap him again within a short span of time. Even during the temporary existence of such a state, the soul only enjoys peace and not real bliss. Therefore, there is no use of this temporary state because the real fruit is not achieved.

If you accept God and surrender to Him, the entire story changes. Your self-attainment remains permanent because Maya or Maha Maya will not try to disturb you by the grace of God. Shankara acknowledged the necessity of the grace of God in the path of self-attainment (Ishwaraanugrahaadeva…). By the grace of God you can even attain the real bliss from the world because your knowledge of the unreality of Maya is not disturbed and therefore you will enjoy even the tragic scenes continuously. Therefore, without the grace of God, all your self-effort is only a modification of your foolish and rigid egoism.

Still, if you do not realize this truth in spite of the divine preaching of God, God will leave you to your fate. You become a debarred and condemned soul. In that case God blesses you to have the state of self-attainment permanently because you desired it so rigidly. The father will be vexed with the rigid son and leave him after sometime of advice. Now what is the future of this rigid Advaitin? God sanctions the materialization of such intensive desire in the next birth of that soul because God is the Creator (father) of even such a rigid soul. God has waited for the present birth of the soul hoping for some change in him before death. God is always kind and never has the aspect of revenge even if you scold Him. Unable to convert you He sanctions your irrevocable desire in the next birth. You have continued in such a state of continuous peace of pure awareness (Chit) throughout your life as per your strong wish. Such a state of Chit is exactly found in meditation and even the self awareness disappears in deep sleep. The state of meditation, which has no other feelings except a trace of self awareness, is the state of a tree. The state of deep sleep, in which even that trace of Chit disappears by the total transformation of Chit in to the basic inert energy, is the state of a stone. The tree has almost complete peace where


50

as the stone has absolutely complete peace. An Advaitin as a Sanyasin is a tree in human form and as an Avadhuta is a stone in human form. God still waits and sees whether such a soul can change atleast a few minutes before death. When there is no hope of change, such a soul will be permanently materialized as a tree or a stone in the future birth. This is the fate of the Advaitin, who does not accept God other than the self. The strongest desire always materializes (Yat Bhavam Tat Bhavati).

People think that such materialization is the power of the soul. But it is not correct. The actual truth in this statement is that God sanctions the materialization of the strongest desire of the soul because every soul is the son or daughter of God. The soul is under the illusion that it has the inherent power of materialization of its desire through strong will. It does not know that the materialization of its desire is taking place due to the will of God since it does not understand the advice that God was trying to give it for a long time. The father advises the son to study well. But the son is rigid and does not study. The son wants to enjoy the wealth without study. Finally the father is vexed and gives the part of the property, which was earned by him (father) to the son. Now the son thinks that his desire is fulfilled because of his own strong will which came from the powerful self. He does not know that due to his foolish rigidity, the kind father who was unable to change him, gave him some self earned property and fulfilled his desire. The Advaitin thinks that the self can achieve anything by its powerful will because the self itself is God. They follow the path of continuously desiring for the fruit since they believe that the strong will always materializes due to the power of the self. Can you become the king by constantly desiring to become king or by constantly thinking that you are already the king? The Advaitin constantly thinks that he is God (Aham Brahmaasmi) and he believes that he becomes God by such constant thinking due to the power of the self, which is already God. It is like the foolish son thinking that the property given by his father is the property earned by himself due to his powerful desire. The Advaitin can also feel that he achieved the state of a tree or a stone by his powerful will. The Brahman of the Advaitin is pure awareness without any contact with the world and such Brahman, representing perfect silence can be either a tree or a stone. For a tree or stone too, Ishwara is unreal as Advaitin believes.


51

Chapter - 8 CREATION IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT OF GOD

God’s Justice is not Sadism [July 15, 2007]. Some people criticize that God is enjoying

creation and entertaining Himself, while souls are troubled with problems. So they blame God with sadism. The entertainment of God is not sadism at all. Sadism is based on two points: One is that an action can be called sadism if it is exhibited in reality in the world and not in the imaginary world. For God, this world is imaginary and not real. However, sadism in the imaginary world may also show a mental attitude towards sadism. Even that point is ruled out because the second point on which sadism is based is that a sadist enjoys by torturing some innocent person without a justified reason. Here in the case of God, the problems of the soul in the world are based on its own actions and the punishment is given based on perfect justice. Hence, sadism cannot be attributed to God even in mind. Moreover, the soul need not be concerned with the entertainment of God because the soul is not punished for any unjust reason. If the soul follows the rules of justice1 given by God, the soul will face no problem.

A rich person started a college for his own entertainment or to escape from paying income tax on his wealth. Knowing the reason why he started the college is unnecessary for the student as long as the college is running as per the rules of the university. The student can argue against the management provided any type of injustice takes place in teaching or in the examinations. As long as the academic program is perfectly implemented, the student has no scope for argument against the original intention of the management in starting the college. Only a student, who is not perfectly following the academic schedule, will bother about such irrelevant points to mask his own defects. If somebody still argues on this point due to foolishness, the only answer is that God is the Suprememost Boss and there is nobody to argue with Him.

1 Dharma


52

If an ant comments on the driving of the driver of a car, that comment is not even heard by the driver! Since you do not know all the actions of any soul from its childhood, you should not say that a particular soul is good and yet is punished unjustly. Neither are you are capable of noting all the actions of a soul nor are you capable of judging each action in depth. Shankara established that the nature of the world is unreal by itself and that the world feels real as long as it exists based on God. This unreal world is imaginary. A dream cannot be real without its basic material, which is the soul or awareness. Similarly, a pot without mud and a chain without gold are unreal and they are imaginary or illusory. But the world is imaginary only to God and not to your self. If you say that the world is imaginary for your self also and try to do sins, you will have to undergo all the punishments. Then you must feel that the punishments are also imaginary like your sins! Your sins and their punishments are both within the realm of the world and hence both must be imaginary!

Some people feel that the word “best” has no end because there is always the possibility of something better in the future. Such people miss even the ultimate God because they will always be hoping for a better tomorrow, which never comes! Therefore, you have to fix yourself in the best as soon as the certificate from your inner conscience is granted since the inner self is always the best judge for your level, even if you are in the highest level.

Good works will lead you to heaven temporarily. Bad works will lead you to hell temporarily until you are transformed atleast to a large extent. You may even enter the permanent liquid fire or hell for your endless sin, where you have to stay till you are completely transformed. Devotion (practical service without aspiration for any fruit in return) will lead you to the abode of God. If your devotion is limited to the energetic forms of the upper world, or to past human incarnations, you will have to return back from the abode of God (Abrahma Bhuvanat…—Gita). If your devotion is limited to your contemporary human incarnation, you will reach the abode of God forever (Yat Gatva na nivartante…—Gita). Ofcourse, you will be coming to the earth in human form along with God in human form, to assist Him in His mission. Thus you will be in the permanent association of God.


53

Sun, Saturn and Yama [Swami sang the following three lines in Sanskrit, explained their

meaning and gave a discourse following it.] Jnana Tejasam Tam Divakaram,

Jnana Karakam Tam Shanaishcharam, Jnana Dayakam Tam Yamam Bhaje.

To Sun2, who emits the radiation of spiritual knowledge

To Saturn, who generates the spiritual knowledge And to Yama who gives the spiritual knowledge3

—I pray. Sun, Saturn and Yama are the three spiritual preachers in the

traditional Vedic line. Sun is the son of Kashyapa and is called as Kashyapeya. Kashyapa is called as Pashyaka, meaning the seer of even minute, subtle concepts (Kashyapah Pashyako bhavati yah Pashyati Saukshmyan…—Veda). This means that he is the top most spiritual preacher. I was born in the early hours (Brahma Muhurta) of Sunday in the Kashyapa dynasty (Gotram). I was born in the zodiac sign of Capricorn for which the Lord is Saturn. My birth star4 is Uttarabhadra in which the period of Saturn starts. Capricorn is viewed by Saturn from the seventh house (Cancer). Capricorn, whose symbol is the crocodile, stands for a firm grip or firm determination, which is essential in the practice of spiritual knowledge. Today, is the day on which Saturn is moving from Cancer to Leo.

Conducting Enquiry of Departed souls [In the early hours of this day, Swami looked very black and

certain physical changes were seen in His body. Today a devotee, Mrs. Shrutakirti from Hydarabad, reported that Swami gave her a vision as Lord Yama. He was jet black in color and surrounded by several departed souls, sitting on a throne, conducting the enquiry.]

You must understand that the planets indicate the nature of the soul and not vice-versa. The nature of a soul is not created due to the position of the planets. This is the basic flaw in astrology. People think that the planets, due to their positions and movements, harm or benefit

2 Sun-god or Surya 3 Yama, the Lord of death, gave this knowledge to Nachiketa 4 Constellation as per Vedic astrology


54

them. The planets harm or benefit the people not based on their positions and movements, but based on the bad and good deeds done by those people previously. The word Jyoti stands for light; meaning the planet. But the same word Jyoti stands for the original light or God (Param Jyotih…—Veda, Jyotiradhikaranat…—Brahma Sutra). The real astrology is only the spiritual knowledge. People approach astrology for remedies to their problems. The solutions must be linked to the worship of God so that people slowly become devotees of God. Even Kamya Yajna (sacrifice performed to fulfill desires) is expected to gradually lead the person to the worship of God. This is the path of the Veda (Nastyakrutah…—Veda).

Suppose there are three persons. One uses his entire salary for his day-to-day expenses without saving any for his old age. The second person uses some of his salary for his expenses and saves some for his old age. The third person saves the entire salary for his old age and leads a simple life on the earnings from some work that he does on the side, because during oldage one needs a lot of money for medical treatment etc. All these three persons are not different in the view of their employer because the basic selfishness in them is one and the same. Similarly, one person serves God only for getting happiness in this world. The second person serves God for getting happiness in this world and also in the upper world. The third person serves God only for happiness in the upper world and in this world he leads a simple life by doing some work for his livelihood. All these three are not real devotees. Shankara says that a real devotee should serve God without aspiring for anything in return in this world as well as in the upper world (Ihamutraphalaviragah…). This is a very clear indication of real love as can be observed even in worldly life. Parents love their children and serve them without aspiring for anything in return from them and hence paternal love is said to be real and pure. On this point, no scripture is needed as evidence because it is a very well established point even in worldly affairs.

Message From History [Swami watched a film on the T.V. titled “Yashoda Krishna”.

Devotees requested Swami for a message on the film.] You must learn lessons from past history, which are useful to your

present. Otherwise, history is only an entertainment to pass time and is


55

useless. By seeing the past human incarnation, Krishna, and His past devotees, you, the present people, must become devotees of the present human incarnation in a similar way as far as possible. Only then has the intended practical purpose of the movie been served. You have seen God in human form and the love of His devotees for Him. Each of the devotees was related to Him by different bonds, which were selected as per their taste. The extent of love in a bond is important and not the form of the bond. The weight of the sweet fixes the rate and not the form of the sweet.

You must not forget that the basic essence of a divine movie like this is the love that the devotees expressed for God in human form who existed before their eyes. They proved their love through sacrifice. If you forget this basic essence and view the movie simply as the expression of love through various bonds, this movie is as good as any movie with a social theme. Many such movies show the same emotional love in various bonds like mother, father, beloved, husband, brother etc., as we see in the case of Yashoda, Nanda, Radha, Rukmini, Balarama etc., respectively. People often forget the basic essence of a divine movie and only see the emotional love of worldly bonds in it. Then the final result is only the strengthening of their worldly bonds further and further, which is quite opposite to the aim of strengthening the bond with God.

Recognition and Value for God Purity means oneness. Pure gold means the single gold metal

without any second metal like copper. When a single bond exists without a second bond, that single bond is called as pure love or devotion. This is the highest stage. In the lower stage, even if several bonds exist, only one bond becomes the topmost, before which all other bonds get rejected, in case of competition. In childhood, the bond with parents is the topmost. In youth the bond with one’s beloved or wife is the topmost. Afterwards the bond with one’s children becomes the topmost and continues throughout one’s life. The rejection of other bonds before the topmost bond is the meaning of the word “hate” used by Jesus, when He stated that one cannot become His dearest disciple unless one hates the worldly bonds. The bond with inert money is only to see happiness in one’s parents, wife and children; i.e. the bond with money is only for the sake of life. The bond with one’s own life happens


56

to be the topmost bond from birth to death and before this bond all other bonds may be rejected. But sometimes, this bond may be rejected before the other bonds. It varies from one individual to the other.

The bond with God is also like the bond with money. People love God and money only for the sake of the happiness of self (life), parents, wife and children. Money and God are only the instruments to achieve happiness for the sake of self, parents, wife and children. If these bonds are absent, the bond with God and money disappears. This is the case of Pravritti, which is the general trend of most devotees. Only few exceptional cases exist among devotees for whom God becomes the topmost. Such exceptional devotees come under Nivritti and God loves only such exceptional devotees. The transformation of Pravritti to Nivritti is the real spiritual path. Jesus referred only to such devotees of Nivritti in His statement given above. Krishna also referred to such devotees in the Gita (Matchittah matgatapranah…). Divine movies aim to achieve such Nivritti. But people take God as an instrument to achieve protection and happiness of their worldly bonds including their own selves. Jesus says that His dearest disciple must be prepared to carry his own cross for the sake of God. This means that one has to sacrifice even the bond with one’s life for the sake of God. Infact, Jesus sacrificed the bond with His life for the sake of God’s mission, through His crucifixion. Hanuman tore His chest and heart to show God in His heart and this also shows the sacrifice of the bond with life for the sake of God. Krishna also sacrificed the bond with His life and the bonds with His children, wives and relatives for the sake of God’s mission. To establish justice and devotion on this earth, which is the primary aim of God’s mission, Krishna supported the Pandavas by all means. For the sake of this He accepted the curse from Gandhari due to which all His family and even His own life had to be sacrificed. Such practical sacrifice with all worldly bonds including one’s life for the sake of God’s mission alone could prove that God is the topmost. Thus, Krishna Himself practiced what ever He preached. Practical sacrifice alone can bring the real fruit. Theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion should lead to the practical sacrifice. Theory is essential for the appearance of practice. Theory is like the seed and the subsequent practice resulting from it is like the tree. The tree alone can give fruit. The knowledge and devotion are like water and fertilizer, which are essential for the seed to grow into a tree. Therefore, knowledge and


57

devotion are important but without practice (service), which is work, there is no fruit.

Brahma Vidya, Brahma Jnanam or spiritual knowledge is the most complicated path and even to achieve the correct knowledge is a hectic affair (Kashchinmaamvetti…Gita). Correct knowledge is the first step and even in this first step, there are a lot of complications. People are often misled even in this first step. The whole complication lies only in one point: you must conquer your ego and jealousy completely and recognize the contemporary human incarnation existing before your eyes even though He acts as an ordinary human being. Sometimes He may even act as the worst human being. You have to recognize God who is beyond good and bad. God is the Possessor of the world in which both good and bad exist. God is not touched by the world and therefore the good and the bad do not touch Him. He can expose good or bad but He is not touched by both. The world is like a shirt, which cannot be His characteristic like His skin. The good and bad are like the different colors of His shirt and they are not the colors of His skin. The white color of His shirt is not the white color of His skin. He is wearing white shirt and He is beyond the white shirt. Seeing the color of the white shirt, you will decide that He is white and approach Him as a good person.

In the case of the individual soul, your analysis is correct because the individual soul is a bundle of qualities. The individual soul is the shirt itself. Therefore, the individual soul is actually white or good himself. Similarly, the individual soul can be black or bad. But in the case of the human incarnation, God is beyond the white and black colors, since He is unimaginable. When you approach Him, He will change His white shirt and put on a black shirt. You will think that He is black and you will run away.

All your spiritual knowledge must be used to distinguish a really black man and a colorless person wearing a black shirt. This is a test for your knowledge of discrimination and your faith about your identification of God. It is also a practical test for your value for God over the other worldly values including the value for your life. Thus, your identification of God in a human being, who looks like an ordinary human being, is the first step. The faith in this identification is tested on the exhibition of bad qualities by the incarnation. If your faith remains,


58

the extent of faith is tested through the extent of value given to God over other worldly values.

Sage Sharabhanga could not identify Rama as God, because Rama ended in problems by blindly following the foolish desire of His wife for a golden deer even though Lakshmana warned against it. He submitted his living body in the fire altar for the sake of God and thus he showed that he had the highest value for God. But he could not recognize the contemporary human incarnation. King Dhritarashtra believed in Krishna as the contemporary human incarnation but his value for God was not high compared to his value for his son. Therefore he refused the proposal of Krishna to avoid war even after seeing Krishna’s cosmic vision (Vishwarupam). If you see Hanuman, He not only recognized the contemporary human incarnation as God like Dhritarashtra, but also gave the topmost value to God like Sharabhanga by tearing open His chest with His own nails and offering His life for God. Thus, Hanuman contains the merits of both Sharabhanga and Dhritarashtra and he also avoided the defects of both. Most human beings have both the defects and therefore salvation is only for one in millions and that too after millions of births as per the Gita.

In the statement of Jesus that unless one sacrifices all the worldly bonds including the bond with one’s life, one cannot be His dearest disciple, both these merits are indicated. Generally the inner circle-devotees of God, who are very few in number, are born as devotees and get salvation, which is only a show for the sake of other devotees because the inner circle-devotees are already liberated souls. Sage Nara was a liberated soul already associated with Lord. But he was born as Arjuna, then as a hunter and finally as Vivekananda. In these three births, he represented an ordinary human being (Nara) and showed the path of salvation in the role of a devotee. Thus, the same liberated souls are born again and again and get salvation to show the path to other devotees. Only one in millions, after millions of births, gets real salvation and enters the inner circle of God. To achieve this goal, you have to conquer the ego and jealousy in order to recognize the contemporary human incarnation on one side. On the other side, you have to increase the value of God to the highest place, defeating all other worldly values including the value for your own life.


59

Chapter - 9 COMMANDMENTS OF GOD

Sin and Punishment [Maha Satsanga February 10, 2006. Mr Anil Antony came to

Vijayawada from Mumbai to meet Swami and asked some questions. Following is Swami’s discourse, which answers those questions.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Non-retaliation

You have to live in this world according to the instructions of the Lord. Regarding your life in this world, the essence of His instructions is: • Be deceived by others but not deceive others • Be harmed by others but not harm anyone • Be insulted by others but not insult others • Be abused by others but not abuse others

One cannot attain God by doing penance even for centuries. But there is one easiest way to attain God. When you are deceived by others, harmed by others, insulted by others or when you are abused by others, the Lord comes to your side. It means you have attained God. Therefore, you should thank the people who have deceived, harmed, insulted or abused you. They have helped you in attaining God by the easiest way. You should not deceive, harm, insult or even scold such people in return. What they did to you might have been the punishment for your sins by the will of God. In that case also, they have cleared your sins at an early stage so that your punishment does not grow due to interest. Thus even in that case you should thank them. How good are the good?

Some people criticize God saying that even good people are unnecessarily harmed. You cannot be sure that a person who appears to be good is necessarily good. Did you observe him every minute from his birth? You also think of yourself as a good person. Are you aware of all your sins done in your childhood? You might have harmed an innocent insect in your childhood. Do you remember that? Even mental feelings


60

are sins that are not expressed in words and actions. The feelings of the mind are the source of words and actions. Therefore the feeling may not hurt others today. But tomorrow it will hurt others when it comes out in words and actions. Infact, intention is given more importance in the crime according to law. The judge gives more importance to the intention in giving the punishment. Suppose you are walking on the road and your foot kills an ant without any intention. There is no punishment for such sins. But when you kill the same ant with an intention to kill, God punishes you. Therefore mind is the source of action.

Even if somebody harms a really good person, it is better to leave it to God. You should not seek revenge. Why? The reason is that you cannot judge the exact nature and facts of the case. You do not even remember your own sins. Sometimes you commit a sin thinking that you are doing good. You cannot be the standard in judging your own sins. Only the Lord can decide. Therefore, if somebody has harmed a person who is really good even in the view of the Lord, then the Lord Himself will punish the person who harmed him. You cannot take the law and order in to your own hands. You have to refer the case to the court. Let the judge decide and punish the criminal. Therefore the Lord said, “The revenge is Mine”. If revenge is justified, the Lord will certainly punish. The Lord will not punish just because you pray to Him to do so. The Lord, will not excuse a criminal even if you recommend an unjust case. Punishment

Neither do you have the power to punish nor do you have the power to excuse anybody. The reason for this is that you are not omniscient. If a sinner realizes his sin and repents, the punishment is reduced. After repentance if you do not repeat the sins, the punishment is cancelled. If the sinner does not repent, he will repeat the sin again and again. Such a sinner can be controlled only by punishment. If this were not true, the police department would have no use. There are some sinners, who can be controlled only by third degree treatment (severe beating and physical punishment). If such punishment and revenge were not necessary, and if everybody could be transformed only by preaching, then what is the necessity of the existence of hell and ‘liquid fire’? If there was a possibility of transformation only by love and knowledge, why would the Lord mention the word ‘revenge’ at all? Therefore it is clear that there are some sinners who cannot be transformed by love and knowledge.


61

Some clever people criticize Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, who resorted to punishing sinners. Such clever people should explain the meaning of word ‘revenge’ uttered by the Lord and also should explain the mention of the liquid fire in the scriptures. If all sinners could be transformed through love and knowledge alone, such words should not have been mentioned in their scriptures.

The Lord is the Father of all the souls. Your love for another human being is only brotherly love. The love of the Father is far greater than your brotherly love. You are criticizing your Father for punishing your brother! The father tries His best to transform His son. On the first day of the war Rama defeated Ravana. Rama could have killed him on the very first day. But Rama, asked Ravana to go back and think that night. The Lord punishes any one only as the last resort. Even then, the Lord does not have anger or hatred. The punishment is only the last method attempted for transformation. There also the aim is only transformation. But when you punish your enemy you do not have such an aim. Therefore the punishment by the Lord also reflects His divine love and kindness for the soul. Due to such a sacred aim, the Lord is authorized to punish the soul. He is just like a teacher who punishes the student for his misbehavior. The teacher does not get any sin in such punishment. The reason again is that the intention decides nature of the action.

Therefore when you live in the world, according to the instructions given by the Lord, the Lord is pleased with you. The Lord will make you happy in this world. Your happiness in this world is an indication of His grace. Therefore you will be happy in the upper world also. He is the only one Lord for both the worlds. So if you are unhappy in your worldly affairs in this world, you will be unhappy in the spiritual matters in the upper world also. If you are blessed in this world you are also blessed in the upper world. Hence, follow His commandments and be happy in this world. When you are serving the Lord, you should be happy in the sacrifice. You should not sacrifice to the Lord with unhappiness. The sacrifice with unhappiness will make the Lord unhappy. The result of such service is unhappiness in the upper world. Therefore it is better not to sacrifice if you are not happy. Why should you purchase unhappiness with such sacrifice? Are you unhappy when you sacrifice for your family members? Therefore sacrifice for the Lord


62

with force or unhappiness is not only a waste but it also brings negative results.

Even in the case of your family members, if you sacrifice with unhappiness it is a waste. Therefore the intention is very important for the Lord. You should not do any sacrifice aspiring for something in return. Such a sacrifice is only a business. Business done in the case of your family members may bring a benefit or loss. But in the case of Lord, business always brings loss. Therefore live in this world according to the instructions of the Lord given to you with regard to other human beings. With regard to the Lord, do sacrifice and service to the Lord only to the extent that there is no force, pain or sense of doing business with Him.

Some people say that the Lord preaches with love and kindness in this world for transformation. If the soul is not transformed, it will be thrown to hell permanently at the end of this life. They say that the Lord should not punish the soul in this world. This is exactly similar to saying that you should teach the student and if the student fails, he should be hanged to death permanently at the end of the period. You do not allow punishing the student with a cane during the period.

Therefore even before the final punishment, temporary punishment must be also given to the soul. Before the final examination, interim examinations are also conducted. If the student fails in the interim examinations, there will be a chance for the student to correct himself before the final examination. Therefore interim punishments are part and parcel of the coaching before the final examination. The Lord adopts different procedures of coaching in different regions based on the psychology and attitude of the human beings. You should not criticize the procedure of the Lord which maybe different in some other religion and region.

The Lord is universal but the human beings in the universe differ in their attitudes. The same single Lord adopts a different procedure in a different region and such a different procedure appears as a different religion. A few people criticize the Lord of other religions. You do not criticize the Lord of your own religion. The external behavior of the Lord differs due to different internal and external behaviors of the human beings in this universe. The external form, dress, language, food habits and culture of human beings differ from one region to the other. Accordingly the external form, dress, food habits, language and culture


63

of the Lord also differ to suit that particular region. The internal Lord and the internal essence of the same Lord is one and the same in His different human incarnations, which have come in different regions or religions.

Cycle of Deeds The human being is entangled in the cycle of deeds called as

karma charka. The thought in the mind is the seed, which grows and generates action. The action certainly gives its result. Even if you escape the result of your action in this world you cannot escape from it in the upper world. Infact the result in the upper world is very severe due to the compounded interest due to the delay in getting the result. Therefore blessed are those who are punished in this world itself. Jesus says “It is better to punish yourself for your sin in this world itself than to fall into eternal hell”.

The punishment reduces the thought (which caused the deed) to the state of a tiny seedling. However the punishment cannot destroy the thought completely. The thought exists in a very minute called the state of subconsciousness. Even you are not aware of your subconscious thought. When the soul comes from hell to the earth and enters a new human body, the child contains all the qualities or thoughts of previous births, hidden in the subconscious state. Therefore the child is unaware of anything and appears to be the most innocent and sacred. In the child the thoughts are like seeds that have not germinated. Whatever may be the external atmosphere in which the child grows, those strong thoughts will certainly germinate and grow up to be tender plants if not strong trees. But if the external atmosphere is favorable, the strong thoughts become trees, and weak thoughts will become plants. These germinated thoughts will result in corresponding actions. The actions will give their own fruits whether here or there.

The fruits are the punishments, which will again reduce the thoughts to seeds. This is the cycle of the deeds. When it is said that you are enjoying the fruit of the action of your previous birth, it has to be understood in the context of this cycle. The action of your previous birth was punished in hell and has reduced your thought to the form of a seed. In this birth the seed grows and results in its corresponding action. Such action can give you its result in this world if you are captured here itself. The judicial system in this world also functions under the direction of


64

the Lord only. If you have escaped the judicial system in this world, it too is by the will of Lord alone. The Lord might have judged your case and might have given you a chance of transformation. Sometimes you are punished wrongly in a case. Do not abuse the court or God. Perhaps you are punished for some other sin. Do not think that you have escaped a punishment that you deserve just because the courts find you ‘not guilty’. Perhaps God is directing you for a severe punishment in hell, which cannot be provided by the court here. Therefore do not think that you have fooled the court or that the deity of justice is blind with a cloth tied on her eyes. Even this court is functioning according to the will of the Lord because the Lord governs everybody and everything in this world. Therefore do not blame God or do not say that God does not exist if some criminal escapes punishment of human courts.

Destroying the Seed Now the main point is how to escape from this cycle? You cannot

escape from this cycle by preventing the deed or punishment. If you are tied with a rope, you will not do the deed as long as you are tied. You will do the deed as soon as you are released from the rope. You may escape the result of your deed here by someone’s recommendations, but you cannot escape from it in hell. The only way to stop this cycle is to destroy the thought, which is the initiating seed of this cycle. How to destroy it?

The seed is a thought, which is a living property (sentient property) or a property of life. If it were an inert property like light or heat, it could be prevented by physical methods. Only knowledge, which is another living property, can destroy this thought. Only a diamond can cut another diamond. The wrong knowledge, which generates this sin, is dangerous. Ignorance, which is zero, is better than wrong knowledge, which is minus (negative). Therefore only righteous knowledge can destroy wrong thoughts. You can differentiate the right knowledge from the wrong knowledge through careful, patient analysis and discrimination. The knowledge of God alone can create devotion in your mind and develop it. Thus by knowledge alone can you get rid of this cycle and attain and please God. Shankara says “Jnanat eva tu kaivalyam”, which means that knowledge alone can give salvation. Jesus preached the same spiritual knowledge throughout His life.


65

The atheist is always rigid and does not accept God even if God performs a miracle physically. He will attribute it to hypnotism and magic. When Lord Krishna showed the vision of His cosmic form in the court, Duryodhana fell unconscious, but he attributed it to an illusion and hypnotism. Therefore a rigid foolish atheist can never be transformed and he shall be condemned forever like a student debarred by the university. One must have an open mind to recognize the truth and must have the courage to come out of one’s conservative rigid circle. The atheist blames the devotees regarding their foolish conservative limits, but he himself is trapped by such limits! For a wise person even a subtle experience in small incidents taking place in his life is sufficient proof to realize the existence of God. God is giving proof of His existence even in very small incidents that take place in every walk of your life. If you sit and analyze your past life with careful, shrewd analysis, you can see the existence of God at every step and how He is trying to help you always.

Some say that God loves only His devotees and thus He is partial. This is meaningless. If all people in the world loved Him equally and if He still loved only a select few, then alone can it be called partiality.

God and Three Qualities A devotee said that God has all the good qualities only and they

are called Sattvam (knowledge, goodness). There should not be Rajas (activity, passion) and Tamas (ignorance, rigidity) in His qualities since they constitute bad qualities. The answer for this doubt is that you should not say that God is associated with good qualities. You should say that whatever quality is associated with God is good. Any quality directed towards God is good and any quality, which is directed towards the creation (world) is bad.

Sattvam is knowledge. Rajas is work. Tamas is rigid determination. The knowledge of an atheist, which opposes the existence of God is a bad quality even though it is sattvam. The work done by a devotee in the divine service (Rajas) and his rigid determination or faith in God (Tamas), are good qualities. The very process of knowledge is the work of the mind and thus knowledge itself is basically Rajas. When you believe your knowledge to be true, such belief is Tamas. Thus you cannot separate the three qualities in their pure states. The scriptures (Shastras) say this. The three qualities are


66

always in the state of an inseparable equilibrium when the pure awareness (Mula Prakriti or Holy Spirit) was created by God. When the equilibrium is disturbed, one of these three qualities predominates and we call it by the name of the predominant quality.

The spiritual effort to attain and please God must contain all the three qualities. The quality is neither in God nor is God is in the quality. Any quality must be associated with God alone for its very existence. Any quality is created, maintained and is destroyed by God alone. Creating is said to be Rajas. Maintenance is Sattvam. Destruction is Tamas. This entire universe, which is the asylum for all the qualities is created and maintained by God. In such a case how can you say that God is associated only with some qualities and not with some other qualities? Nothing can exist without His association. He is beyond this universe and therefore He is beyond all the qualities. He uses all the three qualities for His divine play.

Then people ask from where Satan came and from what source he got his power? The answer is that the same producer and director of the movie, who appointed one actor as hero has appointed another as the villain. The villain is also remunerated like the hero. Sometimes the producer-cum-director can enter the movie in the role of a hero and such a role is called as the human incarnation of the Lord. The villain opposes the hero in the cinema. The hero wins over the villain, giving a good message to the spectators. But remember that the hero, who is the producer, has remunerated the villain and also directed every action of the villain as the director of the whole picture.

Generous Atheist or Selfish Theist [Mr Anil Antony asked Swami about the greatness of a generous

atheist over a selfish theist.] The Gita says that the bad theist is greater than a generous atheist

(Apichet Se Duracharah…). The reason for this is that negation of God is a score of -100. All the other good qualities are only +99. Therefore a good atheist’s score is –1. The gratefulness to God is a score of +100. All the other bad qualities are only -99. Therefore a bad theist’s score is +1. Ofcourse a good theist’s score is +199 and a bad atheist scores -199. You should aim at +199 and not just at +1.


67

Cause of Fear [Mr Anil Antony asked Swami about the cause of the fear.] The cause of fear is only the ignorance about God. The complete

knowledge about God removes fear completely. You can neither protect yourself nor others. No item in creation can protect any other item in creation. The reason is that every item is subject to creation and destruction. Even the human form of the Lord (in His incarnation) has birth and death, but He has no fear. Jesus knew about His future crucifixion. He never feared about it before or during the crucifixion. He never feared the soldiers who came to arrest Him. He never argued about His case in the court, because He knew that the crucifixion had to take place by the will of God. Therefore when you have the knowledge of God and the knowledge of His will, you will not fear even death. Death proves that everything and everybody other than God gets destroyed. Therefore Jesus asked the people to fear for themselves and their children and not for His death. Lord Rama jumped into the river with a smiling face, Lord Krishna was smiling while leaving His body. Shri Padavallabha and Shri Narasimha Saraswati merged in the Krishna River with a smile. Therefore one will not fear even death if the divine knowledge is attained. The Gita says that death is only the changing of one’s old shirt. Where divine knowledge exists like sunlight, fear vanishes like darkness. Even in the last statement of Jesus, no trace of fear appears as He said that He is surrendering His soul to the hands of God. The Veda says that the limited knowledge is cause of fear (Atha Tasya Bhayam….).

Worldly Talents [Mr Anil Antony asked Swami whether a person who is brilliant in

the worldly affairs is blessed by God and whether his brilliance indicates his higher spiritual level or the exceptional grace of God on him?]

Suppose there is a person talented in running but he is running in the wrong direction. In that case the talent is harming him more because by that exceptional talent he is running fast and is going away from the goal in a very short time. The person who is not talented is walking slowly. The absence of talent in his case is very good because he does not go too far away from the goal even after a long time. Even a country, for its welfare, needs people with a good character, who are not


68

corrupt. Even though their talent may be less, the public will be really benefited by non-corrupt officials. The public will not receive any benefit from corrupt officials even though they may be more talented. Their talent is applied only in their own selfish growth. Ravana was a great scholar with exceptional talents. But the world suffered due to him. A devotee with good character and lesser talent will always be better to give good results. God will bless him with exceptional talent wherever and whenever it is needed. If the direction is towards God, exceptional talent is definitely due to the grace of God. Talent without divine knowledge only results in destruction at the end.


69

Chapter - 10 SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF KARMA CHAKRA

Father of All Souls O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[February 1, 2007] God created all the souls and has the attitude of a father towards His children. A human father may sometimes show partiality in loving his children. But God always has infinite love for all souls in an equal manner. Even the punishments in the hell are meant for the transformation of the souls from the lower level to the higher level. God always tries to help the soul even if a trace of possibility exists according to its cycle of deeds to justify God’s help. One soul need not recommend another soul to God and ask for His grace on that soul. If a child requests his father to look after the welfare of his brother, how foolish it looks! No soul should recommend another soul to God and ask for His protection or grace on the soul. If any soul does so, it is only insulting the infinite love of God. It is the climax of ignorance and the emotional love for the other soul, which lacks even a basic analysis of spiritual knowledge.

Never Criticize Anyone Never criticize any one in the world. If you do not want to praise

somebody, keep silent. If you scold somebody and suppose God is hidden in that person, it will lead to immediate punishment. Worship of God and insulting God will have immediate results in this world because both are powerful (Atyutkataih Papapunyaih…). The help and insult of colleague-souls will have results in the upper world in heaven and hell. But the service and insult to God in human form and devotees will have immediate results here itself. Generally it is very difficult to identify God in human form. He will try to hide Himself by looking like an ordinary person or may sometimes look even like a person with negative qualities. God in human form acts according to the role taken on the stage of the world. The role is according to the divine program drawn by God Himself. The role generally does not contain supernatural behavior, which will create problems for the free mixing of God with


70

the souls. The role mainly consists of normal behavior and sometimes sub-normal behavior to test the devotees or to drive away the undeserving devotees, who will try to exploit God. In such a case there is every possibility of misunderstanding God as a normal human being or sometimes as a bad human being. If you neglect God assuming Him as a normal human being, there is nothing wrong in it and you will not be in loss even though you may not get any benefit. But if you insult Him assuming Him to be a bad fellow, that is the greatest sin and will have immediate negative effect. Since, we cannot identify God easily, it is better not to criticize even a bad fellow. Leave him to his fate. Who are you to criticize anybody? You have a lot of bad points in you, which is shown by your bulky thumb, when you point out at others with your lean finger. The constitution of God running the divine cycle of deeds will take care of everything in the world. Why do you unnecessarily take the risk of insulting the hidden God?

Hidden Backgrounds of Souls In the sacrifice, Dharma Raja wanted to worship some eligible

person in the beginning. Bhishma told him that Lord Krishna was the best choice. But Shishupala started scolding Krishna unnecessarily and got punished. He was furious with Krishna for taking away the bride (Rukmini) that Shishupala was supposed to marry. However the marriage was against the will of Rukmini and Shishupala knew this. Rukmini sent a secret message to Krishna that if Krishna did not rescue her before the marriage, she would commit suicide. Life is the most important item to be protected according to justice (Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah…). There was no trace of injustice on the side of Krishna in that event. The mother of Shishupala prayed to Krishna to spare the life of her son. The Lord prolonged the death of Shishupala for sometime and then finally the punishment was given. Shishupala was actually the gatekeeper of the Lord and that was his last birth before reaching God after fulfilling the curse and he was very anxious to reach the Lord. [Vijaya was one of the gatekeepers of the Lord who was cursed to be born thrice on earth as a demonic human and face death at the hands of the Lord. Then alone could he return to heaven and resume his duty as the Lord’s gatekeeper. In the last of the three births, Vijaya was born as Shishupala]. His mother did not know all this background and her


71

recommendation to the Lord to spare his life, was actually against the welfare of Shishupala.

If you take the case of Abhimanyu, the Lord got him killed even though he was His beloved relative. People misunderstand this and may think that Krishna was very cruel. Abhimanyu was the incarnation of a demon in disguise. The Lord knew the internal background. The doctor knows the internal system and operates upon the patient who has a headache. Ordinary observers think that applying some ointment can easily cure the headache. But the doctor alone knows the reality through scans and x-rays. Therefore, all the actions of God are correct and justified. You should not mistake God for any trace of cruelty. Even if there is a trace of possibility [to show kindness to the soul], God will act even before you recommend. He is the Father of all the souls and you are only a brother to other souls. The love of the father is far superior to the love of a brother. Moreover, you misunderstand His action of punishment as revenge. The action of God is only for the welfare of the soul and not for revenge. When Krishna killed Shishupala, his soul in the form of a light merged into Krishna. It means that the gatekeeper had reached the abode of God after three births as the Lord’s enemy. You misunderstand Krishna as cruel for punishing him just because Shishupala abused Him. But you do not know the background that Shishupala was His gatekeeper and was very anxious to reach God. Since, your knowledge about a soul is just limited to the present birth, your conclusions regarding God are always wrong.

Divine Banking When you serve God, you expect a clear expression of the grace of

God and this is not good. Suppose you are given a cash award of one lakh rupees for your service, you will spend it lavishly and suffer after sometime. If you do not expect the cash award, that amount is invested in the bank of God and you will constantly get one thousand rupees as interest every month. Your principal is safe and will be spent by God whenever there is an emergent need. When you do not expect any clear fruit from God, God implements this system. In this system, the result of your service is not clear because there is no emergency. But if you do not aspire for any trace of fruit from God even in the deeper plane of your heart [subconscious], the system is completely different. Then there is no account between you and God just as there is no account


72

between father and son. Without any account the father will naturally spend for the requirements of the son. When Draupadi tore a piece of cloth from her sari to bandage a bleeding wound of Krishna, there was no account in this bond because Draupadi never aspired for even a trace of fruit in return. She did not even recollect this incident when Duhshaasana dragged her sari in the court.

Action-Result in Karma Cycle Do not link your service to any fruit from God. Link the fruits to

your own actions. Sometimes your actions fail and unexpected negative results appear. People think that a good deed has given a bad result and a bad deed has given good result. Based on this, people doubt the existence of the divine system of the cycle of deeds. Every action has its corresponding result after sometime. The time gap may be even longer than this lifetime. Some actions give results at once. If you put your finger in the fire, it will burn immediately. But generally one’s actions are enquired by the divine system under the supervision of God and the result of the action may be delivered after the sometime in this lifetime or even after this life. The time gap is a decision of the judge and not you. You might have done some good deed and its result may be received after ten days on a particular day at 10.30 am. You might have done a bad deed on that day at 10.29 am and its results will be received at a particular time after some days. Now the observers think that the good result at 10.30 am is the effect of the bad deed done at the 10.29am. The observers criticize the divine system of God. This cycle of deeds is a very complicated multidimensional network system with so many parameters of time and place correlated with each other (Gahanaa Karmano Gathih—Gita). The superimpositions and coincidence of some actions and some other fruits mislead you and you end up misunderstanding the intricate system. Except God nobody can analyze this network system. A deep analysis of all the parameters is impossible for the human brain. Therefore, never criticize the administration of God and unnecessarily earn sin.

Negative Blessings Generally, one worships God through practical devotion (service)

in order to avoid negative results. Such an attitude is a failure to achieve real love and the permanent grace of God. You must learn to enjoy the


73

negative results also like hot dishes in the meal. Infact, due to the divine knowledge attained by the grace of God, try to find more benefit in the negative result so that the negative result can atleast be enjoyed equally with the positive result. Whenever, you start to do some work, you always pray for the blessings of the Lord to get victory and benefit. You never expect defeat and loss even in the mind. Elders always bless you to succeed and get profit. They will never bless you to enjoy even the negative result, if attained. They feel it is inauspicious even to utter the possibility of a negative result as an alternative. But Lord Krishna says to Arjuna in the Gita “If you die in the war you will enjoy the heavenly pleasures and if you win, you will enjoy the pleasures on this earth” (Hatovaa Prapsyase Swargam —Gita). The Lord is giving blessings announcing the negative result in the beginning and the positive result is mentioned only as the other alternative. The Lord is showing more happiness in the negative result than the positive result because heavenly pleasures are far superior to the pleasures on earth. It is just like saying that if you are defeated in something you will get a treat in a five star hotel and if you win you will get a treat in an ordinary hotel.

The Lord says that He is giving the analytical faculty to laugh at results of deeds (Buddhyaa Yukto—Gita). The ignorant fellow may laugh at the statement of Krishna, but a scholar will laugh at the ignorance in judging welfare based on [our common attitude towards] positive and negative results. Actually the negative result giving you misery, is for your greater welfare becoming closer to God. The positive result is for your loss by which you go farther from God. The punishment purifies you from all bad effects and the boon will pollute you with ego and ignorance. You must have faith in God that He is always doing everything for your welfare. Then, you are never upset in the life and hence there is no need of linking your devotion to the favor from God. You are mistaking the favor of God as His anger and the anger of God as His favor. The divine knowledge, which is harsh to you, is always in your welfare and the Satguru who gives such divine knowledge is the human form of God. Majority likes the sweet, which harms your health in long run; they welcome the knowledge preached by the preachers who are the human forms of Satan.


74

Divine Medicine In the lower level, the divine knowledge is also sweet but such

divine knowledge is only a sugar coated bitter medicine. The knowledge of the messengers of Satan is totally sugar, which is sweet and causes diabetes. The lower divine knowledge is like a sugar coated bitter medicine to cure the disease and the sugar coating is needed for children. An adult eating sweets is different from a child, which is given a sugar coated medicinal pill. The ignorance of the adult cannot be excused like the ignorance of the child. Therefore, beginners in the spiritual path are excused for their ignorance and God favors them by granting certain boons, which appear to violate the cycle of deeds. Infact it is not a violation and it is only an adjustment without any violation, hoping for the growth of the soul in the spiritual line. But the soul should not sit only in this level and in course of time, should progress and respect the rigid cycle of deeds without any aspiration of fruit from God. When Rama turned the stone into the lady, Ahalya, a lower devotee may think that Rama did a miracle and favored Ahalya by canceling her curse. But the higher-level devotees will see the same incident in another angle. The same sage Gautama who gave the curse limited his curse only till the day when Lord Rama would arrive and free her of the curse. Therefore, when the duration of the punishment was over, Ahalya came back in to her original state and in this incident there is no violation of the cycle of deeds, which not only gives punishment but also fixes the duration of the punishment. Infact, Rama followed the divine administration strictly because the curse had to end only through Him. Thus, the lower level devotees take God as one who is capable of violating and one who will violate the divine administration if He likes. But the higher-level devotees take even the violation as a part of the divine administration itself.

Clarifications on Karma and Punishment [Shri Surya asked, “One person argued that the soul is only one

among all humans and therefore if God charges a certain soul to become a human incarnation, the same single soul being present in all human beings, would make all human beings as incarnations of God.”]

Swami replied: The soul is one in the sense of its basic form as inert energy, which is the material of this entire universe. In that sense, the soul is inert energy and the soul is never taken in that basic sense.


75

The soul is taken as pure awareness, which is the special work form of inert energy. In that case the souls are many, even though you may argue that every soul is pure awareness alone. In this sense the soul is limited to the human body and the awareness is absent in the gap existing between two human bodies. The awareness is absent even in some parts of the body like hair and nails. Awareness is discontinuous. Suppose you have taken the lump of iron, which consists of atoms of iron having the same matter and atomic structure. We say that there are many iron atoms in the lump of iron because there is a gap between the atoms. You cannot say that the entire lump is one single atom of iron. You cannot say that the entire lump of iron is only one single item, which is inert energy because the matter present in all the atoms is basically energy. The space between atoms can be also considered as a subtle form of energy and thus the entire lump of iron is a single homogeneous lump of inert energy alone. The word atom stands for a particle of the matter and not energy. Similarly, the soul is fixed in the sense of pure awareness and therefore a single homogeneous unit of soul consisting of all the human beings cannot be achieved and is also against practical experience (Anubhava Pramanam).

In the above example, the matter and the atomic structure are common among all the atoms. But in the case of souls, only the awareness is common; not the qualities, which are different structures of awareness. When God charges a particular soul like Krishna, He charged only the awareness in the body of Krishna and not the basic form of inert energy of the soul. Otherwise He would be charging the entire universe, which is nothing but different forms of the basic inert energy. If this were to happen, it would violate the concept of entertainment of God from the universe, since the scene of entertainment is always different from the seer. The single homogeneous awareness in all human beings is in a qualitative sense but not in the sense of a quantitative continuity. The gold is one and the same in two different ornaments. Since gold is one and the same, if one ornament is purchased, you must have automatically purchased the other ornaments without paying the cost of the other ornaments, if your concept were true. You must know that the gold is the same qualitatively in both the ornaments but there is no quantitative continuity of gold in both the ornaments.


76

[Shri Anil asked, “A person asked me whether or not the theory of punishment of the results of sins in the form of illnesses was violated if the illness is cured by medicines, yoga etc.”]

Swami replied: The theory is not violated because the cure of illnesses by medicines etc., is not universal in every case. In some cases the cure fails. In some other cases the cure succeeds and in such cases the duration of the punishment was only for that much time. Unless the fixed duration is over, medicines and other cures will not work. Moreover, the punishment of a sin can be converted from one form to the other. This concept is present even in the world as you see the penalty for a crime is announced as “Thousand rupees fine or six months in prison”. Apart from this, there is a possibility of postponement of the punishment with accumulated interest to a later time in this life or to hell or to the next life in case rebirth is accepted. God uses all these facilities when you pray to God to avoid punishment. In the case of the servant who serves God without the aspiration of any fruit in return, God can transfer the punishments of his sins on to Him and this is the main aim of the human incarnation as you can see in the crucifixion of Jesus.


77

Chapter - 11 COMPASSION IN PUNISHMENT

God’s Endless Compassion O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[April 8, 2007] God acts as the Father as well as the Teacher (Guru) of any soul. Since God created the soul, He is the Father. But at the same time, He is the teacher who trains every soul to come up in the spiritual path. Generally in the world, the father is different from the teacher. But here, in the case of any soul the real Father and the real Teacher is only one, and that is God. Therefore, God is always kind as the Father and strict and harsh as the Teacher. But the harshness of the Teacher is only apparent and in reality the harshness is kindness alone. Hence, basically God is always kind. God only appears harsh as the Teacher and kind as the Father. Since, the Teacher is basically kind, even in his harsh attitude, God is always kind in reality or in the basic sense.

Souls have done continuous sins and continuous good deeds and if the results are to be given in the same sequence and span of time, there will be continuous punishments for a long time and continuous happiness for another span of long time. It will be like summer for one whole year and winter for one whole year. But the kindest God has re-arranged our results in such a manner that our human life is made up of alternate good and bad results. Hence we will have summer for two months and winter for two months so that the two years are made up of alternate couple of months of summer and winter. This way, neither summer nor winter gets boring due to continuity and the two one-year spans of summer and winter get exhausted.

The punishments are used to remove ignorance and happiness is given as an interval between punishments. The punishments are also selected in such a way that their intensity is suitable to the frequency of requirement for the transformation in the life again and again [God chooses the appropriate duration and intensity of punishment for a soul, repeatedly in his life, depending on the soul’s degree of ignorance, so as to achieve maximum transformation in the soul]. This means that a


78

particular soul requires a particular punishment of a specific intensity, suitable to the degree of ignorance of the soul. Based on the same, the duration of the punishment also varies from one soul to another. According to the requirement, a suitable portion from the sinful results is cut like a piece from a large cake. The size of the piece depends on the requirement based on the nature of the soul. The sizes of the pieces of the salty cake (bad result) and the sweet cake (good result) depend upon the duration and intensity of treatment required by the nature of the soul. The salt cake is a medicine for the soul’s ignorance and the sweet cake is the food that has to be given during the treatment to the patient-soul. The leftover portions of both cakes are exhausted, by giving them to the soul in the external hell and heaven in the upper world. Whatever may be the place (hell, heaven or earth), the punishments are given for the treatment of ignorance alone. On earth, the punishments are used as medicines but in hell, the punishments are used as the final surgery for removing the ignorance. In any case, only the kindness of God is reflected. Thus, God can be seen as Father, Teacher or Doctor giving medicines or as a Surgeon doing an operation. In all angles His kindness alone is reflected.

He is working constantly to uplift every soul. God works as a Teacher, Doctor and Surgeon and at the same time God with an attitude of the Father, observes the possible limit upto which the soul can withstand the treatment. Once the limit is reached, God will regain the attitude of the Father, withdrawing Himself from the attitude of the Teacher, Doctor or Surgeon. As a Father, He starts giving the food of happiness for sometime. Remember that He is using the bad and good results of the deeds of the soul alone, in every action to uplift the soul. The deeds are done by the soul in a free atmosphere and God has no trace of interference in it. At the same time all this treatment and food arranged alternately, makes the soul’s life cycle quite interesting to the soul. There is no boredom since continuity [prolonged duration] of anything is absent. Otherwise the soul would have got bored and the Samskara (strong feeling) of boredom would have followed the soul. The soul would then have developed repulsion to this world as soon as it is born in this world.

The results of sin not only serve the purpose of providing alternating intervals in the continuous happiness but also serve as the cane for guiding the soul on the proper spiritual path. Due to happiness,


79

the soul becomes lazy and proud with ego and such continuous laziness and ego will ruin the soul. Therefore, the results of sin are required immediately to bring normalcy to the soul. After sometime these punishments bring down the soul to the subnormal state and now good results are required to bring the soul up to the normal level. It is just like balancing a horse with double reins; controlling it from both sides. Or it is just like balancing the weakness in a patient caused by antibiotic medicines and strength caused by nutritious food alternately. The treatment is very critical and balanced, and is highly specific for each soul.

A learned soul will not ask for stopping misery because God has already cut the salt cake to the required size and it has to be finished. The dosage of misery selected by God is like the dosage of medicine selected by the doctor who analyzes the disease properly. You should not decide about the use of medicine or its dosage. You are an ignorant patient and you are not aware of your internal structure. The doctor has scanned your internal organs and knows the right dosage of the medicine. The doctor knows whether medicines are to be used or whether surgery is necessary in hell. Therefore, you should not pray to God even to avoid hell. How can the patient say that surgery should be avoided in his case? Even if the soul is thrown into hell for surgery, the soul should see the kindness of the Doctor-God. Therefore, the soul that has surrendered to God, will never ask for the removal of misery. It should ask only for the removal of the ignorance-illness. The method of treatment is selected by the Satguru-Doctor-God.

Often, the patient cries due to the pain caused by the injection of medicine or the pain of surgery and prays to stop the injection or surgery like the ignorant child. The learned patient will not find fault with the doctor and the doctor will not bother about that pain. Kuchela (Sudama) was suffering from severe poverty and he did not pray to Krishna to remove his poverty because he was a scholar of the scriptures. The Lord also kept silent during his misery, since the patient is learned and tolerates the pain of the injection of medicine. If the injection here is denied, the patient certainly needs surgery in hell. The surgery is far more painful than the injection. Neither was the Lord unkind nor was Sudama ignorant. The Father and son were both learned doctors and therefore there was no need of the interference of any third party between them.


80

Rukmini, the wife of the Lord, being the mother of the souls recommended the case of Sudama to the Lord. The wife of Sudama was also highly emotional because the Lord being the friend of her husband was keeping silent. She was emotional due to the motherly pain on seeing her starving children. Both the women could not understand the truth, which was known both to the Father (Lord) and the son (Sudama). Some scholars ask God to exhaust all the sins by continuous punishments so that they can have continuous bliss. It is just like asking the doctor to give a dozen injections on one day itself. This is also another type of ignorance since the patient wants to take the full dosage of medicines immediately so that illness should disappear on the spot. You must leave everything to the Divine Doctor and you should surrender to the Doctor who is the best judge of the medicine and its dosage. If all the sins are exhausted, the soul will be bored with continuous happiness and a new misery due to boredom is generated.

In the beginning (Kruta Yuga) there was continuous happiness because God created only pure souls. In course of time the continuous happiness bored them and misery was generated from the continuous happiness itself. Happiness is the mother of misery. The misery produced in the continuous happiness is special because it is generated without any sin. Therefore, God never created misery. Hence, both who like to stop misery and those who like to continue the miseries are not wise because in both cases, the patients are trying to act like doctors in their own cases. Even a doctor consults another doctor on becoming a patient. In that case the patient, who is not really a doctor but is acting as a doctor in his own case, is really pitiable.

Proper Utilization of Misery When Prahlada was tortured, he cried in the name of the Lord but

never asked for protection. He understood that the torture was taking him up to the climax of devotion. He always thanked the Lord for his exceptional kindness since God was giving him intensive coaching in devotion. His devotion reached the sky due to the torture. But every step of the torture failed at the end to prove the existence of God. [Prahlada’s father tortured and tried to kill Prahlada several times, saying that if Prahlada’s God really existed, He should save Prahlada’s life. The torture was a means to prove that God did not exist. God rescued him at all times. But, God came physically to rescue Prahlada in the end.]. If


81

you had been in the place of Prahlada, you would blame God for interfering only in the last second, after such a long torture. You would feel that you have wasted a lot of time in the long span of the torture. You would feel that God is cruel and has finally become kind due to your pathetic appeals. But Prahlada thanked God for the long torture, which is an intensive coaching in devotion, and he was happier because the existence of God was also proved at the end.

If you are not devoted to God during difficulties and if you have wasted that precious time in useless worry and tension, you have really lost the time. If you have used these difficulties for intensifying your devotion more and more, you have used the difficulties very well. Once the interval of happiness comes, you are going to become lazy and egoistic and thus in happiness you cannot even dream about devotion. In happiness, you feel lazy even to say name of God. People, who have missed developing devotion in difficulties, are unfortunate because they have suffered without any use. Therefore, difficulties are your golden opportunities to develop your devotion. If you have simply suffered the difficulties just for the sake of finishing the punishment, without developing devotion using those difficulties, even your silent suffering is a big waste.

The Advaita scholar suffers the difficulties with patience and detachment by confining to the self. He does not use these difficulties to develop devotion to God and to cry for God. In happiness, you will not even utter the name of God and there is no question of crying for God. Only in difficulties can you cry for God and develop your devotion to the sky. Prahlada used the torture for developing his devotion to the climax by crying for the Lord. He did not detach from the body and confine to the self to suffer the torture with detachment like an Advaita scholar. You must realize the beautiful intention and design behind the miseries, which alone can develop devotion to God. Ofcourse this devotion is theoretical because it is related to the mind. However, without the theory, where is the birth of practicals? The love for God present in the mind alone can lead you to practice, which is His service. Hence, you cannot rule out the theory for a beginner. If a person enters into practice directly in this life, it means he had sufficient background of theory in his previous birth, which has followed soul as a strong feeling (Samskara or Vasana).


82

The difficulties are really pious because they serve the Lord on earth when He comes down, bored with the continuous happiness of the upper world. The servants of God are always your real guides in the spiritual path. Getting detachment from the difficulties is not the aim of the Lord. If that were the aim, the Lord would not have created problems at all in this world. The difficulties serve as good intervals between two happy scenes. After misery the happiness gives you the real taste [enjoyment; refreshing change] just like tasting a sweet after eating a spicy pickle. Therefore, to enjoy the happiness, misery is a pre-requisite. God enjoys both happiness and misery equally like sweet and hot dishes in the meal. Even the soul has to enjoy in this way alone, if it wants to reach the state of God.

The difficulties are real preachers even to Advaita scholars. In a soul’s lifetime if the soul enjoys the difficulties also with equal entertainment, such a soul is certainly Brahman. Thus, the experience in difficulties gives you the proof of the status of your soul. Logically you may arrive at the conclusion that you are God, but experience is different from logic. Logically one may prove that the food eaten by a person is another form of the excreta of the human being itself. Pigs eat the excreta of human beings and the excretion of pig is used as manure for the fields. The manure becomes the material of the crop. This cycle proves that the human being is eating his own excreta. But the conclusion is not correct because the experience in tasting food is quite different from tasting excreta. Logic is useful in rejecting the non-divine items but not in experiencing the divine nature of God. God is beyond logic. Therefore, if you are God (Brahman), why don’t you enjoy the problems like tragic scenes in the cinema? For you (Advaita scholar) the entire creation is only imaginary like the cinema. Therefore, the difficulties prove that the soul by itself is not God inherently. But the soul can become God when God charges it to enter this world as the human incarnation. If the soul enjoys the difficulties, the soul reaches the state of God even though the soul does not become God. When the soul becomes God (when the soul is charged by God and becomes a human incarnation) such a soul is the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of the world. But when the soul attains the state of God, the soul is equal to God in all aspects (Matbhavayopapadyate—Gita) except in the above-mentioned three aspects, because it is not actually God.


83

Chapter - 12 EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS

Opposing Aspects of Knowledge O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

Sometimes we find a very young boy or girl to be outstanding in education. We appreciate for the exceptional God-given gift. On this point there are two angles of analysis. In one angle such exceptional caliber is appreciable because this present caliber in the Pravrutti (Materialism) will certainly continue in the Nivrutti (Spiritual effort) also in the future. A person who is active in worldly affairs is similar to a person, who is having exceptional speed in running. Unfortunately, he is running in the opposite direction. We have to simply turn him to the right direction. He will achieve the goal very fast in the right direction also. A lazy person in Pravrutti becomes lazy in Nivrutti also. Therefore, dynamism and alertness are the required qualities in Nivrutti also. The first five steps of Yoga, which develop physical and mental health with increased activity and alertness, are aimed towards Nivrutti. These five steps also happen to be the pre-requisite steps to lead a happy worldly life. Therefore, these five steps if directed towards Nivrutti become useful and serve the original purpose. If the same five steps are directed to Pravrutti as done by the present spiritual preachers, these are misused and become waste in long-range view. In this way an exceptionally talented child in the worldly education is to be appreciated. But there is second angle on this point. In this angle, the person who is very fast in the opposite direction is more attracted towards the opposite goal. It becomes very difficult to turn him towards the right goal. Suppose, a child is specially talented in the worldly education. As time proceeds, the child will grow more and more interest in the line of worldly education like Science, Medicine, Commerce, etc., and it becomes very difficult to turn him to spiritual side. Therefore, every point has both good and bad possibilities.

Shankara was also an exceptional case in the education even in His childhood. But, all His exceptional talent was diverted to the right goal in the childhood itself. Shankara lived for thirty-two years only.


84

Sometimes we find in newspapers the information about a person who lives more than one twenty years with great grand children. If you compare these two lives, one is a small bright lamp and the other is very wide intensive darkness. What is the use of life without realizing the real and ultimate aim of the human birth? People are always concerned about illness and death only. It does not matter whether someone lived for a long time or someone lived for a short time. It is immaterial whether a person had a particular disease or other. The only point that stands at the end is the achievement of God’s grace in the human life. In one institution the academic year ended by March. In some other institution, the academic year ended by July. In the first institution some holidays were given and in the other holidays were not so many. All these are not big points. The point that is left over at the end is that which institution got good results. The life has to end today or tomorrow and it has to end due to some illness. Death is inevitable. It may be today or tomorrow or day after tomorrow. How does it matter? The success in the spiritual effort achieved during the human life is going to stand finally in the judgment of God. Similarly, the materialism up to the basic needs of yourself and your family is inevitable. A little more than the actually needed, is also not wrong. But some people concentrate all their time only on work, work and work only. Such work only has the worldly goals like earning wealth, fame, power etc., only. Your wealth, your fame and your power in this world are absolutely useless in the upper world. Everybody is always worried about the worldly matters only like wealth, welfare of family, fame, politics and power etc.

Punishment in Hell to reduce Materialism Madness God loves every soul and is helping every soul in this world. He

never hates any soul. The punishment in the hell is also to reduce madness of materialism of the soul. Suppose, one son becomes mad, the father will take him to the doctor and admits him in the mental hospital where shock treatment is given. Can you say that the father is angry with the son? Similarly, the hell is for the last sort of trial to transform the soul. The madness is never cured and the son has to be retained in the hospital only forever. Same is the concept of the permanent hell. These souls cannot be brought into this world because they will bring Chaos in this world, just like the mad son cannot be brought out of the


85

hospital into the home. Some souls are born as birds, animals etc. Here also, the love of God only reflects. As a human being the soul was always interested in eating, drinking and sex only. The soul never turned to God. In such case there is no use of the intelligence of the human category, which is meant for analysis of truth. Therefore, the soul is placed in the cycle of animals, which are also happy like the human beings in eating, drinking and sex only. The human being may think that he may loose his beautiful wife and may have to live with a she-buffalo if he is born as he-buffalo. But the point is that when the soul is born as he-buffalo, the she-buffalo is as beautiful as the present ‘Miss world’! The grass will be as tasty as the sweet dish in the meals today. The soul cannot estimate the happiness of the animal while remaining in the human body. The same happiness is received by the souls in all types of bodies from eating, drinking and sex. Whatever he desired, it is given to him by God without any decrease in the level and any disturbance. In the human life the spiritual knowledge is often disturbing him in achieving the continuous happiness from eating, drinking and sex. Therefore, God favored the soul by such animal-birth and this is not punishing the soul. This means God is helping even His enemies. A father will never harm his issue even if it opposes him. He wants always the happiness of the child continuously. The devoted souls want to be liberated and be with God and derive the divine bliss constantly. God provides opportunity for such devotees also to make them happy constantly by guiding them in achieving the real and highest devotion to Him. The final conclusion is that God is loving the animals and liberated souls equally and pleasing them in their own desired ways forever.

Lord Helps Both Devotees And Non-devotees Therefore, you can see the same love of God on a devoted soul

staying in His abode as an angel and also on a he-buffalo enjoying with the she-buffalo in a mud pond. Both are continuously happy in their own fields! At last God provided whatever the child desired. Ofcourse He tried to convert the soul in the he-buffalo into an angel. When He failed in all His efforts, He has sanctioned the firm desire of the soul. Therefore, God helped all the souls, whether those [souls] loved Him or not. In the case of devotees, God appears to be neutral or anti for their love. This is only the external action of God. He hides His true love on


86

His devotees in the deep realms of His heart. Then, what is the purpose of this external neutral or negative behavior to devotees? Such behavior improves the intensity of the attraction to God. The human psychology is to run after that which is against. The intensity of love of a boy or a girl on the other side increases more and more as the other side behaves more and more neutral or negative. Therefore, God adopts this technique according to the inherent human tendency. As the intensity of love [devotion] increases, the corresponding fruit will also be higher and higher. Only to give the highest fruit as desired by the devotees, God adopts this technology. Moreover the love is true, when it is one-way traffic. If the love is two-way traffic, it is only business and not real love. Therefore, to impart more and more reality to the love, God adopts such external negative or neutral behavior. Then only the love will be highest in intensity as well as in the reality. Then only the highest fruit can be achieved. When Gopikas loved Him so much in the dance at Brindavanam, the Lord disappeared for sometime. This indicates that He is going to leave them forever in the future to develop their devotion to the top most level. Gopikas asked Him three questions: “1) Do you love the soul which loves you? 2) Do you not love the soul, which loves you? 3) Do you love every soul whether it loves you or not?” The Lord replied that He belongs to the second category. He gave such answer only to increase the intensity and reality of their devotion. Otherwise, internally He belongs to first and even to third type also as you can understand from the above analysis.


87

Chapter - 13 LEARN TO ENJOY MISERY WITH EFFORT

Achieving Perfect Bliss of God O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[Guru Pournima July 29, 2007] God created this world with happiness and misery, which are alternate cyclically like the spokes in a rotating wheel. God arranged the fruits of good and bad deeds in an alternating manner even though the good or bad deeds may be done repeatedly in sequence. This reshuffled arrangement of happiness and misery resembles sweet and hot dishes in a meal or a movie containing scenes of both happiness and tragedy in an alternating manner. This system of alternating arrangement of happiness and sorrow gives continuous entertainment not only to God but also to the individual soul. Thus, the basic intention of God is only to entertain Himself and also all the individual souls. Any one thing, either happiness or misery, gets boring, if it is continuous. Boredom itself is misery. If you compel God to give happiness continuously through your prayers and worship, God will drag the happiness from your future life cycle like the premature enashment of a fixed deposit with reduced value, and hand it over to you. However, He will not give any happiness to you if there is no balance of good deeds [in your file of karma]. As an impartial judge, He will not give happiness to you if there is no good deed in your list. Therefore, asking God for continuous happiness is the most foolish solution because it bores you, giving misery to you at the expense of good deeds. You are purchasing misery with your hard earned cash! Moreover, when all the good deeds are exhausted, you will have continuous misery alone in all your future births. Therefore, praying to God to solve a problem is the most foolish path of ignorance. Happiness attained in this way is temporary. Hence, the permanent solution is only to learn to enjoy both good and bad results and attain continuous happiness without getting bored. This is real bliss.

Bliss is the state of God, who is entertained by this world having alternating scenes of happiness and misery. You have already learnt to be happy while enjoying the happiness. Now through spiritual


88

knowledge and continuous practice, learn to equally enjoy the misery also. Then, your enjoyment becomes continuous and without boredom, due to the absence of any single continuous phase (happiness or misery). You have attained the state of God, which is possible through effort. Now you can say that you are God because the maximum possible state of God that one can achieve, has been achieved (Madbhavamagatah…—Gita). Creation, Ruling and Destruction of this world are impossible to attain for any individual soul in spite of any amount of effort. Hence these three capabilities are irrelevant to the spiritual effort. If you attain that goal which is attainable, it is certainly complete success. Then you can claim that you are God to the maximum extent that this is possible.

If you are irritated with misery, you are indirectly criticizing God for His creation of misery in this world. A poet becomes fully happy, if you are entertained by each poem written by him. If you are irritated with some poems, the poet will be unhappy with you. The poet himself is happy with each poem written by him. Therefore, if you dislike anybody or anything in this world, it amounts to disliking a particular poem of the Poet. If you love even the greatest sinner, who is your bitterest enemy and if you like every situation in this world, then it means that you like every poem of the Poet in his epic (world). This is the best way of pleasing God. The producer and director created a movie and if you are his beloved servant, you should like every scene and every role in the movie created by him, while you are giving company to him in watching the movie. Anything created in this world exists because God liked it. Hence, if you dislike anything or anybody, it means that you dislike a part of His creation, which exists because He has already liked it. If you are a true devotee and a loyal servant of God, His liking must be your liking. Everything and everybody exists in this creation only because God likes everything and everybody in this creation. If He does not like anything or anybody, such a thing or such a living being would not be created at all. Whatever is exists, is created by God and it was created because God liked it. You must also like everything and everybody in His system since He created it. God likes even the atheist, who scolds God, like a hot dish of chillies in the meals. Infact, God requested His loyal servant, Jaya, who stands before His gate, to take the role of Shishupala and scold Him continuously a hundred times! God wanted to eat a hundred hot dishes one after the


89

other, since He was bored with the continuous sweet praises of devotees. You must know that the producer and director of the movie pays the actor of the villain-role also, because without the villain the hero cannot shine at all.

If you want to attain the attainable state of God, you must also like the atheist like hot chillies in your meals. When the hatred, rejection or repulsion to anything and anybody completely disappears from your heart, I assuredly tell all of you that such a person has attained the possible state of God completely and you can call Him as God. When there is no break in the continuous love of everything and everybody and when there is continuous bliss, I assuredly tell all of you that such a person has really become God.

Bajji is a special snack, which is prepared by frying chillies5 that are dipped in a batter of gram flour. It is the hottest dish. There are three types of chillies. The chillies from the Ballari region are mild. The chillies from other regions are medium hot. The chillies from the Guntur region are the hottest. The bajjis prepared from these three types of chillies represent misery of mild, medium and high intensities. Some people weep even for mild difficulties. Some people weep for difficulties of medium intensity. All people weep for the topmost difficulty, which comes at the time of death, while leaving this gross body, when one has to cut bonds with everything and everybody. Thus, death can be compared to the bajji made from Guntur chillies. The Gita says that if one can remain in bliss even in the state of death, such a person is in the permanent state of God (Esha Brahmi Sthitih…—Gita). In the last stage of Lord Krishna’s life, while His foot was bleeding, Lord Krishna was smiling as He narrated the future of this world in the coming Kali age to Sage Narada. Jesus did not fear or weep even on the cross and He was preaching about God even in that last state by assuring salvation to the person next to him, who was also crucified but had surrendered to Jesus. Rama jumped into River Sarayu with a smiling face. Hanuman tore open His own chest with His nails without any trace of sorrow on the face. Therefore, if you can also enjoy the bajji of Guntur chillies (death), you are sure to have continuous enjoyment. I belong to the region of Guntur!

While eating a hot dish, you will be breathing hard, tears will be flowing from your eyes and your tongue will be throbbing. All these are 5 Peppers.


90

external symptoms of misery and your internal enjoyment in eating the hot dish is not indicated by these external symptoms6. Such equal enjoyment of good and bad results is called as Yoga (Samatvam Yoga…—Gita), which means the possible attainment of the state of God. Without attaining this yoga, there is no meaning if an Advaita philosopher says that he is God since his soul and God are the same pure awareness. All other meanings attributed to Yoga like physical and mental exercises are misinterpretations of the word Yoga.

Real and Unreal Worlds The happiness and misery in this world are based on the bonds you

have with items present in the world. Real matter and real energy constitute these forms. The forms are only unreal designs of matter and energy. In a movie all the items are unreal designs of real energy [light] alone. In a drama all the items are mostly unreal designs of real matter and some energy also exists in the drama as the light focused on the stage. For God, this entire world is a movie, which is just the imagination of the awareness or nervous energy. Therefore, there is no difference between a movie and an imaginary world except that the movie is made of visible light energy and the imaginary world is made of invisible nervous energy or mind. For individual souls, this world is a drama consisting of real materials and real human beings having an equal status as observers (individual souls existing in human bodies called as human beings). Hence, the world is equally real as the observing individual soul. But in the case of a movie, the observer is real matter, whereas the movie is real energy, which is weaker than matter in expression. Hence, the observer is at a higher status in view of the strength of expression. If you take the imaginary world, which is made of the weakest real energy or mind, the observer is at a far higher status. In the case of God observing this world, God is at the highest status as the ultimate absolute reality whereas the world is totally a relative reality. However, from the view of God or the individual soul, the bonds in the world are totally unreal and illusory. They are related to the totally unreal designs of energy and matter. One bond is full of love for a particular design and another bond is full of anger for another particular design. Since the design is unreal, the related bonds must be unreal. 6 Even though your external symptoms are of misery, internally you will be enjoying the hot dish tremendously.


91

The design does not exist before its production and after its destruction. That which did not exist in the past and will not exist in the future cannot exist in the present also. Therefore, its existence in the present is only illusory. The love and anger in those bonds are foolish and if you analyze, even love and anger are unreal because they are qualities. A quality is also an unreal design of the mental energy. Hence, the love from somebody and the anger from someone else are also unreal and your love and anger based on such qualities are also unreal. Therefore, your bond based on the unreal design, which defines the individuality of a human being like wife, son, father, mother etc., must be also unreal. Your bond based on the personality of unreal qualities must be also unreal. Therefore, when Shankara said that the world is unreal (relatively real), it means that only the world made of these unreal bonds is unreal for individual souls. Matter, energy and awareness (also a form of energy) are real for individual souls and hence the world made of these three items is not unreal. But, for God, the entire world is unreal. However, for both God and the individual soul, the common world consisting of the unreal bonds is unreal, which is the basis of the entertainment.

You can get entertained only with unreal items. The entertainment is not at all got from matter, energy and awareness, which are three uniform phases without any difference7. The difference alone causes the design and brings about limits, which cause individuality. The cosmos is a single phase. It consists of matter, energy and awareness, which are inter-convertible and can be reduced to a final single phase of cosmic energy. This cosmic energy (cosmos) is called as Brahman, in the form of creation (Karya Brahman) and this cannot give any entertainment. If you try to analyze God (Karana Brahman), it is also a homogeneous phase of an unimaginable entity8. Shankara represented God by this single-phased cosmic energy in the form of awareness or Karya Brahman. Awareness is a special work-form of energy. This clearly means that neither is Karya Brahman God nor does God charge Karya Brahman homogeneously. If such charging were to take place, there would be no difference between the seer and the seen. Such charging takes place only in the case of a human incarnation because if an

7 Difference here is in the sense of contrast which is needed to make any design. 8 No part of God is imaginable. So He is homogeneously unimaginable.


92

individual soul is charged by God, that human incarnation can be the seer of the rest uncharged world (cosmic energy).

Beyond Unreal Love & Hatred—Universal Spirituality Therefore, analyze both love and hatred and realize that both are

foolish as far as worldly bonds are concerned. Based on such foolish ignorance, if you become corrupt in your life for the sake of some unreal bonds and as a result if you are thrown into hell, you are the biggest fool. All this happens due to the lack of analytical spiritual knowledge. If you destroy these foolish ignorant bonds from your heart and entertain yourself continuously with these unreal bonds, you will be called as a Sthitaprajna (Prajahati Yada…—Gita), which means a person whose intelligence is firm by constant analysis. Divert your entire unreal love to God, who is the absolute reality and your love also becomes an absolute reality. Divert all your unreal hatred towards the above-said foolish ignorance and then your hatred becomes real and meaningful.

By this you can also avoid the unreal love towards your own religion, which is called conservatism. Religion is also an unreal design having individuality and limits. Then, you can avoid the hatred towards other religions based on the same analysis. There is one God and there is one message from God to all human beings on this earth. That message is Universal Spirituality. All the merits of each religion are concepts of Universal Spirituality. The unity in diversity among various forms of God and among various branches of philosophy, related to different levels, is an aspect of Hinduism that can be appreciated. Love and compassion leading to social service of the needy, in the name of God, should be appreciated from Christianity. Sincere faith in God and a disciplined life must be appreciated from Islam. Control of desire through analysis carried out by intelligence (Buddhi), leading to justice and social service must be appreciated from Buddhism. Non-violence even towards animals and birds by avoiding non-vegetarian food, must be appreciated about Jainism. Avoiding the projection of non-God items as God through a systematic analysis of the world must be appreciated about science.


93

The Truth About Brahma Loka People think that Brahma Loka is a place like America9. Brahma

Loka means the life in contact with the God existing in human form on this earth and the God existing in an energetic form in the upper world. If a person on earth is in contact with the human incarnation of God and subsequently after his death, he comes in contact with the energetic form of God in the upper world, such a person is said to be in the eternal Brahma Loka, since he recognizes God here and there. This is stated as eternal life with God or Paramdhama (Tat dhama paramam mama—Gita). The soul is in a human body on this earth and is in an energetic form in the upper world. Therefore, God exists in the same common medium as that liberated soul, to give His eternal association to that soul (Nasapunaravartate…Brahma Sutra). There are devotees, who in this world, have worshipped a statue of an energetic form of God, or have worshipped a past human incarnation instead of the contemporary human incarnation, due to ego and jealousy. They will reach the energetic form of God in Brahma Loka, but they will return back due to the repulsion between common media since they will also be in the same energetic form (Punaravartinorjuna…Gita), when they come in contact with God.

People have misunderstood that one who reaches God, who is present in some medium (Karya Brahman), reaches the original God (Parabrahman or Nirguna Brahman), when the God in the medium (Karya Brahman) dissolves into the original God during the final dissolution of the world. Even if the medium dissolves, the soul cannot reach the unimaginable God because when the medium dissolves, the soul also dissolves. The soul is a part of creation called as Para Prakriti in the Gita. The original single state of God before the first creation will not be attained again because God is not foolish to destroy the creation, which was created for His entertainment. You may say that God has the power to create it again. A producer of a movie may be very rich to create the movie again but if he does so, he will certainly be called a fool.

The dissolution of creation means closing the show of the movie on the screen; but the movie is stored in the form of a film. Such a subtle state of creation is called as Avyaktam. Therefore, there is no

9 Place of eternal bliss and luxury.


94

question of dissolution of God present in a medium (Karya Brahman or Ishwara). Since the medium exists, the soul also exists and hence the association with God becomes eternal. If you say that the soul has to dissolve in God, like sugar dissolving in water, the molecules of sugar remain separate along with the molecules of water. Here, the sugar exists separately in water in an invisible microscopic state. If you say that the sugar must be transformed into water, the molecules of sugar have to be re-arranged into molecules of water by the re-arrangement of fundamental particles (protons, neutrons and electrons). Then the total number of water molecules increase. It means God will increase in size after the transformation of the soul into God. This is not acceptable because God is constant without any change. Alternatively, the soul should disappear and this is possible when the film is destroyed. But God is never such a fool! The single state of God10 is possible because it existed before the first creation and if God wishes, it can be attained again. We do not say that it is impossible for God. We only say that God is wise enough to continue the creation in microstate11 of a film, so that it can be projected for entertainment again and again. Hence, when the devotee reaches Ishwara, the devotee has reached the original God also.

The original God may even enter the devotee like electric current entering a metallic wire, which is in contact with a live wire. In such a case, you can say that the soul became God from a normal external point of view and you can call this as monism (Advaita). But in subtle view, God charges the soul and therefore dualism exists even in this monism, upon deep analysis. When sugar dissolves in water, you may say it is monism but in the subtle view, dualism exists because the invisible sugar molecules exist separately along with the molecules of water, as you can see through a microscope.

The Secret to Rising Higher The high devotees of God serve His office (society or world) as

employees and take a salary. God is pleased with them also. The Pandavas served God in establishing justice in the world for which they were paid a salary (in the form of a kingdom) in this world and the attained heaven after their death. The Pandavas went up only to heaven (Swargarohana Parva). The higher devotees of God serve His family

10 Alone; without any creation. 11 Subtle state


95

members or His closest devotees belonging to His innermost circle. Hanuman served Sita by protecting her through the war. He also served Lakshmana by bringing the Sanjeevani herb and He served Bharata by saving his life. Even today Hanuman serves the real devotees of God. Hanuman became God and His protecting the devotees of God can continue as usual. The highest devotees of God serve Him directly like the Gopikas. They were given Goloka where they can continue their direct service to God. There is not much difference between the higher and the highest devotees. God is extremely pleased in both cases because God loves His innermost devotees equally as Himself. He does not differentiate between the service done to Him and the service done to His closest devotees.

Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Meera etc., carried out the propagation of knowledge and devotion related to God alone. Hence they are also the highest devotees. Since the propagation was aimed at the majority of human beings, which suffers from ego and jealousy, they did not take the concept of contemporary human incarnation. For this majority, they selected the suitable forms of God which are: (1) God in the medium of awareness which was named as Awareness by Shankara, (2) God in the medium of an energetic body like Narayana or (3) God in the medium of a past human form like Krishna. Thus the devotees will reach Brahma Loka temporarily, but shortly such devotees will reach Brahma Loka permanently by overcoming their ego and jealousy towards the contemporary human incarnation.

If you want to rise in life to higher and higher levels, you need not pray to God for that, because God is always anxious to bring you up to the highest level. God wants every soul to come up to His level or even to rise up higher than Him. This is the attitude of a father towards all His children. God created all the souls and hence He is the Divine Father of all the souls (Ahambija pradah pita—Gita). He is the constant Father in all the births of the soul unlike a father-soul12, who is limited to the present birth alone. His affection towards the souls is far superior to ordinary paternal affection. Therefore, He always dreams to and is ready to bring any soul up to the highest level. Then what is the hurdle? The only hurdle that stops Him is the consequence of your behavior after you are given the highest level. Your ego will increase tremendously and as a result of this ego you will fall down to a level far below your 12 One’s father in this birth, who is a mere soul.


96

feet. Instead of such a drastic fall, your present position on the earth13 is far better and hence God is not helping you to come up. Therefore, learn humbleness and be submissive always. If God gets the confidence that you will not fall down after reaching higher levels, God will immediately push you up. As you suppress your ego more and more to lower and lower levels, God will bring you up more and more to the higher levels.

Most of you use a fan all the time in your home and office. Observe the fan constantly and learn a lesson from it. It will be your best spiritual preacher. The fan draws a zero in the space by every revolution. It is reminding that by itself is just a zero and that the real hero is the electric current that is making it rotate and give air. People think that the fan is giving the air. The fan should then develop ego due to the praise. But it is very careful in passing on the entire credit to the current, while it constantly feels that it is zero by itself. If the electric current is absent, the fan cannot move even an inch. Similarly, whenever anyone praises you for any good work, feel that you are zero like the fan and pass on the entire credit to God, who is the real hero. If you can develop this behavior, you will reach unimaginable heights very shortly. Instead, people want to hear their own praise from others. Some people boast constantly about themselves by narrating some incidents and they want others to appreciate them.

Best Worship of God The best worship of God is not by offering flowers etc. Instead,

constantly remember God’s help in past incidents of your life and feel grateful to Him with tears in your eyes. Try to express gratefulness for the past help and you will be helped in the present and future without asking for it. If you cannot recognize the contemporary human incarnation and if you cannot sacrifice in any way in His mission, atleast remember the previous help and be grateful to the invisible God. Don’t ask for anything atleast at that time. God will certainly be pleased with you and He will help you in your life. Regarding the case of devotees, who serve God in the present human form, without aspiring for anything in return, they will receive eternal love from God. The fruit of His eternal love is unimaginable!

13 Middle level; neither too high nor too low.


97

Creation is Real For Souls This creation consists of matter, awareness and energy as its

components. Matter takes different forms like a pot, table etc. Energy takes different work-forms like light, heat etc. Awareness is also a special work-form of energy, which is generated when the energy functions through a special system called as the nervous system and the brain. The work-forms of awareness are ideas, which if they become firm, are called as qualities (Gunas). For example, charity is a quality, which in the initial stage is only an idea. This world is said to be constituted of the three fundamental qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). But one must remember that this world is made of the three qualities only from the point view of God. This means that only for God is this entire creation imaginary. For a soul, it is not so. For a soul, this world is made of matter, energy and awareness. Infact, matter and awareness are also different forms of energy. Hence, basically creation is made of energy alone. Awareness is the weakest form of energy. Hence, the conclusion is that this world, which is made of energy, is the weakest for God. Thus, this world is just an imagination for God. For the soul, the world is very strong because the soul itself is awareness, which is the weakest form of energy. This is the scientific explanation for the creation being strong and real for the soul, while for God, the world is just the weakest form of energy or awareness that is modified into qualities.

For God, the imaginary world is made of awareness, which does not require the existence of a nervous system because the unimaginable God does not require the rules of nature as required by the soul. This is said in the Veda that God can walk without feet etc., (Apani Pado...). The knowledge-part is Sattvam, the static inert part is Tamas and the kinetic inert part is Rajas. All these three qualities exist in the imaginary world of God. God is said to be associated with this creation constituted of these three qualities (Trigunatmaka). Your spiritual effort also needs the existence of these three qualities and hence your effort (sadhana) is also constituted of these three qualities. Before making a conclusion, you must analyze the subject from various angles so that after the decision you must not have any doubt. This analysis is Sattvam. The firmness in the decision, which stands like a rock, which cannot be shaken by your mind, your family or the public, is called Tamas. The conversion of this firm decision into practice leads to Rajas, because


98

practice or work is Rajas. You must meditate on the God associated with creation, who is constituted of the three qualities, (Ishwara or Saguna Brahman) through your spiritual effort that is also constituted of the three qualities.

Need for Ishwara and Avatara For meditation, Ishwara (God associated with Brahmanda or the

world) is sufficient. But for direct service and for direct clarification of doubts, the same God in human form (Pindanda) is required. This is denoted by the three threads of the Yajnopavitam14 given to you during Upanayanam, which means that you are taken towards God. The three threads are just a symbolic representation of the concept and hence one need not worry whether one wears the three threads or not. It is foolishness to think that the three threads will do something directly. If the concept is grasped, there is no need of the symbolic representative model. The realized soul (Sanyasin) throws away this symbol since the concept is understood. Without understanding this point, people are quarrelling with each other that the Upanayanam is done only for a fraction of people.

Infact, it should be done only for a fraction of people, who are interested in the spiritual effort and this should not be decided by birth or sex. Swami Dayananda tried to bring out this truth and save Hindus from internal hatred. Unfortunately He was opposed and killed by the ignorant selfish Hindus, who blindly believe in birth and sex as the eligibility criteria to reach God. Even Shankara stated that there is no caste or sex for the spiritual effort.15 Shankara even fell at the feet of an untouchable scholar. He was also killed by black magic for such revolutionary reformation. Krishna clearly stated that the caste system introduced by Him was based on the qualities and actions of the soul and not on birth (Guna Karma Vibhagashah…—Gita).

Necessity of the Correct Analysis Shankara said that God is awareness. By this He means that God is

always in human form for human beings. Awareness is not available independently anywhere without a gross body. Therefore, the awareness

14 The sacred thread that is worn after the thread ceremony (Upanayanam). The ceremony is somewhat similar to baptism. 15 Refer to Shankara’s commentary on the first Brahma Sutra.


99

mentioned by Shankara, indicates the human body. Mentioning awareness eliminates statues and pictures, which are inert. Ofcourse, statues and pictures are essential for worship for beginners, who cannot accept the human form due to ego and jealousy. Hence, you should not criticize idol worship otherwise the majority, which is trying to get rid of their ignorance gradually, will be hurt. You should not condemn idol worship but you should analyze the truth in it and try to help the beginners to reach higher.

Any effort is always defective in the beginning (Sarvarambhahi doshena...Gita). Awareness is the identity card of God for humanity. This can be understood from Lakshana16 from Tarka Shastra17. According to it, when you call out “Apples”, to a person selling apples in the street, the word ‘apples’ indicates the possessor of the basket of apples18. The apples are in the basket and the basket is on the head of the seller. This does not mean that the seller is an apple. Similarly, the awareness is in the human body and God is in the human body. God is neither the awareness nor the human body. God charged the human body that contains awareness. The main program of God is to give spiritual guidance. Hence, you cannot take a living being like a bird or animal, since it cannot preach the spiritual knowledge. Hence, awareness in this context indicates human body alone. The specialty of awareness is that awareness is the basic material of knowledge. Hence, from the viewpoint of the importance of knowledge in spiritual guidance, the essential basic material (awareness) is indicated here. Every human being cannot give such spiritual guidance and hence every human being is not God. There is no question of calling every living being as God. Only the topmost spiritual preacher like Krishna, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha etc., can be the human form of God. The other spiritual preachers, catering to the lower levels are the liberated souls, who are the servants of God, who have incarnated to help His mission. Without understanding all this, if you foolishly argue that awareness is God, and since awareness is in every living being, that every living being is God, you have not understood even an alphabet in the preaching of Shankara.

You require the knowledge of all the Shastras to understand the Veda and Shankara (Tasmat Shastram…—Gita). The Brahma Sutras 16 Indications or characteristic identifiers. 17 Ancient Indian Logic. 18 In the sense of a metonymy (figure of speech)


100

also tell you that you can understand God only through the Shastras (Shastra yonitvat). The word Shastra is limited to the elaborate logic that is essential to understand the Veda. The Veda (Shruti) is the primary text. The Smritis like the Gita are secondary texts. Yukti is logical analysis, which is the Shastram. Finally, Anubhava is practical experience and this is the most important. If anubhava is contradicted, your interpretation of the texts is wrong due to your wrong logic. Sometimes, the experience of a foolish ignorant person stands in the way and to negate it, logic is needed. The experience of scholars (Vidvadanubhava) should be taken. The experience of the majority is not the point here. The texts and logic help us avoid the experience of the ignorant majority. Let us analyze your foolish argument that since awareness is God, every living being must be God. In such a case, our practical experience is that awareness exists as discontinuous bits in different living beings, which are separate from each other. Now if awareness is God, either there are several Gods or God is divided into bits. Shankara denied both these possibilities who says that God has neither Sajatiya bheda (many Gods) nor Svagata bheda (God in bits). You cannot say that the space between two living beings is also awareness and hence the awareness is one, which pervades homogeneously. This is against practical experience of all, including scholars. The space between living beings is inert and the air in that space is also inert. If you claim that you are the only scholar who experiences awareness everywhere, then there is an equal possibility that you are mad. When there is an alternative excellent solution, why should you cling on to your madness?

The alternative excellent solution is that a particular human being like Krishna alone is God. The awareness in Him is one and is homogeneous and hence there is no Sajatiya bheda or Svagata bheda. Also, because the awareness pervades all over the human body, it is called as Atman. This charged soul can be treated as God because a wire charged by electric current, can be treated as the current itself. The word Atman can be used for the gross body also in Sanskrit. Hence the entire human being is charged by God and can be treated as God. The little and tender finger of Krishna lifted the mountain for seven days and this proves that the entire human body was also charged by the unimaginable God. The human body became unimaginable and hence the mountain was lifted on the little finger. The wire charged by the


101

electric current gets the property of the current and gives a shock. Similarly, the unimaginable nature of God is seen in that human body also. Such a miracle is needed for atheists. For theists, miracles are not necessary and spiritual guidance is sufficient.

Shankara said that God does not even have Vijatiya bheda. This means that there is no existence of a second item other than God. If you take this in the absolute sense, then there is no entertainment for God, since He always remains alone (Ekaki Naramate…—Veda). Therefore you should take this in a relative sense. The world exists as a relatively real item. The imagination of any person is relatively real. The awareness in the form of mind is the absolute reality in him. The imaginary world is relatively real and it does not exist at all if the absolute reality is absent. This means that this world is under the full control of God like the imaginary world is under the control of the mind of a person. Now, this is also possible in the case of Krishna, who can control this world, as He likes. But this aspect is not at all seen in the case of any other human being. Therefore, the world is almost unreal or unreal only for God. Hence there is no Vijatiya bheda for God or for Krishna who was charged by God. For any other human being, the world is more real and stronger than him. So you cannot say that Vijatiya bheda is absent, if an individual soul is to be treated as God.

Training in the World Brahma Vidya is most difficult because you have to recognize a

co-human form as God. This is possible only if you conquer your ego and jealousy. For training, you can start with removing your ego and jealousy towards other co-human beings. Do not be jealous of any human being and do not be egotistic towards any human being. By this training, you will conquer ego and jealousy towards co-human forms and shortly you will recognize God in human form. In the training period, you can treat every human being as God, to avoid ego and jealousy. But this is not truth and hence you need not worship a bad person without discrimination. You can worship all good people and especially all devotees of God. God treats His devotee as greater than Himself. God will bless you shortly by revealing His identity to you, if you complete the training successfully.

The Advaita philosopher treats every human being (living being) as God, not to love all as God, but only to treat himself as God. The


102

intention is not to train himself to remove his ego and jealousy, but to increase his ego by becoming God! If you think that by saying that the Prime Minister is in Delhi, means that the Prime Minister is present in every house in Delhi, it is foolishness. You have to recognize his particular residence. If you think that he lives in some house that he actually does not live in, you are better, because atleast your concept is improved. Atleast you know that he lives in one house and not in every house! Therefore, it is better to worship some deserving person like a poor devotee as God, instead of treating everybody as God. Treating a statue or a picture as God, is like treating a vacant inert house as the living Prime Minister himself!

Today is Guru Pournima19. If you recognize Guru as a particular human form of God, the Guru Pournima is meaningful and it becomes complete by this full moon. If your recognition is correct, the full moon is spotless. But the full moon has black spots, which are your defects of ego and jealousy towards the co-human form and this is the main black spot, even though your spiritual effort is full of devotion. The lack of perfect logical analysis is the black spot in this full moon-like full devotion of your spiritual effort.

19 Full Moon Day of Guru.


103

Chapter - 14 ASTROLOGY AND CYCLE OF DEEDS

Astrology O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

Jyotisham (astrology) is the subject, which relates to Jyoti or planet. The actual meaning of Jyoti is only God. According to the Veda (Param Jyotirupasampadyate) and the Brahma Sutras (refer Sutra Jyotiradhikaranam). Jyoti means light. The planet is like the jailor guiding you to the jail where you will suffer the misery or is like a guide who guides you to a bar, like heaven, where you will drink and sleep. The planet guides you to the fruit of your deed. It is called as a Graha, which means that it will capture you wherever you are present to deliver the fruit of your deed to you at the exact fraction of a second. It is a computerized system of deeds and fruits. This computer does all the calculations and is called as Chitra Gupta. Chitra Gupta means the protector of the witness [evidence] through an advanced audio and video system. All your thoughts, words and deeds are recorded and will be exhibited as evidence in the upper world. The judge does not require any other type of witness. There is no need of an advocate and therefore such provision does not exist. You will just see and hear your thoughts, words and deeds in the audio and video system (Chitra Gupta) and an automatic judgment is delivered by another system called as Yama. There is no possibility of doing any ritual there since it is only a place of enjoyment [or suffering] of fruits (Bhoga Loka).

All the heavenly pleasures and punishments in hell are given according to the periods of another horoscope that is prepared based on the time of death. Thus the wheel of the planets is the executive system of the soul in this world as well as in the upper world. Yama is the son of Sun [Sun-god] like Saturn, is also a powerful controlling planet in the upper world. The Lord is all in all and is the employer of all the planets. The planets function due to the fear of the Lord. The Veda says the same (Bhishodeti Suryah).

Astrologers are like elementary school teachers. They should become spiritual Gurus, who are like professors. Priests and astrologers


104

should rise in their standards and guide people to the spiritual path. Instead of doing so, both have colluded and are doing business by exploiting the public. The astrologer takes some money for studying the horoscope and recommends the Japam [repetition of the name] of a planet. The priest does the Japam on behalf of the person and gives a commission to the astrologers. It is like a doctor referring the patient to the laboratory for diagnosis and getting commission. The whole spirit is lost and the spiritual path is lost long back in this Kali Yuga. The priests and the astrologers tell a story that even Lord Shiva suffered due to the effect of Saturn. The story is only a creation for promoting their business. Even if you believe the story, you can take it in a positive sense. You can understand that even the Lord respects the cycle of deeds. What sin did Lord Shiva do to undergo the affect of Saturn? The story is foolish even at the root. Let us even assume that Lord Shiva has to suffer the effect of Saturn for a bad deed. If that is so, how can an ordinary human being escape the same type of effect with the help of this petty priest and petty astrologer? Astrology is the elementary level of spiritual knowledge, which introduces the supernatural power that is beyond science. This should finally lead to the acceptance of the existence of the unimaginable God who is beyond logic and science. Astrology is not allowed to grow to become philosophy by these commercial intellectuals. Its growth is arrested and is limited so that the exploitation of devotees can take place. Astrology should be allowed to become philosophy. The school education should grow to become of the university level. The priests and astrologers should develop to become spiritual gurus. Otherwise they are doing sin in the name of God, which will affect them here and there [after world]

The astrologers have developed a wrong concept in astrology by which the people think that they are receiving good or bad affects accidentally by the movement of planets without any reference to their deeds. It is just like saying that one is arrested by the policeman on a road because while he was standing on the road, the policeman incidentally came there and captured him. The man feels that his arrest was due to the incidental meeting with the policeman on the road and the arrest happened without any reason. Similarly people think that the incidental movement of the planets and their periods achieves the bad results. This is complete nonsense. The planets are very disciplined and regular in their movements. Since you are proved as a thief and the court


105

ordered your arrest, the police have arrested you on fair grounds. You pose as if you are innocent and that your arrest is simply incidental due to the movement of policeman and due to his meeting you accidentally. You may escape the police for sometime even after the order from the court, but the planet catches you exactly in the same fraction of a second as soon as the order from the divine court is released.

Enjoying Fruits of Deeds Mainly in Upper Worlds Infact the results of deeds of any human being are mainly

postponed after the death to the upper world. The results of all your deeds are not given in this world especially when you are in the human life, which is very rare to get. The main aim of this very rare human life is that you should recognize God and obtain His grace before the end of this human life. This human life is mainly meant for such effort (sadhana) and therefore this world is called as a Karma Loka [world of action]. You will not be continuously disturbed with the enjoyment of the fruits of your deeds in this world because the main purpose of this life will not be served in this precious little time of human life. When the student is occupied in studies in the period of preparation for the examination, the principal will not disturb him either by punishments or by encouraging cultural activities. Once the examinations are over, there is a long vacation in which these activities can be taken up. Similarly there is a lot of time after death and therefore the fruits of the deeds are mainly given after death in a separate world called as Bhoga Loka [world of enjoyment]. The earth is meant for the karma to be done to recognize the human form of the Lord and get His guidance and practice it to please God. Therefore a separate time and separate worlds (hell and heaven) are given for this purpose. People who do not know the main aim of human life and the significance of this Karma Loka are worried for not seeing the results here itself immediately. This is the main aim of creation of hell and heaven separately as the upper worlds.

However the results of some deeds are released here itself in case they can activate the soul in the spiritual line. With this aim, certain effects of misery to divert the soul to the God and certain effects of happiness as alternative intervals for encouragement are released. Without understanding the significance of these effects, people either sleep and become lazy in happiness or get worried and feel tension in misery. When such effects have no use for the spiritual effort [one


106

refuse to respond positively to these effects], the soul is released from the gross body and is pushed to the Bhoga Loka and further cycles of animals and birds in a condemned state. Thus the ultimate aim of human life and the ultimate aim of the good and bad results must be realized in the light of the spiritual divine path. This human life is not just meant for mechanical deeds and their corresponding results like a routine machine.

Inner Meaning of Karma The Gita says that the meaning of the word Karma has very deep

sense (Gahanaa Karmano Gatih). This world is called as creation. Creation means work like explaining etc. Karma means work. Therefore this world is a form of work. Work is a form of energy. Energy is dynamism or action; it is also work. Matter is energy. Heat, sound etc. are forms of energy. Therefore, the world, which consists of space, matter, light, heat, awareness etc. is essentially energy or work alone. Space is a form of energy. Awareness is also a form of energy. Therefore all this creation is work alone. Work needs the presence of a worker. The worker is God. God is the creator and creation is His work. This entire world is said to be the dance (work) of Shiva [God]. This entire world is just a game (work) of God. Therefore you should realize that any part of this creation is the work or dance or game of God. The working material (matter) is also a form of His work. The forces in this creation are again His works. Thus you should realize that every part of His creation as the work of God and thus we should constantly remember God. When you see an object, the object is His work. The process of seeing is His work. The subject (yourself), who is also an object for others, is also the work of God. If you analyse yourself, you can realize that you are entirely His work alone. The matter of your body, working forces like heat, circulatory force of blood etc. are also His works. Awareness is also His work. The basic form of your awareness, which is energy, is also His work.

Knowledge is the work of intelligence. Devotion is the work of the mind. Service is the work of your body. Sacrifice, which is a process of leaving something is also a work. Therefore whatever you understand is work and understanding itself is work. The word Karma is frequently repeated in the Gita. There is nothing like a static condition. Even in a static stone, the molecules, atoms and subatomic particles are rotating,


107

vibrating and spinning continuously, essentially indicating the work. The Gita says that work should be found in the static state (Akarmanichayah). It also says that you should find no work in work (karmanya karma yah pasyet). What does this mean? This means, you should not think that the work is the work of itself. You should find the worker, who is doing the work. You should not think that the work is going on by itself. The work is done by somebody. The earth is not rotating by itself. Then why does the fan not rotate by itself? As the invisible electric current is rotating the fan, the invisible God is rotating the earth. The rotation of earth is the work of God. The earth is also the work of God. The rotation of the fan is work. The fan is matter. Matter is a form of energy. Energy is work. Therefore the fan is also a form of work. Thus everything is dynamism (work).

The Dynamo [that powers everything; metaphor implied] is God. You will immediately say that the dynamo is matter, matter is energy and since work is energy, a dynamo is also a form of work. Then you will say God is also a form of work [since He was compared to a dynamo]. This is the problem with using any simile for God. Every simile is only a part of the creation and cannot stand as a perfect representation of the Creator. God is beyond the concepts of work and no work because God is unimaginable.

You can infer the existence of God through this entire wonderful creation (work). But you cannot experience Him directly unless He enters a particular form of His work such as a human body like Rama, Krishna etc. You can infer the engineer by seeing the wonderful building constructed by him, which is his work. But he is present only in a small room of that building. If you want to have a direct contact with him, you should search the room in which he is present. Since the whole building is his construction, if you sit in some vacant room and try to talk with him, he will not speak to you. You have to identify that specific room in which he is present. In searching for the engineer, you may find some other person in some room and can mistake him also as the engineer. Therefore you must have the knowledge of how to identify Him.

The Gita praises karma as the path of pleasing the God. Knowledge by intelligence, love by mind and prayers by words are also forms of Karma. But these three forms are negligible; they are like offering drinking water to the guest. Practical service and sacrifice of


108

the fruit of your work are important; they are like offering meals to the guest and constitute the important two-fold karma. Cooking of meals [for feeding the guest] is karma sanyasa and the sacrifice of the fruit of your work, which is meals, is karmaphala tyaga. The fruit of this work is also ultimately the form of your work. Karma is energy and the fruit of karma is matter. Energy and matter are inter-convertible forms. Karma sanyasa and Karmaphala tyaga are one and the same and always go together. The word sanyasa indicates that the sacrifice of work is mainly meant for saints [monks] who do not earn any fruit by work. Karma sanyasa and karmaphala tyaga done together, relate to the householder. This is the practical proof of devotion. The reality of this concept is understood by referring to your service to your family. Karma becomes complete when a meal is also associated with drinking water. This is the path of karma in a complete sense. Karma in the form of sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence is like drinking water. The sacrifice of work is like cooking and serving. The sacrifice of the fruit of work is like the meal Together, this is the five-fold path of karma to attain divine grace.

Karma of Past Birth [When human beings face troubles in life, it is often said that it is

due to their karma or deeds of the previous births. Can You please explain this?]

Now you have understood the meaning of karma. Suppose a person did some bad deed (paapa karma or vikarma). The person went to hell and was punished there. The punishment reduced the intensity of his quality to do bad (guna or samskara) which is the cause of that deed. But the quality is not completely removed and a small trace of it remains. Punishment cannot remove the quality, which is a form of wrong knowledge. Wrong knowledge can be completely removed only by right knowledge and not by external physical punishment. Ofcourse the punishment reduces the intensity of the wrong knowledge to a great extent.

A thief can leave his quality of stealing only on realization obtained by the right knowledge. Any extent of torture cannot remove this quality completely. Therefore, even when the thief comes out of the police station, a trace of the quality of stealing remains. But if he meets a Sadguru and receives the right knowledge, the quality can be removed


109

completely. Valmiki, a robber, became a sage by the preaching of Narada and not by the third degree treatment [beating and torture] in a police station. The samskara or quality is knowledge and can be destroyed only by another type of knowledge, as a diamond is cut only by another diamond. Other than knowledge, no other physical actions like chanting the name, doing worship, singing songs or any other physical exercise can remove the wrong knowledge, which is the cause of sins.

Now what is this wrong knowledge? Is it not karma? As I told you, the knowledge is also karma because any part of the creation is karma. Quality or samskara is a process of feeling or thinking of awareness which is karma alone. But the karma of awareness can be removed only by another karma of awareness and not by the karma of matter or inert energy. Beating and burning are the works done by inert matter and inert energy. They can affect the body and since the body is connected to the mind, it can create fear and reduce the intensity of the wrong knowledge, but cannot remove it from the root. Only logical analysis of the right knowledge can remove this samskara or quality from the root. When the quality is removed, its corresponding deed also disappears. Therefore the right knowledge removes the cause of the karma and thus burns the quality and its deed from the root (Jnanagnih Sarva karmani—Gita).

When the sinner comes to the earth from hell, he comes with a little trace of his sinful quality. Since the quality is also basically karma, the trace of quality is called as karma sesha (remains of karma). This trace of quality grows in a congenial atmosphere into a big tree and the deed is again repeated. The punishment of this deed may be in hell or sometimes may even be immediate. Sometimes the thief may be caught by the house owner on the spot and may be beaten immediately. Sometimes the thief may be caught by the police station and be beaten in the police station. Even if he escapes these two places he will certainly be beaten in hell. Therefore the deed of the previous birth punished in hell, comes down along with the soul as karma sesha (quality or samskara), which is responsible for the corresponding deed on this earth and which may yield its fruit here itself. In that case, his previous quality, called as previous karma is certainly responsible for the misery here.


110

Here you have to understand one point. The karma of the previous birth is not giving its result directly in this birth. The samskara, which was responsible for the karma of the previous birth continues into this birth as a trace, which grows in a congenial atmosphere and generates its corresponding karma once again. This karma [done in this birth] may sometimes yield its fruit here itself. Thus the karma of the present birth alone is directly responsible for your misery here and the present karma has its root in the samskara of your previous birth. This samskara can be called as karma and thus in that sense it is said that the karma of the previous birth is responsible for the present misery.

Truth in Astrology [Do stars really affect normal human beings? Can the effects of

bad star positions in a horoscope be removed?] Stars or planets are the executives of the cycle of samskaras,

karmas and their corresponding fruits, which are together called as the cycle of deeds (karma charka). They are the executives of the judgments given by the judge (Dharma deva), who follows the constitution written by God. God never interferes with the executive function of His own commandments as said in the Gita (Nadatte kasyachit paapam). The Shastras say that one has to undergo the results of his deeds even after millions of Yugas (Kalpa koti shatairapi). This does not mean that the postponement of simple principal takes place. Interest is accumulated by way of compounding. [By postponing the results of your deeds, you not only have to suffer the result of the deed but you have to suffer an additional amount for the postponement of the result]. Therefore scholars like to enjoy the results of their deeds as early as possible. They never pray to God to cancel the judgment, which is impossible. Only postponement of the enjoyment [or suffering] of the results along with interest takes place by prayers or certain rituals or by exhaustive crying before God. Ignorant people misunderstand this postponement as canceling. Therefore this fundamental aspect must be realized.

When priests do certain rituals by taking some dakshina [fee or donation] from you, they are purchasing your punishment through your money. Therefore a real Vedic scholar will never do the business of a priest because he knows the whole concept. No real Vedic scholar accepts dakshina or even food from anybody. These two things that are avoided are called as Aparigraha and Vaishwadeva respectively. Sai


111

Baba said that the bread offered by householders were only their sins. Eating that bread is only enjoying [suffering] the sin of others. Thus you find in our ancient tradition, when somebody offers meals in a function to others, others also offer the same in their functions [like policy of returning gifts]. The priest is earning his livelihood by this way but is getting more and more affected. These priests are thinking that they are cheating the public, but they are cheating themselves by this way. It is better to do hard work and earn their livelihood than such business of transfer of sin for money.

But if the whole ritual is transformed into a divine worship of God, the story is totally different. The grace of God comes there and God may be pleased to reduce or remove the sin by enjoying [suffering] it Himself through a human form. Here also the justice is not violated. The father pays the fine on behalf of his son. This is the only way of removing the sin. Either it should be postponed with interest or it should be sold to a priest or it should be enjoyed by God Himself [by suffering it on the body of His human incarnation on your behalf]. In any case the result of the deed has to be enjoyed and it can never be cancelled without enjoyment. But if you conduct the ritual as a divine worship of God and give dakshina to a deserving devotee, then the story is different. Your sin is not [passed on to the devotee to be] enjoyed by that devotee. God comes down in human form and enjoys your sin for the sake of that devotee. Even in this case, the results have to be enjoyed by someone. Instead of selling your sin to a priest, it is better to sell your sin to a devotee. God has the tolerance to enjoy the sins of His devotee or the sin transferred to His devotee by you. But if you do the ritual by worshipping God and by offering dakshina to the devotee, without the aim of removing your sins, the result is tremendous. It is a real sacrifice without any aim of business. God will undergo all your sins without any account, since your sacrifice was also without any account. Therefore you must remove this poisonous idea of removing your sins through rituals by offering dakshina to priests or devotees. You must be prepared to undergo the results of your sins and do the rituals with the same sacrifice without aspiring for any fruit. Then God will bless you.

You are trying to remove the problems but the problems are only your real friends in the spiritual line. The constant existence of problems will activate you, and suppress your egoism creating a favorable


112

atmosphere for the devotion to God. Happiness will make you proud and lazy and you will be deviated from the spiritual line. Therefore scholars like to enjoy problems, which are the guiding forces in the spiritual line. Kunti asked for a boon from Krishna to give her problems continuously. While praying to God, real tears will come only in misery. This human life is obtained as a rare chance, after a long time of passing through several lives of animals. Thus the animal nature is concentrated in us and the constant presence of a beating stick is necessary for us to grow in the right spiritual path. Mere knowledge through words will not bring realization. From this point too, avoiding the enjoyment of punishments is also not good for your spiritual progress.

Ignorant soul - Realised soul – Liberated soul The realized soul invites difficulties for the sake of spiritual

progress. An ignorant soul tries to avoid the difficulties and invites happiness by praying to God. God brings back the results of good deeds arranged in the future life cycles with reduced value like a pre-matured deposit. By this, the future life cycle becomes full of misery. Sometimes we find people who are hit with misery from birth to death. These were the people who pressed God for giving them happiness and their happiness of previous births was the fruit of good deeds drawn from the present life cycle. God arranges every human life with alternating fruits of good and bad deeds like meals with alternating sweet and hot dishes. A liberated soul invites both happiness and misery in an alternating way for getting full entertainment. The happiness derived from such entertainment is continuous and is called as Ananda.

Nanda means happiness. The letter ‘A’ before Nanda means continuity (Aasamantaat). The word Sukham denotes happiness, which is temporary. It disappears when misery appears. But Ananda is continuous happiness, if you can enjoy even misery like a hot dish. A spiritual aspirant who aims at the grace of God, wants to perform penance which is a rigorous Sadhana [spiritual practice]. While doing penance, you create difficulties artificially by lighting fire around you and so on. This means that the spiritual aspirant wants continuous misery as the guiding force. Happiness and richness induce egoism and inertness, which are obstacles in your spiritual sadhana.

You will be amazed to hear the special worship performed by Me sometime back in which I uttered the sankalpa [objective of the ritual],


113

that I should get severe difficulties and poverty so that Jnana, Bhakti and Vairagya (spiritual knowledge, devotion and detachment) will improve in Me. Thus if you are a realized soul, you will invite difficulties as your spiritual guru. If you are a liberated soul, you will invite both for entertainment. If you go to a movie, you like to see scenes of both happiness and misery. When you take meals, you like both sweet and hot dishes. Then why are you not inviting both misery and happiness in your life for entertainment? The entire creation, created by God for entertainment is a mixture of day and night, summer and winter, birth and death, happiness and misery etc. The equality in the entertainment of both is called as Yoga according to the Gita (samatvam yoga uchyate).

No doubt the horoscope is the telescope for seeing the cycle of deeds of a person. God has already arranged the happiness and misery in an alternating way for each person. The periods of nine planets rotate in a cycle. Each period has sub-periods of the nine planets again as a sub-cycle. This means that while eating a sweet dish a secondary hot dish is also introduced. The horoscope is a beautiful arrangement of your deeds in an alternating way done by the Divine Father who has immense affection on the souls. The total period of the nine planets is 120 years. For each Zodiac sign or birth sign (Janma raasi) there will be a continuous ascending period of sixty years and another continuous descending period of 60 years. One may be born in the beginning, middle or end part of the ascending period or descending period, depending upon his previous interference in his cycle of deeds through rituals.

Mesha, Karkataka, Simha, Vrishchika, Dhanush and Meena zodiac signs have the beginning of ascending period of 60 years, which ends with the period of Jupiter. For other zodiac signs the ascending period of 60 years starts with the period of Saturn for 60 years and ends with the period of Venus. Thus one is born with an ascending period of 60 years or with a descending period of 60 years or at any point between these two periods. If a person is born in Mesha, starting with the period of the sun, the 60 years lifetime is ascending. If the same is born with the period of Saturn, the person will have a descending period of 60 years.

A realized soul, who dragged back the fruits of bad deeds from the present life cycle, will be born in the beginning of ascending periods. If an ignorant soul dragged back the fruits of his good deeds from the


114

present cycle, he will be born in the beginning of descending period. If the whole life is full of either only happiness or only misery, the person will be bored. The reason for it is only the person himself, who has interfered with the good arrangement of God. Therefore Jesus said that the will of God be done always. However for ignorant souls, God made some compensation by introducing the sub-periods of all the nine planets in the main period of each planet. Thus a secondary alternative arrangement of side dishes is done by God, who is the Mother, because the children are ignorant of even the technology of eating!

Source of Immortality [May 17, 2006. Shri Ramnath asked a question to Swami as to

why human beings feel and talk like immortals?] Every human being is a composite of three bodies, which are the

outermost gross body and the pair of inner most subtle and causal bodies. The inner most subtle and causal bodies can never be separated. The causal body is like gold and the subtle body is like its ornament. The ornament cannot exist without gold. But the gold can exist without the ornament. In a realized soul, the subtle body, which is a bundle of qualities, subsides and only the causal body or the soul is left over. Only in an ordinary human being does the subtle body exist, which means that the subtle body exists along with its causal body. Thus in every ordinary human being, both the subtle and causal bodies co-exist as if integrated, so that we should use the word Jeevatman. Jeeva is the subtle body and Atman is the causal body. In the case of any ordinary human being, the Jeevatman exists, covered by the gross body like the golden ornament kept in a box. In the case of a realized or liberated soul, only the Atman exists in the gross body like a lump of gold in a box. In any case, the gross body is mortal, because it is a form of matter, bound in a regular shape, characterized by high entropy. Entropy is a scientific word, which means irregularity or freedom, which is spontaneous in the nature. The five elements are forced in a regular form of the gross body and every moment these five elements are trying to separate and go into free-state or randomness. Thus the gross body is mortal, which is known to everybody by the name of death. The innermost Jeevatman is the immortal as long as the ignorance of the soul (Avidya) continues. The qualities are vibrations of the soul and the soul is pure awareness (Chit). These qualities continue as long as the realization of original nature of


115

the soul does not take place. Once the human being realizes that he or she is that undisturbed pure awareness (soul), the vibrations or waves subside and thus the qualities disappear. Thus the gross body is immortal [remains] up to the death and the subtle body is immortal up to self-realization.

The self is subject to blind ignorance, which leads to the superimposition of the self (soul) on the subtle body and gross body. The pure awareness, infact, is temporary and disappears in deep sleep and arises on awakening. But the awareness or the soul is essentially the inert energy in its basic form, which is eternal and will never be destroyed. Even in the Maha Pralaya this basic inert energy remains, preserving the design of the world like the information chip of any electronic instrument. Ofcourse this basic inert energy was also created by God and it is the first created item. It can disappear if God wishes so. But God will never destroy this basic energy containing the design of the world. It is like the film of a cinema or a CD of an electronic instrument. In this sense, the basic inert energy is immortal. It is the source of awareness and awareness is the source of all qualities and feelings including ‘I’. Thus the gross body, the subtle body and the awareness are not immortal. But the essential basic energy-form of this awareness, is immortal, which is referred to in the feeling of immortal Atman or immortal Brahman. This basic immortal energy in the gross body is called as Atman. The same immortal energy, in the entire universe is called as Brahman.

Thus there is only a quantitative difference between Atman and Brahman. Infact the matter is also a form of this basic energy. All forms like light, heat, sound etc. are also this basic energy. Thus Atman is in continuity with the external cosmos since the gross body is also another form of itself. The immortality of this basic energy called as Atman or Brahman, continues through the superimposition and thus the gross body or the subtle body is also felt as immortal. Though the mortality of the gross body is seen in the death of other human beings and though the mortality of the subtle body is seen in the realization of scholars, and though the mortality of awareness is realized before and after deep sleep, still all these three items (gross body, subtle body and awareness) are felt as immortal due to the superimposition of the immortality of the basic energetic form of the soul. If the superimposition is analyzed and remembered continuously, the ignorance disappears in course of time.


116

By knowing this concept once, the knowledge is attained but by remembering the concept continuously, realization comes. The end of realization is determination [or establishment in this knowledge]. You must hear this self-realization and know it from Sadguru (Shravanam). Then you must constantly remember this concept, repeatedly every day (Mananam). After sometime, determination is obtained (Nididhyasa). The identification of the determination is your practical behavior in life (Karma). This self-realization cuts all your worldly bonds and relieves you from stress. Starting from hearing, till the final determination, the constant guidance of Sadguru is required. Otherwise you may get misled into the wrong direction. Without the guidance of the Sadguru, it would be like treating your illness by yourself by reading pamphlets or information given with medicines, without going to an authorized physician. This self-realization established by Shankara is fixing yourself to the basic immortal energy or ‘becoming’ your Self. This is called as Advaita. The state of Advaita [monism or non-duality] can be retained continuously only by the grace of God in the human form called the Sadguru, who guides you. Shankara stressed on the importance of the grace of God in this path (Ishwaraanugrahadeva). The Lord is different from your self. His grace is required to succeed in this path. If you are that God, does it mean that Shankara said that you should have grace on yourself?


117

Chapter - 15 HUMAN LIFE IS TO SERVE GOD

Optimal Use of Time in Present Birth O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

The Gita says that a realized soul, who uses the analysis by intelligence, leaves the concepts of both happiness obtained by doing good deeds and misery obtained by doing bad deeds (Buddhi Yukto Jahatiha Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute). This means that you are trying for the temporary happiness of heaven and trying to avoid the temporary misery of hell in the upper world and the same here. This means that if you are analyzing the scriptures with sharp logic to realize the ultimate goal of the human life, you will be interested neither in happiness nor in misery during the life as well as after death. The ultimate goal of life is not anything related to yourself, because it is aimed at pleasing the creator since the original aim of this creation is only the pleasure of the Lord through entertainment. Therefore, the original aim of yourself, other selves and the entire universe is only to serve the Lord and please Him. Then, the Lord will bless you with His eternal divine grace and your life is fulfilled. Therefore, the human life is neither for doing good deeds nor for doing bad deeds and it is also not for enjoying the good fruits or bad fruits. You are wasting the human life in doing good works and sometimes doing bad works due to the force of your ignorance. By this, very little time is leftover here to serve the Lord. If this little time is also used for enjoying good and bad fruits, no time is left for you to do the service to God and get His blessings. Hence, to save atleast this little time for realization of spiritual knowledge and subsequent involvement in the divine service, atleast the enjoyment of good and bad deeds is postponed to a latter time and at a latter place. The latter time is after death and latter places are hell and heaven.

This is the reason for creation of hell and heaven separately to enjoy the results after death. Ofcourse, very serious and urgent results are enjoyed here itself immediately (Atyutkataih…). This enjoyment of results here itself serves another purpose also by standing as a proof for others regarding the inevitable enjoyment of results. Without realizing


118

this divine administration, some are proposing the enjoyment of all good and bad results here itself so that the souls can fully realize. Suppose a student is in the preparation holidays to study for the examinations. He should not be disturbed by extra curricular activities to reward or by punishments of disciplinary action. Both these should be postponed to a latter date after the examinations. Ofcourse, urgent activities and actions are exceptional. A good principal of the college behaves in this way only. When the human life is not used for the ultimate purpose, it ends and the soul takes an energetic body (Yatana Shariram for bad results and Bhoga Shariram for good results), which is more sensitive to enjoy the results in the hell and heaven. If the human life is made fruitful by realizing its ultimate aim, the soul reaches the abode of God by taking a bright energetic body (Divya Shariram). Therefore, My dear devotees! Do not fall in the illusion of solving problems here and avoiding hell there. Do not fall in the illusion of materialistic happiness here and happiness of heaven there. Realize the real aim of this human life and serve the Lord in His divine mission and please Him. Let the entire world become full of devotees of God only and this will please God.

Misery in Love And Service of Lord is Highest If the Lord loves you, you will be a liberated soul belonging to His

inner circle and you will attain eternal bliss by being close to the Lord. Ananda (Bliss) means continuous happiness without any break by misery. Brahmaananda means the continuous happiness of God, which is several times intensive than the continuous happiness of a realized soul here (Manushaananda). Bliss of God is not only continuous but also has the highest intensity. Suppose a person got one lakh rupees and another person got one crore rupees by lottery. Both celebrate their happiness on that day continuously. Since their happiness is continuous, it is bliss (Ananda). But, there is difference in the intensities of bliss of these two persons. By self-realization, you can get the bliss of the soul (Atmaananda) but that is not the bliss of God (Brahmaananda), which is millions and millions times more intensive. Mere continuity of happiness, which is common in both, cannot be misunderstood to treat both these as one. Actually you are attaining the peace only by self-realization because by this you are detached from the body and the external world for sometime by limiting yourself to the soul. By this you are avoiding misery and absence of misery is not happiness. Moreover,


119

when you avoid misery, you have to avoid the happiness also in the detachment. In such case you are assuming the peace as happiness relatively with reference to misery. Zero is plus with reference to minus. Such assumed plus cannot be the real plus. Therefore, the peace assumed as happiness in the self-realization is not even the real worldly happiness (Manushaananda) and you cannot think it as Brahmaananda even in dream. Even a saint sitting in the meditation with self-realization enjoying the peace as assumed happiness will suddenly leave that state if you tell him that he got a noble prize for his spiritual knowledge and he starts enjoying the real happiness from that worldly affair! When Uddhava started preaching Gopikas about self-realization to attain constant peace and get rid of the misery caused by separation from Krishna, one Gopika asked him whether such peace is not the silence of a dead body! She told him that even in the misery due to separation from Krishna, she enjoyed bliss in the love of the Lord! She concluded that even misery in the love and service of the Lord is the highest bliss, which is far better than the peace of self-realization. Therefore, your aim should not be to attain the bliss from the Lord but it should be your service and love (even if it ends in misery) that gives bliss to the Lord. Then, in turn you will receive the infinite divine bliss since you are not selfish at all in the Nivrutti.

Preachers of Advaita often mislead the devotees by stating that the soul, which is made of pure awareness (Chit), is simultaneously bliss (Ananda). This is an utter lie in practice. If the soul is simultaneously bliss, no soul should receive misery. The fire is hot everywhere and should not be cool anywhere. Similarly, they say that the soul is simultaneously knowledge. They have taken the meaning of knowledge (Jnanam) as chit (pure awareness)! If this is true, the awareness is present in every living being and hence, every living being should have simultaneously the knowledge. We are calling even a human being (supposed to be the highest living being) as ignorant and such usage should not exist as there should be no ignorant living being.


120

Chapter - 16 GOD IS MOST DESERVING OF YOUR LOVE

Inevitability and Benefit of Worldly Stress O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[January 05, 2007] The involvement in this world is inevitable. The consequence of such involvement is stress, which is also inevitable. We may succeed in getting the fruit of the stress or we may not succeed in it. The bullet is shot but hitting the bird is not certain. The present Yoga [detachment from the world and remaining in one’s own awareness or Atman] is just a sleeping pill for a short time and it is in no way different from deep sleep. Infact deep sleep is better than the present Yoga. The reason is that in the present Yoga the nervous system functions at a minimum level because awareness of oneself [awareness of the awareness alone] still exists as in the case of thoughtless self-meditation. In deep sleep, even that pure awareness disappears and the nervous system takes complete rest. In any case the immediate involvement in the world is inevitable. In such Yoga you only have peace, which is the absence of misery; but that is not bliss. Such peace is not equal even to materialistic happiness. When you are in self-meditation and if someone tells you that you have won a lottery of a crore [ten million], you clearly experience distinct materialistic happiness.

It is also common practical experience that one is unable to stand firm in the state of self-attainment through self-realization. The reason for this is that if you remain in the self and thereby detach yourself from misery, who will suffer the misery in your life cycle, which is ordained as a result of your past sins? The results of the rest of your past deeds which have to be enjoyed [or suffered] by you in the future, cannot be cancelled suddenly. The force of the divine law governing the cycle of deeds is stronger than the self. The divine law is in the hands of God alone. The divine law will drag you into the world for the sake of the punishment. Only God can save you from the misery. The word Yoga actually means your meeting with God in human form. If you remain in the self without proceeding further to God, thinking that the self is God,


121

you are doing a sinful deed. You are in no way different from an atheist who says that there is no God other than the self. Atleast to enjoy the result of this sin, you have to be dragged out.

If you divert this inevitable stress [of involvement in the world] to service in the spiritual field, God will protect you in both this world and the upper world. This is a one bullet-shot that is sure to hit two birds. When God takes care of you, there is no chance of uncertainty. For you, solving all your problems in the world is not certain in spite of hectic stress [stressful effort]. Therefore, it is far better to divert the inevitable stress and involvement to the spiritual service of God. You do not have complete faith in God. Atheism imparted by the external environment is hidden in you without your knowledge. You are in daily association with people who always put self-efforts with partial faith on God and this injects such an attitude into your brain. Hence you do not have full faith on the word of God. You will always estimate your success based on worldly factors. In reality, you do not have confidence on the superpower of God, which can produce an ocean of sweet water in a desert.

In practical situations, your faith in God and the extent of your theism is tested. Wise people, who say that self-effort is the main component and that God’s help is a minor component in any action, often cover up such deficiency in your faith. But when all the doors are closed, you will be worried about the possibility of success assured by God. Then you will put effort to open one of the doors so that God can help you through that door. This is utter foolishness on your part, because you think that God cannot help you unless some door is opened. God can even enter through the wall to help you, if all the doors are closed. Thus keeping full faith is important in the practical situation.

Complicated Cycle of Deeds The Gita says that the concept of the cycle of deeds is complicated

(Gahana Karmano Gatih…). The action or deed by itself is inert without the intention of mind and has no result. When you are walking on the road, an ant may be accidentally killed under your foot. There is no sin for this deed because the intention of mind (samkalpa) is not there. Suppose you have an intention to kill the ant and subsequently kill it. This is a deed associated with mind and hence will lead to full punishment. Suppose you have the intention to kill the ant but somehow


122

the deed was not successful due to the miraculous escape of the ant. Then you will have half of the punishment for your intention. Since the ant did not receive the effect of your intention, the other half of the punishment is cancelled. Therefore, action without intention has no fruit. Action with intention has full fruit. Intention without action has half the fruit.

Why should you enjoy half the fruit for your intention when the action never materialized? I will give you a small example. A daughter-in-law is serving her mother-in-law or father-in-law. The service is inevitable. If the service is done with good intention by treating the father-in-law as her own father or mother-in-law as her own mother, good fruit in heaven is fully enjoyed. Suppose the daughter-in-law serves them sincerely due to the unavoidable circumstances but scolds them with hatred in her mind, what is the result? The good fruit in heaven is reduced to half and half bad fruit is received in hell for the bad intention.

The good fruit of a good deed can never cancel the bad fruit of a bad deed. Fruits of goods deeds and bad deeds have to be enjoyed separately. If you create a provision to cancel a bad deed by doing a good deed, every one will commit sins under the influence of emotions and then will try to cancel the sins later on by doing good deeds. Therefore, when priests say that by doing a ritual, all your sins are destroyed, it is the climax of ignorance. No good deed can cancel the bad deed. The Kauravas had ninety nine per cent sins and one per cent good deeds. They went to heaven first to enjoy the little good deeds and later went to hell to enjoy all their major bad deeds. The Pandavas were vice-versa and hence went to hell first and then to heaven later on. In both cases, mutual cancellation of the results of good and bad actions was not seen in the Mahabharata (Swargarohana Parva). Now, I pity the daughter-in-law who sincerely served the in-laws but went to hell simply for the sake of her bad intention. The daughter-in-law who did not serve her in-laws and also had a bad intention goes to permanent hell. The daughter-in-law who served her in-laws sincerely but had a bad intention in her mind goes to both hell and heaven separately. The daughter-in-law who served her in-laws with good intention, thinking of them as her own parents goes to permanent heaven. The daughter-in-law who has a good intention in her mind to serve her in-laws will somehow serve them directly or indirectly and will not go to hell.


123

Suppose a bad intention has come into the mind, but the intention is not materialized and nobody is affected practically in the world. Certainly there will be a partial punishment for this mental sin in hell. How to get rid of this mental sin? Only the powerful divine knowledge at the level of the intelligence can smash mental sins. The intelligence alone can control the mind. The intelligence is strengthened by the divine knowledge, which is injected by the Sadguru. The mind is strengthened by repetition of sins and temporary experience of false happiness. The mind is purified when the divine knowledge is intense and in the stage of climax, even the results of previous sinful deeds are smashed (Jnanaagnih Sarva Karmani—Gita). Divine knowledge at its climax makes you surrender to God and leads you to getting involved in practical spiritual service in the mission of God, without aspiration of any fruit in return. In such a stage, God attracts all the results of your past sins and suffers for your sake. You do not know this technique of God. Somehow you are relieved from all mental sins and also from all the results of previous sinful deeds. The mental sins are cancelled by the divine knowledge. The results of previous sinful deeds are cancelled by the interference of God that results by the climax of divine knowledge. Therefore, when service is inevitable, better do it with good intention too so that you will not receive partial punishment in hell unnecessarily. This does not mean that I am encouraging you to do the sin fully and get full punishment.

Rigid Dharma for Sweet Love You have to follow the constitution written by God strictly in this

world as far as your behavior towards other souls is concerned. Here, justice [Dharma] must be followed and injustice must be discarded. Only in the case of God, can you overlook even justice for the sake of God which cannot be a sin in that particular case. For the sake of God, you can overlook any other soul including your own self and this shall not be a sin. Infact, it is the Best. If you do not overlook justice for the sake of God, it shall be a sin. But this special case (Nivritti) cannot be extended to one’s behavior with other souls (Pravritti).

God establishes justice in this world very seriously (Dharma Samsthapanarthaya—Gita). But the same God in the same Gita finally says at the end that one should violate even Dharma [justice] for His sake (Sarva Dharman Parityajya…). This is not a contradiction at all.


124

You must follow justice and discard injustice in your behavior towards other souls in this world. But when you realize God, you have to sacrifice even justice for the sake of God. This is a point of contrast. The more powerful the villain, the more powerful will be the projection of the hero. The firmer the rules of Dharma, the greater is the love expressed for God by violating such Dharma. Therefore, the firmness and rigidity in the establishment of Dharma is directly proportional to the love expressed for God in violating such Dharma for His sake.

Let us take the example of the naked Gopikas saluting to Krishna. According to Dharma, a lady cannot come naked before a male. It is against justice and leads the lady to hell for punishment. Apart from this threat of hell, a lady is characterized by lot of shyness and no lady can overcome the shyness in such a situation under any circumstances. In the case of the Gopikas this violation of justice and shyness might have been done because Krishna was God. For the sake of God, justice can be violated and even shyness can be overcome because God is the Creator and is aware of everything in this world. This is one excuse in the case of the Gopikas’ violation of Dharma and shyness.

But there is a similar example, which is even more serious. Shri Manikya Prabhu was an incarnation of Lord Datta and Smt. Subbamma was His topmost devotee. Other devotees were jealous about her. One day the Lord called her by name while she was having a bath. Subbamma came running into the court in which all the devotees of the Lord were sitting. She was completely nude and did not even wear her sari to avoid delay in following the order of the Lord. All the devotees were astonished. The Lord threw a cloth on her and asked her to go back. She went away. The Lord looked at the faces of the devotees, which were bent in repentence. This sin is a more severe test than the sin of the Gopikas. Here Subbamma stands naked not only before the Lord but also before all other human beings for the sake of the Lord by crossing her shyness and justice. The Gopikas stood naked only before the Lord.

When the Lord faces the exceptional devotion of such topmost devotees, He is immensely pleased. Such immense pleasure is the aim of this entire creation and the establishment of justice is the background in contrast. If Subbamma was used to coming out nude on the call of any other person, then there is no speciality when she came out nude on the Lord’s call and Subbamma would simply be called a mentally


125

deranged lady. In such a case, the background will not serve any purpose to God. Other souls deserve your love only in a limited way, controlled by the rules of justice. But the Lord deserves unconditional love and kindness from His devotee.

If you realize the truth by taking away the layer of ignorance acting as a stage of this divine drama, you will be surprised to know that anything sacrificed by you for the sake of God, was given to you by God alone. He gave something to you and forgot that that it belongs to Him. He also covered you with His delusion (Maya) so that you will think that this something belongs to you. Now the drama of sacrifice is enacted over the stage of this layer of ignorance by which both God and devotee forget the basic truth. Now when the soul sacrifices that something to God, both God and soul enjoy the sweet love of sacrifice based on the concept of donor and acceptor. Realized scholars pierce through the stage of ignorance and find out the truth that that something belongs to the Lord alone and the whole drama is just for the enjoyment of the sweet love of devotion between God and the devotee. If you compare God with other souls who love you just for the sacrifice of something which belongs to you (in the relative sense) and that their love for you is only for their selfish happiness, you can realize the difference between God and your beloved souls and the deservingness of God to your boundless love.


126

Chapter - 17 DEVELOPING DEVOTION

Selfishness of Human Devotion O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[March 19, 2007 On the occasion of Yugadi or New Year according to the Indian Calendar.] Making God as the final goal, the devotion to Lord should be done in the theoretical phase as well as the practical phase. Only such devotion is real, and the real devotees are Hanuman and the Gopikas, who should be our guides in the spiritual effort. But very few human beings can attain this level and God says in the Gita that one in millions alone can attain such a state. In this real spiritual path, all items except God are only the means, whereas pleasing God is the final goal. But the majority of human beings is reverse to this real path. Most human beings make God as means to achieve their self-pleasure by crossing the difficulties in life. Even devotees, who worship the Lord for attaining the upper world, belong to this path alone because they are also making God as the means to avoid hell and attain the upper world. Crossing difficulties and the attainment of selfish pleasure is the only goal, whether the place is earth or the upper world. Hence, for ordinary human beings, it is almost impossible to attain such real devotion. Selfishness is the nature of the soul and can never be avoided like the curvature of a dog’s tail (Prakritim yaanti Bhutani—Gita). Therefore, for almost all the human beings, God only becomes the instrument or means to attain selfish pleasure. Even the so-called spiritual aspirants say that the goal of their spiritual effort is only to attain the bliss of God, but in reality, they only want selfish bliss and not giving bliss to God. If you take the case of Hanuman, He wanted to commit suicide in the service of His contemporary human incarnation while searching for Sita. He thought that if Sita were not found, Rama would die and instead of becoming the cause of the death of Rama, it is better to end His own life. Generally people worship God to avoid pre-mature death. But Hanuman wanted pre-mature death for the sake of God. Several demons worshipped God to become immortal and avoid


127

death. Thus, there is a 180-degree difference between Hanuman and the demons and hence Hanuman is the bitter enemy of all demons.

Therefore, to achieve real devotion towards God with a final aim of pleasing God at the cost of one’s own death is a matter of dream for human beings. Jesus says that unless one is prepared to carry his own cross for the sake of God, one cannot become the dearest disciple of God. Infact the crucifixion of Jesus was not only to save the real devotees from their sins but also to create kindness in the hearts of even cruel people so that they will be attracted towards the spiritual path. Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus was completely a part of the divine program of God. Hence, Jesus accepted it to fulfill the work of God. The result of such sacrifice for God is that Hanuman became the future Creator and Jesus sat on the right side of God. When Krishna left His body, the Gopikas jumped into fire while their husbands were still alive. They sacrificed not only their lives but also the tradition of jumping into fire only on the occasion of the death of the husband. They attained Goloka, which is above the abode of God. Such examples of Hanuman, Jesus and the Gopikas stand only as inspiring ideals for ordinary human beings, so that every human being can atleast get passing marks.

It is very clear that the human being can worship God only to cross difficulties and attain selfish pleasure (Maanushananda) and if possible to attain the bliss of God (Brahmananda). The difficulties may belong to this world or the upper hell but the philosophy is one and the same. In that case, how to keep the human being constantly in the devotion of God, which is certainly only a means and not the end? Even in such low type of devotion, people forget God as soon as their problems get solved. For a few days they may remember God with gratefulness but very shortly they forget God. People will remember the problems of the past forever provided there is a possibility of claiming credit for their effort. This means that people will remember the difficulties in the past and explain the scenes with a lot of interest to others continuously till the day of their death provided there is a possibility of mentioning their own capabilities as the means for crossing those difficulties. Therefore, the past difficulties are of no use to keep the human being constantly in devotion because God has to be praised and not the self. Hanuman never mentioned that He jumped over the sea in a single long jump to project His own capability. Even if somebody mentioned that incident, He would say that He jumped over the sea only with the grace of God. But


128

if you replace Hanuman by an ordinary human being, what will happen? For some days he will say that he jumped over the sea by the grace of Rama. But slowly, as time passes, he will say that he jumped over the sea in a single jump. You can see such egoistic attitude in the conversations of even old people, who always try to project their capabilities expressed in their past life-incidents.

The only spontaneous devotion towards God that we have (which ofcourse is not real, since our devotion is only a means) is due to the pressure of present problems. This artificial devotion shoots up spontaneously because God is only the final means for crossing such present difficulties. There is no need of any message or force for the devotee to maintain the devotion during the tenure of present problems. But once the problem is solved and peace and happiness are attained, the human being forgets God completely after a very short time. This ungratefulness towards God is mainly based on the effect of ego because there is no possibility of keeping the self in the place of God in solving such problems. If there is even a trace of possibility of keeping the self in the place of God, the fellow would constantly remember that incident till the day of his death because it projects self praise.

Astrology Helps in Continuous Devotion You may say that the only alternative then is to continue the

problems without end. Infact Kunti asked the Lord for such a boon. She said that since difficulties alone can keep devotion alive in the case of human beings, that the Lord should give her continuous difficulties. But this is not possible because continuous difficulties also bore the soul and the attitude of God as the Divine Father is to make the souls happy and not to bore them. For this purpose He arranged the cycles of lives with alternate happiness and misery. Unless the soul is a demon, it cannot get continuous difficulties because only a demon does continuous sins. A human being is neither a bad demon nor a good angel. He is a mixture of both (Anistamistam Mishramcha—Gita). Therefore, continuous problems cannot be accommodated in the cycle of deeds of human beings. Hence, happiness has to come after some period of misery like winter after summer or day after night. In that case the problem is that devotion to God during the period of happiness becomes impossible.

Therefore, some clue should be adopted to foresee the misery in the future, so that God can be worshipped even during the period of


129

happiness to avoid misery in the future. The knowledge of alternating happiness and misery of the cycle of deeds is sufficient to realize the misery in the future. But for ordinary ignorant human beings this general concept will not give a real psychological effect. Unless an individual case is specified and unless the misery in the future is specifically indicated, the human being will not take up the worship of God with utmost care, during happiness. For this purpose alone, was the subject of astrology born. By astrology an individual can foresee the misery in the future. Astrology is Jyotisha Shastram, which means the science of light. It is the torchlight to foresee the misery in the future. It shows both misery and happiness in the future. But a human being will be alert only to avoid the misery in the future by taking some action in the present as prevention. If the misery appears after a long time, the human being will again sleep in the present happiness. Therefore, the design of the recycling periods of the nine planets (Dasha) is arranged in a wonderful manner so that you can see some misery even in the next hour. This is done by the system of Dasa-Antardasha-Vidasha-Sukshma Dasha-Prana Dasha etc. Among these nine planets, some planets are good and some planets are certainly bad for any Zodiac (Raasi) in which one is born. By these systems of period, sub-periods, sub sub-periods etc., one can find the involvement of a bad planet (intensity may vary) even in the next hour. Based on this system astrologers can calculate the time of the incident very precisely, even up to hours and minutes. Therefore, astrology helps the human being to foresee the misery in the future and advises to avoid the misery by worship of God and by doing certain specified sacrifice (Daanam). This covers both theoretical and practical devotion continuously throughout the life. Therefore, astrology is justified because the ends justify the means. Infact it is a part of spiritual knowledge because God is also mentioned as the ultimate light (Paramjyoti rupasampadya—Veda, Jyotiridhikaranam of Brahma Sutras). Hence, these torchlights of the planets acting as secondary lights help the human being to worship the main ultimate light (God).

Today human beings approach astrologers and hear the predictions for one year. Earlier, there was no difference between the Satguru and astrologer because the Satguru adopts the method of astrology for ordinary ignorant human beings to create interest in God. In the beginning the interest may be as a means but slowly on realizing the taste of God, they may become real devotees. This is the right spirit and


130

direction of our tradition. If you observe today, you can see the fate of this well-established divine tradition. The astrologer is not at all a Satguru. He is just giving his predictions to collect some money on that day for his predictions. He also designs the future plan of his work in the year to earn money through the remedies suggested and his prediction is just an annual financial budget. He sows the seed of fear of future misery in the minds of some rich people so that the future remedies can give some financial benefits to him or to his secret partners, who are the priests involved in such remedies. Astrology is a part of the divine philosophy because the planets are the executive authorities of implementing the cycle of deeds based on the constitution spelled out by God. If you insult astrology, God will also be furious because if a constable is insulted, the state police authority will feel insulted. Astrology is expected to lead the ordinary ignorant human beings to the spiritual path. If the astrologer realizes this truth and behaves accordingly, God will be pleased with him because the astrologer will become a servant in the divine mission of the Lord. In that case all the problems of the astrologer will be taken care of by divine grace and he need not worry about himself any more. Ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of the cane before their eyes and such a cane is the misery in the future indicated by the astrologer. Either devotion or fear (Bhakti or Bhayam) can give fruit. If devotion is impossible, fear is used to develop devotion at the ground level.

The Sutras written by Jaimini are the fundamental basis of astrology and also Purva Mimamsa. Jaimini indicates various forms of God for getting a remedy to various human beings according to their qualities. Vishnu (Saturn and Mercury), Lakshmi (Moon and Venus), Shiva (Jupiter), Skanda (Mars), Durga (Rahu) and some village deities (Ketu) are such divine forms mentioned by Jaimini. This shows that he is bringing ordinary human beings upward to the level of devotion, through the cane of fear. The Uttara Mimamsa of Vyasa finally concentrates on establishing the unity (Brahman) of these divine forms. Both Jaimini and Vyasa constitute the two gradual steps in spiritual progress. They are not opposite to each other. Both Vyasa and Jaimini sat as judges for the debate between Shankara and Mandana Mishra and this shows the correlation between these two steps.


131

Jaimini concentrates on sacrifice (Yajna) and even a large extent of the Veda gives stress on sacrifice, which is the donation of prepared food to a deserving guest. The food indicates the sacrifice of the fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) of the man and also the sacrifice of work (Karma Sansya) of his wife in the process of cooking the food. Hence, it is a complete sacrifice, which is the result of devotion. Devotion is the result of knowledge. Only the service involving sacrifice can yield fruit. This is the spirit of the stress on Yajna laid by the Veda. Without understanding it, people give importance to knowledge and devotion. Almost all the Veda concentrates on Yajna. If Yajna were nothing, why would the Veda give so much importance to it by covering it so extensively? The followers of Jaimini gave importance to mere sacrifice without God. Mere social service without God is of very little use since it gives only temporary heaven. Hence, Jaimini joined the sacrifice with devotion to divine forms.

Ignorance of Knowledge Induces Fear [Devotees asked Swami about the Eclipse on this New Year’s

Day. Swami replied as follows.] The eclipse is of no divine nature because today science explains

everything about an eclipse. It is a simile for a divine concept. The sun represents intelligence and the moon represents the mind according to the Veda. Rahu and Ketu represent the dark shadow of ignorance by which both intelligence and mind are eclipsed. The pity of our unfortunate tradition is that the concept disappears immediately and the apparent simile always stands forever and in course of time becomes the concept. A broker [matchmaker] described the bride as a rose flower (metaphor; not simile). The bride escaped with her lover on the day of the marriage. The clever broker brought a rose flower and kept it in the place of the bride because he had already said that the bride was a rose flower! Today the priests do not know even the meaning of the word the Veda from which they recite the hymns. Even if they try to understand the meaning of the word the Veda, they will stop the recitation. The Veda means knowledge and not mere recitation of the words without knowing the meaning. The tradition has exploited this unfortunate situation also and tried to use it for the benefit of the upliftment of ordinary human beings. The ignorance of this situation is used to cause fear and the tradition tried to induce fear into the minds of ignorant


132

people so that they will atleast step into the spiritual field by fear. Once this spirit is realized, there is no need of these similes (Jnate karma na Vidyate—Gita). If your brain comes out of these worldly illusions through knowledge and devotion, and if you are determined to serve the Lord, there is no meaning of any eclipse in your case.


133

Chapter - 18 UNDERSTAND INNER MEANINGS & PRACTICE

Destroying the Buffalo O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[Vijayadashmi – 2003] Today is the Vijayadashami festival. Today Goddess Durga got victory over Mahishasura. Durga represents the highest power that is knowledge. Mahisha (he-buffalo) represents the foolish rigidity of blind tradition. Yama Dharma Raja, the Lord of Death and Justice, sits on Mahisha. Yama means the rules and regulations imparted by the tradition. Dharma means the age-old practice. Raja means the strictness and egoism. Therefore, Mahisha represents an ignorant, foolish, rigid person who is completely controlled by the traditional egoism, with rules and regulations in the name of Dharma.

You cannot change such a person. Only the divine Guru can change him. No other deity could kill Mahisha. Goddess Durga is the single deity, who includes the three deities, i.e., Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. These three deities are the powers of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Datta is the single deity present in these three Gods. Therefore Durga is the power of Datta. Datta is called Guru. The power of Guru is knowledge. Datta is the only God who creates, maintains and destroys this universe. Therefore Datta is the Parabrahman according to Vedic definition (“Yato vacho”). The Veda says that Parabrahman is the true knowledge (“Satyam Jnanam”). So Datta means true knowledge. Since Durga is the power of Datta, Durga also should mean true knowledge.

Mahisha fought with Durga using various weapons. Similarly the traditional rigid person quotes several scriptures with distorted meanings. The weapons of Durga defeat all the weapons of Mahisha. The weapons of Durga represent the correct interpretations of scriptures. As Durga killed Mahisha, Shiva (Datta) also killed Yama Dharma Raja who rides on the Mahisha. Yama violated his duty and gave life to Satyavan because his wife Savitri praised Yama. But when Markandeya was praising Shiva, Yama wanted to kill Markandeya. What does this mean? The tradition was violated and exploited by Gurus for their


134

selfishness. They preach rules only for others. Therefore Shiva punished Yama. Yama controls the Mahisha. This means the general public has become rigid followers of tradition without analysis and is under the control of their Gurus. Mahisha does not move even if rain falls from the sky. This indicates that even if the highest Guru showers knowledge, rigid people do not change. Durga, the power of Datta, killed this Mahisha today. Similarly the traditional rigid ignorance present in the brains of the people is killed by the powerful message of Guru Datta.

People are doing abhisheka (bath) to a stone, which is in the form of a wave (Shivalingam). This stone represents the wave nature of energy. Consciousness or life energy is the best energy. So the Shivalingam represents the life energy that is in all the living beings. Among all the living beings man is the highest form. Therefore Shivalingam represents the human being. Among all the human beings the human incarnation of God is the best. Therefore Shivalingam represents the human incarnation of God.

Worship Since God is coming in human form in every generation, a

particular human incarnation cannot be represented. The worship to Shivalingam thus represents the worship or service to the human incarnation of God. If such a human incarnation is not available, you have to go to the next best. A devotee is the next best among human beings. Therefore one can serve the devotee if the human incarnation is not available. The human incarnation of God represents knowledge (Jnana). Jnana is the highest. The human incarnation of God always preaches divine knowledge. The next best alternative is devotion (Bhakti). If Jnana (human incarnation of God) is not available, Bhakti (devotee) should be given next higher value. You should not serve a person who is not a devotee. You can serve and turn him into a devotee. Under any circumstances an atheist should not be served or helped. Every living being is indebted to God. If you do not express your gratefulness to God, it is the highest sin. God created everything and everybody.

Thus worshipping inert matter i.e., statues and photographs is a very low form of worship. A statue represents matter. Energy is greater than matter. Worship of the sun, fire etc., which are inert energy, is better than the worship of the statue. Life energy (living beings) is more


135

precious than inert energy. Thus Shivalingam represents the highest and the best life energy i.e., the human incarnation of God, which preaches the divine knowledge. Participation in His mission of propagating the knowledge is the best worship.

Unless you take the internal meaning, you are not benefited in your spiritual effort. If you take the external meaning it only gives entertainment. Rama got victory over Ravana. Rama represents the Satvam quality. Satvam represents knowledge. Ravana, the demon, represents ignorance i.e., the Tamas quality. Arjuna defeated the Kauravas and cows were liberated. Arjuna means white (in Sanskrit) representing the bright knowledge. Kauravas are the sons of the blind king who represents the Gurus of blind traditions. The cows represent the innocent public. Therefore today is the day of the victory of Guru Datta over blind ignorance.

Leave Blind Practices [Deepavali – 2003] Today is the festival of Lord Krishna.

Deepavali [Diwali] means the series of lights. Krishna Himself told in the Gita “Jnana Deepena” i.e., light means knowledge. In other verses also, Swami told the same “Satvat Sanjayate” “Prakasa upa” i.e., Satvam (good quality) is light. Satvam means knowledge. So light is knowledge. The Gita also says “Na Pavakah” i.e., sun, moon and fire cannot shine before Lord. The Veda also says the same “Kutoya magnih”. This clearly discourages taking the light in physical sense. The Veda and the Gita are the authorities. Other Sanskrit verses written by blind scholars are not authorities. Anybody who has learnt Sanskrit can write a verse. Even Charvaka, the atheist, wrote Sanskrit verses.

So, why are you burning lights and firecrackers, which cause pollution of the environment leading to the green house effect? Rains are not coming properly due to this. By burning these lamps, the darkness of ignorance is increasing. Life is the light and hunger is the fire as said in the Gita “Aham Vaishvanaro”. Give food to the beggars who are unable to do work and let their life-lamps glow. You are burning these lights for so many generations. Did the Lord appear or appreciate you at any time directly? Lakshmi (money) comes to you by your sacrifice and not by these lights. These lights benefit merchants alone. Adi Shankara did this real Deepavali. He enlightened the ignorant people by wandering throughout India. The Lord was pleased by such


136

propagation of knowledge and appeared before him in the cave in the Himalayas. Shankara dissolved in the Lord along with his body. Today you must remember the real divine lights that propagated knowledge and devotion. Such divine eternal lights are Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi, Meera, Tyagaraja etc. Inspired by those lights, you should also become a light by participating in the divine propagation of knowledge and devotion. You are burning a lot of oil and ghee today through these lights. Oil and ghee are food. The Veda says “Annam Naparichaksheeta” i.e.; food should not be wasted. Food is also a form of Lakshmi (Dhanya Lakshmi). You are burning Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth). How can you get Lakshmi (wealth) by this act?

Bonds are Chakras Today is the day of the victory of Satyabhama. Satyabhama was

the incarnation of Goddess Earth. Naraka was her son. For the sake of the Lord, she fought with her son and participated in the festival with joy, on this day when the Lord killed her son. She crossed the bond of children due to her greater love for God. Satyabhama means real light. Rukmini is another light because she ran away with the Lord opposing her parents and brothers. The Gopikas are the divine lights. They crossed all the bonds for the sake of the Lord. Radha became mad for the Lord. She is the topmost light as the queen of the 15th uppermost world called Goloka.

There are six bonds represented by the six whirlpools (chakras). They are the bonds with 1) Mother 2) Father 3) Husband or wife 4) Children 5) Fraud Gurus 6) Illusory forms of the real God who is only One.

Out of these six bonds the central two bonds are very strong. If these two are crossed, one can cross all the chakras. The Gopikas danced with Lord Krishna leaving their husbands in the Vrindavanam (Raasakeli). They gave butter (their stored money) to Krishna without giving it even to their children. Hence only Goloka, in which the Gopikas are living, is bright with the real lights called as the Gopikas.


137

Radha is the headlight. Hanuman is also equal to Radha. He never did any work for himself. He participated in the work of Lord alone throughout his life. Such sacrifice comes only due to the madness for the Lord. Radha exposed her madness. Hanuman controlled the same madness because he had to do service for the Lord. Radha exposed whatever madness was hidden in the heart of Hanuman for the sake of the public to understand. If Hanuman had exhibited that madness, the work of the Lord would have been affected. Hanuman and Radha are the two eyes of the Lord, and are the lights of all the lights because any light can be seen only with the eye. Hanuman was a devotee of Rama who was born in the dynasty of the sun. Radha was a devotee of Krishna who was born in the dynasty of moon. It is said that the sun and moon are the two eyes of the Lord i.e., Hanuman and Radha are the two eyes of the Lord. Krishna becomes happy with such real lights.

Spread Real Light Worship the Sadguru who is the incarnation of God in human

form. He comes down to enlighten the ignorant people in this world. Participate in His program of propagation of the light of knowledge. Become His servants and spread His divine knowledge. Then each human being becomes a light of knowledge. All the darkness of ignorance will vanish. This is the real Deepavali by which the Lord becomes immensely pleased with you.

Christians are also burning candles on Christmas day in the same manner. But what did Lord Jesus tell them? He told them “I am the light” i.e., God is Light. Before that light, no other light can shine, because the Light of all these lights is God. The Veda says the same thing “Tasya Bhasa”. He also said “I am the path”. The light means knowledge as per the Gita and the Veda. Therefore this means that the knowledge of Lord Jesus is the path. The preaching of Lord Jesus i.e., the Holy Bible is the path. The preaching of all the human incarnations of God like the Gita, Bible, and Quran are the different lights and are one and the same i.e., the light alone. So all the holy books of all religions are the lights and paths. Since God is knowledge and God is truth, Knowledge is truth. The Veda says the same. “Satyam, Jnanam”. Therefore, your participation in His divine program of propagating the Holy Bible is the real participation in the festival of Candles. God came down in human form as Jesus for this purpose. Then only have you


138

known the truth. This is the meaning of Jesus saying “I am the Truth”. This means that Jesus, who is God in human form, is the real form of God.

The Lord comes down in human form in every human generation. He preaches the same knowledge that was preached by the past human incarnations. Every human generation should participate in the program of the human form of God of that generation. Everybody should participate in the propagation every day and so every day is ‘Deepavali’. Every human incarnation is Lord Krishna. Every ignorant person getting rid of the darkness of ignorance by the divine knowledge propagated by you, is a real light of Deepavali.

Meaning of Light [Light In The Karteeka Month – 2003] The Veda says “Param

Jyotih”. Brahma Sutra says “Jyoti radhikaranat”. This means that whenever the word light comes, it only means God. In ancient times, light was lit using ghee or oil. Neither kerosene nor electricity was present at that time. In the evening when darkness came, the lamp was lit and it was a necessity. In such light they used to bring in the concept of God in that light. Due to light, darkness vanishes. Similarly due to knowledge ignorance disappears. The Gita says that Knowledge is Satvam and Satvam is light. Therefore knowledge is light. Knowledge is God as said in the Veda. Therefore light is thought as God.

Today, why are oil lamps lit in the daytime? At night when electrical lights are present, again the oil lamp is lit. The Veda says that fire exists in three forms: 1) Loukika Agni or Bhowtika Agni is the physical fire, which we see. 2) Vaidyuta Agni is the fire, which is in the form of electricity. 3) Devata Agni is the fire, which is in the divine form.

The first two forms are inert and there is no life and divinity in both these forms. We are imposing divinity on the inert lamp. Such type of worship is called ‘Prateeka Aradhana’ which means worshipping the representative form. E.g. The three-colored flag represents India. When we salute to the flag we are saluting to India. The flag is representing India. Similarly the lamp represents God. Actually, the flag is not India. Similarly the light is not God. Light is fire. Fire is one of the five elements. All the five elements are created by God and are called as creation. God is the Creator. Creation is not the Creator as the flag is not


139

India. Such type of worship can be done even to the electric light. It is also one of the three forms of fire. Why are you unnecessarily lighting the oil lamp? If you want to directly worship the divine form of Agni (fire deity), which is also called as ‘Vaishvanara’, it is present in the form of hunger of living beings. As told in the Gita “Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva”, such a form is the actual form of God. The inert form of fire is very low compared to the actual form of God, as the Veda says “Kutoyam Agnih”. The Veda says that even the sun is useless before God. Before the sun, this oil lamp is useless. So before God this oil lamp is most useless.

Feed Hungry Beggars Instead of Burning Lights We invite a man and give him food treating him as a

representative form of God. Worshipping the oil lamp is also like that. Suppose we invite Krishna Himself who is God in the human form directly for food, what is the use of the ordinary man? Similarly when the actual divine form of fire in the name of Vaishvanara is available, what is the use of the oil lamp and the electric light? When we worship the Sun as God, the Sun represents God. The sun, which is only inert fire, is not God. The Veda says “Nedam tat” which means that this inert sun is not God. Therefore instead of worshipping the inert lamps, as representative forms of God, is it not far better to worship the divine fire itself directly, which is present as hunger in the living beings? Therefore offering food to hungry living beings is the real worship of the divine light. You should not waste oil and ghee [clarified butter] for the sake of inert lamps.

If you say that this is an old tradition, are you following all the old traditions? The old tradition does not wear a shirt and shave the head with only a little hair left like a tail on the backside of the head. Scholars are “Puranamityeva” and “Tatasya kupoyam”. This means that all that is old is not correct and a fool drinks salt water stating that his father dug the well.

The Shiva Linga represents the waveform of energy. The life form of energy is greater than all the inert forms of energy. Shivalinga, which is in the form of a wave, represents this best life form of energy. The light represents the hunger in the living beings. In this Karteeka month, you are worshipping the Shiva linga with oil lamps. Both the Shivalinga and the lamp indicate the living being who is suffering with hunger and


140

real worship is not putting oil and ghee in the lamp or pouring milk, curd, honey, ghee and sugar on the Shivalinga. All these are food materials, which you must give to a hungry living being. That living being can be a bird, an animal, an incapable beggar or a poor devotee.

Shiva represents knowledge as said “Jnanam Maheswarat”. Therefore understand the true knowledge and do the worship in the original and right sense. Then only Lord Shiva will be pleased with you in this Karteeka month.

Stop Wastage [Festival Of Serpents – 2003] You are pouring milk to serpents

today. But you are killing the serpents whenever and wherever you see. A serpent never harms anybody unless it is hurt and fears for its own life. It spreads its hood and gives a hissing sound as a warning. After biting, the serpent does not drink your blood or eat your flesh. Man is killing animals, which do not harm man or eat his flesh. Today you must develop some kindness and understand the serpents. Then today will be a meaningful festival. Moreover you are pouring milk in the abode of snakes [termite-mounds or holes where snakes are commonly found]. The serpent does not drink and the milk is wasted. The Veda says “Annam Naparichaksheeta” i.e., food should not be wasted and that such wastage is sin. Milk is a complete food and by wasting it you are earning a lot of sin. The Veda is the highest authority.

If a priest takes Rs.10/- from you and charges another Rs. 100/- for unnecessary materials, which is wasted, you may sometimes get sin and the money may go waste. An uneducated doctor takes Rs. 10/- as fees and prescribes medicines worth of Rs. 100/-, which do not cure the actual disease and sometimes lead to new diseases. You may give Rs.100/- to a Sadguru and He gives clear knowledge to you like a qualified doctor who takes Rs.100/- and prescribes a tablet worth of Rs.2/-, which will cure the disease completely. The priest represents Karma (Action) and the Sadguru represents Jnana (knowledge). The Gita says that Jnana destroys Karma (Jnanaagnih…)

Understand the Real Meaning The snake abode represents the human body and the snake

represents the hunger, which is the fire-energy represented by waves. Energy is propagated in the form of waves and the serpent also moves in


141

the forms of waves. Therefore the serpent represents the life energy. Giving milk to a hungry deserving person is the inner meaning of this festival. Datta is fond of milk. Therefore, you should offer milk to the human incarnation of Lord Datta or to a devotee of Datta or to an incapable beggar and preach to him about Datta.

Every serpent is not God. Only ‘Adishesha’ is God in the form of a serpent. This is told in the Gita. Similarly Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha etc., are God in human form. This does not mean that every human being is God. Today you must remember that ‘Adishesha’ represents an ordinary human being because ‘Adishesha’ is a serpent and the serpent represents the life energy. ‘Adishesha’ was born as Lakshmana when the Lord was born as Rama. Lakshmana served the Lord personally as well as in His mission. Therefore, Lord Rama gave a permanent togetherness (Sahavasa) with Him on earth. Rama never left Lakshmana even for one day.

The pure mind represents the milk and the human incarnation of Lord represents the snake abode. Pouring the milk in the snake abode represents the dedication of your pure mind to the Lord. The serpent represents the life energy of the human incarnation. Sometimes, the human incarnation may go in a curved way like a serpent [deliberately display some negative qualitites]. Krishna also showed some curved ways. Like the hissing and biting of the serpent, the human incarnation may threaten or even trouble the devotee to test his devotion. In spite of the negative qualities of the serpent, you are offering milk. This means that even if the human incarnation of Datta may exhibit some negative behavior or threaten or harm you, you must dedicate your mind to Him as you pour the milk to the serpent in spite of its negative qualities. This is the innermost spiritual essence of this festival.

Light and Darkness [Shivaratri - February 18, 2004] Shiva is knowledge (Jnanam

Maheswaraat Icchet). Knowledge is Satvam (Satvaat Sanjaayate Jnaanam). Satvam is light (Prakaasa Upajaayate, Vivruddham Sattva Mityuta). Therefore Shiva is light and is white in colour. Science says that light energy is in the form of waves. The Shiva Linga (symbol of Shiva) is in the form of a wave. In the word ‘Shiva Ratri’, ‘Ratri’ means Tamas (darkness or ignorance). The Lord is controlling both knowledge and ignorance (Mattah Smritih Jnaana Mapohamcha). The ignorance is


142

the human form. Knowledge is the form of Narayana. Narayana means the abode of knowledge. Shiva is Narayana. Therefore Shivaratri is a mixture of Narayana and Nara (human body). When the Lord comes in human form both the natures of Narayana and Nara are exhibited. When electric current is passing in a wire the property of the wire, which is to be lean and the property of the current, which is to give a shock, co-exist.

Similarly in the human incarnation, the nature of the human body and the knowledge of Narayana are mixed. On Shivaratri both darkness and light are mixed. The sky is black with clouds, which indicates the human form. The lightening in the sky, which shines now and then, indicates the nature of Narayana. If the nature of Narayana alone is exhibited this world will stop functioning. All the human beings will leave their duties and will surround Lord Narayana. By this the world looses its balance. Moreover people will surround Narayana and try to snatch benefits from Him with selfishness. Then people will fall down in their spiritual path because one should proceed in the spiritual path without any selfishness. It is also not possible to test the firm faith of the devotees if the nature of Narayana is completely exposed. In such case every human being will show firm faith. Then it is not possible to differentiate and reward human based on their faith. If the Lord appears as a completely ordinary human being, without showing the nature of Narayana nobody will approach Him because everybody will think the Lord is an ordinary human being. Then also it is not possible to test a human being since nobody will approach the Lord.

The Lord is the knowledge itself (Satyam, Jnanam Anantam Brahma). The Lord created the ignorance, which is the second substance, for entertainment (Ekaaki Naramate Sadviteeya Maicchat). Therefore to test the devotees there should be both faith and doubt in their hearts. The human nature creates doubt and the nature of Narayana creates faith. This faith represents Shiva and the doubt represents Ratri. The Lord in human form will play with the devotees in this world. The devotees will sway from one side to the other by the properties of knowledge and ignorance and thus the Lord plays with them.

Song of Datta [During this discourse, Swami composed and recited the following

song extempore.]


143

Don’t say that I did not tell the truth When I enquire you in the Pretaloka

You will try to escape from me by saying That you did not know the truth

O priests, you scolded Me already

When I came to the house of Sheela That I was fallen from Vedic actions Then, My dog recited all the Vedas

The attachment to your family bonds is

Like deep darkness solidified in your heart What is the use of these outer lamps?

Except burning for oil and ghee

Give this oil and ghee as food To the beggars who die with hunger

Let their life-lights glow with happiness That is the real sacred ‘Deeparadhana’

Datta came in human form to preach to you

You are not recognizing Him, but you are worshipping The imaginary pictures and statues of the old garments

Left by Him in the past, what is the use?

Sacrifice for Liberation The word Moksha comes from Mo—Moha = attachment and

Ksha—Kshaya = destruction. Therefore Moksha means destruction of the attachment to the family bonds. This attraction towards the family bonds is solidified in your heart from several births. Such darkness can be removed only by the preaching of Lord Datta, which is like the rays of the sun. Unless you are attracted towards Lord Datta you can never reach the Lord. Unless the attachment to your family bonds is removed, salvation is only a dream. Datta means the human form of the Lord that is given to this world. Sages could not get salvation by chanting hymns, penance, meditation, yoga etc., and even by attaining the super powers unless they were born as Gopikas and worshipped Krishna who was the


144

Lord Datta in human form. They were detached from the family bonds and were attracted to the Lord, who was present before them.

The path towards God is full of thorns giving you several problems, miseries and terrible losses. Shankara left His mother, Prahlada left His father, Buddha left his wife, son and kingdom, Radha died for Lord Krishna, Kannappa plucked out His eyes and Hanuman tore His heart with His own nails. All these are forms of the true path leading to the Lord. In your path, which is chanting hymns, meditation, singing songs etc., you are getting peace and bliss. But the Lord is not responding even once to you. Unless you weep, the Lord will not be pleased. Unless you lose your peace the Lord will not be peaceful. Jesus has told the same in Bible “I did not come to give you peace, I came with a sword to cut your family bonds. Unless you leave your parents, husbands, wives, children and even your lives you cannot be dear to Me”. The Gita also says “Mat Gata Praanaah” which means that the devotee’s life itself is the Lord. In the ten stages of devotion the last stage is death (Unmaado Maranam Tathah). When you cut your family bonds you will certainly weep and feel it as a loss and trouble. Therefore Jesus told “The path that leads to Me is very narrow with one or two persons only traveling in it. The path that leads to the Hell is very wide and happy and is full of people”. The Gita also says “Kaschit Maam Vetti, Bahunaam Janma namante”. Sage Vyasa did lot of penance and wrote several scriptures. But he ran after his son called Shuka [due to blind attachment], who was walking intoxicated with the love of the Lord. This is told in the beginning of Bhagavatham (Dvypaayano Viraha Katara). The same Vyasa could not get food in Varanasi for three days. He became angry and was ready to curse Varanasi. But look at Shaktuprastha, who did not get food for ten days during a drought. He could get a little flour and was going to eat with his family. But when the guest came, he sacrificed all of it to the guest with full happiness. Therefore if you are happy in your spiritual path, such a path is filled with flowers and is leading you to hell.

The reason is that such path is strengthening your unreal family bonds. When your spiritual path gives you sorrow, such a path is full of thorns and is leading to the Lord. The reason is that, in such a path you have to cut your family bonds and that gives you a lot of pain and misery. The affection and attraction towards the Lord, which, you are showing today is not from your heart. It is only pretence—you are


145

acting. You are trying to use the Lord for the happiness of your family bonds. Such devotees are called as divine prostitutes. The prostitute talks very sweet words and exhibits sweet feelings only to earn money from a person. Your prayers are such sweet words. Your devotion is such a sweet feeling. The prostitute may fool an ignorant human being but can you fool the Lord who is omniscient? The sacred ash on your forehead, the garlands around your neck and the silk cloth, which you wear are just like the decoration of a prostitute to attract the Lord. You are deceiving yourself. The Lord is furious with you. Even a human being without manners will respond to you if you call him by his name. But the Lord, who has the best manners, is not responding even though you are calling Him hundreds of thousands of times in doing Japa [repetition of the Lord’s name]. By this you can estimate the amount of anger and hatred in the heart of the Lord for you. Even if you do not take a single step on the true path, atleast do not take so many steps in the false path. As you are taking more and more steps on the false path, you are going farther and farther from the Lord and the Lord is becoming more and more furious.

Control the Bhoga [enjoyment], which brings Roga (illness). The association with your family bonds will bring you lot of mental worry. Sacrifice the enjoyment and the association with your family bonds. Develop the bond with the Lord alone and this is the true path. The Veda says “Tyagenaike” and the Gita says “Tyaagaat Shanthih”, which mean that sacrifice of the bonds with every human being and every object in this world alone can bring salvation.

Insulting Depictions [Ganesh Chaturthi September 9, 2005] It is pitiable to depict Lord

Ganapati [Ganesha] with the head of the elephant and offer grass and leaves to Him, treating Him as an animal. The story itself is absurd because the story says that Lord Shiva cuts the head of Ganapati, who was prepared by Goddess Parvati. It is said that Lord Shiva was ignorant of Ganapati being the son of Parvati. How ignorant is this fabrication! Lord Shiva is said to be the deity of Knowledge (Jnanam Maheswaraat). He is Sarvajna or omniscient. Is it not insulting Lord Shiva who is the ultimate Lord? Even in the story of Markandeya, people have fabricated a story that Lord Shiva killed Yama due to excessive anger and emotion and that later on He realized His hasty


146

action. Lord Shiva really gets angry and becomes Rudra due to such insulting stories, which denigrate His divine personality.

Ganapati means the Lord of the devotees of His innermost circle that are liberated souls. He is the ultimate Lord who comes down to this earth in human form to play well here. Ignorance is at its maximum on earth and therefore the earth is an excellent playground for His divine play or game. He comes down along with His devotees of the innermost circle called as Gana (Kridayantam aharnisham—Shankara). It is just like a boy calling his closest friends to play a game or a person going to see and enjoy a cinema along with his family members. Therefore, the ultimate Parabrahman, who descends down in the human form along with His innermost devotees, for the divine play on this earth is Ganapati (Gananaantva—Veda).

What is the meaning of the elephant-head? It means the nature of the elephant. The head represents the intelligence or Buddhi of elephant and not the head of the elephant physically. We scold a stupid fellow and call him a donkey. It means that his nature is like that of the donkey and not his physical form. What is the nature of an elephant? It is said “Gajaana mati Bhirutvam’, which means that the elephant has enormous strength but it forgets its own strength and is always afraid of everything. Similarly, when the Lord comes down, He imposes ignorance on Himself to enjoy the role. The actor should forget himself in the role if he wants to fully enjoy the role. Therefore, the Lord forgets His divine strength and acts like a Jeeva (soul) and fears for the troubles in this world. The Veda says that fear is the characteristic of the limited soul (Atha tasya Bhayam Bhavati). Only then can the Lord fully enjoy and also do full justice to the role.

It is said that Goddess Parvati prepared the body of Ganapati and also introduced life into it. This statement has inner spiritual meaning. Goddess Parvati represents Maya. When the Lord incarnates, Maya prepares the human body and also introduces life, which is Para Prakriti into it. Therefore, life or awareness is only a part of creation and is not Parabrahman. Ganapati also shows five faces like Shiva. This indicates that Parabrahman indicated by the word Shiva has entered the human body. Ganapati is said to be the husband of Siddhi and Buddhi. Siddhi and Buddhi are not two ladies even though the symbolic representation shows two ladies. Buddhi means knowledge associated with logical analysis. Siddhi means attainment. You have to attain the Lord in


147

human form, who is the Sadguru by logical analysis, so that you can eliminate the fraud preachers. Siddhi means the attainment of the Lord in human form.

Sacrifice Under Ignorance Dravya Yajna means the sacrifice of the fruit of your hard work,

which is called Karmaphala Tyaga in the Gita. This sacrifice is praised as the highest stage of the spiritual effort and is emphasized everywhere in Gita. The Veda also says that one gets the goal only by the sacrifice of the fruit of his hard work (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). But in the Gita it is said that knowledge is higher than sacrifice of materials (Shreyaan Dravya mayaat). Now this is a contradiction. Here you have to solve it like this: When materials are wasted in terms of sacrifice that is done under ignorance, the ignorance can only be removed by knowledge. Therefore, in this case knowledge of the inner meaning is better. The Veda also says that the food or money should not be wasted (Annam Naparicheksheeta). But when the fruit of work is properly utilized without wastage, the sacrifice of material is the highest because it is a practical sacrifice. Therefore, instead of purchasing leaves and branches of trees, you can use your money to serve the Sadguru or real devotees or beggars or atleast the hungry animals [in that order of preference]. Feed hungry animals with these leaves. Then the sacrifice is properly done and will give you good result.

Today people are worshipping the statue of Ganapati made out of earth. Such worship is condemned in the scriptures and especially by Shankara as Parthiva Puja. Ravana used to do this every day and was finally destroyed. It is actually a sin to establish the Lord in an earthen statue. You do the ritual of initiation of life (Prana Pratistha) in the idol and then on the 10th day you say ‘Udvasana’, which means that you are removing the life from the body. It means killing Lord Ganapati! You can invite the Lord but should never ask Him to get out after your work is over. You even immerse the dead body [idol] in the river on the 10th day! Instead, you should have a permanent photograph or statue and worship it everyday. You must invite the Lord every day and should never ask the Lord to go. Infact you should know that your invitation will never bring the Lord unless it is fully filled with devotion. Do you think that He comes on your invitation and goes out on your Udvasana? Is He your servant?


148

Some people say that if Lord Ganapati stays in the house, food materials will quickly get exhausted. How foolish is this idea! He is the Creator of this universe. He created you and food for you. Should you have such an idea towards Him? Is this devotion? You are treating Him as some human guest because when the guest stays for more number of days, food materials in the house get exhausted. Infact the statue or photograph does eat even a grain of your food. Ganapati actually represents the Sadguru who is in human form. So now you think that if Ganapati i.e., Sadguru stays in your house forever, food materials will really get exhausted. In the correct sense of this statement Ganapati means the human incarnation and not the statue or photograph. Thanks! Atleast you have recognized that Ganapati means the human form of the Lord and not the statue. Again this statement means that you can keep the Sadguru in your house for 10 days at the maximum and that He should be sent out by the 10th day. Therefore, you are treating the Lord as an outsider and not even equal to one of your family members, whom you keep forever and never ask them to leave. This shows the value you give to the God!

You expect God to protect you in this world in every issue and finally give you salvation in the upper world? On this day we should analyse ourselves and feel ashamed regarding our behaviour to the Lord who gave us this human birth and created all these cosmic facilities. The story that the moon is cursed by Ganapati has also an inner meaning. The moon represents the mind (Chandrama Manaso—Veda). This means that when the Lord comes in the human form, the mind sees only the outermost human body of the incarnation and laughs at the idea that He is the Lord as said in the Gita (Avajananti Maam). The face of such a fellow should not be seen by real devotees and this is the meaning of the story that we should not see the moon on this occasion.

Interpretation of Symbolism You should take the inner sense of the story, which alone is the

truth. Scholars explain the concept in a symbolic language for the sake of illiterate and ignorant people. Ganapati was very brave and stood against even Lord Shiva. This means that when the Lord is with full knowledge in His original form, He is fully aware of His divine strength. But when the head of Ganapati is replaced by the head of an elephant, He forgot all his divine strength and was afraid of everything.


149

This is a symbolic story. The actual meaning is that the Lord in his original form is fully aware of Himself and His power. But when he comes down in human form, He forgets His divine strength and fears like an ordinary soul. This gives full enjoyment to the Lord in the human role.

The vehicle of the huge Ganapati is a small rat. This means that when you enter the service of the Lord, you need not think about your capacity to do service. By the will and power of the Lord you will do His service. You are just an external instrument and the Lord wants to give you divine fame. The small rat carries the huge Ganapati and this is not due to the strength of the rat. It is by the power of Ganapati, that the rat carries Him. When Ganapati and His brother Kumara got into the competition for the selection to the post of Ganapati (the leader of the Ganas), the test was to go around the world and come back at the earliest. Kumara played the role of an ignorant devotee. Kumara represented the serpent, which is famous for its egoism (Tamas) and jealousy (Rajas). He went round the world at a tremendous speed. Ganapati surrendered to Narada who is the Sadguru. ‘Nara’ means knowledge and ‘Da’ is giver. This shows that if you catch the Sadguru and surrender to Him, you can achieve the goal very easily. By the advice of Narada, Ganapati went around His parents [Shiva and Parvati]. Shiva represents Parabrahman and Parvati represents the creation. Therefore, Ganapati went around the Parabrahman and also the creation. Kumara only went around the creation. The human forms of Shiva and Parvati represent the Lord in human form and His real devotees. Therefore service to the Lord in human form and His devotees, is the ultimate path.

The rat was a demon and had become an enemy of the Lord. Finally it was turned into a servant of the Lord. This means that even if you misunderstand the Lord in human form for sometime, but you realise the truth in course of time and surrender to Him, He will accept you as His servant and give you a place in His innermost circle. You need not hesitate due to your past behaviour. The Lord forgets everything and showers love on you in the same way as He graces other devotees.

Today you are offering the sugarcane to Lord Ganapati. The sugarcane consists of the visible matter of cellulose and the invisible sugar, which can be known only by experience. This represents the


150

human incarnation. The visible cellulose is the visible human body. The invisible sugar is the unimaginable Parabrahman, which can only be experienced. Similarly the leaves represent the best item of food, which are green leafy vegetables. The sages lived on leaves, which have herbal medicinal value. Such food develops the quality of Sattvam, which pleases the Lord. It is said that Lord Datta appeared to a sage called Parnada. Parnada means he who eats green leafy vegetables. Unless you understand the internal sense and get benefited, what is the use of celebrating a divine festival simply by wasting the money and by overeating?


151

Chapter - 19 PURIFICATION OF BRAHMIN PRIESTS

Become Great Preachers O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[April 2, 2006} O, Brahmin priests! Even today you are the qualified agents for the propagation of divine knowledge of the Lord. Even today the public is inviting you alone to perform religious ceremonies, which are either auspicious or inauspicious. Every human being has to attend the ceremonies and spend some of his time, energy and money either willingly or unwillingly. Everybody is forced by tradition to attend these ceremonies. Even a human being who is busy with his business or profession and does not spend even a single minute for spiritual knowledge and God also has to attend these ceremonies and spending atleast one full day for these functions. If these ceremonies had been done in the real spirit, every human being would have slowly turned towards God and attained some spiritual knowledge atleast. But, unfortunately there is not even an iota of change in any human being after these ceremonies. If at all there is any change in people, it is not when they attend these ceremonies but when they attend spiritual meetings conducted by spiritual preachers.

Infact, in olden days all these religious ceremonies consisted of spiritual preaching and every priest was really a spiritual preacher. The priest conducting these ceremonies was called as Vasishta. Vasishta was a great spiritual preacher who preached the Jnana Vasishtam (Divine Knowledge). Vasishta used to attend all the religious ceremonies like the ceremony of birth, thread ceremony, marriage of Rama. Vasishta conducted the ceremonies as rituals involving materials (Dravya Yajna) and chanting prayers (Svadhyaya Yajna). When the Vedic hymns are chanted and some materials like sticks, fire etc., are used, the function becomes a mixture of these two types of Yajna [sacrifice]. Infact, today every ceremony performed by Hindus is only a mixture of these two sacrifices. Once the meaning of hymns is revealed, then the interest and quest for God starts. Such quest is called as Tapo Yajna. In this stage,


152

the hymns are explained, discussed and analysed deeply. The final conclusion of such discussions is called as Jnana Yajna.

Today the spiritual functions or meetings, where the audience has interest and the preacher is giving the right knowledge through sharp discussions, is a mixture of Tapo Yajna and Jnana Yajna. Thus, the Yajna or the ceremony (function) has two sides. The external side is the mixture of Dravya Yajna and Svadhayaya Yagna and the internal side is the mixture of Tapo Yajna and Jnana Yajna. When Vasishta conducted a ceremony, both these sides were fulfilled. Vasishta was the priest externally and the spiritual preacher internally. Such a person who is both a priest as and spiritual preacher can only be called as Vasishta.

The M.B.B.S. degree [degree of medicine] trains the doctor both in medicine as well as in surgery. But now the doctor giving medicine and the doctor doing surgery are completely separated. A priest does not act as a spiritual preacher and a spiritual preacher does not act as a priest. Therefore, today every human being has to spend time separately for the priest and the spiritual preacher. But the time spent with the priest is inevitable because the ceremonies are compulsory. The spiritual functions are optional. A person attends religious ceremonies without failure but does not attend any discourses of spiritual knowledge. What is the result if he does not attend the spiritual function? He or she does not get any spiritual knowledge and lives and finally dies like an animal involved only in the welfare of his or her body and his or her family. Majority of people belong only to this category.

In the absence of spiritual knowledge even justice (Dharma) is cracked. Simply preaching about not doing injustice and threatening about the hell cannot control injustice. Suppose there is a corrupt person. If you say that the corruption is not good, nobody will listen to you. If you say by corruption one will be arrested by police, he will find the ways to escape the police. If you say that the corrupt fellow will fall in the hell, the corrupt fellow does not believe this and asks for the proof of hell. Even if somebody believes in the existence of hell, the priests are also becoming corrupt and they show corrupt methods to escape the hell. Therefore, mere telling a person, threatening him in the name of police, courts or hell are not effective in controlling injustice. Unless injustice is controlled, the society cannot be reformed, and will constantly be subject to disturbance and social evils.


153

The permanent solution for establishing social justice or for the liberation of an individual soul is only spiritual knowledge. The knowledge of mere ethics including the threat of liquid fire etc., cannot control the elite intellectuals. Spiritual knowledge alone can establish real justice and also bring about the liberation of the soul. Thus, the Gita, which is the best spiritual knowledge, is competent to establish justice in the society and to give liberation to the spiritual soul. Thus, the Gita mentions about the establishment of justice (Dharma Samstapanarthaya…) and also mentions the liberation or Moksha (Muchyate…), achievement of God (Mameti…) and also pleasing the Lord (Mama Priyah…). Thus, Dharma, moksha and kaivalya are the three birds that can be shot with this single spiritual knowledge.

O priests, in the present situation, you have to become the spiritual preacher also and you must get elevated to the post of Vasishta. Both Pravrutti [path of righteous worldly action] and Nivrutti [path of selflessly serving and pleasing God] sides should be present in the same Yajna. Atleast some basis of spiritual knowledge must be present in every ceremony. Mere chanting of the Veda and using materials develop only pravritti, which is the fulfillment of worldly desires. If only this side is developed, it can also lead to social corruption. Then human beings do everything only for the welfare of themselves and their families. The Lord comes down in human form, to spread divine knowledge, uplift humanity from injustice and to lead it to achieving the grace of God. Therefore, there is no other alternative for the Lord but to approach all of you [priests] to help Him in His mission. If you are elevated as spiritual preachers, every human being will have compulsory spiritual knowledge atleast at some basic level. Then every human being will also attend the spiritual preaching of great spiritual preachers for further clarifications. For this purpose you have to learn the meaning of the Veda.

No Need for Recitation Recitation of the Veda is not at all required in the present time

when the Vedas are stored as printed books. In olden times, since there was no printing technology, preservation of the Veda by recitation was essential. Today you can conduct the ceremony by directly reciting the hymns from a printed book. But some of you feared that in such a case everybody will do this and then you will loose your profession.


154

Therefore some of you created a Sanskrit verse, which states that one should not read the Veda from a printed book (Likhita Pathakah). With this fear only you kept the recitation in living condition. Then there is no alternative than to learn the Veda by recitation from a Vedic teacher. Again there is fear that everybody may learn recitation so that you may lose your jobs. Therefore, you have limited the Veda to your caste only. Thus, keeping this target in your mind you have developed a big vicious circle. You can keep your vicious circle alive even if you say that a Brahmin only can conduct the ceremony even by reciting from printed book. Such recitation will not spoil your condition in anyway. By this you can save the unnecessary time wasted in memorising the Veda from a Vedic teacher. Instead of wasting so much time in memorising the Veda, it is better that you allot this time for learning the Sanskrit language. Once you know Sanskrit, you can explain the Veda, which alone can generate the urge for knowledge (Tapo Yajna) among people. Then only, can the Jnana Yajna come into the picture. Then only can this society be reformed and every human being get liberation and attain the real grace of God.

Do Not Disgrace Your Ancestors You are supposed to be the relatives of great Vedic scholars like

Kashyapa, Bharadwaja etc. The Veda also states this (Brahma Bandhuriva…). You have come down from the sages like a light from another light. You have the genes of those secret sages. Even today the society respects you based on this single point. But the light that came from another light also must have light. The genes must show the same old characteristics. But such characteristics are not seen. This is shameful on your part. You do not know the meaning of even a single statement of the Veda. Your practice reflects your ignorance of the Veda. The Veda says that food should not be wasted (Annam na Parichakshita). But just see your leaves after finishing your meals. [In such traditional ceremonies, the Brahmin priests are fed after the rituals on plates made out of banana leaves.] How much food have you wasted? This wasted food is thrown out and becomes food for bacteria, which causes diseases even to good people. Then, in what way are you different from a demon, who harms good people? Food is a form of wealth, which gives health. Health is the best wealth. This food is Dhanya Lakshmi [Goddess of wealth in the form of food], who is


155

Lakshmi in a particular dress. Dhana Lakshmi [Goddess of wealth in the form of money] is the same Lakshmi in another dress. If you have insulted Dhanya Lakshmi, Dhana Lakshmi is also insulted because Lakshmi is one and the same in both forms. This is the reason for the poverty of Brahmins. If you do not like a certain food item, you must keep it separately in another plate before you taste it because the Veda says that the tasted food should not be eaten by others (Uchchishtamabhojyam). Therefore, it is said before eating itself you should separate the unwanted food (Yat rochate tat grahyam…).

Don’t be angry with Me for this harsh truth. I am also a Brahman [Brahmin] like you. I am your real well-wisher. You may not like My advice but it is true and will be in your welfare. I invite atleast the realised souls among you to join My mission as My soldiers in establishing both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. Let every ceremony performed by Hindus be used as a platform for spreading spiritual knowledge apart from meddling with materials and chanting Vedic hymns. If you follow My advice you will be blessed in this world by Goddess Lakshmi and you will also be blessed by Lord Narayana in upper world to get final salvation and to please the Lord.

[Swami gave this discourse spontaneously in a ceremony in which several Brahmin priests participated. Swami showed the clean leaf on which Swami took His food and compared it to the leaves of other Brahmin priests on which lot of food was left over. Swami became emotional and gave this discourse to all the priests.]

God’s Agents O Brahmin priests, Shankara always argued with Vedic scholars

who were Brahmins and spiritual preachers who controlled the masses as their followers. In the Bible you find Jesus often addressing the priests, who controlled the masses and even the government officials. Therefore, you are essential agents for propagating the spiritual knowledge to the masses. If you are covered all the public is covered. The huge public cannot be approached directly. Therefore, all the human incarnations of the Lord that came down to preach the spiritual knowledge to the entire humanity contacted only these Brahmin priests cum spiritual preachers.

When a marketing manager of mutual funds visits a town for the investments, he conducts a meeting with the agents of that town. If the


156

agents are convinced, the investors in the town are captured. Even if the marketing manager approaches some investor, the agent is necessary while contacting the investor. The reason is that the agent is always in contact with the investor and the investor finally bends only to the agent due to his personal and continuous contact. The agent has influence on the psychology of the investor due to continuous contact. Ofcourse some elite investors may directly contact the marketing manager and learn about the various schemes and may directly invest with the help of the marketing manager directly without the agent. But such cases are rare. The investors in mass come only through agents. In the simile the human incarnation is the marketing manager and the agents are the Brahmin priests cum spiritual preachers. The investors are the entire humanity.

Psychology in Preaching Shankara and Jesus always debated with these priests. Shankara

and Jesus always argued and criticized the priests for their defects. The psychology of a child or an ignorant person is that he does not like continuous criticism. But Shankara and Jesus were eager in the welfare of the humanity and were vigorous in transforming the priests. Infact such transformation helps not only the humanity but also the priests. The ignorant priests did not like such vigorous criticism and therefore Shankara was killed by the black magic of a priest and the priests crucified Jesus. The psychology of a child or an ignorant person is similar; both do not like continuous and severe criticism. But from the angle of the teacher such criticism shows the eagerness of the teacher in the welfare of the student.

The father of a Sanskrit poet called Bharavi used to continuously criticize his son where as people used to appreciate him. One day Bharavi decided to kill his father. But Bharavi secretly heard his father explaining to his mother that the father should never appreciate his son. The Shastra says that if a father appreciates the son, the longevity of the son is reduced. What does this mean? If father appreciates the son he will be easily captured by pride and egoism. Then the fall comes quickly. If the father appreciates the son, the son will think that the appreciation must be true because it comes from the mouth of the father. Therefore, a real well-wisher points out only the defects but the psychology of the other side does not permit this. Therefore, the


157

preaching must be from both the angles, which are the eagerness for transformation of the student and also from the angle of the psychology of the ignorant student. Therefore, criticism must always be mixed with appreciation.

In the Gita you find Lord Krishna appreciating Arjuna here and there while also preaching to him. Parents should also follow such a path with their children. You have tasted the Prasadam of Ugadi just a few days back [Ugadi is a festival. Prasadam is the consecrated food that is distributed on this occasion.]. The Prasadam was a mixture of both sour and sweet. Therefore, I am adopting the same mixture-technology in advising you. Infact the Lord always adopts this mixture-technology. But why did Shankara and Jesus adopt the path of severe criticism? They were also incarnations of the Lord but the situations at that time were serious. When the defects reach the climax and the priests are fully blind, such a path is essential. Suppose your son is blindly following the wrong path. Will you not be serious and criticize severely? But now the situation is not so serious because atleast some of you have open minds and are prepared for transformation. Some of you have come to Me with appreciation and wanted to listen to Me further. Some of you have expressed apology and stated that whatever happened was due to the ignorance of the truth. But in the time of Jesus, all attacked Him vehemently because they were all completely blind, rigid and full of ignorance.

The Great Declaration I am the incarnation of Shri Dattatreya, who was the son of the

sage Atri. I know your minds and some of you have an immediate doubt about this statement. Some of you have even developed repulsion to this statement in your minds. If I do not clear this point now itself, even others will be attacked by the same repulsion. Jealousy and egoism are a very powerful and contagious virus, which cause the repulsion-fever. Let Me kill this virus now itself without allowing it to progress. When I say that I am the human incarnation of Lord Datta, it means that the God embedded in the causal and subtle bodies of Datta, has entered into My human body. I am just a composite of the gross, subtle and causal bodies. In the energetic gross body of Lord Datta present in Brahma Loka, even now the God with the causal and subtle bodies exists. But by His inexplicable supernatural power (Maya), God along with the causal


158

and subtle bodies from that energetic body of Lord Datta has come down and entered into Me. As I said, due to His Maya, God with the causal and subtle bodies still exists in the gross energetic body of Lord Datta. Therefore, when I say Datta entered into Me, Saguna Brahman (God with causal and subtle bodies) has entered into Me.

God by Himself is called as Nirguna Brahman, which means God without attributes (Gunas). Therefore, Lord Datta is speaking through Me. This is the clarification of the concept of he human incarnation. Therefore, do not misunderstand that Lord Datta is Myself. Lord Datta needs a medium composed of five elements in this world. His energetic gross body is not suitable for this world. I am just the wire and Lord Datta is the electric current. By this angle you can destroy the virus of egoism and jealousy towards the human incarnation of God. When I said that I am Lord Datta, it means that the electric wire can be assumed as current. People say ‘current’ by showing the electric wire. From this angle you can treat Me as Lord Datta just like treating the electric wire as current.

Caste Connection Lord Datta was also a Brahmin and I am also a Brahmin.

Dattatreya is the ultimate God but even in that human incarnation the influence of the Upadhi is always there. Therefore, He has some soft corner towards His caste for the same reason, I too have soft corner towards you. The Upadhi is like the external shirt and is not at all the person. The Upadhi is not even a part of the person. The shirt is not your limb like a leg or hand. It is only an externally associated item. Yet, it has some influence on the mind. When the police officer puts on his uniform, his mood becomes serious. When he is in a civil dress and is associated with his family members, his mood is jovial. Therefore, the external dress has some influence on the mind. Similarly, the caste, which is an external factor, certainly has some influence on the mind. My original source as well as Me, have the same shirt and have the same influence. Please understand Me, and realise that I love you all and My advice is totally aimed at your welfare and upliftment and not to harm you in any way.

Therefore, treat Me as your friend due to the common dress that is the caste and take My advise positively. Please do not misunderstand that God has a feeling of caste distinction. God and the soul (pure


159

awareness or causal body) are both attributeless. The feeling of caste distinction is an attribute (guna) present in the subtle body. Therefore, neither God nor the causal body of God has feelings of caste. Even the causal body of any human being cannot have the feeling of caste because the causal body of any living being is attributeless. The difference between a human being and Lord Datta is that in the human being, the soul is controlled by the attributes. Therefore, the human being is overpowered by the caste feeling. In the case of Lord Datta, God and His causal body are not controlled by the attributes. Therefore, the caste feeling is under the control of Lord Datta. Even in a realised scholar, the causal body is not under the control of the attributes and therefore, scholars are not controlled by the caste feeling. Association with an attribute does not mean that you should be controlled by that attribute. Even a controller is associated with the attributes just like a king is associated with his servants. Therefore, remember that the human incarnation of God is associated with all the Gunas, but He is not controlled by the Gunas.

Every human incarnation is Datta alone, and is associated with the three fundamental qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). All the good and bad qualities are condensed into these three main qualities. The three faces of Datta indicate these three fundamental qualities. Thus, Datta does not mean the form with three faces. The Gunas are under His control and will be used by Him whenever the necessity arises. On this occasion, the Lord wants to encourage the priests by removing the misunderstanding that the Lord is their enemy just because He criticizes them. Therefore, the Lord used this attribute to apply as an ointment on the wound created in their hearts due to this sour and strong acidic criticism. There are some clever human beings who say that they do not have a caste feeling. In their case the caste feeling is not present only in their words. But it is present in their mind and action. In the case of Lord Datta here, the caste feeling is neither in His mind nor in His action. It is present only in His words. Great people maintain homogeneity in minds, word and action. Clever people who are bound to hell, maintain heterogeneity in mind, word and action (Trikaranas). The attribute directed towards a good purpose is not sinful.


160

Veda and Brahman The Veda means knowledge. The root word of the Veda is Vidul,

which means knowledge (Vidul Jnane). If you are recite the Veda and if you do not understand any word of it, how funny will be the situation! If somebody is called as Harishchandra Prasad by name and tells lies everyday, how funny it looks! [Harishchandra was a great king who is famous for speaking the truth]. Similarly, you are called as Vedic Scholars (Veda Pandita). Again the word Pandita means knowledge. The root word is ‘Panda’, which means spiritual knowledge (Panda Parmartha Jnanee). In the Gita while writing the commentary on the word Pandita in the second chapter on the first verse itself, Shankara stated this meaning (Nanu Sochanti Panditah). Now the Veda means knowledge and Pandita means also knowledge. Therefore, the word Veda Pandita is stressing on knowledge. Even the word ‘Adhyayana’ means knowledge according to Sanskrit grammar. Therefore, how shameful it is, if you simply recite the Veda without knowing its meaning? When the meaning is not known, how can you practice it? You have recited the Vedic sentences like “Annam Na Parichakshita, Aham Annadah, Ahamannam, Annat Purushah, Aham Brahma, Annam Brahma” etc. Yet you don’t know the meaning of any of these statements. Therefore, you have wasted food by leaving it uneaten on the leaves. All these Vedic statements say that food is Brahman and the food is yourself.

Brahman means the greatest item among a category. Food is the greatest item because it is the basic need of the life. The basic aim of every activity of every living being is only to get food. Therefore food is Brahman. You are a form of food. Your gross body is the form of the matter-aspect of the food. When the food is digested, inert energy is released. This inert energy is responsible for the functioning of your lungs, heart, kidneys etc., in the body. When this inert energy flows through nervous system, it becomes awareness-energy [life energy]. The various works of this awareness energy (mind, intelligence, chittam and egoism) constitute your subtle body. The pure awareness is your causal body or soul. You are just a composite of these three bodies. Thus, the food in the aspect of matter becomes the gross body and food in the aspect of awareness-energy becomes the subtle and causal bodies. The food as inert energy is a part of the gross body itself. Thus, you are totally food. How have you become Brahman? Since food is Brahman


161

and food is yourself, therefore, you have become Brahman. Therefore, food made you Brahman. Now by rejecting and wasting food you have insulted yourself and you have insulted Brahman. The Veda is also called as Brahman because it is the greatest scripture (Brahmakshara Samudbhavam—Gita). Therefore, you have insulted even the Veda. How much sin have you committed by insulting this food! Can there be a greater sin than this? Food is the source of all your activities. Even your spiritual effort is an activity by which you can attain salvation and please God. Therefore, food is the root cause of even your spiritual effort.

Yaska, the sage who prescribed the grammar for Vedas explained the stage of a priest who recites the Veda without knowing its meaning. He compares such a priest to a person who carries a bag of gold and delivers it to the house and takes just one rupee as the porter’s charge. The priest is delivering crores of rupees to another human being through the Veda just for one rupee (Dakshina). This happens because the porter does not know the contents of the bag. The priest who does not know the meaning of the Vedic sentences recited by him is just similar to that foolish unfortunate porter. Without knowing the meaning, how can devotion be developed? In the absence of devotion there will be no fruit from God. Suppose, you go to your father and deliver a dialogue of love in some foreign language, which you don’t know, without knowing the meaning of any word of your dialogue, do you have any trace of love in your heart? Suppose your father asks whether you know the language in which you have delivered your love dialogue and you say that you don’t know the language. Then your father will hate you. Therefore, the meaning alone can generate feeling and not mere words. Love is a feeling. Devotion is love. The Lord will be moved to answer your prayer only by your love.

Yaska says that the ceremony performed merely as a mixture of Dravya Yajna and Swadhyaya Yajna is just like cooking the food without fire (Anagnawiviva…). When the meaning is not known, even the interest for God does not arise then where is the question of love for God. In such a ceremony Tapo Yajna and Jnana Yajna are absent. Yaska says that such ceremony is useless because it does not yield any fruit. The process of such cooking cannot yield cooked food because everything was present except the fire. The process of cooking itself is absent without fire and therefore, the fruit of cooking does not arise at


162

all. Similarly, when the process of devotion is absent, how can the grace of God, which is fruit of devotion, come?

The person who is doing the ceremony is also not getting any fruit from this ceremony. It is a waste of time, energy and money. You fool the public due to ignorance and you are also fooling yourself. Sometimes when the ceremony is over the fruit appears and you think that the fruit is due to your ceremony. If that were true, the fruit should have appeared in every case and for every ceremony. But the fruit appears only sometimes. What does this mean? Due to the rotating cycle of good and bad fruits (Karma Chakra) the good fruit appeared accidentally at that time. You attribute the fruit to your ceremony. A palm fruit was just about to fall and exactly at that time, a crow landed on that branch. You think the fruit has fallen due to the landing of the crow. This is called as ‘Kakataleeyaka’. If the fruit had fallen due to the landing of the crow, the every time a crow lands on the branch, a fruit should fall. The Gita says the same (Naadatte kasya chit…). The Lord says that He is not giving good or bad fruits by Himself. Only the good or bad actions of a soul are giving the corresponding fruits. Ofcourse in the path of the highest proved devotion, the Lord may consider a special case and may yield some good fruit. The technique in such a case is also very complicated.

Generally in such a case the Lord brings the good fruit from the future cycle to this present birth like the premature withdrawal of a deposit. People think that the Lord gave the good fruit by His grace even though they have not done a good deed. Actually what they are getting is the fruit of some good deed done by them in the previous birth, which is not known to them. Only in a very very rare case, does God undergo your punishment and yield good fruit, pleased with your exceptional devotion. In such a case your exceptional devotion itself is considered as a good deed. Therefore, even in that case the theory of Karma is not violated. For this case also devotion is needed, which is a feeling that depends on the meaning of the word and not on the sound of the word. In what way are you different from a tape recorder uttering the same sounds? The sound may generate a little feeling but such feeling is very much negligible compared to the feeling generated by knowing the meaning of the words. Unless you know the meaning and discuss with sharp analysis and unless you draw the right conclusions and practice


163

the final conclusions of the discussions, how can you prove your real love towards God?

Without the proof of love, God will not respond to you because God is not a human being who can be fooled by false love. Some human beings may be satisfied by the expression of love itself and may be trapped without the proof of the love. Such human beings are ignorant fools. In olden days, poets fooled kings in this way and the poets were rewarded with wealth. But God is not such a foolish king, who can be trapped by mere poetry without the proof of love. Hanuman never praised Rama by any prayer as you can see in the Ramayana. Every action of Hanuman was a proof of the love towards Rama. Therefore, Rama made Him the Brahma (Creator) in the next cycle of creation. All this can be known only by knowledge. Therefore, you must become a Vedic scholar and you must turn every ceremony into a Jnana Yajna. If you simply recite the Veda you cannot be called as a Veda Pandita and you shall be called as Veda Pathaka, which means a person who sounds [recites] the Veda.

Divine Infrastructure The infrastructure for conducting a professional college is already

present. Buildings and laboratories are present and only attendants and non-teaching staff exist. What is the use of such infrastructure without the technical and teaching staff? Can the students be benefited? Similarly, huge temples with statues and priests along with the management members exist. The temple is the building. The statues are the laboratories. The priests who just wash and decorate the statues are the attendants. The management members are the non-teaching staff. The public attending such temples are the ignorant students. If a college without technical and teaching staff exists, and if they say that the student will get a degree in that college, can you believe it? Similarly, if the priests or the management committee of a temple advertises that by visiting the temple one can get upliftment in this world and can get salvation, you should not believe it. If a student goes and observes the clean and decorated equipment with full meditation and prays to it, can the student become an engineer or doctor? Similarly, if you go to the temple and concentrate and pray to the decorated statue, you will neither get your desires fulfilled in this world nor get the salvation in the upper world.


164

There should be the technical and teaching staff to teach the theory and practical in the college. The present temples without such scholars are just like the colleges without teachers. It is just like a beautiful human body without life. Therefore, you must appoint a scholar also along with a priest in the temple or let the priest be a scholar too. You have the faculty improvement program in a college. Similarly, let all the present priests be taught Sanskrit and let them learn the concepts of all the scriptures. Even the knowledge of Sanskrit is not necessary. Language is just a vehicle of communication. Let the priest be trained in the concepts of the scriptures so that when the public attends the temple, the priest need not recite some unknown hymns in Sanskrit. Let the public sit before the statue. The statue represents the concept of a human incarnation. Let the priest or the scholar explain the concepts of spiritual knowledge in different angles. Then only a temple becomes meaningful and serves the purpose for which it stands.

In olden days the temple was under the control of a learned scholar called as Mathadhipati. Matham means a temple and it is a centre for knowledge. Every temple was a Matham. The king never interfered with the administration of the temple and never touched the funds of the temple. The king spent only the revenue collected from the public for the public works. Similarly, all these temples today must be handed over to a committee of great saints and let the administration of the funds be handed over to them. You doubt about the corruption and misuse of the funds. Do you think that corruption and misuse is not present today. It is present in every place. When the spiritual knowledge is propagated, not only will the present corruption in temples disappear but so will the corruption in the entire country.

Nara And Narayana Nara is a man. Rama acted as Nara only. His Godliness was

hidden in Him like the sugar inside a wheat cover. Unless you cut with your teeth you cannot get the sweet. Ramayanam is that type of sweet. Narayana is superman. Lord Narayana is like candy sugar. Bhagavatham is like this. Only angels and sages can take the sugar directly.

Coming to Bharatam it is mixture of the story of Pandavas and the story of Lord Krishna. It is like wheat flour mixed with sugar in a sweet (Laddu).


165

For human beings, both man (Nara) and superman (Narayana) are mixed as human incarnation as in Lord Krishna. Human beings cannot tolerate Narayana with His intensive divine qualities like the candy sugar. They cannot relish an ordinary human being like tasteless wheat flour. They can relish a human incarnation in which both the normal properties of Nara and divine properties of Narayana are mixed, which is like Laddu prepared by mixing sugar and wheat flour. Hence, human incarnations are mixture of Nara and Narayana in various propositions, which are Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha etc.

Rama And Krishna Rama came to teach ‘Pravrutti’, which is the way to live in this

world peacefully selecting justice and discarding injustice. Krishna came to teach ‘Nivrutti’, which is the way to reach God by selecting God only if there is a competition between God and justice. God is the highest and He protects even the justice. Protector is greater than the protected.

Sages in the forest asked Rama that they will become women by their superpower and get rid of the male egoism. Rama told that unless they are born as woman, they couldn’t get rid of male egoism. Accordingly sages were born as Gopikas (ladies serving cows) and got rid of the male egoism. But they got the natural jealousy of woman. Headache disappeared but Malaria appeared. Hence Lord Krishna danced with all the Gopikas together to remove the jealousy from the heart of each Gopika. This is the aim of His dancing with all the Gopikas together (Raasakeli) in Brindavanam gardens. Thus Raasakeli was a training program to remove jealousy from the hearts of the sages. God belongs to all devotees equally. When egoism is removed the soul becomes sage ‘Atri’ and the jealousy is removed the soul becomes ‘Anasuya’. Atri and Anasuya only achieve Datta (God).


166

Chapter - 20 PATHS OF JUSTICE & PLEASING GOD

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Kolkatta] There is no village or town in India in which there is no

temple of Lord Rama. The statue of Rama preaches two points to you: 1) The Lord will come in human form. 2) Miracles are not the signs of the Lord.

As told in the Gita, the Lord comes only in human form (Maanusheem Tanu Maasritam). Even though Lord Rama did not perform any miracles, Hanuman and the sages identified Rama as the Lord. Hanuman Himself exhibited several miracles but He never claimed to be the Lord. Ravana on the other hand, exhibited miracles and claimed to be the Lord, but nobody agreed.

Preacher of Pravritti Lord Rama came to preach ‘Pravritti’. Pravritti means, the path of

worldly justice in which one human being has to interact with other fellow human beings. Nivritti means sacrificing your work and the fruit of your work (money) to the Lord, with full faith and full surrender, when the Lord comes in human form. Nivritti is the way of salvation in which the Lord comes in human form. Lord Krishna came to preach Nivritti. He preached the Bhagavad Gita, which is the knowledge of Nivritti.

Lord Rama practiced the knowledge of Pravritti. Pravritti (justice) is only practice. It is just the knowledge of rules of the Lord, which you have to follow in society. There is no discussion in Pravritti. But in Nivritti you have to discuss the truth. World peace is the result of following Pravritti. Only when there is world peace can devotees travel in the path of Nivritti in peace by putting forth spiritual effort. In Pravritti, loving fellow human beings is important. By Pravritti, one can atleast love the human form of Lord as one of his fellow human beings. Otherwise generally people insult Him due to their jealousy as told in the Gita (Avajaananti Maam Mudhaah). In this way, Pravritti helps Nivritti. If you treat the human form of Lord as an ordinary human


167

being, it is not wrong. But if you recognize Him as the Lord you will get salvation.

Sita, the Devotee In the temple of Lord Rama, Sita stands by the side of Rama. She

was a great devotee. Among human beings the difference between male and female is only in body and not in the soul. Sita served the Lord by Karma Sanyasa (Sacrifice of work). She could not do Karma Phala Tyaga (Sacrifice of the fruit of work). She indicates the firm faith in the Lord. Even though she did not get happiness in the forest, she never left the Lord. This means that one should not leave the Lord even if He does not give boons or even if He gives troubles. One should not aspire for anything in return from the Lord. Ravana showed miracles. But Sita did not mistake him to be the Lord. This means that a true devotee will never recognize the Lord by miracles. Lanka, the kingdom of Ravana was a golden city. Ravana invited Sita to be his queen. But she was not attracted. This means that wealth and money will never attract a true devotee.

Hanuman, the Servant Also in the temple, there is an idol of Hanuman kneeling at the

feet of Lord Rama. Hanuman believed in the human incarnation (Lord Rama) and participated in the work of the Lord. He even sacrificed family life in the beginning itself, for the sake of the Lord. He always sacrificed his work because he was a saint (monk). The fame of all his works was dedicated to the Lord only. He never claimed to be the Lord even though he performed miracles. Hanuman was made the future creator of this world. He tore his heart with his own nails and was prepared to give up his life for the sake of the Lord. Hanuman always did the work of the Lord. He grew to a gigantic size when he was praised and he jumped over the sea. But he did so only for the sake of the Lord. He will not grow when you praise him in order to get your work done by him. He is not such a fool. He will not insult the deity of justice by canceling your sins and by giving you the fruits of good deeds, which you have not done. He is not a monkey who will run for your bananas and palm leaves. He is very intelligent. He is the topmost scholar and highest devotee. He is the real servant of the Lord, who never aspires for anything in return. He is the purest person. This


168

knowledge must come to your mind when you see Hanuman. Like him you must also recognize the Lord in human form and participate in the work of the Lord with great concentration.

Ideal Brothers Lakshmana was very young but he still left his wife for fourteen

years to concentrate on the service of the Lord. He sacrificed the Kama (love towards his wife). Bharata gave back the kingdom to the Lord and sacrificed Artha (wealth) to the Lord and did Karma Phala Tyaga. He kept the two wooden sandals of the Lord on the throne and ruled on the Lord’s behalf without actually taking the powers of a king in his own hands. This means that once you sacrifice anything to the Lord you should not try to manage or control it again. Sathrughna tried to attack and kill Kaikeyi (his own step-mother) with a sword when she unfairly sent Rama into a forest-exile. He sacrificed Dharma (justice) for the sake of the Lord.

God Is Beyond Criticism God’s Ways Are Unimaginable

People criticize God due to misunderstanding. God can never be criticized because whatever God does is the perfect justice. You are criticizing God with your limited knowledge. Let us take the case of Lord Rama. People criticized Him mainly in two points.

After the battle, Sita was brought to Lord Rama. Rama said to her, “Go and marry Bharata to become the queen of Ayodhya or marry Vibhishana to become the queen of Lanka”. People criticize Rama for such harsh words. If you refer to Valmiki Ramayana (Sundara kanda), Sita said “Piturnidesam...” i.e., “O Rama, after two months you will go to Ayodhya, marry several ladies and enjoy the kingdom. I will die here always thinking about you”. Sita blamed the Lord by such words and therefore the Lord retorted with the same harsh words.

Even though Sita was proved to be chaste by entering the fire, a washerman in Rama’s kingdom blamed her. Based on that blame, Rama sent her to the forest (exile). For this point, the answer is as follows:

When Rama was chasing the golden deer, Sita asked Lakshmana to go and help Rama but he refused since he wanted to stay and protect her as per the orders of Rama. Angry at his refusal, Sita said to Lakshmana “You have come to forest along with your brother with a


169

motive to enjoy me in the absence of your brother”. This sin is more severe than the previous sin because abusing a devotee (Bhaagavat apachara) will make God more furious, than abusing Himself (Bhagavat apachara). So the Lord created an equivalent blame through the washer man and also sent Sita to forest.

In the first sin her words were punished by words. But in the second sin, which was more serious, her words were punished by words and action. Now why should Rama punish Sita in her life itself? Sita was the incarnation of Maha Lakshmi. She had to go to Vaikuntha Loka (heaven) directly from earth and was not supposed to go to hell. For this purpose, Lord Rama cleared her file (of karma) containing these two sins here itself.

Similarly Lord Krishna was criticized for dancing with the Gopikas in Vrindavanam. There are two points here to be noted before you criticize Lord Krishna.

1) Did He dance like that with other women after leaving Vrindavanam?

2) Did He ever come back to Vrindavanam to dance with them again? Let us go back. Krishna was Rama in the past incarnation. Gopikas

were sages in their past births. The sages were attracted by the beauty of Rama and wanted to embrace Him in the form of ladies. Rama promised that their desire would be fulfilled when He came as Lord Krishna in His next incarnation. Let us go back even further. Krishna was Lord Datta. These sages were the sages living with Lord Datta. The sages were men and had families. Yet they said that Lord Datta was their husband. There was no objection from any corner since they were men. Lord Datta wanted to test these sages by changing the situation by making those sages as family women. Lord Datta incarnated as Lord Krishna. Now could the sages as family ladies say that Krishna is their husband? There would be a lot of opposition from all the corners if they said so? Was the attraction of the sages for God so powerful that they still could say that? This was the test of Datta. The Gopikas passed the test. The Lord left Vrindavanam, since there was no need of re-examination. So He never returned back. He did not conduct this same test outside Vrindavanam because there was nobody else who was a devotee of that level. Therefore, Lord Krishna never danced like that, outside Vrindavanam. This test was of a very high level and was limited


170

only to those few sages. If the Lord was of such a nature (flirtatious), then after He left Vrindavanam at the age of eighteen years, He would surely have danced with other girls elsewhere or atleast returned to Vrindavanam to dance with the Gopikas. This clearly proves that the Lord was not of such a petty nature as you think.

Lord Shiva is blamed for killing Yama Dharma Raja (Angel of Death), who was bound by duty to take the life of Markandeya. People say that Shiva killed His own officer on duty due to hasty anger and then realized His mistake and had to correct His own mistake by bringing Yama back to life. Can the Lord err like this and be forced to rectify His mistake? This allegation damages the divine personality of Lord Shiva.

Actually Lord Shiva killed Yama in the case of Markandeya only to teach Yama a lesson. Earlier to this, Yama Dharma Raja gave life to Satyavan when Satyavan’s wife, Savitri, had flattered Yama by praise and begged for her husband’s life. In doing so, Yama had violated his duty. He should not have violated his duty on being praised. Now he was so particular of his duty of taking away the life of Markandeya, although Markandeya was involved in praising and worshipping Lord Shiva at that moment! Therefore, in order to correct Yama, Lord Shiva played all this drama. Infact Markandeya was a radiation of Shiva Himself (Kala Avatara). So, one must be very careful before criticizing God. One should have the patience to analyze and have firm faith in God and believe that whatever God does is justice.

These clarifications were not revealed so far to this world. Only today Guru Datta is revealing the truth by giving the correct explanation. Only the Sadguru, who is the incarnation of the Lord Guru Datta can reveal such truth.

Meditation on Spiritual Knowledge In this way, you have to get spiritual knowledge when you see the

statues or pictures of Lord Rama in the temple. Such knowledge will help your spiritual effort. You will attain the grace of the Lord by such knowledge as told in the Gita (Jnana Yajnena Tenaaham). When you meditate on the image of Lord Rama, there is no use of your attraction towards the golden crown present on His head, which will only increase your attraction towards wealth. It will harm you in your spiritual effort. The crown indicates that Rama is the Lord of this world. When you see


171

His bow and arrow you must know that Rama punishes evil people. When you see His Abhaya hand (His hand making a gesture indicating, ‘Do not fear’) you must know that He protects good people. This knowledge will help you. What is the use of keeping His form and ornaments in the mind? What is the use of merely knowing the story of Rama like a child; it is just like a story in a novel or the story of a movie or the news of your neighbor? Dhyana (meditation) means the decision of knowledge taken by the intelligence after discussing (analyzing) in one’s mind; Sankalpa and Vikalpa. This knowledge is stored in Chittam (memory) and this is called Dharana. The Ahankara (ego) uses this knowledge in practice for its benefit and it is called Samadhi. If you get a doubt in practice, it is called Savikalpa Samadhi. If you have no doubt in practice, it is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which was followed by Hanuman. Therefore, He became the future creator by worshipping the Lord in human form in this world.


172

Chapter - 21 LORD OF PRAVRITTI AND NIVRITTI

Gratefulness in Pravritti O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[December 18, 2005] God is the Lord for both Pravritti [path of justice] and Nivritti [path of pleasing Lord]. You have to please the Lord even in Pravritti. If the Lord is not pleased in Pravritti you cannot please Him in Nivritti. The fundamental requirement to please the Lord in Pravritti is to have satisfaction at every step. Contentment with whatever you have will always please the Lord. You must be happy with whatever is already given to you by the Lord and you must always thank Him for the past. You should not put your eye on the present or the future and put an application to the Lord [you should not aspire for more]. Even if you have travelled from one place to another, you must thank the Lord for having protected you during the journey. You have reached the destiny only by the grace of the Lord. It is not certain that one will reach the destination safely by bus, train or aeroplane. If any accident takes place, you are gone forever. Everybody is under the influence of strong ignorance and thinks that he has reached the destination by his effort. Some people think that reaching the destination does not need any special effort and that it is just a routine thing. Therefore, either you feel egoistic for your effort or you neglect the journey as a routine matter, which does not require any effort. Both these are illusions. You have reached the destination only by the grace of the Lord. Therefore, in every stage, you must remember the Lord and express gratefulness to Him. By such behaviour the Lord becomes immensely pleased and is encouraged to do everything for you.

Jesus always used to thank the Lord even in every little work. He always thanked the Lord for the past and was never worried about the present or the future. He thanked the Lord for the four breads already given by Him. He was never worried about the thousands of visitors who came to see Him and that they were hungry. He never planned for the future consequence of such a situation. The Lord was extensively pleased and multiplied the four breads into thousands of breads.


173

Therefore, contentment with what already you have and thanking the Lord for whatever is already given will please the Lord. You must thank the Lord even for every breath that you take, because it is only by the will and grace of the Lord that your lungs are working and the air is going in and coming out of the lungs. The heart beats and every beat is only by the graceful sanction of the Lord.

Contentment in Pravritti I find several people who crave for money all the time irrespective

of what they already have. They never attain satisfaction at any stage of the growth of their financial strength. God becomes displeased with such people and will not grant further wealth because the fellow will never get satisfaction. There is no use of granting any amount of wealth because the fellow is never satisfied. When satisfaction is absent, the person will not thank the Lord with a full heart. Even if he thanks, it is only for the future sanction. Therefore, if you really wish to have the grace of the Lord to remove your present financial crisis and poverty, the first step you have to take is to have satisfaction and complete contentment with whatever you already have. Plan with the existing funds and adjust yourself accordingly. If you have the will to adjust, you can adjust to any quantity of wealth. When the adjustment is done, you will have full satisfaction. Then if you pray to the Lord, you will not ask for anything more because you are already satisfied. In that case your prayer is not for the fulfilment of any desire. Your prayer is for the Lord Himself and not for anything other than the Lord. Your prayer will be in His praise alone and not for any desire because you have full contentment already. Then the Lord gets real pleasure from you and will force His grace on you continuously. He will rain wealth on you forever.

The wealth will be multi-dimensional. Wealth does not simply mean cash. Wealth means health, good children, good appetite for food, good digestion, good sleep, perfect peace, success in every effort, continuous courage, knowledge and finally salvation. Goddess Lakshmi [Goddess of wealth] is in eight forms and only one form out of them cash (Dhana Lakshmi). Therefore, if you really wish to get rid of the eight forms of poverty from your life and if you really wish for the eight forms of wealth, the only qualification you have to attain is full contentment with whatever you have already. The Gita says the same (Nitya Triptah…). Shankara was in such a state. When He praised


174

Goddess Lakshmi, she rained golden fruits. He did not take even one fruit from that heap. He desired for Goddess Lakshmi and for Her grace, but He never desired for the fruit of Her grace. He derived bliss from praying to Her and from Her constant grace. The gold rained by Her does not give bliss. It only gives tension and worry. It always creates dissatisfaction. It destroys contentment. If you have ten gold coins, you will aspire for one hundred. After getting a hundred you will aspire for a thousand. There is no end to this. You will never achieve contentment and you will be in a stream of dissatisfaction till your death. Therefore, if you touch the beginning of this chain, this infinite chain of wealth carries you away. If you do not touch it, you will always have contentment. Shankara said that the poor fellow is always fortunate (Koupinavantah Khalu Bhagyavantah). Shankara also said that money would only lead to the misery of dissatisfaction (Arthamanartham…).

If Kaika [Kaikeyi] had remained satisfied with whatever position her son already had, she would have not lost her husband. Her son might have been happy in the palace. But by her greed, she became a widow and was scolded by all the public. Her son also left the palace and lived like a saint in a village. If Sita were satisfied with the ordinary deer present before her hut, she would have lived happily. Her desire for the golden deer brought all the troubles for her. If Ravana were satisfied with his beautiful wife Mandodari, he would have been happy. His attraction for Sita ruined the whole family and kingdom. Dasharatha gave two boons to Kaika who was his youngest queen. He gave the two boons due to his over-attraction for her. She was very young and therefore, did not have any maturity of mind. Therefore, it was the foolishness of Dasharatha to have given the two boons to the youngest queen Kaika. Those two boons finally took away his life. Rama wanted to fulfil the desire of Sita due to His attraction towards His wife. But Lakshmana advised Rama not to go after the golden deer, which was obviously a trick of the demons. Lakshmana had that wisdom of analysis because he left his wife and came to forest with full control of his mind and senses. Rama, due to the constant association with the beautiful Sita, was so much attracted to her that He could not deny her desire.

Therefore, association with people decides one’s whole fortune based on the nature of those people. If Rama had valued the association of Lakshmana, He would have been very happy. But He voted for the


175

association of Sita and landed in troubles. He lost the power of discrimination due to constant association with such a beautiful lady, who was very young and therefore had an immature mind. Thus, both Dasharatha and Rama were misled by the attraction towards their young and beautiful wives. Bhishma was the protector of the throne of Hastinapuram. Protection means protecting the interest of the king and the way may be sometimes harsh. Bhishma knew that his son Dhritarashtra was doing wrong. Had he become harsh and controlled Dhritarashtra, the whole Kaurava dynasty would have been protected. Bhishma could not become harsh and this mistake led to the total destruction of the dynasty. Similarly, Dhritarashtra could not control his son Duryodhana. After all Dhritarashtra was the king and any order of the king had to be followed. He need not have feared his son, because powerful people like Bhishma, Dhrona, Kripa etc., were associated with him and would have ensured the implementation of his orders. In spite of this, he blindly followed his son due to blind attraction. The result of that was that his son was completely destroyed. This teaches us that the head of the family, father, should control his children and should not mind using any amount of harshness for the future welfare of his children. Such harshness will be praised as real love.

Draupadi laughed and criticised Duryodhana when he came as a guest. Due to this Duryodhana took his revenge on her. She reacted to his revenge and took an oath that unless he was destroyed she would not tie her hair. Bhima was emotional and always tried to fulfill her oath. But Dharmaraja was wise and tried to avoid the war even at the cost of her oath. Bhima fulfilled her desire but the final result was that she lost all her children on the last day of the war. Finally, she repented but it was of no use. Therefore, the husband as the head of the family, should always control his emotional wife and should follow the path of wisdom like Dharmaraja. He should not be blind like Bhima just to fulfil the desire of his emotional wife. In long run, the path of emotion will be very sad and irrepairable; no amount of repentance can rectify that. The leg of Satyabhama, His wife, hit Krishna. She was proud and was always controlling her husband. But finally, with the help of Narada, Krishna taught her a lesson and she landed in trouble. Rukmini was without any egoism and was obedient to her husband. Finally, she won her husband and got ultimate success. This is a lesson for all household wives. Similarly, Rama also taught Sita a lesson about her undue


176

attraction towards the golden deer. Therefore, unless you satisfy the Lord in Pravritti, how can you satisfy the Lord in Nivritti, which is more critical?

Richness of Swami I passed through a severe phase of poverty in My life. There were

days when I just had a handful rice only once a day. But I am telling you without any trace of hypocrisy that I was fully contented with whatever I had. I allowed all the family members to eat the food first and whatever little was left over was taken by Me with full pleasure and satisfaction. I was with full health and I was not having any trace of illness in those days. I was very active both physically and mentally. My concentration on God was at its climax in those days. I always praised the Lord with full bliss and never asked the Lord for a single paisa. I always thanked the Lord for that handful of rice given to Me because I compared Myself with several beggars and pitiable animals like street dogs, which were not blessed even with that amount of food. My position in the list of all the living beings was very high. I never thought that My position was low. For that high position I always thanked the Lord. It was the best time for Me to test the faith, loyalty and sincerity of My wife towards Me. I searched for any trace of dissatisfaction or displeasure in her mind towards Me. But, I am proud to announce the truth that I could not find any such trace in her mind. She would always console Me and preach philosophy to Me whenever I acted in grief. Whenever I remember those days, I feel that those days were the most sacred days in My life. In those days I rose to the highest spiritual level and was completely absorbed in God. Thus, poverty in the materialistic line was the richest time for Me in the spiritual line. Wealth and happiness bring egoism and inertness to the brain. Poverty and misery destroys the egoism and will make you think of God at all times. Therefore, if you really analyse, poverty is wealth and wealth is poverty.

Essence Of The Epics [Jaipur] If we grasp the essence of the Ramayana, Bhagavatam and

Mahabharata, it will be very useful to our spiritual effort. Hanuman was a saint (monk). He could not sacrifice the fruit of work (money). He could only sacrifice His work (His efforts for the Lord’s mission) and dedicate the fruit of His efforts to the Lord. He always participated in


177

the work of the Lord and sacrificed Himself in the work of the Lord. In the Bhagavatam, the Gopikas were householders. They could sacrifice the fruit of their work. Moreover there was no work of the Lord at that time in which they could participate and so there was no need of any sacrifice of work. They did not give the fruit of their work (butter) even to their children but they gave it to the Lord. Today people are doing sins in order to sacrifice the fruit of that work to their children. They earn money by sinful means and pass on that money to their children. Such people should remember the Gopikas. Hanuman and the Gopikas neither worshiped the energetic forms of God such as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, which are not seen in this world, nor did they worship the statues of previous incarnations. Hanuman did not worship Vamana and Narasimha, who were previous incarnations of God. The Gopikas did not worship Rama who was the previous incarnation of God.

The Gita says that the Lord incarnates in human form even every minute if required (Yadaayadaahi). The word ‘Yuga’ in the Gita (Sambhavami yuge yuge) could mean a year or even a human generation. If the Lord came in one human generation only, then He would become partial. If the Lord came in only one place, He would not be available to the people in other places. The Lord appeared as sixteen thousand Krishnas at different places. Akkalkot Maharaj, Shiridi Sai Baba and Vasudevananda Saraswati were different incarnations of Lord Datta that existed at the same time in different places. The Veda says “Yat sakshat aparokshat Brahma”, which means that the Lord is available before you and can be seen by your eyes. Every human incarnation is Datta (God who has given Himself to human beings in human form). The egoism and jealousy, which hinder the recognition of such a human incarnation, should be removed. Only then can one attain Datta. Hanuman became the future creator and the Gopikas reached the topmost heaven called ‘Goloka’. These two fruits are the highest. Therefore, the human incarnation is highest for humans. Hanuman and Gopikas are the highest devotees. Sacrifice of work and sacrifice of the fruit of work are the highest worship.

Mahabharata In the Mahabharata the Lord preached to Arjuna to sacrifice

selfish work or karma. The battle of Mahabharata was meant for killing evil people and therefore, the battle was the work of the Lord. Arjuna


178

was advised to participate in the battle as a servant of the Lord. Arjuna was participating in the battle but his participation could not be called as sacrifice of work, because Arjuna was fighting for the kingdom; the battle was his selfish work. He was thinking that his son Abhimanyu should become the future king. Therefore, when Abhimanyu was killed, Arjuna wanted to withdraw from the war. This proved that Arjuna was fighting for the kingdom with the bond for his son and he was not fighting as a servant of the Lord. This clearly shows that Arjuna was selfish.

He who cannot sacrifice his work, also cannot sacrifice the fruit of the work. He continued the fight even after Abhimanyu’s death because he still had his other son, who was born to Draupadi. Draupadi had five sons and the Pandavas were aspiring for the kingdom for the sake of their sons. Therefore, the Pandavas never said that they would sacrifice their entire kingdom to Lord Krishna. They feared that if they had said such a word, Krishna might accept and take over their kingdom.

The Pandavas mean those who are white in color. White represents sattvam or the good quality. However, they were merely black pieces of charcoal painted white from the outside. Internally they were equal to the blind Dhrutarashtra (the enemy king). By the will of the Lord, the sons of the Pandavas were killed. This is “Dattam chhinnam” which means that Datta operates upon (cuts) everything. Only after this incident did the Pandavas lose their blind bond with their children and were liberated. A doctor with an M.D. degree gives medicines. A surgeon with an M.S. degree operates. The Lord is both the doctor and the surgeon. He (Lord Krishna) gave the divine knowledge in the form of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the medicine. But the medicine did not work because Karma Sanyasa and Karmaphala Tyaga, which are the signs of good health, were not achieved. Therefore, the Lord operated and cut the bonds of the Pandavas with their children by destroying the children. The right side of Lord Datta is ‘Guru’ (preacher), who is the doctor. The left side is ‘Bhagavan’ (God), who is the surgeon. Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Datta and therefore, He was not mentioned in the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is just one third of Lord Datta; the other two-thirds of Datta are Brahma and Shiva.


179

Ramayana You can see the Lord by prayers (words) and devotion (mind) but

you cannot please the Lord by them. By such things you may be pleased but the Lord is not pleased. Sugreeva was near Lord Rama and was serving Him personally. Sugreeva was happy by such service. But the Lord was not happy. Hanuman left the presence of the Lord to search for Sita. Hanuman did not attend to the personal service of the Lord in that time. He was far from the Lord and was unhappy. But the Lord was happy with Hanuman. Hanuman was made the future creator but not Sugreeva. Sugreeva was given only a petty kingdom in this world. Ravana got a vision of Lord Shiva by penance, which is nothing but prayers, devotion and meditation and they are related only to words and mind. Yet, Ravana was destroyed along with his kith and kin, since Lord Shiva was not pleased with him, since Ravana did not practice any sacrifice. Rama never did such penance. But He sacrificed His wealth and even His wife practically. Lord Shiva blessed Him. Therefore, practical sacrifice alone can please the Lord. If you do service, which is not required by the Lord, it may give you some pleasure, but it will not please the Lord. While Rama is busy with the construction of the bridge on the sea, if you chant the name of Rama and sing songs, Rama will not be pleased with you. Infact He will be angry with you. If you really care for Lord Rama, then you have to carry the stones and help building the bridge. Therefore, doing the service required at that time is important. When Lord Rama is on the throne after the war, you can do the service that is appropriate at that time. The practical service is sacrifice of work and its fruit. If you are lazy to sacrifice your work and if you are greedy and do not sacrifice the fruit of the work, there is no use by doing service with empty words and mind. You can deceive ignorant people by such words and expressions. But the Omniscient Lord can never be deceived. Therefore, the essence of human life is only to recognize the Lord in human form and participate in His work.


180

Chapter - 22 PATH OF PLEASING GOD FROM EPICS

Extent of Total Sacrifice; Not Potentiality O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[August 04, 2007] The entire spiritual knowledge exists in the Upanishads (Veda) or Shruti. Smriti is another category of texts, which should be taken as an authority if it does not contradict the Shruti (Shruti Smriti virodhetu…). Smriti consists of the Gita along with the Ramayana, Bhagavata and Mahabharata (the three sacred epics). Infact, the Gita itself is a part of the Mahabharata. The Puranas come after the Smriti (Shruti Smriti Purananam…). The sacred epics deal with the secrets of the spiritual effort of Hanuman, the Gopikas and Arjuna towards their contemporary human incarnations called as Rama and Krishna. Third class people take these three epics as some historical stories and get entertainment. Second class people learn ethics (Pravritti) from these epics and practice good behavior with their family and society. First class people identify the secrets of the spiritual effort (Nivritti) and get the grace of God through practice. Lord Datta now focuses on the Nivritti in these epics for the benefit of spiritual aspirants.

Let us take the scene of Ramayana in which the monkeys are trying to jump over the ocean in the service of Rama. The monkeys expressed their abilities to jump in terms of miles of distance that they could jump. Hanuman could jump the whole distance to Lanka20 and completed the work of Rama. The devotion (Bhakti) of Hanuman and the monkeys is equal. Every monkey is ready to sacrifice its total effort. But the monkeys could not do the work only due to their inadequate potentiality (Shakti) and not due to inadequate devotion. God sees only the total surrender of your potentiality in His work, which is a practical proof of your total devotion. The magnitude of your potentiality is not a point for God. Here in this case, since every monkey is ready to surrender its total potentiality, each monkey is equal to Hanuman in the eyes of God. There is no difference in the surrender of each one’s total 20 Cross the sea between them and the island of Lanka.


181

effort. Hanuman could do the work only due to His adequate potentiality and so, He is not greater in devotion than any other monkey. Therefore, the fruit from God should be equal for both Hanuman and the monkeys. The Lord gave a place for all the monkeys in His Brahma Loka (called as Vaikuntha in the case of Narayana). But He made Hanuman as Brahma Himself, who is the Lord of Brahma Loka. Does this mean that God considers the magnitude of one’s potentiality also as a measure of devotion? [Swami posed this question to all the devotees and there was suspense and a lot of anxiety among the devotees for the answer. No devotee could give the answer even after a long time! Finally Swami gave the answer by which all devotees felt very happy.]

The answer for this is that God never gives any value for the magnitude of one’s potentiality. God gives value only to the surrender of total potentiality possessed by the devotee21. Then, what is the answer to the above question? The answer is that though God treated Hanuman and the monkeys equally in the above scene, due to their equal extent of maximum devotion, there is a difference between Hanuman and the monkeys. After the war, Rama rewarded all the monkeys with golden ornaments for their service. All the monkeys took the jewels and wore them. This indicates the aspiration for fruit in return for their service, which is hidden in their sub-consciousness, without their knowledge. Rama did not reward Hanuman and Hanuman never felt bad for this. However, Sita felt bad and rewarded Hanuman with a chain of pearls. Sita could not understand Rama. She should have kept silent because the actions of God are unimaginable. By rewarding Hanuman, Sita insulted the Lord indirectly before all. The drama that followed was by the will of the Lord, who kept silent with a smile on His face.

Hanuman took the chain and started biting each pearl with His teeth and threw each of them away after observing it. The sages and monkeys objected to this and asked Hanuman for the reason. Hanuman told them that He was searching for Rama in the pearls and anything without Rama is useless for Him. By this Hanuman is establishing the fact that God does not exist in the creation (Neti Neti…—Veda). Then, the sages told Hanuman that His body also must be useless since Rama is not in that body. Then Hanuman tore His heart and showed Rama in His heart. This shows that God as Narayana (Rama) is present in Him

21 God only sees how much of your total potentiality you sacrifice to God. No matter how much your potentiality, you should sacrifice it completely.


182

because Shiva is Narayana and Hanuman was an incarnation of Shiva. Hence, devotees should not attempt to do this! This clearly proved that the servant of the Lord should not aspire for anything other than the Lord as the fruit of his service. Due to this point, Hanuman excels above all the monkeys and His special fruit is thus justified.

Let us come to Sita who, bent her head after this. What is the reason for it? You might think that Rama insulted Sita in return. It is not so. The reason is that she joined the list of monkeys, since she was also wearing the ornaments, which did not contain Rama. She is lesser than Hanuman. This is also justified because Sita was a liberated soul and Hanuman is God. Therefore, do service to God without aspiring for any fruit in return. Aspiration for the fruit gives lesser fruit and service without aspiration for the fruit gives the highest fruit in the case of serving God. This point is valid in the case of God (Nivritti) only. One should not be foolish to follow this principle in Pravritti, because people will exploit you! Ofcourse, you can implement this concept in serving poor people and deserving devotees and such service will be a training for you for the path of Nivritti. But you should not implement this throughout the Pravritti because exploiters are many in this world, especially in this Kali Yuga!

Essential Components of the Spiritual Effort Complete faith, complete devotion proved through practical

sacrifice and complete absence of aspiration for fruit in return are the three essential components of the spiritual effort. The faith in the existence of God is the fundamental concept. Regarding the address of God, the contemporary human incarnation is the convenient path for doing practical service. Practical service cannot be done to the formless God and to statues of energetic forms of God who are in the upper worlds, such as Vishnu. Neither can you serve statutes of past human incarnations. In the case of statues, the priests alone enjoy your service indirectly. Direct and meaningful practical service is possible only in the case of the contemporary human incarnation as done by Hanuman and the Gopikas.

Shankara said that one should not aspire for the fruit either in this world or in the upper world, for the divine service done (Ihamutra Phalaviragah….). Today people have no faith in the existence of the very upper world! To them there is no point of fruit after death. There is


183

no hell from which God can protect us. There is no heaven to receive any happiness after death. There is no Brahma Loka at all. Hence, people want fruits in this world itself. Some people are not even sure of the fruit in this world, after doing the service. Hence, they say that if the fruit is given first, they will render service after receiving the fruit. This shows the lack of confidence in God even to do business with Him22. For some, the existence of God itself is doubtful and hence they require the fruit first and only then will they do something in return. Some say that if the fruit is given first, then they will favor God by believing in Him. They feel that God wants to increase the percentage of believers in this world. They feel that if a certain percentage of believers is not maintained, God will lose His Supreme post! In spite of such mean and meaningless mentalities, God is responding to every trend because God is the Divine Father and is always anxious to eternally uplift the souls. Except for this point, God has no other reason to respond to every kind of people of such low levels.

Hanuman showed Rama in His heart because God existed in Him always, since He was an incarnation of God. Even otherwise, God could have entered the heart of Hanuman temporarily, to give proof to protect this best devotee. In the case of Hanuman, such a temporary entry was not required because God already existed in Hanuman, who was an incarnation of God. Hanuman is God as the actor, who is acting in the role of a devotee. Even after this incident, Rama did not announce the fruit to be given to Hanuman in the upper world because Hanuman, as the best devotee, did not aspire for any fruit in this world or in the upper world. From the point of Hanuman, there was no need to even announce the fruit of the upper world. This does not mean that the fruit was absent.

When the aspiration is absent, the fruit will be the best. When God is pleased, the fruit is seen here as well as there. If God is pleased with you, you will receive the fruit here as well as there because God is the Lord of both the worlds simultaneously. If His grace exists in the upper world, it must also exist here. Some people say that their welfare in the upper world is protected even though their welfare here is damaged. This concept is meaningless. If God blessed you, you will be blessed here as well as there simultaneously. If you are well here, you will also

22 Doing service to God and demanding a proportionate fruit in return is doing business with God. These people do not have enough confidence in God even to do this sort of business.


184

be well there. God will not show anger on you here and show His grace on you in the upper world. Either His grace or His anger will be shown simultaneously here as well as there. You may be troubled for sometime here, for the sake of a divine test but that is not permanent. If you are permanently suffering in this world, it means that you are a sinner forever.

God is Blameless The anger of God on you is only constitutional23. You are

punished only for your sins according to the computerized divine constitution and personally, God does not favor or curse you (Nadatte kasyachit papam…—Gita). Therefore, such eternal sinners need the spiritual knowledge very much, so that they can get a permanent solution. Hence, while serving them externally to give temporary relief, you should preach the spiritual knowledge and turn them into devotees. Today some people are doing social service to the downtrodden people, but that is not a permanent solution. Social service with a divine background is very much required. People who concentrate only on the social service will get temporary heaven and the people who receive such social service also get just a temporary solution. It is temporary benefit on both sides.

Today the government is concentrating on social service without touching the element of God in the name of secularism. In ancient times, kings were also doing social service but they were combining it with the divine mission so that both the donor and receiver got a permanent solution. The ancient kings went to the permanent abode of God and the served beggars also became devotees and got a permanent solution. The present government with a secular policy will go to the temporary heaven and the present poor people served by this government also get temporary relief limited to this life and to this earth alone.

People often blame God stating that they are troubled since God created this world for His entertainment. They say that God is a sadist because He is entertained by their suffering. This is sheer nonsense. God created this entire world consisting of souls. The souls constitute Para Prakriti, which is a part of creation. He gave complete freedom to the souls and also gave them intelligence (Buddhi), which is the powerful faculty of discriminating between good and bad. God propagated His 23 It is not personal.


185

constitution, which clearly contains the subjects of good and bad. The prophets propagated this constitution on this earth. Now if God is deriving entertainment just by observing the creation, how can you call Him a sadist? He is not responsible for your desires and the selection of good and bad for which you have full freedom. He is not responsible even for a trace of your desire or even for a trace of your subsequent action. The constitution only gives information and does not encourage you to act in anyway.

A restaurant exhibits a board listing the various food items available. The board is only for your information. According to your taste, capacity of digestion and health problems, you have to select the suitable food item. You cannot blame the restaurant saying that the restaurant is responsible for your indigestion, just because it exhibited a particular food item to which you are especially attracted! A person is standing in the balcony of his residence and is watching the traffic and getting entertainment. Suppose an accident takes place on the road, you cannot blame the observer for being responsible for the accident. You are well aware of the traffic rules and yet you overlooked the rules. So you are responsible for the accident. The observation and entertainment of any spectator is not at all connected with the accident.

Two Parts of the Divine Constitution The divine constitution consists of two parts. The first part is

Pravritti, which is the social behavior to live in this world in peace and harmony. This Pravritti is based on heaven, earth and hell, which are plus, zero and minus signs respectively. If you do social service by helping poor people, you will get heaven, which is a temporary pleasure, proportional to the extent of your sacrifice in the social service. For this, you will also receive results on earth either partially or totally. If the result is not seen on earth, you will receive the total result in heaven after death. However, the result is not permanent (Kshine Punye…—Gita) because your social service is not blended with the divine mission. If you only do the service to your self and your family, you will live on this earth in happiness and peace provided you do not harm others with corruption and torture. For this also, the result is temporary because the result is confined only to this temporary human life. Anyway, in both the cases the result is temporary. If you are confined only to your self and your family, there is no result after death and you will not enter


186

heaven for serving your family and your self. You will enter heaven partially or totally for serving the weaker sections in society but the stay in heaven is temporary.

In doing social service, you may confine to your village, district, state, country, religion or earth, but you should not harm any living being in this service. You must avoid corruption and torture of any living being on this earth while doing the service. If you indulge in corruption and torture of any living being, the court here will punish you. If you escape punishment here, God will punish you here partially and in hell after the death, partially or totally. The punishment of God is meant for the transformation of the soul and not for revenge as observed in terrorism. Terrorism wants revenge without aiming at the transformation of the soul. It does not understand the whole divine system and even denies God due to emotion. Emotion kills analysis. Patience will give happiness and the permanent solution. Do not take the law and order into your own hands. If the court or the government fails in implementing justice, God will punish even the court and the government because only human beings constitute the court and government. Hence they can err. All this comes under Pravritti. If you avoid hell after death and punishments here, by limiting your self to the service of your family and the society, God is pleased with you.

Nivritti is the second part of the constitution. The sages like Manu etc., propagated the first part on this earth by the order of God. The sages like Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, Sanatsujata etc., propagated the second part. These names are different in other religions but the basic program is one and the same because God is one and this earth created by God is also one. The second part constitutes the path of attainment of eternal happiness (bliss) by becoming close to God. The basic principle is to become a member of the family (inner circle) of God. Here you will receive the love of God, which is eternal and the fruit is eternal bliss. But the fruit is achieved only when you do not aspire for the fruit and serve God in His mission under His direction. For this purpose you have to finally recognize your contemporary human incarnation and you have to surrender yourself completely to His will. Only a very small minority can follow this second part.

A border between Pravritti and Nivritti is also available. It is, loving God for the sake of achieving some fruit. This is a transition from the first to the second part. The selfishness of the soul is not lost but


187

God is introduced here as an instrument to achieve the fruit. You love God here as an instrument to satisfy your selfish desire. Majority of people are confined only to this state. Atheists are also in a minority; they are confined to Pravritti without God. God is pleased with them also and will even sanction heaven to them if they are not involved in corruption and the torture of any living being. If the atheist is involved in social service in the above way, he will also be sanctioned heaven here and there. Infact, Purva Mimamsankas were atheists, who were constantly indulged in Yajna (sacrifice) without God (Devonakashchit…). They believed in angels but not in God. This means that they were serving good social workers but not the human incarnation on earth. Yajna means sacrifice of food and money to good social workers (angels) without the Sadguru (God in human form like Krishna). They did not give food to Krishna during the sacrifice. But their wives recognized Krishna (contemporary human incarnation) and gave food to the Lord. Only in the beginning of this Kali Yuga was the real meaning of Yajna lost due to stupid priests, who did not learn the meaning of the Veda and started burning food in the fire!

Therefore, God and His constitution are giving information of the path desired by you and do not compel you to choose any path (Jnapakam natu karakam…—Shankara). The railway authorities prepare the railway guide. It gives the route to Mumbai and other cities. It does not create any desire in your mind to go to Mumbai. If you desire to go to Mumbai, it explains the route and it does not insist that you should take up the journey to Mumbai. Neither the guide nor the authorities are responsible for your benefit or loss in Mumbai. Shankara argued with the Purva Mimamsakas, who said that one should perform the sacrifice to reach the heaven. Shankara said that the Veda is like the guide and God is like the authority in the above simile.

God’s Guidance in All Worlds The upper worlds contain fully realized souls called angels. The

topmost world contains liberated souls in the inner circle of God. The lower worlds contain demons, who are rigid atheists. There is no necessity to teach the realized souls or the rigid ignorant souls. Liberated souls are far superior than even the realized souls called angels. Indra etc., are realized souls whereas Adi Shesha, Garuda, Narada etc., are liberated souls. The angels are affected by ignorance


188

very rarely and hence preaching is almost unnecessary in the upper worlds. Therefore, there is no need of God’s incarnation in the upper world. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the constant energetic forms of God in the upper worlds. Similarly, there is no need of any incarnation in the lower worlds because there is no use of any preaching to rigid demons.

This earth contains human beings, who are neither fully realized nor fully ignorant. These human beings become realized after hearing the preaching and become human beings again, which are like mild demons and mild angels integrated together in one form. Therefore, God comes again and again to preach and uplift them. This story of upliftment and the subsequent fall repeats again and again and hence earth is a constant stage of continuous engagement for the entertainment of God. The liberated souls always accompany God as the constant troop of actors and receive entertainment along with God. It is said that angels also request God to give them a chance to participate in this entertainment. Arjuna is called as Nara, who represents the human being (Nara). Arjuna always had a mixed feeling towards Krishna to accept Him as God. Even Dharmaraja, a better human being, failed to accept Krishna as God, when told to violate justice on His order. But Bhima is said to be the middle liberated soul in the chain of the Madhva cult consisting of Hanuman, Bhima and Madhva, the three sons of Vayu who are sincere servants of God. Bhima represents Tamas, which is famous for its rigid nature.

Tamas diverted to God, brings the soul to the stage of liberated souls and the same tamas diverted to the world brings the soul to the state of demons. Brahma represents Sattvam, the state of knowledge. Even though He stands for Rajas, He is involved in knowledge, which is Sattvam. The process of analysis is action and action is Rajas. The analysis of knowledge should end in the practical implementation, which is action. Vishnu who stands for Sattvam, but is always dynamic, indicates this second state of the action of knowledge. Rajas is action. Vishnu is the administrator who does action but has knowledge of discrimination in the background. Sattvam and Rajas are integrated in both the cases. Finally the determination, which is Tamas, representing Shiva, is important for constancy in the implementation. Thus, Bhima is a liberated soul, who maintained constancy in implementation. Arjuna and Dharmaraja slipped in the service of Krishna but Bhima never


189

slipped and did whatever Krishna ordered. When Krishna ordered Bhima to kill the elephant named Ashvatthama to cheat Drona, Bhima implemented it at once.

Madhva is the final preacher who preached about service. Vayu is said to be very strong and is said to be the best angel in the Veda (Vatat Vishnoh Balam…, Vayurvai Kshepishtah…). The knowledge (Sattvam) associated with Rajas is analysis and the knowledge associated with Tamas is determination. The determination leads to constancy in practical implementation. The three qualities are always integrated and inseparable in every stage of the spiritual effort. Similarly, you cannot separate the three divine forms of God (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) who descended as the three spiritual preachers (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) and are integrated in every stage of the guidance.


190

Documents

Divine Discourses Vol -2