Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BY
DATTA SWAMI
VOLUME - 8
Contact Information
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Shri Datta Swami Parabrahma Sutras
When I enter the human body in becoming the human incarnation, the
human beings who are egoistic and jealous do not recognize Me, the Lord of this
world. They treat Me as a human being and repel against Me due to their inherent
repulsion towards any greatness seen in their co-human beings. Instead of
accepting Me as the greatest, they hate and even insult Me.
—Bhagavad Gita
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as Lord Dattatreya, who has come down in human form for preaching
the spiritual knowledge. Swami’s words exactly coincided with the
words of the Nadi astrologer. Please do not tell this information to
anybody”.
Actually on that day when Swami (Datta Swami) was talking to
this devotee, who is my friend, on the phone, Swami was in my house
and I was just before him hearing the same. I felt that this information is
thrilling and will make the devotees happy. Therefore, I told Swami
Vishnu Dattananda about this information with a lot of happiness.
Swami Vishnu Dattananda also felt very happy and directly phoned to
Swami about this information. Swami laughed and told him, “The
devotee wanted to keep this information secret because if I come to
know of this, I may ask him about the necessity of approaching an
astrologer when I Myself had told him the same. He felt that I may
question his confidence and devotion in Me. But he has full faith in Me
and all this happened only by My will. This becomes a supporting
evidence for My statement. When that devotee told to keep this
information as a secret, it means it has to spread fast according to the
present terminology of human beings”. Swami laughed loud while
stating this.
One day I heard Shri Ganapathi Sachidanada Swamiji also telling
in His divine discourse that one Nadi Shastra speaks that a scholar from
South India will come and spread divine knowledge which will capture
the entire world. Swamiji stated that from that time onwards Lord
Dattatreya will lead this world and Thursday will be declared as a
Universal holiday.
We are also told that the famous book on future written by
Nostradamus mentions about the appearance of a scholar from India
who will establish the Universal Religion in the world so that the
differentiating boundaries of all the religions will disappear.
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CONTENTS
1. SOCIAL SERVICE & DIVINE SERVICE .....................................................1
Work And Worship .....................................................................................2
Types of Devotion: Prostitute, Merchant & Real........................................3
2. KNOWLEDGE IS ASSOCIATED SIGN OF GOD ........................................6
Ladder of the Spiritual Path.........................................................................6
Meaning of Yajna ........................................................................................7
Service to Datta is Final ..............................................................................8
3. IMPACT OF THE PREACHING OF LORD ................................................11
Only Minority Changes .............................................................................11
Order of the Present Day Yoga .................................................................13
O Preachers! Keep Datta as Your Guide...................................................14
Does Yoga Mean Doing Physical Exercises? ...........................................15
4. THIS KNOWLEDGE IS FROM GOD ONLY ..............................................18
Unexpressed Doubt Answered ..................................................................18
Different Levels Of Devotees....................................................................20
God Never Becomes Fully Ignorant..........................................................22
Granting Boons by Human Incarnation.....................................................24
Incarnation Speaks in Relative Plane for Majority ...................................25
Spontaneous Divine Bhajan on Kalabhairava ...........................................27
5. GOD COMPETES WITH STRONGEST BOND..........................................29
Money is Strongest in Kali Yuga ..............................................................29
Chakras Signify Different Family Bonds..................................................31
Saints don’t Require after Death Rituals...................................................33
Real Meaning of Yajna..............................................................................36
Priests And Astrologers Colluded .............................................................38
Final Conclusion........................................................................................39
Achieve Salvation here & It continues after Death...................................42
Love the Lord rather than Respecting or Fearing......................................45
Authorities in Sprituality ...........................................................................48
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Chapter - 1
SOCIAL SERVICE & DIVINE SERVICE
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devotion like meditation, prayers, songs etc. Knowledge can come under
this theoretical devotion. Though it appears as theoretical devotion, it
has a separate status (Jnana Yoga is separated from Bhakti Yoga)
because without the knowledge, both devotion and service are
impossible. Ofcourse, if the knowledge does not end in service through
the devotion, such knowledge again comes under useless theoretical
devotion. Knowledge, devotion and service are the three consequent
steps to please God. If service (which can be called as practical
devotion) is not done, the knowledge and devotion are only theoretical
and useless. We find great scholars of divine knowledge and great
devotees without the aspect of sacrifice of service. Such theoretical
scholars and devotees are useless and do not achieve even a trace of the
grace of God. Such scholars can be useful in preaching to the public and
such devotees who are good actors in expressions and singing can be
used as actors in devotional cinemas.
A boy saw a movie called ‘Bhakta Prahlada’ and was greatly
inspired by it. He became a saint after living in a cave without food
(Bala Yogi in Andhra Pradesh, India). But the girl who acted as
Prahlada in that movie became a great actress in the cinemas and earned
a lot of money. Such unfortunate preachers and devotee-actors are
mocked by the Veda as animals of angels (Devanam pashuh). Such
unfortunate souls are meant only for serving others and cannot enjoy the
result. An animal like a bullock cultivates the land through hard work.
The fruits of the crop (grains) are taken by the farmer and the useless
grass is given to the bullock. The bullock even carries the grains from
the field to the house of farmer as a vehicle. The film actress who acted
as Bhakata Prahlada is like such a bullock and all the money earned by
her is like the useless grass. The boy who sat in the cave in the
meditation of God is like the farmer who got the fruits of the crop.
Types of Devotion: Prostitute, Merchant & Real
Majority accepts the existence of God. But God is unimaginable.
A form is required to pray to, praise or meditate upon God. Prayer,
praise and meditation are theoretical devotion, which are the preliminary
step. When you love a girl with mind and express love for her by sweet
words, it is all just the theoretical phase. She may be trapped by you to
fulfill your desire by such theoretical love but your love is that of a
prostitute [insincere love]. You will avoid marriage which is practical
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Chapter - 2
KNOWLEDGE IS ASSOCIATED SIGN OF GOD
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devotee. If you are on the ground, I will appreciate the first step before
you. But if you have climbed the first step, I will appreciate the second
step and criticize the first step with respect to its higher step. Therefore,
My appreciation and criticism vary from one level of devotees to the
other level of devotees. You should not misunderstand that My criticism
means condemning that stage totally in all directions for all levels of
human beings. Sacrifice (Yajna) should be performed and I am not
condemning Yajna as the followers of Jnana do. I only condemn the
misinterpreted practice of Yajna [burning of food in fire]. If Yajna is
performed in the right sense [cooking food and serving to human
incarnation or devotees], it is far far greater than Jnana (knowledge) and
Bhakti (theoretical devotion). The sacrifice is practical devotion or
service to deserving human beings like the human incarnation, devotees,
poor people etc.
Meaning of Yajna
Yajna does not mean burning food in the fire which is criticized by
Lord Kapila in the Bhagavatam. The fire is only a means to cook the
food (Yajna Sadhanam). Fire is not the deity (upasya) of the Yajna. The
Sadguru is the deity of Yajna who acts as the priest and is the fire
personified (Yajnasya Devamritvijam—Veda) due to the radiant light on
His face and hunger-heat in His stomach. Fire is characterized by light
and heat. Today in the Yajna the priest who does not know the meaning
of Vedas is acting as the Sadguru. In olden days, Sadguru who knew the
meaning and essence of the Vedas acted as the priest. Everything is
reversed today. Here again I do not condemn the priests. I only criticize
them. Due to their lack of knowledge, they give food to the physical
fire. I only advise them to learn the Sanskrit language in which the
Vedas are composed. They should study the Shastras to give the right
interpretations. For example in Yajna, to understand the personification
of fire as Sadguru, the knowledge of figures of speech (Alankara
Shastra) is required. Sadguru is indicated by the word ‘fire’ through a
metaphor (Rupaka). These priests do not even know the language; the
knowledge of the Shastras is far beyond expectation. This Yajna which
is looked upon as a very inferior path of karma, now becomes the
highest state of the spiritual path, which is the practical sacrifice and
service to Sadguru or to devotees or atleast to poor people. Such Yajna
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that the grace of God will shower upon humanity and the government
will also get good name and success.
The uneducated and undeserving priest stealing your service and
the innocent management wasting the money is one extreme end. The
Advaitin, who eats the food offering it to himself assuming that he is
God, is another extreme end, which is selfish greediness in disguise. In
between these two extreme ends, which are totally unreal, the middle
golden path of truth is serving deserving beggars, the deserving
devotees and Sadguru in increasing order of importance. Sadguru is God
in human form directly and is more pleased if His real devotees who
participate practically in His divine mission are served. God likes such
real devotees (having practical devotion) more than Himself. Between
God and real devotees, the real devotees are more important for Him.
God will tolerate if He is insulted (Bhagavatapachara), but will never
tolerate if His real devotee is insulted (Bhaagavataapachara). Ramanuja
left His wife since she insulted real devotees. Lord Vishnu did not react
when Hiranyakashipu scolded Him, but He reacted vehemently when
His real devotee, Prahlada was insulted. Between beggars and God, God
should be more important. Jesus supported His personal service of
applying perfume to His feet over serving beggars. He said that beggars
are always present, but the chance to meet Him was very rare. A hungry
person should be fed immediately as an emergent service. Even if he is
an atheist, human life should be saved because there is a chance of
change in him in the future if his life is saved. Social service involving
helping the poor is always appreciable provided such service is followed
up by the divine service i.e., propagation of knowledge and devotion.
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Chapter - 3
IMPACT OF THE PREACHING OF LORD
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human life. They say that after that enquiry, either permanent place in
the abode of God or permanent hell will be the result of the divine
judgment. Such concept is absolutely correct and is also universal. The
entire direction should be towards God and a little attention can be given
on stress relief and all ancient Hindu preachers like Shankara etc did
this. But everything is reversed now.
The law of God is one and the same in any religion. God uses His
special power in the case of exceptionally deserving devotees to grant
the human rebirth and this cannot be generalized. In Hinduism this
exceptional facility is extended to every human being and this caused a
careless lenient view about the spiritual effort to concentrate on God.
The president of the country can cancel the death punishment in the case
of a deserving candidate using his special power. If this is generalized
and if every human being is granted this facility, there is no fear for any
one to do a murder! Due to this reason only, we can find most of the
Christians and Muslims in Churches and Mosques to worship God and
they are not found in the stress relief-work shops. We can find mainly
Hindus in these work shops. Hindus feel that a number of chances of
human birth will be available in future and going to hell is only a
temporary visit and hence, they concentrate on stress relief in this world.
One must note an important point here. By concentrating on God
through devotion, you will get the stress relief also, which is included in
the devotion. Then why to spend time in these workshops for mere
stress relief from these temporary worldly problems? In the school all
the subjects are taught. If you go to a single teacher, you can learn one
subject only. Which is better? School or Tuition teacher? By the divine
knowledge and devotion, you are getting stress relief in this world as
well as in the upper world. In the workshop you can get stress relief
from the problems in this world only. I am not criticizing these
workshops because I am not in the competition with those preachers for
fame or wealth. I am also not jealous with those preachers for their
fame. I am only pained by the fate of the followers and those preachers
also in the future. The Veda says that blind lead blind and fall in the
well (Andhenaiva…). Some preachers say that they know the truth, but
they are doing like this for initial attraction. But the initial attraction is
always continuing through out the human life. What is the difference
between such workshops and cinema theaters, since both give stress
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it is also solved forever! Such a state in which the thoughts are dissolved
and the mind is destroyed results in the state of a stone in human form.
Now, you will become the statue of the human being carved in a stone
and in the next birth you will become even the real stone!
The mother, father and preacher represent Vishnu, Shiva and
Brahma. The mother is concentrating on the physical health by giving
proper food. The father is concentrating on the development of mental
health by giving proper education to earn wealth and fame. The preacher
(Guru) concentrates on the development of spiritual line of the soul,
which is eternal. The mother is on one extreme end with blind love and
the preacher is on another extreme end with true knowledge. The father
is in between these two with world oriented knowledge. Lord Vishnu
stands with Lakshmi, to give you worldly pleasures. Lord Shiva stands
with Parvati, to give you longevity and fame by granting power. Brahma
stands with Sarswati and the Vedas, to preach you the spiritual divine
knowledge. Brahma is the actual form of Guru Datta. People like the
mother to a large extent as you see the rush in Tirupati (Temple of
Vishnu). A lesser crowd is seen before the temple of Shiva who saves
you from death and gives you the materialistic prosperity also along
with knowledge. Brahma has no temple. Datta was not famous at all.
The reason is that people are interested in the temporary worldly affairs,
which are visible here. They are not interested in the permanent
invisible life after death in the everlasting fire of the hell.
O Preachers! Keep Datta as Your Guide
Every spiritual preacher should keep Guru Datta as the guide.
People should follow the preacher but should not be the reverse. In this
Kali Yuga the system is reversed. The husband follows wife. The father
follows the son. The teacher follows the students. The preacher follows
the devotees. The aim of the teacher in the present colleges is to please
his students so that his job will be safe with better salary. The teacher is
evaluated with the extent of happiness of the students and he
concentrates only to attract them by keeping them always happy. The
teacher is not bothered about inducing the knowledge into students. You
must evaluate a teacher by the performance of the students in the final
examinations. Similarly, the spiritual preacher should be evaluated by
the extent of devotion and sacrifice for the sake of God that is developed
in the devotees, which alone is going to give the divine fruit. The
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fully trapped by them, the hidden desire to use His super powers for
personal problems comes up in a very sweet coated manner. They plead
that the problem is disturbing them from doing the divine service. For
the third time, God is again trapped. God solves their problem with His
super power, behind which the secret technology exists. He uses the
fruits of their own good deeds to solve the problem because their
devotion is doubtful. Now they start using the superpower of God for
every problem in chain. There is no end to this chain. God refuses to
solve the problems. Suddenly they discard this human form of God and
search for another human form of God repeating the same procedure.
They think that they have fooled the previous God and could solve
atleast a few problems by their talent of filmi action. But they have not
fooled God because no one can fool God. God has spent from their own
bank by withdrawing the fruits of their own good deeds as pre-matured
deposits with reduced value. When they approach the new God, history
repeats. Even if the new God is not genuine and is a demon, even then,
the superpower working through that demon is also from the same God,
who is present in the previous discarded God only. You may go to
another human form of God or demon, there is no use because the same
God exists in another human form and the power of the same God
works through that demon. You have changed only the external forms
but not the internal God who is one only. If there were several Gods,
your trick becomes fruitful continuously.
Even if you run to temples, priests, astrologers etc., there is no use
because your problem can be solved only by that one God. The priests
have to use the same power of the same God. Planets are the executive
powers of the same God. Therefore, there is no use of changing the God.
You must change yourself. There is no other way than this even in the
infinite span of time. If you stick to the previous real human form of
God, you can change yourself because He will guide you by preaching
the most powerful divine knowledge and brings determination in you by
clearing all your doubts. Therefore, if you have caught the real human
form of God, use Him to uplift your soul (Uddharedatmana… Gita). A
rabbit took some money from goddess earth. It wanted to avoid the
payment of loan to the earth. Therefore, it started running away to avoid
the earth. After a very long run, it became tired and stood. Immediately
the earth below its legs asked for the payment of the loan!
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Chapter - 4
THIS KNOWLEDGE IS FROM GOD ONLY
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thanked God for providing those four pieces of bread. Immediately the
present was responded and the four breads became four thousand
breads. This application of analysis is limited to Nivrutti only. You
should not extend this to Pravrutti. When you are hungry you have to
beg the other souls because they are not omniscient to know that you are
hungry. Pravrutti and Nivrutti should never be mixed.
Phani praised Swami for His omniscience because Swami could
clarify the doubt present in his mind even though it is not expressed.
Swami told that God is omniscient and therefore, nobody can hide
anything from God. Swami told that if you tell a lie even to your mother
that you have taken food in the house of your friend, the mother believes
and will not serve you the food. But God will serve you the food even
after hearing your lie. Then Shri Ajay told one past experience. One day
he came from the office to his house in the noon as usual for lunch. But
the food was not ready and the cooking will be completed after a long
time only. Then he returned back without taking food. On the way, he
visited the house of Shri C. B. K. Murthy to see Swami. Swami asked
Ajay whether he has finished his lunch. For the sake of polite
mannerism Ajay told that he has finished his lunch. But Swami insisted
the wife of Shri C. B. K. Murthy to serve lunch to Ajay. Devotees were
surprised for this behavior of Swami. Then Ajay came out with the truth
and he took the lunch and left for the office.
Different Levels Of Devotees
[Swami continued the discourse:] There are three main levels in
the spiritual path. 1) Materialism for Materialism. 2) Devotion for
Materialism. 3) Materialism for Devotion. Each level has two (lower
and upper) sub-divisions. In the first level the lower sub-division
represents Duryodhana who asked Lord Krishna for His army, which is
the physical force. The upper sub-level represents Arjuna. He asked
Lord Krishna to come to his side as an advisor because Lord Krishna
already told that He will not fight but will give advices only. Arjuna
selected the intellectual power of guidance, which is more than the
physical force. In both these sub-levels, both have treated Lord Krishna
as a human being and not as the absolute God. Arjuna considered
always Lord Krishna as a divine person but not as the absolute God.
Miracles were not new to Arjuna. By his arrows he covered the entire
sky so that even a drop of rain will not fall down. This super natural
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miracle is in no way lesser than hiding the Sun with His Sudarshana
Chakra in the war by Krishna. Infact even Gopikas never considered the
miracles of Lord Krishna to identify Him as God. They were sages for
so many births and performed a number of miracles. They have the
knowledge of themselves and the knowledge about Krishna (Mahatmya
Jnana… Narada Bhakti Sutra).
In the second level Krishna is recognized as God but the devotion
to God is used for materialism only. The lower sub-level here indicates
Draupadi who tried to use God to solve her problem on the earth. The
upper sub-level indicates Dharmaraja, who tried to use God as protector
and guide of justice to get heaven. He refused to tell the lie even if the
God asked for it because it will lead him to the hell. Heaven is also a
part of the materialism only, which is just like a five star hotel. In the
third level all the efforts including materialism are just to please God
only. Their goal is God only and nothing else. The lower sub-level here
indicates Hanuman (in the angle of role, otherwise, as actor Hanuman is
God Shiva) who slipped just once in such devotion while protecting
Yayati. The upper sub-division indicates Gopikas who never slipped
even once in such devotion.
You must study the stories of devotees because they are the
practical procedures of spiritual path, which are like the laboratory
manuals in which the student is more involved. Scriptures are the
theory-class rooms. Therefore, Vyasa wrote all the stories of devotees
which are very important to know the practical problems in the spiritual
path. These stories (Puranas) are part of the spiritual knowledge and not
like the cinema stories meant for entertainment. Among these Puranas
Ramayana, Bharatha and Bhagavatha are very significant. They deal
with the then existing human incarnations available for those devotees.
The other Puranas deal with energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc., for
the devotees who suffer with jealousy and egoism to recognize the
human form of the Lord and they are related to the departed souls only.
Read this divine knowledge, digest it, propagate it and try to
practice it as far as possible. Certainly, this knowledge has come from
the absolute God. Whether God stays externally and I am just His
messenger or whether God stays in Me and is giving this knowledge, it
is immaterial. A duck is laying a golden egg every day. You should take
that egg and use it for your needs. It is unnecessary for you whether the
gold is present in its stomach or whether it is stealing the golden egg
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from outside and is giving to you. You need not analyze Me to see God
in My human body, which is just like cutting the stomach of the duck,
which becomes useless. You may say that you want to worship God
directly through the human form so that you can please the God since it
is your absolute aim. But I say that God is more pleased if you worship
His real devotees. If you worship the devotees, God existing outside or
existing in Me is more pleased than direct worship to Him. His devotees
are greater than Himself in His view. A human incarnation may not be
available always to all the devotees because of the complexity in the
identification. Therefore, worship My devotees who are really
sacrificing through practical devotion in My divine mission. If you
worship Me, you will reach Brahmaloka, which is the top most. But if
you worship My devotees you will reach the sixteenth upper world
which is called Datta Sevaka Loka, which is topper than the top most
Goloka (Goloka is above Brahmaloka). Remember this point after My
exit from this present human body. Lord existing in Krishna created
Goloka and the same Lord existing in this Datta Swami created Datta
Sevaka Loka.
God Never Becomes Fully Ignorant
Bliss of Human Incarnation
[Shri G. Lakshman asked about the state of the human incarnation
while granting the boons to His deserving devotees. He wanted to know
whether God is in the state of self-realization or in the state of
ignorance.]
Swami replied: God will never become fully ignorant in spite of
any effort. For the sake of entertainment and enjoyment God also needs
the reality of the creation. When the reality of creation is felt the
ignorance exists. Reality of the world is proportional to the extent of
self-imposed ignorance on God. However, this self-imposed ignorance
cannot be complete because the sun can never become jet-black. At the
same time, He can look at Himself from the inner angle as the bright
Sun. At the maximum, the Sun may look dim due to the black clouds
covering him. Even in that state the Sun remains with original
brightness without any change. The dim light of sun is only for the
observer. God imposes ignorance on Himself and sees Himself from the
other side as the observer. Even in that state He can see Himself as dim
but not jet-black. Therefore, God in human incarnation is under partial
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ignorance only. Regarding the ordinary soul, it is the part and parcel of
the black cloud. Whatever may be the extent of knowledge gained by
the soul, the soul cannot reach the state of complete knowledge. It can
never become completely bright like the radiating sun. The bright
radiating Sun represents the absolute God (Nirguna Parabrahman)
without any cover (Upadhi). The dim Sun covered by black cloud
represents God under the self-imposed ignorance (Saguna
Parabrahman). The bright cloud covering Sun represents the liberated
soul. The black cloud represents the ignorant soul. Therefore, the
absolutely Parabrahman is with full knowledge like the radiating sun
and the ignorant soul is with full ignorance like the black cloud. Both
these are the extreme ends of knowledge and ignorance. The absolute
God like radiating Sun can enjoy the tragedy because due to the full
knowledge-light no trace of misery-darkness can touch Him. The
ignorant soul can fully enjoy the comedy like the black cloud with full
ignorance-darkness. The human incarnation is the Sun covered by the
black cloud. It is the union of God and the soul. Both the extreme ends
are achieved to enjoy fully the tragedy and comedy in the world. Thus,
the entertainment is continuous and the human incarnation is in
continuous happiness, which is called as bliss (Ananda).
The intermediate state of dim Sun and bright cloud are the average
state having partial ignorance and partial knowledge. In this state the
light present in the dim Sun or in the bright cloud is able to do miracles.
The absolute sunlight without any darkness cannot do any miracle since
the creation does not exist. The absolute dark cloud also cannot do any
miracle which is completely under the divine control only. The light is
the super power. Therefore, miracles are done not only by the human
incarnation (dim sun) but also by a devoted liberated soul (bright cloud).
Miracles represent the power of God but not God directly. The power is
called as “Dharma Bhuta Jnanam” and the possessor of the power, the
God, is called as “Dharmi Bhuta Jnanam” by Ramanuja. The sun is
needed for preaching the complete true spiritual knowledge. The
sunlight is sufficient to perform the miracles and grant the boons to the
devotees. When the Sun comes down, the Sunlight exists along with the
sun. But when the Sunlight is pervading all over the world, the Sun is
not pervading. Therefore, the human incarnation gives divine
knowledge and also performs the divine miracles whenever there is a
real need. The liberated soul can also give the divine knowledge that
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was already generated by God and can perform the divine miracles with
equal efficiency. But the liberated soul cannot generate the divine
knowledge.
Granting Boons by Human Incarnation
Whenever the human incarnation grants boons, it enters into the
divine form of Kalabhairava, who is just a mood of God only. All the
deities are only the moods of God only. Kalabhairava is a deity who is
very very strict in implementing the cycle of deeds (karma chakra) and
in evaluating the deservingness of the devotee while granting the boons.
Actually there are two programs for the human incarnation here. One is
preaching the divine knowledge and the other is performing miracles
whenever there is real need in the case of a deserving devotee. The
minister is moving in the public giving a political speech. He has to
carefully observe the possibility of sudden attack by the opposition
parties also. One cannot do both these activities with full concentration.
Therefore, he attends to first program with full concentration. A gunman
follows the minister catering to the second program. Then only the
minister can do full justice to his political speech and free mingling with
public. Similarly, the human incarnation (Datta) will be attending to the
preaching of divine knowledge. Kalabhairava accompanies Datta like
the gun man performing the miracles whenever necessary. This is the
truth from the angle of relativity. From the angle of higher absolute
reality, God preaches the divine knowledge in the mood of Datta and
performs miracles in the mood of Kalabhairava. For a deserving realized
soul, the absolute truth is opened. But for an undeserving devotee the
relative reality is exposed in which both Datta and Kalabhairava co-
exist.
This is a very delicate and dangerous topic. Even the realized souls
under pressure press God in human form to perform miracle. Hence,
God uses both the planes of absolute and relative reality according to the
context. The devotees on this earth are so much talented in expressing
the theoretical devotion by singing songs and shedding tears etc. We can
give them awards like Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan etc. They will
force the Lord to drink this most powerful wine of theoretical devotion.
The Lord is infinitely kind and yields very easily. Both these points
hasten the process of granting boons to undeserving devotees like air
and ghee for the fire. To avoid this, the Lord keeps the gun in the hands
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provided the first conclusion of Datta can permit it. The ignorant soul is
like a football played by two players, who are Datta and Kalabhairava.
You cannot misunderstand any one completely. I speak often an
incident that took place in the house of Shri C. B. K. Murthy. One day I
slept in his house for a long time and awoke. I found the deities of eight
miracles (Ashta Siddhis) around My bed introducing their identity. They
requested Me to allow their entry into My body so that their service is
very much required in the propagation of divine knowledge. I shouted
like this “Please leave Me immediately. You are the obstacles for the
propagation of divine knowledge. You will attract the devotees and
divert them from the right path so that all My effort in preaching is
simply wasted. I had enough experience with you in past incarnations.
Moreover I am only generating the knowledge and not propagating it.
My devotees will propagate it. Therefore, your service is required by
them and they are your right place”. They disappeared. Therefore, My
dear friend! The gunman is with you only. Whenever you are getting the
boon, the gunman standing by your side is granting it to you. You can
grant the boons to other deserving devotees also since the gunman is
with you only. However, if you require My help in drawing the first
right conclusion, I can send it. I am sitting in My room with bolted
doors and drafting the political speech to be read by you in the public. I
do not need the gunman and he is not with Me. I assuredly tell you that
all My closest devotees who are sincerely involved in the propagation of
this divine knowledge will be accompanied by the gunmen. When you
asked Me for a son, I just gave the judgment that you are deserving
devotee. Based on that, the gunman standing by your side has granted
the boon by His superpower (Gun). You told the medical hurdles and
you were advised by doctors for a final operation costing one lakh
rupees. I told you that it is not necessary and that you will get the son
and that you shall wait just for one month to see the pregnancy of your
wife. It happened as I told. I have no superpower to implement the
judgment but I have a sharp analysis to give the right judgment in the
capacity of Datta, who exists in My body.
Similarly, the recent incident of Phani should be mentioned here
because you both are the incarnations of Adishesha. He phoned Me
telling that he got Dengue fever as concluded by the doctor in-charge of
Dengue fever. I told you that the dengue fever cannot attack Adishesha.
Phani got tested himself again and the result was negative. Here the
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reply from Me is only the judgment. Infact, the Lord transformed his
dengue fever on to Him and suffered for one day through this human
body. During that time, Swami as Datta prayed the gunman
(Kalabhairava) to cure it. Datta gave the judgment for the protection of
Phani and was prepared to suffer for the sake of Phani. Then
Kalabhairava transformed the fever to Datta with His superpower. When
the fever ended after due suffering, the credit is again given to
Kalabhairava for curing it. However, the credit should be given to
Kalabhairava for the superpower used in the transformation. Suppose
Phani is undeserving but Swami wants to suffer for his sake due to His
infinite kindness, then Kalabhairava will not transform the fever. All
this is in the relative plane. In the absolute plane Swami as Datta gave
the judgment and Swami as Kalabhairava transformed fever on to Him.
In the case of undeserving devotee, Swami rejects the devotee first but
yields to him in the second stage. The same Swami will again reject in
the third stage by overcoming His own weakness. The human being may
or may not overcome weakness. Therefore, pray Kalabhairava also as
another form of the Lord Datta (Now Swami sang the following
devotional song on Kalabhairava).
Spontaneous Divine Bhajan on Kalabhairava
Bhairavaaya tee - Kaala - Bhairavaaya tee
Pradakshinani mee - Deeva – Muudha Bhaktasya (Chorus)
(I, an ignorant devotee submit My Pradakshinams to the Lord Kaala
Bhairava.)
Kaashikaapurii - Ksheetra - Looka Paalanam
Pingaleekshana – Sphurana – Maatra meeva tee
Bhuvana Bhaandaka – Pralaya – Bhasma Kaarakoo
Garjanooddhata – dhvani – Kanastava Prabhoo!
(You are the ruler of the Kashi city and the administration of the
city is done simply by a tiny twinkling of your red colored eyes. Oh!
Lord! a tiny vibration of sound produced from your violent roar is
sufficient to smash all these world-pots into ash.)
Ashta siddhayoo – pyashta – bhuutibhi ssaha
Bhuutanaadha! - tee – Karuna Leesha sambhavaah
Saarameeya vat – Tvayi – samarpitaarthinaam
Boodhayatyahoo – shunaka – Vaahanam tava.
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(Oh! Lord of Ghosts! Your vehicle is the dog, which indicates that
if one becomes your slave with full faith like the dog, a trace of your
kindness falls on him granting the eight super powers and the eight
forms of wealth.)
Aruna Vaasasam – Bhaikshya – Bhastrikaa Bhujam
Saagni Paatrakam – Pruthula – Maarjanii dharam
Shmashru Bhiikaram – Kaala – Danda manditam
Kaalikaapatim – Kaala – Kaala maashrayee.
(You are wearing red clothes. A cloth bag meant for begging the
food is around your shoulder. You are having the fire vessel and a large
broom stick in your hands. Your mustache is frightening very much.
You are holding the ruling rod (Kaala danda) by your hand. You are the
husband of the mother Kaali. You are the death for even the death. I am
surrendering to you completely).
The dengue fever along with the red spots disappeared from the
body of Swami on praying Kaala Bhairava. Swami told: Even Shankara
who is the incarnation of Lord Shiva prayed Kaala Bhairava and other
deities for the sake of the devotees. The Lord acts in the role of a
devotee also as in the case of Hanuman so that the devotees learn the
method of worshipping the God. Shankara was both generator and
propagator of divine knowledge. He faced several problems of black
magic in His life from the opponents. Kaala Bhairava walked along with
Shankara like the gunman protecting Him from all the dangers of the
black magic. When His work was over, He allowed one black magic to
hit Him for leaving the body.
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Chapter - 5
GOD COMPETES WITH STRONGEST BOND
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own life. After life what is the next strongest bond? It is the bond with
one’s children. Next is the bond with wealth and money. Everybody
earns more and more wealth even by unfair means (breaking dharma or
justice) only to give it to his or her children. Then how to break the bond
with children? The bond with children is merged with the bond with
money because money is meant only for children. So if you can cut the
bond with money, your bond with the children is broken. If the bond
with the children is broken, all the bonds are broken except the bond
with life. Therefore, the Lord competes with your money. The Lord says
in Vishnu Puranam, “Yasyanugrahamichchami tasya vittam
haramyaham”. It means that if the Lord wants to bless anybody with
full salvation, He will take away his or her money completely. This
means that when the bond with money is sacrificed, the bond with the
children is definitely cut. If that highest bond is cut, all the other bonds
will be cut. This is the full liberation from all the bonds, which is called
complete salvation. In cutting the bond with money, you are returning
Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) to her husband, Lord Vishnu and
not to the demon Ravana.
The Veda says, “Bhunjithah magridhah” which means that all this
is the wealth of the Lord. Take the minimum needed. If you take extra,
you are a thief, as Lord does not permit it. Therefore return it back to the
Lord. Indians never donate even a single penny for God’s work; they
only donate their words (prayers) and mind (meditation). Even if they
have earned enough to last ten generations, they will still keep working
for the eleventh generation. But if you see foreigners (particularly
westerners), they donate a lot for God’s work and ask even their
children to live independently after a certain age. This is the reason why
India suffers with poverty and the west is blessed with wealth. God
blessed India with good language for their sacrifice of their words and
with good knowledge for their sacrifice of mind. Swami Vivekananda
wept looking at the sky asking the Lord, “Why does my country suffer
with poverty in spite of so much rich spiritual knowledge?”
Compare Dhritarashtra of the Mahabharata with the Gopikas of the
Bhagavatham. Dhritarashtra could not cut the bond with money because
of his blind bond with his children. For that he was prepared to leave
dharma [justice; also King Dharmaraja, who stood for justice] and the
Lord (Lord Krishna). The Gopikas gave all their butter, which is their
entire wealth to the Lord alone, even without giving it to their children.
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They left money, children and also dharma (justice) for the sake of the
Lord. In the beginning of the Bhagavatham, there is a verse which states
that even the Sage Vyasa was crying and running after his son Shuka.
This shows how blind and strong the bond with children is. What is the
use of the penance, sacrifices and the authorship of the 18 puranas of
Sage Vyasa? He was defeated before the uneducated Gopikas. Therefore
sadhana means cutting the worldly bonds in real life—in practice—and
not chanting hymns, doing penance, doing meditation, singing
devotional songs, shedding pots of tears etc. All these are related to
words and mind only, which are valueless. If you sell all these in the
market, you will not even get a single rupee. Even if you give them free,
people will reject them. Clever devotees say that the pure mind is for the
pure Lord and the impure money is for the impure family!
Chakras Signify Different Family Bonds
The six yoga chakras (wheels) stand for the six bonds, with
mother, father, husband or wife, children, fraud preachers, and illusory
deities. The seventh chakra is Sahasrara or intelligence, in which the
Lord exists. The bond with the children called Anahata chakra, is
located in the heart which is in between the other six chakras. Anahata
means that bond which cannot be cut. It is the bond with one’s children.
The heart is abode of all the love. Thus the bond with children is the
strongest. Jesus says that wherever your money is present, there your
heart exists. This means that money is related to the heart and the heart
is related to children. Jesus also says that unless you hate your mother
and father, husband and wife, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters
and even your own life, you cannot be the disciple of the Lord. Lord
Datta is famous for cutting the bonds (Dattam Chinnam). But Lord Jesus
goes one step ahead by asking you to even hate the bond. Why? Cutting
the bond is zero. Hating the bond is minus. Zero is nearer to plus than
the minus. That means, when you cut the bond there may be possibility
of formation of the bond again but if you hate it, there is no reformation
of the bond.
In the olden days people used to give more importance to Dharma
(justice) than money. So the Lord used to compete with Dharma, by
asking whether or not the devotee chooses the Lord over Dharma. For
example Dharmaraja did not tell a lie when he was fighting for the
kingdom in the battlefield. He gave more importance to Dharma
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karmaphala tyaga. Both these put together are called karma yoga or
service as per the Gita. This service is called Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga
does not mean the sacrifice of the mind in the name of meditation by
closing the eyes. Kriya means the sacrifice of work or the fruit of the
work (money). Money is also another form of the work. Therefore
money is also called as Kriya or work. After doing this service to your
son, even if he does not serve you back and even if he insults you, you
still give your property to him only. This is real love. Are you showing
this real love to God? When God does not respond to your prayers, you
throw away His picture. Suppose He gives you troubles then you will
break the picture. But remember one point that you may get another
wife, another husband, or another child by adoption but you cannot get
another God. In the upper world, nobody except God can save you. God
loves you without any selfish interest. All these family members love
you for their selfish benefits since you are giving happiness to them. If
you trouble them they will leave you. Veda says the same, “Atmanah
kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati”. You are using God as an instrument
for the happiness of your family members! Is it not similar to that
incident in which Kaushika used his own wife Sumati, to carry him to a
prostitute? The prostitute loved Kaushika only for her selfish benefit and
Sumati loved Kaushika without any selfish benefit. When God comes in
the picture, He takes the place of Sumati (the selfless lover) and Sumati
(one’s wife) takes the place of the prostitute (selfish lover) relatively.
Saints don’t Require after Death Rituals
After death one has to stay for ten days in Pretaloka (the world of
the dead) and during this time he/she is enquired by the Lord. For good
results he goes to heaven and there he gets the divine nectar (Amrutam)
as food. For mixed results he goes to Pitruloka where he gets the
somarasa (juice of moon) as the food. For bad results he goes to hell,
where he is not allowed any food or drink. Then what about the
ceremonies performed after his death? These ceremonies done by the
relatives of the dead person are the prayers to the Lord and the sacrifice
of money to the most deserving divine person. The people who have
done these two things when they were alive, need not worry about such
ceremonies done by their children after their death. Shankara, Meera
etc. did not have children to perform such ceremonies. It is better that
you yourself work for your protection in the upper world. You are
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unable to do that while you are alive and you therefore you assign that
job to somebody else. After your death, your children do the ceremony
only as a formality. They donate your money to undeserving fellows,
who are just like tape recorders and chant scriptural hymns without
knowing their meaning. The Gita says “Uddharet aatmanaa atmanam”,
which means that you should not depend on some other person to help
you but that you should help yourself in the spiritual field.
You have no right to donate the fruit of your work even to your
wife if she is not spiritually inclined. The devotee Tukaram agreed to
take his wife along with him in the divine airplane that had come to take
him to the upper world. But the wife of Tukaram was more interested in
washing the vessels and clothes and being busy in these worldly
activities, could not catch the divine plane. Therefore in the spiritual
field, every one has his/her own account.
The Lord is present in the human body of the incarnation. In the
case of a devotee, both the Lord and the soul coexist in the human body.
Therefore a devotee may err sometimes because the soul in the body
may not clearly understand everything the Lord says. You can see the
difference in the utility of donations spent by a committee of devotees
and a committee of devotees guided directly by the Lord in human form.
In the first case lot of money is wasted but in the second case the money
is properly utilized. Therefore it is better to participate in the service of
the Lord in human form, than in the service conducted by a committee
of devotees.
The inner divine form of the Lord is this world alone. The Veda
says, “Vishvameva Idam Purushah. Vishvam Vishnuh”. Therefore if you
serve the world, you are serving the actual form of the Lord. You will
not err in your service if you serve under the direction of the Lord. If
you do social service without the association of the Lord in human form,
you will only go to heaven, where you will enjoy for sometime and
return back as per the Gita (Ksheene Punye). The Lord in human form
also comes only to uplift all the people in this world. If you participate
in His program, you are serving the world, which is the inner divine
form of the Lord. All the people in the world deserve to receive the
divine knowledge, which alone can give real devotion. Among these
people, poor people deserve financial help also. It is just like providing
boarding and lodging to the students who come from out-of-town. But
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completely imaginary. They are meant only for vision and subsequent
meditation because you cannot meditate upon a formless object. But
when the human incarnation is available to you to receive all your
upacharas (service), what is the necessity of worshipping these inert
objects? The Veda says, “Na tasya Pratima Asti” which means that the
Lord is not present in the statues and pictures. Therefore your service
cannot give happiness to these inert objects. They are only
representative images of God and you can use these objects just for
meditation or vision and not at all for service (worship). The Gita
seriously condemns the worship to these statues and pictures by saying
that one will be born as an inert object if the statues and pictures are
worshipped. The Gita also says that if you worship the human
incarnation you will get the human birth again (Yanti Mat
Yajinopimam). The human incarnation comes in every human
generation because God is impartial to all generations. The Gita says,
“Sambhavami Yuge Yuge” which means that He comes in human form
in every generation. The word Yuga here means a human generation.
The word Yuga is also used in this sense by us everyday. People say to
the youngsters, “This is your Yuga”, which means that this is their
generation.
Real Meaning of Yajna
The Veda says that food should not be wasted (Annam Na
Parichaksheeta). The sacrifice or Yajna (sacred fire ritual) is only to
feed the guest, who is a deserving person and is like fire. The Veda says
that the guest is the fire (Vaishvanaro Brahmanah Pravisati Atithih).
The word Agni comes from Agri which means that the guest should be
fed first. The Gita says that the deity of the fire called as Vaishvanara,
lives as the fire of hunger in the stomach. Therefore feeding the hungry
guest is the real Yajna. Such a guest contains all the deities in Him and
so by feeding such a guest all the deities are satisfied. The Veda says the
same, “Yavateer vai devatah”. In the Bhagavatham, Kapila, the
incarnation of Lord Vishnu, told his mother that only a fool burns food
by putting it in the fire in the name of Yajna. Krishna went to a Yajna
and asked the wives of the sages, who were performing the Yajna, to
give Him the food that was prepared to be burnt in the Yajna, since He
was hungry. He ate that food preaching that feeding a hungry deserving
person is the real Yajna. Krishna, the protector of the Dharma of Vedas
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judgment is already given by the judge, can the police or the jailor
deviate from the judicial order? Even in the planets, the power of Lord
alone exists and if the planet deviates, it means that the Lord deviated.
Even if you recognize the Lord and pester Him for some boons,
He will push your present problems to the later part of this birth or the
future birth with added interest. You cannot flatter the judge and alter
the judgment. Accept the judgment and undergo the punishment. Never
ask the Lord to change it. Serve the Lord in human form without asking
for any fruit. When you have such real love, the Lord in human form
will transfer the results of your sins to Him and will suffer for your sake
without your knowledge. If you know that He is suffering for your sake,
you will never agree, because you have real love for Him. Do not think
that with the help of astrologers and priests you can get the results of
good deeds, which you have not done. If you pester the Lord, He will
pre-pone the results of your good deeds arranged in the life cycle of
your future birth and give it to you right now. This is like the premature
encashment of a deposit resulting in a loss in value i.e., the good result
that you get will be reduced in intensity, which is a loss in value. Also
by such rearrangements, your future birth will be full of problems with
the added interests of postponed bad results and is devoid of any result
of good result. You will weep with problems from birth to death in your
future birth and you will scold God because you will not know that such
a situation was only due to your foolishness in the previous birth.
Final Conclusion
Therefore the essence of My message is only one thing. Recognize
the Lord in human form with the help of the scriptures and prove your
love practically by doing service and try to cut your bonds with these
family members which are only dramatic. These bonds will vanish after
death. When Arjuna went to heaven along with Krishna, to see his son
Abhimanyu, Abhimanyu asked Arjuna, “Who are you?” Arjuna replied,
“I am your father”. Abhimanyu replied, “I have passed through millions
of births. In which birth were you my father”? Ashtavakra, the preacher
of King Janaka says in Ashtavakra Samhita that the mother and son in
this birth are born as the wife and husband in the next birth! The
meaning of this verse is that a couple of film actors may act as mother
and son in one film and the same two actors may act as husband and
wife in another film. They are neither mother and son nor wife and
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diseases since the compounder is not a qualified doctor. The patient has
spent Rs. 110/-. I pity the fate of these patients. I request these priests to
become Sadgurus. I mean, let the compounder become a qualified
doctor. Let the doctor collect Rs. 100/- as fees and prescribe a medicine
of Rs.2/- by which the disease is completely cured. The patient is cured
of his disease by spending Rs.102/-. The priest should become the
Sadguru and preach to the people who attend the temples or do rituals.
Let the people become strong devotees by the preaching of divine
knowledge. I am worried about the public, who should get the real fruit.
The present priests, who are just tape recorders and merely recite the
Veda, are making the devotees spend a lot in unnecessary items like
lighting the lamp, burning camphor, breaking the coconuts etc., which
are not at all mentioned in the Veda. For the entire Dharma, the Veda is
the source and not the Puranas. The Veda was protected by recitation in
the olden days and so interpolations were not possible. However several
verses were interpolated in the Puranas in course of time. Therefore
whatever is said in the Veda alone is valid and if the Purana says
anything extra, it cannot be valid as said in the statement, “Sruthi Smruti
Virodhetu….”
The Gita says that karma (work) cannot bind you if the fruit of that
Karma is sacrificed to the Lord and it is not meant for yourself or for
your family. The same work binds you when it is done with selfishness,
which means that you aspire for the fruit of that Karma for yourself, or
for your limited family. When the fruit is sacrificed, even if the Karma
is done it is not at all Karma. The Gita says this as “Karmanyakarma
yah pashyet”. This means that inaction is present in the action. When
you aspire for the fruit of the work with selfishness, then even if you
have not done the Karma you are treated as if you have done the Karma
and you will receive its result. This the Gita expresses as, “Akarmanicha
Karmayah”. When the evil Ravana kidnapped Sita, there was contact of
her body with Ravana’s. But Sita did not aspire for the fruit of that
Karma [the action of touching Ravana’s body]. She never wanted to
embrace Ravana. Since she did not aspire for the fruit, the sinful Karma
was treated as Akarma [inaction; or an action that did not take place]
and Agni (Fire) told Rama that she was sinless and pure. When Renuka
went to the river Narmada, she saw a person called Chitraratha who was
taking bath with his wives. She saw that person and her mind was
attracted to him and aspired for some happiness from him. Actually she
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did not touch Chitraratha. There was no karma done here. But she was
mentally aspiring for the fruit of that Karma. Therefore she was treated
as if she had done that sinful karma and was punished by Parusurama.
Therefore, when you do not aspire for the fruit of the work, that work
cannot touch you even if it is sinful. The hunter killed a rabbit and
killing harmless animals is the highest sinful action. But he offered the
flesh of that rabbit to Lord Shiva. He did not kill the rabbit to eat that
flesh or to give that flesh to his family. There was no selfishness in his
action. Lord Shiva gave him salvation and that sinful Karma could have
no effect and its result was not given to the hunter. Therefore, if you
sacrifice the fruit of your work, for the sake of God’s mission, such
work cannot bind you however sinful it may be. This is the wonderful
clue given in Gita by Lord Krishna.
Karma Yoga means doing work always and sacrificing its fruit to
the Lord. Such practical sacrifice alone can prove your real love. Your
meditation, prayers etc., are related only to your words and mind, which
are the most valueless items. Therefore the Lord said that the sacrifice
of the fruit of work is the best and for that one always has to keep doing
work. Before this, the knowledge and devotion are thrown away by the
Lord in the Gita.
[In this New Year, Swami wishes the following.]
Let the saints (monks, sanyasis) sacrifice their complete work for
the sake of God (Karma Sanyasa). Let the householders sacrifice a part
of their work and a part of the fruit of their work (Karma Phala Tyaga).
Let all participate practically by doing Karma Yoga or Seva (Service)
which consists of Karma Sanyasa and Karma Phala Tyaga in the
propagation of this divine knowledge. Let the temples become the
centers of development of Divine Knowledge and devotion to the Lord
and not business centers to fulfill the desires of the people. Let the
priests become scholars in Sanskrit and preach the knowledge of the
Vedas, Gita and Shastras to the public in temples and while performing
rituals. Let the priests not just act as tape recorders by recitation of the
Veda without knowing the divine treasure of the knowledge, since the
Veda means knowledge alone. Let Indians stop the sacrifice of words by
prayers and the sacrifice of mind by meditation and devotion because
much has been done in these two lines, and they are mere pickles
without the central rice. Let all the Indians learn the practical sacrifice
by doing Karma Yoga and prove their real devotion to the Lord by
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following the foreigners and let the Lord bless India with immense
wealth & prosperity by this.
Love the Lord rather than Respecting or Fearing
[Evening Discourse] As per the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavan means
God who preaches ‘Pravritti’ and ‘Nivritti’. Pravritti means knowing the
way to behave with fellow human beings for world peace. Nivritti
means knowing the way to reach God. The love for human beings in
Pravritti will help you love the human form of God without any
repulsion. Your devotion to the Lord in human form should be
permanent and in the same level throughout your life. The devotion
should have longevity. What is the use of all the merits of the
bridegroom if he does not have longevity? Do not laugh at the old
people of the previous generation, who are innocent and you are worldly
wise. Remember that they are very near to God by their innocence. All
the wisdom fails before God and He loves only innocence. The easiest
way to be near God is to get deceived by others and not to deceive
others. God will always be by the side of the deceived person. The
human incarnation remains only as a human being at all times except in
cases of emergency. The light bulb is always without electric current
and the current flows through it only when it is lit. As a human being,
He will always undergo suffering for the sins of His devotees and this is
the main purpose of His coming in human form. He undergoes the pains
as an ordinary human being and thereby justice is done to theory of
Karma (every action must yield a proportionate result). The human
incarnation is Datta (given) to the devotees mainly for this purpose.
When the human form of God preaches Knowledge He is like a
thousand-watt bulb. When He taught Arjuna in the battlefield or when
He taught the Kauravas as a messenger, He showed Vishwarupam
which is His full potential state. When He performs miracles He is only
a zero-watt bulb since He created even this entire world just by His will.
Therefore do not think that He is in a greater excited state when He
performs the miracles. The fully excited state is that in which He
preaches the divine knowledge. When He incarnates as a human being
in this world, His body will have a usual birth and death. His body also
consists of the usual five elements and the usual three qualities, which
are Satvam (goodness), Rajas and Tamas (badness). Even Rama,
considered as an embodiment of Satvam showed anger (Rajas) on Jabali
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and ran after the golden deer for the sake of Sita (Tamas). The human
incarnation exhibits bad qualities also to test the devotees about their
firmness in recognizing Him.
Try to love the Lord rather than respecting or fearing Him. You
are respecting your parents with fear because they have already spent a
lot of wealth on you and they are expected to give their property to you.
But you love your children and not respect them. This is because you
are spending a lot of money on them and you are going to give your
property to them. You respect and fear the Lord since you are expecting
some benefit from the Lord. You never give anything to the Lord and so
you do not love Him. The Lord creates the human incarnation for your
sake, to give you the fortune of His vision, touch, conversation and
living with Him. You ignore His most wonderful creation and worship
the inert statues and pictures, which are imaginary forms and are
prepared by the other human beings. You are not accepting the human
incarnation since He is in human form like yourself. Likes always repel
each other. You are therefore trained to worship statues and pictures,
which are only in human form. By such worship you are expected to get
rid of your repulsion to the human form. Slowly you are made to
worship the statues in which life is initiated (by the ritual of Prana
Pratishta). The inert human form of the statue, combined with the
initiation of life, is equated to a living human being. This is a slow
training to develop the worship of the human form of God. The Lord is
never in inert objects as said in the Veda (Natasya Pratima Asti).
Neither is the inert object the Lord nor is the Lord in the inert object.
The Lord is not even touching this Universe [He is beyond it]. Therefore
no living being or inert object is the Lord as said in the Veda (Neti Neti).
The Gita says that the Lord is not in the world (Natvaham teshu). The
Gita also says that the world is in God and also that the world is not in
God (Mat Sthani Sarva Bhutani, Nacha Mat Sthani). This means that
the man is in the cot but the man has not penetrated into the cot.
Similarly the world is in God but the world has not penetrated into God
and neither has God penetrated into the world. God is only the base of
the world like the cot. God penetrates into a certain human body and
that human body enters into the world as said in the Veda,
“Tadevanupravisat”. Such a human body is the human incarnation,
which enters the world. Therefore God enters the world only through a
human form. God did not enter every human form or every inert object.
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Even though God is the base of the world, the world does not touch Him
as the man touches the cot.
An example is the case of a day-dreamer. A city imagined by him
exists in him and he is the base for that city. Let the city and the people
in that city burn. The daydreamer is not burnt. Thus the world is based
on God but the changes in the world cannot affect Him. Neither the
changes in the inert objects nor the changes in the human beings can
affect God. Hence no inert object or human being can be God and
neither does God exist in them. They are all based on God and are not
present in God. Therefore you can worship a statue or a human being as
a representative of God (Prateeka). The Veda recommends the worship
the sun as God (Adityam Brahmeti). Again the Veda says that the Sun is
not God (Nedam tat). Neither is God in the Sun nor is the Sun in God.
The Sun is based on God. You can meditate upon the Sun who is a
representative of God. The similarity here is that God shines like the
Sun. Due to this similarity the Sun is taken as a representative object to
indicate God. Similarly you can treat a human being as a representative
of God because God also comes down in a similar human form.
In Pravritti (path of worldly life) you are advised to love all human
beings so that you can love the God in human form later on in Nivritti
(path of spiritual life). In Nivritti you have to leave all the human beings
and concentrate your love on that human incarnation only. The initial
love on all the human beings that you had developed in Pravritti, should
be withdrawn in Nivritti and should be concentrated on the human form
of God only. You respect monkeys since Hanuman is in that form. If
you start laughing by seeing the monkeys, you may also laugh when you
see Hanuman. This does not mean that you should worship every
monkey as Hanuman. The worship should be limited only to that
particular monkey called Hanuman.
Atri and Anasuya adopted Datta. This means that the human form
of God (Datta) can be achieved only by a devotee, who gets rid of the
three types of egoism (Satvika, Rajasa and Tamasa) i.e., Atri and gets
rid of jealousy (Asuya) i.e. Anasuya. The pride of knowledge, the pride
of the physical force of the body and the pride of the body itself is
respectively the three types of egoism. You must always try to
understand the inner meaning. Datta is the son of Sage Atri and
Anasuya and this is only a story for children, who are in the initial stage
and cannot understand the inner sense.
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The Shiva Lingam is a formless stone from which all the statues
are prepared. The Shiva Lingam is always associated with continuous
bath (Abhisheka; dripping of water) which is ‘Snana Upachara’. What is
the inner meaning here? This means that all the statues are only for
vision and they should be frequently washed to avoid the dust. Except
this one mode of worship, no other mode of worship is necessary for a
statue. All the sixteen modes of worship (Shodasa Upacharas) are meant
only for the human incarnation. ‘Avahanam’ means inviting the Lord in
human form to your house. ‘Asanam’ means offering a seat to the Lord
when He comes to your house. Like this all the sixteen modes of
worship are meant only for the human form of God. When you do the
sixteen modes of worship to a statue, the initiation of life is done in the
beginning, which means that you should worship the living human form
only, and not the inert human form. The initiation of life in the statue
does not mean that the statue is becoming a living form because the
statue does not move even one inch after that life initiation.
Authorities in Sprituality
Whenever you make any decision, you have to follow three
authorities:
1) Shruti i.e., Veda.
2) Yukti i.e., logic
3) Anubhava i.e., experience.
In the case of idol and image worship, the Shruti says ‘Natasya
Pratima Asti’ (Lord will not enter statues). The Yukti is that one cannot
make any inert object alive by any technique. A dead body cannot get
life by the chanting of the Vedic hymn which is recited in the Prana
Pratishta (life initiation). If you say that life has entered the statue by
such Prana Pratishta, why can’t you make the dead body alive by the
same? The experience is that by any technique, we do not experience
life in any inert object including a dead body. Therefore if you say that
the life enters the statue it cannot be accepted. Then what is the meaning
of this Prana pratishta? Since you are rigid in not accepting the human
form of God due to your egoism and jealousy there is no other way than
to teach you like this. That Prana Pratishta is teaching you that the
human form with life alone should be worshipped by the sixteen modes.
An employee does service for the whole month and he does not
have to put in a formal request to the government to give his monthly
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salary. The salary is put into his account automatically. He does not beg
for his salary by singing songs and weeping. Similarly Hanuman
participated in the service of Lord Rama in human form and got the fruit
of His service, which was the post of the future creator of the Universe.
He did not sing bhajans, chant hymns, meditate or shed tears etc., for the
fruit. Therefore what is the use of these things without the service? An
elephant is fed with sugar cane in a dignified way. The elephant does a
lot of work in carrying big logs etc. A dog does not do any service and it
begs for food by wagging its tail, by crying, by falling at the feet of
people but it is not given food or at the most it is given leftovers.
Therefore the knowledge and devotion should lead to service, which are
like the degrees acquired by you. Merely for your degree, no salary will
be given. With the help of the degree you have to get a job and do
service for which alone you can get the salary. The degrees will only
help you to get a job but they cannot give you the salary directly. With
the help of knowledge you can recognize the human incarnation. With
the help of devotion you will come near Him and become dear to Him
so that you can participate in His service. You get the fruit for your
service and not for your knowledge and devotion.
Electrons are traveling in the atmosphere and we cannot
experience these electrons (electricity) directly. When these electrons
pass through a wire, the wire is electrified. You can experience the
shock of the electricity through the wire by touching it. You can also use
the electricity in a wire to move the fan or to light the light bulb.
Similarly you cannot experience the Brahman (God), which is beyond
imagination by any effort and you cannot get any fruit from It. When
that Brahman enters into the human body you can experience the
Brahman and can get the fruit for your service. How can you serve the
unimaginable Brahman? You can only serve the Brahman in human
form that comes into this world and get the fruit for your selfless
service. The Brahman comes down for this very purpose. The properties
of the wire are not affected by the flow of the electricity. The copper
wire is red, lean and its properties are retained. Similarly the properties
of the human body are retained even if the Brahman is present in it. The
body of the human incarnation shows all the properties of nature like
thirst, hunger, illness, birth, death etc. Suppose electricity is flowing in a
copper wire and an aluminum wire simultaneously. The current is same
but a copper wire is red in color and the aluminum wire is white in
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color. Similarly the human incarnations have different natures due to the
difference in the nature of the human bodies. Rama was very peaceful
and Parashurama was very furious. When the electricity leaves the wire,
it remains as an ordinary wire. The electricity is only present in the wire
and is not modified into wire. Therefore when the electricity leaves the
wire you can push the wire with your leg. People misunderstand that the
electric wire is insulted. During the presence of electricity that wire was
the electricity itself because you cannot separate the electricity from the
wire and if you touch the wire anywhere it gives the electric shock.
Similarly when the Brahman left the body of Lord Krishna at the end,
Arjuna cremated that body, as any other human body. People think that
Lord Krishna died or was cremated. The Lord left that human body and
it was only the body of Lord that was cremated. When the Lord was
present in that body, that body was the Lord because the Lord and the
body cannot be separated. The Gita says, “Manusheem
Tanumashritam”, which means that the Brahman enters the human
body. The Gita also says, “Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam” which means
that ignorant people think that the Brahman is modified into the human
body. Justice [deity of justice] in the form of cow, follows Lord Datta
[Lord Datta is picturized with a cow following Him]. This means that
Justice also follows His actions. Whatever the Lord does is the justice.
He is the protector of justice and Justice is the protected. The protector
is always greater than the protected. The Lord followed justice as Rama.
Justice became proud and therefore, the Lord in the form of Krishna
deviated from justice and Justice had to follow Him. Thus He removed
the pride of Justice. This means that we have to follow the Lord alone
and leave justice when the Lord competes with Justice. This is the test
of Datta and even great scholars have failed in this test. When Krishna
asked Dharmaraja to tell a lie in the battlefield, Dharmaraja refused and
went to the hell since he did not follow the order of the Lord.
Similarly the Vedas are lying at His feet as dogs and are following
Him [Lord Datta is picturized with four dogs following Him]. What
does this mean? This means that whenever Datta preaches, He will not
preach according to the Vedas like an ordinary scholar. The Vedas obey
His preaching and follow the preaching as faithful dogs. He is the
creator of Vedas and whatever He preaches is the Veda. Datta means the
human form of the Lord, which comes to the world. So whenever the
Lord in human form preaches here, that preaching can be seen in the
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is the third eye denoted by the fish. Therefore the fish represents the
knowledge or the Lord directly. This knowledge destroyed the demon of
ignorance and misinterpretation and uplifted the real interpretation,
which is called as Veda.
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Chapter - 6
COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF SPIRITUALITY
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equality because when you approach the Lord you may sometimes get a
loss instead of profit. Without undergoing such training to achieve self
control or Atma Samyama, one can not succeed in the tests of the Lord.
Sudama developed such self-control during his poverty for a long
time. He did not do any sin in spite of the suffering of his family
members with poverty. Such training helped him when he went to Lord
Krishna. He stayed with the Lord for a few days. During this period he
never asked the Lord for anything. The Lord also sent him back without
even a trace of help. Yet Sudama never criticized the Lord for not
helping him. He succeeded in the test of the Lord and achieved infinite
wealth. Thus the Gita gives the real meaning of Yoga, which is self-
control without being attracted by diversions. The diversions are these
charkas, which are nothing but the obstructions in the way of passing in
the test of the Lord. This training is like the whole year’s academic
course and is very important. The test of the Lord is a matter of a three-
hour examination at the end of the year. If you have finished this
training, the Lord Himself will come to you in human form, conduct the
test and give you the certificate. Therefore you should concentrate on
the Gita, which is called as Yoga Shastra or the Scripture of Yoga.
The examiner, examination and the certificate are sequential steps,
which will take place spontaneously as per the divine will. Therefore the
study of the Gita helps you really on this day of festival whereas eating
sweets [prepared for the festival] leads only to problems of indigestion.
Praising the examiner with songs (bhajans) will also not help you
because the examiner is very clever and strict and cannot be pleased by
insincere behavior. It is better to hear His divine knowledge, assimilate
and pass the examination. This path gives you a dignity and respect for
the divine teacher too. Instead of taking this royal path, why are you
resorting to unlawful means of bribing Him by chanting His name
(Japam), worshipping Him (Puja) and singing His praise (Bhajans) in
order to get such certificates? Hanuman never did these things. He only
participated in the service of the Lord. He never aspired for anything in
return for his service either. He was made the future creator (Brahma)
by the Lord and this is the highest certificate. Therefore you can get the
highest fruit from the Lord if you practice Yoga in this world in your
day-to-day life. Such Yoga gives you all the necessary training to
succeed in the test of the Lord.
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Looking at the goal should not discourage you, just because the
goal is very far and so full of difficulties. You may fear that you may
not reach the goal before the end of this human birth. Yet you should
keep on trying for it and be in constant trial (sadhana). Then the Lord
will co-operate with you by granting you any number of human births.
The Lord will do His part (Daivamchaivatra—Gita). Even if you slip in
this trial, you will still be granted human rebirth with favourable
spiritual atmosphere (Yogabrashtobhijayate—Gita). But you should
sincerely put your effort and should not act artificially. The Lord is
omniscient and you cannot fool Him and get the rare human rebirth.
Restrictions on Leaving Family
One should not think of leaving one’s family members and house
as a real spiritual step. You cannot get the grace of the Lord by simply
sacrificing your house and family and claiming that you have become a
saint [monk]. The sacrifice should not be based on your effort but it
should be a spontaneous consequence of your devotion to the Lord. The
Gopikas were wandering in Vrindavanam leaving their families and the
reason for such detachment was the attachment to the Lord. They
became mad due to the absence of the Lord and this madness cannot be
compared to the madness of a person due some shock to the brain in an
accident. In both cases the madness is same but the reasons are different.
When Lord Krishna was staying with them, they neglected Him and
were doing all their family duties. When the Gopikas used to go to
Mathura city to sell butter, Krishna used to obstruct them. They
requested Him not to disturb their duties. But when Krishna left
Vrindavanam they became mad and left all their duties. The reason for
this difference is that when the human incarnation is near you,
negligence enters. Only in His absence, does devotion reach its climax;
this is human psychology. The human form itself leads to negligence
and if such human form stays constantly near you, your negligence is
doubled. By leaving your family and by simply wandering in
Vrindavanam, one will not become a Gopika. Ofcourse, in the Yoga
Vashishtham it is said that an ordinary human being should stay far
from the attractions and this will help the concentration on the God
initially. But the actual attachment towards the Lord is the only reason
for spiritual development.
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human form and engage in the service of the Lord, you get permanent
bliss in the long run, which is a profit. If you cross this level also and
serve the Lord even if it worries you, you enter His innermost circle.
Therefore instead of purchasing worry by pursuing entertainment, it is
far better to purchase worry in the service of the Lord. The result of the
former case is hell and the result of the latter case is the permanent
abode of the Lord. A person who purchases bliss from the Lord in His
mission is called as a Yukta, who is blessed by the Lord. But the person
who purchases worry from the Lord in His mission is called as
Yuktatama, which means the best of the devotees present in the state of
Yukta (Sameyuktatamah—Gita).
Existence of Parabrahman
You cannot say that the Parabrahman exists and nor can you say
that Parabrahman does not exist. The reason is that in both sentences the
verb ‘exists’ may mean that Parabrahman is understood or that
Parabrahman is imaginable. Generally, people do not say that an
unimaginable thing exists. Therefore the verb ‘exists’ always means the
probability of the existence of imaginable things. Based on this, when
you say that Parabrahman exists, generally there is a danger of thinking
that the Parabrahman is imaginable. Similarly, even if you say that
Parabrahman does not exist, it may also lead to thinking that the
Parabrahman is an imaginable item. When we say that the tree exists or
that the tree does not exist, in both cases the tree is imaginable.
Therefore, the Lord says in the Gita that Parabrahman cannot be said to
be existing or non-existing (Nasat tat naasat). Therefore, the
Parabrahman is best expressed by silence and the conclusion is that no
word can directly indicate the Parabrahman.
The word Parabrahman is not a direct word [a word that directly
defines or describes the object indicated by it]. It means ‘that which is
other than Brahman’. Brahman is the greatest imaginable item of
creation, which is pure awareness. Shankara wrote His commentary
about Brahaman. The word Brahma Jijnasa means discussions about the
Brahman since Brahman is an imaginable item. It can be well discussed
but when the word Parabrahman came, Shankara said that it should be
represented by silence alone (Mauna Vyakhya Prakatita
Parabrahma…). The greatest item of creation is pure awareness. The
inert energy like light, heat, electricity and magnetism is subtler and
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greater than inert matter. The life energy that is produced from the
oxidation of food is only heat energy (Tejah sati—Veda) because the
oxidation reaction is an exothermic reaction [a chemical reaction that
gives off heat]. But the awareness, which is generated from the nervous
system by the heat energy, is most subtle and is the finest form of
energy.
The inter conversion of awareness and the heat energy is
understood theoretically but is not possible to understand in practice for
the scientist. This does not mean that the life energy is independent and
eternal without generation and dissolution. The awareness disappears in
deep sleep and appears when the person wakes up. This proves that the
awareness is not eternal but is an inter-convertible form of the inert
energy itself. Ofcourse, the conversion is not in the hands of the
scientist, even though the conversion is theoretically proved and
accepted. When you stop the supply of food or oxygen, the heat energy
is not produced by digestion, and the awareness disappears, which is the
state of a coma or deep sleep. When life energy is not supplied, death
occurs. In the last stage, even though the digestion of the patient stops,
respiration continues. Although food is not supplied, oxygen is supplied.
Instead of food, the stored fat is oxidized. Therefore the patient is alive
for sometime in spite of the absence of food. After sometime, the
nervous system stops functioning, either due to damage in the system or
due to inadequate supply of the heat energy. This is the stage of
unconsciousness. Finally in the last stage, the oxidation stops and no
more heat energy is produced. We say that the human being is dead due
to absence of any trace of heat and the body becomes cold. This process
of death is described in the Veda (Manastejasi tejassati).
Just in the last fraction of a second before death, a small portion of
the heat energy is used in the formation of the energetic body that goes
out of the gross body along with the bundle of qualities, which are
stored in the mind. This bundle of qualities, accumulated from the past
millions of births of that soul, which is called as the subtle body or Jiva,
cannot be prepared by the scientist. He cannot bring back this bundle
called the subtle body, which escapes from the gross body and enters an
energetic body that comes out of the gross body. This energetic body is
called as a Yaatana Shariram [body of suffering], if the Jiva goes to hell.
It is called as a Bhoga Shariram [body of enjoyment], if the Jiva goes to
heaven and it is called as a Divya Shariram [divine body], if the Jiva
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goes to the abode of Lord. It is due to this reason that a dead person
cannot be made alive after he has died [since the subtle body has already
left the physical body and has entered an energetic body].
Otherwise science has developed an artificial nervous system and
brain in the robot by introducing a small ‘bundle of qualities’ in the
form of an information chip. Therefore, ‘man’ is produced [the robot or
artificial intelligence is similar to humans] but the same man cannot be
reproduced [a dead man cannot be recreated since we cannot force the
sublte body of the person to reenter the dead body]. The concept of a
robot clearly proves that awareness is also a form of inert energy
because in the robot, electrical energy is converted into the so-called
‘awareness’ which is nothing but electromagnetic energy. The energetic
body of a soul is called as the subtle body or ‘Sukshma Shariram’. It
goes to the upper world after the death of the physical body on earth,
and is invisible as said in Veda (Manomayah) and in the Gita
(Vayurgandhan; Utkramamtam).
The final means of knowledge [authority] is faultless experience,
which alone gives validity. The analysis of life energy and awareness is
done based on the experience of a human being that exists here. All this
is the analysis of the various aspects of the human being that exists in
this world. We have concluded that awareness is the finest and the
greatest item in this world based on the practical analysis here itself. If
practical experience is neglected, logic loses its basis. In such a
situation, even the scripture cannot stand because one may say that the
scripture itself is the false imagination of some mad person. Therefore
all this analysis is based on the internal nature of the available human
being. The analysis of the human being perfectly gives the analysis of
this entire creation because any human being is a part of creation [The
human being can stand as a model for the analysis of creation, since it is
a part of creation. What is true for the human being is therefore true for
the creation].
Logical analysis and the associated practical experience together
form science. Any spiritual aspirant is an ordinary human being and thus
science is applicable for analysing yourself. Infact the process of logical
elimination itself can enable you to attain the self or the causal body [by
eliminating all the items in creation which are not the Self, one is finally
left with the Atman or causal body, or pure awareness as the Self]. This
process is perfectly scientific. The self is the best item of the creation
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and the analysis of the self is also science. When you are an item of
creation, your ways and efforts cannot be supernatural and they must
follow the natural rules of creation, which are again nothing but science.
Therefore you must use the logical scientific analysis in analysing
yourself and your path to reach God. But God is beyond this creation
since He is the Creator. Therefore God cannot be analysed by science.
When the goal is above science the scientific path cannot be
meaningful because the scientific path will only lead to a goal which can
be analysed by science. For example, let us take the path to Mumbai.
The path is on the earth and Mumbai is also on the earth. The path is
analyzed by logic and the goal is also analyzed by logic. But if I start the
journey to God and ask the path to reach Him, nobody can show the
path because God is invisible. An invisible goal will always have an
invisible path. Nobody can travel on an invisible path. One can show the
path to a holy temple. If God existed in the statue, such a path would be
a true path. The main purpose of reaching God is to know three things:
yourself, the correct path and the correct goal. The reason is that God is
the best preacher for all the matters which are related to God. The
human incarnation of God is the correct place to find God. The human
incarnation consists of a visible human body so that the path to reach
Him also becomes visible. Since God is in the human incarnation, by
reaching that human body you have reached God. Infact God pervades
all over that body and you have reached God by reaching His
incarnation. God becomes visible through that human body and
therefore the path to reach God also becomes visible. The main purpose
to reach God is to hear the correct version of the entire spiritual
knowledge. Then through service, you have to please God.
In the case of a statue, it cannot preach even a trace of knowledge.
Moreover when we serve the statute it does not appear to be pleased on
its face. Due to these two reasons neither is God in the statute and nor is
God the statute itself (Na Tasya Pratima—Veda). The statute in the
human form is a model to indicate the human form of the Lord. Ignorant
human beings who cannot accept the human form of God due to their
egoism and jealousy can worship the statute for sometime as a training
for worshipping the human form of the Lord in the future
(Pratimahyalpa Buddhinam—Smriti). But one should not sit in the stage
of training throughout his life. If he remains there, he is reborn as an
inert object like a stone (Bhutejya yanti—Gita)
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knowledge of the Creator, the path to please the Creator and the nature
of the soul. Therefore the wonderful knowledge of the Parabrahman is
the nearest inseparable identity mark in the case of the human
incarnation.
The human incarnation is not recognised in the state of Brahman
because there can be no preaching from Brahman, which is pure
awareness without any creation. The preaching comes only from
Ishwara since He is associated with creation. The Rajas and Tamas also
attain unimaginability and become wonderful in the form of miracles.
Rajas is work and Tamas is force. Thus miracles are forms of wonderful
work and force, which are far from Parabrahman. Miracles can be
transferred to demons. Since Rajas is Brahma and Tamas is Shiva, both
of them grant boons to demons. Sattvam is Vishnu who never grants any
boon to demons. It means that the Sattvika Maya or Prajnanam can
never be transferred to demons. Sattvam represents Vishnu and Mula
Sattvam represents Narayana. This is the reason why Ramanuja and
Madhva stressed on Vishnu or Narayana who acts as the spiritual
preacher. However this does not mean that the Parabrahman is
associated with Mula Sattvam and Sattvam only. All the three qualities
are associated and therefore are all separable and different from
Parabrahman. The Parabrahman is associated with all the three qualities
in a wonderful state.
Even while transferring the miracles to demons, the Rajas and
Tamas in the complete unimaginable state cannot be transferred. The
force and work of creating, ruling and destruction of creation cannot be
transferred to any demon. For example a demon may create small
objects but cannot create the world. Lord Krishna showed the
Vishwarupam through which He proved that such a miracle could never
be exhibited by anybody other than Himself. The entire Bhagavad Gita
shows the non-transferable knowledge (Sattvam or Vishnu). The
Vishwarupam in the Bhagvad Gita also shows the non-transferable
Brahma and Shiva who represent the creation and destruction of the
cosmos. In between the creation and the destruction, the Lord
maintained the cosmos as Vishnu and preached to Arjuna about the
spiritual concept of the vision. Thus Vishnu stands for preaching the
knowledge even while maintaining the universe. Therefore one should
not distinguish between these three divine forms of the Lord. The Lord
is always associated with these three qualities in equal proportions.
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takes the universe containing human beings, for establishing the validity
of the knowledge. His basic argument is that perception followed by
practical experience and associated with logical analysis alone, can
result in valid knowledge. But why is he denying the Super Man [human
incarnation of God] who is visible and is giving wonderful knowledge
and doing miracles?
The Lord is donating His supernatural powers to several
representatives to prove the existence of the unimaginability called
Maya (Yadyat Vibhutimat—Gita). If the existence of Maya is
established, the existence of the possessor of Maya is also
simultaneously established. However to give the proof for His
possession of Maya, the human incarnation appears as the Super Man. If
the human incarnation does not come, people may end only by
establishing the existence of Maya, which is His power. The power
requires the existence of its Possessor or the Source of power. Otherwise
every demon will claim himself to be the possessor of the power. Infact,
they even claimed so in the past. Such demons were rejected by sages
since the demons lacked the wonderful divine knowledge, which is a
part (Sattvam) of God’s identity.
Role of Science
Science plays a very important role in the spiritual knowledge.
Science is the logical analysis, which is present in the analysis of this
world as well as in the analysis of the divine knowledge. Infact, sages
have analyzed the items of the creation with logic and finally concluded
that no item is God. Infact there is no direct way to indicate God. The
only way left over is the elimination of all items of the creation through
logical analysis as said in Veda (Neti neti). Thus the entire spiritual
knowledge is only full of science because you cannot analyse God who
is beyond creation. Thus Jnana Yoga, which is the identification of the
Lord in human form, requires the elimination of fraud human
incarnations through logical analysis. The Gita says that the constant
association of spiritual knowledge (Jnana) with science (vijnana) always
continues (Jnanam teham savijnanam, Jnanavijnana triptama).
The knowledge ends when the Lord in human form is recognized.
Up to this point there is every possibility of slipping and therefore
science should be in your hand like a glowing torch. When you reach
the house, the torch is put off and now the next step is to please the Lord
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in human form. You require blind love and blind faith in Him. Therefore
logical analysis should be shut down because the Lord is beyond logic.
From this point onwards, devotion (Bhakti) starts. For example, in
selecting a girl for marriage, you can examine several alliances with
logical analysis. But once you marry a girl, you should not continue to
look for new alliances and go on continuing with logical analysis.
Devotion finally leads to service. In both the stages of devotion and
service, scientific analysis must stop.
Thus science is the torch that helps you examine yourself and
conclude that you are not already God [the Advaita philosophy
erroneously claims that each individual is God already]. Science also
acts as a torch in detecting the true path to reach the Lord. Science or
Vijnana is also called as Buddhi or Vijnanamaya Kosha. This is the
driver who leads you in your car up to the place of God. Therefore the
Gita starts with this driver (Buddhi Yoga). This torchlight is also useful
to eliminate the wrong house. That means you can distinguish the real
human form of God from other fraud incarnations. But once you enter
the house after deciding that it is the correct house, there is no need of
the torch because the house is full of lights. The Sadguru is full of
knowledge and logical analysis.
Apart from such excellent participation in the spiritual knowledge,
science also helps you to earn your livelihood. Earning one’s livelihood
is a part and parcel of the Lord’s work. But science should not divert
you to earning money without limits and leading you to hell due to over
enjoyment. In this context, science, knowledge or the part of Veda
related to the world, is condemned by the Gita (Vedavadaratah).
Even the attainment of the self by eliminating the gross body and
the subtle body is done by logical analysis, which is science. With the
help of science, Yajna (sacrifice) becomes possible. Yajna means
cooking food and offering it to the divine preacher and devotees along
with money as Guru Dakshina. To earn money, scientific work is
required. This is stated in the Veda (Vijnanam Yajnam Tanute
Karmani). The Gita also says that God gives the Veda or knowledge.
Knowledge leads to work and sacrifice is the result of the work (Karma
Brahmodbhavam). Thus science is required even in the sacrifice of work
and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. It forms the very foundation of the
entire spiritual knowledge. Science leading to over enjoyment should be
cut down and this is proved by the present environmental pollution. It is
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you well. But when you go near the elephant, you get beaten. The
meaning of this verse is that the Atman, which is the pure awareness, is
the same in all human beings [and animals] but the difference in their
behaviours is due to the difference in their subtle bodies, which are the
mixtures of the three qualities in various proportions. When the equality
at the level of the self in every living being is realized, the person is not
only fixed in his self but also in the self of every living being with
equality. He will realize that the souls in all the living beings are one
and the same and therefore all living beings are only his co-actors in
different external roles. In that case he will not steal the wealth of other
human beings for the sake of the comfort of his family members and he
will also not kill any living being for food (Sarvabhutahite ratah).
Yajna And Karma
[Day 6} The Lord in human form receives our sacrifice and enjoys
it. His enjoyment is reflected in His face and we recognize it, which
gives us immense satisfaction (Bhoktaram Sarvatapasam). This
possibility is absent in all the other forms of God and therefore God
does not exist in the other forms but those forms can be kept as
representatives or models, if you are unable to accept the human form.
However, the recognition of the real human incarnation is very
important since He will guide you in the correct path as your friend
(Suhrudam Sarvabhutanam). If your guide is a false guide, he will harm
you by misguiding (Atmaiva ripuh) you. In this verse, the Lord said that
Atman should be uplifted by Atman. The second word Atman means the
Lord in human form. But the first word Atman means the soul in human
form. When Yoga is completed by the permanent self-attainment, the
Lord in human form will Himself contact you for further guidance
(Paramatma Samahitah).
One need not be discouraged by the most difficult goal of Nivritti.
If you are constantly trying, the Lord will co-operate with you by
granting you any number of human births (Abhyasena tu, Prayatnat,
Abhyasayoga, Aneka janma—Gita). Only one student can get the gold
medal (Kashchitmaam—Gita) in the class but every student has equal
opportunity and any student who tries constantly will succeed one day
or other. If you leave your effort, discouraged by seeing the goal, then
there is no other chance of human birth (Manushyatvam…Durlabham—
Shankara).
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The entire success in your spiritual effort lies only in one point
that is the recognition of the human incarnation because the
unimaginable Lord cannot be seen by any human being (Naaham
Prakasah Sarvasya). The Parabrahman is covered by the pure awareness
called as Yoga Maya or Mula Maya. It means that you should cross it by
even rejecting the pure awareness to know the Lord (Parabrahman), who
is beyond the pure awareness. You may neglect the human incarnation
(Avajananti maam—Gita) and worship the deities present in energetic
forms but the same Parabrahman present in all the deities is present in
this human form also. It is only the Parabrahman who can respond to
you (Mayaiva Vihitan—Gita). The Parabrahman enters, pervades and
identifies with the causal body (Adhyatama), with the subtle body
(Adhidaivata) and with the external gross body (Adhibhuta). Therefore
the Parabrahman can easily respond to you in the human form
(Aksharam Brahma—Gita).
The Lord in human form is also called as Adhiyajna, which means
that He presides over the sacrifice by receiving the service in the form
of sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. In a Yajna,
food and money as Dakshina are offered to the Sadguru who is the
incarnation of Lord. The Veda says that in such a divine preacher, all
the deities exist as said in the Veda (Devatah Taha Sarvah). Some
people want to serve a particular deity. Serving the Sadguru becomes
the service of that deity. The devotees can get boons from the Sadguru
because the Parabrahman present in all the deities is also present in
Sadguru. Therefore whatever the deities can grant, the same can be
granted by Sadguru also. Actually it is only the Parabrahman, who can
grant boons. The Lord says, “Let the devotees who are interested in
getting boons serve the Sadguru in a practical way by offering work and
fruit of work. Then one can expect the boon from the Parabrahman
through the Sadguru. The different deities are only intermediate forms
existing in the Sadguru Himself (Ishtakamadhuk)”.
This is purely business in that you offer something to God and get
back something in return. The Lord encourages even this path of
business ‘Vaishyamarga’ since it is better than ‘Veshyamarga’ [path of a
prostitute]. In the latter path, you are aspiring for something in return
practically, by offering only theoretical [imaginary, insubstantial] items
like praise by words, devotion by mind and discussions about the Lord
by your brain. The prostitute also expects money in return (practically)
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by sacrificing sweet words and sweet feelings of the mind. Atleast in the
first path, the devotee offers something practically and also expects
something practical in return as in the case of business. This business-
devotion is better than the prostitute-devotion in which devotees offer
prayers by words and feelings of love through mind and expect practical
boons in return. But even in the business-devotion, new developments
have come. People ask God to grant a boon first and only then will they
do practical sacrifice. The present day devotion of almost all the
devotees is according to these two ways.
Yajna is a practical sacrifice to the human incarnation or atleast to
His real devotees. The best way of doing Yajna is to sacrifice your work
or the fruit of your work or both, without aspiring for anything in return.
Infact you should feel that you are paying tax to the Lord for all the
cosmic facilities that He has provided to us. The Lord says that first this
divine tax must be paid to the Lord and only then can you should enjoy
(Yajnashishtaamruta—Gita) the facilities. He condemns the atheists
who enjoy the cosmic facilities and even deny the existence of the Lord.
The Lord says that such atheists are actually enjoying sin (Bhunjate
tetvagham). It is very important to note that getting all the amenities for
one’s self and one’s family members are included under the mission of
the Lord [unless one provides for the basic needs of one’s self and one’s
family, one cannot be fit to serve in the mission of God]. But there
should be some limit for these basic amenities. Luxuries should not be
argued to be basic needs or facilities.
Therefore you can divide the people into three categories. The first
category has earned money beyond all their needs. They should sacrifice
the excess wealth for the sake of the mission of the Lord. In the case of
the second category of people, who do not have much excess wealth,
whatever they waste in the name of entertainment, can be sacrificed to
the Lord. By this, they will avoid going to hell and instead will go to the
divine abode of the Lord. The third category of people is those who earn
and store only for their basic needs. Such people need not pay the divine
tax but in their case, another point comes: Are they are capable of doing
more work so that they can earn more? If they are capable but are not
doing the extra work, such people are instructed by the Lord to do work
to the full extent. By doing such extra work, the fruit of that work may
be paid as the divine tax or may be stored for their basic needs. But
under any circumstances, one should not enter into luxuries. All
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their prayers are in their mother tongue and so this problem is not
present. Simple recitation of hymns is called as Svadhyaya Yajna. The
sacrifice of food items alone is called Dravya Yajna.
The Lord has told that the path of sacrifice should be secret as far
as possible in the early stage (Rahasyam). As devotion develops and
reaches its climax, fear is lost. When Yajna is done, it is the practical
sacrifice to the Lord. Such sacrifice and the material [that is donated]
become the greatest (Brahmaarpanam—Gita). In this verse, the word
Brahman is used repeatedly to mean ‘the greatest’. The Lord says that
one should not stick to the fruit of one’s work but should sacrifice it to
the Lord and do the work of the Lord as his duty. Such a devotee alone
is called a sanyasin or a yogi (Anashritah karmaphalam).
Karma
The word Karma means work in general but this word karma also
means the work done for the sake of selfishness and his family
members. The word Karma Yoga means the work done for the sake of
the Lord. The word Vikarma means the work done in excess [for selfish
gain alone] even after achieving the wealth required for the necessities
of family (Karmanohyapi…). Therefore Karma means the necessary
work or duty done to acquire wealth for the basic needs for your family.
Vikarma means not only earning excess wealth but also wasting the
wealth in luxuries. Both these types of Vikarma are sin and should be
avoided. When you sacrifice the excess wealth to the Lord, you must
sacrifice it with fear and shyness [not with pride] because the entire
creation is the wealth of the Lord (Kasyasvit Dhanam—Veda). Even
while sacrificing work to the mission of the Lord, you should know that
the Lord alone supplies you the energy required to do the work.
Therefore you should not feel [proud] that you have served the Lord
(Naivakinchit, Ahankara Vimudhatma, Brahmanyadhaya, Navadvare).
The reason for the human being to work is Svabhava or Prakriti
(Svabhavastu, Prakritimyanti). Svabhava or Prakriti means the
mentalities that are concentrated in the subtle body for the past millions
of births. When boons are granted, the results of good deeds to be
enjoyed in future births are drawn back [pre-poned to the present] with
reduced value and are given to you as boons. The present results of the
bad deeds are postponed to the future births along with increased
interest. Therefore you can never escape the result of your bad deed and
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the boon given to you is always the result of your own good deed
(Nadatte Kasyachit). The Lord says that the sacrifice to the Lord should
be done in such a way that a feeling of love is generated
(Bhutabhavodbhavakarah). Love or devotion exists under ignorance and
emotion. If you realize that all the wealth belongs to the Lord alone, you
will feel that you have just returned the money of the Lord to Him and
the Lord will also feel that His own wealth is returned to Him. Neither is
there any feeling of real sacrifice in the mind of devotee nor is there a
real feeling of love in the heart of the Lord. The Lord also feels the love
of the devotee, if the Lord thinks that the devotee really sacrificed his
hard-earned fruit. But in such love, egoism may come up, since the
devotee can feel proud of his sacrifice. In order to rectify this, the
devotee is enlightened with knowledge so that he should know that the
entire creation is the wealth of Lord and get rid of his pride. Thus there
is an alternate release and withdrawal of knowledge and ignorance so
that the devotees do sacrifice with love under ignorance but without any
pride owing to knowledge (Mattah Smritih—Gita).
Work or karma should never be given up (Satatam Kuru Karma—
Gita). Work is useful for meeting the basic needs of life and also to store
some wealth for the future needs of the family. One need not feel shy up
to this point and should feel happy that he has fulfilled Pravritti or
justice, which is the basic part of Nivritti. [According to worldly justice
you are duty-bound to take care of your own needs and those of your
family. This forms the basis of service and sacrifice to God]. Once
karma is fulfilled up to this point, your work should be diverted towards
the Lord and such work is called as Karma Yoga. Either you have to
sacrifice the fruit of your work or your work according to your
convenience. Any one of these two or both can be called as Karma
Yoga. Without Karma Yoga, mere sacrifice of words, mind and intellect
is like sacrificing the freely supplied water [Giving water to someone is
not a real sacrifice since water is given to you free by the municipality.
Giving food to someone is a real sacrifice]. Therefore the Lord asked
Arjuna to fight the war and assist Him in His mission (Mamanusmara
Yuddhyacha—Gita). Arjuna got confused when Krishna was preaching
sacrifice and work at the same time. Arjuna thought that sacrifice means
leaving all the wealth and work and becoming inactive
(Vyamishrenaiva—Gita). Krishna clarified that one only has to sacrifice
the work done for the family with unlimited ambition after achieving all
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the required needs and facilities for the family. Once the basic needs and
facilities are achieved, work for the family should be stopped and this is
Sanyasa. After that one should divert all his work and its fruits towards
the Lord. Therefore both work and sacrifice are to be done (Sanyasah
Karma Yogascha—Gita). The Lord opposes stopping work and
becoming inactive after earning all basic facilities for the family.
The Lord says that one should be interested in the self
(Atmaratireva—Gita). Here the word self does not mean selfishness.
Here the word self means the causal body, which is pure awareness, and
which can be attained by self-analysis for the sake of attaining Yoga. He
should not fall from the state of pure awareness and must stay there with
interest in the self. After attaining Yoga subsequently he should catch
the Sadguru and surrender to Him completely. In this stage, the same
word ‘self’ indicates the human incarnation of the Lord. This is the
stage of Nivritti where the devotee has all his interest only in the Lord.
In this stage of Nivritti the devotee is not related with any other human
being except the Lord. All his family bonds vanish and no family
member can control him (Kaschidarthavyapashrayah—Gita). Even the
laws of Dharma cannot bind such a devotee because the Lord is far
greater than Dharma (Sarva Dharmaan—Gita). When you are serving
the Lord, you must do service as a scholar without the feeling of egoism
that everything belongs to Lord and that every work is done by the Lord
(Saktah Karmani—Gita) alone. A devotee with ignorance and love also
does the same service with the feeling that he is donating his hard-
earned fruit and that he is sacrificing his own energy for the Lord. Even
though ignorance is present in the latter case the love in the sacrifice
makes it pure as long as it does not result in egoism.
Final Message Of The Gita
Types of Devotees
[Day 7] Four types of devotees approach the Lord. The first one
approaches due to the pressure of some emergency or difficulty (Arta).
The Lord will definitely respond to him once or twice, expecting him to
rise above this level. If he does not rise, God’s response disappears
slowly. For this type of response from God, there is no need of a human
incarnation. The power of the Lord that pervades all over the world is
sufficient to respond to such prayers in an emergency. Even this
response of God is based on the re-adjustment of the person’s own
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results. The Lord will rearrange his results temporarily and do him a
favour, but this rearrangement is not a true solution. The postponed bad
result will appear in another form immediately, or with interest, later on.
Therefore after such response, one should become a Jijnasu [one who is
interested in knowing] and should learn the whole divine knowledge
from a divine preacher. Instead of this, if he continues his prayers to the
Lord for solving every problem that he faces, he is called as an Artharthi
[a person who prays for material benefit]. If he approaches the divine
preacher and gets all the knowledge, he is called as a Jnani [one who
knows]. All these four types of people are not bad people because none
of them is an atheist (Udarassarva—Gita).
A student is better than an illiterate person but among students,
there are grades. Similarly, the Jnani is the best among these four. He
never approaches the Lord for any problem. He always serves the Lord
in human form from whom he has received the knowledge. He becomes
Atman (Jnanitvatnaiva), which means that he has completed Yoga and
has attained the Self by self-analysis. If the word Atman here is taken in
the sense of the Lord, the question comes whether here ‘Jnani’ is
knower of the Self or the knower of the Lord. The Gita says that except
the Lord Himself, nobody knows the Lord. In another context too, the
word Jnani is used only in the sense of the self or soul (Jnanibhyopi).
The word Jnani thus means he who has attained the self because one can
attain the self by the knowledge of self-analysis. Shankara said the same
“Jnanadevatu Kaivalyam” which means that by knowledge, one attains
his own self or Atman.
Self-Attainment
This attainment of the Self is called Yoga and such a person is
called as a Sthitaprajna. The word Sthitaprajna means he who exists in
the state of Prajna or Buddhi (intelligence). Through intelligence alone
can one do the discrimination [between Self and non-Self] and attain the
Self, which is nearest to the intelligence (Yo Buddheh Paratah). Since
he always keeps himself in the Self (Atmanyeva Atmana), his
characteristics change according to the level of Atman. Before this, he
behaved like the gross body [since he thought that he is the gross body].
Arjuna was like such an ignorant person who thought that the gross
body was himself. All the relatives, related by blood, are linked only to
the gross body. Therefore Arjuna was worried about his relatives in the
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war. Human beings are doing all types of sins because of the bonds with
the family members, who are related only to the gross body. All the
problems of injustice in this world are only due to the link to the gross
body.
The Lord wanted to introduce the two inner bodies, which are the
subtle body (Jiva) and causal body (Atman). The second chapter of the
Gita, which is the beginning of the Lord’s message in the Gita, starts
with the explanation of these two bodies, which are put together and
called as Jivatma or roughly as Atman or Jiva. Jiva is made of qualities.
The qualities are made of pure awareness, which is called as Atman.
The Jiva in which Atman is inherently present, leaves the gross body in
death. Atman is the pure awareness, which in a disturbed state [qualities
superimposed on pure awareness] is called as the subtle body or Jiva.
Jiva is like a bundle of water waves and Atman is like the standstill
water without waves. These waves are the qualities or the feelings. They
are called as samskaras or vaasanas. When these waves cease, Atman,
the waveless water, results. To think that Atman is one’s Self, is Yoga.
This is the state of the Sthitaprajna. He is always aware of His pure
awareness. Then, blood relations and the emotion in the bonds
disappear. In this state Arjuna can fight even with his relatives. When he
kills them, he will feel as if he is only destroying their external clothes
(Vasamsi—Gita).
Even if you cannot make these waves subside, let them exist like
the external gross body. Making these waves subside is very difficult
because they have been with you for several births. Therefore, the
easiest way is to fix yourself in the causal body without bothering about
the gross body and the subtle body. As Atman, one can be a spectator of
all the functions of the gross body and all the dances of the qualities of
the subtle body. In that case, you are not at all bothered by any activities
of the gross body and the internal qualities (subtle body), which govern
those activities (Iti Mattva Nasajjate). Lord Krishna preached this Atma
Yoga to Arjuna to remove his powerful attachments, which cause
misery. Lord Krishna gave this Atma Yoga as the first emergency
medicine. Shankara stressed on this Atma Yoga. This Atman, being the
greatest item of creation is also called as Brahman by the Gita as well as
Shankara. According to the verbal meaning, it is justified to call Atman
as Brahman. Therefore when you have attained Atman, you have
become Brahman. Shankara called Jiva as Brahman because in the
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treatment of Arjuna was over by the second chapter itself. But his
questions made the Lord teach the path of Nivritti also.
In Nivritti, the Jnana Yoga is complete and one develops only one
bond with the Lord while all the other bonds with the world are cut
(Teshaam Jnani—Gita). Only due to Nivritti, could Arjuna kill his
beloved grandfather under the direction of Lord Krishna. By attaining
the Self in Pravritti, Arjuna could become neutral towards his
grandfather. This is not sufficient to kill his grandfather. Therefore
Nivritti was preached in which Arjuna realized Lord Krishna as God
and obeyed His instruction to kill his grandfather. Arjuna was in the
minus state [negative] due to his blind love towards his grandfather.
Krishna brought him to the zero state in which Arjuna attained his Self
by self-analysis as preached in the second chapter of the Gita. Later on
Nivritti was elaborated so that Arjuna came to the plus stage [positive]
in which He recognised Krishna as the Lord. As per the order from the
Lord, he killed his grandfather because he had already become neutral
towards him in the previous state. Thus the self-analysis helps one to
easily enter the state of Nivritti.
The treatment of Arjuna was done in two stages. The illness was
the blind attraction of his family bonds by which he was deeply pained.
In the first stage the attraction in the family bonds was reduced. In this
initial treatment the medicine given by the doctor, Krishna, was the
achievement of the Self by self-analysis. By this, the severity of the
illness was reduced. This is called as the treatment of Pravritti. In the
next stage, the treatment of Nivritti started. The first injection in Nivritti
was to introduce the human incarnation. After recognizing the human
incarnation, which was Lord Krishna Himself and which was clearly
declared by Lord Krishna, Arjuna received the Jnana Yoga of Nivritti by
which Arjuna recognized Krishna as the Lord and loved the Lord by
devotion. Thereby the love for his family bonds disappeared and finally
he served the Lord as His servant.
The war was the Lord’s mission in which Arjuna participated as a
servant to establish Dharma and condemn Adharma. Thus in Nivritti
you find the additional Jnana Yoga which leads you to Bhakti Yoga and
finally end in Karma Yoga, which is service. Thus in the treatment of
Pravritti, there is no Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. But in the treatment
of Nivritti, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga follow in that
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in Nivritti. The soul, the path and the final goal constitute the whole
spiritual journey. The soul must be made eligible for the journey. Thus
there are the following four steps in the path of Nivritti:
1) The recognition of the present living human form like
Krishna, as the ultimate Lord.
2) Receiving divine knowledge from Him about the whole
spiritual journey including the initial self attainment.
3) Loving the Lord with single-pointed concentration and
subsequent destruction of all worldly bonds.
4) Finally, serving the Lord in human form by surrendering
everything including words, mind, intellect, work and the fruit of
work.
Thus the Gita starts with the preliminary stage of self-analysis in
the second chapter and goes on to deal with all the above stages in the
subsequent chapters. The Gita is treated as a book dealing only with
Nivritti and can be called as Moksha Shastra [science of total
liberation]. The word Yoga means attainment and thus the word Yoga is
used in several stages whenever those stages are attained. E.g. Jnana
Yoga is attaining Jnana or knowledge, Bhakti Yoga is attaining
devotion. In the context of Atma Yoga or the attainment of the Self in
the preliminary stage, the word Yoga means attainment of equality or
equal-mindedness (Samatvam Yoga—Gita) in every corner of the world,
which is the main characteristic of self-attainment. But this definition of
Yoga is limited to that context only. In all other places, the word Yoga
simply means attainment. Therefore, if you limit the Gita to only the
second chapter, it can be called as Yoga Shastra. But the word Yoga
means attaining the Lord and attaining success in pleasing Lord. Then
even Moksha Shastra becomes Yoga Shastra.
Goal of Nivritti
The Advaita scholars think that the self-attainment mentioned in
the second chapter of the Gita is the final goal of Nivritti too. The
preliminary course, which gives eligibility to join the main course itself
is treated as the main course. By self-attainment, Arjuna became normal
and peaceful so that he was eligible to divert himself to Krishna. By
self-analysis all the bonds with his blood relations became weak and it
was a favourable atmosphere for the formation of the bond with the
Lord. If self-analysis were the ultimate, the Gita would have been over
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by the second chapter. Arjuna had already lost the intensity of his blind
attractions and could have fought with his family members [at the end of
the second chapter] There was no need for Krishna to tell Arjuna that
Arjuna should develop devotion towards Krishna even after the
attainment of the self. But Krishna told Arjuna that Arjuna was ignorant
(Natvam vettha—Gita). The Lord introduced two items in the fifteenth
chapter. One is Kshara, which means the external gross body that is
destructible. The other is Akshara, which is eternal and which indicates
the Atman. The Atman is eternal with respect to the gross body. The
eternal nature of Atman is relative but not absolute. The Lord said that
He is beyond both these items. He did not say that He is some third
item. The reason is that the first two items are visible or imaginable
items of creation. Therefore those two items can be numbered as one
and two under the category of items of creation. But the third item is
beyond the entire creation and is not under the category of items of
creation. This third item is called as Purushottama. But the word means
that He is the greatest human being. This means that a third item exists
in human beings called Krishna, and therefore Krishna is Purushottama.
In the human body of Krishna too, both Kshara and Akshara are present.
When the Lord introduced His human body by the word “Idam
Shariram”, He mentioned both Kshetram (Kshara) and Kshetrajna
(Akshara). [Kshetra means a field. Kshetrajna means the knower of the
Kshetra] Then, He introduced Himself as a third item who is also a
Kshetrajna. Thus the human form of Lord Krishna stands as
Purushottama. The word Purushottama means the superman or the
human incarnation, who comes in every human generation. Therefore
He is famous in the world (Atosmi Loke—Gita). The Lord says that the
human incarnation is famous even in the Veda (Aparokshat Brahma,
Pratyagatmanamaishat—Veda). The Lord said that the soul in every
human being is Kshetrajna, because the soul is made of pure awareness,
which is aware of itself and aware of the world. The word Kshetram
means the world. Now the Lord says that He is also aware of Himself
and is aware of the world i.e., Kshetrajna. What does this mean? This
means that the soul is aware of itself and the world because it is
awareness. The soul is understood by logical analysis. But the Lord can
never be understood by any logical analysis. Therefore you cannot say
that the Lord is awareness just because He is also aware of Himself and
the world like a soul. Here two words ‘cha’ and ‘api’ are used which
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mean that even though the Lord is not awareness, He still knows
everything.
The Lord is not present in inert matter or inert energy, which
constitute the world (Nacha Bhutastah—Gita). This means that He is
neither in the world and nor is He the world. This eliminates the gross
body of ordinary human being—the Lord is neither in the gross body
and nor is He the gross body itself. The gross body is made of Pancha
bhutas (the five elements). Therefore the word Bhuta in the above verse
of the Gita concludes that He is neither the five elements nor is He in
the five elements. The second possibility is that the Lord may be the
qualities or may be present in the qualities. The Lord says that the three
qualities are generated from Him but He is not in the qualities
(Nachaham Teshu—Gita). This means that He is neither the subtle body
and nor is He in the subtle body made of the qualities. The last
possibility is that He may the pure awareness (causal body or Atman).
This awareness is present in the qualities like water existing in the
waves. If He is water, He cannot say that He is not present in the water
waves. Thus if He were Atman or the causal body, He would be present
in the subtle body of every human being. In that case He would not have
said that He is not in the qualities. Water is in the waves and the waves
are also in the water. If that were the case, the Lord should have told
that the qualities are in Him and that He is also in the qualities. But He
told Arjuna in the Gita that He is not present in the qualities even though
the qualities are present in Him. Therefore He is not the pure awareness,
which dissolves in the deep sleep.
He also told that the five elements are in Him but He is not the five
elements (Matsthani—Gita). This statement is not possible if you say
that the cause is available in the effect, like the gold existing in the
golden ornament. If that were the case, the Lord should have told that
He is present in the five elements or the three qualities or the pure
awareness of the universe. The gold is the ornament and the ornament is
in the gold. Therefore that example is not valid. [In order to properly
explain this concept,] We would have to give an example in such a way,
that we can say that the ornament is in the gold but the gold is not in the
ornament.
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how many people were His devotees? One has to cross egoism and
jealousy to recognize the living human form—present right before the
eyes. Several devotees accept the human forms of the Lord that have
passed away and are not present before their eyes. The reason for the
repulsion between two human bodies is the repulsion between likes. By
self-analysis, if one fixes himself to be the Atman, which is the pure
awareness, he becomes different from the human form. Then you may
love another human form [especially the human incarnation of God].
This is one of the spiritual reasons of self-analysis. Even in that case,
you may start hating human beings because they are also in the same
state of Atman (Sarvabhutatmabhutatmaa). Therefore being in the state
of Atman, you can love other human forms. You can also be in the state
of human form and love other human forms. Whatever it may be, you
must be able to love other human forms. The final result is that you
should love the human form of the Lord and that alone can be your love
for Parabrahman. Whatever you do to that human form of the Lord, is
done to Parabrahman Himself.
Lord Krishna never told anyone that He is God except to Arjuna.
Since Arjuna surrendered to Krishna with full faith and devotion, He
revealed Himself as the Lord and taught him the path of Nivritti. There
was no need to preach Nivritti to the Gopikas because they had achieved
the goal of Nivritti. These Gopikas were sages in the previous births and
the Lord had preached to them in the form of Dattatreya for a long time.
There was no need to preach Nivritti to Duryodhana, who was a demon
and could not even come up to the level of Pravritti. He was blind with
his family bonds. Therefore the Lord only taught him Pravritti but even
that was of no use. As a last resort, the Lord even showed him the
Vishwarupam. Yet Duryodhana did not care. That means that he
believed in God but did not care for Him. He was a demon in the
previous birth. Demons try to use the power of God, but they themselves
want to become God. Duryodhana wanted the help of Krishna in the war
and got the vast army from Him. Demons like the power of God but not
God. They are better than an atheist because the atheist neither likes
God nor His power.
Krishna did not show Vishwarupam to the Gopikas because they
believed in Him as the Lord. The Vishwarupam was the proof of the
human form of Krishna being the Lord. Such proof was not necessary
for the Gopikas. The Gopikas were sages in the previous births and had
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complete divine knowledge from the Lord in human form, who was
called as Dattatreya. He had showed this vision to them several times.
Therefore, there was no need of knowledge or any such proof for the
Gopikas. Jesus said, “Those who believe in Me without proof are more
blessed than those who believe in Me with proof”. But the other extreme
end was Duryodhana who could not understand even the preliminary
knowledge of Pravritti and did not believe even after seeing the
Vishwarupam.
If you take the case of Arjuna, he represents the human being who
is a hill of doubts and who raised questions. He is in the middle stage;
neither a demon like Duryodhana, nor a sage like the Gopikas. He is
eligible for Pravritti and Nivritti. The Vishwarupam strengthened his
belief. Therefore, Arjuna represents the present human being. But
Arjuna neglected Krishna on the eighteenth day when Krishna asked
Arjuna to step down from the chariot first. Even during the war, when
Abhimanyu died, Arjuna said that he would stop the war. Actually, the
essence of the Bhagavad Gita was that Arjuna should fight against
injustice as a servant of the Lord and not for any personal purpose. This
spirit was lost when Arjuna refused to fight, grieving for Abhimanyu’s
death. Therefore, Arjuna represents this human psychology.
If you take the case of the sage Udanka, he did not believe in
human forms of God. He was a believer in God and believed in the
energetic forms of God like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He had done a
lot of penance and had got superpowers from the Lord. He had
dedicated all his life to God. The only defect in him was that he did not
believe in the human form of God. Therefore he was prepared to give a
curse to Krishna. Lord Krishna showed Udanka His Vishwarupam as a
proof that Krishna was the human form of the Lord. [Sage Udanka then
believed in Krishna]
Thus, there was no use of the Vishwarupa vision, in the case of
Duryodhana. There was a little use of it in the case of Arjuna. The
highest use of the vision was in the case of Sage Udanka. There was no
need of it in the case of the Gopikas. The Lord showed the
Vishwarupam to Arjuna and Udanka so since it was useful in both the
cases. He showed the same vision to Duryodhana to tell us that there
will be no use of divine visions in such cases.
The Vishwarupam is the vision of the entire cosmic energy, which
cannot be seen by these human eyes. The Lord gave a very highly
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and asked him to stay in the front porch of the house. The beggar
carefully measured the area of the front porch and claimed that he is the
house owner. This is the state of the Advaita philosopher. But, what
about Adisesha and Hanuman? They were also given place in the front
porch. But they never claimed to be the house owner. The Lord then
called them inside the house, which are Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga.
They still said that they were beggars and not at all the owners of the
house. Finally the Lord declared them as the owners of the house. Still
they said that they are not the owners. Balarama was given an equal
place [with God] in the ten incarnations. He was treated as the Lord but
at the end, He turned back to Adisesha and became the bed of the Lord
[in the upper world, Adishesha appears as a thousand-hooded cobra
swimming on the Milk Ocean. The Lord rests on the bed of the coil of
this cobra]. Even though Hanuman was made the future creator, He
remained as the servant of the Lord. The Advaita scholar is not even
one-millionth of Hanuman or Adisesha. Ramanuja was Adisesha and
Madhva was the brother of Anjaneya [Hanuman].
Shankara was Lord Shiva himself who claimed to be the Lord in
human form (Shivoham). But others also started saying that they are also
the Lord in human form. For their sake, Lord Shiva took the form of
Hanuman and showed them how a human being should always be a
servant of the Lord. The same Lord Shiva represented a human
incarnation as Adi Shankara by saying “Shivoham” and the same Lord
Shiva came as a devotee in the form of Hanuman. The same Lord
Narayana came as Rama to represent a human being and as Krishna, to
represent the human incarnation. Shiva came first as a servant and only
then as a human incarnation. Similarly, Narayana first came as a human
being and only then as a human incarnation.
The last verse of the Gita says that devotees should surrender to
Him alone (Maamekam Sharanam). Therefore, the final goal of the
human being is to recognize the human incarnation and completely
surrender to Him. The first word of the Gita is Dharmakshetre, which
means the field of Pravritti or Dharma. The last verse of the Gita says
Sarva Dharman Parityajya, which is the field of Nivritti. The first
person that comes in the Gita is the blind king Dhritarashtra. The last
person is the enlightened Arjuna. In Pravritti, one has to vote for
Dharma and against Adharma. But in Nivritti, one has to vote for the
Lord in human form even if it means voting against Dharma.
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Pandavas from which they have to return back to the earth. But He gave
the highest Goloka, the fifteenth topmost world to the Gopikas from
which they never returned.
Essence of the Gita
[Swami sang the following song extempore, which gives the
essence of the Gita]
How should I tell you, O Partha, how should I tell you? (Main
Chorus)
If I say that I am not the Lord, you will say that I am the Lord,
If I say that I am the Lord, you will say that I am not the Lord,
If I don’t love, I am a stone for you, if I love you, you tell me to go,
If you like to be with me always, you have to cut all the bonds.
Impossible! O Partha, this is impossible! (Side chorus)
(Main chorus)
(Main Chorus)
Two obstacle-walls oppose you here; egoism and jealousy are the
walls,
Human body repels human body; therefore you reject My human
form,
Realize, you are not the human body; you are the soul that is the
pure awareness,
Why do you hate the human body, when you are not the human
body?
Love Me! O Partha, love My human form! (Side chorus)
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(Main Chorus)
(Main Chorus)
Sacrifice of work and fruit of work, both are service, like the plate
of meals,
Oral singing and love with the mind; to be given like the drinking
water,
Don’t give only water to Lord, and charge Him for giving the water
But meals must be with drinking water; don’t aspire for payment
from Lord
He will bless you! O Partha, He will always bless you! (Side
chorus)
(Main Chorus)
You think of Me as a human body since you are also the human
body
I am the hot water, water with heat; you are the cold water, water
without heat,
Don’t propagate that I am the Lord; others may not digest that truth,
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They will mock you and drag you down, to their level to be equal
with you,
Human tendency! O Partha, this is human tendency! (Side chorus)
(Main Chorus)
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Chapter - 7
TEACHING FOR THE VARANASI SAINT
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with this ocean of energy has entered into the inert world into some
discontinuous items of the world like birds, animals, human beings etc.
The plants have life but not awareness (awareness is negligible and can
be treated as almost absent). Therefore, the Veda says that from plants
the awareness (Purusha) came. Plants can be included under the item of
living beings but not under the item of awareness (soul). Now the world
has both inert items like hills, rivers etc., and also living items like
plants along with special living items like birds, animals and human
beings etc. The cinema is now complete with the inert decorated stage
with the actors.
When the property of awareness entered the world, the Advaitists
think that God entered the world because God is awareness. Awareness,
understanding, thinking and imagining are work forms of energy and
thus are energy itself. How can imagination, which is energy, touch God
when God is beyond energy? The actors have entered the stage and the
producer is a just a spectator. The construction of the stage, the story of
the drama and direction etc., are done by the ocean of Chit, which is like
PA [personal assistant] to God. Thus, the Mula Maya or Maha Maya is
the direct cause. But the entire work is done only by the will and power
of God. If God enters this ocean of Chit, it is called as Brahman. After
creation of this world, this Brahman becomes a spectator and is called
Ishwara.
After sometime, to have full entertainment, God enters the drama
as an actor, which is the human incarnation. The entry of other actors is
not the entry of the producer. God is the producer and director
indirectly, and is not directly involved or affected in any way. Whenever
the word Brahman or Atman is used, you should not make the mistake
of thinking that it always means God. In a village people may say that
the ruler is coming. The ruler is the head of the village. People in the
parliament may also say that the ruler is coming. Here the word ruler
indicates the president of the country. Since the word ruler is common,
you cannot say that the head of the village and the president of the
country are one and the same. The head of the village is also controlled
by the president. Similarly, Atman may rule certain activities of the
body and certain items in the world. But God rules all the items of the
world including the self [Atman]. The Advaitists do not believe in the
unimaginable God and therefore they do not believe in the entry of God
into a human form. They take the entry of awareness itself as the entry
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were to be blindly followed, then there would not have been any
necessity of the appearance of human incarnations for preaching again
and again. The original text is always misinterpreted by the followers to
suit to their limitations and therefore there is a necessity of human
incarnations to come again and again to remove the wrong
interpretations and establish the correct interpretation. The correct
interpretation causes inconvenience to some selfish and egoistic people,
who go to the extent of rejecting the human incarnation. Krishna had
several enemies and only a very few devotees in His lifetime. Shankara
had several opponents. Buddha faced a similar situation. Kapila was
criticized as an atheist. Jesus and Dayananda were even killed directly.
When the human incarnation passes away, His original preaching
will again be misinterpreted or even polluted by selfish people. Then,
they praise the past human incarnation because they use Him to support
their interpretations and activities. Why did Prahalada not follow his
tradition? Sometimes pseudo-human incarnations misinterpret the truth
and for this reason, Mohammad and Dayananda rejected even the
concept of human incarnation. But again the context of their situation at
that time should be understood and it should not be extended to every
time. When the children suffer with cold, the mother does not allow the
children to eat ice cream in that situation. The mother will give ice
cream again when the children get rid of the cold.
God Is Above Society
The Lord should be greater than any soul in the society. Jesus says
that one should leave even the closest souls like family members for the
sake of the Lord. Leaving the close worldly bonds is salvation but it
should be for the sake of the God. Jesus said that you should hate the
family bonds for the sake of Jesus. Krishna went one step above and
asked Arjuna to kill his family members for the sake of His work
(Establishment of justice on the earth). The family is greater than the
society and the Lord is greater than the family. How can you give more
importance to society than the Lord? When a lady was washing Jesus’
feet with a perfume, a disciple, out of jealousy said that beggars could
have been served with the cost of the perfume. Jesus told him that
beggars will always be there but serving Him is very rare. Beggars are
under the punishment of God for their sins. If you simply help them, it is
interference with the judicial administration of God. Ofcourse, you can
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serve them by converting them into devotees of God. In such a case God
will excuse and bless them. Then alone can they get the permanent
solution.
Shankara discarded the social service in comparison to the service
of the Lord (Loka sevaka mata nirasah). Hanuman never did any social
service but only served the human incarnation. The service that He did
was also personal. It is real test for you to see how much value you give
to the Lord. Hanuman never did japa, dhyana, bhajan, tapas, yoga,
social service, service to beggars etc. as per the Valmaki Ramayanam.
The Gopikas also never did these things as per the Bhagavatam. Their
full concentration was only on the human incarnation. Without the
instruction from Rama, Hanuman did not even protect Sugriva from
Vali. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that one should take the
responsibility of uplifting humanity only on the command and under the
direction of the Lord. Hanuman did everything that He could do only
under the guidance of Rama.
Every Being is Brahman
[The saint says that every living being is Brahman due to the
presence of awareness. He says that everybody cannot be Bhagavan
without having the special six qualities. He says that Bhagavan or
Ishwara can control any human being but not Brahman.]
Again how childish is this statement! When you say everybody is
Brahman and only one becomes Bhagavan or Ishwara, it means that
Ishwara is greater than Brahman. Again you say that Ishwara cannot do
anything to Brahman!
You have taken the following concept given by Me in My
discourses. Water is Brahman. The ocean is Ishwara and the water drop
is Jeeva. The ocean can control the water drop but cannot control the
water. There is no ocean without water and there is no drop without
water. The ocean is water and the drop is also water. When you say that
the ocean can control the drop, it means that water controls water! If you
say that the ocean and the drop are different from water, they do not
exist at all without water and therefore the concept of control itself is
lost. When you are defeated by another stronger man will you accept
your defeat or not? Or will you say that since both of you were men and
since the stronger man cannot hurt the man, as a man you are not
defeated! How childish is this logic!
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Sadguru Is Datta
[The saint says that the human incarnation cannot be the Sadguru.]
Krishna and Shankara were called as Jagat Guru. The saint says
that Datta is only a sage. This is the climax of the madness of the saint.
Datta is considered to be the Guru of Gurus. The energetic body of
Datta represents the highest state of God. The three faces indicate
creation, ruling and dissolution of the world. The Veda declares this
point as the identity mark of Brahman. Since the real nature of God
(Swarupa Lakshanam) is not known, even this is only an associated
property (Tatastha Lakshanam). A constructed house gives only the
nature of the power of engineer but not his real form. The second
Brahma Sutra reveals this point. Even Prajnanam is a constantly
associated property like the above property. Due to the constant
association you can take this as almost the property of the real form.
From this point, Datta stands for the real and complete identity of God.
The cobbler who corrected Shankara was none other than Datta. Even
Krishna was the human incarnation of Datta as indicated by the three
central faces of His vision of the cosmic form. There can be no better
representation than Datta for the absolute God. This saint resembles the
sage Udanka who misunderstood Krishna to be an ordinary human
being and started scolding Krishna. Let the saint remember that
Shankara composed “Datta Sahasra Nama Stotram”.
When God resides in a human body in which the soul is filtered
from all activities (All the waves which are Antahkaranams and
qualities disappear and Jeeva is dissolved in static soul) and is converted
into inert energy as in the state of deep sleep, such a human incarnation
is called as Avadhuta Datta. If God does not enter the human body of an
Avadhuta, such a human body is just like an inert statue in which only
the living mechanisms function as in the case of a plant or as in the case
of a person in deep sleep or a coma. No vasana (worldy issues) can
attack the person who is in this state, which resembles a rock.
If God enters into a human body in which the soul has become
static by removing all the qualities and antahkaranams, but the soul is
not converted into inert energy, such a state is called as a state of Yogi
Raja or Yogishwara. This state resembles the state of perfect meditation
in which the nervous system functions but the awareness is not active
except that it is aware of itself (Atma Bodha). In the case of human
incarnation, there is no difference between the Avadhuta and Yogi Raja
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the past but discard even a greater personality of the present. This
disease is present even in angels as said in the Veda (Paroksha
priyah…). You must appreciate the point of any person irrespective of
the external orange robe or the dress of a house holder. If a gravel stone
is wrapped by an orange cloth and is kept in a traditional math
[monastery], will it become a diamond? Shankara fell at the feet of even
a cobbler for his excellent knowledge. Only a real scholar can appreciate
real knowledge. If some other traditional saint were present in the place
of Shankara, he would say that the cobbler should be kicked out!
Swami Is Jnana Mohini
[The saint says that Swami has Vak Siddhi [power of words] and
is hypnotising people through it.]
One cannot hypnotise any person only by words for a long time.
Swami has Jnana Siddhi. Infact Swami declared Himself as Jnana
Mohini [Knowledge-Enchantress], who will hypnotise the entire world
by the beauty of the Jnana. Swami stated that He could hypnotise Lord
Shiva by His physical beauty, which is not a great thing [Swami, who is
Lord Maha Vishnu, assumed the female form of Mohini and enchanted
Lord Shiva]. Physical beauty is temporary but beauty of knowledge is
eternal. The saint again may shout at Me, so let Me clear his
misunderstanding that Swami does not mean this external human form.
Swami means the God who lives in this human body. Let his egoism
and jealousy be pacified. The saint says that I have Vak Siddhi. The
word ‘vak’ means ‘word’, which must have some meaning and the
meaning is ‘Jnana’. Therefore, Vak Siddhi means Jnana Siddhi. ‘Vak’ is
not sound, like the songs played by Krishna on the flute. Vak means the
words of the Gita, which are associated with knowledge. Krishna did
not hypnotise Arjuna with words, which have no meaning. If He had
done so then in that case ‘vak’ means sound. Krishna hypnotised Arjuna
by the meaning of words, which is Jnana.
Physical Presence of Guru
[The saint says that one should be near the Guru physically and
should not be in a foreign country.]
This is correct with respect to ancient times when computers,
phones and photography were not available. It is essential to talk with
the Guru directly and for such direct talk, technology was not present in
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that time. If this purpose is served, it is better to be far from the Guru.
The reason is that if you live near, you will develop negligence by
observing the external activities of the human body of the Guru, which
are similar to any human being. Such observation constantly diverts
your concentration from the internal divine nature of Guru. I told the
story of Rukmini and Radha in this context. Infact, Radha in
Vrindavanam and Krishna in Dwaraka were separated by the ocean and
thus Radha was a foreign devotee of Krishna. There cannot be a higher
devotee of God than Radha and she was made the queen of Goloka,
which is above the Brahma Loka.
Propagation of Knowledge
[The respectable saint says that there is no necessity to propagate
the knowledge because it spreads by itself.]
This is against the experience. Knowledge does not propagate like
scent. It only propagates by discourses, debates, books, emails etc.
Ofcourse, it means that there is no need of forcing anybody to propagate
the knowledge, if the knowledge has merit. To show this point as a
representation, Swami used to emit fragrance of lotus flowers during the
discourses and this was experienced by several devotees. But this
miracle only has the significance of representing the concept that the
knowledge is spread by its own merit like the scent. The Lord does not
need anybody for His work. It is only by the grace of the Lord, that one
gets the fortune to serve in the Lord’s mission. Rama did not require the
help of monkeys but He gave them the chance only to bless them. The
Lord knows the talents of a person required for propagation. In the time
of Shankara almost all were Sanskrit scholars. He needed Sanskrit
scholars in the Shastra like Mandana Mishra for propagation of the
knowledge. Shankara was never involved in propagation in any other
regional language.
But when Ramanuja came, regional languages had come up.
Therefore, Ramanuja was involved not only in propagation in Sanskrit
but also in Tamil language. He would give the authority of the Tamil
scriptures too. Today Sanskrit has almost disappeared. The area of
propagation was only India for Shankara and Ramanuja. But today for
Swami, the area of propagation is the entire world and English is the
international language. Today scholars in the Shastra are also very rare,
but everybody is in touch with science. Therefore, Swami needs
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scholars in English, who have good touch with science, for the
propagation. The word science here means the analysis of worldly
objects. Therefore, since the Lord did not wish, those Sanskrit scholars
who came in touch with Swami were not instigated for propagation.
Without wish of the Lord nobody can enter His service. The Lord will
not select candidates, who are not qualified to work in the present
situation.
When any facility is available in the nature, the Lord will use it.
Only when extreme necessity comes the Lord uses His superpower [to
overrule the laws of nature]. Shankara walked all over India for debates
because there were no computers, emails or telephones through which
arguments could be done. Once He wanted to argue with Kumarila
Bhatta. But when Shankara looked through divine vision, the Bhatta was
burning his body as self-punishment for a sin he had committed. He was
sitting in a heap of paddy husk and had ignited it, so that it burnt his
body slowly. For Shankara there was no time to reach there by foot.
Therefore, there was an extreme necessity to use His superpower.
Immediately He traveled through space and was there in a few seconds.
But today when debates can be done through emails, there is no need of
leaving the house for the propagation of the knowledge either by foot or
by traveling through space using superpowers especially when
aeroplanes are available.
One should leave one’s house only if the atmosphere is extremely
opposed to spiritual sadhana. There is no need for leaving the home just
for the sake of propagation because computer technology is available
today. Shankara and Mandana Mishra left their houses in their time
since such facilities were not available. Therefore, the background of
any saint in the present time is to be carefully analyzed and you should
not respect a saint simply for his age, red robe, leaving the house,
traditional study etc. Traditional scholars pose too much that they have
studied the shastra in Sanskrit. Infact, Tarka Shastra is exactly the
present science in which the analysis of all the items and phenomena of
the universe exists (Tarkyante Padarthah Asmin Iti Tarkah). There is no
greatness of any language. After all, any language is just a vehicle of
communication of knowledge. Infact, science is superior to Tarka
Shastra because Tarka Shastra is only theory, where as science is theory
supported by experimentation. Certain concepts of Tarka Shastra are
proved wrong by science. The Tarka Shastra says that sound travels in
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family. You are covering your false love under the pretext that God does
not need anything or any service. Why did Rama need the service of
Hanuman? Why did Krishna ask Arjuna to fight, when He showed that
He is actually killing all the enemies by Himself through the
Vishwarupa vision? The Lord went to Shaktuprastha and asked for a
little flour to pacify His hunger. The Lord was not really hungry. It was
only the Lord’s way of testing the real love of Shaktuprastha for God.
The proof of love is only service through action and not mere sacrifice
of words and mind. The Veda and the Gita praise the sacrifice of work
and the fruit of work in several places.
Paripurna Avatara
[The saint asked whether Swami is a Paripurna Avatara.]
Swami is the human incarnation of Lord Datta. This means that
Lord Datta entered the human body of Swami and is giving this special
divine knowledge. The saint need not worry that God is living in the
human body of Swami. According to the saint, Datta is only a sage and
not God. Therefore, when Swami is the human incarnation of Datta, the
saint need not worry at all. Swami is the human incarnation [re-
incarnation] of a sage. That sage was a Guru and therefore, through
Swami He is giving the knowledge. The sage Datta started giving this
knowledge through Swami from child hood. If the sage stays till the end
of the life of Swami, certainly Swami is the Paripurna Avatara of the
sage Datta. Perhaps due to jealousy towards Swami, the saint arrived at
the conclusion that Swami is not an incarnation of God because Datta is
not God. Due to the anger of the saint on Swami, Datta suffered in this
way! Ofcourse, Datta does not mind this because His tradition is to
suffer for His devotees.
God Preaches as per the Level of Receiver
While preaching, the Lord follows the psychology of the receiver
and speaks according to his corresponding level so that the preaching is
palatable (Priyam) and the devotee does not run away on hearing a harsh
truth (Satyam), which may correspond to a higher level. But at the same
time the Lord will not preach a lie (Amrutam) even if it is liked very
much. He will introduce a slightly higher level so that a little truth with
little harshness is introduced. The psychology of the receiver, which
likes only the palatable concepts, is as important as the truth. If a lie,
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high devotee but not highest devotee. The Gopikas were the highest
devotees, who believed that Krishna was God Himself, who had come
down directly to the earth. Krishna made their belief become true
because for them God pervaded all over the three bodies including the
external gross body. God super-imposed (Adhyasa of Shankara)
Himself on the gross body as a human being super imposes his self on
the gross body. In the case of God, the super-imposition is done with
knowledge due to the necessity. In the case of a human being, the super-
imposition is due to ignorance. For the Gopikas, there is no need of any
clarification and hence no need of the Gita. But if that concept is
revealed to Arjuna, Arjuna will totally reject it because he was a higher
devotee but not the highest devotee. The highest devotee is only one in
millions. Other high devotees are many like Arjuna. Therefore, the Gita
is universal and is not necessary for the Gopikas. When Uddhava tried
to preach the concept of this dual personality (God as the Possessor and
the human being as possessed), Gopikas rejected him totally.
Even this clarification [of dual personality] does not pacify the
jealousy of some people because they cannot tolerate even the presence
of God only in a particular human body. They want the presence of God
in their bodies also. This is the highest degree of jealousy. Since such
highest jealousy is a point common to every human being, the Advaitin
revolts against the human incarnation by generalizing that God is in
every human body and gets the support of the majority. This is the
revolution and the formation of a union of people, who feel that they
were suppressed. This is communism revolting against capitalism. This
is the politics in philosophy. This is a special situation because
philosophy enters every subject. The degree of Doctor of philosophy
(PhD) can be taken in any subject. Therefore, you have philosophy in
politics, which is general and normal.
Even though I also felt that this knowledge is wonderful, I never
said it because it will be misunderstood by ignorant people as self-
praise. Therefore, if the devotees stated this and if their statement is
correct, there is no doubt that I am the human incarnation atleast based
on the analysis of the concept of this dual personality related to high
level devotees. The same analysis can be extended even to the highest
devotees, which prevents them from falling down to a lower level from
their highest level. This concept of dual personality will atleast fix the
devotee to the high level preventing them from further fall. People, who
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fall down from this high level, believe in God but not in the human
incarnation. They either say that no human being is God or that every
human being is God. Either the concept is totally rejected or it is
extended to everybody. Let nobody be rich or let everybody be rich.
There should not be one richest person. They hate the richest person and
gradually they hate any person richer than them. They want equality of
every human being. This is good in economics or sociology (Pravritti).
But the subject of spirituality (Nivritti) is completely opposite to the
subjects of the world (Durmeti Viparite Vishuchi—Veda).
Shankara had to act like a communist even in spirituality because
in that time the country was filled with atheists of the communist-
psychology in Pravritti and for them Nivritti was totally absent.
Hanuman is also an incarnation of Shiva like Shankara, but he followed
the extreme capitalism in spirituality, which is quite the opposite as said
in the Veda. The spiritual knowledge was given by Krishna to Arjuna,
when Arjuna fell at the feet of Krishna in complete surrender as a
servant. Krishna said that one should become a servant of the Guru
before receiving spiritual knowledge (Tat Viddhi Pranipadena…).
Hanuman represents the path of spirituality for every devotee. The task
of Shankara was different, which was to convert the atheist atleast into a
believer in the existence of God. In that time, devotion was very far off.
Such people will be very much excited if I say that the prime minister
visited My house (body) and is staying with Me. This does not mean
that My self or My house is the prime minister. If the possibility of their
becoming prime minister is ruled out, they atleast want that the prime
minister should be in their houses too.
If you devotees withdraw the statement that My knowledge is
wonderful, I will certainly withdraw this analysis and say that I am only
an ordinary human being or just a scholar-Guru, if you permit. If you
give value to this knowledge, it is immaterial whether I am a Guru or
the human incarnation. If I am not the human incarnation, you must
search for the human incarnation present in our generation, since the
concept of a present human incarnation is the main essence of this
knowledge. You should also allow Me to join you in this search.
My analysis is never wrong. Only your statement is either right or
wrong. This point is totally left to your statement. Before uttering the
statement, you should analyze completely. If you come to the
conclusion about the level of this knowledge, further analysis will
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he will have the chance of becoming the prime minister atleast along
with others in general quota. The Advaita Union gives the highest fruit
at once by saying that you are already the prime minister and you have
to just remove ignorance! When Jesus told that He and His Father are
one and the same, He was dragged to the court for that statement and
was crucified. Just imagine the irritation created by jealousy and
egoism!
The human incarnation comes in every generation but you do not
come in every generation. The rebirth as a human being is almost
impossible and completely impossible as per Christianity. In such a case
you have only one chance to come in contact the human incarnation
present in your generation. If you miss this chance, you will never have
this luck again. The next meeting with God is direct where He acts as
the judge [after death]. Therefore, there is no second coming of Jesus for
you and you will meet God only in the end. In this way the second
coming of Jesus at the end [like Kalki Avatara] can be understood. But
if you say that you cannot meet the human incarnation in your present
generation, then you do not have the opportunity even once. In such a
case, why is only a particular generation, in which God came in human
form such as Jesus, blessed? They had this extra fortune and it means
that God is partial to that generation. [This is absurd since God is
impartial. Therefore we must accept that.] Every person in every
generation will have the equal chance of coming in contact with the
human incarnation once in his or her life on earth and the final contact
with God in an energetic form as the Judge [after death]. Therefore, the
impartial God comes again and again for every generation (Yada Yada
hi—Gita) but you do not have the chance to meet the human incarnation
again since you have no human rebirth. One may get human rebirth in
the extreme exceptional situation and you should not depend on that
because it involves high risk.
The human birth, the urge for salvation and coming in contact with
the human incarnation are the three real fortunes and the importance
increases from left to right in that order. Therefore, simply having
human birth and having the urge for salvation by taking orange robe, are
not sufficient. Unless you contact the Lord in human form, and get the
right knowledge for correct implementation, everything is waste
(Durlabham…Manushyatvam Mumukshatvam, Mahapurasha
Samshrayah—Shankara). There is no quarrel if you say that the second
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Datta brings out the truth that is buried up to any depth. The Omniscient
God knows all the details of the truth. The Veda says that the knowledge
of God is always based on truth (Satyam Jnaanam…).
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Chapter - 8
RESPONSINILITY OF INCARNATION
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Narayana is above the justice. Hence, they could not cross the justice for
the sake of Krishna. Dharma Raja refused to tell a lie even on the
request from Krishna. Arjuna did not leave Gaya in spite of repeated
requests from Krishna. Dhrutarashtra looked Krishna as a divine
messenger only and did not grant even five villages to Pandavas in spite
of repeated requests from Krishna. As the king, he had the power to
grant anything. In the Gita, since there is only the reference of Arjuna,
all the three views could not be given. Therefore, Hindus should not say
that Krishna alone is God always and that Jesus is a changing God.
Apart from these three angles of devotees, there is a fourth angle
of ordinary human beings that do not recognize the human incarnation
even as a messenger. The priests of the church looked Jesus through this
fourth angle in which, they thought that Jesus is a fraud person cheating
the public to get fame. Due to this fourth angle, Jesus was crucified.
Mohammad, the next Prophet kept Himself always in the position of
Messenger only to avoid this fourth angle. But some ignorant human
beings fought with Him also in the fourth angle, who did not believe
Him even as the Messenger. Yohon claimed Himself as a Prophet only
but His head was also cut due to this fourth angle. Buddha kept silent
about the unimaginable absolute God and therefore, there is no point of
looking Buddha even as the Messenger of God. He was viewed as a
learned human being since Buddhists misunderstood Buddha as an
atheist. Buddha was concentrating on the removal of desire, which is the
life of spiritual effort. This does not mean that He denied God. Suppose,
you are going to a foreign country and you require the woolen clothes
there. Suppose a friend concentrates on the point of purchase of the
woolen clothes only. Does it mean that he does not believe in the
existence of the foreign country? Kauravas looked Krishna in this fourth
angle and tried to tie Krishna with a rope. Their mother, Gandhari also
viewed Krishna in the same fourth angle and cursed Krishna with cruel
death. Accordingly, Krishna was shot dead and died with profuse
bleeding from the foot. There is no difference between Jesus and
Krishna even in this cruel death.
Greediness of Even Devotees
Everybody wants to become Jesus or Krishna to get the divine
fame in the society in a similar way without such cruel death at the end.
Such desire is hidden in the subconscious state of all the devotees even
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should not aspire for any fruit for their service. If they aspire for the
fruit, it shall be given by God based on the quality and quantity of the
service here itself. In such case, God has no obligation for the devotee in
his cycle of deeds. The reward here is unnecessary because any fruit in
this world is not eternal and there is alternative way of self-effort to
achieve the fruit here. Moreover, when you ask God for the fruit, it is
accounted and paid according to the standards and extent of your
service. But if you do not aspire for the fruit, God will use His grace to
save you in the upper world where there is no alternative. Moreover, in
such case, there is no account and the grace of God becomes infinite to
be used for any requirement to any extent. Hence, the devotee who
serves the Lord without aspiring anything in return is very fortunate.
Jesus tells that a person purchased a land by selling all his property and
he found lot of treasure in the land while cultivating it. He is the devotee
who sacrificed his entire worldly work and wealth for God. A person
who refused to purchase the land beyond certain rate lost the treasure
because he mistook the human incarnation as an ordinary human being.
A blind beggar recognized Jesus as God whereas the priests who are not
blind could not recognize Jesus. Jesus tells that blind see and those who
are not blind are not seeing. Jesus compares the fortunate devotees who
recognize Him to the seeds thrown in the field because such seeds
(devotees) are covered by soil (God) and are protected. The seeds,
which have fallen outside the field, are eaten away by the crows. This
means that the people, who did not recognize the Lord and went away,
are punished by the messengers of the hell.
Selfless Service to Human Incarnation
You may say that you are serving the Lord in human form without
any aspiration of fruit in return. You have reached this state after
hearing the story of Hanuman, who served the Lord without aspiring
any fruit in return and due to such selfless service, Hanuman became
God. Now, your selfless service is based on this story of Hanuman so
that you can also become God like Hanuman. Have you learnt only
selfless service from Hanuman or have you learnt the selfless service in
view of its fruit? If you analyze your sub-consciousness, you will know
the truth. The sub-consciousness stores certain secrets, which are not
known even to you. But, on deep analysis, you can find those hidden
secrets also. In nutshell, the main point is that whether you have simply
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taken the word ‘selfless service to Lord’ from the story of Hanuman by
cut and paste method into your sub-consciousness or copied the whole
story into your sub-consciousness? If the case is former, your service
will yield the fruit. If it is latter, the fruit is lost. In order to avoid this
danger, Buddha adopted only selfless service without any reference to
God. When God is not in the picture, there is no point of fruit of
becoming God. Then you are adopting only selfless service without any
fruit and in such case, the fruit is sure. Buddha asked people simply to
cut the desire and kept silent about God so that the fruit of becoming
God will never arise. Without understanding this great aim of Buddha,
people have misunderstood Him as an atheist and the joke here is that
He is one of the incarnations of God Narayana. This means that He
denied Himself! Buddhists have taken the silence on God as the
indication for absence of God. Silence means that God is unimaginable
and this is the absolute truth of the absolute God. Even Shankara said
that God could be explained only through silence. People have rubbed
the title of atheist even on Shankara (Prachchanna Bauddha).
When God enters the soul and body of His most beloved devotee
(son of God), such devotee is called as the human incarnation. In the
human incarnation, we find both God and Son of God mixed with each
other in a perfect homogeneous state so that both are inseparable like the
wire and the current in the live wire. The wire is the Son of God and
current is God. The live wire is the human incarnation. The live wire
must be treated as the current and there is no alternative way to
experience the existence of current. In this context, the
misunderstanding arises. The live wire says that it is moving the fan.
Infact, the current is speaking this through the wire. People
misunderstand that the bloody wire is boasting about itself as itself
moving the fan. The live wire looks like any other wire as far as the
properties of the wire (metallic nature, leanness, etc.,) are concerned.
This makes other wires to think that the live wire is also an ordinary
wire without current, which is boasting about itself. This confusion lead
to the crucifixion of Jesus by the public. When Jesus claimed that He is
the truth, the light and the Father of the heaven, this claim was not from
the Son of God, but it was from God Himself. But, the observers have
misunderstood this statement as that of Jesus. When the speaker is
invisible, the mike looks as if it is speaking by itself. Here, at any time
the speaker is not converted into mike or the current is not converted
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into wire. The two units exist separately even during the time of the
human incarnation in which, both are homogeneously mixed to form a
single phase. If this point is realized, Jesus might have escaped the
crucifixion. It is this point, which is stressed by Mohammed. He said
that God would never become human being or the vice-versa. This does
not mean that the Son of God should not be treated as God in the human
incarnation by the devotees. If you deny this assumption of treating the
Son of God as God, the devotees become dissatisfied because they
prayed God for the experience of God and service to God. Then the very
purpose of the human incarnation is lost. Mohammed clarified this
concept to avoid the danger. But, His followers misunderstood that He
denied the very concept of human incarnation. Thus Buddha and
Mohammed should be taken as the preachers who warned about the
reality of the concept to avoid the danger of loosing the highest fruit and
punishing the human incarnation respectively.
The followers have extrapolated the preaching and as a result,
Buddhists thought that God does not exist and Muslims thought that the
human incarnation does not exist. The concept of human incarnation is
introduced and explained well by Krishna in the Gita and Jesus in the
Bible. Krishna says that God enters the human being and Jesus says that
God is in flesh. This clearly means that God is neither the human being
nor the flesh at any time. Buddha and Mohammed clarified the
misunderstandings of the human beings about this concept. Buddha
indicated God as unimaginable through silence and Mohammed
indicated God as invisible. The desire to become God comes generally,
when God is seen by eyes in human form. Generally, the concept of
human incarnation is avoided only to avoid the birth of this desire to
become God. When God is invisible, generally the human tendency is to
get some benefit from the invisible God and not to become God. But,
Alas! The Advaitin has not left even the invisible God! He wants to
become even that invisible God! Why becoming God? He claims that he
is already God. For this, he proposed that God is the invisible awareness
(soul), which exists in his body mixed with qualities, which is called as
the individual soul (jeeva). He proposed that simple filtration of
qualities from the soul will yield the absolute God because according to
him God is pure awareness without qualities. The Advaitin gave his own
false concept of God and also his own false way to become God.
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Chapter - 9
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY—STRONG TIES
External Differences
O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
[December 2, 2005 My dear Christians and Hindus] Jesus Christ
when came to India, was honoured by Indians. He wandered all over
India and several Indians were attracted to His shrewd preaching given
with excellent analysis. He lived up to 85 years of age and was buried in
Kashmir with all the spiritual honour. Hindus treated Him as their own
preacher. Similarly, Christians honoured Swami Vivekananada and His
preaching was appreciated. Christians loved him from the bottom of
their hearts. They treated Him as their beloved preacher. No two
religions can mix so fast and so homogeneously as Christianity and
Hinduism. The reason for this is that the spiritual skeleton of both
religions is one and the same. When the skeleton is similar, the flesh and
the skin cannot make much difference between two bodies. Any two
living beings belonging to the same category [species] may differ by the
quantity of flesh and colour of the skin but the skeleton is the same. The
common spiritual framework of the two religions is the concept of the
human incarnation.
The Gita says “Manusheem Tanumaasritam”, which means that
God enters a human body. Similarly, the Christian scripture says “God
in flesh”. The God who is mentioned in both the religions is one and the
same. The flesh may differ qualitatively and quantitatively. The
Christian flesh may be richer in proteins and the Hindu flesh may be
richer in vitamins. The composition of flesh may differ a little. The
Christian skin may be white and the Hindu skin may be black. These
differences are only external. Both Christians and Hindus should
understand the same concept. Both may have external differences but
the internal casual body or Karana Sharira which is called as Atman or
soul is one and the same. The gross bodies may differ in flesh and skin.
The inner subtle body may also differ due to different proportions of the
qualities. But the souls are one and the same. Thus, both of you [Hindus
and Christians] should find the homogeneity in the souls of each other.
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If you cannot appreciate the uniformity at this basic level it self, how
can you find the uniformity between Krishna and Jesus?
In both these human incarnations, God is one and the same. In
both incarnations, God is surrounded by the casual body, which is the
pure awareness. This casual body is also one and the same in both cases.
The difference may be in the subtle and gross bodies. The gross bodies
of Jesus and Krishna might differ in colour. The composition of their
flesh also may be different. When you compare the subtle bodies of
Jesus and Krishna there is a difference. Infact, any subtle body is made
of three qualities called Sattvam (good qualities), Rajas (qualities of
egoism) and Tamas (qualities of ignorance). Infact, all these three are
equal in proportions and exist in equilibrium. But the equilibrium
appears to have been disturbed. The inequality is only in expression or
vision. In the case of Jesus, Sattvam was fully expressed. The other two
were hidden. An exactly similar human incarnation in Hinduism is Lord
Rama who is the embodiment of all good qualities alone.
A branch in Hinduism called as the Vaishnava cult, worships Lord
Vishnu alone as God. Lord Vishnu is representative of Sattvam. Lord
Brahma represents Rajas and Lord Shiva represents Tamas. They [The
Vaishnavas] do not consider Brahma and Shiva as God. Christianity,
Buddhism, Jainism and Islam can be treated similar to the Vaishnava
cult. The impression about God in general is that He is the embodiment
of all the auspicious and good qualities only. It is easy to love God
associated with good qualities. All parents love their sons if they are
good. Such love is great. But a greater love is that in which one loves
the son having both good and bad qualities. Such an expression of the
mixture of the three qualities is seen in Lord Krishna. The greatest love
is that in which one loves the son even though he has only bad qualities.
Such an expression of bad qualities is seen in Lord Datta.
Apparent Bad Qualities Exhibited by God
The introduction of a bad quality in God cannot be generally
digested by the majority of people. God created this universe. In that
case, God alone created all the qualities [good and bad]. God created
even Satan. The Gita says that God created all the three qualities (Ye
Chaiva…). The writer of the story of a movie creates the role of a villain
in the story. The producer of the film gives remuneration to the actor
who does the role of the villain as well as the hero. The audience will be
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bored without the role of the villain in the cinema. A person who is
eating food is also bored if the food is just sweet and there are no salty
and spicy dishes in the food along with the sweet. Day has no meaning
without night. Summer is boring without winter. Goodness itself cannot
be recognised without the bad. Therefore, the creation of contrast is
essential.
If one realises this concept, no hatred or anger can rise in his heart.
Anger or hatred is generally towards the bad qualities. If you consider
the Lord as the creator and maintainer of the entire universe and if you
treat the universe as the body of the cosmic Lord, you have to accept
that both bad and good qualities are in the body of the Lord. If you say
that the body of the Lord contains only good qualities, then only a little
part of the cosmos would have been created and maintained by the Lord
because good qualities are very few compared to the bad qualities in this
universe. The region occupied by good qualities is very less compared
to the region occupied by bad qualities.
There is a difference between the bad qualities in the Lord and the
bad qualities in a demon. A demon uses the bad qualities to trouble
devotees and good people, which lead to the disturbance of world peace.
But the bad qualities in the Lord are used to test hypocritical devotees
who boast that they are the topmost devotees. By such hipocrisy, egoism
develops in them and they fall. To prevent such fall, the Lord conducts
tests so that they will realise their true positions. For such tests, bad
qualities are utilised. Thus, the bad qualities of the Lord are the means
for delivering this spiritual preaching. When a stone falls on you, it is
not your fault. But if you jump on the stone [and get injured], you are
responsible. Similarly, when a demon comes to you and shows his bad
qualities and disturbs you, you are not responsible. But when you go to
Lord Datta and want to develop in the spiritual line, you have to be
constantly tested and in such occasions, Lord Datta exhibits bad
qualities to test your faith in Him. You can find fault with the demon but
not with Lord Datta.
When somebody throws a stone on you, you can find fault with
him. But when you yourself jump on the stone and break your limbs,
you cannot find fault with anybody. Lord Datta did not come to you.
You have gone to Datta. Infact, when you approach Datta, He threatens
you in the beginning itself and tries to throw you out. But you have
clinged to Him and constantly pestered Him for salvation. The sages
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pestered the Lord for salvation. The Lord agreed and gave them the
birth of Gopikas in Vrindavanam. He stole their hard earned wealth,
which was butter. By this He broke their bond with wealth. For us it
appears as if the Lord cheated them and stole their wealth. But if you
analyse their previous birth and their request, this act is perfectly
justified. Infact, this act is done due to extensive grace of the Lord. The
Lord is criticised as a thief and acquired bad name for the sake of the
Gopikas. He tolerated all this negative criticism for the sake of the sages
[Gopikas]. The Lord had not even a trace of need to steal their wealth.
The Lord attracted their children and played with them, doing a lot
of mischief. This cut the bonds of the Gopikas with their children. Again
this brings a bad name to the Lord because it appears that the Lord
spoiled their children. Infact, the Lord does not spoil anybody. Thus
again this act is the extreme grace of the Lord alone. The Lord danced
with the Gopikas at midnight without the knowledge of their husbands.
This is the climax of sin. The Lord is criticised extensively for this act
and is called as the greatest sinner. People blame the Lord for this.
Infact, He has no desire even to look at any lady. The Lord is the
Infinite Ocean of bliss. He does not require any external object to gain
happiness. The Veda says that the Lord has no desire, which is not
fulfilled (Apta Kamah…). Such a Lord got eternally defamed in this
world. Several devotees doubted the divinity of Lord Krishna due to
this. Even the greatest devotee like Hanuman criticised Krishna for such
an act. The actual reason for the Lord to act in this way is that the Lord
broke the bonds of the Gopikas with their husbands. When the bonds
with wealth, children and husbands or wives are fully broken, salvation
is complete.
For the sake of salvation of the sages, Lord Krishna sacrificed
even His name and fame. This shows the unimaginable love of God
towards His devotees. Without understanding this background, ignorant
people criticise Lord Krishna. Even Lord Jesus patiently suffered all the
negative criticism and all sorts of insults to protect His devotees. This
shows the divine love of Jesus. Jesus kept silent in the court when He
was charged with so many crimes. The silence shows His deep love
towards His devotees. Due to such silence alone did the judge order
crucifixion. Unless the crucifixion was implemented, He could not have
suffered for the sins of His devotees. Thus, the Lord tolerates anything,
even things which damage His personality for the sake of His devotees.
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sin is one mistake. To hurt the heart of any human being is another
mistake. It is a double sin and such a soul, whether male or female will
be punished twice in hell. According to the old ethical scripture of
Hinduism, a red-hot copper statue of the person with whom the illegal
contact was done is placed before the sinner and he or she will be forced
to embrace it.
The attitude differs from one culture to another. The villain stole
Helen of Troy. Helen led a family life with the villain. When Helen
returned back, she again had a normal family life with the hero. But
when Ravana stole Sita, Sita did not even look at Ravana. Therefore,
there is a vast difference in the cultures of the East and the West in the
root itself. I do not criticise or praise any culture. But even Jesus did not
agree to any such illegal contacts of any married human being. He
criticised even prostitution. Thus, the field of Pravritti is one and the
same in view of God, whether it is East or West. Therefore, this again
proves that God is one and the same.
Now the point of Lord Krishna comes for analysis. The field of
Nivritti is completely different. As analysed above, the background was
completely different. The meaning of the act was totally different. The
act was done by the request of the soul. The act means the breakage of
bonds and the complete liberation of the soul. The act does not mean
any secret dealing to pacify blind lust. The Lord has no trace of such a
necessity. The Lord did this act only in Vrindavanam and only in the
case of the Gopikas. After leaving the Vrindavanam, He never repeated
this with any other soul.
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Chapter - 10
JNANA, BHAKTI & SEVA ARE STEPS OF ONE PATH
What is Dharma?
O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
[August 22, 2006] The word Dharma means the characteristic
property which stands for the identification of an item. The Dharma of
fire is burning by which it is identified as fire. It is the expected natural
behaviour of an item in the creation. If the fire is cool, such coolness is
Adharma which means that it is not the expected property of the specific
entity. The human being in this creation is a specified entity and is
expected to show certain characteristic properties (Dharmas) by which
he or she is identified as the human being. If the human being shows the
characteristic properties of other specified items, it loses its
identification. When God created various items in this world, He has
assigned certain characteristic properties to be associated with the
corresponding items. Therefore the possession of Dharma is the will of
God. The balance of the creation is maintained when specified items
exhibit their specified properties assigned by God. All the inert items
like fire, water etc., are strictly following the will of God. God created
this universe for entertainment. The entertainment is disturbed if the
natural balance is upset. God has given freedom to the human beings,
which is the inherent desire of the souls. God has full freedom to change
any characteristic property of any specified item. When He wished, the
fire could not burn, the air could not move and the water could not
quench even a dry grass blade. Since He is omnipotent, He has
unlimited freedom. But the souls have very little potentiality. Their
freedom is naturally conditional and limited. The living being has little
freedom within its specified boundary of its potentiality. If freedom is
not given, it is not a living being. Among the living beings, the human
being has full potentiality due to analytical faculty (Buddhi) and thus
relatively more freedom is granted to it. The human being should
understand the limits of its capability and should freely behave within
that specified boundary. Such behaviour is Dharma which is expected
by God. If the limits are violated and the behaviour of some other
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category like animals is shown, the soul is punished and the soul is
pushed into the life cycle of animals. Such animal lives in the forest and
can have its characteristic behaviour which does not upset the balance of
animal kingdom in the forest. But when a human being lives in the
society of human beings and behaves like an animal, the society of
human beings is disturbed.
The humanity is the most advanced race of the living beings into
which God often enters in human form (Manusheem Tanumasritam—
Gita). Dharma is called as Pravritti which is the expected behaviour of
the human being with the other co-human beings to maintain the
balance of humanity. Only in humanity, the spiritual effort is taken up
by some blessed and realized human beings. Therefore the behaviour of
the human being should not upset any other human being. Therefore if a
co-human being is a devotee of God and a spiritual aspirant, he or she
should not be even hurt. God excuses even the atheist who abuses Him
but will never spare if the atheist even hurts the devotee. You should not
hurt the feelings of any co-human being except in the case of
punishment. Even in the punishment, your aim should not be to hurt the
sinner but to change him. Even if you are an atheist you must respect the
devotees also because they are your co-human beings. Whether you are
an atheist or theist, you are expected to maintain the balance of the
human society. The highest Dharma is only not to hurt any soul
including birds and animals. Even a tree is a living being and you should
not cut any green tree. Non-violence towards the living beings is the
essence of Dharma (Ahimsa Paramo dharmah). Ungratefulness is said
to be the highest sin (Adharma). An atheist who may have any number
of good qualities is the highest sinner because he is ungrateful to the
creator.
A theist who may have any number of bad qualities is good with
reference to such atheist (Apichetsa—Gita). Ofcourse you are expected
to be a theist with good qualities. An atheist with bad qualities is the
worst, called as demon and will be punished by God immediately.
Therefore gratefulness to the creator and not hurting any soul except in
the punishment is the essence of Dharma. As long as you are not
disturbing the balance of society, God does not distinguish the good and
bad qualities applied in the path of the spiritual journey. The hunter who
gave flesh as offering to the Lord attained the eternal abode of God. He
killed a rabbit which is a harmless animal but neither he nor his family
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took that flesh. He did not sell the flesh. This sin was excused by God
due to lack of selfishness and immense love to God. As long as Lord
does not enter into your life, you have to reject Adharma and vote for
Dharma. But when God enters your life, you have to vote for God only
even against Dharma, if required (Sarvadharman—Gita). Dharmaraja
did not tell a lie even though the Lord asked him to tell a lie. He voted
for Dharma against God. The result of Dharma is temporary and he
went to heaven for sometime. He did not go to the permanent abode of
God. Infact, dharma need not have any reward because it is expected
behaviour. The heaven is only a consolation gift to encourage doing
Dharma. Arjuna killed his grandfather Bhishma on the instruction of the
Lord and he was permanently associated with the Lord Narayana as
Nara. God is the greatest and is beyond even dharma. After all, the aim
of Dharma is only not to displease God. In Pravritti which has no
reference to God, you should not displease any co-human being. In
Nivrutti, you should please God at the cost of even sacrificing Dharma.
In Pravritti, you should not leave your old parents, your wife and your
children. But in Nivritti, Shankara left His old mother, Prahlada got his
father killed, Buddha left His wife and child and Meera left her husband.
The result of Pravritti is not to displease God whereas the result of
Nivritti is to please God. One should not confuse with these two fields
(Pravrittincha Nivrittincha –Gita). The expected behaviour (Dharma)
differs in these two fields separately. You have to follow Dharma
corresponding to the field in which you exist.
Sanyasa is misunderstood as leaving the family members and the
house for the sake of God. This is done only in either in the case of
opposition or requirement. Ramanuja left His wife because she insulted
devotees and opposed the devotion of Ramanuja towards devotees. If
the family members are opposing your spiritual effort, then only such
path should be taken. Even then, you must try to change them because
even after taking Sanyasa, your duty is only to change the ignorant
people into devotees. Ramanuja told His wife thrice not to insult the
devotees. Only when the fourth case happened He left her. When you
cannot do this duty of changing people in your house, how can you do
the same in the world? In spite of your hectic efforts as in the case of
Ramanuja and if the opposition still continues, then you can think of
leaving your family. Even after going out, you have to spend your time
with devotees only. If your family members are already devotees, then
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you need not leave your house. Shankara and Buddha left their families
for a special requirement of God’s work which is the propagation of
spiritual knowledge in the world. In those days, one has to travel and
reach various places by walk to propagate the knowledge. But today,
electronic media are well developed and you need not leave the house
for God’s work. Only in the extreme case of opposition, you can think
of leaving the house. Your love on your family members cannot be the
love on God. But God loves His devotees more than Himself. Thus if
your family members are devotees, you can love them as devotees but
not as family members. Such love to devotees pleases God than love to
Him directly. But you should not love your family members in the
disguise of devotees which will be only cheating yourself. Thus you can
bring God in every angle of your life. Similarly, you can transform the
society into the society of devotees and then your social service will be
service to devotees. Meera, Chaitanya Maha Prabhu etc., tried to spread
the devotion. This will please God more than personal love to Him.
Such social service of converting ordinary ignorant human beings into
devotees by propagating knowledge and devotion will lead you to the
eternal abode of God. Shankara, Ramanuja, etc., propagated both
knowledge and devotion. Mere social service will lead you to heaven
only for sometime from which you have to return back.
You must realize that the whole world is the kingdom of God as
stated by Jesus. Any injustice will be punished by Him and you need not
worry about it. Your view of the punishment is revenge but His view of
punishment is to transform the soul. If somebody has stolen your
money, don’t pray to God to punish that person. Everything is recorded
by Him unlike the courts which register the case only when a complaint
is given. The enquiry by God takes place immediately. Sometimes you
find no punishment from God and you are scolding God. The silence of
God means that the enquiry was completed and the judgment was “no
punishment”. In the previous birth, you might have stolen money from
that person and today you paid along with the compound interest. In this
case there cannot be punishment and the enquiry was over. Since you do
not know this, you mistake God for His silence. Suppose such
background is not there, then you will get your money with interest in
some other way which is compensated by God. That person will lose the
money along with the interest. You will see it with your eyes. But
suppose you cursed that person with revenge, you will receive the
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highest. People are saying that God is highest for them. Some say this
with ignorance and some tell this knowing that it is not true. In both
cases, God proves the truth through the test (Datta Pariksha). God
knows the truth but the revelation of truth is for your sake and not for
His sake. If you realize the truth, you will try to succeed in the next
examination by doing the spiritual effort. Otherwise, you are expecting
God to believe whatever you say and react accordingly. All the prayers
to God are utterances of lies only and all the worships are the trials to
fool God.
Generally the word sacrifice is used in the sense of sacrificing the
fruit of work (money or wealth) and service means the sacrifice of work.
The saints do not have any wealth because they have dedicated
themselves in the service of the Lord. Therefore, sacrifice of fruit of
work does not apply to their case. Hanuman is a bachelor-saint and so
can only do the sacrifice of work. The requirement of the Lord is also
very important. To get back Sita, the Lord required only sacrifice of
work and the other sacrifice was not required. Krishna was a young boy
in Brindavanam and does not require the sacrifice of work because His
mission has not started. Gopikas were householders and women who
cannot sacrifice the work like Hanuman in a war against injustice. They
sacrificed their wealth (Butter) because the boy also requires good food
to grow well. The requirement was for the sacrifice of the fruit of the
work. Butter was the fruit of their tedious work. When the war against
injustice came, the Lord required the sacrifice of work from Arjuna just
like from Hanuman. Rama required the service in His personal work
whereas Krishna required the service in the work of the devotees
(Pandavas). If you take Shankara, the Lord required the service of the
four disciples in propagation of knowledge for the welfare of the
society.
Similarly, Ramanuja and Madhva required the service of the
disciples in the propagation of devotion and divine service. Therefore,
the Lord may sometimes require your service in His personal work or
your service in the personal work of a devotee or in the welfare of
society. The Lord knows what to do when. His decision is always the
best. You should not analyze the Lord because He is beyond logic. Once
you have recognized the God, the logic should be dropped. The logic is
only used to reject the non-God items posing as God. Logic is very
much required in this line. However, once the confirmation was over
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with the help of logic, you should serve Him with blind faith. You can
use the logic for identifying the Lord and the logic is useful here to filter
the pseudo human incarnations. The fruit of work (money) is only
another form of work. When you work, you get some money as the fruit.
When you sacrifice that fruit, it means you have done that work.
Alternatively, when you have done that work to the Lord, you have
sacrificed the fruit of work. Work is a form of energy. Matter (money) is
also a form of energy.
Therefore, work and money are one and the same even in the light
of the inter conversion of matter and energy as proved in science. One
can do any one of these two or both according to his convenience and
according to the extent of his devotion. The devotion should not be due
to fear from hell expecting the Lord to protect them there. The devotion
should not be also for any fruit in return. When there is no aspiration for
any fruit and when there is no desire for protection here or there, such
devotion is real. Shankara says that the devotion and service should not
aspire any fruit here as well as there (Ihaamutra phala viragah).
Meaning of Triputi
The knowledge is the information about God, about yourself and
about the path through which you can please the Lord. You must know
the actual form of God and His correct address. You must also know
that you are not God. If you are already God (as Advaita philosophers
say), there is no need of Sadhana because if you are God, every human
being is God. When you are the goal already, what is the need of any
spiritual effort? Then what is the real path to please the God? The
answers for these three questions (Triputi) about the three items that is
God, yourself and the path to please God consist the knowledge or
Jnana Yoga. When you get more and more details about the goal, you
develop more and more interest on the goal and such interest is called as
devotion. Rukmini got full information about Krishna from the sage
Narada. The information inspired her and she was fired with love on
Krishna. This love on the Lord is called as devotion. The word love is
used in the case of any one or anybody other than God. To distinguish
the love on God, a separate pious word “Devotion” is used. The
devotion is at two levels. One is theoretical and the other is practical.
The theoretical devotion alone is fraud. However, it is valid if it is
associated with practical devotion. The practical devotion (service) must
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for the fruit. Rukmini being the incarnation of Maha Lakshmi sat at the
feet of the Lord and pressed His feet. That was the aim of Her devotion.
The Lord made Maha Lakshmi as the deity of the infinite wealth which
is this entire universe. Generally, even with little wealth, the eyes come
up on the head. But being the possessor of such infinite wealth, she sits
at the divine feet of the Lord and acts as a slave. She is giving us
message that the fruit of the devotion should be service to Lord and not
attaining the wealth. Service is the proof of devotion which is the
practical philosophy. The importance of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) is that
if the knowledge is intensively complete, the determination and the
subsequent service are spontaneous. Therefore there is no gap between
the complete knowledge and practice. If the realization is complete,
practice (service) is a spontaneous consequence. There is no time gap
and there is no need of any effort. When the knowledge is intensive and
complete, such state is said to be realization. If the knowledge is not
deep and not complete, we should not use the word realization. Often
people think that knowledge and practice are different. It is not correct.
If the knowledge (Jnana) is complete, devotion (Bhakti) is spontaneous
effect. Such devotion is also intensive and complete. The immediate
consequence of such devotion is service.
Shankara says that knowledge and devotion are not separate
(Paramartha Jnana Lakshana Sampannam Bhaktim). Therefore, it
means that complete knowledge means complete devotion. The proof of
devotion (love) is only service as you can see in the case of your
children. Your love on them is expressed only through service to them.
In their case, there is no theoretical love. You are not chanting the name
of your child, you are not singing about your child. All these forms of
false devotion appeared only in the case of God. I say it is false because
there is no sacrifice or service as found in the case of children.
Therefore devotion itself means service Therefore knowledge; devotion
and service are the three alternative words for the same meaning.
Shankara preached about knowledge. Ramanuja preached about
devotion. Madhva preached about service. This means that Shankara,
Ramanuja and Madhva are the three incarnations of the same Lord
Datta. Thus if knowledge is intensive and complete, you have reached
the goal as said by Shankara. The Lord praised the knowledge at the
very outset in Gita. Therefore concentrate on the divine knowledge and
propagate it so that all other souls also reach the goal along with you.
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These questions are very important in the sense that the elaborate
answers for these questions constitute the entire divine knowledge I
have preached so far! The answers given here are very brief, touching
some main points only.
A Divine Miracle
When the message of Krishnashtami was typed by Gayathri and
Manasa, the scent of sandal paste came from Swami. After a long time
only, the emission of the divine scent was observed. Swami told “The
scent indicates the presence of Lord Krishna in His body, who was
always scented by application of sandal paste as sung by Jayadeva
“Chandana charchita neela kalebara…”. It means that knowledge has
come from Krishna directly”. After receiving the message, Shri G
Lakshman at Bombay, got the smell of Panchaamrutam. Lakshman
asked everybody whether anyone brought the same. Nobody brought it.
When Lakshman told this to Swami, Swami replied “As you lick the
Panchaamrutam from the hand without leaving any trace, you must
swallow this divine knowledge with full interest. This is the significance
of these scents”.
Final Stage of Divine Knowledge
The final stage of the entire divine knowledge is expected to be the
practical service to the Lord who comes to this earth in every human
generation, without aspiring any fruit for such service and sacrifice
rendered by you. The complete example for this is Hanuman. You must
understand the Philosophy of Hanuman which should lead you in
recognizing the present human incarnation on this earth and to
participate in His service without aspiring any fruit in return. If this
philosophy of Hanuman is not understood, there is no use of the temples
of Hanuman and various methods of worship of Hanuman. Ofcourse,
they serve the purpose of giving you the inspiration to fix your
concentration on Hanuman. But what is the use if you have not gained
the real guidance from Him in the spiritual path? You are going to the
school regularly in time. You have the uniform and all the books. You
have good teachers in the school. But what is the use of all this when
you do not learn the knowledge from the school? The entire life of
Hanuman is only sacrifice and selfless service to the human form of the
Lord. You shall be ashamed of your entire path of worship. You are
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asking all types of boons with very wide range starting from this world
to the upper world. Initially He has fulfilled some of your desires which
are proper because the health, mental peace and wealth are necessary as
the basis for spiritual effort. But you are not satisfied with the basis and
you are proceeding in to the wrong line from the basis, in which you
desire for more and more worldly comforts which in excess are called as
luxuries. After achieving the basic needs you must travel in right line by
learning the philosophy of Hanuman. He got a job under the king
Sugriva and settled Himself with the basic needs. Then He searched for
the human incarnation and waited in Kishkindha for the Lord in the
human form.
What have you done? Did you search for the human incarnation?
He was not worshiping the statues in the temples with all the
unnecessary extra rituals, which are manipulated by the priests for their
benefits. Ofcourse, the statues and shrines serve the purpose of
inspiration about God and seeing the statues and photos (Darsanam) is
sufficient. Ofcourse, the extra rituals which are the various methods of
worship to the statues in human form also serve the purpose of
removing egoism and jealousy towards human form provided you are
suffering with egoism and jealousy. But Hanuman was not at all having
such egoism and jealousy. He never remembers His strength and feels
Himself as zero. But, what about you? You never remember the defects
and limits of your little strength and always feel yourself as a hero. You
are not at all searching for the Satguru who is the human form of the
Lord that exists in your generation. The Lord is impartial to any
generation and so comes in every generation in human form. The human
form of Lord came to Hanuman and He recognized the Lord in the very
first sight it self. In your case even if the human incarnation comes to
you and shows some proof to you, you are not recognizing the Lord.
You will say that all the proof is only illusion or magic. After
recognizing the Lord, Hanuman used Himself for the work of the Lord.
In your case, even if you recognize Him, you try to use Him for
solutions of your personal problems. Hanuman never discriminated the
social service and personal service of the Lord. He simply did the
service according to the will of the Lord. His aim was always to please
the Lord by His service to the Lord in whatever way the Lord wished. In
your case even if you enter in to the service you will start criticizing the
Lord, if He involves you in His personal work. You will immediately
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say that He is not the God since He is selfish. Hanuman never criticized
Rama even in His mind when Rama told Ravana that in case Sita is
returned, He will go back. If you are in the place of Hanuman, you will
immediately say that if Rama returns after getting Sita, what will happen
to the society that is suffering by the cruel deeds of Ravana? Such
question never rose in the mind of Hanuman because the aim of the
spiritual effort is only to please the Lord and nothing else. Infact, He
does not need your help either in His personal work or in the social
work. His family and this entire world constitute the divine drama meant
for His entertainment only. He is testing your attitude towards Him and
the basic strength of your recognition. If the recognition is determined
without any doubt, such doubts will not come to your mind. Hanuman
did not ask for any vision or for any miracle. Arjuna called as Nara
representing yourself (Nara) asked for the highest vision from Krishna
as a proof. Hanuman believed Rama without any such proof. He is the
blessed soul as per the statement of Jesus “Blessed are those who
believe Me without proof”.
Hanuman never aspired for any fruit and was not even informed
about any fruit. But He was given the highest fruit which nobody got till
now! After this Kali Yuga, He is the future creator. According to the
Veda, the creator (Brahma) must be the maintainer (Vishnu) and also
the destroyer (Shiva) of this creation. This means that He becomes God
for this creation. Therefore, remember that the fruit from God will be a
mountain if you do not desire for it even in the dream. If you do not ask
for the fruit in words but still desire it in mind, the fruit is reduced to the
size of an elephant. If you desire by mind and also ask for it by words,
the fruit is reduced to the size of an ant which is negligible. But be
careful of one possibility. You should not forget the fruit based on the
concept that you will get the fruit in the size of mountain for such path!
You should really forget the fruit.
Do not think that the vision gives you the actual form of God. The
actual form of God is unimaginable even to the angels who are the
divine energetic forms. Therefore, the real form of God cannot be
touched even by your logic. How can you see it with your eyes? In the
vision you are only seeing the energetic form. The human body is like
the cotton shirt and the energetic form is like the silk shirt. The person
wearing both the shirts is invisible. You are thinking that the silk shirt is
the person that is wearing cotton shirt and that the person (silk shirt) is
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invisible in the cotton shirt. In the vision the cotton shirt disappears and
silk shirt appears. You have not seen the invisible person even in the silk
shirt and you are satisfied because you mistake the silk shirt for the
person. Even the cosmic vision (Vishwaroopam) is a big silk shirt
(called as kaphni). Instead of the small cotton shirt, Arjuna has seen a
big silk kaphni. The person is invisible in cotton shirt as well as in the
big silk kaphni. Does the silk kaphni give the proof of the invisible
person? If you recognize the person in the cotton shirt, it is sufficient.
Since you are also in the cotton shirt, you are repelling to the same and
become fond of silk shirt. You cannot recognize the person in silk
kaphni because He is invisible in both. If vision is the proof of
existence, then you have failed in both the cases. The proof is the
experience of the existence, which can be attained in both the cotton
shirt and silk Kaphni. Demons had the vision of the energetic form of
the Lord like Brahma etc. But they were destroyed finally. Therefore,
vision is not at all important. The realization by experience and the
practical service to please the Lord are very important. Hanuman did not
ask for any vision.
Hanuman completed the divine knowledge from the angel Sun,
who advised Him to catch the Human incarnation and serve Him. His
mother was also a scholar of divine knowledge and advised the same.
Therefore, you must complete the divine knowledge, which gives you
the correct information about the goal and the path. Since, Hanuman got
the complete knowledge, nobody can mislead Him. He caught Rama
(the correct goal), rendered the selfless service (the correct path), and
finally got the correct result. The selfless service proves His real
devotion. As per the Valmiki Ramayana, which is the only correct
authority, Hanuman never worshipped statues or energetic forms, never
did any penance, never did any japam, never sang or danced or wept
with emotions. The only worship He did was the selfless service without
aspiring any fruit. Therefore, if you know the three points (Triputi), that
is the essence of the divine knowledge. The points are 1) You are not
God 2) The human incarnation present in your generation is the only
God for the humanity and 3) The way is to recognize Him and please
Him through selfless service without aspiring any fruit in return.
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Chapter - 11
ENLIGHTENING NOVELISTS AND SCHOLARS
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get it. This level is the level of colleges. The ultimate highest level is
practical devotion (Karma Yoga) or service to God, which is the level of
the university and is very rare since only a few of the devotees can
become servants of God through practical sacrifice of work and the fruit
of work.
The scientific analysis of divine knowledge (Jnana Yoga) pervades
all the four levels as the basic torchlight. In the first level the existence
of God is accepted. In the second level the existence of the
unimaginable God is accepted. In the third level, representatives of God
like statues in human form are worshipped by words and mind to get rid
of ego and jealousy towards the human form. In the fourth level, the
decision of the final conclusion of the intellectual analysis results in
detecting the contemporary human incarnation. Involvement in practical
service in His mission results from it.
There are two paths of love for God: the path of limited real love
like the love for one’s wife and the path of unlimited real love like the
love for one’s children. The first path is aspiring for boons from God for
selfish happiness, which involves mostly theoretical and a little practical
devotion. In this first path, one loves God as his wife; for selfish
happiness only and most of his love is emotional (theoretical) with a
little practical sacrifice. The second path is selfless love without any
aspiration of fruit in return and consists of mostly practical and a little
theoretical devotion. In this second path one loves God as his child;
without any selfishness and with total sacrifice of work and the fruit of
work.
Hanuman and the Gopikas are the best gold medal-students of the
university. Once you are fixed in the divine service of God, there is no
need of miracles, knowledge and theoretical devotion. Knowledge is the
qualifying degree and theoretical devotion is the official appointment
order. Practical devotion is the work done in the month and the salary
(fruit) is given only for the monthly work done. Only work (Karma) can
yield the fruit.
The unimaginable God is beyond the four-dimensional model of
space and time. You can imagine the dissolution of matter and
converting into energy that fills space. Subsequently you can imagine
the disappearance of energy in space and the result is final vacuum. But
even if you try for your whole lifetime, you can never imagine the
disappearance of vacuum. God being the generator of space, is beyond
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space and therefore can never be imagined. If you have to imagine God,
the pre-requisite is the imagination of the disappearance of space or
vacuum. Ofcourse space itself is a form of very fine energy and in this
context the word energy used by Me above can be taken as the crude
form of energy. The only knowledge about God is that He is beyond
knowledge (Yasyaamatam—Veda).
Social Responsibility of Novelists
People are writing novels and these novels are also useful in
building up justice in Pravritti of the society. The authors have to raise
the suspense, tension and anxiety to make the soul alert regarding the
justice to be followed in maintaining world peace. But I find that this
point of raising the tension is maintained throughout the novel just for
increasing the popularity and sales of the book and this is not good.
When there is a necessity like studies, the human being should be
awakened from sleep. But when there is no necessity, let the fellow
sleep. However, the impression of justice through novels is a total
failure because nobody on this earth will give value to the human values
in practical life, even though these values may be theoretically
appreciated. In the novels, you must atleast indirectly stress on the
consequences of good and bad deeds to be enjoyed here itself. Such
inevitable consequences indirectly indicate the existence of the firm
divine system of heaven, hell and God. But you write the story in such a
way as to show that good is punished and bad succeeds. For such special
practical instances, the requirement of explanation of the doctrine of
Karma is essential [it is essential to explain on the basis of the doctrine
of Karma, why the good was punished]. The sins done by the person in
his previous birth have to be taken into account for such practical cases
[The novelist should clarify in the novel that the ‘good’ person was
punished inspite of his goodness because of some sin committed by him
the past birth]. Even if rebirth is not accepted, sins misunderstood as
good deeds might have been done by the person in this birth itself and
their inevitable consequences explain such special cases.
Without such a total concept of spiritual knowledge in the
background, people are just writing novels that raise tension
continuously in their readers, just for killing time. Time can be killed by
several ways without raising tension. Tension is the source of all chronic
diseases. They are writing the novels to earn wealth at the cost of the
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health of people and this is a terrible sin. Sages Valmaki and Vyasa also
wrote novels, which are noble stories with vast ethical and spiritual
knowledge in their background. Even in the Mahabharatha, which is a
social novel [on a social theme], the aspects of Pravritti and Nivritti are
stressed through the role of the human incarnation (Krishna). These
epics are not only scriptures for establishing Pravritti but are also
practical scriptures of spiritual knowledge, which were built around the
then living human incarnations of God. Infact the Ramayana and the
Bhagavatam are the best scriptures of the practical spiritual knowledge
of Hanuman and the Gopikas who have achieved the highest fruit of
salvation. Mahabharata shows the partial success of Pandavas in the
recognition of their contemporary human incarnation. Hence, you must
write novels after achieving complete spiritual knowledge and you
should use the point of raising tension in the soul to bring alertness only
to impress upon it, ethical and spiritual concepts of Pravritti and Nivritti.
Breaking the Chain of Worldly Life
Once you are settled in the practical service of the contemporary
human incarnation of God, there is no need of any more theoretical
devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and there is no need of any more analysis of the
subject (Jnana Yoga). Practical service (Karma Yoga) is the endless
stage in which one has to continue for births and births till the end of
creation. This is the significance of the endless life (Chiranjivi) of
Hanuman, who fixed Himself in the service of the human form of God.
Knowledge (Jnana) and theoretical love (Bhakti) exist in the soul, as
samskaras and the soul need not waste time again and again in acquiring
these two. The short lives of Shankara and Meera indicate the brief
periods of learning Jnana and getting Bhakti.
You must come out of Pravritti as early as possible and enter
Nivritti. Shankara and Prahlada entered Nivritti even in their tender
childhood. People misunderstand that the subject of Pravritti is made of
chapters so that one can turn to Nivritti at the end of atleast some
chapters [after passing through atleast a few stages in your life such as
marriage, achieving career goals and getting chidlren]. If you are at the
end of a chapter and if the bell rings, you can request the other teacher
for five minutes-time to complete your chapter before coming out. But if
it is a continuous subject, there is no meaning in such a request. You
think that you will come to Nivritti after ensuring that your children are
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well-settled. But your children are virtually never settled because they
are again ‘unsettled’ when they get children. Hence, your children are
never settled since their children are unsettled in your lifetime. Thus, the
chain is endless and you have to break the endless chain at some point
or the other. In an endless chain any point is equally good to break.
The Veda says that you must leave the chain at any point once you
are completely attracted to God (Yadahareva Virajet Tadahareva
Pravrajet). Shankara, the top most genius realized this truth and broke
the chain in the childhood itself. Today people do not break this endless
chain even on their deathbed. A fellow in Karnataka died and his last
word was “Kasabari”. The word means a broomstick that is used to
sweep the dust from the floor. A donkey was trying to eat it. He warned
his son to save the broomstick from the donkey. You know, that soul
was born in the next birth as a sweeper on the roads with a broomstick
in hands. A pickle soaked in a jar for a long time in salt and acidic fluid,
cannot give a sweet taste if you put it in a sugar solution. Therefore, it is
better to turn towards Nivritti as early as possible. A poor peon today
was a greedy fellow in the previous birth, who earned wealth for
generations through his business and corruption, without any sacrifice.
A beggar begging for money was a person who wasted money in a
lavish manner by giving it to undeserving people. A lifelong diseased
rich fellow was a rich person in the previous birth, who spent all his
earnings for his own selfishness.
The sins and punishments are very systematically implemented by
a very powerful computerized system called Chitra Gupta in hell. I am
surprised to see many scholars [in spiritual knowledge], even in their old
age are involved in the deep analysis of only useless routine family
affairs. Even if they were to spend 1/10th of their time, energy and
logical talent for the subject of God, they would get salvation. What
happened to their spiritual knowledge in which they are very famous
preachers? Has it been covered due to the effect of the long association
with family life? Darkness may be associated with you for a long time.
But the moment, the Sun shines, even darkness existing for centuries
and centuries should vanish. In that case, what is the reason for the
ineffectiveness of their divine knowledge? The power of their
knowledge-light is too less and hence, the darkness is not much
affected. What is the reason for the absence of power in their
knowledge? The power of the knowledge is directly proportional to the
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degree of truth in it. If the knowledge is absolutely true from all angles,
it is like the summer Sun and the ignorance-darkness of any intensity
and length of time, has to vanish in a fraction of second. Therefore, the
absence of the absolute truth in their knowledge is responsible for the
reduced power in their knowledge to remove ignorance. Even though
the moon and stars exist, darkness is not removed in the world. But in
the daytime, no trace of darkness can exist before the Sun.
Masked Knowledge
The sages built up the tradition in such a way that the absolute
truth is always masked by the extent of ignorance suitable to the level of
devotees. For example the ultimate goal is the contemporary human
incarnation who is God covered by the three qualities and five elements,
which cannot touch Him. To reach this highest state you have to
worship the human form of God as a statue [representative]. Before this
you have to accept that a representative medium is necessary to worship
the unimaginable God and a representative model like a stone (Shiva
Lingam) should be worshipped. Since ignorant people neglect even the
diamond present before their eyes, to satisfy their psychology, the model
should be far from their place, like the Shiva Lingam in Varanasi. To
encourage the person to go to that city, the river Ganga should be
praised so as to provide an attraction. So it is said that if you take a bath
in the Ganga and die in Varanasi, your entire sins are washed away.
Death in Varanasi means that atleast in your old age you should turn to
Nivritti. This is the absolute truth masked by an infinite intensity of
ignorance. If that were true, what is the value of the Karma Chakra
[cycle of karma] and what is the necessity of hell?
Today you can find even a scholar with deep knowledge of the
scriptures going for a bath to the river Ganga when several dead bodies
are floating in the Ganga. What happens finally? The sins remain in the
same status [do his sins get washed away?]. The river Ganga is so
polluted that a resident of Varanasi cannot even drink the water from the
Ganga. The person who has taken bath in the Ganga and died there has
added this new sin of spoiling people’s drinking water, to his list of sins.
I know that ignorant traditional people will revolt against this revealed
truth. Nobody has guts to say this absolute truth in the city of Varanasi.
The foremost rebels will be the priests and other business people of
Varanasi who are earning money, exploiting the ignorance of this
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absolute truth. People will even not have the patience to argue about the
truth. Emotion is always a sign of ignorance (Krodhaat Bhavati—Gita).
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Chapter - 12
DEVOTION IS TO BE EARNED BY SOUL
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does not find place in yourself. Actually this question is posed by others
to you, when you have reached such climax of divine love.
2) Suffering is the fruit of our previous sin, but why Lord delay the
suffering, which sometimes do not make the soul understand that it
is because of the particular activity that he is now suffering, in that
case he may still do the old sin again?
If there is a possibility of the change in the soul by immediate
suffering of the sin, God certainly grants the punishment here itself
immediately after the sin. When such hope is absent, God postpones the
punishments so that his short span of life may be free so that one day or
other, he may digest the divine knowledge and transform. The human
life is very short and also is very rare. Let this short human life be
engaged in the service of God with out any disturbance. If punishments
are given immediately, no time is left to serve God and please Him.
When the examinations are near and if a student is to be punished for a
crime, a good principal postpones the enquiry to a day after the
examinations so that the little time leftover may be properly used. After
the examinations the student has lot of time to face the enquiry and
under go the punishment. This shows the kindness and best
administration of the principal.
3) Why world is so against Lord or why attachment to world is
against Lord? After [all], the entire world is His creation only.
In a multiple choice question, why the wrong answer is opposite to
the correct answer? After all both the answers are framed by the same
examiner. Your love to God is tested by this way.
4) What is the root cause of diseases?
The root cause of diseases is anxiety and tension created in this
world and its foundation is desire for things and souls other than God.
5) Why does a perfect, complete being (God) need or depend upon
devotion from something or someone else? (A question posted by a
person in one of the discussion forums)
God is not in need of love from others because He is always
contented (Aptakamasya…Veda). The king goes to the forest for hunting
not for killing an animal and to eat it like a hunter (Lokavattu…Brahma
Sutra). It is a game of entertainment with His own imagination
(creation). You cannot take the example of king also here in complete
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sense because the king, forest, animal, hunting etc., are equally real. The
love is the best and most sacred type of entertainment.
6) The Samskaras are formed from millions of births and its effect
may be so strong. If one breaks the family bonds for Lord’s sake in
one birth, then what is the guarantee that he will not make the
bonds again in the next birth or not, since the samskaras may still
be active?
The liberation from bonds is not in physical sense. If leaving the
family members is liberation, it is done by the death itself and then
every dead person is a liberated soul. Such assumption makes people
say or write about a dead person “So and so reached God”. The
liberation means the complete burning of Samskaras, which are the
roots of the bonds. This can be achieved by the attraction developed to
God associated with the knowledge of the unreality of bonds (Maya).
7) Is 'time' important in taking any important decision in our life?
Time is the most important parameter for a soul because the
creation is defined by the three dimensional space and the fourth
dimension-time. Soul is a part of the creation and therefore, cannot cross
the time like absolute God (creator), who is beyond space and time.
8) Why others’ money is so harmful?
Money is the real essence of the world around which, all the bonds
are revolving. When you grab others’ money, their heart is boiled
because they are not liberated souls. You are also not a liberated soul.
The law of divine justice gives severe punishment for this sin. They will
be born as your wife and children to grab your wealth with compounded
interest.
9) Some people say that because of your forefathers’ sin, you are
suffering now. Is it true?
The sin of one soul cannot touch another soul and this is the basic
truth. However, the underlying network has several parameters. When
the wealth earned by you is through corruption, which resulted in
suffering of good devotees, certainly the wealth is like poison
transmitted from one generation to the other.
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10) You told that devotion cannot be granted but should be earned;
but since being a soul, he himself will have his own limitations in
this direction however he may try?
The marks in your answer sheet have to be earned by you only
from the examiner who corrects it, whatever may be your limitations.
All the academic work done by you through out the academic year is
only meant for overcoming those limitations. Devotion or love is like
the marks earned by the devotee from God.
11) How to experience the Lord’s love in the same way a father’s or
mother’s love to his or her child?
The father and mother are ignorant and their love is selfish. They
gave birth to the child based on their mutual attraction of bodies, which
continues almost life long even after completing the production of
children. Their love aspires your service to them in their old age. If you
see the back ground, the relationship is between creditor and debtor.
These relationships change from birth to birth. But, the bond with God
is constant, since the beginning of creation and has no end. In no aspect,
the bond with God can be compared with the worldly bond. God is
addressed as Father and Mother in the sense of creator. Jesus did not
give importance to His mother before the bond with God.
12) Why in the Bible, the kingdom of God is told as similar to a
mustard seed?
The mustard seed is very small indicating that the administration
of God is also invisible. The oil of the mustard seed is pungent
compared to the other oils, which indicates that the divine
administration is very powerful. It is said that the mustard oil is very
good for health and this indicates that the divine rule is always for the
permanent welfare of the soul.
13) What is the reason of doubts?
Lack of direct divine knowledge from God in human form
(Satguru) is the reason for all spiritual doubts. Every soul will get one
chance to meet the human form of God in their life cycles. If the soul
misses that single golden chance, it is a loss forever. The knowledge
given by the human preachers may be either correct and incomplete or
wrong and complete. By such knowledge, either you will not reach the
goal even though you are in the right path or you will proceed in the
opposite direction and become more and more far from God.
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14) Why in the Bible it was told that 'many will use force to enter
the kingdom of God, but they cannot'?
The force of ignorance injected by the blind traditional priests and
incomplete scholars cannot push them into the kingdom of God due to
incomplete correct knowledge or complete wrong knowledge. The
incomplete wrong knowledge is better than complete wrong knowledge
relatively. Either you will go up to some stage in the divine path or you
will go in the opposite direction. You can reach the ultimate goal in the
spiritual path only by the complete correct knowledge given by human
form of God directly. The knowledge given by the past human forms of
God is complete and correct but the subsequent misinterpretations mask
it and confuse you. The divine knowledge from the present human
incarnation is complete and correct without misinterpretations since you
are directly clarifying all your doubts from God.
15) How to maximize advantage of Your stay in this world with us?
By hearing and studying well the divine knowledge given by Me
and clarifying all your doubts, you will reach the stage of determination
that results in practice. The force of your determination increases
tremendously when you are doing the propagation. Thus, the work of
God is infact your personal upliftment only.
16) How to take the proper decisions as given by Lord in crucial
situations, since in that state my voices will arise from inside?
If you are involved in the God’s work by propagating the divine
knowledge in the world, your determination becomes very powerful and
before that the voice of Satan becomes weak and finally disappears.
Shankara told that Satsanga (propagation of knowledge by discussions)
is the right step that leads to right goal. The inner voice of God and
Satan has no physical sound to differentiate them. The voice is only in
the form of an idea. Therefore, people are unable to distinguish the idea
of God from the idea of Satan. For this purpose analysis of the idea with
the help of Satguru is essential. Otherwise, people may follow the idea
of Satan thinking it as the idea of God.
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Chapter - 13
GOD, CREATION AND SOUL
Shankara’s Difficulty
O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
[February 12, 2006] Shankara declared Himself as the Lord in
human form. But He knew that people would immediately revolt against
Him. At that time the people were either Buddhists or followers of
Purva Mimamsa (ritualistic tradition). Both were highly arrogant and
egoistic and would not tolerate this concept in which, they would have
to worship a human being as God. Therefore, Shankara was very clever
and following their psychology, declared that every human being is
God. Ofcourse He used the word Brahman, which was misunderstood as
God by the people. The human being is the greatest created item and can
be called as Brahman. But He did not reveal this secret because He
wanted to first drag them to His fold and convert them into theists.
Simultaneously, He could establish the concept of human incarnation by
this. He could make them accept that God can be in human form. Since
He extended this concept to all individuals, nobody attacked Him with
egoism and jealousy and thus He was safe. The entire misunderstanding
of the Advaita philosopher comes only when he compares the human
incarnation with the ordinary human being. He should be appreciated
because he has reached the soul, which is the finest item of the creation.
Nobody can cross that item because God alone is beyond the soul and is
unimaginable.
Unimaginable God
The existence of the unimaginable God is not accepted because it
is beyond experience. Therefore, a philosopher has to stop with the soul,
which is a part of the Infinite Ocean of pure awareness called as Mula
Maya or Mula Prakriti. God associated with Mula Maya should be
treated as Parabrahman for all practical purposes. The Mula Maya acts
as the medium for us to receive God. If the Mula Maya is also absent,
then God cannot be received by us and He becomes completely
unimaginable. The Mula Maya is charged by God like the wire by
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electricity. Therefore, you can treat the Mula Maya or the Infinite Ocean
of pure awareness as God. Thus, such Mula Maya is the first incarnation
of God, which alone can be grasped by our intelligence or can be
experienced by us. In such divine Mula Maya, which can be called as
almost God or Parabrahman, the will of creation arose. Such will is in
the form of Knowledge, action and decision. Therefore, such will is
called as Maya, which consists of the three qualities Sattvam, Rajas and
Tamas respectively. Such Maya is also charged by Parabrahman and is
called as Ishwara. The original Mula Maya charged by God was called
as Brahman. Thus, Maya is in the form of will alone.
This entire Maya is not materialized further in the view of God to
become the Universe. In the view of God, it remains as His will alone.
The materialized world is the modification of just a drop of the ocean of
Mula Maya, thrown out as an object for the entertainment of God. In the
view of God even this materialized world is almost like the imaginary
world, being a tiny particle of the Infinite Ocean of Mula Maya. The
human being is a part of this materialized world, which is only the
imaginary world in the view of God. Thus, this materialized world
(Prakriti) also can be called as Maya (Mayamtu Prakritim—Gita) in the
view of God. In the view of the human being the gross bodies made of
five elements in this universe appear as materialized forms
simultaneously. The human being is actually a part of this materialized
Universe. The soul in the human being is a part of Mula Maya in its
original (unmaterialized) form. Similarly, the subtle body or Jeeva is a
part of Maya. The gross body, which is in materialized form for the
individual, is still an imaginary form in the view of God. Thus in the
view of God there is no difference between the subtle body and the
gross body as far as the point of imagination is concerned. This means
though the gross body is made of five elements and the subtle body is
made of the three qualities, both these bodies are only imaginations in
the view of God.
But in the view of human being the subtle body is imagination and
the gross body is in materialized form. Therefore, the conclusion is that
in the views of both God and human being, the soul is pure awareness
(Mula Maya) and the subtle body is made of three qualities (Maya). But
as far as the gross body is concerned it is imaginary in the view of God
and is simultaneously a materialized form in the view of human being.
This means that in the drop thrown out from the infinite ocean of Maya,
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a part of the Mula Maya remained in its original form as souls (Pure
Awareness) and the Maya remained in its original form as Jeevas (Three
qualities). The remaining portion of the drop after becoming the souls
and jeevas is modified into the materialized five elements, which are
used in the formation of gross bodies.
Another classification mentioned in the Gita is as follows: The
Mula Maya or the soul is called as Para Prakriti. The Jeevas (subtle
bodies or three qualities) and the five elements constitute the Apara
Prakriti. The three qualities in the Apara Prakriti are Buddhi (Sattvam),
Manas (Rajas) and Ahankara (Tamas). Buddhi is the concluding
knowledge. Manas is the form of action doing—Sankalpa and vikalpa.
Ahankara, which is the ignorance, is Tamas. The causal body is Para
Prakriti where as the subtle and gross bodies are Apara Prakriti. The
difference between the soul and Mula Maya is that the Mula Maya is
charged with God whereas the soul is not charged with God. Similarly,
the Maya is charged with God and the subtle body is not charged with
God. Therefore, the Brahman and Ishwara are God. The soul and Jeeva
are not God. The Mula Maya controls all the souls and the Maya
controls all the Jeevas and five elements.
The imagination in the view of God and materialization in the
view of human being are simultaneous concepts, which can be
understood only by very shrewd imagination. The Mula Maya and Maya
are divine as they are charged by God and form the basis of creation.
The Creation, which is the drop thrown out, is not divine because it is
not charged with or pervaded by God. The gross body, subtle body and
the soul of the human incarnation are exceptional cases because these
three are charged by God. But the same three in the case of a human
being are not charged by God but they are based on God since the entire
creation (in which the human being is a part) is based on God.
The Advaita philosopher takes these three bodies as common in
both the human incarnation and the human being and equates them. First
he equates the soul of a human being and the divine Mula Maya, which
are qualitatively similar but differ quantitatively. Even the Mula Maya,
if not charged by God, is not God because the Mula Maya by itself is
imaginable and God is unimaginable. After all the Mula Maya is only
the creation of God. When the uncharged Mula Maya itself is not God,
how can the soul, which is a small particle of the uncharged Mula Maya
in the thrown out drop be God? The Mula Maya in the thrown out drop
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is not charged by God. The thrown out drop or creation is not charged
by God because it must be different from God to be an object to God in
order to give Him entertainment. In the human incarnation though the
soul is charged by God, since the rest creation is not charged by God, it
can become the object of entertainment to the human incarnation also.
God in the infinite ocean of Mula Maya and Maya is one and the same
as the God present in the soul and jeeva of the human incarnation
because God is beyond spatial dimensions. Therefore, the same God
who is controlling the entire universe is present in the human
incarnation and thus the limited gross body (of the human incarnation)
is simultaneously the infinite universe, His limited subtle body is
simultaneously the infinite Maya and His limited soul is simultaneously
the infinite Mula Maya. Therefore, the limited Krishna is
simultaneously the infinite Parabrahman.
The Advaita philosopher neglects the existence of the
unimaginable item and thinks that Mula Maya itself is God. The Mula
Maya is like the Vashistha star, which indicates the very dim star,
Arundhati which is next to it. [This is called Arundhati Vasistha Nyaya;
where an imaginable or perceivable object is used to point out to an
imperceptible object]. Similarly, the Mula Maya, which is very difficult
to imagine indicates the unimaginable Parabrahman or God who is very
close it.
You may think that the unimaginable item may have an equal
possibility of existence and non-existence. The Veda says that the
completely unimaginable God exists (Yasyaa Matam Tasya Matam).
The Lord comes in the human incarnation to give proof to this statement
of the sacred scripture. The unimaginability means that which cannot be
explained by science. With the help of science one can imagine
anything, which is in the realm of space. But nobody can imagine that
which is beyond space. The Veda says that God first created space
(Akasah Sambhutah). Even the Mula Maya was generated after the
creation of space alone. But we call Mula Maya as the first creation
because mere space means non-existence of anything (vacuum,
Shunyam). Even the Mula Maya, which is qualitatively nothing but the
soul, is the finest form of energy, which requires the presence of the
space. Therefore, the Veda says that God created the pure awareness as
the first item (Tat Tejo Asrujata). Thus, if space is considered as a very
fine form of the power, space would be the first created item. If space is
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Chapter - 14
ENRICHING CHRISTIANITY
True Love
O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
If a Christian loves another Christian as his brother, there is no
greatness in it. Similarly, there is no greatness if a Hindu loves another
Hindu as his brother. The greatness comes if a Christian loves the Hindu
as his brother and vice-versa. A true Christian must love a true Hindu as
his brother and should treat a wrong Christian as an outsider. Similarly a
true Hindu must love a true Christian as his brother and must treat a
wrong Hindu as an outsider. Suppose you are in a white dress. An
outsider is also in a white dress, but your own brother is in a blue dress.
Based on the colour of the external dress will you treat the outsider who
is in the same colour of the dress as your own brother? Will you treat
your own brother as an outsider because the colour of his dress is
different from your dress? You recognize your own brother not by the
external dress but by the internal body in which your own parental blood
is flowing. Similarly, you recognize the outsider as an outsider based on
the point that his inner body contains some other parental blood.
Therefore, you must recognize your real brother not by the external
religion but you must recognize your brother by the internal spirituality.
If the spiritual values and levels coincide with your stage, such a
devotee is your real brother whether he is a Hindu, Christian, Muslim or
a Buddhist.
For example take the spiritual value of speaking the truth. A
person belonging to any religion must be your real brother if he speaks
the truth. You must treat a person as an outsider even if he belongs to
your religion but is a liar. The spiritual value is the real parental blood
i.e., descending from the original God-Father. When this is achieved,
Universal Spirituality becomes meaningful and alive. Therefore, analyse
and judge the spiritual values of the other person to make friendship
with him irrespective of his nationality, language, caste, sex, age and
religion. God will be immensely pleased if this attitude is developed.
The main aim of our Universal Spirituality is only to establish such a
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view in the world. Religion is only the external culture, which is related
to the language, habits of dress, habits of food and habits of regional
styles of life. The external religion is only ignorance, like the smoke
covering a fire. The inner spirituality is like the internal burning flame
of the fire. The analysis is like putting on a fan that generates a strong
wind, which blows away all the external cloud of smoke and makes you
visualize the true inner fire, which is the eternal spirituality.
God and Creation
Beyond imagination
If you realize this internal spiritual knowledge, which is like the
underlying fire, you can see the perfect homogeneity and unifying single
phase. The language differs and therefore, the words differ, but the
meaning is same. The water remains as water, which may be indicated
by different words used by different languages. There is one entity,
which is beyond imagination. That entity is called as God or
Parabrahman. Such God has no beginning and no end because God is
unimaginable. The beginning and the end of an unimaginable item must
also be unimaginable. The beginning and the end of the cosmic energy,
space or the creation are also unimaginable. Therefore, the beginning
and the end are unimaginable for an unimaginable item like God and
also for an imaginable item like space. Therefore, the two points, which
are the beginningless and endless characteristics, cannot help you in
understanding the real nature of God. If you start recognizing God by
simply these two points (beginningless and endless), you may think that
God is an imaginable item like space, energy or creation. Infact based
on these two characteristics, people have imagined God as an
imaginable item like space, energy or creation. This concept has misled
people to such a low level that people think that God is the very infinite
space, infinite energy or infinite creation. Therefore, one should filter
the concept of God at this juncture itself. One should think that God has
no beginning and no end because the beginning and the end of an
unimaginable item are also unimaginable.
Creation
This unimaginable God desired to create this universe for His
entertainment. The very desire itself is the creation. In the view of God
this present materialized universe in only an idea or imagination or the
very desire itself. Therefore, the desire to create the world is itself the
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desire and the created world is also a desire. Thus the creation,
maintenance and dissolution of the imaginary world are also
imaginations or desires. A part of this infinite creation is the individual
soul. The soul is like a drop of the infinite ocean of imagination or
desire of God. Thus, quantitatively the entire ocean of imagination of
God is very huge compared to the tiny soul. Remember that both the
universe and the tiny soul are made of the same substance called as
imagination or desire of God. Thus the force of the universe is far
greater than the force of the soul. Due to this huge quantitative
difference of the same phase, the universe, which is far stronger than the
soul, appears as a materialized entity for the soul. But this infinite ocean
of desire, which is the infinite universe is a tiny drop compared to the
infinite force of God. Therefore, again due to the same quantitative
difference of force the entire universe is just a very weak imagination
from the point of view of God. Thus imagination and materialization
exist as simultaneously true from the respective points of view of God
and the soul.
Pure awareness
For the sake of entertainment, God desired to create the universe.
This statement is in the Veda (Sa dviteeya Maicchat). In this statement
there is a very subtle intermediate stage, which is the essence of the
desire to create the universe. The desire to create the world is like the
golden ornament but the essence of such desire is like the raw gold in
which the ornament is not yet expressed. Such raw essence of the desire
is pure awareness. The pure awareness is a special subtle form of
energy, which is not qualified by any form. Such pure awareness is
called as the spirit, which is not qualified and does not have any
attribute. This is called as ‘Nirguna Brahman’, which means the pure
awareness, which has no reference to the creation of the universe. It is a
very critical and subtle point to recognize the pure awareness. The Veda
says that only the very very sharp intelligence can grasp that critical
state (Drushyate Tvagraya bhuddhya). Shankara, the topmost genius
among the spiritual preachers could grasp that state and proposed the
concept of Nirguna Brahman or non-qualified pure awareness. Such
pure awareness is the first creation of God (Parabrahman). This first
creation is almost as critical and unimaginable as the very Parabrahman
itself. The only difference is that Parabrahman is absolutely
unimaginable for any sharp intelligence, but this pure awareness is
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as fire. Now this Mula Prakriti becomes divine and is called as Brahman
or the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, which is just the inert created item,
became Holy due to the existence of God in it. Now Brahman multiplies
its little part of the Mula Prakriti in which, Parabrahman does not exist.
This means that God enters ninety nine percent of Mula Prakriti and not
one percent. This little part of the undivine Mula Prakriti is multiplied
by the disturbed equilibrium and the universe appears. Thus, the pure
awareness in which God pervaded becomes Brahman. Now Brahman
becomes the spectator of the universe. The little pure awareness into
which God did not enter is modified into the universe in which God
does not exist. Here the modification does not mean materialization. The
modification means the undisturbed equilibrium being converted into a
disturbed equilibrium. In both the states, the substance is only
awareness.
You can compare this to a day-dreamer’s mind. The mind of the
day-dreamer is Mula Prakriti. A little part of the mind is converted into
the dream. The mind, which is not converted, is a spectator of the
dream. The dreamer is identified with the spectator-part of the mind.
Thus the dreamer is witnessing the dream through his unmodified mind.
The dreamer has not entered the dream and therefore has not multiplied.
When the dream city is burning neither the spectator-part of the mind is
burnt nor the dreamer. The spectator-part of the mind itself can be
treated as the dreamer because the dreamer has entered that spectator
part of the mind and exists in it. Thus, Brahman, the spectator of the
universe, can be treated as Parabrahman. Such Parabrahman who is the
spectator of the universe is called as Ishwara. Thus, Parabrahman is the
original unimaginable creator. Mula Prakriti is the first created item,
which is the pure awareness. Brahman is the major part of pure
awareness in which Parabrahman entered and occupied. The same
Brahman enjoying the universe by watching it is called as Ishwara.
Neither Parabrahman nor Brahman nor Ishwara have entered the
universe, which is the disturbed equilibrium of the three qualities. Thus,
there is no disturbance in Parabrahman, Brahman or Ishwara.
In Christianity, God is Parabrahman. Brahman and Ishwara are
called as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the substance with which the
universe is made of. The spirit is not holy because God did not occupy
it. Thus the universe is not holy in toto. It is holy with reference to the
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like Shankara like God in such a rich medium. Some people like a
person in a costly silk dress.
Others can understand God in the form of Ishwara. Ramanuja and
Madhva have stopped at the level of Ishwara, who is God in a terricot
shirt which is a mixture of silk and cotton. Brahman is the unqualified
pure awareness, which is called as Nirguna. Ishwara is the qualified
pure awareness, which is called as Saguna. Therefore, Shankara
preached about God to scholars. Ramanuja and Madhva preached God
to ordinary people. There are some people who are ignorant and cannot
grasp even the form of Ishwara. For this third category, God-in-Flesh is
the easiest way, who is God in a cotton shirt. The Brahman is the
electrified raw gold. Ishwara is the electrified golden chain [gold with a
form; qualified]. The human incarnation is the electrified iron chain.
Gold is costly and iron is cheap. The awareness is subtle and can be
grasped only by scholars. The human body is very easy and can be
grasped directly by the eyes. But in all these media, the electricity is one
and the same. When you touch any of these three media the electric
shock is one and the same. Thus, the experience of God can be obtained
from Brahman in transcendental meditation (Samadhi). The same
experience of God can be obtained when Ishwara appears in energetic
form when pleased by severe penance (Sakshatkara). The same
experience of God is also obtained by seeing a human incarnation like
Lord Krishna (Darshanam). The experience of God is one and the same.
The medium and the approach differ. The first two methods are very
difficult. The last method is very easy. The goal and the benefit are one
and the same. Among these three, who is wise? The last person is the
wisest who obtained the same goal through the easiest path.
The experience of God is obtained only through a medium. The
medium alone indicates God. When you want to drink hot tea, you are
shown a cup. You are told, “Have that cup”. Here the word cup means
the tea and not the cup without the tea. When you touch the cup you are
experiencing the heat of the tea through the cup. If the tea is absent, the
cup is cool. Thus, you can differentiate between a cup with tea and an
empty cup. Thus by experience you can differentiate Lord Krishna from
any other ordinary human being. The very presence of the human
incarnation electrifies you with divine experience even without the
preaching from the human incarnation. But sometimes mere experience
may mislead you. Experience belongs to the faculty of the mind.
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