Thursday, August 27, 2009

Few Gems from discourses of H H Shri Dattaswami

Few Gems from His divine messages, which come in a series of books, are given below.

1. It is not correct to say ‘Worship is work.’ If you carry on the worship as full time work, you will have to depend upon the devotees for your livelihood. People will neglect you and your preaching. It is also not correct to say ‘Work is worship’ because you are engaged in the process of earning for the sake of your family which will lead you to the cycle of animal births. Both are extreme ways. The best way is ‘Work and Worship’. You work for your livelihood and worship in your leisure time. Worship means Service of God. Service means spreading the knowledge of God among all the human beings for their salvation.

2. Do your duty to earn your livelihood and take sufficient rest. Instead of spending the remaining time and energy in watching TVs, Movies, Gossips and reading novels and storybooks, utilize the remaining time and energy for the service of Lord Datta. It is sufficient for your salvation.

3. Datta means ‘Daana’ (Donation). Veda says ‘only by magnanimity Brahman is obtained.’ Donate food, clothes and medicines to the poor who are in need of them. Apart from this there are several people who are in need of knowledge and devotion. Imparting knowledge and devotion to such people is more valuable. Great Saints like Swami Vivekananda, Shankara and Meera preached the same throughout their lives.

4. If you are not able to devote your time and work to God’s service, don’t get disappointed. Do not get scared by the statement ‘Even camel may pass through the eye of the needle but a rich man cannot reach the God’. There is a way for you also. As per the saying of the Gita ‘Karma Phala Tyagah’ means donating some part of your earnings to the service of God is equivalent to spending time and energy for God’s service. By Karma Phala Tyaga, you too can attain the salvation.

5. Knowledge is knowing about God. To praise Him by words is devotion. Both knowledge and devotion are proved in service (Karma/Seva). So service is higher than knowledge and devotion. Vibhishana asked Hanuman ‘Though both of us are devotees of Rama, why you were only blessed by Rama?’ Hanuman replied, O Vibhishana ‘This is because I have participated in His work in addition to devotion.’ So those who do service of God by participating in the propagation of God’s knowledge and devotion will be really blessed by God. Satyabhama confined Lord Krishna to herself. Rukmini shared Him with all His eight wives. Radha shared Him with all the 16,000 Gopikas. Meera spread the message of Lord Krishna to all the human beings and that is why Meera alone attained ‘Sasareera Kaivalya.’

6. The Vanaras (monkeys) who are involved in constructing the ‘Varadhi (Bridge)’ has stopped the work when the stones started submerging in the sea. But the tiny squirrel, which was dropping a few sand particles in the sea, did not stop the work. Even though the monkeys are throwing big stones in to the sea Rama did not appreciate the work of monkeys as they are not serving with complete faith. But the squirrel which has full faith that the work of Rama is not anyway going to stop, continued the dropping the sand particles and kept on doing the work to the best of its ability. Rama has appreciated the little work done by the squirrel by patting its back. So serve the Lord with full faith and to the best of your ability.

7. Remember! Even though you do a little service to the Lord, you will get enormous benefits. The same is proved when Draupadi tore a piece of her sari and used the piece as a bandage to Lord Krishna when His finger got injured. For this timely service, which Draupadi did to Lord Krishna, she has been blessed with a chain of saris at the time of ‘Vasthrapaharana’.

8. Arjuna did not have any temple for him, because he used God for his work. But, Hanuman has temples everywhere because He engaged Himself in the service of Lord Rama. So, set aside for atleast sometime using the God as an instrument in your work and think of engaging yourself in the service of God.

9. It is very difficult to concentrate on Nirakara (the one which do not have any physical form). The Sakara meaning idols and photographs can be seen and touched. But, in Naravathara i.e., when Lord incarnates in the form of human being, you can see, touch, talk and live along with Him. Hanuman and Radha who worshipped the human incarnation in their time attained the highest stage of salvation. Gita says ‘I will always take a human form (Manusheem Tanum Aasritham)’. The meaning of all the four Mahavakyas of four Vedas is also the same. Shankara told that God comes in human form but His disciples misinterpreted it and thought that all the human beings are God. Then Shankara drank molten lead and asked His disciples to drink the same. By this He proved that the human incarnation alone is Brahman and not His disciples.

10. The Lord incarnates in all countries and preaches the same message simultaneously to all generations. Otherwise God becomes partial if the same philosophy is not propagated and preached among all the generations at all times.

At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad

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