Recently several saints are involved in controversies regarding collection of funds and sexual abuse. Based on this, these saints are being rejected and condemned totally by the devotees. This is not correct on the part of devotees in the light of their own spiritual interest. A doctor is an expert in writing the prescription for your health. The doctor suggested excellent medicine for your lungs, which are spoiled by your constant smoking. The doctor also may be a smoker. You need not reject his prescription since the doctor is smoker. The personal smoking of the doctor has nothing to do with his excellent prescription. If the doctor is also a smoker, he will suffer personally with his illness created by smoking. You need not bother about his health since he is a better judge about the value of the health. If you reject the prescription and do not follow the treatment, you will be equal to him in neglecting the health. In such case, being equal [to him], how can you criticize the doctor? If the doctor does not follow his advice given to you, he will go to dogs. Why should you also go to dogs since he has gone to dogs? You have approached the spiritual preacher for the direction of your spiritual life and therefore, follow his preaching without observing his personal life, which is unnecessary for you. The doctor may not be a smoker but if he gives you the prescription containing inefficient medicine, what is the use for you? Your health cannot be rectified by such a doctor.
There are two types of saints. The first type is Gurus, who are ordinary souls only but are experts in giving correct direction to you. If such a Guru practces against his own preaching, he will go to hell. You need not bother about his practice and you should follow his advice for your correct direction. The second type is Satgurus, who are the human incarnations of God. In this case, you may be misled by His external drama and you are tested in your faith. We find several saints smoking. Such saints are not equal to [Shirdi] Sai Baba, who also smoked. In any case, you should not examine the personal life of a saint and you should follow his preaching only. You should limit yourself to your necessity only.
Be it a saint or a human incarnation, the external gross body will have its own natural characteristics like birth, growth, hunger, thirst, sex, illness, death etc. In the case of saint, the internal soul, which is nervous energy, is not affected by these characteristics of body. In the case of human incarnation, the internal soul as well as the most internal God, are also not effected by these external characteristics. The soul is linked to the gross body through a bundle of qualities, which is called as subtle body. The soul, quality and the gross body are in the same state of phase, since energy and matter are mutually inter-convertible. The soul and quality are energy and the gross body is mainly matter bound by energy. All these three are parts of creation only. Therefore, sometimes even the soul may be affected due to the disturbed qualities, which form the link between soul and gross body. Thus, the food (matter), which constitutes the gross body, is responsible to the qualities. The thirst for sex is due to the activity of certain hormones and the hunger is due to the activity of acid produced in the intestine. The anger is due to the activity of chillies. The pride is due to excess consumption of salt. The fanaticism (Moha) is due to tamarind. The lust is due to masala food. Like this, the qualities are generated by food. In the case of human incarnation, God, who is the creator, is inside the soul. God is beyond the creation and hence, He is not affected by matter and energy. Creation cannot touch the creator. You will superimpose the effects of creation on the creator and misunderstand the creator. The black cloud covers the shining Sun and you say that the Sun is dim. The Sun shines with the same intensity in all the times. You superimpose the quality of cloud on the Sun.
Therefore, follow the preaching of the saints without examining their personal life, which is unnecessary to you. Sometimes, the personal life of the human incarnation is exposed to you to mislead you for a test. Therefore, never bother about the personal life of the saint and bother only about his preaching.
There are two types of saints. The first type is Gurus, who are ordinary souls only but are experts in giving correct direction to you. If such a Guru practces against his own preaching, he will go to hell. You need not bother about his practice and you should follow his advice for your correct direction. The second type is Satgurus, who are the human incarnations of God. In this case, you may be misled by His external drama and you are tested in your faith. We find several saints smoking. Such saints are not equal to [Shirdi] Sai Baba, who also smoked. In any case, you should not examine the personal life of a saint and you should follow his preaching only. You should limit yourself to your necessity only.
Be it a saint or a human incarnation, the external gross body will have its own natural characteristics like birth, growth, hunger, thirst, sex, illness, death etc. In the case of saint, the internal soul, which is nervous energy, is not affected by these characteristics of body. In the case of human incarnation, the internal soul as well as the most internal God, are also not effected by these external characteristics. The soul is linked to the gross body through a bundle of qualities, which is called as subtle body. The soul, quality and the gross body are in the same state of phase, since energy and matter are mutually inter-convertible. The soul and quality are energy and the gross body is mainly matter bound by energy. All these three are parts of creation only. Therefore, sometimes even the soul may be affected due to the disturbed qualities, which form the link between soul and gross body. Thus, the food (matter), which constitutes the gross body, is responsible to the qualities. The thirst for sex is due to the activity of certain hormones and the hunger is due to the activity of acid produced in the intestine. The anger is due to the activity of chillies. The pride is due to excess consumption of salt. The fanaticism (Moha) is due to tamarind. The lust is due to masala food. Like this, the qualities are generated by food. In the case of human incarnation, God, who is the creator, is inside the soul. God is beyond the creation and hence, He is not affected by matter and energy. Creation cannot touch the creator. You will superimpose the effects of creation on the creator and misunderstand the creator. The black cloud covers the shining Sun and you say that the Sun is dim. The Sun shines with the same intensity in all the times. You superimpose the quality of cloud on the Sun.
Therefore, follow the preaching of the saints without examining their personal life, which is unnecessary to you. Sometimes, the personal life of the human incarnation is exposed to you to mislead you for a test. Therefore, never bother about the personal life of the saint and bother only about his preaching.
At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad
అయ్యా దుర్గా ప్రసాదు గారు,
ReplyDeleteమీరు దయ చెసి మీకుతొచిన, లేద మీకు తెలిసిన దానినే జ్ఞానం అని అందరికి పంచవద్దని మనవి.
ఎవరు చెప్పరంది మీకు...గురువు యొక్క వ్యక్థిగత జీవనం, అది ఎలాంటిదైనా, పట్టించుకోనవసరం లేదని....క్రుష్నునిగురించి మీ పూర్వపు టపా లొ చాలా చెప్పారు...ఇదెనా మీకు తెలిసింది....క్రుష్నుదు అర్జునికి గీతోపదేసం చెసినా కూద ధర్మరాజుకి భీష్ముది ద్వారా కర్థవ్యం ఎందుకు చెప్పించాదు..ఎందుకంటె గురుముఖత నేర్చిన విద్యయె స్రేష్టము...మన తల్లిదంద్రులు ఎంత విగ్నానవంతులైనా, మనని గురువు (teacher) వద్దకు ఎందుకు పంపి చదివిస్తారు....ఏ విద్యైన గురు అనుగ్రహం లేనిదె రానించదు, అలాగె అది పరిపూర్నం కాదు...అందుకె మన హిందూ సంప్రదాయంలో గురువుకు విసిష్ట స్థానం వుంది...అటువంటి గురువుకు కొన్ని గుణములు, లక్షనాలూందు నిర్దేసింపబదినవి...అందులో మొదతిది...చెప్పిందె చెయ్యతం..చేసేదె చెప్పతం..అలా చేయలెనివాదు బొధనకు పనికిరాదు....తనపై తనకు నియంత్రణ లేనివాడు ప్రజలకు నీతిబొధనలు చెయార్హుడు కాదు.
అయ్యా చైతన్యగారు,
ReplyDeleteమీరు మొత్తం టపా చదివారా! ఆధ్యాత్మిక సారమే సద్గురువుని గుర్తించి సేవించమని. అంతేకాని గురువు నుంచి నేర్చుకోవద్దని ఎక్కడా టపాలో లేదు. కాని, గురుముఖంగా నేర్చుకొనేటప్పుడు, ఆయన వ్యక్తిగత జీవనం వైపు చూస్తే మనకే నష్టం. Because,when you are with say, Satguru, He also exhibits many negative qualities,like Krishna exhibited. But the identifying mark of the Satguru is the knowledge as Krishna preached Gita. We should know from this is God is beyond qualities. We should not bind any rules on Satguru. You will see such many examples.
Coming to the case of a Guru who is not Satguru, if the Guru does not follow what he says, God will judge and punish him. The devotee should leave this to God. Because, in this process, the devotee should not miss the Satguru.
The God may test the devotees many times, whether the devotee really has the highest aim of spirituality of serving God or not. A normal devotee after seeing such incidents may go back and will not continue further in spirituality. But real aspirant will not get perturbed by such incidents and only goes by the knowledge.
At the lotus feet of Shir Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad
When a teacher don't follow what he preaches his student don't take him seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSairam, excellent article.
ReplyDeleteWanted to ask for your permission to post the same in a few forums like -
http://saibabadwarkamai.com/forum/index.php
and http://sai-ka-aangan.org/index.php
and http://forum.spiritualindia.org/index.php.
And yes not to forget, your Site and Name will be also be mentioned as the source of this article. Do let me know as soon as possible.
Sairam,
rOhit beHaL
omgurudev33@yahoo.co.in
Dear Rohitji,
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome to post this.
At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
Prasad
I don't feel I can agree with the person who posted the article. It really makes sense to listen to great soul when he preaches. Those who go to these fellows who only preach but do not pactice are like going to college or university. Just interested in what is being tought rather than who is teaching.
ReplyDeleteHowever these babas who getting defamed are not gettind so because they are not practicing. Infact they are cheating the people. They tell themselves that they are the incarnation of gods. If so how can he go off track.
The people who go to them are not going just because they have to go. They are attracted by the way these babas present themselves. They say they are god, they say they can change the course of hte lives of people. With these people how can we trust them if they do the wrong doings.
It is like a prime minister or a chief miniter whom voted to power because he can do some thing for them, instead making his own wealth or bending rules for himself and at the same time telling the people not to break rules or not to be corrupt.
I strongl believe that the integrity of the person who preaches is as important as the preachings itself.
Jai Sairam
Dear Siva garu,
ReplyDeleteYou are mixing the case of a Guru who is like a normal human and Satguru who is the human incarnation or God in human form. If you start analyzing the personal life Guru, you will also find that Satguru also exhibits negative qualities, by seeing which, many people go away from Satguru. This problem is more when the Satguru is contemporary or infront of us.
When somebody(contemporarily) sees Krishna dancing with Gopikas, how a devotee will think. Now we are able to analyze this because, we go by what Krishna preached -the special knowledge (Gita). In a similar way, Shirdi Sai smoked. But you can not compare the Satguru with a normal guru. They do so for testing the devotees.
So, we can't put rules on Satguru (again, I say don't mix with a guru), what he should do and what not. Only we can take the knowledge from him, do logical analysis, and if convinced accept him as our Satguru. Then further no more analysis on him or his personal life, because we have accepted him based on his knowledge.
If we start checking the personal life of a Saint/guru/Satguru, we may miss the Satguru in this process as Satguru also puts so many tests.
At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad
The devotee should develop unity in mind, speech and practice especially in spiritual side. The devotee calls a saint as Swami ji. What is the meaning of the word Swami? Swami means the Lord or the owner of this entire creation in which the devotee is also included. Therefore, one should know the meaning of word before uttering the word. The devotees are reciting long prayers in Sanskrit without knowing their meaning. At least, let the devotee know the meaning of a simple word like Swami before its usage. The devotee does not completely believe the saint as God (Lord) but has a doubt about the saint that whether he is God. The devotee calls the saint as God (Swami) based on the faith of probability. Most of the devotees are not complete believers in God. They believe in existence of God due to selfishness and probability. Their logic is that if the unseen hell exists after death and if the unseen God also exists, let their prayers and worship please the probably existing God to protect him or her from the probably existing hell. There is nothing lost, if God and hell do not exist. Since the limits of infinite space are not found, there is a 50-50 probability for both the existence and non-existence of God and hell. Therefore, this logic of probability is guiding the devotees every where in the spiritual field. If such probability is the basis, the devotee should address the saint as God limiting himself or herself to the part of receiving knowledge only form the saint. Such devotees should not enter into practical service to God in the form of saint, which involves the total surrender of every thing in practice. If the devotee has a doubt about the God-ship of the saint, the total surrender in practice should not be done. The sacrifice in the practical service should be also limited to a few rupees in the form of Dakshina and not to the total wealth. The sacrifice should be proportional to the extent of your faith. If you sacrifice more than your faith, you will repent later on. Therefore, confirm the full God-ship of the saint before you do the total surrender in practice.
ReplyDeleteContd...
If some body sacrificed totally in practice and realizes later on that the God-ship of the saint is not true, what will be the fate of the devotee? The devotee will be blessed by God even though the saint is not God. The reason here is that the devotee sacrificed with a view on God and hence God will respond through the saint even though the saint is not God. The saint stands as a representative model of God. God is answering you through an inert statue and will He not answer you through a living being? Therefore, there is no loss to the devotee if the faith is standing still. The faith should not be disturbed in any case. If the faith is disturbed, the result is lost. What will happen to the saint, who is not God? If the saint claimed that he is God, the saint shall be punished by God. But, if you have created the faith by your self, the saint is innocent. Therefore, the saint should not declare that he is God and should always keep silent. It is better if the saint says frankly that he is not God. But, some times, the real human incarnation also says that He is not God to test your faith. Hence, your own analysis is important and final.
ReplyDeleteHowever much knowledge or devotion you may have, unless your basic ego and jealousy are removed, there is no use of your knowledge and devotion. From the starting moment itself, your inner ego and jealousy are working in your self to find the opportunity to disprove your faith on the saint as God. You are praising the saint as God based on the probability for your protection here and there after death. Once you find that the saint is not God, you will be having lot of happiness and energy in your mind to scold the saint as a cheat. The people, who abuse the false saints, are happy because they discovered the fact externally. But, they should be unhappy to discover the internal fact that they are happy because of their ego and jealousy on a co-human being. Such devotees can never be blessed by the contemporary human incarnation of God. The first step in the spiritual effort (Sadhana) is to eradicate ego and jealousy on the co-human beings and unless this achieved, all the knowledge and devotion are totally waste.
At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Prasad