VICTORY OF KNOWLEDGE OVER IGNORANCE: Remembering the greatest devotees on Vijaya Dashami day

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [October 24, 2012 Vijaya Dashami Day] Vijaya Dashami is the festival indicating the victory of Knowledge over the ignorance. If the sinner is punished, the attitude of sin is suppressed temporarily only because the punishment is external and not internal. We find this in the world that the thief is punished again and again in the police station. The real transformation of the soul takes place only when the internal ignorance is destroyed by the knowledge. Therefore, such internal victory only is real and permanent. The word ‘Durga’ also means that the Knowledge protects you from the attack of ignorant thoughts like the fort protecting you from the attack of wild enemies. The word ignorance can be used in any context. You may be ignorant of Mathematics. Somebody may be ignorant of the required address. In spiritual knowledge, the real context of the word ignorance should be analyzed because it relates to the permanent fate of the soul. This word ‘Ignorance’ is mentioned in the Gita in the context of Human Incarnation (Avajaananti maam…). This context is very important because it is concerned about the recognition of God, who came down in human form standing before you. What more important context can be than this in the life of a human being? The meaning of this verse is like this – “Whenever I come down in the human form, people insult Me due to the ignorance of the absolute God existing in Me”. People worship God when He is not before them and insult the same God whenever He appears before them. You are craving for Him in His absence and rejecting Him when He appears before you. The reason for this is the ignorance in the identification while seeing Him with the eyes due to the effect of ego and jealousy. There cannot be stronger ignorance than this situation. This is the most wonderful aspect of human psychology and hence, such scene can be really called as ‘Maya’. The meaning of the word ‘Maya’ is that which is wonderful. The Lord says in the Gita that nobody can cross this ‘Maya’ (Mama Mayaa duratyayaa…) except very few souls, who surrender totally to God (Mayaametaam taranti te…).

People refused to give some oil to Saibaba to lit the lamps. But, the same people are maintaining lakhs of lights in the temples in the world when Baba disappeared! People criticized Sita and were responsible for the continuous agony of Rama while He was alive. But, today when Rama left this world, people dance and sing songs in praise of Sita and Rama! People quarrelled with complaints when Krishna stole some milk while He was alive. But, today people pour down pots of milk on the statues of Lord Krishna when the Lord has gone away from this world! This peculiar disease is the most wonderful one by which you refuse a person in person and praise in his absence. The Veda says that even angels are not an exception to this disease (Parokshapriyaah…). If this ignorance is overcome by the power of Knowledge, the soul is saved forever. Such victory of Knowledge over the ignorance saves you permanently and ‘Vijaya Dashami’ becomes meaningful if you try for such real victory.

We can remember some names of such victorious devotees. Lakshmana, Sita, Hanuman and Gopikas must be remembered in this context. Lakshmana was younger to Rama and got married on the same day. While Rama enjoyed with Sita inside the cottage, Lakshmana wandered around it as a watchman for fourteen years. On no moment Lakshmana thought about his wife. The attachment of the Lord to Lakshmana was highest, which surpassed even Sita. When Lakshmana became unconscious, the Lord asked to stop the war stating that Sita was not required when Lakshmana was lost. But, the wonderful test appears as if Rama was attracted to Sita ignoring the same family life of Lakshmana. The Lord sang beautiful song on Lakshmana in this context, which is not known so far to anybody. The song runs like this -

Harimeva sevase he Adishesha!
(Oh! Adishesha! You are always serving the Lord only).
Swaartham Kimapi Naastivaa pannagesha!
(Oh! King of serpents! Don’t you have any single work, which is selfish?)
Deyam kimavashishtam te soumithre!
(Oh! Son of Sumithra! What is left over, which I did not give you?)
Atmaanameva Arpayaami Ahinayaka!
(Oh! Leader of serpents! Only I am left over and hence, I am dedicating Myself to you).
Apadamastakavapuriva Bhava Vasuke!
(Oh! Vasuki! From top to bottom I am in constant association with your body just like My soul is in constant association with this body. Hence, you are also like My body).

This excellent devotion was shown by Lakshmana while Rama is alive present before Him. This is the essential point that should be noted by all the devotees. We show such excellent devotion only in the absence of the Lord. While the Lord is present, we show either negligence or sometimes even enmity. Full recognition and the consequent excellent devotion are the characteristics of Sattvam - quality. Negligence is the characteristic of Rajas – quality, which is the result of concentrated ignorance. Enmity is the characteristic of Tamas – quality, which is the result of solidified ignorance.

Sita was proved to be pure through the fire test. But, still, Rama left her in the forest due to rumor from public. This is really the climax of injustice. Any other wife in such situation will either go to court of law or protest with the help of the members of associations of women! On hearing the news that Rama abandoned her, Sita sends the following message through Lakshmana “Oh! Rama! I am not committing suicide since your children in my womb stand as an obstacle. After the delivery, I will perform severe penance with the sole desire that You alone should be My husband without separation in my future life also” (Kimvaa tavatyanta viyogamoghe…., Saaham tapah…). Sita showed such extreme love in the life of Rama only and not in His absence from the world!

Hanuman approached the Lord without marriage. But, the Lord always weept for His lost wife and engaged Hanuman always in the service of searching His wife. Anybody in the place of Hanuman will think about his foolishness in not performing his own marriage to search the wife of somebody else. But, Hanuman never thought like that and remained unmarried for the service of the Lord while the Lord was alive in front of His eyes!

Gopikas became mad when Krishna left Brindavanam and committed suicide by jumping into fire on hearing the death of Lord. They were unable to continue their lives in the absence of God, but we are unable to express the devotion when the Lord is alive!!

Such type of pure devotion is possible only when your life is devoid of selfishness through total surrender, which is called as Prapatti (Maamevaye Prapadyante… Gita). Selfishness disappears only when self disappears or forgotten. Bilhana was totally surrendered to his darling while walking in a forest and hit a sage unconsciously by his foot. The sage became angry to curse him. Bilhana asked that how the sage was conscious about the touch of his foot. In the memory of his darling, Bilhana forgot himself and hence, the leg belonging to himself was also forgotten. Similarly, selfishness belonging to self disappears only when the self is forgotten. Crossing the ‘I’ is said to be the crucifixion of self. In the work of God, Jesus forgot Himself and hence, underwent crucifixion. These are standing examples of total surrender by which the crucifixion of self takes place. These devotees should be remembered on this day to get the inspiration for achieving the real victory of knowledge over the ignorance in the context of our spiritual journey.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

ATTAIN YOGA TO ACHIEVE REAL DEVOTION

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [October 06, 2012] A Devotee asked: You are preaching the equal enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness so that there is no need of devotion to God. When such state is achieved, really, there is no need of God. When there is no need, the reason for devotion disappears. Nothing can be generated without reason. Hence, devotion is not generated. In the absence of devotion, where is the need of the practical sacrifice in service to God. The Veda says that the sacrifice of money alone can lead to God (Dhanena Tyagena …). Hence, the Vedic statement also becomes meaningless in the present context.

Reply of Swami: There is lot of confusion of the concepts in the argument projected by you. The real ground of devotion and the false ground of devotion should be separately differentiated. The equality in enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness is related to the removal of false ground of devotion. This does not mean that the real ground of devotion is also removed. The practical sacrifice is a point related to real ground of devotion. This point is related by you to the false ground and by removal of false ground, this point is also removed by you. Let Me explain this more clearly. The false ground of devotion is the link between selfish desire and the power of God. In false devotion, you always try to exploit the power of God in removing your difficulties and getting happiness. The difficulties are the fruits of your sins and happiness is the fruit of your good deeds. By exploiting the power of God, you want to avoid the fruits of your sins and want to get the happiness without the good deeds. Both are wrong. You want that God should commit these two blunders, soaped by your false devotion. The devotion is false because your love to God is based on business. You want this undue favor from God for which you expose your artificial love to God through worship and prayers. All this is false ground of devotion. You want to sacrifice money to God again based on this false ground only. You donate some money to God to get this undue favor. It is just like the corruption practiced by citizens in the offices of government. You bribe the official to do some undue favor. Therefore, such sacrifice of money is also not the real sacrifice as said in the Veda. If you develop equality in enjoying the happiness and unhappiness like the sweet and hot dishes in meals, you will not require this undue favor from host in requesting him to serve only sweets and not hot dishes. When the Yoga of equality in enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness is developed, the false devotion and false sacrifice of money also disappears. Therefore, this Yoga leads to the final disappearance of false ground of devotion and subsequently false devotion and false sacrifice. Today, if this false ground of devotion disappears, there will be no single devotee on this earth! The entire devotion in the present devotion is totally false and the only remedy for this is to develop Yoga. Lord Datta is called as Yogiraja, standing for the meaning that He alone is the preacher of the Yoga.

When Yoga destroys the false ground, false devotion and false sacrifice, this does not mean that there is no real ground, real devotion and real sacrifice. By attaining Yoga, you are expected to enter the real ground of devotion where real devotion and real sacrifice exist. The end of Yoga is not simple enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness continuously without the concept of God. When you have attained the Yoga completely, you have to put a question to yourself. What is the basis of this enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness? The basis is this creation including yourself. In the absence of creation, the enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness also does not exist. You are advised to enjoy both sweet and hot dishes equally. Here, the advice does not end only with the ultimate aim of development of psychology of equal enjoyment of sweet and hot dishes. The advice continues to remind you to express your gratefulness to the host, who served you the food containing both the dishes. Similarly, the creator of this creation must be always thanked for providing the basis of this very enjoyment. God is the creator of yourself and rest of the creation. You are not expected to finish the meals by enjoying the sweet and hot dishes equally and go away without thanking the host. You may raise the doubt that this expression of gratefulness is again based on the business between donor and acceptor. But, in this context, you are expressing your gratefulness for the past favor done by God even without your request. Therefore, this will not be a false ground of devotion. When your request is related to the present and the future, then only, the false ground of devotion appears. Therefore, the real ground of devotion starts with this expression of gratefulness to the past favor done by God even without your desire. Now, the real devotion starts. This real devotion can be further flavored by your attraction towards the divine qualities and diving personality of God in which also there is no selfish desire. In such attraction also, there is no false ground. When this real ground and the real devotion are established, the real proof of your practical sacrifice is required, which is your bond with money. Money is the root of all the worldly bonds (Dhanamoolamidam jagat…). All the worldly bonds are alive only when money exists. All these worldly bonds are like the branches of the tree of your family and root of such tree is money. Therefore, the test at the root will be the test of the entire tree. Hence, the Veda said that the sacrifice of money means the sacrifice of all the other bonds.

Therefore, the false ground and real ground of devotion are separate. The sacrifice of money in the false ground is only a part of the business. The sacrifice of money in the real ground stands as the acid proof for the real devotion. The Yoga, which is the talent of enjoying both happiness and unhappiness equally, is to be developed only to destroy the false ground of devotion. When this false ground is destroyed, the false devotion and the false sacrifice are also simultaneously destroyed. This does not mean the real ground does not exist. In fact, after attaining the Yoga, the real ground of devotion should start. After eating the meals, you are expected to thank the host. This thanking the host is the real ground of devotion. Enjoyment of sweet and hot dishes in the meals has nothing to do with this process of thanking the host. If you enjoy both the dishes equally in the meals, it does not mean that you can go away without thanking the host. Hence, the discrimination between truth and false should be carefully done through shrewd analysis. Hence, Shankara told that this shrewd analysis is one of the four eligible qualities of a spiritual aspirant (Sadasat vivekah…).

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Fate of human beings …Realization of Spiritual knowledge

[Taken from Discourse of Shri Datta Swami] Human beings generally blind to the realization of truth, concentrate only on worldly education and are completely neglecting spiritual knowledge. Such people may not do sins but they do not understand that such actions will result in their useless future births of birds and animals. Such births are also considered as another form of hell on earth.

The human birth is a chance of getting a huge profit. A birth as an animal or bird is neither profit nor loss. The neutral state is relatively minus with respect to the plus. Therefore, such a neutral birth is also considered as hell with respect to the state of salvation. This neutral state generally tends to minus. People first think of earning their livelihood for themselves and their families.

Up to this stage there is no problem because God arranges for the basic needs for every living being in this world. But after sometime, since the concept of God is not realized through spiritual knowledge, these people extend their desires for more and more facilities (Bhoga). Then they start earning wealth by doing sins.

Even after attaining the highest facilities, their earning through sin does not stop because they become addicted to the process of earning. A drunkard cannot stop drinking after sometime. Such people are thrown into permanent hell. Such work, which started off as earning one’s livelihood but got extended to earning endlessly for pleasure and luxury through sinful means, is called as Vikarma.

Generally every body works to maintain his family. In the name of maintenance, several luxuries are introduced, which look like essential needs and thus there is no end for your work to earn the money for the sake of your body and your family. Your blindness increases and you will be putting more and more efforts to work and earn money for the sake of the family bonds. In such a case you can never even see the human form of God.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad