Dattam Chinnam: Cutting of worldy bonds

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [Taken from Discourses of Shri Datta Swami] Datta (God in human form) is not cutting your worldly bonds. Due to your attachment to Datta, the worldly bonds are dropped as subsequent consequences. There is no effort in the destruction of worldly bonds. When you are tasting some better drink, the coffee is naturally dropped. Such natural drop is the real detachment. The detachment should be natural without any effort. If the detachment is with effort, you are pained. Now, when you are detached from the world spontaneously without effort you are not pained, but others are pained seeing you. In the minds of others, you are thought to be the looser. Therefore, Datta is thought to be the trouble giver in the minds of others and not in your mind. When you drop the coffee by drinking the divine nectar, others think that the divine nectar is cutting your bond with the coffee and thus the divine nectar is the trouble shooter. But, the divine nectar is not the trouble shooter in your view. Thus, Datta is the trouble shooter in the view of the public but not in the view of the devotee.

Thus, the saying that ‘Dattam chinnam’, which means that Datta cuts the worldly bonds and gives the problems is valid in the view of the ignorant public only and not in the view of the devoted spiritual aspirant. The very word Krishna means the process of rubbing or grinding or cutting the worldly bonds. The bonds of Gopikas were cut by Krishna and Gopikas were losers in the view of the villagers of Brundavanam. Gopikas lost the butter and were losers in the view of the public. But, in the view of Gopikas, who were the ancient sages, they were the top most gainers. Therefore, the concept depends on the angle of the view.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Idol Worship

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [Taken from Discourses of Shri Datta Swami] The statue or photo is the inert object. The form carved in a stone or painted on a paper is also an imaginary form and not even a direct photo. The statues and photos are only models representing the concept, which is knowledge. The form of statues and photos is mainly human form, which represents the concept that the Lord always comes to this world in human form as said in Gita (Manusheem Tanu Masritam). Please remember that Gita did not tell that the Lord would come in any other form. The forms of fish, tortoise etc., were only temporarily to kill the demons and nobody worshipped such forms during their time. But Rama, Krishna etc were the human forms worshipped by several devotees like Hanuman and Gopikas. The Lord will come in every human generation; otherwise, He becomes partial to a particular generation. If necessary the Lord can come whenever there is necessity as said in Gita (Yedaa yedaahi).

Once this concept is realized, there is no need of temple and statue for you. You should go from school to college and then to university. This does not mean that when you leave the school, the school should be destroyed. The school must exist for the future batches. Therefore for you, the statue and the photo are not necessary and this does not mean that the statues, photos and temples should be broken. They should be protected and must be respected as the models of divine knowledge for the future ignorant devotees. Some devotees cannot accept the human form, which is before their eyes as said in Veda (Pratyaksha dvishah).

For such devotees the statues and photos are necessary for meditation since they are at the school level. The statues and photos are useful for the meditation of such limited minds as said in Sastra (Pratima svalpa buddhinam). Veda says that the Lord does not exist in the inert objects (Natasya pratima, Nedamtat), but says that the inert objects can stand as models representing the Lord (Adityam brahmeti). Therefore seeing and meditation upon the statues and photos are correct in the case of the ignorant devotees. But the other rituals like offering food, burning camphor, fume sticks, oil lamps and breaking coconuts, offering flowers etc. are not mentioned in Vedas and there are unnecessary and are causing the air pollution harming the humanity. All these unnecessary rituals should be avoided.

Offering food should also be done to the human form of the Lord only but not to the inert statues. Ijya or Yajna is cooking and offering of the food. Gita says that such Ijya should not be done to the inert objects. In the name of the statues, people are stealing the food and money. The statue and photo is not taking the food or Gurudakshina. The people behind the statue are taking those things and most of them are either cheating or wasting the money with ignorance. Whatever the Gurudakshina is given should go only to the priest and not the managing devotees. The business of the merchants by selling such materials in the temples should be stopped, because such materials are not even heard in Veda. Ofcourse, the priest should be a Satguru and preach the divine knowledge to the devotees and the devotees should give Gurudakshina to such Satguru only. Thus, the temple should become a center of learning selfless devotion and divine knowledge and the priest must do only ‘Jnana Yajna’ in the temple and not the ‘dravya yajna’ as said in the Gita (Sreyaan dravyamayat).

Gita condemned such Ijya before inert objects because such Ijya is only cheating and business. Such a devotee will be born as inert object (Bhutejya yanti). This business is connected to removal of the fruits of sins and getting the fruits of good deeds, which are not done. All this is false, because the theory of ‘karma’ says that one has to suffer for all his bad deeds and can never get the result of any good deed without doing it (Avasyamanubhoktavyam… kalpakotisatairapi). The spiritual path should be preached in the temple, which must be ‘nishkama karma yoga’ i.e., sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit (money) of the work to the Lord without aspiring any fruit in return. Remember, that only the Ijya is condemned and not the temples or statues, which are the models of the divine knowledge.

At the lotus feet of  Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Need for existence of GOD

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [7/1/2013] A devotee asked about the need of existence of God and about the cheating behaviour of the devotees of God. He also questioned about the miraculous power of God, which is not used to change the minds of present politicians.

Swami replied: Since the behaviour of devotees is bad, you need not negate the existence of God. If the son is wrong, you may say that the father is also wrong but you should not say that father does not exist. The existence of God need not be known from the scriptures. If the scripture alone is the authority for the existence of God, nobody will believe it since any imaginary story can be created by any book. The practical observations of nature revealed the existence of God and scripture is only a record of the conclusions of debates of scientists, who observed the nature and events of life. When the nature was observed, the biggest surprise was about the infiniteness of space without the boundary wall of the universe. This is a practical enquiry raising anxiety in the minds of the observers of the nature, who are called as scientists. After several debates, the conclusion was that the boundary of the universe is unimaginable since the space is infinite. An international conference on the diameter of the universe was held in which several theories were proposed and the essence of all the theories was only that the universe is infinite on all sides. Some proposed constant expansion of the universe, which also does not give the correct idea of the unimaginable boundary of the space. One scientist asked that even if the boundary wall of the universe is found by travelling 200 billion light years, which is the supposed diameter of the universe, what should be present after the boundary wall? About 200 research papers were presented and the final conclusion was only that the universe is infinite and its boundary wall is unimaginable. This unimaginable boundary of the universe is called as God. 

The unimaginable boundary of the universe must not contain any space and should not have spatial dimensions. Then only it becomes unimaginable. Any entity having even very very small spatial dimensions can be imaginable. If the boundary is imaginable, you are still continuing in the imaginable phase of universe only and the boundary should not be reached. If the boundary has no spatial dimensions, it should be the generator of the space. The reason is that space cannot exist in its generator before its generation. This point again mutually proves that the boundary is the generator of space. Therefore, the existence of unimaginable boundary called as unimaginable God is not mere imagination of some scriptures. It is the conclusion of most practical observations of the infinite space or universe. Added to this concept, sometimes some unimaginable events called as miracles are observed in the life, which cannot be rejected as magic. Whether the miracles, which are unimaginable events, are believed or not, the unimaginable boundary of the universe cannot be rejected at any cost. Therefore, the boundary of the universe is not only unimaginable, but also happens to be the generator of space or universe. Therefore, the concept of God is the result of deep scientific analysis of practical observation of nature only.

The devotees may be wrong. But you should think that how much wrong will be the devotee in absence of faith in God, which results in fear for sin that is punishable in terrible hell. You must have the relative imagination and be satisfied with the relatively controlled cheating of the devotees due to faith in God. God never does any miracle to remove the bad behaviour of human beings. The realisation should come in the minds of the people, which alone results in permanent transformation and for this purpose God comes down again and again in human form to preach the divine spiritual knowledge for the sake of such transformation. Such transformation alone is real for which God is always trying through human incarnations. You must appreciate that the concept of God develops fear for sin and brings the inbuilt resistance to crime in every heart of the individual. The concept of God also brings confidence and patience in your heart avoiding the depression of mind due to the victory of injustice. Otherwise, the patience is not developed, which leads to the birth of terrible concepts like terrorism that bring chaos in the society. You must appreciate the concept of God from the scientific analysis of nature and its tremendous benefits in the administration of the balance of individuals and social balance at large. If you throw away the concept of God treating it as theoretical imagination, the society would have been blasted by now in to pieces.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Recent Delhi Rape incident, Manu Dharma and spiritual knowledge

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [04-01-2013] Today, the forcible rape of a girl or a woman is the burning issue for which the death penalty is vehemently suggested by the public. Remember, in ancient India the ethical scriptures suggested the death punishment for the illegal contact. The scriptures say that any illegal contact, be it a forcible rape or be it a mutually consented illegal contact, should be punished with death only. In any case, only the sinner is punished and thus in the case of rape the male criminal is only punished, where as in the case of mutual consent both male and female are punished. The scripture says that a red hot metallic statue of the illegal lady is forcibly embraced by the male criminal so that death is given to him. Similar punishment is given to the lady also. The criminal may escape the punishment here by some intellectual ways or bribing the anti corruption agency in this world. But, the criminal cannot escape the punishment given by the omniscient God, as this point is emphasised by mention of the description of the sin and its direct link to the punishment given in the upper world. It only means that even if you escape the sin here, its punishment in the upper world is inevitable. Hence, this should not be twisted by saying that every sin will be punished in the upper world only and not here. Thus, Garuda Puranam, an ethical scripture describes all type of sins and the linked punishments in the upper world. If you say that rape alone should be punished with death, it means that the enjoyment in illegal contact is allowed since there is no force from any side. Rape is not a specific sin, but it is a part of a category of sins, which is called as illegal contact. Both rape with force and secret contact without force is included in the same category of illegal contact only and the same punishment is given to both the cases.

The main basic point here is that the present controlling systems like police, courts etc are ineffective due to two reasons. 1) The sinner is investigating various ways to escape the sin here so that the sinner can enjoy the fruit of the sin since there is no fear about non-existent God and non-existent hell. 2) Based on the above reason the controlling agencies are also becoming corrupt. Therefore, unless the root of the sin is eradicated or controlled, there will not be permanent remedy. What is the use of searching for the best among the ineffective methods to control a specific crime called as rape? If you can implement the single effective method, which can control all types of sins, the problem is solved forever. The nature of crime is the basic substance present in all the sins. The reason for the criminal nature is only that one can do the sin here and enjoy it provided the sinner can escape the punishment enforced here by controlling agencies like police, courts etc. Due to this basic concept, every sinner is doing intensive research to find out the way to escape the sin here. This point becomes very strong when it is believed that the God and hell are non-existent. It becomes quite logical for anybody to enjoy the fruit of the sin especially when there is no fear for hell and God. Everybody is logically convinced for doing any sin provided there is a way to escape its punishment here since nothing happens if once you escape the sin here. Really, it becomes foolish if you don’t enjoy the fruit of the sin in case nothing happens later on, if one escapes the sin here. The atheists argue that they are against the sin for the sake of balance of the society and not due to fear for God. This is only theoretical hypocrisy. When the fruit of the sin is attracting you for enjoyment, especially in the absence of any future danger, which fool is not attracted to do the sin? In such case, every sinner thinks that his individual sin may not effect the balance of the huge society. It is just like thinking that if you pour one tumbler of water in the tank in which everybody is expected to pour one tumbler of milk each. The total danger is that everybody thinks in the same way and pours a tumbler of water only! Therefore, there is no use in searching the best suitable among the ineffective punishments for a specific sin called rape. Instead, it is better to bring out the only effective method, which can control all types of sins in one instance. Such wonderful effective method is to develop the inbuilt control of every sin in the mind of every human being. What is that single effective method? That single effective method is patronising and propagation of spiritual knowledge in the humanity by which the faith in God and fear for sin result. Such preaching of spiritual knowledge should be linked with the education from the childhood and should be also propagated as informal system of preaching the spiritual knowledge to illiterate human beings also. When the resistance to sin is built in the heart of every human being, the society achieves perfection in self control avoiding the need of any controlling system. It is with this tremendous deep in sight, in ancient India, kings spent huge funds in propagating the spiritual knowledge in temples etc. The modern foolish government thinks that the ancient kings were foolish in spending so much on the useless theoretical spiritual knowledge. This shows the lack of deep foresight of the result of such spiritual education, which helps the government itself in maintaining the peaceful balance in the society, which helps its smooth administration.

The ethical scripture (Dharma Shastra) does not differentiate the illegal union by force (rape) and illegal union by mutual consent and provides the same punishment to both the cases because the real sin in both is the illegal union. The women should not only protest against the first type of sin but also equally protest against her mind to do the second type of sin also. Really, the men attempting rape are beasts because such nature is seen in the beasts only. But, the women should also examine their contribution to such type of sin by exposing their bodies with half covered dress especially in streets. The women should not blindly argue that she can wear any dress of her liking without observing its provoking effect on the men. The Hinduism insists on covering the whole body of the lady with a big piece of cloth called as ‘Avagunthanam’. The Islam also follows the same tradition. Even in Christianity, you find such custom adopted by the bride in her marriage, who is fully decorated and the exposure of the special beauty of the bride to public may lead to problems. Women should understand all this with positive spirit of co-operation so that a rectified pure system prevails over in the society. The woman is physically weak as per the nature of the constitution of the body and hence, should go outside associated with the male escort. The woman from her childhood is always associated with some gold jewels to which thieves may be attracted and sometimes the woman may have danger to her life in the hands of thieves. Therefore, Manu told that woman shall not have independence. Here the word ‘independence’ should not be taken in wrong sense that she should be under harsh control. The word ‘independence’ means that she should not move outside independently without the male escort especially in the nights. The male escort in the childhood shall be father, in the youth shall be the husband and in old age shall be the son (Baalye pitruvashaa kanyaa.... Manu Smruti). In old age, even though husband is alive, he will also be old and hence, the young son should be the escort. The word ‘control’ in this verse means only escort and not harsh suppression. If it means harsh suppression, the meaning fails in the case of son because son should be in the control of mother and not vice-versa. The same word ‘control’ is used in other two cases also. Hence, to maintain the same sense everywhere, the word ‘control’ cannot be harsh suppression in any case. Moreover, Manu says that women should be worshipped like the Divine Mother or Devi and then only gods are pleased (Yatra naaryastu pujyante...). Hence, the word ‘control’ never means harsh suppression, but only means the escort.

The man should not imitate Lord Krishna, who played romance with Gopikas in the Brindavanam. If you are also the Lord, lift a mountain on your finger as done by Him to prove your Lordship and then play the romance in the society. You should not bring the case of God (Nivrutti) into the system of rules and regulations of humanity (Pravrutti) to spoil the balance in the society. God always preaches Pravrutti and gives top most importance to Pravrutti only. Let the students learn (Nivrutti) or not, atleast the class room should be atleast basically silent and disciplined (Pravrutti). God preached Pravrutti only in Bible and Q’ran. Even in Gita, God says that He will come down again and again to establish justice (Pravrutti) in this world (Dharma Samsthaapanaarthaaya... Gita). God never told in Gita that He will come down to preach Nivrutti or salvation. If you are following the rules of God in Pravrutti, God will be pleased with you and will preach Nivrutti to you. First, the class room should be disciplined with perfect silence before the actual teaching of the lesson is started.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Only One God

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! [Part of message delivered at world parliament on spirituality, 19-12-2012] The Veda says that God is unimaginable—beyond words, mind, intelligence and even imagination (Yato vacho…, Manasaa saha…, Yobuddheh paratah…, Atarkyah…). If God is thought to be imaginable, then due to the multiplicity in imaginable items, people consider different imaginable items such as light, sun, space etc. to be God, since each person is fascinated by different imaginable items. This leads to different philosophies and religions, resulting in quarrels, disturbance of world peace and sometimes even terrorism. There cannot be two ‘unimaginables’ since you cannot differentiate one ‘unimaginable’ from the other. The unimaginable entity must be only ONE. Hence, the unimaginable God must be only ONE. Moreover, there can be oneness only in the case of the unimaginable. Once an item is imaginable, it can be differentiated from another imaginable item in this world and this results in multiplicity. Every religion says that their God alone created this earth and humanity on it. But unfortunately, there is only one earth and hence, there must be only one God, who is the Father of this entire humanity!

The Human Incarnation of God
Since creation is imaginable, all these human beings are only imaginable items and they cannot even imagine God. Hence, the unimaginable God expresses Himself through an imaginable medium for the sake of humanity to give right spiritual knowledge, which gives right direction in the spiritual journey of a human being. This is the primary aim of God in descending on this earth as a human incarnation. For this purpose, the best and the most convenient medium is the human form alone; not inert objects. Hence, God will never enter into inert objects as per the Veda (Na tasya pratimaa…). Of course, any inert object can be treated as a representative model of God for the sake of developing personal theoretical devotion to God. But direct practical service to God is not possible, through such inert objects. Direct practical service to God is possible only in the case of the living human incarnation of God. Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Mohammad etc., are such human incarnations. God comes in human form in every generation. Sometimes, He even comes simultaneously in different countries. Thus, God is not partial only to one human generation without any reason. Otherwise, you cannot justify the partiality of God simply by saying that only one specific generation contained all the good people, who deserved God’s presence. In fact, every generation contains both good and bad people.

Buddha’s silence about God should not be misunderstood to be the negation of God like some of His followers did. His silence means that God is beyond words, since God is unimaginable. Mohammad, Himself being a human incarnation of God, did not accept the concept of human incarnation since His preceding human incarnation, Jesus, was crucified by His fellow human beings, who suffered from excessive ego and jealousy towards other human beings. A training of “Service to humanity is service to God” is essential for human beings to remove their jealousy towards other human beings. This helps human beings to recognize the contemporary human incarnation and do direct practical service to God. This meeting with the living human incarnation is called as yoga. It means a very fortunate union. The word yoga comes from Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ meaning union. Of course, for service, good physical and mental health is needed, but unfortunately today, yoga is confined only to health exercises.

The knowledge (jnana), which was preached by Shankara, leads to the devotion (Bhakti), which was preached by Ramanuja, and this devotion finally results in the practical service (karma), which was preached by Madhva. Knowledge and devotion are theoretical like water and manure. Practical service is like the plant yielding the actual fruit. Therefore, practical service alone yields the fruit. That is why these three preachers came one after other in this sequence.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad