Angels, Human beings and demons

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [March 19, 2013] There are three types of souls. The first type belongs to Angels made of Sattvam or complete Knowledge. Ramanuja, incarnation of Sesha angel and Madhva, incarnation of Vayu angel belong to this category. The second type belongs to human beings made of ‘Rajas’ containing partial knowledge and partial ignorance. Arjuna belongs to this. The third type belongs to devils made of Tamas, containing full ignorance. Devils like Ravana, Ekalavya etc., belong to this. Let us analyze Arjuna and Ekalavya being contemporary souls.

Arjuna worshipped Drona, the alive human form directly. Ekalavya worshipped the statue of Drona as the representative model. Of course, both learnt the worldly branch of education related to war (Pravrutti). Here, there is no context of spiritual knowledge (Nivrutti). Even then, we can learn that Arjuna through direct worship (Saakshaat Upaasanam) succeeded than Ekalavya, who worshipped through model-representation (Pratika Upaasanam). Later on, Arjuna has to fight against Drona and Ekalavya fought on the side of Drona. Here Arjuna came on the side of Lord Krishna and hence, he shifted from the direct worship of the preacher (Guru) to the direct worship of God-cum-Preacher (Satguru). This difference made Arjuna to succeed and Ekalavya to get defeated. All this is the field of worldly affairs (Pravrutti) only and it can be concluded that in Pravrutti and Nivrutti:
1) The direct worship is better than the indirect worship and
2) The God-cum-Preacher is far superior to an ordinary Preacher.

Arjuna did not completely surrender to Lord Krishna in Pravrutti or Nivrutti. He followed the order of Krishna in the Kurukshethra war, whereas Arjuna fought against Krishna in protecting Gaya. Even in Nivrutti, Arjuna showed this mixed behavior. He showed his ignorance about Krishna as God while questioning Krishna about His preaching to the Sun in the beginning of the creation. At the same time, he praised Lord Krishna as God during the context of cosmic vision. He worshipped the representative model of Lord Shiva (Shivalingam) for the sake of victory in the war while the same God exists before him in alive human form as Krishna. At the same time, he surrendered to Krishna treating Him as God at the end of the preaching of the Gita. This mixed behavior of Arjuna represents the partial knowledge and partial ignorance of human being. The human beings sometimes recognize the contemporary human incarnation and totally surrender. But, sometimes, they neglect the same human incarnation due to ego and jealousy especially in the case of constant association. Ravana was a devil and never recognized Rama, the contemporary human incarnation. He worshipped Lord Shiva through indirect worship but neglected the same Lord on seeing directly by showing desire towards the wife of the Lord. Ekalavya also did not recognize Krishna as the contemporary human incarnation and fought against Him. Both Ravana and Ekalavya were always indulged in the indirect worship only, since ego and jealousy predominate quickly in the case of direct worship as hurdles. If you see the case of angels having full knowledge, Ramanuja and Madhva never showed any negligence to their preachers or even to the devotees. Hanuman and Radha worshipped their contemporary human incarnations only.

The Gita also classified these three categories as ‘Ishtam’ representing angels, ‘Mishram’ representing the human beings and ‘Anishtam’ representing the demons. It is also said in the Gita that angels are elevated to the upper plane, the human beings stand in the middle plane and the demons fall to the lower planes. The angels and demons are present in the human beings only. The human beings having predomination of Sattvam are angels and the human beings having predomination of Tamas are demons. The angels never err. The human beings err but realize and rectify. The demons always err and never realize due to ego. The animals also err but are incapable of realization. Therefore, God excuses the realized human beings and the animals, which can never realize. But, God will never excuse the demons, who are capable of realization, but never realize due to ego.

At the lotus feet of Swami

-Prasad

Is confession enough to cancel sin?

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [February 18, 2012 A devotee asked “You told that the money earned through sin like corruption etc., should be returned to God. What about the hard earned money?”]

Swami replied: There is no compulsion that you should give the hard earned money to God. The rule that you should return the money to God applies only to the sinful money. If you return the sinful money to God, the punishment for the sin gets cancelled. Punishment is the fruit of your wrong action, called as sin. The money earned by sin also is the fruit of the sin. Money is one fruit and punishment is another fruit. Both these fruits are inherently linked with each other. Therefore, if one fruit is sacrificed the other fruit also leaves you. But, there is one condition that you should repent and should not repeat the same sin. The punishment of the sin gets cancelled in two ways.

One way is to rectify the sin if there is possibility of rectification and repent followed by no repetition of the sin. The other way is to repent for the sin and not to repeat it again in case there is no possibility of rectification of the past sin. In both ways, repentance and not repeating are essential. If there is possibility of rectification, the punishment of the sin cannot be totally cancelled by mere repentance and not repeating. If you keep the sinful money, you should return it to God. If the sinful money is lost, mere repentance and not repeating are sufficient. Ravana killed Jatayu, the bird. He cannot give life to Jatayu. Rectification of the sin is impossible. If he repents for the sin and does not kill any living being after this, the punishment for killing Jatayu gets cancelled. Ravana stole Sita. He can return Sita to Rama. This is the sin with the possibility of rectification. After returning Sita, he should repent and should not steal any lady again. By this, the punishment of this sin gets cancelled. Some people repent and do not repeat the sin without rectification even though the possibility of rectification exists. Such repentance and no repetition become useless to some extent. If you do not repeat the sin after repentance, the punishment is partially reduced. Some people go on repenting but repeat the sin again and again. They think that the confession and repentance cancel the sin. It is totally false. Rectification of the sin if there is possibility, confession and repentance and not repeating the sin will totally cancel the sin and its punishment. Mere confession and repentance are theoretical and have no value. They should reflect in practice. Even if you don’t rectify the past sin, at least not repeat the sin in the future, will partially reduce your sin and punishment. Without the practical aspect, there is no trace of concession.

Regarding the hard earned money also, you can sacrifice to God not by rule but by love. In fact, you should sacrifice to God here also as per rule. If you sacrifice your hard earned money to your family members, who serve you, how much service is rendered by God to you? You cannot even imagine. However, you will not get any punishment for not donating to God from your hard earned money. If you give your hard earned money to your family members, you will be rewarded with the temporary heaven. If you follow the rules of pravrutti, temporary heaven is the fruit. But, if you donate to God from your hard earned money, the grace of God on you shall be the fruit, which is permanent. Therefore, at least you should partially donate to God from your hard earned money to get some grace of God. Kannappa earned the food by hunting, which was not given to his family members and even he did not eat it in spite of intensive hunger. He donated all the hard earned food to God and attained the permanent grace of God. In fact, God does not need anything from you except to test your love to Him. Even though God is also your first family member, avoiding God in practice in the case of donation of hard earned money, you will not acquire any sin. If you do not give your hard earned money to your family members, who serve you with love and affection, it is a sin. But, this is a sin with respect to the human beings in this world, which is pravrutti. If you bring the case of God, even according to the rules of pravrutti, God stands in the first place. Instead of giving your hard earned money to ungrateful outsiders, who often cheat you, you should give to your family members. If you do not give to your family members, it is a sin with respect to the other human beings and not with respect to God. Once the case of God is involved, nivrutti appears and all the pravrutti disappears. You should vote to your family and not to the outsiders. But, you should vote to God and not even to your family. The first is called as pravrutti and the second is called as nivrutti. If you violate pravrutti, you will earn sin. If you violate nivrutti, you will not earn any sin but will lose the eternal fruit.

At the lotus feet of Swami

-Prasad

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

What is real Sanyasa?

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,[April 18, 2010] Sage Parashara banned the Sanyasa (leaving the family wearing saffron cloth) in this Kali Yuga, since the mentalities of all the people is changed. The saint is cheating the public after teaching the spiritual knowledge. The public is also very much interested to investigate the real color of a false saint than to hear the spiritual knowledge. The devotee approaches the saint after hearing one speech, addressing him as God. The devotee does not stand on this opinion for a long time and changes very shortly. The devotee should take long time to observe the saint through analysis before addressing as God (Swami ji). Therefore, the standards are not maintained on both sides and hence the sage banned the saffron cloth.

    Sanyasa means both attachment and detachment. It means both attachment to God and detachment from the world. The internal attachment to God is important, which is indirectly measured by the external detachment from the world.  You are not eating the food since you are engaged deeply in your studies. Your absorption in your studies is indicated by your fast. But, you may fast even if your stomach is suffering with some problem. You may also fast due to absorption in reading a novel. Therefore, your fast cannot exactly specify your studies. The fast can indicate various reasons. Arjuna wanted to leave the battle due to blind love on his grandfather and not due to detachment from kingdom. Therefore, Krishna advised him to fight the battle because his mind was not attached to God resulting in detachment from kingdom. In these days, the detachment of several saints is due to several reasons and cannot be attributed to real absorption in God. There is nothing wrong in marrying a girl for the sake of association, which helps in several aspects. If your wife is also spiritual interested and if you are engaged in thinking about God with the help of discussions with your wife, such a married life is real sanyasa. In sanyasa also, you have to be in association with several devotees to discuss about God. If you are wearing saffron cloth to achieve money, fame etc., such a state is worse than the state of householder. If you are engaged in worldly affairs always through the discussions with your wife, you will be born again and again in this world only and this is the normal middle level. Therefore, turning your family into devotees is the first step in the spiritual path. If your wife and children become devotees to God and participate in spiritual debates with you, you will reach the goal of a true saint.

    The main duty of a saint is to propagate the spiritual knowledge in this world and for this purpose sanyasa is taken. In olden days, the person has to travel by feet from one place to the other and therefore the family-life became inconvenient to take up such long tedious journey. Today there is no such need because you can travel to far places within very short time. You can convey your arguments through computer and receive the counter arguments from the other people through the same computer within no time. Such facilities made the propagation of knowledge very easy task and hence today there is no need of leaving the family for the sake of propagation of knowledge. Even from this angle also, you can be a saint in doing the duties of a saint while remaining with your family. You need not leave the family in physical sense. When God competes with your family to test your devotion, you can prove your real attachment to God and subsequent detachment from the family. Sanyasa means internal attachment to God and internal detachment from the world including your family, which can be proved externally in the time of test. Saktuprasta was a householder and passed the test of God. He reached the abode of God (Brahmaloka) along with his family and such fortune was not seen even in the case of several saints. All his family members were strong devotees to God and co-operated with him to succeed in the divine test. It is always better to become a householder and mould the family to the spiritual side. Then you will get the advantages from all sides. Doubting your ability to mould the family, if you avoid marriage, it is just like burning the house for the fear of rats. God Brahma told Narada that Krishna was the real sanyasin. Krishna was always fond of ladies and Narada was surprised about this statement. You can see the true color of Krishna, who watched the mutual assassination of all his family members without any interference. He was after Gopikas only to test the attachment to their families. Gopikas recognized Him as God and this point is revealed in their songs (Gopika Geetha) in Bhagavatam. Hence, God competed with their family bonds and those who failed in test complained to His mother with anger. Gopikas were sages in the previous life and all those lives were the study time of the academic year. The present life of Gopikas was just the time of three hour examination. Even in the past lives of sages, they were householders only and developed in association with their wives and children. In no life they were sanyasins leaving the family life. As sages their family members co-operated with them in spiritual development. But, during the time of examination, their family members opposed them because examination needs such environment. You can be tested only in the opposing circumstances.

     You need not approach only a saint for the spiritual knowledge. Krishna gave Bhagavat Gita, which is the top most spiritual knowledge and Krishna was a householder only and not a saint. Shankara was a saint and wrote commentary on Gita told by a householder! Shankara avoided the family because there were no facilities in those days in taking long travels for the propagation of spiritual knowledge. In your old age, you can limit yourself to the association of your wife only, so that both of you can participate in spiritual discussions due to old age of both of you. If you stay with your children, you will be associated with their worldly problems. This state is called as Vanaprastha. Today, people are avoiding the children due to the probable quarrel between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law or lack of freedom with the son-in-law! The old couple stays separately and thinks always about the worldly problems only. If the old wife is not co-operating with you spiritually due to her worldly attachment, you can leave her with the children and live in association with true devotees and this is the state of sanyasa. This state can happen if your old wife, who was a spiritual friend, passes away before you. This is called as Krama Mukti, which is the gradual sequential order of the life. In the present time, there is no need of leaving the family in the beginning itself like Shankara. If you cannot change your family into spiritual path, you are not competent to change the society into spiritual side. In spite of your trails to change your family in to spiritual side and if you feel the hindrance of your family in your spiritual development, you can still lead the married life taking its advantages and spend more time in association with true devotees than in the house. Of course, in extreme case of serious hindrance from your family, you can think of sanyasa as an exceptional extreme step and generally this does not happen unless it is a divine test.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

Why God is After Money?

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,[May 19, 2006] People say that God is in money. It is correct because money is Goddess Lakshmi. Lord Narayana is always in her heart. Money is also in the heart of God because Goddess Lakshmi is in His heart. Whatever is in the heart of Lord, the same came out in His word which is the Veda. The Veda says that sacrifice of money alone can please the Lord (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). The Lord came down in human form as Lord Krishna who also told the same point with the highest intensity. The Gita, the word of Lord Krishna, says that one should sacrifice the entire money possessed by one, to please the Lord (Sarva karmaphala tyagam). Jesus told a rich man to sacrifice all the wealth possessed by him. Lord Vishnu said the same in the Vishnu Puranam “Yasyaanugrahamichchami Tasya Vittam Haraamyaham”, which means that the Lord is pleased by taking away money from the devotee. The Lord is the Sadguru and one point is appreciable with Him. That is, whatever is in His heart He speaks it out. The present gurus aspire for money in the heart but speak against money in in their words. It is said that great people think, speak and do the same thing (Karmanyekam, vachasyekam, manasyekam mahaatmanaam). Whatever the Lord told, was also done by Him. The Lord came as a guest to Shaktuprastha and took all the flour from him for eating. This was when Shaktuprastha was about to eat the same, since he was suffering from starvation for the last ten days due to a drought.

Sage Vashistha asked Rama to submit Guru Dakshina (money) before preaching Jnana Vaashistham (Dhanamarjaya kakutstha) to Him. A sacrifice is useless if Dakshina is not offered (Adakshina hato yajnaha). All rituals involve the sacrifice of food and Dakshina (money). Sai Baba used to ask for Dakshina everytime [people visited Him]. Yoga Vaashistham says that money is the root of the world (dhanamoolamidam jagat). Shri Yantram [Shri Chakra] which is based on Shri (money) speaks about the importance of money. Everybody should frankly accept that everything is revolving around money. If money is not there, all the family members will leave you. Even the body leaves the soul if food (which is a form of money) is not provided. The proof of real love is only the sacrifice of hard earned money. Your real love is only for your children because all the wealth is given to them alone finally. Therefore if you say that you have real love for God, God will catch your money and will ask you to give it to Him. Your real colour will then come out. Therefore sacrifice of the fruit of work (money) is the real proof of devotion as praised in the Gita.

What is the difference between the Lord and ordinary human beings if money is only the criterion? No doubt, money is the criterion because real love is tested only by the sacrifice of money. But there is a difference between the account of God and the account of human beings. If you go to a [railway] booking clerk, he will give you a ticket for a 100 miles-distance by charging Rs. 100 and he will not ask you about the money left over in your pocket after paying the hundred rupees. He will give you a ticket for ten miles if you pay Rs. 10 and will not ask about the balance in your pocket. This is the account of human beings. But if the Lord sits in the same ticket booking window, His account is totally different. Suppose you have asked for a 100 miles-ticket. He will not tell you the fare of the ticket. He will ask you about the total amount present in your pocket. If you have only Rs 10 and pay Him all the ten rupees, He will give you a 100 mile-ticket. Suppose you have Rs. 1000 in your pocket and give Him Rs. 100, He will give you only a ten mile-ticket because you have paid 1/10th of the total money present in your pocket. This is the difference between human beings and God. God sees the extent of sacrifice but not the extent of sacrificed item.

Dharmaraja performed the Ashwamedha-sacrifice and donated a lot of wealth to the sages. Let us assume the worth of his entire wealth as 7 crores [1 crore = 10 million] in view of the value of rupee at that time. He donated wealth worth 3 crores. The Lord gave him the ticket only up to the third world which is called heaven or Swarga Loka. The Swargarohana Parva [chapter] of Mahabharatam says that Dharmaraja went only up to heaven. The top most Brahma Loka is the seventh world from earth. Therefore we would expect that the cost of the ticket for Brahma Loka is Rs 7 crores according to the account of human beings, since Brahma Loka is the seventh world from the earth. But when the Lord came in disguise of a poor hungry Brahmin to Shaktuprastha, he offered the Lord a flour-meal which was only worth of 7 rupees. According to the above account of human beings, the Lord can give a ticket for only 7 miles on earth. But the Lord gave him the ticket to Brahma Loka for the Rs. 7! Shaktuprastha sacrificed everything and nothing was left over with him [after donating the flour worth Rs. 7]. This happened to be the total sacrifice of the fruit of work which is Sarva karmaphala tyaga as mentioned in the Gita.

Shankara went to the house of a poor householder. They gave a little food from their quantum of food that was prepared at that time. He gave blessings to them. Then Shankara went to another house of a poor lady. She searched the whole house and all she found was a small dry fruit. She immediately offered that to Shankara. Other than that fruit there was nothing to eat in the house. She could have kept that for herself or her family to pacify at least a trace of their hunger. Such sacrifice is Sarva karmaphala tyaga stated in the Gita. All these donors sacrificed without expecting anything in return from the Lord and hence, the sacrifice of all these people is very pure. But the sacrifice of Shaktuprastha and that lady was not only pure but also a total sacrifice as mentioned in the Gita. Shankara recited a prayer spontaneously called as Kanaka Dhara and gold was rained in her house immediately.

Similar was the sacrifice of Sudama to whom the Lord gave immense wealth. Sudama gave a handful of parched rice to the Lord even though his family was suffering with hunger for several days. The same Sudama in childhood had stolen a handful parched rice, which was the share of the Lord and hence was hit by poverty. This shows that enjoying the wealth of others, especially the wealth of the Lord, by cheating like corruption or a business-minded attitude, will lead to severe punishment. Therefore sacrifice should be without aspiring for anything and also should be total to please the Lord. For the same reason, Jesus praised the sacrifice of one rupee of a widow, as the greatest among all the other heavy donations from rich people.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad

1st World Parliament on Spirituality: details

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
1st world parliament on Spirituality  is being held in Hyderabad during 17-21, Dec 2012. Shri Datta Swami is delivering talks on Universal spirituality and the contemporary Human incarnation of God in this parliament as per following schedule:
1) 19 Dec, 2012: During 10.00-11.30: Hall-1
2) 21 Dec, 2012: During 10.00-11.00: Hall-3

For more details visit the webpage: http://www.wpsconnect.org/home.php

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad