Discourses 101 To 150

Discourses 101 – 150 101. I asked a spiritual preacher to show me Sadguru. The preacher smiled and kept silent. What is the meaning of that smile? Recognizing the Sadguru is the essence of the whole spiritual effort. In the chemistry practical exam, you are given a salt for analysis. If you ask examiner for the name of the salt, he will just smile. Even if you get the name, you will not get marks for just writing the name unless the clear procedure is mentioned. Your knowledge of the procedure is important. If somebody gives the name of the Sadguru, you may follow Him for sometime. When the Sadguru tests your faith, you will run away from Him because your selection of the Sadguru is not based on your logical analysis, aided by scripture. Therefore the recognition of Sadguru by logical analysis is important because the logical analysis will clarify all your doubts and your faith in Him will be doubtless and firm. The knowledge of the Sadguru is always confined to your next higher level so that you can climb the next subsequent step. The knowledge of the ultimate level is not expressed by the Sadguru immediately till you complete the lower levels. Even a liberated soul assisting God (Sadguru) may serve your immediate requirement, but you have to constantly change the preacher as you rise to the higher levels. Sometimes there is a risk of meeting the preacher of lower level, who will drag you down. If you meet the Sadguru once in your life, it is sufficient, because He gives you the total knowledge analyzed in all angles. This total knowledge exists in the self qualitatively in complete sense. It may be defeated due to its lack of quantitative strength by the ignorance that is coming from several births due to its quantitative strength. But the qualitative concept of the total knowledge is never lost and in course of time it gains quantitative strength and you are sure to defeat the ignorance and reach the goal one day or other. This is the greatest fortune of meeting the Sadguru once in several millions of births (Bahunaam Janmanaamante…Gita). The human birth is rare. Interest to reach God is still rare. Meeting Sadguru is very very rare.(Mahapurusha Samshrayah…Shankara). At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 102. Why God keeps silent to somebody even after intensive cry? A diabetic patient cries before a doctor to get a sweet for eating. The doctor has infinite number of sweets and he does not worry at all for giving a sweet to the patient. You are crying before God, who is the divine father (creator of all the souls) to give some wealth or to solve some problem. If He helps you, there is not even a trace of any personal loss to Him. Neither His wealth nor His power is finite and nor His love to souls is limited. The only factor that guides Him is to see the future position after the help. If your eyes are to climb the roof of your head after the help, God will keep silent. After the help you

will fall down even from your present level and then you will cry again before the same God to lift you up. If the doctor gives you the sweet, the level of sugar may go up and the emergent treatment is also the responsibility of the same doctor. Hence the doctor will not give you the sweet. If the doctor is confident of your health, he may give the sweet. Sometimes the doctor gives the sweet and conducts the emergent treatment to show you the truth, if you are scolding the doctor to be unkind. The response of the doctor lies on his analysis of the situation and it is not the subject of the patient at all. You must have the faith in the doctor (God) that any response is for your good only and you must know that the patient is ignorant of his own real welfare. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 103. Why are people indulged in killing each other in the name of God? The original founders of the religions were the human incarnations of the same God like Krishna, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha etc. Every religion says that their God only created this entire earth or this entire humanity. Unfortunately, there is only one earth and this proves that there is only one God mentioned by all the religions. Since God is one and the same, there cannot be contradicting concepts between the religions. But we find some contradictions and people are divided based on these contradictions. This division is leading to quarrels and finally killing each other. These contradictions cannot be from God because there is only one God as said above. These contradictions were introduced into the religions by some misinterpretations of the followers only in the name of God. Hence the killing is also done in the name of God only. Q`ran says that you should protect even the follower of other religion and convey the message of Allah to him. It is left to him to follow or not. Hiranyakashipu worshiped Lord Shiva and his son Prahlada ( a great devotee) worshiped Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu killed Hiranyakashipu not because he is worshiping Lord Shiva but because he tortured Prahlada to change his religion of worshiping Vishnu. In fact Shiva is Vishnu (Shivashcha Naarayanah…Veda). The conclusion of this is that God will punish you if you torture the devotee of any religion obstructing the freedom of his religion. Prahlada did not force his father to worship Vishnu. The same God exists in different forms in different religions. Hinduism is a mini model of unity in diversity that should exist in the universe as universal spirituality. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 104. For what type of service to God I am suited for? Any soul suits to the type of the service of God in which it is having the spontaneous talent. You should serve God in any way you like spontaneously without any force or fear or ambition for any fruit in return. God is pleased with such spontaneous service only and the fruit of your service is in the same phase only (Ye yathamam… Gita). If your

spontaneous service is theoretical, the fruit is also theoretical. If you praise God, God will also praise you in return. He will grant you good voice and good language. If you show theoretical devotion through good emotions, He will grant you good mind. If you serve Him through knowledge, He will grant you good intelligence. If you serve Him practically, He will help you practically. If you do practical service with aspiration for some fruit in return, He will grant you the practical fruit, which is temporary like heaven. If you do practical service without aspiring any fruit in return like Hanuman, you will be granted the eternal practical fruit. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 105. During the propagation of God’s knowledge in the world, sometimes opposition comes up. How should we respond to this? Even God keeps silent to such opposition and therefore you need not bother about that issue. The teacher knows that a particular student will not pass even if he is taught. But the student will blame the teacher that he failed only because the teacher did not teach him. To avoid this unnecessary blame only, the teacher teaches all the students in the class. Similarly God likes to propagate His divine knowledge to the entire humanity so that no soul should blame Him in the final enquiry. You are serving God in the propagation of the divine knowledge so that no soul blames Him later on. Your responsibility ends with the propagation and in fact the responsibility of God also ends with that. The propagation of divine knowledge of Jesus is a failure if you limit the program to the span of His life only. It became tremendously successful if you consider the period extended to the present day. Therefore the failure and success cannot be decided by a short span of time. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 106. Vaishnavas say that Narayana alone should be worshipped and Shaivas say that Shiva alone should be worshipped. Is it correct? If this means that God alone should be worshipped and no concentration should be on the world, it is correct opinion of the original founder of any religion. But unfortunately, this statement is twisted by the followers to mean that you should not worship the form of God of other religion. The original statement recommends to you to hate the world so that your devotion to Narayana or Shiva is a single concentration or Eka Bhakati (Refer to Jesus in Bible, who says to hate the worldly bonds). Unable to do this, people twisted this statement to hate Shiva or Narayana, which is convenient. Hatred is inherent quality of the soul, but hatred to the worldly bonds is impossible. Now, the misinterpretation satisfies the souls to implement the inherent quality conveniently diverted to other item like Narayana or Shiva. The energetic form of upper world like Narayana or Shiva is made a scapegoat for hatred because there is no worldly item, which can be hated by all forever. If you cannot break the walls of rooms in your house to make it a big hall, how can you break the walls

between houses to make the biggest hall? If you cannot achieve the unity in diversity in the sub-religions of Hinduism, how can you achieve the Universal Spirituality in this world to achieve world peace? Narayana and Shiva are the energetic forms of God in the upper worlds meant for the departed souls existing in energetic bodies. For the souls existing in materialized bodies on this earth, God in human form is relevant. God enters the common medium of the souls for their convenience. Hanuman and Gopikas worshipped their contemporary human forms of God (Rama and Krishna). Are you wiser than Hanuman and Gopikas to worship the irrelevant energetic forms of God? You cannot deny this fact of history of scriptures and you cannot show a single instance where they left Rama and Krishna and worshipped Narayana. In fact, Veda says that Shiva and Narayana are the same one God (Shivashcha Narayanah.., Ekohavai Narayanah…., Eko Rudronadvitiyaya…. Veda). In fact, Narayana means the source of spiritual knowledge and Shiva means sacred. The contemporary human incarnation (Sadguru) is the source of spiritual knowledge and hence is Narayana (Naara= knowledge; Ayana= source). A Sadguru is associated with the three qualities (good Sattvam, bad Rajas and Tamas). But still He is beyond all these three qualities and is sacred and hence He is called as Shiva. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 107. Why I become angry in propagation of knowledge when someone opposes it? You need not become angry with the opponents who argue with you because the opponent approaches you by the will of God to open a new dimension through arguments. You must always thank the opponent in the name of God. Even if a person refused your knowledge and goes away due to injected rigid conservative tradition of blind elders, you should pity him since he is abandoned as a condemned soul forever. The doctor should pity on the patient whose disease could not be cured by his long intensive treatment. But, remember one point, if your knowledge contains absolute truth, it has entered his soul and will grind the ignorance of the soul like a rat drilling even a mountain. The drilling may be slow but the mountain is going to be powdered one day or other. That is the power of the truth. When all the ignorance of the soul is powdered, he cannot bare the rat anymore and will transfer the rat in to other souls. Hence, the truth has the tremendous power of propagation by virtue of itself. You are only taking the opportunity to serve the mission of God and get His grace on you by doing the propagation of this divine knowledge. Even without all of you, this divine knowledge of God will spread by itself. Monkeys ( who helped Lord Rama) were given opportunity to participate in the service of Lord for their divine benefit only. Even without the monkeys, the work of Rama could have been completed. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

108. Violence-Jesus-Krishna-Mohammad-Human Incarnation Q’ran says that a Muslim should protect even the enemy belonging to other religion. It says that a Muslim can speak about the preaching of Allah to the enemy and then leave the enemy in protected place. It never says that the religion should be spread by violence. It speaks about the war for justice, which is not the war for propagation of religion. For that matter, Gita arose only from the state of war, which was fought for establishing justice. Even Bible says that the rigid fools who do not realize should be thrown to the liquid fire, which is violence. Therefore, violence is not wrong. But the cause of violence should be perfectly justified. When Mohammad came, there were three hundred religions, which were quarelling among themselves with lot of violence. He tried His best by preaching the concept of one God. There was no alternative way to subside the violence between them. Actually after Jesus, the concept of human incarnation was fully realized but this concept was exploited by cheaters. Every fellow became a prophet and declared himself as the human incarnation. The followers started preaching that particular form is only the one God. You can imagine easily the situation at the time. When violence is justified, it is called as punishment given by God. If the violence is not justified, it becomes Chaos due to egoism of a demon, which can be subsided only by divine punishment. Actually at the end, Hinduism speaks about the incarnation of Kalki and Christianity speaks about the final punishment given by God. Both these situations are of terrible violence only. The last sort of God is only punishment, which can alone bring peace at least temporally for some time when the world is filled with brutal conservative fools, who are the wild beasts in the human form. The Lord says in Bible “Revenge is mine” which means the Lord punishes the unjust people. The Lord said in Gita that He will destroy the evil person (Vinasaya cha….). God is double-edged knife. Not only He protects the justice but also He punishes the injustice. A rich weak human being may protect the justice but may not be able to punish the injustice. A poor strong fellow may punish the injustice but not protect the justice by giving compensation. Thus, the human beings have limitations but the Lord is strong as well as rich and therefore is capable in both sides. This is the meaning when Jesus mentioned about the divine kingdom on the earth. He means that one may escape the king on this earth but can never escape God. When you are affected by injustice, pray for compensation only (“Ask that shall be given”-Bible) and not for the punishment of enemy. You will be compensated. When you do not pray for the punishment of enemy, you will see the punishment of your enemy soon from God. You may react to your enemy with equal or double force. But God will react with million times of force. Draupadi was pestering Krishna for the destruction of her enemies. The Lord fulfilled her wish but all her sons were killed by enemies and Lord did not protect them. Some times God punishes your enemy through your self. Arjuna killed the enemies, forced by the Lord. But Arjuna was not having the intention to kill the enemies and was against the war. Since he was forced by the Lord, he fought the war for justice.

When Muslims followed Mohammad in His war for unifying the religions, it was justified because there was clear divine instruction. Since Mohammad was the last divine preacher, now the war for justice need not be carried on because in the absence of divine preacher there is every possibility of misunderstanding of every situation as requirement for war of justice. Therefore, the instruction of Mohammad was limited to that time because He was capable of deciding the correct requirement for war for justice. Mohammad removed the concept of human incarnation because the effects of exploitation were severe in that time. Muslims should realize that human incarnation means that God entered in the human body and not that God modified as human body. Mohammad objected only modification of God in to human body. This is not condemning the concept of human incarnation. God only enters the human body and Mohammad himself was the human incarnation because God entered in to Mohammad and gave Q’ran. Gita clearly says that God entered the human body (Manusheem Tanu Asritam..) and that God is not modified in to human body(Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam…). Bible also says that God is in flesh and does not say that God has become flesh. Thus, there is no difference between three religions. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 109. How to control bad qualities It is foolish to think to get rid of the bad qualities completely. By spiritual efforts, you can control these bad qualities (Rajas and Tamas) to certain extent and this is also essential because uncontrolled bad qualities disturb the balance of the society. In such case God will punish them. Control is possible but complete eradication is impossible in the case of these bad qualities. Control is boasted as eradication. Therefore, after achieving the control by the detachment from the worldly bonds, these qualities remaining in the soul should be diverted towards the Lord. The Lord is pleased by the basic love existing in these qualities. The selfless love is like sweet milk and the bad quality is like a ceramic cup. The selfish love is like salt water and the good quality is like a golden cup. The milk is paid but not the golden cup. The sage Shuka says that if the devotion exists, the nature of the quality is not important at all. This was the answer given by the sage to Parikshit in this context (Jarabuddhyapi…., Kimutadhokshajapriyah…Bhagavatam). Here you must be very careful to understand that the already existing sin is diverted by the Lord and the Lord did not generate the sin. Wealth from waste means extraction of wealth from the existing waste. It does not mean that to extract wealth, waste must be created! Similarly, you can explain the non-vegetarian food of Jesus. People cannot be controlled to avoid the non-vegetarian food. It is already existing which is uncontrollable. Jesus tried to divert this at least towards the God. He advised that one should thank God for providing such nonvegetarian food instead of taking it directly. He showed the dry fish to God with gratefulness. Veda says that you should offer the flesh of the killed animal to God in the sacrifice (Yajna). This does not mean that Veda is asking you to kill the animal. Anyway

you are going to kill the animal to eat it and you cannot be controlled under any circumstances. In such case, Veda says that you should offer the flesh to God and eat it. Shankara says that the scripture is based on the existing nature of the human being and is not generating the same nature (Jnapakam Natu Karakam). Even if Krishna did not exist, such nature is existing in Kali Yuga. Even if Jesus did not exist, such non-vegetarian habit exists in the world. God comes through a medium having the same common qualities of human beings to be close with them. By such common qualities, the Lord encourages them also to have a straight path to God from their qualities without any change. If such encouragement is not given, the sinners will go deeply in the path of sins only, since the path to God is opposite to the sin (Apichet Sa Duracharah, Apichedasi Papebhyah, Sarva Dharman –Gita). At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 110. Bin Laden tried to kill Christians and Hindus in America You take a group of devotees having the common form of God like Krishna or Jesus. All of them get strongly united and all of them fear to harm any other devotee because their common God will punish them for the sin. A Christian will fear deeply to harm another Christian but will not care so much to harm a follower of other religion. The reason is that in harming another Christian, he is sure of the punishment from Jesus. But when he harms a person of other religion, he does not fear so much since he has no faith in that form of God of other religion. He believes only Jesus as the only absolute God. Bin Laden tried to kill Christians and Hindus in America because he believes in Allah only as the God. For this basic reason only he never attempted to kill people in any Muslim country. I am not referring to anyone particularly. This is a common disease of all the ignorant people present in any religion. Suppose Laden believed in the Universal Spirituality and realized that Jesus and Krishna are also other forms of the same Allah, will he do such crime to the people of other religions? This question applies not only to Laden but also applies to all fanatic Ladens present in all religions. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami 111. You have to live in this world according to the instructions of the Lord You have to live in this world according to the instructions of the Lord. Regarding your life in this world, the essence of His instruction is that, you should be ‘deceived’ by others and not deceive others, you should be ‘harmed by others but not harm anyone, you should not insult others, but you can be insulted by others, and you should be abused by others but not abuse others. One cannot attain God by doing penance even for centuries. But there is one easiest way to attain God. When you are deceived by others or when you are harmed by others or when you are

insulted by others or when you are abused by others, the Lord comes to your side. It means you have attained God. Therefore, you should thank the people who have deceived, or harmed or insulted or abused you. They have helped you in attaining God by the easiest way. Therefore you should not deceive or harm or insult or scold even such people in return. They might have passed on the punishment to you, for your sins on the will of God. In that case also, they have cleared your sins at an early stage without further interest on the punishment. Even in that way you should thank them. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 112. Sacrifice to Lord should be with Love Suppose you are giving milk to your child, are you not happy to give that? Are you weeping to give the milk to your child? Are you praying the Lord To give strength to sacrifice milk to your child? This means that the Lord Is not equal even to your child, you are sacrificing all the bonds for your child But you are not sacrificing all the bonds for the sake of the Lord Therefore, your love on the Lord is not real compared to your child The Lord expects only one bond with Him and not any other bond See Sakthuprastha, who sacrificed his food and food of his family They were not eating for the past ten days in that severe draught If they do not eat that food their lives will leave their bodies He sacrificed the entire food spontaneously with happiness. When Shankara left His mother He was so happy to go on the mission. You be in the place of Shankara and not in the place of His mother. His mother was weeping to leave Shankara but Shankara was happy. You should get the grace of the Lord like Shankara directly and not Like the mother of Shankara indirectly. You must yourself win His grace. Do you want to achieve His grace because you are mother of Shankara? Everybody stands with his or her isolated account before the Lord. The account of other soul is not at all affecting your account. Every soul is individually and independently judged by the Lord. When the gross body is dropped all these relationships vanish. You cannot claim that the Lord should bless you As the wife of some sacred soul or as the mother of some other sacred soul. When Shankara left the home He advised her to concentrate on the Lord and not to think about Him, the mother did so and is saved. The mother got the salvation by her effort and Shankara encouraged that. We say that the son of a professor got good rank because he was his son. This does not mean that his son was given good marks due to the professor. This means that professor helped his son by teaching with special care. Therefore, you should come to the mission of the Lord and your bonds should weep. You should be aspiring for the reverse situation. After leaving this gross body there is no recognition of any other soul. When Abhimanyu died and reached the heaven Arjuna, his father, was taken by the Lord and Abhimanyu did not recognize his father. I told that the mother of Shankara got the salvation because of Shankara. That does not

mean that she got the salvation just because she was His mother. She spent all her rest life in the devotion of Lord Shankara and for this she got the salvation. Don’t think that she was sitting in her home and went on seeing the T.V., and cinemas and at the end claimed The salvation because of the single qualification that she was mother of Shankara. As mother of Shankara, she received best preaching from Him. That preaching helped her to have firm single-minded devotion. Thus, Shankara was responsible for her salvation through His divine knowledge. One has to lift his or her own soul on his or her own effort only. No other soul can lift any soul except the super soul that is the Lord. Gita says the same “Uddharet Atmana Aatmanam”. When Mandanamisra was walking out of his house leaving his beloved wife, Ubhaya Bharathi, she gave farewell to him with immense pleasure and she also took the sacred orange robe and walked out as another saint, she was a great scholar. She knows that she will not get salvation because her husband is a saint. Therefore, she was happy that her husband realized the truth and is saved. But by this she is not satisfied because her husband can save himself only and not her. Therefore, she walked out as a saint for her own upliftment. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 113. Why Lord Datta is becoming famous in these days? In the previous ages the people were with high spiritual standard. There was no much need preaching the divine knowledge. Even if there was a small necessity, the servants and disciples of Lord Datta used to come as human incarnation. They could solve the minor problems and used to leave the world. But today the situation is completely different. The spiritual standard has fallen. Generally, when the standard falls the people become ignorant. It is easy to teach the ignorant person and a scholar. Therefore in the present situation, if the people were simply ignorant, it would have been very easy to preach them. But today the spiritual standard is less and the people have become very very intelligent. The meaning of Veda is twisted to suit their convenience. At the same time they want the highest result. For Ex: Geeta says that the fruit of the work should be sacrifice (Karmajam Bhudhi Yuktahi Phalam Tyaktva) and says further that if one sacrifices the desire for the fruit of the work, he can easily sacrifice the fruit of the work. The reason for not sacrificing the fruit of the work was found to be the one desiring for the fruit of the work. Therefore desire for the fruit of the work is to be sacrificed so that one can sacrifice the fruit of the work easily. But the people have taken the essence of Geeta as the sacrifice of the desire of the fruit of the work and not the sacrifice of the fruit of the work. Thus Geeta is misinterpreted and the sacrifice of fruit of work is buried because it is not convenient due to their love on their families and greediness. One sacrifices the desire for the fruit of the work and enjoys the fruit of the work. He says that he will get salvation because he followed Geeta. Similarly Veda says that one can attain by the salvation by the sacrifice of money (Dhanena Tyagena). But people have introduced the word ‘na’ which means no before the word ‘Dhanena’.

Veda is twisted and a wrong meaning is extracted like this: One cannot attain the Lord by earning, enjoying and sacrifice of money. This led to the inaction. People have become lazy and do not work to earn the money. They started depending on others claiming themselves as saints. Like this real meaning of Veda was twisted in a wrong path was established. People have become very talented in creating such twisted meanings. Thus in Kaliyuga people are not ignorant, but they have become over intelligent. The development of science also made them to analyze the spiritual concepts with opposing tendency. Scientists have become atheists forgetting that science is also a divine knowledge given by the Lord called as ‘Pravrutti’. Under such circumstances nobody else than the Lord Datta can clear the situation. The ‘Satguru’ Himself has to come down who is the Lord in the human form. This is the reason why Lord Datta Himself started coming down to this world in human form in the present age. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 114. God is giving every thing to all the people. What the necessity of the service to Him? The absolute reality is that God does not require any service and sacrifice from any soul. In this state the creation does not exist it self. But He created the universe for entertainment. He gave independence and intelligence to all the souls. God has removed the knowledge that this entire universe is His wealth only. He imposed ignorance on Himself and on the souls. In the state of this ignorance only, through sacrifice and service the love is proved. Such love only gives happiness to heart. There can be no better entertainment than this. You are bringing out this point to escape form sacrifice and service. Such over intelligence arises due to your blind love on family and your selfishness. If you go to that absolute state of reality your self and creation disappear. If your point is correct, don’t ask God for anything. You want Advaita when you give something to Him. You need dvaita when he has to give some thing to you. If you do not aspire anything from Him do not give anything to Him. In fact the highest devotion is to give every thing to Him without aspiring anything from Him. But you are reverse to this. Apart from this, you show over intelligence! At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 115. Spiritual Business Vs Spiritual Education Generally the human beings do spiritual business with God and are not for the spiritual education. A school is a centre of education and a shop is a centre of business. There are many shops but few schools. Majority is for business and minority is for education. You are sacrificing the work and wealth to achieve the fruit in the spiritual business. The fruit you receive from the business is not permanent because you have to go to the shop again and again to purchase the commodity. In the education also, service to the preacher

(susrusha) and sacrifice of wealth (Guru Dakshina) is done as in the case of business but the fruit is permanent. Once you have acquired the knowledge and come out, the knowledge stays with you permanently. You need not go to the school again and again as in the case of the shop. The business is referred in Gita (Parasparam Bhavayantah). The education is also mentioned (Tat Viddhi Pranipatena). The preachers should become the centers of spiritual education. They should not become the centers of spiritual business like priests and astrologers. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 116. Between duty and God which is more important? This depends on your stage in the spiritual path. There is nothing to decide here. An ordinary human being will do the worldly duties only. Even if you advice to leave such duties, he will not leave because he cannot leave. For Sankara even though His mother asked him to do worldly duties, He left them and dedicated Himself to God only. Therefore, the soul does according to its spiritual state and inherent interest. Finally the interest decides the selection. Therefore you cannot have universal selection. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 117. What is injustice and immorality? what is the punishment for this? A) You may hurt your colleague souls in several ways. All these ways are injustice and immorality. For example by corruption you are hurting your colleague souls. At least you are not exempting the poor and devoted people. If you do corruption in the case of unjust rich people, you should spend it for divine purpose. If you spend it for your self or for your family, all of you will be completely destroyed. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 118. Why the present rulers are not following the rule when they punish the innocent people? A) Again you are committing the mistake to think that the punished person is innocent. The innocence cannot be judged by either you or present ruler. Not only in the previous birth even in this birth he committed several sins which are not only known to you or even to himself. Therefore, the real judgment is given by God. The judge may give a wrong judgment. He gave like that because his enquiry is guided by God. You are criticizing the judge. The judgment given by him by mistake is correct because it is given by God. Anybody in this world who harms you is just instrumental. Without the enquiry and decision of God nothing will happen in this world. The God is punishing not with revenge but to transform the soul. This entire system of Universe is created and run by God only.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 119. Why God is tolerating the dictatorship of some people? A) In the creation every incident is the result of the three dimensional network of action, time, fruit etc., You do not know the incidents of the previous birth. The person who tortured somebody is now born as the sufferer. You see this birth only and pity that soul. In the creation of God no injustice will take place and nobody will escape. Hence, the omniscient God keeps silent. The soul with limited knowledge talks all sorts of things. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 120. If God created this world like a cinema, is it only the way for us to watch the cinema? A) God has given freedom and intelligence (discriminating power) to the human beings. Therefore, each soul is creating its own cinema. The stage, dress etc., are given by the God but not the story and dialogues. Therefore, God is the creator of the Universe but He is not the creator of the life of the soul. When God comes in human incarnation, He comes down along with His servants who are the liberated souls. Then only He is the writer of the story and dialogues for that divine play. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 121. Does every soul reach God? A) For humanity God is confined to the human form only. Even the recognition itself is very difficult. Even after recognition it is more difficult to stand on it because He exhibits the Maya of three qualities. One in millions and that too in one birth after millions of births can identify and please the God with full sacrifice and service. Like this Gita says (Kaschit mam….). At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 122. It is said that God takes the form as per your desire. Does it not mean that He is formless? A) God is neither formless nor has form. In the creation both formless objects like air and form-full objects like earth exist. Because of this reason God is neither formless nor form-full since both are imaginable. Veda says that God is unimaginable. But God comes in human form, which is useful to the humanity in all directions. The main aim of the human form is preaching Divine Knowledge. That is why God has taken a human form which is very much useful to the humanity in various angles. You have to worship such form taken by God. He is not your servant to come in the form you desire. In Gita the Lord said that He will approach the devotee in the same path as the devotee approaches. This does not mean that He will take the form as you like. You can take any form you like

which can be a representative of God (Pratika) but God does not exist in it. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 123. If the doer-ship is removed can the soul become God? A) The God and soul are completely different. God is the creator and the soul is a part of creation. The Doer-ship has wide scope of range. Starting from the creatorship of universe, up to doing sins in the case of a demon, the word doer-ship can be used. The creatorship is confined only to God. If the doer-ship means the creatorship of the world, then such doer-ship is necessary for the soul to become God. In every action if the soul feels that it is not the doer and completely surrenders to God, the soul will become liberated and close servant of God. This is the maximum state of divinity that can be achieved by the soul. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 124. What is special penance? A) Penance means the spontaneous urge in the concentration but it should be spontaneous. It is a state of madness. Such state came for Gopikas only. The other efforts need some reason. Without aspiration for fruit the madness that is reached in the love for the God is the special penance. In such penance the Lord becomes the servant of devotee. This is the higher fruit than Advaita. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 125. You say that you are Datta and again say that you are not Datta. Why this contradiction? A) If some body is eligible to digest the divine knowledge, the first statement is told. If some body does not deserve, the second statement is told. Krishna never told any body in His life that He is God. Krishna told only to Arjuna during the preaching of Gita that He is God and Arjuna was close to the Lord for the past several births as Nara with Narayana. Therefore Krishna did not face any danger. Sankara also did not face any danger because He told that every human being is God. Jesus told before a group of people that He and His father are one and the same. Therefore, He was crucified. Egoism and jealousy existing in every human being oppose the acceptance of one human being as God. According to Islam there is no human incarnation. Therefore, the human beings accept either the concept of every human being as God or no human being as God. Even a great devotee will suspect the human incarnation in some time due to egoism and jealousy. Therefore, human incarnation uses these two sentences according to the context. Even in a devotee the second statement will pacify the egoism and jealousy hidden in the subconscious state.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 126. For which purpose Worship, service and praising are done? A) All these are done only to please the Lord. Praising is like giving dinking water. Service is like offering meals. Both these are called as worship. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 127. What is the reason for human incarnation? A) The main purpose of the human incarnation is to clarify the doubts of the devotees in the spiritual knowledge. Apart from this, vision, touch, conversation and co-living are the four fortunes that are the available to the devotees. To punish evil forces and protect the devotees, His power is able to do it. Mainly the human incarnation is only to preach the spiritual knowledge. Therefore, the incarnations like fish, pig etc., are only forms of His power. Vamana, Parasurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha etc., are mainly for the preaching only. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 128. What are the duties of the human being? A) The only duty of human being is the service to Lord. But, for the service, the maintenance of the body and family is essential. Therefore, the duties related to such maintenance are also part and parcel of the main divine duty. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 129. Can we take all the human beings to be born with some purpose? A) As long as the human being thinks that the birth and the life is meant for the pleasure of one’s own self or its family, till then the life has no purpose. The reason is that as told above. The real aim of life is only to please the Lord. Therefore, the life of such human being which thinks that the ultimate aim is only to please the Lord alone has the purpose of birth. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 130. What is the aim of the birth of every soul? A) A soul is the part of creation. Veda says that the world is created for the entertainment of God only. Therefore, every soul should realize that its existence and life are for the pleasure of God only and not for the pleasure of one’s own self or his family. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

131. Why there is a gap between Bad deed and its fruit? Suffering is the fruit of our previous sin, but why Lord delay the suffering, which some times do not make the soul understand that it is because of the particular activity that he is now suffering, in that case he may still do the old sin again? Ans) If there is a possibility of the change in the soul by immediate suffering of the sin, God certainly grants the punishment here itself immediately after the sin. When such hope is absent, God postpones the punishments so that his short span of life may be free so that one day or other he may digest the divine knowledge and transform. The human life is very short and also is very rare. Let this short human life be engaged in the service of God with out any disturbance. If punishments are given immediately, no time is left to serve God and please Him. When the examinations are near and if a student is to be punished for a crime, a good principal postpones the enquiry to a day after the examinations so that the little time left over may be properly used. After the examinations the student has lot of time to face the enquiry and under go the punishment. This shows the kindness and best administration of the principal. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 132. What is the inner meaning of 'Sarva Dharmaan…', if one leaves worldly bonds for the sake of God, what shall be the responsibility of God to those family bonds? Ans) The inner meaning of ‘Sarva Dharmaan’ is simply total dedication of yourself to God from all sides. Anything or anybody opposing this is a sin. Anything or anybody encouraging this is the real Dharma or justice. The worldly bonds are born to use your self as the instrument of their happiness only as said in Veda. Jesus also asks you to leave all the family bonds including even the bond with your life to become His real disciple. The responsibility of the people left by you is well known to God about which you should not worry. When you feel the responsibility the detachment is not complete. The sage Narada told in his Bhakti Sutras that the devotee attracted to God is like a person who is attracted by a beautiful girl and subsequently leaving his wife for her (Jaravatcha …….). The attraction was so powerful resulting in the state of madness, where the discussion of justice and injustice does not arise. The people who are left by the devotee in such attraction to God will have their own lines of samskara in which God may or may not take the responsibility of them based on His over all decision. He will enquire the merits and defects thoroughly and will take up the proper action. The mother of Shankara was granted salvation and the wife of Buddha was not granted salvation. The mother of Shankara suffered in this world after leaving Shankara but reached the abode of God finally. The wife of Buddha enjoyed all the luxuries here after leaving Buddha and did not get salvation. The souls have their own merits and defects for which you are not responsible. You are worried about them because you have not analyzed the

worldly love which has selfish motive only and in such case where is the point of your responsibility to them? After crucification of Jesus, His mother Mary led her own line of life based on her own samskaras. When the love to God is in climax, this question does not find place in yourself. Actually this question is posed by others to you when you have reached such climax of divine love. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 133. Human body good model for human incarnation The composition and technology of human being is created by God in a particular fashion so that it stands as a good model of simile for the human incarnation. In the human being the soul (Pure Awareness) pervades all over the body (Matter and energy). Similarly, in human incarnation God pervades all over the body (Pure Awareness, matter and energy). The super imposition of body and soul leads to the treatment of body as the soul. The super imposition is created by God in this simile so that one can have the same super imposition in the case of human incarnation. By this you can treat the human body of Krishna as God Himself without any difference. Thus, the super imposition is created by God for a divine purpose. Without this super imposition, you can never worship God directly because God is even unimaginable. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami 134. The difference between human incarnation and human being is that in the case of the former God exists as the extra fourth item. In both human being and human incarnation the common items are matter, energy and awareness which constitute the medium (Prakruti). Matter and energy constitute the Apara Prakruti and awareness is para prakruti. Thus, the human being is part of prakruti or nature or creation only and not the creator. When God takes the human form the soul (Pure awareness) and the external body (Matter and energy) exist in such human form as in the case of a human being. In the case of human being the soul becomes the house owner in the absence of God. In the palace of a king, the servant is a slave to the king and he is treated as a part of the inert house. We say that the king alone lives in the palace. It does not mean that the king alone is in the inert house with out the servant. In the absence of the king the servant becomes the owner of the house! Therefore, in the human incarnation both God and soul co-exist (Dvaa Suparnaa…veda). But the soul is as good as the inert body without any freedom and hence becomes a part of the house. For the sake of counting there are two living beings which are king and his servant. But for all practical purposes there is only one human being that is king and the second is the inert house which includes the servant.

In this sense we say that only the king lives in the palace. In this way the Lord said in Gita that God exists in the human body in the case of human incarnation (Manusheem Tanumasritam…). Hence, there is no difference between Veda and Gita. You may say that only God is in the human body as per Gita or you may say that God and soul co-exist in the human body as per Veda. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 135. The human beings are one and the same internally and externally. All human incarnations are also one and the same internally and externally. Same milk exists in three golden pots. The milk is same internally and gold is same externally. Only the forms and names differ. Similarly, in the case of human incarnations, the external bodies are made of the same five elements. The internal God is one and the same. The names and forms of the external bodies differ. The form is unreal in view of the reality of its material. Therefore, the name of such form is also unreal. Names and forms (Nama Rupa ) are unreal and are called as Maya which can be realized by even a wise human being. Similarly, the qualities of various forms of God may differ but the material of the qualities is one and the same which is the pure awareness (Chit). These qualities (Guna) are also unreal with respect to the reality of the awareness and these also are a part of Maya only. The human being can easily realize the unreal Maya since he is above the plane of Maya. The human body is made of five elements and energy, which are real with respect to the forms. The soul of the human being is made of pure awareness which is real with respect to the qualities. The human being which is made of matter (five elements), energy (light, heat etc.,) and pure awareness, is in the plane of Maha Maya which is more relatively real than Maya. As far as the forms and qualities (Maya) are concerned, the human body is one and the same for God as well as the human being. Thus, this analysis is common to all the human bodies of souls as well as God. This analysis gives two conclusions. One is that all the human beings are one and the same internally and externally. The second is that all human incarnations are also one and the same internally and externally. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 136. God is not pervading all over the universe Just like the human incarnation is God (because of all over pervasion of God throughout the human being), can we also call this entire universe as God assuming that God pervaded all over the universe? In support of such all over pervasion, quotations like Sarvam khalu idam Brahma, Vishwam Vishnuh, etc can be referred here. But such concept is not acceptable because if God pervades all over the universe, the universe is not existing separately from God to become the object of entertainment like the cinema. If you pervade all over the cinema, there is no difference between seer (drashta) and the

seen (drishyam). Then how to interpret the above quotations, since the whole world is under the control of God? The whole world can be called as God in a special way. The statement that a kingdom is Kalinga (kalingoyamdeshah) can be explained like this: Kalinga is the name of the king but the kingdom is called as Kalinga because the king everywhere controls the kingdom. Ramanuja has given this interpretation. Once the address of the unimaginable God is obtained, it hardly matters whether God is in the human incarnation or in the world. Since the human incarnation is in the world, you can say that God is in the world also. However, the human incarnation is God but the universe cannot be so, due to the above-mentioned objection. The present context is about the inference of the existence of unimaginable God as the ultimate cause of this whole universe and whether the address of God is direct as in the case of human incarnation or indirect as in the case of universe, it makes no difference. The advantage of the direct address over the indirect address is that the human incarnation (direct address) establishes the unimaginable nature of God through miracles. If you are already convinced with the unimaginable nature of God through the miracles seen elsewhere, the indirect address is sufficient. In the human incarnation only, God can receive your service directly, but this is a different context. Is the Universe God? When you cannot perceive God in His original form and you can perceive God only through some medium of creation like space or energy or awareness, why not perceive God through the medium of matter also? Now if God exists in space, it means that God is exists in this universe. If God is present in the universe, the universe cannot be a separate object of entertainment to God. The Veda says that this universe is created for His entertainment (Ekaki Na ...). If you are present in the cinema and become the cinema by pervading all over the cinema, the cinema is not a separate object for you and therefore it cannot give entertainment to you. If you are the spectator of the cinema, you should be separate from the cinema. You are the subject and the cinema is object, which is separate from you. If the subject and object are one and the same, there is no existence of the object at all. It means God did not create this universe. If the creation is absent, there is no entertainment to God. This leads to the inability of God in creating any object that is separate from Himself for His entertainment. Such inability makes God impotent and then God cannot be Omnipotent. Therefore, the separate existence of the universe in which God is not present, must be accepted to avoid all these contradictions. Now the Veda says that God entered this universe (Tadevanu Pravisat…). But the Veda does not say that God entered the entire universe. God entered the Universe only through some limited form. Therefore, the entrance of God in to the universe is accepted. At the same time since God did not enter the entire universe, the universe exists as a separate object for His entertainment.

You may argue that God entered the entire universe as per a Vedic statement (Eesha vasyam idam…). But if you carefully analyze that statement, it also means that God enters this big universe only through a small form. The translation of that Vedic statement reveals the correct meaning like this: “In this large world, any small world can be pervaded over by the Lord entirely”. This is the true translation. The small world means the human body and the big world means this entire universe. This means that the Lord enters this big world through a small world, which is the human form. The human form alone can be called as a mini-world. The large world contains nine items, which are the inert five elements (earth, water, energy, air and space) and the four living items called as Antah karanams (mind, intelligence, self-awareness or egoism and the awareness which stores all the information). All these nine items are common between this large world and the small human being. Therefore, the conclusion of the Veda is that God enters this large world through a small human form. This can be explained by common experience also. A spectator, who is seeing the cinema, wishes to take up a role in the cinema. Thus, he enters the cinema through a role and the cinema still entertains him. Therefore, the Gita also says that God enters this world only through a human form. The the Gita also says that God becomes a Jeeva or human form by entering such a human form (Jeeva Bhutah…). You have entered the role or the dress of a king in the drama, which means that you have become the king in the drama. For all the practical purposes you are the king in the drama. But you retain your identity as the actor in the role and therefore you have not become the king in the true sense. The audience can treat you as the king but at the same time they are aware that you are not the real king. Similarly the devotees treat the human incarnation as God for all practical purposes. But whenever egoism and jealousy enter their minds, they can analyze and know that God is in the human form and therefore the human form is not really God. Neither has God become the human form nor has the human form become God. Such clarification will reduce their egoism and jealousy and their devotion can become again alive. Therefore, God cannot enter the (entire) space because if God enters this space, He becomes one with the Universe and His entertainment is lost. Therefore the power of God is material cause of this world. The power is modified into this world as the mud is modified into the pot. Therefore, the formless God, you think, is only the power of God and not the original God. Space is only the modification of the power of God, which is like the mud. God is like the pot-maker who is not modified into the pot. In this example let us assume that the pot-maker created the mud and then made the pot from the mud. While creating the mud, the Lord is the creator or designer as well as the material. But while creating the pot from the mud, God is only the pot-maker or designer. The potmaker, while creating the mud, is not modified because only the power of the pot-maker is modified into mud. Therefore, the material cause for the mud is the power of the potmaker and not the pot-maker directly. This is the concept of Dvaita (duality) of Madhva.

In the concept of Ramanuja, which is called as ‘Visishta Advaita’ (qualified monism), the pot is considered as an associated body of the pot-maker. Instead of the pot, you can take the example of the cloth. The cotton thread is the material cause of the cloth. The weaver is the creator of the cloth. The weaver has created the thread and the power of the weaver is modified into thread as explained above. The weaver is wearing the cloth made by him and this point alone (association of the creator with the creation) is the extra concept in this theory. The weaver treats the cloth wrapped on his body as another external body of his. The the Gita also says that your external gross body is like a shirt. Therefore, Ramanuja assumes this world as the body of God. The Advaita scholars mocked at this concept due to their ignorance. They said that if God were associated with the world, the changes in the world would mean the changes in the body of God, which means that God is changed. This is absolute foolishness. When the body is compared to an associated shirt, the changes in the shirt cannot be equated to the changes in the person who is wearing it. If you take the body of a realized soul like Ramana Maharshi, He treated his body as his shirt. He separated himself from the body and limited himself to the soul. He observed the surgery of his body like a person, who is the spectator of his shirt being stitched by somebody. Thus if you take God as a realized soul, the changes in this universe cannot touch God, in spite of His association with the universe. To reject the mocking of the Advaita Scholars, Madhva avoided the example of the weaver in which the wrapped cloth is treated as another external body. He took the example of a pot so that the pot cannot cover the body of its creator like the cloth. Therefore, the pot cannot be treated as an external body of its creator like the cloth. Shankara compared the world to an imagination or a daydream of a person. The person is not modified into the imagination. Only his mind or his mental energy (awareness) is modified into the imaginary world. This awareness (Chit or Para shakti or Mula Maya) is just like the cotton thread of a weaver or the mud of the pot maker. God created this awareness in the beginning and here also the power of God created the awareness, which is modified into the world. Thus just like the mud or the thread, the awareness is the material cause of the world. The power of God is the material cause of the awareness. Now the most important point comes. What is the difference between God and His power? Both God and His power are inexplicable and exist in the same state. Therefore, if the power is modified, we can say that God is also modified. In that case instead of the power of God, God directly becomes the material cause of awareness. The real point is that since God and His power are both inexplicable, the process of modification of the power of God into awareness also becomes inexplicable. In such a case you cannot use even the word ‘modification’ when you say that the power of God created the awareness. Shankara called awareness itself as God and for Him God is the awareness-incarnation (Awareness in which God has entered). This awareness-incarnation alone is taken as the original God by all the Acharyaas and also the Brahma Sutras. If you go beyond awareness you cannot understand God and cannot preach to anybody about God. For such original God, no words can be used to describe. When you utter a word some thought comes to your mind, as the meaning of that word. The original God is beyond thought and therefore, any word fails to indicate Him. If such a God is preached, nobody

will believe in the existence of such a God. People will say that such a God does not exist. That is why the Buddhists became atheists. Therefore, any preacher should say that the absolute God is the awareness-incarnation. It means that awareness is God. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 137. Human Incarnations response When I say that I am the human incarnation of Lord Datta there are three types of people here. The first type of people is highest devotees and has conquered egoism and jealousy. For them the Lord pervades this human body as the wire is pervaded by the current. For them Advaita (Monoism) is suiting to their psychology and they can digest this. In fact they wanted to see, touch, talk and live with the Lord. To satisfy them the Lord came down and He is satisfying their desire through this Advaita. For them Lord Datta and Myself are one and the same. The second type of people who conquered egoism and jealousy to certain extent and or my devotees need the ‘Visishta Advaita’, which speaks that the human incarnation is a spark of the Lord, who is the infinite fire. This philosophy speaks about part (Sesha) and whole (Seshi). The spark is qualitatively same as the fire and thus satisfies their devotion, but the spark is quantitatively different from the fire and this aspect satisfies their partial egoism and jealousy. The third type of people is full of egoism and jealousy. For their psychology Dvaita should be exposed. For them the human incarnation is just two in one system. This human body is like the house and the Lord is dwelling inside this house as its owner. The house i.e., Myself is completely different from the house owner i.e., the Lord. No importance need be given to the house when the king comes and resides in a house. When there is no importance to this external human body their egoism is completely satisfied. The first type of people bows to the temple from outside and they feel that they have bowed to the inner statue through the temple. The second type of people respect the temple to some extent and bow to the statue standing in the main door of the temple. The third type of the people do not care for the temple and feel that the temple is as good as their house. They go inside the temple and bow directly to the statue. Gita said “Manusheem Tanum Aasritam”, which means that the Lord dwells in the human body in the case of human incarnation. This is Dvaita to satisfy the third type of people who are in majority in this world. Gita also exposed ‘Visishtha Advaita’ to the second type of the people (Mama Tejomsa Sambhavam). Gita also spoke Advaita for the first type of people (Aham Aatma, Mattah parataram). If Advaita is preached to the third type of people, problems araise, which are mentioned in the same verse (Avajaanantimam). Thus Gita contains the total knowledge.

The Human incarnation is clearly mentioned in Vedas as ‘Vivrunute Tanoom’, which means that the Lord will reveal Himself to the devotees through the human body. Again Veda says “Yat Saakshaat Aparokshaat”, which means that the Lord appears before you and is not present somewhere else. The path of sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) is mentioned by both Vedas (Kurvanneveha) and Gita (Kuru Karmaiva). The another part of the path, which is the sacrifice of the fruit of the work (Karmaphala Tyaga) is praised by Vedas (Thyakthena, Dhanena Tyagena) as well as by Gita (Phalam Tyaktva, Karma Phala Tyaagee). Whatever is found in Gita must exist in Vedas because Vedas are the cows and Gita is the milk milked from the cows. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 138. God takes the role of ignorant soul for guiding the ignorant souls through the practical path Several devotees asked Swami about the behavior of Swami as an ordinary soul many a time. They asked Swami about the possible interest of God to play in roles of ignorance. Swami replied: The interest of God to have entertainment to play a role of ignorance is only a minor point. This point is always associated with a major point of God taking the role of ignorant soul for guiding the ignorant souls through the practical path. If an ignorant soul sees another ignorant soul reaching the goal through the spiritual path, certainly it will be a standing as a practical example of inspiration. God plays such a role and inspires other similar souls in a practical path. This is the actual major aspect of his program to act in different ignorant roles. Incidentally the entertainment is also done so that you cannot blame Him as a bad person who enjoys a bad role. Rama went after the golden deer just to satisfy His beloved wife even though Lakshmana was opposing it. He faced a big tragedy due to that mistake of blind love on His wife and not listening to a learned advice. It is a role of total ignorance. But the Lord gives message to such ignorant souls. When such good purpose is served, what is the harm of His entertainment in such ignorant role, which is inevitable in preaching of practical spiritual knowledge? In the case of a really ignorant soul, only the blind entertainment exists without such noble cause. Similarly, if you analyze the life of this Swami, you can clearly find such noble cause of practical demonstration of the spiritual knowledge emitted from Him. His life is His message of the spiritual knowledge preached by Him. In fact, it is a double role of human incarnation in some scenes and a devotee in some other scenes. Swami is a combined form of Rama and Anjaneya, playing both the roles separately in related scenes of requirement since He is very ambitious to have double remuneration! Perhaps, the external dress is one and the same causing confusion for both the roles, but you can distinguish both the roles by the corresponding dialoges and actions as in the case of a rehearsal of a drama. In a complete incarnation, this is inevitable. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

139. Direct service to God is possible only in the case of present human incarnation Smt. (Mrs.) Padma Ram asked whether to see the past human incarnation like SAI BABA in Swami or vise-versa. Swami replied: In the state of theoretical devotion any view is right, since there is no difference between drinking two different drinks in a dream. The point is whether your devotion is theoretical (Songs, Meditation etc.,) or practical (Service). The practical devotion is possible only in the case of the present live human incarnation. When you are sprinkling rose water on the shirt of a present live person, the person receives and enjoys your service. The shirt is the human body and the person is God in present live human incarnation. The past human incarnation existing as a statue or photo is like a photo of the nonexisting past shirt of the same person. You will not sprinkle the rose water on even the existing shirt if the person is absent in it and not to speak of a non-existing shirt seen in a photo. If you sprinkle rose water on a photo in which a person who is away in a foreign country, it is also virtually the same. Similarly the service to a photo of Vishnu existing in the upper world is as good as the service to a photo of Rama who existed in the past. Krishna asked Arjuna to surrender to Him only (Mamekam…Gita). Here Mam (Him) means the human incarnation. The word Ekam (only) means the present live one existing before the eyes of Arjuna. It means Krishna who was the contemporary human incarnation. Direct service to God is possible only in the case of present human incarnation. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 140. The true divine knowledge The true knowledge is like fire that removes the mental impurity. The false knowledge is like water that removes external impurity. Gita says that the divine knowledge is like fire and burns ignorance, which is turned into ash “Jnanaagnih”, when the tree is burnt. It cannot rise again from the ash. The previous messenger told that Jesus will baptize by the fire, which means divine knowledge. People pray the Lord and ask Him to grant a particular thing only. They do not give any freedom to the Lord since they feel themselves as scholars and decide their own welfare and do not allow the Lord. Such people are the lowest category and will dip in the ocean of misery. The middle class devotees give partial freedom to the Lord by praying that the Lord can give anything but that should be good to them. They gave freedom to the Lord to select any item from the list of good things, but He should not touch the list of the bad items. The highest class of devotees pray the Lord that He should grant anything whether good or bad but it should please the Lord.

Jesus prayed in the last minutes before His arrest by the soldiers that the will of the Lord should only happen, which means that the will of the Lord always pleases the Lord and hence it should happen even if the will is the crucification. Jesus invited it and felt happy because the happiness of the Lord can alone be his happiness. Therefore Oh Mother! Pray the Lord to do whatever He pleases If He is pleased in returning your son, let Him do so If He is pleased in retaining your son, let Him also do the same Then you will be considered as the top class devotee and You will be granted His permanent place called as Brahmaloka At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 141. Approach to Me by devotees In one minute you are believing Me as God. In the next minute you are treating Me as a human being possessed by God. In the next minute you decide that I am a partial incarnation of God. In the next minute your mind proposes that I am a devoted human being. In the next minute your intelligence decides that I am an ordinary human being with artificial devotion. In the next minute you conclude that I am a fraud. These states of your mind recycle again and again. Some devotees ask Me to inform them regarding their state in the spiritual journey (Sadhana). Which report I should give? Now I am declaring that I am the very Lord Dattatreya who came down to this earth to guide you in the spiritual path. Tell Me, how many of you can stand on this faith? I am observing your minds and decisions every minute continuously. In one minute you are very near to Me in the inner circle. After five minutes you are in a foreign country, which is very far! I am also changing My positions in every minute to suit to the conclusions of a devotee and I am simultaneously existing in different positions to suit to different devotees. I am dancing according to your dance. I am mad by speaking in various ways since you are mad in various ways. You are confusing yourselves and blame Me as if I am confusing all of you! When you are discouraged I encourage you by telling that you are My inner most and most dear a liberated soul. But when ego enters your mind and you become inactive, I will expose the reality. Now you blame Me that I am liar! At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 142. Why I am not declaring Myself as Human Incarnation At the time of departure to Bombay, Mr. Antony asked Swami “Why don’t you declare yourself clearly that you are the present Human Incarnation”? Swami replied “Buddha did not speak even about God and therefore, there is no question of the topic of the human incarnation. Therefore, Buddha was safe. Mohammed denied

the concept of human incarnation and declared Himself as only the Messenger of God. Any body can be become Messenger and therefore, Mohammed was also safe. Lord Krishna emphasized on the concept of Human Incarnation through out Gita, but Krishna told that He is the Human Incarnation only to Arjuna and not to any other person. Therefore, Krishna was also safe. Jesus told that He is the Human Incarnation by telling that He and His Father are one and the same. He told this to many people and this news spread everywhere. This statement is in Bible and Bible is His message given to the public. For this statement He was brutally killed. Now, if I state the same in the present time, crucification may not be there due to improved legal atmosphere, but people will laugh at Me and will say that I am mad and should be admitted into a mental hospital. Of course this does not mean that I have accepted and stated that I am the human incarnation. Assuming that I am the Human Incarnation I am telling this. Let this not be taken as My declaration. This only means no human incarnation will declare himself as God after the crucification of Jesus. Since then God is terribly afraid of such declaration. Therefore, even if I am the real human incarnation I will not declare it. If I am not the human incarnation I should not declare it. Therefore, in any case I cannot declare this. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 143. Christian Devotee Questions I am a true Christian. I do not believe the human rationality and introduction of God through the human body. Can you explain? answer What is the meaning of human rationality? Does it mean • What ever the human being says, rational (Reasonable) or irrational (Reasonless), should not be accepted or • Whatever reasonably said by the human being should not be accepted. If you take the first case, since you are a human being, what ever you say should not be accepted, whether you say reasonable or reasonless. If it is the second case, you should be accepted because whatever, you said is reasonless. Then you should be a mad person because only mad people speak reasonless. If you say that you are not mad person, then you should have spoken reasonable, in which case you should not be accepted, since, a reasonable saying of the human being should not be accepted according to the above version (b). You say that God should not be introduced into a human being. Then you are not a true Christian because Christians believe that God is introduced into the human being just like the blood of father is introduced into the son. Christian believes that Jesus is the son of the Godfather. If you say that Jesus is only messenger of God and not the Son of God,

then you are not a Christian and you belong to Islam. Islam says that a messenger is not Son of God but he is only a servant of God. At this point only Christianity separated from Islam. Originally both Islam and Christianity were one religion only. Islam treated Jesus as the messenger like Mohammed. Christianity is separated from Islam because they treated Jesus, closely related to God like a son to his Father. In fact Christians of higher order believe Jesus directly as God because Jesus told the same " I and my Father are one and the same ". This saying proves clearly that God and the human incarnation are one and the same. Therefore, being a true Christian, you should accept that God enters the human being or even temporarily becomes the human being. In both the cases, God either enters or pervades all over the human being. In the case of human incarnation, if you deny both these possibilities, then your Christianity becomes Islam and you are not at all the Christian because you are denying the very fundamental of the Christianity. In Hinduism all the three concepts are present 1. Advaita of Sankara says that the Lord and the human being become one and the same in the case of human incarnation. Example is Rama. In this case God pervades all over the human body. 2. Visishta Advaita of Ramanuja says that the Lord is present in the heart of human being as in the case of human incarnation, for example Hanuman, who tore His heart and showed Rama in that 3. Dwaita of Madhvacharya says that the Lord is separate in the heaven and sends His servant to this earth as a messenger. For example, Balarama is the Adi Sesha who is the servant of Lord Vishnu in heaven and is the human incarnation. Thus, Hinduism contains all the three concepts. The first two concepts are called Christianity and the third concept is called Islam. The Mahayana branch of Buddhism worships Buddha in the form of statutes as God or the devotee in whose heart God is present. In fact according to Hinduism Buddha is directly the Lord since he is treated as one of the ten human incarnations of the Lord. Just like Christianity arose from Islam, Buddhism arose from Hinduism. The Heenayana branch of Buddhism treats Buddha as a preacher of divine knowledge and treats Him as an ordinary human being. This concept is the concept of Islam or the concept of Madhvacharya in Hinduism. Thus, Hinduism is a mini model of the entire universal religions. The Science represents atheism. Even this atheism is represented in Hinduism by the sub-religion of Charvaka (Nastika Matam). All the sub-religions of Hinduism are the religions in the world. Whatever is in the world, it is present in Hinduism. Universal spirituality brings the unity of all religions in the world and thus it brings the unity in all the sub-religions in Hinduism also. Rationality is the essence of the science. The scientist will laugh if you speak any thing irrational (Reasonless). Even in the small matters of this world, we analyze with reason and logic before we follow it and we say that we should not be emotional in taking any decision. Then how much logical we should be in such great spiritual effort, if you want to attain real success?

In Christianity Jesus is called as Emmanuel, which means that God comes down from heaven to live with us. Only a human form can live with us and guide us through knowledge. The Popes at that time also did not believe Jesus as God or at least as Son of God or even as messenger of the God. They did not like the God to be introduced in human being as you say now. They believed only the dead messengers and not Jesus, who was the then messenger. The same logic applies today also. You believe the messenger who does not exist now. You do not believe the messenger who now exists before your eyes. Jesus told that He would come again. It means that the same human incarnation will come again and the same story repeats. The same Jesus is present today and the same people who were blind with egoism and jealousy are present again today. Therefore, I say, the history repeats. As Jesus was insulted, then, today also the egoistic and jealous people will insult Jesus. Jesus will come in every human generation to give His direct contact. Otherwise, God Jesus becomes partial, because He gave direct contact to one generation only and not to the other generations. He clarified the doubts of one generation only through His direct voice and now He allows the immature human devotees to answer the doubts directly in the other human generations. He provided the fortune of touching His feet in one generation only and other generations are deprived of that fortune. This makes Jesus totally partial and you say that God is impartial. All the religions also say the same. How can you justify this important statement that God is impartial? Therefore, we have accepted that God is coming in human form like Jesus in every human generation. To avoid answer to this, you are saying that reasoning should be avoided. When reasoning is discarded, you need not answer any question. Whatever you say that must be the truth. You are rigid without any logic and this is the blind conservatism. This cancer is present in every religion and humanity is always is divided by this cancer. You are opposing the unity of humanity and want to disturb the world peace. God will not tolerate you, and you will be thrown in to permanent hell for misleading the ignorant people. If you see Bible, Jesus gives reason everywhere in His concepts. For every statement He gives the reason. When the priests asked Him that He should not have saved the animal, which has fallen in the pit on the festival day, He gave the reason for His effort to save that animal. He analyzed the Old Testament and gave logical interpretations. He did not mind to cut some irrational blind statements present in the Old Testament, by giving rational modifications. He has fulfilled His duty to be the true guide of the humanity. Whenever He leaves the world these rigid people twist and pollute the meanings of scriptures. To rectify He comes again and again. When the teacher leaves for a few minutes the class becomes undisciplined. The teacher comes to the class again and again. For teaching, the human form is essential. A statue cannot teach you. If you think Him formless, He is not speaking to you from the sky or space or air. The human body is most convenient medium for the human beings to hear preaching of the God. The main goal of God is to preach the human beings and correct them to put in the right spiritual path. For beginners, He does some miracles as signs for His presence in the human body. The realized souls will detect Him even without those signs. Sheep see the shepherd and come near by recognizing him with eyes. Some milder sheep come near by hearing his voice, which is a miracle. The mildest sheep try to go away and are punished by the stick of

shepherd, which is nothing but permanent hell. Therefore, if you keep Jesus in the place of the present human incarnation and place the same blind priests in the place of present blind followers, you can understand the truth because the same story and the same cinema is repeated with different actors having different names. This is the best way of understanding the truth. Those priests also opposed Jesus, when He argued with wonderful reason. The duty of the teacher finishes by teaching clearly to the class. It is up to the student to grasp it and pass or twist it and fail following the sweet emotional advises of bad blind friends. The Lord is not worried about the percentage of pass because there is no fault in His teaching. He should not be blamed for the pass or failure of the students. A student himself is to be blamed. When the messenger comes to the earth, he delivers his duty so that the God is pleased with him in the upper world. He is not bothered about the fame in this world or the number of followers. God will not find fault with the messenger if the human beings did not pass. He finds fault with the messenger if the message is not properly delivered. Jesus never bothered about propagation of His knowledge. His aim was only to sit on the right side of His pleased Father after doing the duty assigned by Him. He never cared even if the people rejected, insulted and even crucified Him. His aim was God but not the world. For ignorant people the personality of Jesus is a human being crying on the cross and shedding the blood. This personality will kindle the heart of any human being. Initially this will be the attraction for the beginners. But if you stick to this personality only, that body has gone once for all. You can now only worship an imaginary statute of His form on the cross. That human body will never appear again in the same physical level. For such ignorant people Jesus will never come again because the same physical body will never appear again. Only an energetic form can appear to the eyes for a few moments. If you say that you have seen the same physical body, now also, you cannot show it to others. When Jesus was alive and some one told, "He is the Jesus", every visitor saw Him with his eyes. Now that same situation is not present. The real inner personality of Jesus is His divine knowledge, which is the Holy Bible. That divine knowledge is inseparable characteristic of the inner unimaginable God. Then that inner God comes in another human body. This divine knowledge appears again, as it is the inseparable sign of the God. Jesus is the inner personality for the realized scholars. Similarly the beautiful Krishna with flute attracts the beginners but His inner personality is His divine knowledge, which is Bhagavat Gita. When Jesus told that He will come again and Krishna told that he would come again and again whenever there is necessity that refers to the inner personality. The unimaginable God along with His inseparable sign, which is the divine knowledge, is coming again. This interpretation is reasonable. The inner God by himself is unimaginable or irrational and is beyond reason. When such inner God wants to give His experience to the human beings, He cannot follow the irrational or unimaginable ways, in which case, He cannot be experienced. The purpose fails. Therefore, the irrational God adopts rational procedures and enters rational medium to give experience to human beings. God is unimaginable but His experience should be imaginable. For this purpose He enters reasonable medium i.e., human body that can be seen and touched. Only the human body can live with us (Emmanuel) and we can clarify our doubts only with the human body.

You blame me that I am introducing God into human body, but what have you done? You have blended God with the human body of Jesus and say that only Jesus is God. You say that Jesus became alive again since the dead body disappeared. I agree. He might have controlled His life for some more time. It is against the rules of nature and science, if you say that the same physical body is alive even today. It is completely irrational because you should show the physical body of a person even to a non-believer. Now to avoid my argument you say that the rationality must be rejected. I apply the same argument even to the body of Krishna. It was cremated by Arjuna and cannot return back. Of course the Lord can use His special power to make it permanently alive. But that will violate the rules of His own administration. All the rules in the creation are His rules only. No sensible administrator will violate his own rules, when an alternative is possible. The alternative is to come again in another human body. The body is like a shirt as told in Gita. The person is not the shirt and shirt is not the person. Gita says that the God is not modified into the human body (Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam……). The person did not become the shirt but He wares the shirt as said in Gita (Manusheem Tanum …). The Lord wares the human body and does not become the human body. If you touch the shirt present on His body you are getting the experience of the inner body. Similarly the inner God gives His experience through the external body. You are blaming Me for introducing God into human body but you have made the God to become the very human body itself. You have made another mistake by saying that God is that particular human body only, called as Jesus. It is a mistake because in such a case when the human body is destroyed, God is not destroyed. The shirt is torn into pieces but the person is not cut. Recognition of this inner personality in all the shirts of various religions, which are various human incarnations, is universal spirituality. You may change any religion but you are in the house of universal spirituality. You have gone from one room to another room of the same house. If you go out of the house, then you have become atheist and then only your case is miserable. As long as you remain as theist, you are in our house only. In whatever room you may be, my advice to you is that you should recognize the same air, the same space and the same light present in every room. Also, all the walls and roof of every room are made of the same material. In whatever room you may be present you must realize the truth and awake with divine knowledge, but should not sleep with ignorance. The sleep and awakening are also common in every room. Every religion contains both the ignorance (sleep) and the divine knowledge (awakening). Every religion contains the same human incarnation having the same external physical body and the same internal unimaginable God. Change from the ignorance to awakening in whatever room you may be present. You are not Jesus, who is the judge and whose statement should be taken without any logic. Both of us are devotees of Jesus and the statements of both of us cannot be the judgments. We have to argue like advocates in the court, to find out the true version of the statement of Jesus. No human being has the right to reject the logic in finding out the truth. The judge can say "No argument. Here is my judgment". But the advocate cannot say this to another advocate. When the truth is found out by the mutual arguments of both the advocates, both are benefited because the truth is now known to both. Therefore, you should take My knowledge in the search of truth and should not take it as personal defeat

or personal success. We both are colleagues having a common aim, which is finding out the truth. Without medium no fruit can be achieved. Without the wire, you cannot move the fan with the help of the electrons (Electricity) flowing in the atmosphere. Even for an abstract thing, a physical medium of expression is needed. When you love some body, you are giving a gift to him. The gift is the physical medium through which abstract love is experienced. Abstract means imaginable but unseen. God is unimaginable and also is unseen. Therefore, the physical medium is very essential for experiencing God. Even if you treat the messenger as an ordinary human being, he brought the message to you from God and He is the only person who can take your prayer to God. The Sun is in the sky and the lens is on the earth. The power of Sun entered the lens. Both the Sun and the illuminated lens are the sources of the solar energy. Both can be treated as one and the same. If you insult a policeman, the I.G. feels insulted. Thus, God identifies Himself with the servant. Adisesha was the servant of Lord Vishnu and came as the human incarnation called as Balarama. Balarama is one of the ten incarnations of the Lord. When the divine power (Holy Spirit) dawned on Jesus, He became God through out of his life. By this, God pervaded all over the body of the Jesus. God lived in His body and so He said that He and His Father are one and the same. When the body is ready for destruction on the cross, God left that human body and so He cried " Oh! Lord why did you leave Me?" Therefore, the eternal God leaves one human incarnation and enters another human body for the next generation. Without the physical medium, one cannot directly approach the unimaginable God and so He told " One can approach my Father through Me only". Here the word Me means the human body and not that particular human body only. If God is that particular body only, it was the God that was crucified and so God was destroyed then itself. Then " Jesus will come again" becomes false. Here the word Jesus indicates the internal eternal God through body of Jesus. If you follow anyone with blind faith, who exploits you by kindling your ignorance and emotion, one-day or other your inner consciousness will repel and rebel. Jesus never told, "Follow Me blindly. Ask me no reason". Those priests told like that, and blind people followed them and discarded Lord Jesus. But the preaching of Lord Jesus convinced a few people. They always addressed Him as preacher. A preacher will always teach the subject with logic and analysis only. Only military officer will say "No argument – Follow me". God is fully capable of preaching through logic and analysis with fine reasoning. What is the necessity for Him to stoop down to the level of a layman or a mad man to avoid the reasoning? In catching the Lord you must analyze thoroughly. Otherwise there is a danger of catching a false blind preacher. Once you are sure of the Lord, your faith should start, which should be above the analysis and logic. The reason is that He is above logic. But to filter the fraud preachers, analysis is essential. Your faith should not contain logic, but it should stand on the firm logic. You must achieve the faith through logic and stop the logic after attaining the faith. The human incarnation is never accepted in past, present and future because the egoism and jealousy of the human beings are never crucified. When God is fully revealed in the

human incarnation, people reject Him due to egoism and jealousy. If God is hidden in the human incarnation, then also they will reject by treating Him as an ordinary human being with negligence. Therefore, the human incarnation should neither express God fully nor should hide the God completely. He should express the God to that extent only, which can remove the negligence but should hide God to that extent, which cannot raise the egoism and jealousy. The behavior of the human incarnation is thus a balance point of the mixture. The human incarnation itself is a balanced mixture of the unimaginable God and physically perceivable human body. The unimaginability or inexplicability of the God, called as Brahman or Jehovah or Allah, which is expressed through the silence of Buddha. Buddha kept silent about God to indicate that God is beyond the words and imagination. Some followers immediately misunderstood Buddha as an atheist and the most pitiable point is that He Himself is one of the ten incarnations of the Lord. You can neither reach God directly due to His unimaginable nature, nor recognize Him when He comes to you in human form due to negligence. The final result is only total loss in any case. I pity this unfortunate humanity in this ultimate spiritual point. This makes the souls to rotate in the cycle of creation continuously for the entertainment of the Lord forever and perhaps that is the intrinsic wish of the Lord! At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 144. The love towards Lord should be spontaneous The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. The sage Astavakra preaches the King Janaka through “Astavakra Samhita”, in which, the sage says that the mother and son in this life are becoming husband and wife in the next life! It is a hero and heroine acting two different roles in different pictures. We have two pictures running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors acting as husband and wife in one picture and acting as mother and son in another picture! This bond did not exist in the past birth and will not exist in the future birth. That which was unreal in the past and will be unreal in the future is also unreal in the present according to Shankara. It is just a dramatic bond. Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in the side activity, which is just a change for recreation. Let her or him go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a student. Game is just a recreation arranged for change. Do not be jealous on a classmate in a game. Be jealous in studies on the same classmate, because study is the main aim of your college life. Attractions are spontaneous, which can neither be created nor suppressed by force. A forced attraction by fear is not real and what is the use of such faith and love? In spiritual path also, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

145. The deservingness of receiver is the most important aspect of preaching Shankara revealed the highest knowledge personally to minority as the Gita was to Arjuna only. While preaching Duryodhana in the court in the public, which was also attended by several sages, Krishna never preached the Gita. Krishna was preaching for peace in the court, yet, the Gita was not revealed. He was preaching Arjuna to fight and kill even his grand father and in that context, the Gita was revealed. Infact, the Gita should have been revealed in the court for peace but the receiver did not deserve for the highest knowledge. Though it was not proper context, the Gita was revealed to Arjuna because he deserved. Therefore, the deservingness of receiver is the most important aspect of preaching. Deserving is always a minority. A professor has handful of research students. An elementary school teacher has a large crowd of students. Today people are judging the value of the preacher by the number of followers. A school teacher is greater than a professor! When the knowledge descends to a low standard, followers increase. But, that is also required. A school teacher is as important as the professor, perhaps even more important. But if you or the school teacher says that the school teacher is greater than the professor due to larger number of followers, it becomes absurd. If the spiritual knowledge is commercialized under the name ‘Applied Philosophy’ like ‘Applied Physics’ etc., a well of followers is transformed to an ocean of followers immediately. In ‘Applied Philosophy’, God is present only for namesake. No body is interested in the bio-data of God, which is only theoretical useless philosophy. It is all useless metaphysics! We are not worried about the real nature of God, be it imaginable or unimaginable. We are not interested whether God is formless or has a form. He should not be in the human form in the present generation. Let Him be in the human form in past. We have no objection in that case even if He is in human form. Some of us do not mind even the present human form provided He is useful to us! Are we not calling an advocate or a doctor or an officer as God, when our work is done by them? In any case, we are not worried about God but we are worried about the practical utility of God. Today spiritual preachers are conducting practical workshops of practical philosophy. The essence of all our worldly efforts is attainment of bliss by earning money and relief of stress by removing poverty. But here is a spiritual workshop, which gives you directly bliss without money and removes your stress even if you are poor. Who will not be attracted? You will find the entire world before your workshop for admission. You are intoxicated with the fame-wine and feel that you are far greater than Shankara, who was followed by just four disciples! Ofcourse, there are some good preachers who are not intoxicated like a school teacher seeing or showing his large crowd of kids. If all this setup is taken in positive sense, in which all this intoxication is absent, the elementary school teacher is essential for kids. Every grown up student was a kid at school level. Even a professor posted as a school teacher has to teach like a school teacher only.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 146. The majority of the people will oppose the spiritual path preached by you. Only one in thousands can accept your path. Should you not be universal and preach the path acceptable to all the people? In spiritual path, majority always goes to hell. Gita says that one in thousands can only reach the God. Even that one person will reach the Lord after several births (Kaschit Maam Vetti, Bahunaam Janmanaam). Jesus also says that the path leading the hell is very wide with full of rush. The path leading to the Lord is very narrow and only one or two persons will be travelling. The path to the hell is filled with flowers and the path to the Lord is filled with thorns. Therefore the path to the Lord is not acceptable to all. Then shall I recommend the path filled with flowers to all the people, which is easily acceptable to all of them? I am universal because I am preaching the narrow thorny path to all the people. But the path is not universal. I cannot help for that. In the spiritual path only minority exists. There is only one in millions like Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Jesus, Sai, Vivekananda etc., in the spiritual path. The gravel stones are in majority. There is only one Kohinoor diamond, which is valuable. The fraud Gurus shows that flowery path which is “Amrutha Visham” i.e., it looks like nectar but it is actually the poison. The Satguru shows the thorny path, which is “Visha Amrutham” i.e., it looks like poison but it is actually the nectar. Gita says the same (Yat Tat Agre Vishamiva). At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 147. A spiritual dialogue exposing the truth in spiritual path – Part-I Gayathri: Oh Swami! I have one question, why not we do duties to our children? At the same time we shall have all our devotion to the Lord only. Swami: Your suggestion is quite sounding very well to the ears, but you will find the reality only when you analyse the concept. One thing we should remember, we should not bring down the sky to our level since we are standing on the ground and since we are unable to fly to the height of the sky, let us agree the truth. It is true that the sky is the goal and it is true that we are on the ground. This will make us to start our journey, one day or the other you will reach sky. You have to be in the constant effort, God will give you many human rebirths Till you reach the goal, but one condition, you should not stop at any stage. When you are doing the duty it is love expressed in action, it is proven love. It is far greater than the love through words and through mind and therefore your love is ninety nine percent on your children and one percent on Lord. The Lord is not at all equal even to your children and just you have thrown one paisa [one cent] on the face of the Lord treating Him as a beggar for your love. At the same time you are posing that all your

love is on the Lord. It is just the reverse in practice and everything is only the mind and words. The proven love consists of sacrifice of five items to the Lord. The first three items are by the expression of love through words, mind, and brain. Through words people sing devotional songs and the emotional devotion flows through the mind, through the brain scholars discuss the nature of the Lord. These three constitute the theoretical phase, which has a value of one paisa [one cent] only. It is just like sacrificing drinking water supplied by the municipality freely. Similarly these three are already supplied to you by the Lord freely without any effort or strain by you. Indians are very famous in sacrificing these three items. The fantastic fun is that people sacrifice these three items to the Lord and ask some practical fruit for the sacrifice of these three theoretical items! The other two items are practical and their value is ninety-nine paise[99 cent]. Those two items are sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work. In this, sacrifice of these two items only lies the entire real sacrifice. This alone is the proven love, don’t argue that this is impossible for you. You are doing the sacrifice of these two items sincerely to your children. Therefore you are having real proven love on your children only. The sacrifice of the first three items is not done in the case of your children. That means the sacrifice of these first three items is false dramatic love. The word duty which you just uttered constitutes the last two items only, Which are the sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work. Therefore what is the meaning of your statement that resulted finally? You will sacrifice the false love to the Lord and the real love to your children. You designate the false love as the real whole love which is dedication of mind. Now you say that you have dedicated all your mind to the Lord only! Fantastic! And you say that you are simply doing duty to your children! Which is nothing but the real love! How clever you are! You can fool any human being in this world but not the Lord who is omniscient. Oh Gayathri! Let us stick to the truth only atleast before the Lord. Let us accept frankly our inability to sacrifice all the five items. Let us pray the Lord to help us in reaching the sky and let us accept that we are on the ground only, no need of any false prestige before the Lord. The Lord is always pleased when we accept and speak the truth before Him. The first three items constitute the drinking water supplied to you freely. Do not ask any practical fruit for the sacrifice of those three items. Even in a commercial hotel, they do not charge for the supply of water. The other two items constitute the actual plate of meals, which represent the real sacrifice, since these two items are from your hard work only. For the sacrifice of these two items you can ask for the practical fruit. But remember that the Lord will pay the exact fare of your plate of

meals. Here also don’t be over ambitious, you supply a plate of meals and ask for one lakh of rupees[one billion $]! Ask for the equivalent justified normal rate. It shall be paid to you if you ask the justified rate for your meals. If you ask too much, the Lord will look at you with a hatred look and will pay you the exact fare only, don’t have poor impression In His heart, next time even if you offer the plate of meals, He will refuse. You have lost the chance of minimum business also with the Lord. Remember one thing that when you provide plate of meals to the Lord, you have to supply drinking water also, though it does not cost anything. When the eater requires some water during eating food, will you say “What is there in the water which has no value? Eat this sweet.” Similarly some people do the sacrifice of work and fruit of work sincerely. They feel that they have purchased the Lord by their sacrifice. They never love, they never sing devotional songs, and they never discuss the divine nature of the Lord, because they neglect the valueless water. I told you not to give simply water to the guest and avoid the meals. In this context only I criticised the donation of water, don’t extend this When you offer the plate of the meals to the guest and simply give him food Without the drinking water, that will be utter foolishness of you. Feeding the guest is complete only when the meals are given with water. After all, ninety-nine paise[99 cent] cannot constitute the full one rupee[1 $] In fact, I pity such people because they donate ninety-nine paise but become lazy to donate that one paisa from their pocket. The one paisa left over in the pocket cannot be used at all for any purchase. Gita said that one has to reach and please the Lord by crossing the duties. “Sarva dharman parityajya”, here the word dharma means the duty. The duty constitutes the real love, if what you said is acceptable and correct Shankara could have stayed with his mother doing his duty by serving her and he could have said that all his real love is only the Lord and that he is doing just his duty as her son; Love is the basis of the duty. Where the duty lies, there only the real love lies, it is the real proof. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 148. Oh blind bull!!! Sadhana means attaining the grace of the Lord in human form by serving Him. Upasana is attaining something, which is very much near and similar to the Lord. In Upasana you cannot serve the Lord. Upa means near. Asana means attainment. In Upasana you can understand the nature of the Lord through a model (Prateeka), which has some similarity with the Lord. Veda says that the Sun or the mind etc., should be meditated as the Lord (Adityam Brahmeti Upaseeta, Tam Mana Iti Upaseeta). The Sun removes the darkness as the Lord removes the ignorance. The mind creates several forms in dream as the Lord creates several forms in the world. The Sun and the mind are only the models to

understand the Lord. When you meditate upon the Sun and the mind you can only understand the nature of the Lord. But you cannot serve the Lord. Hanuman meditated upon the Sun and understood the nature of the Lord. Then He met Lord Rama and served Him. Therefore Sadhana is greater than Upasana. Upasana is the beginning stage and Sadhana is the final stage. Sadhana (Spiritual effort) without Guru is like a blind bull running in the field through out the night and was unable to reach the village since the farmer guide is not associated with it. Guru means He who removes the ignorance and shows the right path. Without Guru you will be wasting lot of energy and lot of time without reaching the goal. If you recognize the Lord in human form and serve Him like Hanuman and Gopikas you can attain the highest fruit. All this is known only through the preaching of the Guru. If you are serving the statues you will end in misery only like Tyagaraja. The blind bull spends all its energy through out the night without any use. Had it been in the hand of a guide it could have reached the village in ten minutes by spending very little energy in walking. (Swami sang the following song spontaneously here). Oh! Blind horse ! – Hear the Guru | You don’t see the way – But you are running with vigor || How many wives – How many husbands – How many Sons and How many daughters ---- You had for the past millions of births! Don’t be trapped by the sweet words and sweet love of these family members | They are your real enemies in your Sadhana--You have stolen their money in the previous birth and they have come now to get it from you with interest || They have come not only to collect their loans – but also to revenge upon you--By spoiling your Sadhana || Your energy and time are limited – they cannot save you when the death attacks you | They will leave you after their revenge--They have come to you for food and shelter – Help them as per your duty | But be brief with them without wasting time and energy || Hear Me, See Me, Speak about Me and Think about Me only | Your senses caught by these bonds will not allow you to come to Me-----The blind bull ran and ran through out the night and was in the field only----It was dissociated from the guide – Therefore catch the Guru at once || Holy Jesus told in the Bible that if one does not hate his family members he cannot become His disciple. I am explaining the reason of His statement. Your family attracts you by love and becomes an obstacle for your love on the Lord. Guru is very important in Sadhana. Nobody is more than Guru (Na Guroradhikam, Guru Saakshat Para Brahma). You must not limit the service by serving the Guru personally only. You must digest His preaching. Can you pass the examination if you have paid the fees regularly to the teacher? But today the Guru is concentrating on the fees but not on the student. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

149. Kingdom of God Today the sins are within the limits of certain control. What is the reason for this? Do you think that these courts and police system are controlling sins? People always have discovered loop holes in every system. The only control of the sins is the concept of God that was established since several generations by the valuable ancient tradition. People are controlled to some extent only due to fear of God and the hell created by God. People know that God knows everything and does not require any witness. Therefore, there is no argument of any case in the hell. There is no need of any advocate in the hell. The sin is shown to you through the divine television which is protected as picture. This is the meaning of word Chitragupta. Such divine concepts are only controlling the sins. Do not think that such concepts are really unreal but they are useful to control the sins and so should be retained. I assuredly tell you that such concepts are really real. Your ignorance of the truth cannot make it unreal. If you are unaware of the snake in the darkness, it does not mean that the snake is unreal. You will know the reality of snake, when it bites you. Therefore, the propagation of divine knowledge and devotion can alone change the society. When all the human beings become the real devotees of the Lord doing the real worship, God is pleased with such divine society. His grace will fall on such society. There will be no problem for any soul. One has to search for the trace of some problem in such society. The only problem in such society will be the absence of any problem! This is the permanent solution. This was the dream of Jesus which is the meaning of His word “Kingdom of God.” Leaving this, if you put any amount of effort, it will be only thronging spoons of sugar in to the ocean to turn it sweet. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami 150. Combining Many Religions MATTHEW 3 : 11 (Mark 1 : 1 to 8, Luke 3 : 1 to 18) “I indeed baptize you with water ….He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” Veda says ‘Prajnanam Brahma’ which means that the Holy Spirit is the divine nowledge. Gita says ‘Jnanaagnih’ which means that knowledge is fire. This means that the acceptance of Holy Jesus should be through His knowledge radiating through His sentences, which are like diamonds coming out from His mouth. The acceptance should not be just by sprinkling some water. If you accept Holy Jesus just for some money or bread or some materialistic benefits, that is not the real conversion. Your spirit i.e., the soul should be attracted directly by His powerful knowledge. The Holy water represents rituals without knowledge. Unless you study Vedas (Upanishaths) and Bhagavat Gita and realize the knowledge by putting it in practice you cannot be a Hindu. A true Hindu is always a true Christian because the practical sacrifice is the same in any religion.

Whether you can leave your family and money and come to God or not is same in any religion. The knowledge is same in all the scriptures. Whether you are a doctor studied in English medium or French medium, you can ordained minister the disease of any patient and perform the surgery. Religions are only languages and knowledge is the content of the syllabus. Anybody does not understand the Brotherly-hood of all the religions. If you travel along the religion – river you will reach the Spiritualism – ocean. Live as a sea fish and don’t be stagnant as a river fish by stopping your journey which should be along with the flow of religion – river. If a Hindu insults Holy Jesus and Holy Bible, he has insulted Holy Krishna and Holy Gita. Same thing applies to the follower of any religion. Let each human being understand all the religions by reading the scriptures of all the religions. An Indian goes to a foreign country and takes a degree in medicine studying the subject in that foreign language. If he comes back to India he can practice applying the subject he studied to any human being. He can perform the surgery to any person. You are purchasing a diamond from a foreign country or you throwing it away since it is the foreign diamond. You are using the fan, the electric bulb the television etc., which are invented by foreign scientists and you are using these things in your daily life. Why not you use the diamond like concepts from the foreign scriptures like Holy Bible in your spiritual life also? This question applies to the follower of every religion. At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami