Divine Discourse - Viii

DIVINE DISCOURSES BY HIS HOLINESS SHRI DATTA SWAMI VOLUME - 8

Contact Information Donations (Guru Dakshina) may be made to: Sri Datta Jnana Prachara Parishath For propagating divine knowledge and devotion Registration No. 209/2004 State Bank of India A/c # 10454992764 U. T. I. Bank, India A/c # 069010100148542 Sri Datta Seva Samithi For feeding beggars Registration No. 210/2004 State Bank of India Aa/c # 30001015515 Address for Communication 23-31-2/1, Kommu Vari Street, S. N. Puram, Vijayawada 520 011, India Email : [email protected] Web Site: www.universal-spirituality.org

Copyright © 2008 Universal Spirituality for World Peace, Florida USA This book may be freely distributed, reprinted or resold without altering contents.

PRICE OF THIS BOOK The price of this book is your Guru Dakshina, which may be in the form of the sacrifice of the fruit of your work (money) or may be in the form of the sacrifice of work (propagation of this book to the right readers). The Bhagavad Gita praises the former as karmaphala tyaga and the latter as karma samnyasa. You can pay the price of this book in one of these two forms or in both forms according to your ability (Yatha shakti), your devotion to the Lord (Yatha Bhakti) and your convenience (Yathavakasha). There is one more way to pay the price of this book. You can contact spiritually rich people and suggest to them to establish a spiritual foundation in their name, under their management and print this knowledge in the form of a book or books (in other languages also) and propagate to the world. By this way also you can attain the divine grace of God. In the Ramayana, Sita says to Hanuman that one can attain the good fruit even by a word (vacha dharma vapnuhi…). She says that Hanuman can enjoy the fruit of a good deed just by passing on a word to Rama about her safe existence in Lanka.

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Parabrahma Sutras

AVAJANANTI MAM MUDHA MANUSHIM TANUMASHRITAM | PARAM BHAVAMAJANANTO MAMA BHUTAMAHESHVARAM || 9-11|| When I enter the human body in becoming the human incarnation, the human beings who are egoistic and jealous do not recognize Me, the Lord of this world. They treat Me as a human being and repel against Me due to their inherent repulsion towards any greatness seen in their co-human beings. Instead of accepting Me as the greatest, they hate and even insult Me. —Bhagavad Gita

VIJAYAPURINYASTA PADAPADMAYATE VAMAHASTALOLA VEDA SHASTRAYATE JNANASURYAYATE DATTARUPAYATE SHRI VENUGOPALA KRISHNAYA VANDANAM We the devotees, bow to Shri Venugopala Krishna Murthy, (Shri Datta Swami), who is the present human incarnation, who has placed His divine lotus feet in the city called Vijayawada, in whose left hand exist all the sacred scriptures like the Vedas, Shastras etc., who is the radiating knowledge-sun and who is the incarnation of Lord Datta.

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ABOUT SHRI DATTA SWAMI His Holiness Shri Datta Swami (Swami) as called by His devotees is Dr. Jannnabhatla Venugopala Krishna Murthy, the eldest son of Shri J. Veera Bhadra Sastry and Smt. Hanumayamma. Shri J. Veera Bhadra Sastry is a retired professor of Sanskrit and is an author of about 100 books. He is a great astrologer in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Swami received a PhD in chemistry in His 19th year and worked as a professor in chemistry. Swami is also an author of about 25 research papers in international journals in chemistry. He learnt Sanskrit from His father, who taught Him just eight verses after which Swami started explaining from the 9th verse onwards. At the age of 11 years, Swami started composing Sanskrit poetry extempore. Swami was already an author of about 100 books in Sanskrit by the time He was 16 years old! Swami has toured all over India and debated with several scholars. He has brought about the unification of the great commentaries of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. After unifying these three main branches of Hinduism in India, Swami started unifying all the religions in the world and His main aim is World Peace. Swami is considered as the human incarnation of Lord Dattatreya by several devotees in India as well as in foreign countries. Shri Datta Swami was honored by the Argentine Parliament of Religions as a Member of Honor. Swami’s web site: www.universalspirituality.org, has been appreciated by devotees from around the world as a Heaven Center and has been linked to several other web sites. The divine knowledge of Swami is being appreciated all over the world and is being published as a series of books. A devotee of Swami, who is a top official in a foreign bank and also my friend, phoned me (Ajay) one day and told me “Today I went to a great scholar who is talented in Nadi Shastra [a type of astrology]. I asked him that I know a person by the name Datta Swami and I want to know about his details. He referred to the Nadi Shastra and told me, ‘The person by the name Datta Swami is Lord Dattatreya, who has come down in human form for the propagation of spiritual knowledge on this earth. You have come in His contact by your immense fortune. Do not ever leave Him because if you leave Him you are gone forever’. I was surprised to hear this because one day I was talking with Datta Swami on the phone and suddenly He told me that I should believe Him i

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as Lord Dattatreya, who has come down in human form for preaching the spiritual knowledge. Swami’s words exactly coincided with the words of the Nadi astrologer. Please do not tell this information to anybody”. Actually on that day when Swami (Datta Swami) was talking to this devotee, who is my friend, on the phone, Swami was in my house and I was just before him hearing the same. I felt that this information is thrilling and will make the devotees happy. Therefore, I told Swami Vishnu Dattananda about this information with a lot of happiness. Swami Vishnu Dattananda also felt very happy and directly phoned to Swami about this information. Swami laughed and told him, “The devotee wanted to keep this information secret because if I come to know of this, I may ask him about the necessity of approaching an astrologer when I Myself had told him the same. He felt that I may question his confidence and devotion in Me. But he has full faith in Me and all this happened only by My will. This becomes a supporting evidence for My statement. When that devotee told to keep this information as a secret, it means it has to spread fast according to the present terminology of human beings”. Swami laughed loud while stating this. One day I heard Shri Ganapathi Sachidanada Swamiji also telling in His divine discourse that one Nadi Shastra speaks that a scholar from South India will come and spread divine knowledge which will capture the entire world. Swamiji stated that from that time onwards Lord Dattatreya will lead this world and Thursday will be declared as a Universal holiday. We are also told that the famous book on future written by Nostradamus mentions about the appearance of a scholar from India who will establish the Universal Religion in the world so that the differentiating boundaries of all the religions will disappear. D. S. K. S. N. Murthy (Ajay) & Swami Vishnudattananda

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CONTENTS 1. SOCIAL SERVICE & DIVINE SERVICE .....................................................1

Work And Worship .....................................................................................2 Types of Devotion: Prostitute, Merchant & Real........................................3 2. KNOWLEDGE IS ASSOCIATED SIGN OF GOD ........................................6

Ladder of the Spiritual Path.........................................................................6 Meaning of Yajna ........................................................................................7 Service to Datta is Final ..............................................................................8 3. IMPACT OF THE PREACHING OF LORD ................................................11

Only Minority Changes .............................................................................11 Order of the Present Day Yoga .................................................................13 O Preachers! Keep Datta as Your Guide...................................................14 Does Yoga Mean Doing Physical Exercises? ...........................................15 4. THIS KNOWLEDGE IS FROM GOD ONLY ..............................................18

Unexpressed Doubt Answered ..................................................................18 Different Levels Of Devotees....................................................................20 God Never Becomes Fully Ignorant..........................................................22 Granting Boons by Human Incarnation.....................................................24 Incarnation Speaks in Relative Plane for Majority ...................................25 Spontaneous Divine Bhajan on Kalabhairava ...........................................27 5. GOD COMPETES WITH STRONGEST BOND..........................................29

Money is Strongest in Kali Yuga ..............................................................29 Chakras Signify Different Family Bonds..................................................31 Saints don’t Require after Death Rituals...................................................33 Real Meaning of Yajna..............................................................................36 Priests And Astrologers Colluded .............................................................38 Final Conclusion........................................................................................39 Achieve Salvation here & It continues after Death...................................42 Love the Lord rather than Respecting or Fearing......................................45 Authorities in Sprituality ...........................................................................48

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Sacrifice that Which you don’t give to Anybody......................................51 6. COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF SPIRITUALITY.........................................55

Meeting the Sadguru..................................................................................56 Equilibrium and Self-Control ....................................................................56 Restrictions on Leaving Family.................................................................58 Ayukta, Yogi and Yukta............................................................................59 Service And Parabrahman .........................................................................61 Existence of Parabrahman .........................................................................63 Logic And Beyond.....................................................................................70 Role of Science..........................................................................................72 Devotion and Service: Beyond Science ....................................................74 Yajna And Karma......................................................................................76 Karma ........................................................................................................80 Final Message Of The Gita........................................................................82 Self-Attainment .........................................................................................83 Jnana, Bhakti and Karma Yoga .................................................................85 Need for Self-Attainment ..........................................................................87 Goal of Nivritti ..........................................................................................88 Model for God and Creation......................................................................91 Accepting Human Incarnation...................................................................92 Incarnation and Three Qualities ................................................................97 Essence of the Gita ....................................................................................98 7. TEACHING FOR THE VARANASI SAINT..............................................101

Shankara’s Commentary .........................................................................101 Everything Is Not God.............................................................................102 Miracles Are Not Proof of Human Incarnation.......................................104 Prajnanam Brahma ..................................................................................106 Tradition Is Not Beyond Criticism ..........................................................106 God Is Above Society..............................................................................107 Every Being is Brahman..........................................................................108 Krishna Declared Himself as God...........................................................109 Who Can Recognize an Avatara?............................................................109 iv

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‘I’ In The Gita..........................................................................................110 Sadguru Is Datta ......................................................................................111 Why Other Saints Not Followed Swami? ...............................................112 Greatness of Phani ...................................................................................114 Swami Is Jnana Mohini ...........................................................................115 Physical Presence of Guru.......................................................................115 Propagation of Knowledge ......................................................................116 Why Can’t Saints Go Abroad? ................................................................119 God Does Not Need Service....................................................................119 Paripurna Avatara ....................................................................................120 God Preaches as per the Level of Receiver .............................................120 Suffering of Human Incarnation..............................................................121 Declaration of Being the Human Incarnation..........................................122 8. RESPONSINILITY OF INCARNATION ...................................................129

Greediness of Even Devotees..................................................................130 Selfless Service to Human Incarnation ...................................................134 Proof of True Devotion............................................................................137 Addressing Christian Devotees of San Francisco, USAError! Bookmark not define External Appearance..................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Comparison of Religious Scriptures..........Error! Bookmark not defined. Analyze Knowledge Even Though God is Beyond LogicError! Bookmark not defin Simple Social service is Meaningless .......Error! Bookmark not defined. 9. HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY—STRONG TIES ..............................138

External Differences ................................................................................138 Apparent Bad Qualities Exhibited by God..............................................139 Testing the Devotees ...............................................................................142 10. JNANA, BHAKTI & SEVA ARE STEPS OF ONE PATH ........................144

What is Dharma? .....................................................................................144 What Is Meant By Sacrifice and Service?...............................................148 Meaning of Triputi...................................................................................150 A Divine Miracle .....................................................................................153 Final Stage of Divine Knowledge ...........................................................153 v

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Service (Karma Yoga) .............................................................................157 11. ENLIGHTENING NOVELISTS AND SCHOLARS ..................................158

Miracles, Knowledge, Devotion, Service................................................158 Social Responsibility of Novelists...........................................................160 Breaking the Chain of Worldly Life........................................................161 Masked Knowledge .................................................................................163 12. DEVOTION IS TO BE EARNED BY SOUL .............................................165

Essence of Deed Develops Samskara......................................................165 Total Dedication to God is Climax of Sadhana.......................................166 13. GOD, CREATION AND SOUL ..................................................................171

Shankara’s Difficulty...............................................................................171 Unimaginable God...................................................................................171 14. ENRICHING CHRISTIANITY ...................................................................176

True Love.................................................................................................176 God and Creation.....................................................................................177 Brahman, Ishwara and Avatara ...............................................................179 Experiencing God through Medium........................................................181 Partial and Complete Incarnations...........................................................183 False preachers ........................................................................................184

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Chapter - 1

SOCIAL SERVICE & DIVINE SERVICE O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-3 October 2, 2006] Today a most important concept is to be analyzed. By doing social service one will certainly reach heaven which is only a temporary place. One has to return back to earth and again take the risk as per the Gita. But the abode of God is permanent and if one attains this divine abode, one will not return in a normal human birth. Such a divine soul is liberated and comes to earth as a human incarnation along with the Lord. The same social service can be done as a secondary activity keeping the preaching of spiritual knowledge and devotion as the primary activity. Such divine service includes the social service. But the social service alone does not include the divine service. Heaven (Svarga Loka) is the third upper world on the path to the abode of God, which is the seventh upper world (Satya Loka). If you are traveling towards the seventh world, you can make a break in the journey and visit heaven for sometime, since you have a ticket up to the abode of God. But if you have a ticket only up to heaven, you cannot travel up to the abode of God. Social service is just like a hostel feeding boys and girls without giving them any education. If you run a college giving them education as the primary activity and hostel accommodation as the secondary activity then the entire activity taken together can be called as college (education) and not hostel (mere accommodation). In divine service, devotees are served. In this world there is a large majority of devotees. Thus, a large part of society is served. Only atheists remain. They should be also helped to achieve their basic needs. There is a chance that they may become theists when they are settled in their lives. Perhaps the stress caused in earning their basic needs made them turn into atheists. Only a peaceful mind can digest spiritual knowledge. But even for them you must give the basic needs and then preach philosophy. God often helps the devotees with a view that when worldly worries are removed, they will travel on the spiritual path. Even after receiving help frequently from God, if the devotee does not change and continuously depends on the help, God 1

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becomes silent to that devotee’s prayers and condemns him/her. There is a limit for patience in hoping for the possibility of change.

Work And Worship Mahishasura is a he-buffalo. This animal is of a soft nature and is not cruel like a tiger or lion. A blind person who follows tradition without analysis can be compared to this animal. Such a blind ignorant fellow without intelligence to analyze the truth is often scolded by calling him by the name of this animal. A tiger or lion is a cruel animal but is in the service of Goddess Durga [Durga is shown riding a tiger or a lion]. Even such a cruel animal is honored since it is in the service of God. The silent and peaceful animal like a he-buffalo is condemned [Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon was killed by Goddess Durga]. The message from this story is very important. A person who is always interested in himself and his family and goes on earning without any trace of spiritual knowledge, represents the climax of ignorance like the he-buffalo. The he-buffalo is always interested in eating grass and is employed in routine mechanical worldly work [he-buffaloes are made to pull heavy burdens like bullocks]. This indicates that such a fellow will be born as a bullock or a buffalo which is always employed in routine work and constant earning of food. You find such people frequently in this world. They are constantly engaged in work and they keep propagating that work is worship. We agree that work is worship provided the work is confined to earning the basic needs of life. Beyond that, work is not worship but is a sin. Beyond such work done for one’s livelihood, worship to God is to be followed. Thus, work and worship are correct [a balance of both]. You can find the other extreme of people who say that worship is work. They do not earn their livelihood by any separate work. They like to earn their livelihood only through worship. Both these extremes are wrong and the middle golden path of Aristotle is correct. In the concept of work and worship, work is done only to earn one’s livelihood. That much work is essential to maintain the body, which is required even to do any worship. Infact such work is a part and parcel of the worship. Hence, such a devotee is doing worship alone [even when he is working to earn his livelihood]. Remember that the word worship always means practical devotion (service by the sacrifice of work or the fruit of work) and not theoretical 2

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devotion like meditation, prayers, songs etc. Knowledge can come under this theoretical devotion. Though it appears as theoretical devotion, it has a separate status (Jnana Yoga is separated from Bhakti Yoga) because without the knowledge, both devotion and service are impossible. Ofcourse, if the knowledge does not end in service through the devotion, such knowledge again comes under useless theoretical devotion. Knowledge, devotion and service are the three consequent steps to please God. If service (which can be called as practical devotion) is not done, the knowledge and devotion are only theoretical and useless. We find great scholars of divine knowledge and great devotees without the aspect of sacrifice of service. Such theoretical scholars and devotees are useless and do not achieve even a trace of the grace of God. Such scholars can be useful in preaching to the public and such devotees who are good actors in expressions and singing can be used as actors in devotional cinemas. A boy saw a movie called ‘Bhakta Prahlada’ and was greatly inspired by it. He became a saint after living in a cave without food (Bala Yogi in Andhra Pradesh, India). But the girl who acted as Prahlada in that movie became a great actress in the cinemas and earned a lot of money. Such unfortunate preachers and devotee-actors are mocked by the Veda as animals of angels (Devanam pashuh). Such unfortunate souls are meant only for serving others and cannot enjoy the result. An animal like a bullock cultivates the land through hard work. The fruits of the crop (grains) are taken by the farmer and the useless grass is given to the bullock. The bullock even carries the grains from the field to the house of farmer as a vehicle. The film actress who acted as Bhakata Prahlada is like such a bullock and all the money earned by her is like the useless grass. The boy who sat in the cave in the meditation of God is like the farmer who got the fruits of the crop.

Types of Devotion: Prostitute, Merchant & Real Majority accepts the existence of God. But God is unimaginable. A form is required to pray to, praise or meditate upon God. Prayer, praise and meditation are theoretical devotion, which are the preliminary step. When you love a girl with mind and express love for her by sweet words, it is all just the theoretical phase. She may be trapped by you to fulfill your desire by such theoretical love but your love is that of a prostitute [insincere love]. You will avoid marriage which is practical 3

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love. Married life involves continuous service to her in the form of sacrifice of wealth and work. Sometimes, if she is bedridden by a life long disease, you have to continue your service without aspiring for any fruit in return from her. Instead of all this risk, you may spend a little money on her to fulfill your momentary desire. In that case you are a merchant investing something for profit. Your behavior to God is also similar to these two (prostitute and merchant). Both these are called as Veshya Bhakti and Vaishya Bhakti respectively. Some want to fulfill their desires just by expression of love (mind) and words (prayers or songs) like a prostitute. Some are prepared to spend a little temporarily for God apart from theoretical devotion, to fulfill their desires like a merchant. They treat God as a prostitute and make business by paying some amount in worship for fulfilling their desires. They all forget that God can never be trapped by any soul. Some want only enjoyment from the girl but not any dowry. Similarly, some want only bliss from God and not any materialistic benefit. Some are exactly the opposite since they want to fulfill their materialistic desires by loving a rich girl. Such people are not bothered about the form of the girl. Similarly, some people love God for His super powers, which are used to satisfy their worldly desires. They are not bothered about God whether He has form or no form or any form. A few people love the girl not for their selfish enjoyment and not for her wealth. They really love the girl and the aim of their love is the happiness of the girl. Such lovers have no reason for their love and are ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of the happiness of the girl. Similarly, a very few devotees love God not for bliss and not for using His superpowers to solve their problems. The love of such rare devotee is reasonless and real. Their aim is the pleasure of God and not their own pleasure. Such a person loves the girl in a one-way traffic and is ready to sacrifice even his life to please the girl. Similarly, some blessed soul loves God in a one-way traffic and is ready to sacrifice even his life to please God. I have given this simile to you because all of you are very good scholars of cinemas and you will understand the concept through a simile which is very familiar to you. Thus knowledge, love (devotion) and service to God can thus be found either in the selfish path or in the selfless path. The first path is called as preyas and the second one is called as Shreyas as per the Veda. In both the paths, all the three (Jnana, Bhakti and Seva) exist as the 4

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common components. Even in loving a girl with selfish motive or with selfless real love, all these three steps are inevitable. Getting the details [knowledge] of the girl (Jnana), developing interest in her (Bhakti) and serving her temporarily or permanently (Seva) are the sequential steps in both path (selfish or selfless).

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Chapter - 2

KNOWLEDGE IS ASSOCIATED SIGN OF GOD O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-7 October 2, 2006} Today Goddess Saraswati, who is always associated with Brahma, is worshipped. Saraswati is different from Brahma but is constantly associated with Brahma. Saraswati represents the special divine knowledge (Prajnanam) and Brahma represents God in human form. This means that the divine knowledge is separate and is an associated sign of God but can be treated as an inherent sign due to its constant association.

Ladder of the Spiritual Path Any state in the spiritual path is to be appreciated relatively with respect to the lower step, but it is criticized relatively with respect to the higher step. You are encouraged by showing the lower steps, but you are inspired to become active by seeing the upper step. If you become lazy assuming that the step attained by you is final, the upper step is to be shown to you. If you are discouraged by seeing the higher steps, you are encouraged by showing lower steps. A theist who worships formless God is better than an atheist. Such a theist is lower than the theist who worships statues and pictures because God with some form is easy for concentration. Again the theist worshipping statues is inferior to the theist who worships God in human form or atleast the best devotees. This is the ladder of the spiritual path. The devotee worshipping the living human incarnation cannot be criticized because there is no higher step than that. Hanuman and Gopikas who worshipped living human incarnations of their times were the highest devotees. Similarly the lowest step is atheism below which there is no other lower step. Hence, an atheist can never be appreciated. Thus, the highest step has no criticism and the lowest step has no appreciation. In between these two extreme ends, all the other steps have both criticism and appreciation according to the requirement of the situation of the devotee. Therefore, in My divine knowledge, rituals and the worship of idols have both appreciation and criticism with respect to the state of 6

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devotee. If you are on the ground, I will appreciate the first step before you. But if you have climbed the first step, I will appreciate the second step and criticize the first step with respect to its higher step. Therefore, My appreciation and criticism vary from one level of devotees to the other level of devotees. You should not misunderstand that My criticism means condemning that stage totally in all directions for all levels of human beings. Sacrifice (Yajna) should be performed and I am not condemning Yajna as the followers of Jnana do. I only condemn the misinterpreted practice of Yajna [burning of food in fire]. If Yajna is performed in the right sense [cooking food and serving to human incarnation or devotees], it is far far greater than Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (theoretical devotion). The sacrifice is practical devotion or service to deserving human beings like the human incarnation, devotees, poor people etc.

Meaning of Yajna Yajna does not mean burning food in the fire which is criticized by Lord Kapila in the Bhagavatam. The fire is only a means to cook the food (Yajna Sadhanam). Fire is not the deity (upasya) of the Yajna. The Sadguru is the deity of Yajna who acts as the priest and is the fire personified (Yajnasya Devamritvijam—Veda) due to the radiant light on His face and hunger-heat in His stomach. Fire is characterized by light and heat. Today in the Yajna the priest who does not know the meaning of Vedas is acting as the Sadguru. In olden days, Sadguru who knew the meaning and essence of the Vedas acted as the priest. Everything is reversed today. Here again I do not condemn the priests. I only criticize them. Due to their lack of knowledge, they give food to the physical fire. I only advise them to learn the Sanskrit language in which the Vedas are composed. They should study the Shastras to give the right interpretations. For example in Yajna, to understand the personification of fire as Sadguru, the knowledge of figures of speech (Alankara Shastra) is required. Sadguru is indicated by the word ‘fire’ through a metaphor (Rupaka). These priests do not even know the language; the knowledge of the Shastras is far beyond expectation. This Yajna which is looked upon as a very inferior path of karma, now becomes the highest state of the spiritual path, which is the practical sacrifice and service to Sadguru or to devotees or atleast to poor people. Such Yajna

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according to the correct interpretation is greater than knowledge and theoretical devotion. The scholar and devotee without service are useless. When the fate of the scholar of the Vedas without practice is this useless state, what is the fate of the present priest who does not have even the basic knowledge of the Vedas? Only a scholar of the Vedas should be called as a Veda Pandita [scholar of the Veda]. The present priest who simply recites the Veda without knowing its meaning should be called as Veda Pathaka [reciter of the Veda]. Ignorant people call the present priest as a Veda Pandita, since they do not know the difference between these two words. The present priests may be angry with Me misunderstanding that I am spoiling their livelihood. No no. I am only increasing their status both financially as well as in terms of their honor. The Sadguru will be paid much more by the public and will be honored equal to God. Similarly, I am not condemning the worship of idols. I am only requesting all of you to know the right aspect in such worship. All the idols are in the human form. Such worship is a training to serve the human form of Lord. Since you have repulsion to worshipping a cohuman being as God, such training is given to minimize your repulsion. You must know the point behind such worship. It is said that Brahma has no worship. This means that the absolute God can never be worshiped directly since God is unimaginable. The next step is worship of Shiva in the form of a stone without human form. This step is for such egoistic demons who do not like to worship even a stone if it is in human form. This is the reason why demons worship only Shiva in the form of a wave but not in human form. The wave represents energy or power. Demons worship God only for power since they want to become God in human form through the exhibition of super powers. The third state is Vishnu in the human form represented by any statue in human form.

Service to Datta is Final Let not the followers of Vishnu condemn Lord Shiva to be the God of demons. Shiva exists in human form also represented by such statue, which becomes the third state of Vishnu. The Veda says that Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same. Demons by exhibiting the superpowers are also serving the divine mission, since superpowers alone can turn the atheist into a theist. It is a service at the basic level. 8

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God is not foolish to give boons (superpowers) to demons. The fourth state of the spiritual path is Datta. Datta means Sadguru who is the living human form of God. Service to Datta is the final stage. The statues can be used to develop theoretical devotion by inspiration. But the statues are useless for practical devotion, which is practical service that is confined only to living beings. It should not be extended to inert objects. Innocent people are fooled by the priests who say that God is receiving the practical service through statues. This is an utter lie! The priest hiding behind the statue is receiving your service. If the priest is a real devotee or atleast a poor fellow, your service to the statue is meaningful. In that case, your sacrifice goes practically and directly to the priest according to the degree of his deservingness. The statue is only a drama of undeserving people to extract more service from you. Another drama is to put money in the hundi [donation box] kept before the statue. Such money is again monitored by the management of temple. You may have the satisfaction that the undeserving priest is avoided. But the management is also not spending the money in right path. Though the management is not personally enjoying the money like the undeserving priest, your money is wasted in the constructions in the temple in the name of service to visitors. The devotee who goes to temples should not enjoy the facilities. In olden days, the temples were on hills and forests so that the devotee faced a lot of stress to reach God represented by statue. The facilities hinder spiritual progress like the superpowers. Such money should be spent on scholars and talented devotees to spread divine knowledge and devotion to God. Such money can also be spent to help beggars but such service to beggars should be associated with preaching spiritual knowledge and devotion to them. I do not criticize the management of temples stating that they are enjoying God’s money. But I criticize them for not spending the divine money in the correct way. The divine money should not be touched by the government for social service. Only the money collected by tax is meant for social welfare. The management of temples should be constituted of perfect scholars of divine knowledge and not of mere administrators (officers) of social welfare. Saints, scholars and devotees should constitute the management of temples and not ordinary people having worldly education (I.A.S. degrees). The whole system is going in the wrong direction and should be rectified so

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that the grace of God will shower upon humanity and the government will also get good name and success. The uneducated and undeserving priest stealing your service and the innocent management wasting the money is one extreme end. The Advaitin, who eats the food offering it to himself assuming that he is God, is another extreme end, which is selfish greediness in disguise. In between these two extreme ends, which are totally unreal, the middle golden path of truth is serving deserving beggars, the deserving devotees and Sadguru in increasing order of importance. Sadguru is God in human form directly and is more pleased if His real devotees who participate practically in His divine mission are served. God likes such real devotees (having practical devotion) more than Himself. Between God and real devotees, the real devotees are more important for Him. God will tolerate if He is insulted (Bhagavatapachara), but will never tolerate if His real devotee is insulted (Bhaagavataapachara). Ramanuja left His wife since she insulted real devotees. Lord Vishnu did not react when Hiranyakashipu scolded Him, but He reacted vehemently when His real devotee, Prahlada was insulted. Between beggars and God, God should be more important. Jesus supported His personal service of applying perfume to His feet over serving beggars. He said that beggars are always present, but the chance to meet Him was very rare. A hungry person should be fed immediately as an emergent service. Even if he is an atheist, human life should be saved because there is a chance of change in him in the future if his life is saved. Social service involving helping the poor is always appreciable provided such service is followed up by the divine service i.e., propagation of knowledge and devotion.

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Chapter - 3

IMPACT OF THE PREACHING OF LORD Only Minority Changes O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The generation and propagation of the divine knowledge is not a waste. Certainly, all will not change. A few will partially change. One or two in this minority will change completely (Manushyanam…Gita). Majority remains as it is or atleast get the theoretical truth, which may or may not lead them to practice in future. They are always concentrating on the worldly bonds only and hence are unable to practice. Their goal is money, family, comforts, fame etc., only. At the maximum they may attend some workshops to get relief from the stress because they are tired with the stress by the problems to attain their goals. The core remains the same. For them work is worship. Their ultimate and utmost spiritual effort is only the participation in a workshop on stress relief so that they can be reactivated for fresh efforts to achieve the worldly goals by improving their professional skills. Today, yoga workshop is just a commercial advertisement! The spiritual preachers also changed according to the public because the tendency of today is that the ruler should go according to the needs of public in democracy. A ruler may do like that who is a politician aspiring for position, power and wealth. But a spiritual preacher should not come down to such level. He should guide the people to the right path without any compromise of the truth. The people also should atleast try to follow the knowledge. But today the knowledge is following people. The people need only fresh strength in the worldly work. The spiritual preacher limited himself to that particular lowest level only which is needed for the public. All the other higher levels are just mentioned as a formality at the end as a bhajan (devotional song) just like the national anthem at the end of a political meeting. Here the spiritual preacher should impress on the life after death. He should preach about the unimaginable stress, which is to be faced by the people after death in the hell. Islam and Christianity speak always about the permanent hell. According to them, there is only one enquiry at the end of this only one 11

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human life. They say that after that enquiry, either permanent place in the abode of God or permanent hell will be the result of the divine judgment. Such concept is absolutely correct and is also universal. The entire direction should be towards God and a little attention can be given on stress relief and all ancient Hindu preachers like Shankara etc did this. But everything is reversed now. The law of God is one and the same in any religion. God uses His special power in the case of exceptionally deserving devotees to grant the human rebirth and this cannot be generalized. In Hinduism this exceptional facility is extended to every human being and this caused a careless lenient view about the spiritual effort to concentrate on God. The president of the country can cancel the death punishment in the case of a deserving candidate using his special power. If this is generalized and if every human being is granted this facility, there is no fear for any one to do a murder! Due to this reason only, we can find most of the Christians and Muslims in Churches and Mosques to worship God and they are not found in the stress relief-work shops. We can find mainly Hindus in these work shops. Hindus feel that a number of chances of human birth will be available in future and going to hell is only a temporary visit and hence, they concentrate on stress relief in this world. One must note an important point here. By concentrating on God through devotion, you will get the stress relief also, which is included in the devotion. Then why to spend time in these workshops for mere stress relief from these temporary worldly problems? In the school all the subjects are taught. If you go to a single teacher, you can learn one subject only. Which is better? School or Tuition teacher? By the divine knowledge and devotion, you are getting stress relief in this world as well as in the upper world. In the workshop you can get stress relief from the problems in this world only. I am not criticizing these workshops because I am not in the competition with those preachers for fame or wealth. I am also not jealous with those preachers for their fame. I am only pained by the fate of the followers and those preachers also in the future. The Veda says that blind lead blind and fall in the well (Andhenaiva…). Some preachers say that they know the truth, but they are doing like this for initial attraction. But the initial attraction is always continuing through out the human life. What is the difference between such workshops and cinema theaters, since both give stress

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relief? What is the difference between these workshops and hospitals since both give relief from physical illness?

Order of the Present Day Yoga It has become the fashion of the day to use the word Yoga for every activity. Yoga means simply attainment. But, attainment of what [is desirable]? This ‘what’ is important. The Yoga shastra of Patanjali uses this word strictly in the attainment of Ishwara (Lord). To render service (practical devotion) to the Lord, mental and physical health is needed. The early five stages (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara) concentrate on this attainment of physical and mental health. Afterwards the other three stages (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) deal with the main subject of attainment of or bonding with the Lord. The preachers are stopping with the early five steps only and limiting their efforts by turning their spiritual workshops in to gymnasiums, hospitals and recreation centers. By this you are preaching the art of peaceful and happy living on this earth. If you stop here, the main goal of Patanjali Yoga is totally lost. A boy, who is admitted to the school, is given fees and good food. He is expected to go to the school and study. But, he goes to the cinema theatre and uses the fees to purchase the ticket for cinema. This is the fate of Yoga today. The Yoga centre teaches all the steps to attain physical health by the first four steps and mental health by the fifth step. The person becomes fully healthy and attains mental peace by the control of thoughts (Chittavrutti Nirodhah…Yoga Sutra). The thought is controlled so that it is diverted from the world to use it in the direction of devotion (Vyavasayatmika…Gita). The owner controls a horse from the wrong side so that the horse will not have freedom to go as it likes in the wrong directions. Therefore, controlling thoughts to divert the mind to the right path is Pratyahara. It is withdrawal of mind (Kurmonganiva…Gita) but not destruction of mind (Manolaya Yoga) as some peculiar preachers talk! The preachers are talking about the eternal dissolution of thoughts, which is equal to killing the horse. By doing so the horse cannot be used in any direction. The purpose is lost. One medicine to cure the tooth pain was advertised like this: by using this medicine you will never get pain for any tooth because this medicine will remove all the teeth from your mouth! Similarly, if you kill the mind, the problems and all worries have ended once for all. By killing the horse, the problem in controlling 13

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it is also solved forever! Such a state in which the thoughts are dissolved and the mind is destroyed results in the state of a stone in human form. Now, you will become the statue of the human being carved in a stone and in the next birth you will become even the real stone! The mother, father and preacher represent Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. The mother is concentrating on the physical health by giving proper food. The father is concentrating on the development of mental health by giving proper education to earn wealth and fame. The preacher (Guru) concentrates on the development of spiritual line of the soul, which is eternal. The mother is on one extreme end with blind love and the preacher is on another extreme end with true knowledge. The father is in between these two with world oriented knowledge. Lord Vishnu stands with Lakshmi, to give you worldly pleasures. Lord Shiva stands with Parvati, to give you longevity and fame by granting power. Brahma stands with Sarswati and the Vedas, to preach you the spiritual divine knowledge. Brahma is the actual form of Guru Datta. People like the mother to a large extent as you see the rush in Tirupati (Temple of Vishnu). A lesser crowd is seen before the temple of Shiva who saves you from death and gives you the materialistic prosperity also along with knowledge. Brahma has no temple. Datta was not famous at all. The reason is that people are interested in the temporary worldly affairs, which are visible here. They are not interested in the permanent invisible life after death in the everlasting fire of the hell.

O Preachers! Keep Datta as Your Guide Every spiritual preacher should keep Guru Datta as the guide. People should follow the preacher but should not be the reverse. In this Kali Yuga the system is reversed. The husband follows wife. The father follows the son. The teacher follows the students. The preacher follows the devotees. The aim of the teacher in the present colleges is to please his students so that his job will be safe with better salary. The teacher is evaluated with the extent of happiness of the students and he concentrates only to attract them by keeping them always happy. The teacher is not bothered about inducing the knowledge into students. You must evaluate a teacher by the performance of the students in the final examinations. Similarly, the spiritual preacher should be evaluated by the extent of devotion and sacrifice for the sake of God that is developed in the devotees, which alone is going to give the divine fruit. The 14

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teacher should be congratulated even if one student passes in the class but that one student gets gold medal from the University. In the present system of spiritual preachers all the students are fully happy through out the academic year (human life) but all are failing in the final examinations. The preacher is giving mental and physical health so that one can enjoy the world with full vigor. The Gita condemns such life of enjoyment of worldly pleasures, which are temporary and have to be left in the death. Even the heaven is temporary (Kamatmanah…, Kshene Punye… Gita). Such people are atheists and were called as the followers of Purvamimamsa. All the Vedas and rituals are meant only for the temporary heavenly pleasures in this line. Shankara condemned this line by defeating Mandana [Mishra]. He diverted the same line towards the achievement of the grace of God by diverting all the work to the Lord in human form. Similarly, the present spiritual preachers should continue their workshops but should extend the same mainly towards devotion to attain the grace of God. The stress relief in the present workshop is only a temporary sedative tablet to sleep and forget the problems. But the devotion to God will solve the problems forever. The former is preliminary anesthesia (sedative) to be given in the beginning and the latter is the actual surgery done to remove the problem of illness permanently.

Does Yoga Mean Doing Physical Exercises? In Pravrutti today the dignified statement is that one is working in U.S.A. But, if you go and really see him there, he will be working as a labor! Similarly, in Nivrutti the dignified statement of a devotee is that one is practicing Yoga in workshops run by internationally reputed spiritual preachers in USA. But if you go and really see him in the Yoga centre, he will be doing certain exercises to attain mental and physical health. He has no connection with spiritual field. Yoga is purely spiritual field. Mental and physical health is needed not only for spiritual field but also needed for materialism. It is a general basic requirement of the life of even an atheist. Hanuman is the top most star in Yoga in all the steps. His physical and mental health is in climax. He did not open a workshop to guide the professional carrier of people on the earth. After attaining the best physical and mental health and after completing the studies of both Pravrutti and Nivrutti from Sun, He realized that meeting the then 15

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human incarnation was the real Yoga. He waited on the hill of Kishkindha to meet Lord Rama. All His mental and physical health was used completely in the service of Lord Rama. He did not use it in His professional carrier by starting spiritual workshops of yoga. We will be astonished to see that He dedicated all His vigor in the personal service of Rama to search and get back His [Rama’s] wife. He used it in God’s personal service. Just this is the difference between the present people in Yoga centre, who use the results of the preliminary Yoga (Mental and Physical health) for their personal work and Hanuman, who used the same results for the personal work of Rama. People use yoga for the personal work of souls to enjoy the fame and popularity on this earth. In this preliminary Yoga, you have to replace yourself, your family and society also by God. There is no sin in using the strength of mental and physical health obtained by preliminary Yoga up to the work needed to maintain yourself, your family and the society, which is needed to serve the mission of God. But it is a sin to use for unlimited ambition with selfishness. For such sinners, the only way to enter the spiritual field is to shell down the excess [money] earned by sin in the mission of God on this earth (Karma Phala Tyaga). When a rich man approached Jesus, He suggested such total sacrifice of the sinful money as a pre-requisite to enter the spiritual field. People want the Yoga up to first five stages only which is just helpful to their materialism. This much is desired even by an atheist. There is no difference between a devotee and an atheist up to this point. If we show the higher three steps related to God only, the devotees become certainly interested. But their interest is again to strengthen their materialism (Pravrutti) only by the upper three steps (Nivrutti). In Nivrutti, the first point of a devotee is about the superpower that can do miracles. Such enquiry about miracles is not for recognition of God and not for doing service to God. In the first stage they say that they need the proof of miracles just only for recognition of God to develop in the spiritual field. God is trapped by them due to His infinite kindness and shows the proof hoping that they will turn to the spiritual line. After seeing the proof, they become very strong devotees and God is again trapped by their talented devotion. They show the climax of theoretical devotion. They do sacrifice of work and fruit of work also to prove that they have achieved the final step of divine service and that they have been really transformed. After sometime, when they are sure that God is 16

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fully trapped by them, the hidden desire to use His super powers for personal problems comes up in a very sweet coated manner. They plead that the problem is disturbing them from doing the divine service. For the third time, God is again trapped. God solves their problem with His super power, behind which the secret technology exists. He uses the fruits of their own good deeds to solve the problem because their devotion is doubtful. Now they start using the superpower of God for every problem in chain. There is no end to this chain. God refuses to solve the problems. Suddenly they discard this human form of God and search for another human form of God repeating the same procedure. They think that they have fooled the previous God and could solve atleast a few problems by their talent of filmi action. But they have not fooled God because no one can fool God. God has spent from their own bank by withdrawing the fruits of their own good deeds as pre-matured deposits with reduced value. When they approach the new God, history repeats. Even if the new God is not genuine and is a demon, even then, the superpower working through that demon is also from the same God, who is present in the previous discarded God only. You may go to another human form of God or demon, there is no use because the same God exists in another human form and the power of the same God works through that demon. You have changed only the external forms but not the internal God who is one only. If there were several Gods, your trick becomes fruitful continuously. Even if you run to temples, priests, astrologers etc., there is no use because your problem can be solved only by that one God. The priests have to use the same power of the same God. Planets are the executive powers of the same God. Therefore, there is no use of changing the God. You must change yourself. There is no other way than this even in the infinite span of time. If you stick to the previous real human form of God, you can change yourself because He will guide you by preaching the most powerful divine knowledge and brings determination in you by clearing all your doubts. Therefore, if you have caught the real human form of God, use Him to uplift your soul (Uddharedatmana… Gita). A rabbit took some money from goddess earth. It wanted to avoid the payment of loan to the earth. Therefore, it started running away to avoid the earth. After a very long run, it became tired and stood. Immediately the earth below its legs asked for the payment of the loan!

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Chapter - 4

THIS KNOWLEDGE IS FROM GOD ONLY Unexpressed Doubt Answered O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [A few days back Phani developed a doubt in his mind like this: “Why did Swami tell that we should not ask anything from God? What is the reason? What is the harm if we ask Him as we ask our parents?” Phani was sealing all such questions thinking that He should not ask Swami anything about this topic. He simply took a decision that nothing should be asked from God including the reason for it. In the absence of correct reason, the wrong reason takes the place and appears as the correct reason. Sometimes he thought that asking the fulfillment of desire from God is infact justified. Parents feel happy to fulfill the desires of their children whenever they ask. Like this a few days passed away and this struggle continued in the mind of Phani. Today Swami asked Phani to sit and started giving answer to his doubt, even though Phani did not reveal it. Swami asked Phani “I told you not to ask God to fulfill your desire. This does not mean that you should not ask the reason for not asking God to fulfill the desire. You have sealed the desire and its reason also. An inspector should arrest the correct criminal and put him in the cell. He should not arrest all the family members and all the neighbors of the criminal and put them in the cell! Only desire should be arrested and not all its related concepts, which must be clarified to have the total true knowledge of the topic.” Swami gave the following analysis for his doubt.] Do not ask anything from God, which is either related to present or future. When you ask something in present or something in the future, it clearly means that you are reminding Him about the corresponding reaction that is to be immediately implemented in the need. This indirectly means that God is not alert as you are. This is insulting God. Due to such sin the requirement is not answered. If you are asking to protect yourself or somebody else, it indirectly means that He is not aware of the things to be done due to the irresponsibility and this also 18

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indicates that He is not as kind as yourself. It means that God has potency to help but not kind enough to render the help. On contrary, it also means that you lack unfortunately the potency. It means if you fortunately have the potency you could have immediately responded and helped. Therefore, whenever you ask for anything it clearly means indirectly that God has some type of defect, which does not exist in your case. When you ask Him to fulfill the desire it looks as if that your desire is constitutionally justified. But God is not positively reacting due to either lack of positive response immediately or due to lack of knowledge of the constitution or due to lack of kindness to help the needy. All these points are very very subtle. But God is the subtlest and therefore, the knowledge of this analysis will certainly restrict you from asking fulfillment of any of your desires. Never bring present and future before God. Confine to the past always before God. Look back at your past life. Hundreds of incidents are there where you were helped by God. Even if you dispose some incidents through the incidental probability of success or through the efficiency of your efforts, certainly there are plenty of instances in which the help from God is clearly evident. Atleast remember those few incidents and express your gratefulness along praise to God for His kind help that was already done. The word Krutajnata [faithful] means remembering the past help. Kruta means the past help done. Jna means identifying it by analysis. If you confine to praying the Lord and thanking Him always about the past helps from Him, the Lord will be immensely pleased. Then the present and future are spontaneously taken care of by the God. But do not adopt this technique with a mind that God will help you in the present and in the future by following this procedure! You should really follow this path and you should really forget the present and the future. When large number of people came to hear the message from Jesus, they were hungry by the noon. This point was brought to the notice of Jesus. He never asked God to provide food for those hungry people who came to hear God’s word. Had He asked for that, He would have insulted God. God knows His responsibility very well towards the devotees who came there to hear about Him. God has the power to fulfill His responsibility even in the last fraction of second. Had Jesus told God to bless the devotees with food, it clearly means that God is not as kind as Jesus. Jesus never asked for anything. He came to know that there were four breads. He took them and showed to sky. He 19

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thanked God for providing those four pieces of bread. Immediately the present was responded and the four breads became four thousand breads. This application of analysis is limited to Nivrutti only. You should not extend this to Pravrutti. When you are hungry you have to beg the other souls because they are not omniscient to know that you are hungry. Pravrutti and Nivrutti should never be mixed. Phani praised Swami for His omniscience because Swami could clarify the doubt present in his mind even though it is not expressed. Swami told that God is omniscient and therefore, nobody can hide anything from God. Swami told that if you tell a lie even to your mother that you have taken food in the house of your friend, the mother believes and will not serve you the food. But God will serve you the food even after hearing your lie. Then Shri Ajay told one past experience. One day he came from the office to his house in the noon as usual for lunch. But the food was not ready and the cooking will be completed after a long time only. Then he returned back without taking food. On the way, he visited the house of Shri C. B. K. Murthy to see Swami. Swami asked Ajay whether he has finished his lunch. For the sake of polite mannerism Ajay told that he has finished his lunch. But Swami insisted the wife of Shri C. B. K. Murthy to serve lunch to Ajay. Devotees were surprised for this behavior of Swami. Then Ajay came out with the truth and he took the lunch and left for the office.

Different Levels Of Devotees [Swami continued the discourse:] There are three main levels in the spiritual path. 1) Materialism for Materialism. 2) Devotion for Materialism. 3) Materialism for Devotion. Each level has two (lower and upper) sub-divisions. In the first level the lower sub-division represents Duryodhana who asked Lord Krishna for His army, which is the physical force. The upper sub-level represents Arjuna. He asked Lord Krishna to come to his side as an advisor because Lord Krishna already told that He will not fight but will give advices only. Arjuna selected the intellectual power of guidance, which is more than the physical force. In both these sub-levels, both have treated Lord Krishna as a human being and not as the absolute God. Arjuna considered always Lord Krishna as a divine person but not as the absolute God. Miracles were not new to Arjuna. By his arrows he covered the entire sky so that even a drop of rain will not fall down. This super natural 20

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miracle is in no way lesser than hiding the Sun with His Sudarshana Chakra in the war by Krishna. Infact even Gopikas never considered the miracles of Lord Krishna to identify Him as God. They were sages for so many births and performed a number of miracles. They have the knowledge of themselves and the knowledge about Krishna (Mahatmya Jnana… Narada Bhakti Sutra). In the second level Krishna is recognized as God but the devotion to God is used for materialism only. The lower sub-level here indicates Draupadi who tried to use God to solve her problem on the earth. The upper sub-level indicates Dharmaraja, who tried to use God as protector and guide of justice to get heaven. He refused to tell the lie even if the God asked for it because it will lead him to the hell. Heaven is also a part of the materialism only, which is just like a five star hotel. In the third level all the efforts including materialism are just to please God only. Their goal is God only and nothing else. The lower sub-level here indicates Hanuman (in the angle of role, otherwise, as actor Hanuman is God Shiva) who slipped just once in such devotion while protecting Yayati. The upper sub-division indicates Gopikas who never slipped even once in such devotion. You must study the stories of devotees because they are the practical procedures of spiritual path, which are like the laboratory manuals in which the student is more involved. Scriptures are the theory-class rooms. Therefore, Vyasa wrote all the stories of devotees which are very important to know the practical problems in the spiritual path. These stories (Puranas) are part of the spiritual knowledge and not like the cinema stories meant for entertainment. Among these Puranas Ramayana, Bharatha and Bhagavatha are very significant. They deal with the then existing human incarnations available for those devotees. The other Puranas deal with energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc., for the devotees who suffer with jealousy and egoism to recognize the human form of the Lord and they are related to the departed souls only. Read this divine knowledge, digest it, propagate it and try to practice it as far as possible. Certainly, this knowledge has come from the absolute God. Whether God stays externally and I am just His messenger or whether God stays in Me and is giving this knowledge, it is immaterial. A duck is laying a golden egg every day. You should take that egg and use it for your needs. It is unnecessary for you whether the gold is present in its stomach or whether it is stealing the golden egg 21

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from outside and is giving to you. You need not analyze Me to see God in My human body, which is just like cutting the stomach of the duck, which becomes useless. You may say that you want to worship God directly through the human form so that you can please the God since it is your absolute aim. But I say that God is more pleased if you worship His real devotees. If you worship the devotees, God existing outside or existing in Me is more pleased than direct worship to Him. His devotees are greater than Himself in His view. A human incarnation may not be available always to all the devotees because of the complexity in the identification. Therefore, worship My devotees who are really sacrificing through practical devotion in My divine mission. If you worship Me, you will reach Brahmaloka, which is the top most. But if you worship My devotees you will reach the sixteenth upper world which is called Datta Sevaka Loka, which is topper than the top most Goloka (Goloka is above Brahmaloka). Remember this point after My exit from this present human body. Lord existing in Krishna created Goloka and the same Lord existing in this Datta Swami created Datta Sevaka Loka.

God Never Becomes Fully Ignorant Bliss of Human Incarnation [Shri G. Lakshman asked about the state of the human incarnation while granting the boons to His deserving devotees. He wanted to know whether God is in the state of self-realization or in the state of ignorance.] Swami replied: God will never become fully ignorant in spite of any effort. For the sake of entertainment and enjoyment God also needs the reality of the creation. When the reality of creation is felt the ignorance exists. Reality of the world is proportional to the extent of self-imposed ignorance on God. However, this self-imposed ignorance cannot be complete because the sun can never become jet-black. At the same time, He can look at Himself from the inner angle as the bright Sun. At the maximum, the Sun may look dim due to the black clouds covering him. Even in that state the Sun remains with original brightness without any change. The dim light of sun is only for the observer. God imposes ignorance on Himself and sees Himself from the other side as the observer. Even in that state He can see Himself as dim but not jet-black. Therefore, God in human incarnation is under partial 22

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ignorance only. Regarding the ordinary soul, it is the part and parcel of the black cloud. Whatever may be the extent of knowledge gained by the soul, the soul cannot reach the state of complete knowledge. It can never become completely bright like the radiating sun. The bright radiating Sun represents the absolute God (Nirguna Parabrahman) without any cover (Upadhi). The dim Sun covered by black cloud represents God under the self-imposed ignorance (Saguna Parabrahman). The bright cloud covering Sun represents the liberated soul. The black cloud represents the ignorant soul. Therefore, the absolutely Parabrahman is with full knowledge like the radiating sun and the ignorant soul is with full ignorance like the black cloud. Both these are the extreme ends of knowledge and ignorance. The absolute God like radiating Sun can enjoy the tragedy because due to the full knowledge-light no trace of misery-darkness can touch Him. The ignorant soul can fully enjoy the comedy like the black cloud with full ignorance-darkness. The human incarnation is the Sun covered by the black cloud. It is the union of God and the soul. Both the extreme ends are achieved to enjoy fully the tragedy and comedy in the world. Thus, the entertainment is continuous and the human incarnation is in continuous happiness, which is called as bliss (Ananda). The intermediate state of dim Sun and bright cloud are the average state having partial ignorance and partial knowledge. In this state the light present in the dim Sun or in the bright cloud is able to do miracles. The absolute sunlight without any darkness cannot do any miracle since the creation does not exist. The absolute dark cloud also cannot do any miracle which is completely under the divine control only. The light is the super power. Therefore, miracles are done not only by the human incarnation (dim sun) but also by a devoted liberated soul (bright cloud). Miracles represent the power of God but not God directly. The power is called as “Dharma Bhuta Jnanam” and the possessor of the power, the God, is called as “Dharmi Bhuta Jnanam” by Ramanuja. The sun is needed for preaching the complete true spiritual knowledge. The sunlight is sufficient to perform the miracles and grant the boons to the devotees. When the Sun comes down, the Sunlight exists along with the sun. But when the Sunlight is pervading all over the world, the Sun is not pervading. Therefore, the human incarnation gives divine knowledge and also performs the divine miracles whenever there is a real need. The liberated soul can also give the divine knowledge that 23

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was already generated by God and can perform the divine miracles with equal efficiency. But the liberated soul cannot generate the divine knowledge.

Granting Boons by Human Incarnation Whenever the human incarnation grants boons, it enters into the divine form of Kalabhairava, who is just a mood of God only. All the deities are only the moods of God only. Kalabhairava is a deity who is very very strict in implementing the cycle of deeds (karma chakra) and in evaluating the deservingness of the devotee while granting the boons. Actually there are two programs for the human incarnation here. One is preaching the divine knowledge and the other is performing miracles whenever there is real need in the case of a deserving devotee. The minister is moving in the public giving a political speech. He has to carefully observe the possibility of sudden attack by the opposition parties also. One cannot do both these activities with full concentration. Therefore, he attends to first program with full concentration. A gunman follows the minister catering to the second program. Then only the minister can do full justice to his political speech and free mingling with public. Similarly, the human incarnation (Datta) will be attending to the preaching of divine knowledge. Kalabhairava accompanies Datta like the gun man performing the miracles whenever necessary. This is the truth from the angle of relativity. From the angle of higher absolute reality, God preaches the divine knowledge in the mood of Datta and performs miracles in the mood of Kalabhairava. For a deserving realized soul, the absolute truth is opened. But for an undeserving devotee the relative reality is exposed in which both Datta and Kalabhairava coexist. This is a very delicate and dangerous topic. Even the realized souls under pressure press God in human form to perform miracle. Hence, God uses both the planes of absolute and relative reality according to the context. The devotees on this earth are so much talented in expressing the theoretical devotion by singing songs and shedding tears etc. We can give them awards like Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan etc. They will force the Lord to drink this most powerful wine of theoretical devotion. The Lord is infinitely kind and yields very easily. Both these points hasten the process of granting boons to undeserving devotees like air and ghee for the fire. To avoid this, the Lord keeps the gun in the hands 24

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of Kalabhairava and concentrates only on the preaching of divine knowledge. Sandipani, a deserving devotee asked for bringing back his long back dead son. The Lord went personally to Yama and brought back to his son. Subhadra as a sister asked the Lord for bringing back her just dead son. The Lord told that He cannot go against the divine rule. The reason was that the son of Sandipani was a pious sage, where as Abhimanyu was a demon. Kalabhairava is the deity of the divine rule. Now your question is mainly about Myself. The answer depends on the plane of reality related to the degree of deservingness of the devotee as explained above. The decision to grant the boon is decided by Datta Himself at the very outset through the sharp analysis. This right conclusion is captured and stored by Kalabhairava. Subsequently under the intoxication of wine and weakness of His infinite kindness, Datta likes to grant the boon to the undeserving devotee also. Now since the storage of right decision and the super power (Gun) are in the hands of Kalabhairava, the implementation does not materialize. The undeserving devotee leaves Datta and the disturbance is removed once for all. This explanation in the relative reality can be expressed in the plane of absolute reality like this. Datta gets the true conclusion in the first stage. In the subsequent second stage Datta yields to the pressure of devotee for sometime. In the final stage, He again realizes the truth and sticks to the first conclusion strictly. If this absolutely reality is explained to undeserving devotees, they will blame Datta as diplomatic. But, the deserving soul being realized understands the truth and appreciates Datta.

Incarnation Speaks in Relative Plane for Majority It is better to speak always in the relative plane because majority of devotees are ignorant. He reveals the absolute truth only to few deserving devotees. If you deserve, you will understand Me for not granting a boon. But, if you are undeserving, you will misunderstand Me for not granting the boon even though I am capable of granting the boon. To avoid the misunderstanding of majority, it is always better to stand in the relative plane while exposing Myself. In the relative plane, I say that I am Datta only and can clarify any doubt in the spiritual knowledge but cannot grant any boon like the Kalabhairava. The undeserving devotee may leave Datta and try to give the same wine to Kalabhairava. Then Kalabhairava says that He can grant any boon 25

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provided the first conclusion of Datta can permit it. The ignorant soul is like a football played by two players, who are Datta and Kalabhairava. You cannot misunderstand any one completely. I speak often an incident that took place in the house of Shri C. B. K. Murthy. One day I slept in his house for a long time and awoke. I found the deities of eight miracles (Ashta Siddhis) around My bed introducing their identity. They requested Me to allow their entry into My body so that their service is very much required in the propagation of divine knowledge. I shouted like this “Please leave Me immediately. You are the obstacles for the propagation of divine knowledge. You will attract the devotees and divert them from the right path so that all My effort in preaching is simply wasted. I had enough experience with you in past incarnations. Moreover I am only generating the knowledge and not propagating it. My devotees will propagate it. Therefore, your service is required by them and they are your right place”. They disappeared. Therefore, My dear friend! The gunman is with you only. Whenever you are getting the boon, the gunman standing by your side is granting it to you. You can grant the boons to other deserving devotees also since the gunman is with you only. However, if you require My help in drawing the first right conclusion, I can send it. I am sitting in My room with bolted doors and drafting the political speech to be read by you in the public. I do not need the gunman and he is not with Me. I assuredly tell you that all My closest devotees who are sincerely involved in the propagation of this divine knowledge will be accompanied by the gunmen. When you asked Me for a son, I just gave the judgment that you are deserving devotee. Based on that, the gunman standing by your side has granted the boon by His superpower (Gun). You told the medical hurdles and you were advised by doctors for a final operation costing one lakh rupees. I told you that it is not necessary and that you will get the son and that you shall wait just for one month to see the pregnancy of your wife. It happened as I told. I have no superpower to implement the judgment but I have a sharp analysis to give the right judgment in the capacity of Datta, who exists in My body. Similarly, the recent incident of Phani should be mentioned here because you both are the incarnations of Adishesha. He phoned Me telling that he got Dengue fever as concluded by the doctor in-charge of Dengue fever. I told you that the dengue fever cannot attack Adishesha. Phani got tested himself again and the result was negative. Here the 26

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reply from Me is only the judgment. Infact, the Lord transformed his dengue fever on to Him and suffered for one day through this human body. During that time, Swami as Datta prayed the gunman (Kalabhairava) to cure it. Datta gave the judgment for the protection of Phani and was prepared to suffer for the sake of Phani. Then Kalabhairava transformed the fever to Datta with His superpower. When the fever ended after due suffering, the credit is again given to Kalabhairava for curing it. However, the credit should be given to Kalabhairava for the superpower used in the transformation. Suppose Phani is undeserving but Swami wants to suffer for his sake due to His infinite kindness, then Kalabhairava will not transform the fever. All this is in the relative plane. In the absolute plane Swami as Datta gave the judgment and Swami as Kalabhairava transformed fever on to Him. In the case of undeserving devotee, Swami rejects the devotee first but yields to him in the second stage. The same Swami will again reject in the third stage by overcoming His own weakness. The human being may or may not overcome weakness. Therefore, pray Kalabhairava also as another form of the Lord Datta (Now Swami sang the following devotional song on Kalabhairava).

Spontaneous Divine Bhajan on Kalabhairava Bhairavaaya tee - Kaala - Bhairavaaya tee Pradakshinani mee - Deeva – Muudha Bhaktasya (Chorus) (I, an ignorant devotee submit My Pradakshinams to the Lord Kaala Bhairava.) Kaashikaapurii - Ksheetra - Looka Paalanam Pingaleekshana – Sphurana – Maatra meeva tee Bhuvana Bhaandaka – Pralaya – Bhasma Kaarakoo Garjanooddhata – dhvani – Kanastava Prabhoo! (You are the ruler of the Kashi city and the administration of the city is done simply by a tiny twinkling of your red colored eyes. Oh! Lord! a tiny vibration of sound produced from your violent roar is sufficient to smash all these world-pots into ash.) Ashta siddhayoo – pyashta – bhuutibhi ssaha Bhuutanaadha! - tee – Karuna Leesha sambhavaah Saarameeya vat – Tvayi – samarpitaarthinaam Boodhayatyahoo – shunaka – Vaahanam tava.

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(Oh! Lord of Ghosts! Your vehicle is the dog, which indicates that if one becomes your slave with full faith like the dog, a trace of your kindness falls on him granting the eight super powers and the eight forms of wealth.) Aruna Vaasasam – Bhaikshya – Bhastrikaa Bhujam Saagni Paatrakam – Pruthula – Maarjanii dharam Shmashru Bhiikaram – Kaala – Danda manditam Kaalikaapatim – Kaala – Kaala maashrayee. (You are wearing red clothes. A cloth bag meant for begging the food is around your shoulder. You are having the fire vessel and a large broom stick in your hands. Your mustache is frightening very much. You are holding the ruling rod (Kaala danda) by your hand. You are the husband of the mother Kaali. You are the death for even the death. I am surrendering to you completely). The dengue fever along with the red spots disappeared from the body of Swami on praying Kaala Bhairava. Swami told: Even Shankara who is the incarnation of Lord Shiva prayed Kaala Bhairava and other deities for the sake of the devotees. The Lord acts in the role of a devotee also as in the case of Hanuman so that the devotees learn the method of worshipping the God. Shankara was both generator and propagator of divine knowledge. He faced several problems of black magic in His life from the opponents. Kaala Bhairava walked along with Shankara like the gunman protecting Him from all the dangers of the black magic. When His work was over, He allowed one black magic to hit Him for leaving the body.

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Chapter - 5

GOD COMPETES WITH STRONGEST BOND Money is Strongest in Kali Yuga O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [New Year Message – 2003 Morning Discourse] The aim of human life is to achieve the grace, which is the love of God. Even if you earn more money, you cannot carry it with you after death. Very little money is sufficient to eat and drink. Animals and birds manage to get that even without money. If the aim of the money is only eating, drinking and enjoying, you will be born as an animal, bird or worm in the next birth. If your file is opened in the upper world, you will definitely not get another human birth. Only when you serve the Lord in this world, when He comes in the human form, can you get another human birth, without any enquiry. This is so that you can serve the Lord when the Lord reincarnates. You must recognize the Lord by His knowledge, because the Veda says that knowledge is Brahman. Mere miracles are not the signs to recognize the Lord since even demons can perform miracles. The Gita says that the Lord comes down in human form (Maanusheem tanu mashritam). It also says that it is very difficult to worship the Formless God (Avyaktahi). The Gita also says that if you worship an inert statue, you will be born as a stone (Bhutejya yanti Bhutani). So you must serve the Lord by doing practical service which consists of: 1) Sacrifice of work 2) Sacrifice of fruit of the work (money) which is also a form of work. The sacrifice must be to the full extent. When a beggar gives one rupee to the Lord, it is greater than one lakh (hundred thousand) given by a person who has lakhs of rupees, because the beggar has sacrificed all that he possessed. The Lord wants you to have the single bond with Him and cut all the other bonds. The bond with one’s life is the strongest and only one in millions can sacrifice even his or her life for the sake of the Lord. Such sacrifice needs a lot of love accumulated during millions of births because everyone sacrifices everybody and everything to save one’s 29

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own life. After life what is the next strongest bond? It is the bond with one’s children. Next is the bond with wealth and money. Everybody earns more and more wealth even by unfair means (breaking dharma or justice) only to give it to his or her children. Then how to break the bond with children? The bond with children is merged with the bond with money because money is meant only for children. So if you can cut the bond with money, your bond with the children is broken. If the bond with the children is broken, all the bonds are broken except the bond with life. Therefore, the Lord competes with your money. The Lord says in Vishnu Puranam, “Yasyanugrahamichchami tasya vittam haramyaham”. It means that if the Lord wants to bless anybody with full salvation, He will take away his or her money completely. This means that when the bond with money is sacrificed, the bond with the children is definitely cut. If that highest bond is cut, all the other bonds will be cut. This is the full liberation from all the bonds, which is called complete salvation. In cutting the bond with money, you are returning Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) to her husband, Lord Vishnu and not to the demon Ravana. The Veda says, “Bhunjithah magridhah” which means that all this is the wealth of the Lord. Take the minimum needed. If you take extra, you are a thief, as Lord does not permit it. Therefore return it back to the Lord. Indians never donate even a single penny for God’s work; they only donate their words (prayers) and mind (meditation). Even if they have earned enough to last ten generations, they will still keep working for the eleventh generation. But if you see foreigners (particularly westerners), they donate a lot for God’s work and ask even their children to live independently after a certain age. This is the reason why India suffers with poverty and the west is blessed with wealth. God blessed India with good language for their sacrifice of their words and with good knowledge for their sacrifice of mind. Swami Vivekananda wept looking at the sky asking the Lord, “Why does my country suffer with poverty in spite of so much rich spiritual knowledge?” Compare Dhritarashtra of the Mahabharata with the Gopikas of the Bhagavatham. Dhritarashtra could not cut the bond with money because of his blind bond with his children. For that he was prepared to leave dharma [justice; also King Dharmaraja, who stood for justice] and the Lord (Lord Krishna). The Gopikas gave all their butter, which is their entire wealth to the Lord alone, even without giving it to their children. 30

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They left money, children and also dharma (justice) for the sake of the Lord. In the beginning of the Bhagavatham, there is a verse which states that even the Sage Vyasa was crying and running after his son Shuka. This shows how blind and strong the bond with children is. What is the use of the penance, sacrifices and the authorship of the 18 puranas of Sage Vyasa? He was defeated before the uneducated Gopikas. Therefore sadhana means cutting the worldly bonds in real life—in practice—and not chanting hymns, doing penance, doing meditation, singing devotional songs, shedding pots of tears etc. All these are related to words and mind only, which are valueless. If you sell all these in the market, you will not even get a single rupee. Even if you give them free, people will reject them. Clever devotees say that the pure mind is for the pure Lord and the impure money is for the impure family!

Chakras Signify Different Family Bonds The six yoga chakras (wheels) stand for the six bonds, with mother, father, husband or wife, children, fraud preachers, and illusory deities. The seventh chakra is Sahasrara or intelligence, in which the Lord exists. The bond with the children called Anahata chakra, is located in the heart which is in between the other six chakras. Anahata means that bond which cannot be cut. It is the bond with one’s children. The heart is abode of all the love. Thus the bond with children is the strongest. Jesus says that wherever your money is present, there your heart exists. This means that money is related to the heart and the heart is related to children. Jesus also says that unless you hate your mother and father, husband and wife, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and even your own life, you cannot be the disciple of the Lord. Lord Datta is famous for cutting the bonds (Dattam Chinnam). But Lord Jesus goes one step ahead by asking you to even hate the bond. Why? Cutting the bond is zero. Hating the bond is minus. Zero is nearer to plus than the minus. That means, when you cut the bond there may be possibility of formation of the bond again but if you hate it, there is no reformation of the bond. In the olden days people used to give more importance to Dharma (justice) than money. So the Lord used to compete with Dharma, by asking whether or not the devotee chooses the Lord over Dharma. For example Dharmaraja did not tell a lie when he was fighting for the kingdom in the battlefield. He gave more importance to Dharma 31

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(truthfulness) than money (kingdom). But today in this Kaliyuga people are giving more importance to money than Dharma. Therefore the Lord competes with money and not with Dharma because people have already left Dharma for the sake of money. When you recognize the Lord in human form, you must give more importance to His work than His personal service. If you do more personal service He will preach to you many times. But He will not give you even a single extra mark, when He evaluates your examination paper. All your exercises with words and mind (prayers, meditation etc.,) are only the year-wise academic courses. The practical sacrifice of your work and the fruit of your work is the final examination, by which alone you can get the grace of the Lord. The academic course must help you to write the examination well. The examination tests how much of the knowledge you have digested and not how much you studied. What is the use of preaching to you several times, when the whole worldly ocean is present in you? All the matchsticks (of knowledge) lit will be put off. If you had a really dry piece of wood, one-match stick is enough to light it. What is the use of pressing the feet of the Sadguru a hundred times? It will only result in the pain of your hands. What is the use of the Sadguru preaching a hundred times? It will only result in the pain of His throat? Krishna gave the highest place to Gopikas. What is the reason? Is it because Gopikas left their husbands and danced with Krishna in Rasakeli in Vrindavanam? Is Krishna a fan of ladies? No, He is showing the reason by His hand, which contains the butter [Krishna is often portrayed with butter in hand]. That butter is the entire earning of the Gopikas. The Gopikas sacrificed all their earning to the Lord without giving even to their children. This shows that they have cut the highest bond that is the bond with their children. Therefore, sacrifice of money proves that all the worldly bonds are cut. The Veda says, “Dhanena Tyagenaike Amrutatvamanasuh” which means that sacrifice of money alone can prove the real love to God. This was also told in the Gita as Karmaphala tyaga, which is the sacrifice of the fruit of work. This is the truth and the real essence of sadhana (spiritual effort). You have shown the real love to your children by sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of money. Bathing, dressing, taking the child to the school etc., comes under sacrifice of work (karma sanyasa). Paying the school fees, giving food and giving your property to them, are 32

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karmaphala tyaga. Both these put together are called karma yoga or service as per the Gita. This service is called Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga does not mean the sacrifice of the mind in the name of meditation by closing the eyes. Kriya means the sacrifice of work or the fruit of the work (money). Money is also another form of the work. Therefore money is also called as Kriya or work. After doing this service to your son, even if he does not serve you back and even if he insults you, you still give your property to him only. This is real love. Are you showing this real love to God? When God does not respond to your prayers, you throw away His picture. Suppose He gives you troubles then you will break the picture. But remember one point that you may get another wife, another husband, or another child by adoption but you cannot get another God. In the upper world, nobody except God can save you. God loves you without any selfish interest. All these family members love you for their selfish benefits since you are giving happiness to them. If you trouble them they will leave you. Veda says the same, “Atmanah kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati”. You are using God as an instrument for the happiness of your family members! Is it not similar to that incident in which Kaushika used his own wife Sumati, to carry him to a prostitute? The prostitute loved Kaushika only for her selfish benefit and Sumati loved Kaushika without any selfish benefit. When God comes in the picture, He takes the place of Sumati (the selfless lover) and Sumati (one’s wife) takes the place of the prostitute (selfish lover) relatively.

Saints don’t Require after Death Rituals After death one has to stay for ten days in Pretaloka (the world of the dead) and during this time he/she is enquired by the Lord. For good results he goes to heaven and there he gets the divine nectar (Amrutam) as food. For mixed results he goes to Pitruloka where he gets the somarasa (juice of moon) as the food. For bad results he goes to hell, where he is not allowed any food or drink. Then what about the ceremonies performed after his death? These ceremonies done by the relatives of the dead person are the prayers to the Lord and the sacrifice of money to the most deserving divine person. The people who have done these two things when they were alive, need not worry about such ceremonies done by their children after their death. Shankara, Meera etc. did not have children to perform such ceremonies. It is better that you yourself work for your protection in the upper world. You are 33

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unable to do that while you are alive and you therefore you assign that job to somebody else. After your death, your children do the ceremony only as a formality. They donate your money to undeserving fellows, who are just like tape recorders and chant scriptural hymns without knowing their meaning. The Gita says “Uddharet aatmanaa atmanam”, which means that you should not depend on some other person to help you but that you should help yourself in the spiritual field. You have no right to donate the fruit of your work even to your wife if she is not spiritually inclined. The devotee Tukaram agreed to take his wife along with him in the divine airplane that had come to take him to the upper world. But the wife of Tukaram was more interested in washing the vessels and clothes and being busy in these worldly activities, could not catch the divine plane. Therefore in the spiritual field, every one has his/her own account. The Lord is present in the human body of the incarnation. In the case of a devotee, both the Lord and the soul coexist in the human body. Therefore a devotee may err sometimes because the soul in the body may not clearly understand everything the Lord says. You can see the difference in the utility of donations spent by a committee of devotees and a committee of devotees guided directly by the Lord in human form. In the first case lot of money is wasted but in the second case the money is properly utilized. Therefore it is better to participate in the service of the Lord in human form, than in the service conducted by a committee of devotees. The inner divine form of the Lord is this world alone. The Veda says, “Vishvameva Idam Purushah. Vishvam Vishnuh”. Therefore if you serve the world, you are serving the actual form of the Lord. You will not err in your service if you serve under the direction of the Lord. If you do social service without the association of the Lord in human form, you will only go to heaven, where you will enjoy for sometime and return back as per the Gita (Ksheene Punye). The Lord in human form also comes only to uplift all the people in this world. If you participate in His program, you are serving the world, which is the inner divine form of the Lord. All the people in the world deserve to receive the divine knowledge, which alone can give real devotion. Among these people, poor people deserve financial help also. It is just like providing boarding and lodging to the students who come from out-of-town. But

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all the students whether day-scholars or hostellers, have to attend the classes and all are taught equally. As there are fraud devotees, there are also fraud human incarnations. The Veda and the Gita supported by the Shastras (logic) should be taken as authority in recognizing the real human incarnation. Shankara entered the house of Mandana Mishra even though the doors were bolted. Mandana Mishra was present in the house along with sages Vyasa and Jaimini and they were engaged in a ceremony. They did not praise Shankara for that miracle. If we were in their place, we would just fall at the feet of Shankara praising Him as God. That is our present standard. But the sages and Mandana Mishra knew that even demons could perform miracles. Miracles are not the only signs of God. Mandana Mishra fell at the feet of Shankara and left even his house after debating with Shankara for twenty-one days. In the debate, both Shankara and Mandana Mishra exposed their knowledge supported by the Vedas, Gita and Shastras. But the knowledge of Shankara alone gave bliss to the hearts of Vyasa, Jaimini and Mandana Mishra. All the three accepted Shankara as the incarnation of Lord Shiva. Therefore the real sign of the Lord is the divine knowledge which is true and infinite and cannot be possessed by any other soul. Such special knowledge is called Prajnanam. The Knowledge of the Lord alone gives bliss. Therefore the true, infinite and special knowledge that gives bliss to the heart of anybody is the real sign of the Lord. The Veda says the same “Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma”, “Prajnanam Brahma”, “Anando Brahma”. The Lord possesses all the powers and uses them only whenever there is a real necessity. Shankara entered the house through the bolted doors because Mandana Mishra did not open the door in spite of His calls. The fraud human incarnations get some powers from God by penance and they exhibit these powers to attract the people and claim to be God. The demons did like this and innocent people were fooled. But the sages like Vyasa and Jaimini will never accept such demons as God. Upachara means a mode of worship, which gives happiness when it is done to others. It should not be done for your own happiness. The happiness comes only when you do this Upachara, to a living being. Non-living objects like statues and pictures are meant only for vision [seeing and meditating/concentrating on them]. These statues and pictures are not even direct photographs of the Lord and they are 35

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completely imaginary. They are meant only for vision and subsequent meditation because you cannot meditate upon a formless object. But when the human incarnation is available to you to receive all your upacharas (service), what is the necessity of worshipping these inert objects? The Veda says, “Na tasya Pratima Asti” which means that the Lord is not present in the statues and pictures. Therefore your service cannot give happiness to these inert objects. They are only representative images of God and you can use these objects just for meditation or vision and not at all for service (worship). The Gita seriously condemns the worship to these statues and pictures by saying that one will be born as an inert object if the statues and pictures are worshipped. The Gita also says that if you worship the human incarnation you will get the human birth again (Yanti Mat Yajinopimam). The human incarnation comes in every human generation because God is impartial to all generations. The Gita says, “Sambhavami Yuge Yuge” which means that He comes in human form in every generation. The word Yuga here means a human generation. The word Yuga is also used in this sense by us everyday. People say to the youngsters, “This is your Yuga”, which means that this is their generation.

Real Meaning of Yajna The Veda says that food should not be wasted (Annam Na Parichaksheeta). The sacrifice or Yajna (sacred fire ritual) is only to feed the guest, who is a deserving person and is like fire. The Veda says that the guest is the fire (Vaishvanaro Brahmanah Pravisati Atithih). The word Agni comes from Agri which means that the guest should be fed first. The Gita says that the deity of the fire called as Vaishvanara, lives as the fire of hunger in the stomach. Therefore feeding the hungry guest is the real Yajna. Such a guest contains all the deities in Him and so by feeding such a guest all the deities are satisfied. The Veda says the same, “Yavateer vai devatah”. In the Bhagavatham, Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, told his mother that only a fool burns food by putting it in the fire in the name of Yajna. Krishna went to a Yajna and asked the wives of the sages, who were performing the Yajna, to give Him the food that was prepared to be burnt in the Yajna, since He was hungry. He ate that food preaching that feeding a hungry deserving person is the real Yajna. Krishna, the protector of the Dharma of Vedas 36

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would never disturb the real sense of Yajna, if it were otherwise. He also discouraged the Yajna to be conducted to a deity called Indra. Similarly you are burning oil or ghee, which is the food, to light the oil lamp before God. In the olden days there was no other alternative than to light the oil lamp. In such a situation people prayed to the lamp with a divine feeling. But now electric lights are present and electricity is considered as more valuable than the physical form of fire. There are three forms of fire: 1) Loukikagni (Physical form) 2) Vaidyutagni (Electric form) 3) Vaishvanaraagni (The deity form). They are in increasing order of value. So when you have the electric light why should you light the oil lamp which is the physical form? The Veda says that the fire cannot shine before the Lord (Kutoyamagnih). The Gita says the same “Na pavakah”. So you are burning the food which is a form of Dhanyalakshmi (wealth in the form of food)? By doing such acts how can you get wealth i.e., Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth)? In the Veda no other Upachara is mentioned except the Yajna, which means the preparation of food and feeding the guest. The physical fire lit in a Yajna, is only an instrument, like a stove, to prepare the food. Such fire is not for worship. The fire that is to be worshipped is the deity-form that is present in the form of hunger present in the human stomach of a deserving guest. Therefore you should not waste food by burning it, in such acts which are against the Veda. Such sinful acts only increase pollution of the environment causing the green house effect and stopping of rains. You must sacrifice your wealth only to a deserving person like Saibaba or any other human incarnation of the Lord. If you waste the food and money in the name of worshipping inert objects, you are getting a lot of sin. Even if you donate to the undeserving person you will get lot of sin as said in Mahabharata by Vidura. The present priests are only the tape recorders of the Vedas. In olden days the Vedas were protected by recitation when there was no printing. Now what is the use of the recitation without knowing or preaching the meaning? The word Veda itself means knowledge. Such priests who only recite are called divine animals by the Veda (Devanam Pasurahaha). The Veda laughs at such priests who appear divine by their external appearance. But they are considered as animals since they do not know the meaning of the Veda and therefore 37

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never practice. The original tradition of the sages consisted of knowing and practicing the real meaning of the Veda but the middle age scholars have twisted everything due to their ignorance because they never cared to know the meaning of the Vedas. The ancient scholars not only recited but also knew the meaning of the Vedas. Today people are following the majority like sheep in this blind tradition. In spiritual field, the majority goes to hell and only one in millions goes to God as said in the Gita, “Manushyanaam Sahasreshu”. There is only one Shankara or one Meera. Jesus also said that the path leading to Him is very narrow and only a few people travel on it. You should serve the Lord in human form without aspiring for any fruit in return. Such little service yields infinite fruit. That infinite fruit can be converted into wealth and can be given to you here itself but you will be spoiled by such immense wealth. Therefore the Lord gives you here, only whatever is needed. Let all the infinite fruit be reserved for the upper world, where your wealth cannot do anything. Have faith in the Lord and He will do the best for you. Do not yield yourself into the trap of the present priests and astrologers.

Priests And Astrologers Colluded The present priests sacrifice their words by chanting some hymns to different statues and make you spend some money in unnecessary things like wasting food by lighting the lamps, burning camphor etc., which will cause only pollution. They are selling their words for money only. Lord is not present in these statues and they are meant only for vision and meditation. The Veda says the same, “Drashtavyah”, “Nedam tat”. The priest should explain the meaning of the Vedic hymns and he must create the divine knowledge and devotion in you. Then alone is He the real Sadguru to whom you can sacrifice any amount of money as Guru Dakshina. You are misled by the ignorant people in false path, which gives no result to you. Similarly the astrologers predict the future through the planets. The priests are collaborating with the astrologers. It is a joint business. The astrologers advise you to perform a particular worship to remove your problems. The problems are the results of your sins given by the Divine Judge and are implemented by the executive officials which are the planets [This refers to the deities. The physical planets that we see are the representatives of these deities]. Even the sun, who is the leader of the planets, will do his job due to the fear of the Lord as said in the Veda, “Bhishodeti Suryah”. When the 38

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judgment is already given by the judge, can the police or the jailor deviate from the judicial order? Even in the planets, the power of Lord alone exists and if the planet deviates, it means that the Lord deviated. Even if you recognize the Lord and pester Him for some boons, He will push your present problems to the later part of this birth or the future birth with added interest. You cannot flatter the judge and alter the judgment. Accept the judgment and undergo the punishment. Never ask the Lord to change it. Serve the Lord in human form without asking for any fruit. When you have such real love, the Lord in human form will transfer the results of your sins to Him and will suffer for your sake without your knowledge. If you know that He is suffering for your sake, you will never agree, because you have real love for Him. Do not think that with the help of astrologers and priests you can get the results of good deeds, which you have not done. If you pester the Lord, He will pre-pone the results of your good deeds arranged in the life cycle of your future birth and give it to you right now. This is like the premature encashment of a deposit resulting in a loss in value i.e., the good result that you get will be reduced in intensity, which is a loss in value. Also by such rearrangements, your future birth will be full of problems with the added interests of postponed bad results and is devoid of any result of good result. You will weep with problems from birth to death in your future birth and you will scold God because you will not know that such a situation was only due to your foolishness in the previous birth.

Final Conclusion Therefore the essence of My message is only one thing. Recognize the Lord in human form with the help of the scriptures and prove your love practically by doing service and try to cut your bonds with these family members which are only dramatic. These bonds will vanish after death. When Arjuna went to heaven along with Krishna, to see his son Abhimanyu, Abhimanyu asked Arjuna, “Who are you?” Arjuna replied, “I am your father”. Abhimanyu replied, “I have passed through millions of births. In which birth were you my father”? Ashtavakra, the preacher of King Janaka says in Ashtavakra Samhita that the mother and son in this birth are born as the wife and husband in the next birth! The meaning of this verse is that a couple of film actors may act as mother and son in one film and the same two actors may act as husband and wife in another film. They are neither mother and son nor wife and 39

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husband before or after the shooting of the film. Shankara says “Yadanityam tat kritakamhiloke” which means that that which is temporary is also unreal. These bonds are temporary as they exist only during the shooting of the film. Even during shooting of the film, the actors are not really mother and son or wife and husband. Therefore these bonds are completely unreal. That is the reason why Shankara left His mother for the sake of God. The only real and permanent bond of each actor is the employer-employee relationship with the producer and director of these films. For a soul, the only real bond is that with God. Realize that real and permanent bond with the Lord and prove it when He comes in the human form in your generation. The past is past and open your third eye of the knowledge atleast in this year because the wheel of the time will not stop for you. Atleast catch God in human form and become His servant to get the human birth again. Otherwise, if your file of deeds is opened in the upper world, you will be thrown into the cycle of animals and birds forever. As you work to provide for your old age, you serve the Lord in human form for your next birth. If you are the servant of the Lord, your file will not opened in the upper world and you will take rest in the upper divine world along with the Lord and you will follow Him as a human being to serve Him when he reincarnates in this world. You will have all the facilities as the Lord has. During birth and death you will have no agony and during the lifetime too you will have infinite bliss. These are the facilities of the Lord in His incarnations. As a servant you will have the same facilities forever. Salvation does not mean disappearing and dissolving of you in the Lord like a water drop merging in the sea. Salvation means liberation from these worldly human births, which have agony in birth and death, and also worries during the lifetime. Salvation means entering divine life cycles as the servant of the Lord keeping your identity without dissolution. As the Lord is entertained by this creation, you are also equally entertained. The Veda says that He created this world for entertainment (Ekaki Na ramate). Therefore salvation means neither dissolution of the world nor dissolution of yourself in the Lord. Salvation means eternal entertainment in divine life cycles following the Lord, having all the facilities of the Lord and enjoying just like the Lord, but keeping in mind that you are always the servant of the Lord. Dancing with a pot on the head is not possible for any ordinary human 40

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being. It is possible only for a talented dancer. An ordinary human being can either dance or stand with the pot on his head; not both simultaneously. Similarly an ordinary human being cannot concentrate on God while attending to his duties. He can either concentrate on God or do his duties. Only a liberated soul (Siddha) can concentrate on God while doing the duties. Which of the following three options is the best? 1) Concentrate on God always, without doing any duty. 1) Only do the duties without any concentration on God. 2) Concentrate on God for sometime and concentrate on your duties for sometime. The second option is the best, since in that option the whole or a part of the fruit of all your work can be sacrificed for the sake of God. Hanuman, as per the Valmiki Ramayana, never did prayers, meditation etc., (sacrifice of words and mind) and He participated always in the work of the Lord only. Sugriva was near Rama, doing His personal service while Hanuman was away from Rama in the work of the Lord which involved searching Sita, killing Ravana and serving the world. Since the world is the inner divine form of Rama, your participation in the work of the Lord to uplift the world, is the best service. The external human body called Rama is not eternal whereas this world is eternal. Rama embraced Hanuman and not Sugriva. Keep Hanuman as your example always. He recognized the human incarnation and participated in His service alone and got the highest fruit by becoming the future creator. You should not follow the example of Radha because she became fully mad and was unable to do any worldly work. You cannot attain such madness by your efforts. Therefore only Hanuman is the real guide for you, since He did not become mad like Radha. Both achieved the highest result equally. Both Hanuman and Radha recognized the human incarnations present in their times and both never worshipped the previous incarnations or statues. The Gita says, “Jnanaat Dhyanam Vishishyate, Dhyanaat karmaphala Tyagah” which means that devotion is greater than knowledge and service (Sacrifice of the fruit of the work) is greater than devotion. Knowledge of the Lord produces devotion and service is the proof of the devotion. Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva preached these three gradual steps one after the other. Rukmini came to know about Krishna from Narada (knowledge) and then loved Krishna (devotion). By devotion she attained Krishna [got married to Him]. The Gita says 41

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that Lord is attained by devotion (Bhaktya tvananyaya). After achieving the Lord, she pressed His divine feet, which is the service.

Achieve Salvation here & It continues after Death The Veda says, “Yat Sakshat Aparokshat Brahma” which means that the unimaginable Brahman is always present in every generation in human form. The salvation achieved here (Jeevan Mukti) alone continues after death (Videha Mukti). Whatever you have achieved here that alone continues after death. If you do not become the servant of the Lord here and associate with Him here, you can never associate with Him there also. You will lose the next human birth and this is a permanent loss as said in the Veda, “Ihachet Avedeet”. When the hunter Kannappa, offered the flesh of a rabbit to Lord Shiva, the Lord gave salvation to him, ignoring even the sin in his hunting because the hunter did not give that flesh (fruit of his work) to himself or his family. Such is the greatness of the sacrifice of fruit of the work, which is repeatedly emphasized in the Gita as Karma Phala Tyaga. This is the real fire-test for your real love for God and your real color comes out there only. Only when you develop the new bond with the human incarnation, are the family bonds automatically broken. When you taste the divine nectar, the bonds with the drinks here are automatically broken. Samsara means your limited family alone and not this entire world. Samsara means the bonds, which have entered your mind deeply. So crossing Samsara does not mean leaving the world. It only means leaving your family for the sake of the entire world. The bonds with your family can be broken only with the divine bond of the Lord in human form and not by the bond with formless God or statues. The human form alone can compete with the bonds of human beings here. Participate in the propagation of the knowledge since knowledge is required as the basic step to achieve anything and to take the right path. The Gita says, “Jnana yajnena tenaham” which means that the Lord is pleased only by the propagation of knowledge and not by the other rituals. Let the priests not be angry with me since I am teaching the true meaning of the worship of the statues and their rituals. The priests are just reciting the Veda and act like a compounder [a person who mixes and dispenses medicines] working under a doctor. When a compounder claims to be the doctor, he collects Rs.10/- as his fees and prescribes medicines worth Rs.100/-. The patient is not cured and is attacked by more 42

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diseases since the compounder is not a qualified doctor. The patient has spent Rs. 110/-. I pity the fate of these patients. I request these priests to become Sadgurus. I mean, let the compounder become a qualified doctor. Let the doctor collect Rs. 100/- as fees and prescribe a medicine of Rs.2/- by which the disease is completely cured. The patient is cured of his disease by spending Rs.102/-. The priest should become the Sadguru and preach to the people who attend the temples or do rituals. Let the people become strong devotees by the preaching of divine knowledge. I am worried about the public, who should get the real fruit. The present priests, who are just tape recorders and merely recite the Veda, are making the devotees spend a lot in unnecessary items like lighting the lamp, burning camphor, breaking the coconuts etc., which are not at all mentioned in the Veda. For the entire Dharma, the Veda is the source and not the Puranas. The Veda was protected by recitation in the olden days and so interpolations were not possible. However several verses were interpolated in the Puranas in course of time. Therefore whatever is said in the Veda alone is valid and if the Purana says anything extra, it cannot be valid as said in the statement, “Sruthi Smruti Virodhetu….” The Gita says that karma (work) cannot bind you if the fruit of that Karma is sacrificed to the Lord and it is not meant for yourself or for your family. The same work binds you when it is done with selfishness, which means that you aspire for the fruit of that Karma for yourself, or for your limited family. When the fruit is sacrificed, even if the Karma is done it is not at all Karma. The Gita says this as “Karmanyakarma yah pashyet”. This means that inaction is present in the action. When you aspire for the fruit of the work with selfishness, then even if you have not done the Karma you are treated as if you have done the Karma and you will receive its result. This the Gita expresses as, “Akarmanicha Karmayah”. When the evil Ravana kidnapped Sita, there was contact of her body with Ravana’s. But Sita did not aspire for the fruit of that Karma [the action of touching Ravana’s body]. She never wanted to embrace Ravana. Since she did not aspire for the fruit, the sinful Karma was treated as Akarma [inaction; or an action that did not take place] and Agni (Fire) told Rama that she was sinless and pure. When Renuka went to the river Narmada, she saw a person called Chitraratha who was taking bath with his wives. She saw that person and her mind was attracted to him and aspired for some happiness from him. Actually she 43

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did not touch Chitraratha. There was no karma done here. But she was mentally aspiring for the fruit of that Karma. Therefore she was treated as if she had done that sinful karma and was punished by Parusurama. Therefore, when you do not aspire for the fruit of the work, that work cannot touch you even if it is sinful. The hunter killed a rabbit and killing harmless animals is the highest sinful action. But he offered the flesh of that rabbit to Lord Shiva. He did not kill the rabbit to eat that flesh or to give that flesh to his family. There was no selfishness in his action. Lord Shiva gave him salvation and that sinful Karma could have no effect and its result was not given to the hunter. Therefore, if you sacrifice the fruit of your work, for the sake of God’s mission, such work cannot bind you however sinful it may be. This is the wonderful clue given in Gita by Lord Krishna. Karma Yoga means doing work always and sacrificing its fruit to the Lord. Such practical sacrifice alone can prove your real love. Your meditation, prayers etc., are related only to your words and mind, which are the most valueless items. Therefore the Lord said that the sacrifice of the fruit of work is the best and for that one always has to keep doing work. Before this, the knowledge and devotion are thrown away by the Lord in the Gita. [In this New Year, Swami wishes the following.] Let the saints (monks, sanyasis) sacrifice their complete work for the sake of God (Karma Sanyasa). Let the householders sacrifice a part of their work and a part of the fruit of their work (Karma Phala Tyaga). Let all participate practically by doing Karma Yoga or Seva (Service) which consists of Karma Sanyasa and Karma Phala Tyaga in the propagation of this divine knowledge. Let the temples become the centers of development of Divine Knowledge and devotion to the Lord and not business centers to fulfill the desires of the people. Let the priests become scholars in Sanskrit and preach the knowledge of the Vedas, Gita and Shastras to the public in temples and while performing rituals. Let the priests not just act as tape recorders by recitation of the Veda without knowing the divine treasure of the knowledge, since the Veda means knowledge alone. Let Indians stop the sacrifice of words by prayers and the sacrifice of mind by meditation and devotion because much has been done in these two lines, and they are mere pickles without the central rice. Let all the Indians learn the practical sacrifice by doing Karma Yoga and prove their real devotion to the Lord by 44

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following the foreigners and let the Lord bless India with immense wealth & prosperity by this.

Love the Lord rather than Respecting or Fearing [Evening Discourse] As per the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavan means God who preaches ‘Pravritti’ and ‘Nivritti’. Pravritti means knowing the way to behave with fellow human beings for world peace. Nivritti means knowing the way to reach God. The love for human beings in Pravritti will help you love the human form of God without any repulsion. Your devotion to the Lord in human form should be permanent and in the same level throughout your life. The devotion should have longevity. What is the use of all the merits of the bridegroom if he does not have longevity? Do not laugh at the old people of the previous generation, who are innocent and you are worldly wise. Remember that they are very near to God by their innocence. All the wisdom fails before God and He loves only innocence. The easiest way to be near God is to get deceived by others and not to deceive others. God will always be by the side of the deceived person. The human incarnation remains only as a human being at all times except in cases of emergency. The light bulb is always without electric current and the current flows through it only when it is lit. As a human being, He will always undergo suffering for the sins of His devotees and this is the main purpose of His coming in human form. He undergoes the pains as an ordinary human being and thereby justice is done to theory of Karma (every action must yield a proportionate result). The human incarnation is Datta (given) to the devotees mainly for this purpose. When the human form of God preaches Knowledge He is like a thousand-watt bulb. When He taught Arjuna in the battlefield or when He taught the Kauravas as a messenger, He showed Vishwarupam which is His full potential state. When He performs miracles He is only a zero-watt bulb since He created even this entire world just by His will. Therefore do not think that He is in a greater excited state when He performs the miracles. The fully excited state is that in which He preaches the divine knowledge. When He incarnates as a human being in this world, His body will have a usual birth and death. His body also consists of the usual five elements and the usual three qualities, which are Satvam (goodness), Rajas and Tamas (badness). Even Rama, considered as an embodiment of Satvam showed anger (Rajas) on Jabali 45

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and ran after the golden deer for the sake of Sita (Tamas). The human incarnation exhibits bad qualities also to test the devotees about their firmness in recognizing Him. Try to love the Lord rather than respecting or fearing Him. You are respecting your parents with fear because they have already spent a lot of wealth on you and they are expected to give their property to you. But you love your children and not respect them. This is because you are spending a lot of money on them and you are going to give your property to them. You respect and fear the Lord since you are expecting some benefit from the Lord. You never give anything to the Lord and so you do not love Him. The Lord creates the human incarnation for your sake, to give you the fortune of His vision, touch, conversation and living with Him. You ignore His most wonderful creation and worship the inert statues and pictures, which are imaginary forms and are prepared by the other human beings. You are not accepting the human incarnation since He is in human form like yourself. Likes always repel each other. You are therefore trained to worship statues and pictures, which are only in human form. By such worship you are expected to get rid of your repulsion to the human form. Slowly you are made to worship the statues in which life is initiated (by the ritual of Prana Pratishta). The inert human form of the statue, combined with the initiation of life, is equated to a living human being. This is a slow training to develop the worship of the human form of God. The Lord is never in inert objects as said in the Veda (Natasya Pratima Asti). Neither is the inert object the Lord nor is the Lord in the inert object. The Lord is not even touching this Universe [He is beyond it]. Therefore no living being or inert object is the Lord as said in the Veda (Neti Neti). The Gita says that the Lord is not in the world (Natvaham teshu). The Gita also says that the world is in God and also that the world is not in God (Mat Sthani Sarva Bhutani, Nacha Mat Sthani). This means that the man is in the cot but the man has not penetrated into the cot. Similarly the world is in God but the world has not penetrated into God and neither has God penetrated into the world. God is only the base of the world like the cot. God penetrates into a certain human body and that human body enters into the world as said in the Veda, “Tadevanupravisat”. Such a human body is the human incarnation, which enters the world. Therefore God enters the world only through a human form. God did not enter every human form or every inert object. 46

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Even though God is the base of the world, the world does not touch Him as the man touches the cot. An example is the case of a day-dreamer. A city imagined by him exists in him and he is the base for that city. Let the city and the people in that city burn. The daydreamer is not burnt. Thus the world is based on God but the changes in the world cannot affect Him. Neither the changes in the inert objects nor the changes in the human beings can affect God. Hence no inert object or human being can be God and neither does God exist in them. They are all based on God and are not present in God. Therefore you can worship a statue or a human being as a representative of God (Prateeka). The Veda recommends the worship the sun as God (Adityam Brahmeti). Again the Veda says that the Sun is not God (Nedam tat). Neither is God in the Sun nor is the Sun in God. The Sun is based on God. You can meditate upon the Sun who is a representative of God. The similarity here is that God shines like the Sun. Due to this similarity the Sun is taken as a representative object to indicate God. Similarly you can treat a human being as a representative of God because God also comes down in a similar human form. In Pravritti (path of worldly life) you are advised to love all human beings so that you can love the God in human form later on in Nivritti (path of spiritual life). In Nivritti you have to leave all the human beings and concentrate your love on that human incarnation only. The initial love on all the human beings that you had developed in Pravritti, should be withdrawn in Nivritti and should be concentrated on the human form of God only. You respect monkeys since Hanuman is in that form. If you start laughing by seeing the monkeys, you may also laugh when you see Hanuman. This does not mean that you should worship every monkey as Hanuman. The worship should be limited only to that particular monkey called Hanuman. Atri and Anasuya adopted Datta. This means that the human form of God (Datta) can be achieved only by a devotee, who gets rid of the three types of egoism (Satvika, Rajasa and Tamasa) i.e., Atri and gets rid of jealousy (Asuya) i.e. Anasuya. The pride of knowledge, the pride of the physical force of the body and the pride of the body itself is respectively the three types of egoism. You must always try to understand the inner meaning. Datta is the son of Sage Atri and Anasuya and this is only a story for children, who are in the initial stage and cannot understand the inner sense. 47

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The Shiva Lingam is a formless stone from which all the statues are prepared. The Shiva Lingam is always associated with continuous bath (Abhisheka; dripping of water) which is ‘Snana Upachara’. What is the inner meaning here? This means that all the statues are only for vision and they should be frequently washed to avoid the dust. Except this one mode of worship, no other mode of worship is necessary for a statue. All the sixteen modes of worship (Shodasa Upacharas) are meant only for the human incarnation. ‘Avahanam’ means inviting the Lord in human form to your house. ‘Asanam’ means offering a seat to the Lord when He comes to your house. Like this all the sixteen modes of worship are meant only for the human form of God. When you do the sixteen modes of worship to a statue, the initiation of life is done in the beginning, which means that you should worship the living human form only, and not the inert human form. The initiation of life in the statue does not mean that the statue is becoming a living form because the statue does not move even one inch after that life initiation.

Authorities in Sprituality Whenever you make any decision, you have to follow three authorities: 1) Shruti i.e., Veda. 2) Yukti i.e., logic 3) Anubhava i.e., experience. In the case of idol and image worship, the Shruti says ‘Natasya Pratima Asti’ (Lord will not enter statues). The Yukti is that one cannot make any inert object alive by any technique. A dead body cannot get life by the chanting of the Vedic hymn which is recited in the Prana Pratishta (life initiation). If you say that life has entered the statue by such Prana Pratishta, why can’t you make the dead body alive by the same? The experience is that by any technique, we do not experience life in any inert object including a dead body. Therefore if you say that the life enters the statue it cannot be accepted. Then what is the meaning of this Prana pratishta? Since you are rigid in not accepting the human form of God due to your egoism and jealousy there is no other way than to teach you like this. That Prana Pratishta is teaching you that the human form with life alone should be worshipped by the sixteen modes. An employee does service for the whole month and he does not have to put in a formal request to the government to give his monthly 48

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salary. The salary is put into his account automatically. He does not beg for his salary by singing songs and weeping. Similarly Hanuman participated in the service of Lord Rama in human form and got the fruit of His service, which was the post of the future creator of the Universe. He did not sing bhajans, chant hymns, meditate or shed tears etc., for the fruit. Therefore what is the use of these things without the service? An elephant is fed with sugar cane in a dignified way. The elephant does a lot of work in carrying big logs etc. A dog does not do any service and it begs for food by wagging its tail, by crying, by falling at the feet of people but it is not given food or at the most it is given leftovers. Therefore the knowledge and devotion should lead to service, which are like the degrees acquired by you. Merely for your degree, no salary will be given. With the help of the degree you have to get a job and do service for which alone you can get the salary. The degrees will only help you to get a job but they cannot give you the salary directly. With the help of knowledge you can recognize the human incarnation. With the help of devotion you will come near Him and become dear to Him so that you can participate in His service. You get the fruit for your service and not for your knowledge and devotion. Electrons are traveling in the atmosphere and we cannot experience these electrons (electricity) directly. When these electrons pass through a wire, the wire is electrified. You can experience the shock of the electricity through the wire by touching it. You can also use the electricity in a wire to move the fan or to light the light bulb. Similarly you cannot experience the Brahman (God), which is beyond imagination by any effort and you cannot get any fruit from It. When that Brahman enters into the human body you can experience the Brahman and can get the fruit for your service. How can you serve the unimaginable Brahman? You can only serve the Brahman in human form that comes into this world and get the fruit for your selfless service. The Brahman comes down for this very purpose. The properties of the wire are not affected by the flow of the electricity. The copper wire is red, lean and its properties are retained. Similarly the properties of the human body are retained even if the Brahman is present in it. The body of the human incarnation shows all the properties of nature like thirst, hunger, illness, birth, death etc. Suppose electricity is flowing in a copper wire and an aluminum wire simultaneously. The current is same but a copper wire is red in color and the aluminum wire is white in 49

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color. Similarly the human incarnations have different natures due to the difference in the nature of the human bodies. Rama was very peaceful and Parashurama was very furious. When the electricity leaves the wire, it remains as an ordinary wire. The electricity is only present in the wire and is not modified into wire. Therefore when the electricity leaves the wire you can push the wire with your leg. People misunderstand that the electric wire is insulted. During the presence of electricity that wire was the electricity itself because you cannot separate the electricity from the wire and if you touch the wire anywhere it gives the electric shock. Similarly when the Brahman left the body of Lord Krishna at the end, Arjuna cremated that body, as any other human body. People think that Lord Krishna died or was cremated. The Lord left that human body and it was only the body of Lord that was cremated. When the Lord was present in that body, that body was the Lord because the Lord and the body cannot be separated. The Gita says, “Manusheem Tanumashritam”, which means that the Brahman enters the human body. The Gita also says, “Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam” which means that ignorant people think that the Brahman is modified into the human body. Justice [deity of justice] in the form of cow, follows Lord Datta [Lord Datta is picturized with a cow following Him]. This means that Justice also follows His actions. Whatever the Lord does is the justice. He is the protector of justice and Justice is the protected. The protector is always greater than the protected. The Lord followed justice as Rama. Justice became proud and therefore, the Lord in the form of Krishna deviated from justice and Justice had to follow Him. Thus He removed the pride of Justice. This means that we have to follow the Lord alone and leave justice when the Lord competes with Justice. This is the test of Datta and even great scholars have failed in this test. When Krishna asked Dharmaraja to tell a lie in the battlefield, Dharmaraja refused and went to the hell since he did not follow the order of the Lord. Similarly the Vedas are lying at His feet as dogs and are following Him [Lord Datta is picturized with four dogs following Him]. What does this mean? This means that whenever Datta preaches, He will not preach according to the Vedas like an ordinary scholar. The Vedas obey His preaching and follow the preaching as faithful dogs. He is the creator of Vedas and whatever He preaches is the Veda. Datta means the human form of the Lord, which comes to the world. So whenever the Lord in human form preaches here, that preaching can be seen in the 50

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Vedas because Vedas were the knowledge spoken by Him already. So whatever He preaches here should not contradict whatever He preached earlier. Therefore He quotes from the Vedas since they are what He has already preached. This should not be misunderstood that He is quoting from the Vedas and following them. Ignorance is very strong in this age of Kali [Dark Age of materialism] and it is also a natural force, like water falling down vigorously. Water has to be forced to go up. So the ignorance by which people fall is natural and powerful. The knowledge by which people go up [uplifted], needs a lot of effort by the Sadguru and also by the devotees in the propagation of the knowledge.

Sacrifice that Which you don’t give to Anybody It is always great to give God that which you cannot give to anybody. What is the greatness in giving that which you can give to anyone? People easily give words and mind and there is no greatness in sacrificing such things. It is very difficult to sacrifice the fruit of work (money). Therefore the greatness lies in sacrificing work or the fruit of work. The Gita emphasized on Karma Phala Tyaga in view of the nearing Kali Yuga. Soon after the Mahabharata war, Kali entered. Since the Lord knows that in the Kali age, money, which is the fruit of the work, is going to be the topmost item, He emphasized the sacrifice of money (Karma Phala Tyaga) everywhere in the Gita. There are three Eshanas which are very strong bonds: 1) Bond with money 2) Bond with wife or husband 3) Bond with children. Unless these three bonds are completely broken, salvation is not complete. Indians are very poor in the sacrifice of the fruit of their work, which is the real essence of the whole spiritual effort to reach God. In order to revise the syllabus for the benefit of the dull students in the class, the teacher conducts several revision sessions. Therefore the Lord is coming again and again in several human incarnations to India since Indians did not digest His preaching. Ironically, Indians take pride in the fact that the Lord incarnates so often in India! In foreign countries one incarnation was sufficient and therefore there was no reincarnation. The foreigners have digested the actual essence of the spiritual path by one lecture itself. They practice the Karma Phala Tyaga to the full extent. 51

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Human incarnations (Avatara) are of several types meant for different levels of the people. In a Kala Avatara (Ray Incarnation) a ray of the energy of Lord enters the human body. E.g.: Sage Vyasa. In an Amsha Avatara (Partial Incarnation) a part of the energy of the Lord enters the human body e.g. Sage Kapila. In an Avesha Avatara (Temporary Incarnation), the Lord enters the human body for sometime to do some work and later leaves that body e.g: Parashurama. In a Purna Avatara (Complete Incarnation) the Lord exists from the birth to the death of the human body, but the Lord exhibits only some of His divine qualities e.g. Rama. In the Paripurna Avatara (Highest and Complete Incarnation) God exists in the human body from birth to death and exhibits all His divine qualities completely e.g. Krishna. As you have different levels of teachers like school teachers, college lecturers and university professors, the human incarnations are also different according to the standards of the people to whom they preach. If people are limiting their lives only to eating, drinking, enjoying and reproducing and loving their children, they are earning money for the sake of these things and are undergoing lot of worries for earning the money. The kind Lord gives the births of animals, birds etc. to such people because they can do those things without earning any money and without any worry in such births. Therefore such births only show the kindness of the Lord and not the attitude of the punishment. The Lord is fully satisfied and shows His grace only when your sacrifice for the sake of the Lord is also complete. Satrajit, a devotee of Krishna came and presented some gold jewels to the Lord. That was only a partial sacrifice. But the Lord wanted the divine gem called Samantaka which yields the gold everyday. What does this mean? The Lord wants to completely cut the devotee’s bond with money. The Lord wants you to sacrifice your complete work and the complete fruit of your work also. The Lord patted the back of the squirrel since it was continuously carrying the sand particles and throwing them into the sea to help with the construction of the bridge. Today, there is no Indian who sacrifices his work or fruit of work to the Lord without aspiring for anything in return. If he gives ten rupees he expects ten thousand rupees in return. An even worse fellow gives ten rupees to the Lord only after first getting ten thousand rupees from the Lord. The worst fellow wants to get ten thousand rupees from the Lord and does not give even one rupee to the Lord. He wants to get the 52

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money by sacrificing his words and mind through chanting hymns, devotion etc. Money is a form of work. When you sacrifice work, then alone will the Lord give you work (money, riches) in return. If you give Him words, He will give you very good language skills. If you give Him love through feelings and words, the Lord also gives the same thing in return [you will be greatly loved and praised]. If you discuss about the Lord through your intelligence, He will bless you with good knowledge. When you sacrifice work, He will also work for you. When you sacrifice the fruit of your work (money) He will also give money to you. In whatever route you approach Him, He will approach you in the same route. You are coming to God to spend your leisure time for your entertainment, which costs nothing to you. Moreover other costly entertainment is avoided and your money can be saved. Added to this benefit, by spending this leisure time for God you may get some extra money also from God by His grace. Thus the Indian intellectuals are thinking about God as a multi-benefit saving scheme, like the present financial schemes. But the Lord is very very intelligent. He gives the money as desired by the people in return for such worship through words and mind. But that money gained along with the money already he has earned is lost by way of thieves, diseases etc. Only when you completely sacrifice to the Lord, will a graceful look of the Lord fall on you. One can keep the money that is necessary but the extra money should be returned back to the Lord. Ravana had his own wife called Mandodari. She represents the necessary wealth. But Sita was the extra money stolen [Ravana had kidnapped Rama’s wife, Sita]. Therefore Sita has to be returned to Rama. Ravana did not do so and was destroyed. Ishavasya Upanishat says in the very first hymn that one should return back the extra money to the Lord stolen by him. Lord Datta comes in human form and gives the real meaning of the scriptures, which were written by Him. Ignorant people, unable to practice the real meaning of these scriptures will hide the real meaning and cover it with misinterpretations. This is the meaning of the demon called Somakasura stealing the Veda. The misinterpretation has stolen the Veda, which means the real interpretation. The Lord came in the form of a fish and killed the demon and uplifted the Veda. What does this mean? The fish indicates the eye because the eye is of the shape of a fish. That fish denotes the third eye of knowledge. Since knowledge is the real form of the Lord, the Lord takes the form of knowledge, which 53

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is the third eye denoted by the fish. Therefore the fish represents the knowledge or the Lord directly. This knowledge destroyed the demon of ignorance and misinterpretation and uplifted the real interpretation, which is called as Veda.

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Chapter - 6

COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF SPIRITUALITY O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Krishnastami: Day-2] It is a pitiable situation for the spiritual knowledge because people are giving lot of importance to the word Yoga without understanding its real meaning. People speak about the six wheels (Chakras) and there is no reference of these Chakras in the sacred scriptures like the Vedas, Gita and Brahma Sutras. This is the creation of a middle age scholar, who has introduced the spiritual subject in a symbolic language. The wheels indicate the whirlpools that have to be crossed by the swimmer who wants to cross this ocean-like ignorance. They are like the attractive lotus flowers, which capture and imprison the soul, which is like a bee. If Yoga is understood in its true sense as the concept represented by this symbolic language, then I am very happy about the present version of Yoga. But I feel very bad if you really think that there are actual wheels or lotus flowers in the human spine. You do not find such things even through very powerful microscopes after doing a surgery of the spine. Thus you must always use the torchlight of logic and science wherever and whenever necessary. But you should also know the place where this torchlight should not be used. In analysing yourself and in analysing the true path, you should always use the torch. But when you have recognised the goal, and reached it, you should put off this torchlight because you require blind faith there. Blindness means darkness. The quality Tamas represents Shiva, the final form of God and the final blind faith is Tamas. While reaching the goal, you require knowledge and analysis. Knowledge is Sattvam, which is the middle divine form or Vishnu. The starting person is a human being, which is highly affected by egoism indicated by Rajas representing the first divine form Brahma. Thus the soul, the path and the goal represent the nature of Datta.

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Meeting the Sadguru The real meaning of the word Yoga means meeting the Sadguru. The word Yoga comes from the verb ‘Yuj’, which means the union. Sadguru is the human incarnation of the Lord. The Lord will exhibit the Maya consisting of the three qualities. When the devotees are tested, this Maya is mainly made of the full expression of Rajas and Tamas. Such Maya is used to test your firm faith and your assimilation of the spiritual knowledge. By this, devotees generally run away and this Maya of Lord Datta is very strong. He appears as a drunkard and one who is fond of prostitutes. When Kartaveeryarjuna approached Him with his defective hands, the Lord broke the two hands. But he continued in the service with blind faith and was finally given a thousand hands. Thus we should have patience in the tests of the Lord. Lord Krishna also showed several defects like stealing butter, dancing with women etc., to divert the devotees. In order to have patience in His tests without being disturbed by Rajas and Tamas, you must have a pre-training in this world to raise yourself beyond these three qualities. Infact the Lord is beyond these three qualities and is untouched by them. To get this kind of patience before the Lord, you have to take training in the world. In such training you will develop the patience to face these divine tests from the Lord in human form. Therefore, Yoga is defined as the union or achievement of this equilibrium, which is unperturbed by the three qualities.

Equilibrium and Self-Control Yoga is defined by the Lord as this equilibrium (Samatvam Yoga Uchyate—Gita). In the chapter ‘Atmasamyama Yoga’ of the Gita the details of such training are mentioned. You have to receive both the friend and enemy with equality (Suhrunmitraryudasinah—Gita). By this you will treat the Lord with the same devotion even if He acts as an enemy towards you to test your faith. The Lord also tests your attachment with the worldly bonds with reference to His bond. You must prove that His bond is the strongest. For this you have to reduce the attractions in the world. Such reduction of your attractions is a part of Yoga and is useful directly before the Lord. You should serve the Lord without aspiring for anything in return and you must treat both respect and insult with equality (Sukha Duhkhe Same, Manavamanayoh—Gita). You must treat both profit and loss with 56

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equality because when you approach the Lord you may sometimes get a loss instead of profit. Without undergoing such training to achieve self control or Atma Samyama, one can not succeed in the tests of the Lord. Sudama developed such self-control during his poverty for a long time. He did not do any sin in spite of the suffering of his family members with poverty. Such training helped him when he went to Lord Krishna. He stayed with the Lord for a few days. During this period he never asked the Lord for anything. The Lord also sent him back without even a trace of help. Yet Sudama never criticized the Lord for not helping him. He succeeded in the test of the Lord and achieved infinite wealth. Thus the Gita gives the real meaning of Yoga, which is selfcontrol without being attracted by diversions. The diversions are these charkas, which are nothing but the obstructions in the way of passing in the test of the Lord. This training is like the whole year’s academic course and is very important. The test of the Lord is a matter of a threehour examination at the end of the year. If you have finished this training, the Lord Himself will come to you in human form, conduct the test and give you the certificate. Therefore you should concentrate on the Gita, which is called as Yoga Shastra or the Scripture of Yoga. The examiner, examination and the certificate are sequential steps, which will take place spontaneously as per the divine will. Therefore the study of the Gita helps you really on this day of festival whereas eating sweets [prepared for the festival] leads only to problems of indigestion. Praising the examiner with songs (bhajans) will also not help you because the examiner is very clever and strict and cannot be pleased by insincere behavior. It is better to hear His divine knowledge, assimilate and pass the examination. This path gives you a dignity and respect for the divine teacher too. Instead of taking this royal path, why are you resorting to unlawful means of bribing Him by chanting His name (Japam), worshipping Him (Puja) and singing His praise (Bhajans) in order to get such certificates? Hanuman never did these things. He only participated in the service of the Lord. He never aspired for anything in return for his service either. He was made the future creator (Brahma) by the Lord and this is the highest certificate. Therefore you can get the highest fruit from the Lord if you practice Yoga in this world in your day-to-day life. Such Yoga gives you all the necessary training to succeed in the test of the Lord.

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Looking at the goal should not discourage you, just because the goal is very far and so full of difficulties. You may fear that you may not reach the goal before the end of this human birth. Yet you should keep on trying for it and be in constant trial (sadhana). Then the Lord will co-operate with you by granting you any number of human births. The Lord will do His part (Daivamchaivatra—Gita). Even if you slip in this trial, you will still be granted human rebirth with favourable spiritual atmosphere (Yogabrashtobhijayate—Gita). But you should sincerely put your effort and should not act artificially. The Lord is omniscient and you cannot fool Him and get the rare human rebirth.

Restrictions on Leaving Family One should not think of leaving one’s family members and house as a real spiritual step. You cannot get the grace of the Lord by simply sacrificing your house and family and claiming that you have become a saint [monk]. The sacrifice should not be based on your effort but it should be a spontaneous consequence of your devotion to the Lord. The Gopikas were wandering in Vrindavanam leaving their families and the reason for such detachment was the attachment to the Lord. They became mad due to the absence of the Lord and this madness cannot be compared to the madness of a person due some shock to the brain in an accident. In both cases the madness is same but the reasons are different. When Lord Krishna was staying with them, they neglected Him and were doing all their family duties. When the Gopikas used to go to Mathura city to sell butter, Krishna used to obstruct them. They requested Him not to disturb their duties. But when Krishna left Vrindavanam they became mad and left all their duties. The reason for this difference is that when the human incarnation is near you, negligence enters. Only in His absence, does devotion reach its climax; this is human psychology. The human form itself leads to negligence and if such human form stays constantly near you, your negligence is doubled. By leaving your family and by simply wandering in Vrindavanam, one will not become a Gopika. Ofcourse, in the Yoga Vashishtham it is said that an ordinary human being should stay far from the attractions and this will help the concentration on the God initially. But the actual attachment towards the Lord is the only reason for spiritual development.

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I will give an example. Suppose a boy is in love with a girl. In the beginning the boy often meets the girl in order to develop the affair with the girl. But one day, the love reaches the climax and now the boy is prepared to leave his parents, house and a lot of property to run away with the girl. Now the reason for leaving the parents and property is the love for that girl. Sometimes a boy having a psychological disorder may also leave the house. Both the cases are quite different. But again one point should be remembered in such sacrifice. Shankara left His mother because she was fond of Shankara. This bond was a hindrance in the spiritual effort of Shankara. To avoid this, Shankara left His mother. If His mother was agreeable to the spiritual path of Shankara, Shankara would not have left His mother. Therefore, one should leave the house only when the atmosphere in your home opposes your spiritual effort. Even in that case one should try his best to change the atmosphere by preaching to the family members. Ramanuja left his wife when she continued to obstruct Him from his spiritual path in spite of his repeated spiritual advice. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa did not leave His wife since she was fully co-operating with his spiritual effort. Even if the atmosphere is neutral, one should not leave the house and hurt others. Only in the case of extreme opposition one should leave the house and go away for the association of real devotees (Nachasanyasanadeva—Gita).

Ayukta, Yogi and Yukta There are three types of people. The first type is ordinary human beings who do not start the spiritual journey. They are strongly attracted by this world and these attractions are the qualities accumulated from millions of births in the soul. Such people are called as Ayuktas (Ayuktah Kamakarena Phalesaktah—Gita). The second type is called as Yogis who practice Yoga and who have not yet completed the training in Yoga. They cannot sacrifice their fruit of the work to the Lord. They can sacrifice their work, devotion by mind, discussions with intelligence and any work with senses of their body like singing songs etc. (Kayena Manasa Buddhya—Gita). The third type is called as Yuktas, which means the people who have finished the training in Yoga. Such people sacrifice the fruit of work also along with the above (Yuktah Karmaphalam—Gita). The aspects to be achieved by Yoga are an equal reaction to all types of incidents and this reaction must always be a 59

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peaceful, undisturbed and balanced mind (Sarvatra Samadarsanah, Prasanta Manasam—Gita). Another aspect of Yoga is not thinking of any worldly matter in one’s leisure time. Such thinking will lead to loss of energy (Nakinchidapi Chintayet—Gita). One more aspect is realizing the achievement of the grace of God as the highest profit in the life (Yamlabdhva Naparam—Gita). Another aspect is to maintain a constant mind even if a mountain of misery falls on you (Na Duhkhe na Gurunapi—Gita). Also Yoga means not having even a single worldly desire in the mind (Nissprihah Sarvaakamebhyah—Gita). Yoga also means controlling the worldly activities to the minimum possible level because if God’s grace is there, any worldly affair will succeed even with minimum effort (Yuktacheshtasya—Gita). The Lord criticised both science and arts related to worldly aspects (Vedavadaratah, Trigunya Vishayah—Gita). The Lord says that both are a waste since you are not touching anything about the Lord (Nanyadastiti—Gita). Such people are attracted only to the worldly selfish pleasures and not to pleasing the Lord. The dynamism observed in such people is also not appreciated by the Lord because both walking and running in the wrong direction are useless (Kriya Vishesha Bahulam—Gita). The Lord stresses on devotees crossing the difference between good and bad faced in the world. You should show the same love and kindness to both good and bad people and also love friends and enemies in the same way. If you praise a good person and a friend and scold a bad person and enemy, you have failed in the Yoga. Tomorrow when you reach the Lord in the human form, He will appear bad and damage you. Then you will scold the Lord too. For example the devotees of Vishnu criticise Lord Shiva, since Lord Shiva appears with the qualities of Tamas. This is the very important essence of the Gita that one will succeed in the tests of the Lord in human form only if he raises himself above the three qualities (Satvam, Rajas and Tamas). Therefore you should not be disturbed by the negative qualities or positive qualities in the world like insult and honour, enmity and friendship, loss and benefit, misery and happiness etc (Gunanetanatetyatrin—Gita). Only such a devotee can succeed in the tests of the Lord and can please the Lord. This Yukta state, which is the final stage of the Yoga, is called as the real sanyasa [monkhood, renunciation]. Here the word sanyasa does not mean the external indications like saffron cloth, leaving the house etc (Naniragnih—Gita). 60

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The sanyasin [monk] is that person who has completely sacrificed everything and everyone for the sake of the service to the Lord. Such a sanyasin or yukta alone can be fully blessed by the Lord and enters the inner most circle of the Lord (Brahmabhuyaya—Gita). Parabrahman is the unimaginable Lord who is telling the Gita. This Parabrahman was speaking through the mouth of the external body of Lord Krishna. The Parabrahman or the Lord and His characteristics are completely unknown and nobody can ever know Him at any time (Mantuveda Nakashchana—Gita). This Lord generates the power called Maya. The characteristics of Maya are awareness, force and work. These three qualities of Maya are wonderful and are beyond the rules of Prakriti or nature (Jnana Bala Kriya cha—Veda).

Service And Parabrahman Service [Day 4] To please the Lord you have to surrender your words by singing about Him, your mind in His devotion and your intelligence in His discussions. However these three constitute only 1% of the total sacrifice and this is called theoretical sacrifice. The sacrifice of your work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work constitute 99% of sacrifice, which is called practical sacrifice. The practical sacrifice should be done to the most deserving person, who is Lord in human form, when recognised properly. The reason is that all this wealth belongs to the Lord alone since He is the creator of the entire universe. All this wealth is His immovable property and all the living beings are His movable property. You are a part and parcel of His movable property. You are supposed to take only the necessary amount from His infinite wealth for your basic needs, the boundary of which cannot be infinite. The rich man, who has no boundaries for his ambition to take the wealth of the Lord, takes it in unlimited quantities. He must realise that his effort is useless and a waste. The reason is that one has to leave all the excess of wealth here itself [when one dies] and his family members will not share his sin. They never asked him to earn infinitely for their sake. Therefore only he is responsible for all the sins. He should only retain the required wealth to meet his needs (Yavanartha Udapane—Gita). If he analyses the family bonds, they are proved to be unreal dramatic bonds. Therefore a rich man should donate the excess wealth to the Lord in human form for His mission. If the 61

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human incarnation is not recognised, the second address of the Lord is a real devotee. The Lord dwells in the heart of a real devotee. But people are donating to temples seeing the statues in it, without analysing that it is the temple management that collects and spends the donated money. If the manager is neither a human incarnation nor a real devotee, the sacrifice of your money is a waste. The sacrifice of money applies even to ordinary human beings. No doubt these people are earning money only for their basic needs. Some earn a little more to save for unforeseen problems in the future. Storing wealth for such purpose is also justified. Such storing is not wrong. Some people earn just up to the mark. Some people earn even below the mark. All these people need not do any sacrifice of their money to the Lord, because the very basic point is that the Lord neither needs your money nor your work for His mission. His mere will is sufficient to carry on His mission (Name Karmaphale Spriha—Gita). But all these ordinary human beings also are wasting some money in the name of entertainment. All this entertainment will only end in loss and misery. Therefore you are wasting your time, energy and money in the entertainment, which ends in loss. For example if you see a movie, you have lost time and money and at the end you experience weakness and a loss of energy. Similar is the case of reading novels and doing unnecessary gossip. Either utilise your time, energy and money for satisfying your basic needs or store it for your future needs. Instead of wasting it on entertainments, which end in loss (Duhkha Yonaya Evate—Gita), convert this wastage into divine wealth for getting the grace of Lord, which protects you here as well as there [after-world]. This is a beneficial program for you alone and not for the Lord. The money that is earned for your basic needs also comes under the account of the sacrifice of money to the Lord. Unless the basic needs are satisfied, one cannot even sacrifice work for the mission of the Lord (Shariram Kevalam, Sharira Yatra—Gita). But people of this ordinary level should avoid all entertainment and should feel entertained in the service of the Lord. If you properly analyse and realize, worldly entertainment finally gives you loss. This is the worst path (Bhogaishwarya—Gita). Instead of this loss, it is better to analyse your self and fix yourself in the soul, which is pure awareness [the path of Advaita]. This atleast will give you peace, which is far better than the loss that you get in entertainment. However if you recognise the Lord in 62

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human form and engage in the service of the Lord, you get permanent bliss in the long run, which is a profit. If you cross this level also and serve the Lord even if it worries you, you enter His innermost circle. Therefore instead of purchasing worry by pursuing entertainment, it is far better to purchase worry in the service of the Lord. The result of the former case is hell and the result of the latter case is the permanent abode of the Lord. A person who purchases bliss from the Lord in His mission is called as a Yukta, who is blessed by the Lord. But the person who purchases worry from the Lord in His mission is called as Yuktatama, which means the best of the devotees present in the state of Yukta (Sameyuktatamah—Gita).

Existence of Parabrahman You cannot say that the Parabrahman exists and nor can you say that Parabrahman does not exist. The reason is that in both sentences the verb ‘exists’ may mean that Parabrahman is understood or that Parabrahman is imaginable. Generally, people do not say that an unimaginable thing exists. Therefore the verb ‘exists’ always means the probability of the existence of imaginable things. Based on this, when you say that Parabrahman exists, generally there is a danger of thinking that the Parabrahman is imaginable. Similarly, even if you say that Parabrahman does not exist, it may also lead to thinking that the Parabrahman is an imaginable item. When we say that the tree exists or that the tree does not exist, in both cases the tree is imaginable. Therefore, the Lord says in the Gita that Parabrahman cannot be said to be existing or non-existing (Nasat tat naasat). Therefore, the Parabrahman is best expressed by silence and the conclusion is that no word can directly indicate the Parabrahman. The word Parabrahman is not a direct word [a word that directly defines or describes the object indicated by it]. It means ‘that which is other than Brahman’. Brahman is the greatest imaginable item of creation, which is pure awareness. Shankara wrote His commentary about Brahaman. The word Brahma Jijnasa means discussions about the Brahman since Brahman is an imaginable item. It can be well discussed but when the word Parabrahman came, Shankara said that it should be represented by silence alone (Mauna Vyakhya Prakatita Parabrahma…). The greatest item of creation is pure awareness. The inert energy like light, heat, electricity and magnetism is subtler and 63

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greater than inert matter. The life energy that is produced from the oxidation of food is only heat energy (Tejah sati—Veda) because the oxidation reaction is an exothermic reaction [a chemical reaction that gives off heat]. But the awareness, which is generated from the nervous system by the heat energy, is most subtle and is the finest form of energy. The inter conversion of awareness and the heat energy is understood theoretically but is not possible to understand in practice for the scientist. This does not mean that the life energy is independent and eternal without generation and dissolution. The awareness disappears in deep sleep and appears when the person wakes up. This proves that the awareness is not eternal but is an inter-convertible form of the inert energy itself. Ofcourse, the conversion is not in the hands of the scientist, even though the conversion is theoretically proved and accepted. When you stop the supply of food or oxygen, the heat energy is not produced by digestion, and the awareness disappears, which is the state of a coma or deep sleep. When life energy is not supplied, death occurs. In the last stage, even though the digestion of the patient stops, respiration continues. Although food is not supplied, oxygen is supplied. Instead of food, the stored fat is oxidized. Therefore the patient is alive for sometime in spite of the absence of food. After sometime, the nervous system stops functioning, either due to damage in the system or due to inadequate supply of the heat energy. This is the stage of unconsciousness. Finally in the last stage, the oxidation stops and no more heat energy is produced. We say that the human being is dead due to absence of any trace of heat and the body becomes cold. This process of death is described in the Veda (Manastejasi tejassati). Just in the last fraction of a second before death, a small portion of the heat energy is used in the formation of the energetic body that goes out of the gross body along with the bundle of qualities, which are stored in the mind. This bundle of qualities, accumulated from the past millions of births of that soul, which is called as the subtle body or Jiva, cannot be prepared by the scientist. He cannot bring back this bundle called the subtle body, which escapes from the gross body and enters an energetic body that comes out of the gross body. This energetic body is called as a Yaatana Shariram [body of suffering], if the Jiva goes to hell. It is called as a Bhoga Shariram [body of enjoyment], if the Jiva goes to heaven and it is called as a Divya Shariram [divine body], if the Jiva 64

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goes to the abode of Lord. It is due to this reason that a dead person cannot be made alive after he has died [since the subtle body has already left the physical body and has entered an energetic body]. Otherwise science has developed an artificial nervous system and brain in the robot by introducing a small ‘bundle of qualities’ in the form of an information chip. Therefore, ‘man’ is produced [the robot or artificial intelligence is similar to humans] but the same man cannot be reproduced [a dead man cannot be recreated since we cannot force the sublte body of the person to reenter the dead body]. The concept of a robot clearly proves that awareness is also a form of inert energy because in the robot, electrical energy is converted into the so-called ‘awareness’ which is nothing but electromagnetic energy. The energetic body of a soul is called as the subtle body or ‘Sukshma Shariram’. It goes to the upper world after the death of the physical body on earth, and is invisible as said in Veda (Manomayah) and in the Gita (Vayurgandhan; Utkramamtam). The final means of knowledge [authority] is faultless experience, which alone gives validity. The analysis of life energy and awareness is done based on the experience of a human being that exists here. All this is the analysis of the various aspects of the human being that exists in this world. We have concluded that awareness is the finest and the greatest item in this world based on the practical analysis here itself. If practical experience is neglected, logic loses its basis. In such a situation, even the scripture cannot stand because one may say that the scripture itself is the false imagination of some mad person. Therefore all this analysis is based on the internal nature of the available human being. The analysis of the human being perfectly gives the analysis of this entire creation because any human being is a part of creation [The human being can stand as a model for the analysis of creation, since it is a part of creation. What is true for the human being is therefore true for the creation]. Logical analysis and the associated practical experience together form science. Any spiritual aspirant is an ordinary human being and thus science is applicable for analysing yourself. Infact the process of logical elimination itself can enable you to attain the self or the causal body [by eliminating all the items in creation which are not the Self, one is finally left with the Atman or causal body, or pure awareness as the Self]. This process is perfectly scientific. The self is the best item of the creation 65

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and the analysis of the self is also science. When you are an item of creation, your ways and efforts cannot be supernatural and they must follow the natural rules of creation, which are again nothing but science. Therefore you must use the logical scientific analysis in analysing yourself and your path to reach God. But God is beyond this creation since He is the Creator. Therefore God cannot be analysed by science. When the goal is above science the scientific path cannot be meaningful because the scientific path will only lead to a goal which can be analysed by science. For example, let us take the path to Mumbai. The path is on the earth and Mumbai is also on the earth. The path is analyzed by logic and the goal is also analyzed by logic. But if I start the journey to God and ask the path to reach Him, nobody can show the path because God is invisible. An invisible goal will always have an invisible path. Nobody can travel on an invisible path. One can show the path to a holy temple. If God existed in the statue, such a path would be a true path. The main purpose of reaching God is to know three things: yourself, the correct path and the correct goal. The reason is that God is the best preacher for all the matters which are related to God. The human incarnation of God is the correct place to find God. The human incarnation consists of a visible human body so that the path to reach Him also becomes visible. Since God is in the human incarnation, by reaching that human body you have reached God. Infact God pervades all over that body and you have reached God by reaching His incarnation. God becomes visible through that human body and therefore the path to reach God also becomes visible. The main purpose to reach God is to hear the correct version of the entire spiritual knowledge. Then through service, you have to please God. In the case of a statue, it cannot preach even a trace of knowledge. Moreover when we serve the statute it does not appear to be pleased on its face. Due to these two reasons neither is God in the statute and nor is God the statute itself (Na Tasya Pratima—Veda). The statute in the human form is a model to indicate the human form of the Lord. Ignorant human beings who cannot accept the human form of God due to their egoism and jealousy can worship the statute for sometime as a training for worshipping the human form of the Lord in the future (Pratimahyalpa Buddhinam—Smriti). But one should not sit in the stage of training throughout his life. If he remains there, he is reborn as an inert object like a stone (Bhutejya yanti—Gita) 66

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Since the human incarnation is the Creator Himself, the analysis of the human incarnation gives an idea about God but Vedas and the Gita say that God is always unimaginable and can never be known. But the existence of the unimaginable God must be experienced (Astetyeva— Veda). Otherwise you may say that God does not exist because He is unimaginable and also beyond experience .The unimaginability is called as Maya. Unimaginability is the property of the Parabrahman, which has entered pure awareness and made the Mula Maya or pure awareness become Maya. Mula Maya is not the unimaginability since creation had not started at the stage of Mula Maya. Therefore, the word Mula Maya means the root of Maya and has no Maya [unimaginability] in it. When creation started, the Mula Maya was converted into Maya which is a mixture of the unimaginability of Parabrahman that entered Mula Maya and the imaginability of the world (Prakriti). Therefore, in the state of Mula Maya or Brahman, the Parabrahman does not exhibit unimaginability to the souls because the creation has not yet started and the souls were not yet created. Brahman is the purest state of Parabrahman in the absence of creation. In that state Parabrahman is not unimaginable to Itself and therefore has no superimposed apparent ignorance. The unimaginability arises only when imaginability or Prakriti also exists as a reference. Therefore, Brahman can be said as the Parabrahman leftover with pure awareness and without unimaginability (Maya) or imaginability (Prakriti). Maya means wonderful. A wonderful thing need not be unimaginable. Thus the imaginable world (Prakriti) is also called as Maya because the Prakriti is also wonderful. Shankara gave another meaning for Maya: ‘that which does not exist’. That is also correct because the droplet of the pure awareness, which has become the world or Maya is very negligible and can be treated as almost non-existent. Shankara never said that the world is absolutely non-existent. He said that the world is Mithya, which means that it is neither existent nor nonexistent (Sadasat Vilakshana). It is existent because it exists even though it is very very little. It is non-existent because its existence can be neglected, since it is very very little. People have misunderstood Shankara. They state that according to Shankara the world is nonexistent. Maya is wonderful because Maya is a mixture of awareness and unimaginability. The pure awareness is from Mula Maya and the 67

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unimaginability is from Parabrahman. We must always remember that the unimaginability is not for Parabrahman and it is only for the souls. Thus we can generally say that Maya is unimaginability. Ofcourse, the pure awareness is also generated from Parabrahman like the unimaginability. If it is diluted unimaginability, it is the wonderful or little Maya, since it can be understood by human beings. If the unimaginability is 100%, then it is called as Maha Maya. The Mula Maya is in the form of pure awareness and is called as Mula Prakriti or Shuddha Sattvam. Sattvam is the knowledge of other things; Shuddha Sattvam is the knowledge of itself. Sattvam is a part of the Maya because Maya is composed of the three qualities called Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. When the pure awareness is aware of other things, the Shuddha Sattvam is converted into Sattvam. Then the other things are Rajas and Tamas, which are the modifications of pure Rajas and pure Tamas that exist in Suddha Sattvam itself. Rajas is work or energy. Tamas is ignorance or matter. Both the Suddha Sattvam and Sattvam are states of the same knowledge. Therefore, the Suddha Sattvam or knowledge is nearest to Parabrahman and is an inseparable associated characteristic of Parabrahman. This does not mean that Lord Vishnu who represents Suddha Sattvam is nearest to Parabrahman. The Suddha Sattvam itself is pure Rajas and pure Tamas as already stated. This is said in the Veda (Brahmashcha Narayanah, Shivashcha Naarayanah). Pure Rajas is Brahma and pure Tamas is Shiva. Therefore Lord Datta, who constitutes all these three divine forms, is the item of the creation that is near most to Parabrahman. The only difference between Parabrahman and Datta is that Parabrahman is invisible and unimaginable. Datta is visible and unimaginable. The visible part of Datta is the creation, which acts as a medium. The invisible part is the hidden Parabrahman. Krishna was an incarnation of Datta since He stated that He is the creator, ruler and destroyer of the world (Prabhavah Pralayastatha, Mayi Sarvamidam). The divine knowledge, which is the characteristic of Suddha Sattvam can be used as the identity mark for Parabrahman. When this knowledge is wonderful, the Suddha Sattvam is called as Sattva Maya. This wonderful knowledge is Prajnanam, which consists of both wonderful Suddha Sattvam and wonderful Sattvam (Satvika Maya). This means that Prajnanam contains a wonderful explanation of itself (Suddha Sattvam) and all the other related things (Sattvam). It is the wonderful 68

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knowledge of the Creator, the path to please the Creator and the nature of the soul. Therefore the wonderful knowledge of the Parabrahman is the nearest inseparable identity mark in the case of the human incarnation. The human incarnation is not recognised in the state of Brahman because there can be no preaching from Brahman, which is pure awareness without any creation. The preaching comes only from Ishwara since He is associated with creation. The Rajas and Tamas also attain unimaginability and become wonderful in the form of miracles. Rajas is work and Tamas is force. Thus miracles are forms of wonderful work and force, which are far from Parabrahman. Miracles can be transferred to demons. Since Rajas is Brahma and Tamas is Shiva, both of them grant boons to demons. Sattvam is Vishnu who never grants any boon to demons. It means that the Sattvika Maya or Prajnanam can never be transferred to demons. Sattvam represents Vishnu and Mula Sattvam represents Narayana. This is the reason why Ramanuja and Madhva stressed on Vishnu or Narayana who acts as the spiritual preacher. However this does not mean that the Parabrahman is associated with Mula Sattvam and Sattvam only. All the three qualities are associated and therefore are all separable and different from Parabrahman. The Parabrahman is associated with all the three qualities in a wonderful state. Even while transferring the miracles to demons, the Rajas and Tamas in the complete unimaginable state cannot be transferred. The force and work of creating, ruling and destruction of creation cannot be transferred to any demon. For example a demon may create small objects but cannot create the world. Lord Krishna showed the Vishwarupam through which He proved that such a miracle could never be exhibited by anybody other than Himself. The entire Bhagavad Gita shows the non-transferable knowledge (Sattvam or Vishnu). The Vishwarupam in the Bhagvad Gita also shows the non-transferable Brahma and Shiva who represent the creation and destruction of the cosmos. In between the creation and the destruction, the Lord maintained the cosmos as Vishnu and preached to Arjuna about the spiritual concept of the vision. Thus Vishnu stands for preaching the knowledge even while maintaining the universe. Therefore one should not distinguish between these three divine forms of the Lord. The Lord is always associated with these three qualities in equal proportions. 69

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When the Prajnanam is preached, a little of it is also donated as jnanam. A scholar has received a part of the infinite Prajnanam. Similarly, demons receive a part of the divine force and divine work as the power to do miracles. Thus the donation of all the three qualities exists form the side of the Lord, but human beings or demons with their little capacities, can only receive a little of these three. A scholar cannot be Narayana. A scholar is only a water-drop whereas Narayana is the mighty ocean of true knowledge (Satyam Jnanam Anantam—Veda). Similarly, a demon doing small miracles cannot be equal to Brahma and Shiva. A sage called Tandu created [materialized] a handful of sacred ash and thought that he is the Lord. But Lord Shiva appeared before him and produced a mountain of ash from His thumb. Thus the quantitative difference exists between the Lord and His devotee.

Logic And Beyond The Ultimate Cause [Day 5] The human incarnation is also present in this world. The analysis of this Super Man gives a clear idea of the unimaginable God. Thus a practical experience regarding the unimaginable God also exists here. Hence the philosophy has a practical validity in this world. All this analysis is only from the angle of the soul. Before creation, there was no soul and there was no universe. In such a state, the unimaginability also did not exist because the God was imaginable to Himself. Therefore even the Maya, which is the unimaginability, also disappears and hence even Maya must have birth. The unimaginability exists only with reference to the existence of the imaginable Prakriti. But when Prakriti did not exist, even this unimaginability was absent. In such a state only Parabrahman existed and not even Maya (Ekameva Advitiyam—Veda). The entire creation is due to Parabrahman alone who is like the hidden Father. Interaction of the father and the mother is a hidden concept and it appears to the world as if the mother alone created and delivered the child. Actually, the child is born due to the father alone but the world cannot see the father creating or delivering the child. The father secretly created the child in her womb and is the indirect or actual cause of the child but that remains secret. It appears as if the mother herself created and delivered the child from her womb. Similarly the Mula Maya appears as if she has created this universe but actually 70

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Parabrahman created this universe through Mula Maya. Parabrahman remains as a secret like the father. This is told in the Gita (Mayadhyakshena, Beejam mam, Aham Beejapradah, Tasmim garbham). Therefore Parabrahman is the cause of the creation and every item in this creation. It appears as if the items of the creation form a chain of cause and effect. For example even if a tree has produced a flower, the actual cause of the production is Parabrahman and is like the hidden father. The tree is like the exposed mother appearing as if it is the cause of the flower. When the Veda says “Aatmana Aakasah”, it means the pure awareness produced space. The pure awareness (Mula Maya) is like the exposed mother generating space. But actually the hidden Parabrahman in the pure awareness has produced the space. Similarly Parabrahman is the cause of any work. When the Brahman desired to create, it is the Parabrahman hidden in Brahman that desired so. Brahman means the pure awareness in which the Parabrahman is hidden. When we say that Parabrahman desired to create, we will immediately assume that Parabrahman must be awareness. It is the logic of nature that anything that desires, must be awareness [this logic is valid only in nature]. But Parabrahman is beyond this logic, and therefore Parabrahman desires and at the same time He need not be awareness. The Veda says that Parabrahman runs without feet and catches without hands (Apani Pado Javano…). This means that Parabrahman does everything but cannot be detected through its action. By this, you will avoid indicating the Parabrahman by the word ‘awareness’. Thus Parabrahman is the cause of every work but at the same time, it gives fame to the items of its creation. Fire burns things and it appears as if the fire has the power to burn and convert anything into ash. But the same fire could not even heat a blade of dry grass thrown by Parabrahman. This is explained in the Kenopanishad. It means that the burning power of the fire is the very power of the Parabrahman. But the fire is given the fame. Thus Parabrahman is the real hidden cause of this world and of everything that happens in this world. To fulfill the validity of the statements of the divine scriptures of which He Himself is the author, He comes down to preach the true knowledge of the scripture and also proves the validity of every statement. Jesus told the same. Thus every statement of the Veda and the Gita is the constitution for any spiritual argument. The scientist only 71

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takes the universe containing human beings, for establishing the validity of the knowledge. His basic argument is that perception followed by practical experience and associated with logical analysis alone, can result in valid knowledge. But why is he denying the Super Man [human incarnation of God] who is visible and is giving wonderful knowledge and doing miracles? The Lord is donating His supernatural powers to several representatives to prove the existence of the unimaginability called Maya (Yadyat Vibhutimat—Gita). If the existence of Maya is established, the existence of the possessor of Maya is also simultaneously established. However to give the proof for His possession of Maya, the human incarnation appears as the Super Man. If the human incarnation does not come, people may end only by establishing the existence of Maya, which is His power. The power requires the existence of its Possessor or the Source of power. Otherwise every demon will claim himself to be the possessor of the power. Infact, they even claimed so in the past. Such demons were rejected by sages since the demons lacked the wonderful divine knowledge, which is a part (Sattvam) of God’s identity.

Role of Science Science plays a very important role in the spiritual knowledge. Science is the logical analysis, which is present in the analysis of this world as well as in the analysis of the divine knowledge. Infact, sages have analyzed the items of the creation with logic and finally concluded that no item is God. Infact there is no direct way to indicate God. The only way left over is the elimination of all items of the creation through logical analysis as said in Veda (Neti neti). Thus the entire spiritual knowledge is only full of science because you cannot analyse God who is beyond creation. Thus Jnana Yoga, which is the identification of the Lord in human form, requires the elimination of fraud human incarnations through logical analysis. The Gita says that the constant association of spiritual knowledge (Jnana) with science (vijnana) always continues (Jnanam teham savijnanam, Jnanavijnana triptama). The knowledge ends when the Lord in human form is recognized. Up to this point there is every possibility of slipping and therefore science should be in your hand like a glowing torch. When you reach the house, the torch is put off and now the next step is to please the Lord 72

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in human form. You require blind love and blind faith in Him. Therefore logical analysis should be shut down because the Lord is beyond logic. From this point onwards, devotion (Bhakti) starts. For example, in selecting a girl for marriage, you can examine several alliances with logical analysis. But once you marry a girl, you should not continue to look for new alliances and go on continuing with logical analysis. Devotion finally leads to service. In both the stages of devotion and service, scientific analysis must stop. Thus science is the torch that helps you examine yourself and conclude that you are not already God [the Advaita philosophy erroneously claims that each individual is God already]. Science also acts as a torch in detecting the true path to reach the Lord. Science or Vijnana is also called as Buddhi or Vijnanamaya Kosha. This is the driver who leads you in your car up to the place of God. Therefore the Gita starts with this driver (Buddhi Yoga). This torchlight is also useful to eliminate the wrong house. That means you can distinguish the real human form of God from other fraud incarnations. But once you enter the house after deciding that it is the correct house, there is no need of the torch because the house is full of lights. The Sadguru is full of knowledge and logical analysis. Apart from such excellent participation in the spiritual knowledge, science also helps you to earn your livelihood. Earning one’s livelihood is a part and parcel of the Lord’s work. But science should not divert you to earning money without limits and leading you to hell due to over enjoyment. In this context, science, knowledge or the part of Veda related to the world, is condemned by the Gita (Vedavadaratah). Even the attainment of the self by eliminating the gross body and the subtle body is done by logical analysis, which is science. With the help of science, Yajna (sacrifice) becomes possible. Yajna means cooking food and offering it to the divine preacher and devotees along with money as Guru Dakshina. To earn money, scientific work is required. This is stated in the Veda (Vijnanam Yajnam Tanute Karmani). The Gita also says that God gives the Veda or knowledge. Knowledge leads to work and sacrifice is the result of the work (Karma Brahmodbhavam). Thus science is required even in the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. It forms the very foundation of the entire spiritual knowledge. Science leading to over enjoyment should be cut down and this is proved by the present environmental pollution. It is 73

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going to severely harm humanity, which is the result of over enjoyments by over-application of Science. Such Science is condemned by the Lord (Traigunavishayah—Gita). Here, Science means knowledge and the Veda also means knowledge. Therefore, here the Veda refers to science, which is used to earn money. However, science shuts its mouth before the supernatural human incarnation. A scientist need not be an atheist. He should either try to explain the miracles of a Godly man or he should accept the theory of miracles preached by the Godman. Instead of this, if a scientist rejects the miracles as mere magic tricks, he is not open-minded. He is another specimen of conservatism of science-religion [Religions are commonly seen to be conservative. A scientist must be open-minded. If he is not open-minded then he is as good as a religious follower. He can be called as the follower of the religion called science]. When some sacred ash is produced by a miracle, you cannot condemn it by saying that the same ash can be produced by some magic trick. There may be two different paths of production of the same thing. If you can generate it by one path, it does not mean that the second path to generate the same thing does not exist.

Devotion and Service: Beyond Science When the Lord in human form is achieved, blind faith, blind love and blind service are essential to please the Lord. The reason for this is that He exhibits both Rajas and Tamas (bad qualities) to test your firm devotion. The quality of Sattvam represents good qualities and the two qualities Rajas and Tamas represent bad qualities. If your devotion is unshakeable then only, it cannot rise above the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas) and withstand His tests (Sagunan samatitya—Gita). The three qualities are the main components along with pure awareness in Maya. Since Parabrahman is above the three qualities and also pure awareness, It is above Maya and even Mula Maya. Parabrahman is the source of even pure awareness (Brahmanohi Pratishthaham). The Lord Krishna in Vrindavanam, once told a lie about a maiden to her motherin-law and the maiden was beaten by her mother in law. If the maiden (Gopika) were not above the three qualities or feelings, she would have become angry with the Lord. But due to her blind love for Lord Krishna, this incident did not affect her love for Krishna in any way.

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The Lord said that He alone is the preacher of the divine knowledge (Jnanitvamaiva—Gita). He also stated that He would come as a divine preacher in every generation and sometimes as several divine teachers in the same generation due to the requirement to teach differently to different various levels (Jnaninah tattvadarsinah). The Lord said that when you are matured in Yoga, you will get the divine preacher and the divine knowledge from Him (Kalenatmani—Gita). Yoga means the training in which you become eligible to withstand the tests of the divine preacher. Whenever the Lord praises the divine knowledge (Jnanagnihi, Jnanaplavenaiva), the praise goes to the divine preacher who is the human incarnation and from whom alone, the divine knowledge comes out. After reaching the Lord in human form through perfect logical analysis, if you doubt Him, you have slipped forever (Samshayatma—Gita). The reason for the doubt is that His external gross body, which follows all the rules of nature, like birth, death, hunger etc. and the exhibition of His Maya, especially Rajas and Tamas, which are bad qualities present in the subtle body. The word Atman in the Gita is mentioned in the sense of self or causal body. Sometimes the word Atman is used in the sense of human form of the Lord because in Sanskrit, the word Atman can mean the external human body also. The word Atman can sometimes be interpreted in both the meanings: self as well as the divine preacher in human form. For example: When the Lord says that ignorance is to be cut by the knowledge-sword of Atman, it may mean the self-analysis done by yourself or the divine knowledge of the Lord in human form (Jnanasinaatmanah, Atmavantam—Gita). Even the word Brahman is used as the self or as the Lord. For example: when he says that a Yogi becomes Brahman (Yogi Brahmabhootah), the word Brahman means the self. When one fixes Himself in the self (Brahmani sthitah) he becomes a Yogi since he attains peace. But when the Lord says that a devotee reaches Brahman and attains bliss (Sa Brahmayoga Yuktatma), here the word Brahman means the Lord in human form. In this verse, the Lord has already told in the earlier line that by attaining the self, one gets happiness. Therefore in the second line He cannot repeat about the same self getting the bliss which is infinite happiness. People misunderstand that the Lord said that an elephant, a cow and a divine preacher should be seen equally (Brahmane Gavi Hastini). Practical experience opposes such an interpretation. The divine preacher receives 75

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you well. But when you go near the elephant, you get beaten. The meaning of this verse is that the Atman, which is the pure awareness, is the same in all human beings [and animals] but the difference in their behaviours is due to the difference in their subtle bodies, which are the mixtures of the three qualities in various proportions. When the equality at the level of the self in every living being is realized, the person is not only fixed in his self but also in the self of every living being with equality. He will realize that the souls in all the living beings are one and the same and therefore all living beings are only his co-actors in different external roles. In that case he will not steal the wealth of other human beings for the sake of the comfort of his family members and he will also not kill any living being for food (Sarvabhutahite ratah).

Yajna And Karma [Day 6} The Lord in human form receives our sacrifice and enjoys it. His enjoyment is reflected in His face and we recognize it, which gives us immense satisfaction (Bhoktaram Sarvatapasam). This possibility is absent in all the other forms of God and therefore God does not exist in the other forms but those forms can be kept as representatives or models, if you are unable to accept the human form. However, the recognition of the real human incarnation is very important since He will guide you in the correct path as your friend (Suhrudam Sarvabhutanam). If your guide is a false guide, he will harm you by misguiding (Atmaiva ripuh) you. In this verse, the Lord said that Atman should be uplifted by Atman. The second word Atman means the Lord in human form. But the first word Atman means the soul in human form. When Yoga is completed by the permanent self-attainment, the Lord in human form will Himself contact you for further guidance (Paramatma Samahitah). One need not be discouraged by the most difficult goal of Nivritti. If you are constantly trying, the Lord will co-operate with you by granting you any number of human births (Abhyasena tu, Prayatnat, Abhyasayoga, Aneka janma—Gita). Only one student can get the gold medal (Kashchitmaam—Gita) in the class but every student has equal opportunity and any student who tries constantly will succeed one day or other. If you leave your effort, discouraged by seeing the goal, then there is no other chance of human birth (Manushyatvam…Durlabham— Shankara). 76

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The entire success in your spiritual effort lies only in one point that is the recognition of the human incarnation because the unimaginable Lord cannot be seen by any human being (Naaham Prakasah Sarvasya). The Parabrahman is covered by the pure awareness called as Yoga Maya or Mula Maya. It means that you should cross it by even rejecting the pure awareness to know the Lord (Parabrahman), who is beyond the pure awareness. You may neglect the human incarnation (Avajananti maam—Gita) and worship the deities present in energetic forms but the same Parabrahman present in all the deities is present in this human form also. It is only the Parabrahman who can respond to you (Mayaiva Vihitan—Gita). The Parabrahman enters, pervades and identifies with the causal body (Adhyatama), with the subtle body (Adhidaivata) and with the external gross body (Adhibhuta). Therefore the Parabrahman can easily respond to you in the human form (Aksharam Brahma—Gita). The Lord in human form is also called as Adhiyajna, which means that He presides over the sacrifice by receiving the service in the form of sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. In a Yajna, food and money as Dakshina are offered to the Sadguru who is the incarnation of Lord. The Veda says that in such a divine preacher, all the deities exist as said in the Veda (Devatah Taha Sarvah). Some people want to serve a particular deity. Serving the Sadguru becomes the service of that deity. The devotees can get boons from the Sadguru because the Parabrahman present in all the deities is also present in Sadguru. Therefore whatever the deities can grant, the same can be granted by Sadguru also. Actually it is only the Parabrahman, who can grant boons. The Lord says, “Let the devotees who are interested in getting boons serve the Sadguru in a practical way by offering work and fruit of work. Then one can expect the boon from the Parabrahman through the Sadguru. The different deities are only intermediate forms existing in the Sadguru Himself (Ishtakamadhuk)”. This is purely business in that you offer something to God and get back something in return. The Lord encourages even this path of business ‘Vaishyamarga’ since it is better than ‘Veshyamarga’ [path of a prostitute]. In the latter path, you are aspiring for something in return practically, by offering only theoretical [imaginary, insubstantial] items like praise by words, devotion by mind and discussions about the Lord by your brain. The prostitute also expects money in return (practically) 77

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by sacrificing sweet words and sweet feelings of the mind. Atleast in the first path, the devotee offers something practically and also expects something practical in return as in the case of business. This businessdevotion is better than the prostitute-devotion in which devotees offer prayers by words and feelings of love through mind and expect practical boons in return. But even in the business-devotion, new developments have come. People ask God to grant a boon first and only then will they do practical sacrifice. The present day devotion of almost all the devotees is according to these two ways. Yajna is a practical sacrifice to the human incarnation or atleast to His real devotees. The best way of doing Yajna is to sacrifice your work or the fruit of your work or both, without aspiring for anything in return. Infact you should feel that you are paying tax to the Lord for all the cosmic facilities that He has provided to us. The Lord says that first this divine tax must be paid to the Lord and only then can you should enjoy (Yajnashishtaamruta—Gita) the facilities. He condemns the atheists who enjoy the cosmic facilities and even deny the existence of the Lord. The Lord says that such atheists are actually enjoying sin (Bhunjate tetvagham). It is very important to note that getting all the amenities for one’s self and one’s family members are included under the mission of the Lord [unless one provides for the basic needs of one’s self and one’s family, one cannot be fit to serve in the mission of God]. But there should be some limit for these basic amenities. Luxuries should not be argued to be basic needs or facilities. Therefore you can divide the people into three categories. The first category has earned money beyond all their needs. They should sacrifice the excess wealth for the sake of the mission of the Lord. In the case of the second category of people, who do not have much excess wealth, whatever they waste in the name of entertainment, can be sacrificed to the Lord. By this, they will avoid going to hell and instead will go to the divine abode of the Lord. The third category of people is those who earn and store only for their basic needs. Such people need not pay the divine tax but in their case, another point comes: Are they are capable of doing more work so that they can earn more? If they are capable but are not doing the extra work, such people are instructed by the Lord to do work to the full extent. By doing such extra work, the fruit of that work may be paid as the divine tax or may be stored for their basic needs. But under any circumstances, one should not enter into luxuries. All 78

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luxuries, if properly analyzed, lead to loss of health and peace and finally lead to hell. In this context, the word Yajna should be properly understood. The verb-form of the word has two meanings. One meaning is Yajnam, which means cooking food. The other meaning is Pujanam, which means offering the food to Sadguru. It does not mean burning ghee and food in the fire. This leads to pollution of the environment and the greenhouse effect, due to which rains stop. Such burning of food interferes with the cycle of the Lord since Yajna is actually supposed to bring down rains. The fire, in which the food and ghee should be offered [burnt], is the fire of hunger present in the stomach of the Sadguru or a real devotee. Even hungry beggars can be fed but in that case, the donation of food to them should be associated with the Jnana-Bhakti Yajna (we must preach divine knowledge and devotion to them). Mere social service without the divine mission is useless. Infact such social service will make God angry. The reason is that any human being is suffering here due to his sins. The Lord has punished him and the punishment is meant to change him and not for vengeance. Interference in the punishment disturbs the divine administration. But if you help them in the name of the Lord, and try to convert them into devotees, it will help them in their transformation, which is the actual goal of the punishment. In that case, the Lord will be pleased with you. Yajna (sacrifice) can even bring you sin if you sacrifice to an undeserving fellow. If you sympathize with an undeserving fellow, you have to convert him into a deserving devotee before you donate to him. Therefore if the sacrifice of food and money (Dakshina) are associated with the worship of the Lord and even if some undeserving people are present, they become deserving atleast during that time. This is the reason why the worship of the Lord is associated with the sacrifice of food in functions like marriages. But such worship of the Lord does not attract anyone at all since nobody understands the prayers (hymns), which are chanted there by the priest. Even the priest himself does not know the meaning. As a result, in such functions, undeserving people are fed and sin is earned. Therefore there must be a resurrection of Hinduism. The priest must learn the knowledge of the Veda and should convert the [ritual] worship into Jnana Yajna [preaching of knowledge and devotion] The Lord is very much pleased with Jnana Yajna (Jnanayajnena, priyohijnaninah). In the case of Islam and Christianity, 79

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their prayers are in their mother tongue and so this problem is not present. Simple recitation of hymns is called as Svadhyaya Yajna. The sacrifice of food items alone is called Dravya Yajna. The Lord has told that the path of sacrifice should be secret as far as possible in the early stage (Rahasyam). As devotion develops and reaches its climax, fear is lost. When Yajna is done, it is the practical sacrifice to the Lord. Such sacrifice and the material [that is donated] become the greatest (Brahmaarpanam—Gita). In this verse, the word Brahman is used repeatedly to mean ‘the greatest’. The Lord says that one should not stick to the fruit of one’s work but should sacrifice it to the Lord and do the work of the Lord as his duty. Such a devotee alone is called a sanyasin or a yogi (Anashritah karmaphalam).

Karma The word Karma means work in general but this word karma also means the work done for the sake of selfishness and his family members. The word Karma Yoga means the work done for the sake of the Lord. The word Vikarma means the work done in excess [for selfish gain alone] even after achieving the wealth required for the necessities of family (Karmanohyapi…). Therefore Karma means the necessary work or duty done to acquire wealth for the basic needs for your family. Vikarma means not only earning excess wealth but also wasting the wealth in luxuries. Both these types of Vikarma are sin and should be avoided. When you sacrifice the excess wealth to the Lord, you must sacrifice it with fear and shyness [not with pride] because the entire creation is the wealth of the Lord (Kasyasvit Dhanam—Veda). Even while sacrificing work to the mission of the Lord, you should know that the Lord alone supplies you the energy required to do the work. Therefore you should not feel [proud] that you have served the Lord (Naivakinchit, Ahankara Vimudhatma, Brahmanyadhaya, Navadvare). The reason for the human being to work is Svabhava or Prakriti (Svabhavastu, Prakritimyanti). Svabhava or Prakriti means the mentalities that are concentrated in the subtle body for the past millions of births. When boons are granted, the results of good deeds to be enjoyed in future births are drawn back [pre-poned to the present] with reduced value and are given to you as boons. The present results of the bad deeds are postponed to the future births along with increased interest. Therefore you can never escape the result of your bad deed and 80

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the boon given to you is always the result of your own good deed (Nadatte Kasyachit). The Lord says that the sacrifice to the Lord should be done in such a way that a feeling of love is generated (Bhutabhavodbhavakarah). Love or devotion exists under ignorance and emotion. If you realize that all the wealth belongs to the Lord alone, you will feel that you have just returned the money of the Lord to Him and the Lord will also feel that His own wealth is returned to Him. Neither is there any feeling of real sacrifice in the mind of devotee nor is there a real feeling of love in the heart of the Lord. The Lord also feels the love of the devotee, if the Lord thinks that the devotee really sacrificed his hard-earned fruit. But in such love, egoism may come up, since the devotee can feel proud of his sacrifice. In order to rectify this, the devotee is enlightened with knowledge so that he should know that the entire creation is the wealth of Lord and get rid of his pride. Thus there is an alternate release and withdrawal of knowledge and ignorance so that the devotees do sacrifice with love under ignorance but without any pride owing to knowledge (Mattah Smritih—Gita). Work or karma should never be given up (Satatam Kuru Karma— Gita). Work is useful for meeting the basic needs of life and also to store some wealth for the future needs of the family. One need not feel shy up to this point and should feel happy that he has fulfilled Pravritti or justice, which is the basic part of Nivritti. [According to worldly justice you are duty-bound to take care of your own needs and those of your family. This forms the basis of service and sacrifice to God]. Once karma is fulfilled up to this point, your work should be diverted towards the Lord and such work is called as Karma Yoga. Either you have to sacrifice the fruit of your work or your work according to your convenience. Any one of these two or both can be called as Karma Yoga. Without Karma Yoga, mere sacrifice of words, mind and intellect is like sacrificing the freely supplied water [Giving water to someone is not a real sacrifice since water is given to you free by the municipality. Giving food to someone is a real sacrifice]. Therefore the Lord asked Arjuna to fight the war and assist Him in His mission (Mamanusmara Yuddhyacha—Gita). Arjuna got confused when Krishna was preaching sacrifice and work at the same time. Arjuna thought that sacrifice means leaving all the wealth and work and becoming inactive (Vyamishrenaiva—Gita). Krishna clarified that one only has to sacrifice the work done for the family with unlimited ambition after achieving all 81

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the required needs and facilities for the family. Once the basic needs and facilities are achieved, work for the family should be stopped and this is Sanyasa. After that one should divert all his work and its fruits towards the Lord. Therefore both work and sacrifice are to be done (Sanyasah Karma Yogascha—Gita). The Lord opposes stopping work and becoming inactive after earning all basic facilities for the family. The Lord says that one should be interested in the self (Atmaratireva—Gita). Here the word self does not mean selfishness. Here the word self means the causal body, which is pure awareness, and which can be attained by self-analysis for the sake of attaining Yoga. He should not fall from the state of pure awareness and must stay there with interest in the self. After attaining Yoga subsequently he should catch the Sadguru and surrender to Him completely. In this stage, the same word ‘self’ indicates the human incarnation of the Lord. This is the stage of Nivritti where the devotee has all his interest only in the Lord. In this stage of Nivritti the devotee is not related with any other human being except the Lord. All his family bonds vanish and no family member can control him (Kaschidarthavyapashrayah—Gita). Even the laws of Dharma cannot bind such a devotee because the Lord is far greater than Dharma (Sarva Dharmaan—Gita). When you are serving the Lord, you must do service as a scholar without the feeling of egoism that everything belongs to Lord and that every work is done by the Lord (Saktah Karmani—Gita) alone. A devotee with ignorance and love also does the same service with the feeling that he is donating his hardearned fruit and that he is sacrificing his own energy for the Lord. Even though ignorance is present in the latter case the love in the sacrifice makes it pure as long as it does not result in egoism.

Final Message Of The Gita Types of Devotees [Day 7] Four types of devotees approach the Lord. The first one approaches due to the pressure of some emergency or difficulty (Arta). The Lord will definitely respond to him once or twice, expecting him to rise above this level. If he does not rise, God’s response disappears slowly. For this type of response from God, there is no need of a human incarnation. The power of the Lord that pervades all over the world is sufficient to respond to such prayers in an emergency. Even this response of God is based on the re-adjustment of the person’s own 82

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results. The Lord will rearrange his results temporarily and do him a favour, but this rearrangement is not a true solution. The postponed bad result will appear in another form immediately, or with interest, later on. Therefore after such response, one should become a Jijnasu [one who is interested in knowing] and should learn the whole divine knowledge from a divine preacher. Instead of this, if he continues his prayers to the Lord for solving every problem that he faces, he is called as an Artharthi [a person who prays for material benefit]. If he approaches the divine preacher and gets all the knowledge, he is called as a Jnani [one who knows]. All these four types of people are not bad people because none of them is an atheist (Udarassarva—Gita). A student is better than an illiterate person but among students, there are grades. Similarly, the Jnani is the best among these four. He never approaches the Lord for any problem. He always serves the Lord in human form from whom he has received the knowledge. He becomes Atman (Jnanitvatnaiva), which means that he has completed Yoga and has attained the Self by self-analysis. If the word Atman here is taken in the sense of the Lord, the question comes whether here ‘Jnani’ is knower of the Self or the knower of the Lord. The Gita says that except the Lord Himself, nobody knows the Lord. In another context too, the word Jnani is used only in the sense of the self or soul (Jnanibhyopi). The word Jnani thus means he who has attained the self because one can attain the self by the knowledge of self-analysis. Shankara said the same “Jnanadevatu Kaivalyam” which means that by knowledge, one attains his own self or Atman.

Self-Attainment This attainment of the Self is called Yoga and such a person is called as a Sthitaprajna. The word Sthitaprajna means he who exists in the state of Prajna or Buddhi (intelligence). Through intelligence alone can one do the discrimination [between Self and non-Self] and attain the Self, which is nearest to the intelligence (Yo Buddheh Paratah). Since he always keeps himself in the Self (Atmanyeva Atmana), his characteristics change according to the level of Atman. Before this, he behaved like the gross body [since he thought that he is the gross body]. Arjuna was like such an ignorant person who thought that the gross body was himself. All the relatives, related by blood, are linked only to the gross body. Therefore Arjuna was worried about his relatives in the 83

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war. Human beings are doing all types of sins because of the bonds with the family members, who are related only to the gross body. All the problems of injustice in this world are only due to the link to the gross body. The Lord wanted to introduce the two inner bodies, which are the subtle body (Jiva) and causal body (Atman). The second chapter of the Gita, which is the beginning of the Lord’s message in the Gita, starts with the explanation of these two bodies, which are put together and called as Jivatma or roughly as Atman or Jiva. Jiva is made of qualities. The qualities are made of pure awareness, which is called as Atman. The Jiva in which Atman is inherently present, leaves the gross body in death. Atman is the pure awareness, which in a disturbed state [qualities superimposed on pure awareness] is called as the subtle body or Jiva. Jiva is like a bundle of water waves and Atman is like the standstill water without waves. These waves are the qualities or the feelings. They are called as samskaras or vaasanas. When these waves cease, Atman, the waveless water, results. To think that Atman is one’s Self, is Yoga. This is the state of the Sthitaprajna. He is always aware of His pure awareness. Then, blood relations and the emotion in the bonds disappear. In this state Arjuna can fight even with his relatives. When he kills them, he will feel as if he is only destroying their external clothes (Vasamsi—Gita). Even if you cannot make these waves subside, let them exist like the external gross body. Making these waves subside is very difficult because they have been with you for several births. Therefore, the easiest way is to fix yourself in the causal body without bothering about the gross body and the subtle body. As Atman, one can be a spectator of all the functions of the gross body and all the dances of the qualities of the subtle body. In that case, you are not at all bothered by any activities of the gross body and the internal qualities (subtle body), which govern those activities (Iti Mattva Nasajjate). Lord Krishna preached this Atma Yoga to Arjuna to remove his powerful attachments, which cause misery. Lord Krishna gave this Atma Yoga as the first emergency medicine. Shankara stressed on this Atma Yoga. This Atman, being the greatest item of creation is also called as Brahman by the Gita as well as Shankara. According to the verbal meaning, it is justified to call Atman as Brahman. Therefore when you have attained Atman, you have become Brahman. Shankara called Jiva as Brahman because in the 84

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water-waves (qualities), water (pure awareness) alone is present. Therefore Jiva and Atman are not distinguished in the second chapter. Thus Jivatma (causal body along with subtle body) is often called as simply Jiva or simply Atman (soul). It is called as Jiva because Atman is not isolated [but is always associated with the qualities]. It is also called as Atman because the water-waves are water after all. Ofcourse in the case of realised souls, it should be called as Atman. Thus when the word Jiva is used, it refers to ordinary human beings. When the word Atman is used, realised souls are indicated. Thus by using these two words [together as Jivatma], all human beings are embraced under one category. Jivatma is eternal with reference to the destructible gross body. The words ‘Eternal’ and ‘Brahman’ misled all the scholars into thinking that the soul in the body is eternal and is Brahman. The scholars mistook the word Brahman for Parabrahman, which is the ultimate Lord. Therefore by fixing yourself to the Atman you have definitely reached a higher state but not the highest state.

Jnana, Bhakti and Karma Yoga The attainment of the self, which is the higher state, was sufficient to remove the misery of Arjuna, which was due to the lack of selfknowledge. He had superimposed himself onto the gross body [mistaken himself to be the gross body] and was suffering. If this superimposition is removed and if one fixes himself to his Self, all the misery disappears. Infact it happened so. To remove his misery, his self need not become the Superself or the Lord, which is very difficult and, which can never be achieved. At the maximum the Self [soul] can enter into the inner circle of the Lord and that too by devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and subsequent service (Karma Yoga). Ofcourse the knowledge (Jnana Yoga) immediately gives you the attainment of the Self as an initial incentive. This is called as Atma Yoga. For Pravritti or establishment of Dharma, this much is sufficient because self-attainment weakens the family bonds. Due to that, Arjuna could leave all his tensions in fighting with his family members. But if one wants to enter Nivritti, additional knowledge (Jnana Yoga) is required to identify the Lord in human form, serve Him, please Him, enter His permanent abode and become one of His innermost circle of devotees. Therefore, when the Jnana Yoga is limited just to self-analysis, Pravritti or Dharma is achieved and this also pleases the Lord. It temporarily gives the soul enjoyment in heaven. The 85

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treatment of Arjuna was over by the second chapter itself. But his questions made the Lord teach the path of Nivritti also. In Nivritti, the Jnana Yoga is complete and one develops only one bond with the Lord while all the other bonds with the world are cut (Teshaam Jnani—Gita). Only due to Nivritti, could Arjuna kill his beloved grandfather under the direction of Lord Krishna. By attaining the Self in Pravritti, Arjuna could become neutral towards his grandfather. This is not sufficient to kill his grandfather. Therefore Nivritti was preached in which Arjuna realized Lord Krishna as God and obeyed His instruction to kill his grandfather. Arjuna was in the minus state [negative] due to his blind love towards his grandfather. Krishna brought him to the zero state in which Arjuna attained his Self by self-analysis as preached in the second chapter of the Gita. Later on Nivritti was elaborated so that Arjuna came to the plus stage [positive] in which He recognised Krishna as the Lord. As per the order from the Lord, he killed his grandfather because he had already become neutral towards him in the previous state. Thus the self-analysis helps one to easily enter the state of Nivritti. The treatment of Arjuna was done in two stages. The illness was the blind attraction of his family bonds by which he was deeply pained. In the first stage the attraction in the family bonds was reduced. In this initial treatment the medicine given by the doctor, Krishna, was the achievement of the Self by self-analysis. By this, the severity of the illness was reduced. This is called as the treatment of Pravritti. In the next stage, the treatment of Nivritti started. The first injection in Nivritti was to introduce the human incarnation. After recognizing the human incarnation, which was Lord Krishna Himself and which was clearly declared by Lord Krishna, Arjuna received the Jnana Yoga of Nivritti by which Arjuna recognized Krishna as the Lord and loved the Lord by devotion. Thereby the love for his family bonds disappeared and finally he served the Lord as His servant. The war was the Lord’s mission in which Arjuna participated as a servant to establish Dharma and condemn Adharma. Thus in Nivritti you find the additional Jnana Yoga which leads you to Bhakti Yoga and finally end in Karma Yoga, which is service. Thus in the treatment of Pravritti, there is no Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. But in the treatment of Nivritti, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga follow in that

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order. Pravritti concentrated on the Atman of Arjuna whereas Nivritti concentrated on the Paramatman who is Lord Krishna Himself. Shankara enlightened the Jnana Yoga in both Pravritti and Nivritti. People have misunderstood Shankara and have limited His Jnana Yoga only to Pravritti. They thought that the whole knowledge is only based on self-analysis and the attainment of self. This is a complete misunderstanding of Shankara’s knowledge. Shankara Himself was an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The Veda says that Shiva and Narayana are one and the same. Krishna was the human incarnation of Narayana. It means Krishna and Shankara are one and the same. The path of Shankara must be a true reflection of the Gita of Krishna. Shankara Himself declared that He alone is the incarnation of Shiva (Shivah Kevaloham). He swallowed molten lead and asked His disciples to do so. [They were unable to do so even though they were established in the Self. This proved that Shankara was greater than them. He was Lord Shiva Himself while they were just self-realized souls]. People have limited Shankara to the Jnana Yoga of Pravritti alone and have even forgotten the existence of the Lord. Then there is no need of Bhakti Yoga (devotion) and Karma Yoga (service). The Nivritti part of Shankara was completely drowned in ignorance. Ramanuja came and brought out the Bhakti Yoga, Madhva came and brought out the Karma Yoga. The Jnana Yoga in Pravritti deals with the Self and its attainment. The Jnana Yoga of Nivritti deals with the attainment of the Lord in human form and pleasing Him with devotion and service.

Need for Self-Attainment There is a link between self-attainment and Nivritti. Unless one is pure in his mind by becoming Atman or Brahman (Brahma bhutam akalmasham—Gita), one cannot succeed in the service of the human incarnation. Thus one has to be purified by self-analysis to become a Yogi. He cannot approach the Yogeshwara, who is the human incarnation without it. Therefore the Jnana Yoga of Pravritti to attain the Self is the preliminary course for getting admission into Nivritti. If one approaches the Sadguru who is the Lord in human form directly, he will also preach the preliminary course to achieve the eligibility into Nivritti. This is the whole plan of the Gita. The whole Gita can be treated as a single scripture of Nivritti alone because the knowledge about attainment of the Self is also included as the zero hour or as the first step 87

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in Nivritti. The soul, the path and the final goal constitute the whole spiritual journey. The soul must be made eligible for the journey. Thus there are the following four steps in the path of Nivritti: 1) The recognition of the present living human form like Krishna, as the ultimate Lord. 2) Receiving divine knowledge from Him about the whole spiritual journey including the initial self attainment. 3) Loving the Lord with single-pointed concentration and subsequent destruction of all worldly bonds. 4) Finally, serving the Lord in human form by surrendering everything including words, mind, intellect, work and the fruit of work. Thus the Gita starts with the preliminary stage of self-analysis in the second chapter and goes on to deal with all the above stages in the subsequent chapters. The Gita is treated as a book dealing only with Nivritti and can be called as Moksha Shastra [science of total liberation]. The word Yoga means attainment and thus the word Yoga is used in several stages whenever those stages are attained. E.g. Jnana Yoga is attaining Jnana or knowledge, Bhakti Yoga is attaining devotion. In the context of Atma Yoga or the attainment of the Self in the preliminary stage, the word Yoga means attainment of equality or equal-mindedness (Samatvam Yoga—Gita) in every corner of the world, which is the main characteristic of self-attainment. But this definition of Yoga is limited to that context only. In all other places, the word Yoga simply means attainment. Therefore, if you limit the Gita to only the second chapter, it can be called as Yoga Shastra. But the word Yoga means attaining the Lord and attaining success in pleasing Lord. Then even Moksha Shastra becomes Yoga Shastra.

Goal of Nivritti The Advaita scholars think that the self-attainment mentioned in the second chapter of the Gita is the final goal of Nivritti too. The preliminary course, which gives eligibility to join the main course itself is treated as the main course. By self-attainment, Arjuna became normal and peaceful so that he was eligible to divert himself to Krishna. By self-analysis all the bonds with his blood relations became weak and it was a favourable atmosphere for the formation of the bond with the Lord. If self-analysis were the ultimate, the Gita would have been over 88

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by the second chapter. Arjuna had already lost the intensity of his blind attractions and could have fought with his family members [at the end of the second chapter] There was no need for Krishna to tell Arjuna that Arjuna should develop devotion towards Krishna even after the attainment of the self. But Krishna told Arjuna that Arjuna was ignorant (Natvam vettha—Gita). The Lord introduced two items in the fifteenth chapter. One is Kshara, which means the external gross body that is destructible. The other is Akshara, which is eternal and which indicates the Atman. The Atman is eternal with respect to the gross body. The eternal nature of Atman is relative but not absolute. The Lord said that He is beyond both these items. He did not say that He is some third item. The reason is that the first two items are visible or imaginable items of creation. Therefore those two items can be numbered as one and two under the category of items of creation. But the third item is beyond the entire creation and is not under the category of items of creation. This third item is called as Purushottama. But the word means that He is the greatest human being. This means that a third item exists in human beings called Krishna, and therefore Krishna is Purushottama. In the human body of Krishna too, both Kshara and Akshara are present. When the Lord introduced His human body by the word “Idam Shariram”, He mentioned both Kshetram (Kshara) and Kshetrajna (Akshara). [Kshetra means a field. Kshetrajna means the knower of the Kshetra] Then, He introduced Himself as a third item who is also a Kshetrajna. Thus the human form of Lord Krishna stands as Purushottama. The word Purushottama means the superman or the human incarnation, who comes in every human generation. Therefore He is famous in the world (Atosmi Loke—Gita). The Lord says that the human incarnation is famous even in the Veda (Aparokshat Brahma, Pratyagatmanamaishat—Veda). The Lord said that the soul in every human being is Kshetrajna, because the soul is made of pure awareness, which is aware of itself and aware of the world. The word Kshetram means the world. Now the Lord says that He is also aware of Himself and is aware of the world i.e., Kshetrajna. What does this mean? This means that the soul is aware of itself and the world because it is awareness. The soul is understood by logical analysis. But the Lord can never be understood by any logical analysis. Therefore you cannot say that the Lord is awareness just because He is also aware of Himself and the world like a soul. Here two words ‘cha’ and ‘api’ are used which 89

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mean that even though the Lord is not awareness, He still knows everything. The Lord is not present in inert matter or inert energy, which constitute the world (Nacha Bhutastah—Gita). This means that He is neither in the world and nor is He the world. This eliminates the gross body of ordinary human being—the Lord is neither in the gross body and nor is He the gross body itself. The gross body is made of Pancha bhutas (the five elements). Therefore the word Bhuta in the above verse of the Gita concludes that He is neither the five elements nor is He in the five elements. The second possibility is that the Lord may be the qualities or may be present in the qualities. The Lord says that the three qualities are generated from Him but He is not in the qualities (Nachaham Teshu—Gita). This means that He is neither the subtle body and nor is He in the subtle body made of the qualities. The last possibility is that He may the pure awareness (causal body or Atman). This awareness is present in the qualities like water existing in the waves. If He is water, He cannot say that He is not present in the water waves. Thus if He were Atman or the causal body, He would be present in the subtle body of every human being. In that case He would not have said that He is not in the qualities. Water is in the waves and the waves are also in the water. If that were the case, the Lord should have told that the qualities are in Him and that He is also in the qualities. But He told Arjuna in the Gita that He is not present in the qualities even though the qualities are present in Him. Therefore He is not the pure awareness, which dissolves in the deep sleep. He also told that the five elements are in Him but He is not the five elements (Matsthani—Gita). This statement is not possible if you say that the cause is available in the effect, like the gold existing in the golden ornament. If that were the case, the Lord should have told that He is present in the five elements or the three qualities or the pure awareness of the universe. The gold is the ornament and the ornament is in the gold. Therefore that example is not valid. [In order to properly explain this concept,] We would have to give an example in such a way, that we can say that the ornament is in the gold but the gold is not in the ornament.

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Model for God and Creation For this concept, the proper example is that of the daydreamer. The daydreamer is the cause and the dream is the effect. The dream is in him but he is not in the dream. You have imagined Mumbai city. The imagined Mumbai is in you but you are not in that imagined city. This is possible because you are not modified into Mumbai and only your mind is modified. Therefore, Parabrahman is not directly modified into the world. His power called Maya is modified into the world. The Maya and its modification (world) exist in the Parabrahman. But Parabrahman does not exist in Maya or the world. When you want to enter into your imaginary city, you can never enter with your original form. Similarly, Parabrahman never enters the world directly. You will create your duplicate imaginary form and you will identify yourself with that imaginary form. Now, that imaginary form enters the imaginary world. Since you have identified with that imaginary form, that imaginary form is as good as yourself. Whatever you wish, that will be the wish of that imaginary form. If somebody insults that imaginary form, you feel that you are insulted. If somebody loves that imaginary form, you feel that you are loved. When that imaginary form disappears, it means that you have come out of that dream. Similarly Parabrahman enters this world through one human form called Krishna. Therefore Parabrahman is identified with Krishna. Whatever Parabrahman wishes and speaks, is the wish and speech of Krishna. The dream-city is pervaded everywhere by the mind of the dreamer. Similarly, the world is pervaded all over by Maya. Therefore, Maya entered the world and the world is in Maya like gold pervading the golden ornament. Maya is the direct cause of the world as the mind is the cause of the dream-city. Parabrahman is the indirect cause of the world as the dreamer is the indirect cause of the dream-city. The world is the effect like a dream. The dreamer is not touched by the dream. Even if the dream-city is burning, the dreamer does not get heated even slightly. When a hot rod is dipped in water, the water gets heated. Similarly if the world were in Parabrahman, the modifications of the world would touch the Parabrahman. To remove the possibility of this misunderstanding, the Parabrahman [Krishna] said that the world is not in Him (Nacha matsthani). Now the contradiction between the two statements is solved because He said that the world is in Him (Matsthani) and also said that the world is not in Him (Nachamat). 91

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The disappearance of the imaginary form in the imaginary world is the death of the human form of the Lord. Krishna also died. It is impossible that any human form in the imaginary world can directly touch the dreamer. Touching the imaginary human form, with which the dreamer has identified himself, is also the direct touch with the dreamer because the experience is transferred directly from the Parabrahman to the devotee and vice-versa. Touching the Parabrahman directly is not possible as we touch a person directly. You can touch God’s shirt [human body of His incarnation} and you can experience Him indirectly since He is in the shirt. You can experience Parabrahman by touching the human body in which the Parabrahman exists, which is the human incarnation like Lord Krishna. You cannot achieve this experience of Parabrahman from any human being just as you cannot experience a person by touching a vacant shirt without the person. In the case of an ordinary human being, you can touch the coat [gross body], touch the inner shirt [subtle body] and touch the innermost vest [Atman or Awareness] but the innermost person [God] is absent. The human being is like a dress hanging from a hanger. The cause, base and the destroyer is Maya alone, which can be called as Prakriti in its modified form. Maya can be also called directly as Prakriti because the word Prakriti means the direct cause. The world, which is the modification of Maya, is also called as Prakriti because the word Prakriti can also mean the effect. Therefore Prakriti can mean Maya, which is the cause and can also mean the world, which is the effect. Therefore, when you say that Brahman is present everywhere, the word Brahman stands for the pure awareness which is Maya. Maya is only the power of Parabrahman and is generated and controlled by Parabrahman. Therefore whatever Maya does, it appears as if Maya is doing it independently. Maya is the most faithful dog of God. Maya is visible and appears as the doer but Maya does it only on the instruction of the invisible Parabrahman. Maya appears as the independent God but if you realize the Parabrahman, you will also realize that Maya is just a dog.

Accepting Human Incarnation The entire problem lies only in accepting the human form such as Krishna, as God. You may say that there are several devotees of Krishna at present but that is not the point. The point is, when Krishna was alive, 92

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how many people were His devotees? One has to cross egoism and jealousy to recognize the living human form—present right before the eyes. Several devotees accept the human forms of the Lord that have passed away and are not present before their eyes. The reason for the repulsion between two human bodies is the repulsion between likes. By self-analysis, if one fixes himself to be the Atman, which is the pure awareness, he becomes different from the human form. Then you may love another human form [especially the human incarnation of God]. This is one of the spiritual reasons of self-analysis. Even in that case, you may start hating human beings because they are also in the same state of Atman (Sarvabhutatmabhutatmaa). Therefore being in the state of Atman, you can love other human forms. You can also be in the state of human form and love other human forms. Whatever it may be, you must be able to love other human forms. The final result is that you should love the human form of the Lord and that alone can be your love for Parabrahman. Whatever you do to that human form of the Lord, is done to Parabrahman Himself. Lord Krishna never told anyone that He is God except to Arjuna. Since Arjuna surrendered to Krishna with full faith and devotion, He revealed Himself as the Lord and taught him the path of Nivritti. There was no need to preach Nivritti to the Gopikas because they had achieved the goal of Nivritti. These Gopikas were sages in the previous births and the Lord had preached to them in the form of Dattatreya for a long time. There was no need to preach Nivritti to Duryodhana, who was a demon and could not even come up to the level of Pravritti. He was blind with his family bonds. Therefore the Lord only taught him Pravritti but even that was of no use. As a last resort, the Lord even showed him the Vishwarupam. Yet Duryodhana did not care. That means that he believed in God but did not care for Him. He was a demon in the previous birth. Demons try to use the power of God, but they themselves want to become God. Duryodhana wanted the help of Krishna in the war and got the vast army from Him. Demons like the power of God but not God. They are better than an atheist because the atheist neither likes God nor His power. Krishna did not show Vishwarupam to the Gopikas because they believed in Him as the Lord. The Vishwarupam was the proof of the human form of Krishna being the Lord. Such proof was not necessary for the Gopikas. The Gopikas were sages in the previous births and had 93

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complete divine knowledge from the Lord in human form, who was called as Dattatreya. He had showed this vision to them several times. Therefore, there was no need of knowledge or any such proof for the Gopikas. Jesus said, “Those who believe in Me without proof are more blessed than those who believe in Me with proof”. But the other extreme end was Duryodhana who could not understand even the preliminary knowledge of Pravritti and did not believe even after seeing the Vishwarupam. If you take the case of Arjuna, he represents the human being who is a hill of doubts and who raised questions. He is in the middle stage; neither a demon like Duryodhana, nor a sage like the Gopikas. He is eligible for Pravritti and Nivritti. The Vishwarupam strengthened his belief. Therefore, Arjuna represents the present human being. But Arjuna neglected Krishna on the eighteenth day when Krishna asked Arjuna to step down from the chariot first. Even during the war, when Abhimanyu died, Arjuna said that he would stop the war. Actually, the essence of the Bhagavad Gita was that Arjuna should fight against injustice as a servant of the Lord and not for any personal purpose. This spirit was lost when Arjuna refused to fight, grieving for Abhimanyu’s death. Therefore, Arjuna represents this human psychology. If you take the case of the sage Udanka, he did not believe in human forms of God. He was a believer in God and believed in the energetic forms of God like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He had done a lot of penance and had got superpowers from the Lord. He had dedicated all his life to God. The only defect in him was that he did not believe in the human form of God. Therefore he was prepared to give a curse to Krishna. Lord Krishna showed Udanka His Vishwarupam as a proof that Krishna was the human form of the Lord. [Sage Udanka then believed in Krishna] Thus, there was no use of the Vishwarupa vision, in the case of Duryodhana. There was a little use of it in the case of Arjuna. The highest use of the vision was in the case of Sage Udanka. There was no need of it in the case of the Gopikas. The Lord showed the Vishwarupam to Arjuna and Udanka so since it was useful in both the cases. He showed the same vision to Duryodhana to tell us that there will be no use of divine visions in such cases. The Vishwarupam is the vision of the entire cosmic energy, which cannot be seen by these human eyes. The Lord gave a very highly 94

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energetic pair of eyes to see this concentrated energetic vision (Divyam Dadami). The energetic eye is like a powerful microscope or a powerful telescope. Through the microscope, the subtle structure is seen and through the telescope, the infinite cosmos is seen. The energetic eye given by the Lord is a combination of a supernatural divine microscope and a divine telescope. Arjuna first saw infinite energy (Divisurya— Gita). This is the function of the divine microscope, which shows matter as energy. Then Arjuna saw the infinite cosmos and energy. This is the function of the telescope. When one destroys his egoism and jealousy and identifies, loves and serves the Lord as a servant, he enters (Vishate cha) the inner circle of the Lord. Such liberated souls live in the Lord. For example: Shri Maha Lakshmi lives in the heart of Narayana. Saraswati lives in the mouth of Brahma and Parvati has penetrated half into the body of Shiva. But what is the inner meaning (Nivasishyasi) of this ‘entry’ into the Lord? When somebody says that you are in his heart, it does not mean that you have physically entered his heart. All this is a symbolic language. It means that whatever Lakshmi feels, that is the feeling of Narayana because the heart is the abode of feelings. It means that there is no opposition in the thoughts. Similarly when there is no opposition in the words, it is the meaning of Saraswati being in Brahma’s mouth. The body represents action. Parvati and Shiva being joined together in body means that Shiva and Parvati always act together. These three represent Trikaranas—mind, words and the body. When all the Trikaranas are completely surrendered to the Lord, it is the state of monism, which is possible for devotees. Now God can also enter the devotee. Hanuman was a devotee but was also an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Balarama, is considered to be one of the ten incarnations of the Lord; he was equated with the Lord, but he was actually the incarnation of Adisesha who is a servant of the Lord. This means that the Lord becomes devotee and the devotee becomes the Lord. Thus there is no difference between God and the liberated soul who has entered His innermost circle (Mayite Teshu chapyaham). Even Narada says that devotees are filled with the Lord. The Advaita scholars want to reach this state directly in the preliminary stage itself, without any patience. They want to end the Gita with the second chapter by attaining the self through self-analysis. This stage is also given by the same Lord. The house owner called a beggar 95

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and asked him to stay in the front porch of the house. The beggar carefully measured the area of the front porch and claimed that he is the house owner. This is the state of the Advaita philosopher. But, what about Adisesha and Hanuman? They were also given place in the front porch. But they never claimed to be the house owner. The Lord then called them inside the house, which are Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. They still said that they were beggars and not at all the owners of the house. Finally the Lord declared them as the owners of the house. Still they said that they are not the owners. Balarama was given an equal place [with God] in the ten incarnations. He was treated as the Lord but at the end, He turned back to Adisesha and became the bed of the Lord [in the upper world, Adishesha appears as a thousand-hooded cobra swimming on the Milk Ocean. The Lord rests on the bed of the coil of this cobra]. Even though Hanuman was made the future creator, He remained as the servant of the Lord. The Advaita scholar is not even one-millionth of Hanuman or Adisesha. Ramanuja was Adisesha and Madhva was the brother of Anjaneya [Hanuman]. Shankara was Lord Shiva himself who claimed to be the Lord in human form (Shivoham). But others also started saying that they are also the Lord in human form. For their sake, Lord Shiva took the form of Hanuman and showed them how a human being should always be a servant of the Lord. The same Lord Shiva represented a human incarnation as Adi Shankara by saying “Shivoham” and the same Lord Shiva came as a devotee in the form of Hanuman. The same Lord Narayana came as Rama to represent a human being and as Krishna, to represent the human incarnation. Shiva came first as a servant and only then as a human incarnation. Similarly, Narayana first came as a human being and only then as a human incarnation. The last verse of the Gita says that devotees should surrender to Him alone (Maamekam Sharanam). Therefore, the final goal of the human being is to recognize the human incarnation and completely surrender to Him. The first word of the Gita is Dharmakshetre, which means the field of Pravritti or Dharma. The last verse of the Gita says Sarva Dharman Parityajya, which is the field of Nivritti. The first person that comes in the Gita is the blind king Dhritarashtra. The last person is the enlightened Arjuna. In Pravritti, one has to vote for Dharma and against Adharma. But in Nivritti, one has to vote for the Lord in human form even if it means voting against Dharma. 96

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Incarnation and Three Qualities Lord Krishna represents both Pravritti and Nivritti. In the Mahabharatha, He stands for Pravritti by destroying injustice and supporting justice. Krishna was like Rama in Pravritti; standing as an embodiment of only Sattvam or good qualities. Any form of God stands only with Sattvam. Every human being likes Sattvam, which gives boons, removes all problems and gives happiness (Sattvam Sukhe— Gita). It is like loving your son who has all the good qualities, who does not give you any problem. He always keeps you happy. Your love for your son is great. All human beings are in this first stage called Pravritti. All the forms of God except Krishna and Datta are full of Sattvam alone and Rajas and Tamas are in a suppressed state. Rajas and Tamas are not expressed but are present in equal quantities in them. In this stage love or Prema exists for God. In the second stage, along with Pravritti, Nivritti also enters. In the Bhagavatham, Krishna showed Nivritti to the Gopikas. In the Mahabharatam, He showed Pravritti to the Pandavas. In the case of the Gopikas, Krishna showed Tamas by stealing butter and dancing with them. He showed also Rajas in killing Kauravas and a lot of people in the Kurukshetra war. Thus, Krishna was a mixture of Pravritti and Nivritti. In preaching the Bhagavad Gita and in supporting justice He showed Sattvam. Thus, He exhibited both good and bad qualities, which include the three qualities. Thus, He was the real incarnation of Datta. This is second stage in which you love your son who has both good and bad qualities. Your son gives you happiness as well as troubles. But you do not mind the troubles and always support him. In this stage you have greater love for your son, which is called as Moha. In the third stage you will reach Datta, who exhibits only bad qualities (Rajas and Tamas). In this third stage your love for your son is the greatest and is called as Vyamoha. You tolerate all his torture and still support and love him. This is like the blind love of Dhritarashtra for Duryodhana. This is the climax and is the greatest love. Thus, Krishna stands as a bridge or a transition stage between Rama and Datta. When all the worldly bonds exist, you are in the first stage. When most of the worldly bonds are cut you are in the second stage. When all the worldly bonds are cut and the bond with God alone remains you are in the third stage. In the third stage you have to cross your ‘I’ and cut your ‘my’. Thus, Krishna leads you from Pravritti to Nivritti. He gave heaven to 97

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Pandavas from which they have to return back to the earth. But He gave the highest Goloka, the fifteenth topmost world to the Gopikas from which they never returned.

Essence of the Gita [Swami sang the following song extempore, which gives the essence of the Gita] How should I tell you, O Partha, how should I tell you? (Main Chorus) If I say that I am not the Lord, you will say that I am the Lord, If I say that I am the Lord, you will say that I am not the Lord, If I don’t love, I am a stone for you, if I love you, you tell me to go, If you like to be with me always, you have to cut all the bonds. Impossible! O Partha, this is impossible! (Side chorus) (Main chorus) I came to uplift the justice, I sing this Gita to teach you, Love with service, is the only way! Be with Me with lovely service, To love and serve the human form is the best, Narayana came down as Krishna, Only the human form can preach, knowing the human form is divine knowledge. Divine knowledge! O Partha, this is divine knowledge! (Side chorus) (Main Chorus) Two obstacle-walls oppose you here; egoism and jealousy are the walls, Human body repels human body; therefore you reject My human form, Realize, you are not the human body; you are the soul that is the pure awareness, Why do you hate the human body, when you are not the human body? Love Me! O Partha, love My human form! (Side chorus) 98

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(Main Chorus) I am Vaasudeva, the son of Vasudeva; serve Me in this human form only, Soul need not hate the human body; atleast love all human beings, In any way love the human beings, so that you love me in human form, Before you love and serve Me finally, love and serve humanity. Practice! O Partha, it is practice! (Side chorus) (Main Chorus) Divine knowledge means detecting Me, loving Me and then serving Me always, Entire creation is My will only; the human body is also My will, God pervaded My human body; God Himself is teaching you, Don’t claim that you are the Lord, just by becoming the self. Demonism! O, Partha, this is demonism! (Side chorus) (Main Chorus) Sacrifice of work and fruit of work, both are service, like the plate of meals, Oral singing and love with the mind; to be given like the drinking water, Don’t give only water to Lord, and charge Him for giving the water But meals must be with drinking water; don’t aspire for payment from Lord He will bless you! O Partha, He will always bless you! (Side chorus) (Main Chorus) You think of Me as a human body since you are also the human body I am the hot water, water with heat; you are the cold water, water without heat, Don’t propagate that I am the Lord; others may not digest that truth, 99

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They will mock you and drag you down, to their level to be equal with you, Human tendency! O Partha, this is human tendency! (Side chorus) (Main Chorus)

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Chapter - 7 TEACHING FOR THE VARANASI SAINT [The following is the discourse given by Swami in reply to the some objections of an Advaita saint (monk), from Varanasi. Swami gave the following brilliant discourse in which He has refuted the objections of the saint and has given a teaching for the upliftment of the saint.]

Shankara’s Commentary O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, There are two items. One is the memorization of knowledge called as vyutpatti. The second is Pratibha, which means the assimilation of the real interpretation by sharp analysis. A debate will be meaningful if the opponent has pratibha. There is no meaning in arguing with a person who only has Vyutpatti. He will repeat the same text again and again for any of your arguments. He may have memorized the commentary of Shankara very well. But insight is needed for any development. Vyutpatti only leads to rigid recitation of same text again and again. A school boy is the best example. Infact Shankara was an excellent professor. Unfortunately He was posted in a small school as an Acharaya. Naturally, He will think of uplifting the school students only by preaching the school syllabus. If He is a mere scholar, he will expose the depth of his knowledge and the children will weep and run away. Shankara came on earth when India was full of Buddhists and Purva Mimamsakas, who were atheists. Bringing them to the spiritual path was His great task. An atheist is always in the climax of jealousy and egoism. He abuses God for His greatness and abuses the exploitations of society in the name of God. He never takes the positive aspect of the concept of God. His view is only social and political but not spiritual. Such an atheist was brought to the spiritual path by Shankara and the degree awarded to him is an Advaita scholar. Well, if you are in that state, we have no objection to your entire course of Advaita. We have got the commentary of Shankara only in condensed form due to absence of recording and printing technology. We have not heard 101

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Shankara directly. We are only hearing His commentary with others’ interpretations. Moreover, there is always the fear of additions and deletions of original text. Therefore, we have to analyze it with logic and commonsense. The Veda does not have such pollutions, since it was preserved by recitation. Still even the Veda should be discussed to draw out the correct conclusion as said by Shankara (Shrutimatah Tarkonu Sandhiyatam). If you simply quote the commentary of Shankara, it is not sufficient. You must also analyze the situation at the time of Shankara. You have to understand His concepts with reference to His situation. If you are in a similar situation, ofcourse, you can apply His theory directly to your case.

Everything Is Not God [The saint says that everybody and everything is God. He quotes the Vedic statement “Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma”.] In that case what is the necessity of the sadhana? God cannot have ignorance like the sun cannot have darkness. Even if God deliberately imposes ignorance for the sake of entertainment, there is no need for any effort to remove the imposed ignorance. Therefore, in this statement the word Brahma does not mean God. The word ‘idam’ denotes the world. The word Brahma means ‘the greatest’. This entire world consisting of space, matter, various forms of energy like light, sound etc. and mechanical works of energy and special the work of energy called as awareness, are various forms of the inert energy alone. Thus, with reference to energy, this entire world is simply one homogeneous entity called energy. This truth is proved by science. This is the meaning of “Ekameva Advitiyam Brahma”. Since the energy is in single phase [there is nothing other than energy], energy is the Brahman. The Veda also says that Brahman is the material cause for generation, maintenance and dissolution of the world. Even in this light, energy is Brahman. Energy is the material cause like mud is to a pot (Upadanam). When God grants the property of awareness to this energy, it becomes Chit (Nimittam), which is a designer of the world like the pot-maker. Thus, there exists an infinite ocean of energy, which has the property of awareness and is the material cause as well as the designer of this world. Before the association of the awareness with this ocean of energy, a little drop of this energy-ocean is modified into the world, which is inert. Now the property of awareness i.e., already associated 102

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with this ocean of energy has entered into the inert world into some discontinuous items of the world like birds, animals, human beings etc. The plants have life but not awareness (awareness is negligible and can be treated as almost absent). Therefore, the Veda says that from plants the awareness (Purusha) came. Plants can be included under the item of living beings but not under the item of awareness (soul). Now the world has both inert items like hills, rivers etc., and also living items like plants along with special living items like birds, animals and human beings etc. The cinema is now complete with the inert decorated stage with the actors. When the property of awareness entered the world, the Advaitists think that God entered the world because God is awareness. Awareness, understanding, thinking and imagining are work forms of energy and thus are energy itself. How can imagination, which is energy, touch God when God is beyond energy? The actors have entered the stage and the producer is a just a spectator. The construction of the stage, the story of the drama and direction etc., are done by the ocean of Chit, which is like PA [personal assistant] to God. Thus, the Mula Maya or Maha Maya is the direct cause. But the entire work is done only by the will and power of God. If God enters this ocean of Chit, it is called as Brahman. After creation of this world, this Brahman becomes a spectator and is called Ishwara. After sometime, to have full entertainment, God enters the drama as an actor, which is the human incarnation. The entry of other actors is not the entry of the producer. God is the producer and director indirectly, and is not directly involved or affected in any way. Whenever the word Brahman or Atman is used, you should not make the mistake of thinking that it always means God. In a village people may say that the ruler is coming. The ruler is the head of the village. People in the parliament may also say that the ruler is coming. Here the word ruler indicates the president of the country. Since the word ruler is common, you cannot say that the head of the village and the president of the country are one and the same. The head of the village is also controlled by the president. Similarly, Atman may rule certain activities of the body and certain items in the world. But God rules all the items of the world including the self [Atman]. The Advaitists do not believe in the unimaginable God and therefore they do not believe in the entry of God into a human form. They take the entry of awareness itself as the entry 103

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of God. The entry of awareness is already explained in the order of creation by stating “Plants from earth, food from plants and soul (awareness) form food” (Pruthivya Oshadhayah—Veda). The entry of God is explained in a different statement (Tadevanu Pravisat—Veda). If both are the same, God would be constantly entering and exiting through human beings. In such a case how can Lord Krishna say “Whenever the injustice grows….I take birth born” (Sambhavami…Gita). The verse tells us that He is not born constantly in the form of human beings. Ofcourse, for that great saint, Krishna is not God! The saint says that the verse “Manusheem Tanumastritam” means that the soul is present in the human body. But My dear saint has forgotten that the verse says that the Lord is insulted whenever He enters the human body. This means that everybody is insulting His own self present in his own human body and this is not found in experience. Infact, everybody is praising himself.

Miracles Are Not Proof of Human Incarnation [The saint said that Swami couldn’t be a human incarnation of God because He has not performed fantastic miracles like lifting a mountain, as Lord Kriahna had done]. Miracles are done even by demons and black magicians and therefore cannot be the identifying marks of God. Miracles alone are not sufficient to identify the Lord. Krishna is identified not by miracles but by the excellent knowledge of the Gita. Krishna lifted a mountain but Ravana also lifted the Kailasa Mountain. [The saint then said that the power of creation, maintenance and destruction of creation is present only with God. So if Swami is an incarnation, He should kill him (the saint himself) and bring him back to life as Lord Krishna had done for His Guru’s son] You should not test God by demanding miracles and this was told by Jesus to Satan, when Satan asked Him to convert the stone into bread. The saint asks Me to kill him and give him life again as a proof. In the history of human incarnations nobody asked such a thing and no human incarnation did anything like this. If such challenge is thrown, a demon will certainly come forward with a miracle. Lord Krishna killed several evil people but never gave life back to them. Even Abhimanyu was killed only due to His plan. When Subhadra asked Him to give life 104

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back to Abhimanyu, He refused. But He gave life to Parikshit and brought back the dead son of His Guru Sandeepani. He did miracles in the case of exceptionally deserving devotees only, but not to win a challenge. Whenever the devotee really deserves and the Lord by Himself wishes, any miracle can take place spontaneously. Shukracharaya knew how to give life to a dead person but he was not God. Vatapi and Ilala were demons. Ilala used to kill Vatapi and serve him as food to the guest. Then Ilala would call Vatapi. Vatapi would then become alive and come out by tearing the stomach of the guest. Does this means that they are God? [The saint said that Krishna only created, maintained and dissolved the universe, which is an exceptional miracle.] But Krishna did not dissolve this entire universe and create it again keeping you separately as a spectator. He only showed the cosmic form [Vishwarupa] as a vision to Arjuna. In the vision He created the universe, maintained it and finally dissolved it. During this vision the universe was not affected. Even Durroyadhana saw it and discarded it as a hypnotic illusion. Arjuna believed the vision for sometime. Sage Udanka appreciated the vision forever. Ofcourse, this vision proves that Krishna is God. Since the Veda and the Brahma Sutra also gives this as the superior-most miracle, which can be used for identification of human incarnation, since this miracle is not possible for anybody except God. On one Guru Purnima day, I was giving a divine discourse and suddenly I stood for five minutes silently in a highly excited state. Then I sat again in the chair. I asked two devotees in the crowd to tell others what they had seen simultaneously. Both of them told everyone that they had the vision of the cosmic form (Vishwarupam). Ofcourse, the God in Me gave that vision and I have nothing to do with it. If God is not in Me, how was that vision given? How did I identify only those two devotees, out of the crowd who were having that vision? How did I know that both of them were having the same vision simultaneously? If one person gets a vision it may be an illusion. How was the same illusion created for both the devotees simultaneously? This analysis made even Me believe that God (Parabrahman) is present in Me. When God is given to the devotees through a human body, He is called as Datta. The Veda also says that the special divine knowledge comes only from God (Satyam Jananam…, Prajnanam…). The Gita also says the 105

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same (Jnanitvatmaiva…). I gave importance to these aspects in analyzing that God is in Me to give this special knowledge and that special vision. Ofcourse, Duroyodhana discarded even that as hypnotism. The Brahma Sutras also declare these two aspects as the identifying marks of God (Janmadyasya…, Shastrayonitvat).

Prajnanam Brahma [The saint refused to accept Prajnanam as an identifying mark of God saying that there is nothing such as a special knowledge of a human incarnation of God. He said that Jnanam or knowledge is the inherent property of Brahman or Awareness, which is common to all humans and even animals.] The saint says that Prajnanam is not the mark of God but he is totally contradicting the Veda (Prajnanam Brahma). The word Prajnanam means the special knowledge and not mere awareness. The word jnanam stands for knowledge (Yoga Rudha). The word chit stands for mere awareness. He says [based on his above assertions] that Krishna is not Brahman but He is only a Guru because the Gita is not Prajnanam. Is he not full mad for saying that Krishna is not Brahman? You have taken the word jnanam to stand for awareness just by Yoga. Yoga Rudha is powerful than Yoga as per the rules of vyakarana shastra. The saint says that the word Prajnanam is only awareness and every living being is Brahman. How funny is this contradiction! When everybody is Brahman, Krishna also becomes Brahman through the general rule itself. Even basic commonsense is absent in this argument. This shows that vyutpatti is not necessarily associated with pratibha. A student on memorizing for a long time does not use his commonsense even to think about a simple point.

Tradition Is Not Beyond Criticism If you say that tradition should not be criticized, then why did the human incarnations like Jesus, Shankara, Swami Dayananda [Arya Samaj] etc. criticize tradition? Why did Prahlada reject the tradition of his family? It is said that one drinks even the salt water from the well saying that his father dug that well (Tatasya kupoyamiti…). It is also said “A scholar neither accepts the entire past nor rejects the entire present. He examines both and arrives at the truth by analysis. A fool blindly follows either past or present” (Puranamityeva…). If tradition 106

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were to be blindly followed, then there would not have been any necessity of the appearance of human incarnations for preaching again and again. The original text is always misinterpreted by the followers to suit to their limitations and therefore there is a necessity of human incarnations to come again and again to remove the wrong interpretations and establish the correct interpretation. The correct interpretation causes inconvenience to some selfish and egoistic people, who go to the extent of rejecting the human incarnation. Krishna had several enemies and only a very few devotees in His lifetime. Shankara had several opponents. Buddha faced a similar situation. Kapila was criticized as an atheist. Jesus and Dayananda were even killed directly. When the human incarnation passes away, His original preaching will again be misinterpreted or even polluted by selfish people. Then, they praise the past human incarnation because they use Him to support their interpretations and activities. Why did Prahalada not follow his tradition? Sometimes pseudo-human incarnations misinterpret the truth and for this reason, Mohammad and Dayananda rejected even the concept of human incarnation. But again the context of their situation at that time should be understood and it should not be extended to every time. When the children suffer with cold, the mother does not allow the children to eat ice cream in that situation. The mother will give ice cream again when the children get rid of the cold.

God Is Above Society The Lord should be greater than any soul in the society. Jesus says that one should leave even the closest souls like family members for the sake of the Lord. Leaving the close worldly bonds is salvation but it should be for the sake of the God. Jesus said that you should hate the family bonds for the sake of Jesus. Krishna went one step above and asked Arjuna to kill his family members for the sake of His work (Establishment of justice on the earth). The family is greater than the society and the Lord is greater than the family. How can you give more importance to society than the Lord? When a lady was washing Jesus’ feet with a perfume, a disciple, out of jealousy said that beggars could have been served with the cost of the perfume. Jesus told him that beggars will always be there but serving Him is very rare. Beggars are under the punishment of God for their sins. If you simply help them, it is interference with the judicial administration of God. Ofcourse, you can 107

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serve them by converting them into devotees of God. In such a case God will excuse and bless them. Then alone can they get the permanent solution. Shankara discarded the social service in comparison to the service of the Lord (Loka sevaka mata nirasah). Hanuman never did any social service but only served the human incarnation. The service that He did was also personal. It is real test for you to see how much value you give to the Lord. Hanuman never did japa, dhyana, bhajan, tapas, yoga, social service, service to beggars etc. as per the Valmaki Ramayanam. The Gopikas also never did these things as per the Bhagavatam. Their full concentration was only on the human incarnation. Without the instruction from Rama, Hanuman did not even protect Sugriva from Vali. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that one should take the responsibility of uplifting humanity only on the command and under the direction of the Lord. Hanuman did everything that He could do only under the guidance of Rama.

Every Being is Brahman [The saint says that every living being is Brahman due to the presence of awareness. He says that everybody cannot be Bhagavan without having the special six qualities. He says that Bhagavan or Ishwara can control any human being but not Brahman.] Again how childish is this statement! When you say everybody is Brahman and only one becomes Bhagavan or Ishwara, it means that Ishwara is greater than Brahman. Again you say that Ishwara cannot do anything to Brahman! You have taken the following concept given by Me in My discourses. Water is Brahman. The ocean is Ishwara and the water drop is Jeeva. The ocean can control the water drop but cannot control the water. There is no ocean without water and there is no drop without water. The ocean is water and the drop is also water. When you say that the ocean can control the drop, it means that water controls water! If you say that the ocean and the drop are different from water, they do not exist at all without water and therefore the concept of control itself is lost. When you are defeated by another stronger man will you accept your defeat or not? Or will you say that since both of you were men and since the stronger man cannot hurt the man, as a man you are not defeated! How childish is this logic! 108

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By qualitative similarity you are not equal to the stronger man. A peon and the king are men. Does this mean that the peon is the king by qualitative similarity because both are men! Is this acceptable logic even to an ordinary man with a little commonsense? There are only two people. One is a king and the other is a peon. You should say that both are equal or both are not equal. You should either conclude equality or difference. You say that they are different as king and peon but are same as human beings. When difference comes, equality disappears. Equality means the absence of any difference. You can say that even Ishwara and Jeeva are equal in the sense of control. A king controls the people of entire kingdom. You control your family members. Both are controllers in their relative sphere. Does this bring equality? One single point brings the difference and that is the king also controls you. The word Atman means that which pervades. Brahman pervades all over the creation as the basic substratum. The soul also pervades all over the human body. This single quality cannot bring equality. Equality should be in all the points—in totality. The word Nareshwara means the king who is the Lord of a kingdom. The word Jagadishwara means the Lord of Universe. The word Ishwara is common in both. Does this mean that the king and God are one and the same?

Krishna Declared Himself as God [The saint says that Avatara never declares that He is God.] It shows his absolute ignorance of the Gita. Lord Krishna, an Avatar, clearly stated again and again though out the Gita that He is God. Ofcourse, the mad saint says that Krishna is not Brahman and also not an Avatar and that He is only a Guru. Is this not demonism and devilism? Only demons and devils utter such statements. Let him say who is an Avatar, if Krishna is not an Avatar? Perhaps he [the saint] is the only Avatar!

Who Can Recognize an Avatara? [The saint says that a sage, who has done penance can only recognize the human incarnation.] This is again wrong. Why did sage Udanka who was in constant penance not recognize Krishna as a human incarnation and was even prepared to curse Krishna? If you require a sage who has done penance 109

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to reorganize the human incarnation, then Swami Shivananda Maharaj recognized Datta Swami (Swami) and announced in presence of huge crowds that Datta Swami is the Lord Datta Himself. Swami Shivaananda has done a lot of penance in forests and has roamed about as an Avadhuta. People say that he has been seen by people for about four past generations! He has all the superpowers. However, I do not consider such identifications as genuine. The human incarnation does not require any certificate from anybody. Several demons also performed penance for a long time and yet accepted Ravana or Hiranyakashipu as God. Therefore, according to your prescribed qualifications and norms such demons are also God. According to the Veda only Prajnanam (the special divine knowledge) is the identity mark of human incarnation.

‘I’ In The Gita [The saint says that the word ‘I’ in Gita used by Krishna indicates the soul in every human being.] Then according to the version of the saint, the verse, “Manmana Bhava…”, means that you should serve yourself and bow to yourself alone. In this verse “Mam namaskuru” means that you should prostrate to Me. According to the saint, everybody should prostrate to himself alone. It is also impossible to do this. Krishna clearly stated that He was born as an incarnation to destroy evil people and to uplift the good people. If everybody is God, then God is coming as an incarnation to destroy God and to uplift God! Krishna clearly defined that Vaasudeva, the son of Vasudeva, is the God (Vaasudevah sarvamiti...). In such a case since every human being is God, every person must be the son of Vasudeva. If God is the soul, then since God is the son of Vasudeva, the soul should be the son of Vasudeva. Devaki did not deliver the soul. God pervaded the soul, subtle body and also the gross body of Krishna. Now you can say that God is the son of Vasudeva, with respect to the gross body. You can also say that God is in that gross body, which is the son of Vasudeva. It gives the address of God. God is residing in the gross body of Krishna delivered by Devaki and fathered by Vasudeva. It means that God is not present in any other gross body delivered by other parents.

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Sadguru Is Datta [The saint says that the human incarnation cannot be the Sadguru.] Krishna and Shankara were called as Jagat Guru. The saint says that Datta is only a sage. This is the climax of the madness of the saint. Datta is considered to be the Guru of Gurus. The energetic body of Datta represents the highest state of God. The three faces indicate creation, ruling and dissolution of the world. The Veda declares this point as the identity mark of Brahman. Since the real nature of God (Swarupa Lakshanam) is not known, even this is only an associated property (Tatastha Lakshanam). A constructed house gives only the nature of the power of engineer but not his real form. The second Brahma Sutra reveals this point. Even Prajnanam is a constantly associated property like the above property. Due to the constant association you can take this as almost the property of the real form. From this point, Datta stands for the real and complete identity of God. The cobbler who corrected Shankara was none other than Datta. Even Krishna was the human incarnation of Datta as indicated by the three central faces of His vision of the cosmic form. There can be no better representation than Datta for the absolute God. This saint resembles the sage Udanka who misunderstood Krishna to be an ordinary human being and started scolding Krishna. Let the saint remember that Shankara composed “Datta Sahasra Nama Stotram”. When God resides in a human body in which the soul is filtered from all activities (All the waves which are Antahkaranams and qualities disappear and Jeeva is dissolved in static soul) and is converted into inert energy as in the state of deep sleep, such a human incarnation is called as Avadhuta Datta. If God does not enter the human body of an Avadhuta, such a human body is just like an inert statue in which only the living mechanisms function as in the case of a plant or as in the case of a person in deep sleep or a coma. No vasana (worldy issues) can attack the person who is in this state, which resembles a rock. If God enters into a human body in which the soul has become static by removing all the qualities and antahkaranams, but the soul is not converted into inert energy, such a state is called as a state of Yogi Raja or Yogishwara. This state resembles the state of perfect meditation in which the nervous system functions but the awareness is not active except that it is aware of itself (Atma Bodha). In the case of human incarnation, there is no difference between the Avadhuta and Yogi Raja 111

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because the static awareness cannot be disturbed by any vasana due to the presence of God. But in the case of a human being, this state of Yogi Raja is attained by perfect meditation but there is always a chance of disturbance. If God is present in a human body in which the soul and the Jeeva exist, (the waves of awareness which are Antahkaranams consisting of the three qualities), the human incarnation appears with three faces representing Trimukha Datta. The same human incarnation becomes the Vishwarupam with several faces when the Jeeva consists of several qualities (which are only the various combinations of three qualities). The various faces in Vishwarupam are the various qualities formed by the interaction of the three qualities, which are represented by the three central faces. These latter two states represent that Datta is associated with all qualities to entertain Himself in the divine play. The former two stages (Avadhuta and Yogi Raja) are for the sages who do sadhana to get rid of the qualities for achieving the self. The latter two states (Trimukha Datta and Vishwarupam) represent God who is playing in the world for full entertainment and is available for the devotees for doing the service. Adavita is related to the two former states where as Visishtaadvaita and Dvaita are related to the latter two states. Thus, Datta means the human incarnation only with reference to this earth and His form represents all the steps of sadhana.

Why Other Saints Not Followed Swami? You cannot fix the program of the human of incarnation. God enters the world in human form mainly for His own entertainment. The original aim of creation was only that. Sometimes preaching is associated with it. [In some incarnations He preaches to humanity]. Krishna preached the Gita accidentally and His main purpose was destroying evil people and the primary aim was to entertain the Gopikas who were sages in the past several births. Sometimes the main program itself may be preaching as in the case of Shankara. Sometimes only entertainment may be the program as in the case of Rama. The word Rama indicates entertainment. The word Krishna indicates the attraction of devotees. The word Shankara indicates giving welfare to devotees. God is absolutely the sole authority of His program and nobody can suggest any modification in His program by asking questions like “Why did He not do this? Why such a person did not follow Him? etc.” The 112

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Lord corrects somebody and uses someone else for propagation according to the situation. In olden days India was full of scholars and Sanskrit was the mother tongue. Therefore a Sanskrit scholar [Mandana Mishra] was required for propagation. But today people do not speak in Sanskrit and say that this language is a Mrita Bhasha which means a dead language. Today people respect English, which is the international language. Today science is respected and not the Shastra. In those days, for Shankara, India was the field of work but today the entire world is the field. Today Mandana Mishra cannot be used for propagation. Ninety nine percent of people cannot understand Sanskrit or the shastra, which has the terminology of Sanskrit words. How can propagation take place in that language? Nikhil is the correct person for the propagation in the present circumstances. The Sanskrit scholar, who gave a certificate to Swami, was more than 80 years old, when he came in contact with Swami, who was 16 years. The scholar was not capable of roaming all over the country like Mandana Mishra. Surprisingly Mandana Mishra was his ancestor. Moreover, when each soul is totally different from any other soul like a fingerprint (according to Madhva) how can you compare the behavior of any soul to another soul? Mandana Mishra fell at the feet of Shankara and followed Him as a disciple because his total concept was changed. Mandana Mishra was an atheist and became a theist, which means the change of a total concept. Shankara also fell at the feet of cobbler and this case was different. Shankara was simply corrected in a concept. Shankara did not follow the cobbler as a disciple like Manadana Mishra. The Pithathipati of the Advaita Matha and the Sanskrit scholar who gave the certificate, were not atheists. They were simply corrected in some concepts. Shankara appreciated the cobbler but followed His routine path. Shankara declared Himself as a disciple of only Govinda Bhagavadpada and not as a disciple of the cobbler. Correction means diverting to the correct path and not a complete change from the opposite direction. When Mandana Mishra was changed, the direction was totally diverted to the opposite side. Shankara changed the complete direction of atheists and only corrected the paths in the case of theists. Becoming a disciple and carrying on the propagation of divine knowledge, requires the ripening of the internal samskara and not the external factors like being a Sanskrit scholar or a Pithathipati. God selects only a deserving person, based on the internal samskara that suits 113

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the circumstances of that time. The Pithathipati or the Sanskrit scholar were around 80 years and were also physically unfit. They were unfit also from the point the rare knowledge of shastra and their language was not suitable to the present time of propagation. It was also not suitable in view of the international field. The internal samskara of broadmindedness of the old generation also changed much if you compare the present generation especially with reference to saints and scholars. The ancient saints were not as much affected by egoism and jealousy as the present saints. The effect of surroundings is responsible for this. Therefore there are several parameters to be considered before comparing the situations as the time changes. Swami corrected several saints and scholars but did not wish them to be used for propagation, since they were not fit for the present time. The correction was only for their self-upliftment. That is sufficient for Swami even if they do not express their appreciation due to their egoism and jealousy or due to the fear of the reduction of their fame in society. Swami chose modern persons, who are suitable to the modern time and who also have ripened internal samskaras by which they do not have the fear of the reduction of their greatness or fame in the world. Infact, they will become more famous and they will be blessed by God here as well as in the upper world.

Greatness of Phani [The saint criticized Swami when he came to know that Swami is married. He was under the impression that only a saint (monk) can be a human incarnation of God. He also said that even God prostrates before a saint.] Is not Phani greater than Mandana Mishra? He is a young charming person, well qualified and he is employed well. He has had long debates with Swami. He became the disciple of Swami by rejecting married life and a very good job for the sake of the work for the propagation of divine knowledge. Mandana Mishra gave up his family after leading family life for sometime. Certainly I consider Phani to be greater than Mandana Mishra. In discussions Phani uses very sharp logic and he is perfectly scientific. He is a scholar of science in English. Mandana Mishra was a scholar of science (Shastra) in Sanskrit. Mandana Mishra was in the dress suitable to that time and Phani is in the dress suitable to this time. People appreciate a lesser personality of 114

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the past but discard even a greater personality of the present. This disease is present even in angels as said in the Veda (Paroksha priyah…). You must appreciate the point of any person irrespective of the external orange robe or the dress of a house holder. If a gravel stone is wrapped by an orange cloth and is kept in a traditional math [monastery], will it become a diamond? Shankara fell at the feet of even a cobbler for his excellent knowledge. Only a real scholar can appreciate real knowledge. If some other traditional saint were present in the place of Shankara, he would say that the cobbler should be kicked out!

Swami Is Jnana Mohini [The saint says that Swami has Vak Siddhi [power of words] and is hypnotising people through it.] One cannot hypnotise any person only by words for a long time. Swami has Jnana Siddhi. Infact Swami declared Himself as Jnana Mohini [Knowledge-Enchantress], who will hypnotise the entire world by the beauty of the Jnana. Swami stated that He could hypnotise Lord Shiva by His physical beauty, which is not a great thing [Swami, who is Lord Maha Vishnu, assumed the female form of Mohini and enchanted Lord Shiva]. Physical beauty is temporary but beauty of knowledge is eternal. The saint again may shout at Me, so let Me clear his misunderstanding that Swami does not mean this external human form. Swami means the God who lives in this human body. Let his egoism and jealousy be pacified. The saint says that I have Vak Siddhi. The word ‘vak’ means ‘word’, which must have some meaning and the meaning is ‘Jnana’. Therefore, Vak Siddhi means Jnana Siddhi. ‘Vak’ is not sound, like the songs played by Krishna on the flute. Vak means the words of the Gita, which are associated with knowledge. Krishna did not hypnotise Arjuna with words, which have no meaning. If He had done so then in that case ‘vak’ means sound. Krishna hypnotised Arjuna by the meaning of words, which is Jnana.

Physical Presence of Guru [The saint says that one should be near the Guru physically and should not be in a foreign country.] This is correct with respect to ancient times when computers, phones and photography were not available. It is essential to talk with the Guru directly and for such direct talk, technology was not present in 115

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that time. If this purpose is served, it is better to be far from the Guru. The reason is that if you live near, you will develop negligence by observing the external activities of the human body of the Guru, which are similar to any human being. Such observation constantly diverts your concentration from the internal divine nature of Guru. I told the story of Rukmini and Radha in this context. Infact, Radha in Vrindavanam and Krishna in Dwaraka were separated by the ocean and thus Radha was a foreign devotee of Krishna. There cannot be a higher devotee of God than Radha and she was made the queen of Goloka, which is above the Brahma Loka.

Propagation of Knowledge [The respectable saint says that there is no necessity to propagate the knowledge because it spreads by itself.] This is against the experience. Knowledge does not propagate like scent. It only propagates by discourses, debates, books, emails etc. Ofcourse, it means that there is no need of forcing anybody to propagate the knowledge, if the knowledge has merit. To show this point as a representation, Swami used to emit fragrance of lotus flowers during the discourses and this was experienced by several devotees. But this miracle only has the significance of representing the concept that the knowledge is spread by its own merit like the scent. The Lord does not need anybody for His work. It is only by the grace of the Lord, that one gets the fortune to serve in the Lord’s mission. Rama did not require the help of monkeys but He gave them the chance only to bless them. The Lord knows the talents of a person required for propagation. In the time of Shankara almost all were Sanskrit scholars. He needed Sanskrit scholars in the Shastra like Mandana Mishra for propagation of the knowledge. Shankara was never involved in propagation in any other regional language. But when Ramanuja came, regional languages had come up. Therefore, Ramanuja was involved not only in propagation in Sanskrit but also in Tamil language. He would give the authority of the Tamil scriptures too. Today Sanskrit has almost disappeared. The area of propagation was only India for Shankara and Ramanuja. But today for Swami, the area of propagation is the entire world and English is the international language. Today scholars in the Shastra are also very rare, but everybody is in touch with science. Therefore, Swami needs 116

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scholars in English, who have good touch with science, for the propagation. The word science here means the analysis of worldly objects. Therefore, since the Lord did not wish, those Sanskrit scholars who came in touch with Swami were not instigated for propagation. Without wish of the Lord nobody can enter His service. The Lord will not select candidates, who are not qualified to work in the present situation. When any facility is available in the nature, the Lord will use it. Only when extreme necessity comes the Lord uses His superpower [to overrule the laws of nature]. Shankara walked all over India for debates because there were no computers, emails or telephones through which arguments could be done. Once He wanted to argue with Kumarila Bhatta. But when Shankara looked through divine vision, the Bhatta was burning his body as self-punishment for a sin he had committed. He was sitting in a heap of paddy husk and had ignited it, so that it burnt his body slowly. For Shankara there was no time to reach there by foot. Therefore, there was an extreme necessity to use His superpower. Immediately He traveled through space and was there in a few seconds. But today when debates can be done through emails, there is no need of leaving the house for the propagation of the knowledge either by foot or by traveling through space using superpowers especially when aeroplanes are available. One should leave one’s house only if the atmosphere is extremely opposed to spiritual sadhana. There is no need for leaving the home just for the sake of propagation because computer technology is available today. Shankara and Mandana Mishra left their houses in their time since such facilities were not available. Therefore, the background of any saint in the present time is to be carefully analyzed and you should not respect a saint simply for his age, red robe, leaving the house, traditional study etc. Traditional scholars pose too much that they have studied the shastra in Sanskrit. Infact, Tarka Shastra is exactly the present science in which the analysis of all the items and phenomena of the universe exists (Tarkyante Padarthah Asmin Iti Tarkah). There is no greatness of any language. After all, any language is just a vehicle of communication of knowledge. Infact, science is superior to Tarka Shastra because Tarka Shastra is only theory, where as science is theory supported by experimentation. Certain concepts of Tarka Shastra are proved wrong by science. The Tarka Shastra says that sound travels in 117

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space. It is wrong. Sound needs a medium of matter for propagation. Tarka says that gold is a special form of energy because it does not corrode. But it is wrong. According to science, gold does not corrode because the product of its corrosion is instantaneously disassociated back into gold, since the corrosion reaction is a fast reversible equilibrium. Therefore, tradition has no value. Only the truth in the tradition has value. Whether the truth is traditional or modern, the truth is the truth. The contact with the Sadguru and subsequently receiving the true knowledge, assimilating it and translating it to practice, is the greatest qualification in the spiritual path. All the other points are a waste. You might have left your home and family members. You might have become a saint by taking the orange robe, you might have roamed all over the country and met several saints, you might have studied Shastras in Sanskrit in a traditional way, you might not have eaten garlic etc. All this is of no use, if you do not catch the Sadguru, get real guidance from Him and implement it. When you go to an interview, you will be tested in the assimilation of the knowledge of that subject and in its experimentation. Without proving that you have realized the concepts and the correct interpretations, will you be selected by saying that you have left the house with a great urge and roamed from college to college and studied the course dressed in proper college-uniform, attained degree etc? The job is not given directly to the degree holder without an interview. You might have got the degree by memorizing the subject. You must be tested in the realization of the subject. The realization of subject comes only with the help of the Sadguru and not from a Guru who has also memorized the subject. You cannot reach the goal without proper direction. The proper direction can be given only by the right knowledge, which is given only by the right Guru. If the knowledge is right, your practice will be right and you will achieve the right result. Therefore, one should not fall in the illusion of dress, traditional practices, language, traditional studies, leaving the family, leaving the house to roam everywhere, having a great urge etc. What is the value of your urge if you are in the wrong the direction without assimilating the right knowledge? You have lot of spiritual urge and have left everything but you are going in the wrong direction. Therefore, you should rise above all these illusions and give importance to the analysis and search only for the truth discarding all obstructions. 118

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Mandana Mishra was in a traditional dress, had learned the traditional Shastra in the Sanskrit language and followed all the traditional rituals. Sage Vyasa came as a saint with knowledge of Sanskrit and Shastra. Shankara argued with them for days together on the point. The cobbler was in a bad dress without any tradition and was speaking in a lower language (Prakrutam) but Shankara fell at his feet without any argument appreciating the cobbler’s point. You should just see the point and the subject and not see anything else because the truth is beyond all the external factors. Shiridi Sai Baba was eating garlic when a traditional Brahmin visited him. Sai told him “He who can digest garlic alone can eat garlic”.

Why Can’t Saints Go Abroad? [The saint criticized other saints and holy people who go abroad and have a large following of devotees. He was upset that many such holy people are regarded as incarnations of God.] Why is he criticizing the saints who go to the foreign countries for spreading the divine knowledge? If he also gets the same chance, he will not criticize them. I guess this because he says that Swami is an Avatar provided he is also accepted as Avatar! [According to the Advaita philosophy, each person is Brahman or Awareness.] Those saints are doing good service because by correlating other religions, they are helping the concept of Universal Spirituality grow. Are they compelling the foreigners to pay money? The foreigners give money with real appreciation as Guru Dakshina. Indians should learn this detachment from wealth (karmaphala tyaga) from foreigners. Indian saints should also appreciate those saints, who are trying for some sort of universality in the path of spiritual knowledge. They are not earning money by doing any business, which is only a way of cheating others. The Manu Smriti says that business is a mixture of truth and light (Sayanrutamtuvanijyam…). They are also not collecting money like terrorists.

God Does Not Need Service The Lord does not require service or anything from anybody. But He tests your love for Him through the sacrifice of your service in the form of work and the sacrifice of your hard earned wealth. That is the real proof of your love, which is proved by you in this same way to your 119

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family. You are covering your false love under the pretext that God does not need anything or any service. Why did Rama need the service of Hanuman? Why did Krishna ask Arjuna to fight, when He showed that He is actually killing all the enemies by Himself through the Vishwarupa vision? The Lord went to Shaktuprastha and asked for a little flour to pacify His hunger. The Lord was not really hungry. It was only the Lord’s way of testing the real love of Shaktuprastha for God. The proof of love is only service through action and not mere sacrifice of words and mind. The Veda and the Gita praise the sacrifice of work and the fruit of work in several places.

Paripurna Avatara [The saint asked whether Swami is a Paripurna Avatara.] Swami is the human incarnation of Lord Datta. This means that Lord Datta entered the human body of Swami and is giving this special divine knowledge. The saint need not worry that God is living in the human body of Swami. According to the saint, Datta is only a sage and not God. Therefore, when Swami is the human incarnation of Datta, the saint need not worry at all. Swami is the human incarnation [reincarnation] of a sage. That sage was a Guru and therefore, through Swami He is giving the knowledge. The sage Datta started giving this knowledge through Swami from child hood. If the sage stays till the end of the life of Swami, certainly Swami is the Paripurna Avatara of the sage Datta. Perhaps due to jealousy towards Swami, the saint arrived at the conclusion that Swami is not an incarnation of God because Datta is not God. Due to the anger of the saint on Swami, Datta suffered in this way! Ofcourse, Datta does not mind this because His tradition is to suffer for His devotees.

God Preaches as per the Level of Receiver While preaching, the Lord follows the psychology of the receiver and speaks according to his corresponding level so that the preaching is palatable (Priyam) and the devotee does not run away on hearing a harsh truth (Satyam), which may correspond to a higher level. But at the same time the Lord will not preach a lie (Amrutam) even if it is liked very much. He will introduce a slightly higher level so that a little truth with little harshness is introduced. The psychology of the receiver, which likes only the palatable concepts, is as important as the truth. If a lie, 120

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which is highly palatable is spoken, a huge number of followers will appear. But what is the use of such preaching? The receiver is not really benefited in the long range (upper world). If the entire concept is revealed, it is so harsh that people will run away without even hearing it. Therefore, the middle golden path of Aristotle should be followed so that a minimum number of followers atleast appear. If the preacher shows some miracles, huge crowds will follow Him and will be interested only in solving their problems by exploiting that super power. In that case the preacher could speak any nonsense, but the followers will clap in appreciation. The devotion of such followers is only artificial and such devotees are the prostitute devotees. Miracles are exhibited by the Lord spontaneously in the case of extreme necessity for the sake of a really deserving devotee. The miracle is expected to help the devotee in the spiritual path. The sage Udanka did not ask for the vision of Vishwarupam. But still the Lord showed it and sage Udanka got its benefit permanently. The sage believed the human incarnation throughout his life. Arjuna could get only some temporary benefit by the same vision and therefore the Lord did not show it by Himself until Arjuna requested for it. Duryodhana did not ask for it but Dhritarashtra asked to see it. In the case of these two, there was no use at all and the vision did not change them. Miracles cannot be a poof of the existence of the Lord in a certain human form because even devotees, either good ones or bad, can also show miracles.

Suffering of Human Incarnation [The saint said that the human incarnation should not undergo any pain when the sins of His devotees are transferred on to Himself.] The Lord certainly has the power of Maya to avoid pain while suffering the sins of devotees. But that will be cheating the Lord of Justice who is Himself. It is a violation of His own constitution as a judge. You fine your son as a judge and as a father you pay the fine. Here you should really pay the fine. You should not just pretend as if you paid the fine. Then you are cheating your own department [justice department] and yourself since you are the head of that department. Jesus experienced all the pain of crucifixion. Unless the pain is experienced the sin will not be pacified.

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Declaration of Being the Human Incarnation [The saint raised severe objection to Swami’s declaring Himself as the human incarnation of God.] From My side, I never declared that I am the human incarnation. I gave the spiritual knowledge. The devotees started saying that this knowledge is very special and has never been heard or written in any book. They started calling Me as Datta. Some of the devotees were pressing Me to show the miracles which were spontaneously expressed. Therefore, I stated that Datta possessed Me and gave this knowledge and also showed miracles. What is wrong in My statement? Infact, this is the concept of any human incarnation. The Gita says that God possesses a human body for His divine mission. I did not believe or declare simply based on the words of devotees unless I had My own proof since I am basically a scientist. Science never denies practical proof and it gives a logical explanation of any truth. Such logical explanation coincides with scriptures and therefore, the truth is constitutionally valid. When the devotees raised some points believing Me as human incarnation, I answered those points assuming that I am a human incarnation, because such points relate to any human incarnation in general. The answers are valid whether I am the human incarnation or not. Devotees have repeatedly stated that My knowledge is special and wonderful. This statement of devotees is the basis on which I developed the subsequent analysis. The special and wonderful knowledge can be given only by God as per the Veda and the Gita. This means that God entered Me and is speaking. When God enters a human body, it is called a human incarnation as stated by the Gita and Bible (Manusheem Tanum…, God in flesh). This does not mean that God has become the human body. God is in the human body. The concept of a human incarnation is only this much. Such God given through a human body to the devotees is called as Datta. This concept of double personality pacifies the jealousy of even higher devotees. They accept this and their jealousy is pacified. Even such higher devotees cannot tolerate if I say that I am God. Even though Krishna told Arjuna that He is God, He also told in the Gita that the God entered human body (Manusheem Tanumaasritam) and also clearly stated that God has not become the human body (Avyaktam Vyakti…). This means that the God present in the body of Krishna spoke “I am God” and this statement is not uttered by Krishna. Arjuna was a very 122

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high devotee but not highest devotee. The Gopikas were the highest devotees, who believed that Krishna was God Himself, who had come down directly to the earth. Krishna made their belief become true because for them God pervaded all over the three bodies including the external gross body. God super-imposed (Adhyasa of Shankara) Himself on the gross body as a human being super imposes his self on the gross body. In the case of God, the super-imposition is done with knowledge due to the necessity. In the case of a human being, the superimposition is due to ignorance. For the Gopikas, there is no need of any clarification and hence no need of the Gita. But if that concept is revealed to Arjuna, Arjuna will totally reject it because he was a higher devotee but not the highest devotee. The highest devotee is only one in millions. Other high devotees are many like Arjuna. Therefore, the Gita is universal and is not necessary for the Gopikas. When Uddhava tried to preach the concept of this dual personality (God as the Possessor and the human being as possessed), Gopikas rejected him totally. Even this clarification [of dual personality] does not pacify the jealousy of some people because they cannot tolerate even the presence of God only in a particular human body. They want the presence of God in their bodies also. This is the highest degree of jealousy. Since such highest jealousy is a point common to every human being, the Advaitin revolts against the human incarnation by generalizing that God is in every human body and gets the support of the majority. This is the revolution and the formation of a union of people, who feel that they were suppressed. This is communism revolting against capitalism. This is the politics in philosophy. This is a special situation because philosophy enters every subject. The degree of Doctor of philosophy (PhD) can be taken in any subject. Therefore, you have philosophy in politics, which is general and normal. Even though I also felt that this knowledge is wonderful, I never said it because it will be misunderstood by ignorant people as selfpraise. Therefore, if the devotees stated this and if their statement is correct, there is no doubt that I am the human incarnation atleast based on the analysis of the concept of this dual personality related to high level devotees. The same analysis can be extended even to the highest devotees, which prevents them from falling down to a lower level from their highest level. This concept of dual personality will atleast fix the devotee to the high level preventing them from further fall. People, who 123

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fall down from this high level, believe in God but not in the human incarnation. They either say that no human being is God or that every human being is God. Either the concept is totally rejected or it is extended to everybody. Let nobody be rich or let everybody be rich. There should not be one richest person. They hate the richest person and gradually they hate any person richer than them. They want equality of every human being. This is good in economics or sociology (Pravritti). But the subject of spirituality (Nivritti) is completely opposite to the subjects of the world (Durmeti Viparite Vishuchi—Veda). Shankara had to act like a communist even in spirituality because in that time the country was filled with atheists of the communistpsychology in Pravritti and for them Nivritti was totally absent. Hanuman is also an incarnation of Shiva like Shankara, but he followed the extreme capitalism in spirituality, which is quite the opposite as said in the Veda. The spiritual knowledge was given by Krishna to Arjuna, when Arjuna fell at the feet of Krishna in complete surrender as a servant. Krishna said that one should become a servant of the Guru before receiving spiritual knowledge (Tat Viddhi Pranipadena…). Hanuman represents the path of spirituality for every devotee. The task of Shankara was different, which was to convert the atheist atleast into a believer in the existence of God. In that time, devotion was very far off. Such people will be very much excited if I say that the prime minister visited My house (body) and is staying with Me. This does not mean that My self or My house is the prime minister. If the possibility of their becoming prime minister is ruled out, they atleast want that the prime minister should be in their houses too. If you devotees withdraw the statement that My knowledge is wonderful, I will certainly withdraw this analysis and say that I am only an ordinary human being or just a scholar-Guru, if you permit. If you give value to this knowledge, it is immaterial whether I am a Guru or the human incarnation. If I am not the human incarnation, you must search for the human incarnation present in our generation, since the concept of a present human incarnation is the main essence of this knowledge. You should also allow Me to join you in this search. My analysis is never wrong. Only your statement is either right or wrong. This point is totally left to your statement. Before uttering the statement, you should analyze completely. If you come to the conclusion about the level of this knowledge, further analysis will 124

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depend on it. If this knowledge is ordinary, I am an ordinary human being. If this knowledge is good and special, I am a scholar and can be called as Guru. If this knowledge is exceptionally and extremely special and the best, then I am the goal. If your faith is that I am God, then yes, I am God. If your faith is a little weaker, then God is in Me and speaks this knowledge and I do not speak (Ye Yathaamaam –Gita). Arjuna was in highest state of devotion when the Gita was preached. Therefore, Krishna told Him “I am God”. But Krishna knew that Arjuna would slip from that state. In the highest state, there is every chance to slip easily. Therefore, the Lord always kept him in the safe side by two slokas in the Gita, which say that God entered the human body (Maanusheem tanu asritam) and that God did not become the human body (Avyaktam Vyaktimapannam). This is like keeping some petrol in reserve. Tomorrow Arjuna may come down and announce to the public that Krishna declared Himself as God. The ignorant public will not tolerate that. When that situation comes Krishna will say that God entered Him and spoke the Gita and therefore, it was the statement of God and not of Krishna. Krishna will quote the above two verses tomorrow as proof already given. This is a safety measure. Moreover, it also serves as an advanced prevention of jealousy coming in future when Arjuna falls down. People say to the human incarnation that He is really God. But the human incarnation knows the strength of the faith and its tenure. Therefore, the human incarnation may respond by accepting the statement of the devotee on that day. But the Lord in human form will immediately speak about the concept of dual personality in the human incarnation and does not cross that safety limit, because the devotees may censor their statement and only present the statement of Krishna saying that Krishna declared Himself as the Lord. Devotees like Gopikas are very rare. They were sages for several births and for them the Lord need not preach anything because they have started with that decision and not arrived at decision. The devotee expects the position of the Lord atleast in the future. If such a chance exists, he will stick to the Lord. Alternatively he may also stick to the Lord if he can expect some chance of benefit or solution to his problems. For that he will enquire about miracles. If the super power exists, he will try to tap it for his benefit and for this purpose he will act as an excellent devotee. If all these possibilities do not exist, he will leave the human incarnation and will join the Advaita Union, where 125

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he will have the chance of becoming the prime minister atleast along with others in general quota. The Advaita Union gives the highest fruit at once by saying that you are already the prime minister and you have to just remove ignorance! When Jesus told that He and His Father are one and the same, He was dragged to the court for that statement and was crucified. Just imagine the irritation created by jealousy and egoism! The human incarnation comes in every generation but you do not come in every generation. The rebirth as a human being is almost impossible and completely impossible as per Christianity. In such a case you have only one chance to come in contact the human incarnation present in your generation. If you miss this chance, you will never have this luck again. The next meeting with God is direct where He acts as the judge [after death]. Therefore, there is no second coming of Jesus for you and you will meet God only in the end. In this way the second coming of Jesus at the end [like Kalki Avatara] can be understood. But if you say that you cannot meet the human incarnation in your present generation, then you do not have the opportunity even once. In such a case, why is only a particular generation, in which God came in human form such as Jesus, blessed? They had this extra fortune and it means that God is partial to that generation. [This is absurd since God is impartial. Therefore we must accept that.] Every person in every generation will have the equal chance of coming in contact with the human incarnation once in his or her life on earth and the final contact with God in an energetic form as the Judge [after death]. Therefore, the impartial God comes again and again for every generation (Yada Yada hi—Gita) but you do not have the chance to meet the human incarnation again since you have no human rebirth. One may get human rebirth in the extreme exceptional situation and you should not depend on that because it involves high risk. The human birth, the urge for salvation and coming in contact with the human incarnation are the three real fortunes and the importance increases from left to right in that order. Therefore, simply having human birth and having the urge for salvation by taking orange robe, are not sufficient. Unless you contact the Lord in human form, and get the right knowledge for correct implementation, everything is waste (Durlabham…Manushyatvam Mumukshatvam, Mahapurasha Samshrayah—Shankara). There is no quarrel if you say that the second 126

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coming of Jesus is only at the end because everyone has an equal chance. But if you say that I only have to worship the past human incarnation even in the present generation, then the equal opportunity is not given to Me when I am compared to the human being present in the generation in which Jesus came directly and clarified all the doubts face to face. I must have such equal privilege and here the quarrel comes with you since you deny the equal opportunity. The second coming is final with respect to every human being but not with respect to God because in such a case several human generations miss the chance of direct contact with God in human form except that one particular human generation. Even if you say that Jesus told that His second coming is only in the end, it is true with respect to every human being and not with respect to Him. You have misinterpreted this statement by extending it with reference to Jesus also because you want to exploit the people in the name of Jesus [who lived in the past] and get personal fame and other facilities from the devotees. You are in no way different from the Jewish priests who were present in that time of Jesus. Both of you do not admit the human form of Lord. Both of you keep the past, which is invisible (invisible Jehova or invisible Jesus) before the devotees and earn money and fame. The only difference between you both is that the priests got Jesus killed and you cannot do that in the present time. The repulsion towards the human form of God who is present before your eyes is common to both the priests and the devotees. But in the case of the priests there is an extra factor that they may lose fame and offerings from the devotees because they usually get benefited by standing at the background of the invisible form of God or the inert form of God [The priests collect money or offerings from devotees in the name of God who is invisible or in the name of God in the form of a statue. If they accept the present human incarnation, then no one will follow them and they will lose money and fame that they get from devotees]. In the case of devotees, this extra factor does not exist because they are prepared to sacrifice for God and they are not losing since they do not receive. Any Guru or priest immediately resists human form of God based on these two factors since he fears that the human form of God may get the fame and devotees’ offerings. Thus, there is political, economical and social issue of psychology in the spiritual line. Attraction to fame and money associated with jealously and egoism is the main background and Lord 127

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Datta brings out the truth that is buried up to any depth. The Omniscient God knows all the details of the truth. The Veda says that the knowledge of God is always based on truth (Satyam Jnaanam…).

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Chapter - 8

RESPONSINILITY OF INCARNATION O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Christmas December 25, 2006] Jesus asked Peter about the opinion of public on Him. Peter told that some are looking Jesus as the Messenger and some are looking Jesus as Son of God. He told that he is looking Jesus as the God Himself. Three views about the human incarnation are always available and these are Dvaita, Vishishtaadvaita and Advaita. According to these three views, Jesus gave the three statements that He is the Messenger, that He is the Son of God and that He is not different from God. This does not mean that He is changing His state from one to the other in these three positions. His three statements about Himself are given to the devotees of corresponding levels of ego and jealousy. As the ego and jealousy decrease, these three states change according to the devotee. Through out the Gita, Krishna told Arjuna that He is God and remained in the state of Advaita only. The reason for this is that Arjuna was in the lower state of Vishishtaadvaita thinking that Krishna is a partial incarnation of God Narayana. For him, the higher state of Advaita is preached. This does not mean that Krishna is always in the highest state of Advaita and Jesus is changing between these three states. The difference in the statements of Jesus and Krishna is to be understood from the point of the other side. The other side in the case of Jesus is various devotees at different levels in different times. The other side in the case of Krishna is a single devotee, Arjuna, in a particular time only. The Bible is a collection of statements of Jesus given to various devotees in various times. The Gita is a single statement given to a particular devotee only in a particular time or situation only. Therefore, Jesus and Krishna are not different from each other in the state of human incarnation. Krishna was looked by Gopikas as God and hence, there is no necessity to preach Advaita to Gopikas, who were already in the highest state. Pandavas looked Krishna as incarnation of Narayana or as Son of God, which is lower state than that of Gopikas. Pandavas thought that justice is above the visible Krishna and only the absolute invisible God 129

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Narayana is above the justice. Hence, they could not cross the justice for the sake of Krishna. Dharma Raja refused to tell a lie even on the request from Krishna. Arjuna did not leave Gaya in spite of repeated requests from Krishna. Dhrutarashtra looked Krishna as a divine messenger only and did not grant even five villages to Pandavas in spite of repeated requests from Krishna. As the king, he had the power to grant anything. In the Gita, since there is only the reference of Arjuna, all the three views could not be given. Therefore, Hindus should not say that Krishna alone is God always and that Jesus is a changing God. Apart from these three angles of devotees, there is a fourth angle of ordinary human beings that do not recognize the human incarnation even as a messenger. The priests of the church looked Jesus through this fourth angle in which, they thought that Jesus is a fraud person cheating the public to get fame. Due to this fourth angle, Jesus was crucified. Mohammad, the next Prophet kept Himself always in the position of Messenger only to avoid this fourth angle. But some ignorant human beings fought with Him also in the fourth angle, who did not believe Him even as the Messenger. Yohon claimed Himself as a Prophet only but His head was also cut due to this fourth angle. Buddha kept silent about the unimaginable absolute God and therefore, there is no point of looking Buddha even as the Messenger of God. He was viewed as a learned human being since Buddhists misunderstood Buddha as an atheist. Buddha was concentrating on the removal of desire, which is the life of spiritual effort. This does not mean that He denied God. Suppose, you are going to a foreign country and you require the woolen clothes there. Suppose a friend concentrates on the point of purchase of the woolen clothes only. Does it mean that he does not believe in the existence of the foreign country? Kauravas looked Krishna in this fourth angle and tried to tie Krishna with a rope. Their mother, Gandhari also viewed Krishna in the same fourth angle and cursed Krishna with cruel death. Accordingly, Krishna was shot dead and died with profuse bleeding from the foot. There is no difference between Jesus and Krishna even in this cruel death.

Greediness of Even Devotees Everybody wants to become Jesus or Krishna to get the divine fame in the society in a similar way without such cruel death at the end. Such desire is hidden in the subconscious state of all the devotees even 130

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without their knowledge. Today there is freedom of expression of spiritual thought and there is the constitutional protection and hence a preacher need not fear for the crucifixion. Hence, now, the above desire is very strong. But one must remember that Jesus allowed the crucifixion from the view of a single point that is to suffer for the sins of His people (Refer to the meaning of the word Emmanuel), who are deserving and to save them from sins. In Bible it is clearly said that He came to save His people and not all the people. Now, can you suffer like Jesus for the sake of sins of your closest deserving devotees? Perhaps, now, your above desire is subsided! Powers are always associated with responsibilities. However, if any devotee wants the position of human incarnation in spite of the awareness of responsibilities, there is an open chance for every human being to become the human incarnation. First you must concentrate on the correct divine knowledge, through which you must receive a clear-cut picture of the whole procedure. You must know that you are not already the God since God is not the ancestral property that is already given to you without any effort as felt by Advaitin. You must know that practical service to God alone can give any divine fruit. The correct spiritual knowledge and the theoretical devotion are only like water and fertilizer for the service-plant, which alone can yield the fruit. Through such selfless sacrifice of service in terms of sacrifice of work and fruit of work, you will be selected as a servant by God provided your service is not aspiring any fruit including the above fruit of becoming human incarnation. Now you have entered the inner circle of God and this is the first step called as Dvaita. People often misunderstand that Dvaita is the relationship between God and an ordinary human being. Such relationship is only the creator-created relationship. In Dvaita, Madhva says that the relationship between God and the soul is the relationship of Master-servant. Madhva Himself kept in the position of the servant of God. Every human being cannot claim such position of Madhva, without reaching that state by spiritual effort as explained above (Correct Spiritual Knowledge – Theoretical Devotion – Service). If you see Hanuman, He straightly jumped from the knowledge to the service and never expressed His love on God through songs and tears as per Valmiki Ramayana. Some plants yield fruits just with supply of water without fertilizer. Therefore, sometimes knowledge and service are sufficient without the intermediate theoretical devotion. But here the soil acts as a hidden fertilizer. 131

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Similarly, the theoretical devotion of Hanuman was kept hidden in the mind only. Hence this intermediate state exists in a hidden way in such cases. Now one of the closest servants excels other servants in service and becomes the Son of God and sits on the right side of God as told by Jesus. Ramanuja also says that one of the most fortunate devotees sits on the lap of Lord Narayana and talks with Him and this is exactly coinciding with the above point of Bible. This is the second state of Vishishtaadvaita. Now such Son of God comes down to the earth with a gross body (as usual like any other human being) and God enters him and pervades all over the soul and body. Now, this Son of God is the human incarnation and is treated as God by the devotees for hearing the knowledge and serving the God. This Son of God gets the credit of all the wonderful works done by God, who is hidden in him. This is the third final state of Advaita. God entered the devotee, stays for his lifetime and exits at the end. The entry of God is mentioned in the Veda (Tadevanupravishat…). The exit of God is mentioned in the Bible, when Jesus cried stating ‘Oh! God! Why did You leave me?’ Jesus told these three statements to different devotees in different times, but one should understand that Jesus remained in all the three states simultaneously because these states are only the simultaneous angles. In the third (Advaita) state, the other two lower states co-exist. This means that the lower state is always in the higher state but not reverse. In the human incarnation, which is the state of Advaita, Vishishtaadvaita also exists because the Son of God treated as God is the Son of God by himself simultaneously even in that state of Advaita. The live wire is a wire always. Similarly in the state of Vishishtaadvaita, Dvaita exists because the Son of God was selected from the closest servants and therefore, the Son of God is also a servant by himself even in the state of Vishishtaadvaita. Hence, the human incarnation can mention itself to be in the two lower states also simultaneously, which is also the truth. The human incarnation always says the truth only. The reverse of these three states is not true. Every servant is not the Son of God and hence, Vishishtaadvaita cannot exist in Dvaita. The Son of God is God only in the time of human incarnation and he is not God always. Therefore, Advaita cannot exist in Vishishtaadvaita. Adishesha was one of the closest servants of God. When he was born as Lakshmana, he became the Son of God by his exceptional service. Then in the next 132

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birth, Lakshmana became the human incarnation called as Balarama, who is placed in the ten incarnations of God. In this incarnation, God pervaded all over Balarama. Even the God Krishna served this incarnation as younger brother to prove that He will become the servant of His servants. Even Jesus served His devotees by washing and kissing their feet. Jesus neglected His mother through out His life. When a devotee stated that His mother is really blessed soul, He denied it and told that the servants of God are really blessed. Once, He refused to see His mother, who was waiting for Him since He was busy with His devotees. Jesus stated that one should cut all the family bonds including life to become His dearest disciple. Shankara, who left His mother for the sake of God; Buddha, who left His wife and son for the sake of God; Ramanuja, who left His wife even for the sake of devotees; Radha and Meera, who left their husbands for the sake of God; Gopikas, who jumped into the fire for the sake of Krishna; Prahlada, who underwent torture and Hanuman, who tore His chest for Rama can be understood as the direct or indirect human incarnations of God to demonstrate this point practically. The negligence of Jesus towards His mother, had another point also. He was reducing her bond to son to divert it to God. Apart from this, He was also preparing her to withstand the last scene of His crucifixion. Infact, in the world God created disease for this purpose only. Whenever your close related soul like wife, child etc. falls ill, you are expected to decrease your love on them slowly by such repeating illness. The illness is a temporary warning about the inevitable death on some day or the other to show that your relationship with that particular soul is not permanent and can be cut at anytime. But in such situation, one is becoming more and more anxious about the soul and takes more and more care thereby increasing the love more and more on that bond. When that soul departs suddenly or at the end of the life, this accumulated love will blast you suddenly due to increased power in the bond. But if one decreases the intensity of love by such situations, he or she will be able to withstand the shock quite efficiently. Like this Jesus prepared His mother for the last scene, which is common to any mother, who has the probability of an accidental death of her child. Devotees, who detect the hidden God in human incarnation, are really blessed because they are going to be infinitely benefited by their service to the Lord in human form in His divine mission. But they 133

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should not aspire for any fruit for their service. If they aspire for the fruit, it shall be given by God based on the quality and quantity of the service here itself. In such case, God has no obligation for the devotee in his cycle of deeds. The reward here is unnecessary because any fruit in this world is not eternal and there is alternative way of self-effort to achieve the fruit here. Moreover, when you ask God for the fruit, it is accounted and paid according to the standards and extent of your service. But if you do not aspire for the fruit, God will use His grace to save you in the upper world where there is no alternative. Moreover, in such case, there is no account and the grace of God becomes infinite to be used for any requirement to any extent. Hence, the devotee who serves the Lord without aspiring anything in return is very fortunate. Jesus tells that a person purchased a land by selling all his property and he found lot of treasure in the land while cultivating it. He is the devotee who sacrificed his entire worldly work and wealth for God. A person who refused to purchase the land beyond certain rate lost the treasure because he mistook the human incarnation as an ordinary human being. A blind beggar recognized Jesus as God whereas the priests who are not blind could not recognize Jesus. Jesus tells that blind see and those who are not blind are not seeing. Jesus compares the fortunate devotees who recognize Him to the seeds thrown in the field because such seeds (devotees) are covered by soil (God) and are protected. The seeds, which have fallen outside the field, are eaten away by the crows. This means that the people, who did not recognize the Lord and went away, are punished by the messengers of the hell.

Selfless Service to Human Incarnation You may say that you are serving the Lord in human form without any aspiration of fruit in return. You have reached this state after hearing the story of Hanuman, who served the Lord without aspiring any fruit in return and due to such selfless service, Hanuman became God. Now, your selfless service is based on this story of Hanuman so that you can also become God like Hanuman. Have you learnt only selfless service from Hanuman or have you learnt the selfless service in view of its fruit? If you analyze your sub-consciousness, you will know the truth. The sub-consciousness stores certain secrets, which are not known even to you. But, on deep analysis, you can find those hidden secrets also. In nutshell, the main point is that whether you have simply 134

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taken the word ‘selfless service to Lord’ from the story of Hanuman by cut and paste method into your sub-consciousness or copied the whole story into your sub-consciousness? If the case is former, your service will yield the fruit. If it is latter, the fruit is lost. In order to avoid this danger, Buddha adopted only selfless service without any reference to God. When God is not in the picture, there is no point of fruit of becoming God. Then you are adopting only selfless service without any fruit and in such case, the fruit is sure. Buddha asked people simply to cut the desire and kept silent about God so that the fruit of becoming God will never arise. Without understanding this great aim of Buddha, people have misunderstood Him as an atheist and the joke here is that He is one of the incarnations of God Narayana. This means that He denied Himself! Buddhists have taken the silence on God as the indication for absence of God. Silence means that God is unimaginable and this is the absolute truth of the absolute God. Even Shankara said that God could be explained only through silence. People have rubbed the title of atheist even on Shankara (Prachchanna Bauddha). When God enters the soul and body of His most beloved devotee (son of God), such devotee is called as the human incarnation. In the human incarnation, we find both God and Son of God mixed with each other in a perfect homogeneous state so that both are inseparable like the wire and the current in the live wire. The wire is the Son of God and current is God. The live wire is the human incarnation. The live wire must be treated as the current and there is no alternative way to experience the existence of current. In this context, the misunderstanding arises. The live wire says that it is moving the fan. Infact, the current is speaking this through the wire. People misunderstand that the bloody wire is boasting about itself as itself moving the fan. The live wire looks like any other wire as far as the properties of the wire (metallic nature, leanness, etc.,) are concerned. This makes other wires to think that the live wire is also an ordinary wire without current, which is boasting about itself. This confusion lead to the crucifixion of Jesus by the public. When Jesus claimed that He is the truth, the light and the Father of the heaven, this claim was not from the Son of God, but it was from God Himself. But, the observers have misunderstood this statement as that of Jesus. When the speaker is invisible, the mike looks as if it is speaking by itself. Here, at any time the speaker is not converted into mike or the current is not converted 135

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into wire. The two units exist separately even during the time of the human incarnation in which, both are homogeneously mixed to form a single phase. If this point is realized, Jesus might have escaped the crucifixion. It is this point, which is stressed by Mohammed. He said that God would never become human being or the vice-versa. This does not mean that the Son of God should not be treated as God in the human incarnation by the devotees. If you deny this assumption of treating the Son of God as God, the devotees become dissatisfied because they prayed God for the experience of God and service to God. Then the very purpose of the human incarnation is lost. Mohammed clarified this concept to avoid the danger. But, His followers misunderstood that He denied the very concept of human incarnation. Thus Buddha and Mohammed should be taken as the preachers who warned about the reality of the concept to avoid the danger of loosing the highest fruit and punishing the human incarnation respectively. The followers have extrapolated the preaching and as a result, Buddhists thought that God does not exist and Muslims thought that the human incarnation does not exist. The concept of human incarnation is introduced and explained well by Krishna in the Gita and Jesus in the Bible. Krishna says that God enters the human being and Jesus says that God is in flesh. This clearly means that God is neither the human being nor the flesh at any time. Buddha and Mohammed clarified the misunderstandings of the human beings about this concept. Buddha indicated God as unimaginable through silence and Mohammed indicated God as invisible. The desire to become God comes generally, when God is seen by eyes in human form. Generally, the concept of human incarnation is avoided only to avoid the birth of this desire to become God. When God is invisible, generally the human tendency is to get some benefit from the invisible God and not to become God. But, Alas! The Advaitin has not left even the invisible God! He wants to become even that invisible God! Why becoming God? He claims that he is already God. For this, he proposed that God is the invisible awareness (soul), which exists in his body mixed with qualities, which is called as the individual soul (jeeva). He proposed that simple filtration of qualities from the soul will yield the absolute God because according to him God is pure awareness without qualities. The Advaitin gave his own false concept of God and also his own false way to become God.

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Proof of True Devotion Jesus was killed by His children on the cross. Jesus said ‘Revenge is mine.’ His revenge is not to kill them, but to kill their ignorance. His most powerful weapon is infinite love. If you love Him, He will allow Himself to be loved by you so that at last, you will find that you loved yourself by loving Him. Similarly, if you deceive Him, He will allow Himself to be deceived by you and atlast, you will find that you deceived yourself by deceiving Him. Your real love is proved only by money. You love your children truly. Therefore, you are giving your money to your children. Similarly if you love God you will give your money to God for God’s work. This is the practical fire-test of your real love. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are just like the pickles (side dishes) in the plate. The sacrifice of a part of the fruit of your work (money) and the sacrifice of a part of your work atleast, are the central bread in the plate. Both these two parts put together is called as divine service. Without this practical divine service, there is no use of mere prayers and meditation. Without divine service, if you offer only prayers and meditation to God, you are offering Him a meal-plate with only pickles and without the central bread. When He eats only the pickles, His stomach burns and He becomes furious. This is the reason why He is not answering your prayers and meditation in the absence of service. Ofcourse if you are incapable of sacrificing your money towards His work, atleast sacrifice your work for His work. If you are really incapable of sacrificing both these, then alone will He accept your prayers and meditation, because you cannot do anything more than that. In such case the pickles offered by you will become pieces of sweet fruits and He shall answer your prayers positively.

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Chapter - 9

HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY—STRONG TIES External Differences O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [December 2, 2005 My dear Christians and Hindus] Jesus Christ when came to India, was honoured by Indians. He wandered all over India and several Indians were attracted to His shrewd preaching given with excellent analysis. He lived up to 85 years of age and was buried in Kashmir with all the spiritual honour. Hindus treated Him as their own preacher. Similarly, Christians honoured Swami Vivekananada and His preaching was appreciated. Christians loved him from the bottom of their hearts. They treated Him as their beloved preacher. No two religions can mix so fast and so homogeneously as Christianity and Hinduism. The reason for this is that the spiritual skeleton of both religions is one and the same. When the skeleton is similar, the flesh and the skin cannot make much difference between two bodies. Any two living beings belonging to the same category [species] may differ by the quantity of flesh and colour of the skin but the skeleton is the same. The common spiritual framework of the two religions is the concept of the human incarnation. The Gita says “Manusheem Tanumaasritam”, which means that God enters a human body. Similarly, the Christian scripture says “God in flesh”. The God who is mentioned in both the religions is one and the same. The flesh may differ qualitatively and quantitatively. The Christian flesh may be richer in proteins and the Hindu flesh may be richer in vitamins. The composition of flesh may differ a little. The Christian skin may be white and the Hindu skin may be black. These differences are only external. Both Christians and Hindus should understand the same concept. Both may have external differences but the internal casual body or Karana Sharira which is called as Atman or soul is one and the same. The gross bodies may differ in flesh and skin. The inner subtle body may also differ due to different proportions of the qualities. But the souls are one and the same. Thus, both of you [Hindus and Christians] should find the homogeneity in the souls of each other. 138

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If you cannot appreciate the uniformity at this basic level it self, how can you find the uniformity between Krishna and Jesus? In both these human incarnations, God is one and the same. In both incarnations, God is surrounded by the casual body, which is the pure awareness. This casual body is also one and the same in both cases. The difference may be in the subtle and gross bodies. The gross bodies of Jesus and Krishna might differ in colour. The composition of their flesh also may be different. When you compare the subtle bodies of Jesus and Krishna there is a difference. Infact, any subtle body is made of three qualities called Sattvam (good qualities), Rajas (qualities of egoism) and Tamas (qualities of ignorance). Infact, all these three are equal in proportions and exist in equilibrium. But the equilibrium appears to have been disturbed. The inequality is only in expression or vision. In the case of Jesus, Sattvam was fully expressed. The other two were hidden. An exactly similar human incarnation in Hinduism is Lord Rama who is the embodiment of all good qualities alone. A branch in Hinduism called as the Vaishnava cult, worships Lord Vishnu alone as God. Lord Vishnu is representative of Sattvam. Lord Brahma represents Rajas and Lord Shiva represents Tamas. They [The Vaishnavas] do not consider Brahma and Shiva as God. Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam can be treated similar to the Vaishnava cult. The impression about God in general is that He is the embodiment of all the auspicious and good qualities only. It is easy to love God associated with good qualities. All parents love their sons if they are good. Such love is great. But a greater love is that in which one loves the son having both good and bad qualities. Such an expression of the mixture of the three qualities is seen in Lord Krishna. The greatest love is that in which one loves the son even though he has only bad qualities. Such an expression of bad qualities is seen in Lord Datta.

Apparent Bad Qualities Exhibited by God The introduction of a bad quality in God cannot be generally digested by the majority of people. God created this universe. In that case, God alone created all the qualities [good and bad]. God created even Satan. The Gita says that God created all the three qualities (Ye Chaiva…). The writer of the story of a movie creates the role of a villain in the story. The producer of the film gives remuneration to the actor who does the role of the villain as well as the hero. The audience will be 139

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bored without the role of the villain in the cinema. A person who is eating food is also bored if the food is just sweet and there are no salty and spicy dishes in the food along with the sweet. Day has no meaning without night. Summer is boring without winter. Goodness itself cannot be recognised without the bad. Therefore, the creation of contrast is essential. If one realises this concept, no hatred or anger can rise in his heart. Anger or hatred is generally towards the bad qualities. If you consider the Lord as the creator and maintainer of the entire universe and if you treat the universe as the body of the cosmic Lord, you have to accept that both bad and good qualities are in the body of the Lord. If you say that the body of the Lord contains only good qualities, then only a little part of the cosmos would have been created and maintained by the Lord because good qualities are very few compared to the bad qualities in this universe. The region occupied by good qualities is very less compared to the region occupied by bad qualities. There is a difference between the bad qualities in the Lord and the bad qualities in a demon. A demon uses the bad qualities to trouble devotees and good people, which lead to the disturbance of world peace. But the bad qualities in the Lord are used to test hypocritical devotees who boast that they are the topmost devotees. By such hipocrisy, egoism develops in them and they fall. To prevent such fall, the Lord conducts tests so that they will realise their true positions. For such tests, bad qualities are utilised. Thus, the bad qualities of the Lord are the means for delivering this spiritual preaching. When a stone falls on you, it is not your fault. But if you jump on the stone [and get injured], you are responsible. Similarly, when a demon comes to you and shows his bad qualities and disturbs you, you are not responsible. But when you go to Lord Datta and want to develop in the spiritual line, you have to be constantly tested and in such occasions, Lord Datta exhibits bad qualities to test your faith in Him. You can find fault with the demon but not with Lord Datta. When somebody throws a stone on you, you can find fault with him. But when you yourself jump on the stone and break your limbs, you cannot find fault with anybody. Lord Datta did not come to you. You have gone to Datta. Infact, when you approach Datta, He threatens you in the beginning itself and tries to throw you out. But you have clinged to Him and constantly pestered Him for salvation. The sages 140

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pestered the Lord for salvation. The Lord agreed and gave them the birth of Gopikas in Vrindavanam. He stole their hard earned wealth, which was butter. By this He broke their bond with wealth. For us it appears as if the Lord cheated them and stole their wealth. But if you analyse their previous birth and their request, this act is perfectly justified. Infact, this act is done due to extensive grace of the Lord. The Lord is criticised as a thief and acquired bad name for the sake of the Gopikas. He tolerated all this negative criticism for the sake of the sages [Gopikas]. The Lord had not even a trace of need to steal their wealth. The Lord attracted their children and played with them, doing a lot of mischief. This cut the bonds of the Gopikas with their children. Again this brings a bad name to the Lord because it appears that the Lord spoiled their children. Infact, the Lord does not spoil anybody. Thus again this act is the extreme grace of the Lord alone. The Lord danced with the Gopikas at midnight without the knowledge of their husbands. This is the climax of sin. The Lord is criticised extensively for this act and is called as the greatest sinner. People blame the Lord for this. Infact, He has no desire even to look at any lady. The Lord is the Infinite Ocean of bliss. He does not require any external object to gain happiness. The Veda says that the Lord has no desire, which is not fulfilled (Apta Kamah…). Such a Lord got eternally defamed in this world. Several devotees doubted the divinity of Lord Krishna due to this. Even the greatest devotee like Hanuman criticised Krishna for such an act. The actual reason for the Lord to act in this way is that the Lord broke the bonds of the Gopikas with their husbands. When the bonds with wealth, children and husbands or wives are fully broken, salvation is complete. For the sake of salvation of the sages, Lord Krishna sacrificed even His name and fame. This shows the unimaginable love of God towards His devotees. Without understanding this background, ignorant people criticise Lord Krishna. Even Lord Jesus patiently suffered all the negative criticism and all sorts of insults to protect His devotees. This shows the divine love of Jesus. Jesus kept silent in the court when He was charged with so many crimes. The silence shows His deep love towards His devotees. Due to such silence alone did the judge order crucifixion. Unless the crucifixion was implemented, He could not have suffered for the sins of His devotees. Thus, the Lord tolerates anything, even things which damage His personality for the sake of His devotees. 141

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Due to the crucifixion, devotees misunderstood Jesus and criticised Him as incapable. Here, the firm faith of the devotees was tested.

Testing the Devotees Similarly, Lord Krishna or Datta tests devotees by exhibiting bad qualities. Several devotees misunderstood Krishna for this dance and thus the depth of their faith was exhibited. Lord Data came as a human incarnation in Punjab by the name Ramlal. Ramlal stayed in a village and attracted all the devotees by His divine knowledge and miracles. When He was finally leaving the village, all the villagers followed Him stating that they could not live without Him. They said that Ramlal was their very life and entire love. Then Ramlal stood for sometime and smiled. He asked the villagers whether they could accept Him as the husband of their wives. Ninty percent of the villagers scolded Him and returned back. Only ten percent accepted the statement of Ramlal and followed Him sincerely. Ramlal was extremely pleased with them and gave them full divine knowledge and assured them that He would protect them always. The word ‘husband’ in Sanskrit is translated as ‘Bharta’ which actually means the maintainer and protector. Ramlal used the word in that sense. But people took the word in another sense and were misled. The egoism of the husbands was touched. They boasted of their extreme love for Ramlal and that they could sacrifice anything or anybody for the sake of Lord Ramlal. Ramlal knew exactly the item, which they could never sacrifice—their bond with their wives. Thus, Ramlal exposed the hypocrisy in devotion. He used the word in different sense and tested their faith and sacrifice. The only protector and maintainer is the Lord. Thus, the Lord is the only husband for all the souls in this world. The difference between a male and female is only in the external gross body. The soul is the same in the gross body of a male or female. Some devotee from USA asked me to analyse the philosophy of Osho. I think that Osho pleads for freedom in the love of even married human beings. He pleads that secret contacts are wrong. He says that even illegal contacts should be frankly spoken out. This concept is wrong in two stages. In the first stage the illegal contact itself is wrong. In the second stage, when the other partner [whose partner has cheated on him or her] comes to know of the illegal contact, the other partner undergoes unimaginable agony. To do a 142

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sin is one mistake. To hurt the heart of any human being is another mistake. It is a double sin and such a soul, whether male or female will be punished twice in hell. According to the old ethical scripture of Hinduism, a red-hot copper statue of the person with whom the illegal contact was done is placed before the sinner and he or she will be forced to embrace it. The attitude differs from one culture to another. The villain stole Helen of Troy. Helen led a family life with the villain. When Helen returned back, she again had a normal family life with the hero. But when Ravana stole Sita, Sita did not even look at Ravana. Therefore, there is a vast difference in the cultures of the East and the West in the root itself. I do not criticise or praise any culture. But even Jesus did not agree to any such illegal contacts of any married human being. He criticised even prostitution. Thus, the field of Pravritti is one and the same in view of God, whether it is East or West. Therefore, this again proves that God is one and the same. Now the point of Lord Krishna comes for analysis. The field of Nivritti is completely different. As analysed above, the background was completely different. The meaning of the act was totally different. The act was done by the request of the soul. The act means the breakage of bonds and the complete liberation of the soul. The act does not mean any secret dealing to pacify blind lust. The Lord has no trace of such a necessity. The Lord did this act only in Vrindavanam and only in the case of the Gopikas. After leaving the Vrindavanam, He never repeated this with any other soul.

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Chapter - 10

JNANA, BHAKTI & SEVA ARE STEPS OF ONE PATH What is Dharma? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [August 22, 2006] The word Dharma means the characteristic property which stands for the identification of an item. The Dharma of fire is burning by which it is identified as fire. It is the expected natural behaviour of an item in the creation. If the fire is cool, such coolness is Adharma which means that it is not the expected property of the specific entity. The human being in this creation is a specified entity and is expected to show certain characteristic properties (Dharmas) by which he or she is identified as the human being. If the human being shows the characteristic properties of other specified items, it loses its identification. When God created various items in this world, He has assigned certain characteristic properties to be associated with the corresponding items. Therefore the possession of Dharma is the will of God. The balance of the creation is maintained when specified items exhibit their specified properties assigned by God. All the inert items like fire, water etc., are strictly following the will of God. God created this universe for entertainment. The entertainment is disturbed if the natural balance is upset. God has given freedom to the human beings, which is the inherent desire of the souls. God has full freedom to change any characteristic property of any specified item. When He wished, the fire could not burn, the air could not move and the water could not quench even a dry grass blade. Since He is omnipotent, He has unlimited freedom. But the souls have very little potentiality. Their freedom is naturally conditional and limited. The living being has little freedom within its specified boundary of its potentiality. If freedom is not given, it is not a living being. Among the living beings, the human being has full potentiality due to analytical faculty (Buddhi) and thus relatively more freedom is granted to it. The human being should understand the limits of its capability and should freely behave within that specified boundary. Such behaviour is Dharma which is expected by God. If the limits are violated and the behaviour of some other 144

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category like animals is shown, the soul is punished and the soul is pushed into the life cycle of animals. Such animal lives in the forest and can have its characteristic behaviour which does not upset the balance of animal kingdom in the forest. But when a human being lives in the society of human beings and behaves like an animal, the society of human beings is disturbed. The humanity is the most advanced race of the living beings into which God often enters in human form (Manusheem Tanumasritam— Gita). Dharma is called as Pravritti which is the expected behaviour of the human being with the other co-human beings to maintain the balance of humanity. Only in humanity, the spiritual effort is taken up by some blessed and realized human beings. Therefore the behaviour of the human being should not upset any other human being. Therefore if a co-human being is a devotee of God and a spiritual aspirant, he or she should not be even hurt. God excuses even the atheist who abuses Him but will never spare if the atheist even hurts the devotee. You should not hurt the feelings of any co-human being except in the case of punishment. Even in the punishment, your aim should not be to hurt the sinner but to change him. Even if you are an atheist you must respect the devotees also because they are your co-human beings. Whether you are an atheist or theist, you are expected to maintain the balance of the human society. The highest Dharma is only not to hurt any soul including birds and animals. Even a tree is a living being and you should not cut any green tree. Non-violence towards the living beings is the essence of Dharma (Ahimsa Paramo dharmah). Ungratefulness is said to be the highest sin (Adharma). An atheist who may have any number of good qualities is the highest sinner because he is ungrateful to the creator. A theist who may have any number of bad qualities is good with reference to such atheist (Apichetsa—Gita). Ofcourse you are expected to be a theist with good qualities. An atheist with bad qualities is the worst, called as demon and will be punished by God immediately. Therefore gratefulness to the creator and not hurting any soul except in the punishment is the essence of Dharma. As long as you are not disturbing the balance of society, God does not distinguish the good and bad qualities applied in the path of the spiritual journey. The hunter who gave flesh as offering to the Lord attained the eternal abode of God. He killed a rabbit which is a harmless animal but neither he nor his family 145

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took that flesh. He did not sell the flesh. This sin was excused by God due to lack of selfishness and immense love to God. As long as Lord does not enter into your life, you have to reject Adharma and vote for Dharma. But when God enters your life, you have to vote for God only even against Dharma, if required (Sarvadharman—Gita). Dharmaraja did not tell a lie even though the Lord asked him to tell a lie. He voted for Dharma against God. The result of Dharma is temporary and he went to heaven for sometime. He did not go to the permanent abode of God. Infact, dharma need not have any reward because it is expected behaviour. The heaven is only a consolation gift to encourage doing Dharma. Arjuna killed his grandfather Bhishma on the instruction of the Lord and he was permanently associated with the Lord Narayana as Nara. God is the greatest and is beyond even dharma. After all, the aim of Dharma is only not to displease God. In Pravritti which has no reference to God, you should not displease any co-human being. In Nivrutti, you should please God at the cost of even sacrificing Dharma. In Pravritti, you should not leave your old parents, your wife and your children. But in Nivritti, Shankara left His old mother, Prahlada got his father killed, Buddha left His wife and child and Meera left her husband. The result of Pravritti is not to displease God whereas the result of Nivritti is to please God. One should not confuse with these two fields (Pravrittincha Nivrittincha –Gita). The expected behaviour (Dharma) differs in these two fields separately. You have to follow Dharma corresponding to the field in which you exist. Sanyasa is misunderstood as leaving the family members and the house for the sake of God. This is done only in either in the case of opposition or requirement. Ramanuja left His wife because she insulted devotees and opposed the devotion of Ramanuja towards devotees. If the family members are opposing your spiritual effort, then only such path should be taken. Even then, you must try to change them because even after taking Sanyasa, your duty is only to change the ignorant people into devotees. Ramanuja told His wife thrice not to insult the devotees. Only when the fourth case happened He left her. When you cannot do this duty of changing people in your house, how can you do the same in the world? In spite of your hectic efforts as in the case of Ramanuja and if the opposition still continues, then you can think of leaving your family. Even after going out, you have to spend your time with devotees only. If your family members are already devotees, then 146

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you need not leave your house. Shankara and Buddha left their families for a special requirement of God’s work which is the propagation of spiritual knowledge in the world. In those days, one has to travel and reach various places by walk to propagate the knowledge. But today, electronic media are well developed and you need not leave the house for God’s work. Only in the extreme case of opposition, you can think of leaving the house. Your love on your family members cannot be the love on God. But God loves His devotees more than Himself. Thus if your family members are devotees, you can love them as devotees but not as family members. Such love to devotees pleases God than love to Him directly. But you should not love your family members in the disguise of devotees which will be only cheating yourself. Thus you can bring God in every angle of your life. Similarly, you can transform the society into the society of devotees and then your social service will be service to devotees. Meera, Chaitanya Maha Prabhu etc., tried to spread the devotion. This will please God more than personal love to Him. Such social service of converting ordinary ignorant human beings into devotees by propagating knowledge and devotion will lead you to the eternal abode of God. Shankara, Ramanuja, etc., propagated both knowledge and devotion. Mere social service will lead you to heaven only for sometime from which you have to return back. You must realize that the whole world is the kingdom of God as stated by Jesus. Any injustice will be punished by Him and you need not worry about it. Your view of the punishment is revenge but His view of punishment is to transform the soul. If somebody has stolen your money, don’t pray to God to punish that person. Everything is recorded by Him unlike the courts which register the case only when a complaint is given. The enquiry by God takes place immediately. Sometimes you find no punishment from God and you are scolding God. The silence of God means that the enquiry was completed and the judgment was “no punishment”. In the previous birth, you might have stolen money from that person and today you paid along with the compound interest. In this case there cannot be punishment and the enquiry was over. Since you do not know this, you mistake God for His silence. Suppose such background is not there, then you will get your money with interest in some other way which is compensated by God. That person will lose the money along with the interest. You will see it with your eyes. But suppose you cursed that person with revenge, you will receive the 147

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punishment in addition to the above. Kauravas stole a share of wealth of Pandavas and finally they lost their whole kingdom. Pandavas gained the total kingdom which is double the share. But Draupadi was cursing Kauravas aspiring always for the revenge. She was also punished for this as she lost all her children. Therefore, we should not scold even our enemy even by words or mind. God takes care of the entire case. If the injustice wins, it is a black mark for His administration only. He is well aware of it and will take the necessary action. He is more serious in your case than yourself. Unlike the court, He does not require registration of case or witness or advocate. When Hiranyakashipu tortured Prahlada, Prahlada kept silent and did not curse him in any way. The Lord took very serious action in that case. Thus you have to keep God at every step as the basis in the worldly life also (Pravritti). Jesus told that unless you excuse others, you cannot be excused by God. Your enemy will be punished if he does not excuse others. Such behaviour which indicates the full faith on God at every step of the life is divine Dharma in Pravritti or Nivritti.

What Is Meant By Sacrifice and Service? Sacrifice of what? Sacrifice to whom? These two are the important points. Sacrifice proves the real love. Sacrifice of words, mind, intelligence, work and fruit of work are the five items. The sacrifice of the former three items is theoretical devotion which is fruitful only when it is transformed into the sacrifice of the last two items which is the practical love. You can realize this truth in your daily experience as seen in the case of your children. Theoretical love alone will not give any fruit. The theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion are like water and fertilizer which applied to the service-tree can only give fruits through the tree and not directly. The meals should be associated with the drinking water but offering drinking water only to the guest cannot be charged. Even the hotel does not charge for it. The sacrifice of first three items is offering drinking water and the sacrifice of other two is offering meals. To prove that your bond to God is highest, you have to sacrifice the highest bond. The other bonds need not be tested. The highest bond may be Dharma, money, life, or children etc. Some have highest bond with one of these and they can sacrifice all the other bonds for the sake of that particular highest bond. In such case God competes with that highest bond only to know whether He is higher than your 148

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highest. People are saying that God is highest for them. Some say this with ignorance and some tell this knowing that it is not true. In both cases, God proves the truth through the test (Datta Pariksha). God knows the truth but the revelation of truth is for your sake and not for His sake. If you realize the truth, you will try to succeed in the next examination by doing the spiritual effort. Otherwise, you are expecting God to believe whatever you say and react accordingly. All the prayers to God are utterances of lies only and all the worships are the trials to fool God. Generally the word sacrifice is used in the sense of sacrificing the fruit of work (money or wealth) and service means the sacrifice of work. The saints do not have any wealth because they have dedicated themselves in the service of the Lord. Therefore, sacrifice of fruit of work does not apply to their case. Hanuman is a bachelor-saint and so can only do the sacrifice of work. The requirement of the Lord is also very important. To get back Sita, the Lord required only sacrifice of work and the other sacrifice was not required. Krishna was a young boy in Brindavanam and does not require the sacrifice of work because His mission has not started. Gopikas were householders and women who cannot sacrifice the work like Hanuman in a war against injustice. They sacrificed their wealth (Butter) because the boy also requires good food to grow well. The requirement was for the sacrifice of the fruit of the work. Butter was the fruit of their tedious work. When the war against injustice came, the Lord required the sacrifice of work from Arjuna just like from Hanuman. Rama required the service in His personal work whereas Krishna required the service in the work of the devotees (Pandavas). If you take Shankara, the Lord required the service of the four disciples in propagation of knowledge for the welfare of the society. Similarly, Ramanuja and Madhva required the service of the disciples in the propagation of devotion and divine service. Therefore, the Lord may sometimes require your service in His personal work or your service in the personal work of a devotee or in the welfare of society. The Lord knows what to do when. His decision is always the best. You should not analyze the Lord because He is beyond logic. Once you have recognized the God, the logic should be dropped. The logic is only used to reject the non-God items posing as God. Logic is very much required in this line. However, once the confirmation was over 149

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with the help of logic, you should serve Him with blind faith. You can use the logic for identifying the Lord and the logic is useful here to filter the pseudo human incarnations. The fruit of work (money) is only another form of work. When you work, you get some money as the fruit. When you sacrifice that fruit, it means you have done that work. Alternatively, when you have done that work to the Lord, you have sacrificed the fruit of work. Work is a form of energy. Matter (money) is also a form of energy. Therefore, work and money are one and the same even in the light of the inter conversion of matter and energy as proved in science. One can do any one of these two or both according to his convenience and according to the extent of his devotion. The devotion should not be due to fear from hell expecting the Lord to protect them there. The devotion should not be also for any fruit in return. When there is no aspiration for any fruit and when there is no desire for protection here or there, such devotion is real. Shankara says that the devotion and service should not aspire any fruit here as well as there (Ihaamutra phala viragah).

Meaning of Triputi The knowledge is the information about God, about yourself and about the path through which you can please the Lord. You must know the actual form of God and His correct address. You must also know that you are not God. If you are already God (as Advaita philosophers say), there is no need of Sadhana because if you are God, every human being is God. When you are the goal already, what is the need of any spiritual effort? Then what is the real path to please the God? The answers for these three questions (Triputi) about the three items that is God, yourself and the path to please God consist the knowledge or Jnana Yoga. When you get more and more details about the goal, you develop more and more interest on the goal and such interest is called as devotion. Rukmini got full information about Krishna from the sage Narada. The information inspired her and she was fired with love on Krishna. This love on the Lord is called as devotion. The word love is used in the case of any one or anybody other than God. To distinguish the love on God, a separate pious word “Devotion” is used. The devotion is at two levels. One is theoretical and the other is practical. The theoretical devotion alone is fraud. However, it is valid if it is associated with practical devotion. The practical devotion (service) must 150

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be associated with the theoretical devotion just as the plate of meals is associated with a cup of drinking water. Service should be according to the requirement of the Lord. Some devotees think that the service for the welfare of the society should be the aim of God. But God is above the society. God is not for the society, whereas the society is for the God’s entertainment. His wish or desire is the guiding light for your line of service. If you think that God is for society, He will ask you to do His personal service. Ramayana is only personal service to God. Killing of Ravana became inevitable and was not the main goal. If killing Ravana is the main goal, Rama would not have asked to return Sita so that He will go back from the war. Therefore if you have confirmed the Lord, you should not apply logic, and you should become His slave (Daasa) like Hanuman without logic. The aim of your service should be to please God and not to please the society. Infact your family is a very important part in the society. You should not sacrifice your family for the sake of society. You need not also sacrifice the family for God if your family consists of devotees. Only in the extreme case of opposition, you can sacrifice the family for the sake of the Lord. It is a very rare case but still such rare case is not ruled out. God in human form and the devotees are to be served. Among the devotees, the liberated souls who are recognized by their firm faith and continuous service and sacrifice are the best. Such liberated souls are more than God because God treats them more than Himself. Shankara gave a lot of importance to knowledge. He said that if knowledge is complete, the goal is achieved (Jnanadevatu Kaivalyam). You may think that the knowledge cannot give the fruit directly and it should give devotion which leads into service. But if knowledge is complete, the devotion, the service and pleasing God are automatic spontaneous consequences. Rukmini got all the information about Krishna from Narada which is the stage of knowledge. Then she developed attraction to Krishna which is the devotion. By the devotion, she could attain Krishna. The Gita said that one can attain God by devotion. But achievement is not the final goal. Pleasing the God is the final goal. For her devotion, the aim was to serve Krishna and not to become queen of Dwaraka. The devotion of most of the devotees is only to attain some fruit. That is not real devotion. The real devotion expects service. Service to God itself is fruit and there cannot be another fruit 151

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for the fruit. Rukmini being the incarnation of Maha Lakshmi sat at the feet of the Lord and pressed His feet. That was the aim of Her devotion. The Lord made Maha Lakshmi as the deity of the infinite wealth which is this entire universe. Generally, even with little wealth, the eyes come up on the head. But being the possessor of such infinite wealth, she sits at the divine feet of the Lord and acts as a slave. She is giving us message that the fruit of the devotion should be service to Lord and not attaining the wealth. Service is the proof of devotion which is the practical philosophy. The importance of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) is that if the knowledge is intensively complete, the determination and the subsequent service are spontaneous. Therefore there is no gap between the complete knowledge and practice. If the realization is complete, practice (service) is a spontaneous consequence. There is no time gap and there is no need of any effort. When the knowledge is intensive and complete, such state is said to be realization. If the knowledge is not deep and not complete, we should not use the word realization. Often people think that knowledge and practice are different. It is not correct. If the knowledge (Jnana) is complete, devotion (Bhakti) is spontaneous effect. Such devotion is also intensive and complete. The immediate consequence of such devotion is service. Shankara says that knowledge and devotion are not separate (Paramartha Jnana Lakshana Sampannam Bhaktim). Therefore, it means that complete knowledge means complete devotion. The proof of devotion (love) is only service as you can see in the case of your children. Your love on them is expressed only through service to them. In their case, there is no theoretical love. You are not chanting the name of your child, you are not singing about your child. All these forms of false devotion appeared only in the case of God. I say it is false because there is no sacrifice or service as found in the case of children. Therefore devotion itself means service Therefore knowledge; devotion and service are the three alternative words for the same meaning. Shankara preached about knowledge. Ramanuja preached about devotion. Madhva preached about service. This means that Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva are the three incarnations of the same Lord Datta. Thus if knowledge is intensive and complete, you have reached the goal as said by Shankara. The Lord praised the knowledge at the very outset in Gita. Therefore concentrate on the divine knowledge and propagate it so that all other souls also reach the goal along with you. 152

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These questions are very important in the sense that the elaborate answers for these questions constitute the entire divine knowledge I have preached so far! The answers given here are very brief, touching some main points only.

A Divine Miracle When the message of Krishnashtami was typed by Gayathri and Manasa, the scent of sandal paste came from Swami. After a long time only, the emission of the divine scent was observed. Swami told “The scent indicates the presence of Lord Krishna in His body, who was always scented by application of sandal paste as sung by Jayadeva “Chandana charchita neela kalebara…”. It means that knowledge has come from Krishna directly”. After receiving the message, Shri G Lakshman at Bombay, got the smell of Panchaamrutam. Lakshman asked everybody whether anyone brought the same. Nobody brought it. When Lakshman told this to Swami, Swami replied “As you lick the Panchaamrutam from the hand without leaving any trace, you must swallow this divine knowledge with full interest. This is the significance of these scents”.

Final Stage of Divine Knowledge The final stage of the entire divine knowledge is expected to be the practical service to the Lord who comes to this earth in every human generation, without aspiring any fruit for such service and sacrifice rendered by you. The complete example for this is Hanuman. You must understand the Philosophy of Hanuman which should lead you in recognizing the present human incarnation on this earth and to participate in His service without aspiring any fruit in return. If this philosophy of Hanuman is not understood, there is no use of the temples of Hanuman and various methods of worship of Hanuman. Ofcourse, they serve the purpose of giving you the inspiration to fix your concentration on Hanuman. But what is the use if you have not gained the real guidance from Him in the spiritual path? You are going to the school regularly in time. You have the uniform and all the books. You have good teachers in the school. But what is the use of all this when you do not learn the knowledge from the school? The entire life of Hanuman is only sacrifice and selfless service to the human form of the Lord. You shall be ashamed of your entire path of worship. You are 153

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asking all types of boons with very wide range starting from this world to the upper world. Initially He has fulfilled some of your desires which are proper because the health, mental peace and wealth are necessary as the basis for spiritual effort. But you are not satisfied with the basis and you are proceeding in to the wrong line from the basis, in which you desire for more and more worldly comforts which in excess are called as luxuries. After achieving the basic needs you must travel in right line by learning the philosophy of Hanuman. He got a job under the king Sugriva and settled Himself with the basic needs. Then He searched for the human incarnation and waited in Kishkindha for the Lord in the human form. What have you done? Did you search for the human incarnation? He was not worshiping the statues in the temples with all the unnecessary extra rituals, which are manipulated by the priests for their benefits. Ofcourse, the statues and shrines serve the purpose of inspiration about God and seeing the statues and photos (Darsanam) is sufficient. Ofcourse, the extra rituals which are the various methods of worship to the statues in human form also serve the purpose of removing egoism and jealousy towards human form provided you are suffering with egoism and jealousy. But Hanuman was not at all having such egoism and jealousy. He never remembers His strength and feels Himself as zero. But, what about you? You never remember the defects and limits of your little strength and always feel yourself as a hero. You are not at all searching for the Satguru who is the human form of the Lord that exists in your generation. The Lord is impartial to any generation and so comes in every generation in human form. The human form of Lord came to Hanuman and He recognized the Lord in the very first sight it self. In your case even if the human incarnation comes to you and shows some proof to you, you are not recognizing the Lord. You will say that all the proof is only illusion or magic. After recognizing the Lord, Hanuman used Himself for the work of the Lord. In your case, even if you recognize Him, you try to use Him for solutions of your personal problems. Hanuman never discriminated the social service and personal service of the Lord. He simply did the service according to the will of the Lord. His aim was always to please the Lord by His service to the Lord in whatever way the Lord wished. In your case even if you enter in to the service you will start criticizing the Lord, if He involves you in His personal work. You will immediately 154

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say that He is not the God since He is selfish. Hanuman never criticized Rama even in His mind when Rama told Ravana that in case Sita is returned, He will go back. If you are in the place of Hanuman, you will immediately say that if Rama returns after getting Sita, what will happen to the society that is suffering by the cruel deeds of Ravana? Such question never rose in the mind of Hanuman because the aim of the spiritual effort is only to please the Lord and nothing else. Infact, He does not need your help either in His personal work or in the social work. His family and this entire world constitute the divine drama meant for His entertainment only. He is testing your attitude towards Him and the basic strength of your recognition. If the recognition is determined without any doubt, such doubts will not come to your mind. Hanuman did not ask for any vision or for any miracle. Arjuna called as Nara representing yourself (Nara) asked for the highest vision from Krishna as a proof. Hanuman believed Rama without any such proof. He is the blessed soul as per the statement of Jesus “Blessed are those who believe Me without proof”. Hanuman never aspired for any fruit and was not even informed about any fruit. But He was given the highest fruit which nobody got till now! After this Kali Yuga, He is the future creator. According to the Veda, the creator (Brahma) must be the maintainer (Vishnu) and also the destroyer (Shiva) of this creation. This means that He becomes God for this creation. Therefore, remember that the fruit from God will be a mountain if you do not desire for it even in the dream. If you do not ask for the fruit in words but still desire it in mind, the fruit is reduced to the size of an elephant. If you desire by mind and also ask for it by words, the fruit is reduced to the size of an ant which is negligible. But be careful of one possibility. You should not forget the fruit based on the concept that you will get the fruit in the size of mountain for such path! You should really forget the fruit. Do not think that the vision gives you the actual form of God. The actual form of God is unimaginable even to the angels who are the divine energetic forms. Therefore, the real form of God cannot be touched even by your logic. How can you see it with your eyes? In the vision you are only seeing the energetic form. The human body is like the cotton shirt and the energetic form is like the silk shirt. The person wearing both the shirts is invisible. You are thinking that the silk shirt is the person that is wearing cotton shirt and that the person (silk shirt) is 155

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invisible in the cotton shirt. In the vision the cotton shirt disappears and silk shirt appears. You have not seen the invisible person even in the silk shirt and you are satisfied because you mistake the silk shirt for the person. Even the cosmic vision (Vishwaroopam) is a big silk shirt (called as kaphni). Instead of the small cotton shirt, Arjuna has seen a big silk kaphni. The person is invisible in cotton shirt as well as in the big silk kaphni. Does the silk kaphni give the proof of the invisible person? If you recognize the person in the cotton shirt, it is sufficient. Since you are also in the cotton shirt, you are repelling to the same and become fond of silk shirt. You cannot recognize the person in silk kaphni because He is invisible in both. If vision is the proof of existence, then you have failed in both the cases. The proof is the experience of the existence, which can be attained in both the cotton shirt and silk Kaphni. Demons had the vision of the energetic form of the Lord like Brahma etc. But they were destroyed finally. Therefore, vision is not at all important. The realization by experience and the practical service to please the Lord are very important. Hanuman did not ask for any vision. Hanuman completed the divine knowledge from the angel Sun, who advised Him to catch the Human incarnation and serve Him. His mother was also a scholar of divine knowledge and advised the same. Therefore, you must complete the divine knowledge, which gives you the correct information about the goal and the path. Since, Hanuman got the complete knowledge, nobody can mislead Him. He caught Rama (the correct goal), rendered the selfless service (the correct path), and finally got the correct result. The selfless service proves His real devotion. As per the Valmiki Ramayana, which is the only correct authority, Hanuman never worshipped statues or energetic forms, never did any penance, never did any japam, never sang or danced or wept with emotions. The only worship He did was the selfless service without aspiring any fruit. Therefore, if you know the three points (Triputi), that is the essence of the divine knowledge. The points are 1) You are not God 2) The human incarnation present in your generation is the only God for the humanity and 3) The way is to recognize Him and please Him through selfless service without aspiring any fruit in return.

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Service (Karma Yoga) Knowledge means preaching others and not to know by himself. Love means loving others and not to be loved by others. If you love others, others will love you. So loving is the characteristic property of love. Bliss is giving happiness to others and not to be happy. Knowledge, Love and Bliss are the characteristic properties of Datta (God), which contain the sacrifice. By these three qualities only, you have to recognize the human form of Datta. Datta means sacrifice (donation). Sacrifice (Datta) is the essence of the whole path to reach God. 1) Sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) and 2) Sacrifice of fruit of work i.e., money (Karma phala Tyaga). Both these put together are called Karma yoga (service). These are the two eyes of God. Without these two there is no use of prayers, meditation etc., which are only the sacrifice of words and mind only. Lord gives you His grace and that grace is nothing but the fruit of the service in the above two ways. So whenever God shows grace on some person people should understand that such grace is the fruit of service of that person only. Lord is giving your own fruit only from His pocket and His own fruit. You can earn this fruit only by your service and which is deposited in the pocket of the Lord. Lord does not give His to anybody simply by praise or expression of feeling or weeping or begging. He is impartial and cannot be prejudiced or fooled. He is the cleverest judge. You cannot fool Him by praise (Kaka) or by expressing feelings (artificial love) or by weeping (Kindling His Kindness) to any extent. Hanuman never did such low things in the presence of Rama as per Valmiki Ramayana. He served Rama, the then human incarnation in His work and stood like a majestic Hero always. He was given the fruit of his sacrifice i.e., the position of creator (Brahma), which he never aspired. So recognize the human form of God present before you and participate in His work doing service (Karma Yoga). Never weep, never beg, never praise Him and never do any other type of worship. Serve Him in His work without aspiring anything in return. Hanuman did only three things as per Valmiki Ramayana. 1) He recognized the human incarnation not by His miracles. Infact Hanuman him self knows all the miracles. 2) He participated in the work of that human incarnation with full sacrifice. He had no personal work except the work of the Lord. 3) He never aspired any fruit for his service. He was given the highest fruit. 157

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Chapter - 11

ENLIGHTENING NOVELISTS AND SCHOLARS [January 28, 2007 Shri M. V. K. Murthy, a famous writer of novels came along with another devotee called Yogi. On seeing him, Swami started emitting an intense scent of camphor for a long time. He was amazed since this scent was not found outside that room. Yogi joked “So, Swami does some magic now and then!” Swami joked “I am a professor of chemistry. I might have used some chemicals for generating this scent. You must search Me fully”. Then Phani said “A devotee here believed that the statue of Lord Venkateshwara is the only God. He argued with Swami on this point. Swami generated several types of scents. The devotee said that Swami being a professor of chemistry might have used some chemicals. But the scents started surrounding the devotee for six months continuously, day and night. Even though the devotee left town and went away to far places, the scents never left him. He became very weak and his wife prayed Swami to stop the scents. Swami agreed and the scents stopped”. Swami gave the following Message afterwards.]

Miracles, Knowledge, Devotion, Service O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Miracles are just the fundamental level of elementary schools which are widely spread everywhere by the wish of God. Even evil people can do these miracles by black magic. The idea behind such wide distribution of miracles is that these miracles are useful in converting atheists into theists. For such elementary work, human incarnations or professors are not necessary. The next level is Jnana Yoga, which is the level of high schools. High schools are lesser in number than elementary schools because only some converted theists start the enquiry about the subject (Jnana Yoga) of the unimaginable God. His existence was indirectly proved through the unimaginable miracles and He is the source of the unimaginable power behind the miracles. The next higher level is formation of theoretical love (Bhakti Yoga) or devotion on the Lord, since only a few of the scholars [having the knowledge] of God 158

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get it. This level is the level of colleges. The ultimate highest level is practical devotion (Karma Yoga) or service to God, which is the level of the university and is very rare since only a few of the devotees can become servants of God through practical sacrifice of work and the fruit of work. The scientific analysis of divine knowledge (Jnana Yoga) pervades all the four levels as the basic torchlight. In the first level the existence of God is accepted. In the second level the existence of the unimaginable God is accepted. In the third level, representatives of God like statues in human form are worshipped by words and mind to get rid of ego and jealousy towards the human form. In the fourth level, the decision of the final conclusion of the intellectual analysis results in detecting the contemporary human incarnation. Involvement in practical service in His mission results from it. There are two paths of love for God: the path of limited real love like the love for one’s wife and the path of unlimited real love like the love for one’s children. The first path is aspiring for boons from God for selfish happiness, which involves mostly theoretical and a little practical devotion. In this first path, one loves God as his wife; for selfish happiness only and most of his love is emotional (theoretical) with a little practical sacrifice. The second path is selfless love without any aspiration of fruit in return and consists of mostly practical and a little theoretical devotion. In this second path one loves God as his child; without any selfishness and with total sacrifice of work and the fruit of work. Hanuman and the Gopikas are the best gold medal-students of the university. Once you are fixed in the divine service of God, there is no need of miracles, knowledge and theoretical devotion. Knowledge is the qualifying degree and theoretical devotion is the official appointment order. Practical devotion is the work done in the month and the salary (fruit) is given only for the monthly work done. Only work (Karma) can yield the fruit. The unimaginable God is beyond the four-dimensional model of space and time. You can imagine the dissolution of matter and converting into energy that fills space. Subsequently you can imagine the disappearance of energy in space and the result is final vacuum. But even if you try for your whole lifetime, you can never imagine the disappearance of vacuum. God being the generator of space, is beyond 159

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space and therefore can never be imagined. If you have to imagine God, the pre-requisite is the imagination of the disappearance of space or vacuum. Ofcourse space itself is a form of very fine energy and in this context the word energy used by Me above can be taken as the crude form of energy. The only knowledge about God is that He is beyond knowledge (Yasyaamatam—Veda).

Social Responsibility of Novelists People are writing novels and these novels are also useful in building up justice in Pravritti of the society. The authors have to raise the suspense, tension and anxiety to make the soul alert regarding the justice to be followed in maintaining world peace. But I find that this point of raising the tension is maintained throughout the novel just for increasing the popularity and sales of the book and this is not good. When there is a necessity like studies, the human being should be awakened from sleep. But when there is no necessity, let the fellow sleep. However, the impression of justice through novels is a total failure because nobody on this earth will give value to the human values in practical life, even though these values may be theoretically appreciated. In the novels, you must atleast indirectly stress on the consequences of good and bad deeds to be enjoyed here itself. Such inevitable consequences indirectly indicate the existence of the firm divine system of heaven, hell and God. But you write the story in such a way as to show that good is punished and bad succeeds. For such special practical instances, the requirement of explanation of the doctrine of Karma is essential [it is essential to explain on the basis of the doctrine of Karma, why the good was punished]. The sins done by the person in his previous birth have to be taken into account for such practical cases [The novelist should clarify in the novel that the ‘good’ person was punished inspite of his goodness because of some sin committed by him the past birth]. Even if rebirth is not accepted, sins misunderstood as good deeds might have been done by the person in this birth itself and their inevitable consequences explain such special cases. Without such a total concept of spiritual knowledge in the background, people are just writing novels that raise tension continuously in their readers, just for killing time. Time can be killed by several ways without raising tension. Tension is the source of all chronic diseases. They are writing the novels to earn wealth at the cost of the 160

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health of people and this is a terrible sin. Sages Valmaki and Vyasa also wrote novels, which are noble stories with vast ethical and spiritual knowledge in their background. Even in the Mahabharatha, which is a social novel [on a social theme], the aspects of Pravritti and Nivritti are stressed through the role of the human incarnation (Krishna). These epics are not only scriptures for establishing Pravritti but are also practical scriptures of spiritual knowledge, which were built around the then living human incarnations of God. Infact the Ramayana and the Bhagavatam are the best scriptures of the practical spiritual knowledge of Hanuman and the Gopikas who have achieved the highest fruit of salvation. Mahabharata shows the partial success of Pandavas in the recognition of their contemporary human incarnation. Hence, you must write novels after achieving complete spiritual knowledge and you should use the point of raising tension in the soul to bring alertness only to impress upon it, ethical and spiritual concepts of Pravritti and Nivritti.

Breaking the Chain of Worldly Life Once you are settled in the practical service of the contemporary human incarnation of God, there is no need of any more theoretical devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and there is no need of any more analysis of the subject (Jnana Yoga). Practical service (Karma Yoga) is the endless stage in which one has to continue for births and births till the end of creation. This is the significance of the endless life (Chiranjivi) of Hanuman, who fixed Himself in the service of the human form of God. Knowledge (Jnana) and theoretical love (Bhakti) exist in the soul, as samskaras and the soul need not waste time again and again in acquiring these two. The short lives of Shankara and Meera indicate the brief periods of learning Jnana and getting Bhakti. You must come out of Pravritti as early as possible and enter Nivritti. Shankara and Prahlada entered Nivritti even in their tender childhood. People misunderstand that the subject of Pravritti is made of chapters so that one can turn to Nivritti at the end of atleast some chapters [after passing through atleast a few stages in your life such as marriage, achieving career goals and getting chidlren]. If you are at the end of a chapter and if the bell rings, you can request the other teacher for five minutes-time to complete your chapter before coming out. But if it is a continuous subject, there is no meaning in such a request. You think that you will come to Nivritti after ensuring that your children are 161

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well-settled. But your children are virtually never settled because they are again ‘unsettled’ when they get children. Hence, your children are never settled since their children are unsettled in your lifetime. Thus, the chain is endless and you have to break the endless chain at some point or the other. In an endless chain any point is equally good to break. The Veda says that you must leave the chain at any point once you are completely attracted to God (Yadahareva Virajet Tadahareva Pravrajet). Shankara, the top most genius realized this truth and broke the chain in the childhood itself. Today people do not break this endless chain even on their deathbed. A fellow in Karnataka died and his last word was “Kasabari”. The word means a broomstick that is used to sweep the dust from the floor. A donkey was trying to eat it. He warned his son to save the broomstick from the donkey. You know, that soul was born in the next birth as a sweeper on the roads with a broomstick in hands. A pickle soaked in a jar for a long time in salt and acidic fluid, cannot give a sweet taste if you put it in a sugar solution. Therefore, it is better to turn towards Nivritti as early as possible. A poor peon today was a greedy fellow in the previous birth, who earned wealth for generations through his business and corruption, without any sacrifice. A beggar begging for money was a person who wasted money in a lavish manner by giving it to undeserving people. A lifelong diseased rich fellow was a rich person in the previous birth, who spent all his earnings for his own selfishness. The sins and punishments are very systematically implemented by a very powerful computerized system called Chitra Gupta in hell. I am surprised to see many scholars [in spiritual knowledge], even in their old age are involved in the deep analysis of only useless routine family affairs. Even if they were to spend 1/10th of their time, energy and logical talent for the subject of God, they would get salvation. What happened to their spiritual knowledge in which they are very famous preachers? Has it been covered due to the effect of the long association with family life? Darkness may be associated with you for a long time. But the moment, the Sun shines, even darkness existing for centuries and centuries should vanish. In that case, what is the reason for the ineffectiveness of their divine knowledge? The power of their knowledge-light is too less and hence, the darkness is not much affected. What is the reason for the absence of power in their knowledge? The power of the knowledge is directly proportional to the 162

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degree of truth in it. If the knowledge is absolutely true from all angles, it is like the summer Sun and the ignorance-darkness of any intensity and length of time, has to vanish in a fraction of second. Therefore, the absence of the absolute truth in their knowledge is responsible for the reduced power in their knowledge to remove ignorance. Even though the moon and stars exist, darkness is not removed in the world. But in the daytime, no trace of darkness can exist before the Sun.

Masked Knowledge The sages built up the tradition in such a way that the absolute truth is always masked by the extent of ignorance suitable to the level of devotees. For example the ultimate goal is the contemporary human incarnation who is God covered by the three qualities and five elements, which cannot touch Him. To reach this highest state you have to worship the human form of God as a statue [representative]. Before this you have to accept that a representative medium is necessary to worship the unimaginable God and a representative model like a stone (Shiva Lingam) should be worshipped. Since ignorant people neglect even the diamond present before their eyes, to satisfy their psychology, the model should be far from their place, like the Shiva Lingam in Varanasi. To encourage the person to go to that city, the river Ganga should be praised so as to provide an attraction. So it is said that if you take a bath in the Ganga and die in Varanasi, your entire sins are washed away. Death in Varanasi means that atleast in your old age you should turn to Nivritti. This is the absolute truth masked by an infinite intensity of ignorance. If that were true, what is the value of the Karma Chakra [cycle of karma] and what is the necessity of hell? Today you can find even a scholar with deep knowledge of the scriptures going for a bath to the river Ganga when several dead bodies are floating in the Ganga. What happens finally? The sins remain in the same status [do his sins get washed away?]. The river Ganga is so polluted that a resident of Varanasi cannot even drink the water from the Ganga. The person who has taken bath in the Ganga and died there has added this new sin of spoiling people’s drinking water, to his list of sins. I know that ignorant traditional people will revolt against this revealed truth. Nobody has guts to say this absolute truth in the city of Varanasi. The foremost rebels will be the priests and other business people of Varanasi who are earning money, exploiting the ignorance of this 163

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absolute truth. People will even not have the patience to argue about the truth. Emotion is always a sign of ignorance (Krodhaat Bhavati—Gita).

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Chapter - 12

DEVOTION IS TO BE EARNED BY SOUL Essence of Deed Develops Samskara [December 4, 2006 Dr. Nikhil asked: how to correlate the following two points? i) the sins of undeserving devotee are postponed along with interest to the subsequent birth ii) the soul is said to return from the hell after exhausting the punishments before taking the next birth] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Swami Replied: The earth, hell and heaven come under the plane of materialism (Pravrutti) only. The punishment on the earth and the punishment in the hell differ just by the areas present in the same realm of Pravrutti. It is just the difference between a jail in India and a jail in Andaman Islands in the olden days. Therefore, the postponed sin along with the interest can be met with punishment in the hell or in the next birth. It is one and the same. The serious deeds good or bad will yield results in this birth itself (Atyutkataih Papa Punyaiah Ihaiva Phalamashnute...). The place and time have no significance. Only the quality and quantity of the nature (good or bad) of a deed and its subsequent fruit destined by the constitution of God are important. As the postponement increases, the interest also increases. You will receive the principle along with the interest in any online branch of the divine bank existing on this earth or in the upper world. Actually the deeds are inert actions and do not follow the soul. Only the essence of the deed, which is alive in the form of quality (Guna or Samskara) follows the soul and from the color and intensity of the quality, results are decided by the divine computer called Yama for bad deeds and Indra for good deeds. Kalabhairava is the overall in-charge of supervision in implementing the results (Karanam Guna Samgosya…Gita). Sattvam is white, Rajas is red and Tamas is black. Therefore, the internal intention (Sankalpa) of the mind, which is made of these three qualities, decides good and bad of a deed and not the inert subsequent action. The cycle of deeds and its administration is simplified based on the specific quality and its quantity. This is the 165

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simplified picture of the system of deeds, which is followed by the judge in the final enquiry. Ofcourse, the total network of deeds with all the minute details also exists inside the system, which can be referred if necessary (Gahana Karmanogatih…).

Total Dedication to God is Climax of Sadhana [December 3, 2006 Swami gave replies to a series of questions of Anil Antony.] 1) 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? 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 yourself as the instrument of their happiness only as said in the 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 overall 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 166

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does not find place in yourself. Actually this question is posed by others to you, when you have reached such climax of divine love. 2) Suffering is the fruit of our previous sin, but why Lord delay the suffering, which sometimes 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? 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 leftover 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. 3) Why world is so against Lord or why attachment to world is against Lord? After [all], the entire world is His creation only. In a multiple choice question, why the wrong answer is opposite to the correct answer? After all both the answers are framed by the same examiner. Your love to God is tested by this way. 4) What is the root cause of diseases? The root cause of diseases is anxiety and tension created in this world and its foundation is desire for things and souls other than God. 5) Why does a perfect, complete being (God) need or depend upon devotion from something or someone else? (A question posted by a person in one of the discussion forums) God is not in need of love from others because He is always contented (Aptakamasya…Veda). The king goes to the forest for hunting not for killing an animal and to eat it like a hunter (Lokavattu…Brahma Sutra). It is a game of entertainment with His own imagination (creation). You cannot take the example of king also here in complete 167

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sense because the king, forest, animal, hunting etc., are equally real. The love is the best and most sacred type of entertainment. 6) The Samskaras are formed from millions of births and its effect may be so strong. If one breaks the family bonds for Lord’s sake in one birth, then what is the guarantee that he will not make the bonds again in the next birth or not, since the samskaras may still be active? The liberation from bonds is not in physical sense. If leaving the family members is liberation, it is done by the death itself and then every dead person is a liberated soul. Such assumption makes people say or write about a dead person “So and so reached God”. The liberation means the complete burning of Samskaras, which are the roots of the bonds. This can be achieved by the attraction developed to God associated with the knowledge of the unreality of bonds (Maya). 7) Is 'time' important in taking any important decision in our life? Time is the most important parameter for a soul because the creation is defined by the three dimensional space and the fourth dimension-time. Soul is a part of the creation and therefore, cannot cross the time like absolute God (creator), who is beyond space and time. 8) Why others’ money is so harmful? Money is the real essence of the world around which, all the bonds are revolving. When you grab others’ money, their heart is boiled because they are not liberated souls. You are also not a liberated soul. The law of divine justice gives severe punishment for this sin. They will be born as your wife and children to grab your wealth with compounded interest. 9) Some people say that because of your forefathers’ sin, you are suffering now. Is it true? The sin of one soul cannot touch another soul and this is the basic truth. However, the underlying network has several parameters. When the wealth earned by you is through corruption, which resulted in suffering of good devotees, certainly the wealth is like poison transmitted from one generation to the other.

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10) You told that devotion cannot be granted but should be earned; but since being a soul, he himself will have his own limitations in this direction however he may try? The marks in your answer sheet have to be earned by you only from the examiner who corrects it, whatever may be your limitations. All the academic work done by you through out the academic year is only meant for overcoming those limitations. Devotion or love is like the marks earned by the devotee from God. 11) How to experience the Lord’s love in the same way a father’s or mother’s love to his or her child? The father and mother are ignorant and their love is selfish. They gave birth to the child based on their mutual attraction of bodies, which continues almost life long even after completing the production of children. Their love aspires your service to them in their old age. If you see the back ground, the relationship is between creditor and debtor. These relationships change from birth to birth. But, the bond with God is constant, since the beginning of creation and has no end. In no aspect, the bond with God can be compared with the worldly bond. God is addressed as Father and Mother in the sense of creator. Jesus did not give importance to His mother before the bond with God. 12) Why in the Bible, the kingdom of God is told as similar to a mustard seed? The mustard seed is very small indicating that the administration of God is also invisible. The oil of the mustard seed is pungent compared to the other oils, which indicates that the divine administration is very powerful. It is said that the mustard oil is very good for health and this indicates that the divine rule is always for the permanent welfare of the soul. 13) What is the reason of doubts? Lack of direct divine knowledge from God in human form (Satguru) is the reason for all spiritual doubts. Every soul will get one chance to meet the human form of God in their life cycles. If the soul misses that single golden chance, it is a loss forever. The knowledge given by the human preachers may be either correct and incomplete or wrong and complete. By such knowledge, either you will not reach the goal even though you are in the right path or you will proceed in the opposite direction and become more and more far from God. 169

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14) Why in the Bible it was told that 'many will use force to enter the kingdom of God, but they cannot'? The force of ignorance injected by the blind traditional priests and incomplete scholars cannot push them into the kingdom of God due to incomplete correct knowledge or complete wrong knowledge. The incomplete wrong knowledge is better than complete wrong knowledge relatively. Either you will go up to some stage in the divine path or you will go in the opposite direction. You can reach the ultimate goal in the spiritual path only by the complete correct knowledge given by human form of God directly. The knowledge given by the past human forms of God is complete and correct but the subsequent misinterpretations mask it and confuse you. The divine knowledge from the present human incarnation is complete and correct without misinterpretations since you are directly clarifying all your doubts from God. 15) How to maximize advantage of Your stay in this world with us? By hearing and studying well the divine knowledge given by Me and clarifying all your doubts, you will reach the stage of determination that results in practice. The force of your determination increases tremendously when you are doing the propagation. Thus, the work of God is infact your personal upliftment only. 16) How to take the proper decisions as given by Lord in crucial situations, since in that state my voices will arise from inside? If you are involved in the God’s work by propagating the divine knowledge in the world, your determination becomes very powerful and before that the voice of Satan becomes weak and finally disappears. Shankara told that Satsanga (propagation of knowledge by discussions) is the right step that leads to right goal. The inner voice of God and Satan has no physical sound to differentiate them. The voice is only in the form of an idea. Therefore, people are unable to distinguish the idea of God from the idea of Satan. For this purpose analysis of the idea with the help of Satguru is essential. Otherwise, people may follow the idea of Satan thinking it as the idea of God.

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Chapter - 13

GOD, CREATION AND SOUL Shankara’s Difficulty O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [February 12, 2006] Shankara declared Himself as the Lord in human form. But He knew that people would immediately revolt against Him. At that time the people were either Buddhists or followers of Purva Mimamsa (ritualistic tradition). Both were highly arrogant and egoistic and would not tolerate this concept in which, they would have to worship a human being as God. Therefore, Shankara was very clever and following their psychology, declared that every human being is God. Ofcourse He used the word Brahman, which was misunderstood as God by the people. The human being is the greatest created item and can be called as Brahman. But He did not reveal this secret because He wanted to first drag them to His fold and convert them into theists. Simultaneously, He could establish the concept of human incarnation by this. He could make them accept that God can be in human form. Since He extended this concept to all individuals, nobody attacked Him with egoism and jealousy and thus He was safe. The entire misunderstanding of the Advaita philosopher comes only when he compares the human incarnation with the ordinary human being. He should be appreciated because he has reached the soul, which is the finest item of the creation. Nobody can cross that item because God alone is beyond the soul and is unimaginable.

Unimaginable God The existence of the unimaginable God is not accepted because it is beyond experience. Therefore, a philosopher has to stop with the soul, which is a part of the Infinite Ocean of pure awareness called as Mula Maya or Mula Prakriti. God associated with Mula Maya should be treated as Parabrahman for all practical purposes. The Mula Maya acts as the medium for us to receive God. If the Mula Maya is also absent, then God cannot be received by us and He becomes completely unimaginable. The Mula Maya is charged by God like the wire by 171

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electricity. Therefore, you can treat the Mula Maya or the Infinite Ocean of pure awareness as God. Thus, such Mula Maya is the first incarnation of God, which alone can be grasped by our intelligence or can be experienced by us. In such divine Mula Maya, which can be called as almost God or Parabrahman, the will of creation arose. Such will is in the form of Knowledge, action and decision. Therefore, such will is called as Maya, which consists of the three qualities Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas respectively. Such Maya is also charged by Parabrahman and is called as Ishwara. The original Mula Maya charged by God was called as Brahman. Thus, Maya is in the form of will alone. This entire Maya is not materialized further in the view of God to become the Universe. In the view of God, it remains as His will alone. The materialized world is the modification of just a drop of the ocean of Mula Maya, thrown out as an object for the entertainment of God. In the view of God even this materialized world is almost like the imaginary world, being a tiny particle of the Infinite Ocean of Mula Maya. The human being is a part of this materialized world, which is only the imaginary world in the view of God. Thus, this materialized world (Prakriti) also can be called as Maya (Mayamtu Prakritim—Gita) in the view of God. In the view of the human being the gross bodies made of five elements in this universe appear as materialized forms simultaneously. The human being is actually a part of this materialized Universe. The soul in the human being is a part of Mula Maya in its original (unmaterialized) form. Similarly, the subtle body or Jeeva is a part of Maya. The gross body, which is in materialized form for the individual, is still an imaginary form in the view of God. Thus in the view of God there is no difference between the subtle body and the gross body as far as the point of imagination is concerned. This means though the gross body is made of five elements and the subtle body is made of the three qualities, both these bodies are only imaginations in the view of God. But in the view of human being the subtle body is imagination and the gross body is in materialized form. Therefore, the conclusion is that in the views of both God and human being, the soul is pure awareness (Mula Maya) and the subtle body is made of three qualities (Maya). But as far as the gross body is concerned it is imaginary in the view of God and is simultaneously a materialized form in the view of human being. This means that in the drop thrown out from the infinite ocean of Maya, 172

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a part of the Mula Maya remained in its original form as souls (Pure Awareness) and the Maya remained in its original form as Jeevas (Three qualities). The remaining portion of the drop after becoming the souls and jeevas is modified into the materialized five elements, which are used in the formation of gross bodies. Another classification mentioned in the Gita is as follows: The Mula Maya or the soul is called as Para Prakriti. The Jeevas (subtle bodies or three qualities) and the five elements constitute the Apara Prakriti. The three qualities in the Apara Prakriti are Buddhi (Sattvam), Manas (Rajas) and Ahankara (Tamas). Buddhi is the concluding knowledge. Manas is the form of action doing—Sankalpa and vikalpa. Ahankara, which is the ignorance, is Tamas. The causal body is Para Prakriti where as the subtle and gross bodies are Apara Prakriti. The difference between the soul and Mula Maya is that the Mula Maya is charged with God whereas the soul is not charged with God. Similarly, the Maya is charged with God and the subtle body is not charged with God. Therefore, the Brahman and Ishwara are God. The soul and Jeeva are not God. The Mula Maya controls all the souls and the Maya controls all the Jeevas and five elements. The imagination in the view of God and materialization in the view of human being are simultaneous concepts, which can be understood only by very shrewd imagination. The Mula Maya and Maya are divine as they are charged by God and form the basis of creation. The Creation, which is the drop thrown out, is not divine because it is not charged with or pervaded by God. The gross body, subtle body and the soul of the human incarnation are exceptional cases because these three are charged by God. But the same three in the case of a human being are not charged by God but they are based on God since the entire creation (in which the human being is a part) is based on God. The Advaita philosopher takes these three bodies as common in both the human incarnation and the human being and equates them. First he equates the soul of a human being and the divine Mula Maya, which are qualitatively similar but differ quantitatively. Even the Mula Maya, if not charged by God, is not God because the Mula Maya by itself is imaginable and God is unimaginable. After all the Mula Maya is only the creation of God. When the uncharged Mula Maya itself is not God, how can the soul, which is a small particle of the uncharged Mula Maya in the thrown out drop be God? The Mula Maya in the thrown out drop 173

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is not charged by God. The thrown out drop or creation is not charged by God because it must be different from God to be an object to God in order to give Him entertainment. In the human incarnation though the soul is charged by God, since the rest creation is not charged by God, it can become the object of entertainment to the human incarnation also. God in the infinite ocean of Mula Maya and Maya is one and the same as the God present in the soul and jeeva of the human incarnation because God is beyond spatial dimensions. Therefore, the same God who is controlling the entire universe is present in the human incarnation and thus the limited gross body (of the human incarnation) is simultaneously the infinite universe, His limited subtle body is simultaneously the infinite Maya and His limited soul is simultaneously the infinite Mula Maya. Therefore, the limited Krishna is simultaneously the infinite Parabrahman. The Advaita philosopher neglects the existence of the unimaginable item and thinks that Mula Maya itself is God. The Mula Maya is like the Vashistha star, which indicates the very dim star, Arundhati which is next to it. [This is called Arundhati Vasistha Nyaya; where an imaginable or perceivable object is used to point out to an imperceptible object]. Similarly, the Mula Maya, which is very difficult to imagine indicates the unimaginable Parabrahman or God who is very close it. You may think that the unimaginable item may have an equal possibility of existence and non-existence. The Veda says that the completely unimaginable God exists (Yasyaa Matam Tasya Matam). The Lord comes in the human incarnation to give proof to this statement of the sacred scripture. The unimaginability means that which cannot be explained by science. With the help of science one can imagine anything, which is in the realm of space. But nobody can imagine that which is beyond space. The Veda says that God first created space (Akasah Sambhutah). Even the Mula Maya was generated after the creation of space alone. But we call Mula Maya as the first creation because mere space means non-existence of anything (vacuum, Shunyam). Even the Mula Maya, which is qualitatively nothing but the soul, is the finest form of energy, which requires the presence of the space. Therefore, the Veda says that God created the pure awareness as the first item (Tat Tejo Asrujata). Thus, if space is considered as a very fine form of the power, space would be the first created item. If space is 174

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considered as non-existence of everything as per Science, pure awareness (Mula Maya) will be the first created item. Thus this contradiction between the two Vedic statements is solved. Even in science the special theory of relativity mentions the bending of space and this means that space is ‘something’. Therefore, both these statements are to be taken in different views of science. Therefore, God is beyond space and can never be imagined. The simultaneous existence of the limited human body of Krishna as the infinite cosmos as shown to Arjuna is a proof that the Lord is beyond spatial dimensions. Krishna showing the entire creation in His mouth to His mother is another proof that He is beyond space. Thus, the Lord gave proof for the unimaginability of God as mentioned in the Veda. When He lifted a mountain on His finger, it could somehow be explained by science. Sometimes a small object may contain a lot of energy. A small atom bomb releases a lot of energy. This explanation is under the realm of spatial dimensions. But the above two examples cannot be explained by science. Therefore, all of us have to accept the existence of the unimaginable God. The only information about such God is the existence of such God only as said in the Veda (Asteetyeva…).

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Chapter - 14

ENRICHING CHRISTIANITY True Love O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, If a Christian loves another Christian as his brother, there is no greatness in it. Similarly, there is no greatness if a Hindu loves another Hindu as his brother. The greatness comes if a Christian loves the Hindu as his brother and vice-versa. A true Christian must love a true Hindu as his brother and should treat a wrong Christian as an outsider. Similarly a true Hindu must love a true Christian as his brother and must treat a wrong Hindu as an outsider. Suppose you are in a white dress. An outsider is also in a white dress, but your own brother is in a blue dress. Based on the colour of the external dress will you treat the outsider who is in the same colour of the dress as your own brother? Will you treat your own brother as an outsider because the colour of his dress is different from your dress? You recognize your own brother not by the external dress but by the internal body in which your own parental blood is flowing. Similarly, you recognize the outsider as an outsider based on the point that his inner body contains some other parental blood. Therefore, you must recognize your real brother not by the external religion but you must recognize your brother by the internal spirituality. If the spiritual values and levels coincide with your stage, such a devotee is your real brother whether he is a Hindu, Christian, Muslim or a Buddhist. For example take the spiritual value of speaking the truth. A person belonging to any religion must be your real brother if he speaks the truth. You must treat a person as an outsider even if he belongs to your religion but is a liar. The spiritual value is the real parental blood i.e., descending from the original God-Father. When this is achieved, Universal Spirituality becomes meaningful and alive. Therefore, analyse and judge the spiritual values of the other person to make friendship with him irrespective of his nationality, language, caste, sex, age and religion. God will be immensely pleased if this attitude is developed. The main aim of our Universal Spirituality is only to establish such a 176

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view in the world. Religion is only the external culture, which is related to the language, habits of dress, habits of food and habits of regional styles of life. The external religion is only ignorance, like the smoke covering a fire. The inner spirituality is like the internal burning flame of the fire. The analysis is like putting on a fan that generates a strong wind, which blows away all the external cloud of smoke and makes you visualize the true inner fire, which is the eternal spirituality.

God and Creation Beyond imagination If you realize this internal spiritual knowledge, which is like the underlying fire, you can see the perfect homogeneity and unifying single phase. The language differs and therefore, the words differ, but the meaning is same. The water remains as water, which may be indicated by different words used by different languages. There is one entity, which is beyond imagination. That entity is called as God or Parabrahman. Such God has no beginning and no end because God is unimaginable. The beginning and the end of an unimaginable item must also be unimaginable. The beginning and the end of the cosmic energy, space or the creation are also unimaginable. Therefore, the beginning and the end are unimaginable for an unimaginable item like God and also for an imaginable item like space. Therefore, the two points, which are the beginningless and endless characteristics, cannot help you in understanding the real nature of God. If you start recognizing God by simply these two points (beginningless and endless), you may think that God is an imaginable item like space, energy or creation. Infact based on these two characteristics, people have imagined God as an imaginable item like space, energy or creation. This concept has misled people to such a low level that people think that God is the very infinite space, infinite energy or infinite creation. Therefore, one should filter the concept of God at this juncture itself. One should think that God has no beginning and no end because the beginning and the end of an unimaginable item are also unimaginable. Creation This unimaginable God desired to create this universe for His entertainment. The very desire itself is the creation. In the view of God this present materialized universe in only an idea or imagination or the very desire itself. Therefore, the desire to create the world is itself the 177

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desire and the created world is also a desire. Thus the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the imaginary world are also imaginations or desires. A part of this infinite creation is the individual soul. The soul is like a drop of the infinite ocean of imagination or desire of God. Thus, quantitatively the entire ocean of imagination of God is very huge compared to the tiny soul. Remember that both the universe and the tiny soul are made of the same substance called as imagination or desire of God. Thus the force of the universe is far greater than the force of the soul. Due to this huge quantitative difference of the same phase, the universe, which is far stronger than the soul, appears as a materialized entity for the soul. But this infinite ocean of desire, which is the infinite universe is a tiny drop compared to the infinite force of God. Therefore, again due to the same quantitative difference of force the entire universe is just a very weak imagination from the point of view of God. Thus imagination and materialization exist as simultaneously true from the respective points of view of God and the soul. Pure awareness For the sake of entertainment, God desired to create the universe. This statement is in the Veda (Sa dviteeya Maicchat). In this statement there is a very subtle intermediate stage, which is the essence of the desire to create the universe. The desire to create the world is like the golden ornament but the essence of such desire is like the raw gold in which the ornament is not yet expressed. Such raw essence of the desire is pure awareness. The pure awareness is a special subtle form of energy, which is not qualified by any form. Such pure awareness is called as the spirit, which is not qualified and does not have any attribute. This is called as ‘Nirguna Brahman’, which means the pure awareness, which has no reference to the creation of the universe. It is a very critical and subtle point to recognize the pure awareness. The Veda says that only the very very sharp intelligence can grasp that critical state (Drushyate Tvagraya bhuddhya). Shankara, the topmost genius among the spiritual preachers could grasp that state and proposed the concept of Nirguna Brahman or non-qualified pure awareness. Such pure awareness is the first creation of God (Parabrahman). This first creation is almost as critical and unimaginable as the very Parabrahman itself. The only difference is that Parabrahman is absolutely unimaginable for any sharp intelligence, but this pure awareness is 178

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imaginable only for a very sharp intelligence. This pure awareness is called as Mula Prakriti or Suddha Sattvam, Mula Avidya or Mula Maya or the Spirit in general. The Parabrahman maintains this Spirit and it is only an associated item and is the first created item. The word Mula means the first. This Spirit is in the form of knowledge. It is aware of itself, which means that it is Knowledge. Knowledge requires both subjective and objective characteristics. But the Spirit is the subject as well as the object. Therefore, it is called as knowledge or Sattvam [Satvam, Rajas and Tamas are the three fundamental qualities or Gunas of pure awareness. These fundamental qualities make up the entire creation]. This knowledge is the first form of energy. Energy is always active. Action is the characteristic of Rajas. This Spirit is unaware of its own Creator who is God (Parabrahman). Therefore, it has ignorance or Tamas. Thus, the Knowledge itself is action and ignorance. According to the Gita, Knowledge is defined as Sattvam (Sattvaat Sanjayate Jnanam), action as Rajas (Rajah Karmani) and Ignorance as Tamas (Tamastu ajnanajam). Thus these three qualities are always inseparable. The pure knowledge (Suddha Sattvam) itself is pure action (Suddha Rajas), which is the pure ignorance (Suddha Tamas). Thus in the very first instant itself, the three qualities are created simultaneously in the purest state. Since all these three coexist, the pure awareness is called as equilibrium of the three qualities. Various items of awareness result when the equilibrium is disturbed in which, the three qualities exist in various proportions. Such disturbance of the equilibrium resulting in various distorted items of the three qualities is the very creation. The various mixtures of these three qualities constitute this diversified universe, which is meant for the play of God and for His entertainment. When the entertainment is over, all the three qualities go into the equilibrium state. Thus the universe is converted back into Mula Prakriti.

Brahman, Ishwara and Avatara God is in association with this Mula Prakriti in the beginning. At this stage the Mula Prakriti is only a creation or a created item and cannot do anything further. Its equilibrium continues. Infact the Mula Prakriti is only inert and the continuation of such equilibrium is the inertia. God enters the Mula Prakriti and pervades it. Now this Mula Prakriti is like an electrified wire. It is like an ignited stick and is called 179

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as fire. Now this Mula Prakriti becomes divine and is called as Brahman or the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, which is just the inert created item, became Holy due to the existence of God in it. Now Brahman multiplies its little part of the Mula Prakriti in which, Parabrahman does not exist. This means that God enters ninety nine percent of Mula Prakriti and not one percent. This little part of the undivine Mula Prakriti is multiplied by the disturbed equilibrium and the universe appears. Thus, the pure awareness in which God pervaded becomes Brahman. Now Brahman becomes the spectator of the universe. The little pure awareness into which God did not enter is modified into the universe in which God does not exist. Here the modification does not mean materialization. The modification means the undisturbed equilibrium being converted into a disturbed equilibrium. In both the states, the substance is only awareness. You can compare this to a day-dreamer’s mind. The mind of the day-dreamer is Mula Prakriti. A little part of the mind is converted into the dream. The mind, which is not converted, is a spectator of the dream. The dreamer is identified with the spectator-part of the mind. Thus the dreamer is witnessing the dream through his unmodified mind. The dreamer has not entered the dream and therefore has not multiplied. When the dream city is burning neither the spectator-part of the mind is burnt nor the dreamer. The spectator-part of the mind itself can be treated as the dreamer because the dreamer has entered that spectator part of the mind and exists in it. Thus, Brahman, the spectator of the universe, can be treated as Parabrahman. Such Parabrahman who is the spectator of the universe is called as Ishwara. Thus, Parabrahman is the original unimaginable creator. Mula Prakriti is the first created item, which is the pure awareness. Brahman is the major part of pure awareness in which Parabrahman entered and occupied. The same Brahman enjoying the universe by watching it is called as Ishwara. Neither Parabrahman nor Brahman nor Ishwara have entered the universe, which is the disturbed equilibrium of the three qualities. Thus, there is no disturbance in Parabrahman, Brahman or Ishwara. In Christianity, God is Parabrahman. Brahman and Ishwara are called as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the substance with which the universe is made of. The spirit is not holy because God did not occupy it. Thus the universe is not holy in toto. It is holy with reference to the

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good devotees and the divine incarnations. It is unholy with reference to bad living beings and Satan. Parabrahman who is a spectator for sometime develops a desire to enter this universe in the form of a living being especially as a human being because the main aim is to preach the divine knowledge. The Veda says the same (Tadevaanu Praavishat). This divine human being in which, Parabrahman, Brahman or Ishwara exists, is called as the human incarnation or God in flesh. The human incarnation consists of four items: 1. God 2. Mula Prakriti, which is the pure awareness, Brahman, Aatman or Karana Shareera (causal body) 3. Jeeva or Sukshma Sareera (subtle body) which is the disturbed equilibrium of the three qualities 4. The gross body made of five elements (sthula shareera), which is again imaginary in view of God but is a materialized form in view of other human beings. If you analyse any ordinary living being it contains all the three bodies except God. If we analyse any inert item of the world, it contains only the gross body made of the five elements.

Experiencing God through Medium God should be understood as the unimaginable creator. Next, God can be understood as the unimaginable spectator of the world. Lastly, God should be understood as the unimaginable actor who has entered the Universal Drama in the form of the human incarnation. In the first state, God is called as Brahman. The same God is called as Parabrahman before that first stage. In the second stage God is called as Ishwara. In the third stage God is called as Avatara Purusha or Sadguru. One can go up to the first stage only and no intelligence can go beyond that first stage. This means Parabrahman can never be understood. The climax way to understand the Parabrahman is to grasp Him as Brahman. If you analyse carefully, Brahman is also an incarnation. The Parabrahman is embedded in the pure awareness. The pure awareness is the medium, which can be understood by sharp intelligence. Therefore, one can understand God only through a medium. The finest and the subtlest medium is pure awareness. Scholars

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like Shankara like God in such a rich medium. Some people like a person in a costly silk dress. Others can understand God in the form of Ishwara. Ramanuja and Madhva have stopped at the level of Ishwara, who is God in a terricot shirt which is a mixture of silk and cotton. Brahman is the unqualified pure awareness, which is called as Nirguna. Ishwara is the qualified pure awareness, which is called as Saguna. Therefore, Shankara preached about God to scholars. Ramanuja and Madhva preached God to ordinary people. There are some people who are ignorant and cannot grasp even the form of Ishwara. For this third category, God-in-Flesh is the easiest way, who is God in a cotton shirt. The Brahman is the electrified raw gold. Ishwara is the electrified golden chain [gold with a form; qualified]. The human incarnation is the electrified iron chain. Gold is costly and iron is cheap. The awareness is subtle and can be grasped only by scholars. The human body is very easy and can be grasped directly by the eyes. But in all these media, the electricity is one and the same. When you touch any of these three media the electric shock is one and the same. Thus, the experience of God can be obtained from Brahman in transcendental meditation (Samadhi). The same experience of God can be obtained when Ishwara appears in energetic form when pleased by severe penance (Sakshatkara). The same experience of God is also obtained by seeing a human incarnation like Lord Krishna (Darshanam). The experience of God is one and the same. The medium and the approach differ. The first two methods are very difficult. The last method is very easy. The goal and the benefit are one and the same. Among these three, who is wise? The last person is the wisest who obtained the same goal through the easiest path. The experience of God is obtained only through a medium. The medium alone indicates God. When you want to drink hot tea, you are shown a cup. You are told, “Have that cup”. Here the word cup means the tea and not the cup without the tea. When you touch the cup you are experiencing the heat of the tea through the cup. If the tea is absent, the cup is cool. Thus, you can differentiate between a cup with tea and an empty cup. Thus by experience you can differentiate Lord Krishna from any other ordinary human being. The very presence of the human incarnation electrifies you with divine experience even without the preaching from the human incarnation. But sometimes mere experience may mislead you. Experience belongs to the faculty of the mind. 182

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Sometimes there may be false experience due to a defective mind. You may feel the divinity through a miracle. Both God and Satan do miracles. Most people decide the divinity through the experience obtained from miracles. Therefore, the faculty of intelligence should be opened to decide your experience. You must hear His knowledge. You must analyse His discourse. Knowledge is the inseparable ornament of God although knowledge is only a characteristic of a medium (awareness). God has given us the facility to identify Him through that inseparable characteristic. Love, bliss and miracles should associate with such knowledge. Without knowledge, the decision should not be taken based on the other three characteristics. The other three are always associated with the knowledge but they also exist independently even without the knowledge.

Partial and Complete Incarnations Some people think that Shankara is a partial incarnation where as Lord Krishna is the complete incarnation. If you visit a postgraduate class, the professor is in full swing, expressing the highest knowledge in its climax. But when the same professor teaches a L.K.G. [lower kindergarten] class, he cannot express his full knowledge. He reveals only very little of His full knowledge to those elementary students. Does this mean that the professor is really a school teacher in that class? The full knowledge exists in the professor even in that elementary class. But it is not expressed because those elementary students cannot grasp it. When Krishna taught the Gita to Arjuna, He revealed the climax of the spiritual knowledge. Arjuna was a very high-class soul. He did severe penance and could see Lord Shiva. He is like a postgraduate student. But when Shankara was preaching to human beings in the Kali Yuga, they were not of such divine level as Arjuna. Therefore, Shankara expressed the divine knowledge only according to their level. Krishna is the incarnation of the Lord Narayana. Shankara is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. The Veda says that Shiva and Narayana are one and the same (Shivascha Narayanah). But this example does not mean that every school teacher is a professor. It relates only to a professor who happens to be teaching an elementary class. There are real school teachers also. Similarly, there are partial incarnations in whom only a little power or grace of the Lord has entered. In such people, God does not exist. Therefore, you should be careful in differentiating the real 183

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school teacher from a professor acting as a school teacher in an elementary class. You should not say that every scholar is the incarnation of the Lord and at the same time you should not say that Shankara is not an incarnation of the Lord because He was a scholar. All scholars are not incarnations of Lord but an incarnation of Lord can be a scholar.

False preachers A Christian says that a false preacher is a fox. What he said is absolutely correct. But one should take a very long time and should do very deep analysis before concluding negatively about any spiritual preacher. If the preacher is really the Lord and if you have misunderstood Him, you are acquiring the greatest sin by scolding Him. You are losing all the benefits of His Divine Knowledge. Therefore, you are put not only to the loss but also to the greatest sin. If you misunderstand a false preacher and treat him as the real preacher and praise him, you are put only to the loss but not to any sin by following his false guidance. You get loss, but you do not get any sin. Even your loss will be shortly compensated by the Lord who will meet you and drag you out of your wrong path. Thus finally your loss is also compensated by the Lord. It is a well-noted saying, which says that a criminal may escape but the innocent should not be punished. A false preacher may be praised but a true preacher should not be criticized. Therefore, if you are not convinced with a spiritual preacher, salute him and politely leave him. Never criticize any preacher (Guru). You might have gone to a higher spiritual level. The preacher may belong to a lower level. Even then you must respect him. As a college student you should respect even the school teacher. One day you were his student. You have come to this level only by his guidance. All the preachers are like the steps of a staircase. The lower step is the basis of every higher step.

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