Divine Discourses Vol-4

Divine Discourse Volume-4

By His Holiness Shri Datta Swami

SRI DATTA JNANA PRACHARA PARISHAT Mumbai Center: 10/553, Shreyas, 11th Road, Chembur, Mumbai – 400 071, Maharashtra, India Ph# 2521 2467/2555 6441/25480137 [email protected] www.universal-spirituality.org i

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.

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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. RITUALS AND DIVINE ADMNISTRATION ..............................................1

Perform Rituals As Per Scriptures...............................................................1 Sacrifice is The Essence of Rituals .............................................................2 Understand the Divine Administration........................................................3 Present People Exhibit Highly Transient Qualities.....................................5 2. ANALYSIS OF SOUL .....................................................................................8

Can the Soul be seen?..................................................................................8 The point of Dispute ..................................................................................11 Special Divine Knowledge of Incarnation ................................................12 3. STRENGTH OF THE SOUL .........................................................................14

Creation of World can be considered as Inherent Sign.............................15 Alternate Application of Knowledge & Ignorance ...................................17 4. GOD NEVER DESTROYS CREATION ......................................................20

Upliftment means Crossing Maya .............................................................20 What is Science of Life?............................................................................21 Merits & Demerit of ISKCON ..................................................................22 5. GOD IS UNKNOWABLE .............................................................................25

Datta: Human Incarnation .........................................................................26 Awareness, Brahman and Advaita ............................................................32 Every Soul is Not God...............................................................................35 Difficulties in Recognition ........................................................................36 Universal Datta ..........................................................................................40 Types of Incarnations ................................................................................45 Anagha.......................................................................................................45 Yoga...........................................................................................................46 Tests...........................................................................................................48 Final Goal ..................................................................................................48 Fury of God ...............................................................................................51 Sacrifice .....................................................................................................53

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6. PERVADING OF GOD IN MEDIUM ..........................................................55

God’s Incarnation ......................................................................................55 Parabrahman and Brahman........................................................................57 Creation by Modification ..........................................................................58 Self Attainment or Recognition of God?...................................................59 Acceptance of Intermediate Steps .............................................................61 7. TWIST OF ADVAITA...................................................................................63

Background-Relevant Preaching ...............................................................63 Shankara: God or Soul...............................................................................68 Diplomacy and Genius of Shankara ..........................................................69 8. AWARENESS, SOUL AND ADVAITA ......................................................74

Limitations of Awareness..........................................................................74 Difference Between Liberated and Realized Soul ....................................76 Life of Lord Ayyappa ................................................................................80 Was Krishna Just a Realized Soul? ...........................................................80 Four States of the Soul ..............................................................................81 Need and Benefit of Shankara’s Philosophy.............................................84 9. SYNCHRONIZATION OF THREE PHILOSOPHIES.................................87

Levels in Spiritual Education ....................................................................87 Equal Opportunity to Godhood .................................................................92 Incarnation in Different Roles ...................................................................94 Choose Your Angle ...................................................................................96 10. ESTABLISHING IN ATMAN.......................................................................99

Beyond Qualities .....................................................................................102 Shri Ajay Reveals Secret .........................................................................105 Topmost Divine Secret ............................................................................106 11. CREATION IS JUST ONE WISH OF GOD ...............................................108

Sanyasa ....................................................................................................111 Knower of Atman ....................................................................................112 Detachment From Desire.........................................................................115 Avidya and Maya.....................................................................................117 Service Without Aspiration .....................................................................119 iv

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Recognition of the Lord...........................................................................121 Master of World, Family, Body and Soul ...............................................122 Mixture of Reality and Imagination ........................................................124 Ignorant identifies himself with role .......................................................125 Devotees Play as per script of God..........................................................127 12. HUMAN INCARNATION IS ULTIMATE ................................................130

The Three Subsequent Preachers.............................................................130 Devotees Return Even from Brahma Loka .............................................132 God And Devotee ....................................................................................134 Statusque Maintains After Death.............................................................135 13. SUICIDE IS NOT SOLUTION FOR DIFFICULTIES ...............................138

Spiritual Workshop is better than Suicide...............................................139 Layers of Ignorance .................................................................................140 God Tests Devotees in Practical Devotion Only.....................................143 Command of Swami to His Devotees .....................................................145 14. STRESS RELIEF WORKSHOPS................................................................147

Are you Prepared for Real Stress At The End?.......................................147 Why not Replace Self with God? ............................................................148 15. TRUE ESSENCE OF YOGA.......................................................................150

Imaginary Chakras & Lotus flowers .......................................................150 True Interpretation of Sahasrara..............................................................152 Raja Yoga & Sanyasa ..............................................................................153 Interpretation of Different Chakras .........................................................155 Attaining Spiritual Powers ......................................................................156 16. ATTAINMENT OF SELF AND GOD ........................................................158

Stress Relief .............................................................................................158 Draw Backs in Atma Yoga......................................................................159 Atma Yoga is First 5 states of Patanjali Yoga.........................................161 Stress Experienced in Path of Real Love ................................................163 The Stage of God.....................................................................................164 Real Yoga is Attainment of God .............................................................166 Three Types of Preachers ........................................................................167 v

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17. FRUITFUL ATTAINMENT ........................................................................169

The Path of Karma Yoga .........................................................................169 Purchasing Heaven ..................................................................................171 Repented Souls will be Excused..............................................................172 18. FOOD TO DEVOTION ...............................................................................173

Levels of Guides: Guru to Satguru..........................................................173 Aim of Human Life .................................................................................174 Insufficiency of Pravritti..........................................................................175 Nivritti - Necessary And Sufficient.........................................................176 Atma Yoga - Alternative for Sleeping Tablet .........................................177 Bliss of God .............................................................................................178 ‘Happiness And Misery’ To Bliss ...........................................................179 Brahma Yoga is Ultimate ........................................................................180 Entertainment is Aim of Creation............................................................182 Definition of Sin ......................................................................................183 True Knowledge Alone Gives Determination.........................................184 Two Levels of Maya................................................................................186 Maya, Maha Maya And Mula Maya .......................................................188 Veda Says Unimaginable God Exists......................................................191 O Preachers! Concentrate on Nivrutti .....................................................194 God, Devotee And Ordinary Human Being ............................................195 God is Ultimate Basis of Creation...........................................................198 Family Life is Co-Curricular Activity.....................................................199

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Chapter - 1

RITUALS AND DIVINE ADMNISTRATION Perform Rituals As Per Scriptures O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, All the rituals must be done according to the scriptures, but they should be done with proper understanding of their real spirit. No ritual is condemned by Me but it should be analyzed in depth and then only should be done with proper spirit and direction so that the real fruit can be achieved. When you are unable to understand even the translation of the Vedic hymns recited in rituals, how can you understand the deep sense of the scholarly language of God? When you study an epic written by a poet, you are expected to know all Shastras like grammar, figures of speech and logic to bring out the sense of the word used by the poet etc. In such case, what about the single non-polluted scripture like the Veda, which is written by God, who is the king of poets? But you are simply reciting the hymns without knowing even the simple meaning of a single word! Today, there is no correlation between the hymn and the ritual. You are simply performing the ritual as guided by the ignorant priest, who is also your brother in not knowing any word in the hymn. When the correlation is lost, you are doing something unrelated and foolish action, which is irrelevant to the meaning and sense of hymns. For example you are pouring the ghee in the fire and burning the oil in religious lights, which are not bringing any divine fruit and instead brings sin by polluting the atmosphere. The word fire is a simile for a hungry Satguru or devotee. Ghee and oil mean the food items prepared by ghee and oil, which are considered to be the best energetic items. When you offer such best food to a deserving hungry person, the sacrifice is completed. The fire and light indicate the knowledge that radiates from the Satguru and devotees after eating such best energetic foods. Even if a poor man eats such best food, his brain will be energetic to think about God. The physical fire in the sacrifice is meant for cooking the best food item with ghee or oil. Similarly, the rituals after death are also done without realizing the spirit. They become waste and 1

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the root-reason for this is lack of understanding and analysis of the Vedic hymns. All those hymns after death simply mean praying God to help the departed soul. You can call the best devotees and pray God in your own mother tongue since God is beyond language and such a prayer has some use for departed soul. The priest says in the beginning of ritual that by the ritual, the soul shall go to the abode of God (Brahma Loka). But, at the end (on the occasion of the ritual after death), he is performing the ritual of donation of cow (Godanam), which clearly states that the departed soul is only going to the hell (Cow is supposed to help the soul to cross the river of blood and puss before hell). If that is the case, what is the use of all the money spent on the priest and ritual? Normally, any departed soul will definitely go to hell only. In that case, what happened to all the money that is spent? You must appreciate other religions in this ritual, who pray God in their own language. Nobody analyzes anything and the practice is simply blind. Jesus was said to be a Sheppard, who is the Lord of souls. All the souls are like blind sheep, which simply follow the other blindly. Lord Shiva is said to be Pashupati, which means that, He is the Lord of animals.

Sacrifice is The Essence of Rituals The animal can never understand the meaning of any word and it simply follows the sound. Similarly, the blind people are just following the sound produced on recitation without knowing the meaning of any word. When the people are unable to understand even these ordinary Vedic rituals, how can they grasp the essence of the climax of the Veda (Vedanta)? The overall essence of all the rituals is only offering food and money (Dakshina) to a deserving divine person or atleast to a beggar. This very essence is lost because all the undeserving priests are benefited, who do not know the simple meaning of simple rituals. You must select the deserving divine person by his knowledge and practice, but not by his external dress. The deservingness is mainly characterized by the absence of desire (Akamahatasya…Veda). If people do not misunderstand Me, all My closest devotees are the best deserving divine persons to be worshipped by anyone on this earth in any ritual. They only lack the external dress, which cheats the public. All these devotees are tested by Me through acid tests and they do not have even a trace of desire for anything except God. You can never get the human incarnation like Me to guide you and you can never get the deserving 2

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persons for worship like My devotees. The rituals are the steps of training in the spiritual path. When these rituals are misinterpreted, the misinterpretation is severely condemned by God, which does not mean that the ritual is condemned. Swami Dayananda criticized the idol worship severely because the priests were exploiting the innocent public through idols. His criticism is so severe that it appeared as if it is criticizing the idol worship. The criticism is always about the misinterpretation and exploitation in the system but not condemning the very system. The followers always misunderstand the original preacher. Similarly, a ritual is praised as the best to encourage the beginner. For a person on the ground, the first step is praised as the final step. Such a lie is having good purpose and should not be taken as the reality in the strict sense. You have to cross all these whirlpools in the way and swim the river to reach its bank and realize the real essence.

Understand the Divine Administration [Shri Partha Sarathi from California (U.S.A.) asked about the injustice that is winning in these days even in the courts. Swami replied:] The administration of the country through Government and courts is integrated with the underlying invisible administration of God. God, who is the ultimate divine judge, controls every judge on this earth. Sometimes, the judge in the court is misled and gives wrong judgment so that the sinner is benefited and a good fellow is put to loss. The reason for this is that the good fellow now was a sinner in the previous birth or in the earlier time of this birth and grabbed the money or some form of wealth like work of the present sinner. The wrong judgment did the final justice only by the will of God. The case is closed here. But, if you are a devotee of God, you will be compensated with some wealth elsewhere. You need not be upset with the wrong judgment because you are unaware of the complete background of the case. Your devotion to God has its own fruit separately and will not interfere with the judiciary system. The good and bad will have their own results separately and will not cancel each other. If good can cancel bad, every one will be tempted to do bad in a pressing situation so that it can be cancelled by doing some good ritual-prayers (Prayaschittam) later on. You expect to win the case in the court by your devotion to God. But, the judgment of God has its own analysis and is not affected by any other factor except 3

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the strict procedure of the constitution of God for the deeds and their relevant fruits. The administration of God is always without any blame and sometimes people criticize God, blaming that God is sleeping. Actually your ignorance is your sleep and therefore, you are blaming God without knowing the complete background. People expect practical results for theoretical devotion. They ask for large and thick bread by supplying a spoon of wet flour! Either the bread will be large and thin or the bread will be small and thick for [that] flour. You are trying to soap God by flattering Him through prayers or by expressing your exceptional talent in begging (like crying etc.). God is aware of everything and fools you in return by dragging the good fruits from the next birth with reduced value and giving them to you. The reaction of God is hundred times more intensive but it will be in the same direction of action. If you come forward by one step, He will come forward by hundred steps. The necessity is on the side of the souls and therefore, the first step should be from the side of the souls only. If your devotion is conditioned by the limits, His grace is also conditioned by the limits of the justice of the wheel of deeds (Karma Chakra). If your devotion is theoretical, His grace is also theoretical. If your devotion is practical, His grace is also practical. Knowledge is the basic foundation, above which the walls of devotion have to rise. The final roof is service to God. Service is sacrifice of work and fruit of work. Only service, which is the form of work can have the practical fruit. The fruit of work is another form of work and is considered as work itself. You worked for one hour and earned hundred rupees. When you sacrifice these hundred rupees to the work of God, it means you have worked for God for one hour. Knowledge is like your qualifying degree. Devotion (theoretical) is like the interview attended by you and the subsequent appointment order. If you sit in your house with the degree and with the appointment order, salary is not paid. Advaitins claim salary for getting the degree itself. Even that degree is not a proper one. Devotees are like the proper degree holders with the proper appointment order and they cannot also claim the salary by sitting in the house. You have to join the job and do work for the entire month. You will get salary at the end of the month for the work you have done during the month. Devotees recognize the separate Lord and love Him really but are not concentrating on the service to be done to the contemporary human incarnation of God of present in their generation. 4

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They simply dance and sing about the past human incarnations or energetic forms. For their theoretical devotion, God increases their devotion only without any practical fruit. Ofcourse, they are better than people, who simply discuss about God always without expression of love in theory and practice. Therefore, service only can get the fruit. Ofcourse, proper knowledge and appointment order are essential to qualify the candidate to join the service. Without the true knowledge and without the real devotion, one may join the service but after sometime, if the candidate has not updated his degree, his service cannot be made permanent and he will have to leave the job after sometime and even the salary paid will be recovered sometimes if the degree is proved to be from a bogus University. This is the case of a devotee with incomplete correct knowledge or wrong knowledge. The incomplete correct knowledge will give the temporary service. The wrong knowledge will lead to removal of the employee with recovery of the fruit (salary). Both these cases have devotion and service for solving their own materialistic problems. The former case realizes and updates his knowledge to the higher levels and completes it. But, the latter case is always in the path of selfish materialism only and never rectifies since this case wants to continue to exploit or corrupt God for selfishness. In this latter case, the fruits given to him will be recovered from his own account.

Present People Exhibit Highly Transient Qualities [Smt. Padma Ram asked that the case of liberated souls, who accompany the Lord in His work must have been different, since their participation is pre-planned along with the program of the human incarnation. Swami replied:] Even a permanent employee should be alert of his duties and service. He is not an exception to the normal procedure. Ofcourse, the Lord alerts him often through his or her soul by giving memos. If the liberated soul does not care due to ego, it will cross the border of the inner circle and will be mixed with the general public. Ofcourse, due to the strength of the Samskara, the soul is expected to return after realization. The soul will not come back as long as its ego continues. After all, even a liberated soul is also a soul and not God. Even the permanent employee is an employee only and not employer. Narada, the top most devotee was involved in a human birth when ego entered him. 5

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Sudarshana is a similar case, who was born as Kartaviryaarjuna. They returned back after the end of their ego. The only exceptional cases of liberated souls, who never crossed the inner circle of God are Hanuman and Radha. When ego enters the heart of the liberated soul, the heart itself will show the raise in the temperature like thermometer. The liberated soul has enough knowledge to note the raise in temperature and is not a child for which only some elders note the fever and give medicine. A grown up person approaches doctor for treatment. Similarly, the liberated soul approaches the Satguru for treatment. The liberated soul is well talented in the diagnosis. The human beings have different proportions of the three qualities. In the old generations, a human being has a fixed ratio of the three qualities through out its life. It is easy for the doctor-Satguru to give a report about the ratio of a specific human being. But today, the situation is very much amazing because a specific individual is changing the composition of the three qualities in every minute! No report can be given in the case of any human being. The report can be given stating that this particular soul is having this particular ratio on this day at this time. In one minute, you believe Me as God. In the next minute, you treat Me as a human being possessed by God. In the next minute, you decide that I am a partial incarnation of God. In the next minute, your mind proposes that I am a devoted human being. In the next minute, your intelligence decides that I am an ordinary human being with artificial devotion. In the next minute, you conclude that I am a fraud. These states of your mind recycle again and again. Some devotees ask Me to inform them regarding their state in the spiritual journey (Sadhana). Which report should I give? Now I am declaring that I am the very Lord Dattatreya, who came down to this earth to guide you in the spiritual path. Tell Me, how many of you can stand on this faith? I am observing your minds and decisions every minute continuously. In one minute, you are very near to Me in the inner circle. After five minutes, you are in a foreign country, which is very far! I am also changing My positions in every minute to suit to the conclusions of a devotee and I am simultaneously existing in different positions to suit to different devotees. I am dancing according to your dance. You feel that I am mad by speaking in various ways but the fact is that you are mad in various ways. You are confusing yourselves and blame Me as if I am confusing all of you! When you are discouraged, I encourage you by 6

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telling that you are My inner most and most dear liberated soul. But, when ego enters your mind and you become inactive, I will expose the reality. Now you blame Me that I am liar!

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Chapter - 2

ANALYSIS OF SOUL Can the Soul be seen? [Shri Ramanath asked whether the soul can be seen. Swami replied:] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The Veda and the Gita say that the soul can be visualized by very careful analysis and vision (Drusyate Tvagrayaa…, Pasyanti Jnana Chakshushah…). After all, the soul is only pure awareness which is the nervous energy flowing in the nerves. Today we have very sophisticated instruments through which we can see this nervous energy flowing in nerves as waves. The soul is essentially the inert energy only. Ofcourse, the chip of the information (Jeeva) existing in the brain is specific for an individual i.e., accumulated from several births. Your body is like computer. The electricity flowing in the computer (Power) is the awareness or the soul. The information fed into the computer (Programme) is specific and is called as the individual soul or Jeeva. Therefore, you can see the soul in its essential form as energy. At the time of death this chip of information (Jeeva) comes out of the body. When the radio station transmits some speech in to the space, it travels in the space with a specific frequency and it is essentially energy only. But when it enters the radio, the speech is heard. Similarly the individual soul on entering a new alive body again transmits the information. Therefore, the soul or individual soul can be visualized as the energy only. When it enters another system (another human body), it behaves like the soul or individual soul which is the specific work form of energy. If you take the soul or individual soul as the specific form of energy only, it cannot be isolated like energy. You cannot take the photo of grinding work. The machine, the current, the motion of the rod that grinds the grains (Kinetic energy), grains etc., can be visualized. But none of these is the grinding work. The grinding work depends on all these components and we can see its effect as the flour of grains. The actual specific work cannot be visualized but can be experienced. By this point 8

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people have misunderstood that the soul is God because God is also not visible but can be experienced. But the difference is that God is independent, whereas the awareness (Specific form of work) depends on the brain, nervous system, food, oxygen and proper oxidation of food to release energy etc. Awareness is unreal by itself when isolated from all the components. God is the completely independent and ultimate absolute reality. A scientist told that the life energy is like the sound produced form the drum and stick. The sound is essentially mechanical energy and is neither the drum, nor the stick, nor the beat (Kinetic energy) nor the ear-drum that experiences the sound. Every item of the creation is a relative reality (Mithya) like the awareness except God. You can visualize the sound as energy waves but those waves are not sound. Only the effect of those waves is sound. Such effect is not selfexistent independent item. Its existence is a compounded effect of all the parts of the system. Therefore, the soul in the form of inert energy can be visualized, which is its original form i.e., remaining in the state of deep sleep. [Dasara: Day-8 October 2, 2006 Mr. Surya asked a question “You have said that in the Gita, the Lord said that awareness is born daily and perishes daily. But how come some people are pointing out that in the same Gita it is told that the soul is eternal?”] Swami replied: There are two theories about the soul. In one theory the soul is eternal. This is correct because if you take the soul (awareness) as inert energy in its basic form, energy is eternal. The eternality of the soul is proved in deep sleep since life continues due to the existence of inert energy as the heat in the human body. Due to this inert energy alone, all the systems in the human body are functioning and the life is maintained in the body. Deep sleep indicates the cofunctioning of two systems which are food (Annamaya Kosha) as body and respiration (Pranamaya Kosha) to produce inert energy by the oxidation of food. In the same deep sleep, the awareness has perished. Even the last trace of awareness, which is self awareness (awareness of awareness itself) as seen in meditation, disappears in deep sleep. Therefore, you have to agree that the awareness is transformed into its basic content which is inert energy. In other words you can say that the awareness has disappeared or is destroyed. When the golden ornament is converted into a lump of gold, you can say that the ornament is

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destroyed. When you awake, the awareness is reborn. This is our experience and cannot be disputed. If you view the soul as inert energy, it is eternal as evident from deep sleep. If you view the soul as awareness, it is born daily and dies daily. Both these are two angles of view about the soul. It is like the dualistic nature of an electron which is a particle as well as a wave. The electron exhibits the properties of both in different contexts but not in the same context. Similarly, the soul exhibits both the properties in different contexts. Both cannot co-exist in the same context because both contradict each other. The Lord mentioned both the theories of the soul in the Gita and it is very important to note that the Lord did not condemn any theory. The two words used in this context which are ‘Atha’ and ‘Cha’ mean that both are equally valid theories in their own contexts (Athachainam…—Gita). The soul is a bundle of qualities or feelings. Awareness of awareness is also a quality. Therefore, you can never filter the qualities from the awareness (soul) because the awareness itself is a quality of the inert energy produced by the oxidation (Prana) of food (Anna). Awareness is a special type of work done by the inert energy flowing in a specific system (machine) called as the nervous system. Inert energy does several types of work when it flows in different systems. If inert energy enters the lightbulb, a special type of work called as light is produced. The same inert energy enters a radio and the special type of work called as sound is produced. The work has beginning and end. Therefore, awareness being a specific type of work has birth and death. In deep sleep the nervous system is not functioning since the inert energy does not flow in it. Therefore, according to the Gita, both the concepts are correct in their contexts. The awareness or soul is again sub-divided into various feelings. The awareness of awareness is also a feeling. Therefore, the soul is not different from feeling. Feeling, thought or quality is work. The Gita says that the soul is not different from the bundle of qualities (Nanyam Gunebhyah). At the same time, the soul as the essential inert energy is different from all the feelings because the works (feelings) are done by the inert energy. This aspect of inert energy different from qualities (feelings) is also mentioned in the verse of the Gita (Gunebhyashcha Param…—Gita). In this verse the above two theories are clearly explained. The work always begins and ends, but the working source 10

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(energy) remains always. The light may be put on or off. But the electricity remains stored in the battery.

The point of Dispute Shankara spoke everything from the view of God since He was an incarnation of God (Lord Shiva). For God, everything in the creation including the primary energy (Mula Maya) is a relative truth with respect to Himself. Therefore, God is the absolute truth (Brahma Satyam) and the world is a relative truth with respect to Him (Jagat Mithya). When God comes in human form, you misunderstand that an individual ordinary soul (Jiva) is in the gross human body. Such a Jiva, who is a Jiva in your angle, is not really a Jiva but is God (Jivo Brahmaiva Naparah). Therefore, whatever Shankara said is absolutely true from the point of God. Why did He say so from the view of God and not from the view of the soul? The reason is that Shankara was God and not the soul. Shankara explained the complicated subject assuming that the ordinary subject is well known to everybody. You are the soul and this point is very clear and needs no explanation. But Krishna is a subject of dispute. You say that He is an ordinary human being. But sages like Vyasa say that He is God. Shankara only clarified this complicated subject of Krishna. But clever human beings, to satisfy their egoism, jealousy and ambition without any effort have misinterpreted the total theory. The ordinary subject that every human being is a soul and not God and that the world is real has to be explained again because it is made complicated. To explain this manmade complicated subject, Ramanuja (Adisesha) and Madhva (son of Vayu) came down and explained the whole concept from the view of the soul. Since they are souls, they could explain the view of the soul very clearly. Similarly, Shankara was incarnation of God (Shiva) and hence could explain the view of God very well. The word Avyaktam generally means an item which may be invisible or unimaginable or both. Avyaktam cannot mean vacuum which is perceivable and imaginable. If you think that vacuum is imaginable but not perceivable, you can use the word Avyaktam to space also which is vacuum or the primary energy. Since vacuum is energy, it means that it is something. Therefore, vacuum cannot be the meaning of shunyam [nothingness]. The word shunyam means ‘absence 11

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of everything’ or ‘unreal’. You may restrict the word Avyaktam to an item which is both unimaginable and invisible. Even then the word shunyam cannot be an alternative for the word Avyaktam. Both God and the relationship between God and world are unimaginable and invisible and can be the meanings of Avyaktam in the strict sense. Both God and the relationship between God and world are real and cannot be the meanings of shunyam. Thus, the word shunyam is unreal by itself. However, if Buddhists take the original sense of Buddha for this word, shunyam can indicate the existing real item which is unimaginable and invisible. When the understanding capacity of an item is absent with us, the word shunyam means the absence of the understanding capacity and not the absence of that item. Buddha meant the absence of the grasping power of the intelligence when He used the word shunyam in the case of God. Buddha meant that the grasping power is shunyam and He does not mean that God is shunyam. The three qualities are common to the human incarnation and human being. In the human being the three qualities are already set up in certain fixed proportions called as samskaras. In the human incarnation (in the case of God creating a fresh human body for His incarnation) the three qualities are available in equal proportions and can be spontaneously mixed in any ratio that is required for the divine play. The gross body and the three qualities are common in both the human being and the human incarnation. The human being has no other extra item and thus can be defined as the composite of the three qualities (Jivatman) and the gross body. The human incarnation has an extra item which is God.

Special Divine Knowledge of Incarnation The special divine knowledge of the human incarnation is not the inherent characteristic of the awareness or Chit (Atman) because of its specialty indicated by the prefix ‘Pra’ in the word Prajnanam. The knowledge of the ordinary level is also not the inherent characteristic of awareness. Awareness is only the medium of expression of knowledge. The knowledge present in a scholar is from the teachers who taught him and their source was books. The chief source of all the books is the Veda. The source of the Veda is God. If this knowledge is the inherent sign of awareness (Chit), all the living beings having common chit must have knowledge to the same extent. Thus, God is the source of 12

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knowledge of all levels including the Chit. But God has not granted the same level of knowledge to all living beings. If God had granted equal knowledge to all living beings, you could have said that knowledge is the characteristic of Chit. The different levels of knowledge differentiate the various categories of living beings. Human beings have the highest level of knowledge with respect to other living beings. But within the category of human beings, different human beings again have different levels of knowledge as sub-divisions. Such sub-divisions differentiate ignorant people from scholars. Such sub-divisions are again due to the wish of God alone. In this setup when God comes in human form, He exhibits a special divine knowledge which is not seen in any human being and this is also according to the wish of God. The source of such knowledge is also God present in the human form and not the Chit. Such special knowledge differentiates the super man from all the other human beings. In any case chit is only a medium of expression of the design and not the real designer. If chit were the designer, every living being having the same chit would have the same level of knowledge. This concept separates God as the Designer who is different from the Chit which is the material of the design.

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Chapter - 3

STRENGTH OF THE SOUL O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-5 October 2, 2006] The soul is the weakest form of energy in this creation. The nervous system can be easily burnt by even little heat (fire). The awareness is flowing in such tender nerves and is therefore weaker than even a little bit fire. Such weakest form of energy (soul) is imagining itself to be the strongest energy (Brahman; assuming that Brahman is understood as strongest energy), which controls even the Sun as per the Veda. Fire, which can burn the nerves very easily, could not burn even a dry grass blade when God did not wish! In that case, I am unable to understand how this weakest soul can do anything without the grace of God! When the soul becomes absolute zero by this knowledge, it will completely surrender to God and then it can be uplifted to the state of God (Hanuman) or even to the state of master of God (Radha). Such complete surrender to God is stressed by the Gita (Tameva Saranam Gachcha…). You can reach the highest state of Advaita (becoming God) in all aspects like controlling world (state of Ishwara) through the path of complete surrender to God. You can even cross Advaita by becoming the Master of God through this path. We do not negate the fruit of Advaita for a soul. We only negate the path (Atma Yoga) adopted by the Advaitin to reach that state. Hanuman attained the perfect and real Advaita by becoming the Creator of the world (Ishwara). Ishwara is potentially Brahman like the chief minister in the post. The Brahman of Advaitin is like an ordinary person sitting in meditation or in a coma, who is only aware of himself and thus such Brahman is called as impotent Brahman. Does the Advaitin really become the omnipotent Brahman? What is the sign of Brahman? The second Brahma Sutra says that the sign of Brahman is the creation of the world etc. In that case how can you be that Brahman without its sign? When the sign of fire is heat, how can you claim that you are fire without heat? You are ice-cold and claim to be the fire! You may say that the creation of the world etc. is not the real inherent sign of Brahman. Then what is the real sign of Brahman? You will say that Chit 14

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(pure awareness) is the real sign of Brahman. Then why did not Vyasa say in the second Brahma Sutra that the Chit (mere pure awareness) is the real sign of Brahman? Did He not know this real sign? Looks like you have discovered the real sign of Brahman which was not known even to Vyasa!

Creation of World can be considered as Inherent Sign We agree that the creation of the world etc., is not the inherent sign of Brahman and it is only an associated sign because the inherent sign of Brahman is unimaginable. But exploiting this point, you should not try to establish that another associated property like Chit is the real sign. Atleast the creation of the world etc., can be treated as the real inherent sign because it is always associated with Brahman. There is no Brahman without the aspect of Ishwara. Ishwara is a property (creation, ruling and destruction of the world) of Brahman, which is always associated with Brahman and can be treated as the almost inherent sign. Only with this view, did Vyasa mention Ishwara as the inherent sign of Brahman, immediately in the second Sutra. The first Sutra mentions about the enquiry regarding Brahman. The second Sutra gives the sign of Brahman by which you can recognize Brahman. Since Brahman is unimaginable, no real inherent sign can be given. Only the constantly associated sign can act as the inherent sign. There is no meaning in denying this given sign and imposing another sign on it, when no real inherent sign can be found out. The main reason for such an action of the Advaitin is to avoid the inconvenient sign (Ishwara) and to establish the convenient sign (Chit) so that he can immediately become Brahman without any effort, because the convenient sign is common to both Brahman and himself. If he agrees to accept Ishwara as the real sign, he can never become Brahman because he can never become Ishwara. Therefore, he changed the very basic constitution and stated that Ishwara is unreal since He is an associated sign. To achieve the selfish end, he introduced Chit as the real inherent sign of Brahman so that he can immediately become Brahman on the spot! However, even Chit is an associated sign of Brahman and not the real inherent sign. The Advaitin could have atleast accepted the special knowledge (Prajnanam) as the assumed inherent sign. He did not do this also because such special knowledge is found only with his Guru (Shankara). He reduced Shankara to mere awareness 15

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without any knowledge so that he can claim himself to be equal to Shankara through the common Brahman. All this is the effect of the unlimited ambition to become greatest Brahman, infinite egoism of the self and unimaginable jealousy towards a co-human form of God including his own Guru (Shankara). All these are welded with the Advaitin’s over intelligence in creating misinterpretations of even scriptures like the Brahma Sutras. Hanuman never agreed to this point; He never claimed to be Brahman. The Sun-God who was taught the Gita by the Lord for the first time also fears God (Bhishodeti—Veda). Yama said in the Veda that He is unable to know Brahman. Veda Vyasa says that Ishwara is the sign of Brahman and did not mention Chit in the place of Ishwara. This petty Advaitin, who is like a small monkey before Hanuman, who dies by sunstroke uner the summer Sun, who shivers even by seeing the messengers of Yama and who is not fit even to be a student of Veda Vyasa, claims to be Brahman! If Chit were the inherent characteristic, why would Vyasa take the associated characteristic (Ishwara) to identify Brahman when the inherent characteristic (Chit) is available? In the Veda too an associated characteristic of Brahman is given which is special divine knowledge (Prajnanam). Knowledge is also not the inherent characteristic because Brahman is unimaginable. Knowledge indicates the existence of Chit but Chit does not necessarily indicate knowledge. A scholar must have awareness but every living being having awareness like animal is not a scholar. When Chit does not indicate even knowledge, how can the special knowledge be indicated by Chit? A lump of gold does not indicate even an ornament having an ordinary design. How can such a lump indicate an ornament having a special design? If knowledge were the inherent characteristic of Chit, every living being would have knowledge. The Advaitin means not only knowledge (Jnanam) but also the special knowledge (Prajnanam) by the word chit. The special knowledge like the Gita, can be given only by a specific human being like Krishna. Therefore, just like the state of Ishwara, Prajnanam is also impossible to be achieved by every human being. Hence, in interpreting the Veda too the Advaitin played his usual over intelligent tricks. Since knowledge or special knowledge requires chit, he has fixed the meaning of chit to both these words. The design of the ornament is not the inherent characteristic of gold. The design needs gold for its expression. The 16

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designer is responsible for the design. Similarly, knowledge requires chit for its expression. The designer of the knowledge is different from chit. God is the designer of the special knowledge and not the chit. God is the source of both chit and knowledge. God granted knowledge only to certain items of chit, which are human beings. God granted special knowledge only to a specific human being like Krishna. Due to this reason, every living being having chit does not possess knowledge. For the same reason, every human being possessing knowledge, does not possess the special knowledge. Therefore, neither knowledge nor the special knowledge is inherent characteristic of chit. If design is the characteristic of gold, wherever a lump of gold is seen, the design must be seen simultaneously. Wherever fire exists heat is present simultaneously and therefore heat can be called the inherent characteristic of fire.

Alternate Application of Knowledge & Ignorance The continuous entertainment of comedy and tragedy arranged alternately in repeated sequence is based on the alternate use of ignorance and knowledge of the reality. In a cinema, when comedy comes, you should have the ignorance of the reality that it is just an imaginary picture, so that you can fully enjoy the comedy under the illusion that it is true. When tragedy comes, you should have the knowledge that it is just an imaginary movie, so that you can be free from worry and entertain yourself even with the tragedy by detachment. Such alternate application of knowledge and ignorance is the cause of continuous happiness (Bliss or Ananda). The Lord says that He uses such alternate application of ignorance and knowledge (Mattah Smritih—Gita). The Veda also says the same (Vidya Chaavidya cha...). In the human incarnation, God dwells in the human being (Manushim…—Gita). In the Gita it is said that God enters the human body. Here the human body is the human being. The human being consists of the causal body (Atman), subtle body (Jiva) and the external gross body. Therefore, in general, the human being is a body consisting of the three sub-bodies. The Atman and Jiva together are called as the human being (Jivatman). In a very general view, the human being is meant to indicate the Jivatman along with the gross body also. In any case, God enters the human body, which is the human being (Jivatman) along with the gross body. This does not mean that God enters only the 17

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gross body without Jivatman. When the king is in his palace, he is associated with servants also. The servants are under his full control and therefore can be treated as inert parts of the inert palace. Thus, when we say that the king lives in the palace, it does not mean that the king is alone in the palace. Similarly, when we say that God enters the human body, it naturally means the gross body along with the servant Jivatman. The Veda says that God (Master) and His servant (Jivatman) live in the gross body like two birds on a tree (Dvaa Suparnaa….). In the comedy, the ignorant Jivatman feels happy and the happiness is also shared by God due to His pervasion all over the Jivatman. In the tragedy, God with His usual knowledge of reality avoids the worry and derives happiness by entertainment. Such happiness is shared by the Jivatman who is pervaded by God. The individual soul is capable of drawing happiness from comedy using its inherent ignorance. God is capable of drawing happiness from the tragedy using His inherent divine knowledge. It is an alternating system of ignorance and knowledge. Thus, the continuous happiness (Ananda) is maintained by this special two-in-one system of human incarnation. Such a system is mentioned by the Veda when God enters the world in human form (Satcha Tyatcha Abhavat…). The word Sat indicates absolutely real God and the word Tyat indicates the relatively real human being. God always possesses divine knowledge and cannot get real ignorance in spite of His hectic efforts. Darkness can never cover the Sun. Ignorance cannot cover God. While enjoying the comedy, full and real ignorance is required to receive the full and real happiness. Such full and real ignorance is not possible for God. This is the reason why He does not get full enjoyment on seeing the world-cinema [as a spectator]. Ofcourse, His knowledge of the unreality of the world helps in not getting worried due to tragedy and thus converting even the tragedy into entertainment. This is the defect regarding comedy and this is the merit regarding tragedy on the side of God. The individual soul in the world is quite opposite to God. He has full and real ignorance to enjoy the comedy and get full happiness. At the same time the individual soul cannot have full and real knowledge regarding the unreality of the world in spite of his hectic efforts. Therefore, he cannot get full and real relief from the tragedy. God cannot enjoy the comedy fully like the individual soul and the individual soul cannot be fully 18

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entertained in the tragedy like God. Both these defects can be rectified and both these merits can be mutually used if both God and individual soul join together like lame and blind persons (Pangvandha Nyaya…). The Veda says that both God and the individual soul are joined in a human body in the world like two birds on a single tree in a forest. In the same hymn, the Veda says that the individual soul is enjoyer whereas God is non-enjoyer (Dvaa Suparnaa…., Atti Anasnan…— Veda). Since, the individual soul has full ignorance, it can really enjoy the world since the world is real to it. Since God has full knowledge, He cannot really enjoy the world. In comedy full and real enjoyment is required and in tragedy full and real non-enjoyment is required and therefore the individual soul and God are suitable to comedy and tragedy respectively to derive continuous happiness. Thus, God and the human being (Jivatman or individual soul) are sharing the continuous happiness by alternating interaction. The happiness derived by the individual soul in comedy is shared by God and the entertainment without grief derived by God from tragedy is shared by the individual soul because God is pervading all over the individual soul in human incarnation. Thus, the human incarnation is a two-in-one system working alternatively like radio and tape recorder.

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Chapter - 4

GOD NEVER DESTROYS CREATION O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-6 October 2, 2006] The continuous entertainment (Ananda) is possible only in the world when God exists in the relative reality. In the state of absolute reality, space also disappears and God alone remains. In this state there is no question of any entertainment. If you take God into such a state of absolute reality, you are making God bored. There will be no necessity at any time for God to cross space (Mula Maya) because God need not destroy this world completely and regenerate it. The show of the cinema is withdrawn but the film roll is never destroyed by any producer unless he is extremely mad. The dissolution of the world means only the closure of the show and the world in a subtle state remains protected; it is regenerated as per the Veda (Yathaa Purvamakalpayat…). Therefore, God will never cross the Mula Maya (primary energy or space) at any time. He is only aware of the absolute reality and such awareness exists in God but is not always remembered.

Upliftment means Crossing Maya In the human mind too there are several concepts that are stored even though they are not remembered always. Similarly, God can attain the awareness of the absolute reality at any time if He likes and can really become alone. But such awareness is only stored in God and is never attained since such a lonely state bores God. The next inferior level of ignorance is Maha Maya which consists of matter, awareness and forms of energy like light, heat etc. God never crosses this Maha Maya also unless there is an emergency requiring the use of His superpower. Thus, the human incarnation of God is under the control of Maha Maya and Mula Maya and therefore, resembles a realized human being who is just above Maya. Maya consists of forms of matter and energy and the feelings of awareness. The ignorant soul is under the control of Maya. Thus, the human incarnation tries to uplift ignorant human beings above the Maya through the preaching of divine 20

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knowledge. The entire drama is confined only to the boundaries of Maya, which is the story, dialogues and actions of the actors. Standing above the Maya, the realized soul can have continuous entertainment like God. Even God in human form enjoys the creation just standing above the Maya. The realized soul need not go beyond Maha Maya and attain superpowers, which will only spoil the soul with egoism ending in misery. Infact the soul can never cross Maha Maya and can never dream of crossing Mula Maya. The Advaitin is often trying to run to the state of absolute reality and is trying to make God bored for fulfilling his impossible ambition. In such a case, this creation along with the Advaitin does not exist at all and the entertainment of God is completely lost. The dualism of the relative reality must be maintained in order to maintain the entertainment of God. Hence you should not say that nothing except God exists. Infact, from your angle such a statement is absolutely wrong. In the state of absolute reality, you do not exist because you are a part and parcel of creation (Prakriti). The human being is mixture of Para [superior] and Apara [inferior] Prakriti as per the Gita. Such absolute reality is true only from the angle of God. But God does not like to even remember that boring state. The Advaitin also says that God is everything [This entire creation is God]. If God is everything, nothing exists apart from God and then there is no concept of entertainment because that state is nothing but the absolute reality. Some say that God is every living being. If an actor plays every role in the drama simultaneously (it is possible to produce such cinema with the present technology, but not a drama), then also there is no entertainment. The entertainment becomes meaningful only when something different (object) from God (Subject) exists and also when the souls other than God exist like different actors in the drama. The entry of God into the world is only limited to a specific role of His choice. Only then does the entertainment become real and continuous.

What is Science of Life? A spectator of a drama does not have any bond with any role or with any material present in the drama. He is completely detached from the drama and then alone can he entertain himself in the real sense. The aim of the spectator is only entertainment and not the achievement of anything from the drama. Thus, God is completely detached and also 21

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has complete fulfillment (Aptakamasya…—Veda). Therefore, He derives continuous entertainment. A spectator who is attached to the drama or to any role emotionally is always upset. This is the difference between a realized soul and an ignorant soul. The state of a realized soul exactly coincides with the state of God (Matbhavayopapadyate…— Gita). Such a state of God is the philosophy of life, which is the highest. This highest level is realized through logical analysis of the scriptures and such analysis is the science of life. Attainment of the self, leading into the state of peace without any entertainment (since interaction with the world is cut) is the art of life. Philosophy is superior to science and science is superior to art. Art is artificial or unreal and involves ignorance while science reveals the state of reality. Unless the grace of God falls on you, you cannot attain the philosophy of life through science. The art of life also involves analysis to attain the self but the result of such analysis based on egoism is not permanent and the soul will fall down bitterly. With God’s grace the analysis is extended in the right direction to finally reach the philosophy of life.

Merits & Demerit of ISKCON [Mr. Anil Antony asked whether the devotees of ISKCON can be considered as the best due to their sincere devotion.] Swami replied: Those devotees are really the best cream of devotees because they have realized the concept of the human incarnation which is Krishna. They are not much worried about the energetic forms like Narayana which are meaningful only with respect to the souls in the upper world. But from another angle they are in the lowest state. The practical aspect of worship is service, which alone yields divine fruit. Service requires a living being and not an inert object. Only a living being can receive service rendered by you. These devotees are serving idols and pictures of Krishna which are inert. These idols and pictures serve the purpose of development of theoretical devotion in you, which is related to the mind. But mere theoretical devotion without the practical aspect is useless. The theoretical devotion should result in practical devotion and the fruit is always associated only with the practical devotion. Knowledge and devotion are like the degree and the appointment order achieved by you. But both these cannot get you the salary unless you work in the job. The salary given at the end of the month is for the work that you have done in that month. The salary 22

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is not given for your degree or for the appointment order. The degree and the order help you to procure the work. Water and fertilizer help the plant grow and give fruit. The fruit is directly associated with the plant and not with the water or fertilizer. Thus, knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and devotion (Bhakti Yoga) help the achievement of the state of service (Karma Yoga). Only Karma (work) can get the fruit directly. These [ISKCON] devotees do not serve the present human incarnation and therefore all their service done to the statues or pictures becomes waste. Some undeserving people behind the statues or pictures are benefited by such service. You can worship the devotees and preachers of this cult and in such a case Krishna will be more pleased. The Advaitin is wrong in extending the concept of the human incarnation to every human being. In this angle the Iskcon devotee is better than the Advaitin because the Iskcon devotee has confined this concept to a specific human being like Krishna. But when the concept of service to God comes, the Advaitin looks better than that devotee. The Advaitin is serving himself assuming that he is God. Atleast a living being (Advaitin himself) is served; he really receives the service. Lord Krishna Himself stated that He will come down whenever it is necessary (Yadayadahi…—Gita). In that case, why are these devotees confining only to the past Krishna and why are they not searching for the present human incarnation? Do they accept Rama too as another incarnation of Krishna or not? They accept Rama as another human incarnation. It means more than one human incarnation of Krishna is accepted. Then, why not accept some other human incarnations especially when Krishna said that He will come again and again whenever required? In the Gita, Krishna said that He should be worshipped. Since Krishna preached the Gita to Arjuna, for Arjuna, Krishna was the human incarnation of that time. For other human beings belonging to other generations, Krishna means the human incarnation that is present in each generation. The Bhagavatam says that Krishna died and His body was cremated by Arjuna. If Krishna was God, it means God was cremated. In that case God cannot come again. Then the statement of Krishna that He will come again and again becomes false. God was in the body of Krishna like electric current in the wire. The wire may perish but the current is eternal. During the time of existence of the current in the wire, such a live wire should be treated as current directly. Similarly the medium in which God exists has to be treated as 23

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God directly because God cannot be contacted directly. Therefore, the body of Krishna at that time had to be treated as God directly (Vasudevah Sarvamiti…—Gita).

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Chapter - 5

GOD IS UNKNOWABLE O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Datta Jayanti – 2004] In the beginning Brahman (God) was One and alone. Only Brahman knows about Brahman and this is the meaning of the Vedic statement, “Brahma vit Brahmaiva Bhavati”. But this statement is misinterpreted and people say that “He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman”. This is not the correct meaning because the Veda says that Brahman cannot be known by the senses, mind, intelligence or logic (Yato Vachah, Nachakshusha, Apraapya Manasaa, Namedhayaa, Naisha Tarkena etc.). The Gita says “Maamtu Veda Na kaschana”, which means that nobody knows Brahman. The reason for this is that Brahman is beyond space. The imagination or intelligence of any human being cannot cross the three dimensional space. Therefore, no human being can imagine Brahman, which is beyond the space. The space was produced from Brahman as said in the Veda (Aatmanah Akaasah). Unless the space is dissolved, one cannot perceive or imagine Brahman. Unless the pot, which is the effect, is dissolved, its cause, which is the lump of mud, cannot be imagined. When space dissolves, the creation also dissolves and nobody remains to perceive or know Brahman. The authority for such incapability of human beings is the Veda and the Gita. Now, the atheists may say that that which cannot be known might not exist at all. For this, the Veda answers “Astheetyeva Upalabdhavyah” which means that Brahman makes the people know its existence, if not its details. How? It is done through the human incarnation. If this is not done, all the human beings will be atheists. The human incarnation exhibits certain things, which are beyond our imagination, thereby indicating the existence of that Brahman, which is beyond imagination. Such exhibition is necessary for the atheists and this is the main aim of all the super powers of the human incarnation. There is no need of such exhibition for any theist. Some scholars argue that there is no reference of human incarnation in the Veda. It is not correct. The Veda says “Ajayamaano 25

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Bahudha Vijaayate” which means that the Lord, who has no birth, is born through several forms. The Veda also says “Tadeva Anu Pravisat” which means that Brahman entered the world as an individual soul. Some scholars have misinterpreted this text also, stating that it means that Brahman entered the creation in the form of all living beings and not as the human incarnation. Such interpretation is wrong because the Veda says that a human being is born from the food derived from the plants (Annat Purushah). The plants are modifications of the five elements. Brahman cannot be born from food. Therefore Brahman created the inert universe and the living beings in the beginning itself for entertainment. On seeing the cinema of creation, Brahman was not satisfied and therefore entered the world as a specific soul, which is the human incarnation. Moreover the Gita says that the creation (Prakriti) is of two parts. One part is the inert nature called as Apara. The second part is the life called as Para. Prakriti means creation. The Para Prakriti means the best part of the creation.

Datta: Human Incarnation Brahman enters this world not only for the full entertainment but also in order to give the fortune of His vision, touch, conversation and co-living to the devotees. There are several human incarnations, which are given to this world and such a human incarnation is called as Datta. The word Datta means ‘given’ or ‘gifted’. Datta is not a specific deity as people misunderstand. Datta means any human incarnation gifted to the world to liberate the devotees. These incarnations are of different levels because the devotees are also of different levels. Datta means the system of preachers, who come down at different levels, in different places and in different religions for the sake of the human beings, who are present in different places, at different levels and in different religions. The main aim of the human incarnation is only to preach the divine special knowledge, which cannot be preached by any individual soul. Such special knowledge is called as ‘Prajnanam’ in the Veda. At one place, there will be an elementary school, a high school, a college and a university and teachers of different levels are required at that one place itself. Such teachers of different levels are required in each place, each language and each religion. If the Lord is confined to a particular place, language, generation or religion, He becomes partial. The Gita says that the Lord is the divine Father of all the human beings (Aham Bija Pradah 26

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Pitaa). An individual soul is the father of a limited family and the Lord is the Father of the entire world. The Lord is giving experience to us in every walk of life about His existence. But, such experiences become weak in course of time due to the petty minds of the human beings. The human mind always uses logic and interprets such experiences as mere accidental situations. Therefore the faith of the theists is not strong. The human preachers are unable to answer the doubts of these human beings and this further weakens their faith. Therefore, the Lord comes down in the form of a human being as the divine preacher. Thus, there is a strong necessity for such incarnation. The Veda says “Yat Saakshat Aparokshat Brahma”, which means that Brahman comes down before the eyes of the human beings. The Gita also says “Maanusheem Tanumaasritam”, which means that Brahman comes down as a human being. But the human body taken by the Lord follows the rules of nature and is not different from any other human body. The shirt of a king is not different from any other shirt. It can be cut with the help of a blade like any other shirt. The speciality is in the king but not in the shirt. If the Lord wishes, He could take a human body, which neither has neither birth nor death. It can be a divine body, which appears before all human beings in different places and preaches, in different languages in the same time. But, such creation of a divine body means that the Lord is going beyond the rules of the nature, which are created by the Lord alone. The Lord has such divine power, which can go beyond this nature. Such divine power is called ‘Maya’ and the Lord, who is the possessor of such Maya is called ‘Mayee’ as said in the Gita “Mayinam tu Maheswaram”. But no sensible administrator will break his own rules when some work is possible within the setup of the existing rule. There is no need of doing that work by breaking the administration. The Lord can achieve the same result by taking several human bodies at a time and from generation to generation. In such way, the divine administration is not disturbed. Therefore, the Lord comes in several human incarnations at a time in each generation and the Vishwarupa represents this. In the Gita, the prayer on the Vishwarupa mentions about several feet, faces and also several stomachs (Aneka Baahoodara Vaktra Netram). Therefore, the present picture of Vishwarupa is wrong. Vishwarupa only means the photograph of a group of preachers existing at the same time. The word ‘Udara’ (stomach) is not justified in the present picture of 27

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Vishwarupam, which is again another misperception leading to misinterpretation. Therefore, it is very very clear that Datta means only the human incarnation that comes down to preach the true divine knowledge. But, due to the egoism and jealousy which are natural to human beings, they do not recognize the Lord in the form of a human being. Only very few believed in Krishna as the Lord. Only a very few believed in Shirdi Sai Baba as God. When Sai was alive there were a few devotees and nobody thought of building a temple for Him. Even Butee wanted to build a temple for Krishna alone, who was a past incarnation. Now there are millions of devotees and lakhs of temples for Sai Baba because He is no more a present incarnation. He who wins over the three types of egoism caused by the three qualities (Trigunas) is called as Atri. He who conquers jealousy (Asuya) is Anasuya. Such a devotee alone can capture the human incarnation. This is the sense of the statement that Atri and Anasuya attained Datta. All the human beings have egoism and jealousy as two layers covering their eyes. Therefore, they misunderstand the outermost human gross body of the Lord since it also has birth, death, hunger etc., They think that the Lord is also an ordinary human being. The wire in which the current is passing and the wire without current, look alike to the eyes. The difference can be known only when one goes near and experiences. Some people are able to cross this gross body and capture the inner subtle body called ‘Sukshma Sharira’, which is made of three qualities. But, these people expect the qualities of the Lord to be only good (Satvam). They expect the Lord to be of the nature of Vishnu who represents Satvam. Brahma is Rajas and Shiva is Tamas. These devotees take the Lord as Vishnu only and expect the Lord to have only good qualities. Rajas and Tamas are bad qualities. Then, how these devotees can explain the incarnation of ‘Narasimha’, who was full of anger (Rajas)? How can these devotees explain the bad qualities of theft etc. (Tamas), shown by Krishna? The devotees who realize that all three forms are equal and the Lord is associated with these three forms (three qualities), can alone understand the Lord. The Lord is beyond these three qualities which are the means of His play. This subtle body with the three qualities is just a tri-colored shirt of the Lord. The Lord does not have any colour. Therefore Datta appears as a preacher (Satvam), 28

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appears as a furious person by beating the devotees (Rajas) and appears as person who drinks wine and is associated with prostitutes (Tamas). Only such realized devotees can pass the test of Datta. Datta is Vishwarupa, which means that the gross body of Datta is this universe in which all the three qualities exist. Therefore, Datta contains all the three qualities. This universe does not contain only good qualities. Therefore it follows that Datta is associated with all the three qualities (Trigunatmaka) and not just good qualities alone (Sattva Gunaatmaka). The Lord said in the Gita that He contains all the three qualities (yechaiva Saatvika Bhaavah…). According to the Shastra no human being consists of pure good qualities only (Satvam). The human body into which the Lord enters must follow the same norm. The Gita says the same (Tribhih Gunamaaih Bhavaih). The three faces of Lord Datta indicate the three qualities and the six hands indicate the six changes of a human body, which are existence, birth, growth, modification, reduction and destruction (Shat Vikaaras or Shat Urmis). This means that Datta is a human form containing the three qualities and a body undergoing all the six changes. He who knows this inner interpretation of the word Datta is the real realized devotee of Datta. The devotees in the stage of preliminary ignorance, worship a statue or a picture of Datta having three faces and six hands. If such form of Datta were real, Hanuman and the Gopikas would have worshipped such a form. The human beings, whose egoism and jealousy are not removed and therefore cannot worship the human incarnation, can worship such statues and pictures of Datta. This is called as representative worship (Prateeka Upasanam). In that stage such worship is not wrong and realized scholars should not mock at them because they were also in the same stage in the beginning. There is no other way than this for the ignorant people. The real form of Brahman can never be understood as said in the Vedas. Even the super natural powers are associated characteristics like jewels, since such powers can be donated even to the demons by the Lord. The demons cannot become Lord by wearing these jewels. The son of an advocate cannot be the advocate by simply putting on the black coat of his father. His son cannot get the talent of the father in law and advocacy. Therefore the Vedas say that the special divine knowledge of the Lord, which nobody can attain, is the real characteristic of the Lord. Such knowledge cannot be attained by 29

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demons, but ignorant people want God only for the sake of getting boons in this world and fulfilling their desires. They have no true love for God. Their love is only for His powers because those powers are useful to attain boons. One bows to the collector but not to the person in that post. Even if the collector is an undeserving person, people do not mind bowing to him because they have some work with the collector and not with the person in that post. Similarly ignorant people worship even demons on seeing their powers. If the Lord does not exhibit these powers, these people will not worship Him. People will not bow to a retired collector who may be a real deserving person. Now, one doubt arises i.e., if the special knowledge is the characteristic form of Brahman, then Brahman is understood. But the Vedas say that no one can understand Brahman. The answer for this is that the special knowledge is also an associated characteristic like a jewel, but this jewel is never separated from the Lord. A married lady can donate any jewel or ornament to anybody, but not the yellow thread from her neck. [A married lady is supposed to wear the Mangal sutra at all times. This mangal sutra has a pendant attached to a yellow thread, in some places. In other places it is gold chain with certain beads and a pendant of golden couplets.] Therefore the yellow thread is an associated characteristic and also is an integrated characteristic. This integrated characteristic is useful to differentiate her from other ladies who are not married or whose husbands are no more. Similarly the special divine knowledge of the human incarnation is useful in separating the human incarnation from other human beings. The special knowledge creates infinite bliss in our hearts and therefore infinite bliss is also an integrated characteristic of Brahman. The special knowledge (Prajnana) and the infinite bliss (Akhanda Ananda) are inseparable from each other like the light and heat of the sun. The knowledge of scholars may appear as special knowledge, but it will not create infinite bliss in our hearts. Sunlight can be separated from moonlight by its heat. The sunlight is integrated with heat and the moonlight is not associated with heat. Therefore when the special knowledge gives us infinite bliss, such human being is the incarnation and He is separated from other scholars. By seeing this creation, we can guess the existence of the Creator. By seeing the house, we infer the existence of its builder. But, the house cannot show the actual place where the builder is existing at that time. Only his voice can indicate the place of his existence. Similarly the 30

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creation can give the inference of the existence of the Creator but not the actual place of the Creator, for whom we are searching. The special knowledge which gives infinite bliss indicates the actual place of existence of the Creator i.e., the human incarnation. Even though, you have recognized the human incarnation, you cannot see Brahman, which is hiding in the human incarnation. The special knowledge which gives infinite bliss is radiating from the Brahman through the incarnation. You have seen the human incarnation through the eyes and heard the special knowledge through the ears. Your eyes have captured the human incarnation and your ears have captured the special knowledge. But remember that neither your eyes nor your ears have touched Brahman. The Veda says “Prajnana Ghanah”, which means the special knowledge and the human body. It is just like a particular cloud is transmitting the light of the sun hidden in it. You have seen the cloud and the sunlight, but not the sun. Therefore, if you become egoistic and say that you have captured Brahman through the knowledge, we are sorry to say that you have not even touched Brahman and the special knowledge is only an associated characteristic and not the real characteristic. You have seen only the light and not the sun at all. However, if a devotee, who surrenders to the Lord without egoism feels unhappy that he has not experienced Brahman, we say, that the devotee has experienced Brahman through the Knowledge. The light and heat of the sun are experienced through the sunlight and therefore the experience of sunlight is the experience of sun. Therefore the two contradicting statements of the Veda, one saying that Brahman is seen (Pratyagaatmana maikshat) and the other saying that Brahman cannot be seen (Na Chakshushaa Pashyati) are correlated without any contradiction. Nobody can see the sun and one has seen the sun through the sunlight. Brahman has no objection for getting captured by you. If you capture Brahman, you will certainly become egoistic due to your human nature. You think that you have surrendered to the Lord completely without any trace of egoism. But remember my friend; egoism is hidden in you as a minute trace about which even you are not aware. So many ideas related to your previous birth are hidden in you, which come out in your dream. Therefore, in course of time, you will certainly become egoistic and you will fall. To prevent you from such a fall, Brahman is escaping from your capture. Except for this, there is no other reason and whatever the Lord does, it is only in your interest. 31

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Awareness, Brahman and Advaita Scholars say that Brahman is awareness because the Veda says that Brahman wished to create this world. The wish is the characteristic of awareness (Chaitanyam). But this logic is not correct. To wish, Brahman need not be awareness. You are limiting Brahman with the conditions and the logic of this creation. The Veda says that the Lord can run without feet and can capture without hands (Apaani Pado Javano Grahita). If you say that Brahman is awareness, the awareness is present in every living being. Do you mean that every living being is Brahman? Brahman created this world. Can the awareness in any living being create this world? You may say that the soul is a small spark of Brahman. In that case, let the soul create a small atom. You may say that the soul creates the dream [a human individual can create his own dream-world while sleeping]. The dream is not the atom. The soul creating the dream is only a comparison [simile] for Brahman in creating this world. Brahman created several examples in this world so that we can understand the acts of Brahman through those examples. You may argue that wherever knowledge exists, awareness must exist. Inert matter, which is not awareness, cannot possess knowledge. Therefore, since Brahman is recognized as the possessor of the knowledge, Brahman must be awareness. This argument is again wrong. Brahman is not awareness but Brahman is associated with the awareness, which is radiating the knowledge. The yellow thread of the married lady is consisting of the thread and the yellow colour. Similarly Brahman is associated with the awareness that radiates the special knowledge. The lady is neither the thread nor the yellow colour. Similarly Brahman is neither awareness nor the knowledge. Moreover we have clearly stated that Brahman is omnipotent and can do anything even without the association of the instrument. Brahman can run without the instrumental legs. Similarly Brahman can radiate knowledge even without the awareness. The married lady can contain the yellow colour even without the thread. From this point of view also, Brahman need not be awareness and need not be even associated with awareness. Moreover, your logic is wrong at the base itself. You say that awareness and knowledge are inseparable. If it is so, awareness is present in birds and animals, but birds and animals are not associated with knowledge. Remember that the lady created the thread, the yellow colour and the association of the yellow colour with the thread. Similarly, Brahman 32

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created awareness and knowledge. If knowledge is associated with Brahman, it is only because such is the will of Brahman. The Gita says that Brahman enters the human body like the sun entering the cloud. Here you can eliminate the inert statues, living plants, birds and animals. The reason is that all these categories cannot preach knowledge. Therefore Brahman enters only the human body as said in the Gita “Manusheem Tanumasritam”. The Gita does not mention about the entry of Brahman into a statue, plant, bird or an animal. The main aim of the incarnation is only preaching that divine special knowledge and this is possible only through a human body. This does not mean that Brahman has entered every human being because that special divine knowledge, which creates infinite bliss in our hearts, is not coming out from every human being. The sun has not entered every cloud. If Brahman has entered every human being and if every human being is a divine preacher, who is to be preached? What is the necessity of preaching? The remaining inert objects, plants, birds and animals cannot be preached. Then preaching becomes meaningless and it means that Brahman does things, which are meaningless. You may say that Brahman is the substratum of the entire world. Therefore the knowledge of Brahman is radiating in every human being. If this were true, how come the majority of human beings are ignorant? You may find a few scholars who are preaching the divine knowledge. But such knowledge is not special and is not creating infinite bliss. It may create a little happiness. There may be some clouds in the sky in the daytime, which are transmitting a little light. But there is one particular cloud from which the entire light of the sun is transmitted with high intensity. There is a quantitative difference between this cloud and the other clouds. The soul is called ‘Alpajna’ which means that the soul has little knowledge. But, that particular human incarnation is called ‘Sarvajna’, which means the soul with full knowledge. That particular cloud is pervaded by the sun and that cloud is almost the sun. This is the Advaita or monism (non-duality) between that particular cloud and the sun. This does not mean the monism of the sun and every cloud. Infact, there are some black clouds also, which do not transmit even a single ray of the sun. Such souls are called ‘Ajna’ which mean the souls without any trace of knowledge. There is no other way than treating the light-transmitting cloud as the sun and there is no any difference in the experience as far as that particular cloud and the sun are concerned. You 33

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cannot look at the sun directly. If Brahman (God) is directly revealed, the creation, which is made of ignorance, disappears. You will also disappear since you are a small part of the creation. Therefore, the direct revelation of Brahman is impossible to you. Today, we have seen a particular cloud in which the sun is hidden. Tomorrow, we will see another cloud in which the same sun is hidden. The sun is not changed. The composition of the clouds is also one and the same. Therefore you should not say that the cloud of yesterday alone Brahman and reject the present cloud. Generally, human beings are jealous of another human being who is in the present. The Veda says that even angels have this disease (Paroksha Priya ivahi devaah Pratyakshadvishah). People reject the present human incarnation and worship the past incarnation, who is not seen anymore. Some people with even more jealousy worship only the statues of celestial forms, which are not at all present in this world. If one conquers this jealousy, he will be able to worship the present incarnation. Hanuman worshipped Rama and the Gopikas worshipped Krishna. The Gopikas did not worship Rama (who was the past incarnation) and that was not wrong because they did not see Rama. But Hanuman did not accept Krishna though he saw Him. For Hanuman, both Rama and Krishna were present incarnations [Hanuman lived from the time of Rama, was alive at the time of Krishna, and is said to be alive even today]. Yesterday, you have seen one cloud with the hidden sun and another cloud today with the same hidden sun. You have accepted yesterday’s cloud but not today’s cloud. The shape of the cloud may vary but the composition of the cloud is the same. You must know that the cloud is not the sun and also that the sun is not modified as the cloud. Yesterday’s cloud was not the sun. It was only assumed to be the sun. If you think that yesterday’s cloud was the sun, then the sun must have also disappeared when the cloud disappeared. You will conclude that since today’s cloud is not yesterday’s cloud, today’s cloud is not the sun. Similarly if you think that Krishna was Brahman and Brahman disappeared when the body of Krishna was burnt, then you will conclude that the present incarnation is not Brahman because Brahman was burnt. Ignorant people think that the human body of the incarnation is Brahman. This is said in the Gita “Avyaktam Vyakti mapannam”. To eliminate the previous incarnation, we must accept that the human body is not Brahman. The cloud is not the sun. However, when the present incarnation is worshipped, you must think that that cloud is the sun, 34

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because there is no other way to capture Brahman. Therefore you must worship the human body of the present incarnation as Brahman. You must treat the present cloud with the hidden sun as the sun itself. But when yesterday’s cloud comes into the picture, you must know that the cloud and the sun are different. For the past incarnation, you must use the knowledge of duality (Dvaita). In the case of the present incarnation you must have the knowledge of monism (Advaita). For the people of the generation of the past incarnation, monism was correct. If you continue the monism from the past to the present, you will not accept the present incarnation. So, to leave the past incarnation, analysis (Jnana) is necessary and to worship the present incarnation, imposed ignorance (Ajnana) is necessary. Imposed ignorance means that you have both the analysis and the ignorance to leave the past and worship the present respectively. Imposed ignorance does not mean real ignorance. If the cloud is not acting as the sun [not transmitting light] and if you think that the cloud is the sun, then that would be real ignorance. But here, the cloud is acting as the sun for almost all practical purposes and so thinking that the cloud is the sun is not real ignorance although the sun and the cloud are different.

Every Soul is Not God A human being is only a composite of three bodies which are: 1) The outer most coat like gross body (Sthula Sareera) 2) Inner shirt like subtle body (Sukshma Sareera) and 3) Inner most banian (inner shirt) like causal body (Karana Sareera). Human beings are also based on Brahman, since they are part and parcel of the world. Yet this creation does not even touch the Brahman because it stands on a mere will of Brahman. Therefore no human being is even touching Brahman and it is foolish to say that every human being is Brahman. A particular human being can be treated as Brahman because Brahman pervades all over His body by His power called Maya. The sun pervades a particular cloud through its sunlight. This means the sunlight is pervading the cloud and this is treated as the sun pervading the cloud. This sunlight is transmitted through the cloud. Similarly the power, Maya, is also transmitted through such a human incarnation. Such power is not transmitted through every human being. The sun did not enter every cloud, but any cloud is eligible for the entry of the sun. Similarly, every human being is eligible for the entry of Brahman. 35

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Eligibility means that Brahman can enter any human being. Such entry is according to the will of Brahman and not according to the will of the human being. The income tax officer can enter any house for a search. This does not mean that the officer has entered every house. He has entered only a particular house. You can say that the air has entered every house. But the income tax officer is different from the air. The Veda says “Eeshaa Vaasyam Idam”. Here the word Vaasyam means that anything in this world is eligible for the entry of the Lord. This does not mean that the Lord has entered everything in this world. If the Lord has entered everything, how can you correlate the Vedic statement, “Neti Neti Iti”, which means that nothing in this world is Brahman? But, there is another Vedic text, which says that everything is Brahman (Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahma). Here, according to Sanskrit grammar, the meaning of this statement should be taken as “Everything is under the control of the Brahman.” This statement can also be applied to the case of human incarnation. In that case, you can say that that whole human body is Brahman. The cloud illuminated by the sun is almost the sun. Brahman can be taken as the basis of the world and this relationship between Brahman and the world is called the ‘base-based relationship’ [object-substratum]. In this relationship, there is not even a slight touch between the world and God. Therefore, no human being can achieve Brahman without his individual spiritual effort (sadhana). Only by sadhana, can one become near and dear to Brahman. Even in the case of the human incarnation of God, all human beings in the world cannot even recognize Him and therefore cannot become near and dear to the human incarnation. Only by special effort, can a few recognize Him and become near and dear to Him.

Difficulties in Recognition The nine obstructions (Nava Avaranaas) in recognizing the human incarnation are: 1) The five elements constituting the gross body, 2) The three qualities constituting the subtle body 3) The awareness which is the causal body These nine obstructions, which are like coverings or compound walls, constitute the three bodies of any human being as well as the human body of the human incarnation. In the case of an ordinary human being, there is nothing else than these three bodies. But in the case of the 36

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human incarnation, the fourth entity, which is Brahman, exists. The three qualities cannot exist without the awareness just like the waterwaves cannot exist without water. You may say that you have standstill water without waves. So you may say that the water can exist without waves, but modern science proves that there are vibrations even in standstill water. The molecules in the water have rotations and the atoms have vibrations. The sub-atomic particles have spin and revolutions. Therefore, anything, which appears immovable, has inner movements. The Gita says the same (Akarmanicha Karmayah). Therefore, there is no water without waves. Similarly there are no qualities without awareness and there is no awareness without qualities. The qualities exist as unrecognizable traces in the pure awareness. Even in deep sleep, the qualities are present in subtle state. They project [manifest] when the human being wakes up from deep sleep. Therefore, the awareness (Kaarana Sareera) and the three qualities (Sukshma Sareera) are inseparable and integrated and are treated as one entity called as soul (Jiva). In the Gita creation is sub-divided into two parts: 1) Apara, which consists of the five elements and the three qualities (Satvam as intelligence, Rajas as mind and Tamas as ego or Ahankara). 2) Para, which is the pure awareness; called as Chit or Chittam. But the three qualities of Apara and Para (Chittam) come as one category called Antahkaranas. This means that the three qualities and the pure awareness are integrated as one category called as Jiva. This Jiva contains the three qualities, which are made of awareness and the awareness is made of the three qualities in subtle state. This Jiva is permanent when compared to the gross body, but when the Jiva is compared with the Lord, the Lord is eternal. The Lord created the Jiva. Before creation, only the Lord existed. Ofcourse, these souls (Jeevas) continue to exist since the Lord wishes so. But this does not mean that the soul is eternal. That which has birth must have an end. The end can come if the Lord wishes. Therefore, the soul is not eternal. The Gita clearly says “Nahanyate Hanyamaane Sareere” which means that though the gross body is destroyed, the soul is not destroyed. The permanence of the soul is not absolute but only relative with respect to the permanency of the gross body. Scholars have misunderstood the second chapter of the Gita and concluded that the soul is absolutely 37

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eternal and is the Brahman itself. If the soul is eternal, then how did Lord Krishna create the same souls again for one month, when some souls were hidden by Prajapati? The soul exists due to the conversion of food, which is inert matter. The conversion of life and inert matter can be seen when Ahalya was made stone and the same stone was converted back into Ahalya. Therefore life is only a complicated form of energy, which is the result of the conversion of matter as per the will of the Lord. Therefore, scholars have to cross this ninth compound wall, which is the soul. Beyond the soul, Brahman exists though not perceived or understood. The proof for only the existence of Brahman is given. Therefore, you should not say that there is nothing beyond the soul. In the human incarnation of God, one has to cross all these three bodies, which are the nine Aavaranaas (coverings) to recognize Brahman. But, at the same time, the power of Brahman pervades all the three bodies and therefore even the gross body can be treated as Brahman and can be worshipped. Other than this, there is no other way to worship Brahman. This is clearly stated in the Veda “Vedahametam Purusham….” The meaning of this line is that one can know the Purusha (cloud), which is illuminated with the power of Brahman called as Maya (sunlight). Such monism between that particular human being and Brahman is the Knowledge, which is the end of ignorance (Tamasah Parastat). If you feel that the sun and cloud are separate (Dvaita), it is ignorance because your aim is to worship Brahman and not to analyze Brahman. If your aim is not to worship Brahman and only to analyze Brahman, then the monism is ignorance and duality is the Knowledge. He who knows the sun as that illuminated cloud, worships Brahman and is liberated here itself because the human incarnation is present in this world itself (Tamevam Vidvaan Amrita Iha Bhavati). The word ‘Iha’ means in this world itself. Other than this one path, there is no other way to see, touch, talk and to live with Brahman (Naanyah Panthaah). In the Veda, the words like Purusha and Atma mean only the human incarnation. In Sanskrit, the word Atma means the human body too. In the Veda, Purusha Suktam is treated as the most sacred because it preaches about the human incarnation of the Lord. Even the four Mahavaakyas speak only about the human incarnation. The first three sentences say that the human incarnation looks like Myself, yourself and any other human being externally. But according to the fourth sentence, He is different from all the human beings internally, due to His Special Knowledge 38

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(Prajnanam). This wonderful knowledge is called as Maya. The word Maya means wonderful. Human beings also possess knowledge but such knowledge is the quality of Satvam, which is a part of the creation. Prajnanam or Maya is the knowledge of the creator and is quite different from Jnanam, which is only a quality of creation or Prakriti. This Jnanam cannot explain the concepts, which are beyond the logic and so, such knowledge is not wonderful. As soon as the soul leaves this human body, it attains the smokebody and goes to Pretaloka (world of the dead) for the enquiry. From there, when the soul goes to the hell, it continues in the same body, which is called as ‘Yatana Sharira’ (body of pain). If the soul goes to ‘Pitruloka’ (world of ancestors), it contains the same smoke body. Sometimes the soul wanders in this world itself as a ghost (Pisacha) and in such case also, the same body is maintained. For the souls of this second world, the Lord also enters a smoke body and that is also an incarnation of Datta. He is said to be in the form of ‘Digambara Pisacha’ who preaches to all the souls of the second world. There is third world, which contains heaven and Brahmaloka. The soul from Pretaloka may enter the heaven. In such a case the soul leaves the smoke body and attains a body of light called as Divya Sharira or Bhoga Sharira. The word ‘Divya’ means light and the word ‘Bhoga’ means enjoyment of good results. Such a soul [soul wearing a body of light] is said to be Deva or Angel. In this world, the Lord too takes the body of light in the heaven and preaches to all the angels. In the Veda, it is mentioned that Brahman appeared in the form of light called ‘Yaksha’. Brahman preached to all the angels that no one should become proud due to egoism. Even the Lord of angels called Indra was refused for an interview. A soul will come back to the first world [this world] after enjoying the good results in the heaven. Therefore, if the soul goes to Pretaloka after death, it has to come back whether it goes to hell, pitruloka (Moon) or heaven. The highest region in the third world is Brahmaloka. When the soul goes to this Brahmaloka, it does not go to the Pretaloka for the enquiry. It attains a body of light is called Yoga Sharira. The word Yoga means that the soul is going to be associated with the Lord. In the Brahmaloka also, the Lord becomes Datta by entering a highly intense body of light. This incarnation is called Brahma or Vishnu or Shiva. Thus these three forms are also incarnations of Brahman and they are 39

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called as Datta. The most pitiable thing is that the souls in these higher worlds (second and third), except Brahmaloka also do not recognize the incarnations of Brahman due to the principle of common plane [since God appears in a body similar to their own bodies]. The souls have the same bodies as Brahman has in these worlds also. Therefore due to egoism and jealousy, they refuse to recognize Brahman and neglect Datta. But in Brahmaloka that is not the case because only those souls who recognized the human incarnation in this world go to Brahmaloka. These souls have conquered the effect of the principle of common plane here itself. Therefore they will not be affected by this principle in Brahmaloka also. The Veda says this point very clearly “Ihachet Avedeet….” This means that if you have recognized the human incarnation in this world i.e., Datta, you will also recognize Datta in Brahmaloka. If you have not recognized Datta in this world, you can never recognize Him either in the second world or in the third world except Brahmaloka.

Universal Datta The universality of Datta in this world must be recognized. Brahman is not confined to only one human body. Therefore Brahman appeared in human forms before and after Lord Krishna. Krishna Himself stated “Yuge Yuge” and “Yada Yadaahi”. This means that whenever and wherever there is necessity, Brahman appears in human form. Brahman can appear in several human forms in several regions and several religions at the same time and for the same generation. Conservatism is against the philosophy of Datta. Datta is not only Rama, Krishna, Sai etc., but also Buddha, Jesus, Mahavir Jain, Mohammed, etc. If you say that Krishna alone can save human beings, you are attributing partiality to the Lord. There was sometime in the past when India knew Krishna but foreign countries had not even heard about Krishna. In that time, the foreign generations must have gone to hell because they had never even heard about Krishna, what to speak of worshiping Krishna. But it was not their mistake. The teaching and literature of Krishna had not crossed the sea at that time. Had it been spread all over the world, atleast some of those generations might have worshipped Krishna. For no fault of theirs, those people have gone to hell and this is the injustice done by Krishna. Krishna should have spread His message throughout the world when He incarnated at one 40

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place. This argument applies to other incarnations of other religions also. No religion can give a correct answer to this objection. Therefore in order to make the Lord impartial, which has to be agreed by all religions, the only way is to accept that the Lord incarnated in several regions and religions and should have preached the same divine knowledge in different languages. Then only, can you justify the Lord as the creator of this entire universe. Every religion accepts this concept but does not adopt it and therefore becomes conservative. All the religions are correct, since all the scriptures of different religions are the preaching of the same Lord. Every religion sees the truth from its own angle and receives a part of the truth, which is absolutely true. But when all these angles are correlated, the parts will compose the total truth. One has seen the tusk and another has seen the body of the elephant. One says that the elephant is like a pillar and another says that the elephant is like a wall. Both are true as parts of the total truth, but they contradict each other because each part is considered as the total truth due to fanatic ignorance. Thus Arya Samaj and Islam say that the absolute God does not incarnate in this world. He sends His servants alone to preach to this world. This is the truth when we consider one part of the total concept. The sun is not seen directly. The sun sends the cloud, which is created by Him. Thus Brahman is not seen directly. Only the human body, which is His servant is sent for preaching. When you analyze, you find that this is a part of the truth. Christianity says that the human incarnation is Son and the Lord is the Father. Father produced the son. Therefore Father means the Creator and Son means the created human body of the incarnation. The Son is under the control of the Father and so can be treated as His servant. This concept coincides with the above concept. But Jesus says that He and His Father are one and the same. Here the second part of the concept is realized. The sun and the illuminated cloud are one and the same for all practical purposes. For the purpose of worship, this concept of monism is the truth. In Hinduism both these concepts exist as Dvaita and Advaita. Buddha and Mahavir Jain kept silent about God. This means that God is beyond words and imagination. If the total truth is realized, the universality of Datta is understood and this is the complete knowledge about Datta. The company or association of people that you associate with, (Sanga) decides your path. Worldly people will only poison you with 41

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the materialistic knowledge of this world. Spiritual people will uplift you with the divine knowledge of the Lord. You fellow, you always associate with poisoning people since they are your kith and kin like wife, children, relatives and friends! They always inject the poison of materialism of this world into your mind so that you always think, talk and do materialistic things only. This wrong poisonous knowledge, which is called as ignorance, can be cut only by the right spiritual knowledge. Knowledge leads to decision, which results in words and action. The nature of knowledge is reflected in your words and deeds. Finally you will end in the results of your deeds. Therefore, the right spiritual knowledge is very essential for your right upliftment in this human life. Only Sadguru, who is Brahman in human form, can only give such right divine knowledge. The word ‘Sat’ means Brahman as per the Veda (Sadeva …). Similarly, Satsanga means the association with the Brahman in the human form, which is the human incarnation of the Lord. Human birth is rare, desire for salvation is rarer and association with the human incarnation is the rarest as said by Shankara “Manushyatvam….” The first step in the spiritual effort is association. If you catch the first step, other steps follow without any further effort as in the case of escalators in the railway station. You will go to the last step, which is the salvation while you are alive (Jeevan mukti) without any further effort as said by Shankara (Satsangatve…). Therefore, the selection of the Sadguru, who is the human incarnation called as Datta, is the most important first step. If you catch the human incarnation, you will get salvation in this world itself without any further effort. This Datta (Sadguru) is mixed with other fraud preachers like the original diamond mixed with artificial diamonds. Now again, all these diamonds (original and artificial) are mixed with gravel stones. This means that Datta and the fraud preachers are mixed with the ordinary human beings, since all appear as human beings alone. Therefore, there are two stages of filtration. In the first stage, you have to separate the diamonds from the gravel stones. You must separate the spiritual preachers from your kith and kin. In the second stage, you have to separate Datta from the other preachers. Finally you have to get the original diamond and the knowledge of such filtration is called ‘Brahma Vidya’ or ‘Brahma Jnana’. You have to get the original diamond separated first from gravel stones and then from artificial diamonds. This can be done only by the knowledge called ‘Ratna Vidya’ or ‘Ratna 42

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Pariksha’ (Knowledge of Jewels). You are unnecessarily spending lot of energy and time in selecting your bride, who is a gravel stone only. Any gravel stone is same as the other. Similarly any bride is same as the other in poisoning yourself with the materialistic knowledge of this world. But, you are not spending time and energy in selecting the right divine preacher. If you are ignorant about ‘Ratna Vidya’, you may mistake a gravel stone for the original diamond. If your knowledge is incomplete, you may select an artificial diamond for the original diamond. In both cases you lose your money, but atleast, money can be earned again and hence there is not much loss. But if you select an ordinary human being or a fraud preacher as your spiritual preacher, your loss is irrepairable. The reason for this is that you will fall into hell forever and will not get this human birth again. An artificial diamond is better than a gravel stone. A fraud spiritual preacher is better than materialistic human beings, who may be your kith and kin. The fraud preacher increases your selfishness by making the Lord as the instrument to achieve your materialistic desires. This is like a poison-tablet coated with real medicine. The real medicine here is that you’re worshipping the Lord. The poison is the increased selfishness. But, this capsule is better than the direct tablet of poison, which is given by your so-called kith and kin. Thus a fraud preacher is better than your kith and kin. In the preaching of the fraud teacher, atleast God is introduced. But, in the conversations with your kith and kin, there is no any trace of the knowledge of God. They talk only about the materialistic goals and the corresponding materialistic efforts. But, if you can catch Datta, you can get the tablet of medicine directly. Sometimes Datta also gives the tablet of medicine coated by poison for some low-level devotees. The higher level devotees can take the medicine directly, which is completely the knowledge of the Lord. The lower level devotees need solutions for some materialistic problems. If these problems are solved, there is a hope for them to become higher level devotees. For such low-level devotees, Datta clears their problems and then preaches the spiritual knowledge. Such low-level devotees require the capsule alone. The difference in the capsules given by the fraud teacher and Datta is that the first capsule contains very little medicine and lot of poison, whereas the second capsule contains very little poison and lot of medicine.

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You must eliminate the artificial diamonds from the original diamond. The fraud preachers are either scholars in the Vedas and Shastras or illiterate, not knowing even the Vedas and Shastras. You have to eliminate both these types. The knowledge of Brahman is always inseparable from love and bliss. Knowledge is Brahma, Love is Vishnu and Bliss is Shiva as per the Veda (Prajnanam Brahma, Raso Vaisah, Anando Brahma). These three forms are inseparable because only one Brahman exists in these three forms like the same actor existing in the three roles. The knowledge preached by scholars only gives a headache and not love or bliss in your heart. The knowledge of illiterate preachers is without the quotations from the Vedas and Shastras. If that illiterate person is Brahman, he should also be Lord Brahma who created the Vedas and Shastras. Then, what is the difficulty for him to quote the Vedas and Shastras, which are written by himelf? If he is not Lord Brahma, he cannot be Brahman. Brahman means Possessor and Datta means Transporter. Brahman possesses knowledge, love and bliss. Datta transfers these three into the disciples. The container of fire possesses the heat. When one goes near the container, the heat is transferred to him and he must experience that heat. If there is no such transfer of heat, the container does not possess heat. Therefore, Brahman must be Datta. If Brahman is not Datta, Brahman is not Brahman. The very authority of containing the heat is only the transfer of heat. If someone claims to be Brahman, the authority is that he should be Datta. This means he who transfers knowledge, love and bliss can alone be the possessor of knowledge, love and bliss. Therefore, fraud human incarnations, who claim that they possess knowledge, love and bliss should be discarded because they are unable to transfer the same to the hearts of the other people, who come near them. The three faces of Datta indicate creation, ruling and destruction of this universe. Such capacity is also an associated property of Brahman, which is ofcourse inseparable like the knowledge. Again creation, maintenance and destruction are inseparable from each other because during creation, the maintenance of the new product exists and at the same time destruction (disappearance) of the cause-material also takes place. The right half of Datta is the preacher (Guru) holding the conch (Sankha), Damaruka and the bead garland. Sankha denotes the Vedas. 44

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Dhamaruka denotes the Shastras. The bead garland, which rolls again and again, denotes the formation of sentence from the sound of the Sankha and Dhamaruka. The repetition of the garland denotes the repeated line of the devotional song indicating devotion. Thus the right side denotes knowledge and devotion. The left half of Datta indicates the Lord (Bhagavan) holding the Chakra indicating ‘Kala’ (time), Trishula indicating the three types of Karma and finally the water vessel (Kamandalu) indicating the spiritual powers. The right side is more important than the left side. Guru is greater than Bhagavan–why? Bhagavan establishes justice by destroying the injustice through the weapons on the left side. He leads you from injustice to justice. But, Guru leads you to salvation from the stage of justice. You have to cross even justice to get the salvation as said in the Gita (Sarva Dharmaan…).

Types of Incarnations The human incarnations (Datta) are of various types like Kala (a ray), Amsha (a part), Purna (full) and Paripurna (fullest). The Amsha and Kala incarnations are called partial incarnations of Datta. Thus the Kala incarnation contains only a ray of the power of Datta. The vessel contains only one drop of milk and that drop alone comes out. He is like an elementary school teacher who can teach the elementary classes only. You need not look down upon Him. He has done his assigned duty perfectly. But he is different from a professor, who also happens to teach the elementary class. He is like a vessel filled with milk but giving only a drop of milk according to the requirement. Though the professor looks like an elementary teacher as per the surrounding necessity, you should not underestimate Him. Thus the fullest incarnation (Pari Purna) of Datta also may look like a Kala Incarnation due to the low level of the disciples around Him. There is another type of incarnation, which is called as ‘Avesha’. The Lord enters a devotee either fully or partially for some urgent work. As soon as the work is finished, the Lord exits from the body of the devotee. During the stay of the Lord in the devotee, such devotee is also Datta.

Anagha Who is Anagha? Anagha is the wife of Datta. Wife is denoted by the word ‘Bharya’ which means ‘one who is maintained’. The entire world including all the Jeevas (souls) is maintained by the Lord. The 45

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Lord is called as the Husband denoted by the word ‘Bharta’ meaning the maintainer. Therefore every soul is a wife and the Lord is the Husband. The word Anagha means ‘sinless’. In what context is this word used for the soul? When the soul (devotee) leaves even his duties for the sake of the Lord, he becomes sinless. For any other reason, except for the sake of the Lord, if one leaves one’s duties, he or she becomes a sinner. Shankara left His mother and His essential duty to serve His mother, for the sake of the Lord. Meera left her husband, Buddha left His kingdom, son and wife, and Shaktuprastha left his meal and was prepared even to discard his own body for the sake of the Lord. All these excellent devotees are not sinners and therefore are called as Anagha. The Vedas in the form of dogs and justice in the form of cow follow Him. This means that the Vedas cannot catch Him and they follow Him because they have not caught Him. The Veda says “Yato Vaachah”, which means that words cannot touch Him. The Vedas are made of words. He is beyond justice as said in the Gita (Sarva Dharmaan…).

Yoga Datta is said to be the owner of Yoga. What is the meaning of Yoga? Yoga means to achieve. First you have to achieve the Lord in human form by conquering your egoism and jealousy completely. Then, you should achieve His constant association so that you will be listening to His divine preaching. The constant divine knowledge is to be injected like a long course of medical treatment. Till now, you have taken a lot of poison due to the constant association with your kith and kin. The poison of selfishness is also been increased by the fraud preachers. Your illness is chronic and you should leave the materialistic association and be in the constant association of the Lord. If you are a patient of cold, you should take the medicine constantly for a long time because your lungs are full of fluid. You should also avoid eating cold things. Therefore, you must have constant association with the Lord and you must also cut the association with your kith and kin. Both are essential to get rid of the chronic illness and to get good health. Yoga denotes the constant association with the Lord. When your mental set up is changed with the constant divine knowledge, your ideas, words and deeds follow that divine knowledge. Then you will enjoy the fruits of your deeds. Achieving such good results for good deeds is also Yoga. Due to the constant association with the Lord, your brain is constantly associated 46

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with the divine knowledge and therefore you will constantly achieve good ideas, good words, good deeds and good results. All this is Yoga. People misinterpret Yoga as some physical and mental exercises to achieve physical and mental health. This is also needed for the sadhana as the basis. Up to fifth stage (Pratyaahara), you will achieve good health and this is not a part of your spiritual effort. [The eight stages of Yoga as given by Patanjali] The spiritual effort is the drama for which the ticket is purchased. Building up of the stage is a pre-requisite and that cannot be the starting scene of the drama and the ticket is not purchased for that. Even an atheist requires such health. For doing such exercises, spiritual powers are not granted. Up to this fifth stage, it is only science with logic of ‘Prakriti’. The sixth stage is ‘Dharana’ in which, the bond is formed with Datta. Next in ‘Dhyana’ this bond is intensified and finally in ‘Samadhi’ this bond is permanently fixed without any unsteadiness. For practicing these three steps, the grace of the Lord is achieved, which gives super powers and salvation. These three steps form the wonderful part called ‘Maya’, which is above the logic. You should not aspire for anything from Datta for your service; your service should be a one-way traffic. Therefore it is above logic. Only, for that part of ‘Maya’ the superpowers are achieved and not for ‘Prakriti’. Yoga means to unite the streams of energy, which are dissipated through wastage channels and thereby conserving a huge amount of energy in yourself so that you can do the service of the Lord very effectively like Hanuman. You have to control the unnecessary thinking of mind and unnecessary gossip through which your limited human energy is wasted. This energy is limited because your digestive system can assimilate a specified quantum of food per day and can produce a specified quantum of energy per day. Your lifetime is also fixed. Therefore your total energy is fixed and is not infinite. Therefore, Yoga is necessary to save this limited energy and concentrate all that limited energy on the work of the Lord in this limited lifetime. This is the real essence of Yoga and only ignorant children close eyes and concentrate on the imaginary wheels (Chakras) and the imaginary ‘Kundalini’ and finally get nothing except wasting their time and energy.

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Tests Datta knows the stage in which you are. But you overestimate yourself and think that you are in a higher stage. To make you recognize your real position, Datta conducts some tests. He gives some problems and misery. Then your response and behavior proves your real position. Of-course, in these tests, He is using the results of your sins only. Even if you fail, your sins are cleared and thus you are benefited. There is no extra loss. When you enjoy the divine knowledge of Datta, which creates Bliss in your heart, you may love Datta because He is the instrument of your happiness. Every worldly bond is of this type as said in the Veda (Atmanah Kaamaya). The Veda says that a loves another person as long as that person is the instrument of the happiness of the self. When Datta gives misery, He tests your love and sees whether it is like any other worldly bond. Infact He makes you know the nature of your bond with Datta. He does not require any test because He knows everything in advance.

Final Goal To achieve Datta by Brahma Vidya is only the first step but to please Datta is the real and final step. To please Datta, the only way is sacrifice. Now the question is: sacrifice of what? People have taken it as the sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence. The sacrifice of these three items is only the sacrifice of one paisa in a rupee [100 paise=1 rupee]. These three items are attained by human beings without any effort, just by the birth itself. It is something like the donation of a tumbler of drinking water, which is supplied by the municipality in plenty. Even here, you are donating that, which is in excess for you. When there is leisure time and there is no possibility of earning more money by sacrificing these three items, then only you donate. If a student comes to you for taking tuitions by paying some fees, you will not donate these three items (words, mind and intelligence) to God in that time [since you will use your words, mind and intelligence to earn money by teaching the student]. When you are free and do not have any other work, you think that by donating these three free items, you can get something from God. Your plan is the extraction of wealth from wastage. The Lord is not a fool like a king, who can be pleased by flattering poetry. Therefore the sacrifice of work and the fruit of the work alone can please Datta. The Veda talks about the sacrifice of the 48

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fruit of the work (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). But the work and the fruit of the work are one and the same and they are only two different forms. You have worked for one hour for the sake of the Lord. Another person earned hundred rupees by doing the same work. The second person sacrifices those hundred rupees, which is the fruit of that one hour’s work. Both are equal in the sacrifice. Therefore the Gita divided this sacrifice into two parts: 1) Sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa). 2) Sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga). The Veda also mentions the sacrifice of work (Kurvanneveha Karmani). The Gita tells us about sacrifice of work (Mat Karma Paramobhava) and about the sacrifice of the fruit of work (Sarva Karma Phala Tyagam, Phalam Tyaktva Manishanah). For saints [monks], sacrifice of fruit of work is not possible because they do not earn. Hanuman was a saint and sacrificed all his time and energy in the form of work for the sake of Rama. The Gopikas were householders and sacrificed the fruit of their work, which was butter. Please note that Hanuman and the Gopikas have not done any other form of worship as we do today. Once the sacrifice of these two exists, sacrifice by words, mind and intelligence also can co-exist and can become valuable. When you donate ninety-nine paise, it can be treated as almost one rupee but it cannot be actually one rupee. The remaining one paisa must be also be donated to make the donation full in the actual sense. But merely donating a tumbler of drinking water has no value and is not charged even in a restaurant. But that tumbler of drinking water is valuable when it is provided along with a plate of meal. A feast becomes complete only with the drinking water. The Lord will not care for your other good or bad qualities because for Him, the only good quality is sacrifice and the only bad quality is selfishness. The hunter Kannappa had all the bad qualities of Rajas and Tamas, but was excellent in sacrifice. He was like the nectar in an earthen cup. You may contain all the good qualities of Satvam but if you are always selfish to extract something from the Lord, you are like salt water in a golden cup. In a restaurant, you pay for the material in the cup and not for the cup. Such sacrifice is called as service, which is the real proof of your devotion. Such real sacrifice is not impossible because you are doing the same to your children. When you can do that in one place, why can’t you do it in the case of the Lord? Therefore your love for the Lord is not true and is polluted by 49

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selfishness, which is like poisoned milk. You are giving all the true love to your children and all the false love to the Lord. You are sacrificing work and the fruit of your work to your children and you are sacrificing words, mind and intelligence to the Lord. Start giving atleast a spoonful of the true love to the Lord and stop giving pots of false love. If you really analyze yourself, your body, your energy, your work and the fruit of your work, they are part and parcel of the property of the Lord alone. In that case, you have not sacrificed anything because you yourself are a part of His movable property. Therefore, when you get egoism that you are sacrificing to the Lord, such analysis (Jnana) is necessary. But in such analysis, you lose the sweet love, which is called as devotion. You feel the sweet love when you sacrifice your property to your children. Similarly to enjoy the sweetness of love and devotion, ignorance (Ajnana) is also necessary. Infact, the Lord enjoys this sweet love. When you sacrifice something to Him, He also feels that you have sacrificed your work and your fruit of work. He forgets that all this is His property. Only in such imposed ignorance, you and the Lord can enjoy the sweetness of devotion. Datta means sacrifice. Therefore Datta is not only the goal but also the path. Datta appears with all bad qualities like drinking wine etc., but He means sacrifice. Therefore He is the nectar in the earthen cup. He sets an example for you. He is indicating that you should not be worried about your bad qualities, if you have sacrifice. Sacrifice is the pleasant scent and selfishness is the pungent bad odor. Datta likes the hut with a good scent than a castle with a bad odor. The Gita says the same thing “Apichet sa Durachaarah Bhajate Mamananya Bhaak Sadhureva Samantavyah Samyak Vyavasitohi Sah”. This means that you may have any bad quality it shall be neglected by the Lord, provided you serve the Lord through sacrifice in action. The word ‘Bhaja’ in this verse means ‘service’ as per Sanskrit Grammar (Bhaja-sevayaam). The word ‘Vyavasita’ means action or practice. You are the item of value, and not the container in which you are present. Datta comes to you as a beggar. You donate food (Bhiksha) to Him. Do you think that Datta lost His value and you have gained some value by being a donor? The diamond present in the lowest world (Patala) is a diamond. The stone present in Brahmaloka is only a stone. Therefore you are His beggar and all your wealth is only the Bhiksha given by Him. Therefore the value does not come to the outer covering. 50

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The conclusion of this Datta Jayanti is that Datta is neither any past incarnation nor a present statue or picture. Datta is the present human incarnation existing in your generation. Recognize Him and worship Him. The birthday of such a present incarnation is the real Datta Jayanti but all the human beings cannot rise to this level due to their unconquered egoism and jealousy. Therefore for such basic level ignorant people, today is Datta Jayanti and this statue or picture is Datta. They are worshipping this statue or picture as a representative of Datta (Prateeka Upaasanam). At this level even this is not wrong. An LKG (lower Kindergarten) student has to carry a slate. The postgraduate student need not mock at this LKG student because he was also in LKG once upon a time, carrying the same slate. But the message to the LKG students is that they should not sit in LKG throughout their lives.

Fury of God [After giving this divine discourse, Swami started singing devotional songs. A lady devotee called Mrs. V. Bharathi, an artist of All India Radio, fainted for two to three hours. Later on she explained that Swami appeared to her as Lord Narasimha with a very furious face. She was unable to see the face and fainted with shock. Just, two three days before Datta Jayanti, Swami stated the following:] This creation is the mind of the Lord. His will is the creation like a day-dream. If His mind is pleasant, this nature will also be pleasant. Then all the seasons will be regular and all the people will be happy without any natural calamity. But when the mind of the Lord gets irritated, this creation is also irritated. Such irritations of creation are the natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, droughts etc. If the people love the Lord without any selfishness, the Lord becomes happy. The happiness is a quality of the mind. Therefore, His mind, which is the creation (nature) becomes pleasant. Now the devotees love the Lord only for selfish benefits. It is not true love. When you expect true love from somebody, and if he shows superficial and artificial love, you become irritated because he is trying to cheat you. When the Lord comes in human form, these devotees are unable even to recognize Him, because their eyes have become blind with the egoism and jealousy. They insult the Lord who comes in the human form as said in the Gita (Avajananti Maam Mudhaah Maanusheem Tanumasritam). This is another irritation for the Lord. When you go to the house of your near 51

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and dear ones and if they do not recognize you and insult you, how much irritation do you get? Some of His devotees are claiming to be the Lord themselves. How much irritated do you get when a person who is very close to you claims to be you in some other place? People are showing extreme love for their wife, children and money and are prepared to do any sin to earn money for their children. But these people are not showing even a trace of such love for the Lord. If you do any sin due to extreme love for Lord, such a sin is neglected. But when you do the same sin for the sake of your family, such a sin is counted as a sin and cannot be neglected. The Lord punishes the sinners in this world to set an example for others. The punishment continues in the upper world also. The Lord protects real devotees even if somebody harms him. His work does not end with the protection of the real devotee only. His work finishes when the sinner is destroyed. When a sinner wounds His real devotee, He protects the devotee by applying medicine to the wound. But He does not stop here. He further proceeds to wound the sinner. Thus protection of real devotees and destruction of sinners are done simultaneously as said in the Gita (Paritraanaya Saadhunam Vinasayacha Dushkritaam)”. On the day of Datta Jayanti, we have seen the earthquakes and the floods of the sea as indicated by Swami. [Swami had predicted the earthquake and resulting tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and had explained their cause.] If you have done any great work, think that it is the power of the Lord, which has done that work. Convey all the appreciation from the public to the Lord. If you have done any foolish thing, you have done it and you take the ill fame. If you follow this path, you will do wonderful things. A dumb fellow will become an excellent orator. A lame person will jump over the hills. Arjuna killed all the Kauravas by the power of the Lord alone. When Arjuna was fighting, he could clearly see the Lord walking before his chariot and killing the opponents with the ‘Trishula’ [trident] in His hand. Arjuna always felt as if his arrows were killing dead bodies. Arjuna asked Sage Vyasa about this vision during the war itself. Vyasa told him that the Lord was sitting on the chariot in the form of Krishna. He was also sitting on the flag in the form of Hanuman. He was also walking before the chariot in the form of Shiva. Arjuna realized his strength after the exit of Krishna. He could not even defeat some ordinary forest hunters in the absence of Krishna. He realized what he was without Krishna. A metallic wire 52

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weighing 100 grams cannot move the ceiling fan, which weighs 10000 grams. But, when the current passes through it, the wire moves the fan with a high speed. For our eyes, it appears as if the wire is moving the fan. The current in the wire cannot be seen. Similarly it appeared as if Arjuna killed all the Kauravas. But it is the power of the Lord, which passed through Arjuna and killed all the Kauravas. The Lord showed this fact in His Vishwarupam. Arjuna saw the Kauravas being crushed in the mouth of the Lord. A constant awareness of this concept will destroy the egoism forever. Then only, will the devotee surrender completely to the Lord. Such a devotee will easily sacrifice the fruits of all his works to the Lord without any inhibition. Om Shantih Shantih Shantih.

Sacrifice Today I asked Lord Datta “Why did You enter Me for this work? I am full of bad qualities. There are several sages who are embodiments of good qualities. You could have entered them”. Lord Datta replied, “It is true that you are a bad fellow but you have one good quality before which all your bad qualities can be neglected. Those sages have all good qualities but they have one bad quality before which all their good qualities are neglected”. I asked Datta very anxiously “What is that greatest good quality and what is that strongest bad quality?” Datta replied, “The greatest good quality present in you is sacrifice. You always spend your energy and time to uplift others. You never utter my name even once for your own upliftment. Those sages put efforts mostly to uplift themselves and so their strongest bad quality is selfishness. You are a hut emitting sweet fragrance. They are marble castles emitting bad odor. I prefer to enter the hut emitting sweet fragrance and not the castle which emits bad odor”. O devotees, all of you are marble castles with all good qualities. But you emit the bad odor of selfishness. If you remove that selfishness and develop sacrifice, you will be the marble palaces with sweet fragrance. Then Datta will rush to enter you. You have climbed the first step. Now you try to help the people standing on the ground to climb the first step. God will take you to the second step like the mother-cat carrying its child in her jaws. You should not try to climb the second step. If you do so you will certainly slip.

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If you say that you will first climb all the steps and then come down to help others, it cannot be believed. If you have climbed all the steps by your effort, that proves your infinite selfishness. Jealousy is directly proportional to selfishness. So your infinite jealousy makes you not help anybody at any time. Therefore you cannot be believed and God will not help you to climb all the steps. Today you got a hundred rupees. You sacrifice ten rupees out of it. Tomorrow God will give you a thousand. Then sacrifice hundred rupees. God will give you 1 lakh rupees and you should again sacrifice 1000 rupees. Don’t ask God for one lakh rupees directly in the first step, stating that you will contribute Rs.1000/- God will not agree because you cannot be believed. Similarly as you gain knowledge and devotion from God at every level, go on donating knowledge and devotion to ignorant people. Then God will give you full knowledge and full devotion in the course of time. Sacrifice must co-exist with enjoyment at every level. If you spend all your time, energy and money in the propagation work of God, God is pleased fully with you. In that stage you need not do any worship to God. Shankaracharya spent all his time and energy in propagating knowledge. Meera spent all her time and energy in propagating devotion. For both, Datta gave salvation along with their bodies. The very word Datta means sacrifice. If you do such complete sacrifice for uplifting others in the world, you are the real incarnation of Datta. This is the essence of Datta. Without this essence, one cannot become Datta by external appearance and dress. A person having the strength of a lion is called as a real lion. The person who is merely dressed as lion cannot be the real lion. The sadhana (effort) must be done to achieve the essence of Datta and not the appearance of Datta. [In this discourse Swami said that He is a person with bad qualities. This is only to say that God blesses even a bad person with sacrifice and God condemns a good person with selfishness. Swami often humbles Himself in this way and this should not be mistaken]. A Letter From Ms. J.K.Rowling (The Author of Harry Potter Series) Is Received Today. She expressed her thanks and immense happiness on the poem written by Swami and His divine discourses.

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Chapter - 6

PERVADING OF GOD IN MEDIUM God’s Incarnation O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [March 19, 2006} The meaning of the word Narayana is the Lord who has taken the shelter of a human body. The word Nara means the human body. Ayana means the person who has taken Nara as his shelter. This meaning of this word exactly coincides with the verse in the Gita “Manusheem tanumasritam”. The Lord is beyond the scope of even the intelligence and logic. You cannot understand anything about Him in any angle as said in the Gita (Maamtu Veda Na Kaschana…). In the Veda there are several statements which say that He is beyond the words, mind, intelligence and logic. The only information about the Lord is that He is not known in anyway (Yasyamatam—Veda). God is completely unimaginable as He is beyond space and time. If you say that He is the life energy or awareness, He is understood atleast by scientists or scholars having sharp imagination. All forms of energy are imaginable today. If you say that God is a statue on the seven hills, it is also very easy to understand and to even see Him with eyes. Whatever you imagine is only a part of creation and not the creator. Even the awareness, the subtlest and finest part of creation is called as Para Prakruti. Prakriti means the creation. The awareness is the material and also the designer in creating this universe. This awareness or Para Shakti is also called as Brahman because it is the greatest among all the items of creation. The word Brahman is used for Veda also because the Veda is the greatest of all the scriptures. The second Brahma Sutra also mentions about Brahman, which is the Mula Maya or Para Shakti. This is the first and finest part of the creation. It designs the whole universe and also all the scenes of this world-cinema. You cannot go beyond this. But God is beyond this Mula Maya. What is the proof for such God? God gives us the experience of His existence. Therefore, we can say that God is unimaginable but surely exists (Asteetyeva—Veda). Such God is called as Parabrahman and this word means that God is beyond Brahman. Thus, this word also 55

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does not give any positive information about God. The sages recognised the existence of God by eliminating every item of the creation by saying “This is not God…this is not God…” (Neti Neti—Veda). They could only say which is not God, but could not say what is God. God gives us the experience of His existence by entering an item of the creation. The electric current gives the experience of its existence through a metallic wire. Similarly, God gives the experience of His existence through an item of creation. The best item of the creation is the human being. The human being contains inert matter (five elements) which includes inert energy also like light, heat etc., represented by the element ‘fire’. Apart from the inert matter and inert energy, life energy also exists in a fully developed state like life, mind, intelligence, bliss, egoism and the chittam, which stores the information like a computer chip. God is the greatest and therefore He enters only the greatest item of creation i.e., the human being. When the king enters a city, he stays in the most dignified palace. The human being is the most evolved living being. There are instances when God enters even the bodies of some animals for a limited purpose of killing a demon. When He enters such bodies of animals, He finishes His work and disappears immediately because such bodies are not congenial to preach to humanity. Ofcourse by using His special power He can preach even through the body of the animal. But when the easiest and most convenient way is available, even a fool will not use the most inconvenient way to get any work done. When the human body is available, which has all the natural facilities to do the work of preaching, why should He use the unnatural and inconvenient way for the same work? Once, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa crossed a river by boat by paying a rupee. A yogi crossed the same river by walking on the water with the help of his supernatural power. The yogi told Shri Paramahamsa that he spent 30 years to attain that supernatural power. Shri Paramahamsa told him that the cost of his spiritual effort for 30 years was just one rupee. This story is sufficient to explain the logic of the entry of God into a human body rather than entering a statue, animal or some form of inert energy like light etc.

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Parabrahman and Brahman Some people feel that God is all-pervading like space. But space is also inert energy. If God becomes everything, or enters every human body, there is no meaning of creating this universe for entertainment. The subject acting as a spectator should be different from the object to be seen for entertainment. He can see everything in the world through His all-pervading awareness. You can call awareness as His power but you should not take any example from the world to understand the link between the source and power. In any worldly example the source and its power are imaginable items. Therefore, the link between the two imaginable items is imaginable. But the link between God and awareness is unimaginable because it is a link between the unimaginable God and the imaginable awareness. Therefore, it will be foolishness if you try to approach God through the awareness. It is the climax of the foolishness if you think that the awareness itself is God. You should not forget the awareness is also a created item though it is the subtlest and finest form of energy. When God enters the awareness, you can call this awareness as Parabrahman from the point of God or you can call this awareness as Brahman from the point of the awareness. You can call an electric wire as electricity or wire from different angles. Awareness is only the medium. Awareness charged by God is the super awareness. Mere awareness is called as Atman or soul, which can be also called as Brahman since it is the greatest item of creation. Therefore, you must be very careful about the terminology here. The awareness charged by God can be called as super awareness and not mere awareness. Thus, it can be called as Parabrahman and not Brahman. Ofcourse, you can call it as Brahman also from the point of medium but you must remember that it is not pure Brahman, which is Atman (soul), but it is the charged Brahman. Therefore, the second Brahma Sutra refers to such a charged Brahman by the word Brahman because pure awareness is separately called as Mula Maya or Para Shakti and a drop of this Mula Maya is called as Atman separately. When the word Brahman is introduced by the second Brahma Sutra, people misunderstand that Brahman to be pure awareness. Only the charged Brahman can create, maintain and destroy this universe. The pure Brahman or pure awareness cannot do anything by itself. When even the pure awareness disappears, God can remain alone. In such a state there is no desire. In this state, pure awareness 57

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completely disappears. The pure awareness should be either aware of other things or should be aware of itself. In the waking and dream states, pure awareness is aware of other objects. In the waking state, the pure awareness is aware of this physical world. In the dream state it is aware of objects, which exist as its own imaginations. In the meditation state, the pure awareness remains aware of itself only. But in deep sleep this pure awareness completely disappears and only the physical body exists. In this state of deep sleep the awareness is neither aware of itself nor aware of other objects. In this state the objects in the form of imaginations do not exist but the objects in physical form exist. Therefore, when the awareness of itself or other objects disappears, we say that the awareness has disappeared. To explain this concept in terms of science, we can say that in deep sleep, the chemicals of brain exist but the nervous energy produced by the chemical reaction of chemicals in the brain does not exist. This nervous energy is awareness. You will be clear if you analyse this state through science rather than through dry logical words. This indicates that God or Parabrahman exists even in the absence of the Mula Maya. In that state no one exists to even say that God alone exists! There is no use of even discussing about this state because it is beyond any discussion. Our discussion can start only with Mula Maya or pure awareness.

Creation by Modification A very little part of this Mula Maya is modified into this world. This little world is just a state of imagination for the rest of the unmodified and unlimited awareness, which is charged by God. Therefore, the Mula Maya creates this world-cinema by designing several scenes as a series of pictures. This Mula Maya was called as ‘Parabrahma Mahishi’ by Shankara, which means that this Mula Maya gives entertainment to God as His wife. In these pictures she creates several roles [human incarnation] into which God likes to enter for further variety of entertainment. Such entertainment becomes complete only when each role is covered by full ignorance. Such role gets its selfawareness (awareness of Parabrahman) for the sake of the devotees who are to be uplifted. But God closes this self-realisation and enjoys the role with full ignorance in the association of His family members like parents, children, brothers and relatives. The closest circle of the human 58

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incarnation of God, like His wife and children are definitely liberated souls, who give entertainment to God with full ignorance in their own states. Such members of His close circle do not lose the chance of their upliftment because they will be liberated at the end since they were already liberated souls. The brothers, parents and other relatives of the human incarnation may be also liberated souls sometimes according to the requirement of God. Therefore, devotees need not wonder about the ignorance of closest circle of the human incarnation. An officer goes to a park for some change along with his family. If the family members also carry with them official files to be signed by the officer, the purpose of the picnic is totally lost. The whole essence of your spiritual effort is that whether the Lord can replace your wife, children and money. [Can you give them up for the sake of the Lord?] These three bonds are the strongest and are called as Eshanas. The day when all these three disappear and only God exists in these three places, your spiritual effort is over. But here God must mean the human incarnation and not a statue in a temple or the formless aspect of God. Some people can replace these three bonds by the bond with God in the form of a statue in a temple or by the formless aspect of God or by God in a celestial energetic body. Ofcourse, they have realised the value of God completely. They should be appreciated. They have studied the course by regularly attending the classes and finally appeared for the examination but they have failed in the examination. They have realised the value of God but they have not conquered their egoism and jealousy towards fellow human beings. The sages had sacrificed everything and everybody for God but could not recognise the human incarnation. They sacrificed all the Eshanas for God but their God was the energetic form like Vishnu, Shiva etc. When they were born as Gopikas and left everything and everybody for the sake of the human incarnation, then only was their spiritual effort completed. Thus they got the complete grace of God.

Self Attainment or Recognition of God? [Nikhil asked whether the Vedas speak more about the attainment of the self (Atman) rather than the recognition of the Super Self (God).] The Upanishads speak more about self-realisation than about the recognition of the human incarnation of God. But the major earlier portion of the Veda deals with praying to energetic incarnations because 59

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the Veda was preached to angels by the energetic incarnation of God. Self realisation is required for both human beings as well as angels. Even angels suffer with egoism and jealousy. The state of angels is more dangerous than the state human beings because they neglect energetic forms due to the repulsion towards common medium and they also reject human forms, which are in a lower state. The human beings, neglect God in a human form, but atleast respect the higher state of energetic forms. Self realisation is the first step in the spiritual effort, which was stressed by Shankara who came first. The Eshanas (bonds) can be cut only by self realisation and unless you are detached from these old bonds, you can not form a new bond with God. The old bonds with wife, children etc., will compete vehemently with God especially when God is in the human form. These bonds are related only with the gross body, which is limited only to this birth. Unless you cross the gross body, these bonds will never disappear. Even if you cross the gross body, the effect of the gross body will be present in the form of feelings (Vasanas or Samskaras), which is the subtle body. Therefore, you have to cross the second hurdle also, which is subtle body. The source of feelings is the pure awareness, which is the causal body, the soul. When you identify yourself as the soul, your effort for self realisation or self attainment is completed. Now you are eligible for the formation of a fresh bond with God after hearing about his greatness and speciality. In this stage you have also realized that you are only the Self and not the Super Self. Therefore, self-realisation means not only the realisation of your soul but also the realisation that your soul is not the super soul. Then only does the point of formation of a bond with God arise. The urge, attraction or love for God is called as devotion, which is stressed by Ramanuja. For the development of such devotion for God, which is limited only to the mind, even a statue in a temple is sufficient. Ramanuja stayed in the temple of Shri Rangam for this purpose. In this second stage the human incarnation is just introduced but not stressed too much because the devotee is not completely devoid of egoism and jealousy towards other human beings. Therefore, Ramanuja stressed on the energetic incarnation like Vishnu and His representative statue in Shri Rangam. When the devotion is completely developed and the egoism and jealousy are completely eradicated, the devotee can recognize the human incarnation and render practical service, which is 60

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the devotion of mind translated to action as a proof of the devotion. In this state, Madhva, the final preacher, entered and introduced Hanuman. Hanuman worshiped Rama, the human incarnation with practical service. Thus, the three preachers came in this particular order to show the three steps one after the other. The whole spiritual journey ends here when you become like Hanuman and recognize Rama, who is the human form of God. Please remember that you should not become Hanuman but become like Hanuman. If you become Hanuman, you will catch Rama, who is the past human incarnation. Please realize that Hanuman did not worship Vamana, Narasimha or Parasurama who were past incarnations for Hanuman. Therefore, become like Hanuman and search your present human incarnation as Hanuman searched for Rama, who was the human incarnation in his generation. Suppose you live long up to the next generation and suppose your present incarnation left His human body, then you must recognize the human incarnation of the next generation. Again here you should be like Hanuman who recognized Krishna as the human incarnation in the next generation.

Acceptance of Intermediate Steps I never rejected the Yoga preached by Patanjali. I only rejected the funny concept of Kundalani and the Chakras in its apparent sense since they are not mentioned in any scripture. If you realize what they represent, it is good. The yoga gives perfect health of body and mind and is the basis for the whole spiritual path. Prayers and meditation with service, without aspiring for anything in return is accepted. I only criticized prayer and meditation without service and aspiring for the fruits of such theoretical approach. I always emphasized the knowledge of the scriptures and continuous logical analysis because the decisions become correct and firm by such Buddhi Yoga. It is the torch light that should be present in your hand in the ‘switched on’ condition till you reach the goal. But without service there is no need of switching on the torch always and simply wasting the energy of the battery. We should not waste energy without using it practically. I have appreciated idol worship as a training of service to the human form of the Lord when egoism and jealousy are not completely conquered. I only criticized the life long training without ever joining the real job, in which the knowledge gained by the training is to be practically used. I have accepted all the concepts of tradition but 61

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plucked them out from the wrong places and reinstalled them in the correct path. Then only do they grow with vigor like paddy plants after transplantation and yield the final crop. This is only restructuring or revitalizing of the entire spiritual system. All these aspects were introduced by Me alone through the previous incarnations. I will not condemn My own introductions. I am only placing them in proper positions, which were disturbed by ignorant and mischievous people. I even support the concept of calling the partial knowledge itself as the final word at every level, because that was essential in spiritual knowledge, which is subjective. Infact, I Myself said that previously and if I criticize that, I would only be criticizing Myself. One must again and again realize that whatever the knowledge is spoken now, it is directly from the Lord Dattatreya existing in Me. The word ‘I’ refers to Him and not to Me, the soul, who is the owner of these external gross and internal subtle bodies. If a speaker speaks something sitting in his friend’s house, you cannot say that the speech is given by his friend, who is the owner of the house. Unless this misunderstanding is clarified at every stage, all the spiritual knowledge becomes a waste like perfume poured in ash. God told the Gita similarly through Krishna. Therefore, throughout the Gita you will find the words “God spoke …” (Shri Bhagavan Uvacha) and not “Krishna spoke …” (Krishna Uvacha). When Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gita, Krishna said that it was not possible. When Arjuna forced Krishna, Krishna told him the Anu Gita, which is not at all famous because it was not from God.

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Chapter - 7

TWIST OF ADVAITA [June 15, 2007. Shri Lakshman asked Swami to explain the reason for the twist given by Shankara in His philosophy because of which alone the differences in the interpretations of the scriptures arose.]

Background-Relevant Preaching O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, If you understand the background of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva and also the different atmospheres of devotees that existed over a span of time, the differences in the philosophies can be realized and the unity in the entire program can be perfectly appreciated. Before the arrival of Shankara, the Purva Mimamsakas were very ambitious to get heavenly pleasures and were doing rituals to attain heaven. Ambition is the result of an excess of Rajas (Rajasolobhaevacha…—Gita). The inherent effect of Rajas is also ego. The atmosphere was that of the worst atheism full of ambition and ego. Whenever a soul is to be diverted to the right path, your initial philosophy should be such that it suits his nature. You can divert him only slowly to the right path, in course of time. If you want to control the drinking habit of a person, you must first become his friend in the bar. Slowly, after the full development of your friendship, you can advise him about the dangers of wine. He will hear you based on your friendship. When a bull is running full speed, you have to catch it and run along with it for sometime. The bull feels that you are a friendly runner, who is running along with it. It will have a positive attitude towards you. Then you can control the bull. The preaching should always suit the psychology of the student. A mere scholar will never bother about the psychology of the student and will just reveal the truth. He will ask you to go to hell if you do not accept the truth. He is not bothered about uplifting you. He is only interested in the correct interpretation of the scripture given by the Divine Father. He is only a co-soul and acts like a brother-guide who will not alter the truth respecting the scripture of the Divine Father. He 63

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has no guts to change the scripture of the Father. Such a guide is called as a Guru. But sometimes the Satguru comes down. He is totally different from a Guru. A Satguru is the Divine Father or God Himself and He has the guts to twist the scripture, if required, because He is the very author of the scripture. The Divine Father will not bother about the scripture and its true interpretation. He is always bothered about the way to uplift the souls who are present in the existing atmosphere. Shankara was the human incarnation of God (Shiva) and He twisted the scripture to suit the ego and ambition of the people existing at that time. Shankara was the full Satguru and His attitude as a Father and His capability to twist the scripture as God is totally justified to uplift the people in such an atmosphere. The atheists were transformed into devotees later on, after entering the spiritual line. Advaita, which states that a soul is already God, is a chocolate prepared by Shankara for attracting the atheists who were the LKG students (to suit their ambition and ego). In course of time the same LKG students entered the college and the university after getting spiritual maturity. At this stage, the real interpretation of the scripture is required and liberated souls were sent by God to give the real interpretation. Ramanuja and Madhva were incarnations of devoted liberated souls viz., Adi Shesha and Vayu respectively. The soul has no guts to twist the scripture because the scripture is the word of the Divine Father. Hence, their attitude is always to project the real interpretation of the scripture. Also, in their surrounding atmospheres, the chocolate was not needed since the spiritual aspirants had already developed maturity. The real interpretation of the scripture was the need of that hour. This does not mean that I have respected Shankara as God and insulted Ramanuja and Madhva as liberated souls. When God comes down as a human incarnation, God charges a liberated soul in a human body. Even in the body of Shankara, a liberated soul called as the Son of God existed. The liberated souls in Ramanuja and Madhva came down with the program of God. The difference between Shankara and the other two is that God was directly speaking through Shankara whereas in the other two, the cassette of the speech of God was being played. Essentially all the three can be treated as God alone. Even Narada says that the topmost devoted soul can be treated as God (Tanmayahite— Narada Bhakti Sutra).

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The atmosphere existing in a particular period requires the entry of either God or a liberated soul. When the atmosphere becomes the worst and in such an atmosphere, if the scripture has to be twisted to uplift the souls, no soul can enter in such situations. God alone has to incarnate. When the atmosphere improves and the real interpretation of the scripture is the only requirement, God need not enter and it is sufficient if the liberated soul enters. Whenever you hear the correct interpretation of the scripture, a liberated soul is conveying it. Whenever you are seeing reshuffling of the scripture and re-orientation of the philosophy which is required badly by the situation, the only conveyer who can do so is God. The liberated soul follows the scripture of God and the scripture follows God. You find Lord Dattatreya being followed by dogs (the four Vedas) and not the Lord following the dogs. The Veda itself says that the Vedas were just blown out of the mouth of God (Nishshvasitamevaitat…). Hence, God alone can re-orient the scripture. In the commentary of Shankara you will find the scriptures re-orienting themselves to support His line of philosophy. In the commentaries of Ramanuja and Madhva you will find the real orientation of the philosophies following the scripture of God. But don’t think that God is twisting the scripture just for fun and entertainment. He is twisting the scripture just to uplift His issues, who are trapped in the wrong track. As soon as the souls are diverted to the right path, He will reveal the real and the original interpretation of the scriptures and remove the selfcontradiction. God present in Shankara prepared the twist of the scriptures as is seen in His commentary on the scripture. But the liberated soul present in Shankara composed a number of prayers to the Lord. The human incarnation is always a double-edged sword with God on one side and the liberated soul on the other side (Dvasuparna…—Veda). For the sake of atheists (Purva Mimamsakas) God in Shankara stood with the twist i.e. Advaita. For the sake of matured theists the liberated soul in Shankara stood with prayers to the Lord. In the time of Ramanuja, the situation improved because in the course of time, the LKG students grew up and entered college. The liberated soul [Ramanuja] alone with devotion and prayers to Lord was sufficient for them. Therefore, the inseparable and constantly associated liberated soul (Adi Shesha) without God came down to implement the advanced part of the program, which is devotion. Then the devoted souls were further 65

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matured and they became eligible to do selfless service to God due to their intensified devotion and this is the final university level where a separately existing servant of God (Vayu) came down as Madhva. The background of each spiritual preacher is not a new interpretation from My mouth. This background is reflected in their own statements. Shankara always said that He was God (Aham Brahma Asmi) or Lord Shiva (Shivah Kevaloham). Shankara taught the path by which the soul could become God and He introduced the requirement of spiritual effort (sadhana) to become God, even though the soul is already God [according to the Advaita philosophy that He taught]. The clause of sadhana contains the whole secret because if the soul is already God, there is no need of sadhana to become God! He maintained the chocolate by stating that if ignorance is strong, sadhana is required to remove its practical effect (vikshepa) and for this He recommended worship to the Lord. While maintaining the initial twist, He brought atheists to the line of worship of God! His statement that He is God indicates that the soul in His body became God since God charged it. This chance of the soul becoming God is open to every soul. Any soul by spiritual effort can become the Son of God. Thus, we are not denying the possibility of the soul attaining Advaita. We are only opposing the view that the soul is already in the state of Advaita. If that were true, Shankara would not have introduced sadhana to attain what the soul already was. Ofcourse, Shankara proposed this concept of the soul already being in the state of Advaita, but you must understand it as a twist of the scripture; as a chocolate prepared for the sake of the atheists initially. Even there, the scriptural interpretation is maintained so that the atheists will not think that it is a twist. Here, in the twist, the soul is said to be already Brahman. But here Brahman means the greatest item in creation and not God, who is unimaginable and can be indicated only by silence. Ofcourse, Brahman can also mean God because God is the Greatest, being greater than even the greatest soul. Atheists took the word Brahman in the sense of God and were attracted. If anyone quarrels with Shankara, He will say that the sense of Brahman in Advaita is only the greatest item. Shankara exploited the possibility of multiple meanings of the word Brahman. Therefore, while on one side the twist is maintained for atheists, on the other side, the same twist stands legal and is justified for scholars. Such unimaginable 66

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genius can only be God! Ramanuja and Madhva never said that they are God. They always claimed to be servants of God. Ramanuja said that the soul is inseparable from God and this indicates that Adi Shesha is always associated with Lord Narayana. Madhva said that the soul is completely separate and is a constant servant of God. Madhva also directly said that He is the son of Vayu, who is a divine servant, helping the maintenance of the world. I am only recalling their own statements, which reveal their backgrounds as demanded by the requirements of the situations in their respective times. Ramanuja stands as an intermediate station between Shankara and Madhva. The soul, thinking itself to be God, captured by the twist, cannot suddenly fall to the level of philosophy of Madhva, where the soul is a servant existing separately and doing service to God without any salary or aspiration of fruit in return. Madhva reveals this final truth at the end of the aspirant’s maturity. But if you analyze, Hanuman was in the state of Madhva and got the original fruit of Advaita. Thus the program of the three spiritual preachers is not an open chain but a closed circuit since the service proposed by Madhva brings the fruit proposed by Shankara. Therefore, there is perfect unity in the program of all the three preachers everywhere. The soul, thinking it is God, is brought to the intermediate stage where it is advised to be a part (Amsha or Shesha) of God. But Ramanuja revealed that the soul is a part of only the external body (creation) of God (Chidachitvishishtah). Even in the level of Shankara, He recommended worshipping God to get His grace in becoming God (Ishwara anugrahadeva…). He also said that the soul is only a part of God (Satyapibhedapagame…). On one side Shankara says Aham Brahma Asmi (I am God) and on the other side He says Nadha tavakinoham na mamakastvam (Oh Lord, I am a part existing in You and You are not in me!). On one side He says Tattvam Asi (You are God) and on the other side He says Bhaja Govindam Mudhamate (O fool, worship God!). This means that He is telling one version to one sect and another version to the other sect. Otherwise if He were stating both these to the same sect, it becomes self-contradiction. The first version is a chocolate to the atheists and the other version is the truth to matured devotees. Therefore, Shankara and Ramanuja at their levels already revealed the Madhva’s philosophy but they did so as a sugar-coated pill. Each Acharya knew the final and complete truth. 67

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They projected the truth partially as required in the respective situations for the psychological reason of making friends with those souls whom they wanted to uplift. Even if they spoke partially, internally they knew the total truth. In Shankara you have both God and a liberated soul and hence you have the total philosophy starting from LKG to PG1, which is from the atheist to the devotee. In Ramanuja and Madhva, since they are only liberated souls, their philosophies are only for devotees and are the graduate and postgraduate levels.

Shankara: God or Soul Once I came across a Vaishnava saint who was saying that Shankara was only a soul and hence He twisted the scripture due to His own confusion. The saint said that Shankara called Himself as Bhagavatpada, meaning that He is the foot of God. He said that Ramanuja on the other hand is called as Bhagavat Ramanuja meaning that He is God and hence He gave the clear and true version of the scripture. I refuted this saint’s version because Ramanuja never called Himself as God. Only His followers gave Him this adjective (Bhagavat). Ramanuja always said that no soul can become God. Ofcourse Shankara called Himself as the foot of God. God calling Himself as the foot of God shows the submissiveness, which is the fruit of real divine knowledge. But Shankara referred to Himself in that way only for the sake of others; to preach submissiveness to them. Shankara announced clearly that He is God (Shivoham). But Ramanuja never announced that He is Lord Narayana. Moreover, the followers of Ramanuja say that He is an incarnation of Adi Shesha. Thus within the followers of Ramanuja, these two versions contradict each other. In the case of Shankara, the Son of God or the liberated soul said that He is the foot of God, whereas God in Shankara said that He is God. Ramanuja never said that He is God and in all His prayers He said that He is only the servant of God. This clearly proves that in Shankara both God and a liberated soul existed, whereas in Ramanuja and Madhva only liberated souls existed as per their own words. Here, the point is not finding out the difference in the greatness of each preacher. The point is finding out the requirement of their respective situations. According to the situation, the liberated soul charged by God (called as God) or the liberated soul alone came. You must give importance to the requirement of the situation and 1

Postgraduate Education

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not foolishly quarrel about the greatness of any spiritual preacher to whom one is particularly connected.

Diplomacy and Genius of Shankara The chocolate prepared by Shankara for the atheists in the initial stage shows the absence of any qualitative difference between the soul and Ishwara because both are Brahman or awareness. Here the word Brahman was taken as God by the atheists. Shankara maintained diplomacy by accepting the sense of God as well as the sense of any greatest item, for the word Brahman. The quantitative difference between the soul and the Brahman was also negated because the finite human body, in which the soul exists and the infinite universe in which Brahman exists, are also unreal with respect to the reality of the awareness. Here Shankara gave a comparison between the individual soul or space in a pot (ghatakasha) and Ishwara or the space in a room (mathakasha). Both the spaces are one and the same God or infinite space (mahakasha). Since the pot and the room are unreal with respect to the space, both are the same infinite space. Therefore, the individual soul and Ishwara are essentially one and the same Brahman in view of the unreal human body and the unreal world. This was the attracting chocolate prepared by Shankara to attract atheists. The atheist thought that the individual soul is always Brahman and that there is no need to do any effort to become Brahman. He was attracted to this idea since it was like there was this ancestral property, which was lying idle in his name due to his ignorance and all he needed to do was to take possession of it! The only effort needed is that the individual soul should know that it is Brahman! The atheist started accepting Brahman or God because he was already that forgotten Brahman! The golden chain is already on your neck (kanthachamikaranyaya). Then why deny it unnecessarily? But analysis reveals that it is only a chocolate prepared for kids to lead them to school and in reality the golden chain will be presented by God alone. If the pot and the room are unreal, the single infinite space (Brahman) alone exists as said in the Veda (Ekameva advitivam Brahma…). In that case, there is no point of talking about pot-space and room-space, since the pot and the room are unreal. Now Brahman (infinite space) created the pot and the room for its entertainment and if you say that they are unreal, the entertainment for Brahman also 69

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becomes unreal. This means that God wanted entertainment but He could not get it. Then God cannot be omnipotent! If the entertainment has to be real, the pot and the room should be real even for Brahman. How can the individual soul then say that the world is unreal when that soul itself is a part and parcel of the world? Even if we assume that the individual soul is Brahman, the world must be real for the individual soul (Brahman) to have real entertainment. Before the creation and after the dissolution, the world may be unreal but during its existence it must be real even for Brahman, for the sake of real entertainment. To give reality to the world, Brahman imposes ignorance on Itself and gets real entertainment, because the world gains reality during the ignorance of Brahman. Actually, Brahman is not really ignorant, since the ignorance is only self-imposed. It is like the daydreamer enjoying his daydream, forgetting himself. During such ignorance the self-realization is not lost and hence the dreamer (Ishwara) controls the dream while enjoying it under ignorance. The ignorance brings reality to the dream and the realization brings unreality to the same dream. Hence, for Ishwara the world is mithya, which is a mixture of reality and unreality (Satyanritemithunikritya…—Shankara) and as a result the world is neither real nor unreal. Even if the daydreamer enters into complete ignorance and sleeps, finally and really, the dreamer is not at all affected because when he wakes up, the original state is obtained. Rama became the Lord when He was awakened by Yama and He enjoyed the dream to the full extent due to full ignorance. Rama means ‘He who enjoys fully’. This can happen to Rama since He is the original dreamer. But if a person who is created in the dream and who is a part and parcel of the dream is awakened, he cannot become the controller of the dream. The dream continues with its usual power and he is always controlled by the dream. A king and a beggar have slept and both became beggars in the dream. When both are awakened, the king becomes the king and he is relieved from the role of a beggar. But the beggar is a beggar in the role and also as the original actor (dreamer). Hence, the beggar remains a beggar and there is no difference between the dream and the waking state in his case. Hence, the individual soul remains only an individual soul even after realization and will not become Brahman or Ishwara. In the above simile, the room with four walls is compared to the world and Ishwara is Brahman associated with the world. Here, the 70

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world having infinite limits is associated only with the infinite space and cannot be compared to the finite room. Hence, there is no difference between Brahman and Ishwara. Whether the infinite world exists or not, the infinite space remains as it is and thus Brahman and Ishwara are one and the same. If the individual soul is not Ishwara it must mean that it is not Brahman also. If the individual soul cannot control the universe, it means that it is not Brahman since it is not Ishwara. Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, made Ishwara as the highest goal, since Ishwara is in no way different from Brahman. A king has the same efficiency of administration, whether he is sitting on the throne in the court or sitting with his queen in the bedroom. The king will show the same talent of administration at any place if required. He is called as the king not only in the court but also in the bedroom. In course of time, Shankara brought out the quantitative difference between Brahman (Ishwara) and the individual soul by stating that He is a wave in the God-ocean. He maintained the qualitative similarity because the truth must be revealed only in steps. Ramanuja maintained the same wave-ocean relationship (Shesha-sheshi sambandha) between individual soul and God, but slowly removed the qualitative similarity also by saying that the individual soul is a part of the body of God (world) and not directly a part of God. The world is compared to a human body and God is compared to the awareness in that human body. This means that the individual soul is not a direct part of God. There is no qualitative similarity between the awareness in the human body (God) and the human body (world) and hence there is no qualitative similarity between God and individual soul since the individual soul is a part of the world. The world consisting of individual souls and inert bodies is compared to the external human body and God is compared to the awareness existing in the human body. The awareness in the human body is qualitatively different from the inert human body (in the comparison) and hence the qualitative difference between the God and the individual soul is thus brought out here. This becomes justified because God is unimaginable and the world including souls is imaginable. Hence, there is no qualitative or quantitative similarity between the unimaginable God and the imaginable world in which the imaginable individual soul exists as a part of it. Therefore, there is no qualitative or quantitative similarity between the unimaginable God and 71

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the imaginable individual soul. In this simile, Ramanuja maintained the inevitable closeness of the awareness and the human body. This means that God and the individual soul are inseparable. God and individual soul are now differentiated qualitatively and quantitatively but the last consolation is that the individual soul is close to God and is inseparable. Finally, Madhva removed even this last consolation stating that God is like the pot-maker and the world including individual souls is like the separate pot. This means that the individual soul cannot claim its closeness to God as its inherent property. If the pot-maker wishes, he may keep the pot very close to him or he may even keep the pot on his head. If the pot maker does not wish, he may throw away the pot. This means that if God is pleased, the individual soul may become close to God and may even be kept on the head of God as in the case of the Gopikas. If the individual soul is a demon, it can be thrown out. This is the final truth, which is bitter. Advaita is like a sweet prepared from sugar and ghee which is given to the child in the beginning. As the child grows, the sweet must be slowly withdrawn because, as the person becomes older and older, the sweet will induce diabetes (ambition) and cholesterol (ego). The final bitter truth is like the bitter medicine given in old age, when the spiritual aspirant reaches the final stage of maturity. God came as Shankara to uplift the atheists who did not care for God. If you do not care for the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister need not pay even one-millionth of his attention to you in view of his far superior status. Thus, God need not pay even a trace of attention towards careless atheists. But God being the Creator of all souls, the parental attitude of God towards all souls brings Him down as a human incarnation to care even for the atheists. The attention of God to reform the atheists is the only remaining aim in throwing the atheists into the hell permanently (‘permanently’ means ‘for a long time’). Hell is the operation theatre in which the long surgery is performed and thus the constant effort of God to uplift every soul is to be always recognized. If the final message of Shankara were only Advaita, His closest students like Padmapada, Totaka, etc would have digested Advaita and would have behaved as friends with Shankara because they would have realized their oneness with Shankara. But we find that they were always falling at the feet of Shankara, who was their contemporary human incarnation, with full surrender as they praised Him saying “Karuna 72

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Varunalaya Palayamam…” If Advaita were true, each one of them was Shankara (Brahman) Himself and the above prayer would only be selfpraise! The present Advaitin must have digested Advaita better than those closest disciples of Shankara and therefore, he is not even recognizing his contemporary human incarnation!

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Chapter - 8

AWARENESS, SOUL AND ADVAITA Limitations of Awareness [March 3, 2007. Shri G. Lakshman came from Mumbai to have some spiritual discussion (satsanga) with Swami. His first enquiry was about the limitation of the soul in meditation and in deep sleep. Swami compared pure awareness in meditation to a lump of gold, which becomes inert energy in deep sleep and can be compared to a lump of iron. This comparison was given in the poem, which was sent to Dr. Nikhil as a reply to his poem entitled Selfless Love. On this point, Shri Lakshman raised the concept of the limitation of the soul even in the deep sleep, in which the soul is considered to be in its original state as per Advaita philosophy. According to Advaita the self becomes the unlimited Brahman in deep sleep as said by Shankara (Sushuptyeka siddhah). Following is Swami’s reply.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Shankara said that Brahman is achieved in deep sleep. The meaning of this statement is that Brahman is unknowable or unimaginable. In deep sleep nothing is known and nothing can be imagined. Such a state indicates that Brahman is unknown and unimaginable. In this state, the soul looses its awareness since the brain and the nervous system do not function (except some signals controlling the inner biological systems, which are constant throughout the life of the human being). This means that the soul becomes inert and enters into complete ignorance about Brahman in the state of deep sleep. The full ignorance of this state speaks about the full ignorance about Brahman and therefore Brahman is achieved in this state as a completely unknowable item. Deep sleep is termed as Avyaktam in the Veda beyond which only the Lord exists (Avyaktat pursha parah). After [waking up from] deep sleep, the soul knows about itself and also about the other worldly items. Therefore, the maximum possible field of knowledge of the soul can only be the knowledge about itself as in the meditation or about other worldly items as in the waking state or dream state. The soul cannot cross these limits of knowledge. The maximum 74

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possible power of knowledge of a soul is, only knowing about itself or about the world; never about Brahman or God. The soul in the state of meditation is pure awareness, which is a special work-form of inert energy, and hence it must be in the form of primary energy alone. In deep sleep it is the inert energy, which is also the form of primary energy. Primary energy is either in the form of waves or in the form of particles (quanta) according to science. Whatever the theory may be, energy has the form of waves or the form of particles. Hence, the soul has form and therefore has limits even in meditation or deep sleep. Therefore, the soul is not formless. Even space, which is considered to be formless, is supposed to be a very subtle form of primary energy according to science through the concept of bending of space around an object. When space is energy, it means that space also has the form of waves or particles. Therefore, there is nothing like formless in this creation. Air contains molecules, atoms and sub atomic particles, which have form. Therefore, the word ‘formless’ has no meaning in this creation. The world is a composite of items with forms and hence the world as a whole has form and is not formless in the core region [essentially or basically]. The infinite limits of the world do not mean that the items in the world have no limits. Each item has limits and the number of such finite items is infinite. Certain items have invisible limits and this does not mean that the item has no limits. The invisibility of the limits of an item is assumed to be the absence of limits and such an item is treated as formless or an item without limits. The item with visible limits is considered as an item with limits. Thus the formless items and items without forms are distinguished by the relative sense of invisible limits and visible limits respectively. Such classification is only in a relative sense and not in the absolute sense. The world with infinite limits can be taken as formless in the region of the boundary alone. Here, the nature of the world, which is the aggregate of finite items, is knowable in the core region. Hence you cannot say that the world is unknowable in the core region. In the case of God, even the nature of God is unknowable in any region. Formlessness, meaning infinite limits, can be applied to the world, which is knowable, by its nature in the core region. But God is unknowable by His nature throughout and therefore you cannot say that God is formless like the world. Only the limits of the world are 75

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unknowable and not the central core of the world, which consists of imaginable items. God exists in the border of the infinite limits of the world as the source of the world. This means that God is beyond the world. Science has clearly proved that awareness is a special work-form of energy and hence the soul cannot be beyond space, since space is energy. Therefore, the soul has limits in any state. The soul in deep sleep exists as inert energy with finite limits confined to the human body and therefore, we cannot say that the soul has infinite limits like the world. However, if you treat matter also as the inert energy according to law of equivalence of mass and energy, then in that case, the body can be also treated as a quantum of energy, which is in continuity with the external atmosphere of the cosmos [surrounding cosmos which is also composed of energy]. Now the soul, body and the cosmos become one homogenous phase in the sense of the basic form of inert primary energy (this is only an assumption and practically this single homogenous phase is not achieved). You can achieve the single infinite ocean of cosmic energy and now you can say that the soul has become Brahman. But beware, the word Brahman is used here to mean the infinite ocean of inert cosmic energy since the word Brahman can mean any item, which is the greatest. This cosmos or cosmic energy is infinite but the whole core region is composed only of imaginable nature containing imaginable items. Hence, it is an imaginable cosmos with unimaginable limits and therefore it cannot be the unimaginable God, who is unimaginable throughout. Hence, you cannot say that the soul has become the greatest unimaginable God, who is also indicated by another meaning of the word Brahman. The confusion in the usage of the word Brahman must be clearly removed in this context.

Difference Between Liberated and Realized Soul [Shri. G. Lakshman asked about the difference between the realized soul and the liberated soul.] Realization is theoretical knowledge of the concept where as liberation is the practical implementation of the same concept. These two words can mean knowledge of some concept and the process of releasing of something bound by some other thing respectively. Realization is used in general as the knowledge of some forgotten truth and liberation also can mean release of an animal from the chains by

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which it is bound. In the spiritual knowledge, these two words have to be applied to the required context about which you are concerned. The causal body (soul) is superimposed on the external gross body and the internal subtle body. When the soul gets rid of these two superimpositions and realizes its own nature of pure awareness, it is called as realization according to the Advaitin. The Advaitin is concerned only about the realization of the self and hence you cannot use this word in any other context. Similarly for the Advaitin liberation means the release of the soul from the illusions of the superimpositions of itself on the subtle and gross bodies. The Advaitin is limiting himself to these contexts only and hence these two words cannot be used in any other context. For an ignorant villager these two words are limited only to his specific context. For him realization means finding out the location of an agricultural tool, which he had forgotten sometime ago. For him liberation means releasing the cow from its chains and sending it into the field. You cannot bring the context of the Advaitin to the context of the villager and vice versa. Therefore, the realized soul and the liberated soul stand for certain specified contexts as per the scope of the observer. However, if you are interested in knowing these two words in the context of the final spiritual knowledge, the meanings are different. In the final level of spiritual knowledge, the realized soul is that soul which realizes that the unimaginable God is in a particular living human form. Realization means the knowledge of some forgotten concept. But God is always unknowable and hence there is no point of forgetting and realizing the forgotten nature of the God. Only in the case of a knowable item does the word realization have its application. Therefore, realization of absolute God is impossible and hence, words like the knowledge of Brahman (Brahma Jnana) or education about God (Brahma Vidya) are meaningless in the absolute sense. But these words exist and the sense of such words is to be explained. The unknowable God enters and charges the medium like electric current entering a metallic wire to give the knowledge about His existence and not to give the knowledge about His nature. Hence these words must mean the knowledge of the medium in which the unknowable Brahman exists (Astityeva…—Veda). Brahman or God always enters the common medium of human beings so that God can mix freely with and also preach to human beings through the human body. Therefore, the knowledge of the existence of 77

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Brahman in the living human body of a particular incarnation is Brahma Jnana or Brahma Vidya, which is complete only when the contemporary human incarnation is recognized. Therefore, realization means the recognition of the contemporary human incarnation alone. To please the Lord in such a living human form, practical devotion (service) is necessary. Such service is seen in your family bonds [You practically serve your family in this manner]. The service in the family bonds shows your real attraction to those bonds. When your service is diverted from the family bonds to God in the living human form, you are a liberated soul and the liberation is from your family bonds. For such liberation, the realization of the living human form of God must be the reason (Before all this, you must be liberated from the illusion that your own self is God). Without this reason, if the soul is liberated from the worldly bonds, it is just in the state of a stone. All the Advaitins who fix themselves in the state of pure awareness or life-energy without mind (subtle body) are just like plants in human form. All the Avadhutas who are just in the state of deep sleep without even a trace of awareness of anything are just stones in human form. All these are souls who are liberated from worldly bonds but since they are not realized souls, there is no use of such liberation. Such permanent liberation from the worldly bonds and such permanent realization of the self is again due to your constant prayer to God in which you rigidly requested Him to grant such permanent liberation and He finally granted His grace. God grants your request since you are rigid in your foolish desire. Otherwise, such liberation and such realization without the grace of God are only momentary. Shankara also stressed on God’s grace to get such permanent realization, which was called as a vasana (Pumsam Advaita Vasana). The word vasana here means the strong and permanent feeling of realization. The realized soul without liberation is an incapable theorist and a liberated soul without realization is an inert practical example [or lifeless model]. Both are useless. Hanuman and the Gopikas are real realized and liberated souls who recognized the contemporary human incarnation and they were liberated from the worldly bonds for the sake of such living human forms of God. Realization without liberation is like lameness and liberation without realization is like blindness. Duryodhana was neither realized nor liberated soul. Dhritarashtra was a realized soul, who recognized Krishna as God but he was not liberated from the bond with 78

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his son. The Pandavas were realized souls who recognized Krishna as God but their liberation from worldly bonds was almost complete, but not fully complete. The reason for the little deficiency in the liberation was only a little deficiency in their realization. Therefore, if the realization is without any doubt, determination will result in practice and the liberation will become complete. Dharmaraja knew that Krishna was the incarnation of Lord Narayana. His concept was that Krishna was one percent human being and ninety nine percent Narayana. According to Dharmaraja, Narayana was hundred percent justice. When Krishna asked him to tell a lie, Dharmaraja thought that the one percent human being is asking him to tell the lie. According to him, Narayana is hundred percent sattvam, which is good quality. Therefore, Narayana is hundred percent good. Krishna is also good everywhere except in this instance. Therefore Dharmaraja thought that Krishna is only ninety nine percent Narayana. Therefore he refused to tell the lie. This little fault in the realization, led him to slip a little from full liberation and hence he could not liberate himself from the bond of justice. The reason for this deficiency is in the knowledge about God and also the knowledge about the qualities. No single quality can have isolated existence. God is beyond all the three qualities. He is beyond sattvam also and therefore beyond justice (Sarva dharman…—Gita, Punya Pape vidhuya…—Veda). Thus realization becomes complete only when the divine knowledge is perfect and therefore God in human form (Satguru or Guru Datta) is giving stress on the propagation of the true divine knowledge. Infact Krishna was hundred percent Narayana and one percent human being. (Manushim Tanumaashritam) This means that the full Lord Narayana entered into the human being and therefore the total Krishna is hundred plus one and not hundred. Since the one percent human being is relatively true, in the absolute plane, Krishna is also hundred percent Narayana. Even in Narayana, Rajas and Tamas co-exist as traces, which can also predominate whenever it is required in the divine game. For example the same Lord Narayana became Narasimha in whom Rajas (anger) came out to almost hundred percent. Infact Narayana is also hundred plus one because the hundred percent God entered the one percent human energetic form. Since energy and matter are one and the same according to science (E=mc2) the human body or the energetic body is only one percent. 79

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Life of Lord Ayyappa After this discourse, there was an episode of a TV serial on Ayyappa (Dharma Shasthra) shown on the television. Swami commented on the life history of Ayyappa. The queen raised Ayyappa as her own son. After sometime she gave birth to a son. Everyone recognized Ayyappa as God in human form through His super human nature. Now to the queen, Ayyappa represented God plus the love in raising Him from childhood. But the queen feared that Ayyappa as her first son would become the king and she wanted to kill Ayyappa [so that her actual son could be the king]. So she asked Ayyappa to get the milk of a tiger to cure her headache. She thought that Ayyappa would get killed by the tiger. Before the love of her delivered child [child by blood], God plus some love [Ayyappa, the foster-son] was defeated [She loved her blood-son more than God, who was also her foster-son]. Where is the doubt of the defeat of God alone before the love of a delivered child? In such a competing election, God will lose even His deposit! [God will not get even the bare minimum number of votes.] Therefore, the love for one’s children is gold and the love between the husband and wife is silver. But God always loves the souls to uplift them by all means (even the punishment in hell is only to transform and uplift the soul and is not revenge) without aspiration of any help from the souls in return. Therefore, the love of God for the souls is platinum. But the soul does not return even gold or even silver to God for His platinum love.

Was Krishna Just a Realized Soul? [G. Lakshman said that somebody he met on the internet was saying that Krishna was only a Brahma Jnani or a realized soul]. There is a difference between the realization of Krishna and that of an individual soul. Krishna imposed apparent ignorance on Himself and for Him, realization means knowing about His own real nature of God present in His human body. Only God knows about the real nature of God (Brahma vit Brahmaiva—Veda, Maamtu Veda Na Kaschasna— Gita). Therefore, the knower of the real nature of God can be only God. Hence, in the case of Krishna, realization of Himself is the real sense of the word realization. But in the case of the ordinary soul, the realization of itself (getting released from the superimpositions on the subtle and gross bodies) is not the highest realization because the soul is not God. 80

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The highest concept of realization in the case of a soul is the realization of the human medium in which God exists and realization of the truth of the self, that it is not God. Therefore, the word Brahma Jnani has different senses in the case of Krishna and an ordinary soul. When Narada asked Lord Brahma about the address of a real Brahmachari, Brahma told him that Krishna living on the earth at that time was the real Brahmachari. Narada was confused because this word is used in the sense of a bachelor. But this word is applicable only in its root sense in the case of Krishna because He was not a bachelor. The word Brahmachari means the knower of Brahman [in its root sense] because the verb ‘chara’ also has the root meaning of ‘knowledge’. Therefore, the Brahmachari means the knower of Brahman. God alone knows about Himself and hence the knower of Brahman must be the Brahman alone. Since Krishna was Brahman in human form at that time, Lord Brahma used this word in its root sense. From this, one should know that the human incarnation is the only Brahmachari and not any bachelor human being. In the case of a soul the word Brahmachari can be used for the devotee who has recognized the existence of Brahman in a living human form. Except these two cases, a simple bachelor who has not married should not be called as a real Brahmachari. Therefore not only Hanuman who was a celibate is a Brahmachari, but the married Gopikas were also Brahmacharis. Hanuman was a Brahmachari because He recognized the living human form of God. Otherwise Hanuman is said to be married to Suvarchala and in that sense [of bachelorhood] this word has no application for Hanuman. Lord Krishna said in the Gita that He has given the real spirit of the Gita or knowledge of God to the Sun-god. Hanuman was the student of that Sun. Therefore, we must be able to see the knowledge of God in the spiritual practice of Hanuman, which was nothing but the recognition of the contemporary human incarnation and selfless service to Him. Therefore, working backwards, this concept must have been the real spirit of the Gita.

Four States of the Soul The Veda says that there are four states of the soul.

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1. Waking State: in which the soul is called as the Vishwa where the soul is superimposed on the materialized gross body. 2. Dream State: in which the soul is called as the Taijasa where the soul is superimposed on the subtle body which is a bundle of feelings and each feeling is awareness associated with kinetic energy. 3. Meditation State: in which the soul is called as Prajna where the soul is in awareness of itself as pure awareness, enjoying the bliss. 4. Deep Sleep State: in which the soul is called as the Turiya where the soul is beyond the above three states of awareness i.e. the soul is in its original raw state of inert energy with full of ignorance about God. If you say that the fourth state is beyond deep sleep (by treating the third state as the deep sleep, eliminating the state of meditation), such a fourth state is not in the experience of the soul directly or indirectly. Deep sleep is indirectly experienced as complete ignorance by inference after rising from the deep sleep. When you awaken from the deep sleep, you say that you did not know anything during the deep sleep. This does not mean that you were experiencing the ignorance during the state of deep sleep also. The ignorance during the deep sleep was indirectly experienced through inference only after awakening from the deep sleep. Hence the deep sleep is also experienced indirectly through inference but even such indirect experience is not there for the fourth state because after waking up from deep sleep you immediately enter into the first state. In absence of any authority [means of knowledge] like perception or inference for the fourth state of the soul, such a state is not acceptable to direct or indirect experience and logic. The fourth state is related to the soul and hence you cannot say that it is beyond logic. If we take deep sleep as the fourth state, it represents the ignorance of the soul regarding God and therefore it is the state of soul towards God and not the state of God. Therefore, meditation state is third which is almost considered as deep sleep. If you take the soul as Prajna or pure awareness in deep sleep, it becomes absurd because in deep sleep the awareness totally disappears. In deep sleep there is no experience of bliss. But in the state of meditation there is experience of bliss during that state. After deep 82

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sleep, bliss is enjoyed due to the conservation of energy since the nervous system was not working in deep sleep. But the bliss due to such conservation of energy is not enjoyed during the state of deep sleep. During the deep sleep, the energy is stored and the stored energy is suddenly experienced as bliss when you wake up from deep sleep. When you take food, extra energy is supplied and in that case also you experience the same bliss. Similarly in deep sleep, there is excess available energy due to absence of its expenditure. Both the states of meditation and deep sleep are almost one and the same in the sense of excess energy, which alone gives more happiness or freshness for which the word bliss is used. If you take the state of meditation, here also all the thoughts are arrested and the excess energy is stored. In this meditation state very little energy is spent in the awareness of itself. Thus deep sleep is hundred percent storage of energy and meditation is ninety nine percent storage of energy. Hence the enjoyment of bliss is almost the same except for the difference that the bliss is enjoyed during meditation whereas the bliss is enjoyed after the deep sleep. The merit of the meditation state is that the soul can be called as pure awareness in this state since it is enjoying the bliss directly during this state. In deep sleep, the soul is not awareness because it is transformed into inert energy and there the word Prajna meaning pure awareness cannot be applied. Moreover during deep sleep, bliss is not directly enjoyed. Due to these points, meditation state should be considered as the third state (sushupti) and the actual deep sleep can be considered as the fourth state (turiya), which represents the ignorance of soul towards God. Deep sleep indicates the unknowable God due to the complete absence of knowledge of the soul. Before God, even the soul becomes an inert item and hence cannot know even a trace of the real nature of God. In deep sleep, the soul disappears since the causal body dissolves into its basic form of inert energy called as primary energy. This primary energy is the ultimate item of the universe and the soul in the waking state can at the maximum, recognize only the existence of this primary energy. Therefore the primary energy is the ultimate existence (Sat) with respect to the knowledge of the soul. Hence the Veda says that the soul dissolves in Sat in the deep sleep and does not know about anything because the primary energy is inert (Sati sampatsya na viduh…). This primary energy is the basic homogenous material cause 83

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of this entire universe and can be called as Brahman in the sense that it is the greatest in the world or among all imaginable items. Now there is no objection if you say that the soul dissolves in the primary energy (Sat), which is inert and the soul is in the state of full ignorance of anything including itself and God and the soul thus becomes the Brahman, which is the primary energy. The entire argument of Advaita is correlated in this way and yet God is not touched by the soul because God is beyond such Brahman and is called as Parabrahman. The word Brahman is not fixed to any particular item as it is clear from the usage of this word Brahman in the sense of the Veda, which is greatest among all the scriptures. Therefore, the whole misunderstanding comes from the usage of the word Brahman. The Gita says that the Parabrahman or God is beyond even Sat (Na Sat Tat….). God is indicated by the word Asat (Asadvaa…—Veda), which means that the God is not Sat or primary energy i.e God is beyond the primary energy (Mula Maya). However, the word Asat also has another sense of non-existence and this sense is removed by the Gita because God is existent (Naasaduchyate…).

Need and Benefit of Shankara’s Philosophy If God is introduced through the medium of a human body, atheists will not agree. Hence Shankara selected pure awareness as the medium into which God is introduced. Even in the human incarnation, pure awareness (soul) acts as a medium charged by God. Now let us isolate that part of only the soul from the human incarnation. All this isolation is only an assumption. In general, pure awareness alone can act as the medium of God, since basically there is no objection for any item of this creation to act as a medium for God. The medium charged by God can be treated as God like the metallic wire charged by electric current. In this way you can call the assumed pure awareness or soul charged by God in the human incarnation, as God. But a soul without God exists in every human being and Shankara called every soul as God due to the possibility of a soul being charged by God and due to the existence of the soul charged by God in case of the human incarnation. What is the use of all this? Atheists are mainly characterized by ego and will not accept God other than themselves. This rigid psychology of the atheist cannot be condemned in the beginning. The preacher must follow the psychology of a rigid ignorant student and 84

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should slowly uplift him. Hence, there is no other way to uplift the atheists who were present in the time of Shankara (Budhhists and Purva Mimasakas). Shankara said that the soul in every human being is God and this satisfies the rigid psychology of the atheists. Atleast they have accepted the existence of God as the existence of themselves. Buddhists were in a very pitiable condition since they were thinking that everything, including themselves, is nothing (Shunya). Shankara brought them up by stating that there should be the soul to experience the ‘nothing’. Otherwise, when ‘nothing’ is not experienced, ‘nothing’ cannot be established. The Buddhists came up and accepted the existence of the soul that experiences ‘nothing’ (the school of Prajnavada of Dignaga). Since that soul is God, they have accepted the existence of God. But they were rigid about the concept that everything other than the soul is ‘nothing’ and therefore Shankara had to follow their rigid psychology of ‘nothing except the soul’. Hence Shankara said that the soul is the Truth and God and except the soul or God everything else (world) is nothing. (Brahma satyam….). The ego of the atheist was also satisfied because the soul itself is the Supreme God. The Purva Mimasakas had already accepted the existence of the soul and the world. Now there was a contradiction between the Buddhists and the Purva Mimasakas regarding the existence of the world though not regarding the existence of the soul. To convince both these rigid and ignorant students, Shankara said that the world is neither existent nor non-existent (mithya). A negligible trace can be treated as almost non-existent but it is existent in the strict sense. Since the world is a negligible dream of the soul, it is existent as well as non-existent. Thus he combined both in the concept of the world and made them accept the existence of God as a soul. The Purva Mimasakas were interested in achieving happiness in heaven by doing rituals. Shankara exploited their ambition for happiness and stated that God or soul is infinite happiness (ananda). This attracted the Purva Mimasakas to concentrate on God rather than on heaven. But in practical experience all of them found the absence of the experience of the natural infinite happiness and this raised the doubt of whether the soul is actually God in its original state. Shankara had to drag these atheists further; otherwise, they would have gone back to their original atheism. Then Shankara applied another trick by stating that the ignorance of the soul must be removed practically due to its long-standing effect. This long85

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standing influence of ignorance is called as vikshepa. Even if you awaken from the dream and realize that the tiger in the dream was unreal, its effect like your shaking with fear will not cease immediately. The theoretical realization removes only the apparent layer of ignorance called as Avaranam. For the removal of the practical effect of ignorance, Shankara suggested meditation on a completely liberated soul called as Ishwara, who is just like a leader in the same class. Both the soul and Ishwara are essentially the students of the same class but Ishwara, is a more meritorious student whose help can be taken by the soul. The atheist is trapped here because basically there is no difference between himself and the Ishwara. He thought that there is nothing wrong in taking the help of a meritorious student of the same class so that the less meritorious student can become equal to the same meritorious student one day or the other. Shankara maintained the essential equality of Ishwara and the individual soul as Brahman to satisfy the continuing ego of the atheist. Thus atheists started meditating upon Ishwara. See the wonderful talent of Shankara who made the atheist not only to accept God but also meditate upon God! That is the talent of the Satguru when God comes in human form. Nobody can handle this situation except God. The technique used by Shankara was along the lines of Vedic tradition alone. The Veda also attracts theists by projecting God as the source of materialistic benefits, here as well as in the heaven. Worship of God is introduced through this attraction (kamya karma). Slowly the theist tastes the nature of God and gets attracted to God, leaving the other attractions. Shankara has extended the same to the atheists also. If you have taken the path of Shankara as the absolute truth, you must be an atheist like a Buddhist or a Purva Mimasaka. But if you are a grown up student going to college, you should not aspire for the chocolates given to kids to make them go to school. Shankara was correct in that time, for the sake of those atheists, since the final result was only their eternal welfare. A psychological trick for a good application, and which results in final benefit is always appreciable because the ends justify the means. You should take Shankara as the Guru, who has great affection for ignorant students and not as a mere scholar who just reveals the absolute truth and goes away without bothering about the practical upliftment of the students.

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Chapter - 9

SYNCHRONIZATION OF THREE PHILOSOPHIES O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [March 4, 2007] Shankara stated that awareness is Brahman irrespective of its association with intelligence or good and bad qualities. This means that birds and animals without intelligence and even cruel wild beings are introduced into the spiritual field since Brahman or God [by Shankara’s definition] exists in all living beings. Ofcourse there is no use of spiritual knowledge for animals. But Shankara included all living beings in the spiritual field because even among human beings, there are some without intelligence and some demons having cruel qualities. Lord Shiva is worshipped even by demons and is said to be the Lord of animals (Pashupati). Angels with great intelligence and good qualities also worship Lord Shiva. Therefore, Shankara embraced all human beings irrespective of intelligence and qualities for spiritual upliftment. It is like a school program opened in a tribal area. The students are attracted for admission into the school without any admission tests and mere attendance is sufficient for the promotion to the higher class. There is also a scheme of free midday meals for attracting students. Any child is admitted into the school. Similarly, all human beings including bad demons and ignorant people are attracted to the Advaita scheme, which says that you are already God if you have the basic lump of awareness. Such liberal attraction is essential for that level.

Levels in Spiritual Education The student of a certain level is called as an adhikari. The part of knowledge that suits his level is called as vishaya. Any number of assumptions and modifications can be done in that part of the knowledge so as to suit the basic psychology of the student, which cannot be changed all of a sudden. Such suitability of the part of the knowledge is called as sambandha. The final modified form of the suitable part of knowledge alone can be the subject (vishaya) since such a subject alone can be useful to uplift him to the next higher step. The 87

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use [of this subject] in the practical aspect of the progress of the student is called as prayojanam. These four parameters (adhikari, vishaya, sambandha, and prayojanam) are called as anubandha chatushtayam, which are the guidelines of a preacher either in worldly subjects or in the spiritual subject. All the modifications and assumptions introduced into the subject by the preacher form the part of the curriculum of the subject at that level. As the student is promoted to the higher class, he drops out such modifications and assumptions. But all these assumptions and modifications remain in the curriculum for the sake of the future students admitted into that class. Hence, once should not worry that the modified knowledge suitable to a particular level is destroyed when an individual goes up to the higher class. The Advaita of Shankara will remain forever in the level of the school for all the batches of students that are admitted every year. Thus the level of the philosophy is always eternal and cannot be discarded by anybody. He alone has left that level to reach the higher level. If one goes to the college level, the school syllabus is neither condemned nor destroyed. Therefore, no school of philosophy can be condemned by anybody. Advaita—School Level The Adviata philosophy is meant to satisfy the ignorant level of school students in whom the ego and jealousy are at the climax as in the case of demons. The concept of the soul already being God suits such a psychology and stands as an attraction like the scheme of free midday meals. In this level, the truth is completely masked on one side but the same truth appears at the climax level one the other extreme end. The highest level or angle of God is used in the lowest level as an attraction. Qualitatively, the same concept appears at the lowest as well as the highest levels. The concept is that a human being is God. This concept remains the same qualitatively, even at the highest level except that it is concentrated quantitatively at the highest level. This means that at the lowest level, every human being is said to be God and at the highest level, only a specific human being like Krishna is God. Thus the qualitative aspect is like the single coin and the quantitative aspects are like the two sides of the same coin. Therefore, qualitatively, Shankara stands in the same concept in the lowest level as well as in the highest level. This is the miraculous talent of the divine genius, Shankara who is the incarnation of Lord Shiva.

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Lord Shiva is the source of the divine knowledge and represents the climax of Sattvam (Sattvat Samjayate Jnanam…., Jnanam Maheshwarat….) as Lord Dakshinamurthy preaching divine knowledge to the sages. He is therefore worshipped by the angels. He is in the climax of rajas while destroying the world as Rudra. He is in the climax of Tamas with all the habits that are anti-tradition, like staying in burial and cremation grounds, liking demons etc., Thus Shankara covered all human beings irrespective of knowledge, intelligence or good and bad qualities. He covered all the atheists too in order to convert them into theists, for which lot of attractive schemes were announced by Him. The promotion rule [promoting from one class to another] was also very liberal like mere attendance of the class, which is saying that you are already God and that there is no effort necessary to become God. Vishishthadvaita—College Level The next level is that of college where some strict rules for admissions and promotions were introduced by Ramanuja. He continued the same basic concept that the lump of awareness is Brahman, but He announced that the awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) alone is God. Now the atheists were already converted into theists and could not go back to the school level. The strictness is that the human being must leave Rajas and Tamas to please God. If this point were told to atheists in the beginning, they would not care because they do not accept even the basic existence of God. Now spiritual effort is stressed, to get rid of [that] Rajas and Tamas which disturbs the balance of society (Pravritti). This is the stage in which the spiritual aspirants perform their spiritual effort. Even for the divine play, the establishment of Sattvam or justice is essential because unless justice is strongly established and unless the fear for injustice is established through punishment, there is no meaning in the violation of justice for God. If injustice is ruling as the natural and inherent policy, everyone can easily violate justice for the sake of God. Only when justice is strongly established, and one can still violate it for the sake of God in Nivritti, such a violation has value. Therefore, the establishment of justice is required even for Nivritti. In the beginning of the Gita the Lord stressed on the establishment of justice (Dharma samsthapanarthaya…) for Pravritti and in the end for Nivritti, He also recommended the violation of justice (Sarva Dharman…). Along with the strict rules in the college, some liberalization still continues in the 89

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college level like giving scholarships for paying fees. Similarly, though the concept of the soul being God is not extended here, the concept of the soul being a part of the God is introduced. The concept that the soul is already God cannot be suddenly broken [It appeals very powerfully to people and once a person accepts this philosophy, it is very tough to give up this concept]. Thus the Vishistadvaita philosophy of Ramanuja acts like a bridge between the school level of Shankara and the university level of Madhva. The soul associated with sattvam and charged by God in the energetic body is Vishnu, who is fixed as the ultimate God. The development of the concept of God by Ramanuja is that the gross human body of Shankara’s theory is replaced by the gross energetic body, because ego and jealousy in the student are not completely removed for accepting God in the human body. In Ramanuja’s theory, every gross energetic body (angel) is not God. Thus the concept of God is not generalized to all souls but is concentrated to a specific individual soul. Even among souls, only that soul is chosen which has only one quality of sattvam and not rajas and tamas. This is almost like introducing God as completely different from the human soul. Ofcourse the soul is one and the same in both a human being and Vishnu [according to this theory]. Even in the concept of the soul being a part of God, Ramanuja played a trick. The [human] soul is not actually a part of the Divine Soul. The soul is only a part of this creation, which is treated as the external gross body of God. Hence, it is actually clear Dvaita [duality] except that a consolation of soul being part of God is given through this trick, which is not also the truth. Thus there is no fundamental difference between Ramanuja and Madhva except for this one consolation, which is also not true upon analysis. Dvaita—University Level The third level of university with lot of strict rules and serious admission tests is maintained by Madhva, who proposed the Dvaita philosophy, announcing that the soul is completely different from God. The ambition [of the soul wanting to be God] is completely suppressed and only very little liberalization in the form of a few scholarships continues here. Even though the soul is not a part of God, it is rewarded by the grace of God as best, average and worst. The soul is always a servant of God, who is always the Master. The basic concept of awareness associated with Sattvam (Vishnu) continues here also. Here, 90

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the trick of Ramanuja to console the souls was also avoided since the world is not treated as the external gross body of God. Therefore, the soul is no more a part of God. The soul is an external item like a servant who is not like a limb of the body of the master. The only consolation here is that God is pleased by the service of the soul and awards some medals to souls such as best, good, average, bad and worst. Here a development in the concept of God is made by Madhva. He stressed on Krishna, who is a human incarnation and stressed on Hanuman who worshipped the human incarnation. The concept of Shankara is brought over here qualitatively as it is (that a human being is God). But whereas Shankara had diluted the concept such that all human beings were said to be God, Madhva concentrated it to only specific human beings by saying that only incarnations like Krishna, Rama etc were God. However, even though Madhva stressed on the concept of the human incarnation, He could not dare to introduce the concept of the contemporary human incarnation because this concept is acceptable only when ego and jealousy in the devotee are completely eradicated. While introducing the concept of the human incarnation, He maintained the energetic form of God simultaneously. Thus He acted as a bridge between Ramanuja and Datta Swami, who not only gives a stress on the concept of human incarnation but also gives the final stress on the contemporary human incarnation. Swami’s Teaching—National Research Laboratory Level The fourth level is introduced by Datta Swami, which is a pure national research laboratory at the Ph.D level. In the university also research programs and the Ph.D level exist. In the level of Madhva, the concept of human incarnation exists. The final development in the concept of God is given here. Datta Swami changes the basic concept of God being awareness associated with either sattvam or the three qualities. Here, awareness is also treated as a quality possessed by God. Awareness is like the colorless cotton shirt having the three colors as qualities. But a colorless human being also possesses the shirt and the shirt is not the final possessor. The human being and the cotton shirt are beyond the three colors and this does not mean that the colorless shirt is the colorless human being. The soul (awareness) is beyond the three qualities and since God is beyond the soul, God must naturally be beyond the three qualities. God is not any known item of the creation

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including awareness, because awareness is also a known item, which is completely proved by science. The practical authority for establishing the existence of an unknowable or unimaginable God is the unknowable or unimaginable nature that exists in a superhuman being like Krishna. The address of God cannot be obtained in every human being. It can be obtained in a superhuman being like Krishna. The human being and Krishna have all the common items (soul, subtle body and gross body) but the unimaginable nature established through His unimaginable knowledge (Gita) and His unimaginable miracles is an extra item. Hence, we consider that extra special unimaginable nature as the final Absolute God and He is the Possessor of the awareness (soul) also. The Veda says that He is the Controller of all the souls (Atmeshwaram…). Here the same concept of a specific human being being God is taken from Madhva but the basic concept of awareness being Brahman is modified. This is not a new concept introduced now. Several Vedic statements clearly speak that Brahman or God is unimaginable and the Gita also says the same (Maamtu Veda Na Kashchana…). God charging a specific human being is also mentioned in the Gita (Maanushim tanum…). The actual essence of the Gita is the contemporary human incarnation, which is now rediscovered and stressed. When even angels, due to their ego and jealosy, reject the contemporary energetic incarnation as said in Veda (Devah pratyaksha dvishah….), what to speak of human beings rejecting the contemporary human incarnation! Only one like Hanuman and the Gopikas who have fully conquered the ego and jealousy can identify this climax of truth. Truth and the number of followers are inversely proportional. If you want a large crowd of followers, go to the climax of lies like saying that every human being is already God and say that there is no need of even a trace of effort to become God. Ofcourse, even this climax of lies is in the curriculum, to cater to a vast majority of ignorant people, who have the climax of ambition [of becoming God]. It can be used as a weapon of attraction to uplift the downtrodden people to the next step.

Equal Opportunity to Godhood You need not be discouraged that a specific human being has become God and that you have no opportunity to become like that in this very human life. The analysis of the human incarnation shows the 92

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coexistence of the unimaginable God and a selected soul who is suitable for the specific purpose of the divine mission of God (Dvaasuparnaa…). When the divine program needs various suitable talents, God can simultaneously enter into multiple human bodies to make simultaneously existing human incarnations. Therefore if you make yourself suitable for the divine mission of God, God can certainly enter your human body and do a specific task needed for the divine mission through you. In such a case you too are the human incarnation acting in a specific direction of the program. Datta Swami is a soul selected for the purpose of generating divine knowledge because He has the talent of the knowledge of both scriptures and science, which is suitable for that line of work. All the devotees who are working in this divine mission have different talents and God has entered their human bodies also and is working alone those lines of the program. Therefore, all the devotees who are already working in this mission are already simultaneous human incarnations of God. That is how Datta Swami views His devotees. The devotees of Datta Swami do not accept themselves as simultaneous human incarnations and this shows their submissiveness, which is the basic characteristic of Lord Datta. Datta Swami, sometimes declares Himself as the human incarnation of Lord Datta and therefore Datta Swami alone has to be doubted! The devotees who are going to join this mission in the divine service are the future human incarnations. The cosmic vision of the Lord (Vishwarupam) shows several heads and several hands. This means that the human incarnation is a complex of several divine brains planning in the mission and several divine hands working in the mission. Hence, the concept of Shankara is now concentrated only to some extent so that it is neither a single human incarnation nor every useless human being, who is the human incarnation. This is the golden middle path avoiding both the extreme ends. This divine mission is teamwork of a selected number of simultaneous human incarnations working through different channels like fans, lights, TV screens, etc., in a hall. The same electric current is working through all the different channels in all these electric instruments. You cannot say that an insulator, into which electric current can never enter, is also an electric instrument. At the same time, you cannot say that a specific light in the hall alone is an electric instrument. Therefore, let us join together to carry on the propagation of this divine 93

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knowledge, using our various talents in the service of the Lord without any feelings of difference like superiority or inferiority. The difference in the channels of talents has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority. You cannot say that the light is superior and the fan is inferior. In the Gita the Lord mentions that He is the best talent among each category. If all these best talents are grouped together, this best group of talents, which is a team of the best divine personalities, forms the total picture of the Lord. The Lord says that He is Adishesha among serpents, Garuda among the birds and Arjuna among Pandavas. Adishesha, Garuda and Arjuna are sincerely involved in His divine service in all the times. Hence, His total personality is a composite of all these best souls. He is Krishna among Yadavas, as told by Him in the Gita. Therefore, He did not specify Himself to be Krishna alone, even though Krishna generated the divine knowledge (Gita). Krishna is also one of this composite.

Incarnation in Different Roles [Shri. Lakshman commented that Shri Datta Swami alone is the human incarnation and such statements declaring His devotees to be simultaneous incarnations only shows the love of God towards His devotees. Smt. Vasumati, wife of Shri Bhimashankaram, said that such statements are meant only to encourage the unity in the team and to remove any differences. Swami replied as follows:] This angle may be also correct because God treats His devotees even more than Himself. Narada said in the Narada Bhakti Sutras that real devotees can be considered as God (Tamayahite…). But apart from this angle, the other angle may also be true in which the human incarnation and the devotee may be simultaneous incarnations of God as in the case of Rama and Hanuman. Hanuman is very famous for His firm faith in the contemporary human incarnation, Rama. But while remaining as the most obedient servant of Rama, Hanuman was a simultaneous human incarnation of God. Apart from these two angles a third angle may also be possible where the master may be a soul and the devotee may be God as in the case of Sandeepani and Krishna. Sandeepani identified Krishna as the Lord but kept silent on the request of Krishna. Then there may be a fourth angle in which the master is a false human incarnation with ignorance and ego and the servant is a real human incarnation. For example Bade Baba, an egoistic soul, declared 94

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himself as the master of Shirdi Sai Baba, who was the incarnation of God. Sai Baba agreed to this and served Bade Baba as His master for some days. God will not mind His position in the bond with His devotee, provided there is love in the bond. God will act as per the desire of the devotee. Dasharatha acted as a father and Rama acted as his son based on the request of Dasharatha in the previous birth. In this bond, Dasharatha loved Rama without any ego, unlike the case of Bade Baba. Infact, Rama the Lord, is the Divine Father of all souls and Dasharatha was one of the souls. Yet Rama did not mind being Dasharatha’s son and treat the soul as His father to fulfill the desire of the devotee. Similar is the case of Krishna and Yashoda. Therefore, the ways of the unimaginable God are always unimaginable and any unimaginable turn can happen at any time. Parashurama was the human incarnation and Rama was a simultaneous human incarnation. Parashurama was affected by ego and God left him. He was then insulted by Rama. The human incarnation must also be very careful in resisting the ego to maintain the unimaginable God in His body. Sai Baba, the human incarnation, always repeated that He is the servant of God (Allah Mallik) to please God, who present in His human body and His statement means that He is aware of the truth. Sai Baba, Akkalkot Maharaj and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa were simultaneous human incarnations of God. For the devotees, the human incarnation should be [treated as identical to] God just like the live wire itself is treated as electric current. But the human incarnation is always very careful about His angle, in order to maintain God in His body throughout His life. When Krishna gave the Gita, it is said that God spoke (Shri Bhagavan uvacha) and it is not said that Krishna spoke (Krishna uvacha). When Arjuna asked Him to repeat the Gita at the end of the war, Krishna expressed His inability. Krishna was the PA [personal assistant] and God is the Boss. Both coexist in the same office room, which is the single human body. This does not mean that God is modified into Krishna or that Krishna is modified into God. When Arjuna insisted, Krishna repeated the Gita based on the knowledge that He had learnt from Sage Sandeepani. The second Gita given by Krishna called, as Anu Gita is not at all famous. This clearly shows the existence of both God (Bhagawan) and soul (Krishna) in the same human body. But this is the angle of Krishna and the same should not be the angle of the devotees of Krishna. For devotees, Krishna is God as the live wire is 95

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the current. If devotees take the aspect of separate God and soul (Dvaita) in the human incarnation, the devotees are lost. God has taken Krishna as the medium to give His experience to the devotees and there is no other way to experience God directly. Hence the angle of the devotees must be Advaita [non-duality] towards the human incarnation. God selects this two-in-one system for His divine play also. When God has to act as a human being to test the faith of His devotees, He cannot act as a real human being acts and therefore, the human being [the human part (PA) in the incarnation, which is a two component system consisting of human being and God] acts directly. Similarly, when human incarnation has to act as God, the human being in Him cannot act as God and hence God (Boss) in Him acts directly. Therefore, in the case of the human incarnation, whenever the context of direct action of God comes, God acts directly through the human being since in the human incarnation, the human being is only the expression medium. But some people misunderstand it because even though God is speaking directly, externally it looks as if the human being is speaking. They feel that the human being is boasting as God. In cinema, male actors play male roles and female actors play female roles. Hence, the cinema is very effective and attractive due to the natural acting of actors as males and females respectively. In olden days male actors also acted in female roles but in such female roles, they could not exhibit the natural actions of females. Hence the old dramas were not as attractive as cinemas. Thus this two-in-one system is a wonderful combination of Nara and Narayana in the human incarnation with natural actions to serve both purposes according to the contexts.

Choose Your Angle Shankara was the incarnation of God and Advaita is the angle of God. God alone can explain the angle of God. Ramanuja was the incarnation of Adishesha who is one of the closest circle of God called as a liberated soul. The angle of a liberated soul can be best explained by a liberated soul alone. Madhva was an incarnation of Vayu [Lord of Wind, an angel] and claimed to be the son of Vayu and the younger brother of Hanuman and Bheema. Among Dharmaraja, Bheema and Arjuna, Bheema was the best servant since he had full blind faith in God. After recognizing the Lord through thorough analysis, logic must be stopped before the Lord, because God is beyond logic. Logic only 96

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helps to eliminate the false forms of God. When the Lord decided to wage war, Bheema simply jumped into the war. But Arjuna asked for a lot explanations from the Lord. When the Lord asked Dharmaraja, to tell a lie, he refused. Bheema told the same lie on the order of the Lord, even though it did not click. Vayu is an angel and one of the five fundamental elements and is only a soul. The angle of a soul can be best explained by a soul alone. Therefore, if you understand the background of the personalities of three Acharayas, the theories in their respective angles are well understood. The whole spiritual knowledge from the angle of God, from the angle of a liberated soul and from the angle of an ordinary soul are explained and thus there cannot be any contradiction between these three philosophies, since the angles of explanation are quite different but mutually coexist at the same time. The unimaginable God is like the invisible management of a college, which is not seen on the campus. The visible Principal is only one and represents the entire invisible management as the final authority in the college. The management and the principal are quite different but the principal must be treated as the management for all practical purposes. Similarly, the human incarnation stands for the unimaginable God and such God is experienced through a specific human incarnation like Shankara or Krishna. There will be a few vice principals like the Vice Principal for Administration, Vice Principal for Academic Affairs and Vice Principal for Student Affairs. These three Vice Principals constitute the [components that make up the] total composite of the post of the Principal. Each Vice Principal can stand as a partial representative for the Principal. Similarly, the liberated soul like Adishesha (Shesha means part) stands for God as a part of the composite. He incarnated as Ramanuja. Ramanuja stated that the soul is a part of God. The Vice Principal is not the total Principal actually. Thus the difference is maintained and at the same time the closeness as a part, is also maintained. This is the case of a liberated soul, which stands between an ordinary soul and God. The third state of Madhva is a Lecturer working in the college as an employee without any power except doing service. Similarly Madhva represented Vayu who is an ordinary soul and a servant of God. He established the complete difference between the master and servant. Therefore, the angles of Principal, Vice Principal and Lecturer exist simultaneously in the same college with mutual correlation and there is no trace of any contradiction, just as the 97

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Principal, Vice Principals and Lecturers coexist in the college with mutual cooperation and without any contradictions. Then I do not understand why the followers of these three philosophies are quarrelling with each other? You have to decide for yourself, whether you are the Principal, Vice Principal or a Lecturer and you can speak and behave as per the corresponding angle, without any contradiction with the other posts in the same college and in the same time. If you are God in human form, behave like Shankara. If you are a liberated soul behave like Ramanuja as a part of God. If you are an ordinary soul behave like Madhva as a sincere servant of God.

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Chapter - 10

ESTABLISHING IN ATMAN O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Christmas Eve December 25, 2005] When you are isolated from your subtle body, which is made of three qualities and feelings, you are also isolated from the gross body. Then you are identified with your causal body (Atman), which is pure awareness and in that stage you are just a spectator of both the subtle and gross bodies. The gross body of Lord Jesus was crucified and the subtle body was undergoing all the torture and agony. He was confined to His causal body and was watching both the crucifixion of the gross body and the agony of the subtle body. During the process of crucifixion the reaction and statement of subtle body was in one line and the reaction and statement of the causal body was in another line. Even before crucifixion, one can note the mixed feelings and statements of both the bodies. Jesus prayed God to avoid the crucifixion if possible and His body was vibrating when He was imagining the future crucifixion. All this belongs to the subtle body. Finally He said that let the crucifixion take place if it was the will of God. This belonged to the causal body. On the cross He was asking God “Why have you left me?” and this belonged to subtle body. When He said “I am surrendering Myself to Your hands”, it belonged to the causal body. Unless the critical, logical and analytical discrimination exists, one will get confused and will give wrong interpretations on these mutually contradicting feelings and statements. Thus, you can find Jesus as a perfect ‘Atma Yogi’ and He stands as a successful practical follower of the spiritual knowledge of Shankara. Both Shankara and Jesus are the knowledge-suns of the East and West respectively. Both stand opposite to each other on the end points of the diameter of the earth as the single knowledge sun rising in diagonally opposite times. If you are a true follower and the devotee of Lord Datta, you should welcome both happiness and misery with equal attention, looking at both as sweet and hot dishes to be eaten alternately during meals. You are enjoying the scenes of both happiness and misery in seeing a drama or cinema. You get bored with continuous sweets in 99

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meals and with continuous happy scenes in a cinema. Why are you not bored with continuous happiness in your life? Infact, we see such rich people bored with continuous materialistic happiness. Sometime back in My lifetime also, I was bored with continuous happiness. One day I performed a special worship called ‘Rudrabhishekam’ to the Lord and I uttered the aim of that worship [formal statement of the reason for performing the worship] in the beginning, which is called as ‘Sankalpa’ in Sanskrit. In it I asked the Lord to give Me poverty and misery in that Sankalpa. My wife heard it and since she is also a scholar in Sanskrit, she was shocked and shouted at Me. I smiled and finished the worship. Within few days, I got tremendous poverty in My life. The intensity of the poverty was so much that to give an example, we were purchasing hundred millilitres of milk and that was diluted ten times with water. The four kids were crying, refusing to drink that water flavored with milk! Seeing them, one day I was weeping bitterly. My wife asked Me “Why are You weeping? You have invited this by praying to the Lord”. I said, “I am no doubt weeping. But I am enjoying this weeping and I asked the Lord for exactly this”. In that period of poverty and misery My spiritual level touched the sky. But I thought that I should not trouble others for the sake of My spiritual effort. It was exactly noon time. Suddenly I took a bath and sat in meditation for one hour praying to Goddess Mahalakshmi. There was immediate response and the poverty and misery disappeared from that day itself. She rained wealth on My family. Then I prayed to Her to control Her grace because both drought and floods are dangerous. Even for that prayer there was immediate positive response. The reason for telling you this personal aspect of My life is to tell you sincerely that you should welcome both happiness and misery like winter and summer or like day and night or like sweet and hot dishes in meals. But you should not trouble your family members, who are in the lower level of spiritual knowledge. You must take care of this aspect while pursuing your effort. When I say that you should be the spectator of everything, it means that you should watch both the internal and external cinema shows. The internal cinema consists of your feelings and qualities dancing on the screen of your mind. This is the internal world created by you, which is made of the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). Quality or feeling is a form of nervous energy, which is the weakest energy. It is not at all materialised matter. When you become the 100

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spectator of the external world, you can treat the qualities and feelings existing in the external world as just equal to your internal world. But the external world additionally consists of strong energies like heat of the sun, electricity etc., and also matter in three states (solid, liquid and gas). This part (strong energy and matter) of the external world cannot be your internal imaginary world. But this part will not disturb you at all and you need not fear it. You have to be careful about the imaginary world present in your self and in the external world, which is made of qualities. But the external world is also entirely imaginary to the Lord. For the Lord, neither the materialised part of the world nor the imaginary part disturbs Him because: 1) He is detached from the entire world 2) For Him the entire world is only imagination and 3) In the world, matter and energy do not disturb the Lord or the human beings. The house does not disturb you but the feeling that the house is your property causes disturbance. You are an actor in the world-drama. If you are detached, the dialogues and actions of other roles will not disturb you externally and you will also not be internally disturbed by the thoughts of the drama. The stage, dress, lights and the actors made of matter and energy will not disturb you at all. Therefore, to be a detached spectator, the materialised and strong energetic world need not be imaginary to you. That which does not disturb you, is as good as imagination. Even if the entire world becomes imaginary, the problem is not solved because imaginations also disturb you. Therefore, do not think that the Lord can be an undisturbed spectator just because the entire world is imaginary to Him. He is the undisturbed spectator because of the only reason that He is detached from all the feelings or qualities, which are imaginations. Thus you should try to detach your self from all the imaginations and you need not try to convert this entire world into pure imagination. The spectator enjoys the action done by the actor and he is not involved in the action. For example He enjoys by seeing the drinking of wine by somebody in the cinema and does not enjoy the wine directly. Therefore, the bad effects of the wine do not touch the spectator because neither was he the doer of the action nor was he the direct enjoyer of the result of the action. Neither is the spectator ‘Karta’ (doer) nor is he ‘Bhokta’ (enjoyer).

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Beyond Qualities The word ‘Gunaateeta’ means that which is beyond the three qualities. The realised soul and the Lord are beyond the three qualities as said in Gita (Gunaateetah…, Gunebhyascha…, Natvaham teshu…, Maamebhyah Param…). At the same time Gita also says that any soul including the realised soul is made of the three qualities and is part of creation only (Naanyam Gunebhyah…). For the Lord the entire world including realised and unrealised souls is only His imagination and therefore the Lord is always Gunaateeta. The soul is also Gunaateeta as for as the imaginary world of the soul is concerned. But the soul is part of the creation and therefore the soul is a part of His imagination. Hence, the soul is a feeling of the Lord. Therefore, the soul is made of Guna. If you take the soul form the angle of the Lord, the soul is Guna (Feeling or quality). But from the angle of soul, its entire imaginary world is guna and therefore the soul is beyond guna. Thus the soul is guna form the angle of the Lord and is beyond guna from the angle of the soul with respect to its imaginary world consisting of its feelings. The Advaita philosophers are the most dangerous people with the burning thirst to become the Lord. For this, they will immediately exploit any trace of gap in a statement. When you bring the similarity of spectatorship to realised soul and the Lord, they say that the Lord is also pure awareness like the realised soul who has become Atman. He will not stop here. Then he will say that the pure awareness is in him and therefore the Lord is in him. He will not stop here also. Then he will say that he has become the pure awareness (Atman) by limiting himself to it only and therefore he himself is the Lord. He flows like water under the mat. He is like the sugar disease, which attacks slowly and silently all the vital organs. Finally if he realises the truth, it is only selfdestruction. Therefore, in his interest only you have to arrest him in the first step itself. You should say that the Lord is spectator but due to this He need not be awareness at all. He can watch or wish even without being awareness. He can burn anything and he need not be the fire. He can do anything without being the logical source of such action. Veda says that He can run and He has no legs. He can catch and He has no hands (Apani pado…). This means the logic applicable to creation fails in the creator. According to the logic of creation one cannot run without legs and one cannot catch without hands. This logic applies to all the living beings because any living being is a part of creation only. The 102

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creator is not a part of creation like your self. He is the creator, which means that He is beyond the logic that can be applied to all the items of the creation. The Veda says that the Lord is not the internal activities of the awareness (Antakaranams), not its external activities, not the awareness of itself and not the non-awareness (inert) (Naantahprajnam, nabahihprajnam, naprajnam, nachaaprajnam…). This means that the Lord is not any item of the creation including awareness because awareness itself is the most subtle and finest item of the creation. The word ‘Vishishtha Advaitam’ in Sanskrit also means a special type of monism. When you are made the in-charge of the post of the Lord, you should be always in dualism (Dvaitam) thinking that you are always the servant of the Lord. Then you will continue in monism (Advaitam). But when you think that you are the Lord and feel that you are in monism, you will be thrown in to dualism. Thus, this type of monism is special. The Prajapati who is the in-charge of the post of the creator (Brahma) misunderstood Krishna as an ordinary human being and also thought that He himself was the real creator. Egoism entered him. He played with Krishna by doing mischief. Krishna proved that He was the real creator. Due to this sin, Hanuman was appointed as the new In-Charge for the same post for future creation. Hanuman will never be polluted by such egoism because He recognised Rama as the Lord and never thought Him as human being. Recognition of God in human form is the climax of spiritual knowledge of Hanuman especially when Rama did not perform any miracle and Hanuman himself possessed all the miraculous powers. Therefore, you have become equal to the Lord when you are detached from all the feelings (Bhavas or Gunas) but you should always remember that you are not actually the Lord. You will continue in this perfect monism. But if egoism pollutes you the dualism will appear before you as the control rod. Somebody asked Me that Shankara told in ‘Vivekachudamani’ that idol worship etc., couldn’t give salvation which could be got only by self-realisation. His doubt was that whether He condemned the idol worship etc. You should understand His statement very carefully. Suppose one says that the third step would not lead to the upper floor. Only the tenth step leads to upper floor. Does this mean that the third step is condemned? Without the third step, the tenth step cannot exist. Everybody has to pass through the third step to reach the tenth step.

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A person who has reached almost the final stage will spend just ten minutes time for a brief planning of essential duties to be done by him and he spends all the rest time of the day for God only. All his duties will be done without any trace of hurdle in five minutes only. A beginner reverses this schedule. He spends 10 minutes for God and all the rest time for thinking and for discussing the duties to be done in the best way but his duties fail utterly. A person who has reached the final stage spends all the 24 hours for God only and does not spend even a minute for duties. Such a case is very rare and in such case the Lord will perform all his duties in an excellent way as said in Gita (Tesham Nityabhi yuktanam…). In Gita everywhere Lord Krishna says that He is the Lord and He also advises Arjuna to keep Gita as the top secret (Rahasyam hyetat). The reason for this is that every human being cannot digest the concept of human incarnation and particularly the present human incarnation. The basic reason is that every human being is polluted by egoism and jealousy. Some may believe the past human incarnations that do not exist before their eyes. But it becomes very very difficult to believe the present human form of God because the present human incarnation eats, drinks, sleeps and suffers with illness like us. When we see all these human activities of nature, the strongest ignorance (Maya) intoxicates us like wine and brings the doubts. Only the top most devotee and even such devotee in a particular span of time only can digest this most bitter truth. A realised soul understands the human incarnation in right spirit. The external human body is like the external shirt of a person. The shirt of that person can be cut by a blade like any other shirt. Similarly, the human body of the Lord follows all the rules of the nature. Arjuna could digest this truth just before the war because at that time he was in such a tragic mood so that he completely surrendered to Lord Krishna. At that time Arjuna was mature to absorb that truth. Therefore, the Lord repeatedly emphasized that truth and that was Gita. But when the war was over that mood was lost and even though Arjuna asked Lord Krishna to repeat Gita, the Lord refused. If Krishna repeated Gita, Arjuna could not have digested that truth of human form of God. Whenever a devotee asked Jesus whether Jesus was the divine messenger of the Lord, Jesus agreed, but asked the devotee to keep it as a secret. If you say “worship God”, any human being can digest this concept and therefore, such a message is universal. But if you show an 104

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individual and say that he is God, such statement cannot be digested by most of the human beings. Therefore, such concept should be kept as top most secret. Gita emphasizes this concept of human incarnation everywhere and therefore, Gita cannot be universal. Ofcourse Gita also contains universal concepts. But most part of Gita contains only the emphasis of the most secret concept, which is related to the belief of the human incarnation. This is the reason why Jesus kept silent when the priests asked Him whether He was the messenger of God. If Jesus agreed to that concept the priests would have mocked more at Him and therefore Jesus did not reply to that question. The most dangerous side of the concept of human incarnation is that several human beings exploit and claim themselves as Lord. They cheat the people through this concept. Therefore, Mohammad buried this concept completely and declared that no human being can be the Lord. Infact, He himself was another form of Lord. But He did not mind to lower Himself to the state of messenger of God in order to avoid the exploitation by other cheating human beings. Even Jesus told to most of His devotees that He was messenger of God only. He revealed the secret that He and His father are one and the same to a few deserving devotees only. Even Lord Krishna never told to any body that He is God except in Gita to Arjuna. This secret is limited only to a few deserving devotees only and should not be spread as the universal point because most of the human beings are diseased by egoism and jealousy if this one point is hidden, most of the people will hear and digest the divine knowledge. Therefore, the Lord does not reveal this secret to every devotee and spoil the devotee just because of this point only. The Lord is not interested in name and fame. He is only interested to uplift every human being some how or other. Only demons and devils claim themselves as the Lord and wish to get name and fame and they are not interested to uplift anybody. The Lord in human form is ready even to become the servant of all the humanity if that can uplift the humanity.

Shri Ajay Reveals Secret [The follwing is a secret reveled by Shri Ajay in his own words.] Two years back, one of my close friends, who at present is occupying a very high position professionally, was talking with Swami on the phone. Swami suddenly told him “I will reveal a divine secret to you. Don’t reveal it to anybody. I am the Lord Datta, who came down to 105

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this earth in human form to preach the true divine knowledge and to give the correct interpretation of the scriptures. In course of time this whole world will realize and follow My knowledge. Therefore, believe in Me sincerely and follow Me. You will be benefited forever”. I heard this because I was just by the side of Swami at that time. A few days back the same above-mentioned close friend of mine, phoned me and gave me the following message “Dear Ajay! I am telling you a divine secret and don’t reveal this to anybody. A few days back I went to a great Hora-Nadi scholar in Bombay, who is considered to be number one in India. I asked him a question ‘Who is this person called Datta Swami?’ The scholar took the card and read it to answer my question. His answer was ‘Datta Swami is the human form of Lord Datta, who is the combination of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He is the incarnation of the full divine knowledge. He came to this earth to preach the true divine knowledge to humanity. Don’t miss Him. If you miss Him you have lost everything. In future a very large number of followers will come to Him’. The scholar told exactly the same words which were told by Swami to me on the phone two years back, which you too have heard since you were right next to Swami”. When I mentioned this to Swami, He laughed and gave the following message.

Topmost Divine Secret Tell this secret to every one telling every one to keep it secret. This way is best to propagate a message in a very fast manner. If you tell a message to anybody and request him to propagate it, he will not tell it to anybody. This concept should be kept really as a secret and this means that you should reveal this only to the deserving devotees, who can digest this and feel very happy about it. Most people will have a negative reaction to this message including the topmost devotees. The reason for this is that egoism and jealousy are very hidden and undetectable diseases, which exist in the inner subconscious state. Even the devotee himself is not aware of this disease. This disease will suddenly spring up like a tsunami wave. Ofcourse, after I leave My body, several people can accept this point, because I will not be present before their eyes. Ninety percent of people do not accept God in human form. Among the remaining ten percent too, ninety percent will not accept the present human incarnation and they can accept only a dead human incarnation. Only a rare one can accept the present human 106

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incarnation and even such a devotee slips several times as said in the Gita (Kaschitmaam…, Bahunaam Janmanaam…). Therefore, it will be better if this information is circulated only among the very close circle of My devotees. This should not reach the beginner who will immediately misunderstand Me and he will not listen to any statement from Me. Whether a human being is God, or Son of God or a messenger of God, it does not matter, as far as the message is concerned. People are reluctant even to accept a human being as the messenger of God. The priests mocked and could not tolerate Jesus even as a messenger of God. Imagine their anger since Jesus declared Himself as God in His own words that He and His father are one and the same!

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Chapter - 11

CREATION IS JUST ONE WISH OF GOD O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Datta Jayanti December 15, 2005] A human being cannot do any work just by his will even after long concentration. The same work happens as soon as the Lord wishes just once. This whole universe is created just by His one wish. Faith is will power concentrated for a long time. Will is common in both the Lord and the human being. Will is a characteristic of awareness. This awareness is a common item in both the Lord and the human being. Therefore, will is also a common item in both the Lord and the soul (human being). All these worlds are created just by one wish of the Lord. But even if the soul wishes one crore times [ten million times] in a highly concentrated way called ‘faith, even an atom cannot be created. When both are forms of awareness, why is there this vast difference? Just one wish of the Lord appears as the solid [materialized; real to perception] universe to all the souls and even the highly concentrated will of a soul does not appear as a materialized form to other souls. This will of one soul does not even appear as an imagination to other souls. It appears as imagination only to that particular soul, who imagined so. In one house the light bulb does not glow in spite of putting on the switch several times. But in another house, the bulb glows when just once its switch is put on. In both the houses, same switches, same wires and same bulbs exist. But, the difference is that in the first house, there is no electricity. In the second house, there is electricity. Similarly in the awareness of the soul, God (Parabrahman) does not exist. In the awareness of the Lord, God exists. This awareness is called as Brahman, because awareness, which is the first creation of God, is the greatest among all the items of creation. Brahman means anything that is the greatest in a category of items. The word Parabrahman means God or Creator, who is beyond Brahman. Creation takes place only due to the power of God. Mere awareness has no such power to create this universe. This awareness is the will or imagination of God. The universe always appears as an imagination to God and is an ocean of awareness. 108

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The soul is a drop in it. The power of the ocean is far greater than the power of the drop. Due to this reason, the universe appears as a materialized solid universe to the soul. This whole universe is again just a drop in the awareness created by God in the beginning, which is called as ‘Mula Prakriti’ or ‘Maha Maya’. God does not exist in the universe. Therefore, this universe becomes a scene to the Spectator-God. The scene must be different from the spectator. The ‘Mula Prakriti’ into which God entered and pervaded is called as the Lord (Ishwara). This Lord is the Spectator and the universe is the scene. Thus, both the scene and the outer cover of Brahman are only forms of awareness. The soul is also a form of awareness. The soul-universe-Spectator becomes greater and greater in that order. God is neither in the universe nor in the soul. Therefore, both these have no power of creation. Spectatorship is the characteristic of the awareness. Therefore, even the soul is a spectator. However, the soul can see its own imaginary world as an imagination while it sees the universe as a reality. It cannot see this universe as an imagination. But for the Lord, this universe, including all the souls, is an imagination. The Lord knows and sees everything in the universe. But the soul sees and knows only a little in the universe. Thus the spectatorship also differs in both cases. The soul can see and know everything, only of its own imaginary world. Even though the universe is entirely awareness, a part of it becomes spectator [remains as awareness] in the form of souls and another part becomes inert, which does not see or know anything [material creation]. This difference took place only by the will of the Lord. Therefore, a soul cannot throw away this difference created by the Lord and cannot treat both as one and the same awareness. The soul cannot say that the whole universe has spectatorship [since it is awareness]. Some claim that they have realized the entire universe as a single awareness, which is totally against their own experience. The experience of difference is the will of the Lord and so they behave differently with different items in creation for all practical purposes. No scholar talks with a stone! A stone cannot preach to you and remove your ignorance for all practical purposes. Even the Lord views both the soul and inert matter differently as per the status of each, but He views both as His imagination. The soul cannot see both as his imagination but the soul also views both differently like the Lord. If you refer to the 109

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external form of the Lord only, which is awareness, then both the external form of Lord and the entire soul are one and the same. The difference is that the Lord is God embraced by [surrounded by] awareness, where as the soul is mere awareness. The Lord is the wire with electric current, where as the soul is the wire without electric current. Therefore, the soul cannot achieve anything in this world just by faith. Its external actions may achieve something in this world but not its mere internal will. Even the external action becomes sometimes valid, because the field of its action is the world, which is without God. Some say that everything is possible by self-confidence or faith. But this statement is laudable only as long as it is not analysed! The wire without electric current cannot create even a ray of light in the bulb. People believe that self-faith can achieve anything and therefore, they conclude that the self itself is the Lord. Only for the Lord is anything possible. If a soul wishes to make everything possible, the only way is to catch the Lord and please Him. ‘Self-Faith’ means the faith that is concentrated on the Lord, who came down as ‘self’ or a human being. For the sake of the convenience of the soul to achieve such goal, the Lord comes down as a soul. Faith in such a Soul, and believing in that Soul being the Lord, is called as ‘Self-Faith’. All the power of God is present in the human incarnation, because God and His power are beyond spatial dimensions. The soul can change anything just by its will in its own imaginary world only and not in this physical world. It can change a stone into Lord Krishna in its imaginary world. But the soul cannot change a stone into Lord Krishna in the actual world. Even if you believe that fire is water and put your finger in it, it will still burn you and not cool you. Therefore, before you believe, you must analyse and find out the truth in the object. You must identify real water and only then believe it to be water. Then if you put your hand in it, you can feel its coolness. So, just by your faith, everything in this world cannot become God. Even if you believe yourself to be God and utter the same crores of times, you cannot become God. First you must analyse and identify God in human form and then believe Him. Such faith is a wise faith. Otherwise your faith is only blind faith. For the former, good results and for the latter bad results are inevitable. Hence for the identification of God, analytical knowledge is the first and foremost requisite.

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This whole universe is created by the Lord, who is the ‘Holy Awareness’ or Para Shakti. The most subtle and finest form of energy is awareness. The gross forms of the energy like light, heat etc, are inert energies. Matter is the ‘solidified’ form of energy. Thus the whole creation is a form of energy according to both the ancient and modern scholars. Awareness is a form of energy and matter is also a form of energy, according to modern scientists. Therefore, there is no contradiction in stating that this whole world is a form of awareness. The homogeneous single phase of this world is energy, but his concept is only science and not spiritual knowledge. A scientist, who finds such homogeneity, cannot be a philosopher. The homogeneity in this universe in the context of philosophy is the perception of God everywhere in this world. The Unity or Oneness indicates God as per the Veda. The oneness here means the One God. Such a vision is the ninth step in devotion, which is madness as seen in the case of a topmost devotees like Radha. In such a state, the devotee leaves even all his duties as per Gita (Naishkarmya Siddhim…).

Sanyasa Sanyasa or renunciation is the only way to please the Lord as per the Gita (Samnyasena Adhi Gachchhati). Sanyasa does not mean wearing orange coloured dress [monastic robe] and carrying a stick. ‘Sam’ means completely. ‘Nyasa’ means both attachment and detachment. Therefore sanyasa means attachment to God and detachment from the world. The world means both qualities and the deeds caused by qualities. Both attachment and detachment must take place simultaneously. Each one is a cause for the other. Unless the detachment from world is completed one cannot get attached to God. Similarly, unless one attaches to God, one cannot detach himself from the world. Both should be simultaneous as you see by both eyes simultaneously. Those who cannot resist the world should detach from the world. Such detachment is external as well as internal. ‘Dama’ is external detachment, which is like not going to cinema theatre which is outside your home. ‘Sama’ is internal detachment, which is like resisting watching the cinema on the television at home. The old feelings in ‘chittam’ (storing capacity of mind) appear on the screen of the mind as a cinema. Resisting the mental activity through senses is Yoga as told by Patanjali (Chittavritii Nirodhah). If you resist 111

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seeing, hearing etc., the entry of external poison to the mind is stopped. But the poison was already precipitated in your chittam since several births. Thus the mental activity (Chitta Vritti) is both external as well as internal. This activity is called as ‘Sphota’. According to Sanskrit grammar, chittam has two meanings. One is the addition of poison from outside (Samjnanam) and other is digestion of already existing poison (Smaranam). The poison is the bundle of worldly matters. Resistance of mental activity is to be done by the soul, which can be affected by the poison. But a scholar (Jnani) does not resist this poison. He can digest the poison and so even takes it from outside. Both these activities are done by the subtle body (Sukshma Shareeram), which is made of qualities or mind. The gross body (Sthula Shareeram) is a composite of the senses, which do actions initiated by qualities.

Knower of Atman A ‘Jnani’ separates himself [by analysis] from these two bodies and enters the third, causal body (Karana Shareeram), which is pure awareness. He will not cross the boundaries of this third body, which is also called as Atman. Such a scholar is called Sthita Prajna. ‘Prajna’ means pure awareness. ‘Sthita’ means the person who has limited himself to pure awareness. Since he takes the decision of himself to be Atman, ‘Buddhi’ (intelligence) also becomes the pure awareness. Since he decides the meaning of ‘I’ as pure awareness, the ‘Ahankara’ [I-sense or ego] also becomes pure awareness. You must note that Prajna also means Buddhi. The remaining two internal items (Antahkaranams) are Chittam which is the C.D. or cassette of precipitated feelings and ‘Manas’ (mind) which are the internal screen. The internal T.V. show goes on and the spectator (Atman) sees and enjoys the show. His gross body is his own house, which is the cinema theatre. The whole show is the subtle body and the causal body is the spectator. The spectator has no link with the T.V. show and is only entertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is only entertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is called ‘Gunateeta’ by Gita (Guna Guneshu Vartante…). This T.V. show initiates the senses of the gross body, which do deeds according to the qualities of show. The Atman or spectator (I) is also separated from the gross body and so is not linked to the deeds and the qualities. The soul [Atman] is detached from qualities, deeds and their corresponding 112

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results. This does not mean that he does not receive the results of his deeds. The subtle and gross bodies did the deeds and so they enjoy the results. But this soul, which is detached from these two bodies, is a spectator of such enjoyment of the enjoyer. The soul is not the enjoyer since it is not the doer of the deeds. The wheel that constitutes the deeds and their corresponding results, (Karma Chakra) is also not affected, since is related to the person’s subtle and gross bodies only and not to his causal body or the Atman. The subtle and gross bodies are the ‘doer’ and ‘enjoyer’, constituting a show for the entertainment of the causal body, which is just a spectator. Since the subtle body is also made of awareness, it enjoys the results through its gross body. But an ordinary human being identifies himself with the subtle body and gross body, considering them as ‘I’ and therefore becomes the doer and enjoyer. But the scholar fixes his ‘I’ to the causal body alone and de-links himself from doer-ship and enjoyer-ship. There are two vessels containing vibrated water. Both the vessels undergo stress due to the water vibrations. The vessel is the gross body and water-vibrations are the subtle body. An ignorant fellow identifies himself with the vessel and the water vibrations and so is vibrated [he feels that he is being vibrated] and undergoes stress. But the scholar identifies himself only with the water and not with the vibrations or the vessel. He is not vibrated and has no stress. He goes on enjoying the vibrations and the stress. Even if he does a sin, he goes to hell and enjoys the punishment there. The punishment is received by his subtle and gross bodies and he, as Atman, observes the enjoyment of the punishment and gets entertainment. Ramana Maharshi got a boil [tumor] on the body due to some deed. But he confined himself to the soul and so was not the doer of that deed. When the boil was operated upon by the doctor, He observed it and His subtle body enjoyed the pain [he was operated upon without anesthesia]. But he, as Atman was entertained in the operation. When the Gita says “Atmavantam na Karmani”, it means the Jnani enjoys the results of deeds but he is detached from such enjoyment. “Avashyamanu bhoktavyam…. Kalpakoti Shataih” means that one has to undergo the results of his deeds even after millions of births with interest. The doer can never escape the enjoyment of results. But in the case of a deserving devotee, the Lord comes down as a human incarnation and enjoys his results [undergoes suffering on behalf of the 113

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devotee]. Except this way, the doer has to enjoy his own results. But in the case of a deserving devotee, the Lord comes down as a human incarnation and enjoys his results. Except this way, the doer has to undergo the results. But in that path, the devotee should not aspire for such unjust punishment of the Lord and should resist it, if he comes to know of it. The Lord is called ‘Datta’ for this very reason, since He donates Himself for the sake of His devotee. When Datta enjoys such results, He also behaves like a Yogi. It means that He confines Himself to the soul and His subtle and gross bodies undergo the punishments. Therefore, a Yogi is just like the Lord in this aspect of spectatorship. The Lord has the power of creation of the world while the Yogi does not. But this difference is irrelevant during the aspect of spectatorship. Therefore, this ‘Advaita’ (state of oneness; monism) state of a liberated soul and the Lord, which was proposed by Shankara, is meaningful. This whole universe is the gross body of the Lord and ‘Hiranya Garbha’ is the subtle body of the Lord. Hiranya Garbha means the composite form of all the souls. Now, in the gross and subtle bodies of the Lord also, a number of reactions and changes are going on like a cinema. The ‘Maha Maya’ is the Atman or the causal body of the Lord, which is only a spectator. He confines Himself to this Atman and sees the show in His subtle and gross bodies. The path of Karma [worldly action or desire-motivated action] has no salvation because the soul is not detached from subtle and gross bodies (Bhunjanam Vaa—Gita). He cannot entertain himself by confining to his Atman and so he resists bad qualities and bad deeds. He is very alert about good deeds and always tries to enjoy the pleasures of heaven. But he often comes back to this world, where good and bad are mixed. He is always exposed to the risk of falling in a trap of bad qualities and sins here. He is always afraid of that and has no independence. But in the path of Jnana or knowledge, the scholar is fearless and fully independent. He is beyond both good and bad. Both give entertainment to him equally like sweet and hot items in a meal. This soul has Jnana [knowledge] of Atman, has ‘Rasa’ [love] of the entertainment and ‘Ananda’ [happiness] of the enjoyment of both good and bad equally. The Veda says that such a liberated soul is characterised by these three qualities. The Lord as Rama killed Vali and as Krishna, He enjoyed the result of that sin. But the doer and the enjoyer were only His subtle and gross bodies. They are and not the 114

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Lord, who was only confined to the Atman as a spectator. Lord Krishna could see the show at the end in which His own sons and grandsons were killed and He was entertained by the show. When Arjuna could not kill his grandfather, because he identified himself with his subtle and gross bodies, the Lord taught him ‘Jnana Yoga’ by which Arjuna confined himself to his soul and killed his grandfather and went to hell. But he was the spectator in killing and also while enjoying the sin in hell. Jains [followers of Mahavir Jain] say that Krishna also went to hell, since He was responsible for such a cruel war. Even if that were correct, the Lord would have enjoyed hell as a spectator! Therefore, such a remark on the Lord does not affect Him at all. Shankara taught about the Atman, which is the causal body in the view of ordinary human beings. When His own case comes, God exists in Him beyond even the Atman and so God is called as the Maha Karana or the Cause of the causal body. When He said that He is Shiva, this word Shiva refers to God and He confined Himself only to God, just like the Yogi confines himself to Atman. The word Shiva means auspicious and so can refer to the Atman in the case of the Yogi. The Veda says “Ubhe Punya Pape Vidhuya….”, which means that the Yogi transcends both good and bad and becomes equal to God. The Gita also says the same “Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute”.

Detachment From Desire When the soul is de-linked from subtle and gross bodies, naturally all the bonds related to both these bodies like wealth, wife, children etc., are also dropped off, just like the branches, leaves, flowers etc. get dried as soon as the root of the tree is cut. One should detach even from the aim [desire] of the deed. Only then is the detachment from the subtle body completed (Anasritah…,. Maa Karma Phala Hetuh….,—Gita). Shankara enjoyed the wives of the dead king Amaraka by entering the king’s dead body, through His own subtle body. Goddess Saraswati raised this objection, to Shankara climbing the throne of ‘Sarvajna’. [Her objection was that in order to ascend the throne of Omniscience (Sarvajna), one had to totally pure. By enjoying the queens of the dead king, Shankara was not completely pure, in Her opinion]. Shankara answered that that deed was not linked to Him because He never aspired for the deed. It was an incidental situation in which, he was forced to do 115

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so. Infact He was forced to do so by Goddess Saraswati herself in a debate [Goddess Saraswati, incarnated as Bharati, the wife of Mandana Mishra, and challenged Shankara in debate on the topic of sex. Shankara, being a monk, had no first hand experience in this matter. He therefore, used superpowers to enter the body of the king and get that experience from the king’s wives]. Therefore, in that deed His soul was completely de-linked from the subtle body because even the Samkalpa (aim of the deed) did not exist. Similarly Lord Krishna did not get any sin in dancing with the Gopikas, because the Gopikas were [reborn] sages, who had aspired for such an action by which they wanted to cut all their family bonds for their complete salvation. The Lord never aimed for such an action and there was no necessity for such action in His case. Thus He was completely de-linked with His subtle body and became only the Spectator. Similarly, sage Vyasa gave birth to children through the wives of his brothers on the order of his mother, Satyavati [since that was the only way to protect the future of their dynasty]. In this case, Vyasa never had any desire for those ladies. Therefore, he was de-linked from the subtle body and hence did not get any sin. The Gita says that the analysis of karma (deed) is very very complicated (Gahana Karmano Gatih). A famous saint, who is the head of a mission (Peetham) was blamed for having contacts with an unchaste lady. A sanyasi does not cut his bond with hunger, thirst, sleep and sexual desire. If he cuts bonds with these, he becomes an Avadhuta, which is the highest stage. Therefore, a sanyasi eats, drinks, sleeps and desires for sex. But he does not marry a lady who can provide all these facilities. If he marries, a family will be formed, which becomes an obstacle for spiritual work. Therefore, he needs the help of the public for these facilities. He gets food and drinks from others houses and can sleep too in others houses or in a Muth (a monastery or temple-like residence). But he cannot aspire for others’ wives or unmarried ladies for his sexual desire. One way is the periodical leakage of sperm during sleep and in this case it is not a sin. Alternatively, the desire for sex can be pacified with the help of an unchaste lady. Such a facility was accommodated in the ancient system, which provided the system of prostitutes (veshya avastha). The prostitution system was very much hygienic and such control is present

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even now in very high-class hotels. The pacification of sex is just a biological need like hunger, thirst etc. Scholars equate the discharge of sperm to the discharge of urine or excretory matter. You may argue that it is better to become a householder for this purpose. But the householder loses almost all his time and energy in the bonds with his children, who are the consequence of the householder’s life. Therefore, in view of the higher goal, this alternative is not correct. Therefore, you should not find fault with the sanyasi who pacifies his biological need in very short time, without any negative consequence. Neither is that act wrong nor is using the unchaste lady for that purpose wrong. It becomes wrong only when a chaste married lady or an unmarried girl is involved. The saint who was blamed was very famous and did a lot of spiritual work for the benefit of the world. I immediately quoted a big politician who behaved in the same way and was highly respected as a great leader of the country. I supported him too because he sacrificed all his time and energy for the welfare of the country. A family for him would have hindered his work. In the interest of a greater goal, such an act is not a sin. But again you quote Lord Krishna who danced with chaste married ladies in Vrindavanam. That is a completely special case. Those ladies were sages [in their past births] and Krishna was the Lord. The sages had requested the Lord in the previous birth to cut all their family bonds and attract them towards Him. The Lord accepted and gave the boon of salvation to them. Such a background cannot exist in any other case. Moreover, the Lord did not repeat such an act with anybody else after leaving Vrindavanam. The Lord did not return back to Vrindavanam even once to do the same act again, because the sages already achieved salvation. Therefore, you cannot bring any case to compare with this special divine case. If it were some other case, the fellow would repeat the same act else where or atleast return back to repeat the same act. Therefore, the case of Lord Krishna and the Gopikas cannot be generalised and the philosophy of Osho cannot be accepted. He generalised a special case for everybody.

Avidya and Maya For a soul, this world is real and is called as Maya or Vikshepa. The world is the imagination of the Lord but it is real for all the souls. The world is not the imagination of the soul. The imagination of the soul 117

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is a dream, which is called as avidya or avaranam. Vikshepa and avaranam are both made of ignorance. But the former ignorance is only apparent and the Lord has full awareness during the ignorance. It is called as ‘Saatvika Maya’ which means an ignorance illuminated with knowledge. It is just like the daydream of a dreamer, who is in a fully awakened state. The avaranam has no knowledge and is just deep ignorance. It is like a night-dream. The Lord is the daydreamer and soul is night-dreamer. The Lord controls His dream while the soul is controlled by the dream of this world. The soul can destroy its avidya but can never destroy Maya. Avidya is the imagination or feeling of the soul and can disappear by knowledge. But Maya is the materialised world for the soul and can never disappear. The soul is pure awareness and is called as atman or the causal body. The gross body is made of five elements. Both these bodies are part of Maya and can never be destroyed by the soul. The pure awareness is eternal. The five elements of the gross body are also eternal. The subtle body, which is made of qualities or feelings or imaginations of the soul, can be destroyed by the soul through knowledge. The subtle body is made of the ignorance of the soul and can be destroyed by the scholar. After death this subtle body is what goes to the other worlds. For a liberated soul, since the subtle body is destroyed, he does not go to the other worlds. The causal body and the gross body merge in the cosmos here it self as said by the Veda (Ihaiva Pranah…). In the case of the human incarnation too, the same thing happens but the fourth item, the Lord, is left over. The Advaita philosophers should note this difference between Maya and avidya. Shankara clearly told that the Avaranam disappears by knowledge but not Vikshepa. The word Brahman stands for the Maha Maya or Mula Prakriti which is the infinite ocean of pure awareness that generates, rules and dissolves the world at the end. These three actions are done by the power of God alone, who is embedded in Maha Maya. The three letters A, U and M, which when put together is called as AUM, indicate these three actions. The fourth letter (Turiya) is the silence which represents God, who is beyond even logic and imagination. Therefore, the sound AUM stands only for Maha Maya of Brahman and not for God. But if you recognise the fourth letter, which is silence, then it represents Maha Maya along with God. This is the essence of the Mandukya Upanishad.

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Service Without Aspiration The highest stage is not to aspire for anything from the Lord. The Lord does everything according to His judgement and your deeds. When you desire something, it cannot bring any reaction in the Lord. Some devotees cry with a very loud voice and do several actions for help from the Lord. The crying too will not bring any trace of reaction in the Lord. Draupadi cried for help from the Lord. The Lord did not respond because of her cries. Draupadi had torn her sari to apply a bandage to the finger of the Lord when it was cut. It was this deed that made the Lord to help her in her time of need. The Lord would have helped her even without her cries. The Lord was watching the situation and was ready for the correct moment to act. The point of merit in the cry of Draupadi was that she believed Lord Krishna to be omnipresent and did not confine the Lord to His limited body. Therefore, she cried in the court itself, even though the Lord was in a far away place. Devotion without any aspiration is the best. The next middle level devotion is to believe that the Lord is omnipresent and pray at any place. The lower level of devotion is to try to inform the human incarnation personally. This is an insult to the Lord because you do not believe the Lord in human form is atleast omnipresent. If you think that the Lord is not omnipresent how can He help you as omnipotent? The devotees who have firm faith in Me as the human incarnation often phone Me and submit their requests for protection. I advise them not to do so. By telephoning, they limit Me to this human body only and thus I cannot become omnipresent. If I am not omnipresent, I cannot be omnipotent to help them. Above all this, the main point is whether the devotee requests for anything or not, the protection from the Lord comes only based on the selfless service offered by him to the Lord without aspiring for any fruit in return. When such service is absent, the Lord cannot do any help merely based on their requests or prayers and crying. Therefore, there is no need of prayer or request or crying to the Lord if selfless service is absent. There is also no need of prayer, request or crying to the Lord if selfless service is present. Therefore, a devotee should always concentrate on the selfless service to the Lord without aspiring for any fruit in return and the prayer should be only in the praise of the Lord and not for asking any boon or protection because even if you ask, there is not even a trace of use.

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One should be very careful in doing selfless service to the Lord. The service to the Lord may sometimes be only personal service of the Lord. It may not be the service for the welfare of the world. The service of Hanuman to Lord Rama was always personal service. The whole Ramayana was only the personal affair of Lord Rama. The fight with Ravana, jumping over the sea, bringing the Sanjeevi Mountain etc., were only for the personal service of Lord Rama either to help his wife Sita or to help his brother Lakshmana. Infact, Rama told Ravana on the first day of the war, that He would excuse Ravana if Sita were returned back. This means that if Sita was returned, Rama would not kill the evil Ravana and then the welfare of the world could not be protected. From this, it looks as if Rama was very selfish and that He did not care for the welfare of the world. But Hanuman never misunderstood Rama at any point in Ramayana. Whether the service was for the welfare of this world or for the welfare of the family of Rama, Hanuman did his service. The only aim of the service of Hanuman was to please Lord Rama. You cannot analyse the attitude of the Lord in human form. When Rama neglected the welfare of the world for the sake of the happiness of Sita, there is a lot of hidden truth. You could not recognize even Rama as the Lord. How can you recognize even Sita? When the Lord came covered by a thick sheath of ignorance, He designed His associated roles also in the same manner. Sita was Shri Maha Lakshmi who is the top most devotee of the Lord. The Lord meant that the entire world couldn’t be equal to a devotee like Sita. Such a divine meaning cannot be captured by your intelligence because you could not analyse and find out the divinity in Rama or Sita. Rama told Lakshmana that He would destroy the entire creation if Sita is not found. This again indicates the same hidden divine truth. Externally it appears as if Rama is just a blind lover of His wife. Similarly when Lakshmana became unconscious, Rama said that He did not need Sita any more and was prepared to commit suicide. Again this appears as if Rama was a blind lover of His brother, whom Rama placed even above Sita. Lakshmana was an incarnation of Adishesha who was also hidden in a very thick cover of ignorance. Adishesha was the topper among the topmost devotees. The Lord loved Adishesha even more than His life. These hidden divine truths reveal the divine love of the Lord towards His top devotees. But externally it shows the blind love of a 120

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human being towards His family members. Hanuman did so much service to Lord Rama. Rama rewarded every monkey at the end but did not give any reward to Hanuman. It appears as if Rama was very ungrateful to His best helper. Even Sita misunderstood Rama in this way and presented Hanuman with her chain of pearls. Hanuman cut the pearls with His teeth and threw it away. This again shows that Hanuman had no manners. But there are hidden truths in this scene. Lord Rama gave the highest post of the future Creator to Hanuman and that was not known to anybody. Hanuman preached by that act that the Lord does not exist in inert objects [like pearls]. He proved that the Lord exists only in a living being and showed Rama in His chest. Hanuman exposed the divine knowledge by such action. Thus, everywhere you will get misled and the Lord will test you. Without burning in the fire, gold cannot attain its original shine. Without the examination no student gets the degree. Therefore, the faith in the Lord should be above logic. Logic should be used only to recognise the Lord and should not be used once the Lord is recognised. You should use the torchlight till you reach the house, but once you reach the house, the torch light should be put off.

Recognition of the Lord The Lord is recognised by the special infinite divine knowledge, which is followed by love and bliss. Hanuman is recognised by the tail, but every possessor of a tail is not Hanuman. Even an animal has tail. Similarly, divine knowledge is followed by love and bliss. But love and bliss need not show the presence of divine knowledge. Loving a girl and bliss from wine do not have divine knowledge. Divine knowledge gives love and bliss provided you deserve the knowledge by having the capacity to digest the truth. The divine knowledge must be true. Sometimes the knowledge of God may be false [you may get false information about God] which may also generate love and bliss in you. Exploiting your selfishness, false preachers give ‘divine’ knowledge, which is not true, but it may give you love and bliss. Therefore, if you are ignorant and cannot understand your eternal welfare in long range, false divine knowledge also gives you love and bliss. A sweet may give immediate love and bliss to a child who is ill. But it harms the child in the long run. A sour medicine may create grief and repulsion in a child, but it gives welfare in long run. But for an older wise man, who is ill, the sweet gives grief and the sour medicine gives love and bliss. 121

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Therefore, divine knowledge gives love and bliss only to a person who can discriminate between the truth and falsity by logic. Therefore, the deservingness for knowledge (Jnana Yoga Adhikara) is also needed. The possession of the divine knowledge, love and bliss is proved only when you receive them from the Sadguru. Unless you experience them, there is no proof of the possession of these three by the other side. Unless you receive and experience the heat, the fire cannot prove its possession of heat. Therefore, the Lord is called as Datta. Datta means the donor of these three qualities to the devotees. Only by this donation, does the Lord prove Himself to be the Possessor of these three qualities. Therefore, Datta can only be the Lord or Parabrahman. The word Parabrahman indicates that He is the Possessor of these three qualities. The word Datta indicates that He proves His possession by the donation of these qualities to the devotees. This means that unless the Lord makes you experience Him, He cannot be the Lord, provided you are a person who deserves enough to receive the true divine knowledge and to understand it. The fire may give you the heat but if a thick sheath of insulating material covers you, you cannot experience the heat. You will blame the fire and say that the fire does not possess the heat. When all other persons are receiving heat and if you alone are not receiving the heat, you should find fault with yourself and detect the thick sheath of insulating ignorance that covers yourself. When all the people are receiving love and bliss from the divine knowledge of the Lord, if you alone are not receiving the love and bliss, you should not blame the Lord without detecting your own cover of ignorance.

Master of World, Family, Body and Soul The Lord is the Master of this world, your family, your body and your Self. You are the pure awareness (causal body) if you are a scholar and you are the waves of the awareness (qualities) or the subtle body if you are ignorant. In any case you are just a part of your composite body, which consists of all the three bodies. Thus you are in your body. Your body is in your family and your family is in this world. The Lord being the Master of this world, He is the Master of your self, your body and your family. You cannot control yourself or your body or your family or anybody in this universe. Indra became shocked like an inert stone when he was stared at by Lord Shiva. In that state his pure awareness was like an inert stone and he had no feeling at all. What does this mean? The 122

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Lord controlled the causal body and the subtle body of even Indra [king of gods and angels]. After all, what are you before Indra? Certainly you (causal body or subtle body or both) are controlled by the Lord. The hand and the total gross body of Indra became stand still by the sight of Lord Shiva. This happened when Indra tried to hit Lord Shiva who was in the disguise of Avadhuta. This means that every part of the gross body is also under the control of the Lord. The Pandavas were great heroes. But they could not protect their wife when she was unclothed by force in a full courtroom. This means you cannot protect anybody in your family. The parents of Markandeya could not protect him from death. In both these cases only the Lord protected the devotees. Duryodhana could not control his grandfather Bhishma and his friend Karna. Bhishma gave the secret of his death to the Pandavas, which was against the will of Duryodhana. Karna gave a boon to his mother that he would not kill any of the Pandava brothers except Arjuna. This boon was against the will of Duryodhana. Therefore, his own kith and kin went against his will and thus he could not control his own family members or friends. Arjuna could not defeat the hunters who stole away the wives of the Yadavas right before of his eyes. The Pandavas could not defeat Saindhava even though they fought with him for a whole day. All these examples show that you cannot control anybody in your family or anybody in the world. This proves clearly that you are not the controller of anybody or anything including your self. You must always remember that you are always a zero and never a hero. You must surrender to the Lord in every step and in every fraction of a second, meditating upon the Lord as the Master of the world, as the Master of your family, as the Master of your body and as the Master of yourself. In a nutshell, you must understand that the Lord is the Master of everything and everybody including your self and surrender to Him completely as said in Gita “Tameva Saranam Gachcha Sarvabhavena Bharata”, which means that you should surrender only to the Lord by all means. On this auspicious day, I give these five Mantras to all of you to chant every minute with full realisation of their meanings. These are: • Om Jagadishwaraya (Master of the world) Namah. • Om Kutumbeshwaraya (Master of the Family) Namah. • Om Deheshwaraya (Master of the Body) Namah. • Om Atmeshwaraya (Master of Self) Namah. 123

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• Om Sarveshwaraya (Master of Everything and Everybody in this world) Namah. These five Mantras will sweep away the dust of egoism from your self. These five mantras act like the bomb to smash the precipitated hill of egoism from several previous births. Kala Bhairava, the main practical assistant of the Lord has a broomstick in one hand and a vessel of fire (bomb) in the other hand. They indicate the sweeping of the temporary day-to-day egoism and smashing of precipitated egoism-hill that has formed from several millions of births.

Mixture of Reality and Imagination [Evening Message] This world is a mixture of reality and imagination. Any drama is also similarly a mixture of reality and imagination. The stage, dress and actors are real. But the dialogues, feelings and corresponding actions are imaginary. Similarly, the human beings and this inert world are real. But the bonds and feelings and the corresponding deeds are imaginary and arise out of ignorance (avidya) of the human being. All the human beings and all the inert things in this world are real and form the Maya. Ofcourse Maya is the imagination of the Lord. Maya is not the imagination of the soul. Therefore, you should not try to remove Maya, which is impossible. You cannot destroy or remove the stage, dress and the actors from the drama, which are real. But you can get rid of the dialogues, feelings and actions in the drama. But here also you cannot really get rid of them either because you are forced by the director of the drama to act. Therefore, you have to put on the dress of the role. You have to speak the dialogues and express the corresponding feelings, for which you are duty bound in the drama. The only possibility is that you can keep yourself detached from the role, from the dialogues and from the feelings. You can act while remaining detached and you cannot be stopped for your detachment. You look like an attached actor for all external purposes and for the audience. Therefore, you are not disturbed by the drama and yet you can be the best actor. The attached actor undergoes tension and gets disturbed by the drama. Both look similar in their action externally but they differ a lot internally as said in Gita (Saktah Karmnyavidvansah…). You will be acting as if you believe the bonds in the drama as real. You will weep or smile for your dramatic relations in the drama according to the context. Everybody will think that you are under the 124

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illusion of the drama. You behave as if you believe the drama as a reality. But internally you are fully detached from the dramatic bonds. Your love, anger, hatred etc., towards dramatic bonds look real for others but you thoroughly know that those bonds are fully unreal and illusory. It is diplomacy. Your detachment should be kept secret and should be known only to yourself. If you open the secret, your ignorant relations feel hurt. It is not wise to hurt anybody when you can solve the problem without hurting anybody. When Vasudeva, the father of Krishna died, Lord Krishna wept too much. It was His over action. The sage Narada asked Krishna secretly about His weeping and Krishna told Narada that He over acted in the situation to satisfy the relatives. In the end, when His sons and grandsons were killed in the mutual fight, He did not express any feeling because there was no relative leftover whom He had to satisfy by superficial action. Thus, a scholar (Jnani) or the human incarnation acts in his role allotted in this drama but He will always be aware about himself, knowing himself to be the actor of the role and not the role itself.

Ignorant identifies himself with role An ordinary human being forgets that he is an actor and identifies himself with the role, believing the dramatic bonds to be real bonds and gets disturbed throughout the drama. Such an ignorant actor continues in the disturbance even after the drama. Similarly the ignorant soul continues in the illusion even after death and does not get liberation. In course of time such an ignorant actor forgets himself every time and always continues in the illusion of his roles every day. The wise actor also continues in the roles every day but is never affected by the roles, since he is always aware of himself as an actor only. If you examine the dream of a human being, the whole dream-drama is only his imagination. Therefore, such a dreamer remains only as a spectator and is not involved as an actor in the drama. But in the case of the world drama, an ignorant soul is always involved as a role and cannot be the spectator because he forgets himself to be the actor. In the world drama, a scholar is also always involved as a role but he becomes the role as well as the spectator of the whole drama because he is aware of himself. Thus, the Lord and the scholar become equal as far as the acting in the drama is concerned.

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The Lord in the human form may be the Creator, Ruler and Destroyer of the world but this point is irrelevant as far as the acting and spectatorship are concerned. Even the owner and director of the drama is equal to an actor as far as the acting in the drama is analysed. When the Producer and Director of the world-drama also acts in a role in the drama, He is called as the human incarnation. When you are acting in the drama, you may consider all the dramatic bonds as imaginary and unreal. But your bond with the Producer as employer-employee relationship is always real. Therefore, you cannot treat the Producer as equal to other roles. Ofcourse, according to the strategy and the story of the drama, you have to treat him only as a role in the drama. But you should not forget that He is your Master and that you are His servant. While following the story and dialogues of drama as per the rules of the stage, you have to keep up your love, respect and devotion towards your Master atleast in your heart. You have to follow the role assigned to you by your Master. If the story of the drama forces you to treat even your Master as only a role, you have to behave just like that. But if the story is designed so that you have to recognise Him as your Master openly in the drama, you have to act similarly. When such a fortunate occasion comes, you need not show superficial action in that situation. You can act sincerely, from the bottom of your heart in recognising your Master and in serving Him. In this line, acting should not be done. You have to behave truly and sincerely. By such real behaviour, your Master is pleased. Such real behaviour is expected from you even after the drama. This means, you must not show superficial action towards the Master in any case. But if the story demands that you not express your sincere behaviour towards your Master during the drama and that you must treat Him only as an ordinary role, you have to do so. Only in such a case can you show superficial action with Him. If the story demands that you have to treat Him as your enemy, you have to do so superficially, keeping sincere love in your heart. The gatekeeper Jaya acted as Ravana and had to treat his Master as his enemy in the drama. Ravana behaved so as per the story but had immense devotion in his heart secretly towards his Master. Therefore, when the drama was over, he reached back to his own position and the Lord was very much pleased with his acting, which was highly critical. Shishupala scolded the Lord through hundred abuses. In every abuse he was showing the top most hatred and anger towards the 126

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Lord externally but internally he was crying in his heart for such language. Therefore, as soon as he was killed, the soul of Shishupala emerged as light and merged with Lord and all saw this. The Lord exhibited such merging to all to indicate that he was not at all furious with Shishupala. Shishupala successfully completed the task of his most critical role assigned to him by the Master and the Master openly congratulated him. He scolded the Lord under the ignorance and cried in his heart due to knowledge.

Devotees Play as per script of God Both ignorance and knowledge are alternatively released by the Lord as said in Gita (Mattah Smritih…). If you are given the role of a devotee, you are very fortunate because you can act sincerely, from the bottom of your heart. You can immerse in your role sincerely and you need not feel that you are an actor. You must only identify yourself to the role. But if you are given the role of a villain, you have to fully drink the ignorance-wine and only then can you identify yourself with the role. In both these cases you have to identify with your role. You have to keep the diplomacy with regards to other roles in the drama in whatever role you may be present. You should not keep the diplomacy with regards to the role of the Lord. Whether you are a devotee or enemy of the Lord, you have to identify with the role without any diplomacy. In such identification, you can take the help of knowledge or ignorance if necessary according to the requirement. But when you are not related to the Lord in the drama in any way, then you need not identify with the role and you can keep up the diplomacy with regards to other roles. The Lord also assigns such diplomacy to other roles to you. The Lord expects you not to be disturbed in your role while acting with reference to other roles. If you do not exhibit diplomacy towards other roles, you are unnecessarily disturbed by tensions. When you are acting with reference to Him, even tension and disturbance should be welcomed. Ravana, as the enemy of Lord Rama, experienced a lot of tension in his role but he was rewarded at the end. Similarly, Sita, Hanuman, Lakshmana etc., also were subjected to lot of tension as devotees. The Lord also rewarded such tension. Therefore, in any role that is related to the Master, you should be sincere and identify yourself with your role without any diplomacy and should welcome any sort of tension for the 127

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sake of your Master. But you need not undergo any trace of tension for the sake of other bonds in the drama. Ravana did not bother internally even if his sons were killed in the war, because he knew that they were only unreal dramatic sons. But when the situation developed which lead to a war against the Lord, he felt a lot of agony in the heart. But he acted reverse externally. That is he wept for the death of his sons and felt happy to fight with the Master. Both these weeping and happiness were only external superficial actings. In the case of devotees, they felt happy for the victory of the Master and wept when the Master was in trouble. In their case, a double game was not necessary. Their acting was homogeneous and no ignorance was needed. They were always aware of the Master as the Lord. But in the case of Ravana, ignorance was required for him to always identify with his role. When the Lord was in trouble, Ravana has to express happiness and for this ignorance was required. He had to be unhappy for the success of the Master and for this also ignorance was required. Therefore, ignorance was forced on him throughout the drama. The aim of the drama is to show the fate of an ignorant fellow, who actually becomes an enemy of the Lord. The drama also shows the fortune of a real devotee. Therefore, one should not think that one could reach the Lord even by enmity. The enmity of Ravana was unreal and was forced by the Lord. But your enmity is not so and is real. Therefore, the dramatic end of Ravana in the drama will be your real end. The real end of Ravana cannot be your real end. The dramatic end of the devotee in the drama is also the real end. Therefore, the real end of a devotee will be the real end of the dramatic devotee, which was also real. Therefore, the conclusion is that you can please the Lord only by your devotion. The real devotion is always in the form of sacrifice of work and the fruit of work. This can be seen in the roles of devotees like Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Haunman and the Gopikas. Sita left the dramatic city and went to the forest following the Lord. Lakshmana left his dramatic wife for the sake of the real bond with his Master. Bharata left the bond with dramatic wealth for the sake of the real bond with his Master. Hanuman sacrificed work for the sake of the real bond with his Master. The Gopikas sacrificed butter, which was the fruit of their hard work for the sake of the real bond with their Master. If you are unable to express your love to your Master through work and the fruit of your work, atleast express your love through mind and words. Atleast express your 128

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gratefulness to the Lord through words (prayer) and mind (devotion) instead of wasting your words and mind for the sake of these unreal dramatic bonds in the world.

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Chapter - 12

HUMAN INCARNATION IS ULTIMATE The Three Subsequent Preachers O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The sequence of the three spiritual preachers, who are the incarnations of Lord i.e., Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, clearly indicates the sequence of three doorsteps to salvation. The first step is Jnana yoga or the correct spiritual knowledge. The second step is Bhakti yoga, which is the devotion or theoretical love to God. The third step is Karma yoga or seva yoga, which is the practical love to God. First you must identify your son mixed in some children. The differentiation of your child from the other children is the correct identification of your son and it should be the first step. Similarly, the first step is to know the original nature of God that He is unimaginable and then to recognize such unimaginable God who comes down in human form, which is the common medium of yourself (since you are the soul in the same medium of human form). The Brahma Jnana or Brahma vidya means the identification of God existing in the most suitable medium because God by Himself is unimaginable and is beyond identification. Therefore, Brahma jnana does not mean the knowledge of the original God but it only means the knowledge of the medium in which the original God exists. Shankara established that the human form is the only relevant medium for the human beings and the people misunderstand this point and they thought that every human form is the medium of God and hence God exists in every human being. When you have identified God in a specific human form, then only the theoretical love on God is generated in the mind. The intelligence or buddhi is used to identify God and subsequently it generates love or theoretical devotion on God. In this second stage, the love is limited to mind only and hence, can be theoretical only. When you have identified your son and discriminated him from other children with the help of analysis using your intelligence, the love on your son is generated in the mind. When Narada explained about Krishna to Rukmini and proved that Krishna is God through analytical discussions, Rukmini identified Krishna as God 130

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with her intelligence and distinguished Him from all other human beings in the world. In the second stage, the love on Krishna was generated in her mind and it resulted in terrible anxiety to attain Krishna. Such climax of anxiety is called as Vedana as introduced by Ramanuja (Vedanadeva kaivalyam). But, for such theoretical devotion and its climax (Vedana), the root cause is the identification of Krishna as God through analysis and filtering Him from all other human beings through discrimination. If Narada preached Advaita to Rukmini and established that every human being is God, then she should not have rejected Shishupala because Shishupala must also be God as Krishna! Therefore, the fundamental cause is knowledge as stated by Shankara (Jnanaadevatu kaivalyam). Such climax of anxiety will lead to the attainment of God (Bhaktyaa tvananyayaa… Gita). This theoretical devotion may be pure or impure. If there is any aspiration for fruit, such devotion is impure. Rukmini wanted to attain Krishna not to become the queen of His kingdom but to press His feet constantly as Maha Lakshmi near Narayana. Therefore, the proof for pure devotion is decided by the selfless service, which is the practical devotion. The theoretical love on your son is resulting in doing service to him and there is no aspiration of any fruit in return. This third step is introduced by Madhva, who stated that the relationship between God and devotee is only service (Sevyasevaka sambamdha). The service to God in the energetic form like Vishnu, Shiva etc. is impossible because such energetic forms are not available on the earth. These energetic forms exist in the upper worlds and are meant for the departed souls only, which go to upper worlds in energetic bodies. Similarly, the past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc. are also not available now on the earth. Therefore, the only way to serve such forms is only their statues and photos, which are inert and cannot receive the service directly. Ofcourse, the devoted priests associated with these statues receive your service indirectly and God is also pleased from your service to His devotees. But, after all, it is only the indirect service and not the direct service of God. Shankara stressed on the human form of God to discard the inert bodies for service. Shankara clearly told that He alone is God Shiva (Shivah kevaloham). First He told that He is Lord Shiva (Shivoham). The students repeated this and felt that everybody among them is Lord Shiva. He wanted to prove that Lord Shiva came in a particular single human body only and that one particular human being is only Shiva. Then He swallowed the 131

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molten lead and asked the students to swallow the same because for Lord Shiva, who swallowed the most powerful poison (Hala hala), swallowing molten lead should be nothing. Then He declared that He alone is Shiva. This means that God will come down through a particular human body only in to the world.

Devotees Return Even from Brahma Loka Detachment from the world and attachment to one’s own self is also Nivrutti in relative sense. Nivrutti means simply detachment. The self is also a part of the world. Therefore, such detachment is from all the other items of the world. Thus, the self-attachment is not the complete detachment from the total world since the self is also one of the items of the world. The real and absolute Nivrutti is from the entire world (creation) including the self. Buddhists established such total detachment from the world and ended in nothing (Shunyam) here. When Buddhists go to hell being victims of their sinful deeds after leaving this world, the fruits of deeds can’t be experienced as nothing. They may argue that enjoyment of fruits also as nothing. But, atleast the experience of nothing should not be nothing because nothing should be really experienced if nothing is really nothing! Then the experience of nothing being something contradicts their argument that everything is nothing. On this point, Shankara rejected their argument of everything being nothing. This is no doubt, the total detachment from the world, but there is no use of such total detachment from the world. Such state is that of a stone. In the self-attachment, the Advaitins think that self is the creator and not the part of creation. But this is against the Gita, which says that self is a part of world or nature (Prakruti), called as Para Prakruti (Jivabhutam…). Due to this misunderstanding, they feel that the self-attainment (Atma Yoga) is attachment to the creator and complete detachment from the world. The Visishta Advaitins and Dvaitins believe that attachment to Lord Narayana in the place of the soul as Nivrutti, which is also a bond with energetic form only. But, atleast God is embedded in such energetic form. However, even though it is contemporary energetic form, it is irrelevant to the earth since it belongs to the upper world. The followers of ISKCON feel that attachment to Lord Krishna is Nivrutti. But today the human form of Lord Krishna does not exist on the earth. Lord Krishna exists as the energetic form in Goloka as Lord Narayana exists in Vaikuntha. Both 132

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these energetic forms (Narayana and Krishna) correspond to be goals of the energetic bodies of their devoted souls in their corresponding upper worlds. Thus, both such forms are irrelevant to the human beings existing on the earth today. We can atleast appreciate these devotees of Lord Narayana and Lord Krishna because God certainly exists in those energetic forms. But, the Advaitins are totally wrong because every soul is neither God nor atleast contains God. These energetic forms of God can be worshipped in this world for developing the theoretical devotion. But only the practical devotion, which is the result of real theoretical devotion can alone yield result. For such practical devotion, the energetic forms are not suitable to humanity and hence, such energetic forms are not appearing on this earth. The devotees of these energetic forms of upper world are the souls in energetic bodies after leaving this earth. These devotees in energetic bodies on going to Brahma Loka return due to same repulsion of common medium of energetic forms (Aabrahma bhuvanaat…Gita) and for the same reason, they rejected the contemporary human incarnation here in the previous birth due to repulsion between common human bodies. Those who recognized the contemporary human incarnation here and served it, recognize the energetic form in Brahma Loka also and serve it and such devotees do not return to the earth in to the normal cycle of ignorant births (Yat gatvaa nanivartante… Gita). Hence, based on the knowledge and ignorance of the devotees, some return back Brahma Loka and some attain Brahma Loka forever. The difference is not in the Brahma Loka (abode of God) but it is due to the difference in the realization of the devotees. Ofcourse, the devotees who attained Brahma Loka forever also return back to earth accompanying the very Brahman (God) while coming down as human incarnation. In such case, they have not left the Brahma Loka because they are always in the Brahma Loka due to their associating with God. Brahma Loka is not a particular place but, any place where Brahman exists is Brahma Loka. Those who recognized Krishna in his lifetime will be with Krishna forever. Here Krishna means the human form of Lord in every human generation. Such Brahma Loka, which is eternal, is called as Goloka, which is higher than the Brahma Loka from which the devotees return back. Again here, this statement does not mean that there are two Brahmans and two abodes of Brahman. It means only the two categories of Brahman.

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God And Devotee Same God exists in the human body of every human incarnation that is coming in every human generation. You are unable to recognize such human forms of God due to your inherent and inevitable egoism and jealousy. The human being cannot tolerate even the concept of ‘higher’ in a co-human being. Can he tolerate God, ‘the highest’ in a cohuman being? If the human incarnation is rare, a human being recognizing the contemporary human incarnation is more rare. Instead of the human incarnation, you can worship the best devotees also. Infact, the human incarnation is very rare and even if it is identified, it is very difficult to accept and worship it due to egoism and jealousy. The devotees are widely spread and easily available. To worship a devotee, egoism and jealousy will not hinder so much because, the constant thought that the devotee is after all a human being like yourself, will satisfy yourself. Moreover, if you worship the devotee, God is more pleased than His direct worship. Therefore, the worshiping a devotee is very easy and has a better result also. It is said that insulting a devotee (Bhaagavat apachara) is more serious than insulting God (Bhagavataapachara). When Hiranyakashipu insulted Lord Vishnu, God was not serious at all. But when the demon insulted His devotee (Prahlada), God became very serious. This means that God treats His devotee more than Himself. The exact contrary concept of this is that God is more pleased with the worship of His devotee than His worship. However, this concept should not bring egoism in the heart of devotee that he is greater than God. The devotee should remember that the entire value of the devotee is only due to God. If you have both human incarnation and devotee together, you may feel that worshipping the devotee is better than worshiping God. Then you may neglect the human incarnation and worship the devotee for a better result, because your worship is always based on the result only. Then the real devotee will feel pained about it. In such case God becomes furious with you because His devotee is pained by you. But in this case, suppose the devotee feels proud of himself then the total picture gets reversed. The devotee is infected by egoism and therefore, God will teach him a lesson to rectify the devotee. Once, the devotee Sudarshana became proud by the praise of Narada. Then he was born as Karthaveerya and the Lord in the form of Parashurama taught a lesson to him. Therefore, when you have the

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human incarnation and devotee together, you worship both equally. Atleast you treat the human incarnation equal to the best devotee.

Statusque Maintains After Death Goloka means the group of senses (Gavam Loka iti). This means the human body. The energetic body also is in the same form of human body and is having all the senses. Therefore, Goloka means the human body or energetic body charged by God. When Gopikas were in the association of Krishna on this earth, they were already in Goloka. When Krishna and Gopikas left their human bodies and entered energetic bodies in the upper world called as Goloka, Gopikas are again in association with Lord Krishna only. This means that the state of Gopikas continued even after their death. The death does not change the state. If you attain the Jeevan Mukti (salvation while alive) you can attain Videha Mukti (salvation after death). The former is due to recognition of the human incarnation in this life on this earth. The latter is due to subsequent recognition of God in the energetic body in the upper world. Therefore, without the former, the latter is impossible. The Goloka is given higher status than Vaikuntha. What is the reason? Same God exists in both energetic forms (Narayana and Krishna). Both forms are equally energetic. Thus there is no difference in both these forms of God. But there is difference between the levels of the devotees. The devotees in Goloka recognized God on the earth and subsequently in Goloka fully since they conquered egoism and jealousy. They are in the higher level. But the devotees in Vaikuntha could not recognize the human incarnation on this earth due to the principle of common repulsion (repulsion between the common human bodies). They worshipped Lord Narayana here through photos and statues with full devotion. The reason for their full devotion on this earth is due to the absence of the common repulsion. But when the same devotees went to Vaikuntha, they do not recognize Lord Narayana due to the same principle of common repulsion (repulsion between the energetic forms). But due to their Samskara of their full devotion to Lord Narayana on this earth, a partial devotion to Narayana develops due to reduction of full devotion by the common repulsion and in course of time their devotion to Lord Narayana is reduced to zero. They worship the formless God there, which is supposed to be higher than Narayana there. When they come back, they are born as devotees of formless Brahman 135

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and finally they feel that their soul itself is the formless Brahman and thus become Advaitins. Thus the present Vishishta Advaitins and Dvaitins, who do not recognize the contemporary human incarnation, are going to be born as Advaitins, whom they are scolding now! Now if you compare the devotees in Vaikuntha with the devotees in Goloka, the latter are certainly in the higher level. The same teacher goes to graduate and postgraduate classes. The difference in the levels of the classes is not due to the difference in the teacher but it is due to difference in the levels of the students. Therefore, the recognition of human incarnation in your present generation can alone lead you to the highest plane of God. Lord Narayana exists always as energetic form only. But Lord Krishna existed as human form for sometime on the earth and then became energetic form and is continuing in the same. The devotees of Narayana and Krishna are in no way different from each other as on today, because today both are worshipping the energetic forms only due to repulsion towards human form. Both devotees on reaching the upper world will have reduced devotion due to principle of repulsion between common media. The case of Gopikas was quite different from the present devotees of Krishna, since they had the opportunity to worship the human form of Krishna when they were alive on this earth. Gopikas conquered egoism and jealousy and hence could worship Krishna in human form when they were alive on this earth. But the present devotees of Krishna could not conquer egoism and jealousy like Gopikas and hence, are unable to accept their contemporary human incarnation. They worshipped Krishna as energetic form of upper world and are as good as the devotees of Narayana. They can never enter Goloka for this main difference. They can only enter Vaikuntha like the devotees of Narayana, who can also appear as Krishna to them simultaneously. These devotees of Krishna have already the concept of Narayana appearing as Krishna and hence, they cannot object to this. The devotees of contemporary human incarnation only enter Goloka, where the God in the energetic form appears as their contemporary human incarnation only. Thus, Goloka means the abode of contemporary human incarnation because the word Goloka means the human body in general charged by God and not any particular specific human body like Krishna. The word Krishna also means the human form, which attracted the selected few blessed devotees in a particular 136

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human generation. If Goloka means only the abode of Krishna, it should have been called as Krishna Loka. Lord of Goloka appears as Krishna also to the devotees who worshipped Krishna in His time on the earth. Due to the unimaginable omnipotency of Lord, the deity of Goloka appears as the contemporary human incarnation of each human generation. The Veda says that unless one recognizes God here itself, who is present before his eyes, the future will be in great loss (Ihachet…, Yat Saakshaat Aparokshaat…). Unless one recognizes God existing in the same medium, the principle of repulsion between common media will hinder the full devotion. If the devotee missed God here, existing in the same medium (human body), the highest result can never be attained. Hanuman was equal to Gopikas in all aspects like recognizing and serving the contemporary human incarnation etc., but missed by a very narrow margin, since He fought with the Lord to protect Yayati. However, in the case of Hanuman, we should take Him as the role only because as actor He is the Lord Himself. The message was given by the Lord Himself through this role, which is that even the top most devotees may be polluted with the egoism and jealousy for atleast sometime during their lifetime. If you analyze the same issue from the view of God, inside Hanuman, since Goloka is kept above God by God Himself, how can you expect God to go to Goloka, who always wants to keep Goloka above Him?

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Chapter - 13

SUICIDE IS NOT SOLUTION FOR DIFFICULTIES O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-10 October 2, 2006} Today Shiridi Sai Baba left His divine body due to a disease transferred on to Him from His devotee. Such decease is like the poison taken by a person who commits suicide. Does this mean that Baba committed suicide? It was not the natural death. The death of Himself was executed by Himself. This point should be clarified to the people who commit suicide in the world. The person is committing suicide by the disturbance created by the illness that entered the body or by some other stress in the external world. This disturbance or stress is the fruit of his own sins and he himself is responsible for his own sins through his own Samskaras. But the illness in the body of Baba was not of that type. Sometimes a person may compare himself to Baba since he is committing suicide to remove the problem of his beloved souls as you see in the Titanic cinema. Such sacrifice is foolish because his sacrifice is limited to the Pravrutti (Behavior of a soul with other souls). After the suicide, the fellow is going to hell (Asuryaa Nama…Veda) for spoiling his precious human life meant for achieving the grace of God. The soul for which he committed suicide does not even recognize him after this birth. He is not benefited in any way by such sacrifice. He should think that his life is as important as the life of the soul for which he is committing the suicide. He thinks that the main aim of his life is only the other beloved soul and not the beloved Lord. Gopikas jumped into fire for Krishna and they were granted the top most world by the Lord for such suicide which is in the field of Nivrutti. But the beloved soul cannot do anything for this fellow who is going to hell. You may say that the sacrifice of this fellow should be appreciated. The sacrifice becomes appreciable only when the sacrifice is done to a deserving person. A person wrote the story, directed and produced the cinema. After seeing his own cinema, he is upset and runs out of the theatre. When he goes into the world he will face more serious situations. Therefore, running away from the theatre is not the solution. He should have 138

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written the story of cinema properly. Still, even after the show he can censor the film and modify the picture. That is the solution. For such modification he can take the help of the senior producer. I heard that a cinema which ended with tragedy in love was censored after the show, since the reaction of the public was very serious. I am explaining the case of a person who is upset in his life and commits suicide. When he leaves this world (theatre), he will enter the hell which is very very harsh. Let him take the guidance of Sadguru and change his Samskaras so that he can censor his life and regenerate the life in modified form. Becoming inert to the life with the help of Atma Yoga (Self attainment) is like taking sleep tablets in the theatre so that he avoids seeing the picture. Such a person will be born as inert object so that he will not have any possibility of producing any cinema forever. I heard that there was an advertisement about a medicine that cures the pain of teeth. The advertisement says that the pain of the teeth will be permanently cured since the medicine will remove all the teeth forever! The philosophy of Advaitin resembles this. Please note that I have told that this is the philosophy of Advaitin but not as the philosophy of Shankara. Ramanuja always says that He is criticizing the philosophy of the followers of Shankara but not Shankara (Yaduchyate Shaankaraih...). Therefore, forced death is not at all the solution.

Spiritual Workshop is better than Suicide People think that one can become peaceful after death. No no. The soul has to face unimaginable stress in the hell and also in the future condemned births. The self attainment through the spiritual workshops is some what a better solution. To become stone is better than going to hell. But in both cases the human rebirth is ruled out. The best solution is to enjoy the picture consisting of happy and tragic scenes alternatively. Such state is the state of God and can be obtained only by the grace of God. Once he goes to hell or become stone, there is no control and there is no possibility of any further change. You have the advantage of control and possibility of change only during this human life. Even angels of the upper world always try to take human birth because in the upper world, only the fruits are enjoyed and there is no freedom to change the fate. You must realize the logic of the necessity of misery in this world. Without misery the world will bore you with continuous happiness like a cinema without tragic scenes and like sweet 139

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meals without any hot dish. In KrutaYuga, God created only happiness. The continuous happiness bored the souls. The very boring process itself is misery. Thus, the birth of first misery is only from continuous happiness. In KrutaYuga, the justice in the form of cow was having all the four legs, which means all good deeds are only done due to predomination of Sattvam. Afterwards, since misery was required to avoid continuous happiness, the legs of the cow were broken gradually in the subsequent Yugas. This means that subsequently Rajas and Tamas predominated gradually. If you learn to enjoy the misery in the life, it is the philosophy of life. Such philosophy can be achieved if you realize the unreality of Maya with respect to yourself and matter. By the grace and the divine knowledge of Sadguru you can achieve such divine state of God. Sadguru is God in human form who came down to guide you by preaching this concept. Lord Krishna was entertaining Himself by seeing the mutual killing of His kith and kin including His sons and grandsons at the end with sweet smile on His lips through out the cinema. The same smile continued when He was bleeding by the shot arrow. Jesus carried on His own cross with a peaceful face even though the spectators were weeping. Jesus asked them not to weep for Him and suggested to weep for themselves and for their children in view of the future hell. God is defined as He who takes even the most serious issue as a joke. Soul is defined as he who takes even the joke as the most serious issue. The simple reason for this difference is that God (or a realized and liberated soul) realizes the unreality of Maya (forms of matter created by God like beauty or created by self like a house and all the thoughts of the soul), whereas the soul is not realizing this unreality.

Layers of Ignorance The three layers of ignorance (Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya) are placed one above the other. The fourth (Turiyam) top most unimaginable item is God. You exist in the second layer called Maha Maya. You will disappear even in the third layer (Mula Maya) and you are talking about God who remains after removing the top third layer (Mula Maya). The God alone exists above the Mula Maya. Why are you talking about that state in which you do not exist? Therefore you cannot claim that you are God. It is sufficient if you cross the Maya and enjoy the world like God. Even if you do a miracle, you have not done it because to do a miracle you have to cross Maha Maya and control the 140

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Mula Maya. When you materialize an object of matter (Matter is component of Maha Maya), the primary energy (Mula Maya) should be modified into matter. For this purpose you have to be above the matter (Maha Maya) and control the primary energy (Mula Maya). If you produce light in vision, the primary energy (Mula Maya) is modified into light (Maha Maya). Similarly if you give life to a dead body, the awareness (Maha Maya) should be generated from primary energy (Mula Maya). For all such miracles you (awareness) have to cross your own state of Maha Maya (Matter, light and awareness are the components of Maha Maya) and you have to control the primary energy (Mula Maya) which controls you. You cannot cross your own state (Maha Maya) and you cannot control your controller (Mula Maya). Both these are possible only to God and hence the miracle indicates the power of God that is working through you as medium. Therefore, God is doing the miracles through anybody and gives fame to the medium in the public. In the awakened state (Jagrat) matter and its forms along with the forms of inert energy like light, heat etc., exist. In the dream state awareness along with its forms (Thoughts) exists. In the third state (Sushupti), only the primary energy is left over. Thus, in these three states the three layers of ignorance (Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya) are adjusted by some re-arrangement. These three states mentioned in Veda come under a different type of classification only. A baby becomes happy by the sweet and weeps by taking the hot dish. Similarly, an ignorant person is happy over the success and profit, but weeps for the defeat and loss. This is one extreme end. A patient affected by long illness looses the sensitivity of the tongue and for him both sweet and hot dishes have no taste. Similarly, the person who achieved the self attainment (Atma Yoga) becomes peaceful and insensitive to both misery and happiness since the interaction of the soul with the world is cut. This is another extreme end. The baby is better than the second person because a baby has atleast the partial enjoyment of sweet, whereas the second person (patient) has no enjoyment at all. Thus, an ignorant person is better than Atma Yogi. Atma Yoga is like anesthesia given in the case of emergency. Arjuna was such a patient of emergency who was hit by the Tsunami of grief. In such case, Lord Krishna gave the immediate anesthesia (Atma Yoga) in the beginning of Gita itself. Whenever the surgery is performed the anesthesia is given in the preliminary stage for an effective operation. The Atma Yoga is like 141

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the relief order from the old institution, so that the employee will join the new institution immediately. By Atma Yoga you are withdrawing yourself from the world and this is exactly the state of Pratyahara in the Patanjali Yoga. Such Atma Yoga helps you to attach yourself to God with unidirectional concentration since the multi-directional concentration in the world is removed by Atma Yoga. The attachment to God is the major operation, which is like joining the new institution. The attachment from the world through self attainment is the preliminary anesthesia which is like the relief order from the old institution. But, the Advaitin stops with the anesthesia and continuous in permanent coma without operation. He feels that coma is the perfect health. The perfect health is the new vigorous life obtained after the operation to live in the world and not the coma to sleep on the bed in the hospital permanently. The relief from the old institution is for joining the new institution and not to sit in the home after the relief. The Advaitin takes the relief order from the old institution (creation) and sits in the home (self treated as Brahman) stating that the home itself is the new institution (Ishwara). He says that he has realized both institutions as unreal and therefore he need not join the new institution after such realization! He says that his home alone is the real new institution. The design of medium is important to serve the purpose. The human being has the required design suitable to preach the divine knowledge. Therefore, the human form is selected by God. In order to get circulation of air, the design of fan is important for the current to serve the purpose. If the current enters the radio, you cannot get the circulated air. Similarly, if God enters the inert objects, the purpose for which He came down is not served since stones can neither speak nor receive the service of devotees directly. Stones have their own design and purpose like building a house in which the human incarnation can live. You wish that the current should enter the radio and give the air by some super technology. When fan is available, no fool wishes and no fool does like that. Even if a fool wishes, it will not be done since doing it by some super technology is more foolishness. Similarly, you should not desire that God should enter the statue to receive your service and guide you by divine knowledge by using His superpower. Even if you are rigid, God is not a fool to do it, when a natural and alternative facility is available for such purpose.

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People misinterpret the idea of Gita by saying that the deeds will not bind the doer, if the deeds are done by submitting the deeds to God. This is correct as far as the karma or the work essential for livelihood is concerned, because the maintenance of the human body is required to do the work of God. In such case the karma also becomes a part of the work of the God and hence such work can be surrendered to God. It means that the defects (sins) in such work do not affect the devotee. Arjuna is fighting for the livelihood and therefore the war is inevitable. Hence, such war is called as karma. Killing his grandfather is a sin. But the sin in the karma cannot bind him because his life aim is service to God. Arjuna is the sage Nara who is always associated with Lord Narayana in every human birth participating in divine mission. Therefore, the Lord said that there is no sin in killing the relatives even without referring to the God at the very outset of Gita. Latter on the Lord interpreted the war as the work of God and in such case the sin becomes the righteous deed. When God wishes to do something that is the justice. The final aim of justice is only to please God. Therefore, the deeds will not bind the soul in the case of karma (work for livelihood) and Karma Yoga (work of God). This cannot be extended to Vikarma, which is the endless work to fulfill one’s own desires. You cannot do sins and surrender to God. In Vikarma sins have to be done to earn endlessly. The temples must be converted as institutions for spreading divine knowledge and devotion in the public. The scholars and devotees must be given the top most places in the temple. The status of the present uneducated priest is only that of a labor. He cannot be the head of the temple who simply recites Veda without knowing meaning of even a single word. He tries to exploit the psychology of the public, which is always inclined to fulfill the ambitions by the grace of God. He tries to get the honor and money from the public showing the statue as God. The statue is not God but only a representative model of God in human form. The priest is like the candidate who tries to get the job by showing a recommendation letter.

God Tests Devotees in Practical Devotion Only The devotion is both theoretical and practical. The theoretical devotion is the inspiration and emotion of the mind towards God expressed in feelings, words and songs. This theoretical devotion 143

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includes the divine knowledge also. The theory is expected to end in the practical devotion, which is the divine service. If the practical devotion is perfect, the theoretical devotion is naturally perfect. Therefore, God tests the devotee in practical devotion only and a separate test in the theoretical devotion is not required. The sages became ripened in theoretical devotion during several births and became ready for the practical devotion. The sages were born as uneducated Gopikas because the education (theoretical devotion) is already over in the past births. An engineer who is expected to work in industry is tested in his practical knowledge. Service is practice and therefore the practical aspect of devotion is tested. The fruit is to become the servant of God as a liberated soul. The practical test involves two aspects: 1) The extent to which the soul is liberated from the worldly bonds and 2) The extent to which the soul is practically attached to God. If the liberation from the worldly bonds is complete and if the attachment to God practically is full, such blessed soul becomes the servant of God. Such a liberated soul is never born in the normal cycle of the world. He will also come in human form along with God in human form and will serve God. Such a soul is constantly associated with God. God tests the detachment from the world and attachment to Himself in all the strong worldly bonds like bond with body, bond with life, bond with wealth, bond with children, bond with the life partner and bond with the traditional justice. Gopikas were tested in all these bonds. When the Lord stole their saris, the bond with the body was tested. They felt shy to stand naked before the Lord forgetting that every atom of the body was created by the Lord only. The Lord preached the concept. When Krishna left the body, Gopikas jumped into fire and this showed their detachment from the bond of life for the sake of the Lord. Krishna stole the butter which was their hard earned wealth. Gopikas were happy about such steeling and this proved their detachment from the wealth for the sake of the Lord. Gopikas were giving butter to Krishna secretly over looking even their children. This is detachment from the children for the sake of the God. Gopikas were dancing with Krishna in Brundavanam and this shows their detachment from their husbands for the sake of God. Gopikas gave the dust from their feet to Krishna as medicine for the headache. Narada told that Gopikas will go to hell for such act. Gopikas replied that they were prepared to go to hell if Krishna gets rid of the headache. This shows the lack of fear for hell 144

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and the in justice that is to be done for the happiness of the Lord. Thus, the Lord conducted all the practical tests to Gopikas in Bhagavatam, which is a laboratory for doing practical. Bhagavad Gita is a class room of teaching the theory. Gopikas were given the highest divine fruit. When you serve the Lord in one-way traffic, the Lord keeps silent for sometime to test your patience. When you do not aspire anything in return from God at any time, what is the necessity to become impatient? After sometime God starts granting divine fruit for your service and during such period it becomes the two way traffic. When God becomes sure that you will remain in the one-way traffic only forever, His grace on you becomes so much that the service from your side becomes negligible before His infinite shower of grace. At this stage the grace of God on you becomes one-way traffic.

Command of Swami to His Devotees I advise all My closest devotees who participate in My divine mission of spreading the divine knowledge all over the world. The most important instruction to you is that you should spread the divine knowledge without any fight with the people who discuss with you. There should be no point of success or defeat in propagating the knowledge. Love towards all the human beings to uplift them spiritually should be the basis of the devotee. Before starting the discussion you must instruct other side about these points and you must constantly often remind the other side regarding these points during the debate. He is co-operating with you to develop the subject. Both runners and winners are equally awarded. The circuit of current is complete only when both positive and negative poles exist. There should be no superiority or inferiority on any side at any stage of discussion. Both of you are mutually helping each other in finding out the truth. Shankara and Mandana Mishra argued for about a month day and night. Shankara is the incarnation of Shiva and Mandana is the incarnation of Brahma. Both Shiva and Brahma are one and the same. The arguments given by Mandana Mishra helped Shankara to project the subject in various angles. Their debate is the vast subject of finding out the truth from Vedas. Both are responsible for the constitution of knowledge. Shankara argued with a saint who was Vyasa in disguise. Vyasa was incarnation of Vishnu. The debate between them never ended. The debate constituted the subject of spiritual knowledge to unimaginable heights. 145

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A cobbler argued with Shankara to show that practice is the real test of theory. Shankara fell on the feet of cobbler. The cobbler was Lord Datta. Shankara defeated Mandana and Vyasa in theoretical knowledge. But Shankara was defeated by Datta in the practical aspect of divine knowledge. Here the point of success and defeat is only a drama. The main point is bringing out the truth. Even if you are defeated by the other side, you must thank the other side with gratefulness since the other side has taken so many pains to let you know the truth. The other side was strained without any benefit. But you are benefited by your strain since you have come to know the truth from that moment onwards. Therefore, the defeated person should feel happy for the benefit and should not have any unhappiness or tension. The person who succeeded in establishing the truth is strained without any benefit, since he already knows the truth. But the winner should also feel happy since the truth is projected in several new directions due to the opposing arguments. If you are propagating the divine knowledge based on these instructions, God will be pleased with your excellent service. You might have won in several points in several places. But if you are convinced with a new point, you must immediately fall on the feet of that person like Shankara. He did not see the status of the cobbler who was very low by habits, education, caste etc. Shankara was never bias and prejudiced that He was a great saint and that He should not fall on the feet of a street cobbler. If your point is true, stand like Shankara with Mandana or Vyasa for any long time. But if you find that your point is really wrong and if the point of the opponent is the truth, accept it at once by falling on his feet and thanking him for taking so much strain to preach the truth to you.

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Chapter - 14

STRESS RELIEF WORKSHOPS O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [September 28, 2006] The present spiritual preachers who are conducting workshops on the relief of stress are just doctors and psychiatrists only. They are preaching Asanas (Physical exercises) and pranayama (breathing exercise) which are the measures for the physical health. The preaching of Atma Yoga which is the dissolution of thought limiting to awareness is done under the headline of meditation. Meditation is a pious word used to limit yourself to the thought of God only forgetting all the other thoughts including the awareness of your awareness. I do not know how you are calling these as spiritual preachers and concentration on self as meditation. When I asked a spiritual preacher about this point, he told Me “What can we do? The people are up to that level only and aspire the stress relief only”. A Neuro specialist also behaves in the same way adopting hypnotic treatment in order to bring the stress relief by dissecting all the thoughts like a surgeon. When there is no element of God in such workshops, such workshops are only the nursing homes or mental hospitals of stress effected mad people. A stress in these worldly problems is very little compared to the stress at the time of death and after death. Then the soul is struggling a lot with agony to cut all these bonds forever to come out of the body. The two servants of Yama appear with frightening appearance. The stress is unimaginable at that time! At that time the human being cannot attend any workshop for stress relief since there is no time. The soul in a separate energetic body (Yatana Sareeram) is forcibly dragged out of the human body. It is taken to the hell and the entire journey is horrible. The soul will enter the hell and will be subjected to unimaginable torture. The hell is a real workshop of stress.

Are you Prepared for Real Stress At The End? I am always feeling very very sad about the fate of these people, because I am clearly seeing the future. What are the measures that you have taken for such stress relief? The spiritual path related to God 147

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(Nivrutti) serves the purpose of relieving the stress in this world as well as in the upper world. The present workshops are useful to relieve the stress temporarily in this world. In the present workshop, you are preaching Atma Yoga to forget all the worldly thoughts by meditating upon the self with full concentration.

Why not Replace Self with God? What is the harm if you replace self by God? Whether the concentration is on self or God, the diversion of the mind from the world is common. The dissolution of worldly thoughts is also common. Devotees forget all the worldly affairs in the love of God and get complete stress relief as the Atma Yogi gets. When everything is same, why do you prefer the self to God? Perhaps you think that self is God. I can prove in hundred ways that self is not God. The Atma Yoga is not completely efficient even in relieving the stress in this world. By concentration on self, the cycle of your deeds will not alter anyway. Hence, your problems in the world do not change at all and continue to give the stress as usual. If the soul is replaced by God, by the grace of God even the external atmosphere changes. The stress causing factors get altered. The effects of sinful deeds are either reduced or completely altered. You need not think that the cycle of deeds is disturbed and justice is violated by this. That is the job of God. Why should you worry about it? He can protect yourself and justice simultaneously. He has His own procedure. If He is pleased with your real devotion, He transfers your sins on to Him and suffers for your sake. You are relieved from the stress of sins. Even you will not know what happened. You do not know your own sins. When God suffers for those sins and gets you relieved, you are not aware of anything. Whenever you help somebody, the person who is helped by you understands you and thanks you. But you are not satisfied with this. You will advertise so that the whole world should know about it. But God helps you secretly and even you will not know that to thank Him. If you know the help done by God, your love on God certainly improves. Such love is impure because the love is developed due to the knowledge of the help form God. When your love improves on God without help, such love is real and pure. Expecting such pure love from you God hides His help to you. When your devotion reaches to climax, your love also goes to climax in which you will love God even though He appears to be harming you apparently. 148

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It is sheer foolishness to think that the worldly affairs get spoiled if you are involved in devotion. You are thinking that God can help you only in the upper world. You have forgotten that He is the Lord of the both the worlds. His help to you in the upper world is sure if you are helped here. If you are not helped here, you will not be helped in the upper world also. If He is furious, you are neither helped here nor there. If He is pleased, you are helped here as well as there. Tyagaraja was completely devoted to God. He had one daughter and she attained the age for marriage. He was not having a single paisa. He was not worried about the crisis. God appeared before a rich devotee who has a good son. The Lord ordered Him to go to Tyagaraja to get his son married with the daughter of Tyagaraja. God also ordered him to perform the marriage with his money only. Everything went on well as per wish of the Lord. If God is pleased with you, even the cause of the stress is removed. But in Atma Yoga, such possibility is ruled out because the self has no trace of super power. Everything and every body in this world is on the finger tips of the Lord. The works which are giving lot of stress to you will be done either with your little effort or even without effort. Tyagaraja did not apply even a trace of the effort in the case of the marriage of his daughter. Even if you put hectic effort, you cannot change even a trace of the fruit of your deeds. Therefore, Nivrutti (God) is not against to Pravrutti (Self). Instead, Nivrutti includes Pravrutti. The Lord said that if one is always associated with His service, He will take care of both the worlds (Yoga Kshemam Vahaamyaham…Gita). The welfare in the upper world is called as Yoga and welfare in this world is called Kshema.

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Chapter - 15

TRUE ESSENCE OF YOGA Imaginary Chakras & Lotus flowers O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Yoga is the most prestigious field of spiritualism. People think about 6 wheels (Chakras) or lotus flowers present in the spinal card, which are not seen by the eyes. They are imaginary and so they carry some inner meaning. When you say a face as a moon, fools search for moon in that face. But, wise people see similarity in the face and moon. Similarly, wheels and lotus flowers should not be searched in the spinal card. Spinal card is the main nerve, representing mind, which is the base of love. All these wheels or lotus flowers are the bonds of love in the various relatives like parents, wife or husband, children etc. They are compared to wheels or the revolving whirlpools in the ocean, which attract a swimmer and drown him. Similarly, these love wheels are compared to lotus flowers, since the lotus flowers attract the bee by sweet fragrance and bind it. Similarly, these love flowers attract any one and bind them. ‘Kundalini’ is the mind which is the energy traveling as waves like a serpent, should cross all these love wheels connected to 7th lotus flower in the head called ‘Sahasrara’, which is Buddhi or intelligence that takes the decision, which is the firm love on God. The Bhagavad Gita is called as the main scripture of Yoga (YogaSastra). Why there is not even single reference to these wheels or lotus flowers in anywhere in the Gita or even in Upanishads? Since they are not real, they are not even mentioned. The author of the Gita is Krishna, who is called Master of Yoga (Yogeshwara). Krishna also says that the real yoga was lost since long (Sa kaleneha mahata…). This means that in the beginning, Sages in India knew the real yoga and loved God only crossing all their family bonds. In due course of time only, this true yoga was lost. Why? The middle age Indians were unable to cross their family bonds and so failed to succeed in Yoga. They wanted to cover their in ability by twisting the very concept of yoga. The family bonds were removed from the concept and only wheels or lotus flowers are left fixed. Now, they close the eyes and say that they have seen the lotus 150

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flowers or wheels, which are only imaginary. Now they cross these wheels by their imaginary ‘Kundalini’ and say that they have succeeded in Yoga. These blind teachers are also not to be blamed, because they were trained like that by their blind teachers. This misinterpretation was done long time back and hence, even at the time of Krishna, He told that yoga was lost since a long time. We cannot catch those original culprits, who were the top most twisting masters and so the present tradition also cannot be blamed. Only rectification is the way left over. Some say that they see light, which is only an imagination. After all, the mind is a form of energy and on its concentration imaginary light can be imagined. Instead of such a week light, you better see a strong light with your open eyes. What is the use of these imaginary lights and colours, without achieving the Lord through your love, which excels the various worldly loves? I pity the foreigners, who are trapped in this false imaginary line of yoga, who are wasting their precious lifetime and energy. Infact, they are the best to succeed in yoga, if the reality of the yoga is exposed. Their family bonds are very weak and their love towards God is real, which is proved by their huge sacrifice of money to God’s work. Money is the fruit of work and its sacrifice for God’s work is ‘Karma phala tyaga’ as mentioned in the Gita. Again, the middle age Indians twisted this word ‘Karma phala tyaga’ as sacrifice of the fruit of the work like praying God instead of sacrifice of money. The reason was that these Indians were unable to sacrifice money to God due to their strong love on their children. Foreigners ask their children to earn after certain age. Indians store money even for ten generations and still continue to store only. Since prayers, meditation and knowledge are very much diverted to God, India was blessed by God with good language, good mind and good knowledge. Since foreigners are good in sacrifice, God blessed them with good wealth. Even Indian spiritual centers were strongly funded by foreigners only. Swami Vivekananda cried, ‘Why my India suffers with poverty in spite of so much spiritual knowledge?’ Sacrifice of money (Karma phala tyaga) and sacrifice of work (karma Sanyasa) put together constitute the God’s service, which is the real Yoga (real proof of love) called ‘Karma yoga’ in the Gita. Foreigners are the best in this karma yoga and so they easily succeed in yoga. Throughout the Gita, this karma yoga was explained as yoga and wheels or lotus flowers are not at all mentioned. 151

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True Interpretation of Sahasrara Kundalini represents the life energy. When it is passing through wheels, it is in the state of mind i.e., it doubts whether to do this way or that way (Samkalpa and Vikalpa). For e.g. When it is in Anahata wheel, it thinks whether one should love God in human form more than the children or not? When it reaches ‘Sahasrara’ which is the state of intelligence (Buddhi), it decides that highest love should be on God in human form. Even after taking that decision, the decision is split when that God in human form starts testing by exhibiting negative nature (Maya) and various petals of the ‘Sahasrara’ lotus flower represent this split of decision. When this split disappears, you reach to take the central part of the lotus flower i.e., a single firm decision to believe that human form of God as the ultimate truth. The whole essence of yoga is like this. You pass from mind to intelligence without split. i.e., you leave all the doubts about the human form of God and dedicate all your firm love to Him even if He tests you and finally associate with him. If you never fall from this state, it is called ‘Nirvikalpa Samadhi’ which is the 8th state of yoga. Gopikas, who were real yogis, reached this state and Lord Krishna in human form was Yogishwara. Their association was Yoga. Sahasrara is the lotus flower with many petals, represents intelligence (Buddhi) and the petals represent various decisions taken by the intelligence. This shows that the Buddhi, which is nothing but the decision, is divided in several ways. At the centre of Sahasrara, the real God i.e., Datta is present. The centre part of the lotus flower is joined with all the petals. That means all the different decisions combine to become a single central decision at this place. Real God exists there at that central point. This means deciding the human form of one God, which is correctly recognised is that single central division. To divide the human form of God, Buddhi splits and takes various decisions at various times which are represented by the various petals. To decide the human incarnation of God, it is very complicated matter, which is called the ‘knowledge of God’ (Brahma Jnana). Therefore, Brahma Jnana (Brahma vidya) is very difficult. If we say that God has no form and is pervading all over the world, like cosmic energy, there is no trace of difficulty to understand. If you say that God is a particular statue, again there is no trace of difficulty to understand it. But, when we say that a particular man is God, there will be various splits in our decisions, 152

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because that particular human body also follows the usual laws of nature. That particular human body further complicated the topic by showing some misleading negative actions to test our faith. Hanuman worshipped the Rama, who was in human form present at his time. Radha worshipped Krishna in human form only present at her time. Jesus was also in human form and Mohammad was also in human form. Loves with human beings can be obstacles only, when God in human form competes with them. If the God is formless or a statue, loves with human beings cannot be obstacles, because a formless thing or a statue cannot compete with human beings. Krishna competed with family bonds of Gopikas in human form. This is the true interpretation of Sahasrara.

Raja Yoga & Sanyasa Yoga means to recognize and reach such a real human form of God. Actually this word means ‘to meet’. If your association with Him is permanent that is called eternal yoga. For this purpose, you should love that God and your love with such God should exceed all your loves in the world. Your love in the world is with non-living things like wealth and living things like your relatives as parents, wife, husband, children etc. This non-living wealth is meant for the living things only. So, if your love with living things is cut naturally love with non-living things is also cut. These loves with your relatives are the obstacles to your pure love with God. This means clearly that you should not love anything or any body except God. These worldly loves are the revolving whirlpools present in the ocean of world. When you are crossing this world (Samsara) by swimming, these whirl pools will attract, revolve and drown you in the way. Hence, you should not swim straightly. You should swim in a curved manner like a serpent. This point has again the inner meaning. This means you should not be straight in the case of your love or bonds with your family members. You should act as if you love them because all your love is only on God. To avoid hurting them such behaviour is not cheating or a sin. Therefore you are called as ‘Anagha’. Anagha means sinless and she alone attained and is seen by the side of Lord. Anagha is the wife of Datta. This means that Anagha is that human being who reaches Datta. Anybody irrespective of male or female is Anagha because God is the husband of all the human beings. Therefore Anagha does not mean a lady. Why cheating the family bonds 153

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is not a sin? Instead of such cheating you may say that it is better to cut the family bonds and leave the family for the sake of God. You should not do like that. If you do so, you get the sin by hurting them. Then you cannot be Anagha and you cannot reach Datta. Cheating them is not a sin but hurting them is a sin. Actually, if we analyse, your cheating is not at all a cheating. Actually, such a cheating is justified because the family bonds are temporary for this birth and so unreal. Anything temporary is unreal as proved by Adi Shankara in his commentary. For example, a temporary mother-son bond in the shooting of a cinema is unreal during the shooting time also. Therefore cheating the unreal bond is not a sin. Cheating the family bonds is not at all a sin, from another angle also. The family bond itself is a cheating bond. The reason is your relative loves you for his or her happiness only and not for your happiness. A wife loves her husband because her husband is giving happiness to her. Similarly the husband loves his wife. Similar is the case in all our loves of the world. When Sage Yajnavalkya was taking Sanyasa, his two wives followed him stating that they love him. But, Yajnavalkya told as said in the Vedas ‘one loves anybody for his or her selfish happiness (Atmanaha kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati). He told them that if they leave him, he will be happy and then only their love on him was real. Both the wives who were scholars understood the truth and left him. So, all these worldly loves are cheating bonds. Therefore, cheating of a cheating bond is not a cheating. This is called Raja Yoga, which is greater than Sanyasa yoga in which you leave the family and hurt them. In Raja Yoga you reach the goal and also make the family happy. Therefore, king Janaka a Raja Yogi was greater than Suka who was a Sanyasi and the former was the examiner of the latter. Kundalini is your mind which is the base of your love and which is called as the serpent going with curves. Generally the mind of the people is curved by nature. Mind is energy and is propagated as waves according to science. These wheels are the family bonds and crossing them in a curved way is cheating those cheating bonds. This justifies that Maya can be crossed by Maya and a thorn can be taken out by another thorn. The first wheel represents earth, which is the bond with mother and is called as Muladhara. Only from earth living beings like plants etc. (life) are born. The Kundalini sleeps in the Muladhara wheel. This indicates your sleeping state of mind in the womb of your mother. 154

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Interpretation of Different Chakras The awakening of Kundalini means that you are delivered and came into world and you are trapped in bonds as your mind grows. So, there is no need of awakening the Kundalini, which was already in the awakened state. By closing your eyes, you are encouraging Kundalini (mind) to sleep. First you have to cut your bond/love with mother for the sake of God. The second wheel is ‘Manipura’ of water representing the father. The sky having clouds is said to be the father in the Veda. When water falls from the sky and unites with earth, life is produced. The bond with the father should also be cut as Prahlada left his father for the sake of God. Now, you may argue that the Veda says mother and father are God (Matru devaha, pitru devaha). These words have two meanings as per the grammar. The first meaning is that mother and father are God. This is correct because in the world among all the people, they should be very highly respected and loved. The second meaning for these words is that God is mother and father. This meaning should be taken, when God comes into your life and competes with mother and father. The third wheel is Swadhistana (fire) representing the bond between wife and husband. The union of a couple takes place only due to heat (fire). Buddha left his wife and Meera left her husband for the sake of God. The fourth wheel is Anahata, of air, representing the bond with children. The Veda says air is the strongest. This wheel is placed in the heart, which means that this is the heart or the essence of all the bonds. Buddha left his one year old son for the sake of God. The fifth wheel is Visuddha of Akasha (space), which is in the throat, representing the bond with false gurus (preachers). A fraud guru preaches only nonsense, which represents nothing like space. To reach the God who is the Sadguru you must leave all the gurus. Prahlada left such teachers. The final wheel is Aajna, in between the two eyebrows, representing the ‘Jnananetra’ i.e., the sight of knowledge. This is of mind. With the help of knowledge i.e., the Vedas and Shastras, you must decide the real form of God as Lord Datta and all other forms are only his various dresses. The Vedas say that Datta is only the ultimate and real God (Brahman). The Veda says that God should be one and that one God creates, rules and destroys the universe. Datta is only one and does these three works through His three divine faces. But, such ultimate God cannot be reached because the Vedas say that even words, 155

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mind, intelligence, logic and even imagination cannot touch him. But, He comes in the human form and then only you can see, touch, talk and even spend your whole life with Him. Such human form is called DATTA. Datta means the God who is given to devotees, you can meet Him in this world in human form only. The Gita says that God comes in human form only (Manusheem…). The Gita also says that if one worships formless, he or she gets sorrow only (Avyaktahi…). The Gita also says that if you worship a statue, you are born as a stone (Bhutejyah…). A statue has only a limited use of being seen by devotees (Darsanam) and is not meant for worship. A human form only gives full satisfaction to devotees during worship. Krishna is called Yogishwara. He is Datta because the unattainable God is given to the world in that attainable human form. Gopikas crossed all the family bonds and reached him. Infact they were sages who were doing lot of Sadhana for the God from several births. Nobody else has reached God except Gopikas or let me say that those who reached God are called Gopikas. Gopikas mean only human being who stores his or her love for God secretly, so that the relatives are not hurt. A person who is doing job and studying in the evening college is greater than a full time student when both attained the same degree with the same rank. The word Gopi means ‘storing love secretly’ (Gopayati…). Yoga means joining the God after cutting all the family bonds through cheating to avoid hurting as explained above. The bonds can be cut only when a new bond with God is formed. Without the new bond, the old bond cannot be cut. First attachment to God (Bhakti) should come and detachment from the relatives (Vairagya) is a natural consequence for which no effort is needed. Once you taste the divine nectar, you will naturally stop drinking coffee. Without tasting the divine nectar it is impossible to leave coffee, because we desire always to drink something. So without Bhakti, Vairagya is impossible and meaningless. It is meaningless because a stone having no bond at all is not salvated.

Attaining Spiritual Powers Lord Datta who is called Yogi Raja (Master of Yoga) can only bring out the real essence of Yoga and He has given the true explanation today to show the real path to ignorant people. The strength of this discourse is only Truth and hence it will pierce into the heart of anyone 156

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having open mind in this world. My aim of this discourse is all foreigners and those Indians who have open mind without blind conservatism. Dr. Khurana could not get a teacher post in India. But when he got a Nobel Prize in foreign country, Indians become proud of him! Indians appreciated Swami Vivekananda only when foreigners appreciated him. This is historical fact. This means foreigners grasp the truth very easily and quickly. There are 2 lines. One is line of science in which human effort gets results. The other line is Supernatural line in which powers are attained by God’s grace only. Even demons did penance and got powers by the grace of God only. Now the middle age scholars mixed these 2 lines and developed 3rd line in between i.e., by human effort, you can get powers. People are fooled like this. By human effort, like controlling breath, you can get health only which is not a power and this is completely first line only. People are attracted like this in the name of Yoga. To get powers, Ravana should have joined Yoga centre. Why he did penance for God Brahma? Yoga means achievement of grace of God by which only powers are attained.

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Chapter - 16

ATTAINMENT OF SELF AND GOD Stress Relief [September 27, 2006 A devotee (Sai) from Pune asked Swami for the stress relief. Swami replied like this:] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The stress is developed whenever a problem causing misery arises. Today the spiritual preachers are stressing very much on this topic and are conducting workshops. There is a lot of response from the public. Every human being is very anxious about the solution of the problem and to get rid off the misery. This natural instinct is the reason for this big response, which is misunderstood as self-greatness by these preachers. Even the priests and astrologers are earning money exploiting this natural instinct. The desire for money and fame in the public is the main cause for the concentration on this topic by the preachers, priests and astrologers. The solution given by the priests and astrologers is worst. They involve God or planets in the stress relief claiming themselves as the brokers of God or planets. A broker takes money from you and says that it is passed on to the concerned official as bribe. If the work is not done, the brokers say that you have to give more and more bribe. At last, they will say that the officials tried to help to their maximum capacity but failed because the constitution (Theory of Karma) stands very strong against the case. Suppose, the work was done by its own way (Theory of Karma), they will claim that the bribe has solved the problem. The solution given by the spiritual preachers is certainly good but not best because such solution is only temporary which is based on the self-realization (Atma Yoga). Such remedy has no side effects on the body like the sleeping tablets when used again and again. These preachers concentrate on your liberation from the external stress by making you realize that you are neither the gross body made of five elements nor the subtle body made of the four Antahkaranams (Manas, Ahankara, Chitta and Buddhi). Since the mind is mainly occupied by the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas), we can say that the subtle 158

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body is made of qualities or feelings or thoughts. The dissolution of thoughts leads to reduce the strength of the subtle body. Due to this the link between the awareness or soul (Causal body) and gross body weakens. The problems of the body giving stress to the soul are weakened due to this. The attachment of the soul to the external atmosphere (world) also is reduced due to weakness of the subtle body. Therefore, the problems in the world have very little effect on the soul. The soul has two properties. One is Atma Jnanam by which the soul is aware of itself (Awareness of awareness). The second property is Para Jnanam by which the soul is aware of items other than itself. The second property weakens and the soul remains with the first property only. When the second property is weakened, it is called as sanyasa. In this state the stress is very much reduced. By practice one can attain the next stage called as Avadhuta, where the second property disappears completely. When the soul remains with the first property (Selfrealization), it is said that it attained itself (Atma Yoga or selfattainment). This is also called as Mano laya Yoga which means the destruction of mind that is made of the thoughts or qualities. This is the state of meditation where the soul is limiting itself to the awareness of self only. Such determination of self-limitation is Buddhi. Such pure awareness is characterized by the pure ego (I) or Ahankara. Since, there is no will (Sankalpa) and debate of thoughts (Vikalpa), mind or manas is put off. By this the stress is either reduced (Sanyasa) or completely removed (Avadhuta).

Draw Backs in Atma Yoga In this Atma Yoga there is one important and unexpected problem. Along with the misery, the happiness is also removed. When you take the antibiotic, it destroys the virus as well as the living tissue of the body. You are relieved from the fever but you are subjected to the weakness also. To remove the weakness, you take energetic food and tonics with vitamins and minerals. You have now gained strength. But you can be again subjected to the attack of the virus. Therefore, when you are following Atma Yoga, not only the misery but also the happiness is destroyed. Such state is almost inert state. The only difference between Atma Yoga and deep sleep is that in the deep sleep this awareness also disappears. In such Atma Yoga you have to lead your life with the same weakness, using the same antibiotic again and 159

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again. The human being does not want misery but wants happiness. When the doors are opened for happiness, the misery also enters. If you close the doors by Atma Yoga, neither misery nor happiness enters. Such a state is not called as life at all. For the happiness of yourself and your family you are interacting with corruption. When you are arrested for the same, you are getting misery and stress. You are calling the stress due to misery only and not calling the stress due to happiness. Infact the stress is common to both. The poverty kills you by stress. Sometimes, the happiness causing stress also kills you suddenly by heart attack. The happiness in course of time certainly kills you because every happiness is the path to illness only. The Sanyasin is like a tree with the life energy only along with traces of Antahkaranams (since science proves the existence of feelings in traces in a very dormant state in trees). An Avadhuta is almost like a stone without the thoughts, which are completely destroyed. He is left with simple awareness constantly confined to self-awareness only. The only difference between the stone and Avadhuta is that in the stone the basic form of awareness which is inert energy exists whereas in him the inert energy is in the form of simple pure awareness. This difference is due to the existence of the biological systems of the body. When such life is led, due to such constant desire for such states, they are born as trees and stones, because they desired so much to live in such states constantly by putting lot of effort. The purpose of the creation of awareness is the activity of life. When the purpose is not served, the awareness is taken away by the Lord. Atma Yoga is just like preserving the money without any expenditure. Such stored black money is taken away either by the thief (death) or by the Government (God). When the person does not spend the money for the required purpose also and lives like a beggar only, let him become really the beggar. The main aim of creation of awareness and thoughts or qualities or feelings is to achieve God and get His grace using this awareness and thoughts. Atleast you are expected to enjoy this life with the help of awareness and thoughts. The main purpose of the money is to serve the mission of God or atleast to spend for the welfare of the society. Atleast you can enjoy the money along with your family. When all these aims are not fulfilled, the existence of awareness or money is useless. Thought is the channel of awareness to function. Similarly expenditure is the channel of the money to function. When the

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thought or expenditure is arrested, what is the use of the existence of such awareness or money? Therefore, Atma Yoga applied to the relief of misery only is temporary, since you are after happiness and therefore again interact with the external atmosphere. The same Atma Yoga applied to avoid both happiness and misery is destruction of life, which leads to the births of trees and stones. The scripture says that the result of the great sin is the birth of tree or stone. This means that such destruction of life is a great sin because you have not used the created item in the proper way for which God created it. This path of Atma Yoga fails because you are developing the egoism in this line being self sufficient and selfefficient. In the beginning, though the egoism is purely limited to the concept of I only, in course of time it strengthens and becomes impure resulting in pride. It will not allow the concept of God. You will become an atheist or at the maximum the present Advaita Philosopher who thinks that he himself is God. All such states are going to lead you to hell also. The final result of Atma Yoga is either Zero (Trees or stones) or minus (hell). Atma yoga is confined to the soul only, thus is limited to the creation, and never touches the creator. Therefore, it is only Pravrutti or subject of the creation. The egoism resulting in pride due to Atmayoga will lead you to fall where the external Maya will drag you by attractions and finally insults you.

Atma Yoga is First 5 states of Patanjali Yoga The Atma Yoga is confined to the first five states of Patanjali Yoga. It ends at the fifth state called as Pratyahara, which means withdrawing yourself from the bonds of your body and world. The Yama and Niyama deal with control of your interaction with the external world and your body (mini world). The Asana and Pranayama result in the health of body which is again control of diseases. All these are the precautions to avoid the stress and the essence of these five stages is only to cut the second property of the soul (Para Jnanam). The detachment from the body or the world is a defensive measure. The control of food habits etc. and the physical exercises along with the breathing exercise are offensive measures to avoid illness in the body. The offensive measure to remove injustice in the world is impossible for you, which God alone can do. Therefore, control of interaction and

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withdrawal are only mentioned as defensive measures in the case of the external atmosphere (world). The last three states (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) are actually related to Nivrutti or God. Dharana means formation of bond, Dhyana means intensifying the bond and Samadhi is fixation of the bond with determination. If you slip from such fixation, it is called as Savikalpa and if you remain permanently it is called as Nirvikalpa. All these three states are extended in Atma Yoga also because the concept of God is absent. Such people interpret these three states as formation, intensification and fixation of the bond with the self only, since self is God for them. For these people the goal is self only. Such self may be limited to the single self in the body (himself or herself), or extended to some closely associated souls (family) or extended to all the souls (Society). In any case the limitation is to self only. All these eight states can be also in the line of Nivrutti. Then the final goal is not the self but the super self (God). A spiritual aspirant also follows the steps up to Pratyahara because he also needs physical and mental health in order to serve God efficiently. Hanuman is the best example for this having the best physical and mental health. The detachment from the body and the world also is required for the attachment to God. The student requires good physical and mental health to study the academic course. The student also requires the detachment from side entertainments like cinemas. Such detachment certainly helps the students in his main activity. Infact the cinema exists as a side entertainment for a change in the main activity. Even to enjoy the cinema, the physical and mental health is essential. Thus, the yoga consisting of the eight states is required for both theist (student interested in studies) and atheist (student interested in cinemas). The stress in Pravrutti can be compared to the depression of the student when the ticket for the cinema is not available. Such students have forgotten main aim and activity (study). An atheist also behaves in the same way when fails in Pravrutti. The Advaita Philosopher is like the student who says that cinema itself is the study. He is the mad student who says that he has already attained the degree in distinction without study. The atheist does not recognize and even denies the very existence of the college where the study is imparted. The Atma Yoga for such people is just like telling them to forget the cinema and limit to the awareness of self only. The cinema is giving atleast some false 162

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entertainment where as Atma Yoga gives no entertainment except the silence of a burial ground. Instead of this, if the student is involved in studies, he derives entertainment from the knowledge. A student who has forgotten cinema by confining to self will certainly remember the cinema after sometime and will again feel stress. But a student involved in studies will not be attracted by the cinema since study is giving a better entertainment. The bond with God gives bliss and is very powerful. From such bond nobody can be dragged by other bonds. The bonds with other souls or with the self are dry because the soul is basically inert form of energy only.

Stress Experienced in Path of Real Love Lot of stress is faced in the path of Nivrutti also. God tests the strength of your bond with Him by creating lot of stress. Infact, stress evaluates the quantity of your real love present in the bond. You are involved in corruption knowing the consequences and the stress out of it. This shows your real love in your bonds with yourself and your family. Infact, for the maintenance of yourself and your family members, God always arranged the basic provision. Even the atheist is granted with such basic provision. Even the jailed person is given food, shelter and cloths by Government. In such case there is no need of stress. You are involved in the corruption due to your ambition for wealth more than the basic needs for yourself and your family that involves you in corruption or over work resulting in stress. The souls around you enjoy your wealth but will not share your sin. Valmiki was a hunter. Narada asked him to go the house and ask the family members about their share of the sin, since they are sharing the wealth earned by sin. The family members refused to share the sin. This clearly shows that they do not love you really. Their love is selfish and they are using you as the instrument for their happiness. This is told in the Veda that every worldly bond is only an instrument of self-happiness (Atmanah Kamaaya Sarvam Priyam Bhavati). No soul can protect you after leaving this gross body. Infact, the soul does not even recognize you. Abhimanyu did not recognize his father Arjuna in the heaven. For such souls you are prepared to do sins and receive stress! In the case of God (Nivrutti) also stress is received by devotee. Hanuman received lot of stress in search of Sita. At one state He was prepared to commit suicide! The aim of Hanuman was to please Rama as your aim is to please your 163

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family. Gopikas had lot of stress due to Krishna and they committed even sin for the pleasure of Krishna. You are also similar to Hanuman and Gopikas in receiving the stress and committing the sins but only the difference is that their goal is God where as your goal is yourself and your family. The family can neither protect you nor share your sin. The Lord can protect you from the sins (Aham Tva Sarva Papebhyo…Gita). If you analyze the way of protection of God, it is a wonder to see His real love! He has the power to cancel the sin which will be against the justice. He is the establisher and protector of justice. He transfers your sins on to Him and protects the justice. See the difference between God and family members. For the sake of God devotees committed even sins and received lot of stress. Shankara left His old mother. It is a sin. Prahlada and Meera received lot of stress for the sake of God. Hanuman tore His heart with His nails and Gopikas jumped into fire for the sake of Rama and Krishna respectively. The stress is directly proportional to the real love. Your love on your family is real since you are prepared to receive the stress in the hell for your sins. But they are not prepared to share your sins. God transfers all your sins on to Him and receives all the stress for your real love shown to Him.

The Stage of God Avoiding the stress of misery only is the climax of ignorance because it is impossible. When you shut your doors to the stress of misery by Atma Yoga, the doors are shut for happiness also simultaneously. Atma Yoga is cutting the interaction of yourself with the body and world. Therefore, both misery and happiness are cut. Moreover such Atma Yoga keeping the self only as the final goal makes you become stone or tree. Such Atma Yoga definitely develops pride in the name of self-confidence or self-efficiency and also leads to hell. The realized soul is said to be the person who realized the self. He becomes a liberated soul temporarily without a trace of entertainment. But a realized soul who realized the super self is liberated permanently with bliss through constant entertainment. Such a devoted and liberated soul gets the state of God (Brahmi Sthiti) in this world by which he enjoys both happiness and misery as continuous entertainment which results in constant happiness or bliss (Ananda). He will never fall from such state due to the grace of God. The bonds with other souls give you temporary happiness and misery by which you will be vibrating like a wave. The 164

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final result of such bond is only hell or constant misery (Duhkhayonaya eva te…Gita). There is no bliss in such bond because the soul is basically inert energy. The Veda says that God is the possessor of infinite love and bliss (Rasovai sah, Anando Brahma). Therefore, the bond with God makes you taste the real love and bliss through entertainment of misery and happiness like Him which is the basic motive of creation. Yoga means equality according to the Gita (Samatvam Yoga…). In Atma Yoga also both misery and happiness are equal in the sense that both are not received by you as a stone does. Such equality is not the sense of Yoga. The equality means the equal bliss you derive from both happiness and misery through entertainment. Such equality (bliss) is seen in God. The equality (silence) seen in the stone is different. Perhaps for this reason, people have made the stone as God! Stress in work is the first step and committing sin crossing the boundaries of justice is the next step. Both these steps indicate the reality of your love in your bond. Hanuman got stress in the search of Sita and tried to commit suicide twice for the sake of Rama. Gopikas got stress from families due to love on Krishna and jumped into fire when Krishna left the world. Even the suicide, which is the greatest sin, has its own value in the spiritual path. Jesus told that one should carry on his own cross for the sake of God. He carried on His own cross for the sake of God. He preached the correct knowledge and was killed. If He preached the wrong knowledge in line with priests, He would have been honored. Crucification of Jesus is a form of suicide only for the work of God. Krishna says that His real devotees leave their lives also for His sake (Mat Gata Pranah…Gita). Thus, all the sins also created by God have their own real value in the spiritual path (Matta Eveti…Gita). Even a good quality diverted to the world only is misuse and wastage. The practice of justice applied to this world only gives you the temporary heaven only. Any quality applied to world only is either a waste or will give little fruit temporarily. Any quality for the sake of God is divine and serves the original purpose of its creation. Thus, there is nothing bad in this world, if your looks are in the path of divinity. The ignorance is partial choice of happiness leaving the misery. Atma Yoga which shuts doors to both happiness and misery is like burning the house to remove the rats. You are burning your life to remove the stress by the fire of Atma Yoga. Thus, such Atma Yoga is foolishness. Deriving bliss by 165

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entertaining both happiness and misery as sweet and hot dishes is divine path of God and this is the basic divine motive of the creation. Infact, the creation is meant for the entertainment of God only. But the God extends this entertainment to the liberated souls also who surrender to Him. Except such liberated soul, every soul is for the entertainment of God only since it is an iota of this infinite universe. Attaining such state of God is the highest (Mat bhavayopapadyate…Gita). You may say that you can directly attain such state of God by practice. It is not possible. You can attain the Atma Yoga because it is your natural state. But such divine state belongs to God and He has to grant it to you with His grace. In Atma Yoga you may continue for sometime. But in such divine state you will fall immediately by the force of divine Maya. Your egoism in not accepting God cannot allow you even to reach the doors of such state. You have to recognize God other than your self and surrender to Him to get such divine state. The surrender should continue even after attaining such divine state of liberated soul, because the liberated soul did not become God by attaining such state of God. The state of God in the entertainment is only attained by the liberated soul but not the state of creatorship etc. Therefore, to attain such divine state and even after attaining such divine state surrender to God is essential.

Real Yoga is Attainment of God Yoga means simply attainment. Astrologers use this word frequently in stating Dhana Yoga, Putra Yoga etc. Attainment of any item in the creation cannot be the real attainment. All the items of creation are basically inert energy. A soul (inert energy) attaining any item of the creation is attainment of itself (inert energy only). Attainment of self has no meaning. Attainment of another item of the creation is atleast different as another modification of the energy. But attainment of self is attainment of exactly the same. In Atma Yoga, you may say that you may get rid of the illusion that you are the body and you may say that you have attained your self which is forgotten by you. Is it really the attainment, which means the profit of a different item? Suppose you are in the illusion of thinking the wealth of somebody as your wealth and you have forgotten your own wealth. Now you have come out of both the illusions. You neither lost your wealth nor gained the extra wealth. Therefore, the word Yoga utterly fails in this selfattainment even after coming out of the two illusions. The yoga can 166

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have the perfect meaning only when you attain the creator, who is completely different from the creation. The entire creation is imaginable energy. The creator is completely unimaginable. Thus, the creator and creation are completely two different items. Yoga becomes meaningful when an item attains another different item. Such attainment should not be also momentary. When you attain money, it should be with you for a long time. If I show the money to your eyes for a few minutes, it is not Dhana Yoga. Similarly, when you see God in energetic form for a few minutes after doing such a long penance, it is not the real Yoga. If you attain statues and photos, which can stay with you, it is also not yoga. Suppose I give you a photo of money. Can it be Dhana Yoga? The attained object should be real. Therefore, statues and photos of energetic forms (Vishnu etc.,) and past human incarnations (Rama etc.,) do not have the real existence of God in them. Even though in the energetic form that appeared, God exists, it is a momentary vision only. Therefore, attainment of God in a live human form and having close contact with Him is yoga. The different item (creator) exists really in such human form and you have attained really the God. You have constant possession of God with you. Thus the word Yoga is completely satisfied since the main purpose of God to come into this world is only to guide the devotees to the correct spiritual path. The present alive human body is inevitable for such main purpose. Therefore, God comes really in human form only. The Advaita philosopher has come out of the two illusions and therefore he is neither thinking that others’ wealth as his own wealth nor thinking that his own wealth is lost. He has realized that his money is in his house and the money of others is not his money. Here neither profit nor loss exists. He can be peaceful but there is no place for happiness. Happiness comes only when the extra money comes. The poor fellow is happy thinking his own money as the extra money. He thinks that his self is God and he is happy. Let the ignorance be his bliss.

Three Types of Preachers There are three types of preachers, The Satguru, Guru and Asatguru. The Satguru preaches the truth always irrespective of your liking and disliking. His knowledge is complete and true. He will show the elephant completely. The knowledge of Guru is true but incomplete. He will show only a leg of the elephant and will say that it is the total 167

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elephant. The preachers confined to Atma Yoga are such gurus. The Asatguru has complete or incomplete wrong knowledge. He will show the leg of cow or cow and say that it is the elephant. Beware of such Asatgurus! The point is not your liking and disliking, but the point is finding the truth by doing very shrewd and intricate analysis. Only the complete truth can save you completely. When your love or devotion (Bhakti) is based on such complete truth, your love is divine and your total welfare is assured. Otherwise your love or devotion is blind. Ofcourse, the liking towards a preacher depends upon your corresponding level also. A school student will like the schoolteacher and dislikes the college lecturer.

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Chapter - 17

FRUITFUL ATTAINMENT O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-2 October 2, 2006] Yoga means attainment. Attainment is meaningful if you attain something other than yourself. After traveling some distance if you say that you have attained yourself, it is meaningless. Only when you attain the Superself (God), who is other than yourself, can you use the word Yoga. God in human form is attainable by your effort. God also has His limited family, which consists of a few liberated souls just as you have your family. For you, your family is more important than society, which consists of the general public. You maintain business with society but love with your family. God also behaves like you. In business you serve people in society in a two-way traffic [mutual give and take]. But, in love your service is a one-way traffic [there is only giving, no taking or expectation]. Similarly, God serves the public in a two-way traffic since they express artificial love through their different forms of worship. God too postpones their sins to their future births and cheats them by giving an impression that He has cancelled their sins. This balances their cheating God through artificial devotion; they show devotion to God only for solving their worldly problems. Regarding the liberated souls, His service to them is without any account due to real love. God transfers their sins onto Him and relieves them from the sins. You too sacrifice your happiness for the welfare of your family. The human form of God has such a program of enjoying the sins of the liberated souls, which were committed by them before liberation.

The Path of Karma Yoga In the Gita, the word Karma Yoga means the service to God, which is infact practical devotion. The word Yoga denotes the attainment of God and the word Karma means service. The word Karma means the necessary work or job (service) to be done in order to maintain oneself or one’s family. Even an unmarried Sanyasin [monk] has to do some job to earn his livelihood if he does not have sufficient 169

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ancestral property. In the Kali Yuga [present age of materialism] a Sanyasin has no value if he depends on society for maintenance. People misunderstand a Sanyasin that the aim of all his preaching is only to get food from them. Then they neglect all his knowledge and his effort in preaching goes waste. If the people are sure that the Sanyasin has his own food already arranged for, they will be very much attentive to his preaching and will also compel him to take food in their home. A householder cannot reject his family since during his marriage ceremony, he has promised before God to maintain it. He has the responsibility to maintain the family especially when the family is also devoted to God and does not oppose his practical devotion to God. In any case, work or having a job is essential if sufficient ancestral property is absent. Such work to earn one’s livelihood is called as karma. Since the basic needs of one’s body or the family are the essential basis for the divine service, this karma is a part and parcel of Karma Yoga [divine service]. In that case, the aim of karma is God alone and not the self or the family. Then you are not the doer (Karta). You cannot be the enjoyer (Bhokta) of the basic facilities needed to maintain your body or your family because your aim is to please God by your service and not to please yourself or your family. The basic needs cannot be called as enjoyment (Bhoga). Thus, in the path of karma, you are not bound by the merits or defects (sins) of such karma. When your aim is to please God and not to please yourself and other souls, a sin committed in such a path cannot touch you. Kannappa, a hunter, killed rabbit (a soft natured animal) and offered the flesh to the Lord and he was maintaining his body too by the same hunting. His body was maintained with only one aim, which was the service to the Lord. His sin did not touch him in any way by the grace of the Lord (Ahamtva Sarva Papebhyo—Gita). A priest, a businessman, a job holder etc., who maintains himself and his family through justified work without any sin, neither goes to hell nor does he become a member of the family of God. Such a fellow will be born as a bird or a soft natured animal, which only concentrates on its livelihood. The aim of this very rare human birth is to achieve the grace of God and not merely earning one’s livelihood. The word Akarma means leaving the work to earn one’s livelihood and depending on the society for one’s basic needs. Such a lazy fellow who is not active even to earn his livelihood cannot be active in divine 170

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service either. Activity is very important and is the basis of Rajas (Rajah Karmani—Gita). Knowledge is the basis of Sattvam. Tamas is determination. Knowledge leads to determination, which leads to activity or practical devotion or divine service. Even in your worldly job this sequence is required. By knowledge one understands the concepts and clears all doubts, which results in determination and finally ends in practice. The worldly job is required to avoid worldly stress like hunger etc. Similarly, the divine job is necessary to avoid the stress of hell after death. If you compare the stress of the hell and this worldly stress, you can understand the difference. Then you will realize how much the divine knowledge is more important than this worldly knowledge.

Purchasing Heaven Human beings being generally blind to this realization are concentrating only on worldly education and are completely neglecting spiritual knowledge. Such people may not do sins but they do not understand that such actions will result in their useless future births of birds and animals. Such births are also considered as another form of hell on earth. The human birth is a chance of getting a huge profit. A birth as an animal or bird is neither profit nor loss. The neutral state is relatively minus with respect to the plus. Therefore, such a neutral birth is also considered as hell with respect to the state of salvation. This neutral state generally tends to minus. People first think of earning their livelihood for themselves and their families. Up to this stage there is no problem because God arranges for the basic needs for every living being in this world. But after sometime, since the concept of God is not realized through spiritual knowledge, these people extend their desires for more and more facilities (Bhoga). Then they start earning wealth by doing sins. Even after attaining the highest facilities, their earning through sin does not stop because they become addicted to the process of earning. A drunkard cannot stop drinking after sometime. Such people are thrown into permanent hell. Such work, which started off as earning one’s livelihood but got extended to earning endlessly for pleasure and luxury through sinful means, is called as Vikarma. What is the solution for such Vikarma if the person realizes it? The only solution is to sacrifice back such wealth for the welfare of society. Rich people often speak about such social service by saying that since they have taken from society, they have to return atleast something 171

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to society. The solution is justified because the sacrifice of extra wealth (karma phala tyaga) is equal to the sacrifice of work. Wealth is the fruit of work and therefore it is another form of work. Work is energy and wealth is matter. Energy and matter are inter-convertible forms. Thus, the person who sacrificed some wealth is equal to the person who has sacrificed work that was done to earn that much of wealth. You should not say that a rich man purchases heaven by sacrificing wealth. Since, sacrifice of the fruit of work (matter) is equal to the sacrifice of work (energy) according to science, you cannot object to this concept. Moreover, if such an alternative did not exist, what would be the fate of that sinner who realizes the truth before his death? You cannot condemn him since he has realized his mistake. There must be a way for the repentant soul. Therefore, such sacrifice is not purchasing heaven by money.

Repented Souls will be Excused Jesus said that a camel may pass through the eye of a needle but a rich man could never reach God. For this statemet it appears as if all rich people are permanently condemned. But Jesus always showed path to the people who repented. Therefore, that statement of His applies only to the rich people who did not repent. If you close the doors for all rich people permanently, irrespective of their repentance, what work can be done by the devotees who only sacrifice work? A person who only sacrifices work is either a poor householder or a sanyasin. Both cannot do any divine service without money [money is required for any activity including divine service like the propagation of divine knowledge]. The situation will be like that of two sanyasins rubbing their shoulders against each other. What will be the result? Only some ash applied to their bodies will fall down! Therefore, there is always a way for the repentant soul even on his deathbed. Thus, even Vikarma has a solution. The Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of the fruit of work by giving it the highest place (Dhyanat Karma Phala Tyagah) by stating that mechanical practice of tradition without analysis (Abhyasa), knowledge (Jnana), theoretical devotion (Dhyana) and sacrifice of fruit of work (karma Phala Tyaga) are in the increasing order of importance. Again here you must note that the sacrifice of the fruit of work also stands for the sacrifice of work. Between these two terms (karma sanyasa and karma phala tyaga) any one can be used to mean both. 172

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Chapter - 18

FOOD TO DEVOTION [July 27, 2006; Circulated on September 16, 2006] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, To earn money for basic needs is Bhukti. Relief from the worldly stress is Mukti. First is generation and second is preservation of Shakti. God is the source of both these, devotion is Bhakti. God is the main aim of life, concentration in it is Rakti. Arjuna is fighting for his kingdom, which is essential to meet his basic needs. This fight caused lot of stress both physically and mentally. This point relates to your professional work, in which also, lot of stress and strain accumulates on you. Love on grandfather and anger on Duryodhana created confusion and emotion. Love and anger bring the stress and create lot of mental disturbance. Stress comes on exceeding the limits like cold at zero and heat at hundred degree centigrade temperature. Regarding the worldly or family affairs, both these should be in limits and equal so that a convenient normal temperature is created. But, sometimes, both these exceed limits and bring extreme stress, which is mental chaos.

Levels of Guides: Guru to Satguru There are guides or Preachers at two levels. Guru is the first guide at first level, who can relieve your stress by preaching the self-analysis (Atma Yoga) and all this is Pravrutti only. Dharma (Justice to keep the social balance), Artha (earning money for basic needs), Kama (sex to help the divine mission of bringing down the souls from the upper world) and Moksha (relief of stress) are related to soul only (Purushaartha) and not related to God. The field related to God is Nivrutti or Paramartha. Bhukti and Mukti, thus are the fields related to the soul, involved in the worldly work only and not related to the work of God. The second higher level is Nivrutti and the guide here is Satguru, who means God in human form. Guru is a scholar, devotee and servant 173

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of God, who prepares the stage or background by preaching Pravrutti or Purushartha. God alone can preach Nivrutti or Paramartha. Guru is the soul and can preach about Pravrutti only, which involves all the imaginary items. Satguru preaches about God, who is unimaginable item. To relieve you from the stress, guidance in Pravrutti is sufficient. The knowledge about soul (Atmayoga) is sufficient to relieve yourself from the stress. Regulation of supply of oxygen helps the physical health (Pranayama). Certain physical exercises (Asanas) and control of external and internal habits like food, sleep, thoughts will also help this Atma yoga (Yama and Niyama). Withdrawing yourself from the endless worldly affairs physically and mentally results in Pratyahara, which is the main essence of Pravrutti. Fixing yourself as Atman or pure awareness without vibrations (thoughts) is a psychological treatment to relieve you from stress. This has no connection with God. But it is the essential stage for the Nivrutti, which is in the drama only as the main item. You become peaceful on stress-relief and for sometime, you feel happy with respect to the immediate stress you have faced. But after sometime, you feel bored, since you are fixed in zero like an inert stone, which itself becomes a great stress. The tremendous silence in life disturbs you.

Aim of Human Life You feel very much to search the aim of this human life which is not mere peaceful living with all comforts and settlement of family. The west is in this state. The East is in the state of Arjuna with stress. East indicates the rise of Sun, which means the starting of Pravrutti. West indicates the sun-set, which means the end of Pravrutti. When you are settled in life, Pravrutti is ended. Now the search for the main aim of life clicks in your heart, which is the beginning of Nivrutti. The gurus are needed for India and Satguru is needed for the foreign countries. Ofcourse, there are cases in west also, who are settled externally but need Mukti (liberation) from stress, though not Bhukti. There are cases in East, who have this Mukti but no Bhukti. When Atma yoga is preached, as you see the beginning of the Gita, where Krishna acted as guru only to preach Pravrutti, the self is preached. Arjuna is fighting for Bhukti only and he does not take this war as work of God i.e., to destroy the injustice and uplift justice. Arjuna got stress in Bhukti and therefore, he needs immediately the 174

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knowledge of Pravrutti only. Therefore the Lord started with Atma yoga only and confined Himself to the level of Guru only. But the Lord is also Satguru. Arjuna asked only for Pravrutti (stress-relief) and not for Nivrutti (about God). But the Lord being Satguru also continued into Nivrutti. You cannot find a schoolteacher in college. But the college lecturer may happen to be the school-teacher. This is the reason, why you find Gurus preaching about stress-relief only (Pravrutti) without Nivrutti. Ofcourse, the schoolteacher is doing his assigned job perfectly on the instruction from God. God sends His closest servants, who are the liberated souls for this purpose. Earning money for maintenance is a need. Family life is a change or co-curricular activity like conducting games in a college. Need is essential (sareera yatra picha…Gita) but change is optional. Dining in the hostel is a need. To participate in a game or seeing a picture once in a month is for a change. There may be a student who concentrates on studies only without interest in co-curricular activities. Such a human being is the saint (sanyasin). A student who needs some change is the householder. The first student is expected to score more marks. Thus a saint is generally expected to win the heart of God. But sometimes, the second student scores more marks! Thus change need not be a hurdle for success and avoiding change cannot assure you the success. The saint need not be egoistic and the householder need not be dejected. If the main aim is not forgotten, both are one and the same. The householder serves the purpose of bringing down the souls from the upper world and thus involved in the divine mission only (Prajatantum...Veda), which incidentally happens to be a change also in his spiritual path.

Insufficiency of Pravritti The Gita is theory and the entire practical is the follow-up i.e., war of Kurukshetra. By knowing that one is Self (Atman) or Causal body, not the subtle body (made of qualities) and not the gross body, one gets rid of mental stress and one can do the job with the best capacity. But the result may be success or defeat (Hatovaa…Gita). Krishna never assured success in the war in the beginning, which is about Pravrutti, by which you can do your job without disturbance. But the success is not assured. You have to keep neutral both in defeat or success, which state is possible by the self-realization. The result is based on the destiny. 175

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Only thing is that you should not be perturbed by the result, which may be positive or negative. It gives only the capacity to do your work irrespective of the result. Arjuna also expressed the doubt of success in his question and hence the Lord replied like this.

Nivritti - Necessary And Sufficient But if you are firm on success only, Pravrutti is insufficient as it is inefficient. A soul cannot succeed over other souls by its own strength. Similarly a soul cannot attract another soul by its own merit. The grace of God or Super soul is essential for success or attraction. If the war is only for the personal affair of Arjuna, there is no need of interference of the Lord. But the war is also simultaneously the work of God as well as the work for bhukti of Arjuna. Participation of oneself in the work of Lord practically is a real proof of Bhakti. Therefore, the Lord entered into preaching Nivrutti, introducing Himself as God. All the Pandavas (brothers of Arjuna) were ready to fight for kingdom. Draupadi wanted the destruction of Kauravas with revenge. She took the law and order into her hand and did not leave the aspect of revenge to God (Revenge is Mine…Bible). From their angle they were defeated at the end because all their issues, the heirs of kingdom were killed. Only Arjuna fought with the aim of helping the work of God. Arjuna did not like to fight for selfishness. He liked to withdraw from the war and was prepared to forego even Bhukti. This shows his detachment to the world. He left the revenge to God. In the Vishwarupam, Lord showed that the control of Law and Order is in His hand only. He showed in the vision that He is going to punish all the evil forces. Ofcourse, Arjuna lost his sons born to Draupadi and Subhadra but only his grandson was protected by the Lord to become the heir of the kingdom. This is a mixed result for Arjuna. The reason is, since Arjuna was detached from the worldly pleasures in the beginning of war and became the servant of the Lord subsequently, his grandson was made king. But Arjuna wanted to withdraw from the war when his son born to Subhadra died and here Arjuna forgot the main divine aim of the war. Abhimanyu was the incarnation of a demon and had to be killed and at the same time, this was a test for the detachment of Arjuna from his family. Therefore, to get success in Pravrutti, God’s grace is needed. This can be seen in the war everywhere. Only by the guidance of Krishna, 176

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Arjuna could kill all the evil people. When Arjuna had to enter the fire, he was ready to jump into it without any worry. Such state was attained by Arjuna by self-analysis (Atma Yoga), which was preached in the beginning. But in the last minute, Lord turned the situation by creating false sun-set and Arjuna succeeded in the war.

Atma Yoga - Alternative for Sleeping Tablet Arjuna asked only for the stress relief. Krishna should have ended Gita by the second chapter after teaching Atma Yoga as the present Guru does by conducting a workshop teaching Yoga from Yama to Pratyahara. The four steps (Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama) relate to the physical health. Pratyahara is related to mental health through psychological treatment. Thus, Atma Yoga is only the medical science and there is no spiritual knowledge in this. There is no reference to God here. The result of this is only stress-relief during work. This does not assure you about the fate of result. If you get defeat, you will again get stress. Then again apply Atma Yoga and relive yourself from the stress. Therefore, Atma Yoga is an alternative for the sleeping tablets. The sleeping tablet has side effects on the body, where as Atma Yoga has no such side effects. Therefore, you can prefer Atma Yoga than the medicines. All this is the field of Pravrutti. The Lord did not stop at this point because the Lord is not only a Guru but He is also a Satguru. The situation is similar to a college lecturer teaching a class in the school. He can continue the class in the college level also after the school. But a school teacher cannot continue in the higher level. Therefore, the Lord continued to preach about God and human incarnation of God. Then the Lord asked Arjuna to become His devotee and servant directly. As the Bhakti Yoga started, the field of Nivrutti has begun. Arjuna is changing gradually and became the devotee and servant of the Lord in the latter chapters of Gita. Arjuna realized that the war is the work of the Lord and not mere path to earn his wealth. Since, Arjuna is converted in to a devotee (Theoretical) and also servant (Practical), the Lord assured success stating that He is going to kill all the Kauravas and give wealth and fame to Arjuna. Here since Arjuna recognized the super self or God and subsequently recognized Krishna as the human incarnation, such assurance of success was given. Such assurance was not given in the second chapter of Gita where Atma Yoga was taught. In that field He was asking Arjuna to do the duty without 177

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attachment and advised Arjuna to continue in the same detachment even if the result goes against. This Atma Yoga is thus applicable even to atheist and is Universal. But the Nivrutti is confined to the believers in God only. The advantage of catching Satguru at any level is that He can be the teacher from LKG to PG and therefore you need not worry about the search for a teacher to your corresponding level. The personal work of Arjuna to achieve his personal wealth is transformed as the work of God. This means God treats the work of His devotee as His personal work. You must know that there is no question of defeat in the personal work of God! It is not colouring His personal work as the work of devotee. But it is colouring the devotee’s work as His personal work!

Bliss of God Therefore, to watch the world with detachment, Self-analysis is sufficient. But to succeed in this world, God’s grace is needed. God is the only Lord for this world as well as upper world. Pravrutti without Nivrutti is like a dead body, which is the peace or silence of a stone. This state can be directly transformed into the state of God (Esha Brahmi Sthitih…Gita), if the success and defeat can be enjoyed by you as God does. God created this world for entertainment or enjoyment (Ekaki Na Ramate…Veda). All good and bad, success and defeat are created by Him for enjoyment. Such continuous happiness is called as bliss. The happiness of the soul is discontinuous because it enjoys success and suffers with the defeat. God enjoys both good and bad like sweet and hot dishes. Such continuous enjoyment derived from both the dishes alternatively is bliss. God is possessor of bliss (Anando Brahma…Veda) and you should not beg God for bliss. If you go to a rich man and beg him, can you become such a rich man? You must know the technique of his earning, so that by following that technique, you can become equally rich. Ofcourse, this simile is partially incompetent in the case of God. No simile can give the full concept in the case of God. The grace of God is required to become God. You may object this by saying that God is spectator, where as the soul is involved in the world. God also enters the world in human form like the soul and still enjoys continuously. Your objection is overruled. You are enjoying even a tragic scene when you are acting in a drama. In a pleasant scene, 178

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ignorance is necessary. You should think that the drama is real. To destroy your happiness, a tragic scene follows. Then, immediately you realize that the drama is unreal by the true knowledge. Your happiness continues, which is bliss. Thus by using ignorance and knowledge alternatively (Jnanamapohanamcha…Gita), you can continue your entertainment, which is called as bliss. By following this technique you can reach the state of God. But to remain in that state, grace of God is needed (Ishwaranugrahat eva…Shankara). Once you have attained this state, you should not become egoistic. You have become God as far as the state of entertainment is considered. You are acting in a drama and the producer is also in a role like you. Both of you are equal as actors cum spectators. In that limited aspect, both of you are equal as far as acting and enjoying the drama continuously is considered. Such entertainment is only a feeling, which is a psychological aspect only (Matbhavaayopapadyate…Gita). The capacity of God to create, rule and destroy the world is not achieved by you. You have not become the producer of the drama.

‘Happiness And Misery’ To Bliss In Atma Yoga you are immune to both happiness and misery. But in this transformed state, which is exactly equal to that of God, you are entertained and enjoy equally both happiness and misery. The first state of an ordinary human being is to enjoy happiness and feel pained in misery. By Atma Yoga you neither enjoy happiness nor get pain in misery. If you are in the first state only and still become a devotee of God, you can get continuous happiness only by the grace of God. This is a sideline from the first state. By that you will be bored in this sideline because even continuous happiness will bore you and will result in misery. In Atma Yoga there is no enjoyment at all. In the second sideline which is worship of God with desires (Kamya Karma), there is continuous enjoyment which bores you. Thus, both the lines have their own defects. But if you can reach the state of God directly by transforming yourself through the divine knowledge and grace of God you will have continuous entertainment without boring. Since both happiness and misery are changing alternatively, there is no point of boring. Since you are enjoying both, your happiness is continuous and is called as bliss (Ananda). The very meaning of Ananda is continuous happiness, since the letter “A” means continuity (Aa Samantat). But the 179

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main point in attaining the direct transformation into the state of God is that you should be always aware of God. The Advaita Philosopher also tries to achieve this after Atma Yoga. But he utterly fails in this because the state of God cannot be achieved without the grace of the God. Such state of God was the aim of Shankara and therefore He stressed on the devotion to God always. The Advaita Philosopher thinks that he is God and therefore he ends in Atma Yoga only. In Atma Yoga also the equality of happiness and misery exists but the equality is in the silence or peace or immunity to the enjoyment. By this the very purpose of the creation is lost. The Veda says that the purpose of the creation is entertainment and not immunity. If the immunity is the aim, God should have slept continuously without this imaginary creation. Assuming that the Advaita Philosopher is God, this point from the Veda (entertainment) is contradicting such assumption. Thus, such state of God is obtained by the liberated soul who becomes the servant of God. This liberated soul also takes human form like God and enjoys continuously in the world like human incarnation. The Atma Yoga is obtained by a realized soul who does not believe in the existence of God separately. Such egoism and ungratefulness will lead to the loss of Atma Yoga also and the egoistic and ungrateful Advaita Philosopher is thrown in to first state where he is pained by misery. The divine Maya will throw him in to such beginning state and actually then the Advaita Philosopher suffers like an ordinary human being. Totapuri, such an Advaita Philosopher, suffered with stomach pain and tried to commit suicide by the will of Maya. Liberated souls, like Raghvavendra Swami (Prahlada) etc., derived bliss in this world like the Lord. They never became ungrateful to God and Hanuman is the best example. Advaita according Shankara is this final state of God and not the Atma Yoga from which you can be easily pushed down by Maya.

Brahma Yoga is Ultimate Both ignorance and knowledge are used for attaining bliss (Vidyachaavidyacha…Veda). This is the state of God when He enters the world like you. But the state of Advaita philosopher is different. He becomes immune to both happiness and misery. It is a state of peace, which is zero, attained by climbing from minus. This is Atma yoga, in which you realize that the forms and qualities (feelings) are essentially unreal and their reality is only matter, energy and awareness only. This 180

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is limiting boundary of the soul and should not extend by saying that this world (matter, energy and awareness) are unreal and God is only the reality. The statement is true but not practical, which can be practically true for God in human form in this world. Shankara was God in human form and could walk through bolted door of Mandana Mishra or could swallow the molten lead, because for Him, matter and energy are unreal. A soul can realize up to the level of forms and qualities as unreal. This is sufficient to avoid all misery, become immune to disturbance, and get peace. This is Atma yoga (Self-attainment). In Brahma yoga (attainment of God), you will attain continuous enjoyment called as bliss. Yoga means simply attainment. But, attainment of what? Nobody is analyzing this point. It has become a style of the day to utter the word “Yoga”! Astrologers use this word yoga for attainment of wealth. If it is the attainment of self, God is not necessary in the subject. Yoga in the present workshops conducted by Gurus strictly is confined to the attainment of physical and mental health to avoid the stress. Thus, simply by hearing the word Yoga, you should not misunderstand that it is related to the attainment of God. But, everywhere, even in the success of the worldly effort, the grace of God is essential. Otherwise, you cannot retain the success, even if you attain it by your effort. Everywhere in Kurukshetra war, the guidance of Krishna became essential. A guru can preach through a workshop regarding this attainment of self and even an atheist is eligible for this training in stress-relief. Even if an atheist retains this yoga by his self-effort, he can use this in this world only. In the upper world especially in the hell, this yoga will not stand on seeing the terrible methods of torture, which are million times more cruel than the third degree torture in a police station! But if yoga means the association of the grace of God, yoga will not be lost in any world. Even Shankara told that Advaita (self-attainment) must be attained with the grace of God only. If the grace of God is more, one need not even go to hell. Thus attainment of yoga through knowledge of self analysis is not sufficient. Acceptance of God and attainment of grace of God through devotion is essential (Bhaktireva Gariyasee…Shankara). The real devotion is proved through service. For such practical service, full determination, without any trace of doubt is necessary. For such determination a thorough study of knowledge is essential. Thus again knowledge is coming up every where (Jnanadevatu…Shankara). Take a long time for 181

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knowledge, which alone gives the firm determination and the determination is spontaneously followed by practice (service). Lack of practice indicates lack of complete knowledge-base in devotion. Shankara in His commentary on Gita says that knowledge and devotion mean the same (service). The Lord in human form enjoyed all the insults and tragic scenes also with full bliss indicated by the sweet smile on His lips. When Sisupala abused Him, He was smiling only, which indicates His bliss. At the end, He was spectator of all His relatives including sons and grandsons killing each other and then also He was with the same smile. Infact, He killed some of His people, who remained alive! Thus what He preached, He practiced. He preached Arjuna to kill his people in the war. Jesus preached that one should leave parents, wife or husband, children and even life to become close to Him. He practiced it. He did not give importance to His mother and left His life also for the sake of God. This is the proof of the awareness of the unreality of the dramatic bonds in this world drama. Since the bond is strictly a feeling (quality of awareness), it can be realized as unreal even by the realized soul. For the liberated soul even the higher levels of Maya like matter and awareness can be realized as unreal. For the human incarnation, even the highest level or Mula Maya (energy) is unreal.

Entertainment is Aim of Creation The aim of God is not to become immune to the world. If it is so, the world should not have been created. Therefore attainment of self cannot be final. Ofcourse, the realization of degree of reality in various levels continues in the case of God as the basis of entertainment. In the Atma yoga, the realization of reality in the basic level of Maya (i.e., the realization of the forms and qualities as matter and awareness respectively) continues in all the situations, which gives peace. But in Brahma yoga, the realization of unreality in the required level comes only in tragic scenes and in happiness the ignorance of such unreality is superimposed for the sake of enjoyment. Arjuna faced the tragic scene and therefore the Lord started with Atma yoga proving the unreality in his basic level. Arjuna is standing on the ground and Hanuman is standing on the flag. The Gita starts with the level of Arjuna on the ground and goes up to the level of Hanuman.

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The world is made of three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). These three qualities are just feelings which are forms of awareness only (Yechaiva…Gita). This means that the real essence of the world which gives entertainment is made of qualities only, which are the bonds. The other items like awareness, matter and energy are not direct participants of the drama. Therefore, the nature of drama which is the three qualities is common to both God and soul. Ofcourse for God, matter, awareness and energy are also feelings but they are not concerned in the drama. Since the essence of drama (feelings) is common relative reality to both God and soul and since the drama is limited to this essence (feelings or three qualities), there is no objection for the soul to entertain itself with the drama equal to God. The reality of matter, awareness and energy for the soul unlike for God is not an obstruction for the entertainment since such reality is irrelevant to the drama. Hanuman is in the state of consciousness and one can reach the maximum state of Hanuman, who became God. Above that, the state of Bhagavatam is the mad state of Gopikas, representing the unimaginable climax of devotion. Madness cannot be obtained by any effort, which is spontaneously and is blessed by God only. The place of Gopikas was above the place of God (Brahmaloka or Satyaloka) called as Goloka. You should keep Hanuman as your climax of effort and not Radha, who is at an unimaginable height above God. God became her servant, since God wanted to enjoy the role of servant. Even in the role of Hanuman, God enjoyed fully the role of a servant. Rama & Hanuman and Krishna & Radha are the double roles of God.

Definition of Sin A soul is beaten in the hell and the servants of Yama say “why have you done this deed which is not liked by God?” They will not say “why have you done this sin?” Anything that is not liked by God is a sin. By itself a sin is not a sin, because it is a feeling, which is a wave of awareness and is completely unreal. Hurting any soul, especially a believer in God is the basis of sin according to God. Punishment with an attitude to change the soul is exempted from this concept. There should be no trace of revenge in punishment. If the soul is realized and changed, do not think of revenge. Jesus told that if you punish others for their sins, God shall punish you also for your sins. Punishment of a

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student by a teacher is not a sin, because it is for his change and upliftment only. The same aim exists when God punishes the souls. The Lord says in the Gita that the divine Knowledge alone pleases Him (Jnaya Yajnena…). He says that it is greater than Svadhya yajna and Dravya yajna. Svadhyaya yajna means simple recitation of hymns without any enquiry into their meaning. Dravya yajna means sacrifice of wealth. But the Gita praises that sacrifice of wealth or fruits of work (Karmaphalatyaga ...) is highest (Dhyanat Karmaphalatyagah…). There is no clash here. Dravya yajna represents sacrifice of wealth to undeserving or improper receiver or putting wealth in fire which is foolishness as stated by Kapila in Bhagavatam. Donating to temples based on the statues is climax of foolishness because the priests and management are not even the scholars of the Vedas and Shastras. The priest is for his livelihood like a labourer and the management spends for unnecessary items and wastes the wealth due to lack of complete spiritual knowledge. The Government is taking that wealth and is using for social services, which are to be done by the public revenues only. The statue is not enjoying even an iota of your wealth. The temple should be a place of propagation of divine knowledge and devotion. The scholars and devotees should be maintained by such donated wealth to prorogate about God. But theses temples have become business-centers to solve the problems of devotees. Ofcourse, it is inevitable in the beginning stage (Sarvarambhahi…Gita) but the propagation of right divine knowledge should be the main program of temples, which should be run by scholars only.

True Knowledge Alone Gives Determination The true knowledge alone can give the final determination, which alone leads to practice and since practice alone pleases the Lord, knowledge (Jnana yoga) is considered to be the main part of the effort. Decision, practice and grace of God are spontaneous consequences. A long period is needed for knowledge to arrive at the decision. One-year time is taken by the student to study the subject. Examination and award of marks takes place in a very short period. Decision cannot come by momentary emotion, which is attained in Tapo yajna or devotion. Emotion without full knowledge basing the decision is called as Tapo yajna. Demons do that for attaining selfish ends. If the emotion or love is based on the full realization which is the base of determination 184

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(Buddhi yoga), it is called as Bhakti yoga. Lord said that he can be achieved by both together (Dadami Buddhiyogam…, Bhaktyatvananyaya…). People are very good in singing songs (Bhajans) but they cannot do any service to God involving sacrifice. Such activity is only Tapo yajna and not the Bhakti yoga. Due to lack of realization, which is based on the divine knowledge, they fail in sacrifice to God. Their aim is to achieve some worldly desires only as the case of demons. To certain extent, it is allowed in the beginning owing to their ignorance. But you should not be a child life long receiving chocolates to study. Put more effort on knowledge to arrive at the correct and doubtless determination, which leads to practice spontaneously. Without knowing the knowledge, simple recitation of the Veda and mechanical repetition of ritual is a waste (Sreyohi Jnanamabhyasat…Gita)! The present situation is exactly the same and the present-egoistic priests are responsible for this present situation. All the rituals are excellent if their meaning is realized and are diverted to God. When they are diverted to your worldly affairs, they become bad. Every feeling, word and action in this world aimed at God is good because the purpose of their creation is served (Matta eveti tan viddhi…Gita). Any feeling, word and action diverted to this world of your selfish entertainment are bad. The war in which Hanuman participated was completely the work of the Lord. In the case of Lord, do not apply your logic to examine whether the work of Lord is personal like search for His wife or the social service. Lord is above social service and justice also. Hanuman was capable of killing Vali and does the social service, but He waited for the Lord, since God alone can handle the Law and order. If you believe that the Kingdom of God exists in every corner of the world, why are you impatient? When all your ways are closed, the unexpected and unimaginable way of God opens in the last fraction of the last second. The war fought by Arjuna was both personal and divine. He realized the divine angle of the war and fought. If it is only the personal angle of attainment of kingdom, Arjuna should have gone back. By this don’t try to convert every work as the work of God. If you murder somebody, it is not God’s work! Don’t say that every work is worship. Certain works only have that divine angle. Doing research work on this world can be divine, which is a path of searching God through science. Unless Einstein discovered the concept of inter-conversion of matter and energy, today you could not have 185

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understood that this entire creation including space is basically the homogeneous energy called as ‘Sat’ by the Veda. Matter, space and awareness are various relative forms of energy and are called as ‘Asat’ by the Veda. Form and quality (feeling) are ‘Asat’ only even for awareness (soul) and so come under a lower category of Asat only. God is neither this ‘Sat’ nor this ‘Asat’ (Naasadasit No sadasit…Veda, Na Sat tat naasaduchyate…Gita). God is above the basic reality ‘Energy’ also. Awareness is the material of soul, which is created by matter (food) and matter is created by energy. Energy-Matter-Awareness is the chain of inter conversion. Energy is condensed into matter. Matter (food) on oxidation gives energy. Energy is converted in to awareness. Space is energy. The soul cannot cross the dimensions of space by applying any amount of imagination or analysis. The soul cannot go beyond energy, which is the ultimate reality for the soul. Lord says that His power cannot be crossed (Mama Mayaa duratyayaa…Gita). His power or energy is wonderful by assuming so many forms and therefore is called as Maya. Maya means wonderful (Maya Vaichitrye). Even the energy, which is work of God, is unreal before God and thus God is above space and thus becomes unimaginable to any soul.

Two Levels of Maya The Lord says that His best devotees can cross Maya (Maayaametam Taranti…Gita). But in this place He did not say the word “My” (Mama) before the word ‘Maya’. He used the word ‘Etam’, which means ‘that’. When He said that Maya cannot be crossed by any one, He used ‘Mama’ which means ‘My’. Therefore, there are two levels of Maya: 1) Maya at the level of Lord; 2) Maya at the level of soul. What is Maya? The word Maya has two meanings: Maya means that which is wonderful, Maya also means that which does not exist (Yaa Maa Saa Maya…). Therefore, the two meanings come together and the essence of this is: Maya is the unreal item by itself but poses as if real and brings the confusion. In the world also ‘Maya’ is used in this sense only. Maya at the level of the Lord is energy, matter and awareness. At His level, these three are unreal completely because if He stops working, energy will not exist. Energy is active and essentially work of God only. If energy becomes unreal, matter and awareness also become unreal because energy is the cause of matter and awareness. Matter and awareness are forms of energy. When God in human form 186

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realizes and goes back to His innermost state, all these three items become unreal. Shankara passed through bolted door since when He went into His innermost state, matter and binding energy in the door became unreal. When God comes in human form, He comes down with His Maya i.e., Maya of His level as said in the Gita (Sambhavaamyaatma mayayaa…Gita). The word ‘Atma’ in this verse means ‘His’. Therefore, the Lord in human form comes down with Maya of His level. The forms of various objects and feelings (qualities) are unreal even with respect to the soul. The beauty of a girl, which is a form, is unreal, if all the flesh, fat and binding energy are separated. The unreal form is attracting you and the separated flesh, fat and binding energy as lumps do not attract you at all. This is Maya at the level of the soul. The girl shows sweet feelings (love) and if the material of these feelings (awareness), which is energy, is separated, the feeling becomes unreal. The lump of crude awareness is not attracting you. This is also Maya at the level of the Soul. Beauty and quality (feeling) represents the gross and subtle bodies. The awareness becomes inert energy in deep sleep, when all the feelings subside. Such awareness like stand still water is inert energy only. Even if ‘I’ exists in experience, it is not deep sleep, rather, it is meditation only. Thus the causal body, which is the inert energy only, is Atman. When all the matter and all the souls are dissolved, a single lump of homogeneous inert energy is left over which is called as Brahman. This original form of inert energy creates, maintains and dissolves the world. But all the design of the world and all the souls (Jeevas) remain in impressed state in this energy (Avyaktam). These impressions are basically energy and hence Brahman is homogeneous (Ekamevaadvitiyam…Veda). Therefore Atman (inert energy form of soul in deep sleep) and Brahman (inert energy form of whole world) in the final dissolution are one and the same in Quality like water drop and Ocean. The Veda speaks these three states as Visva, Taijasa and Prajna representing the matter; awareness and basic energy states of awakening, dream and deep sleep respectively. In awakened state, the gross body stands for ‘I’. In dream the subtle body stands for ‘I’. In deep sleep, the causal body represents ‘I’, but in this state there is no experience at all and therefore, neither ‘I’, nor bliss are experienced. Prajna stands for bliss but in deep sleep the bliss is not experienced. It is experienced only after awakening. After the deep sleep the full rest 187

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gives freshness which gives the immense happiness. Therefore, the deep sleep is only a state of rest which is the cause of the bliss i.e., experienced later on. God is above these states. In deep sleep, the drop of inert energy represents the eternal Atman, which is qualitatively same as ocean of inert energy that results on the final dissolution. God is Parabrahman, thereby meaning that He is beyond Brahman or Atman of deep sleep (Turiyam Brahmamuchyate).

Maya, Maha Maya And Mula Maya Therefore, at the level of the soul, the beauty (form) and her love (feeling or quality) are unreal but they disturb the soul. This Maya can be crossed by the soul by the grace of Lord as said (Maameva ye prapadyaute…Gita). This Maya exists at the level of the soul as form and quality in the creation. The higher Maya as matter awareness and energy exists at the level of the Lord in the same creation. Therefore, this creation is Maya only (Mayamtu Prakrutim…Gita). The creation or Maya consists of matter, awareness, energy, form and quality. The first three items are at the level of the Lord and the last two items are at the level of the Soul. We can call energy as ‘Mula Maya’ or the root item. Matter and awareness is Maha Maya. Form and quality is Maya. The first three items are termed as “His Maya’. The last two items are termed as ‘Maya’ at the lower level. The soul is fooled by his lower Maya (Maayayaapahruta Jnanah…Gita). This lower Maya can be called as Avidya, in which case Maya is confined only to the first three items. Avidya means that the Maya can be removed by knowledge obtained by analysis (Vidya). Thus, Avidya can be treated as the ignorance of the soul. Maya (Maha Maya and Mula Maya) can be treated as the imposed ignorance of self by God. For soul, Maya is divine power and not ignorance. When you analyze, the beauty is just matter and energy. The love (feeling) is just awareness only, which is inert energy only in its essence. This analysis removes all the attraction and confusions. The girl including her beauty and love is just a pot of inert energy at the deepest level (Mula Maya). At the deeper level (Maha Maya), she is just a pot of matter, energy and awareness only. The Lord graced Arjuna with this divine knowledge and fixed him at Maha Maya after crossing Maya. Then his grandfather looked like a pot of matter, awareness and energy. 188

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All the Acharyas (Preachers) are based on ‘Sat Karya Vada’, which means that the entire world is just a modification of this basic inert energy called as ‘Sat’. It is called as ‘Sat’ because it alone exists as the single item in any bit of the world and all its forms are illusions only. Its forms, like matter and awareness are illusory including itself for God but not for the soul. Only God can say that this whole world is unreal and that He alone is real. The soul can say that the forms and feelings are unreal but matter, energy and awareness are real for the soul. At the maximum, the soul as a scientist can say that energy is only real but this again is not a practically true statement for the soul. But he cannot think anything beyond energy since he cannot cross the space, which is the original form of energy only. Even the vacuum is made of energy only and the wavelength of such energy is beyond the grasping power of the soul. The scientist has touched only a part of the electro magnetic spectrum and therefore cannot claim the space as nothing. There is nothing like nothing. Everything is a form of the power of God only. If one cannot cross the lower Maya, he or she is a demon (Dushkrutino mudhah...Gita) and can never get the grace of Lord. This is Tamas which is the downward direction (Athogachchanti…Gita). If one crosses this Maya, he or she may still stay in the second level (Rajas). For them matter, energy and awareness are real. They represent the general humanity. The quantity of the real matter is important to them. The form of the coin does not fool them. But the metal (material) in it fools them. Sex is illusion of Tamas and money is the illusion of Rajas, Sattvam is good quality because they cross matter but they stop at awareness and call it as Jnanam. An Avadhuta sees the whole world as inert energy only. All these may accept God, who is beyond the inert energy, but God is very near to Avadhuta and very far from demon. Here the Avadhuta is having awareness of God only. I do not mean the Avadhuta who is in deep sleep and inert. Such Avadhuta receives permanent grace of God since he sees only God. He realized entire divine knowledge and implements it. Gopikas became the real Avadhutas after Krishna left them. Sattvika person becomes the scholar only. Rajasic person becomes a rich man. Tamasic person is always involved in eating, drinking and sex only. The state of Avadhuta appears as madness to others. He finds homogeneity 189

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everywhere as unreality and is aware of the absolute reality (God) only. Such practical behavior is not possible by any effort. If he experiences only the unreality of the world and if he does not experience God, he is just a stone. That is the state of “Sunya vada” of a Buddhist. An Advaita philosopher also feels that the world is unreal but he does not accept God other than himself. Atleast he recognizes the existence of himself, which means that he accepts awareness as reality. Since awareness is a property of energy, energy becomes reality and it’s another form, matter is also a reality. Indirectly he is telling that the world consisting of matter, energy and awareness is real. He is confused at this point since he does not realize that the self is a part of the world and the essential material of self (energy) is the essential material of the world. He is not recognizing the existence of unimaginable God. A Buddhist says that everything including self is unreal (Sunyam) and this is good in realizing the unreality of world with reference to God. But he also does not recognize the existence of unimaginable God and thus the reference is lost. Gopikas are real Avadhutas, who recognized the God in human form. The entire world became unreal before the Lord. When an opportunity to serve the Lord came, they gave the dust from their feet without feeling the existence of hell before the Lord. All their families were unreal for them except the Lord. Hanuman also served the human form of Lord and He did not feel the existence of even His body and tore His heart to show Rama in it. Both Hanuman and Gopikas are real Avadhutas and got highest fruit since they proved that anything other than the human form of Lord does not exist in their eyes. The present Avadhutas also behave like them in proving that the entire world is unreal for them but differ in recognizing the Lord in Human form. They feel themselves as Lord but never recognize the human form of Lord. Hanuman showed that Rama exists in the heart of human incarnation because He Himself is a human form of Lord Shiva. If you treat Him as a devotee, even then, it proves that God exists in the heart of His best devotee also. He showed that God does not exist in inert pearls, which indicates that God does not exist in inert statues, which ofcourse, can act as representative models of God for beginners. Avadhuta means the devotee who treats the entire world including his body as non-existent with reference to God in the Service of God in human form. With reference to the world (society), the world is real and so a real Avadhuta will not become naked. Hanuman or Gopikas never wandered without 190

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clothes on their bodies in the society. When sacrifice of wealth (butter), family, relatives and even the body reaches climax for the sake of God in human form, such a soul is a real Avadhuta.

Veda Says Unimaginable God Exists The God is unimaginable, but His existence is experienced so we should say that the unimaginable God exists (Asteetyeva…Veda). Therefore, God also is called as ‘Sat’, which means that exists. God gives the experience of His existence through human incarnation to human beings. Since God can be called as ‘sat’, you can say that God alone existed in the beginning before the creation while explaining (Sadeva Somya…Veda). God created the energy (Tat Tejo…Veda) and the energy can also be called as ‘Sat’, which means that Energy exists even if all forms of energy disappear. It is “Sat” with reference to its forms (matter and awareness). But it is non-existent with respect to God and so it is also ‘Asat’. Therefore, the Veda says ‘Sat existed in the beginning’ and also says ‘Asat existed in the beginning’. The first statement applies to God also since God is the absolute Sat. According to the context, you have to take the corresponding meaning for any word. Without analysis, confusion results finally. The atheists are condemned souls who do not join the School and spoil their career. The school students are those who worship statues as representative models of God. The college students are those who worship the devotees, in whom the grace and power of God exists. The University students are those who worship the human form of Lord while alive. The human incarnation is like a cloud in which the sun is hidden. The devotee is like a fuel cell that trapped the solar energy. The people who worship every living being as God and believe God in the form of society are between the school and the college, since they are coming near to the concept of human incarnation. People who worship the energetic forms of God (Vishnu etc.) by imaginations are U.K.G. students because they are unnecessarily strained by concentration of mind for the sake of the medium. Ofcourse, he is appreciated because the energetic form again resembles the human form and thus he is indirectly directed to the human incarnation. People who meditate upon formless objects as representative models of God like space, energy are L.K.G. students only. All are good and appreciable from LKG to Postgraduate since all are theists. A lower level need not be criticized or 191

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condemned since the PG student was also the LKG student once upon a time. But I wonder about the old people, who are leading their lives easily with fulfilled minds stating that their children are well settled in USA! The old age is like preparation holidays before the examination or enquiry of God. Atleast, if you concentrate on God in old age, you will pass with minimum marks, which is the human re-birth. You are thinking that the preparation holidays are the vacation after exams! You have participated in the co-curricular activities like games(family affairs) very well but never touched the text- book(God). You have come across with the physical directors only, who guided you well in games. The present Gurus are very good physical directors, who teach you about the success in Pravrutti and release of stress in the cocurricular activities like job, family life etc. You have not come across the lecturer (Satguru) who teaches you the main course and therefore, you have no idea of the main activity or aim of your student –life. You feel proud by the cups you have won in the games and feel the preparation holidays as the vacation given to you after playing the games well. Such people, I assuredly tell all of you, will enter the cycles of animals and birds only. I really pity these people, who are going to be the condemned souls. The atheists are already condemned souls like debarred students. The animals and birds never have the smell of spiritual knowledge. Eating, drinking, earning (food or money), sex, production of children and care for the children are the only activities of the animal kingdom. All these are not wrong if they are realized as side activities, which are necessary for a change and thus creation of these by God is justified. A student who does not participate at all in side activity (Saint) and a student who participates in side activities for a change (a devoted householder) have equal opportunity to get the best rank from God. Even if you make the games as the main activity, atleast the studies should be a side activity! But what to speak of those who forget the main activity of studies even in the preparation holidays! When somebody reminds them, they acknowledge for a moment and again forget! At present they are not condemned, but they are going to be condemned. They may console themselves seeing the atheists, who are already condemned by God. The atheists, due to their vehement emotional criticism against God, are going to be born as cruel animals and harmful insects (Tanaham dvishatah…Gita).

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I declare that all those devotees, who recognize the present human incarnation, are human incarnations by themselves. Both Rama and Hanuman are human incarnations of God. Both Krishna and Radha are incarnations of God. Hanuman represents the climax of service and Radha represents the climax of devotion. Service is the proof of devotion. Devotion is theory and service is practical. For both, knowledge must be the firm foundation. The climax of theory leads to firm determination, which results in the practice. When all the doubts are cleared, devotion reaches climax and appears as service. Removal of doubts is attained by knowledge and shrewd analysis. Devotion with doubts cannot reach climax and then service will not appear. All the devotees who propagate the divine knowledge of present human incarnation are also God in human forms. Delivery and propagation of divine knowledge complete the divine work. God does His own divine work and gives credit to these human forms (devotees). The Veda says “Asanneva Sa bhavati…” etc. This hymn means “God exists while being the non-existent. Realize that God is both the existent and non-existent items. Then you will realize that God exists”. This hymn needs an elaborate analytical explanation. You can bring another Vedic statement here (Tat Srushtvaa…, Satcha Tyat Chaabhavat…). This means “God created the world and entered into it. Then He became both existent and non-existent”. Bring the Gita here (Manusheem Tanum...), which means that God enters the human body. The non-existent items (Asat) are energy, matter and awareness, forms and feelings. Forms and feelings are non-existent with respect to matter and awareness. Both matter and awareness are non-existent with respect to energy. Energy is non-existent with respect to God. God is never nonexistent. He is always existent (Sat). When God enters in the energetic form, the energetic form consists of form and energy and both these are relatively true (Asat) items. When God enters the human body, the body consists of matter, energy, awareness, forms and feelings, which are also relatively true (Asat) items only. You have to take that form as God as you take the live wire as current. If you agree that the unimaginable God exists and enters imaginable items, which are non-existent (since they are relatively true), now you can say that God exists and is visible. Through the imaginable and relatively non-existent items (like energetic form or human body) only you can experience God. The Veda says that 193

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God becomes both ‘Sat’ and ‘Tyat’. God exists as God and also as nonGod (body and soul). In human body, He entertains Himself under the illusion of forms and feelings like an ordinary human being. If necessary, He will rise to higher level and will realize that forms and feelings are unreal. If still necessary, He will rise to still higher level, will realize both matter and awareness as unreal, and will perform miracles. Finally, He will rise to the highest level, where energy also becomes unreal and in this state, He is creator, maintainer and destroyer of the world. In this highest level only the Gita or the Bible or (divine knowledge) comes out.

O Preachers! Concentrate on Nivrutti I (God in Me) advise all the preachers (Gurus) to become “Satgurus” mainly and concentrate on Nivrutti. Your job is mainly to be lecturers and you can act as physical directors for just one period in the evenings. You are preaching games only in all the periods and solving all problems related to games only. Now and then you are preaching the main syllabus. You are making the college as a training center for physical education by conducting workshops on stress-relief and on peaceful and happy living. Ofcourse, a balance in society is necessary and I am not denying its importance for a good foundation (Pravrutti). A sound body is necessary for a sound mind and thus games are also important. But I tell you, all the problems in games (family & professional life) are due to over-attachment and undue importance given to co-curricular activities. If the main activity (spiritual effort) is stressed, these side activities can be overlooked and then many problems in games get solved by themselves. When you realize that a subject is negligible, the complication in that subject disappears, since the subject itself becomes weak. God is characterized by one highest miracle i.e., creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic primordial energy (Mula Maya). In the beginning God created the original lump of energy, which is the material for creation, maintenance and dissolution of this world. Light, heat, sound, magnetism, electricity etc., are only modified forms of the primordial energy. This energy can be created by God only and not by the soul. This energy is referred as ‘Tejah’ in the Veda (Tat Tejosrujata…). This Energy is referred as ‘Mahat Brahma’ in the Gita (Mama Yonih Mahat Brahma…). This energy is compared to wife 194

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(Yonih) since it gives entertainment by creation of Universe. This Mula Maya is under the complete control of God. Since it is generated by God, it can be treated as daughter. This is the meaning of marriage of Brahma with Saraswathi who was created by Brahma. It should not be taken in wrong sense. Similarly, when it is said that Jesus was born to Mary, who was not married, this should not be taken as that the Father of Jesus was unknown and doubt the character of pious Mary. It has spiritual meaning. God is the Father. Mary and her husband are souls which are part of nature only and thus constitute the mother only (Energy). If you analyze any human being, it is Energy only from top to bottom. The soul is awareness, which is a special work form of Energy. The body is made of matter and binding energy, which are again energy only. Energy is the mother. Jesus, a human body is thus the son of the mother only and this is true in the case of any human being. Spiritual sense is misinterpreted by priests, who are not having the true logical analysis. Their mental work is rigid and conservative with recitations only like routine machines. God alone creates this energy, which is not possible for a soul. A devoted soul, blessed by God (may be even a demon) through its rigid penance can create matter from energy. He can even create awareness in a dead person, if he is sanctioned so by God, because matter and awareness are forms of energy. Balarama, an incarnation of Adisesha, who is the best servant of God, gave life to a dead person called “Bhurisrava” (Refer Bhagvatam). You can find such miracle in the case of some other devotees also.

God, Devotee And Ordinary Human Being An ordinary human being can create a form in matter and a feeling (quality) in awareness. An ordinary person cannot create matter and awareness from energy. Thus you have now three levels: God, blessed devotee and ordinary human being. Energy is created by God. Matter and awareness can be created by a blessed devotee, who may be even a demon. An ordinary soul can create forms and feelings from matter and awareness. The dream, which is made of feelings or thoughts, is created by soul and this point cannot make the soul to be God as advaita philosopher argues. In such case, a beggar should become a King by creating a feeling that he is the King! Even blessed devotees, who create matter and awareness, could not become God as seen in the case of 195

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demons. The demon belongs atleast to the second higher level. The Advaitin belongs to the lowest level, claiming himself to be God. The Advaitin is neither a perfect atheist because he accepts God, nor is he perfect theist because he says that God does not exist separately. Thus, he is a very delicate and complicated person who does not belong to any of these two categories! Therefore, miracles show the blessings from God, but do not mean that the possessor of the blessings is God. The third class (Advaitin) and second class (demon) cannot be first class (God). One can attain any miracle except the creation of Energy, which is the basic form of Universe. Brahma Sutras say this point and Ramanuja supported this. Madhva clarified this very well. Shankara also clarified this to theists and devotees (satyapi bhedaapagme…) but to atheists (Purvamimamsakas and Buddhists), He told that Soul is God since He has to bring such extreme fellows to the path [of spirituality]. It is Arthavada, which means a lie told for a good purpose. The mother says to the child “if you eat this, the Moon will come to your hand”. The child eats the food by that attraction. It is not cheating and a lie. Artha means a purpose, Vada means a statement and Arthavada means a statement given for a good purpose. It only shows the excessive compassion of Acharya (Guru) or preacher to uplift the humanity. A soul can never create Energy because the soul itself is made of Energy. How can it create itself? God is beyond energy since the Veda says that He created the Energy. Neither the blessed soul should pose that he is God not the ignorant public should mistake him to be God by such miracles. The creator of energy can also create matter and awareness from energy. Infact, when a blessed devotee creates matter, it is only the will of God that creates the matter or awareness from energy. In the fuel cell, it is the solar energy that created current. In a blessed devotee, the power of God exists, which is the energy associated by will of God. In human incarnation, God directly exists. Miracles exist in Human incarnation also because a college student can also write the school examination. Miracles cannot be the characteristic identification since they are common to God and blessed devotee. If you say that your cow is having a bell-belt, people cannot distinguish it since all cows are having bell-belts. It is only one of the signs and is useful to distinguish the cow from a donkey since donkey does not have a bellbelt. Thus you can distinguish a divine person (God or a blessed 196

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devotee) from an ordinary human being by miracles. The miracles are only one of the signs as said in the Veda (Satya karmah…) like the bell belt. Love and kindness are other signs as said by Veda (Raso Vai sah…), but several human beings also exhibit extreme love and kindness, which is a quality that is made of awareness. The other sign is bliss, which is continuous happiness as said in the Veda (Anando Brahma…). Bliss comes only when you can treat this entire life as a divine drama. By the grace of God, a blessed soul can attain this state also. Thus, Ananda can be present in a blessed soul also. The last sign, by which you can clearly identify is divine knowledge, which is special to God only and is called as ‘Prajnanam’. The letter ‘Pra’ means the special best quality in the explanation. Such knowledge is based on the harsh Truth, since God never cares for any soul to please the soul and get some benefit (Satyam Jnanam…Veda). Krishna by the Gita, Jesus by the Bible, Mohammed by the Q’ran, Buddha and Sai Baba are recognized as human incarnations by their preachings. Even such knowledge is a special design of awareness only and is not the nature of God. It is only a constantly associated jewel of God by which you can understand the existence of God in such human form. Therefore, there is no direct sign which is the nature of God and thus God is always unimaginable. The Prajnanam also indicates only the existence of God in that human form (Asteetyeva…Veda). Even such special design of awareness (Prajnanam) cannot give the nature of God. How can you say that the lump of crude awareness (Chit) which exists in every living being is the nature of God? The word Jnanam is Yoga Rudha, which means that it is applicable by the root meaning and is also fixed in the knowledge but not in mere awareness. The Advaitin is erring in this very fundamental step itself. The second blunder is to say that the awareness (Wrong interpretation of Jnanam) is infinite. The awareness is limited to a finite body of the living being only. It is not continuous and contradicts the practical experience. If it is continuous and infinite there should be no inert object in this world! It is the egoism that makes Advaitins and demons to think that they are God. This egoism never dies, especially when the soul is in a body of male. The sages took the birth of ladies and were born as Gopikas to receive the highest grace of God. The upper caste also induces egoism and so the sages were born as ladies in a lower shepherd caste. The ladies and lower caste are blessed and should feel fortunate in 197

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the spiritual field. They can easily attain the divine grace due to their submissive nature and they should not feel that they are suppressed. Jesus told that you would rise so much as you suppress yourself. If such suppression is done by others, are you not fortunate? The suppressor becomes more and more egoistic and will fall soon from the eyes of God. I am a Brahmin by caste and a male by sex. Can I say this? No, I am not telling this, only God in Me is telling all this to the world.

God is Ultimate Basis of Creation Starting from Energy, up to the form, the entire creation is Maya only, which means wonderful because with respect to God, this creation is unreal by itself, yet it attracts and confuses every soul as if it only exists. The ultimate basis is God. Without God, Energy is unreal and does not exist at all. Without Energy matter and awareness do not exist because matter, awareness, light, heat, etc., are forms of Energy only. Without matter, form cannot exist and without awareness quality cannot exist. Thus Maya exists at three levels. The highest level is Energy and Energy can be unreal for God only. This Energy-level is called as the Mula Maya. The second higher level is Maha Maya, which is conversion of existing Energy into matter, awareness and other forms like light, heat etc. This second level of Maha Maya constitutes the super powers (Asta Siddhis). The third level is Maya, by which you can produce a form like pot from mud (Matter) or a feeling from awareness. The soul can cross this Maya and realize the unreality of forms and feelings. A blessed soul by God can control the Maha Maya also and can create matter, awareness (life), light, heat, etc., from the existing Energy. But the blessed devotee can be even a demon and Satan has all these superpowers and controls the Maha Maya. You cannot differentiate Krishna and a demon at this level. Krishna created Energy, which is converted into gold (matter) and the matter is converted into a pot. Thus He controlled the three types of Maya. The demon also produced a golden pot but he did not create Energy. From the existing energy only he created gold and pot from gold. Thus the demon controls only Maha Maya and Maya but not Mula Maya. But you cannot differentiate Krishna from the demon on the basis of the creation of golden pot because the creation of Energy by Krishna is invisible. Therefore, miracles indicate power of God but not God. A solar battery

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producing light indicates the capture of the Solar-Energy but not capture of the Sun.

Family Life is Co-Curricular Activity Realize that this family life is only a co-curricular activity like games, seeing picture etc. The spiritual effort to get the grace of God is the main aim like the academic work of a student in the college. Play the game with full involvement as you read, but do not bother about the success or defeat in the game. Your purpose of playing the game is to have a change from studies. For such a change, a real involvement in playing is essential so that you will have a real change. Your aim is not success or defeat in the game. So, do the worldly works with full dedication so that you will have a real change and the purpose is served. Do not bother about the result and this will avoid all the tensions as said in the Gita (Karmanyevadhikarah…). But for this, you have to realize that the game is a side-activity. For this you should first identify the main activity, which is spiritual effort (Nivrutti or Sadhana) i.e., to please God by your service which is the proof of your real love to God. But, today, the preachers are not emphasizing on the main activity, which is the main aim of human life. They are concentrating only on the side activity and so the people are feeling that the game is the main activity. Now the preacher says that one should not bother about the results. How this is possible? It is impossible as long as one does not recognize the main activity and as long as one is confined to the side activity. Unless you show the ocean, you cannot make him realize that the well is a petty item. How can you relieve the people from stress as long as they feel that the game is the main activity? The lack of complete knowledge is the main reason of lack of spiritual practice and practice alone can bring the grace of God. Once you are convinced, the determination comes out, which spontaneously results in practice. If all your doubts are cleared, you are convinced. All the doubts are cleared only when the knowledge is true and complete. Therefore, at present, there is a bare necessity of propagation of the divine knowledge, which should be up to the standard of the present developments of science. Science represents the stage of the development of the analytical faculty of humanity. The present standard should be kept in your view. Otherwise people will not be convinced.

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The last incarnation is Kalki, which is after Krishna and Buddha. Both Krishna and Buddha preached the divine knowledge at very high analytical level. Kalki will be in that level and will not go to the level of physically killing the people with a sword moving on the fast horse. The sword is the divine knowledge and the horse is the present fast propagating electronic media. The knowledge of Kalki is final. If the ignorant person is killed, he will be born again as ignorant. The ignorance must be killed. All of you should participate in the divine mission of the Lord practically and get the real and permanent grace of the Lord.

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