Divine Discourses Vol-5

Divine Discourse Volume-5 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

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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. KNOWLEDGE, DEVOTION AND MAYA ...................................................1

Importance of God in Human Form ............................................................1 Path of Knowledge Vs Path of Devotion ....................................................3 Maya – Maha Maya – Mula Maya ..............................................................5 Advaitins And Devotees..............................................................................8 Devotees Must Accept Knowledge of Maya.............................................10 Analysis of Maya.......................................................................................10 2. HINDUISM REVEALED ..............................................................................13

Vedas And Shlokas....................................................................................13 Know Datta................................................................................................14 Who is Datta? ............................................................................................14 Essence of the Vedas .................................................................................16 Shortcut of Bhagavad Gita ........................................................................18 Real Path....................................................................................................20 3. WHEN DOES SADHANA BEGIN? .............................................................21

Removal of Ignorance ...............................................................................23 Levels of Human Beings ...........................................................................25 Doing Rituals and Avoiding Garlic...........................................................26 4. GOD’S GUIDANCE ......................................................................................28

How to Approach Unimaginable God? .....................................................28 Distinguishing God in Human Form .........................................................30 The Four Great Sentences .........................................................................31 5. ESSENCE OF THE GITA AND VEDAS .....................................................33

Where is God? ...........................................................................................33 Who are you?.............................................................................................40 How to Please God? ..................................................................................47 Karma Yoga...............................................................................................47 Prostitute Devotion ....................................................................................49 Using your energy .....................................................................................50

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Serve the world or serve God? ..................................................................52 Attachment and service .............................................................................53 Unattached work........................................................................................54 Knowledge, devotion and service..............................................................55 6. INFINITY IN THE FINITE ...........................................................................58

Is God in the Universe? .............................................................................58 Ishwara Enters Creation.............................................................................59 Universe Within the Incarnation ...............................................................60 Birth of Incarnation ...................................................................................61 7. HANUMAN, THE GREATEST DEVOTEE.................................................63

Mode of Worship.......................................................................................63 Spiritual Life..............................................................................................65 Stages In The Spiritual Journey.................................................................70 What do you mean by ‘Love on the Lord’? ..............................................73 How to detect Lord in Human form? ........................................................75 Interpretation of ‘Service to man is Service to God’ ................................77 Lord is Above Qualities.............................................................................78 Why is India suffering with poverty always?............................................82 8. IDENTIFICATION OF INCARNATION OF GOD .....................................84

Pre-requisites .............................................................................................84 Human body ..............................................................................................90 Vada Maryada—Decorum in debate .........................................................96 9. IMAGINABLE & VISIBLE MEDIUM.......................................................101

God Cause of All Causes.........................................................................102 10. CONTEMPORARY HUMAN INCARNATION ........................................107

Necessity for Human Form of God .........................................................107 Composition of Human Incarnation ........................................................108 The Three Views of Human Incarnation .................................................109 System of Spiritual Preachers Headed by God .......................................110 Human Incarnation is for People on Earth ..............................................111 Path followed by Greatest Devotees........................................................114 Where Hanuman and Arjuna differ? .......................................................116 iv

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Scriptural Evidence for Incarnation & Path ............................................118 Faith on Contemporary Incarnation.........................................................119 11. LEARN TRUTH FROM PAST DEVOTEES’ LIFE...................................121

Identification Marks of Satguru...............................................................121 Scriptural References & Devotee’s Life Incidents..................................122 Practical Implementation of Karma phala tyaga .....................................123 12. CHARACTERISTIC SIGNS OF LORD .....................................................127

Need of the Scriptures .............................................................................127 Possible Pitfalls in Sadhana.....................................................................128 Unmanifest Becomes Manifest................................................................129 Secret of Miracles ....................................................................................130 Miracle is Violation of God’s Admnistration..........................................131 13. HUMAN INCARNATION AND RATIONALITY ....................................134

Spirituality: Rational or Irrational? .........................................................134 Necessity of Reason.................................................................................136 Jesus used Reason....................................................................................137 How to Worship Jesus? ...........................................................................138 Was Jesus God? .......................................................................................140 Father and Son .........................................................................................142 Suffering for Whom?...............................................................................143 14. THE ONLY TECHNIQUE...........................................................................145

Wire Technique .......................................................................................145 Why Human Incarnation?........................................................................147 Significance of the Present human incarnation .......................................150 Revelation of the human incarnation.......................................................153 No human incarnations in Other Religions? ...........................................161 Does God Need Material Possessions? ...................................................162 15. HUMAN INCARNATION, THE ONLY PATH .........................................166

Meaning of Jesus .....................................................................................166 Impartial God...........................................................................................166 What is the Meaning of Saving? .............................................................169 Does Accepting Jesus Ensure Salvation?................................................172 v

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Rituals ......................................................................................................174 Kingdom of God......................................................................................175 Conversion...............................................................................................176 16. GOD’S MEDIUM AND WORSHIP............................................................180

Partial Benefit of Model Worship ...........................................................180 Service to God is Your Test ....................................................................182 Mini-World in the World.........................................................................184 Silence About God...................................................................................186 Creator, Controller and Destroyer ...........................................................188

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Chapter - 1

KNOWLEDGE, DEVOTION AND MAYA Importance of God in Human Form O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The concept of contemporary human incarnation is the final goal of the entire spiritual knowledge and its effort (sadhana). Unless the jealousy towards the co-human form existing before the eyes based on self-ego is completely destroyed, this final goal cannot be achieved. Unless the repulsion between the common external media (human bodies) is overcome, this final goal cannot be achieved. The most difficult digestible concept for any human being is to believe a human being existing before eyes as God. The only way to make the human being believe the existing alive human form as God is to speak that every human being is God. This concept is very near to the final goal and only one twist is to be removed in due course and that is to concentrate the concept from infinite dilution of all human beings to a particular human being. Shankara has introduced this near most concept so that one can remove this twist in due course by purifying the mind from ego and jealousy (chitta suddhi). He stated that unless the mind is purified, it is not eligible for the knowledge of Brahman (Jnana yoga). On attaining purity of the mind, the twist will disappear by itself. Till then, the knowledge with this single twist is the best. Atleast in this twisted knowledge, the alive human form exists as God. This twisted knowledge is far far better than the inert photos and statues representing the irrelevant energetic forms of the upper worlds or non-existent past human incarnations. Shankara is the greatest genius-preacher in this entire creation. He knows all the angles of the entire human psychology and introduced the best possible knowledge, which is very near to the best true knowledge. By keeping the alive human form as God, the lamp of the concept of contemporary human incarnation is kept burning throughout every human generation so that the life of the concept i.e., the present alive form is kept alive constantly. This concept is near most to the ultimate truth like Vasishta star seen near most the unseen Arundhati star. This concept is multi-dimensional and serves the 1

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purpose even satisfying the ego of atheist and drag him to the spiritual field through the initial attraction. The very concept of human incarnation is not a total new concept introduced by Me. It already exists and is the most stressed concept through Ramayanam, Bharatam and Bhagavatham, which are the three greatest sacred spiritual epics. But, these three epics today are the concepts of the past human incarnations only. The next alternative is only to worship the statues and photos of energetic forms of upper worlds and the other epics like Shiva Puranam, Vishnu Puranam etc. relate to such alternative state. The statues and photos of the upper energetic forms or past incarnations are presented in human form only. These statues in temples are always established with the initiation of life (Prana Pratishtha). The idea behind this is not to introduce life in to the statues because the life cannot be and is not introduced in the statues. In such case, what is the use of this important ritual? The significance is only that the inert statue associated with life must be worshipped, which is nothing but the alive human form. The inert statue represents the inert human body and the initiation of life represents the life in the human body. People are unable to understand this message and are fooled by the priests, who say that the life is introduced in to that statue through the initiation. The priest has his own plan of financial management in such interpretation. If the priest conveys the real meaning of the message, you will leave the temple and search for the human incarnation to do the service. The revenue to the temple is lost and his maintenance is also lost. The priest is also not interested in deleting this ritual because the extra revenue related to this ritual should not also be lost. Everybody interprets the spiritual knowledge in view of his own selfishness and nobody is interested in the absolute truth, which alone can uplift the humanity. If you stick to the absolute truth in the spiritual knowledge, God will be extensively pleased and will give you million times of that revenue. You will not believe this also because you do not have full faith in God. The real Nivrutti (complete detachment from the entire world) comes only when you are attached to the creator existing in the human form in your generation. The attachment to the soul is not at all Nivrutti because the self is a created item within the world only and not the creator and not even charged by the creator as in the human incarnation. Thus the Advaitins are in Pravrutti only by the self-attainment and 2

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simultaneous detachment from the rest part of the world has no meaning. The other devotees of energetic forms on this earth are in the Nivrutti, no doubt, but cannot attain the highest fruit due to their jealousy and egoism resulting in the repulsion between common media. One way is to attain peace by the self-attainment and then start the devotion towards the Lord. The mental peace achieved by self-analysis is the intermediate station, where the traveler has to catch another train of devotion to God. Detachment from the world is a pre-requisite for the divine devotion. No doubt, the detachment from the world is certainly achieved by self-attainment (Atma Yoga) but it is not permanent due to absence of the grace of God. Suppose, one starts the devotion to God without this Atma Yoga, what will happen? Detachment from X can be achieved even by attaching to Y. It is very common that by involving in some matter deeply, we forget everything else. Hence, if one is deeply attached to God, he can get the detachment from the total world without self-attainment. In the self-attainment also, the detachment from the world is only due to deep attachment to self. Similarly, one can attach himself or herself to God deeply and attain the same result. The self can be replaced by God. Moreover, the additional advantage in the attachment of God is that the total time of the life is involved only in the attachment to God only. In the first path of self-attainment and then devotion to God, half the time is wasted in self-attainment. The direct attachment to God from the beginning is like traveling by the direct train, which does not stop in the intermediate station. In this path of direct devotion to God also, the peace is attained as the intermediate station. It is the responsibility of the authorities of Railway to attach your compartment to the other train. This will be very safe like the Marjala Kishora Nyaya, where the mother-cat catches the child and carries on it to the goal. The first path of self-attainment and then devotion to God is like Markata Kishora Nyaya, where the child has to catch the mother-monkey during the journey.

Path of Knowledge Vs Path of Devotion Like this, the followers of the path of devotion mock at the followers of the path of knowledge. In such case, the path of knowledge becomes a waste before the path of devotion. In this matter again it is meaningless to say that attachment to self is path of knowledge, which is actually the path of ignorance only and in this path, there is atleast the 3

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devotion to self and hence, can be called as path of devotion. In the path of devotion, there is both devotion and knowledge of God. All this is very nice to hear but on analysis the practical problems are realized. If this were true, why Lord Krishna started the Gita with the path of knowledge only in the second chapter itself, which is the beginning? If this were true, all the stress given by Shankara on the path of knowledge should have been foolish. Therefore, the path of direct devotion has certain loopholes in practice. The first problem is that in the direct devotion, the devotee cannot be continuously in the devotion for all the time. The soul always needs some gap or some diversion in a continuous phase. When such diversion to world or gap comes in, immediately Maya (Illusion of feelings and forms) will catch the soul. The devotion is like the state of drinking divine wine by which one is certainly detached from the worldly problems. But one cannot be continuously drinking the wine. Whenever, a gap comes in, the forgotten problems attack him immediately. In order to protect the self from such attack, one cannot resort to the same devotion because continuity of anything bores, be it the divine nectar (Amrutam). This is the psychology of human beings. Therefore, something different from the devotion is needed to resist the Maya. On such occasion, the spiritual knowledge is useful. The analysis of Maya is a part of the path of the self-attainment. Therefore, the devotion integrated with the divine knowledge is the best path to resist Maya continuously. By the divine knowledge, the Maya is resisted and the strength in resistance is by God’s grace, which is attained only by devotion. Therefore, knowledge without devotion fails in practice though theoretically it is sufficient. You can know the truth by the knowledge. But to implement the truth in practice, the grace of God is required. Without practice there is no fruit for mere theoretical devotion. Infact, knowledge leads to theoretical devotion and strengthens it further. The theoretical devotion should lead to service to God or practical devotion, which alone brings the eternal grace of Lord. You may argue that exceptional devotees are always in continuous devotion and do not require the knowledge. But without knowledge, where is the devotion? Rukmini developed devotion to Krishna only after attaining the details about Krishna from Narada, which constitute the knowledge. If you find some devotee entering in to devotion directly like Gopikas, the devotee must have had knowledge in the previous 4

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birth. Gopikas were great scholars in the previous births who were sages. Even Prahlada heard knowledge from Narada while he existed in the womb of his mother. Hanuman acquired knowledge from Sun before becoming devotee to Rama. The hunter Kannappa was Arjuna in the previous birth and heard the Gita. Shabari had the knowledge from the sage Matanga. All these exceptional devotees had the devotion from knowledge only. Due to this reason only, Shankara representing knowledge came first. Next came Ramanuja, who represented the devotion. Atlast Madhva came, who represented the service to Lord, which is the practical devotion. Therefore, knowledge of God is a prerequisite for devotion like the water and fertilizer for the seed to generate the plant. Simply by hearing the word God, you cannot develop devotion on God without knowing the details of God. The details of knowledge constitute the knowledge of goal, which is the first component of Triputi, which means the triad (goal, path and yourself). You may argue that the knowledge of God is a part of the devotion only and the knowledge of the world as unreal is not required in the path of devotion. The Advaitins have limited the word knowledge to the unreality of the world, because the knowledge of God is only the knowledge of self. The devotees are quite against the Advaitins and hence do not like the knowledge of world to be unreal. Infact, the devotees accept that the world is real. The concepts are overlapped here, which cause the confusion leading to fight. The world is to be defined first before examining its reality. The reference to which the world is real or unreal should be also mentioned. Without these two clarifications, the confusion cannot be clarified.

Maya – Maha Maya – Mula Maya The world is a composite of 1) Primary energy (Mula Maya), 2) Matter, awareness and different work forms of energy like light, heat etc. (Maha Maya) and 3) The forms of matter and feelings of awareness (Maya). For the soul, only Maya is unreal because soul being awareness is in the higher plane. The soul is a part of Maha Maya. Maya is like the drama, which is restricted to the unreal roles and unreal dialogues including unreal actions (feelings). The actors, dresses, lights and stage constitute Maha Maya, which remains even after the drama. Even if these items of Maha Maya are removed, the ground remains eternal, which is like the Mula Maya. Therefore, with reference to the soul, only 5

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the drama is unreal. The unreal world for the soul is restricted to the Maya only. If you define the world as Maha Maya and Mula Maya, it is real for the soul. If you define the world as Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya put together, it is mixture of unreality (Maya) and reality (Maha Maya and Mula Maya) and hence, can neither be stated as real nor unreal (Mithya of Shankara). If you restrict the world to Maya only, it is nothing (Shunyam of Buddhists and Asat of Gaudapada) since we can neglect the forms of matter and awareness. If you restrict the world to Maha Maya and Mula Maya, it is real (Sat of Ramanuja and Madhva). Therefore, with reference to the soul the world can be real or unreal or a mixture of both according to the limitations of the restricted part of the creation. If the reference is changed from soul to God, the entire creation is unreal because there is nothing other than God. But to prove the reality of the entertainment of God, the world has to be real for God also and this requires the separate existence of the world. A negligible part of God or power of God (strictly speaking) might have been modified into the world so that both the concepts can be simultaneously maintained. A negligible quantity can be treated almost nil. Such modification can be treated as real (Parinama) or apparent (Vivarta). It is immaterial because the modified part is very much negligible. But in any case, the knowledge of the nature of God becomes essential. All this can be accepted if you place the primary energy in the place of God. But the primary energy is only the first creation of God. Therefore, all this analysis ends with only the first item of the creation (Primary energy). The link between God and Primary energy is unimaginable since God Himself is unimaginable. This is the analysis that can be done with the help of scriptures, science and logic and experience of liberated souls. We can combine these two concepts and arrive at Primary energy charged by unimaginable God (Ishwara) as the starting point to avoid defects from both sides. Now the problem is solved. We can explain the process of creation from God. But this God is not the absolute unimaginable God (Nirgunam). This God is the primary energy charged by God like the wire charged by current (Sagunam). The current-charged wire (alive) can be treated as current itself. The external copper wire is red in color and we can say that the current is dangerous as indicated by the red color. Here we are attributing the color of wire to the current. Similarly, we say that God is modified into the world through the primary energy, which is charged by Himself. His Mula 6

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Maya is actually modified. God is the cause of this world through the Mula Maya but not the direct cause. Here Advaitins say that Mula Maya is inert and God can only wish to create. Therefore, they say that God is awareness (Nimittam like pot maker) and Mula Maya is the inert material (Upadanam like clay). Since Mula Maya charged by God is treated as God (like treating the alive wire as current), you can say that the same God is Upadanam (through Mula Maya) also. The point here is that even awareness is the part of Mula Maya called as Para Shakti (Paraasya shaktih… Veda). Therefore, Mula Maya itself also can wish. Then how can we say that Mula Maya is inert? The word inert means lack of independence. There is no difference between an inert object and a slave. Both are bound fully by the order of the owner. The Mula Maya wishes to create the world through its Para nature and is modified into the world through its Apara nature. A dancer has inert body and awareness. The dancer wishes through her awareness to dance and entertain the king. She dances through her inert body. In this case the wish need not be attributed to the king. But you may say that even the entertainment indicates that the king must be awareness. The question on this point is “Do you mean that the king is simply isolated awareness without the body?” The isolated awareness does not exist without the inert energy generated by oxidation of food and nervous system. Then God becomes dependent. If you say that this awareness alone is special and unimaginable (because not existing in the world), then why do you qualify the unimaginable by the imaginable awareness? You can isolate the unimaginable God form the imaginable awareness so that you can boldly say that such special unimaginable God is beyond the world. Whenever we say statements like ‘God wished’, ‘God is seeing the creation’, ‘God is entertained’ indicate the relative God (Saguna Brahman) only, who is the absolute God covered by the primary energy. We cannot speak anything about the absolute God because all words return back without touching Him (Yato Vachah… Veda). Assuming that Para Shakti (dancer) has awareness without nervous system by the wish of God due to His omnipotency, still the dancer depends on king only and cannot be totally independent. The dancer has freedom to design the various styles of dance but the very basic program of performing the dance depends on the wish of king only. Hence, you cannot do away with God and start everything with 7

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divine Maya simply because she is awareness, matter and work (Jnana bala kriyacha… Veda). She is only instrumental for the play of God (Indromayabhih… Veda), if you realize in the root level.

Advaitins And Devotees The knowledge consists of three components (Triputi) 1) The goal; 2) The soul and 3) The path of the soul to please the goal (God). The knowledge of the world is not dealt separately because the knowledge of the soul itself is the knowledge of the world since the soul is a part of the world. Soul happens to be God according to misconceived Advaita and in such case the triad (triputi) is disturbed because 1) and 2) become the single item. When the devotees criticize the knowledge, they should specify the component of the knowledge. The devotee cannot criticize the goal because the goal is God. The knowledge of God generates the attraction (devotion) to God. This component is spoiled by Advaitins, who say that the soul in every human being is God. In this component, the devotees are almost correct; who selected a particular energetic form like Narayana is only God. In the same way, if Advaitins say that a particular human being like Krishna is only God, the Advaitins are equal and infact even better than the devotees because the human form of God is more relevant to human beings than the energetic form of God. In such case, Advaitins can be even treated as greater devotees because they have selected the relevant human form rather than the irrelevant [to the earth] energetic form. The devotees might have become Advaitins, had they told that every energetic form (Every angel) is God. Therefore, the devotees have surpassed the Advaitins in this component. But still in this component, the devotees are not perfect. They have neglected the contemporary human form of God and are after the irrelevant (to the earth) energetic form like Narayana or the past incarnation like Narayana or Krishna. They are fixed to a particular energetic form only (like Narayana) and reject or speak less about the other energetic forms like Shiva and Brahma. This violates the fundamental omnipotence of God to be in various forms simultaneously. The second component is the soul or the world. For Advaitins the goal and soul are one and the same. For them, only world without the soul is left over. The world is unreal for them. It is correct if the world is limited to Maya only. For the devotees, the soul is a part of the world only. In this point also the devotees have surpassed Advaitins. The 8

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devotees say that the world is real and therefore, the soul is also real. If everything is real, where is the liberation? You should be liberated from unreal to attain the real. When the soul is real like God, there is no need of liberation of the soul from the real world. A reality (soul) need not be liberated from another reality (world) to attain some other reality (God). If the world is confined only to Maha Maya and Mula Maya, the world is real. When the body disintegrates, only the form of the body disappears. The awareness (soul), the forms of the energy like light, heat etc., and the matter remain real. In this case even the feelings or thoughts (qualities) remain real accompanying the soul as Vasanas. The soul qualified by these feelings is Jeeva. Jeeva remains real after death, who travels to the upper world in the energetic body. This does not mean that feelings are real and can be treated as Maha Maya. The feelings can be destroyed by the real knowledge and therefore, the feelings are also Maya only like the form of the body. The devotee should cross this Maya with the help of knowledge given by God (Second chapter of the Gita) so that the devotee is no more attracted by the world even if he comes out of the devotion for sometime to take rest. In this aspect the Advaitins surpass the devotees who have analyzed the world correctly. But the Advaitins should remember that Maya is only unreal where as the other two (Maha Maya and Mula Maya) are real. Jeeva is unreal because before atman (soul), since jeeva is a bundle of vibrations of soul or qualities only. Hence, liberation of the soul from its worldly qualities (Jeeva) is the liberation. Shankara says that the soul should get liberation from Maya only (Maya mayamidam akhinam Hittva…). He gave the definition of the world as Nama and Rupa only. Nama is the name. Rupa is the form. The form of matter is pot. The form (rupa) of awareness is feeling like love, cruelty etc. The pot, love, cruelty etc., are the names (nama). Only Maya is to be discarded (Hittva). If you take the world as Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya, then the whole world is a mixture of reality (Maha Maya and Mula Maya) and unreality (Maya) as per Shankara (Satyanrute Mithuni Krutya…). A mixture of reality and unreality can be neither stated as full real or as full unreal and is called as Mithya by Shankara (Sadasat Vilakshana…). All this is from the angle of the soul. From the angle of God, the world is real but unreal is negligible. A very little part of the primary energy is modified into the world and thus, it is very much negligible before the infinite ocean of primary energy 9

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charged by God. Therefore, for God also, the world is Mithya since it is real but negligible and can be treated as almost unreal. Reality of the world gives basis for the entertainment of God almost unreality keeps God unaffected by His own projection.

Devotees Must Accept Knowledge of Maya Therefore, the devotees must accept the knowledge of Maya in order to protect their bond with God. Such knowledge of Maya acts like pesticide whenever Maya attacks the soul. The knowledge of God acts like water and fertilizer for the generation and growth of devotion-plant. The knowledge of Maya protects this plant from infection so that the plant becomes a strong huge tree. Thus, knowledge is generator like water, developer like fertilizer and protector like pesticide for the devotion-plant. It is only out of innocence the devotees criticize the knowledge without having any knowledge of knowledge! They can eliminate the impurity induced by Advaitins from the knowledge and use it properly for the overall development of devotion. The devotee is just like a seed without water, fertilizer and pesticide. If the knowledge is rejected, he cannot attain any fruit for his devotion-seed. Similarly, mere knowledge without devotion is the impossibility to get any fruit from water, fertilizer and pesticide.

Analysis of Maya The analysis of Maya reveals that the unreal factors cause the real disturbance. All the worldly bonds are just feelings on certain forms. The bond (feeling) and the bonded (form) are found unreal on analysis. The form of a beautiful girl is unreal because the reality is only Matter existing in the shape and some work form of energy existing in the shining of the face. The glamour of shining is only a color generated based on certain frequency of the light energy. Thus, color is an unreal form of light. The sweet love (quality) expressed by her is also unreal form of awareness. Therefore, the beautiful form of matter, the glamorous color of light and the sweet love of the awareness are totally unreal if isolated from their corresponding real matter, real light and real awareness. If this Maya is not analyzed, even a great sage like Vishwamitra sitting in constant devotion to God was dragged out by the dancer from the heaven. Similarly, all the worldly bonds are only feelings established by some rigid social conventions. The bonds in this 10

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life did not exist in the previous birth and will not exist in the future birth. They are only temporary and hence, unreal (Tat krutakamhi... Shankara). Reality is eternal. Once, King Janaka asked the sages to tell about the previous birth of his queen. The sages kept silent for a long time. But the sages revealed the truth due to continuous pressure from Janaka. They told that the wife was his mother in the previous birth! Since the bond is unreal, neither she was mother nor is she the wife of Janaka. Mother and wife and son and husband are unreal bonds, which are the unreal roles in the drama. Both are simply actors taking different unreal roles in different dramas to entertain the Lord. The relationship between the souls is only a colleague type only, which is eternal in all the dramas (lives). Therefore, there is no meaning of kith and kin and the outsiders. All the souls are equally related to each other, if the reality is realized. Hence, the entire world is a single family of God as its head (Vasudhaika Kutumbakam). All the fights between the human beings in the name of familyoutsider, caste, sex, nationality, religion, language etc., are only due to the illusion of Maya that is prevailing over the soul. Arjuna killed several kings in the battles previously when his brother performed Rajasuya sacrifice. But in the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna could not kill the opponents since they were his relatives. You are taking bribe from an outsider for the sake of over-enjoyment of your family and you are going to hell for that. Your family members who enjoyed the extra wealth do not share your sin. On this point Valmiki, a robber was transformed into sage. Boys are dejected and sometimes commit suicide since the unreal love and the unreal beauty of a girl is not attained. This is the climax of the illusion (Maya)! With reference to Maha Maya, this Maya (beauty and love) are unreal. If you cannot come out of the illusion in the lowest level, how can you cross the other levels of illusion like Maha Maya and Mula Maya to attain God? Arjuna was also overcome by this basic illusion and treated the unreal relatives as the real kith and kin. He was unable to identify the Lord acting as his driver as his real kith and kin. He was worried about the incidental death of those unreal kith and kin but not the same possibility of death of Krishna acting as driver. If He left the war based on this single point alone regarding Krishna atleast he should be appreciated as a devotee even though the logical analysis is absent in him. Arjuna showed neither the spiritual knowledge nor devotion to Krishna. Therefore, the Lord 11

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[Krishna] laughed at the very outset (Prahasanniva… Gita) because he [Arjuna] did not even conquer the lowest Maya. With the help of analysis of Maya, all the devotees in this universe should be united as one family irrespective of religion, caste etc.

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Chapter - 2

HINDUISM REVEALED Vedas And Shlokas O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Shlokas are verses in Sanskrit, which can be composed by any Sanskrit scholar and cannot be the authority. The present Hindu is unable to distinguish the Veda and Shloka. Anything read in Sanskrit is the Veda for him! Anything read in English is not the Holy Bible! Merchants and Sanskrit scholars colluded and constructed this bad tradition. Merchants of flowers, coconuts, oil and camphor are doing the business in the temple. A devotee is giving Rs 10/- to these merchants and he is giving Re 1/- to the priest. The priest is not doing his duty of preaching about God to the devotees. He just recites some Sanskrit verses as a labour man and gets his one rupee. His place is taken by ‘Agarbatti!’, which is now declared to be the coordinator between God and devotee! Since the priest is not doing his duty, this is also correct. The dog is not barking when a thief is entering the house. So the donkey is barking. The priest should take all the eleven rupees after performing his duties perfectly. The duties of priests are: he should clean the statue so that people see that statue and get attracted. The statue should be carved beautifully and there is no need for further decoration. This is the stage of ‘Drashtavyah’. Next, he should explain the true knowledge of God in mother tongue (even if he reads the Sanskrit verses) so that devotees can hear about God. This should be done in performing the rituals also. This is ‘Srotavyah’ stage. The devotee should be caught up by that knowledge in his mind and this stage is ‘Mantavyah’. At last, the devotee is unable to quit the temple and sits there immersed in God. This is the last stage ‘Nididhyasitavyah’. Such procedure brings the real grace of God to the devotee and the priest. Let the priest become a qualified doctor, take Rs 100/- as fees and give the correct tablet, which costs two rupees only. The present priest is an unqualified doctor who takes ten rupees as fees and wastes 100

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rupees in purchasing wrong medicines. The ultimate is the public, who shall be really benefited even if they spend.

Know Datta All the Gods are the qualities only. Brahma is the quality of greatness. Narayana is the quality of knowledge (Nara = knowledge, Ayana = source). Shiva means the quality of peace and pious nature. Ganapathi means leadership. Like this, all Gods represent the qualities only. Sage Jaimini also told the same in his sutras. When the God comes in human from, He possesses all these divine qualities. Such a human form is Datta because He was given to the world in such human form only. When you worship Datta (human form), you leave worshipping all the Gods. The statues of all Gods are only imaginary forms representing those divine qualities. Only a top level realized soul can understand this. Datta suffers the punishments of His devotees. Datta=given. He gave Himself for such purpose. That is His very nature. Devotees need not sympathize Him for that. You need not sympathize fire for burning, because burning is the very nature of fire.

Who is Datta? Datta means that form of God, which is given to you in your lifetime. Suppose somebody presents you a cloth. You call it as ‘Dattam’, which means that the cloth is given to you now. Somebody presented a cloth to your grand father. It was Dattam (given) to your grand father. You can call that only as Dattam, which is given to you now. Ofcourse if a house was given to your grand father who is present even now and you are residing in it, you can call it as Dattam. Similarly if the incarnation present in the past generation still continues to be present even today, then it is called Dattam to you also. Hanuman never worshipped Vamana, Narasimha etc., (previous incarnations) because those incarnations did not continue to the lifetime of Hanuman. Hanuman worshipped Rama who was the incarnation of his time. After sometime, Rama disappeared. Lord Krishna came. Hanuman did not disappear but continued. Hanuman did not worship Krishna in ‘Dwapara Yuga’. He worshipped Rama in previous Tretayuga. But in Dwapara Yuga also Hanuman was worshipping Rama only. But he did not worship Vamana when Rama was available. Similarly based on the same logic Hanuman should worship Krishna in Dwapara Yuga and not 14

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Rama. Therefore, Krishna taught him that he should worship Krishna only. The then incarnation Krishna showed all the previous incarnations in Himself and told hat the same and one God is taking different human incarnations. Hanuman realized and worshipped Krishna like Rama along with Radha. Radha worshipped only Krishna and not the previous Rama. It is useless to worship the previous incarnations and also the invisible forms like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva etc., why? The simple reason, which is the answer for this question, is that they are not directly and fully available to us to see, to talk, to touch and to live continuously along with them. Why are you keeping the statues of those forms? The aim is atleast you can see the statues and touch. But when the human form is available to you like Rama to Hanuman and Krishna to Radha to fully satisfy you, so that you can see, touch, talk and live with it, why are you particular of those past forms and invisible forms which can not give you full satisfaction? This is the reason why Hanuman never worshipped the statue of the previous form like Vamana or statue of the invisible form like Vishnu. When he started worshipping Krishna, he did not worship the statue of even Rama. The whole essence is one simple point. You cannot see God. You cannot talk with God. You cannot touch the God. You cannot live with God. The Vedas emphatically say this (Na Chakshusa, Yato Vachah, na Medhaya, Naisha Tarkena etc.,) Such God has three main qualities i.e., Knowledge, Love and Bliss. God without these three qualities is called ‘Nirguna’. God with these three qualities is called ‘Saguna’. You cannot enjoy the three qualities of God directly. If the fire comes to you directly, you cannot tolerate its intensive heat directly. Similarly you cannot bear the intensity of these three qualities directly. Neither can you withstand the God nor the qualities directly. So the fire is covered by ash and you are receiving little heat, which only you can bear. The ash acts as an insulator. Similarly the human body in the human incarnation acts as an insulator and you are receiving knowledge, love and bliss of the God in controlled quantities to the extent of your tolerance. If the God comes directly to you, the world disappears along with you. So there is no other way except the human incarnation. The Veda says the same ‘Nanyah Panthah’. The Gita says that God comes only in human form (Maanusheem…).

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Therefore Datta means the present human incarnation, which is given to you in your lifetime as a gift of the God to give you full satisfaction and to enable you to perform a complete worship of God. Datta is the human form of God, which came in different parts of the world like Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha etc., but every human generation is blessed with such divine human incarnations. People are not recognizing them due to jealousy. When such human incarnations leave the world, then only they are recognizing those human incarnations, which are not present before their eyes. If the egoism and jealousy, the two curtains of your eyes are removed you can see the divine human incarnation expressed in different human forms in several places at the same time also. Different human incarnations are meant for different levels of the people. Such incarnations are called partial incarnations (Amsavatharas). But one fully expressed human incarnation (Datta in the original form) comes down to preach the true divine infinite knowledge to the people of highest level. Such human incarnation reveals that He is the original Datta (God). Knowledge is only the main identity mark to recognize this original Datta (God). Miracles are not the identity marks, which were performed even by demons and devils. The human incarnation present before the eyes itself brings negligence. If there is a long and continuous association, that brings more negligence. Arjuna neglected Lord Krishna in the case of protection given to Gaya. The reason is the long association of Arjuna as Nara with Narayana during the previous 1000 lives. Gopikas were the sages living with Datta. But Datta went into a tank and disappeared for 1000 years. Thus there was along separation with the sages. Hence Gopikas never neglected Lord Krishna. One should be careful about such points, which will develop the negligence on the human incarnation of the God.

Essence of the Vedas Yajna All the Vedas describe ‘Yajna’ (Sacrifice), which is nothing but the preparation of food. A fire is lit and it is called ‘Lowkikagni’ i.e., fire meant for cooking but not for worship. The three parts of the fire, (Garhapatya, Ahavaneeya and Dakshinagni) are only the three stoves for cooking various items of food. “Fools burn cooked food in this fire” 16

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says Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The food, properly cooked, must be offered to the guest, who shine like fire and must be deserving also. 1) The first preference is to offer the food to the Sadguru, who is the human incarnation of God that comes in every human generation. 2) The second preference must be a poor devotee; God dwells in the heart of a devotee, as per Narada’s Bhakti Sutra. 3) The third preference must be a beggar who is incapable of earning food on his own. In the third case, the beggar is a sinner punished by God. So you must turn him into a devotee by preaching knowledge and devotion. Food, clothing and shelter that you may provide to him are only secondary. They are like providing hostel accommodation to a student, who has no place to stay. If you do not turn the beggar to God, he may sin after eating your food. Then, you will also get the result of that sin since a person who helps a criminal also gets punished. Dakshina ‘Dakshina’ (donation of money) necessary for the other needs, must follow the donation of food (Yajna). “Adakshina Hato Yajnah” means that the Yajna goes waste without Dakshina. This Dakshina is ‘Karmaphala Tyaga’ (Sacrifice of the fruit of your work) and is very much stressed in the Gita. The Vedas and the Gita together teach sacrifice of food and money. God is pleased only by such practical sacrifice. Sacrifice of words (prayers) and sacrifice of mental feelings (Meditation and devotion) are useless without practical sacrifice. A Sadguru like Shirdi Sai Baba is the most deserving person to donate food and money, because, he will use the energy of your offered food only in preaching divine knowledge. Due to His divine nature, He also knows other deserving devotees or beggars and He will help them in a proper way. Thus the money that you offer Him is fully utilized and you get the full fruit of your charity. For Him, the entire world is His family. A devotee confines to his own family and even if he donates to others, he may err, since both God and soul co-exist in His body. In the case of the Sadguru, only God exists in His body. Such a Sadguru comes in every human generation. Recognize Him with the proper identity marks (His inherent characteristics).

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Shortcut of Bhagavad Gita Karma (work with selfishness) is the first step in which you do work only for yourself and your family with selfishness. Jnana (knowledge) is the second step in which you identify the Lord, who comes in human form in every human generation. The identity mark (inherent characteristic) for recognizing such an incarnation is His Jnana and not His miracles. Miracles are done even by demons. Bhakti (devotion) is the third step in which you become mad in the love of that incarnation of Lord, like Hanuman or Radha. You are permanently bonded with the Lord by your selfless love or devotion to Him. Your attraction to Him is only due to His divine personality. Karma Yoga (work without selfishness) is the fourth step, in which, you participate in the work (mission on earth) of the incarnation, which is only to uplift the entire world. In such work, there is no selfishness because you work for the Lord, aspiring for nothing in return. Now, the Gita says that you can straightaway go to the 4th step from the 1st step. You can start by diverting your work to God by reducing your selfishness. Let your Karma (selfish work) be transformed to Karma Yoga (selfless service to God) completely. Then, you become like Hanuman. You will be near the Lord here (on earth) and there (in heaven). This state is called ‘Sayujyam’. ‘Kaivalyam’ is the state in which some souls enter the body of the Lord as said in the Gita (Nivasishyasi…). Whenever the Lord incarnates, these souls come out and incarnate, whether they are near or in His body. This is the final salvation. So, the Gita gives the shortcut from the 1st step directly to the 4th step. The kindest Lord Krishna gave such a facility to this world. Out of these 4 steps, the 1st and 4th steps relate to Karma (work). The 2nd and 3rd steps relate to mind and words. The final step is only Karma Yoga, which is work (selfless service to God). The Jnana (knowledge) & Bhakti (devotion) are only intermediate steps. Jnana and Bhakti help you to transform your karma into karma yoga. Karma Yoga consists of sacrificing the work (Karma Sanyasa) and sacrificing the fruit of work i.e., money (Karma Phala Tyaga). The second, third and fourth steps are interlinked and mixed in a homogeneous manner. If 100% Jnana is attained, 100% Bhakti is automatically attained and such a person will do 100% Karma Yoga instantaneously. In other words, out of these three—Jnana Yoga, Bhakti 18

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Yoga and Karma Yoga, if any one Yoga is achieved, the other two are automatically attained. Therefore in the Bhagavad Gita these three get mixed everywhere. Lord Krishna says “Ekamapyasthitah”, which means that both Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga are the same. The Karma Sanyasa Yoga means leaving the works that are done with selfishness. When the bread is poisoned, it has to be rejected, when you cannot separate the poison from it. Similarly, when you cannot separate selfishness from your work that work must be rejected. However, if you can separate the poison from the bread, then you can eat the bread after removing the poison. Similarly if you can remove selfishness from your work, and also sacrifice the fruit of that work to God, then that work need not be rejected. For example, you are doing a job with some selfish outlook. Now if you leave the job for the sake of God’s work it is called Karma Sanyasa, i.e., leaving your work to do God’s work. But suppose you continue the job and submit the fruit (money) of that job for the work of God, then your doing the same job becomes ‘Karma Yoga’. Thus by karma phala tyaga (sacrifice of the fruit of the work), the Karma becomes Karma Yoga. The Lord says that this Karma Yoga is better than Karma Sanyasa (Tayostu…) i.e., instead of leaving your job for the sake of God’s work it is better to do the job and sacrifice the fruit of the job for the work of God. Doing the job with selfishness is the first step (Karma) and doing the job for the sake of God’s work is the fourth step (Karma Yoga). The Gita gives this shortcut, which is the high-jump from the first step directly to the fourth step. This is the essence of the entire Gita and the greatest shortcut given to humanity by Lord Krishna, who was the human incarnation of Lord Datta. Lord Krishna asked Arjuna to fight (Karma) not for attaining the kingdom with selfishness but to destroy injustice. The destruction of injustice is the work of God and so if Arjuna fought with that aim he would be sacrificing the fruit of his fighting to God only. In such a case the fighting of Arjuna would become Karma Yoga and not Karma. So when the fruit of the work is sacrificed to God, one can directly jump from the 1st step to the 4th step. This is the real heart of the Gita. The Gita preaches that you should not leave working in the world, but that you should leave selfishness and sacrifice the fruit of your work to God. When you do such sacrifice, your knowledge of God and your devotion 19

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to God are complete; your Jnana and Bhakti are perfect. Therefore, if you follow Karma Yoga, your knowledge and devotion are at the highest level, which is proved through Karma Yoga. The Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of ‘Kama’ (the desire to do the work for selfish purposes) and not ‘Karma’ (work). The sacrifice of Kama is proved only when you sacrifice the fruit of that work to God i.e., Karma Phala Tyaga.

Real Path The Lord gives the results of your services. He is just like a principal presenting the certificate and gold medal to the top student. The student studied two years post graduation course, wrote examinations and topped the class. There is no need of begging or weeping or praising the principal for the gold medal. Similarly Hanuman got the gold medal i.e., the position of Creator (Brahma) by his selfless service rendered in the mission of the then human incarnation. He never praised or begged or wept for that fruit before Rama. The fruit was not in his mind at all. His mind was full of the work of Lord only. Be a hero like Hanuman and get the highest fruit by participating in the service of Lord in human form, present in your generation. This is the only royal path. Without the sacrifice of work and money in His service, trying to get the fruit by praying by words and loving by mind is only trying to fool God, which is impossible. In whatever way you approach Him, He gives the result in the same way. He will praise you for your prayers and love you for your love. He will act for your practical sacrifice. When the incarnation leaves the body Narayana goes to the upper most world (Satyaloka) and his body with pure consciousness merges in this world. When a servant to God leaves his body, the body dissolves here. But the soul (Consciousness with Divine thoughts) accompanies Narayana. Servant follows Narayana again, when He comes to earth. Both take human bodies. But the births and deaths of these two do not have any agony. During lifetime also, the servant enjoys with the Lord here. The servant will never leave the Lord either here or there (Sayujyam or Kaivalym). Whatever the facilities are for God, the same will be for the servant. So service is the real path.

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Chapter - 3

WHEN DOES SADHANA BEGIN? [The following is the discourse given by Swami in reply to the some objections of an Advaita saint (monk), from Varanasi. Swami gave the following brilliant discourse in which He has refuted the objections of the saint and has given a teaching for the upliftment of the saint.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The saint says that sadhana starts only after attaining and hearing Sadguru. This is not correct when the Sadguru is God Himself. A lot of sadhana has to be done to identify and catch the Sadguru. Infact, He is the guide and also the ultimate goal simultaneously. The left half of Datta is Bhagavan [God] and the right half is Guru. Datta is the human form of the Lord given to the devotees for guidance as well as the attainment of God. Your above statement may be true if the Guru is an ordinary scholar or saint. But a lot of effort has to be taken to get admission into the IIT [India’s topmost technology institute]. You may get admission in a substandard institution without any effort and in that case all your effort is only in studying your course. In the case when the Guru is a human incarnation of God, it is like asking God about the path to reach the God. Imagine that you are asking the address of a person to the very person whose address you are asking! Yoga means the attainment of God in human form in this world itself. People are under the illusion that it is attainment of God after death. Unless you, who are present in this human body, attain God who too is present in a human body here, you cannot attain God present in an energetic body even after death when you too acquire an energetic body (Ihachet avedit…, Aparokshat Brahma—Veda). You miss God here as well as there due to the principle of negligence towards God present in a common medium [the human body is the medium that is common between you and God, here on earth and similarly, in the case of the energetic body in the upper world]. The word Yoga is used not simply in the sense of attainment but it is used in the sense of fortunate attainment. The word Dhana Yoga is an 21

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example. Therefore, attainment of God here itself is a great fortune because generally everybody is affected by repulsion towards the common medium. The Gita says that only a rare fortunate person can recognize the son of Vasudeva as God here itself (Samahatma Sudurlabhah…). If one eradicates jealousy and egoism by sadhana, then one will certainly reach God (Maamevaishyasyasamsayah—Gita). Here reaching means identification because in Sanskrit grammar the verb for reaching can also mean knowing (Gatyarthanam Dhatunam Jnanarthakatvat—commentary of Shankara). Therefore, Yoga means the recognition of the human incarnation here itself. Such a fortunate fellow is called as a Yogi, means the person who has attained God. Such a person is greater than a Jnani (Jnanibhyopi Matodhika—Gita), who has attained the self by Jnana, which is called self-realization (Jnanitvatmaiva—Gita). By self-attainment, you get happiness but when you attain Guru, the happiness will be more because you will be guided in the proper direction. Sometimes even the Guru may be wrong because he is just another soul. If the Guru happens to be God, the direction will never go wrong and you will attain the highest happiness (bliss). This is told ‘Atmabuddhih Sukhamachaiva, Gurubuddhih Visheshatah, Parabuddhih Vinashaya…’. If the Guru is just another soul (Para), he may lead you to destruction. The real Guru is only God (Guruh Saakshaat…). Thus, the attainment of the real Guru (Sadguru) is a very rare fortune. Once you reach Sadguru, you will never slip because He will take your total responsibility. Therefore, all your sadhana ends if you can identify the human form of God and please Him by your service. Infact, the service to Sadguru without any aspiration for the self is the sadhana and the highest fruit will be given by Him. Hanuman served Rama like this and never aspired for anything for Himself and He was made God. Thus, attainment of the Super Self [God] is the end of sadhana. Unless you attain the self and get rid of all your desires, you cannot be fit to serve God. Therefore, attainment of the self is a pre-requisite for the service of God. The attainment of the self was stressed by Shankara and the devotion of Super Self was stressed by Ramanuja and finally service, which is the proof of real devotion was stressed Madhva. Shankara gave the training to get a seat in the IIT. Ramanuja gave the degree from IIT. Madhva gave the job corresponding to the degree. Thus, each of the three Acharyas is equally important to a person in the corresponding level. Infact, Lord Datta who 22

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is Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma came in the form of the three Acharyas respectively.

Removal of Ignorance The saint said that the path of self-attainment is the removal of Mala, Avarana and Vikshepa of ignorance. Certainly the removal of these forms of ignorance step by step, removes self-ignorance and you can attain your self. Up to this point, there is no dispute. The dispute arises only when you say that the self is God. Suppose an ordinary person became mad and forgot himself. When he is cured of his madness he only becomes himself and not the king. If the king became mad, then by removing his self-ignorance the king will become king. But the king (Lord) imposes ignorance and acts mad but does not really become mad [madness represents ignorance in this analogy]. You are taking common item between yourself and the Lord as the awareness. Infact, the awareness is only the cover of the Lord and is not really the Lord. Suppose you are a thread. You are comparing yourself with the shirt of the king. There is no point of comparison between you and the king because there is not a single similarity. Similarly you are an imaginable item of creation. This creation is the shirt of the Lord. You are part and parcel of the shirt. You can say that the shirt is cotton material and your self, the thread, is also cotton. You can say that you are qualitatively equal to the shirt though not quantitatively. Now you are assuming that the shirt is the king himself. Now you are removing the quantitative aspect and saying that the thread is the shirt, the shirt is the king and therefore the thread is the king. Neither is a thread the shirt (due to the quantitative difference) nor is the thread or shirt the king (due to qualitative and quantitative difference because the thread or the shirt are imaginable and the king is unimaginable). The quantitative difference between the thread and the shirt never disappears even after Pralaya [dissolution of the universe] because the thread remains in the shirt as usual even in the Avyakta or invisible state. Before creation, neither you nor the universe existed and so there was no context of comparison. During the existence of the universe the present quantitative difference exists. Even after the dissolution of this universe (Pralaya), the shirt is condensed to an invisible micro-state and you are also correspondingly condensed to the most micro-state. The 23

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reduction or expansion of the both the universe and the soul take place correspondingly. The same quantitative difference always exists. You are dreaming of a state where the shirt is reduced to a thread and then you can be equal to such a reduced shirt. This is impossible. When the universe is condensed into Avyaktam, the entire universe does not disappear except one soul. The universe is also not condensed into one soul. Your assumption of the removal of the upadhi in both Ishwara and Jeeva is only a dream of your jealousy. You are assuming that a peon after retirement and the collector after retirement become one and the same and exist as a human being. This similie is not correct here because Ishwara will never leave His post. Even in the Pralaya the universe is in the form of a microfilm and even then Ishwara is the owner of the film. The ownership of Ishwara is never lost and is eternal. Therefore, where is the practical chance of Jeeva becoming the Ishwara by removing the Upadhis of both? Therefore, the concept of equality of Ishwara and Jeeva in Advaita is meaningless because it never materializes at any time. Simple theoretical assumption is of no use. You may say that the king and beggar will become a handful ash after death and therefore there is a possibility of equality atleast in that time. But this king (Ishwara) is eternal since this creation remains eternal and always exists either in expressed state or condensed state. The Jeeva may loose the Upadhi in salvation but Ishwara need not have salvation and does not leave the upadhi of the universe, which is either in micro or macro form. When such a problem comes, the Advaitin turns the tables by saying that the world is unreal and therefore since the Upadhi is unreal, the common awareness remains as one and the same at all times. Such argument is the climax of foolishness. Shankara never said that the world is unreal. He only said that the world is real and negligible (Mithya). Such state of Mithya of the world is only in the view of God and not in the view of the Jeeva. Even in the view of God the world is not unreal because God created the world for entertainment. If the world becomes completely unreal, the entertainment becomes unreal. The Jeeva infact is negligible with respect to the universe and is Mithya as compared to it. Even in the view of God when the world is real, how can the Jeeva say that the world is unreal? This sort of foolish attempt shows his madness to become God. Let him take the path of devotion and service. He will not only become God even God will become his servant. 24

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Levels of Human Beings There are five levels of human beings. The first level consists of the highest devotees who treat Krishna as God. Krishna declared again and again that He is God in the Gita because Arjuna was in the highest level at that time. But this highest level is very dangerous and one can slip very easily. Hanuman demonstrated such slipping by engaging in a fight with Rama to protect Yayati. The devotee from this first level falls to the second level due to the attack of a little jealousy and egoism. The devotee in this level blames the Lord for claiming Himself to be God. Therefore, the transaction between these two levels is very frequent. The Lord keeps a safety measure for this purpose. While stating that He is God, He also stated in the Gita that God did not become the human body (Manusheem Tanum; Avayaktam vyakati…). This means that God is in Krishna and God has not become Krishna. This concept of dual personality becomes helpful to interpret His past statement that He is God. Krishna will now say that the God in Him spoke that He is God. Thus, in the second level of devotee He will say that God is in Him. Both these levels always co-exist because one day or other even the highest devotee will certainly fall down unless the devotee becomes mad like Radha. Since Hanuman did not become mad like Radha, just in one instance (in protection of Yayati) he showed His fall. Ofcourse, Hanuman only showed the concept through the role that He taken [He did not actually slip]. This concept of dual personality was exhibited when Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gita after the war. Krishna told him that God told the Gita at that time and that Krishna could not repeat the Gita later. The devotee may even fall from the second level due to jealousy and egoism. He cannot tolerate the Krishna as God and also cannot tolerate that God lives in Krishna. He either wants to be God too or wants God to live in him too. He will enquire Krishna for atleast a future chance of such a state. The follower of a politician remains in the party only if a future chance of being a minister exists. Radha and Hanuman never thought of such a chance. But Radha was made the master of God and Hanuman was made God. In the third level Krishna says that He is the messenger of God. But the devotee cannot tolerate even this since he likes the privilege of being God. Unless some future prosperity is shown, devotees will not serve the Lord as bonded slaves. Slavery is the sixth stage [highest] of devotion. Even the mighty 25

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Hanuman remained in this stage forever. But the human being, who is like a small monkey does not like this! Jesus gave the corresponding statements in all the states. He said that He and His Father are one and the same. He said that He is the beloved son of God and He also said that He is a messenger of God. Mohammad mentioned only to the third level that He is messenger of the God. If the devotee feels that he has no chance of divinity even in the future, he will leave the human form of the Lord from all these levels. Therefore, the Lord encourages the devotees by showing the attainment of the divinity. If the jealousy and egoism are highest, the Lord comes to the fourth level by saying that every soul is God or God lives in every human. Otherwise the devotee will join the Union of Advaitists. He wants to become God atleast along with others. Ofcourse, he will be very happy if he alone becomes God in future like Krishna. Below this the fifth level is the state of atheism where the concept of God itself is rejected. The fourth level is better than the fifth level because atleast the word ‘God’ is uttered by the person by his mouth.

Doing Rituals and Avoiding Garlic The saint criticized My devotee for not doing the rituals prescribed by tradition and also for eating garlic. Neither in the Veda nor in the Gita is garlic forbidden. The Gita says that food which has been kept for a long time and which is contaminated with impurity should not be eaten since it is tamasa (Yata yamam...). Garlic is not mentioned in this verse. The food, which is stored for a long time is spoilt by bacteria according to science and is not good for health. But today a refrigerator removes this defect. According to medical science, garlic is good for controlling cholesterol. Food should be taken according to individual health problems of a person, and cannot be generalized. I never opposed the rituals. I have revised and re-oriented them to bring out the real sense. For example Gayatri does not mean the hymn, which is recited without singing. Gayatri means singing bhajans. Bhajan gives a temporary solution for forgetting one’s tensions. It does not give a permanent solution. I have given the detailed method of performing a Yajna and also performing the Sraddha. Let all the rituals be done but in the right spirit and in the right direction of Jnana Yoga (jnatva kurvita— Gita). Then the right results will come. The sage Yaska, who wrote the grammar of the Vedas says that Veda means knowledge and Vedic 26

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rituals mean the action based on knowledge. He says that if one does these rituals blindly without Jnana Yoga they go waste and no fruit can be obtained. For this he gives a similie that a blind fellow doing Vedic rituals is like a fool cooking food without a fire (Anagnauviva…). He also says that such a blind fellow is like a porter carrying the bag of gold for a small wage without knowing what is present in the bag. Shankara was also criticized and called an atheist by traditional people since He rejected rituals.

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Chapter - 4

GOD’S GUIDANCE How to Approach Unimaginable God? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The direction from God is always true. But then how to approach the formless God? If you ask something to God, He will not reply from the sky. If you approach God in a form, it must be through the human form only because only a human form can reply. But in which human form is God present? God is present in a particular human form. Even some human beings, in whom God is not present, are claiming that they are God. The actual human incarnation sometimes keeps silent. Sometimes He says that He is God and sometimes says that He is not God. Arjuna asked Krishna for direction. Now from his point of view, Krishna may or may not be God. Therefore, even though Krishna was preaching about the direction, Arjuna did not believe blindly. He asked questions at every stage and analysed the direction given by Krishna. Taking the benefit of the doubt, he considered Krishna as only a human being and discussed with Him at length and in depth. Even after seeing the vision of Viswaroopam, he continued the discussions for a long time. This means he did not give any value to the miraculous vision. Even demons can give visions to others. Ravana showed a vision to Rama in which he appeared to be killing Sita. Rama believed and wept and wanted to stop the war. But Vibhishana told Him that the vision was false and was created by the demon Ravana. Therefore, one should not decide based on the visions seen by the eyes alone. Satan showed a vision to Jesus in which he offered the entire world to Jesus. One should not believe the mind with emotion. Sometimes the mind is also affected by the tricks of Satan. When Rama went to catch the golden deer, Sita heard the voice of Rama crying for help. Sita decided that Rama was in danger. But Lakshmana argued that Rama can never be in danger. Finally Sita was proved wrong and Lakshmana was correct. Therefore, the emotional mind will mislead but the logical and analytical knowledge of the brain will not. Hanuman thought of committing 28

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suicide when Sita was not found in Lanka. But He analysed and dropped the idea. Therefore, logical and analytical knowledge and discussion can alone give the correct direction. In the beginning of the Gita, Krishna told Arjuna “Dadami Buddhiyogam Te…” which means that only by logical analysis of the brain, can God be achieved. After achieving God, logic must be closed and the heart must be opened. Shankara also said “Jnanaadeva Tu Kaivalyam….”, which means that only through divine knowledge can one achieve God. After achieving God, devotion and service will come. One cannot achieve God through devotion, because unless you recognize the correct form of God, how can you devote yourself to that form? You must select one girl through analysis and fix her as your wife and then only love and serve her. How can you fix the best girl without analysis? At the time of Jesus, there were priests who always thought that old is gold and past is the last word. They hated the present. They had no logic. When they arrested Jesus, there were no proper discussions and logical analysis about His case. When there were no logical discussions, He was crucified based on simple emotional slogans. His death was not justified and therefore He rose and walked out. When the soldier was leaving finally, he pierced the stomach of Jesus with his weapon. Then blood came out. Blood will not come out from dead body. Jesus was alive and He was brought down by His disciples. Then He was kept in the cave. He knew the protection of His life. He walked into India and met the king Salivahana and talked with him. His conversation was recorded in ‘Bhavishaya Purana’ of Vyasa. This scripture speaks about the future. Vyasa wrote this long back. The verse in scripture is “Eesha Putram Cha Mam Viddhi, Kumari Garbha Sambhavam, Mlecha Dharmasya Vaktaram…”, which means “I am the son of the Father of heaven. I was born to an unmarried girl. I preached spirituality to the Mlechas” [Mlecha is a general term for the common ancestors of today’s Christians, Muslims and Jews]. Thus spoke Jesus to Salivahana. He stayed in India till He attained the age of eighty-five years and died in Kashmir. You can find the buried tomb of Jesus there even today. On the tomb it is written “Jesus” in the Hebrew language. Jesus disappeared from His home at the age of 16 years. He returned only at the age of 30 years. He was crucified in His 32nd year. From the 16th year He was in the Himalayas in the association of several sages. He was a good Sanskrit scholar. He studied all the Hindu philosophy 29

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and this is the reason why the Christian and Hindu philosophies are almost similar in concepts. Krishna declared that He was God. Jesus declared that He and His Father were one and the same. Krishna said that He would come whenever there is a necessity. Jesus said that He would come again. Krishna said that He is the only ultimate goal. Jesus said that one could attain God through Him alone. All these are the same concepts.

Distinguishing God in Human Form There is a difference between God in human form and a human being posing as God. To differentiate between both, analysis is essential like in the separation of the original diamond from an artificial diamond. Once you select the original diamond, there is no need of further analysis and you can kiss and love the diamond. Krishna was God in human form and Paundraka Vasudeva was a human being posing as God. Krishna told the Bhagavad Gita and the latter could not preach any knowledge. Except for this difference, the external dress and performing miracles were common in both. The priests of Jerusalem believed in the dead messengers of the past and did not believe the living messenger (Jesus). Jesus said, “Let the dead bury dead”. This means the priests were dead because they always lived in the past and never in the present. Those who live in past are dead and those who live in the present are alive. This means that the dead priests will attend to the dead messengers and the living disciples will attend to the present living messenger. When Jesus told His disciples that He would come again, it means that the human incarnation will come again for every future generation. Therefore, Christianity believes in the human incarnation that comes every time as in Hinduism. There is no difference between the two philosophies. The human incarnations of all the religions always tell the same point. The followers do not take the right interpretation and mock at the other religion. Christians criticize Krishna and Mohammed for killing the evil people. They say that Jesus changed all the evil people only through love. Then why did people crucify Him? Why did they not change by His love? Why does Christianity suggest permanent hell for sinners after the enquiry? If love can change everybody, there should not be a hell at all! Jesus said that it is better to punish yourself instead of falling into hell permanently. Therefore, he was indicating the

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punishment and hell. He was never against the punishment of evil people. The L.K.G. (lower kindergarten) students cannot be controlled by words like college students. They need a strong cane for discipline. The followers always misinterpret their original preachers. Krishna tried His best to change the Kauravas but after all His efforts failed, only as a last resort, He punished them. Similarly, Mohammed fought as a last resort only. Infact Mohammed was the incarnation ‘Kalki’ who killed evil people with a sword, riding on the horse. Krishna is Buddha while preaching the Gita. He was Jesus when He showed kindness on Sudama and Draupadi. He was Mohammad in killing the demons. For protecting the good people (Pandavas) and for punishing Kauravas, Krishna was cursed by Gandhari because of which He died by the arrow shot on His foot. This was His crucifixion for the sake of good people like Pandavas. Both Jesus and Krishna died shedding their blood. He took the punishment on Him to protect the real devotees like Pandavas. Krishna and Jesus were born in similar situations. Devilish people killed the children born on their birth dates. Krishna left Brindavanam when He was 16 years old which is also similar to Jesus. Krishna met the Gopikas again on the seashore when He was 30 years old. Similarly Jesus returned to home at the same age. Jesus quoted several scriptures of Hinduism, which were filtered out from the Bible.

The Four Great Sentences There are four great sentences (Maha Vakyas) taken from the four Vedas. The first sentence is ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’. It means that I (any general human being) am like the Lord externally. It means that when the Lord comes in human form He looks like me. Here the figure of speech used is ‘Upama Alankara’ (simile). One variation of this figure of speech is the ‘Lupta Upama Vachaka’ (metaphor) i.e.; the word ‘like’ is missing. Then the word-by-word meaning of this sentence should be taken in the following manner: Aham = I Brahma = God (Iva = like; is omitted) Asmi = Look. Now the meaning is: “I look like God”. In other words, when God incarnates in a human form like Lord Krishna, He looks just like me as far as the external appearance is concerned. This is because the Lord is also in a human body. The second sentence is ‘Tat Tvam Asi’. Tvam = You, Tat = God, (Iva = like; omitted), Asi = Look. It means “You look like God”. In 31

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other words, a human incarnation like Lord Krishna, looks like you externally. Similarly, the third sentence is ‘Ayam Atma Brahma’. Ayam Atma = He, (Iva = like; omitted), Brahma = God (Asti = looks; omitted). It means “He looks like God externally”. The essence of these three sentences is that a human incarnation such as Lord Krishna looks like me, you and him (respectively), when He is viewed externally, because His human body is the same as any other human body. The fourth great sentence is ‘Prajnanam Brahma’. Brahma = God, Prajnanam = a scholar with special divine knowledge. The fourth sentence differentiates a human incarnation like Lord Krishna from other human beings because He possesses a special divine knowledge, which nobody can possess in this world. This sentence relates to the internal form of the human incarnation of God. All these four sentences conclude that God comes only in the human form in every human generation to avoid partiality to a particular human generation. The fourth sentence indicates that you should recognize such God in human form by His special divine knowledge and not by miracles because miracles are done by demons also. The Lord is said to be the true and infinite knowledge by the Veda. The Bhagavad Gita says that the Lord comes to this world only through a human body (Manusheem Tanumasritam). The Gita did not mention that God comes in any other form. People have taken the direct (literal) meaning of these sentences and misinterpreted them as “I am God, You are God and He is God”. [They did not realize that the sentences were metaphors.] If you take the meaning like that, do you mean to say that everybody in this world is Lord Krishna? If so, Lord Krishna preached the Bhagavad Gita to Lord Krishna (Himself) since Arjuna is also Lord Krishna!

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Chapter – 5

ESSENCE OF THE GITA AND VEDAS Where is God? God: reachable or unreachable? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Delhi] The Bhagavad Gita says that nobody knows God (Maamtu Veda Na kaschana). The Veda says that words, mind, intelligence, logic and even imagination cannot touch God (Yato Vachah…Manasa saha; Na Medhaya; Naisha Tarkena). The Veda also says that if one knows that God is unknown, he knows atleast something about God (Yasyaa matam Tasya Matam). These three statements declare that God is unknowable and unreachable. Yet the same Veda says that God is present on this earth itself (Yat Saakshat Aparokshat). Similarly the Gita also says that God reveals Himself on the earth in every human generation as per the necessity (Tadaatmaanam Srijaamyaham). These two statements say that God can be seen by humans. How can one correlate these two contradicting sets of statements? The first set of statements implies that you cannot catch God by your effort. The second statement indicates that whenever the kindest God wants to reveal Himself, He comes to the earth. You can see God on earth but He cannot be understood. Therefore the first statement is not contradicted. Fine, you have seen Lord Krishna. However as a boy He lifted a mountain on His little finger. Did you understand this? Definitely not! The Gita says that God comes down in a human body to preach to human beings (Manusheem Tanum Ashritam). Then you can see and touch Him. You can talk and live with Him. But He is not understood. He is seen only to prove that He cannot be understood. The Veda has four great sentences (four dicta) called as the Maha Vakyas about the human incarnation: 1) Aham Brahmaasmi 2) Tatvamasi 3) Ayam Atmaa and 4) Prajnanam Brahma. 33

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The first three sentences say that externally, He is like me, you, and him respectively. The fourth great sentence says that He preaches a special divine knowledge, which is not possible for anyone else, and this knowledge is His internal form by which He is differentiated from others. Many electrons are flowing in the atmosphere. Flow of electrons is called as electricity. But you cannot experience electricity in the atmosphere. By this electricity in the atmosphere you cannot move the fan or the lamp. This electricity cannot be experienced and you cannot get any benefit from it. But the same electrons, when made to flow in a metallic wire, you are able to get the experience of the electricity by touching the wire. By this electricity you can move the fan and light the lamp. Similarly you cannot directly experience God who is pervading all over the world and you cannot get any fruit from Him. But when the same God enters the human body, you can experience Him through vision, touch, conversation and live in His association. But even by this experience you cannot get any fruit. When you meet somebody, touch him, talk with him and even live with him, you can experience him, but you cannot necessarily get any help from him. Even if you serve God in His human form personally, He may preach to you several times but only when you participate in His mission as a servant, will He be completely pleased and give you the fruit. Therefore you can experience and please God, only through the human form. God creates this method of approaching Him, for the sake of human beings. This method is called the human incarnation. If you try to reach the Absolute God directly, He is like a roaring mighty ocean. You are just a water drop. Your prayer is an iota in that ocean of sound. You may even merge in the sea and disappear completely loosing your name and form. Worship through form The Gita says that if one tries to worship the formless all pervading God, he will end up in misery (Avyaktahi Gatih). When God has arranged a very convenient way for approaching Him why should you deny that and try for a direct method? Are you mad? The reason for your madness is your repulsion to another human form (other than yourself). This repulsion is produced by your egoism and jealousy. Likes repel each other. Egoism and jealousy cover the two eyes of any human being. These two layers are responsible for the human being not using the method given by God Himself. When you cannot even 34

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imagine God, how can you serve Him? This is like a drought, which is one extreme end. The other extreme end is a flood in which every human being thinks that he is God and this is the result of a misunderstanding of the Veda. If every human being is already God, then the spiritual effort is left only for stones! Therefore, to solve this problem an intermediate technique is adopted. The human form is introduced in the form of an inert statue or a picture. Since the statue or the picture is not the actual human being, the repulsion is reduced. Since the human form in a statue or a picture belongs to some deity of the upper world or a past human incarnation, the problem of repulsion is removed. If this repulsion is of a higher order, the face of that human form in the statue or picture is replaced by the face of a monkey (Hanuman), the face of an elephant (Ganapati) etc., because the jealousy towards the human form is mainly concentrated on the face. If the repulsion is of the highest order, instead of the human form the form of a fish, tortoise (Matsya, Kurma) etc., is introduced in the form of an idol or picture. Therefore the statues and pictures are worshipped as a training to remove the repulsion caused by egoism and jealousy towards the human form. But the statues are meant only for meditation and not for worship or service. The Veda says that the Lord is not in the statues or photos (Natasya Pratima). The Veda also says that no inert object is God (Nedam tat). The Gita also says that God is not the world and God is not in the world (Nachaham teshu; Maamebhya param). When it is said that God is in the world in the Gita, it means that God exists as the base of the world (Matsthani…). This interpretation is derived from Sanskrit grammar (Aupasleshika Saptami Vibhakthih). Here the base is not touched by the world and so God is untouched; He remains without any change in spite of the changes in the world. When a daydreamer dreams of a city and when the city catches fire, the fire does not touch the dreamer. This entire world is only the will of God (Icchamaatram Prabhoh Sristih). The imagined city is based on the dreamer. Even when a person in that dream-city is burnt, the dreamer is not burnt. Similarly even if a soul in the world is pained, God is not pained. The dreamer can enter his own dream through a form of his own imagination and can express himself through that form anywhere in that dreamworld. Similarly God expressed Himself in the form of Lord Narasimha (form of a fierce lion-headed man). He can enter the dream world 35

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through a human form, which is also made of His will and such a human form is called the human incarnation. The dream-world and the dreammen are also made of His will. The Veda mentions the entrance of God into this world through a human incarnation (Tadevaanu Praavisat). When He enters the human body, He pervades that body from top to bottom, internally and externally, just like the electricity that has entered a metallic wire. Wherever you touch the wire the electricity is experienced (Antarbhahischa). This is Advaita (non-duality), which means that you cannot separate God and that human body as long as He is present in the body. God is that human body just as the electricity is that wire. Therefore you should worship such a human form as the actual God with the Advaita angle. Why are you worshipping past human incarnations? The electricity has gone from those wires and even those wires are not seen now. Only imaginary pictures or photographs of those wires are present before you. What is the use of worshipping them? God left those human bodies and you cannot experience that God directly. Those human bodies are also gone now. Then what is it that you are worshipping? When the Lord left the body of Krishna, Arjuna cremated that body with the help of a few dry sticks, because the body was only an inert material. The same body, when Lord was present in it, had swallowed a wild fire, which was burning the whole forest. Therefore the inert statue is only for vision and meditation. If you worship and serve such inert objects you will be born as inert object as said by the Lord in the Gita (Bhutejya yaanti). The Lord said that He should be worshipped and by that He means that the living human incarnation should be worshipped. In the Veda it is said that the sun should be worshipped as God (Adityam Brahmeti). Immediately the Veda also says that the Sun is not God (Nedam tat). The Lord, as said in the Veda, controls the Sun (Bhishodeti Suryah). If the Sun is God or if God is in the Sun, the Sun cannot be controlled by God. The Lord said in the Gita that He is not in the world (Natva hamteshu). The Veda says that no item of the world including the soul is God (Neti Neti). Thus God is the base of the Sun since He is the base of the entire world. So here you must meditate upon the sun as the representative of God and such a representative is called as ‘Prateeka’. The national flag of India represents India. The flag is not India and India is not in the flag. However the base of that flag is the earth of India. When a 36

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representative of the king comes, the representative is not the king nor is the king present in the representative. The representative is an employee, controlled by the king. You can respect the representative and even worship him because he is also a living being like the king. Therefore you can worship the devotees of the Lord by the sixteen modes of worship (Shodasa Upacharas). But you should not do these sixteen modes of worship to a statue of the king, even though it is the direct form of the king. A statue is only for vision (seeing and meditating upon the form). When the sixteen modes of worship are to be performed on a statue in a temple, we perform the life initiation (Prana Pratishta) in that statue. By this initiation the statue does not come alive. If you can make the statue alive by such rituals, why don’t you make a dead body alive by the same? Therefore the inert statue along with life initiation means the living human form. This means that you should worship the living human body of God, which is called the human incarnation. Even a devotee of God is a human form with life and therefore he can also be worshipped by the same sixteen modes. The Gita says that the soul is a part of the nature and is called as ‘Para Prakriti’ (Jiva Bhutaam). The inert part of the creation is called ‘Apara Prakriti’ (Apareyam). Since the world is a creation and not the creator, the soul is not the Lord. The soul is a part of creation and the Lord is the Creator. Krishna created duplicate cows and cowboys, when the original souls of the cows and cow cowboys were taken away by the divine officer called ‘Prajapati’. This proves that the soul is creation. In the Gita it is said that God throws some souls into the ever-lasting fire called hell (Samsaareshu Naraadhaman). If every soul is God how could any soul be thrown into hell? It would mean that God has thrown God into hell! This proves that the soul is not the Lord. The Lord says in the Gita that He comes in human form in every human generation (Sambhavami Yuge Yuge). The word Yuga means human generation. If God comes in a particular human generation only, then He becomes partial. Any human being can see the human incarnation present in his generation provided the two layers covering the eyes (egoism and jealousy) are removed. The human body is made of five elements and you can see, touch, talk and live with the Lord through that human body. The Lord comes to you without any trace of your effort since you have prayed to Him through surrender and devotion. Even if you do a lot of penance, the Lord only appears before 37

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you through a body made of light for a few minutes as Lord Vishnu. He will talk a few words with you and will disappear. You cannot touch and live with Him for a long time. How foolish you are to lose this golden opportunity of the human incarnation called as Krishna? Both Vishnu and Krishna are incarnations. Same Lord entered both the bodies (energetic body and the human body respectively). The same Lord pervaded both the bodies from top to bottom, internally and externally. The reason for your bad luck is only the layers (of egoism and jealousy) on your two eyes. One God many incarnations The Lord also comes in different human forms at the same time for the convenience of people living in different places. Convenience (Sowlabhya) is one of His divine qualities. Everything is possible by His superpower called Maya. Parashurama and Rama were present in the same time. Vyasa and Krishna were present in the same time. Akkalkota Maharaj and Shirdi Sai Baba were present in the same time. In the same time He comes in different forms to preach at different levels, since the devotees in the same time are at different levels. Even His servants and disciples come down in various human bodies. He comes down fully along with His whole department. Many school teachers, lecturers, and readers are present in His department. He comes down as one professor because there will be very few devotees, who have reached the top level. In some human bodies, only a ray of His energy enters and this is called a ‘Kalavatara’ (e.g Sage Vyasa). In other cases, a part of His energy enters a human body and this is called as an ‘Amshavatara’ (e.g Kapila). When He enters a human body only for sometime, it is called an ‘Aveshavatara’ (e.g Parashurama). When He enters a human body and lives from birth to death but reveals Himself partially, then He is called as a ‘Purnavatara’ (e.g. Lord Rama). When the ‘Purnavatara’ reveals Himself completely, He is called a ‘Paripurnavatara’ (e.g. Lord Krishna). He is the professor and His preaching at the topmost level is the Bhagavad Gita, which is the essence of all the Vedas. We must remember that the human body of the Lord is not a modification of the Lord (the Lord does not get transformed into the body) and therefore the Lord can leave the body at the end (Avyaktam Vyakti Maapannam). Due to this reason, the body retains its natural properties like birth, death, hunger etc., and these properties do not touch the internal Lord. The internal Lord is the True Infinite 38

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Knowledge as said in the Veda (Satyam Jnanam Anantham). The Vedas are only His preaching (Asya Mahato Bhutasya, Vedaanta Krut). The Vedas and the Gita are called as Shastras. Shastra means that which is spoken by the Lord (Tasmat Shastram). Therefore any human incarnation of the Lord at the professor’s level, will definitely quote these Shastras as said in the Gita. Scholars also may quote these Shastras but their preaching results in a headache. The preaching of the Lord gives bliss in your heart since the Veda says that God is bliss (Aanando Brahma). Lord Shankara and Mandana Mishra argued for 21 days. Both quoted the Shastras. But the knowledge of Shankara gave bliss not only to the audience but also to Mandana Mishra. Therefore Shankara was considered as the incarnation of Lord Shiva. Shankara entered the house of Mandana Mishra even though the doors were bolted from inside. He used His miraculous power since nobody opened the doors in spite of His several calls. The incarnation has all the super powers but uses them only when it is absolutely necessary. He does not exhibit His powers for fame or to attract people. If He were to do so, people would catch Him and press Him for granting them boons that they do not deserve. He gave His super powers even to the demons since the powers are like His jewels (which can be donated to anyone). However the demons could not get His characteristic property, which is the divine knowledge. Therefore great sages did not accept the demons as God even though the demons exhibited several miracles. Son of Atri and Anasuya Datta means the Lord who has donated Himself to the devotees through the human body (Satvam Prakriti Jaihi Muktam). The devotee must be ‘Atri’ and ‘Anasuya’ (Lord Datta, in His first incarnation was born as the son of Atri and Anasuya). You will become Atri when you get rid of the three types of egoism: • Egoism of Knowledge, • Egoism of physical power and • Egoism of body, wealth etc. You will become ‘Anasuya’ when you get rid of jealousy (Asuya). Datta is not the name of any body. It is a general word, which indicates every human incarnation. The form of Datta is represented pictorially as having three heads, which indicate the three qualities: Satvam (goodness), Rajas (activity, passion) and Tamas (ignorance), which 39

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indicate the ruling, creation and destruction respectively. The six hands of the form indicate the six modifications of the body, which are existence, birth, growth, modification, reduction and destruction. All the three qualities always co-exist and any quality may become the main quality of a certain incarnation in a particular time. Even Rama, who is considered as the embodiment of Satvam, showed Rajas when He was angry with Sage Jabali and showed Tamas while He was running after the golden deer to satisfy His wife’s fancy. The Lord inside the body is beyond all these three qualities, which represent Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva respectively (Gunaateetah Sa). The same cement used to build any other house is also used to build the palace of the king. Similarly the body contains the same qualities, whether the Lord lives in it or an ordinary soul. The Lord is beyond these three qualities but the soul is only a composite of these three qualities as said in the Gita (Nanyam Gunebhyah). The properties of the wire do not disappear when the electricity enters it and therefore the electric wire also looks like other wires. But the electric wire gives the experience of the electricity through touch. Similarly the human incarnation gives divine experiences. He does not like to be recognized by all the human beings since He came only for His devotees who prayed for Him. Another important reason for the natural state of His human body is that He donates Himself to His real devotees and undergoes the suffering of their sins. The body, in which he suffers, should not be made divine by His super power. If it were divine, the suffering would not touch Him and then it amounts to deceiving the law of justice (dharma). Therefore if you can remove the egoism and jealousy towards the human form and purify your mind completely, you will become eligible to receive the divine knowledge (Jnana Yoga) which is revealed by the four great sentences of the Vedas and recognize the human incarnation present in your generation.

Who are you? The Gita says that the soul is a bundle of good and bad qualities (Sanghatah Chetanaa Dhrutih). The soul is made of awareness, which is nothing but a special form of work (energy). This special work is produced by the interaction of inert matter and inert energy. Therefore the awareness or quality must be inert because it is a product of two inert items. ‘Inert’ means that which is not independent. Therefore the 40

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soul is not independent and is controlled by the Lord. The brain and the nervous system are inert matter. The energy produced by the digestion of food is again inert. When these inert matter and inert energy combine, a special work called awareness is produced. Work is a form of energy. Matter is also a form of energy. Therefore, the whole creation is energy. Since the Lord created this world it is called creation. The Veda and the Gita say that a very minute particle of the Lord is modified into the world (Paadosya Visva, Ekaamsena). Just one ray of the multi-million rays of the sun-like Lord is modified into this world. So this creation is very very negligible compared to the Lord. Hence Shankara called this creation as Mithya, which means non-existent (since it is negligible). But Ramanuja and Madhva recognized the existence of this world even if it is negligible. Therefore, all the theories of the three preachers are one and the same. The soul is a part of the creation as said in the Gita (Prakrutim Viddhi me Paraam). Shankara took the liberated soul as an example. The soul is like water drop and the Lord is like the ocean. The water drop is qualitatively similar with the ocean since both are water. But the drop and the ocean differ quantitatively. This ocean (the Lord) exists in a particular water drop due to the inexplicable power of the Lord called Maya. Such a special drop is the Human Incarnation. In other water drops the Lord does not exist. Shankara was such a special drop since He was an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Hence Shankara swallowed molten lead and proved that He is different from other souls. Therefore the Lord is different from the soul. Ramanuja says that a tiny drop of the ocean is modified into water vapor, which surrounds the ocean like a body surrounding the soul. This vapor is the world and each individual soul is like a water drop existing in this world (each soul is a drop within a drop). The water drop is qualitatively similar to the ocean. But the water vapor, which is the inert part of the world, is quite different from the ocean. The similarity of the water drop with the ocean is only qualitative. Therefore the soul is a part of the Lord. Several water drops combine to form the ocean. But one must remember that the water drop (soul) is present only in the vapor (inert creation) that surrounds the ocean. If the water drop is present in the ocean, it looses its identity and merges with the ocean. Therefore the water drop never merges with the ocean. Madhva says that the vapor is not the body of the Lord. It is like the shirt of the Lord. Therefore the soul is a thread in the cloth. Hence 41

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the soul is a particle of the water vapor and not a water drop. Therefore the soul is different from the Lord qualitatively and quantitatively. The particle of vapor is different from the ocean qualitatively and quantitatively. The soul in the theory of Madhva is not a part of the body of the Lord. The soul is completely different in all aspects and is only a servant of the Lord. The soul (Jiva) is created by the Lord because as we see in Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna created the cows and cowboys. Therefore, the soul is not the Creator. The Gita also says that the soul is a part of creation and is called ‘Para Prakriti’. The Veda says that the soul is called as ‘Sukshma Sharira (Manomayah Prana Sareera Neta). The soul consists of very fine matter and energy. It contains the micro design of the entire body. It is a bundle of several good and bad qualities. It is just like a computer chip as said in the Gita (Kootasthah Akshara Ucchyate). The Gita says that no scientist can see this soul through any sophisticated equipment (Vimudaah Naanu Pasyanti). In this soul there is another internal micro-design called ‘Kaarana Shareera’ which is nothing but the order of the Lord. As long as the soul exists, all the systems in the body work due to the presence of soul but the root reason is the order of the Lord present in the soul. It appears as if the soul is controlling all the systems and as if the body is alive due to the presence of the soul. But the truth is that the body is alive and all the systems in the body work due to the order of the Lord, which is internally present in the soul. When a lens is shining, it is due to the light of the Sun. The lens shines and also lights some other inert object, which is near to it. Similarly, the soul seems to be the cause of the functioning of all the systems in the body to make it alive. But the capacity of the soul to do so is only due to the internal order of the Lord. The lens does not shine by itself and it shines only by the rays of the Sun. The capacity of the lens to light up the nearby inert object is only due to Sun. Thus the soul resembles the Lord but also differs from the Lord. In describing the soul, the Lord is partly described due to the similarity. But the description of the soul does not give the complete description of the Lord. The lens shines and lights the other object. This is its similarity with the sun. By this we can understand that the Sun also shines like the lens and that the Sun also lights up other objects like the lens. This is the common aspect between the Lord and the soul. This is 42

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called ‘Atma Jnana’ which means the knowledge of the common aspect. The word Atma is common in both Paramatma (Lord) and Jivatma (soul). However by this description, the Lord is not completely described. The soul stands as a representative of the Lord to give a part of the knowledge of the Lord. This is the reason why the Lord describes the soul in the second chapter of the Gita. The other part of the knowledge of the Lord cannot be given by the description of the soul (Uttamah Purushah). The lens does not shine by itself, whereas, the Sun shines by itself. The knowledge of difference cannot be given to you through the description of the lens. This part of the knowledge is given in the latter chapters of the Gita. When the soul comes out of the body, the body cannot be alive because the systems do not function. The credit of keeping the person alive goes to the order of the Lord, which is internally present in the soul. The body cannot remain alive even if you supply any type of power to the body. This shows that both the inert body and the soul are under the control of the Lord alone. The soul cannot stay in the body forever even if it desires because the soul has to leave the body according to the internal order of the Lord. Even when a system in the body is troubled, the soul cannot rectify it. Only a doctor can rectify it provided the order of the Lord permits it. This is the reason why every treatment of the doctor is not successful. Sometimes even without the treatment of doctor the troubled system is rectified by the will of the Lord. In deep sleep, the work used for thinking is not done by a person. When one awakes from the deep sleep he feels happy due to this part of stored energy, which was not spent in thinking. Advaita philosophers think that the Lord present in the body achieved happiness in deep sleep. By this they think that the soul is the Lord. Scientifically such a theory is completely wrong. The Gita also clearly says that the soul is different from the Lord (Yasmaat Kshara mateetoham). Even the Brahma Sutras establish this difference (Anupapattheh Na Saareerah). Therefore, the scriptures are scientific. The Advaita philosopher neither understands these scriptures nor science. He does not even understand Shankara, who alone swallowed the molten lead and not His disciples. Let him (the modern Advaita philosopher) swallow molten lead like Shankara and prove that he is a human incarnation. In the case of the human incarnation, the soul in the 43

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body is Lord Himself. A king lives in a house. A beggar lives in another house. Both the king and the beggar are human beings. This is the qualitative similarity. They differ in their capacities, which is a quantitative difference. The houses of both the king and beggar are constructed by the same bricks and cement. The king and the beggar are both human beings. Does this similarity make the beggar the king? Similarly the human bodies of both Shankara and His disciple are made of the same five elements. Both the souls have the quality of awareness. Does this similarity make Shankara equal to the disciple? If both were equal, why could the disciple not swallow the molten lead? Therefore, apart from the similarity, there is a difference in the capacity. In the body of Shankara, the Lord was present. In the body of the disciple a soul was present. That soul along with its body and the body of Shankara are all under the control of the Lord, who is present in the body of Shankara. The soul in the body of the disciple is as if made of cement and bricks and is a statue. The soul in the body of Shankara is completely different and is beyond even logic and imagination. The awareness of the soul in the body of the disciple is only due to the will of the Lord. A ray of the awareness of the Lord has entered the soul and that is what makes the soul aware. The lens is only an inert object. A ray of the sun entered the lens and therefore it shines with light. The sun is a concentrated source of light and the Sun is the light itself. Here we can understand all the three theories: • The lens, which is looking like a spot of light, is the light itself and this is the theory of Shankara. • The lens is a part of the sun and this is the theory of Ramanuja. • The lens is not at all the light but it is the inert object and this is the theory of Madhva. The scientist treats the soul as a computer, which works with several microprocessors simultaneously so that the human being is able to grasp all the characteristics of an object at a time. But the human being cannot be kept alive with the help of any type of external power when the soul quits the body. Therefore, the scientist has to accept the control of the body through the soul. This control is the will of the Lord, which is present in the soul itself as internal micro-design acting as the order of the Lord. At this point the scientist has to accept the Lord. As soon as the soul comes out of the body, it is enquired for ten days by the Lord in Pretaloka (the world of the dead), which is a sub-world of 44

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Bhuloka. Bhuloka consists of four sub divisions i.e., Martya Loka (the world in which we live), Pretaloka (world of the dead), Narakaloka (hell) and Pitruloka (a world where people who have committed mixed actions are sent). Above the Bhuloka, there is the Bhuvarloka (also called Dyuloka or Jyotirloka). Above it is Suvarloka which is heaven. After the enquiry a soul that has committed bad results, goes to Narakaloka (hell). For mixed results one goes to Pitruloka. For good results one goes to Bhuvarloka. For even better results one goes to Suvarloka. As soon as the soul comes out of the body (after death in the Martya loka) it attains an energetic body called ‘Bhoga Sareera’ (body of enjoyment) or ‘Yatana Sareera’ (body of pain), with which the soul has to enjoy or suffer the results of its deeds. This energetic body is similar to the present gross body and results due to the internal design of the soul. If the soul is not able to leave the bond with its physical earthly body, the soul is covered by ‘Dhuma Sareera’ or ‘body of smoke’. Such a state is called the state of a ghost (pisacha). For sometime the ghost will wander in this world (Martya Loka) itself. Food for the dead or Karmaphala Tyaga? When the soul goes to hell, food is prohibited. When the soul goes to Pitruloka Somarasa (juice of moon) is the food. When the soul goes to Dyuloka, food is not required. When the soul goes to Suvarloka the divine nectar (amrutam) is the food. Thus Lord arranges for food for all the souls and there is no need of supply of food from this place. Even if a person is jailed, the government supplies him with food. Therefore realized souls never desire for the ceremonies performed after their death. They do not require their issues (sons) to perform such ceremonies because they have realized the truth. The hymns read in these ceremonies are only prayers to the Lord, to protect the soul in the upper worlds. The upper worlds are called Bhoga lokas, which mean that one can only enjoy the results but one cannot do any new work (Karma). The donation of food and money performed in the ceremonies is only Karma Phala Tyaga (Sacrifice of the fruit of the work) as preached in the Gita. But such sacrifice should be done only to a deserving person. If one donates to an undeserving person the donation will bring additional sin to the soul departed as well as to the person who performed that ceremony here. Not donating to the deserving person and donating to the undeserving person, both are sins as said in the Mahabharata by Vidura. Therefore the Gita says that one should get 45

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the Grace of the Lord here itself while one is alive (Uddhareth Aatmana). In the spiritual field, one should not depend on anyone else. After death the sons are in the mood of grief and cannot search for a deserving person to donate. During these ceremonies the priests are chanting Vedic hymns without knowing the meaning. When the meaning is not known how can the feeling of prayer come? Reciting like a tape recorder does not serve the purpose. The Veda itself means Knowledge and Shastras say that mere recitation is the worst (Anardhajnah… Paatakaadhamah). The best and most deserving person is the Lord in human form. The next most deserving person is a perfect devotee. The next deserving person is a poor man. But in case of a poor man, after donation you must preach to him the divine knowledge and turn him into a devotee. Without doing this, if you simply donate to him as social service you are interfering with the punishment given by God to him, for his internal change. The poor man has been given the punishment of poverty as a result of his past bad deeds; with the expectation that he will change and turn to God. The Gita calls all this as Pitruyaanam, which is the path of all the ordinary human beings. This is the normal cycle of the world. The Gita talks about the second divine cycle, which is called Devayaanam. In this divine path, one becomes the servant of the Lord who has come down in human form and he participates in the divine mission of the Lord as a servant. Such a person becomes a divine soul and travels in the path of Devayaanam. In this path, the soul after leaving this world (Martya loka) will not go to Pretaloka. A highly energetic body called ‘Divya Sareera’ will surround the soul. As a servant of the Lord he is not enquired in Preta Loka and his file is closed. He directly goes to the world of the Lord called Brahma Loka. He will be taking divine births along with the Lord as a servant on this earth from time to time. He has no agony of birth and death just like the Lord, and his life is full of bliss as in the case of the human incarnation. He gets all the super powers of the Lord (Astha Siddhis) except the one topmost super power—the power of creation, ruling and destruction of this world. This is said at the end of the Brahma Sutras. The Gita explains both these ways namely the Pitruyaanam and the Devayaanam (Sukla Krishna Gatee).

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How to Please God? Reaching and seeing God is not important. Even demons have seen God very closely but they were destroyed finally because God was not really pleased with them. These demons did penance and got boons by force. Their penance was only chanting the name of God and meditation. So they sacrificed only words and mind. They never sacrificed anything practically by participating in the mission of the Lord. Therefore the people who want to get boons from the Lord by sacrificing just words and mind only are by no means different from the demons. Today, people are sacrificing only words and mind and sometimes even their tears. These words, mind and tears cannot be sold in the market even for a single penny. The people who sacrifice their work and the fruit of their work (money) for the sake of God and do not aspire for anything in return, are angels and sages. A man in between these two stages sacrifices practically but sometimes asks for selfish boons when an emergency arises. Sacrifice of the fruit of work is also sacrifice of work because the fruit of work is a different form of the work itself. Therefore, both these come under ‘sacrifice of work’. In the Gita, sacrifice of work is called Karma Sanyasa Yoga and sacrifice of fruit of work is called Karma Phala Tyaga Yoga. Since both only mean the sacrifice of work, both put together is called ‘Karma Yoga’ or ‘Service to God’.

Karma Yoga A saint (celibate monk) does only Karma Sanyasa since he does not store the fruit of any work done by him. A rich householder, who has earned money by doing work, sacrifices the fruit of his work (money) and this is called Karma Phala Tyaga. Both the saint and the householder are called Yogis and their sacrifice is called Karma Yoga. There is a possibility of the rich householder doing Karma Sanyasa also but there is no possibility for the saint doing Karma Phala Tyaga. Hanuman was a saint, who always did Karma Sanyasa for the sake of the Lord. The Gopikas (milkmaids of Brindavanam) could not participate in the mission of the Lord because there was no such opportunity. They sacrificed the fruit of all their work i.e., butter, to the Lord. Hanuman got the highest position i.e., the post of the future creator. Gopikas entered the sixteenth uppermost world called ‘Goloka’, created by the Lord especially for them. This is the essence of the epics, 47

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Ramayana and Bhagavatam, from the point of a person who is putting spiritual effort to please the Lord. One should not merely go by the stories of these epics, like a child. One should try to understand Hanuman in the Ramayana and the Gopikas in Bhagavatam. Such understanding will help one in his spiritual effort. Lower than these two epics, which show ideal devotion, is the epic Mahabharatam. In it, Arjuna wanted to use the Lord for gaining his kingdom in the battlefield. Arjuna is called Nara or a human being. Today every man is trying to use the Lord to achieve his selfish ends and nobody has real love (Bhakti) for the Lord. Arjuna wanted to turn back from the war because he did not want to kill his kith and kin. Again here his selfishness is completely reflected. But Lord Krishna turned him into real devotee like Hanuman and Gopikas by preaching the Bhagavad Gita to him. The Lord asked Arjuna to become His servant and fight against the injustice because destruction of injustice was His (Lord Krishna’s) mission. The Lord asked him to fight against the evil people as participation in God’s work and not for the sake of enjoying his kingdom. By participating in the war with this angle, Arjuna did Karma Sanyasa in helping the Lord destroy injustice. Since his aim was only the aim of the Lord, the fruit of the war, which is the kingdom, was also not on his mind. Thus he indeed did Karma Phala Tyaga. The fruit of the war i.e., establishing justice went to the Lord only and Arjuna did not fight selfishly for his kingdom. The Valmiki Ramayanam is the only authority for learning about Hanuman. According to this, Hanuman never did any sacrifice of words (prayers, singing songs etc.,) or sacrifice of mind (meditation etc.). He never went to any temple and never worshipped any statue. He always participated in the work of the Lord because that was the necessity of the Lord at that time. The Gopikas danced with Lord Krishna and were singing songs in His praise because there was no necessity of work in the mission of the Lord at that time. But Gopikas sacrificed the fruit of their work to Lord Krishna. Therefore, Hanuman sacrificed the work and Gopikas sacrificed the fruit of the work. Hanuman and Gopikas should be the examples for anybody who is putting spiritual effort to please the Lord.

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Prostitute Devotion A prostitute sacrifices sweet words and feelings of the mind for getting money. But she does it for meeting her minimum requirements, so it is justified. But today people who already have enough money to satisfy their minimum needs are trying to please the Lord through sweet words and sweet feelings of mind (devotion) to get extra from the Lord. These devotees are called as divine prostitutes and can never be excused by the Lord. One can please a person, who is either ignorant or has less knowledge, by such false behavior. But no one can please the Lord who has the full knowledge (Sarvajna) in this way. If any one tries to please the Lord by the sacrifice of words and mind only, such a person is blind. These people are made blind by fraud preachers who exploit their ignorance and natural ambition. The people, who follow such fraud preachers, lose time here (in this world) and the fraud preachers will be punished later. These fraud teachers encourage these innocent people and even make them do Karma Phala Tyaga. These innocent people are advised to spend a hundred rupees in order to get one lakh (hundred thousand) rupees from God. Unfortunately a part of the hundred rupees that they spend in the name of God, is wasted in purchasing some unnecessary materials and the fraud preachers steal the other part. [The false preachers advise the ignorant devotees to worship idols and statues with rituals involving purchasing costly but useless materials]. Such a sacrifice of the fruit of the work cannot be a real Karma Phala Tyaga. It is just like a patient going to a fraud doctor and loosing money and time without any reduction in his illness. Sometimes the illness may even increase. When you worship God in this way, the Lord only gives you the fruits of your own good actions, which you were supposed to receive in future life cycle arrangements. The fruit of good work from your future birth is drawn to this birth like a pre-matured deposit. You think that you have attained a large fruit of the good work, which you have not done, just by spending a hundred rupees. Infact you are getting rid of the present trouble only because the Lord is pushing this trouble to the future birth with added interest. By this, your future life cycles become miserable and full of troubles from birth to death. Do you not see such people in the world? They blame the Lord for giving them such a miserable life but they do not know that they had pressed the Lord for this in their previous births. 49

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Just see this wonderful world and imagine the intelligence of the Lord. Nobody including your fraud teacher can fool God. Therefore the present tradition of blind preachers and blind followers is finally leading only to the ever-lasting fire. Therefore, it is better to know the true path, which is established by the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. It is better to take atleast one step on the true path because the distance from the goal is reduced by atleast one step. What is the use of taking a hundred steps on the false path by which you move away from the goal by a hundred steps? The true path is only the one shown by Hanuman and the Gopikas i.e., Karma Yoga (Karma Sanyasa and Karma Phala Tyaga put together) which is emphasized everywhere in the Gita. The value of the words and mind is only two paise (100 paise = 1 rupee). The value of practical action is hundred paise. If you do the sacrifice of any of these three (words, mind and action) without aspiring for anything in return, you will get the fruit from God according to the corresponding values. If you praise the Lord without aspiring for anything, the Lord will praise you by His sweet voice. If you meditate upon the Lord without aspiring for anything the Lord will love you with His sweet heart. If you serve the Lord practically without aspiring for anything in return, the Lord also gives the fruit in the same practical way. Hanuman simply participated in the work of the Lord. He was given the highest post, which is a practically real fruit. The Gita says that He will approach you in the same way as you approach Him (Ye Yatha Maam). The Gopikas sacrificed the fruit of their work and they were given the highest Goloka (highest heaven). In these examples, sacrifice is without aspiring for anything in return from the Lord. Such sacrifice is called ‘Nishkama Karma Yoga’. If you do the same sacrifice, aspiring for some fruit in return, you will get proportionate results here also. But the results will be the fruits of your own works, which you were supposed to enjoy in the future life cycles.

Using your energy You are like an inverter (an emergency backup power supply) with limited energy and limited working time. You can use the current to run the essential fan and light bulb in your house. The remaining current can be used for the temple (mission of God). This is the stage of saints (monks). The next stage is that apart from the essential fan and light 50

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bulb, you use some current for watching the television for a little time only. The remaining current is then given to the temple. This is the stage of a householder. If one does not give any current to the temple and uses the inverter entirely for his house and spends all the current for not just the essential fan and light bulb but also for watching the television throughout the night, then it is the state of the demon. Thus a saint needs minimum for his own sake and uses all the rest of his energy for God’s work. A householder uses the minimum and also little more for his own enjoyment in the world, but spends the remaining energy for God. A demon spends all his energy only for enjoyment in the world and never thinks about the Lord. The Gita explains these three types as angels, human beings and devils. Now even when you spend part of the current for the temple, you must spend it only for the necessary work in the temple. Suppose the temple needs the current for a bulb to be lit throughout the night. You should not divert the current for moving a fan near the statue, which is unnecessary (since a statue is inert and does not need a fan). Similarly when you approach God in human form, you must participate in His work, which is essential at that time. When Rama was busy searching for Sita, Hanuman left Rama in search of Sita. He did not sit near Rama doing prayers, singing songs, meditating etc.; He did not do any personal service to Lord Rama. Infact Sugriva was near Rama and was doing His personal service. Yet Lord Rama gave the post of the future creator to Hanuman and not to Sugriva. The work on which Rama was concentrating was more important than His personal service. Getting Sita back was not Lord Rama’s personal work because through that He killed Ravana and gave peace to the world. Therefore, it looks like personal work but it is actually the work for the benefit of the world. Hanuman never misunderstood this as Lord Rama’s personal work. If an ordinary monkey were in the place of Hanuman (who was a monkey) it would think like this ‘I have remained without marriage, as a celibate. Instead of looking for a wife form myself, why should I spend my energy in searching for His wife?’ Hanuman never thought like this because He was a scholar. But an ordinary monkey cannot think like that. Therefore Rama left Sita after killing Ravana so that such a misunderstanding would not arise. [He did this to demonstrate that He was not attached to Sita and that rescuing her was not His personal work

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but was a means to destroy the evil Ravana and bring peace to humanity] Yoga means catching the Lord in human form, who comes to the earth in every human generation. Karma Yoga means the service done to the Lord in such a human form. Hanuman and the Gopikas did service only to the Lord in human form, who came in their respective generations. The Gopikas did not worship the statue of Lord Rama who was the previous human incarnation. Hanuman did not worship the statue of Parusurama or Vamana who was the previous incarnation. Hanuman and the Gopikas also did not worship the statues of Vishnu, Shiva etc., who are the energetic forms of the Lord in the upper-worlds. Therefore you must study Hanuman and the Gopikas from all angles so that you get benefited in your spiritual effort. You must observe whom they worshipped and how they worshipped. Hanuman and the Gopikas never worshipped the formless God. They never went to any temple. You are giving real love to your family, which is like the sacred milk of a cow. This real love includes practical sacrifice of your work and the fruit of your work. But you are showing artificial love to God by sacrificing mere words and mind to the Lord in order to get some practical benefit from Him. Such artificial love is like the impure milk of a donkey. You are insulting the Lord by giving a pot of donkey-milk. Instead of this, you try to give atleast a spoonful of pure cow-milk out of the potful that you give to your family. If you cannot give even a spoonful of pure love to God, atleast don’t give the impure love. Even if you cannot respect the Lord, atleast don’t insult Him. You never sacrifice mere words and mind in the case of your children. You sacrifice only the work and fruit of the work in their case. Similarly you never sacrifice work or the fruit of work to God. You sacrifice only words and mind to God. In the case of your children you are doing Karma Sanyasa (dressing them up, taking them to school etc.,) and Karma Phala Tyaga (giving food, medicines and money and property). Therefore you are doing real Karma Yoga only to your family and not to the Lord.

Serve the world or serve God? Some people think ‘Since the mission of the Lord is only to serve this world, why should I not do the same in my name?’ This question comes to the mind of any human being. Why should God get fame from 52

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my work and my money? King Satrajith thought like this when Lord Krishna asked for a divine gem, which Satrajith had got from the Sungod. The divine gem yielded a lot of gold everyday. Satrajith was doing charity with that gold. So he did not give the gem to Lord Krishna. However later he lost the gem and his brother was killed due to that gem. Finally he gave the gem to Lord Krishna. What is the inner meaning of story? The gem actually belongs to Lord Krishna. The Veda says that the entire world is the wealth of the Lord. So the gem is a part of the wealth of Lord Krishna. Actually Satrajith was getting fame by doing charity with the wealth of the Lord. Thus when one understands the truth, the case is quite the reverse. Here your sacrifice and the service to the world are not important at all. Even without your sacrifice, the Lord can uplift the world just by His will. The important point here is your complete surrender and your complete sacrifice to the Lord. The financial help, done as charity to poor people, is only a secondary aspect. The propagation of divine knowledge and devotion is the primary aspect. In a college, both the day scholars and hostellers (residential students) are taught in the classes equally. For the students who come from out-of-town are provided with the facility of boarding and lodging in the hostels. This hostel facility is only a secondary point. Teaching in the classes is the primary aspect. Similarly the divine knowledge and devotion must be propagated to all people rich and poor alike. Apart from that work, the poor people may be financially helped. The hostel facility is only for an out-of-town student and not for every student. Similarly the financial help to the poor people must be done only in association with the propagation of knowledge and devotion.

Attachment and service You cannot say that it is impossible to do practical service, which is the sacrifice of work and the fruit of work without aspiring for anything in return. You are doing the same in the case of your children. You are doing service to them without aspiring for anything in return from them. When they grow up they even insult you, but you still give all your property to them only. But in the case of God you are not showing even a drop of such true love to God through practical service. The Lord is not even a fraction of your child! There are three strong bonds for humans:1) Bond between wife and husband 53

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2) Bond with children 3) Bond with money (fruit of work) The bonds with money and children are interrelated because you are earning more money even by sinful means only for the sake of your children. Dhrutarashtra wanted the kingdom for his children alone even though it was injustice. The Lord broke that bond by killing his children to punish him. Thus injustice is punished in the world. However Lord Krishna broke even the bonds of the Pandavas with their children even though the Pandavas were fair and just. All the sons of Pandavas were killed by the will of Lord Krishna. One has to break even justified bonds for the sake of Lord. The Gopikas did not give the fruit of their work (butter) even to their children but gave it only to the Lord. The Pandavas on the other hand, fought in the war to get back their kingdom so that it could be given to their children and not to the Lord. Even though that was justified, the Pandavas were attached to their children. Therefore the Lord broke those bonds so that Pandavas can be diverted to Him completely. In the case of the Gopikas the bonds with the children were already broken because they sacrificed the fruit of all their work to the Lord only and not to their children. Unless all the bonds are broken one cannot have the only real bond with the Lord. The bond with the children is the strongest of all the bonds and if that bond is broken, all the other bonds are broken. If the bond with money is broken, it means the bond with the children is really broken because one commits so many sins only to give wealth to his children.

Unattached work In ancient India all the people were sages. They never did any work to earn extra for their extra enjoyment or to give it to their children. They were only doing Karma, which is the work necessary to earn their livelihood. Such Karma is not a sin because livelihood is essential. In doing such Karma, an advice called Nishkama Karma Yoga was given because it gives mental peace and strength. According to this advice, one should do work without attaching himself to the fruit of the work. This attachment to the fruit of the work is called Kama and if it is avoided, the person becomes peaceful and strong in mind. But in Kali Yuga (the dark age of materialism), doing Karma alone does not satisfy people. They also do Vikarma (sinful actions) which is the work done for earning more wealth for the sake of their self-enjoyment and for the 54

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sake of the enjoyment of their future generations. When people apply this Nishkama Karma Yoga (unattached work) to Vikarma also, they are able to do more sin with the help of this advice. The knife was given to cut vegetables but it is now used to kill human beings. To avoid such danger in the Kali Yuga, the Lord emphasized Karma Phala Tyaga in the Gita. Karma Phala Tyaga means the sacrifice of the fruit of all the Vikarma. It is the sacrifice of all the money, which you have earned beyond your required minimum (Tena tyaktena). Only in such a case will you be discouraged from doing Vikarma. Otherwise if you apply Nishkama Karma Yoga to all types of work that you do, it becomes very dangerous. Hanuman could have killed Ravana by just one stroke, even before the coming of Rama. But Hanuman waited for Rama to come and kill Ravana. He participated in the service of Rama to achieve the peace of the world. He did not kill Ravana directly to achieve the same. Similarly you should not try to uplift the world (social service) directly without the human incarnation of the Lord and try to get fame for yourself. Infact all your power is only the power of the Lord and really the fame should go only to Him even for any work that you have done in this world.

Knowledge, devotion and service Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that one should not enter into the work of serving the world unless the command is obtained from God. Shankara taught divine knowledge. Next came Ramanuja and He taught about devotion. Then came Madhva and He taught about service. These are the three gradual steps in spirituality. Knowledge (Jnana) is the root cause and generates devotion. As knowledge grows, devotion also grows. By devotion the Lord is achieved. Therefore devotion is the cause to attain the Lord as said in the Gita (Bhaktyaa Tvananyayaa). Service is the proof of real devotion. Rukmini got knowledge from Narada and developed devotion, by which she obtained the Lord. But her devotion was without any aspiration for the fruit. She loved Krishna not to become the queen of Dwaraka. She sat at the feet of the Lord and pressed His divine feet throughout her life. Thus her service proved her real devotion. Knowledge is the degree. Devotion is the job obtained due to that degree. Service is the work done on the job. The salary is the

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grace of God. The salary is given for the work done on the job. Therefore the direct cause of the salary is only the service done by you. Knowledge and devotion can be viewed as the year-wise academic course studied by a student. Service is the annual examination. The study in the whole year indicates the quantity of knowledge studied by you. But the examination will reveal the quantity of knowledge digested by you. When you sacrifice the fruit of your work to a committee of devotees (such as a temple trust or church) it will not be properly utilized. The devotees, who manage the collected funds, are not Sarvajna (all-knowing), like the Lord. A group of ten lecturers cannot be treated as one professor. Therefore any number of devotees cannot become equal to the Lord. Karma Phala Tyaga is easier than Karma Sanyasa and Karma Sanyasa is easier than meditation. This does not mean that meditation is the greatest and Karma Phala Tyaga is the least. The Lord has one divine quality called ‘Sowlabhya’ (easy to approach). This divine quality is very much in the Lord. This means that the Lord is available very easily in human form. Does that mean that the Lord is the least? In the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Karma Phala tyaga is mentioned as the easiest thing to do. This does not mean that the Karma Phala tyaga has least importance. Therefore immediately in the next verse the Lord said that Karma Phala Tyaga is the highest (Atha Chittam, Sreyohi). The word Karma in case of a man means earning money for one’s livelihood as said in the Gita (Sareera Yaatrapicha). The Gita says that Yajna (sacrifice), which is preparing food and feeding the guest, is the result of Karma because the food that is earned by Karma is offered to the guest (Yajnah Karma Samudbhavah). The same word Karma is used in the case of the Lord in a different sense. In His case Karma means the creation of the world (Visargah Karma). Therefore, Karma Phala Tyaga means the sacrifice of the fruit of the work, and the fruit of the work is money in the case of human beings. The Veda says that the human being should sacrifice money, which is earned above his minimum requirements (Kasyasvit Dhanam). The Veda also says clearly that the sacrifice of money alone can bring the grace of the Lord (Dhanena Tyagenaike). Even when Lord Rama approached His Guru Vasistha, the Guru told Rama to sacrifice money because money is the root of the whole world (Dhana Marjaya 56

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Kakutstha). The sacrifice of money is the fire-test by which the real color of your love for someone can come out. Without this you are hiding your artificial love in the disguise of real love which means that you are trying to fool the Lord, which is impossible. Sacrifice of words and mind is artificial love. Sacrifice of work and money is the real love. The Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of the work at several places (Mat Karma Paramah, Madarthamapi). Work and money are your real weak points where the Lord catches you in the examination. All the other exercises of words and mind are futile. If you are unable to sacrifice the work and money for the sake of Lord, atleast you sacrifice your words and mind without aspiring for anything in return. Atleast God will be a little bit pleased with you. If you sacrifice work and money, God will be immensely pleased with you. If you cut the bond with your children and wife or husband and divert all your love towards the Lord, you need not fear about your family. The Lord loves your family as the family of His real devotee. Such a family gets real protection from the Lord. Your love cannot give real protection to your family or yourself. If you divert all your love to the Lord, He will protect you and your family. In doing this, you have showed real love for yourself and your family. If you remain attached to yourself and your family your love is not real because you cannot protect yourself or your family. For example who can protect his own life or someone else’s life and grant longevity except the Lord? Your love for yourself and your family may give some happiness to you in your heart. But it cannot give real protection. Therefore scholars loved only the Lord and served Him by sacrificing all their work and the fruit of all their work. The Lord protected them completely, here and there (in the after-world) as said in the Gita (Satyaagee Tyabhi Dheeyate, Praahuhu tyagam, Karma Yogena Yoginaam).

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Chapter - 6

INFINITY IN THE FINITE O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Hyderabad] ‘Adhyatma’ means the knowledge of the substance, which controls the soul. Atma means the soul, which may indicate either the individual soul of a human being or the Lord. Atma also means the human body. Jivatma is the individual soul controlling the body. The body is made of five elements. Jivatma constitutes the mind, intelligence, chittam (memory) and ego. These are called the four antahkaranas or the inner instruments. Lord controls both the soul and the human body. The soul, which controls the body, pervades all over the body. Atma means that which pervades. It is just like the electric current pervading the wire. The Lord pervades the human body of the human incarnation. The Lord also pervades the entire world, which consists of five elements and individual souls.

Is God in the Universe? The Lord pervades all over the universe but only as its substratum or base. The Lord is not in the universe. The Lord pervades all over the human body of Krishna as the electric current pervades the wire. The wire gives an electric shock wherever it is touched. Similarly, the Jivatma also pervades all over the human body. This is called ‘abhivyapaka saptami vibhakti’ in Sanskrit grammar. However when we say that the Lord is in the universe, it is called ‘aupasleshika saptami vibhakti’. The example for this is that a man is in the shirt. The man is the base of the shirt and is not in the threads of the shirt. When you touch the shirt, you are not touching the man. If the man leaves the shirt, the shirt collapses. Thus there are two sentences: 1) A man is in the shirt 2) The current is in the wire. Both the sentences look similar but the concepts are different. People who do not have the knowledge of Shastras take the same meaning for both the sentences. They think that the Lord is present in every object and in every living being in this world. The Veda says that 58

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the Lord is not present in any object or in any living being in this world (Neti Neti). If there is no second substance (duality), how will the Lord have the entertainment? The Veda says that the Lord created the second substance (duality) for His entertainment (Ekaki na ramate Sadviteeyam). But how did the second substance come from the Lord, who is the One and only One Entity or Substance? This is beyond your understanding. However things exist even if you do not understand. That is the secret of the creation. Brahma Jnana is the knowledge of the Lord, i.e. to understand that you cannot understand the Lord and His actions (Yasyamatam tasyamatam). The Gita says the same (Mamtu Veda Na Kaschana). If you say that you cannot accept that which you cannot understand, you can never understand the Lord and His actions. The Lord lifted a mountain on His finger. You have seen this. But you could not understand this. The miracles prove that there is something, which you cannot understand. The Veda mentions this point (Asteetyevopalabdhavyah). Therefore the Lord created a second substance, which gives Him entertainment. This second substance is creation, which is a modification of His power called ‘Maya’. Maya means that, which cannot be understood and is wonderful.

Ishwara Enters Creation The Lord who is the base of this world is called Ishwara. This Ishwara entered the body of Krishna as the current enters a wire. This Lord can be seen, and touched, and He talks and lives with His devotees. You can never touch Ishwara by your egoistic efforts. The reason for your not accepting the human incarnation and your efforts to reach Him directly, is only your jealousy. This universe is like a shirt for the Lord. If you touch the shirt you are not touching the body. Similarly by worshipping any object or any man in the universe you are not worshipping Ishwara directly. But the same Lord comes down due to His kindness. He pervades all over the human body of an incarnation like Krishna as the current pervades all over the wire. Any limb of such a special human body will give you the direct experience of the Lord. When you say that the Lord is in the universe, you must take the example of the man in the shirt. When you say that the Lord is in the human body of an incarnation like Krishna, you should take the example of the current in the wire. As the soul is pervading the human body of a 59

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human being, the Lord is pervading the human body of the human incarnation. Therefore the soul and the Lord can be compared. The soul in the body of Krishna is the Lord. A peon is residing in his house. The collector (a powerful government official) is residing in another house. Both are householders. But the peon is different from the collector. The soul in human body and the soul in the body of a human incarnation are both called Atma because they both pervade the corresponding human bodies. But the Lord and the individual soul are different. The body of the human incarnation also gets the nature of the Lord. The wire gets the nature of the electric current, which is to give an electric shock. Therefore the body of Krishna, like the Lord present inside, is also beyond our understanding.

Universe Within the Incarnation The infinite universe is adjusted within the limited human body of the incarnation. The Lord created the space. Volume is the property of the space. The Lord is above the concepts of space and volume. This means that there is no big Lord and small Lord. The body of Krishna attains the nature of the Lord and so it is also beyond space and volume. Therefore the limited body is the infinite universe. Another wonderful point is that there are changes in the universe. But there is no change in the body of Krishna. The Lord is the base of the universe, but the same Lord is pervading all over the body of Krishna. The Lord is not touched by the changes in the universe. Therefore, neither the Lord nor the body of Krishna is touched by the universal changes. Krishna gave the vision of ‘Vishwaroopam’ (Cosmic form of God or the Lord in the form of the entire creation) to understand this wonderful secret. He, who understands that the limited Krishna is the infinite Lord, is a great devotee and this is the essence. The Gita says the same (Vasudevaha sarvam, Adhyatma jnana nityatvam). When you know that Krishna is the Lord, it is called as “Tatva jnanartha darsanam” by the Gita. This concept is called as jnana or knowledge. When you search the Lord in the world without seeing the Lord in Krishna due to your egoism and jealousy, it is called ajnanam or ignorance by the Gita (Ajnanam yadatonyatha, Nahamprakasah).

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Birth of Incarnation [September 12, 2006. Shri Ramanath asked Swami whether Akkalkot Maharaj whose birth is not known is the fullest human incarnation as His devotees say. Following is Swami’s reply:] For any concept, the scripture is valued. Otherwise everybody speaks whatever he likes and gives his own logic. The advocate has to quote the constitution and apply the logic in that line. Otherwise the argument has no base. The scriptures say that Shri Krishna is the fullest human incarnation (Shri Krishno Nanya Evahi). This is agreed by all since it has scriptural basis. But Krishna was born to Devaki. Therefore, the concept of fullest human incarnation is not related to the birth of the human body from the womb of the mother. Gita says that birth must have death and death must have birth (Dhruvam Janma Mrutasyacha). Shri Akkalkot Maharaj died by leaving His divine body as everybody knows it. According to Gita, the human body of Maharaj must have taken birth. If you argue that His divine body was not from the womb of the mother but it was created by the will of God, how does it matter? Even the human body in the womb of mother is created by the will of the God only as per Gita (Aham Bija Pradhah Pita, Sambhavah Sarva Bhutanam…). Thus, this point is common to both. Both the human bodies (created by God or created in the womb) are made of the very same five elements. In this aspect also there is no difference. Therefore, the divinity of Maharaj is not in the external human body but it is in the God present in that human body. The human body is like a paper cover. Inside the cover a Gold foil is present. When water falls, the cover is spoiled but the gold foil is not at all affected. Similarly, birth and death are only for the external human body and not for the internal eternal God. Even if you take Lord Datta with three faces and six hands, these are only in the energetic body which has the facility of taking any desired form. No human incarnation of Lord Datta has three faces and six hands. There is no difference between the human body and the energetic body. The former is made of five elements and the latter is made of one element called as fire that represents energy. For a scientist there is no difference between matter and energy. God is present in hidden state even in the energetic form. The value of that human body or that energetic body is only due to the presence of God in it. The value of a wooden box carrying diamonds is due to diamonds only. The 61

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human body is the most convenient for the human beings through which God is given (Datta) to the humanity. The six hands represent the six changes (Shat Vikaras) of the external gross body. The three faces represent the three qualities by which the subtle body (Jeeva) is made of. The awareness or self (Atman) is always the content of the subtle body and therefore, we need not speak about the Atman separately. The causal body (Atman) and the subtle body (Jeeva) put together are called as the internal body (Jeevaatman). Brahma stands for Rajas, Vishnu stands for Satvam and Shiva stands for Tamas. The Lord plays with the help of this external gross body and the internal body. The anger and vulgar language used by many human incarnations of Datta indicates Rajas. The smoking leading to Trans state, represents the Tamas which is also present in many human incarnations of Datta. Even Datta is very harsh to the devotees by beating with stick (Rajas) and drinks wine with prostitutes (Tamas). The amazing knowledge coming from the human incarnations of Datta or Datta is Sattvam. The whole divine play takes place with the help of these three qualities. The knowledge is for the guidance of devotees. The Rajas and Tamas are for testing the faith of devotees or to throw away the undeserving devotees. Janana Mulam Guruh Brahma, Gana Mulam Guruh Vishnuh, Dhyana Mulam Guruh Sambhuh, Dana Mulam Guruh Dattah. The knowledge indicates Brahma, the devotional songs (Bhajans) denote Vishnu and the meditation which means the concentration of love on God represents Shiva. When all these three are full, then Datta, the sacrifice in practice appears.

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Chapter - 7

HANUMAN, THE GREATEST DEVOTEE Mode of Worship [Hanumat Jayanti May 19, 2006. Swami gave a Divine Message on the festival of Hanumat Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Hanuman.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The festival of Hanumat Jayanti comes in 2-3 days and happens to fall on this Monday. How to celebrate this festival? The low level of celebration is done when devotees worship Hanuman by offering leaves, fruits, special food items and prayers and then finally ask for worldly boons. The second middle level of worship is doing Bhajans on Hanuman with emotion, which represents the love for Hanuman. Since in the middle level there is no desire for boons, certainly the middle level is higher than the low level. But the best and highest level of worshipping Hanuman is to analyze what Hanuman practiced and bring it into our practice to attain the permanent grace of Lord like he did. This highest level of worship is called as Jnana Yajna. The middle level of worship is called as Swadhyaya Yajna and Tapo Yajna. Swadhyaya means reciting prayers and singing songs. Tapo Yajna means having emotion through devotion, which is the penance and which develops Tapana or Vedana which is nothing but the climax urge of devotion. The low level worship is called as Dravya Yajna. The Gita says that God is pleased with Jnana Yajna (Jnana yajnena) because with this you are analyzing the concepts, which guide your practice in the right direction leading to pleasing the Lord. Therefore, the best way of celebrating Hanumat Jayanti is to analyze the practice of Hanuman as presented in the Ramayana written by Valmiki, which is the best authority to tell us on His practice. Hanuman studied all the Vedas and Shastras. He studied nine grammars from the Sun-god. Nobody in this creation can be equal to Hanuman in this scholastic ability of scriptures. Even though, Hanuman became the future Brahma, He never stated that He is God (Aham Brahmasmi). I am astonished to see these petty Advaita scholars who do not have one millionth of the knowledge of Hanuman say “Aham 63

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Brahmasmi”! Hanuman always said “Dasoham”, which means that He is the humble servant of the Lord. He never stated “Soham”, which means that He is God. It is said that by remembering Hanuman, ghosts run away. The real ghost is this misconceived Advaita which will run away on remembering Hanuman. The most important essence of the life history of Hanuman is meeting Rama, who was the human incarnation of His generation. Hanuman waited to meet the human incarnation on the instruction of His mother and several sages. Hanuman had all the capacity to jump to the upper worlds and go to Brahma Loka, Vaikuntha or Kailasha to see Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Infact in the war, He actually went to Vaikuntha and brought down Garuda. Even in His childhood all the angels appeared before Him and gave boons. Then Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra etc. also appeared. In that case why was He so anxious about meeting the human form of the Lord? He had already seen all the energetic forms of the Lord like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The psychology of Hanuman seems to be quite opposite to our psychology. We are always anxious to see the energetic forms of God. Infact we feel that we have seen the original form of God when we see the energetic form of God. It is just like saying that when a person appears in a silk shirt, he is the original person. If the same person appears in a cotton shirt, he is not at all the original person! This means we treat the human form of the Lord as an ordinary human being and we treat the energetic form of God as the original form of God. We do not see the person in both the shirts. For us the silk shirt is the original person and the cotton shirt is only a cotton shirt and not the person. Even if an angel who is simply an energetic form [‘worn’ by an ordinary soul who is not God] appears before us, we think that he is God. Whereas the human form with God is only a human being for us. For the villagers of Vrindavanam, Indra [king of gods and angels], who is an energetic form and a servant of God, was God! But Krishna in human body was thought to be a mere human child. But Indra fell at the feet of Krishna and asked for an apology. Indra could not recognize Krishna because he was only seeing the external cotton shirt which is lower than the silk shirt. He could not see the hidden God in the cotton shirt. Infact he was simply the silk shirt [there was no God in Indra] and thought that silk shirt itself was God. Hanuman never cared for the energetic forms which are simply angels. He respected the energetic 64

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forms of God like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva but He did not worship them as per Valmiki Ramayana. The reason is that the energetic form is not convenient for worship. Hanuman was in a body made of five elements [material body]. The energetic form is made of only one element i.e., Agni (energy). It is not suitable for the human bodies of the earth [We cannot perceive it easily and for an extended durations]. Therefore in Valmiki Ramayana there is no reference to Hanuman worshipping any energetic form like Vishnu, Shiva etc. It is impossible to worship the energetic form directly. You can only worship a statue as a representative of such an energetic form. Instead of worshipping a statue or a photograph representing an energetic form in which neither the original energetic form nor God exists, it is better to worship God in the human form, which is also very convenient, being a common medium [material body as ourselves] in the case of human beings. Is it not better to worship a person in a cotton shirt instead of worshipping the photograph of that person in a silk shirt? Therefore, Hanuman recognized the human incarnation of His time and worshipped Him directly instead of worshipping energetic forms of God directly, which are inconvenient and instead of worshipping their representative statues indirectly which is useless. Therefore we should learn the main aspect of this spiritual life of Hanuman and then only shall we get the real benefit in our spiritual path.

Spiritual Life There are three items in spiritual life: 1) Yourself; 2) The path 3) The Goal. Regarding yourself, you should realize that you are not God and that you are only a humble servant of God. Regarding the goal, you should realize that the goal is the human incarnation present in your generation. Neither the formless aspect nor energetic forms nor statues and pictures is the convenient form for worship. These two aspects of yourself and the goal are very clearly understood from the spiritual life of Hanuman. The third item is the path to the goal. This is also very clear from the life of Hanuman. He was anxiously searching and waiting for the human incarnation of his time. Thus meeting the human incarnation physically is the first step. Only then, direct conversation 65

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and direct vision of God are possible. But today, due to the development of electronic technology, we can see the person situated far from us and talk with him directly. This is exactly equal to direct meeting and direct conversation. Such technology did not exist then and therefore, meeting the human incarnation personally was very very essential. Meeting does not mean the simple physical sense. Meeting means understanding Him with full faith. Ravana and several demons also met Rama. Several evil persons like the Kauravas also met Krishna. What is the use of this meeting only in a physical sense? Meeting means understanding Him with full faith and receiving the true knowledge from Him by clarifying all the doubts. The path in the darkness is shown by the torch light in the hand. The Sun situated far in the sky also shows you the path by the same light. Therefore, receiving proper guidance from the Lord is more important than mere meeting in the physical sense. After meeting Lord Rama, Hanuman entered into the service of the Lord by participating in His mission. He did not receive the Gita [Divine Teaching of the Lord] like Arjuna did before the participation in the work. Hanuman had already received the Gita with full clarification from the Sun-God and Sun had been preached the Gita, very well by the Lord. The Lord even mentioned in the Gita that He preached this spiritual knowledge first to Sun. Therefore, knowledge was not necessary for Hanuman from the Lord. He saw Rama and directly entered into His service. Sometimes a person becomes a wonderful devotee in practice without receiving any knowledge from the Guru. The reason for this is that he has already received the knowledge in his previous birth and that samskara [impression] follows him in this birth. The hunter Kannappa did not receive any spiritual knowledge from the Lord and entered directly in to the service of the Lord because in his previous birth, he was Arjuna and had received the Gita from Him already. Knowledge leads to devotion and devotion leads to practice. The knowledge continues even in devotion and leads to practice. The knowledge continues even in the practice. Thus the knowledge is underlying in both devotion and practice. If the knowledge disappears, doubts will arise. Then practice will be stopped. Devotion decreases. Therefore, knowledge is like a torch light which is put on continuously till the goal is reached. Therefore, the guidance of the spiritual Guru is necessary till the goal is reached. After preaching the Gita, Krishna did not leave 66

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Arjuna while Arjuna was practicing His message. Krishna was with Arjuna throughout the war and was clearing several problems in the war. The 18 chapters of the Gita were the Jnana Yoga, which were completely transformed into the 18 days of war which is the Karma Yoga. In between the Jnana Yoga and Karma yoga, Bhakti Yoga was developed in the mind of Arjuna which was in a hidden state. Krishna represents the buddhi or the driver, which is the Jnana Yoga—the guiding force as the Guru. The Veda says that buddhi is the driver. Arjuna represents both Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. The Bhakti Yoga is hidden in the mind of Arjuna. The Karma Yoga is expressed in the form of participation of Arjuna in the war. The Gita is a mixture of the intelligence of the Lord (Guru Buddhi) and the intelligence of Arjuna (Atma Buddhi). Thus Jnana Yoga is the interaction of the self with the Super-Self. The Gita is not simply the preaching of Krishna like a nonstop express train. It is the series of answers given to the enquiries of Arjuna. Thus the Jnana Yoga becomes the knowledge with relevance to the soul. Hanuman stands as an example of a mountain of knowledge, devotion and service. The knowledge of Hanuman was over, even before meeting Rama. Devotion arose in him like a tsunami when he met Rama. Thus both knowledge and devotion were in a hidden state in Hanuman. The entire Ramayana of Valmiki, especially the Sundara Kanda, relating to the Hanuman, simply concentrates on the service of Hanuman to the human incarnation of his time. Service (Karma Yoga) cannot result without devotion (Bhakti Yoga). Devotion cannot be generated without knowledge (Jnana Yoga). Rukmini heard about all the details about Krishna (Jnana Yoga) and developed a tremendous attraction (Bhakti Yoga) to attain Krishna as a result of the knowledge. Her devotion was selfless and her attraction to Krishna was not to become the queen of Dwaraka. She wanted to be present at the feet of Krishna and press His feet continuously and her aim was only such service (Karma Yoga). Karma Yoga implies means the automatic existence of Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. You serve your son. What is the reason for your service? The reason is your love for your son, which is Bhakti Yoga. What is the reason for your love for that child? The reason is that you are well aware that he is your child born from your blood. Such knowledge and identification (Jnana Yoga) is responsible for your love. Therefore, 67

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when service exists, it automatically means the existence of Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Ofcourse service should be without the aspiration for anything in return. A servant too does a lot of service, but the reason for the service is the salary that he expects from you. The service and love of a prostitute is for your money. Thus when selfless service is present, it means real devotion and real knowledge exist. The Sundara Kanda shows the selfless service of Hanuman to the human incarnation of His time, which is a proof of His real devotion through real service. Thus from Hanuman, we must learn the three items (Triputi) of spiritual concepts, which are yourself, the path and the goal. Knowing that you are not God and that you are only a humble servant of God is the first item. Selfless service directly to the present human incarnation is the true path. The human incarnation present in your generation and His identification is the goal. Thus the entire three fold spiritual effort can be realized perfectly from the life of Hanuman which is the divine message of the Guru. There can be no better Guru than Hanuman because Hanuman Himself was Lord Shiva who acted in the role of a spiritual aspirant. Rama was the human form of the Lord who acted in the role of a human being in Pravritti. You have to learn from Rama about the behavior that you should adopt towards your co-human beings in a balanced and justified society, which is established by the Lord. Hanuman is the human form who came to preach Nivritti of the spiritual side, which involves the knowledge of yourself, the knowledge of the true path to please God and the knowledge of right convenient form of the God to be worshipped on this earth during this human life. Thus God as Narayana came in the form of Rama to teach Pravritti. The same God came in the form of Hanuman as Lord Shiva to preach Nivritti. Shiva is Narayana and both of them are the names of the same God (Shivashcha Narayanah). Another most important aspect that we have to learn from the spiritual life of Hanuman is about the significance of miracles in the spiritual path. Hanuman Himself performed several tremendous miracles. But He did not give any importance to them nor gained any egoism due to those miracles. Infact He saved Rama several times through miracles as in the case of giving life to Lakshmana by bringing the mountain (for the Sanjeevani herb) or as in the case of bringing down Garuda to relieve Rama from the effect of the Serpent-Bond [a 68

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weapon used by Rama’s enemy against Rama and Lakshmana] or as in the case of jumping across the sea to get information about Sita etc. Any person in the place of Hanuman would definitely say “Aham Brahmasmi” and “Shivoham” and also declare Rama as His devotee because God protects His devotees through superpowers. Rama never did any miracle and acted as an ordinary human being. He wept like an ordinary human being when Lakshmana fell unconscious [due to the attack of an enemy weapon]. Rama Himself fell unconscious when He was hit by the Serpent-Bond. He was unable to cross the sea and required a bridge. The Lord behaved like an ordinary human being in the role of Rama because the main aim of His role was to preach Pravritti to all the ordinary human beings. Therefore He was required to act within the limits of His role. The miracle of turning of a stone into the lady, Ahalya, was done by Rama, only in the presence of Lakshmana and Vishwamitra. That miracle was not advertised by both of them because it would have gone against His role. The role of Hanuman was quite different. He acted the role of a devotee. The devotee also attains superpowers. But he should not be attracted to such powers and should not become proud by such powers. Hanuman attributed the cause of these powers only to Rama. Similarly, the devotee must realize that God is doing the miracles through Him and not by Himself. This was preached by Hanuman through His statement that Rama was the source of the miracles. Krishna, Hanuman and Ravana lifted big mountains. Krishna declared Himself as the Lord. But He declared it only to Arjuna, a deserving devotee, and not to the public. Duryodhana did not believe the lifting of the mountain by Krishna and said that Krishna only lifted a small stone and the story was later modified by people that He lifted a mountain. Hanuman lifted the mountain and also carried it [over a thousand miles] but He said that He could lift it due to Rama, who was God. Ravana lifted a mountain and declared to the public that he is God. Hanuman did not accept Ravana as God even though Ravana had special super powers. Hanuman did not see any miracle performed by Rama. He never saw any vision given by Rama. He never heard any preaching like the Gita from Rama. He believed Rama as God in the first instance of meeting Rama and directly rendered the final form of service to Him. This shows the strength of the previous samskara and the strength of the divine knowledge of Hanuman. Thus Hanuman is the highest Guru for any human being in 69

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this world. God Himself came down in that form to show the part of Nivritti for a spiritual aspirant. Rama can be a practical guide in Pravritti. Krishna is a theoretical guide in Nivritti but Hanuman is a practical guide in Nivritti or the spiritual path. Therefore, for all spiritual aspirants, only Hanuman can be the real and complete guide.

Stages In The Spiritual Journey There are two stages in the spiritual journey. The first stage is the realization and attainment of the self [Atman], which is the undisturbed pure awareness like standstill water. This pure awareness is vibrated in association with the worldly bonds. These vibrations are called by many names such as Gunas, Samskaras, Vasanas, feelings and thoughts. When you detach yourself from all the external worldly bonds and also withdraw yourself from the gross body, you are confined to the vibrated soul. Due to the detachment, the vibrations also disappear and the undisturbed soul remains. If you confine yourself to this undisturbed soul by fixing your ‘I’ to it [identifying yourself with it], this stage is called as self-realisation or self-attainment. This is the first stage. However this stage is only the fifth stage of Asthanga Yoga of Patanjali. According to Patanjali’s system, it is called as Pratyahara and it means the complete withdrawal of yourself. Self-attainment is possible by identifying the original nature of the self and by removing its superimpositions. The soul superimposes itself on the gross body and also on its vibrations called as subtle body. When the superimpositions are removed, the worldly bonds which are nothing but strong feelings also disappear. All worries and stress also disappear. Perfect mental peace remains. The body and the mind are interlinked. A peaceful mind leads to perfect health of the body too. Hanuman achieved all this and attained a sound mind in a sound body. By this, the capacity of logical analysis (buddhi) also improves. The attainment of this self is a pre-requisite or qualification for the second part of the journey. Shankara stressed this first stage for atheists who are the beginners on the spiritual path. The second part of the journey is the attainment of the Super-Self (God) in human form and to please Him with selfless service. Hanuman is the best example in both the parts of the journey. For a beginner, the first half of the journey is stressed and an encouragement is given to him by stating that the intermediate station, which is goal of the first half of the journey itself, 70

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is the final goal. The second half of the journey is not mentioned for an atheist who is a beginner. Thus for encouragement, the self itself is told as the super-self. This will also coincide with [be suitable to] the nature of the atheists who do not believe in God separately [other than themselves]. All the atheists are encouraged to take up the first half of the journey because even an atheist likes to be peaceful and without stress in his life here. The attainment of the self is a qualification to serve the Super-Self. It is only a rank in the entrance examination, which gives you the eligibility to study the professional course. A rank in the entrance examination is not a rank in the professional degree. Normally, we encourage the students by saying that if he gets a good rank in the entrance examination, he has become an engineer. The study of the engineering course after getting rank in the entrance examination is hidden for the sake of encouragement. By getting a rank in the entrance examination, one should not feel that he has attained the post of an engineer without studying the engineering course. The fruit of self-achievement is salvation. Salvation means the relief from all the worries and is not at all related to God. Even an atheist wants salvation but not kaivalyam. Kaivalyam means the attainment of God. God is pleased with selfless service. Selfless service is possible only if you have attained the self by self-realization. The atheist who has completed the first half of the journey obtained salvation and thought that he has attained God because he thinks that the Self is God. This misinterpretation can be clarified by studying Hanuman because, He is the first rank holder of the first half of the journey and still He never said that Self is God. He showed the second part of the journey by catching the living human incarnation and by pleasing Him through selfless service. Therefore, atheists should realize that just for encouragement, the intermediate station is mentioned as the final station. They should understand this and should start the second half of the journey. Take Hanuman as an example: The atheist should catch the second train from the intermediate station. Sometimes you may have a direct train from the first station to the third station i.e., you can realize God in the beginning itself and complete the total journey by the direct train. You will achieve the self too, with self-realization, as an intermediate station. You cut all the bonds in the first half of the journey so that you will have a strong bond with the Lord in the second half of the journey. You acquire full independence by relieving yourself from 71

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all this slavery of materialism only to become the best slave to God latter on. The complete independence of the soul (Aapnoti swaraajyam—Veda) as aspired by Shri Ziddu Krishna Murthy, pertains only to the first half of the journey. Almost all the spiritual preachers are concentrating on the first half of the journey and they are getting excellent response from the public because everybody wants relief from the stress. But they should know that the Gopikas were facing maximum stress in remembering Krishna and Radha even became mad. The madness of the worldly bonds should disappear so that you can become perfectly mad about God! Even in the time of Rama and Hanuman, the present society existed with the same psychology pnly with a different external culture. People never recognized Rama as God other than a very few topmost devotees. Even in the case of Krishna, who performed so many miracles and preached the excellent Gita, only very few devotees like the Gopikas could believe in Him as God. Even Dasaratha, Kausalya and Kaikeyi etc. loved Rama only as a good person. People used to worship representative statues of energetic forms of God like Vishnu, Shiva etc. or the past human incarnations like Vamana, Narasimha etc. But there is not even a single reference in the Valmiki Ramayanam for idol worship done by Hanuman in any way. Hanuman worshipped only the human incarnation of His time. Therefore in every generation, the same majority exists which does not recognize the then existing human incarnation due to their jealousy and egoism. The worship of statues is thus inevitable. Ofcourse just for vision of the past human form, the statues or photographs serve a very good purpose and develop inspiration towards the concept of the human form of God. But the extension of service to the statues imagining them to be living human forms is only imagination and madness. It does not contain even the basic logical analysis. When the human being has his eyes covered by egoism and jealousy, idol worship is inevitable like a medicine is for a patient. Subjective satisfaction is the only merit in idol worship. But unfortunately such satisfaction is only imaginary or an illusion. However ignorance is inevitable in the beginning of the treatment as said in the Gita (Sarvarambhahi doshena). Idol worship is only a representative worship and not direct worship. For representative worship, even a statue or photograph in your house is sufficient. You need not make a tedious journey and spend a lot 72

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of money to see the statues in temples that are in far away places in the name of pilgrimage. The statue in your house and in the temple is one and the same, and God is not present in either of them. They only represent God to satisfy your madness of the past human incarnation or the ignorance of an ordinary human being affected by egoism and jealousy. The priests of the far places created stories of the greatness of those temples (Sthala puranam) just like commercial advertisements because they are benefited by the offerings of the large public. However, our ancestors used to go on a pilgrimage. Their aim was different. They wanted to go to a place like a hill or forest where they could peacefully concentrate on the statue, leaving the disturbance in the house. But today these famous temples present on hills and forests are heavily crowded due to the commercial advertisements made by the priests. Your house has a better peaceful atmosphere than these present temples. The case of the human incarnation is different. Worship to Him is is direct worship (Saakshat Upasanam) unlike the worship of statues (Prateekopasanam). God exists only in that particular human form and therefore you have to run to Him and hear His wonderful knowledge wherever He is; even if He is present on the battlefield like Kurukshetra. God does not exist in any other human being including yourself except that particular human being and therefore there is meaning if you leave your house and undertake a tedious journey to reach Him in the present time. Even that strain is not necessary because you can see a human incarnation and hear Him through the present electronic technology.

What do you mean by ‘Love on the Lord’? What do you mean by the ‘Love on the Lord?’ It is the real attraction towards the Lord, which is generated and developed by knowledge. It is the mental feeling. It is expressed by words. It is proved by action. Some people think to prove it by mind and words only. They are unable to prove in action and they are covering their inability. They say that meditation meaning, an act of mind and chanting or singing meaning, an act which is connected with words are the proof of their devotion. But the real love is proved only by action called ‘Karma yoga’, which consists of two parts viz., ‘Karma sanyasa’ and ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’. Karma sanyasa means sacrificing your work for the sake of the Lord. It is pressing the feet of your Guru as an example. This path 73

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has the possibility of some tricks. You may press the feet to give exercise to your fingers. You may also do the work of the Lord for your food. But if such tricks are not present, it is definitely better than meditation and singing because it is related to action. The second part called ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’ [sacrifice of selfearned money] is the real and best proof, which is offering Guru Dakshina. This part applies only to the people who have earned the unnecessary extra money and store with their selfishness. All the money in this world is the wealth of God only. To the extent required by you, is permitted by the Lord. But you are taking extra which is not expected of you. You are given a cup of milk in a house. You can drink the milk when given which is permitted but not to take away the cup. The milk is yours for which the house owner has no objection. You have taken the cup and claim it as yours, then, you are a thief. The first mantra of the first Upanishad (Isha vaasyam) says the same. The Lord is preaching you to return back his extra wealth which was taken by you and which was not granted by him. The Lord is not asking to return back the milk given to you for drinking. He never asks for the sacrifice of your minimum, partly or fully. For example: A person is having ten rupees that is his minimum. Another person has one hundred rupees. The first person gave one rupee to the Lord. The second person gave ninety rupees to the Lord. The first person is greater than the second person because the first person has sacrificed even from the minimum. The second person should subscribe atleast ninety plus one rupee so as to become equal to the first person. In the case of first person, Sakthi (Power) is less but Bhakti (Devotion) is more. But in the case of the second person Sakthi (Power) is more and Bhakti (Devotion) is less. But the devotees sacrifice even their minimum. Shabari collected some fruits that are required minimally for her daily food. But she offered the entire food to the Lord. Such sacrifice is not expected from the side of the Lord. But it is done from the side of the devotee. The devotees sacrifice their minimum partly or fully based on the intensity of their devotion. Kannappa sacrificed even his eyes, which is the bare minimum of his body. Even the body is the fruit of ‘Prarabdha karma’. The most essential part of the body is eyes. Prahlada was prepared to sacrifice even his life for the sake of the Lord. For some, character and prestige are much higher than the life. Gopikas sacrificed even these for the sake of the Lord. The Veda says ‘nothing and none should be equal 74

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to the Lord’, (Natat Samah). Prahlada sacrificed his father. Shankaracharya sacrificed his mother. Buddha sacrificed His wife, the only son and the entire wealth. Shastras say that the wife, issues and wealth are the three strongest bonds (Eshanas). For Buddha, God was greater than these three. Meera sacrificed her husband. Gopikas gave the butter to Lord Krishna. Butter was the ultimate fruit of all their daily work. They can sell it in Madhura and get money. They did not give it even to their children. This is the real Karma Phala Tyaga. The simple and total concept in this is that, you will give your ‘Karma phala’ to those whom you love the most. All give their karma phala (money) to their own children. So, the Lord is not equal to their children and their highest real love is on their children only. So, Karma Phala Tyaga is the only real fire test to prove the real love. There is no second thought about this. For any test, paper and pen are required. Similarly for karma phala tyaga test, the money and the human form of Lord are required. If you offer the butter to the statue of the God and eat it, that is not real Karma phala tyaga. Though money is not great, but the love proved by the sacrifice of the money is greatest. The Veda says ‘Only by Karma Phala Tyaga one attains Lord’ (Dhanena Tyage Naike…).

How to detect Lord in Human form? Then, how to detect the Lord in human form? The Veda says that ‘God is knowledge’ and ‘God is the Bliss’ (Satyam Jnanam…, Anando…). These are the characteristic properties of the Lord. As you detect the fire by its heat and water by its cooling, you can detect the Lord in the human form by His infinite knowledge giving in Bliss. A human scholar also can preach the knowledge. But that gives head-ache shortly. This is the difference between a Guru and a Sadguru. Miracles are the associated jewels of the Lord. Even demons like Ravana and Hiranyakashipu performed miracles. But sages did not accept them as God. They got those jewels from the Lord by force i.e., by penance. They are the rigid children of the Lord. They could not get the inherent form of the Lord. Such human form of the Lord uses your money to propagate the knowledge and devotion and uplift all. Donating food can be done by all. But God only can donate the knowledge. Food ends with this life and suffering for food is limited to this human life only. But if knowledge is donated it continues with the soul during all the future births. If the knowledge is not gained in this life and if the devotion is 75

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not developed, the human being is going to fall in the cycle of births and deaths of animals and birds forever. The knowledge transforms a bad person into a good person but the food strengthens a bad person even to a bad person. Even in the donation of food, people are not using their knowledge. They donate food to all pilgrims at Varanasi on Shiva Ratri day. This entire donation becomes useless because no pilgrim needs the food. Here also, the deserving is neglected. Instead of feeding hundred pilgrims on Shiva Ratri day at Varanasi, you feed one poor deserving devotee for hundred days whatever may be the place. Then that particular place will become Varanasi and everyday becomes Shivaratri. When Rama approached his Guru ‘Vasishta’ for the spiritual path, Vasistha told Rama ‘First you go and earn some money and then come’. The Guru always asks for Guru Dakshina to teach this Karma phala tyaga. Guru is the human being and uses that money for himself and for his family. A ‘Sadguru’ is the Lord in human form and he uses that money for propagating knowledge and devotion in the world to uplift all people. People sacrifice their money to feed the beggars? But remember if the beggar does a sin with the energy given by your food, you have to share that sin. You must spend lot of time to detect the deserving person. People are hasty in giving donations at a temple and distribute ten coins to ten beggars in five minutes and came back thinking that they have earned ‘Punyam’ [Good Karma]. You were very particular of the place and time (Desa and Kala) of your donation. You think that if you donate at Varanasi on the day of ‘Shiva ratri’ you can get the punyam. You don’t care to search for the deserving person (Patra). Store all the coins that you want to donate and go on searching for a deserving person. Whatever may be the place and whatever may be the time, when you get a deserving person give all the coins to him. That place becomes Varanasi and that time becomes Shivaratri. The Veda says that donations should be done with knowledge and patience (Samvida…, Sraddhaya…). Use the knowledge to identify the deserving person and have patience to wait till you get that deserving person. Who is the utmost deserving person? The Lord himself is the utmost deserving person. His first address is the human incarnation and the second address is his devotees. Between these two, the first address is better. The reason is, in the case of human incarnation, the Lord lives in the inert human body. In the second address, the Lord and Devotee live in the inert body. So the amount donated will be used by the Lord 76

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only with utmost utility. Blind and hasty donation without knowledge and patience may bring sometimes even the sin. The Lord in human form is the proper channel for your donation because there will be no error when He utilizes the funds. Devotees may waste due to improper knowledge.

Interpretation of ‘Service to man is Service to God’ People often say that Service to man is Service to God. This is a very dangerous statement if it is not properly understood. Service does not mean simply giving food, clothes, medicines etc., to suffering poor and needy people. The poor person is suffering due to the punishment given by God due to his bad deeds. You have not seen his past deeds but you show sympathy on him at present. Your help is only temporary. Make him a devotee by imparting knowledge. Then the Lord will help him and that help is permanent. So the word ‘service’ should not be limited to donating food etc., In such case after receiving your help, he may do sins which you have to share. So convert him into a devotee by donating knowledge so that he becomes a devotee, to get personal help from the Lord and also helps others. Since this is the work of the God, such service of yours’ becomes God’s service. Donate knowledge and devotion, even for the wealthy people. Poor did not mean lack of money only. It also means lack of knowledge and devotion also. Actually the original sense of this statement is different. When the Lord comes in the human form, he appears as a man. You have to detect Him by His inherent quality that is blissful knowledge. When you serve such a man your service becomes God’s service because that man is God. When the God is born as a man called as Krishna, some people think that Krishna is a man and some others think that Krishna is a God. So, there is a controversy. God pervaded that man as the current pervades the metallic wire. So both God and man co-exist. Shankaracharya discussed that particular context only and concluded that though two are present, both become one and the same only. Though wire and current are present, the wire is the current because the wire gives a shock wherever it is touched. Similarly, when God pervades the human body, that human body is the God. So, touching Krishna is touching God. But people extrapolated this concept to every man and said, ‘Every man is God’. The disciples of Shankaracharya also thought like this. When Shankara swallowed the molten lead and asked his disciples to swallow the same 77

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disciples realized Shankara proved that he alone is God and not his disciples. If every man is already God what is the use of all this ‘Sadhana’? Who is to get salvation? If you are already God, do you mean that God gets salvation? If there is no salvation, why all this Sadhana (effort) is required? Why Prahlada did not accept his father as God? Narasimha killed Hiranya Kashipu. If both of them are Gods, then God killed God, which means God committed suicide!

Lord is Above Qualities The ultimate God, Datta appears as the pious scholar with all good qualities. Sometimes, He appears as a person drinking the wine and at times with a prostitute. The reason for such different and opposite qualities is that He is indicating that any person with good or bad qualities can reach him. The three faces of ‘Brahma’ ‘Vishnu’ and ‘Shiva’ indicate ‘Sattva’ ‘Rajas’ and ‘Tamas’ qualities. This means that God is associated with all the qualities, and He is called as ‘Saguna Brahma’. The word ‘Saguna’ means all the qualities. Since Rajas and Tamas represent bad qualities, two-thirds are only bad qualities. It means that people with bad qualities are more in number. The fans of Vishnu think that Vishnu is good because He is associated with Sattvam, Rajas is worse and Tamas is the worst. So, they say that Vishnu is the best and highest. They think that Brahma is lower and Shiva is worst. These three forms are only the three dresses of the same ‘Lord Datta’. The [internal] God is the same and is untouched by these three qualities. The Gita says the same. The Veda says that Vishnu is Brahma and also Shiva. These three qualities are the three colored clothes of the same Lord. The colour of the cloth is not the colour of the person. A person is not touched by the colour of the cloth and the colour of the person is not affected. Sattvam is white Rajas is red and Tamas is black. So the colour of Vishnu should be white and colour of Shiva must be black. But the colors are interchanged. Vishnu is black and Shiva is white. This means Vishnu and Shiva have exchanged their qualities. Shiva is sitting in meditation with a good quality. Vishnu is dancing with the Gopikas and it is a bad quality. Now tell me who is greater? So, Datta is the single God present in all these three divine forms. He is not touched by any quality. Therefore, He is called as ‘Nirguna Brahma’. The colorless person is looking red, white and black due to those colors of his clothes. This form of Datta indicates that Bhakthi is untouched by 78

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good or bad qualities. Pure water is present in three glass cups with three different colors. The water is not coloured but appears to have a colour. Similarly the Bhakthi i.e., love on God appears to have the colour of the quality. But it is always pure and colourless. So the person whether good or bad can reach the God through any path. When Bhakthi is present in the person and also present in the path, it is the driving force beyond good and bad qualities. Shiva with Tamas as a bad God invites the bad people in a bad path. Vishnu with Satva as good God invites all good people through good path. But remember onething, Vishnu and Shiva are one and the same. A good person and a bad person reach the same God because their Bhakti is one and the same. The three faces denote creation, administration and destruction of this universe by one and the same God. The Veda says that these are the three activities done by one and the same God called ‘Parabrahman’. So Datta is Parabrahman as per the Vedas. We have three Gurus Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. They are the incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma [respectively]. That means Datta came down as these three Gurus. So Datta indicates that He is the single Parabrahman present in the three divine forms called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Datta further indicates that He is the Sadguru present in all the three Gurus. The voice of Datta is the single theory present in the commentaries of the three Gurus. Datta indicates that any living being is eligible to reach Him and get the salvation irrespective of his/its good and bad qualities. Datta also indicates that whether the path is good or bad, only the Bhakti is given value by Him. The Bhakthi should be real and pure without aspiring anything in return from Datta. A beggar comes to you and praises you a lot. You are asking him to move away. But a guest is given all the comforts with special love. What is the difference between these two? The intention of the beggar is to get food from you but the intention of the guest is to see and talk with you. Since the intention differs the treatment differs. So come to Datta as a guest and not as a beggar. If your intention is only to love Datta without aspiring anything in return, Datta will give everything to you, as you are His guest. So any human/living being in this world is eligible to have the admission into our Datta Religion irrespective of his good or bad qualities. Whatever qualities may be present in him or his path, he need not feel embarrassed when the quality is bad and need not feel proud if quality is good, provided he does not disturb the peace of the World. 79

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After entering into our Datta religion, you will be imparted knowledge (Jnana) by Lord Datta directly. This generates and also develops the devotion. This devotion real, selfless, proved love on Lord Datta will make you attain Datta. The unique speciality here is Datta donates Himself to you and merges in you while you are alive. Datta means He who donates Himself to you. In other religions, you are merging with God after death. But here God merges with you when you are alive. ‘Datta religion’ is the actual material present in all the religions in the universe. It is the water present in all the rivers and also exists separately as the ocean. All the rivers have to merge in the ocean. All the religions merge in this universal religion. Datta is the universal God and the Universal Guru. Datta is the universal love present in all the living beings and in all the spiritual paths. Datta is called the ‘Digambara’ which means the actor himself, who removed all the dresses of his roles and is present in his original and natural dress. Datta is also called as ‘Avadhoota’, which means if you taste Datta, all your bonds in this world with all the people and all the things will be thrown away. Shirdi Sai Baba used to ask everybody for Guru Dakshina, which is only teaching ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’. Patil is the highest devotee, who used to give all the crop of the year, which is his required minimum. Baba used to give him some part back. This means, he left to the Lord to decide the quantity of minimum also! Baba told a rich person, who came in quest of Parabrahman ‘you could not give Rs.5/- to your Guru from your pocket. How can you know the Parabrahman? That rich man could not recognize the Lord before him present in human form. He was prepared to give one crore of rupees to his children, but not Rs.5/- to the Lord. The value of the Lord in his eyes is almost nothing. In his heart, there is no trace of love for Parabrahman. This is proved clearly by his karma phala (money). The family bonds of Indians are very strong and they store money even for their grand grand children. They can donate only their mind (meditation), intelligence (logical discussion) and words (chanting and singing etc.,). Their love stored in their hearts like water in tanks flows into their bonds that are like side tubes. Not even a drop is left over in the heart for the Lord. Only Karma Phala Tyaga proves your love on the Lord. Atleast, luxuries can be cut and that can be subscribed as Guru Dakshina.

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Saibaba used to distribute the Guru Dakshina to the devotees who are in need as he can only know who the deserving is. The human devotees err and waste, many a time. Guru is only Parabrahman and so Guru Dakshina means the fruit of your work (Karma Phala) offered to the Parabrahman in human form. Human form of God is only full form of God as it alone can give Darsanam (you can see), Sparsanam (you can touch), Sambhashanam (you can talk) and Sahavasa (you can live with Him). The Gita says ‘I come in human form’. All the four Vedas (Mahavakyas) say that the Parabhraman comes in human form and you have to recognize him by his special blissful knowledge and not by miracles. No devotee is greater than Hanuman and Radha. Hanuman became future Brahma. Radha became the queen of the 15th uppermost Goloka. Both worshipped the human forms available in their time only viz. Rama and Krishna. Are you greater than Hanuman and Radha? He is impartial and so comes in human form for every generation to give the full satisfaction to devotees. Other forms like statues etc., which are useful to see only are only the intellectual means to avoid real Karma Phala tyaga, because you can show the food to a statue with your hand and eat the whole. Guru means the human form of Lord Datta. Purnima means full moon. The Veda says, as in Shrisuktam ‘Chandram Hiranmayeem’ meaning Moon is the money that is Goddess Lakshmi and that is Karma Phala. Full moon also represents strong mind by which you have to sacrifice that to the Guru, who will utilize it correctly. Money in another form is the essence of work. Returning the stolen extra money back to the Lord can cancel that sin. Otherwise, ‘A camel may pass through the eye of the needle but a rich man can never reach God’. Datta means He who donates Himself to undergo the sufferings of His deserving devotees. If you are ordered to pay fine by a judge, your father can pay that fine and can get you relieved from that punishment. Datta takes the human form for this purpose and undergoes sufferings really. During the suffering, He should not use His power and avoid the experience of suffering. If He does so, it amounts to cheating the God of Justice. To get the real experience of the suffering, the human body he takes, should be following all the rules of the nature. His suffering process is continuous from birth till He leaves this human body. During this continuous process, His human body is continuously damaged. A high voltage current flows in His body when He gives divine visions 81

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that further damages the body. You are associated with a few Karma Phalas only. But He is associated with several Karma Phalas of His devotees continuing from several births. You can weep while suffering but He should smile. If He leaves the suffering even for a minute He is not Datta in that minute. But Datta remains Datta always. He sits on the thorny throne. You see only the throne but not the thorns. Datta is the practical aspect of God. ‘God is infinite bliss’ is the theoretical aspect of Brahman. The philosophers of Advaita attracted by the theoretical aspect, but once they come to know this practical aspect, they will like to remain in Dvaita only as servants of Datta.

Why is India suffering with poverty always? The Indian Scholars have developed several ways to do ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’ by tricks and keep the fruit with them only. For ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’ – test both the human form of Lord and the money (Karma Phala) are required like a paper and pen for a test. One intellectual way is to offer the food (Karma Phala) to a statue and then eat it as remains but the God has not eaten even a grain. Another intellectual way is to say that every man is God and the eating of food by a man is considered as eating by God. So you eat the food and say that God has eaten the food. Now you say that you have done ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’ to the God. Such intellectual tricks result in storing all your ‘Karma Phalas’ with yourself only. Like this Indian Scholars have covered their greediness by intellectual interpretations. The heart is full of love and the brain is full of intelligence. Indians have connected brain to God and the heart to their family. It is reversed in the case of foreigners. Love result in karma phala tyaga. Only intelligence results in knowledge, praying etc., without practical sacrifice. This brought poverty to India. When the wheat flour has gone from the hand by wind, an Indian Scholar says ‘I sacrifice this flour to the God’. You take a foreigner. He earns, enjoys and donates for good cause. He will ask his child to earn and live after certain age. The family bonds of the foreigners are very weak compared to the Indians. Hence, huge love is stored in them without much diversion to the family bonds. Hence, once they come to know about the Lord fully, they will jump with full intensity of Love and Devotion. They reach God quickly by their strong ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’. He does not store even for his children due to such frankness and simplicity in his thoughts. God blessed almost all the foreign countries with lot of 82

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wealth. However much knowledge may be rained in India, it does not come into practice. All the rain on loose soil goes down only. In foreign countries, when the knowledge is rained, it is converted into practice immediately. The rain on a rocky soil flows on the surface as a river and becomes useful for all the people. Even in the path of science, foreigners are practical people whereas Indians are theorists. This is the psychology that is coming in the Indian tradition for the past several generations. God blessed Indians with lot of intelligence and blessed foreigners with lot of wealth. The Gita says that in whatever path you approach the God, in that same path God approaches you. Today is ‘Guru Purnima’ indicating the full moon. Moon indicates mind. The full moon indicates the strongest mind that is strongest determination as indicated by the word ‘Purnima’ which should be diverted to Guru Datta. You should direct all your love on Guru Datta that can be proved only by ‘Karma Phala Tyaga’ (Donating the money) i.e., by offering Guru Dakshina. Lord appeared on Purnima day so every full moon day is Guru Purnima. Guru Dakshina proves the real love on the God and not the Pradakshina that is moving around Guru Datta. Give Guru Dakshina on every Purnima that comes in every month. The Gita goes on stressing on Karma Phala Tyaga by stating ‘Do Karma. Do not aspire for the result and for the fruit – surrender the fruit to me’. In the first chapter of ‘Yoga Vasistam’ even Lord Rama asked to come with money to offer the Guru Dakshina. The first Mantra of the first Upanishad says, ‘The whole world is the wealth of the Lord. Take the minimum requirement. If you have taken more, return it back to the Lord. If you claim that the extra belongs to you, you have stolen the wealth of the Lord. The stolen money will bring you all the sufferings only. Guru Datta Shri Datta Prabhu Datta

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Chapter - 8

IDENTIFICATION OF INCARNATION OF GOD [A converted Christian devotee asked about the identification marks of human incarnation of God. Due to the importance of the identification of the topic in the spiritual pursuit of an individual, Swami discusses the topic in detail.]

Pre-requisites O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, The main pre-requisite to identify the human incarnation is the complete removal of egoism and jealousy. The human body has the highest advantage on one side and the highest disadvantage on the other side. The highest advantage is that human beings can easily experience the Lord through the human body, which is most convenient for them. The highest disadvantage is that the human being repels against another human being due to the principle of nature i.e., likes repel likes. This repulsion is in the form of egoism and jealousy. The main purpose of God is to preach and guide human beings in the right spiritual path. The word Datta means ‘given’. The Lord is given to human beings in a human form. This human form alone can be the preacher or Guru. The word Guru Datta means the Lord given to human beings in human form, who can alone act as a spiritual preacher. Statues, birds, animals etc. cannot serve this purpose which the human form can. There is a hidden instinct in the mind of every human form that he or she should become the Lord. This instinct exists unconsciously in the minds of even great scholars and great devotees. This instinct is never expressed directly but its influence exists in every spiritual thought and spiritual action. Therefore, many human beings are attracted to the misinterpreted form of Advaita philosophy, which says that every human being is already the Lord. This concept satisfies the hidden instinct of the human beings. This is the reason for the appreciation of the Advaita philosophy by every human being. Any concept that hurts this instinct will be repelled or condemned. The human being can tolerate to some extent if you say that he is not the Lord. But if you say 84

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that only a particular human being is the Lord, it can never be tolerated. They will be satisfied if you atleast say that no human being is the Lord. Now the address of the Lord shall be a formless and all pervading power or a statue or a photo. This intolerance towards the human being acting as the Lord leads to the criticism and even sometimes insulting the human incarnation. Krishna said in the Gita that people unaware of His divinity, insult Him since He is in the human form (Avajaananti maam…). In the case of Jesus, the egoism and jealousy went to a climax and they killed Him brutally. Buddha was tolerated by His fellow human beings because He neither spoke about God nor claimed that He was a human incarnation. Therefore, as long as the two eyes are covered by the layers of egoism and jealousy, no human being can tolerate the greatness of even the fellow human being. How can such a human being tolerate another fellow human being to be the incarnation of Lord Himself? Therefore, the human incarnation never gives a universal declaration that He is the Lord. Such declaration should be specific to certain devotees only. Lord Krishna declared Himself to be the God only to Arjuna. He never made this declaration at any time during His life to anybody else. He did not declare to Gopikas that He was the Lord because there was no need of such a declaration to them. Gopikas were sages who were the realised souls in their past birth. Even the great devotee, Dharmaraja did not believe Krishna completely. When Krishna asked him to tell a lie, Dharmaraja refused and gave more importance to Dharma (worldly justice) above the Lord. The Veda says that nothing and none should be above the Lord (Natatsamah). The Gita says that the Lord is even above the justice (Sarvadharmaan). The Lord in human form competes with everybody and everything to test whether you have the highest love for Him or not? He preaches karmaphala tyaga (sacrifice of fruit of your work i.e., wealth) and karma sanyasa (sacrifice of work), which are the real essence of love. You are doing both these towards your family members. When He competes with your family members in both these ways the real colour of your love or devotion comes out immediately. Gopikas sacrificed butter, which is their fruit of their day-long hard work to Krishna even neglecting all their family members including children. Gopikas were householders and earned the fruit of work. Therefore they were generally tested in karmaphala tyaga. Hanuman sacrificed all his energy and work for the sake of the personal work of 85

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Rama. Hanuman was an unmarried saint (celibate). A saint never stores money (karmaphala) and so cannot sacrifice it. He can only sacrifice the time and energy in the form of work for the sake of the Lord. Thus saints are tested in karma sanyasa. Gopikas neglected their husbands and danced with Krishna in Brindavanam. The fear of the hell and the breaking of tradition in doing so could not stop the Gopikas. When Krishna left His body, Gopikas jumped into fire while their husbands were alive. Generally ladies used to jump into fire following the ‘Sati’ tradition when their husbands died. Thus Gopikas could cut their bonds with the family members, money and even with their bodies for the sake of the Lord. Jesus told the same that one should leave everybody and everything and even should be prepared to leave one’s life to become His dearest disciple. Only the human form of the Lord can compete with your family members who are also human beings. The formless God or a statue or a photo cannot compete effectively with the human beings. Suppose you have a gold chain. When you offer it to the Lord in human form, He takes it away. But you cannot cut your bond with your wife and children to whom alone you wanted to give the chain. Therefore you will not accept the human form of Lord. Thus greediness is also another obstacle to recognise the human form of Lord. A greedy person will put the chain on a statue of the Lord in his house. He satisfies himself or cheats himself by thinking that he has given the chain to Lord and not to his family members. But the chain remains as his property in his house only. Another display of over intelligence to cover the climax of greediness is to believe in only the formless God. Now one need not give the chain to God because God has no form. He can conveniently give the chain to his family members. If you are unable to love God practically, admit your limitation. Atleast God will be pleased with your frankness. But do not try to cheat God and try to get boons from God by cheating Him. By putting the chain on the statue of God, do not pose that you have sacrificed the chain and expressed your devotion practically. Sacrifice There are five types of sacrifice to express the love: 4) Sacrifice of words by doing prayers and singing songs. 5) Sacrifice of Mind through devotion and meditation

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6) Sacrifice of intelligence by participating in spiritual discussions. These three types of sacrifice together constitute only the sacrifice of one paisa (one hundredth of a rupee). The words, mind and intelligence are freely supplied to you by the Lord. You are asking boons for sacrificing these three freely supplied items. The officer of the municipality freely supplies drinking water to you through the tap. When the officer comes to your house, you sacrifice a tumbler of this drinking water and you asked him to pay for it. Even in businesses like restaurants, when you drink a tumbler of water, you are not charged. These three are sacrificed to the Lord by you when you have no other work with these three to earn. Instead of wasting them in unnecessary works, you are trying to sacrifice them and get boons from the Lord in return. A fellow is carrying a pocket of flour in his hand. It slipped from his hands and was blown away by the air and totally wasted. The fellow says ‘Raamarpanam’! This means ‘I am sacrificing this flour to Lord Rama’! Now since he sacrificed the flour, the fellow asks some boons from Lord Rama!! This type of devotion is the love of prostitute. The prostitute also sacrifices the sweet words, shows sweet feelings of mind and discusses about you in your interest using her intelligence. Another type of devotion is like the love of a merchant. A merchant sacrifices some work and some money but expects more profit in return. 1) The fourth type of sacrifice is sacrifice of work 2) Sacrifice of money is the fifth type. These two constitute service which is the proof of real love provided you are not expecting anything in return. Both these constitute the plate of meals offered to the guest and the value of these two is ninety-nine paise. The meals must always be associated with free drinking water. The ninety paise can be treated as one rupee but strictly speaking it is not sacrifice of hundred paise. Therefore, all the five types of sacrifice must be done, if you want that your sacrifice should be really hundred percent. If you are unable to do this sacrifice, be frank and express your inability truly. You pray ‘Oh Lord! I am dragged by these worldly bonds. Please help me to come out of these attractions.’ Certainly the Lord will help you in your spiritual effort. But don’t try to fool the Lord. He created this world and maintains it. He is far far superior to you in the intelligence. You can never trap Him by your tricks. He will help you if you are frank and make the constant efforts. 87

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Ego and jealousy Generally egoism is related to males and jealousy is related to females. Hanuman saved Rama when Rama’s brother Lakshmana became unconscious. In this scene anyone will mistake Rama as the devotee and Hanuman as God. But it is the reverse infact. The Lord tested Hanuman for His egoism. Rama wanted to see whether Hanuman became egoistic in such a case. But Hanuman surrendered to Lord Rama always. Similarly Krishna tested Radha for her jealousy. Radha was His first wife and He married her secretly. After two years Krishna left Brindavanam and never returned back. Moreover Krishna married several wives. A lady in this situation will become terribly jealous and will fight with Krishna. But Radha lived in His memory only and did not find fault with Krishna even in her mind. No human being can be greater than Hanuman and Radha. Hanuman was given Brahma loka (heaven) and Radha was given the even higher Goloka. Nobody can even dream such fruits for his or her devotion. When such highest devotees like Hanuman and Radha worshipped only the human forms of Lord, are you greater than them to reject the human form of the Lord? Ramayana preaches karma sanyasa. Bhagavatam preaches karmaphala tyaga. Hanuman and Radha never aspired for anything in return. The devotion for the Lord should be only a one-way traffic (one should not expect anything in return). In the Mahabharata, Arjuna used the Lord for his personal purpose of getting back his kingdom. On the other hand, Hanuman used Himself for the personal work of Rama. Therefore, Hanuman has several temples [Hanuman is worshipped by many by building temples for Him] but Arjuna does not have even a single temple built for him. God-in-flesh The Veda says that God is here itself before your eyes and is not present elsewhere (Yatsaakshaat Aparokshaat—Veda). The four Maha Vakyas from the four Vedas are as follows: 1) God is the special divine knowledge 2) God is like Me in the external human form 3) God is like you in the external human form 4) God is like him in the external human form. The Gita clearly says that God comes in human form and it does not mention any other form that God takes (Manushim tanu maashritam). ‘God in flesh’ means the human incarnation. Human 88

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incarnations come in every generation so that the partiality of God towards a particular human generation is avoided. Human incarnations also come simultaneously in every human generation to cater to the needs of devotees at various levels, at various regions and in various religions. The Veda says ‘Let Me be born simultaneously as many’ (Ekoham bahusyaam prajeyeya—Veda). You should not misunderstand the words of the Gita (Avyaktam vyaktimaapannam) that God is directly modified or converted into a human body. This is the most important point where people are getting confused and question that how can God become the human body, which perishes. The statement ‘God in flesh’ indicates clearly two separate items viz. God and flesh. When you say ‘water in vessel’, water and vessel are two separate items. ‘Manushim tanu maashritam’ also means God has entered the human body. It clearly means that God is not the human body. God has selected the most convenient medium, which is the human body for the sake of giving experience of Himself to human beings. The human body is the most convenient medium for human beings. [When God comes in human form, people invariably suffer from negligence towards His human form, thinking that He is just an ordinary human being.] However the negligence of the human form of God also has one use. Since you neglect the human form of Lord, your excitement regarding God is neutralised and you can interact with Him freely. If He comes in an energetic form you will be so excited to see Him that you will never interact with Him freely and ask your doubts. You will fear to ask your doubts, if you see the energetic form. Arjuna could ask questions freely when Lord Krishna appeared as human being. But when the human form of Lord Krishna disappeared and the energetic form of Krishna (Vishwarupam) was seen, Arjuna shivered with fear and could not ask any question. Thus even the negligence created by the repulsion (from another human form) has its own divine use. You simply cannot find anything negative in the planning and implementation of the Lord. But if this negligence becomes excessive and leads to egoism, then there will be utter loss for the devotee. The negligence should be only to a certain extent so that it can neutralise the excitement and fear. Such negligence paves the way for free interaction.

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Human body The human body is made up of three components namely the external or gross body, the subtle body and the causal body. [In case of the human incarnation, a fourth item, God enters this human body.] Gross body The external gross body has birth and death, hunger, thirst, disease etc. By seeing these characteristics even in the external human body of a human incarnation of the Lord, one mistakes that human form of the Lord is an ordinary human being. The human body of the incarnation is not divine because God has only entered the human body and has not got modified into the human body. The shirt of a king and that of a beggar can both be cut by a blade [both are made of cloth and have similar characteristics]. This does not mean that the king is the beggar. The inherent characteristics of human body are not affected, when the Lord enters a certain gross body. The divinity of Lord is only added and it can be withdrawn at any time. When electric current pervades a metal wire, the properties of the wire like leanness, curling etc. are not affected. The shock, which is the property of current, is added to the wire. When the current is withdrawn, the shock also disappears. The Lord left the body of Jesus before crucifixion and therefore Jesus cried. ‘Oh Lord! Why have you left Me?’ As long as the Lord exists in His body, it cannot be insulted by anybody. Even during the time of flow of current in the wire, the shock-property of the electricity is not visible externally and only the properties of the wire are seen. The shock is known only by experience. Similarly the divinity of Lord in a human body can be known only by experience, which can be obtained only through patient following and service of the incarnation. For everyone else, only the properties of human body appear so that they mistake Him as an ordinary human being. This is the gross external test and most of human beings fail here itself and drop away. They should realise that the Lord is in the human body and therefore He is separate from the human body. Thus the properties of the human body cannot be imposed on the Lord. This external gross body (Sthula Sharira), made of five elements is like an external coat worn by a person. Subtle body The second inner subtle body is made of three qualities, which are Sattvam (purity/goodness), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (ignorance). This 90

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is like the inner shirt. Sattvam represents all the good qualities. Rajas and Tamas together represent all the bad qualities. The Lord is said to be Viswaroopa. It means this entire world is His body. We see both the good and bad qualities in the world. If you say that only good qualities are in His human body, how can you represent this entire world by His human body? Sattvam is Lord Vishnu. Rajas is Lord Brahma. Tamas is Lord Shiva. [These three divine forms are forms of the same God]. You may get a doubt of how divinity can be present in bad qualities? The answer is that you do not know the definition of good quality and bad quality. A good quality is defined as any quality, which is diverted towards God. The bad quality is defined as any quality, which is diverted towards the world. Kannappa hunted and killed a rabbit. Hunting innocent creatures is the greatest sin. However he offered the flesh of that rabbit to the Lord alone. Then such hunting is not a sin and so Kannappa did not go to hell for that hunting. He went to the abode of Lord Shiva. He did not eat that flesh nor did he give it to his family. If he had done so, it would have been a sin. Gopikas got salvation by dancing with Lord Krishna. You should know that the Lord is beyond this subtle body (Sukshma Sharira). Therefore, He is beyond and untouched by these qualities. He is beyond Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Datta is called as Triguna Atmaka or Trimurtyatmaka, which means that He is beyond the three qualities and beyond the three divine forms. If you are firm in this knowledge, you will not be perturbed when He exhibits all these three qualities, which are called as Maya. Especially you will not run away when He exhibits Rajas and Tamas. He is beyond the shirt and is not the shirt. The shirt has three colours, which are the three qualities. The followers of Vishnu say that Vishnu is the only Lord because of His Sattvam or good qualities. They criticize Brahma and Shiva because both represent Rajas and Tamas indicating the so-called bad qualities. The bad qualities are only from the point of the world and constitute 2/3rd of the world. If Sattvam alone is considered, only 1/3rd of the world is represented. One who knows that He is beyond the three qualities will not run away when the Lord in human form exhibits the remaining 2/3rd of Maya, which constitutes Rajas and Tamas. The subtle body is called as Jeeva. The three qualities are the three fundamental vibrations of pure soul.

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Causal body The inner most final component of the human body is the casual body (Karana Sharira), which is made of pure awareness only and is called as soul (Atman). This is called as Nirgunam because it is devoid of all the three qualities and it is like the inner banian (inner shirt). In the realised souls, the ‘I’ is fixed to the soul after crossing the above two bodies. This is called self-analysis, which leads to self-attainment. In ordinary human beings the self is always associated with the subtle body. The waves (subtle body) cannot exist independently without the water (Atman). Therefore, in the case of ordinary human beings the subtle body is always integrated with Atman and thus both together are called as Jeevatman. The mis-interpreted Advaita philosophers say Atman is the Lord. However, Atman cannot be called as the Lord or Parabrahman. Atman cannot even be called as Brahman because Brahman actually means the Parabrahman (Absolute God) associated with Mula Maya. But the word Brahman can be used in the sense ‘Greatest’ because the word Brahman literally means the greatest. The pure awareness or the soul is the most subtle and finest item of the creation and is really greatest of all the items of the creation. In this sense Atman can be called as Brahman. In the Gita, the Veda is called as Brahman in the same sense because the Veda is greatest of all the scriptures. Therefore, the word Brahman is used in several ways of meaning. One should be careful and discriminate the sense by the context. Parabrahman Parabrahman or Lord or God is beyond the three components of human body and exists as the fourth component in the human body of human incarnation alone. Thus God remains the same and the human body changed from one incarnation to the other. To attain the God is not important but to please the God is important. Service is the only way to please the Lord. Service means either or both of karma sanyasa and karmaphala tyaga. The God gets infinite pleasure or bliss through your service, which is called as bliss. Bliss constitutes ninety nine units of pleasure. Sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence through prayers, songs, meditation and discussion gives Him only one unit of pleasure. By this one unit, we can say that God is pleased but He did not become blissful. Any human being will enter into practical service only if full determination is achieved. Such determination comes only when there is 92

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no doubt in the knowledge. Such doubtless complete knowledge is called as realisation. Therefore knowledge is the root cause for the entire spiritual effort. The realisation comes only when the Lord in human form preaches you. In the service one should not aspire for any fruit in return. This point is the life of the whole spiritual journey. If you aspire for the fruit God keeps silent in the first stage. In the second stage He will start troubling you. In the final and third stage, He will subject you to the torture. Jesus showed how to pass the third test. After this final test only, God becomes blissful towards you. Debate without reason [At this stage, the converted Christian devotee used to send mails containing the verses from the Bible without sending his real questions.] You are simply quoting some statements from the Bible without mentioning your point. Your scripture says that the student has to follow the headmaster (God) and not the class-mate (fellow-humans). I believe that the head master belongs to all the students of the class and not to any particular student. If you claim that your head master is different, Hindus will show Lord Krishna is their head master. Whatever you quote from the Bible can be exactly quoted by Hindus from the Gita. The Gita also says ‘Naanu tishthamthi mematam’, which means that one should follow His word only and not any other word. If you say that Jesus is different from Krishna, alright, you follow your head master (Jesus) and Hindus will follow their head master (Krishna). If you accept Jesus as Krishna because the same God spoke the same contents of spiritual syllabus in different languages existing in two different bodies, then there is a common head master for all of us. The common head master is the God present in both the human bodies of Jesus and Krishna. The external human body is like the shirt. The same head master came to Hindu section in blue shirt and the same head master came to Christian section in white shirt. The two shirts are different but the head master is same. He spoke in Hebrew language to the Christian section and He spoke in Sanskrit language to Hindu section. The syllabus is same and only the medium is different. Christian: Jesus alone is the Lord. Bible alone is the authority. All the Hindus should be converted into Christians to get the salvation.

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Swami: You say that the head master in a white shirt alone is the head master. You say that the syllabus taught in Hebrew language alone is correct. You want all the Hindu section to sit in your classroom. Is it justified? What is the reason of your above statement? Christian: No reason and no argument. My Bible says that Jesus alone is the saviour. Based on this authority I uttered the above statement. God is above arguments and reasons. Hindu: My Gita says that Krishna alone is the saviour. Based on this authority I utter this statement. God is above arguments and reasons and there is no need of arguments and reasons. Swami: Both of you are only human beings. Both of you have two printed books in your hands. Both of you have no arguments. Neither Jesus nor Krishna is visible. Both of you are equal in every angle. How should I favour anybody and show the merit on one side only when both of you are equal in all aspects? Moreover you are not putting forward your interpretations and arguments so that I can hear both, analyse and favour one side since I can justify Myself in pointing out the merit of one of your arguments. No one has any extra item. The first item is that both of you are human beings without any argument. The second item is a printed book in the hand of each one of you. The statements you quote carry the similar meaning. Thus when the number of items and the quality of items are also exactly similar, how can I favour anyone of you? Atleast if you put forward your arguments, they may differ from each other and both the arguments will not be exactly similar. Now based on the difference of your arguments, I can favour one of you because the difference in the arguments can help Me to find out the merit in one of your arguments. If the arguments are also exactly similar like the above statements, then also I cannot favour any argument. Therefore, both of you should present your arguments and one of you should show the extra point, which cannot be answered by the other side effectively. Then only the judgement is possible as in the case of court. The judge in the court favours one of the two arguments showing the extra merit in a particular argument and favours it. If you quote the statements 94

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from the two scriptures, which are exactly similar in meaning, there is no use of your mere translation of those statements. Translations are also exactly similar like the original statements. You simply quote the statement and translate it, then there is no use of such representation. You must present the interpretations of your scriptural statements and show the extra merit pointed out in your interpretation over the interpretation of the opponent on his scriptural statement. For this purpose you must hear the scripture of the opponent and also his interpretation. Then only you can show your extra merit comparatively. Then you can ask the opponent to leave his religion and his scripture and join your side based on your extra merit. But what are you doing? You neither hear the other scripture nor hear his interpretation of his scripture. You simply quote your scripture and translate it. Based on your scripture you want the opponent to change his religion. Why don’t you also change your religion and go to the other side because the opponent also quotes a similar statement from his scripture like yourself exactly? Why don’t you apply the same justice to both the sides, when both the sides contain exactly the same items and are exactly similar? Since there is no possibility of judgement in such case, the case is dismissed with no costs. One God My concentration is on the unity of head masters, who are Jesus and Krishna etc. The point is whether there is one head master or many head masters. Without deciding this issue, how can one speak about the pleasure of the head master? If there are many head masters there will be many schools. If you consider all the religions are different schools, naturally there will be many head masters. If you consider that there is only one school, naturally the different religions will be different sections present in the same school, because of the difference in the media like languages. That means you have accepted that there is only one head master. If you say that Jesus is that single head master, Hindus will say that Krishna is that single head master. Then you have to accept that God is that single head master and Jesus and Krishna are different coloured shirts. If you do not accept this concept, you have to agree that there are two different schools with two different head masters. If you 95

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decide about the issue of one head master or several head masters then only the unity of classmates will come in to picture. If you accept the single head master as God, then Hindus and Christians belong to the same school and therefore can be called as classmates. If there are two schools with two head masters, they belong to different schools and cannot be called as classmates.

Vada Maryada—Decorum in debate When two advocates argue in the court, they can go to any depth and in any angle in their arguments. But one advocate should not say that the argument of the opponent is vain. Whether the argument is vain or not, it should be decided by the judge. Only the judge is authorised to say that and he alone controls such vain argument by shouting “Order Order!” Such comments come only by the predomination of Rajas. In such case the personal clash starts and the debate looses its sanctity. If you see Jesus, He never passed any single negative remark against the opponents even during His insult and crucifixion. How patient and good is He even towards His enemies? You should not pass such emotional negative remarks, especially being the follower of Jesus. Krishna was friendly to devotees but became cruel to His enemies. I can understand if a Hindu, the follower of Krishna, passes such a remark towards his opponent. But Jesus loves even His enemies. Your comments did not pain Me at all because I am beyond all these things. What pained Me is that you being the follower of Jesus has passed on such negative comment even if you assume that I am your enemy. Therefore, you be active in your arguments. The scholastic elite audience who are observing our arguments from a long time will decide which argument is a waste. Don’t influence their mind by such comments. Let them freely decide which argument is useless. I feel that My best beloved friend [converted Christian devotee] did not pass this comment. I find that some person of Saturn is speaking through him like this. I know the pure and innocent heart of the converted Christian devotee. I know his sincerity and quest for the truth through his practical approach. I am sure that he should not have spoken like this. The personified Rajas hiding behind him must have used such word. I find two types of emails from him. In one type of emails he requests Me for the correct interpretation of some statement in the Holy Bible. Such emails indicate a predominance of Sattvam (goodness and purity, which are conducive 96

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to knowledge). But now and then I find a different type of email in which Rajas (emotions and animosity) predominates. The same person becomes completely a new person whenever the three qualities predominate one by one (the third quality being Tamas which is ignorance or inertia). It appears as if two different persons are sending these emails. Knowledge is power. A scholar will show his power in his argument and will not stoop to a low level of personal criticism and abuses. Only ignorant and illiterate people stoop to such a low level. Two categories of devotees Jesus refers two categories of devotees who worship God. The first category includes the devotees who worship God other than the human incarnation. These devotees worship God as formless and all pervading. The worship of formless God is very inconvenient and ends in misery as said in the Gita (Avyakthahi Gatih…). Such devotees worship the formless Jehovah by attending the Church and by giving contributions to God. Such contributions are taken away by priests for their enjoyment. Therefore, such devotees worship the false priests indirectly. They feel that they are directly worshipping the formless God but finally the worship goes to the priests. They do not know that they are actually worshipping the priests who are the human beings only. The second category of devotees recognized Jesus as the human incarnation and worshipped the God directly. The worship of Jesus is the worship of God because He is God in Flesh. The flesh is only a medium and the worship is directly reaching the God. Jews worshipped Jesus directly knowing that He is the God. Therefore, they know what they are worshipping and there is no trace of indirect worship. Jesus is considered as the king of the Jews. This is written on the Holy Cross also. Jews recognized Him and worshipped Him as God. Such devotees who worship the God in human form will get the real salvation because their worship is real which directly reaches God. The parable of the sower This scripture shows the influence of the external atmosphere on a human being in this world. If the external atmosphere is congenial towards devotion, the seeds grow and give good fruits of salvation. This refers to the fertile soil. The soil is full of Sunlight, which means the divine knowledge. The rainwater, which indicates the grace of the Lord, is also fully available for the seed only. The bush has partial shadow and 97

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partial Sunlight. The rainwater is hindered by the surrounding bush and therefore, the grace is not obtained. Therefore, the seeds germinate but do not grow. This atmosphere refers to the people who are interested in the worldly affairs only but they try to use God to achieve their worldly desires. The concept of God is like the Sunlight and the worldly desires are like the shadows. Though the devotion on God exists, the love on God is not real. The Love on God is artificial by using God as an instrument to fulfil the worldly desires. The real love is only on the fulfilment of the desires and not on the God, who is just used as an instrument. The rocky soil indicates the people who are completely immersed in the worldly bonds. In the association of such people the devotion will not even germinate the plant. The rocky soil can never retain the rainwater. This means that the grace of God can never reach such person. Only the Sunlight remains, which chars the seed finally. This means even if the spiritual knowledge is given to such a person, the knowledge will have only the negative effect. The essence of this whole scripture is that one should be careful in deciding about the association of human beings. The association of devotee’s leads to salvation and the association of the worldly people lead to hell. Shankara says that if you choose correctly the first step the other subsequent steps in a staircase are automatically correct. If the first step is wrong the subsequent steps are automatically wrong. Shankara says that the first step for the salvation is constant association with good devotees and true spiritual preacher (Satguru). The second step is detachment. The third step is dissolution of worldly attraction. The fourth step is the determination to reach God. The final fifth step is achievement of the Lord. Shankara says that if the first step is correctly chosen the final step is automatically attained (Satsangatve Nissangatvam—Shankara). Truth—short and simple? The statements of scriptures are always brief containing an infinite hidden treasure of meaning. For example a verse in Gita is very small containing four lines. But the commentaries on such brief words run to hundreds of pages as written by the great preachers Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. These people and their words are a waste according to you. However the explanation is necessary to understand the hidden truth in the scripture. If you take the brief statement of scripture as it is, several versions appear in the mind. One person says one version is true and the other person says another version is true. Unless all these 98

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versions are clearly discussed and analysed, how the true version can be found out? The constitution contains very brief statements. Why does the judge not give the judgement by simply referring to the brief constitution? Why are advocates employed who argue for years together in the court? The judge as well as the elite audience hear patiently all the arguments. Why does the judge take such a long time to deliver the judgement after hearing the arguments of the advocates for hours together? Sometimes the case may run for several years. Let the judge say that the constitution is brief and valuable. Thus the judge can give the judgement based on the constitution on the same day the case is filed. Why are people employing advocates and why are arguments running for such a long time in the court? The constitution contains all the points relevant to the case. However it is only when the constitution is practically applied to the case that all the problems arise. One advocate applies the same constitution in one way and supports one side. The other advocate applies the same constitution to the other side and supports the other side. Both the versions seem to justify their respecive sides. Which version is to be taken? Why does the teacher explain the subject for so many hours to the class? A brief presentation of the subject is present in the textbook. Let the students read the textbook and write the examinations. What is the necessity of such a year long teaching? Why are there so many seminars, debates and conferences in each branch of knowledge conducted by universities? You are not prepared to enter the debate and want that your interpretation should be simply accepted without any discussion! Scholars will never accept such a suggestion. If you see the Bible, whenever Jesus modified the Old Testament He gave the reason behind it by argument. He supported when somebody saved an animal on the rest day of Sabbath. The Old Testament says that no work should be done on the rest day. The priests asked Jesus that He should follow that statement and therefore, saving of the animal is not correct. If you see only the literal meaning of a statement of the scripture without any discussion, the priests would be correct. But Jesus argued with them regarding the interpretation of that statement. He said that one should not do any bad work on the rest day and doing good work does not require any place or time. He argued that if you postpone a good work like saving an animal fallen in a dangerous pit, to next day, the animal would certainly. Therefore, in view of the urgency of saving the life, the 99

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Old Testament must be interpreted in the correct angle. Jesus gave all these arguments to the priests. The priests had taken just the direct brief meaning of the statement. But Jesus gave several sentences of argument to give its correct interpretation. Now according to you the priests should be correct because they took the brief statement of the scripture and the brief direct meaning of the statement. The reasoning of Jesus is in several statements as an argument. Now according to you Jesus and His words should all be a waste and you should pray for Him also. I will ask you one more point. Why do Christian preachers speak so many sentences in giving the interpretation of a single statement from the Bible? They give very long lectures based on the statements of the Bible. Do you mean to say that their explanations containing a large number of sentences are all a waste? According to you they should simply read the Bible to the public and they should be brief. They should not explain the meaning of a statement of the Bible. Will of God All My devotees were very much pained at the emails of the converted Christian devotee and some of them even became furious. But I told all of them that he is My dearest friend and all the devotees along with Me should be very grateful to him because all this ocean of knowledge came out like a tsunami only due to him who is the cyclone and earthquake. He has acted on the will of God only. Not a single devotee of My circle could bring out such tidal waves of knowledge from Me. The name of the converted Christian devotee shall be written in golden letters in the history of our Universal Spirituality. I request all My devotees to preserve all the emails sent by him and My response. After receiving the experiences and logical analyses of the devotees regarding Me, we shall publish everything truly as a book called “Identification Of The Human Incarnation”.

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Chapter - 9

IMAGINABLE & VISIBLE MEDIUM O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Dasara: Day-9 October 2, 2006} The three qualities are not distinguished in the spiritual path by God as long as the possessor of these three qualities does not disturb the balance of the society which is the stage for the divine play of the God. Scriptures say that all the three qualities co-exist always and never a single quality can be isolated. For God all the three qualities are one and the same which are created by Him only. These three qualities bring variety in the divine play by combining with each other in different proportions causing multi natured scenes. These are just like three basic colors which are mixed in various proportions to develop various shades. All the spiritual preachers have predomination of Sattvam which is a favorable medium for knowledge. You must be calm and peaceful without any disturbance for preaching or grasping the knowledge. Such nature is sattvam. During preaching, the human incarnation also uses the same medium as usual. Narasimha exhibited Rajas showing the climax of anger and tension, which was required to the context. Krishna exhibited Tamas in dancing with Gopikas with excess of blind love on them which is the climax of ignorance. Gita says that Rajas indicates action. Tamas indicates determination of decision with rigidity. Thus, the rigid practice is a mixture of Tamas and Rajas. The Tamas was used by Krishna to cut their bonds with their family members according to their request in the previous birth. Such Tamas cannot be equated to the lust on women for selfish happiness as seen in human beings, even though both look same externally. The surgeon cuts the stomach of the patient with the knife for the welfare of the patient based on his request only. A criminal also does the same with a knife for his selfish end and this murder cannot be equated to the above surgery even though both look same externally. The three qualities are used by God to uplift the devotees and not for any selfish end. The same three qualities are used by human beings for fulfilling their selfish desires. All the three qualities are equally good when these are used by God. All three qualities are equally bad when 101

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these are used by human beings. Demons used Rajas and Tamas in wrong direction due to egoism, ambition and jealousy. But Narasimha and Krishna used the same Rajas and Tamas to uplift the devotees without any selfish motive. Krishna used Sattvam to uplift Arjuna by preaching Gita. Shakuni used the same Sattvam (Knowledge) in the form of preaching to ruin the Kauravas. A sage throws seeds on the ground to feed the birds. A hunter also throws seeds on the ground to trap and kill the birds. The direction of the quality decides whether the quality is good or bad. Otherwise all the three qualities are equally good since these are created by God only. Everything in the creation is good only because everything is created by God only (Mattaeveti—Gita). These three qualities represent the three sacred energetic forms of God (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva).

God Cause of All Causes In the world every item is a cause for something and is effect of some other thing. For example energy is the cause of matter and matter is the cause of an object with a form. Matter is effect of energy and is the cause of the object. For energy God is the cause and for God is there is no cause. God always remains in the causal state only and is the cause of all the causes indirectly also. For energy God is the direct cause. For matter God is hidden indirect cause through the energy. Energy cannot modify into matter by itself without God. Thus, directly or indirectly God is the cause of every causal item (Akhilahetuhetum—Vyasa). The energy has no will but has the capacity to create by modification. The awareness has will but has no capacity to create any worldly item like energy or matter. Every item in the world has some defect by which it cannot prove itself to be the cause for other causal items. If energy has the capacity to wish, one can spontaneously conclude that energy is God. If awareness has the capacity of worldly creation, one can easily conclude that awareness is God. God has no defects (Nirdoshamhi— Gita). If you neglect the defect of the item, you can call any item as God through metaphor. But you should remember that God is not actually any item in the creation. Any item in the creation can stand for God as representative model if its merit is only considered. With this angle only, all words can be used to represent God by all their merits (Sahasra Nama stotram). Even then God is only possessor of those merits, which are not the real inherent characteristics of God since God is 102

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unimaginable. Thus, God is not a group of all these items in which case God should have all the merits and all the defects of all these items as His inherent characteristics. If you imagine a group of items having only the merits, then also such proposal faces two objections: 1) The God is single but not the multiple of items 2) Such group of items having only merits is imaginary (since each item is imaginable) without any practical evidence and this again contradicts the total unimaginable nature of God. Thus, Infinite Ocean of energy having the quality of will (awareness) is only imaginary. You have the infinite ocean of inert energy as creator of this world but it is not the designer. You have the awareness as the designer but it is discontinuous in the form of living beings. A combination of these two is imaginary and is called as Brahman by the spiritual preachers because the unimaginable God has to be introduced through some different medium other than the existing media in the world. The Veda has negated all the existing items as God and there is no other alternative than to bring some imaginable item which does not exist in the world. The existence of such imaginary ocean of awareness is again contradicting the unimaginable nature of Brahman (God) as stated in the Veda. Such imaginary infinite ocean can be imagined by the intelligence and cannot be the unimaginable God in real sense. Such imaginary ocean can be the medium (creation) only but not the creator. Such medium charged by God can be taken as Brahman (God) as the live wire is considered as current. But remember that such medium is again imaginable and invisible. You are representing the unimaginable God through invisible medium but such medium is not unimaginable. The concept is that such an ocean represents God but not actually the God. Instead of this, it is better to represent God through visible and imaginable medium. Even the energetic body like Narayana is invisible and imaginable. The invisible medium can only represent God but cannot be the God. In such case why not we represent God by visible medium? For representation, the visible and invisible media can have the same chance since both the media are imaginable and cannot be God actually. The best convenient imaginable and visible medium is the human body. The other inert items are also imaginable and visible but do not serve the purpose of preaching knowledge and receiving your service. The medium should be visible (and imaginable) and also should serve 103

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the main purpose of visit of God to the earth. If you take such imaginary ocean of awareness, the process of creation also cannot be explained properly. If the world is projection of such awareness, the entire world should be alive without any inert item. You may say that the awareness is basically inert energy and therefore both life and inert objects are projected in the world. This point is ruled out because the imaginary ocean is homogeneously awareness every where even though it is basically inert energy. In such case the whole world also should be homogeneously living beings only which may be basically inert energy. But the world shows living beings and inert objects separately. In such case the ocean must be a heterogeneous mixture of both awareness and inert energy. Even if you take Lord Narayana in the place of ocean, the entire world must have all pervading awareness resembling the body of Lord Narayana in which the awareness pervaded all over. You cannot say that logic should not be applied to the process of creation by God. When you have defined God in terms of medium, such God is within the boundaries of the creation and cannot be the creator. Logic must exist in all the definable items of the creation. While explaining the process of the creation, the subject – object concept should be protected. If you say that the entire object (World) is subject (God), then there is no entertainment to God because there is no difference between subject (Drashta) and object (Drusya). In order to protect this, you have to say that a part of the ocean of inert energy is modified into inert world in the beginning. Such modification was done by the will of God who did not charge the ocean and then God is expected to exist outside the ocean. After the creation, the remaining ocean is charged by God (Subject) so that the dualism exists for the sake of entertainment. Similarly, the inert energy of the Lord Narayana and His awareness can be explained in the same above sequence. The energy of the body cannot modify into the world because the body gets deformed. The awareness in the body should have been modified into the world, in which case, the above objection facing the ocean of awareness repeats here also. The awareness in the world is seen as the dependent on nervous system and inert energy of the body. In the ocean of awareness, the generation of awareness without nervous system can be objected. In such case you have to say that the awareness of the ocean is due to the super power of God. This independent divine awareness differs from the natural awareness which depends on the nervous system. In such case you 104

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cannot call this depending awareness as the independent Brahman which is independent divine awareness. In such case, you can take directly the unimaginable God and justify the unimaginable awareness that is generated by God directly without assuming the imaginary ocean. Ofcourse even the imaginable nervous system and the dependable awareness are also created by God but such creation is indirect as the cause of cause. The difference between the two types of awareness with reference to absence and presence of nervous system is also created by God. Unless the natural power exists as contrast, the super natural power has no meaning. There no significance of day without the night. When the difference is established, the superpower can be used to indicate God directly without any mediator like ocean of awareness, where as the natural power indicates the ordinary soul. When the super power is exhibited, the unimaginable reason only indicates God. Except this unimaginable reason, all other components of miracle are imaginable only. The finger of Krishna, the mountain and the lifting process are the imaginable components of the miracle. The reason behind the lift of the mountain by a tender boy is unimaginable that indicates the existence of God in Krishna. The divine will of God (or the imaginary ocean of awareness, if you insist on a mediator to represent God through medium) and the natural will of the soul are one and the same in the content i.e., awareness. Both wills (awareness) are imaginable items only. Hence, the divine will cannot be the inherent characteristic of the unimaginable God. The reason for the generation of the divine will without nervous system is unimaginable which is attributed to the unimaginable God. Therefore, any imaginable property cannot be the inherent sign of the God. God is the generator of divine will which is responsible for the divine worldly works. Soul is generator of the natural will which is responsible for the natural worldly works. Therefore, the fruits of works of soul bind only the soul and not the God. The generation of the soul (Atman) is also by God but the generation of natural will (feeling or quality) is by the soul only. If God is soul, the works of the soul will bind God by their fruits. Since all the souls are the same God, the different fruits of the different souls have to be enjoyed by all the souls in the form of the God. You may say that the pure awareness (Atman) is not bound by the fruits and the subtle body (Jiva) is only bound as doer. But the subtle body (Bundle of strong 105

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feelings called as Samskaras) is made of pure awareness only. If the waves of the water are beaten, the water is also beaten. The soul being the very awareness has to be aware of the pain in the punishments. Such awareness of pain is the process of receiving the punishment. God is responsible for the creation of entire Mula Maya and Maha Maya. In the field of Maya, God is responsible only up to the divine play. The soul is responsible for its own Maya (forms created by soul like house etc., and all its feelings). The soul also generates the feelings with the power of God only and thus God is the indirect cause of feelings also. But the design of the feeling is directed by the soul and hence the soul is responsible for the fruits. The direction of journey decided by you gives you the fruits but the vehicle that is responsible for the journey does not receive any fruit. God is responsible for the process of feeling but the design of the feeling is done by the soul, which receives the fruit. In Gita Lord says that He is not the doer, not creating any action and not receiving any fruit, since the natural will of the soul is totally responsible (Svabhavastu…). God is the creator of awareness and the process of feeling (Kartaramapi…) but not the creator of the design and direction of the feeling (Viddhyakartaramavyayam). The soul is given freedom to design the feelings. The soul is directed by the previous strong feelings (Samskaras) for which also the soul was responsible in their generation during the previous births. These samskaras were generated from the soul and cover it as the algae produced from the pond cover it fully. The soul is controlled by these samskaras as the paralysis produced in the body controls the body itself. The soul (Atman) is limited to the awareness existing in this bundle of samskaras (Jiva). The awareness cannot come out of these samskaras in pure state. When you say that the Jiva goes to the upper world, it means Atman confined to Jiva also travels and hence it is correct to say that Jivatman travels. You can never separate Atman from Jiva though the reverse is possible. You can separate waves from the water when the waves disappear but you cannot separate water from waves when the waves exist. Such samskaras can be smashed only by stronger concepts of the divine knowledge which are like the flashes of divine fire. Thus, the entire fate of the soul can be changed only by the divine knowledge which should be grasped patiently, digested slowly and practiced after full determination.

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Chapter - 10

CONTEMPORARY HUMAN INCARNATION Necessity for Human Form of God O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, What is the need of the unimaginable God to come down to this earth in imaginable and invisible human body? Let God control the world without coming in to the world by destroying the injustice and establishing the justice everywhere through His unimaginable power itself. This is the general psychology of most of devotees. Students in a classroom think that the principal of the institution need not come to their classroom personally to teach the syllabus. Let the principal sit in his office and control the whole administration of the institution. This is the psychology of many students. But, some students desire the principal to act as the teacher of their class also and teach the syllabus. The principal selects a particular class only for him to act as the teacher of that class. Simultaneously, he acts as principal of the entire institution also containing several other classes. Similarly, some devotees on this earth want to see, touch, talk and co-live with God during their lives. Such desire need not exist with all the human devotees. God comes in human form to satisfy the desire of such few devotees only and reveals Himself to them only. For others, He appears as ordinary human being only and controls the entire universe simultaneously as the invisible Lord (Ishwara). God came as Krishna for Gopikas only, who were sages with such specific desire. Krishna behaved as an ordinary human being following all the principles of society to the entire humanity. He showed special behavior only to Gopikas since they desired so. The sages wanted that the Lord should cut their strongest worldly bonds (three Ishanas), which were with wealth, children and life partners. He destroyed those strongest worldly bonds by stealing their hard earned butter, by attracting their children to Him and by dancing with them in Brindavanam. Finally their bonds were fixed with Him only and the Lord left Brindavanam and never returned because the purpose of their prayer was served. The Lord did not show such behavior anywhere after leaving that place because such devotees with such specific prayer were 107

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concentrated in Brindavanam only. Therefore, the purpose of human incarnation is highly specific and not general to every one. The principal controls the whole institution but as a teacher, he is confined to a particular classroom only, which alone is selected by him for teaching. The behavior of a human being (Nara or jeeva) is for all the general public, where as the behavior of God (Narayana or Ishwara) is for specific selected group of devotees only for whom the human incarnation arrived. The human incarnation will not feel hurt when the general public does not recognize Him as God because it is irrelevant to them. The Gita and Bible say that very few only recognize God in human form.

Composition of Human Incarnation The actual technology of human incarnation is the entry of unimaginable God in to a selected imaginable and visible human being called as son of God by Bible. If you analyse the human being, it consists of three components: 1) the external visible human body made of five elements (sthula shareera), 2) the inner imaginable human body made of three qualities in various combinations, which are vibrations of pure awareness (sukshma shareera or jeeva) and 3) the innermost invisible human body, which is pure awareness (karana shareera or atman). The human being is like a metallic wire made of three metals alloyed together, which may be: 99% copper (sthula visible to eyes), 0.9% silver (sukshma visible through microscope) and 0.1% gold (karana visible through powerful microscope). The unimaginable God enters the human being and pervades all over the body like the invisible current entering the above mentioned visible metallic wire. The jeevatman (2 and 3 components together) acts like PA [personal assistant] to God. The external human body (first component) acts like the house. The PA and the house constitute the human being. The human being can be called as human body because the PA has no individuality and simply follows the orders of the God like an inert object and is almost similar to the inert human body. Hence, the PA and the house together can be treated as the inert human body. When we say that God entered the human body, it means that PA is included in the house. It should not be taken as simply God and external human body only without PA. The word ‘Manushim tanum’ in Gita means the human body including the PA. Veda says that the two birds are on one tree 108

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(Dvaasuparnaa…). Ramanuja refered the two birds to God and Jeevatman (PA) and the tree as the external human body. Shankara applied this even to the human being taking the two birds as Jeeva and Atman in the human body.

The Three Views of Human Incarnation Advaita, Vishishtaadvaita and Dvaita are the three angles of the discussion of the human incarnation. Advaita says that PA should be taken as God (Jeevo brahmaiva…). God being unimaginable cannot be counted as an item because only imaginable items are counted. Therefore, the PA, the single countable item, himself is God. Through the unimaginability (characteristic), only the existence of God is experienced (Asteetyeva… Veda) and still God is not grasped or imagined. The alive wire is current and through the shock characteristic, the existence of the current is imagined. God cannot be directly experienced like the current without wire. Even Ishwara is energetic body charged by God. Even if you go to power station, we have to experience current only through some special wire. The angle of the devotee worshipping the human incarnation must be Advaita. To remind this angle to devotees, the PA says that he is God. Shankara told that He is Lord Shiva from this angle only. From his own angle, the PA in Shankara says that he is the servant of God. The same Shankara prayed Lord in several prayers. Sai Baba always remembered God as the master (Allah Malik) from the angle of PA. Sometimes He told that He is God and showed divine visions also to preach the angle of devotees towards Him. As long as PA remains in Dvaita from his angle, he is maintained in Advaita for devotees. If the PA really feels Advaita from his angle and says that he is God, he will be thrown in to Dvaita before the devotees. Parashurama, the human incarnation was insulted by Rama when he went in to Advaita from his angle. Rama always remained in Dvaita from his angle and God maintained him in Advaita throughout his life. Vishishtaadvaita (Ramanuja) says that God and PA are inseparable but they are two items. Dvaita (Madhva) says that God and PA are always two separate items and that even PA is servant to God. God as creator and human beings in the creation are related by the master and servant relationship. The human being is a part of the creation itself and is for the entertainment of God. The main sign of identification of the human incarnation is only true, infinite and special 109

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knowledge as per Veda because the constantly associated program of God in coming to earth is only to direct the souls through the divine knowledge. Such special divine knowledge (Prajnaanam) is not the original characteristic (Swarupa lakshanam) of God but since it is constantly associated (Tatastha lakshanam) with God, it can be taken as the original characteristic (Prajnanam Brahma… Veda, Jnaneetvaatmaiva… Gita) for the sake of His identification due to nonavailability of His original characteristic. Nobody knows the original characteristic of God except God Himself. The Veda says that God alone knows God (Brahma vit Brahmaiva…). The Gita says that nobody knows God (Maamtuveda na…). Therefore, this special knowledge, which can be treated as the original characteristic can never be attained by anyone except Himself. God pleased by penance gives superpowers to demons also to perform miracles and hence, miracles cannot be the sign of God. Moreover miracle is violation of the set-up of the principles of nature and nature is the administration set up by God Himself. No administrator generally likes to violate his own administration unless he sees the real necessity. Therefore, God does miracles only in case of real necessity and rare emergency in the case of the deserving situations only. Demons often perform miracles for the exhibition of their ego and for fame.

System of Spiritual Preachers Headed by God The energetic human forms like Vishnu, Shiva, Father of heaven of other religions etc., are the presiding deities of the upper worlds. Similarly, the present alive human incarnation is the presiding deity of this earth in the corresponding human generation. The energetic forms are permanent and are the various forms of God, which are for the sake of souls in human energetic forms after death, which entered those worlds. Thus, God exists simultaneously in various energetic forms in the upper world. Similarly, God exists in various human forms (human incarnations) simultaneously on this earth for the sake of souls existing in human forms (human bodies). In the human incarnation, the human body is always temporary since the five elements in the body try to separate. According to science also this is proved because the body is in higher state of free energy compared to the native state of the five elements. The energetic form is eternal because the form contains only single component of energy. In a generation of humanity, God can also 110

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exist in various human forms simultaneously in various regions or in the same region with different programs. Shri Shiridi Sai Baba and Shri Akkalkot Maharaj existed in the same region and in the same time with slight difference in their programs. Depending on the various levels of the spiritual aspirants, the liberated souls accompanying God also exist in various human forms to support the main program of God. It is unnecessary for you to analyze whether the human form is God or a liberated soul. You should be always concerned about the suitability of the preacher (Guru) to your level and thus there is no need of analyzing the Guru. The system of spiritual preachers is one unit headed by one God of this entire universe like the group of teachers in a college headed by the principal. You will get the teacher suitable to the level of your class. The principal is also the teacher who can visit any class or may teach a particular class also. The principal is not only responsible for the teaching in his class, but also has a total responsibility over all the teachers to verify whether the teaching is correct or not in the various classes. You need not worry about the responsibility of your class teacher as well as the principal. The principal is well aware of his responsibility and is capable to implement his responsibility. He is always doing the overall supervision of the entire school. His meetings with other teachers are not conducted in your presence since it is totally unnecessary for you. You may doubt the overall supervision of the principal in his duty. But you need not have any trace of doubt regarding God who is omnipotent and omniscient. The defect always lies on your side only in implementing the spiritual knowledge in practice and you bother about others to cover your defects. A student who is not studying well finds fault with the teacher and reports to the principal and also reports to the management about the principal.

Human Incarnation is for People on Earth For the people on this earth, the present contemporary human incarnation is always the concerned authority. There is no difference between the energetic form of God and the alive human incarnation as far as the inner God is concerned. Both are equally powerful, but you should note the relevance of your concerned authority. You may have a problem of electricity in your house. Regarding it, you can go even up to the Chief Minister of your State. The Chief Minister of other state will not solve your problem since he is not concerned to your state. 111

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When Lord Shiva fought with Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva was defeated (Bhagavatam). What is the meaning of this? It only means that the concerned authority of the earth in that time was only Lord Krishna, the then human incarnation. Except this point, there is nothing else because the same God exists in both Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna. It is important to note the authority of the presently existing alive Chief Minister of your state. If you approach the statue or the photo of the past Chief Minister of your state, who is not alive, there is no practical use. The present Chief Minister is homogeneous with all the past Chief Ministers of your state and Chief Ministers of other states also and is in no way different from them. If you neglect the alive Chief Minister and cry before the photos of the past Chief Ministers or Chief Ministers of other states, what is the use? You can respect the photos and statues of those Chief Ministers and draw the inspiration for which the existing Chief Minister also is a supporter. He also respects the photos of the past Chief Ministers and also the Chief Ministers of other states. Similarly, you can have all the theoretical devotion like discussions, songs etc., as far as the statues or photos are concerned. But the practical devotion like serving through sacrifice of work and fruit of work should be done only to the present human incarnation and His team as you pay tax and serve your state chief minister only. Your preacher is more important for your practical devotion than the photo or statue of the past incarnation. It is better to serve the alive peon of the department than serving the photo of a past Chief Minister. It is better to approach even an alive devotee for consultation and guidance than to approach a photo of past incarnation. Even Meera approached Tulasi Das for clarification in leaving the house even though she was worshipping the statue of Krishna constantly. The life is the basic essential requirement for the practical devotion. It is better to serve even a beggar in the name of God than serving the photo or statue of the past incarnations and the energetic forms of God, which are meant for the development of the theoretical devotion only. The undeserving people are receiving your practical service hiding behind the photos and statues. They are like the present politicians who are exploiting the public to receive the revenue paid by the public by hiding behind the photos of the previous great leaders. You must see the deserving candidate asking for your vote who enjoys the tax paid by you. You should not vote the undeserving candidate by seeing the photos of the past great leaders. Your revenue 112

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should go to the alive candidate who deserves. Same concept applies in the spiritual service also. Logical analysis is one and the same whether it is Pravrutti or Nivrutti. The whole background of crucifixion of Jesus was only this. Priests were receiving the practical service from the public in the name of God through churches and they feared that Jesus, the contemporary human incarnation of their generation might snatch away such service from the public. Christianity mentions God coming in human body as God-in-flesh. Hinduism also mentions the same concept (Manushim tanumasritaam… Gita). The inherent jealousy and ego of human beings covers the eyes of the human beings and prevents them to recognize God in human body, which exists before their eyes because the repulsion between likes is natural. Very few people like Gopikas only recognized even Lord Krishna, who proved their full faith through their total surrender to Him. This was mentioned by the Lord in the Gita (Kaschitmaam vetti…). Lord says that one in millions only recognizes Him as God. Today there are millions of devotees who recognize Krishna as God because Krishna does not exist today. Hence, the human incarnation may be believed but never the contemporary human incarnation, which exists before the eyes. Even Jambavaan, who recognized Rama as the human incarnation, could not recognize Krishna and fought with Him. There are such devotees who believe in one human incarnation only. When Krishna appeared as Rama, then only Jambavaan could recognize that the same God who came as Rama in one particular human body came as Krishna in another human body. This clearly shows that God comes in human body again and again. Infact, God comes in human form in every human generation so that God is impartial to every human generation. If God came in human body in one particular human generation only and gave the fortune of direct association with the deserving devotees, the deserving devotees of other human generation are deprived of such direct fortune and this makes God partial. The Lord told that He would come down whenever it is necessary (Yadaayadaahi… Gita). Jesus told that He would come again. This does not mean that He will come only once in the future. When your relative leaves your house, he says that he will come again. Does that mean that he will come only once in the future?

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Path followed by Greatest Devotees There is no greater devotee than Hanuman and Gopikas in the entire creation. The fruits achieved by them were highest. Hanuman became the creator or God. Gopikas were granted a special world called Goloka, which is above the abode of God Himself. Such highest fruits speak the best spiritual path followed by them. They never worshipped the energetic human forms of the upper worlds (like Shiva, Vishnu etc.), which are relevant only to the departed souls in energetic human forms that reached the upper world. They never worshipped statues or photos of past human incarnations. They worshipped their contemporary human incarnations only. Gopikas worshipped Krishna and not the statue of Rama and Hanuman worshipped Rama and not the statue of Vamana. Gopikas were householders and worshipped Krishna by sacrificing butter, which was the fruit of their hard work (karma phala tyaga). Hanuman was a saint and sacrificed work by participating in the war in the work of Rama (karma sanyasa). They never did any other form of worship like chanting the name or singing songs or doing meditation or serving the photos and statues. This clearly shows that the highest fruit can be achieved only by serving the contemporary human incarnation through either sacrifice of work or sacrifice of fruit of work only. The requirement of Lord decides the nature of service that is whether the service should be sacrifice of fruit of work or sacrifice of work. Krishna was a boy and required good food to grow and then did not require the service through work like participation in the war. The same Krishna required the sacrifice of work from Arjuna in a later period through participation in the war. Gopikas and Arjuna were householders. Therefore, a householder is eligible to do sacrifice of work or fruit of work according to the requirement and also the convenience. Gopikas cannot participate in the war even if the Lord requires it. Hanuman is a saint and can do only sacrifice of work. A saint does not possess anything and also does not earn. Therefore, sacrifice of fruit of work is not convenient to the saint. Hence, based on the requirement and convenience, the work and fruit of work is sacrificed in the service of the contemporary human incarnation. This is the essence of the three great epics like Ramayana, Bharatam and Bhagavatam, which is to be understood to help the spiritual effort. Otherwise, these epics are enjoyed as stories of entertainment only. The practical service is like the plate of meals, 114

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which can be arranged only with the help of your hard earned money. The theoretical devotion involving sacrifice of words through prayers and songs, sacrifice of mind through meditation and devotional feelings and sacrifice of intelligence through discussions of knowledge is like drinking water that is freely obtained from a municipal tap. God supplies the words, mind and intelligence freely to you. By the sacrifice of such theoretical devotion of words, mind and intelligence, one should not aspire any fruit. The drinking water is not charged even in a commercial hotel. Today, we charge God for fruits for such theoretical devotion also. Knowledge and devotion are like water and fertilizer. The service is like the plant, which alone can yield the fruit. Water and fertilizer should be applied to the plant (service) and service alone can yield the fruit because service is action. The practical service is the real proof of the theoretical devotion. The real love is proved by practical service only, which is sacrifice of work and fruit of work. Such practical service is not impossible because we are doing the same to our children. We are not doing the theoretical devotion like chanting the name, singing songs etc. in the case of our children. The theoretical devotion without practical service (practical devotion) is false love and is shown only in the case of God. If the practical service is impossible, it should be impossible everywhere. It is quite possible in the case of our children. Thus the nature of the path to please God should be understood from Hanuman and Gopikas, which is the practical experience of the greatest devotees. Arjuna was born as a hunter in the next birth and such lower birth shows inadequate faith in the contemporary human incarnation. Arjuna did not believe Krishna completely. He believed in Shiva, who is God in human energetic form in the upper world and did penance for Shiva to get the powerful weapon (Pashupatam) to win the war. Therefore, Krishna told that He would not use any weapon and fight in the war because Arjuna did not have full faith in Him. Arjuna is called as ‘Nara’, which means the human being. This indicates that the human beings will never have full faith in the contemporary human incarnation due to ego and jealousy towards the co-human forms. Arjuna was treating Krishna as an ordinary human being only with certain extraordinary powers (Aparam bhavato janma… Gita).

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Where Hanuman and Arjuna differ? You can understand the difference between Hanuman and Arjuna. Hanuman is worshipped as God and separate temples are built for Hanuman. Arjuna is not worshipped like Hanuman and has no temple. The reason is Hanuman used Himself in God’s work where as Arjuna used God in his work. Both Hanuman and Arjuna participated in the war to destroy the injustice and establish justice. But, Hanuman participated in the war and clearly knows that the fruit of war (attainment of Sita) is for the Lord only. Arjuna participated in the war knowing that the fruit of the war (attainment of kingdom) is for himself only. The initial motive in doing the work decides the final fruit. Arjuna came to know that the war is also the work of God on hearing the Gita from the Lord but that was not the initial motive of Arjuna to participate in the war. If you see the case of Hanuman, it is quite different. The Lord (Rama) was actually fighting to destroy the injustice. But, the actual motive of the Lord was completely masked by the Lord Himself because the Lord told Ravana that He will withdraw from the war if Sita is returned. This means that the Lord appeared as if He is not interested in the welfare of the society and is interested only in attaining His selfish fruit only. It appeared so, that if Sita is returned, Rama will go back and Ravana can continue his injustice in the world. Therefore, it appeared as if the war was only for the selfish benefit of Rama and not for the benefit of the society. Now the war completely appears as personal work of Rama only and not at all the social work. Now, if Hanuman really believes Rama as Lord, then only the war is the work of the Lord. If there is any deficiency in the faith of Hanuman, the war will appear as pure personal work of a human being only at the cost of damage to the society. Thus the faith of Hanuman was tested. Hanuman participated in the war because Lord is greater than the society and Lord’s work is more precious than social work. Therefore, Hanuman did not object Rama at this point and participated in the work of Lord only and not with a motive of social work. This is the greatest test of Datta. Even though Hanuman and Arjuna participated in the same type of service to the Lord, which is destruction of injustice, the fruits for both differed a lot. The difference in the fruits is due to the difference in their faiths on the contemporary human incarnation. Both have full faith in God, but the full faith on Rama and lack of faith on Krishna as God brought such vast difference in the fruits. The faith (theoretical devotion) without service 116

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is useless. At the same time, the service without faith is also equally useless. Both the plant (service) and fertilizer (faith) are essential for the production of the healthy fruit. Rama acted as an example for ordinary human beings where as Hanuman acted as an example for devotees. In the case of Hanuman, the God’s work and social work competed with each other and Hanuman voted for God’s work only. Rama stood for human form of God and Hanuman stood for God’s devotee. Hanuman is incarnation of Lord Shiva and is God Himself but acted in the role of a devotee along with contemporary human incarnation. Adi Shankara is also an incarnation of God Shiva but He was in the role of human incarnation of God, which came for social service through propagation of knowledge. There is no other human incarnation in His case and there is no competition of personal service of human incarnation and social service. However, if you take Adi Shankara in the role of a devotee also, He also left His mother like Hanuman for the sake of God. The essence of both the cases is that God’s work is greater than family and society. If you trace the future birth of Arjuna, it is a demotion from second place to sixth place according to Guru Charitra of Shri Narasimha Saraswati in which the descending seven births are Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vyshya, Shudra, Gangaputra (fisherman), Vyadha (Shabara) and finally Chandala were mentioned in order. Ofcourse, these births are not based on the present caste system of birth but the caste is based on qualities and actions (Guna karma vibhagashah…Gita). When Arjuna was born as Kannappa (Vyadha), he got back the samskara (the strong mental bent or attitude) of his previous birth, which was devotion to Shiva, the energetic form of the upper world. Kannappa could not recognize the contemporary human incarnation as usual like Arjuna. Kannappa after death went to Shiva Loka in the energetic body (Divya shareera) to worship Shiva. But, the soul in energetic body will neglect the divine energetic form due to the same disease of repulsion between likes. Veda says that this disease effects even the angels, who are the souls in energetic bodies (Paroksha priyaa ivahi devaah pratyaksha dvishah…). Even Indra, the Lord of angels was about to hit Lord Shiva with his thunderbolt weapon due to this disease (Vajram mumukshanniva vajrapanih… Raghuvamsha). Hence, the soul of Kannappa in energetic body neglected Lord Shiva because Shiva was also in the meditation state appearing as if He also 117

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worships the higher form of God. This is the divine Maya of the Lord, which is the test for devotees. The soul of Kannappa or Arjuna in the Shiva Loka also entered in to meditation of formless Brahman because Shiva appears as if He meditates upon formless Brahman. Hence, the soul of Kannappa was born as Swami Vivekananda, who was a devotee of formless Brahman through out his life. The soul in the human body of Arjuna or Kannappa worshipped Shiva because there is no repulsion between human body and energetic body. Due to this repulsion of common media only (Pratyaksha dvishah… Veda), Arjuna considered Krishna as his preacher (Shishyasteham… Gita) and Vivekananda also considered Ramakrishna as his preacher only. In the last days of Ramakrishna, one day Vivekananda thought whether Ramakrishna was God really. Then Ramakrishna told Vivekananda that He was Rama and Krishna together. Then only, the layer of common repulsion was destroyed and Vivekananda fell on His feet and got the final salvation. Therefore, unless the repulsion between common media (Pratyaksha dvishah…) is removed for the soul in this world or in the upper world, the salvation is impossible. Now the departed soul of Vivekananda existing in energetic body can recognize Shiva also as the Lord in similar energetic body in the upper world. The Veda says that unless the soul in this human body in this world recognizes the contemporary human incarnation, it cannot recognize the Lord in the upper world also (Ihachet…). The Gita also says the same that only the liberated soul in human body in its existing time recognizes the son of Vasudeva on this earth as God (Vaasudevah sarvamiti…). This again means that the contemporary human incarnation in every human generation should be recognized to get the salvation.

Scriptural Evidence for Incarnation & Path The Veda emphasizes on the sacrifice of work (Kurvanneveha…) and on the sacrifice of fruit of work (Dhanena tyagenaikena…). The Gita also gives lot of stress on sacrifice of work (Matkarma paramobhava…) and on sacrifice of fruit of work (Karmajam buddhi yuktahi phalam tyaktva…) everywhere. The Veda gives focus on the contemporary human incarnation (Ihachet…, Aparokshaat Brahma…). The four great statements (Maha Vakyas) speak about the contemporary human incarnation. The first three statements say that the external human form of God is like Myself, yourself and himself. The last 118

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statement says the internal form of God is identified by the constantly associated special divine knowledge called as Prajnaanam. The main purpose of God coming in human form is only to give direction to all the human beings in the spiritual path and therefore, the radiation of knowledge is the main program and becomes internal sign. God actually is unimaginable and the Veda speaks about this point in several places (Yato vachah…, Na medhaya…, Yasyaamatam…, Naishaa tarkena…). The Gita also says the same (Maamtuveda na kaschana…). God takes the relevant medium to approach the devotees, who are fond of direct worship. The departed souls in the human energetic bodies in the upper world worship God in the same energetic human form. Similarly, the souls in the human bodies on this earth worship God in similar human body. Ofcourse, only blessed souls can recognize the Lord on this earth and in the upper world. Other souls either on the earth or in the upper world do not recognize due to ego and jealousy towards the common medium. Due to such repulsion to the common medium only, the human beings on this earth worship the human energetic forms of God of upper worlds through photos and statues. Due to the same reason, even the human beings who accept the human incarnation also worship the past human incarnations only through photos and statues. Only blessed souls like Hanuman and Gopikas, who got rid of ego and jealousy, could worship the contemporary human incarnation. The medium is a part of the creation and human beings are also part of the creation. The creator is hidden in the common part of the creation and approaches the few blessed human beings to receive their direct worship. The other human beings do not recognize the human incarnation before their eyes and God also does not bother about them because the purpose of His arrival was only for the sake of those few blessed devotees.

Faith on Contemporary Incarnation [Mrs. Bhavani (wife of Shri. C.B.K.Murthy) asked Swami “I chant your name everyday in all the times with the help of the bead chain. Is it not the proof for my full faith on You?”] Swami Replied: I will tell you a small story. Nana Chandolkar went into forest and missed the path. He became thirsty and cried for water. He fell down but chanted the name of Baba only. In Shirdi, Baba folded His hands to give a whistle by mouth. Whenever His devotee leaves the body, He whistles like that. But, He did not give the Whistle. 119

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Then Baba appeared before Nana as a hunter, showed water below a stone and also showed the correct path. What is the essence of this? Why Baba was almost prepared to give the whistle? Why He withdrew from it? Nana went into the forest without guide and water bottle due to his egoism. He was a Brahmin-Scholar and was a big officer. These three are sufficient for the climax of egoism. All the agony faced by him was the fruit of his egoistic deed. Therefore, Baba tried to give the whistle, which is a green signal for his death, following the cycle of deeds. But, Baba protected him at last. Why? The only reason is that the faith of Nana on Baba was like that of Hanuman on Rama. Both Nana and Hanuman are believers of the alive human incarnations of their times. If somebody is in the place of Nana, he will change the name of Baba to Shiva to Ganga and finally to Varuna. After sometime the devotee will doubt Baba as an ordinary human being since water was not given. He will pray Shiva since he has Ganges on His head. After sometime he will pray Ganges directly. He will then doubt that Ganga is confined to a river only and is not water in general. Then, he will pray the God of water who is Varuna. The pressure of the time was like that. Therefore, faith on the present human incarnation cannot be concluded when you chant the name sitting in the house comfortably. The real faith will be tested through such severe acid tests.

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Chapter - 11

LEARN TRUTH FROM PAST DEVOTEES’ LIFE O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Guru Purnima-2003 Morning Discourse] Today all of you have surrendered Gurudakshina in the form of some money at My feet for the sake of propagation of divine knowledge and devotion to Lord Datta. The full moon today represents gold or a silver coin (money), which you have to surrender to Guru as ‘Gurudakshina’. Every month, you have to do this on every full moon day and this is reminded by the full moon. But every human being cannot be a Guru. He shall be a ‘Sadguru’ which means the Lord in human form. Only then your money is properly utilized. The money proves your real love. To whom are you giving the money? To your children. So, your real love is on your children, simple and straight test. If you have real love on the Lord, you will give that money to the Lord. No more argument. This is the practical test. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are only the ways to prove your devotion on God to others, which is not real. Ofcourse, they act as side pickles if the main item i.e., rice is present in the meal. The main item here is Gurudakshina, which is called as ‘karma phala tyaga' i.e., sacrificing the fruit (money) of your work for the sake of God. Without the ‘Gurudakshina’, simply by singing and thinking about God is like offering a meal plate in which only pickles are present. You should recognize the ‘Sadguru’ so that your Gurudakshina does not go waste and misused.

Identification Marks of Satguru The ‘Sadguru’ is to be recognized by the infinite true knowledge possessed by Him. The Veda says, ‘Satyam Jnanam ...’, which means that the Lord in human form should be recognized by His true and infinite knowledge. The four greatest statements from the four Vedas also say the same. The first three statements say that God appears in human form like Me, like you and like him. The last statement says that such human incarnation is recognized by His special knowledge. Even scholars give knowledge but their knowledge gives you a headache. The 121

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knowledge of the Lord touches your heart and gives you immense pleasure as said by the Veda, ‘Anando Brahma’. So, by His blissful knowledge, you can recognize the Lord like the fire is recognized by heat. Miracles are not His identity marks. Miracles are performed even by demons like Ravana etc. They are the jewels of the Lord, which are taken by the demons through rigid penance. Demons are also the foolish children of the Lord. So He gives those jewels to the demons as they do penance for them. But by these jewels, demons could not become God, as they could not get His inherent quality i.e., blissful, true and infinite knowledge. Demons claimed that they are God. But sages did not agree for the same reason.

Scriptural References & Devotee’s Life Incidents The entire ‘Bhagavad Gita’ stresses on this ‘Karma phala tyaga’. The first hymn of the first Upanishad (Ishavasyam) says that you should return the extra money you have earned to the lord, which is not permitted by Him. It says that this entire world is His wealth only. Gopikas donated the fruit of their whole work viz., butter to the Lord in human form (Krishna), avoiding even their children and reached the 15th uppermost world called ‘Goloka’. They also surrendered their bodies to the Lord. This body is also the fruit of your previous action called ‘Prarabdha’. By this, they sacrificed even justice and did not even fear for Hell. Their love to the Lord was the highest and so the Lord granted the highest world to them. Their Gurudakshina was everything i.e., their money (butter), their bodies, their minds, their words etc. and what not? Lord was misunderstood that He was always after Gopikas and not males. He was abused as a fan of women. What is the secret in this? A man is surrounded by several egoistic (Rajas) qualities. But a woman has several submissive qualities (Satvam) like fear, obedience etc., which are required for salvation. This is the reason why the male sages were born as Gopikas to attain the salvation. According to Lord Datta, any soul has to take the last birth as a woman. But, this does not mean that every woman is in the last birth. A hunter called Kannappa sacrificed his eyes to the Lord, which are the best parts of the body and is the best ‘Gurudakshina’. The Veda says that you can earn the minimum which is required by yourself and your family which is permitted by the Lord and not extra. If you have taken extra, return it to the Lord. For example, when you have gone to 122

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your friend’s house, you are offered a cup of milk. You can drink the milk but not take away the cup. The Veda says that if you have taken extra, you are a thief and it is a sin. If you return the extra, you will be excused by the Lord. Otherwise, that sinful extra money will lead you to all problems. Some devotees offer even from their minimum or sometimes even their entire minimum. Patil, a devotee of Shiridi Saibaba used to offer his entire annual crop to Baba and took back whatever was given by Baba. When a rich man came for the spiritual knowledge, Baba said, “You could not give Rs 5/- required by Me, how can you know God?’’ Baba used to ask Gurudakshina from everybody only to teach this most essential aspect of ‘karma phala tyaga’. The Lord does not need your money because the entire money is left here only in this world and you go alone with your sin. So, all His money is in His bank only i.e., this world. You are in His bank. You took extra from His bank and while dying, left those extras in His bank only. You have not taken the extra with you except the sin committed by you by taking that extra and atleast by not returning it to Him with your own hands. Shabari offered even her meal i.e., fruits to Lord Rama. This represents good money. The hunter (Kannappa) offered raw flesh to Lord Shiva, which represents sinful money as it was earned by hunting. Both reached the same Lord because Rama (Vishnu) is Shiva. The Veda says, “Shiva is Vishnu (Shivascha...)”. The intensity of love is same in both the devotees. So, if you offer Gurudakshina with full love to the lord, he will not find fault with your sins. Kannappa was given salvation irrespective of his sinful hunting since he did not enjoy that flesh but offered it to the Lord. But if one enjoys, he gets the sin.

Practical Implementation of Karma phala tyaga You offer Gurudakshina to the Lord in Tirupathi after getting some help from Him in your problems. The money offered by you was His money only, which you have stolen as extra. You give that extra money to the Lord to get some work from Him instead of returning that extra money with humble apology. Here also, first you get the work done and then only pay. That is your faith! An atheist gives money to another man and gets his work done in the same way. In what way, you are greater than him? Shri Venkateshwara in Tirupathi is only the external dress of Guru Datta. So today, Guru Datta gives the true 123

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knowledge to you to rectify this. Guru Datta says, “Today, you should leave all this chain of sins and offer Gurudakshina to the Lord without expecting anything in return, because whatever you possess belongs to the Lord only. You give the money in the same shop from which you have stolen. So, you should not take any article from the shop in return. You should give the stolen money to the shop with all apologies and go back. Datta is so kind that by the time you reach your house, hundred articles will be present in your house. You must return the stolen cup to its owner, in which he has given milk required by you. Similarly, you must return the extra money stolen by you to the Lord. This is Gurudakshina. So the attitude here must be apology and fear, but not pride. The Veda says, “Bhiya deyam” which means, give to the Lord with fear. The Veda says, “Samvida deyam” which means that you should recognize the Lord by His knowledge. The Veda also says, “Sraddhaya deyam” which means that you should have patience to search the deserving person i.e., the Lord, for your Gurudakshina. The point here is that you should return the cup to the actual owner and not to some other person. Similarly, you should give Gurudakshina to the Sadguru only because He is the Lord and the actual owner of this entire wealth. People are hasty in doing charity. Store the money with patience day by day and once you recognize the Sadguru, offer the entire stored money to Him as Gurudakshina. That day is real Guru Purnima. Everyday the moon is growing indicating your money, which is being stored with patience. Place, time and deserving person are the three main parts of charity. The last part is the most important. You are giving Gurudakshina to some person at a particular place like Varanasi and on a particular day like full moon day. You are giving unnecessary importance to place and time. But, you are not analyzing that person with your knowledge to know whether he is the Lord or not. Whatever maybe the place and whatever maybe the day, if you are giving all your stored money as Gurudakshina to the actual Guru Datta, that place is Varanasi and that day is Guru Purnima. But, if Datta is not available as an incarnation (Sadguru), the next best alternative is a poor devotee of Datta, because the Lord dwells not only in the incarnation but also in devotees. Sage Narada said this in his ‘Bhakti sutra’ (The principles of devotion) “Tanmayahite...’’ But in the body of a devotee, both Lord and the soul of the devotee co-exist. Lord 124

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advises the soul and that soul has to preach or do the service. In such cases, errors occur. For example, you have donated money to a spiritual trust containing devotees. They simply provide food to 100 pilgrims on a Shivaratri day at Varanasi, which is a total waste. All the pilgrims are capable of earning their food and are not in need of food. In this context, Sadguru feeds one deserving poor devotee for 100 days with your donation. Your money is fully utilized and you get its full fruit. In the case of Sadguru i.e., the incarnation, only Lord lives in the body. So He directly preaches and He does the service without any error. Shiridi Saibaba used to give the Guru Dakshina given to Him to several poor devotees and He knew what, when and to whom it should be given. He knew all the past deeds of each soul. He can never be deceived. But, beggars deceive you by many tricks. After giving Gurudakshina to the Sadguru, you should not verify Him about the use of it. You should have complete faith in Him. If He is Sadguru, naturally He knows its full utility. If you believe the fire is really fire, you need not test it by putting your finger. If your faith is partial, it is like the child of a monkey, which catches the stomach of its mother. Transferring from one place to another is the duty of the mother. But catching firmly is the duty of the baby monkey. In such a case, the baby may fall. But when you have full faith, the Lord catches you and take you up, just like a cat catches its child by her mouth and carries it along. Saibaba after receiving Gurudakshina was not advised or observed by any devotee regarding its expenditure. An income tax officer tried, but failed. He was not giving anything to the poorest devotee called Mahalsa. All the devotees were worried. But, Saibaba was testing Mahalsa for his firm devotion. If he is helped, the test is disturbed. Tests by Datta are only for your use. He knows your levels even without a test. He also teaches you the same. But you do not take it seriously. When you are tested practically and the reality comes out, then only you realize your levels. For this purpose only, Datta conducts tests, but not to know the level of a devotee. He is ‘Sarvajna’ (omniscient) and knows your level even without the test. The full moon represents not only the stored money for Gurudakshina but also represents the full mind or faith. As per the Veda, “Moon stands for money and mind. Moon is Goddess Lakshmi which is the money (Chandram...) and the moon is born from the mind [Chandramah...]”. Saibaba could have asked the people who gave Gurudakshina straightly 125

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to give to those poor devotees to whom He wanted to give. But, He took and gave it to the poor devotees secretly. This tested the faith of the people in him.

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Chapter - 12

CHARACTERISTIC SIGNS OF LORD Need of the Scriptures O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Bhuvaneshwar] A person took some food to give it to a cow. A cow, a donkey, a dog and a cat were present there. He asked, “Which is the cow?” The cow replied “I am the cow”. The person thought that that animal claimed to be the cow due to its ambition to get the food. Therefore, even if you speak the truth you have to see the psychology of the person who is hearing you. The cow said “Recognize the cow by its special characteristic which is the loose skin that hangs below the neck. No other animal will have it.” The person thought that the animal is very intelligent and cunning to give such an identifying sign. The cow should tell him about this identifying sign by referring to the scriptures like this, “The Shastras say that the cow alone has the special loose skin hanging below its neck (Sasnavateegouh)”. The person was then satisfied because the special sign to identify the cow is mentioned in the Shastra (scriptures). Using it he recognized the cow and gave the food to it. Therefore, when the Lord comes in human form, He will not say directly that He is the Lord. If He were to say so, immediately human beings would suspect and doubt Him thinking that He is being egoistic. But if the Lord in human form says that He is not the Lord, people will immediately believe it. People never believe a fellow human being to be the Lord. They will never agree to recognize a particular person as the Lord. Moreover, several people claim to be the Lord. Then who is really the Lord? One must use the identifying signs mentioned in the Veda in order to recognize the Lord. If one is not the Lord and tells the truth, it is good. Man does not have any standard. His faith changes from one minute to another. He is a mixture of the qualities of several animals, because he was created after the animals. A fox will remain a fox forever; similarly a tiger or a goat. But man becomes a tiger in one minute and a fox in the next minute and a combination of a tiger and a 127

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fox in the next minute. The proportion of the nature of fox and tiger varies from time to time. Therefore, the animals can be believed but not man. A demon remains as a demon throughout his life. An angel always remains as an angel. But a man is a mixture of good and bad qualities. The Gita says the same (Anishtamistam misramcha). Arjuna fell at the feet of Lord Krishna and begged Him to preach the truth. Lord Krishna preached that He was the Lord. The Lord was very kind and revealed the truth. He did not want to give any further trouble to Arjuna by making him search and identify the human incarnation by following the Vedic identifying signs. If He had let Arjuna search on His own, Arjuna might have been misled. Therefore, the Lord avoided putting Arjuna through this trouble and told him that He (Krishna) Himself was the Lord. But Arjuna doubted His words and asked Lord Krishna to show Him the Vishwarupam to prove that He was indeed the Lord. The Lord showed the Vishwarupam but Arjuna did not believe completely because he knew that even devils could show miracles.

Possible Pitfalls in Sadhana Arjuna participated as a servant of the Lord in the war to destroy evil people. But when Abhimanyu died, he withdrew himself from the war. This shows that Arjuna was fighting (selfishly) to get back his own kingdom so that he could pass it on to his son. On the eighteenth day of the war, Krishna asked him to get down from the chariot. But Arjuna asked Krishna to get down first because Krishna was the driver of the chariot and the driver of the chariot should get down before the master of the chariot. This shows that Arjuna did not completely realize Krishna as the Lord. Neither Arjuna nor the Pandavas sacrificed their kingdom (fruit of the war) to the Lord. Therefore, their sons were killed and only then did they realize the truth. Lord Krishna preached the Gita to Arjuna and finally told Arjuna “You analyze what I have told you and do whatever you like”. He gave the freedom to Arjuna. Still Arjuna did not realize because Krishna told him again and again that He was the Lord. Krishna should have told the Vedic statements, which are useful to identify the Lord. Thus the Gita shows the possibility of such a misunderstanding, if the Lord in the human form says that He is the Lord. Recognizing the Lord in human form is Jnana Yoga (knowledge). Sacrifice of the fruit of your work to the Lord is Bhakti Yoga. Sacrifice of work to the Lord is Karma Yoga. 128

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The Gopikas, who sacrificed butter to the Lord, without even giving it to their children, are the best examples of Bhakti Yoga. Hanuman is the best example of Karma Yoga, who avoided family life and getting children by remaining a celibate monk, for the sake of the Lord. Recognition of the Lord in human form was done by both Hanuman and the Gopikas and that is Jnana Yoga. They never worshipped any statue instead of the Lord in human form; this is clearly seen from the Valmiki Ramayana and Vyasa’s Bhagavatam. Arjuna only acted as if he was doing Karma Sanyasa. Arjuna was also called ‘Nara’ meaning the human being. The present people are also doing the same thing. They hide their blind love for their families in their heart and act as if they love God. They take the help of the Lord as Arjuna took the help of the Lord in the war. As Arjuna got the kingdom, people get benefits in this world. As Arjuna wanted to give the kingdom only to his children and not to the Lord, present day people also try to give all those benefits to their children only and not to the Lord. The Lord is Omniscient and knows what is behind every outward action of the devotee. There is no use of making a show of applying sacred ash on the forehead. Instead, the white light of knowledge from the ‘third eye’ (eye of knowledge) should spread on the forehead. The third eye of the knowledge-fire should glow instead of the red mark of kumkum applied by devotees on the forehead. One should leave ignorance and should be surrounded by divine knowledge. There is no use of leaving ordinary clothes and wearing saffron silk clothes. You can please the Lord only by the sacrifice of work and by the sacrifice of the fruit of work. The Lord is recognized by His special knowledge, which creates love and bliss in our hearts. He will not show miracles for cheap exhibition. This is the Jnana Yoga explained in the Vedas.

Unmanifest Becomes Manifest The Lord is not modified into the human body like milk changing into curd. The Lord only enters the human body like the electric current entering a wire. The Lord is beyond even your imagination and is called ‘avyakta’ (unmanifest). He cannot be achieved by any human effort. But the kind Lord enters the human body and comes down as a human incarnation. The Gita says the same (Manusheem tanumasritam, Avyaktam vyaktim apannam). This incarnate Lord can be seen and

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touched. You can talk with Him and live with Him. The Lord is only in two states: 1) Avyakta (unmanifest): He cannot be touched even by imagination. 2) Vyakti (manifest): He enters a human body and pervades all over the human body. In between these two states there is no state in which the Lord is available. All this creation is only a modification of His power called ‘Maya’. By touching the Maya you cannot touch Him. The base of Maya is the Lord; like the person in the shirt. By touching the shirt you cannot touch Him. The sacred thread worn by priests consists of three strings, which means that you must catch the human form of the Lord, which is made of the three qualities. Maya is His mind and the world is the modification of His mind. Neither the world nor Maya, which is the power pervading all over the universe, can give you the touch of the Lord. The threads of the shirt are like the Maya. The wrinkles of the shirt are the various items of this world. You cannot say that the Lord as avyakta (unmanifest) is formless. He is beyond your imagination and you cannot say whether He has form or not. The formless power is Maya, which is modified into various forms of the world. People who meditate upon the all-pervading power are only touching the Maya and not the Lord who is the base of Maya.

Secret of Miracles The whole universe itself is a miracle, which is the modification of His mind called Maya. The mind is His energy or power. This power is the substance that pervades all over the world. This Maya (mind) is the water and all the objects of the world are only waves in this Maya. Since the Maya is inseparable from the Lord, you can say that the Lord (Brahman) is modified into the world. When you are day-dreaming and you imagine a dream-city, you are not modified into the city. Only your mind is modified. As your mind changes, so does the dream-city. Therefore according to Maya, anything can take place in this world. The Maya is under the full control of the Lord. The wish of the Lord itself is Maya. All the miracles are only the wishes of the Lord. The Lord may wish to follow certain rules, in such case, there is no miracle. But when the Lord wishes to break some rules, a miracle happens. Therefore, miracles are not the real characteristic signs of the Lord and the power to do them is transferable from the Lord to anybody. The miracles are 130

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only associated characteristics of the Lord like ornaments or jewels. The Lord may exhibit His jewels or may remove and hide them. Lord Krishna exhibited miracles and Lord Rama did not exhibit. A cow should be recognized only by the characteristic loose skin hanging below its neck, which is not present in the case of any other animal. Similarly the Lord must be recognized only by His characteristic signs like Jnana, Prema and Ananda (knowledge, love and bliss). If you recognize the cow by a cow-bell hung in its neck, it is not the correct sign. The cow-bell could be put around the neck of even a donkey. The donkey cannot be the cow. The donkey can never have the loose skin hanging below its neck which is the characteristic of the cow. Therefore the Lord in human form can be recognized only by the special knowledge (Prajnanam) given by Him as said in the Veda. Such Prajnanam alone can generate love and bliss in your hearts. But the miracles are useful to distinguish the Lord from an ordinary scholar. A scholar may also generate a trace of love and bliss and may be sometimes misunderstood to be the Lord. Sometimes the scholar may also perform some miracles. Ravana was a scholar and also performed the miracles. But his knowledge could never generate infinite love and infinite bliss in the heart of anybody. Therefore the true and infinite knowledge that generates infinite love and infinite bliss in your heart is the only characteristic sign of the Lord. You can also decide the Lord by the miracles, which are performed only whenever there is a real necessity. Ravana performed miracles for cheap exhibition. Lord Rama changed the stone into ‘Ahalya’ and also broke the bow of Lord Shiva. He also removed the pride of Parasurama. All these are miracles performed by Rama were done with dignity and only when they were absolutely necessary.

Miracle is Violation of God’s Admnistration [Shri. Nikhil forwarded the request from a devotee for the need of miracle in his personal problems. The devotee asks for the reason of the problems.] Swami Replied: Miracle means the violation of the regular administration of God to be done by God Himself! Unless there is an extraordinary emergency in the case of a deserving devotee or a specific need in the divine mission of God, miracle does not appear. The devotee deserves a miracle when he or she does not aspire for it even in dream 131

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and is really involved in the divine mission of the Lord. This is the context of the miracle from the side of the devotee. The miracle can also take place from the side of God whenever a need arises in the divine work. If God feels that an atheist can be converted through a miracle, it takes place. If God feels that a miracle can improve the faith or devotion of a devotee, then also a miracle can happen. These two cases are from the side of God and not from the side of devotee. This means that if the devotee says that he will be converted or he will develop the faith and devotion by a miracle, God will not do the miracle unless in His view there is a real hope for it. Even without the request from devotee or atheist, God will exhibit the miracle if God has hope. In any case the devotee should not aspire for the miracle even in the mind. The miracle will happen spontaneously if God is convinced. There is no need of any initiation or interaction from the side of the soul. Even a deserving devotee sometimes reduces the speed of the miracle by aspiring for it. The whole problem lies with miracles is that the attention of the soul to God is completely diverted to His power only. The Vedantin (Philosopher) becomes Shakteya (Applied scientist using the power). I advise you to keep silent about you problem and to withdraw your mind from the problem. For this, you can take the help of Atma Yoga, which says that you are pure awareness without thoughts. The Atma Yoga will give you immediate relief like a pain killer, which is not the real medicine to solve your problem-illness. Now you attach yourself to God through prayers, songs, service etc. In this attachment to God, your detachment from the problem becomes natural and in this stage Atma Yoga is not required. When the medicine starts working to remove your illness, pain killer is not necessary. When the illness is reduced, the pain also gets reduced. The attachment to God gives you spontaneous and simultaneous detachment from the world. In this stage only, the super power of God will solve your problem in no time. The reason for misery or happiness is only your action that was already done. The Gita says that the actions are very very subtle (Gahana Karmano Gatih…). I will give you a small example. While eating food, suppose a piece of chilly is left over in your plate. When it is thrown outside, it decays and lot of virus and bacteria are generated. Suppose, such virus affects the health of a good devotee who is involved in the mission of Lord; this has become the greatest sin based on the smallest piece of chilly. Your health will be affected severely. 132

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Therefore, the Veda says “Annam Na Parichakshita”, which means that even an iota (Iota is denoted by the prefix pari) of food should not be thrown out. Either you should eat the piece of chilly or use the powder of chilies in cooking the food. You can imagine the fate of the priests who throw lot of food in the death rituals stating that throwing food indicates their full satisfaction! This shows that we cannot avoid sins which are so subtle that easily escape our attention. You have to enjoy the fruits of your actions. Without knowing such subtle nature of deeds, people cry saying “What sin I have done in this birth?” They say that some deed from the previous birth was responsible for such fruit. They assume that they are very pure without doing any sin in this birth! It is not correct. All the fruits end by enjoyment or punishment either in this world or in the upper world (heaven and hell). When the soul comes down to the earth and enters a fresh body, all the fruits are over with a nil balance sheet. But, the Samskaras (psychological tendencies for doing such deeds) exist in the soul in very much reduced state. The soul does again the same deeds guided by these samskaras, which are called as destiny (Karmasesha). Therefore, either enjoyment of the fruits or worship of God (theoretical and practical) are the two ways left over. God alone can burn your sins by His own specific technology (enjoying the fruits for your sake). The Gita says the same (Ahamtva…). You cannot escape the enjoyment of the fruits even after millions of Yugas unless these Samskaras are burnt by the divine knowledge, which leads you to God and subsequent practical devotion. People misunderstand that the divine knowledge directly burns the Samskaras. The burning can be verified only through the practical devotion to God (Jnanaagnih… Gita). The proof for receiving the right divine knowledge is only determination and implementation in practice. The root of all these Samskaras is only attachment to the world. When this attachment is burnt, the Samskaras are burnt. But burning the attachment to the world is very difficult and cannot be achieved by the effort of even entire life time. Therefore, do not waste your life time in burning these Samskaras. You divert these Samskaras (good and bad qualities) to God and this is the easiest and fruitful solution. Suppose, you go on making efforts till the age of your retirement to get the relief order from the old institution, where is the time to join the new institution?

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Chapter - 13

HUMAN INCARNATION AND RATIONALITY Spirituality: Rational or Irrational? [A person claiming to be a true Christian said that he does not believe in human rationality and the introduction of God through the human body. Swami replied him as follows.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Let us begin by asking what is meant by denying human rationality? Does it mean • Whatever the human being says, rational (reasonable) or irrational (reasonless), should not be accepted? • Or whatever is reasonably said by the human being should not be accepted? [Implying that only that which is irrational and said by a human being should be accepted]. If you take the first case, since you are a human being, whatever you say should not be accepted, whether what you say is reasonable or unreasonable. If it is the second case, you would be accepted only if whatever you said were reasonless. In that case you should be a mad person because only mad people speak reasonless statements. If you say that you are not a mad person, then you should have spoken reasonably, in which case you should not be accepted, since, the reasonable saying of the human being should not be accepted according to the second version. You say that God should not be introduced into a human being [God entering a human body; incarnation]. Then you are not a true Christian because Christians believe that God is introduced into the human being just like the blood of a father is introduced into the son. A Christian believes that Jesus is the Son of God (Father). If you say that Jesus is only a messenger of God and not the Son of God, then you are not a Christian and you belong to Islam. Islam says that a messenger is not the Son of God but he is only a servant of God. At this point alone, Christianity separated from Islam. Originally both Islam and Christianity were one religion. Islam treats Jesus as a 134

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messenger like Mohammed. Christianity is different from Islam because they treat Jesus, to be closely related to God like a son to his father. Infact Christians of a higher order believe that Jesus is directly God because Jesus said the same “Me and My Father are one and the same”. This clearly proves that God and the human incarnation are one and the same. Therefore, being a true Christian, you should accept that God enters the human being or even temporarily becomes the human being. In both the cases, God either enters or pervades all over the human being. In the case of a human incarnation, if you deny both these possibilities, then your Christianity becomes Islam and you are not at all a Christian because you are denying the very fundamental concept of Christianity. Three views of human incarnation In Hinduism all the three concepts are present: 1. Advaita (Monism) of Shankara says that the Lord and the human being become one and the same in the case of human incarnation. The example is Rama. In this case God pervaded all over the human body of Rama. 2. Visishta Advaita (Qualified Monism) of Ramanuja says that the Lord is present in the heart of the human being as in the case of a [partial] human incarnation, such as Hanuman, who tore His heart and showed Rama in it. 3. Dwaita (Dualism) of Madhvacharya says that the Lord is separate in heaven and sends His servant to this earth as a messenger. For example, Balarama is an incarnation of Adi Sesha, who is the servant of Lord Vishnu in heaven. Thus, Hinduism contains all the three concepts. The first two concepts are called Christianity and the third concept is called Islam. The Mahayana branch of Buddhism worships Buddha in the form of statutes as God or as a devotee in whose heart God is present. Infact according to Hinduism Buddha is directly the Lord since He is treated as one of the ten human incarnations of the Lord. Just like Christianity arose from Islam, Buddhism arose from Hinduism. The Heenayana branch of Buddhism treats Buddha as a preacher of divine knowledge and treats Him as an ordinary human being. This concept is the concept of Islam or the concept of Madhvacharya in Hinduism. Thus, Hinduism is a mini model of all the world religions. Science represents atheism. Even this atheism is represented in Hinduism by the sect of Charvaka 135

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(Nastika Matam). All the sects of Hinduism are like the religions in the world. Whatever is in the world is present in Hinduism. Universal Spirituality brings the unity of all religions in the world and thus it brings unity in all the sects in Hinduism too.

Necessity of Reason Rationality is the essence of science. The scientist will laugh if you speak anything irrational (reasonless). Even in the small matters of this world, we analyze with reason and logic before we follow it and we say that we should not be emotional in taking any decision. Then think how logical we should be in such a great spiritual effort, if you want to attain real success? In Christianity, Jesus is called as Emmanuel, which means the God who has come down from heaven to live with us. Only a human form can live with us and guide us by His knowledge. The Jewish priests at that time also did not believe in Jesus as God or the Son of God or even as a messenger of God. They did not like God to be introduced in a human being as you say now. They believed only in the dead messengers of the past and not in Jesus, who was the living messenger. The same logic applies today also. You believe in the messenger who does not exist now. You do not believe in the messenger who exists before your eyes, now. Jesus said that He will come again. It means that the human incarnation will come again and the same story repeats. The same Jesus is present today and the same people who were blind with egoism and jealousy are present again today. Therefore, I say, history repeats itself. As Jesus was insulted then, egoistic and jealous people will insult Jesus today as well. Jesus will come in every human generation to give His direct contact to the devotees. Otherwise, Lord Jesus becomes partial, because He gave direct contact to only one generation and not to the other generations. He clarified the doubts of only one generation through His direct voice and in the other human generations, He allows the immature human devotees to answer the doubts of other devotees directly. He provided the fortune of touching His feet to only one generation and other generations are deprived of that fortune. This makes Jesus totally partial and you say that God is impartial. All the religions also say the same. How can you justify this important statement that God is impartial? Therefore, we have accepted that God comes in human form like Jesus in every human generation. In order to avoid answering this 136

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question, you say that reason should be avoided. When reasoning is discarded, you need not answer any question. Whatever you say that alone must be taken to be the truth. You are rigid without any logic and this is blind conservatism. This cancer is present in every religion and humanity is always is divided by this cancer. You oppose the unity of humanity and want to disturb world peace. God will not tolerate you and you will be thrown into permanent hell for misleading ignorant people.

Jesus used Reason If you read the Bible, Jesus gives reason everywhere in His concepts. For every statement He gives the reason. When the priests told Him that He should not have saved the animal, which had fallen in a pit on the festival day, He gave the reason for His effort to save that animal. He analyzed the Old Testament and gave logical interpretations. He did not mind cutting some irrational blind statements present in the Old Testament, by giving rational modifications. He fulfilled His duty as the true guide of humanity. Whenever He leaves the world, these rigid people twist and pollute the meanings of scriptures. He comes again and again to rectify this. When the teacher leaves for a few minutes the class becomes undisciplined. The teacher comes to the class again and again. For teaching, the human form is essential. A statue can not teach you. If you think of Him as formless, He cannot speak to you from the sky or space or air. The human body is the most convenient medium for human beings to hear the preaching of God. The main goal of God is to preach to human beings, correct them and put them on the right spiritual path. For beginners, He does some miracles as signs for His presence in the human body. The realized souls will detect Him even without those signs. Sharp sheep see the shepherd and come near him by recognizing him with their eyes. Some duller sheep come near by hearing his voice, which is like a miracle. The dullest sheep try to go away and are punished by the stick of shepherd, which is nothing but permanent hell. Therefore, if you keep Jesus in the place of the present human incarnation and place the same blind priests in the place of present blind followers, you can understand the truth because the same story and the same cinema is repeated with different actors having different names. This is the best way of understanding the truth. Those priests also opposed Jesus, when He argued with wonderful reasoning. The duty of the teacher finishes by teaching clearly to the class. It is up to the 137

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student to grasp it and pass or twist it and fail, following the sweet emotional advice of bad blind friends. The Lord is not worried about the percentage of students passing because there is no fault in His teaching. He should not be blamed for the passing or failure of the students. The student himself is to be blamed. When the messenger comes to the earth, he delivers his duty so that God is pleased with him in the upper world. He is not bothered about getting fame in this world or the number of followers. God will not find fault with the messenger if the human beings did not pass. He finds fault with the messenger if the message is not properly delivered. Jesus never bothered about the propagation of His knowledge. His aim was only to sit on the right side of His pleased Father after doing the duty assigned by Him. He never cared even if people rejected, insulted and even crucified Him. His aim was God and not the world.

How to Worship Jesus? For ignorant people, the personality of Jesus is a human being crying on the cross and shedding blood. This personality will kindle the heart of any human being. Initially this will be the attraction for the beginners. But if you stick to this personality only, that body has gone once for all. Now you can only worship an imaginary statute of His form on the cross. That same human body will never appear again in the physical level. For such ignorant people, Jesus will never come again because the same physical body will never appear again. Only an energetic form can appear to the eyes for a few moments. Even if you say that you have seen the same physical body now, you still cannot show it to others. When Jesus was alive, if someone said, “He is the Jesus”, every visitor could see Him with his eyes. Now that same situation is not there. The real inner personality of Jesus is His divine knowledge, which is the Holy Bible. That divine knowledge is the inseparable characteristic of the inner unimaginable God. Then that inner God comes in another human body. This divine knowledge appears again, as it is the inseparable sign of the God. Jesus is the inner personality for the realized scholars. Similarly the beautiful Krishna with a flute attracts the beginners but His inner personality is His divine knowledge, which is the Bhagavad Gita. When Jesus said that He will come again and Krishna said that He will come again and again whenever there is a necessity, it 138

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refers to the inner personality. The unimaginable God along with His inseparable sign, which is the divine knowledge, is coming again and again. This interpretation is reasonable. The inner God by Himself is unimaginable and beyond reason. When this inner God wants to give His experience to human beings, He cannot follow the irrational or unimaginable ways, in which case, He can not be experienced. The purpose fails. Therefore, the unimaginable God adopts rational procedures and enters a rational medium to give His experience to human beings. God is unimaginable but His experience should be imaginable. For this purpose He enters the reasonable medium i.e., human body that can be seen and touched. Only the human body can live with us (Emmanuel) and we can clarify our doubts only with the human body. You blame Me that I am introducing God in to human body, but what have you done? You have blended God with the human body of Jesus and say that only Jesus is God. You say that Jesus became alive again since the dead body disappeared. I agree. He might have controlled His life for some more time. But it is against the rules of nature and science, if you say that the same physical body is alive even today. It is completely irrational unless you can show the physical body of Jesus even to a non-believer. Now to avoid My argument you say that rationality must be rejected. I apply the same argument even to the body of Krishna. It was cremated by Arjuna and the body cannot return back. Ofcourse the Lord can use His special power to make it permanently alive. But that will violate the rules of His own administration. All the rules in the creation are His rules alone. No sensible administrator will violate his own rules, when an alternative is possible. The alternative is to come again in another human body. The body is like a shirt as told in the Gita. The person is not the shirt and the shirt is not the person. The Gita says that God is not modified into the human body (Avyaktam Vyakti Mapannam…). The person did not become the shirt but He wears the shirt as said in the Gita (Manusheem Tanum …). The Lord wears the human body and does not become the human body. If you touch the shirt present on His body you are getting the experience of the inner body. Similarly the inner God gives His experience through the external body. You blame Me for introducing God into human body but you have made God turn into the human body itself. You have made another mistake by saying that God is only that particular human body, called as Jesus. It is a mistake because in such a 139

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case when the human body is destroyed, God is not destroyed. When the shirt is torn into pieces the person is not cut. Recognition of this inner personality in all the shirts of various religions, which are various human incarnations, is Universal Spirituality.

Was Jesus God? [Mr Antony said that one of his friends argued that since Jesus submitted His soul to God He cannot be God.] You give value to one statement of Jesus and you do not give value to another statement of the same Jesus. Jesus also said that He and His Father are one and the same. This statement of Jesus is also equally valid. Every human incarnation is a two-in-one system. When you say God-in-flesh, the word flesh means a living human being and not the mere inert human body. Krishna said in the Gita that He enters the human body (Manusheem Tanum…). Here too the word human body means the living human being and not the mere inert human body. The word human body means the composite of the three human bodies and such a composite is called as a living human being. This means that the Lord enters the human being. The three bodies in the composite of the human being are: 1. The outermost gross body, which is alive due to the awareness that pervades all over it. 2. The inner subtle body which is a bundle of qualities or feelings, which are alive because these qualities are the vibrations in the pure awareness. 3. The innermost causal body which is the pure awareness itself. The gross body is crucified. All the statements (speech) of Jesus were given by the subtle body only through the mouth of the gross body. This subtle body of Jesus stated that His ‘body’ was not prepared for crucifixion. Here the ‘body’ refers to the gross body which is different from the subtle body. In the end the subtle body stated that it was submitting its soul to God. The word soul refers to the causal body. This composite of three bodies stands as the meaning of the word Jesus. This composite is the meaning of the word ‘flesh’. This composite is called as the human being or jiva. Strictly speaking, the word jiva means the subtle body only. The soul is called as Atman. God entered Jesus and therefore God is in flesh. God is the fourth item and is called as the Supersoul. It is this Supersoul 140

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or God, who said the statements such as “I and My Father are one and the same” or “I am the truth”. Therefore you should not confuse between the statements of subtle body and those of the Supersoul. An ordinary human being is just a composite of these three bodies without the Supersoul. If this is not understood correctly, there will be a glaring contradiction between such statements. The purpose of the aspect of the human being in Jesus was to stand as a practical example for all human beings. The purpose of the aspect of God in Jesus was to practically explain the divine nature of God. Any human incarnation consists of these two aspects; a mixture of a human being (Nara) and God (Narayana). If you take any sweet, it is prepared by mixing sugar and flour. But the item is called as ‘sweet’ referring to the property of sugar only, since it is more important. Similarly any human incarnation is divine referring to the nature of God only, since He is more important. An electric wire consists of electricity and non-electric wire. But it is called as electric current referring only to the more important electricity. You call a lamp (oil-lamp) as light since it consists of a flame and other materials like iron, sand, glass, a cotton wick and oil. It is called as light referring to the more important flame, neglecting the other nonluminous materials. Therefore, when you call Jesus as God, it really means that God is in Jesus. Similarly, Hanuman was the incarnation of Lord Shiva. As a human being he acted as a servant of Lord Rama. As Lord Shiva, He jumped over the sea and killed several demons. Similarly, Lord Rama learnt spiritual knowledge from Sage Vashishta. This is the aspect of His human body. But as Lord Narayana a stone was converted into the lady, Ahalya by the touch of His divine foot. Similarly Krishna was a driver of the chariot of Arjuna from the point of His human body. As Lord Narayana He preached the Gita to Arjuna and gave a divine vision to him. The purpose of the aspect of God is to teach human beings about God. The purpose of the aspect of the human being is to freely mix with human beings and stand as an example for them. Even the Prophet Mohammed was a human incarnation of the Lord. He did not reveal His divine aspect because it was not required in those circumstances. Thus you have to realize the program of the human incarnation according to the requirement suitability to the surroundings. If Lord Krishna had been born in the West instead of Jesus, people might have got more spoiled. The people there were very cruel because 141

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historically nowhere else in the world was a human incarnation of the Lord killed in such a brutal way. It shows the cruel nature of people in that time and place. For people of such nature only love and kindness can bring realization. If Krishna had been born there, they could have very easily accepted the negative qualities shown by Krishna like stealing etc. but they would never understand their significance and the significance of the human incarnation. Therefore, a suitable program was adopted by the Lord. You should not criticize Jesus about His incapability to protect Himself because you would be joining the cruel people who criticized and condemned Him. Similarly, you should not criticize Krishna, for stealing butter since it was done only to cut their bond with their hard earned wealth. Similarly Lord Krishna’s attracted the Gopikas by dance was only to cut their bonds with their husbands. The Gopikas were sages in their previous births and had prayed to the Lord for salvation from the bonds. Hindus in India believe in previous births (reincarnation) and therefore, they can digest this background. If this had happened in the West, Christians do not believe in previous births and therefore, would certainly misinterpret these concepts. Therefore, the divine program can be understood in the context of the background of a particular region only. Therefore we have to understand the statements in the light of God as well as in the light of flesh accordingly, since both aspects are required for the devotees. The human aspect shows the path and the divine aspect shows the nature of the goal. Similarly the nature of the program of the human incarnation depends on the level and the psychology of the people living in a particular region in a particular time. With the help of such parameters alone can you appreciate the total behavior of the personality of the human incarnation.

Father and Son [Message On Good Friday- 2003] Jesus said “My Father and I are one and the same”. Father means the Creator who is beyond words, mind, intelligence and even imagination. This Father is called as God and has different names. Christians call Him as Jehovah. Muslims call Him Allah. Hindus call Him as Parabrahman. Buddha kept silent about God because God is beyond words. But followers of Buddha misunderstood the silence as negation and interpreted that Buddha 142

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denied the existence of God. This God incarnates on the earth. He creates a human body and pervades all over that human body as electric current pervades all over a metallic wire. Since God created His human body of the incarnation, God is called as Father and the human incarnation is called as His Son. The electric wire is the current itself because wherever you touch the wire it gives a shock, which is the property of electric current. For all practical purposes the electric wire is the current. Similarly the human incarnation is the Creator or God. Therefore the Son is the Father. The human incarnation can be seen by us and we can talk with Him. We can touch and can live with the Son. Thus vision, conversation, touch, and living together are the four fortunes given to the devotees. God can never even be imagined by any human effort. But by His infinite kindness, He is not only seen but He also talks, touches and lives with us. If you cannot utilize such infinite kindness of God shown to us and if you neglect the human incarnation due to your egoism and jealousy you are losing everything forever. Neither do you attain the unattainable God nor do you accept the human incarnation that approaches you. You are a loser on both sides. Such human incarnations come to various parts of the earth and they are Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavir etc., Therefore, Jesus is Jehovah. Mohammed is Allah and Krishna is Parabrahman. The electric wire is the current. The Son and the Father are one and the same. One should not extrapolate this truth by saying, “Since every man is His son, every man is also the Father.” If every son is the Father, there is no necessity of preaching. God has to come in a human body only to preach to human beings. But there is a natural repulsion between the human beings as in the case of like-charged particles; this repulsion is jealousy and egoism. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is the best example of such jealousy and egoism.

Suffering for Whom? Holy Jesus suffered for the sins of the real believers of God only. One of the basic ideas of the human incarnation is to suffer for the sins of deserving devotees. The human body is selected for incarnation for this very purpose. The human body of the incarnation suffers like any other human body. Then alone is the real transfer of sins fully justified. The incarnation can avoid the pain during suffering devotees’ sins by 143

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using the super power of God. But God never deceives justice. Therefore Jesus really suffered all the punishments of deserving devotees as any other human body suffers and fulfilled the justice in the transfer of sins. This is the real reason why God selects a human body and gets identified with it. If it is an inert statue, such transfer of suffering cannot take place. Although the Son is suffering on the Holy Cross, actually it is the Father who pervaded all over the Son that suffered. This is the essence of saying that Father and Son are one and the same. The Father does not suffer the sins of wicked people who will not change at all. Those who are the real devotees and those who have served the Lord without aspiring for anything in return are only liberated from their sins. Such devotees never pray to the Lord for liberation from their sins because they never desire that the Lord should suffer for their sins. Therefore, they never agree to the liberation from their sins. If they come to know, they will object to such a transfer of sins because they are the real devotees of God. Hence the Lord suffers for their sins without revealing it to them. If you do not turn to the Lord, you have to carry all your sins with you and go to hell. If you turn towards the Lord, He will liberate you from all your sins provided you change and continue the rest of your life in His divine service. His work is to bring peace in this world and see that every human being gets salvation. He wants hell to be permanently closed. But you should turn towards God without aspiring for liberation from your sins. You must participate in His service and yet you should be ready to undergo the punishments of your sins as per the rule. You should not ask Him or even desire for such liberation from your sins. Once you desire for such liberation, you are indirectly asking the Lord to suffer for your sins. In such a case, you are not His real devotee. He takes your sins and liberates you only when you serve Him without any aspiration for such liberation.

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Chapter - 14

THE ONLY TECHNIQUE [A devotee, Shri G. Lakshman asked Swami, “What is the use of the form of God when I can experience God directly and once I come to know His qualities?” Swami replied to his question by a spontaneous discourse in the two parts given below. Shri G. Lakshman is an excellent devotee who is literally crazy for divine knowledge. When he hears divine knowledge from Swami, he forgets to eat or sleep. He donates a lot of money for the propagation of this divine knowledge in the service of Lord Datta. Swami has given him a vision of Lord Ananta Padmanabha for a long time and Shri Lakshman was immersed in the infinite bliss for several days.]

Wire Technique O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Let us assume that Parabrahman (God) is fire. The qualities of Parabrahman like knowledge, bliss and love put together, can be assumed as the heat. Also let us assume the human incarnation to be a wire. Now unless you have experienced (by your senses) yourself, you cannot have any knowledge. However, Vedas, Shastras and logic should also support your experience. Otherwise a mad person may experience some false thing, which cannot be taken as a standard. Thus when you get experience, which is supported by the Vedas, Shastras and logic, it becomes real knowledge. If you wanted to experience fire along with its heat directly, you would be turned to ashes and disappear. Similarly when God fully expresses Himself along with His qualities, the whole world disappears; you too disappear. When you do not exist, there is no question of getting any knowledge. Thus you can never experience Parabrahman (God) directly; you cannot have the knowledge of Parabrahman at any cost. The Parabrahman is beyond your imagination. Therefore through the egoistic path consisting only of knowledge (Jnana Yoga), you can neither experience the fire nor experience the heat. You are totally lost. 145

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But if you can get rid of your egoism and jealousy and if you can accept the human incarnation, atleast you can experience the qualities of God; even if you cannot experience fire directly, atleast you can experience heat. When one end of a wire is put in fire, the fire as if enters the wire. When you touch the other end of the wire you experience the heat safely, without getting burnt. What is fire after all? Fire is nothing but infinitely intensified heat. When fire enters the wire the fire is hidden in the wire but it radiates just enough heat through the wire so that you may experience heat without being burnt to ashes. By experiencing the little heat that you get from the wire, you can imagine the infinite intensity of that heat and thus you can imagine fire. The wire controls the intensity of heat so that you can ‘experience’ fire. All you have to do is that once you experience heat, you have to multiply it infinitely in your mind and that brings the experience of fire to your brain. If you try to experience fire directly, then even before you experience its heat you will just be vaporized, in which situation there cannot be any experience or knowledge. Thus the fire has arranged this ‘wire technique’ so that you can experience its quality of heat, within your limits and thereby imagine even the infiniteness of that heat, which is fire. The first wire (human incarnation) into which the fire (God) entered, was called Datta. Thereafter the second third and all subsequent human incarnations of God were also called by the same name, Datta. Every human incarnation is Datta. Datta means the wire (human body of the incarnation) that is given to the devotees in order to experience the hidden fire (God) in it. The three heads of Datta, represent the three qualities namely, satvam (knowledge, purity), rajas (activity, passion) and tamas (ignorance, inertia). The inner meaning of this representation is that the human body of the incarnation is prakriti (product of nature) or Maya, which consists of all the three fundamental qualities. [Everything in creation is a product of Maya and therefore consists of all three qualities]. There is no need for Lord Datta to actually wear three heads; they are only a pictorial representation of the concept for the sake of the understanding of ignorant people. Even Lord Rama, who was an incarnation of God and is regarded as the embodiment of satvam (purity) became angry with Sage Jabali and thereby displayed rajas (passion). On another occasion, Rama went after the golden deer to satisfy the craving of his wife and that is tamas 146

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(inert attachment). This shows that He had all three qualities and thus the three heads indicate that any human incarnation invariably contains all the three qualities. Parabrahman has arranged this ‘wire technique’ to experience Him, using His highest intelligence. If anybody can suggest a better way than this, Parabrahman will acknowledge with thanks and will adopt that technique in future.

Why Human Incarnation? As per the Vedas, knowledge bliss and love are the characteristic properties or qualities of God (Parabrahman). Any property must be possessed by a base-material or entity called the substratum (dravya). Light and heat are the characteristic properties of the sun. The sun is their substratum and possesses the properties. The substratum may be regarded as the concentrated form of the properties. So, God is the substratum and hence the concentrated form of knowledge, bliss and love, as said by the Veda (Prajnana ghanah, Brahma puccham pratishtha). This God, who is the substratum of the qualities mentioned above, is beyond imagination. Imagination too is a form of knowledge. We have seen earlier that knowledge must be born from experience (perception by senses) and that the Vedas, Shastras and logic should support it. Then only can it be real knowledge. Mere experience cannot give real knowledge because the experience of a mad person cannot be regarded as true. Yet direct experience is a must for any knowledge. If somebody says that honey is sweet, such knowledge cannot be real unless you taste honey and experience it. Consciousness is also a quality. A quality cannot exist independently. Consciousness can be found only in a living being and that living being is the substratum of consciousness. Similarly, power is another quality. Power is also a quality. The Sun is the condensed form of light and when the Sun is absent, light too is absent. God is the condensed form of knowledge, bliss and love and God created this world through His creative power called Maya. When you say that someone has knowledge, it automatically means that that someone also has consciousness. Knowledge assumes consciousness. However, every conscious being need not have knowledge. Knowledge normally means the knowledge of a certain concept (Shastra). Prajnanam means the true and infinite knowledge of 147

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God, which is also called as philosophy. Vedanta is philosophy, because it is the topmost knowledge of the Vedas. Vedanta is fully known only by God. Therefore God is ‘Sarvajna’ (He who knows everything). Although He is all-knowing, God Himself created ignorance, which is called Maya and He got covered by this Maya with His own will. He enjoys by watching this world like a movie, which is nothing but His ideas. If Maya is removed, the world disappears and God (He who is beyond all qualities, such as knowledge and ignorance) alone remains. This God without ignorance is called Parabrahman. However when there is no ignorance (Maya), there is no creation and no individuals; therefore no one can know Parabrahman since the person trying to know God disappears. The Veda says “Brahma vit Brahma...” This means that God alone knows God. The Bhagavad Gita also says the same thing “Mamtu Veda Na Kashcana”, which means that nobody knows God. Therefore you cannot directly experience God and infact you cannot even experience His three properties directly from Him. When you yourself do not exist, how can you experience God and His qualities? When there is no experience, real knowledge cannot be obtained. It is not sufficient to simply know that God possesses the knowledge of Himself, which is called Prajnanam by Veda. Did you hear Prajnanam from God? You have not understood anything simply by hearing the word Prajnanam. If you have heard the word Mathematics do you know all that is to be known in Mathematics? So you must hear that special knowledge, Prajnanam, from God, get bliss, develop love for God through your service and then God will love you. Only then you can say that you have experienced God and that you have real knowledge of God, which is called Brahma Jnanam. Already we have seen that it is impossible to attain the special knowledge directly from God because you cannot exist in that situation. Yet we must somehow get the knowledge of God and the question is how to get it? God must enter the world secretly and give you the special knowledge. If God is fully revealed, the world disappears. Therefore God enters a human body which is a product of His Maya. His entrance in the body is also a Maya. Now He is hidden in that human body in order to maintain the existence of you and the world. Now He gives you the special knowledge through that human body. That special knowledge will also be given in a greatly reduced dosage 148

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so that you can safely receive it. If the dosage is more, you will vanish. Now you get the special knowledge directly from God and the human body is only a medium. God pervades that human body from top to bottom; internally and externally as said by the Veda (Antar bahishca…). Now by this experience you have attained the complete Brahma Jnanam. There is no other way than this. If you want to see God by your two eyes, it is impossible because if God appears you will disappear along with this world. God can be seen only by the third eye, which is the eye of knowledge, and that too with God’s grace. You cannot see God. You cannot touch God. You cannot talk with God. You cannot live with God. So what is the use of such visions? Visions are useless unless you attain God’s grace. Grace is more important than visions. God gave His vision to Arjuna as well as to the blind king Dhritarashtra. Yet Dhritarashtra was not blessed like Arjuna. Radha and Hanuman were never given any such visions. But both attained the highest fruit. When Arjuna saw that vision, he shivered with fear and prayed to the Lord to come back to the form of a human body. Arjuna was the bravest man in the world. He was Nara, who had worshipped Lord Narayana (God) continuously for the past thousand births. He also saw God through the third eye (of knowledge) alone and with the grace of God. If such an Arjuna shivered with fright looking at God, what will be case of ordinary human beings? They will simply vaporize before the power of God. If you receive knowledge, bliss and love of God and if you love God through your service, you are really blessed. You can experience these three qualities only through the human incarnation. Some people claim to be human incarnations by saying that they have infinite bliss and love. Yet they do not possess the knowledge supported by the Veda, Shastras and logic. Even if they speak the knowledge, they cannot quote the scriptures and cannot give correct logic. Such people are fraud incarnations because knowledge cannot be separated from bliss and love. The light of the sun cannot be separated from its heat. Both light and heat always co-exist. If you neglect Krishna, how can you get the special knowledge in the form of the Bhagavad Gita? If you neglect the divine form of Lord Brahma, (Brahma Deva) how can you get the knowledge of the Vedas? Sages have heard the Vedas from the four faces of Lord Brahma. Sages sitting

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near Lord Brahma are attaining the special knowledge, called Vedanta and are immersed in infinite bliss and love. Lord Buddha, who is one of the ten incarnations of Lord Narayana, said that the Vedas are Paurusheyas, which means that the Vedas are spoken by a form i.e., Lord Brahma and hence, cannot be the Word of God. But some have condemned Buddha and have insisted that Vedas came directly from God. Yes, it is true that the Vedas were told by God. But He told them through the medium of a form; not directly. God pervades the entire divine body of Lord Brahma and through that body, the Vedas were told to the sages. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that foolish people insult the medium of the human body because of their jealousy and egoism (Avajananti…). The Veda says “Vedahametam…”, which means “I have recognized the human incarnation, who removes the darkness of ignorance and radiates the light of the special knowledge like a sun”. The Veda further says “Tamevam Vidvan…’, which means “He who recognizes such a human incarnation becomes liberated in this world itself (jivanmukta)”. The Veda further says “Nanyah panthah…” which means “There is no other way to experience God other than through the human incarnation”.

Significance of the Present human incarnation [Mr Antony asked about the significance of the present (contemporary) human incarnation (Swami).] When you read the scriptures, which are the discourses of past human incarnations, you will get so many doubts demanding clarification. If the original Lord is not available, we have to depend on other fellow human beings for clarifications. Suppose you are studying a correspondence course. When you get a doubt, you have to depend on your classmate, who is studying the course similarly. He is not competent to clarify your doubts and you will be poisoned by his wrong interpretations. Suppose you study the same course in a college and the lecturer is explaining in the class. Whenever you get a doubt, you can ask him then and there and you will surely get the correct interpretation at the correct moment. The clarification is important at the correct moment because without clarification the latter part of the lecture may not be understood or may be misunderstood. Such a facility does not exist with past human incarnations and past scriptures. In this light 150

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alone, Jesus modified all the Old Testament and gave the correct interpretation as and when people asked Him questions and doubts. If Jesus is not in the present generation, He must be blamed for being partial towards that generation alone. However God is impartial and therefore comes in every generation. The present generation is very much blessed because of the facility of computer technology. You can clarify your doubts through this computer system without any strain of traveling to the human incarnation in person. All the divine preachers in this world are in contact with God and are doing the divine preaching to various levels of devotees. Their preachings may be mixed with some ignorance and it is not their fault because such mixing with ignorance in various proportions is required for various lower levels of human beings. The complete and pure knowledge without any trace of ignorance can be grasped only by a very few highest devotees. The number of advanced research students studying under a professor is always very small. Therefore the direct human incarnation is recognized by a very few top level devotees only. The number of elementary school students are always many and the number of elementary school teachers are also many. As you rise in the level, the number of students and the number of professors become lesser and lesser. Therefore you should not aspire for a large number of followers. For the direct human incarnation, there will be only a very few deserving devotees of such a top level. But such top devotees are spread here and there all over the world. Therefore, there is a necessity for propagating the top most divine knowledge of the top most human incarnation, all over the world. But the number of followers will not be high but will be the very least. Jesus said that His path is very narrow and that only very few people travel on it. Lord Krishna has told in the Gita that only one in millions can perfectly understand Him (Kashchit Maam Vetti…). Therefore, the aim of the topmost human incarnation is not to have a large number of followers, since it is impossible. The aim is only to see that the topmost knowledge reaches the few deserving devotees, who are spread all over the world here and there. If you wish to have a large number of followers, then divine knowledge has to be adulterated with ignorance. The naked truth should not be exposed in such a case. Diamonds are always in few in number whereas gravel stones are many. 151

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The lower level devotees and the lower level school teachers should not be criticized. The levels of school, college and university are obviously required due to the existence of human beings in the corresponding levels. Therefore you should not criticize the students in schools and colleges. Today you are a student of a university. But one day you were in the school and in the college. Without the guidance of the school teacher and the college lecturer you could not have entered the university. The direct human incarnation of the Lord is the topmost professor, who has a few post graduate and research level students. God, being the head of the university level in spirituality, the schools and colleges are affiliated to the university and work under His leadership. It is the huge system of divine preachers. The school teachers and the college lecturers are working under the guidance and will of that Professor alone. The system is split to suit the various levels but there is no split in the preachers. The whole system of divine preachers is perfectly working due to the grace of that Supreme Preacher. There is no split in the preachers. Mixing up ignorance with knowledge is inevitable and is done according to the level of the students. There is only one Supreme Preacher in a generation and He will be covering all the preachers and religions under the concept of Universal Spirituality. Some lower preachers may oppose this concept and it is not the fault of those preachers. Since the students of some lower levels do not agree to this concept, those preachers have to proceed according to their psychology. The supreme preacher knows this fact and only smiles, if any preacher of a lower level opposes this concept. It is by the internal wish of Supreme Preacher only, that preacher opposes Him so that he can have a grip on his students who are of a lower level and do not like this concept. It is a very long journey to transform the entire Universe and make it realize this concept of Universal Spirituality. But one day or other this divine goal will be achieved and the entire world will be like one family with one Divine Father. The various cultures and religions need not disappear. But the innermost single continuous thread of the garland of gems with various colors will be realized by every human being of this universe. Such a state is called as World Peace. Please remember that the divine preachers in this entire Universe are not at all split. They appear as if they are split in order to have a grip on their corresponding students, who are really split. All these divine preachers are connected by their innermost souls and are working by the 152

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grace of that Supreme preacher, who is the Lord in human form. The difference in the preachers is only apparent to satisfy the different psychologies of the followers. One preacher may criticize another preacher in order to satisfy his followers but all these divine preachers are internally united and are working on the single program of transforming this entire world to realize the Universal Spirituality, which is the Absolute Truth like the one Absolute God. All the original preachers like Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad etc. are brilliant diamonds and all their followers are like black pieces of charcoal. The diamond and charcoal are made of the same carbon atoms. Similarly the preacher and the follower are human beings. In the diamond there is a regular crystal structure. The charcoal is amorphous, without any crystal structure. Thus the correct logical interpretation makes the scripture shine like a brilliant diamond. The same scripture without regular logical interpretation becomes a black charcoal.

Revelation of the human incarnation [Just before departing for Mumbai, Mr. Antony asked Swami “Why don’t You declare Yourself clearly as the present human incarnation?”] Swami replied: “Buddha did not even speak about God and hence, there is no question of the topic of the human incarnation in His regard. Therefore, Buddha was safe. Mohammed denied the concept of human incarnation and declared Himself as only the Messenger of God. Anybody can be become a Messenger and therefore, Mohammed was also safe. Lord Krishna emphasized on the concept of human incarnation throughout the Gita, but Krishna told that He was the human incarnation only to Arjuna and not to any other person. Therefore, Krishna was also safe. Jesus told that He was the human incarnation by telling that He and His Father were one and the same. He told this to many people and the news spread everywhere. This statement is in Bible and the Bible is His message given to the public. He was brutally killed for this statement. Now, if I state the same in the present time, crucifixion may not happen due to the improved legal system, but people will laugh at Me and say that I am mad and that I should be admitted into a mental hospital. Ofcourse this does not mean that I have accepted and stated 153

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that I am the human incarnation. However for now, let us assume that I am the human incarnation. Let this not be taken as My declaration. This only means that no human incarnation will declare Himself as God after the crucifixion of Jesus. Since that incident, God is terribly afraid of making such a declaration. Therefore, even if I am the real human incarnation I will not declare it. If I am not the human incarnation, I should not declare it in any case. Therefore, in any case I cannot declare this. The identification of human incarnation is the most complicated subject because of several hurdles in it. The first hurdle is that people are generally affected by egoism and jealousy. A human being never likes to accept another human form as God. Even if some human being conquers his egoism and jealousy and accepts it, it is only temporary. It is impossible to completely smash one’s egoism and jealousy. You can only reduce them temporarily. When Krishna taught the Gita, Arjuna accepted Lord Krishna as the Lord, but just after eighteen days, Krishna asked Arjuna to get down from the chariot. Arjuna was reluctant because he expected Krishna, the driver, to first get down and then only would Arjuna the owner of the chariot get down. It was the question of the prestige of the owner of a chariot in the presence of his soldiers. Just within eighteen days, egoism and jealousy grew in Arjuna and he forgot that Krishna was the Lord. By the eighteenth day he treated Krishna as a mere chariot driver. Therefore, only one in thousands will even accept the concept of human incarnation. Even if one accepts this concept, he likes to limit it to the past dead human incarnations only. Unless one conquers his egoism and jealousy completely, one cannot accept the present human incarnation standing before his naked eyes. Therefore, only one in thousands accepts this concept of present human incarnation and starts to search for the address of the present human incarnation. This is told in the Gita as “Manushyanaam Sahasreshu….” Thus this verse refers to the devotees who are searching for the human incarnation in their time. This verse does not refer to all devotees who search for God because there are many people who are theists and seek God. This verse says further “Kaschit Maam Vetti….” This means that only one in such devotees can identify the present human incarnation. This means that although you have conquered your jealousy and egoism and although you are searching for the living human incarnation, there are several hurdles before you can identify Him. What are these hurdles? 154

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As I told you the first hurdle is your own egoism and jealousy. You may say that you have conquered them and therefore you are searching for the present human form of Lord. Although you have conquered your ego and jealousy, your victory is only temporary. Ego and jealousy are the two sleeping snakes in your heart. They will rise at any time and bite you. Therefore, you must try for a permanent conquest and destroy them forever. Then only is the first hurdle removed. Assuming that you have destroyed them, before you reach Him, there are still several hurdles to be crossed. These hurdles are the priests of the temples, the preachers of ethics and puranas and scholars, who preach the philosophy. They will not allow you to proceed on your path and brainwash you on your way. These people are against the present human incarnation. If you reach the present human incarnation, they will loose their income and fame from the devotees. They are earning money and fame by singing the glory of the past human incarnations. Infact, while Jesus was alive, these people were His main enemies and the reason is very very clear. People started following Jesus, who opposed the collection of money in the church. These people killed Jesus, who was obstructing their income and fame. Even after the death of Jesus these people misinterpreted the statement of Jesus that He will come again. Jesus meant that He would come again and again in every human generation to give the same divine opportunity to every generation because He was the impartial God. If this meaning is accepted the income and fame of the priests, preachers and scholars will be obstructed in every generation. Therefore, these people misinterpreted the meaning of this statement by saying that Jesus will come only at the end of the world. When the world is destroyed even if Jesus comes, there will no problem. By this interpretation they have cleared their way of business till the end of the world. This interpretation is convenient even for the followers of these priests and scholars because of their inherent egoism and jealousy which prevents them from accepting the living human incarnation. Therefore, there was cooperation from both sides. Assume that you have passed this hurdle also. The next hurdle is false human incarnations that will trap you for the same reason of their own income and fame. Ofcourse these false incarnations are based on the will of God only. He tests your scriptural knowledge by which alone you have to identify the real human incarnation. They are just like the 155

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wrong answers present in a multiple-choice question. The same examiner, who gives the right answer, creates the wrong answers also to test the power of your discrimination. Proper discrimination results only if you digest scriptural knowledge with perfect logical analysis. Only then can you eliminate the fraud incarnations like wrong answers. Poundraka Vasudeva was such a false incarnation, who looked like Narayana, wearing the same dress and bearing the same weapons. Krishna did not have the same dress since He wore His own special peacock feather on His head. Instead of weapons He carried a flute. Both these are not worn by Lord Narayana. The main identification of Lord Krishna is only the Gita. The Veda says that the Lord is characterized by His own special divine knowledge, which cannot be preached by any other human being in that generation (Satyam, Jnanam…, Prajnanam Brahma). The fraud incarnations are like artificial diamonds, which resemble the original diamond in many properties. The artificial diamonds glitter with seven colors just like the original diamond. But, the refractive index of the original diamond is very high and a scientist alone can identify it. The false incarnations also preach knowledge. But the power of the knowledge of the real incarnation is very very high. You, aided with your intellectual logical faculty (Buddhi), can only be convinced and freed from all doubts by such special divine knowledge (Prajnanam…). A person who was very close to Me posed a big problem through a question. He told Me “I have analyzed Your divine knowledge after hearing the knowledge of several divine preachers. My inner self is completely convinced by only Your knowledge. This means You are the human incarnation. But my doubt is that this procedure of identifying the human incarnation was given by You and the result of the identification also points to You”. Then I replied “I have given you the procedure as given by the sacred scripture, Veda. I have also given equal position to your logical analysis before you accept that procedure. The scripture along with your logical analysis gives the correct result. If the result points to Me, what can I do? Should I change the scripture? Or should I say that there should be no logical analysis? Just to avoid the result from pointing to Me, should I say that the person who does not convince your inner self is the human incarnation? You can apply your logic and if there is a logical question during the analysis of the

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scripture, I can answer that. If you are convinced by all means, I cannot help it”. If the scripture and the logical analysis had led to identifying that person himself as the human incarnation, he would have jumped with joy. If some other human being had turned out to be the human incarnation, atleast he would have been silent. But, since the result happens to be Me, whom he is seeing everyday, the problem came. Therefore, the repulsion caused by jealousy and egoism will always follow you in your spiritual journey and you can be trapped by it at any time. Assume that you have crossed this hurdle also and caught the original human incarnation. Up to this point only the first half of the cinema is over. From this point onwards the second half of the cinema starts, which is more complicated. The real human incarnation will not encourage and accept your identification easily. He will try to mislead you from the truth. When you observe His external physical body, it exhibits the same properties of any human body like hunger, thirst, disease, birth, death etc. This itself is sufficient to throw you off. Here you must analyze that God is in that human body and God is not that human body. You must understand the line in the Gita “Manusheem Tanumasritam”, which means that God has entered the human body. God-in-flesh also means the same. God is not the flesh. This analysis is given by the Gita itself clearly in the verse “Avyaktam Vyaktim apannam”. This verse means that the unimaginable (Avyaktam) did not become imaginable (Vyaktam). This means that the unimaginable God entered the imaginable body. Therefore, the unimaginable God did not become imaginable, which means that God did not become the human body. By this analysis you can cross this hurdle. The external gross body (Sthula Sareera) shows these properties and is like the shirt. The shirt of a king is as good as the shirt of a beggar in its properties. Just because the shirt is the same the king is not the beggar. Similarly, since the gross body of the human incarnation is similar to the gross body of an ordinary human being, the Lord is not the human being. If you cross this hurdle, there is the next hurdle, which is the inner subtle body consisting of the three qualities. The subtle body of the human incarnation also exhibits the same three qualities as any other human being. The subtle body (Sukshma Sareera) is common to both the human incarnation and the human being. Again with the help of the 157

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same analysis given above, you should cross this hurdle too. As you should not mistake the Lord to the gross body, so also should you not mistake Him to be the subtle body. Therefore, you should not mistake the Lord by His exhibited three qualities (Triguna Maya). Sometimes, the Lord tries to mislead you by exhibiting bad qualities (Rajas and Tamas). Generally, there is an impression that the Lord has only good qualities (Sattvam). Here you must analyze that He is beyond the three qualities and that He is neither good nor bad. The Gita says that the Lord is beyond these three qualities (Nachaham teshu). Assume that you have crossed this second hurdle also. The next hurdle is the final. This third item in any human being is the causal body (Karana Sareera) or called as soul, which is pure awareness. This soul in any human being is also beyond the three qualities or subtle body as said in the Gita (Gunebhyascha Param). The Advaita Scholars are trapped at this point. In the above verse the Lord is said to be above the three qualities (of Maya) and in the present verse the soul in the human being is also said to be above the three qualities (of Avidya). Though both Maya and Avidya are made of three qualities, Maya and Avidya are qualitatively similar but differ quantitatively. Both Maya and Avidya arise due to the self-ignorance. When God forgets Himself, Maya arises, which is the creation. When the individual soul forgets itself, Avidya arises as in a dream. Both the creation and the dream are made of the three qualities and arise due to self-ignorance. But there is a vast quantitative difference between the Creation and the dream of an individual. You can pass through the imaginary wall in your daydream. But you cannot pass through the real wall in the world. If you cross Avidya you can attain yourself. If you crossed Maya you could attain God. But you can never cross Maya as told in the Gita (Mama Maaya Duratyaya). Ofcourse the liberated soul, who is fully blessed by God can cross Maya (Maaya metam tarantite). But by crossing Maya the liberated soul cannot become God because God is the Creator, Ruler and Destroyer of Maya. By crossing a river or the sea, you cannot create, control or destroy the river or sea. Therefore, even the liberated soul, who has crossed the Maya cannot not become God. How can this ordinary soul who can only cross Avidya become God? Therefore, even Hanuman, who jumped over the sea, did not claim Himself as God. Can this Advaita scholar, who can barely jump over a tiny sewage canal, become God? Ofcourse the soul, which is beyond Avidya, can be called 158

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as Brahman. The word Brahman is very loosely used in its original sense. Brahman means the greatest. The soul is the greatest among all the items of creation and can be called as Brahman. If you argue that the word Brahman is to be used strictly only for God, then how come the Scripture Veda is also called as Brahman? The Veda is an item of creation because it was generated by God and therefore, the Veda is not the Creator (Asya Mahato…). Therefore, the word Brahman cannot be strictly limited to God alone. The Veda is called as Brahman in the Gita (Brahma Akshara Samudbhavam). In this verse the Gita says that the Veda is produced by God. Therefore, when you have used the word Brahman for one item of in creation, why can it not be used for another item in creation? The Veda is called as Brahman because it is the greatest in the category of Scriptures because it is the only scripture, which is protected from pollution or corruption as it was passed on only through recitation for several generations. Similarly, in the category of the items of creation the pure awareness (soul), which is the finest form of nervous energy, can be called as Brahman. Therefore, the soul can be Brahman but it cannot be called God (Ishwara). You cannot have even a qualitative similarity between the soul and God, because God is completely unimaginable and the soul is imaginable by shrewd analysis. The Veda says that the soul is an imaginable item for the sharp intellectual (Drusyate Tvagraya). This pure awareness (soul) is clearly seen through advanced instruments by a scientist. Therefore, by such careful analysis you can cross this final hurdle and conclude that God is beyond the soul or pure awareness also. In the human incarnation the gross body appears to be a limited human body but actually that limited body itself is the world simultaneously. This truth can be known only by insight. Lord Krishna showed His limited body itself as the infinite cosmos to the inner eye of Arjuna. The subtle body in the human incarnation is the Maya which is the three qualities that pervade all over the universe. This means that the Avidya in the human incarnation is simultaneously Maya. The soul present in the human incarnation is the Mula Maya simultaneously. This is the most complicated aspect of the human incarnation, which can be never understood even by sages. It becomes the unimaginable concept because this little human body of the Lord standing on a small place on the earth itself is the entire infinite cosmos. The Lord showed the entire creation in His mouth, standing on a small place in a village. But the 159

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entire earth was in the mouth of the Lord and this scene was also present on the earth present in His mouth. By this itself, you can understand that God is unimaginable. Thus in the case of the human incarnation only is Avidya the same as Maya, the limited human body the same as the world and the soul the same as Mula Maya. In the case of an ordinary human being such a wonderful concept does not exist. In the case of the human being, the soul is a tiny particle of Mula Maya, Avidya is a small part of Maya and the gross body is a small part of the world. The ordinary human being is just a composite of the outermost coat (gross body), the shirt (subtle body) and the inner most in-shirt (causal body). There is no fourth person inside this composite. This composite of the three is dancing by the power of God, which is called as the Mula Maya or the pure awareness, which appeared in the beginning of Creation. Therefore, the soul or human being is controlled by Maya (Maya Vashikrutah). This Mula Maya along with its will (Maya) and its modification (Creation) is under the control of God (Vashikruta Mayah). This is the difference between the human being (Jeeva) and God (Ishwara). In the human incarnation the fourth item, God exists who is wearing the in-shirt, shirt and coat. The human being is a composite of three items whereas the human incarnation is a composite of four items. The Veda says that God is the fourth item (Turiya) and the three covering bodies are Vishwa (gross body), Taijasa (subtle body) and Prajna (causal body). Therefore, the identification of real human incarnation called as Brahma Jnana or Brahma Vidya is the most subtle and complicated subject, which you can understand only by careful analysis and a lot of patience. The Gita says that one can identify this son of Vasudeva (Lord Krishna) as the Lord only after continuous efforts through several births (Bahunaam Janmanamante). Identification of God as a statue is very very easy. Identification of God as the Formless One is also easy to understand based on a simile like space or air, which are formless and allpervading. The energetic forms of God like Vishnu, Shiva, etc., are also easy to digest because no human being develops repulsion towards such energetic form since no egoism or jealousy arise in that case. The problem of egoism and jealousy along with all the above hurdles arise only for human beings when they try to recognize the human incarnation. If the human being does not identify the human form of God here, such a human being also cannot identify the energetic form of 160

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God in the upper world because of the same repulsion of likes. As the human body repels the human form here, the soul covered by an energetic body in the upper world rejects the energetic form of God also for the same reason. Therefore, such a human being is lost forever as said in the Veda (Ihachet Avedeet…).

No human incarnations in Other Religions? [Mr. Anil Antony asked that Swami came as a human incarnation in Hinduism. Why have human incarnations not similarly appeared in other religions?] The answer for this question is very crucial and has to be digested by different people in different angles. First of all you have to find out whether I am the human incarnation or not? I cannot say so because I should not say it. Whether I actually am the human incarnation or not, let us assume that I am a human incarnation from the angle of My sincere devotee. Whether My sincere devotee is right or wrong cannot be decided by any other person, who is also a human being like My devotee. I cannot be a standard to My devotee, which others cannot accept. Therefore, My answer to this question is completely limited to My sincere devotee only, because others cannot accept Me as the human incarnation. Therefore, My answer given to My sincere devotee only shall be the following: The fundamental point in your question is that Buddhism is silent about God Himself and so the topic of human incarnation cannot arise. Islam also does not believe in the human incarnation and treats even Mohammad as only a messenger of God. Islam says that since He is the last messenger, there is no place for another messenger. Holy Christianity accepts the concept of human incarnation as God-in-flesh but limits it only to Jesus and leaves no place for another human incarnation. Ofcourse they accept the second coming of Jesus. But they say that the second coming is only in the stage of the final destruction of world. Since the world exists now and is not facing the final destruction, I cannot fit Myself in the place of second Jesus. But in Hinduism the Gita says “Yada Yada Hi…”, which means that God will come in human form whenever it is necessary. Therefore, I can have a place only in Hinduism. Ofcourse, this provision in Hinduism can be exploited by human beings who are not real incarnations. But for the fear of exploitation, the entire system cannot be 161

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rejected. For the fear of cheating, the entire examination system cannot be abolished from the school. For the fear of accident, train journey cannot be avoided. Therefore every system contains the possibility of both genuine and fraud cases. We have to carefully analyze and eliminate the fraud cases. Because of the fear of rats the house cannot be burnt. Even if I want to come in other religions their doors are closed. Therefore the only possibility is to come in Hinduism and establish the Universality of God. When the Universality of God in all the human incarnations of all religions is established, then it means that I have come in human form in all the religions simultaneously. Except this one way there is no other way. I have no objection in coming in human form in other religions also separately, provided you get the doors of the other religions opened for My entry. [Mr Anil Antony told Swami that this answer was the cream of the light of the day. Everybody in the satsang (discussion, discourse), including Mr Antony said, “No one other than the Lord can answer this question in such a wonderful way!” Mr Antony said that his trip to meet Swami had become very fruitful. Swami told him that even a trip to Kashmir cannot give such eternal bliss.]

Does God Need Material Possessions? [Mr Antony said that some of his friends asked “Why does God need a website? Why does God need money? Can He not do without these things?”] When the work is possible through a process that follows the laws of nature, the supernatural power of God is not used. Only demons exhibit supernatural powers, even if there is no necessity. They want to draw the attention of people and attract them in order to get name and fame. Their aim is not uplifting humanity. Display of supernatural powers creates attention in the people. But it simultaneously creates tension. The realization of knowledge and natural love (devotion) cannot be created in the excited state of tension. Devotion should be spontaneous and should be developed only in the ground (normal) state; only then is it sweet. This entire universe is created by the Lord only for tasting such real natural sweet devotion of devotees. The exhibition of miracles always creates fear and tension and a natural flexible state is not possible, in which alone the sweet devotion can be tasted. 162

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Fear and tension will block your mind and you will not dare to clear your doubts. It is not congenial for the free growth and expansion of divine knowledge. Unless there is a severe necessity, the Lord will not perform miracles. When the work is not possible through the natural way, then only does the Lord use the supernatural power. Even if a miracle is performed the Lord will try to hide it so that the natural state is balanced. When Lord Krishna covered the sun with His divine wheel, He made it appear as if a cloud had covered it. The intention of the Lord is not self-exhibition like a demon. The same supernatural miracle performed by a demon is used for his self-projection. The Lord likes to be loved by the devotees without exhibiting His supernatural wealth. A prince, who is good and humble, likes to win the heart of a girl without revealing his identity as the prince of that land. He does not like to exhibit his wealth in order to win her heart. Similarly God likes to attract the hearts of devotees by His divine knowledge which is His eternal divine beauty. If the prince has no merit, he tries to attract her by cheap exhibition of his identity and wealth. Thus a demon like Satan tries to attract human beings by cheap exhibition of supernatural powers and tries to convert them into his follower. Satan tried to attract Jesus by showing his kingdom. Jesus attracted people by His divine knowledge. When it becomes inevitable to do a miracle and when the performed miracle cannot be hidden the Lord tries to neutralize the tension by exhibiting strongly negative qualities. Lord Krishna lifted the mountain and protected the villagers from the heavy rain. Such miracles cannot remain hidden or cannot be made to appear as a natural phenomenon. [People are bound to get fear and excitement on seeing them]. In order to bring them to the normal state the Lord exhibited very strong Rajas and Tamas like stealing butter and dancing with girls. In the case of Lord Rama there was no necessity of exhibition of miracles. Hence there was no need for Him to show the negative qualities. Thus the Lord is associated with all the three qualities to be used wherever and whenever necessary. All the discoveries of science are only due to the grace of God. Computer technology is the gift from God to humanity. Some people are earning their livelihood through this technology. Livelihood is essential and is the basis of sustaining the body, which is the instrument of all spiritual efforts. Now this same computer technology is being used for spiritual service. Are you objecting to the Creator of this technology 163

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using it for His own work? You must be grateful to the Lord. You can use it for your worldly purpose but you should atleast express your gratefulness by using it for His service also. Every scientific benefit is granted by God to humanity with primary purpose of using it in the spiritual line only. Majority of top scientists believe in God and accept their discoveries as the results of grace of God only. A discovery is always experienced as an accidental incident like a flash. It is not the result of the continuous hard work. During the hard work a flash strikes the brain of the scientist. The scientist gets disgusted during his hard work and suddenly a flash in the brain results in a new discovery. If the discovery were the fruit of hard work, it would come naturally at the end of the hard work without any flash. Such a flash is due to the grace of the Lord. Almost all top scientists agree to this truth. Only a few egoistic scientists do not agree to this. Science is very helpful in the analysis of this creation, which helps one realize that no item of this creation is the Creator. Science does not help us understand anything about the Creator. Infact even philosophers and sages have not understood anything about the Creator. The philosopher also analyses the entire creation. In this aspect there is no difference between the philosopher and scientist. The only difference between them is that the scientist does not accept the existence of the unknown Creator who is beyond creation, whereas the philosopher accepts Him. For a philosopher, miracles are not necessary. He is very sensitive and recognizes the existence of God through deep analysis of various incidents in his life. The scientist is not so sensitive. He needs physical proof through miracles. Most scientists turn into devotees through such miracles, which are visible to the naked eye. Such scientists have an open mind and courage to accept the truth due to their wise flexibility. But a few scientists have a very rigid mind and do not accept even the physical miracles attributing them to magic and illusion. Such people should not be called as scientists. Science means rational flexibility; leaving old disproved concepts and accepting the new proved concepts. People who are rigid in their old fixed concepts are called as conservatives. Such people mock the devotees as conservatives and the joke is that they are the original raw conservatives! The bonds with wife, children, and money are the strongest bonds and are called as the three ‘Eshanas’, which are like steel chains. The 164

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Lord competes with these three to test your love for Him. It is not the question of requirement. It is the question of identifying your love. Your son may be well settled and may not require money. But you still give your wealth to him alone. It shows your love for him which is not related with his requirement. You cover your absence of love for God with this pretext of non-requirement (saying that God does not need our money). By such a cover, you want favor from God even though you do not love him truly. You can deceive a human being by such an intelligent cover, but can you deceive the Lord who is omniscient? Instead of such tricks, God will be pleased with you, if you say frankly that you do not want to give Him money since you do not have love for Him. Truth is always better than trickery. A lady was applying perfume to the feet of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus told her that it was waste, since Jesus did not require it. But Jesus objected to the disciple and accepted the perfume which signifies her immense love for Lord Jesus. It indicates the divine love of the lady and there is no question of requirement here.

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Chapter - 15

HUMAN INCARNATION, THE ONLY PATH Meaning of Jesus [Jesus said that one can reach His Father only through Him and that He is the only path. Does this not mean that we have to follow only Jesus? In such a case how can one accept Universal Spirituality? This is a question posed by several devoted Christians from all over the world.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, My answer to these dear devoted holy Christian souls is as follows: Does Jesus represent a human body, the word or both? If it represents a particular human body, then such a human body does not exist now. Only a particular human generation and that too, in a particular place was favored by the association of the human body of Jesus. Is it not the partiality of God? If Jesus represents the word (Message of the Christ), then the previous human generations before the birth of Jesus were not favored with this word and this also leads to the partiality of God. If Jesus represents both the body and the word, then both the above objections will attack together, strengthening the partiality of God.

Impartial God God is impartial. He created this entire universe. He should not favor a part of the infinite time and a particular piece of the world. Since there is no re-birth of the soul, as you say, all those unlucky souls fell permanently in the hell. Now such souls cannot take human re-birth to pray to Jesus for their salvation. If you say that some other prophet by name Moses or some other name, who was equal to Jesus, existed before the birth of Jesus, then, the Christian belief “Jesus alone is the Saviour” will be wrong. If you say that Moses was also the same Jesus, then, why not some other person, X or Y or Z, after Jesus also be Jesus? In such a case Jesus exists before and after the birth of Jesus. Then Jesus is omniscient and omni-potent. In such a case, Jesus in some other human forms, by some other names, must have always existed. Then, 166

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Jesus can even exist in different human forms simultaneously, in different countries during the same human generation to avoid the partiality, because the different countries might not have contact with each other during a particular old human generation. Infact, this was true because the countries were not having any contact with each other, a few centuries ago. God is the Father of all the people in all the countries of this universe and therefore, He should be impartial to all His children. You have to agree with this point because only one God created this whole universe. It will be better to further replace the word Jesus by a general word like ‘Holy Spirit’, because the word Jesus signifies a particular human body only according to general sense of the public. The word ‘Holy Spirit’ does not signify any particular human body and therefore it will be reasonable to say that the Holy Spirit is God and this Holy Spirit existed in all those divine human forms. Infact, the Holy Spirit is the purest power of God that enters a particular chosen deserving human body in every country during the same human generation. By this, every country gets equal benefit. When Jesus existed in a particular place, the other countries were not having any communication with that Holy place of Jesus. Those human generations in other countries must have gone to the hell because Jesus was the only saviour. Ofcourse, some people who were associated with Jesus also went to hell since they disbelieved Him. But those people, atleast, got the chance of association with Holy Jesus because they existed in that place. Had that chance of association been given to the people of other countries also, there might have been a fraction of the people, which, might have believed in Jesus and might have been liberated. Such salvation of a fraction of people happened in that Holy place where Jesus lived. This objection will charge Jesus or (and) God with lack of planning and lack of impartiality. To remove this charge, the above universal concept has to be accepted by open minds, following a logical scientific path of analysis, which is essential in any line of knowledge including spiritual knowledge. O great Christians! I appreciate you from the bottom of My heart for your one-pointed faith and sincerity towards God. Who can be compared with you, in this world, for your practical sacrifice in the mission of God and for your kindest hearts in the service rendered to the downtrodden people? Fortunately you are also the toppers in science, which is the result of most powerful practical analysis of any concept. 167

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Thus you are the best cream of this creation in all the aspects. But why don’t you apply a trace of that powerful systematic logical scientific analysis in this spiritual knowledge also? Why should you follow the interpretations of your fellow human beings, who are just equal to you? You can yourselves analyse the divine statements of God Jesus with your own intellectual faculty based on simple logical analysis. Since only one God created this universe, since only God is the Father of all the human beings in this world and since the Father must be impartial to all the children, the same God must have written all the religious scriptures of the world. These scriptures cannot and should not contradict each other. If there is any contradiction, that must have been the misinterpretation of some closed minds. Before Jesus was born, prophets announced Him as ‘Emmanuel’, meaning that God was coming in human form to live with human beings. Whenever the word Jesus comes, it should mean only ‘Emmanuel’. When you say that Jesus is the only path, it means that the human form of God is the only path to reach God. Whenever Jesus utters the word ‘I’, that word ‘I’ means ‘Emmanuel’, who is a general human incarnation of God and not just a particular human incarnation. The reason for the emphasis on the human form of God is that, human beings can have His vision for a long time, can touch Him for a long time, can converse with Him for a long time and can live with Him for a long time when He is in the human body. The Holy Spirit can enter a body of light also, which is called as angel. Such a body can be seen for a little time only since the light has the nature of propagation in the space. Such an angel cannot be touched due to the high intensity of radiation. The angel talks briefly for the same reason. The angel cannot live with human beings for a long time. Thus the human body is most convenient for human beings. This soul goes to the upper world by taking a body of light-energy. For those souls in the upper world, God also appears with a body of bright light-energy. Jesus referred this form of God as the Father of the Heaven. A human being with this materialized body cannot approach God with that powerful energetic body. The meaning of the statement that a human being can approach God only through Jesus is that a material body can approach God through a material body only. God is one and the same whether He is present in the body of light or in the materialized human body. From the point of God, Jesus and the Father of Heaven are one and the same. The 168

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milk present in a golden cup is the same as the milk present in a ceramic cup. “Jesus will come again!” means that God will come again and again in human form for every human generation, to avoid the partiality of the Father to a particular human generation. In this context the word Jesus means Emmanuel. The statement that Jesus is the light is a concept of science. The word Jesus indicates the external human body, which is made of the five elements i.e., earth, water, energy, air and space. Space is common for both matter and energy, which is the basis of the concept of volume. Volume is the property of the space. Both matter and energy need space. Earth, water and air constitute matter in solid, liquid and gaseous states. Thus the matter in the human body is another form of energy according to the law of mass-energy equivalence (E = mc2). Thus the human body of Jesus, which is constituted by matter, is a form of energy and thus it is equal to the energetic body of the Father of heaven. Thus from the point of external body also, the Emmanuel and the Father of Heaven are one and the same. A person present in bright silk clothes or dull cotton clothes is one and same. Such interpretations must be logical and also must prove the impartial love of God towards all His children on the earth.

What is the Meaning of Saving? [Shri Anil Antony, Mumbai, asked Swami some questions critical to the present belief of Christianity. What do you mean by saving? Will Jesus save me if I accept Him as my saviour? What is truth? What is the kingdom of God? Who is Satan? Why rituals are more in Hinduism and not in Christianity? What do you think about worshipping idols, approaching astrologers, and people having super natural powers? How do you explain the Heaven of Kingdom compared in several ways in Holy Bible? Please explain (Luke 9:60-62 2, 12:51-53; Mathew 6:8; John 18:37-38; Mathew 11:28-30, 5:3-8). Swami has answered the questions below.] Saving from troubles and misery is the general sense of the word saving. In the spiritual sense, saving means cutting all the worldly bonds to establish the real bond with God who alone is the truth. God is truth. This means that God is infinite power. This creation is just His imagination and is almost not true. The imagining person is said to truly exist. The world, which is just His imagination, is not completely ‘nothing’. The world is made of an iota of energy of God. God is like 169

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the infinite ocean of energy. Compared to God the world is almost nothing. Thus this entire creation is under the full control of God. Just like the person doing some imagination, creates an imaginary world in him, God created this imaginary world in Him. The imagining person can fully control his imaginary world. He can transform any item into any other item. He can raise a dead body in his imaginary world. All the miracles of human incarnations can be explained only by this concept. God, who is present in the human incarnation, does all these miracles only to establish this concept. If the world is equally true as God, then the world is equally powerful in comparison to God. In such a case God cannot do whatever He likes. Since the world is least powerful and God is most powerful, God controls the entire world like a very strong person controlling a very weak person. Thus the word ‘truth’ indicates the omni-potent nature of God. When we say that this world is not true, it indicates the negligible power of the world. Suppose a small ant is there on your shirt, will you say that you and the ant are present in the house? The ant is negligible and is treated as nothing. Therefore, a person who knows this concept surrenders to God and accepts Him as the saviour. In his eyes the entire world looks like an ant before God. You are a tiny particle in this ant-world. You can understand your position by putting yourself in this relative scale. Assume that this ant is the Infinite Ocean of energy. You are an iota of that ocean. This means your power is negligible before the power of this entire nature. The world is like the ocean and you are like a drop in it. God is like the ocean and the world is a drop in God. You must understand this simile not in terms of volume but in terms of the intensity of the power. When we utter the word God, we immediately imagine Him as a very large figure with unlimited boundaries. Space is also the largest thing that we can think of but it has no power as it is treated has nothing [emptiness or vacuum]. The atom bomb is very small but it has enormous power. Therefore, our idea about God should not be in terms of the threedimensional space. When a person imagines a large city, the city is very huge but the person is very small. But that small person has created, maintains and finally dissolves this huge city. He can do anything in this huge city. Infact he is standing outside this huge city. When He wants to enter into this huge imaginary city, He will imagine a small form and identify himself with that form. That small form represents the outside person. 170

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This imagined form, with which the outside person (one who is imagining) has identified, is treated as the outside person directly. This small imagined form is the human incarnation. The outside person is God. The huge imaginary city is this world. Thus God identifies Himself with the human incarnation. From this angle the human incarnation and God are one and the same. There is another angle in which the human incarnation is not the original God but a part and parcel of God. In this angle, God and the human incarnation are treated as Father and Son. You can experience the Father only through this Son. In the third angle the human incarnation is just sent by God into this world as a messenger with some power. Jesus told this truth in all the three angles. Jesus can save any human being who has any one of these three angles. Acceptance of Jesus as your saviour is the essential step in the spiritual effort. Here Jesus means the human incarnation in general. Only God is the saviour. But you cannot approach God directly. Only through the human incarnation can you approach God. This means that you should accept the human incarnation as that very God. In such a case, only the human incarnation becomes your saviour. God is like free electrons flowing in the atmosphere. These electrons are electricity. Then can you heat water by keeping a vessel containing water in the atmosphere? When these electrons enter a medium like the metallic wire, you can heat water. If the medium is the human form, it is most convenient for you to clear your doubts, to love and serve Him. Therefore, acceptance of Jesus as your Saviour means that you should accept the human incarnation as your saviour. It is told that Jesus will come again. This means that the human incarnation comes in every human generation. Otherwise, if one generation was only blessed by such fortune, the other generations will charge God as partial and such a charge would be justified. Therefore, if you think that Jesus means only that particular human incarnation, which came about 2000 years back, you have lost the whole concept. Through a particular example, a generalization must be made. If you say that the sodium atom is indivisible, it means an atom of any element is indivisible. If you say that Daniel is born, it means that every human being must be born. If this basic analysis is lost, the entire spiritual castle falls down due to the absence of its foundation.

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Does Accepting Jesus Ensure Salvation? Merely accepting the human incarnation (Jesus) as the Saviour cannot save you. It is told in the Bible that He came to save His people. Who are His people? They are His beloved devotees. They follow His instructions. Jesus did not give any attention to His mother, when He was with His disciples. When a woman shouted that the Mother of Jesus was blessed, Jesus did not agree with her and said that blessed are those who followed His instructions. He says that one should leave parents, wife or husband, children and must be prepared even to carry his own cross for the sake of Jesus. This means that one should be prepared to sacrifice even his life. Therefore, it is a narrow path with thorns. Even to hear this statement your mind is turmoiled with chaotic disturbance. That is the reason why He says that He has come to give peace to you and that He is holding the sword of knowledge in His hand. Therefore, you can be saved only when you reach that state. If you say to the judge that you accept him as your saviour, will he save you and cancel his judgement? If you say to the jailor that you will accept him as your saviour, will he release you from the jail? Therefore, Jesus saves only His dearest devotees. He underwent the suffering on the cross for the sake of only His people. He did not suffer for the sake of all people and He did not release all people from their sins. If such a thing is done, justice is destroyed. The divine administration becomes meaningless. When a devotee leaves everybody and everything for the sake of the human incarnation and participates in His service, such people are called as His people. Such devotees will never agree for the crucifixion of the Lord for the sake of their sins. Therefore, real saving is only at that stage. Whether, it is Christianity or Hinduism the beginner cannot come forward if the final stage is shown in the beginning. In Hinduism the saints and in Christianity, the Popes, fathers, brothers and sisters, who are dedicated to the Divine Mission, have left everything and everybody for the sake of God. Actually only such holy saints can be saved since they live according to His prescribed standards. But if this fact is revealed, no common man will come forward. It is the tradition of the divine preacher to show the final result even in the first step. We say to the schoolboy that if he goes to school regularly and studies sincerely, he will become a professor. It is only encouragement. Does that mean that the boy will be appointed as professor as soon as he finishes 172

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schooling? He gets encouraged and studies well in the school. Then he will go to college and university and study further. Then he will join as a lecturer, become a reader and then finally become the professor. Therefore, to attract beginners, such encouraging statements are made, which need not be condemned as lies. When a lie is beneficial, it cannot be called as a sin. Even if it is the truth, but if it harms, it is a sin. We tell so many lies to our children to encourage them and our aim is only their welfare and not cheating them. Therefore, such statements should be accepted with reference to the level of the devotees. The essence of spiritual knowledge is to recognize God, then to recognize God as the King of this creation and then recognizing His ultimate underlying hidden administration in the entire creation. We recognize the government and its administration in this world. It is clear because it is visible to the eyes. But God and His administration are invisible. Invisible does not mean non-existent. This world is filled with cosmic energy, which is invisible. That does not mean that cosmic energy does not exist. You can experience the administration of God in every corner of your life. His administration applies to both living and non-living beings of the creation. The non-living Sun, wind etc., move constantly following the rules of God. Such invisible God comes as a visible human incarnation, and proves all this. When Jesus ordered the storm in the sea to stop, it subsided. Plants, birds, animals and all the human beings are all under His control. When Jesus told a tree to die, the tree died. Jesus controlled sheep and thus He controls animals and birds. The human beings consist of atheists, normal human devotees and real devotees. He also controls the atheists. The disciple of Jesus cut the ear of a soldier who came to arrest Him. But Jesus attached the ear in the proper place. Thus His enemies were also under His control. The second type, (normal devotees) worships God for solving their worldly problems. He proved that they were also controlled by Him, when He cured their diseases etc. He saved the highest real devotees by suffering on the cross. Thus, He proved Himself to be the controller of all the non-living and living beings. This means that He is the controller of the entire creation. Recognizing this all-controlling administration in the entire world is the recognition of His kingdom. People thought that His kingdom was somewhere in the heaven, above the sky. Jesus said that His kingdom was coming to earth. It means that the human beings on the earth have started recognizing His kingdom on earth, which already 173

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exists. There is no place, which is not in His kingdom. There is no king except the human incarnation like Jesus. He is the king of kings. Even Satan is an employee in His kingdom. This creation is created by Him for His entertainment. In a cinema, not only is the hero remunerated, but also the villain. Satan is used to test the devotees through his attractions. Thus Satan is required in the spiritual effort of the human being. In answering a multiple choice question, there are three wrong answers along with one correct answer. The three wrong answers represent Satan, which appear more correct and attract the mind. The power of discrimination of the student becomes more significant only in the presence of such wrong answers. What is the significance of happiness without misery? Nothing and none can oppose the Lord. Satan is required for His divine game.

Rituals Rituals are there in every religion. Their significance is the effect of the external atmosphere. Baptism is a ritual. All rituals indicate the super natural power of the unimaginable God. Astrology and black magic etc., are not good from the point of the highest real devotees. But from the point of atheists and scientists, they indicate the super natural element, which leads to the existence of God. Therefore, everything in the tradition is positive from the point of the lowest cadre and simultaneously negative from the point of highest devotees. Even the idol worship is good from the point of lowest devotees. They cannot accept the present human incarnation due to their ego and jealousy. They cannot see the energetic forms of God by long penance. They can only retain the concept of God through idols and pictures. Jesus on the cross of the chain worn in the neck of every Christian is an idol. Ofcourse, the idol worship is not direct worship of God, because God does not exist in idols. It is only a model or a representative of the concept. We use models in teaching. When you teach the generation of electricity through a model, flow sheet, or diagram, the model is not directly the electric generator. But it represents the concept of production of electricity. Idol worship should be limited only to obtaining a representative vision of God for meditation. Therefore, cleaning the idol by bath and decorating is acceptable. You can offer also food to the idol and feel that you are eating the remains. But you

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should not say that you have really scarified to God. Thus, you can see everything as positive from the lower level.

Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God is compared to a treasure hidden in a field. This means that God is hidden in the human body of the human incarnation. In the Gita the human body is compared with a field (Idam shareeram…). Locating the field containing the treasure means identifying the human incarnation. Purchasing the field means serving that human body. If the treasure is announced, the owner will not sell the field. Then it is impossible to get the treasure. This means that it is impossible to serve the real form of the God, who is beyond imagination. The human body of the incarnation is a part of the kingdom of God. Again the kingdom of God is compared to a merchant who is in search of pearls. This means that the Lord in human body is in search of real devotees. But only one in millions can be the real devotee as said in the Gita (Kaschit maam …). When a merchant finds such a pearl, he purchases it by selling all his property. This means that the human incarnation will go to any extent to save that rarest devotee. Again the kingdom of God is compared to a dragnet, by which all categories are captured, and from each category, the good is taken and the bad is thrown. This means that God captures all types of devotees. Some devotees use God for their selfish benefits. Even for them, God answers their prayers and thus God captures them. Out of these devotees, those who are turned in to real devotees are accepted by Him and the others are thrown out. These other type of devotees love God as an instrument to solve their problems and that is not real love. Matthew 5:3-8: Mercy and purity are praised because such qualities will develop love for God. Only then will God bless them. Simple mercy and purity related to worldly bonds are of no permanent use. Such good qualities without the element of God, lead to temporary heaven, which is not a permanent fruit. Mere love for the society leads only to a temporary heaven from which one falls back to earth, as said in the Gita (Ksheenee Punye…) Matthew 11:28-30: The yoke of the Lord is light where as the yoke of human beings is heavy. This means that the work of the Lord will never give misery as there is no selfishness. But the worldly work 175

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of human beings becomes heavy due to selfishness that creates anxiety and misery since one is attached to the fruit of the work. John 18:37-38: God is Truth. But every truth is not God. For example, it is true if you say that the wind moves. This does not mean that this sentence is God. He said “I am the Truth.’’ He did not say “Truth is Myself”. The people who belong to the truth mean the devotees who belong to God. Here the word truth represents God alone and not every truth in the world. Matthew 6:8: He said that the Father knows things before you ask. This sentence belongs to the highest devotees. They do not expect anything in return, even for their practical service but the lower devotees aspire for fruits from God even for their theoretical service like prayers. For such low cadre devotees, He said “Ask and it shall be given”. For the high level devotees, He suffers for their sins and cancels their evil effects. For lower devotees it is only postponing the punishment to the other place called hell, with added interest. Luke 12:51-53: Jesus is evaluating the love towards Him in terms of the decrease in the love of worldly bonds. As the love of a boy for his girlfriend increases, the bonds with his parents weaken proportionately. At the final stage he runs away with the girlfriend, totally discarding his parents. Thus, the detachment from worldly bonds is an indirect measure of the attachment to God. Without the latter, the former is useless. This is explained here. Jesus said that one who could not be detached from one’s parents, wife or husband and children and even with one’s life cannot be his follower. Luke 9:60-62: Let the dead bury the dead. You preach about God. This means that you need not worry about the dead body or its rituals. The reason is that the inert dead body will decompose into the inert five elements. The decomposition reactions are controlled by inert items like entropy, free energy etc. Inert means dead. Therefore, the inert five elements will decompose the dead body and bury it, whether you do the ceremony or not. The Parsi people should be appreciated in this concept because they leave their dead bodies on hills and in forests.

Conversion I am neither Hindu nor Christian. I belong to Universal Spirituality, which means that I am a true Hindu and therefore simultaneously a true Christian. I would like to question whether the 176

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conversion that is being done is based on the conversion of religion or of spirituality. If it is a religious conversion, I am not interested in the topic. If it is a spiritual conversion, there is no need because all religions have the same spirituality. Religion is only an external dress and spirituality is the same person present in all the types of dress. If the religious conversion is aimed at a political background by which a religion wants to increase its number of followers and thus wants to have a single kingdom of Christians or Hindus, there is no spirituality in it. When Jesus thought of spreading the kingdom of God, a revolutionary [rebel] thought that Jesus was aiming to remove the Roman government and establish a Jewish rule. Jesus refused to join hands with that revolutionary. If you are prosperous, the first people who are jealous are the people of your own religious community. If you are trying to convert the entire world in to one religion, the entire world will become jealous when you prosper. Is this the ultimate result you desire? Only the minority indicates real spirituality to reach God as said by both by Jesus and Krishna. Jesus said that the path leading towards Him is very narrow. Krishna told in the Gita that only one in millions can reach Him. Therefore, the minority is supported by the Lord and not the majority. Quality lies only in the minority and not in the majority. Jesus said that wherever two or three people associate to praise the Lord, the Lord dwells there. This indicates a qualitative minority and not the ignorant majority. You say that Hindus are worried about the conversion of Hindus into Christians. But I find atleast a few Christians are also converted into Hindus. Perhaps, the Hindu is worried since both the rates of conversions are not equal. If your worry is based on this point, you are not against the concept of conversion. If you are against the concept of conversion, you should not have agreed to convert Christians into Hindus also. I am completely against conversion from one religion to another religion because all religions have the same spirituality and the same God. The external dress of God and the language of the spirituality-syllabus differ from one religion to another. Therefore, there is no meaning in conversion. It is like two different classes of the same school in different languages. The two classes belong to the same standard and the same teacher goes and teaches the same syllabus to the two classes in their respective languages. Even if a person changes one class for another, the teacher and the syllabus 177

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remain the same. Whatever may be the religion, the devotee who converts, remains as a theist alone. If a theist becomes an atheist, then we shall have to worry about him. Thus by conversion no religion gains anything and no religion loses anything. After all, the person is in the same house of spirituality and he has changed from one room to the other. I don’t know why some people are anxious about conversion and some other people desire conversion. The person does not develop any better by conversion. If a student changes one section for another, his standard does not increase. Only his language is changed; the syllabus remains the same. Thus by conversion, one has changed the culture and language only but not the actual substance called as spirituality. Change of culture is not spiritual progress. In every language all standards are present. He should try to go to the higher standard in his own language and that is called as academic progress. Similarly one should try to go to higher levels of spirituality in his own religion. One should go up vertically from the lower standard to the higher standard in his own religion to reach the goal quickly, but not go horizontally from one religion to the other religion. The former is called as progress and latter is a waste of energy and time. If a Christian is converting a Hindu into Christianity, My advice to him is “Why are you so much particular about the change in the culture, which is the external religion. The internal spirituality remains same and therefore you have done only external conversion but not the internal conversion. Since spirituality in both religions remains the same, you have not converted him at all. You have plenty of money and a broad mind to sacrifice. You help the poor Hindu because he is a poor theist. He is not atheist.” On the same occasion I advise Hindus also like this, “Most Hindus are poor. The rich Hindu minority has no broad mind to sacrifice to poor fellow Hindus. Neither do you help the poor people of Hinduism, nor do you allow them to get help from broad-minded, rich Christians. Majority of Christians are rich and also broad-minded. Why do you worry? The Hindu did not become an atheist by becoming a Christian. Only his external dress is changed. He has just changed his shirt and you need not worry about it.” I wish that every human being in this world recognizes the underlying common basis of all the religions, which is Universal Spirituality. If that is realized, a Christian will not worry even if the entire world becomes Hindus and a Hindu will not worry even if the 178

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entire world becomes Christians. Both the Christian and the Hindu should worry if the entire world is filled with atheists. Any human being can wear a dress of any colour. Nothing is gained if the majority wears shirts of a particular colour and if one celebrates that as a victory; there cannot be greater foolish ignorance than this. One should become the fish living in the unlimited ocean of Universal Spirituality .One should not linger as a stagnant fish in his own river called as the religion. If the fish of the river is patient enough to travel to the end of its religionriver, it will find the above-said ocean. One can follow the religion of his choice in this world. All religions are equal but all the steps in each religion are not equal. All standards in a school are not equal but all classes in different languages of the same standard are equal. The formless God, the God with form, like statues and finally the human form of God are respectively the school, college and university levels. Hanuman is the highest among devotees and He also gained the highest result, which is the post of the future Creator. Nobody can be wiser, more devoted and more gifted than Hanuman. He worshipped Rama who was the human form of God in His time. In Valmiki Ramayana, there was no single reference of Hanuman worshipping formless God or energetic forms like Brahma, Vishnu etc., or statutes. Similarly there was no single reference of him doing bhajans, meditation by mind or discussing about God using intelligence. Hanuman silently worked for the Lord and got the result also silently. Thus the human form of God and practical participation in His work are the highest steps to please the Lord. You should not say that all the steps are equal in a staircase, but all the staircases are equal.

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Chapter - 16

GOD’S MEDIUM AND WORSHIP Partial Benefit of Model Worship O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [June 12, 2007] The unimaginable God requires a medium for expression. When the medium is charged by God, the medium is treated as God directly and service to this medium is the direct service to God. When a wire is charged by electric current, touching the live wire means touching the current itself. But if you touch the picture of a live wire on paper, you are not touching the current. It is only an indirect representative model of the live wire. Service to the charged medium is called as sakshat upasanam, which is direct service. Service to the representative model is called as pratika upasanam, which is only indirect service. Indirect service is a total waste because neither are you experiencing God in the model, nor is God experiencing your service. This second type of worship is the worship of statues of God. Then, why not do away with this second type of worship? No, this type of worship becomes necessary since the majority of human beings does not recognize the contemporary human incarnation due to the repulsion between common external media (common external gross human bodies). The model worship is maintained for this majority, so that through such worship, atleast the psychological repulsion to the human form is removed. But because even the statues are carved in human form like Vishnu, Rama etc, some people have repulsion even to the human form in the statue. For such people the Shiva Linga, which has no human form, is established. Atleast the concept of formless God is removed here since the Shiva Linga has a form. Some worship formless objects like light energy as representative models of God. Some worship qualities like love, bliss, etc as representative models of God. Actually the human body contains awareness (soul), qualities (jeeva), matter (gross body) and energy as the shine and heat of the body and thus is a complete medium.

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Only for such psychological treatment of human beings, to remove their repulsion to the human form, are the rituals in the temples being carried out. Ofcourse in such rituals, the service part is a waste. The initiation of life in the statues in temples indicates the concept of life in an inert material body (statue). This initiation of life (prana pratishtha) advises you to go for the living human form and it does not mean that the same inert statue has become alive after such initiation. Clearly no sign of life is witnessed in the statue after such initiation. The ignorant priest says that the radiation of life (pranakala) enters the statue after the initiation, but all this is just brainwash. The fact is that the statue does not even vibrate once. Even in indirect worship, the worship is not aimed at the model but it is aimed at the God alone. God is pleased to some extent in such worship also because the aim is God after all. Ofcourse, in direct worship, God is extremely pleased because God, who always exists only in the human form, receives your service directly. God does not exist in the inert objects (Natasya pratima asti—Veda) but still He is pleased in such worship also because the aim is God alone. People worship the shalagrama (a piece of stone) as a representative model of Vishnu. Here, the worship is aimed at Vishnu and not aimed at the stone. Sumati worshipped her husband Kaushika as God. Kaushika was the greatest sinner and was ready to go to hell. But from such worship of Kaushika, Sumati derived the super power to stop the sun from rising. Only God controls the sun (Bishodeti suryah—Veda). The wretched Kaushika could not have given such power to Sumati. This power is derived from God alone, because when Sumati worshipped her husband as God, the worship was aimed at God and not aimed at Kaushika. Kaushika was a representative model of God for Sumati, like the petty stone (Salagrama) representing the all-pervading Lord Vishnu. If such was the power of Sumati, which was obtained from mere indirect worship of God, what will be the power of a devotee, who worships God directly through service to the contemporary human incarnation? Hanuman worshipped Rama who was His contemporary human incarnation and became God and controlled the sun forever. The Veda says that the sun moves constantly due to the fear to God. Even in His childhood, Hanuman was meditating upon Rama as instructed by His mother. The result of that was that He developed the power to swallow the Sun like a fruit! 181

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In the spiritual field there is one marvelous advantage. Assume that you have worshipped a human being as God under the illusion that he is the contemporary human incarnation. What is the result of such a mistake? Will it yield a positive result or a negative result? The answer is that it will not give any negative result. It will certainly yield a positive result, but it may not be the highest. The highest positive result is obtained in the service done to the correctly identified contemporary human incarnation. But just like Sumati achieved partial positive power of controlling the Sunrise on one day, you will certainly achieve partial grace of God. Such advantage is restricted to the spiritual field only. In the materialistic field if you have served somebody mistaking him to be the king, you will not get any gift from the king. Moreover, the king may scold you for your foolish ignorance. But God, who is very generous and very kind, is quite different. God will certainly punish the human being who posed as God but you will not be a loser.

Service to God is Your Test Some clever people say that God does not require any service from anybody because He is the basic potential doer of any work in this world. But if you go to that fundamental stage, God alone remains and the entire creation disappears. Along with it, you will also vanish. But you are asking the help from God and hence you are not in that fundamental state of realization. While asking for help from God, you are confining to the stage of ignorance-based dualism. You are going to the fundamental basic stage of the realization of monism only to avoid the service to God. This shows your intellectual interpretation to suit to your convenience. It is like a monkey that avoids participating in the construction of the bridge over the sea, in the service of Rama, stating that Rama is God and that God requires no service from souls. When Rama is realized as the Absolute God in the fundamental state, God alone exists and the monkey does not even exist since the creation itself vanishes in that state. While praying for the grace of Rama, that monkey joins the other monkeys, standing in the first position! A student who is ignorant of the subject questioned by the examiner may say “Oh Sir, you know the answer to the question very well! If I answer, it may look as if I am teaching you”. The examiner will not give marks for his smart obedience. The examiner is asking the question to test the student and not to learn the subject from him. 182

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Hanuman was a devotee of God in human form and was in the highest level of faith. At that level the tests of God are always severe. As soon as Rama arrived at Kishkindha hill, He started testing Hanuman, who was waiting for Him there on the advice of His mother. Rama behaved like a selfish villain by making an agreement with Sugriva to kill his elder brother so that Rama could get help from Sugriva in searching for Sita. It looked very selfish and Rama tested the internal faith of Hanuman. However, when Vali was about die in a few minutes, Rama had to answer Vali since Vali charged Rama with an allegation of selfishness. Then Rama had to reveal the truth by saying that He had only punished Vali for his injustice. This clarified the confusion. Unless the clarification was given, Vali would not be convinced on his deathbed. Hence, there was no alternative for Rama and the test on the mind of Hanuman could not be continued. But He conducted the same test on the first day of the war with Ravana. Rama told Ravana that if he returned Sita, Rama would go back without fighting the war. This appeared as if Rama was very selfish about His personal work and did not care for social welfare. If Ravana had returned Sita, Rama would go away and Ravana could have continued his crimes against society. This confusion was kept in the mind of Hanuman forever. Rama acted helpless on several occasions and was saved by Hanuman everytime. By such tests Rama tried to observe the mind of Hanuman, if any ego would enter Hanuman and if subsequently His faith that Rama was God, would fall. Again at the end, Rama rewarded all the monkeys who participated in the war, but neglected Hanuman and acted as an ungrateful human being. Rama never told Hanuman that Hanuman would become God and this was a test till the last minute to see whether the aspiration for the fruit of His service would arise in the mind of Hanuman. The highest level of spiritual effort will have the highest fruit and at the same time the tests will also be very severe and continuous. The extent of digestion of the spiritual knowledge is reflected in the faith on the contemporary human incarnation. God told the same Gita to Sun [Sun-God] in the beginning of creation (Imamvivasvate yogam—Gita) and the same Gita was preached to Hanuman by the Sun. Hanuman was a student of Sun. God told the same Gita to Arjuna. But the assimilation capacities of Arjuna and Hanuman were quite different. Hanuman saved Rama on several occasions in the war but Hanuman did not show any 183

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ego before Rama. Infact He claimed to be only the servant of Rama forever (Dasoham kosalendrasya—Ramayana). Krishna saved Arjuna several times in the war but on the last day, Arjuna was sitting in the chariot with ego and did not get down before the driver, Krishna got down. Hanuman became God and was worshipped forever in temples. Arjuna was born as a hunter and was never worshipped as God. Sun was neither an energetic incarnation of God nor a human incarnation of God. Yet Hanuman understood the essence of the Gita and captured the concept of the contemporary human incarnation. Krishna was actually the contemporary human incarnation and the Gita was directly preached by Him. Still Arjuna could not catch the concept of the contemporary human incarnation. This is the difference between a bright student and a dullard. Neither Krishna nor Jesus said that since He is the final human incarnation, future generations should worship only His statues or photographs. If that were the truth they could have said this very clearly for the sake of future human generations because they knew very well that their human bodies would perish shortly. Therefore, whatever they said about themselves was only about the contemporary human incarnation for the contemporary human devotees.

Mini-World in the World The Veda (Ishavasyam) says that the Lord can enter any miniworld existing in this infinite world (Yatkimchajagatyam jagat). The word “jagat” meaning world appears twice. If the repeated jagat also means the infinite world, then the adjective ‘kimcha’ (little) cannot be used for the infinite world. If you say that the little indicates any little object, that little object cannot be the world (jagat) because a little object like a piece of stone is only matter which is only one component of the world. The “little world” means the human body containing the nine items (five elements and four antahkaranams) which are categorized as apara (eight items which are five elements and three antahkaranams) and para (one antahkaranam which is chittam). Due to the common existence of the nine items, the human body is a miniworld (pindanda) representing the infinite world (brahmanda). The Veda says that any such human body can be pervaded over by the Lord. Here the verb is in the future tense (vasyam) and is not in the past tense. If you say that the income tax officer can enter any shop, it 184

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does not mean that he has entered every shop. Hence, the existence of God in every human being is ruled out and Advaita has no basis. If you say that the awareness existing in living beings is the cause (God) that has entered the effect (creation), this is also not correct. In that case, the cause should have been an independent entity and not a generated item. The gold that entered the chain is the independent item and is not an item that is generated in the chain. The awareness in human bodies that exist in creation is not independent and it is generated by the combined function of inert energy that is generated by the oxidation of food and the nervous system. The Vedic prayer called as Mantra Pushpam is a clear explanation of the human incarnation. The same little world mentioned in the Ishavasya Upanishat is referred here also (Kimchitjagatsarvam)1. This little world means the human body. The human body existing now and the human body that existed in the past i.e. the present and past human incarnations are referred to here and are said to be the same in this respect (Drishyate shruyatepiva). The Lord who imagined this world has entered this world in His original state (Tadevanupravishat)2. But the objection here is that the person imagining can never actually enter his own imaginary world in his original state just like fire cannot enter water. Here, the Veda gives a beautiful simile of the existence of volcanic fire (Vadabagni) inside the ocean (Samudrentah pratishthitam). For the omnipotent God, nothing is impossible and hence any simile in the world suffers from some limitation. Here, God is said to be pervading all over the body (Antarbahishcha) and at the same time God is said to be confined only to a particular region of the human body (Tasyasikhayahmadhye). This means God is confined to His guest room whenever His involvement is not required. In this time the individual soul, who is the owner of the house (and God’s personal assistant, P.A.) deals with all the worldly matters as usual. The individual soul can alone act as hundred percent ignorant in worldly matters and therefore, the worldly experience derived out of it is also hundred percent. God being associated with His P.A. derives that experience and is entertained. Ignorance, directly superimposed on God, can never be hundred percent and hence, the worldly experience can never be full. God enters the human body for this reason alone. In this body, the 1 2

Narayana Suktam, Taittiriya Aranyakam 4, 10, 13 {, #2}

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individual soul (son of God), who is His best devotee, exists. The Son of God is also equally benefited by the association of God in divine experiences. Thus the human incarnation is a two (Nara and Narayana) in one system (human body). Advaita means the unity of two items. If there is only one item the word Advaita has no place because in that case the word ekam (one) is used. When two things exist and become inseparable, then alone is the word Advaita used. If you take God and a human being separately, God is one item and the human being is another item. Electric current is one item and the wire is another item. When the current enters the wire and pervades all over it, the word Advaita can be employed. Giving an electric shock is the property of the current, but it cannot be directly experienced from the invisible current; it requires the presence of the wire. When the knowledge contains unimaginable clarity, it creates unimaginable happiness, which is called as bliss. The clarification of confusion gives real happiness to the climax. Removal of confusion and ignorance cleanses the soul, resulting in bliss. It is like the removal of gas and undigested matter from the stomach which cleanses the body resulting in immense happiness. Such unimaginable nature of the knowledge is the property of the unimaginable God, like the shock of the electric current. But it cannot be experienced directly from the unimaginable God. The unimaginable knowledge indicates the existence of God in a particular human body like Krishna, Jesus etc.

Silence About God Finally, only the existence of God is experienced because the unimaginable God and the unimaginable nature of His knowledge always remain unimaginable. Only His existence is imagined and such existence is called as Sanmatravada (Astityeva…—Veda). Since God and His nature remain unimaginable, you cannot say that God is awareness or that awareness is His property. Therefore, Chinmatravada3 is not acceptable. Awareness in creation does not exist independently since it is always a generated item; generated by the combined operation of the respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems. Charvaka4 or science should be respected in this point. 3

The philosophy that Awareness alone is the ultimate reality or God. An ancient sage, who maintained that direct perception alone, can prove the truth. His theory was similar to modern science. 4

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The cause or the quality of the cause should be an independent item and should not be a generated item. The individual soul is a bit of awareness and hence it can neither be the total God and nor can it be a part of God. God’s unimaginable power of creation or control of the universe is neither seen totally nor partly in any individual soul. In the ancient days awareness was thought to be an independent item due to the lack of scientific knowledge. But now science has clearly proved that awareness is only an item of creation and is not the Creator. Thus science cannot prove the nature of God directly. But it can prove the nature of any item of creation. Every item of creation is a non-God item as in the case of awareness. Science is very useful in rejecting any nonGod item projected as God by people, who are ignorant of science. For that matter, not only science, but even angels and sages cannot speak a single word about the nature of God. It is beyond words and can be best explained through silence alone. Lord Dakshinamurti who is considered to be the best incarnation of Lord Shiva in preaching the spiritual knowledge to even angels and sages explains God only through silence (Maunam vyakhya prakatita Parabrahma tattvam). Here Shankara used the word Parabrahman and not the word Brahman. Any greatest item in a category can be called as Brahman. Parabrahman is a negative word indicating that God is not Brahman or God is beyond Brahman. Every word is denied in indicating God5 (Neti neti, Yato vachah…—Veda). The silence of Buddha also means the same. Buddha is also the best incarnation of Lord Vishnu to preach the spiritual knowledge. Science also keeps silent about God. In the above prayer of Dakshinamurti, even Shankara said that God cannot be explained by any word. How can you say that Shankara means that awareness or an individual soul is God? If the individual soul were unimaginable, then you could say that the individual soul is God. You are an individual soul, who knows itself and who knows items other than itself. Awareness cannot be ignorant of itself and other things also simultaneously. In meditation, awareness is ignorant of other things but it is aware of itself. In deep sleep it is neither aware of itself nor aware of other items because it remains as inert energy. But here, the inert energy is not transformed into awareness at all, due to the nervous system being at rest. If you say that such inert energy in deep sleep is God, then your argument that awareness is God is contradicted 5

No word is capable of indicating God.

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by yourself. You must note one important point here, which is that Shankara used the word Brahman for the individual soul and not the word Parabrahman. Since Brahman means any greatest item in a category, several items can be called as Brahman. The Veda, food, life, mind, intelligence, knowledge, bliss, etc were called as Brahman in several places (Brahmakshara samudbhavam, Annam Brahma, Prano Brahma, Mano Brahma, Vijnanam Brahma, Jnanamantam Brahma, Anando Brahma, etc). All these statements mean that these items are greatest among their own categories. Similarly, the individual soul is the greatest among all the items of the creation due to its specific property of knowledge (Jnanitvatmaiva…Gita).

Creator, Controller and Destroyer Awareness can handle the inert energy in a tactful way but that does not mean that awareness has full control over the inert energy. For example the powerful nuclear energy is controlled in atomic reactors and is used by the scientist for various purposes. This does not mean that the soul can control the powerful atomic energy directly. When atomic energy attacks the soul directly, the soul in the human being runs away due to the destruction of the human body. This is true even in the case of a human being, who is a scientist and who handled the same energy tactfully. Therefore, if you take God to be awareness, God could only handle the universe in a tactful way like a scientist. He could not be the direct controller of the universe. But Lord Krishna swallowed the huge fire-energy in the forest, which shows the direct control of God over the inert energy irrespective of its intensity and quantity. If you say that awareness in Krishna is the controller, then the awareness or soul in every human being must be similar. This proves that there is a difference between the awareness in Krishna and the awareness present in all other human beings. The control is due to the difference between and not due to the similarity. This means that the extra component existing in the awareness of Krishna is what has the controlling power and not the common general awareness. This extra component is God or Brahman. Similarly the huge Govardhana hill was held on the tiny finger of Krishna for seven days. The reason again is God, who pervaded all over the body of Krishna and not the finger and not the power (inert energy) of the finger, which is common to anybody. Therefore, neither matter (finger), nor the inert energy (the power of the 188

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finger), nor the awareness (soul) is the controller of this universe. The unimaginable God existing in Krishna is the Creator, Controller and the Destroyer of this universe. The soul creates an imaginary world or a daydream, controls it and finally dissolves it into itself. The imaginary world is neither the total real world and nor is a component of the real world like a hill, a river, a tree, etc. The capacity to create the dream is in no way related to the capacity of God in creating the universe. The soul, its capacity to create a dream and the dream itself, can be compared to God, His capacity to create the world and the world respectively. A simile can never be an identity. God created such examples in the world to teach us concepts related to Him. You can say that God created this real world, maintains it for entertainment for sometime and finally dissolves it in Himself just like the soul creates the dream, maintains it for sometime for entertainment and finally dissolves it in himself. Since the dream is not even a tiny part of the real world, the soul is also not even a tiny part of God. Since God is unimaginable, the imaginable soul cannot be a part of God. Today due to the latest developments in science the soul or awareness or the nervous energy flowing in the nerves as waves is even visible through powerful microscopes. God is understood as the basis (adhara) of the universe (Brahma puchcham pratishtha—Veda) and this does not mean that the nature of the basis is understood. Assume that we understand that an object, which alone is visible, is standing on some support. Now whether the support is a table, or a person or some other object is not visible. In that case we are inferring the existence of something as the support but the nature of the support is not understood. The cosmic energy is independent since electromagnetic waves have an independent identity. But even though it is independent, it cannot act as the designer [of creation]. Awareness has the designing talent but it does not exist independently. If radiations of awareness or nervous energy existed independently in space, like the independent electro magnetic radiations, the scientist could have tapped them. Then he could have used them to raise a dead body, just as cosmic energy is tapped to recharge a battery. Thus both inert energy and awareness suffer from these defects and cannot be claimed to be the defectless God. If your goal is to become God, you must understand the Ramayana and practice it in your spiritual effort keeping Hanuman as your guide, 189

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since He became God. If your goal is to become the master of God, you must understand the Bhagavatam and practice it in your spiritual effort. Here you have to keep Radha as your guide, who became the queen of Goloka, which is above the abode of God. In both cases the direct worship of the contemporary human incarnation i.e. Rama and Krishna is the main essence. In any case, understanding the Mahabharatam is very important, since it teaches you where you can slip in your spiritual effort. Such slips can lead to your downfall. In any case you must be careful about the inevitable cracks in your faith regarding the contemporary human incarnation. Arjuna was born as a hunter in his next birth because he could not believe in Krishna who was God in human form before his eyes. Instead he had worshipped the irrelevant energetic form of the upper world (Shiva) to win the war. Arjuna acquired the Pashupata weapon from Lord Shiva but Lord Krishna showed in His cosmic vision that He was simply swallowing all the Kauravas in His mouth. The firm faith in the contemporary human incarnation is very important and it is also impossible. The fundamental reason is the nature of negligence resulting due to the repulsion between common external media. The Veda says that it is like an incurable disease even in the case of angels, to like things which are not before their eyes and to dislike anything that is before their eyes (Parokshapriya ivahidevah pratyaksha dwishah). Lord Krishna clearly said that He will come again and again whenever there is a requirement. God comes in human form to guide everyone through divine messages and also to give the experience of Himself to the devotees, who cry for it in every generation. If He favored only one generation in the form of Lord Krishna, God would become partial. Then God would remain as no-God.

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