Divine Discourses Vol-6

Divine Discourse

Volume-6

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. ESSENCE OF RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES....................................................1

Guru Selection .............................................................................................1 Acceptance of Living Incarnation ...............................................................2 Divine Knowledge – Mixture of Food And Medicine ................................3 Why this wonderful knowledge did not come in past? ...............................3 Final Truth About God ................................................................................5 Medium is Not God But He Pervades Medium ..........................................7 Advice to Servants in the Mission...............................................................8 Discoveries And Developments in Devotion ............................................10 Lord is the Greatest Scientist.....................................................................12 Total Sacrifice............................................................................................13 Lack of True Devotion is the Root Cause .................................................14 Love and Sex .............................................................................................18 Control of Sin Due to Attraction of Better Opposite Sex .........................21 Unreal Worldly Bonds - Real Bond with Lord .........................................23 Spontaneous Attraction is Only True ........................................................26 Sex in the Divine Mission of God .............................................................29 Meaningless Mocking Of Brahma.............................................................30 The Train From Hell to Brahma Loka.......................................................32 Inconsequential Pursuits ............................................................................34 Realisation of the Absolute Truth..............................................................35 Participation in Swami’s Mission..............................................................37 Essence of Divine Knowledge...................................................................40 2. THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT SWAMI...............................................42

About Datta Swami (Swami).....................................................................43 Some Aspects Of Human Incarnation .......................................................46 Effect of Ignorance on Incarnation............................................................47 Ashrama of Swami ....................................................................................48 3. TRUE LOVE AND SERVICE.......................................................................52

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Proof of Real Love ....................................................................................52 Service to Whom? .....................................................................................57 Recognizing the Human Incarnation .........................................................62 4. DATTA CUTS ILLUSORY BONDS ............................................................65

Lord and Real Love ...................................................................................65 Operation by the Good Doctor ..................................................................65 Meaning of Guru .......................................................................................66 Three divine Preachers in Hinduism .........................................................67 Entry into Inner Circle of God...................................................................70 Major Religious Scriptures........................................................................71 Circles of Illusion ......................................................................................72 Aham Brahmasmi or Dasoham?................................................................74 5. REPULSION BETWEEN COMMON MEDIA ............................................77

Salvation of Sage Nara ..............................................................................78 Removing Repulsion of Common Medium ..............................................81 6. RELEVANCE OF CONTEMPORARY INCARNATION ...........................85

Datta: God Given in Human Form ............................................................85 Analysis of Human Beings And Human Incarnation................................86 Ignorance Has Its Own Use .......................................................................88 Human Incarnation is For Human Beings.................................................88 7. JEALOUSY AND EGOISM ..........................................................................91

Training for Reducing Ego and Jealousy ..................................................91 From Training to the Goal .........................................................................92 8. REMOVAL OF EGO .....................................................................................98

Recognition Is Sufficient ...........................................................................98 Diverting To The Right Direction .............................................................99 Loving God above Family.......................................................................101 Dangers in Spiritual Journey ...................................................................103 Easiest Way to Please God ......................................................................104 9. IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL PREACHER...........................................107

Differentiate Guru And Satguru ..............................................................107 Guru Deva Datta......................................................................................108 iv

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The Way of Preaching – Past And Present..............................................111 Satguru Is God .........................................................................................112 Main Reason for Suicides........................................................................112 Significance of Eclipse ............................................................................114 Significance of the Worship of Sun ........................................................115 10. DOES DESTINY OF EVERY SOUL WRITTEN BY GOD?.....................117

Importance of Contemporary Human Incarnation ..................................118 Asking Lord for Devotion .......................................................................119 Ocean Of World.......................................................................................120 Philosophy of Shankara: Gross body–Soul-God.....................................121 Knowledge is Important than Miracle.....................................................123 11. APPROACH TO GOD .................................................................................125

God and Your Efforts ..............................................................................125 Datta in Human Form ..............................................................................128 12. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND THE PATH ...............................................133

Does God Favor the Rich? ......................................................................133 Knowledge of the Goal and Path.............................................................133 God and Worship.....................................................................................135 13. PATH AND METHOD OF UPLIFTMENT ................................................139

Message & Actions of Krishna Are for Kali Yuga .................................143 Real Interpretation of Worship of Krishna & Radha ..............................148 Misutilisation of Divine Relation of Lord & Gopikas ............................152 Concluding Remarks ...............................................................................154 14. SPIRITUALITY IN TOTAL........................................................................156

Theory & Practical Aspects of Spirituality .............................................156 Strong Family Bonds of India .................................................................157 Hinduism Represents Mini World...........................................................159 Wish of God.............................................................................................160 Proper Use Of Wealth..............................................................................160 Leaving Money and Its Associations ......................................................161 15. A TREATISE ON DEVOTION ...................................................................163

Types of Bhakti .......................................................................................163 v

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Continuous Happiness .............................................................................164 Master of God ..........................................................................................165 Eligibility and Suitability ........................................................................166 Truth of Truths.........................................................................................168 Conditional And Unconditional ..............................................................169 God is Above Justice ...............................................................................171 Nivrutti is Ultimate..................................................................................172 Pravritti & Nivritti should not be Confused ............................................173 Yoga Signifies God .................................................................................176 Detachment and Attachment ...................................................................177 16. THE PATH OF SELFLESS SERVICE........................................................180

Karma and Karma Yoga ..........................................................................180 Spiritual Educational Complex................................................................181 Serving the Lord ......................................................................................182 Types of Devotees ...................................................................................185 Worship of Datta .....................................................................................187 17. SACRIFICE OF FAME AND MONEY ......................................................189

Give Credit to God ..................................................................................189 Proof of Love, Faith and Surrender.........................................................191 18. EMPHASIS ON KARMAPHALA TYAGA ...............................................193

Why Is God After Money? ......................................................................193 Limited Sacrifice to Humans...................................................................196 Total Sacrifice to God..............................................................................197 Natural Love for God ..............................................................................201 Direct Worship ........................................................................................204

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Chapter - 1

ESSENCE OF RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [June 25, 2006 This is a telephonic Divine Discourse given in response to questions asked by devotees from different parts of the world. The questions asked by devotees pertained to practical worldly problems faced by them.]

Guru Selection Mrs. Bhargavi (USA), who has created a website on the human incarnation and is a devotee of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, bombarded Swami with a question: “Why have You advertised Your miracles in Your website and propagated about Yourself? We are in search of a Guru, please guide us”. Swami replied: “If you give Me the appointment order to join the duty as your Guru, I shall join at once. I shall be very happy if you select Me as your Guru after conducting an interview and analyzing Me patiently.” A saint from Varanasi came to see Sai Baba. On his arrival, he found a procession in which Baba was walking for relaxation. The saint bombarded Baba for such publicity. Baba told him that the procession was for the sake of satisfaction of the hearts of devotees and not for any personal publicity. Miracles are the chocolates offered in the lower kindergarten (LKG) class for kids in the spiritual institution. If one joins the post graduate (P.G.) class directly, such chocolates are not necessary. It depends on the level of class into which you are admitted. The Gita speaks about four different classes. The person in the LKG class is an ‘Arta’, which means a person hit by worldly problems. He comes to God for help. God solves his problem once or twice to introduce Himself to that person. Chocolates are given to the kid, as initial attraction only for a few days. The Lord transfers the punishment onto Himself and suffers in order to solve the problems of the devotee. It is hoped that the devotee develops gratefulness to the Lord, which may

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lead to selfless love. If that happens, the devotee enters into higher classes. Mrs. Bhargavi asked, “In which class am I going to be admitted?” Swami replied: “That depends on your application mentioning the class, you would like to join. In the entrance test, if you score low marks, you will be advised to apply to the lower entrance test. If your marks are very high, you will be asked to apply to higher test. By such a procedure even you will be convinced about yourself [level]. Otherwise, if I directly tell you [where you stand], you may not accept it, thinking that you are eligible for a higher class.” Suddenly the phone stopped functioning [Swami’s voice could not be heard]. But the phone at Bhargavi’s end was still functioning [the line was not disconnected]. Lot of time passed. Finally, the phone started functioning again. Bhargavi told Swami “We are waiting to hear from You and have not disconnected the phone all this time”. Swami told her, “You have a good lot of patience. Patience (Kshama) is the first prerequisite for Brahma Jnana according to Shankara. This shows your spiritual interest (Shraddha). You have passed the preliminary test. Contact Dr. Nikhil and get all My divine knowledge. Study it patiently and then evaluate Me for appointing as your Guru. The knowledge is the real form of Guru, by which alone you have to assess the candidate [Guru] in the interview [in order to select Him as your Guru]. You should not decide a Guru in a short time by a momentary emotional [hasty] appreciation. Your studying My knowledge is like a written test for Me. Then talk with Me, which will be the oral interview for Me. Only then decide about My appointment as your Guru.”

Acceptance of Living Incarnation The same category of the priests of church, who are appreciating the knowledge of Jesus today, insulted and killed the same Jesus sometime ago. What is the reason? The only reason is that at that time Jesus was alive before their eyes in the same human form like their own. Today Jesus does not appear alive, and is reduced to a statue on the cross or to a picture. When a co-human being does some great work, jealousy and egoism affect the hearts immediately, even though people appreciate the great person externally. Those priests who killed Jesus appreciated the Old Testament of the old prophets, because those prophets were not alive at that time. If a prophet is dead, the 2

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appreciation of His knowledge bursts out. Today, thousands of temples of Sai Baba have appeared. But when Sai Baba was alive, not a single temple was built for Him. Even the present temple, where He was cremated, was built for Lord Krishna when Sai Baba was alive. Infact, Sai Baba commented to the builder of the temple by asking “Am I not your Lord Krishna at present?” Still the bulb did not glow in the mind of the devotees. Therefore the greatness of even a human being cannot be tolerated. Can people tolerate a human being being called the greatest, meaning God? Even if one says, “He is as great as you”, nobody tolerates. Can he tolerate the statement “He is greater than you”? Then, it is impossible to tolerate the statement “Here is a human being who is the greatest—God in human form”. People’s jealousy will exceed even its climax and people will just laugh at the statement. The appreciation exists even now in their hearts, but it will come out only when the human form disappears from the eyesight.

Divine Knowledge – Mixture of Food And Medicine The spiritual knowledge given to you by God through Me is like food that should be offered to a hungry man. If he is not hungry, he will reject it. But certain portions of it will create hunger like ginger pickle, which is a food item as well as medicine. Even for an atheist, there is food, which acts like a medicine as we see ‘Unizyme’ capsules. Some people have another type of illness. They can digest only certain items of food like Hinduism, Christianity etc. When they see the scriptures of other religions, they become allergic to those food items. For such people there is ‘Digiplex’ tonic in this spiritual knowledge. You have to pick up the right medicine. Certain food items act as medicines. Thus this is food and medicine. I’d like every human being in this world to be prepared to eat all types of food items with good hunger. This means that every human being should have immense love for God and should love the scriptures of all religions. Then you can like the same God in different human bodies, which are just different dresses.

Why this wonderful knowledge did not come in past? [“When the same God incarnated, why this wonderful spiritual knowledge did not come in the past?” This question was asked by a devotee (Ramnath) from Mumbai.]

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The straight answer is that the time and the standard of the receiver are ripened only now and so God is giving this knowledge today through this body. The teacher is teaching the final lesson to a class on a certain day. He is in a particular dress, because he has to be in some dress. Therefore, the delivery of the final lesson to the class shows the appropriate ripened time for the class. This final lesson can be understood only after teaching the previous lessons. This final lesson cannot be delivered in the previous classes. Thus the delivery of the final lesson has no connection with what dress the teacher is wearing. Thus there is no speciality of the human form and the same God exists here too. Science has developed tremendously and the faculty of logic has improved a lot. People used to reject the existence of an unimaginable item. They refused God, who is unimaginable. But today in science, Heisenberg proves the existence of uncertainty or unimaginability, owing to the limits of human capability. Today is the right time to introduce the unimaginable concept of God. Buddha kept silent about God because, He did not like to introduce God through some unreal concepts. But, this led people to misunderstand Buddha as an atheist. Shankara introduced God as almost unimaginable by representing God as awareness. Awareness is almost unimaginable to an ordinary person. Mohammed introduced God as power or energy. Awareness is energy after all. Thus there is no fundamental difference between these two incarnations. But a common man cannot imagine God through that concept. God was represented as the energetic form of Narayana by Ramanuja or as the Divine Father in heaven by Jesus. The awareness or the energetic form is charged by God and thus there is no lie even if it is considered as God just like an electrified wire can be considered to be electricity. But the entire awareness or energy or all the energetic forms are not charged by God. All wires are not electrified. Angels, who are servants of God, are not God. Indra, an energetic form was not God as proved by Krishna in the Bhagavatam. The energetic form is imaginable but not perceivable [to the senses]. It appears only to the mind. It appears to the eyes also, but very rare. Even, if it appears to the eyes, the time of appearance is very short and so such forms are not congenial for preaching the knowledge. Therefore, the materialized form is necessary. The human body is the most suitable form for this purpose. A statue or a photograph is also be perceivable 4

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and God can charge it too. But the photograph or statue cannot preach. It can even preach but only by the super power of God. This becomes quite unnatural. The unnatural means create tension and fear, which are not a good or conducive environment for receiving the knowledge. Such form cannot mix with humanity freely to preach the knowledge. Therefore, the concept of Krishna as a human incarnation (Manusheem…—Gita) was more stressed by Madhva through Rama and Hanuman. Krishna, a human form, declared that He is God based on the concept of the electrified wire. The same concept of ‘God in flesh’ was introduced by Jesus, who stated that He and His Father are one and the same. Suppose you have started a school with only once class of the first standard and you are not admitting anyone into the next level (second standard) from outside. Then you are teaching only to the first standard, even though you are a postgraduate and can teach right up to the 10th standard. To start the second standard in that year, enough students were available. You will teach the same students [who are in the first standard now] next year in second standard in another full class. Meanwhile if one or two students, worthy of the second standard approach you, you will guide them personally. It was the same situation. Whenever the human incarnation came [in the past], He was dealing with the majority as if it were a single class and the lesson pertaining only to that standard was taught. He taught a few devotees of a higher standard personally, but that was not carried on [propagated]. Therefore, today you think that the preaching of God in human forms in the past was only of the first standard. Today, due to the development of the logical faculty enough students are available so that the higher standard class can be opened.

Final Truth About God The final Truth of God is that He is fully unimaginable and beyond the limits of intelligence as He is beyond the four-dimensional space-time model of the universe. One should digest this truth which is final. Earlier too, some prophets might have said, “This is final”, which means that the limits of the subtle nature of the medium is final. There cannot be anything more than an ‘unimaginable’ item. But among the media, in which God exists, there can be also a stage where the medium cannot be any subtler. Let Me make this point clear. The human body [is a medium in which God enters and] is imaginable and easily 5

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perceivable. The energetic form or formless energy is perceivable for a short time and imaginable on concentration. The awareness is not at all perceivable and imaginable on concentration (Drishyate tvagrayaa Buddhyaa—Veda). Thus, as you travel from matter to energy and finally to awareness, the subtle nature increases, which indicates a gradual increase in unimaginability. Thus, awareness is the best representative item to preach the real nature of God. Shankara used it for preaching the real nature of God. God need not be awareness or need not enter the awareness to wish something. God can wish even without being the awareness or even without taking the aid of awareness. When we say “God wished like this”, it is only for the sake of our convenience and understanding that we assume God to be awareness or to have entered the medium of awareness as the. God charges awareness, due to a requirement of our understanding only. But all the awareness is not charged by God. Moreover, awareness is not continuous like the inert energy. Awareness exists only as discontinuous bits. All these bits are not God and are also not charged by God, because in that case no bit (human being) would need any spiritual effort. If you take God to be the continuous and homogeneous inert energy, pervading all over the cosmos, there too the above problem is not solved, because any bit of energy (bit of awareness i.e., human being) would already be God! Therefore only a particular bit of energy (bit of awareness) is charged by God and called as Father of heaven or Ishwara. There is a requirement for the charging of a limited energetic form containing a bit of awareness in it, by God for the sake of human beings who leave this gross body and enter into energetic bodies. For such energetic bodies of souls, which are also limited energetic forms with bits of awareness, a similar bit of awareness limited to an energetic form charged by God, is required for worship or preaching in the upper worlds. A similar requirement exists in this world for souls limited to materialized human bodies. The human incarnation is formed to meet this requirement for the same purpose. Therefore, the formless, all pervading energy need not be charged by God, to pervade all over the world for controlling the world, because the unimaginable God can control the world without pervading all over the world. All pervading awareness is not at all acceptable, because, it is against practical experience. All pervading inert energy is possible but it is also not required, since the unimaginable God pervades all over the world 6

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without being the energy, in an unimaginable way. God can do anything without being the power. Therefore, awareness or energy are only the representative items used for our understanding of God in the earlier stage. But a limited energetic form or a limited, materialized form (human body) with a bit of awareness in each is charged by God and is called as Divine Father or human incarnation respectively. Through these forms God preaches to us in a natural way without using any super power unnecessarily and unnaturally, which would cause excitement in us. Awareness and matter are also forms of energy. Energy is the final and the only item which acts as a medium for God. From the point of a medium, Mohammed said that it was final. From the point of the real nature of God, unimaginability is final. Every prophet said that it [his teaching] was final for that category in that time. When the teacher says, “This is the final lesson”. It means that it is final for that year and for that standard. It does not mean that that year is the final year in the eternal stream of time or that standard is the last standard in education.

Medium is Not God But He Pervades Medium Unimaginability can be final for all times and for all standards, because there can be nothing further than unimaginability. Even the most difficult imaginable item cannot be unimaginable. No great number can be infinity. In that case, what is the use of catching the most subtle and inconvenient medium, which will not serve your purpose fully? Why should you select a very very thin wire, when even the thinnest wire is only a medium for the electric current and not the current directly? Why [seek God in] awareness or energy, which are only media after all? Why don’t you accept the most convenient medium, which is the human form? You are only catching more and more subtle mediums, which are only created items and not the Creator. You are neglecting the cotton shirt and catching a costly silk shirt, which is also not the person who is wearing the shirt. You are catching an angel and sometimes even a ghost, who are simply energetic bodies and feel that you have caught the real God. People neglected the human form of God, Krishna, and started worshipping the simple energetic body and felt that they had caught the real God. People neglected the human form of God, Krishna, and started worshipping the simple energetic form without God called as Indra. You leave Me in the cotton shirt and worship My silk shirt, hanging from a hanger, without Me 7

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wearing it! Some worship the silk threads or the silk fiber as Myself and these are those who worship the formless energy or power or awareness as God. Some people only worship My cotton shirt (without Myself) as Myself. These are those who worship statues or photographs as God. All these are representative items for God and act as good teaching aids for ignorant people in the beginning stage as said in the Gita (Sarvaarambhaahi…). Therefore, you like Me either in the silk shirt or the silk shirt alone or cotton shirt alone but you never like Me in the cotton shirt, because you yourself are in the cotton shirt. It is the principle of repulsion of likes. But there is no other way than for Me to come in the cotton shirt like yours, to preach you without causing any tension, fear or excitement in you, which is an essential prerequisite for the good transmission of knowledge. My super power is exhibited if I come in any other way, in which case, your attention is diverted to exploit Me for momentary boons. In that case, your devotion for Me gets poisoned by selfishness, which cannot generate grace on you. My friend, what can I do? I am sorry because there is no other way than the path of the human incarnation. This is the meaning of the statement of Jesus “One can reach My Father only through Me”. The word ‘Me’ means the present [living} human incarnation. My dear friends! My dear devotees! Some generations back, I started this school and you are coming to it year after year. I came in different dresses named as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Mahavir etc. and today, this present human body is called as Datta Swami. Only those, who were in My contact in the previous generations, can appreciate Me while I am alive. Many will appreciate Me when I leave this body. This is not new, because this is the same old history that repeats in every generation. At last, all of you be happy because I was not cursed by people like Gandhari as in the case of Krishna or not killed like Jesus by crucifixion or not killed like Shankara by black magic.

Advice to Servants in the Mission The Trusts of this mission will be extensively supported in the future beyond your imagination. Rome was not built up in one day. Dedicate yourself to the work and do not worry about the result. All the students of the same class taught by the same teacher do not get the same rank. Some pass with a distinction, some pass with a first class, 8

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some pass with a third class and some fail. The heterogeneity will be continuous in this system of universe like various roles fixed in a movie for a better entertainment. The entertainment is only secondary and incidental, because we are always putting efforts continuously to uplift the entire humanity as the primary aim. When the Trusts of our mission get full support in future, you must do everything with full analysis. Welcome anyone to support our mission in anyway convenient to him or her either in the form sacrifice of work or fruit of work. The sacrifice should be without aspiration of any fruit in return and without any force or fear and without any emotional decision. If the sacrifice is based on the result of a convinced intelligence, such sacrifice will be permanent. Emotional sacrifice is momentary. Peter was emotional before Jesus and could not stand firm at the end with Jesus. Judas was attracted and deviated by the conventional priests, who opposed the living human incarnation of God present before their eyes due to jealousy and harmed Jesus. He was also personally hit by jealousy, even while staying with the Lord in human form, which was expressed when a lady was worshipping Jesus by applying the scent. The hidden jealousy and egoism in Judas was exploited by the then conventional priests, who always liked dead prophets and never liked a living prophet due to their egoism and jealousy. They wanted their own fame and worship in the name of an invisible God or invisible dead prophets. Therefore, one should follow the path only after thorough analysis and should not jump suddenly. Sacrifice should follow the determination of the intelligence, which is called as ‘Buddhi Yoga’ in the Gita. Do not appeal to the mind or the heart, since it will be momentary. Always appeal to the intelligence (Buddhi). The mind gives thought (Sankalpa) but shortly afterwards, you will find deviation (Vikalpa). But Buddhi (intelligence) gives determination (Nishchaya) after thorough discussion with logical analysis. Determination will lead to permanent practice and no deviation can take place. Appealing to the intelligence is the royal and dignified path. Appealing to the mind or heart by some pitiable kindness [invoking pity and kindness of the other person] is the path of a beggar. Do not kindle people’s kindness and emotional love for propagation. Do not show some fruit in return [tempt people by promising some fruit in return for their acceptance] from God

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for the propagation. Do not attract them by offering food or money for propagation. Help the beggar of any caste or any religion, if he or she is incapable like a child, an old, disabled or diseased person. Save the life of even an atheist by giving food because if his life is saved, he may change later on. Help the capable poor people including atheists by a job or technical education for their livelihood because human life is precious and has a chance of change or betterment in spiritual path once a peaceful life is attained. Propagation of spiritual knowledge should be primary and helping the poor is only a secondary item like providing boarding and lodging to foreign students in a college where the academic program is primary. All souls are eligible for the spiritual knowledge whether poor or rich. All the students go to the class, whether they are day-scholars or hostellers. Poverty and problems are [given by God] only to mold the sinners and not for revenge. The good side of punishment must be realized. The poverty and problems disappear once the grace of God dawns, since their purpose is over. The grace of God comes only by practice in the right spiritual path and this is possible only by the right determination of Buddhi and which in turn is possible only by the right spiritual knowledge. Thus the root source of all solutions lies only in the right spiritual knowledge. If the same is misinterpreted and poisoned by selfish scholars and selfish priests, the same knowledge leads to wrong practice and subsequent punishment for change. Therefore, God shall be pleased, if you can put up all your efforts in propagating the right knowledge by logical interpretations and I assure you that everyone of you shall sit on the right side of God on the divine throne in future in this world as well as in the upper world.

Discoveries And Developments in Devotion An atheist should not become a theist just for food, money, the job offered by you or the professional education offered by you to get a job. Such conversion is not real and permanent. Do not kindle emotions by showing or explaining the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. Do not kindle the attraction towards the physical appearance by showing the beautiful pictures of Krishna etc. Such means used for conversion are not real and permanent. The conversion of mind or heart is not real and eternal. Do not attract a person in problems by offering solutions through prayers and songs or by using the super powers of God for 10

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solutions. The faith developed by such ways will not stand forever because God will not always answer the prayers, songs and crying with tears. People become addicted to such ways. The child will weep every time for a chocolate, since it is habituated to that path. The child intensifies the process of weeping if the chocolate is delayed! Initially the child is attracted by chocolates to go to the school for some days. The child has become young person but did not cross the first standard of the school, because the child concentrated only on the art of weeping to get the chocolates. The person became a postgraduate or even a Ph.D. degree holder in the course of begging and weeping for chocolates. The person became an exceptional scholar and developed several talents in praising the Lord, crying for the Lord, singing and composing music on the Lord, doing meditation and concentration on the Lord with his mind, chanting the Lord’s name millions of times, writing the name of Lord millions of times, chanting some letters (Beejaksharas or mantras), drawing some design or diagrams on metallic plates (Yantras), doing worship following certain special ways of [occult] technology (Tantras) and so on. These discoveries and developments are tremendous and as many as the developments in science and technology! Ofcourse, all these are good psychological ways of solving or treating certain psychological problems in patients with fixed notions to give mental relief from stress and gain confidence. All these ways are good, if the person is free from aspiration of any fruit from God in return [for such actions]. Such love is real. But the real love is expressed in terms of the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work as seen in the case of your love for your children. If such practical expression exists, all the above theoretical expression of love through words and mind can be associated as a plate of meals is associated with a glass of drinking water. Therefore in propagating the divine path, you should appeal to people only through knowledge, logical analysis and a systematic scientific approach. Avoid all the above means, which are theoretical and political ways of exploitation of one’s weakness. God is certainly above science and logic, because He is beyond creation and nature. But God always follows the ways of nature, which are logical and scientific, following the path of justice. In a rare and exceptional case, He uses His superpower, which is also not against justice. He suffers for your sin and

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thus the justice of the wheel of deeds is always upheld by Him even in the exceptional case of the use of His superpower.

Lord is the Greatest Scientist Maya is Deeper & Deeper Logic If you observe the logical design and scientific management of this creation, you will say that He is the greatest scientist. He will never violate His own rules of nature and science which is His very psychology. The superpower (Maya) is also a deeper stage of science (Prakriti) as said in the Gita (Mayamtu prakritim…). A wonderful design with a logical plan (Maya) beyond our imagination exists as the basis of this nature, which is understood by us superficially (Prakriti). When you go deeper and deeper into science, the logic continues but at a stage, your capacity to understand it fails. That does not mean that logic vanished at the deeper level. The capacity of your intelligence to grasp that deeper logic alone has vanished. Maya is not the failure of logic but it is a deeper and deeper subtle logic, which can be understood only by God, who is the greatest scientist. Logic and science continue in a more and more subtle way but the limits of the grasping power of humans end at that level. A schoolboy cannot follow quantum mechanics or wave mechanics which is dealt at the postgraduate level. The schoolboy says that the subject is beyond logic. According to a foolish student, there is no logic in that topic at that level. This is not true. His capacity to understand the logic of that level failed. That does not mean that the subject dealt at the postgraduate level is without logic and that all postgraduate students are beyond logic! More and more revelation of divine knowledge comes out from God, as your capacity or grasping power increases. God will not reveal the higher knowledge if your grasping power is low, because you will then say, that God is beyond logic, which means that God is mad. You should say that God is beyond your level of logic. God is quite logical at His level. The gap between your level of logic and His level of logic is called ‘Avyaktam’ or unimaginability of logic, which is the unbreakable ignorance. The Veda says the same “Avyaktat Purushah Parah…”. The Gita also says the same “Maam tu veda na kaschana...” Scientists say that they will reach the level of logic of God (Maya) by tomorrow, but that tomorrow always remains as a tomorrow. Scientists are egoistic due to their 12

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jealousy at this point, because they cannot accept God as greater than any scientist. When Einstein presented his paper on the Theory of Special Relativity, no scientist understood it except Einstein himself. But all of them respected Einstein. Then, why don’t they accept and respect God? A miracle done by the Lord is only a demonstration of the existence of a deeper level of science or logic. Just like conservative religious followers discard other religions, conservative scientists discard the miracle as magic or illusion, because [according to them] nothing should exist beyond their level of logic. For a school student of physics, a sophisticated electronic instrument is also magic or an illusion because he cannot understand the level of science pertaining to that instrument. The uncertainty of Heisenberg should also be magic or an illusion in that case. All the great scientists believed in God, because of their lack of egoism and jealousy towards a greater concept. Therefore, you should convince anybody only through logical and scientific analysis. That alone, can bring out the true interpretation of all the universal scriptures; any other emotional or exploitative methods can never do that. Only then invite people to participate practically in this divine mission, which alone can please the Lord. My dear devotees! I love all of you from the deepest level of My heart. I also like to wash the feet of all of you, as Jesus did on His last day. I would like to wash the feet of all of you with My tears of love and gratefulness for your faith that you have shown on Me. Never fall into the clutches of egoism. Aspiration for fame is also a partial effect of egoism. People will praise you as Gurus. Immediately pass on all the credit to God and take the defects onto you. God will be pleased with you.

Total Sacrifice [When I (Swami) analysed the story of Shaktuprastha, one person asked Surya (Mumbai) if Swami expected him not to pay even his telephone bill and live on the street {since Swami praised the total sacrifice of Shaktuprastha so much}.] This is a very long jump and it shows the fit of anger of that person by which the analytical faculty of his intelligence is blocked (krodhat bhavati—Gita). Let him first realize that I have not created a concept and then created a subsequent story to support that. It is a famous story in the famous epic Mahabharata written by Sage Vyasa. Let the person put this question to Vyasa. Moreover, I ask one simple 13

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question. Who asked you to be on the street? Did any one compel you? You reject Brahma Loka and then the corresponding test [to reach Brahma Loka] is also totally rejected. You want to become an IAS officer [Indian Administrative Services] on one side and at the same time you shout, “Should I study until midnight without even sleeping?” Fantastic! Who compelled you to join the IAS coaching? You want the fruit but at the same time you don’t want the difficulty in the path. You want to go to heaven on a path of roses, [but the path of roses] which only leads to hell. The path to heaven is full of thorns. The choice is yours. No one compels you to join IAS coaching. The concept I have drawn from the existing famous story is quite natural and clear. This concept is the Veda, which is stolen by the misinterpreter who represents the demon Somakasura [the story goes that Somakasura stole the Veda]. I am killing the demon of misinterpretation and uplifting the spiritual knowledge from the Mahabharatam, Ramayanam, which are considered as the Vedas (vedah prachetasat, bharatah panchamovedah) and the Bhagavatam, which is the climax of the Veda (Vedanta). Somakasura means evil which is like wine. Selfishness and the attachment to one’s family is the wine that is stealing the true spiritual concepts. By this wine, people are robbing the money of even poor good devotees in society today. From the story, you have to fix the complete sacrifice (Sarvakarmaphala tyagam—Gita) as the goal. Then, you will be able to do atleast some sacrifice. If 100 marks are declared as the passing marks, everyone will secure atleast 40 marks. If 40 marks are declared as the passing marks, many students will barely score ten or twenty marks. Let the goal be the highest. The highest is the only absolute truth. Atleast realize the highest goal in theory and put efforts to achieve it. Atleast in some birth, you will achieve it. God grants human rebirth for any soul who puts constant efforts. God will encourage you, if you are really trying.

Lack of True Devotion is the Root Cause You must realize that the only practical sacrifice is of the fruit of work or of the work. Sacrifice of words and feelings is of no use because God can never be fooled. I put one question to that person. Suppose in the place of God, your wife or child was present, would you not be on the streets for their sake? Certainly you would sacrifice practically to any extent for their sake. Boys and girls sacrifice even 14

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their lives for their love. But when God comes to the picture, all questions and practical difficulties come. Why? The answer is very very simple and straight. You do not have real love for God. But you want to get all the benefits from the Lord here and after death. For that, you show all sorts of arts of artificial love. Who asked you to love God? Did God ever ask you to love Him? He has created equal facilities for all the souls including atheists. He has created a cycle of deeds (karma chakra), which is the legal constitution and according to it, you will receive your rightful results. He has not done any injustice to you for not loving Him. Sometimes, I hear some people saying, “I have no time to think of God. I do not bother about God.” Well. God is also not bothered about you either. If you care a pin for God, He will not care even a millionth pin for you, because in His eyes, this entire earth is not equal even to a pintip. It is you, who approach God every time for some favor. It is you, who always bother Him to break the legal way and protect you. Yes. He does it. The kindest Lord pays [suffers] for your sins through His human form and protects both you and justice simultaneously. He wants your pure and real love for doing that. You may plead that you do not have that much pure and real love. No. No. No. You have it and you show it to your children. Give atleast a drop of it, proving that you really love God atleast a bit; even though not equal to your great child. Atleast stop this hypocritical love and stop asking Him for any favor. Follow the path of justice and if you can still love Him without aspiring for any favour from Him, then that is real love or devotion. You love your child, even if he or she beats you. Don’t say that pure love is impossible. It is impossible only in the case of others, including God. First start loving and serving people who are other than your family, to get training in that path. Atleast do not grab the money of other people by cheating. Business is also a licensed way of cheating others. Even if you are not loving and serving others, atleast do not grab their hard earned money by corruption. First, stop harming others. Then, start loving others. Then, start serving others. Now you are trained well and you are ready to love and serve God like Shaktuprastha. Money is the root knot. It catches your throat. Therefore the Veda says “Dhanena tyagenaikena…” which means that sacrifice of money alone decides your love for God. Real love can be expressed only by [the sacrifice of] money and work (karma sanyasa and karma phala tyaga). Without these two, other ways are only hypocritical. When these 15

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two also exist, the other ways get life. Otherwise, they are just dead items. ‘Guna’ is theory. ‘Karma’ is practice. Theory should lead to practice. Otherwise, mere theory is only hypocrisy. The four castes in spiritual path are decided by theory and practice only (guna karma vibhagashah—Gita). Shaktuprastha is the real Brahmana (Brahma Jnani), who sacrificed all the fruit of his work for God. Dharmaraja is a kshatriya, who could only do partial sacrifice of wealth in doing the Ashvamedha. Dhritarashtra is a Vaishya, who has good theory but is zero in practice. He recognized Lord Krishna but did not give even five villages, even though the Lord was asking. He had full power to give but nicely escaped by pleading his false incapability in going against his son. Duryodhana is a Shudra, who did not even recognise the Lord and was greedy for the wealth of even his own brothers. Thus caste is not by birth, but it is by the qualities and practice (guna karma). Swami Dayananda, who was also a human incarnation preached about this valuable concept. Every great preacher is an incarnation of God because the Gita says the same (Yadyat vibhutimat…). Buddha kept silent about God. This means that God is beyond words, mind and logic as said in the Veda. Buddha means the Buddhi or Jnana Yoga that speaks about the absolute God. Thus He is the greatest incarnation of God. If one thinks of Him as an atheist, there can be no greater fool. Mohammed showed the formless medium in which God exists, which is energy and this is presented as awareness by Shankara, because basically energy and awareness are one and the same. A prophet itself means a human incarnation. A prophet carries the message of God. The divine knowledge is in Him. Is He not greater than other human beings? The message of divine knowledge is the characteristic of God (Satyam Jnanam—Veda) and so we say God is in Him. Why do you deny it, when God is omnipresent? Then every human being should give the same message of God, since God is omnipresent. But why did Mohammed alone give it? [It is] because the power of God or knowledge of God was in Him alone. Then the power of God, in the form of knowledge is not omnipresent. In any case, you have to accept that either God or His power was present only in Prophet Mohammed. That is what a human incarnation is. You are fighting with us, without analysing the concept of the human incarnation. Thus Buddha, Mohammed and Shankara have preached the single phase [same concept], which was essential to the level of the followers at that time. 16

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The concept of a human incarnation was well established by Krishna and Jesus. You can find all three branches of Hinduism (Advaita, Vishishtha Advaita, Dvaita) in Christianity because Jesus said that He and God are one and the same (Advaita), that He is the son of God (Visishta Advaita) and that He is the messenger of God (Dvaita). The required stage of philosophy was expressed according to the stage of the people of that time. Just now, Lakshman (Mumbai) told Me that Surya told him that one should do the total sacrifice to the Lord atleast once in a life time. But Surya has already done that. One day he removed all his earnings which were in the name of his son and deposited them in the bank account of our Trust. His wife, who is a good devotee of Me, also quarreled with him for that act. He did not even inform Me about his sacrifice! Only later on, it was known from his wife. Is he not Shaktuprastha really? Unfortunately, I am not the Lord in human form. Had I been the Lord, I would have sent him to Brahma Loka. Atleast, I pray to the Lord to give him Brahma Loka, when he leaves his gross body in course of time as per the rules of nature. Do not bother that you are unable to practice the highest truth today itself. Atleast accept the truth in theory. That first step is sufficient. One day or the other, either in this life or in some future life (human life is assured for any one who tries constantly) you will succeed. If you accept theoretically, you have put your foot on the first step of right path. Journey and achievement of goal are inevitable. It is only a matter of time. But if you deny the truth even theoretically, you are in the wrong path. You want immediate fruit and so you want to lower the goal. You want to sleep at 8 PM and want to become IAS officer. You want 40 marks as passing marks! You think that you can get the 40 marks and pass. But My dear friend, if you keep 40 marks as goal, you will only get five or ten marks! Actually 100 is distinction and 40 is a passing mark. But we have kept it as a secret and are saying that 100 is the passing mark, so that you will certainly achieve 40 while trying for 100. This is called as ‘Arthavada’ (which means a statement created for a purpose) in the Veda. It means a spiritual secret like a business secret. When you only get five marks and feel discouraged by seeing the 100 mark goal, then in your case, to encourage you, we shall say that 40 is the passing mark. Therefore, the Acharyas know how to close and open the secrecy of the truth according to the condition of the 17

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student. In some context, the truth has to be opened and in some other context, the truth has to be covered. This brought the difference in the preaching of the human incarnations, which was based on the difference in the stages of different people, they faced in their times. If you realize this practical problem you can easily realize that there is only one God in all the divine human incarnations.

Love and Sex [Replies to some phone calls from USA] Grace of Lord Versus Pleasing of Lord Getting the grace of the Lord is more important than pleasing yourself with worldly pleasures here, which includes getting fame. Pleasing the Lord is more important than getting the grace of the Lord. The sages tried to get the grace of the Lord through penance to save themselves from hell. But the same sages in the form of Gopikas tried to please the Lord even at the cost of going to hell by offering the dust of their feet to Lord Krishna. Therefore, the Gopikas are treated higher than the Lord by the Lord Himself and the life of the Gopikas is more sacred than penance. Bhagavatam, which explains the life of the Gopikas, should be the highest aim of this human life. All the greatness of Bhagavatam is due to the Gopikas. Radha, who even became mad in the love of God, stands as the queen of the Gopikas. The grace of the Lord indicates the selfishness in us, whereas the pleasure of the Lord indicates the sacrifice in us. Thus the final stage of sadhana is only to end selfishness and reach the climax of sacrifice for the Lord. Some ignorant people reach the climax of sacrifice for society, which is foolishness. Sacrifice to please your body and your family is more important than pleasing the society and this is Pravritti or justice. But the Lord is more important than your body and family and this is Nivritti or the spiritual field. You must know both Pravritti and Nivritti and act according to the context. Fully ignorant people, who are of the Tamas quality, cannot know the significance of both these fields as said in the Gita (pravrittimcha nivrittimcha). [Some people asked Me about their problems of sex and even homosexuality.] They are all problems limited to Pravritti. Some have told Me that they have suicidal thoughts. A young fellow asked Me for advice since he was suspecting the character of his wife, and it was leading to a lot of 18

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tension. One should not hide the problem of one’s body before a doctor and should not hide the problem of the mind before the spiritual preacher. Body and mind are interrelated and affect each other. If a wound happens to the body, one feels unhappy. Thus body affects mind. If the mind is with stress, a number of chronic diseases of the body come up. Thus mind affects the body. First of all, one should know that the concept of sex should not be magnified or given over-attention. Sex is a biological need of the body like hunger and thirst. It is a biological issue at the physical level because, when food is taken, a part of it is supplied to the reproductive system, by which, it gives signals in the form of sexual desire for the growth of the human race on this earth. It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls [from the upper worlds] come down to the earth through the bodies created by sexual union. Thus, sex is a factor involved in the divine mission, which functions in a cyclic way by bringing down souls to the earth and taking them away from the earth. Disease is another biological need for the body to disintegrate and liberate the soul for its journey to the upper world. This is the cycle of creation called as ‘karma chakra’, which involves taking the souls to the upper world for treatment and bringing down the souls after treatment. Birth is a vehicle in one direction running with the petrol called sex. Death is the same vehicle running in reverse direction with the petrol called illness. Petrol is one and the same and therefore sex is a type of illness, which is in the divine service of God and should not be looked down upon or hated. Sex is divine and its deity is Manmatha or Kamadeva, who is the son of Lord Narayana. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, the Lord said that He is ‘kama’, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need for shyness in feeling hungry, thirsty, sleepy, spitting, urination, excretion etc. which are just simple biological, universal and routine activities. Sex is also in the same list, about which you should not think so much. If you have understood the divine purpose of sex, there is no meaning in homosexuality. It can be taken as a peculiar type of the biological need, which has no divine purpose. Satisfaction of hunger by eating food is not the divine aim. Maintaining the body for doing sadhana is the divine purpose and hunger is a signal indicating the same point. Without knowing this aim, some people say, “What is this eating, 19

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sleeping, living etc?” It shows their ignorance about the main aim of human life. According to many, the aim of the human life is to enjoy life with the family and get name and fame in the society as a rich man, as a scholar or as a capable person. Many feel that they have lifted the Govardhana hill by earning money and by bringing up their children. They feel that their lives are fulfilled when the circle of their friends and relatives appreciate them as a very disciplined person since he brought up his children. He wants appreciation from friends and relatives by words like “How well educated and rich he is! Yet, see his humility and simplicity!” The poor fellow becomes unconscious by this hypnotic drug and helps them; their real aim is only getting some help from him. When the help is over, their suppressed jealousy comes out and they will abuse him. Thus, his life is neither fulfilled in this world nor in the upper world. Relation between Lord and Soul The sages saw Rama and wanted to embrace Him. Is it not homosexuality? No. They will not have such a feeling, which is unjust and even unnatural. It is unjust because, it does not serve the purpose of reproduction, which is divine justice. It is also not a natural path of satisfying the sex-hunger. The sages had beautiful wives and produced children. Thus they also served the divine mission of the Lord. Moreover, they did not want to embrace Lord Rama in their same male forms. They wanted to embrace Him after transforming themselves into females. This does not come under Pravritti, because they had wives and children already. This comes under Nivritti in which the climax of love towards God called as devotion, which crosses all the limits of nature and justice. It is infinite love towards God, which is unimaginable. The context of such feeling is neither reproduction, which is the divine mission nor the pacification of the sex-hunger, which is a biological need. It is the unimaginable attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the Lord. This attraction is not simply based on the physical beauty of the Lord, which is meaningless, if analysed. It is the attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the total personality of the Lord. There is no distinction between male and female in Nivritti. It is a matter between God and soul. The same soul can exist in a body of male or female. The attraction between the soul and God cannot be compared to the attraction between two souls. Thus, there is a fundamental difference irrespective of biological sex, which is related to 20

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the bodies. “Pumsaam mohna rupaaya” means that the sages were attracted by the divine personality [of Lord Rama]. Moha means attraction and not sex. Kama is sex. The husband wants his wife to not be attracted to other males, but he is attracted to other females. Similar is the case with the wife. Shri Rajneesh attacked this issue in this way and such approach is only partial [Rajneesh allowed free sex. So both partners in this case, could have sex with any other persons of their choice]. What about the case in which one partner is attracted to a third person while the other partner remains chaste? You cannot generalise the case of some people to all. Here is a person, who is very loyal to his wife but she is attracted to somebody else. Shri Rajneesh liberalized the concept by finding fault with the other side also. In general, he may be correct. But, what about a specific case [in which one is chaste and the second is not chaste]? Ofcourse, this case may be both ways, because tomorrow I may find a problem from a chaste wife complaining about her husband for his side attraction. Therefore, one should not misunderstand Me siding only chaste wives or only chaste husbands. The issue is; if one side is chaste and the other side is not chaste, what should be the solution? The solution for this is again multi-dimensional and multi-stepped. First of all, I should question whether the marriage took place by the full consent of both the man and the woman. Sometimes the consent is given by the man or the woman as a mere ‘no objection certificate’. But that is not sufficient for a marriage. There should be a positive certificate of intense attraction towards each other. The attraction becomes permanent and real if it is based on the total personality. Mere physical appearance is only one factor. If physical appearance alone is the basis, then love would reduce as the old age comes or if the appearance is spoiled by some illness or accident. Buddha was attracted to Amrapali in her old age to serve her!

Control of Sin Due to Attraction of Better Opposite Sex The husband or wife gets attracted by a better ‘total personality’ of opposite sex, whom he or she meets in life. Mental attraction is hidden by several people by controlling their words. Words and actions of the body are inert and do not participate in the sin. When this body, which spoke or did some wrong activity is left over here [death], the soul is taken to hell in some other energetic body and is punished. If the body is 21

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a participant of the sin, it should be directly taken to hell and be punished. Therefore, in hell, the mind is punished through another new body. Therefore, the sin is in the mind and not in the body. Once mental attraction is there, the sin is recorded. The words and actions of the body are works of the inert energy and matter and have no sin. When Sita was carried by Ravana, the body of Sita was fully touched by Ravana by force as per the Valmiki Ramayana. This was referred by Sita, herself, (yadyaham gatra samsparsham…). But there was no attraction in her mind and therefore she was declared pure by the Fire-god (Agni). Renuka had mental attraction towards a king on the banks of River Narmada and she did not touch him even by a finger. But she was declared as a sinner and her head was cut by her son, Parashurama. Therefore, after marriage, getting attracted to another person is a sin and the soul is punished in hell. If the other side is also not chaste, will the sin get mutually cancelled leading to no punishment to either person? No. Both will be punished in hell. Therefore, the philosophy of Shri Rajneesh in this point does not save the soul in any way. To get rid of such sin and the consequent hell, control of mind cannot be the true path, which is impossible. Some control food [to reduce sexual desire], but it is not a permanent solution because such feelings (samskaras) are precipitated in the soul from several millions of births. You cannot control the mind through the body, when the mind (samskara) is controlling your body. Such precipitated samskara, called as prakriti or nature acquired from millions of births, finally decides the course of action as said in the Gita (prakritistvaam niyokshyati…, Prakritim yanti…). The only permanent and real solution for this is to realize the real aim of human life and turn to God. The attraction towards God is like a mega-tsunami in which the side attraction towards another person disappears like the flood of river. No other side attraction can exist, when the divine personality of God appears. This attraction is totally different since it is the bond between God and the soul and not a bond between souls. There is no aspect of male or female here. Rama went after the golden deer [for the sake of Sita], even though Lakshmana tried to stop him. Here it appears as if Rama was more attracted by the female devotee [His wife, Sita] compared to a male devotee [His brother Lakshman]. No. It is the climax of His love for the soul of Sita and not for her body. The same Rama said to stop the war and was prepared to leave His own life when Lakshmana became 22

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unconscious in the war. Here Rama neglected Sita before Lakshmana. This context shows the love of the Lord on the soul of Lakshmana, irrespective of the external body. In this tsunami of love for the Lord, both justice and injustice disappear. If one realises this divine knowledge he attains the Lord and crosses both good and bad (Buddhiyogam tam yenamaaam, Buddhyaa yukto, Buddhiyukto jahatiha ubhe—Gita). Both the hell and heaven are thrown out when you approach the Divine Lord as said in the Veda (Punyapaape vidhuya…).

Unreal Worldly Bonds - Real Bond with Lord The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. Sage Ashtavakra preaches to King Janaka through the ‘Ashtavakra Samhita’, in which, the sage says that the mother and son of this life become husband and wife in the next life! It is like a hero and heroine acting in two different roles in different movies. We have two movies running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors acting as husband and wife in one movie also act as mother and son in another movie! This bond [husband-wife or son-mother] did not exist in the past birth and will not exist in the future birth. That which was unreal in the past and will be unreal in the future is also unreal in the present according to Shankara (Yadanityam Tat Kritakam…). It is just a dramatic bond. Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in about the side activity [family life], which is given just for a change or recreation. Let her or him [unchaste partner] go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a player. The game is just a recreation arranged for a change. Do not be jealous of a classmate in a game. Be jealous of the same classmate in studies, because study is the main aim of your college life. Attractions are spontaneous, which can neither be created nor suppressed by force. A forced attraction by fear is not real and what is the use of such faith and love? In the spiritual path too, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. Urge to fulfill the desires is the force. The fear is of hell. The Gopikas were prepared to go to hell in the love of the Lord and no force on earth could deviate them from it. The attraction should be spontaneously generated in a free atmosphere without any attraction to boons and without any fear of hell. 23

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In the human incarnation, the human form of God, masks the real nature of the Lord so that a free atmosphere is created in which is devotee is without fear and [temptation to] fulfill desires by using His super powers. Such love is really sweet. God created this universe and His main aim is to taste such real sweet love of His devotees. When the Lord showed His mega-energetic form (Vishwarupam), Arjuna shivered with great tension. In this state can you even think of love? The love of Prahlada for Vishnu was spontaneous. His father tried to resist it and divert it to Lord Shiva. The resistance increased the devotion more and more. Therefore, the realization of the main aim of human life, the realization of family life as a side activity for the recreation of the soul and the realization of the unreal dramatic family bonds will remove all the tensions. The ignorance of the real aim of this life and the ignorance of the unreality of these bonds are responsible for these great tensions. A realized soul will laugh at such problems (karma bandham prahasyasi—Gita). This human life is very rare. Getting the next human birth is even rarer. The ignorance of real aim of life leads to thoughts of suicide due to tensions created in this unreal drama. Will any body actually kill himself or herself on the stage while acting in a drama? Is he or she not a fool? Is he or she not mad? Suppose a student is defeated in a cricket game and commits suicide, is he or she not mad? Suppose a student is defeated in cricket game and commits suicide. Is he not a fool? The game itself is a side activity meant for a change. This worldly life is just a side activity for a change and one should not even get any tension in this worldly life, what to speak of suicide! Even the bond with your child is unreal because the blood from your body entered into the body of other soul. This external gross body is destroyed here [in this world at the time of death] and the bond with that gross body is destroyed too. The soul of Abhimanyu in heaven did not recognise his father, Arjuna, for the same reason. The bond with the wife is more unreal and is formed only due to touch between two gross bodies, which are like external clothes. The bond of the child perishes with the death. The bond with wife may die at any moment with divorce even within the span of this lifetime. The Gita says the same (Ye hi samsparsajaa bhogah…). A realised soul will not entertain himself in such unreal bonds (Na teshu ramate budhah—Gita).

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A king in Shrirangam was attracted to the beauty of the eyes of his wife. Shri Ramanuja showed the eyes of the Lord, which were radiating with divine knowledge and the king was attracted to the Lord leaving his wife. The physical appearance of the gross body is the external personality, which is temporary. The qualities of the internal subtle body (along with the causal body) constitute the internal personality. When the wonderful God charges the human form by entering into the human incarnation, generally He charges the internal subtle and causal bodies too, so that the qualities of that individual become divine and wonderful. The qualities of co-human beings may be good but are not the best and wonderful. Sometimes God charges even the external gross body [of the incarnation] according to the requirement as in the case of Krishna. In that case the body of the incarnation may become wonderfully beautiful or even radiating, giving divine visions such as the Vishwarupam. Shirdi Sai Baba was not externally beautiful, but His internal personality was divine, charged by God. God withdrew Himself even in the case of Krishna from the external gross body at the end. The internal body (subtle and causal) can be called as Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva according to the predominating quality of the subtle body. Various qualities arise due to various mixtures of these three qualities giving rise to various deities. In the Vishwarupam, all these deities were shown with the central three qualities. Whenever the wonder (Maya) is mixed with the medium (Prakriti), the attraction becomes highest. Wonder (Maya) indicates the presence of God (Mayinamtu—Gita). Do not worry about the sins of your close family members. Tell them once and help them in the analysis. Do not hate them and resist their side attractions. Resistance will only increase the attraction. You are promoting it indirectly. Help them in analysis and if they still do not change, neglect them. In this world, the souls and five elements are real but the attractions or feelings, which are called as bonds are unreal. The actors, stage, dress, lights etc., are real but the story and dialogues, which together called as the drama, are unreal. God, the absolute reality, is the source of both the reality and unreality of this world. When I say that the world is a dream, you should not mistake it and get confused by thinking that everything in the world is a dream. If you analyse your wife and child, their souls and gross bodies are real. But their subtle bodies which are made up of feelings (gunas) are unreal. The vessel (gross body) and the water (causal body) are real. But the waves in the 25

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water (subtle body) are unreal, They constitute the whole drama-dream. All the actors and the materials used in the movie-shooting are real. Only the story, dialogues and the feelings expressed like attraction and hate are unreal. The Advaita scholars misunderstand here and say that the entire world is unreal. You are admitted to the college and your main aim is to get the degree. If you fail in the exams, your main aim is upset. Therefore, you should get tension. Similarly you should have tension if the main aim of the human life i.e., achieving the grace of God, fails. Other than that, all the things like family life and relationships are only extra curricular activities. In your college life, a participating in a game is an extra curricular activity. Suppose you are defeated in it. You should take it sportingly and not seriously, because that is not the main aim. Therefore take everything in life sportingly, because, this life is not the ultimate aim. If family life alone were the goal [of human life], even animals and birds have their family lives. The speciality of human life is to think about God and achieve the grace of God.

Spontaneous Attraction is Only True Attraction should be spontaneous and natural. You can get real bliss only in such love. You are already attracted to the greatest Lord. Why do you wish that you should attract some other soul by your personality? If there is any merit in your personality, it is due to God and not you. Pass on the credit to God. Advise even the soul attracted to you to get attracted by the greatest Lord. That will protect you both here and as well as in the upper world. The Gita says that if any greatness is seen in any person, it is coming from the Lord alone (Mama Tejomsa Sambhavam). Sita was always attracted only to Rama and Ravana could not divert her. Rama never expected or compelled Sita to be chaste for Him. Infact, after the war, Rama told Sita to go freely and select Lakshmana, Bharata or Vibhishana as her husband. But Sita felt so bad [that Rama doubted her love] that she jumped into the fire. Rama did not jump into fire, doubting Sita! [He was not upset that she was touched by Ravana. Neither was He worried that she may choose someone else as her husband. None of these reasons enough to want to commit suicide]. The inert body cannot be a partner of the sin. Only the live subtle body, made of qualities, is responsible for the sin. Even though the body of Sita touched the body of Ravana, Sita was not a sinner since it was 26

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against her will. Stating this, Sita refused to sit on the shoulder of Hanuman, because she would not touch anybody except Rama consciously (Yadyaham gatra samsparsam—Ramayana). Therefore attraction should be spontaneous and not be compelled. Prahlada was spontaneously attracted to Vishnu. His father forced him to love Shiva instead of Vishnu. This does not mean that there is no devotee of Shiva, if Prahlada was not attracted to Shiva. Markandeya was as much attracted to Shiva as Prahlada to Vishnu. Love or attraction should be spontaneous and reasonless. God wants such love from the devotee. The attraction, which is not based on benefits in return, is the real love. Just because somebody is benefited by you, you should not expect love from that soul. You can expect gratitude. Love is beyond reason. Your love for God should not be based on the benefits you received from Him. You can be grateful for the help from God. But love is generated based on the personality. Sita loved Rama like that. The Gopikas loved Krishna similarly. The weight of love is important and not the form of love. People think that the eight wives of Krishna really loved Him. But when His finger was cut, it was Draupadi who tore her new silk sari as a bandage and not the wives of Krishna. Here the brother-sister love proved to be more than the husband-wife form of love. God sees the weight of love and not form of love. The cost of onekilo sugar donkeys [sugar blocks in the shape of donkeys] is more than half kilo sugar horses. The cost is based on the weight of sugar and not on the form. The bond between Rama and Hanuman was only Master and servant which is not a family relation in our terms. But, the love in that bond was the highest and Hanuman was rewarded with the post of the future Creator (God Himself). The mentality to attract other souls is egoism. The mentality to be attracted to God is divinity. When you never aspire to attract any soul, you will attract all the souls by the grace of God. When you like fame, you will be defamed as in the case of demons. If you ask, it shall not be given. If you knock, the doors will be closed. This is Nivritti. The reverse of this is true in Pravritti for initial encouragement. For the initial attraction towards God, some boons are granted, but it is only temporary. In the permanent advanced stage, love without aspiring for any benefit in return is valid. Hanuman wanted to always be a servant. His devotion of this kind was famous (Daasa Bhakti). But He was made the Lord of the world! Therefore love without any aspiration for benefit 27

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and that which is based on the divine personality alone is the real love. This divine personality is only God. Always be attracted to Him. All will be attracted to you, because His grace will fall on you. Even then, let your attraction to God continue without egoism. You will rise and rise and God will keep you on His head. Not only the world, but even God gets attracted to you. That is the love of Radha or Hanuman for God. There is no concept of male and female here. It is the concept of soul and God. Any soul is like a glass lens. It shines by the light of that Sun alone. Whenever a soul wants to attract other souls it is only a desire for fame, which has its root in egoism. If one makes himself zero, he will become the hero, since the grace or power of God enters into him. Arjuna without Krishna was defeated even by some ordinary hunters from the forest. When he was associated with Krishna, he defeated all the great warriors and became the topmost hero. Hanuman is the greatest hero in every aspect because, He always thinks Himself as zero. He quietly sat on a stone like a schoolboy, when other monkeys were boasting about their capacities to jump over the sea. Other monkeys were posing as heroes. He sat silently making Himself zero. But He became the real hero by the grace of God and crossed the sea just by one short jump! He declared Himself as the weakest monkey (Mattah pratyavarah Kashcit—Ramayana). Therefore learn to be attracted to God and not to attract others. Desire for fame is also a wine which induces egoism. When Vivekananda was roaming in the streets of America, nobody cared for him. Even when he stood on the stage [at the World Parliament of Religions], nobody was attracted to him. But when he surrendered himself to his Guru, the power entered him and he attracted crowds by the showers of divine knowledge! If you become the absolute zero, you will be made the infinite hero by God. The gross body is inert and is like a cloth of the soul. Sex is momentary happiness that is experienced by the physical touch of the two inert gross bodies. People use the word ‘love’ for sex. Love is a quality of subtle body (the inner item), which is made of qualities. Sex is the physical action of the gross body, like hunger, thirst etc., which is a biological function. Sex (kama) is related to body and love (Prema) is related to the mind. Body and mind are mutually linked. Both sex and love are created by God for the divine work of reproduction of souls (dharma) which is the essential basis of His divine drama. All this is 28

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only an issue between two souls. After death, both sex and love disappear because even the recognition of the other soul does not exist any more. The love towards God is called as Bhakti, which is eternal, because the bond with God is eternal. Love is not eternal as it is limited to this birth only.

Sex in the Divine Mission of God The Veda shows the two ways. One is Pravritti and the other is Nivritti. In Pravritti, the Veda advises the soul to marry for reproduction (prajatantum…), which is also a divine mission. In Nivritti, the Veda asks the soul to do the work of God without marriage (yadahareva virajet…) because the soul is not interested in anything except God. Ofcourse, marriage and reproduction to bring the souls from the upper world to earth and training them with good devotion to God is also divine work. The momentary selfish happiness present in sex is not considered, because it does not persist afterwards. Thus it is the participation of two souls [in divine work] like two colleagues on a job. A third soul takes a body out of this association [the child born to the two] and appears in this world with its own line of destiny. The third soul is like a new trainee-employee for the divine mission. Even the Lord needs parents when He comes in human form to uplift the humanity. If the divine purpose of reproduction were absent, God would have not created sex and love between two souls. Without realising this divine mission, if the three employees forget the job and the employer, and only develop liking to each other, which intensifies, it is called blind foolishness or ‘Moha’. In Jaimini Bharatam, there is a story that tells of the kingdom of Babhruvahana, where people used to think of Lord even during their copulation at night. This means that they remembered the purpose of the sex in the service of God. If this divine goal is realised, one need not feel shy and hide the feeling of sex as if it is a sin. This divine purpose is reminded by the sculpture that shows the union of couples on the walls of sacred temples. The present westerners and ancient Indians do not feel shy about sex and are frank, without hiding their feelings regarding it. One need not magnify it and keep it secret like divine knowledge (Brahma Jnanam). When you are doing some work in the office, you forget it and go home peacefully. Shankara had to indulge in sex to defeat the wife of Mandana Mishra in the knowledge of Kama Shastra. He forgot it and never carried on the 29

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feelings about it, because His mind was not on it. He replied to Goddess Saraswati with the same point when she stopped Him from climbing the throne of ‘Sarvajna Peetha’ [Seat of Omniscience. She alleged that He was not pure since He had had sex. He told her that His mind was free from desire in the act.]. When some devotees asked Me about the sex affair of a great saint, I asked them “Why don’t you see the great work done by him? Do these silly things need any mention, since these are just biological functions? Why do you magnify them, which are not even worth thinking? When you see a movie, do you see the excretion of the hero in the lavatory? Why are such scenes not shot? Only the great works done by the hero are mentioned on the screen. A Nobel prize is not given to a person who has controlled sex and is not denied to a great person just because he could not control sex”. The grace of God is also not related to sex for a householder, who is involved in sex just for a few moments as in any biological function and involves himself in God’s work without caring for it. It is the mind that is related in this issue and not the gross body which is inert. Scholars say “Enaivaalingita kanta Tenaivalingita suta” which means that the same gross body embraces wife and also daughter. The physical action is same. But the mind is different. The mind is responsible for the sin. Actually, here mind means the intelligence (Buddhi) that decides everything. Buddhi is the driver of this body-chariot. The driver is guided by his knowledge in driving. Therefore, Buddhi or the driver means the knowledge or Jnana Yoga that ultimately decides the sin. Only analysis can decide the sin (Buddhiyukto…Gita). This knowledge that comes from God alone is correct. Therefore God decides sin.

Meaningless Mocking Of Brahma Brahma created the first soul i.e., Saraswati and married her. All other souls are generated from that divine couple. This story is mocked at by people saying, that the Father married His own daughter. You are saying that all of us are created by God and that He is our divine Father. Then all of us are brothers and sisters of each other. In that case, how can any marriage take place in the creation? Now the mockers should mock at themselves. The rules are created by us in course of time, but they are valuable only after framing. There is no question of sin if you realise that Brahma, Saraswati and all other souls are involved in sex to help this drama which entertains God by bringing down the souls from 30

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the upper world and provides them external gross bodies like the dresses in a drama. If we realise that the very process of sex is only for this divine purpose and that it is a divine process created by God Himself, there is no question of sin. When the Creator is forgotten and when the purpose of our creation and existence for the sake of the entertainment of God is also forgotten, even a life without sex is a sin. This world is ‘Mithya’, which means that it is almost unreal because its reality is negligible. When the existence of a tiny cut on your shirt is negligible, you will not count its existence. This entire world is almost unreal for God and is like a daydream. All the five elements viz. matter and energy are almost unreal in the view of God. The soul is made of the tender and the weakest energy called as awareness (chit), which is nervous energy flowing in the most delicate matter i.e. brain and nerves. This nervous energy is almost negligible before the physical matter and inert energy. Physical matter and energy are in turn negligible before God. Thus, the soul is twice negligible for God. The most negligible item of this world is the soul. The qualities or feelings (gunas) are like waves of the soul. They are negligible before the existence of soul. Water associated with some kinetic energy induced in it, becomes a wave. The wave represents that kinetic energy. The physical existence in terms of visibility of that energy is negligible before the matter. Thus the wave representing energy is also not completely unreal and can be called as ‘Mithya’. The subtle body made of these qualities is Mithya before the soul. Thus a dream made of feelings is Mithya for a soul. What are these bonds like parents, wife, children etc? These bonds are just feelings, which are waves of the nervous energy. A father and daughter or a brother and sister separated from the beginning met in a foreign country and got married. Later on they realised and could not continue as a couple. In some cultures, one can marry the daughter of a sister but the daughter of a brother is treated as one’s own daughter. In some other region and religion, this system is reversed! It is the wave of mind or feeling that is the essence of a bond. Therefore all these bonds are almost unreal (Mithya) for a soul. Why then should there be tensions, murders and suicides for the sake of these almost unreal bonds? Why should there be corruption for the sake of these almost unreal bonds and why should one have to go to hell for the sin of corruption? It is these bonds that form the meaning of the word ‘world’ for the soul when the world is said to be Mithya and not the 31

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physical world. This is the essence of the preaching of Shankara, which is misunderstood and the soul treats the physical world as unreal! Only an ignorant soul thinks that these bonds are real and undergoes tensions. A paper and pen are sufficient to give a certificate. Similarly knowledge and devotion, which are also made of nervous energy, are sufficient to attain the grace of God. The attachment to wealth is also a bond like the bonds with your family members. You are sacrificing your attachment to wealth and family members for the sake of God. Already the wealth and your family members are the immovable and movable properties of the Lord. For the sake of God, Shankara sacrificed the attachment to His mother and did not sacrifice the mother because she is already a part of the movable property of the Lord. Similarly Gopikas sacrificed their families and butter (wealth) for the sake of the Lord and here also, sacrifice of their bonds is the point. The whole game is only with these feelings (bonds) which are almost unreal, and not with real things. Therefore there need not be any tension regarding the bonds. Your bonds with other souls are unreal compared with the bond with God, just like the bonds in the drama are unreal compared with the bond with the owner of the drama. The dramatic bonds change from one drama to the other. Similarly the bonds with other souls change from one birth to the other. The bond with God is real and eternal because, even in Maha Pralaya (the final dissolution of the creation) the souls exist in God, and are always controlled by Him. The Master-servant bond always exists [between God and the soul], and is also the essence of any other bond.

The Train From Hell to Brahma Loka I have come down to preach to and reach each one of you here. I am impartial from My side. Your attachments depend on your own merits and defects. I am controlling My fame as long as I am alive, which will rise like a tsunami after My exit. There is a reason for this. Accepting the human incarnation itself creates the seed of egoism and jealousy. If the human form of God becomes famous while He is alive, the seed of egoism and jealousy will grow into a huge tree even in the heart of the closest devotee. Priests accepted the past human prophets. But to accept Jesus as a prophet in living form, jealousy entered them as a seed. Jesus was drawing crowds by His divine knowledge and the growing fame of Jesus developed the jealousy more and more, which 32

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lead to His crucifixion. Even His closest devotee betrayed Him due to jealousy and egoism. God is not fond of fame because He is bored with fame in the upper world. Only human beings are fond of fame. God enjoys bad fame, which is not available in the upper world. Crucification was bad fame and the Lord enjoyed it well here. For a long time, I kept silent about issues of Pravritti such as these questions and problems related to sex. But recently I got a phone from one person from USA and the person said to Me, “Swami, I read your messages through emails. I am newly married. My wife is attracted to someone else. I am chaste and want to commit suicide. Please advise me through Your spiritual knowledge.” I told him to wait and see My message on such issues. The story of Shaktuprastha is a train from earth to heaven (I mean Brahma Loka). This message is a train from hell (Patala loka) to heaven, so that anyone can get into it and reach the other terminus. The Gita says “Apichetasi papebhyah…”, which means that even the greatest sinner will reach the Lord by following the divine message i.e., the Gita. Similarly Jesus showed the path of divinity even to a condemned prostitute. I once again tell you to realize the main aim of this human life and forget the insults in the side activities. For a student, education is the main activity and he should be upset if he fails in the exams. But, he should not be worried, if he fails in a game conducted as an extracurricular activity in the college. All this worldly life is only a game or an extra-curricular activity. If you fail in your efforts to achieve the grace of the Lord, you should get tension because the spiritual effort is the main activity and aim of this human life. Othello killed Desidimona and ended his life too doubting her character and his doubt was actually unreal. But I assuredly tell you that this entire worldly life made of these unreal dramatic bonds is actually unreal and even if Desdimona were actually in the wrong, and if Othello were a realized soul, he would neglect the whole issue as an extra-curricular activity. Love in a free atmosphere alone is worthy and in a compelled atmosphere, it is hypocritical love which is useless. Before matter, energy is negligible because energy in a condensed form is matter. Before energy, awareness (soul) is negligible, since it is the weakest form of energy. Before awareness, feeling is negligible, since it is only a wave of awareness. Qualitatively matter and energy are one and the same energy. But, the quantitative difference brings in the negligibility and hence, it is treated 33

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as almost unreal (Mithya). These bonds are just feelings and you can laugh at these bonds as said in the Gita (karmabandham prahasyasi).

Inconsequential Pursuits [Replies of Swami for Phones from USA]: Whether it is homosexuality or heterosexuality, do not give much attention to it. Try to control the homosexuality, because it is unjust since there is no reproduction involved and it is an unnatural way of pacification of the sex-hunger, which is as good as any biological function. In any case do not give much time and energy in thinking about that momentary extra-curricular activity. Let that moment be spent as a moment spent in excretion etc., which is inevitable to the body. That point is not a problem of even Pravritti since you are not disturbing the society in any way like corruption or communal war. It does not stand as an objection to the spiritual path in any way. It is only a laughable extra-curricular activity. Suppose a college student is playing with a small child. People watching will laugh at it. But that has no connection with the main activity of the student like attending the classes and writing the unit tests. Therefore do not waste much time for such meaningless things. I assure you that your spiritual life has no link with that in any way. God simply smiles at it but will not be angry on it. Regarding the issue of heterosexuality and suicide, the same argument holds good. Try to preach to your wife regarding the justice in Pravritti especially when you are loyal to her. Attract her mind to God so that all attractions including the attraction to you too are diverted to God. The grace of God on her will not only protect her everywhere but will also protect her husband and children. It is hence a meaningful and useful diversion. Do not wish that her side attraction should disappear and that her attraction to you alone should remain. Such a wish is selfishness and egoism mixed with ignorance. If such a thing is to happen [that she should be attracted to you], it should happen spontaneously in a free atmosphere and not by force, economic necessity or fear of hell. There is no real taste in such unreal apparent love. Infact, Rama encouraged side attraction in Sita after war! But Sita refused and jumped into fire even for hearing it! That is the real spontaneous love, which is really enjoyable. Rama did not commit suicide doubting Sita. He did not try to attract her but He was spontaneously attracted by her. In any way all this is a momentary extra34

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curricular activity, which has no significance at all. Therefore neglect that point after a certain level and concentrate on the main activity. When Jesus was carrying the cross, people were weeping about Him. He asked them to weep for themselves and for their children. What does this mean? Even the death is a momentary side activity like changing the old dress as per the Gita and that point is inevitable to anyone. Whatever may be way of death, it is inevitable like any biological function. Therefore, one need not concentrate on that point. Whether you are killed or you die naturally, death is one and the same, and is inevitable. Why should you bother about it and waste time thinking about it? Jesus did the work of God successfully and His life became fruitful. He is going to sit on the right side of God forever after the suffering of death for a few hours [during crucifixion]. Suffering sometimes exists even for months and years in the case of some illness that attacks before death. But other people [other than Jesus] go to hell forever after this little human life for which too, the suffering before death is inevitable. If you analyse this, who should weep for whom? One need not weep for Jesus but should weep for himself or herself or for their children in view of the permanent hell after death. This is the meaning of the statement of Jesus. Krishna was shot dead. Rama jumped into the river at the end. Shankara suffered with blood motions at the end. But they never cared about death which is inevitable. Before the problem of death, no other problem is more serious and therefore should not be thought about. I did not answer such issues for a long time only due to this reason. But the negligibility [of these problems] is from My angle. Now I am answering from the angle of those affected persons by ignorance and illusions and I want to uplift those people also towards the spiritual path. I have extended the train of this divine knowledge to the last terminus so that any person can get into this train from any point. Even the worst sinner can get into this train since the starting point is now extended to the extreme terminus.

Realisation of the Absolute Truth Now, let every human being become brave and not be discouraged by any problem. Realisation of the absolute Truth through divine knowledge is the only permanent solution. Doing some exercises of yoga is only a sedative, which does not solve the problem in a 35

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permanent way. Money is also another meaningless problem like sex. Money is needed and is inevitable for the basic biological needs. But too much concentration on the endless earning of money and getting tensions due to it, is meaningless. God provides the necessary money even to atheist. Even a thief in the jail is provided with the basic needs. All right, you can put efforts to that level or a little higher level than that [minimum savings], foreseeing some unexpected needs in the future. But it is meaningless to go intensively into the issues of money (Artha) and sex (Kama) and get tensions and think of even committing suicide! The real aim is lost and the real person to be cared for is forgotten. The side activities are taken as the main activity. The unreal bonds are assumed as real. The useless colleague-souls are felt as useful. These are the real illusions. All these illusions form the illusory world. The physical world consisting of matter and energy is real and infact it is more real than the soul because of the greatness in quantity. Matter, which is the condensed form of energy, is real. The basic energy is real. The awareness, which is a form of energy, is real since it is also basically energy. All these are the basic items, which are real. But the qualities are unreal because they are just waves of the weakest form of energy, which is a very high dilution. Strictly speaking it is real but it can be assumed as unreal by its low quantity due to high dilution as it becomes negligible in its existence. Strictly speaking nothing is unreal. Even the space is a form of energy and thus vacuum is also energy and is ‘something’. You are thinking that vacuum is ‘nothing’ (Akasam gaganam shunyam), which is indicated by the word ‘shunyam’. There is nothing such as ‘nothing’. The electromagnetic spectrum is infinite and you have waves of even shorter wavelength than cosmic rays. You could grasp only up to cosmic rays. Even though the entire world is made of the same energy, different properties of matter arise due to the different quantitative arrangements of drops of energy called as subatomic particles. This is the explanation given by science, which is correct. Such properties are unreal in the view of God like the qualities of awareness are unreal in view of the soul. But the properties of matter are not unreal for the soul. The different properties of matter and energy are like different feelings for God. As you go into deeper levels of this nature (Prakriti), the super arrangement (Maya) is revealed but cannot be grasped beyond some level of depth (Mayam tu prakritim—Gita). Only divine liberated souls can understand the Maya at the deeper level 36

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compared to the ordinary human beings (Mayametam taranti te). But a still deeper level or deepest level exists because Maya is endless (Mama maaya duratyayaa—Gita).

Participation in Swami’s Mission [Reply to a devotee from U.K., who approached Swami through Anil Antony, Mumbai. You have asked Me how to participate in this mission of the Lord.] The answer is very very simple. Think that the Lord is your son and that He is involved in this work of propagation of this divine knowledge on earth. Your son (God) has given out this knowledge and wants to spread the knowledge. What will you do? Will you not yourself plan and implement his mission? Your participation in this mission starts even from the application of your mind to this program. The plan will lead to the execution of the program. You will sacrifice your mind, intelligence, words, work and your money for the sake of your son. Just replace the Lord by your son. You will understand everything. Before sacrificing your hard earned money (fruit of work), which is called ‘karmaphala tyaga’ in the Gita, you must plan well. You can co-ordinate with Dr. Nikhil, who is the President of the mission started for this purpose in Florida (USA). Do whatever is possible for you, thinking that this is the work of your son, who is also the son of God and who has come down for this divine purpose. Every devotee is independent by himself or herself and mutual discussion is the better way of planning. Every devotee should feel that he is the leader of the work and should take the help of other devotees. When a group of monkeys went to the south, to search for Sita, Angada was the leader of the group. Jambavan was the co-ordinating leader. Hanuman did not have any position in the group (Jambavan yatra Neta Syat, Angadascha —Valmiki). But all the work was done by Hanuman, who received the reward of the post of the future Brahma from the Lord. It is the work that is judged by the Lord. Jesus preached to His disciples to go and spread the knowledge. He did not give any guidance to them other than this order. The urge in devotees [to serve] gets divine guidance spontaneously as one proceeds in the work. The guidance will come from the Lord at every step of the work. Simply spending all the time in planning is of no use. Some planning can be done and sometime can be allotted for it. If you spend 37

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all the time and energy in only planning, then no time and energy will be left over for implementation. Such a theoretical fellow will not achieve any fruit (Deergha Suti Vinasyati). Only work without any preplanning and only planning without any work are both extremes [to be avoided]. Both theory and practical work are important. Sacrifice is the only path to get the grace of the Lord. But, sacrifice of what [brings grace of Lord]? Sacrifice of everything is stated in the Gita (Sarvakarma phalatyagam…). Everything means anything that is required in the particular context [requirement] and it does not mean blind sacrifice of everything. Planning decides the requirement. Sacrifice of that particular item required in the context of implementation of the plans, is true sacrifice. If you just keep the Lord as your son, you will understand everything, because the love for one’s child is the strongest among all the worldly bonds. For the sake of your child, you will sacrifice anything, without aspiring for any fruit in return. God created this bond in the world to preach to you practically regarding the bond that you should have with the Lord. It is a simile created by God for preaching to you practically. There are some devotees in Christianity and Hinduism, who actually sacrificed their sons for the sake of Lord, when tested. This means that the bond with the Lord should be greater than the bond with your child. Atleast, give equal importance to God, if not more. When Hanuman was going to search for Sita, Rama did not give Him any guidance. Hanuman faced several problems on the way but all were solved by the intelligence of Hanuman, which was associated by the grace of the Lord. At this point, sacrifice of intelligence is needed. Hanuman did not simply pray “O Lord, this is your work. Please solve this problem.” Your intelligence should also get the fortune of participation in the divine service. Do you advise your son “whenever you get some problem, pray God, it will be solved”? When your son comes to you with a problem, you apply your intelligence to solve it. Do you just start praying to God as soon as you hear his problem? The Lord wants to see the extent of your sacrifice in the mission. When you have sacrificed all your efforts by all your means, the Lord is pleased and gives guidance at that point, since the success in the work is not important for Him. He can finish the work in a fraction of a second. Finishing of the work is not important for Him, since it takes no time for Him. He gives all the importance to the sacrifice of your efforts using all 38

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your means, which is a proof of your real love towards Him. God can excuse all the sins of devotees without Jesus. What is the use of His cruel crucifixion? It shows the sacrifice of Jesus for God, which will be an example for other devotees in the spiritual path. You should not expect any help from God even in the last moment. Jesus sacrificed everything irrespective of any help from God even in the last moment of crucifixion. Jesus died in the propagation of the right knowledge of God and it appears that He was not supported by God even in the last moment of crucifixion. In one way, the work of Jesus failed at that moment and it was a victory for the priests. Therefore, the work is not important for God, because, it got completed later on. The concentration of God was on the sacrifice of Jesus for the sake of God and not on the success of work at that moment. The faith of Jesus did not shake even in the last moment of crucifixion and He was working for the divine mission irrespective of its momentary success or failure. The war of Kurukshetra was the work of the Lord, which was destroying the evil forces. But still the Lord told Arjuna to fight and try to do the divine work irrespective of success or defeat. He showed both possibilities [possible outcomes] at the end of the war (Hato vaa—Gita). For the Lord, the completion of work is not at all important. The work is only the blank answer sheet supplied to you in order to examine the answer that you write on the paper. The work of the Lord is only a basis to test your sacrifice. Success or failure of the divine work is not at all important for God. If you conclude everything with the crucifixion of Jesus, it is a tragedy showing the failure of divine work at that moment. Atleast for the eyes of Jesus [before He died], the divine mission failed, as He was mocked by the soldiers there. But in course of time, the divine mission was completed with tremendous success. Therefore, do not bother about the success or failure of this mission, today. When Jesus was alive, the propagation of His mission was very negligible and infact, it failed at that time. But Jesus never deviated from His path and never doubted the knowledge of God. Generally, as long as the human incarnation is alive, the propagation will be very slow, due to the egoism and jealousy of the majority of human beings towards a living co-human form. The appreciation will come out like an ocean if the human form goes away from the eyesight. Only a few blessed souls appreciate and participate in the work of the 39

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Lord, while the human form exists before their eyes. Such blessed souls are not ordinary human beings and their special behaviour is attributed to their inward stage. They are liberated souls who accompanied the Lord and therefore their recognition of the Lord will be exceptional. They are the angels of the Lord that accompanied Him. Egoism and jealousy cannot touch their eyes even for a moment. Even in your personal work, you should not bother about the fruit. You should concentrate only on the work (Karmanyeva adhikaraste— Gita). The runners-up also get a prize along with the winners. You are congratulated for playing the game well and not for the success or failure, which is by chance. Even if you put hectic efforts, sometimes, the work gives a negative result due the cycle of deeds or due to the will of God which is otherwise. If Rama wished, Ravana would be turned into ash and Sita would be by His side in a fraction of a second. Rama did not do like that, since the aim of Rama was not to get Sita but to see the dedication and devotion of Hanuman and Lakshmana. Similarly, Bharata was tested by the sudden twist given to the role of his mother. Even in the last minute of hectic torture of crucifixion, Jesus did not change His mind and faith and finally cried that He was submitting His soul in the hands of God. He sacrificed His life for the work of God and He was never worried about the final result of the work. The aim of Rama was not to get back Sita, because he left her within a short time later. His aim was different.

Essence of Divine Knowledge The essence of My divine knowledge is condensed into a Sanskrit verse by Me as: Avateernanaro Brahma, Margah Karma phalaarpanam, Jivah Srushti Kanah Srustih, Mithyaa tasyaiva naatmanah. The human incarnation is God for human beings. The path to please Him is only sacrifice of work and fruit of work in His divine mission. The soul is an iota of the creation. The creation is almost unreal (Mithya) for God alone and not for the soul. Propagate this verse as the essence of all My theory. All the divine knowledge is only the elaboration of this divine verse and the 40

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clarification of doubts arising on this theory. I shall be pleased and bless you all if you propagate this knowledge, whether you consider Me as the human incarnation or a devotee of God. In both ways, My blessings are useful to all of you.

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Chapter - 2

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT SWAMI O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [December 17, 2006] Several devotees ask Me about the truth of truth regarding Me and they are always bothered about others only and not about themselves. I do not know how many of you can digest the truth of truth regarding Me in this minute. O.K. Let Me tell you the absolute truth regarding Myself. Did you hear about God Dattatreya? He is the energetic form into which the God (Parabrahman) entered. What is the difference between Him and Vishnu or Shiva or Brahma, who are also energetic forms of God? The external energetic form of God Dattatreya reveals the full information about God, which is that God is the creator, ruler and destroyer of this entire creation. Ofcourse, the same God is in Brahma or Vishnu or Shiva. But their external energetic forms reveal the partial duties of God separately, which may mislead the devotees to think that God is a multiple unit of three Gods together as a group. To remove this misunderstanding, the energetic form of God Dattatreya appeared before sage Atri and Anasuya. Then only the confusion was removed. Then only the sage became really Atri. The word Atri means not three but one. This is the speciality of Lord Dattatreya from the point of the external form but not from the internal God. Datta means “[God] given to the souls for worship”. The unimaginable God can never be worshipped directly because none can even imagine about Him. Such unimaginable God (Parabrahman) is given to devotees who are anxious to see, worship, touch, talk, live along with Him and get the spiritual guidance, which is the most important for the soul. The God is always given to the devotees through the same medium and form in which the devotee exists. The medium is energetic human form for the souls in energetic forms in the upper world. The energetic form has the same human form because the soul after death attains energetic human form only. For a devotee in human form on this earth, He is given through the materialized human form only. This is the best suitability. The speciality of God Dattatreya is that

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God has taken up the most important work of spiritual guidance as Sadguru and hence, is called as Guru Datta. Such God Dattatreya (energetic form) entered the womb of My mother and occupied this human body and soul for the main purpose of establishing the true spiritual knowledge to give the right direction for believers, scholars and devotees on this earth. He came to this earth several times for this main purpose and this is not a new program. But this time, the program has its speciality that the preaching of spiritual knowledge is done to the top most intellectuals, who have reached the climax of analysis through well-advanced logic called science. The preaching is always according to the level of audience. Hence, the speciality of this program is due to you only.

About Datta Swami (Swami) Therefore, the necessity of the human incarnation of God Dattatreya is very much needed now. At the same time, there was a need for the entry of Lord Dattatreya in a house in a village in Andhra Pradesh. The name of the village is Nagulavaram and the owner of the house was Shri Koteshwara Shastry, who was a great devotee of Shri Rama. He was having three sons and three daughters. The entire family is very strongly devoted to God. They spend almost the entire day in the worship and songs of God only. All his sons and daughters were married. Two relatives called as Shri Brahmaiah Shastry and Shri Buchaiah Shastry were in the village, who were the incarnations of demons. They were exceptionally talented in doing black magic. If they become angry with any person, that person dies within one day! They killed about hundred people and about three hundred children in the village. When they walk in the streets of village, people used to run into the houses and bolt the doors. They were paternal cousins of Kosteshwra Shastry and were very jealous about him since he was very much respected in the entire village for his devotion and character. Koteshwara Shastry was living on agriculture and earned about sixty acres of land by hard work and was having a big establishment of cows, bulls etc. He was the richest in the village and was treated as the head of the village. All this kindled jealousy in their hearts. The second son of Shri Koteshwara Shastry is Shri Veerabhadra Shastry and this human body is his son. All the sons of Koteshwara Shastry got married and got sons. The two demons were killing the sons and seven sons in that joint 43

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family were finished. An emergency arose in his house and all the persons in the house worshipped various forms of God day and night to save their lives. The problems are the real friends, which alone can take you to the climax of devotion. The two demons challenged in the village that the dynasty of Koteshwara Shastry has to stop there and no son can be saved by any way. The villagers were prepared to kill those two demons but Shri Koteshwara Shastry stopped them advising that devotees must have patience and wait for the will of God to take place. He was always chanting the name of Shri Rama and when he died, he was counting the name of Rama with his fingers. All the family members cried for the grace of God. In that emergent situation, God Dattatreya wanted to enter the house and save it from the demons. He can do it just by His will but He wanted to do it directly and simultaneously give fame to the family by taking birth in it. My mother Smt. Hanumayamma was seeing often in dreams various deities in various temples with constantly ringing bells. Almost all the deities were seen by her in the dreams in every night. This indicates that Lord Datta is in her womb. All the deities are the incarnations of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva only. Datta is considered to be the asylum for thirtythree crores of deities. When she gave birth to the 8th son, on the same day, the two demons died. One died in accident and the other died with blood vomiting. Their deaths were very cruel. One of My aunts and the villagers called the boy (Myself) as Venugopala Krishna Murthy. One of their descendents called as Shri Narasimha Shastry also knew this black magic. But he was not so cruel. This boy (Myself) started pouring down poetry in Sanskrit spontaneously and Narasimha Shastry was fond of Me. Infact, on one Sun-eclipse day, he took Me to the water tank and asked Me to take bath. Then he gave the hymn (Mantra) of the black magic to Me. After two years, he wanted to kill somebody through the same black magic. But the mantra failed in spite of intensive concentration. Then he told Me “The mantra fails only in the temple if uttered. Why it failed after giving to you?” I replied like this “This human body is a moving temple and the soul in this body is God. Hence, your mantra will not work any more”. I was just 10 years old. Thus, the black magic was removed fully from that village. Thus, this secondary purpose was also there for the visit of Datta to this earth. God is always a double-edged sword. Destruction of evil forces is done along with the uplift of devotees. The intensity of the devotion was 44

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excellent in that house due to that event. All My childhood went with lot of mischief like stealing butter etc., which suited to the name. Every day My aunt was facing reports from villagers, who tolerated Me due to their respect to that family. One day My father, vexed with My mischief started teaching Me Sanskrit in order to develop samskara in Me. He taught eight verses in the epic called Raghuvamsa. There was no necessity to teach the ninth verse. My age was 8 years and I was the 8th child, who learnt Sanskrit language by 8 verses! All the Vedas, Shastras and the divine knowledge entered My head spontaneously and I started telling poetry in Sanskrit spontaneously. The village was full of Sanskrit scholars. They were feeling difficulty in understanding the extempore Sanskrit verses composed by Me. I was the author of more than 100 Sanskrit books on philosophy by 16th year of age. Due to this unimaginable knowledge, My father feared that some Brahma Rakshasa (A Brahmin scholar after death) entered Me and [so he] was doing lot of worship of Hanuman to expel the ghost from Me! But the ghost is the most powerful form of Lord Datta (Datta is famous to exist in the form of a ghost also called as Pisacharupa) and Hanuman is His beloved servant only. My father became a famous astrologer since he studied Astrology intensively in the pressing situation of the black magic. He wanted to teach Me Astrology. Then I showed a book written by Me which is a commentary on “Jaimini Sutra” in Sanskrit on Astrology. He was surprised to see My interpretations in Astrology, which is nothing but the study of computerized information of the cycle of deeds and their fruits (Karma Chakra) based on the constitution of God. It only gives the information of the file in the coded language and the codes are the nine planets, which are the forms of the three qualities that govern the deeds of souls. Sun and Mars are Rajas, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are Tamas, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus are Sattvam. The twelve zodiates (Bhavas) are the channels of various strong feelings (Samskaras). For example, the seventh Bhava is about the behaviour towards wife or husband. If Tamas-planets are strong on this Bhava, he or she will have only lust. If Rajas [planets are strong], working together for fame exists. If Sattvam [planets are strong], cooperation in spiritual effort exists. Like this it is only a file of information of the Samskaras of the soul in various aspects of life. No change is possible without the will of God. The remedies suggested by the astrologers are only for their earning like the rituals performed by the priests. The real spirit of 45

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Astrology and rituals is twisted and polluted by these astrologers and priests for their lively hood. It is a joint business of both these cults. Through Astrology, when you know the attack of the results of your previous bad deeds, Jaimini suggests the worship of the relevant deities who are also the different forms of God based on the three qualities. Through these worships, you are expected to realize the one God present in the deities. Thus, Astrology should lead into spiritual knowledge. The nine lights (Jyoti) are the nine planets, which are lit by the original light i.e., is God (Param Jyotih…Veda). Thus, Astrology in its real sense means the spiritual knowledge of God. The followers of Jaimini (Purvamimsa) misunderstood Jaimini as an atheist just like Buddhists misunderstood Buddha. The worship of the concerned deities indicated by Astrology involves the rituals. The tradition is good which aims at God finally. It is twisted, misinterpreted and exploited for selfish earning by Astrologers and priests because the people became selfish to get materialistic benefits and to solve the problems only. This wrong direction can be allowed for sometime in the beginning but should not continue for the whole life because the soul should not fall in the permanent hell.

Some Aspects Of Human Incarnation [December 18, 2006] Datta is called as Unmatta Datta, which means that Datta is mad. The reason for this is that He gives the absolute divine knowledge from His absolute state, which is the absolute reality. In that state, everything except Him is relatively real including the souls. In this state, He is called as Nirguna Datta, which means that He is in the state of absolute reality without any relative reality. The entire creation including the souls is a relative reality only and is just His imagination or quality or feeling (Guna) only. The guna is a property, which is not independent and depends on its substratum (Guni) only. Such substratum is God or Parabrahman, who is far from imagination. The knowledge radiating from that state is absolute truth, which cannot be digested by human beings, who are in the lowest layer called as Maya. Therefore, Datta looks like a mad fellow, whose statements are beyond the normal digestion. Shri Rama Krishna Parama Hamsa was going to Panchavati for meditation and was in that top state. A newly married person told Him that his wife is hindering him form participating in the spiritual discussion (Satsanga). Immediately Parama 46

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Hamsa told him just to divorce his wife. He was shocked. For the plane of normal human beings, such knowledge looks like the statements of a mad person. Infact, the souls are mad of the plane of lower relative reality. For mad people, a wise person is mad relatively.

Effect of Ignorance on Incarnation [Shri Ramanath asked about the effect of ignorance on the human incarnation.] Swami replied: The human incarnation is of two components. One is God like radiating sun of knowledge and the other is the soul like the black cloud of ignorance. The Sun is covered by the cloud and [Sun and cloud] are very close to each other (Sayuja sakhaya…Veda). Due to cloud, Sun becomes dim. Due to Sun, the cloud becomes bright. Now both the sun and cloud are in equilibrium state of equal intensity. Both have become one unit since, both are in the equal state of brightness or darkness. The total brightness of this single unit is 99% and total darkness is 1%. Hence, the human incarnation also falls into the grip of a trace of ignorance for a fraction of second. Krishna became angry to kill Bhishma, who is His own devotee, but His anger was just for a moment only and He did not kill Bhishma. Jesus was praying God for a minute to prevent the crucification but immediately He was prepared for it. The dimness of Sun or the brightness of the cloud is only relatively real. In absolute reality, the Sun in the dim Sun is 100% bright and the cloud in the bright cloud is 100% dark. Therefore, really God is not affected by ignorance. Only in the plane of relative reality, the dim Sun or relative Sun is dim. Since, the dim Sun or human incarnation (God in soul) is in this world only, which is relative plane, the dim Sun can only suit and not the absolute Sun. The cloud is the human being (soul, subtle body and gross body) and is the cover or Upadhi for God to enter this world. This human being in which, God exists is called as son of God by Jesus and God is called as the Father of heaven. Both are so close that we can treat both as one and the same. The dim Sun and bright cloud are one and the same in the intensity of light as well as darkness. This is the meaning of the statement of Jesus “I and My father are one and the same”. Thus, in the relative plane (world) only, both are one and the same but in absolute plane, God is God and soul is soul simultaneously. People have taken this statement in absolute plane and mistook Jesus. Fearing for the fate of Jesus, Mohammad told that Father can never 47

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become son. This is true in the absolute plane, which is simultaneously true even in the relative plane. The absolute plane maintains its reality in both the planes. The relative plane maintains its reality only in the relative plane. Therefore, in the relative plane both absolute reality (Advaita) and relative reality (Dvaita) co-exist and are true simultaneously. You must be careful to note that Advaita (dim Sun and bright cloud are one and the same) is true in the relative plane (Vyavahara Dasha), whereas Dvaita (even in the dim Sun, Sun is totally bright and even in the bright cloud, cloud is totally dark) is true in the absolute plane (Paramartha Dasha). But the confused Advaitin, states Advaita in absolute pane. One devotee possessed by God Datta saw Me and told “You are My representative in this world”. Then I asked for the vision of God Datta. The devotee laughed loudly for a long time and told, “How can you see yourself? If you are fond of seeing yourself, take a mirror and see in it”. If you analyze this, both Advaita and Dvaita are present here. The representative cannot be the original (Dvaita). When I have to see Datta as Myself in the mirror, I am one and the same with Him (Advaita). Both are simultaneously true in this world as explained above. Another devotee possessed by God Datta told, “I am Dattatreya”. Then I asked, “Then who am I?” The devotee told thrice “Myself and Yourself are one and the same”. Here Dvaita is seen in the first two statements. Advaita is seen in the third statement.

Ashrama of Swami [Shri Ramanath asked about Swami’s Ashram as householder (Gruhastha) instead of bachelor (Brahmachari) because generally Datta appears as bachelor.] Swami replied: Rama with one wife and Krishna with several wives are householders and they are incarnations of Datta. Datta means God given in the same medium of devotees to such devotees. For human devotees God is in human form. Then Rama and Krishna are Datta (given) only. Sages asked Datta about the Ashram of Datta because He was having red robe (Sanyasa) and was also having cross belt (Brahmachari or Gruhastha due to His wife Anagha). Datta replied that He is beyond all the four Ashramas i.e., Turiya Ashrama. The Ashrama is like a color of the human being existing on the skin. The Ashrama for a human incarnation is like the color of the shirt. You cannot be half 48

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black and half red in the body but the color of your shirt can be half black and half red. You have no color and you are beyond the color of the shirt. Therefore, the human being is having the three qualities and four Ashramas. But the human incarnation is beyond all these in the view of absolute reality. The sun is 100% bright in the dim sun and there is no increase or decrease in His brightness. The sun is beyond darkness of the cloud, which is his external cover. But a human being is like a far dark cloud without sun or with little sunlight. Based on the various intensities of the sunlight (Knowledge) the clouds may have classification of Ashramas, gunas, caste etc. In the cloud, which is very close to sun, there is no classification of intensities of light because such a cloud is most bright. [Smt Padma Ram asked whether to see the past human incarnation like Sai Baba in Swami or vise-versa.] Swami replied: In the state of theoretical devotion any view is right, since there is no difference between drinking two different drinks in a dream. The point is whether your devotion is theoretical (Songs, Meditation etc.,) or practical (Service). The practical devotion is possible only in the case of the present alive human incarnation. When you sprinkle rose water on the shirt of a present alive person, the person receives and enjoys your service. The shirt is the human body and the person is God in present alive human incarnation. The past human incarnation existing as a statue or photo is like a photo of the nonexisting past shirt of the same person. You will not sprinkle the rose water on even the existing shirt if the person is absent in it and not to speak of a non-existing shirt seen in a photo. If you sprinkle rose water on a photo in which a person who is away in a foreign country, it is also virtually the same. Similarly the service to a photo of Vishnu existing in the upper world is as good as the service to a photo of Rama who existed in the past. Krishna asked Arjuna to surrender to Him only (Maamekam…Gita). Here Maam (Him) means the human incarnation. The word Ekam (only) means the present alive one existing before the eyes of Arjuna. It means Krishna, who was the contemporary human incarnation. Direct service to God is possible only in the case of present human incarnation. God sees the useful talent existing in you for His service and selects you. An employer also does the same and is not worried about the other defects. The employer pays the salary for the service done 49

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using a particular required talent. Similarly, God rewards you for the service done by using your specific talent. God is not bothered about your other defects and will not interfere in your cycle of deeds. If you do not aspire the reward and feel that the service of God itself is a reward, the case is totally different. When you do the service with such rewardless attitude, God takes the entire responsibility of your self and if necessary He may sacrifice Himself for your sake in the cycle of deeds. [Several devotees asked Swami about the behavior of Swami as an ordinary soul many a times. They asked Swami about the possible interest of God to play in roles of ignorance.] Swami replied: The interest of God to have entertainment to play the role of ignorance is only a minor point. This point is always associated with a major point of God taking the role of ignorant soul for guiding the ignorant souls through the practical path. If an ignorant soul sees another ignorant soul reaching the goal through the spiritual path, certainly it will be a standing as a practical example of inspiration. God plays such a role and inspires other similar souls in a practical path. This is the actual major aspect of His program to act in different ignorant roles. Incidentally the entertainment is also done so that you cannot blame Him as a bad person, who enjoys a bad role. Rama went after the golden deer just to satisfy His beloved wife, even though Lakshmana was opposing it. He faced a big tragedy due to that mistake of blind love on His wife and not listening to a learned advice. It is a role of total ignorance. But, the Lord gives message to such ignorant souls. When such good purpose is served, what is the harm of His entertainment in such ignorant role, which is inevitable in preaching of practical spiritual knowledge? In the case of a really ignorant soul, only the blind entertainment exists without such noble cause. Similarly, if you analyze the life of this Swami, you can clearly find such noble cause of practical demonstration of the spiritual knowledge emitted from Him. His life is His message of the spiritual knowledge preached by Him. Infact, it is a double role of human incarnation in some scenes and a devotee in some other scenes. Swami is a combined form of Rama and Anjaneya [Hanuman], playing both the roles separately in related scenes of requirement since He is very ambitious to have double remuneration! Perhaps, the external dress is one and the same causing confusion for both the roles, but you can distinguish both the roles by the 50

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corresponding dialogues and actions as in the case of a rehearsal of a drama. In a complete incarnation, this is inevitable.

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Chapter - 3

TRUE LOVE AND SERVICE Proof of Real Love Indians and foreigners [This is a discourse given by Swami in Mumbai. Swami sent four copies of Shri Datta Vani Spiritual Magazine to four foreign countries. Two of the recipients were Indians and two were foreigners. The two foreigners replied immediately and also extended support. The two Indians did not even acknowledge.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Why is there such a difference in attitude among Indians and foreigners? For Indians, their family bonds are very strong. Even if they have earned enough money to last for ten generations they will be working to save for eleventh generation. Foreigners send away even their own children (first generation) from the home to earn and live on their own after a certain age. The family bonds of foreigners are weak. Therefore they are easily able to sacrifice money for the spiritual service of the Lord. Money is the fruit of work. The Bhagavad Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of the fruit of work. The Bible also says ‘Wherever your money lies, there your heart lies’. Money is the fire-test. Indians sacrifice words (prayers) and mind (devotion and meditation). The Lord gave good language, devotion and knowledge to Indians, which are related to words and mind only. Indians will not sacrifice money and so the Lord gave poverty to India. Swami Vivekananda looked to the sky and wept asking, ‘Why is my country suffering with poverty in spite of so much spiritual knowledge?’ When Swami Ramatirtha was giving spiritual discourses in USA, some Americans asked a question ‘Why are Indians so poor inspite of so much spiritual knowledge?’ Swami Ramatirtha replied ‘Our Indians preach philosophy. Foreigners practice the philosophy’. This is the reason for our poverty and your wealth. Foreigners do not pray or meditate as much as Indians do, but they sacrifice the fruit (money) of their work. Therefore the Lord blessed 52

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foreign countries with immense wealth. Indians cannot sacrifice money due to their strong love for their family bonds. Indians, unable to do this sacrifice of their family bonds, misinterpreted the word ‘fruit of work’ (Karma Phala). They said that work means praying with words and meditating with the mind. However, these eyes cannot see the fruits of such work. Therefore they sacrifice such (invisible) fruits to the Lord by offering the prayers and meditation along with a ritualistic spoonful of water. The Lord is very very intelligent. He gave them the fruits for their sacrifice of words and mind. The fruits are good language, good devotion and knowledge, which are related to words, mind and intelligence. The Lord approaches you in the same way as you approach Him, as said in the Gita (Ye Yatha maam Prapadyante). If you praise Him with words, He will also praise you with words. If you love Him with your mind, He will also love you with His mind. If you serve Him practically, He will also give you the fruit of your service practically. Service means both sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. Foreigners earn, enjoy and sacrifice for the work of the Lord. Indians earn and do not even enjoy. They simply store all their earnings for their future generations. Ofcourse enjoyment should also be limited. If enjoyment is excessive, more diseases will attack you. So, nature itself controls over-enjoyment. The Veda says in the first Upanishad and in the first hymn itself ‘This whole world is the wealth of the Lord. Take whatever is required for your limited enjoyment. Ofcourse earn more than what you require but don’t store it. If you store, you are a thief and you will be punished’. The second hymn says ‘Earn continuously and always work. You have to store for your limited enjoyment but the rest should be sacrificed for the work of the Lord. Sacrifice the fruit of the work, but not the work (do not quit working)’. The Gita also emphasizes the same concept everywhere. It too does not agree with giving up work and becoming lazy. The Gita always preached work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. If you want the real grace of the Lord, you must also love the Lord really. You love your children truly. You do sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) for them by bathing, dressing, taking them to school etc. You also sacrifice the fruit of your work for them by giving food, medicines and finally your property (Karma Phala Tyaga) to them. Both Karma Sanyasa and 53

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Karma Phala tyaga put together are called ‘Karma Yoga’ (service). Therefore you are serving your children without aspiring for any result in return. Even if they do not serve you back, you are still serving them. This is real love. To understand this, there is no need of the Veda, Gita, or the Bible, which are spoken by the Lord. This world itself is a sacred scripture spoken by the Lord. You can get all the spiritual knowledge from this world. Scientists learn science from this world itself. Similarly you can learn spiritual knowledge also from this world. Your children are preaching to you about the real love that is to be shown to the Lord. Avadhoota Datta preached to King Yadu and told him about 24 preachers (models that can illustrate a spiritual concept) available in the world such as a tree, a river etc. Thus the two proofs for true love are only the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work as seen in the case of your children. You are not doing these two in the case of the Lord. Other than these two, you do all the other things for the Lord like chanting, meditation, praying, Yoga etc., All these are related to words, mind and intelligence only. You are not doing all these things for your children. If all these were the proof of real love, why are you not doing these things for your children, whom you love truly? Why don’t you chant the name of your child? Why don’t you meditate upon your child? Why don’t you write a diary on your child and study it every day as you study the scriptures like the Bhagavatam or Bible? Why don’t you write a will sacrificing the fruits of all these ‘works’ to your children? Why don’t you write a will sacrificing all your property for the work of the Lord instead? When these questions are put, any scholar or devotee will run away; especially by the last question! You yourself have separated the ways of loving the Lord and loving your children. Why don’t you reverse your ways of loving the two? Loving God atleast as much as your child Kannappa roamed in the forest and hunted. Finally in the evening he got some flesh and offered it to the Lord. He neither ate nor gave it to his family. He never chanted hymns, never meditated upon the Lord, never read the scriptures and never wore any sacred dress. He broke the bonds with his family and even with his own body for the sake of the Lord. He even plucked out his eyes for the sake of the Lord and got salvation. 54

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Shaktuprastha could not get food for ten days during a drought. Somehow he managed to get a little rice flour and cooked it. He was just getting ready to eat it with his family. But the Lord came in the form of a guest to his home and Saktuprastha sacrificed the entire food, which is the fruit of his work, to God. That sacrifice was not only a complete sacrifice but it was also the sacrifice of the fruit of his hard work. The Veda says that money should be sacrificed for the sake of the Lord’s mission (Dhanena Tyagenaike, Tyaktena…Kasyasvit Dhanam). The Veda used the word ‘money’, which may even mean the ancestral property also. But the Gita used the word ‘fruit of work’ which means ‘self-earned money’. The bond with self-earned money is very intense. Therefore the Gita gave the strongest concept. But Indians misinterpreted the meaning of ‘work’ as the work done by words and mind because they are unable to sacrifice their money, whether ancestral or self-earned. Therefore to avoid such misinterpretations every verse of Gita should be referred back to the Veda. The Gita is the essence of Vedas. All the Vedas are cows and the Gita is their milk. The milk must be in the cow and the cow is not in the milk. Therefore every verse in the Gita must have a reference in the Veda. The juice is in the sugarcane but the sugarcane is not in the juice. This means that you should reject even a verse in the Gita if it cannot be traced back to the Veda, because the Lord could not have told such a verse. Some other scholar might have written that verse and inserted it in the Gita. Only the Veda was protected by the system of recitation and nobody could insert even a single word into the Veda. I sincerely thank all those great Indian sages, who protected the Veda in those days when there was no printing, and thereby protected the truth. But today there is no need of the recitation of the Veda because it is printed and even computerized. The Shastra (scriptures) says there are four authorities to get knowledge. 1) Veda (Shruti) 2) Verses or scriptures which follow the Veda (Smruti) 3) Yukti (reasoning) 4) Anubhava (Experience in the world). The fourth authority is very strong, and it gives validity to the other three. If the fourth is valid, everybody in the world has to accept it. The authority for the proof of true love is from the experience in the 55

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world. You are sacrificing work and the fruit of your work to your children whom you really love. Therefore these two are indeed the way of real love. Hence this concept gets the final validity from the experience in the world. Based on the validity of this concept, your real love for God also can be proved only by sacrificing work and the fruit of work for Him. You are trying to fool the Lord by practicing other false ways without practicing these two real ways. Remember that the Lord is the genius and knows everything. Just look at the sky. If you see the infinite number of galaxies, which are created by Him and with which He is playing, you will understand His intelligence and capacity. What is your foolish intelligence before Him? You chant His name so many millions of times. Did He ever reply to you by uttering a single word? When you call a person by his name, he responds to you immediately. But such a great Lord, who has all the good manners, is not responding to you in spite of your millions of calls. Can’t you understand by this, how angry He is with you and how much He hates you? He does not need your love. You can go on with your limited family and rotate in this wheel of world. Who has objected to it? The Lord never asked you to love Him. You yourself went to the Lord and wanted all the benefits from the Lord in this world and in the upperworld. But you want to achieve those benefits by showing false love. You are trying to deceive Him and get those benefits. If you go to any one and try to deceive Him, will he not be angry with you? If you simply go your way, nobody interferes with you. You limit to yourself and to your family, face the final enquiry in the upper-world and quietly accept the corresponding results; the Lord is not bothered about you. But you are after the Lord trying to get His grace without showing even a drop of true love. You show all that true love only to your children. You want to sacrifice only words and mental feelings to the Lord and want all the benefits from Him. By such cheating you are making the Lord furious. If you really desire for His real grace, then you should show a little of the true love that you show for your children; by sacrificing a little work and a little fruit of your work. In such a case, the Lord will be on the same level as your children atleast to a little extent; though not completely equal. You show atleast a drop of your true love for the Lord. You put atleast one step on the true path. What is the use of hundred steps in the false path? What is the use of your throwing 56

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infinite number of feasts for Me in a dream? You give Me a handful of rice when you wake up from the sleep. That is sufficient. The first step on the true path will lead you to the true goal in course of time. The first step on the true path is that, you should atleast accept your false ways as false and accept the true way, which I preach as the truth. Acceptance is the first step, which will gradually lead to practice. You want wealth in response to your words (prayers) from the Lord. When the same Lord comes as a preacher, He wants wealth (Guru Dakshina) from you for His words (preaching). You started this way (of expecting money in return for worlds) previously but now you are not following the same. Your words given to God were only flattering the Lord. The wealth given by the Lord to you was also temporary which you have to leave here itself. You were not benefited in that relationship of Lord and devotee. But now in the way of preacher and disciple, you are benefited because by giving Him your temporary wealth, you are receiving His words, which will lead you to the permanent goal. In the first relationship, both your words and the wealth given by Him are temporary. But in the second relationship you are getting a permanent goal in exchange for your temporary wealth. Therefore you are being wise only in the second relationship. Do not ask for temporary benefits like wealth from the Lord but ask for the permanent knowledge. See the Lord as a preacher and not as God. The right half of Lord Datta is preacher (Guru) and the left half is God (Bhagavan). The right half is always greater than the left half.

Service to Whom? The Veda and the Gita preach to you about the sacrifice of the extra fruit of work to the Lord and ask you to always keep working. But where is this Lord? How is He? If you do not understand these questions, you may give the wealth of one person to another person, which is sin. Even if you are giving money to statues in the temples or in worship, the money is not reaching the Lord. Mere human beings are taking that money. Some are earning and some are wasting that money. Therefore, the Veda says that you should sacrifice the fruit of your work only after intense analysis (Samvida Deyam). You are putting your money in the Hundi (a donation box kept before the statue). The statue is not taking that money. The devotees are taking that money when you leave the temple. They are spending that money. The statue is not telling 57

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them how to utilize that money in a fruitful way. The devotees are human beings and do not have the complete knowledge like the Lord. The Bible says that a servant can never become equal to his master and a disciple can never become equal to his preacher. The priests are taking your money that you donated in the worship. The managing committee of the temple (devotees) is taking your money that you donated in the temple. There is no life in the statue as per the experience of the world, which is the strongest authority. It is also against logic and your mere belief cannot be taken as the authority. The Veda says that the Lord is not present in any inert object (Natasya Pratima Asti, Nedam tat, Yadida mupasate). One can only meditate upon inert objects as representatives of the Lord. But one need not do any service to them. One can meditate upon the sun as a representative of the Lord. Neither is the Lord in the sun nor is the sun the Lord (Adityam Brahmeti, Bhishodeti Suryah, Natatra Suryah, and Neti Neti). The representative is like the finger, which points to an object. Once you see the object, there is no need of looking at the finger. You must only look at the object. The sun is a representative of the Lord because the Lord removes ignorance by His knowledge as the sun removes darkness by its light. Once you recognize such a sun-like Lord there is no need of the sun. This is the reason why a saint (monk) does not worship the sun (Sandhya Vandanam), which a student and householder are supposed to do. But the representative is required for the sake of other ignorant people. The statues and pictures of the Lord are in human form and they indicate that the Lord comes in human form. The priest in the temple the temple performs a ceremony of ‘life initiation’ (Prana Pratista) in the temple statues, indicating that the Lord is in human form in the present human generation (inert statue with life initiation represents a living human form). The Lord comes in the human form in every human generation. Otherwise He becomes partial in case He comes only in one generation. Now the human form of the statue does not represent that every human being is the Lord. If so, the statue should have been of a general human form. However, the statue is of a particular human form (of a past human incarnation or divine forms) such as Rama, Krishna etc. This indicates that a particular human being only is the Lord. If you are serving a statue by the sixteen modes of worship (Shodasa Upacharas), you will be reborn as a stone as per the Gita (Bhutejya yaanti Bhutani). If you worship the human form of God, you will get human rebirth (Yanti Mat Yaajinopimam). The Gita 58

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said that the Lord comes only in the human form. It did not mention any other form in which the Lord comes. The first three great sentences (Maha Vakyas) of the Veda say that the Lord is like me, you and him, in external appearance. The fourth great sentence says that the internal form of the Lord is the special knowledge (Prajnanam), which is impossible for any other human being. This is called as the preaching (understanding) of four sentences (Mahavakya Bodha). Shankara said that the eligibility for such preaching is the purity of the mind, which means the lack of two qualities: 1) Lack of jealousy (Anasuya) 2) Lack of egoism (Atri). Only such people (Anasuya and Atri) can achieve the Lord. The achieved Lord is called Datta. ‘Datta’ means ‘achieved’. The three faces of Datta (human form of God achieved by the people) represent the three qualities called Satvam, Rajas and Tamas. All the good qualities represent Satvam and the bad qualities represent Rajas and Tamas. The Lord is beyond these three qualities. He is wearing the shirt, which has the three colors of qualities. He is not having any color. But the ordinary human being (soul) is the three-colored shirt itself. This is clearly mentioned in the Gita (Gunaateetah Sa Uchyate, Nanyam Gunebhyah Kartaram). These three qualities are the Maya. This Maya is the external human form, which is common between an ordinary human and the human incarnation of God. The internal form of the human incarnation is of knowledge (Janna), Bliss (Ananda) and Love (Prema). It contains all the super powers as said in the Veda (Satyam Jnanam, Anandam Brahma, Raso Vaisah and Satya Sankalpah). The incarnation is thus a mixture of the internal Lord and the external human body. The Lord and the human body are inseparable in the human incarnation, like the electric current from a live metal wire. Therefore such a special human being is considered as identical with the Lord. This is the Advaita of Shankara. But the disciples of Shankara misinterpreted this and thought that every human being is the Lord. Then Shankara swallowed molten lead and proved that He alone was the Lord. If everybody were Lord, then who would need to do all this spiritual effort? Who would need salvation? The Lord said that He would throw the bad souls into hell (Tanaham Dvishatah—Gita). If every soul were the Lord, then it would mean that the Lord would throw Himself into hell! In Bible Jesus Christ 59

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was referred to as ‘Emmanuel’ meaning the Lord who has come to live along with the human beings on the earth. Therefore the Lord comes down to the earth in human form to give the fortune of vision, touch, conversation and living with Him, and finally to preach to all human beings. The statue is inert but you force the Lord to come into the statue and hear your prayer. When He is in the human body, He can talk and hear your prayer and this is not against the rules of nature. Why should the Lord use His super power to hear your prayer through statues? Anybody who hears can talk. Since the statue is not talking, it is also not hearing. When there is a river for bathing, will a sage create a lake separately for his bath? If he were to create such a lake by his super powers, we would say that he has misused his super power and that he is an egoistic fool. Now you are forcing the Lord to enter the statue to hear you. One fellow (who was supposedly a great yogi) crossed the river by walking on the water, using his super power, for which he had done penance for thirty years. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa crossed the same river by paying one rupee to the boatman. Shri Paramahamsa told that yogi that his penance for thirty years was worth only one rupee. When His purpose can be served following the rules of the nature, the Lord will not use His special super powers and violate the rules of nature. Whatever you donate to the statue, thinking that there is life in the statue, is actually taken by the devotees (priests or temple committee members) who are behind that statue. The Lord in human form will never take your money in that way. He will directly ask for your donation (Guru Dakshina) like Shri Shirdi Sai Baba. The devotees cannot ask you like Him. As soon as you leave the temple they take out the money from the Hundi (donation box) and they use the money for different temple activities. The part of the money that is used for doing social service is misused. Avoid Godless social service Only the money, which is paid by citizens in the form of tax to the government, should be used for social service. The money of the Lord should be used in the propagation of devotion and divine knowledge. For example, with the donation money collected in the temple, the temple management may distribute free food to every devotee who comes there. Several rich people are present among the devotees, who 60

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do not require your free food. Some sinners are also eating that food and are doing sins again. Both donating to the sinners and not donating to the deserving people are sins according to Sage Vyasa in the Mahabharata. The managing devotees are getting such sin according to scripture (Karta Kaarayita Chaiva). It is a sin to be a manager in the temple as said by a dog in the court of Lord Rama. It is better to give food to poor children, poor old people, poor disabled people and poor diseased persons and to construct homes for beggars. But you must teach them the spiritual knowledge and devotion. Otherwise, God will be furious with you. The beggar is undergoing punishment from the Lord for his past sins. The punishment is meant for his change. If you help him, you are interfering with the administration of the Lord. Therefore, you must change the heart of the beggar by preaching spiritual knowledge. Only then will the Lord be pleased with you. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has told that one should not directly enter into social service for the sake of egoistic fame, without the association of the Lord in human form. Therefore, you must join the work of the Lord as a servant. Let the Lord get fame by your money and your work. All your money belongs to the Lord. The Lord gives you all your energy. You must participate in His service with complete surrender. Here the social service is not important. The Lord can uplift the society without any help from you. Your faith and your complete surrender alone bring you His grace. You cannot get His grace by your sacrifice or by your service. Through your sacrifice and service He is testing your faith and surrender. One devotee was applying expensive perfumes to Jesus. A disciple of Jesus told her that it is better to sell that perfume and use the money to serve the beggars. Then Jesus told him ‘Let her do this service to Me. The beggars will always be present but I will not be present here always’. What is the meaning of this? The Lord is more important than even social service. Social service is only the means to express your faith. The disciple of Jesus spoke like that because he was jealous of the Lord and not because he was kind to the beggars. If you donate anything to a statue it is a waste. If you donate to an undeserving person, it is a sin. If you donate to a poor beggar it is good because the beggar is incapable of doing any sin at present. He is punished for his previous sins. Therefore a beggar is better than a bad person. If you donate to a bad person you will get sin because you have 61

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fed milk to a serpent (you will have a hand in the crimes that he commits). When you help the beggar, don’t forget to preach him divine knowledge. All people, whether rich or poor are eligible for the divine knowledge. In the propagation of the divine knowledge, only poor people should be helped financially. In a college, classes are important and are meant for all the students. The hostel facility is for those students who come from out-of-town (it is need-based). There is no use of allowing the hostel facility to a person who is not a student. Therefore help the poor while teaching them divine knowledge and devotion. The Lord in human form is the best and most eligible person for your service. When He is not available, you can serve a devotee of the Lord. The place and time are not important for donation. If a deserving person is available, such a place is Varanasi and such a day is Maha Shivaratri. Such sacrifice alone can give you the real fruit. [By tradition, donations are supposed to be given at the appropriate place such as the holy city of Varanasi and at an appropriate time such as the holy day of Maha Shivaratri]

Recognizing the Human Incarnation When the Lord comes in human form, you have to recognize Him and serve Him. Even if you do not serve Him, atleast do not insult Him. Generally people insult the Lord in human form because of jealousy and egoism. To avoid this, try to love all your fellow human beings. This is called ‘Pravritti’ (righteous worldly living). By this, you will atleast not insult the Lord in human form. Rama preached Pravritti. Serving the Lord in human form is called Nivritti. Krishna preached Nivritti. The aim of Pravritti is only for reaching Nivritti eventually. Without this purpose, simply following Pravritti, which is social service without God, is a waste. You are accepting the statue prepared by a human being, but you hate the human being indicated by the statue. The human being is only a statue prepared by the Lord. The identity signs to recognize the human incarnation are knowledge (Jnana), love (Rasa) and bliss (Ananda). These three are the characteristic marks (qualities) of the Lord like the heat of fire. The Veda says the same (Satyam-Jnanam, Raso vai saha, Anando Brahma). These three signs are associated with sacrifice (Datta) because Datta means donation or sacrifice. Therefore knowledge means that He preaches the knowledge. Love means that He generates love in your hearts. Bliss means that He 62

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generates bliss in your hearts. If you go near the fire, you will experience heat. Similarly you must experience the knowledge, love and bliss from the human incarnation. If you do not experience, He does not possess these three characteristic signs and therefore He is a false incarnation. The Veda says that He possesses special knowledge, which is impossible for any other human being (Prajnanam Brahma). Such a special knowledge generates love for Him in our hearts and we are filled with bliss. The associated sign of the Lord is His super power, which does miracles as said in Veda (Satya Kamah). He may reveal the super power as Lord Krishna did or He may hide it as Lord Rama did. Even if He uses the super power, He will not use it for exhibition or for attracting people due to egoism. He uses the super power only when there is an emergency. Shankara entered the house of Mandana Mishra by using His super power because the doors were not opened in spite of His several calls. But Mandana Mishra did not give any importance to that super power. He became Shankara’s disciple only after hearing the divine knowledge of Shankara, which created love and bliss in his heart after a debate, which went on for twenty-one days. Mandana Mishra’s own knowledge did not give fill his heart with bliss although Mandana Mishra was a great scholar himself. Therefore, a scholar whose knowledge cannot give you bliss is not the Lord. A scholar is also not associated with the super power. A demon is always associated with super powers. But He is not associated with knowledge, love and bliss. Thus one can easily eliminate the false incarnations. The knowledge of the Lord is always full of quotations from the Vedas, Shastras and the Gita because He is the author of the Vedas and the Gita. The Gita says that the Shastra is the authority (Tasmat Sastram Pramaanam Te). The first three great sentences of the Vedas, (Maha Vakyas) indicate the similarity of Lord Krishna (Lord in human form) with the three human beings (I, you and he, respectively). It is just like showing three roses and saying that the girl is similar to the three roses. The fourth great sentence gives the actual difference between the rose and the girl to avoid the misunderstanding that the rose is the girl. The fourth great sentence says that Lord Krishna possesses the special knowledge (Prajnanam) which is not possessed by any other human being. Pure awareness (Chaitanyam) is never meant by the word Jnana or Prajnana. Nobody says that a living animal or bird (which is aware) is a

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Jnani or Prajnani. Jnani means a scholar and not every human being. Prajnani means the Lord whose knowledge is beyond even the scholars.

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Chapter - 4

DATTA CUTS ILLUSORY BONDS Lord and Real Love [Dattam Chhinnam: This is a discourse given by Swami at Bombay.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, When you see your son, your love for him flows spontaneously. Do you love him because he is serving you? No. Even if he beats you, you love him and you give your property only to him. But, what is about God? You love Him only because He removes your difficulties and gives you some benefits. If He keeps silent inspite of your prayers, you will remove His picture from your altar and put another picture there (another deity). If He gives you troubles in response to your prayers, you will even destroy His picture! But, you love your son, whether he serves you or not, and even if he troubles you.

Operation by the Good Doctor People often say that if we worship Lord Datta (the Lord in human form), He gives troubles to us. Yes, it is true. But, if you know what is really happening, you will jump and fall at the feet of Lord Datta. Do you know what is He actually doing? He drags all the results that you were going to receive in the future, to the present. Then He undergoes 90% of those punishments on His human body. You have to receive only 10% of the results of your sins. Since you have committed the sins in the past, you have to undergo atleast a little of it; it is only minimum justice. You are paying only 10% now while 100% of your sins are getting cleared. Thus your future life is cleared of all results of sins and remains full of happiness. The pain of the operation performed by the doctor is temporary and you are going to enjoy a happy life in the future since the disease is fully cured. “Dattam Chhinnam” means “Datta cuts”. What does this mean? It means that He operates upon you and removes your sins completely. He clears all your future debts. He pays 90% and makes you pay only 10%. 65

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However, you do not understand this and take the 10% paid by you as a loss given to you by Lord Datta. To clear this misunderstanding, you may think, “Why does Datta not clearly reveal the facts?” But no; He will not reveal this secret. If He were to reveal it, everyone would naturally love Him and such a love is not true love. If someone benefits you and therefore you love him, it is but natural. But if someone is troubling you and you are still able to love him, then that is real love; e.g. the love shown by you for your troublesome son. So, Lord Datta appears as if He is troubling you. Although He is really helping you, He hides this fact. This is called “The Test of Datta (Datta Pariksha)”. A doctor comes with a knife to cut open your stomach and remove your ulcer. Do you mistake him to be a murderer? Lord Datta will not reveal the truth to you so that He can see whether you have real confidence in Him or not. Your faith and love for Him must be to such a level that you should think, “Even if He murders me, I will gladly die, because how sweet it is to die at His hands!” Bhishma thought similarly, when Lord Datta in the form of Krishna, rushed towards him to kill him in the battle of Mahabharata. So, worship Lord Datta, even if He gives troubles, because, they will give you permanent happiness like the operation done by a doctor. Like a doctor, Lord Datta, always sees your welfare only.

Meaning of Guru [Guru Pournima July 22, 2005] The word Guru means Removal of Ignorance, which is like darkness. The letter ‘Gu’ indicates ‘darkness’ and the letter ‘Ru’ indicates its removal. This darkness is not in a physical sense, which can be removed by sunlight. Some people worship the sun as Guru. But it is not correct because the sun is only an inert globe and can only remove the physical darkness. Removal of darkness by the sun is the best simile or an example or a representative model of the concept. You should not think that the model itself is the concept. The concept is removal of ignorance by the Lord who comes in the form of a spiritual preacher called as ‘Sadguru’. When you are in a state of unawareness of a concept, such a state is called as ignorance (Ajnana). Now when you are aware of the concept, the knowledge (Jnana) has come to you. Any Guru (preacher) can remove ignorance and can give the knowledge of a concept. But only Sadguru, who is the Lord in human form, can show the correct concept by discrimination 66

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and logical analysis (Vijnana). This correct concept is the final conclusion (Prajnana). Therefore, Guru is one who gives Jnana by removing Ajnana. Suppose you are ignorant of the knowledge of physics. The Guru removes your ignorance by giving the knowledge of physics. This knowledge of physics is Jnana, which can be called as Bhowtika Shastra Jnana. Like this there are several forms of knowledge, which are related to this world and all these forms can be called as knowledge. Therefore, you can call your physics teacher also as your Guru. The knowledge of this world can give you food, money and comforts in this world. But this knowledge cannot save you after death, which you will fully realize in the last minutes of your life. The knowledge, which can save you forever, is the best knowledge and that is called as ‘Prajnana’. The suffix ‘Pra’ means best. This Prajnana is the divine knowledge and is also called as ‘Brahma Jnana’. In the name of Prajnana again there are several wrong and misleading concepts. You have to separate them. In Prajnana again there are several steps and you should not sit on the lower step thinking that it is the final step. The true spiritual knowledge must be filtered from all the impurities and the various steps in the pure spiritual knowledge should also be realized. All this is possible only by the logical analysis (Yukti), which does not contradict the experience of realized souls (Anubhava) and which follows the word of God (Veda) and its following texts written by the sages (Smriti). All this process is called Vijnana and the final conclusions are called Prajnana. Vijnana and Prajnana are possible only with the help of Sadguru. Knowledge, love and bliss are the qualities of awareness. Wherever these three are present, awareness must be present. But the reverse is not true. Wherever the awareness is present these three need not exist. Wherever a gold chain is present, gold must exist there. But wherever gold exists, the chain need not exist there. Therefore, you should not call mere awareness as the Lord (Brahman) because an animal having mere awareness need not have these three qualities. Even all men do not have these qualities. Only the Lord in human form has these three qualities, which are infinitely intensive [in infinite intensity].

Three divine Preachers in Hinduism Today we should remember the three divine spiritual preachers, who are Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. Sage Vyasa is like Brahman 67

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where as these three preachers are like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The three-faced Datta represents Sage Vyasa with the faces of these three spiritual preachers. Infact Vyasa is Datta because He is given in human form to this world from whom the ocean of Vijnana flowed, and gave the divine nectar (Prajnana), on being churning by these three preachers. The basic tortoise, the golden hill (Meru) and the king of serpents (Adishesha) are the churning instruments. The hill is Shankara, the serpent is Ramanuja and the tortoise is Madhva. [This refers to the mythological story of the churning of the Milk Ocean by the gods and demons, where the tortoise was the pivot, Hill Meru was the stirrer, and the Snake Vasuki was the belt that was pulled to and fro to churn the ocean. The Divine Nectar, Amritam, was one of products of the churning process]. Today we are remembering Vyasa with the faces of these three preachers means that we are remembering Lord Datta with the faces of the three divine forms. Datta is Brahman. Madhva is Brahma. Ramanuja is Vishnu. Shankara is Shiva. Shankara preached the knowledge of self. Self is pure awareness. Self is the common item in all living beings. This self is called as the casual body. Thus in this world-drama all roles are basically just actors or souls. In every role, the actor is present. Similarly in every living being the soul is present. This relationship between souls is the relationship between co-actors that existed before the drama and will exist even after the drama. This co-actor relationship or the relationship between souls is real compared to the relationships between external subtle and gross bodies. The subtle body is made of feelings, which are like actions and dialogues in the drama. The gross bodies are like the external dresses. Both the subtle bodies and gross bodies are unreal compared to the casual body. Again between the gross bodies and subtle bodies, the subtle bodies are more realistic because even after the drama one may carry on the feelings and dialogues to his home; but not the dress. Similarly the gross body is left over here [at the time of death] and the subtle body goes out. Some scholars are able to destroy this subtle body also and remain as souls. Once you get rid of the illusion of the gross and subtle bodies, and remain only as a soul, justice can be established in this world. The relationship between the dress-roles or gross bodies is in terms of family bonds, relation bonds, caste bonds, nationality bonds and religion bonds. If one realizes all living beings are only co-actors (souls), all the above 68

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bonds vanish physically and mentally. The physical bond disappears when the gross body is destroyed here. But the mental bond continues with the soul and that is destroyed when the subtle body is destroyed. Thus realization of these false bonds and realisation of the only true bond in this world, which is the bond between souls as co-actors is selfknowledge established by Shankara. When the family bonds disappear, one will not torture or kill another person for wealth to be earned for his family members. The bond with this physical body is the bond with the external dress in the drama. When one realizes the blind attraction to his body and to his family members, corruption will disappear in this world. Valmiki was a robber in the forest and would rob the wealth of travelers. One day sage Narada came and asked him whether his family members would share his sin. Valmiki went and asked his family members about this point. They refused to share his sin. Infact even if they had agreed to share, the sin cannot be shared according to the rules of Karma, because Valmiki was doing the sin based on his blind attraction towards them. They never asked him to do the sin in order to provide them with comforts. No family asks anybody to do this. Therefore, this spiritual knowledge alone can transform people and corruption can be permanently removed. Fear ofcourts and police in this world, can never control sin because people very easily find alternative ways [of avoiding getting caught by the police]. Fear of hell is also unable to control sin because the blind attraction is more powerful than the fear. The only way to remove this blind attraction and eradicate sin from this world is to divert that very blind attraction towards God. When the attraction is fixed on the Lord and the reality of family bonds is known, the sin is controlled. Similarly, the attraction to one’s nation in terms of devotion to the motherland is again a false bond. This entire earth belongs to the Lord. Different sons are living in different rooms according to their convenience and the whole house belongs to the father. If this truth is realized, wars between countries for the sake of national boundaries will disappear. For the foolishness of the leader of a country, several human lives are lost in a war. Human life is very precious because human life is meant for spiritual realisation and this realisation must stop even suicides. Similarly, the bonds with one’s religion are leading to genocides and if you realise the concept of one God and the concept of souls as co69

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actors, all this also looks false and foolish. The realisation of the producer and the director of the drama who is the Lord and the employer of all the actors is called as the knowledge of the Lord (Brahma Jnana). When self-realisation (Atma Jnana) is achieved, the excess blind attractions are atleast controlled, leading to the establishment of the justice in this world. This is called as Pravritti and God is pleased with you for this. But inspite of doing so, you are still an outsider because you have not entered Nivritti, which is his inner circle. But still the Lord is pleased with you though you are in Pravritti.

Entry into Inner Circle of God Nivritti means the introduction of producer and director of the drama who has also entered into the drama in a role. When you shift the attraction from the family and other bonds towards the Lord, you are entering into inner circle or Nivritti. The reduction of the excessive strength of the bond in Pravritti is achieved by self-realisation (Atma Jnana). When the bond disappears completely, it is Brahma Jnana or Realisation of the Lord or Nivritti. Shankara propagated self-realisation and thus established justice in the world. Self-realisation is very easy because the self is present in every human being. There is no difficulty in searching the Self, whereas there is a lot of difficulty in searching the Lord in human form (Brahma Jnana). There is no risk in the search of the self because you are sure to reach the self within your body. It is like searching money present in your own house. But in the search of the Lord in human form in this world, you may be misled and you cannot be sure that you will catch the human incarnation. Jealousy and egoism will not come in the way of reaching the self but these two are obstructions in the way of identifying the human incarnation. Ramanuja established the Brahma Jnana by introducing Lord Vishnu as God and Lord Krishna and Rama as His human incarnations. Ramanuja established devotion that is necessary for Nivritti, where as Shankara established justice in Pravritti. After reaching the goal in Nivritti, the duty of the devotee is to do service to the Lord without aspiring for anything in return. Madhva established this service. Nivritti means cutting all the worldly bonds and having the strongest bond with the Lord. This is like getting cent per cent in the examination. Pravritti is to reduce the extra strength of the worldly bonds so that justice is established in Pravritti and thus the Lord is 70

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pleased. You may be pleased with an outsider and you may be pleased with your wife. But there is a huge difference between the two. The same difference is there when the Lord is pleased with you in Pravritti, when you follow justice by reducing the extra strength of worldly bonds and when the Lord is pleased with you in Nivritti when you cut all the worldly bonds for the sake of the Lord. Everybody has equal possibility to reach Nivritti even though only one person in millions and that too in one birth out of millions of births, can reach Nivritti. Only one can get the gold medal in the class but every student can try since there is an equal possibility to achieve it. Therefore Nivritti must be explained to all as final goal. Let everybody try for Nivritti so that they will atleast succeed in Pravritti. If everybody tries for the gold medal by getting cent per cent, atleast everybody will pass. If you teach only Pravritti and keep it as the goal, then everybody fails. If you keep 40 per cent (passing marks) as the goal, every student will fail. If you try to completely destroy the worldly bonds and try to have only one bond with the Lord, atleast you will reduce the strength of worldly bonds and you have atleast a thin bond with the Lord. This is the passing mark. The scriptures of Jainism and Buddhism preach only ethical rules and living for justice without mentioning the name of God. In this level the only fear that one has in doing sins is from courts and the police. He tries to escape punishment from the courts and the police by bribery and thus he fails to succeed in Pravritti. Since there is no mention of God, there is no question of pleasing God.

Major Religious Scriptures If you see the scripture of Islam, it mentions God (Allah) and eternal hell. Atleast the fear of hell controls the sins. But the blind attraction for the worldly bonds is so intense that it overcomes this fear too, and so people continue to do sins. If you see scriptures of the Bible and the Gita, Nivritti is exposed very well. Bible says that you have to hate all these worldly bonds for the sake of Lord. The Gita emphasises the attraction towards the Lord. When the attraction to these worldly bonds is shifted to Lord, only then will the establishment of justice in Pravritti be completely achieved. The policy of communism believes in distributing the accumulated wealth of some rich people equally to all. But this is not a permanent solution. The blind attraction of the rich man 71

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towards the worldly bonds is not removed. Then the rich man will feel discouraged and stop his talented work, which will reduce the production of wealth which takes place by way of business and industries. If the rich man by the realization of the unreal nature of his family bonds distributes his own wealth to all, then the solution is permanent. The rich man will continue his talented work in producing more wealth. Therefore propagation of spiritual knowledge will certainly establish justice on this earth and selfishness and corruption will be removed from their roots. Communism cannot achieve this because selfishness and corruption will hide and find new ways to escape the attack from communism. Communism is one extreme end of ignorance and capitalism is another extreme end of ignorance. Socialism, which is in between, is also based on the same ignorance even though it is the middle path. These three policies are only temporary emotional attacks since none of them analyze the root of ignorance. Spiritual knowledge of Nivritti will remove the ignorance completely from its the root and establish eternal justice on this earth. Ofcourse, a very few can enter the inner circle of the Lord and also succeed in Nivritti.

Circles of Illusion You are a drop of pure awareness, which is called as the soul or casual body. Your immediate surrounding limiting circle is the subtle body, which is made of the qualities or feelings of mind. The next circle is the gross body constituted by the five elements. You are neither the gross body nor the subtle body. You are the casual body, which is the soul. Thus withdrawing yourself from these two circles is called as selfanalysis. Thus the word ‘I’ which you utter itself is under illusion. Next comes the circle of your family members. From this circle the word ‘my’ starts which is also under illusion. The next circle is your relatives followed by that of your caste. The next circle is your nation and the last circle is your religion. From family to religion, the five circles are associated with the word ‘my’. In all these five circles, the word ‘my’ is under illusion as you can find by deep analysis. These seven circles are the seven hells or the seven lower worlds. If you introduce the devotees in these seven circles, who are theists belonging to any family, caste, nation or religion, then the same seven lower worlds become the seven upper worlds. 72

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Now you are in the biggest single circle of the earth, which belongs only to the Creator. Now you see every living being is a small spot of pure awareness moving on this earth without any limitation. All the souls are equally related to you and you neither hate nor love any soul and you will not kill any living being for your food and this is the main point of Jainism and Buddhism. This is the climax of the Pravritti or justice. You will not think that the mind or the external gross body is yourself and you will not think that only some spots of awareness are your family members, relatives, people of your caste, your countrymen or your co-religious followers. If this is achieved by this spiritual knowledge, you are now in the world of Universal Spirituality. Ofcourse, you can have discrimination between people who help you as your friends and who harm you as your enemies. A marginal minimum attraction and repulsion exists, which is justified but an excess of blind attraction and an excess of violent hatred vanish, which are responsible for all the sins and injustice in this world. Arjuna was under the influence of these blind seven circles. For him his grandfather was very close to him whereas a king of another kingdom was an outsider. When his brother Dharmaraja performed the Rajasuya sacrifice, Arjuna went out to fight with neighboring kings to bring their wealth, which was injustice. He even killed the kings [when they opposed him] while doing this injustice because he felt that they were outsiders. But when he had to fight with his grandfather who was supporting injustice, he was fighting on the side of justice. But the blind attraction towards his grandfather prevented him from fighting for justice. The Lord removed all these circles for him and showed all the human beings as simple dots of pure awareness, which are equally related to each other as co-actors. To remove these circles, the Lord started with Sankhya Yoga or Jnana Yoga, which is the divine spiritual knowledge based on logical analysis. After hearing the Gita, every human being in the world appeared as a minute spot of awareness or soul to Arjuna, which is equally related [to him and each other]. Pravritti and Nivritti are quite opposite because in Pravritti there is a tendency of communism destroying capitalism. In Nivritti, it is vice versa. In Pravritti, you treat the whole society consisting of several living beings with equality and without any partiality. In this field, the concentration on one spot like one’s family is diluted and spread over the entire world. In Nivritti, you withdraw your attraction from the 73

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entire society as well and concentrate it at a single point, namely, the Human Incarnation. You should not find fault with Nivritti for diverting from communism to capitalism again. The capitalism in Nivritti is entirely different from the capitalism in Pravritti. In Pravritti there is no human incarnation and everybody is only an ordinary human being. But in Nivritti, there is only one human incarnation like Rama on whom you have to concentrate completely as Hanuman did. Some people cancel [disregard] Nivritti and end in Pravritti itself as the final step. They say that every human being is the Lord and so service to the society is service to the Lord. Shankara condemned this line of thinking, which is called as Loka Sevaka Matam. Shankara objected to every human being called as the Lord. Atleast this point will open the eyes of His followers. Let them realise that Shankara did not agree that every human being is the Lord.

Aham Brahmasmi or Dasoham? There are two words used and one has to carefully analyse the meanings of these two words. The two words are Brahman and Ishwara. Brahman means ‘greatest’ and Ishwara means the ‘Controller’. In the entire creation, the soul or life energy is the greatest. Even scientists are unable to synthesise the life energy from matter or from inert energy. Therefore, the soul is the greatest out of all the items of creation. Therefore, the soul is Brahman or the greatest among the created items, but the soul cannot be called as Ishwara because it cannot control even the internal organs like heart, kidneys etc. present in its own gross body. Therefore soul is Brahman but not Ishwara. The soul is the greatest in the creation as long as the creator does not enter the creation as a human incarnation. Once the Creator enters, He becomes greater than the ‘greatest’ soul. Then the Creator is the greatest, and not the soul. A student is the best in the classroom as the 1st rank holder, but when a lecturer enters the classroom, the student is not the best and the lecturer becomes the best, because the lecturer alone is able to control the class and not the best student. A sheep may be become the president of association of sheep. But when the lion enters, the lion is the only president since the lion alone can control all the sheep. Therefore once the Lord in human form enters the world, He is greater than the greatest soul and therefore, He alone should be called as both Brahman and Ishwara. 74

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The human incarnation is always present in every human generation. Therefore, strictly speaking, no soul should claim to be Brahman at any time because the Lord always exists in this world in human form in every generation. There may be a chance that one may not recognise human incarnation and therefore, may claim to be Brahman, but he should never claim to be Ishwara. When Shankara’s students uttered “Aham Brahma Asmi” (I am Brahman), Shankara tolerated it. Then Shankara said “Shivo’ham (I am Ishwara)”. The disciples also said “Shivo’ham”. Then Shankara swallowed molten lead and showed His controlling power. The disciples could not do so. Then Shankara declared “Shivah Kevalo’ham” (Only I am Shiva or Ishwara). The simple argument of Advaita scholars is that the Lord wished to create this world. Life or pure awareness is essential to have a wish. Therefore, the Lord must be awareness. The same awareness is present in every human being. Every human being also wishes just like the Lord created this world by His wish; the world is thus the Lord’s imagination. Similarly the human being can also create its own imaginary world. But there is lot of difference between a hill present in this real world, which is the imagination of the Lord, and the hill present in the imaginary world of the human being. If the same awareness is present in the Lord and the human being, both the hills should not have any difference. Since the two hills are totally different, there is total difference between the awareness of the Lord and the awareness in the human being. Infact the Lord gave the faculty of imagination to the human being so that he will understand the process of imagination of the Lord in creating the world. But this foolish human being extends model to the concept and thinks that the model itself is the concept. A model or example cannot be the original concept. Therefore you have to withdraw the attraction or the bond not only from the seven external circles, but also from yourself, because you are thinking that you are the Lord and you are attracted towards yourself. Thus finally this self-bond which is also an illusion should be broken and the total attraction should be shifted towards the external Super Soul or the Lord. Are you greater than Hanuman in any angle? Did He not know “Aham Brahmasmi?” Are you a greater scholar than Hanuman, who always said “Daso’ham”, which means that He is the servant of Rama, who is the human incarnation of that time? If you put these questions to yourself, your illusion of the self-bond also disappears. 75

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When you have identified the human form of the Lord, all your logical analysis must be closed. Till you reach the goal, you must be very alert in your intelligence. Otherwise you will miss the path, which has a single narrow direction. But once you reach the city, you need not be alert and you can roam in any direction and you will not leave the city. Thus after achieving the goal, logic should be stopped and blind faith should exist. Thus blind faith has its own value in its proper place. The Lord will test your faith to see whether it is blind or still alert with logic. The Lord will show a lot of Maya [deceptive power; negative qualities] in this angle. The Lord will appear selfish so that He will tempt you to criticize the Lord. When Sita was kidnapped, Rama told Lakshmana that He would destroy the entire world. Rama had come to this world to kill Ravana and bring welfare to the world. But now He wanted to destroy this world just for the sake of His blind attraction towards His wife! He tested Lakshmana since Lakshmana was the Lord’s closest associate known as Adishesha. But Lakshmana never misunderstood the Lord. The logic in his statement cannot be understood by our limited minds, since the background is not known, Sita was the incarnation of Shri Mahalakshmi, who is the best devotee. The Lord meant that all the souls in the entire creation are not equal to that best devotee [when He said that He would destroy the whole world for Sita]. Since this background is not known we will misunderstand Rama and doubt Him. The human incarnation can be recognised by His Special Divine Knowledge, His intense love, His infinite Bliss and His unimaginable super powers. All these four are like the four Vedas to recognise the Lord. The Rigveda represents knowledge. The Yajurveda, which describes sacrifice, represents love. The Samveda, which is song, represents Bliss. The Atharvana Veda, which represents super natural weapons, represents the Lord’s super powers. All these four are inseparable and are a single Veda. That single Veda is the dog that is running before Datta, who is the human incarnation given to this world as Sadguru. The full moon today represents this full and complete human incarnation. The full moon also represents the full faith of the mind by which alone He is retained after recognition.

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Chapter - 5

REPULSION BETWEEN COMMON MEDIA O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Swami’s Birthday Message February 24, 2007] Identification of the contemporary human incarnation and selfless service to Him is the total essence of the entire spiritual knowledge. The starting point is the direct atheist or the scientist (an indirect atheist) misled by ambition and is a follower of Advaita. Whenever the Veda uses the word Atman in the context of God, it means only the particular individual soul, which is charged by God and is called as human incarnation. When it is said in the Veda that space was generated by the soul, the word soul means the human being charged by God like Krishna, who came as the human incarnation. Krishna says that He is the source of the entire creation and the first item of this creation is space, which is the first of the five fundamental elements. The Gita clearly says that God comes in the form of a human being (Manushiim…). But the serious objection to the human incarnation is that if there were only one human incarnation like Krishna, only one human generation would be blessed [to be in contact with Him] and therefore God must be partial. To avoid this blame, Krishna said that He would come again and again (Yadayadahi…). But the same human body of Krishna is not seen again and again. This means that God is beyond the human body and hence God is beyond this entire creation. God takes a fresh human body every time, just like the soul. The human body is only a shirt, which can be changed often (Vasamsi...Gita). Unfortunately, human beings, due to the repulsion between common items, neglect God in the human body. Human beings do not recognize God existing in a particular human body and treat that particular human body as only an ordinary human being (Parambhavamajananto…Gita). As long as the human incarnation is alive, no human being recognizes Him; but people recognize Him after His exit. Krishna said that a human being recognizing Him as God is very rare (Kashchitmaam…, Samahaatma Sudurlabhah…Gita). But, today most 77

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of us recognize Krishna as God. In that case how did Krishna say this? Is the Gita not universal and applicable to all times? A simple analysis of this point shows that Krishna said this in view of the negligence shown to Him by the human beings living during His lifetime. Hence this statement means that many do not recognize the living human incarnation and several recognize Him only after His exit. This statement also clearly proves that Krishna was speaking about the human incarnation (Himself) existing in His time alone (contemporary human incarnation) and this does not refer to a single human incarnation generalized for all the times [such as the physical body of Jesus or Krishna]. If Krishna were the single human incarnation generalized to all times, this statement becomes wrong because later on several human beings worshiped Krishna. The recognition of Krishna as God was and is present during several human generations after Him (a long span of time) and only during a short span of time (Krishna’s life time) was Krishna not recognized as God by most people, as per this statement. [Thus, the statement in the Gita would be true only for a very short period of time and false the rest of the time.] This means that there is no single human incarnation generalized to all times.

Salvation of Sage Nara Krishna said that He knew all the births of Arjuna. Arjuna was Sage Nara who was associated with Sage Narayana. Sage Narayana was a human form charged by God. But due to the repulsion between the common media of human bodies and the resultant ego and jealousy, Sage Nara could not fully recognize Sage Narayana and Sage Nara treated Sage Narayana as only his friend (Sakhya Bhakti). The same attitude continued when Narayana became Krishna and Nara became Arjuna. Arjuna worshipped Lord Shiva through penance to get the divine weapon called Pashupata Astram to win the war but he did not have full confidence in Krishna since he was treating Krishna only as a human being having some limited divine powers. In those days, having such divine powers was not a big thing since even Arjuna had several divine weapons, which contained miraculous super powers. For such incomplete faith of Arjuna, Krishna told Arjuna that he would not fight with any weapon in the war. It was an indirect hint to Arjuna about his incomplete faith in Him since Arjuna tried for the grace of Lord Shiva when Lord Krishna was already present before his 78

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eyes. Krishna meant that since Arjuna had the divine weapon from Lord Shiva, there was no need for Him to participate in the war. Arjuna could not understand this sense in the statement of Krishna. Arjuna approached Krishna not as a devotee but only as a student, treating Krishna as a human Guru and not as Satguru or God in human form (Shishyah teham…Gita). Further, Arjuna asked Krishna that how Krishna taught Yoga to Sun-god [in the very ancient past] because Krishna was born only recently. Further, he asked for the proof of [Krishna being the Lord, through] the cosmic vision. Even after all this, on the last day of the war he did not get down from the chariot before Krishna got down and this shows the attitude of Arjuna towards Krishna was that of a only a human being. The result of all this incomplete faith was that Arjuna went to heaven for sometime after death and then returned back to earth and was born as a hunter called as Kannappa. He continued with the same worship to Lord Shiva in that birth also. He sacrificed his eyes for the Lord in the test. This shows that he gave full value to God; the only problem was in finding out the correct address of the Lord, due to the repulsion between common media. Then he went to the abode of Lord Shiva and could not worship Shiva there also due to the same repulsion of common media because he was also in the same energetic body as that of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva in meditation gives an impression that He is meditating upon the formless God called Brahman. All the devotees there are again misled by this Maya and neglect Lord Shiva due to the repulsion of common media and meditate upon the formless Brahman alone. These souls neglect the human form of God when they come to earth and worship the energetic form as greater than the human form. But the same souls in the upper world neglect the energetic form of God and meditate upon the formless God thinking that it is greater than the energetic form. Hence, the disease of repulsion of common media is common to both earth and the upper world. Even the souls in the divine energetic bodies called as Devas, are subject to this powerful illusion of neglecting the common form present before their eyes and loving some unavailable form, which is not before their eyes. This is stated in the Veda (Paroksha Priyaa Ivahi Devah Pratyaksha Dvishah). The Veda also says that God is before the eyes of the souls existing either on earth or in the upper world, since God takes the same common form as His 79

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medium (Yat Sakshat Aparokshat Brahma). When divine bodies are not exceptions to this great illusion, what to speak of human beings? Indra neglected even Lord Shiva due to the same principle of repulsion between common energetic bodies and was made to stand still by a single look of Shiva. If that is the case of Indra towards the energetic incarnation [Shiva], what about his attitude towards God in a lower human body like Krishna? Therefore, Arjuna also worshipped formless Brahman in the upper world and his devotion to Shiva subsided completely by this new form of devotion. He was born as Swami Vivekananda on earth with the formless devotion and his next birth will be that of an atheist. A devotee of the formless Brahman is easily trapped by misconceived Advaita and will conclude that the formless Brahman is his own self. Therefore, the next step will only be atheism. But the Lord wanted to save him because the Lord was very much pleased with his basic sacrifice for God in the previous birth. The Lord wanted that this soul should find the proper address of God since the value for God was already present in him to the climax. Therefore Vivekanada was dragged to Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who was a simultaneous human incarnation of God in the time of Sai Baba and Akkalkot Maharaj. Shri Paramahamsa praised him as Lord Narayana in human form. This is the special style of Datta in preaching. When He wants to preach to a fellow who has a large ego, He will reverse the concept to Himself and hence the real meaning of that statement is that Shri Paramahamsa was Lord Narayana in human form. Nobody has understood the real sense of that statement including Narendra. Swami Vivekananda was called as Narandra, which means Nara (Arjuna) who is the son of Indra. He led all his life only as an Advaita philosopher. He treated Paramahamsa only as his master or human guru. The Advaita philosophy can be used to develop confidence and to come out of stress for which God is pleased like a father-doctor seeing his child claiming [pretending] to be a doctor. One can feel that one is God and develop confidence in oneself. Krishna said that Arjuna is Himself i.e., God (Pandavanam Dhanamjayah). This statement aims at building up selfconfidence in Arjuna, which was lost due to tension and grief. One can come out of stress, feeling that this world is unreal and that one is God. But one should not really believe this and practice it. If the child pretending to be a doctor starts performing surgery on a patient, the same father [doctor] will become furious because the life of another 80

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human being is spoiled [in danger]. Moreover, in the case of the Advaita philosopher, he is misleading [putting in danger] several innocent souls, who are also children of the same God. Shri Paramahamsa said that He would open the brain [reveal the truth] of Narendra only in the end because such confidence and stress relief had to be given to the world through Narendra. In the end, Shri Paramahamsa opened the brain of this soul. In the last days, Narendra sat near Him and thought whether his guru was really God. Shri Paramahamsa immediately looked at him and said, “I am the Rama and the Krishna”. Narendra realized that He was the human incarnation and fell at His feet. He became a liberated soul by attaining full salvation from ego and jealousy that arises due to the repulsion between common media.

Removing Repulsion of Common Medium God exists in the same medium as that of the soul for the sake of the soul so that He can preach to the soul and the soul can fully experience and fully serve God with full satisfaction. The soul is present in the human body on this earth and is present in an energetic body in the upper world. Therefore, God exists only in these two media. One is the human form on this earth and the other is the energetic form in the upper world. The soul also enters the births of plants and stones (Sthavara), but there is no need for God to enter such inert media because neither knowledge nor service with satisfaction is possible in such media of plants and stones. Therefore, God does not enter the common medium for the sake of plants and stones. For the same reason God does not enter the bodies of animals and birds also, since knowledge is not possible for them. God may enter the body of an animal like a fish, tortoise etc., just for a very short time to kill some demons or to do some work that is suitable only to such a body. Such forms are not for giving knowledge and receiving the service of the soul. The soul should accept God in the common medium and get guidance and further get the satisfaction of serving God, whether the soul is on earth or in the upper world. For this, the soul should first conquer its ego and jealousy towards the common medium. If the soul misses God in the common medium in this earth, it will also miss God in the common medium in the upper world (Ihachet Avedit…Veda). To remove the repulsion between common media, the soul can serve [other souls present in the] the common media or atleast serve a 81

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statue or picture having the form of the same common medium. For a human being, service to humanity is advised only for this purpose. For this purpose alone is the service to the statues recommended in the form of rituals by which one worships the statues and pictures in temples. The statues are of human forms of energetic bodies from the upper world or of past human incarnations from this world. The whole plan of the entire ancient tradition is excellent, provided you use it for a specified period and then develop further. If you become stagnant, we have to criticize you and reveal the limited purpose of that level so that you will try to go up, realizing the limited value of your present level. School is good, without which the student cannot directly enter college. But if you sit in the school alone, throughout your life, stating that school itself is the final college and university, then we have to show you the right place of the school in the entire educational curriculum. You may misunderstand us and think that we are criticizing the school. But we are not condemning the school; we are only advising you that the school is not the final university. We are fully supporting the entire pattern of the original ancient tradition and we are condemning the twisted concept of treating the school itself as the final university. All the epics describe God in the common medium. The main three epics (Ramayana, Bhagavata and Mahabharata) describe the worship of God in human form done by Hanuman, the Gopikas and the Pandavas respectively. Among the Pandavas, Arjuna is great and you have seen the whole life history of Arjuna. Dharmaraja only went up to temporary heaven because he could sacrifice anything and anybody for the sake of God except justice, by which one can only reach temporary heaven. He refused to tell a lie even though Lord Krishna desired for it. You will come near God by all the sacrifice and all the service that is possible for you to do for God. But you will become dear to God when He asks you to do a particular sacrifice or service and when you can do that sacrifice or service which you cannot do for anybody including God. God knows your single specific weak point, which is the only bond that cannot be sacrificed even for the sake of God and God finally asks you to sacrifice that weak point also, for His sake. Unless the sacrifice and service are total, you cannot become dear to God. The Gopikas sacrificed everything and everyone for the sake of Krishna and God tested finally whether they could even sacrifice the fear for torture in hell for His sake. God asked for the dust of their feet to be applied on 82

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His forehead to remove His headache. If such foot-dust were given to God, severe punishment in hell is certain. Sage Narada stated this clearly. Even Rukmini refused to give her foot-dust fearing the severe treatment in hell. But the Gopikas gave the dust from their feet without fearing hell, for the sake of Krishna. Their sole aim was that Krishna should be happy, for which even going to hell was happiness for them! Bhishma was fighting against justice since he was bound by the word given to his father and mother that he would protect the throne irrespective of justice. He considered his parents to be the highest and he wounded even the Lord. He suffered all the torture that he was to suffer in hell, on earth itself on the bed of arrows, but since he could not sacrifice the word given to parents for the sake of Lord, he only went to Pitruloka [a lower heaven]. Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra went to hell since they could not sacrifice even the justified part of the kingdom to a devotee like Dharmaraja even though the Lord Himself was requesting for it. The only successful devotees were Hanuman and the Gopikas who recognized the contemporary human incarnation and served Him with full sacrifice in all angles. Hanuman and the Gopikas only served the Lord personally. Hanuman did full sacrifice of work for the Lord for His purely personal cause. The Gopikas did full sacrifice of the fruit of work (butter) and sacrificed even traditional justice by dancing with Krishna and all their sacrifice was only for the personal growth of the body and happiness of Krishna. In both these cases, there was no trace of social service for the benefit of other souls. The personal service was totally for the Lord alone and there was no service to society here. This shows the highest devotion in which the goal is only the Lord and not any soul or an aggregate of souls (society). Social service is only service to other souls. In the case of Arjuna, the Lord showed personal service to the Pandavas in getting their kingdom back and social service of establishing justice on the earth. The Lord did not give an opportunity to Arjuna to serve Him personally in His personal issues. In all the wars with demons, which were His personal affairs, Arjuna was not involved and God did His own work. The reason is that Arjuna was not of the highest devotion like Hanuman and the Gopikas. Arjuna would certainly misunderstand the Lord if it were purely the personal service of the Lord, since Arjuna did not have full faith in the Lord.

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Apart from these three epics dealing with the contemporary human incarnation for human beings, the other epics (Puranas) deal with energetic bodies of God in the upper world, which are worshipped by human beings here itself because these humans are hit by ego and jealousy and fail to worship the human incarnation. Even there, the human form of the energetic body represented by a picture or statue gives training to the soul to serve the human form alone and to remove the repulsion towards the human form. Social service to other human beings is also praised here and there in the Gita and this is also a way to remove the repulsion towards other human forms. The three best epics concentrate only on the service to the contemporary human incarnation, revealing the full success of Hanuman and the Gopikas and the partial success of Arjuna. These epics also reveal the fate of the people who hate the human incarnation as in the case of Ravana, Shishupala, Kamsa, Duryodhana etc.

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Chapter - 6

RELEVANCE OF CONTEMPORARY INCARNATION Datta: God Given in Human Form O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Datta Jayanti-I December 1, 2006} Datta Jayanti consists of two words. The first word Datta means given or adopted son, who is not born to the parents who adopt him. Such son is born to some other parents and therefore, he will have the date of birth. The second word Jayanti means the date of birth. In the case of such son or any human being also, the birth refers to the body only and not to the soul. If this is the case of the human being, there is no need to say separately that in the case of incarnation also the God (Parabrahman) takes a body and the birth date belongs to the external body only and not to the internal God. God Datta with three heads and six hands is energetic form in which God exists. Even such form also had birth because, the primary energy (Mula Maya) with which such form is made of, was also created by God and had birth. Such energetic form, which has superpower, was expressed from the womb of Anasuya, which stayed in her womb for nine days only. Such super natural point shows that the body is not materialistic. Even the sage Atri and Anasuya were also energetic forms (Atri is one of the seven sage-stars). The specialty of this energetic form is that it completely describes about the possible information of God. The three heads indicate creation, rule and destruction of the world by God and also represent the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas) in the external body with equal importance. The six hands represent the six modifications of a body. This means that the medium of the God is having all the good and bad qualities in equal proportions and the medium has all its natural properties like birth etc. (Six modifications). For the human beings, God takes the human body, which is materialized from the energy. God takes the energetic form, for the sake of energetic bodies in the upper world and takes human form for the sake of human beings in this world. Thus, God takes the same medium in which the devotees exist. God gives Himself to the devotees through the same common convenient medium. Datta is God given to the 85

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devotees through the same medium and Jayanti is the birth of such form of medium. Datta indicates that the three principle energetic forms called as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are one and the same internally as well as externally. Internally the same God exists. Externally the forms may differ but the primary energy, which is the material, is the same. Same milk exists in three golden pots. The milk is same internally and gold is same externally. Only the forms and names differ. Similarly, in the case of human incarnations, the external bodies are made of the same five elements. The internal God is one and the same. The names and forms of the external bodies differ. The form is unreal in view of the reality of its material. Therefore, the name of such form is also unreal. Names and forms (Nama Rupa) are unreal and are called as Maya, which can be realized by even a wise human being. Similarly, the qualities of various forms of God may differ but the material of the qualities is one and the same, which is the pure awareness (Chit). These qualities (Guna) are also unreal with respect to the reality of the awareness and these also are a part of Maya only. The human being can easily realize the unreal Maya since he is above the plane of Maya. The human body is made of five elements and energy, which are real with respect to the forms. The soul of the human being is made of pure awareness, which is real with respect to the qualities.

Analysis of Human Beings And Human Incarnation The human being, which is made of matter (five elements), energy (light, heat etc.,) and pure awareness, is in the plane of Maha Maya, which is more relatively real than Maya. As far as the forms and qualities (Maya) are concerned, the human body is one and the same for God as well as the human being. Thus, this analysis is common to all the human bodies of souls as well as God. This analysis gives two conclusions. One is that all the human beings are one and the same internally and externally. The second is that all human incarnations are also one and the same internally and externally. The difference between human incarnation and human being is that in the case of the former God exists as the extra fourth item. In both human being and human incarnation, the common items are matter, energy and awareness, which constitute the medium (Prakruti). Matter and energy constitute the Apara Prakruti and awareness is Para Prakruti. Thus, the human being is part of Prakruti or nature or creation only and not the creator. When God 86

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takes the human form the soul (Pure awareness) and the external body (Matter and energy) exist in such human form as in the case of a human being. In the case of human being, the soul becomes the house owner in the absence of God. In the palace of a king, the servant is a slave to the king and he is treated as a part of the inert house. We say that the king alone lives in the palace. It does not mean that the king alone is in the inert house without the servant. In the absence of the king the servant becomes the owner of the house! Therefore, in the human incarnation both God and soul co-exist (Dvaa Suparnaa…Veda). But the soul is as good as the inert body without any freedom and hence becomes a part of the house. For the sake of counting, there are two living beings, which are king and his servant. But for all practical purposes there is only one human being that is king and the second is the inert house which includes the servant. In this sense we say that only the king lives in the palace. In this way, the Lord said in the Gita that God exists in the human body in the case of human incarnation (Manusheem Tanumashritam…). Hence, there is no difference between the Veda and the Gita. You may say that only God is in the human body as per the Gita or you may say that God and soul co-exist in the human body as per the Veda. When the king is absent, the slave acts as king in the palace and this does not mean that the slave is the real king. Here, Advaitins slipped in the concept by treating the slave as the real king. Every human being including a beggar is a king in his own house and this does not mean that every human being is the king. If that is so, there is no ruler and the ruling power of God disappears. The Advaitins removed the real king (Ishwara) by stating that He is unreal (Vyavahara Dasha) and brought the democracy as the real king (Paramartha Dasha). According to them, the Government is by the people and for the people! The monarchy was thrown away due to jealousy and egoism! The composition and technology of human being is created by God in a particular fashion so that it stands as a good model of simile for the human incarnation. In the human being the soul (Pure Awareness) pervades all over the body (Matter and energy). Similarly, in human incarnation, God pervades all over the body (Pure Awareness, matter and energy). The superimposition of body and soul leads to the treatment of body as the soul. The superimposition is created by God in this simile so that one can have the same superimposition in the case of human incarnation. By this, you can treat the human body of Krishna as 87

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God Himself without any difference. Thus, the superimposition is created by God for a divine purpose. Without this superimposition, you can never worship God directly because God is even unimaginable.

Ignorance Has Its Own Use You can experience God only with the help of this superimposition. Hanuman embraced Rama and experienced God through the body of Rama. He treated the body as God by superimposition. It is like treating the alive wire as current. If you think that superimposition is ignorance and condemn it, you can never experience or worship God directly. Everything in the creation has divine purpose and without understanding it, you are discarding certain things in the creation as ignorance. No doubt, the superimposition is based on ignorance only. But the ignorance is created by God and has its own divine purpose. Without using it in the proper occasion, you are rejecting it and such rejection insults the creator. The Advaitin analyzes the simile and finds out ignorance in it and does not apply it to the human incarnation. You have to reject the superimposition of soul and body in the case of human beings, which helps you to detach from the worldly bonds. But you have to use the same superimposition in the case of human incarnation and worship or experience God through the medium. The knowledge of the concept of superimposition helps in the detachment from the world and the ignorance of the same concept helps in experiencing God through the medium. The same knife has two edges for two opposite programs. The same electricity can be used for destruction and construction in different contexts. Every concept in this world is a teaching model created by God to help you in understanding the spiritual knowledge.

Human Incarnation is For Human Beings The human form of God is the only relevant medium of God for human beings. To speak this point completely, the contemporary human incarnation is the only way, which can respond to your doubts and guide you in the correct spiritual path. The energetic forms exist in this time also but they are not in this world. The past human incarnations existed in this world, but do not exist in this time. Due to these two limitations, they can be represented only by statues or photos indirectly. Such statues and photos cannot guide you and also cannot give you the 88

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experience of God as a living form. These also cannot give the satisfaction of receiving your worship directly. You can find all the energetic forms of God and all the past human incarnations in the present alive human form of God. You can only find the past in the present but not the reverse. You can see the face of grandfather in the face of grand son but not vice-versa. The same God exists in the present human incarnation. The present human body of God also consists of the same components (Matter, energy and pure awareness). Only the form of the body, which is unreal, differs. Infact, there are no direct photographs of the energetic forms and there are no direct photographs for almost all the past human incarnations. The forms presented by the statutes and photos are only imagined by certain artists. Even from this view also the forms are unreal. I do not know why people are so blind to cling to the doubly unreal forms of God. The only reason is the egoism and jealousy, which are very difficult to be conquered. Atleast you treat the present human incarnation as a devotee and a messenger of God and accept Him as your guide. Mohammad called Himself as a messenger of God only. There is nothing wrong in this. The knowledge given by Mohammad was treated as the knowledge of God only and Muslims follow it strictly and get divine fruits. Jesus also declared Himself as a divine messenger only, but He revealed Himself as God to a few deserving devotees. That information leaked out and the majority rebelled against Him. Krishna never told to anyone that He was even the messenger. He behaved like an ordinary human being with some divine qualities which were common to several divine human beings in that time. Krishna revealed Himself as God vehemently to Arjuna only in the context of certain divine purpose only. Whether the human incarnation is God or messenger, it is immaterial for the devotees. It is sufficient if the devotees believe that the knowledge given by the messenger is from God and follow it. When the devotees analyze the knowledge and practice it, they will conquer their jealousy and egoism and finally realize that the messenger Himself is God. If the jealousy and egoism are not conquered, the devotees may think that the knowledge given by the messenger is an intellectual interpretation of scriptures so that the messenger Himself manages to fit Himself in the position of the God. But in course of time, when the egoism and jealousy are fully conquered, they will realize the truth. When such misunderstanding comes, they can themselves analyze the analysis and interpretation of 89

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the messenger with their own logic and find out whether it is truth or a twist given by the messenger with selfish motive. However, they should take long time to analyze the messenger, since several false incarnations exist just for the sake of fascination of the position of the God. The capability of the correct spiritual guidance decides the final truth. One should be very very careful to decide the human form of God (Datta) because Datta is becoming your Satguru to guide you in the spiritual path, which is the most important eternal aspect of the fate of the soul. You should not be hasty in this aspect because it is going to decide your eternal divine future.

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Chapter - 7

JEALOUSY AND EGOISM Training for Reducing Ego and Jealousy O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [March 18, 2006] The jealousy and egoism towards human incarnation are not directed towards the inner Lord present in the human body but are towards the external human body. People think that the human incarnation is just the human being i.e., the human body. Every human being has jealousy towards another human being in this world. Nobody can tolerate the point of ‘greaterness’ of another human being compared to oneself in any aspect like wealth, knowledge etc. Unless this repulsion towards fellow human beings is removed, the jealousy towards human incarnation cannot be eradicated. For this purpose, the devotee is required to undergo training in removing his jealousy towards the co-human beings. Therefore, recognise the greaterness of every human being compared to yourself and develop submissiveness towards any human being in this world. Feel that you are the lowest among all the human beings. Always see merits in others and see only defects in yourself. Such vision will give you the submissiveness towards any fellow human being. Your egoism will be destroyed by such training. Love all human beings, seeing only the good side in every human being. Serve the entire humanity as the most obedient servant. Such training will remove the jealousy towards the external human form of the Lord. Even if you have not realised the Lord in the human form, you will not have jealousy towards the human incarnation because you are loving and serving every human being. Thus, even before realization of the inner Lord, you have started serving the Lord as a human being. In course of time you will experience the presence of the inner Lord and then slowly you will realise and become a devotee. You are advised to be slightly inferior to every human being and this does not mean that you should go down completely and develop an inferiority complex, which is also dangerous. The patient expects that his temperature should be decreased by the doctor and this does not mean that his temperature should be made zero. What is expected is that the extra temperature is to 91

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be reduced. Even slightly less than the normal temperature is not dangerous. Egoism is the extra temperature. Removal of egoism does not mean the removal of your self-existence. Some people always condemn themselves as sinners. They think that this is the removal of egoism. That is overreaction. It is not just the removal of fever but like is bringing down the body temperature to ice-cold zero.

From Training to the Goal You are advised to serve the humanity till you recognise the human incarnation, in order to avoid the danger of insulting the human incarnation by mistaking Him as an ordinary human being. Once the human incarnation is recognised, the training is to be stopped. Further service to humanity can be carried only under the instruction and guidance of the human incarnation. People have misconstrued this concept and have concluded that serving the humanity is serving God. They plead that God exists in all the human beings. In such case you could have serve yourself and such service would be service to God. There would be no need of serving other human beings. Some people have gone to this extreme end also and started meditating upon the God present in themselves. Infact, this concept of the existence of God in all human beings is liked by everybody because by this concept everybody becomes God. If the humanity is served without the discrimination between good and bad, the sinners should not be punished by the court and must be served instead. If God exists in all the human beings, why are some human beings thrown into liquid fire at the end? This means that God is thrown in to liquid fire. Shankara condemned this concept of claiming that service to humanity being equal to the service to God (Loka Sevaka Mata Khandanam). Therefore, one should not remain in the stage of training and forget the main aim for which the training is advised. Infact, the Lord came in the form of fish, tortoise etc., also. The Lord appeared as a small beautiful fish in the hands of a king. The king took it to home and kept it in a vessel containing water. The fish grew to the size of vessel by next day. Suppose the king was a non-vegetarian and killed the fish for eating, how much sin would he have committed towards to the Lord! Therefore, the Lord in the form of Buddha and Mahavir preached non-violence and condemned the killing any living being. You should love all living beings. But you should not continue 92

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with just that and forget the basic goal of searching the Lord in the form of some living being. In the Bhagavatam, a sage called Bharatha loved a deer so much that he was born as a deer in the next birth. The Veda also condemns continuous service to good people also without searching for the human form of Lord (Devanam Pasurahaha…). Serving good people only gives you a place in heaven from where you have to return back after sometime of enjoyment. Therefore, the good qualities without the concept of God do not yield permanent fruits. When you start serving the devotees, the concept of God has started and you will soon reach the human incarnation of God through the blessings of the devotees. The names like Rama, Krishna, Jesus etc., belong to the external human body, which has taken birth. Such names are generated only after the birth of these human bodies. Therefore, such names are certainly only the names of the external human bodies, which are like shirts. When the human bodies perish, these names also must perish. But these names exist as eternal names even after the disappearance of these human bodies due to death. The reason is that these names were directed towards the inner Lord even during the time of existence these human bodies. Suppose a person is selling vegetables. You call him by shouting ‘Vegetables’. The person is not a vegetable and the vegetables are not the person also. But the possessor of the vegetables is called by the name of the possessed material [figure of speech: metonymy]. Similarly, when the name ‘Krishna or Jesus’ was called, this name was directed towards the internal Lord. Therefore, even if the human body perished, since the Lord is eternal, Krishna or Jesus is also eternal. When Krishna said that He will come again and again, whenever necessary (Yada Yada hi…Gita), it means the eternal Lord present in the human body will come again and again through different human forms. Similarly, when it is told that Jesus will come again, it means the Lord present in that human body will come again. Here the names Krishna and Jesus indicate the Lord and not the human body. When somebody says that He will come again after 20 years, it does not mean that he will come in the same shirt. Even in the case of the ordinary human beings the name can indicate the inner eternal soul. When people say that Subba Rao died, it means that the name indicates the external human body. People say that today is Subba Rao’s last journey. Here too the name indicates only the external body, which is going to be cremated on 93

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that day. In these sayings the name indicates the external human body. But after one year people say that today is the yearly ceremony of Subba Rao. When you have stated that Subba Rao went on his last journey one year back, how can you bring Subba Rao back after one year? Here the name indicates the inner soul. Therefore, even in the worldly terminology the name indicates both the external body and inner soul according to the context. Therefore, when you say that Jesus was crucified and killed, the name indicates the external human body. When you say that Jesus will come again on final day of destruction of this world, the name indicates the inner Lord. Thus, the same name indicates the external or internal item according to the context. When you say that Krishna danced in Brundavanam, the name indicates the external human body. When you say that Krishna will come again and again whenever necessary, the name indicates the inner Lord. If you realise this discrimination, you have no quarrel with any religion. When you say that Jesus or Krishna will come again, it means that the inner Lord is going to come in different human bodies again. When you draw the picture of Jesus or Krishna, the picture represents the external human body only and not the inner Lord. You can never draw the picture of the inner Lord because He is beyond the realm of imagination. There cannot be two unimaginable Lords. When the Lord is unimaginable, He can be only one. If you say that there are two entities, it means that both the entities are imaginable. Therefore, you have to accept that there is only one unimaginable Lord or God. The external human bodies are different and cannot be one. When I say that Krishna is Jesus, it means that the Lord in the body of Krishna and in the body of Jesus is one and the same. It does not mean that the two different bodies are one and the same. When you worship the statue or picture of the past human incarnation, your picture or statue also indicates the eternal Lord who existed in that human body. The Lord being eternal exists even today. Therefore, your picture indicates the Lord existing today. The statue or picture only indicates the existence of the Lord in a human form. It does not mean that the Lord existed only in that human body and is not present in any human body later on. If the Lord can exist in one human body, what is the objection for the Lord to exist in another human body also? Once the concept of the existence of the Lord in a human body is accepted, you must not have any objection to accept the Lord in another 94

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human body. When you say that electric current flows in this wire, you should not object the possibility of the flow of same current in another similar wire. If you object, you are a blind, rigid, ignorant lay-man and you can never be called as a scientist. Such conservative people will never change and even the liquid fire in hell cannot change them. When Jesus said that one could approach God through Him alone, it means that one can approach the unimaginable God only through the medium of a human form. It does not mean that one can approach the unimaginable God through that particular human body called as Jesus only. The worship of the statue or picture is useful to develop devotion in your heart towards God. But such worship will not create love in the heart of the Lord towards you. Ekalavya worshipped the statue of Drona and learnt the technology of shooting arrows. The statue helped him develop concentration of his mind and he became an expert in that field. But such worship did not develop any love in the heart of Drona towards Ekalavya. Infact, Drona did not show any love on him and got his thumb cut. Through statue, Drona did not teach him anything. Ekalavya could not get the astras [divine weapons] like Brahmastram from Drona, which is based on some secret hymn to be taught by Drona. Arjuna got the technology of shooting arrows (shastra) and also the astras from Drona, because he served Drona in physical human form. The devotion or love for God involves both sides i.e., your love for God and God’s love for you. The second love comes only when the first love is present. For the first love, the worship of the statue or picture is helpful. For the second love the worship of human form can only bring the result. In worshipping the statue or picture you need not offer food as Naivedyam or money as Dakshina. In this line of worship you can clean the statue or picture and decorate it. The constant vision of the picture or statue develops love and concentration in your mind. The statue or picture will not eat the food offered by you or take money offered by you. Keeping the statue or picture as the screen, the priests or temple managers are deceiving you. You are offering food and money in the name of Rama and Krishna. But Rama and Krishna are not taking that. Since the priests and the temple management are helping you develop your love for God through the maintenance of statue or picture, you can offer them some remuneration. But when you offer, beware that you are offering it to the priest or manager. Let your offer be direct and 95

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based on their merits. When they have no merits, do not offer anything in the name of statue or the picture. Based on the deservingness of the priest, you can offer him something. If the priest is only of the level of a worker who cleans the statue, you can treat him as equal to your servant who washes your house and offer him accordingly. But since the priest is in the presence of the statue of God, you must show respect to him, unlike to your servant. If the priest is of the level of a preacher, you can offer him to your best. Sometimes the priest may be the incarnation of God like Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Then you should surrender everything including yourself at His divine lotus feet. Thus, the priest may vary from an ordinary level of the worker to the highest level of the human incarnation. The priest should not feel great simply by his closeness to the statue of God. His greatness is recognised by his virtues and divine knowledge. The priest should not keep himself at the level of a worker earning his livelihood in the name of the statue of God. He should develop spiritually to the level of Shri Paramahamsa. Collection of offerings from the devotees should be direct. Shri Shiridi Sai Baba was offered a lot of money by devotees directly and He did not deceive the devotees by keeping any statue of God before Him. On analysis, one can easily find the intention of this drama using statues and pictures of God. Actually the statue or picture indicates only the human form of Lord. It indicates that you should search for the present human form of the Lord. Even the Shiva Lingam of Lord Shiva indicates the shape of a wave, which means life energy. It concludes that the Lord is present in a living form. First the people worshipped inert objects like sun, river etc. Later on the Shiva Lingam appeared which indicated life energy. At last, statues and pictures in human form appeared, concluding that the Lord comes mainly in human form. In the Gita, the Lord mentioned that He enters the human body alone. You can become God and can become even the master of God provided you follow one condition. That condition is that you should never think that you are God. Take the case of Hanuman. He became God and attained even the power of creation of world. The Brahma Sutras say that the soul may attain all the powers except this one power. But Hanuman, as an exceptional case attained even that power and became exactly Lord. But He always thinks that He is the servant of the Lord. Radha became the queen of Goloka, which is above the Brahma 96

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Loka. The Lord sits in Brahma Loka and her feet are above the head of the Lord. The Lord in the form of Krishna also pressed her feet. The Lord applied the dust of the feet of Gopikas on His forehead. Therefore, Radha became the master of the Lord. But still Radha feels that she is only the most beloved servant of the Lord. This is the correct route of becoming God or even greater than God. But if you think that you are the Lord already, then that route is not correct. You will not attain even a trace of the grace of the Lord. Only demons thought that they are the Lord and some demons thought that they are even greater than the Lord. You cannot achieve the fruit by this path of egoism and sanctioning yourself as being the Lord already. Hanuman killed devils and demons. What does it mean? It means that the concept of Hanuman will remove the concept of egoism of devils and demons by which one thinks that he is already God.

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Chapter - 8

REMOVAL OF EGO Recognition Is Sufficient O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [March 17, 2006} Several devotees are repeatedly asking Me about one point: How to remove egoism towards human incarnation? The answer for this is that if you are aware of the thief, it is sufficient and he cannot steal anything from your house. It is not necessary to kill the thief and remove him permanently. Similarly, if you are aware of jealousy and egoism, the effects are nullified. If you are alert about the thief, who is closely associated with you as your relative, it is sufficient. It is not necessary to kill him or to through him out from the house. You can keep him in your house constantly, but be alert about the enemy always. Then the thief cannot harm you in anyway. Similarly, jealousy and egoism are the characteristics of Jeeva, which are called as ‘Matsarya and Mada’. They are very close relatives and you cannot remove them from yourself. Therefore, whenever repulsion comes towards human incarnation, you recognise the root of such repulsion, which is jealousy and egoism. When you have recognised the correct root of your repulsion, the repulsion cannot affect you. But if you are mislead, you may think that the root of repulsion is the analysis of your intellect. Then you will think that the repulsion is correct and now you are trapped by the net of those two hidden thieves called jealousy and egoism. These two thieves create repulsion but do not appear as the cause of repulsion. If you identify those two thieves, then the repulsion has no strength and will subside. The repulsion will become strong when you think that the root of repulsion is your shrewd analysis. Two thieves who are present in your house as close relatives steal your money. Then they will create an impression in your mind that the money was taken by your wife for some emergent need. Now you are satisfied and do not refer the matter to your wife. You feel that the loss of money from your pocket is justified since it is properly used.

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Similarly, those two thieves create hatred towards human incarnation and hide themselves. You will think that this hatred is the decision of your intelligence. Therefore, you will maintain the feeling of hatredness towards the human incarnation and feel such hatredness is correct decision right knowledge. If you refer to your wife, the truth will come out. Similarly, you refer to your intelligence and analyse the whole matter carefully with the help of your intelligence. Now the truth will come out. You will realise that your realities have stolen the money. Similarly, you will realise that egoism and jealousy which are the characteristics of mind are the culprits. Now the repulsion disappears and your enemies become ineffective. An ineffective enemy is as good as a dead person and can never harm you. Therefore, do not think of removing or controlling the enemies by force. Always use the analysis called as Buddhi Yoga or Jnana Yoga to make the two thieves ineffective. Therefore, the Lord started the Gita with Buddhi Yoga or Jnana Yoga.

Diverting To The Right Direction Mind is considered as one of the senses by the Gita (Manahshashthani…). The Veda says that the body is the chariot. Mind is the chain to control the horses. Senses are the horses. Here the horses, chains and the chariot can be treated, as one item i.e., is vehicle. The body is the car. Senses are the wheels. Mind is the steering rod. Now all the three items are car only. Intelligence is the driver. The soul is the owner (Atmanam Rathinam…). The mind cannot be the driver by itself. Mind wishes (Sankalpa) and immediately thinks the reverse of it (Vikalpa). Mind can be only an instrument in the hands of intelligence. Mind can never take decision. Only intelligence concludes finally. Jealously and egoism belong to the plane of mind only. Finding the truth by the analysis is the characteristic of intelligence. Therefore, you must always refer to your intelligence and analyse. Then the mind is controlled by the intelligence. The jealousy and egoism become ineffective in creating the wrong direction. Now you can convert these two as your friends who will help you in your spiritual effort. You can become jealous by seeing great devotees, which will activate and hasten your spiritual effort. You can be fearless about anything since you have become the devotee of the present human incarnation. Such fearlessness and confidence is only the egoism diverted in the right direction. If you 99

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expel or kill these two, you have lost the chance of getting their help in your spiritual effort. Infact these two are also created by God and every created item has positive use only. Due to your ignorance only, you are making anything negative. Knowledge is of two types. Simply hearing the greatness and qualities of the Lord belongs to the plane of mind only and this is the religious knowledge. By such knowledge, you will develop devotion to the Lord. Such knowledge is like fertilizer to grow the plant (devotion). But doubts and repulsions caused by jealousy and egoism are like insects, which attack the plant. The fertilizer cannot kill the insects. Therefore, the plant does not grow and does not become strong. When the Lord conducts tests, this plant falls on the earth by the powerful wind. If the insects are killed the plant will become a huge strong tree and will not even shake. Only pesticide can kill the insects. This pesticide is the spiritual knowledge, which alone can kill the insects. Both the fertilizer and the pesticide are chemicals. Thus, both religious and spiritual knowledge belong to Jnana Yoga only. Both should simultaneously exist as said in the Gita (Bodhayantah Parasparam, Kathayantascha…). Bodha refers to spiritual knowledge and Katha refers to religious knowledge. When the qualities of Krishna were heard by Rukmini from sage Narada, she developed devotion by such religious knowledge. The good qualities and the beauty of the Lord are the religious knowledge, which attracted her. But she also heard that Krishna was a thief of butter and danced with Gopikas in Brindavanam during nights. This is the bacterial insect that attacks the devotion. Sage Narada gave her the spiritual knowledge also, which killed the insect. She came to know that Gopikas were sages, who requested the Lord for liberation from all worldly bonds like money, husband etc. By stealing the butter, their bond with money was cut. By attracting their minds through dance, their bonds with their husbands were cut. Krishna never repeated this anywhere with anybody. He never returned to Brindavanam since their bonds were cut and never repeated this with Gopikas. The Lord inside the body of Krishna is Infinite Ocean of bliss and does not require any external object for receiving happiness. Thus, the religious knowledge belongs to the external human body only and this spiritual knowledge belongs to the eternal Lord present in the body. The external human body perishes like the shirt, but internal 100

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Lord is eternal like the person who wears the shirt. Religious knowledge belongs to ‘flesh’ or the human body (Manusheem Tanum…) and the spiritual knowledge belongs to the ‘God’ or the Lord who entered the human body (Ashritam...). Unless we have the knowledge of both, the external and internal items, your devotion cannot be eternal. God or Lord is the name of the internal item. Jesus, Krishna etc., is the name of the external human body. These, external names are given only when those bodies appeared. But the name of internal item, which is God or Lord, existed even before those bodies appeared. The name, which generated along with the generation of a human body, must end when the body perishes. But the eternal name continuous forever. If this spiritual knowledge is understood, all the quarrels between all the religions will disappear. For the generation of the devotion, the external body and its qualities are required like the fertilizer. If you put the pesticide without the fertilizer, the seed is killed without any germination. Similarly, if you develop only the spiritual knowledge without the religious knowledge, there is no devotion in your heart. The unimaginable God can never develop devotion in your mind. You cannot even think about God. You can never serve God. Therefore, the devotion can never be generated. The seed will never germinate. The Advaita scholars have lot of pesticide but not even a trace of fertilizer. The seed of devotion is killed by such pesticide and therefore they can never enjoy the fruit of the tree finally. The Gita is a mixture of both fertilizer and pesticide. Upanishads are pesticide (Nirgunam). Ramayanam, Bhagavatam etc., are the fertilizer (Sagunam). Both are equally important. Without religious knowledge the devotion can never be even generated and without the spiritual knowledge the devotion can never grow. Therefore, it is meaningless to think of the importance of devotion without the help of knowledge. Shankara stressed on the knowledge and Ramanuja stressed on devotion. Both are equally important and essential.

Loving God above Family [Mr Antony said that one of his friends asked the following question. ‘Lord Jesus stated that unless one hates his parents, and children, he cannot be the dear disciple of the Lord’. Is this not cruel on the part of God ask people to hate their old parents and just born babies?] 101

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The old parents look very pure because the qualities in them are just sleeping, due to their weakness. Similarly in just-born babies the qualities are in a dormant stage, which are ready for germination and therefore the baby looks pure. Even an old demon or a devil’s baby looks pure and innocent because the qualities or thoughts, which are precipitated in those souls for the past millions of lives, are weak. Due to the weak external atmosphere, which is their physical body, the qualities are just sleeping even though the souls are not really pure. Can you love a sleeping snake? The real purity lies only in Lord Jesus or any other human incarnation of the Lord. Other than the Lord and the liberated souls, who are the highest devotees, all other souls are impure in their qualities. Do you love your son only when he is a baby? Do you not continue your love when he grows? Therefore your love is for your son and not for his babyhood. Do you love all babies and all old people in the world equally? Therefore Jesus (human incarnation) asks you to cut your bonds with your parents and not your bond with their old age. Similarly you have to cut your bond with your son and not your bond with their childhood. Actually you have no bonds with old age or childhood. If you really had bonds with old age and childhood, you would have love all the old people and children in the world with equal intensity. The old age and childhood are only pretexts to cover your blind bonds with your parents and children. You do not love your parents and children based on their good qualities or devotion. Even if they have bad qualities and even if they are not devoted to God, you love them blindly because they are related to you by the blood of your body. The blood along with the body is buried or burnt after death. Your body merges with the five elements of nature after your death. Thus matter of your body enters some other body. Now analyze the meaning of your blood relationship. Jesus gave more importance to devotees than His mother. He said that devotees are greater than His mother. Shankara left His mother for the sake of God. Prahlada allowed his father to be killed for the sake of the Lord. Buddha left His wife and one-year-old child for the sake of God. Actually God created you and the only parental relationship that is real is in the case of God. The bliss you derive from the Lord is far superior to the momentary happiness you derive from your wife. These relatives cannot protect you but the 102

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Lord can. If you analyze, these relationships are proved meaningless and illusionary. These bonds are dramatic and are not real. These bonds did not exist before your birth and will not exist after your death. That which did not exist in the past and that which will not exist in the future, does not exist in the present as well. Two actors act as father and son in a drama. Before and after the drama the father-son bond is unreal. Therefore during the time of the drama also they are not really father and son. However all the actors were, are and will be the employees of the manager of the drama. This employer-employee relationship with the manager is real and permanent in the case of any actor. Thus the bond with the Creator alone is real. Jesus always remembered the Creator as His Father. At the age of 16 He left all His people for the sake of God for a period of 14 years. Your relationship with God is the reality and your relationship with your family members is false. Based on this analysis and knowledge you must vote for God, leaving your family. Thus the love for God is based on reason and not on blind love. Your family members are just equal to any other fellow human being. The dramatic father or dramatic son is as good as any other actor in the drama. Thus you can love your family members as your fellow human beings. You can serve them because they serve you; that is just business. From this angle your family members are different from outsiders. But your real love must be for the Lord in human form like Jesus and for other devotees, who will help you to improve your divine love.

Dangers in Spiritual Journey [Mr Antony asked Swami of the dangers in the spiritual journey.] The only basic danger in the spiritual journey is ignorance. Ignorance generates certain decisions. Based on these decisions you slip from the path. Ignorance does not like analysis by reasoning which is called as ‘Buddhi’. When the analysis is done ignorance become weak and the wrong decisions are cracked. If this process of analysis is repeatedly done, it is called as memorization. Such memorization generates continuous knowledge, which is like the light. Then the ignorance and its decisions are crushed and vanish like darkness. You never slip from the path as long as this light persists. I give an example here. Suppose you are acting as a king in a drama. Your son in the drama is killed on the stage. You are weeping on the stage. You are 103

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ignorant that he is your son only in the drama. Such ignorance creates a wrong decision in your mind and you feel that he is really your son. That decision gives you real pain. Now if you analyze that it is only a drama, your ignorance disappears and subsequently your dramatic decisions and dramatic pain vanish. But after a few minutes you forget the analysis and so the ignorance, its decision and its pain continue. The ignorance is mainly created by the wrong interpretations of the scriptures given by demons, who are born as some human beings. Similarly if you analyze yourself and identify that you are the soul and not the body, all the worldly bonds disappear. This is called as salvation. Now you are qualified to attain and please God. With the help of the analysis of the scriptural knowledge you can identify the Lord in human form. Here also you must remove your ignorance that He is the human body. As you have recognized yourself in the human body by analysis, you must recognize the Superself or the Lord in a human body. Again by analysis you must recognize that you (Purusha) are an item of the creation and totally different from the Superself (Purushottama). Such knowledge will keep you always in His divine service. Therefore the only danger is ignorance as mentioned by Sanat Sujata in the Mahabharata (Pramadakhyo Mrutyuh…). Lord Krishna started the Gita with Buddhi Yoga, which is the analysis leading to divine knowledge. Shankara also emphasized on the removal of ignorance by the analysis called as Jnana Yoga. Then only can you understand the statement of Jesus about leaving the worldly bonds for the sake of serving the mission of the Lord.

Easiest Way to Please God What is the easiest method to pass the I.A.S. examination and to become the district collector? If corruption and copying do not exist, can there be any easy method for this? The fruit of pleasing God is very high and eternal. You can please the selection committee for the post of a peon easily because the standard of questions and answers is very low. But to please the selection committee for a very high post requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice of pleasures in studies. Therefore pleasing God is at one extreme end and the easiest method is the other extreme. Love alone can please the Lord. But the love must not be only in a theoretical stage, it should be proved practically. If somebody comes and pretends to love you, do you not test him? The beggar praises you, 104

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but you shout at him. Your father shouts at you. But you are submissive to him because you know that he really loves you and his shouting is only for your welfare. Therefore love expressed in words and mental feelings can also be false. Your wife expresses her love through words and feelings. But it is real because it stands your test. When the situation demands she serves you day and night. Therefore service is the proof of love. The theoretical love (words and mental feelings) must be associated with practical love which is service. When the guest comes, you give him a glass of water. That is theoretical love. Water is freely available. Similarly the words and mental feelings are freely available and have been given by God to all human beings. After giving the glass of water if you offer the guest a plate of food, that plate indicates the practical love. The food in that plate is your hard earned money. Therefore prayer and devotion must be associated with service. A plate of food without water indicates your foolishness. Therefore prayer by words, devotion by mind and discussions by intelligence are like a glass of water and it must be followed by service, which essentially is the sacrifice of the fruit of your hard work (Karma Phala Tyaga). The work done in such service is sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa). Thus sacrifice of words, mind, intelligence, money and work constitutes the five parts of the total sacrifice. If you carefully analyze and if you are frank enough to accept the naked truth, then you agree that sacrifice of hard-earned money is the most difficult item. If money is absent, even the body leaves your soul; it has to be maintained by money (food etc. bought by money) and there is no need to say the same about relatives. Therefore this glaring truth is stated in the Veda as ‘Dhanena Tyagena Ekena…’, which means that you can please the Lord by sacrificing your hard earned money. People who are unable to do this mock at this statement or misinterpret it. You have to realize the truth in yourself; there is no need of others. It is the fire test, which is called as the flame test in chemical analysis. But this does not mean that you throw some money and purchase the Lord. If the most difficult sacrifice can be done it is foolish in not sacrificing easy items like words, mind, intelligence and work. After this stage the Lord competes even with your life. The Gopikas jumped into the fire when Krishna left His body. Jesus told His disciples that they must be prepared to carry their own crosses for the sake of the Lord. He sacrificed His body, life and finally sacrificed the 105

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final item called the soul by submitting it in the hand of the Lord. Thus total sacrifice is required to please the Lord and Jesus is the best example for such a total sacrifice. Hanuman tore his heart with his finger nails for the sake of Lord. Prahlada did not leave the name of Lord even though the demons tried to kill him in several ways. You can understand the path by these examples and this is the meaning of the statement of Jesus that He is the path. It means that He proved the path practically through His life. This statement does not mean that Jesus is the path. It means that whatever practiced by Jesus is the path. If you catch Jesus you cannot reach the Lord. If you catch His practice and if you can practice that, you can reach and please God. This is the correct interpretation of His statement. Simply chanting the name of Jesus and crying for His crucifixion is not the path. He showed the path by practicing it. Similar is the case of Hanuman and Prahlada.

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Chapter - 9

IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL PREACHER Differentiate Guru And Satguru [September 9, 2006 Smt. Uma Ramanath asked about the importance of spiritual preacher (Guru). Swami gave the following reply.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, A lecturer in Government College will teach you the syllabus and at the same time acts as the invigilator, valuer of the paper etc., and finally you are getting a valued degree from the college. Similarly, the Lord acting as Guru preaches the spiritual knowledge, guides you practically, tests your knowledge in practice and finally gives you the suitable divine fruit. A teacher conducting tuition home is just teaching you and is not connected to the examination, degree etc. Similarly, a human being acting as Guru preaches you the spiritual knowledge and not concerned with your practice and its fruit. The human guru may be able to deliver the knowledge of Satguru (Lord acting as Guru) as it is, but cannot clarify your doubts in the practical field as effectively as Satguru does. If you are hearing the speech through a tape recorder, the clarification of doubts is not possible. Even in the speech, some parts may not be clear to you due to the defects in your grasping power only. The human guru serves as a messenger of the Lord only. He is just like a postman. Therefore, the guru you referred in the Sanskrit verse uttered by you means only Satguru. However, Satguru is not frequently available. Still the Lord will clarify your doubts through somebody since the Lord has the superpower. Therefore, you need not worry that your doubts will be remaining without clarification in the absence of Satguru. The Lord is always ready to explain your doubts either directly or indirectly. If you deserve to go to the upper level, you will certainly rise to the upper level by the direct or indirect guidance of God. However, if you are not capable of rising to the higher level, what is the use of even meeting Satguru directly? Therefore, you should not worry about the availability of Satguru. You should worry only about your spiritual 107

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progress to rise to the higher level and you must concentrate on removing the hurdles in your spiritual progress. If you are a tenth class candidate and even if you meet the president of the country, he can give you only the post of a peon. If you have passed I.A.S examination, the appointment order for the post of District Collector comes to your home. Shri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa told that one need not search for Guru. God will send Gurus of various levels as and when you reach those levels. When you are ripened, Satguru will contact you at once. You may miss Satguru in your search. But Satguru will not miss you when the proper time comes. Satguru cannot do any good to any undeserving fellow. For the sake of majority, Satguru will not come down because He is not bothered about the fame. Krishna preached hundred Kauravas but of no use. Only the five Pandavas followed Krishna as their Satguru. Shakuni could become Satguru for Kauravas. But finally both the Shakuni and Kauravas were destroyed. A teacher in bogus institution gets you a bogus degree which has no value at all. Therefore, the Lord as Satguru and devotee of the Lord as a human guru are good. But the fraud Guru will destroy himself and yourself. It is better to confine to your family if you are not getting Satguru but you should be never trapped by a fraud Guru.

Guru Deva Datta Satguru is the Lord in the human form. You should not see the external human form and should view the Lord only in Him. In the case of human guru, there is no Lord in him but you can treat the external human form as the possessor of power of God. In the first case you should understand the Lord as Guru and in the second case you should understand the Guru as the Lord. There is a difference between God as Guru and Guru as God. Your husband says “Guru Deva Datta” whenever he speaks to Me. The word Guru Deva has two meanings as per the Sanskrit Grammar. In one meaning God is treated as Guru and in the second meaning the Guru is treated as God. There is difference between these two meanings. The second word “Datta” clarifies that the first word is used strictly in the first sense only. Datta means God given to you in human form for the sake of your guidance. Guidance should be essential for your practice. Even clarification of your theoretical doubts should lead you to practice. Unless theory is clear practice cannot start. If there is no practice the entire theory is waste. If the theory is perfect, 108

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the practice is spontaneous. Therefore, the clarity in the theory and clarification of your doubts is very very important. Without understanding this, people mock at theory and stress on practice. Without complete and perfect theory, the practice cannot begin. Sometimes people practice due to fear or due to ambition for fulfilling the desires. The Satguru will never base on these two paths of fear and ambition. The false Guru exploits the people using either fear or ambition or both for some selfish gain like money, fame etc. But the followers are utterly deceived because such practice is not giving any good and complete fruit. Satguru leads you to goal without any long time and deep strain. Suppose you have a bad quality like rigidity. Due to the same quality Duryodhana went to hell and Gopikas went to highest divine abode. In the first case rigidity was applied to worldly affairs (Pravritti). In the second case the same quality is applied to the spiritual line (Nivritti). A Satguru will direct your existing bad qualities to the spiritual line and will see that you will use those qualities positively for your real welfare. An ordinary human being acting as Guru will advise you to come to the spiritual line after removing bad qualities. The innocent and ignorant Guru does not know that millions of births are required even to shake a bad quality which was accumulated form the beginning of creation. This is the difference between a Satguru and human Guru. Satguru generates the divine knowledge. The human guru carries on that knowledge in-toto. Sometimes a practical problem arises in your spiritual path. The solution for that problem needs generation of divine knowledge, which is impossible for the human Guru. Therefore, if you get Satguru you are very lucky. But, if you do not use His guidance due to your blind attractions, in such case Satguru is useless for you like Sun for a blind man. If you have the maturity of mind to use the guidance, God will speak to you even through the human guru. Therefore, your determination to achieve the goal is the most important factor. If you have such determination, God will approach you in some human form and will guide you properly. Therefore, the problem lies on your side and not on the side of Satguru. How much lucky we are! We are directly talking with the Lord and getting the perfect spiritual guidance. The Lord is staying in My human body. There is no trace of any doubt about this. When the devotees were calling Me as Lord Datta, I was confused and was very 109

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careful about the egoism that may trap Me. But slowly, I am convinced with this point on doing analysis from several angles. This wonderful divine knowledge cannot come from any human being except Lord Datta. These wonderful devotional songs which came spontaneously cannot be composed by any soul except Lord Datta. The vision of cosmic form (Vishwa Rupam) can be given only by the Lord and such vision was given to two devotees simultaneously (Ajay and Seetamma) through this human body by Lord Datta. By the age of 16 years who can write hundred philosophical books in Sanskrit except Lord Datta through this human body? Lord Datta entered this human body even in the womb of My mother. Once My mother was telling Me that when she was carrying Me, she used to often get dreams in which she was finding various deities (various forms of God) with temple-bells ringing constantly. There were two black-magicians in My village, who killed about hundred persons and three hundred children through their black magic in our village. In our joint family seven male issues before My birth were also killed by their black magic. The day I was born, both those demons were killed in violent way. All these factors led Me to conclude that the Lord is staying in My human body for His divine work of propagation of divine knowledge. I am just like all of you and there is no specialty in Me and no special favour is done to Me. The Lord is the speaker I am very very near to Him holding on the mike before His mouth. All His speech is common to all of us. After the war Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gita. Krishna expressed His inability to repeat because He also heard the Gita from the Lord like Arjuna. When Arjuna pressed, Krishna told the Gita again. But the second Gita (Anu Gita) stands no where before the first Gita. This is the concept of the human incarnation. The Lord enters the human body of a human being. The guest (Lord) and the owner of the house (devoted human being) are like the two birds and the body is like a tree. Like this the Veda says (Dvaa Suparnaa…). When the Lord said the first Gita, it is mentioned that the Lord spoke (Shri Bhagvan Uvacha). It is not said that Krishna spoke. Therefore, let all of us follow the Lord’s divine knowledge and get the eternal benefit. The Lord has to enter some human body and He entered this human body accidentally or incidentally. The divine knowledge spoken by the Lord (Satguru) is the guiding force which clarifies all our doubts leading to determination, which results spontaneously in practice. 110

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The Way of Preaching – Past And Present Satguru is the Lord in human form like Krishna. Even a liberated soul can be Satguru because He is directed by the Lord. He speaks as per the will of God. Swami Raghavendra, an incarnation of Prahlada is also a Satguru. He will speak what ever Lord wants to speak and thus there is no difference between the Lord and such top most devotees. In olden days the Guru tests the level of the devotee and used to expose that much knowledge only which is related to his level so that the devotee gets benefit. This is called as “Anubandha Chatushtaya”, which means the level of the devotee (Adhikari), the portion of the knowledge (Vishaya) that is related to him (Sambandha) and the benefit (Prayojana). Suppose there are three devotees on the ground. One can climb ten steps only. The second one can climb fifty steps and the third devotee can climb all hundred steps. The Guru reveals ten steps only to the first devotee and says that the tenth step is the final step. If you reveal even the eleventh step he will be discouraged. Similarly for the second devotee only fifty steps should be revealed. For the third devotee the entire knowledge can be revealed. But at present the Lord is revealing the entire divine knowledge through this computer. It is just like the booklet showing all the courses present in the University. According to the level one has to select the course. This facility was not in the olden days. One need not be discouraged because if you are constantly putting the effort to climb the steps continuously, God will sanction any number of human births to reach the goal. The spiritual path has no physical significance. It is not like the journey to Bombay which needs the help of vehicles. The whole journey is related to your psychology or mental set-up which should act with full determination. The determination will spontaneously come through complete and real divine knowledge the real knowledge can alone clarify all the doubts. When no doubt is left over the knowledge is complete, which immediately results in determination. Therefore, Guru is more important than even the God is, because Guru is the guide and God is the goal. When God Himself comes to you as Guru, there is no need of any journey. He will guide you so that you will recognize Him. But His guidance is always delicate and critical because there is always a risk of your misunderstanding about Him. If somebody guides you to Him, such risk is not there. But such guidance will not be as clear as His guidance. Therefore, the issue gets mixed up. 111

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Satguru Is God When you recognize the God in human form, your concentration should be on the God present in Him. Since you cannot directly experience God, the medium is necessary. When you are experiencing God through the human form, the awareness of the external human form should disappear. When you touch an electric wire, your awareness is about the shock of current but not about the structure of the wire. Therefore, you have to see the aspect of God in Satguru and treat Him as directly the God (Guruh Sakshat Parabrahma). This means that you should find only God in Satguru. The case of a human Guru blessed by God is like the hot iron wire in the heater which was heated by the electricity but the current is put off. The effect of the current, which is the heat, remains in the wire. The heat burns your finger but does not give a shock. Similarly the human incarnation of a liberated soul has the power of God, though not directly God and is called as Guru. The third example is the wire in which neither the electricity nor the heat exists. To develop concentration in one direction you can treat such wire also as God and such worship is called as representative worship (Pratika Upasanam). There is no fruit from the object but there is fruit in the subject which is the development of concentration. The first two cases are direct and indirect worship of God resulting in the achievement of fruit from the object. For the representative worship you can select any human being you like as your Guru which has also the advantage of development of concentration in yourself.

Main Reason for Suicides [Smt. Uma Ramanath asked for the reason of Suicides in the society. Swami told like this.] I have already explained the main reason for suicide in My divine knowledge. The main reason for suicide is lack of divine knowledge. By divine knowledge one can realize that the main aim of the human life is to achieve the grace of God by pleasing Him and not to achieve the useless grace of any co-human being by pleasing it and not to please one’s own self because such pleasure is not only temporary but also is found illusory on analysis. I gave the example of a student in a college. The academic progress is the main goal. The games are only secondary arranged for a brief change. Similarly all the worldly affairs are only secondary activities arranged by God for a brief change from the main 112

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spiritual activity. Because of the illusion of Maya, one feels the forms of matter and the qualities of awareness are real. The problems coming up based on such illusion lead to suicide. A person commits suicide for not getting a job. A farmer commits suicide when crop fails. A person commits suicide due to heavy loans. All these cases are due to lack of divine knowledge, since they do not realize the main goal of human life. They also do not realize that if they believe in God fully and worship Him, such problems will be miraculously solved. God will certainly answer even for your prayers once or twice so that you will follow the spiritual path after experiencing the existence of God and His power. However, you should not make this as the continuous businesses. When the problems are solved, the person is becoming proud in happiness and the two eyes climb the head. After getting job, one feels that he is a big officer controlling the entire world! After clearance of loans and after getting riches, one feels that he is the owner of this entire universe! After receiving good crop, the farmer is indulged in politics and group rivalry feeling himself as the greatest leader! I still remember, in the olden days in My village, the farmers after receiving good crops were indulged in doing Bhajans etc. Similarly a boy or a girl failing in love commits suicide due to lack of the main aim of the life. He or she does not know that the beauty is only an unreal design of matter and energy. If matter and energy are separated which are the real entities, the love vanishes! When the entire world becomes one family irrespective of caste, religion, nationality etc., people will help each other in solving the problems. The best and real worship is to help a devotee suffering with a specific problem. Trying to solve that problem within the limits of your capacity is the best worship. To stress this aspect only, God was pleased to receive the required service in specific problem. When Rama lost Sita and was searching for her, your worship to the Lord should be in line of search for Sita He will be pleased by such worship. What is the use of putting flowers on Him, feeding Him with sweets etc., when He is worried for Sita? Worship means the service which you can do to the Lord in human form to please Him in His specific problem. By this the Lord indicates that you should help all the devotees in their specific problems. Such mutual help is the real worship and this is the main aim of the Lord. Such divine society is the fruit of the divine knowledge from the Lord. You should be careful about the egoism that may enter your brain after doing the help. You 113

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should say that your help is due to the power of God only. When you say this, you should be sincere from the bottom of your heart because it is the actual reality. By such statement, the other person should feel that he should also get the favour from the Lord through divine service to Him. Then he will also do the same service to other devotees. Such a divine society consisting of the entire population of the world is the dream of My divine knowledge. Such mutual help integrated with divine knowledge can certainly eliminate suicides.

Significance of Eclipse [Shri Ramanath asked about the significance of eclipse of the Sun or moon.] Swami Replied: The eclipse has no spiritual significance in view of the latest analysis by science. But the tradition that imparts significance for the eclipse in the spiritual line is good and should be protected. The tradition says that you should think about God (japam etc.,) during the time of eclipse. This attracts people to think about the God atleast during that time. Since the result is good, the lie is not a sin. Infact, such a lie is a good way. Such lie is called as Arthavada, which means a lie told for some good purpose. Therefore, the truth should not be revealed to the ordinary people which will spoil the good purpose. But for a realized soul (Jnani), such Arthavada is not necessary because such a devotee always thinks God. Shri Ramanath asked about the huge expenses on the death ceremony of a human being. Swami told like this. I have already explained that the soul will not receive any food in the upper world if you feed somebody here. But again this is an Arthavada for an ordinary person, who will not do the ritual unless such lie is imposed. But you may ask about the use of such ritual when the food is not reaching the departed soul. The ritual must be conducted but it should be conducted by understanding the real spirit of it. When you feed a deserving devotee and help the devotee by offering some Dakshina, God is pleased. God is also pleased by the ritual directly because any ritual is worship of God only. The life of the worship (ritual) is devotion. If you are uttering and hearing some unknown Vedic hymns, the devotion cannot be generated. Therefore, the priest should explain the essence of Vedic hymns. If this is not possible, let the devotees assemble and sing the devotional songs and request the Lord to protect the departed soul. By this God is pleased and 114

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will protect the soul either in the upper world or on the earth if it is reborn. Therefore, feeding and offering Dakshina to Satguru or atleast Guru (devotee) should be done on such occasion. Do you think that the present priest is useful in any way? You must have guts to practice the true knowledge and to break the blind tradition. You fear for some rubbish comments of some ignorant people even after realizing the truth. Only the Lord has guts to speak and practice the divine true knowledge. The souls have no guts. But atleast the souls should realize the truth so that atleast in the next birth they may practice! Once all the doubts are clarified there should be no hindrance in practice. The present blind tradition leads you and the departed soul to become sinful since you are feeding and offering Dakshina to the most undeserving priest of today. If the Vedic hymn alone can protect the soul, then the people present in other countries are betrayed by God for not having such universal facility of the Vedic hymns. All the people of other religions are praying God in their mother tongue on such occasions. That is the correct path. I pity Hindus in this context even though the highest spiritual knowledge is clearly mentioned in their scriptures. One can get satisfaction that he was debted to the ignorant priest in the previous birth for offering such huge Dakshina on such occasion. But the purpose is not served. Let the priest realize the truth and serve the real purpose of ritual to do real justice to Dakshina taken by him.

Significance of the Worship of Sun [A saint came and asked Swami about the significance of the worship of Sun, who is emitting huge energy and thus can be treated as the visualized God.] Swami replied him like this: You have worshiped the Sun for so many years. Can you stand alive if you are exposed to the hot Sunstroke in the summer? No. The reason for this is that the Sun is only an inert planet with inert energy emitted by nuclear fusion. The inert Sun and the inert energy cannot distinguish a devotee from an atheist. The Sun is not only inert but is also controlled by God (Bhishodeti …Veda). An ordinary human being can worship Sun as the representative of God (Adityam Brahma iti-Veda). For an educated soul such representative worship is meaningless. You can directly worship God who is aware of your worship and who also emits infinite energy. Infact the Veda says 115

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that Sun shines only by His power (Tameva Bhantam-Veda). Atleast worship Sun thinking him as Representative of God. If your egoism and jealousy are removed completely, you can identify the present human incarnation in your generation and worship Him. Such worship is direct worship to God (Sakshat Upasanam). The word Savita in the Vedic hymn means God. Who is creating the souls as per its root meaning in Sanskrit grammar (Shujn Prani Prasave). This word means that God is creator of soul (awareness) and not soul by Him self. The soul cannot emit energy like God. The Sun cannot know anything like the soul. You should eliminate the soul and Sun by such mutual defects. God is creator of Sun and soul. God is also the creator of the two properties which are energy and awareness or knowledge. By the will of God, the Sun is associated with energy and the soul is associated with awareness. He is the creator of items like Sun and soul and He is the creator of the properties like energy and awareness. The association of an item with a property is also by the will of God only. Such God need not be Sun since He is emitting energy and need not be the soul since He is aware of everything. Infact, if He wishes the Sun will not shine and the soul will become inert stone like Ahalya. Therefore, worship such root cause directly or indirectly. If you worship the human incarnation, it is direct worship. If you worship His devotee, it is indirect worship. I assuredly tell you that God is more pleased by the indirect worship because He loves His devotees more than Himself. For such worship there will be real fruit from God. Representative worship (which is worshiping the Sun as the representative of God) has also some little use because you are aware of God. But worshipping Sun, treating him as God directly has no use from out side. But still, it has some use because your concentration in one direction is developed. But for such achievement, any object in the world will serve the purpose.

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Chapter - 10

DOES DESTINY OF EVERY SOUL WRITTEN BY GOD? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [September 24, 2006} It is a misunderstanding that the life history of every soul is written by God or destiny. God is certainly the creator of this whole world like the builder of the stage and the supplier of dress for a drama. He is responsible up to this level only. The story, dialogues and actions are written by the created self only. The self is pure awareness and is called as causal body, but is composed of several types of vibrations which are the feelings or thoughts or qualities. The various types result due to various mixing proportions of Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. Some of these thoughts have become very strong since from several millions of births. Such solidified thoughts are like hard diamonds. The bundle of such diamonds is called as the subtle body. The soul writes its own story of drama based on the directions of these diamonds (Samskaras or Vasanas). Thus, in that way, these diamonds can be treated as destiny. But this destiny has nothing to do with God. The soul itself created its own destiny. Therefore, the theme of the drama will be uniform in any number of births of that soul. How to change these diamonds? You can change the destiny. The only way is to cut these diamonds by divine diamonds which come out from the preaching of divine knowledge by God through human form called as Satguru. The Gita says clearly that God has not created anything and only the nature of the soul, which is bundle of these diamonds, decides the theme of the life of any soul here (Svabhavastu Pravartate). When the God enters this world in human form, then only God writes His own program which is the story of His divine play. The Gita says that if you recognize such human incarnation and His divine mission, you will be liberated through your participation (Janama Karmacha Me Divyam…). Pleasing the God in His divine mission should be your ultimate aim. To serve Him in His divine mission, you need the basic requirements like food, shelter etc. For that you need a job if you do not have sufficient support. Today the householders are not respecting the real monk because several mockers are there in the dress of monk. You 117

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must study well to secure a job. For all this, your life should exist and therefore, you should never think of the suicide under any circumstances. If you are turned to ultimate aim, all your problems will be solved by God. You must have full faith in Him and infinite patience because God always has a special style of helping His devotee through an unimaginable way and that too in the last fraction of the last second. Your faith should not vibrate even if that last fraction of last second has also gone, because He can change the past, present and future in any way. He can take the present into past, past into present, future into present and future into the past. For God, after all, the time is also a relative reality like space. For some, the ultimate aim is the pleasure of the self or pleasure of the family. A person who aims at the self-pleasure is worst. A person who sacrifices his pleasure for the sake of the family is a better soul because the concept of sacrifice has started in it. But such soul should analyze and realize that the other souls will not even recognize it after leaving these gross bodies here. Thus, the ultimate aim should be divine, aiming at the God.

Importance of Contemporary Human Incarnation You are always fascinated to the infinite cosmic form (Vishwaroopam) which is like one lakh. You are neglecting the finite human form present before your eyes which are like hundred. Your present one-lakh rupees were just equal to one hundred rupees in the past. To realize the value of the money you have to stand in the corresponding time. Thus, one lakh is equal to one hundred in magnitude also, if the analysis corresponding to the time is done. In your human life the human incarnation is neglected. When you leave this human body and go to the upper world after taking the energetic body, you will neglect the Lord in the energetic form also at that time. Therefore, the energetic form and human form of the Lord are equal in magnitude also in view of the corresponding times. You have given great importance to one lakh in the past and neglected the hundred. But today you are neglecting this one lakh also, which is as good as that hundred in the past. If you realize this point, you will certainly give top most importance to the present human incarnation and will not have any fascination towards energetic forms of God like Narayana, Shiva etc. People want visions from the human incarnation as a proof of its divinity. They think that giving vision is just like switching on the T.V 118

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[Television]. The vision is given on the decision of God. If you are really a ripened soul in all the angles and if the vision is only the deficiency, certainly the vision is given by God in a spontaneous way. The estimation of the ripened state is done by God and not by yourself. There is no use of giving vision to unripe souls. If it is given they will treat it as illusion and neglect. When Lord gave the vision of Vishwaroopam, Kauravas neglected it as illusion. Dhrutarashtra was also blessed with vision that has very much excited him during the vision and he praised the Lord. But after the vision, he gained his original nature and became curved like a dog tail.

Asking Lord for Devotion Some people pray God to grant them with eternal devotion. You think that such people are greatest devotees. But I say that they are the cleverest. If the devotion is eternal, the subsequent protection from all the problems is inevitable. They show the climax of intelligence in asking such boon. They like to have the Railway engine which is linked with the whole train. In this boon, I am unable to understand one keen point. The devotion, development and maintenance of the devotion are responsibilities of the devotee only. God can never interfere in that. Will a girl ask a boy “Make me to love you”? It means that the love does not exist. Will the girl say “See that my love on you continues without failure”? It means her love is not real and fears in its failure. A real lover loves God spontaneously and retains it under any circumstances. The love should come from the side of the devotee. God cannot give the devotion so that a soul loves Him. Then it looks like a politician bringing public by paying them to clap during his lecture! God will not put His finger in devotion. Instead, God opposes your devotion to see its strength. God gives knowledge which is the generator of devotion like the fertilizer for the sprout from seed. The knowledge also acts as pesticide to kill the bacteria and worms which are the doubts. But the knowledge given by God is also in the form of general concept only. Satguru will speak about the importance and identification of the human incarnation, but will never say that He is the human incarnation. Devotion is based on personification. Krishna can say that one should find out the real form of God to worship. But He cannot say that He is the real form of the God and that He should be worshipped. He never told like this to anybody in His lifetime. Ofcourse, He revealed Himself 119

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to Arjuna, who was an exceptional devotee being His closest associate (Nara) during several previous births. Even to Arjuna, He said this only once, during the time of preaching the Gita, which was a necessary occasion. Even Jesus told that He and His father are one and the same. But He disclosed this to a very few deserving devotees only, who were as good as Arjuna. The devotion should be generated when the knowledge is complete. Similarly the answer in the examination should be generated if the study was perfect. If you are asking devotion from God, it is just like asking the answer from the teacher in the time of examination. If you get devotion and if it is proved real through service, the grace of God falls on you spontaneously. Similarly if your study is perfect, you must get the correct answer and if it is proved correct in the valuation, the degree falls on you. Some people always aim at the attainment of eternal bliss as the final goal of all the spiritual effort. In such case, they are not the real spiritual people. If ordinary human beings are like small thieves, they are the big robbers. An ordinary person desires for a materialistic boon, which is certainly temporary and gives a drop of bliss. But this fellow wants the entire ocean of bliss. The Advaitin wants to be God so that he can enjoy the eternal bliss. He does not mind to leave the Lordship on the world. He knows that anything is only aimed to get bliss. He says that he is simple awareness. But the simple awareness is not having bliss. In the meditation, simple awareness without any thought is possible. Such state is giving peace but not the bliss. Only the service to God is giving the real and eternal bliss. But the service of God is full of sacrifices which are like thorns in the path. In such sacrifice also, the bliss continues in the heart of a real devotee. Such divine service is the aim of all the spiritual efforts and not the bliss which is the climax of selfishness.

Ocean Of World Devotees often pray that they should cross this ocean of world. What is this ocean? Does it mean this physical world which is made of matter, awareness and inert energy? No. The world here means the worldly bonds which are just your strong feelings of mind. The drama is neither the stage, nor the dress nor the actors. The drama means only the story, dialogues and actions. Therefore, the drama means only the activity of mind and does not have any physical sense. Such worldly 120

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bonds with your human form and some other human forms (family) constitute the ocean of the world, which you have to cross. God also comes in the same human form and competes with those worldly bonds. God will not compete with the worldly bonds of every soul, because He knows that He will be utterly defeated without deposit in the case of almost all the human beings. If He wants to have a real bond with soul, He should be born as the family member of the soul. Then only He can achieve the real love from any soul, being its family member. Dasaratha, Nanda, Kausalya and Yashoda etc., loved the Lord as their son but not as God. If God comes in human form, which is not related to the human being in anyway (as son or father or brother etc.), God is sure to lose His deposit in such competition. In such competition if God wins, you are blessed. Hanuman is not related to Rama in anyway. He does not belong to the family or caste or even the race (humanity) of Rama. But Hanuman was the top most blessed soul of God. Hanuman left His beloved mother to see Rama. Rama did not give such highest fruit to any relative.

Philosophy of Shankara: Gross body–Soul-God Shankara was concentrating on the mistake of treating your body as your self (Dehatma Bhranti). This means that the soul which is pure awareness is generally treated as the body itself. Though the body and the soul are different, the soul is identified with the body, because the soul (Pure awareness as nervous energy) pervaded all over the body. When the current pervades all over the wire, we treat such a live wire as current itself. Similarly, the body can be treated as the soul for all the practical purposes. Suppose a human being is a great poet. Poetry is the quality of the soul (in the sense of composite of causal and subtle bodies). If you mistake the soul as body or the body as the soul, it is ignorance. Neither the body has become the soul nor has the soul become the body. To remove such ignorance only, such illusion is analyzed and both wire and current are established as two separate items. But if you want to honor the poet by garlanding him, you have to put the garland on the body only and not on the soul. Therefore, the illusion is analyzed for the real concept only and not for the practical concept. If it is not analyzed you may think that the soul is also destroyed with the body. Even if the body is destroyed, the soul is eternal and leaves the body. Therefore, for such knowledge of reality, 121

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the illusion must be analyzed. But for all the practical purpose of worship and service the superimposition has to be retained. Shankara brought the difference between the subtle soul and the visible gross body. The main aim of the distinction is to distinguish the unimaginable God from the subtle soul. The superimposition of the subtle soul on the gross body is just equal to the superimposition of unimaginable God on the subtle soul. God pervades all over the soul and the soul pervades all over the body. Thus God pervades both soul and the body in the case of human incarnation. Shankara isolated the soul from the body and similarly we have to isolate the God from the soul of human incarnation. Unless this knowledge of isolation is done, one may mistake that the soul is destroyed along with the gross body in the case of an ordinary human being. Again due to the same mistake, one may think that God is also destroyed along with the soul which is destroyed along with the body. If you isolate the soul from the body, he may understand the movement of the soul to the upper world for enjoying the fruits. Up to this point it is correct. But if he does not isolate God from the soul, for him, God also goes to the upper world bound by fruits. The isolation of the soul from the body must help you to isolate God from the soul and the body in the case of the human incarnation. Thus, God can be understood as eternal even if the body and the soul of human incarnation merge in the world (Ihaiva Pranah –Veda). Shankara left with the isolation of the soul from the body only. The reason is that atheists will not accept God. Therefore, He stopped with the isolation of subtle (invisible) from visible. He called the invisible as God so that atleast the word “God” is introduced for the future analysis. The soul is pure awareness or knowledge in basic form (just basically to be aware of some object). Such soul exists in all the living beings as the basic common item. If you analyze such basic awareness, it is one of the three qualities called as Sattvam (Sattvat Samjayate Jnanam—Gita). All the three qualities are special forms of work only. Work is a relative reality. Thus, the soul becomes a relative reality which is based on the existence of its cause. The brain, nervous system, inert energy produced by the oxidation of food etc. form the cause of awareness. All these components of cause are basically energy only and thus there is no defect of multiplicity of the cause. Any relative reality does not exist if its absolute real base (cause) is isolated. Therefore, without the basic energy, awareness by itself cannot exist. 122

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The grinding work is unreal if the basic system (consisting of grinding machine, grains and electricity) is isolated. This work cannot be the movement of the machine-rods, because neither the rods nor any general moment is the grinding work. When this entire world is essentially the ocean of inert energy only, the modifications of the energy (matter, work, awareness, light, heat etc.) become relatively real. The modification of this inert energy into various forms like matter etc., was discussed in various ways like Vivarta, Parinama etc., by the spiritual preachers. This basic inert energy is called as Brahman. Any theory of modification needs the knowledge of the basic substance that exists before modification. When God is unimaginable, how these theories of modifications can be applied to God? God and the process of creation of world from God- both are unimaginable. Only the world (Product) is imaginable. Therefore, all these theories which need imagination cannot cross the world. Therefore, any one has to stop with the basic form of the inert energy which is the space. Thus, these theories of modifications are not touching God. In such case, whether it is Vivarta or Parinama, what is the big difference? Any way, all your fight between these theories is limited to the boundaries of space or energy or world only. This basic inert energy in the form of awareness was taken by Shankara as the ultimate God. The energetic form called as Narayana was taken by Ramanuja as God. Both are not the ultimate God. The ultimate God charged both these items and thus both these can be treated as God. Thus both Shankara and Ramanuja used the basic energy as formless awareness and energetic form as the media of God respectively. The reason for this is that one cannot cross the basic inert energy (Space) by any extent of imagination.

Knowledge is Important than Miracle. Knowledge is more important than miracle. The miracle gives only information about the concept of unimaginable power which is wonderful. When the imagination fails the wonder is generated. Maya means wonderful and there by it means unimaginable. By this Maya, the possessor of Maya (Mayin) is inferred. Thus, miracle gives the inference of the existence of unimaginable God. But this alone is not sufficient. Knowledge consists of three components. One is God (goal), the second is the soul (traveler) and the third is the path to please God. These three items (Triputi) forms the whole structure of knowledge. The soul cannot 123

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get the grace of the Lord unless the three components are perfectly realized. In miracle, you have understood only about the existence of unimaginable God, who can never be worshipped or served. Therefore, the real form of God is also not known even in that one component known by miracle. The knowledge gives the real form of God as human incarnation. By the knowledge you can know that your self is not God already. By the knowledge only you can know that the practical sacrifice is only path to please the God. Therefore the miracle is useful to just enlighten one aspect of one component (God) only. For atheists only these miracles are necessary who do not believe even in the basic existence of God.

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Chapter - 11

APPROACH TO GOD God and Your Efforts God has witnessed your efforts O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says ‘Bahuni me...’ i.e., ‘Several births have passed for you and for Me. I remember all of them but you do not remember.’ Sometimes the Sadhana (spiritual effort) done by a devotee during this birth may be little. Yet God shows a lot of grace on that devotee. The reason for this is the penance done by that devotee during his previous births. Even that devotee forgets the penance done by him. Other devotees, who are doing a lot of penance to God in this birth, become jealous of that devotee. They do not know that their penance done in this birth is far less compared to the penance done by that devotee in his previous births. The wealth of a person should not be decided by looking into his current account only. His fixed deposits, which are like the fruits of the penance of his previous birth, should also be taken into account. Only the Lord can see these fixed deposits; ordinary people cannot. Swami Vivekananda came to Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for the first time. Paramahamsa took him into a room and placed a sweet in his mouth and wept with folded hands. Vivekananda could not understand this and was confused. Paramahamsa was the incarnation of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna together. Vivekananda was the reincarnation of Arjuna and he did not remember his previous births. But Paramahamsa remembered all the previous births. The other disciples could not digest this and became jealous of Vivekananda. Once, Satyabhama kicked Lord Krishna on the forehead by her left leg. Yet Krishna pressed her feet stating that her foot might have been pained. This looked very odd for all the other devotees. They thought that Krishna had become a slave of her beauty. Any external beauty in this world cannot attract the Lord. Only the internal beauty, which is the sacrifice and love, attracts Him. Satybhama was the incarnation of Goddess Earth. She was bearing the violence of all the demons that were strengthened by the boons of God. Thus she was tolerating God 125

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indirectly. She was tolerating the feet of all the living beings upon her. She is the other name of tolerance. Even though the Lord killed her son Narakasura, she had kept silent. Infact she had helped the Lord in that war. She had crossed the wheel of ‘Anahata’, which is connected, to children. Nobody could have more tolerance than the Goddess Earth. God knew all this background. Without eligibility, God will never give anything to anybody at any time. But the devotee must take the first step towards God. The necessity is for the devotee. The Veda says ‘Aptakamsya’ i.e., ‘God has attained everything and there is nothing which He has to achieve’. You have come near the sea with a pot. You should take a step into the water and make an effort to fill your pot. Then the sea moves in to fill the pot with its water. Therefore human effort is necessary even in the case of God. When God is in human form, He is bound by the manners of humanity. The properties of human body co-exist with divinity. The electric wire has both the qualities of the wire and electricity. Giving an electric shock is the property of electricity. Being thin and lean is the property of the wire. The property of the wire is clearly seen by the naked eye. Similarly the properties of the human body of God are clearly seen by people. As people misunderstand the live electric wire to be a common wire without electricity, the human body of God is also misunderstood to be that of an ordinary man. As the electric current is not seen, the divinity in the human form of the incarnation is also not seen. But whenever a necessity arises, the electricity becomes intensive in the wire and heat is radiated out. Similarly the divinity in the human form exposes its divine qualities like Jnana (knowledge), Love, Bliss and miracles whenever necessary. Goal of Spiritual efforts Sudama felt bad to approach Lord Krishna, who was his classmate even though Sudama was suffering with poverty. Lord Krishna also kept silent, even though He was ready to give infinite wealth to Sudama. But Sudama did not put even one step towards Dwaraka city to meet Krishna. Sudama was chanting the name and worshipping the statue of Krishna. But even a trace of his poverty was not removed because he neglected the human form of God. Until he approached the human form of God and did Karma Phala Tyaga by offering some rice, the Lord did not respond to his need. At his level, the offering of that handful of rice to Lord Krishna was the best sacrifice. Similarly Lord Krishna gave 126

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infinite wealth according to His level. When Sudama went to meet Lord Krishna, he did not ask Krishna to remove his poverty. He was prepared to undergo the result of his sins and suffer in poverty. At the same time he did the highest sacrifice of that handful of rice. His family was starving and if that handful rice had been cooked, atleast a little food could have been given to his children. But he offered it to the Lord instead. He did not ask for anything in return and also did not even think of asking. Similarly a devotee should not ask or even think about the removal of his difficulties by God. He should be prepared to undergo the results of his sins. He should offer Guru Dakshina (donation) to the human form of God to his level best. Then God will remove his difficulties. Swami sees only the quantity of love in you and not the things you offer to Him. The squirrel rolled in tiny sand particles and showered them into the sea with full faith, in order to contribute to the building of the sea bridge, which was the mission of Lord Rama. So the Lord patted it. The monkeys were bringing big stones and tossing them into the sea but they were not patted by the Lord since their faith was not firm. Both the stones and sand particles were drowning in the water. The squirrel did not stop putting the sand particles but the monkeys got disheartened and stopped putting the big stones. So the Lord does not view what you have surrendered (sacrificed). The Lord only views the spirit with which you surrendered it. So, surrender what you have with full faith and love. Whatever the sin that may be associated with the fruit that you surrender to the Lord, will be cleansed due to your sacrifice of it to the Lord. Infact such an offering becomes the most pious deed. Kannappa hunted animals and offered their flesh to the Lord. That is the greatest sin. There is no greater sin than killing harmless animals. ‘Ahimsa Paramodharmah’ i.e., the greatest sin is to kill innocent harmless beings. Yet Kannappa attained the same salvation that Shabari attained when she offered fruits to the Lord. The real dharma (duty) is to please God. God created everything; He created us and is present with us in every minute of every life, as our highest well-wisher. Nobody should be dearer to us than God. Sudama went back home without begging anything from the Lord. Yet Sudama wanted to beg to Krishna in the heart of his hearts. That is not Nishkama Yoga (desirelessness). He was caught by the influence of prestige. While going home to his place, he was suffering mentally, thinking 127

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about his poverty. Krishna saw all this and kept silent. But Krishna is also ocean of kindness. Therefore Krishna finally yielded. Here the victor is Lord Krishna. Kuchela (Sudama), due to his prestige, was defeated. Krishna defeated His principle [Krishna yielded] and so came out of it. Sudama gave importance to the manners of the external human body and could not understand the Lord as the Ocean of Love. The Veda gives three qualities of God. 1) Jnana belonging to Brahma. (Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam Brahma) 2) Love belonging to Vishnu (Rasovai Sah) 3) Bliss belonging to Shiva (Anando Brahma) If one quality is present, the other two must also co-exist. When Lord Datta takes the human form, all these three qualities are transmitted out. These three are the electric current present in a live metal wire. It is like the heat coming out of the fire covered by ash. If the ash is absent we cannot tolerate the heat. The ash controls (reduces) the heat to the extent of our tolerance i.e., the human body works like the ash. Even angels like Indra cannot see the inner form of the Lord. If the inner form of the Lord is exhibited or comes out, the entire universe disappears. Therefore, only through the human form, can one worship or enjoy the essence of Lord Datta. Nobody can establish a direct bond with Lord Datta, because, when Datta appears, the devotee disappears along with the universe. So you cannot attain Datta except through a human body (of the incarnation). Jnana (knowledge), Prema (love) and Ananda (bliss) cannot be obtained either from the formless God or from inert statues of God. Therefore for a human being, the Narakara (human form) is the only source. If you neglect the human form, you cannot get a human rebirth, and you will therefore be put to a permanent loss. The Veda says the same ‘Ihachedavedit atha satyamasti nachedihaa vedit mahati vinashtih’.

Datta in Human Form Datta means the God given to the world. The Veda says that the only one God (Parabrahman) creates, maintains and destroys this world. The Veda also states that this God cannot be even imagined by people. Sage Atri saw this ultimate God through a form for the first time. This form, which was given to (seen by) Atri was called Datta. God Himself told Atri that He gave Himself to Atri through that form. Datta means 128

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the form that is given. Datta is the only form, which satisfies the definition of God as said by the Vedas. Datta is only one (one God) and He, through His three faces, creates, maintains and destroys this world. [Datta is represented pictorially as human form with three faces, to illustrate this concept]. This form of Datta is also called an incarnation of God (Parabrahman). But this is the only fullest incarnation of God among all His incarnations. Therefore this incarnation is the original form of God. In this form called Datta, God is present. You cannot imagine God if you go beyond this form. So if you want to imagine God, Datta is the only original form that is imaginable. The limit of your imagination is Datta. If you leave Datta your imagination ends. Therefore, do not try to imagine God beyond Datta. Such imagination is impossible for anybody. So God means only Datta. This Datta is very powerful as He radiates energy of infinite millions of suns. Only Atri who became very powerful (and deserving) by penance, could see Datta. All the deities and all the planets are just Datta’s external dresses. Datta hides in deities and planets with the help of His inexplicable power called Maya. The planets, which we see in the sky, are not the planets, which I mentioned here. The planets and the sun, which you see in physical form, are inert. The planets, which are mentioned by Me, are divine forms. These physical planets are just symbolic representations of those divine forms. The Veda says ‘Adityam Brahmeti’ i.e., worship the sun as God. People started thinking that the sun is God. So the Veda again says ‘Nedam tat’ i.e., this sun is not God. The deity form (divine form) of the sun is invisible. Therefore the planets in their original sense (deities) and all the other deities are invisible forms. The planet-deities and the other deities put together can be called as deities in general. These deities are also very powerful and are like the radiating sun. Ofcourse they are not as powerful as Datta. A man can see different deities with some effort and care (spiritual effort). But you cannot touch them. We can talk with them for a while at the most. But they cannot live with us because of their radiation. We should not consider Datta as the incarnation of God because God is beyond imagination. [We should not consider the unimaginable God to be actually modified into the human body of the incarnation. Datta is the incarnation of God. Neither is the inert body God, nor is God modified into the inert human body. God is unimaginable. God, by His miraculous power Maya, enters the inert human body, in order to 129

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make Himself available to devotees. Thus the human body of the incarnation is God for the devotees effectively; not actually.] Hindus call this God beyond imagination as Parabrahman. This God is called Jehova by Christians and Allah by Muslims. You cannot say that this God is even formless because the formless object can also be imagined. For example light is formless and can be imagined, but God is beyond imagination. Therefore we have no direct right even to mention the word God. The word ‘God’ indicates only that unimaginable thing. That unimaginable thing can be understood (inferred) only as something existing due to its effects. The Bhagavad Gita says ‘Avyaktahi…’ i.e., worship of the unimaginable God is impossible and leads to grief. So the form of Datta is inevitable and we should start with Datta. Now the word God should mean Datta. However, if you are particular of worshipping that unimaginable God only, you should understand that you can pray to Him but you cannot worship Him. Therefore, do not call God formless. Call Him unimaginable. If you imagine Him as a formless light, again your imagination is only His incarnation. Any imagination of yours cannot be the unimaginable God. The Veda says ‘Na Medhaya…, Naisha Tarkena…’ etc., which means that God is beyond imagination and logic. When you were imagining the light, your mind contains some limiting boundaries for it and so the light that you imagined cannot be formless. Moreover light is made of particles called photons. Each photon is a packet of energy. So light is not formless. In this way also you cannot imagine a formless object. You can only submit your prayer to the unimaginable formless God. But this does not satisfy devotees. They want to describe Him. They want to see Him. They want to touch Him by embracing. They want to talk with Him. They want to live with Him throughout their lives. To give full satisfaction to devotees, Lord Datta takes the human form, which is made of five elements. The Bhagavad Gita says ‘Manusheem tanumashritam’. Just like Datta takes up radiation bodies (divine bodies made out of light) and becomes the deities; Datta takes up human bodies. Those deities and the human bodies taken by Datta are all incarnations. An incarnation is a two-in-one system. The first part is the inner form, which is Datta. The second part is the external form, which is either a deity or a human body. The inner form pervades all over the external form like electric current in a metallic wire. The whole wire is the current (since it gives the effect of current). Wherever you touch the 130

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wire the current gives an electric shock. It is as if there is only one thing—electric current. Similarly, in the human incarnation, there is as if one thing—God. So the purpose of the devotees is served. Through the incarnation, they see and touch God. They talk and live with God. How to recognize Datta in human form? He performs miracles. He gives blissful knowledge because he is both bliss and knowledge. He quotes from all the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita because He Himself spoke the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, which are the Word of God. He treats this entire world as His family. He always tries to uplift all living beings. He is the embodiment of love and kindness. The incarnation of Datta is filled with all these divine qualities. Do not decide a person as Datta by miracles only. Even demons and devils perform miracles. Do not decide an ordinary scholar as Datta just because the scholar can give knowledge by quoting the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. The knowledge of Datta gives bliss. The bookish knowledge of a scholar cannot give bliss. A scholar can explain the Veda and the Bhagavad Gita based on the meaning given by another scholar. These scholars cannot grasp the actual view of God present in the Veda and the Bhagavad Gita. The Veda says ‘Brahma vit Brahmaiva…’ In this sentence the first word Brahma means the Veda. The second word Brahma means God. The meaning of this sentence is that God (Datta) alone can give the real meaning of the Veda. So, only Datta can give the real interpretation of the Veda and the Gita. Such real knowledge is called Prajnanam. The fourth great sentence (Maha vakya) says that by such Prajnanam, one should recognize Datta. Such Prajnanam is the characteristic property of the internal form of God in the incarnation. The first three great sentences (Maha vakyas) say that the external form of God is like me, you and him i.e. like an ordinary human being. Foolish people think that God is an ordinary man by seeing the external human body, which follows all the rules of the nature. The Gita says the same ‘Avajanantimaam Mudhah…’. The aim of God in such a human body is that He wants to suffer by taking the sins of His devotees in a real way. He will not suffer really if his body is beyond the rules of nature (if He comes in a divine body). If He took a body that was above the rules of nature, it would amount to cheating the deity of justice. Another aim of God in coming in a human body is that all the other people, who are not devotees, should not be able to recognize Him. If all recognize and follow Him, the drama of this world gets disturbed. He 131

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came only for His devotees and not for all. Only His devotees had prayed for Him. Only strong devotees can recognize Him. He will not allow weak devotees to recognize Him by deliberately talking or acting negatively (Maya). Generally people are not interested in recognizing God in human form due to their jealousy and egoism. One in thousands tries to recognize. One among those recognizes and reaches Him. This is told in the Gita as ‘Manushyanam...’

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Chapter - 12

KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND THE PATH Does God Favor the Rich? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Some people criticize the human incarnation of God saying that He concentrates more on rich people than poor people. But they should remember that all human beings are the children of God. The father concentrates on the child, who is suffering with cancer. Although cancer is incurable, the father still attempts to do something for the child. He is more concerned with that child and pays more attention to it. A rich man is a serious case and is very dangerous to others. He has all the power to do sins and disturb the peace of the world. Keeping him on the right path or even controlling him temporarily is very important for the peace of the world. So the human incarnation pays more attention to him, in order to protect the world. A poor man cannot disturb the peace of the world, because he has no power of money. He is always involved in earning his livelihood. So he is not as dangerous. Without knowing this inner truth, people criticize the incarnation.

Knowledge of the Goal and Path Knowledge of the right goal and the knowledge of the right path are both very essential. Suppose your aim is to go the biggest city and enjoy, then you must have the right knowledge of that city. There are several big cities. Which is the biggest? First you must know it. Similarly, there are several forms of God. Which is the real form of God? You must know that. After knowing the name of the biggest city, you must know the right path to reach that big city. Similarly, you must know the right path to reach the real God. So what is the essence of all this? Knowledge is very important. If you have no knowledge of the biggest city, you may reach a small city. Even if you have the knowledge of the biggest city but if you don’t have the knowledge of the right path to reach that city, you may travel on the wrong path and reach a forest. [In order to the get knowledge of God, one must go to the Guru or spiritual teacher.] 133

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Duty of the teacher The essential duty of a Guru is to preach the right knowledge to the people who approach him. These people serve the Guru in several ways like pressing his feet, giving Bhiksha (donation of food), giving Dakshina (donation of money) etc. If the Guru keeps silent, it is not justified. You pay fees to the teacher and what if the teacher keeps silent? Is it justified on his part to take the fees? Some Gurus are giving wrong knowledge and they will be punished in hell, because they have misled people, after taking fees from them. Suppose a doctor takes fees from the patient and keeps silent. Another doctor takes fees from the patient but gives the wrong medicines due to his inefficiency and kills the patient. Both these doctors are criminals. God punishes the Gurus who do not preach and also those Gurus who preach the wrong knowledge, because they have accepted service (or money) from the people, who surrendered to them. Knowledge from the Sadguru The Sadguru (teacher of true knowledge of God, who is also a human incarnation of God) gives the right knowledge, even without your service. You can serve Him only when you are convinced. Your service to Him will help Him help others. Infact a Sadguru does not need your service because He is God Himself. He can help others by His own powers. But you will not get the right benefit from Him, because you did not show gratefulness to Him. Suppose a doctor gives you medicines for some illness without asking for fees and you get cured. If you do not pay his fees due to your greediness, even though you are capable of paying, you will die with a new disease. So, only for your own safety, the Sadguru advises you to participate in service. Service to Sadguru Service done to the Sadguru consists of two parts: 1) Paying the fees in terms of money, which you have earned by your work. 2) Doing some work for the Guru. You can do either of these or both as per you convenience. When you have taken meals in a restaurant, either you must pay the bill or do some work in the restaurant. You can even partly pay the bill and partly do some work. Paying money as fees to the Sadguru is called as Karma Phala Tyaga. Working to serve the Sadguru is called Karma Sanyasa. 134

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Both these put together is called Karma Yoga or service. This is explained clearly in the Bhagavad Gita. Similarly, you must either pay the fees to the doctor or do some work in return such as by working as his assistant. Without doing either of these two, if you simply praise the doctor by words or express your love, by feelings, what is the use of all these? The spiritual meal Your prayers and meditation are of no use, without service. Your prayers and meditation are like pickles (side items). They are to be served in the plate with the bread or rice (main item), which is service. Prayers and meditation without service is like serving pickles without bread or rice. You are offering the plate with mere pickles as meals for God. When God eats only the pickles, His stomach burns (due to the spicy pickles) and He will be furious with you. Even if pickles were absent, the rice or chapatti (bread) could be eaten by itself. Hanuman, participated in the work of God, and did prayers and meditation as well. That is like a plate with a full meal, which consists of service as well as prayer and meditation. I am only saying that prayer and meditation should be associated with service. If you are unable to do prayers and meditation, you need not bother. You can do service alone. God will bless you.

God and Worship Knowledge of God and the path to reach Him The real form of God is Lord Datta. The scriptures say that God is only one and that one God alone creates, rules and destroys the universe. Lord Datta is the One who creates through the face of Brahma, rules through the face of Vishnu and destroys through the face of Shiva. In no other form of God, is this definition of the scriptures fulfilled. The right path is to do service to Him, without aspiring for anything in return from Him. When somebody serves you, without expecting anything from you, how happy you are with him! Similarly Lord Datta becomes happiest with your selfless service. This is indeed the right path. Identifying Lord Datta The next question is how to detect Lord Datta. Scriptures call Lord Datta as being of the nature of knowledge and bliss. The Bhagavad Gita 135

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says that Lord Datta comes in human form only to satisfy His human devotees. You cannot get full satisfaction worshipping a statue or a picture because it does not talk with you or clear your doubts. The Gita says that if you worship inert objects, you will be reborn as an inert object. If you worship the human form, you will get human rebirth. The scriptures say that Lord Datta is the Guru (Sadguru). You call only a teacher as Guru. You do not call a doctor, engineer or a lawyer as Guru. So that human form who gives you the Knowledge that creates Bliss in your heart is Lord Datta and you have to recognize him by this way only. Today ignorant people think that the human form that does miracles is Lord Datta. However demons and devils also do miracles. Are they God? In the past, even when they claimed to be God, the sages never agreed. Miracles are only like jewels of God, which can be given to others by God. If the king donates his jewels to a beggar, does the beggar become the king? Demons and devils are also children of God. They take the powers to do miracles from God, by doing severe penance. If your child insists on having your gold chain, will you not give it to that weeping child? When the child wears that gold chain, will the child become the father? Similarly by getting powers from God, one does not become God. Knowledge is the shape and bliss is the beauty of God. The child can get the gold chain from his father, but not the shape and beauty of the father. Similarly demons and devils may get the powers from God to do miracles. But they cannot get the knowledge and bliss of God. A real devotee recognizes God in human form by His blissful knowledge and not by His miracles. A queen recognizes her husband who is the king, by the inseparable shape and beauty of her husband and not by his jewels. A foolish queen requires the crown and jewels, to identify her husband. She rejects her husband, if he comes to her without the crown and the jewels. If a thief comes with that crown and jewels, the foolish queen mistakes him to be her husband. Actually people like miracles because through miracles, they can detect the existence of the powers of God, in that human form. Then they want to use the powers for their selfish ends, like getting wealth, curing diseases etc. This is not selfless love and so it is not the right path to reach God. Hence miracles actually harm devotees. Hanuman recognized Lord Rama as God in human form, even though Rama did

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not show any miracles. Nobody is more intelligent than Hanuman in the spiritual path. About image and idol worship I am not condemning statues and pictures. They have limited use. When your son is in a foreign country, you keep his photograph with you, just to see him in his absence. A photograph is meant for that purpose only. You cannot talk with the photograph. The Veda says, ‘Drastavyah’ i.e., you must see Him. Temples are built only for this purpose. You can wash and decorate the idol. But there is no necessity of offering food. For maintaining the statue in the temple, the temple priest can earn his livelihood (by working in the world). Why should he take the food offered to the statue? Why should he earn his food based on falsehood, when there is an alternative to earn based on the truth? A Guru must preach by referring to the Vedas, Shastras, Gita etc, which are the scriptures. An advocate, while arguing in court, must refer to the relevant sections in the constitution. Merely talking about spirituality without Vedic (scriptural) authority is not valid. Humility Lord Datta is the incarnation of the highest knowledge. Humbleness is the fruit of the knowledge. So Lord Datta is most humble, without any trace of egoism. Datta avatars (incarnations of Datta) will not have even a trace of egoism and they will attribute the entire credit of any great thing done by them to the inner Lord Datta alone. An incarnation is just like a metal wire through which electric current (Datta) is passing. From the point of view of the devotees, the incarnation must be treated as Lord Datta Himself because the wire when touched anywhere, gives an electric shock which is characteristic of the electric current. The wire has attained all the characteristic properties of the current and so the electric wire must be treated as electricity. This identity between God and His human incarnation is Advaita (non-duality, monism). The current pervades all over the wire. Both the current and the wire are inseparable. So the devotee must worship the incarnation as Lord Datta since there is no other way to worship Lord Datta. One cannot have a direct contact with Lord Datta. So an Advaita attitude is a must from the point of view of the devotee.

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However there should not be Advaita (non-duality) from the point of view of the human incarnation of God. The incarnation must always think that he is only the metal wire and not the electric current. Parasurama, an incarnation of Datta, thought that he had killed all the evil kings. That is why he was insulted at the hands of Lord Rama, who was the next incarnation of the Lord. Hanuman, though an incarnation himself, was a devotee of Lord Rama and even defeated Lord Rama in battle because he always attributed all the credit to Lord Datta. Shirdi Sai, an incarnation of Datta, always said that he was the servant of God (Allah Malik). The incarnation may not declare the truth that He is an incarnation. But He always knows the truth inside. If He says the truth with His own mouth, the Advaita angle of the devotee might be disturbed. But sometimes the incarnation says it with His own mouth to test whether the devotee is actually having the Advaita angle or not. Here, both Advaita (non-duality) and Dvaita (duality) co-exist at the same time in two different angles. Hence, Shankara, who taught that Advaita is correct, is right and Ramanuja & Madhva, who taught that Dvaita (duality) is correct, are also right. If the devotee thinks that the incarnation is Dvaita (different from God), he is lost and if the incarnation thinks that he is Advaita (identical with God), he is also lost. Avoiding false incarnations Lord Datta hides in His human incarnation and does everything. Yet He gives the credit to the incarnation. If the incarnation is real, he will immediately divert all the credit back to Lord Datta, who is hiding in him. If the incarnation is a man, he should immediately pass on the credit to Lord Datta atleast in his mind. If he thinks that he has done anything great, then he is not the real incarnation of Lord Datta because Lord Datta does not reside where egoism exists. When you are an incarnation of Lord Datta, you are Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma created the Vedas. Then why do you not quote your own Vedas at every step in your preaching? This will clearly eliminate all the false incarnations of Lord Datta. Sometimes to satisfy the jealousy of devotees, the incarnation has to speak Dvaita (showing as if He is different from God). If Advaita is spoken (that He is identical with God), the devotee gets repelled due to jealousy that one naturally has for any other human being.

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Chapter - 13

PATH AND METHOD OF UPLIFTMENT The Complete Sacrifice of Gopikas [Deepavali October 21, 2006 One converted Christian from Hinduism (Shri Shastri), who is a Sanskrit scholar, visited Swami on this festival day. He told that he was attracted to Christianity by the spotless character of Jesus and was very much repelled by the bad character of Krishna regarding Gopikas. Swami replied him, which is given below as the divine message on Deepavali. After hearing the reply from Swami, which was a spontaneous discourse, Shri Shastri bowed to the divine lotus feet of Swami with tears and went away silently.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Reply of Swami: If you are converting your religion just for the sake of your liking to Jesus, there is no objection, because liking has no reason. But, if your conversion is based on repulsion to Krishna, I will not agree to it. Similarly, if a Christian is converted to become Hindu, due to liking on Krishna, I have no objection. But, his conversion should not be due to repulsion to Jesus. Same God exists in Krishna and Jesus. Krishna and Jesus are like two shirts of the same person with different colours. Christianity is represented by Jesus only. But Hinduism is represented by various forms of God like Rama, Shiva etc. Rama is equal to Jesus in all aspects. You can still remain in Hinduism by worshiping Lord Rama. Shankara was also a bachelor and preacher like Jesus. Some say that Jesus also was married. In such case Rama is like Jesus. If you say that Krishna was a sinner by dancing with Gopikas and for His illegal affairs with them, Jesus also should be a sinner because He was a non-vegetarian. The ethical scriptures say that killing a living creature is the greatest sin (Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah). If you compare these two sins, the latter is more severe. Killing a living being by force is equal to rape, which is also done by force. Krishna did not rape Gopikas, where as a non-vegetarian kills the living being by force. The person, who eats the flesh of a killed living being is equal to the killer in 139

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sharing the sin because the killer is killing for the sake of the eater only (Karta Karayita Chaiva…). Kapalikas eat the flesh of a living being, which dies in natural way and thus there is no sin in it. I am not criticizing Jesus because Rama was also a non-vegetarian. Just for a counter argument only, I have raised this issue, because criticizing Jesus means criticism of God or Krishna or Rama only. You have to analyze properly to find out the truth in such cases of human incarnations of the Lord. Infact, Parikshit also asked sage Shuka regarding this matter. The sage told that one can reach God even through bad qualities like Shishupala, who scolded Krishna. Shishupala was the gatekeeper of the Lord. Similarly, Gopikas were the sages, who were trying to cut the worldly bonds from the past three Yugas. By the end of the third Yuga, they have become all most successful in their spiritual efforts. They requested Lord Rama to give final salvation from all the worldly bonds. They were having still the effect of three bonds viz., caste, sex and knowledge. To remove these three effects, they were born as illiterate women in the backward caste as Gopikas by the will of Lord. The six strong worldly bonds (Eshanas) are with body (Deheshana), life (Praneshana), life-partner (Dareshana), children (Putreshana), wealth (Dhaneshana) and traditional justice (Dharmeshana). By saluting Lord in naked condition, they have cut the bond with body. After Krishna [left the body], they jumped into fire and thus could cut the bond with life. They left their husbands to dance with Krishna and thus could cut the bond with life-partners. They gave butter to Krishna even avoiding their children and this shows their detachment to children. Butter was their hard-earned wealth, which was sacrificed to Lord only and this shows their sacrifice of wealth to the Lord. They gave the dust from their feet to remove the head-ache of Krishna, even though the sage Narada told that they will go to hell for such act. They were prepared to go to hell, if the Lord is happy and this shows their lack of fear to hell and its concerned injustice. They could cross all these six charkas (illusions) due to the attraction to the Lord. They have sacrificed even the bond with salvation (Mokshena). The word salvation is used in the liberation from bonds to attain mental peace. Due to their love to Krishna, they faced torture from their husbands and elders, due to which they lost peace in their lives. When Krishna left them forever, they became fully mad and were constantly shedding tears for Krishna. The 140

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entire life became tragic and this shows that they have sacrificed even the salvation (liberation from pain) for the sake of Krishna. They refused even the advice of a Guru like Narada in giving the dust from feet. This shows their sacrifice of bond with Gurus (Guru-Eshana). Bali also refused his Guru Bhrugu and donated the land to Vamana after knowing that Vamana was Vishnu. For the sake of God even Guru is to be rejected. Therefore, the sacrifice of all the worldly bonds is seen in Gopikas for which, they were given Goloka by the Lord, which is the highest fruit. Cutting the bond with the life-partner is only a part of their total sacrifice. Such part itself is not the total sacrifice. You are talking as if that particular part of the sacrifice is the only spiritual way. If that were so, a prostitute should get the salvation very easily, who surrenders her body and not anything else. The Lord did not give Goloka, just because they have danced with Him leaving their husbands. Such dance indicates only a part of their total sacrifice and it is cutting of one of several bonds. If you are tied by several ropes, you cannot get liberation by cutting only one rope. Therefore, you need not fear that the society will be spoiled by such dance. Such dance alone cannot give the salvation. In analyzing the divine case, you have to search the divine background also. Only special cases like Shishupala, who was the gatekeeper of the Lord, could get the salvation by enmity and not every atheist, who also scolds the Lord. Similarly, any lady who can dance with Krishna will not get salvation because the total sacrifice in all other aspects is absent. If you think that Krishna is a fan of such illegal relationships, since Krishna is a form of God, all the other forms of God like Rama, Vamana, Parasurama etc., should also exhibit such quality atleast to some extent. Except the case of Krishna, no other form of God exhibited such quality. Even in the life of Krishna, you cannot see this quality anywhere except in the case of Gopikas. If Krishna has such habit, He should have shown this elsewhere also. If you say that Krishna is very fond of Gopikas only, such assumption is also totally wrong. Krishna never returned back to Brundavanam even to see Gopikas atleast once. This shows clearly that Krishna is having a special background of this event, which is explained as above. If you believe the dance of Krishna with Gopikas based on the scriptures, you must also believe the

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background of it from the same scriptures. You cannot take the scripture partially to suit to your prejudiced conclusions only. We accept the case on Krishna straightly without any diversion or coverage. When a case is filed against you, you should accept it, if it is true. You should not try to cover the case by concealing the fact or you should not try to mislead the court into wrong path by misinterpretation of the truth. You will face the double punishment for the double sin. Therefore, we accept that Krishna had illegal relationship with Gopikas, who were married. The Gopikas say that they have come to Krishna even by neglecting their husbands, who were opposing them. The tenth Skandha of Bhagavatam clearly explains the illegal secret sexual act of Krishna and Gopikas in the five chapters (29th to 33rd). The words like Surata, Jara were used very clearly. Even the sage Narada mentions this in his Bhakti Sutras (Jaravachcha, Yatha Vrajagopikanam etc.,). One scholar interprets the word Surata in the sense of good devotion by Yoga. There is no support of usage of this word in such sense anywhere. The word is fixed in the meaning of sexual union only (Yoga Rudha). Even if you take the sense by Yoga, you cannot avoid the sense of Yoga Rudha. For example, the word Brahman is used in the scripture (Veda) by Yoga and the usage in such sense is seen in Gita (Brahmaakshara Samudbhavam…). Even then, this word can be used to mean the God also. Some scholars are covering the case by saying that Krishna was between five and nine years age only (Pauganda), while the stealing of the clothes of Gopikas took place. Gopikas were praying Goddess Katyayani at that time to get Krishna as their husband. This means Gopikas must be younger to Krishna. In such case, such prayer was impossible since Gopikas must be between three to four years of age only. If you say that Krishna danced with Gopikas in the subsequent season of full moon (Mayaimah Ramsyadha Kshapah—Bhagavatam), this is also impossible. In such dance, how Gopikas told that they came to Krishna by neglecting their husbands and children (Ativilanghya…Rasapanchadhyayi -Bhagavatam)? The clear description of sexual union in the same place is also impossible. The stealing of clothes took place in the month of Margasirsha. Hence, the subsequent season of full moon is impossible for the Rasa dance. Krishna meant the future by the word “Mayaimah”. He assured Gopikas in the near future only and not in the very next year. The verb “Ramsyadha” need not mean the future tense of next year only. It means only the future in 142

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general. After the Rasa [dance], Krishna went to Madhura and killed Kamsa. Vasudeva was pained that Krishna became late for Upanayanam. The scripture says that the Upanayanam should be before 16th year. This means Krishna was above 16 years. Infact, Krishna danced with Gopikas between 16 and 18 years of age.

Message & Actions of Krishna Are for Kali Yuga You should not cover or misinterpret the truth to defend the Lord. That shows you ignorance about the Philosophy of the Lord in such incident. This incident took place in the end of Dwapara Yuga only. Therefore, the message of the Lord (the Gita) and actions of the Lord were meant for Kali Yuga only, which is immediately coming. The message and the life of the Lord were not for Dwapara Yuga, which has almost ended with Him only. If you analyze the standards of Kali Yuga without any trace of hesitation, one can easily understand that the society is not spoiled by the Lord, whereas, it is already spoiled. The sin comes by the feeling itself. Mind is the main reason of the sin. The inert body without mind cannot have the sin. Even though Sita was touched by Ravana through body, she was sinless as per the certificate given by the Fire God. Renuka was punished for her mental sin even though her body did not even touch the other person. In such case, can anyone say frankly that he or she is not a sinner at anytime of the life? I have to be very frank because the case that you have moved is very delicate and is of critical nature. I have to expose the facts of this case from all angles without any shy. Therefore, the sin is already prevailing in the society, when Krishna entered this world. He did not generate the sin in the sinless society. He became close to the sinners, through such common sin. To uplift a fellow from the mud pond, you have to jump into it and become close to him. The Lord gave a new divine direction to the already existing sin in the society. When the sin is inevitable, you cannot advise to come out of the sin, because such advice is useless atleast in the majority, provided we are frank. Everybody speaks about the justice and good qualities but when the practice comes, hypocrisy is followed. This is clear to everybody because the self is the real witness. We cannot condemn such souls because these qualities are precipitated from millions of previous births and are like hard diamonds. Even the top most spiritual preacher like Veda Vyasa wrote that he was attracted by Ghrutachi, a dancer from heaven. The sage wrote this 143

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truth very frankly and this shows his sincere exposure of truth without any hypocrisy. If somebody else is in the place of the sage, he should have censored this fact! It is foolish to think to get rid of the bad qualities completely. By spiritual efforts, you can control these bad qualities (Rajas and Tamas) to certain extent and this is also essential because uncontrolled bad qualities disturb the balance of the society. In such case God will punish them. Control is possible but complete eradication is impossible in the case of these bad qualities. Control is boasted as eradication. Therefore, after achieving the control by the detachment from the worldly bonds, these qualities remaining in the soul should be diverted towards the Lord. The Lord is pleased by the basic love existing in these qualities. The selfless love is like sweet milk and the bad quality is like a ceramic cup. The selfish love is like salt water and the good quality is like a golden cup. The milk is paid but not the golden cup. The sage Shuka says that if the devotion exists, the nature of the quality is not important at all. This was the answer given by the sage to Parikshit in this context (Jarabuddhyapi…, Kimutadhokshajapriyah… Bhagavatam). Here you must be very careful to understand that the already existing sin is diverted by the Lord and the Lord did not generate the sin. Wealth from waste means extraction of wealth from the existing waste. It does not mean that to extract wealth, waste must be created! Similarly, you can explain the non-vegetarian food of Jesus. People cannot be controlled to avoid the non-vegetarian food. It already existed, which is uncontrollable. Jesus tried to divert this atleast towards the God. He advised that one should thank God for providing such nonvegetarian food instead of taking it directly. He showed the dry fish to God with gratefulness. The Veda says that you should offer the flesh of the killed animal to God in the sacrifice (Yajna). This does not mean that the Veda is asking you to kill the animal. Anyway you are going to kill the animal to eat it and you cannot be controlled under any circumstances. In such case, the Veda says that you should offer the flesh to God and eat it. Shankara says that the scripture is based on the existing nature of the human being and is not generating the same nature (Jnapakam Natu Karakam). Even if Krishna did not exist, such nature is existing in Kali Yuga. Even if Jesus did not exist, such non-vegetarian habit is existing in the world. God comes through a medium having the same common qualities of human beings to be close with them. By such 144

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common qualities, the Lord encourages them also to have a straight path to God from their qualities without any change. If such encouragement is not given, the sinners will go deeply in the path of sins only, since the path to God is opposite to the sin (Apichet Sa Duracharah, Apichedasi Papebhyah, Sarva Dharman –Gita). The society will not be spoiled by the Lord and in such point, you are assuming as if the society is not spoiled already. The Lord is trying to uplift the spoiled people in their own inevitable way. If you are not spoiled, you have your own path of purity and you need not come to the path of the spoiled people. When you insist that the spoiled people should rectify themselves and should come through your path only, some of them may succeed. But a large majority is unable to change their bad qualities and such people are dejected forever due to their inability. Such people resort to the path of sin only further and further since the divine path of good people is closed to them forever. For such people, there should be a path to God. The path is to divert their sinful nature towards God instead of applying it towards the world (Tepi Yanti…Gita). If you are with mud on the body and if you are unable to wash it by any amount of effort, you have a path by which you can also reach God with the same mud. This gives hope to such dejected people. When they turn towards God, atleast the society is saved from their involvement. If you realize that the entire responsibility of sin is only on the mind, there will be hardly any person left over in this world, who is not a sinner. When Jesus asked the people to punish the prostitute in case they have not committed any sin, all went back because if anybody comes forward with hypocrisy, Jesus will reveal the sins of such person. You can fool another human being by your hypocrisy but not God. Any amount of effort cannot eradicate the sinful nature but can control it. Therefore, the effort is certainly appreciable but nobody can claim that the nature is completely destroyed. Even the unimaginable torture cannot do it and the soul returns to the earth with reduced nature (Karma Sesha) only. In the spiritual path, fooling others has no use because it becomes fooling yourself. Therefore, you should not criticize the sin of any other soul since any soul is in such state of inevitable sin only atleast in the mental plane. Only the sinless God can criticize any soul. But God comes down to uplift the souls from the sins. First He advised to get rid of sins and reach Him. A few could succeed and when they became proud, God showed the inherent sin hiding in them! Every soul 145

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is made of the three qualities (Good Sattvam and bad Rajas and Tamas). Good quality may predominate and the bad qualities may exist as invisible traces of impurities. Any single quality of these three cannot exist in isolated way. When the human being boasts that he is completely good, the boasting itself is a bad quality (Rajas)! In some or other time, Rajas and Tamas predominate even in the case of top most devotees. Therefore, diverting the bad quality also towards God is the best and is the really expected way also. Any quality diverted to God is good and any quality diverted to worldly bonds with selfishness is bad. Gopikas were sages in the previous births and wrote all the ethical scriptures for the society. But when they entered the field of God, they have realized the real aim of ethics. Then, they thought that all those ethical scriptures written by them were useless because the real aims of bad and good were not realized in such scriptures. Now they have defined good and bad in a single statement like this: Whatever pleases God is good and whatever is disliked by God is bad (Hareh Kopakaram Papam, Punyam tasya Priyapradam). This truth was also acknowledged by God in the Gita (Sarva Dharman…). All the three qualities are created by God only to help the spiritual effort of the soul (Yechaiva ...Gita) and are good if they are diverted towards God. When they are diverted to the world, the purpose of their creation is lost and they become bad. To divert them to God, God comes down in human form possessing the bad qualities also and shows such diversion practically. The soul is constituted by the three qualities; where as the medium (human form) of God is constituted by the three qualities and not God. You are a cloud and God is the Sun existing in another cloud. The cloud is criticizing the sun for the black colour of the cloud! God is unimaginable and no quality can be His characteristic (Nachaham…, Natvamteshu… Gita). He has chosen such similar medium so that He can become close to us by mixing with us freely. For the demonstration of the diversion of all the three qualities to God, He also requires those three qualities associated with Him. From such demonstration, you should learn the concept but not criticize God foolishly with hypocrisy. The original pure path is best and if you are in the best path, proceed in it. The next middle path is better, which is control of the sins. The third path is to divert the inevitable bad qualities to God by detaching the self from the worldly bonds completely. All the three paths lead the self to God. If you are in the best path, you can expect the soul in the middle 146

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path to come to you, but you cannot imagine the third path to come and merge with your path under any circumstances. What is the fate of those people, who are in the third path? Should they be condemned forever? No no. If their goal is God, they can reach the goal in their own path. The difference is only in the path but not in the goal. Whether the river takes straight path or curved path, it reaches the sea (Payasamarnava Iva… Mahimnah Stotram). You have gone to the city in a car. I have also come to the same city by a donkey. Both of us have reached the same city. You might have reached the city early, but you should not say that I will never reach the city. The only reason is that the same city is the goal for both of us. Even if you have car, if you are traveling in the opposite direction, you will never reach the city, where as I am certain to reach the goal. Similarly, if your goal is God, you can reach Him by any quality you have. Gopikas got the highest fruit by the worst path of Tamas. “How this is possible?” Parikshit asked (Tasam Mohadhyam Katham? Bhagavatam). If the goal is correct, even My donkey will take Me to the city and I need not waste all My time to procure a car, which is impossible for My capacity. Instead of wasting My life time to change the donkey and get the car, let Me travel towards the city on My donkey itself and spend the time properly without wastage. Infact, the soul itself is a donkey even if it sits in the car. Such donkey in the car is mocking another donkey, which is walking towards the same city! Here the greatest fun is that when a person is traveling by the donkey, the donkey in the car is mocking at the person. Similarly, God comes with Rajas and Tamas to show that they can also lead you to God. The soul is made of Rajas and Tamas inherently and is traveling by Sattvam (car). Now the soul is mocking the God, who came with Rajas and Tamas for demonstration! The superpower is exhibited to show the divinity. Hanuman is born to Anjani, who is the wife of Kesari. The story says that Vayu (air) carried on the sperm of Lord Shiva to Anjani and then Hanuman was born. Some other story says that Vayu was attracted to Anjani and Hanuman was born to both of them. Here Shiva is invisible. Vayu (air) is inert. Anjani has given birth to Hanuman without any contact with Kesari, which shows the invisible divine interaction. This shows that Hanuman is the divine incarnation. The super natural part in this story has such purpose only. If you realize the divinity of Hanuman, there is no need of this story. You can say that Hanuman is born to Anjani and 147

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Kesari and here Hanuman means only the body and not God in it. For the generation of body no superpower is required because the body can be generated in a natural way itself. It is foolish to use superpower, when the natural alternative is possible. The superpower enters only, when all the natural alternatives are closed. Similarly, Jesus is born to Mary without the interaction of her engaged bridegroom. This story reveals the divinity of Jesus. But if you have realized the divinity of Jesus through His knowledge, such story is not necessary. To draw the attention of ignorant people, who cannot realize the divinity of Hanuman or Jesus, such story is created. To create the human body for God, superpower is not necessary for realized souls. For realized souls, these stories are not at all required. You can straightly say that the body of Hanuman or Jesus was generated by the union of the parents. In the case of Jesus, you need not criticize Mary who was not married. The engagement itself is marriage as per the ethical scripture of Manu (Vacha Datta...). These stories are certainly required for the ignorant people who cannot recognize Hanuman or Jesus otherwise. Therefore, miracles are required only for the ignorant people and not for the realized souls.

Real Interpretation of Worship of Krishna & Radha Krishna and Radha are worshiped very much in North India. Whenever you are taking Krishna with Radha, the only concept that you have to realize is to divert all your good and bad qualities to God without wasting your lifetime to convert bad qualities in to good qualities, which is impossible (Prakrutim Yanti Bhutani…Gita). The Lord says in the Gita clearly that any amount of control of the nature of the soul is useless in complete eradication of the nature of the soul, atleast in some occasions and atleast in mental plane (Nigrah Kim Karishyati? Gita) [control fails]. The only person who can throw away any quality completely is God, because He is associated with the qualities and not constituted by the qualities. God is like a colourless person having a red shirt on His body. The soul is that very red shirt itself. Now the red shirt is mocking at the person for the red colour! Your criticism to any human incarnation like Krishna or Jesus is similar to this. What is the use of the worship of Radha and Krishna, who do not exist now? Such worship of idols through out the life without realizing and practicing their messages increases the wealth and fame of 148

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the priests and preachers only. If the words ‘Krishna and Radha’ mean God and divine soul, they are always permanent because God and divine souls exist even now and will exist in the future. But if you mean these words as specific human bodies, they were limited to one generation only in the past. Idols and their worship along with the help of priests and preachers are certainly helpful provided the concept for which the idols stand is realized atleast sometime in the life. When the purpose is not served at any time, all this is a total waste and then Bhagavatam is only equal to a romantic film which gives you some entertainment for sometime. In such case the result is that one inspired by Bhagavatam or a romantic film intensifies his romance with his lover. A romantic film is meant for such purpose. But Bhagavatam is meant for intensifying your attention to God and not to the world. Radha was the daughter of Vrushabhanu and was the wife of Ayanaghosha belonging to the dynasty of Yadavas. She was simply mad of Krishna and openly refused all the worldly bonds for the sake of Krishna. The details of Radha were censored from Bhagavatam for the fear of misuse in Kali Yuga. However, she was mentioned in one context (Anayaraadhito… Bhagavatam) to show that even Radha became proud and due to that Krishna left her. When Krishna was dancing with Gopikas, they felt that Krishna was attracted by their physical beauty. But, Radha did not think so. Therefore, the Lord took her on His back to a secret place and entertained her personally with the sexual union. But now, Radha also thought that Krishna was attracted to her only, due to her physical beauty excelling that of Gopikas. Immediately Krishna left her also and disappeared. She started weeping for Krishna and was traced by Gopikas. This story in Bhagavatam reveals that even the top most divine soul can never get rid of Rajas and Tamas. The pride is Rajas and the Sex is Tamas, which are the forms of ignorance and Radha showed both. This means that even the top most soul cannot be free from the three qualities which are the very constituting materials of the soul. Even knowledge is a quality (Sattvam) and it is neither God nor the inherent characteristic of God. It is only an indicator of God, being constantly associated with God. You can also find the constant association of Rajas and Tamas also with God. The Lord declared in the Gita that He is the absolute controller and this pride is Rajas, though it is the truth. To reveal the truth, He takes the help of Rajas. Similarly, the Lord is having blind love towards His 149

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devotees and this is Tamas. Therefore, all the three qualities are divine and good in association with God. They become bad only when they are diverted to the world (Soul). Soul is part of the world. When the soul attains the knowledge related to world (Physics etc.), such knowledge is also bad since it is not related to God. Similarly, the pride of the self and the lust for other souls are bad since they are diverted to the world. The same knowledge of Physics etc., can be diverted to God in analyzing the non-God items so that one can conclude that God is unimaginable. Now due to such direction towards to God, such knowledge becomes good. Shankara used the Shastras like logic, grammar etc., to analyze the nonGod items in His commentary. The Same Shankara criticized a scholar in the grammar, who is trying to use it to earn wealth (Bhaja Govindam…) even in the last days. Radha was the incarnation of sage Durvasa, the top most devoted soul. All the anger of Durvasa was for achieving God only and all this anger was converted into love, when he was born as Radha. Radha and Gopikas were well aware of Krishna as the Lord. Gopikas mentioned this in their songs (Akhila dehinam… Bhagavatam). Gopikas are well aware of themselves as devotees and Krishna as Lord. All the other worldly bonds with their husbands, children etc., were just dramatic in their eyes. Narada also tells in Bhakati Surtras that Gopikas were well aware of Krishna as God (Mahatmya Jnana…). For them, the Lord was the only goal of their lives. Suppose, an actress is acting as queen and another actor is acting as a king in the cinema shooting. Suppose the producer and director of the film calls the actress to come out side for a talk. Will the actress say that she has to take the permission of the actor acting as king, to come out of the shooting? The stage of Gopikas towards Krishna is like the relationship between the actress and producer of the film. Suppose, the actress is under the strong influence of the illusion of drama, she may say that she needs the permission of king to come out. This is the difference between the realized- liberated soul and ignorant soul grasped by the illusion. We see three levels of devotees, who loved Lord Krishna and wanted His close association. The wives of sages went to Krishna and offered food even before the sacrifice (Yajna). Then, they requested Krishna to accept them to stay with Him because of the fear of their husbands if they return. Krishna did not allow them to stay with Him and assured them to go back without any fear. These devotees expressed 150

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love to Krishna, only when Krishna asked them to give the food. Their request to Krishna was due to the worldly fear. For their sacrifice of food even before the ritual, the Lord was pleased and protected them from the fear. Such love was momentary and had the worldly reason. The second level of devotees was the 16,100 girls of kings, who loved Krishna through marriage. Their love was better since they did not marry anybody even by any force. They had problem before marriage only. They wanted the licensed love with Krishna. Krishna married them as per their desire. The third levels of devotees were Gopikas, who were mad of Krishna and did not care for their families and social customs. Such love is the climax, which has crossed all the hurdles. The wives of sages went to heaven. The girls of kings went to the divine abode of the Lord. Gopikas went above the divine abode of the Lord and Lord became their servant. The wife of one sage was arrested in the house by her husband, who could not go to Krishna along with others. In the love of Krishna, she died in the house by constant weeping. Her love was also emotional, which came up by that incident only. She could not reach the Lord on the earth while alive and therefore, could go to Tapo Loka only, which is just below the divine abode of God. Pravrutti deals with the ethics to be followed towards the other souls in the society. Nivrutti deals with the knowledge, devotion and service through sacrifice to God. Duryodhana is in the bottom, who does not know even the Pravrutti. He wanted to enjoy the wealth of his cousin brothers and never recognized Krishna as God. He is zero in Pravrutti and Nivrutti. Dhrutarashtra is just equal to Duryodhana in practice. He is a good scholar of Pravritti and Nivritti in theory only. Both these went to hell. Dharma Raja is very good in theory as well as practice in Pravritti. His theory and practice in Nivritti is also good but deficient in Nivritti to some extent. He gave more importance to justice than God. He went to heaven for following the justice. This is the essence of Maha Bharatam, which could touch only the heaven at the maximum. All this is Pravritti only. Veda Vyasa was very good in Pravritti and Nivritti both in theory and practice. But, he could not overcome the worldly bonds, when he entered the family life. He was attracted by the dancer from heaven and was in blind love for his son. He went up to Tapo Loka. The sage Shuka avoided the family life for the fear of the attraction of worldly bonds. Bhagavatam says that he did not come out of the womb of his mother 151

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for a long time fearing for the world. He went to the divine abode of the Lord. Gopikas were in the climax of Nivrutti and violated even Pravrutti for the sake of Nivrutti. They went to Goloka, which is above the divine abode of God. This is Bhagavatam, which touched the divine abode of God and also above it. All this is Nivrutti. In Ramayana also we find the same gradation. Vali was like Duryodhana. Ravana was like Dhrutarashtra. Sugriva and Vibhishana were like Dharma Raja. The sages in the forest, who served Rama as guest, were like Veda Vyasa. Hanuman, Shabari, Sita, Lakshmana etc., were like Shuka. There was nobody like Radha and Gopikas in the Ramayanam. Infact, Krishna created the Goloka for the first time for Gopikas only. Rama was limiting Himself to the devotion, which is not madness. But the devotion of Gopikas was the madness, which was spontaneous and cannot be achieved by anybody by any effort. The state of Gopikas is beyond the human imagination. The path of Gopikas is starting from the worst and is ending in the best. They have created a new history in the spiritual path. Rama rewarded good qualities and punished the bad qualities always with reference to Pravrutti. For the first time, Krishna paved the path from hell to Goloka by diverting all the bad qualities towards God and Gopikas helped the Lord in this venture. There was necessity for such new dimension in Kali Yuga because almost all the souls are polluted by bad qualities to the irreparable extent. When the conversion of bad to good becomes impossible, this new path gives hope to all the souls in Kali Yuga. If the soul fails even in this last resort, the soul is condemned forever. Therefore, this aspect of Bhagavatam shows a special path, which is not found anywhere in the world. It is said that the divine knowledge of a scholar is tested in the explanation of Bhagavatam (Vidyavatam Bhagavate Pariksha).

Misutilisation of Divine Relation of Lord & Gopikas One follower of Osho asked Me that Krishna was not only having illegal relationship with women but also deceived their husbands because Gopikas came to Krishna in the midnight while their husbands were sleeping. He charged Krishna as a double sinner. I asked a question in the line of the philosophy of his Osho. Let us assume an illegal relationship between a married woman and somebody else. I heard such cases frequently in the recent time. Osho says that the wife 152

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or husband should be frank to express the sin to the other life partner without hiding the truth. Suppose, both are in the same line, then, they can understand each other and proceed in their lines with mutual cooperation. According to the Hindu ethical scriptures, both will go to hell and have to embrace the red-hot metallic statues. Both may live with happiness in this world as per Osho. But, what is their fate after the death? Suppose one of these two is very chaste. By knowing the truth from other side, the life partner either will go for divorce or will be weeping through out the life. Now the sin is doubled and double punishment is given to the sinner in the hell. In the case of Gopikas and Krishna, the point is totally different. Such sinner in Pravrutti cannot be either Gopika or Lord Krishna. The divine background of Gopikas as sages and the total sacrifice of Gopikas are impossible in the case of any sinner in Pravrutti. Such sin is committed in Pravrutti for another cosoul and not for the Lord as in Nivrutti. Such sin is possible in Nivrutti also between a female thinking herself as Gopika and the male thinking himself as Krishna. Both the cases are ruled out because the total sacrifice of all the bonds in the world prevents any female devotee to become Gopika even if the real Krishna exists. Gopika is not simply an illiterate lady as we think. She is the sage, who is putting on continuous spiritual effort from the beginning of creation up to the last part of the Dwapara Yuga. Such background is impossible to any soul. The state of madness of Gopikas is also unimaginable and cannot be achieved by any soul. In such a state of climax no hurdle can stand in the path. You cannot stop any mad person by any type of effort. The Lord arranged this type of scene just before the beginning of Kali Yuga so that the bad qualities can be diverted to God for salvation. The soul gets salvation by such diversion and at the same time the world will be also peaceful without any disturbance since the bad qualities were detached from the world. Therefore, Krishna and His message (Gita) are wonderful new dimensions especially for the dejected souls with inevitable bad qualities. Due to this reason Krishna is said to be the complete incarnation with sixteen kalas. The Kalas increase in living beings as we travel from animals to men to devotees and to the human incarnations. The number of Kalas is the estimation of the power of divine knowledge expressed by God. The most sinful Kali Yuga needs such highest power of knowledge. Rama expressed only twelve kalas of knowledge, since that much was sufficient in Treta Yuga. Krishna attracted almost all the 153

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souls in Kali Yuga. The Gita is His theory and Bhagavatam is His practical. Krishna means the Lord who attracts all (Krushyate Anena Iti…). Devi Bhagavatam says that the word ‘Krishna’ represents devotion and practical service through sacrifice. It says that “Krishi” means devotion and “Na” means practical service (krishih tat Bhakti Vachano, Nascha Taddasya Vachakah).

Concluding Remarks Today Krishna killed Naraka or Bhauma, which represent the hell and materialism. Krishna has the colour of Shyamala, which is a mixture of bright and dark colours. Krishna was neither black nor bright. Today is darkest Amavasya representing ignorance? These lights represent knowledge. The Lord is associated with ignorance in order to show path to ignorant people. The Lord has to act like a soul and practically demonstrate the path. By knowledge (analysis) you can realize that He is beyond darkness. The crackers produce sound and light. Sound represents the speech through which, the knowledge-light comes out. All this is not necessary if you realize the internal meaning. You have to lit the knowledge-lights in the ignorant people through your speech. You need not waste money like this because all this is only a representative worship, which is indirect. All this can be spent in divine mission of propagating knowledge and devotion in the people, which includes helping the poor practically (Social service) also in the name of God. This is not the direct service of the Lord so that you can justify that it is better than the divine mission or social service. When Jesus was alive, He supported the application of scent to Him instead of spending it to feed the beggars as suggested by His follower. That was direct service since the Lord existed in His body. The practical worship, which involves spending of your hard-earned money, should be always to the living beings. Even in the direct service to God, the life as the receiver is important in such practical worship and therefore God in human form only should be worshipped practically. When the fruit of service is not received by life or awareness (Chit), everything is waste. Neither Krishna is pleased with the wastage of wealth like this through lights and crackers nor is Jesus pleased with a similar wastage on Christmas. People are burning the wealth, which is the real form of Goddess Lakshmi like this. Similarly, ignorant priests are burning ghee (food), which is the real form of Goddess Annapurna. By such acts, their 154

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husbands (Lord Narayana and Lord Shiva) become extremely furious. Krishna is the incarnation of Lord Narayana and He will not be pleased if His wife is burnt like this. You know the anger of Lord Shiva when His wife was burnt! For inspiration you can worship the statues by devotional songs etc., through theoretical devotion only. Today people worship Goddess Lakshmi who represents the wealth. If the wealth is not properly used and wasted, it means that She is insulted and not worshipped. I assuredly tell all of you that if you waste the wealth, you will suffer with severe poverty due to curse from Goddess Lakshmi. Similarly, if you waste food, you will suffer with diseases due to curse from Goddess Annapurna. You must use the food and wealth either to serve God directly or to serve His devotees or to serve the poor people in the name of God. Then only you will have the divine grace and will be happy with prosperity and health. God in human form, devotee in human form and a poor fellow in human form should be the aim of your practical worship. Even you can select the soft natured animals and birds for such service in the name of God. In any case, life is essential. You are directly worshipping God in human incarnation. When you are worshipping His devotee, God is more pleased. When you serve the poor in the name of God, then also God is pleased. The first case is direct worship, whereas the second and third cases are indirect worship of God. All these are good because your hard-earned wealth is properly received by the life or awareness or soul. Therefore, Shankara stressed on the soul to be treated as God and not the inert objects (Jeevo Brahmaiava Naparah).

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Chapter - 14

SPIRITUALITY IN TOTAL Theory & Practical Aspects of Spirituality [March 01, 2005: A divine discourse given by Swami – in Teleconference, which was relayed in USA and Europe.] O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, A teacher has two students. The first one is good in theory and the second one is good in practical. The teacher wishes both the students to exchange their efficiencies so that both become efficient in both the fields. The teacher is strong in both the fields and is teaching the theory and demonstrating the practical in uniform way to both the students. The variation in the students came due to different psychologies of the two students. Similarly God is that one teacher. The religious scriptures in all the countries are uniform. Indians and foreigners are the students of the same God. Indians are good in deep theoretical knowledge. Foreigners are good in firm faith and sincere practical implementation. This difference is reflected not only in the spiritual field but also in the present education of science and technology. Any depth of theoretical knowledge is useless without practice. An Indian should learn this aspect from foreigner to achieve the real grace of God. A foreigner on the other hand has to learn from Indian about the logical analysis, which gives precise direction in the spiritual effort. The practical side of the spiritual path is dedication of atleast a part of the work and a part of the fruit of the work (money) towards the mission of the Lord. This alone brings down the practical grace of the God. The foreigner is excellent in this practical side and this is the reason for the foreign countries to be blessed with lot of materialistic wealth by God. Indians are very poor in this practical aspect. Of-course, they are very strong in this practical aspect when the work and fruit of work are diverted to themselves and their families. They fully concentrate in the work and sacrifice the fruits of all their works to the welfare of their families only. Indians are experts in dedicating the words, which are freely given by God in the form of prayers. They dedicate their minds, which are 156

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freely given by God in the form of meditation. They dedicate their intelligence, which is freely given by God in the form of logical spiritual discussions. They dedicate the words, mind and intelligence to God in their leisure time only during which, there is no work. The Lord always reflects back in the same path. Therefore, the Lord gave good language, good mental devotion and good intellectual logic to Indians, which are the results of their own donations in the same phase. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that in whatever path He is approached by us, He approaches us in the same path. Jesus also told the same in the Bible that one reaps the same seed, whichever he sows. The foreigner is firm in the sacrifice of work and fruit of work to the Lord, though he is weak in Meta Physics and analysis of the divine knowledge. But it will be better for him to achieve the deep divine knowledge also, which convinces the intelligence. Such intellectual realization maintains the constancy of such sacrifice. Thus the practice needs the support of such knowledge. Unfortunately in the case of Indians such practice is not even germinated in spite of the deep realization. At this point there are two types of Indians. The first type [of people] are Scholars who have realized the true knowledge, but are unable to practice it and cover their inability by the mask of misinterpretation. There is no use of preaching this right knowledge to such Scholars because they can never change. The other types of Indians are those who are misled by these misinterpretations conveyed by such fraud preachers and for such people only this right knowledge is meant. Lord Jesus gave the essence in the form of final conclusions to the foreigners because there is no need of such deep analysis for foreigners who immediately implement the final conclusions of the Lord without any further analysis. But if the logical analysis is also given, it forms a permanent base than the emotion-based faith. Thus there is a need of exchange of the two separate fields in the case of Indians and foreigners who are only brothers and sisters because all are the children of the same Godfather.

Strong Family Bonds of India Indians feel proud of their strong family bonds, which are really hindering the spiritual practice. Unless one is released from these worldly bonds, one cannot have a strong bond with the Lord. One cannot join a new institution unless he is released from the old 157

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institution. Jesus preached through the Bible that one should leave these family bonds with parents, wife, children etc., and one should be prepared to sacrifice even his life for the sake of the Lord. Only by such sacrifice one can become dear to Him. Such final conclusions of knowledge made the foreigners to implement such spiritual knowledge in practice and as a result their family bonds are weak. The Vedas in Hinduism also say that the children and family cannot protect the soul. The Vedas also say that one should get detached from the limited family as soon as the realization completes. The deep logical analysis of such statement is not necessary for foreigners and so Jesus did not give it. But, Shankaracharya in Hinduism gave a powerful analysis of this statement. Inspite of such acute analysis the Indian family bonds could not be broken. However, that deep analysis of Shankara states that these bonds are temporary since they are limited to the present human birth only. He establishes that which is temporary is always unreal. The temporary bonds neither exist in the previous birth nor will exist in the future birth. Any thing that does not exist before and afterwards is temporary and such a thing does not exist during the present also and therefore that is totally unreal. For example, the dramatic bond between two actors neither exists before the drama nor after the drama and therefore does not exist even during the drama. The real thing is always permanent, existing in past, present and future. For example, the employer – employee relationship between the producer and the actors is always real during the drama, before the drama and after the drama. Thus the bond with God who is the producer of this world is always permanent and real. This logical analysis brings the permanent detachment and the realization is alive forever. Therefore such analytical knowledge, which is very clear satisfies the intelligence and maintains the detachment forever. Such deep knowledge of scriptures is required for all the foreigners and for all the exploited part of the Indians, which is caught by some traditional misinterpretations of some selfish preachers. These selfish preachers spread the knowledge i.e., convenient to the human beings and attract them for fame and for earning the money. The right knowledge is always inconvenient. Jesus told that the path leading to God is very inconvenient and narrow. Lord Krishna said in the Gita that one in millions reaches Him after millions of births. Such true knowledge repels the human beings and the crucification of Jesus was the result of such repulsion. But Jesus, as a 158

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true preacher never cared for fame and preached the right knowledge only. Such a preacher is called as Sat-Guru, meaning that He is the preacher of the reality.

Hinduism Represents Mini World The foreigners can take another precious gem from Hinduism, which is the unity in diversity. Hinduism is a mini world representing various religions as branches of one main religion. The scholars of all these religions argue with each other by quoting their own scriptures. The unity in their scriptures can be realized at every step like the common tusk of the tree on which, the different branches are spread in different directions. Ofcourse these differences in Hinduism never resulted in fighting with the swords. The effort of Lord Dattatreya through this human body is to bring the unity in the various religions in India and also to bring the unity in the various religions in the world. Thus the effort of the present human incarnation is to achieve the universal religion at national as well as international level. The unity in the world religions will be a reflection of unity in the inner religions of Hinduism. This concept is aimed to stop all the communal wars in the world, which are based on different religions. Thus this theoretical concept, if interpreted properly, has lot of practical application to achieve the peace in the world. If the world-peace is disturbed, the peace of the individual is also spoiled. In such case the individual spiritual effort, which involves the sacrifice of work and fruit of work is also disturbed and one cannot achieve the grace of God. The secrecy of individual spiritual effort lies in the practice of the foreigners. The secrecy of peace in the world, which is basic stage of the individual spiritual effort lies with Indians. Both are essential and are mutual. Thus the exchange is very much helpful for all. The West must learn from the East regarding the world-peace. The East must learn from the West about the real practical spiritual effort of an individual. No one should be egoistic in claiming that he is perfect in all the aspects and that there is no need of learning anything from others. In such direction, egoism extends in insulting the other religions also. In such case God is not pleased with those rigid followers with conservatism. Infact, God becomes very furious with them and will punish them seriously.

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Wish of God The God who is the Father of all the human beings in this world wishes that every human being should reach the ultimate spiritual goal because every human being is His child. All the human beings are brothers and sisters and must help each other by such mutual exchange in the spiritual field. They should exchange the gems with each other and should throw away the useless stones, which are the misinterpretations handed over to them by some of their ancestral selfish preachers.

Proper Use Of Wealth Spending Channels [Cochin]. The Gita says very clearly that the fruit of one’s work (money and wealth) should be spent only in the following two channels: 1) For the minimum requirements of living (Sharira Yaatraapichate…). 2) For the mission of the Lord. There is a third channel, which should be closed. This third channel is that of unlimited enjoyment and unlimited ambition to store for future generations. If you follow this path, the excessive enjoyment brings you diseases and all your money will go in medicines and hospitals. In this way you are not really enjoying. Storing for the future generations is also meaningless. Due to this stored wealth, your future generations will become undisciplined and lazy. Such wealth is finally destroyed and it also destroys the future generations. Therefore this channel is to be controlled. Foreigners (westerners) are advised to control their excess enjoyment. Indians are advised to control their ambition to store for the future generations. Nobody does any work without an ambition for the fruit. Unless there is a desire to eat food, one will not prepare food. The work of preparation is done only due to the ambition (desire) to eat. The food also should be prepared for the sake of others even if you do not wish to eat it or if you eat only a little of it. If you prepare food only for yourself and eat it, it will lead to a number of diseases. You should eat but you should eat only a little. You should eat to live but not live to eat. If you are not hungry, you should not stop cooking because you have to give food to deserving people. 160

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Similarly you should always work and earn continuously. The problem comes when you use the money only for your selfish enjoyment or store it for your future generations. When you eat too much, you become ill. If you store the food, it will get spoiled or will be stolen by some undeserving bacteria and worms. Similarly when you over-enjoy wealth, you are subjected to illness. When you store it for future generations the wealth will be stolen by some undeserving people. This is the very nature of nature (Prakriti).

Leaving Money and Its Associations The Gita says that you should leave ‘Karma Phalasanga’. The word Karma Phala means your self-earned money. Destruction of Karma Phalasanga means that one should destroy that which is closely associated with your money. Suppose you are drinking too much. The wine is associated with your earnings. Your bond with wine is associated with your earnings and that bond is called ‘Aasanga’. Similarly the ambition to store for future generations is associated with your money and therefore your bond with the ambition is also called Aasanga. Therefore the Karma Phalaasanga means your bond with the associated item like wine or the ambition for children etc. The Gita emphasizes cutting your bonds with the items, which are associated with your money, so that your money will be saved. The Gita does not mean that you should cut your bond with money. If you cut your bond with the money there will be no inspiration for you to earn money. Therefore you have to leave the desire for the item associated with the money and not the desire for money. People have misinterpreted Karma Phala Aasanga as the desire for money (fruit of work). When the desire for the fruit does not exist, nobody can do work. Therefore ‘Tyaktva Karma Phalaasangam’ means that you should leave the item that is associated with the fruit (earnings) of your work. The associated item is the ambition for the family bonds, the ambition for your body, leading to over-enjoyment etc. But people misinterpreted this as ‘You should leave the desire for the fruit of your work’. Such a misinterpretation led the people to lose inspiration for doing work to earn money. People have become completely lazy by leaving the work necessary to maintain themselves. Most of the present sages and saints (monks) are such lazy people. Some other people have

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become partially lazy by withdrawing from their work after earning barely enough for their livelihood. Therefore, the aim of Gita is that you should do full work and earn fully. Then you should sacrifice to the Lord after keeping for yourself enough to satisfy you minimum requirements. Ofcourse devotees like Saktuprastha have donated even their minimum necessities to the Lord, but such an example cannot be practically possible. Fortunately the guest, to whom Saktuprastha donated everything, was the Lord Himself and therefore his sacrifice became fruitful. But suppose the guest is a lazy human being and if you sacrifice even your minimum necessities to him, please do not mistake Me if I call you the biggest fool. The practical example is King Dharmaraja who sacrificed all his extra wealth in the ‘Ashwamedha’ ritual, after retaining with himself only the minimum wealth required to maintain his status as the king. There is no need of the scriptures to decide that sacrifice of the fruit of the work is the real essence of love. For a saint (monk) that fruit may be the fame of his work. For a householder that fruit may be the money which he has earned. You are sacrificing the fruit of all your work to your children only. You are doing things for God like praying, chanting His name or meditating upon Him etc., but you are not doing any such things for your children. Whatever you are doing for your children, you are not doing for God. Whatever you are doing for God you are not doing for your children. This is a clear distinction of true love and false love. It is not wrong if you love your children only and do not love the Lord. Not loving the Lord is not a sin. But showing false love to God and trying to fool Him is the greatest sin. If you can’t love God really, express the truth before Him and say that you cannot come out of your weakness for your family bonds. God will appreciate you atleast for your frank expression of the truth. But you show false love to God and say that you really love the Lord only. Such a lie and attempt to fool the Lord cannot be tolerated by the Lord.

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Chapter - 15

A TREATISE ON DEVOTION Types of Bhakti O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Devotion is of two types. The first type is called simply as Bhakti and it consists of prayers or songs through words and emotional feelings through mind. This Bhakti gives only temporary happiness. Knowledge is related to intelligence, which is the discrimination between the real and unreal through logical analysis. By such discrimination, you can realize that all the forms of matter and all the feelings of awareness are unreal. When you have realized that all the forms (rupa) and feelings (guna) are unreal even before the level of yourself, which is pure awareness, your life completely becomes an entertainment in both happy and unhappy situations. Self realization makes you a spectator of the world-cinema, which consists of both happy and unhappy scenes. You will reach the state of an actor who is entertained in all the scenes of the drama while acting on the stage. Thus this knowledge gives you permanent happiness which is called as bliss. Therefore, knowledge (Jnana) is greater than devotion (Bhakti). Here, you must note that the Bhakti, we are talking about, is related to words and mind whereas Jnana is related to the intelligence. Hence, both devotion and knowledge belong only to theoretical phase, which is limited to words, mind and intelligence. The second type of devotion is called as Para Bhakti, which is related to practice or sacrifice of service. This divine devotion (Para Bhakti) consists of divine service by sacrificing work (Karma Sanyasa) and by sacrificing the fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga). This second type of devotion is far superior to the knowledge. Bhakti and Jnana are selfish because in both, your aim is the attainment of bliss for yourself. Divine devotion or divine service is completely different since it has no selfish aim. In this divine service, your aim is to please God and not to please yourself. You have to receive continuous loss and displeasure in divine service. In this stage, you are achieving the nature of God. God always enjoys the fruits of the sins of His devotees and is thus subjected 163

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to continuous misery. His aim is to make His devotees happy. God is always serving His devotees. Service always means sacrifice to make others happy at the cost of self-happiness.

Continuous Happiness The Veda says that God is bliss (Anando Brahma). The Veda reveals the meaning of this statement by further saying “Eshahyeva Anandayati” which means that God makes His devotees happy. Therefore, when we say that God is bliss, it does not mean that God is continuously enjoying the happiness Himself. It only means that God is making others happy continuously. Infact only this definition is the proof of God being bliss. How do you say that fire is hot? Since the fire makes others experience its heat, people say that fire is hot. Similarly, only if you make others happy, are you the embodiment of that happiness. Now the point is whether God is continuously unhappy by such sacrifice, which is His service to His devotees. The answer is that God is continuously happy through such sacrifice. He is deriving happiness continuously by enjoying the misery of His devotees. He is not unhappy to enjoy the sins of His devotees. Therefore, He is always happy and is making His devotees happy too. In the first level of ignorance, the soul derives happiness only from happy situations, which are like sweets. In the second level of realization, the soul derives happiness both from happy and unhappy situations which are like sweets and hot dishes in the meals. In the final level, which is the state of God, if the soul derives continuous happiness from only the hot dishes, such a soul has become almost God (Mama Sadharmyamagatah—Gita). Such a soul is almost equal to God. Such a devotee also attracts the sins of deserving devotees and makes them happy. Such an attraction of sins is always kept secret because the deserving devotee will never agree to such transfer of sins. A devotee who had reached this highest level came to see Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was suffering from cancer. The devotee sat near Shri Paramahamsa and was trying to attract the cancer onto himself. Shri Paramahamsa, who was the human incarnation of God, immediately recognized this and pushed the devotee away from Him. Therefore, the devotee can attain all the powers of God and the divine nature of God, which consists of continuous sacrifice for the sake of devotees.

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Master of God Why is the devotee not called as God in the full sense? Except for one point, the devotee can become God in all aspects and that one point is the creation, maintenance and destruction of this universe. You immediately misunderstand God through various doubts like, “Perhaps God does not want anyone to become equal to Him and therefore, is not granting this special power”. You are mistaking God due to the ignorance of the truth and the lack of analysis on this point. God is ready to give this power to any soul. The creation, maintenance and destruction of the world, is a big responsibility. Who will not be willing to give up this responsibility? One may hesitate to sacrifice the fruit of work but not the responsibility and work. Work and responsibility are just headaches. If you analyze, you will clearly understand that it is impossible to transfer this responsibility to any soul. The soul is made of awareness which is basically the primal energy. The creation starts with the creation of this primary energy (Mula Maya). Before the creation of this primary energy, this primary energy cannot exist. When the primary energy does not exist, the soul (awareness) which is a form of this primary energy also cannot exist. Then how can the soul create this primary energy? If the soul created this primary energy, then what is the material of the soul? The material cannot be awareness because awareness is only a modification of the primary energy. If food is not given to a person, the supply of energy stops. The person becomes unconscious where the awareness disappears as in the deep sleep. The stored energy in the body in its basic form of inert energy maintains the heat of the body for sometime. This is a clear proof of the concept that awareness is only a modification of the inert energy. Therefore it is impossible to make any soul the Creator and therefore this point always differentiates God from any soul. Only due to this impossibility is God not giving this power to any soul. Even if there were even a trace of possibility, God would be happiest to get rid of this headache and responsibility. God has given this power of creation to His best devotee called as Hanuman. This shows His willingness to give away this responsibility. But if we analyze, Hanuman was the incarnation of Lord Shiva and Shiva is another name of God (Shivascha Narayanah—Veda). Therefore, God Himself in the form of a soul could take up this responsibility. Radha is said to be the incarnation of His power of 165

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happiness called as ‘Hladini Kala’. The creation is a form of His power. The soul is a part and parcel of the creation. Therefore, Radha is really a soul. But Radha (the soul) is made the queen of Goloka, which is a world above God’s own abode (Brahma Loka). Hanuman could only enter Brahma Loka. It is logical because Hanuman being God, can enter only God’s abode. The final conclusion of all this is that a soul can be given an even higher position than God but the soul cannot become God, especially with regard to taking up the impossible responsibility of the creation of the universe. You can get the power of creating matter and awareness from the already existing primary energy. The position of a soul is exactly the position of the wife and the position of God is exactly the position of the husband. The husband can give the salary to His wife which is the fruit of His work. The husband can keep the wife on His head and act as her servant. But the wife cannot do the work of the husband. When the wife can get all the fruit of the work into her hand and can make her husband as her servant, is she not foolish to be adamant in insisting to do his work, which is impossible for her? The Veda says that even male human beings in this world are only women and wives of God (Striyah Satih pumsa ahuh). This means all the souls irrespective of gender, which is a characteristic of only the external gross body, can attain the position of master of God but cannot become God. It is foolishness to aspire to become God due to the impossible responsibility, when an even higher position than God is made available to the soul.

Eligibility and Suitability When God becomes the human incarnation, He enters into a human body as said in the Gita (Manusheem Tanumashritam). The word ‘ashritam’ means the entrance of God into the human body. Another verse in the Gita clearly states that God is not modified into the human body which means that God has not become the human body (Avyaktam vyakti mapannam). The electric current entered the wire but the current is not modified into the wire. The current has not become the wire. If God became the human body, God would also perish when the human body perished. When the divine work is over, God exits the human body. When the Lord left the body of Krishna, it was cremated by Arjuna as told in the Bhagavatam. Therefore, you should not think that a particular human being is God. God has not become that human being. 166

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God only entered that human being. God can enter any human being provided the human being is eligible for His entrance and is suitable for doing His work. God can even enter two human bodies at a time for two different works. The fan is moving and at the same time the electric bulb is also glowing. The same current has entered the fan to give air and the bulb to give light simultaneously. God entered Rama and Hanuman simultaneously. Through Rama, God wanted to show the path of an ideal human being (Pravritti) and through Hanuman, God wanted to show the path of practical devotion (Nivritti). The first criterion for His entrance is eligibility, which can be achieved through practical devotion. The proof of love is only service as said in the Veda (Sayuja Sakhaya, Kurvanneveha). The second criterion is the suitable efficiency for the specified divine work. The fan is suitable to give the air but is not suitable to give light. The bulb is suitable to give the light and not to give air. Between these two, eligibility is more important than suitability. If you want to select a person for a job in your office, you must give importance to eligibility first and only then to suitability. If the candidate has good character and is free of corruption, he is eligible for your service. The talent required for your service can be developed in him by giving a short training. Even if the candidate is suitable and has already acquired talent, he should not be selected if he is corrupt. He is suitable but not eligible. Therefore God selects the human body of a devotee, which is eligible by practical devotion. In such case even if talent is absent, God will grant the talent in a moment by His grace. Therefore to reach the divine knowledge, God selects a particular eligible human being. Such a selected human being becomes a scholar in no time by His grace. Even though several scholars exist, who are suitable for His divine work, He will not select them because such corrupt scholars are not eligible. Jesus selected the eligible fishermen to propagate His knowledge but not the corrupt priests who were suitable for the work. Any country develops by selecting eligible candidates and by giving them suitable training for the profession. Therefore, education must give eligibility and the specific department should give the required training. Eligibility comes only by spiritual knowledge. Today, education is only giving suitability from the beginning and is forgetting to impart real eligibility at any stage. This mistake in the education system is responsible for the 167

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fall of India. The fruits of the programmes of the government are not reaching the needy people due to corrupt officials, who are selected by the only criterion of suitability that is imparted from their childhood.

Truth of Truths The awareness is the most subtle form of energy. When you say that God is awareness, it means that God entered the medium, which is awareness. In case God has not entered the awareness, you are taking the awareness as a representative item for God for the sake of worship or meditation. To retain the awareness even by imagination, it is very difficult as said in the Gita (Avyaktahi Gatih…). Among imaginable items in creation, the most difficult item to imagine is awareness and therefore, it is the best representative model for God who is completely unimaginable. Thus, awareness is only a representative model for God. Neither is awareness God nor has God entered the awareness due to the absence of any proof for such an entry. The Advaita scholars have completely misunderstood the concept and have gone into extreme ignorance by taking awareness directly as God. An impossible item can be indicated through the most difficult item. The star Arundhati is invisible [extremely dim] and it is indicated by the nearest visible star, Vashishtha (Arundhati-Vashishtha nyaya). Since awareness happens to be the material of the soul, Shankara preferred to use awareness to represent God. By this concept, He could attract the atheists of His time, and turn them into theists. Since awareness is both God and soul, the atheists easily accepted themselves as God. Such concept will satisfy them because by this concept, there is no external God other than themselves. It is a very subtle diversion made for the sake of the atheists. Later on Ramanuja introduced Narayana, who is the energetic body possessed by God [energetic incarnation]. The awareness is only a representative item for God, where as Narayana is the energetic incarnation of God. A possessed item is better than a representative item. The energetic form can be retained by imagination and thus the convenience is increased. At last, Madhva introduced Lord Krishna and Lord Rama, who represent the human body possessed by God [human incarnations]. The human form of God is more convenient than the energetic body not only for directly experiencing your worship but also to preach divine knowledge to you.

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Today Datta Swami reveals the sense of the concept of Madhva in a clearer way, which is the most convenient. The human incarnation like Rama and Krishna does not exist today. Their statutes and photos can neither experience your worship nor can they preach divine knowledge to clear your doubts. Therefore, the present living human incarnation is the final essence of all the spiritual knowledge. Lord Shiva entered Shankara. Lord Vishnu entered Ramanuja and Lord Brahma entered Madhva. Datta, who is all those three in one, entered this Datta Swami. Therefore, Datta Swami alone can give the total essence of all those three divine preachers. Some may misunderstand Me treating this as egoism but I can not help them in any way because this is the absolute truth of truths. But I can pacify their jealousy to some extent by stating that I am not Datta and that Datta only entered Me. I can further release their tension by stating that Datta can enter any human body provided that human is first eligible. I declare that Datta has entered the human bodies of all My devotees who are participating in this divine mission of propagation of divine knowledge. Their devotion to Me is only external according to the divine drama and essentially all of them are equal to Me. Hanuman is the servant of Rama as per the divine drama but essentially He was equal to Rama because the same God existed in both those roles.

Conditional And Unconditional The devotion is of two types, conditional and unconditional. The former is bound by area and time. Within the limits of certain area only God is honored. If God crosses those limits, God is rejected. Therefore, for the devotee, actual God is not God but the limits of the area happen to be God, since certain specified limits are ultimate for the devotee. God also follows the same rule and cannot help the devotee beyond those limits. In such case God follows the strict rules (limits) of the cycle of deeds (Karma Chakra) and acts according to justice and injustice. At the maximum, God may do some rearrangements like preponing of good fruits with reduced value and post-poning bad fruits with increased interest or transforming one type of punishment to the other. In this case, God will not transfer your sins on to Him because the conditional devotion is basically unreal. In the conditional devotion, since the boundary of the area is ultimate God, God is no more God. Therefore, the approach to God is false devotion. It is time bound since 169

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the devotion comes only in difficult times. The unconditional devotion is not limited by area and time. The devotion is real crossing all the limits of areas and time. The devotees in Mahabharatam like Bhishma, Arjuna, Vidura, Draupadi etc., are conditioned devotees. The devotees in Bhagavatam like Prahlada and Gopikas are unconditional devotees. Bhishma gave importance to duty, which was not atleast supporting justice. He was supporting the side of injustice and in such unjust duty, he neglected God and wounded Him with arrows. The result was that he was laid down on the bed of arrows with agony, which is more than torture in the hell. In that time of great difficulty, he worshipped Lord by composing Vishnu Sahasranama prayer. Arjuna gave importance to the protection of innocent Gaya from the punishment to be given by the Lord. The Lord is the writer of the constitution and He knows whom to punish. Sometimes you see punishment of innocent person. You think that the injustice is ruling. In the kingdom of God, only the justice is the ruler by the grace of God. When the innocent is punished, the punishment was of some bad deed done by him previously and the date of the punishment coincided with the present god incident accidentally. Somebody does good deed but gets bad fruit for it. Actually a bad fruit of some previous deed is received in some specified time and a good deed was done accidentally coinciding with the good deed. Now you link both and say that a bad result is obtained for a good deed! Arjuna should have given Gaya to the Lord. The sons of Arjuna were killed in the war. Arjuna was born as a hunter in the next birth. Draupadi also treated the Lord as the ultimate but she conditioned the Lord to ruin Kauravas. The decision should have been left to the Lord. Draupadi lost all her sons in the war. The Lord will react in the same way as we act (Ye Yatha Maam…Gita). If our devotion is one kg of Gold, He will pay us its cost. If our devotion is hundred grams gold, He will pay us only one tenth of the cost of the gold. But if our devotion is only bronze, even if it is one kg the cost of gold cannot be paid. Bronze glitters like gold and it will have its own rate of payment. The time bound devotion is totally unreal. We are using God only in difficulties as we use the fan in summer. In the winter fan is not needed. Ofcourse, we use the fan in winter also for few minutes so that it will not corrode. Similarly, we pray God for a little time in the days of happiness also so that the touch with God is maintained. The intensity of the devotion in the times of happiness is definitely different 170

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from that in bad times. The devotion of Prahlada and Gopikas was having the same intensity in all the times. In such case only God suffers for the sake of devotee. All the suffering of Prahlada was taken by Lord Vishnu and therefore, Prahlada always smiled during the torture. Christians say that God suffered for the sins of all. But, the Bible says that He came to save His people and not all the people. This correlates with the Gita, which says that God will save only deserving devotees (Paritraanaya…) and thus universal spirituality is maintained.

God is Above Justice Vidura was a spark incarnation of Yama. Yama always analyzes the injustice very carefully to award punishments. The injustice is often in disguise appearing as justice. We do injustice thinking it as justice. The deep knowledge of injustice is required and Yama is an expert in this. Dhrutarashtra was doing injustice and was always trying to color it as justice. Vidura as his minister was always analyzing the injustice (Pravritti). His concentration was strictly on society. Vidura treated Krishna as God, but all his concentration was on the rules of justice (Pravritti) and not much on God (Nivritti). He tried to achieve God by following justice, which was conditional devotion. Justice is a way to please God but is not the ultimate God. God always supports justice and certainly justice is the normal best way to please God. But some people make justice as God. Rama shows that God is pleased by justice. But Krishna shows that God is above the justice also. The deity of justice is not God, which is protected by God. The protected cannot be the protector. Vidura gave the outer skin of banana fruit to God. This indicates that Vidura wants to please God through justice only which is like the outer skin. The unconditional devotion is the inner sweet banana fruit, which was thrown away. Prahlada and Gopikas threw away the outer skin and gave the inner sweet fruit to Lord. In the old age, Vidura became a realized soul of self (Atma Yoga). He was wandering like the Avadhuta thinking that self is God. But, he could not get the full satisfaction and approached Krishna in the last few days. The Lord explained about the superself (God), which is different from self. Vidura went away and could not perfectly digest the divine knowledge.

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Nivrutti is Ultimate The present devotees and the present spiritual preachers are in the path of Vidura and not in the path preached by Lord Krishna. They are following the outer skin of the fruit only. They are concentrating on happiness in this life, which is heaven on the earth. They are concentrating on avoiding the misery (disturbance-causing factors), which is the hell on the earth. The justice gives temporary happiness (heaven) and injustice gives temporary misery (hell). Thus, this cycle is between hell, earth and heaven only (Pravrutti) and the abode of God (Nivrutti) is above this cycle. The self-realization is only a sedative drug, which leads to the birth of inert stones in the future, provided one stops there only. The happiness in the present life and avoiding disturbance to protect the peace of the life is only a temporary goal. The soul cannot protect itself in the upper world as the savior from the hell. Only God can protect you after this life and not your soul, which is your self only. The technique of peaceful living with happiness on this earth is certainly desirable. But it should be only an intermediate step and should not be the final goal of the life. The path of self-realization gives utmost importance to the intermediate step only but is not stressing on the final goal. The comforts during the train journey are certainly important for the candidate who is attending the interview in the next station. The peaceful journey gives mental freshness, which is supposed to help the performance of the candidate in the interview. But the comforts in the journey should not be the final goal. He should concentrate on the material concerned to the subject of interview while traveling in the train. He should allot a little time for looking to the comforts in the journey. But he should not spend all the time of journey in looking for the comforts only. He should not sit leisurely or sleep in the train after getting the comforts. He should concentrate on the material. Similarly after getting the peace by self-realization, one should concentrate on God. You cannot do anything in the upper world to avoid the disturbance from the hell. The upper world is strictly meant for enjoying the results only (Bhoga Loka). The present human life is only chance on this earth (Karma Loka). The effort you put on this earth in this human life should give the peace here and protection in the upper world. The effort by self-realization is limited only to this earth. If you follow Nivrutti directly without the self-realization, it gives peace in this life 172

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and also protection in the upper world. Instead, you can follow the selfrealization and get peace in this life and the subsequent Nivrutti followed here will give the protection in the upper world. Whatever may be the way, the effort is limited to this life on this earth only and therefore, this earth is called as Karma Loka. Nivrutti is far greater than Pravrutti (Nivruttistu mahaphala…). If you limit to self-realization only, the peace in this life is certainly achieved. But what about the fruit of protection in the upper world, since no effort for it can be done in the upper world? The present preachers are drowning you in the upper world. They are like physical directors in winning in the games, which are temporary side changes arranged in the evening. They are not like the teachers who teach you in the classroom and help you to get a distinction in the examination, which decides the fate of your life permanently. Ofcourse, a game is also essential, which is arranged as a side change in the hectic schedule of academic program and it has its own limited importance though it is also an essential factor.

Pravritti & Nivritti should not be Confused Pravrutti consists of family and society. The family is certainly greater than the society. Even though the family members love you as a part of business only because any worldly love is only selfish (Atmanah kamaya… Veda), a partner of the business is certainly more important than an outsider. Veda means that even any family member loves you for his/her selfish happiness only and not for your happiness. Their love on you is only the love on the instrument of their happiness only (refer Brihadaranyaka Upanishat). The wife comes from the public only since she was not your member before the marriage and joins the public after death like an external actor acts as wife in a cinema shooting and becomes external actor after the shooting to join some other shooting to act with some other actor. The parents were also external actors before your birth and become external actors after their or your death. Within the boundaries of the relatively real shooting bonds, among your family members, certainly the parents occupy the first place (Matrudevobhavah, pitrudevobhavah… Veda). Therefore, within the limits of Pravrutti, the parents occupy the first place. Hanuman gave more importance to mother than Rama and fought with Rama for her sake. Here, Rama came for the establishment of Pravrutti and behaved as an ordinary human being. Hanuman being the follower of Rama 173

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followed the fundamental principal of the Pravrutti and treated Rama as an external human being, who is a member of the society. The family is more important than the society and mother occupies the first place. Following the norms of Pravrutti, Hanuman behaved like that because the aim of the Lord was the perfect behaviour in the relatively real Pravrutti. This is the angle of Pravrutti and Hanuman is justified from this point of view. But, from the angle of Nivrutti, Rama viewed as Lord is far greater than Pravrutti. Hanuman and Adi Shankara are the incarnations of Lord Shiva only and hence, both are one person only. Shankara left His old mother for the sake of God, which is opposite to the action of Hanuman. Since both are one person (Shiva) only, the same person did the same in two opposing ways. Since Hanuman is prior to Shankara, He must have done a mistake as Hanuman in the beginning and must have rectified it later on as Shankara. Here, Shiva as Hauman is not really ignorant and is playing the role of an ignorant devotee to teach the humanity how even a great devotee errs in the case of contemporary human incarnation clutched by influence of family bonds. The word ‘Matrudevah’ has two meanings. One is to view the mother as God and the other is to view God as the mother (Tvameva matacha…). Even the love of the mother is seen affected by partiality favoring one child to the other. In the old age, the neglected mother scolds the son mentioning the services done by her to him and this proves that her love was with aspiration of fruit in return. If you compare this with the love of God, God never aspires any help from us and the love of God on the souls is purest. Therefore, when Nivrutti appears, Pravrutti vanishes. Mother stands in the first place in Pravrutti but, when Nivrutti stands, the Pravrutti vanishes. Therefore, when there is a competition between God and mother, God should be voted. In Pravrutti, you must vote for justice leaving the injustice. In Nivrutti, you must vote for God, leaving even the family bonds and bonds with society. Jesus gives importance to God compared to the mother as seen in the Bible. Infact, He clearly states that unless one hates even the parents for His sake, one cannot be His dearest disciple! Prahlada left father for the sake of God. Buddha left kingdom, wife and son for the sake of God. Gopikas left everything and everybody for the sake of God. The highest place in Pravrutti is for justice. Devotees sacrificed even justice for God. The aim of justice is only to please God and justice cannot be greater than God. The Lord says in the Gita that there 174

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should be nothing and nobody that cannot be sacrificed for God including justice (Sarvadharman…). The Veda says that nothing and nobody is equal to God (Natatsamah…). All the family bonds are temporary, which are limited to this birth only. A temporary thing, which did not exist in the past and will not exist in future, must be unreal in the present also (Aadavantecha yatnaasti vartamaanecha tat tatha…, Avyaktaadini bhutani…). Shankara also says the same (Yat anityam…). A bond in cinema shooting, which neither existed before the shooting nor exists after the shooting, does not exist even during the shooting time. The sage Ashtavakra says to Janaka that the mother and son in this birth are becoming wife and husband in the next birth! It is seen in the shootings of present cinemas. In one cinema shooting, two actors act as mother and son and the same actors act as wife and husband in the shooting of other cinema. Both are co-actors only and relationship between them is only a colleague bond, which is common with the other actors also who are not participating in that shooting. Therefore, every soul is a colleague of other soul whether the other soul is a family member or an outsider in the society. Therefore, it is foolishness to grab the money of outsiders for the sake of family members and do the sin of corruption. Moreover it is the commandment of God and is the rule of the constitution written by God that you should not do such sin for which you will be punished in the hell. The family members who enjoyed your earned money through corruption will not share your sin. When Valmiki was robbing the passengers, the sage Narada asked this question. Valmiki went to the house and asked this question. The family members told that they are enjoying the money brought by Valmiki and that they never provoked him to earn the money by robbing and hence, they told him that they will not share the sin. On hearing the answer, Valmiki became a saint. Therefore, you must give more importance to the family than the society in spending your hard earned money through the justified way and in this aspect the family is more important than the society. It does not mean that you should grab the money of society for the sake of luxuries of your family. In sacrifice of your justified money, you should vote for the family than the society and there also, you should vote for God than your family. Gopikas gave butter to Krishna even neglecting their own children but they never gave the butter to the neighbour child neglecting their own child. It is foolishness to do social service neglecting the family. The family or the 175

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society contains only colleague souls, which are part of the creation only. You must remember the extra relatively real shooting bond with your family in sacrificing your justified money. You must remember the unreality of the shooting bond with your family and the same basic real common colleague bond with family and society in grabbing the money of the society for the sake of your family. The creator is quite different from the entire creation and becomes more important than family and society. You must have the full knowledge of Pravrutti (family and society) and Nivrutti (God). The Gita says that one should know both Pravrutti and Nivrutti and should not confuse (Pravruttimcha Nivruttimcha…). Some confused people do only social service neglecting their families and some other confused people grab the money of the society for the sake of the family. Both are the wrong effects of confused knowledge. The clear analysis of the bonds of the Pravrutti removes this confusion. The behavior of Gopikas towards Krishna neglecting even the family bonds can be understood by the clear analysis of the bond with the God in Nivrutti.

Yoga Signifies God Yoga by its root ‘yuj’ means simply attainment. This word is used in this general sense like dhana yoga (attainment of wealth), putra yoga (attainment of son) etc. But, in spiritual knowledge its sense is fixed in attaining the grace and love of God and thus this word here becomes ‘yoga rudha’ type, which means the word is not only used in its sense but also is fixed in a particular context only. In the Gita, the concept of Nishkama Karma Yoga is often stressed. This means that you should serve or work for God without aspiring any fruit in return. But, people are taking this concept of the Gita in their daily life also and interpret that this concept of the Gita means doing any worldly work without aspiring for its fruit so that the tension in the work can be avoided. In such interpretation the fundamental sense is lost because the concept is strictly limited to the work of God only and the worldly work is not the context of the Gita. This is the over-intelligence because Hindus are excellent and extreme theorists. Today the modern spiritual preachers are using the word Yoga for relieving stress and tension through self-realization program without any reference to God. Since for them self is God, the attainment of self itself is attainment of God and thus they justify the word Yoga in the sense of 176

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attainment of God. The main aim of the spiritual workshops has become the relief from stress and tension so that people will become more fresh and energetic to participate in the worldly affairs and increase the worldly bonds more and more! Some more preachers are simply confining to physical exercises and breathing exercises to develop the physical health of the body. Such workshops are not different from playgrounds where physical education is developed. They are the hospitals where health problems are solved. They have become the mental hospitals where mental stress is relieved. When the self is already God, there is no need of using the word Yoga because what is the necessity of attaining yourself by yourself? The attainment of contemporary human incarnation by filtering Him from the rest of humanity is the real sense of the word Yoga. Arjuna attained Krishna but was treating Him as a human being and a driver only. After hearing Gita only, Arjuna could realize that Krishna is the contemporary human incarnation of God. It is very difficult to realize the son of Vasudeva, a co-human being as God (Samahaatma sudurlabhah… Gita). Jnana yoga means the knowledge of God. Bhakti yoga means the love towards God. Karma yoga means the service to God. The word yoga in all these three stages indicates God. If the word yoga is dropped, jnana can mean simply the knowledge like Physics, Chemistry etc., which is the knowledge of the creation. Similarly, bhakti can mean simply the love towards other souls like family members or wealth or own body etc., which are parts of the creation only. Similarly, karma can mean the service done to the family members or for earning wealth etc., which again is related to the creation only. Sundara Kanda is an important chapter in Ramayana, which describes the service of Hanuman to God. Unfortunately, this Sundara Kanda is recited to get success in the works of the world. Thus, the total direction of Sundara Kanda is lost.

Detachment and Attachment The total detachment from the worldly bonds is a pre-requisite for the total attachment to God. The relief from the old institution is a prerequisite for joining the new institution in the case of full time employment to receive the full time salary from the new institution. Therefore, to achieve the full grace of God, the total detachment from 177

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the world is essential. Some people do part time work while continuing their service in the old institution. This may be possible in two worldly works. But, this is not possible in God’s work. Such dual attachment is allowed in the transition stage. In such transition stage, the percentage of detachment from the worldly bonds gives the percentage of attachment to God. God conducts tests to show you, the percentage of attachment to Him by exposing the percentage of your detachment from the worldly bonds. The percentage of your attachment in the worldly bonds shows the percentage of your deficiency in your attachment to God. Such tests are only for a clear picture of your sadhana for the benefit of yourself only. God does not need the tests because He knows the level of your sadhana even without the tests since He is omniscient. Therefore, the tests conducted by Datta, the human incarnation are neither for knowledge of God nor for the saddistic entertainment of God. It is only for your sake so that you will know the true position of yourself and start the spiritual effort from that state onwards. In the absence of such tests, you are imagining yourself in a very high state and stop the spiritual effort. Datta means ‘Given’. It is not any name. It indicates only the process of giving. The unimaginable God given to the human beings through a human body is Datta or the contemporary human incarnation. There are several worldly bonds and the strongest of these are mainly the bond with children, wife/husband and money/wealth. These strongest bonds are called as Eshanas. The bond with the body and life is also very strong. Sometimes the bond with the justice or truth is also very important in the case of some people. The percentage of detachment in all these worldly bonds cannot be known by yourself because one cannot test his own knowledge and evaluate it. Others should test and evaluate and the best is the teacher. Similarly, the spiritual preacher or satguru or the human incarnation is the best person to test your detachment from these worldly bonds, which is an indirect measure of your attachment to God. One may have detachment in such bonds without any reference to God and such detachment cannot be a measure of attachment to God. A stone is having cent percent detachment from all the worldly bonds and by this you cannot say that the stone is the best devotee of God. Therefore, the detachment from the worldly bonds must have a reference to God simultaneously. The detachment from the worldly bonds should be for the sake of God. 178

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Bilhana was detached from all the worldly bonds for the sake of his lover called as Yamini Purnatilaka. Such detachment is not a measure of his devotion to God since it is only a measure of his love towards his darling. Hanuman, Gopikas, Prahlada etc., are detached from all the worldly bonds for the sake of God and their detachment is a measure of their devotion to God.

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Chapter - 16

THE PATH OF SELFLESS SERVICE Karma and Karma Yoga O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, Nishkama Karma Yoga is a word that often comes in the Bhagavad Gita. Karma, Akarma and Vikarma are also mentioned in the Gita (Karmanohyapi…). Karma means the work done with a selfish desire for a limited circle of one’s family. Karma Yoga means the work done for the sake of Lord. Akarma means inaction; not doing either Karma or Karma Yoga. Vikarma means action, which disturbs the peace of the world by harming good devotees. For Arjuna, participating in the Mahabharata war was both Karma and Karma Yoga. It was karma because Arjuna could get back his rightful kingdom, which represents money or wealth. It was Karma Yoga, because the war was the mission of God. The Lord was destroying injustice by fighting the war against evil people. Participation in such a war is Karma Yoga. Therefore it was absolutely necessary for Arjuna to participate in this war and destroy the Kauravas, who stood as his enemy. The war happened to be the personal work (Svakaryam— self-serving or self-centered work) and also the work of the Lord (Swami Karyam). Svakaryam is another word for Karma and Swami Karyam is another word for Karma Yoga. ‘Karma’ is common to both terms, Karma and Karma Yoga. This means that a person always has to work. The soul is born in this world only for doing work; therefore, one cannot remain idle or avoid work. The Gita says the same thing as ‘Nahi Kaschit...’ Now in order to do any work or Karma, an aim (Sankalpa) is essential. Without an aim, no work (Karma) can be done. In your body the blood circulatory system, the digestive system etc., are all working with the aim of keeping your body fit to do some work in this world. You are born in this world with a purpose. That purpose is that you should do minimum Karma and maximum Karma Yoga. Unfortunately, you do maximum Karma without doing even a minimum of Karma Yoga. That is, most of the

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work that you do is self-centered; you do it for yourself or for your limited family. Work of the Lord While you work for your limited family, the Lord works for the whole world, which is His family. Helping Him in His work is Karma Yoga. He comes down in human form as a human incarnation or Avatara, very frequently. He even comes down in different human forms at the same time for the upliftment of the entire human race. His work involves uplifting people present at various levels to higher and higher levels. One incarnation may concentrate on converting atheists into believers of God by showing miracles, which are beyond scientific logic. That is the main work for that incarnation. Another incarnation may promote worship of God. He may introduce worship of God through names and forms. He may encourage traditional worship, prayers and worship in temples. The believers in God (aasthikas) can climb only this step in the beginning. Another incarnation reveals the Absolute Truth, which is Brahma Jnana (Real Knowledge of God) and that is His chief purpose.

Spiritual Educational Complex Human incarnations of various types, such as described above, form a complex of various educational institutions. In this complex, there are different levels of institutions such as school, college and university. At each level the human incarnation represents the head of that institution. There is the headmaster for the school, a principal for the college and a chancellor for the university. Various types of assisting staff to assist all the three are also present. The three levels of institutions perform their duties within their limited circles. School level: Atheist becomes a believer An uneducated person is first admitted into a school. He then goes to a college and finally to a university. The uneducated person cannot enter the university directly. Similarly an atheist should first become a believer of God by seeing divine miracles. Converting atheists into believers is the main purpose of the first type of human incarnation.

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College level: Believer becomes a devotee After becoming a believer in God (theist), a person should become a devotee through different types of worship and devotional songs. The second type of human incarnation works for this. These two types (school and college) of incarnations work for the purification of the mind of the person. Only when the mind is completely freed from jealousy and egoism, is it said to be completely purified. Prayers, worship and traditional practices promoted by the second type of human incarnation, purify the mind. Thus the person becomes eligible for Jnana Yoga or the Knowledge of God. Lord Shankara has said that the traditional practices bring about the purification of mind, which makes one eligible for receiving Jnana Yoga. University level: Devotee becomes a Jnani At the university level, the devotee becomes a Jnani (possessor of knowledge). Having gained the eligibility to acquire this knowledge, he works to get established in this knowledge, in this step. This third level is the most important level. However if the mind is not completely purified, Jnana Yoga cannot be achieved. Once the person is established in Jnana Yoga, he is liberated. When you have this Jnana Yoga, you will be astonished as said in the Gita (Ascharyavath pasyathi…). The third incarnation reveals the whole true knowledge in order to convert the devotee to a Jnani. This third incarnation is called the Pari Poorna Tamavataram. The words ‘Pari’ and ‘Tama’ both indicate the superlative degree. The use of a double superlative degree is to emphasize that there can be no greater Avatara or human incarnation than this. He is God who is fully revealed. He says vehemently that He is God. Lord Krishna is the highest and fullest incarnation (Pari Poorna Tamavataram). Only He can reveal the true knowledge, which can open all the knots of your heart. All your doubts are cleared with this knowledge. Your heart is immersed in the ocean of Bliss. This Avatara reveals Jnana Yoga.

Serving the Lord Nirvikalpa samadhi Lord Datta, who is the human incarnation of God, reveals Himself fully to deserving devotees and declares that He is in that human form. 182

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If you recognize His human form and fix Him in your mind forever, such a state is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Nirvikalpa means not getting doubts after the decision. Samadhi is the unshakeable decision. Hanuman and Radha are the best examples for Nirvikalpa samadhi. Both of them recognized Lord Rama and Lord Krishna respectively, who were the human incarnations in their time and whom they worshipped with total faith. Both Hanuman and Radha did only Swami Karyam and gave up Svakaryam. Radha and Hanuman—Ideal servants of God Radha preached firm devotion to the world. Hanuman proved his firm devotion by always doing selfless service to the Lord. Radha lived with the Lord when the Lord had not commenced His work. Therefore Radha did not get the opportunity to participate in the work of the Lord. Hence she did personal service to the Lord. Swami (the Lord) started His work only after leaving Radha. Radha was a simple milkmaid and could not participate in war and the destruction of evil. So she could not assist Lord Krishna in His mission on earth, which was to destroy injustice. Satyabhama, Lord Krishna’s wife, on the other hand, who was well versed in the art of warfare, helped Lord Krishna during the war with the demon, Narakasura. Hanuman was far from Lord Rama before the work of the Lord commenced. The reason for this was that Hanuman was a warrior and could help Lord Rama in His mission to destroy evil. Therefore he was associated with the Lord in the latter part of the life of Lord Rama, when He needed Hanuman. Radha was associated with Swami (Lord) in the earlier part of the Lord’s life. Hanuman was associated in the latter part of the Lord’s life. When Lord Krishna left Vrindavanam, Radha did not go home. She wandered on the banks of River Yamuna till she died. Thus Radha outwardly exhibited love for the Lord. Hanuman too had the same extent of love for the Lord in his heart. However Hanuman did not exhibit it. He proved it in the performance of service. For all ordinary individuals, both exhibition of the love for God and proof of love through service are necessary. Arjuna, the ordinary What happened in the case of Arjuna? Arjuna refused to fight and get back his kingdom. What is the meaning of this? Arjuna did not want to perform Svakaryam (self-centered work). Lord Krishna advised 183

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Arjuna to fight the war not for the sake of Svakarma but for the sake of participating in the Lord’s work, which was the destruction of injustice. So Arjuna did not participate in the war as Svakarya (Karma), but fully participated in the war as Swami Karyam (Karma Yoga). So far it was good. But there is one important point here. Arjuna had not refused to do his Karma (fight the war for selfish desire) due to his devotion for the Lord. Had he left the war due to pure and extreme devotion for the Lord, it would have been good. Had Arjuna left the war due to true detachment from his kingdom (wealth), it would have also been good. But Arjuna refused to fight because of his blind attraction to family bonds. That is why the Lord advised Arjuna to first look upon the war as Karma itself. The Lord wanted Arjuna to realize that the war was his duty as a warrior and was infact beneficial for him even from the selfish point of view. Refusing to fight this war would not only mean a personal loss of kingdom, wealth and power for Arjuna and his family, but would also bring eternal ill fame to him. Arjuna did not have as much love for the Lord as Radha had for the Lord. Hanuman, who was also a warrior, had that much love. Therefore Hanuman never had such doubts. Arjuna did not consider the war as Karma Yoga (the work of the Lord); infact this thought never even entered his mind. Therefore the Lord first taught him Karma, then taught Bhakti (devotion) through Jnana (knowledge), and then taught Jnana Yoga (knowledge of God) after the purification of mind through Bhakti. Lord Krishna revealed Himself as God in Jnana Yoga and finally advised him to participate in the war as the work of God—Karma Yoga. The essence of the Bhagavad Gita can be told in one sentence: Kill Duryodhana not for the sake of your kingdom, but as a servant participating in God’s mission to destroy injustice. Desireless service Hanuman’s case was different. He participated in the war as a servant of the Lord (Lord Rama) and not for any personal benefit. Therefore, Nishkama Karma Yoga means participation in the work of the Lord in human form, without any selfish aim. The work of the Lord is only to uplift humanity. Such participation results only through Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion). In case of Lord Rama, the fruit of the war (freeing Sita) and the killing of the evil Ravana went to Lord 184

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Rama alone. Hanuman did not get any benefit even though he fought the war by risking his life. Thus you must give the fruit of your work to the Lord. To do so you must get rid of selfishness. Then even in performing Karma, you will not have any selfish aim. This lack of selfish aim is called Nishkama. If you do not have any selfish aim, you will not be attached to the fruit of Karma. Only then can you give the fruit to the Lord.

Types of Devotees Highest devotees—Divine beings If one leads a life like Hanuman who completely concentrated on the work of God, such a person can go from Brahmacharya (celibatestudent stage in life) directly to Sanyasa (stage of a renounced monk). A renounced monk is called a sanyasi and he too does work. But he surrenders the fruit of his entire work to the Lord. Hanuman was a Brahmacharya Sanyasi (one who directly took up sanyasa after student life). That means that he did not marry and surrendered all his life and work to the Lord. He did complete Swami Karyam without doing any Svakaryam. Adi Shankara, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi etc., are others of this highest category of people. Mediocre devotees—Human beings People of the second category are called Madhyamas (mediocre). These are people who take up family life after student life. They remain with their family for most of their life and do both Svakaryam and Swami Karyam. Among such people, the amount of Swami Karyam that they do is in proportion to the devotion (bhakti) they have and the amount of Svakaryam that they do is in proportion to their selfishness. In the case of Arjuna, by fighting the war, he got back his kingdom and also participated in the work of the Lord, which was the establishment of justice. Thus he achieved both Svakaryam and Swami Karyam with this one action of fighting the war. Arjuna is called Nara. Nara means human birth. Hanuman was granted the post of the future creator (Brahma) of the universe, in the next cycle of creation. Therefore those of the first category become divine forms. People of the second category get human rebirths.

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Selfish non-devotees—Animals and demons There is a third category of people. Such people remain in Svakaryam during their entire life. That means, their time, work, energy and money are completely devoted for themselves, for their family members and for their blood relations only. These are utterly selfish beings. They cannot recognize God in human form. They go on worshipping pictures and statues only for their selfish ends. Duryodhana belonged to this type. He was always interested in having even his cousins’ kingdom for himself and for his blood-related family. He did not recognize Lord Krishna as God in human form. He did not participate or help in the Lord’s mission. Instead he went to Lord Krishna to ask for His help even though his cause was selfish and unjust. Even there he was not interested in Lord Krishna but wanted Lord Krishna to give the vast and invincible Yadava army to Duryodhana. Such people are not devoted and even the worship that they perform is only to achieve their selfish ends. They will never help the Lord in His work but go on worshipping Him for their selfish ends. Duryodhana went to a terrible hell (Patala) forever. Such people are reborn as worms in pits of mud and excretory matter. They are caught in the cycle of such births forever. The Gita says that this is indeed the lowest category of people (Samsareshu Naradhaman). Your choice Therefore you should make sure that you do not fall under the third category under any circumstances. The first category is like the sky, which you cannot reach. Atleast remain in the second category and attain human rebirth (Nara). Therefore, Lord Krishna preached the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna who was called Partha, the Nara. Ninety nine percent of people can reach the level of Nara by their sadhana (spiritual effort). It is better to remain on earth rather than falling to the lowest hell, Patala. The upper world (heaven) contains divine forms like angels, the earth, which is the middle world, contains human beings and lower world contains demons. This statement can be understood in the above sense.

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Worship of Datta What do you mean by worship? Prayers? Meditation? No, No. Prayers involve words. Meditation involves mind. Worship means action i.e., service, called ‘Karma Yoga’, which consists of two parts. 1) Karma Sanyasa: Sacrificing your work (efforts) for the sake of God. 2) Karma Phala Tyaga: Sacrificing a part of the ‘fruit of your work’ (money) for the mission of God. Where is Lord Datta? Datta means God given to the world in human form. When electricity is traveling as electrons in the atmosphere, you cannot touch it. But when it enters the wire and pervades all over the wire, you can touch it. Similarly, you cannot see the Lord Datta, who is pervading all over the world. When He enters the human body, you can see Him. Among all the human beings in the world, how to recognize Lord Datta’s human incarnation? You can recognize Him by His characteristic property; as fire is recognized by its characteristic property of heat. That characteristic property of the Lord is Jnana (Knowledge). The Veda says that He is Jnana. (Satyam Jnanam...). Now even ordinary scholars are preaching knowledge (Jnana). Then how to distinguish Him from ordinary scholars? He is also an embodiment of Bliss or Ananda. The Veda says, ‘Anando Brahma’. His Jnana gives you bliss in the heart. As the wind carries the coolness of the river His preaching carries Bliss. Miracles are only His jewels and can be given by Him even to demons. Infact, demons like Ravana showed many miracles. Miracles are not His characteristic properties and cannot be used to identify Him. Lord Datta comes in human form in every generation of mankind. If He were to bless only one human generation, He would become partial. He comes down and preaches knowledge and devotion in the world. Recognize Him and join His mission as a servant by doing Karma Yoga and serve Him in the propagation of knowledge and devotion. Do not think that you are helping Him. You are only serving Him. Your property is His property and you are also a part and parcel of His property. Is there a possibility of His clearing your debts (results of sins) 100% by Himself, without you having to suffer at all for them? Yes. He will do so too, but only if you serve Him without aspiring for anything in return from Him and if your service continues even after He troubles 187

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you. Your love must be real and must be proved in action by the sacrifice of work and money.

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Chapter - 17

SACRIFICE OF FAME AND MONEY Give Credit to God O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [Bangalore] Swami Vivekananda gave an excellent discourse in Chicago and a roaring appreciation was given to him. He gave the credit of his discourse to his Guru Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He said that when he started the discourse he became nervous and his Guru appeared before him. He said that his Guru started speaking through him. Thus he gave the entire credit to his Guru because he knew that when an excellent work is done through him, the credit should always go to the Lord. The energy to do a good work is always given by the Lord and hence also the credit should really go to the Lord. The Lord was very much pleased and gave infinite credit to Swami Vivekananda. In the case of a saint (monk) he cannot sacrifice money because he does not earn any. He can only sacrifice his work. The fame of that work is the fruit of the work (Karma Phala). Thus even a saint sacrifices the fruit of the work (Karma Phala tyaga) through the sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa). Shri Shirdi Sai Baba always used to give the credit of any miracle only to the Lord saying ‘Allah Malik’ and ‘Allah Acha Karega’. This is again the sacrifice of the fruit of the work. The Lord was so much pleased that today the fame of Sai Baba is beyond description. Similarly we also find temples of Hanuman everywhere. But in Mahabharata when Krishna was about to kill Bhishma, Arjuna stopped Krishna praying to Him that if Krishna were to kill Bhishma, he (Arjuna) would be defamed for not killing Bhishma. He did not want to give credit to the Lord. Therefore Arjuna did not become very famous and there is no temple for him. The persons mentioned, (Vivekananda, Sai Baba and Hanuman) were saints and were not householders. They could only sacrifice their work, which is Karma Sanyasa and they could only sacrifice the fame, which is the fruit of their work. Today all the rich people are running after fame that one gets by sacrificing money. Therefore fame is more important than money. Urge 189

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for money and urge for fame are like two types of skin diseases. When fame comes, it should be given to the Lord because the power to do any work is given by the Lord alone. One should instead take ill fame upon oneself and should sacrifice all good fame to the Lord. Generally you wonder why you should give the credit to the Lord when the work was done by you. Similarly you wonder why you should give the fame to the Lord when it was gained by your sacrifice of the fruit of your work (money). King Satrajit got a gem from the Sun-god, which yielded lot of gold, everyday. He was donating that gold to others and was trying to get fame. Lord Krishna asked him for that gem. Satrajit did not give it because he did not know that Krishna was the Lord in human form. Even if he had known, he did not want to give the credit to the Lord because he (Satrajit) had procured the gem from the Sun-god. Satrajit was a human being and could not discriminate between the deserving and undeserving. Therefore, he was getting sin by his donation of the gold (one gets sin by donating to the undeserving). Actually the gem, along with the Sun-god, belonged to Lord Krishna. The entire creation is the wealth of the Lord; and even Satrajit was included in this creation. Thus Satrajit himself was a part and parcel of the movable property of Lord Krishna. Sacrifice of the fruit of work and service to the world alone cannot bring you the grace of the Lord. Faith and complete surrender to the Lord in doing that sacrifice is important and that alone can bring the grace of the Lord. The sacrifice is the practical proof of your love, faith and surrender. Without the love, faith and surrender, your sacrifice is useless. Without actual sacrifice, the love, faith and surrender expressed by words and mind alone, are also useless. If you are sacrificing money to the Lord, aspiring for something in return, you are a merchant and you are doing business with the Lord. In such business-like love, faith and surrender cannot exist. If you are showing love, faith and surrender by words and feelings only (without actual sacrifice of money), for getting some benefit from the Lord, then your love, faith and surrender are only an act and you are a prostitute. You must sacrifice money or fame with full faith, love and surrender to the Lord without expecting any fruit from the Lord; that alone is real love like that which you show to your children. You must decide whether the preacher (Guru) is an ordinary human being or the Lord in the human form. You must do a lot of 190

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analysis and must sincerely desire to know the truth. You must take the help of the Vedas, Shastras and the Gita. Before you decide, you must study the practical procedure of the analysis and then do the analysis, to detect the given substance (determine whether the Guru is an ordinary human or God in human form). If you have decided that He is only a human being you should neither give money to Him nor show love, faith and surrender. But, if you have decided that He is the Lord in human form, you should not have even a trace of doubt on Him, once you submit your donation (Guru Dakshina) to Him and you must not verify His management of the collected funds. Since He is the Lord, you should not try to verify what He is doing with the money. If you are verifying His management of the funds, your faith is not complete and you have lost everything. Even a very beautiful, very highly educated, very rich and very obedient bride is rejected, if there is a small spot of leprosy on her body. Similarly, the Lord in human form will reject you if you doubt Him for even a fraction of a second. Before making a decision, you can do a lot of analysis. But after you have decided that He is the human incarnation, if you still doubt Him, you are lost as said in the Gita (Samsayatma Vinasyati).

Proof of Love, Faith and Surrender Sai Baba collected Guru Dakshina from various devotees since He was the Lord in human form. He had the courage to ask for it directly. A devotee (who is a preacher) does not have that courage. He takes the ‘Dakshina’ from you indirectly by having you put it in the donation box (hundi), which is kept before the statue. He takes the money from the box only when you leave the temple. Both the Lord in human form and a devotee (such as a member of the temple committee) manage collected funds. But there will be lot of difference in their respective managements of the funds because the devotee is either completely ignorant or partially ignorant. A committee of donkeys cannot be equal to one single horse. A group of lecturers cannot be equal to one professor. Therefore a committee of devotees will misuse the funds since they cannot discriminate between the deserving and undeserving. They will say ‘Let all devotees who visit the temple be given food’. What they do not understand is that when the funds are misused, the donor also gets sin because he did not analyze before he donated. The

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Lord in human form will identify the deserving persons and help them fully. Sai Baba collected the Guru Dakshina money and kept it with Him. After all the people had left He would give it secretly to some deserving devotees. He did not do this before the devotees who gave Him the Guru Dakshina. Why? Had He distributed the collected donations to deserving devotees openly, there would not have been any possibility of misunderstanding Baba. Yet why did He not do it? The reason is that He wanted to test the faith of the devotees, who had given the Guru Dakshina to Him. Sacrifice of money alone will not please the Lord. The faith behind the sacrifice of that money alone will please the Lord. An income tax officer was secretly appointed to investigate how Sai Baba was spending the collected donation money. However the officer could not find the secret of how Baba spent the money. Finally he became a devotee of Baba. Infact the Lord neither requires the money nor the fame, which you sacrifice to Him. He can uplift the world without your work and without your money. The sacrifice of your money, fame and work to Him is only an opportunity given to you to prove your love, faith and surrender. When you sacrifice your money, you should believe that you are giving His money back to Him. When you are sacrificing the credit of your work to Him, you should believe that he alone gave you the power to work and so the real credit belongs to Him only. Hence, both sacrifice and faith are the two eyes and if any one eye absent, everything goes waste. If you have finally decided that He is the Lord in human form, then you should sacrifice the fruit of your work (money) and credit of the work (fame) with full faith. If you have any doubts about Him, do not sacrifice anything to Him. But if you sacrifice and doubt, then your faith is incomplete and you will be thrown into hell, in the case that He is really the Lord.

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Chapter - 18

EMPHASIS ON KARMAPHALA TYAGA Why Is God After Money? O Learned And Devoted Servants of God, [May 19, 2006] Smt. Padma, wife of Shri Sharma passed a comment “God is [interested] in money”. Sharma became angry and told her that she will be punished by God by commenting like that. Sharma came to Swami and complained about the matter. Swami told him, “You should not threaten anybody like that. You should analyze the topic and convince people through knowledge. By threatening, the thought is only suppressed and not removed”. Sharma came back along with his wife to Swami and Swami delivered the following divine discourse to the devotees. People say that God is in money. It is correct because money is Goddess Lakshmi. Lord Narayana is always in her heart. Money is also in the heart of God because Goddess Lakshmi is in His heart. Whatever is in the heart of Lord, the same came out in His word which is the Veda. The Veda says that sacrifice of money alone can please the Lord (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). The Lord came down in human form as Lord Krishna who also told the same point with the highest intensity. The Gita, the word of Lord Krishna, says that one should sacrifice the entire money possessed by one, to please the Lord (Sarva karmaphala tyagam). Jesus told a rich man to sacrifice all the wealth possessed by him. Lord Vishnu said the same in the Vishnu Puranam “Yasyaanugrahamichchami Tasya Vittam Haraamyaham”, which means that the Lord is pleased by taking away money from the devotee. The Lord is the Sadguru and one point is appreciable with Him i.e., whatever is in His heart He speaks it out. The present gurus aspire for money in the heart but speak against money in their words. It is said that great people think, speak and do the same thing (Karmanyekam, vachasyekam, manasyekam mahaatmanaam). Whatever the Lord told, was also done by Him. The Lord came as a guest to Shaktuprastha and took all the flour from him for eating. This was when Shaktuprastha was

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about to eat the same, since he was suffering from starvation for the last ten days due to a drought. Sage Vashistha asked Rama to submit Guru Dakshina (money) before preaching Jnana Vaasistham (Dhanamarjaya kakutstha) to Him. A sacrifice is useless if Dakshina is not offered (Adakshina hato yajnaha). All rituals involve the sacrifice of food and Dakshina (money). Sai Baba used to ask for Dakshina everytime [people visited Him]. Yoga Vaasistham says that money is the root of the world (dhanamoolamidam jagat). Shri Yantram [Shri Chakra] which is based on Shri (money) speaks about the importance of money. Everybody should frankly accept that everything is revolving around money. If money is not there, all the family members will leave you. Even the body leaves the soul if food (which is a form of money) is not provided. The proof of real love is only the sacrifice of hard earned money. Your real love is only for your children because all the wealth is given to them alone finally. Therefore, if you say that you have real love for God, God will catch your money and will ask you to give it to Him. Your real colour will then come out. Therefore, sacrifice of the fruit of work (money) is the real proof of devotion as praised in the Gita. What is the difference between the Lord and ordinary human beings if money is only the criterion? No doubt, money is the criterion because real love is tested only by the sacrifice of money. But there is a difference between the account of God and the account of human beings. If you go to a [railway] booking clerk, he will give you a ticket for a 100 miles-distance by charging Rs. 100 and he will not ask you about the money left over in your pocket after paying the hundred rupees. He will give you a ticket for ten miles if you pay Rs. 10 and will not ask about the balance in your pocket. This is the account of human beings. But if the Lord sits in the same ticket booking window, His account is totally different. Suppose you have asked for a 100 milesticket. He will not tell you the fare of the ticket. He will ask you about the total amount present in your pocket. If you have only Rs. 10 and pay Him all the ten rupees, He will give you a 100 mile-ticket. Suppose you have Rs. 1000 in your pocket and give Him Rs. 100, He will give you only a ten mile-ticket because you have paid 1/10th of the total money present in your pocket. This is the difference between human beings and God. God sees the extent of sacrifice but not the extent of sacrificed item. 194

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Dharmaraja performed the Ashwamedha-sacrifice and donated a lot of wealth to the sages. Let us assume the worth of his entire wealth as 7 crores [1 crore = 10 million] in view of the value of rupee at that time. He donated wealth worth 3 crores. The Lord gave him the ticket only up to the third world which is called heaven or Swarga Loka. The Swargarohana Parva [chapter] of Mahabharatam says that Dharmaraja went only up to heaven. The top most Brahma Loka is the seventh world from earth. Therefore we would expect that the cost of the ticket for Brahma Loka is Rs. 7 crores according to the account of human beings, since Brahma Loka is the seventh world from the earth. But when the Lord came in disguise of a poor hungry Brahmin to Shaktuprastha, he offered the Lord a flour-meal which was only worth of 7 rupees. According to the above account of human beings, the Lord can give a ticket for only 7 miles on earth. But the Lord gave him the ticket to Brahma Loka for the Rs. 7! Shaktuprastha sacrificed everything and nothing was left over with him [after donating the flour worth Rs. 7]. This happened to be the total sacrifice of the fruit of work which is Sarva karmaphala tyaga as mentioned in the Gita. Shankara went to the house of a poor householder. They gave a little food from their quantum of food that was prepared at that time. He gave blessings to them. Then Shankara went to another house of a poor lady. She searched the whole house and all she found was a small dry fruit. She immediately offered that to Shankara. Other than that fruit there was nothing to eat in the house. She could have kept that for herself or her family to pacify atleast a trace of their hunger. Such sacrifice is Sarva karmaphala tyaga stated in the Gita. All these donors sacrificed without expecting anything in return from the Lord and hence, the sacrifice of all these people is very pure. But the sacrifice of Shaktuprastha and that lady was not only pure but also a total sacrifice as mentioned in the Gita. Shankara recited a prayer spontaneously called as Kanaka Dhara and gold was rained in her house immediately. Similar was the sacrifice of Sudama to whom the Lord gave immense wealth. Sudama gave a handful of parched rice to the Lord even though his family was suffering with hunger for several days. The same Sudama in childhood had stolen a handful of parched rice, which was the share of the Lord and hence was hit by poverty. This shows that enjoying the wealth of others, especially the wealth of the Lord, by cheating like corruption or a business-minded attitude, will lead to 195

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severe punishment. Therefore, sacrifice should be without aspiring for anything and also should be total to please the Lord. For the same reason, Jesus praised the sacrifice of one rupee of a widow, as the greatest among all the other heavy donations from rich people.

Limited Sacrifice to Humans When the Lord came in the disguise of a poor Brahmin, Shaktuprastha started offering the food (flour) part by part. The guest [God] looked just like another poor human being. Since the guest was a learned Brahmin and a devotee, he was a deserving person for the sacrifice. This means that the sacrifice should be done to a deserving devotee. This is the social service (Pravritti) in which a deserving cohuman being is served. In doing sacrifice to co-human beings, the deservingness of the receiver should be estimated. Here the receiver was a devotee, a learned scholar and was hungry. The criteria of deservingness of the receiver should be fixed in this way. You should not sacrifice to an undeserving person. Shaktuprastha sacrificed 1/4th of the flour in the beginning. This means that you should not exceed a certain limit in your sacrifice towards the society. The receiver was still hungry. But this is the maximum limit of social service, because the family members of Shaktuprastha were also suffering with hunger. This donation of only a small portion of the flour indicates a balanced judgment in social service and the sense of responsibility towards the family. Shaktuprastha, his wife, his son and his daughter-in-law were the four members of the family suffering from hunger for the past ten days in a drought. The guest looked like a co-human being who was hungry. But that alone cannot be the criterion [for deciding the deservingness of the person for donation] because poverty and hunger are the fruits of the sins of a soul. But the hungry man was a Brahmin (Brahma Jnani) who looked like a devotee and a learned scholar from his appearance and words. Therefore he deserved the charity. The flour had been divided in to four parts [for the sake of the four family members]. On seeing the guest Shaktuprastha gave only his share. But the guest still remained hungry. Shaktuprastha kept silent because he had no right to give the portions of the other three, even though it was his self-earned food. This means that the charity should not exceed 1/4th of the self-earned property for a householder having a family of 3 members [other than 196

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himself]. Therefore, self-earned property should be divided into equal shares to the family members and one can donate only his share only to the maximum extent provided the receiver deserves. [Seeing the guest still hungry,] The wife gave her share to the guest by her own will. The son and the daughter-in-law followed the same by their own will. Here the important point is that Shaktuprastha did not force his family members to donate their shares on the basis that it [the food] was his self-earned property. This shows the sense of responsibility towards his family in the mind of Shaktuprastha which is justified. But the sacrifice of every family member is a total sacrifice with respect to individual member. Such a total sacrifice is not justified because the guest is not identified as Lord in disguise. The guest was only considered as a deserving devotee. In such a case how a total sacrifice was done by each member? Is it not a foolish social service? If the guest is recognized as the Lord, then there is no problem because the Lord will give back several folds. When the receiver is only a deserving human being, such total sacrifice is foolish and is not justified. Since no food remained after the sacrifice, even their lives were in danger. This sacrifice amounts to suicide! The aim of human life is to please the Lord and not to please a co-human being. This aim is lost in such a sacrifice.

Total Sacrifice to God The actual decision of total sacrifice was the result of a collective thinking of all the family members step by step. When Shaktuprastha gave his part, even though it was a total sacrifice from his side, he would get a share in the remaining 3/4th part of the flour. Obviously, if the guest had gone away satisfied after eating the first part [1/4th], the other 3 members would not have eaten their parts leaving Shaktuprastha; he would have certainly got some share in the reaming food. The donation of the first part was done by mutual discussion of the four members inside the kitchen. The guest was dining in the dining hall. Therefore, the sacrifice of the part of Shaktuprastha to the cohuman being was not a total sacrifice. This is not wrong because in social service, total sacrifice is not justified. It is against justice or Pravritti. The outsider should not be more important than the family and the self. The family members of Shaktuprastha were also as good devotees and as hungry as the deserving guest.

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When the guest was still expecting more, the second part was also given by Shaktuprastha’s wife only after mutual discussion. When the guest desired for the second part, there was a doubt in the family of Shaktuprastha whether the arrived guest was the Lord in disguise. The reason for this is that the guest had crossed the limits of justice or Pravritti. No human being, especially a devotee and learned scholar like the guest, would aspire for the second part in that situation. There were four members to eat the food and the guest was the fifth member. Actually the guest deserves only 1/5th portion. But he got 1/4th portion, which was more than his rightful share as per Pravritti. Once he asked for the 50% of the food [the wife’s share too], he had crossed justice. By crossing justice, the guest also knew that he would get sin. No learned guest would dare to do such a sin. Normally even an ordinary human being would not have asked for the second part. The family members of Shaktuprastha had spiritual knowledge (Brahma Jnanam) and were experts in identifying the Lord in human form. The guts shown by the guest in crossing the boundary of Pravritti was a hint for identifying Him as the Lord. With the first part of food given already to the guest, the life of the guest could be saved. With the remaining food the life of each family member could be saved. If the guest were just greedy and were not caring for others, Shaktuprastha and his family members would have denied further food explaining the same. The life of any family member need not be sacrificed to satisfy the greediness of the guest. Human life is precious and meant for the realization of the Lord and service to Him. It need not be ended for the sake of meaningless social service (Pravritti). Therefore, if the guest were only a human being and not the Lord, at this point itself, the guest should have been warned. The second part of food was given to the guest but the guest still desired for the third part. Now family members had confirmed that the guest was none other than God, who came to test them. Assuming that the guest was greedy, he should have been satisfied by eating 50% of the food, because the other half had to be shared by four hungry devotees like him. Even the topmost greedy person would stop at this point. But the family members concluded that the guest was the Lord even while serving the 3rd part. The conclusion was reinforced when the fourth part was also desired by the guest. Even a person having the nature of a cruel animal would not have asked for the fourth 198

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part in that situation because if he ate the fourth part too, the four starving devotees would die as a result of the greed of the guest. As expected, the guest showed them His real form as the Lord and gave them Brahma Loka. Suppose the guest were really a cruel animal in nature and had cheated the family of Shaktuprastha and had gone away after eating the entire food. What would happen? The guest would be punished by God with suitable action. Shaktuprastha and his family members would have missed correctly identifying the Lord only by a very narrow margin. After all, in their mind, they were doing the total sacrifice towards the Lord alone. Therefore, the Lord would protect them and give them Brahma Loka. Therefore, there is no loss if you miss the Lord by a narrow margin, because you have put all your efforts in the analysis and did not believe everybody blindly in doing the sacrifice. Therefore, we should first start with social service limiting charity to one part. The family members should divide the property giving an equal share to the justice [charity]. This charity is only Pravritti but still it is related to God if you select a deserving devotee as a receiver. In the beginning, even the Lord in human form will test you only in Pravritti. He will appear as a deserving devotee and will test you in Pravritti. If you cannot climb the first step of Pravritti, how can you suddenly climb up to Nivritti? If the Lord appears in the beginning itself, everybody in the world will fall at His feet, surrendering everything. Therefore, the Lord will first come as a deserving receiver in Pravritti. Sometimes the Lord comes as an undeserving receiver so that He can test you about your knowledge of Pravritti. If you serve the undeserving person, the Lord will be displeased with you even though he is in the disguise of same undeserving person. Avoiding charity to undeserving persons and doing charity to the deserving person are the two important steps of Pravritti. The knowledge of both these aspects constitutes Pravritti. People blindly do charity without discrimination. Such charity is ignorance and sometimes results in the accumulation of sin, if the receiver is undeserving. These ignorant donors justify their actions in the name of kindness to everybody. Kindness to the deserving person is appreciated by God because it is for the welfare of the society. Kindness to the undeserving person harms the society and you are purchasing the sin [by such kindness]. If you give milk to the serpent it will bite you and others. By 199

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such charity, the balance of the society is lost and you are responsible for this and you will be punished by God. Therefore, analysis and knowledge are necessary in charity as the primary step. The Veda says that one should have analysis and discrimination of the receiver, before doing charity (Samvida deyam). The hunger of a serpent should not be sympathized with because the serpent will never change its nature. If you are following Pravritti (dharma), good qualities and devotion should be sought in the receiver. Devotion is more important than good qualities, but if the devotion is selfless, good qualities naturally exist. The devotion of a selfish devotee is not true love for God. Ravana was a great devotee but his devotion was selfish and therefore, such devotion is not true. If you are serving the devotees in Pravritti, God will certainly come to you one day in the form of a devotee. Without Pravritti, Nivritti is not possible. When God comes in human form, certainly He will give you a hint for His identification. If you have spiritual knowledge, you will certainly catch Him. He will neither cover Himself completely nor reveal Himself completely. He will be like a tough problem with a hint given to help solve it. Suppose Shaktuprastha alone had spiritual knowledge. Then Shaktuprastha would sacrifice his share. In that case the family members may not be in Nivritti but may only be in Pravritti. They would not object to the sacrifice of the part of Shaktuprastha. But they would not sacrifice their parts. Ofcourse they would offer food to Shaktuprastha from their shares. In that context, suppose the guest had asked for the other parts also, Shaktuprastha would have had a severe fight with his family members because Shaktuprastha alone had recognized the guest as the Lord. Even if the food was not earned by Shaktuprastha, he would fight for the other shares to be donated to the guest because in Nivritti a spiritual person will always try for a total sacrifice to the Lord irrespective of justice in any angle. God is beyond both injustice and justice and He expects you also to rise above the justice and injustice in His case (Sarvadharmaan·Gita). If the family members were not even in Pravritti, they would resist even Shaktuprastha for the sacrifice of his part. Such situations will complicate the tests more and more. The test becomes simple if all the family members are of the same spiritual level. Since all the members of the family of Shaktuprastha were of the same level, God gave Brahma Loka to all of them at once. Today in Kali Yuga, the entire family 200

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including Shaktuprastha [head of family] knows neither Pravritti nor Nivritti. They will ask the beggar to get out in the first instance itself and there is no question of the Lord coming to their house in disguise as a guest.

Natural Love for God [Worldly] Justice (Pravritti) and devotion to God (Nivritti) are the two subsequent steps. The Purva Mimamsa (justice) of Jaimini and the Uttara Mimamsa (devotion) of Vyasa are the two subsequent parts of the same spiritual path. Dharma or justice is the atmosphere into which God descends down. You must first serve God’s devotees and please God. This will create an atmosphere for the God to visit you one day or the other. A selfish demon does not create this atmosphere and wants to sacrifice something for God suddenly. He wants a jump to the second step suddenly. The reason for this is that he is selfish and wants to get maximum benefit from the Lord by such sudden and excessive devotion. Such devotion may be excessive but it is not true. It is like the sudden excessive love of a prostitute. Ravana insulted Nandi, who is a devotee of Lord Shiva. But he sacrificed himself by cutting his head for the sake of Lord Shiva. He had no devotion for the devotees of Shiva. But he had spontaneous and infinite devotion for Shiva. His devotion for Shiva was also not true. His devotion for Shiva was only to get boons. The parents of Shiriyala were real devotees of Shiva who were not aspiring for any boon from Shiva. They were worshipping the devotee of Shiva as Shiva. Shiva came in the form of a devotee and asked for the sacrifice of their son. They killed their son and offered him to the devotee of Shiva. They did not ask Him any boon when Shiva appeared [in His real form]. Therefore, for Nivritti, Pravritti stands as a background. Meera was worshipping the devotees of Krishna and finally Krishna came to her. Shiva did not come in the form of a devotee to Ravana to test his devotion because Shiva knew that the devotion of Ravana was only for boons. For such artificial intense devotion of Ravana, boons were given to him, but Ravana was destroyed soon. The devotion of those parents was tested and permanent salvation was given to them. Ravana neglected the devotee of Shiva because the devotee was not useful in any way except for sharing his divine experiences which were not required for Ravana. The divine experience is desired only when true love exists for the Lord. 201

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Ravana liked Lord Shiva because of His utility. Therefore, people with the mind of utility like to jump directly into Nivritti because selfishness is hidden in them atleast in their subconscious state. The main aim of God is that you should have natural love for Him as you have for your child. You do not have the view of utility from the small kid who is your son. You are attracted towards him. You do not aspire for any benefit in return for your service and sacrifice of wealth to him. Your love is not disturbed even if he gives you serious troubles. Such natural love should come for God. But unfortunately the problem with God is that once you realize God, the utility aspect of God comes in your heart unconsciously. Everybody knows that God is omnipotent and this aspect brings excessive love for Him, which rises like a tsunami. If all that infinite love was natural, God would be immensely pleased with you. He is not impressed with that huge quantity of love. He starts searching the reality or naturality in it. This naturality is destroyed by the knowledge of the omnipotent aspect of God. Your child is impotent [in giving you any benefit] and depends on you for everything. But still your love flows for him; that is natural. Therefore, if you have to develop natural or real love for God, He must hide or mask His aspect of omnipotence by appearing as a human being. The human form of God masks His omnipotence so that your love for Him can then be real and natural. But unfortunately, when the human form masks His omnipotence completely and appears as an ordinary human being, a trace of even artificial love does not appear for Him because He is just an outsider and not even your family member. In that case, even the rules of Pravritti do not allow you to show more natural love for Him compared to your child. Infact natural love will not arise at all in your heart and there is no need for the rules of Pravritti to oppose it. Krishna was the son of Yashoda who was just a neighbor to the Gopikas. Why should a Gopika love Him more than her own son? There is no need of even a trace of natural love for Him because He is an outsider and even not a relative. If at all some love arises, it should only be artificial because He was the son of the ruler of that village. If the mask is removed [Krishna reveals that He is God], the reality or naturality of the love disappears. If the mask completely covers God, even a trace of artificial love will not rise in your heart because He is just a co-human being, who is as good as any outsider. Love for God

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appears but it is not natural due to the appearance of God’s omnipotence spontaneously. For an ordinary human being, no love will be generated. Now suppose God becomes your son like Rama in the case of Dasharatha. Even now the problem is not solved because Dasaratha showed natural love for Rama as his son and not as God because the God [in Rama] remained completely covered by the mask of the human form. When Krishna removed the mask by showing the whole world in His mouth to His mother, not only the naturality of the love, but also the slightest trace of love disappeared in her because she was shocked due to fear and astonishment. Therefore, the Lord immediately covered Himself with the mask and also made her forget the entire situation. Thus there is one problem if the human incarnation reveals Himself as God and there is another problem if the human incarnation covers Himself completely. Similarly, Arjuna was shocked when the Vishwarupam was shown to him. Therefore, the only way for God is to cover Himself with a mask and remove it now and then for a fraction of a second to give a hint. The aim of such behavior is to reveal Himself as God but at the same time not letting the love and its naturality disappear. This is a very difficult training like introducing poison drop by drop. You should not misunderstand that He is playing this game for His entertainment. Everything is done only to uplift you. Your upliftment is the primary aim and the entertainment of the game is only a secondary aim which is accidentally associated. By such sadhana you will finally reach the stage of Hanuman, Radha, Lakshmana etc. in which you will have the undisturbed natural love while simultaneously recognizing Him as God. You will be aware of the omnipotence but it will not create any awareness of its utility in your mind. God loves such natural love of the devotee while the devotee recognizes Him as the omnipotent God. Some ignorant people think that God is doing all this only for His entertainment and therefore, He is cruel. Without the primary aim, which is the upliftment of devotees, the aspect of entertainment is not present. If you say that only the aspect of upliftment should be there without the aspect of entertainment, which is only accidentally associated, that shows your sadism or intolerance of the enjoyment of others even when there is no loss to you.

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Direct Worship The direct worship of the human incarnation of God gives satisfaction both to the subject [you] and object [God]. When you offer food to the human form of the Lord, you have the satisfaction of offering it and the Lord has the satisfaction of enjoying that food. But when you offer the food to a statue of a past human incarnation, you may have the satisfaction of offering the food, but the satisfaction of receiving the food is not there in the statue. The angle of the worship of a statue differs from one devotee to the other. One angle is that you are so attracted towards the past incarnation so that you want to serve it directly. But unfortunately you missed the opportunity because you are in the present human generation and the Lord is not there in the present human generation, in the same human form [He is in a different human form]. You like the Lord only in that particular dress. But that dress is now destroyed and cannot be regenerated. Your liking for the Lord in that human form is a combined love for the Lord and that particular dress. Therefore, there is no alternative for you except to worship a statue or photograph of that same human form. You do not recognize the present human incarnation of the same Lord. You may like the present external dress of the Lord but you do not recognize the internal Lord. Therefore, your love for Him is only the love for a co-human being, which is just the external dress. Even if you recognize the present human incarnation, you may like the inner Lord but not the external dress. Even in that case your love or devotion is not full. But if you carefully analyse, the statue or photograph is only a representative of the past external dress of the Lord and not even the actual dress. The Lord is not in the photograph or statue (Natasya pratima—Veda). It is not even the exact external dress but your liking to that external dress is so fantastic that you treat the photograph of that external dress as exactly the same external dress and also imagine that the Lord is present in this statue or photograph. You further imagine that the food offered by you is taken by the Lord. Therefore, your worship is just a net of imaginations because neither is the statue the exact human form of the Lord, nor is the Lord present in the statue and nor has the Lord eaten your food. Thus, if you analyse your devotion, you are just mad for that particular external dress and not for the internal Lord. This cannot be real devotion to the Lord.

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There is another angle of greediness in the worship of statues in the case of some other type of devotees. You have the love for the Lord, you are not mad of the external dress, you have recognized the Lord in the present human form (dress) and you want to serve the Lord and get His grace. Everything is alright with you. But you are very greedy. You want to get the grace of the Lord, but not even a single morsel of your offered food should be taken by anybody including the Lord; you want to keep it for yourself. You want to eat the entire food but at the same time you want to attain the grace of the Lord like others. You think that others are fools who offer food to the present human form of the Lord or to God’s devotees in the name of the Lord, for attaining the grace of the Lord. You are a genius who is attaining the same grace of the Lord without losing an iota of your food. The worship of a statue or photograph is the best path for such type of the topmost greedy people. They go one step further and declare that they are the absolute God (Aham Brahmasmi). While eating the food they offer the same to the Lord present inside them. By this, the doors of sacrifice are completely closed from all sides. Thus, there are these two types of devotees who worship statues and photographs. The first type of devotees are ignorant or innocent and are not greedy. But they are mad about a particular external dress of the Lord that was destroyed in the past. They worship a statue or photograph of the same human form of the Lord, imagining it to be the actual Lord present in a living body. They treat the past human incarnation as the present human incarnation due to their madness. Their devotion is blind without analysis, but they derive happiness and satisfaction in their hearts, which cannot be denied. A mother who is very fond of her dead child becomes mad and treats a photograph or a doll as her child and lives with it as if it is alive. She is deriving all the satisfaction and pleasure in her madness. Such devotees are not greedy. They are generous and good but they are simply mad without the analysis of the truth and the divine knowledge. Hanuman played a role of such a mad devotee by not recognizing Lord Krishna. He was only thinking of the past incarnation, Rama. He did not like the new name ‘Krishna’ and the new form of the Lord in the next human generation. But finally Hanuman recognized Krishna as the same Lord present in Rama. All these mad devotees should take the concluding part of this story. The story did not simply end with Hanuman not recognizing Krishna and 205

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living in the illusion of worshipping the past form of Rama. Had the story ended there, the state of these mad devotees who worship the statues of previous human forms of Lord would be really justified. You must recognize the concluding part of the story in which Hanuman left the illusion of the past external dress (Rama) and recognized the same Lord in the present existing dress (Krishna). This does not mean that Hanuman became ignorant and then realized the truth. He just acted in the role of the present mad devotees who worship statues and showed them the right path. All these mad devotees were present then too in different human bodies with different names. The same history repeats itself. It is better to offer food to devotees of the Lord than to offer it to statue of previous incarnations of the Lord. The king feels happy if his son is honoured. Similarly a devotee is very dear to God and God feels happy, if His devotee is worshipped. The king will be more pleased with the worship of his son than the worship of his photograph or statue.

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