The possessor of true spiritual knowledge is God

If you want to eat an apple, you have to search for the seller of apples in order to purchase an apple from him. Then, how to identify the seller of apples? The identity mark for recognizing the seller of apples is the apple itself. Therefore, your requirement itself is the identity mark to recognize the possessor of your requirement.

If you want to learn Physics you to have select the best teacher of physics. What is the identity mark of the best teacher of physics? The identity mark is the best teaching of physics itself.

Similarly the requirement of an aspirant of spiritual path is the correct direction in his spiritual journey. The correct direction in the spiritual journey can be given by the true spiritual knowledge. Apart from the true spiritual knowledge, there should be best way of explanation of such true spiritual knowledge. Therefore, your requirement is the true spiritual knowledge and its best explanation, so that you can get the correct direction in your spiritual effort. Now, the identity mark to recognize the possessor of true spiritual knowledge and the best preacher of such true spiritual knowledge is the true spiritual knowledge and its best explanation only.

Veda says that the true spiritual knowledge (Satyam, Jnanam…) along with its best explanation (Prajnanam Brahma) is required for the correct spiritual direction. Veda says that the true spiritual knowledge itself is God. It means that the possessor of true spiritual knowledge is God. It should not be confused that the knowledge itself is God. The possessor of your required important item is addressed as the item itself. You are calling the possessor of apple as apples. You call him “Oh Apples! Come here”. Here, the word ‘apples’ means the possessor of apples.

Gita clarified this confusion by saying that the possessor of knowledge is God (Jnanitvatmaiva…). You need not search the possessor of knowledge by going to various places. The knowledge given by a preacher is printed in the form of books. You can read various books, which are the messages given by various preachers. You can judge the true knowledge explained in best way.

How to judge the true knowledge? It is said that your inner consciousness is the best judge (Pramanamantahkaranapravruttayah). When something is true, your inner consciousness will always prick you, saying that it is truth, even though you may not like it. Similarly your inner consciousness will say the false thing as false, even though you may like it. Actually God is giving this hint to you through your inner consciousness.

Sometimes, the knowledge may be true, but, if the explanation is not good, you will be having confusion. Even in such situation, your inner consciousness hints you that it is true. Of course, if the true knowledge is explained in best way, you will not have any confusion. Therefore, not only the knowledge must be true, but also the way of explanation must be best.

When both these aspects are accomplished, know that the preacher of such true knowledge explained in best way is God alone. Such preacher is called as Satguru. Guru is the preacher and may give the true knowledge, which was already given by God through the scripture. But the best explanation of it, clarifying all your doubts is possible to God alone (chidyante sarvasamsayah).

The primary purpose of God coming in human form is only to give you the correct direction in your spiritual effort through the best explanation of the true knowledge, which clarifies all your doubts and inspires you to practically adopt the knowledge. The true knowledge explained in best way is like huge fire (Jnanagnih…Gita). Such true knowledge explained in best way is the huge power to bring implementation of theory into practice. If there is any hindrance in your implementation of theory in practice, it is only the imperfect clarification of the true concept.

Therefore, the contemporary human incarnation of God can inspire you to implement the true knowledge in practice. Inspired by the teaching of Lord Krishna, Arjuna fought the war and even killed his grandfather and teacher. Mandanamishra left the family and became a saint following Shankara, just after hearing the best explanation of true knowledge from Shankara during the debate that went on for several days continuously. Therefore nothing is as powerful as the best explained true knowledge (Sarvam Gnanaplavenaiva...Gita).

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org

Yoga is equality in situations of happiness and misery

Gita says that equality in situations of happiness and misery is Yoga (samatvam yoga…). Generally people misunderstand this concept. They think that keeping oneself inactive towards happiness and misery without any disturbance like a stone is the meaning of this verse. Such meaning is wrong and is not the actual opinion of the Lord. It is only the misinterpretation of misunderstood heart of the verse.

You are not a stone to show such inert behavior. You are a living human being and can never behave like that. You can behave like that by taking some sedative drugs and there is no need of the intensive spiritual effort to achieve such state. The actual opinion of this verse is that you should enjoy both happiness and misery like the sweet and hot dishes in your meals. While taking the hot dish, your tongue is vibrating and tears are flowing from your eyes! But still you are enjoying the taste of hot dish in your heart. Similarly, you weep in the situation of misery, but if you are able to enjoy your own weeping, you have achieved the state of continuous enjoyment through entertainment from the creation by which you have attained the state of God.

Gita says that you should enjoy even your death (eshaa brahmi sthitih…). In fact, the author of Gita exhibited His own concept in His practical life. The same sweet smile that appeared on the face of the Lord while dancing with the beautiful Gopikas, remained on the face of the Lord at the time of His last breath also after shot by an arrow.

According to Veda, God created this world for His entertainment and He is enjoying all the scenes of this creation. If you can enjoy all the incidents of your life in a similar way, you have attained the state of God and this is the monism (Advaita) preached by Shankara. Shankara told that the Lordship (Eshwara) is a myth (Mithya) in this context. This means that when God and the soul are enjoying the creation equally with continuous entertainment, there is no need of bringing the irrelevant Lordship of creation, ruling and destruction of the world in this context.

The peon is seeing the cinema along with the producer and director. To differentiate the state of producer with director and the peon is meaningless as far as the enjoyment of the cinema as a spectator is concerned. Mithya means neither true nor false. The producer with director is sitting in the hall and therefore the state of producer with director is not false. But still the state of producer with director is unnecessary and irrelevant as far as the common spectatorship is concerned. Therefore the state of producer with director is neither true nor false. Hence it is called as Mithya.

You need not show sympathy to the Lord if He is brooding over some personal misery. From the external weeping, you mistake the Lord as suffering from the misery. In fact, the Lord is enjoying His weeping resulted by the misery. You are always weeping externally and internally due to misery and therefore you should be consoled. The Lord need not be consoled since He is weeping externally and is enjoying the weeping internally. You should not judge the Lord on your standards. You should understand the Lord on His standards.

Therefore Yoga means the equality in the enjoyment of mind in both happiness and misery like God. The Yoga always refers the state of God achieved by you. Whenever a great fortune is achieved, it is denoted by the word Yoga. Therefore you will attain the state of Advaita through Yoga only. When such a state is achieved in practice, it is called as Karmayoga. When such a state is understood with full clarification, it is called as Jnanayoga. When such a state is achieved by you in practice through your powerful liking to God, it is called as Bhaktiyoga.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org

God follows the rules of His own Divine Administration

God will not use his super power as far as possible unless a very rare occasion of protecting the most deserving devotee arises. A good administrator will always run the institution on the natural wheels of the rules already setup. As far as possible, he will not disturb the routine and natural functioning of the system. This is the reason for the Lord Krishna not to change the mind of Duryodhana, who was rigidly favoring the war.

He did not use the super power in the case of Arjuna also, when Arjuna was against the war. In the case of Duryodhana the Lord tried His best to stop the war. In the case of Arjuna the same Lord tried His best to provoke Arjuna to fight the war. In both cases, He has taken lot of time and put best efforts through long preaching. In the case of Duryodhana the Lord failed and in the case of Arjuna the Lord succeeded. Of course virtually it is failure of Duryodhana and success of Arjuna to assimilate the advice from the Lord. However from the angle of the Lord, the effort was put by the Lord and hence from the point of effort it has to be considered as failure and success of Lord only.

The total essence is that the Lord is not bothered about the success and failure of His efforts put based on natural setup of the creation. If the individual soul fails in its effort, it will try to use the superpower if it is in possession of such superpower. But the Lord never used such superpower since He wants that everything should run on the natural rules setup by Him. In both the cases the Lord could have changed their minds in a fraction of second by using His superpower. In both the cases, He never used His superpower and tried to achieve result through the natural effort only. Therefore God is always fond of doing things based on the natural setup of administration. He is never fond of exhibiting His superpower.

The demon is quite opposite to God. He is always using the superpower achieved by him in the wrong direction of fulfillment of his ego. He often exhibits the superpower and gets his ego satisfied. The devotee is always in search of superpower to use it for selfish problems. The devotee is like the ONGC engineer, who is in search of oil hidden in the soil to use it for the generation of power for the sake of using it in improving the facilities. The devotee appears good since the superpower is not found. Once the devotee finds the superpower and achieves it, he will misuse it like the demon. The devotee is always a hidden demon waiting for the opportunity.

A true devotee is never in search of superpower. He is always in search of God to surrender his power in service of God without any aspiration for the returns. He always feels that the power in him belongs to God and therefore should be surrendered to God in his service. He does not aspire anything in return just like you are not aspiring anything in return while repaying the loan to the donor. This is the true attitude of a true devotee. You are not charging the donor for returning the loan given by him. A true preacher also preaches the same true knowledge.

He will say that the rupee given by you to God will not return back to you with interest because you have not invested your energy in the service of God as loan to Him. In fact it is reverse. You have taken the energy from God as loan and in fact you should return it along with interest. At least you can use a little of it for your selfish ends and return back the huge balance to God. At the worst, you should return at least a little to God after using a huge amount for your selfish ends.

Can we imagine the fate of the people, who do not return at least a little of the loan taken from God? The false preacher always propagates false knowledge to exploit the innocent people and get selfish benefits. He says that you will get back the money multiplied by several folds, if you donate a little to God. He collects that little money for his selfish ends posing himself as the representative of God. People are exploited for their ambition of getting back the money in multiple form.

The true preacher says that God has nothing to do with such business (naadatte kasyachit…Gita). He says that God will accept your offering in case it is offered without any aspiration for returns. He explains always the true concept without bothering about the returns in terms of business. Whether anything is given to him or not, he will not be concerned about it. He spreads always the true knowledge, which may be liked or not by the people. If he gets something through the propagation of such knowledge, he will feel that it is given by God only through the medium of human beings and expresses his gratefulness to God.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org

God is never non-existent

The Veda says “Asanneva Sa bhavati…” etc. This hymn means “God exists while being the non-existent. Realize that God is both the existent and non-existent items. Then you will realize that God exists”. This hymn needs an elaborate analytical explanation. You can bring another Vedic statement here (Tat Srushtvaa…, Satcha Tyat Chaabhavat…). This means “God created the world and entered into it. Then He became both existent and non-existent”. Bring the Gita here (Manusheem Tanum...), which means that God enters the human body.

The non-existent items (Asat) are energy, matter and awareness, forms and feelings. Forms and feelings are non-existent with respect to matter and awareness. Both matter and awareness are non-existent with respect to energy. Energy is non-existent with respect to God. God is never non-existent. He is always existent (Sat). When God enters in the energetic form, the energetic form consists of form and energy and both these are relatively true (Asat) items.

When God enters the human body, the body consists of matter, energy, awareness, forms and feelings, which are also relatively true (Asat) items only. You have to take that form as God as you take the live wire as current. If you agree that the unimaginable God exists and enters imaginable items, which are non-existent (since they are relatively true), now you can say that God exists and is visible. Through the imaginable and relatively non-existent items (like energetic form or human body) only you can experience God.

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

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org

Essence of rituals

          The essence of all the rituals is just sacrifice of wealth to a deserving devotee of God and the sacrifice should be in the memory of God.  Mere sacrifice to a deserving human being without referring to God is just social service, the reward of which is temporary stay in heaven (Ksheenepunye….Gita).

The sacrifice is of two ways.  One is in the form of work or service and the other is in the form of wealth.  The sacrifice should be done with lot of analysis to discriminate the deserving from the rest.  The sacrifice is most powerful means to please God and get His grace, if the receiver deserves.  If the receiver does not deserve, the same sacrifice will yield negative results in the form of punishment.

Since all the rituals involve sacrifice only as the basis, the rituals should be done with proper analysis in selecting the deserving receiver.  The deservingness of the receiver alone decides the fate of the entire ritual.  Place, time and formalities of the ritual are not at all important in deciding the fruit of the ritual.

If the receiver is undeserving, the sacrifice may be done in sacred Varanasi on sacred day of Maha Shivaratri, and the process of sacrifice might have been done correctly following all the steps of the scripture, but the result is going to be negative only.

If the receiver deserves, whatever may be place, time and procedure of the ritual, the result will be excellent.  People are bothered about the place, time and correctness in the steps of the ritual only, which are totally useless.   They are not bothered about the main point, which is the deservingness of the receiver.  They never analyze the receiver. 

          Veda says that the main characteristic of deservingness of a receiver is the lack of attraction on the returns (Shrotriyasya chaakamahatasya…..).  When the priest is invited to perform a ritual, he should not aspire for any benefit or returns.  He should not ask for the fees.  He should accept immediately to perform the ritual without a trace of aspiration for fees.

The ritual involves worship of God and he should thank God for getting an opportunity to worship God through the ritual.  At the end of the ritual, whatever may be paid to him, it should be received with pleasure and full gratitude.  He should feel that the money is given to him by God.  He should feel that the donor is only a mechanical means of God.  Thus, he should not analyze the payment, which is the form of grace of God.

Even if nothing is given, he should return back to home after expressing full gratitude to the doer of the ritual for giving an opportunity to participate in the worship of God.  If this attitude is maintained, the expectation for fees will not take birth in the mind.  Since the ritual is misunderstood as some work of soaping God to give some benefits to the doer of the ritual, the priest is expecting fees from the doer.  In fact, if the priest performs the ritual understanding it as the worship of God, the priest himself will be benefitted along with the doer of the ritual.

The priest performs the ritual for the sake of the fees only, so that the doer of the ritual alone is supposed to get the total benefit from the worship.  The sage Yaska says that the priest is a porter of the luggage of huge gold in performing the ritual for a petty remuneration from the doer of the ritual and rendering all the gold to the doer of the ritual only (Swarna bhara harah….). 

          Let us take the example of the ritual of performing the ceremony of the departed souls.  You are giving importance to the day on which the souls departed from this world.  You have to find out a deserving person to give him food, clothes and some wealth, so that the fruit of such donation will benefit the departed soul and the doer.

Here the deservingness of the receiver is deciding the result.  If the receiver is undeserving, the departed soul is punished for such a sin apart from the doer of the ritual.  Therefore, the departed soul should be careful to do charity to a deserving receiver while he is alive.

The time of the ritual i.e., the day of the ceremony, is not at all important here.  The important aspect is only the deservingness of the receiver.  If you are not getting a deserving receiver, there is no harm in postponing the ceremony till you get a deserving receiver.

You are insisting on the bank transaction to be done on the first day of every month. You are not bothered about the nature of the transaction i.e., whether it is credit or debit.  Similarly, you are bothered about the particular date of the ceremony, and you are not worried about the aspect of deservingness of the receiver.  If the receiver deserves, the departed soul and doer will be benefitted and it will be a credit.  If the receiver is undeserving, the departed soul and the doer will be punished and it will be a debit.

You are always worried about the process of ritual, which is just like the bank transaction.  Even if the bank transaction is postponed for a few days, you will appreciate if the transaction is a credit.  Similarly, even if the ceremony is postponed, you should appreciate if the ritual yields good fruit and the fruit will be good only if the receiver is deserving.  You should not be worried about the place of ritual.  You need not be worried whether the bank transaction is in State Bank of India or Axis Bank.  You should be worried only about the credit-nature of the transaction.

Actually, the departed soul is in the energetic body and does not get any trace of the materialized food offered to the priest.  If the departed soul goes to God the food is not required (Nahitena Pathaa Tanutyajah…..).  This is called as the path of Devayanam or Shuklagati in Gita.  In the Pitruyanam or Krishnagati, the soul may go to heaven or middle world of departed souls (Pitruloka) or hell.  In heaven the soul does not require food or drink (Ubhe tirtvaa ashanayaa……).  If the soul goes to the middle world, it takes food from the rays of moon (Nirvishtasaraam pitrubhih Himamshoh….).  If the soul goes to hell, it will be tortured with hunger and thirst (Jayasva…….).  Hence, the materialistic food given to the priest is not at all related to the energetic food taken by the soul.

In such case, you need not fear that the ritual is a waste.  If you view the right angle of the ritual, it is very useful.  If the receiver deserves, the departed soul and doer of the ritual are benefitted.  Therefore, the ritual should be performed only on getting a deserving priest.

In the old generations almost everybody was a deserving receiver.  It was very difficult to get an undeserving receiver.  But today, the situation is totally reverse.  Now it is very difficult to get a deserving receiver.  Therefore, in almost all the present ceremonies, the undeserving receivers are rewarded.  The result is that the departed soul is punished along with the doer of the ceremony.

It is said in Mahabharata that donation to undeserving is a sin.   In performing the ceremony, you need not worry about the Vedic hymns recited by the priest.  All the Vedic hymns are only prayers to God.  The other Vedic statements are only descriptions of the steps to be taken in serving the deserving receiver.  These statements need not be recited at all, if the service is done in practice.

Instead of Vedic prayers, you can pray God even in your mother tongue.  God gives value to the devotion only and not to the language (Bhavagrahi Janardanah..).  He can understand any prayer in any language since He is omniscient.  Therefore, you have to concentrate on the deservingness of the receiver of your donation only and need not worry about other aspects like date of ceremony, language of prayers, steps of procedure of ritual etc. 

          It is told that if the priest eats the food, the departed soul gets that food.  Even though this is a lie, it has some good purpose.  Such a lie will initiate even the greediest person to perform the ritual due to love on his departed parents.  When the ritual is performed and if the donation to deserving is done, it gives good fruits to him and also to the departed souls.

It is a matter of exploiting the weak point for a good purpose.   The weak point is not misused.  The mother tells the child that if it eats the food, the moon will come down.  It is a total lie but still the mother is not getting sin for deceiving the child.  The lie serves good purpose in making the child eat the food.

All such statements are pertained to the ignorant people only and not to the wise scholars.  Veda also says that you should perform the ritual to get heavenly pleasures.  The ambition for heavenly pleasure already exists in every human being and this weakness is exploited in performing the ritual through which the doer is expected to be attracted towards God through prayers. Here, Veda is not responsible for creating the attraction to heavenly pleasures. It only exploits the already existing attraction in the human being.  Therefore, Veda need not be blamed for encouraging the attraction to heavenly pleasures as stated by Shankara (Jnapakam natu kaarakam).

Veda says to kill an animal in the sacrifice to offer to God.  Here Veda is not encouraging the killing of animals.  Even without Veda, the human being is killing the animals to eat them.  Here, Veda is asking the human being to offer the killed animal to God first and then to eat.  Veda is not responsible for killing the animals in the ritual.  It is only responsible for the offering of food to God.  Veda is adding the offering to God after killing the animal, which is already an existing tendency in the human being.

Similarly, the tradition need not be blamed to exploit the love on parents through the ritual.  The already existing love on parents is exploited to divert an ignorant person to love God through the ritual in which the prayers to God are offered.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Sin cannot be cancelled through any extent of devotion

          The sin, which is the source of all suffering, cannot be cancelled through any extent of devotion and any extent of dearness and nearness to God.  No way is competent to cancel the sin except one path.  Such only one path is real and permanent transformation of the mind.  Such transformation will avoid the doing of sin in future.  Since the punishment given for the sin done in the past is also aimed at this transformation only, there is no meaning of punishing the soul further for the past sins after the transformation. Hence the permanent and real transformation of the soul cancels all the past sins and the future possibility of doing anymore sin.

There is no other way than this because such unique way is the will of God.  If God is cancelling all your past sins, it means that you are really and permanently transformed and that you will never do sin in the future.  Such permanent and real transformation of the soul can be achieved only by getting the true knowledge, which is the starting step of the correct treatment.  After getting the true knowledge, you will try to travel in the right path and now your effort gains importance.

Gradually, you will succeed in getting the real and permanent transformation through the right knowledge associated with your subsequent effort to implement the right knowledge in practice.  Both right knowledge and your effort are necessary to achieve the goal.  You must get the correct information to reach Delhi.  The correct information will show you the right path to reach the goal.

Here, the purpose of knowledge is over.  From this point onwards your effort is required.  You may have the correct knowledge of the path, but unless you put the effort to walk, the goal is not reached.  The true knowledge is given by the scripture.  But unfortunately wrong interpretations of the scripture exist in this world.  Therefore, the correct interpretation with powerful explanation of the scripture is required.

The correct interpretation is only known to the
Author of the Scripture.  Therefore, God, the Author of the Scripture, should come down in the human form as Preacher to give the original interpretation and clarify all your doubts to convince you with powerful and correct logic.  If God comes in any form other than human form, the preaching is not possible.

Of course, God can preach you even in the form of a statue through His omnipotence.  But if that is done, you will be excited with tension and will not be able to receive the interpretation and will not be able to express your doubts in cool atmosphere.  For this purpose only, God comes down in the human form as a Preacher so that you will treat Him as your co-human being and express your doubts freely to get correct clarification, hence the importance of contemporary human incarnation. 

          To establish that you will be punished for your sins and your nearness and dearness to God cannot save you from this punishment, even the soul existing in the human incarnation is punished for its sins.  No soul can be more near and dear to God than the soul existing in human incarnation.

The human incarnation is a two component system of God and soul appearing in a single phase called as the human being.  It is like a copper metal appearing as copper metal only but having a trace of invisible gold in it.  It appears as a single phase (pure copper) only even though it is a two component system (copper and gold).

The activity of soul-component is rewarded by the God- component if the activity is good.  If the activity of the soul- component is bad, God-component will punish it, even though the soul component is very near and dear.  The soul is pervaded by God and hence is nearest to God.  The soul is selected by God for the human incarnation since the soul is very dear to God through its excellent devotion. Therefore, the soul in the human incarnation is nearest and dearest to God.

Even then, such nearest and dearest soul is rewarded or punished according to its good and bad deeds respectively and there is no trace of extra consideration in the case of even such soul.  Parashurama is a human incarnation consisting of both soul and God.  The soul exhibited ego and jealousy towards another human incarnation called as Rama due to its predominant qualities of Rajas and Tamas.  Then, the God-component existing in Rama and Parashurama, which is only one, punished the soul-component called as Parashurama.

The soul in Rama is very humble due to its predominant quality of Sattvam and hence was rewarded with continuous victory and unparalleled fame.  Even in the incarnation of Rama, the soul-component did a mistake.  Due to over-anxiety in the search of His lost wife, the soul-component killed Vali by hiding behind a tree.  Rama gave very long explanation to support His action.  Even though, killing Vali is a justified end, the means are not justified.

Rama is acting as a perfect human being.  The human being should give value to both ends and means.  This means the means justify the ends.  Otherwise, there is a danger of achieving the wrong end easily through false means and justify later on both the ends and means through intellectual interpretation.  If a check is put on both ends and means, the human being will have sufficient patience to do the impartial analysis.  Therefore, Rama was punished in the next birth for this sin where Vali was born as hunter and shot Him to death.

If you take the human incarnation called as Krishna, He used false means like telling a lie to kill Drona to achieve justified ends in the war.  Krishna always exhibited the aspect of God-component.  God is omniscient and will never justify false ends.  Therefore, in the case of Krishna the false means supported by justified ends become justified means and hence there is no sin.

Krishna, being rich, stole butter from the houses of poor Gopikas.  He also danced with them secretly in the midnight.  These activities look like sins, but if you analyze the background they are not sins.  In the previous birth Gopikas were sages and prayed the Lord for salvation.   In the next birth the sages were born as Gopikas and were tested by the Lord in their intensities of bonds with wealth, children and husbands.

Bonds with these three are very strong and are called as eshanas.   Stealing butter involves the test of their bonds with the wealth and the children, since the butter was stored for their children.  Those sages who passed the tests got salvation.  Krishna never repeated these activities after leaving the village since the sages with such specific background were confined to the village only.  Therefore, all the activities of Krishna are related to the God-component only and not to the soul-component. 

          You may argue that the nearest and dearest soul in the human incarnation will never do sins after going to such highest stage of devotion.  If that is the case, what is the reason for such sinful deed and subsequent punishment?  There must be some divine purpose for such act even if you consider the soul in the human incarnation as purest.  The soul must have done such act not for its own sake.  It must have done it to give some important message to the souls in the creation.

The message must be that you may become nearest and dearest to God through top-most devotion,   but you will be punished for your sins.  Devotion can never save you from sins.  The only way is real and permanent transformation of soul, which is achieved by true knowledge followed by special effort in implementing such true knowledge in practice.

The soul in the human incarnation must have enacted this drama to give this true concept to the world.  Whether the soul did the sin really or enacted the sin for the sake of message, it makes no difference as far as the need and truthfulness of the message given to the world is concerned.

The final concept does not change in both the situations.  Ravana was very near and dear to the Lord as the gate keeper in the previous birth, but he was also punished for his sins.  The internal soul of human incarnation, Rama and the external soul, Ravana, were punished for their sins irrespective of their nearness and dearness to God. 

          This concept of sin and its remedy was told by Krishna in Gita.  He told that the true knowledge giving the correct direction followed by the effort of soul in implementation will burn all the sins of past, present and future (Jnanaagnih….., Abhyasenatu….).

Jesus propagated this concept telling that if you confess and do not repeat the sins through surrender to God, all the sins will be excused.  The priests of the church crucified Him, since the propagation of such true knowledge will affect their interests.  The sinners come and donate to get their sins cancelled.  The priests play important role in this process and get highest respect from the public.  The propagation of this truth will affect their business and respectful positions in the society.

The priests of all the religions in the world are doing huge business based on this false concept only.  In fact, these priests can earn more and can get more respect if they are based on the truth and propagate the true knowledge.  When the truth is propagated, the souls will get real benefit.  The priests will be rewarded more and hence should not object the propagation of the true spiritual knowledge under false impression that their livelihood gets spoiled by the true knowledge. 

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org/

God is creator of good and bad

          People often get the doubt about the creation of bad in this world apart from good.  The bad is related to the qualities of Rajas and Tamas.  The good is related to the quality of Sattvam.  Since God is the Creator and Maintainer of both good and bad, He is associated with both good and bad.   This is clear when we say that Vishnu is associated with Sattvam, Brahma is associated with Rajas and Shiva is associated with Tamas.

The doubt is that God should have been always in the form of Vishnu only.  In fact, there is a sect called Vaishnavas, who follow this point.  They treat God as Vishnu or Narayana only.  In such case, God should not be the Creator of the entire world since bad is also a part of the world.  This will limit God to the partial capacity of Creation. Even if you say that bad is the creation of souls, since God is the Creator of all the souls, the indirect responsibility of bad is appearing to God.  Otherwise, God should have made bad to disappear as soon as it is created by the souls.

The maintenance of bad should not have been possible without the will of God, since will of God is the reason of everything in the Creation.  The fundamental aspect of creation of this Universe by God is only entertainment as said in Veda (Ekakinaramate….) and in Brahma Sutras (Lokavattu…..).   The entertainment in single phase of good is always boring.  When you eat a sweet dish continuously, you require the hot pickle also now and then to give a break in eating the sweet.  This break or change gives you the reinforcement of taste to eat sweet again.

In eating the meals, both dishes of sweet and hot are always maintained.  You may say that this necessity of break belongs to the lower human beings but not to the highest God.  In such case, the entertainment is also related to lower human beings but not to highest God.  If that is true, the scripture should not have told the requirement of entertainment for God.  You cannot contradict the Scripture since its Author is God and this is explained by the 3^rd Brahma Sutra (Sastrayonitvat).

In the subject of unimaginable God, the unimaginable God alone can be the authority.  You cannot say that the aspect of unimaginable is false since the unimaginable boundary of the Universe is a practical example.  The entertainment of God does not fix God again as awareness.  God can have any quality through His unimaginable capacity. 

God knows everything and hence through the quality of knowing, you cannot fix God as awareness.  God has the quality of the process of knowing through His unimaginable capacity without being awareness.  Similarly, God can have the quality of entertainment without being any qualified and imaginable item of the creation like awareness.  We have no objection to attribute any quality to God as long as you do not conclude God as the qualified imaginable item.  He can be the possessor of any quality without being the worldly possessor of such quality, which is an imaginable item of the Creation.

The unimaginable nature of God is never damaged by your logic of imaginable items of the Creation.  All the three spiritual preachers (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) said that God is awareness since He has the quality of knowing.  This only means that God is associated with the awareness as the medium or Upadhi and does not mean that God is the imaginable awareness.

Since God pervades the entire medium and gets identified with it as the current is identified with the wire, we can call God as the medium for all practical purposes.  By this point we can call God as awareness and this is only an assumption but not reality.  This becomes necessary since the unimaginable God cannot be indicated even by the highest faculty of intelligence and imagination.

If this point is stated, which is the absolute reality; there is a danger of mistaking the unimaginable God as non-existent.  Hence all the Preachers stopped with God mediated by awareness and hence treated God as awareness through assumption.  However, the quality of knowing is related to the medium (awareness) only.  Then, you should say that the quality of knowing is an associated characteristic of God only and not the inherent characteristic.  However, if the confusion is not cleared by this explanation, it is always better to present the whole subject through a simple concept, which is that God is having the quality of knowing through His unimaginable capacity of omnipotence.  In this simple explanation, the quality of knowing can become the inherent characteristic of God through his capacity of unimaginable omnipotence and by this the danger of mistaking God as awareness is ruled out. 

          Let us come to the original point.   Again, another doubt comes, that creation of bad directly or indirectly spoils the souls and hence it is objectionable.  This objection is also ruled out because the process of examination of the souls is essential for giving the divine fruit.  Unless the attraction to bad exists, there is no meaning of examination.

The teacher is always advising the students to concentrate on studies without going to cinema.  Those who concentrated on studies resisting that attraction are rewarded.  You cannot say that all the cinema theaters in the city should be destroyed so that the disturbance of concentration can be avoided.  The theatre exists in the city to give entertainment to the retired public.  Therefore, the aspect of the entertainment of the retired public cannot contradict the aspect of concentration of students on studies.

You should not bring the retired public and the students on one line.  Similarly, you should not bring God and souls on one line.  Moreover, unless the theatre exists, there is no meaning in the aspect of concentration on studies resisting the side attractions.  If the side attraction is absent, where is the concept of concentration and where is the concept of examination?   Such situation leads to meaningless dormant inactivity and lack of spirit of competition, which again bores the students themselves.  Then, the students themselves will raise objection.  Hence for the sake of the souls only the bad is created.

God is deriving the entertainment from both good and bad and such entertainment is not wrong since bad is not created primarily for the sake of such entertainment only.  The entertainment is only secondary since the creation of bad was not done at all for His entertainment.  You need not object such entertainment of God when it is not the primary purpose.  You cannot say that the founder of a college is responsible for the suicide of a student on failing in the examination.  You are saying that if the founder has not established the college, this incident should not have happened and therefore, the founder is criminal and should be punished!

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Datta is available in human form only

Datta means God available for souls.   He is available in the human form with materialized body since human beings are with materialized bodies.  The same God is available in energetic body to angels and to the departed souls from the earth, since both angels and the departed souls are in the energetic bodies.   The angels are the souls in permanent energetic bodies, whereas the departed souls exist in the energetic bodies till they take the re-birth.

The present alive human form of God is most relevant to the present alive human generation.  Therefore, energetic form of God and also the past human form of God are irrelevant to the present human beings.  Hence, the fruits of devotion are given by the contemporary human incarnation only to any present alive human being.

Before giving the fruit, you will be tested in two aspects.  The first aspect is the importance you give to God above all your present bonds, which are mainly with your wealth, (Dhaneshana), your wife or husband (Dareshana) and with your children (Putreshana).  Another main bond is also regarding your attachment to your body and life (Deheshana and Praneshana).  The first aspect deals with the position you give to God beyond all these five bonds.  The second aspect is about your recognition of contemporary human incarnation of God through analysis.

The first aspect is called as Devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and the second aspect is called as Knowledge (Jnana Yoga).  Of course, each of these two aspects always pervades the other aspect.  The basis of establishment and development of Devotion is analysis or Knowledge.  Similarly, the result of analysis or knowledge is always establishment and development of devotion.

Both Devotion and Knowledge are essential for your success in the examination conducted by Datta or contemporary human incarnation.  Without examination the fruit cannot be given.  You cannot get the certificate of the degree without the final written examination.    Devotion and Knowledge are essential requirements for the test conducted by Datta as paper and pen are essential requirements for the written examination. 

The analysis to fix and develop devotion should be done.  All your family bonds are only dramatic bonds, which are unreal as seen in a cinema shooting.  The bond with your wealth is also unreal like the bond of the actor with the material of settings in the shooting.  The bond with your body is also unreal, which is the bond of the actor with his dress of the role.  Gita says that as the body changes the dress, the soul also changes the body (Vasamsi Jirnani…).   The bond with your life is also unreal like the bond of the actor with his role.

When the bonds of the actor with the dress and role are unreal, we cannot imagine the extent of unreality of the bonds existing between the roles in the drama.  Ashtavakra mentioned the same point in his preaching to king Janaka.  He established this point through a very sarcastic remark.  He said that the bond between mother and his son in this life is going to be the bond between husband and wife during the next birth.  If this point is not explained properly, the audience will throw stones on the speaker!

This can be explained through a beautiful simile.  In one drama two actors acted like mother and son.  In the next drama the same actors acted in the roles of husband and wife.   The actors are neither husband and wife nor son and mother in reality.  Even the gender is unreal as it is related to the external dress only.  A male actor can act in the female role and vice versa.  The soul is the actor, which is the pure awareness and it is untouched by the body, gender and the relationships with other roles.

Shankara also told that, that which is temporary must be unreal (Yadanityam tat krutakam…).    Since all these bonds are confined to this birth only, they become temporary and hence unreal.  Therefore all these bonds are unreal except the bond with God.  Even though the bonds with own role, other roles, settings and dress are unreal, the bond of the actor with the Producer and Director is always permanent and real.  The drama may change, but the Producer and the Director is only one.  The relationship between the actor and him is employee – employer relationship.  Similarly, the bond with God is permanent and real and therefore, should be given the top most position.

All the souls are servants of God, and God is always the Master of souls (Aatmeshwaram…. Veda).  Since the relevant God is the contemporary human incarnation, the bond with the contemporary human incarnation must be the top most.  Hanuman and Gopikas maintained top most bonds with their contemporary human incarnations, viz. Rama and Krishna, only.  The top-most bond with irrelevant energetic incarnations and past human incarnations become meaningless.  The photos and statues represent these energetic incarnations and past human incarnations and therefore, the bonds with such photos and statues are not only meaningless but also foolish.

Of course, if the human being has not reached the stage of maturity to have bond with contemporary human form of God, the bond with photos, statues, energetic forms and past human forms should be respected, which serves the purpose of development of theoretical devotion to God.  Such theoretical devotion on ripening becomes practical devotion to the contemporary human incarnation.  You should always remember that the practical devotion to the contemporary human incarnation alone gives the divine fruit, which is clearly seen in Hanuman and Gopikas.  

When the first aspect is fully achieved, the second aspect becomes necessary.  The second aspect is recognition of contemporary human incarnation.  This second aspect becomes important since you are ready with the first aspect i.e., you are ready to do practical devotion or service to the contemporary human incarnation.  The only path to recognize the present human form of God is the merit of His knowledge.

You have to analyze the preaching of various preachers and select the best.  For such selection, you require the faculty of sharp analysis in deciding the true knowledge.  The examiner must have sharp analysis to recognize the correct answer while evaluating the scripts.  In this aspect only the analysis will help you.  Let us take the example of the lady, who is blessed to have God as son is the mother of Sripada Vallabha.  The ritual of ancestors was going on in her house.  A saint entered the house through the back door and asked for food.   Unless the priests of the ceremony finish their meals, nobody should eat before they eat.    The scripture says that it is a great sin to give food to anyone before the priests eat.  She analyzed the saint and recognized him as the human form of God.  The saint is always a top scholar and knows that prior eating in such ceremony is a sin.  In fact, not only the donor of the food but also the receiver of the food will get the punishment for such sin.

The saint can go to other house and can get the same food in which such ceremony is not performed.  When the choice of serving the purpose without sin is available, will any fool opt the other choice?  She did all this analysis and decided that the saint is God.  She served the food to the saint and the saint appeared as God.  God gave her the boon of becoming her son.  Therefore, she recognized the contemporary human incarnation through analysis only.

If the analysis is not done, you will be exploited by several false human incarnations. Since this aspect is of pure analysis, this aspect can be treated as Jnana Yoga.  Giving top most priority to God is Bhakthi Yoga and recognizing the alive human form of God is Jnana Yoga.  Both are essential for your success when Datta tests you.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Recognizing contemporary human incarnation is most crucial point

Recognition of contemporary human incarnation is the most crucial point since we can worship God directly through contemporary human incarnation only.  The recognition is to be done by examining various messages of divine knowledge rendered by the spiritual preachers, and through the true and excellent spiritual knowledge only, you have to recognize the contemporary human incarnation.

If you want to give gold medal to the top most meritorious student in the class, you have to examine the answer scripts written by all the students of the class and depending on the highest marks, you have to select the gold medalist.  Similarly, you have to examine the messages of all the preachers and then recognize the incarnation through the merit of the message.  You should not fix some student as the gold medalist in the beginning itself and then allot highest marks to his answer script.

Today, people are doing exactly the same mistake.  They enquire and examine the preacher through various other aspects and decide some preacher as the incarnation and then treat his knowledge as the true knowledge.  Veda says that true (Satyam Jnanam) and excellent (Prajnanam) spiritual knowledge alone is the real identification of God.  Therefore, you have to examine the knowledge first and not the preacher.

While you are examining the answer scripts of the students, you are unaware of any student.  You are giving highest marks simply based on the merit of the answer without knowing the student of that script.  You are not aware of the personal merits and personal defects of the student while giving the highest marks to a particular script.  You are not judging the student by his character and conduct.   The knowledge of the student alone is relevant basis for giving the gold medal.  Similarly, the true and excellent spiritual knowledge alone is the deciding factor because you are going to get the right direction in your spiritual journey through the true knowledge only.

The examination of Gita   gives the identification of God.  You are concerned only about Gita since it gives the right direction for your spiritual uplift.  Based on this only, you should conclude that the Author of Gita must be God.  You are not concerned about the merits and defects of the Author of Gita, which are not relevant to your spiritual progress.  He might have stolen butter or might have danced with girls. Since those factors are not going to help you in any way in your spiritual journey, the advice given by Him to you alone is relevant to you.

There may be so many unknown reasons for His behavior about which, your capacity is not sufficient to analyze.  Such analysis is unnecessary for your spiritual journey.  What you require is only the correct advice about the correct spiritual path.  Therefore, you have to recognize God through such correct advice which is called as true spiritual knowledge.

After recognition, you should not analyze the other aspects of God.  After giving highest marks to the answer script, you should give the gold medal to the writer.  You should not stop the gold medal since the student is smoking.  You have read the Bible and concluded that the Speaker of the Bible should be God.  The Author of the Bible might have taken the wine of grapes or might have taken the non-vegetarian dish.  You may search for the reasons of such specific behavior of the incarnation.  But your faith on Him as God should not be disturbed if you have not got the answer in your analysis.

You may find out the reason for the smoking of gold medalist.  But you should not keep the gold medal in suspension till you find out the reason.  Whether you find out the reason or not the gold medalist is a gold medalist. Therefore, it is the climax of the foolishness of the ignorance to decide some person as God first and then believe his knowledge as the true knowledge.

You have to impartially examine the knowledge of various preachers and the best selected knowledge must lead you to its author as God.  Such God may belong to your caste or not, may belong to your religion or not, may belong to your nation or not since God is always universal and His preaching is also universal since He is the creator of the entire humanity.

Gita also says that the Preacher of the true knowledge is God (Jnanitvaatmaiva….).  This means that the merit of the knowledge alone should be the deciding factor in recognizing God. 

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org/

The concept of human incarnation is the most perfect truth

          The concept of human incarnation is the most perfect truth. At the same time it is most complicated and most dangerous also. It is truth because God interacts with the human beings in human form only. If God enters an inert statue, the purpose of preaching right knowledge to the humanity is not accomplished. If you say that the God in statue also has awareness by virtue of His omnipotence, such awareness cannot be used to give the right knowledge to the devotees. The statue is made of inert matter and if awareness also exists in it, it just becomes the human being. The human being is nothing but the human body made of inert matter associated with awareness.

If the statue starts preaching knowledge, there will be excitation and the freedom to interact for clarification is not possible. The energetic form has inert energy as the material of body associated with awareness in which God may exist. Such energetic incarnation is not freely available to the humanity for preaching the right knowledge and it is relevant to the angels only, which are souls in energetic bodies. Good human beings only become angels after death. Sinners become devils after death. Angels and devils are the souls in energetic bodies after death.

The souls in the materialized human bodies can be also treated as angels and devils. A human being is a mixture of both angel and devil and becomes Ghost after death. Thus, death does not differentiate the classification. Therefore, the human incarnation is the most relevant for humanity and this logic is the basis of the truth.

At the same time this aspect of human incarnation becomes very dangerous because several human beings claim themselves as incarnations and exploit the people. Some exploit to satisfy their ego or jealousy developed over the human incarnations seen by them. Some exploit to earn money and some exploit to enjoy the sex in illegal way. Thus, the real human incarnation is one in thousands of false human incarnations and its isolation is very critical.

          The above problem is to be avoided since there is no other alternative than getting the right direction from the knowledge of the right human incarnation. The right knowledge is very essential without which the correct direction in the spiritual effort is lost. All the doubts about the right knowledge can be efficiently clarified from the right human incarnation only. Unless the doubts are perfectly clarified, the knowledge cannot be implemented by the human being. If the direction is wrong, all the effort goes to waste and hence the right knowledge plays very important role in any effort.

Since there is no other way than the human incarnation (Nanyahpanthah…Shruti), you have to avoid all the exploitations and stick to the concept. The clue to identify the right human incarnation becomes very important point. The only clue is to recognize the right knowledge, since the right incarnation alone gives the right knowledge.

What is the way to recognize the right knowledge?  The inner conscience alone can recognize the right knowledge. As long as the knowledge is not right, the doubts will be coming in your mind continuously.  You should not fear to implement the right knowledge because the first stage is to accept the right knowledge in theory only. In course of time only you will gain the courage to implement the right knowledge.  The fear in implementation of right knowledge forces you to treat the right knowledge as the wrong knowledge. In such state also, your inner conscience pricks you always suggesting it as right. You will neglect the suggestion since you suffer for your lack of efficiency in getting the right fruit by implementation of right knowledge. You are ambitious of the fruit and your inefficiency in implementation of the right knowledge removes the possibility of getting the desired fruit. In such state of confusion, the best solution invented by your mind is to treat the right knowledge as wrong and to think that the desired fruit cannot be achieved by such assumed wrong knowledge.

The final result is to treat the right knowledge as wrong. For the same reason, your mind treats the wrong knowledge as right since it is very convenient to implement the wrong knowledge. Your mind links the right fruit to the wrong knowledge, and thus makes you feel to get the right fruit through the implementation of wrong knowledge assumed as right knowledge. This is the analysis of the instantaneous psychological process, unaware of which, people like the implementation of wrong knowledge assuming as right and assume the achievement of right fruit.  When all your doubts are cleared, the courage to implement the right knowledge is spontaneously generated. Some doubt existing in your mind unconsciously is responsible for your fear in the implementation.

 Veda says that God is the infinite right knowledge and that God is the excellent knowledge (Satyam Jnanam…, Prajnanam….). This does not mean that God is the knowledge itself. It only means that the possessor of right and excellent knowledge is God and such knowledge is His correct identification mark since it is His inseparable characteristic. If some body wears a red shirt always, the red shirt becomes his identity mark and you can call him as the red shirt like calling “Oh! Red shirt! Come here”. Gita gives clarification on this point, which says that the possessor of knowledge is God (Jnaanitvaatmaiava……).

Since God enters the human being only, such identification is mentioned. The human being is always characterized by the knowledge. Knowledge is one sided characteristic of awareness. It means knowledge is always associated with awareness and awareness need not be associated always with knowledge. An animal or bird has awareness but no knowledge. Therefore, you should not take awareness as the meaning of the words indicating knowledge in Veda like Jnanam and Prajnanam. This clarification is given in Gita, which says that God enters human body (Manusheem….). Hence, Gita always gives clarifications on Veda. Such correct clarification can be correctly clarified by the human incarnation only since the same God, who said Gita, can alone give the original sense of the text. The Author himself can alone give the correct sense of his own statement. Since, God is one and the same in all the human incarnations, any human incarnation can clarify the text said by any other human incarnation.

          You should not be tempted to become human incarnation since no extra undue advantage can be obtained by you by becoming human incarnation. The service rendered by you to God in the human incarnation gets the same fruit, whether you internally serve God as human incarnation or externally serve as a devoted servant. No extra advantage will be shown on you since you are serving internally.

Similarly, your sin will be punished equally whether you are serving Him internally or externally. Your sin will not be neglected since you are the human incarnation and your merit will not be also neglected since you are existing outside as a devoted servant. The human incarnation means the existence of God in the human being. The human being means the inert human body as the tree with the individual soul as its owner-bird. The God, the ultimate owner of all birds and all trees,  lives on the same tree along with its owner-bird as said in Veda (Dvaasuparnaa…..). The sin of the individual soul, which is the owner-bird of the body-tree will be equally punished as the sin of the bird of any other tree. The merit of bird of any other tree will be rewarded in the same way.

Rama is the human incarnation in which the individual soul exists merged with God. Rama killed Vali hiding Himself and this sin belongs to individual soul and Rama received the punishment of this sin in the next birth, born as Krishna. Hanuman is an individual soul existing out side as the servant of Rama and Hanuman was rewarded with the post of God. Therefore, there is no discrimination between the souls regarding punishment or reward. The soul in which God exists by merging punishes the same soul for its sin. The teacher takes disciplinary action against his own son in the school even though his son lives with him only in the same house. The teacher gives I st mark to any deserving boy even though such boy stays outside his house. Therefore, you will not get any advantage by becoming human incarnation and will not get any disadvantage by remaining as its humble servant.

In such case, your jealousy on human incarnation is also meaningless. Hence, you should concentrate on the merits of your sacrifice and service only avoiding the aspirations regarding all the fruits including the fruit of becoming human incarnation. Hanuman served His contemporary human incarnation without any aspiration and finally God merges with him to make him incarnation. The fruit depends on the quality of your practical sacrifice only and does not depend on the distance between you and God. It makes no difference whether you are closest to God by becoming human incarnation or far from God by remaining a devoted servant. In fact, there is higher fruit than becoming the human incarnation. You can become equal to God through human incarnation. But there is a higher state than this, which is to make God as your servant.

Gopikas remained always very far from their contemporary human incarnation, Krishna, since Krishna left Brundavanam as a boy and never returned back to see Gopikas staying in Brundavanam. But, they received this unique fruit since a separate world called as Goloka was created by God above His head. The quality of their sacrifice is unimaginable since they sacrificed everything for the sake of Krishna. Such sacrifice is possible only to sages and is impossible to any human being or any angel also. They sacrificed all their wealth, which is the stored butter through which only their livelihood is maintained.

Sages are highest souls in the entire creation. Datta, the sage incarnation of God is highest for the same reason. They sacrificed their sacred character, even though such sacrifice leads to intensive punishment in the hell. They jumped into the fire when they heard that Krishna was no more and thus they sacrificed their life for God. Therefore, the quality of your practical attitude brings the fruit and not the distance between yourself and God.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org