I am killed by my children on the cross. Revenge is mine. My revenge is not to kill them, but to kill their ignorance. My most powerful weapon is infinite love. If you love me I will allow myself to be loved by you so that at last you find that you loved yourself by loving me. Similarly if you deceive me I will allow myself to be deceived by you, and at last you will find that you deceived yourself by deceiving me.
Your real love is proved by money only. You love your children really. Therefore you are giving your money to your children. Similarly if you love me you will give your money to Me for My work. This is the practical fire test of your real love. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are just like the pickles (side dishes) in the plate. Sacrifice of a part of the fruit of your work (money) and sacrifice of a part of your work at least consists, the central bread in the plate. Both these two parts put together is called divine service.
Without this practical divine service there is no use of mere prayers and meditation. Without the divine service if you are offering only prayers and meditation to Me you are offering Me a meal plate with pickles only and without the central bread. When I eat the pickles only My stomach burns and I become furious, i.e., the reason why I am not answering your prayers and meditation when there is no service.
Of course if you are incapable of sacrificing the money to my work, at least sacrifice your work for my work. If you are incapable of sacrificing both these, then only I will accept your prayer and meditation, because you cannot do any thing more than that. In such case the pickles offered by you will become pieces of sweet fruits and I shall answer you positively.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Q & A with a Christian Devotee
Q1) The Bible (Matthew 19:12) says regarding becoming a eunuch (napuMsaka) for the sake of the kingdom of heaven “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it”. Does it mean that anyone who feels capable of remaining a celibate (brahmachari) for the sake of God should become one?
A. The word eunuch means the removal of male egoism. Krishna asked the saints to be born as maidens to receive the salvation. Celibate means the person is always interested in the search of the God. It is has nothing to do with marriage. In Sanskrit the word Brahmachari indicates a person who is always aware of the Lord.
Q2) How can I handle Rajas and Tamas in me?
A. Rajas or Krodha means emotion. Tamas means ignorance. Both these can be removed by Sattvam, which is the true knowledge given by your selected spiritual preacher.
Q3) The Bible has a concept of the "Holy Spirit" that comes down to dwell in people who have put their full faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Where does that fit into Hinduism?
A. The Holy Spirit means pure Sattvam. Sattvam indicates the knowledge and all the good qualities associated with it are indicated by the word Holiness. All the devotees of God are blessed with this pure Sattvam as you can find in Gita. This pure Sattvam is always associated with the Lord as said in Gita.
Q4) You say that you are the human incarnation of God. Then how come I never got even a little bit of Bliss from you? Even if Bliss is not the goal, I should get atleast some in order to identify you as per your method of identifying the human incarnation—Knowledge that gives bliss and generates love.
I never said that I am the human incarnation of God. Only when the devotees stress on this concept even after my serious opposition I agree to it because if you analysis the word human incarnation, it does not mean that I am God. It means that the God is present in this human body as a guest visiting your house for his work. My inert human body is the house. I am the soul and owner of this house. The God visited my house for his work.
When the guest in your house speaks you are not speaking. Therefore, when God gives this spiritual knowledge I am not speaking. You need not fear that I have become God. You say God in flesh. This word indicates the concept. The word flesh indicates the inert human body and the soul in it. The word God indicates the guest that visited the human body. This spiritual knowledge has given bliss to some people and has not given bliss to you. This means that the defect is with the soil and not with seed.
If the seed is defective, the seed should not germinate in any soil. Similarly my knowledge should not have given bliss to anybody. As soon as you hear the knowledge, the harsh truth in it may not give bliss to you. But some devotees may get bliss on hearing the truth even if it is harsh. Did the knowledge of Jesus give bliss to all in His time? In that case why He was crucified by majority of the people? According to your version, all the people should have got bliss. When the doctor says to a patient that an injection of medicine is to be given, the child weeps. The child does not get bliss from the medicine immediately. But in long run the child gets good health and gets bliss permanently.
A grown up person is happy by seeing the injection because he realises that the medicine injected will act quickly. A child is not getting immediate bliss on seeing the injection. But the same injection is giving bliss to an elder person. Your heart is pure and innocent like that of a child. When the knowledge is practiced, then only the eternal bliss dawns on you. But you should not satisfy yourself there. You must give bliss to the God through sacrifice.
If your ultimate goal is only bliss, you are in no way greater than any ordinary human being who also craves for the same bliss. You have taken God as the means to achieve the bliss. The other fellow has taken the wine as means to achieve the same bliss. Your aim is on the bliss only and not on the God. You should keep God blissful through suffering by sacrifice. The God also will keep you blissful by attracting your sins on Him. Such sacrifice of yourself for God is the real love. Such real love is practically experienced in the case of your love on your family members. It is not impossible. If it is impossible, it should be impossible everywhere.
Q5) After Jesus Christ left his disciples, the disciples continued to teach that one should follow and worship Jesus Christ only. Even though they were the ones representing God and the Holy Spirit was supporting them, they did not ask people to worship them. How come you are indicating that it would be good for people to worship you now?
A) I am speaking about the God in flesh, who comes in every human generation. I am telling that you should identify such human incarnation and worship Him. The disciples cannot be the human incarnations and so the disciples of Jesus were correct. Whoever is the human incarnation like Jesus, Krishna etc, should be worshipped. I have given the signs of the human incarnation as present in scriptures. I have also asked you to use your logic in such identification. After all this, if you identify Me as the human incarnation, then only you have to worship Me. I never say that I am the human incarnation and you should worship me.
Krishna also told Arjuna to worship Him as the human incarnation. I never told like that. I only say that after the analysis of the scriptures, whoever is found as the human incarnation, He should be worshipped. If you are found as the human incarnation you should be worshipped. How can I force anybody to worship Me? I have accepted the worship of those devotees only who have firm faith in Me even after My several negative tests. That does not apply to your case. Whomever you find as the human incarnation you worship Him. My information to you is that the human incarnation exists in every generation to avoid the partiality.
Q6) The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will be your guide in all things until Jesus Christ comes again. And, there will be other preachers, but Christ himself will not come down until the time and manner specified. You are saying you are re-incarnation of Jesus Christ, and we should worship you. Please explain this.
A) As I told you the Holy Spirit means the divine knowledge. The recorded divine knowledge can certainly guide people to some extent. But the direct explanation from the God cannot be given by anybody. God gives such direct explanation to every human generation directly. If one generation is blessed by such direct contact and other generations are having only the indirect guidance by Holy Spirit, again the partiality arises. Therefore, either there should be continuous guidance by the Holy Spirit for every generation from the beginning of the creation or God must be coming in every generation. Gita says that God comes down whenever there is necessity. You stick to one scripture only and argue. What about the other scriptures?
Q7) What is your explanation of the Millennium prophecies in the Bible?
A) Any prophecy carries the internal meaning, which is present in every human generation and it is not limited to a particular period of time.
Q8) According to your lectures, the same people of your inner circle are born again and again in this world. Does this mean that these people cannot reach the permanent abode of the Lord?
A) The inner circle devotees of God have reached already the permanent abode of God. These devotees take human births whenever God comes down in human form. When the mission is over God will go to the permanent abode along with these liberated souls. In fact wherever God exists, that is the eternal divine abode. These devotees will never come to the routine cycle on this earth. From that angle they have no re-birth. Any soul is having the equal opportunity to enter the inner circle provided the soul has strong wish and puts efforts.
Q9) You say it is necessary for God to incarnate again and again since Christianity and Islam do not accept re-incarnation for the soul. But later you explain your theories assuming reincarnation of the soul. So what is your actual stand; do you accept reincarnation of the soul or not? If you do, then how can you reconcile with Christianity and Islam, which absolutely do not accept it?
A) The liberated soul will never have re-birth in this routine cycle. But the soul will be born as human being to associate and serve the God, whenever God comes down in human form. Regarding the ordinary soul also, it will not get the re-birth having the same spiritual chance. Therefore, one should try to please God in this human birth itself without postponement.
Thus, there is no re-birth from this angle. But the soul can be born as an animal or animal like human being and thus re-birth exists. Like this the contradiction can be removed. If you pass a hard and fast rule that the soul has no re-birth at all, do you mean that omnipotent God is also bound by your rule? The Lord can sanction the human re-birth to a soul with the equal spiritual chance also, provided He feels that the soul can uplift itself if a chance is given. Of course, such chance is very rare and one should not depend on it.
Q10) In your attempt to reconcile reincarnation vs. permanent heaven/hell, you say that repeated animal births is also a permanent hell. The Bible clearly says that in hell, the souls retain the ability to feel pain and reason (thinking). Animals do not think and do not remember their past births. If you say they are being punished, they do not even know why they are being punished. They will not learn anything from the punishment and will continue with their sinful ways if they get human birth. Also animals cannot be said to be suffering because they do not even know any better life. How can this be the hell described in the Bible?
A) The sinners are like animals. You can see a thief continues with his quality in spite of intensive third degree treatment in the police station. According to your version, he should realise his mistake because he is a human being and not the animal. How do you know that the animal is also not realising since it keeps silent? You are depending always on one scripture and your argument is always unidirectional. If you read life history of Shirdi Sai Baba, one day He found a snake swallowing a frog. Sai told His devotees that both the snake and frog were human beings in the previous birth and that they stabbed each other for the sake of property.
Then Sai told the snake and frog “Are you not ashamed of your behaviour which continues from the previous birth”? The snake left the frog and went away. Animals have realised on the warning from the Lord. Sometimes you find two human beings fighting with each other and do not separate inspite of your repeated warnings.
If you simply depend on the Bible or Gita only, there is no use of any discussions with you. You must be a sea frog and not well frog as said by Swami Vivekananda. You must examine all the scriptures impartially and then only you can arrive at the true knowledge. I see yourself as pure colourless crystal with pure innocent heart like child and imbibing the colour of any substance near yourself.
You say that logic should be avoided. This means you must follow whatever somebody says to you without analysing it. Now I will also say some thing and just follow it without analysis. You always analyse my statements because I said that you should analyse every statement. But I mean that you should analyse every statement of every person. Someone says that you should follow his statement without analysis. You simply accept that without analysis. What I mean is that you should analyse both of us and arrive at the truth. If you are against the logical analysis, why are you analysing my statements only? You must follow my statements also blindly. Is it said that the statement of any Indian guy should be analysed and your version of “Beyond the logic” does not apply to the Indian guys?
Q11) The Bible mentions the coming again of the Christ. It does not say anything about repeated incarnations of Jesus. It accepts only two: One that came 2000 yrs ago and the second, which will come after the tribulation. Specific events described in the Bible about the time of second coming of the Christ have not yet taken place. How can you then claim to be the re-incarnation of Jesus?
A) The word Jesus means the eternal God present in that human body. The same human body will never come again. Therefore, Jesus will come in another human body. If you restrict to only two human incarnations according to the direct meaning of statement, then Bible contradicts Gita.
Gita says that God will come in human form any number of times whenever there is necessity. I have to speak keeping all these scriptures in my view. You speak only keeping one scripture in your view. This is the reason for the gap between us. To solve the contradiction I will say that Jesus will come again and this does not mean that He will come once only again. The tribulation is present in every generation and is not limited to a particular period.
Q12) The Bible indicates that the world will not know perfect peace until after the tribulation period. Is perfect peace the aim of your mission?
A) In every human generation the tribulation comes and the tribulation may be very serious in the end. The cyclones come often and Tsunami comes rarely. Both the cyclone and Tsunami should be controlled. The efforts of human incarnation may vary in their intensity. Perfect peace is the initial aim of God (Pravrutti), which is the establishment of balance of the society. The higher aim is liberation of the soul (Nivrutti). Unless the first aim is achieved, the second aim cannot be thought of. Unless the class is kept silent, there is no use of teaching.
Q13) I think that you are the Anti Christ since it is written in the Bible that the Anti Christ will win the hearts of people by pretending to preach world peace and unity of all religions. What do you say?
A) You are saying that the anti-Christ tries for world peace. This means that Christ is against the world peace! This simple logic crushes your statement because Jesus is the very embodiment of peace. Even in Hinduism, the followers of Ramanuja say that Sankara was the incarnation of a demon. They quote some verses from the “Bhavishyat Purana” written by sage Vyasa, which show the same meaning. The question to such people is “Have you recorded the Purana from the mouth of Vyasa directly by a tape recorder? Or at least have you got a written hand script of Vyasa?” Certainly this statement was introduced in to the scripture by some guy later on.
Q14) If Jesus died for my sins and the sins of the whole world, then my sins are washed when I confess and accept Him as my only savior. Why do I need you or anyone else for reaching heaven or attaining salvation?
A) It is written on the first page of Bible that Jesus came to save His people. His people mean His devotees and it does not mean that He saved every human being without any discrimination. I ask a simple question with simple common sense. According to Christianity the soul has no re-birth. All the souls before the birth of Jesus have gone either to God or hell permanently. Now Jesus suffered for all the sins of all the souls. Does this mean that all the souls present in the permanent hell were immediately relieved from the hell and hell is vacant? Now you say that your sins are also cancelled.
How He has cancelled the sins of the future generation? Suppose you say that He has cancelled all the sins of all the souls of past, present and future, this means no soul was in the hell and no soul is in the hell and no soul will go to the hell. What is the use of that hell which is always vacant? The people have propagated the misinterpretations due to their anxiety to attract the people towards Christianity. They show this as their special point, which is not present in any other religion. They want to attract the innocent masses by such statements and forget the simple logic and their committed blender. The real interpretation of this statement is that Jesus suffered for the sins of His real devotees.
Such behaviour of sacrifice exists in Hinduism also. Krishna tried to give away all His wealth to Sudama and tried to transfer his property on to Him. But Sudama is His real deserving devotee. Incarnations of Datta like Sai also showed the suffering of sins of their real devotees. With such interpretation only this concept becomes universal and justified in all religions. Do not be carried away by the interpretations of the human beings.
You read the Bible and think about the meanings. Your pure heart will certainly receive the real meaning if you do not hear any body. You read the knowledge of any body and try to assimilate it with your own brain. Do not allow other brains for understanding the scripture. God has clearly explained in the scripture and you can yourself understand by using even little common sense. The word of God is very clear.
Q15) You base your arguments on the impartiality of God. However the Bible gives indications that God favored some places and people over others. The truth is that partiality/impartiality, logic, reason, justice, equality and fairness are all concepts of the human mind. You cannot judge the works of God based on these human concepts. Why do you try to fit God in the limited boundaries of human rationality?
A) The partiality of God is justified provided it is shown on good people. But His partiality to a small country, which contains majority of bad people, is not justified. Therefore, you have to judge the partiality in the light of justice because God will never do injustice.
Q16) You say in the Rohit Gita that the son will be sent to hell if he leaves his parents for the sake of a girl (woman). However Jesus does not condemn it. Since man and woman were made by God and are united into one soul, in marriage, why should it not be justified for a man to leave his parents for a woman in order to start his family?
A) When a person leaves his parents, due to attraction of a girl, I mean leaving the attachment to parents. It does not mean physical separation, which is necessary for setting up the family. Jesus told that one has to leave all his family and even one has to be prepared to sacrifice the life for the sake of God in order to become His dearest disciple. How do you explain your own Bible in this point? His path is full of thorns and truth is always harsh.
Q17) You said that we all play roles here in this earth. Some people play good roles, and some people play evil roles. But, both the roles get their remuneration after death equally. Jesus Christ said that 'Evil trials must come, but woe to those through whom they come'. Why is there woe to the evil person who brings trials to the good then, like the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus? This also seems to go against the philosophy of Heaven and Hell. Please explain.
A) When the human incarnation comes down along with the inner circle of devotees, the roles are assigned for the divine drama. In such case, there is no discrimination of good and bad roles. Ravana was the gatekeeper of the Lord. But you should not extend this to the entire world and say that every bad fellow is in the divine role. Ravana went to the abode of the Lord after the death. But every bad fellow will not go to the abode of Lord. The divine drama is enacted for the sake of the world. Judas Iscariot acted in his bad role. His repentance and suicide prove that he belongs to inner circle only.
My friend! Since you have not accepted me I address you as My friend and not as my disciple. This is the inner meaning when I told that you were my friend in Brindavanam. I will never say to you or your category that I am God or God is in me. I say only that I am a devotee like you. This is the reason for sending Rohit Gita to Dr. Nikhil only and not to you directly. I say God is in me to such devotees who have partial faith on me. But to my inner circle devotees I say that I am God. The statements differ one devotee to other.
Jesus also told in different ways “ I am messenger from God”, “I am son of the God” and “I am the God since I and my father are one and the same”. These different statements relate to different levels of devotees. One level cannot absorb the statement of other level. For example you take the case of Ajay Bhaiah. He always sings the devotional songs composed by me. He has full devotion on me while singing the Bhajans. He always participates in Satsanga and receives knowledge through his intelligence. He always works for the mission. He sacrificed all his ancestral wealth to the mission during the time of past ten years and the cost of that wealth comes to about one crore rupees. He has children and lives on his salary only. He has several debts in the Banks.
I tried several times to pay his debts but he did not accept. I tested him in several ways but his faith did not shake. In fact I am defeated by him. He saw the vision of Viswaroopam (Cosmic form) in me. The God in me gave that vision to him and I have nothing to do with it. When I said that the God in me gave the vision, he never agrees and says that I am the God.
Therefore, I declare to him only that I am the God. This declaration is personal and is limited to his case only. Krishna never told that He is God to any one in His lifetime. Only when He was teaching Gita to Arjuna He declared He is God and gave the vision of cosmic form. Therefore, you do not touch the statements of other levels. I will speak to you in your level and you can treat me as a mere human being and as your good friend.
At the Lotus feet of Datta Swami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
A. The word eunuch means the removal of male egoism. Krishna asked the saints to be born as maidens to receive the salvation. Celibate means the person is always interested in the search of the God. It is has nothing to do with marriage. In Sanskrit the word Brahmachari indicates a person who is always aware of the Lord.
Q2) How can I handle Rajas and Tamas in me?
A. Rajas or Krodha means emotion. Tamas means ignorance. Both these can be removed by Sattvam, which is the true knowledge given by your selected spiritual preacher.
Q3) The Bible has a concept of the "Holy Spirit" that comes down to dwell in people who have put their full faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Where does that fit into Hinduism?
A. The Holy Spirit means pure Sattvam. Sattvam indicates the knowledge and all the good qualities associated with it are indicated by the word Holiness. All the devotees of God are blessed with this pure Sattvam as you can find in Gita. This pure Sattvam is always associated with the Lord as said in Gita.
Q4) You say that you are the human incarnation of God. Then how come I never got even a little bit of Bliss from you? Even if Bliss is not the goal, I should get atleast some in order to identify you as per your method of identifying the human incarnation—Knowledge that gives bliss and generates love.
I never said that I am the human incarnation of God. Only when the devotees stress on this concept even after my serious opposition I agree to it because if you analysis the word human incarnation, it does not mean that I am God. It means that the God is present in this human body as a guest visiting your house for his work. My inert human body is the house. I am the soul and owner of this house. The God visited my house for his work.
When the guest in your house speaks you are not speaking. Therefore, when God gives this spiritual knowledge I am not speaking. You need not fear that I have become God. You say God in flesh. This word indicates the concept. The word flesh indicates the inert human body and the soul in it. The word God indicates the guest that visited the human body. This spiritual knowledge has given bliss to some people and has not given bliss to you. This means that the defect is with the soil and not with seed.
If the seed is defective, the seed should not germinate in any soil. Similarly my knowledge should not have given bliss to anybody. As soon as you hear the knowledge, the harsh truth in it may not give bliss to you. But some devotees may get bliss on hearing the truth even if it is harsh. Did the knowledge of Jesus give bliss to all in His time? In that case why He was crucified by majority of the people? According to your version, all the people should have got bliss. When the doctor says to a patient that an injection of medicine is to be given, the child weeps. The child does not get bliss from the medicine immediately. But in long run the child gets good health and gets bliss permanently.
A grown up person is happy by seeing the injection because he realises that the medicine injected will act quickly. A child is not getting immediate bliss on seeing the injection. But the same injection is giving bliss to an elder person. Your heart is pure and innocent like that of a child. When the knowledge is practiced, then only the eternal bliss dawns on you. But you should not satisfy yourself there. You must give bliss to the God through sacrifice.
If your ultimate goal is only bliss, you are in no way greater than any ordinary human being who also craves for the same bliss. You have taken God as the means to achieve the bliss. The other fellow has taken the wine as means to achieve the same bliss. Your aim is on the bliss only and not on the God. You should keep God blissful through suffering by sacrifice. The God also will keep you blissful by attracting your sins on Him. Such sacrifice of yourself for God is the real love. Such real love is practically experienced in the case of your love on your family members. It is not impossible. If it is impossible, it should be impossible everywhere.
Q5) After Jesus Christ left his disciples, the disciples continued to teach that one should follow and worship Jesus Christ only. Even though they were the ones representing God and the Holy Spirit was supporting them, they did not ask people to worship them. How come you are indicating that it would be good for people to worship you now?
A) I am speaking about the God in flesh, who comes in every human generation. I am telling that you should identify such human incarnation and worship Him. The disciples cannot be the human incarnations and so the disciples of Jesus were correct. Whoever is the human incarnation like Jesus, Krishna etc, should be worshipped. I have given the signs of the human incarnation as present in scriptures. I have also asked you to use your logic in such identification. After all this, if you identify Me as the human incarnation, then only you have to worship Me. I never say that I am the human incarnation and you should worship me.
Krishna also told Arjuna to worship Him as the human incarnation. I never told like that. I only say that after the analysis of the scriptures, whoever is found as the human incarnation, He should be worshipped. If you are found as the human incarnation you should be worshipped. How can I force anybody to worship Me? I have accepted the worship of those devotees only who have firm faith in Me even after My several negative tests. That does not apply to your case. Whomever you find as the human incarnation you worship Him. My information to you is that the human incarnation exists in every generation to avoid the partiality.
Q6) The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will be your guide in all things until Jesus Christ comes again. And, there will be other preachers, but Christ himself will not come down until the time and manner specified. You are saying you are re-incarnation of Jesus Christ, and we should worship you. Please explain this.
A) As I told you the Holy Spirit means the divine knowledge. The recorded divine knowledge can certainly guide people to some extent. But the direct explanation from the God cannot be given by anybody. God gives such direct explanation to every human generation directly. If one generation is blessed by such direct contact and other generations are having only the indirect guidance by Holy Spirit, again the partiality arises. Therefore, either there should be continuous guidance by the Holy Spirit for every generation from the beginning of the creation or God must be coming in every generation. Gita says that God comes down whenever there is necessity. You stick to one scripture only and argue. What about the other scriptures?
Q7) What is your explanation of the Millennium prophecies in the Bible?
A) Any prophecy carries the internal meaning, which is present in every human generation and it is not limited to a particular period of time.
Q8) According to your lectures, the same people of your inner circle are born again and again in this world. Does this mean that these people cannot reach the permanent abode of the Lord?
A) The inner circle devotees of God have reached already the permanent abode of God. These devotees take human births whenever God comes down in human form. When the mission is over God will go to the permanent abode along with these liberated souls. In fact wherever God exists, that is the eternal divine abode. These devotees will never come to the routine cycle on this earth. From that angle they have no re-birth. Any soul is having the equal opportunity to enter the inner circle provided the soul has strong wish and puts efforts.
Q9) You say it is necessary for God to incarnate again and again since Christianity and Islam do not accept re-incarnation for the soul. But later you explain your theories assuming reincarnation of the soul. So what is your actual stand; do you accept reincarnation of the soul or not? If you do, then how can you reconcile with Christianity and Islam, which absolutely do not accept it?
A) The liberated soul will never have re-birth in this routine cycle. But the soul will be born as human being to associate and serve the God, whenever God comes down in human form. Regarding the ordinary soul also, it will not get the re-birth having the same spiritual chance. Therefore, one should try to please God in this human birth itself without postponement.
Thus, there is no re-birth from this angle. But the soul can be born as an animal or animal like human being and thus re-birth exists. Like this the contradiction can be removed. If you pass a hard and fast rule that the soul has no re-birth at all, do you mean that omnipotent God is also bound by your rule? The Lord can sanction the human re-birth to a soul with the equal spiritual chance also, provided He feels that the soul can uplift itself if a chance is given. Of course, such chance is very rare and one should not depend on it.
Q10) In your attempt to reconcile reincarnation vs. permanent heaven/hell, you say that repeated animal births is also a permanent hell. The Bible clearly says that in hell, the souls retain the ability to feel pain and reason (thinking). Animals do not think and do not remember their past births. If you say they are being punished, they do not even know why they are being punished. They will not learn anything from the punishment and will continue with their sinful ways if they get human birth. Also animals cannot be said to be suffering because they do not even know any better life. How can this be the hell described in the Bible?
A) The sinners are like animals. You can see a thief continues with his quality in spite of intensive third degree treatment in the police station. According to your version, he should realise his mistake because he is a human being and not the animal. How do you know that the animal is also not realising since it keeps silent? You are depending always on one scripture and your argument is always unidirectional. If you read life history of Shirdi Sai Baba, one day He found a snake swallowing a frog. Sai told His devotees that both the snake and frog were human beings in the previous birth and that they stabbed each other for the sake of property.
Then Sai told the snake and frog “Are you not ashamed of your behaviour which continues from the previous birth”? The snake left the frog and went away. Animals have realised on the warning from the Lord. Sometimes you find two human beings fighting with each other and do not separate inspite of your repeated warnings.
If you simply depend on the Bible or Gita only, there is no use of any discussions with you. You must be a sea frog and not well frog as said by Swami Vivekananda. You must examine all the scriptures impartially and then only you can arrive at the true knowledge. I see yourself as pure colourless crystal with pure innocent heart like child and imbibing the colour of any substance near yourself.
You say that logic should be avoided. This means you must follow whatever somebody says to you without analysing it. Now I will also say some thing and just follow it without analysis. You always analyse my statements because I said that you should analyse every statement. But I mean that you should analyse every statement of every person. Someone says that you should follow his statement without analysis. You simply accept that without analysis. What I mean is that you should analyse both of us and arrive at the truth. If you are against the logical analysis, why are you analysing my statements only? You must follow my statements also blindly. Is it said that the statement of any Indian guy should be analysed and your version of “Beyond the logic” does not apply to the Indian guys?
Q11) The Bible mentions the coming again of the Christ. It does not say anything about repeated incarnations of Jesus. It accepts only two: One that came 2000 yrs ago and the second, which will come after the tribulation. Specific events described in the Bible about the time of second coming of the Christ have not yet taken place. How can you then claim to be the re-incarnation of Jesus?
A) The word Jesus means the eternal God present in that human body. The same human body will never come again. Therefore, Jesus will come in another human body. If you restrict to only two human incarnations according to the direct meaning of statement, then Bible contradicts Gita.
Gita says that God will come in human form any number of times whenever there is necessity. I have to speak keeping all these scriptures in my view. You speak only keeping one scripture in your view. This is the reason for the gap between us. To solve the contradiction I will say that Jesus will come again and this does not mean that He will come once only again. The tribulation is present in every generation and is not limited to a particular period.
Q12) The Bible indicates that the world will not know perfect peace until after the tribulation period. Is perfect peace the aim of your mission?
A) In every human generation the tribulation comes and the tribulation may be very serious in the end. The cyclones come often and Tsunami comes rarely. Both the cyclone and Tsunami should be controlled. The efforts of human incarnation may vary in their intensity. Perfect peace is the initial aim of God (Pravrutti), which is the establishment of balance of the society. The higher aim is liberation of the soul (Nivrutti). Unless the first aim is achieved, the second aim cannot be thought of. Unless the class is kept silent, there is no use of teaching.
Q13) I think that you are the Anti Christ since it is written in the Bible that the Anti Christ will win the hearts of people by pretending to preach world peace and unity of all religions. What do you say?
A) You are saying that the anti-Christ tries for world peace. This means that Christ is against the world peace! This simple logic crushes your statement because Jesus is the very embodiment of peace. Even in Hinduism, the followers of Ramanuja say that Sankara was the incarnation of a demon. They quote some verses from the “Bhavishyat Purana” written by sage Vyasa, which show the same meaning. The question to such people is “Have you recorded the Purana from the mouth of Vyasa directly by a tape recorder? Or at least have you got a written hand script of Vyasa?” Certainly this statement was introduced in to the scripture by some guy later on.
Q14) If Jesus died for my sins and the sins of the whole world, then my sins are washed when I confess and accept Him as my only savior. Why do I need you or anyone else for reaching heaven or attaining salvation?
A) It is written on the first page of Bible that Jesus came to save His people. His people mean His devotees and it does not mean that He saved every human being without any discrimination. I ask a simple question with simple common sense. According to Christianity the soul has no re-birth. All the souls before the birth of Jesus have gone either to God or hell permanently. Now Jesus suffered for all the sins of all the souls. Does this mean that all the souls present in the permanent hell were immediately relieved from the hell and hell is vacant? Now you say that your sins are also cancelled.
How He has cancelled the sins of the future generation? Suppose you say that He has cancelled all the sins of all the souls of past, present and future, this means no soul was in the hell and no soul is in the hell and no soul will go to the hell. What is the use of that hell which is always vacant? The people have propagated the misinterpretations due to their anxiety to attract the people towards Christianity. They show this as their special point, which is not present in any other religion. They want to attract the innocent masses by such statements and forget the simple logic and their committed blender. The real interpretation of this statement is that Jesus suffered for the sins of His real devotees.
Such behaviour of sacrifice exists in Hinduism also. Krishna tried to give away all His wealth to Sudama and tried to transfer his property on to Him. But Sudama is His real deserving devotee. Incarnations of Datta like Sai also showed the suffering of sins of their real devotees. With such interpretation only this concept becomes universal and justified in all religions. Do not be carried away by the interpretations of the human beings.
You read the Bible and think about the meanings. Your pure heart will certainly receive the real meaning if you do not hear any body. You read the knowledge of any body and try to assimilate it with your own brain. Do not allow other brains for understanding the scripture. God has clearly explained in the scripture and you can yourself understand by using even little common sense. The word of God is very clear.
Q15) You base your arguments on the impartiality of God. However the Bible gives indications that God favored some places and people over others. The truth is that partiality/impartiality, logic, reason, justice, equality and fairness are all concepts of the human mind. You cannot judge the works of God based on these human concepts. Why do you try to fit God in the limited boundaries of human rationality?
A) The partiality of God is justified provided it is shown on good people. But His partiality to a small country, which contains majority of bad people, is not justified. Therefore, you have to judge the partiality in the light of justice because God will never do injustice.
Q16) You say in the Rohit Gita that the son will be sent to hell if he leaves his parents for the sake of a girl (woman). However Jesus does not condemn it. Since man and woman were made by God and are united into one soul, in marriage, why should it not be justified for a man to leave his parents for a woman in order to start his family?
A) When a person leaves his parents, due to attraction of a girl, I mean leaving the attachment to parents. It does not mean physical separation, which is necessary for setting up the family. Jesus told that one has to leave all his family and even one has to be prepared to sacrifice the life for the sake of God in order to become His dearest disciple. How do you explain your own Bible in this point? His path is full of thorns and truth is always harsh.
Q17) You said that we all play roles here in this earth. Some people play good roles, and some people play evil roles. But, both the roles get their remuneration after death equally. Jesus Christ said that 'Evil trials must come, but woe to those through whom they come'. Why is there woe to the evil person who brings trials to the good then, like the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus? This also seems to go against the philosophy of Heaven and Hell. Please explain.
A) When the human incarnation comes down along with the inner circle of devotees, the roles are assigned for the divine drama. In such case, there is no discrimination of good and bad roles. Ravana was the gatekeeper of the Lord. But you should not extend this to the entire world and say that every bad fellow is in the divine role. Ravana went to the abode of the Lord after the death. But every bad fellow will not go to the abode of Lord. The divine drama is enacted for the sake of the world. Judas Iscariot acted in his bad role. His repentance and suicide prove that he belongs to inner circle only.
My friend! Since you have not accepted me I address you as My friend and not as my disciple. This is the inner meaning when I told that you were my friend in Brindavanam. I will never say to you or your category that I am God or God is in me. I say only that I am a devotee like you. This is the reason for sending Rohit Gita to Dr. Nikhil only and not to you directly. I say God is in me to such devotees who have partial faith on me. But to my inner circle devotees I say that I am God. The statements differ one devotee to other.
Jesus also told in different ways “ I am messenger from God”, “I am son of the God” and “I am the God since I and my father are one and the same”. These different statements relate to different levels of devotees. One level cannot absorb the statement of other level. For example you take the case of Ajay Bhaiah. He always sings the devotional songs composed by me. He has full devotion on me while singing the Bhajans. He always participates in Satsanga and receives knowledge through his intelligence. He always works for the mission. He sacrificed all his ancestral wealth to the mission during the time of past ten years and the cost of that wealth comes to about one crore rupees. He has children and lives on his salary only. He has several debts in the Banks.
I tried several times to pay his debts but he did not accept. I tested him in several ways but his faith did not shake. In fact I am defeated by him. He saw the vision of Viswaroopam (Cosmic form) in me. The God in me gave that vision to him and I have nothing to do with it. When I said that the God in me gave the vision, he never agrees and says that I am the God.
Therefore, I declare to him only that I am the God. This declaration is personal and is limited to his case only. Krishna never told that He is God to any one in His lifetime. Only when He was teaching Gita to Arjuna He declared He is God and gave the vision of cosmic form. Therefore, you do not touch the statements of other levels. I will speak to you in your level and you can treat me as a mere human being and as your good friend.
At the Lotus feet of Datta Swami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Monday, December 20, 2010
Chastity
O Datta, can you please explain the importance of chastity? I see so many people who are having so-called "casual sex" even if they are already in a relationship.
Free sex is not correct, because we are making an oath before God; we [husband and wife] should be loyal to each other. Jesus condemns this and Quran also condemns. All the other religions also condemn this.
Sex is only for the production of the children. Jesus lived only for 32 years, never He had any sexual ideas, even in that young age. Adi Sankara lived only for 32 years, never He had any sexual ideas. Swami Vivekanada lived up to 39 years, beautiful personality; never he had such ideas.
When the soul is very much immersed in divine thought, divine mission all that, this sexual idea can never attract him. Suppose you are engaged in doing say, some research in science. Suppose you are deeply interested and involved, the idea of sex will not come. Such idea will never arise.
Sex is only a mental idea and is based on some hormone. It is a question of mental involvement or mental thinking. When mind is completely absorbed in divine thoughts about God, before the bliss one get from the God, the momentary sexual happiness is nothing.
Suppose wife betrays husband and husband betrays wife, the other person need not worry about it. Just forget it, and be involved in your work, because after death other soul and you are free with their own account. The soul will not recognize the other soul. One need not give much importance to that.
If wife is also engaged in spiritual things, then this problem will never arise in life. So always see that the entire family is involved in the mission of God. The person should try with the family first. Then a good atmosphere will be there. Everybody is involved. Then such ideas will not come.
Chastity means singleness. Being only with husband, being only with wife, that is called Chastity. But if somebody is only with God, he derives bliss from God. It is also Chastity. Chastity is Satya vreda.
The real Chastity is thinking only about God, getting devotion on God, being loyal to God; that is the real Chastity or actual chastity. Chaste and not chaste both are temporary only as far as worldly relations are considered.
It is just like a dream. When dream is over, everything is gone. Suppose somebody is very chaste in dream and somebody is not chaste in dream. When one awakens from the dream, both are useless or meaningless. So, one need not worry, or that issue need not be given much importance. Because the real issue is not identified, the unnecessary issue is given undue importance.
For example, when a big line and small line is present, small line become small, and when the big line is rubbed, the small line become big. When one is awaken, he understand the real issue. He has to go to job and he has to work, that is the real issue. When he sleeps in the dream all the unnecessary issue become the real issues. So, it depends on the state of the person, whether he is under the ignorance or whether he is under the knowledge.
Rama told to Sita, 'I am liberated, you go and marry My brother, Vibishana, I do not have any objection.' Like that He was telling. He never cares for that. In that free atmosphere, when wife is very loyal to Rama, that is due to the real attraction of love.
Chastity should come spontaneously based on the real attraction of love to husband or wife. Chastity should not be forced, and hence should not be due to fear or due to some financial attraction etc. "Oh, wife be chaste" - That is not a real Chastity. Or 'I am giving money; I am giving all comfort be chaste' -that is not real chastity.
Wife or husband is attracted to the other personality, inspite of all difficulties and all tragedies. When that attraction is there, then that is real chastity. For that, personality should be developed.
Personality is developed only with the grace of God. Only through spirituality, the personality is developed. He may be a big king; he may have all comfort, but his wife may not be chaste. So, personality never comes through materialism. Personality comes only through divinity. Such divine personality of Rama attracted Sita. Not because Rama is rich or king. Ravana was more rich than Rama. But Sita never got attracted to Ravana.
And if such spontaneous attraction is not there, then again one should not be worried. Suppose I do not have the personality to attract some other soul- for that why should I worry? Whether a soul is attracted or not, is only a temporary thing.
I should be attracted by somebody and she should be chaste to me, such things are again due to ego only. Every soul should think that he should be attracted to God, the real personality, the divine personality. Getting attracted to God should be your motto. Attracting other souls should not be the motto.
If attracting others is your motto, then all these problems come. ‘I could not attract that soul 100%, O! Somebody is there who attracted that soul more than me’. Suppose my motto is only to get attracted by God, attracting others will never come into my issue, these problems will never arise.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
Free sex is not correct, because we are making an oath before God; we [husband and wife] should be loyal to each other. Jesus condemns this and Quran also condemns. All the other religions also condemn this.
Sex is only for the production of the children. Jesus lived only for 32 years, never He had any sexual ideas, even in that young age. Adi Sankara lived only for 32 years, never He had any sexual ideas. Swami Vivekanada lived up to 39 years, beautiful personality; never he had such ideas.
When the soul is very much immersed in divine thought, divine mission all that, this sexual idea can never attract him. Suppose you are engaged in doing say, some research in science. Suppose you are deeply interested and involved, the idea of sex will not come. Such idea will never arise.
Sex is only a mental idea and is based on some hormone. It is a question of mental involvement or mental thinking. When mind is completely absorbed in divine thoughts about God, before the bliss one get from the God, the momentary sexual happiness is nothing.
The basic thing is that, the idea of sex comes only when there is no work or work is less. When somebody is involved in some good work, the idea of sex does not come. When all the interest is concentrated on God, the ideal of sex never arise. But this should not be forcefully done. It should come spontaneously. That is very important.
Suppose wife betrays husband and husband betrays wife, the other person need not worry about it. Just forget it, and be involved in your work, because after death other soul and you are free with their own account. The soul will not recognize the other soul. One need not give much importance to that.
If wife is also engaged in spiritual things, then this problem will never arise in life. So always see that the entire family is involved in the mission of God. The person should try with the family first. Then a good atmosphere will be there. Everybody is involved. Then such ideas will not come.
Chastity means singleness. Being only with husband, being only with wife, that is called Chastity. But if somebody is only with God, he derives bliss from God. It is also Chastity. Chastity is Satya vreda.
The real Chastity is thinking only about God, getting devotion on God, being loyal to God; that is the real Chastity or actual chastity. Chaste and not chaste both are temporary only as far as worldly relations are considered.
It is just like a dream. When dream is over, everything is gone. Suppose somebody is very chaste in dream and somebody is not chaste in dream. When one awakens from the dream, both are useless or meaningless. So, one need not worry, or that issue need not be given much importance. Because the real issue is not identified, the unnecessary issue is given undue importance.
The real issue of getting the grace of God within this human life. That real issue is forgotten. So, all other meaningless nonsense become the main issue. All these people ask this question because they have forgotten the main issue.
For example, when a big line and small line is present, small line become small, and when the big line is rubbed, the small line become big. When one is awaken, he understand the real issue. He has to go to job and he has to work, that is the real issue. When he sleeps in the dream all the unnecessary issue become the real issues. So, it depends on the state of the person, whether he is under the ignorance or whether he is under the knowledge.
Rama told to Sita, 'I am liberated, you go and marry My brother, Vibishana, I do not have any objection.' Like that He was telling. He never cares for that. In that free atmosphere, when wife is very loyal to Rama, that is due to the real attraction of love.
Chastity should come spontaneously based on the real attraction of love to husband or wife. Chastity should not be forced, and hence should not be due to fear or due to some financial attraction etc. "Oh, wife be chaste" - That is not a real Chastity. Or 'I am giving money; I am giving all comfort be chaste' -that is not real chastity.
Wife or husband is attracted to the other personality, inspite of all difficulties and all tragedies. When that attraction is there, then that is real chastity. For that, personality should be developed.
Personality is developed only with the grace of God. Only through spirituality, the personality is developed. He may be a big king; he may have all comfort, but his wife may not be chaste. So, personality never comes through materialism. Personality comes only through divinity. Such divine personality of Rama attracted Sita. Not because Rama is rich or king. Ravana was more rich than Rama. But Sita never got attracted to Ravana.
And if such spontaneous attraction is not there, then again one should not be worried. Suppose I do not have the personality to attract some other soul- for that why should I worry? Whether a soul is attracted or not, is only a temporary thing.
I should be attracted by somebody and she should be chaste to me, such things are again due to ego only. Every soul should think that he should be attracted to God, the real personality, the divine personality. Getting attracted to God should be your motto. Attracting other souls should not be the motto.
If attracting others is your motto, then all these problems come. ‘I could not attract that soul 100%, O! Somebody is there who attracted that soul more than me’. Suppose my motto is only to get attracted by God, attracting others will never come into my issue, these problems will never arise.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
Meaning of Meditation
Some people say that meditation is sitting with perfect silence without any process of thought. Such a contention is meaningless because it virtually amounts to a nice sleep only. These people further misinterpret that such a meditation is concentration on formless God (Nirakara). Gita says that one cannot concentrate on formless God (Avyakthahi Gatih).
The meditation of formless God becomes true if one concentrate on the true knowledge of God. Veda says that true knowledge is the real form of the Lord (Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma). Knowledge is formless. Therefore the formless God means only the true divine knowledge about the Lord. This is the correct interpretation of Sankaras philosophy. The great ancient Vedic sages sat in the formless meditation and this statement means that they concentrated on the divine knowledge (Brahma Jnana), which was expressed as Upanishaths in their mutual discussions (Satsanga).
The actual meaning of the word Dhyanam is the process of functioning of intelligence (Dhee or Buddhi) and this pertains to the field of knowledge (Vijnanamaykosa). Some people interpret that meditation means concentration on the form of the Lord like the light blue colour, peacock feather on the head, flute in the hand etc., Instead of concentrating mentally upon such objects, one can see these things in a photo or see the objects directly kept on a table.
If these things constitute the divinity there is no need of concentrating on these things. One can attain the divinity by applying light blue colour on his own body, by putting a peacock feather on the head and by catching a flute by hand. Such a divinity can be attained without any meditation. So meditation becomes meaningless in such a line. This is the reason why Sankara discarded the meditation of a form (Saguna Brahman). Of course attraction by such things towards the Lord will help a person to develop the attachment on the Lord. One may be attracted to Lord Krishna by such things and then finally get attracted towards His divine knowledge as preached in Bhagavat gita.
Such things may be initial promoters but the final is only the divine knowledge, which will help anyone in his effort (Sadhana) to please the Lord. The divine knowledge resulting in the realization will impart a tension free peace and tranquility to the mind. By such state one will attain perfect health of body and mind and thus the benefit is directly seen here itself.
Ex:- If one realizes that this gross body of the soul is only the external dramatic dress as said in Gita (Vaasamsi Jeernani), he will immediately realize that these family bonds are only the bonds in the drama. The soul forgets the bonds of the previous birth as an actor forgets the bonds of previous drama. If these bonds are real the soul should have remembered its relatives of the previous birth.
Such a divine knowledge on memorization enters the nerves of a person and he will not have any tension about his family members. He does his duties without any trace of tension. This is the salvation while alive (Jeevanmukthi). Thus meditation means continuous remembering of the divine knowledge which yields the direct fruit here itself.
Such a person gets a fruit in the upper world also. The only one Lord is the authority here and there also. Anybody blessed here will be blessed there also. If one is not blessed here he is not blessed in the upper world also. The grace of the Lord or the anger of the Lord is uniform here and there. One who is not blessed here cannot be blessed there. Thus the true knowledge blesses any person here and there. Meditation is continuous thinking of such knowledge and other interpretations are either useless or of little use.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
The meditation of formless God becomes true if one concentrate on the true knowledge of God. Veda says that true knowledge is the real form of the Lord (Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma). Knowledge is formless. Therefore the formless God means only the true divine knowledge about the Lord. This is the correct interpretation of Sankaras philosophy. The great ancient Vedic sages sat in the formless meditation and this statement means that they concentrated on the divine knowledge (Brahma Jnana), which was expressed as Upanishaths in their mutual discussions (Satsanga).
The actual meaning of the word Dhyanam is the process of functioning of intelligence (Dhee or Buddhi) and this pertains to the field of knowledge (Vijnanamaykosa). Some people interpret that meditation means concentration on the form of the Lord like the light blue colour, peacock feather on the head, flute in the hand etc., Instead of concentrating mentally upon such objects, one can see these things in a photo or see the objects directly kept on a table.
If these things constitute the divinity there is no need of concentrating on these things. One can attain the divinity by applying light blue colour on his own body, by putting a peacock feather on the head and by catching a flute by hand. Such a divinity can be attained without any meditation. So meditation becomes meaningless in such a line. This is the reason why Sankara discarded the meditation of a form (Saguna Brahman). Of course attraction by such things towards the Lord will help a person to develop the attachment on the Lord. One may be attracted to Lord Krishna by such things and then finally get attracted towards His divine knowledge as preached in Bhagavat gita.
Such things may be initial promoters but the final is only the divine knowledge, which will help anyone in his effort (Sadhana) to please the Lord. The divine knowledge resulting in the realization will impart a tension free peace and tranquility to the mind. By such state one will attain perfect health of body and mind and thus the benefit is directly seen here itself.
Ex:- If one realizes that this gross body of the soul is only the external dramatic dress as said in Gita (Vaasamsi Jeernani), he will immediately realize that these family bonds are only the bonds in the drama. The soul forgets the bonds of the previous birth as an actor forgets the bonds of previous drama. If these bonds are real the soul should have remembered its relatives of the previous birth.
Such a divine knowledge on memorization enters the nerves of a person and he will not have any tension about his family members. He does his duties without any trace of tension. This is the salvation while alive (Jeevanmukthi). Thus meditation means continuous remembering of the divine knowledge which yields the direct fruit here itself.
Such a person gets a fruit in the upper world also. The only one Lord is the authority here and there also. Anybody blessed here will be blessed there also. If one is not blessed here he is not blessed in the upper world also. The grace of the Lord or the anger of the Lord is uniform here and there. One who is not blessed here cannot be blessed there. Thus the true knowledge blesses any person here and there. Meditation is continuous thinking of such knowledge and other interpretations are either useless or of little use.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sex, Homosexuality, & Spirituality
First of all, one should know that the concept of sex should not be magnified and should not be given over-attention. Sex is a biological need of the body like hunger and thirst. It is a biological issue at physical level because, when the 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 human race on this earth.
It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls 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 circular way by bringing down the 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 of 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 or aversed.
Sex is divine and its deity is “Manmadha” or “kama deva”, who is the son of Lord Narayana only. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, Lord said that He is kama, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need of shy 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 the 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. To maintain 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, sleeping, living etc?” It shows their ignorance about the main aim of the human life.
According to many, the aim of the human life is to enjoy the life with the family and get name and fame in the society as a rich man or as a scholar or as a capable person etc. 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 him as a great disciplined person by uplifting his children. He wants appreciation from the friends and relatives by words like “How much educated and rich he is! Yet see his humbleness, humility and simplicity!” The poor fellow becomes unconscious by this hypnotic drug and helps them, whose aim is only the help from him. When the help is over, their suppressed jealousy comes out who will be abusing him. Thus, his life is neither fulfilled in this world, nor in the upper world.
The sages saw Rama and liked to embrace Him. Is it not homosexuality? No. They will not have such feeling, which is unjust and unnatural also. It is unjust because, it does not serve the purpose of reproduction, which is the divine justice. It is also not a natural path of satisfying the sex hunger. They had beautiful wives and reproduced children, thus serving the divine mission of the Lord.
Moreover, they did not like to embrace Him in the same forms as males. They liked to embrace Him after reincarnating into females. This does not come under Pravritti, because they have 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 divine mission nor the pacification of 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 of male and female in nivritti. It is the point 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 the biological sex, which is related to the bodies. “Pumsaam mohna rupaaya” means that the sages are attracted by the divine personality. Moha means attraction and not sex. Kama is sex.
The husband wants that his wife should not be attracted by other males, but he is attracted by other females. Similar is the case with wife. Shri Rajaneesh attacked this issue in this way and such approach is only partial. What about the case in which one is attracted to the side while the other remains chaste? You cannot generalise the case of some people to all. Here is a person, who is very loyal to his wife and she is attracted by 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? Of course, this case may be otherwise, because tomorrow I may get 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 boy and girl. Sometimes the consent is given by boy or girl as a ‘no objection certificate’. But that is not sufficient for a marriage. It should have a positive certificate of intensive 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 the physical appearance alone is the basis, the love should reduce as the old age comes or if the appearance is spoiled by some illness or accident in life. Buddha was attracted to Amrapali in her old age to serve her.
The husband or wife gets attracted by a better ‘total personality’ of opposite sex, whenever met in life. Mental attraction is hidden by several people by controlling their words. Words and actions of body are inert and do not participate in the sin. When this body, which spoke or did some wrong activity is left over here, the soul is taken to hell in some other energetic body and is punished. If the body is a participant of the sin, it should be directly taken to hell and should be punished. Therefore, in the hell, the mind is punished through another new body. Therefore, the sin is in the mind and not in the body.
Once the mental attraction is there, the sin is recorded. The words and actions of body are works of inert energy and have no sin. When Sita was carried by Ravana, the body of Sita was fully touched by Ravana by force as per Valmiki Ramayana. This was referred by Sita, herself, (yadyaham gatra samsparsam…). But such attraction was not in her mind and therefore she was declared pure by fire God (Agni).
Renuka got mental attraction towards a king on the banks of Narmada river and she did not touch him even by finger. But she was declared as sinner and her head was cut by her son, Parasurama. Therefore, after marriage, to get attracted by another person is a sin and the soul is punished in the hell. If the other side is also not chaste, will the sin get mutually cancelled and so no punishment to any one? No. Both will be punished in the 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, the control of mind cannot be the true path, which is impossible. Some control food, but it is not a permanent solution because such feelings (samskaras) are precipitated 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 prakruti or nature acquired from millions of births decides the course of action finally as said in the Gita (prakrutistvaam niyokshyati…).
The only permanent and real solution for this is to realize the real aim of the human life and turn to God. The attraction towards God is like a mega-tsunami in which the side attraction towards another personality disappears like a 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 soul and not a bond between souls. There is no aspect of male or female here.
Rama went for golden deer, even though Lakshmana tried to stop him. Here it appears as if Rama is more attracted by the female devotee compared to a male devotee. No. It is the climax of His love on the soul of Sita only and not on her body. The same Rama said to stop the war and was prepared to leave the life when Lakshmana became 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 such tsunami of love on 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 …the Gita).
Both the hell and heaven are thrown out when you approach the divine Lord as said in the Veda (Punyapaape vidhuya…).
The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. The sage Astavakra preaches the King Janaka through “Astavakra Samhita”, in which, the sage says that the mother and son in this life are becoming husband and wife in the next life! It is a hero and heroine acting two different roles in different pictures.
We have two pictures running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors are acting as husband and wife in one picture and acting as mother and son in another picture! This bond 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. It is just a dramatic bond.
Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in the side activity, which is just a change for recreation. Let her or him go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a student. Game is just a recreation arranged for change. Do not be jealous on a classmate in a game. Be jealous in studies on the same classmate, 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 spiritual path also, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. Fulfilling the desires is the force. Fear is for the hell.
Gopikas were prepared to go to hell in the love of the Lord and no force on the 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 for the hell. In the human incarnation, the human form masks the real nature of the Lord so that a free atmosphere is created without fear and fulfilment of desires by using His super powers. Such love is really sweet. God created this Universe to taste such real sweet love of His devotees.
When the Lord showed His mega energetic form (Viswarupam), Arjuna shivered with high tension. In such state can you even think of love? The love of Prahlada to Vishnu was spontaneous. His father tried to resist it and divert to Lord Shiva. The resistance increased the devotion more and more.
Therefore, the realization of the main aim of human life, the realization of the family life as a side activity for recreation of the soul, the realization of unreal dramatic bonds of family 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 high tensions. A realized soul will laugh at such problems (karma bandham prahasyasi …the Gita).
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri DattaswamiDattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls 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 circular way by bringing down the 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 of 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 or aversed.
Sex is divine and its deity is “Manmadha” or “kama deva”, who is the son of Lord Narayana only. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, Lord said that He is kama, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need of shy 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 the 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. To maintain 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, sleeping, living etc?” It shows their ignorance about the main aim of the human life.
According to many, the aim of the human life is to enjoy the life with the family and get name and fame in the society as a rich man or as a scholar or as a capable person etc. 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 him as a great disciplined person by uplifting his children. He wants appreciation from the friends and relatives by words like “How much educated and rich he is! Yet see his humbleness, humility and simplicity!” The poor fellow becomes unconscious by this hypnotic drug and helps them, whose aim is only the help from him. When the help is over, their suppressed jealousy comes out who will be abusing him. Thus, his life is neither fulfilled in this world, nor in the upper world.
The sages saw Rama and liked to embrace Him. Is it not homosexuality? No. They will not have such feeling, which is unjust and unnatural also. It is unjust because, it does not serve the purpose of reproduction, which is the divine justice. It is also not a natural path of satisfying the sex hunger. They had beautiful wives and reproduced children, thus serving the divine mission of the Lord.
Moreover, they did not like to embrace Him in the same forms as males. They liked to embrace Him after reincarnating into females. This does not come under Pravritti, because they have 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 divine mission nor the pacification of 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 of male and female in nivritti. It is the point 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 the biological sex, which is related to the bodies. “Pumsaam mohna rupaaya” means that the sages are attracted by the divine personality. Moha means attraction and not sex. Kama is sex.
The husband wants that his wife should not be attracted by other males, but he is attracted by other females. Similar is the case with wife. Shri Rajaneesh attacked this issue in this way and such approach is only partial. What about the case in which one is attracted to the side while the other remains chaste? You cannot generalise the case of some people to all. Here is a person, who is very loyal to his wife and she is attracted by 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? Of course, this case may be otherwise, because tomorrow I may get 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 boy and girl. Sometimes the consent is given by boy or girl as a ‘no objection certificate’. But that is not sufficient for a marriage. It should have a positive certificate of intensive 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 the physical appearance alone is the basis, the love should reduce as the old age comes or if the appearance is spoiled by some illness or accident in life. Buddha was attracted to Amrapali in her old age to serve her.
The husband or wife gets attracted by a better ‘total personality’ of opposite sex, whenever met in life. Mental attraction is hidden by several people by controlling their words. Words and actions of body are inert and do not participate in the sin. When this body, which spoke or did some wrong activity is left over here, the soul is taken to hell in some other energetic body and is punished. If the body is a participant of the sin, it should be directly taken to hell and should be punished. Therefore, in the hell, the mind is punished through another new body. Therefore, the sin is in the mind and not in the body.
Once the mental attraction is there, the sin is recorded. The words and actions of body are works of inert energy and have no sin. When Sita was carried by Ravana, the body of Sita was fully touched by Ravana by force as per Valmiki Ramayana. This was referred by Sita, herself, (yadyaham gatra samsparsam…). But such attraction was not in her mind and therefore she was declared pure by fire God (Agni).
Renuka got mental attraction towards a king on the banks of Narmada river and she did not touch him even by finger. But she was declared as sinner and her head was cut by her son, Parasurama. Therefore, after marriage, to get attracted by another person is a sin and the soul is punished in the hell. If the other side is also not chaste, will the sin get mutually cancelled and so no punishment to any one? No. Both will be punished in the 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, the control of mind cannot be the true path, which is impossible. Some control food, but it is not a permanent solution because such feelings (samskaras) are precipitated 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 prakruti or nature acquired from millions of births decides the course of action finally as said in the Gita (prakrutistvaam niyokshyati…).
The only permanent and real solution for this is to realize the real aim of the human life and turn to God. The attraction towards God is like a mega-tsunami in which the side attraction towards another personality disappears like a 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 soul and not a bond between souls. There is no aspect of male or female here.
Rama went for golden deer, even though Lakshmana tried to stop him. Here it appears as if Rama is more attracted by the female devotee compared to a male devotee. No. It is the climax of His love on the soul of Sita only and not on her body. The same Rama said to stop the war and was prepared to leave the life when Lakshmana became 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 such tsunami of love on 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 …the Gita).
Both the hell and heaven are thrown out when you approach the divine Lord as said in the Veda (Punyapaape vidhuya…).
The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. The sage Astavakra preaches the King Janaka through “Astavakra Samhita”, in which, the sage says that the mother and son in this life are becoming husband and wife in the next life! It is a hero and heroine acting two different roles in different pictures.
We have two pictures running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors are acting as husband and wife in one picture and acting as mother and son in another picture! This bond 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. It is just a dramatic bond.
Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in the side activity, which is just a change for recreation. Let her or him go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a student. Game is just a recreation arranged for change. Do not be jealous on a classmate in a game. Be jealous in studies on the same classmate, 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 spiritual path also, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. Fulfilling the desires is the force. Fear is for the hell.
Gopikas were prepared to go to hell in the love of the Lord and no force on the 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 for the hell. In the human incarnation, the human form masks the real nature of the Lord so that a free atmosphere is created without fear and fulfilment of desires by using His super powers. Such love is really sweet. God created this Universe to taste such real sweet love of His devotees.
When the Lord showed His mega energetic form (Viswarupam), Arjuna shivered with high tension. In such state can you even think of love? The love of Prahlada to Vishnu was spontaneous. His father tried to resist it and divert to Lord Shiva. The resistance increased the devotion more and more.
Therefore, the realization of the main aim of human life, the realization of the family life as a side activity for recreation of the soul, the realization of unreal dramatic bonds of family 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 high tensions. A realized soul will laugh at such problems (karma bandham prahasyasi …the Gita).
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri DattaswamiDattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Importance of marriage
Marriage is for reproduction or generation of issues. It is a divine mission. Homosexuality is against the divine mission. It shows only worldly blind attachment. At least marriage with the opposite sex lead to generation of issues and when the issues are generated you are paving a way for the souls coming from the upper world to the earth for giving the gross body for that soul. You are participating in the divine mission and so the marriage is a part of divine mission.
And sometimes ,who knows you may give birth to Adisankara, or birth to Meera. In that case as father and mother of Sankara, as father and mother of Meera, as father and mother of Swami Vivekananda, you are blessed. Is it not? Therefore the marriage is a divine mission.
It is not wrong to avoid the marriage provided it is natural, not by force. Avoiding marriage is liberation. When one is attached to God intensively the worldly bonds are dropped naturally. For example, take Adi Shankara He was attached to God, and His mind is not going for any worldly bonds. He did not marry. Similarly Jesus, Swami Vivekananda, all these people; why they do not marry? They are attached to God and they are liberated from the worldly bonds and therefore these worldly bonds are not attractive to them. So it depends on the interest. That is why learning about God must be done in the childhood itself, Brahmacharya Ashrama. Charya means knowledge.
Marriage is not done in the childhood. By the end of the childhood, or brahmacharya you have learned sufficiently about God. Knowledge is completed. You must have got devotion completely on God. In that case automatically the liberation is a spontaneous process. You are not willing to marry; that is very good.
But, after finishing Brahma Charya, if you have desire to marry that means even after learning about God the real interest is not created on GOD. In that case better marry. Now, after marrying in course of time again continue your effort. The Brhma charya should be continued, that is learning about God. In that wife also can take part.
Then slowly by Vanprasthaashrama, the third ashrama, you may develop interest on God, and she may also develop interest on God and then both of you are like co-spiritual aspirants, as an association in spiritual effort, and finally sanyasa, the complete absorption on God. It is again reaching the goal late.
Anyway, one should not leave the marriage by force. If one is not interested in marriage due to his interest on God then it is not wrong. If interest on God is not there then He should marry. Some people are not interested in God, and they are also not interested in marrying. They do not want to take responsibility; they want to enjoy, something like that. That is not correct. Reason must be interest on God. Sankara did not marry; Jesus did not marry, and that is OK.
While selecting the wife our elders were very much concentrating on the background of the girl. If the background of the girl is good and they are also spiritual aspirants, then the girl also will get that culture. So she will be congenial to you in your spiritual effort also. That is why in marriage, in olden days the background is seen very much in our elder generation.
But today marriage is simply done just for physical body attraction or just for financial consideration. They are not correct. In marriage your primary aim should be for selecting a partner for your spiritual achievement. That interest at least she must have, so that both of them can go together. The marriage is not wrong provided the partner is good and also helpful in gaining the spiritual path; it is good. In spiritual path also the satsanga should be done. You need a companion; you need somebody to discuss about God, if it is your wife how lucky.
At the Lotus feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
And sometimes ,who knows you may give birth to Adisankara, or birth to Meera. In that case as father and mother of Sankara, as father and mother of Meera, as father and mother of Swami Vivekananda, you are blessed. Is it not? Therefore the marriage is a divine mission.
It is not wrong to avoid the marriage provided it is natural, not by force. Avoiding marriage is liberation. When one is attached to God intensively the worldly bonds are dropped naturally. For example, take Adi Shankara He was attached to God, and His mind is not going for any worldly bonds. He did not marry. Similarly Jesus, Swami Vivekananda, all these people; why they do not marry? They are attached to God and they are liberated from the worldly bonds and therefore these worldly bonds are not attractive to them. So it depends on the interest. That is why learning about God must be done in the childhood itself, Brahmacharya Ashrama. Charya means knowledge.
Marriage is not done in the childhood. By the end of the childhood, or brahmacharya you have learned sufficiently about God. Knowledge is completed. You must have got devotion completely on God. In that case automatically the liberation is a spontaneous process. You are not willing to marry; that is very good.
But, after finishing Brahma Charya, if you have desire to marry that means even after learning about God the real interest is not created on GOD. In that case better marry. Now, after marrying in course of time again continue your effort. The Brhma charya should be continued, that is learning about God. In that wife also can take part.
Then slowly by Vanprasthaashrama, the third ashrama, you may develop interest on God, and she may also develop interest on God and then both of you are like co-spiritual aspirants, as an association in spiritual effort, and finally sanyasa, the complete absorption on God. It is again reaching the goal late.
Anyway, one should not leave the marriage by force. If one is not interested in marriage due to his interest on God then it is not wrong. If interest on God is not there then He should marry. Some people are not interested in God, and they are also not interested in marrying. They do not want to take responsibility; they want to enjoy, something like that. That is not correct. Reason must be interest on God. Sankara did not marry; Jesus did not marry, and that is OK.
While selecting the wife our elders were very much concentrating on the background of the girl. If the background of the girl is good and they are also spiritual aspirants, then the girl also will get that culture. So she will be congenial to you in your spiritual effort also. That is why in marriage, in olden days the background is seen very much in our elder generation.
But today marriage is simply done just for physical body attraction or just for financial consideration. They are not correct. In marriage your primary aim should be for selecting a partner for your spiritual achievement. That interest at least she must have, so that both of them can go together. The marriage is not wrong provided the partner is good and also helpful in gaining the spiritual path; it is good. In spiritual path also the satsanga should be done. You need a companion; you need somebody to discuss about God, if it is your wife how lucky.
At the Lotus feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Existence of God
The earth is not rotating by itself. Then why the fan is also not rotating by itself? As the invisible current is rotating the fan, the invisible God is rotating the earth. The rotation of earth is work of God. The earth is also the work of God. The rotation of fan is work. The fan is matter. Matter is a form of energy. Energy is work. Therefore the fan is also a form of work only.
Thus everything is dynamism (work) only. The dynamo is God. You will immediately say that the dynamo is matter, matter is energy and since work is energy, dynamo is also a form of work. Then you will say God is also a form of work. This is the problem with the simile for God. Every simile is only a part of the creation and cannot stand as a perfect representation of the creator. God is beyond the concepts of work and no work because God is unimaginable.
You can infer the existence of God through this entire wonderful creation (work). But you cannot experience directly unless He enters a particular form of His work which is a human body like Rama, Krishna etc. You can infer the engineer by seeing the wonderful building constructed by him which is his work. But he is present only in a small room of that building.
If you want to have a direct contact with him, you should search the room in which he is present. Since the whole building is his construction only, if you sit in some vacant room and try to talk with him, he will not speak to you.
You have to identify that specific room in which he is present. In searching for the engineer you may find some other person in some room and can mistake him also as the engineer. Therefore you must have the knowledge of his identification.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
Find out God, serve Him
Building is there. Implies Builder should be there. Creation is there. Creator should be there. I can see the building, which is in front of my eyes, but builder need not stand in front of the building. He will be in his own job. If you want to meet the builder, you should definitely put effort to locate the builder and see him. Likewise Creation is there in front of our eyes. But have we put any time and effort to locate and identify the creator?
Instead of that, with least effort we can propagate to others also that God is not there. They are not only blinded, they are making others also blinded. Some people who are theists may become prey for the propagation of this ignorance also, unfortunately. The greatest sin on the earth is to be unfaithful.
To identify the builder you should know the identification marks, where he lives, what he does etc.. and we have to enquire if we don't know. This is to say that knowledge is required to identify any person. This knowledge is called divine knowledge if the aim is to identify the Lord, which actually only is to be propagated.
Lord created this universe for the enjoyment without any selfish motive and we human beings are enjoying the creation. Like through nice parents, wife, children, beautiful nature consisting of pleasant looking mountains, rivers, sea, nature, changing weather etc. If we cannot please the Lord, the human life is incomplete.
We serve our family members by spending our hard earned money and also physically. Are we not serving family as Servant, and these family members are nearly equal to us. Whereas, Lord is omnipotent and requires no help from us, many times satisfied our desires, saved us from mishaps etc., and if we cannot bow our head in front of Him, it is very ridiculous. It is very great honour to serve Him. This is the path followed by His real devotees. These real devotees could overcome ego and always wants to serve Him as servant.
Jesus preached the gospel and His followers participated in His mission as servants for further propagation of divine knowledge. These great devotees never hesitated to serve Lord Jesus and their names have also been known even today.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
World Religions
If anyone says that his/her religion is the only path to God and that other paths lead to hell, I have one humble question. The question is for every religion without any trace of partiality. The simple question is: Today I have heard your Religion and if I follow that, I reach God and if I refuse I will go to the hell for my own fault? This is very much reasonable. But before your ancestors discovered our country, the literature or even the name of your religion was not known to our ancestor and he could not reach God for no fault of him. But your ancestor reached God through your religion at that time.
Even if I assume that my ancestor will take rebirth now and will follow your religion to reach God, such possibility is ruled out because you say that there is no rebirth for the soul. Thus my ancestor suffered forever for no fault of him and the responsibility for this falls on the partiality of God. Had the God been impartial, He could have revealed your religion to all the countries at a time. Had that happened, my ancestor might have also reached God as your ancestor. Therefore your statement proves your own God partial.
The only way left over to you to make your God impartial is that you must accept that your God appeared in all the countries at a time in various forms and preached your path in various languages. The same form did not appear everywhere and the same language does not exist everywhere. The syllabus and explanation are one and the same, though the media and teachers are different. Can you give any alternative reasonable answer to my question other than this? Certainly not! Any person of any religion to any other person of other religion can pose this question.
Moreover every religion states that their God only created this world. Unfortunately this world is one only and every God cannot create the same world. There are not many worlds to justify that each God created His own world. Therefore any human being with an iota of commonsense has to agree that there is only one impartial God who created this one world and He came in different forms to different countries and preached the same path in all the languages simultaneously at one time.
Let this logic sword of the divine knowledge cut the rigid conservatism of the religious fans in this world to establish the Universal Peace. I need not beg all these religious followers to be united and harmonious to each other for the sake of world peace. Such begging appeals are made enough in the past. The religious fans feel that there is no unity really in the religions but they have to be united since their kind hearts melted by these appeals. Thus a temporary change was only brought. At the maximum one generation of the followers got united. The next generation fights with each other because they feel that there is no real unity in them due to lack of the real unity in their religious scriptures.
A permanent solution for this does not lie in the begging appeals, which may or may not unite the followers. Even if the appeals unite such unity is not permanent. If the real unity in all the religious scriptures is exposed through the logical divine knowledge, the followers have to be united for generations together. Therefore, My attack is not on the hearts of the followers through love and kindness. My attack is on all the religious scriptures through intellectual logical analysis of divine knowledge.
The unity of hearts through love can be only temporary. The unity of brains through intellectual analytical divine knowledge will be permanent. Hearts agree but brains realize. Agreement is temporary, but realization is permanent. Thus this is My first blow of My divine Conch shell for the permanent unity of all the religions aiming at eternal Universal Peace.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Even if I assume that my ancestor will take rebirth now and will follow your religion to reach God, such possibility is ruled out because you say that there is no rebirth for the soul. Thus my ancestor suffered forever for no fault of him and the responsibility for this falls on the partiality of God. Had the God been impartial, He could have revealed your religion to all the countries at a time. Had that happened, my ancestor might have also reached God as your ancestor. Therefore your statement proves your own God partial.
The only way left over to you to make your God impartial is that you must accept that your God appeared in all the countries at a time in various forms and preached your path in various languages. The same form did not appear everywhere and the same language does not exist everywhere. The syllabus and explanation are one and the same, though the media and teachers are different. Can you give any alternative reasonable answer to my question other than this? Certainly not! Any person of any religion to any other person of other religion can pose this question.
Moreover every religion states that their God only created this world. Unfortunately this world is one only and every God cannot create the same world. There are not many worlds to justify that each God created His own world. Therefore any human being with an iota of commonsense has to agree that there is only one impartial God who created this one world and He came in different forms to different countries and preached the same path in all the languages simultaneously at one time.
Let this logic sword of the divine knowledge cut the rigid conservatism of the religious fans in this world to establish the Universal Peace. I need not beg all these religious followers to be united and harmonious to each other for the sake of world peace. Such begging appeals are made enough in the past. The religious fans feel that there is no unity really in the religions but they have to be united since their kind hearts melted by these appeals. Thus a temporary change was only brought. At the maximum one generation of the followers got united. The next generation fights with each other because they feel that there is no real unity in them due to lack of the real unity in their religious scriptures.
A permanent solution for this does not lie in the begging appeals, which may or may not unite the followers. Even if the appeals unite such unity is not permanent. If the real unity in all the religious scriptures is exposed through the logical divine knowledge, the followers have to be united for generations together. Therefore, My attack is not on the hearts of the followers through love and kindness. My attack is on all the religious scriptures through intellectual logical analysis of divine knowledge.
The unity of hearts through love can be only temporary. The unity of brains through intellectual analytical divine knowledge will be permanent. Hearts agree but brains realize. Agreement is temporary, but realization is permanent. Thus this is My first blow of My divine Conch shell for the permanent unity of all the religions aiming at eternal Universal Peace.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Service and Sacrifice explained
The word karma in the case of a human being means the work done to earn money, which is essential for his food and offering the food to the guest. Money required for the self and his family is called ‘sareera yatra’ in Gita. Money required to prepare food to offer to the guest is called ‘yajna karma’. The word karma in Gita was used in these two meanings in the context of a human being (sareera yatra pichate, yajnah karma samudbhavah). Therefore the fruit of the work means only money.
The first mantra of the first Upanishad speaks about enjoyment and sacrifice of money (kasyasvit dhanam). The mantra says that the entire creation is the wealth of the Lord and one should store the money for his minimum enjoyment and the rest should be sacrificed to the Lord who comes in the human form for His mission to uplift this world. The second mantra says that one should continuously work and earn. Vasista said that money is the root of all this worldly family bonds (Dhanamulamidam jagat). When money is absent all the family members will leave you. All the family members and relatives approach you only due to money just like the frogs are present in the tank when it is full of water.
The ‘Srichakram’ means the wheel that surrounds the money. Therefore when the sacrifice of money comes into the picture, all the fraud devotees will run away because in their hearts the attraction to the family bonds exists as solidified darkness. Only the true devotees will stand, in whose hearts the darkness is removed and the light of divine knowledge exists.
The Lord came in human form and tested ‘Saktuprasta’ in the sacrifice of the food, which is another form of money. In draught he could secure a little flour and he was fasting for the past ten days. He was not tested in any other way of words and mind (japa, parayana, dhyana etc.). A real devotee will stand in this root test and this is the real fire test.
If the bond with the money is cut, all the worldly bonds are cut, since money is the root of this whole samsara. The fraud devotees want to escape this test and therefore interpreted the karmaphala as the fruit of prayers, japa, parayana, dhyana etc. The eyes in this world not at all see such fruit. Therefore such fruit of work done by words and mind is unreal. There is no difficulty to sacrifice such unreal fruit. Therefore they misinterpreted the karmaphalatyaga as leaving a spoon of water in the plate after doing such work by words and mind. Some people have fooled the ignorant people by doing such works and get the Gurudakshina. They are selling the unreal fruit for the real money, by promising that the fruits of their sins will be removed and results of good deeds, which were not done, will be attained.
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 live human incarnation. When you are sprinkling rose water on the shirt of a present live person, the person receives and enjoys your service. The shirt is the human body and the person is God in present live human incarnation.
The past human incarnation existing as a statue or photo is like a photo of the non-existing 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 (Mamekam…Gita). Here Mam (Him) means the human incarnation. The word Ekam (only) means the present live 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.
When you divert the service or practical devotion from the world (family and society), which consists of the live human beings to God, the God must also be in live human form so that the service like feeding is diverted practically from one side to the other side.
If your world contains only the photos or statues of your forefathers, who are not alive today, then you can divert your service of cleaning the statues of your forefathers to the statues of God. The diversion of service should be in the same phase i.e., either all in alive human forms or all in forms of statues. There cannot be diversion of practical devotion from one phase to the other phase.
Suppose you have offered ten kg of food to a statue of God and offered half kg of food to your son, you cannot say that you have twenty times more devotion on God than your son. Here, the comparison is not in one phase. If God comes in human form, will you offer half kg of food to Him daily as you are offering the same to your son? Therefore, the proof of diversion or transformation can be in a single-phase system only.
Hanuman left His alive mother and worshipped alive Rama. He did not leave His alive mother to worship a statue in the temple or to meditate upon the formless God in a forest or to serve Himself feeling that He is God. Gopikas left the bonds with all alive forms (parents, in-laws, husbands, children etc.) only to worship a specific alive form, who was Krishna in their time and one should note that Krishna was not having any relationship with them.
At the lotus feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
The first mantra of the first Upanishad speaks about enjoyment and sacrifice of money (kasyasvit dhanam). The mantra says that the entire creation is the wealth of the Lord and one should store the money for his minimum enjoyment and the rest should be sacrificed to the Lord who comes in the human form for His mission to uplift this world. The second mantra says that one should continuously work and earn. Vasista said that money is the root of all this worldly family bonds (Dhanamulamidam jagat). When money is absent all the family members will leave you. All the family members and relatives approach you only due to money just like the frogs are present in the tank when it is full of water.
The ‘Srichakram’ means the wheel that surrounds the money. Therefore when the sacrifice of money comes into the picture, all the fraud devotees will run away because in their hearts the attraction to the family bonds exists as solidified darkness. Only the true devotees will stand, in whose hearts the darkness is removed and the light of divine knowledge exists.
The Lord came in human form and tested ‘Saktuprasta’ in the sacrifice of the food, which is another form of money. In draught he could secure a little flour and he was fasting for the past ten days. He was not tested in any other way of words and mind (japa, parayana, dhyana etc.). A real devotee will stand in this root test and this is the real fire test.
If the bond with the money is cut, all the worldly bonds are cut, since money is the root of this whole samsara. The fraud devotees want to escape this test and therefore interpreted the karmaphala as the fruit of prayers, japa, parayana, dhyana etc. The eyes in this world not at all see such fruit. Therefore such fruit of work done by words and mind is unreal. There is no difficulty to sacrifice such unreal fruit. Therefore they misinterpreted the karmaphalatyaga as leaving a spoon of water in the plate after doing such work by words and mind. Some people have fooled the ignorant people by doing such works and get the Gurudakshina. They are selling the unreal fruit for the real money, by promising that the fruits of their sins will be removed and results of good deeds, which were not done, will be attained.
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 live human incarnation. When you are sprinkling rose water on the shirt of a present live person, the person receives and enjoys your service. The shirt is the human body and the person is God in present live human incarnation.
The past human incarnation existing as a statue or photo is like a photo of the non-existing 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 (Mamekam…Gita). Here Mam (Him) means the human incarnation. The word Ekam (only) means the present live 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.
When you divert the service or practical devotion from the world (family and society), which consists of the live human beings to God, the God must also be in live human form so that the service like feeding is diverted practically from one side to the other side.
If your world contains only the photos or statues of your forefathers, who are not alive today, then you can divert your service of cleaning the statues of your forefathers to the statues of God. The diversion of service should be in the same phase i.e., either all in alive human forms or all in forms of statues. There cannot be diversion of practical devotion from one phase to the other phase.
Suppose you have offered ten kg of food to a statue of God and offered half kg of food to your son, you cannot say that you have twenty times more devotion on God than your son. Here, the comparison is not in one phase. If God comes in human form, will you offer half kg of food to Him daily as you are offering the same to your son? Therefore, the proof of diversion or transformation can be in a single-phase system only.
Hanuman left His alive mother and worshipped alive Rama. He did not leave His alive mother to worship a statue in the temple or to meditate upon the formless God in a forest or to serve Himself feeling that He is God. Gopikas left the bonds with all alive forms (parents, in-laws, husbands, children etc.) only to worship a specific alive form, who was Krishna in their time and one should note that Krishna was not having any relationship with them.
At the lotus feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
What is worship?
What do you mean by the real worship? Worship means service and sacrifice of everybody and everything for the sake of the Lord so that the Lord is pleased by such real love to Him. Worship means practical expression of the divine love or devotion towards God. The main essence of such divine love is the sole aim to please the Lord and not to please oneself or any other related soul. This means that the essence of worship is sacrifice for the sake of God and not sacrifice to please yourself or any other related soul. Such divine sacrifice is like the light.
When the light disappears, the darkness enters. The darkness is the selfishness which is extended towards ones own family or relatives or caste or Nationality or religion etc. These are the grades in the darkness only because all this is related to souls only and not to God. The darkness is getting diluted as you proceed from yourself to the society. The weakest darkness is still not light. But since concentration of darkness is decreasing by such dilution, it is appreciable. But you should not forget that you are still within the boundaries of darkness only. Thus, the power in your social service cannot save the society. A spoon of sugar cannot change the taste of the ocean. Only the Lord can change this ocean of salt-water in to the ocean of nectar.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
When the light disappears, the darkness enters. The darkness is the selfishness which is extended towards ones own family or relatives or caste or Nationality or religion etc. These are the grades in the darkness only because all this is related to souls only and not to God. The darkness is getting diluted as you proceed from yourself to the society. The weakest darkness is still not light. But since concentration of darkness is decreasing by such dilution, it is appreciable. But you should not forget that you are still within the boundaries of darkness only. Thus, the power in your social service cannot save the society. A spoon of sugar cannot change the taste of the ocean. Only the Lord can change this ocean of salt-water in to the ocean of nectar.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami
Dattaji
http://www.universal-spirituality.org
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