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Devotion is of two types. The first type is called simply as Bhakti and it consists of prayers or songs through words and emotional feelings through mind. This Bhakti gives only temporary happiness. Knowledge is related to intelligence, which is the discrimination between the real and unreal through logical analysis. By such discrimination, you can realize that all the forms of matter and all the feelings of awareness are unreal. When you have realized that all the forms (rupa) and feelings (guna) are unreal even before the level of yourself, which is pure awareness, your life completely becomes an entertainment in both happy and unhappy situations. Self realization makes...
Energy is inert because it is only a property i.e., it is the work of God and so it depends on God. Energy appears as matter and awareness, which are its different forms. Beauty is a property of matter. The face of a girl is made of matter. Beauty is a form of matter. Apart from [physical] beauty, you also see the shine on her face, which is light. Apart from matter and awareness, energy also exists in the form of light, heat, sound, electricity etc. You are more attracted to her internal personality too, which consists of beautiful qualities like love, generosity...
[This is telephonic Divine Discourse given by Swami on June 25, 2006, in response to questions asked by devotees from various places in the world. The questions asked by devotees were pertaining to practical worldly problems faced by them. Swami has answered the questions based on the essential message of all the religious scriptures of the world such as the Veda, Bible, Gita, Quran, the Puranas and the great epics.]
Guru Selection: Mrs. Bhargavi (USA), who has created a website on the human incarnation and is a devotee of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, bombarded Swami with a question: “Why have You advertised Your miracles in Your website and propagated about Yourself? We are in search of a Guru, please guide us”. Swami replied, “If you give Me the appointment order to join the duty as your Guru, I shall join at once. I shall be very happy if you select Me as your Guru after conducting an interview and analyzing Me patiently.” A saint from Varanasi came to see Sai Baba. On his arrival, he found a procession in which Baba was walking for relaxation...
Love and Sex: [Replies to some phone calls from USA:] Getting the grace of the Lord is more important than pleasing yourself with worldly pleasures here, which includes getting fame. Pleasing the Lord is more important than getting the grace of the Lord. The sages tried to get the grace of the Lord through penance, to save themselves from hell. But the same sages in the form of Gopikas tried to please the Lord even at the cost of going to hell by offering the dust of their feet to Lord Krishna. Therefore, the Gopikas are treated higher than the Lord by the Lord Himself and the life of the Gopikas is more sacred than penance. Bhagavatam, which explains the life of the Gopikas, should be the highest aim of this human life. All the greatness of Bhagavatam is due to the Gopikas. Radha, who even became mad in the love of God, stands as the queen of the Gopikas. The grace of the Lord indicates...
[Smt. Padma, wife of Shri Sarma passed a comment “God seems to be interested in money”. Sarma became angry and told her that she will be punished by God for commenting like that. Sarma came to Swami and complained about the matter. Swami told him, “You should not threaten anybody like that. You should analyze the topic and convince people through knowledge. By threatening, the thought is only suppressed and not removed”. Sarma came back along with his wife to Swami and Swami delivered the following divine discourse to the devotees.]
Why Is God After Money?: People say that God is [interested] in money. It is correct because money is Goddess Lakshmi. Lord Narayana is always in her heart. Money is also in the heart of God because Goddess Lakshmi is in His heart. Whatever is in the heart of Lord, the same came out in His word which is the Veda. The Veda says that sacrifice of money alone can please the Lord (Dhanena Tyagenaikena)...
[Hanumat Jayanti Day, the birth anniversary of Hanuman] The festival of Hanumat Jayanti is coming in 2-3 days and happens to fall on this Monday. How to celebrate this festival? The low level of celebration is done when devotees worship Hanuman by offering leaves, fruits, special food items and prayers and then finally ask for worldly boons. The second middle level of worship is doing Bhajans on Hanuman with emotion, which represents the love for Hanuman. Since in the middle level there is no desire for boons, certainly the middle level is higher than the low level. But the best and highest level of worshipping Hanuman is to analyze what Hanuman practiced...
[Shri Ramnath asked a question to Swami as to why human beings feel and talk like immortals].
Every human being is a composite of three bodies which are the outermost gross body and the pair of inner most subtle and causal bodies. The inner most subtle and causal bodies can never be separated. The causal body is like gold and the subtle body is like its ornament. The ornament cannot exist without gold. But the gold can exist without the ornament. In a realized soul, the subtle body which is a bundle of qualities subsides and only the causal body or the soul is leftover. Only in an ordinary human being does the subtle body...
[The following is the discourse given by Swami in reply to the criticism of a saint (monk), from Varanasi. The saint is a well known scholar, well versed in the Advaita school of Vedanta, other darshanas and six Vedangas. He was told about Shri Datta Swami and His teachings by Swami’s devotees. He severely criticized Swami on several points and was concerned that the devotees of Swami are not on the right path. Swami gave the following brilliant discourse in which He has refuted all the criticisms of the saint and has given a teaching for the upliftment of the saint.]
Shankara’s Commentary: There are two items. One is the memorization of knowledge called as vyutpatti. The second is Pratibha, which means the assimilation of the real interpretation by sharp analysis. A debate will be meaningful if the opponent has Pratibha. There is no meaning in arguing with a person who only has Vyutpatti. He will repeat the same text again and again for any of your arguments. He may have memorized the commentary of Shankara very well. But insight is needed for any development. Vyutpatti only leads...
When any facility is available in the nature, the Lord will use it. Only when extreme necessity comes, the Lord uses His superpower [to overrule the laws of nature]. Shankara walked all over India for debates because there were no computers, emails or telephones through which arguments could be done. Once He wanted to argue with Kumarila Bhatta. But when Shankara looked through divine vision, the Bhatta was burning his body as self-punishment for a sin he had committed. He was sitting in a heap of paddy husk and had ignited it, so that it burnt his body slowly. For Shankara there was no time to reach there by foot. Therefore, there was an extreme necessity to use His superpower. Immediately He traveled through space...
[Discourse given by Swami in response to question asked by Nikhil, Smt. Devi and Smt. Gayathry] Jesus preached wonderful knowledge. The ordinary fishermen were convinced and followed Him as the Lord. The priests of the church were great saints, who were unmarried and left everything for the sake of God. Those priests were certainly higher than ordinary people. The ordinary people followed Jesus because they were convinced in their minds, intelligence and consciousness...
O, Brahmin priests! Even today you are the qualified agents for the propagation of divine knowledge of the Lord. Even today the public is inviting you alone to perform religious ceremonies, which are either auspicious or inauspicious. Every human being has to attend the ceremonies and spend some of his time, energy and money either willingly or unwillingly. Everybody is forced by tradition to attend these ceremonies. Even a human being who is busy with his business or profession and does not spend even a single minute for spiritual knowledge and God also has to attend these ceremonies...
The meaning of the word Narayana is the Lord who has taken the shelter of a human body. The word ‘Nara’ means the human body. ‘Ayana’ means the person who has taken Nara as his shelter. This meaning of this word exactly coincides with the verse in the Gita “Manusheem tanumasritam”. The Lord is beyond the scope of even the intelligence and logic. You cannot understand anything about Him in any angle as said in the Gita “Mamtuveda Nakaschana…”. In the Veda there are several statements which say that He is beyond the words, mind...
The jealousy and ego towards a human incarnation are not directed towards the inner Lord present in the human body but are towards the external human body. People think that the human incarnation is just the human being i.e., the human body. Every human being has jealousy towards another human being in this world. Nobody can tolerate the point of “greaterness” of another human being compared to oneself in any aspect like wealth, knowledge etc. Unless this repulsion towards fellow human beings is removed, the jealousy towards the human incarnation...
Several devotees are repeatedly asking Me about one point: How to remove ego towards a human incarnation? The answer for this is that if you are aware of the thief, it is sufficient and he cannot steal anything from your house. It is not necessary to kill the thief and remove him permanently. Similarly, if you are aware of jealousy and ego, the effects are nullified. If you are alert about the thief, who is closely associated with you as your relative, it is sufficient. It is not necessary to kill him or to throw him out from the house.You can keep him in your house constantly...
Shankara declared Himself as the Lord in human form. But He knew that people would immediately revolt against Him. At that time, people were either Buddhists or followers of Purva Mimamsa (ritualistic tradition). Both were highly arrogant and egoistic and would not tolerate this concept in which they would have to worship a human being as God. Therefore, Shankara was very clever and following their psychology, declared that every human being is God. Of course He used the word Brahman, which was misunderstood as God by the people. The human being is the greatest created item and can be called as Brahman. But He did not reveal this secret...
[Mr Anil Antony came to Vijayawada from Mumbai to meet Shri Swami and asked some questions. Following is Shri Swami’s discourse which answers those questions. Maha Satsanga]
You have to live in this world according to the instructions of the Lord. Regarding your life in this world, the essence of His instructions is:
One cannot attain God by doing penance even for centuries. But there is one easiest way to attain God. When you are deceived by others, harmed by others, insulted by others or when you are abused by others, the Lord comes to your side. It means you have attained God...
[Just before departing for Mumbai, Mr. Antony asked Swami “Why don’t You declare Yourself clearly as the present human incarnation”?]
Swami replied “Buddha did not even speak about God and hence there is no question of the topic of the human incarnation in His regard. Therefore, Buddha was safe. Mohammed denied the concept of human incarnation and declared Himself as only the Messenger of God. Anybody can be become a Messenger and therefore, Mohammed was also safe. Lord Krishna emphasized on the concept of human incarnation throughout the Gita, but Krishna told that He was the human incarnation only to Arjuna and not to any other person. Therefore, Krishna was also safe. Jesus told that He was the human incarnation by telling that He and His Father were one and the same...
Initially the Lord attracts a human being through miracles and creates belief and devotion in his mind. Thus the human being is converted into a devotee. From the stage of an ordinary human being, the soul carries on the journey to the stage of a devotee. This journey takes place due to the effort of the Lord alone. This is called as the ‘Marjala Kishora Nyaya’, which means ‘the case of a mother-cat carrying its offspring in her mouth’. The effort of the human being is nil in this case. But the human being must have an open mind to receive help from the Lord and to recognize the existence of the supernatural power of the Lord and thereby to recognize the existence of the Lord. The problems and troubles faced...
[Makara Sankranti] Today the sun is entering the zodiac sign, Capricorn. The sun represents the knowledge of the intelligence, which is in the final form called decision or determination. The Veda says that the sun initiates the intelligence (Dhiyo Yo Nah). Capricorn is famous for rigidity; when it catches something it will not leave it under any circumstances. Therefore, this whole physical model represents the rigid decision of divine knowledge. From this time onwards, for the next six months, the sun makes its northward journey [from winter solstice to summer solstice]. Indians consider the north as auspicious and divine, because the pure white, sacred snow-capped Himalayas...
[Devotees worshipped Swami on the day of this festival (Ekadashi), January 10, 2006] Today you have made Me sit facing the north and you have had the vision of Me in these early morning hours with the faith that Lord Vishnu is seen today through the north gate. You think that the divine abode of the Lord is in the north and that hell is in the south. This is not correct. The Veda says “Duramete Viparite Vishuchi” which means that God and this world are quite opposite like north and south poles. The word Vishuchi means the instrument having two needles pointing in opposite directions like north and south [magnetic compass]. It is only a simile and the concept is that God and the world are diametrically...
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