Filters for Discourses
Basic interest on God is called as Shraddha. This basic interest cannot be created by showing the benefits from God after death (Param) like protection from hell, because the problems in this world (Iham) are very much relevant and urgent. The human being tries to postpone the param to old age. But, even in the old age the Iham continues and does not give any relief to concentrate on Param. Both Iham and Param form Pravrutti, which is nothing but selfishness only. Whether you worship God for Iham or Param, you do not have real love on God. Your love on God is only for yourself and for your family members only. Nivrutti means real love on God without any trace of selfishness. Therefore, Shankara told that your care for Iham...
[Ganesh Chaturthi] Ganapati means the Lord of a group of close devotees, who have reached the climax of devotion. The word Gana does not mean the entire group of normal souls. Gana means a group of souls, who have become very close to the Lord by their unimaginable devotion. The Lord is certainly the master of all the souls but, the Gana is specially attached group of souls. The king is attached to the people in his kingdom but, he is specially attached to his family members. There is difference in the intensity of the attachments. When the Lord incarnates on this earth in human form, these souls from the Gana also accompany the Lord. These liberated souls have no bondage of the cycle of deeds and their lives are totally planned...
[Solar Eclipse Day] Today is the day of eclipse of Sun and we see arguments between the theists having old religious belief and atheists having scientific belief. This debate has nothing to do with the existence of God. Science is nothing but the normal administration of God in the nature. The truth in this running administration of the nature was found by the ancestors based on the then available scientific concepts. The modern scientific concepts are certainly better than the old concepts, since the present science is based on experimental studies involving intricate instruments and procedures. But, this does not mean that all the concepts found out by the modern science should be correct. The limitation of the scope...
Shankara told that if you are interested in God, it is immaterial whether you are in congenial atmosphere or in the opposite atmosphere (Yogaratova Bhogaratova…). This applies equally to a person interested in the worldly affairs. If you are a real devotee of God, you will rememberGod only, e.g. whether you see a devotional movie or a social movie. Even if it is a social movie, involving worldly scenes only, without any direct scene related to God, you will see God only everywhere. Generally, in social movies some scenes show development of injustice through cheating, rowdyism etc., and some other scenes show the defeat of injustice and suppression...
Lord Krishna stated in the Gita that human beings with demonic nature are not only unaware of the path of pleasing God (path of liberation or Moksha marga) but also unaware of worldly justice (Pravrittimcha Nivrittimcha janana vidurasurah...). Demonic nature means that neither do they know on their own nor listen to others. This is due to ignorance combined with egoism. These people fail even in the worldly duties like marriages...
Pravrutti is the field of worldly matters involving bonds with your body and family members, which is limited to the present birth only. Nivrutti is the field of spiritual matters involving bonds with God and devotees, which is related to every birth of the soul continuously. The basic frame work is the same in both the fields. In both the fields, knowledge, devotion, work, sacrifice and the final fruit for sacrifice are common. In Pravrutti, the knowledge gives the identification of yourself and your family members. You will distinguish your family members as your dear and near from the outsiders to whom you are neutral. Similarly, in Nivrutti, the knowledge gives the identification of human form of God and identification of good deserving devotees...
[Shri S.S.N. Sharma asked Swami “I like to study more about my profession. At the same time, I am much worried about studying the spiritual knowledge since I am nearing the old age”.]
Swami replied: You can study both alternatively. If you are engaged in the study of one type knowledge only continuously, you will be bored. Change is required for the mind, which has inherent curved nature. Therefore, one need not take up the spiritual knowledge in the old age only and similarly, one need not be confined to the worldly knowledge before the old age. One should have the involvement in both types of knowledge from the beginning so that the alternating involvement of mind satisfies its own nature. Even if you are interested in one type of knowledge only as your real goal, the other type of knowledge...
[On the Eve of Ugadi] Diabetes by itself is not a disease but is the source of all dangerous diseases. An old king by himself cannot fight the war but by his oral order, the army will fight the war and brings success. Similarly, the mind (or its feelings) cannot bring any fruit either in the world or in the spiritual field, but it is the source of all actions that can bring fruits in the world or in the spiritual field. Action alone can bring the fruit, but, action is generated by the will of mind only. All the rituals and idol worship are actions only but these actions cannot bring any fruit from God because these actions are not doing any direct service to God arrived in human form. Then, what is the use of all these traditional actions? These actions are meant for developing the mind or feeling for God...
[Shri C Bala Krishna Murthy asked a question “How Upanishads frequently say that Atman (Self) is Paramatman (God)?”]
Swami replied: How do you take the word Atman as self? The word Atman means that which pervades. The awareness pervades all over the body and hence, it is called as Atman. Since the body also pervades in space, it is also called Atman in Sanskrit language. Therefore, the word Atman stands either for the soul or for the total human being. Suppose, you say that the Prime Minister is in house. Does it mean that he is in your house? Does it mean that he is in every house? It only means that the Prime Minister, who is out of his residence on tour, is now present in his residence, which is a specific house. Similarly, Atman means a specific soul like Krishna...
[Shri R Parthasarathy asked a question: “the Gita says that we should do the action without aspiring for its fruit. How is it possible? We do any work expecting some fruit only”.]
Swami replied: Arjuna came to Kurukshetra to fight with enemies in order to get back his kingdom. He thought that the war was his case and Krishna was helping him in his case like an advocate helping the petitioner in his case filed in a court. Arjuna thought that since he was the owner of the case, he could withdraw the case whenever he liked to do so. If the petitioner is not interested to fight the case, the advocate will have no interest to argue it. Arjuna thought that it was not proper to kill his grandfather and teacher for the sake of wealth. His point was also justified. But, Krishna turned the tables diagonally opposite by enlightening Arjuna through the Gita...
[Vaikuntha Ekaadasi] Today is Vaikuntha Ekaadasi and devotees see Lord Narayana through North gate. This is our tradition. Tradition is always action or karma. Karma generates samskara or feeling. Devotion is feeling about God. Therefore, tradition aims at the development of devotion in devotees. Karma generates Samskara and this Samskara again generates karma. The quality of stealing leads to the action of stealing. While doing stealing, the quality of stealing gets more and more developed. Both these mutually contribute to each other. Therefore, the tradition set up by our ancient sages is always with good aim. Today, tradition says that you should take bath...
People take the word Satsanga to mean a meeting of a few devotees who sit together and enquire about God and other aspects related to God. If all people who are born blind sit together and discuss about the sun, their conclusion is that the sun is black because they always experience darkness alone and do not see even a trace of light. They can never ever turn to the right direction in spite of intensive and very long discussions. If a person having eyes that are in good condition gets associated with them, then alone can they understand something about the sun. At least by his preaching, they can understand that the sun is not black. Of course, they cannot experience light even after his preaching. Hence, he will not speak about light...
[on the Eve of Christmas] Every religion says that its God created the entire earth and entire humanity. But, unfortunately there is only one earth containing this humanity. Due to one earth, there must be one God only and hence, all the religions are calling the same God by different names. Since God is completely unimaginable, all the names indicate that unseen and unimaginable God only. This unimaginable God is mediated by energy. Such mediated God is also one and the same because energy is also one and the same for all religions. This mediated God is called as Brahman by Hinduism, Jehovah by Christianity and Allah by Islam. The absolute unimaginable God as well as the medium (Energy) are one and the same and hence, there is no difference...
[Datta Jayanti] Jnanam, Gaanam, Dhyanam and Daanam should be clearly understood on this day. Jnanam is the spiritual knowledge related to intelligence (Buddhi) represented by God Brahma. Gaanam is the expression of knowledge and devotion related to words (Vaak) represented by God Vishnu. Dhyanam is the devotion or meditation related to mind (Manas) represented by God Shiva. Daanam is the donation or service related to action (karma) represented by God Datta. The first three constitute the theory and the last constitutes the practice. Theory should lead into practice. This point is represented by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva becoming Datta by union before the sage Atri. It is also said that Atri got three sons: 1) Chandra, representing Brahma; 2) Dattatreya, representing Vishnu and 3) Durvasa, representing Shiva...
There are three points in the spiritual path. The first point is about yourself. If you know that you are not God and also that God is not in you, the first point is over. You are only on the support of God since you are part and parcel of the creation and the whole creation is supported by God. Again here, the contact of the support also does not exist as in the case of a table supporting an object standing on it. The creation stands just by the will of God. The direct support of the creation is the will, which is a mode of awareness. In this way, you can say that the divine awareness is the support of this universe. By this, you should not think that awareness is an independent support and therefore, awareness itself is God...
Shri Ramana Maharshi snored in His deep sleep. A disciple asked Him about His ignorance in the deep sleep since snoring indicates intensified deep sleep. Shri Ramana Maharshi replied that He was quite aware of His deep sleep since He also heard His own snoring similar to His observers. This means that in deep sleep, the awareness of God exists because of the existence of God with continuous awareness. This indicates that He was the human incarnation. This is true because Vaasishta Ganapati Muni declared Him as the human incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya. But, in the case of any human being, this is not true because nobody hears his or her own snoring in deep sleep. Since God does not exist in every human being...
God gives value for the spiritual knowledge contained in the religion. Religion is the external cup and spiritual knowledge is the internal material supplied to the customer in the hotel. The customer pays for the internal material and not for the external cup. The sweet Payasam in the cheap ceramic cup will have high payment. The cheap drinking water given in costly golden cup has no payment at all. The customer takes the material only and not the container. Similarly, the spiritual knowledge alone follows the soul from birth to birth and not the religion. When the external body is left over here, the soul raises up in a new energetic body. The soul in the new energetic body is associated with the spiritual knowledge...
Each limb of the elephant in its figure is contributing to the totality of the diagram. But at the same time, the limb has limitations of its size and should be in its proper place. Both the aspects of contribution and limitation are equally important. You cannot increase the size of the limb enormously to occupy the whole page and say that the limb itself is the elephant. No doubt, the elephant is incomplete without the limb and hence, it is contributory. The proper place of legs is below the body of the elephant. Due to attraction and over appreciation of the legs, you should not draw the four legs above the body. The whole problem lies with the person, who can draw the leg only...
[A devotee asked Swami about ‘Aakasha Deepam’, which is said to guide the devotee after death to the abode of God if it is lit in this month of Kartika.]
Swami replied: “If this oil lamp lit by you has such power, let it prove a small fraction of its power now itself. You lit the lamp here and go outside in the darkness. Let this lamp show you the path outside”. If this lamp cannot have even such small power while it is burning, how can we believe that it has power after a long time when it does not exist? Everything in the creation happens according to Science only. The rules of Science are broken only by the will of God. Unless you please God and get His grace, such miracles will not happen...
Hindus are spending lot of money on ritualistic functions like marriage etc., in which the major item is serving expensive varieties of food. The receivers of this food are mainly relatives and friends invited based on your blind passion for relatives and your attitude of business to friends. The donation of food is ‘Annadaanam’ and for any donation, the receiver must be an eligible person, selected not based on relationship or friendship. The eligibility is due to the spiritual knowledge and devotion of the person to God. Otherwise, you are giving food to un-deserving receivers, who may be your relatives and friends. In Mahabharata, the sage Vyasya told that donation to deserving person brings good fruits...
Filters for Discourses