Filters for Discourses
[Andhra Pradesh State Formation Day] What is the reason for India not developing compared to Christian and Islamic countries? The basic reason is only corruption that always hinders the development of the country, which is based on the public works like construction of dams etc. If you see the construction of dam by Mr. Arthur Cotton on Godavari River, there is no sign of damage even after 100 years. But if you see the public constructions like roads and dams done by Indians, their life time sometimes is only a few days! Does this mean that Arthur Cotton was not as intelligent as Indians...
[One converted Christian from Hinduism (Shri Shastri), who is a Sanskrit scholar, visited Swami on this festival day. He told that he was attracted to Christianity by the spotless character of Jesus and was very much repelled by the bad character of Krishna regarding Gopikas. Swami replied him, which is given below as the divine message on Deepavali. After hearing the reply from Swami, which was spontaneous discourse, Shri Shastri bowed to the divine lotus feet of Swami with tears and went away silently.]
Reply of Swami: If you are converting your religion just for the sake of your liking to Jesus, there is no objection, because liking has no reason. But, if your conversion is based on repulsion to Krishna, I will not agree to it. Similarly, if a Christian is converted to become Hindu, due to liking on Krishna, I have no objection. But, his conversion should not be due to repulsion to Jesus...
[Smt. Uma Ramanath asked about the importance of spiritual preacher (Guru). Swami gave the following reply.]
A lecturer in Government College will teach you the syllabus and at the same time acts as the invigilator, valuer of the paper etc., and finally you are getting a valued degree from the college. Similarly, the Lord acting as Guru preaches the spiritual knowledge, guides you practically, tests your knowledge in practice and finally gives you the suitable divine fruit. A teacher conducting tuition home is just teaching you and is not connected to the examination...
[Message on Dasara, Day-8 Mr. Surya asked a question “You have said that the Lord told that awareness is born daily and perishes daily in the Gita. But, how come some people point out that in the same Gita, it is told that the soul is eternal?”]
Swami replied: There are two theories about the soul. In one theory, the soul is eternal. This is correct because if you take the soul (awareness) as inert energy in its basic form, energy is eternal. The eternality of the soul is proved in deep sleep since life continues due to the existence of inert energy as the heat in the human body. Due to this inert energy alone, all the systems in the human body function and the life is maintained in the body. Deep sleep indicates the co-functioning...
[Message on Dasara, Day-7] Today, Goddess Saraswati, who is always associated with Brahma, is worshipped. Saraswati is different from Brahma but is constantly associated with Brahma. Saraswati represents the special divine knowledge (Prajnanam) and Brahma represents God in human form. This means that the divine knowledge is separate and is an associated sign of God but can be treated as an inherent sign due to its constant association.
Any state in the spiritual path is to be appreciated relatively with respect to the lower step, but it is criticized relatively with respect to the higher step. You are encouraged by showing the lower steps, but you are inspired to become active by seeing the upper step. If you become lazy assuming that the step attained by you is final, the upper step is to be shown to you. If you are discouraged by seeing the higher steps, you are encouraged by showing lower steps...
[Message on Dasara, Day-6] The continuous entertainment (Ananda) is possible only in the world when God exists in the relative reality. In the state of absolute reality, space also disappears and God alone remains. In this state, there is no question of any entertainment. If you take God into such a state of absolute reality, you are making God bored. There will be no necessity at anytime for God to cross space (Mula Maya) because God need not destroy this world completely and regenerate it. The show of the cinema is withdrawn but the film roll is never destroyed by any producer unless he is extremely mad. The dissolution of the world means only the closure of the show and the world in a subtle state remains protected...
[Message on Dasara, Day-3] Today,the most important concept is to be analyzed. One will certainly reach heaven by doing social service, which is only a temporary place. One has to return to earth and again take the risk as per the Gita. But, the abode of God is permanent and if one attains this divine abode, one will not return in a normal human birth. Such a divine soul is liberated and comes to earth as a human incarnation along with the Lord. The same social service can be done as a secondary activity, keeping the preaching of spiritual knowledge and devotion as the primary activity. Such divine service includes the social service. But, the social service alone does not include the divine service...
[Message on Dasara, Day-2] Yoga means attainment. Attainment is meaningful if you attain something other than yourself. After traveling some distance if you say that you have attained yourself, it is meaningless. Only when you attain the Superself (God), who is other than yourself, can you use the word Yoga. God in human form is attainable by your effort. Just as you have your family, God also has His limited family, which consists of a few liberated souls. For you, your family is more important than society, which consists of the general public. You maintain business with society but love with your family. God also behaves like you...
[Message on Dasara, Day-1] Goddess Durga fought with the demon called Mahishasura for ten days and got victory on the tenth day. Durga means protection. This protection has very little significance as far as the problems in this world are concerned. People do not realize the insignificance of these worldly problems because they have not witnessed the greatest problem, which is faced at the time of the death before going to hell. Unfortunately, this greatest problem is visualized at the exact moment of death when the person is unable to even express his feelings on seeing the messengers from hell. A line appears small only when a bigger line is present next to it. If the soul could witness the last scene during this life time itself...
The present spiritual preachers who are conducting workshops on the relief of stress are just doctors and psychiatrists only. They preach Asanas (physical exercises) and pranayama (breathing exercises) which are the measures for the physical health. The preaching of Atma Yoga which is the dissolution of thought limiting to awareness is done under the headline of meditation. Meditation is a pious word used to limit yourself to the thought of God only forgetting all the other thoughts including the awareness of your awareness. I do not know how you are calling these as spiritual preachers and concentration on self as meditation...
[A devotee (Sai) from Pune asked Swami for the stress relief. Swami replied like this:]
The stress is developed whenever a problem causing misery arises. Today the spiritual preachers are stressing very much on this topic and are conducting workshops. There is a lot of response from the public. Every human being is very anxious about the solution of the problem and to get rid off the misery. This natural instinct is the reason for this big response, which is misunderstood as self-greatness by these preachers. Even the priests and astrologers are earning money exploiting this natural instinct. The desire for money and fame in the public is the main cause for the concentration on this topic by the preachers...
It is a misunderstanding that the life history of every soul is written by God or destiny. God is certainly the creator of this whole world like the builder of the stage and the supplier of dress for a drama. He is responsible up to this level only. The story, dialogues and actions are written by the created self only. The self is pure awareness and is called as causal body, but is composed of several types of vibrations which are the feelings or thoughts or qualities. The various types result due to various mixing proportions of Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. Some of these thoughts have become very strong since from several millions of births. Such solidified thoughts are like hard diamonds. The bundle of such diamonds is called as the subtle body...
Smt. Kandarpa Padma Ram is very much dedicated to Swami. She sang all the devotional songs composed by Swami with her extraordinary sweet voice. She also composed several songs on Swami. Swami never gave her any vision even though she was asking for it. Swami told that she is the lotus flower in the hand of the Lord and came for divine service and therefore no such proof is required for her. One day she was fighting with Swami on the phone from a far place. She asked Swami to show a vision to somebody at least there and let that person speak about the vision to her on phone. Swami scolded her and placed the phone down. At the same time, a lady visited the house in which Swami was sitting. She arrived from a far place on that day...
Today even a mosquito is killing the man by giving dangerous fever. The man used to say, “I will quash you like a mosquito.” This means that mosquito is the most negligible creature. But today the mosquito has become an instrument of Yama to kill the people! What is the reason for this? The situation is reversed. The souls must realize now about their own real strength. It has become zero. If the zero has a number behind it, it gets value of ten, hundred, thousand etc. But when the number becomes absent, any number of zeros is zero only. The soul becomes hero when it is backed by God. Arjuna realized this after the exit of Krishna...
The Scripture says that among the ten incarnations, Lord Krishna alone is the fullest incarnation (Paripurna Tamah Saakshat). If you compare Krishna with the other incarnations, the special point that lies with Krishna alone is the revelation of divine knowledge about God (Nivrutti) or Brahma Jnana. Buddha also gave divine knowledge. But He kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. All His preaching was concentrated on the behaviour of the human being towards other co-human beings and also towards other living beings. He concentrated...
[Shri Ramanath asked Swami whether Akkalkot Maharaj whose birth is not known is the fullest human incarnation as His devotees say. Following is Swami’s reply]:
For any concept, the scripture is valued. Otherwise everybody speaks whatever he likes and gives his own logic. The advocate has to quote the constitution and apply the logic in that line. Otherwise the argument has no base. The scriptures say that Sri Krishna is the fullest human incarnation (Shri Krishno Nanya Evahi). This is agreed by all since it has scriptural basis. But Krishna was born to Devaki. Therefore, the concept of fullest human incarnation...
The question is whether the Atman is knowable (Vijneya) or unknowable (Ajneya). There are statements in the Veda which say that Atman is unknowable (Yasyamatam tasyamatam, achintyam, etc.). There are also other statements in the Veda that say that Atman is knowable (Drishyatetvagraya Buddhya, Atma va are Drishtavah) These are two contradictory sets of statements. How can these two statements be correlated? The Advaita philosophers treat this problem in the following way: They say that Atman is unknowable (Ajneya) to ordinary people...
Awareness and Reflected Awareness: Now the Advaitins bring another point. They say that the awareness which is a product of the energy that one gets from food (Annat Purushah—Veda) is only a reflection (Chidabasa) of the original ultimate awareness (Chit). The Chidabhasa is present only in living beings and has defects but the defects are due to the reflecting medium (body). The Chit, which is beyond the reflected awareness, is free from defects and that it is the ultimate cause or God. Now if they say that this Chit which is beyond the Chidabhasa is the ultimate, then we have no objection; we accept it. However the objection comes when they say that the individual is the Chit. We say that the individual is Chidabhasa. The Chit (or God) is the cause of the Chidabhasa ...
The word Dharma means the characteristic property which stands for the identification of an item. The Dharma of fire is burning by which it is identified as fire. It is the expected natural behaviour of an item in the creation. If the fire is cool, such coolness is Adharma which means that it is not the expected property of the specific entity. The human being in this creation is a specified entity and is expected to show certain characteristic properties (Dharmas) by which he or she is identified as the human being. If the human being shows the characteristic properties of other specified items, it loses its identification. When God created various...
[3rd Message on the Eve of Krishnashtami] Some people say that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and most people say that Jesus was a bachelor. Similarly in Hinduism, most people say that Hanuman was a bachelor but some say that He married Suvarchala. This argument is unnecessary because God comes down in human form and attracts all types of souls to uplift them. The main aim of the human form is that He wants to become very close to human beings. If the qualities of the human incarnation are similar to humans, human beings get more and more attracted and the Lord can become closer...
Filters for Discourses