Posted on: 12 Mar 2023
[An an online Satsang took place on the occasion of the birthday of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami on February 24, 2023. Many devotees from different parts of the world participated in that satsang held through MS Teams. Many devotees sent their questions to Shri Swami and Shri Swami answered them on the live satsang. Here, the questions of devotees and answers given by Shri Datta Swami are documented.]
21. Why was Gandhi killed by Godse even though he followed non-violence?
[Swamiji, Mahathma Gandhi read both the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible. In the Gita, Krishna told Arjuna to follow violence. But, Gandhiji followed non-violence as taught in the Bible. Even then, why was he killed by Godse?]
Swami replied: Both the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible are one and the same as far as the contents are concerned. The scripture of any religion is stressing only on three aspects such as God, Heaven and Hell. Heaven and Hell stand for Pravrutti. God stands for Nivrutti. This is a common basis in any religion except atheism. Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether he read the Gita or the Bible. He was killed by Godse due to his sin. One day, in his ashrama (asylum), a cow was suffering to deliver the calf. Unable to see her pain, Gandhi ordered to shoot and kill the cow. The fruit of that sin came through Godse.
Another such case happened to the family of Indira Gandhi. In order to win the elections, Indira Gandhi wanted to get the blessings and support from a great saint called Karapatra Swamiji. When asked by Swamiji, she promised that she will bring a law to stop the slaughtering of cows (Govadha nishedha) in India. He blessed her and she became the Prime Minister of India. Although Swamiji went to Delhi many times and reminded her about the promise, she didn’t respond in view of some political aspects. Swamiji started a big protest against the slaughter of cows on the day of Gopashtami. Many saints and devotees also joined the protest. Indira Gandhi ruthlessly ordered the police to shoot them and several people were killed including sadhus and cows. Seeing this massacre, Karapatra Swamiji cursed her saying, “You and your family will suffer the same punishment as you have killed cows and saints by not restricting cow-slaughter”. Due to the curse, she was shot dead. Her elder son Rajeev Gandhi was blasted in public and another son Sanjeev Gandhi died in a plane crash. Every death in her family happened on the same tithi of ‘Gopashtami’ on which she killed the cows and saints.
22. In the present generation, how can we implement Gandhji’s way in politics and personal life?
Swami replied: Gandhiji was always devoted to God Rama. His last words were “Hey Ram!” while dying. He was also following universal spirituality (Ishwar Allah tere nām…). You can follow this devotion part from Gandhiji in your Nivritti. He fought for the freedom of our country since British people were doing injustice. Standing for justice is pravrutti. Therefore, you can follow Gandhiji in both pravrutti and nivrutti.
But, his ahimsa vaada (non-violence) will not work in the present politics. Although Rama is an embodiment of peace and justice, He was mentioned by Valmiki (sthāna krodhaḥ prahartā ca), which means that He gets anger in proper place and gives violent punishment if necessary. He did violence in killing Ravana because Ravana was a demon doing injustice. Therefore, violence should be shown on bad people (paritrāṇāya sādhūnām, vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām - Gita) and protection should be given to good people. Helping everybody and not hurting anybody is mere foolishness. But, Gandhi followed that way of non-violence because he knew that he could not fight with the British people, who had riffles and military force. Indians were unarmed and there was no trace of guarantee that victory would come in the path of violence even if it was adopted. So, he tried to kindle love in the British people (who followed the Bible) through non-violence. He said, “Although you beat us and kill us, we will not harm you”. Those Britishers were also religious people since they read the Bible and gave a lot of importance to love as preached by God Jesus. Gandhiji was intelligent in selecting this path of non-violence in the case of the British people. Hence, the path shall be selected as per the context of the situation.
You cannot apply non-violence to every context. Suppose some mischievous and stubborn children are going in a wrong way, you should scold and beat (violence) them to drive them to the right way. Otherwise, they’ll be spoiled. Suppose a bad person is very powerful, you should try to kindle love and kindness in him. Then only, you can win him. Suppose a dog is coming to bite you and you are stronger than the dog, you can beat it with a stick following the path of partial non-violence. Suppose a lion is coming towards you, can you beat it with a stick? It will finish you immediately. Therefore, you should choose the path of violence or non-violence depending on the context.
23. Swamiji, I have heard that people, who destroyed temples and idols of God, not only got destroyed but also got their families destroyed. Is it true and why?
Swami replied: We don’t know whether it is true or false since it is an assumption since you have not mentioned the details of those criminals. Many times, histories were falsely created. Please mention a particular specific incident and ask the question. Since this incident involves not only harming good and non-violent people, even God is involved here. Hence, a double punishment (punishing the criminals and their families) is perfectly justified.
24. Family members of Mohammad were killed after Him, and sons of Krishna killed each other. What is the reason?
[Swamiji, family members of God Mohammad were killed after Mohammad left the body. All the sons of Lord Krishna killed each other. What is the reason for this and how should we correlate these two aspects?]
Swami replied: Everyone dies based on their individual karma or deeds. So, as per the deeds, the fruits will be there. You need not connect the killing of the family of Mohammed to Mohammed and killing of the Yadavas to Krishna. It is ‘Kāka-tālīyaka-nyāya’, where a crow lands on the palm tree and a palm fruit falls down coincidentally. There is no link between the two incidents. Even if the crow is not landing on the palm tree, the palm fruit is ready to fall down. Yaadavas tried to mock the sages and the sages cursed them due to which all of them killed each other. In the administration of God, no curse or no blessing will affect you unless you do a bad deed or good deed respectively. Even if somebody gives blessings and if you have a bad fruit, you will be punished only and not benefitted based on the given blessings. Therefore, Krishna is not linked with the destruction of His family members and Mohammed is not linked with the destruction of His family members.
25. Padanamskaram Swami, Is there any spiritual significance behind Sati Sumathi's extreme devotion towards her husband?
[A question by Shri Divakara Rao]
Swami replied: Sati Sumati stopped the rising of Sun to protect her husband from the curse of a sage. She was carrying her husband on her shoulders to the house of a prostitute since her husband was interested in that prostitute. In the ancient days, the husband was considered as God (patireva daivam). So, she followed that concept although her husband was not a good person. In our Puranas, some stories like these were created and inserted by some selfish scholars, who wanted to suppress women and make them worship their husbands as God even though the husbands were bad. The scholars went to the extreme that every husband (male) shall be worshipped as God. That is why, the purana (smriti) is not an authority and the Veda (shruti) alone is the authority (śruti smṛti virodhe tu, śrutireva garīyasī). This story of Sumati is not in the Vedas and it exists only in Puranas, which means that it can be an insertion (prakshepa). Even the Mahabharatam written by Sage Vyasa originally contained only 7,000 verses. After insertions, the Mahabharatam now has 1,25,000 verses. Therefore, Smriti has no independent authority and only the Veda has independent authority. The Veda says that all the souls are not only women but also wives of God (striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ). All the souls are maintained (Bhaaryaa) by God and so He is the maintainer (Bhartaa) of all souls, be it male gender or female gender. Clearly, the story of Sumati in the Puranam is contradicting this concept in the Veda and hence, it must be rejected. The Veda never supports caste, gender or religion. The Veda supports only merits and good qualities. Ravana was a brahmana by birth and Rama was a kshatriya. But, if we analyse their qualities, Ravana is a demon and Rama is the divine hero. In this case, a brahmana was the villain and a non-brahmana was the hero. Therefore, we shall do sharp analysis and find what is the truth.
We should not blindly depend on the books or persons except the Veda because the Veda is preserved by oral recitation from many generations through many scholars across the country. It cannot be deviated because even if some scholar in some place inserts something, other majority of scholars will not agree and correct it. Therefore, the Veda is the genuine authority. Some non-vegetarians say that the Veda recommends the killing of animal and we can eat it. The Veda also says to kill the animal and give that flesh as prasadam to God (yajña prasādam - yajña śiṣṭam). But, the word ‘pashu’ is not an animal to be killed but the animalistic nature with you (manyuḥ paśuḥ) is to be killed. Even the word aajyam (kāma ājyam) is not the ghee that is to be burnt in the yajna fire but it is your desires that are to be burnt. Therefore, there is nothing wrong in the Veda because it is spoken by God through sages. Wrong understanding comes due to misinterpretation by foolish or wrong scholars. Of course, God is beyond logic, but it does not mean that He will tell illogical things. Whatever God speaks is very much logical and absolutely correct. Therefore, it is always better to follow the Veda and analyse with scientific logic. The Veda means any logical concept spoken by anybody in any language since God always speaks logical true concepts through any devotee.
Once Smt. Bhavani (wife of Shri CBK Murthy) quoted an illogical statement and asked Me why God Vishu had to say something like that in the Vishnu Puranam. As far as My knowledge goes, God never told like that in the Vishnu Puranam. I asked her how did she learn about this statement. She replied that she heard it in the serial of Vishnu Puranam telecasted on TV. This is how misinterpretations are propagated! Tomorrow, that video creator may want to support BJP political party and he will make God Vishnu say that those who vote for the election-symbol of lotus will get salvation! Whatever is telecasted on TV cannot become the authority. When Puranas themselves have no authority before the Veda, how can the Puranas shown on TV have authority? See the fate of God Datta to answer ridiculous questions like these. Anyway, the Veda is the best authority and the only authority. Not the Puranams and not at all the Puranams shown on TV!
26. Is there any spiritual significance of the colour of the skin of the incarnation?
[Shri Divakara rao asked: Is it true that Your skin colour was blue when You incarnated as Lord Krishna. Is there any spiritual significance to it and how it is practically possible?]
Swami replied: ‘Chandra neelima’ means the black spot present on the moon. Neelima means black colour. The word neela stands for black, not for blue. ‘Neela’ is an alternate word for ‘Kaala’ or ‘Krishna’. ‘Bālāmbuda śyāmalaḥ’ means very tender cloud, which is slightly black in colour. This light black colour is in fact the colour of Krishna and it is very attractive. God Krishna is a human incarnation of God and no human in this world is blue in colour. In the case of energetic forms of God, God Brahma is red in colour, God Vishnu is blue (pale dark) in colour and God Shiva is white in colour. We should not give importance to the external beauty and colour but focus on devotion and good qualities of God, which are the best internal beauty.
27. Is bribing a small amount to avoid a bigger bribe accepted?
[Mrs. Suganya Raman asked: Dear Swami, a principal of a college tried to bring some lecturers to the college just for one day of inspection done by NAAC. If the count of lecturers is not accurate, the Board would either cancel new seats to the college or the college management has to pay a hefty amount to the board members to get the papers signed. Is bribing a small amount to avoid a bigger bribe accepted?]
Swami replied: After all, justice is justice and injustice is injustice in the view of God. Injustice will always be punished by God and justice will always be supported by God. If some sin is happening by the management in giving bribe or by inspection committee in taking bribe or staff members in cheating the inspection, every sin will be punished by God. Small sin will receive small punishment and big sin will receive big punishment. If justice happens, there will be good fruit and if injustice happens, there will be bad fruit and that is the end of all these incidents. If justice and injustice are decided by the worldly court or some human agency, then that agency may also be bribed. But, God cannot be bribed. The fruit will come for sure with added interest, even if it takes a long time (kalpa koṭi śatairapi). Wise scholars always pray God to give the punishments as early as possible so that interest will not be added to it. Generally, the devotee of God follows justice and opposes injustice because the likes of God should be the likes of the devotees and the dislikes of God should be the dislikes of the devotees in order to please God.
28. Devotees in Your service are leading a very happy life. Does this mean that You are angry on Your devotees?
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Paadanamaskaram Swami, You said in Datta Vedam that difficulties come to us by Your grace and happiness comes to us by Your anger. But, the devotees in Your divine service are leading a very happy and peaceful life with minimum worldly tensions. Does this mean that You are angry on Your devotees?]
Swami replied: You said that My devotees are leading a happy life but you didn’t mention what kind of happiness it is. Materialistic happiness like getting lot of money and living luxurious life will bring pride to the soul. Consequently, he/she will get ego and do sins. As a result, I will be angry and they will be punished. How can you say that these are My blessings? Your terminology and sense of your words is causing the whole problem.
When God Rama was ruling Ayodhya, He constructed a huge bell. If any injustice happens, anyone can come and ring the bell so that Rama will come down and enquire. One day, a dog came and rang the bell. When Rama enquired, dog said that a samnyasi bet him with a stick. Then, Rama asked what punishment should He give to that saint. Dog replied that Rama should make him a trustee of a temple. Rama was confused listening to this. Dog explained, “O Rama! I was a trustee of a temple in my last birth. I did lot of good work and never touched even one paise of God. Although I was so careful, some money must have been misused sinfully, which is why I am given the birth of a dog as punishment. If this undisciplined saint is made as trustee, he will commit so many sins and he will be continuously punished from birth to birth. So, make him a trustee of a temple”.
When you are learning divine knowledge, every word should be perfectly analysed to find out the truth. A scholar writing commentary on the Vedic sentences will take lot of care about every single word in deciding the right meaning. Therefore, scholastic depth in grammar is very much essential and all Shastras have to be read to understand the philosophy. So, a very careful analysis is needed everywhere. Then only, you will understand the truth. In the Datta Vedam, it is told that if I am pleased with somebody, I will give him difficulties. Here, difficulties mean materialistic difficulties, which are far better than materialistic happiness. When materialistic happiness comes, you will lose attention, become careless, forget God, get a lot of ego and finally commit sins, which result in My anger. If you are in materialistic difficulties, you are always alert, active, careful and pray God all the time at least due to the pressure of those difficulties and due to this, My grace flows on the devotee. Therefore, if you want to rise spiritually, you must pray God for materialistic difficulties. If you want to get temporary happiness in the materialism, pray God for materialistic happiness, which will spoil you spiritually. When God Krishna asked Kunti to select a boon, she said, “So far, we led our lives in difficulties only. Today, the war is over. Dharmaraja is made the king and all our difficulties have ended. All these days, I was constantly praying to You due to the pressure of difficulties. I have come almost to the end of my life and now, You are giving me materialistic happiness. I will slowly forget You and stop praying You. How unlucky I will be! Therefore, if you are pleased with me and want to grace me, You always give me materialistic difficulties (Vipadaḥ santu naḥ śaśvat)”.
Let Me share My personal story today. When I was staying in Guntur, I was working as professor and I was getting good money. Everything was happy and there were no materialistic difficulties. Then, I got bored with happiness just like a person, who craves for hot dishes after eating many sweet dishes continuously. Therefore, I did Mahaanyaasa Rudrabhisheka on one day to worship God Shiva. Generally, everybody does sankalpa to attain wealth and happiness, etc. But, when I made the sankalpa, I asked for all types of difficulties (asṭa kaṣṭa prāptyartham…). I asked for extreme poverty (pūrṇa daridra siddhyartham…). Through that, I wanted to improve My spiritual knowledge and devotion to God (tadvārā jñāna vairāgya bhakti siddhyartham). My wife Smt. Kumari, who is a scholar in Sanskrit (Vidya Praveena) understood this sankalpa I made and was shocked completely. She furiously asked Me that why I asked for such extreme difficulties from God. I jokingly replied, “Who asked you to listen to My sankalpa?” Then, I had an actual vision of God Shiva. Generally, people take sankalpa asking for wealth (aiśvarya siddhyartham), luxury (sarva saukhya prāptyartham), success (sarva vijayārtham), etc. God Shiva in the upper world gets bored on hearing such routine sankalpas asking for wealth, etc. during Rudrabhishekams here and He continues to sit in meditation. When I told this abnormal sankalpa, He jerked suddenly and opened His eyes. He was amazingly looking at Me with surprise. I enjoyed this vision for some time. That very night, Shani Deva (Saturn) appeared before Me and said, “I am here to deliver difficulties to you within a month. God ordered me to do three things - to attack your life, move you from one place to another and give you poverty. But, I have a lot of respect for You. Out of these three, I will do two things only because I have the power to give this exemption”. I told him to exempt Me from attack on My life. He agreed and disappeared. Since I know that he will complete his job within a month, I asked the maid of My house to stop coming and told My wife to spend every rupee carefully. Fortunately, or unfortunately, on the same day, My seven and half years shani period also started in gochara. For the next seven and half years, I suffered a lot of poverty. I resigned from My job and a lot of quarrels happened at home and it was highly difficult. During those difficulties, I evolved Myself spiritually to the sky. Every minute, I was remembering God and developed a lot of devotion.
I alone know what is My pleasure and what is My anger. I often appear in reverse gear to others but I am always in correct gear. All other people are in reverse gear thinking that they are in correct gear. People comfortably approach Lord Venkateshwara or Goddess Lakshmi or God Hanuman or God Rama or God Krishna, etc. Nobody goes to God Datta because He is always against you since you are always wrong and He is always correct. Though it appears as reverse gear, it is correct gear. Though majority are in a particular gear, it is wrong gear and we think that He is in the wrong gear. Similarly, you have to understand that materialistic happiness will always lead you to fall in the spiritual life because ego will come and you will do several sins. Therefore, extreme materialistic happiness is not good. Of course, extreme grief in the materialistic life is also not good. Anything in excess is not good. It is better to be satisfied with whatever you have and don’t try to grow more materialistically. One week back, an employed devotee phoned to Me from Benguluru and said that he wants to purchase a new house in Hyderabad. He already purchased a house recently and he wants to take a loan on his salary to purchase a second house now. I advised him, “If you have the total amount in your hand, purchase the second house. Don’t take a loan to purchase a second house. Suppose something happens to your job, you cannot pay the loan. Later on, unnecessary difficulties will start. By the will of God, you get a good amount of money at certain point in life. When you get the good amount of money in hand, you cannot possess that cash for a long time since it can cause income tax issues and security issues. Relatives will become your enemies if you don’t give them some cash. Therefore, you will be forced to invest it and buy a property. Here, you are not desiring to buy a property. You are buying it because you want to get rid of the money you got in hand. This buying of property will not bring you any tension because it is graced by God and not desired by you. Therefore, too much greed in materialistic life will certainly bring difficulties”. Then that devotee asked, “Swami, are You telling not to buy a second house due to the astrological analysis based on my horoscope?”. I replied, “I am telling from the highest level and not from common astrological level. I am telling you as God Datta, whose analysis is always correct”. Then, he feared and dropped the call. This is nothing but our anxiety and greed to grow more and more materialistically. When you die, you can’t take a single paisa with you. You have to leave all your materialistic wealth here itself. Are you going to carry on the wealth along with your dead body? (Nī pāḍe mīda vesi kaṭṭa kaṭṭi tīsukupotāvā? Emi cesukuṇṭāvu? as said in Telugu). In such case, why don’t you be happy by praying to God, by developing devotion to God and by living in the service of God. You are a bloody rascal and biggest fool if you are craving for materialistic progress. All scoldings should be used for the soul running after materialism. You should be happy with whatever is sanctioned to you by God. When God sanctions something, you will not lose it and you will not have tension about it. When you want something and attain it by your will, you have spoiled all your lifetime in worry and tension by maintaining it. If you never think about God, you will never get the bliss of God.
29. We learnt that You show anger on us only to reform us and uplift us. Can we pray You to always show anger on us?
Swami replied: Human being is the greatest scholar in twisting the concepts. You are getting difficulties because of your bad deeds in the past. When you are getting difficulties, you worship Me continuously. Since you are worshipping Me continuously, I show My grace on you. Therefore, when you get difficulties, you will worship Me and I grace you. Do not twist this in reverse order and blame God for your difficulties! The reverse order of these two statements can be said in poetic way. An example:- If air moves, the mosquito will not move. This can be poetically told as that if mosquito moves, air will not move. Actually, reverse is true. Similarly, when worldly difficulties come, you develop lot of devotion to God and hence, God is pleased with you. This can be told as:- If God is pleased, it means you have difficulties. Similarly, when worldly happiness comes to you, you become proud and commit sins, God will be angry with you. This can be poetically told as:- If God is furious, you will get materialistic happiness.
When you are happy materialistically, you will not be alert and commit sins due to ego and fearlessness. Then, I will become angry on You due to your sins. Do not twist the concept by saying that it is because of My anger that you are happy materialistically. Another angle is that anger of God shows the deep love of God on souls. For example, your child has a disease and you took him to the hospital. You know that he will get cured in 10 days, if you give him tablets and in 2 days, if you give him injection. You ask the doctor to give injection so that your child will be cured quickly although it gives pain to the child. Similarly, God is so anxious to punish you and reform you quickly. The ignorant child thinks that parents are angry on him and giving injection. Similarly, ignorant souls think that God is angry on me and hence, punishing me. But, God is the kindest and has climax love on every soul. The proof for His highest kindness and love is hell, not the heaven. Hell shows that He is so anxious to put you in hell and reform you quickly. Therefore, the punishments given by God to souls show His climax love on human beings. He is so anxious to reform you as early as possible so that you will travel in the right path and reach eternal bliss.
30. Are Ego and Selfishness dependent on each other? Which of them is most dangerous in the spiritual path?
Swami replied: Although God doesn’t like both ego and selfishness, selfishness is most dangerous to the soul than ego. Ego can be controlled but selfishness can never be controlled since it is spontaneous and inherent quality of the soul. Ego can be killed or controlled, when God gives some punishment to the soul like health issues, financial problems, etc. But, selfishness, which is inherent to the soul, cannot be controlled. So, you must divert that selfishness towards God. Loving yourself is selfishness and loving God is devotion (ahaṃkāramu nantamu cesi, mamakāramunu maralcumataniki, Nārāyaṇuḍu naṭanamunāpi, dārini cūpu dariki cercunu – Bhakti Ganga Telugu Bhajan). You worship God very obediently by putting namaskaras, sashtanga pranamams, which means that you have no ego before God. But, the basis of your worship is to get some benefits from God, which is selfishness. Your attraction towards the fruit is selfishness. You must divert your selfishness to God by replacing God in the place of fruit.
31. Kindly tell me about the conversation between Saktuprastha and Lord in human form at the time of his testing?
[Smt. Chhanda asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, May I get many more opportunities to wish my Lord a very happy birthday in Human form like today. You made our lives sacred by showering Your special knowledge even to a very ordinary soul like me. On this very special day, can I request You to kindly tell about the conversation between Saktuprastha and Lord in human form at the time of his testing?]
Swami replied: I have already answered this. When God comes to test you, He always gives a small hint to you that He is God. Saktuprastha and his family were starving for past 10-15 days due to drought in their village. Everyone around was hungry and struggling to find some food grains. Food alone was the need of the hour. Saktuprastha collected some small grains and prepared food. He, his wife, his son and daughter-in-law divided the food into four parts and were about to eat. That is when God entered their house as a guest and asked for food. First hint is that no beggar or guest comes to a drought-hit village. Saktuprastha gave his share of the food to the guest. Then the guest asked for more food and his wife gave her part. This itself was too much to do but the guest asked for some more food. This is second hint because no sensible human being asks for more food from another hungry person. Definitely, He is not a human being. They offered the third share to the guest. Immediately, He asked for some more food. If you analyse, the guest must either be a demon or God Himself. Therefore, the hint is that all tests of God are extremely abnormal. The abnormality itself gives the hint that He is God. If he was an ordinary human being, he wouldn’t have shown such extreme abnormality although some abnormality may exist. Even after eating three parts of the food, He was asking the last fourth part. No human being will do it since his conscience will not allow him to do like that. Definitely, it must be God Datta! They got the hint as a flash in the brain. Unless He is God Datta, He will not ask like this abnormally. So, this was the conversation that took place between Saktuprastha and the guest. Since it was a drought, they were only talking about food and no other topic could be there.
32. Which one to select between the two goods?
[Padanamaskaram Swami, in a situation where I have to select between two goods, how to make the final decision? May I be always at Your divine lotus feet, Chhanda]
Swami replied: When two goods are there, analyse and see which is a better good and do it. If there are three goods, analyse and see, which is the best and do it. If there is only one good, you have to follow that good only!
Swami commented at the end of the Satsanga:-
So, 32 questions are answered, which are equal to the age of Śaṅkara (He lived for 32 years). Śaṅkara said, “Jñānāt eva tu kaivalyam”, which means that spiritual knowledge is the highest path that leads to merge with God. This satsanga is also the direct spiritual knowledge given by God Datta.