Can we pray to past Human Incarnations of God while learning spiritual knowledge from the contemporary Human Incarnation?

[Part of Online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Smt. Padmaram asked: God is only one. So, is it alright to remember or pray to any past Human Incarnation of God while learning spiritual knowledge from the contemporary Human Incarnation of God? This is because, some devotees have some special attraction towards the past Incarnation.

Swāmi replied: You can worship and pray to the images and statues of past Human Incarnations to develop theoretical devotion towards the Human Incarnation. The merit in such worship is that you have basically realized the importance of the concept of Human Incarnation. If you have full faith in the contemporary Human Incarnation, why do you not worship and pray to the contemporary Human Incarnation Himself? You can even clarify all your doubts with the contemporary Human Incarnation present directly before you. Moreover, you will get full satisfaction when you practically worship the contemporary Human Incarnation since He will enjoy your practical sacrifice.

But if you are worried about the loss of precious materials that you offer to Him, then you can worship past Human Incarnations. You will not lose anything when you worship the images or statues of the past Incarnations. You can offer food and other materials to the image or statue and then enjoy it yourself! Thus, the preference for worshipping past Incarnations is only a question of applied economics and applied commerce! Unless one conquers ego, jealousy and greed, developing full faith in the contemporary Human Incarnation is not possible.

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| Shri Datta Swami | Can we pray to past Human Incarnations of God while learning spiritual knowledge from the contemporary Human Incarnation? |

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