03 Oct 2020
[Divine Satsanga: About 40 devotees participate in a weekly online satsaṅga in Telugu, every Sunday. On September 27, 2020, Swami also participated in it and answered devotees’ questions, some of which are given here for the benefit of all. Smt. Vijaya, Smt. Renuka, Shri Bharat, Shri Satti Reddy, Smt. Lavanya, Smt. Rama, Shri Raja Sekhar, Kum. Trylokya, Mr. Navachaitanya, Shri Ajay, Mr. Prasad, Mr. Kishore Ram, Mr. Nitin, Smt. Usha Rani etc., are some of the devotees who were present in the satsaṅga online, while Shri Phani and Shri Sharma were present with Swami.]
Swami replied: This is very critical concept that can be very easily misunderstood, leading to the wrong conclusion that God desires the money of devotees. God Datta always tests devotees on this aspect of the devotees’ ability to sacrifice the fruit of their work to Him. The fruit of one’s work is one’s hard-earned money. We sacrifice our money only for the sake of those whom we truly love. So, the sacrifice of money or wealth is the practical proof of true love. God Datta never tests our theoretical devotion by asking us to recite say the 8th verse of the 10th chapter of the Gītā! We sacrifice our wealth only for the sake of our children because of our real love for them. We do not just praise them, which is like showing theoretical devotion towards them. Instead, we even scold our children to give a false impression to the public that we do not love them and that we really love God alone! We can fool the public but not the omniscient God. We praise God, calling Him our father and mother, so that He will help us as parents help their children, in spite of the defects in the love of the children towards them. But the omniscient God has named Himself ‘Datta’, which means an adopted Son. It means that He is the adopted Son of the devotees and not their parent. It means that devotees should show real parental love towards Him, in spite of the apparent defect in God’s love, where by He does not give the boons desired by the devotees. So, we find that our plan has just been reversed by Him! On the face of it, this concept can easily be misunderstood. But if we analyze deeply and see the truth hidden beneath the external appearances, we find that by reversing our plan, God is demanding the real proof of the reality of our devotion (love) for Him.
Since the sacrifice of one’s wealth to God is the proof of true devotion, we find that rich people could not get salvation in the past. Instead, only very poor people got salvation. A poor lady, finding nothing in her house, gave a small fruit to Śaṅkara because that was the only eatable that she could somehow find in her house. Pleased with her sacrifice, Śaṅkara granted her salvation after death and also granted a rain of golden fruits on her house at once. Her sacrifice was a 100 percent sacrifice of the fruit of her work. If you take the case of Sudāma, it was a 200 percent sacrifice of the fruit of his work because finding nothing in his house, he borrowed some parched rice to present it to God Kṛṣṇa! Sudāma got unimaginable wealth from God and salvation after death. Therefore, this concept should not be misunderstood. God does not need even a bit of our money. He is only testing the truth of our devotion through our ability to sacrifice our money.
One more point is that along with sacrificing our wealth to God, we must also show theoretical devotion to Him. God is not a beggar who is in need of our donation. In fact, He is the real giver of the wealth possessed by us. When you donate to a beggar, showing theoretical love towards the beggar is not necessary. But it is necessary in the case of God. A grandfather purchased a packet of biscuits and gave it to his daughter-in-law, asking her to keep the matter secret. The daughter-in-law gave some biscuits to her son and the son thought that his mother had purchased the biscuits for him. Then the grandfather begged his grandson to give him a small piece of the biscuit he was eating. The grandfather asked for the biscuit only to test the boy’s love for his grandfather. The grandson is expected to give a full biscuit and not just one bit. Moreover, the boy is also expected to show his affection, respect and humility (theoretical devotion) towards the grandfather, while giving him the biscuit. He should not show pride while donating the biscuit to the grandfather because the grandfather is not a beggar in need of charity. A rich man is always greedy and hence, it is said that a camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man can never reach God!
Keywords:
| Shri Datta Swami | Can You please enlighten us about sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work? | Krishna Giita Gita Sudaama Sudama Shankara Satsanga
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