23 Jun 2023
[Shri K Gopi Krishna asked:- In the spiritual life or Nivrutti, You told that both Veda and Gita stress on sacrifice of money as a proof for theoretical devotion to God. In the worldly life or Pravrutti also priests say that the sin will be cancelled by doing charity to a deserving person like the priest. Hence, this concept is common in both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. Please comment.]
Swami replied:- Pravrutti is business in which you do worship with charity to avoid the fruit of sin. This is certainly wrong and is not liked by God. But, in any system in the beginning stage defect exists (Sarvārambhā hi doṣeṇa… Gita) and the defect in the early stage is tolerated so that as time proceeds the defect gets rectified. Hence, God is positively responding to the desires through charity. Such impure love on God (love with aspiration in return) does not really require response from God because such love is false love only. Hence, God is also playing a trick here, which shall be understood with a lot of care. I will explain this with an example. You got a disease as punishment of a sin. God is postponing this disease to a later date or to a later birth along with its due interest. You are thinking that due to your worship and charity this punishment is cancelled as per the norms of business. Actually, the business did not succeed in this place and you are unaware of this truth. Of course, you may think that your worship and charity are wasted. No. Your worship and charity are not wasted and the merit fruit for your worship and charity is sanctioned, which you will enjoy in the proper time. This means that the fruit of sin is never cancelled by the fruit of merit deed. You have to enjoy both fruits separately and due to this reason, you are going to hell and heaven separately after death. If your sin is less and merit is more, first you will go to hell and then to heaven. Similarly, if your merit is less and sin is more, you will go to heaven first and then to hell. Based on this rule Dharma Raja found his brothers in hell and Kauravas in heaven as soon as they died. It is said that the fruits of both sin and merit must be enjoyed separately and there is no cancellation of one by the other (Avaśyamanubhoktavyam, kṛtaṃ karma śubhāśubham). This is about Pravrutti.
In Nivrutti, there is no question of business. You are doing the sacrifice without aspiration for any fruit in return. It is just like giving your earned property to your children in which there is no business. You are giving your property to your children without aspiration for any fruit in return since you have true love for your children. Similarly, you are sacrificing to God (in human form) since you have true love to God. Hence, the application of the above concept in Nivrutti is totally a different topic. Here your practical sacrifice is only to prove the true love in your theoretical devotion to God. In Pravrutti your charity was purely based on business as explained above. The practical sacrifice reveals your true love present in your theoretical devotion. The greedy devotee tries to escape this practical sacrifice by denying the human form of God and also by denying any form to God. The same greedy devotees with better intelligence deny only human form of God because the human form will enjoy the sacrifice done by you. These devotees do not want to really sacrifice, but, want to get the fruit of sacrifice and hence, they accept only statues and photos of God so that they can offer anything to God by moving the hands and themselves enjoy it later on.
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