10 Jun 2007
[This morning, Swami composed this song spontaneously in Sanskrit and was singing it. He also explained the meaning of the song.]
Naasadhyamasti kimapi te Datta
Nacha karanamapi karunayaste Datta.
Oh Lord Datta! Nothing is impossible for Your infinite power
And there is no reason for the kindness that You show form me.
Papi shailamuddhartum shaktiraparacha
Ayogyashikharaa yapya karana karunacha
Mahyam dwyamida mavasara bhavyam bhavatihi.
Infinite power is needed to uplift me, the mountain of sins
And reasonless kindness to protect me, the most undeserving
I, in need of these two infinite divine qualities, praise You
In this creation people are running after money thinking that it can solve all problems. But if some incurable disease attacks a person, no amount of money can solve the problem. Therefore, Artha (money) is not a power that is applicable in every place. The next one is kama (sex), which only destroys the person both physically and mentally, and no problem can be solved by it because it is the source of several problems. The fruit of kama is issues [offspring], who are responsible for the extension of the family bonds. The third is dharma (justice) or doing good social work. The fruit of dharma is temporary heaven and one has to return back to the earth (Kshine punye…—Gita).
Hence all these three are not complete and permanent powers. The fourth is moksha[1] (related to God) and the power of God is infinite and permanent. Our forefathers have realized this and would spend most of their energy and time only in worshipping God. Today, we treat them as old outdated people without materialistic (laukika) intelligence while we are only running after dharma, artha, and kama. We are trying to save the life of the tree by pouring water to the branches, leaves and flowers of the tree. Our ancestors were pouring the water at the root of the tree. Any problem in the world and any problem in the upper world have a permanent solution only in God. Therefore, we do not even have materialistic intelligence and our intelligence regarding the problems of the upper world is a big zero. Therefore, you should understand that our forefathers were the real intellectuals, who could solve all the problems not only in this world but also in the upper worlds by catching God, who is the root of the tree. All the worlds in this creation are only the branches of this big tree of creation. The Lord advises us to understand and follow the path of our forefathers, which is the good tradition (Purvataram kritam—Gita).
Importance and Limitations of Each Step
Singing songs which involves words and the emotional mind is devotion (bhakti). It is the result of spiritual knowledge (Jnana), which is spiritual discussion which involves words and the analytical intelligence. Awareness has two faculties. The lower faculty is mind (manomaya kosha) and the higher faculty is intelligence (vijnanamaya kosha). The awareness is represented by the word mind itself (manas). A word[2] is a mixture of sound representing inert energy and awareness, which is nervous energy. The inert energy involving action (karma) is the final phase. Thus these three namely, word, mind, and action (vak, manas, and karma) are the instrumental faculties (trikaranas). Jnana is the first step, like the stage of school and was preached by Shankara. Bhakti is the second step like the stage of college and was preached by Ramanuja. Karma or seva is the third step like the stage of university and was preached by Madhva. It is directly related to the fruit. Only work or karma can yield the fruit and not words, or mind. Jnana and bhakti involve words and mind. This means Jnana and bhakti cannot yield the fruit directly, but are instrumental or indirectly responsible for the fruit because they lead to karma or work. In both jnana and bhakti, the mind is involved. Mind or awareness as a lower faculty gives emotion or bhakti or love. The same awareness as a higher faculty gives knowledge or jnana, which generates the love. There are several children on the road. First you have to identify your child and this identification of your child is jnana. Then love for your child is generated, which is bhakti. Subsequently, you will serve your child and this is karma or seva. Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva came one after the other in that order because jnana, bhakti and seva are the three subsequent steps.
Rukmini heard the description and details of Krishna from Sage Narada and these details constitute the first step of knowledge. From this the second step is generated, which is the love for Krishna. Due to this love she could attain Krishna. After attaining Krishna, she served Krishna by pressing His divine feet. Therefore, her love led to the subsequent service and not to the enjoyment of any fruit such as becoming the queen of the kingdom of Dwarka. The Lord by Himself made her the queen and it was not her intention at all. She was the incarnation of Goddess Mahalakshmi, who also did the same service to the Lord after her marriage to the Lord and she was made the deity of the entire wealth of this creation. But she remained in the continuous service of the Lord because that was not her intention. Hence, when God is attained, your intention should be to serve the Lord without the aspiration of any fruit in return for your love for Him. Service to Lord itself is the highest divine fruit.
Service is like the plant that yields the divine fruit. Devotion is like the fertilizer and knowledge is like water. The fertilizer and water are essential for the generation of the fruit, but they cannot yield the fruit directly without the plant. Therefore, you must understand the importance as well as the limitation of knowledge and devotion. Both these together constitute theoretical devotion. Service is practical devotion, which alone can yield the fruit. But the plant cannot generate the fruit without fertilizer and water. Hence, you must understand the importance and limitation of service also. In every step you must understand both the importance and limitation of the step. You should not say that any one step without the other two steps could yield the fruit. Service cannot be generated at all without love and knowledge. Unless you identify your child and unless you love your child, the service to your child is not seen at all. Therefore, all the three steps are important and have their own limitations. No step can alone yield the fruit. The three divine preachers stand together and have given the single composite spiritual effort, which constitutes the three subsequent steps.
Service is like the plate of meals and theoretical devotion is like drinking water. Even in a restaurant drinking water is given free of charge. Hence, you should not ask for any fruit from God for the theoretical devotion that you do for Him. If you ask for any fruit for theoretical devotion it is like charging for drinking water, which even a commercial restaurant does not do. This does not mean that the water has no value and the plate of meals, which alone is charged, has the entire value. While taking your meals, suppose your throat is blocked and you require drinking water immediately. Then you will understand the value of water. At that time you cannot tell the the person who is eating, to eat some more sweet dish instead of drinking valueless water. Therefore, you should not criticize any step as valueless and claim that any single step can yield the fruit alone. Some people say that devotion alone can give the fruit. If that were true, the Sundarakhanda in the Ramayana, which describes the sincere service done by Hanuman for the Lord Rama, should have simply been a collection of various songs sung by Hanuman for Rama. In the Ramayana, there is no mention of Hanuman singing any song in praise of Rama. However, this does not mean that Hanuman did not sing any song in praise of Rama. When you say that somebody has given you meals it means that it automatically includes drinking water also. The drinking water need not be mentioned separately. Simply giving drinking water without meals is horrible and is not worth mentioning at all.
Knowledge: The Decisive First Step
The first step (Jnana) is very important because the correct information about yourself, the path to please God and the actual present address of God (contemporary human incarnation) is completely obtained in this step. If the information is correct, you are sure to reach the goal one day or the other even if the implementation is delayed. But if the information is wrong, all your concentration and hectic activity are wasted since you are only reaching the wrong goal quickly.
Datta means the unimaginable God given to you through a convenient medium that suits you. If you are a human being on this earth, the human incarnation is the best for you. If you are a soul that has departed the earth and who now exists in an energetic body in the upper world, energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc are Datta through which God is given to you. The human being on this earth worshipping energetic forms of God, which belong to the upper world, is equal to a dead human being because such forms are only meant for departed souls. Arjuna could not recognize Krishna as God who was present before his eyes and did a lot of penance for Lord Shiva, who is an energetic form charged by God.
Shiva is an individual soul, which exists in an energetic form, which is qualified predominatly with Tamas[3] and which is charged by Brahman (God). Vishnu is an individual soul, which exists in an energetic form, which is qualified with predominantly Sattvam[4] and which is charged by Brahman (God). Similarly Lord Brahma is an individual soul, which exists in an energetic form and in whom the soul is qualified with predominantly Rajas[5] and which is charged by Brahman (God). In no way are these energetic forms different from the human incarnation except in one point that the external gross body of the human incarnation is made of five elements where as the external gross body of the energetic forms is made of only one element called as Agni or energy. The human beings are fascinated by the external energetic form just like an ignorant villager wearing cotton clothes is fascinated by a citizen from the city wearing silk clothes. The same God exists in Shiva and Krishna. The angels, who are the souls of the upper world, are in a pitiable condition since they do not care for the energetic forms of God due to the repulsion between common external media. They also do not care for the human incarnations on the earth due to their negligence towards the external human bodies. Thus they lose God on both sides. Indra is such a soul in the upper world and he neglected Krishna on earth. Indra neglected Shiva too and was going to attack Shiva with his weapon on one occasion and Shiva punished him. At least human beings are fortunate because even though they neglect the human incarnation on the earth due to their repulsion between the common external media, at least they respect the energetic forms of the upper world due to their fascination for energetic bodies. Arjuna could get a vision of Shiva by penance but he was born as a hunter in the next birth for neglecting the contemporary human incarnation. Some recognize the concept of human incarnation but worship only a particular past human incarnation due to ego and jealousy against the contemporary human form of God. Such rigid people also do not recognize any other past human incarnation due to their ignorance about the common God existing in all human incarnations. The devotee of Krishna says that Krishna alone is God because Krishna said that one should surrender to Him alone (Maamekam sharanam—Gita). But Jesus said that one can reach God only through Him and hence the Christian is particular about worshipping Jesus alone. Now both quarrel with each other and sometimes this results in violence and the disturbance of world peace. Bin Laden killed Christians and Hindus in America and the root concept is this religious fanaticism alone. Here, you should take that both Krishna and Jesus were referring to the contemporary human incarnations alone and not to the individual souls, which are charged by God. Remember, Krishna and Jesus were giving these statements to the people who were before their eyes in their times and not to the present generation. If you realize this single point the confusion is removed.
Important Terms
Jnana means knowledge related to God and not the knowledge related to the creation like mathematics, physics etc. Similarly, Bhakti means love for God and not love for the world. Similarly, karma (seva) means service to God and not service to your family or society. The word karma in the entire Gita strictly means the work related to God. But people have written commentaries on the Gita interpreting the word karma to worldly works also. The Gita clearly says that one should be attached only to the work of God (Matkarmaparamobhava). The word samnyasa means both complete attachment as well as complete detachment. In the first sense God is taken and in the second sense the world is taken. The word karmaphala tyaga means the sacrifice of the fruit of worldly work alone because there is no point of any fruit in the case of God’s work. Karma samnyasa means the dedication of the work to God or the detachment of work from the world. The meanings should be fixed according to the proper context and if you reverse the meanings the reverse concepts result.
[1] Salvation
[2] A word that is uttered
[3] Dark quality
[4] Quality of purity
[5] Quality of activity or passion
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