13 Nov 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God
(His Holiness Shri Datta Swami Birthday Satsanga held at Hyderabad by devotees, who came from across India and also attended by other devotees online.)
Shri Phani spoke:- Today is the 77th Birthday of our beloved Sadguru, His Holiness Shri Datta Swami. Swami came down as a human Incarnation to preach His excellent spiritual knowledge. It was nowhere in the past in any yuga. For the first time, Swami alone revealed such true and complete spiritual knowledge. Even if one goes to Kruta Yuga or Tretaa Yuga or Dvaapara Yuga, one cannot find this. Swami has explained the complete spiritual knowledge very clearly. He is alive and available right now. Therefore, we got this opportunity to directly interact with Him and ask any questions so that He will clarify all our doubts. It is the most greatest opportunity we have right now to live in His contemporary times. He gave birth to us in His time and made us alive in His time. We are very thankful for Him to give the opportunity to talk with Him, live with Him and get knowledge from Him. If anybody has any questions, you can question Swami and He will answer. People, who are watching this live, can unmute themselves and ask their questions. Swami will answer for those also.
1. Can you elaborate about the contemporary human incarnation of God?
[Shri Phani asked:- Swami, I have a question. You came down as a Human Incarnation and given excellent spiritual knowledge. In the past, no one has given such a kind of knowledge and with such clarity in the knowledge. Can You elaborate Your coming down to this Earth and giving the excellent spiritual knowledge in the contemporary times?]
Swami replied:- You have to decide the contemporary human incarnation through the merits of His expressed spiritual knowledge. That is the identification for the contemporary human incarnation. One simply declaring himself as incarnation cannot be the incarnation of God. After hearing the knowledge, you must feel that it is an excellent knowledge. You must analyze and conclude that the speaker or propagator of this knowledge must be the contemporary human incarnation of God. Based on the quality of the spiritual knowledge, you yourself must decide. It should not be based on My declaration. In such a case, everybody will declare himself/herself as the contemporary human incarnation of God.
Therefore, you must analyze My knowledge and find out its merits and then, decide whether this knowledge is given by a human being or a human incarnation of God. After preaching the 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, in the last verse, God Krishna says to Arjuna, “Don't believe blindly that whatever I said is correct. You listen, analyze and then decide” (Vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa yathecchasi tathā kuru). Even though God Krishna has shown Vishvaruupa to Arjuna, Krishna didn’t say, “Since I have shown Vishvaruupa, I am God. Therefore, believe whatever I said is correct”. He did not say like that. God Krishna told to listen, analyze and then decide because showing Vishvaruupa or the cosmic vision is a miracle and miracles are shown even by demons also. Many demons such as Ravana, Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyaaksha, etc., have shown tremendous miracles. Therefore, we cannot believe that Hiranyakashipu or Ravana is God. Even though they have shown miracles, none of them preached the true spiritual knowledge. Hence, sages did not accept these demons as the human incarnations of God. Therefore, you must base on your analysis of the spiritual knowledge given by Me. Based on that, you must conclude whether this knowledge is spoken by a human being or by a human incarnation of God.
2. When Goddess Shakti merges with a soul, will the soul become completely non-existent?
[Shri Prahlad asked:- Thank You so much Shri Datta Swami for giving us the opportunity to be in Your presence. I just found out about You a couple of weeks ago and I've been reading a lot on Your website. Actually, I had a lot of questions. A lot of questions get answered by reading but one of the questions that just popped up was about what You wrote about the duality between the soul and God, that there will be always a duality between the soul and God, God is the soul, God is actually all the souls but the soul can never be God and that You describe something in the sense of a very high state that a soul can reach which You described as supreme duality. I'm a little bit, yeah scattered in the sense of understanding this because some traditions, for example the Shaktas, describe the merging with Shakti, where the soul completely merges with Shakti and then, becomes one with God. My question is - what happens with the soul when it merges with the Divine? For example, specifically if we speak about the Shakti part, where this being completely merges with Shakti and the ‘I’ sense is completely dissolved, what is left and what happens with the soul? Is the soul then completely dissolved in God and is it non-existent? That's my question. I hope my question is clear.]
Swami replied:- First, let us take the merge of the Unimaginable God with the energetic being called Datta. An energetic form contains energetic soul and body, which are made of energy. Everything is energy only. The medium is completely energy and no matter. Anyhow, the soul is made of nervous energy only. When the Unimaginable God merges with this energetic body and energetic soul, it is the merge of one Unimaginable item with another imaginable item. The energetic body and energetic soul of God Datta is imaginable and the merging God is Unimaginable. Now, in this world, you find the merging of two imaginable items only. Suppose you add sugar to water, sugar dissolves and merges with the water. Both water and sugar are imaginable items.
Science can explain the entire process of dissolution. Here, the two items are imaginable and hence, the process of merge of two imaginable items is imaginable. But in the case of God Datta, one is unimaginable item and another is imaginable item. You don't have any example in the world to understand this actual process, where one Unimaginable item merges with another imaginable item. Therefore, the process of merge is also completely unimaginable. When two imaginable items, X and Y, merge with each other, the result may be a mixture or a compound. Mixture has the average properties of the two mixing items and the compound has new properties other than the properties of the merging items. Here, when the unimaginable God merges with the imaginable energetic form, the point here is that the unimaginable God is absolute reality and the merged energetic form is relative reality.
This entire world is relative reality and so, all the items in it are also relatively real. When X merges with Y, both are imaginable items and both have relative reality. But here, since the absolute reality is merging with a relative reality-item, the process of merge of unimaginable God with imaginable energetic form is unimaginable. We can simply say that the unimaginable God merged with the imaginable energetic form and the result is God Datta. Why is the first energetic form called as God Datta? Because when the unimaginable God merges with the imaginable item, it becomes imaginable as well as unimaginable. It is imaginable because we are seeing it with our eyes. It is unimaginable because it performs the unimaginable events called miracles. So, it has dual nature of relative reality and absolute reality.
The imaginable nature is with the energetic medium and the unimaginable nature is with the inner merged unimaginable God. Due to the dual nature of electron, the electron behaves like both wave and particle. Similarly, you see the unimaginable properties of God to recognize it as God and you also see the imaginable form with your eyes and therefore, the human nature of the human being component also exists. However, the unimaginable miracles are certainly the identification mark of the unimaginable God because miracles are unimaginable events and their source is the unimaginable God.
Therefore, you can infer that the unimaginable God is present in God Datta. Even then, just by mere miracles, you cannot identify God because God is said to be the embodiment of true spiritual knowledge (Satyaṃ Jñānam Anantaṃ Brahma - Veda). He preaches excellent true spiritual knowledge and that is His main identification mark because that knowledge directs the devotee to reach God but miracles cannot help the devotee in any way. It only helps to recognize that the unimaginable God is present in this contemporary human form.
Only existence of God is recognized through miracles (Astītyevopalabdhavyaḥ… Veda). The difference between a demon and the human incarnation is that the human incarnation never tries to exhibit miracles unless there is a necessity or urgency. Demons are not like that. They purposefully exhibit their miraculous powers because they want to get fame in this world. It is only their ego to project themselves. Therefore, the miraculous power of human incarnation is completely different from the miraculous power of demons. Also, the demons never have love towards their devotees. In fact, most demons eat human beings. In this way, there is a lot of difference and you can easily filter out the demons. If not miraculous powers, what are the identification marks to identify human incarnation? The excellent spiritual knowledge and the embodiment of love (Raso vai saḥ). He is the embodiment of spiritual knowledge and He is the epitome of love in protecting His real devotees. He will take the punishment of their sins onto Him and suffer for the sake of real devotees to relieve them from difficulties.
This way, both true spiritual knowledge and true love are important characteristics of human incarnation. Miracles also are present in the human incarnation but they are used only to help the devotees in a positive way and not to exhibit for fame. Moreover, miracles are very dangerous also because when miracles are exhibited, devotees want to use those miraculous powers to solve their worldly problems and they become more selfish. If you want to reach God, selfishness must be completely eradicated. So, if you get the advantage of miracles, you will become more and more selfish to solve your worldly problems and you move away from God eventually. That is why, miracles should not be stressed very much except for the case of an atheist, who doesn't believe in the existence of God. For the sake of atheists only, miracles are exhibited by the human incarnation. So, the answer for this question, “What happens to the soul?” is that nothing happens to the soul. The soul remains a soul and this God, who merged with the soul of the incarnation is still invisible and unimaginable. Therefore, the God present in the human incarnation is unimaginable. You can recognize the existence of the unimaginable God in the incarnation through His unimaginable events called miracles, through His unimaginable knowledge and through His unimaginable love towards devotees.
3. How should I overcome negative thoughts and progress in the spiritual journey?
[Smt. Anitha R asked:- My first question is that both Paapabhiiti (fear of sin) and Daivabhiiti (fear of God) are important for leading a disciplined life. Sometimes, negative thoughts arise and sometimes fear also appears. When I fall sick, same thing goes on. Is this fear the basis for negative thoughts? How should I overcome it and progress in the spiritual journey?]
Swami replied:- Whenever you get negative thoughts, don't entertain them. When the negative thoughts come, don't think that you are responsible for getting those negative thoughts. The negative thoughts are coming by themselves. If you don't entertain them and don't give importance to them, they go away, just like the air comes into the house and goes away. If you give importance and start worrying about the negative thoughts, then, such thoughts will come again and again. If some guest comes to your house and if you give importance to the guest, he will come again and again. If the guest comes to the house and if you don't bother about him, that guest will never come again. If you don’t show any concern, the guest will leave and never visit you again. When a negative thought comes to your mind, you start feeling that you are responsible for that negative thought and you are the possessor of that negative thought. Finally, you feel that you are the owner of that negative thought, which is very wrong. When you feel that you are different and the negative thought is different, you will have no connection with it.
Suppose an unwanted guest came to your home, let him sit for some time and go away. You don't bother about him, don't give him coffee or even water, don’t ask him “How are you?” and just be silent, the guest will go away by himself. Suppose somebody, who is walking on the road has come and sat on the veranda of your house. Perhaps, his legs were paining and so, he was sitting for some time. Let him sit and let him go. You don’t talk with him, don't own him and he is not related to you anyway. When you neglect the negative thought, it will stop coming to you. If you are bothered and if you take care about those negative thoughts thinking that they belong to you, you are developing relationship with the negative thought. When you develop such a relationship, the negative thought will bother you and you become the owner of the negative thought. Finally, you will also get the sin of that negative thought because you yourself developed a relationship with that thought. Therefore, don't develop any relationship with negative thoughts. The negative thought has come from the world. So, let it stay for some time if it wants and let it go. You don't bother about it (Guṇā guṇeṣu vartante… Gita). First, think that the qualities do not belong to you and they are some qualities of the world. They have come, just like ghosts and they will be moving away.
Sometimes, ghosts take rest in your house and that place within the house is called as ‘pishaaca bhaaga’. If your house is facing towards the East, you must leave some space in the West side called as ‘pishaaca bhaga’. If your house is facing towards the North or South, you must leave some space towards the South. South and West are called as ‘pishaaca bhaagas’ and you should not close the pishaaca bhagas. If you leave some space there, ghosts will come, sit there for some time, take rest and then they go away. If you close the west side and south side, the pishaacas will enter the house and the people inside will lose their peace of mind. That is why, in astrology (Vaastu Shastra), it is mentioned that west side and south side are pishaaca bhaagas and it should not have roof. Some vacant place must be leftover so that these ghosts can come, sit for some time in that open place and then, go away. They will not enter the house. If you close the west side or the south side completely, they will enter the house. Similarly, if you feel that there are some negative thoughts (like ghosts) entering your mind (like your house), you neglect them (like leaving vacant space called pishaaca bhaaga). It means that you are not concerned with those negative thoughts, you have no connection and no relationship with those ghosts. Let them come, sit for some time and go away. If you simply neglect them, they will not come again.
4. Why am I not able to remember some dreams in which You came and spoke?
[You appeared in my dreams, preaching several times. Immediately after filling the brain, it gets closed like a box but I don't remember a word from them. Whenever I try to recollect, why am I not able to remember? Please enlighten me regarding these divine dreams? At your Lotus feet.]
Swami replied:- If I come in the dream, I will protect the memory so that you will remember what I have spoken in the dream. If you are not remembering My words after awakening, it means that I have not come in your dream and you have created Me in your dream. Your vaasanas and samskaaras also create dreams. Dreams serve two purposes:- i) It can act as a medium for God. If God wants to give some instruction or message to you, He uses the dream as the medium. ii) Your samskaras (strong thoughts from your previous births) and events from past births that are present in your sub-consciousness materialize as dreams and you need not worry about them. When God comes in your dream and gives some message, God will certainly protect your memory so that after awakening from the dream, you will definitely remember what He has spoken.
If you are not remembering, it means that God did not come into your dream and it is only your samskaaras (previous birth thoughts), which have created some forms that speak and you don't remember what was spoken because you have the grace of God on you. If you have no grace of God, you will remember those words and break your head unable to make meaning out of it. So, do not care if you are not remembering anything. When God enters your dream, He will protect your memory and He will ensure that the message given by Him is remembered by you so that you can follow the message practically. You may practice or not—that is not the responsibility of God. He gives the message and protects the memory.
5. You tell us to maintain single-pointed devotion to God and also tell us to love other devotees. How do we correlate both?
[Shri Bharath Krishna asked:- Swami, You taught us that the goal of spiritual life is to attain one-pointed devotion and aspirationless devotion towards the contemporary human incarnation of God. You also told that while serving human incarnation of God, the devotees should love each other and serve as a family. So, how to correlate these two things Swami?]
Swami replied:- When I say that devotees should love each other, it means that you all should not quarrel with each other. The one-pointed devotion applies to God and there's no doubt in it. It does not mean that you should develop devotion towards devotees. It only means that you all should develop devotion to God and at the same time, you should not quarrel with each other and should not be jealous towards each other. The ego and jealousy are very common qualities of each human being. They are hidden qualities, which exist without your consciousness. When they wake up, you start becoming jealous and this jealousy is always based on your ego. You have some personality and about that personality, you have some ego. When you find somebody is having some good quality, which is not in you, then you become jealous of that person. This quality based jealousy is always based ultimately on ego. If ego is lost, there can be no jealousy. I gave a very good technique to eradicate this ego-based jealousy towards other devotees and other human beings.
When you become jealous of someone, who has some good quality that you don't have, you remember the fact that all merits and all good qualities of all souls belong to God only. Only the defects belong to the soul inherently. So, that person is possessing some good quality, which is attained by him from God. It is not his own property and all his defects are his own property. Suppose you have all the defects and that person also has some defects. Both these defects are your own properties respectively. If a merit is there in that person, it does not belong to him. He is enjoying the merit blessed by God, just like we live in a rented house and enjoy another’s property. When a defect is there, that is the own house of the soul. If a merit is there, that is the rented house given by God to the soul. One day, when the soul quits the rented-house, he/she will fall down again. Therefore, you should remember that all the merits and good qualities of all souls belong to God only. You will not become jealous of God because you cannot see the unimaginable God. Only if you see somebody, you get jealousy. If he is not seen by you, you cannot get any jealousy. Regarding the contemporary human incarnation, this problem is certainly greater than it is towards co-human beings or co-devotees because if you find a co-devotee having a better quality than you, you are becoming jealous, but with the human incarnation, that specific quality is not better but it is in the climax of best and so, the jealousy will be definitely the highest. Seeing the better level itself, you are becoming jealous. Seeing the climax of best level, you get the highest possible jealousy. This is how, you are missing the contemporary human incarnation. Now, we are praising Krishna, Rama etc., as God. But, the human beings present in their times were like you only, as you are to Me now. They were also hating Rama and Krishna and were not accepting them as God.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks God Krishna, “You say that You have preached this knowledge to the Sun god in the beginning of the creation (Aparaṃ bhavato janma…). But, You are recently born. How can You be God?”. This kind of doubting Thomas is always present in every generation and everybody is a doubting Thomas as far as the contemporary human incarnation is concerned. That is why, the contemporary human incarnation never expresses His miraculous powers. Even if He does miracles, He does without the knowledge of the people in a hidden way because if it is known by everybody, then lot of jealousy will come on the incarnation. Jesus did several miracles and those priests got Him crucified. Isn’t it? The priests did not do any miracle but Jesus did several miracles. So, they became jealous of Jesus and got Him crucified. Therefore, Prophet Muhammad, who is the next human incarnation after Jesus, has eradicated the concept of human incarnation. He knew that His fate also will be like that. So, He eradicated that concept completely. He confined His preachings to only Allah, the unimaginable God, who cannot be seen or even thought of. At the maximum, Allah may appear as light with some boundary and that's all! Mohammad could not reveal the concept of human incarnation although He Himself was a human incarnation of God. Therefore, ego-based jealousy is the highest danger in the spiritual path.
To answer your question, the one-pointed devotion should be towards God only (Eka bhaktir viśiṣyate…- Gītā). If you find a climax devotee of God, you respect him/her and try to become like that climax devotee. You take him/her as an example for your spiritual progress, but don't criticize and try to pull him/her down due to jealousy. You can take even the past devotees like Prahlaada, Kannappa (the hunter), etc., as examples for your spiritual progress. Finally, devotion should only be towards God and not towards the devotees!
6. If I observe some good quality in a person, should I appreciate him or not?
[Shri Diwakara Rao:- If I see any person with good qualities, if I think those qualities are from God's qualities, then can I appreciate that person? Do I need to appreciate that person or just keep quiet by thinking that those qualities are from God itself?]
Swami replied:- You can do both. If you are not feeling jealous about that good person, you can praise him/her. You can appreciate the person. When you become jealous, then you should think that the merits belong to God and not to that fellow so that your jealousy will be dissolved. Only to remove your jealousy, this method is suggested. If you don't become jealous about him, then appreciate him. It means that you are appreciating the merit i.e., the good quality in him and not the person. Jesus told to hate the sin but not the sinner. Appreciating is one way if you are not getting jealous. But unfortunately, if you are getting jealous, then you think, “These merits do not belong to this fellow. They belong to God. God has given to him. One day, God will take those qualities back and this fellow will become like me again”. At least, some jealousy will be reduced if you think like this and you will be able to keep silent without scolding him.
7. When Kaikeyi sent Rama to the forest, was it a sin done by her or did she act like that?
[Shri Durgaprasad asked:- In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi was instrumental in the death of King Dasaratha as well as instrumental in sending Rama to exile and further in His mission. Can we say that Kaikeyi indirectly participated in the mission of Lord Rama or was it a sin on her part?]
Swami replied:- Both dimensions are possible. Of course, in the case of God Rama, she was a member of the mission. Even though she acted like a villain, she will be rewarded for playing the role. Even in the cinema, the person acting in the role of a villain will also be paid by the producer. The director will not say, “Since you are a villain, there is no payment to you!”. God creates even the roles of villains in His mission when He incarnates on earth. Unless she acted in her villain role, Rama would not have gone to the forest, Sita would not have been stolen by Ravana and Rama would not have killed Ravana. So, for this type of mission, that type of incident must also exist. As per her role, Kaikeyi is a sinner and as an actor, she is not a sinner but a devoted soul in God’s mission. For example, you take Shishupaala, who scolded God Krishna continuously with more than 100 scoldings. In this case, Shishupaala was the gatekeeper of God Vishnu and God Vishnu is God Krishna. As an actor, Shishupaala is a devotee of God. But, as per the role, he is the enemy of God and a sinner. Actually, Shishupaala was cursed by Sage Sanaka Sanandana and took the choice of reaching God again within three births through enmity. Therefore, sinners are of two types. First type are the sinners as per their role only and not as actors. They are actually devoted souls in the mission of God. The second type are the sinners as per their role and as actors also.
Shishupaala belongs to the first type and Kamsa belongs to the second type. Although God Krishna killed both Shishupaala and Kamsa, Shishupaala merged in God Krishna as light proving that he is sinner as per his role only but Kamsa went to hell since he is a demon. Kamsa is an incarnation of a demon. Kamsa is a sinner as the actor and also as per the role. In both ways, he is the sinner and the enemy of God Krishna. Shishupaala is not a real sinner as actor but he is a sinner as per the role. Both Kamsa and Shishupaala existed in the same time of the incarnation of God Krishna. Therefore, both types of sinners are possible. If there is some backside story for a sinner like Shishupaala, who is just a member of God's mission, he is not a real sinner. In this example of the Ramayana, Kaikeyi is the sinner as per her role only and not as the actor.
8. Can the bond with the life partner be more than the bond with the child?
[Shri Sathireddy asked:- Mee Paadapadmaalaku Namaskaram Swami. In the Mahabharata, it is told that Ganga Maata is the wife of Shantanu Maharaj. My question is related to them, Swami. Generally, the bond with the child is higher than the bond with wife. Shantanu Maharaj didn't care even though Ganga Maata threw her seven children in the river. Here, why was the fascination towards her body so much for Shantanu Maharaj even though she was throwing her children in the river?]
Swami replied:- Shantanu Maharaj is a soul and souls do several types of actions in several ways, according to their samskaaras. Shantanu Maharaj was fascinated to her wife Ganga, until their seventh child. Shantanu overcomes his fascination and stops Ganga from drowning their eighth child, who later on was known as Bhishma. Later on, he leaves her but not the child. In this world, you find souls, who are more fascinated to their wives than to their issues. You also find souls like Shantanu, who get reformed after some time and leaves his wife for his issue. In this world, many souls are present with many different qualities and psychologies. So, how am I responsible for the behavior of Shantanu Maharaj? Every soul behaves according to its qualities as per the ratio of Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas in the soul. Somebody behaves in one way and somebody behaves in another way. That’s how the world is and nobody can be responsible for anybody else. He himself is responsible for himself. How can you put a question to Me regarding the behavior of somebody else? You are also a human being, having your own ratio of three qualities.
If somebody puts a question to Me about your behavior, how am I responsible? I am responsible for My behavior only. You must put this question to Shantanu Maharaj. But unfortunately, he is not there and I'm caught by you! You feel that I'm related to Shantanu Maharaj! He is just a soul and not God. Shantanu Maharaj was a soul, who behaved as per his own ratio of qualities. Several millions of types of ratios are found in the creation. You don't find any two people having exactly the same character. Just like fingerprints are unique, the ratio of the three qualities is also unique for each soul. No two souls will have the same fingerprint and no two souls will have the same qualities.
9. Why is interest added to the sins done by souls?
[Shri Bharath Krishna asked:- Swami, You explained the concept of the sinful action and the result of it as a punishment. You also told that when the punishment is given, it comes with interest. Swami, I'm curious to know why is this interest added?]
Swami replied:- Interest is added to the punishment because the devotee asked God to cancel that punishment first! When he has done this sin, he must undergo the punishment according to justice. But, he is praying to God and doing all worships to cancel that punishment and get the fruit of good deed, which he has not done. Whenever you pray to God, you do the puja or worship with two aims thinking:- i) “My present difficulties should disappear and some unexpected good fruit should come even though I have not done that meritorious deed” and ii) “Even though I have done the sin, that punishment should not come to me”. If God says “No, you must undergo the punishment for your sins and I cannot give you any good fruit if you don’t do any meritorious deed”, nobody will come to God. You will not find even a single human being in any temple or church or mosque. If this is the policy of God, people will never approach God since they will not be benefited from God. People will question that if everything is going to happen according to my actions and the corresponding fruits of my deeds, then what is the necessity for God? Why should I worship God? If I do a meritorious deed, I get good fruit. If I do sin, I will get bad fruit. What is the use of God for me? Unnecessary. This is the philosophy of atheists. God has created all the souls and God is the Divine Father of all souls (Ahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā - Gita). After all a biological father, who is just father in this birth will try to help his son in all possible ways even breaking the rules of justice blindly.
The love of God towards souls is a million times more than the love of a father towards his children. God is the Divine Father, who doesn’t break the justice but at the same time, helps His children in their best welfare. God balances both love and justice in the creation. When you pray to God to remove difficulties, He appears as if He has removed your difficulty, but it is actually postponed to a latter time in this birth or to a future birth with accumulated interest. He will bring a future good fruit to the present like the withdrawal of a premature fixed deposit, which is of low value. You think that you have exploited God through your worship. You think that you have escaped from your bad fruit of sin and received a good fruit without doing any meritorious deed. You are wrong. God arranges good fruits and bad fruits alternatively for maximum entertainment of the soul. If continuous good fruits are given, the soul gets bored with continuous happiness. If continuous bad fruits are given, the soul gets depressed and dejected. If you eat ten sweets continuously, you get bored. If you eat ten chilies continuously, your tongue will burn. You have to eat both sweets and chilies alternatively for full entertainment. Even summers and winters come alternatively. Even if you do ten good deeds continuously and ten bad deeds continuously, God doesn’t give all good fruits and all bad fruits continuously. He arranges them alternatively for your best entertainment.
When you worship God to remove a difficulty, God rearranges your cycle of deeds by postponing your bad fruits to the future with accumulated interest and preponing your future good fruits to the present with reduced value. He appears as if He has given a boon to you, even though you have not done a good deed. Then, you proudly think, “I am an expert in exploitation. I washed the brain of God! I am an expert in soap technology and oil technology. I fooled the ultimate God”. In reality, Who fooled whom? God fooled you. But, God did not fool you in the first instance. You tried to fool Him and so, He fooled you. Otherwise, He never fools anybody. Therefore, all these things are very important for us because this is what we are doing in our daily life. It is very important that we don’t aspire anything from God but still worship Him sincerely.
Some people wrongly claim that it is not possible to worship God or love God without aspiring any benefit from Him. They also say, “Why should I worship somebody when there is no benefit? Moreover, God is telling that a devotee should love Him practically by sacrificing all the hard-earned wealth as Karma Phala Tyaaga. When nothing should be aspired and nothing will be given, why should I give money to God from my pocket? It is impossible in the world!”. They may say it as impossible, but it is possible in this world. You take the love of a fan towards his hero.
Consider MGR, a film actor or YSR, a political leader, who had huge fan following as heroes. When they died, their fans committed suicide. Whenever MGR’s film get released in the theaters, this fan spends money from his pocket for that release function. The hero did not give anything to this fan and in fact, the hero doesn't even know the name of this fan. But, the fan spends from his pocket all his life and when his hero dies, this fellow commits suicide. What a great act? It is more than what God asked for! What is the reason there? The reason there is that the so-called fan is very much attracted towards the personality of that cinema hero or political hero. In every cinema, the character of the hero is scripted in an excellent way. In the cinema, the hero always does good deeds and never does bad deeds. Wherever he sees injustice, he informs the government and helps the police to catch criminals. Outside the cinema, this fellow doesn’t even pay income tax to the government! In real life, he does all nasty things. But the fan watched this hero only in cinemas. That projected personality of the hero impressed his mind so much that he cannot live without the hero. He commits suicide when the hero dies. Attraction to personality is the basis for that climax love of the fan. Unfortunately, it is a projected personality and not real personality in the case of a hero or political leader.
A hero acts in cinema and a political leader acts in real life! In the case of God, at least His personality is true unlike a cinema hero or political leader. God’s excellent personality with all good qualities is true and real. Why are you hesitating to become a fan of God? Why are you objecting here in the case of God and not objecting there in the case of a hero or politician? You are objecting the true case and accepting the false case. I am only telling you to leave the false case and accept the true case. I am not asking you to do any impossible thing!
Coming to the question of interest added by God to the postponed punishments, it is completely justified. God will not interfere in anybody’s cycle of deeds unless the devotee begs God to interfere. When a false devotee tries to exploit God using soaping technology, God also exploits him by adding interest to his own postponed punishment. Here, the false policy is introduced by the devotee and not from the side of God. God is just responding to this false policy by adding interest after postponement. God responds in the same way as we approach Him. It is again the love of God only to uplift the false devotee into a true devotee. By this false policy of postposing bad deeds, at least the devotee will think that God removed his bad fruit by his worship and granted a boon for which he is not eligible. He will develop gratitude and interest in God in course of time. As he becomes a devotee of God after sometime, he will try to investigate the personality of God. What is this God? What type of a person He is? What are His inherent qualities? The devotee will try to study and eventually get impressed by God’s real personality because God has every good quality in climax level. Due to devotion to God, the devotee will reform his bad qualities and stop repeating the sin. God, being the epitome of kindness, cancels all the pending punishments of that type of sin since God’s intention to give punishment to the soul is not for revenge but for reformation only. This way, the false devotee becomes a true devotee, gets reformed and his pending punishments are permanently cancelled.
When you worship God to remove your difficulty, God appears as if He is impressed by your false devotion, He appears as if He has removed your present difficulty and has given a new boon even though you are not eligible. This will increase the worship and you will become devoted to God more and more. God postpones your bad fruits expecting that you will develop devotion, learn spiritual knowledge and get reformed from the sinful attitude permanently. This way, God wants to relieve you from your bad fruits permanently. When your bad fruits are postponed, you will have peace of mind and can concentrate on learning the spiritual knowledge. Punishments give only temporary reformation but spiritual knowledge gives permanent reformation to the soul. Spiritual knowledge is not worship with rituals. Spiritual knowledge means the personality investigation of God. It means the investigation of the real qualities of God so that you will be attracted and become a fan of God impressed by the personality.
You will come to know that if you sincerely please God with real devotion without any aspiration in return and reform yourself by imitating His good qualities, then He will be pleased with you and give you salvation. You will be associated with Him forever. Whenever He incarnates on earth, you will be along with Him, serving Him in His mission in this world and when you leave this world, you will again be with God in the upper world. You’ll always be in close association with God here and there. When the bond with God is developed, all the worldly bonds get destroyed automatically and you cannot be trapped by these worldly bonds.
What are the worldly bonds? Sage Yaajnavalkya says in the Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad that a wife is loving her husband not because her husband will be happy, but, because she is happy with him. That is why she is loving him. Similarly, a husband is loving his wife because she is giving happiness to him, but not because he is giving happiness to her. So, everybody loves anybody only due to selfish happiness, but not for the happiness of others (Ātmanastu kāmāya sarvaṃ priyaṃ bhavati… - Veda). Therefore, all worldly bonds are cheating bonds without any real love in them. Every worldly bond is based on selfishness only. But God is not like that. God loves you without any happiness from you. What happiness can you give to Him? He is always giving you whatever is needed and He is always protecting you. He is following this false procedure just to help you. He doesn't need anything from you and He is helping you, which is called true love. True love is possible only with God and not with worldly bonds. Therefore, when you develop real love towards God, you will get a permanent association with God in this world as well as in the upper world after death. You will have the constant association with God forever. To achieve that permanent true love for God, all this spiritual knowledge is essential.
To be continued...
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