13 Nov 2024
Continued from Part-1...
10. How do I control my desires?
[Shri Diwakar asked:- Swami, for a devotee with partial knowledge, how can he control desires? As You explained, if he desires something, Swami will bring the fruit from future and give in the present. Generally, I don't want to get it actually. So, how to control that wish itself? How to stop my mind not to think about it because I am partially knowledgeable at the moment?]
Swami replied:- God Krishna told in the Gita that trying constantly will certainly bring success in achieving the goal (Abhyāsena tu kaunteya…). Suppose you are now addicted to wine. How to stop this addiction to wine? There are two ways. i) Abhyaasa, which means trying to leave the wine shop and not going to the wine shop. Go to the cool drinks shop and take badam milk, which is very tasty. I like it very much. The ‘wine’ is like this world and the ‘badam milk’ is like God. Abhyaasa means constantly trying to go to the badam milk shop. ii) Vairaagya, which means leaving the wine shop. Since this is a practical problem, this has to be resolved by practice only. If it is a theoretical problem, you can solve it theoretically. Suppose you have a mathematical problem of (x+y)2, you can solve theoretically. Suppose your bike has got some trouble, you cannot solve it theoretically.
You go to a mechanic and he will rectify in five minutes. Therefore, a practical problem can be stopped only by starting the practice. There is always a good thing and bad thing. First, you must discriminate and accept this as good and that as bad. But unfortunately, you are thinking a bad thing as a good thing and a good thing as a bad thing. First, you must come out of this illusion towards both since you have illusions about both the items. You must know the real nature or the truth, to come out of illusion. Then, you will start Vairaagya and Abhyaasa. First, you accept that wine is bad and badam milk is good. Then, you must stop going to the wine shop and try to go to the badam milk shop. Gradually, by constant practice, you will achieve success.
God Krishna tells that one can control the mind and attain detachment from the worldly bonds gradually by such constant practice and this detachment to the world also need not be done by you through effort. If you go to a badam milk shop and drink that badam milk, the taste of wine is nothing before the taste of that badam milk. The addiction to wine will dropout by itself. You need not dropout the wine, the wine will drop out you! There is a joke. Perhaps, all of you might be knowing. One goat was kept in a room and a person from each state is sent into that room and a timer counts for how much time he can bear the smell of that goat. The person from Andhra Pradesh could bear for 10 minutes. The person from Uttar Pradesh could bear for 15 minutes. The person from Madhya Pradesh state could bear for 20 minutes. Likewise, a list is getting created. When a fellow from Punjab went inside the room, the goat itself came out running! Now, these people got a doubt, “How much score should be given to this?”!
Therefore, you need not leave the worldly bonds, the worldly bonds should themselves leave you. Suppose you are always thinking about God and sitting in your room, then what will your family members do? They will leave you, lock the house and go to the hotels, functions or cinemas, etc. They themselves will drop you and avoid you and you need not put a single effort in getting detached from them. How will you achieve this attachment to God? You have to get the taste of God, the excellent badam milk. When you take wine, it gives oral irritation, you will lose your health, wealth and prestige in the society. When you realize all these things, your interest on wine will automatically dropout.
Generally, we apply a medical strip to cure any boil on our skin. When the boil is cured, the strip drops by itself and you need not take it off by force. Also, the dropout of worldly bonds should not be done without tasting God. Suppose you dropout your worldly bonds and you are not attracted to God also, there is nothing left to enjoy. What is the use of dropping out these worldly bonds without God? God is the divine nectar. If you get the taste of divine nectar, the coffee is dropped automatically before that taste. Even if people insist you to have one cup of coffee, you can't take it. Now, if you don't get the divine nectar and leave the coffee also, you are a fool, who lost both! Even if divine nectar is not there, you drink coffee and enjoy. Why should you lose both? Is it not foolishness?
If you taste God, the divine nectar, all the world bonds will be dropped by themselves. You need not put any trace of effort to detach from the worldly bond. Such type of detachment is called as Vairaagya, which is not mere detachment from the world. Vairaagya means spontaneous detachment from worldly bonds due to strong attachment to God. A stone is also detached from the world. But, is it salvated? No. The mind is having the nature of associating itself with something all the time and it cannot stay without any attachment. Salvation means liberation. Liberation from what? Liberation from the worldly bonds. If you got liberation from the worldly bonds and do not have any touch with God, what is use of this? It is better to have the world bonds. Is it not? Due to the attachment to God, if the worldly bonds are detached, then it is called the real salvation.
11. Is it correct to curse a planet for one’s bad qualities or difficult phase of life?
[Shri Sathi Reddy asked:- Swami, this question is related to Manu Charitra. In Manu Charitra, it is told that a son was born to a sage in Revati Nakshatra. He was with bad qualities due to his past life samskaaras. The sage had a power with which he could change his son. But, he thinks that he should not use his power to change his son and he gives a curse to Revati Naksatra itself. I don’t understand why he didn’t change his son?]
Swami replied:- I have already told the answer to one of your questions and I am again telling that I am not responsible for anybody’s behavior. Each soul is with different attitude and behavior. Everyone behaves according to their own ratio of Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. What can we do? We can only know whether that behavior is good or bad. If it is bad, we shall not follow it and if it is good, we shall follow it. That much alone is possible. The Revati Nakshatram is a very good star. Suppose a soul is born in a bad star. Why do you think he is born in a bad star? Because of his own sins. He did not become bad after being born in that star. Because he is bad, he is born in a bad star. People say that since Shani came to the seventh house in my astrological chart, police arrested me! But the police will not arrest just because Shani came to the seventh house from the sixth house. Police arrests you because you have done a crime like stealing money from somebody. You are escaping from the police successfully and that day, God wants to deliver your bad fruit and so, Shani will catch you and hand over to the police. Shani is delivering a punishment because you have already done a sin. Since you have committed a sin, Shani came to deliver your punishment. Not vice versa. God gives the judgement of date of punishment to the soul. As per that judgment, Shani comes to your seventh house seeing the lagna by the seventh view. That day is your day of punishment, which is already judged by God. All these nine planets are the executive secretaries of God. They are the embodiments of the administrative powers of God and they are not different from God.
12. Does cursing a planet for one’s difficulties in life come under selfishness?
Swami replied:- I'm telling you again that it comes under selfishness only. What can you do? What can I do? It is the behavior of that individual soul. Each soul has got its own individual inherent behavior. There are millions of types of behaviors in this world and each soul is different from another soul. We cannot do anything. This world is multiple (nānātvam) and not oneness (ekatvam). It is a variety with different types of items and different types of behaviors. It is plural (Neha nānāsti kiñcana). ‘Nana’ means multiple. God is one and world is multiple. The very nature of the creation is multiplicity. You have got all types of behaviors seen in souls from A to Z. So, you have to analyze the action to be good or bad. Since the sage tried to curse a Nakshatram (star) instead of changing his own demonic son, the sage is selfish. So, we should not be selfish like that. Tomorrow, if your son is doing something bad, you should scold your son and not his birth star or Lagna.
13. Had the sage cursed his son instead, it doesn’t come under selfishness. Isn’t it, Swami?
[A question by Shri Diwakar]
Swami replied:- If that is the case, it means that he has conquered his selfishness. If you take the life of God Krishna, Samba is His son born to Jambavati. Samba was having bad qualities. He mocked some sages, got cursed and became responsible for the genocide of the entire Yadava family. All the people of the Yadava clan killed each other using the muser (darbha). At the end, Samba along with three other fellows had escaped the war. God Krishna, while walking towards the forest, sees Samba and his three friends. God Krishna says, “When sages cursed that everybody should die, why are you fellows alive?”. By saying so, He takes two darbhas and kills four of them immediately. God Krishna does not have any partiality towards His son. He does not have any selfishness and sees everyone equally according to justice and injustice. Just imagine how great God Krishna must be? In a famous Tamil movie called ‘Tanga Patakam’, the police officer shoots his own son for the sake of justice, overcoming his selfishness. You must appreciate that he is not selfish. Therefore, we have to learn what is good and what is bad from all these stories. Therefore, I am not responsible for why the sage has done like that. I never met him or told him anything. He never attended My satsangas!
14. Can people having selfishness also enter into the service to the Sadguru?
[Shri Kishore Ram asked:- Last year, You said that even ego and jealousy can be controlled to some extent based on some circumstances. When the difficult times come, obviously the ego will come down. But, more dangerous or more difficult part is reducing the selfishness, which is inherent. Now, my question is that is it mandatory to achieve selflessness and then, enter into the service of Sadguru? Can a person like me, who is 100% selfish, directly enter into the service of Sadguru?]
Swami replied:- Service means sacrifice. Selfishness means his own self-interest. Sacrifice and self-interest are quite opposite to each other like day and night. They are contradictory and not complimentary. You have entered the service of Sadguru and it means that you lost at least some part of selfishness. As vice-versa, if you have lost some selfishness, you will definitely enter the service of Sadguru. Selfishness is your small world, containing only three bonds (Eṣaṇātrayam) that are bond with money, bond with child and bond with spouse. Every house in the world contains only these three bonds. No bond with father or mother or maternal uncle or paternal uncle, etc., can defeat the strength of these three. Every house is now a small family, where the man is doing a job to earn money (Dhaneshanaa) and he is limited to spouse (Daareshanaa) and issues (Putreshanaa). Both husband and wife save money for their issues alone and everybody else is thrown out!
Every house today contains these three bonds only. Among the three strongest worldly bonds with money, child and spouse, the bond with money and child are always joined because your spouse joins you and the spouse also wants to give money to the children only. Due to this strong encouragement from the spouse, after some stage, you will earn like anything just for the sake of children only. So, a husband doesn’t give money to his spouse separately because she herself wants to give to her children only. She says, “Do anything but you must give to our child only”. Finally, there is only one joint-bond left that is with children and money. By worldly knowledge, the worldly bond with money and child cannot be eradicated. Unless you enter the spiritual field (Nivrutti), it is impossible to conquer these strongest worldly bonds. It is given the highest importance in every religion.
In Hinduism, there is a life story of Siriyaala and in Christianity, the life story of Abraham exists. Both these devotees could successfully conquer their strongest worldly bonds with money and son for the sake of God. They killed their own son respectively proving their true devotion towards God. Although this joint-test of money and child is very difficult to conquer completely, we should at least reduce the fascination. When fascination is reduced, you will think, “I will earn money only through justice by working hard day and night for my child. I will earn but only through justice”. That is sufficient to control the corruption in society and solve all the social problems. In the path of Nivrutti, it is not just reduction of fascination but complete eradication of the bond due to strong attachment with God. Every worldly bond is based on selfishness only. Everyone loves the other person for their own happiness and not for other’s happiness. Every worldly bond is selfish. Even a son kills father for wealth. People like Aurangazeb did the same.
You are actually aiming for the spiritual field but unless you reduce the strength of the worldly bond, you cannot eradicate it completely. So, we must at least reduce the fascination towards children in worldly life (Pravrutti) so that we can enter into spiritual life. You should think, “I will give all my property to my son only but let me earn it through justice only. Let me not earn through corruption”. If this attitude is achieved, everything is achieved. God comes to this world only for this purpose. He has created this world as His own industry. If it runs on smooth line, He'll be happy. If you do all sorts of sin due to your fascination towards your child, then the society gets disturbed. To establish the peace in the world, the fascinations to worldly bonds, especially fascination to children must be reduced. I am not telling to eradicate it but first, you reduce it. That is sufficient and that is as good as Nivrutti, the spiritual life.
15. Swami! Without getting into basic Nivrutti, is it possible to reduce fascination towards one’s own children?
[A question by Shri Diwakara Rao]
Swami replied:- Even in Pravrutti, God is there. Even though you have not gone to spiritual life and stay in worldly life, you require God. In every stage, you require God. Both portfolios of Pravrutti and Nivrutti are under the same one Minister, who is God. While in Pravrutti, you are anyway worshiping God for your worldly problems. When you enter Nivrutti, you will worship God for salvation. Same devotee and same God. For both Pravrutti and Nivrutti, we should worship the same God. When I worked in PSG College of Technology at Coimbatore, Professor Subbaiyan was the head of the Electrical Engineering Department. He went to the department, sat in his chair and sent a letter to the Principal writing, “I am very much loaded with this headship. Please relieve me from this headship”. Surprisingly, He is also the principal of the college. So, he walked to the Principal room, sat in that chair and rejected his own letter writing, “No! Not possible!” When the same person is the education minister as well as the finance minister, he sanctions a new college as education minister and he rejects the same sanction as finance minister writing, “We can't give any funds”!
16. What is the true meaning of Salvation or Liberation (Moksha)?
[Shri Diwakara Rao asked:- So, release from the worldly bonds is liberation, is it? But in our previous days I heard that salvation is nothing but reaching the God in upper world. Is that the consequence of the release from worldly bonds? Is that what You mean?]
Swami replied:- I have already told about this. First point is that mere leaving of worldly bonds is not salvation. Leaving the worldly bonds due to attachment to God is called as salvation. Mere leaving of the worldly bonds is simply foolishness and it is impossible also. Second point is that mere detachment is not only impossible but also useless. You have not tasted God, the Divine Nectar and now, you have left the worldly bonds, the coffee. For 10 days, you can leave it, but, on the 11th day, you will drink a bucket of coffee. It is impossible to leave permanently because the mind always wants to drink something. You can't control the mind. Although I'm not getting the divine nectar, I'm at least getting coffee. Why should I leave coffee? Is it not foolishness? It is useless also. If I leave coffee since I have tasted the divine nectar, there is some meaning. But here, I have not tasted the divine nectar and so, there is no use of leaving coffee. The third point is that leaving coffee is not a pre-requisite to get the divine nectar. There is no rule saying, “Unless you leave coffee, divine nectar will not come to you”. God never tells that He will not come to you until you leave all your worldly bonds. It is okay if you have worldly bonds. You first approach God and that is sufficient. All your worldly bonds will dropout one day once you get the divine taste by becoming very close to God.
17. Can we say that God is flexible and available for everyone?
Swami replied:- Yes! In Pravrutti also, God is available to you. God never tells that you should approach Him only for Nivrutti. Even in worldly life, you are worshiping and praying to God. Is it not? Did God ever say, “You should not pray to Me for worldly life”? He gives full freedom to you because only under freedom, truth can be achieved. Under a forced environment, you cannot achieve the truth. God wants to be attained by you in full freedom and not under any force. The love between God and devotee can never succeed under force and it can succeed under natural freedom only. Therefore, freedom is very important for truth and love.
18. Is it correct to force one’s children continuously to read spiritual knowledge?
[Shri Sathireddy asked:- Swamiji, suppose there is a parent, who is already in the spiritual path and tasted the spiritual knowledge, which is amrutam (divine nectar). He knows how the grace of God works in his life. So, if he wants his children to be in the spiritual path and read the spiritual knowledge even though the child is not interested in reading the knowledge due to his past samskaaras, but father is continuously forcing his son to read, is it also a type of selfishness?]
Swami replied:- No! The important point in your question is that the father is not yet salvated from the bond with his son. I told that the three strongest worldly bonds are with money, spouse and child. The father did not get salvation from the bond of child. How can he force his son to get salvation? The son will reply, “You yourself did not get salvation from my bond and you are advising me to attain salvation. What a joke?”. Therefore, when God is tasted, the mind goes towards God and all the worldly bonds drop off automatically. If the father really tasted God, he will not care for his son and there is no question of forcing! He will let his son go as he likes because the son should realize God under complete freedom and not by the force of his father.
19. Is the existence of hell only a concept but not true?
[Shri Diwakara Rao asked:- Swami, as per Your knowledge, I knew that that when we do sin, we'll go to hell and undergo that punishment to clear that sin. I have heard and seen some of the organizations, where they preach that the hell is not at all there and presence of hell is just actually to keep the people in fear. They say that God is so lovable and kind that God never tortures and something like that. So, this is their point. I just want to clear this doubt, Swami.]
Swami replied:- I have answered this question already and My reply is present in the website (www.universal-spirituality.org). Some organizations are telling that hell is not there and some others are telling that hell is there. So, there is a 50:50 probability of existence of hell because I have not taken you in this infinite space and showed the presence of hell and also, you have not taken Me everywhere in this infinite space and showed the absence of hell. You didn’t take Me to the place, where space ends and proved that hell is not existing anywhere within the entire space. Therefore, hell may be present or may not be present. I'm coming to a justified logic of 50:50 probability about the existence of hell and you must always choose the side of lesser risk. Suppose there is a blind person and somebody is telling him that there is fire if he goes straight further. Somebody else is telling him that there is no fire and he can go straight. The fire may be present or may be absent.
There is a 50:50 probability here. In this context, what is the side of least risk? The least risk is to go back, believing that fire is there. Even if the fire is not existing and if he goes back, what is the loss? If the fire existed, his feet would burn. So, the least risk is to assume the existence of fire and go back. This 50:50 probability exactly applies to the question of existence of hell and the least risk is not to do the sin. Suppose you have not done any sin and died. If hell is really not there, what is the loss for you? Absolutely no loss. Suppose you are spending your life very peacefully without any corruption or any sin, then you will have no fear or tension that the government will raid your place and arrest you. By spending life without doing sin, you will live here peacefully and even if hell is present after death, there is no loss to you.
Suppose you are spending life by doing sinful actions, you’ll live with tension while you live here and if the hell is present after death, your suffering will be intense and eternal. An atheist, who does all sins without thinking about the existence of hell after death, he will die forever. This is actually told by Sureshvaraacaarya (or Mandana Mishra), who debated with Shankara for about a month. Later on, he took Samnyaasa and became the disciple of Adi Shankara. He said “I am not harmed if hell doesn’t exist, but the atheist is finished if hell exists” (Nāsti cet nāsti me hāniḥ, Asti cet nāstiko hataḥ). If you teach this 50:50 probability concept to any atheist, that fellow will definitely turn. When you have not done any sin, you need not fear for anybody here or there after death. Is it not? You can lead a very peaceful life here and there and there is no loss to you even if hell exists.
20. Is ‘Kapuuya Yoni’ referring only to females in the family?
[Shri Satti Reddy asked:- ‘Kapūya Yoni’ means only female? or male also?]
Swami replied:- The word ‘yoni’, means the place of birth through which a soul is born. Since the child comes from the womb of the mother, the word ‘yoni’ is used in that sense also. In the Veda, it is mentioned that a bad soul will be born in a bad family (Kapūya caraṇāḥ kapūya yonim…). This means that a bad soul will be born to a bad family, which may belong to any caste of the four-tier caste system. The reason is that there is no question of good and bad in the four-tier caste system. So, there are several possibilities for the birth of a soul, according to the nature of the soul. Sometimes, God will see that a very good soul goes to a bad family so that he will change the entire bad family into good. Sometimes, God sends a bad soul to a bad family so that they will do more bad things together and will go into the births of animals and birds permanently. God establishes the peace of the world by not allowing them into human births. Sometimes, God sends a good fellow into a very good family so that both the family and himself will increase their goodness more and get benefited mutually. Therefore, God will decide, which soul should go to which family so that something good happens finally. His ultimate aim is good only.
21. Isn’t it bad to send bad souls into a bad family and finally into animal births?
[Shri Divakara Rao asked:- When a bad soul is sent into a bad family, it finally leads to taking birth as an animal. Isn’t it reasonably bad?]
Swami replied:- Not at all! All the family members along with the soul will also be born as animals or birds so that they will be reformed into good in a long time. God sends a soul into animal births only when there is no chance to change him with knowledge and good association. God makes all bad souls join together as family and let them do more bad deeds so that they will be punished permanently since there is no trace of scope of reformation. They will be condemned from human births and will be thrown out of this world just like disposal of waste from the house. In the birth of animal or bird, the illegal ambition of earning and storing wealth is minimized since animals and birds earn food for that day only. Like that, the souls in animal births also get reformed slowly. Although bad souls are given human birth, they live their lives with enjoyment of worldly needs only like pacifying hunger, thirst, sleep and sex, without the concept of God. Even in animal life, they continue their enjoyment by pacifying hunger, thirst, sleep and sex. So, God is not taking away their enjoyment. He is only trying to reform them by throwing them in the cycle of animal births. Moreover, the peace of the world is maintained when bad souls don’t exist in human form.
22. Are Puurvamiimaamsakas solely responsible for blind ritualistic traditions in Hinduism?
[Shri Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Sastanga namaskaram, Swami! There is a lot of blind ritualistic tradition in the world today, especially in Hinduism, so can we hold Puurvamiimaamsakas as a sole responsible people for this - is one doubt?
Second is - what they said is - “Devo na kaścit, bhuvanasya kartā - phalāni”, so for this, they have taken, they have accepted the authority of the Vedas, but in all other philosophers, philosophical schools, they accepted the creator of the Veda as the ultimate. They stopped at Vedas only, so when they say - “Devo na kaścit”, we have given only importance to the Veda, not the creator.]
Swami replied:- The Puurvamiimaamsa philosophers believe in selfish enjoyments (Bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṃ, tayāpahṛta-chetasām - Bhagavad Gita). They are fond of wealth in the upper world and wealth in this world. Their aim of life is to achieve heaven and enjoy heavenly pleasures there. The Veda gives the ways to get these heavenly pleasures and hence, they consider the Veda as the only authority without considering God, who is the author of the Veda. Whatever the Veda says, they do that because it gives not only heavenly pleasures, but also the pleasures on this earth. They perform Rajasuya Yajna, not with the intention to please God but because the performer conquers the entire earth and becomes an emperor as the result. So, their idea is always about enjoyment without God. They don't want to serve God because God controls over-enjoyment, which is harmful to the soul. If they accept God as the author of the Veda, then, they will be forced to correct themselves by God’s preaching.
When God comes and gives correct interpretations of the Veda, they would be forced to change their misunderstandings and misinterpretations about the concepts present in the Veda. But, No! They like what they do and don’t want to change for good. They say, “We accept whatever is written in the Veda and we follow that only. We don’t mind if it is right or wrong”. Actually, whatever is written in the Veda is correct provided we take it in the right sense, but these people take in wrong sense. By rejecting the fact that God is the author of the Veda, they become free to follow their wrong interpretations happily. If they accept the author of the Veda as God, then God may oppose their wrong practice. Therefore, accepting God as the author of the Veda is a very big problem to the wrong followers of the Veda. This is the very reason why atheists do not accept the existence of God itself. If they accept the existence of God, they have to accept the existence of heaven, hell and administration of God (Karma Cakra). They have to remember the fact that every sin will be punished by God due to His omnipotence although they can escape the worldly administration of police and court. So, they cannot do the sins like corruption of money, illegal sex, etc.
If God is accepted, they are resisted from doing sins at least out of fear. Since the atheists want to do sins secretly and enjoy life, they cleverly reject the existence of God. They say that we can follow justice without accepting God. In fact, God rewards justice in the way He punishes injustice. When an atheist is really following justice, he/she should be more than happy to accept God because God always rewards justice. They act as if they are following justice and do sins secretly so that they can escape the court and police and also remain respected in the public. They can easily fool courts by bribing police, by hiring strong advocates and by corrupting the judge, etc. Strong advocates can make a plus into minus and a minus into plus to win the case. But, they cannot fool the omnipotent and omniscient God. They are actually afraid of God and His justified administration. So, they reject God so that they can do sins secretly without any tension or fear. The atheist thinks, “Let me enjoy by doing sins. I will permanently escape the punishment here on earth by bribing the government and there is no God and no hell after life. Of course, I will not do the sins openly because I may be caught by the police. I will do sins secretly”. Although the atheist thinks like this, he/she will say, “I am an ethical person although I don't believe in God. I will not do corruption or any sin, but there is no God”.
I ask a simple question to the atheist, “When you are not doing any sin or any corruption, what is the objection to you if God is present?”. Since this fellow is a hypocrite, he is telling that he is ethical. He wants to get a good impression in the society as a very disciplined person so that no police case will come on him. Whatever sin he does, he does it very secretly so that he enjoys the benefit of corruption and also good name in the society. By rejecting God and hell, they will have peace of mind to enjoy the fruit of the sin. If God and hell comes to the mind, they will be disturbed and cannot do the sin. So, they develop the atheistic philosophy as per their convenience so that sins can be done secretly and enjoyed peacefully without spoiling their good name in the society. Even such people can be tackled with the 50:50 probability concept, which is the Vajraayudha (Diamond weapon) that will cut anything. After listening to this concept, he will control sins one day and when he has come to the stage of not doing sins, he will accept God also.
If you are really ethical, what is the harm in accepting God, who is always protecting justice? Moreover, God gives rewards even to atheists if they do good deeds. He will send them to heaven to enjoy the heavenly pleasures. He will not say, “Since you are an atheist, who does not believe in Me, I will not send you to heaven!”. God is not partial to any soul. Every soul, which does good deeds will be rewarded and every soul, which does bad deeds will be punished. Your belief in God is immaterial and He will give fruits according to your deeds only.
23. What is the reason to develop a sinful mindset?
[Shri Divakara Rao asked:- What is the reason for an atheist to develop that mindset?]
Swami replied:- “I will do corruption. I will escape courts, police stations and every punishment on the earth. If you say God is there and sinners are punished in hell after death, then it disturbs my mind. Let me enjoy the fruit of my corruption peacefully. Don’t talk about God and hell” — that is the reality of atheists. They cannot fool God, who knows every thought in their brain.
24. Is it compulsory to see past 7 generations for marriage?
[Shri Satti Reddy asked:- For marriages, people usually say to see seven previous generations and seven future generations on both sides. Is it compulsory to see the seven generations?]
Swami replied:- It is not possible to see future seven generations! Actually, there is a theory in ‘Karma Siddhanta’ that the action of one fellow cannot affect another fellow whether they are related or not. You are responsible for your action and the fruit of your action cannot go to anybody else including your wife or your children. That is what is told in the story of Valmiki. Sage Narada says to Valmiki, “You are a robber and doing this sin for the sake of your family members. Are they ready to divide your sin? Go and ask them.” When Valmiki asks his family members, they tell, “Who asked you to do sin? You work in a justified way and bring the little earning to home. Whatever little you bring, we will eat. Did we ever say that you must do sin and bring money for our enjoyment? Why shall we share your sin? Since you are bringing wealth, we are enjoying it. We don't know whether you have done sin or not. So, we are not responsible for your sin and we will not share your sin”. Then, the hunter realizes and becomes a great Sage called Valmiki. Whether this story is true or not, let us take the message from it.
Coming to the question, if one fellow does some sin, how can his previous seven generations fall into sin? When the karma of a soul is related to that soul only, it will not affect any other soul. It cannot affect the previous seven generations and future generations, who are not born at all. These concepts are called as ‘Arthavaada’, which means that it has some good purpose although it is not true. When one hears the statement that his son and grandson will suffer his sin, he will develop some intensive fear for doing sin. If you think that your seven future generations and seven past generations will go to hell for your sin, you will control such sin. You will control your mind and resist yourself from doing sin at least for the sake of your beloved father, grandfather, sons and grandsons. So, it is called as Arthavaada. ‘Artha’ means for the sake of a good purpose and ‘Vaada’ means a lie told. Arthavaada means a lie told for a good purpose, which it is not a sin. It can be accepted because it is doing good. A mother tells the child that if she eats food, the moon will come down. Actually, the moon will not come down, but that daughter eats food. Then, when she grows up, will she file a case in the court that her mother cheated her like this? Since her mother cheated her, she ate food and became a healthy adult. Is it not? Therefore, lying is not a sin when it serves a good purpose.
25. Will the wife share the sin of the husband along with merit?
[In previous generations, the women used to do household works and men used to do outside work of earning money. When man gives money for any good works (punya kaaryas), automatically half of the merit (punyam) goes to the wife because she's serving him. So, in the Sage Valmiki context also, he is robbing the money and they are also eating and enjoying with the fruits of the robbed money. So, share of the bad fruits should be distributed?]
Swami replied:- Only half of the husband’s good fruit (punyam) will go to the wife, but, not his bad fruit (paapam). The wife is assisting in the actions of merit, but in the case of Valmiki, the family did not encourage Valmiki to do robbery.
26. Can Arthavaada be told by ordinary people also?
[Shri Divakara Rao asked:- ‘Arthavaada’ sentences can be made only by the incarnations or by normal people also?]
Swami replied:- Anybody can make the ‘Arthavaada’ sentences. Even an ordinary mother is doing Arthavaada while feeding the child by saying that the moon will come down if the child eats food. She is not an incarnation of God. She is only a human being. Anybody can do Arthavaada for a good purpose. When the purpose is good and really benefiting, then Arthavaada can be told and there is no sin at all.
27. How can we realise the true value of Your excellent spiritual knowledge?
[Ms. Swathika asked:- Paadanamaskaaram Swami! Swami, You are giving excellent spiritual knowledge and that too for free. You are giving Your discourses on Your website for free without charging any money. Any reader, who comes to Your website is able to read the entire website freely, download books and read it. But, the value of Your knowledge is extremely high and we cannot quantify the price of Your knowledge. But, at the same time, we have a tendency to lose the value of things we get for free. When we buy it, we use it with value. How do we understand the actual value of true spiritual knowledge when it comes from You for free?]
Swami replied:- Yes, the first point here is that I am giving excellent spiritual knowledge without charging any money. When I have given the money to every soul, why should I charge from anyone? That is My side. But, your side of argument is also correct because if anything is given freely, its value is not recognized. Suppose you might have gone to a theater and you could not get the ticket. Then, you might have come to this Satsanga thinking, “Let me go to Satsanga. At least, I may develop some devotion towards God. Then, God may benefit me and it is free of cost also”. But, once the person starts tasting the bliss of nectar like true spiritual knowledge, then that fellow is gone. He/she will not be interested to go to a cinema hall in the future. He will come to Satsanga every day. But, in the Gita, Karma Phala Tyaaga is stressed very much. When God Rama went to Sage Vashishtha to learn spiritual knowledge, Vashishtha told, “O Rama! Put Guru Dakshina here. Then, I will preach You the spiritual knowledge (dhanamārjaya kākutstha, dhanamūlamidaṃ jagat)”. So, the Guru Dakshina is asked by the Sage to know whether Rama has real interest on the subject or not. Suppose a person just came for passing time and not really interested in the subject of God, then he/she will not give money and leave the place immediately. Therefore, Guru Dakshina or Karma Phala Tyaaga helps to test the interest of the student so that the preacher need not waste his energy unnecessarily with such people, who come for time pass.
You must have heard the story of Shirdi Sai Baba in which a rich fellow named Buuti comes to Baba and asks, “Baba, I have hired a tanga (cart) and it is standing outside. If you delay, the hiring charge will increase. So, tell me Brahma Jnaanam immediately”. Then, Baba sends a disciple to a devotee saying, “I’m in need of five rupees. You ask him for loan”. The disciple comes back empty handed and says that the devotee could not give money since he doesn’t have any money. Then, Baba replies, “Yes, yes. I'm a Fakir. Who will believe Me and give five rupees?”. Then, he sends the disciple to somebody else. The same thing repeats. Buuti sees this happening in front of his eyes but he continuously asks Baba to be kind to give him the Brahma Jnaanam immediately since he has a lot of business in Mumbai and the waiting charges of the tanga are also increasing. Then, Baba tells to Buuti, “In your pocket, you have a bundle of 100 currency notes, each of five rupees denomination. You are seeing that Baba is in need of five rupees and you possess 100 times more than what Baba needs. Still, you are unable to give one note of five rupees even after knowing that Baba is in need of it. You say that you have come for Brahma Jnaanam. When you are unable to give five rupees to Baba, how can you conquer the five senses (pañcendriyas)? Unless you conquer the five senses, you cannot get the Brahma Jnaanam”. Like that, Baba gave left and right to him. Then, Buuti became a very good devotee of Baba and the present temple of Shirdi Sai Baba was built by him only. The truth is that Baba is a Sadguru and Sadguru means the human incarnation of God. If He is Sadguru, He is not in need. He is the giver to everybody and so, He cannot be in need. But He will hide the fact that He is the giver. Then only, the true love of the devotee will come out.
Suppose you are coming on the way and I have dropped a 100 rupees note on the road. You take it and you think that it is your luck and you will not think that God has dropped that 100 rupees note. Is it not? He hides that He has given to you. Suppose you come to know that I have dropped that 100 rupees note for you. Then if I ask you for 10 rupees, you will give Me 10 rupees out of gratitude but not out of true love. To understand the true love, I also tell another example of a grandfather, who brings a packet of biscuits, gives to his daughter-in-law and tells her not to tell her son that he has bought and brought this biscuit packet for him. As instructed, she gives the biscuit packet to her son and then, this grandfather innocently asks his grandson to give him a small piece of biscuit. If the grandson knows that the biscuit packet was brought by his grandfather, he will give one or two biscuits to him out of gratitude. Since the grandson is thinking that the packet is purchased by his mother, there is no gratitude on the grandfather from his grandson. If he has true love on his grandfather, then only, he will give the biscuit. Similarly, God also keeps it confidential that He is the giver of all the wealth to all the souls of His creation. Then only, the test of true love towards Him can be conducted.
To be continued...
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