28 Dec 2020
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on December 05, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Surya asked: You say that the concept of karma phala tyāga in spirituality was taken by God upon observing worldly human relationships. But this concept has been explained by God in the Vedas. I have heard that the Vedas existed with God, even before this creation was created by God. If the Vedas existed before creation, how could the concept of karma phala tyāga found in the Veda have been taken from worldly relationships?
Śrī Phani said: God must have given the Vedas immediately after He created the souls. I think so because, during the initial days after souls were created, they were innocent and they needed basic knowledge for survival.]
Swāmi replied: In the Puruṣa Sūktam, which is a part of the Veda, the creation which had already been created is described using past tense verbs (Gāvoha Jajñire..., Aśvā Ajāyanta, Mukhamāsīt, Rājanyaḥ Krutaḥ). In other words, the Veda describes human beings as already created. The Vedas were revealed to several sages like Śunaśśepha by God, which means that before the revelation of the Vedas by God, creation including the sages had already come into existence. Of course, the entire knowledge of creation existed in the unimaginable awareness of God even before creation. But unless the knowledge is expressed by God in words, we cannot say that the Vedas were composed by God. Śunaśśepha existed in the Kṛta Age and we can say that the Vedas were given to the sages by God. The Vedas were given even to the first generation of this first age, so that the right direction was given to humanity by God at the very beginning of creation. But in that very first generation, marriages took place and children were born. The unbreakable blind fascination of the parents towards their children also existed in the first generation. The fascination of a person for his or her children lies in the heart, which is seat of the anāhata cakra. Vāyu or the Air-god is the deity of this cakra. Anāhata means the place which is unbeaten by anybody, so far. Air is said to be the fastest (Vāyurvai kṣepiṣṭhā devatā—Veda). It indicates the fastest speed of parents’ fascination for their children. Such love for one’s children is the truest love and it is seen to give rise to practical sacrifice. Parents go to any extent to practically serve their children, including washing their anus after excretion. This service is karma saṃnyāsa. Parents also finally write a will and pass all their saved wealth only to their children. This sacrifice of their wealth to their children is called karma phala tyāga.
From this natural instinct that exists in animals (zoological living beings), God has built-up the concept that the proof of true love for God can only be the practical service and the practical sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work to God. God has given this true love that parents have for their children as the practical standard scale to measure the true love or devotion of devotees for God. The measuring scale for humanity must be based on the natural psychology of humanity alone. God cannot give His own scale to measure the devotion of human beings. God is omniscient and knows that this issue-devotion (love for His children) will continue forever in creation. Hence, a devotee can know the extent of his or her devotion to God by measuring it with the scale of the issue-devotion which is experienced by everybody in general. If a soul can look upon God to be at least equal to his or her own issue, we can say that such devotion has reached the climax. But the devotion of most devotees towards God is nowhere close to the love they have for their issues.
When this is the practical truth, it is a sin to say theoretically in one’s prayers that nobody and nothing is equal to God. God wanted to be in the position of the devotee’s adopted son. Datta means an adopted son. Thus, the devotee must be in the place of the the parent, as the adopting father or the adopting mother. God wants the devotee to treat Him to be at least equal to the devotee’s own issues. The idea of God standing in the place of the son is that the devotee-parent will show true love for the God-son, irrespective of the behaviour of the God-son. Even if a son neglects or insults his parents, the parents still continue to love him and do not stop the practical service and sacrifice that they do for the son.
But clever human devotees have reversed the situation! They stand in the place of the son or daughter and keep God in the place of the parent! To deal with this clever behavior of devotees, the cleverest God has come up with a suitable trick. Whenever the devotee prays to God to remove his difficulty, God shows as if He has removed the difficulty. But actually, He does not cancel the difficulty which is the fruit of the devotee’s own bad deed. He merely postpones that fruit of the devotee’s sin to the next birth with accumulated interest. All this is done without the knowledge of the devotee! Similarly, when the devotee asks for a benefit, God shows as if He has granted the benefit. But actually, He only prepones the fruit of a good deed from the devotee’s next birth, reducing its value in the process. This also is done without the knowledge of the devotee. The devotee thinks that God has done all this due to his or her talented soft-soaping technology (flattery)! Due to such foolishness of devotees, their future births are filled with more and more huge difficulties and finally they get a birth in which there is no fruit of any merit remaining. Such souls weep and suffer from difficulties from birth to death and end up scolding God due to their own ignorance.
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