Posted on: 19 Apr 2021
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on April 10, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Bharath Krishna: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! There was a confusion during the Satsang between the two points. They were
Could You kindly give clarification as to which one of the above points is correct Swami?]
Swāmi replied:- The second point is correct. The sinners have some merits and for those little merits, they need not be sent to heaven separately. These are the lower seven worlds and hence, lower souls only go to these hells. There is one specific hell, called Naraka loka as a sub-world within the middle world called as Martya loka. In this hell, totally sinners are sent. Even the great devotee king Bali stays in one of these lower worlds. Even the Bali is devotee to God, he has lot of ego and many demonic qualities and hence, he was sent to lower worlds. All this is the information of God’s administration. By knowing the systematic administration of God, devotion to God also increases and hence, I have answered this question. Any question in spiritual knowledge shall be for the improvement devotion to God and not for the data collection, which is the main trend of the present Research workers. The intensive research shall be done on the philosophy of Śaṇkara but not on the birth date and birth place of Śaṇkara!
[Śrī Lakshman Ganapthy asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! You have mentioned in an earlier discourse that “Time is not mentioned in Vedas. Time is not mentioned as a separate item since its existence is finally proved to be relative with respect to space. Time does not even have the apparent independent existence like the other items of the creation.”
So, my question is that when Incarnations are able to know the past and future lives of souls, is it proper for us to say that they travel in space and time to understand this process of knowing?]
Swāmi replied:- If they have to travel in time for getting the knowledge of soul, then, such souls are human beings only and not human incarnations. Human incarnation means the omnipotent unimaginable God mediated with a devoted human being. There is no difference between God and human incarnation. Even though the human being exists as medium, such medium has no effect on the omnipotence of unimaginable God.
[Śrī Anil Antony asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! During the dream state of a Soul while it is asleep, who is controlling the dream? Is it the thoughts stored in Cittam which prompts a dream and then runs it? Who is prompting Cittam to start the dream here?]
Swāmi replied:- Scientists say that certain special parts of the brain control the whole human system during deep sleep. But, those active portions of brain during deep sleep are also controlled by God only. The ultimate controller of any system in this entire world is God only. By the order of God given once for all, any item will control any other item in the administration of God. Such controlling item is not the ultimate controller. The district collector exhibits his powers in controlling the issues of administration of a district. The powers of collector were given by the Government. Even though Government is not involved in the day to day administration that is done by the collector, the root source controlling authority is Government only. Government is the appointing authority of collector.
[Śrī Anil Antony asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! Does the first Energetic Form of God Datta (Father of Heaven) with 6 hands and 3 heads do not change with time and remain eternal or does He appear to the devotees the way they desire to see Him? Does the energetic body of God Datta look always with those attributes of 6 hands, 3 heads etc., irrespective of who is seeing him and at what time?]
Swāmi replied:- The form of God Datta with three heads and six hands is eternal. But, simultaneously He can appear in different forms due to His omnipotence-unimaginable power. Your question can find place in an imaginable item, which does not have unimaginable power-based omnipotence.
[Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! Before creation happened there was no need of its maintenance and destruction. Then why had Lord Datta created three different forms when there was only the need for “Creating” the Creation, for which only God Brahmā is required? Thank You so much for giving excellent answers to all my questions Swāmiji.]
Swāmi replied:- The word creation itself is a big program involving administration of maintenance and punishment of defects. Why the Government is establishing court and police station in advance? Whenever the dispute and crime arise, it can appoint these departments. Advanced action is called foresight. Always the three qualities are associated and the three qualities represent the divine forms. You think that during administration of world, Viṣṇu alone is sufficient. During the maintenance of the world, living beings are born under the power of Brahmā and living beings are dying under the power of Śiva. Even during the action of a predominant quality of the three qualities, the actions of other two qualities are simultaneously involved. Brahmā has predominant Rajas with minor quantities of Sattvam and Tamas. Viṣṇu has predominant Sattvam with minor quantities of Rajas and Tamas. Śiva has predominant Tamas with minor quantities of Rajas and Sattvam.
[Śrī Durgaprasad asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! You have said that the three forms of Lord Datta which are Lord Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva were created by Lord Datta so that it will be easy for the devotees with different qualities to approach the form which has similar qualities as that of theirs. But devotees with different qualities came much later, why then Lord Datta had to create three different forms with different qualities before even Souls were created?]
Swāmi replied:- This means that whenever people become sick, you will start a medical college to generate doctors! Whenever disputes come, you start a law college to generate advocates! You are assuming that there is a long gap of time after the appearance of the divine forms and the time of created worlds so that the divine forms drew salaries unnecessarly! Do you have any authentic information about the gap–time between creation of three divine forms and actual starting time of administration of world? A Business man or an Industrialist will think about such points but not God Datta!
[Kum. Lakshmi Thrylokya asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! The supreme Lord has given Himself to the creation (Dattam) by incarnating i.e., taking a body. When a soul takes a birth, why don’t we call it as 'Dattam'? How is God incarnating in the creation different from a soul (which is work form of energy) taking up a body in every birth? Kindly enlighten me. At Your feet, Laxmi Thrylokya.]
Swāmi replied:- Dattam simply means given. In this, unimaginable God is given to this world through this first energetic form and hence, is called as Datta. The word Datta simply means anything given to any body by any body as per the meaning of the word or Yoga. But, a word is fixed in an item based on the same meaning is called as Yoga Rūḍha. Rūḍha means fixation of a word as the name of the item. When you were born, you were called as Lakṣmī eventhough you were not earning money. This is Rūḍha. Now, you are earning money and you are called Lakṣmī, which means Yoga Rūḍha. But, the word Lakṣmī was already confirmed in the Goddess, who is the wife of God Viṣṇu. Even though the wife of God Viṣṇu is called Lakṣmī, you can also be called as Lakṣmī because you also possess money though not as much as possessed by Goddess Lakṣmī. You are Lakṣmī by yoga whereas the wife of God Viṣṇu is Lakṣmī by Yoga Rūḍha. A begging girl having no single paisa of money can be also called as Lakṣmī by Rūḍha. Similarly, the first energetic incarnation is called Datta and an adopted son given by biological parents is also called Datta.
God wearing human body is human incarnation. The human body means both the soul and body. If you call the body only as human body, the human body having the soul is called human being. There is no basic difference between human body and human being. Human body is made of inert matter and inert energy. Inert matter or food oxidized by inert oxygen generates inert energy in the human body. This inert energy becomes a specific work form called awareness in the functioning nervous system. Hence, awareness is also a form of inert energy only. If you say that awareness has additional special quality called feeling, such extra quality (feeling) might have been granted by omnipotent God. If you say that this extra quality is God Himself, in such case every extra quality must be treated as God. For example, when electricity enters grinding machine, a specific work form of electrical energy, called grinding work is generated. In this case also the speciality of grinding work differing from electrical work must be also treated as God. Hence, human body means human being. In the Gītā, it is told that God entered human body (Mānuṣīṃ tanumāśritam). Here, human body means human being which is both body and soul together. If it is said that the President entered his allotted palace, the word ‘palace’ does not mean mere inert house since it means the inert house equipped with non-inert servants. Since the servants follow the orders of President in a mechanical way, the servants can be treated as the inert robots.
Swāmi replied:- Between president and servants there may not be much difference as far as their common awareness is concerned. But, there is lot of difference between awareness of God and awareness of souls. The awareness of God is due to His unimaginable power since inert energy and materialized nervous system are absent in God, whereas in the case of any soul, the awareness can’t be generated without inert energy and nervous system. Awareness of God is unimaginable whereas awareness of soul is imaginable. God’s awareness contains the knowledge of entire creation and soul’s awareness contains very little knowledge of creation and this point also supports that one is unimaginable absolute awareness and the other is imaginable relative awareness. The difference is total and complete whereas the similarity is nil and zero.
Swāmi replied:- The president is wearing cotton dress and the servant is also wearing cotton dress. The process of wearing and the worn dress are one and the same. Based on these two similarities, can you say that the wearing persons (president and servant) are one and the same? At least in the case of president and servant, there is a lot of similarity in awareness, body etc. But, as said above there is no single similarity between unimaginable God and imaginable soul. If you say that there is similarity between God and soul based on the single point of awareness or to know, even such similarity is meaningless because there is lot of difference between the quantity of known knowledge of God and quantity of known knowledge of soul. If you bring qualitative similarity between the two, you must say that the king possessing infinite wealth and the beggar possessing just one paisa are one and the same because the wealth possessed by both is qualitatively one and the same! At least in the case of King and beggar, you may show some similarity in body, awareness etc., but, in the case of God and soul one is unimaginable and the other is imaginable!!
[Śrī Ganesh asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! My question is regarding dvaita sampradaya. You said that there are devotees who are Dualistic Incarnations of God. Whatever the devotee wants, God will do for him/her but the fame will be given to the devotee. Thus, a devotee seems to be the one performing miracles. Is this the approach of incarnations in dvaita vedanta?]
Swāmi replied:- In the tradition of monistic incarnations (Advaita), there is a lot of monism and a trace of dualism. This trace of dualism is also beyond our imagination and we can say that the merge is perfectly monistic. In the tradition of dualistic incarnations similarly, lot of dualism exists with a trace of monism and this trace of monism is also beyond our imagination. These points are regarding the structure of incarnation. As far as the resultant power is concerned, the dualistic incarnation is more powerful than the monistic incarnation. In the former, God becomes servant of the devoted soul whereas in the latter, God becomes one with the devoted soul. Both these incarnations are possible only when the soul is not having aspiration for any type of incarnation except the only one aspiration, which is that the soul always wants to remain as servant of God only.