26 Nov 2016
1) Respected Swamiji,
Namaste, Kindly clarify the following question,
There are many scientific inventions. A few are path breaking and have immensely benefited the world. But others are mediocre in quality and are not useful/have failed. Some have actually been harmful to humanity. Also, many inventions have only promoted sensory enjoyment largely and are leading people to waste a lot of time.
In view of above, kindly clarify if the statement "vijnanam yetad sarvam janaardhnath" should apply only to path breaking inventions that have benefited mankind? Sincerely, Balaji
Swami replied: The scientific logic leading to inventions is blessed by God. Hence, the energy required for a scientific process and the resulting discovery are certainly due to the grace of God (Janaardhana) only. The application of the discovery is the direction of the invention in the further journey. This direction is due to the psychology of human being. Matter is a form of energy and matter can be converted into energy. The equation of this principle given by Einstein is due to grace of God. But, the huge energy released in such conversion can be used as power of the light and the energy used for computer, which are useful in the spiritual effort. The same energy can be misused in the form of atom bomb. The horse is the vehicle for your journey. But, using the horse, whether you are traveling to a forest to be robbed by thieves or traveling to the house of a friend in the city depends upon the direction of your free will. If you go to a forest, you are robbed. If you go the city, you are honored by your friend. The horse is one and the same for both purposes. But, the resulting directions ending in different fruits are based on your psychology developed due to your freedom of will. This freedom is given to all souls and each soul develops its own direction based on the freedom of will given by God to the souls in this world. This world is called as karma loka or world of doing actions as per the freedom of the will of a soul (svabhaavastu pravartate… Gita). The upper worlds like hell and heaven are called as bhoga lokas or places for enjoying the fruits of past deeds without any freedom of the will. You cannot blame God for giving such free will to souls in this world because due to this free will, all souls are not spoiled. In spite of this freedom of will, there are several souls, which are benefited much. If you remove this freedom of will from this world, there is no real enjoyment of the fruits resulting from actions based on free will. This creation is not only created by God for His entertainment, but also for the entertainment of souls. Hence, the present system of actions yielding corresponding fruits (there is no freedom for you to change the fruit of a specific action) having freedom in selecting a specific action is a mixture of hot and sweet for entertainment. If you put finger in fire, it will burn. If you put your finger in water, it will be cool. There is no freedom for you to change the specific fruit of a specific action. But, there is full freedom for you to put your finger in fire or water. If this freedom is also absent, the souls become inert robots only. In such case, God has to enjoy the good or bad fruits of all actions. In the present system, God does not enjoy the fruit of any action done by you. God is completely free from the blame since He propagated the right knowledge of fire and water from the beginning of the creation. Therefore, release of energy from matter is by God and the direction in which the energy is used (karma) and enjoyment of its destined fruit (bhoga) goes to the soul only.
Hence, God is doer (karta) and enjoyer (bhokta) up to the first stage of release of energy from matter. The same God is entertained (bhokta) by this first step only. From the second step onwards (process of using the released energy), the soul is doer (karta) and enjoyer (bhokta) of use of energy. You cannot fix God as doer and enjoyer for both the steps. You are only responsible for your good and bad deeds for which heaven and hell are related places respectively. Hence, the use of energy (karma) and its enjoyment (bhoga) are totally related to you only. Energy, in the form of electricity, was used in ancient India, which was called as vaidyutaagni. The same energy was also used as atom bomb in ancient India, which was called as Brahmaastra. In the Mahabharata war, the atom bomb (Brahmaastra) was used and its full description along with all the posterior effects (as observed in Hiroshima) were clearly explained. In that ancient time, when this weapon was given to disciples, several controlling instructions were given side by side. Due to the background of vast spiritual knowledge, this weapon was almost out of use. In the present time, due to lack of such vast spiritual knowledge, controlling psychology is almost absent. Even in Mahabharata war, it was misused due to defective psychology. Similarly, whether the computer is used for spiritual work or at least for the development of technology in the worldly benefits of humanity or whether the computer is used for doing cyber crimes or used in useless entertainments, it depends upon the attitudes and psychology of human beings in the absence of lack of stress on the spiritual knowledge in the present system of education. Hence, God is used as a vehicle only. The process of the direction of its use (path) and its fruit depends upon the driver (human being) of the vehicle. The Veda says that God is used as the vehicle (abadhnan purusham pashum). The word ‘pashu’ here means an animal like horse used as vehicle in the journey. Thus, God is limited to the energy of the action (kriyaa shakti) only and is not related to the direction of the action or enjoyment of its fruit.
Percentage of Charitable Part Not Depends on Magnitude of Total Wealth
2) Namaste Swamiji, Kindly explain on following topic,
To a comment made by me to my colleagues "Indians should learn lack of corruption and charity from the westerners", they replied as follows. "The west today is corruption free and charitable since they have looted the 3rd world countries for centuries of their natural resources. The west was not that charitable when their country was itself poor. Further the west has committed many crimes against humanity like slavery, driving away natives from America and death of many people in the 2 world wars, nuclear bomb etc. India's problem of corruption and lack of charity is due to basic needs not met because of looting by the British." Sincerely, Balaji
Swami replied: The main aspect is about corruption and not about the place where corruption is taking place. For God, all the countries are one and the same and all the humanity is also one and the same because the entire earth and the entire humanity were created by Him only. God differentiates people by their psychologies only and not by their nativity. Good is good in any country and in the case of any human being. Similarly, bad is bad in any country and in the case of any human being. In My opinion, both good and bad people exist in every country, in every religion, in every caste and in both genders. Corruption is a sin whether it is taking place in India or in Western country. In the past, if the Western country looted India, it was also a sin in total sense. But, the point here is that all the Western people did not loot all Indians. Assuming that such looting took place, only some bad Western people looted some good Indians and by this, we should not generalize that West (all Western people) looted India (all Indians). We are also not sure whether the Western country was originally very poor and became rich only by looting India or the Western country was already rich by natural resources blessed by God.
The attitude of charity depends on one’s own mentality and not on the wealth possessed by a specific human being. The charity done is proportional to devotion in which the percentage of charitable share is the main point and not the magnitude of the share allotted for charity. If a person is the owner of 100 rupees, 10% of his total wealth is 10 rupees. If another person is owner of 1000 rupees, 10% of his total wealth is 100 rupees. The first person donating 10 rupees and the second person donating 100 rupees are equal because the percentage of charity is one and the same. Magnitude of the share used in charity is not at all important. Jesus told that a beggar owning 1 rupee and donating the same to God is the highest donor than others donating hundreds of rupees, who were the owners of lakhs of rupees. That 1 rupee donated by a beggar stood as more valuable than hundreds of rupees donated by rich people. Hence, charity does not depend on the magnitude but depends upon the percentage of the part that is donated to God. Hence, the quality of charity to God depends upon the magnitude of the devotion to God and does not depend upon the magnitude of the total wealth possessed by that person or the magnitude of the share donated to God.
The magnitude of the devotion to God is related to the percentage of the charity done for God. The magnitude of the charitable part is immaterial. India might have been looted by foreigners, but whether the looting was to such extent so that the richest India became poorest due to such looting – is a point to be correctly examined and estimated from the actual history. Another point is that whether India was richest and Western country was poorest originally by way of natural resources blessed by God and both the countries were reversed since India was totally looted by a Western country. Even then, the quality of charity to God is based on the quality and quantity of the devotion of a devotee and not on the magnitude of wealth as explained by your friends. The reason is that the percentage of the charitable part does not depend upon the magnitude of the total wealth. In fact, it is generally observed that the percentage of charity is least when the magnitude of total wealth is highest. More charity is observed in poor people (by way of percentage of charity) than rich people (not by way of magnitude of donated share). Jesus told that a camel may go through the eye of a needle, but a rich man can’t get salvation! When a rich man approached Jesus for divine service, Jesus told him to donate all his wealth and then come for divine service. The rich man went away and was never seen again! Jesus appreciated and announced that the highest charity is one rupee donated by the beggar since the percentage of charity was 100 percent!
3) Nidhi Ware requested Your answer - What are the scientific reasons for Hindu traditions?
Swami replied: In every religion, both good (having scientific reason) and bad (unscientific and blindly forced) traditions exist. In any religion, both good and bad followers exist. Tradition was never created by God. Only followers, who are human beings, alone create traditions. To err is human. A tradition is not a miracle of God. A miracle cannot be explained by science. Tradition is the practical application of a concept of spiritual knowledge given by God. If the spiritual concept is correctly and clearly understood, the practical application of it called as tradition is always good and scientific. If it is misunderstood, the tradition is bad and unscientific. Hence, to say whether a specific tradition of a specific religion is good (scientific) or bad (unscientific), you have to mention the specific tradition for doing intensive and systematic analysis. Assuming that all traditions of a specific religion are good and scientific – is not correct. It is blind fanatic and conservative ignorance to say that all traditions of a specific religion are good and scientific or to say bad and unscientific. Science means systematic and intensive logical analysis. Since you have asked about Hinduism, I can mention a bad tradition and a good tradition as examples. Reciting the scripture (the Veda) blindly without knowing its meaning in a ritual is unscientific and bad tradition, especially, when the meaning of the word the Veda itself is knowledge! Worshiping idols in human form is a good tradition because development of theoretical devotion to human form of God is introduced as a preliminary training. Straight worship of human form of God is difficult due to the natural ego and jealousy present in almost all the human beings. Theory is the source of practice. Theory is developed by idols and photos whereas the subsequent practice is applied to the actual human forms of God. Hence, the idol worship need not be criticized as meaningless service done to the inert objects. You should not criticize the wastage of bullets in shooting the inert targets during the training period before the soldier enters the war to fight with alive enemies. This is a good tradition of Hinduism.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★