07 Aug 2022
[Shri Balaji came from Bangalore exclusively to have Satsanga with Shri Datta Swami and other Devotees. Shri Balaji asked this question.]
Swami Replied: If people understand the figure of speech called metaphor (rūpaka alaṅkāra) as a concentrated form of simile (upamā alaṅkāra) alone, all these misunderstandings would not have come. God is compared to breath or life in the sense that just like all the inert (heart functioning etc.) and non-inert (activities of brain) activities of the body take place as long as breathing is going on, similarly the non-inert (activities of living beings) and inert (physical laws of nature) activities are carried on in the world due to the presence of God. In this way, there is an excess of similarity between God and breath. By this, we should not misunderstand that breath is God! Today, all the preachers of meditation are asking the people to concentrate on breath and not on God! Brahma Sutra tells that God is breath (Ata eva Prāṇaḥ). This does not mean that the breath inhaled and exhaled by the lungs, through the nose is God. Such exercise may give you some good health because the practice of a long duration in retaining the inhaled air (kumbhaka) leads to more absorption of oxygen by blood giving good health. Such good health can be used by you to serve God or serve worldly bonds. In this way, good health becomes fruitful only when it is used in spiritual line. There is no guarantee that good health will be used in spiritual life alone and not in worldly life. Hence you cannot include breathing exercise in the spiritual path to attain God. The word Yoga simply means attainment and does not indicate the object to be attained. I wonder how today people use this word Yoga simply without mentioning or even thinking of the object to be attained. However, the word Yoga is fixed in the attainment of God and hence, this word is said to be Yoga Rūḍha, which means that the word is used not only in its sense (Yoga) but also fixed in a particular way (Rūḍha) also. People say that they are practicing Yoga by doing simply some breathing exercises and telling so has become a fashion in these days! They are doing Yoga means that they are doing breathing exercise for good health and that does not mean that they are attaining good health to serve God. Then, telling that they are doing Yoga is not justified because the ultimate aim of the efforts of Yoga is only God as per the Yoga Rūḍha meaning of the word ‘Yoga’. Similarly, God is said to be the soul or individual soul. The soul is a very precious item among the items of this creation. God is also very very precious and using metaphor, we can say that God is soul. It means that God is as precious as the soul in the creation and it does not mean that the soul is God. Veda says that space is generated from the soul (Ātmana Ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ). Here, the word Aatman indicates God as per the above analysis and here, the word Aatman shall not be taken in its original sense to mean this worldly soul. The reason is that no worldly soul can produce even a cube of 1 mm space! The member of the Lions Club is called as Lion. It means that the member is as brave as the lion in doing the social service. You should not think that the member is an actual lion and run away from him! In this way, misunderstandings resulted in misinterpretations of the holy scriptures told by God.
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