03 Jan 2025
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God
1. Some theorists get knowledge and theoretical devotion but are not entering practical devotion. Then, how is practical devotion spontaneous?
[Prof. J.S.R. Prasad asked:- Sāṣṭāṅga namaskāraṃ Swami. You told about four steps of a reaction: - i) Acquiring correct spiritual knowledge, ii) Generation of theoretical devotion from spiritual knowledge, iii) Generation of practical devotion (service and sacrifice) from theoretical devotion, iv) Achieving the fruit of salvation and union with God. You told that the first step takes all the time since the other three steps are spontaneous steps. You also told that Shankara told that the final divine fruit is attained once you acquire the knowledge. This means once the first step is over, the second, third and fourth steps are spontaneously over. At the same time, You told that there are some theorists getting knowledge and theoretical devotion but are not entering into practical devotion. This means first and second steps may take place but subsequently third and fourth steps may not take place since they are not spontaneous. There is a clear contradiction between these two concepts. Please explain.]
Swami replied:- There are two angles when I explained the statement of Shankara, which is that once the spiritual knowledge is attained, the final divine fruit (fourth step) is spontaneously attained.
1st angle:- What Shankara told is perfectly correct because if the correct spiritual knowledge is attained from Sadguru, the first step is over and all the time is taken for the first step only. The other three steps are spontaneous and the final fruit is immediately attained.
2nd angle:- The disciple might have caught a false preacher and got wrong spiritual knowledge, in which case, such spiritual knowledge may generate theoretical devotion (second step) but not practical devotion (third step). Without the third step, the fourth step will not result and hence, the final divine fruit is not attained.
Therefore, if a disciple got the final fruit after attaining the spiritual knowledge, it means that such spiritual knowledge must have been correct spiritual knowledge and the preacher must have been the divine preacher or Sadguru (contemporary human incarnation of God). If the disciple did not get the final fruit after attaining the spiritual knowledge, it means that such spiritual knowledge is not the correct spiritual knowledge and the preacher must have been a false preacher.
We must understand that attaining spiritual knowledge (wrong spiritual knowledge) and attaining theoretical devotion (false theoretical devotion) should not be taken as correct due to lack of logical analysis. Generally, we, the Indians, are very good in knowledge and devotion (theory) and we are zero in practical devotion. We should not think that we are greater than foreigners. Self-boasting is wrong. If you raise yourself, you will be decreased by God very much. If you decrease yourself, you will be raised by God very much. We are very much attached to our wives (dāreṣaṇā), children (putreṣaṇā) and money (dhaneṣaṇā). If you see foreigners, they are not so much attached to these three worldly bonds. We feel that we are greater than them and criticise them saying that they don’t have a good family culture! They are better souls than us in the path of Yoga (union with God) and hence, they are born in rich countries (Śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe…– Gita). You should not mock that this verse refers to Yoga Bhrashta, who slips from Yoga. Yoga is climbing the tree to reach God. The climber only slips and not the person, who is standing on the ground without attempting to climb the tree of Yoga! We also criticise foreigners that they are not having a perfect bond between husband and wife. If they are not perfect in this one bond, we can say that they are not following correct justice. But, they are not having strength in all these three worldly bonds (eṣaṇātrayam).
God (Nivrutti) and world (Pravrutti) are opposite to each other (Dūramete… – Veda). If you are strong in the worldly bonds, you are weak in the bond with God and vice versa. One fellow was telling Me that our India is greater than foreign countries because God incarnates in our country several times. I told him that self-boasting is a sin in the eyes of God and told the answer to the above comment like this:- “If the class is dull in understanding the perfect theory, the teacher comes to that class again and again to revise the lesson again and again. If the class understood the lesson perfectly, the teacher need not come to that class again and again!”. Before this Kali age, our sages could understand the theory preached by God-Teacher perfectly and also practiced the knowledge completely in their lives. Hence, they were the greatest. Showing them, we are boasting about ourselves! It is like selling the fruits by telling the name of the tree! Once Swami Vivekananda cried looking the sky asking God the reason for the birth of excellent scholars and devotees in this pious country of sacred sages. The answer given by this Shri Datta Swami was that the reason was the present incorrect spiritual knowledge generating defective devotion. We must understand the actual reason and rectify our defect. This should not be misunderstood as lack of patriotism in Me because I am also an Indian loving My country, which was once upon a time filled with sages, who are ideals for the entire world! Impartial self-analysis is always the torchlight in the path travelling in darkness for any human soul.
2. Why did You insist me to type this message immediately?
[When I told that I will type the above answer tomorrow morning since at present it is late night, why did You insist me to type this immediately? --At Your divine holy lotus feet]
Swami replied:- A deserving beggar came to King Dharmaraja and asked for some financial help. Dharmaraja told him to come the next day morning. Then, his brother, Bhima, laughed. Dharmaraja asked Bhima for the reason of his laughter. Bhima told that he laughed for the ignorance of Dharmaraja to think that he will be certainly alive till the next day morning! Dharmaraja realized his mistake and gave wealth to the beggar immediately. This means that we shall always do tomorrow’s work by today itself since we don’t have any guarantee of our human longevity. Sage Vyaasa tells in the Mahaabhaarata epic that one shall do good work immediately thinking as if the deity of death is following him/her catching the hair of the back head. People having completely shaven heads should not think that they have no fear in this matter. In their case, the deity of death is following them by putting her hands on their necks! This is how the scriptures are misunderstood and misinterpreted due to over-intelligence!!
Yourself and Shri Abhiram pressed My both feet for about an hour. The answers for these two questions are like the cane beatings given by God Datta to the disciple called ‘Pingalanaaga’, who pressed His feet for an hour. Actually, the cane beatings of God Datta are only the true concepts, given by Him, which are naturally harsh! We must understand God Datta in the internal sense and not in the external physical sense.
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