06 Oct 2020
[The weekly spiritual discussion (satsaṅga) in English took place online on October 3, 2020 with about 45 members. Dr. Nikhil, Devi, Surya, Ganesh, Anil, Pavan, Suganya, Bharat, Lakshman, Ajay etc., participated and their questions were answered by Swami directly. Some of them are presented below.]
Swami replied: You have confined the concept of devotion and the attainment of God’s grace to yourself; taking yourself as the example. But there are several devotees, who have worshipped God without the aspiration for any fruit in return. One may feel that the IAS examination is very difficult to get through. This conclusion is confined to that person alone because there are several candidates, who have succeeded in the IAS examination. Your experience alone cannot be taken as the universal experience, when there are many candidates succeeding in the IAS examination each year. Your experience is true from your angle. But, if you are very rigid about your conclusion based on your experience alone, I have no way other than to accept your experience as the universal truth! Scholars say that if one is rigid about one’s experience alone, then even god Indra will have to agree to it with folded hands (Evaṃ mamānubhava iti vadantaṃ nahi Indro'pi śaknoti nivārayitum)!
Regarding the various authorities of knowledge, I have already explained that experience is not the final authority. Logic supersedes experience. Logic says that the individual experience of one or a few people cannot be taken to be a universal experience. Several violations of one person’s individual experience are seen in the cases of other individuals. Thus, the common experience of many cases alone can be taken to be the universal experience, which is the standard truth.
Keywords:
| Shri Datta Swami | How can we achieve the grace of God, when it is extremely difficult to worship God without any aspiration? | Evam mamaanubhava iti vadantam nahi Indro'pi shaknoti nivaarayitum
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