Posted on: 17 Apr 2023
(Shri Kunal Chatterjee, Smt. Suchandra Chatterjee, Ms. Noishadha Chatterjee from Mumbai, Prof. JSR Prasad, Ms. Thrylokya, Smt. Anita R, Ms. Bhanu Samykya, Mr. Abhiram, Mr. Hrushikesh and Prof. Annapurna attended this Satsanga and the flashes of spiritual knowledge radiated from Shri Datta Swami are given below in a condensed way.)
[Shri Kunal Chatterjee asked:- I have been searching for the Sadguru for so long. I have got guidance also and got guidance for my job and spiritual quest. My question is that I found You after a long time after praying God several times. Why is this delay? I feel that Sadguru is He, Who gives some initiation and supervises its progress periodically.]
Swami Replied:- The word Sadguru contains two words:- i) Sat and ii) Guru. ‘Sat’ means the absolute reality, which indicates the absolute unimaginable God, called Parabrahman. Guru means, who preaches the true spiritual knowledge so that the path and the ultimate goal become very clear to you. Apart from the goal and the path, you must have full clarification about yourself because some say that self itself is God and is the ultimate goal. These three items i.e., goal, path and self are called as ‘triputi.’ Unless you have clear knowledge about these three items, the spiritual journey will be like the roaming of a blind bull in a circular way in the field itself. First you must know about yourself which is that you are not God already. Advaita philosophers say that the soul is already God. If that is true, there is no need of any spiritual effort or spiritual path by which you can reach the goal because you are already the goal. The bull does not reach its goal or home place in the village because the bull is thinking that it itself is the goal. Some preachers say that you should look into yourself without seeing outside. If you look inside, you will experience the pure awareness present in yourself after making a lot of effort to dissolve various thoughts, which are different modes of the same awareness. By doing so, you have not attained anything extra. You have attained yourself. Yourself cannot be God. Yourself cannot be at least a trace of God. God created this entire world. Can you create even an atom of matter or even a single ray of energy? Experience clearly says that you cannot create a trace of matter or trace of energy. This clearly means that you are neither God nor even a trace of God. You are a part of the creation created by the creator. This awareness is called as ‘Paraa Prakriti’ in the Gita. The other inert part like your body is called as ‘Aparaa Prakriti’ in the Gita. Prakriti means creation and Purusha means God and God is also called as ‘Purushottama’ if you call the awareness as Purusha. Therefore, the soul is purusha or part of creation. Soul is awareness. This awareness is created from food and therefore, soul is a modification of food. When food is digested, it releases inert energy and this inert energy after entering the specific system, called nervous system, generates a specific work form of energy called awareness. Just like electricity after entering a grinding machine does a specific work form called grinding and just like the same electricity entering a cutting machine is transformed into a specific work form called cutting work, similarly, the same inert energy (electricity is also a form of inert energy) after entering a specific machine, the nervous system, is transformed into a specific work form called awareness. When awareness is the product of food, how can it be God, Who is creator of the entire world and not the product of food? The simple logic is that if you don’t supply food, the human being dies. Therefore, it is thoroughly proved that the soul is just an item of the creation and not the creator-God. Moreover, in deep sleep, the awareness is completely disappearing every day. Do you mean that God is taking birth and death every day? If you are the goal itself, where is the question of your journey to the goal? Hence, unless you are thorough that you are not the goal, there is no meaning in opening the topics of path and goal in your spiritual journey.
By now, we are very clear about ourselves that we are not God and also that we are a tiny part of the creation. After this clarification about the traveler, we must get clarification about the goal and the path. The name of the goal is God, which is very well known to all. The confusion about the goal-God is whether God is having any form or not. The straight reply to this is that God is neither having form nor is formless. Both formful items and formless items exist in the imaginable domain, which is the creation. Space, air etc., have no form. Earth etc., have form. God is unimaginable and is beyond the imaginable domain, which is the creation. In that case, how to meditate upon God? The kindest unimaginable God, Who is unmediated cannot be imagined by any human being and hence, He became mediated so that He can be seen by anybody and can be also meditated upon. Not only meditation, the mediated unimaginable God, can be seen and even can be questioned for getting clear answers in spiritual knowledge. God Vishnu is the energetic incarnation relevant to the upper energetic worlds, whereas, God Krishna is the human incarnation relevant to the present earth on which human beings live. If you realize that Krishna and Vishnu are one and the same, because both are incarnations or same God mediated in different media, you need not waste all your lifetime to see God Vishnu through penance and in such case, where is the time for practicing the heard spiritual knowledge to please God? The unimaginable God mediated in energetic body is God Vishnu and the same unimaginable God mediated in human body is God Krishna. The same person wearing silk cloth is God Vishnu and the same person wearing cotton cloth is God Krishna. You may argue that instead of this confusion of silk cloth and cotton cloth, let me see the person without clothes. It is impossible because the naked person will not come out of the bathroom into public. This means the unmediated unimaginable God will not appear even in your imagination, not to speak of direct appearance. Therefore, we must use the facility given by God to approach the human incarnation here instead of foolishly doing penance for the sake of energetic incarnations. The biggest problem in this point at this juncture is that we neglect the human incarnation thinking that it is also an ordinary human being due to our ego-based jealousy towards co-human forms. Therefore, we must eradicate our common human repulsion towards our co-human beings so that when God comes in human form, at least, we will not insult Him if not worship. Krishna told this point directly in the Gita (avajānanti māṃ mūḍhāḥ). Therefore, scholars have started a training program under the name ‘service to humanity is service to God.’ In this point, the big slip is to really think that humanity is God and involve in love with humanity so that your worship of humanity results in your getting re-human birth on this earth, which is of no use. Hence, social service without connection to God is of no use, of course, it has use if you are a politician begging for votes from humanity. If you do not connect social service to the name of God, you will get re-human birth as the fruit of your service on this earth. Or, alternatively, you may go to heaven and enjoy its fruit there and come back to earth without any benefit as said in the Gita (kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṃ viśanti).
What should be our prayer to God? The basis of your prayer should not be any selfish fruit in return, in which case, it becomes business devotion. The motivation in your worship or service or sacrifice to God, must be your reasonless attraction towards the divine personality of God. You need not argue that such a motiveless love is not possible at all because every love is based on selfish benefit only in some way or the other. If the omniscient God recognizes your selfish benefit based love, you will lose the total impression of God and also lose your selfish benefit. You can fool a human being by hiding your desire in your mind, but, you cannot fool the omniscient God, Who knows even the thoughts present in your sub-consciousness, which are not known to even yourself! The main aim in doing any charity must be to please God and not to please the receiver.
The third item is the path through which the devotee pleases God so that there will be establishment of bond of permanent true love with God. There are three steps:- i) Knowledge or Jnaana yoga, which means the details of the personality of God. Without knowing the details of Mumbai city, you will not be attracted towards that city to go and see it. ii) Devotion or Bhakti yoga. After knowing the details of the goal, you will develop some inspiration to reach that goal. Both these steps (knowledge and devotion) are theoretical. Knowledge involves intelligence and devotion involves mind. Intelligence is responsible for analysis and mind is responsible for emotion or devotion. iii) Practical devotion or Karma yoga, which is the practice and this step is divided into two sub-steps:- a) sacrifice of physical energy or service (Karma samnyaasa yoga), b) sacrifice of fruit of work (Karmaphala tyaaga yoga). The saint will do only service and not sacrifice because he begs even for his own food. The householder is expected to do both these steps. Sacrifice of wealth (matter) is more valuable than sacrifice of energy or service because a lot of energy condensed becomes matter. But, this point will not apply to the case of the saint since he is completely incapable of doing sacrifice of money. The Veda says that sacrifice of money is the highest step. But, Krishna polished this Vedic concept and told that fruit of hard work should be sacrificed and not ancestral money. The attachment to ancestral money is very less compared to the attachment to hard earned money. God always competes with the strongest bond and not with weak bonds. Sudama was a great devotee of Krishna praising and singing songs on Krishna. Krishna was also praising Sudama and singing songs on Sudama while staying in Dwaraka. The reason is that the reaction from God is just a reflection of mirror to the action of the devotee. Krishna sanctioned wealth practically only when Sudama brought three handful quantity of parched rice. Since Krishna consumed only 2/3rd parts of rice, Krishna gave 2/3rd parts of His wealth. Based on this, you should not argue that Krishna did business with Sudama. If it is business, tell Me in which market the rate is written that three handful quantities of rice is equal to infinite wealth? The measure of the action is reflected in the reaction of God in terms of 2/3rd donation of devotee being equal to 2/3rd grace of God proving the promise of God in the Gita that in whatever way you approach Me, in the same way God will approach you. Hence, theory should be followed by practice as a proof just like the application for job mentioning your qualifications (Karma samnyaasa) and work experience (Karma phala tyaaga) is accompanied by the certificate of our qualifications and the certificate of your previous work experience. You may say that God knows whether my theoretical devotion and knowledge are true or not, in which case, practical proof is unnecessary for the omniscient God. In such case, God will Himself reply that your theoretical knowledge and devotion are not true. You have to accept His remark since you yourself told that He is omniscient. Moreover, the public must be satisfied. Suppose a teacher says that a specific student deserves first class and another specific student deserves failure, based on the opinion of the teacher will the result be declared in this wayofficially? An examination is necessary for practical proof. This practical proof is always related to the devotee and not to God. God may blame the devotee as greedy, but, the devotee cannot blame the God as greedy because God has no such necessity to get any favour from any human being since He is the donor of everything to anybody. God wants the proof for true love for the sake of the public also so that a devotee doing prayer without love may claim to be equal to the devotee doing prayer with true love. This difference cannot be seen by public through any practical instrument. Based on this, not only the false devotee, but the public will also say that God is partial to one devotee. In order to prove that God is not partial, practical proof is demanded for exposure to the public so that justice is not only done, but, also must appear to be done. Hence, practical devotion is the most important final field of spiritual journey and it acts as the final examination.