23 Apr 2017
Prof. Bhanoji Rao (F/O Kishore Ram) asked the following Questions:
1) Jesus preached right spiritual knowledge upto the age of 32 years. Later on, His life ended abrupt. Had He lived more, the program might have been completed. What is your opinion on this point?
Swami Replied: Whatever quantum of Spiritual knowledge was preached by Jesus, it was as per the divine plan only. The knowledge preached by Jesus was planned as the prescribed first part of divine knowledge to be preached by Jesus. The extension of spiritual knowledge by disciples after Jesus was also as per the divine plan of God only. In the case of divine people like Jesus, there is no question of abrupt ending of the divine program. The program taken by any Divine personality is perfectly done and gets ended as per the perfect plan of God. In the case of ordinary human beings, abrupt ending of life may take place, which is not the will of God. But, in the case of Divine persons like Jesus, Adi Shankara etc., the divine program was completed by them as per the will of God only. They have left the human bodies only after completing the programs. If you observe the statement of Jesus just before crucifixion (‘Let thy will be done’), it clearly shows that crucifixion of Jesus was done by the will of God only and not by the will of Jesus. Infact, Jesus tried to pray God to avoid the horrible crucifixion. But, later on, since crucifixion is the will of God, He welcomed it. Similarly in the case of Shankara, He finished the entire program in very fast way. Since the program was completed, He left His body. In the case of ordinary human beings, the case may be different. One may die without completion of some materialistic program. One may also die even before the longevity ends. In such case, the soul is said to wander in this world in the form of a ghost for the rest of the period of life. In the case of divine people, the human body is left only after the completion of program and hence death happens when the longevity is exactly over.
2) One of my Christian friends asked me that in Hinduism there is punishment of sinner whereas in Christianity Jesus always excused the sinner. What is your comment on this point?
Swami Replied: Christianity also speaks about hell and liquid fire punishing the sinners. The divine concept is always one and does not change with the change of one religion to other since there is only one God in all the religions. The one concept of one God cannot change as per the change in the religion, which is created by human beings. The same concept exists in different languages of different religions in the world. Jesus was called as Immanuel, which means that God in human form came to save His people. This does not mean that God is saving all the people. God saves only His devotees (people), who are reformed. The sign of reformation is not to repeat the sin practically from today onwards. If one stops a sin of one type, all the previous sins of that type get cancelled. The type means the category of a specific sin. For example, if one stops corruption, all the previous sins related to corruption only get cancelled. If one stops all types of sins, all categories of past sins get cancelled. But, the sin ends only by the enjoyment of punishment (Avashya manubhoktavyam…). To satisfy this clause present in the divine constitution, God suffers the punishments of sins of such reformed devotees, who are called as His people. When God suffers, the main rule stands without violation or exception in any case. Moreover, when the reformed soul notes that God suffered for his sins, a strong impression of sympathy will stand in the mind so that the concept of reformation is strongly remembered by the soul. Such sympathy will solidify the memory of reformation in the mind of the soul. Except this one path, a sin done will never disappear.
3) But priests say that the sin is cancelled through worships, which is another way to cancel the punishments of sins. How is this?
Swami Replied: The above quotation clearly says that any deed cannot get cancelled without enjoying its ordained fruit. But, the Gita says that one can cross the sin through the spiritual knowledge, which alone is the path (Sarvam jnanaplavenaiva vrujinam santarishyasi). The Gita also says that there is no other way to purify the soul except knowledge (Nahijnanena sadrusham pavitram…). The Gita also says that the knowledge fire can smash any deed (Jnanaagnih sarvakarmani…). All these prove that this spiritual knowledge alone can reform the soul by stopping the practical repetition of a sin. The logic in this is that the previous psychological setup or subconscious state is the nature (prakruti or samskara or vasana), which is nothing but the wrong knowledge produced in the soul through millions of previous births. The wrong knowledge can be removed only by right knowledge and not by anything else. A diamond can be cut only by diamond.
The need of the hour is establishing the right knowledge that gives clarifications removing the wrong knowledge induced by misinterpretations. We have clearly seen that except reformation through right knowledge, no sin gets cancelled. The priests have introduced this misinterpretation so that all the sinners will do worships of God to get rid of the punishment of their sins. This misinterpretation was done by priests based on their plan for earning money through worships. Such wrong knowledge gets solidified and forms the rigid subconscious state, which influences the analysis done by intelligence. Only the powerful right knowledge coming from divine incarnation like Krishna, Buddha, Jesus etc., can alone destroy the power of subconscious state so that the human soul can take right decision based on right knowledge without getting affected by the subconscious state smashed by a right knowledge. Hence, the need of the hour is right knowledge that removes the misinterpretations inducing wrong knowledge into the brains of human beings. There is enough devotion, enough sacrifice and enough service, which are being done towards God for the sake of fruits in return. Doing service and sacrifice without any fruit in return is also introduced by right spiritual knowledge only. This is the main reason for God to come in human form and preach the right spiritual knowledge.
Recitation of Prayer Will Not Cancel Any Sin
4) In reciting prayers on God, every prayer tells at the end that by reciting this prayer all the sins get destroyed (sarvapaapaat vimuchyate). This statement is becoming a lie as per the above explanation. Is it not?
Swami Replied: When a mother is giving food to her child, she says that the moon will come down if the food is taken by the child. She is repeating this in every meal. No doubt, this is a lie. But, the lie is doing good in long run by giving good strength to the child and makes the child to grow more and more. Such a lie is not cheating. Will a mother cheat her own child? In view of the long run benefit, this is not a sin. This is called as ‘Artha Vada’, which means a lie told for a good purpose.
Certainly, except reformation through spiritual knowledge, no recitation or worship will destroy the sin. The recitation or worship will have its own good fruit. But, the cancellation of bad fruit by a good fruit can never happen. One has to enjoy both good fruits and bad fruits separately for their corresponding deeds in heaven and hell respectively. Fruits of intensive deeds are enjoyed in this birth itself, which has an additional advantage to give practical proof for the action and its fruit. No good fruit can cancel any bad fruit. Hence, recitation of the prayer to God will not cancel any sin.
But, long run recitation of prayer or worship to God can make the devotee to become more devoted to God and gradually understand the personality of God, which is to encourage good deeds and punish bad deeds. By this knowledge of personality of God, whom the devotee is praying and worshipping a lot, the devotee will not like doing sins against the wish of God in course of time. By this, the devotee is totally reformed and will not repeat the sins practically. Hence, a devotee worshipping or praying a God will have a chance in long run to get reformation. Hence, recitation of prayer or worship to God may not immediately destroy the sins, but, in long run the continuous recitations and worships may reform the soul so that all his previous sins may get cancelled. Therefore, you should take the meaning of this statement in a long run only and not as immediate effect, which means that all the sins get cancelled by just reciting the prayer or doing the worship to God. Promoting an ignorant soul in the beginning through such false incentives is not wrong in view of the long run benefit (sarvaarambhaahi… Gita). But, one should clearly understand that the benefit will come only in the long run when the real reformation is achieved and the benefit will not happen immediately by any number of recitations or worships without the real reformation. The Gita says that a soul is reformed through devotion in course of time (kshipram bhavati dharmaatmaa…).
5) If we say that God came to save all the people, it will be more befitting to the personality of God being the Father of all humanity. If He comes only to save His devotees, it will be partial and not universal.
Swami Replied: When the effort is put by God in preaching the spiritual knowledge, it was done to all the people. Some people honored God and followed His efforts to become His people or His devotees. Some people did not honor God (even some rejected the very existence of God) and did not follow His preachings. Such people were thrown into the liquid fire of hell. Even this type of punishment is not due to any revenge. This punishment is only to introduce atleast fear into soul so that temporary reformation will be attained. Spiritual knowledge gives permanent reformation and punishment gives temporary reformation. In the absence of permanent reformation, temporary reformation is atleast needed to control the sin to some extent. From this angle, even punishment of sinner reflects only love of God on humanity. The teacher taught all the students in uniform way. Those, who cared his teaching passed and those, who neglected his teaching failed. The passed students can be called as the students of the teacher, which does not show any partiality, but shows only the reality.
6) One scientist was telling me that she doesn’t believe in spiritual knowledge, which is composed by human beings only and which is not having practical authentication. What is the answer to be given to her?
Swami Replied: Science is also composed by scientists, who are human beings only. If one says that he does not believe science since it is framed by human beings only, the statement of that scientist is also similar towards spiritual knowledge. Regarding the practical authentication, Shri Satya Sai Baba did several miracles, which are observed by several scientists and lot of public in very close manner. You neither believe theoretical nor practical spiritual knowledge. If one says that he doesn’t believe theoretical and practical science, your statement will be similar. Suppose I say that since Einstein was a human being, the formula E=MC2 proposed by him can’t be also believed, how will it look? You may say that blasting atom bomb proves this formula, I will say that I will not believe the formula even if practical authentication is there. You have also said that you don’t believe the theoretical spiritual knowledge in spite of its practical authentication given, through the divine miracles performed by Godmen. You may say that you have not seen a divine miracle. I can also say that I have not seen the blast of bomb or transformation of matter into energy. As you are towards spiritual knowledge so I am towards science. But I am not such a blind conservative like you. I accept the science in theory and in practicals also as the subject of imaginable domain. The subject of unimaginable domain is spiritual knowledge. If you say that you have majority of atheistic scientists to support your views, I have the real majority of supporters of spiritual knowledge because every true scientist believes in spiritual knowledge. Do you know that even Einstein and Newton were good scholars in spiritual knowledge? True science always believes in a practical event that happens before eyes. The perfect logic of such unimaginable event (miracle) may not be understood. Since it is not understood, science will not say the event is false. True science accepts the happening of a practical event and keeps silent about its explanation. Science will say that the event is beyond imagination and logic. But, atheists see that an unimaginable event is always false. They neither can give the explanation nor at least accept it as unimaginable like a true scientist. Science always keeps silent about the unimaginable domain, but never negates its existence. Atheists are emotional and loose balance of mind and even common logic by simply negating the existence of unimaginable event since everything must be imaginable to them!
Shri Kishore Ram asked:
1) Why there is variation in intelligence of human beings?
Swami Replied: The least intelligence is due to lack of study of logic, which can be today called as science. As far as the intelligence in materialistic life is concerned, most of the human beings have good intelligence irrespective of education. As far as this spiritual field is concerned, the lack of intelligence is due to lack of study of logic through scriptures or through scientific logic and especially due to lack of association with spiritual people (satsanga). Even if the intelligence does analysis and takes a right decision in spiritual matters like doing a sin, the previous psychological setup or subconscious state influences it and changes the decision. Arjuna told that he will not fight in the war. Krishna laughed at this decision and told that Arjuna will certainly fight the war due to his subconscious state called as prakruti (prakrutistvaam niyokshyati). What is the nature of Arjuna or Nara in the previous births? Nara was fighting with a demon Sahasrakavacha along with Narayana for the past 999 births. In one birth Nara is doing penance during which Narayana fights with demon. In the next birth Narayana does penance and Nara fights. That demon is born as Karna in this birth, in which Nara has to fight. Hence, the previous subconscious state was full of fighting nature only and even if Arjuna takes a decision not to fight, his strong subconscious state will certainly provoke him to fight. Hence Krishna did not preach the Gita to Arjuna to make him fight the war. Krishna only replied the doubts of Arjuna in the spiritual knowledge. Krishna gave the spiritual knowledge to the entire humanity keeping Arjuna as a representative of humanity. This is a clear example that the decision taken by the intelligence will be always vetoed by the previous psychological setup or nature of the human soul. In the case of Arjuna, the previous nature was correct, which is nothing but fighting against a demon to destroy the injustice. Arjuna rejected the war not because he is not fascinated to the kingdom or his share of property. He refused to fight the war because he has to kill his grandfather for the sake of the kingdom. Hence, the withdrawal from the war is not due to lack of fascination to kingdom and not due to non-violence of the war. Arjuna fought several battle fields and did not mind the non-violence in those wars. Here, the main reason is the fascination of Arjuna to his grandfather. This is the case of violating the pravrutti or supporting injustice due to fascination to the worldly (family) bond. A sin like corruption is due to the fascination to worldly (family) bonds only. Hence, pravrutti is always violated due to the worldly bonds. This was very strong worldly (family) bond of Arjuna. Hence, fighting the war was justified in all the angles and withdrawal from the war was not justified in any angle.
2) Even a spiritual devotee is unable to control the influence of sin even on his mind. What is the reason?
Swami Replied: The Gita says the same point that the mind associated with senses attracts the mind of even a great spiritual scholar (vidhvaamsamapikarshati). The reason told in the Gita is that the mind, which is associated with senses is inter-related with the external atmosphere. More than this parameter, the most powerful factor is the influence of previous solidified psychological setup. Infact, a sin done mentally is not given any practical punishment because no other soul is practically affected by mental sin. The mental sin is not expressed even in words, which may hurt the other soul. The sin done in mind is punished in the hell by a warning given to the soul along with the related spiritual knowledge. When the same sin is expressed in words, the punishment to the sinner is also given by similar cruel words. For example, Sita spoke very cruel words to Lakshmana that he is following her to the forest with ill intention to marry her. Such words were spoken in the context when Rama went after the golden deer and Lakshmana was not willing to go to save Rama. Lakshmana was such a pure soul that he could not identify any jewel of Sita except the anklets since he was prostrating everyday to her feet only. Rama punished Sita at the end of the war by speaking very cruel words like telling her that she is free to marry Bharata or Vibhishana. By such cruel words, the sin was not completely neutralized since Lakshmana was the greatest devotee to the Lord. The balance punishment was given by Rama to Sita through cruel words of the washerman and by leaving her in the forest. The extent of this punishment shows the love of God towards His purest devotee. Without knowing all this background, people mistake Rama for all these actions. Rama is God in human form and God never becomes such sadist. An ordinary human being may doubt the character of his wife and may speak such bad words. But, Rama is omniscient and will never use such bad words because He knows that Sita was very pure in her character. The reason for such cruel words was different as explained above. The sin done through words may require practical punishment also in some cases (like the highest level of devoted Lakshmana). The other souls are sometimes severely affected by words also. Certainly, the sin done through action will have the punishment in action only. The main concept here is that the mental sin hidden in the mind will not get any practical punishment because the other soul is not affected by such mental sin.
But, there is another angle in the case of mental sin. Though it does not affect anybody else due to its inexpression, it has a very dangerous angle. The mental sin will lead to practical sin in course of time because theory is the mother of practice. Therefore, it is better to arrest this mental sin also through right spiritual knowledge from the point of this alternative serious angle.
Clarifications of some general misunderstandings of spiritual knowledge by devotees as given by Swami:
1) To understand the need of human incarnation, first, you must understand the existence of human incarnation. If you do not believe that God becomes human being, you are straightly negating the basic concept of human incarnation even in the case of Rama, Krishna, Sai Baba, Jesus etc. If you accept that these are human incarnations, your basic question that how God becomes human being is already explained since Krishna, a human being is God. If you say that God can never become human being (like Prophet Mohammed and Swami Dayananda opposed), this can be answered that there was a need of human incarnation for devotees and the omnipotent God has become human incarnation. The needs are that devotees prayed the unimaginable God to be seen by their eyes and clear their doubts personally from God in spiritual knowledge. The need is mainly the propagation of right spiritual knowledge, which always happens to be the need of the hour. The reason is that every time misinterpretations are generated and the right knowledge always disappears. There is a need to enlighten the right spiritual knowledge every time. We honor Prophet Mohammed and Swami Dayananda also as the human incarnations of God. They objected this concept in view of the real human incarnation being crucified by ignorant people and false human incarnations trying to exploit the innocent devotees respectively. We submit real admiration to both these human forms of God because they sacrificed even their personal honor for the sake of protection of human incarnation and protection of devotees from exploitation respectively. In the case of both these human incarnations, the negation of concept of human incarnation is common, but their reasons were different. Mohammad negated the concept to save the human incarnation from further crucifixions. Swami Dayananda negated this concept to save the innocent devotees from the exploitation by false incarnations. If you have seen a false human incarnation, you should not eradicate the very basic concept of human incarnation. If one student is caught copying, you should not eradicate the very basic concept of conducting examinations. You can take all cares regarding the exploitation of the true concept. If the human incarnation and Godmen (real devotees) are removed, the entire spiritual field evaporates and nothing except atheism blended with materialism exists. You should use special boxes to catch the rats but not burn the house to destroy the rats!
2) Detachment from worldly (family) bonds is a very careful and delicate concept to be understood with proper spirit. It is very very easy to disturb this concept by even very mild misinterpretations. Detachment from family (worldly) bonds shall be understood in the following two angles. (a) The worldly bonds are never dropped, better to say, that they can never be dropped by any human soul with effort. This is not the meaning of the word detachment. If somebody drops the family bonds with effort, it is not only foolish but also useless. By detaching the worldly bonds with effort, the attachment to God is never attained. Only people having troubles with family bonds or trouble of poverty leave the family bonds and go out for peace or for earning money or food.
Sage Vyasa told that He is lifting up both His hands and is shouting about a concept again and again because it is misunderstood (Urdhva baahur viraumyatra..). Similarly I am also shouting again and again like sage Vyasa that the spiritual knowledge does not say to leave the family bonds for attaining the attachment to God. What the spiritual knowledge exactly says is that a human soul attached to the attraction towards God always is detached from the worldly bonds. Detachment from worldly bonds is only a spontaneous consequence of the attachment to God and there is not effort here. (b) Detachment from family bonds can be explained without reference to the spiritual knowledge and with reference to the worldly knowledge itself. When you are attached to the worldly bond, you are undergoing tension due to your fascination to that bond. If you are detached from that worldly (family) bond with your mind and perform all the required responsibilities, you will never get tension about that family bond. Here, the word detachment does not mean leaving that family bond externally and go out. Here detachment means only internal detachment in the mind so that the specific family bond can never give you mental tension at any cost. Detachment also does not mean detachment from the responsibilities or duties to be done to the family bonds. It only means doing all the duties to the family bonds without internal attachment or fascination to avoid any tension in the mind. If the fascination is reduced due to attraction to God, it also helps in the world by avoiding tensions from the worldly bonds. Another advantage of this is that if fascination to family bonds is reduced due to attraction to God, sins like corruption also get controlled. The main reason of corruption is only the fascination to family bonds.
The word detachment is easily misunderstood as leaving the family bonds and going out or leaving the justified responsibilities to be done to the family bonds. One should be detached to family bonds leaving their welfare on God and at the same time perform all the responsibilities. Leaving the welfare of family bonds to the care of God does not mean leaving responsibilities towards them. Such leaving of welfare to God can bring perfect peace in the mind and absence of tension. These concepts should not be misunderstood in different way to blame the spiritual knowledge.
3) The meanings of the words Krishna and Radha are often misunderstood. Krishna means God, who is attracting your mind (karshati iti Krishnah). Radha means any devotee irrespective of gender devoted to God continuously. The word Radha comes from the principle of reversing letters (varna vyatyaya). It means ‘dhaaraa’ or stream of oil like devotion without any break (avichhinnataila dhaaraavat). Hence, Radha stands for every devoted soul irrespective of gender. Infact all the souls are considered to be females (Prakruti) and God alone is considered to be the male (Purusha). Once Meerabai went to Brundavanam to meet a sage and his disciple told that the sage will not meet females. Then Meera shouted that she was thinking that Lord Krishna alone is male and she does not want to see the face of such a saint, who is a false male. Hearing this, the saint ran out and fell on the feet of Meera. Meera worshipped the statue of Krishna, which is representative model of past human incarnation. Even then, she faced many troubles due to jealousy from other people. Meera did not love any contemporary human incarnation like Gopikas. Even then, Meera got troubles. In such case, how one can say that contemporary human incarnation alone gives troubles? The statue of Krishna was not a contemporary human incarnation. Hence, ego and jealously must be overcome to realise the depth of spiritual knowledge like the Bhagavatham. In such case, you have to say that Krishna was also not human incarnation. But, Krishna did several miracles like lifting up Govardhana hill. One can use these miracles to filter the false human incarnation exploiting innocent public. If any false human incarnation tries to exploit the innocent public, the public can ask the false human incarnation to lift up at least a big stone if not a hill. Hence, the exploitation can be filtered by employing such techniques (rat boxes) instead of negating the very basic concept of human incarnation by putting a question like “How God can become a human being?”
4) When social service is mixed up with spiritual knowledge, the real spirit is developed due to incentives in the heaven. Social service can be not only taken as doing good to the co-human beings but also can be taken as not doing bad to the co-human beings. The control of not doing bad to the society comes only due to the fear from hell, which stands as inevitable even if the law here is escaped. The real spirit comes by incentives and inevitable fear developed by spiritual knowledge. Otherwise, the social service becomes only a cheating to get votes and power as done by the present politicians. If the real theism (spiritual knowledge) is developed, the achievement of social service can be obtained as a byproduct of the line of Nivrutti. The path of Nivrutti will stop at the level of Pravrutti itself and may not go up to the climax.
5) Pravrutti is the ultimate aim of God since God said that He comes in human form only for the establishment of Pravrutti and never told about the establishment of Nivrutti (dharmasamsthaapanaarthaayaa…). God never encouraged Nivrutti and even did not propose it. Nivrutti is discovered by devotees and developed to the climax. Ofcourse, the fruit of Nivrutti is highest (nivruttistu mahaaphalaa) because the fruit is that the soul either becomes human incarnation or becomes even master of God while reaching the climax of Nivrutti remaining as a devotee. Several hurdles and tests exist in this line to discourage the devotee. Hence, devotees crossing pravrutti and reaching the climax of Nivrutti are countable on fingers only since the creation of this world.
6) One may ask that why not Nivrutti be stopped simultaneously with the climax of Pravrutti? This means that the climax of Pravrutti and Nivrutti be one level only. The problem here is that unless the goal is beyond the climax of Pravrutti, atleast the goal of Pravrutti can’t be achieved. This is the reason for why Jesus told that unless one hates family bonds, he/she cannot become His disciple. This should not be misunderstood as the real intention of God. This will never happen with human beings because Hanuman and Radha were human incarnations of God Shiva to reach the climax of Nivrutti. Only for the sake of (n+1) rule as the goal, God also came in the form of devotee and showed the climax of Nivrutti. Even Gopikas were sages performing penance for God from millions of births and could succeed in reaching the climax of Nivrutti. But, they were very few in number. The example of Radha and Hanuman shows that climax of Nivrutti is almost impossible to any human being and the example of sages born as Gopikas proves that a rare soul may attain it. To keep such climax of Nivrutti as a goal helps the human being to reach the climax of Pravrutti easily. Whether one puts the climax of Nivrutti as goal and reaches the climax of Pravrutti or puts the climax of Pravrutti itself as the goal and reaches it, it is immaterial. It is of the choice of the individual to choose the climax of Pravrutti or climax of Nivrutti as the specific goal. Such choice of individual need not be generalized to all the souls. It depends on the choice of choosing the goal by individual and one cannot pass a general rule that is to be applied cent percent. There will be always very minor exceptions, who fix the climax of Nivrutti as their goal. The choice of freedom is a right of human souls to choose the path. One cannot ban the IAS examination arguing that it very difficult giving lot of strain to students!
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