21 Nov 2020
[Mrs. Anita Renkuntla asked: Śrī Datta Swāmiji, Pādanamaskāramulu. Swāmi, Long back in Your conversation with Goddess Bhadrakāli, when the Goddess wanted to punish humanity with an AIDS pandemic, You had said to her in a loud voice that it was not the correct time yet to do so. This miraculous incident was seen and told to other devotees by the devotee, Sītammagāru. Is it that the correct time for punishing humanity has come now and as a result many people are facing death due to the present COVID pandemic? How long do we humans have to live in fear of COVID? Also, please suggest to me how I can come out of the thoughts related to the past incidents which disturb me a lot in the present? As a devotee of Lord Dattātreya, I would like to ask why doubts or confusions arise in my mind while reading the spiritual knowledge. For instance, the worship of statues or images of past Incarnations or God is indirect worship which is impure and so on. Swāmi, recently, You told me to keep a picture of Lord Dattātreya before me and chant a śloka. I rather feel that worshipping Your photograph is correct. It is the best and pure form of direct worship since You are the present Human Incarnation of Lord Dattātreya. Should I worship both the present and the past Human Incarnation? Last but not the least, I want to know about the Uttara Mīmāṃsakas and their role played in the spiritual path. At the Lotus feet of Datta Swāmi]
Swāmi replied: Such dangers to humanity come in order to control the growing sin in these times. If all the people in a country take an oath that they will try to control their sinful behavior, as far as possible, this danger will be controlled and I have already said this point. Concentrate your mind on God with devotion. The mind has one inevitable characteristic that it must cling to some object. It cannot remain isolated, without any attachment. If you focus your mind on God, God too will help you to come out of this problem.
Which image of God you use to develop theoretical devotion, depends on which form of God helps your mind get strongly absorbed in God. Even in the case of the Human Incarnation of God Datta, all the power lies with God Datta alone and not with the human form acting as His medium. Of course, God Datta mixes perfectly with the human medium, so that even if you feel that the medium itself is God Datta, it does not matter at all. Many people get repelled from the contemporary Human Incarnation due to their natural ego and jealousy. In such cases, the worship of statues and images of energetic Incarnations and past Human Incarnations becomes inevitable. All beginnings have defects.
Uttara Mīmāṃsakas are theists, who are devoted to God. Sage Vyāsa, who wrote the Brahma Sūtrams, is the leader of this philosophy. Uttara Mīmāṃsā itself means the true spiritual knowledge about God.
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