Is it not shameful on my part if I am unable to reciprocate to You with practical sacrifice?

[Shri Hrushikesh asked: Swami, You have given answers to many of these questions in the past. My apologies for troubling You, asking the same questions again. I should blame my laziness for not searching the answers in the past discourses. Your kindness and patience have no limits. It gives me an immense feeling of gratefulness and love when I think about the way You are guiding me all through my life, protecting me from all corners of life. But what is the point in my showing just theoretical love, which is not worth more than peanuts? It is a shame on my part that I am unable to reciprocate with practical love to You. But I am optimistic and confident that Your Divine knowledge will transform me someday to reach there. The knowledge You deliver is sweeter than honey, sharper than the sword and higher than the highest. Your servant, Hrushikesh]

Swami replied: You should not worry about the magnitude of your sacrifice to God. A poor beggar sacrificed just one coin to God and got the highest appreciation from Jesus, the Human Incarnation of God. On the other hand, God did not even mention the names of the rich people, who donated thousands of coins to God. Poor people have always surpassed rich people in practical devotion. Jesus said that a camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich person can never get the grace of God. One becomes rich only through sinful ways. The longstanding attitude (saṃskāra) developed by a rich man in his life will never allow him to sacrifice to God. Even if he sacrifices, he will ask God to give much more in return. So, his sacrifice only becomes an investment in the heavenly mutual fund! Unless this business-attitude disappears from the devotee’s worship, God will never even look at the devotee. If a devotee wants to get practical boons in exchange for theoretical devotion (studying knowledge and singing songs), he is doing the worst and bottommost unethical business with God. Demons did this worst devotional business with God to get practical powers from Him. They did penance in which they just repeated God’s name for a very long time, until it gave a headache to God! There must be at least a trace of practical devotion along with the theoretical devotion to prove that there is at least a trace reality in the devotee’s theoretical devotion.

At the same time, theoretical devotion (knowledge and songs) towards God should not be neglected. This is because God is not in any need of the practical sacrifice of the devotee. He is not like a beggar. A beggar will be very grateful to the donor, even if the donor throws one rupee at the face of the beggar because the beggar is only in need of practical help. He is not in any need of respect or devotion from the donor. But God is the actual giver of everything to everybody and He is not in need of any practical help from anybody. He asks for practical help from devotees only to test the reality of their devotion. The grandfather is begging his grandson for a bit of the biscuit the child is eating, only to test the reality of the love of his grandson towards him. The poor grandson does not know that his grandfather himself had purchased the packet of biscuits for his sake! The Veda mentions the sacrifice of money to God (Dhanena tyāgena ekena...). But Kṛṣṇa in the Gītā, goes one step further by insisting on the sacrifice of the money earned by one’s hard work alone. One does not have as much value for one’s ancestral wealth because one has not earned it through hard work. For this reason, one always has the strongest bond with one’s hard earned money and not with one’s ancestral money. God competes with your strongest worldly bond to see which side your vote falls. This is the essence of this aspect developed by Kṛṣṇa (Karmajaṃ buddhiyuktā hi..., Tyaktvā karma phalāsaṅgam..., Dhyānāt karmaphalatyāgaḥ... etc.).

Keywords:

| Shri Datta Swami | Is it not shameful on my part if I am unable to reciprocate to You with practical sacrifice? | Samskaara Dhanena tyaagena ekena Krishna Giita Gita karmajam buddhiyuktaa hi tyaktvaa karmaphalaasangam Dhyaanaat karmaphalatyaagah

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