Posted on: 15 Jun 2021
[Mrs. Priyanka asked: Swāmi, I hope I remember this correctly. If not, please forgive me. I think You had mentioned long ago that if a devotee constantly fails in the tests of Lord Datta, he/she will "slip" forever and won't be able to reach God again. But, if the same devotee, irrespective of knowing that he/she failed, still holds onto God stubbornly and loves God, can that person reach God someday at least? Is passing the tests of Lord Datta the only way to reach Him, even if it takes several births? There are follow up questions regarding this question here -
a) How many times is a devotee tested in a lifetime? Is there only one Brahma parīkṣā, Viṣṇu parīkṣā and Rudra Parīkṣā or more? If a devotee passes all these tests, will he/she be constantly tested or does it end after Rudra Parīkṣā?
b) Assuming that a devotee passes all the tests, reaches God in the upper worlds, and comes down to Earth again with God to serve Him. Is that devotee subjected to all the tests again on Earth?]
Swāmi replied:- Telling that if one fails in the divine test, the candidate will not reach God – is only a warning given to the candidate to be careful and very alert so that the soul will pass the test in the first attempt itself. The divine test is first qualitative and then is quantitative. Whether love to God exists or does not exist is tested by the first qualitative test. Then the depth or extent of the love is tested by the second quantitative test. For example:- God came in disguise as a guest to Saktuprastha. Saktuprastha and his family were fasting from a long time and on that day, he got very little rice on begging. The rice was cooked and he along with his family were going to eat it after dividing it. God came and begged for food. Saktuprastha gave his part thinking that he will share a little from others. This is the qualitative test to see whether there is quality of charity existing or not. After receiving it, Saktuprastha passed the first qualitative test, which proves that he has the quality of charity. Now, God started begging for more food to do 2nd test, which decides the quantity of the quality of charity. All the members gave their parts of food to the beggar and this proved that the quality of charity is in climax.
This is called 100% sacrifice or Sarvasvaśaraṇāgati or total surrender. The percentage of the sacrificed item in the total possessed decides the extent of sacrifice and not mere magnitude of the sacrificed item. A beggar donating one coin and a poor lady donating one small fruit was 100% sacrifice even though one coin and one small fruit are very very small in their individual magnitude. If the guest were really a poor beggar, he should have been satisfied with the first donation itself. If we were in the place of Saktuprastha and if the beggar asks more, we would have tremendously scolded the beggar! The abnormal behaviour of the beggar gave the hint that the beggar was not an ordinary human soul. But, beware, a fraud person also may behave abnormally, eat all the food and go away! One should be very alert to avoid the exploitation by fraud incarnations!!
a) Certainly the tests are repeated again and again till the candidate passes the test. But, the repetition of the test is done only when there is some considerable progress in the love towards God. Rigidity in love will certainly make the soul to pass the test one day or other.
b) Once the soul is liberated from the worldly bonds due to very strong attachment to God, the soul is liberated and such a liberated soul will not be subjected to any test further.