04 Aug 2007
The entire spiritual knowledge exists in the Upanishads (Veda) or Shruti. Smriti is another category of texts, which should be taken as an authority if it does not contradict the Shruti (Shruti Smriti virodhetu…). Smriti consists of the Gita along with the Ramayana, Bhagavata and Mahabharata (the three sacred epics). In fact, the Gita itself is a part of the Mahabharata. The Puranas come after the Smriti (Shruti Smriti Purananam…). The sacred epics deal with the secrets of the spiritual effort of Hanuman, the Gopikas and Arjuna towards their contemporary human incarnations called as Rama and Krishna. Third class people take these three epics as some historical stories and get entertainment. Second class people learn ethics (Pravritti) from these epics and practice good behavior with their family and society. First class people identify the secrets of the spiritual effort (Nivritti) and get the grace of God through practice. Lord Datta now focuses on the Nivritti in these epics for the benefit of spiritual aspirants.
Let us take the scene of Ramayana in which the monkeys are trying to jump over the ocean in the service of Rama. The monkeys expressed their abilities to jump in terms of miles of distance that they could jump. Hanuman could jump the whole distance to Lanka[1] and completed the work of Rama. The devotion (Bhakti) of Hanuman and the monkeys is equal. Every monkey is ready to sacrifice its total effort. But the monkeys could not do the work only due to their inadequate potentiality (Shakti) and not due to inadequate devotion. God sees only the total surrender of your potentiality in His work, which is a practical proof of your total devotion. The magnitude of your potentiality is not a point for God. Here in this case, since every monkey is ready to surrender its total potentiality, each monkey is equal to Hanuman in the eyes of God. There is no difference in the surrender of each one’s total effort. Hanuman could do the work only due to His adequate potentiality and so, He is not greater in devotion than any other monkey. Therefore, the fruit from God should be equal for both Hanuman and the monkeys. The Lord gave a place for all the monkeys in His Brahma Loka (called as Vaikuntha in the case of Narayana). But He made Hanuman as Brahma Himself, who is the Lord of Brahma Loka. Does this mean that God considers the magnitude of one’s potentiality also as a measure of devotion? [Swami posed this question to all the devotees and there was suspense and a lot of anxiety among the devotees for the answer. No devotee could give the answer even after a long time! Finally Swami gave the answer by which all devotees felt very happy].
The answer for this is that God never gives any value for the magnitude of one’s potentiality. God gives value only to the surrender of total potentiality possessed by the devotee[2]. Then, what is the answer to the above question? The answer is that though God treated Hanuman and the monkeys equally in the above scene, due to their equal extent of maximum devotion, there is a difference between Hanuman and the monkeys. After the war, Rama rewarded all the monkeys with golden ornaments for their service. All the monkeys took the jewels and wore them. This indicates the aspiration for fruit in return for their service, which is hidden in their sub-consciousness, without their knowledge. Rama did not reward Hanuman and Hanuman never felt bad for this. However, Sita felt bad and rewarded Hanuman with a chain of pearls. Sita could not understand Rama. She should have kept silent because the actions of God are unimaginable. By rewarding Hanuman, Sita insulted the Lord indirectly before all. The drama that followed was by the will of the Lord, who kept silent with a smile on His face.
Hanuman took the chain and started biting each pearl with His teeth and threw each of them away after observing it. The sages and monkeys objected to this and asked Hanuman for the reason. Hanuman told them that He was searching for Rama in the pearls and anything without Rama is useless for Him. By this Hanuman is establishing the fact that God does not exist in the creation (Neti Neti…—Veda). Then, the sages told Hanuman that His body also must be useless since Rama is not in that body. Then Hanuman tore His heart and showed Rama in His heart. This shows that God as Narayana (Rama) is present in Him because Shiva is Narayana and Hanuman was an incarnation of Shiva. Hence, devotees should not attempt to do this! This clearly proved that the servant of the Lord should not aspire for anything other than the Lord as the fruit of his service. Due to this point, Hanuman excels above all the monkeys and His special fruit is thus justified.
Let us come to Sita who, bent her head after this. What is the reason for it? You might think that Rama insulted Sita in return. It is not so. The reason is that she joined the list of monkeys, since she was also wearing the ornaments, which did not contain Rama. She is lesser than Hanuman. This is also justified because Sita was a liberated soul and Hanuman is God. Therefore, do service to God without aspiring for any fruit in return. Aspiration for the fruit gives lesser fruit and service without aspiration for the fruit gives the highest fruit in the case of serving God. This point is valid in the case of God (Nivritti) only. One should not be foolish to follow this principle in Pravritti, because people will exploit you! Of course, you can implement this concept in serving poor people and deserving devotees and such service will be a training for you for the path of Nivritti. But you should not implement this throughout the Pravritti because exploiters are many in this world, especially in this Kali Yuga!
Essential Components of the Spiritual Effort
Complete faith, complete devotion proved through practical sacrifice and complete absence of aspiration for fruit in return are the three essential components of the spiritual effort. The faith in the existence of God is the fundamental concept. Regarding the address of God, the contemporary human incarnation is the convenient path for doing practical service. Practical service cannot be done to the formless God and to statues of energetic forms of God who are in the upper worlds, such as Vishnu. Neither can you serve statutes of past human incarnations. In the case of statues, the priests alone enjoy your service indirectly. Direct and meaningful practical service is possible only in the case of the contemporary human incarnation as done by Hanuman and the Gopikas.
Shankara said that one should not aspire for the fruit either in this world or in the upper world, for the divine service done (Ihamutra Phalaviragah….). Today people have no faith in the existence of the very upper world! To them there is no point of fruit after death. There is no hell from which God can protect us. There is no heaven to receive any happiness after death. There is no Brahma Loka at all. Hence, people want fruits in this world itself. Some people are not even sure of the fruit in this world, after doing the service. Hence, they say that if the fruit is given first, they will render service after receiving the fruit. This shows the lack of confidence in God even to do business with Him[3]. For some, the existence of God itself is doubtful and hence they require the fruit first and only then will they do something in return. Some say that if the fruit is given first, then they will favor God by believing in Him. They feel that God wants to increase the percentage of believers in this world. They feel that if a certain percentage of believers is not maintained, God will lose His Supreme post! In spite of such mean and meaningless mentalities, God is responding to every trend because God is the Divine Father and is always anxious to eternally uplift the souls. Except for this point, God has no other reason to respond to every kind of people of such low levels.
Hanuman showed Rama in His heart because God existed in Him always, since He was an incarnation of God. Even otherwise, God could have entered the heart of Hanuman temporarily, to give proof to protect this best devotee. In the case of Hanuman, such a temporary entry was not required because God already existed in Hanuman, who was an incarnation of God. Hanuman is God as the actor, who is acting in the role of a devotee. Even after this incident, Rama did not announce the fruit to be given to hanuman in the upper world because Hanuman, as the best devotee, did not aspire for any fruit in this world or in the upper world. From the point of Hanuman, there was no need to even announce the fruit of the upper world. This does not mean that the fruit was absent.
When the aspiration is absent, the fruit will be the best. When God is pleased, the fruit is seen here as well as there. If God is pleased with you, you will receive the fruit here as well as there because God is the Lord of both the worlds simultaneously. If His grace exists in the upper world, it must also exist here. Some people say that their welfare in the upper world is protected even though their welfare here is damaged. This concept is meaningless. If God blessed you, you will be blessed here as well as there simultaneously. If you are well here, you will also be well there. God will not show anger on you here and show His grace on you in the upper world. Either His grace or His anger will be shown simultaneously here as well as there. You may be troubled for sometime here, for the sake of a divine test but that is not permanent. If you are permanently suffering in this world, it means that you are a sinner forever.
God is Blameless
The anger of God on you is only constitutional[4]. You are punished only for your sins according to the computerized divine constitution and personally, God does not favor or curse you (Nadatte kasyachit papam…—Gita). Therefore, such eternal sinners need the spiritual knowledge very much, so that they can get a permanent solution. Hence, while serving them externally to give temporary relief, you should preach the spiritual knowledge and turn them into devotees. Today some people are doing social service to the downtrodden people, but that is not a permanent solution. Social service with a divine background is very much required. People who concentrate only on the social service will get temporary heaven and the people who receive such social service also get just a temporary solution. It is temporary benefit on both sides.
Today the government is concentrating on social service without touching the element of God in the name of secularism. In ancient times, kings were also doing social service but they were combining it with the divine mission so that both the donor and receiver got a permanent solution. The ancient kings went to the permanent abode of God and the served beggars also became devotees and got a permanent solution. The present government with a secular policy will go to the temporary heaven and the present poor people served by this government also get temporary relief limited to this life and to this earth alone.
People often blame God stating that they are troubled since God created this world for His entertainment. They say that God is a sadist because He is entertained by their suffering. This is sheer nonsense. God created this entire world consisting of souls. The souls constitute Para Prakriti, which is a part of creation. He gave complete freedom to the souls and also gave them intelligence (Buddhi), which is the powerful faculty of discriminating between good and bad. God propagated His constitution, which clearly contains the subjects of good and bad. The prophets propagated this constitution on this earth. Now if God is deriving entertainment just by observing the creation, how can you call Him a sadist? He is not responsible for your desires and the selection of good and bad for which you have full freedom. He is not responsible even for a trace of your desire or even for a trace of your subsequent action. The constitution only gives information and does not encourage you to act in anyway.
A restaurant exhibits a board listing the various food items available. The board is only for your information. According to your taste, capacity of digestion and health problems, you have to select the suitable food item. You cannot blame the restaurant saying that the restaurant is responsible for your indigestion, just because it exhibited a particular food item to which you are especially attracted! A person is standing in the balcony of his residence and is watching the traffic and getting entertainment. Suppose an accident takes place on the road, you cannot blame the observer for being responsible for the accident. You are well aware of the traffic rules and yet your overlooked the rules. So you are responsible for the accident. The observation and entertainment of any spectator is not at all connected with the accident.
Two Parts of the Divine Constitution
The divine constitution consists of two parts. The first part is Pravritti, which is the social behavior to live in this world in peace and harmony. This Pravritti is based on heaven, earth and hell, which are plus, zero and minus signs respectively. If you do social service by helping poor people, you will get heaven, which is a temporary pleasure, proportional to the extent of your sacrifice in the social service. For this, you will also receive results on earth either partially or totally. If the result is not seen on earth, you will receive the total result in heaven after death. However, the result is not permanent (Kshine Punye…—Gita) because your social service is not blended with the divine mission. If you only do the service to your self and your family, you will live on this earth in happiness and peace provided you do not harm others with corruption and torture. For this also, the result is temporary because the result is confined only to this temporary human life. Anyway, in both the cases the result is temporary. If you are confined only to your self and your family, there is no result after death and you will not enter heaven for serving your family and your self. You will enter heaven partially or totally for serving the weaker sections in society but the stay in heaven is temporary.
In doing social service, you may confine to your village, district, state, country, religion or earth, but you should not harm any living being in this service. You must avoid corruption and torture of any living being on this earth while doing the service. If you indulge in corruption and torture of any living being, the court here will punish you. If you escape punishment here, God will punish you here partially and in hell after the death, partially or totally. The punishment of God is meant for the transformation of the soul and not for revenge as observed in terrorism. Terrorism wants revenge without aiming at the transformation of the soul. It does not understand the whole divine system and even denies God due to emotion. Emotion kills analysis. Patience will give happiness and the permanent solution. Do not take the law and order into your own hands. If the court or the government fails in implementing justice, God will punish even the court and the government because only human beings constitute the court and government. Hence they can err. All this comes under Pravritti. If you avoid hell after death and punishments here, by limiting your self to the service of your family and the society, God is pleased with you.
Nivritti is the second part of the constitution. The sages like Manu etc., propagated the first part on this earth by the order of God. The sages like Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, Sanatsujata etc., propagated the second part. These names are different in other religions but the basic program is one and the same because God is one and this earth created by God is also one. The second part constitutes the path of attainment of eternal happiness (bliss) by becoming close to God. The basic principle is to become a member of the family (inner circle) of God. Here you will receive the love of God, which is eternal and the fruit is eternal bliss. But the fruit is achieved only when you do not aspire for the fruit and serve God in His mission under His direction. For this purpose you have to finally recognize your contemporary human incarnation and you have to surrender your self completely to His will. Only a very small minority can follow this second part.
A border between Pravritti and Nivritti is also available. It is, loving God for the sake of achieving some fruit. This is a transition from the first to the second part. The selfishness of the soul is not lost but God is introduced here as an instrument to achieve the fruit. You love God here as an instrument to satisfy your selfish desire. Majority of people are confined only to this state. Atheists are also in a minority; they are confined to Pravritti without God. God is pleased with them also and will even sanction heaven to them if they are not involved in corruption and the torture of any living being. If the atheist is involved in social service in the above way, he will also be sanctioned heaven here and there. In fact, Purva Mimamsankas were atheists, who were constantly indulged in Yajna (sacrifice) without God (Devonakashchit…). They believed in angels but not in God. This means that they were serving good social workers but not the human incarnation on earth. Yajna means sacrifice of food and money to good social workers (angels) without the Sadguru (God in human form like Krishna). They did not give food to Krishna during the sacrifice. But their wives recognized Krishna (contemporary human incarnation) and gave food to the Lord. Only in the beginning of this Kali Yuga was the real meaning of Yajna lost due to stupid priests, who did not learn the meaning of the Veda and started burning food in the fire!
Therefore, God and His constitution are giving information of the path desired by you and do not compel you to choose any path (Jnapakam natu karakam…—Shankara). The railway authorities prepare the railway guide. It gives the route to Mumbai and other cities. It does not create any desire in your mind to go to Mumbai. If you desire to go to Mumbai, it explains the route and it does not insist that you should take up the journey to Mumbai. Neither the guide nor the authorities are responsible for your benefit or loss in Mumbai. Shankara argued with the Purva Mimamsakas, who said that one should perform the sacrifice to reach the heaven. Shankara said that the Veda is like the guide and God is like the authority in the above simile.
God’s Guidance in All Worlds
The upper worlds contain fully realized souls called angels. The topmost world contains liberated souls in the inner circle of God. The lower worlds contain demons, who are rigid atheists. There is no necessity to teach the realized souls or the rigid ignorant souls. Liberated souls are far superior than even the realized souls called angels. Indra etc., are realized souls whereas Adi Shesha, Garuda, Narada etc., are liberated souls. The angels are affected by ignorance very rarely and hence preaching is almost unnecessary in the upper worlds. Therefore, there is no need of God’s incarnation in the upper world. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the constant energetic forms of God in the upper worlds. Similarly, there is no need of any incarnation in the lower worlds because there is no use of any preaching to rigid demons.
This earth contains human beings, who are neither fully realized nor fully ignorant. These human beings become realized after hearing the preaching and become human beings again, which are like mild demons and mild angels integrated together in one form. Therefore, God comes again and again to preach and uplift them. This story of upliftment and the subsequent fall repeats again and again and hence earth is a constant stage of continuous engagement for the entertainment of God. The liberated souls always accompany God as the constant troop of actors and receive entertainment along with God. It is said that angels also request God to give them a chance to participate in this entertainment. Arjuna is called as Nara, who represents the human being (Nara). Arjuna always had a mixed feeling towards Krishna to accept Him as God. Even Dharmaraja, a better human being, failed to accept Krishna as God, when told to violate justice on His order. But Bhima is said to be the middle liberated soul in the chain of the Madhva cult consisting of Hanuman, Bhima and Madhva, the three sons of Vayu who are sincere servants of God. Bhima represents Tamas, which is famous for its rigid nature.
Tamas diverted to God, brings the soul to the stage of liberated souls and the same tamas diverted to the world brings the soul to the state of demons. Brahma represents Sattvam, the state of knowledge. Even though He stands for Rajas, He is involved in knowledge, which is Sattvam. The process of analysis is action and action is Rajas. The analysis of knowledge should end in the practical implementation, which is action. Vishnu who stands for Sattvam, but is always dynamic, indicates this second state of the action of knowledge. Rajas is action. Vishnu is the administrator who does action but has knowledge of discrimination in the background. Sattvam and Rajas are integrated in both the cases. Finally the determination, which is Tamas, representing Shiva, is important for constancy in the implementation. Thus, Bhima is a liberated soul, who maintained constancy in implementation. Arjuna and Dharmaraja slipped in the service of Krishna but Bhima never slipped and did whatever Krishna ordered. When Krishna ordered Bhima to kill the elephant named Ashvatthama to cheat Drona, Bhima implemented it at once.
Madhva is the final preacher who preached about service. Vayu is said to be very strong and is said to be the best angel in the Veda (Vatat Vishnoh Balam…, Vayurvai Kshepishtah…). The knowledge (Sattvam) associated with Rajas is analysis and the knowledge associated with Tamas is determination. The determination leads to constancy in practical implementation. The three qualities are always integrated and inseparable in every stage of the spiritual effort. Similarly, you cannot separate the three divine forms of God (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) who descended as the three spiritual preachers (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) and are integrated in every stage of the guidance.
[1] Cross the sea between them and the island of Lanka.
[2] God only sees how much of your total potentiality you sacrifice to God. No matter how much your potentiality, you should sacrifice it completely.
[3] Doing service to God and demanding a proportionate fruit in return is doing business with God. These people do not have enough confidence in God even to do this sort of business.
[4] It is not personal.
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