23 Mar 2023
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
(This Maha Satsanga was attended by Smt. Chhanda Chandra, Shri. Soumyadip Mondal, Mr. Samadrito Mondal, Shri Anil Kumar Chandra and Smt. Anjali Chandra residing at Mumbai along with some devotees of Hyderabad. The points breifly are presented here, which radiated from Shri Dattaswami)
1) The result of any action decides whether that action is good or bad. If you tell a lie and due to that if some good happens to a good person, such lie is merit. If you tell the truth and due to that if some bad happens to a good person it is sin. Bad happening to a bad person is merit and bad happening to a good person is sin. Hence, ends decide the quality of action.
2) When you give an example as simile, the simile must be confined to one or two comparative aspects only and shall not be extended to more or all aspects. If the face is compared to the Moon, only to one aspect, which is the pleasantness of face and Moon, the simile is confined. Other aspects like black spots, full Moon and absence of Moon etc., shall not be touched in the comparison. Hence, in spiritual knowledge, the examples given must be confined to one or two intended aspects and we shall not extend the simile to other aspects since such extension will bring confusion.
3) The Monism philosophy of Shankara resembles the policy of communism, which is high democracy since every soul is said to be God. The soul is God (Jīvo Brahmaiva nāparaḥ). Here, one point is to be noted, which is that Shankara told that one soul is God and it is not different from God. He did not say that all souls are God (Jīvāḥ Brahmaiva nāparāḥ). He also did not say that every soul or any soul is God (Jīvo Brahmaiva ko'pi ca). If you take the meaning of the statement of Shankara in very precise sense, it means that a single soul selected by God becomes God. The selected soul alone becomes the inseparable limb of God (which means that the selected soul is as close and as inseparable as the limb) and this is qualified monism of Ramaanuja. Here, dualism is accepted fundamentally, but, monism also exists since the devotee is inseparable. The devotee is compared to the limb of the body and not the direct limb. The father says to his two beloved sons that both are his two eyes. In this sense of simile only, the whole-limb relationship between God and soul is mentioned here. Removing this misunderstandable relationship, the dualism of Madhva says that God and devotee are two different items like a Master and a servant. The most important point in all these three philosophies is that the above relationships exist between God and a devotee only and not between God and an ordinary soul.
4) Monism distributes the divinity to all souls equally like the policy of communism aiming at distribution of wealth equally to all souls by telling that every soul is God, which is near to liberal democracy concentrating on maximum socialism. Qualified monism resembles Aristocracy in limiting socialism to a few only. Dualism saying that no soul is God resembles Monarchy. This can be treated as spiritual politics. The spiritual economics also exists in accepting formless God or God as statues and photos based on the policy of economics to prevent unnecessary expenditure because in such lines the food is offered to God, which is not at all even tasted by God. If the concept of human incarnation is accepted, it will eat whatever is offered by the devotee and this will lead to loss of money. Here, the concepts are not important, but, the basic economic policy is strong to follow economically convenient lines.
5) The three steps of philosophy are related to various levels of the receivers of knowledge. The first level is Monism (advaita), which shall be spoken to the low level people having 100% ego and jealousy like atheists because we have to say that the atheist is God. The atheist will not accept somebody else as God. Shankara adopted this method in the case of atheists by telling that every soul is God. Then, Shankara asked the atheists whether he exists. The atheist told that he exists because everybody feels that he/she exists. Then, Shankara told that since every soul exists and since every soul is God, the result is that God exists. Shankara made the atheist to say by his own mouth that God exists. The next middle level of people is 50% ego and jealousy. For this level, the qualified monism of Ramanuja is suitable because it says that the devoted soul is not complete God, but, a tiny part of God. The high level of people having 0% ego and jealousy are suitable to the dualism of Madhva, which says that the devoted soul is separate from God and is a servant of God.
6) These three states of philosophy of the three divine preachers are exhibited by the same one incarnation as the receivers of its knowledge change. The incarnation will express monism for the people having 0% ego-jealousy. For the people having 50% ego-jealousy, the incarnation will behave like the inseparable Son of God following qualified Monism. For the people having 100% ego-jealousy, the incarnation behaves like the separate Messenger (servant) of God following dualism.
7) Knowing the attractive details of Mumbai city is first step called jnaana yoga (knowledge) and this is stressed by the first divine preacher, called Shankara. On hearing the knowledge about Mumbai, developing inspiration to visit Mumbai is bhakti yoga (devotion) as propagated by the second divine preacher, called Ramanuja. The third step is called karma yoga (practical devotion) as stressed by Madhva and this consists of two sub-steps called i) Karma samnyaasa (sacrifice of service or energy) and ii) karma phala tyaaga (sacrifice of fruit of work or matter). The latter is more valuable than the former because a lot of energy is condensed to become a very small amount of matter as per E= mc2. Sacrifice of service in this example is spending physical energy to walk up to the railway station. Then, the ticket upto Mumbai is purchased by sacrificing money and this is sacrifice of fruit of work. After this, the spiritual effort of the spiritual aspirant is completed as said in the Gita (tyāgāt śānti ranantaram). Shankara emphasised on theoretical knowledge by coming first to the earth (jñānādeva tu kaivalyam). Then, Ramanuja came and emphasised on theoretical devotion (vedanādeva tu kaivalyam). Finally, Madhva came and emphasised on practical devotion, which is sacrifice of service and sacrifice of fruit of work (Īśvara jīvayoḥ sevya sevaka sambandhaḥ). The sequence of the divine preachers is also the sequence of the three steps (knowledge, devotion and practice) in the spiritual path. This is the correct sequence because after hearing the knowledge from the preacher, you are inspired (devotion) to do some service and sacrifice of fruit of work as Guru Dakshina. This appears to be quite a natural and justified sequence. Some say the reverse sequence is correct by saying that the first 1/3 part of the Gita is practice, the second 1/3 part is devotion and the last 1/3 part is knowledge. In fact, every verse of the Gita is a mini Gita explaining all these three steps! This is not correct because after doing service and sacrificing Guru Dakshina you may not be getting inspiration because inspiration comes before doing practice. Suppose the final knowledge delivered by the preacher is the worst, then, the service and sacrifice become a waste if they are not refundable! You cannot say that we are paying fees while the admission of the student to school or college takes place. The system in school or college is different because the teachers are supervised by the higher authorities in teaching the prescribed syllabus. In the spiritual field, such a supervision does not exist.
8) Practice is the most important final step for which alone fruit will yield. The mango fruit appears on the mango plant (practice) alone. Even though water (knowledge) and manure (devotion) are needed for the mango plant to be alive and to grow to yield the fruit, you cannot get even a small mango fruit even for hundred tanks of water and hundred bags of manure respectively. Hence, certainly knowledge and devotion are very essential for getting fruit, but, mere knowledge and mere devotion without practice cannot yield the fruit. Generally, people comment that the knowledge of God (Brahmajnaanam) is very complicated, but, in fact, the knowledge of God is very very simple. The practice of this knowledge is very very difficult. A person who unable to practice spiritual knowledge hides his incapability by throwing the blame on knowledge.
9) The Veda contains the description of practice (Karma Kaanda) upto 80% and the rest 20% is devotion (Upaasanaa Kaanda) and knowledge (Jnaana Kaanda). Practice involves doing ritual called yajna, which is cooking the food and serving it to the hungry participants of the seminar on spiritual knowledge. The physical fire (laukikaagni) is used to cook the food with ghee and it is burnt in the hunger fire (vaiśvānarāgni) of the participants and this is the real way of doing sacrifice. Misunderstanding this, priests are burning the ghee in the physical fire while the Veda says that the food shall not be destroyed (annaṃ na pari cakṣīta)!
10) There are three levels in every aspect. For example, satsanga is the discussion about the knowledge of God by devotees. If the proceedings of satsanga are typed and are propagated, the participants of satsanga can again and again remind the knowledge by reading it again and again. Not only this, even others, who did not participate in satsanga also know the spiritual knowledge by reading the typed script i.e., propagated. Such type of thinking about self benefit and benefit to others is the middle human level. The upper divine level of angels is that this knowledge shall be propagated so that somebody else may be benefited even though we, the participants of satsanga are not benefited. The lower ignorant level of demons is that this knowledge shall not be propagated so that nobody else shall be benefited, even though we, the participants of satsanga are not benefited.
1. Why did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa give two comments, which contradict each other?
[A question by Smt. Chhanda Chandra]
Swami replied: A newly married devotee told that his wife is objecting for the delay in his arrival to home due to delayed satsanga. Shri Ramakrishna received this comment while He was going from the temple to Panchavati for meditation on God. Here, He was walking from the lower level (world) to the higher level (God). Shri Paramahamsa advised the devotee simply to divorce her as if to throw away a chappal that is inconvenient. The devotee was shocked and stood standstill. After some time, Shri Paramahamsa was returning back from Panchvati (God) to the temple (world). Then, He told the devotee that the divine Mother will solve the problem. When His goal was God, while He was ascending from the world to God, He did not care for the worldly affair in view of the value of God compared to the value of the world and this is called aarurukshu (ārurukṣoḥ muneryogam...-Gita). After reaching God, the devoted soul is called yogaaruudha (yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva…– Gita). Descending from God to world is avarohanamaarga and ascending from world to God is called aarohanamaarga. When He is coming down to the world, He is concerned about the worldly affairs. When He is ascending up towards God, He is concerned with God only forgetting completely about the world. Hence, such contradicting comments were given since God and the world are opposite to each other (dūramete viparīte viṣūcī – Veda), which means that both God and world are opposite north and south poles.
2. Why God Krishna divided Himself and His army called Naaraayana senaa to fight with each other joining the opposite sides?
Swami replied: Yaadavas in the Naaraayana Sena were very strong and may have caused disturbance to the world in future. Krishna would have to take another incarnation to destroy the Yaadavas. Krishna wanted to finish the work in this life itself and avoid the strain to come again for this purpose. He arranged the whole story in such a way that the Naaraayana Sena is selected by bad Duryodhana and get destroyed because the bad side is always destroyed. This shows the intellectual capacity of God.
3. Why Swami was telling that the third deep sleep state belongs to Iishvara (God Datta) and the fourth turiiya state belongs to the unmediated unimaginable God (Parabrahman)?
Swami replied: The four states described in the Maanduukya Upanishad belong to the human incarnation. The four states are i) Awaken (jaagrat), ii) Dream (Swapna), iii) Deep sleep (sushupti) and iv) The final (turiiya). The experiencer in these four states is called as Vishva, Taijasa, Praajna and Turiiya respectively. The first two states are common to the soul of an ordinary human being, which is present in human the incarnation also since both God-component and human being–component are present in the incarnation. The human being–component in the incarnation undergoes the first two steps as in the case of the ordinary human being. In the third state (deep sleep), the awareness or soul disappears since the resting brain-nervous system is not generating the awareness. In this third state, only the mediated God-component (God Datta) is leftover as stated by Shankara (suṣuptyeka siddhaḥ) since the second component disappeared. When the incarnation is formed, God Datta merged with the selected human being–component and therefore, God Datta (Iishvara) alone is leftover. The experiencer in this third state is described by the Veda as God Datta by giving several divine adjectives like Creator of everything (sarvasya yoniḥ) etc. In the case of an ordinary human being, there is no experiencer because the awareness disappeared totally. Since God Datta is mentioned in this third state in the case of the human incarnation, the Parabrahman or unmediated unimaginable God also must be mentioned in a separate fourth state since Parabrahman merged with God Datta. On the whole, the case taken here is not the ordinary human being but the human incarnation of God.
4. Please clarify whether the soul has to finally merge with God sometime in the future?
Swami replied: The merge of God with soul can take place since it is the wish of the omnipotent God to form the incarnation. In this formation of incarnation, God is descending down (avataara) and soul is not ascending to become God (uttaara) by the wish of the soul. Soul can never become God and God can always become the soul because the former is the wish of the soul while the latter is the wish of God. Altogether, this means that soul can become God if the omnipotent God wishes so and not by the wish of incompetent soul. Hence, the only possibility for the merge of God with the soul exists only when God wishes so and not when the soul wishes so. The advaita philosopher shall understand this point very well and shall remain as the permanent servant of God without the aspiration to become God. Even if a soul wishes one time to become God, the soul is permanently disqualified forever to become God. These advaita philosophers are constantly chanting the statement, which is Ahaṃ brahmāsmi (I am God) thinking that by such thought when repeated continuously will make him to become God! The advaita philosophy of Shankara was only to convert the atheist to theist. That program is over and many souls in India are theists. When the program is over, you cannot extend it afterwards. The pongal discount on clothes was given by a shop during the festival of pongal (samkraanti). When the festival is over, you can’t demand for the same discount!
5. Both Hanuman and Raadhaa were the incarnations of God Shiva playing in the roles of devotee and since we worship Hanuman as God, why not we worship Raadhaa also as God?
Swami replied: As per the justified logic, there is no objection to worship Raadhaa as God. In fact, I find more positive points in Raadhaa than Hanuman. For example, we find the tradition of uttering the name of Raadhaa as “Raadhe Raadhe” among devotees and not “Hanuman Hanuman”. Hanuman always pressed the holy feet of Rama and the reverse never took place. But, Krishna pressed several times the holy feet of Raadhaa. Hanuman is becoming the future Brahma to stay in Brahmaloka. But, Raadhaa already became the queen of Goloka, which is above Brahmaloka. Both Hanuman and Raadhaa acted in the roles of the highest devotee to God. Both are equal in service and sacrifice. But, Raadhaa got a higher fruit than Hanuman since Goloka is above Brahmaloka. The question comes about the reason for such higher status of Raadhaa. The reason is that Raadhaa as a female faced a lot of criticism and torture from society in following Krishna even though she was married to a different person, called Ayanaghosha. Hanuman was also married to the daughter of Sun, but, as a male never faced any trouble from the society due to his marriage. Even though God Hanuman is said to be the embodiment of courage, Raadhaa excelled Hanuman in the quality of courage by withstanding fire like criticism from the society.
6. How to explain the continuous wave motion picture in the concept of alternating gross and subtle states of the creation in manifestation and subsequent dissolution taking place continuously?
Swami replied: The crest represents the gross state while the trough represents the subtle state. Between these two states, a line connects both in ascending as well as descending directions. The ascending line denotes the process of conversion of subtle state to gross state while the descending line denotes the process of conversion of gross state to subtle state. The wave motion is continuous, which means that the creation is never destroyed completely by God and the creation is future eternal even though it was not past eternal. Future eternal because the world never disappears in future even though it was born sometime in the past. The film reel was produced after the shooting program. The film reel is never destroyed in the future and is preserved for the next show after the previous show finishes. No fool destroys the reel after putting up one show and prepare the film reel by repeated shooting. But, the film reel also can be destroyed if the producer of the film wishes. Hence the future eternality of the creation depends on the wish of God.
7. A devotee can have the option between two items in the same pravrutti, but, how to chose better between pravrutti and nivrutti?
Swami replied: Such a question is very much natural. A central government employee can be transferred to any place in India. Suppose the employee is transferred to some foreign country, the problem is very serious. But, some people are trying very seriously to get a job in a foreign country because the salary is very high. One person thinks that it is better to stay in India so that he can be in touch with all relatives frequently whenever he wishes. Another person thinks that it is better to go to a foreign country and earn a lot of money that helps him to get more enjoyment. Therefore, choosing an option in India or choosing the option to go to a foreign country to earn more depends on the state of mind of a person. Therefore, whether it is the option in pravrutti or option for nivrutti depends on the state of the soul. If the option is in pravrutti, justice must be the guiding factor. If the option is for nivrutti, the natural and spontaneous attraction to God is the guiding factor. If the option for nivrutti stands as unstable wavering state, it reflects the equilibrium between interest for pravrutti and interest for nivrutti. The action of such a devotee is in between both interests. In such a state, even if you preach to follow one state only and if the devotee is neither bending to pravrutti nor nivrutti, this means that he has 50% interest in pravrutti and 50% interest in nivrutti. Unless the interest becomes 51% in nivrutti, the devotee will continue in the state of suspense only. Hence, in this matter, the advice from anybody is meaningless because the action of the devotee is purely based on the percentage of interest present in such devotee.
It is told that the fruit of nivrutti is the highest and the best (nivṛttistu mahāphalā). Such highest and best fruit is given by God only present in the extreme state of happiness. But, the same God opposes nivrutti because He knows thoroughly that no soul changes the interest by advice. Even though Krishna opposed the Gopikas, the interest of Gopikas towards nivrutti was very high so that the advice of Krishna was completely opposed by the Gopikas, especially when Gopikas were the highest devotees of Krishna. This is one wonder from the side of the Gopikas and the other wonder from the side of Krishna is that Krishna became very much pleased with the opposition of the Gopikas. This is the greatest confusion in the Bhagavatam! Nivrutti means love towards God and pravrutti means love towards worldly bonds. God does not appear to support nivrutti because it is selfish affair. Only a politician carries on the propaganda that encourages love of the voters towards him. God is not such a worst politician. Hence, God appears as if He is opposing nivrutti. He always recommends for pravrutti. God always says that pravrutti is mandatory whereas nivrutti is optional. If a devotee follows nivrutti only in spite of the opposition from God, the interest of the devotee is very high and in such a state, God is also very much pleased. But, God never exposes His pleasure so that the souls can easily think that God is not interested in nivrutti because nivrutti is His personal love with devotee. Hence, the answer for this question is that the devotee will act as per his/her interest only and the advice even from God cannot change it. Hence, God gives full free will to the devotee only because the devotee himself/herself will decide based on the strength of his/her interest only. Nivrutti is invented and developed by devotees only and not at all mentioned by God. Of course, God is mostly pleased with nivrutti giving the highest and the best fruit, but He never even mentions anything about nivrutti. He always appears as if He is opposing nivrutti. He always insists on pravrutti. Elders always recommend their issue to become a graduate atleast, but never recommend passing IAS and become at least a district collector. Similarly, the common pravrutti is the minimum expectation of God, which is that the soul shall follow justice and avoid injustice in the worldly life. Nivrutti is the climax of expectation of God, which is the most difficult, but has the highest permanent and best fruit.
(To be continued...)
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