16 Nov 2015
Shri Veena Datta (S/o Ajay) asked “why the Indians always crave for material-life?”
Shri Swami replied: When you do not have something, you will always crave for it. When you have something to the full extent, you will not be bothered about it. In the middle age, Indians always approached God through theory only and avoided the practice of the theory concluded. God said in the Gita that He will approach you in the same way through which you approached Him (Ye Yathaa). God blessed Indians with excellent knowledge and devotion. Both these knowledge and devotion are parts of theory only. Sacrifice of material (Karma Phala Tyaga) along with sacrifice of work (Karma Samnyasa) makes the real practice (Karma Yoga). In this practical aspect, Indians were ready to sacrifice work but not the fruit of the work. Between the work and fruit of the work, fruit of the work is more important practical aspect. The Gita stresses much on the sacrifice of the fruit of the work since the highest bond is always with the fruit of the work, which is money or wealth (Phalam tyaktvaa...). The Veda also stressed on this aspect, which straightly says that, the sacrifice of money and wealth to God alone leads you to God (Dhanena Tyagena Ekena...). The Gita is more sharp since it says that the money should be the fruit of your work and not from the ancestral property since the bond with the fruit of self-work is more strong. Since the middle age Indians came up to the stage of sacrifice of work, but, not its fruit, God blessed them with good work also but with no fruit. This results in hard work associated with unavoidable poverty. People always crave for that thing, which is not with them.
The transition of theory into practice, especially the sacrifice of fruit of one's own work, is absent since the middle age generations in India. The ancient Indians were sages, who had excellent theory and equally excellent practice. All the stories of ancient Indians projecting the excellent practical sacrifice were presented by sage Vyasa in 18 volumes called as ancient epics (Puranas). The theory was presented by the same sage in two volumes called the Gita and the Brahma Sutras. This is the ratio of importance of practice and theory. Indians concentrate on the Gita and the Brahma Sutras extensively, but, neglect these 18 ancient epics since they are inconvenient! Major volume of the Veda also speaks about the performance of sacrifice, which is cooking the food to be sacrificed to devotees and poor hungry people. The major descriptions of fire, sticks etc., stress on lighting the fire for cooking, which was very difficult in those days. Serving the cooked food to pacify the hunger-fire (Vaiswanara or Devata Agni) of a hungry person and the physical fire (Loukika Agni) used to cook the food made the importance of fire in the Veda. Unfortunately, the middle age Indians misunderstood one type of fire for the other and took the physical fire only in both the places. The result is the burning of food (Ghee) in physical fire! Ignorance is the root of all the sins and blind traditions.
In the case of Indians with such misunderstood mentality, the transition from theory to practice becomes very difficult. The transitions in the phase of theory are possible, but, not in the transition from theory to practice. Within the theory, we can transmit ourselves from knowledge to devotion or vice-versa realising the higher importance of one above the other. We can also transmit from one area to other area in the knowledge by jumping from monism (Advaita) to Dualism (Dvaita). We can never transmit ourselves from theory to practice by donating a rupee to God. We are prepared to sacrifice knowledge, devotion and free work for the sake of God for getting a rupee from God! This is the real problem and the answer for the cry of Swami Vivekananda expressed on one day. When some foreigners asked Swami Ramananda for the reason of poverty in India, He replied that Indians are good in the theoretical path of spiritual knowledge and are deficient in its practice.
Practice is like the plant. Knowledge is like water. Devotion is like the manure. Both water and manure are essential for the plant to grow and give the fruit. Tanks of water and bags of manure cannot give even a single fruit without the plant. I do not discard the importance of water and manure but only stressing on the necessity of plant, which alone can give the fruit.
As Bhartruhari says, for the money or wealth, there are three ways: self-enjoyment, donation to deserving and destruction by loss. Self-enjoyment is essential, but, should be limited since unlimited enjoyment leads to the problems of health. Donation to deserving has no limitation. If these two ways are absent, the dynamic money chooses the third way, which is the destruction by loss in several ways. The stored wealth may be spoiled by your undeserving issues, loss in business, loss by unnecessary expenditure, taxes etc. The third way is inevitable for a greedy person. Donation is also a double edged knife, which can benefit or damage you. If you do donation to undeserving in hasty manner, it will bring sin to you. Patience in doing sharp analysis is essential to discriminate between the deserving and undeserving before doing donation (Samvidaa Deyam- Veda). This discrimination should not be applied in the cases of emergency like feeding a poor hungry person, be an atheist also. Life must be saved first and then only the philosophy as said by Swami Vivekananda.
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