13 Sep 2015
Shri Balaji asked:
1. What is the meaning of the second verse of Eeshavaasya Upanishat?
2. Should we decide somebody as a Brahmin just by his qualities and actions (Guna Karma)?
Shri Swami Replied:
1) This verse means that you should wish to live long doing the duties, there is no other way, then, you will not be bound by the duty. Every human being does the duties or actions (karma) and there is no need of advising it to do the duty. The Gita says that even the livelihood can be earned by action only. The Gita also says that your attachment to fruit will bind you (Phalesakto...). Therefore, the importance lies in doing the action in such a way so that the action will not bind you (Na karma lipyate...). The first verse of the Upanishat also says that you should sacrifice your attachment to fruit and that you should not steal the money of others by corruption. Everybody in this world worships God only in aspiration of some fruit here or in the upper world (especially to avoid the hell). You need not worship God at all for getting some good fruit that helps you. Even without your worship, God being the divine Father, the divine Mother and the divine preacher (Matrudevo...), gives you the best fruit that does good to you always. He is three-in-one. Brahma is the preacher, Vishnu is the Mother and Shiva is the Father. Therefore, Lord Datta is the complete expression of God. The father and mother here are not harsh to their child due to blind love. Due to this, the child is spoiled. The preacher here is harsh without love as we see the harsh punishments given by the teacher. The teacher here is not worried about your failure in real sense. The teacher teaches the student only for the fees. Hence, these three here are partially or totally defective. The meaning of the above Vedic statement is that God is your father, mother and preacher (if you take the word ‘Matrudevo’ etc., as Bahuvrihi samasa). This is the correct sense. The reverse meaning (Karmadharaya samasa) is wrong in taking father, mother and preacher as God. God has both the paternal affection and the harsh treatment of the preacher required to mould the soul towards highest position. You should not judge God by rating the fruits. He gives apple to one person and banana to other person. The cost of apple is Rs.50/- and the cost of banana is only Rs.2/- . You pray God to give costlier apple in the place of cheaper banana. The banana is given to you because you have the problem of indigestion and banana will cure it. Your body is not resistant to cold and hence, apple is not given to you, which increases cold. The other person has resistance to cold and has less blood. Apple will not harm him and increases his blood. Hence, the doctor (preacher) gives whatever is suitable to the patient (student). Its cost is immaterial. For your case, banana is the costlier fruit and apple is cheaper fruit. The same is vice versa to the case of other person. God will give that much money or wealth to you beyond which, you will be spoiled with ego and bad ways. So, whatever is present with you is sufficient and will do good to you. Even an atheist is treated in the same way. If a son scolds always his parents, will the parents become angry with him? They pity him more and will also give to him whatever is needed. They try to change him slowly. All this analysis shows that you need not worship God at all for getting more fruits since you are already given the best needed fruit to you. A father, who is really interested in the welfare of his son, will send him to jail if he becomes a criminal. A father, who has blind love to his son, will hide his crime. Similarly, God, as a real father interested always in the welfare of the human being, will send him to the hell for betterment of his qualities through inevitable punishments. Hell shows the greatest love and concern of the divine father towards his children. Hence, hell should not be treated as indicator of the revenge of God towards sinner through punishments. The sole aim of the punishment is only to reform the sinner and not to revenge against the sinner. The love of these worldly parents and worldly preacher is always blind and limited to this life only. The love of God is in the perspective of long range to uplift the soul to the highest position irrespective of the duration of time.
When I say that you need not pray God for anything, since already best is given to you and since you do not know what is best for you, this does not mean that you should not pray God any more. You must pray God always to express you gratefulness to God for the best fruit already given by Him to you. Jesus always says that He is expressing the prayer of gratefulness to God. We must take this point very seriously with the above background. The other religions may feel inconvenient about Jesus, being the preacher of Christianity- religion. You should take anything good from any religion. A Christian scientist invented the train. Are you not travelling by the train since you are conservative of some other religion? Universal spirituality alone opens your eyes fully to see the truth with highest clarification.
Generally, the fruits are linked to efforts only in this world. But, this link is established by God only and hence the final authority to give any fruit is God only. Hence, your efforts generally yield the corresponding fruits as per the link established by God in the divine programme, which is computerized in routine way. By this routine procedure, you will have a false impression that there is no God and fruits are obtained only by your capable efforts. This was the path of Purvamimaamsa. Now, God interferes in your life and will see that some efforts fail to give the corresponding fruits thereby preaching you to leave your ego and atheism. If you are a devotee and feel always that God is the giver of fruit, even then, some of your efforts fail because the fruits of such efforts are not good for you and hence, are avoided. A real devotee always prays God with gratefulness whether the effort gives fruit or not. Such actions in which you are not attached to fruit in any way at any time will not bind you and your attachment is always towards God so that you will reach the highest position in spiritual path (Nivrutti). The devotee reaching such highest position will be the dearest son or daughter of God, though all the human beings are dear children to God.
2) Lord Krishna said that the caste is based on qualities and actions only (Gunakarma vibhagashah...). This is the fundamental basic rule and cannot be violated in any place. But, there is a second superficial rule, which can be violated if the first rule clashes. Any person having spiritual qualities and actions is a Brahmin irrespective of his caste by birth. This is according to the divine rule number 1. In the 2nd rule, the son of a Brahmin is a better Brahmin because the son will get more proficiency in the spiritual path based on the atmosphere of the parents and the circle of the relatives, who are Brahmins. Here the first divine rule is applicable and not violated since the son of a Brahmin has all the qualities and actions of spiritual path. These qualities and actions shine in a better way due to the spiritual atmosphere of the family. This shining makes us to say that the son of a Brahmin is a Brahmin meaning that he is a better Brahmin due to the congenial atmosphere. The person of other caste may also acquire the spiritual path, but, due to non-congenial atmosphere, could not shine so much as the son of Brahmin. This is natural logic and there is no prejudice in this. It is important to note that the divine rule 1 is not violated here. Neither the Brahmin-father nor his son should be proud since the credit goes to the atmosphere and not to them.
But, if you take two other different cases: i) A son of Brahmin does not show spiritual qualities and actions due to the force of psychology of previous birth (vasana) as in the case of Ravana, can he be treated as a Brahmin? No. The reason is the divine rule 1 is violated here. ii) A son of non-Brahmin exhibits best qualities and actions of spiritual path due to the force of the psychology of previous birth as in the case of Rama, is he not a Brahmin? Yes. He is a Brahmin because the divine rule 1 is perfectly applicable. The case of Sūta (a low-caster person) is similar, who was elected as the president of the sacrifice by the Brahmin sages.
Therefore, you have to decide the caste carefully, based on the analysis of the application of divine rule and superficial rule without any prejudice or bias to your caste by birth. As long as you are impartial and firm in the path of the true knowledge, you will not be biased by any factor (Alukshah Dharmakamah... Veda) and you will become the dearest son or daughter of God.
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