30 Jul 2015
[Guru Pournima Day] 1) Shri Anil asked “You said in the previous message that God has given the best fruit. In such case, there is no need of any change of it in the life time. Please clarify this point”.
Shri Swami replied: The best fruit means the best way of treatment of the soul. The variation of the intensities of the fruit as per the change in the requirement is the very salient feature of the treatment. Best fruit doesn’t mean a lot of gold, which need not be varied. Here, the best fruit means the best way of treatment of disease, which involves variation of the dosage of antibiotic with simultaneous supply of vitamins to reduce the weakness. The aim of this treatment is destruction of illness and attainment of good health and the procedure involves the usage of both destructive antibiotics and constructive tonics. The right direction given by the correct advices makes the patient to cooperate with the treatment. The condition of health is monitored by the regularly visiting junior doctors, who are under the constant supervision and control of the chief doctor. The place of treatment is the hospital. The treatment always varies as per the positive and negative signs exhibited by the body in practical way. So far, I have described the simile in various aspects. Now, I should apply the concept to simile in every aspect, which correlates the astrology with philosophy.
The antibiotics are the punishments of sins and the vitamin-tonics are the awards of good deeds. Both these are used with variation correlating the condition of disease, which is ignorance. When the punishments are applied, the soul suffers with weakness or depression. In such case, the awards of good deeds are given, which act as tonics giving some strength. The aim is reformation of the soul by which it is relieved from all the further punishments given by sins done due to ignorance. The divine knowledge given to this soul under treatment gives the right direction and proper understanding to the soul by which it cooperates with the treatment. The regular monitoring of the treatment of the soul is done by the nine planets, which are under constant supervision and control of the God. The place of this treatment is only this world, called as karma loka. The upper worlds (bhoga loka) are not the place of treatment. This treatment administering the good and bad fruits varies in accordance to the practical signs of change in the soul reflecting the total and complete transformation of the soul, which is the ultimate goal like perfect health. The constant variation of the signs reflecting the variable qualities in the practical behavior of the soul becomes the basis of the administration of punishments and awards with variable intensities. This point is indicated by the constantly rotating cycle of very minute periods of the nine planets (like Mahadasha, Antardasha, Vidasha, Pranadasha etc.) in even a minute. We can understand this from the fact that our mind gets a very good thought in a fraction of minute and in the other fraction, the worst thought appears. Therefore, the way of the treatment changing in accordance to the intensity of the illness itself is the best fruit, which is not an entity like a fixed package of wealth.
2) Dr. Prasad asked “the death in Kashi city gives salvation to an ordinary person as per the quotation in Smruti-scriptures. Please elaborate this”.
Shri Swami replied: In the old times, the Kashi city was a center of learning in which several learned scholars were involved in that city. Kashi means the place, which shines with the spiritual knowledge. If one dies in that city, he or she gets salvation due to his or her participation in such discussions till the end of the life. The thoughts established in the mind will not change at the time of the death since the spiritual atmosphere is continuing up to the death. Even if the thoughts become stable in your mind, if one returns to the native place and dies there, the worldly thoughts entering the mind in the period of fag end of the life will throw away the thoughts collected in Kashi city. The last thought during the death time decides the future path of the soul (yam yambhavam… Gita). The last thought always comes based on the previous thoughts that enter the mind during the old age. Hence, if you live in Kashi during the old age, the spiritual thoughts enter the mind for some time and the last thought is based on the previous thought acquired in the old age. The essence of the stay in the Kashi indicates the accumulation of spiritual thoughts during the participations in the debates. This does not mean that mere stay and death in Kashi gives the salvation. Any place involving such spiritual debates is Kashi and hence several devotees, who died in various other places, got salvation. The present Kashi city is called as Kashi in the way of rudhi and not in the way of yoga. Rudhi means calling an object by a name even though its meaning is not applied. For example: the constant liar may be called as Harischandra. Yoga means the word applied to an item with the application of its meaning. Example: calling a person as Harischandra, who does not tell a lie at all. In those times, the word Kashi was an example of Yoga but today it is an example of rudhi. The initial step is always linked with the final result for the sake of encouragement. The initial step is to live in Kashi till death. But this is linked with the final result of salvation. The intermediate steps are not mentioned, which are to participate in the spiritual discussions, attain the divine knowledge and to attain the total and complete transformation of the soul, which gives the final fruit of salvation. Great people like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi etc., attained the spiritual knowledge staying in other places and died there only, who were salvated. This itself proves that Kashi doesn’t mean a particular city but it means any place where we constantly attain the spiritual knowledge till death.
3) Dr. Nikhil asked “Awareness should be taken as the effect only as we observe in this world. Please clarify”.
Shri Swami replied: Your statement is perfectly correct as far as its validity is confined to the imaginable phase, which is this creation. This can be proved in the following manner: In the human being, there are three components in the line of awareness.
1) Matter
2) Inert energy
3) Work
Matter means the substance of nervous system and brain. Inert energy means the binding energy involved in the matter and the inert energy existing in the system to do work. Work means the form of inert energy and the work is specific due to the specific nature of the nervous system and brain. In the states of awaken and dream, all these three components exist. But in the state of deep sleep even though inert matter and inert energy exist (nervous system and brain), the awareness is absent since the work is absent, which is the functioning of the nervous system and brain. This is a clear and direct proof to say that awareness is a specific work form of inert energy.
The signals given by another part of brain to systems like heart, lungs etc., do not involve this specific system of awareness and hence do not come under the present discussion of awareness. However, this conclusion of the awareness to be effect form of inert energy or specific work should be limited to the imaginable phase only and should not enter into the unimaginable domain in which the actual unimaginable God exists. In this unimaginable phase, neither matter nor inert energy nor specific work exists and hence in this phase there is neither cause nor the effect. The awareness in this phase and its background are unimaginable. Not only the transfer of information from the senses to the brain is a form of work, but also, the receiving process of the information by the brain is also another process of work only. Therefore, you should not assume that awareness, different from all these components exists separately in brain especially in the view of the above direct proof given in the deep sleep.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★