13 Aug 2017
Dr. Annapurna asked: Is logical analysis alone sufficient in finding out the truth?
Swami replied: To find out truth in theoretical phase, logical analysis in the positive right direction alone is the torch light provided it is not twisted towards the negative side to result in dry bad logic leading to wrong and dangerous conclusions. It helps to confirm the truth in theory. Theory is very important because it is the source of practice. If the theory is wrong, practice will be wrong and the fruit received by practice is also wrong. Hence, true conclusion in the theory (Jnaana yoga) is very important, which alone is transformed in to practice (Karma Yoga) with the help of the emotion (Bhakti Yoga). The fruit is achieved by practice only and not by mere knowledge and devotion. Knowledge is like water and devotion is like the fertilizer. Practice is like the mango plant for which alone the fruit can appear. You may have hundred tanks of water (lot of spiritual knowledge) and you may have hundred bags of fertilizer (devotion), you can’t attain the mango fruit unless both these are applied to mango plant (practice). Without both these water and fertilizer, the plant alone can’t yield the fruit. If the water or fertilizer is wrong, the plant will die without giving the fruit. Even if it gives the fruit, the fruit will be poisonous. Hence, knowledge and devotion must not be in wrong direction. This is the positive side of knowledge and devotion. The negative side of knowledge and devotion is that you can’t attain the fruit with mere theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion.
There are two types of devotees. The first type follow the prostitution devotion (Veshyaa Bhakti) in which devotees want practical mango fruit for theoretical water and fertilizer. A prostitute is very clever having lot of knowledge and expresses lot of love (devotion) to the customer for the sake of looting money (practical fruit) from him! At the maximum, the prostitute may press the feet etc., (karma samnyasa or sacrifice of work), but, will never do sacrifice of money (sacrifice of fruit of work or karmaphala tyaga) for attaining practical fruit from the customer. We find most of the devotees belonging to this type of devotion only, who discusses about God to lot of depth (knowledge), sing on God through lot of prayers (devotion) and lot of practical service (karma samnayasa) by salutations falling on the floor etc. These devotes will never do sacrifice of fruit (karma phalatyaga) even to a little extent. These are very clever in offering the fruits to God in form of statue in order to satisfy the final step called sacrifice of fruit. In such step, they cleverly select the inert statute only as representative of God so that the fruit is not really sacrificed since they eat the fruits or food after offering. This is false sacrifice of fruit and is cheating the God. Of course, by offering the food to the statue of God, devotion will increase, which is theoretical only. If the real sacrifice of fruit is to be done, the fruits or food must be sacrificed to real living spiritual people or a real devotee, who will eat and enjoy the sacrificed fruit by which God is very much pleased. You can also do real sacrifice of food to beggars along with the sacrifice of spiritual knowledge and devotion. Offering food to statue to eat afterwards only is over-intelligence. Such over-intelligent people also present a beautiful extended logic by saying “All this including souls is the property of God. How can we sacrifice to Him when nothing is our property including ourselves?” This is the result of extension of mere logic to negative side, which is called as bad logic by Shankara (dustarkah suviramyataam...). Such bad logic can be countered by sharp logic of God (tit for tat), who says “In such case, how can you ask any practical fruit from Me, which doesn’t belong to you at all and especially when you are a part of My property!” Another sharp logic from God is that the reaction from God by giving fruit shall be in the same phase in which the worship or sacrifice of the devotee exists (Yeyathaamaam... Gita). This means that God gives theoretical fruits (like good strength to intelligence and to the sweet voice) to the theoretical worships and sacrifices like discussing knowledge, praying through songs etc. A sinner also says that without the will of God even ant will not bite anyone. Exploiting this, he kills a good person!
People with over-intelligence and following mere dry bad logic always loose terribly. A person with ordinary level of intelligence is walking in a way and his foot was adhered by some excretion matter. He just rubbed his foot on the earth and walked away and his loss is only 1/3rd, which is only impurity on foot. A over-intelligent fellow with over analysis wanted to know what it is and took it with finger and rubbed it with other fingers to find it as pasty. This is 2/3rd loss, which is spoiling of foot and hand. His over analysis didn’t stop there. He wanted to confirm it by smelling it with nose. He raised his finger towards the nose to smell it and his nose was also spoiled after which he confirmed it as excretion through smell. Now, his loss is full since the loss is 3/3, which is spoiling of foot, hand and nose. A scholar is travelling by a boat rowed by its driver. The scholar asked the driver about the books read by him. The driver replied that he didn’t read any book. The scholar told that the entire life of the driver is wasted. After sometime, the boat started tilting by speedy waves. The driver asked the scholar that whether the scholar knows swimming. The scholar told that he didn’t learn only the swimming. The driver replied that since that swimming alone was not practiced, the entire life of the scholar is practically wasted while his life was wasted theoretically only. Hence, if the practice of sacrifice of fruit of work alone to a deserving living being is not done, the entire theoretical spiritual effort is practically wasted! While saying this, the driver jumped into water to swim since the boat started drowning! Shri Paramahamsa told that stopping with mere theoretical effort is waste like preparing a list of items to be purchased (knowledge is completed) without purchasing the items of the list. You may have emotional inspiration (devotion) to purchase the items, but, such devotion is also useless without purchasing items. You may walk to the shop to purchase the items with emotion and this walking is sacrifice of work (Karma samnyaasa). If you don’t have money in your pocket to purchase the items, your effort becomes full since had you got money you could have purchased. Hence, this step is the end of the effort of a saint (samnyaasi), who does not have fruit to sacrifice. Therefore, the word samnyaasa (sainthood) appears in the word Karma samnyaasa. For house-holders, who are able to do sacrifice of work as well as fruit of work, both these together called as practice (karma yoga) is advised. The house-holder says that this is very difficult to practice. But, the house-holder is doing both these to his/her issues without aspiring anything in return from them and even if they give problems to the house-holder! You are doing this very easily and spontaneously in one place and you say that this is difficult in another place or God. Hence, the issue is taken as the standard scale of measurement of your devotion to God. If you are offering the fruit to statue of God by moving your hands towards Him, why don’t you offer your property (fruit of work) to your issue also in the same way? This is the heart of philosophy and hence the bond to issue, is represented in heart by anaahata chakra, which means that this bond is not beaten or crossed by anybody so far!
The second type of devotees sacrifice fruit of work aspiring some practical boon in return. This is exchange of matter for matter. Exchange of work (energy) with the matter in return is in the case of working under employer and since the employee is more benefited, the employee respects the employer. Exchange of matter with matter is done in the case of customer and shopkeeper, in which equivalence of matter from both sides exists. For this reason, the shopkeeper is not respected like employer. Matter is result of condensation of lot of energy (E=mC2). Hence, sacrifice of matter is far greater than sacrifice of work (energy) provided one is capable of doing it.
The most important in the sacrifice of fruit of work is that it is the percentage of sacrifice of the total fruit possessed by you is bringing the greatness of the sacrifice. A saint doesn’t sacrifice even one rupee and sacrifices only his work (energy). This is 100% sacrifice of fruit of work since nothing exists with the saint for sacrifice. When a beggar sacrificed one rupee only, which alone is remaining with him, it is 100% sacrifice of fruit. This sacrifice of one rupee is highest, which is higher than sacrifice of Rs. 90,000/- by one lakh holder. Jesus also told the same that the little sacrifice of a widow-beggar is greater than all other huge donations done by rich devotees. The magnitude of sacrifice is not important, but, the percentage of sacrificed fruit in the total possessed fruit by you is always counted by God. In the counter of God, if you give Rs. 100/- out of Rs. 1,000/-, the ticket of journey will be given to you up to next station only. If another person gives Rs.10/- and has no more money in his pocket, the ticket will be given up to the terminus. Datta gives the ticket to His abode not seeing the money which you have given to Him, but, gives the ticket on seeing the remaining money in your pocket!
Hence, the lowest type (prostitutional) of devotees sacrifice intelligence, emotion and if necessary even work for getting the practical fruit from God. Saints sacrificing work only are exception to this type. The middle type (business) of devotees sacrifice fruit of work aspiring for practical boon. The highest type (real love) of devotees sacrifice intelligence, emotion, work and fruit of work aspiring nothing in return like the real love shown to issues. If you belong to third type, you can praise God in your prayers to be equal to your issues. Even then, don’t praise the Lord saying that He is more than everything and everybody since it is also a lie. The knowledge given by human incarnation like Krishna (Satguru) always contains truth only, which is bitter causing inconvenience and pain to you since God does not aspire anything from you in actual sense. He may aspire something from you just to test your real love through practical sacrifice like the grandfather asking a chocolate from his grand his son after presenting him a packet of chocolates. The guru or a human scholar aspires chocolate from you like a beggar in need. Hence, the guru learns only that much knowledge, which is convenient and pleases you so that you will give the chocolate. Even if he knows the truth he will not preach you that since you will not give the chocolate for the inconvenient and unpleasant knowledge. He preaches only false knowledge by tempting you that you will get several packets of chocolate by following his knowledge. A beggar told a house lady that he will give medicine to her by which she will never suffer with hunger and asked her for little food to be given to him as the rate of medicine. The lady replied that he can himself use the medicine to avoid his hunger!
Hence, mere logic diverted to negative side results in several false conclusions and there should be a limit to the logic at that point beyond which dangerous conclusions will result. To control such negative side of bad and dry logic only, the authority of scripture (Shruti and Smruti) and the authority of learned scholars (Vidvat Anubhava) are advised so that the logical analysis will not divert to the side of over-intelligence that results in wrong conclusions. The primary scripture concludes that the sacrifice of fruit of work (wealth) alone is the real proof of love (Dhanena tyageana ekena...). Wealth may mean the fruit given by forefathers about which you may not have the sense of real value since it is not your hard money. The secondary scripture (smruti) or the Gita emphasize on the sacrifice of the fruit of hard work about which you are aware of its real value. Sacrifice of the wealth earned by your hard work is always higher than the sacrifice of wealth of your forefathers. Sacrifice of an item knowing its full value is more appreciable than sacrifice of item without knowing its real value. Hence, the Gita is polished knowledge of the Veda. The stories of sacrifice of material or money by several devotees as written in the Puranas give the authority of experience of several real learned devotees like Saktuprastha (who sacrificed all the food earned for his family starving from several days in a drought).
The Veda says that God gives only true knowledge since truth is the first adjective given to the knowledge (Satyam Jnaanam...). The reason is that the aim of God is your eternal welfare only and not the fees to be collected from you for giving His knowledge. Truth is always bitter since it is most inconvenient knowledge. For this reason only, God Datta is always avoided by several devotees from ancient times. Elders threaten by saying that one should not go near to Datta since one will lose everything by His knowledge (Dattam Chinnam)! In the Vishnupuranam, God Vishnu says that whenever His grace falls on a devotee, God will steal away his money (Ysyaanugraha michchaami tasya vittam haraamyaham)!
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: I heard that when Jesus was worshipped by a devotee using sandal paste, one fellow commented that the money used for that sandal paste could have been better spent on feeding beggars. I heard also that Jesus replied that the worship should be continued since beggars exist in all places and in all times. Can you please explain the true meaning of this?
Swami replied: Whenever a suffering person approached Jesus, Jesus always told him that let his sins be excused. He never told that let His suffering disappear. The reason is that suffering is the punishment of the sin. Punishments of emergent severe sins will be given in this world itself and punishments of other sins are given in the hell. Punishment is never for vengeance. It is aimed only to bring realization followed by repentance resulting in the non-repetition of sin again. Spiritual knowledge alone can bring the realization. True spiritual knowledge is always preached by God in human form only. In the absence of such true spiritual knowledge, punishment acts as a temporary devise to suppress the psychology with fear so that repetition of sin can be avoided at least for some time.
The beggar is suffering with poverty as a punishment of his sins. If you want to remove the poverty of beggar forever in all the future births also, the spiritual knowledge preached by the human incarnation like Jesus or Krishna or Buddha or Mahavir Jain or Mohammad is essential for a permanent cure. Even if you feed the beggar for today, you can’t feed him throughout his life. Even if you feed him for this entire life, you can’t feed him forever in all the future births. Hence, worship of human incarnation is more important than feeding the beggar for one day or for few days or even for his entire life. A better measure is to eradicate his poverty forever throughout all his future births by giving him spiritual knowledge from the preaching of human incarnation. God in human form alone can give the true knowledge that gives the right direction towards the right goal. True knowledge is the mother of real practice and hence, knowledge is the foremost important step before practice. But, mere knowledge without practice has no trace of importance and use. If Kausalya is not the mother of Rama, she has no respect. But, without Kausalya, Rama could not have taken even His birth. Hence, Kausalya is foremost important human being to be given importance than Rama. But, all the importance and respect to Kausalya is only due to Rama. Without giving birth to Rama, Kausalya is only ordinary human being that could have been forgotten like any other lady human being in this world. Hence, knowledge is important being the mother of Practice. Bur, if the knowledge does not deliver the practice, such knowledge is useless without any significance. The knowledge preached by human incarnation is always 100% true (Jnaana Yoga) and will certainly generate emotional-devotional force (Bhakti Yoga) that is necessary for the transformation of knowledge in to practice. Hence, Kausalya (true knowledge) alone comes from the mouth of the human incarnation that alone can relieve the beggar from his suffering (punishment) forever throughout all the future births.
Social service is the service to the suffering human beings. Such service can be only temporary limited to one birth, for which also God gives gifts, which are the pleasures of heaven. Since you have given temporary relief only to the suffering of human beings, the heaven is also temporary as said in the Gita (Kshene punye...). If you mix the social service with preaching spiritual knowledge and devotion to God as done by Mother Teresa, you will go to the heaven (Swarga Loka) first for the temporary social service and then you will reach the ultimate abode of God (Brahma loka). Heaven is the 3rd word in the upper journey and the abode of God is the 7th ultimate world.
You are conducting a scientific seminar on an important research subject, which is like the worship of human incarnation to get His grace through the spiritual knowledge. Unless the grace of God dawns upon you, you cannot digest His spiritual knowledge. When somebody serves you the food with love, you can digest it well. If you steal it, you cannot digest it. The worship of God in human form is to get His grace, which can remove the suffering of any soul forever in all the future births. Hence, Jesus advised a devotee to continue the worship of God in the human form. The comment made by that person against Jesus was due to the ego and jealousy towards co-human forms due to repulsion of common media. In the case of human incarnation, It is the friend, philosopher, guide and the ultimate goal also. In the scientific seminar, you have provided the noon lunch in the interval. Now, tell Me honestly, which is more important? Is it the noon lunch or subject of the seminar? This is the meaning of the reply given by Jesus. Social service without spiritual service is like a wedding meal and not like a meal in the seminar. In wedding meal, the exposition of the ego of the donor exists along with aspiration of fruits in return in the form of gifts from the dining persons. In mere social service also, ego exists along with aspiration of fruits in return like pleasures in upper heavenly world or the political positions of power through votes in this world!
If this above analysis is not clearly understood, the comment of the person made against Jesus will appear as meaningful remark and the comment of Jesus will appear as selfishness with ego and ignorance.
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