20 Aug 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God
[Satsanga on Vara Lakshmi Vratam (16th Aug 2024).
In Hyderabad, at the house of Prof. Annapurna, Shri V. Subrahmanyam, an aged traditional scholar along with some local devotees came and requested Swami to do initiation of any mantra. Swami gave a long speech answering his questions now and then, from which the main points are marked below.]
1. God Datta is like a communist! If old traditions are wrong, He will refuse outrightly. We always follow wrong traditions only. Hence, we cannot approach and stand before God Datta, if we are not with open mind without blind conservatism, which means that we will do a particular action without any analysis since our grandfather and father did it. Prahlaada did not blindly follow the tradition of his forefathers, which is not worshiping God Narayana. You must follow any tradition after analysis and not blindly. You must examine both old and present and analyse deeply with sharp analysis to pick up the truth from either old or present. A blind conservative follows either the old or the present only without analysis. A conservative person drinks salt water from the well saying that it was dug by his father and does not drink good water present in the entire village (Tātasya kūpo'yamiti bṛvāṇāḥ…). All old is not gold and all latest is not the best (Purāṇamityeva na sādhu sarvam…). If you are a strong blind conservative, you need not come to God Datta, who is the Divine Preacher discriminating truth from false.
2. Your mind will be fixed on God Datta if you are interested in true spiritual knowledge in this old age. You were fixed on a girl in youth since you were interested in sex in your youth. But, in this old age, you must be interested in the spiritual knowledge in which case you will automatically fix on God Datta. The reason for your complaint that you are unable to concentrate on God Datta is that you are not really interested in spiritual knowledge since you are still engulfed by the worldly worries only as said by Shankara (Vṛddhastāvat cintāsaktaḥ).
3. You need not fix your mind on His form. You have to fix your mind on the answers given by Him to your doubts. Fixing mind on the form of a girl in youth was relevant and that was already finished in your youth. Now, that is not relevant and hence, you have to fix your mind on the spiritual knowledge of God Datta. His form is irrelevant to you in this state.
4. You are not eligible to enter your prayer room if you have false love on God, which is your true love only on your worldly desires. You are using God as an instrument to achieve your worldly desires and such devotion on God is instrumental devotion. Hence, God is silent to you and is not answering you in your prayer room. In fact, He did not even enter your prayer room knowing your false love to Him so that mere inert photos and statues exist without God. If you don’t have any worldly desire and your only desire is God alone, such devotion is called ‘Goal Devotion’ since nothing and nobody other than God is your goal.
5. This girl here seen by you is My devotee, who is 25 years old and must be interested in a boy for marriage. But, she is interested in God Datta's knowledge and refuses marriage! She belongs to Medara caste, which is famous for preparing bamboo baskets. But, she prepared a different bamboo basket of true devotion to capture God Datta in it and she was successful! She belongs to the line of Adi Shankara, who was interested in propagating divine spiritual knowledge by His 8th year! Another boy sitting here is 32 years old and not yet married still, saying that he is already the wife of God Datta! See, such mad souls only come to God Datta. Madness means the climax intensity of devotion to God without any aspiration in return from God.
6. For Mantra Upadesha, there is no need of any Guru for initiation into a mantra. Mantra means that sentence of prose or poetry or song related to God that attracts your mind to repeat it again and again without any effort or force of worldly desire (Mananāt trāyate). Guru has no place between you and the mantra since the mantra connects you to God directly. Even a cinema song liked by you very much making you to sing it again and again, when diverted to God in your feeling can be a mantra. If it is song, it is Gayatri Mantra. Gayatri means the mode of worshipping God by singing songs on God (Gāyantaṃ trāyate). Song is better than prose and poetry. God said in the Gita that He is the Saama Veda or song (Vedānāṃ Sāma Vedo'smi). The Yajur Veda is in prose, the Rug Veda is in poetry and the Sama Veda is in songs.
7. You say that vidya or knowledge without a preacher is a waste and hence, that Mantra must be also from a Guru or a preacher. This is true in the case of knowledge like maths or physics or even spiritual knowledge because explanation from the preacher is essential in understanding the subject. This doesn't apply to Mantra involving attraction or Bhakti towards a statement about God that makes you mad to repeat it again and again. Such help in preaching knowledge is Upadesha, which is not at all relevant to Mantra. Hence, preaching knowledge (Jnaanopadesha) exists and not preaching Mantra (Mantropadesha).
8. The path to the ultimate God Datta is very difficult because you have to surrender everything to Him without expecting anything for anybody including yourself in return from God. This is like the strict one way traffic in which there is only one side love towards God. Moreover, severe tests also exist as an additional bonus worry!
9. In fact, God Datta gives everything in both worldly life and spiritual life. Moreover, He is very easily pleased just by remembering Him (Smaraṇamātra santuṣṭaḥ or Smartṛgāmī). As soon as you worship God Datta, difficulties will appear. In fact, these difficulties (Clearing the fruits of your sins immediately without further increase due to interest.) are clearing of your loans immediately, which are increasing day by day with interests. God Datta immediately arranges the payment of loans by you to save you from further financial (suffering the sins in future) burden. This appears as difficulty for us and we misunderstand that worshipping God Datta gives difficulties! Such misinterpretation is made famous by His power (Maayaa Shakti) so that the very easily pleased God Datta will not be exploited by undeserving devotees so that only a very few deserving devotees approach Him.
10. You are acting before God as if your worship is true love even though it is actually false love because you are thinking that God is innocent. Even if you don’t know a point that is hidden in one of your nerves, it is known to the omniscient God. How can you exploit God for your selfish advantage? A human being is not omniscient and by your intelligence, you may exploit him very easily but not the omniscient God. You are showing your talent of exploitation to the climax level before God while you are very sincere and not exploiting your family members even by a trace. Even though the worldly bond is exploiting you, you are most sincere to the worldly bond. The Veda says that the worldly bond is loving you for its happiness and not for your happiness (Ātmanastu kāmāya sarvaṃ priyaṃ bhavati). In the case of God, there is no need of any human being for His happiness since He is always blissful. Before such truly loving God, you are acting whereas you are very sincere to your worldly bonds, who are loving you for their happiness and not for your happiness! You are doing just the reverse of what you must do in your entire life and you shall learn to act reversely to your reverse behaviour!
11. You have given a book in which the wife of your Guru is projected as the Divine Mother and the reason for such respect to her is mentioned that any mother in this world is the Divine Mother of the entire world. You are projecting a simple worldly mother, not involved in any spiritual service, as the Divine Mother and the simple reason you give is that she is a worldly mother! Every worldly mother is not the Divine Mother and if it is so, Shri Adi Shankara leaving His mother (assumed Divine Mother) for the sake of propagation of Divine Spiritual Knowledge must be a sinner!! Don’t rub the world on God. These are worldly matters and God is beyond the creation. God and world are opposite north and south poles (Dūramete viparīte viṣūcī - Veda). Within the worldly life or Pravrutti, mother is the topmost respectable angel. But, when God competes with the mother in spiritual life or Nivrutti, God becomes the real mother. The Vedic statement “Mātṛ devo bhava” can be interpreted in two different contexts:-
i) In Pravrutti, mother is God (Tatpurusha Samaasa).
ii) In Nivrutti, God is mother (Uttarapada Praadhaanya Bahuvriihi Samaasa).
★ ★ ★ ★ ★