21 Sep 2015
Shri Anil asked: What is the responsibility of Sthitaprajna having an ignorant wife and what is her fate? Please explain Maya or illusion also.
Shri Swami Replied: Maya is illusion but is divine in not harming any innocent or good human being. A devotee is absorbed completely in God and such state is called Sthitaprajna, which means that his Prajna (the decision faculty of logical analysis) is Sthita (totally absorbed in God). It means that the absorption in God is the result of firmly decided knowledge and not the knowledge in discussion. Let us take the case of a devotee in such state having good wife, who is innocent and ignorant. Her ignorance does not allow her to understand the importance of God through logical analysis. Yet, she is good and innocent being very sincere and loyal to her husband. When the husband is interested totally in God only and not in any other person or anything, she is insulted by her husband due to her lack of divine knowledge and feels pained in the heart. If the God is in the form of human incarnation, this pain becomes more because of the practical sacrifice. If the God is formless or in the form of statue or photo, it is tolerable to some extent because the sacrifice is theoretical and not practical. The food offered to such God can be eaten by us only and thus, every day the food can be offered to God. In the case of human incarnation, He eats the food every day. The problem comes in terms of expenditure of money and energy in service. If the God is formless or statue, such practical expenditure is not there, which affects the materialistic share of the wife and her children. There is only expenditure of time since the husband sits in meditation of God for a long time without attending her and her children. This is only sacrifice of time but not money. Sometimes, even in the case of statue in a temple, the practical sacrifice of money may exist. Anyway, there is some disturbance for the wife and children since the husband is allotting his money and time for God. If it is the case of human incarnation, more time is spent in deriving the divine knowledge from It and subsequently more money also may be sacrificed due to high level of attraction to the divine knowledge. Everything in this world in terms of difficulties and rewards are to be seen as various steps of God in the form of divine preacher (Sadguru) only in training His children towards correct path employing even the hell if necessary. Therefore, God is inconvenient and the human incarnation of God is more inconvenient. We can tolerate God in the form of a photo or statue but not in the form of human being. We are unaware of the value of divine knowledge that alone can inspire and lead us to the right goal of all the births and we are aware of the materialistic items and bonds with the family limited to one birth only. Even if this is known, its realization in practical life is very difficult. All the people of Brundavanam saw the divine miracles of Lord Krishna from the birth, but, some Gopikas only could realize this in the practical life by donating the butter to the Lord secretly and danced with Him also secretly in the midnight. This secrecy is the Maya or illusion, which is divine in not hurting their family members, who were ignorant and innocent by not reaching to such high level. They were not against the Lord but were unable to cross the worldly illusions. This is not cheating done by Gopikas since the other side was God present before the eyes. If it is another human being instead of the human incarnation, such cheating is not divine but is the straight path to the hell. The cheating is common in both the cases, but, the first type of cheating was done to save one’s own soul whereas the other type of cheating is due to the illusion of the worldly bonds. In both the cases, the result is same, which is not to hurt anybody in any case and this is the divine principle of God (Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah).
If one uses the divine Maya being absorbed in God, the wife is happy, feeling that the husband is totally dedicated to her. The Gita says that devotion should maintain secrecy (Rahasyam..., Rahasi sthitah...), only to avoid hurting the ignorant and innocent people. This is not a sin but is recommended by the scripture. By this, both sides get satisfied and there is no sin since the other side is God and not a human being. But, you must be aware to recognize the human incarnation through divine knowledge only (Prajnanam Brahma— Veda, Jnanitvatmaiva— Gita), which alone gives you the right practical direction for your permanent uplift and the identification should not be by miracles alone, which are exhibited by demons also. The pseudo-human incarnations are many trying to exploit you always. In this context, your wisdom-torchlight having logical analysis and scripture constantly enlightened as its two battery cells in working condition should be always on.
The state of wife should not be left to her fate by your unidirectional concentration in God. You should always try to enlighten her with the divine knowledge so that she can come to your state slowly through gradual realization but not by sudden force. If she is unable to follow the divine path and becomes rigid in the worldly path only, do not force her in anyway. Instead, you should externally follow her path of ignorance only to make her happy keeping your divine path internally as secret. In course of time, due to your timely trials, she will come to the divine path. This is the way of dealing the students by even a saint in the world in the programme of preaching divine knowledge. The preacher sometimes supports a lie in order to convince a rigid student for sometime so that the student will come up in course of time by knowing the truth. The welfare and the uplift of the student are more important than the untimely revelation of truth of concept. It is the greatest fortune to have an equally realized wife from the beginning as we can see the case of Dr. Nikhil. Even I do not have such fortune!
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