01 Jan 2003
His Holiness Shri Datta Swami is a complete incarnation of the Lord (Pari Purna Avatara). He has come to this world to preach Divine Knowledge to mankind. In the past incarnations of the Lord, this wonderful Divine Knowledge was not revealed to its fullest extent. Today, more than ever, there is a real need for this wonderful Divine Knowledge. The situation is rather peculiar. People are not ignorant about the true knowledge. They are highly intelligent. Their minds have been sharpened by the advancement in science and technology. They know the truth but they do not like it. They want to reach the true goal by the false and convenient path. For this purpose they have twisted the meaning of the scriptures. Humanity stands divided by a number of religions and religious sects. Therefore there is a direct need at present, for Lord Datta Himself to come down and reveal the true knowledge to the wonderful people. He has come in the form of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami to give this Divine and special knowledge to us.
Ancient history of Nagulwaram. In the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in Guntur district, Vinukonda taluk, is a small village called Nagulavaram. This place has an ancient history. Thousands of years ago, the illustrious and righteous King Parikshit, of the Pandava dynasty, ruled India. In a moment of weakness, he once insulted a sage called Shamika. The sage's son, Shringi, cursed the king to die within seven days from the bite of a snake. Parikshit realized his mistake, since there was no sin greater than insulting a sage of the stature of Shamika. Faced with his impending death, the king was filled with renunciation. He left his family and kingdom and went to the forest in the refuge of Sage Shuka, who preached the Holy Bhagavatam to him. The news of the imminent death of Parikshit sent tremors among the wise ones. The great sage, Kashyapa, rushed to the rescue of the king. In the meanwhile Takshaka, the serpent king was dispatched by the heavenly executives to deliver the fatal bite to Parikshit and fulfill the curse of Shringi.
Takshaka, knew that he would be unable to kill the king if Sage Kashyapa were protecting him. He made up his mind to seek blessings of success from the sage and dissuade him from protecting the king. He met the sage in what is now the village of Nagulvaram. In the past, this village was the abode of snakes. Takshaka respectfully received Sage Kashyapa and gave a cow in donation to him. He requested the great sage to not protect King Parikshit. The king had committed a sin and Shringi's curse had to be fulfilled otherwise it would be a violation of the Law of Dharma (justice). Sage Kashyapa finally agreed with Takshaka. He blessed Takshaka and went his way.
King Parikshit was immersed in the devotion of the Lord by listening to the Holy Bhagavatam preached by Shuka. He had given up all his worldly attachments. When Takshaka came to deliver the fatal bite, Parikshit was prepared. He attained salvation.
Swami's ancestors. In the same village of Nagulwaram, in recent times, lived a devout Brahmin (priest) called Sri Koteswara Sastry. He belonged to the lineage (gotra) of the same Sage Kashyapa. He spent his entire life repeating the name of the Lord (Rama nama japam). Even when he passed away, the name of the Lord alone was on his lips and his fingers were counting the rosary. His son, Sri Veerabhadra Shastry is a poet in Sanskrit and Telugu and has written more than a hundred books. He is also a great astrologer. His wife is called Hanumayamma.
Two distant cousins of Sri Veerabhadra Shastry, were evil sorcerers. They were skilled in black magic and had terrorized the whole village. They had the power to kill people with a mere look or the utterance of certain words or mantras. They used to worship ghosts, evil forces and demons. Cemeteries and cremation grounds used to be their haunts. According to some people's estimate, they had killed hundreds of people including over three hundred children, using their evil powers. They were sworn enemies of Sri Veerabhadra Shastry and had cast an evil spell on Sri Veerabhadra Shastry's family that his lineage may come to an end. As a result of the spell, seven children in the joint family, which included Sri Veerabhadra Shastry and his two brothers, had died.
The eighth child. When Hanumayamma was pregnant with the eighth child in the extended family of Sri Veerabhadra Shastry, there was a lot of anxiety for the survival of the infant. On Sunday, phalguna shukla vidiya, in the early hours of the 4th part of uttarabhadra, makara lagna, vyaya year, (February 24th 1947) the Child of Veerabhadra Shastry and Hanumayamma was born. The Child was a boy. As soon as He was born, the two evil sorcerers, who had tried to destroy the family of Sri Veerabhadra Shastry, died all of a sudden. The two sorcerers were paternal uncles of the newborn Child. With their death, the evil influence on the family and the entire village ended. The Child was not christened (namakarana) till the age of 7 years because the family was still afraid that the Child may not survive; the earlier seven children had died only after they were christened. Little did the family know that this boy was none other than the Lord Himself and that He would be known as Swami (master, Lord) or Datta Swami in the future. There are several parallels between the life of Lord Krishna and Swami. Lord Krishna was the eighth child of his parents. Swami was the eighth child in His family. Lord Krishna's maternal uncle was a very cruel king and had killed the elder siblings of Lord Krishna along with innumerable innocent people. In Swami's case, it was His two paternal uncles who were cruel and they killed Swami's elder siblings and cousins apart from hundreds of other villagers. Owing to the similarities between Lord Krishna, and Swami, His paternal aunt named him as "Venugopala Krishna Murthy".
Swami the prankster. As Swami, grew up to be a young boy, He brought life and enthusiasm in His family and the whole village. His enchanting pranks at once entertained and exasperated His parents. His mischief was very similar to that of Lord Krishna. Like Lord Krishna, Swami too was fond of butter and curd. He too would collect a band of village kids and sneak into neighbor's homes to steal butter and curd. His whole day would be spent in playing with His band of friends, teasing villagers and breaking their earthen pots. His friends adored Him and considered Him as their leader. Inspite of His incessant mischief, He was the heart-throb of the entire village. Occasionally, some villager would complain to Swami's parents about His being a perfect menace. But on the whole they tolerated and even enjoyed His pranks.
Another reason why the villagers tolerated Swami's mischief was that Swami's family was greatly respected in the village. Their ancestors were landlords in the village. The elder brother of Sri Veerabhadra Shastry, (Swami's paternal uncle) was an Ayurvedic doctor and a very generous and compassionate man. He would treat many poor villagers free of charge. He was almost like the village headman to them. Any new person visiting the village was automatically a respected guest of Swami's family. Therefore the villagers did not mind if a little boy from that family did some mischief at their expense.
Swami's upanayanam. When Swami turned seven, just a few days after His christening ceremony (namakarana), His father decided that it was about time that his son got a little serious. With a view to reduce the mischief of Swami and instill some discipline in Him, His father performed the upanayanam ceremony for Swami. The upanayanam is the initiation of a child into the traditional study of the scriptures. A large ceremony was performed and food was distributed to the entire village. After the upanayanam, Swami's father started teaching Sanskrit to Swami. He started by teaching eight verses from the epic, Raghuvamsha of Kalidasa. But from the ninth verse onwards, Swami started revealing the meanings of Sanskrit verses without any further teaching. This happened when Swami was seven years of age. The father was taken aback by the extraordinary talent of his seven-year-old son. However he was worried and thought that Swami was possessed by a 'Brahma Rakshasa', a ghost of a scholarly demon, and that as a result, Swami could suddenly expound the Sanskrit epic without any prior study. His father performed several rituals and the chanting of mantras (sacred hymns) so that Swami may get rid of the 'Brahma Rakshasa'. He had no idea of the divinity of his son. When Swami related this to His devotees, many years later, He jokingly said that His father did not know which ghost had possessed Him. Swami said that He was possessed by Lord Datta, whose original form is described as that of a ghost called 'Avadhuta Datta Digambara Pishacha Rupa'. Lord Datta in this form is Lord Shiva, who is the ruler of all ghosts.
Swami the extraordinary. Thereafter, Swami began composing shlokas (verses) in Sanskrit on His own. The ancient and intricate Sanskrit language gushed forth from Swami's pen. Swami started writing poems, epics, stotrams (paeans) and philosophical books in hundreds. Sanskrit scholars were dumbfounded seeing the compositions of Swami when He was barely eleven years old. Great scholars like Sri M. Satyanarayana Sastry and Sri Tatacharya compared the works of Swami to those of the legendary Kalidasa. Sri Vavilala Venkateswara Sastry, a great philosopher, appreciated Swami extensively. Sri. D. Prabhakara Sastry and Sri. J. Venkateswara Sastry recognized that Swami's genius was out of the ordinary. They realized that it was not genius but it was Divinity.
Swami the astrologer. At the age of ten, Swami used to tell the future. Initially, people thought that He must have inherited some of His father's astrological skills. However two incidents convinced people of Swami's divinity rather than astrological skills. Once when Swami was present by His father's side, a farmer from the neighboring village of Kookatlapally, came to them and invited them to his daughter's wedding. Swami suddenly said that the bride would die immediately after the wedding. Everyone in Swami's family was shocked. They scolded Swami for making such an outrageous statement. The farmer, who had come to invite them, was speechless. Yet he proceeded with the wedding of his daughter. After the wedding was over and when the bride prostrated before her in-laws, to receive their blessings, as per tradition, she immediately fell down dead. This incident became the talk of the town.
Another incident took place when Swami went to visit His uncle in Kundurti. In His uncle's house, Swami took a diary and wrote that His aunt would pass away due to cholera on a particular date. He signed the same with the date of prediction. On the predicted day, Swami's aunt died of cholera. Swami's uncle had not seen the note that Swami had made and signed in the diary and came to know of it only later on.
Swami the student. Swami was exceptionally brilliant in His studies. He completed His bachelor’s degree at the age of fifteen and proceeded to the prestigious Allahabad University for His masters and PhD. During His five-year stay in Allahabad, He would wake up at 3.00 am every morning and walk to the holy river, Ganga (Ganges) to perform severe penance. He would first bathe in the holy waters. Then He would hold a Shiva Lingam, in His left hand and shower it with the holy water of the Ganga with His right hand. This, He would do standing on one leg in the water till 7.00 am. After that, He would proceed to the university to attend classes and do His research. Every full moon day (pournima), Swami would go to the holy city of Varanasi (Banaras) which is just a few hours away from Allahabad. There, He would worship Lord Shiva by performing the Rudrabhishekam.
By the age of seventeen, Swami had completed His Masters degree in chemistry. He continued working towards a PhD. Swami worked in the laboratory for His PhD for only thirty days and completed His thesis in a few months after joining the PhD program. His thesis was titled "A New Supersonic Technique for Metallurgical Testing". It was a very short thesis and contained only thirty pages. Swami was inspired by Newton and Einstein, whose ground breaking theses in their time, were very short. Swami did not want to submit a watered down thesis running into hundreds of pages; He rather wanted a short, power-packed thesis with an original idea. His professors were extremely impressed with Swami's thesis, His original work, and His brilliance as a researcher. However they could not accept His thesis so soon. The university had a rule that the minimum time frame for the completion of a PhD degree should be twenty months. Swami was obliged to wait for that period before He could submit His thesis.
Swami the Vedic scholar. Swami spent this time, enacting another divine drama in this world. It was a particularly important phase of His life from the point of view of His Divine Mission on earth. He would go to the university every morning but not to the chemistry department; He would go to the G. N. Jha Research Institute, which was on campus. In this famous institute there are hundreds of thousands of original palm-leaf manuscripts of ancient philosophical texts including the Vedas, Brahmasutras, Bhagavad Gita and commentaries of great ancient masters on the scriptures. Swami would study them all day. His colleagues in the chemistry department would joke that His admission to the chemistry department was a mere formality; He was always to be found in the G. N. Jha Research Institute. They would add that Swami was not a research scholar in chemistry but a scholar in Sanskrit and philosophy.
The director of the G. N. Jha Research Institute was Dr. Umesh Mishra, a great scholar and a spiritually advanced soul. He was the ex-vice chancellor of the Sanskrit University of Darbhanga. He was a purva mimamsaka (ritualist) by belief. He had once performed the ashwamedha yajna (fire ritual involving a divine horse) in Darbhanga. During the ritual a divine horse had actually appeared in the fire altar. Dr. Mishra was able to take a photograph of the horse. While studying the ancient manuscripts in the G. N. Jha Institute, Swami would get into scholarly spiritual debates with Dr. Mishra. These debates were a recapitulation of the same great debate that had ensued between Lord Adi Shankaracarya and the great ritualistic scholar Mandana Mishra. Lord Shankara's point of view was theistic and consisted in accepting God as the Creator and Controller of creation. Mandana Mishra's point of view was that human effort and actions yield proportional results independently; there was no need to bring God into the picture. The historic debate had lasted twenty one days and finally Mandana Mishra accepted Lord Shankara's point of view. He totally surrendered to Lord Shankara and became His disciple, who later became famous as Sureshwara. Likewise, in the debate between Swami and Dr. Mishra, Dr. Mishra finally accepted Swami's point of view. He even gave a certificate signed by him to Swami, accepting that Swami's point was correct.
During His stay in Allahabad, Swami would also engage in debates and discussions with many other great scholars. There is a reputed Vedantic philosophical magazine published in Varanasi, called Prabha. Swami wrote an article in it on the commentary of a particular Brahmasutra. The Brahmasutras are condensed aphorisms which contain the entire Vedic knowledge in them. However interpreting and understanding the Brahma Sutras is very difficult since it requires a comprehensive and fully assimilated knowledge of the entire Vedas. Only the most advanced students of Vedanta are able to study the Brahmasutras. Swami wrote the article on the Brahmasutra (1.1.4), "tat tu samanvayat". He gave one hundred interpretations of the term 'tu'. His article was so exceptional that it transcended the level of usual scholarly Vedantic writing. Impressed by this article, Sri Karapatra Swami, the head monk-teacher (Pithadhipati) of the sacred seat of learning at Varanasi (Kashi Pitham), invited the young Swami to take up monkhood (samnyasa) and become the next head monk-teacher (Pithadhipati) of the Kashi Pitham. Varanasi is the holiest city of the Hindus. It is where the scriptures have been taught, preserved and propagated from generation to generation for several thousand years. It is the abode of the greatest scholars and saints in India. The opportunity of becoming the head monk of this ancient and sacred seat of learning, is extremely rare and prestigious. Swami was offered this position, when He was not even out of His teens. However, when His father came to know about this, he did not accept the offer. Swami was his eldest son. He was not going to let his eldest son become a monk. He wanted Swami to carry on the name of his family. It is indeed our good fortune that Swami did not take the offer at that time. Otherwise we would not have had the opportunity to know Him so closely and live with Him.
Swami upholds Sanatana Dharma. In India, a sacred event called the Mahakumbha Mela is celebrated at certain holy places. It is an event with astronomical significance and it occurs every 12 years. At this time, over a million people congregate at these holy spots to have a ritual bath in the holy waters. It is also the time when great scholars, sages and holy men come out of seclusion and interact with each other. Rare jewels of Divine Knowledge are exchanged. At the time of the Mahakumbha Mela in Prayag (Allahabad), situated on the confluence of the three holy rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, a heated argument took place between the followers of Arya Samaj and those of Sanatana Dharma. Both are sects of Hinduism. Arya Samaj believes in Formless God (Nirakara) whereas the Sanatanas believe in God having form (Sakara) and God coming down as a human incarnation (Naravatara). At the age of 16, Swami entered the debate on the side of the Sanatanas. He argued with the great scholars of Arya Samaj in Sanskrit. Following is an excerpt from that argument:
Swami: Do you believe that the Lord is Omnipotent?
Arya Samaj: Yes, all religions accept this.
Swami: Then you would also accept that He has the power or ability to come down as a human incarnation so that the devotees can see, talk and interact with Him. When sincere devotees yearn for serving and interacting with Him, He fulfills their desire and takes a human incarnation.
Arya Samaj: No, interaction such as talking, seeing and living with Him would be possible only if He were to have a form. The Vedas say that He has no form ("nastiya pratima", "arupam"). They also say that He cannot be seen with one's eyes ("nacakshusha") These quotations clearly prove that God formless. Therefore it is not possible to interact with Him.
Swami: However the Vedas also say elsewhere that the Lord is available to direct perception ("yatsakshat aparokshat brahma", "pratyagatmanamaikshat"). The Vedas thus testify that one can see the Lord with one's own eyes. What you call formless is not the Lord but the undefined power of the Lord. It is true that the Lord is beyond any form and beyond the reach of the mind and intellect. Yet the same God created the universe which has form. Every religion agrees to the fact that the Lord is Omniscient (all-knowing) and Omnipotent (all-powerful). If it is true that He is Omnipotent, then He, who is beyond all forms, can take up any form by His Will. If there is even a single form that He cannot take up, then He is not all-powerful. Therefore the Lord can take up even the human form. He can take up a human form and come to earth as a human being; the human incarnation of God or an Avatara. Not only that He can do so, but He has also done so in every age and continues to do so even today.
Arya Samaj: Even if it is accepted that He could take up a form if He so wished, we argue that He does not need to take a form. Why would He, who is beyond all forms, need to take a form, and a human form at that?
Swami: The answer to this is simple. He comes to the world for the sake of His devotees. The devotee is a jivatma (soul with subtle body) 'wearing' the physical body and living in a physical world. Such a human individual can perceive only physical things on earth. He has five senses which are his only means to knowledge or perception. No being can perceive the Lord in His absolute nature, since He is beyond the reach of the mind and beyond form. However God appears in each world (or plane of existence) in a form that is perceptible to jivatmas in that world. The human being, who is in this world, cannot perceive the Lord in His Cosmic Form or in the different energetic bodies that He takes up in the upper worlds. When the jivatma leaves the physical body in death, it goes to the upper worlds (heaven or hell). Here it takes up an energetic body itself. In the upper worlds the physical body is replaced by the energetic body which becomes the medium of interaction in those worlds. Being in the energetic body, the jivatma is able to perceive the energetic body of the Lord in the upper world. However while jivatmas are on earth they possess physical bodies and hence can perceive only other physical objects and bodies. For humans on earth the energetic body of God is generally too subtle to be perceived.
Only human beings who perform penance for a long time can see the energetic body in visions in this world. In these cases too, the energetic body of the Lord has to be intensified so that those humans can perceive them. The intensified body does not remain for long and disappears by diffusion in a short while. Such energetic bodies cannot live and talk with us for a long time and cannot be touched by us.
When human beings who are extremely devoted to God and yearn for Him, the Lord, in all His compassion comes down in human form to satisfy His devotees. In the human form alone, can the devotee serve the Lord, feed Him, live with Him, talk to Him and love Him fully. One cannot serve, love, or talk to the Lord in the Cosmic Form, as the Formless Power or God in an energetic body. The only other option for a human is worshipping an idol, which is not the Lord but represents Him. It is like a person separated from his or her loved one, holding the photograph of his beloved to his heart. The photograph is not the same as the loved one but it represents the loved one and offers a means to approach that which is otherwise inaccessible. The representative idol or picture of the Lord is not the same as the Lord. You may pretend that you are feeding the idol, decorating it, loving it and so on. However worship done to the idol can never reach the Lord. The idol or image being inanimate cannot respond to that worship or devotion. Thus in reality, you have no opportunity to serve, worship, decorate or praise the Lord as the Formless One, in an energetic body or in the form of an idol. No matter how devoted you are, you can never attain fulfillment in your devotion and worship. You can never be satisfied by your worship. The only way that you can actually serve, worship, love, talk and sing to the Lord is when He comes down as a human incarnation (Avatara).
In any case you (followers of Arya Samaj) do not accept the idol worship since worshipping idols is not the same as worshipping God. However what you need to understand is that worshipping God as the Formless One is not a better option either since the Formless is not God either; it is His Formless power. Worshipping the Formless is also representative worship and in that sense is no different from idol worship.
In fact, one cannot worship God in any way other than through a medium. The human body of a human incarnation of the Lord is a medium to worship Him. However from the point of view of humans, it is far superior to any other medium that the Lord takes up, since interaction, service and direct worship is possible only through the human body of the incarnation.
The Lord has power to come in human form and He comes in human form. Devotees desire such a form. Who are you to come between the Lord and His devotees? If you cannot accept the human form, you are free to not worship it. You can continue to worship the formless aspect of God such as energy or formless space. But keep in mind that it is not direct worship of the Lord. You are only worshipping the power of God and not God Himself. It is mere representative worship; the formless aspect is only the power of God. When the devotees worship the Lord in human form, they worship God directly. The human incarnation is said to be God-in-the-flesh.
With this argument the proponents of Arya Samaj fell silent.
Swami the unifier of the three philosophies. Once, Swami had a debate with the head monk of the monistic tradition (Advaita Matha Pithadhipati), on the Brahmasutra commentary (bhashya). The monistic tradition to which the Pithadhipati belonged asserts that the individual who seeks God is already the Lord Himself. There is no essential difference between the Lord and the individual soul. It is only an apparent difference. Due to Ignorance (Maya) the individual has forgotten his real nature. With the right knowledge each individual will realize that he is the Lord Himself and that the Ignorance never existed. Following is an excerpt from the debate that Swami had with the Pithadhipati:
Pithadhipati: In the Chandogya Upanishad (in the Vedas), the father blessed his son, Shvetaketu saying 'Tat-tvam-asi' (thou art That). This means that the individual (the son) is already, the Lord (Brahman). Shvetaketu was an ordinary individual. Is there any contradiction in the fact that an ordinary individual (jiva) can be called the Lord (Brahman)?
Swami: 'Asi' is the verb in the sentence quoted above. It commonly means 'to be'. Therefore you interpreted the above sentence as an identity"the individual is identical with the Lord. However, in this case, the verb 'asi' is used in a slightly different sense. It is used in the sense of 'shortly going to become'. As per Sanskrit grammar, the present tense can be used to indicate the imminent future (avyavahita bhavishyati lat). The sentence shows the intensity of love of the father who is also the preacher in this case. Thus the father in the above context tells his son that the son will shortly become one with the Lord. The father means that the son will soon have God realization.
As Swami said this, the Pithadhipati saw Swami as Lord Dattatreya (the Lord as the Creator, Sustainer and the Destroyer of creation). He felt exceedingly happy and said to Swami that He alone was capable of unifying the three philosophical traditions (trimata bhashyas). The Vedas are the Hindu scriptures and the revealed Word of God. There are three schools of interpreting the Vedas. The three schools are called the monistic, qualified monistic and dualistic schools. Although the three schools place final authority in the same Vedas, they have very different views on basic philosophical concepts relating to God, the spiritual goal and the spiritual path. Centuries have passed but no successful effort has been made to unify the three philosophies. It seemed a task beyond the capacities of any human being. Swami achieved this great task by writing works in Sanskrit such as 'Trimata Samanvaya Bhashyam'.
Swami gets a doctoral degree. At the age of 19, Swami obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry, which is a record of sorts. He was invited for a postdoctoral position in Ohio State University, USA, but Swami refused since He did not want to travel abroad. He instead accepted a one-year senior research fellowship granted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in Allahabad. After that, Swami took up another appointment as a postdoctoral researcher in Madras University.
Swami the professor. At the age of 30, Swami became a professor in chemistry. Swami leads a simple life in Vijayawada, India. He is a professor in K. L. Engineering College, Vijayawada. He has published numerous original research papers in internationally acclaimed journals. He is a rare combination of a scientist and a spiritual genius. He is a strong proponent of a rational approach to spirituality. In His eyes, science and religion are not different. In fact, He says that a rationalist can easily be a spiritualist. Swami lives with His wife, Smt. Jayalakshmi Narasakumary. His three sons are named, Anjaneya, Veerabhadra and Vatsararushi. His youngest child is a daughter by the name of Hanumayamma. While living in the world, Swami, teaches Divine Knowledge to devotees and ordinary people.
Swami among ordinary people.
In the earlier part of His life, Swami used to engage in talks, discussions and debates with scholars well versed in Sanskrit and Vedanta alone. However in the latter part of His life, He turned His attention to the common man. He wanted to uplift the lives of normal people living and struggling in the world. He wrote several books such as 'Datta Vedam', 'Upanishad', 'Datta Guru Bhagavad Gita' for the followers of knowledge (jnana marga) and hymns and songs such as 'Gopi Gitalu' & 'Bhakti Ganga' for the followers of the devotional path (Bhakti marga). Swami's message is that one should avoid wasting time in watching television, movies, reading novels or indulging in gossip. Instead, one should spend time usefully in the spiritual effort (sadhana). The greatest sadhana is serving the Lord with full love and devotion without expecting anything in return. It means loving the Lord in spite of all the good and bad events in our life.
Practical spirituality. Swami is a practical spiritualist. He practices what He preaches. He has committed Himself to the mission of spreading the Divine Knowledge of the Lord, in intellect, mind, words, and deeds. He has donated His intelligence and words in the form of Divine Knowledge. He donated His mind and words by spontaneously composing and singing several devotional songs, which represent devotion or love for God. He is continuously sacrificing His action (karma samyasa) by giving divine discourses, answering the questions from devotees, singing devotional songs and writing books on spirituality. It is surprising to note that once He gave a divine discourse in Mumbai for 14 hours non-stop! He had written more than a hundred books in Sanskrit on spirituality by the time He turned sixteen years of age. Later He wrote several books on spirituality in different languages. All these are glorious examples of His sacrifice of work (karma samnyasa).
Even after all this intense work and sacrifice, Swami says that His devotees are greater than Him since they sacrifice the fruit of work (money) for the mission of the Lord. But it is a great secret that Swami has sacrificed His entire life's savings for the sake of the mission. His family lives only on the income of their ancestral property, not on Swami's income and savings.
Swami preaches that one should have the sole bond with the Lord and that one should be detached from family bonds. In order to preach this by example, Swami did not go to His home for one full year and did not allow any of His family members to meet Him either. He did this only to prove His point that internal detachment is essential in spirituality. Swami says that the over-attachment to these family bonds obstructs the formation of the bond with the Lord and breeds intense selfishness. Selfishness is the cause for all fighting and corruption in the society, which lead to social injustice. Both justice in the world, and Brahmaloka (highest heaven) are simultaneously achieved if one has complete internal detachment from family bonds. The Lord is pleased by detachment from family bonds on two counts: one, that it establishes justice in the world and secondly because it enables the formation of an infallible bond with God. The formation of the bond with God leads to service of the Lord, which in turn takes the devotee to Brahmaloka. Swami says that salvation does not mean liberation from this physical world, but it means the liberation from blind family bonds.
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