Posted on: 15 May 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
1. Can I always praise You in the following way?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Swami, You are Parabrahman or God Datta, the absolute reality and this creation is only inherently relative reality becoming absolute reality due to Your gifted absolute reality. I like to praise You through this concept all the time. Is it okay?]
Swami replied:- This shows your climax jealousy on Me! I covered Myself with self-ignorance so that I will be controlled by illusion to feel this creation as absolute reality so that I can entertain Myself with this creation. Even though the creation is inherently relative reality, I gifted My absolute reality to it so that I can get full and real entertainment. If you are aware of yourself, can you enjoy your imaginary world? If you forget yourself and get immersed in your imaginary world as a member of it, then only, you can be entertained fully and really with your imaginary world. When you reveal all this illusion, thinking that you are praising Me based on truth, I am immediately disturbed by remembering Myself by which this relatively real creation disappears from My eyes. Again, I get bored with My loneliness (Ekākī na ramate - Veda). The Veda also says that God uses both self-knowledge (Vidyaa) and self-ignorance (Avidyaa) in this entertainment. The self-ignorance is useful to cross the boredom of loneliness, which is as painful as death and the self-knowledge is useful to attain the original state of bliss whenever God is bored with the entertainment (Avidyayā mṛtyuṃ tīrtvā, Vidyayā amṛtamaśnute - Veda). Anything present continuously brings boredom. In this way, the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the world are dealt by God with the help of both self-knowledge and self-ignorance.
However, if you feel that such above mentioned true praise will improve your devotion, you can praise Me as above either in your mind or even aloud using a mike in My absence. By this, you will develop spiritually without harming My entertainment. Good people try to get profit without causing loss to others. Therefore, become a good person. Bad people try to harm others by giving loss to them even though they are not benefitted. Don’t become a bad person!
2. Are You testing the devotee regarding his faith on You when You address Yourself as a human being devoted to God Datta?
[When You address Yourself as a mere human being devoted to God Datta, will the devotee not feel that You are testing that devotee regarding his/her faith on You as God Datta? To pass that test, the devotee might immediately say the truth that You Yourself is God Datta.]
Swami replied:- So, you think that unless you remind Me of the truth, I Myself cannot remember the truth! In this way, you are My preacher and I am your disciple! Thank you very much for reminding Me about the truth and protecting Me from falling into this continuous illusion!! God is well aware of the basic truth, but, He does not allow it to project because He is entertaining Himself with self-ignorance. Whenever He feels bored with this entertainment, He will dissolve the creation by remembering self-knowledge and removing self-ignorance. Even if you feel this as your test, you can say this true praise in your mind or say this aloud in My absence. In both cases, I notice your praise due to My omniscience. By such notice, I will not be disturbed because it is not clearly (orally) uttered in My presence, which has prominent effect on Me. Perhaps, you thought Me as an ordinary human being called ignorant Datta and want to help Me sincerely. Even though I appreciate your foolish sincerity, I get disturbed because you have harmed My sweet entertainment.
3. How do You correlate the following statement of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa?
[Swami, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa appreciated a devotee when the devotee found and expressed to Him that Paramahamsa was the divine incarnation (although Paramahamsa was suffering from throat cancer as a human soul with entertainment). How do You correlate this?]
Swami replied:- Paramahamsa scolded such devotee by saying, “Oh! This rascal has found Me”. Paramahamsa did not say to him, “O great wise devotee! You have found My hidden truth”. What Paramahamsa said was a mixture of His reluctance (indicated by the word ‘rascal’) and love for His faithful devotee, which ended as a humorous statement.
4. What is the reason for You always saying that You are only an ordinary human soul?
[Swami, I know very surely that You are omnipotent God Datta and cannot be disturbed by the praise of a soul. The soul does not have that much scene. Whenever I praise You as God Datta, You always respond by saying that You are only an ordinary human soul like us. For telling so, You must have some other strong reason. Kindly reveal it to me.]
Swami replied:- Oh! This Thrylokya rascal has really found Me! You are correct in saying that no soul can disturb My entertainment, which will not disappear unless I wish. You have found out the truth. Now, I am revealing the actual reason:- The human tendency is that if I deny that I am God Datta, the human soul will become firm that I am God Datta and by that, the soul is benefitted in spiritual progress. If I accept that I am God Datta, the soul will immediately think, “This fellow is influenced by my praise and hence, He is not God Datta at all”. Such thinking is result of hidden ego-based jealousy in the soul. Due to such thinking, the soul will lose the spiritual benefit. In order to uplift My devoted souls spiritually, I take this reverse gear since human beings are always in reverse gear. Reverse of reverse will make the souls to stand in the correct path. You have brought out the actual truth from Me and this is the reason why I called you as the opposition leader! I can make the soul not to lose spiritually due to My omnipotency even if I accept the praise. But, that is not correct because the soul shall progress in the atmosphere of full free will. True love to God must be expressed in the atmosphere of full freedom only and without any influence of God on the soul. Now, the reluctance indicated by the word ‘rascal’ is proved not to be true and hence, this word is used by God indicating only His true love towards a faithful devotee!
All this incident is limited only to the contemporary human incarnation in which the soul is God. Based on this incident, the Advaita philosopher shall not extend this to every soul stating that every soul is God entertaining itself with the creation! The soul is undergoing several miseries in the world, in which case it cannot be entertainment. If somebody is beating you with a cane, will you tell that you are entertained by the cane? A soul can only enjoy happiness and not miseries unlike the human incarnation, who enjoys both happiness and miseries equally. Even if somebody lies telling that he is always entertaining himself with the world equally in both happiness and misery, such a person is not the creator, maintainer and destroyer of this world and hence, cannot claim himself as God.