17 Aug 2023
[Smt. Purnima asked: Nameste Swamy, Where can I find Shri Datta Swamy Ashram, could you pls advise for devotees like me who wanted to do service (sushrusha) to lord Datta Swamy. Kindly suggest. By Purnima]
Swami replied:- Aashrama means complete tiredness (Ā Samantāt śrāmyanti tapasā iti). This means always becoming tired in doing the service of God. It does not mean a particular place to which all the devotees come to do service. All the houses of sincere devotees can be treated as Aashramaas of Shri Datta Swami. God Datta Himself entered My body and is living in Me by which I have become Aashrama of God Datta. This body in which God lives is said to be a temple, which has higher status than Aashraama (Deho devālayaḥ prokto, Jīvo Devaḥ sanātanaḥ). This means that God merges with the individual soul of a selected human devotee so that such soul becomes God and the body of such God-soul is the real temple of God. If I, the temple of God live in an Aashraama, is it not lowering the status of the temple? Moreover, this is a moving temple like a moving library of spiritual knowledge catering to the need of true spiritual knowledge. We have a very big website, which can be also treated as the temple of spiritual knowledge. My body is a temple of embodiment of spiritual knowledge and such embodiment of knowledge is God Datta. The Veda says that God is the excellent spiritual knowledge (Prajñānaṃ Brahma). This means that God is the embodiment of the excellent spiritual knowledge. Every house of a sincere devotee is My Aashrama and so I have several Aashramas. Without Satsanga, any place cannot be called as Aashrama.
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