25 Jun 2023
[Ms. Bhanu Samykya asked:- You have told that a sincere devotee should concentrate on work of God but not on God. But You also told that ‘Eka-bhakti’ means to concentrate on God more than the mission of God. I'm confused. Please help me come to correct path. - At Your Divine Lotus Feet, Bhanu Samykya]
Swami replied:- What God wants to do through you is most important at any point of time. When God Rama is serious about building the bridge on sea, you shall participate in that work about which He is very serious in that specific time. You should not think that building bridge on the sea is His personal work and propagating the knowledge of God is a better work and then involve in the propagation of knowledge without participating in the construction of the bridge. A devotee may have 100% concentration on God and for him, personal work of God is not necessary. Some other devotee may be doing the propagation of knowledge with 100% dedication, but, he may not have 100% concentration on God. God wants the first devotee to do the work of propagation of knowledge because there is no need of asking him to develop concentration on God. The second devotee has 100% concentration on the work of God but not 100% concentration on God. God will ask the second devotee to do personal work so that such devotee may develop 100% concentration on God by attending fully to His personal work. Hence, the advice of God differs from one devotee to the other devotee based on the state of the devotee. You cannot take some advice of God as universal applying to all devotees. I will give a specific example. A devotee is doubting the true Sadguru due to his ignorance and feels that serving the Sadguru, who is not genuine may not bring good results or even may bring bad results; but, the propagation of the true spiritual knowledge of the Sadguru is certainly a good work and it will certainly bring good result. Hence, the devotee may leave the personal service of the true Sadguru by doubting Him and may select the propagation work since it is certainly going to give good results. For such a devotee (who is not having concentration on the Sadguru), the Sadguru gives a special advice to do His personal work leaving the work of propagation. This advice pertains to a specific devotee only and not to all the devotees.
The most important point is that you shall always concentrate on God (Sadguru) and not on your analysis. Of course, Krishna asked Arjuna to analyse the whole spiritual knowledge preached by Him. This does not contradict the above specific case because the specific case combined with the specific advice is also a part of the total spiritual knowledge. This means that on analysis, Arjuna will agree to the specific advice given to a specific ignorant follower doubting the true Sadguru.
Q. How can a devotee far from the human incarnation of God concentrate on God rather than on the mission of God to prove his/her “eka bhakti”?
Swami replied:- It is not the question of far and near existence of the Sadguru. What the Sadguru wants you to do is important. One can follow the advice of the Sadguru even while staying far from Him. Another person who may be very near to the Sadguru may not follow His advice due to misunderstanding of the Sadguru.
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