Why did God Datta choose to merge with You?

Why did God Datta choose to merge with You in order to propagate the final true spiritual knowledge to this world. At that time, there were several saints available in the world, who had already sacrificed everything for the sake of God. Whereas, You were a married person with children, struggling for Your livelihood. Besides, You were a teacher of chemistry, which is not connected to spiritual knowledge at all! [This question is part of a mahā satsaṅga or a great spiritual discussion between Swami and several devotees who had come from various places, seeking the clarification of their doubts.]

Swami replied: When God Datta appeared before Me, asking Me to propagate this final spiritual knowledge, I had asked Him this exact same question, which you are asking Me now. In fact, I had prayed to Him to help Me in a job interview since I needed the job very much for My livelihood. But He did not respond to My request. Instead, as soon as He appeared, His first statement was “I have selected You for the full-time propagation of the final spiritual knowledge in this world”. I replied, “But there are several saints, who have dedicated their entire lives for spiritual knowledge, whereas I am just a teacher of chemistry. You can select them instead”. He replied “Who can be more deserving than You for this work in this entire world?” I thought that He was testing My ego and hence, I changed the topic and told Him all about My pitiable condition as the head of a large family and My struggle for livelihood. I also told Him that He should help Me succeed in the job interview because getting the job had become a matter of dire necessity. I also told Him that I will earn My livelihood by working at My job and I will also propagate spiritual knowledge in My entire leisure time, without aspiring for any fruit in return from God for His work done by Me. I told Him that I am asking for His help only in this situation of an emergent necessity and that I was not requesting Him for wealth directly. I was only requesting His help in getting work so that I could earn My livelihood. I clarified that I did not want anything in return for doing His work.

Then, He told Me finally, “I will take care of Your emergent need. You just enter into the propagation of this final spiritual knowledge, full-time, without bothering to do any worldly job. I know that You have spent all Your leisure time in Your childhood writing a number of books in Sanskrit on spiritual knowledge and in meeting various Sanskrit scholars in order to bring a correlation between various philosophies in Hinduism. You never did any spiritual activity for any selfish need and even now, You are asking Me to help You get a job only for Your livelihood. I know, You are not asking for any fruit for the spiritual work done by You. You are an ordinary householder doing spiritual work only for the sake of others, without aspiring for any fruit in return for God’s work. You are an ordinary hut which is emitting the pleasant fragrance of the sacrifice for God. These saints are extraordinary, with all divine qualities. But they are doing spiritual work for uplifting themselves—for their self-benefit. Hence, they stand as palaces made of marble, but emitting the bad odour of selfishness. Should I enter a hut filled with fragrance or should I enter a palace filled with bad odour? I like all good qualities, but I don’t like the one quality of selfishness. If that one bad quality is there, I reject all the good qualities. I don’t like all the bad qualities, but I like the one quality of sacrifice. If that one quality is there, I ignore all the bad qualities.”

I have told My personal experience to emphasize that the only quality that spoils our entire devotion to God, like a drop of poison spoiling the whole pot of milk, is our aspiration for some fruit in return from God for the worship, service and sacrifice that we do for Him. The absence of selfish aspiration is the basic criterion to become a Human Incarnation. One has to work for the world and not for oneself. Even that work done for the world must be done only due to the love for God and not due to the love for world. Since God is the Creator and has established this world, He wants His world to run smoothly, in complete peace. Ensuring peace in the world is God’s main interest. It is only for the sake of God’s liking for this world that we have to do the divine service of promoting peace in the world. This is the essence of this final spiritual knowledge. All of you are palaces of marble. If you attain selflessness too, you will be marble palaces filled with fragrance! Can there be anything better than that? God will rush to enter into you!

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