You are here: Mahima Yamuna
Introduction by Shri Phani Kumar:
When I first visited Shri Datta Swami in the dress of pants and shirt, Swami (Shri Datta Swami) told “Even if I preach excellent spiritual knowledge in this dress, people will not care for it. Even if I preach nonsense in saffron clothes, public will listen with utmost care. This is the general stream of psychology of public and we have to travel along with the psychology of public. By the way, why don’t you assist Me in the spiritual program to save your brothers and sisters dipping in the mud-pond?”, I returned without caring those comments because I just went to pick up my mother back after the spiritual speech and devotional songs of Swami, which is a daily program.
After some days, I went back to Vizag, where I was studying final year of MBA. On one day, I went to the sea-shore and the time was the sunset. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind which was expressed as a sudden comment in loud voice. The comment was “if You want to get my service in Your spiritual program, just appear before me and if You appear, I shall dedicate all my life to Your service”. Suddenly, I found a huge fountain of radiations from the sea rising up towards the sky, which started increasing in quantity as well as intensity. I was shocked, dumbstruck and also feared a lot. My classmate was also sitting by my side and I asked him whether he is seeing any such vision in the sea. He replied ‘no’. After some time, it disappeared and I started returning. On the way, I saw a beggar asking for the way to five-star hotel!
I returned to Vijayawada and met Swami asking Him a question which was presented before several saints and preachers, for which none gave me a satisfactory answer. The question is “What is the purpose of my birth and my life in this world?”. Swami smiled and gave the answer, which satisfied me completely and I surrendered to Swami from that day onwards to assist and serve His program. The answer given by Swami was, “The purpose of whole (collective item) must be the purpose of its part also. You (body as well as soul created by God) are a part of this world created by God as the collective item. The purpose of creating this world is only His entertainment and the purpose of the world is only to please the God. Therefore, as a part of this world, you also have the same purpose to please God in your life by participating in His divine work.”
I asked the significance of my vision in the sea-shore, Swami explained, “The fountain of energy seen by you was the first medium of unimaginable God, which is the cosmic energy that was created first as said in the Veda ‘Tat tejoasrujata’. Arjuna also saw such formless cosmic energy only in the first sight, which was described as the radiation of thousand suns in the Gita ‘Yadi suryasahasrasya…’. Afterwards, the same cosmic energy obtained a form called as Vishwarupa. The initial formless cosmic energy charged by unimaginable God and awareness is called as Aadi Parashakti or Holy Spirit. The same taking a form is called as Dattatreya or Father of Heaven. All this is the spiritual Nivrutti. The beggar asked you for the way to the 5-star hotel, which is nothing but heaven. This means that if you are not interested in Nivrutti, you must be at least interested in pravrutti by choosing the path to heaven, which is doing good deeds avoiding sins.” What a wonderful spiritual knowledge exists in this miracle!
Already, the Ganga river of devotion is started by Shri Ajay. I felt that this is the time for the Yamuna river of miracles also to start and hence, thought of presenting the miracles performed by Swami in the initial state of the beginning of this spiritual program. Swami mentioned about His spiritual program in the following way, “My program of Lord Dattatreya, the holy union of three divine forms, is also the holy union of the three rivers: 1) Jnana Saraswati (spiritual knowledge), 2) Bhakti Ganga (devotion) and 3) Mahima Yamuna (miracles). The river Saraswati flows below both Ganga and Yamuna rivers. Similarly, the spiritual knowledge exists in both the devotional songs (Ganga) and in the miracles (Yamuna).”
I was with Swami in almost all the miracles extensively performed in a period of two years in the initial stage. I was always asking for the interpretation of the miracle for the sake of spiritual knowledge. I like to give those spiritual interpretations of knowledge given by Swami so that this Yamuna river also becomes meaningful like the Ganga river. Swami told about the nomenclature in the following way, “Ganga is pure white or Sattvam indicating the knowledge-based devotion. Yamuna is black or Tamas indicating the fundamental ignorance. Miracles (Yamuna) are meant for the ignorant beginner only like atheists, who question the existence of unimaginable God. These miracles as unimaginable events give practical proof for the existence of their source, which is the unimaginable God. The spiritual knowledge (Saraswati) is invisible since it can be found only by very sharp analysis.” Already, a book in Telugu was published called as Mahima Yamuna, written by Shri C.B.K. Murthy, who is the Founder-pillar of the propagation of this entire spiritual program of Swami. In that book, only miracles were explained and not the interpretations given by Swami. Hence, the purpose of this book written by me is not only to mention the miracles of Swami but also to give the underlying knowledge given by Swami through His interpretations wherever they were mentioned. From this angle, Swami blessed me to proceed with this program. Moreover, that book was in Telugu and this book in English for the advantage of all the spiritual devotees in the world.
I shall present certain remarks made by Swami on miracles now and then as introduction for this book. Following is the version of Swami on miracles -
“Without miracles, the spiritual program of any human incarnation becomes ineffective like a cinema without break dances or like a vegetable curry without masala! In the initial stage, these miracles are very much essential because an initial pick-up is needed without any so-called starting trouble. Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba performed several miracles in the beginning stage, who said ‘I have to exhibit the power first and then preach the knowledge. By the power exhibited, people will approach to hear the human incarnation. Then, preaching shall be done so that people pay attention on it.’ In the initial stage, these miracles are exhibited in a liberal way even if the initial devotees are undeserving by their selfishness. It is just like liberally distributing a newly manufactured medicine without charging its rate for the sake of initial circulation of marketing. You need not worry that an undeserving devotee is unnecessarily favored for the sake of initial marketing. The deity of justice is there to take care of that point by adjusting the account of the cycle of deeds of such undeserving soul. The good fruits present in the list are consumed for that benefit of miracle. Hence, such undeserving sinner is not favored in any unjust way and in fact, served the program of God without getting any undue benefit. This was the sense of the saying of Jesus when He cured a blind man by granting eyes. Jesus told him that the blind man did service to God since no undue benefit was given by God. By this, both the purposes (initial marketing needed for God and benefit of the soul by consumption of his own good fruit by which justice is maintained) were served! Most important aspect of miracles is the view of the human being-component present in the human incarnation. No doubt, the unimaginable God merged with the devoted human being-component and the miracle performed looks as if the human being-component has performed it. Due to perfect merge, such a view is logically justified, but, not justified in view of the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is that every unimaginable miracle is performed by the unimaginable God only. The human being-component should not fall in the fire of ego to claim that it performed the miracle. Such ego will bring insult to the human being-component. Parashurama was defeated in the hands of Rama and Rama was defeated in the hands of Hanuman (in the context of war for Yayaati). All these three personalities are human incarnations only. Parashurama thought that the miracle of killing all the evil kings on the earth was done by him. Such ego made him to be insulted in the hands of Rama. Rama never got ego, who said that He was simply a human being (Atmaanam maanusham…). Rama did not claim Himself to be God and is certainly better than Parashurama. In the case of Hanuman, several miracles were performed by Him. Not only Hanuman did not claim Himself to be God but also claimed Himself to be always the servant of God (Dasoham kosalendrasya). Therefore, Rama was defeated in the hands of Hanuman. In all these three, the same unimaginable God exists as the common component. But, the natures of the three human being-components differ showing their corresponding results! Therefore, the human being-component of any human incarnation should never get ego whenever a miracle is expressed by it. It should always think that the inner unimaginable God is the actual performer of the miracle and should feel always itself to be the humble servant of the inner unimaginable God like Hanuman. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, who claimed Himself as the adopted son of Hanuman, also performed several miracles, but, He always chanted that God is the master (Allah Malik). Jesus also performed several miracles, but always passed on the credit to God called as Divine Father. The human being-component need not express this feeling to the devotees, who feel that the visible human being-component itself is God. There is no other way here since the unimaginable God is always invisible and the state of devotees becomes horrible since it can stand neither in the sky (invisible-unimaginable God) nor on the earth (visible human being component refusing itself to be the God). If the human being-component says that it is not God, the faith of the devotees is distorted since unimaginable God is not found. To maintain such faith in devotees, the human being-component can say that it is God, but should be very careful in not admitting even a trace of ego into its mind. This is the reason why Lord Krishna said the He is God and similarly Jesus told that He is the light and the truth. There is no trace of ego in their hearts. This becomes clear since Jesus told God that He spoke only that whichever was spoken by God. Krishna also told Arjuna after the war that He cannot repeat the Gita because at that time (before war), the God (Yogeshwara) spoke the Gita through Him. This clearly shows that Krishna and Jesus spoke that they are God only to maintain the faith of their devoted followers and not with ego. When Parashurama spoke the same, it was spoken with ego. You must differentiate Parashurama claiming Himself as God and Krishna claiming Himself as God. The purpose of miracles is only to create faith in the minds of atheists and nothing else. After becoming theist, one should not look at the miracles, but should concentrate on devotion and practical service through sacrifice to please God. The chocolates given to a school-student should not continue when the student goes to college. The theist also is always looking for the miracles not to get faith in the existence of God, but to get selfish benefits. Such theist is worse than the atheist. In such case, all the devotion and service of the devotee become waste like rose scent poured in ash. When you are aspiring for selfish benefits from God through your sweet prayers like a prostitute (veshyaa bhakti) or through practical sacrifice like a businessman (vaishya bhakti), it clearly means that your real love is on yourself and on your few family bonds only. Love expressed on God in such context is unreal and is called as instrumental devotion, which means that God is loved as an instrument to get selfish benefit. Hence, miracles are not good for the theists and should be discouraged by scholars. Miracles are like jewels that can be donated to even devoted demons and hence can’t be treated as the real identity mark of God. The real identity mark is the unimaginable knowledge and unimaginable love for devotees, which are inseparable like beauty and color of the body or like the yellow thread of a married lady. God also performs miracles and in fact, God alone performs the miracles even through devoted demons. Every performer of miracle is not God and God is also the performer of miracle. God performs the miracle only for the real need and not for self-exposition like a demon. A miracle performed gives excitement due to lack of the knowledge of the unimaginable God, who is the real performer of the miracle. Sage Tandu, while cutting holy dry grass accidentally created a small quantity of ash from his hand. He became so excited thinking that he is the creator of that ash and started dancing violently! Lord Shiva appeared before him and created a hill of ash from His thumb and asked Tandu that how much He should dance for the hill! Tandu fell on the feet of Lord Shiva and named His dance by the name of Tandu (Taandava).
Some miraculous incidents happened even in the childhood of Swami. The mother of Swami used to see temples with ringing bells throughout the period of pregnancy till the date of delivery. This indicates the existence of Lord Datta in Swami even in the mother’s womb itself. When Swami was born, on the same day, two experts in the black magic living in the native village died by road accident. Those two evil people killed several people in the village through black magics and all the village was terribly frightened by them. In the seventh year, father of Swami, tried to preach Sanskrit to Swami and Swami after preaching of eight verses in Sanskrit epic called Raghuvamsha, started, explaining nineth verse onwards by Himself! Swami started telling spontaneous poetry in Sanskrit and wrote about 100 books in Sanskrit on philosophy by the age of 16 years! Swami predicted to His father the exact time and date of expiry of His mother! All the following miracles were performed by Swami after the merger of the energetic form of Lord Dattatreya in Him before the temple of Shri Bhramaramba at Shrisailam as the starting phase of this spiritual program.
I shall follow the same pattern of Mahima Yamuna-book which exists in three parts: 1) Brahma Lahari (wave of God Brahma), 2) Vishnu Lahari (wave of God Vishnu) and 3) Shiva Lahari (wave of God Shiva), and shall give the interpretations of spiritual knowledge wherever Swami gave.
(To be continued...)