02 Sep 2015
[1. I have couple of queries on Pravrutti,
i) To excel in Pravrutti, from the discourses by our Swami I understand it is very essential to win or overcome the 3 eshanas. In that case, is god's support required to excel in Pravrutti? Even an athiest can achieve the state of winning over the 3 eshanas if his samskaras are strong and pure.
ii) On the recent news of Dr. Abdul Kalam, how can we take inspiration from him in spiritual field? Is he an example of the reaching goal in Pravrutti?
At the holy feet of Shri Dattaswami]
Shri Swami Replied: In any field, God’s grace is very important because God alone gives the fruits at the end of your efforts. You should always keep in mind that the effort does not have the capacity to give the fruit. This is the reason why the efforts often fail to give the fruits. But, you should perform your duty in effort with top most sincerity, which pleases God. Apart from the dedication to the effort, you must also have sincerity to God in your devotion. Both these sincerities please God and the fruit is given by God. If you feel that your effort alone gives the fruit, this will lead to ego and your fall is sure. Atheist may please God by his sincerity in effort, but sincerity in the devotion is absent in the case of atheist since there is no point of devotion at all in the case of atheist. God may give the fruit to atheist also for his sincerity in the duty so that no human being becomes inactive without efforts thinking that God can give the fruit even without the effort. Certainly, God gives the fruits even without effort but such case is very rare since the other part (devotion) should be in climax. For common man, balance in the two sides (effort and devotion) is required. As far as the worldly fruits are concerned, the effort itself is sufficient to get the fruit from God. In the case of worldly fruits, God does not give the fruit directly every time because a programme linking the efforts to fruits is created by God and is established. Here also the theist realises that the fruit is given by God only since the programme is established by Him. In this same case, the atheist does not realise that God is the programmer and feels that the programme itself exists in this world. If you leave this subject of worldly fruits and come to the subject of achieving God, God’s grace is very important. In pravrutti, you pray God to get some fruit other than God. In nivrutti, you pray God to get God Himself as the fruit. Even the atheist is maintained by God just like the villain in cinema. Without negative, there is no positive. Hence, to strengthen the devotion, atheists are required like the culverts in the canals to increase the speed of flow of water. Atheists are also maintained by God for doing some good service in the spiritual field. Certain blind beliefs are propagated by foolish preachers and by this, the innocent and ignorant devotees are exploited. These blind beliefs are developed by selfish people in the name of God. Some preachers support these blind beliefs just because of their fancy towards blind tradition. Both good and wrong traditions exist. All these unscientific beliefs are not agreeable to God and should be thrown away. Such service is done by atheists to clean the dirt accumulated by blind traditions. Thus, atheists are doing the service of God only and you should not misunderstand them. You can certainly respect Dr Abdul Kalam for his spiritual values, which are beyond caste and religion.