Sunday, December 4, 2011

GOD HATES WEEPING AND BEGGING

(Taken from Discourses of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami)
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
[December 03, 2011] The devotee interested in the spiritual line should study more about the successful devotees. The study of God is not so important as the study of the personality of a true devotee. You should concentrate more on Prahlada, who could succeed in pleasing the Lord and your concentration on Lord Narasimha is not so important. You should always examine the personality of Hanuman in the spiritual line because God is extensively pleased with Him, which can be seen in the awarded fruit. Hanuman is made the future creator of this universe and this is the highest fruit, which means that God is extensively pleased with Him. Hanuman is famous for His courage and dignity. He never wept and begged before God. If you are a true devotee, you need not weep or beg before God. If you have money in your pocket, you will go to the market of vegetables and purchase the vegetables with courage, confidence and dignity since you are going to pay the proper price. When you do not have money in your pocket, you will weep and beg before the seller of vegetables for donation of one or two vegetables at least. Therefore, if you weep and beg God for His grace, it means that you do not have the real devotion in your heart to pay the exact price of the grace of God. You know that your devotion is not true. Therefore, you are resorting to weeping and begging for God’s grace.

You think that at least you can get a little grace of God freely without paying any amount of actual price. When Draupadi cried begging the Lord for clothes, the Lord was not moved by her cry and begging. The Lord immediately checked her account book to see whether there is any credit in it that can be drawn along with its interest. The Lord observed one practical sacrifice of Draupadi for the sake of the Lord done previously as the credit in her account. Once the finger of Krishna was cut by the blade of a sugarcane. All the wives ran to the different sides of the house for a piece of cloth to be used as the bandage for the wound. But, Draupadi immediately tore the edge of her costly sari and the resultant piece of cloth was used as the bandage. Generally, women are fond of jewels and saris. Due to this reason, the wives of Krishna could not do that act. That piece of cloth sacrificed for the Lord was multiplied as thousands of saris because the rate of interest of the bank of God is infinite since the wealth in it is infinite. If this service was done to a human being, hardly two or three saris could have been supplied. Hence, the Lord could have supplied those saris even if Draupadi did not weep. Even if she was silent leaving everything to God, this miracle should have been done. The reason for the miracle is not her weeping and begging. The reason is her practical sacrifice to God especially the human incarnation. You may have faith in God but it is very difficult to recognize the human incarnation and maintain continuous faith in It. It has been the worst practice in all the religions since devotees everywhere developed different talents and techniques in the art of weeping and begging. Some devotees should be awarded Padma Vibhushan for developing new trends in weeping and begging before God! God hates you if you weep and beg anything from Him because you are aware of your false devotion to Him. Your real devotion is towards yourself, your wife, your children, your parents, your relatives and your friends only.

You know the truth of your false devotion and now you are trying to cheat God by your art of weeping and different discovered sentences, poems and songs of begging. It is a double crime. Hence, do not beg and weep before God. Be always brave and dignified before God like Hanuman. When you know that you do not deserve due to your false devotion, then also you maintain the dignified way before God. In such case, it is only one crime, which can be also rectified in course of time by developing true devotion. You need not ask God for anything even in your mind. If there is some credit of your true devotion in your account proved by practical sacrifice, the reward will come from God spontaneously in the required situation. Generally, people try to worship God in the times of difficulties. The omniscient God knows that your intensity of the worship is generated by the ambition for the solution of your problem and that it is not generated by the true love to God. You should not intensify the worship in the time of problems. You can fool the people but not the omniscient God. You should maintain the same intensity of worship in all the times without linking it to benefits and solutions of problems. Such true devotion will be credited to the account. When Draupadi tore her sari and sacrificed for the Lord, then she was in happy situation. Therefore, your sacrifice is valid if it is done in the happy moment when there is no need for the help of God. At any cost, you should stop weeping and begging before God and learn the constant courage of Hanuman.

 Identify True Path irrespective of Personal Liking
Another important worst aspect of a devotee is to decide the possible way for him as the only real way to God. His way may be lowest in quality but in his argument, such way becomes highest since he can travel in that way only. All other ways, which may be of far higher quality, are not at all the ways as per his argument since he cannot follow such ways.

I will give an example. Let us take the case of a greedy person. He cannot sacrifice even a single paisa or penny for the sake of God and therefore, he criticizes that money cannot purchase God. He will argue that the devotees, who  sacrifice their bonds with money for the sake of God as the foolish people trying to purchase God by money. Even though such devotees are far higher than him in sacrificing the most valuable money for the sake of God, he will not tolerate them because he cannot sacrifice money for the sake of God. The possible way for him is to recite prayers and to do different worships involving rigid religious customs. He will say that such religious customs only please God. In fact, such a devotee is the lowest since he cannot do any practical sacrifice and he is only theoretical. God appreciates only the practical sacrifice. God gave thousands of saris to Draupadi as a reward for her practical sacrifice especially to God. God did not reward her for her different forms of worship and different prayers recited. The human psychology is to raise the status of the path that is possible to him and to degrade all other paths, which are impossible for him. This is stupidity plated with ego and jealousy. One should search for the real path to please God and try to follow it slowly if not today, after sometime later on. The constant effort will lead to the success one day or other. Instead of doing effort for such practical way, people try to give importance to theoretical ways, which are nothing but expressions of devotion through words, mind and intelligence only. Since, they are experts and talented in such stupid theoretical and religious ways, they try to give highest status to such ways since they can follow such ways only. By such behavior, they may get false satisfaction in following the true path to please God, but they utterly fail in reality. A false thing does not become true by arguments and propaganda. Truth is always truth whether all the people in this universe accept or not. This is also another type of behavior of devotees to be rectified.

At the lotus feet of Swami
-Prasad

Monday, November 14, 2011

Karma Chakra and divine administration

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
(Message taken from Divine discourses of Shri Datta Swami)

[November 05, 2011] The Gita says that you should totally surrender to God (Tvameva Sharanam…). After your prayer and worship to God, you need not ask Him for anything even in the mind because He is omniscient. You are treating Him as an ordinary human being having limited knowledge. You should follow this principle even in the case of human incarnation. The external human form misleads you to think that He is an ordinary human being. But, when you worship the photos and statues of energetic forms like Vishnu, etc., you should have the sense of omniscient God. The human form in the photo and statue may again mislead you. But, there are some devotees, who believe that God is formless and omnipresent. They do prayers sitting in open space. I expected them at least to have the sense of omniscient God. To My surprise, I find even them expressing their desires. This type of behavior proves that the God prayed by you is limited and not omniscient. Such God cannot be omnipotent also. In such case, how can such God respond to your prayers and answer through His omnipotent miraculous power? In your prayers, you praise the God as omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. But, at the end of the prayer, your behavior contradicts all the above adjectives of God. Actually, you are a limited human being and do not know what is really good for you.

Most of the boons asked by you are only harmful to you. The omniscient God knows what is really good for you in the long run. With your limited knowledge, you do not know the multi-dimensional network of your past deeds. Such network is very complicated to understand as said in the Gita (Gahanaa Karmano Gatih…). The results of your past deeds come to you in a particular order that is convenient to you. The periods alter generally, which can be known from astrology (Jyotisha Shastra). A period may be bad for some horoscope, but, some sub-periods in that period are good, which serve as recreation intervals in a long bad period. Similarly, in a long good period, the sub-periods of bad planets also come to become intervals for change. The continuous good also bores like eating sweets continuously. This is the reason for the nine planets to rotate through their sub-periods in a long good or bad period. Therefore, God has arranged the incidents in your life in the best convenient manner for you. Hence, you must allow the incidents of your life to take place in their own natural way, which were set up by God. The fundamental role should not be forgotten, which is that, you must enjoy the good or bad results of your past deeds. Cancellation is impossible under any circumstances. Due to your insisting prayers and worship, God postpones the bad results. But, you have to enjoy them with compounded interest in the future. Don’t be clever to argue that God is not omnipotent if He cannot cancel a result. This process of inevitable enjoyment of the results of the deeds is established by God only. If He contradicts His own procedure, He becomes a bad administrator. God is always the best administrator. Your ignorance of this network and procedures of God makes you think that God cancelled your bad result in the case of its postponement.

Inconvenient Punishment only Transforms
Another way to help you due to your prayers and worship is to select the most convenient way of the punishment. Each sin has a list of alternative punishments. If you pull the chain in the train without reason, you should go to the jail for six months or pay thousand rupees as fine. For a rich business man, the convenient way is to pay the fine and not sitting in the jail for six months and losing all his business. Similarly, for a beggar, the convenient way is to sit in the jail getting free food since he cannot pay the heavy fine. If both worshipped God, the favour from God is to fine the businessman and to put the beggar in the prison. Otherwise, the real punishment will be to put the business man in the jail and to fine the beggar. The inconvenient punishment is only the real punishment because it only transforms the soul through suffering to some extent at least. Therefore, the sin does not end with the convenient punishments. The balance of the sin will give the inconvenient punishment in future with compound interest. If the business man is favoured with fine, he will repeat the sin again and again paying the fine again and again. Similarly, if the beggar is favoured with prison, he will repeat the sin again and again to continuously stay in the jail and get food throughout the life. Hence, the inconvenient punishment is necessary to transform the sin. If God feels that your transformation, which was delayed from a long time, is essential by that time, He may allow the inconvenient punishment in your case in spite of your prayers. The ignorance and illness should not be delayed for long since they become incurable after long time. In such case, you will misunderstand God for His silence to your prayers. It is like the decision on surgery of the doctor in spite of the protests from the patient. Therefore, do not ask God for anything and meddle with the best way of already set up system of deeds for you. God says that the devotee tries to interfere with the already set up cycle of deeds and he is a useless stupid (Evam Pravartitam Chakram – Gita).
 
Preach Knowledge with Command from God
There is only one way for the cancellation of all your bad results. Such way will be clear to you if you know the real aim of the punishment. The real aim of the punishment is only to permanently transform you. The permanent transformation comes only through the true knowledge. The truth in the knowledge has the power of transformation. If the knowledge of a preacher is unable to transform you, such knowledge is not true. If you are partially transformed, such knowledge is partially true. Sometimes the total transformation comes, but it stays for a temporary period only. In such case, the defect does not lie with the knowledge but with you only. The knowledge should be heard and discussed or debated continuously, by which the knowledge gets intensified and becomes fire to bring permanent transformation in you. Hence, the Gita speaks about the knowledge - fire (Jnanaagnih…). Therefore, you must take up the propagation of knowledge after hearing it, which involves continuous discussions and debates with others. Hence, the benefit of propagation is more for you than others. But, you should hear the right knowledge from right person. Otherwise, the wrong knowledge not only harms others but you also due to intensification through propagation. Hence, Shri Paramahamsa told that you should not become a preacher of spiritual knowledge unless you have command form God. Therefore, all your sins get smashed, if you are permanently transformed through knowledge. Hence, Shankara gave top most importance to knowledge. However, in the absence of knowledge, the punishment brings temporary transformation. Hence, something is better than nothing. The temporary transformation is thus possible in two ways.
1)    The first way is to hear the right knowledge avoiding its propagation.
2)    The second way is to undergo the punishment for the sin.
The permanent transformation is possible by hearing the right knowledge and subsequent participation in its propagation since the right knowledge is the top most path. The main purpose of God coming in human form is only to preach this right knowledge (Satyam Jnaanam – Veda). The ignorant people preach wrong knowledge and scholars of the Scripture affected by misinterpretations, preach partially correct knowledge. In their case, the Scriptural knowledge is correct, but the misinterpreted knowledge from wrong commentaries is wrong. The scholars learning the right knowledge from the Scripture with right interpretations from the human incarnation can alone preach the right knowledge in the society.
Some people say that if the punishment given in the hell is in their memory, they will not repeat the sin. This is not correct because the thief punished in the police station becomes good for sometime, but, again steals due to the environment and circumstances. He remembers the punishment, but, still the circumstantial influence overcomes it. All the previous lives and the stay in the hell are forgotten by the soul due to the will of God only because God wants to give a fresh mind to the soul in the new life. The punishment in the hell has its temporary effect in the sub-conscious state due to which only, the children behave good and pure in their childhood. As they grow, they are influenced by the external environment and the internal hidden thoughts (Smaskaras), which were temporarily suppressed by the punishments in the hell. With the strength of the environmental influence, these hidden ideas become strong and project directing the actions of the soul in the new life.

At lotus feet of Swami
-Durgaprasad

Friday, August 12, 2011

Crimes on Girls and Dowry

Message taken from divine discourse of His Holiness Datta Swami:

The reason for naxalism is the silent economic looting of poor people by rich people.

Everywhere, the looting of money exists, which is not only business and politics. The economic looting takes place either openly or silently. The father-in-law and husband loot the share of the property of the girl in the form of dowry. The father and brother loot the share of the property of the same girl silently. We have brought section 498 to control the open looting. Even though the acts of 1950s established the right of the property of the girl, the implementation exists nowhere. The wonderful thing is that the father and brother of the girl charge the father-in-law and the husband as looters. When you point out somebody with your finger, the fatty thumb points out at you. Both sides of the girl loot her property in the pretext that the female is always a dependant and cannot protect her share of property. The Veda says that Manu has given his property to his children (manuh putrebhyah…). The word putra here means children irrespective of sex. The words putra, bhrata and pita mean children, brothers and sisters and parents respectively. Unfortunately, these three words are often misinterpreted in the sense of males only. Suppose the share of the girl in her paternal property is Rs 3. Re 1 is looted by father-in-law and husband in the name of dowry. The second rupee is spent in her marriage to satisfy the ego of father and father-in-law to perform the function in the grand way to please their friends and relatives. Thus, the second rupee is jointly looted by both father and father-in-law. The third rupee is swallowed by the father to divert it to his son. The girl is thus economically looted in total by the entire society. She is made to have a psychological feeling that she is always economically dependent either on her father or on her father-in-law and husband. The dowry system is a joint corruption of the father and father-in-law. The father is giving Re 1 to father-in-law in order to save Re 1 for his son. The scripture says that the father-in-law and the husband should not touch the money of the bride (stri vitta madhamaadham…). In the same verse, the scripture also warns the father and brother by saying that the money of the sister should not be touched (adhamam bhraatru vittamcha…). The scripture is a double edged knife warning both sides to protect the share of the property of the girl. The father of the girl should adopt justice in the case of his daughter and also should preach this concept to the father of his daughter-in-law. He should not think that he is the looser in the case of his daughter and gainer in the case of his daughter-in-law because the share is important and not the magnitude of the share. There is no question of profit and loss, when you do not look in the angle of the magnitude of the share. You must think that you are just following the justice, which is the command of God through the scripture. If this concept is followed by every individual in the society, the present crimes on the girl will naturally subside.

Traditional practice is also built up in a special way to feel that daughter is an outsider and the son belongs to the family. In order to accomplish this, the surname and gotram of the girl are changed after the marriage. The surname and gotram give the address of genetic characteristics of an individual, which can never change. If you keep the mango fruit in the basket of bananas, the mango will not become banana fruit. This change is only apparent (gauna) and not real (mukhya). When you keep your child in the house of your friend, you say that the child is their child. Really, the child never becomes their child. Similarly, when the daughter is sent to other’s house, you change her surname and gotram so that they feel that the girl belongs to their line of dynasty. Thus, this change is only apparent and not real. Therefore, the child born to a couple gets both surnames and both gotras. Hence, the child should not marry in future in both gotras. You may be called by one surname and gotram. The other surname and the other gotram remains silent. Suppose you have a long name. People call you by a part of your mane only for convenience. It does not mean that the other part of the name is vanished. Therefore, the daughter of maternal uncle is sister and the daughter of the sister is also daughter. Marrying both is against the sanction of ethical scriptures. This aspect is exploited to feel that the girl is an outsider.

The parents are also threatened by the son that if entire property is not given to him, he will not perform the rituals after death. This is again exploitation of misunderstanding only. Actually, the soul after death enters energetic body and has no connection with the food fed to the priest after death. The soul after death goes in two paths as said in the Gita (shukla Krishna gatee…). In the first path, the soul goes to the abode of God and in this path, the soul does not require the food given to priest in the annual ceremony (nahi tena pathaa tanutyajah tanayaavarjita panda kaamshinah…). In the second path, the soul either goes to heaven or Pitru Loka or hell. In heaven, there is no need of food and water (ubheteertvaa…). In Pitru Loka, the food is the light of moon (nirvishta saaraam pitrubhih…). In hell, the soul is tortured with hunger and thirst and no food and drink are allowed (jaayaswa mriyaswa...). In all these four paths, the soul is covered by energetic body, which does not require any matter as food. Energetic body requires energy only as food. This does not mean that you should not give food to a deserving priest. If you give food to any deserving person in the name of the departed soul, the soul is certainly blessed. Giving food to a deserving person need not be done with specific tradition only. In such case, such specific tradition does not exist in all the countries of the world. There cannot be universality of a specific tradition, which does not exist everywhere in the universe. If you stress on the specific tradition, the universality is disturbed and God becomes partial for giving such tradition to a limited part of the world only. The essence of the ritual is giving food to any deserving person. This essence is universal and is being practiced everywhere in the world. Therefore, even the daughter can give food, clothes and subscription (dakshina) to a deserving person in the name of her departed parents. Such act becomes equal to the ceremony conducted by the son in a specific tradition.

The essence of the ritual is important and the tradition has no significance. The doubt comes about the ancient saying that if you do not perform the ceremony, the departed parents suffer with hunger. This is called as artha vaada, which means a lie proposed to achieve some good purpose. A greedy person may not sacrifice food to a deserving person unless the fear (that his departed parents suffer with hunger) does not exist. This is created for a good purpose, which is exploited by the son, to demand the entire property. A lie is not wrong if it serves good purpose. The mother feeds her child saying that the moon comes down if the child eats the food. The mother has told a lie for good purpose only and hence, it is not wrong. Charvaaka criticized that how the departed soul can get the food if the priest is fed? He told that in such case, the father sitting in the upstairs should get his food that is given to somebody else in the down stairs. This criticism of Charvaaka is not completely correct. The departed soul does not get the food since it is in the energetic body. But, the fact is twisted to inculcate the sacrifice in a greedy person. Charvaaka has not understood the whole background. Of course, we should condemn the exploitation of this by somebody.

The economic suppression of women is the reason for the poverty of the country because the deity of wealth, Shree Maha Lakshmi is also a woman. This is the reason for the revolt of women against the males. Similarly, when the poor people are exploited and are looted by the rich business people and politicians due to their blind love to their families, the poor people revolt. This is the background of naxalism, which is the cause for the birth of naxalists, who want to transform the society through riffles. But, such transformation is not real and permanent. Knowledge is the most powerful riffle and the preacher of the knowledge is the most powerful naxalite.

At lotus feet of Swami

-Prasad

Friday, June 24, 2011

ANSWERS FOR CONTROVERSIES AT PRASHANTI NILAYAM

Carving Goddess Lakshmi on Padukas of Baba

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
[June 23, 2011] Recently there is a criticism that the photo of Goddesses Laxmi was carved on the wodden chappals (Padukas) of Shri Baba and this hurts the feelings of Hindus. Sometime back, some foreigners have also done the same in some foreign country and Hindus were hurt. The first question in this issue is whether Baba Himself ordered for such padukas or some devotees presented those padukas with such a decoration. If there is any proof that Baba Himself ordered for the preparation of such padukas, we can easily say that Baba is not the human incarnation of God. Only demons with very high ego do such things. Since Baba is the human incarnation of God, I am sure that some devotees, who have immense faith in Baba as Lord Narayana, must have presented those padukas. The human incarnation always reacts in the same line as the devotee approaches with full faith. This is said in the Gita (Yee Yathaa maam...).
The human incarnation behaves exactly in such a way so as the faith of the devotee is fully protected. Such a behavior of the human incarnation should be taken with reference to the corresponding devotees only. Others should not touch that. Shri Baba was born as soon as the special worship to Lord Satyanarayana was over. Hence, Baba was named after the same. When the mother of Baba was pregnant standing near the well, a beam of blue radiations entered her womb and she became unconscious. All these show that Baba was the incarnation of Lord Narayana. Goddesses Laxmi always sits at the feet of Lord Narayana. Hence, the action of the devotees, who believed this very well, is in the same line. This should not be generalized. Baba never declared in His speeches that He was Lord Narayana. We cannot compare Baba with the ordinary human beings in a foreign country. Their behavior is objectionable to everybody.

In fact, the human incarnation is a two component system. The first component is God and the second component is the human soul. God identified with a human being is called as human incarnation, just like an electrified wire in which the electricity is identified with the wire. Since the wire gives the electric shock anywhere, we do not differentiate the wire and electricity. Similarly, the human being and God are not differentiated in the human incarnation. For the ordinary looks, the electrified wire looks like an ordinary wire only. But, if the looks are impregnated with analytical knowledge, the same wire is just the electricity. Similarly, Baba is a human being for ordinary public. For devotees, He is just Lord Narayana. You cannot bring both the angles to one place in one time since both contradict each other.

Money Found in Baba’s Room

There were thousands of covers with cash presented to Baba by devotees. Baba did not hide this cash in the walls of the room or in the Swiss bank. The room is open in the campus, which was simply locked. The room is not hidden in the underground even though the doors are simply locked. That room could have been raided at anytime by the Tax officials even during the life time of Baba. In the place of Baba, if any human being is present, he would have hidden the cash somewhere. There may be lapses in the case of some human beings, who were involved in the financial administration. Generally, the money of God is not touched by many people for the fear of punishment, unless they are atheists. People are crying on such unnecessary issues. The public should worry about the huge public funds, which evaporate by hot summer like corruption. The pity is that the members of public themselves do corruption. The major lot of the public itself is to be blamed because most of the voters have become corrupt, who votes the corrupt people by taking money for the vote. The transformation should come in the heart of every human being by the messages given by Shri Satya Sai Baba.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

ANSWERS FOR THE CONTROVERSIES IN THE DEATH OF BODY OF SATYA SAI BABA

[April 30, 2011] There are a few controversies, which appeared recently regarding the death of the body of Baba.
1) The controversy is that Baba told that He will live up to 96 years, but the death is preponed by about ten years.
An astrologer told that Baba lived up to 96 years according to the theory of the cycle of 27 stars. So much strain is not necessary in this issue. God has full freedom to postpone or prepone the lifetime of any human being including the human incarnation. It is not like the one hour bell for a teacher in the classroom. The case of the divine preacher is different. Generally, we find the teacher spending leisurely the rest of the period if the topic is over since he cannot quit the class before time. He is bound by the rules of the institution. But, if the principal enters and speaks for sometime, there is no binding on the time. Whenever the principal finishes his speech, he can quit at anytime and the concerned teacher follows the rest of the period. The human incarnation is the head of the creation. In fact, the life period of any human being can be preponed or postponed by God. If the human being is found to be useful, its life is extended. If the human being is found useless, its life is shortened and is thrown into the lives of birds and animals, which live only to eat and sleep. The extension and shortening of life period is mentioned in the ethical scripture also. It says that if you sleep after sunrise, your life is shortened. It also says that your life is extended if you serve the elders. Therefore, the life period is not a fixed item. Baba might have preponed the exit since He found that the humanity will not change really and might have been vexed with the changeless behavior of the human beings.

2) Another issue is that why He saluted the devotees with folded hands on the last occasion.
You can find a similar situation in the case of Jesus also. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on the last occasion of His departure. Jesus explained the reason of His such act. Jesus wanted that the disciples should never become egoistic and should treat their disciples with respect always. The devotees are human beings and their devotees are also human beings. One human being should respect the other human being. The case of Baba is different. Baba is God and the devotees are human beings. Baba need not respect His devotees. But, later on, some of His disciples may have again disciples and they may imitate Baba thinking themselves also as human incarnations. All these points stand as the basis for such acts of Jesus and Baba. Baba is giving the message that you should express gratefulness to anybody irrespective of the status. Baba is also giving the message that you should remain as devotee only with folded hands before God. You should never claim that you are the human incarnation with a blessing hand always, falling in the trap of the praise of your disciples.

3) Another issue is that Baba told that He will rise after three days from death of His body.
Even in the case of Jesus, such a statement was made and this shows the similarity between Baba and Jesus. Shirdi Sai Baba also rose after three days after death. This miracle is not necessary in the case of Baba, who arose a dead person, which shows that Baba is the controller of the life. When Baba can rise other dead persons, can’t He rise Himself? Both the miracles establish the same concept. The point is that whether Baba can do it or not. If it is established by one type of miracle that Baba can do it, another type of miracle establishing the same concept need not be done again. For a wise person, one miracle, which is an unimaginable event, is sufficient to understand that the unimaginable God exists in that body. Rama has not done any miracle except one i.e., converting the stone into a woman by the touch of His foot. Is this one miracle not sufficient to establish that Rama is God? All the sages understood Rama as God because they are learned scholars. Rama performed this miracle in presence of the sage Vishwamitra and Vishwamitra propagated this miracle to other sages. Krishna performed many miracles. But there were many enemies for Krishna. Kauravas saw the top-most miracle, which was the cosmic vision, but still did not believe Krishna as God thinking that it is illusion of eye. For a human being, with the faculty of intelligence working, demonstration of one unimaginable event is sufficient. For human beings, burning with ego and jealousy, even if thousand miracles are demonstrated, all will be treated as magic or illusion of the eye.

4) Some people say that Baba was harmed by some of His followers.
Is this possible? Can a human being harm God? Assuming that somebody harmed Baba, it must be the will of Baba only. Jesus was crucified by some people and it was done by the will of God only. If there is any sin in the followers, God will take care of it by giving punishment in the appropriate time. Why should you worry about it? You follow all the messages of Baba and try to practice so that God will be pleased with you and you will be protected by the grace of Baba. You are wasting your valuable time and energy in unnecessary things neglecting the essential aspects related to your future welfare. Jesus, while carrying on the cross told the weeping people that they should weep about themselves and their children. The reason is that after the momentary pain of crucifixion, Jesus will sit on the lap of God whereas the people will go to the permanent hell after this short happy life. You try to stand on the principles preached by Baba and you neither worry about Baba nor about others. Whether others follow or not, you follow the principles preached by Baba. Everybody thinks that he or she need not follow these principles since others are not following. The entire society thinks like that only. The king asked for the donation of one tumbler of milk from each house. Everybody thought that one can pour one tumbler of water, which will be mixed in the milk poured by others. Finally, the whole drum was full of water only! Everybody should follow the principles preached by Baba not caring for others [following]. If you are interested in their welfare, you preach them also after personal follow-up. If there is no change, even the entire mass will be punished, which is going to be the future action of Kalki. Don’t think that since it is an issue of the mass, there will be excuse.

At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Message on Shri Satya Sai baba: NEITHER SOUL NOR GOD SUFFERS WHEN BODY SUFFERS IN INCARNATION

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
[Posted from Discourse of H H Shri Dattaswami] A pseudo-scientist will present irrelevant arguments like the inability of Shri Satya Sai Baba to cure His own health, who performed several miracles and cured the illness of several devotees. By this, he wants to establish that all the miracles performed by Baba were not genuine. He wants us to realize the truth about His miracles. Actually, he should realize the truth in the silence of Baba to cure His illness. Baba wants us to understand that the soul is totally different from body and is not connected with the issues and bonds of the body. The soul is energy and is eternal with respect to the body. In the body of Baba, both soul and God are present. God is absolutely eternal and is also totally disconnected with soul and body. In the Gita, Krishna says that He is the third entity other than body and soul (Yesmaat ksharamateetoham…). We are unable to differentiate even soul and body and not to speak of differentiating God from soul and body. Whether you take Baba as God or soul, the points related to the body are disconnected to Him. The body is the shirt of the soul and the soul is the underneath banian for God. The shirt is disconnected from the banian and the banian is disconnected from the human being. Here, the human being is the comparison for God. A human being consists of two items only:
1) The external body, shirt and
2) The internal soul, banian
The human incarnation consist of three components:
1) The external shirt, the body,
2) The internal soul, banian and
3) Innermost God, the human being
In this comparison, the soul is inert energy. Even if you take the soul as a specific work form of energy, it is inert only. Inert means the item that is controlled and the Veda says that the soul is controlled by God (Atmeshwaram). Hence, the body and soul are compared to the two inert items, shirt and banian. Infact, the awareness of God alone is eternal, which is generated by His unimaginable power and hence, God is compared to the non-inert living human being here. The body and soul are two different phases of the same component, which are inert matter and inert energy respectively. By understanding that God is disconnected to matter and energy, we should understand that the energy is disconnected to matter. Hence, the soul is not touched by the problems of the body. The Gita differentiates the soul and body in the beginning so that you will slowly differentiate God from body and soul. Even in the human incarnation, the soul is disconnected from the problems of the body as in the case of a realized human being. Since we identify the soul as body and God as the human being, which is understood as both soul and body, we misunderstand the concept. We think that the soul suffers when the body suffers. We think that God suffers when the body suffers and we assume that the soul is also suffering since our souls suffer identifying themselves with our bodies. Neither the soul nor God suffers while the body suffers in the case of human incarnation. Due to lack of this realization, we mistake Baba as His body and soul and therefore, we think that He is suffering. If the shirt is cut by a blade, the underline banian is not cut and not to speak of the innermost human being. If we understand this, we will realize that Jesus did not suffer on the cross and Krishna did not suffer while the bleeding continued on His foot.

We have superimposed the body and the soul with God and talk that Baba is unable to do anything for Himself. The soldiers also mocked at Jesus that He was unable to do anything for Himself on the cross. Even the devotees feel much and their feeling is also based on the ignorance of the realization. But, in the case of devotees, at least their feeling has a positive side, which is their love to Baba. This positive side will be appreciated by God. But, the atheists are not only ignorant but also lack the positive side. Therefore, the message of Baba is that we should identify ourselves with the soul and not with the body. We must maintain this realization even at the time of the death (sthitvasyaamantakaalepi… Gita). The Gita says that the death is a happy occasion, in which the soul leaves the damaged dress and takes up a new dress. The damaged dress is the old body and the new dress is the energetic body, which is entered by the soul. Ignorance is the source of reverse behavior. The atheists always have half knowledge of science but pose as if they have realized the essence of science. The essence of any branch of knowledge is the philosophy. Hence, we find the word philosophy in the highest degree awarded even in science i.e., a doctor of philosophy. Philosophy is only the deep-most analysis of the subject and therefore, there is no opposition between science and philosophy.

At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
Prasad

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Knowledge-Fire only Burns all sins

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[April 04, 2011 Ugadi] Generally, people greet others wishing the happy festival or wishing the happy birthday etc. We must analyze every word and action of us to find out the truth. The first question you have to put to yourself is “Are you, just a general soul, competent of wishing something good or bad for other souls?” You cannot wish anything good or bad even for yourself. Therefore, there is no use of cursing or wishing good for others. The good or bad in your case or in the case of others happens according to the results of the previous deeds. Your wish cannot change the established mechanism of the divine system of deeds and fruits. Only God is competent to change this divine system. Some people are aware of this fact and therefore, greet “May God bless you”. This statement is also wrong on analysis. Are you dictating God or instructing God to bless somebody or even yourself?

In fact, God never harms or blesses anyone as per the Gita (Naadatte kasyachit…). God has created the divine system of deeds and fruits and the system acts in mechanical way under the instruction of God only. The rule maker will never break the rule. In fact, God subjected Himself to the rule to show that the rule is absolute and inevitable (Evam pravartitam... Gita). The result of killing Vali by hiding Himself behind a tree was enjoyed by the Lord in the next birth. Even if you say that you pray God to help somebody, it is also wrong. Does this mean that you request God to help some undeserving human being? That means, you try to influence God to do a wrong thing. If the human being is deserving, God will help him even without your wish. If you are aware of this fact, you need not wish. The last possibility of your wish is that some soul is deserving and God is either ignorant or cruel in not helping it and therefore, you make God aware of the forgotten point or you are softening the cruel heart of God. Both these options are totally wrong because God is never ignorant and is never cruel. Therefore, the meaning of your statement becomes zero. If you state something, which does not mean anything, you must be mad.

If you are interested in the welfare of somebody, the only way is to state “Please pray God on this occasion so that He will change your mind through divine knowledge and get rid of you from all the results of sins or all deeds.” By such statement, you do not expect the violation of the divine system in any way. The reason for all sins is absence of divine knowledge or the firm realization of it to implement it in practice. If you realize your sins and do not repeat them, all your past and present sins get cancelled. Mere knowing of divine knowledge is not sufficient to give this wonderful result. After knowing, you should memorize it again and again so that you will implement it in practice. Such state of knowledge is called as ‘Realization’. Only realization can cancel the sins. Realization is the knowledge with deep intensity and is called as knowledge-fire. The Gita says that the knowledge-fire can burn all the previous deeds. The Bible also says that Jesus will come to sprinkle fire on the people in the place of water. Here, water means the process of mere knowledge. Fire means the intensified knowledge so that practical implementation of it takes place.

Knowledge can be given by any preacher. But, God in human form like Krishna or Jesus can alone give the knowledge-fire. Therefore, a better statement will be “Please find out the contemporary human incarnation and get divine knowledge from Him. You memorize such divine knowledge so that it becomes knowledge-fire and burn all your sins so that you will be happy in this world, or let it burn all your deeds so that you will get salvation.” In fact, the Gita says that the knowledge-fire should burn all the deeds, which are good and bad. Such stage indicates the absence of any selfish ambition for happiness. All the actions of the soul in such state are meant for God only and there is no selfishness. Such state gives salvation not only in this world, but also in the upper world. The burning of sins only gives happiness in this world only.
At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Prasad