Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Types of Yajnas and Right way of performing Yajnas

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [November 27, 2012 A Vedic Scholar, who presided over a meeting called as ‘Veda Vidvat Sabha’, stated that the reason for draught and floods is the non-performance of sacrifices in these days in which the ghee is poured in the fire. Swami ridiculed this and gave the following message.]

Burning ghee in the fire leads to environmental pollution, which causes the draught and flood. These ignorant people state that the cause and promoter of a disease itself is the remedial medicine. If you eat the sweet, the blood sugar will raise causing damage to heart and kidneys. The patient is already in serious condition due to damage of heart and kidneys. A foolish doctor says that more sweets should be eaten to save the patient. Perhaps, the doctor is correct in the sense that the patient will die soon and he will get relief from the suffering of the disease! The climax of the joke is that the above conclusion is drawn in the Veda Vidvat Sabha. The Veda means Knowledge. Vidvat means the Scholar of such divine knowledge of the scripture. Here, the Knowledge is stressed twice by the two words ‘Veda’ and ‘Vidvat’. The conclusion shows total ignorance of the Veda since the fundamental concept is missing. An error in the foundation will pervade into all the floors of the building and the whole building gets cracked.

The fundamental concept of the Veda is to serve the food to the Divine Preacher, who is the incarnation of God (Agnou karana), to the devoted human beings (Brahmana Bhojana) and finally, to other livings beings like birds and animals (Pinda pradana). The food is prepared by God from the five inert elements for the sake of living beings. If you throw such food into inert elements like fire, earth etc., you are insulting God. Pouring milk into pores of the earth is also foolish. In such case, all the effort of God to synthesize food from the inert materials becomes waste. Food is essential for life since it generates energy in the living being with the help of which only one preaches the knowledge and the other hears the knowledge to practice it. The total essence of the sacrifice is serving food to the Divine Preacher followed by serving food to devotees, elder people like parents and other invited guests and finally serving food to birds and animals. Serving food to the Divine Preacher is called ‘Brahma Yajna’. Serving food to Scholars is called ‘Rushi Yajna’. Serving food to devotees is called ‘Deva Yajna’. Serving food to old people is called ‘Pitru Yajna’. Serving food to other invited guests is called ‘Manushya Yajna’. Serving food to birds and animals is called ‘Bhoota Yajna’. Finally, eating to maintain the self is called ‘Atma Yajna’.

The first is ‘Brahma Yajna’ in which the Divine Preacher or the human incarnation is served. He is the Director of your practice in the entire life by which you are benefited here and there. This is the reason why the post of Director is the top most position in any institution. Once the correct direction is given, the employees work in correct lines and the institution succeeds. Such greatest Divine Preacher should be served with the best food in the beginning itself. Since He is to be served first He is called ‘Agni’. The word ‘Agni’ comes from the word ‘Agri’, which means the first to be served. Therefore, such Divine Preacher is the meaning of the word ‘Agni’ and not the physical fire. Brahma means God and service to Him is service to God and therefore, such service is called as ‘Brahma Yajna’. The best food is the food prepared using excess of ghee. Ghee does not mean pure ghee and it means only the food prepared with excess of ghee. People have slipped in taking the meaning of these two words ‘Agni’ and ‘Ghrutam’. Ignorant people have taken the ‘Agni’ for physical fire and ‘Ghrutam’ for pure ghee and they have started pouring the ghee in the Fire.

Serve Bhokta by food liked by him in ceremonies
Even in the ceremonies of departed souls, you must satisfy the person eating the food (Bhokta) and serve him with the items liked by him. If he is satisfied, the effect of such satisfaction called as ‘Apoorvam’ or ‘Punyam’ saves the departed souls. You need not force the eater to eat the items liked by the departed soul. It is foolish ignorance since there is no connection between the eater and the departed soul. In the sacrifice performed by the followers of Rigveda, there is no physical fire. The food is placed in the palm of the eater (Pani Homa) and burning the food in the fire is only developed later on due to ignorance of the Scripture.

If you understand the meaning of the first hymn of the first Veda (Rigveda), you have understood the meaning of all the four Vedas. The first Veda introduced the main concept in the first hymn itself, attacking the fundamental ignorance. The first hymn is ‘Agni Meele Purohitam, Yajnasya Devamrutvijam, Hotaaram Ratna Dhaatamam’. The translation of this hymn is: I praise the Agni, who is ‘Purohita’, the deity to be worshipped in the sacrifice, the priest, the performer of the sacrifice and the possessor of the greatest gem. If you analyze this verse, you can easily understand that the meaning of the word Agni is only a living human being and not the inert fire. All the adjectives of the Agni stress again and again that Agni means only a specific special human being. One important adjective is that Agni is said to be the performer of pouring the ghee in the fire. The inert fire cannot pour the ghee in it by itself. The ghee is poured only by a living being. You may argue that by this explanation, the pouring of ghee in inert fire is not contradicted. This argument is rejected because the human being can pour the ghee (eat the food prepared by ghee) in the hunger fire called ‘Vaisvanara’ existing in his own stomach. Burning the ghee in fire is objected by another Vedic statement that food should not be wasted or destroyed (Annam Naparichekshita). The Divine Preacher Himself can be compared to the fire, Who burns the ignorance and in the comparison through metaphor, you can say that the Preacher is Fire. This is stated in the Veda also (Aagneyovai Brahmanah).

From all angles, the Preacher eating the ghee-food in the beginning is the most correct interpretation. He is called as Purohita, since He helps you here itself before your death. After the death, you will go to the upper world called as Bhoga Loka where you cannot practice anything. Only here, in this Karma Loka, you can do any practice. For practice, right direction is essential, which comes only from the true knowledge of the Divine Preacher. He is the God of your sacrifice or service, since He is the human form of God. He is the Priest since He directs you in the right path. He is the possessor of the true knowledge, which is the most valuable gem helping you here and there. The essence of this first hymn is only to say that ‘Agni’ means the present alive Human Incarnation and not the inert fire. The inert fire is lit in the beginning only to cook the food. Fire is only the helping instrument (Saadhanam) but not the goal of worship (Upaasya) in the sacrifice. This fire ignited in the beginning for cooking is misunderstood as the deity of the worship since there was no separate kitchen in the ancient hut (Aashrama). The fire is lit in the east-south corner of the single room and hot cooked food was served then and there itself. The fire was continuously burning to avoid the entry of cruel animals from the forest and the continuous smoke always repelled the mosquitoes.

In the Bhagavatam, Kapila, the incarnation of God, says that only fool pours ghee in the physical fire. Lord Krishna also disturbed the blind practice of burning the food in the fire by asking it to satisfy the hunger. As per the Veda (Yaavateervai…) all the deities dwell in the body of the Divine Preacher, who are satisfied by the food eaten by the Divine Preacher and give rains in the proper time to the world. In this way the sacrifice is really the reason for the rain (Yajnaath bhavati… Gita). In the misunderstood sense, the ghee burnt in the fire producing smoke pollutes the environment and stops the rain!

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Human Incarnation

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [November 23, 2012 Abstract of Shri Datta Swami’s Speech in Hall-1 on ‘Pure Spirituality’ to be held on December 17-21, Hyderabad. Swamiji’s Message will be webcast through their website (http://www.wpsconnect.org/home.php) on December 19, 2012 between 10-11.30 am IST.]
God is said to be the generator of space (Aakasha) by the Vedas. It means that space does not exist in God before its generation. This finally means that God is beyond spatial dimensions. Since you cannot imagine anything beyond space, God must be accepted as unimaginable.
The unimaginable God enters a medium and gets identified with it to express Himself to the imaginable human beings. The human form itself is the best medium, which consists of two components as we see in any human being:
1) Visible – imaginable materialized human body for vision and
2) Invisible – imaginable energetic form called soul or awareness for preaching knowledge to the humanity.
Such human form charged by the third component, which is invisible – unimaginable God, is called as human incarnation and this alone is relevant to humanity for direct service and for receiving the spiritual knowledge. The energetic form like Vishnu or Father of heaven is relevant to the departed souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper world. Hanuman and Gopikas worshipped their contemporary human incarnations called Rama and Krishna respectively, but not energetic forms like Vishnu etc.
The human beings neglect the human incarnation due to repulsion between common media, which are the human being and the human form of God. The same human being, departed as soul existing in energetic body in the upper world, also repels with the energetic incarnation there due to same principle of repulsion between common media. Finally, this results in the loss of God here and there for the human being! The ego and jealousy towards the co-human form are responsible for such repulsion, which should be eradicated by spiritual effort (Saadhana). Mohammad being the human incarnation, deleted the concept of human incarnation since His preceding human incarnation, Jesus was crucified by the co-human beings due to extreme ego and jealousy. The silence of Buddha on God should not be misunderstood as negation of the existence of God, which means only that God beyond words is unimaginable.
God comes in human form in every generation to give right spiritual knowledge to humanity so that He is devoid of partiality to one previous generation only. You are searching God everywhere while He exists before your eyes in every generation and this is like search for the Kohinoor diamond, which is used as the paper weight on your table only! Yoga means recognition and association with contemporary human incarnation for service as we see the case of Hanuman. Yoga is not mere improvement of physical and mental health, which of course are necessary for the effective service.

At lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Deep analysis of Lord Rama's actions prove God should never be criticized

People criticize God due to misunderstanding. God can never be criticized because whatever God does is the perfect justice. You are criticizing God with your limited knowledge. Let us take the case of Lord Rama. People criticized Him mainly in two points.

1) After the battle, Sita was brought to Lord Rama. Rama said to her, “Go and marry Bharata to become the queen of Ayodhya or marry Vibhishana to become the queen of Lanka”. People criticize Rama for such harsh words. If you refer to Valmiki Ramayana (Sundara kanda), Sita said “Piturnidesam...” i.e., “O Rama, after two months you will go to Ayodhya, marry several ladies and enjoy the kingdom. I will die here always thinking about You”. Sita blamed the Lord by such words and therefore, the Lord retorted with the same harsh words.

2)  Even though Sita was proved to be chaste by entering the fire, a washer man in Rama’s kingdom blamed her. Based on that blame, Rama sent her to the forest (exile). For this point, the answer is as follows: When Rama was chasing the golden deer, Sita asked Lakshmana to go and help Rama but he refused since he wanted to stay and protect her as per the orders of Rama. Angry at his refusal, Sita said to Lakshmana “You have come to forest along with your brother with a motive to enjoy me in the absence of your brother”. This sin is more severe than the previous sin because abusing a devotee (Bhaagavat apachara) will make God more furious, than abusing Himself (Bhagavat apachara). So the Lord created an equivalent blame through the washer man and also sent Sita to forest.

In the first sin, her words were punished by words. But, in the second sin, which was more serious, her words were punished by words and action. Now, why should Rama punish Sita in her life itself? Sita was the incarnation of Maha Lakshmi. She had to go to Vaikuntha Loka (heaven) directly from earth and was not supposed to go to hell. For this purpose, Lord Rama cleared her file (of Karma) containing these two sins here itself.

The analysis should be always beyond any sentiment. Since we see Sita shocked by grief in weeping state, we conclude that Rama is cruel and Sita is punished without her mistake. Even the men are moved by such situation and not to speak of women, who always support Sita in favor of their own gender. If you analyze this case with shrewd brain rising above all the sentiments, the truth is totally different. For such situation, the reason is that Ravana stole away Sita in the forest. What is the reason for such stealing of Ravana? The reason is the unimaginable cruel words of Sita to Lakshmana, who protected her on the order of Rama.

While going away, Rama told clearly that the demons will play several tricks and that Lakshmana should not leave Sita under any circumstances. In spite of such serious message of Rama, Sita scolded him. Lakshmana also told her that Rama is incarnation of God and nothing will happen to Him. Sita created a false angle, blaming Lakshmana for his unjust attraction towards Sita. Lakshmana said that he never looked at her above her feet. What is the reply of the so called ‘Associations of Women’ for this unimaginable foolish behavior of Sita? Because of such behavior only, Lakshmana left her and Ravana stole her and due to this only, the statement of washer man is generated. Is not Sita responsible for this whole episode?

Therefore, everybody concludes himself as good and others as bad when he is the part of the case. In such situation, everybody should immediately think in the reverse way and see the possibility of himself being wrong and others being right. In fact, the analysis of God in the upper world regarding your case is going to be always reverse. All your proposals generally get disposed by God since your analysis is generally wrong. Try to always think the reverse of your way of thinking. Then only, you can understand the truth. Then only, the Pravrutti (path of justice) gets established with perfect love and peace. This leads to the peace and harmony of the world.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami

-Prasad




Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Comprehensive Spirituality: must read for all

[Taken from discourses by Shri Datta Swami] Hinduism is a mini representative model of the unity among various religions in the world. There are different philosophies within Hinduism as there are different religions in the world. Unity within Hinduism represents the removal of different walls in the house to make all the rooms united—as one big hall. Unity among religions in the world is like uniting all such big halls to make the one biggest hall.

In Hinduism, the Advaita philosophy of Shankara stands for the monism of God and the soul. The Vishishta Advaita philosophy of Ramanuja speaks of the soul as an inseparable part of God. The Dvaita philosophy of Madhva speaks about the total difference between God and the soul. The basic point here is that these three philosophies apply only to the Human Incarnation of God, in which the unimaginable God has charged the imaginable soul in that human body. These philosophies do not refer the case of an ordinary soul and God. When the invisible current charges the visible metallic wire, both can be treated as one and also as different. This basic point has been forgotten and the quarrels started.

Similarly, the unity among all the religions of the world can be achieved by understanding that there is only one unimaginable God charging different visible and imaginable human forms like Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed etc. Since God is basically unimaginable, there can be only one God; the existence of two unimaginable is absurd. Imaginable items can be many, but such imaginable (visible) items can be only different media for the entry of God. They cannot be God Himself.

Rigid conservatism can be refuted by a powerful argument in this way: If Jesus alone is the Savior, His message, the Bible, should have been propagated to all countries simultaneously. India was discovered only in the 17th century by the West and so 17 generations passed away without the fortune of coming in contact with the Holy Bible.  The poor souls have gone to hell for no fault of theirs. Had the opportunity been given to them, at least some of them might have been saved. This clearly shows the partiality of God for confining His message of only to Jerusalem for 1700 years. God is only one since every religion says that only one God created this entire Earth and there is only one Earth. The one God, Father of all humanity, should not be partial. Rigid conservatives of any religion have no answer for this absurd conclusion. This reasoning applies equally to every conservative religion. But there is answer from our side, which is: The same God came to all countries in different human forms giving the same message in different languages. Hence, God cannot be blamed for being partial.

You cannot say that an unimaginable item cannot exist. The boundary of the universe is unimaginable. Even scientists accept it. Hence, there is no objection for the existence of the unimaginable God. Similarly, the existence of hell need not be rejected just because I cannot show you the exact location of hell in space. You too have not shown Me the absence of hell in this infinite space! Therefore, a 50–50 probability of the existence of hell must be admitted. In that case, it is better to assume the existence of hell and avoid sin. A wise blind man will err on the safe side and turn back immediately, if hears two contradictory statements: one saying that there is a fire ahead in his path and the other that there is no fire in his path.

Today, powerful logical knowledge is required in philosophy since the analytical faculty of the public is well developed due to the growth of science. Lord Dattatreya, the Universal Preacher, is always ready with such knowledge to face the need of the time.

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad

Monday, November 5, 2012

Worshipping of releavant direct form of GOD

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [November 4, 2012] Relevant worship in this world means worship of the form of God, which is relevant to this world of humanity. Such a relevant form is only the human form of God. Irrelevant worship means worship of the irrelevant form of God for this humanity. Worship of energetic forms of God like Vishnu, Shiva etc. is irrelevant for the humanity. Such energetic forms are relevant to the upper worlds in which the souls existing in energetic forms stay. The angels and the departed souls from this world are the energetic bodies containing the souls. The energetic form of God is relevant to the upper world and is irrelevant to this world of humanity. Direct worship means the worship of the alive human form of God in this world by the human beings or the worship of alive energetic form of God in the upper world by the souls existing in energetic bodies. Indirect worship here or in the upper world means the worship of statues and photos representing the energetic forms or human forms of God.

1) Relevant–direct worship means the worship of human form of God by human beings in this world or the worship of energetic form of God by the souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper worlds.
2) Relevant–indirect worship means the worship of statues and photos of human incarnations in this world or the worship of statues and photos of energetic forms of God in the upper world.
3) Irrelevant–direct worship means the worship of the energetic form of God that appears in this world at the end of long penance. Such worship can be for very short period only.
4) Irrelevant–indirect worship means the worship of statues and photos of the energetic forms of God in this world or worship of statues and photos of human incarnations in the upper world.

Out of all these four types of worship, relevant–direct worship is the best. The next best here is irrelevant-direct worship, which can be for very short period only. The next best here is relevant–indirect worship in which the merit is that at least the relevant form is selected. Worship of statue of Krishna in this world comes under this category. The merit is that a human form of God is selected instead of the irrelevant energetic form of God. The devotees of ISKCON society come in this group. The merit is that they have identified the importance of the relevant human form of God instead of the irrelevant energetic form like Vishnu. The defect in them is that they are worshipping the statue of Krishna only, which does not receive the worship. Lord Krishna clearly said in the Gita that He will come in human form to this world again and again (Yadaa yadaahi …). They should search for the human form of God in this generation, which has different name and different form. The same unimaginable God (Parabramha), who charged the form of Krishna, also charges the present alive human form in this generation. These devotees have 50% merit and 50% defect. The ISKCON devotees stand on their statement of the Gita, which says that Krishna asks the devotees to worship Him only. But, they forget one important point here, which is that this statement refers to the devotees present in the time of Krishna. The devotees alive at the time of Krishna can worship Krishna only so that their worship becomes relevant-direct worship. This important point is missing and hence, the ISKCON devotees are misled to worship the statue of Krishna. The devotees here, worshipping the statue of Lord Vishnu, come under the last category of irrelevant-indirect worship. Such devotees have 100% defect. The devotees coming under the category of irrelevant–direct worship are also 50% meritorious and 50% defective like ISKCON devotees. The 50% merit in these devotees is that they worship directly but the 50% defect is that they worship the irrelevant form of God, which appears after long strenuous penance for a very short period only. Therefore, such worship can be only temporary.

As already told, the best worship in this world is the worship of the present alive relevant human form directly. The identification of such human incarnation is by its wonderful knowledge only. The reason is that the true knowledge alone can lead you to the goal in the spiritual path. Miracles should not be taken as the identification because miracles only mislead you in the wrong direction since you are always tempted to use the miraculous power to solve your selfish problems. Moreover, miracles are exhibited even by demons and evil people having black magic also by attaining the power of God. The power of God is transferrable but not the knowledge of God. Hence, the Vedas say that knowledge alone is the identification mark of God (Satyam Jnanam…, Prajnanam…). Knowledge is said to be the characteristic of Sattvam. This does not mean that the incarnations of the deity of Sattvam, Lord Vishnu, alone preach knowledge. Even the incarnations of Bramha and Shiva preach knowledge. No incarnation is without preaching the knowledge. Mandana Mishra, the incarnation of Bramha, was a great scholar in philosophy. Shankara, the incarnation of Shiva was another great scholar in philosophy. Bramha is the deity of Rajas and Shiva is the deity of Tamas. Every quality of these three qualities contains the other two qualities also and there cannot be a single quality without the other two qualities. The scriptures say this point. Preaching this spiritual knowledge is the main characteristic of human incarnation of God. Based on this reason only, Ravana was rejected to be the human incarnation of God due to absence of preaching the spiritual knowledge even though the exhibition of miracles existed in him. Rajas is the source of ego, which is the projection of self. Tamas is the source of jealousy, which is the denial of the greatness of others. The ego and jealousy are the covering layers of the two eyes with the help of which only you can see and identify the present human incarnation. Absence of ignorance is Sattvam, which only represents the pure devotion to God in which the self is completely forgotten and the greatness of the human incarnation alone prevails in the mind. Almost all the human beings are affected by the ego and jealousy and as a result they are unable to recognize the alive human incarnation. Even if they recognize, in no time the infection of ego and jealousy affects the two eyes and hence, based on the intensity of infection, the negligence and in course of time even the enmity result. The human form of God also is not much bothered about this infection because such a situation of infection favors Him to lead undisturbed role in this world. If everybody recognizes the human incarnation as God, the play of God acting as a normal person gets disturbed. Of course, the human incarnation reveals the whole truth in preaching the spiritual knowledge. Apart from this preaching, God in human form will not put any supernatural effort to protect the devotee from this infection of Maya. God derives more and more enjoyment only when He leads a normal life in this world without His identification. Due to this, only one in millions succeeds in identifying the alive human incarnation and in retaining the faith in It without the infection. You can count such successful devotees on fingers like Lakshmana, Hanuman, Sita, Radha etc.

Bramhavidya or Bramhajnanam means only the identification of the alive human form of God present before your eyes. The whole difficulty in this identification lies in the point that the alive human incarnation is just before your eyes, talking and moving with you like your friend. You are searching for the Kohinoor diamond everywhere but it is just present on your table acting as a paper weight! You are neglecting the paper weight and searching for the diamond everywhere in the sky. If it is hidden somewhere, the search and research become meaningful. Krishna was present before Arjuna from the childhood. Arjuna asked Krishna about the possibility of Krishna preaching the Sun in the beginning of the world since Krishna was recently born. Arjuna went to Himalayas to do long penance for Lord Shiva for the future victory in the war. He was unable to know the value of Krishna present before his eyes. He was unable to know that Krishna Himself was Shiva. Therefore, the whole problem in finding out God does not lie in finding out some specific special place of God. It lies only in the point that you are searching for that specific and special place of God while God is standing before your eyes!

At the lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami
-Prasad