Posted on: 28 Mar 2020
[Reply to a question by Shri Phani.] Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Every human being is blessed with some talent and that talent can be used in God’s service. All such different services contributed by different devotees are registered as God’s service alone. In your bank account, somebody donates 100 rupees. Some other person donates 10 dollars. Those 10 dollars are also converted into rupees and they get added to the balance in your account in rupees. You might initially think that 100 ruppees are greater than 10 dollars because 100 is greater than 10. But when the 10 dollars are converted into rupees, the amount will be roughly 750 rupees, which is greater than 100 rupees in value. So, one should not overestimate the value of the propagation of spiritual knowledge. By propagation of spiritual knowledge, I mean both the generation of the knowledge and the distribution of that knowledge to devotees in the world. One should also not underestimate the other types of service that support the propagation of spiritual knowledge. Let us say that one devotee has plenty of money and he donates some money for the propagation effort. Another person has a talent for management and he may support the propagation effort by coordinating and managing the various activities.
For example, we are printing the books containing the divine spiritual knowledge given by God Datta through this Datta Swami. But the problem of distribution of the printed books has become very serious. Some devotee can take a deep interest in setting up the distribution of the printed books. The devotee can work sincerely to identify a good distributor and properly explain to the distributor about this service of God. I consider the service of such a devotee to be greater than the service rendered by this Datta Swami, who is revealing this excellent spiritual knowledge given by God Datta.
Suppose there is a big function in the palace of the king. Somebody spends out of his own pocket (karmaphala tyāga) to purchase the food ingredients needed for cooking the food. Is this not the greatest service done to the king since the person’s bond with his money is the greatest among all worldly bonds? The Veda itself says that the grace of God can be attained only by the practical sacrifice of your money (Dhanena tyāgena ekena…). The Gita takes it one step further by saying that if the sacrificed money is your hard-earned money, it pleases God even more (Karmajaṃ…phalaṃ tyaktvā…). Do you still think that cooking the food from the purchased food ingredients is the greatest service? There is no need to doubt the ability of the king to purchase the necessary food ingredients. The king only wants to find out who the real servant is. It is that person who can sacrifice the fruit of his work (wealth) for the function, due to his love for the king. Similarly, God has an infinite amount of wealth and He can easily arrange for money to cover the expenses for the program of propagating His divine knowledge. But then, there would be no way for a devotee to express his love for God in a practical way?
In the same function of the king, some other person works hard in serving the cooked food, moving from one place to the other, constantly. Is this service (karma saṃmyāsa) not greater than the service of the cook? The cook is only sitting in the kitchen and preparing the food out of the ingredients purchased and supplied to him by others. All types of services are highly essential in the program of propagating the spiritual knowledge of God. The cook is least important. The ones who serve the cooked food are greater than the cook. But the ones who purchased the food ingredients are the greatest. They are even greater than the ones who serve the food. This means that the devotees who propagate this spiritual knowledge, are greater than this Datta Swami who produced this knowledge. But the devotees who do other services, especially providing financial support, are the greatest.
When a rich king would perform a divine sacrifice (yajña) in olden days, several sages would assemble and recite Vedic hymns and reveal their inner meanings. But do you know that the entire fruit of the yajña would only go to the rich king, who spent money for the performance of yajña? The sage might have recited the Vedic hymns in a wonderful way and might have explained the meanings of the hymns in marvellous way. But the sage accepted a material offering from the king and hence, he cannot have a share of the practical divine fruit of the yajña. Let us assume that the sage did not take any material offering from the king. Even then, his service would only be theoretical and not practical. Such a sage would be blessed by God with greater intelligence to interpret the hymns and explain their deeper meanings. Theoretical fruit for theoretical service and practical fruit for practical service—this is the policy of God, as announced by Him in the Gita (Ye yathā māṃ prapadyante…).
One might think that the scholars giving speeches at a seminar are the greatest and that the host of the seminar is lower than them. This happens to be totally wrong in the spiritual field. The host of the seminar who spends his money for the seminar is the greatest. The others, who participate in the practical service of making all the arrangements for the seminar, without accepting any remuneration, are next in importance. The host performs the practical sacrifice of the fruit of his work (spending money), while the others perform the practical sacrifice of their efforts (service). Both these categories of people will be rewarded with practical fruits since both sacrificed practically, without aspiring for anything in return. The scholars who spoke at the seminar are the least in importance and they will be rewarded with theoretical fruits like certificates of appreciation. The scholars are great, those who served are greater and those who spent money are the greatest. Thus, we see that the omniscient God evaluates every service on the basis of its true color and not based on the false color superimposed on it by human beings.
In the analogy stated above, the cook has his own importance because unless the food prepared has an excellent taste, the final function will not be successful. But in the actual concept of the spiritual knowledge given by this Datta Swami, the situation is slightly different. It is true that Datta Swami prepared this excellent knowledge-food, but He prepared it, not by virtue of His own talent. He prepared it as per the running instructions given by God Datta, who stays within Himself. Hence, the real cook is God Datta alone. This Datta Swami is a big zero and He is simply getting the credit for the work done by God. God Datta is the digit ‘1’ in the number 10, which stands before Datta Swami, who is a big zero! In the number 10, the value of the 0 is due to the number 1 standing before the 0. If you keep God before you, giving credit to Him, you will get that credit because God always wants to give His credit to His devotee. But if you keep God behind you, hiding Him and trying to take all the credit by standing in the front, you will receive no credit. The 1 standing before the 0 gives value to the 0 (in 10). But the 1 standing behind 0 does not bring any value to the 0 (in 01). This is why it is said that the first will become the last and the last will become the first.
| Shri Dattaswami | Dhanena tyagena ekena karmajam phalam tyaktvaa Karma samnyaasa ye yathaa maam prapadyante yajna