Posted on: 19 Mar 2007
[On the occasion of Yugadi or New Year according to the Indian Calendar] The devotion to Lord in the theoretical phase as well as the practical phase should be done by making God as the final goal. Only such devotion is real, and the real devotees are Hanuman and the Gopikas, who should be our guides in the spiritual effort. But very few human beings can attain this level and God says in the Gita that one in millions alone can attain such a state. In this real spiritual path, all items except God are only the means, whereas pleasing God is the final goal. But the majority of human beings is reverse to this real path. Most human beings make God as means to achieve their self-pleasure by crossing the difficulties in life. Even devotees who worship the Lord for attaining the upper world, belong to this path alone because they are also making God as the means to avoid hell and attain the upper world. Crossing difficulties and the attainment of selfish pleasure is the only goal, whether the place is earth or the upper world. Hence, for ordinary human beings, it is almost impossible to attain such real devotion. Selfishness is the nature of the soul and can never be avoided like the curvature of a dog’s tail (Prakritim yaanti Bhutani—Gita). Therefore, for almost all the human beings, God only becomes the instrument or means to attain selfish pleasure. Even the so-called spiritual aspirants say that the goal of their spiritual effort is only to attain the bliss of God, but in reality, they only want selfish bliss and not giving bliss to God. If you take the case of Hanuman, He wanted to commit suicide in the service of His contemporary human incarnation while searching for Sita. He thought that if Sita were not found, Rama would die and instead of becoming the cause of the death of Rama, it is better to end His own life. Generally people worship God to avoid pre-mature death. But Hanuman wanted pre-mature death for the sake of God. Several demons worshipped God to become immortal and avoid death. Thus, there is a 180-degree difference between Hanuman and the demons and hence Hanuman is the bitter enemy of all demons.
Therefore, to achieve real devotion towards God with a final aim of pleasing God at the cost of one’s own death is a matter of dream for human beings. Jesus says that unless one is prepared to carry his own cross for the sake of God, one cannot become the dearest disciple of God. In fact the crucifixion of Jesus was not only to save the real devotees from their sins but also to create kindness in the hearts of even cruel people so that they will be attracted towards the spiritual path. Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus was completely a part of the divine program of God. Hence, Jesus accepted it to fulfill the work of God. The result of such sacrifice for God is that Hanuman became the future Creator and Jesus sat on the right side of God. When Krishna left His body, the Gopikas jumped into fire while their husbands were still alive. They sacrificed not only their lives but also the tradition of jumping into fire only on the occasion of the death of the husband. They attained Goloka, which is above the abode of God. Such examples of Hanuman, Jesus and the Gopikas stand only as inspiring ideals for ordinary human beings, so that every human being can at least get passing marks.
It is very clear that the human being can worship God only to cross difficulties and attain selfish pleasure (Maanushananda) and if possible to attain the bliss of God (Brahmananda). The difficulties may belong to this world or the upper hell but the philosophy is one and the same. In that case, how to keep the human being constantly in the devotion of God, which is certainly only a means and not the end? Even in such low type of devotion, people forget God as soon as their problems get solved. For a few days they may remember God with gratefulness but very shortly they forget God. People will remember the problems of the past forever provided there is a possibility of claiming credit for their effort. This means that people will remember the difficulties in the past and explain the scenes with a lot of interest to others continuously till the day of their death provided there is a possibility of mentioning their own capabilities as the means for crossing those difficulties. Therefore, the past difficulties are of no use to keep the human being constantly in devotion because God has to be praised and not the self. Hanuman never mentioned that He jumped over the sea in a single long jump to project His own capability. Even if somebody mentioned that incident, He would say that He jumped over the sea only with the grace of God. But if you replace Hanuman by an ordinary human being, what will happen? For some days he will say that he jumped over the sea by the grace of Rama. But slowly, as time passes, he will say that he jumped over the sea in a single jump. You can see such egoistic attitude in the conversations of even old people, who always try to project their capabilities expressed in their past life-incidents.
The only spontaneous devotion towards God that we have (which of course is not real, since our devotion is only a means) is due to the pressure of present problems. This artificial devotion shoots up spontaneously because God is only the final means for crossing such present difficulties. There is no need of any message or force for the devotee to maintain the devotion during the tenure of present problems. But once the problem is solved and peace and happiness are attained, the human being forgets God completely after a very short time. This ungratefulness towards God is mainly based on the effect of ego because there is no possibility of keeping the self in the place of God in solving such problems. If there is even a trace of possibility of keeping the self in the place of God, the fellow would constantly remember that incident till the day of his death because it projects self praise.
Astrology Continues Devotion
You may say that the only alternative then is to continue the problems without end. In fact Kunti asked the Lord for such a boon. She said that since difficulties alone can keep devotion alive in the case of human beings, that the Lord should give her continuous difficulties. But this is not possible because continuous difficulties also bore the soul and the attitude of God as the Divine Father is to make the souls happy and not to bore them. For this purpose He arranged the cycles of lives with alternate happiness and misery. Unless the soul is a demon, it cannot get continuous difficulties because only a demon does continuous sins. A human being is neither a bad demon nor a good angel. He is a mixture of both (Anistamistam Mishramcha—Gita). Therefore, continuous problems cannot be accommodated in the cycle of deeds of human beings. Hence, happiness has to come after some period of misery like winter after summer or day after night. In that case the problem is that devotion to God during the period of happiness becomes impossible.
Therefore, some clue should be adopted to foresee the misery in the future, so that God can be worshipped even during the period of happiness to avoid misery in the future. The knowledge of alternating happiness and misery of the cycle of deeds is sufficient to realize the misery in the future. But for ordinary ignorant human beings this general concept will not give a real psychological effect. Unless an individual case is specified and unless the misery in the future is specifically indicated, the human being will not take up the worship of God with utmost care, during happiness. For this purpose alone, was the subject of astrology born. By astrology an individual can foresee the misery in the future. Astrology is Jyotisha Shastram, which means the science of light. It is the torchlight to foresee the misery in the future. It shows both misery and happiness in the future. But a human being will be alert only to avoid the misery in the future by taking some action in the present as prevention. If the misery appears after a long time, the human being will again sleep in the present happiness. Therefore, the design of the recycling periods of the nine planets (Dasha) is arranged in a wonderful manner so that you can see some misery even in the next hour. This is done by the system of Dasa-Antardasha-Vidasha-Sukshma Dasha-Prana Dasha etc. Among these nine planets, some planets are good and some planets are certainly bad for any Zodiac (Raasi) in which one is born. By these systems of period, sub-periods, sub sub-periods etc., one can find the involvement of a bad planet (intensity may vary) even in the next hour. Based on this system astrologers can calculate the time of the incident very precisely, even up to hours and minutes. Therefore, astrology helps the human being to foresee the misery in the future and advises to avoid the misery by worship of God and by doing certain specified sacrifice (Daanam). This covers both theoretical and practical devotion continuously throughout the life. Therefore, astrology is justified because the ends justify the means. In fact it is a part of spiritual knowledge because God is also mentioned as the ultimate light (Paramjyoti rupasampadya—Veda, Jyotiridhikaranam of Brahma Sutras). Hence, these torchlights of the planets acting as secondary lights help the human being to worship the main ultimate light (God).
Today human beings approach astrologers and hear the predictions for one year. Earlier, there was no difference between the Satguru and astrologer because the Satguru adopts the method of astrology for ordinary ignorant human beings to create interest in God. In the beginning the interest may be as a means but slowly on realizing the taste of God, they may become real devotees. This is the right spirit and direction of our tradition. If you observe today, you can see the fate of this well-established divine tradition. The astrologer is not at all a Satguru. He is just giving his predictions to collect some money on that day for his predictions. He also designs the future plan of his work in the year to earn money through the remedies suggested and his prediction is just an annual financial budget. He sows the seed of fear of future misery in the minds of some rich people so that the future remedies can give some financial benefits to him or to his secret partners, who are the priests involved in such remedies. Astrology is a part of the divine philosophy because the planets are the executive authorities of implementing the cycle of deeds based on the constitution spelled out by God. If you insult astrology, God will also be furious because if a constable is insulted, the state police authority will feel insulted. Astrology is expected to lead the ordinary ignorant human beings to the spiritual path. If the astrologer realizes this truth and behaves accordingly, God will be pleased with him because the astrologer will become a servant in the divine mission of the Lord. In that case all the problems of the astrologer will be taken care of by divine grace and he need not worry about himself any more. Ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of the cane before their eyes and such a cane is the misery in the future indicated by the astrologer. Either devotion or fear (Bhakti or Bhayam) can give fruit. If devotion is impossible, fear is used to develop devotion at the ground level.
The Sutras written by Jaimini are the fundamental basis of astrology and also Purva Mimamsa. Jaimini indicates various forms of God for getting a remedy to various human beings according to their qualities. Vishnu (Saturn and Mercury), Lakshmi (Moon and Venus), Shiva (Jupiter), Skanda (Mars), Durga (Rahu) and some village deities (Ketu) are such divine forms mentioned by Jaimini. This shows that he is bringing ordinary human beings upward to the level of devotion, through the cane of fear. The Uttara Mimamsa of Vyasa finally concentrates on establishing the unity (Brahman) of these divine forms. Both Jaimini and Vyasa constitute the two gradual steps in spiritual progress. They are not opposite to each other. Both Vyasa and Jaimini sat as judges for the debate between Shankara and Mandana Mishra and this shows the correlation between these two steps.
Jaimini concentrates on sacrifice (Yajna) and even a large extent of the Veda gives stress on sacrifice, which is the donation of prepared food to a deserving guest. The food indicates the sacrifice of the fruit of work (karma phala tyaga) of the man and also the sacrifice of work (Karma Sansya) of his wife in the process of cooking the food. Hence, it is a complete sacrifice, which is the result of devotion. Devotion is the result of knowledge. Only the service involving sacrifice can yield fruit. This is the spirit of the stress on Yajna laid by the Veda. Without understanding it, people give importance to knowledge and devotion. Almost all the Veda concentrates on Yajna. If Yajna were nothing, why would the Veda give so much importance to it by covering it so extensively? The followers of Jaimini gave importance to mere sacrifice without God. Mere social service without God is of very little use since it gives only temporary heaven. Hence, Jaimini joined the sacrifice with devotion to divine forms.
Eclipse on New Year’s Day
[Devotees asked Swami about the eclipse on this New Year’s Day. Swami replied as follows.] The eclipse is of no divine nature because today science explains everything about an eclipse. It is a simile for a divine concept. The sun represents intelligence and the moon represents the mind according to the Veda. Rahu and Ketu represent the dark shadow of ignorance by which both intelligence and mind are eclipsed. The pity of our unfortunate tradition is that the concept disappears immediately and the apparent simile always stands forever and in course of time becomes the concept. A broker [matchmaker] described the bride as a rose flower (metaphor; not simile). The bride escaped with her lover on the day of the marriage. The clever broker brought a rose flower and kept it in the place of the bride because he had already said that the bride was a rose flower! Today the priests do not know even the meaning of the word the Veda from which they recite the hymns. Even if they try to understand the meaning of the word the Veda, they will stop the recitation. The Veda means knowledge and not mere recitation of the words without knowing the meaning. The tradition has exploited this unfortunate situation also and tried to use it for the benefit of the upliftment of ordinary human beings. The ignorance of this situation is used to cause fear and the tradition tried to induce fear into the minds of ignorant people so that they will at least step into the spiritual field by fear. Once this spirit is realized, there is no need of these similes (Jnate karma na Vidyate—Gita). If your brain comes out of these worldly illusions through knowledge and devotion, and if you are determined to serve the Lord, there is no meaning of any eclipse in your case.