Posted on: 05 Jul 2020
Shri Yogendra Thakur asked: Pranam! Has God Datta incarnated in Your form, as on today? Does the same God Datta, who had previously resided in Śrīpāda Śrīvallabha and Śrī Nṛsiṃha Sarasvatī, now reside in Shri Datta Swami? –Yogendra.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The precise meaning of the Human Incarnation is that whenever there is a need for doing some divine work for the welfare of the world, the unimaginable God, through God Datta, either directly or indirectly enters a devoted human being selected by the unimaginable God Himself to do that work. God Datta is the first energetic Incarnation of God, with whom the unimaginable God first merged, at the beginning of creation. The entry of Datta into any other human or energetic medium, therefore, means the entry of the unimaginable God Himself. The unimaginable God accomplishes the divine work on earth through the selected medium of the human devotee and gives the credit of that work to the devoted human medium.
If you are sure that some work done is so extraordinary that it must have been done by God Datta alone and that it has certainly not been done by any human being, then the concept of Human Incarnation can be brought in that case. If the human medium in an Incarnation claims that the extraordinary work was done by itself, it would be the ego of the human medium. The human medium should reveal that it is a Human Incarnation of God, which clearly means that the entire credit of the extraordinary work goes to God, who is merged with the human medium. It also means that the human medium is not claiming even a trace of credit for doing that divine work. On the other hand, if the human medium says that it is not a Human Incarnation of God, it clearly means that the entire credit of the extraordinary divine work has been taken by the human medium itself and that not even a trace of it has gone to God. The possibility of the human medium having done the work can be accepted provided the work done is ordinary, that is, if the work done is within the capacity of a human being. However, if the work done is unimaginable, the human medium should reveal that it is a Human Incarnation, thereby implying that the total credit of that unimaginable work goes to God alone and not even a trace of it goes to itself. So, the human medium in a genuine Incarnation of God claiming to be an Incarnation does not indicate the medium’s ego, even to the slightest extent. Of course, demons too claim to be Incarnations of God, but that claim is totally false and it is the result of their excessive ego. You can easily distinguish a genuine Human Incarnation claiming to be God with the intention of passing all the credit to God, from an egotistic demon who claims the same for glorifying himself.
In the Gītā, Krishna said that He was God, which meant that the credit of speaking the Gītā goes to God alone and not to Vāsudeva (human medium), the son of Vasudeva. As a proof of this concept, we can recall that, after the war, Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gītā so that he could listen to it in a peaceful atmosphere. We must remember Krishna’s answer to Arjuna’s request. Krishna said that He, as the son of Vasudeva, did not remember the Gītā, which was told by God during the war. This is the reason why the Gītā is called the Bhagavat Gītā, which means ‘the song of God’. It is not called Krishna Gītā, which would mean ‘the song of Krishna’. There is a lot of difference between Krishna saying that He is God and a demon like Paunḍraka Vāsudeva claiming to be God.
First of all, you should analyze the quality of this spiritual knowledge coming from My mouth. If you feel that the knowledge is of an ordinary standard, I will withdraw My claim that I am a Human Incarnation of God Datta because, in that case, such a claim would only show My ego. If you are thoroughly convinced that this knowledge is excellent (prajñānam), you yourself should say that I am the Human Incarnation of God Datta. It means that this extraordinary knowledge is spoken by Lord Datta and not by Datta Swami. This statement should be understood in its correct sense. It should not be interpreted in a twisted sense. After seeing the extraordinary concepts in this knowledge and their unique presentation, I Myself got convinced that this knowledge is coming from God Datta alone and not from this Datta Swami. I never claimed to be an Incarnation of God Datta at the very outset. But I observed the extraordinary quality of this knowledge. I also heard from the mouth of great Incarnations of God Datta, like Swami Shivananda Maharaj, that I am an Incarnation of God Datta. Based on this evidence, I stated that I am an Incarnation of God Datta, purely with the aim of passing the entire credit of this knowledge to God Datta alone, without reserving even a trace of it for Me.
The wonderful experience is that when I read devotees’ questions, I do not know the answers to them. But when I start dictating any answer, it flows out like a stream of the holy Ganga River and I Myself get astonished to see the concepts given in the answer, which were not known to Me earlier. I enjoy the answer like one of the readers of this knowledge. Only on seeing the quality of this knowledge, have I claimed that I am the Incarnation of God Datta. My intention behind the claim is to reveal that all this knowledge is from God Datta alone and not from this human Datta Swami.
On the mountain of Shrishailam, when the radiating energetic form of God Datta merged with Me, I did not conclude that I have become the Human Incarnation of God Datta because that vision might have been an illusion of My eyes. After God Datta merged with Me, several divine miracles were expressed through Me continuously. Even then, I did not conclude that I am an Incarnation of God Datta because even demons can perform miracles. Only after seeing this spiritual knowledge of an unimaginable standard radiating from Me, did I conclude that the divine vision of God Datta merging with Me was true and that the miracles expressed through Me were also performed by God Datta alone.
Even now, if I were to say that I am not the Incarnation of God Datta, it would clearly mean that I am claiming to be the author of this excellent knowledge and not God Datta. Hence, I am forced to say that I am an Incarnation of God Datta, which clearly implies that every word of this excellent spiritual knowledge is coming from the mouth of God Datta alone and not from the mouth of this Datta Swami. God said in the Gītā that when spiritual knowledge is to be preached, He will directly descend on earth and preach it (Jñānī tvātmaiva me matam…). The reason is that knowledge determines the very direction of the spiritual effort. Hence, a lot of care is necessary in this beginning stage of guiding humanity through spiritual knowledge. The Veda also says that God is an embodiment of spiritual knowledge (Prajñānam Brahma, Satyam jñānam anantam Brahma…).
God Datta is the first Energetic Incarnation of the unimaginable God (Parabrahman). If this God Datta enters a selected human devotee directly and merges with that human medium, the devotee becomes a direct Human Incarnation of God Datta as in the case of Śrīpāda Vallabha and Śrī Nṛsiṃha Sarasvatī. The case of a Human Incarnation like Krishna was slightly different. God Datta, who is also known as Nārāyaṇa, incarnated as another Energetic Incarnation called God Viṣṇu, in the upper world. Further, God Viṣṇu merged with Vāsudeva (Krishna), the son of Vasudeva to become the Human Incarnation called Krishna. So, Krishna is an indirect Incarnation of God Datta. Both these direct and indirect Incarnations are monistic Incarnations, in which God actually merges with the final human medium. Apart from monistic Incarnations, dualistic incarnations also exist. Dualistic Incarnations are climax devotees who keep God Datta or other Energetic Incarnations of God in their hearts, maintaining dualism. Krishna was a monistic Incarnation, whereas Balarāma was a dualistic incarnation.
A devotee worshipping God externally is in the first stage. The statement of Jesus in the Bible “I am in the light” indicates this stage. A devotee worshipping God in his heart internally is a dualistic incarnation and this is the second stage. It is indicated by the statement from the Bible, “The light is in Me”. When God merges with the devotee by His own will, it is a monistic Incarnation, which is the third stage. The statement from the Bible “I am the light” indicates this stage. Note that the third stage is not greater than the second stage, but is only an alternative to the second stage. The third stage results only when God wishes to do some divine work through the medium of the devotee. But the devotee should never aspire for it. The aspiration for attaining that stage is itself a disqualification for achieving it. Even if the third stage is achieved, the human being-component must always remain in the second stage alone because the third stage is the result of the will of God alone. It cannot be achieved by any effort.
We should never try to differentiate between direct and indirect Incarnations. Neither should we think that that a monistic Incarnation is greater than a dualistic incarnation. When ego entered the mind, even a monistic Incarnation like Paraṣurāma got insulted since God immediately exited sage Paraṣurāma. Even in the monistic Incarnation, a very subtle level of dualism between God and the medium continues to exist. As a result, God can quit even the monistic Incarnation at any time. We say that an ornament is made of gold. Actually, the gold used for jewelry is not pure gold. It is an alloy (solid solution) of two metals, namely gold and copper. This alloy looks like one homogeneous metal and is called gold. But such gold, upon examination under a microscope, shows both gold atoms and copper atoms existing separately in a homogeneously-mixed state. God and the human medium also exist in a similar state in the monistic Human Incarnation. Such a state is called sāyujya, which means a mixture of two entities. It does not mean a perfect identity so that only one entity exists. If the human being-component develops an ego, the God-component in the Human Incarnation gets separated from the medium and leaves. Self-glorification for the sake of worldly fame is based on ego and it is a demonic quality. It is the effect of ignorance. Hiding oneself and avoiding fame, as far as possible, is the divine quality of God, which is the effect of spiritual knowledge.
Atheists are full of ego and hence, Śaṅkara told them that the soul is identical with God. This concept appealed to atheists and they got converted into theists. The atheist agrees to say that God exists only because he himself has been declared to be God and he is sure that he exists. These atheists who got converted to theists started worshipping God on the advice of Śaṅkara. Śaṅkara told them that they can practically become God only when they worship God and achieve purity of mind. Due to the worship, their ego is reduced to some extent over time. By this time, Ramānuja arrived and told them that they were not identical with God, but were part of God. Since their ego had partially reduced, they were able to accept their partial separateness from God. Continuing with their devotional worship of God, under Rāmānuja’s guidance, when their ego became negligibly small, they became perfect devotees. At this time, Madhva arrived and told them that they were neither God nor part of God, but that they were eternally separate from God, as servants of God. After Madhva, no further divine preacher appeared to revise this concept further because this concept is the final truth.
God may make a specific soul fully God or a part of God when some divine work is to be done through that selected soul. But that happens only due to the will and grace of God. It is not something that can be achieved by the effort of the soul. No soul becomes God or even a part of God, as long as the soul aspires for such a state since the aspiration itself is treated as the basic disqualification. Hence, the soul must realise that it is not already God nor even is it already a part of God, but that it can become God or a part of God by the will of God alone. The soul must always feel that it is a servant of God, even after becoming God or a part of God by God’s will. In fact, the divine work done by such a soul is actually done by God alone through that soul.
Hanumān is the best example of this concept. He was made God, as the Creator of the world in the next cycle of creation. Even then, Hanumān always feels that He is a servant of God alone and that it is God who will do the work of creation through Him. In fact, Hanumān is originally the Incarnation of God (Śiva) Himself. But He always confined Himself to the role of a devotee. Even Rāma was originally the Incarnation of God (Viṣṇu), but He confined Himself to the role of an ordinary ideal human being. Hanumān and Rāma never projected themselves as Incarnations of God. Krishna declared Himself as an Incarnation of God (Manuṣīṃ tanumāśritam…—Gītā) since it was necessary to emphasize that it was God who was directly preaching the Gītā and not the human being-component, called Krishna.
Keywords:
| Shri Datta Swami | God Datta Incarnated As Shri Datta Swami | Shripad Shrivallabh Nrusimha Saraswati Vaasudeva Giita Prajnaanam Shrishailam Jnaanii tvaatmaiva me matam Prajnaanam Brahma, Satyam Jnaanam Anantam Brahma Saayujya Ramanuja Shiva Raama Hanumaan Manushiim tanumashritam Gita