Posted on: 14 Sep 2019
[Several devotees from various places, ranging from illiterate to highly qualified, came to Swami, seeking the clarification of their doubts in spiritual knowledge. Some of the prominent questions, along with the clarifications given by Swami, are given here.]
If someone slaps us on one cheek and we show them the other cheek, is it a sign of our patience or incapability to retaliate? Also, in responding to people who harm us, which policy should we follow? The ends-justify-means policy or means-justify-ends policy?
Swami replied: There are three stages in the spiritual development of souls. They are nivṛtti, which is the highest stage, pravṛtti, which is the middle stage and duṣpravṛtti, which is the lowest stage. Within each of these three stages or levels, there are two sub-levels. Thus, there are totally six sub-levels of souls namely, the highest, higher, high, low, lower and lowest.
1) Nivṛtti contains the first two sub-levels, which are the highest and the higher souls. Prahlāda is an example of a soul belonging to the highest sub-level and he represents pure nivṛtti. He depended only on God for both worldly matters and spiritual matters. He possessed extreme patience and not even a trace of the attitude for revenge. Below this highest level, the ‘higher’ level as indicated above, also falls within nivṛtti. King Janaka is a good example of this level. He was influenced by pravṛtti to a small extent. He had a relation with God for spiritual matters, but he depended only on the ethical scriptures of pravṛtti for worldly matters. For Prahlāda, God was greater than justice, whereas for King Janaka, God and justice were equal.
2) Pravṛtti contains the next two sub-levels of souls namely the high and the low. High souls like Yudhiṣṭhira, mainly depend on the ethical scriptures of pravṛtti. They maintain some relation with God but only as long as it does not mean breaking the ethical laws. Low souls like Vāli depend on the ethical scriptures to a major extent but they also sometimes commit sins as a result of misunderstanding the ethical scriptures. For Yudhiṣṭhira, justice was greater than God. For Vāli, committing a sin for the sake of his own ego was greater than both God and justice.
3) Duṣpravṛtti contains the lower and the lowest souls. Lower souls like Duryodhana depend on the ethical scriptures only to a minor extent. They commit many sins out of selfishness. The lowest souls like Rāvaṇa completely neglect the ethical scriptures and commit sins out of sadism, even when commiting the sins does not provide any selfish benefit to them.
Prahlāda, King Janaka, Yudhiṣṭhira, Vāli, Duryodhana and Rāvaṇa each represent the six levels of souls in descending order. It is easy to convert Janaka in to Prahlāda while it is difficult to convert Yudhiṣṭhira into Prahlāda. The difficulty increases as we proceed further in the descending order and it is almost impossible to convert Rāvaṇa in to Prahlāda.
Souls of each level have different psychologies. While adivising souls, it is important to ensure that the advice given to any soul is suitable to the level of the soul. The advice should be such that it helps the person rise one level above the present. The soul will find it easier to adopt such advice. Advice related to a much higher level should not be given to a soul. To a soul belonging to duṣpravṛtti, if you give advice relevant to the highest level in nivṛtti, it will not be of the slightest use. It would be like trying to show the sun to a born-blind person! Similarly, you cannot make a soul belonging to the level of nivṛtti fall to the level of duṣpravṛtti by giving any sort of wrong advice either. However, souls belonging to the middle level of pravṛtti may rise to the level of nivṛtti or fall to the level of duṣpravṛtti based on correct or wrong advice given to them respectively. Of course, your advice must always be directed to help the soul rise higher from duṣpravṛtti to pravṛtti and finally to nivṛtti. But you should seek to make only gradual, step-by-step changes in the person. Drastic advice, related to a much higher level should be avoided. Careful planning is necessary before advising any person. It is important to study that specific soul from all angles. Formulating the advice to be given to a specific soul in a specific situation is, thus, a very delicate matter. This complexity in judging any situation has been mentioned in the Gita (Gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ).
Whether you should follow the ends-justify-means policy or the means-justify-ends policy, depends on your sharp analysis of the whole situation from all angles. Krishna followed the ends-justify-means policy because He was the omniscient God. He clearly knew that the Kauravas were demons who were committing new sins and not sins in return for sins done to them in the past. But an ordinary human being should not imitate God because the soul’s judgment is always biased, leaning towards selfishness. So, let us say that a person harmed you. You cannot claim that the person is necessarily bad. Following the ends-justify-means policy, you cannot stab that person in the back claiming that killing the person anyhow is fine since he is bad. The reality is that you cannot judge whether the person is good or bad. The person might not actually be bad and he might have only harmed you in return for the harm done by you to him in the past life. Rāma, hiding behind a tree, shot an arrow and killed Vāli. But Rāma was the omnisicient God. He knew that Vāli was bad. He also knew that there was no other way to kill Vāli since Vāli could not be killed by anyone facing him, owing to a boon. But you are not omniscient like Rāma or Krishna. So, you should not exploit the ends-justify-means policy.
An ordinary human being should take the help of the Sadguru to make the correct decision in such personal cases as said in the Veda (Atha yadi te...Brāhmaṇāḥ sammarshinah...). You should not take the law in to your own hands in your personal cases. Regarding the punishment of souls belonging to the level of duṣpravṛtti, who are harming society, you can act as per your capacity. If you are not capable of punishing them, you must pray to God to punish such demons-in-human-form. With souls of the middle level of pravṛtti, you should be patient. Finally, you should never misunderstand the souls of the upper level of nivṛtti.
Regarding how you should react to people belonging to the middle level who harm you, you can follow one of the following two paths. (1) The first path is that if the person slaps you on one cheek, you can show him the other cheek. (2) The second path is to give him a slap in return. Which path you choose should be based on studying the nature of your opponent. If there is some element of good knowledge in the opponent, the first path will give a good result. But if your opponent is totally bad, the second path is more appropriate. Mahatma Gandhi followed the first path in the case of the British because they were Christians who followed the philosophy of Jesus. Jesus prayed to God to even excuse the cruel people crucifying Him! Due to this divine background of their culture, the British people bowed to Mahatma Gandhi and the first path adopted by him worked. Shri Subhash Chandra Bose followed the second path, which was not necessary in the case of Christians. Bose’s path would have been correct only if the enemies had been cruel souls who did not have any background of true spiritual knowledge. Kālidāsa has said that a bad person can only be controlled with a counter-attack and not by any goodness shown to him in return (Shāmyet pratyapakāreṇa, nopakāreṇa durjanaḥ). It basically means that a dog only understands the language of a dog!
[As Swami was dictating these two messages (September 14, 15, 2019) in Hyderabad and Shri PVNM Sharma was typing them, Shri Phani, in Vijayawada, had a shocking vision in which he saw a very bright light. He saw Swami with a golden color sitting on a golden chariot and radiating golden light. Shri Phani phoned Swami asking Him why he had received this vision. Swami told Shri Phani that He is forwarding these two messages to Shri Phani as a reply. Swami told him that the golden light represents the best and most supreme spiritual knowledge].
pravrutti nivrutti dushpravrutti Prahlada Yudhisthira Ravana Atha yadi te Braahmanaah sammarshinah Shaamyet pratyapakaarena nopakaarena durjanah Gahanaa karmano gatih