Posted on: 17 Jan 2011
[Surya asked Swami about the significance of simultaneous incarnations of God as Rama and Hanuman. Given below is Swami’s reply.]
Rama stands for pravritti, which is your behavior and service to your family life. Hanuman stands for your behavior and service to God, who is available as the contemporary human incarnation. Both the incarnations are simultaneous and separate. This means that you shall maintain pravritti and nivritti[1] simultaneously and separately. Both need not clash since they are two separate sections. In this context, there are three types of people.
Type 1: People for Whom Pravritti is the Only Goal
People of the first type are those, who feel pravritti itself as God. They feel that discharging pravritti perfectly itself is salvation. They feel that discharging their worldly duties itself is God and say “Work is worship”. They should be appreciated because by discharging their duties towards their families, they are not disturbing the balance of the society. This also pleases God. The balance of the society is the basis for nivritti. Such people are far better than demons, who disturb the balance of society by achieving some powers from God. They are failures in nivritti. But passing in the lower class, pravritti, is better than a failing in the higher class, nivritti. A first rank student in the school is honored with gold medal whereas a failure in postgraduate studies at the university is scolded by the teacher. For this first type of people, Rama stands as the ideal example. Rama never entertained the spiritual path in His entire life. He behaved like a Roman in Rome.
Type 2: People for Whom Nivrutti is the Only Goal
People of the second type concentrate only on nivritti. They are the saints. They never entertain pravritti. They feel that family life is an obstruction to the spiritual path. For this type, Hanuman stands as the best example. This section of people concentrates on the Absolute God, who is unimaginable. When you cannot even think or imagine the Absolute God, how can you concentrate or meditate upon that Absolute God? This section of people should learn from Hanuman, who is also a saint and is perfectly following the path of nivritti. Hanuman caught the contemporary human incarnation and served Him in the incarnation’s worldly matters. Hence, even the saints should catch the contemporary human incarnation and serve Him even in the worldly matters. Hanuman, a bachelor, remaining unmarried to please God, could please God by serving Him in search of His lost wife! Hanuman never thought about marriage Himself and yet He served Rama, who was weeping every minute for His lost wife! Therefore, the path currently being followed by saints is completely wrong (Avyaktaahi gatih…—Gita) and they will end in unhappiness alone. They should instead select the mediated God[2], especially the living human form and they should serve Him blindly without criticizing the state[3] of God. God is God in any state; like a diamond.
Type 3: People Who Maintain Both Nivrutti and Pravritti
People of the third type want to maintain pravritti and nivritti simultaneously like the Gopikas. The Gopikas never allowed any clash between pravritti and nivritti. They gave butter to Krishna secretly. They would meet Krishna secretly in the middle of the night. They pleased their family members as well as God simultaneously. The Gita says that nivritti should be maintained as the topmost secret (Rahasyam hyetaduttam…). Nivrutti has far higher value than pravritti. But this point should be kept secret so that your family members feel that your highest love is for them alone. This is not cheating your family. It is only avoiding a clash and avoiding the unnecessary displeasure of your ignorant family members. However, if God brings about a clash as a test, certainly you should choose God over your family. But you should not bring that situation by yourself and hurt your family members. If this point is understood, the Gopikas will not be blamed for cheating their family members. In fact, they stand as the ideal examples for the people, who want to maintain pravritti and nivritti simultaneously. In the case of Hanuman, God brought about a clash. A war was took place between Rama and Hanuman. The mother of Hanuman wanted to protect some person and Rama wanted to kill the same person. A clash came up between pravritti, the mother and nivritti, the contemporary human incarnation. Hanuman took the side of the mother and fought with Rama. He realized the mistake in the end. In the next incarnation as Adi Shankara, He rectified the mistake by leaving His mother for the sake of God[4]. Both Hanuman and Adi Shankara were incarnations of the same Lord Shiva. Therefore, the Bhagavatam is the most sacred book for the householders aspiring for salvation. When Parikshit, a householder asked sage Shuka for salvation, the sage preached the Bhagavatam to him[5].
The first type of people will reach heaven for a temporary trip and will come back. The second type of people will never attain the goal and will always keep wandering in the path without reaching the goal. The third type of people taking the Gopikas as an example will certainly reach the goal. In fact, the Gopikas reached Goloka, which is higher than Brahma Loka, the goal. This shows the special appreciation of the Lord for the Gopikas, who never insulted pravritti and achieved nivritti without any clash, by their talented dealing. The third section of people should avoid the clash between pravritti and nivritti as far as possible. But if God creates the clash, they should behave like Shankara and not like Hanuman. Please remember that Hanuman is not a real failure. He only acted in that way to preach the concept. Otherwise, Hanuman Himself is God or the ultimate goal.
[1] Pravritti is behavior towards family and soceity, Nivritti is devotional service done to the Lord.
[2] Instead of trying to concentrate on the Absolute Unimginable God, which is clearly impossible, they should recognize that the same God has come through a medium, especially the medium of a human body (mediated God).
[3] The ‘state’ or ‘ashrama’ (Sanskrit) means the state of a householder or the state of a celibate saint.
[4] Shankara left His mother to take up samnyasa and propagate knowledge.
[5] The basis for Bhagavatham when the grandson of the Pandavas, Parikshit asks sage Shuka for quickest means to liberation.