Posted on: 03 Dec 2006
Shri M.V.V.S. Prasad, a sincere devotee of Swami asked: Devotees like Meera sang songs and worshipped the statue of Krishna. Is it wrong to worship a statue by songs?
Swami replied: Except atheism, nothing is wrong, but everything has its own place of importance and time in the spiritual path. Taking a slate and pencil in L.K.G. class is not wrong but that is not the final step. What I say is that you should not sit in the L.K.G class through out your lifetime and waste the entire human life which is very very rare and we can say that the human rebirth is almost impossible except in the case of a few deserving devotees. Shankara condemned the rituals (karma marga) and established the divine knowledge (Jnana Yoga). But again He reinstated the revised rituals with right spirit and direction. The paddy-plants are grown and they are de-rooted and again rooted far from each other in the field. King Raghu defeated all the kings in the country but again gave their kingdoms to them only. It is not a waste act. The paddy plants grow vigorously after the second rooting. The kings ruled their kingdoms with care since they were made subordinates of Raghu. The administration was bettered. Before this the kings were independent and were ruling their kingdoms as they liked. The wrong side of the rituals was removed by Shankara. The rituals without the right spirit and proper understanding of their significance in their related positions and stages of time, become either waste or sometimes even poisonous.
In the songs of Meera, you find her goal as the alive human form of Krishna and not the inert form of statue. She was singing about the beauty, qualities and activities of the alive human form only mentioning the dance, the steeling of butter etc. She did not sing about the statue stating “How beautiful is this black stone on which you are carved! How hard is your body on this stone! How much is the weight of this statue?” etc. The statue is only indicating the past alive human form of the Lord. Even a photo of the present alive person [human incarnation] can also be worshipped like this since He is not in this area. Here also the photo represents the alive human form that is in other area. The statue of Krishna in Brindavanam today represents the past human form of Lord, which is not in this time, though the area is same. Radha, the source of Meera worshipped her contemporary human incarnation only and not the statue of previous human incarnation like Rama. Similarly, Hanuman. Hanuman worshipped Krishna also after realizing that the same God comes in a different human body also. Before Krishna, there were human incarnations like Rama etc. and after Krishna, there were human incarnations like Buddha etc. according to the concept of ten incarnations of Vishnu. Krishna Himself told that He will come again and again whenever the necessity arises (Yada Yadahi…Gita). There is no meaning of the devotee clinging to the statue of Krishna leaving the present human incarnation. Hanuman was also like that [clinged to Rama, who was past incarnation during Krishna’s time] but He realized when Krishna gave Him a vision of Rama. Similarly, Jambavaan was worshipping the statue of Rama in the cave and fought with Krishna due to the same illusion. But when Krishna gave him the vision of Rama, he surrendered to Him. In spite of all these points from scriptures only, if one is blind to find the truth, we should leave him or her to their fate.
Receiving Guidance is the Main Aspect
The main point in stressing the present alive human incarnation is to get the guidance in the spiritual path through clarifying all your doubts. The life history of Meera says that she had a doubt about leaving the house and husband in the propagation of devotion. She wrote a letter to Tulasidas and he replied her that crossing the boundaries of justice for the sake of the Lord is not a sin and in fact is the real justice. Based on that reply, she left the home. Now, here My question is that why did she not ask the statue of Krishna for the clarification? Arjuna asked Krishna for clarification of his doubt since Krishna was the then alive human incarnation [for Arjuna]. He also did not put his doubt to the statue of Rama, the past human incarnation or to the statue of Vishnu who is the energetic form in the upper world. Only the Satguru can give you the right direction in the spiritual path, which is the most important aspect of the entire human life since it decides the future eternal fate of the soul.
The spiritual knowledge is not a time-pass entertainment for the retired people! The retired person feels relaxed after observing his past achievements like maintaining the family and settlement of children etc. He is not looking into the opposite direction of the life after death and the enquiry that has come very near. He is like a student in the month of March, who is relaxed looking at the number of cinemas, novels and games that entertained him through out the academic year starting from July. These are only side entertainments for a change now and then in the main activity. For a student, main activity is study and for any human being, the main activity of the life is to please God. The student is not thinking about the date of examination, which is in the month of March [generally final examinations of academic year are conducted in the month of March]. He opens the text books but his entire mind is only on the previous entertainments. He fails in the examination and does not get a job forever. Similarly, the retired person starts thinking about the spiritual path but all his mind is only on the settlement of his grand children (Vruddhah tavat chintaasaktah…Shankara). The result is his failure in the enquiry after death and the permanent hell subsequently.
Statues Develop Theoretical Devotion
The statues and photos of previous human incarnations and the energetic forms are certainly excellent as far as the training period (Rituals) is concerned. They develop the theoretical devotion, which is the inspiration of mind through songs, looking at the statues or photos. These rituals give you the training to remove egoism and jealousy towards human form. All the energetic forms of God are represented by human form for this purpose only. In the first stage, the ignorant devotee serves practically (practical devotion) the statue. In the second stage, the realized soul imagines the human form by mind and tries to purify his mind from jealousy and egoism. In this second stage, there is no practical devotion. It is an intermediate state to transform himself from inert object to alive form. In the third state, one catches the Satguru who is the present alive human form of God and serves Him practically, like Hanuman and Gopikas and this service may also be mixed with the theoretical devotion. If Satguru is not available, atleast, serve the best of available devotees. When the real devotees who participate in the work of God practically are served by you, I assuredly tell you that the Satguru will come to you. You can also give basic needs like food, clothes, medicines etc., to the poor people even if they are atheists. This will give you at least the heaven which may be temporary. Even an atheist has a chance of transformation in to devotee if his life is saved by you. When you serve the beggars, try to introduce the divine knowledge and devotion into them. At least you serve them in the name of God. Even if you do mere social service without reference to God, it is not wrong. For such service also you will get the temporary heaven from which you have to return back to this earth. I am criticizing you for your long stay in the first step only, where you are doing the practical service to the statue. You are leaving the food-offering before the statue. The statue is not at all touching it. The priest or management behind the statue, receives that food and money from the hundi. The priest or management may be deserving or undeserving because you have not examined their deservingness for your sacrifice. The Veda says that the enquiry about the receiver should be done by you (Samvidaadeyam…). Every paisa of your sacrifice is your hard earned money. If the sacrifice goes to the undeserving fellow, you have purchased the sin with your money! You are hurry about the place (Desha) like Banaras and the time (Kala) like Shivaratri and you have no time to examine the deservingness of the receiver of your sacrifice (Patra).
You arrange a hundi in your house, take it to the sacred place and put the money you want to sacrifice for God in it on that sacred day. Since, the money is out of you, you have done the charity to God in the sacred place on the sacred date. Bring back your hundi to your house. You go on examining the devotees leisurely without hurry. When you get the sacred receiver, you donate all that to him or her. Now your sacrifice is complete with sacred place, sacred time and sacred receiver (Deshe Kale Patrecha…Gita). In the first stage, due to your hill of ignorance, you are not only wasting your money but also purchase the sin. When you are burning the lights, how much oil, which is best energetic food, is wasted? God is the source of energy for all lights (Tasya Bhasa…Veda) and does not need your light. Moreover, you are polluting the atmosphere stopping the rains and causing natural calamities. Give all this energetic food to even a poor atheist so that his brain becomes energetic to think about God. By this you get atleast the temporary heaven. By polluting the environment and damaging the society in which devotees and human incarnation live, you are going to the permanent hell. If these defects are removed the temples with statues and photos are excellent means to develop a theoretical devotion, without which the practical devotion cannot be born.
Heart of Devotional Songs
The singer of the devotional songs is exhibiting his talent of music only. Most of the words in the songs are not clear to you and the meaning is not captured since the words are immersed in the river of his tune of sound (Raga). Perhaps the singer thinks that if meaning is clear, your devotion on God gets increased and you will try to donate to God and not to him! Perhaps he wants you to hear his talented Raga only and donate to him only! The words (Shabda), subsequently the sentences (Vakya) and subsequently the meaning (Artha) should be clear. The meaning gives rise to feeling (Bhava), which in turn gives rise to devotion (Bhakti). Bhakti associated with divine knowledge (Jnana) will lead you to practical service (Seva) to God, which will please God. Therefore, do not worry about tune of the song. You sing for yourself to develop devotion in yourself. You need not sing before others to earn fame or money. God is pleased by your feeling and not by your tune (Bhavagrahi Janardanah…). Even the talented music without devotion is like the dead body of a king and is inauspicious. Even a song with bad music is like the alive body of a beggar which is not inauspicious. By this simile you should not think that the alive king is the best because God sees only the devotion (life) and not the music (body or its dignity). Simile is always restricted to the limits of the given concept and should not be extrapolated by the over-intelligence.
The musicians have diverted the truth to earn the lively hood. Gayatri means any tune good or bad with full devotion. If good music is only intended it should have been stated as “Sama Gayatri”. Sama Gita is good music related to Sama Gayatri. Gita is any type of music related to Gayatri. Gayatri means the tune (Gayatri chandah…) and not any deity. A song (Sama Veda) is more attractive than reciting a poem (Rug Veda) and a poem is more attractive than stating a sentence (Yajur Veda) and this is the importance of Gayatri. If you are not analyzing the concepts through divine knowledge, priests and musicians will trap and exploit you! The value of Meera is the devotion in her and not the music. The spirit of Meera is alive form of God and not inert statue representing it. The value of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a priest in the temple of Kali, is His divine knowledge and devotion and not the rituals done by Him to the statue. Learning music and training in rituals cannot make you Meera and Ramakrishna.
(Swami was staying in the house of Phani for some days and was spending most of the time in singing the devotional songs. The father of Phani fell on the feet of Swami and literally wept several times requesting Swami to grant a grand son at least to his eldest son, since Phani became a saint. Swami agreed to it. One day Swami was moving His hands in the air. Phani asked the reason for it with loud voice. Swami replied: Do not think that I have become mentally derailed (Swami laughed). I am bringing a soul in to the womb of the wife of your elder brother to fulfill the request of your father. Immediately within a week, the report was that she became pregnant and delivered a son in course of time. In these days, Swami was stressing on development of theoretical devotion that can result in the practical service to please God.)