Posted on: 02 Dec 2019
Shri Phani asked: We have prepared some banners and visiting cards to be used in the propagation of spiritual knowledge. Please advise us on how we can proceed.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! When a political leader stands for election, there is a need for doing some propaganda of the candidate and his ideas everywhere in his constituency. Every citizen in the constituency who has a right to vote, is a target of his propaganda. But in our case, every citizen is not a target for the propagation of spiritual knowledge. Our spiritual knowledge is well-received only by some deserving devotees, who are scattered everywhere in the world. Hence, we cannot localize the promotion of the concepts, using banners and visiting cards. All the deserving receivers of our spiritual knowledge are not localized to any specific area. Suppose you do the promotion of these concepts in a localized area. It is quite possible that in that area, nobody might be interested in it and all your efforts might go waste. Since in any given area, only a few deserving devotees can exist, your propagation cannot be limited to a specific area.
Instead of this spiritual knowledge, if you were to promote the idea that I am a great astrologer, most people in any locality would be attracted to it. Everybody is highly interested in having their worldly problems solved through astrology. So, except for a few atheists, the majority of people pay a lot of attention to astrology. But spiritual knowledge is not like astrology. Spiritual knowledge deals with the establishment of a permanent bond with God through devotion, service and sacrifice, without aspiring for any fruit in return from God. Once you say that one should not aspire for any fruit in return for one’s devotion, service and sacrifice, almost everybody will disappear. Only devotees like Prahlāda, Dhruva or Meera will remain. But such few and really deserving receivers of the spiritual knowledge propagated by you, are scattered here and there, all over the world. Our spiritual knowledge is the purest. It is not adulterated with any artificial attractions for commercial purposes. Our spiritual knowledge is only meant for the few precious diamonds scattered here and there, in the entire world. Hence, its propagation should be done in the entire world. It will only attract a few precious diamonds. On the other hand, if you propagate astrology, it will attract plenty of gravel stones in every locality.
Hence, I advise you to propagate this divine spiritual knowledge only through email, so that the real deserving receivers will get attracted to it and get benefited. We should never bother about the number of followers. There will be hardly one class-full of postgraduate students in a district, assuming that the district has a university. But in the same district, there will be plenty of schools. As the quality increases, the number of deserving receivers decrease. You will be surprised to know that when God incarnates, hardly one or two devotees get salvation. The picture of the propagation of spiritual knowledge is not like a political leader leading huge masses in an election campaign. Hence, you should only worry about quality and never about quantity.
The Incarnation of God should not be assumed to be a political leader addressing huge masses. If you see Śaṅkara, only four devotees got salvation due to Him. Swami Vivekananda is the rarest devotee of Ramakrishna. Even if you convince one interested devotee, it is the greatest propagation and it will please God. Never have the illusion of large numbers of followers. They are just like loads of gravel stones. This subject is meant only for the Kohinoor diamond. God says in the Gita that among thousands of people, only a few come to the correct path and among those who are on the correct path, only one reaches God (Manuṣyāṇāṃ sahasreṣu…—Gita). God also says in the Gita that such one fortunate human being understands, only after several births, that a particular human being, like the son of Vasudeva, is God (Bahūnāṃ janmanāṃ…—Gita). Recognizing the contemporary Human Incarnation is the topmost secret in the spiritual field.
These visiting cards and banners, which have been sent by email for My review, can be circulated to people while you are propagating spiritual knowledge. In the olden days, there was no facility of computers and internet. Hence, Śaṅkara had to travel a long distance to meet Maṇḍana Miśra and debate with him for about a month. Had there been the facility of computers and internet in the time of Śaṅkara, the logical discussions would have taken place only via email. In oral debates, the disadvantage is that the scholars do not have sufficient time to understand the opponent’s arguments and construct proper counter-arguments. They have to reply in haste. Such hasty replies and counter-arguments often contain several flaws. In the past, due to such debates and discussions carried out in haste, the truth got distorted. Had there been the facility of email, in ancient times, each scholar would have had enough time to understand the opponents arguments, allow one’s emotional reactions to subside and construct proper counter-arguments that bring both debaters closer to the truth. The debates would have been more constructive and the debaters on both sides would have finally reached a compromise as a result of which, one truth and one philosophy would have emerged. Today, this Datta Swami could correlate all the religions and philosophies and could communicate it to scholars due to this very email facility.
| Shri Dattaswami | Manushyaanaam Sahasreshu Bahuunaamjanmanaam Mandanamishra