Posted on: 15 Jan 2011
Today is Samkranti, which means transfer of Sun from south to north. Sun represents the intelligence, which is the basis of logical analysis. The Gayatri mantra also says that sun provokes the intelligence. The south represents the path of rituals, which involves the worship of representatives of energetic forms of God like statues or formless models of Vishnu, Shiva, etc. and the worship of statues of past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna, etc. In this path, the statues or some formless representatives are selected for worship because the spiritual aspirant has not yet conquered his egoism and jealousy towards contemporary human incarnation, which in fact is the most relevant address of God for a human being. The three great epics of the Hindu religion (Ramayana, Mahabharatam and Bhagavatam) preach about the two great past human incarnations called as Rama and Krishna. Even the Bible of Christianity is based on the past human incarnation called as Jesus. Islam is based on another human incarnation called as Mohammad. Buddhism is based on the human incarnation called as Buddha. Jainism is also based on the human incarnation called as Mahavir. The human incarnation is most relevant for any human being because God always comes in human form only to preach human beings. Even the energetic form is also in human shape only, which is relevant to souls in energetic bodies only and there is hardly any practical example that the energetic form of God preached to human beings. The human energetic form is again an indication to the human being to divert to the alive human form of God.
Unless the alive human form of God is caught, clear knowledge cannot dawn in the mind of a human being. But, the alive human form of God is recognized only when ego and jealousy are conquered. Hence, the path of knowledge (jnana) is represented by the north direction. The diversion of the Sun from south to north indicates the human being diverting from the path of rituals (karma) towards the path of knowledge, which is based on Satguru or the contemporary human incarnation. This diversion denotes the conquest of ego and jealousy by the spiritual aspirant towards a co-human form.
The path of rituals denotes the absence of knowledge due to the absence of alive human form of God. The rituals involve the sacrifice of valuable materials for the sake of God. These materials are either wasted or stolen by the priests, business men and managements. Valuable food materials like ghee is burnt in fire and milk, honey, fruit juice, etc. are wasted in bathing the statues. This clearly shows full ignorance but the merit is that sacrifice for God is developed. The wastage of materials is inevitable because the aspirant has not yet conquered ego and jealousy to recognize the alive human form of God, who has come down to the earth to enjoy your sacrifice of such valuable materials in His worship to bless you. Such sacrifice of materials is the proof of practical devotion. You prove your deep love by such practical sacrifice towards your beloved family members and hence, there is no debate in this point. In the first stage, such practical sacrifice is done by the human beings based on the business to give and take. The sacrifice of wealth and materials is for getting some benefits in return from God. In the initial stage, God also becomes a business man like Lord Venkateswara on seven hills. In course of time, the devotees are expected to develop real love to God by which the same practical sacrifice is done without aspiring anything in return. When this is achieved, the training of the human being in the ritualistic path is completed. Now, if the ego and jealousy towards a co-human form is also achieved by doing such practical sacrifice of materials to poor devotees, the time to catch the contemporary human incarnation has come. Now, the human being should analyze the real and relevant address of God through reasoning. Buddha said that without analysis, blind acceptance of even scripture and tradition is of no use. The scripture is already a well-settled conclusion of long logical debates. But, unfortunately, the wrong interpretation of the scripture is always developed through bad logic. This bad logic must be rejected by good logic, which is the reasonable process of reasoning. Therefore, when Buddha said that you should not accept the scripture blindly, means that you should not accept blindly the wrong interpretation of the scripture.
Approach Satguru in Middle Age
The diversion of Sun from south to north takes place in the middle of the year, which represents the middle age of your entire life. If you come to Satguru in the middle age, you will have sufficient energy and life to do practical service to God. Hanuman met Rama in His middle age. Radha met Krishna in Her earlier part of middle age. The people, who are not diverted towards Satguru, continue to worship the models of energetic forms of angels and departed ancestors through the blind rituals. When the Satguru is achieved, these rituals (karma) naturally get dropped as stated in the Gita (Jnate karma na vidyate…). The ritual (karma) is converted into practical service to Satguru (karma yoga). The word yoga denotes the lucky achievement of God in human form. There can be no better yoga than this. Yoga means fortunate achievement. Putra yoga means fortunate achievement of children. Dhana yoga means fortunate achievement of wealth. Yoga means the real achievement, which is the fortunate achievement of God in alive human form. The Gita is called as the yoga shastra because it is the real achievement of God in alive human form called as Krishna.
Therefore, the norms for achievement of God are
The first is achieved during the path of karma and the second is achieved during the path of knowledge just before the diversion from south to north. The word ‘DATTA’ actually means that God is given to the human beings by Himself through human form in every human generation. If the yoga is not achieved in this human life, such opportunity may be even impossible in the future births. Such fortunate attainment is the real meaning of yoga and without knowing this, people waste time in breathing exercises and other physical exercises. Of course, such exercises are also good for the mental and the physical health of the body, which is essential in the service of God in the human form. A sick and weak person cannot serve God. Hence, yoga starts with such achievement of good health and this preliminary state is included in the beginning of yoga. Control of mind and senses also helps to attain good health. But, if you stop yoga after attaining good health, it is only a topic of medical science and not spiritual knowledge. This state is like passing the entrance examination to achieve a seat in a professional college. The career is not stopped by simply joining the professional college. You have to put hard work in getting a distinction in the professional degree to achieve the final fruit. Such professional degree or the latter part of yoga starts with the recognition of alive human form of God and serving It. The ‘Gita’ is such latter part of yoga to help the human being to catch the alive human form of God. The readers of the ‘Gita’ catch Krishna as God and worship the statue or photo of Krishna and they have come back again to the pavilion! Such unfortunate situation is due to lack of victory over ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. Such people are again like Jambavan, the bear devotee, who worshipped the statue of Rama and could not recognize Krishna in person. The bear represents the rigid ignorant nature of foolish grip without analysis. When Krishna said that He was God, it means that every alive human form of God in every human generation is God. Similarly, when Jesus said that one can reach the Father through Him only, it means that one can see God through the contemporary human incarnation only. Again, the Christian devotees are like that Jambavan only. This is the reason behind the statement of Buddha that reasoning should be done in every step. The followers of Krishna and Jesus have reached the final state in recognizing the human form of God, but went back to the original place due to lack of reasoning in the final state. It is like the state of an un-fortunate student, who did well in all internal examinations throughout the year and was allowed to the final examination. But, if he fails in the final examination due to negligence, he comes back to the same class again in the next year. Therefore, reasoning should not be missed at any stage. You travelled all along the path with the help of the glowing torch light and reached the goal. But unfortunately, your torch light failed as soon as the goal is received. What is the use of your entire long journey? It becomes a sheer waste. You are as good as the person, who has not travelled all along the path.