Posted on: 30 Jan 2011
Be it worldly affair or be it spiritual affair, your goal is to please the Lord in human form only. The path is not important. Only the goal is important. The ultimate goal is to please God in human form. Hanuman pleased Rama in the worldly affair, which was the search of His wife and getting Her back finally from the demon. This was a worldly affair and also a personal affair of Rama. It was not connected to the welfare of the society also because Rama told that He would go back without killing Ravana, if His wife was returned. Thus, it was not only worldly affair, but also a personal affair. Still, Hanuman served Rama even at the cost of His life in the war since His ultimate aim is only to please the Lord in human form and the path is immaterial. Similarly, Krishna asked Arjuna to fight and kill even his grandfather in the interest of establishment of justice in the society. This was worldly affair but not personal matter of Krishna. If Arjuna was in the place of Hanuman, he would not be interested since Rama was highly selfish by declaring that statement. Since Hanuman was a devotee of higher order, He could recognize Rama as the Lord and serve Him keeping the ultimate aim as the pleasure of the Lord only. Even though the affair of Rama was highly personal, but still, it is justified. Since justice is there, Hanuman was safe in supporting the justice even though He took the risk in serving the personal affair. Arjuna was very much safe because the advice of Krishna to fight is not only impersonal, but also justified. In the case of Hanuman, there is 50 percent risk and in the case of Arjuna, there is no risk at all.
The disciples of Shankara, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad etc. were still with more safety since they served the Lord in human form to propagate the spiritual knowledge in the society. This service is neither worldly affair nor personal and it is very sacred because it is spiritual work related to the welfare of the society. All these devotees should be appreciated since their ultimate goal was only to please the Lord in human form whether the path is worldly or spiritual or personal or social. In all these cases, there is lot of safety because the service is related to establishment of justice and there is no trace of injustice. Here, the word ‘safety’ means that even if the human form is not really the Lord, there is no harm because it is only a matter of supporting an individual or social justice or sacred spiritual knowledge. In all these cases, the recognition of the Lord in human form need not be very serious. Even if the recognition is a failure, there is no danger otherwise, since there is no trace of injustice in the service.
If you take the case of Dharmaraja and Gopikas, the Lord asked them to follow injustice to please Him. Dharmaraja was asked by Krishna to tell a lie. If that lie were uttered, his own teacher Drona would be killed, which is the greatest sin and its punishment would be very severe if Krishna were not God. Dharmaraja could not take risk because his faith in the Lord was not complete. Even though He praised Krishna as God many a time, there was some trace of doubt in the heart of his heart and therefore, he could not take the risk of going to hell. Similarly, Krishna expressed His love to Gopikas through mischief. Gopikas were sages in the previous births and most of them had complete faith in Krishna as God. Therefore, such Gopikas having complete and real faith, danced with Krishna in the midnights cheating their sleeping husbands. They also did not object to Krishna stealing butter from their houses, which was the basic livelihood especially for their children. Both these activities were serious sins and if Krishna was not God, Gopikas would go to severe hell. Gopikas did not have even a trace of doubt in Krishna, but Dharmaraja had a trace of doubt. Hence, Dharmaraja did not do the sin but, Gopikas did the sin. Dharmaraja was just a scholar of the scriptures and recognized Krishna as God through theoretical knowledge. Gopikas were sages and realized the God through practical penance. Penance means realizing God through practical knowledge and to prove the faith in practical situations, which are very serious, causing a lot of trouble and pain. Such practical standing in testing situations is penance. The penance, which you understand, is only theoretical in which one sits closing the eyes and chants the name of the Lord or gains knowledge through continuous study of scriptures. Dharmaraja was an example of theoretical penance, whereas, Gopikas, who were the sages, were examples of practical penance. Krishna was pleased with Gopikas but at the same time, if Krishna were not God, Gopikas would be severely punished in hell. Their faith in Krishna conquered such fear and hence, they did even the sin to please the Lord. But, in the case of Dharmaraja, his faith could not conquer fear and hence, he went back from doing the sin. Gopikas did not go to hell for doing this sin, but, Dharmaraja went to hell for not doing the sin. Of course, this is true if the human being is really the Lord. Therefore, the devotees should not do sin in the service unless they have complete and real faith in the human form of Lord, since the risk is very high. Of course, it is an acid test for a devotee and unless the devotee is of highest order like Gopikas, the devotee will fail due to the fear for the punishment of the sin. The devotee also should be careful in this acid test because there are several false human incarnations, who exploit the devotees in this line. These false human incarnations are many in this Kali Yuga. Such false human incarnations rob the money of the devotees, acting as Krishna stealing the butter! They also cheat the female devotees in the disguise of Krishna. Hence, the devotee should be very careful and unless the faith is in the climax, the devotee should not take such risk and go to hell.
Recognition of Human Incarnation
The recognition of human incarnation should be done by the qualities of the spiritual knowledge preached by Him. The Veda gives three adjectives to such divine spiritual knowledge. The first is ‘Truth’ (Satyam jnanam), the second is ‘Infinite’ (Anantam Brahma) and the third is ‘Excellent’ (Prajnanam Brahma). The true, infinite and excellent knowledge indicates the Lord. The knowledge is true because the Lord need not tell lies to please the people. The human preachers tell lies to please the people and get some favor from them. The Lord has no such necessity. In fact, all the human beings are at the mercy of the Lord to get some favor from Him. Hence, the Lord will always speak the truth whether you like it or not. Generally, truth always causes disliking. The knowledge is infinite because the Lord will effectively clear the doubts of infinite number of devotees and hence, the knowledge becomes infinite. The true concept is always simple and brief. But, the doubts on it are many. Hence, the simple true knowledge becomes infinite, when it takes the form of clarifications given to several corners. The knowledge is excellent because the presentation of knowledge by the Lord is simply tremendous. The way of explanation of the concept is impossible to any other human being. Therefore, you have to recognize the Lord by such spiritual knowledge alone. Miracles should not be taken as signs of the Lord because even demons blessed by the Lord exhibit such miracles. Of course, the miracles are only due to the power of the Lord only. But, the Lord grants such powers to the devotees.
The only power that cannot be transferred to anybody is the true infinite and excellent spiritual knowledge. The devotees are always after the powers and not after such knowledge. Hence, you need not blame the Lord for not transferring such knowledge to a devotee. Therefore, the Lord keeps this spiritual knowledge alone with Him as His inseparable sign. You can recognize the Lord through such inseparable sign. However, you should not mistake such knowledge as the Lord Himself or as the inherent characteristic of the Lord. The Veda stated the knowledge as the Lord since the possessor of an item can be called by that item. The possessor of apples is called as apples. The married lady wears yellow thread in her neck. You can always recognize the married lady through such inseparable yellow thread. But, the yellow thread is not the inherent characteristic of the married lady like her colour, beauty, etc. You can treat the yellow thread as almost the inherent characteristic, but, it is not really the inherent characteristic. Since God is unimaginable, His inherent characteristics must also be unimaginable. Therefore, the spiritual knowledge, which is mentioned as the sign of recognition of God, is only an inseparable-imaginable characteristic but, not the unimaginable inherent characteristic. The knowledge is received and understood by you and hence, cannot be unimaginable. It can be inseparable because the Lord always keeps it with Himself without transfer since no devotee is serious about such transfer.