04 Aug 2025
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QA:54-62
(Some of my friends, who are atheists, have asked these questions on sweet devotion and related topics. I have sent those questions to H.H. Shri Datta Swami, who has answered these questions. - Ms. Thrylokya)
54. Why should God punish the souls involved in consensual sex outside marriage?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Punishment by God for the sin of rape is justified since it hurts another soul. When sweet devotion is also a good line encouraged by God, why should God punish the souls involved in consensual sex outside marriage? It means that God encourages and rewards consensual sex outside marriage provided it is with Him and not with another soul. Is it not showing the double standards of God?]
Swami replied:- You are getting confused about the limits of Pravrutti, which are separate from Nivrutti. The rule in Pravrutti is to vote for justice against injustice and not the reverse to vote for injustice against justice, which becomes sinful Dushpravrutti. The rule in Nivrutti is to vote for God even against justice and not to vote for a soul even against justice, which again becomes sinful Dushpravrutti. The soldier is allowed to fire the opposite soldier in the war. This does not mean that any civilian can fire at another civilian. The limits of a system are accepted universally by all scientists. You are an applied scientist (Engineer) and you should tell this answer and I, as a pure scientist, should have asked the above question. The total essence is that the greatness and sacredness of God are unimaginable. Nivrutti is purely sacrifice (Tyāgenaike… - Veda). This word ‘sacrifice’ in Nivrutti is called as loss for the devotee in the field of Pravrutti. Hence, a person confined to Pravrutti can’t rise to Nivrutti because every person of Pravrutti is interested in personal profit and refuses personal loss. The field of Dushpravrutti is in the bottom-most place in which a person due to ignorance thinks even the personal loss to be personal benefit. One can fall from Nivrutti (sky) to Pravrutti (earth), but shall not fall to Dushpravrutti (Paataala Loka) under any circumstances. Brahmaloka and Goloka (Nivrutti) are the best. Heaven or at least Pitruloka (Pravrutti) is the next best. Narakaloka (Dushpravrutti) is the worst.
The consensual sex agreed by our Supreme Court also is totally different from the darling bond of a devotee with God in sweet devotion. In the former case, it is just momentary lust based on temporary emotions and both have all their worldly bonds intact. There is no love in emotional lust, which is pacification of powerful lust for selfish happiness. In the latter case, the devotee sacrificed all the worldly bonds for the sake of God and this is pure love based on total sacrifice and total surrender. When such unimaginable sacrifice exists, the love is very sacred and it is not based on lust at all. God is an ocean of infinite bliss and Gopikas were sages, who burnt the lust in their penance-fire for millions of past births. Comparing the case of Krishna and Gopikas with the case of two ordinary souls involved in consensual sex outside marriage is like comparing the mighty lion with a cunning fox! You must study the ocean of difference between the two cases and shall neglect the trace of similarity. Don’t think that in Kali Yuga, the sweet devotion means only pacification of illegal lust. It is completely a wrong picture. Whatever conditions existed in the sweet devotion of Gopikas must be fully existing in the sweet devotion in any Yuga. All the worldly bonds must be broken based on true love to God for the sake of God, which is like the written IAS examination test and the spouse-bond test is only like the final formal physical test. When you confine sweet devotion only to the test of spouse-bond, everything about sweet devotion is misunderstood.
Coming to your foolish blame on God, I want to clarify that God never shows double standards. Although sweet devotion is not sin in Nivrutti (which is the most sacred field of reaching God by breaking all the worldly bonds for the sake of God), God has deliberately considered it as sin and taken punishments twice (on behalf of Himself and the sweet devotee) for the sake of uplifting justice in the world so that ordinary souls will be afraid to imitate His actions. God applied the same standard of Pravrutti to Himself even though it does not apply to the field of Nivrutti. That shows the highest greatness of God.
55. Please comment on the following.
[You said that an unreal Krishna is as good as an ordinary human being without possessing God-component, but, the Maayaa of God Krishna will not allow any doubt in the mind of Gopika. Here, the Gopika is eternally happy in Goloka with the sexual association of an unreal Krishna believing it as real. The unreal Krishna also says to each Gopika “You are My real form and My real form is associated with you” to give satisfaction and encouragement. Coming to recent TV news, I saw a Christian woman, who got pregnant by believing the words of a fraud Pastor, who said “You are Mother Mary and Jesus will be born to you”. She is still blindly believing that she is Mary and the Pastor is divine, not listening to the psychology counsellors saying that she was being exploited by him. The practical fruit is same in both cases and both are happy believing the unreal thing as real. If the Pastor succeeds throughout the life in making her believe that he is divine and she is Mary, her happiness will also become permanent like that of a successful Gopika. I am only comparing the practical fruit received by both and I am not comparing their devotion. Please comment.]
Swami replied:- The first sentence is that the illusory Krishna is as good as the ordinary human being. This statement reveals the factual situation to you, who is putting this question. This statement is not told by Me to Gopika. If you cannot distinguish this much difference in the contexts, how are you putting questions to Me? Since this statement is not told by Me to any Gopika, there is a clear possibility for the Gopika to entertain the illusory Krishna thinking him as real Krishna. Based on the factual situation told by Me to you, you may be standing on the side of Gopika and questioning Me that Gopika is cheated by Krishna. Even there, My answer is that the sages know everything in true sense. The sages in the form of Gopikas know all this drama planned by God Krishna because the sages (Gopikas) have supernatural powers. God Krishna and Gopikas/Sages have enacted this drama to show that bad qualities can be diverted to God and the soul can get higher than the highest divine fruit.
The logic that the illusory Krishnas are not different from the real form of Krishna due to the common composition of body, individual soul and its four internal instruments has already been explained in detail several times especially from the point of neutral spectatorship of the unimaginable God. Both real and illusory Krishnas denote the illusory media, which are tiny parts of the world. Both media have the same form, same name, similar gross bodies, similar individual souls, similar antahkaranams and similar hormonal activities generating similar traces of illusory worldly happiness while the unimaginable God is not in need of receiving any happiness from outside. You cannot show any single point, which is differentiating Gopika from Radha. You may say that the unimaginable God present in real Krishna is entertained by Radha, who is absent in illusory Krishna. But, both Gopika (embodiment of full ignorance) and Radha (covered by full ignorance) in the roles of devotees are not experiencing the unimaginable God in any way. Hence, both Gopika and Radha get the same experience of illusory happiness generated by their illusory media.
i) Both Radha and Gopika due to their strong ignorance are not experiencing the unimaginable God (Gopika is unable to experience unimaginable God, who is absent in illusory Krishna and Radha is also unable to experience unimaginable God, who is present in real Krishna due to her strong ignorance imposed on her for the sake of the role of a devotee).
ii) Both are experiencing the happiness of illusory media only present in both illusory Krishna and real Krishna respectively with the confidence that both are enjoying real Krishna only.
These two points neither affect the path of sweet devotion nor affect the final fruit. There is no difference in the path of devotion and also in the final fruit called Goloka.
The example given by you is certainly a fraud case. By quoting a fraud case, do you say that all cases in the world are false? Is there no genuine case at all? Magic exists in the world, which does not mean that all genuine miracles are magic only. The case of Gopikas discussed by us has equal probability to fall in the category of genuine cases. For every genuine case, there is a fraudulent case compulsorily possible in this world. Since a fraud case is existing, we cannot say that the case examined by us also belongs to the fraud case and therefore, need not be analysed. It has equal probability to belong to the category of genuine cases. You must make deep intricate analysis to decide whether our case in study belongs to the category of genuine cases or to the category of fraud cases.
The unimaginable God (the fundamental God-component) is not touched by any item of creation if God decides so. God has decided not to touch His creation, which is different from Him in order to maintain His real celibacy that is watched by angels and sages, who are constantly meditating on Him with constantly open eyes without blinking. God need not touch any item that is different from Him in order to get bliss from the other item. Even if God wants to touch Himself only to get His own bliss as a sort of entertainment, He does so by entertaining Himself with His own personified power, which is not different from Himself. This means that He is always deriving infinite bliss from Himself only. His power becoming a second personality is only for changing the variety of entertainment and not to get any additional bliss that is not already possessed by Him. When the God-component neither touches something else other than Himself nor derives even a trace of more happiness from something else other than Himself maintaining the fundamental statement that He is the absolute reality and other than Himself is unreal inherently, where is a real basis for your arguments? I am speaking this by standing at the deepest level of the absolutely real single unimaginable God.
56. Can God merge with Gopika by imposing ignorance during romance so that Gopika equals to Radha?
[Swami, to protect the celibacy of God and simultaneously satisfy the Gopikas without creating illusory forms, the God-component can merge with every Gopika by imposing full ignorance during the episode of romance so that every Gopika becomes equal to Radha and then, the real Krishna can multiply Himself in real forms. In this way, God can also enjoy that trace of worldly happiness of romance with every Gopika. Isn’t it?]
Swami replied:- God will not merge with an undeserving devotee. Krishna and Radha are deserving devotees and hence, God merged with them. Both Krishna and Radha are called Siddha Jiivas. Gopikas are undeserving devotees called as Saadhaka Jiivas.
57. Is there any change in God’s satisfaction from the creation after creating Goloka and before creating Goloka?
[Swami, God must be more pleased in Kali Yuga than other Yugas since Madhura Bhakti is prominently encouraged in Kali Yuga. He would get more and more souls in Goloka continuing the romance with God and making Him happy. Isn’t it? Please don’t divert the topic saying that God is always blissful. I am clearly comparing God’s satisfaction from His entire creation after creating Goloka and before creating Goloka.]
Swami replied:- Before understanding the answer for this question, you must understand the following points before drawing any such dirtiest conclusion about God. The points are:-
i) God is the absolute reality and no unreal falsehood lies in Him. Since He is the infinite ocean of bliss, such ocean of bliss is also having absolute reality. He does not need any trace of happiness from creation and since the creation is inherently unreal, the happiness of the creation is also inherently unreal. A person truly eating meals in the awakened state does not aspire eating meals in the imaginary state.
ii) You say that He is more pleased due to increased number of sweet devotees. Will you say that since you are eating so many dishes of food in the imaginary state and since you are eating less number of dishes in the awakened state, you are more pleased in the dreamlike imaginary state than in the real awakened state? In fact, in the awakened state itself, the dishes are more in number and better in taste than the dishes in the imaginary state.
iii) Suppose you superimpose a false assumption that God is bored with the real bliss and is fascinated for the unreal happiness. Let us accept your assumption. God can create the most beautiful female, to whose foot-nail, no female in the creation can be compared. He can also create a separate world and enjoy with that unimaginable beauty secretly without falling in the eyes of anybody and get unnecessary blaming criticism.
iv) Therefore, He is certainly not in the desire for these females in the creation. If these females are compared to that unimaginable beauty, these souls will become far and far lower than the black monkeys (Kondamuccu in Telugu).
One should talk on sweet devotion keeping these points in the brain. The sole aim of God is only to turn the souls from the world towards Him so that the souls will get permanent opportunity to be in close association with the ocean of bliss. Even if you are present on the seashore, you experience very cool breeze. Therefore, the close association (Yoga) with God or ocean of bliss is desired by the topmost intellectual souls called sages. When the doctor is attending the delivery of a pregnant lady, you are blaming the doctor with false romantic ideas that the doctor is fascinated to touch the private parts of the pregnant lady. The doctor is attending the delivery to save the mother from any complication, which may lead even to her death. This simile exactly suits to the concept of sweet devotion.
58. Is God interested in sweet devotion?
[Swami, I want to expand Your example of the doctor attending delivery of a mother by saying that the mother is having lust towards the doctor and even after knowing the intentions of the mother, he himself is attending the patient instead of sending a lady doctor. Similarly, Goloka is created to continue the sexual enjoyment of devotees with God. This doctor example is not valid anymore. We clearly see that God is encouraging sweet devotion in all possible ways without making any effort to discourage it. This itself is the practical proof that God is very much interested in sweet devotion. Isn’t it?]
Swami replied:- There is always 50% probability of correctness in any human conclusion because both good and bad exist everywhere in majority of human beings. I take the example from the 50% good and your conclusions are always in the 50% bad. I was referring about the male doctor in the olden days when there was no female doctor. My simile sticks to those olden days only and you can’t extend it to the present time. I just referred to the possibility of a good doctor and a bad patient. This means that one should not always take the case of a bad doctor and good patient.
Sweet devotion is created and developed by the souls only. The test of spouse-bond at the end after completing the tests of all other worldly bonds leads to this concept of sweet devotion. The three strongest worldly bonds (Eshanaatrayam) are mentioned in the secondary scriptures written by the greatest souls (sages). God maintained the sweet devotion as one of the paths of devotion in which diverting bad qualities also to God exist to encourage the souls towards God by diverting them from harming the society with those bad qualities in the context of the bad Kali Yuga in which souls have unchangeable bad qualities. At the same time, He maintained His celibacy so that even angels and sages are satisfied and for this, He used His omnipotent power in the creation of His illusory forms. It is the unimaginable talent of unimaginable God since no soul is omnipotent like God.
59. Since sweet devotion is based on true love but not on beauty, is God interested in sweet devotion?
[Swami, God can create an unimaginable beauty to enjoy secretly. But, love or devotion cannot be created artificially. Even if created, there is not much enjoyment in artificially created devotion. Nobody can enjoy mere lust compared to the lust based on true love. Therefore, beauty is not the point here in sweet devotion, but true love is the point and hence, God appears to be interested in sweet devotion. Please enlighten me.]
Swami replied:- What is love? After all, it is a property of awareness only. God is the creator of awareness and is also the creator of any property possessed by any item in the creation. Fire burns because the burning property is allotted to the fire by God. In the Veda, there is a story, which tells that fire could not burn even a dry blade of grass when God did not wish so. A soul can’t create love artificially. But, God need not create anything to run after it because everything and everybody runs after God due to His wonderful personality containing unimaginable attraction. Hence, such bad fate is not required by God. I only told this example to say that if God has sexual desire, He need not run after the souls of the creation since He can create the most beautiful spouse and a secret world. He comes down only to uplift the souls in the creation travelling towards Him in specific paths desired by them.
True love in any bond, which is based on total sacrifice and total surrender above the concept of selfish profit and loss really attracts God, which is the essence of His will to create the creation and this is the topmost sacred entertainment. The above said true love is said to be God Himself (Raso vai sah - Veda). This does not mean that love itself is God, but, it means that God is the embodiment of love. Lust comes as a property of the gross body only and it is also momentary and is told as a common quality present even in animals.
Romantic angle with His own power does not spoil His celibacy and at the same time gives the completeness to His divine personality simultaneously. At the same time, He is doing necessary arrangement for sweet devotees to reach God.
60. Is God's interest in sweet devotion more because God made the spouse-bond test mandatory?
[Swami, it appears that more than a devotee's interest, there is God's interest to encourage every devotee towards sweet devotion because God made the spouse-bond test mandatory to get salvation and arranged that test by giving female birth as the final birth. Please enlighten me.]
Swami replied:- I have already explained this from the background. The three strongest worldly bonds are stipulated by sage-souls only in the scriptures in which they have only added the spouse-bond. In fact, they thought that the spouse-bond is the strongest bond defeating which for the sake of God means the total salvation from all the worldly bonds. Hence, they themselves offered to hug God by becoming females.
The final female birth is only for ordinary worldly souls, who have very strong fascination for the spouse-bond. If God feels that the test of spouse-bond is not necessary in case it is very weak and since this test is only a formal final test, this test need not be conducted in such case. Even sages realised this concept when they were born as Gopikas and every Gopika (sage) broke this spouse-bond very easily and realised that the real strongest bonds are with children and wealth, which obstructed their sacrifice of wealth (butter) to God Krishna even though they knew very well that Krishna is God. This final formal test can be waived off in deserving cases.
61. Since God created both souls and sex, He has the right to enjoy both in the way He likes. Is it not?
[Since God is much much greater than justice, we need not think about justice or injustice in the case of God. As a matter of fact, sexual affairs and especially illegal sexual affairs are the most entertaining enjoyments in the world. There is nothing wrong in God wanting to enjoy the devoted souls because even a scientist, who invented air-cooler can enjoy the pleasure of cool air from the air-cooler. Since God created both souls and sex, He has the right to enjoy both in the way He likes. Isn’t it?]
Swami replied:- We should not superimpose the level of our thoughts on God since we cannot measure God with our worldly scales. The nature of God can be perfectly known only by the real human incarnation of God since God exists in merged state with the human incarnation. You simply told that there is nothing wrong if God enjoys the created souls. Here, you have brought down the personality of God to the level of ordinary human beings. Ordinary human beings are observed by a very little number of souls, who also have similar nature and mentality. But, what about the divine personality of God? He is constantly observed by great angels and even by greater sages, who are constantly meditating on Him without even blinking their eyes. God always wants to be justified for the sake of His consciousness only and not for the sake of any certificate from any soul. He is the authority of all authorities and you are thinking about Him with your petty mind, which is like a salt-doll and you are talking about God, which is like the salt-doll trying to enter the ocean to measure the depth of the ocean!
62. Does God's union with sweet devotees give Him real entertainment?
[The Veda says "Sadvitiiyam icchat", which means that God desired to enjoy with second entity. God's own form cannot become real second entity because both are one internally. There is only monism in reality. Only His creation can become the real second entity due to real dualism. Since God has gifted reality to the creation, both God and world are now equally real. Therefore, God's union with sweet devotees must give the real entertainment to God, which is the purpose of His creation. You only told that God created this creation to enjoy the true love of the souls. Since the sweet devotion is based on love to God and not on hormonal lust, God should be more than happy to enjoy it. Isn’t it? Why would He take the effort to create unreal forms and impose Maayaa on Gopikas to believe it as real? God will definitely not take unnecessary efforts based on aucityam (properness). Please enlighten me.]
Swami replied:- There are several points to be examined, which are either directly relevant or indirectly relevant. I have again and again told you that God entertaining Himself with a real form of His own power is not like a male entertaining himself through masturbation or a female entertaining herself through some vegetables like carrots or candles or some latest electronic instruments. Therefore, you are recommending God to enjoy with a second item called soul, which is a part of the creation based on dualism. When God Krishna enjoys Radha or Rukmini, or when God Rama enjoys Sita, the picture is not like this. The internal merged God-component is one and the same in both Rama and Sita, which is the ocean of bliss. Now, the God-component is unimaginable allowing the flow of divinity through both Rama and Sita. God Rama has His own individual gross body, His own individual soul, His own four internal instruments and His own hormonal activity. Similarly, Sita has all these items independently stamped by her (basic ego) separately. The sexual affair is not between the two parts of ocean of bliss. The sexual act is between the two gross bodies, the two individual souls and the two sets of internal instruments (antahkaranams) provoked by two separate hormonal activities.
This sexual act generates a trace of emotional happiness, which is inherently unreal and cannot be compared to the permanent divine bliss of the God-component. This trace of happiness may be very great from the point of the gross bodies, the individual souls, the individual four antahkaranams and the individual hormonal activities. But, it is nothing with reference to the infinite ocean of bliss of the God-component. Such traces of happiness are generated with momentary existence and are subsided everywhere in this creation like constant fall of rain drops. Even the trace of happiness that happened between Rama and Sita is also one of those rain drops from the point of their gross bodies, individual souls, individual antahkaranams and their hormonal activities. In this case, Rama and Sita are also enjoying this rain drop just like other living couples in the creation. Now, you have to define who is Rama? and who is Sita? If you take Rama and Sita as mere human beings confining them to gross bodies, individual souls, four antahkaranams and their hormonal activities, there is no speciality of Rama and Sita since they are just a couple among the several couples created in the creation.
If you take Rama and Sita with reference to their merged God-component, both Rama and Sita are one God-component only, which is the infinite ocean of divine bliss. The mortal Rama and Sita (from the point of their media) feel that they have united with God because Rama knows that Sita is Mahaa Lakshmi, who is the embodiment of the power of God and Sita knows that Rama is the embodiment of the possessor of the power of God-component. Here, you need not be confused that possessor of power (Parabrahman) and power (Mayaa Shakti) are different in any angle. A spiritual scholar knows this very well like a scientist knows that both sun and sunlight are qualitatively one and the same and there may be quantitative difference between sun and sunlight.
God may be the protector of justice, but, God follows justice. A minister of electricity runs all the activities pertaining to the department of electricity. But, the minister pays the current bill for his house also. Otherwise, everybody will rebel against the department asking why they should pay the current bills. The minister shall be an example to the public. Hence, God appears to have violated justice in certain situations. But, if we do deep analysis, we can easily find that God did not violate even a trace of justice. Of course, God tests the devotion of the devotee to see whether the devotee is keeping justice as the highest goal or God as the highest goal. If the devotee votes for God against justice, it does not mean that the devotee will follow injustice later on. Such devotee, who voted for God against justice will find that God is also following justice and he/she will also follow justice inspired by God. Here, the tested point is whether the devotee is keeping God as the highest goal or not. This does not mean that the devotee voting for God will follow injustice.
You need not argue that ordinary soul only can become the second item to God and enjoyment of God with the soul only satisfies the Vedic statement that God desired for a second item (Sa dvitīyam icchat). If you examine the case of Rama and Sita or Krishna and Radha/Rukmini, we have taken Rama and Krishna as the possessor of the power (Parabrahman) and we have taken Sita/Radha/Rukmini as the power of God (Maaha Maayaa). Here, dualism exists and the power can be treated as different from the possessor of power in another angle. Sunlight can be trapped and can be converted into electricity by solar equipment. But, sun cannot be trapped like that. From the angle of quality, both are one and the same. From the point of quantity, both differ. Sun is a very large quantity of energy, who cannot be trapped by instruments. Sunlight is dilute and can be trapped by solar equipment. Both angles are true. Hence, from one angle, Sita and Rama are one and the same and from another angle, Sita and Rama are different. Now, what you say is that the sun can enjoy the sunlight and can also enjoy the electric power that is generated by the sunlight!
The sunlight can become the wife of sun, but, the electric power generated by sunlight is considered as the daughter of the sun according to the principle of justice. Similarly, the Maayaa Shakti (Kaarana Shakti) can be considered as the second item that is entertained by God, but, not the product of Maayaa Shakti (Kaarya Shakti). Even though Goddess Sarasvati is the embodiment of the Maayaa Shakti (Kaarana Shakti) of God Brahma, these ignorant worldly fools treated Goddess Sarasvati as the product of the Maayaa Shakti (Kaarya Shakti) and blamed God Brahma for marrying His own daughter. Without knowing this internal secret of spiritual knowledge, if the soul enters sweet devotion and wants to enjoy God in the position of Sita/Radha/Rukmini (this problem did not come to Rama and came only to Krishna), God will satisfy such souls of sweet devotion also with the help of His power of omnipotency without spoiling His own character and without spoiling the character of such devotees simultaneously. Since He is not directly involved, His character is not spoiled. Since it is the case of Nivrutti in which God shall be selected against any worldly bond even by violating justice, the character of devotees in Nivrutti is not spoiled. Every soul shall address God as father because the soul is not the causal power (Kaarana Shakti), but, is the product of the causal power (Kaarya Shakti). From this point of view, God Krishna told in the Gita that He is the ultimate Father (Ahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā…).
God Krishna shall not be taken as the biological father contributing the seed or sperm because here, the word ‘biija’ stands for the ultimate cause. Similarly, when the wife is told as the mother while giving food to the husband (bhojyeṣu mātā), she should not be taken as the biological mother. Sita/Radha/Rukmini is not the product of the creation of the causal power (Maayaa Shakti) so that you can think that you can treat these also as the daughters of God. These forms are the embodiments of the causal power and hence, have the eligibility to participate in romance with God. They are also souls, but, not the ordinary souls of creation. Both wife and daughter are females only, but, there is difference between the mother and the daughter.
To be continued...
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