09 Aug 2025
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| 54-62 | 63-68 | 69-71 | |
QA:69-71
(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)
69. How can You prove that God has a feeling of father towards His created souls?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- How can You prove that God has a feeling of father towards the created souls of His creation when we practically see God Krishna having 1,77,188 children with His devoted souls as wives? Which father can even think of having married life with his daughters?]
Swami replied:- I have already explained previously that at the highest level of spiritual knowledge, all the bonds are unreal and the reality is only the true love present in those bonds. God has real feeling for the internal true love only and He has no feeling about the worldly bonds, which are inherently unreal. I also told that sage Ashtaavakra preached this concept very clearly. Even AdiShankara told that these bonds are temporary and that every temporary thing is only unreal (Yadanityaṃ tat kṛtakaṃ hi loke). Now, the point of feeling of God towards souls as father is one of the angles of views of souls because God is not the biological father. In order to shut the criticism of such souls only, God made this arrangement without cheating the sweet devotees in anyway and without cheating those souls criticising about this bond of sweet devotion.
I am not finding fault with the sweet devotion of souls towards God. For God, any bond is unreal and the reality is only the true love present in any form of bond. I appreciate the devotee with sweet devotion having all the true love present in all worldly bonds concentrated as one heap and surrendered to God. In such case, the spouse-bond also becomes unreal like other unreal worldly bonds. In such case only, the devotee in the sweet devotion is highly appreciable in view of the most completest union of the soul with God. But, such union shall be permanent if all the worldly bonds are defeated for the sake of God. If other worldly bonds are not defeated, such union is only a momentary union, which is just like the union of a worldly couple based on momentary hormonal activity. Sage Naarada told that such temporary union is only lust and not love (Tadvihiinam jaaraanaamiva). Most devotees coming to the path of sweet devotion are only belonging to the type of temporary union with God. Therefore, every Gopika passed in the test of sweet devotion, but, only twelve Gopikas were considered as the passed candidates because they have proved that they passed the previous joint test of children and wealth. All the worldly bonds need not be tested because there are only three strongest worldly bonds, which are fascination to children, fascination to wealth and fascination to spouse. If a soul passes in these three tests, the soul is declared to have passed the tests of all the worldly bonds. If there are three strongest boxers in a village or city and if you defeat those three strongest fighters, you can be declared that you have defeated every person present in that village or city. These three strongest worldly bonds are like stainless steel chains (Eshanaas) and other worldly bonds are like ordinary ropes. In the test of sweet devotion also, the true love is only tested and in order to satisfy the critics, a special arrangement was made by God with the help of His mystic power called Maayaa without cheating either the devotees or the critics. Based on this factual arrangement only, God Brahma called God Krishna as the real absolute celibate. This world contains souls at different levels of realisation of spiritual knowledge. I have to convey all the angles of spiritual knowledge for the sake of all the spiritual aspirants at various levels so that every spiritual aspirant can take the angle that is suitable to his/her level. Spiritual knowledge cannot be confined to certain level of devotees because it is just like the syllabus of various degrees to be awarded in the education system.
70. Since God is omnipotent, can He have both fatherly and romantic feelings simultaneously?
[Swami, God being omnipotent can have both fatherly feeling and romantic feeling simultaneously without disturbing each other. Anything is possible for Him since He is beyond all these feelings. Can’t we explain the celibacy of God in this way?]
Swami replied:- It is not the question of the explanation of His celibacy. It is the question of satisfying some sages, who are considered as the most dearest to God. They always do penance for God and penance means the pain that is more than agony for reaching God to have the permanent association with God (Yoga). The only ever burning aim of their lives is only God…God…God…God…only.
Having both fatherly feeling and romantic feeling is a horrible sin and God being the protector of justice cannot do such nasty thing. Every incarnation of God follows justice even if you say that God is beyond justice. Although God is unimaginable, He has consciousness based on omnipotency and God is always conscious that He is the assumed father of all the souls including Gopikas. Just because God mediated through a medium and imposes ignorance for the sake of entertainment, He will not forget that He is the assumed father of all souls and slip into injustice. When God Krishna did not unite even with His legally married 16,107 wives through His real form, do you think He will slip into injustice for others? God wants to remain a celibate and wants to be justified for the sake of His consciousness only and not for the sake of any certificate from any soul.
71. Which is the truth? ‘God feels Himself as the father of all souls’ or ‘God has no feeling about worldly bonds’?
[At one place (reply to Question-1), You said “God has real feeling for the internal true love only and He has no feeling about the worldly bonds, which are inherently unreal.” This sentence means that God does not see any soul as His child and He doesn't consider Himself as a Father. He sees only love present in all devotees and He has no objection if any soul sees Him as husband or darling. At another place (reply to Question-2), You said, “God wants to remain a celibate and wants to be justified for the sake of His consciousness only and not for the sake of any certificate from any soul”. This means that God feels Himself as the Father of all souls and He sees all the souls as His children, which means illusory Krishnas become His sons-in-law. Since both are contradicting, can we take the second statement (God feels Himself as the father of all souls) as Arthavaada (beneficial sinless lie) and the first statement (God has no feeling about worldly bonds) as the real truth? Can we say that God has no personal interest to follow justice (feeling Himself as a Father of all souls), but only to satisfy the sages and devotees following justice, He is also following justice (He is not uniting with Gopikas in real form)? If there is no obligation on Him to follow justice like the presence of sages, He would not follow justice and unite with Gopikas in real form only?]
Swami replied:- It is said that excellent spiritual knowledge or Prajnaanam (God Brahmaa), true love or Rasa (God Vishnu) and bliss indicating peace or full satisfaction (God Shiva) are God Himself. True love means the love towards His devotees to encourage them in the spiritual path to travel from this illusory net of worldly bonds to the eternal union with God, the infinite ocean of bliss. The stay in this illusory net of worldly bonds is just momentary only whereas the union with God is permanent here as well as in the upper world. Hence, the love of God is not at all selfish, but, is full of sacrifice for the devotees in spite of blames and scolding from the blind and rigid ignorant critics. The anger of Lord Narasimha is a measure of His love on His devotee called Prahlaada. I have told one lakh times so far that God maintained His celibacy to satisfy the critics to prove that He is always complete without any trace of deficiency and at the same time, He fully satisfied the devotees of sweet devotion leading them to their ultimate Goal. Such type of talent can’t be shown by any soul except God and hence, the Veda says that there is no personality equal to God and not to speak of greater personality. Almost all the souls of all religions are craving for God. The best and highest category of souls called sages are doing tremendous penance for millions of births just for a trace of grace from God.
There are three theories proposed by sages with powerful arguments:-
i) God is treated as Father while His unimaginable power is treated as Mother called Prakruti (Mayaa’dhyakshena Prakrutih…- Gita). The causal power called Maayaa Shakti/Kaarana Shakti delivers this creation containing souls and this creation is the product power called Kaarya Shakti. Due to the wish of God (Parabrahman), the causal power generates this creation and the wish is treated as the seed contributed by the Father. This theory says that God can be worshipped by any soul through any worldly bond except the spouse-bond since this bond involves romance between God and soul.
ii) God is not the biological Father. If an engineer creates a machine with the help of materials, neither the engineer is the biological father nor the material is the biological mother of the machine. We hear that Charles Babbage is called as the ‘Father of Computer’. It does not mean that he can be considered as the biological father of computer. Biological father is the person donating sperm and biological mother is the person donating ovum so that both sperm and ovum unite to generate fertilized ovum from which a baby is born. Such process doesn’t exist between unimaginable God and His unimaginable power in production of this world. Hence, God can be loved by any soul as husband following rules of Pravrutti and can be loved by any soul even as darling following the rules of Nivrutti in which God is voted even against injustice.
iii) This theory is proposed by sages of very high level. This world, which is the product of the casual power of God, is inherently unreal and becomes real only when the absolutely real unimaginable God donates His reality to the world. The shape of the pot is inherently unreal, but, becomes real due to the donated reality of its cause, called mud. This donation of the reality of God to the world is for the sake of real entertainment of God with the real world. If you take the world as unreal, the worldly bonds are also inherently unreal. If you argue that the world has become real due to the donation of reality from God, we have to agree that the worldly bonds are also real. Even though the worldly bonds are real, they are temporary for a birth and disappear as soon as the soul enters next birth just like the cinema shooting bonds are disappearing in the next cinema in which the same roles enacted by actors in the previous cinema are disappearing. The bond neither existed before shooting nor will exist after shooting, which is temporary confined to the shooting only. In fact, this role-bond is unreal even during the time of shooting. Hence, this temporary shooting role-bond is unreal in past, present and future. The only bond existing among actors is only co-actor bond and not the role-bond, which is exactly like the worldly bond. The bond of the actor with the producer (assuming that the same producer is producing all cinemas) is always permanent. Hence, the worldly bond is unreal in every angle and the bond with God is real in every angle. Therefore, God sees the real love in the bond and not the specific form of any worldly bond.
Points of analysis:-
1) Since love is a quality of awareness and awareness is also an inherently unreal created item, its property called love must also be unreal. Even if you say that the unreal world becomes real with God-gifted reality, since every worldly bond disappears by next birth, the love in the worldly bond also disappears and hence, love becomes temporary and finally unreal. This argument is correct, but, an unreal human being is becoming real by the merge of God in the case of incarnation. Hence, true love becomes eternal like true human incarnation existing as eternal energetic incarnation after leaving its gross body and the Veda says that the true love is God (Raso vai sah). True love is as holy and as real as God.
2) All worldly bonds are one and the same since all are unreal. As per the first theory, God can be worshipped in any bond provided true love exists, but, the aspect of romance shall be avoided since God is considered as the Father of souls. The scripture says that there are five fathers:- a) Biological father, b) Person initiating the soul to sing prayers on God, c) Person giving education, d) Person giving his daughter to the soul in marriage and e) Person protecting the life of the soul. The second theory says that only biological father is real father and other four persons shall be treated equal to father in giving respect. Both the theories have good logical backgrounds and it is very difficult to rule out any theory.
3) When two strong theories compete with each other, God is finding out the common point in both the theories. For example, in the Gita, one theory says that soul is eternal since the soul continues in every birth. Another theory says that the soul (awareness) is born and dies every day because it dies just before the deep sleep (since the nervous system is in rest, the transformation of inert energy into awareness stops) and it is born just when the awaken state starts (since the transformation of inert energy into awareness starts). Without denying any theory, God took the common point that one should not worry about the soul even if it is eternal or if it is created every day (Tathaapi tvam Mahaabaaho…- Gita). His aim is about the common point only and not about the endless logic of each theory.
4) The third theory brings out the common point:- Every worldly bond is unreal and only the true love present in any bond is always considered by God and not the form of bond. We are considering only the true love and not the form of any worldly bond. Salvation means liberation from all worldly bonds due to total concentration of love on the eternal bond with God. The bond with spouse is also one of the three strongest worldly bonds and God has to test this bond also to give salvation to the soul from all the worldly bonds.
5) In the case of the bond with spouse, the problem is that God must be involved in the romance so that the soul refuses its spouse selecting God as the spouse. This is an inevitable process just like the doctor has to touch the private parts of a pregnant lady in order to do the delivery to save the mother and child. Neither the doctor nor the patient has any romantic idea towards each other in this simile. But, coming to the concept of the test of the spouse-bond, God and the soul has to be involved in the romance because it is the question of the test of romantic love of the soul towards God surpassing the spouse. The soul need not be blamed here because the soul has defeated every worldly bond previously and this is the last worldly bond to be defeated for the sake of God. When 99 bonds are already broken for the sake of God, the breakage of the last 100th bond is not much significant compared to the total salvation from all the worldly bonds. Moreover, the soul has to vote for God even breaking justice if necessary as per the rule of Nivrutti.
6) As far as the soul is concerned, there is no dilemma at all since from all angles, the soul is perfect in the procedure of test. Even in the case of God, there is nothing wrong on the side of God because God has to follow this inevitable procedure in the test. God is not running after this soul like a lustful rowdy even though such test is absent. If a doctor touches the private parts of the pregnant lady during delivery, the doctor should not be blamed as a person having lustful idea on the patient. If the same doctor tries to touch the private parts of a non-pregnant lady, the doctor shall be blamed with lust. In this way, the second theory is perfectly correct and neither the soul nor the doctor is to be blamed.
7) The first theory says that if the pregnant lady happens to be the daughter of the father, whatever may be the detachment of the doctor from romance, the doctor shall not touch the private parts of his daughter under any circumstances. The touch of the private parts of the daughter may be totally mechanical for the doctor, but still, such touch itself is prohibited. Let the father-doctor invite another doctor to do the delivery by touching her private parts without any lustful idea as usual and in this case of the new doctor, the touch is allowed, which is not a sin. Hence, let God not participate in this test directly even if He is fully detached from romance because God is the father of any soul. In this way, God created illusory Krishnas to participate in the procedure of the test, which involves the total involvement in romance by actions, words and feelings. The procedure of the test is not simply the touch of private parts with a detached mind. The procedure is full involvement of God and soul in romance.
8) If you take 50:50 probability, the lesser risk lies in following the first theory. Hence, God followed the first theory giving guidance to souls that the side of least risk shall be always selected in such cases. But, the followers of the second theory roared crying that the soul rejecting spouse-bond is desiring union with the real God and not with illusory God and by this, the devoted soul is cheated.
9) Now, the analysis is given by God to show that the devotee is not cheated anywhere since the same fruit (Goloka) is obtained. Even in the path, the illusory Krishna has exactly the same form of the real Krishna. The other components like gross body, individual soul, internal instruments and hormonal activity are also one and the same in both cases. The trace of momentary happiness is also one and the same in both cases. The extra component present in real Krishna, which is the unimaginable God is untouched by this union in any angle since that infinite ocean of bliss is not in need of this trace of illusory happiness generated in the union of the two gross bodies in each couple. Even Radha, the embodiment of the power of God, is fully covered by ignorance just like Gopika because Radha is fixed in the role of devotee and Krishna is fixed in the role of God. The satisfaction of both Radha and Gopika is exactly the same, which is that the soul met the real God. In fact, the unimaginable God is very close to Gopika as the substratum of the entire creation and is viewing all the devotion expressed by Gopika.
10) Even in Goloka, the same procedure continues because the salvation here (Jivanmukti) just continues in the upper world (Videhamukti). Except during romance, the real Krishna exists before all the twelve Gopikas in the presence of Radha. In fact, this continuous association with God is called as Yoga, which is common to all the successful devotees irrespective of gender and irrespective of specific relationship with God in this world. Hence, God solved this problem in the highest talented way without cheating the devotees and without cheating the sages of the first and second theories. God is not in need of this petty romance because He is the infinite ocean of bliss and exists with complete satisfaction. One should not misunderstand this factual situation and blame God as an inert machine without any love element towards souls. He has ocean of love towards souls and a soul is having a drop of love towards God based on their respective potencies to bare the power of love. He leads the soul to God in whatever way the soul likes to travel. The final goal reveals the potential help of God and unnecessary doubts in the path are not to be considered at all. Goal decides the help finally.
To be continued...
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