What is the final message for the Madhura Bhakti devotees from God?

[Ms. Bhanu Samykya asked:- Swami, by revealing about God creating His illusory forms for the sake of sweet devotion, does God want Madhura Bhakti devotees to continue in this path or change it? I mean what is the final message for the Madhura Bhakti devotees from God?]

Swami replied:- There are two types of advices. First type of advice aims at your welfare and its taste is sour to your mind. Second type of advice is not bothered about your welfare and aims to give sweetness to your mind so that the adviser tries to become your friend. If you choose the first type of advice, you will be benefited in this world and also in the upper world. If you choose the second type of advice, the adviser will be benefited and you will undergo loss forever.

God advises every soul to follow the rules of Pravrutti or worldly life only in which one must follow the worldly justice avoiding injustice everywhere throughout the life. For the sake of your justified behavior and justified practice in this world, you are rewarded with heaven for some time till the intensity of your justified actions continues. After the end of the intensity of your justified merits, you will come back to the world so that you will continue your justified merits in practice and reach the heaven again for some time till the intensity of your good actions ends. This cycle will repeat continuously till you continue your meritorious actions on this earth. Similarly, the same type of cycles will continue between hell and earth for punishing your sinful actions on earth. If you don’t do any sin and continue your life here with justified actions only, you will be rotating between heaven and earth continuously without touching hell at any time. There are several such people like Harishcandra, Dharma Raja etc.

There is a different system concerned with God. If you identify the existence of God and become fascinated to God, the story is completely different. Due to your devotion to God, you will reach God and be in constant association with God in His upper abode forever. If God comes down to the earth as human incarnation, you will also accompany Him in His mission. In this way, there will never be a trace of separation from God. You will be in continuous bliss of God without even one minute gap.

Finally, four systems result:-

i) Dushpravrutti:- Always doing sins, always going to hell and returning to earth for doing more and more sins to go to hell always to undergo torture temporarily. This is path of demons.

ii) Pravrutti:- Always doing merits, always going to heaven and returning to earth for doing more and more merits to go to heaven always to enjoy the temporary heavenly pleasures. This is path of angels.

iii) Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutii:- Always doing both merits and sins, always going to heaven and hell and returning back to earth to do both merits and sins to go heaven and hell continuously. This is path of human beings.

iv) Nivrutti:- Escaping all the above three cycles and be closest to God in the upper world as well as on earth to enjoy infinite bliss continuously under the full protection of God. This is the path towards God.

Only in the first and third systems, there is serious advice not to enter into sins under any circumstances. Regarding the other two systems, full freedom is given to every soul. I give an example. You are advised to study upto bachelor degree. After finishing the bachelor degree, you have two options:- The first option is to continue upto PG degree and fetch an ordinary suitable job for the sake of your livelihood. The second option is to prepare and write the IAS examination to become District Collector so that you can do justice to several innocent victims apart from earning a dignified livelihood with a lot of honor from the public. Between these two options, no advice can be given to you. Selecting the option is purely based on your confidence, hard work, ability to sacrifice many pleasures during the study time etc. The success in this second option completely lies on your firm determination and unshakable concentration on the goal. You should not blame anybody whenever you are subjected to some inconvenience. You have to overcome all the expected and unexpected problems in the path by your own self.

You must be prepared for all the types of hurdles in this path. Is there anybody, who forced you to come to this path? There may be a person, who forced you to avoid the first path (Dushpravrutti) and the third path (Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutti) since he/she is interested in you to help you avoid getting tortured in hell. But, nobody forces you to choose the fourth path (Nivrutti) even though it has the highest fruit. My spiritual knowledge is the advice for those, who have already entered the fourth path called Nivrutti by their own firm willingness. My spiritual knowledge does not force you to enter the Nivrutti path. An IAS coaching institution coaches the students, who willingly took admissions into it, but, it doesn’t forcibly catch the students roaming on the streets to admit them into the institution. Adi Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Hanuman, Gopikas etc., are such best students, who joined this institution in spite of several threats used as entrance examination. Anybody can withdraw his/her admission into this institution at any time and for such student, this institution advises to avoid the above mentioned first and third systems and recommends their admission into second type of Pravrutti system.

Regarding sweet love, if it is legal and concentrated on one’s husband (wife), it is Pravrutti. If it is illegal and concentrated on another human darling, it is Dushpravrutti. If it is concentrated on one’s husband (wife) as well as an illegal human darling, it is Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutti. If it is fully concentrated on God, it is Nivrutti.

The word ‘Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutti’ is used when both merits and sins are done and this belongs to the level of human beings doing both merits and sins. This is called ‘Mishram’ in Gita. The word ‘Pravrutti’ is used when only merits are done and this belongs to the level of angels. This is called ‘Ishtam’ in the Gita. The word ‘Dushpravrutti’ is used when only sins are done and this belongs to the level of demons doing only sins. The word ‘Nivrutti’ is used when the soul rises beyond merits and sins immersed only in the climax devotion to God. The word ‘Pravrutti’ means recommended meritorious direction for a good human being. The good human being cannot be recommended to do both merit and sin. He/she should be recommended only to do merits. The world in which we are living is loosely called as Pravrutti, but strictly speaking, it is mixed Pravrutti. Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutti is better than Dushpravrutti. Pravrutti is better than Pravrutti mixed Dushpravrutti. Nivrutti is far far better than even Pravrutti because the fruit in Nivrutti is eternal giving full protection to the soul from all directions forever.

Therefore, the fruit of Nivrutti is called the greatest (Nivṛttistu mahāphalā). There is no force to push any human being into Nivrutti from Pravrutti. Unless one is qualified in Pravrutti, admission into Nivrutti is not possible. Some soul may enter into Nivrutti directly in this birth itself, but, this means that such soul has already finished Pravrutti in the previous birth. Sometimes, there may be restrictions for the admission of the soul into Nivrutti, but, there is no encouragement to join Nivrutti like the advertisements carried by the present educational institutions to join their institutions. There will be an entrance examination before admitting to Nivrutti. Such entrance test explains all the problems and difficulties you have to face in Nivrutti. Nivrutti is full of sacrifice without any enjoyment. Devotees, who know the climax value of the fruit of Nivrutti alone take admission into Nivrutti in spite of so many hurdles from all the sides.

To transform the devotees from Dushpravrutti to Pravrutti, God encourages them to divert all their bad qualities towards Him breaking the rules of justice (Sarvadharmān parityajya…- Gita). To demonstrate this concept, God incarnated as Krishna and sages took birth as Gopikas acting as if they possessed illegal lust. The sinful souls in Kali age get encouraged when they learn that Gopikas have reached Goloka that is above the abode of God by diverting their illegal lust towards God Krishna through sweet devotion. Since these souls are already in Dushpravrutti breaking the rules of justice, they are already sinful. There is no sin on the side of God because even if they don’t divert it to God, they will divert it to some other human beings in the society causing destruction to the peace of the world. To save the world from injustice and uplift the sinful souls towards justice, God encourages them to divert their bad qualities towards Him. When they divert towards God, they get interest to learn about God and His divine personality. Slowly, they learn that God likes justice and dislikes injustice. In course of time, they will transform into virtuous souls of Pravrutti following justice. All the souls  diverting their bad qualities towards God are said to be in Nivrutti as an arthavaada (beneficial meritorious lie) for the sake of encouraging them to learn the personality of God and get reformed into meritorious souls.

This diversion of bad qualities towards God is allowed only in Kali Yuga since the souls are inflicted with bad qualities to unchangeable level. Mind that this diversion of bad qualities to God comes under the transformation of soul from Dushpravrutti to Pravrutti and this does not exist either in Pravrutti or in Nivrutti. Among the three strongest worldly bonds, spouse-bond also exists. In the spouse-bond alone, sweet love exists, which is to be converted into sweet devotion to God after breaking all the 99 worldly bonds in which state alone there is no sin. Of course, God will have His own technology of Maayaa power to deal with this sweet devotion by creating the human beings having His own form. The souls in Dushpravrutti diverting their lust towards God have crossed their spouse-bond for the sake of God, which can also be considered as spouse-bond test of Nivrutti leading to the highest fruit. Such Nivrutti state and highest fruit happen to be arthavaada to attract the soul from Dushpravrutti to Pravrutti. After entering Pravrutti, if the soul is willingly going to Nivrutti, the soul that has broken fascinations for all the other 99 worldly bonds is tested once again through the final spouse-bond test in which the fascination for spouse is to be broken for the sake of God’s work without aspiring for any fruit including romance from God. Even the test of spouse-bond (initial test or final test) will be conducted only when the devotee aspires for that test. Sages themselves approached God Rama for this test. After such final spouse-bond test (initial spouse-bond test was already conducted during the transformation from Dushpravrutti to Pravrutti), the soul attains the eternal divine fruit and this is the end of spiritual journey.

In Nivrutti, there is only sacrifice and loss on the side of devotee for the sake of God without any aspiration for practical fruit in return. In Nivrutti, there is no procedure to break up with all your worldly bonds including the spouse-bond. Any procedure is just a disqualification in Nivrutti because breaking all the worldly bonds means that you have to develop your devotion towards God to climax level so that due to the effect of such climax devotion, all the worldly bonds are spontaneously dropped without any effort. If you drink the divine nectar, the bonds with all worldly drinks are spontaneously dropped by themselves without a trace of any effort. Such liberation is called ‘salvation’. The reason for your liberation from all the worldly bonds is that you have tasted the devotion to God. The liberation from worldly bonds should not be done through any effort before tasting the divine nectar that is devotion to God. Among all the dropped worldly bonds, the spouse-bond also exists as one of the several worldly bonds. There is no specialty in this spouse-bond. Moreover, it is the weakest worldly bond, which has the facility of divorce. The strongest worldly bonds identified in the present times is the bond with children, then the bond with wealth and lastly the bond with spouse. The spouse-bond stands as one of the three strongest worldly bonds upto the end of youth. As the age grows more and more, the bond with children becomes more and more strong and finally becomes the strongest. Remember that the test for spouse-bond is not only for females but also for males in the path of Nivrutti. For the sake of work of God, Buddha left His wife, Ramanuja left his wife etc.

On hearing all the points about sweet devotion, the reaction of one devotee differs from the reaction of another devotee because the nature of each human being is of different type. We cannot give a common advice to all the devotees.

The main strength to continue in the sweet devotion to God lies on the climax strength of the devotee towards God. If you take the case of Miira, God Krishna was not present in her time as the contemporary human incarnation. There was only statue of Krishna with which sexual union is not possible at all. Sexual union is possible with her husband only. In such case, if Miira’s sweet devotion is based on sex only, she will have practical sexual love with her husband and will have theoretical sweet devotion with God Krishna standing as a statue. If Miira’s sweet devotion is completely based on practical sexual union only, she will keep this statue of Krishna in the worship room so that she can worship the statue of Krishna for a few minutes in the morning without having even theoretical sexual ideas also because practical sex is completely impossible with the statue.

Miira is the incarnation of Radha and her devotion on Krishna is 1000%. Hence, she refused practical sexual union with her alive husband, who was the King. She lived only in theoretical sexual union with God Krishna throughout her life. Her sweet devotion on Krishna was completely theoretical without a trace of practical aspiration in return. Even without practical romance with God Krishna, she was always immersed in the theoretical sweet devotion with the statue of God Krishna. The reason is that in her climax devotion to God, all worldly bonds including the bond with husband were defeated. She could not be forced even by her husband-King. Had she agreed to follow the king, she would have become the queen enjoying luxury and riches. But, she did not care about what she was losing for the sake of God. She even drank a cup of horrible poison also. Although God saved her life, she did not even care for her food and begged in the streets. She was prepared to starve with hunger and die by drinking poison, but, did not deviate from the bond with God in spite of very very dangerous problems. Even Prahlada received horrible torture from his father, but, could not forget God Vishnu even for one second in spite of such unimaginable problems. Such is the diamond like determination of the climax devotees of God. If the sweet devotion to God is based only on aspiration for the pleasant practical romance with God, such devotion is not true devotion at all. Hence, i) The admission into Nivrutti is done by yourselves without any force. ii) In spite of the knowledge of all these problems, why did you admit yourself into this path?

There are some devotees, whose devotion is purely based on the variety of lustful enjoyment. In this Kali age, this is very much predominant. If the sweet devotion is running on this single point only, such devotees are simply prostitutes. They do not have the true basic love because when service and sacrifice to God come into picture, these devotees are found in the end of the queue. Hence, the sweet devotion test is kept as the last test after defeating all the other 99 worldly bonds. Even if the practical sweet devotion is absent, the climax devotee will not leave the theoretical sweet devotion in the mind and continues with the help of the statue as in the case of Miira. Loss of anything does not change the intensity of devotion on God. The devotion that aspires worldly pleasure is not true devotion at all. Even though practical sweet devotion of the Gopikas happened with the created forms of Krishna, the devotion is completely related to Krishna only because all the created Krishnas were having exactly the same form of Krishna. Such forms can act like representative models (statues) for God and the spiritual effort does not deviate even by trace. All this spiritual effort is taking place under the supervision of God Krishna only till the final divine fruit is reached. Even Radha is assisting God Krishna in leading the Gopikas to the final divine fruit. Radha is not a candidate like the Gopikas, but, is on the side of teaching faculty helping Professor Krishna as Associate Professor.

The main question in this path of sweet devotion as a path to reach God is i) whether the devotee is having sweet devotion alone or ii) whether the devotee has cut all the worldly bonds in competition with the bond of God. In the first case, there is aspiration for some fruit (a variety of sexual pleasure) and the main concept in the devotion to God (the second case) is that the devotee shall not aspire any fruit in return from God for the service and sacrifice done to God. In the case of Miira, God gave no chance for practical sweet devotion. But, Miira was not discouraged because she loved God Krishna without the aspiration for any fruit in return. Miira lived in the theoretical sweet devotion immersed in theoretical sweet love expressed through several songs. This is the test of God Krishna in the path of sweet devotion. In the devotion of a climax devotee, there is no aspiration of any fruit in return from God and the devotee goes on doing practical service and practical sacrifice to God. A devotee shall be dropped from the path of devotion including sweet devotion if that devotee aspires for any type of fruit in return from God.

A climax devotee will be unable to drop the devotion to God since such devotee is fully incapable of forming any worldly bond other than God. Hence, the advice of Sadguru is not needed at all because the undeserving devotee will drop this bond and a deserving devotee cannot drop this bond whether Sadguru advises or not advises about it since the situation and status of climax devotion will not change even by a trace. There are several devotees like Goda Devi, Bibi Nancaari etc., who travelled in sweet devotion even though God did not respond to them practically. They never left that path and maintained it through several songs composed by them. They did not approach any worldly bond for the sake of practical sweet love. Irrespective of practical sexual union with God, they were always totally dedicated to God so that every atom in their body was surrendered to God in sweet devotion only.

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