- His Holiness Shri Datta Swami
Filters for Q & A
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: Some devoted friends are telling me that Swami should answer some recent pungent videos in which strong slogans like ‘God of our religion is only the God’ are heard.
Swami replied: This creation is created for the entertainment of God without any violation of justified rationalism. A drama or cinema contains all nine modes of entertainment (Navarasas) in which confusion creating tension (Bibhatsa) is one. The justified rationalism of this is that such people giving these slogans act as the examiners of the devotees having faith in Universal Religion. Similarly, atheists act as examiners of the faith of theists. In the entertainment of God, justice is always maintained. Only in human beings, there are some sadists whose entertainment lacks justice. Your pain to such slogans indicates your pass in the examination that pleases God.
2. Is God re-entered Jesus after His death on the cross? Did Jesus really die on cross?
Shri Anil aked: Padanamaskaram Swami, In the recent message You mentioned that God left Jesus during His death on the cross. However somewhere else in Your knowledge it was mentioned that Jesus walked out to India and lived in Kashmir till His death. Is God re-entered Jesus after His death on the cross? Did Jesus really die on cross? During suffering on the cross God component also suffered?
Swami replied: Jesus Himself asked God “Why did you leave Me?” This means God must have left so that Jesus alone suffers for the sake of God’s work. Generally, devotees love God to get bliss from Him. This is not the true love to God. The true love of devotee to God is due to the climax of attraction towards wonderful personality of God. For the sake of selfish happiness if God is loved as in the case of worldly bonds (since the Veda says that any soul loves another soul for selfish happiness only) it is not true love. The true love will not be affected in any way even if extreme suffering comes in the service of God. The human being component was tested in the crucifixion. Jesus never repented on the cross for personal suffering. God entered him again so that Jesus again became the human incarnation after passing the test.
3. Question on Entry of energetic from of Datta dissolving in You at Sri Sailam.
Shri Anil aked: Padanamaskaram Swami, when You were inside the womb of Your mother, God entered in You. You also mentioned about entry of energetic from of Datta dissolving in You at Sri Sailam. How to correlate both of these incidents.
Swami replied: Entry, leaving and re-entry are explained in the above case. Since God is unimaginable, He can leave the human being component even without actual leaving. Entry, leaving and re-entry have to be spoken if God is imaginable item bound by worldly logic. When there is a demand of the situation, God exists in the human being-component and this is sufficient for us for all practical purposes. Entry, re-entry etc., do not matter much when the human incarnation maintains the existence of God on requirement.
In the olden days, I used to say that God Datta enters Me whenever I preach the spiritual knowledge. This means that God Datta existed in Me whenever the occasion demanded. There is no harm in this way. We say that a person X lives in a specific house permanently. Does it mean that X lives in that house throughout 24 hrs of the day? X may be leaving that house for some time now and then to go to market. Due to this, you will not say that the specific house is not the permanent address of X. Similarly, the human incarnation is the permanent address of God even though God leaves the human being component for some time now and then. This is applicable to the imaginable human beings staying in their residences permanently. In the case of unimaginable God, He may leave the human being component now and then without actually leaving it even for a second! The Omnipotence of God allows this and this point can be applied to the above example of Jesus also. Shri Ajay believed My statement and was thinking that God Datta exists in Me only whenever I preach the spiritual knowledge. After some time, he visited Swami Shivaananda Maharaj along with Me. Swami ji looked at Ajay and told (before Ajay speaks anything) “If you think that Datta leaves your Swami now and then, you are slipping since Datta stays in Swami all the time”. Ajay thought that I spoke a lie like that in order to test his faith, which is also true. I spoke lie and at the same time I didn’t speak lie since the unimaginable God leaves Me now and then while staying always in Me simultaneously and there is no contradiction in this due to the omnipotence of God. These doubts don’t matter much since God is always available in human incarnation since He does not leave it at any time even though He leaves the human incarnation now and then. Both these points are simultaneously true due to the omnipotence of God. Availability of God in human incarnation on requirement while preaching or while doing miracles is sufficient for us to give right direction in spiritual effort and to protect our faith in God.
4. Question on Possesion by vedic ghost.
Shri Anil aked: Padanamaskaram Swami,You narrated the case of sister of Your grandmother possessed with a vedic ghost. Why such things happen? Is it harm the person in to which it enters?
Swami replied: The proof of such miraculous incidents establishes the existence of unimaginable domain by which the existence of unimaginable God can be easily established. This is the primary and fundamental concept of this entire incident. Damage of the health of a person possessed by ghost is always not a rule. It depends upon the cycle of deeds and fruits. This is again side track of the main issue. Main issue is that unimaginable God exists as the source of such unimaginable events.
5. The memory of the previous birth appears in some soul only...
Shri Anil aked: "The mother of Krishna was telling the story of Rama to Krishna so that Krishna can enter into sleep. When the story came up to the point that Ravana stole Sita, immediately Krishna awoke, crying, asking Lakshmana to give the bow for fight ". In this event, whether soul component in Krishna reacted this way?
Swami replied: Some times, some soul-component of a human being remembers the incidents of previous birth and this concept is established in the world through several examples and based on this the department of para-psychology was also evolved. The memory of incident of previous birth happens sometimes in some souls due to the will of God so that we can believe that the soul takes rebirth in this world. You can limit this incident to the human soul itself that takes rebirth again. Here, God is also associated with human soul of Rama and Krishna. Every soul does not remember all the previous lives, in case of which, every soul taking birth is loaded with such huge information of previous births so that every soul taking rebirth must be mad. The memory of the previous birth appears in some soul only due to the will of unimaginable God and this also can be taken as miraculous event to accept the existence of unimaginable God as the source of miraculous events. We give importance to this memory since it is not only related to the soul but also related to God associated with the soul in both births.
6. Question on greediness in materialistic life.
Shri Anil aked: "Your greediness in practical devotion to God is only the reflection of your greediness in your materialistic life". Please elaborate on this.
Swami replied: Lack of charity towards deserving receivers in the worldly life (Pravrutti) induces greediness in to the mind. The same human being appears in Nivrutti and hence this greediness doesn’t leave the mind there also. When one is not donating even little food to a hungry beggar in Pravutti, how can you expect him to give food even to human incarnation in Nivrutti? The clever greedy person fears for God and hence eradicates the very concept of human incarnation and offers food to the statue representing God since it doesn’t eat the food. If God appears in the place of statue to eat the food offered on every day, the practice of offering food to God will be also be rejected by such greedy person. He offers food to God every day since the statue always remains without turning into God. God also knows this fact and hence is not appearing in the place of statue to save His value and dignity! Sacrifice of matter is the most important aspect of the spiritual effort, which is always attacked by the virus of greediness. Even in worldly life, there is a saying that true love exists only when charity of wealth exists.
Hence, the Veda and the Gita gave the highest importance to this sacrifice, which alone is the acid test of true love. All the other worldly bonds also depend on this sacrifice of fruit of work and hence this is told as the root of entire world (Dhanamulamidam jagat). Stopping with theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion has no use since practical sacrifice of the fruit (mango plant) associated with knowledge (water) and devotion (fertilizer) can alone prove the true love that alone yields the true fruit (mango fruit appearing on mango plant) also. The true love exists only on the issues since every one sacrifices the fruit of work to issues only. You can judge your devotion to God taking the love towards your issues as the standard scale. Hence, analysis of greediness is very important in the spiritual effort.
7. Question on test conduted by Lord Datta.
Shri Anil aked: "I appear in drunken state and associated with a prostitute. I repel majority of devotees in this way. Only one selected devotee recognizes Me and surrenders to Me." But we have so far not seen You in this state. Please clarify.
Swami replied: Here, the statement is given by God Datta through My throat. This statement refers to several other incarnations, which appeared in the above said negative angles. The essence of this is only that the faith in God in human form is always tested by exposing negative qualities. The state of devotee becomes like a multiple choice question having four answers in which one alone is the correct answer and three other are wrong answers. Test is inevitable to give authorized certificate acceptable to all divine spectators like sages, angels etc. Such tests are performed by the God component only and not by the human being component in the case of devotees as per the will of God that feels the necessity by exact requirement.
8. What is meant by Sthitaprajna as said in Gita?
Shri Hrushikesh asked: Swami, what is meant by Sthitaprajna as said in Gita?
Swami replied: 1) The word ‘prajna’ in Sanskrit means intelligence. Intelligence makes a decision after doing lot of sharp analysis. Before taking the decision, you should also discuss in debates with other intellectuals so that if your intelligence is insufficient, it can take the help from outside. After discussions, the decision is arrived. The debate is only to check your decision. Your decision may also come out as correct at the end of discussions with several intellectuals. Now, the decision is taken by the intelligence or buddhi (buddhi radhyavasaayaatmikaa). Mind oscillates between truth and falsehood (Sankalpa vikalpaatmakam manah). The mind gets full satisfaction by the decision of the intelligence after passing through several debates. This decision must have support of experience of minority or majority. In certain concepts, majority stands as authority whereas in certain other concepts minority stands as authority. Hence, the decision taken by intelligence (helped by the other intellectuals also through debates) should coincide with the experience of majority or minority. If the concept is not experienced by any soul, such concept concluded by analysis is the fruit of dry logic only. Yukti (logic) and Anubhava (Experience) should coincide with each other and none of these two alone can be the authority. Such concept will certainly get the real scripture of God fit into it very easily and naturally. If the scripture is not fitting naturally into such decision, such part of scripture is either insertion done by some ignorant follower or the interpretation of such part of scripture is the misinterpretation of some other ignorant follower. There will be very easy and natural coincidence between the concept decided by analysis and supported by experience and the real scripture of God filtered from insertions and misinterpretations. The correlation with the scripture gives more satisfaction to the soul due to the weightage given to the scripture by almost all the souls. The decided concept at the end of logic (Yukti), experience (Anubhava), primary scripture (Shruti) and secondary scripture (Smruti) is denoted by the word prajna.
The word ‘Sthita’ means the firmness of the soul in implementing such decided concept in practice irrespective of any cyclone rising from the force of ignorance from the side of the worldly bonds. Hence, Sthitaprajna is the devotee, who is firm in implementing the above decided concept in practice irrespective of any hurdle rising to obstruct the implementation. Sometimes, the obstruction may be created even by God to test the extent of force in the firmness of decision in implementing it in practice.
9. What is the importance of sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work?
Shri Hrushikesh asked: Please give the importance of sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work?
Swami replied: The path to please God is of two parts:
i) Theoretical and ii) Practical
Theory is again of two sub parts:
i) Knowledge related to intelligence (Jnana yoga) and
ii) Devotion related to mind (Bhakti yoga).
The practical is again of two sub parts:
i) Sacrifice of work (Karma samnyaasa) and
ii) Sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma phala tyaga)
Both theory and practical are important. Theory is the source of practice. Practice is like a mango plant. Knowledge (theory) is like water. Devotion (theory) is like fertilizer. If you supply a little water and a little fertilizer to the plant, the fruit will appear in the plant only. Even if you have hundred tanks of water and hundred bags of fertilizer, fruit will not appear. Therefore, theory is essential but you should not stop with theory. I am not condemning theory. I am only telling you not to stop with theory only, since practical fruit can’t come for the theory. For theory, theoretical fruits alone will come. For practice, practical fruits will come. God told that He will give the fruit in the same way in which your effort proceeds (ye yathaamaam…). I am not criticizing LKG class to be very low and that it should be removed from educational institution. I am only telling that you shall not sit in LKG class only throughout your life. If you spend all your effort in knowledge only, God will give you more intelligence. If you spend all your life in emotional devotion only by singing songs, God will grant you higher emotion and better sweet voice to sing the songs. Your efforts are theoretical and hence the fruit is also theoretical. Swami Vivekananda asked God that why Indians suffer with poverty in spite of lot of spiritual knowledge and lot of devotion. The answer is that we are experts in theory but zero in practice. The foreigners are very good in practice even though they fall back in theory. Hence, the foreign countries were blessed with wealth.
In the practical devotion, sacrifice of fruit (matter) is higher than sacrifice of work (energy). This is because matter is condensed form of energy. Lot of energy is equal to small amount of matter. We respect our employer because he is giving us matter (money) for our sacrifice of work or energy. In this exchange the donor of matter is highly respected by the donor of work or energy, which proves that matter, is higher than energy. When we go to a shop we purchase some material (matter) by giving money (matter). In this exchange of matter for matter, we are not respecting the shop keeper so much as we respect our employer. This clearly proves that the value of matter is certainly far higher than the value of energy or work. Hence, the Veda says that sacrifice of money alone pleases God (Dhanena tyaagenaikena…), which is turned into a general saying that God is in money (Paisa me parmaatmaa hai). Krishna polished this concept to still higher level by proposing that sacrifice of fruit of your work is highest. It is easy to sacrifice the wealth given by forefathers since it is not earned by your hard work. You will know the value of money, which is earned by your hard work only. Hence, sacrifice of fruit of your work is finally considered to be the highest and real love. Since we have real love to our issues, we sacrifice work to them from their childhood and give our properties to them at the end. But, in the case of God, by expecting fruit in return from God, the devotees come under two categories:-
i) Prostitutional devotion (Veshyaa Bhakti): In this we want practical fruit from God for our theoretical devotion to Him. This is the love of a prostitute, who aspires money from a person by exhibiting sweet theoretical love in the form of praise and songs.
ii) Business devotion (Vaishya Bhakti): Here we exchange matter for matter, which is expecting a practical fruit for our practical devotion. The above two types of devotion are false love. Business devotion is somewhat better than prostitutional devotion since there is some ethics in it.
The real devotion or love is surrendering our practical devotion to God without aspiring any fruit in return and even if God gives us difficulties. The best example for this is our love to our issues. We do practical service to them and give all our wealth to them without aspiring any fruit in return and even if they insult us! To praise God as everything and everybody (Tvameva sarvam mama deva deva…) is a total lie because God is not equal even to our issues! Such theoretical phase with zero in practice pushes us into the cadre of prostitutional love. You cannot say that practical love is impossible if difficulties are given. But it is possible in the case of our issues. If it is impossible, it shall be impossible everywhere. Can you say that you can lift hill in Mumbai but not in Delhi?
10. What are the merits Universal religion established by You?
Shri Hrushikesh asked: What are the merits Universal religion established by You?
Swami replied: The world peace is disturbed by the differences between the religions. The correlation between the religions will bring unity and peace, which is the main aim of universal religion. Universal religion is not a different religion. It is only a correlated concept of all the religions to bind these bringing unity and peace. It is like the central government in India. All the religions are like state governments. Every citizen belongs to the state and to the center simultaneously. A human being in this country is called as Andhra because it belongs to the state called as Andhra Pradesh.
It is simultaneously the Indian also belonging to the central government of India. One need not leave the religion followed by him or her to enter the Universal religion, which contains the merits of all religions. The merit of science and atheism (atheism is also considered as one of the 6 spiritual schools by sage Vidyaaranya) is the application of logical analysis to the items of creation to prove that these items are parts of creation only so that misunderstanding anyone of these as God can be rejected. For example, awareness is proved as an item of imaginable creation and hence is not unimaginable God. Charvaka, the founder of atheism says that awareness is produced by the digestion of food (Madashaktih jaayate). You must accept a good concept spoken by even a bad person and conclude that imaginable awareness is not unimaginable God. The merit from Hinduism is the spiritual knowledge concluded by sharp analysis, which avoids the exploitation of mind by misinterpretations of the scripture (Jnaana yoga). The merit from Islam is the emotional devotion and faith of mind in God with firmness (Bhakti yoga).The merit of Christianity is sacrifice of work and fruit of work in the divine service (Karma yoga). The merit from Buddhism is eradication of desire for any fruit from God so that prostitutional devotion and business devotion are avoided (Nishkaama karma yoga), which is the karma yoga transformed into Nishkaama karma yoga.
The splits between religions come due to the difference in the media of God. The underlying Unimaginable God in all these specific media of all specific religions is one and the same. When one fixes in a specific imaginable item of creation as God (which is actually one of the media of Unimaginable God), this difference comes because there is plurality in the items (media) of imaginable creation. The unimaginable God must be one only because any number of unimaginable items become only one unimaginable item. The Universal religion is based on this one Unimaginable God, which brings unity in all the religions regarding God. Similarly, the basic contents of the scriptures of all religions are one and the same. Hence, any person of any religion can have simultaneous registration in the Universal religion without leaving the religion already followed by him/her. This is the need of the hour in this present world to bring peace and love between all the human beings of the world.
11. Will intellect take immediate decision on an issue?
[Reply to Shri Karthik] Decision may be immediate or may be taken after some analysis. Intelligence of a human being may not be so efficient to take a decision even after analysis. Sometimes, intelligence may take wrong decision influenced by subconscious state. Hence, a group debate is essential. Discussion with human incarnation (Satguru) is the best, if possible. Without analysis, you should not accept even the knowledge of human incarnation, which is mixture of God and human being and such human being might have inserted its wrong opinion. Of course, human being is under the full control of God. Even then, you must doubt it and analyze because one need not fear for testing even 24-karat gold. Hence, Krishna told Arjuna to analyze the entire Gita told by Him and then only to accept it (vimrushyaitadesheshena…). The very beginning chapter of the Gita is regarding analysis by intelligence, which is called as Buddhi Yoga or jnana yoga or samkhya yoga (dadaami Buddhi Yogam tam…). It is said "to err is human…". Hence, the point should be discussed by several intellectuals and then should be ratified by experience (vidvadvadanubhava siddham pramaanam). You should analyze any scripture or any tradition. Ancient tradition of sages is correct, but, it was polluted by middle age ignorant people. You should not take anything for granted either from scripture or from tradition without sharp analysis passed through debate.
12. Surgery without anesthesia...
Shri Karthik asked: Some have undergone surgery without anesthesia as in the case of Ramana Maharshi and a Buddhist monk. Please explain.
Swami replied: If your awareness gets detached from the body, this may be possible. But, I believe that it is not possible especially in the case of surgery, in which the nerves are also cut through which awareness flows. Awareness has to receive the pain in this case. This may be true in the case of issues related to external family bonds since family bonds are related to body and not the actual body. In these cases of surgery, such experience is only due to the power and grace of super awareness or God only.
Shri Anil asked: Pada namaskaram Swami, 2 questions are enclosed. Kindly give Your answer to those. At Your Lotus Feet, anil
1) In the bible there are two contrasting incidents mentioned; in one Zechariah, John the Baptist's father disbelieved God's (Gabriel the angel) words that he will get a son and due to this he became temporarily dum. At the same time God (Gabriel the angel) spoke Mary the earthly mother of Jesus that she will give birth to Jesus even when she was not married . But she accepted the wish of God. Can You please analyze these incidents also that with Peters denial of Jesus for more clarity. The related verses in case of Zechariah and Mary are given below.
[Luke 1:8-20 8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink,and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Luke 1:26-38 The Angel Gabriel Comes to Mary
26 Six months after Elizabeth had become pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee.
27 The angel went to a virgin promised in marriage to a descendant of David named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 When the angel entered her home, he greeted her and said, “You are favored by the Lord! The Lord is with you.”
29 She was startled by what the angel said and tried to figure out what this greeting meant.
30 The angel told her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor[a] with God.
31 You will become pregnant, give birth to a son, and name him Jesus.
32 He will be a great man and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
33 Your son will be king of Jacob’s people forever, and his kingdom will never end.”
34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be? I’m a virgin.”
35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy child developing inside you will be called the Son of God.
36 “Elizabeth, your relative, is six months pregnant with a son in her old age. People said she couldn’t have a child.
37 But nothing is impossible for God.”
38 Mary answered, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let everything you’ve said happen to me.” Then the angel left her.]
Swami replied: The first point is that the unimaginable God is the source of all the unimaginable events called as miracles, which have taken place in all parts of the world in different religions. Some people with atheistic mentality do not believe the miracles and in their view, the scientific logic alone is the ultimate power. This does not mean that you should accept even a false magic to be miracle by closing the mouth of science everywhere. Science has to close its mouth in the case of a genuine miracle only. But, culprits should not exploit the innocent public by cheating through false miracles or magic. The test of God is always severe because the fruit of the test is going to be of the highest level. A candidate aspiring for the post of District Collector has to attend the serious IAS examination. In the first instance, the devotee doubted about the miracle itself and hence could not accept the birth of a child to an old couple as per the scientific rules of Gynaecology. In the second case, the devoted Mary accepts the possibility of a genuine miracle to happen. Here, it is not question of faith in a miracle. It is still a higher test regarding overcoming the social norms for the sake of God by getting a child even before marriage. Gopikas faced such severe test, which is to vote for God against justified social tradition. The first devotee is almost an atheist in even not believing the unimaginable power of unimaginable God. The first devotee is in the bottom most level whereas a second devotee is in the highest level of Nivrutti devotion.
2) Recently i had to conduct a small feast at my house related to a church activity. In which vegetarian food was served for 25 people. However, since in such feast normally non-veg is served, and since i served only veg, lot of food become balance. Had i served non-veg, all would have eaten all most all, but since i gave veg, many were not interested. In such cases which one is best option, giving non-veg food and avoiding waste of excess food or giving veg food but with some wastage as balance? Kindly give Your advice on this matter.
Swami replied: You can give the balance of vegetarian food to beggars, in which case, wastage of food is also avoided. It all depends on your strength of the concept about which you are convinced. Non-vegetarians can also eat vegetarian food. If you care for your guests more than the hell, you could have done so by pleasing the guests. I have given lot of discussion on this topic. There is no difference between vegetarian and non-vegetarian food as far as the chemical compositoin is concerned. The sin is not in the food but is in its cause, which is to kill a bird or animal for the food. It is best understood if you imagine yourself in the place of that bird or animal! No more logic is needed, if you imagine that your throat is cut by a knife!
14. What purpose of creation is served by the trans genders...?
Shri Prasad forwarded the question from his friend. [What purpose of creation is served by the trans genders since for sustaining the creation only male and female are required? Regards, Abhay]
Swami replied: Transgenders are also human beings. The goal of the human being is not simply extension of humanity, which is quiet mechanical, instigated by the created harmones provoking the sexual activity. Several males and females are not involved in this activity of extension of humanity. But, they got salvation by getting immense grace of God. Hence, the main goal is only to get the grace of God and not to extend the humanity. Marriage is better than loose character, but, spiritual effort to get the grace of God is certainly far far better than even marriage. The Veda says, “What is the use of these children, who cannot save our soul forever? (kim prajayaa karishyaamah yeshaam naayamaatmaa)”. This does not mean that every human being should resist sex. It is impossible and hence the extension of humanity is done naturally by the divine force. The spiritual effort to get the grace of God is done by our force. Therefore, the second aspect is more valuable since the effort of human being is involved. In the extension of humanity, there is no human effort, because the sex is natural without any human effort. Moreover, there are several couples, who do not get children in spite of the natural efforts of sex. Hence, extension of humanity is mainly based on the will of God only. We can say that the pacification of sex is the characteristic of natural genders and not the extension of humanity. You can discard transgenders to be useless in the extension of humanity provided all couples are generating issues. In such case, the couples unable to generate issues have to be treated as transgenders. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the human birth, which is to attain the grace of God is the most important and beneficial to the soul forever, especially in view of lack of guarantee of future human rebirth.
Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, A 30-year-old man killed himself by slitting his throat in Jharkhand in a ritual to appease a goddess depicted in Hindu scriptures as having severed her own head with a scimitar. Kindly give Your opinion on such extreme steps.
Swami Replied: All such deeds indicate the climax of ignorance and foolishness resulting due to lack of proper spiritual knowledge. The action is called as Karma, the emotional force to implement the action is called as Bhakti and the fundamental decision coming from proper analysis of scriptures is called as Jnana. Jnana should generate Bhakti and Bhakti should generate Karma. If the fundamental Jnana is missing, the emotion and action go in wrong direction. One should give lot of importance and spend lot of time on the first step, which alone gives the right direction.
There is a deity called Chinnamastaa without head wearing curved knife in her hand by which her head was cut by herself. The inner sense of this deity is that the wrong knowledge represented by head was cut by herself with the help of her own analytical spiritual knowledge represented as knife. Lord says the end of the Gita that Arjuna should analyze what all preached by even the Lord. Cutting head is not in physical sense because the deity remains alive even after the head is cut. If it is physical sense, this is impossible. Hence, the inner meaning of this should be understood as cutting the wrong decision taken by intelligence represented by the head. Lack of true spiritual knowledge is the present situation and true spiritual knowledge is the urgent need of the present hour in this world.
16. What are the differences between mind,intelligence and ego?
Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami!! A person asked following question:
Can you kindly explain the differences/dependencies between the mind, intelligence and ego? My limited perception sees that the mind, the intelligence and the ego cannot be separated, but the sages say otherwise. For example, is it possible for the mind and intelligence to exist without the ego, as a state of non-self? What about deciding without thinking, what is the difference between that and simply (loose) recall?
Kindly give Your responses. At Your feet
Swami replied: Mind, intelligence, memory and ego (manas, buddhi, chittam and ahankara respectively) are called as the four internal instruments (antahkaranams). All these four are different departments or faculties of the same university called awareness (chit). They differ only by their functions and the essence of four is awareness only. As the same gold appears as different jewels, the same awareness appears as these four faculties. The difference told by sages is not in the essential material, but, is in the working fashions. Mind doubts keeping both sides projected (samkalpa-vikalpa). Intelligence conducts analysis and draws conclusions (adhyavasaava or Nishchaya). Memory recollects the stored information (smaranam). Ego is the basic ‘I’ representing the entire human being in collective manner (Asmat pratyaya gochara chaitanyam). Ego is also representing the pride, for which, the source is basic ‘I’. This ‘I’ (aham) stem generates several branches for several items linked to my (mama) or the branches in general.
Sometimes, conclusions are drawn without analysis (‘thinking’ as called by you). A decision that is already taken for a similar situation is stored in memory. When the situation is similar, the process of analysis is avoided by intelligence and the decision stored in the memory is brought to the present context. Here both decision without thinking (already stored in memory) and recollection are associated together. Your entire question relates to psychology and not to spiritual knowledge.
Swami Replied: God has super plan of doing things perfectly without any plan. The plan is expressed spontaneously in His actions since His wish gets materialised without any gap of time. In fact, His wish itself is perfect plan and hence simultaneous materialization. He is unimaginable God with omnipotence. Chain of His wishes itself is the overall super most plan.
18. If God exists, why isn't he guiding me on a daily basis?
Swami Replied: God is guiding every soul by advising it behind the consciousness. The ego develops deafness due to which some do not hear His voice.
19. What is the secret behind Nadi Astrology?
Swami Replied: The nine planets are the executive secretaries of the administration of this world working under full control of God. All the possibilities of different arrangements of the planets are given here so that an approximate prediction can be arrived. Some Nadi foretellers say even correct names, which is the miraculous power of the grace of God and could not be mistaken as astrology.
Astrology is also the path of philosophy slightly different by attending the problem first and then developing the devotion to God later on.
Swami Replied: These hunting cruel animals were the soft animals killed in the previous birth. The butchers in the previous birth have become the hunted soft animals. All this is routine divine administration setup by God. There is nothing in this world, which does not come under the rule of God and hence there is no need to question anything here as uncontrolled injustice.
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