Practical Sacrifice of Westerners
Any depth of theoretical knowledge is useless without practice. An Indian should learn this aspect from westerners to achieve the real grace of God. A westerner on the other hand has to learn from the Indian about logical analysis in spirituality, which gives precise direction to the spiritual effort. The practical side of spirituality is dedication or sacrifice of at least a part of the work (efforts of the individual) and a part of the fruit of the work (money) towards the mission of the Lord. Both together can be termed as service and this service alone brings down the true grace of God. The westerner is excellent in this practical side and this is the reason why western countries have been blessed with a lot of materialistic wealth by God. Indians are very poor in this practical aspect. Indians are very strong in this practical aspect when it comes to working and getting money for themselves and their families. They fully concentrate in the work and sacrifice the fruits of all their works for the welfare of their families only. In short, their service is directed only towards themselves and their families but not to God. Indians are experts in dedicating their words freely in the form of prayers to God. They also dedicate their minds freely to God in the form of meditation. They dedicate their intelligence freely to God in the form of logical spiritual discussions. However they dedicate their words, mind and intelligence to God only in their leisure time; when they are not involved in any work for themselves or their families.
The Lord always gives back to His devotees in the same way as the devotees serve Him. The Lord gave good language, good mental devotion and good intellectual logic to Indians, who worship Him by donating their words, mind and intellect. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that the Lord approaches devotees in the same path as devotees approach Him. Jesus told the same thing in different words when He said in the Bible that one reaps what one sows. The westerner is good at practical service (sacrifice of work and the fruit of work) to the Lord. Therefore God has blessed the West with a lot of wealth and comforts. However the westerner is weak in metaphysics and the analysis of the divine knowledge. It will be better for him to also attain a deep understanding of divine knowledge, which convinces the intelligence. Such intellectual realization maintains the constancy of the practical service, at which he is already good. Thus the practice needs the support of knowledge.
Unfortunately in the case of Indians such practice has not even germinated in spite of a deep realization of divine knowledge. At this point, we must note that there are two types of Indians. Those of the first type are scholars who have realized the true knowledge, but are unable to practice it and cover their inability by the mask of misinterpretation. There is no use of preaching the right knowledge to such fraud scholars because they can never change. Indians of the other type are those who are misled by the misinterpretations conveyed by the fraud scholars and preachers. This true divine knowledge is meant for these people of the second type.
Lord Jesus gave the essence of divine knowledge in the form of final conclusions to the ancestors of today’s westerners because there was no need of a deep analysis for those people. They were practical people with a firm faith, who immediately implemented the final conclusions given by Him without any further questions or analysis. If a systematic logical analysis is also given to such practical people, it forms a permanent base that is more solid than emotion-based faith. Thus, there is a need of exchange of skills between Indians and westerners, who are actually brothers and sisters of each other, because all are the children of the same Father (God).
Indians are proud of their strong family bonds but they do not realize that these bonds in fact hinder their spiritual practice. Unless one is released from these worldly bonds, one cannot have a strong bond with the Lord. One cannot join a new institution unless he is released from the old institution. Jesus preached through the Bible that one should leave these family bonds with parents, wife, children etc., and that one should be prepared to sacrifice even his life for the sake of the Lord. Only by such sacrifice can one become dear to Him. Such final conclusions of knowledge made westerners implement such spiritual knowledge in practice. As a result their family bonds are weak and they are able to practically serve God.

Deep Spiritual Analysis of Hindus
The Vedas in Hinduism also say that the children and family cannot protect the soul. The Vedas also say that one should get detached from the limited family as soon as one attains realization. The deep logical analysis of such a statement is not necessary for westerners and so Jesus did not give it. But Shankaracharya in Hinduism, gave a powerful analysis of this statement. Inspite of such acute analysis the Indian family bonds could not be broken. However that deep analysis of Shankara is noteworthy.
He states that these bonds are temporary since they are limited only to the present human birth. He establishes that that which is temporary is always unreal. The temporary bonds neither existed in the previous birth nor will they exist in the future birth. Any thing that did not exist before and will not exist later, is indeed temporary and such a thing does not exist (in reality) during the present. Such a thing is said to be totally unreal. For example, the bond (relationship) between two actors in a drama neither exists before the drama nor exists after the drama and therefore, does not exist even during the drama. That which is real is always permanent; existing in the past, present and future. For example, the employer-employee relationship between the producer of the drama and the actors is always real during the drama, before the drama and after the drama.
Thus the bond with God who is the producer of this world is always permanent and real. This logical analysis brings about a permanent detachment and a realization that remains alive forever. Therefore such analytical knowledge, which is very clear and satisfies the intellect, maintains the detachment forever. Deep analytical knowledge of the scriptures is required for all \westerners and for all the Indians who are being exploited by tradition and misinterpretations of some selfish preachers. The selfish preachers spread false knowledge which is convenient to both themselves and their followers and thereby attract followers in order to get money and fame. One should remember that the right knowledge is always inconvenient. Jesus told that the path leading to God is very inconvenient and narrow. Lord Krishna said in Gita that only one in millions reaches Him and that too after millions of births.
Lord Krishna stated in the Gita that He is the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of this world (Aham Sarvasya…). While interpreting this statement, it should be noted that Lord Krishna is referring to the internal God, who pervaded the human body of Lord Krishna. It is wrong to interpret that the human body of Lord Krishna is the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of creation. It is as if the electric wire is referring to the current which pervades in it, as the mover of the electric fan. The inert wire cannot be called as the mover of the fan. Arjuna missed this important point. He thought that Lord Krishna had referred to His human body. Therefore he got confused and asked Krishna “You are recently born. How is it possible?” (Aparam Bhavato Janma…)”.
True knowledge is very difficult to accept and easily repels human beings. The crucifixion of Jesus was an extreme result of such repulsion. But Jesus, as a true preacher, never cared for fame and preached the right knowledge fearlessly. Such a preacher is called as Sat-Guru, or “Preacher of the Reality”.
Westerners can borrow another precious gem from Hinduism, which is their unity in diversity. Hinduism is a mini-world in itself. There are various branches or sects of Hinduism with widely varying beliefs. They are similar to different religions in the world. The scholars of all these branches or sects argue with each other by quoting either common or their specific scriptures. In spite of many disagreements between the branches, the main trunk of the tree of Hinduism is common to all and is the uniting factor in the scriptures. The branches may spread in any direction but they all arise from the same tree-trunk. Of course these differences in Hinduism never resulted in fighting with the swords, which shows the tolerance of Hindus.

Unification of Religions—Universal Spirituality
The effort of Lord Dattatreya through this human body is to bring about unity among the various religions and sects in Hinduism in India and also to bring about a unity in among various religions in the world. Thus the effort of the present human incarnation is to establish Universal Spirituality at the national as well as the international level. The unity among world religions will be a broader reflection of the unity among the different sects of Hinduism. The concept of Universal Spirituality aims to stop all the communal and religion-based wars in the world.
Thus this theoretical concept, if interpreted properly, has lot of practical application to achieve lasting peace in the world. If the world peace is disturbed, the peace of the individual is also lost. When individual peace is lost, the individual spiritual effort, which involves the sacrifice of work and fruit of work, is also disturbed. The individual is unable to follow the spiritual path and cannot achieve the grace of God. The secret of the individual spiritual effort lies in the practical sacrifice of the westerners. The secret of peace in the world, which is required for the individual spiritual effort, lies with Indians. Both are essential and are mutual. Thus the exchange is very much helpful for all. The West must learn from the East regarding world peace. The East must learn from the West about real practical spiritual effort of an individual. No one should be egotistic in claiming that he is perfect in all aspects or that there is no need of learning anything from others. Those who make such egotistic claims go further and insult other religions. God is not pleased with such rigid and conservative followers. In fact, God gets furious with them and punishes them severely.
God, who is the Father of all human beings in this world, wishes that every human being should reach the ultimate spiritual goal because every human being is His own child. All human beings are brothers and sisters and must help each other by such mutual exchanges in the spiritual pursuit. They should exchange their gems with each other and should throw away their useless stones. The useless stones are the misinterpretations, which were made by selfish preachers, and which were handed down to them over the generations.

Previous    Top     Next