Posted on: 10 Dec 2017
Shri Anil asked:
1) Why Sita was punished by Rama in this world itself?
2) Is there difference between peaceful death and accidental death?
3) Is there any relationship between the wave nature of nervous energy (mind) and stability of mind?
Swami replied:
1) Abusing such a great devotee like Lakshmana, who never saw Sita above her feet with a false allegation that he followed her to the forest waiting for an opportunity to marry her in case Rama dies, is the most worst horrible sin. Intensive sins are punished immediately in this world itself. This is a part of main rule of deeds and fruits. Apart from such routine punishment as per the rule, another aspect is that Sita shall be clarified from her sin as early as possible without going to hell before going to the abode of God called as Vaikuntha. This is only an addition to the rule of immediate punishment for the intensive sin.
2) The disturbance in the death is only the temporary inconvenience caused during the journey, which is very short compared to the long life after the death in the upper world. A big officer travelled very conveniently in the first class compartment of the train and as soon as he reached the station, he was arrested and imprisoned lifelong. A poor farmer travelled in ordinary compartment with full rush and reached the station to go to his house to live happily. Who is better between these two? People recognize a person as good by his peaceful death and say that a person died with lot of suffering since he is a bad person. This is not correct. Several sinners died very peacefully and several pious souls died with severe suffering. When Jesus was carrying on the cross with full torture, devotees standing as spectators were weeping. Then, Jesus told that they shall not weep for Him, but shall weep for themselves and their children. This means that His suffering is only very short before a long happy divine life with Father of heaven. Their happiness in life and death is very short compared to very long torture in the hell in future. His suffering in the crucifixion was to save His people. Similarly, the death suffering of very great divine personalities is to be understood in the sense of suffering for the sake of their devotees. Krishna was shot dead. Rama jumped in to river. Paramahamsa suffered with cancer in the end. Shirdi Sai died with severe cough. Satya Sai suffered a lot in the hospital in the end.
3) The fluctuations in the current are stabilized by the stabilizer used by us and this has nothing to do with the stabilization of the wave nature of the electrical energy since the stabilizer does not suppress the wave nature of electrical energy, which is inherent of energy. Peace and stability of mind are gained by controlling thoughts, which has nothing to do with the inherent wave nature of nervous energy or mind.
Shri Kishore Ram asked:
1) What spiritual advice (from Swami Knowledge) can we give to a person who is suffering continuously from worldly problems without any break?
2) Can you please explain more on 6th sense or intuition which is different from consciousness and sub-consciousness?
3) In Mahabharata, instant justice was given to Pandavas from Lord Krishna directly during war. But in this Kaliyuga we don't see such instant justice. I understand the basis of complexity of Karma. But, in such case people will get discouraged and stop supporting justice when they start understanding that supporting justice is beyond their capabilities in certain cases. For example a normal person cannot fight against so.
Swami replied:
1) Such a person is leftover with continuous punishments of sins only since he withdrew all good fruits compelling God in previous births so that God doesn’t find good fruits any more in his list as ‘sanchita’ to place those good fruits alternatively along with punishments of sins in his present life cycle. The Divine Father is very kind to make such arrangement so that His issue will enjoy sweet dishes and hot dishes alternatively in the meals (life cycles). Neither the punishments can be cancelled without suffering nor good fruits can be given without their good deeds done by the soul. This is the problem of every human soul, which likes to do sins and doesn’t like to enjoy the punishments! It also likes to enjoy good fruits without doing good deeds! The only solution is that let him realize, repent and take a strong oath not to repeat any sin at any cost in the future. The punishments will be suspended temporarily keeping his file in cold storage. Everything depends on his sincerity in strongly believing and practicing this concept.
2) The sixth sense is unusual since only five senses exist with any human being. The sixth sense is also called as intuition, which is related to the grace of God worshipped by the soul in this birth or in the previous births. Mind is named as the sixth sense in the Gita apart from the five senses (Manahshashthaani…). By this, we can’t take mind as the sixth sense referred by you, in which case, it shall be common to all human beings. In the Gita, it means that it is different from five senses since its name is mentioned with separate individual significance. It only means that the mind is like the common current flowing in the all the five senses to make them function individually. Only blessed souls by God have this special sixth sense, which functions in very special way. The conscious state is related to the present thoughts and sub-conscious state is related to the stored thoughts from previous births. Both these are routine facilities unlike the sixth sense, which is the result of blessing by God.
3) The concept in the Mahabharata is the same as the concept of every human life at any age and in any place. Instant justice was not provided by the Lord to Pandavas as soon as they were defeated in the gambling and justice was provided to them after 13 years only. Before punishing the sinner, God Krishna tried His level best to reform them by going to them as a messenger. Draupadi was provided with instant justice in the emergency since she sacrificed a piece of cloth torn from her sari to the Lord. At the same time, she was punished for her revengeful attitude. The case differs from one to the other in its background and is a very complex like a three dimensional network with several parameters involved in past and present. If you isolate threads of this complex network, you can find equal justice to any deserving soul and equal punishment to any undeserving soul. Believing God strongly about His omnipotence to punish the sinner and bless a good person is the best resulting path of spiritual knowledge. If one misunderstands the general and justified administration of God, it is his fate! We shall try to clarify the misunderstanding of such a person everywhere and at every time. If you have the capability of fighting against the injustice, do it, whether the issue is related to you or to outsiders. If you are incapable of resisting the injustice, keep silent without having revenge attitude. Leave it to God and He knows how to control injustice and to punish the sinner, who is not prepared for reformation of soul.
Shri Kartik asked:-
1) Please tell us about the ethical implications of animal testing for a justified research purposes like making medicinal products for cancer, etc.
2) Mercy killing or euthanasia is legally permitted in a number of nations. Is this act not against the law of karma? Please explain.
3) Shankara was Lord Shiva incarnate. During the debate between Him and Mandana Mishra, He entered the body of a dead king to gain practical knowledge of sex. Here, He displayed a miraculous power. Why couldn't He have just replied with the correct answer using His innate omniscience instead of displaying this particular miracle of entering another body? After all, if a miracle was necessary in the first place, why not perform it in a simple manner? Why go to the elaborate length of entering another body? This question is in no way meant to question the character of Lord Shiva Himself. It is only to understand the real intention being the performance of this miraculous act. Please explain Swami.
4) Swami please clear my confusion. In one discourse, You have mentioned that God is never involved in any of our actions and that we are solely responsible for our deeds. In this context, You give the example of a bull that may be used to go the forest (which results in misfortune) or to a friend's place (which leads to good fruit). Now in another discourse, You have also told us that mere effort is not responsible for obtaining the desired fruit. Effort only makes us eligible for the fruit. Finally, whether the fruit is to be granted or not is in the hands of God. In the first discourse, there is absolutely no involvement of God in any part of the action or the fruit that it begets. In the second discourse however, You have mentioned that the fruit is sanctioned by God (but only after the effort is made). That is to say even the effort will not work if God does not sanction the fruit. Please help me correlate these two teachings Swami.
5) If the yuga system of creation has been ordained from the very beginning, then humans are bound to fall regardless of whether or not they exercise the free will they have in the right or wrong way. If the highest goal is to facilitate the entertainment of God and God's very way of entertaining Himself is through alternate spans of good and bad times on a macrocosmic level according to the Yuga system of creation laid down by Him, then wouldn't it be against His very will to want to change the attitude of souls in the Kali age? After all, the Kali age is meant to have a larger number of ignorant people as opposed to another age. Please explain.
6) I have recently heard the term Bhairavi yatana in a speech given by Jaggi Vasudev. The term apparently refers to the intense suffering given by Kalabhairava to a soul wherein he/she undergoes inordinate pain in a short span of time. Below is an excerpt that I’ve taken from a website online.
[“Shiva put on the right kind of costume and became Kalabhairava, to create the Bhairavi Yatana. “Yatana” means ultimate suffering. When the moment of death comes, many lifetimes play out – with great intensity, whatever pain and suffering needs to happen to you, will happen in a microsecond. After that, nothing of the past remains in you. Undoing your “software” is painful. But this happens at the moment of death, so you have no choice. But he makes it as brief as possible. Suffering has to end quickly. That will happen only if we make it super-intense. If it is mild, it goes on forever.”]
Does such a term/concept really exist Swami? Please explain.
Swami Replied:
1) Testing the animals for medicinal purposes can be done without killing them as far as possible. The life of an animal is as precious as the life of a human being. Science feels that human being is more precious than animal. It is true provided the human being has more kindness than the animal by using the topmost faculty of sharp logical analysis. The human being becomes worse than the animal if it is more selfish than the animal.
2) It is not against the law of deeds since such human being requesting for mercy killing must have killed previously a living being due to mercy only. Both are opposite to each other like light (mercy) and darkness (killing). Both have joined since such a suffering human soul has joined both these words in his previous life.
3) Shankara did so to explain that the soul is untouched by such necessary acts of sex since mind was detached fully from such desires to prove that an act done with full detachment has no attachment to the fruit. Any act done due to necessity without any desire for it can’t attach the soul to its fruit. Shankara used such miracle so that the queens enjoyed with the body of their husband only. He was learning the sex as education. A doctor touching the private parts of a lady for the sake of examinations doesn’t attach his soul to the sin. In this case, there was no contact of the body of Shankara with the bodies of queens, in which case, the chasty queens might have objected. Even the mind of Shankara was not having any such illegal desire except the purpose of study of the subject. All this miracle was exhibited by Shankara in order to prove such critical and deep concept. If Shankara wanted, He could have known the subject in a fraction of second through His miraculous power. In such case, this critical concept might not be exposed to the world.
4) The direction of any action is done by the soul, which is not called as effort. It is called as the will or sankalpa that makes the fruit to be connected to the soul. The acting force in the effort is from God only since any force can be obtained from God only. It is called as the force of action or effort. As soon as the will and effort start, immediately the fruit is not attained. There are several obstacles which have to be crossed to reach the fruit. Certain efforts are becoming fruitful and certain efforts are not becoming fruitful due to the obstacles standing in the path of the effort, which are also due to the past sins. A person sat in a cart dragged by the bull either to forest or city as per the will of person. In the path to forest or city, suppose a lion appeared and killed the person. Such killing is also due to the past sin of the person only. God is not giving the fruit as He likes (since reaching the goal is desired by the person). Obstacle is due to his past sin only. This punishment is also given by God, which made the person not to reach the goal. God is acting according to the deeds of the person only. If God is pleased with such person as His devotee, such obstacle may be stopped for the time being and the person may reach the desired goal. In this background of deeds and grace of God, we can say that the fruit is in the hands of God. But, this does not mean that God acts as per His liking and disliking in giving or not giving the fruit like a mad king! It is the deduction of both the parameters interfering with each other like deeds and grace of God. It has to be understood in a comprehensive way.
5) In the case of given freedom after Kruta Yuga, the gradual fall of justice is quite expected and this is not the will of God that justice should fall gradually. It is the natural phenomenon that the class given full freedom in the absence of teacher becomes more and more noisy as time passes on. In spite of such fall, some souls did not fall due to their efforts. If the fall is God’s will, all should have fallen. His entertainment in the alternate good and bad scenes was done by God only to help the souls in such alternate enjoyment and this can’t be a blame on God. In spite of such natural fall, He always tried to resist the fall by preaching the souls so that the souls by themselves should resist the fall hearing the advice from God. Again, here also, there is no will of God to encourage the gradual fall. Though the creation was done for His entertainment, the fall is not created by Him for His entertainment. Enjoying such fall in the entertainment is only secondary and the primary is to resist such fall frequently. The background of entertainment is not at all responsible for the fall of justice, which is due to the span of time proceeding gradually resulting in such fall. There is no contradiction in the subtle concepts appearing to interfere with each other resulting in no mutual contradiction.
6) Kalabhairava is above Yama dealing with more intensive methods and equipments to give torture to intensive sins that can’t be covered in the hell headed by Yama. In one hand of Kalabhairava, fire exists and in other hand broomstick exists indicating intensive suffering by fire in which the intensive bad qualities are swept out from the soul. Yama indicates the deity of justice surrendered to the God Shiva (Datta) in the form of a cow. Kalabhairava is an incarnation of God Shiva. God punishing the soul directly for its intensive sins is indicated by Kalabhairava. Intensive suffering in very short time or mild suffering in very long time is not the main point. The main point is how to escape from the punishment even before it is implemented. Realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin should be preached to all souls involving the permanent remedial measure instead of describing the severe procedure of punishment to create fear, which, of course, is a temporary measure only.