Posted on: 16 Oct 2003
Art of Living—Heart of Loving: In the word ‘living’, the second letter ‘i’ is a semi circle (when written by hand; cursive writing). If that semi-circle is made a full circle, it becomes ‘o’. Then the word ‘living’ becomes ‘loving’. Now to the word ‘art’, add the word ‘He’ in the beginning. It becomes ‘heart’. ‘He’ means God. The Veda says ‘Purushohavai’ i.e., God is the only male. So ‘He’ (masculine gender) means God alone. Thus when you add God, the semi circle of life (incomplete life) becomes full and fruitful.
The word living indicates life, which is the simply consciousness that is not associated with the world. It is only static energy. The word ‘loving’ indicates the ‘thought’, which is the consciousness associated with the world. Without thought, life is like a mere stone. A plant is a living being but what is the use of its life without any thought? Life (living) is useful when it has a blissful thought of love.
When a wave in a river dissolves (subsides), simple water results. The water is the thoughtless life energy as in a living plant. The wave in the water is like a man with thoughts. By un-cycling the thoughts (negative cycles, or canceling thoughts in meditation), you are dissolving thoughts. On dissolving thoughts, simple life energy results. This energy is like inert electrical energy. This is the state of a stone and the scriptures say that sinners are re-born as stones.
So, invite thoughts of bliss into your mind and shut down your mind when violent bad thoughts enter and disturb your peace. Peace is the absence of both bliss and worry. The dissolution of bad thoughts brings peace but not bliss. Peace is better than worry and so this dissolution process can be recommended when bad thoughts have already entered the mind. But if you can shut down your mind to the very entry of bad thoughts, this dissolution process is unnecessary. Peace should not be the ultimate goal of life. Bliss is the ultimate aim of life. The Veda says “God is Bliss” and “God is Love” (Anando Brahma, Raso vai sah). Therefore, Love is Bliss. This means that God is the ultimate goal of human life. Therefore, living should not be an art. But living should be heartfelt. Even stealing is an art and is mentioned in the sixty-four arts. Art is acting but the heart represents the sincere truth. Both bliss and love also mean life-energy because inert things cannot have bliss and love.
Therefore, open your mind only to love i.e., God, who is bliss. The happy moments of this world are also temporary and they give you a lot of worry after sometime. Suppose you love your son. That love stays in your heart. Later on when your son insults you, you feel very much worried and the cause of your worry is only your love for your son. Therefore, all the matters concerned with this world will either worry you in the beginning or at the end. So scholars close their mind to all matters of the world and open their mind to all matters of God. This is the real and permanent art of living. In a temporary art of living, the mind is closed to only those worldly matters, which are worrying in the beginning itself, while the mind is open to those worldly matters, which give happiness in the beginning. In such a temporary art of living, life ends with grief alone, since all worldly matters end only with grief.
Bliss is plus. Worry is minus. Peace is zero. The matters of God are a permanent plus. The joyful matters of the world are temporarily plus. For a person in this world, life consists of alternatively arranged plus and minus points. Let all the minus points be dissolved and be converted into zero points. The un-cycling process thus dissolves the minus points, which have already entered the mind. Closing the mind stops the new minus points that are trying to enter the mind. Now the human life consists of plus and zero points alternatively arranged. That means the person lives with bliss and peace alternatively. Peace is a good interval between two blissful moments for a man.
Now take the case of Lord Narayana, who is in the upper world. For Him every moment is blissful and so He is with infinite bliss. He gets bored and wants a negative point as an interval. The zero point cannot be an effective interval after a very long chain of plus points. Therefore, Lord Narayana came down as Rama and wept for Sita in the forest. He came down purposefully in the search of the minus point, which alone can be a good break in His case. Lakshmana advised Rama to not weep and further said, “Weeping (minus point) will not bring Sita back. It will further weaken You and You will not have sufficient energy to search for Sita”. This is the best advice for any man to stop the minus point from entering his brain. But for Lord Narayana, who came down especially in search of the minus point as an interval in His continuous bliss, this cannot be the right advice. Rama appeared as a man to eyes of Lakshmana due to His Maya and so Lakshmana out of ignorance, gave this advice to Rama thinking that Rama was a man. Lord Rama just nodded His head and smiled at the advice of Lakshmana!
Several serpents surround the pot of Divine Nectar while plain water is freely available in a well or river surrounded by pleasant flowers. Similarly, several negative points may surround God and the world may be associated with apparent plus points. Anybody would want to taste the Divine Nectar alone and not the water in the river. Similarly one should try to taste God and not the world. If you compare Krishna and Shishupala from the point of view of Princess Rukmini, Shishupala was a better match. If Rukmini had married Shishupala, she would become the Queen of Chedi (Shishupala’s kingdom) and Shishupala would be a better match because he would not marry any other lady later. He did not having any illegal affairs with other women. Krishna was famous for having illegal affairs. Such a fellow was sure to marry other ladies and so there was no guarantee that Rukmini would become the Queen of Dwaraka (the kingdom of Krishna). Chedi was a large country and Dwaraka was just a city. The parents and brothers of Rukmini discussed this matter deeply and took the decision to give Rukmini to Shishupala in marriage. The fruit of becoming the queen of Krishna was not certain. Rukmini would have to face the problems with the other wives of Krishna. In spite of these negative points, Rukmini wanted Krishna only because a Sadguru like Narada taught her about the greatness of Krishna compared to anyone else in the world.
Similarly a devotee must not expect any benefit from God, as Rukmini never aspired for the position of queen. The devotee must be prepared to suffer the negative points shown by God i.e., God may give troubles even after your worship but still the devotees must love God. The devotees must be attracted by the divine personality of God. You are attracted by the wonderful taste of divine nectar and should face all the problems like the serpents surrounding it. When a great film actor dies, the fans of that actor, commit suicide. The fan is not benefited from the film star in anyway. In fact, the fan had spent his own money for the sake of the actor. So instead of getting any benefit, he is put to a loss due to the actor. The reason for such highest love of the fan for the actor is his strongest attraction towards the personality of the actor. Similarly, the attraction towards the divine personality of God should be the reason for your worship. It should be just like your blind attraction towards your son. You have served him in his childhood. When he is grown up, he does not serve you in return but insults you instead. Yet you give all your property only to your son.
You do not show such a treatment towards God. This clearly means that God is not even equal to your son! But in your prayers, you claim that God is dearest to you. This is a lie. Thus you commit two sins. The first sin is that your highest love is not for God, as it is supposed to be. The second sin is that you claim that God is dearest to you, which is a lie. Due to this, the anger of God towards you is doubled.
Rukmini loved Krishna in spite of the negative qualities that He exhibited. After marrying Krishna, she became His servant and always pressed His feet and served Him. This means that the devotee must continue His service to God irrespective of the benefits and even in spite of troubles. Krishna was pleased by such real love proved by the selfless service of Rukmini. He gave the highest value to her. When Rukmini placed a small leaf of tulasi (a sacred plant) in the pan of the balance, that tiny leaf outweighed the Lord[1]. Rukmini purchased the Lord just by that one leaf. This shows that God gives the highest value for a sincere devotee.
The atheist says that God does not exist. For him God is nothing i.e., vacant space. This is the first stage. When he sees miracles he becomes a believer in God. He accepts God as some power or energy. The power or energy is also formless, like vacant space. So this concept of God is very close to his previous concept and thus the atheist (scientist) accepts the formless (nirakara) God very easily. The third stage is God with form (sakara). In this stage, statues in human form are introduced. The training is given to do the sixteen upacharas (services) to these statues in human form. This training indicates that one has to worship God in human form, in this way. The sixteen upacharas are actually related to the human form alone. For e.g.: the first upachara ‘aavahanam’ means ‘invitation’ and is relevant only to the human being and not to an inert statue. Now the statue in the temple is said to be better than the statue in your house. Why is it so? It is so because the ritual of life-initiation (prana pratishtha) is done for the statue in the temple. This again indicates that you have to worship the ‘statue with life’. The concept is that the inert statue plus life is equal to the human being. Therefore, worshipping the statue in the temple indicates that you have to worship the ‘statue with life’ i.e., the human form of God. Thus, you are slowly trained to worship the human form of God by the sixteen upacharas.
In this training, when your ego and jealousy are completely destroyed, the human form of God is introduced. Unless your ego and jealousy are completely destroyed you cannot accept the human form directly. So the worship of the inert statue in human form, introduces the concept of the human form, and the initiation of life (prana pratishtha) introduces the concept of the living human form. Thus, it is a gradual transformation of you by reducing your ego and jealousy. When your ego and jealousy are completely removed, the final human form of God is introduced saying that only a particular man like Lord Krishna is God. This is different from the Advaita philosophy, which extended the concept by claiming that every man is God, due to the same jealousy and ego. If every man is God, then nobody would require salvation!
Thus, when you start from vacant space you first accept God as a formless energy or power. Then you accept the human form but without life, which is a statue or idol in your house. In the same stage you accept the ‘statue with life’ in the temple, which only indicates a living human form. Finally, you catch God in the present living human form.
Whatever I have just preached here has the following best practical proof. Hanuman, the greatest of human beings in this world, worshipped Rama alone, who was a living Human Incarnation present in Hanuman’s time. Hanuman did not go down to the lower levels of worship i.e.; he never meditated upon the formless God or statues. In the Valmiki Ramayana[2] such things are not mentioned about Hanuman. He never even worshipped previous Human Incarnations like Vamana. He worshipped only the Human Incarnation (Rama) present in his generation.
Similarly, Radha never worshipped Rama but worshipped only Krishna, who was the Human Incarnation of her generation. According to the Bhagavatam, Radha never worshipped statues or the formless God. Hanuman became Brahma (the creator in the future cycle of creation) and Radha became the queen of the 15th world called ‘Goloka’ (the highest heaven). Nobody in this world will attain a better position than these two. So your spiritual journey must end in recognizing the Human Incarnation of God present in your generation.
God is impartial and so He comes down in human form in every generation. If you say that Lord Krishna was the latest Incarnation, then that generation alone was blessed by His presence and then God becomes partial. Therefore, God comes in human form in every human generation. People do not recognize Him because after the Incarnation of Krishna, ego and jealousy have been growing continuously in all human beings. Men did not recognize God when He came in human form after Krishna. After Krishna and before the final Incarnation, Kalki, is the Dark Age of Materialism (Kali Yuga). Due to the influence of the Kali, people are full of ego and jealousy and so they cannot recognize the human form of God in the Kali Yuga.
God even comes in different human forms at the same time in various levels, for the sake of devotees, who are in different levels. He comes as a school teacher for the school students (devotees who are at a low level of spiritual evolution, comparable to the school level in education), as a lecturer for the college students and as a professor for the post graduate students. Since the school students and college students are large in number he comes down as a number of school teachers and college lecturers. Such Incarnations are called as Amsha Avataras, which mean the Incarnations of a small portion of His power. The Incarnation of His radiation is called as Kala Avatara, which is the formless God like light worshipped by some believers. Light travels as waves and the Shiva Linga (which is shaped like a wave) in the temple represents this formless God. Since the post-graduate students are less in number, only one professor is needed. God comes down in the highest form as the ‘Pari Poorna Tama Avatara’ i.e., the ‘most complete and highest Incarnation’ which reveals the final true knowledge. He is called as the Sadguru (Sat-Guru) or the original Datta in the human form.
Datta exists in two forms:
The three headed form indicates Parabrahman (God), who creates, rules and destroys the universe by His three faces respectively. The other single-headed form is the external human form, in which the three-headed form exists as the internal form, but is not seen externally. This is the essence of the Eka Mukha Datta and Trimukha Datta. The school teacher shows miracles and converts the atheist into theist. The college lecturer trains the theists in the worship of statues having human forms in order to remove their ego and jealousy and to make them devotees. Lastly, the university professor gives the final true knowledge that God comes down in human form alone and that He (the professor) Himself is God.
People criticize God due to misunderstanding. God can never be criticized because whatever God does is the perfect justice. You are criticizing God with your limited knowledge. Let us take the case of Lord Rama. People criticized Him mainly in two points.
In the first sin, her words were punished by words. But in the second sin, which was more serious, her words were punished by words and action. Now why should Rama punish Sita during her life itself? Sita was the incarnation of Maha Lakshmi. She had to go to Vaikuntha Loka (heaven) directly from earth and was not supposed to go to hell. For this purpose, Lord Rama cleared her file (of karma) containing these two sins here itself.
Similarly, Lord Krishna was criticized for dancing with the Gopikas in Vrindavanam. There are two points here to be noted before you criticize Lord Krishna.
Let us go back [into history]. Krishna was Rama in the past Incarnation. The Gopikas were sages in their past births. The sages were attracted by the beauty of Rama and wanted to embrace Him in the form of ladies. Rama promised that their desire would be fulfilled when He would come as Lord Krishna in His next Incarnation. Let us go back even further. Krishna was Lord Datta. These sages were the sages living with Lord Datta. The sages were men and had families. Yet they had said that Lord Datta was their husband. There was no objection to their statement from any corner, since the sages themselves were men[4]. Lord Datta wanted to test these sages by changing the situation by making those sages as family women. So, Lord Datta incarnated as Lord Krishna. Now could the sages as family ladies say that Krishna is their husband? There would be a lot of opposition from all corners if they said so. Was the attraction of the sages for God so powerful that they could still say that? This was the test of Datta. The Gopikas passed the test. The Lord left Vrindavanam, since there was no need of re-examination. So He never returned back. He did not conduct this same test outside Vrindavanam because there was nobody else who was a devotee of that level. Therefore, Lord Krishna never danced like that, outside Vrindavanam. This test was of a very high level and was limited only to those few sages. If the Lord was of such a nature (flirtatious), then after He left Vrindavanam at the age of eighteen years, He would surely have danced with other girls elsewhere or at least returned to Vrindavanam to dance with the Gopikas. This clearly proves that the Lord was not of such a petty nature as you think.
Lord Shiva is blamed for killing Yama Dharma Raja (Angel of Death), who was bound by duty to take the life of Markandeya. People say that Shiva killed His own officer on duty due to hasty anger and then realized His mistake and had to correct His own mistake by bringing Yama back to life. Can the Lord err like this and be forced to rectify His mistake? This allegation damages the divine personality of Lord Shiva. Actually, Lord Shiva killed Yama in the case of Markandeya only to teach Yama a lesson. Earlier to this, Yama Dharma Raja gave life to Satyavan when Satyavan’s wife, Savitri, had flattered Yama by praise and had begged for her husband’s life. In doing so, Yama had violated his duty. He should not have violated his duty on being praised. Now he was so particular of his duty of taking away the life of Markandeya, although Markandeya was involved in praising and worshipping Lord Shiva at that moment! Therefore, in order to correct Yama, Lord Shiva played all this drama. In fact, Markandeya was a radiation of Shiva Himself (Kala Avatara). So, one must be very careful before criticizing God. One should have the patience to analyze and have firm faith in God and believe that whatever God does is justice.
These clarifications were not revealed so far to this world. Only today Guru Datta is revealing the truth by giving the correct explanation. Only the Sadguru, who is the Incarnation of the Lord Guru Datta can reveal such truth.
All the scriptures say that family bonds should be cut or at least reduced and that a person’s strongest bond should be with God alone. The family bonds in the case of foreigners (westerners) are very weak by themselves. They ask their children to earn and live on their own after a certain age. But Indians store their money for generations together. Why is there this difference between Indians and foreigners? The reason is that the Christian religion was thoroughly cleansed by Lord Jesus. As a result, all the impurities of their religion were washed away. People have developed divine love due to the precious preaching of the Holy Bible. They sacrifice a lot of their earnings not only for the spiritual missions in their countries but also to the spiritual missions of other countries, which proves their infinite love for God.
In the case of Hinduism such cleaning did not take place. The Hindu scriptures are in Sanskrit and the interpretations of these scriptures are limited to the a few scholars. Several misinterpretations and twists were given to the words of the scriptures. So the Hindu public is always misled. Due to this, the worship of God has just become a business to gain selfish ends. Such a situation was prevailing even in foreign countries (the lands where Christianity was born), before the Lord came in human form as Jesus. As a result of this corruption, Hindus did not develop real divine love and so they do not sacrifice to God. They concentrate on prayers by words and on meditation by mind. So God gave strong thinking power of the mind and good pronunciation of words (language) to Indians. But India was not blessed with wealth. In the case of foreign countries, there was not much meditation and not as many prayers, but they had divine love for God to sacrifice most of their earnings to God’s work. So God blessed those foreign countries with immense wealth. God will continue to bless them even in the future.
There are three strong bonds for a human being:
The bond with money is the strongest of all the three bonds since all your relatives depend on you only due to financial reasons. Vasishtha said to Rama “Dhana mulamidam jagat” which means that money is the root of this entire world. When money and God compete with each other, money alone succeeds, since people only worship God for money. They want money from God and they want to give that money to their children. Out of that money, they do not give even a little to God. Even if they give some money to God, they want several times more from God in return. If you give some money to God’s work, without aspiring for anything in return, you are viewed very highly in the eyes of God. Donation of money proves your real love. You are giving all your money to your children. So your real love is only for your children. You have served them in their childhood. When they become adults, even if they do not serve you in return or even if they insult you, you are giving all your property to them alone. But in the case of God, you are not giving even one rupee to God, doubting whether He will help you after taking this one rupee in advance. You are treating God just as an outsider. He is nowhere near your children.
Just think of the Gopikas, who gave all their stored money (butter) to Lord Krishna alone, without giving anything even to their children. Just think about Shabari, who gave her meal of fruits to Lord Rama. Just think about Kannappa, who gave his meal of flesh to Lord Shiva. All these devotees offered even the little food that they had, to the Lord without satisfying their own hunger. At Shri Kalahasti, the serpent gave its hard-earned gem to Lord Shiva and got salvation. The spider gave its web built by its own saliva, to Lord Shiva and got salvation. They offered their wealth to God without aspiring for anything in return. Kuchela was suffering with a lot of poverty. He did not ask anything from Lord Krishna. Even in that condition he offered a handful of rice to the Lord. He returned back without asking for even one rupee from the Lord. Lord gave him infinite wealth. Since Kuchela developed the real bond with God, he got infinite wealth.
The scriptures also say that your sacrifice of money is the highest.
[This discourse was given by Swami in Bombay (Mumbai)]. Once you have recognized the Lord in human form, follow Him blindly. Hanuman followed Lord Rama and served Him in His personal work of getting back Sita, who had been kidnapped by the evil king, Ravana. Lord Rama’s personal work should not be mistaken as the blind love of Rama for His wife, Sita. It was clubbed with the protection of the world since it involved the killing the evil Ravana. So you should not try to analyze God. Whatever is dear to Him is Dharma (justice) and whatever is not dear to Him is Adharma (injustice). So, do what He orders you to do. Shri Shirdi Sai even asked a Brahmin (person from the priest caste) on an ekadasi day (sacred day) to kill a goat. Yet the Brahmin was ready to do it. At the last minute Sai stopped him. He only wanted to test the faith of the person in Him.
Dharma (deity of justice) came as a cow seeking protection from Lord Datta and Datta protects Dharma. The Protector is greater than the protected. Lord Datta competes with Dharma to test your love for Him. You must prefer Him and leave Dharma. After all, the aim of Dharma is only to please Datta (God). To be grateful to the Creator of this entire universe is the highest Dharma. King Dharmaraja was ordered by the Lord to tell a lie. But Dharmaraja voted for Dharma and told the truth and so he went to hell for not obeying the Lord. Even great devotees fall down at this point. You have to give God the topmost priority.
Longevity of devotion
When you select a bridegroom for your daughter, his longevity is very important apart from his beauty and good qualities. If he does not have longevity, what is the use of his beauty and good qualities? Similarly, excellent devotion to God may exist in a devotee but how long the devotion continues at that level is the most important point in the eyes of God. Devotion, which is very high in the beginning, should continue forever.
Worldly wisdom
Worldly wisdom is good for all worldly matters, but it is not good in spiritual matters. You will win more and more in the world as you become wiser and wiser, but you are going farther and farther away from God. Old people look less wiser in worldly matters and you mock at them. You don’t know how near they are to God.
Reaction to violence
When one throws fire on you if you throw fire against him in return, can your fire extinguish the opposite fire? The fire thrown by you cannot pacify the injuries caused by your enemy’s fire on your body. The injuries caused by your fire on the body of your enemy will increase the strength of your enmity with him. If you throw water against his fire, your water can extinguish the opposite fire. The water fallen on your enemy generates repentance in your enemy and the enmity ends forever. A scholar shows love as an answer to violence. An ignorant person shows anger as an answer to anger.
The Human Incarnation is God all the time
The bulb glows when you put on the switch. When there is no necessity, the switch is put off and there is no current flowing in the bulb. Similarly, the Human Incarnation is associated with the power of God whenever it is necessary. At other times, He remains simply as a human being. But even in that stage He is God because at that time, He sacrifices Himself for the sufferings of His devotees. When He remains as a human being He attracts the sins of His devotees and undergoes sufferings. For such sacrifice, He is called ‘Datta’. Datta means He who has sacrificed Himself for the sake of others. Therefore, the Human Incarnation continues to be God at all times. He is either associated with the power of God or He is sacrificing Himself for the sins of His devotees.
Knowledge is the full form of God
You think that the Human Incarnation has great power when He performs miracles and has less power when He preaches the knowledge. This is wrong. While preaching the divine knowledge He is fully God; like a thousand-watt bulb. He is like a zero-watt bulb while performing miracles. Therefore, even petty people are able to get the powers to do miracles. But they cannot attain divine knowledge. While preaching to both the Kauravas and Arjuna, Lord Krishna was fully God (Viswarupam state). When mere scholars preach bookish knowledge they are also like zero-watt bulbs. The divine knowledge preached by the Human Incarnation is called ‘Prajnanam’ or ‘true knowledge’ according to the Veda. Prajnanam means the knowledge that is not possible for any human being to preach. Scholars are called Gurus. The Human Incarnation alone is the Sadguru. ‘Sat’ (‘Sad’) means God. Sadguru means God in the form of Guru.
The three tests
Love for God is called devotion (bhakti). Love for worldly things is called love (prema). The basic meaning is same for both love and devotion. There are three strongest worldly chains.
These three bonds are called ‘ishanas’. Datta (God) competes with these three bonds in His tests. One cannot reach even the outer gate of Lord Datta if one fails in these three tests.
Respect and love
You respect your parents because you are receiving some benefits from them at present and you expect to receive more benefits in the future. However, you love your wife and children because you are giving your earnings to them. Therefore, when you aspire for something from God you can be said to respect Him. When you sacrifice something to God without any aspiration in return, you can be said to love Him. God likes love and not mere respect. Such love, which involves sacrifice alone, and not any aspiration for benefit from God, is called as real devotion. Try to convert all your respect into love for God. This means that you should sacrifice for God’s work and not aspire for anything from God in return.
[1] There was an incident in which Lord Krishna’s other wife, Satyabhama, was going to make a donation to sage Narada, of gold equal in weight to her husband, Lord Krishna. All the ornaments and gold of Satyabhama could not equal the weight of Lord Krishna but He allowed one tulasi leaf given by the devoted Rukmini to be heavier than Himself.
[2] The original historical epic as recorded by sage Valmiki. Subsequently, a number of scholars and saints have re-written the Ramayana with some modifications and from different perspectives. However, the Valmiki Ramaya remains the most authentic record of the life of Lord Rama and His devotees including Hanuman.
[3] When Lord Rama defeated and killed the demon-king Ravana and His beloved wife Sita was finally freed, before Rama accepted her, she was made to pass through fire, to prove that she was chaste even after being held captive by Ravana for a long time. This was done by Lord Rama to prove her chastity to the public, who had serious doubts in their minds about her purity. In spite of publically proving her purity, some time later, doubts and rumours about her began to spread in the kingdom. Finally, in order to maintain law and order in the kingdom, Lord Rama was forced to send her into the forest.
[4] Since the sages were men themselves, their merely accepting Lord Datta as their husband in mind, could raise no objection since there was no possibility of really accepting Him as their husband.