Posted on: 10 Mar 2018
Shri Balaji asked: Namaste Swamiji,
1) Kindly clarify on the path of chanting or singing about divine names of God. Many preachers nowadays are saying this is the best path to attain God's grace. I have forwarded a related message I received on Whassap.
[Title: 'Nama Margam' (the Path of the Divine Name)
Author: Sri Charansingh ji Maharaj
Publisher:Radhaswami Satsanga, Beas
*Sri Charansingh ji Maharaj says*,
"The matchstick has fire within it. But we are not able to see it, and so not able to make use of the fire. We will not be able to see the fire as long as we do not scratch the matchstick against the match box walls by discovering this fact using our intellect.
*In the same way, Nama always rings in our hearts. It rings in the hearts of the Sadhus just as it does, in the hearts of bandits. There is no discrimination based on place, caste, religion etc*.
Different Mahans from different places, castes and religions have tried to induce in us, the quest to attain the only spiritual concept namely, the Divine Name. It is the same 'Nama' that Sikhs term as 'Hari Kirtan', Sages call as 'Rama Nama', Islamic preachers call as 'inner voice' and the Christ calls as 'plasms'.
*Just as fire is hidden in the matchstick, the Lord has hidden the treasure of Nama within us and has given the its secret to our Guru*.
*Rather than reading different texts using our mind and intellect, the only way to attain God is by surrendering unto the lotus feet of Mahatmas, getting the Upadesa and performing Nama Japa continuously.*
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Keep Chanting the Mahamantra and leave the rest to him.
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.
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Sincerely, Balaji.]
Swami replied:- Remembering the name of the Lord brings His personality to your memory immediately. Repeating the same name again and again doesn’t bring any inspiration and in fact it results in boring. If I repeat your name continuously in your ear, are you not bored and will you not get headache? Devotees repeat the name of God again and again in doing penance for boons. The continuous repetition of the same name brings headache to God and He appears granting the boon in order to get the relief from headache! This is derived from experience. Instead of repeating your name in your ear constantly, if I praise various qualities projected in various contexts pertaining to your multifaceted personality, you will feel happy and will not be bored. Even I get inspired by the various divine qualities of your personality. I am taking you as an example here so that you can realize the truth through experience. Experience is the ultimate validity of an authority (Anubhavaikavedyam). In the Narada Bhakti Sutras, this aspect of hearing various stories of the divine personality of God is said to be one way of inspiration. Sahasranaama or chanting thousand names of God is better than chanting a single name because each name projects a divine quality of His personality. If one is singing the single name continuously there must be two reasons for his continuity:- i) The boon that is to be granted by the God is making him to fix in single name. Such devotion is impure. ii) The sweet voice and attractive music of the song may fix your mind in singing the single name. In this path, the sweetness of the song is the main factor and not the devotion to God. Of course, something is better than nothing. Such singing single name is far far better than atheism!
Somebody told (as you mentioned) that enquiry in to deep knowledge is of no use. Knowledge is the fundamental stage for any issue. Even if you take a worldly issue like admission of your kid into best school, you will enquire about various schools and collect the information of various academic aspects of each school. You will discuss with your friends and relatives regarding the merits and defects of each school and finally come to a conclusion. Once you conclude that a specific school is the best, you will develop inspiration regarding the admission. Knowledge leads you into devotion or inspiration. The inspiration leads you to take up various practical steps of admission. Devotion leads you in to practice in which knowledge is implemented in practice or service. First, Shankara appeared and stressed on knowledge. Then, Ramanuja appeared and stressed on devotion. Then, Madhva appeared and stressed on service (Prapatti). All the three steps are important. If knowledge is absent, your inspiration is blind and practice leads you to wrong goal. If devotion is absent, there is no force to transform knowledge in to practice. If practice is not there, the fruit is not achieved. Practice is the mango plant that yields fruit. The devotion is the manure that helps the plant to grow. Knowledge is the water that makes the plant alive. Hence, every stage is equally important and absence of any stage will not give the fruit. Some people praise a specific stage, which is not wrong. But, they abuse other stage as useless. That shows lack of the basic knowledge in their minds. It is just like a blind man catching the leg of elephant and saying that elephant is like a pillar! A person, who sees the entire elephant, accepts the importance of all the limbs of the elephant. The spiritual effort is always comprehensive and needs all observation, analysis and understanding. Three divine preachers have written wonderful commentaries on scriptures discussing every point very deeply in various contexts. Do you think that all their efforts are waste? Only a person lazy in analyzing the subject of spiritual knowledge says like this. Sage Narada told that all practical efforts must be surrendered to God in true devotion (Tadarpitaakhilaachaarataa). Practical is the real proof of theory and theory is the mother of practical. For a student of spiritual science, both theory and practical are important to reach the right goal in time.
Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, Kindly give answer to the following
1) A person who is vegetarian, is employed in a meat cutting factory. Will he get sin due to this profession and need to change the job?
Swami replied:- If there is a chance to change the job, it is always the best if the concept is understood by him. God will certainly help him in changing the job. The influence of the work on the mind is inevitable. He can continue under inevitable circumstances and he will not be attached to the sin under such unavoidable situation to earn the livelihood, which is the basic requirement of life. Mind is very important factor in the concept of good deed or sinful deed.
2) Is eating egg also to be shunned to remain pure vegetarian?
Swami replied:- Eating the egg from which there is possibility of child coming out of it is a sin.
3) In the west in their culture sexual relationships are very loose, will God forgive them since it a part of their culture?
Swami replied:- Ethics is always universal irrespective of culture of any country. Hell and heaven are also universal running on the same divine Law. The human law may differ from one country to other. But, the divine law is one and the same for the entire humanity. The basic ethical rules are one and the same for any human being.
4) A married person employed abroad came across a women who was having certain psychological problems while assisting her coming out of the problem, she become pregnant, however, it was later aborted. The person later returned to India and cut contact with the women. The women tried to contact his wife and him. He forcefully avoided her. Now he is in a fix and is repenting about the entire episode. He seek spiritual advise in this case. at Your Lotus feet, anil
Swami replied:- Both the parties know all the details of the case. The repenting person being a party knows the details of every bit of the incident that took place and hence, is the best judge. His inner voice will speak about the justice. When sin is committed, the sin may have the scope of rectification or compensation. Ravana stole the wife of Rama and Duryodhana stole the property of Dharma Raja. Both these sins are rectifiable and hence, should be rectified. If the rectifiable sin is not rectified, mere realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin can’t cancel the punishment of the sin. Ravana killed Jataayu and this is not rectifiable because Ravana can’t bring back the life of Jataayu. In such case only, realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin will cancel all such sins done. If there is a way of rectification or compensation, mere repentance and non-repetition of sin will not cancel the pending sins. Theory becomes valid only if the practical proves it.