Posted on: 03 Feb 2018
Shri Anil asked:
1) You say that revenge shall be left to God. On the other hand you say that badness shall be opposed. How can you correlate these two?
Swami replied: Both these concepts are not mutually contradicting and you have retained both these concepts as per the context. If you are walking in your path, you may find a quarrel between two parties and you are not related to any party in anyway. Generally, people overlook such quarrels and go on their own way. This is wrong because you must oppose bad and protect good as servant of God, which is the divine quality of God. You must stop there and enquire both the parties to find out justice without any partiality since no party is related to you. You must say the justice and try to implement it if you have full capacity to do so. At least, you must express the version of justice there and try to implement it with the help of others. If you are related to one party, you must not express your version, which will be naturally biased. If it is your own case, prejudice is certain and hence, you shall not take the decision to declare justice. In such cases (your case or the case in which one party is related to you), you must follow the justice declared by neutral third party.
If you take the Ramayana, Rama being God is the affected party as well as the judge to kill Vali and Ravana. Ravana is directly involved in His case and killing Ravana is by His own judgement. Killing Ravana made Him sinner for which He had worshipped Lord Shiva in Rameshwaram. Killing Vali to get the help of Sugriva to search Sita looks also biased with selfishness. Rama received the punishment of killing Vali in His next birth. But, really Vali (who forced the wife of his alive brother to become his wife) and Ravana (who tried to force His wife) are really sinners and Rama should not have been punished. But, Rama imposed punishment on Himself (as the ultimate judge) to show that judgement should not be taken by the affected party in its own case. Only to preach this point, God appeared to be affected by both these sins. Affected parties will be careful to take judgement in their own cases thinking that even God was punished in such situation! If you take the Mahabharatam, Dharmaraja is the affected party and left the revenge to God Krishna. He is a ripened soul and wanted to avoid the war to punish the enemy in all the ways since he knows all the possibilities like: i) He might have stolen the wealth of Duryodhana in the previous birth or ii) He might have been faulty on his side (like Draupadi laughing at Duryodhana previously in Mayasabha) or iii) God Krishna will try to reform Duryodhana and will punish him as last resort if he is not reformed. Dharmaraja never took judgement by himself since it is his case and left the whole responsibility on God Krishna. For this, Dharmaraja was not punished in the hell and went to heaven with own body for his patience in leaving the ultimate course of action to God Krishna. His patience does not mean that he is supporting injustice, but, it means only his full faith on the divine administration of God. On the other hand, Draupadi burnt with full revenge, provoking her husbands to kill Duryodhana by going to war. For her revengeful attitude, God punished her by getting all her sons killed without ruling the won kingdom. Anyway, God tried His level best to reform Duryodhana and killed him as last resort. Had Draupadi been patient like Dharmaraja, her sons could have been saved by God!
Suppose you are incapable of punishing a criminal, who harmed you or your kith and kin. What is the solution in this case? Shall you go on burning with revenge throughout your life and spoil your health? If you are a ripened soul in the spiritual knowledge, you will leave the entire responsibility to God. Even when God punishes the bad soul, He is not punishing with revenge. He is punishing the soul only with love to reform it at least temporarily for the time being for the welfare of good people. Hence, the concept here is to hate the sin that harms good people and not to hate the sinner personally. You must oppose bad means that you must oppose the repetition of the sin by the enemy for the welfare of good people. You must not identify the sin with the sinner and revenge against the sinner without giving him opportunity for reformation. Moreover, you don’t know the actual background, which may be that you are now harmed by him since you harmed him in the previous birth. Hence, if you leave revenge to the omniscient God, He will decide the proper course of action, which may be necessary or not. If you analyze in the basic reality, you are not compensated in anyway by punishing your enemy. On the other hand if you are patient leaving revenge to omniscient God, you are profusely compensated. However, this does not mean that you don’t oppose the sin by your patience. On the other hand, it means that since it is your own case (or case of your people), you have left the final decision to omniscient God.
Both these concepts are mutually complementing each other based on the conditions of the context. Generally, everybody reacts in own case or in the case of related people and in such case patience is advised. Generally, if it is the case of outsiders, people show patience and leave it to God and in such case you are expected to react effectively as much as possible since you will not have any prejudice in such situation. Both these concepts should be mutually inclusive in a soul like nature of particle and nature of wave in the dual nature of electron.
2) Jesus told that He was before the old prophet Abraham. How do you explain this?
Swami replied:- Human incarnation is a single phase of two components: i) God-component and ii) human being–component. With respect to the first component, this statement is true even though with respect to the second component, Jesus was born after Abraham. Same point exists in the Gita when Krishna told that He taught knowledge to Sun, who taught it to Manu, who taught it to Ikshvaaku in course of time. Krishna as human being component was born after a long time after Ikshvaaku. But, Krishna existed even before the creation of Sun as God-component. Just like you, Arjuna asked Krishna for clarification in the same point!
3) God is associated with serpent (like Vishnu and Shiva). What is the inner meaning?
Swami replied:- Serpent denotes bad soul being poisonous. Satan is said to have appeared as serpent. A bad soul only really requires the association of God, the true spiritual preacher, as Jesus said that a patient only really requires doctor. God incarnated as Shankara turned atheists in to theists through His powerful spiritual preaching. The serpent served God Vishnu as bed. Same God Vishnu in the form of Shiva made it as ornament since it changed by serving (bearing) God. God is now bearing it as its servant after its total reformation, which indicates the super dualism. The sequence is also that God Shiva (destruction of world) is after God Vishnu (ruling the world).
4) Hindu Gods are said to have many wives. What is the significance?
Swami replied:- The Veda says that every soul is female and wife of God (striyah satih pumsah), being the product of prakruti (Para Prakruti is soul and Apara Prakruti is body). Wife (Bhaaryaa) means maintained (bhriyate iti). God is said to be Purusha or male or husband (Bhartaa) meaning the maintainer (bibharti iti). This is the inner real concept, which has nothing to do with the concept of husband and wife as existing in the souls. God Datta is said to have three wives: Saraswati, Lakshmi and Gauri. Saraswati means awareness. Lakshmi means matter and Gauri means inert energy. Gauri is said to be also the Mahaashakti since matter and awareness are forms of inert energy only. In a human being, awareness is the soul and matter with inert energy forms the body. In spiritual knowledge, you must base on the inner meaning only. External personification is told to attract common people in the beginning so that in course of time, they will note the inner meaning.
5) God asked the cursed gate-keepers whether they like to reach Him again as friends in seven births or as enemies in three births. What is the intention of God here?
Swami replied:- Jaya and Vijaya, the gate keepers of God, were cursed by sages to become demons for their egoistic behaviour. Both surrendered to God. God asked them whether they like to reach Him in seven births as friends or like to reach Him in three births as enemies. God wanted to test their real love to Him. Real love doesn’t tolerate separation for a long time. Hence, both chose to reach Him in three births only as His enemies. This is a test of real love of a serving devotee.
6) Dr. M. Meenakshi asked: “Some say that we should cross our right and left hands while prostrating to great saints etc. What is the significance of this?”
Swami replied:- Very small things need not be given much importance so that most important things are neglected. Some people have the habit of focusing such small things as very great things having lot of importance by which their intension is to pose themselves as great spiritual preachers. While prostrating to a person from the front side, your right and left sides are in reverse to his right and left sides. Your hands are crossed so that your right hand touches his right foot and your left hand touches his left foot. Right is given more importance than left indicating that right is male and left if female. The female always stands to the left of the male. Lord Krishna crossed His legs so that your crossed right hand touches His left foot. This means that He gave more importance to female than male. The male sages were made to be born as females (Gopikas) in their final birth so that the male-ego disappears in them as required for salvation. The right side of God Datta is said to be important preacher (Guru) and His left side is said to be God (Bhagavaan). The importance as preacher is only since He is God! The Gita is called as ‘Bhagavat Gita’ and not called as ‘Guru Gita’!
It is said that actions may change but not the substance (Kriyaayaam vikalpah natu vastuni). In doing a sacrifice called ‘Atiraatra’, you may see the planet called Shodashi or you may not see it (Atiraatre shodashinam gruhnaati naatiraatre shodashinam gruhnaati- Veda). This means that vision of that planet is optional and not a mandatory. This is alteration in action. In the ritual done for departed soul, while serving food to the priest, it is immaterial whether you serve the vegetable on the right side or on the left side on the leaf. The vegetable or substance should not be absent, which is the main point. People quarrel for small points like whether the vegetable is to be served on the right side or on the left side of the leaf and due to lack of conclusion stop serving the very vegetable itself! People, who are greedy in sacrificing the substance also involve in such meaningless quarrels to escape from the sacrifice! In such small points, freedom of option is always given. Deep discussions are meaningful in concluding the important concepts of spiritual knowledge.
Swami Vivekananda says “you both are quarrelling by dragging the vacant basket since the fruits in the basket have already fallen in the drainage!”