Posted on: 20 Aug 2017
Dr. K. Sudershan Rao (Doctor in Global Hospitals, Hyderabad) asked: Your answer contains perfect logic. But, the problem is that we have heard this way of doing rituals since from our childhood from our elder forefathers. How to discard this suddenly?
Swami replied: My main point is that you shall examine with your own maximum capable analysis both logics of My answer and the sayings of our forefathers. After deciding, which is correct logic that alone can establish the truth, one may immediately realize and practice it. Others may realize and practice after sometime only. Once you hear something, you should analyze and then come to the decision (shrotavyo, mantavyo, nididhasitavyah… Veda). The second stage of your analysis contains two stages: 1) Analysis with the help of debates and also 2) once you decide the truth, you have to memorize the true concept again and again till you come to the stage of decision, which is nothing but implementation. In some cases, this memorization is not necessary since decision comes as soon as truth is found out. In these cases, the strength of the impression of ignorance by false preachers is very less, which is immediately vanishing as soon as the truth is found out. In some other cases, the impression of ignorance is very strong and hence, memorization of truth is essential. Less dosage of medicine is sufficient if the illness is weak. Long dosage of medicine is required if the illness is strong. Arriving at true knowledge in the first step is important because if wrong knowledge is memorized, the danger is very much severe.
Regarding the long time of duration taken for the standing of a concept, the long time has no validity. When Shankara condemned the part of rituals without understanding the meaning and essence of the scripture read in it (karma marga) as argued by Mandana Mishra, this point of long standing part of ancestors was also raised by Mandana Mishra. Shankara replied, “In a closed room, darkness is existing from several years having long-standing strength, which is valid in the case of a tenant residing in your house. Once you open the window, one ray of the sun entering through the window will destroy all the long-standing darkness. The sun-ray entered and stayed in the room just for a fraction of a second only. Hence, long-standing can’t establish the validity of ignorance.” Knowing the knowledge of the scripture is jnana marga of Shankara. Apart from knowing the real essence of scripture (jnana), preparation and supply of food in the interval of seminar (karma marga) is also valid and thus, both jnana and karma together is the real total picture of both parts as proposed by Kumarilabhatta (Jnana-karma Samuchchaya Vada), which is complete. Shankara condemned the karma marga by dravya yajna alone without the association of jnana marga in it and this is the present state of rituals done by us! Kumarilabhatta heard the philosophy of Shankara and appreciated it. He asked Shankara to visit his disciple Mandana Mishra, who is following the karma marga alone without jnana marga. Similarly, you can’t argue that majority of the followers also contribute validity. Suppose hundred blind men are walking one after the other since the back person is always thinking that his front guide is not a blind man, all these hundred men will fall into the well (andhenaiva... Veda). Hence, the validity of the concept regarding this truth can be decided only by your logical analysis and if necessary, taking the help of debates with others, which can’t be decided by the mere long-standing time of it and the majority following it.
In fact, all the rituals are expected to be ultimately the seminars of spiritual knowledge (jnana yajna), which alone pleases God as per the Gita because it alone can give the right direction to the souls in their practice. The duty of the priest is to read the scripture and give its meaning (artha) called as Swaadhyaaya Yajna. Then, the priest is expected to give the essence (bhava) in depth so that devotion on God shall be increased. The priest is not doing his duty at all. He is reciting the scripture without knowing even any trace of its meaning, who neither himself knows nor can explain it to others. The priest is spending very long time to recite the scripture like a tape recorder in the ritual and he is spending several years for doing this mechanical recitation and his brain stopped functioning and analysis is impossible for him! Recitation was also done in ancient days by sages to preserve the scripture and also to avoid insertions, but enquiry of meaning in depth was also done by them. Today, such requirement is not present at all. The priest can read the printed book of the scripture and can explain it for long time by going into deeper and deeper depths so that the doer of the ritual along with his invited friends and relatives can clarify their doubts so that their devotion becomes more and more firm. The food is cooked and served in the interval, which is basically essential to supply energy to the brain. This is the total true picture of any ritual called as yajna or sacrificing food in conducting the spiritual seminar. By such supply of food, the ritual becomes dravya yajna, which is the karma yoga consisting of sacrifice of fruit and work by cooking. This practical sacrifice is given lot of importance and hence, 80 percent of the Veda is involved in explaining the lighting of the fire and doing the process of cooking the food. The whole ritual becomes sheer waste like pouring scent in ash if the ritual is done as mere supply of food and reading the scripture without knowing even the basic meaning as done today. The ritual has become horrible when the ghee is burnt in physical fire, which is lit for cooking the food with ghee (frying). These blind tape recorders (middle-age priests) have taken the word ‘ghee’ in the sense of pure ghee and have taken the word ‘fire’ in the sense of physical fire and burnt ghee in physical fire adding to various causes of pollution in the environment, damaging the welfare of humanity like demons! The word ‘ghee’ stands for ghee-fried food and the word ‘fire’ stands for hunger-fire in a human body. This true meaning is followed by the entire universe irrespective of caste, gender, religion and nativity since everybody tries to give food to a hungry person. These priests have forbidden others to do their false interpretation and restricted it to themselves only. This means that God protected innocent people from falling in the pit dug by these ignorant priests, who made themselves to fall in their own pit dug by themselves and become losers! In the ancient age, sages enquired the meaning of scripture deeply and propagated it to public on the occasions of rituals apart from preserving it by recitation due to lack of sufficient printing technology. Now, there is no need of recitation since the Vedas are well-preserved as printed books and insertions are impossible in a printed book. A long period of middle-age was just above our heads in which these blind priests have established this misinterpreted Vedic tradition and this long middle age is the reason for us to tell that we are in this confined tradition from a long time. Truth is always universal and protected by God and falsehood is always protected by ignorance and confined (conservative) like a pit containing a few fallen diggers of the pit!
Shri Durgaprasad asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, You have explained about Dharma Sukshma with some practical examples. It is possible to know dharma grossly, but it is very difficult to know dharma sukhsma for all possible situations. How to know it and implement it in the present time? Kindly enlighten me.
Swami replied: If you understand the basic concept or philosophy of dharma and dharma sukshma, you can apply it to any situation very easily. Dharma means the general rule, which contains lower core of Dharma and highest plane of Dharma. The highest plane should always be protected. In doing so, any lower dharma can be violated, if necessary. The highest plane contains non-violence, which is not to cause any type of suffering and loss to good and righteous people in the world (ahimsaa paramo dharmah). This does not mean that you can kill anybody by giving anesthesia, by which the good person does not suffer! You should not kill a good person even giving anesthesia since you are causing loss of life for a good person, who can do good to this humanity and also use his life to progress spiritually. Hence, you should not cause suffering or loss to a good person at any cost. For this purpose, you can violate any other lower dharma like speaking truth, not cheating, not stealing, etc. This conclusion looks quite satisfactory to our inner consciousness also and hence, here, the logic is supported by good experience. Apart from causing suffering and loss to good people, God is also pained by such sins and displeasing God is not liked by any devotee belonging to pravrutti or Nivrutti apart from the suffering caused by punishment of the sin. The devotee of Nivrutti never bothers about the suffering, but bothers a lot for the displeasure of his beloved God. A devotee of Nivrutti does not bother about the suffering caused in the service of God and this should not be extended to the suffering from punishment of a sin.
But, the whole problem is with people, who try always to exploit the rules by misinterpretations so that they can be benefited actually by doing injustice and at the same time escape from the punishments of injustice by colouring the injustice to appear as justice with the help of their perverted over-intelligence! With the help of advocates, who do the profession just for money, such people may escape the punishments from courts, but not from the punishments of omniscient and omnipotent God.
Rama killed Vali by hiding Himself behind a tree since Vali has a boon to become stronger than the opponent facing him in the fight. For protecting a righteous person like Sugriva, Rama violated the lower dharma of war. A clever wicked person will say that an actually good person to be bad (being his enemy) with the help of his over-intelligence and capability of twisting the logic. After proving his enemy to be bad, he will say that stabbing him from back is not wrong because destruction of injustice (bad person) by violating justice is correct as in the case of Rama killing Vali. He supports his backstabbing since the enemy is very strong and can’t be stabbed from front and compares himself to Rama! In the case of Rama, really, ends justified means. But, in the case of this crooked person, this statement is exploited through misinterpreting the white as black. To control such exploitations, the above statement is contradicted by another statement, which says that means justify ends. In order to check such exploitations only, Rama supported the second statement and hence, concluded Himself to be a sinner and got Himself punished in the next birth as Krishna. While doing the analysis of justice and injustice, the Veda says that you should know:
Even though Rama followed justice and condemned injustice in a perfect way, He got punished Himself so that no exploitations can result with the help of misinterpretations coming from crooked over-intelligence. The only way is application of the torchlight of logical analysis, which is aided by the battery called as taking the help of a good debate with scholars before arriving at the final truth. Such analysis of good deeds (dharma) and bad deeds (adharma) is a three-dimensional complicated network involving so many parameters based on the situations (gahanaa karmano gatih… Gita). One should follow the utmost basic principle that one should not accept anything for practice unless his/her inner consciousness is totally and completely satisfied with the truth of a concept that is to be concluded by sharp analysis of own intelligence and supported by debates and discussions with other intellectuals also, if necessary.
Dr. Balaji asked: Namaste Swamiji, Kindly clarify the following question on observance of the Shraddha ritual.
[In one of my relative's family, the Shraddha ritual is not being conducted due to negligence, lack of belief and some arrogance. Their entire family and children's family is constantly affected with problems and lack of peace of mind for many years. Some well wishers remarked that non-observance of the Shraddha ritual is leading to difficulties in the family and they have to do it whether they believe in it or not.
Kindly elaborate on the above point whether atheists and people with low level of belief in God, even after avoiding serious sins like Violence and Stealing, should at the minimum do these mandatory rituals to maintain peace and prosperity in their lives. Sincerely, Balaji]
Swami replied: Doing justice gives benefits here as well as there. Doing injustice (sin) gives punishments here as well as there. Not doing justice will end in the loss of benefits but not in getting punishments. Not doing injustice will end in the loss of punishments but not in getting benefits. You must differentiate between: 1) Doing justice and not doing justice and 2) Doing injustice and not doing injustice. Not doing justice is not doing injustice always because an incapable person unable to protect justice will not be punished. But, if the person is able to protect the justice and is not protecting justice, it is equal to doing injustice and hence, will be punished. When Draupadi was insulted by Dushshaasana in the court, capable people like Bhishma and Drona kept silent and hence were punished in the war while other incapable ordinary members, who also were silent spectators, were not punished. This point was projected by Lord Krishna while speaking in the court as a Messenger. The innocent army is punished with deaths because it supported the highest injustice (Kauravas) by protecting the lower justice that employee should obey the employer. Drona was punished with instantaneous death for the same reason. Bhishma was punished with long suffering (agony on the bed of arrows) of death since in his case, the employer-employee relationship did not exist. He supported the injustice simply because of his personal promise that he will protect anybody on the throne. It is a personal reason without any external force and this personal reason is also not correct because he should protect the person on the throne following justice only. Lot of analysis is done by God in deciding the fruits for a deed and hence, God never errs like a human being.
Applying this basic logic to the cases mentioned by you, the atheists were not doing the rituals due to lack of faith in any unimaginable point and also in the unimaginable source called as God. They are justified as far as the logic related between faith on a concept and its subsequent practice are concerned. Since their faith in the absence of unimaginable domain is fundamentally wrong, they are supposed to receive the punishment here as well as there since their basic faith and logic are totally wrong. These atheists enjoy the creation of God and negate the very existence of God and such ungratefulness is the highest sin (ungratefulness is the highest among the five horrible sins as per the scripture). By mistake, you may believe fire as water and try to put your hot hand in fire in order to cool your hand. Will your hand be cooled since your faith on the fire as water is supporting your action? Since your such faith is actually and basically wrong, your hand will be burnt more. Hence, the atheists not doing these rituals are to be punished here and there. Up to this point, the logic is perfectly correct. These atheists are not doing these justified rituals even though they are capable of doing these rituals. They are not doing these rituals (in the true sense and not in the false way) because of their poverty. Hence, not doing justice, even though capable, is doing injustice only and hence, these atheists must be punished. However, if any atheist is very poor and is unable to do the ritual, he shall not be punished since it is the case of incapability in doing justice. For that matter, even a theist incapable of doing these rituals due to severe poverty must also not to be punished. In the case of poverty, the whole case is tilted because the reason for not doing the ritual is poverty only and not the lack of faith in the unimaginable God in the case of theist. Such a real poor theistic person unable to do the ritual practically will do the ritual at least theoretically since faith on unimaginable God exists in the ultimate basis. But, in the case of an atheist, the non-performing tendency in the ritual is not poverty at all, but the lack of faith in unimaginable God and hence, the basic severe punishment is inevitable. If the ritual is performed in true sense by sacrifice to deserving persons, even though it is not the day of demise of the departed soul, the departed soul along with the doer is benefited due to the good sacrifice. Even if the ritual is performed on the day of demise by sacrifice to undeserving people, such a ritual becomes a sin resulting in the punishment of the doer and the departed soul. Sacrifice to deserving receiver is the life of entire ritual and the priest becomes deserving only if the ritual is done in its true sense, which is propagation of spiritual knowledge and devotion.
All the above analysis is a two-dimensional network of justice and injustice in the case of theists and atheists. The following peculiar conclusion comes when a third parameter enters and makes this as a three-dimensional network. The third wonderful parameter is that the present way of doing the rituals by theists also is totally wrong. Now, the point is that the atheist is not doing a ritual in the usual false way. It becomes an interaction between two negatives that brings the final positive result! Does this mean that the atheist not doing the ritual in false way also is equal to a theist not doing the same ritual due to poverty? Though the non-practice of ritual is common in both cases, the basic reason is different. In the case of an atheist, the basic reason is lack of faith in unimaginable God only and not the poverty or false way of the ritual. In the case of theist, the basic reason is poverty and not lack of faith in the unimaginable God. In anyway, the atheist is punished for this basic reason of atheism and a separate punishment for not doing the ritual need not be invoked on him. When the atheist is cooked in boiling oil in the hell, why should you bother about the punishment of pouring hot oil for not doing the ritual due to some ignorance or arrogance of a theist (which is less sin and not the highest sin of atheism)? The arrogance and ignorance of a theist can be rectified by the lesser punishments here. The arrogance and ignorance of an atheist can’t be rectified by small punishments here since the basis is the very atheism itself. For this basic strongest sin, equally strongest and eternal punishment will come to the atheist.
Let us take the theist doing the ritual in false way and an atheist doing the essence of ritual by feeding a hungry beggar. The atheist is doing the ritual in essence whereas the theist is not doing the same ritual in its true meaning. The result of punishment is changed in the sense that the theist is punished for doing the ritual in wrong way and the atheist is awarded for doing the same ritual in the true sense. Not only atheists, women and certain castes are forbidden from not doing this ritual in false way (luckily by the grace of God!) and they also do the ritual in true sense and get awards from God. However, the punishment of theist is always lesser than the basic punishment of an atheist in any case because theist is not doing the ritual in true sense due to the ignorance established and impressed on their minds by the middle age false priests. Due to this, the punishment is less, but, the benefit of doing the ritual in true sense is not achieved by the theist. Loss of benefit is also a type of loss only just like the loss of loss is also a type of benefit only! The atheist may have this little benefit of little loss of punishment, which is negligible before the topmost punishment for the atheism. The topmost punishment of atheist is suffering of the soul in the liquid fire of the hell forever.
Remember one basic important point that the atheist is not punished simply for the lack of his faith in the unimaginable God. Setting aside the ungratefulness to God, the atheist always does lot of sins because really, there is no basic controlling factor on such soul either due to fear for hell as in the case of pravrutti-devotee or due to devotion to God as in the case of Nivrutti-devotee (bhaya or bhakti). Both fear to hell and devotion to God together can be applicable in the case of intermediate devotees between pravrutti and nivrutti. Even though both these (fear and devotion) exist, the theists are doing sins and hence, these two controlling factors have very little effect even on theists. Can we believe the achievement of control of sin even though theism is absent, when the control of sin is not perfectly achieved in spite of the fear for hell and love to God in theism? An atheist arguing the possibility of not doing sins is hypocrisy (and cheating public to create good impression about himself for the facility of exploiting others in future only) because any atheist will be attacked by a million-dollar question, “If I escape the courts here, what is the harm to me if I do sin and enjoy here ?”. This question can never come to a theist and hence, at least some control is expected. The false interpretations of ignorant preachers are also responsible to damage the control of sins in theism. The false interpretation is that the sin can be cancelled by the grace of God and if God is worshipped theoretically or practically also, God is pleased to shower the grace on the sinner! The real interpretation is that the results of deeds are inevitable and the Creator of the rule Himself will not break His own rule. If He breaks His own rule, He will be viewed as mad by constant spectators like divine sages. Even in the case of a very exceptional devotee of Nivrutti, God undergoes the punishment suffering like a soul without using unimaginable power, which is not known to such topmost devotee since if known, the devotee will not agree and gets pained so much that the pain is greater than the pain of the punishment! In view of this, God undergoes his punishment without informing him.
All this analysis involves lot of concepts of Mathematics like plus and minus values, which, I suppose will please a brilliant Mathematician like you!