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The real Nivrutti (complete detachment from the entire world) comes only when you are attached to the creator existing in the human form in your generation. The attachment to the soul is not at all Nivrutti because the self is with in the world only. Thus the Advaitins are in Pravrutti only by the self-attainment and simultaneous detachment from the world. The other devotees of energetic forms on this earth are in the Nivrutti, no doubt, but cannot attain the highest fruit due to their jealousy and egoism resulting in the repulsion between common...
[Message on Dasara, Day-10] Today, Shiridi Sai Baba left His divine body due to a disease transferred on to Him from His devotee. Such decease is like the poison taken by a person, who commits suicide. Does this mean that Baba committed suicide? It was not the natural death. The death of Himself was executed by Himself. This point should be clarified to the people, who commit suicide in the world. The person committs suicide by the disturbance created by the illness that entered the body or by some other stress in the external world. This disturbance or stress is the fruit of his own sins and he himself is responsible for his own sins through his own samskaras. But, the illness in the body of Baba was not of that type. Sometimes a person may compare...
[Message on Dasara, Day-9] The three qualities are not distinguished in the spiritual path by God as long as the possessor of these three qualities does not disturb the balance of the society, which is the stage for the divine play of the God. Scriptures say that all the three qualities co-exist always and never a single quality can be isolated. For God, all the three qualities are one and the same, which are created by Him only. These three qualities bring variety in the divine play by combining with each other in different proportions causing multi-natured scenes. These are just like three basic colors, which are mixed in various proportions to develop various shades. All the spiritual preachers have predomination of Sattvam...
[Message on Dasara, Day-5] The soul is the weakest form of energy in this creation. The nervous system can be easily burnt by even little heat (fire). The awareness flows in such tender nerves and is therefore, weaker than even a little bit fire. Such weakest form of energy (soul) is imagining itself to be the strongest energy (Brahman; assuming that Brahman is understood as strongest energy), which controls even the sun as per the Veda. Fire, which can burn the nerves very easily, could not burn even a dry grass blade when God did not wish! In that case, I am unable to understand how can this weakest soul do anything without the grace of God! When the soul becomes absolute zero by this knowledge, it will completely surrender to God...
[Message on Dasara,Dasara, Day-4] The Advaitin says that by attaining the self [atman or soul], which is just pure awareness, one attains infinite bliss. This is absurd since it contradicts practical experience. In every living being, the soul (pure awareness) exists but every soul is not blissful. If you say that the impurity in the soul hinders the bliss, one can easily achieve the pure awareness at least temporarily during meditation with a little practice. In such meditation, peace is experienced but not bliss. Peace is not bliss. Zero is not plus. Even zero may appear as plus relatively with respect to minus. But with respect to plus, zero is relatively...
Observer (O): I cannot understand these discussions. You can give me the final conclusions like this: God is unimaginable and comes down through a human form called human incarnation. The ordinary human soul is not God by itself. What is the use of all these hectic discussions? We shall search for the human incarnation whose sign is the divine knowledge and serve Him to our best to get His grace. This is the essence in nutshell which is sufficient for us.
Respondent (R): If these conclusions are accepted by all without any variation, there is no need of any debate. But several people are deriving conclusions in different ways. Some body says that God is formless like space. Some body says that He is the energetic form. Some body says that He is the ordinary individual soul. We say that the God is unimaginable...
Petitioner (P): You have to speak every spiritual concept within the limits of the scripture (Veda) based on ancient Indian logic alone. Do not bring science in o philosophy.
Mediator (M): Ancient Indian logic is as good as science. The Mithya Vada is exactly same as the present theory of relativity.
Respondent (R): Logic and science deal with the same subject, which is the study of the analysis of various items of the world. In the ancient logic also they were referring to experimental proof in the name of experience (Anubhava). The only difference between science and logic is that science needs experimental proof in every step, whereas in ancient logic (Tarka) the experimental proof is inadequate. Therefore, certain points like propagation of sound in vacuum as per the ancient logic...
In a spiritual discussion, the two persons discussing, should have co-operation with each other because both of them are jointly searching for the truth. Thus the person questioning and the person answering are building up the search and their common aim should only be to find the truth. Whoever finds the truth should not feel like a winner and the other person should not feel like a runner-up (loser). Both are equal and responsible for finding the truth. Both the runner-up and winner are rewarded with prizes equally. Unless Arjuna had asked questions...
Knowledge and God: Spiritual knowledge or philosophy (Vedanta) is generally based on logic (Tarka). God is certainly above logic and thus logic cannot touch Him (Naisha Tarkena—Veda). Nobody can show God by pointing with a finger. The Veda clearly states that God is beyond words, mind, intelligence and logic and the best way of explaining about God is silence. If that is so, there is no necessity of spiritual knowledge, because God cannot be known or imagined. Then what is the use of all these scriptures? Why are there so many discussions and debates? Lord Yama says in the Veda that angels and sages are still discussing about God and have concluded that God is unknowable. Here unknowable means unimaginable even by logic...
Parabrahman—Beyond Brahman: The meaning of the word Brahman is ‘greatest’. Any greatest item within the boundaries of a category can be called as Brahman. In the Veda food (Annam), life (Prana), mind (Manas), Intelligence (Vijnana), bliss (Ananda) etc. are called as Brahman within the limits of certain specified categories. Awareness, due to the quality of knowledge is also called as Brahman. In the Gita, the greatest scripture (Veda) is called as Brahman. The greatness is estimated by not only the quantity but also by the quality. Inert energy, which is all-pervading and which is the material causing creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe is called as Brahman in the quantitative sense. Awareness or the soul is called as Brahman...
Realized Soul: If you can learn from God regarding His state of continuous entertainment from the creation containing both pleasant and tragic scenes, you have become God in this very important aspect. God’s super power and producership of the world etc are not at all required. The spectatorship and entertainment is the only essence of this creation (Ekaki na ramate—Veda). The spectator of the ‘movie’ can enjoy equally with God even though the spectator has not produced the movie [creation]. The producership of the movie has no relevance to the enjoyment. In this aspect, the soul and Brahman become one and the same (Advaita). When the sole purpose of the creation is entertainment...
Superimposition: You have introduced the concept of superimposition in that the person mistakes the body for the soul (Dehatmabhranti). By analysis, you have removed the illusion of misunderstanding the body for the soul. But you are captured by another most dangerous illusion that is mistaking the soul for God (Brahman), which can be called as ‘Atmabrahmabhranti’. Both these superimpositions are similar. An illusion or superimposition is born, based on one common property. When you see the rope in mild darkness [dim light or twilight], the physical appearance (the length, movement by air etc), which is the common property between the rope and a snake...
The logic [tarka shastra] shows four types of authorities [valid means of knowledge] to decide any point. The first is perception (Pratyaksham), in which anything is directly experienced through senses in this world. The second is inference (Anumanam), in which anything is inferred based on a characteristic sign. For example, smoke is coming from a mountain and fire is inferred. In this authority also the perception is the basis because the relationship between fire and smoke is already perceived in the kitchen. The third authority is simile (Upamanam), in which an unseen...
Chit [awareness] is gold and Jnanam is a wonderful design expressed in that gold. All the value is for that wonderful ornament and not for the lump of gold present in it. Brahman means great. The greatness is of that ornament and not of gold. A lady is attracted to the ornament but a businessman sees only the weight of the gold. Similarly an ignorant person thinks that chit is Brahman where as a realized scholar thinks that a great preacher with exceptional knowledge like Shankara is Brahman. Chit is the awareness present in every living being...
Such entertainment is not full because the knowledge of Himself continues and it is not removed completely. The ignorance is like the dim light of the evening in which light and darkness are mixed. But the soul is in complete ignorance and is fully entertained. The ignorance is very intense so that the soul forgets even the concept of entertainment. A producer with the film is Brahman. A producer seeing the cinema is Ishwara. An actor who is seeing the cinema is a realized soul. But this actor is neither the producer nor the director...
[The following is a discourse given in response to questions asked by Nikhil as to why there is no uniformity in the preachings of different human incarnations as regards the ultimate goal. Even if they preach at different levels, can they not all agree on what the ultimate goal is? All science teachers, teaching at different levels, universally accept the highest concept in their science even though they may be teaching a lower concept to their students.]
Every human incarnation knows the whole truth and the whole concept because the same God enters every human body in the case of each human incarnation. The revelation of the complete or partial truth depends on the level of the human beings who receive that knowledge. For a scholar, revelation of the whole truth is sufficient...
From the beginning of the creation of this world, man was searching for God. Some people were satisfied by realizing the existence of God, which was experienced by them through some items of creation and through some important incidents in life. They never claimed that they have detected God [known Him completely]. They had only analyzed the entire creation and found that no item of the creation is God. They declared that nobody could detect God [know His real nature]. Therefore, they concluded that God is unimaginable. But they said that God exists because they have experienced the existence of God...
Lakshman asked about the existence of ‘I’ [I-thought] in deep sleep as referred to by Shri. Ramana Maharshi.
The existence of ‘I’ requires the existence of awareness, which is nervous energy. In deep sleep there is no existence of the nervous energy and therefore there is no question of the existence of I in that state. The I requires the awareness of itself. This awareness or nervous energy is only a special form of inert energy. The inert energy produced by the chemicals in the brain and flowing through the nervous system becomes awareness...
[This is the Maha Maha Satsanga—Great Great Discourse, which was given by Swami on February 26, 2006, on the occasion of Mahashivaratri]
Whenever you think about God, the thinking itself is a form made of awareness or mind, even though you claim that you are thinking about formless God. You can never think anything which is formless, because your thinking itself is a form. The form may have some specific boundaries like a statue. Alternatively, the form may not have specific boundaries like air or water. But the air or water also has some regular or irregular boundaries, since even the air or water has certain limits. You call space as a formless object. But space has some limitations somewhere and you do not perceive...
Lord Shankara has said “Chaitanyam maya upahitam Brahma, Maya avachhinnam Iswarah, Avidya upahitam Atma, Avidya avachhinnam Jivah”. This means “Pure awareness (Mula Maya) associated with Maya is called Brahman, integrated with Maya is called Ishwara, associated with Avidya is called Atman and integrated with Avidya is called Jiva.
This concept needs to be clarified for better understanding. Let us take an example. Assume that pure standstill water is Mula Maya. Vibrated pure water (water with waves) is Maya. Assume that the water has the property of awareness. When the standstill water is aware of itself, it is Brahman. If the vibrated water is aware of itself, it is Ishwara. This is the explanation given by scholars...
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