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The true Advaita of Shankara is only in the aspect of enjoying this creation by a soul just as God enjoys it. The following analogy is given to understand this concept. The director-cum-producer of a cinema, after producing the cinema, himself sits in the audience to watch and enjoy it. His helper also sits along with him and enjoys the cinema. In this aspect of enjoying the cinema as spectators, there is no difference between the two. Of course, this similarity does not make the helper identical...
Recently there is a criticism that the photo of Goddesses Lakshmi was carved on the wodden chappals (Padukas) of Shri Baba and this hurts the feelings of Hindus. Sometime back, some foreigners have also done the same in some foreign country and Hindus were hurt. The first question in this issue is whether Baba Himself ordered for such padukas or some devotees presented those padukas with such a decoration. If there is any proof that Baba Himself ordered for the preparation of such padukas, we can easily say that Baba is not the human incarnation...
The Gita gives two types of classifications. 1)The first classification is Purusha and prakruti. It is a classification of two items. Purusha stands for the unimaginable creator and prakruti stands for the imaginable creation. In this classification, Purusha stands for the invisible and unimaginable God. The prakruti stands for both invisible-imaginable-energetic soul and the visible-imaginable-materialized gross body. The Gita itself says...
[Shri G Lakshman asked about the significance of fasting on the days of rituals and for the sake of God. Shri Swami replied as given below.]
Pravrutti is the subject that is related to the human beings with respect to other living beings in this world. The rules of Pravrutti are called as dharma. The basic rule is that you should not hurt any living being including yourself. As long as this basic rule is not violated, the rules can be changed in any manner you like as per the need. God becomes angry and will grant you the hell provided you violate the basic rule...
It is true that a few people exploited the concept of God for personal benefits. But, based on the few exceptions, you should not remove the basic system itself. A few railway accidents happen and due to such accidents, you should not cancel all the trains. You should concentrate to avoid the accidents. Similarly, some students might have copied in the examinations. Try to catch, such students. But, do not remove the system of examination itself. The system serves majority, doing a lot of good. You forget the vast positive side of the system based on the minor negative side...
[Dr. Nikhil asked “You said that God will start loving you if your selfishness is completely eradicated. But the concept of the self is most basic and even while earning one’s livelihood the self stands as the basis. Effort for livelihood is the natural instinct of any living being” Could You please clarify. Given below is Shri Swami’s clarification.]
To retain the identity of self is fundamental and is not wrong. It is also the basic requirement in the absence of which you may be misled to think that you are God. There are devotees who have even forgotten the livelihood in the context of God. If you are interested in some topic, you will forget taking meals. To remove the selfishness completely...
A human being is a mixture of the two imaginable items viz., the soul and body. The soul being energy is invisible. The body being matter is visible. Matter is the condensed product of energy. We understand the process of condensation. Therefore, the process of modification of energy into matter is imaginable. The link between two imaginable items is always imaginable. The soul pervades all over the body and hence, the body can be taken as the soul. Such superimposition becomes convenient since the soul is invisible and hence, the visible body...
The word Dattatreya is combination of two words i.e., Datta and Aatreya. Datta means the unimaginable God given to devotees through the human incarnation, which is the human form with which God is identified. By this process, the unimaginable God becomes imaginable and visible human being with whom all the spiritual aspirants can clarify their doubts. The word Aatreya comes from Atri meaning that God is not three entities. The three entities are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva...
Shri Satya Sai Baba established the four pillars which are truth, Justice, peace and love in the context of Pravrutti. The truth and justice result in eradication of corruption. Peace and love result in non-violence. Therefore, anti-corruption and non-violence are the two concluding words for the four pillars. If truth and justice are perfectly established, peace and love are the natural consequences. The government officials and the political heads swallow almost all the funds. There are no funds to help the poor and the needy...
There is no death for Baba or even for any human being. Baba is made of two components. The first component is the unimaginable God. Birth and death are only for imaginable items. Hence, the unimaginable component, God, has neither birth nor death. God is the absolute eternal truth. The second component is soul, which is any human being. Soul is energy. It is eternal in the sense that it is the first created relative truth. It will end only by the will of God, which we do not know. Therefore, energy is also treated as almost eternal item...
The human incarnation remains unimaginable with respect to God in It and remains imaginable and even visible with respect to the medium. The medium and God become one only, like the current and wire, which are inseparable during the flow of current. This is monism of Shankara. Since both are separable in one time or other, both are separate but become one and the same as long as God exists in the human form. Both monism and difference exist according to Ramanuja...
[Mr. Anil asked two questions: (1) You said that Shirdi Sai Baba did a lot of penance in His early days. Is such penance necessary for a human incarnation? (2) Can there be more than one human incarnation at a time? Shri Swami gave the following reply.]
The very purpose of the human incarnation is to preach the humanity. For this purpose, God takes the human form and behaves like a human being. The behavior itself gives the practical direction to humanity. If God appears in energetic form and gives the message, people will not follow it because there is no practical demonstration...
There are a few controversies, which appeared recently regarding the death of the body of Baba. 1) The controversy is that Baba told that He will live up to 96 years, but the death is preponed by about ten years. An astrologer told that Baba lived up to 96 years according to the theory of the cycle of 27 stars. So much strain is not necessary in this issue. God has full freedom to postpone or prepone the lifetime of any human being including the human incarnation. It is not like the one hour bell for a teacher in the classroom. The case of the divine preacher is different...
Most of the human incarnations concentrated on Pravrutti only because if Pravrutti is perfect, Nivrutti can be easily achieved. Even Shankara constituted all the Nivrutti for the sake of rectification of Pravrutti only. Baba mainly admired Shankara because the philosophy of Shankara appears to be pure Nivrutti but its result is rectification of Pravrutti only. According to Him, you are God, who is the absolute truth and this world is only your imagination. This statement makes you to stop all your spiritual efforts...
Baba has several similarities with Shri Shirdi Sai Baba. Baba is said to be the re-incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. When there are other human incarnations like Rama, Krishna, etc., why Baba is said to be the re-incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba only? Does it mean that Baba is not the re-incarnation of Rama, Krishna, etc? The answer for this is that the same unimaginable God exists in every human incarnation and thus, all human incarnations are one and the same basically. But, the programs taken up by the human incarnations...
Buddha kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. When somebody asked Buddha to give explanation about God, Buddha said that He is silent on the explanation since God is unimaginable. In course of time, His statement lost its parts and final residue is that Buddha is silent on God. Further, the interpretation of the silence was taken as atheism. Buddha Himself was the incarnation of God. How can He deny Himself? Due to fear of such misinterpretation, Baba clearly stated that God is unimaginable...
There is similarity and difference between Shri Rama and Shri Satya Sai Baba in their programs. The similarity is that both came down to establish the correct behavior of human beings in the world (Pravrutti). The difference is that in the time of Shri Rama, there were very few souls, who were to be punished with death since the transformation was not possible. Vali and Ravana were such special cases. In the present time, every human being is like Vali or Ravana to some extent and there is a possibility of cure by preaching like a patient by medicine...
A pseudo-scientist will present irrelevant arguments like the inability of Shri Satya Sai Baba to cure His own health, who performed several miracles and cured the illness of several devotees. By this, he wants to establish that all the miracles performed by Baba were not genuine. He wants us to realize the truth about His miracles. Actually, he should realize the truth in the silence of Baba to cure His illness. Baba wants us to understand that the soul is...
[Message on Shri Rama Navami] Festivals have become the occasional days of enjoying special food items. Holidays are given on these festivals so that you will allot the time to think about the significance of these festivals and change yourself to some extent at least. If this aspect is not served, there is no use of the holiday. Today is Shri Rama Navami, on which, Lord Rama was born, who was the human incarnation of God. The next human incarnation was Krishna, who was meant for spiritual path...
God gave the ability of creating robot, a duplicate human being, to the humanity to show that a human being is a created item only. The human being includes the soul, which is a special work form of inert energy. The inert energy was created by God as the first item in the beginning of the creation. This inert energy is manifested in several forms like light, heat, electricity, magnetism and various work forms. The work forms become different since the same inert energy works in different systems...
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