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[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...
[Message on Ugadi day] Generally, people greet others wishing a happy festival or wishing a happy birthday etc. We must analyze every word and action of us to find out the truth. The first question you have to put to yourself is “Are you, just a general soul, competent of wishing something good or bad for other souls?” You cannot wish anything good or bad even for yourself. Therefore, there is no use of cursing or wishing good for others. The good or bad in your case or in the case of others happens according to the results of the previous deeds...
There are two channels for the meaning of the word Atmajnanam. The first channel is to analyze the composition of self and human body, since the word Atman means the human body also. However, if you confine the meaning only to the self, it means only the analysis of self. The analysis of both the self and human body is done by science already. In fact, science revealed that soul is only nervous energy, which is the specific work form...
Unless you are relieved from the worldly bonds, you cannot be relieved from the tensions and also you cannot attach yourself to God completely. If you are attached to the worldly bonds, your attachment to God becomes impossible since the worldly bonds prevail over your bond to God. Generally, we pray God for the welfare of worldly bonds only. It means your bond to God is never stronger than the worldly bonds...
The application of root meaning (yoga) of a word can result in several items. For example, the word ‘Pankaja’ by root meaning means that which is born from mud. It can be a Lotus flower or a conch shell. But, the root meaning is fixed in one item only (rudha) as per the strength of general usage. Therefore, the word Pankaja means only Lotus flower by yoga as well as rudha. Such a word is called as yogarudha. Similarly, the word Atman means...
The word Atman not only means the self but also the body covering the self as per the Amarakosha, the standard dictionary in Sanskrit language. The word Atman is derived from the verb ‘atati’, which means that, which extends or grows or pervades. The body occupies some space and grows in course of time pervading some more space. The soul is a specific form of ordinary inert energy. Actually, it is a specific form of work involving transfer...
People think that Philosophy is totally a theoretical subject. This is a total misunderstanding because Philosophy is totally a practical subject. Engineering, medicine etc., involve both theory and practicals, whereas history etc., involve only theory. Practice alone yields the fruit. Of course, theory is the mother of the practice. Theory is transformed into practice. Therefore, theory is the cause and practice is the effect. In between theory and practice, the power of transformation or inspiration is the devotion. Therefore, theory or knowledge (jnana yoga) is transformed...
People worship the yantras, which are the metallic plates containing the flow-sheet diagrams of certain important spiritual concepts preserved by the ancestors. Such diagrams on the metallic plates are not meant for worship. The real concepts should be understood with the help of a real spiritual preacher. Some letters (Bijaaksharas) used in such diagrams represent certain items like the letters a, b, c…x, y, z etc. used in the flow-sheet diagrams of science and engineering. I cannot imagine the climax of ignorance of these people, who worship...
[Mr. Kevin Johnson (called as Dattaji) from Texas, USA sent a gift to Swami and asked Swami to bless him with a mantra. Given below is Shri Swami’s message for him.]
The word Mantra is made up of two verbs, 1) mananaat and 2) trayate. The first verb means that your mind must be continuously attracted towards a statement or a poem or a song that makes you repeat it again and again without any trace of effort. The second verb means that such a statement or poem or song must be related to God and hence, it gives you perfect protection from all corners, everywhere and everytime. Therefore, the definition of Mantra...
[Mr Anil from Mumbai asked if even divine knowledge can be transferred to a devotee, if the devotee desires for it, just like the power to do a miracle is transferred to a desiring devotee. Shri Swami’s reply is given below.]
It is said that knowledge is power. Knowledge is the best form of the power. Knowledge always does the greatest miracle of transforming a person in the wrong path to a devotee in the right path. Such transformation is the greatest among all the miracles, if you realize the real value of a miracle. When God transfers the power of knowledge or other forms of powers to do other types of miracles, the ability of balancing...
Be it worldly affair or be it spiritual affair, your goal is to please the Lord in human form only. The path is not important. Only the goal is important. The ultimate goal is to please God in human form. Hanuman pleased Rama in the worldly affair, which was the search of His wife and getting Her back finally from the demon. This was a worldly affair and also a personal affair of Rama. It was not connected to the welfare of the society also because Rama told that He would go back without killing Ravana, if His wife was returned. Thus, it was not only worldly affair...
Human life is very important because human being alone can understand the spiritual knowledge and can become a devotee of God. Therefore, you must always save the life of a human being by giving food, clothing and shelter. You must always stop the starvation-death of a human being, be it theist or atheist. You must save the life of even an atheist because even the atheist may be converted into theist if the life is saved. After saving the life of the starving human being, you must concentrate on improving...
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