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Shankara never changed even a trace of traditional practices, which are called as rituals. He allowed the entire practical tradition as it is and stressed the part of knowledge in the Vedic statements. He asked the people to discuss the meaning of the Veda than performing the rituals without analysis. The analysis will change the motive of the doer. The motive must be devotion to God because all the Vedic hymns are prayers to God only. A prayer should be recited with the knowledge of its meaning, which alone helps to raise the devotion. Blind recitation of the prayer does not serve this main purpose. The Purva Meeimamsakas before the arrival of Shankara did blind recitation of the Vedic prayers, thinking that the sound energy of the Veda itself is capable of giving divine fruits...
The only one point that hinders the fall of God’s grace on you is the instantaneous desire of the human being, which is always directed towards selfish end. The love on God is expressed as devotion by most of the human beings. The intensity of the devotion of these devotees is also of very high order. You think that the intensity of devotion decides the generation of God’s grace. You think that the highest intensity of the devotion will bring the highest fruit from God. God is not pleased with the intensity of the devotion. He is pleased only by the purity of devotion. Purity means lack of any trace of desire in the direction of selfishness. The moment you think about your need from God, the impurity of devotion begins. As long as you think about the need of God...
[Republic Day Message] A devotee asked Swami ‘The Brahmin priest collects about one lakh rupees as fees for performing the rituals after death. Is this justified for your caste?’
Swami replied: The priest is Brahmana. But every Brahmana is not priest. Ofcourse, if a person in a caste behaves wrongly, it reflects on the entire caste. I condemn this behavior of the priest as he loots the society through exploitation. This specific case is certainly opposed by Me. At the same time, every exploitation in the society and consequent looting everywhere in all walks of life of all the people should be equally condemned. Every job holder and every businessman loots the society through exploitation. I am not supporting this specific case, since generally the exploitation exists everywhere...
Sage Shuka was completely attached to God and was completely detached from the family. He left his family and went away for the sake of God, though his father ran after him. His attachment and detachment were exposed and were not hidden in his heart. The Veda says that one should leave the family as soon as one is attached to God (yadahareva…). King Janaka was also completely attached to God and was completely detached from the family like Shuka. But, his attachment and detachment were not exposed and were hidden in his heart. They were exposed only when the Lord conducted the test (Datta Pariksha). Once, Janaka was immersed...
There are several scholars, who are unable to implement their right knowledge in practice. Knowledge is the seed, which should be transformed in to practice-tree. The force of inspiration required for this transformation, like a fertilizer, is devotion. Mere knowledge and mere devotion are inefficient to cause the transformation. Man has natural instinct to practice worldly procedures. For example, one serves his family members with natural instinct. The person has all the knowledge about service to his family members. He has sufficient inspiration to implement his knowledge in doing the service to his family. No preacher is required for anyone to love and serve his family members, but preachers are required to love and serve God! Even if the preacher preaches, the person fails to develop...
Basic interest on God is called as Shraddha. This basic interest cannot be created by showing the benefits from God after death (Param) like protection from hell, because the problems in this world (Iham) are very much relevant and urgent. The human being tries to postpone the param to old age. But, even in the old age the Iham continues and does not give any relief to concentrate on Param. Both Iham and Param form Pravrutti, which is nothing but selfishness only. Whether you worship God for Iham or Param, you do not have real love on God. Your love on God is only for yourself and for your family members only. Nivrutti means real love on God without any trace of selfishness. Therefore, Shankara told that your care for Iham...
[Ganesh Chaturthi] Ganapati means the Lord of a group of close devotees, who have reached the climax of devotion. The word Gana does not mean the entire group of normal souls. Gana means a group of souls, who have become very close to the Lord by their unimaginable devotion. The Lord is certainly the master of all the souls but, the Gana is specially attached group of souls. The king is attached to the people in his kingdom but, he is specially attached to his family members. There is difference in the intensity of the attachments. When the Lord incarnates on this earth in human form, these souls from the Gana also accompany the Lord. These liberated souls have no bondage of the cycle of deeds and their lives are totally planned...
[Solar Eclipse Day] Today is the day of eclipse of Sun and we see arguments between the theists having old religious belief and atheists having scientific belief. This debate has nothing to do with the existence of God. Science is nothing but the normal administration of God in the nature. The truth in this running administration of the nature was found by the ancestors based on the then available scientific concepts. The modern scientific concepts are certainly better than the old concepts, since the present science is based on experimental studies involving intricate instruments and procedures. But, this does not mean that all the concepts found out by the modern science should be correct. The limitation of the scope...
Shankara told that if you are interested in God, it is immaterial whether you are in congenial atmosphere or in the opposite atmosphere (Yogaratova Bhogaratova…). This applies equally to a person interested in the worldly affairs. If you are a real devotee of God, you will remember God only, e.g. whether you see a devotional movie or a social movie. Even if it is a social movie, involving worldly scenes only, without any direct scene related to God, you will see God only everywhere. Generally, in social movies some scenes show development of injustice through cheating, rowdyism etc., and some other scenes show the defeat of injustice and suppression...
Lord Krishna stated in the Gita that human beings with demonic nature are not only unaware of the path of pleasing God (path of liberation or Moksha marga) but also unaware of worldly justice (Pravrittimcha Nivrittimcha janana vidurasurah...). Demonic nature means that neither do they know on their own nor listen to others. This is due to ignorance combined with egoism. These people fail even in the worldly duties like marriages...
Pravrutti is the field of worldly matters involving bonds with your body and family members, which is limited to the present birth only. Nivrutti is the field of spiritual matters involving bonds with God and devotees, which is related to every birth of the soul continuously. The basic frame work is the same in both the fields. In both the fields, knowledge, devotion, work, sacrifice and the final fruit for sacrifice are common. In Pravrutti, the knowledge gives the identification of yourself and your family members. You will distinguish your family members as your dear and near from the outsiders to whom you are neutral. Similarly, in Nivrutti, the knowledge gives the identification of human form of God and identification of good deserving devotees...
[Shri S.S.N. Sharma asked Swami “I like to study more about my profession. At the same time, I am much worried about studying the spiritual knowledge since I am nearing the old age”.]
Swami replied: You can study both alternatively. If you are engaged in the study of one type knowledge only continuously, you will be bored. Change is required for the mind, which has inherent curved nature. Therefore, one need not take up the spiritual knowledge in the old age only and similarly, one need not be confined to the worldly knowledge before the old age. One should have the involvement in both types of knowledge from the beginning so that the alternating involvement of mind satisfies its own nature. Even if you are interested in one type of knowledge only as your real goal, the other type of knowledge...
[On the Eve of Ugadi] Diabetes by itself is not a disease but is the source of all dangerous diseases. An old king by himself cannot fight the war but by his oral order, the army will fight the war and brings success. Similarly, the mind (or its feelings) cannot bring any fruit either in the world or in the spiritual field, but it is the source of all actions that can bring fruits in the world or in the spiritual field. Action alone can bring the fruit, but, action is generated by the will of mind only. All the rituals and idol worship are actions only but these actions cannot bring any fruit from God because these actions are not doing any direct service to God arrived in human form. Then, what is the use of all these traditional actions? These actions are meant for developing the mind or feeling for God...
[Shri C Bala Krishna Murthy asked a question “How Upanishads frequently say that Atman (Self) is Paramatman (God)?”]
Swami replied: How do you take the word Atman as self? The word Atman means that which pervades. The awareness pervades all over the body and hence, it is called as Atman. Since the body also pervades in space, it is also called Atman in Sanskrit language. Therefore, the word Atman stands either for the soul or for the total human being. Suppose, you say that the Prime Minister is in house. Does it mean that he is in your house? Does it mean that he is in every house? It only means that the Prime Minister, who is out of his residence on tour, is now present in his residence, which is a specific house. Similarly, Atman means a specific soul like Krishna...
[Shri R Parthasarathy asked a question: “the Gita says that we should do the action without aspiring for its fruit. How is it possible? We do any work expecting some fruit only”.]
Swami replied: Arjuna came to Kurukshetra to fight with enemies in order to get back his kingdom. He thought that the war was his case and Krishna was helping him in his case like an advocate helping the petitioner in his case filed in a court. Arjuna thought that since he was the owner of the case, he could withdraw the case whenever he liked to do so. If the petitioner is not interested to fight the case, the advocate will have no interest to argue it. Arjuna thought that it was not proper to kill his grandfather and teacher for the sake of wealth. His point was also justified. But, Krishna turned the tables diagonally opposite by enlightening Arjuna through the Gita...
[Vaikuntha Ekaadasi] Today is Vaikuntha Ekaadasi and devotees see Lord Narayana through North gate. This is our tradition. Tradition is always action or karma. Karma generates samskara or feeling. Devotion is feeling about God. Therefore, tradition aims at the development of devotion in devotees. Karma generates Samskara and this Samskara again generates karma. The quality of stealing leads to the action of stealing. While doing stealing, the quality of stealing gets more and more developed. Both these mutually contribute to each other. Therefore, the tradition set up by our ancient sages is always with good aim. Today, tradition says that you should take bath...
People take the word Satsanga to mean a meeting of a few devotees who sit together and enquire about God and other aspects related to God. If all people who are born blind sit together and discuss about the sun, their conclusion is that the sun is black because they always experience darkness alone and do not see even a trace of light. They can never ever turn to the right direction in spite of intensive and very long discussions. If a person having eyes that are in good condition gets associated with them, then alone can they understand something about the sun. At least by his preaching, they can understand that the sun is not black. Of course, they cannot experience light even after his preaching. Hence, he will not speak about light...
[on the Eve of Christmas] Every religion says that its God created the entire earth and entire humanity. But, unfortunately there is only one earth containing this humanity. Due to one earth, there must be one God only and hence, all the religions are calling the same God by different names. Since God is completely unimaginable, all the names indicate that unseen and unimaginable God only. This unimaginable God is mediated by energy. Such mediated God is also one and the same because energy is also one and the same for all religions. This mediated God is called as Brahman by Hinduism, Jehovah by Christianity and Allah by Islam. The absolute unimaginable God as well as the medium (Energy) are one and the same and hence, there is no difference...
[Datta Jayanti] Jnanam, Gaanam, Dhyanam and Daanam should be clearly understood on this day. Jnanam is the spiritual knowledge related to intelligence (Buddhi) represented by God Brahma. Gaanam is the expression of knowledge and devotion related to words (Vaak) represented by God Vishnu. Dhyanam is the devotion or meditation related to mind (Manas) represented by God Shiva. Daanam is the donation or service related to action (karma) represented by God Datta. The first three constitute the theory and the last constitutes the practice. Theory should lead into practice. This point is represented by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva becoming Datta by union before the sage Atri. It is also said that Atri got three sons: 1) Chandra, representing Brahma; 2) Dattatreya, representing Vishnu and 3) Durvasa, representing Shiva...
There are three points in the spiritual path. The first point is about yourself. If you know that you are not God and also that God is not in you, the first point is over. You are only on the support of God since you are part and parcel of the creation and the whole creation is supported by God. Again here, the contact of the support also does not exist as in the case of a table supporting an object standing on it. The creation stands just by the will of God. The direct support of the creation is the will, which is a mode of awareness. In this way, you can say that the divine awareness is the support of this universe. By this, you should not think that awareness is an independent support and therefore, awareness itself is God...
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