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Shri Datta Swami

Posted on: 26 Nov 2014

               

DO THE ACTION FEELING 'I' PRACTICALLY

Shri Phani asked: “God is the doer of every action in this world. The devoted servant of God is not the doer at all and this point is also sincerely felt in the heart of such devotee. Therefore, the best is to surrender himself to God and recognize that the doer of every action is only God. Such total surrender is the better way than doing the service with the feeling of doer-ship in the heart”.

Swami Replied: A patient suffering with fever is treated to reduce the higher temperature with the help of wet cloth on the forehead. Reduction in the temperature aims at the reduction of temperature, which is more than the normal temperature. It does not mean to reduce the temperature of the body to zero degrees by putting the patient in the ice blocks. Similarly, the reduction of ego is aimed at, which means the reduction of the intensive effect of the basic concept of ‘I’. In such reduction, you should not reduce the basic ‘I’ also to become zero, in which state the doer-ship and the related actions of divine service also disappear. The basic ‘I’ is the source of every action. At the same time, the basic ‘I’ is also the source of ego that is generated during and after the action. The main product of ‘I’ is action or work and the by-product is ego. You have to cut the by-product only and not the basic ‘I’, which is also the source of action. It may be easy to cut the ego by cutting its source. You can do this also in the context of destruction of ego. Here, you are suppressing the basic ‘I’ to remove ego. You should not destroy the basic ‘I’ forever, in which case the service to God comprising of actions also disappears forever. Therefore, there are two contexts:

  1. Destruction of ego by removing the basic ‘I’ during that period of time. This is accomplished by thinking that God is the doer of every action (Kartaahamapi Sarvasya… Gita) and that he is not the doer of any action.
  2. Regeneration of the basic ‘I’ to perform actions for the divine service. In this period of time, you should recognize that God is not doer of any action (Viddhyakartaaramavyayam... Gita) and continue to do all the works feeling that you are the doer.

Mere feeling of doer-ship is not wrong. The excessive feeling of doer-ship generates ego. Hence, you are expected to feel that you are not the doer in the mind so that the concept of ego arising in the mind can be destroyed. This is only in the theoretical phase. The theoretical ego can be cut by such theoretical concept. This should be limited to theory only and should not extend to the practice resulting in withdrawal from the divine service. In the practical phase, you should have the feeling of doer-ship so that the actions of the divine service are done by you and as a result you have pleased God. God has created this world in which the doer-ship is linked to the soul so that the soul can be lifted up when it passes out the practical examination. In such context, the doer-ship of God is not exposed. But, this concept can be used by the soul to destroy the ego in doing the divine service.

In the context of crossing the sea, each monkey revealed its potency by announcing the distance that it can cross. Such announcement is reflecting the feeling of ego of each monkey. Hanuman replied that he cannot cross even one inch of the sea. This is only to remove the feeling of ego from monkeys. He did not extend this into practice by saying “Oh! Rama! You are the doer of everything. I cannot do anything as I am zero. Hence, you jump over the sea and search Sita in Lanka”. This theoretical exercise is not extended to practice and hence, Hanuman crossed the sea and searched for Sita. During all this work, He felt Himself as the doer in the practical phase, but felt that God alone is doer in the theoretical phase to neck out the ego, which is trying to enter into His mind through the path of doer-ship.

Similarly, Lord Krishna showed in His cosmic vision that He is going to kill Kauravas. By this, He proved that God is the real doer and the devotee is not the actual doer. After this vision, Arjuna did not leave the battle field saying best of luck to God stating that he need not fight at all since God Himself is going to kill them. Arjuna used this vision to destroy his ego that makes him feel that they will be alive if he does not fight. This vision was used by him only to destroy the theoretical ego. He did not extend this into practical phase and withdrew from the battle field dropping from the fight. He fought the battle with the feeling of doer-ship and destroyed the ego whenever it comes to his mind by remembering the vision. The concluding essence is that God is the doer of all works without doing any work and you are doer of all the works though you are not the doer of any work. The Gita explained this concept that you should find action in inaction and inaction in the action (Karmanyakarma...). This is the most excellent concept of this world created by the Divine Magician. God always criticized the ego (Ahamkara vimudhaatmaa...) but encouraged to do the actions in His service (Madarthamapi Kaunteya..., Kuru karma Dhanamjaya...).

The work of God should not be decided by you by weighing the defects and merits in the balance of your intelligence. The highest is God and His interest and subsequent pleasure are the highest. Therefore, the work in which God is interested that brings pleasure to Him is the highest. You should not rub your interest on Him and your interest should lie in His interest. This is the total surrender to God. Krishna preached the Gita to Arjuna, which is the excellent knowledge that helps every soul in this world. At the end of the preaching of the Gita, Arjuna did not say “Your Gita is excellent knowledge that helps all the souls in this world. Now, I will leave this bloody fight and propagate the Gita in this world right from this moment”. The interest of Krishna was to kill the relatives of Arjuna. The propagation of the Gita is certainly sacred compared to killing the relatives. Arjuna did not do this analysis and blindly killed his relatives as per the interest of the Lord. Sometimes, the work in which the Lord is interested may show the blame on the Lord and such blame should also not enter the mind of the devoted servant. Hanuman is doing the work of search of Sita. He did not blame Rama and rejected such work by saying that Rama lost Sita due to attraction towards golden deer following her desire in blind love of Sita in spite of warning from Lakshmana. The main work of the Lord is search for Sita and not propagation of knowledge, which may be secondary. Hanuman finished the main work of searching Sita and then preached Ravana by giving divine spiritual knowledge, which is only the associated work. Everywhere you should remember that God and God’s interest are the highest since nobody and nothing can be more than or equal to Him and His work respectively as said in the Veda (Natatsamah...).

 
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