Posted on: 17 Nov 2013
[Kartika Purnima Message: Shri Swami attended a function in the house of a devotee, Shri Pavan, since today is the festival of Kartika Purnima. The Shiva Lingam, which is a stone in the form of a wave, is worshipped and behind it, a photo of Lord Shiva is placed. On the other side, there is a big shrine of Shri Satya Sai Baba and Swami also sat facing this shrine.]
Shri Swami: The Shiva Lingam is in the form of a wave indicating the energy since energy propagates as waves. The material of this Shiva Lingam is matter. Thus, Shiva Lingam denotes the medium in two forms 1) Energy and 2) Matter. All the forms of God in the upper world are energetic forms. This means, in the upper world, God enters the energetic form as the medium. On this earth, God enters the materialized human form. Lord Shiva in the photo indicates this energetic form and Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba on the other side indicates the form of matter into which God entered. Both these forms of medium (energy and matter) are indicated by this front Shiva Lingam.
The significance of Shiva Lingam is that you cannot even meditate upon the unimaginable God, not to speak of worship of God. Therefore, you need an imaginable medium for the expression of God in order to serve God. The medium may be energy or matter. If the medium is energy, it is the energetic incarnation in the upper world like Lord Shiva in the photo situated on the backside. The energetic incarnation of God is relevant to the energetic bodies containing souls in the upper world, called as angels. Such energetic incarnation is not relevant to the materialized human beings present on this earth. But, still, the human beings in this world are fond of such energetic incarnations of the upper world only because the psychology of a human being is always to get attracted to things, which are far off. The medium of the human beings is matter and the same matter is medium of human incarnation and therefore, there is repulsion between the common media. Now, you have to move from the photo of Lord Shiva to the left side, where the shrine of Shri Satya Sai Baba exists. This shrine indicates the human incarnation. The human incarnation is always better than the energetic incarnation since it is relevant to the human beings on the earth. But, as said above, the ego and jealousy stand as strong hurdle to accept the human incarnation, which looks like any other human being. The unimaginable God enters a human being and is called as human incarnation. Therefore, the journey from Lord Shiva to Shri Satya Sai Baba should be appreciated since the concept of human incarnation is accepted overcoming ego and jealousy to some extent since Shri Baba is past human incarnation.
Facing the shrine, Shri Datta Swami is sitting, who is the alive contemporary human incarnation. It is very very difficult to accept and worship Shri Datta Swami since He is alive and is as good as any other human being to the naked eyes. Shri Satya Sai Baba is past human incarnation and is not alive today and therefore, ego and jealousy can be suppressed to some extent at least in this stage. But, the final stage is alive human form and there will be total repulsion due to the uncontrollable ego and jealousy. To recognize the alive human incarnation, ego and jealousy have to be completely eradicated and this is very very difficult. These four stages indicate the gradual development in the spiritual journey. The first step indicates the necessity of a medium to worship the unimaginable God. The other three steps indicate the human form only. Lord Shiva is the unavailable human form since He is relevant energetic incarnation in the upper world only. Shri Satya Sai Baba is available human incarnation on this earth for sometime back and is irrelevant today since He is unavailable like Lord Shiva. Shri Datta Swami is relevant for today to clarify all the doubts and give right direction in the spiritual path. Such direction is available from the right knowledge only. Once the right knowledge is achieved, the right direction is with you. You will follow the right path and reach the goal. Therefore, once the right knowledge is achieved, all the other steps are subsequent mechanical achievements only and you are sure of reaching the right goal. Hence, Shankara says that once the right knowledge is obtained the right goal is achieved (Jnanadevatu Kaivalyam). When the evil forces are to be controlled, God need not come directly. It is sufficient if He sends His power into the incarnation. But, when the right knowledge is to be delivered to humanity, God comes down directly (Jnaneetvatmaiva… Gita).
Shri Pavan’s Brother-in-Law: Do the sons of God are Gods automatically by the rule of reservation.?
Shri Swami: It is not correct to say that the son of God should be always God. The two sons of Lord Shiva (Ganapathi and Subrahmanya) are Gods worshipped in separate temples. But, the son of Lord Bramha i.e., Narada is not God with a separate temple. Of course, he is very strong devotee and God always identifies Himself with strong devotees even though existing outside as per the Bhakti Sutras of Narada. This is a case of second level. The son of Lord Vishnu is Manmadha, who is neither God nor strong devotee. He attacked Lord Shiva with ego and was smashed to ash. He is as good as an ordinary soul belonging to third level. Therefore, there is no reservation that the son of God should be God. The unimaginable God enters energetic form or materialized form as per His own will. He cannot be compelled by any rule. There are angels like Indra, Yama, Varuna, Vayu etc., who are not Gods. They are only energetic forms with body and soul without the unimaginable God in them. Hanuman is worshipped as God in a separate temple because He is the incarnation of Lord Shiva.
Shri Pavan’s Brother-in-Law: Lord Rama did not show any miracle and behaved as a human being in the world of humanity, whereas Lord Krishna exhibited Himself as a supernatural human being. Such exhibition is selfish and not good for humanity.
Shri Swami: God came down to this world of humanity as Rama and Krishna with separate programs. Rama was called as Adarsha Manushaavatara, which means that God wanted to practically show the ideal human behavior for the sake of human beings in this world. Krishna is called as Leela Manushaavatara, which means that God wanted to show the status and nature of God through miracles. Miracles are unimaginable events and stand as proof for the unimaginable God. The unimaginable God is invisible. The unimaginable miracles are visible and indicate the unimaginable and invisible God. The common feature in the miracles and God is the unimaginable nature. Therefore, God behaved as per the prescribed program. Rama never agreed to His divine nature even though sages recognized Him. When the sages praised Him as God, He told them that He is an ordinary human being only. This means that no human being should think that he is God. Krishna declared Himself as God in order to speak about the unimaginable nature of God through the unimaginable miracles. That is not selfishness. It is only explanation of the unimaginable nature of God present in Him, a human form as per the concept of human incarnation. Rama is an example for Pravrutti, which is the expected behavior of an ideal human being to please God. Krishna stands for Nivrutti, which is the knowledge of the unimaginable God existing in the human form. Pravrutti is required for all the human beings without the concept of God. Nivrutti is required for a few spiritual aspirants.
Shri Pavan’s Father-in-Law: When everything is destined, what is the use of all these forms of worship like charity etc., which are supposed to remove the destined difficulties? Is it not better to say that these forms of worship are only meant to give psychological confidence?
Shri Swami: There is no destiny in this world of humanity. This world of humanity (Martyaloka) is called as Karmaloka (Evemkarmachitolokah… Veda). Karma means action with full freedom. The upper worlds, called as Bhogalokas, are destined because those are the worlds in which the destined fruit of your actions done here is to be enjoyed. The concept of destiny can be mentioned in this world also in the form of Samskara or the psychological trend carried from several previous births. The soul from the upper world is born in this world with small remains of the previous psychological trends only after enjoying the fruits. Therefore, the actions done in this world are according to the previous balance of psychology only. In that way, the destiny can be maintained here. But, this psychology can be changed in this world by meeting a Satguru, who can change the psychology, which is a form of wrong knowledge through right knowledge. God will help in the chance of such meeting provided your psychology is good. Therefore, the fruits reaped in this world are the fruits of your own actions done in this world based on your psychology, which has a freedom to change by meeting a Satguru.
It is not good to encourage the worship, which is only meant for removing the difficulties. It becomes a sort of encouragement to corruption and soaping. Still, God encourages by giving good fruits for such worships because any concept in the beginning meant for masses is always blended with defects (Sarvarambhahidoshena… Gita). In course of time, you will lose interest on the solutions of your difficulties and get fixed in God. The real devotion comes up at a later stage. The child always loves his father since he gets chocolates from father. But, as the child grows and becomes adult, he loves his father irrespective of the chocolates. The fire in the beginning is covered by smoke. But, in course of time, the smoke disappears and the fire alone burns fully. Hence, the false devotion becomes the stepping stone for the real devotion as time proceeds. Therefore, God really answers the worship by removing your difficulties to build-up real devotion in course of time. It is not correct to say that such worship is only to build-up psychological confidence. In such case, there should be no result for the worship. But, real results are seen actually after the worship. The Lord says that He is responsible for everything but not responsible for anything (Kartahamapi… Gita). This contradiction can be removed if you understand that God is the creator of everybody and everything, but, is not the creator of the direction of any action and hence, is not bound by the deed and fruit. The bull carries you to the forest on your direction only where you are beaten by the robbers and the bull is not beaten. Similarly, if the bull takes you to the house of your relatives in the city by your direction, you receive the honor from your relatives and the bull is not honored. In both cases, bull is the power of your journey and is responsible for your reaching the goal but at the same time, the bull is not affected by the direction of the action and fruits. This is the meaning of the Vedic statement, “Abadhnanpurushampashum”.
Shri Anil: A devotee told me that told that God exists in the heart of everybody as per the Gita and the Veda. The Gita also says that God is responsible for memory, knowledge and forgetfulness and this may indicate that God is awareness. Another deveotee told me that God is said to have thousand eyes and thousand mouths on all sides. Could You please clarify these two points?
Shri Swami: The word heart here means the central point. The controller is always said to be the central leader indicated by the central point. In all these statements, particularly, humanity need not be taken and you must take the center of the entire creation from where God controls all the actions of the creation. Even if you take God as the central administrator of the humanity, all the actions of awareness as mentioned are controlled by God only since every action of everything is controlled by Him only. The generation of awareness with the help of the inert energy, generated by oxidation of food by the systems of digestion and respiration and its transformation into awareness in the functioning nervous system, is arranged and controlled by God only. It is the will of God that all these systems function and generate awareness. The activities of awareness are also attributed to God without all these systems through unimaginable power. The fire burns everything by the will of God and God can also burn anything and God need not be fire since He has burnt everything like fire. God can also think and due to this He need not be awareness. He burns, thinks and does every action through His unimaginable power and there is no necessity of the existing logical instruments or systems for doing such actions. The word ‘heart’ here denotes the central point by which the central controlling power of God is indicated.
The second question can be also answered in the same way. He looks everywhere without the necessity of eyes. Such power is indicated by telling that He has eyes around His head. The Veda says that He runs without legs and catches without hands. This can be stated in a special poetic way that He has hands all around to catch anything in any direction. The actual sense is that He can catch anything in any direction without the need of any hand through His unimaginable power. The Gita says that God has several hands (Anekabahudara…). But, the Veda says that He has no hands. Both these can be correlated that He can catch anything on any side without hands as if having several hands around Him. The unimaginable God cannot be attributed with the real presence of hands and in such case God becomes partly imaginable as far as the hands are concerned. Therefore, the real essence is only that He has no hands but catches everything in any direction through His unimaginable nature as if a person having hands on all sides.