Posted on: 15 Dec 2005
[Datta Jayanti] A human being cannot do any work just by his will even after long concentration. The same work happens as soon as the Lord wishes just once. This whole universe is created just by His one wish. Faith is will power concentrated for a long time. Will is common in both the Lord and the human being. Will is a characteristic of awareness. This awareness is a common item in both the Lord and the human being. Therefore, will is also a common item in both the Lord and the soul (human being). All these worlds are created just by one wish of the Lord. But even if the soul wishes one crore times [ten million times] in a highly concentrated way called ‘faith, even an atom cannot be created. When both are forms of awareness, why is there this vast difference? Just one wish of the Lord appears as the solid [materialized; real to perception] universe to all the souls and even the highly concentrated will of a soul does not appear as a materialized form to other souls. This will of one soul does not even appear as an imagination to other souls. It appears as imagination only to that particular soul, who imagined so.
In one house the light bulb does not glow in spite of putting on the switch several times. But in another house, the bulb glows when just once its switch is put on. In both the houses, same switches, same wires and same bulbs exist. But, the difference is that in the first house, there is no electricity. In the second house, there is electricity. Similarly in the awareness of the soul, God (Parabrahman) does not exist. In the awareness of the Lord, God exists. This awareness is called as Brahman, because awareness, which is the first creation of God, is the greatest among all the items of creation. Brahman means anything that is the greatest in a category of items. The word Parabrahman means God or Creator, who is beyond Brahman. Creation takes place only due to the power of God. Mere awareness has no such power to create this universe. This awareness is the will or imagination of God. The universe always appears as an imagination to God and is an ocean of awareness. The soul is a drop in it. The power of the ocean is far greater than the power of the drop. Due to this reason, the universe appears as a materialized solid universe to the soul.
This whole universe is again just a drop in the awareness created by God in the beginning, which is called as ‘Mula Prakriti’ or ‘Maha Maya’. God does not exist in the universe. Therefore, this universe becomes a scene to the Spectator-God. The scene must be different from the spectator. The ‘Mula Prakriti’ into which God entered and pervaded is called as the Lord (Ishwara). This Lord is the Spectator and the universe is the scene. Thus, both the scene and the outer cover of Brahman are only forms of awareness. The soul is also a form of awareness. The soul-universe-Spectator become greater and greater in that order. God is neither in the universe nor in the soul. Therefore, both these have no power of creation. Spectatorship is the characteristic of the awareness. Therefore, even the soul is a spectator. However, the soul can see its own imaginary world as an imagination while it sees the universe as a reality. It cannot see this universe as an imagination. But for the Lord, this universe, including all the souls, is an imagination. The Lord knows and sees everything in the universe. But the soul sees and knows only a little in the universe. Thus the spectatorship also differs in both cases. The soul can see and know everything, only of its own imaginary world.
Even though the universe is entirely awareness, a part of it becomes spectator [remains as awareness] in the form of souls and another part becomes inert, which does not see or know anything [material creation]. This difference took place only by the will of the Lord. Therefore, a soul cannot throw away this difference created by the Lord and cannot treat both as one and the same awareness. The soul cannot say that the whole universe has spectatorship [since it is awareness]. Some claim that they have realized the entire universe as a single awareness, which is totally against their own experience. The experience of difference is the will of the Lord and so they behave differently with different items in creation for all practical purposes. No scholar talks with a stone! A stone cannot preach to you and remove your ignorance for all practical purposes. Even the Lord views both the soul and inert matter differently as per the status of each, but He views both as His imagination. The soul cannot see both as his imagination but the soul also views both differently like the Lord. If you refer to the external form of the Lord only, which is awareness, then both the external form of Lord and the entire soul are one and the same. The difference is that the Lord is God embraced by [surrounded by] awareness, where as the soul is mere awareness. The Lord is the wire with electric current, where as the soul is the wire without electric current.
Therefore, the soul cannot achieve anything in this world just by faith. Its external actions may achieve something in this world but not its mere internal will. Even the external action becomes sometimes valid, because the field of its action is the world, which is without God. Some say that everything is possible by self-confidence or faith. But this statement is laudable only as long as it is not analysed! The wire without electric current cannot create even a ray of light in the bulb. People believe that self-faith can achieve anything and therefore, they conclude that the self itself is the Lord. Only for the Lord is anything possible. If a soul wishes to make everything possible, the only way is to catch the Lord and please Him. ‘Self-Faith’ means the faith that is concentrated on the Lord, who came down as ‘self’ or a human being. For the sake of the convenience of the soul to achieve such goal, the Lord comes down as a soul. Faith in such a Soul, and believing in that Soul being the Lord, is called as ‘Self-Faith’. All the power of God is present in the human incarnation, because God and His power are beyond spatial dimensions.
The soul can change anything just by its will in its own imaginary world only and not in this physical world. It can change a stone into Lord Krishna in its imaginary world. But the soul cannot change a stone into Lord Krishna in the actual world. Even if you believe that fire is water and put your finger in it, it will still burn you and not cool you. Therefore, before you believe, you must analyse and find out the truth in the object. You must identify real water and only then believe it to be water. Then if you put your hand in it, you can feel its coolness. So, just by your faith, everything in this world cannot become God. Even if you believe yourself to be God and utter the same crores of times, you cannot become God. First you must analyse and identify God in human form and then believe Him. Such faith is a wise faith. Otherwise your faith is only blind faith. For the former [wise faith], good results and for the latter [blind faith] bad results are inevitable. Hence for the identification of God, analytical knowledge is the first and foremost requisite.
This whole universe is created by the Lord, who is the ‘Holy Awareness’ or Para Shakti. The most subtle and finest form of energy is awareness. The gross forms of the energy like light, heat etc, are inert energies. Matter is the ‘solidified’ form of energy. Thus the whole creation is a form of energy according to both the ancient and modern scholars. Awareness is a form of energy and matter is also a form of energy, according to modern scientists. Therefore, there is no contradiction in stating that this whole world is a form of awareness. The homogeneous single phase of this world is energy, but this concept is only science and not spiritual knowledge. A scientist, who finds such homogeneity, cannot be a philosopher. The homogeneity in this universe in the context of philosophy is the perception of God everywhere in this world. The Unity or Oneness indicates God as per the Veda. The oneness here means the One God. Such a vision is the ninth step in devotion, which is madness as seen in the case of a topmost devotees like Radha[1]. In such a state, the devotee leaves even all his duties as per the Gita (Naishkarmya Siddhim…).
Samnyasa
Samnyasa or renunciation is the only way to please the Lord as per the Gita (Samnyasena Adhi Gachchhati). Samnyasa does not mean wearing orange coloured dress [monastic robe] and carrying a stick. ‘Sam’ means completely. ‘Nyasa’ means both attachment and detachment. Therefore samnyasa means, attachment to God and detachment from the world. The world means both qualities and the deeds caused by qualities. Both attachment and detachment must take place simultaneously. Each one is a cause for the other. Unless the detachment from world is completed one cannot get attached to God. Similarly, unless one attaches to God, one cannot detach himself from the world. Both should be simultaneous as you see by both eyes simultaneously. Those who cannot resist the world should detach from the world. Such detachment is external as well as internal. ‘Dama’ is external detachment, which is like not going to cinema theatre which is outside your home. ‘Sama’ is internal detachment, which is like resisting watching the cinema on the television at home.
The old feelings in ‘chittam’ (storing capacity of mind) appear on the screen of the mind as a cinema. Resisting the mental activity through senses is Yoga as told by Patanjali (Chittavritii Nirodhah). If you resist seeing, hearing etc., the entry of external poison to the mind is stopped. But the poison was already precipitated in your chittam since several births. Thus the mental activity (Chitta Vritti) is both external as well as internal. This activity is called as ‘Sphota’. According to Sanskrit grammar, chittam has two meanings. One is the addition of poison from outside (Samjnanam) and other is digestion of already existing poison (Smaranam). The poison is the bundle of worldly matters. Resistance of mental activity is to be done by the soul, which can be affected by the poison. But a scholar (Jnani) does not resist this poison. He can digest the poison and so even takes it from outside. Both these activities are done by the subtle body (Sukshma Shareeram), which is made of qualities or mind. The gross body (Sthula Shareeram) is a composite of the senses, which do actions initiated by qualities.
Knower of Atman
A ‘Jnani’ separates himself [by analysis] from these two bodies and enters the third, causal body (Karana Shareeram), which is pure awareness. He will not cross the boundaries of this third body, which is also called as Atman. Such a scholar is called Sthita Prajna. ‘Prajna’ means pure awareness. ‘Sthita’ means the person who has limited himself to pure awareness. Since he takes the decision of himself to be Atman, ‘Buddhi’ (intelligence) also becomes the pure awareness. Since he decides the meaning of ‘I’ as pure awareness, the ‘Ahankara’ [I-sense or ego] also becomes pure awareness. You must note that Prajna also means Buddhi. The remaining two internal items (Antahkaranams) are Chittam which is the C.D. or cassette of precipitated feelings and ‘Manas’ (mind) which is the internal screen.
The internal T.V. show goes on and the spectator (Atman) sees and enjoys the show. His gross body is his own house, which is the cinema theatre. The whole show is the subtle body and the causal body is the spectator. The spectator has no link with the T.V. show and is only entertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is only entertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is called ‘Gunateeta’ by the Gita (Guna Guneshu Vartante…). This T.V. show initiates the senses of the gross body, which do deeds according to the qualities of show. The Atman or spectator (I) is also separated from the gross body and so is not linked to the deeds and the qualities. The soul [Atman] is detached from qualities, deeds and their corresponding results. This does not mean that he does not receive the results of his deeds. The subtle and gross bodies did the deeds and so they enjoy the results. But this soul, which is detached from these two bodies, is a spectator of such enjoyment of the enjoyer. The soul is not the enjoyer since it is not the doer of the deeds. The wheel that constitutes the deeds and their corresponding results (karma chakra) is also not affected, since [it] is related to the person’s subtle and gross bodies only and not to his causal body or the Atman. The subtle and gross bodies are the ‘doer’ and ‘enjoyer’, constituting a show for the entertainment of the causal body, which is just a spectator. Since the subtle body is also made of awareness, it enjoys the results through its gross body. But an ordinary human being identifies himself with the subtle body and gross body, considering them as ‘I’ and therefore becomes the doer and enjoyer. But the scholar fixes his ‘I’ to the causal body alone and de-links himself from doership and enjoyership.
There are two vessels containing vibrated water. Both the vessels undergo stress due to the water vibrations. The vessel is the gross body and water-vibrations are the subtle body. An ignorant fellow identifies himself with the vessel and the water vibrations and so is vibrated [he feels that he is being vibrated] and undergoes stress. But the scholar identifies himself only with the water and not with the vibrations or the vessel. He is not vibrated and has no stress. He goes on enjoying the vibrations and the stress. Even if he does a sin, he goes to hell and enjoys the punishment there. The punishment is received by his subtle and gross bodies and he, as Atman, observes the enjoyment of the punishment and gets entertainment. Ramana Maharshi got a boil [tumor] on the body due to some deed. But he confined Himself to the soul and so was not the doer of that deed. When the boil was operated upon by the doctor, He observed it and His subtle body enjoyed the pain [He was operated upon without anesthesia]. But He, as Atman was entertained in the operation. When the Gita says “Atmavantam na Karmani”, it means the Jnani enjoys the results of deeds but he is detached from such enjoyment.
“Avashyamanu bhoktavyam… Kalpakoti Shataih” means that one has to undergo the results of his deeds even after millions of births with interest. The doer can never escape the enjoyment of results. But in the case of a deserving devotee, the Lord comes down as a human incarnation and enjoys his results [undergoes suffering on behalf of the devotee]. Except this way, the doer has to enjoy his own results. But in that path, the devotee should not aspire for such unjust punishment of the Lord and should resist it, if he comes to know of it. The Lord is called ‘Datta’ for this very reason, since He donates Himself for the sake of His devotee. When Datta enjoys such results, He also behaves like a Yogi. It means that He confines Himself to the soul and His subtle and gross bodies undergo the punishments. Therefore, a Yogi is just like the Lord in this aspect of spectatorship. The Lord has the power of creation of the world while the Yogi does not. But this difference is irrelevant during the aspect of spectatorship. Therefore, this ‘Advaita’ (state of oneness; monism) state of a liberated soul and the Lord, which was proposed by Shankara, is meaningful.
This whole universe is the gross body of the Lord and ‘Hiranya Garbha’ is the subtle body of the Lord. Hiranya Garbha means the composite form of all the souls. Now, in the gross and subtle bodies of the Lord also, a number of reactions and changes are going on like a cinema. The ‘Maha Maya’ is the Atman or the causal body of the Lord, which is only a spectator. He confines Himself to this Atman and sees the show in His subtle and gross bodies.
The path of karma [wordly action or desire-motivated action] has no salvation because the soul is not detached from subtle and gross bodies (Bhunjanam Vaa—Gita). He cannot entertain himself by confining to his Atman and so he resists bad qualities and bad deeds. He is very alert about good deeds and always tries to enjoy the pleasures of heaven. But he often comes back to this world, where good and bad are mixed. He is always exposed to the risk of falling in a trap of bad qualities and sins here. He is always afraid of that and has no independence. But in the path of Jnana or knowledge, the scholar is fearless and fully independent. He is beyond both good and bad. Both give entertainment to him equally like sweet and hot items in a meal. This soul has Jnana [knowledge] of Atman, has ‘Rasa’ [love] of the entertainment and ‘Ananda’ [happiness] of the enjoyment of both good and bad equally. The Veda says that such a liberated soul is characterised by these three qualities. The Lord as Rama, killed Vali[2] and as Krishna, He enjoyed the result of that sin. But the doer and the enjoyer were only His subtle and gross bodies. They are not the Lord, who was only confined to the Atman as a spectator. Lord Krishna could see the show at the end in which His own sons and grandsons were killed and He was entertained by the show. When Arjuna could not kill his grandfather, because he identified himself with his subtle and gross bodies, the Lord taught him ‘Jnana Yoga’ by which Arjuna confined himself to his soul and killed his grandfather and went to hell. But he was the spectator in killing and also while enjoying the sin in hell.
Jains [followers of Mahavir Jain] say that Krishna also went to hell, since He was responsible for such a cruel war. Even if that were correct, the Lord would have enjoyed hell as a spectator! Therefore, such a remark on the Lord does not affect Him at all. Shankara taught about the Atman, which is the causal body in the view of ordinary human beings. When His own case comes, God exists in Him beyond even the Atman and so God is called as the Maha Karana or the Cause of the causal body. When He said that He is Shiva, this word Shiva refers to God and He confined Himself only to God, just like the Yogi confines himself to Atman. The word Shiva means auspicious and so can refer to the Atman in the case of the Yogi. The Veda says “Ubhe Punya Pape Vidhuya…”, which means that the Yogi transcends both good and bad and becomes equal to God. The Gita also says the same “Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute”.
Detachment From Desire
When the soul is de-linked from subtle and gross bodies, naturally all the bonds related to both these bodies like wealth, wife, children etc., are also dropped off, just like the branches, leaves, flowers etc. get dried as soon as the root of the tree is cut. One should detach even from the aim [desire] of the deed. Only then is the detachment from the subtle body completed (Anasritah…, Maa Karma Phala Hetuh…—Gita). Shankara enjoyed the wives of the dead king Amaraka by entering the king’s dead body, through His own subtle body. Goddess Saraswati raised this objection, to Shankara climbing the throne of ‘Sarvajna’. [Her objection was that in order to ascend the throne of Omniscience (Sarvajna), one had to be totally pure. By enjoying the queens of the dead king, Shankara was not completely pure in Her opinion]. Shankara answered that the deed was not linked to Him because He never aspired for the deed. It was an incidental situation in which, He was forced to do so. In fact He was forced to do so by Goddess Saraswati Herself in a debate [Goddess Saraswati, incarnated as Bharati, the wife of Mandana Mishra, and challenged Shankara in debate on the topic of sex. Shankara, being a monk, had no experience in this matter. He therefore, used superpower to enter the body of the king and get that experience from the king’s wives]. Therefore, in that deed, His soul was completely de-linked from the subtle body because even the Samkalpa (aim of the deed) did not exist.
Similarly Lord Krishna did not get any sin in dancing with the Gopikas, because the Gopikas were [re-born] sages, who had aspired for such an action by which they wanted to cut all their family bonds for their complete salvation. The Lord never aimed for such an action and there was no necessity for such action in His case. Thus He was completely de-linked with His subtle body and became only the Spectator. Similarly, sage Vyasa gave birth to children through the wives of His brothers on the order of His mother, Satyavati [since that was the only way to protect the continuity of their dynasty]. In this case, Vyasa never had any desire for those ladies. Therefore, He was de-linked from the subtle body and hence did not get any sin. The Gita says that the analysis of karma (deed) is very very complicated (Gahana Karmano Gatih).
A famous saint, who is the head of a mission (Peetham) was blamed for having contacts with an unchaste lady. A sanyasi does not cut his bond with hunger, thirst, sleep and sexual desire. If he cuts bonds with these, he becomes an Avadhuta[3], which is the highest stage. Therefore, a sanyasi eats, drinks, sleeps and desires for sex. But he does not marry a lady who can provide all these facilities. If he marries, a family will be formed, which becomes an obstacle for spiritual work. Therefore, he needs the help of the public for these facilities. He gets food and drinks from others’ houses and can sleep too in others houses or in a muth (a monastery or temple-like residence). But he cannot aspire for others’ wives or unmarried ladies for his sexual desire. One way is the periodical leakage of sperm during sleep and in this case, it is not a sin. Alternatively, the desire for sex can be pacified with the help of an unchaste lady. Such a facility was accommodated in the ancient system, which provided the system of prostitutes (veshya avastha). The prostitution system was very much hygienic and such control is present even now in very high-class hotels. The pacification of sex is just a biological need like hunger, thirst etc.
Scholars equate the discharge of sperm to the discharge of urine or excretory matter. You may argue that it is better to become a householder for this purpose. But the householder loses almost all his time and energy in the bonds with his children, who are the consequence of the householder’s life. Therefore, in view of the higher goal, this alternative is not correct. Therefore, you should not find fault with the sanyasi who pacifies his biological need in very short time, without any negative consequence. Neither is that act wrong nor is using the unchaste lady for that purpose wrong. It becomes wrong only when a chaste married lady or an unmarried girl is involved. The saint who was blamed was very famous and did a lot of spiritual work for the benefit of the world. I immediately quoted a big politician who behaved in the same way and was highly respected as a great leader of the country. I supported him too because he sacrificed all his time and energy for the welfare of the country. A family for him would have hindered his work. In the interest of a greater goal, such an act is not a sin.
But again you quote Lord Krishna who danced with chaste married ladies in Vrindavanam. That is a completely special case. Those ladies were sages [in their past births] and Krishna was the Lord. The sages had requested the Lord in the previous birth to cut all their family bonds and attract them towards Him. The Lord accepted and gave the boon of salvation to them. Such a background cannot exist in any other case. Moreover, the Lord did not repeat such an act with anybody else after leaving Vrindavanam. The Lord did not return back to Vrindavanam even once to do the same act again, because the sages already achieved salvation. Therefore, you cannot bring any case to compare with this special divine case. If it were some other case, the fellow would repeat the same act else where or at least return to repeat the same act. Therefore, the case of Lord Krishna and the Gopikas cannot be generalised and the philosophy of Osho cannot be accepted. He generalised a special case for everybody.
Avidya and Maya
For a soul, this world is real and is called as Maya or Vikshepa. The world is the imagination of the Lord but it is real for all the souls. The world is not the imagination of the soul. The imagination of the soul is a dream, which is called as avidya or avaranam. Vikshepa and avaranam are both made of ignorance. But the former ignorance is only apparent and the Lord has full awareness during the ignorance. It is called as ‘Saatvika Maya’ which means an ignorance illuminated with knowledge. It is just like the daydream of a dreamer, who is in a fully awakened state. The avaranam has no knowledge and is just deep ignorance. It is like a night-dream. The Lord is the daydreamer and soul is night-dreamer. The Lord controls His dream while the soul is controlled by the dream of this world. The soul can destroy its avidya but can never destroy Maya. Avidya is the imagination or feeling of the soul and can disappear by knowledge. But Maya is the materialised world for the soul and can never disappear. The soul is pure awareness and is called as atman or the causal body. The gross body is made of five elements. Both these bodies are part of Maya and can never be destroyed by the soul. The pure awareness is eternal. The five elements of the gross body are also eternal. The subtle body, which is made of qualities or feelings or imaginations of the soul, can be destroyed by the soul through knowledge. The subtle body is made of the ignorance of the soul and can be destroyed by the scholar. After death, this subtle body is what goes to the other worlds. For a liberated soul, since the subtle body is destroyed, he does not go to the other worlds. The causal body and the gross body merge in the cosmos here itself as said by the Veda (Ihaiva Pranah…). In the case of the human incarnation too, the same thing happens but the fourth item, the Lord, is leftover. The Advaita philosophers should note this difference between Maya and avidya. Shankara clearly told that the Avaranam disappears by knowledge but not Vikshepa.
The word Brahman stands for the Maha Maya or Mula Prakriti which is the infinite ocean of pure awareness that generates, rules and dissolves the world at the end. These three actions are done by the power of God alone, who is embedded in Maha Maya. The three letters A, U and M, which when put together is called as AUM, indicate these three actions. The fourth letter (Turiya) is the silence which represents God, who is beyond even logic and imagination. Therefore, the sound AUM stands only for Maha Maya of Brahman and not for God. But if you recognise the fourth letter, which is silence, then it represents Maha Maya along with God. This is the essence of the Mandukya Upanishad.
Service Without Aspiration
The highest stage is not to aspire for anything from the Lord. The Lord does every thing according to His judgement and your deeds. When you desire something, it cannot bring any reaction in the Lord. Some devotees cry with a very loud voice and do several actions for help from the Lord. The crying too will not bring any trace of reaction in the Lord. Draupadi cried for help from the Lord. The Lord did not respond because of her cries. Draupadi had torn her sari to apply a bandage to the finger of the Lord when it was cut. It was this deed that made the Lord to help her in her time of need. The Lord would have helped her even without her cries. The Lord was watching the situation and was ready for the correct moment to act. The point of merit in the cry of Draupadi was that she believed Lord Krishna to be omnipresent and did not confine the Lord to His limited body. Therefore, she cried in the court itself, even though the Lord was in a far away place. Devotion without any aspiration is the best. The next middle level devotion is to believe that the Lord is omnipresent and pray at any place. The lower level of devotion is to try to inform the human incarnation personally. This is an insult to the Lord because you do not believe the Lord in human form is at least omnipresent. If you think that the Lord is not omnipresent how can He help you as the omnipotent?
The devotees who have firm faith in Me as the human incarnation often phone Me and submit their requests for protection. I advise them not to do so. By telephoning, they are limiting Me to this human body only and thus I cannot become omnipresent. If I am not omnipresent, I cannot be omnipotent to help them. Above all this, the main point is whether the devotee requests for anything or not, the protection from the Lord comes only based on the selfless service offered by him to the Lord without aspiring for any fruit in return. When such service is absent, the Lord cannot do any help merely based on their requests or prayers and crying. Therefore, there is no need of prayer or request or crying to the Lord if selfless service is absent. There is also no need of prayer, request or crying to the Lord if selfless service is present. Therefore, a devotee should always concentrate on the selfless service to the Lord without aspiring for any fruit in return and the prayer should be only in the praise of the Lord and not for asking any boon or protection because even if you ask, there is not even a trace of use.
One should be very careful in doing selfless service to the Lord. The service to the Lord may some times be only personal service of the Lord. It may not be the service for the welfare of the world. The service of Hanuman to Lord Rama was always personal service. The whole Ramayana was only the personal affair of Lord Rama. The fight with Ravana, jumping over the sea, bringing the Sanjeevi Mountain etc., were only for the personal service of Lord Rama either to help His wife Sita or to help His brother Lakshmana. In fact, Rama told Ravana on the first day of the war, that He would excuse Ravana if Sita were returned. This means that if Sita was returned, Rama would not kill the evil Ravana and then the welfare of the world could not be protected. From this, it looks as if Rama was very selfish and that He did not care for the welfare of the world. But Hanuman never misunderstood Rama at any point in the Ramayana. Whether the service was for the welfare of this world or for the welfare of the family of Rama, Hanuman did His service. The only aim of the service of Hanuman was to please Lord Rama.
You cannot analyse the attitude of the Lord in human form. When Rama neglected the welfare of the world for the sake of the happiness of Sita, there is a lot of hidden truth. You could not even recognize Rama as the Lord. How can you even recognize Sita? When the Lord came covered by a thick sheath of ignorance, He designed His associated roles also in the same manner. Sita was Shri Maha Lakshmi who is the top most devotee of the Lord. The Lord meant that the entire world couldn’t be equal to a devotee like Sita. Such a divine meaning cannot be captured by your intelligence because you could not analyse and find out the divinity in Rama or Sita. Rama told Lakshmana that He would destroy the entire creation if Sita was not found. This again indicates the same hidden divine truth. Externally it appears as if Rama is just a blind lover of His wife. Similarly when Lakshmana became unconscious, Rama said that He did not need Sita any more and was prepared to commit suicide. Again this appears as if Rama was a blind lover of His brother, whom Rama placed even above Sita. Lakshmana was an incarnation of Adishesha who was also hidden in a very thick cover of ignorance. Adishesha was the topper among the topmost devotees. The Lord loved Adishesha even more than His life.
These hidden divine truths reveal the divine love of the Lord towards His top devotees. But externally it shows the blind love of a human being towards His family members. Hanuman did so much service to Lord Rama. Rama rewarded every monkey at the end but did not give any reward to Hanuman. It appears as if Rama was very ungrateful to His best helper. Even Sita misunderstood Rama in this way and presented Hanuman with her chain of pearls. Hanuman cut the pearls with His teeth and threw it away. This again shows that Hanuman had no manners. But there are hidden truths in this scene. Lord Rama gave the highest post of the future Creator to Hanuman and that was not known to anybody. Hanuman preached by that act that the Lord does not exist in inert objects [like pearls]. He proved that the Lord exists only in a living being and showed Rama in His chest. Hanuman exposed the divine knowledge by such action. Thus, everywhere you will get misled and the Lord will test you. Without burning in the fire, gold cannot attain its original shine. Without the examination, no student gets the degree. Therefore, the faith in the Lord should be above logic. Logic should be used only to recognise the Lord and should not be used once the Lord is recognised. You should use the torchlight till you reach the house, but once you reach the house, the torch light should be put off.
Recognition of the Lord
The Lord is recognised by the special infinite divine knowledge, which is followed by love and bliss. Hanuman is recognised by the tail, but every possessor of a tail is not Hanuman. Even an animal has tail. Similarly, divine knowledge is followed by love and bliss. But love and bliss need not show the presence of divine knowledge. Loving a girl and bliss from wine do not have divine knowledge. Divine knowledge gives love and bliss provided you deserve the knowledge by having the capacity to digest the truth. The divine knowledge must be true. Sometimes the knowledge of God may be false [you may get false information about God] which may also generate love and bliss in you. Exploiting your selfishness, false preachers give ‘divine’ knowledge, which is not true, but it may give you love and bliss. Therefore, if you are ignorant and cannot understand your eternal welfare in long range, false divine knowledge also gives you love and bliss. A sweet may give immediate love and bliss to a child who is ill. But it harms the child in the long run. A sour medicine may create grief and repulsion in a child, but it gives welfare in long run. But for an old wise man, who is ill, the sweet gives grief and the sour medicine gives love and bliss. Therefore, divine knowledge gives love and bliss only to a person who can discriminate between the truth and falsity by logic. Therefore, the deservingness for knowledge (Jnana Yoga Adhikara) is also needed. The possession of the divine knowledge, love and bliss is proved only when you receive them from the Sadguru. Unless you experience them, there is no proof of the possession of these three by the other side. Unless you receive and experience the heat, the fire cannot prove its possession of heat. Therefore, the Lord is called as Datta. Datta means the donor of these three qualities to the devotees. Only by this donation, does the Lord prove Himself to be the Possessor of these three qualities. Therefore, Datta can only be the Lord or Parabrahman. The word Parabrahman indicates that He is the Possessor of these three qualities. The word Datta indicates that He proves His possession by the donation of these qualities to the devotees. This means that unless the Lord makes you experience Him, He cannot be the Lord, provided you are a person who deserves enough to receive the true divine knowledge and to understand it. The fire may give you the heat but if a thick sheath of insulating material covers you, you cannot experience the heat. You will blame the fire and say that the fire does not possess the heat. When all other persons are receiving heat and if you alone are not receiving the heat, you should find fault with yourself and detect the thick sheath of insulating ignorance that covers yourself. When all the people are receiving love and bliss from the divine knowledge of the Lord, if you alone are not receiving the love and bliss, you should not blame the Lord without detecting your own cover of ignorance.
Master of World, Family, Body and Soul
The Lord is the Master of this world, your family, your body and your Self. You are the pure awareness (causal body) if you are a scholar and you are the waves of the awareness (qualities) or the subtle body if you are ignorant. In any case you are just a part of your composite body, which consists of all the three bodies. Thus you are in your body. Your body is in your family and your family is in this world. The Lord being the Master of this world, He is the Master of your self, your body and your family. You cannot control yourself or your body or your family or anybody in this universe. Indra became shocked like an inert stone when he was stared at by Lord Shiva. In that state his pure awareness was like an inert stone and he had no feeling at all. What does this mean? The Lord controlled the causal body and the subtle body of even Indra [king of gods and angels]. After all, what are you before Indra? Certainly you (causal body or subtle body or both) are controlled by the Lord. The hand and the total gross body of Indra became stand still by the sight of Lord Shiva. This happened when Indra tried to hit Lord Shiva who was in the disguise of Avadhuta. This means that every part of the gross body is also under the control of the Lord.
The Pandavas were great heroes. But they could not protect their wife when she was unclothed by force in a full courtroom. This means you cannot protect anybody in your family. The parents of Markandeya could not protect him from death. In both these cases, only the Lord protected the devotees. Duryodhana could not control his grandfather Bhishma and his friend Karna. Bhishma gave the secret of his death to the Pandavas, which was against the will of Duryodhana. Karna gave a boon to his mother Kunti that he would not kill any of the Pandava brothers except Arjuna. This boon was against the will of Duryodhana. Therefore, his own kith and kin went against his will and thus he could not control his own family members or friends. Arjuna could not defeat the hunters who stole away the wives of the Yadavas right before his eyes. The Pandavas could not defeat Saindhava even though they fought with him for a whole day. All these examples show that you cannot control anybody in your family or anybody in the world. This proves clearly that you are not the controller of anybody or anything including your self. You must always remember that you are always a zero and never a hero. You must surrender to the Lord in every step and in every fraction of a second, meditating upon the Lord as the Master of the world, as the Master of your family, as the Master of your body and as the Master of yourself. In a nutshell, you must understand that the Lord is the Master of everything and everybody including your self and surrender to Him completely as said in the Gita “Tameva Sharanam Gachcha Sarvabhavena Bharata”, which means that you should surrender only to the Lord by all means. On this auspicious day, I give these five Mantras to all of you to chant every minute with full realisation of their meanings. These are:
These five Mantras will sweep away the dust of ego from your self. These five mantras act like the bomb to smash the precipitated hill of ego from several previous births. Kala Bhairava, the main practical assistant of the Lord has a broomstick in one hand and a vessel of fire (bomb) in the other hand. They indicate the sweeping of the temporary day-to-day ego and smashing of precipitated ego-hill that has formed from several millions of births.
Mixture of Reality and Imagination
This world is a mixture of reality and imagination. Any drama is also similarly a mixture of reality and imagination. The stage, dress and actors are real. But the dialogues, feelings and corresponding actions are imaginary. Similarly, the human beings and this inert world are real. But the bonds and feelings and the corresponding deeds are imaginary and arise out of ignorance (avidya) of the human being. All the human beings and all the inert things in this world are real and form the Maya. Of course Maya is the imagination of the Lord. Maya is not the imagination of the soul. Therefore, you should not try to remove Maya, which is impossible. You cannot destroy or remove the stage, dress and the actors from the drama, which are real. But you can get rid of the dialogues, feelings and actions in the drama. But here also you cannot really get rid of them either because you are forced by the director of the drama to act. Therefore, you have to put on the dress of the role. You have to speak the dialogues and express the corresponding feelings, for which you are duty bound in the drama. The only possibility is that you can keep yourself detached from the role, from the dialogues and from the feelings. You can act while remaining detached and you cannot be stopped for your detachment. You look like an attached actor for all external purposes and for the audience. Therefore, you are not disturbed by the drama and yet you can be the best actor. The attached actor undergoes tension and gets disturbed by the drama. Both look similar in their action externally but they differ a lot internally as said in the Gita (Saktah Karmnyavidvansah…). You will act as if you believe the bonds in the drama as real.
You will weep or smile for your dramatic relations in the drama according to the context. Everybody will think that you are under the illusion of the drama. You behave as if you believe the drama as a reality. But internally you are fully detached from the dramatic bonds. Your love, anger, hatred etc., towards dramatic bonds look real for others but you thoroughly know that those bonds are fully unreal and illusory. It is diplomacy. Your detachment should be kept secret and should be known only to yourself. If you open the secret, your ignorant relations feel hurt. It is not wise to hurt anybody when you can solve the problem without hurting anybody. When Vasudeva, the father of Krishna died, Lord Krishna wept too much. It was His over action. The sage Narada asked Krishna secretly about His weeping and Krishna told Narada that He over acted in the situation to satisfy the relatives. In the end, when His sons and grandsons were killed in the mutual fight, He did not express any feeling because there was no relative leftover, whom He had to satisfy by superficial action. Thus, a scholar (Jnani) or the human incarnation acts in His role allotted in this drama but He will always be aware about Himself, knowing Himself to be the actor of the role and not the role itself.
An ordinary human being forgets that he is an actor and identifies himself with the role, believing the dramatic bonds to be real bonds and gets disturbed throughout the drama. Such an ignorant actor continues in the disturbance even after the drama. Similarly the ignorant soul continues in the illusion even after death and does not get liberation. In course of time, such an ignorant actor forgets himself every time and always continues in the illusion of his roles every day. The wise actor also continues in the roles every day but is never affected by the roles, since he is always aware of himself as an actor only. If you examine the dream of a human being, the whole dream-drama is only his imagination. Therefore, such a dreamer remains only as a spectator and is not involved as an actor in the drama. But in the case of the world drama, an ignorant soul is always involved as a role and cannot be the spectator because he forgets himself to be the actor. In the world drama, a scholar is also always involved as a role but he becomes the role as well as the spectator of the whole drama because he is aware of himself. Thus, the Lord and the scholar become equal as far as the acting in the drama is concerned.
The Lord in the human form may be the Creator, Ruler and Destroyer of the world but this point is irrelevant as far as the acting and spectatorship are concerned. Even the owner and director of the drama is equal to an actor as far as the acting in the drama is analysed. When the Producer and Director of the world-drama also acts in a role in the drama, He is called as the human incarnation. When you are acting in the drama, you may consider all the dramatic bonds as imaginary and unreal. But your bond with the Producer as employer-employee relationship is always real. Therefore, you cannot treat the Producer as equal to other roles. Of course, according to the strategy and the story of the drama, you have to treat him only as a role in the drama. But you should not forget that He is your Master and that you are His servant. While following the story and dialogues of drama as per the rules of the stage, you have to keep up your love, respect and devotion towards your Master at least in your heart. But you have to follow the role assigned to you by your Master.
If the story of the drama forces you to treat even your Master as only a role, you have to behave just like that. But if the story is designed so that you have to recognise Him as your Master openly in the drama, you have to act similarly. When such a fortunate occasion comes, you need not show superficial action in that situation. You can act sincerely, from the bottom of your heart in recognising your Master and in serving Him. In this line, acting should not be done. You have to behave truly and sincerely. By such real behaviour, your Master is pleased. Such real behaviour is expected from you even after the drama. This means, you must not show superficial action towards the Master in any case. But if the story demands that you do not express your sincere behaviour towards your Master during the drama and that you must treat Him only as an ordinary role, you have to do so. Only in such a case can you show superficial action with Him. If the story demands that you have to treat Him as your enemy, you have to do so superficially, keeping sincere love in your heart. The gatekeeper Jaya acted as Ravana and had to treat his Master as his enemy in the drama. Ravana behaved so as per the story but had immense devotion in his heart secretly towards his Master. Therefore, when the drama was over, he reached back to his own position and the Lord was very much pleased with his acting, which was highly critical. Shishupala scolded the Lord through a hundred abuses[4]. In every abuse he showed the top most hatred and anger towards the Lord externally but internally he cried in his heart for such language. Therefore, as soon as he was killed, the soul of Shishupala emerged as light and merged with Lord and all saw this. The Lord exhibited such merging to all to indicate that He was not at all furious with Shishupala. Shishupala successfully completed the task of his most critical role assigned to him by the Master and the Master openly congratulated him. He scolded the Lord under the ignorance and cried in his heart due to knowledge.
Both ignorance and knowledge are alternatively released by the Lord as said in the Gita (Mattah Smritih…). If you are given the role of a devotee, you are very fortunate because you can act sincerely, from the bottom of your heart. You can immerse in your role sincerely and you need not feel that you are an actor. You must only identify yourself to the role. But if you are given the role of a villain, you have to fully drink the ignorance-wine and only then can you identify yourself with the role. In both these cases you have to identify with your role. You have to keep the diplomacy with regards to other roles in the drama in whatever role you may be present. You should not keep the diplomacy with regards to the role of the Lord. Whether you are a devotee or enemy of the Lord, you have to identify with the role without any diplomacy. In such identification, you can take the help of knowledge or ignorance if necessary according to the requirement. But when you are not related to the Lord in the drama in any way, then you need not identify with the role and you can keep up the diplomacy with regards to other roles. The Lord also assigns such diplomacy to other roles to you. The Lord expects you not to be disturbed in your role while acting with reference to other roles. If you do not exhibit diplomacy towards other roles, you are unnecessarily disturbed by tensions. When you are acting with reference to Him, even tension and disturbance should be welcomed.
Ravana, as the enemy of Lord Rama, experienced a lot of tension in his role but he was rewarded at the end. Similarly, Sita, Hanuman, Lakshmana etc., also were subjected to lot of tension as devotees. The Lord also rewarded such tension. Therefore, in any role that is related to the Master, you should be sincere and identify yourself with your role without any diplomacy and should welcome any sort of tension for the sake of your Master. But you need not undergo any trace of tension for the sake of other bonds in the drama. Ravana did not bother internally even if his sons were killed in the war, because he knew that they were only unreal dramatic sons. But when the situation developed which lead to a war against the Lord, he felt a lot of agony in the heart. But he acted in reverse externally. That is, he wept for the death of his sons and felt happy to fight with the Master. Both these weeping and happiness were only external superficial actings. In the case of devotees, they felt happy for the victory of the Master and wept when the Master was in trouble. In their case, a double game was not necessary. Their acting was homogeneous and no ignorance was needed. They were always aware of the Master as the Lord. But in the case of Ravana, ignorance was required for him to always identify with his role.
When the Lord was in trouble, Ravana has to express happiness and for this, ignorance was required. He had to be unhappy for the success of the Master and for this also ignorance was required. Therefore, ignorance was forced on him throughout the drama. The aim of the drama is to show the fate of an ignorant fellow, who actually becomes an enemy of the Lord. The drama also shows the fortune of a real devotee. Therefore, one should not think that one could reach the Lord, even by enmity. The enmity of Ravana was unreal and was forced by the Lord. But your enmity is not so and is real. Therefore, the dramatic end of Ravana in the drama will be your real end. The real end of Ravana cannot be your real end. The dramatic end of the devotee [acted the role of devotee] in the drama is also the real end. Therefore, the real end of a devotee will be the real end of the dramatic devotee, which was also real. Therefore, the conclusion is that you can please the Lord only by your devotion. The real devotion is always in the form of sacrifice of work and the fruit of work. This can be seen in the roles of devotees like Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Haunman and the Gopikas. Sita left the dramatic city and went to the forest following the Lord. Lakshmana left his dramatic wife for the sake of the real bond with his Master. Bharata left the bond with dramatic wealth for the sake of the real bond with his Master. Hanuman sacrificed work for the sake of the real bond with His Master. The Gopikas sacrificed butter, which was the fruit of their hard work for the sake of the real bond with their Master. If you are unable to express your love to your Master through work and the fruit of your work, at least express your love through mind and words. At least express your gratefulness to the Lord through words (prayer) and mind (devotion) instead of wasting your words and mind for the sake of these unreal dramatic bonds in the world.
[1] Devotion of Radha
[2] Vali’s episode
[3] Avadhuta
[4] Shishupala episode