Posted on: 15 Jan 2022
[A question by Ms. Lakxmi Thrylokya]
Swami Replied:- Your mother asked Me recently that whether she can take the pilgrimage to Kashi along with your father. Had she asked Me that she alone is going to Kashi, I would have refused it in view of the present conditions of propagation of virus. But she told that she wants to go to Kashi along with your father. If the decision to go to Kashi is taken by your father first and followed by your mother, it will be inconvenient to her to stop her from pilgrimage to Kashi because your father might be offended. Since I don’t know that whether this proposal was started by your father or your mother in the beginning, I told her to proceed so that if your father proposed this, he will not be offended. Had I known that your mother proposed this pilgrimage, I would have clearly advised her to stop from the pilgrimage because your mother is devoted to Me. Since your father is not devoted to Me, I felt inconvenient in preventing the pilgrimage. I could not be clear in such complicated state of confusion.
Regarding the background of pilgrimage, pilgrimage means to travel to see God. The original God is unimaginable called Parabrahman and hence, there is no trace of possibility even to imagine anything about God. In such case, how can one travel to see God? The unimaginable God merged with the first energetic form to become the first energetic incarnation called God Datta and this is the permanent residential address of the unimaginable God. God Datta is imaginable, but invisible and hence, pilgrimage to God Datta is also impossible. God Datta, afterwards formed energetic incarnations and Human Incarnations by entering and merging with energetic media or human media respectively. The primary energetic incarnations are God Brahma, God Vishnu and God Shiva. Now, we have to take God Shiva because the pilgrimage is to Kashi. But, we cannot see the energetic incarnation of God Datta called God Shiva in Kashi and hence pilgrimage to Kashi from the view point of God Shiva also is not useful. What is present in Kashi? Simply a stone carved as wave representing the energy in wave form that stands as a representative model (pratika) of God Shiva. We must note that any representative model is not the God directly, who is represented by the model. We say that the three coloured flag is representative model of the country called India. This is only an agreed assumption and not the actual fact because the country cannot be any actual flag. If it is assumption only, any flag can represent the country also provided you have belief in such assumption.
In this way, not only the stone in Kashi represents God Shiva, but also any inert object can also represent God Shiva. Assuming that the curved stone alone represents God Shiva due to the generalized supporting assumption, in such case, any similarly curved stone in any place can represent God Shiva. You cannot say that the three coloured flag flying in Delhi only represents India and the same flag flying in other city in India cannot represent India. This means that any carved stone in uniform way at any place can represent God Shiva and any such stone can be called as Shiva Linga. Are you not calling Shiva Linga in your home as Shiva Linga? Are you calling only the Shiva Linga in Kashi as Shiva Linga? Therefore, whatever way of worship you can do to Shiva Linga in Kashi, the same worship can be done to the Shiva Linga present in your home. Everywhere the Shiva Linga is uniformly representing God Shiva only. Now tell Me, what is the speciality in going to Kashi to worship a specific Shiva Linga only. Is there any speciality of that Shiva Linga of Kashi? If it is there, please tell Me showing the proof of audio-video cassette.
However, if you have a blind faith that the Shiva Linga in Kashi alone can represent God Shiva, I offer My salutations to your lotus feet and leave you without any further argument. If a blind person says that sun is black in color, what arguments you can put to him? This is actually called as blind faith, which means the faith of a blind person regarding the color of the sun!
If you go to the background of Kashi city in ancient times, it was called as Kashi because the knowledge of great scholars was shining in that city (kāśate iti kāśī). Knowledge belongs to the quality of sattvam and the Gita says that high grade of sattvam or pure knowledge shines with light (prakāśa upajāyate). Due to the existence of such excellent spiritual knowledge in Kashi, if anybody goes to Kashi and dies there, it is said that such a soul will be liberated (kāśyāṃ tu maraṇāt muktiḥ). What does this mean? This means that if you stay in Kashi till death, you will be always immersed in the spiritual knowledge of scholars present there till your death. The spiritual knowledge means the devotion or attachment to God due to which only salvation from worldly bonds is possible. This is the inner meaning of getting salvation by staying in Kaashi till death. But, what is Kaashi today? It is filled with pandas behaving like goondas in collecting money from you without giving any spiritual knowledge to you.
Will anybody get salvation by staying in this Kaashi till death? Even if you stay in your house, worshipping Shiva Linga in your prayer room to develop your theoretical knowledge and getting true spiritual path from the preachings of a Sadguru, you will get salvation from worldly bonds even in your home. In the Mahabharatam, there is a story about two friends travelling to Kaashi. One stopped before reaching Kaashi in a city and was fascinated to a prostitute. This fellow died on Shiva Ratri day by embracing the naked prostitute repenting due to constant thinking about the fortune of his friend in Kaashi. This fellow was taken to abode of God Shiva by the order of God Shiva. The friend, who went to Kaashi also died on the same day in Kaashi while worshipping God Shiva and he was taken to hell by the order of the same God Shiva because that fellow was always thinking about the fortune of his friend entangled with prostitute. Does this story not reveal the facts about pilgrimage to Kaashi city? I have answered your question and at the same time I have advised your mother through this message regarding the decision to be taken about the pilgrimage of Kaashi.
For beginners, who have strongest blind faith about Kaashi, the pilgrimage appears to be useful because it is not actually useful. If the eyes are not closed with blindness, there is no benefit in spiritual line by doing any pilgrimage. In the pilgrimage, there are several problems of health and infections of virus. Even if one takes all the risks, there is no trace of spiritual benefit in any pilgrimage because one can get the highest benefit of spiritual fruit just by staying in house. The highest spiritual benefit is Brahmaloka or the abode of God. The most astonishment is that Gopikas sitting in their house at Brundavanam got Goloka, which is higher than the highest fruit called Brahmaloka!
The death day of Bhiishma is specifically mentioned as the salvation-day (Nirvāṇa or Mokṣa Ekādaśī) and Bhiishma neither worshiped Shivalinga at Kaashi nor died in Kaashi. He died in the war ground meditating upon the contemporary Human Incarnation, God Krishna. He got all the true spiritual knowledge from God Krishna, which was generally given by scholars in Kaashi. He did not take bath in Ganga river but was fully immersed in the devotion- Ganga river of God Krishna. We must convince the devotees slowly through this knowledge even though we nod our head positively in the initial stage by telling the devotee “proceed to Kaashi, it is very good”. First, we must become their friends by following their strong wish positively and slowly we shall transform them through true spiritual knowledge. A running bull can’t be controlled in the very first step since we also have to run along with it initially for some steps and then only slowly control it to bring to our line. This is the way of convincing the devotees gripped by blind traditions.