Posted on: 16 Aug 2006
[2nd Message on the Eve of Krishnashtami] Lord Krishna proved that knowledge is always the highest because knowledge is related to intelligence (Buddhi). Therefore, the Jnana Yoga is also called as the Buddhi Yoga by which you can certainly attain God (Dadami...). The knowledge gives devotion and you can attain God by devotion. Unless you know that the boy is your son, you will not love him. When you know more and more about God’s greatness, your love increases proportionally. Therefore knowledge generates devotion and also develops the devotion. Knowledge also leads to right action by which the goal can be achieved. Krishna said that He would not fight in the war but He would only advise. Advice means a flash of intelligence which is a superior knowledge. His advices at every stage alone brought victory to the Pandavas. This proves that knowledge also leads to the correct action. Even wrong knowledge leads to action, but the action is a wrong action. Therefore, in order to enter into right action, right knowledge is needed, which can only be given by a Sadguru like Krishna. The Pandavas could achieve the goal in this world (victory in the war) only by the guidance of Krishna, who was the Sadguru.
Dharmaraja was very intelligent. Before the war started, he approached Bhishma requesting him to give a clue to defeat him [Bhishma was invincible since he had received a boon that he would die only when he wished so. Although he was fighting against the Pandavas, he internally wished for the victory of the Pandavas]. Bhishma told Dharmaraja that he would reveal the clue later. However, due to tension during the first ten days of war, Dharmaraja forgot this. This means that the soul may be very intelligent and may be a great scholar who has realized the truth. However, due to tensions, ignorance hides the truth. Dharmaraja knew that he should approach Bhishma to get the clue. However, he forgot the truth due to tension. This means that the Sadguru is needed not only to know the unknown truth but also to remember the known truth. Therefore, the soul has two types of ignorance; the ignorance of not knowing the truth and the ignorance of forgetting the known truth. When Bhima was fighting with Duryodhana in the end, Bhima was becoming weaker and weaker by the blows of Duryodhana. Here Dharmaraja was worried and he did not know the clue to defeat Duryodhana. This was not a case of forgetting the truth. All the body of Duryodhana was made as hard as diamond by the sight of his mother [boon given by his mother] except his thighs. Only Krishna knew the truth. Here also Krishna helped them by indicating to Bhima to hit Duryodhana on the thighs. Thus, the Sadguru is needed to reveal the unknown truth as in the case of defeating Duryodhana and also to reveal the known forgotten truth as in the case of defeating Bhishma. When Bhima hit the thighs of Duryodhana, Balarama became angry and was ready to kill Bhima because it was against the rules to hit below the belt. However, Krishna convinced Balarama by saying that Duryodhana had asked Draupadi to sit on his thighs and Bhima had taken an oath to break those thighs. Krishna argued that inviting Draupadi to sit on his thighs was a fundamental sin and therefore the consequence need not be analyzed. Balarama was convinced and Bhima was saved. Therefore, you can realize that the knowledge coming from the Sadguru is the real essence which will guide you to the right action and there by you can achieve the goal. Shankara stressed on knowledge and said that if knowledge is perfect, achievement of the goal is a spontaneous consequence.
If you analyze the Mahabharata, Arjuna approached Krishna for personal help. This is the lowest stage where God is involved in the personal service of soul. The whole war was essentially for the personal service of the souls [Pandavas]. However, Krishna analyzed this and showed another dimension, which is social service. By destroying injustice and establishing justice, social service is done. Therefore, the war was also for social service, which is an incidental angle of the service to the soul. The next higher level is Hanuman on the flag [an image of Hanuman is shown on the flag on Arjuna’s chariot]. In the Ramayana, Hanuman was involved only in the personal service of the Lord. He was waiting only to serve Rama personally. He was not bothered about the injustice done to Sugriva by Vali, even though he was capable of killing Vali. The war in Ramayana was purely the personal service to the Lord and the killing of Ravana (social service) was again an incidental angle. Rama advised Ravana that if Sita were returned, He would not fight with Ravana. This means that killing Ravana (social service) was not the aim of the Lord. Mahabharatha is a lower level because Arjuna approached Krishna for personal help. However, it became a somewhat higher level when the incidental angle of the destruction of injustice was explained by the Lord. Ramayana is a higher level than this in which Hanuman concentrated only on the personal service of the Lord and even social service (killing Ravana) was an incidental angle.
Now if you see the Bhagavatam, it is the highest level where only the personal service to God was present to the greatest extent. Even if you think that Krishna’s killing of the demons sent by Kamsa can be called as social service, the Gopikas, unlike Hanuman, were not at all involved in it even indirectly. They always wanted the physical presence of Lord Krishna and became mad for that. They were always involved only in the personal service to the Lord by giving butter and doing other personal services. Arjuna was reborn as a hunter. Hanuman became God [Creator in the next cycle of creation]. The Gopikas became the masters of God [the Lord created a world higher than His own abode, for the sake of the Gopikas]. Thus, there is a transformation of your personal service to the personal service to the Lord in the spiritual journey. Social service is only a middle stage.
Social Service
When service to your self is considered as selfishness, how can the service to the group of souls (society) not be selfishness as well? Whether it is a single zero or hundred zeros, it is immaterial. God is like the number one which is greater than a single zero or hundred zeros. Shankara condemned social service with reference to the service to God (refer to Loka Sevaka Mata Nirasa of Shankara Digvijayam). This entire society is the kingdom of God and is running under the divine administration of God. If there is a beggar in this kingdom, it is because he is undergoing punishment for his sins as decided by the judgment of God. No injustice can happen in His kingdom. Therefore, converting a beggar in to a devotee is the primary work [if we are interested in helping him]. Helping the beggar in materialistic ways is only a secondary activity since the punishment was given only for the changing the soul. Your effort to transform that soul into a devotee is appreciated by God because that is the very purpose of the punishment. Unless the soul is transformed, you cannot help the soul in any way.
If you are doing some service to a beggar, remember that you are doing it only by the will of God. Therefore, you cannot interfere in the divine administration in any way if you are saving the life of a beggar by giving food to a dying person; it is emergency-service. If his life is lost, there is no possibility for the soul to transform by devotion here. Therefore, this emergency-service should be done by every body because life is the basis for the transformation. However, remember that you are doing even this service by the will of God alone; the beggar may die even after eating your food. Providing the basic needs for human beings is the emergency-service by which God is always pleased. If the fellow dies even after your service, it means that there was no possibility of transformation of that soul on earth. Only the special methods of torture in hell can transform the soul. Therefore, the soul was sent to hell by the Lord. If there were a possibility of transformation on the earth, God would have given him food through some body to save his life. Therefore, you should not get even a trace of egoism in the social service, because you are driven only by God everywhere.
Social service is not greater than personal service to God because God is above society. When Jesus indicated the crossing of I [canceling the ego; self-sacrifice] by crucifixion, it means that every soul is to be crossed in the same way. Society is not above God and in fact it is not even above your family. Your family is grateful to you and so the business is fair. The society is not grateful to you even after receiving help from you. The society just thanks you by words after receiving your service, where as the family reciprocates your service through service to you. Your self and your family are certainly better than society. Of course, in the case of emergency-service, you can rise above your self and family to help in the basic needs of the poor people because life should be saved and life should be settled for any spiritual effort.
Since we do not know the background of any soul, our impressions about any soul cannot be real. Suppose you are watching the scene of the hanging of a prisoner, you will sympathize with the prisoner and criticize the jailer. If you had seen the past scene of the prisoner in which he murdered several innocent people, you would have killed him immediately; on the spot! The judicial system has taken so much time to enquire into the truth and arrive at the judgement and punishment. Abhimanyu was brought up by Krishna and he was the only nephew of the Lord. Krishna diverted Arjuna from the war and saw to it that Abhimanyu got killed. Anyone will scold Krishna for this action and call Him as the cruelest person. However, Krishna knew the entire background of Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu was a demon who had killed several innocent people. Therefore the actions of the Lord cannot be understood because they are based on the total background. Your actions are based only on the present which is seen. Even in the present you cannot know the internal nature of the person. However, the Lord knows the internal structure of the soul. Ravana came as a saint begging for food. Sita sympathized with him and tried to give him food. Therefore a human being cannot understand the internal quality of a beggar. Therefore social service should be done only based on the command from the Lord as told by Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Service According to the Lord’s Will
The Lord [incarnation of the Lord] has a small human body and at the same time possesses the infinite body which is the cosmos (Vishwarupam). Therefore personal service to His human body or to His macrocosmic body is one and the same. However, the will of the Lord is very important. The Lord is pleased if you act according to His will. After all, the final goal of the entire spiritual effort is only to please the Lord. Therefore you should simply act according to the will of the God without any analysis. Your analysis is limited to the present and is also apparent. His will is the result of the total analysis done even at the deepest level. His will is not a blind will at random. It appears as if it is a blind will due to your lack of knowledge of the total background. Krishna desired the personal service to His limited form from the Gopikas. The same Krishna wanted the service to be done to His close devotees i.e. Pandavas. Lord Rama wanted the total help from Hanuman etc., to benefit only Sita who is His closest devotee, Mahalakshmi. You misunderstand that the Lord is interested in His close relatives. However, you don’t know that some of His close relatives are liberated souls. If you were in His place, you would be interested in all your relatives. Krishna got the Yadavas killed in war and by drinking wine at the end. He had given ten thousand Yadavas [part of Krishna’s army] to Duryodhana to help him in the war. All of them were killed. Also at the end all His close relatives including His sons and grandsons killed each other after getting drunk and fighting, while He was a silent spectator.
You think that Rama was fond of His wife and exploited Hanuman to save her. In fact the whole war took place only due to the foolish desire of Sita for the golden deer. However, you do not know the background of Sita. She is the possessor of the entire wealth of this universe. Was she attracted by the petty golden deer? The drama was written like that by Lord Rama [and hence it took place as it did]. Shankara wandered all over the country to uplift humanity. Here the Lord liked social service at the cosmic level. Therefore sometimes the Lord may be pleased with your service at the level of His human body. Sometimes He may be pleased with your service done to His devotees, who are in disguise as His relatives to test you. Sometimes He may require your service at the level of the entire society. The will of the Lord is important. The will of the Lord is always justified if the entire background is known. Jesus was pleased with the service of a woman who applied perfume on His feet. It is purely a personal service at the level of His body. A devotee commented that instead of doing such a waste for the personal service and enjoyment of Jesus, it is better to do social service by feeding beggars. However, Jesus objected to that remark and supported the personal service of that woman. Jesus told him that beggars will be always there but the human incarnation is very rare. The background of this is to be analyzed. The devotee became jealous of the service of that woman. If he was in the place of Jesus he would not have passed the same comment. Society is not above God. This is the concept of Jesus and Shankara. There cannot be uniform service to all souls because each soul has its own level of nature. Service should be mighty leveled and such capability lies only with God. The woman who served Jesus was a liberated soul that accompanied the Lord and was far superior to any other soul in the world. Rama was very fond of Sita and blindly followed Her wish for the golden deer. His blind love was not for His wife but for Goddess Mahalakshmi who was a liberated soul.
Swami’s Charitable Activities
We have started the Shri Datta Seva Samiti which is a trust meant for doing emergency-service to people in need. We are feeding beggars with special food items which they cannot get by begging. Another advantage is that these special food items are durable for some time so that they can store them and satisfy their hunger even if they do not get food for a few days. Thus, basic emergency-service is done and we do not want any beggar in the world to die for want of food. Once this is achieved in the entire world, our next step is to settle the poor people in their lives and ensure that they can meet their basic needs. A peaceful life is essential for preaching spiritual knowledge. However, this is not the final goal. Our second trust is Shri Datta Jnana Prachara Parishat which is meant to propagate spiritual knowledge. A trust in USA is also coming up with a view to spreading spiritual knowledge throughout the world to maintain peace in the entire world. This will be the basic stage for the spiritual development of every spiritual aspirant.
In My spiritual knowledge, I have stressed on the sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. It is My duty to reveal what I have done in this aspect, since it has been kept secret till today. I have practiced whatever I taught because the fullest and deepest knowledge is in My brain, which has resulted in determination and practice. I have been doing the sacrifice of work in the divine mission from My childhood. It is true that I wrote more than a hundred books in Sanskrit before I was sixteen years of age. However, all the books were only on spiritual knowledge. Those books were at the level of traditional Sanskrit scholars who are well-versed in the Shastras. For the past fifteen years, I am concentrating on modern educated people to propagate this spiritual knowledge in their minds. Thus I am trying to cover all types of people.
Apart from this sacrifice of work, I have done sacrifice of the fruit of work also. Since the fruit of My work is hard-earned money, I did not want to do the sacrifice in exposed manner in terms of social service, which is generally done for fame. Since this fruit of work was not the money receieved from the public in the form of donations, I was not controlled by any obligation. I have full freedom to analyze a deserving devotee and help him or her secretly without any publicity. If anybody wants proof, I am ready to give the addresses of deserving devotees whom I helped intensively. If you observe the life history of Krishna, He did charity only once in His life. He was waiting for the most deserving devotee. It was Sudama who came to Him in severe poverty. He and his family were almost at the edge of death due to starvation. Still he did not beg Krishna for any materialistic help. Krishna took away the little parched rice from him, which was to be returned to a householder as a loan. Krishna kept silent and Sudama did not mistake Krishna even once; not even in his mind. Then Krishna gave away all His wealth to Sudama. My charity was like that. I was analyzing and analyzing the devotees who deserve the charity. Krishna also kept silent about His charity to Sudama. Sudama realized the charity only when he went back to his house. The devotees who were helped by Me belonged to all castes and religions. They were both at the scholastic level as well as at the illiterate level. I never gave much money to My family. I hardly gave ten percent of My earnings to My family for their basic needs. My family members including Myself always suffered with severe poverty and led a simple life. People would misunderstand Me as a miser and thought that I had saved a lot of money and kept it secretly. When I left My job, My bank balance was zero and I had to search for food for Myself and My family. Seeing this situation, My devotees came forward to help My family. Of course this is a story of My personal earnings about which I should not publicize.
I am against social service to be done open to all without discrimination. In such open blind service, undeserving people also get benefitted and thereby we accumulate sin. Not helping the deserving and helping the undeserving—both are sins as told by Vyasa in the Mahabharata. The deservingness of a person to receive your help is the most important factor of all in the sacrifice. People give importance to place and time of sacrifice but do not analyze the deservingness of the receiver of the donation. Suppose today is Krishnashtami [auspiciopus day] and the place is Vrindavanam [auspicious place]. The place and time are excellent and therefore people are in hurry to do charity. Tomorrow, they are leaving Vrindavanam and Krishnashtami also ends. That is the hurry. In this hurry, they donate to some undeserving fellow and earn sin. Lord Krishna waited for a long time in the search of a deserving devotee. When Sudama was found, it was not the day of any festival. Yet the Lord did charity to the maximum extent. Whenever you find the most deserving person, that day is Krishnashtami and that place is Vrindavanam. Therefore one should not be in a hurry to do charity under the illusion of place and time. You must accumulate wealth, which you want to donate to a deserving person. You must take lot of time to analyze the deserving person. If you find a deserving person, donate all the accumulated wealth to him alone. Since the deservingness is doubtless, there is no doubt in getting good fruit (Punyam) for it. If you do charity without discrimination, under the illusion of place and time, sometimes you may get sin instead of good result.
I did not do any social service with publicity. Lord Krishna also did not do such public service by building hospitals, colleges, ashrams etc. I opened the secrecy of My life in view of analyzing the concept of service. This should not be misunderstood as publicity for fame. If I had such a desire, I would have done open public service or I would have publicized whatever I had done, long back. The intention here is only to support the main concept of service in this spiritual knowledge.