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Shri Datta Swami

Posted on: 26 Dec 2004

               

MESSAGE ON DATTA JAYANTI - Part-2

Final Goal: To achieve Datta by Brahma Vidya is only the first step but to please Datta is the real and final step. To please Datta, the only way is sacrifice. Now the question is: sacrifice of what? People have taken it as the sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence. The sacrifice of these three items is only the sacrifice of one paisa in a rupee [100 paise=1 rupee]. These three items are attained by human beings without any effort, just by the birth itself. It is something like the donation of a tumbler of drinking water, which is supplied by the municipality in plenty. Even here, you are donating that, which is in excess for you. When there is leisure time and there is no possibility of earning more money by sacrificing these three items, then only you donate. If a student comes to you for taking tuitions by paying some fees, you will not donate these three items (words, mind and intelligence) to God in that time [since you will use your words, mind and intelligence to earn money by teaching the student]. When you are free and do not have any other work, you think that by donating these three free items, you can get something from God. Your plan is the extraction of wealth from wastage. The Lord is not a fool like a king, who can be pleased by flattering poetry. Therefore the sacrifice of work and the fruit of the work alone can please Datta. The Veda talks about the sacrifice of the fruit of the work (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). But the work and the fruit of the work are one and the same and they are only two different forms. You have worked for one hour for the sake of the Lord. Another person earned hundred rupees by doing the same work. The second person sacrifices those hundred rupees, which is the fruit of that one hour’s work. Both are equal in the sacrifice. Therefore the Gita divided this sacrifice into two parts:

  1. Sacrifice of work (karma samnyasa)
  2. Sacrifice of fruit of work (karma phala tyaga).

The Veda also mentions the sacrifice of work (Kurvanneveha karmani). The Gita tells us about sacrifice of work (Mat karma paramobhava) and about the sacrifice of the fruit of work (Sarva karma phala tyagam, Phalam Tyaktva Manishanah). For saints [monks], sacrifice of fruit of work is not possible because they do not earn. Hanuman was a saint and sacrificed all his time and energy in the form of work for the sake of Rama. The Gopikas were householders and sacrificed the fruit of their work, which was butter. Please note that Hanuman and the Gopikas have not done any other form of worship as we do today. Once the sacrifice of these two exists, sacrifice by words, mind and intelligence also can co-exist and can become valuable. When you donate ninety-nine paise, it can be treated as almost one rupee but it cannot be actually one rupee. The remaining one paisa must be also be donated to make the donation full in the actual sense. But merely donating a tumbler of drinking water has no value and is not charged even in a restaurant. But that tumbler of drinking water is valuable when it is provided along with a plate of meal. A feast becomes complete only with the drinking water. The Lord will not care for your other good or bad qualities because for Him, the only good quality is sacrifice and the only bad quality is selfishness. The hunter Kannappa had all the bad qualities of Rajas and Tamas, but was excellent in sacrifice. He was like the nectar in an earthen cup. You may contain all the good qualities of Satvam but if you are always selfish to extract something from the Lord, you are like salt water in a golden cup. In a restaurant, you pay for the material in the cup and not for the cup. Such sacrifice is called as service, which is the real proof of your devotion. Such real sacrifice is not impossible because you are doing the same to your children. When you can do that in one place, why can’t you do it in the case of the Lord? Therefore your love for the Lord is not true and is polluted by selfishness, which is like poisoned milk. You are giving all the true love to your children and all the false love to the Lord. You are sacrificing work and the fruit of your work to your children and you are sacrificing words, mind and intelligence to the Lord. Start giving atleast a spoonful of the true love to the Lord and stop giving pots of false love. If you really analyze yourself, your body, your energy, your work and the fruit of your work, they are part and parcel of the property of the Lord alone. In that case, you have not sacrificed anything because you yourself are a part of His movable property. Therefore, when you get egoism that you are sacrificing to the Lord, such analysis (Jnana) is necessary. But in such analysis, you lose the sweet love, which is called as devotion. You feel the sweet love when you sacrifice your property to your children. Similarly to enjoy the sweetness of love and devotion, ignorance (Ajnana) is also necessary. Infact, the Lord enjoys this sweet love. When you sacrifice something to Him, He also feels that you have sacrificed your work and your fruit of work. He forgets that all this is His property. Only in such imposed ignorance, you and the Lord can enjoy the sweetness of devotion.

Datta means sacrifice. Therefore Datta is not only the goal but also the path. Datta appears with all bad qualities like drinking wine etc., but He means sacrifice. Therefore He is the nectar in the earthen cup. He sets an example for you. He is indicating that you should not be worried about your bad qualities, if you have sacrifice. Sacrifice is the pleasant scent and selfishness is the pungent bad odor. Datta likes the hut with a good scent than a castle with a bad odor. The Gita says the same thing “Apichet sa Durachaarah Bhajate Mamananya Bhaak Sadhureva Samantavyah Samyak Vyavasitohi Sah”. This means that you may have any bad quality, it shall be neglected by the Lord, provided you serve the Lord through sacrifice in action. The word ‘Bhaja’ in this verse means ‘service’ as per Sanskrit Grammar (Bhaja-sevayaam). The word Vyavasita means action or practice. You are the item of value, and not the container in which you are present. Datta comes to you as a beggar. You donate food (Bhiksha) to Him. Do you think that Datta lost His value and you have gained some value by being a donor? The diamond present in the lowest world (Patala) is a diamond. The stone present in Brahmaloka is only a stone. Therefore you are His beggar and all your wealth is only the Bhiksha given by Him. Therefore the value does not come to the outer covering.

The conclusion of this Datta Jayanti is that Datta is neither any past incarnation nor a present statue or picture. Datta is the present human incarnation existing in your generation. Recognize Him and worship Him. The birthday of such a present incarnation is the real Datta Jayanti but all the human beings cannot rise to this level due to their unconquered egoism and jealousy. Therefore for such basic level ignorant people, today is Datta Jayanti and this statue or picture is Datta. They are worshipping this statue or picture as a representative of Datta (Prateeka Upaasanam). At this level even this is not wrong. An LKG (lower Kindegarten) student has to carry a slate. The postgraduate student need not mock at this LKG student because he was also in LKG once upon a time, carrying the same slate. But the message to the LKG students is that they should not sit in LKG throughout their lives.

Fury of God

[After giving this divine discourse, Swami started singing devotional songs. A lady devotee called Mrs. V. Bharathi, an artist of All India Radio, fainted for two to three hours. Later on she explained that Swami appeared to her as Lord Narasimha with a very furious face. She was unable to see the face and fainted with shock. Just, two three days before Datta Jayanti, Swami stated the following:]

This creation is the mind of the Lord. His will is the creation like a day-dream. If His mind is pleasant, this nature will also be pleasant. Then all the seasons will be regular and all the people will be happy without any natural calamity. But when the mind of the Lord gets irritated, this creation is also irritated. Such irritations of creation are the natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, droughts etc. If the people love the Lord without any selfishness, the Lord becomes happy. The happiness is a quality of the mind. Therefore, His mind, which is the creation (nature) becomes pleasant. Now the devotees love the Lord only for selfish benefits. It is not true love. When you expect true love from somebody, and if he shows superficial and artificial love, you become irritated because he is trying to cheat you. When the Lord comes in human form, these devotees are unable even to recognize Him, because their eyes have become blind with the egoism and jealousy. They insult the Lord who comes in the human form as said in the Gita (Avajananti Mam Mudhaah Maanusheem Tanumasritam). This is another irritation for the Lord. When you go to the house of your near and dear ones and if they do not recognize you and insult you, how much irritation do you get? Some of His devotees are claiming to be the Lord themselves. How much irritated do you get when a person who is very close to you claims to be you in some other place? People are showing extreme love for their wife, children and money and are prepared to do any sin to earn money for their children. But these people are not showing even a trace of such love for the Lord. If you do any sin due to extreme love for Lord, such a sin is neglected. But when you do the same sin for the sake of your family, such a sin is counted as a sin and cannot be neglected. The Lord punishes the sinners in this world to set an example for others. The punishment continues in the upper world also. The Lord protects real devotees even if somebody harms him. His work does not end with the protection of the real devotee only. His work finishes when the sinner is destroyed. When a sinner wounds His real devotee, He protects the devotee by applying medicine to the wound. But He does not stop here. He further proceeds to wound the sinner. Thus protection of real devotees and destruction of sinners are done simultaneously as said in the Gita (Paritraanaya Saadhunam Vinasayacha Dushkritaam)”.

On the day of Datta Jayanti, we have seen the earthquakes and the floods of the sea as indicated by Swami. [Swami had predicted the earthquake and resulting tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and had explained their cause.] If you have done any great work, think that it is the power of the Lord, which has done that work. Convey all the appreciation from the public to the Lord. If you have done any foolish thing, you have done it and you take the ill fame. If you follow this path, you will do wonderful things. A dumb fellow will become an excellent orator. A lame person will jump over the hills. Arjuna killed all the Kauravas by the power of the Lord alone. When Arjuna was fighting, he could clearly see the Lord walking before his chariot and killing the opponents with the ‘Trishula’ [trident] in His hand. Arjuna always felt as if his arrows were killing dead bodies. Arjuna asked Sage Vyasa about this vision during the war itself. Vyasa told him that the Lord was sitting on the chariot in the form of Krishna. He was also sitting on the flag in the form of Hanuman. He was also walking before the chariot in the form of Shiva. Arjuna realized his strength after the exit of Krishna. He could not even defeat some ordinary forest hunters in the absence of Krishna. He realized what he was without Krishna. A metallic wire weighing 100 grams cannot move the ceiling fan, which weighs 10000 grams. But, when the current passes through it, the wire moves the fan with a high speed. For our eyes, it appears as if the wire is moving the fan. The current in the wire cannot be seen. Similarly it appeared as if Arjuna killed all the Kauravas. But it is the power of the Lord, which passed through Arjuna and killed all the Kauravas. The Lord showed this fact in His Vishwarupam. Arjuna saw the Kauravas being crushed in the mouth of the Lord. A constant awareness of this concept will destroy the egoism forever. Then only, will the devotee surrender completely to the Lord. Such a devotee will easily sacrifice the fruits of all his works to the Lord without any inhibition.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

 

Sacrifice

Today I asked Lord Datta “Why did You enter me for this work? I am full of bad qualities. There are several sages who are embodiments of good qualities. You could have entered them”. Lord Datta replied, “It is true that you are a bad fellow but you have one good quality before which all your bad qualities can be neglected. Those sages have all good qualities but they have one bad quality before which all their good qualities are neglected”. I asked Datta very anxiously “What is that greatest good quality and what is that strongest bad quality?” Datta replied, “The greatest good quality present in you is sacrifice. You always spend your energy and time to uplift others. You never utter my name even once for your own upliftment. Those sages put efforts mostly to uplift themselves and so their strongest bad quality is selfishness. You are a hut emitting sweet fragrance. They are marble castles emitting bad odor. I prefer to enter the hut emitting sweet fragrance and not the castle which emits bad odor”.

O devotees, all of you are marble castles with all good qualities. But you are emitting the bad odor of selfishness. If you remove that selfishness and develop sacrifice, you will be the marble palaces with sweet fragrance. Then Datta will rush to enter you. You have climbed the first step. Now you try to help the people standing on the ground to climb the first step. God will take you to the second step like the mother-cat carrying its child in her jaws. You should not try to climb the second step. If you do so you will certainly slip.

If you say that you will first climb all the steps and then come down to help others, it cannot be believed. If you have climbed all the steps by your effort, that proves your infinite selfishness. Jealousy is directly proportional to selfishness. So your infinite jealousy makes you not help anybody at any time. Therefore you cannot be believed and God will not help you to climb all the steps. Today you got a hundred rupees. You sacrifice ten rupees out of it. Tomorrow God will give you a thousand. Then sacrifice hundred rupees. God will give you 1 lakh rupees and you should again sacrifice 1000 rupees. Don’t ask God for one lakh rupees directly in the first step, stating that you will contribute Rs.1000/-. God will not agree because you cannot be believed. Similarly as you gain knowledge and devotion from God at every level, go on donating knowledge and devotion to ignorant people. Then God will give you full knowledge and full devotion in the course of time. Sacrifice must co-exist with enjoyment at every level. If you spend all your time, energy and money in the propagation work of God, God is pleased fully with you. In that stage you need not do any worship to God. Sankaracharya spent all his time and energy in propagating knowledge. Meera spent all her time and energy in propagating devotion. For both, Datta gave salvation along with their bodies. The very word Datta means sacrifice. If you do such complete sacrifice for uplifting others in the world, you are the real incarnation of Datta. This is the essence of Datta. Without this essence, one cannot become Datta by external appearance and dress. A person having the strength of a lion is called as a real lion. The person who is merely dressed as lion cannot be the real lion. The sadhana (effort) must be done to achieve the essence of Datta and not the appearance of Datta.

[In this discourse Swami said that He is a person with bad qualities. This is only to say that God blesses even a bad person with sacrifice and God condemns a good person with selfishness. Swami often humbles Himself in this way and this should not be mistaken].

 
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