Posted on: 27 Jul 2021
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
(In the Satsaṅga with devotees, following flashes of concepts were radiated from Shri Datta Swami.)
1. Friendship (Sakhyam) is given eighth place in the nine stages of devotion in which, the last ninth step is total surrender (Ātmanivedanam). You can enjoy full freedom in friendship and this friendship is given lot of importance before marriage through words like boyfriend and girlfriend! Thus, friendship gives lot of bliss since it is devoid of fear, respect and any other formalities. One enjoys maximum in the natural freedom with a friend. After marriage such freedom disappears and the sweet memories of friendship remain as memories only. Hence, God always gives lot of importance to enjoy this friendship bond with the devotees having climax love towards Him. In this friendship, power should be not be exhibited, which causes fear generating respect. In the upper world, God is bored with this respect given by devotees, who always have fear for God since they fully know His power. In the path of Vāmācāra worship, the freedom with love is in the climax so that the devotee scolds God with abuses only and not with praising prayers. In the world, we also find very close friends calling each other with abuses by which they enjoy to the maximum extent.
It is said that the divine mother or God enjoys more this way of Vāmācāra worship and gives boons quickly whereas, She delays giving boons to the devotees of other path called Dakṣiṇācāra in which devotees praise God with full respect and fear. This is the background reason why God always tries to hide His power without exhibiting miracles as far as possible to enjoy the friendship with devotees. He came down from the upper world already bored with the Dakṣiṇācāra. Arjuna acted as a very good friend of Kṛṣṇa as long as Kṛṣṇa remained as an ordinary human being. Kṛṣṇa enjoyed the friendship with Arjuna to the full extent and Arjuna is given as an example for the stage of friendship in the devotion. But, when Arjuna saw the cosmic vision of Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna shivers with fear praising Kṛṣṇa. Arjuna also says “O Lord! I might have used some ignorant words towards You previously treating You as my friend. Please don’t remember those words now and please excuse me for using such joking words due to love (Sakheti matvā…).” In this prayer, all the love of Arjuna towards Kṛṣṇa disappeared completely and Kṛṣṇa lost the enjoyment of maximum love of the devotee. Kṛṣṇa showed this miracle in inevitable circumstances because, without showing this miracle, Arjuna will not come to the right path.
2. When the war was going on between Rāma and Rāvaṇa, in Laṅkā, both Sītā and Manḍodarī (wife of Rāvaṇa) went to the temple of Goddess Pārvatī for doing prayers for the victory of their husbands. Both prayed for their husbands. Manḍodarī asked Sītā about the details of the prayer of Sītā. Sītā replied that She prayed for the victory of Her husband Rāma. Now, Sītā asked Manḍodarī about the details of her prayer. Manḍodarī replied that she prayed for the victory of justice, which may be present on any side. In this situation, people praised Manḍodarī to be greater than Sītā because Sītā was selfish while Manḍodarī was selfless supporting the justice. But, if you analyse this properly, Sītā is greater than Manḍodarī, the reason is that Sītā knows very well that Rāma is God. As a nivṛtti devotee, She voted God against Justice. Manḍodarī voted justice against injustice just like a devotee of pravṛtti.
3. Why nivṛtti is said to be greater than pravṛtti? In pravṛtti, there is only partial surrender to God whereas in nivṛtti, there is total surrender to God. In pravṛtti, God takes up partial responsibility of the devotee whereas in nivṛtti, God takes the total responsibility of the devotee. Hence, the fruit of nivṛtti is said to be the greatest (Nivṛttistu mahāphalā). In nivṛtti, God becomes the greatest, Who is treated to be greater than both justice and injustice. For such greatest surrender of the devotee, God takes up the greatest responsibility of the devotee and this is called ‘Mārjāla kiśora nyāya’, which means that the mother cat carries its child with its mouth and the child has full safety. On contrary, pravṛtti is said to be ‘Markaṭa kiśora nyāya,’ which means that the child holds the stomach of the mother moving from one place to the other. In this, the safety is completely dependent on the grip of the child only and mother has no responsibility. In pravṛtti, the devotee receives fruits as per the merits and sins of the devotee and God does not interfere in this.
4. The upper worlds are representing the various levels of spiritual progress. The first basic world is called Bhūloka, which is sub-divided into four sub-worlds called ‘Martyaloka’ or ‘Karmaloka’, ‘Pretaloka’, ‘Narakaloka’ and ‘Pitṛloka’. The second upper world is Bhuvarloka or Jyotirloka. The third upper world is Suvarloka. These three worlds constitute the field of pravṛtti. The human being on the earth or Martyloka goes to the second upper sub-world called Pretaloka and stays there for 10 days in the inquiry of God. On the 10th day, the soul with its energetic body receives the judgment from God and as per the judgment, the soul will have to go 1. To the 3rd upper sub-world, called Narakaloka (hell) to enjoy the fruits of sins or 2. The fourth upper sub-world called Pitṛloka to stay peacefully due to the absence of both merits and sins or 3. The second upper-world, called Bhuvarloka, to enjoy merits without devotion (like social service done due to love on the souls without love to God) or 4. The third upper-world called Suvarloka (heaven) to enjoy fruits of merits. From the fourth world onwards, nivṛtti starts. The fourth world is Maharloka, which is reached by the devotees worshipping energetic incarnations. The fifth world is Janaloka, which is reached by the devotees worshipping contemporary human incarnation. The sixth world is Tapoloka, which is reached by the climax devotees of nivṛtti. The seventh world is Satyaloka, which is reached by the devotees from Janaloka. The eighth world is Goloka, which is reached by the devotees from Tapoloka.
5. Projection of own merits is ego and suppression of others’ merits is jealousy. Your merits are given by God. Merits of others are also given by the same God. If you realise this one point, where is the place for ego and jealousy? Your merits are not your own merits and why should you feel ego for the merits, which do not belong to you? Similarly, others’ merits also do not belong to others and in such case, why should you feel jealous about others? Your defects belong to you and others’ defects belong to them. You don’t feel ego for your defects because ego comes only due to merits. Similarly, you do not feel jealousy for others’ defects because, jealousy is only felt for the merits of others and not for defects. This analysis understood clearly will remove ego and jealousy even in the worldly life or pravṛtti. In nivṛtti, you feel ego-based jealousy on seeing the contemporary human incarnation. If you take the incarnation as another human being, you need not feel jealousy because, the merits of the incarnation taken as ordinary human being by you, can be treated as the merits of a co-human being as explained above. The merits of the human incarnation belong to the God component only whether the God component is in the human incarnation or not. Since you don’t believe that God component exists in the human incarnation (because, you have already decided human incarnation as a mere human being only), you need not feel jealousy about the human incarnation because, all the merits of the human incarnation belong to God existing outside the human incarnation.
If you believe that God exists in human incarnation, and then also you need not feel jealousy about the human incarnation because, all those merits belong to God present in the human incarnation and do not belong to the human being of human incarnation. In this way, you can avoid ego and jealousy in worldly life (Pravṛtti) as well as in spiritual life (Nivṛtti). The human incarnation never says that It is God. At the maximum it only says that God is in it. If it says that it is a messenger of God, the attention of devotees towards the incarnation is not much drawn thinking that the incarnation is out of God and hence, may go wrong in knowledge. The messenger might have heard the knowledge from God but, might have not understood it properly and might have given wrong knowledge. The other two options (that He is God and that God is in Him) give some confidence that the incarnation will speak true knowledge since He is speaking in the presence of God. The immediate flash reaction in every soul is ‘why I am not the God and why God is not in me’? The devoted soul will be peaceful to hear the knowledge of the incarnation provided you say that the incarnation is not God or God is not in the incarnation. The other way to pacify the devotee is that the devotee is God or God is in the devotee. This is the most complicated situation like giving injection to a playing child!
6. Every human incarnation tries to hide its divine power from the devotees because, God expects the devotee to love Him based on His divine personality and not based on His omnipotent power. If the devotee loves the God based on His omnipotent power, there is no real love in the devotion of the devotee. The love in the devotion of such devotee, is not real because, such love is based on the concept that the devotee can use the power of God for some selfish motive. It is only false love because, in reality, God is only an instrument to be used for selfish happiness (or for happiness of the worldly bonds loved by the devotee) and not the ultimate goal of happiness. The devotion in which God is made as an instrument is called ‘instrumental devotion’ or ‘Sādhana bhakti’. The devotion in which God is made as the ultimate goal is called ‘goal devotion’ or ‘Sādhya bhakti’. In the former devotion, God is instrument whereas, in the latter devotion, God is the goal. We can understand this concept with a small example – a girl loved a boy based on his beauty and good qualities while information about his salary and his wealth is unknown. This is real love. If the girl loves the boy, after knowing his salary and his wealth, this is false love. In true love, the ultimate goal is the boy. In false love, the boy is an instrument to be used for attaining self-happiness through his salary and wealth. The son of a king appears as beggar and tries to win the true love of a girl. If the son of the king leaks the information that he is son of a king, any girl will love him irrespective of his beauty and qualities. This is the reason why the human incarnation of God always tries to hide His divinity.
However, in the initial stage, some devotees are to be attracted by expressing miraculous powers because the starting trouble exists, which is that no human being is attracted to mere spiritual knowledge. Especially, in this Kali age unless miraculous powers are exhibited, which attract devotees for fulfilling selfish desires and for solving selfish worldly problems, there is no other way. In previous ages, this much fall in standards was not there because, many souls were blessed by God with miraculous powers through their penance. When Śaṅkara entered the bolted doors of the house of Maṇḍana Miśra, through miraculous power, Maṇḍana Miśra along with sage Vyāsa and Jaimini were not astonished at all for this miraculous power. In fact, Maṇḍana Miśra scolded Śaṅkara for exhibiting such a cheap miracle! Had there been people like us in the place of those three great persons, we will immediately fall on the feet of Śaṅkara praising Him as God without the need of a very long debate with Śaṅkara. In contrast, Maṇḍana Miśra argued with Śaṅkara for several days continuously and then only agreed Śaṅkara as the human incarnation of God.
7. Gopikas recognised Kṛṣṇa as human incarnation of God due to their close contact with the human incarnation in the previous birth. Gopikas were sages, who recognised Rāma as God in human form in the previous birth itself. Based on this previous experience (Pūrvajanma Saṃskāra), Gopikas recognised Kṛṣṇa as God immediately in that birth. This point is also told in the Bhakti Sūtram of sage Nārada.
8. Everybody wants salvation (mokṣa) without knowing its actual meaning. Everybody thinks based on their watching of cinemas that salvation means going to a beautiful divine garden and wandering in it enjoying the most pleasant breeze in that garden! This is not at all the real salvation. Salvation in reality means, liberation from all your present worldly bonds, which are bonds with parents, children, spouse, wealth etc. If this real meaning is known, nobody will ask for salvation and everybody will run away as soon as the word salvation is heard. Similarly, everybody uses the word ‘Yoga’ as a style of spiritual fashion without knowing its real meaning. People are misunderstanding its meaning as gaining perfect health through some practices so that one can strongly enjoy these worldly pleasures with more effectiveness. Yoga means the fortunate union with the relevant form of God that came for our sake only. For a human being, Yoga is the attachment to contemporary human incarnation of God and mokṣa means the subsequent and spontaneous liberation from the worldly bonds due to the strength of Yoga.
9. Śaṅkara told that every soul is inherently God irrespective of its spiritual efforts. Rāmānuja told that every soul is inherently part of God irrespective of its spiritual efforts. Madhva told that every soul is inherently the servant of God irrespective of its spiritual efforts. This inherent status is forgotten and spiritual efforts must be put by the soul to regain this original inherent status. In these three philosophies, there is no generation of ego and jealousy because; the inherent status is given to every soul without any partiality or without the will of God. This is a sugar coated bitter antibiotic pill, which pleases every soul due to the equality showed to every soul. The philosophy Shri Datta Swami is the highest truth as well as most inconvenient, which says that the inherent status of any soul is that it is totally a different item without any connection with God since soul is simply a created item like the rest creation and God is the creator. There is no trace of similarity between God and soul because, God is unimaginable and soul is an imaginable part of the imaginable creation. All the above types of status are given by God to the soul based on the will of God and not based on the will or effort of the soul. The soul can become eligible to attain any above said status to be given by God through spiritual efforts. But the eligibility should not have aspiration to attain the above said any status. At the maximum, the soul can aspire to become the servant of God (Madhva) without aspiration for any fruit in return proving the true love to God. The other two types of the divine status may be given by God based on His will and aspiration for any type of these two will disqualify the soul permanently.
10. A devotee asked the question ‘why to create all these worldly bonds, which attract the soul and why God puts the test so that we shall vote for God against all these worldly bonds’? The answer is that unless all this arrangement is organised, the true love of a devotee that can easily surpass all the worldly bonds for the sake of God can’t be tested and enjoyed by God. The greatness is really expressed only in the game of examination with strong factors trying to defeat the candidate. If one sits in a place without fire and says, ‘see, I am not burnt at all’, what is wonder or greatness of that person? If one sits in fire and says ‘see, I am not burnt at all’, such person is greatest and such situation is most wonderful. To avoid the misery of one group, if you cancel the play of the game itself, is it a wise decision? The defeated group will try again and again to play and win the game.
11. Ego and jealousy are always hidden in the soul, which are the real reasons for speaking in a different way. Let Me tell an assumed example: A beautiful film actress met a saint and was involved in sex with him. Some people have taken the video and made an uproar saying that they are involved in illegal sex, which is unethical. What they say outside is completely different. What is present in their minds in hidden way? Only ego and jealousy. In this issue, the ego is that why that beautiful film actress did not choose me? The jealousy in this issue is that why she chose that saint? Hence, ego and jealousy are the most powerful qualities to spoil a soul.
12. People criticise that why Goloka, the highest spiritual world is given to Gopikas, who are involved in illegal sex with Kṛṣṇa spoiling the purity of Pravṛtti of the world. You shall not view this issue in a very narrow way involving breaking the ethical worldly bond with life partner in the case of Gopikas. The fruit of Goloka is not simply based on breaking the worldly bond with life partner alone for the sake of God Kṛṣṇa. This fruit is based on the breakage of all worldly bonds of Gopikas for the sake of God Kṛṣṇa. There are three strong worldly bonds (Eṣaṇā trayam). They are bond with life partner, bond with issues and bond with wealth. If these three strong worldly bonds are crossed for the sake of God, we can treat that the soul has crossed all the worldly bonds for the sake of God when God competes with the worldly bonds. If you win three strong boxers in a city, it means that you have won every citizen including other boxers in that city (Pradhāna malla nibarhaṇa nyāya). Apart from crossing the bond with life partner by dancing with Kṛṣṇa, those Gopikas passing in the other two tests only were granted that highest fruit. Kṛṣṇa stole the butter preserved for their children and this is a joint test for crossing bonds with issues and wealth. In this joint test, several Gopikas failed and complained to the mother of Kṛṣṇa. Only twelve Gopikas passed all the three tests and got the highest fruit. If you say that the highest fruit was given to Gopikas based on mere one test, which is crossing the bond with life partner for the sake of God, it is wrong. Several Gopikas who failed in the joint test, passed the third test which is dancing with Kṛṣṇa secretly in the midnight in Bṛndāvanam. Hence, your understanding is totally false in the basic level itself.
13. Some Hindus maintain tuft while maintaining full hair on the head in such a way that the tuft can be mixed with the full hair whenever it should not be visible to others and tuft can be separated to be visible in some required occasions! The background of this tuft shall be understood. A house holder must maintain full hair on the head. In fact, this full hair is the meaning for the word Śikhā as we see the usage of this word in several Sanskrit epics (Vardhiṣyate te śikhā) is used. A saint shall shave the full hair on head. In the ancient days, the house holders were taking head bath daily three times. They also liked full shaving of the head, which is convenient for bathing. But, a house holder shall not shave the head fully. Hence, the house holder gets his head shaved fully except keeping a little hair as tuft so that the custom of house holder is not violated and the custom of saint is not adopted. This was the actual history of the tuft. At present, the full hair is maintained and tuft also side by side! If cow can’t be donated due to financial problem, one rupee can be donated for the sake of the donation of cow. Now the person maintaining full hair and tuft also simultaneously is the person who donates the cow along with one rupee! Such customs do not represent Hinduism. Hinduism is represented by your support to universal spirituality. In Hinduism, there are several sub-religions (Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva etc.) which are united by the basic unimaginable God or Parabrahman as one by Śaṅkara. Similarly, based on the same reason, the religions of the world shall be united. If you propagate this concept, you are true Hindu representing the universality of Hinduism.
14. This festival Guru pūrṇimā is related to Guru or preacher. The word Guru means he, who removes the ignorance like darkness by giving knowledge like light. Hence, this festival must be celebrated with full spiritual conversations (Satsaṅgas) only and not by cooking special items of food as we do in other festivals. God said that the celebration of the ritual called Jñāna yajña or discussion of spiritual knowledge is far better than celebration with materials like food items (Śreyān dravyamayāt…- Gītā) and also said that He is always pleased by Jñāna yajña only (Jñānayajñena tenā'ham…- Gītā).
15. We say that attachment to God as nivṛtti and attachment to world is pravṛtti. The meaning of pravṛtti is attachment and the meaning of nivṛtti is detachment. As far as pravṛtti meaning attachment to world, it is quite okay. But, how you are calling the attachment to God as nivṛtti because, nivṛtti means detachment and not attachment. The answer for this is that the attachment is abstract whereas, the detachment is visible. Even in pravṛtti, we measure the attachment with the scale of detachment only. Let us take the case of a bad person who is attached to a prostitute and a good devotee who is attached to God. Both cases belong to attachment only and the first case belongs to Pravṛtti and the second case belongs to Nivṛtti. If we say that both are not taking meals in the daytime, we can say that both are 50% attached (to prostitute or to God respectively). If we say that both are not taking meals in the day as well in the night, we can say that both are 100% attached (to prostitute or to God respectively). You may ask that in such case, both Pravṛtti and Nivṛtti shall be called as Nivṛtti only. We are calling Nivṛtti only as Nivṛtti but, not Pravṛtti as Nivṛtti. The reason is that the measurement of attachment to God is very very important for the soul and hence, the word Nivṛtti (detachment) is used in spiritual field only.
16. I thought that God Datta is doing miracles through Me and gives the credit to Me. I thought that I can compensate this by giving the credit of My knowledge to Him. But, I found that the same God Datta is speaking all this Spiritual knowledge through Me! This means He is giving the credit of knowledge also to Me as in the case of miracles. I lost the hope of repaying His kindness to Me. Hence, if the final background curtain of Māyā is withdrawn, I will become mad of His kindness and ocean of love towards His devotees. Hence, the final curtain of Māyā or super-illusion is essential to maintain dualism in which the process of divine devotion becomes alive based on that God and devotee co-exist with equal absolute reality. In this dualism, ignorance of total truth must also exist so that the devotee thinks that God is giving the credit of miraculous power to the devotee and in return the devotee is giving the credit of his knowledge to God. Dualism blended with some ignorance can only give the real entertainment to God in this creation.
17. Suppose, one person in North India does not take cooked rice and eats only wheat breads. He thinks that taking meals means only taking wheat. Another person in South India does not take wheat and takes only cooked rice as meals and for him, taking meals means taking cooked rice only. The North Indian says that he is fasting on a day saying that he has taken only rice but not wheat. The South Indian says that he is fasting on a day saying that he has taken only wheat but not rice. In both cases, fasting (Upavāsa) means not taking meals (Annam). This type of the concept goes as long as both do not understand the meaning of Annam or meals. Similarly, any religion goes on as long as the basic Spirituality is not realised. If you go into the basic meaning of the word of Annam, both will realise that their superficial concepts are wrong because the basic meaning of the word Annam is that which is eaten by mouth (Adyate iti Annam). Similarly, if the religious people go deeply into Spirituality, those people will realise that the religion is not true knowledge but, blind tradition without analysis. Both will realise that both are taking food and both are not fasting. The Spirituality further says that real fasting or Upavāsa is not mere foregoing food (Laṅghanam), but, forgetting to take food while immersed in the devotion of God. When the religious devotee becomes Spiritual disciple, he/she will enter the most correct path towards God.
18. You need not break your head in discussing about the process of creation of this world from God. Scholars in logic discuss very seriously in two lines on this subject: 1. Satkāryavāda, which means that the product exists in the cause because; only existing item can be born. 2. Asatkāryavāda, which means that the product does not exist in the cause because, if it already exists before its birth, how do you say that it is born? In a lump of mud (cause), the shape of pot exists as per the first school and does not exist as per the second school. If we see the lump of mud carefully, we do not find any shape of the pot. The first school (especially Advaita philosophers) says cleverly that the shape of the pot exists in the cause in the form of lump of mud (Kāryaṃ kāraṇe kāraṇa rūpeṇa asti). On deep analysis this argument means that the product is absent in cause and this results in the argument of second school only. Even if you say that the cause (lump of mud) is having the potency to give any shape with the help of the hands of the pot maker (Śaktirūpa kārya vāda) it does not make much difference because, such potency (Śakti) may be treated as part of the cause existing in the cause itself thereby we can say that the product is existing in the cause as potency (Satkāryavāda) or we can say that the product is not existing in the cause because, such potency is coming from outside through the hands of the pot maker (Asatkāryavāda). However, the difference between the two schools is only that the former school says that pot as potency exists in the cause and the latter school says that the pot as potency exists outside the cause in the hands of the pot maker. There is another peculiar school that says that the product is not at all born from the cause since, the product does not exist in the cause and the non-existent item can’t have birth. This peculiar school is called as Ajātivāda of Gauḍapāda. This school results in saying that the created world is non-existent and this is the Śūnyavāda of Buddhists. All these schools fight with each other in the subject of creation of world from God. Added to this confusion, another fight comes that whether the creation of the world from God is apparent modification (Vivartavāda) or real modification (Pariṇāmavāda). There is no end to these fights in the spiritual knowledge of various schools like Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita.
I want to put a full stop for all these endless quarrels based on worldly logic (logic dealing imaginable items of imaginable world), which deals with the production of an imaginable product from an imaginable cause. The process involving imaginable cause and imaginable product is obviously imaginable only. The discussion about imaginable process involving imaginable items is also imaginable. In the imaginable domain, there is always plurality with equal validity. Hence, as far as this worldly logic is concerned, I suggest that all these schools are simultaneously true based on the simultaneous existence of plural things resulting in plural angles having equal simultaneous existence. After giving this suggestion to the scholars of worldly logic (I don’t care whether they accept or not because, I am not interested in discussing the various schools of worldly logic.), I am interested in discussing the process of creation of this world from God. I am confined to the spiritual field only involving God and world and not confined to the worldly field involving only items of the world. I am Professor in the Department of Philosophy and not in the Department of Logic!
Coming to My own field, which involves the process of creation of imaginable world from unimaginable God, first of all, I like to say that the process of creation of an imaginable item from an unimaginable item is not at all found in the imaginable world and hence, I request the Department of logic not poke its nose into this discussion. You have no work at all in this field. Since the cause is unimaginable, or omnipotent, it means our cause can do not only all imaginable things but also, all unimaginable things. Therefore, we are not bothered about any imaginable or unimaginable process of creation because, our unimaginable God can do any process whether it is imaginable or unimaginable. When such open option is left to us to choose any way of process of creation we like, don’t misunderstand us that we will select any way as we like, like a mad man. We will select such a way (whether it is imaginable or unimaginable) so that our unimaginable God becomes greatest. Brahman (Bṛhi-vṛddhau) means greatest and hence, the path of the process of creation shall be such that it shall impart greatest greatness on our unimaginable God. The Veda also says that nothing or none is even equal to our unimaginable God and there is no question of thinking about something or somebody to be greater than our unimaginable God. All our logic is concentrated to find out the process of creation that alone imparts greatest greatness on our unimaginable God. We will not choose every path because, unimaginable God can do anything in any path.
The selected path shall be such that our God does only in that way which is proper for a greatest person and He will not do in any other path even though such path is very much unimaginable. For example, a person can cut anything or anybody with his sharp sword. If you ask him to cut the head of his own issue and when he refuses, you mock at him saying ‘you told that you can cut anything, but, you could not cut the head of your issue and therefore, I will not believe your omnipotence to cut anything or anybody. If you want to prove that you cut anything or anybody, cut the head of your issue and prove that you are omnipotent’. How foolish is this logic? Will that person cut the head of his issue to prove that he is omnipotent? Hence, the path chosen by us will be such that our God will not do any improper thing like cutting the head of one’s own issue and does anything, which is proper that establishes His greatest greatness. If He does an improper thing, you cannot say that He is not omnipotent because, He does not have the power to do improper thing. He is not doing improper thing not due to lack of potency to do that improper thing and He is not doing that because, the power to do all proper things only is protecting the omnipotence and not otherwise. If God does improper thing to prove His omnipotence, you will immediately raise the above objection that God is lacking the power doing all proper things only! Kṣemendra is given the highest place since he told avoiding improper things is the best potency in writing epics (Aucitya vicāra carcā). Hence, our utmost proper step is to see that God is established in the place of greatest greatness. Such greatest greatness is that God does any unimaginable thing, which is proper only and not improper thing that reduces His greatest greatness.
God is the only absolute reality and this is His greatest greatness. He wanted to create this world not only for mere cheap entertainment, but also to taste the highest love of devotee without aspiration for any fruit in return except the attraction of His divine personality. In this process of creation of the world, the greatest greatness is to create something which did not exist before its creation. This leads to Asatkāryavāda. After creation, He made the world to exist with absolute reality by donating His absolute reality to the world so that the world appears as true as Himself and give real entertainment. If the created world does not become absolutely real, He can’t get complete entertainment. We are getting real entertainment with our external world because the world appears as real as ourselves. If you rub relative reality on the world and treat the world as your imagination, you can’t get real entertainment with your imaginary world as you get from the equally real external world. Hence, it is the most appropriate path to keep greatest greatness with God to say that He created unreal world and made it absolutely real equal to Himself to give real and full entertainment to Him. The initial stage before creation is Asatkāryavāda that makes the world unreal and the final stage after creation is Satkāryavāda that makes the world absolutely real like God. There is no question of saying that the world is not born (Ajātivāda) because the born world along with the souls is absolutely real like God.
At the same time, when God wants to do miracles in this world, the part of the world required for miracles becomes relatively real like imaginary world, which freely allows miracles. When Śaṅkara reached the bolted doors of Maṇḍana Miśra, till then, the bolted doors were having the absolute reality gifted by God. But, when Śaṅkara wanted to perform the miracle by passing through bolted doors, the bolted doors became relative reality like the imaginary bolted doors and Śaṅkara could pass through them. For the disciples standing outside the bolted doors simultaneously looked as absolute reality. This dual behaviour of the bolted doors (one side relative reality for Śaṅkara and on the other side absolute reality for disciples) existing side by side brings greatest greatness to the unimaginable God present in Śaṅkara in full merged state. In this way, with the only aim that God is greatest having unimaginable omnipotence, we choose any imaginable path or unimaginable path or a mixed path of imaginable and unimaginable powers to achieve our goal in speaking about God.
19. Madness to God, which is said to be the final step in the life before death (Unmādo maraṇaṃ tataḥ…) is the total disappearance of Spiritual effort since it has ended and reached the fruit. The next step to the madness is the divine fruit that is given by God as per His will. The devotee is mad and hence, does not aspire for any fruit because a mad person continues in that state of madness only throughout the life. Hence, it is told that death is only the next step to madness and death leads the devotee straight to the abode of God only. Rādhā, Mīrā, Prahlāda, Hanumān etc., are such devotees, who have reached the state of madness. When one specific devotee became mad, his Spiritual preacher wept not for the madness of his disciple but wept saying that he could not get such divine madness! When madness is reached, all the Spiritual effort stops indicating that the Spiritual effort has come to its end. This madness in the initial stage is called interest or Śraddhā and the Gītā says that the person having devoted interest to God becomes God (Yo yat Śraddhaḥ, sa eva saḥ…- Gītā).
This interest in advanced stage is called madness and in that stage, God becomes the servant of the devotee. In the stage of interest, the devotee becomes God (Monism). The devotee in madness of God is greater than the human incarnation of God. Rādhā is greater than Kṛṣṇa. Hanumān is greater than Rāma. This is practically proved. Kṛṣṇa was decorating the feet of Rādhā. Rāma was defeated in the hands of Hanumān in the context of protection of King Yayāti. Hence, either Monism or Dualism gives their results only when the devotee is not aspiring for the results. The results are given by God based on His free will. In the stage of madness, there is no question of existence of even a trace of any aspiration. But, in the stage of interest, the aspiration may exist or may not exist. If the interest is to become God through Monism, never the devotee becomes God. If the interest of the devotee is on God only, such initial stage will lead the devotee to the final state of madness in which God becomes the servant of devotee, which is far far greater than Monism of Human incarnation of God! When Uddhava came to Bṛndāvanam and preached Gopikas about the Spiritual knowledge (that God alone is absolute real and all this world is unreal like a dream and therefore, one shall not be fascinated to any form of God because name and form are unreal), Gopikas replied ‘we are filled with Kṛṣṇa from top to bottom and there is no space in us that can allow your spiritual knowledge’ and such blind fascination to Kṛṣṇa is the final state of madness in devotion to God. People also thought that Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa was a mad person intoxicated with the devotion to God.