Posted on: 11 Oct 2006
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
[Message on Dasara, Day-10] Today, Shiridi Sai Baba left His divine body due to a disease transferred on to Him from His devotee. Such decease is like the poison taken by a person, who commits suicide. Does this mean that Baba committed suicide? It was not the natural death. The death of Himself was executed by Himself. This point should be clarified to the people, who commit suicide in the world. The person committs suicide by the disturbance created by the illness that entered the body or by some other stress in the external world. This disturbance or stress is the fruit of his own sins and he himself is responsible for his own sins through his own samskaras. But, the illness in the body of Baba was not of that type. Sometimes a person may compare himself to Baba since he committs suicide to remove the problem of his beloved souls as you see in the Titanic cinema. Such sacrifice is foolish because his sacrifice is limited to the Pravrutti (behavior of a soul with other souls). After the suicide, the fellow is going to hell (Asuryaa Nama… Veda) for spoiling his precious human life meant for achieving the grace of God. The soul for which he committed suicide does not even recognize him after this birth. He is not benefited in any way by such sacrifice. He should think that his life is as important as the life of the soul for which he committs the suicide. He thinks that the main aim of his life is only the other beloved soul and not the beloved Lord. Gopikas jumped into fire for Krishna and they were granted the top most world by the Lord for such suicide, which is in the field of Nivrutti. But, the beloved soul cannot do anything for this fellow, who is going to hell. You may say that the sacrifice of this fellow should be appreciated. The sacrifice becomes appreciable only when the sacrifice is done to a deserving person.
A person wrote the story, directed and produced the cinema. After seeing his own cinema, he is upset and runs out of the theatre. When he goes into the world, he will face more serious situations. Therefore, running away from the theatre is not the solution. He should have written the story of cinema properly. Still, he can censor the film and modify the picture even after the show. That is the solution. For such modification, he can take the help of the senior producer. I heard that a cinema, which ended with tragedy in love was censored after the show, since the reaction of the public was very serious. I am explaining the case of a person, who is upset in his life and commits suicide. When he leaves this world (theatre), he will enter the hell, which is very very harsh. Let him take the guidance of Sadguru and change his Samskaras so that he can censor his life and regenerate the life in modified form. Becoming inert to the life with the help of Atma Yoga (Self attainment) is like taking sleep tablets in the theatre so that he avoids seeing the picture. Such a person will be born as inert object so that he will not have any possibility of producing any cinema forever. I heard that there was an advertisement about a medicine that cures the pain of teeth. The advertisement says that the pain of the teeth will be permanently cured since the medicine will remove all the teeth forever! The philosophy of Advaitin resembles this. Please note that I have told that this is the philosophy of Advaitin but not as the philosophy of Shankara. Ramanuja always said that He criticized the philosophy of the followers of Shankara but not Shankara (Yaduchyate Shaankaraih…). Therefore, forced death is not at all the solution. People think that one can become peaceful after death. No no. The soul has to face unimaginable stress in the hell and also in the future condemned births. The self-attainment through the spiritual workshops is some what a better solution. To become stone is better than going to hell. But, in both cases, the human re-birth is ruled out. The best solution is to enjoy the picture consisting of happy and tragic scenes alternatively. Such state is the state of God and can be obtained only by the grace of God. Once he goes to hell or become stone, there is no control and there is no possibility of any further change. You have the advantage of control and possibility of change only during this human life. Even angels of the upper world always try to take human birth because in the upper world, only the fruits are enjoyed and there is no freedom to change the fate.
You must realize the logic of the necessity of misery in this world. Without misery, the world will bore you with continuous happiness like a cinema without tragic scenes and like sweet meals without any hot dish. In KrutaYuga, God created only happiness. The continuous happiness bored the souls. The very boring process itself is misery. Thus, the birth of first misery is only from continuous happiness. In KrutaYuga, the justice in the form of cow was having all the four legs, which means all good deeds are only done due to pre-domination of Sattvam. Afterwards, since misery was required to avoid continuous happiness, the legs of the cow were broken gradually in the subsequent Yugas. This means that subsequently Rajas and Tamas pre-dominated gradually. If you learn to enjoy the misery in the life, it is the philosophy of life. Such philosophy can be achieved if you realize the unreality of Maya with respect to yourself and matter. You can achieve such divine state of God by the grace and the divine knowledge of Sadguru. Sadguru is God in human form, who came down to guide you by preaching this concept. Lord Krishna entertained Himself by seeing the mutual killing of His kith and kin including His sons and grandsons at the end with sweet smile on His lips through out the cinema. The same smile continued when He bled by the shot [of an] arrow. Jesus carried on His own cross with a peaceful face even though the spectators wept. Jesus asked them not to weep for Him and suggested to weep for themselves and for their children in view of the future hell. God is defined as He who takes even the most serious issue as a joke. Soul is defined as he who takes even the joke as the most serious issue. The simple reason for this difference is that God (or a realized and liberated soul) realizes the unreality of Maya (forms of matter created by God like beauty or created by self like a house and all the thoughts of the soul), whereas the soul does not realize this unreality.
Soul Disappears in Mula Maya but God is in Turiyam
The three layers of ignorance (Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya) are placed one above the other. The fourth (Turiyam) top most unimaginable item is God. You exist in the second layer called Maha Maya. You will disappear even in the third layer (Mula Maya) and you talk about God, who remains after removing the top third layer (Mula Maya). The God alone exists above the Mula Maya. Why do you talk about that state in which you do not exist? Therefore, you cannot claim that you are God. It is sufficient if you cross the Maya and enjoy the world like God. Even if you do a miracle, you have not done it because to do a miracle, you have to cross Maha Maya and control the Mula Maya. When you materialize an object of matter (Matter is component of Maha Maya), the primary energy (Mula Maya) should be modified into matter. For this purpose, you have to be above the matter (Maha Maya) and control the primary energy (Mula Maya). If you produce light in vision, the primary energy (Mula Maya) is modified into light (Maha Maya). Similarly, if you give life to a dead body, the awareness (Maha Maya) should be generated from primary energy (Mula Maya). For all such miracles, you (awareness) have to cross your own state of Maha Maya (Matter, light and awareness are the components of Maha Maya) and you have to control the primary energy (Mula Maya), which controls you. You cannot cross your own state (Maha Maya) and you cannot control your controller (Mula Maya). Both these are possible only to God and hence, the miracle indicates the power of God that is working through you as medium. Therefore, God does the miracles through anybody and gives fame to the medium in the public. In the awakened state (Jagrat), matter and its forms along with the forms of inert energy like light, heat etc., exist. In the dream state, awareness along with its forms (thoughts) exists. In the third state (Sushupti), only the primary energy is leftover. Thus, in these three states, the three layers of ignorance (Maya, Maha Maya and Mula Maya) are adjusted by some re-arrangement. These three states mentioned in the Veda come under a different type of classification only.
A baby becomes happy by the sweet and weeps by taking the hot dish. Similarly, an ignorant person is happy over the success and profit, but weeps for the defeat and loss. This is one extreme end. A patient affected by long illness looses the sensitivity of the tongue and for him both sweet and hot dishes have no taste. Similarly, the person, who achieved the self-attainment (Atma Yoga) becomes peaceful and insensitive to both misery and happiness since the interaction of the soul with the world is cut. This is another extreme end. The baby is better than the second person because a baby has at least the partial enjoyment of sweet, whereas the second person (patient) has no enjoyment at all. Thus, an ignorant person is better than Atma Yogi. Atma Yoga is like anesthesia given in the case of emergency. Arjuna was such a patient of emergency, who was hit by the Tsunami of grief. In such case, Lord Krishna gave the immediate anesthesia (Atma Yoga) in the beginning of the Gita itself. Whenever the surgery is performed, the anesthesia is given in the preliminary stage for an effective operation. The Atma Yoga is like the relieving order from the old institution, so that the employee will join the new institution immediately. By Atma Yoga, you withdraw yourself from the world and this is exactly the state of Pratyahara in the Patanjali Yoga. Such Atma Yoga helps you to attach yourself to God with uni-directional concentration since the multi-directional concentration in the world is removed by Atma Yoga. The attachment to God is the major operation, which is like joining the new institution. The attachment from the world through self-attainment is the preliminary anesthesia, which is like the relieving order from the old institution. But, the Advaitin stops with the anesthesia and continues in permanent coma without operation. He feels that coma is the perfect health. The perfect health is the new vigorous life obtained after the operation to live in the world and not the coma to sleep on the bed in the hospital permanently. The relieving from the old institution is for joining the new institution and not to sit in the home after the relieving. The Advaitin takes the relieving order from the old institution (creation) and sits in the home (self treated as Brahman) stating that the home itself is the new institution (Ishwara). He says that he has realized both institutions as unreal and therefore, he need not join the new institution after such realization! He says that his home alone is the real new institution.
Human Form Suits for Preaching
The design of medium is important to serve the purpose. The human being has the required design suitable to preach the divine knowledge. Therefore, the human form is selected by God. In order to get circulation of air, the design of fan is important for the current to serve the purpose. If the current enters the radio, you cannot get the circulated air. Similarly, if God enters the inert objects, the purpose for which He came down is not served since stones can neither speak nor receive the service of devotees directly. Stones have their own design and purpose like building a house in which the human incarnation can live. You wish that the current should enter the radio and give the air by some super-technology. When fan is available, no fool wishes and no fool does like that. Even if a fool wishes, it will not be done since doing it by some super-technology is more foolishness. Similarly, you should not desire that God should enter the statue to receive your service and guide you by divine knowledge by using His superpower. Even if you are rigid, God is not a fool to do it, when a natural and alternative facility is available for such purpose.
People misinterpret the idea of the Gita by saying that the deeds will not bind the doer, if the deeds are done by submitting the deeds to God. This is correct as far as the karma or the work essential for livelihood is concerned because the maintenance of the human body is required to do the work of God. In such case, the karma also becomes a part of the work of the God and hence, such work can be surrendered to God. It means that the defects (sins) in such work do not affect the devotee. Arjuna fought for the livelihood and therefore, the war is inevitable. Hence, such war is called as karma. Killing his grandfather is a sin. But, the sin in the karma cannot bind him because his life aim is service to God. Arjuna is the sage Nara, who is always associated with Lord Narayana in every human birth participating in divine mission. Therefore, the Lord said that there is no sin in killing the relatives even without referring to the God at the very outset of the Gita. Latter on, the Lord interpreted the war as the work of God and in such case, the sin becomes the righteous deed. When God wishes to do something that is the justice. The final aim of justice is only to please God. Therefore, the deeds will not bind the soul in the case of karma (work for livelihood) and Karma Yoga (work of God). This cannot be extended to Vikarma, which is the endless work to fulfill one’s own desires. You cannot do sins and surrender to God. In Vikarma, sins have to be done to earn endlessly.
The temples must be converted as institutions for spreading divine knowledge and devotion in the public. The scholars and devotees must be given the top most places in the temple. The status of the present uneducated priest is only that of a labor. He cannot be the head of the temple, who simply recites the Veda without knowing meaning of even a single word. He tries to exploit the psychology of the public, which is always inclined to fulfill the ambitions by the grace of God. He tries to get the honor and money from the public showing the statue as God. The statue is not God but only a representative model of God in human form. The priest is like the candidate, who tries to get the job by showing a recommendation letter.
God Tests Devotee in Practical Devotion Only
The devotion is both theoretical and practical. The theoretical devotion is the inspiration and emotion of the mind towards God expressed in feelings, words and songs. This theoretical devotion includes the divine knowledge also. The theory is expected to end in the practical devotion, which is the divine service. If the practical devotion is perfect, the theoretical devotion is naturally perfect. Therefore, God tests the devotee in practical devotion only and a separate test in the theoretical devotion is not required. The sages became ripened in theoretical devotion during several births and became ready for the practical devotion. The sages were born as uneducated Gopikas because the education (theoretical devotion) is already over in the past births. An engineer, who is expected to work in industry, is tested in his practical knowledge. Service is practice and therefore, the practical aspect of devotion is tested. The fruit is to become the servant of God as a liberated soul. The practical test involves two aspects: 1) The extent to which the soul is liberated from the worldly bonds and 2) The extent to which the soul is practically attached to God. If the liberation from the worldly bonds is complete and if the attachment to God practically is full, such blessed soul becomes the servant of God. Such a liberated soul is never born in the normal cycle of the world. He will also come in human form along with God in human form and will serve God. Such a soul is constantly associated with God. God tests the detachment from the world and attachment to Himself in all the strong worldly bonds like bond with body, bond with life, bond with wealth, bond with children, bond with the life partner and bond with the traditional justice. Gopikas were tested in all these bonds. When the Lord stole their saris, the bond with the body was tested. They felt shy to stand naked before the Lord forgetting that every atom of the body was created by the Lord only. The Lord preached the concept. When Krishna left the body, Gopikas jumped into fire and this showed their detachment from the bond of life for the sake of the Lord. Krishna stole the butter, which was their hard earned wealth. Gopikas were happy about such stealing and this proved their detachment from the wealth for the sake of the Lord. Gopikas gave butter to Krishna secretly overlooking even their children. This is detachment from the children for the sake of the God. Gopikas danced with Krishna in Brundavanam and this shows their detachment from their husbands for the sake of God. Gopikas gave the dust from their feet to Krishna as medicine for the head-ache. Narada told that Gopikas will go to hell for such act. Gopikas replied that they were prepared to go to hell if Krishna gets rid of the head-ache. This shows the lack of fear for hell and the injustice that is to be done for the happiness of the Lord. Thus, the Lord conducted all the practical tests to Gopikas in the Bhagavatam, which is a laboratory for doing practical. The Bhagavat Gita is a class room of teaching the theory. Gopikas were given the highest divine fruit. When you serve the Lord in one-way traffic, the Lord keeps silent for sometime to test your patience. When you do not aspire anything in return from God at anytime, what is the necessity to become impatient? After sometime, God starts granting divine fruit for your service and during such period, it becomes the two way traffic. When God becomes sure that you will remain in the one-way traffic only forever, His grace on you becomes so much that the service from your side becomes negligible before His infinite shower of grace. At this stage, the grace of God on you becomes one-way traffic.
Instruction of Swamiji to His Closest Devotees
I advise all My closest devotees, who participate in My divine mission of spreading the divine knowledge all over the world. The most important instruction to you is that you should spread the divine knowledge without any fight with the people, who discuss with you. There should be no point of success or defeat in propagating the knowledge. Love towards all the human beings to uplift them spiritually should be the basis of the devotee. Before starting the discussion, you must instruct other side about these points and you must constantly often remind the other side regarding these points during the debate. He is co-operating with you to develop the subject. Both runners and winners are equally awarded. The circuit of current is complete only when both positive and negative poles exist. There should be no superiority or inferiority on any side at any stage of discussion. Both of you are mutually helping each other in finding out the truth. Shankara and Mandana Mishra argued for about a month day and night. Shankara is the incarnation of Shiva and Mandana is the incarnation of Brahma. Both Shiva and Brahma are one and the same. The arguments given by Mandana Mishra helped Shankara to project the subject in various angles. Their debate is the vast subject of finding out the truth from the Vedas. Both are responsible for the constitution of knowledge. Shankara argued with a saint, who was Vyasa in disguise. Vyasa was incarnation of Vishnu. The debate between them never ended. The debate constituted the subject of spiritual knowledge to unimaginable heights. A cobbler argued with Shankara to show that practice is the real test of theory. Shankara fell on the feet of cobbler. The cobbler was Lord Datta. Shankara defeated Mandana and Vyasa in theoretical knowledge. But, Shankara was defeated by Datta in the practical aspect of divine knowledge. Here, the point of success and defeat is only a drama. The main point is bringing out the truth. Even if you are defeated by the other side, you must thank the other side with gratefulness since the other side has taken so many pains to let you know the truth. The other side was strained without any benefit. But, you are benefited by your strain since you have come to know the truth from that moment onwards. Therefore, the defeated person should feel happy for the benefit and should not have any unhappiness or tension. The person, who succeeded in establishing the truth, is strained without any benefit, since he already knows the truth. But, the winner should also feel happy since the truth is projected in several new directions due to the opposing arguments.
If you propagate the divine knowledge based on these instructions, God will be pleased with your excellent service. You might have won in several points in several places. But, if you are convinced with a new point, you must immediately fall on the feet of that person like Shankara. He did not see the status of the cobbler, who was very low by habits, education, caste etc. Shankara was never biased and prejudiced that He was a great saint and that He should not fall on the feet of a street cobbler. If your point is true, stand like Shankara with Mandana or Vyasa for any long time. But, if you find that your point is really wrong and if the point of the opponent is the truth, accept it at once by falling on his feet and thank him for taking so much strain to preach the truth to you.
Philosophy of Shankara: Gross body–Soul–God
Shankara was concentrating on the mistake of treating your body as your self (Dehatma Bhranti). This means that the soul which is pure awareness is generally treated as the body itself. Though the body and the soul are different, the soul is identified with the body, because the soul (Pure awareness as nervous energy) pervaded all over the body. When the current pervades all over the wire, we treat such a live wire as current itself. Similarly, the body can be treated as the soul for all the practical purposes. Suppose a human being is a great poet. Poetry is the quality of the soul (in the sense of composite of causal and subtle bodies). If you mistake the soul as body or the body as the soul, it is ignorance. Neither the body has become the soul nor has the soul become the body. To remove such ignorance only, such illusion is analyzed and both wire and current are established as two separate items. But if you want to honor the poet by garlanding him, you have to put the garland on the body only and not on the soul. Therefore, the illusion is analyzed for the real concept only and not for the practical concept. If it is not analyzed you may think that the soul is also destroyed with the body. Even if the body is destroyed, the soul is eternal and leaves the body. Therefore, for such knowledge of reality, the illusion must be analyzed. But for all the practical purpose of worship and service the superimposition has to be retained. Shankara brought the difference between the subtle soul and the visible gross body. The main aim of the distinction is to distinguish the unimaginable God from the subtle soul. The superimposition of the subtle soul on the gross body is just equal to the superimposition of unimaginable God on the subtle soul. God pervades all over the soul and the soul pervades all over the body. Thus God pervades both soul and the body in the case of human incarnation. Shankara isolated the soul from the body and similarly we have to isolate the God from the soul of human incarnation. Unless this knowledge of isolation is done, one may mistake that the soul is destroyed along with the gross body in the case of an ordinary human being. Again due to the same mistake, one may think that God is also destroyed along with the soul which is destroyed along with the body. If you isolate the soul from the body, he may understand the movement of the soul to the upper world for enjoying the fruits. Up to this point it is correct. But if he does not isolate God from the soul, for him, God also goes to the upper world bound by fruits. The isolation of the soul from the body must help you to isolate God from the soul and the body in the case of the human incarnation. Thus, God can be understood as eternal even if the body and the soul of human incarnation merge in the world (Ihaiva Pranah –Veda).
Shankara left with the isolation of the soul from the body only. The reason is that atheists will not accept God. Therefore, He stopped with the isolation of subtle (invisible) from visible. He called the invisible as God so that at least the word “God” is introduced for the future analysis. The soul is pure awareness or knowledge in basic form (just basically to be aware of some object). Such soul exists in all the living beings as the basic common item. If you analyze such basic awareness, it is one of the three qualities called as Sattvam (Sattvat Samjayate Jnanam—Gita). All the three qualities are special forms of work only. Work is a relative reality. Thus, the soul becomes a relative reality which is based on the existence of its cause. The brain, nervous system, inert energy produced by the oxidation of food etc. form the cause of awareness. All these components of cause are basically energy only and thus there is no defect of multiplicity of the cause. Any relative reality does not exist if its absolute real base (cause) is isolated. Therefore, without the basic energy, awareness by itself cannot exist. The grinding work is unreal if the basic system (consisting of grinding machine, grains and electricity) is isolated. This work cannot be the movement of the machine-rods, because neither the rods nor any general moment is the grinding work. When this entire world is essentially the ocean of inert energy only, the modifications of the energy (matter, work, awareness, light, heat etc.) become relatively real. The modification of this inert energy into various forms like matter etc., was discussed in various ways like Vivarta, Parinama etc., by the spiritual preachers. This basic inert energy is called as Brahman. Any theory of modification needs the knowledge of the basic substance that exists before modification. When God is unimaginable, how these theories of modifications can be applied to God? God and the process of creation of world from God- both are unimaginable. Only the world (Product) is imaginable. Therefore, all these theories which need imagination cannot cross the world. Therefore, any one has to stop with the basic form of the inert energy which is the space. Thus, these theories of modifications are not touching God. In such case, whether it is Vivarta or Parinama, what is the big difference? Any way, all your fight between these theories is limited to the boundaries of space or energy or world only. This basic inert energy in the form of awareness was taken by Shankara as the ultimate God. The energetic form called as Narayana was taken by Ramanuja as God. Both are not the ultimate God. The ultimate God charged both these items and thus both these can be treated as God. Thus both Shankara and Ramanuja used the basic energy as formless awareness and energetic form as the media of God respectively. The reason for this is that one cannot cross the basic inert energy (Space) by any extent of imagination.
Knowledge is More Important Than Miracles
Knowledge is more important than miracle. The miracle gives only information about the concept of unimaginable power which is wonderful. When the imagination fails the wonder is generated. Maya means wonderful and there by it means unimaginable. By this Maya, the possessor of Maya (Mayin) is inferred. Thus, miracle gives the inference of the existence of unimaginable God. But this alone is not sufficient. Knowledge consists of three components. One is God (goal), the second is the soul (traveler) and the third is the path to please God. These three items (Triputi) forms the whole structure of knowledge. The soul cannot get the grace of the Lord unless the three components are perfectly realized. In miracle, you have understood only about the existence of unimaginable God, who can never be worshipped or served. Therefore, the real form of God is also not known even in that one component known by miracle. The knowledge gives the real form of God as human incarnation. By the knowledge you can know that your self is not God already. By the knowledge only you can know that the practical sacrifice is only path to please the God. Therefore the miracle is useful to just enlighten one aspect of one component (God) only. For atheists only these miracles are necessary who do not believe even in the basic existence of God.