Posted on: 30 Nov 2020
[Śrī Guna Darsana asked: Praṇām Swāmiji! Was the Ṛṣi Mārkaṇḍeya who came to Bali in ancient times, the same sage Mārkaṇḍeya who lived in India? Thank You]
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! There is only one sage Mārkaṇḍeya, who is son of sage Mṛkaṇḍu.
[Śrī Bhagath K. asked: Jay Guru Datta! Could You please explain if the physical heart is the same as hṛdayam, which means heart in Sanskrit? One guru said that hṛdayam is more important than the mind. What is difference between the physical heart, mind and hṛdayam?]
Swāmi replied: Hṛdayam is used in a broad sense and it means the essence of a certain concept. Mind means the thinking process within oneself involving a debate about various possibilities. The physical heart is, of course, different since it has a physical sense.
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! In this world, we see different kinds of people. Some people often get attention and are loved by people around them. Some people are often ignored. Some people are mistreated and taken for granted. First kind of people love their life and may develop gratitude towards life. They appear to have a greater chance to develop devotion towards God, out of gratitude. In my opinion, the other two kinds appear to have a lower chance to get into spirituality as they are unhappy with life and are possibly unhappy with God’s creation. Is this correct?]
Swāmi replied: There is nothing wrong in the creation of God. Every soul acts based on its certain fixed psychology, which must be corrected by learning spiritual knowledge from the Sadguru. Every soul is responsible for its own life.
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Can we say that the love we get from other people is the love coming from God to us through them? Or is God’s love different from the love of ordinary souls?]
Swāmi replied: The love from other souls cannot be generalized to be the love coming from God. God’s love may be expressed through some specific souls, but that should be decided only after doing deep spiritual analysis.
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: You have said that God gives us difficulties as a blessing to develop devotion. But for that to happen, we must have some bad karma in our account. So, should we commit sins sometimes, to make sure we that we do not run out of bad karma?]
Swāmi replied: Souls already have enough bad actions in their accounts. God only uses the punishments for those bad deeds to give difficulties to souls, if necessary. God never creates any good or bad fruit for us unless we have done the corresponding actions.
[Śrī Bhagath K. asked: Jay Guru Datta! What is pitṛ doṣam? If someone has this defect in their astrological chart, why are they unable to produce sons? It is said that such people can only produce daughters. Can this defect be overcome by performing the ritual of Mokṣa Nārāyaṇa Bali in the holy place called Gokarṇa Kṣetram?
Swāmi replied: God is only one, in all divine forms. Whatever may be the name of the worship, knowledge, devotion, the sacrifice (offering) of service and the sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work to deserving receivers are the four constituents of the worship.
[Śrī Hrushikesh asked: Dear Swāmi, I request You to kindly enlighten us with Your answer to a question asked by a person on social media after reading Your discourse on Brahma muhūrtam. He asked why Brahmā is depicted with three heads, while Viṣṇu and Śiva have one? Is it because He is the creator of the three worlds? – Hrushikesh]
Swāmi replied: Brahmā is depicted with four heads representing the four Vedas. Brahmā created the four Vedas. Such a representation was not necessary in the case of God Viṣṇu and God Śiva.
[Śrī Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa killed bed bugs since they disturbed His spiritual effort. Nowadays, a fanatic follower of a religion kills a human being for drawing a picture of the Prophet of his religion. Is such an act justified? Please give Your response to this question. -At Your Divine Feet -anil. ]
Swāmi replied: There is no alternative than to kill the bed bugs, which disturb anyone sitting on the cot and doing meditation on God. Even when one sleeps on the bed, these bugs suck the blood of the sleeping person, which is not justified. This cannot be compared to killing a human being for drawing the picture of the Prophet. In the first case, the bed must be totally abandoned since it cannot be used for sitting in meditation or even for normal sleep.
[Śrī Anil asked: Jesus prayed to God to excuse His own killers on the cross saying that they did not know what they were doing. Even when the sin was an unpardonable one, why did Jesus pray in that way? We also see that God Kṛṣṇa consoled the hunter who shot Him. Please clarify.]
Swāmi replied: Even when an incident happens based on the divine plan, the sinner cannot be excused saying that the sinner acted only as per the divine plan. The sinner would have committed the sin, even without the divine plan. Hence, the sinful action of a sinner cannot be completely confined to the divine plan alone. The sinful nature of the sinner is only incidentally used in the divine plan. Hence, ignoring the sinner’s sin is not at all correct.
[A devotee asked: What exactly does it feel like to attain liberation by entering Goloka? What happens when we see Kṛṣṇa?]
Swāmi replied: Goloka is a special abode created by God above His abode to give more value to the love of devotees than Himself. The love of the Gopikās sent to Goloka was really unimaginable. Nothing happens by mere seeing the Human Incarnation like Kṛṣṇa.
[An online questioner asked: How did Hanumān eat the sun? I want a rational, logical, and realistic answer in a scientific point of view.]
Swāmi replied: A miracle is beyond worldly logic and science and hence, your request is another form of impossibility.
[Śrī Anil asked: Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed Me judge or executor between you? And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. Swāmi, here in this incident, it seems Jesus refused to give a solution to the dispute between the brothers. Swāmi, will You please clarify on this further?]
Swāmi replied: The main aim of the Human Incarnation of God is to spread spiritual knowledge in general. The spiritual knowledge preached by Him is related to both pravṛtti or worldly life and nivṛtti or spiritual life. Using that spiritual knowledge, people are supposed to solve their own personal problems. The application of that general spiritual knowledge to individual cases must be done by the individuals themselves. If one is not affected by greed and is not ambitious about acquiring more and more wealth, the individual can solve personal problems like the division of property etc.