Posted on: 11 Mar 2021
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on February 14, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Balaji asked: Namaste Swami! As part of the divine knowledge You recently delivered on the difficult verses from the Īśa Upaniṣad, the following sentence on the wrong path of sambhūti upāsanā is given:
“In other words, if the material of God’s medium alone is worshipped or the manifested creation, in general is worshipped, neglecting God, it is bad”.
Kindly clarify further about the incorrect practices of worship indicated in the above sentence. Following is my understanding:
The worship of God’s medium alone, neglecting God is criticized. The medium of God’s Incarnation is the human being. Thus, the attachment to the family as well as social service done to human beings, without any reference to God, is said to be incorrect. The worship of the manifested creation, neglecting God is also criticized. It means, all ritualistic worship, such as done following the path of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, as well as worldly activity done, without reference to God is said to be incorrect. Sincerely, Balaji]
Swami replied: The medium of God is the quantitatively-limited manifested creation (saṃbhūti). That quantitatively-limited manifested creation is good and helpful to the devotee because, through it, the devotee can worship God (upāsanā). Succeeding in the practical worship of God (saṃbhūti) by conquering selfishness and greed is also good and it is the final step in the worship. The worship of the rest of the manifested creation (saṃbhūti), such as through social service is also good as long as you do it only because God likes it. The reason for your liking towards social service, which is the worship of the rest manifested creation (saṃbhūti) must only be your liking for whatever God likes. It should not be your direct liking for the manifested creation or humanity. If you are interested in serving humanity directly, without caring for what God likes or dislikes, then such direct worship of humanity is criticized. The Upaniṣad says that such direct worship of humanity or the manifested creation leads to a deeper darkness. Sage Bharata was born as a deer due to his direct love for a deer, which represents love for the manifested creation, neglecting God.
Vidyā means the knowledge of the manifested creation. The good form of vidyā is the knowledge of the medium of God. If you take vidyā as the knowledge of the rest of the manifested creation, again it leads to a deeper darkness. The worship of the unmanifested (asaṃbhūti) and unimaginable (avidyā) item is criticized as darkness because it is totally impossible to worship the original absolute and unimaginable God, as said in the Gītā (Avyaktā hi gatirduḥkhaṃ...). The word ratāḥ in the Upaniṣad means those who have a fascination for the rest of the manifested creation, neglecting the medium of God. This means that if you are the climax devotee of God, you must like whatever God likes and dislike whatever God dislikes. Your liking must only be based on whether God likes it or not and not on whether it is good and justified or not, based on your own analysis. You must have firm faith that when God likes something, it must be good and justified because God is omniscient and your knowledge is very little, which may easily turn out to be false.