Posted on: 14 Mar 2022
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked:- One of my friends asked me “why is the same photo of Swami decorated by devotees as various forms of God, which include even the form of Goddess? There must be some spiritual aim and I would like to know it”. Swami, what answer should be given by me to this question?]
Swami replied:- There are two reasons:-
1) The same face in different forms of God will indicate the concept that the same one God appeared in different Divine forms. That same one God, who is the first energetic incarnation was called Datta. The word Datta has no link to any religion because Datta simply means the unimaginable God given to the world of souls for the sake of convenience for meditation. Hence, I can say that the same God Datta appeared as all the Divine forms of the world. Datta is also called as the Father of Heaven by other religions. There is unity among all the incarnations of God in the sense that the same first energetic incarnation (Datta or Father of Heaven) is common in all the Incarnations. Even if somebody takes God as formless (actually formless here means unimaginable in the real sense because even formless imaginable items like space, air, water etc., exist, which are not God) the one unimaginable God (who is beyond space and time) is common in all the formless Divine models of God. When the face is one and same, the commonality in all the forms is spontaneously expressed. This commonality in all religious forms of God is the foundation of Universal Spirituality, which is externally called as Universal Religion. In Hinduism itself, there are several sub-religions maintaining different forms of God resembling the entire world having different religions that maintain different forms of God. This is the main aim of developing photos of different forms of God based on one common photo.
2) You know that I am born as Hindu and from My childhood I used to visit several temples. After seeing the main statues of God in various forms in temples, I developed a question in My mind, which is that why the main statue is not having a pleasant appearance so that the devotees get attracted to stand for some more time in the main place of the temple. Even the statues carved on the outer walls of the temples are looking very pleasant, but, the main statue is not at least that much pleasant looking! Devotees are standing before the statue of the main Deity not for looking at the statue for more time, but, stand more time due to the pressure of the desire of personal boons that are to be granted by the main Deity. Of course, the very purpose of God’s worship itself is the fulfillment of selfish desires only. But, if the statue is beautiful, at least for some more time, the devotee may forget the selfish desire and may stand looking at the Deity based on attraction towards the pleasant looks of God. Due to this, slowly, real devotion without aspiring for any fruit in return may develop in the heart of the devotee.
When the main statue is carved neglecting the aspect of beauty of the face, this possibility seems ruined. The main point is that nobody has seen the faces of energetic incarnations like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva etc. In such a case, the carved personalities of the statues are imaginary only and, in such opportunity, what is wrong in carving the statues with some pleasant appearance? Is the reason the ego-based jealousy of devotees? At least, I felt shocked when I saw the statues of various forms of the Divine Mother, which are not good looking when the Divine Mother is called Tripura Sundari, which means that She is the topmost beauty in all the three upper, middle and lower worlds!
Of course, I fully agree that the real beauty of the personality is the inner eternal beauty, which is very much important. Even then, the external beauty is also mentioned as one of the Divine qualities (Kalyāṇa guṇas). Rama, Krishna etc., were so beautiful seeing whom even male sages fell in love! At least, when such opportunity (in carving the imaginary personalities as statues) to present God with maximum beauty is available, shall we not use it to say that God is the highest in every angle? From the childhood, I always felt very depressed on seeing the photos and statues of God Brahmā, who is actually God Datta appearing as a boy of 16 years with unimaginable beauty! If the beauty of Krishna is 16 kalās, the beauty of Brahma or God Datta is 100 kalās. When God Datta incarnates, the range of kalas of beauty expressed by Him will be 0.0001 to 0.01 kalā only! If He comes down with all His full 100 kalās of beauty, the souls will immediately collapse and die!! How God Brahmā is presented now by devotees with the worst face added with a long white beard? Devotees feel that the grandfather Brahmā shall look like that! We treat God Vishnu or God Shiva as the Divine Father.
The first energetic form of God Datta is God Brahmā (because God Brahmā is the author of the Veda or spiritual knowledge and is a Divine preacher keeping Goddess Sarasvati on His tongue), who is considered as the creator of incarnations of God Vishnu and God Shiva. Hence, God Brahmā is called as the grandfather (Pitāmaha). This point is told in the religion called ‘HAIRAṆYAGARBHA MATA’ propagated by divine sages. Why does a person shave his beard and attends interviews with smart dress and putting face powder on his face? The selection for the job is based on the knowledge of the candidate. Still, why does the candidate take care about his/her personality in the interview? If the personality is not smart, candidates feel that it may throw a negative psychology in the minds of the selection committee. In such a case, why do people present God Brahmā in the worst way?
I felt that My photo is somewhat pleasant and at least I can say that it is not bad looking. Some devotees developed My photo, who have faith in Me as spiritual preacher (Sat Guru) and the development of various forms of God based on My photo, I felt, is not a bad idea and actually this idea came to the brain of one of My disciples. In fact, some time back, you asked Me about the development of photos of Ganapati, Hanuman, Narasimha etc., also and I okayed your proposal with full pleasure. These photos will establish that the Divinity does not depend on mere external beauty, but, depends upon the internal qualities altogether called as the eternal inner personality. The beauty of the body and the face is temporary that disappears forever once the life leaves the body, and the body gets buried or cremated!
Actually, one miracle happened by the wish of God Datta. Phani got a vision of Lord Venkateshwara in Chennai about which he narrated to the devotees in Vijayawada. Devotees asked Phani about the vision and asked how the face of Lord Venkateshwara looked. Phani told the devotees “the face of Lord Venkateshwara was just like the face of our Swami”. Then, Phani along with PVNM Sharma, got a photo of Mine (which was the photo published in the college magazine of Hindustan College of Engineering, Chennai, while I was working as a Professor in that college) and developed the photo of Lord Venkateshwara based on that photo and showed it to devotees. It was also seen by Me and I was also very much impressed.
Then, I told that photos of other forms of God also can be developed based on the same photo so that the fundamental concept that the same God expressed Himself in various Divine forms gets clearly visualized. Full size photos decorating Me as Lord Venkateshwara and Lord Krishna were also physically taken. In this way, the whole episode occurred by the wish of God Datta. I feared that some elder devotees may become angry with Me, charging Me that I appeared as various forms of God, but I thought that I could answer them by saying that several actors are also acting as the Divine forms of God (e.g. in movies) and that I can be treated as one among them. Of course, if My devotee has firm faith on Me as the incarnation of God Datta, I can say that I stand as the representative model for God Datta (Pratīka Upāsanā) for that specific devotee only, just like the National Flag which represents the Nation even though it is not the actual Nation!