Posted on: 17 Jan 2023
(Divine Satsanga on 14-01-2023 attended by Smt. Chhanda Chandra along with Smt. Sudha Rani, Ms. Bhanu Samykya, Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya and Mr. Nitin Bhosle.)
[A question by Mr. Nitin Bhosle]
Swami replied: There was no need of preaching the Gita to Dharmaraja because he was well aware of all the scriptures and became ready to fight the war. There was no use in preaching the Gita to Bhiima who was always emotional. Dharmaraja was an intellectual and Bhiima was dull due to emotion. When Krishna asked Dharmaraja to tell a lie, Dharmaraja did not tell because of over-intelligence. Bhiima immediately followed the advice of Krishna and told Drona that Ashwathama was killed. Over-intelligence always ends in loss and foolish emotional obedience always ends in profit. Over-intelligence is due to excess of knowledge or Sattvam. Tamas is necessary in the spiritual path, which gives rigidity and firmness in the proper decision taken. Dharmaraja went up to the third world called Swargaloka or heaven. Bhiima went up to seventh world called Brahmaloka for his rigid loyalty to God. Bhiima is considered as one of the three preachers (acharyas) of the Madhva religion (First is Hanuman, second is Bhiima and third is Madhva. All the three are the incarnations of god Vayu.).
Arjuna is called as Nara. The word Nara also stands for the human race. The human being is always between angel and demon with half knowledge, which is most dangerous. Hence, it is the human being which needs the preaching. The fertile soil does not need fertilizer. The rocky soil also does not need fertilizer because there is no use in applying fertilizer. The soil which is somewhat fertile needs the use of fertilizer. Hence, Arjuna standing as representative of human beings deserves the preaching of the Gita. In fact, the Gita is preached for the entire human world through Arjuna. Actually, Arjuna is very closely associated with Krishna and does not need any spiritual guidance. Both Krishna and Arjuna were Sage Narayana and Sage Nara in the previous births. Arjuna asked questions only for the sake of humanity. Arjuna was so closely associated with Krishna in the previous births that Krishna said that He was Arjuna (Pāṇḍavānāṃ Dhanañjayaḥ). This was the reason for Krishna’s special liking to Arjuna because Arjuna had several unseen fixed deposits in his account, which were seen only by God Krishna. Due to this divine background of deep association with Arjuna, Krishna made a lot of efforts to make Arjuna ready to fight the war. Nakula and Sahadeva were like pure children with loyal mentality towards their three elder brothers. An employee having many bosses always becomes innocent in his profession.
Ms. Bhanu Samykya asked: When we try to control our mind, will God help us in our effort?
Swami replied: In every good action, God’s help is there. In the Gita, God told that the effort from the side of the soul must be 80% and the grace from God will be 20% (Daivaṃ caivātra pañcamam… Gita). In the beginning of creation (Satyayuga), there was no free will and hence, this ratio of effort and grace did not arise. Later on, souls got free will from God since they were bored with robot type of discipline. Since the request for free will was from the souls, 80% responsibility on the souls is justified. But one important point here is that when the mind is attracted in climax towards God, there is no need of any effort to put the mind on God. When there is no attraction, there is no use of any number of efforts to concentrate the mind on God. Who is responsible for this attraction towards God? Is it God or soul? The answer from My side is God. Unless there is attraction in the personality of God, what can the soul do? If a boy is not attracting the girl, the total responsibility is on the boy. This means that the knowledge preached by the preacher is not complete and competent to attract the devotee. This happens because of the inefficiency of the preacher to present all the correct details of the divine personality of God.
The main part of spiritual knowledge is to give the complete correct details of the divine personality of God so that the devotee is tremendously attracted. The spiritual knowledge must generate the theoretical devotion which is emotional attraction to God. Hence, the defect lies in the first step of the foundation itself. Of course, in this first step, the preacher might have preached well, but the heart of the devotee soaked in worldly attractions might not have digested it well. Hence the probability is 50:50. Both probabilities are possible. This policy of the concept is one and the same whether it is Pravritti or Nivritti. God’s grace always exists on the deserving devotee, who will be dragged towards a good preacher only because after all, the threads of all the souls are in His hand only.
Ms. Thrylokya asked: Swami, You told that God is impartial like the sky raining equally everywhere in fertile and non-fertile soils.
Swami replied: This context is quite different. Here, the sky is like the Sadguru preaching true spiritual knowledge to a group of disciples containing both deserving and undeserving. In this context of your question, a fraud preacher is not involved even though undeserving disciples exist in a large group of disciples. In the above context of 50:50 probability, we are talking about both Sadgurus and fraud preachers along with both deserving and undeserving disciples separately.