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[Shri Kishore Ram asked: Just as dressing in a dignified way is important for presenting yourself before people, is language also important in presenting knowledge?]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! It depends on the psychology of the set of people before whom you are presenting your personality. If the group of people before you give value to the dress, you have to take care of your dress too. But if there is a larger group before you and, out of them, only a small number of people give importance to the dress, then you should wear a simple dress because you have to satisfy the majority. Several people are afraid...
[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! Kindly grace us with Your answer to the following question. It is mentioned in the Bible that when Jesus was born, three magis (wise men) from the east, visited the baby Jesus and presented gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They followed a moving star to reach the birth place of Jesus. Swami, what is the significance of this incident?]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Gold indicates God. Hiraṇyagarbha means the mediated God in whom God is hidden like gold. Both frankincense and myrrh are perfumes with a slight difference that the first one is a perfume that quickly evaporates in air while the second one is an oil perfume. The fragrance of the first perfume is lost in air quickly and it indicates the path...
[Shri Anil asked: Jesus was born in a stable when nobody gave place to His pregnant mother Mary for delivery. What is the message in this? Please enlighten us on why God in human form took birth in very lowly conditions.]
Swami replied: The birth of God in human form in an atmosphere of simplicity and poverty shows that God reaches out even to poor people of low status. His intention...
[Shri Anil asked: Jesus mentions in the Bible that He had not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Many people criticised Him for allowing sinners like tax collectors etc. to come near Him. Please enlighten us on this.]
Swami replied: It is quite logical that only a patient needs the doctor and not a healthy person. The purpose of the Incarnation...
[Shri Anil asked: When Jesus was preaching by travelling in villages and cities, He encountered a lot of people. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” Kindly enlighten us on this passage.]
Swami replied: The harvest field represents the field of spiritual knowledge, which is very much sufficient for humanity. The servants of God...
Shri Anil asked: Swami, as per the following verses in the Bible, there is an incident where Jesus gave more importance to His devotees and followers over His own mother. Can You please explain why?..
Swami replied: This shows that the Human Incarnation is untouched by worldly bonds. The purpose of the Human Incarnation is only to guide the people interested in the spiritual path and not to guide the people entangled in worldly bonds, who only seek guidance in achieving worldly happiness. These worldly relationships are only related to this external body and not to the detached innermost soul. Every soul is trapped...
Shri Anil asked: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Swami replied: God forgives the sinner again and again with the hope of reformation in that soul. The love of God towards souls is a million times more than the love of a father towards his children. God keeps trying, again and again, to reform the soul and this is the reason for His long delay in punishing the sinner. Punishment brings only temporary reformation, whereas, preaching spiritual knowledge...
Shri Anil asked: Swami I observed lot of resemblance with Your Knowledge and some verses from Hadith as given below. Please give Your comment.
Swami replied: Attaining spiritual knowledge from the human form of God and propagating it in the world is the highest goal of any reformed and liberated devotee. It is necessary for the smooth running of the world on the lines of peace and happiness. God is extremely...
Shri Anil asked: Swami, in the Hadith there is a reference in which Prophet Muhammad prohibits, on a certain occasion, the eating of the meat of donkeys. In those days and in that desert area, people used to even eat lizards. Prophet Muhammad did not encourage eating lizards also, as per the following verses. Does this mean that He was gradually trying to get His devotees to abstain from eating non-vegetarian food?
Swami replied: The highest justice is practicing non-violence towards good living beings. Violence against bad living beings is not a sin; instead, it is meritorious. We must protect good living beings and punish bad living beings. This is divine nature (Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām…—Gītā). But violence towards bad living beings should only be adopted as a last resort. This is so that the bad living being...
Shri Bharath Krishna asked: Namah Shivaya, Shri Datta Swami! I am Bharath Krishna. I had posted on Facebook, Your answer to a devotee’s question titled “Why does God send death to every man?”. In it You have quoted the following Vedic verse:
parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhūstasmāt parāṅpaśyati nāntarātman ।
kaściddhīraḥ pratyagātmānam aikṣad āvṛttacakṣuḥ amṛtatvamicchan ।। 2.1.1 ।।
You have interpreted that verse in the following words, “In the new life, the memories of the previous birth are suppressed by the God, as said in the Veda.” One of my friends commented that your interpretation of the verse is not correct. He supported his point by providing an English translation of the verse and its commentary...
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The Vedic hymns can be applied to several contexts in spiritual knowledge. The translation sent by you means that God damaged our senses so that they can see only external items and not the inner soul. It further means that one blessed person, aspiring for divinity, can see the soul by developing an inward wisdom. This means that all are unable to see the soul...
[Shri Bhagat asked: Jai Guru Datta! Gurudeva, You said God approaches us in the way that we approach Him. So, since all foreigners are donating money to God, will God give them money in next birth with compound interest or will He give knowledge to them as there is a bond of debt ṛṇānubandha?]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The Veda says that the donation of money to God alone proves the devotee’s real love towards God (Dhanena tyāgena ekena...). The Gītā further polished this concept by saying that God is pleased, not by the mere donation of money, but by the donation of the devotee’s hard-earned money. This is because, one’s bond with one’s hard-earned money is stronger than the bond with one’s ancestral money (Dhyānāt karma phala tyāgaḥ...—Gītā). All the worldly bonds are based on money alone...
[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! Please grace us with Your response to the following questions. At Your Lotus Feet - Anil. In Mathew: Chapter 13:10 Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?”11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables.]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The Gītā says that the person with intensive interest to get divine knowledge will certainly attain the entire divine knowledge (Śraddhāvān labhate jñānam…, Satvānurūpā sarvasya…). A person who has tremendous interest...
[Shri Anil asked: Please refer to the following passage from the Bible. God giving protection to Cain: 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries...
Swami replied: If God had killed Cain, his suffering would have been only for a little time and it would not have been sufficient to bring about some temporary reformation in the soul. God wanted Cain to suffer lifelong...
[Shri Anil asked:Please refer to the following passages from the Bible. Could You kindly clarify the meaning of these controversial verses from Old Testament of the Bible?
Swami replied: The answers to each of the passages quoted above is given point-wise below: a) In the the case of the slave owner, the owner might have beaten the slave for some mistake done by the slave due to ego and arrogance. But the punishment given by the owner should not be so severe as to take away the slave’s life. Punishment is expected to reform the person and not to kill the person, unless the person has killed some other person. Even if a person has killed another person, but if the killer...
[Shri Anil asked: Swami, kindly give the inner meaning of Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”]
Swami replied: God is said to be a double-edged sword and this is a very very important point in the judgment...
[Shri Anil asked: Swami kindly enlighten us on the following incident in Bible: Once Jesus went to 2 sisters Martha and Mary’s house. Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what Jesus said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations like preparing food etc that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”]
Swami replied: This shows that knowledge is always better than service done without the knowledge received from the divine preacher. Such service without divine knowledge is called abhyāsa in the Gītā (Śreyohi jñānamabhyāsāt…). Service done to the divine preacher...
[Reply to a question by Shri Anil] Swami replied: Human beings are the best lot among all the items of creation. But God is better than the best human being. God has no simile to compare with since there is no second item that is equal to Him (Na tat samaḥ…—Veda). But if we want to bring...
[Shri Anil asked: A muslim devotee claimed that it is difficult to produce a chapter or a verse similar to the chapter or verse in the Qur’an by following arguments: a) The Arabic language used in the Holy Qur’an is the most unique Arabic. Such an Arabic was never spoken or written in any part of the world ever, from time immemorial. However, this Quranic Arabic could be read and understood by all Arabic speakers. Hence, this ensured that the verses in the Holy Qur’an remain tamper proof...
Swami replied: Such opinions about one’s own divine scripture are appreciable. Unless you have immense respect for the scripture, you will not have immense respect for God, who is its author. If the scripture is from God, there is no question of doubting even a word of it. But there is no proof of perception...
[Shri Anil asked: A person was enquiring if Lord Krishna really stopped time to explain all the 700 slokas of Bhagavad Gītā. What is the real meaning of that?]
Swami replied: After all, time is an item of this imaginable relative creation, which is expressed in terms of spatial co-ordinates that exist between the moving...
[Shri Anil asked: Some verses from the Gītā are given below along with their English translation given on internet. First of, I do not know whether the translations are correct or not. But assuming that they are correct, why did Krishna use the words ‘other gods’ and ‘wrong method’. Kindly enlighten us.
ye'pyanyadevatā bhaktāyajante śraddhayā'nvitāḥ |
te'pimāmeva kaunteya yajantyavidhipūrvakam ||9.23||
Even those who, being devoted to other gods and endowed with faith...
Swami replied: These verses of the Gītā, bring out two main points regarding ignorant people: (1) The first is that these ignorant people believe in the multiplicity of God, which is totally wrong. (2) The second is that they want to fulfill their personal desires through the worship of God. All these people should realise that there is only one God...
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