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Kum. Thrylokya asked: Pādanamaskāram Swāmi! My profession is to teach school kids online. How do I worship and remember God while performing my duty?
Swāmi replied: You should teach with sincerity and interest (śraddhā). You are getting a salary for doing that duty. Hence, you will incur sin if you do not perform your duty properly. But if you use your salary for God’s work, then your teaching (worldly work) will also become a work of God. Even when you are doing God’s work, your focus should be on that work of God and not on God. Although God is pleased...
[Reply to a question by Smt. Anita Renkuntla] Swāmi replied: Idol worship increases theoretical devotion towards God. Some practices such as, bathing the idol and decorating it, help our mind to focus on God for a long time. The mind gets attracted to the beauty of God. But do not use any food commodities like milk to clean the idols. Use only water. If you use any food item for abhiśekam (bathing the idol), then you should serve it as prasādam, to devotees...
[Reply to a question by Kum. Shiva Jyothi] Swāmi replied: If the same oil that you would have burnt in an oil lamp is instead used to cook healthy food for a poor person, his life-lamp (prāṇa dīpa) will glow brightly. Oil is expensive and if you donate that oil to the poor, they will use it to cook some food and consume it to get more energy. This is the real dīpārādhanā (lamp worship) where you are lighting a prāṇa dīpa (life-lamp). Is your positive vibe...
Kum. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! Priests in different religions claim that they can help devotees get rid of their sins by performing some rituals for them. Some say that the sins will be transferred upon themselves (priests), which they will later get rid of by doing additional rituals at home. By studying your discourses, I understood that the karma of any soul cannot be transferred to other souls, but I am unable to disprove the above claim being made by priests. Please tell me how to do disprove their claims.
Swāmi replied: Logic used to carry out sharp analysis which is supported by the scriptures is the only path to disprove any wrong claim. The scripture says that the fruit of the deed must be enjoyed by a soul and that, unless the fruit...
[Part of Online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Smt. Padmaram asked: Many idols of God are being destroyed these days. Even in the past, foreign invaders did the same. These are not just idols; they are the very God Himself for the devotees. We feel deeply hurt when we get to know about such incidents. My question is, why is God (Paramātmā) remaining silent about such incidents? Why is He not stopping...
[Reply to a question by Śrī Rajashekar during online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Swāmi replied: Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva are the three faces of the One Divine Personality. We say that a certain person...
[Part of Online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Shri Phani asked: God exists in the form of many Energetic Incarnations and in the form of Human Incarnations, including contemporary Human Incarnations. If we express devotion towards all those forms of God, how can we attain the state of single-pointed devotion towards God called ekabhathi, which is said to be the highest?
Swāmi replied: Ekabhakti means the devotion towards God without any diversion towards worldly bonds. The devotee...
[Reply to a question by Kum. Mohini during online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Swāmi replied: Do you know that māyā is also called Mohinī! Māyā means illusion, in its basic sense. If the illusion can be removed by human effort, it is māyā...
[Part of Online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Smt. Padmaram asked: God is only one. So, is it alright to remember or pray to any past Human Incarnation of God while learning spiritual knowledge from the contemporary Human Incarnation of God? This is because, some devotees have some special attraction towards the past Incarnation.
Swāmi replied: You can worship and pray to the images and statues of past Human Incarnations to develop theoretical devotion towards...
[Reply to a question by Nava Chaitanya during online Satsanga held on January 10, 2021] Swāmi replied: This is a question related to pravṛtti (worldly life) and has nothing to do with spiritual knowledge or nivṛtti. Reservation is done because certain sections of society are suffering due to poverty and age-old ignorance as a result of the long suppression by the more developed sections of society. Reservations are justified in order to encourage...
Shri Nikhil asked: This question is related to one of the discourses You gave in reply to Śrī Anil’s question. You said that whenever a particular quality is required to a greater extent to carry out the mission of God, the Energetic Incarnation of God having that particular quality predominantly, enters a selected human being to form the Human Incarnation. In the Energetic Incarnation, Lord Datta...
Swāmi replied: The quality of tamas means rigidity and firm decision. If that rigidity leads to injustice, that tamas is bad. Rāvaṇa and Duryodhana were such examples. But tamas can also be used in the right direction. Goddess Pārvatī was very firm in doing penance to attain Lord Śiva as her husband. Such tamas is required in the final stage of the spiritual path. Ādi Śaṅkara too was very firm in taking...
Shri Karthik asked: Does “Trikarmedhma dāhānalāya” in Your composition “Śrī Datta Navaratna” mean the destruction of the āgāmi, sañcita and prārabdha karmas? These are: (1) the fruits of deeds that are yet to be received, (2) the soul’s inherent qualities and (3) the fruits of deeds that have fructified and are to be enjoyed in the present birth, respectively. Or does it refer to the three types of action namely, satkarma...
Ṣrī Ganesh asked: I have learnt from You that we can use our so-called bad qualities in the right direction, in the service of God. For example, if we have lust, we can use it to appreciate the beauty of God. But how can one turn our anger towards God? How can we express anger towards God? Would such expression of anger towards God not be out of jealousy, which, in turn is rooted in the ego?
Swāmi replied: When the devotee is unable to attain God’s grace, he or she becomes angry. Here anger means the pain-mixed emotion that one feels for not being able to attain His grace. This is the good face of anger. The bad face of anger...
Smt. Padmaram asked: How can I assess whether I have understood the Brahma Jñānam (spiritual knowledge)? Is it that only if am able to put it to practice in the form of karma yoga (service and sacrifice), can I say that I have understood the knowledge? Should I propagate Your knowledge only after I get permission from You?
Swāmi replied: Understanding the spiritual knowledge in its literal sense is the first theoretical phase. By this, you can become a preacher and propagate the knowledge to others. You have studied medicine...
Smt. Sudha Rani asked: I generally like listening to bhajans (devotional songs) a lot. Does it mean that I am attracted to the knowledge in those bhajans or the melody (sangītam)? What should I do in order to reduce my attraction towards the world?
Swāmi replied: If you are attracted to God after listening to the bhajan, your focus is on the knowledge of the song. If you are attracted to the music, you will become a musician. The attraction to God alone...
Smt. Sudha Rani asked: In the Bhāgavatam, it is said that Kaṃsa got mokṣa, but Bhīṣma Pitāmaha did not get mokṣa, even though he chanted the Viṣṇu Sahasranāmam while he was dying? Why is it so, Swami?
Swāmi replied: Kaṃsa did not have a spiritual background like Hiraṇyākṣa & Hiraṇyakaśipu, Rāvaṇa & Kumbhakarṇa and Śiśupāla & Dantavaktra. Three pairs of demons were three successive births...
Do You not find it irritating or tiresome that I make You teach me the same lesson again and again?
[A question asked by Śrī Bharath Krishna.] Swāmi replied: Giving the same answer repeatedly is revision of the concept, which is also essential...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Swami, I heard from You that listening to spiritual knowledge will generate devotion towards God. My question is that when I learn about an excellent scientific concept discovered by a scientist, I feel good and grateful to him, but after learning that concept, I do not start loving him. Then, why is it that learning spiritual knowledge from a Human Incarnation of God generates devotion towards God? How are both these kinds of knowledge different?
Swāmi replied: A scientific concept belongs to nature, whereas, the concept of spiritual knowledge touches God, who is said to be ‘Rasa’ in the Veda (Raso vai sah, Rasam hyevāyaṃ labdhvā ānandī bhavati). Rasa means interest...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Swamiji, before I started learning spiritual knowledge from You, I had met a spiritual preacher named Appaji. When I asked him to teach me Brahma Jñānam, his response was as follows, “Brahma Jñānam is not something which you can get from the market. You have to do a lot of sādhanā (spiritual effort) for it”. After listening to that I felt that there is a hidden message in it for me, what do You think, Swamiji?
Swāmi replied: Spiritual knowledge or Brahma Jñānam consists of three aspects. They are (1) knowing all the true details of God, which is that He is the creator, controller and the final destroyer of this creation...
Shri Bharath Krishna asked: Ṛṣyaśṛṅga lived a life in a remote forest, completely isolated from women and worldly life. He could completely focus on God alone and develop intense devotion. How can I live a life like Ṛṣyaśṛṅga? I might not get mokṣa in that birth. But in my next birth, I will definitely choose God over other worldly bonds when he tests my devotion, right? That way, would it not be useful to be away from all worldly matters like Ṛṣyaśṛṅga?
Swāmi replied: Marriage is in no way connected to salvation or mokṣa. Salvation means the liberation from your worldly bonds when you have worldly bonds. Escaping from developing any worldly bonds...
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