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Swami replied: The soul is given full freedom in choosing the right path or the wrong path (Svabhāvastu pravartate—Gita). God does not force souls to leave the wrong path and turn to the right path. Using logic, God fully explains to souls about both paths and the results of following each of them. It is the souls who must feel attracted towards the right path preached by God and follow it, using their own free will. Krishna only preached to Arjuna what the right direction in his situation was. After presenting the complete logic before Arjuna, Krishna finally told Arjuna to analyze whatever He had said thoroughly and make his own decision, using his own free will (Yathecchasi tathā kuru). Krishna could have just forced Arjuna...
Shri Durgaprasad asked: Paadanamaskaaram Swami! Many great scientists have acknowledged God for the intuition and innovative ideas that they received during their research. They accept that, without God’s help, it was impossible for them to have come up with those ideas. On the other hand, we also see atheistic scientists getting some wonderful or sometimes, devastating ideas. How is this possible? At Your lotus feet. Durga Prasad.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The discoveries made by scientists are inspired by the omniscient God for the sake of the welfare of the world. God’s ultimate aim is only to help the world. He has no interest in projecting Himself as the real source of the discovery. God is the ultimate source of the Veda, which is primary spiritual scripture. He is also the source of the Śāstra, which is the secondary scripture that enables the correct interpretation...
Govinda means the cowherd who leads cows and it indicates Krishna. The word Govinda also has another meaning and that is the Satguru or the God who is associated with the human body which is a bundle of senses (Gavāṃ indriyāṇāṃ saṅghātaṃ nara śarīraṃ vindate prapnoti iti Govindaḥ). It means the unimaginable God present in the medium of a human body, which is a bundle of senses. This meaning applies to any Human Incarnation of God and specifically to Krishna, who was an Incarnation and was also popularly called Govinda. Śaṅkara sang this song for the benefit of the people in His time, for whom He was the Satguru or the contemporary Human Incarnation...
Rāja yoga is a type of spiritual path. The word rāja is related to one of the three fundamental qualities called rajas. Rajas is the quality of dynamism and is the basis of work (Rajaḥ karmaṇi...). Yoga means the attainment of the grace of God by pleasing Him. So, rāja yoga means the attainment of God’s grace through work. Work is of two types: (1) worldly work and (2) God’s work. You have to identify, which work is worldly work and which is God’s work. You can attain the grace of God only by doing God’s work. Why should God give you His grace, if you are only doing worldly work and not God’s work? So, you have to clearly differentiate between worldly work and God’s work...
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: Swami! You often tell us Your experience when You prayed to Lord Rāma and Shri Satya Sai appeared before You asking You to propagate spiritual knowledge. Why did Lord Rāma or any other divine form not appear before You?
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! I often get divine visions, in which mainly God Datta appears to Me in energetic form and He speaks with Me; sometimes even for several hours! Of course, other divine forms of God Datta also appear now and then and they include Energetic Incarnations and the energetic forms of past Human Incarnations. In all these visions, the divine form seen is only an energetic form and not a materialized human form. For the first time in My entire life so far, and only on that one occasion, the divine form of Shri Satya Sai that appeared before Me was a materialized human form. The silver throne on which He was sitting was also a materialized form! Actually, I had expected that, as usual, the energetic form of God Rāma would appear...
Shri Phani asked: In Your discourse on December 02, 2019, You have said that Your spriritual knowledge is not meant for the general public, but only for a few rare diamonds scattered here and there in the world. With reference to it, someone remarked to me that if the spiritual knowledge of Datta Swami is only meant for rare diamonds, let Him confine His preaching to only those few diamonds. What is the necessity to propagate it to the public, all over the world? Could You please respond to this?
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! This point that spiritual knowledge is meant for the rare few was actually told by God Krishna in the Gita. He said that out of millions of devotees, only one tries to reach God and among those rare devotees trying to reach God, only one recognizes God (Manuṣyāṇāṃ…). Such a devotee is the rarest of the rare. Even that rarest-of-the-rare devotee recognizes and reaches God, only after trying to reach Him for several births...
Saṅkrānti is the transition of a person from worldly life to spiritual life. A person’s worldly life is represented by the sun’s southward journey (dakṣiṇāyanam), which, according to the Indian calendar, occurs in the six months from July 15th to January 15th. Likewise, a person’s spiritual life is represented by the sun’s northward journey (uttarāyaṇam) from January 15th to July 15th. It is said that if one dies during uttarāyaṇam, one will get salvation, otherwise, one will continue in the cycle of births and deaths. Ignorant people literally think that one can get salvation by dying during the six months when the sun travels northwards! This is not true since several great devotees died during the sun’s southward journey (dakṣiṇāyanam) and still perfectly got salvation. Attaining salvation or not, is related to whether one follows the spiritual path in life or the worldly path. It has nothing to do with the sun’s movement. The uttarāyaṇam and dakṣiṇāyanam periods only represent the spiritual and worldly paths...
Shri Phani asked: In our latest spiritual discussion, we were discussing about the meanings of words like Brahman, Īśvara and Ātman, in spiritual knowledge. Can you please enlighten us on this topic?
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Every word has different meanings. Based on the context, you have to select the proper meaning. The word president can mean the president of an entire country as well as the president of a tiny village in the country. Both are addressed as president by the public. When you are discussing the article in the constitution that puts the president above the jurisdiction of the courts of law...
Shri J.S.R. Prasad (Professor of Sanskrit, Central University, Hyderabad) asked: In the Yoga Vāsiṣṭham, which is the preaching of sage Vasiṣṭha to Śrī Rāma, it is said that both knowledge (jñāna mārga) and action (karma mārga) are like the two wings of a bird flying to the spiritual goal. But Śaṅkara condemned the karma mārga of Maṇḍana Miśra. How can we correlate Vasiṣṭha and Śaṅkara?
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Just like Vasiṣṭha, Kumarila Bhaṭṭa also said that both jñāna and karma are needed side-by-side, in the spiritual effort. Bhaṭṭa’s theory is called Jñāna-Karma-Samuccaya-Vāda or the unified path of knowledge and action. His disciple, Maṇḍana Miśra, however, took only the path of action (karma mārga), which is also called Pūrva Mīmāṃsā. It mainly stresses on karma, which is work done with an aspiration for worldly fruits. If you take Śaṅkara, He stressed only on jñāna, which is the theoretical enquiry about God and the consequent theoretical devotion to God. Hence, Śaṅkara and Maṇḍana Miśra were exactly opposite...
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! You mean to say that cow-eaters should not be excused, whereas, goat-eaters can be excused! Both cows and goats are soft-natured animals. The real concept is that a soft-natured animal or human being should not be killed. A cow represents all soft-natured animals. When it is said that you should not kill a cow, it means that you should not kill any soft-natured animal or bird. Similarly, when it is said that you should not kill a Brāhmaṇa, it means that you should not kill any soft-natured...
Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins?
Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin. The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin. The third and final step is the practical non-repetition ...
Swami replied: God said in the Gita that He incarnates in human form for only one purpose, which is the establishment of justice and the destruction of injustice (Dharma saṃsthāpanārthāya…—Gita). He never said that He would incarnate for the sake of establishing His existence or for destroying atheism. God is not worried about the spiritual path (nivṛtti). He is not interested in establishing theism, spiritual knowledge, devotion, service to Him or sacrifice to Him. He has no desire...
Shri Balaji asked: What are the five sacrifices (pañca yajñas)? If a person misses the Satguru, who is to be worshipped in the first Brahma yajña? Should he perform it or not? If the real Satguru is not available, will the performance of these five sacrifices take the soul to the highest step?
Swami replied: In fact, there are seven sacrifices (sapta yajñas) in which seven different entities are worshipped by offering food to them. They are as follows: 1) Brahma yajña, in which the contemporary Human Incarnation of God or the Satguru is to be worshipped. 2) Deva yajña, in which devotees...
The answer to this question is a full yes. For every concept in spiritual knowledge, there is an excellent example in the world. This means that from worldly experience itself, the entire spiritual knowledge can be built up. We have seen that issue-devotion (love for one’s children) is the strongest and that one’s devotion to God stands in competition against it. The final success lies in conquering the love for one’s children with the devotion that one has for God...
People say that Sudāmā, who was facing extreme poverty, initially avoided approaching Krishna for help, to maintain his own dignity. But it is totally wrong. Sudāmā was not approaching Krishna because he knew thoroughly that we should never approach God, expecting some benefit in return. This was the main reason why Sudāmā was not approaching Krishna for a long time. When he finally approached Krishna, due to the insistence of his wife...
Shri Balaji asjed: In the spiritual line, a lot of courage is needed, in general. When we debate with a great saint, a lot of courage is needed, isn’t it?
Swami replied: There is no need to have any fear during a spiritual debate because our strength lies in our argument and not in the status of the opponent. It does not matter even if the opponent is the greatest saint. It is the question of a wrong point being defeated...
Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Is it mandatory to do the muṇḍan ceremony (tonsure) of a baby? Does it have any religious significance? Commonly, after performing the pujā in a temple, a few snippets of the baby’s hair are taken off and later, the parents are supposed to get all of the baby’s birth hair shaved off. Is this necessary?
Swami replied: Removing the hair from the head of a baby may be good from a scientific point...
Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Is kuṇḍali or horoscope-matching very important for marriages? In some marriages, even though the horoscope has been matched, the couples seem to be having a lot of inter-personal problems and they do not get along well. Should people still match the horoscopes anyway, just to err on the safe side? It is also said that the cutting of hair and nails should only be done on specific days and not at night time. Do such rules apply even today?
Swami replied: The subject of astrology as written by ancient sages is correct. However, the astrologer must interpret the horoscope in the correct way. The astrological planets are not the inert planets, but the deities of the inert planets. They are nothing but the various forces of the unimaginable power of God. They deliver the fruits of the deeds of souls, as per the schedule of life cycles, which are arranged by God. The inert planets, which exist in space, are made of inert matter...
Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: I have read in one of your articles that some souls are born as fish and trees to train those souls regarding sacrifice. Once that birth is over and God feels that the soul has indeed learnt its lesson, are they born as human beings again in order to give them a second chance at having a human birth?
Swami replied: Sinners who have used their qualities greed and anger in the wrong direction...
Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: The fate of some herbivorous animals is decided by birth itself since they will be killed and eaten by some carnivores. A carnivorous animal, by nature, is designed to hunt, kill and eat other animals. So, how is the judgment done for animals? Also, once an animal or any creature dies, do their souls get energetic bodies that are of the form of that same animal? Do they also have wait for their judgment for ten days, like human souls?
Swami replied: Once a soul enters the cycle of births of animals and birds, they generally continue to have the same attitudes...
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