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Swami Vivekananda cried loudly looking at the sky, “Why is India, with such rich spiritual knowledge, suffering with poverty?” Only Lord Datta can give the answer to this question. Today, the answer is given. Any country means its people and their mentality. The mind decides everything and the action follows accordingly. If the mentality is analyzed, the action and its fruit become clear. Almost all the foreign countries are blessed with wealth, except India. So the mentality of all...
Destroying the Buffalo-Demon: Today is the Vijayadashami festival. Today Goddess Durga got victory over Mahishasura (Buffalo-Demon). Durga represents the highest power, which is knowledge. Mahisha (he-buffalo) represents the foolish rigidity of blind tradition. Yama Dharma Raja, the Lord of Death and Justice, sits on Mahisha. Yama means the rules and regulations imparted by the tradition. Dharma means the age-old practice. Raja means strictness and ego. Therefore, Mah isha represents an ignorant...
[Mumbai] The Majority Loses: In spirituality, the path of the majority should not be taken. For example, just because gravel stones are in majority and diamonds are in minority, we cannot say that the gravel stone is more valuable than the diamond. There is only one Adi Shankara, one Meera, one Swami Vivekananda, and one Tyagaraja. Such people are very rare. Only one in millions happens to be such a person. Our spiritual aim should be such a rare diamond alone. We should not take the majority as...
Root Causes of Terrorism: There are two root causes for the entire chaos and terrorism in this world. One is the thirst for earning money and the other is religious fanaticism. For the sake of money, people are quarreling with each other, whereas for the sake of religion, countries are quarreling with each other. Unless these two root causes are eradicated, we cannot achieve world peace. The tree will not die if you merely cut its leaves or branches. It dies only when you cut its roots. There is no use of earning extra...
[This discourse was given on the morning of the Guru Purnima day. Purnima is a full moon day. The birthday of sage Vyasa, which falls on a full moon day is celebrated as Guru Purnima, since sage Vyasa was one of the greatest Gurus. It is an occasion to express gratitude to and honor the Sadguru.] Today all of you have offered guru dakshina (donation) at My feet in the form of some money to be used for the propagation of divine knowledge and devotion to Lord Datta. The full moon today represents gold or a silver coin (money), which you have to surrender to the Guru as guru dakshina. In fact, you have to do this on the full moon day of...
Swami and Shirdi Sai Baba Are One: In the past, Swami appeared as Sai Baba to several devotees. Recently He appeared as Shirdi Sai Baba to Shri. K. Lakshman with smell of camphor. Next day, a devotee from Hyderabad, Smt. Ch. Sarada, came to see Swami. In her house, letters in Telugu (dotted shapes of letters, visible to everyone) appeared in milk that was kept as an offering before Sai Baba. Devotees copied all those letters written by Sai Baba in milk. It turned out to be a small verse in Telugu. The writings...
Punishment for Sins: When a policeman beats a thief with his stick the thief should not think that the stick is beating him. Of course the stick is directly beating him, but the stick is inert and cannot beat him by itself. It is the policeman who is beating him with the stick. If the thief prays to the stick there is no use. Even if he prays to the uniform of the policeman, there is no use. He should only pray to the policeman, who wears the uniform and holds the stick. The uniform is also inert. Since the thief...
Vedas and Shlokas: Shlokas are verses in Sanskrit, which can be composed by any Sanskrit scholar and cannot be the authority. The present Hindu is unable to distinguish between the Veda and a shloka. Anything read in Sanskrit is the Veda for him! Anything read in English is not the Holy Bible! Merchants and Sanskrit scholars got together and constructed this bad tradition. Merchants of flowers, coconuts, oil and camphor...
Conversation between Swami and a Christian Father:
Father: Those who do not have faith in Jesus Christ will be sent to the flames of liquid fire in hell. This is the declaration of our faith.
Swami: Does that mean that there is no salvation to all the generations of devotees who lived on this earth before the incarnation of Jesus Christ? If so, all those devotees were subjects of the partiality of God since they were...
God and Your Efforts: In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says “Bahuni me...” i.e., “Several births have passed for you and for Me. I remember all of them but you do not remember.” Sometimes the sadhana (spiritual effort) done by a devotee during this birth may be little. Yet God shows a lot of grace on that devotee. The reason for this is the penance done by that devotee during his previous births. Even that devotee forgets the penance done by him. Other devotees...
Yajna: All the Vedas describe ‘Yajna’ (sacrifice), which is nothing but the preparation of food. A fire is lit and it is called ‘Lowkikagni’ i.e., fire meant for cooking, but not for worship. The three parts of the fire, (Garhapatya, Ahavaneeya, and Dakshinagni) are only the three stoves for cooking various items of food. “Fools burn cooked food in this fire” says Kapila, the Incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The food, after proper cooking, must be...
[Durgashtami Message] Significance of Temples: Why is there so much rush in temples? There is only one reason. People think that if they go to the temples they can escape from the difficulties, which are the fruits of their sins. They also think that they can get some benefits (which are the fruits of good deeds) for good deeds that they have not performed. Obviously this is not true. The scriptures say “Avashyam Anubhoktavyam” which means that we must enjoy...
[This is a discourse given by Swami at Bombay] God and Real Love: When you see your son, your love for him flows spontaneously. Do you love him because he is serving you? No. Even if he beats you, you love him and you give your property only to him. But what about God? You love Him only because He removes your difficulties and gives you some benefits. If He keeps silent inspite of your prayers, you will remove His picture from your altar and put another picture there...
Nishkama karma yoga is a word that often comes in the Bhagavad Gita. Karma, akarma and vikarma are also mentioned in the Gita (Karmanohyapi…). Karma means the work done with a selfish desire for the limited circle of one’s family. Karma yoga means the work done for the sake of Lord. Akarma means inaction; not doing either karma or karma yoga. Vikarma means action, which disturbs the peace of the world by harming...
[A devotee, Shri G. Lakshman once asked Swami, “What is the use of the form of God, when I can experience God directly, once I come to know His qualities?”...
Swami replied: Let us assume that Parabrahma (God) is fire. The qualities of Parabrahma like knowledge, bliss and love put together, can be assumed as the heat. Also, let us assume the Human Incarnation to be a wire. We agree that unless you have experienced...
Some people criticize the Human Incarnation of God saying that He concentrates more on rich people than on poor people. But they should remember that all human beings are children of God. The father concentrates on the child, who is suffering from cancer. Although cancer is incurable, the father still attempts to do something for the child. He is more concerned with that child and pays more attention...
All the religions in the world are different feathers of the same bird i.e., different colors on the same God. There is only one God and there is only one universe. Similarly, man is also one. Man should aim for that one God. Man should belong to all the religions in the universe. He should pick up the diamonds of all religions and use them in his spiritual path. One can have love towards his nation. Every nation has some physical boundaries. All people living in that nation...
The same Swami appeared in the decorations of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Scientist, Rama, Krishna, Shiva etc., to show that the same God exists in different incarnations. Unfortunately in the pictures of Gods [or the past human incarnations] such a concept is not obvious. When we see different pictures or images of Gods, they appear quite different from each other and give the psychological impression that the ‘Gods’ are different. Even in Hinduism, in which the same God is supposed to have taken different forms, this concept is not clearly reflected...
His Holiness Shri Datta Swami is a complete incarnation of the Lord (Pari Purna Avatara). He has come to this world to preach Divine Knowledge to mankind. In the past incarnations of the Lord, this wonderful Divine Knowledge was not revealed to its fullest extent. Today, more than ever, there is a real need for this wonderful Divine Knowledge. The situation is rather peculiar. People are not ignorant about the true knowledge. They are highly intelligent. Their minds have been sharpened by the advancement in science and technology. They know the truth but they do not like it. They want to reach the true goal by the false and convenient path. For this purpose they have twisted the meaning of the scriptures. Humanity stands divided by a number of religions and religious sects...
A few new visitors have posed a question to Me 'Who are You'? I must mention the answer to this question here because every new reader is obviously attacked by this question. My name is Venu Gopala Krishna Murthy with surname 'Jannabhatla'. This name belongs only to this outer most gross body, which is composed of the inert five elements. The inner body is called as the subtle body, and is made of qualities and feelings which are like waves in a pond of water. The water is the pure awareness, which is called as the causal body or soul. If all My qualities and feelings subside as in the case of a realized scholar, the soul becomes like a pond with stand still water. There cannot be waves without water and thus the subtle body cannot exist without the causal body...
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