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Shri Manikanta asked: God Narasiṃha is God Viṣṇu, who is the ultimate power. Could He not have directly come and killed the demon Hiraṇyakaśipu? What was the necessity for Him to come as Narasiṃha, a human being with the head of a lion?
Swami replied: A rowdy misuses his power and gains victory over his opponents by violating established rules. A good administrator, who is very intelligent, succeeds even without violating any rule. He is also able to interpret the rules properly and prove that his victory was justified. The demon Hiraṇyakaśipu...
Dr. Nikhil said: Swami, I am unable to concentrate much on the propagation of Your spiritual knowledge due to the pressure of my job. The concepts of Your spiritual knowledge are really amazing and deserve propagation. But the results of the propagation activities are not seen due to my insufficient attention to the propagation.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The job is the basic stage on which both the dramas of worldly life (pravṛtti) and spiritual life (nivṛtti) can be enacted. If one has a good lot of property, then thinking of leaving the job can be justified. It is also justified, if one does not have a family to take care of, like Śaṅkara, Vivekananda etc. But, having entered into family life, one should not go back. Even Arjuna tried to withdraw from the war...
Swami replied: Sex is not forbidden for a saint. Sainthood (saṃnyāsa āśrama) just comes at the end of one’s life, after gradually passing through the three previous stages or āśramas, namely, brahmacarya, gṛhastha and vānaprastha. The duty of the saint is to preach correct spiritual knowledge to humanity. The saint should not reject sex by forcible effort. The rejection of sex must happen spontaneously, due to the total diversion of one’s attention to God. No preacher should suppress...
Swami replied: The actual reason of why it happened cannot be identified by us. The exact reason is known only to God. We are not omniscient to know every detail regarding the deeds and nature of the saint. Even a great saint might have committed certain hidden sins. We were not following him all 24 hours, with a video camera. Even if we managed to that, we would still have no idea of what thoughts were going on in the mind of the saint. Besides, there might also be a good side...
[Shri Balaji asked: Elders say that I should listen to them and follow them. Otherwise, they say that I will lose their blessings. In that case, I am unable to put into practice the true concepts of spiritual knowledge given by You.]
Swami replied: If there is truth in what the elders say, there is no need for them to put any extra pressure on you and threaten you that you will lose their blessings, if you do not follow them! The truth in the concept itself is the greatest force. If they are pressurizing you...
Shri Phani asked: We have prepared some banners and visiting cards to be used in the propagation of spiritual knowledge. Please advise us on how we can proceed.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! When a political leader stands for election, there is a need for doing some propaganda of the candidate and his ideas everywhere in his constituency. Every citizen in the constituency who has a right to vote, is a target of his propaganda. But in our case, every citizen is not a target for the propagation of spiritual knowledge. Our spiritual knowledge is well-received only by some deserving devotees, who are scattered everywhere in the world. Hence, we cannot localize the promotion of the concepts, using banners and visiting cards. All the deserving receivers of our spiritual knowledge are not localized...
Nobody opposes science because the fundamental concepts in science are based on practical experiments. Spiritual knowledge must also start at the basic level of the practical experience of miracles, which alone can convince atheists and scientists. Thus, the experience of miracles serves as the foundation of spiritual knowledge. The concept that God is unimaginable is stated in the Veda (Yato vāco, aprāpya manasā, Na medhayā, Naiṣā tarkeṇa etc.) and in the Gita (Māṃ tu veda na kaścana). So, no soul can ever know the true nature...
It is told in the Gita that clouds are formed due to the fire-sacrifices performed (Yajñāt bhavati parjanyaḥ). So, is it not necessary to perform these fire-sacrifices for getting rains?
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The word yajña comes from the root word ‘yaj’, which means worshipping God through practical sacrifice and prayers. This root word does not convey the sense of burning ghee in the physical fire, as is commonly done. In fact, such burning of ghee has been bitterly criticized by Kapila and Krishna. The only way to worship God is by worshipping the contemporary Human Incarnation. Worship includes practical sacrifice and service...
Is it possible to attain the climax of devotion in a gradual step-by-step manner or is it attained in one long jump like Śaṅkara, who attained it right from childhood?
Swami replied: Śaṅkara was a Human Incarnation of God Śiva, who had come down to earth at a critical time in the history of mankind when almost all souls had turned to atheism. He acted as a devotee to develop devotion in us. We cannot expect that we too will be able to make the sort of long jump of devotion that He made. We can only put forth effort to reach that climax of devotion, step-by-step. But we should reach the final step before this human life ends since there is no guarantee that we will be granted the next human life...
Swami replied: Devotion is inversely proportional to ego. Ego makes you aspire for having a following of your own devotees. Devotion makes you become a devotee of God. Several preachers have a big ego, but they are not consciousness of it and it leads to their downfall. The preacher should feel that he is a servant of God and that God is speaking through him. Every day, if you think about God as the overall Controller of this universe and if you feel that you are just a zero before God, your ego will vanish gradually. Ego is the first problem which prevents you from recognizing your contemporary Human Incarnation. Rāvaṇa could not recognize Rāma only due to his ego...
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! It is simple. If food is not given to the body for a long time, awareness disappears from that body. If awareness were eternal, it would not disappear from the body, even when no food is supplied to the body. The Veda also says that the awareness is born from food (Annāt puruṣaḥ). The word puruṣa means the awareness lying in the body (Puri dehe yat śete tat caitanyaṃ puruṣaḥ). As per science, when food is digested, inert energy is released. That energy enters the nervous system and gets converted...
Swami replied: The Veda says that the brāhmaṇa is born from the face and the śūdra is born from the foot of God. The act of Krishna putting His foot in His mouth shows that a born-śūdra can become a brāhmaṇa by his qualities and deeds. Krishna Himself has said in the Gita that caste is not determined by birth, but only by qualities and deeds (Guṇa karma vibhāgaśaḥ). With this action, Krishna demonstrated the concept preached by Him. With His hand...
Swami replied: Miracles attract atheists because they only believe in perception. The unimaginable miracles give the proof of the existence of their Source, which is the unimaginable God. Even though the unimaginable God is not perceived, He is, at least, inferred from the perceived miracles. Theists too are greatly attracted to miracles. The attraction of theists to miracles is not due to their quest for knowing the existence of the unimaginable God, but due to their desire for solving their problems. The inherent quality of any human being is only to work for the sake of utility. Human beings never think ...
Krishna is said to have been about twelve years old when He danced with the Gopikās and had sex with them. How is this possible? In any case, Rāma is the best since He is not surrounded by such controversies. What do You say?
Swami replied: Everyone seems to be highly interested in the first twelve years of the life of Krishna. Based on it, they call Him a thief and a characterless person, even though we have clearly given the real explanation for His behaviour. His apparently negative behaviour was related to the path of nivṛtti, in which sages, who were highly advanced spiritually and had tried to attain God for millions of lives, were tested by Him through such behaviour. Why is nobody bothered about the rest of Krishna’s life of 113 years...
Swami replied: When king Bali was prepared to do the practical sacrifice of donating three feet of land to Vāmana, his preacher Śukrācārya discouraged it. Śukrācārya said that even though Vāmana, the receiver of that donation, was the Human Incarnation of God Viṣṇu, He was deceiving Bali by asking for that donation. Bali neglected the advice and agreed to give the donation to Vāmana after analyzing as follows: “Vāmana is not a fraud Human Incarnation who has come to deceive me by asking for a donation. He is the real Human Incarnation, who has come to deceive me through the donation. We should not get deceived by false incarnations and false devotees, since charity done to such undeserving people is a sin. But in this case, God Himself has come to me in human form...
Swami replied: It is not correct at all. Giving up clothes while staying in society goes against justice. The term avadhūta does not mean removing the cloth that covers the body, but it means removing the ignorance that covers the soul. Instead of removing ignorance, the mere removal of clothes exposes the body to the extremes of weather leading to illness, which causes disturbance in the spiritual effort...
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! During old age, the person has the leisure to review his or her entire life passed. The person can correlate several incidents carefully to conclude and repeatedly confirm that God certainly exists and that He gives good fruits for one’s good actions and bad fruits or punishments for one’s sins. The person is able to make the correlations due to the similarity in the nature of action and result. For example, if an old man had spoiled somebody’s marriage during his young age, in course of time, someone else spoils the marriage of the man’s own son. On observing this, the old person realizes that the unimaginable God certainly exists...
Swami replied: Rāma represents the path to God, whereas Krishna is the goal or God Himself. In fact, Rāma is also God, but only in the background since He hid His divinity and behaved like a human being. Similarly, for a long period of His life, Krishna also represented the path to God. Other than the stealing of butter and the dancing with the Gopikās in Bṛndāvanam, He too behaved like Rāma after leaving Bṛndāvanam. One should not misunderstand this and think that He got reformed and left His bad habits back in Bṛndāvanam! The correct understaning is that He completed His special work in Bṛndāvanam, which was the main purpose of His Incarnation. As Rāma, God had promised...
Swami replied: The original unimaginable God is the absolute Reality, which is beyond even the imagination of our brain. The Energetic Incarnations of God are imaginable, but invisible. One can only get a vision of an Energetic Incarnation for a few minutes after doing long penance because Energetic Incarnations are not relevant to humanity. One can worship them indirectly through representative images or statues. Past Human Incarnations are relevant to human beings since they too possess the common human medium, but they are not available in the present. They too, like Energetic Incarnations, can only be worshipped indirectly through images and statues...
What is the difference between religion and philosophy? Why are there quarrels between the sub-religions in Hinduism? [This is part of a mahā satsaṅga or a great spiritual discussion between Swami and several devotees who had come from various places, seeking the clarification of their doubts.]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Religion is a collection of traditions related to the external culture. They have been formulated by certain devotees for the sake of their followers. Philosophy is the spiritual knowledge, which is completely related to the personality of God. Religions differ much, but in philosophies, there is unity to a large extent. Whether it is religion or philosophy, sharp and deep logical analysis is necessary. The reason is that there are some good traditions established by good followers...
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