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Śrī Bharat Krishna asked: Scholars say, based on the Gītā that one only needs to sacrifice the desire for the fruit of one’s work (karmaphalāsakti) and that there is no need to sacrifice the fruit itself. You say that it is not sufficient to only sacrifice the desire for the fruit of one’s work (karmaphalāsakti), but that it is necessary to sacrifice the fruit of one’s work also. The verse “Saṅgam tyaktvā phalāni ca”, in the Gītā supports Your argument. But in many other verses in the Gītā, why does Lord Kṛṣṇa repeatedly emphasize giving up the desire for the fruit of work, without specifically mentioning the need to sacrifice the fruit itself too?]
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The Gītā emphasizes the detachment of the bond with the fruit of one’s work and it also emphasizes the sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work. But this detachment and sacrifice...
[Reply to a question from Śrī Pavan] Swāmi replied: Homam means eating food alone and not burning the food in the physical fire. You eating the food is also homam, which is burning food in your hunger-fire, but it is not yajña, which means sacrifice. Only when you serve food to the Sadguru and to real devotees can it be called sacrifice (yajña). There is no sacrifice when you eat your own earned food. You are giving the food earned...
[Reply to a question by Smt. Ramasundari] Swāmi replied: There is no difference between a man and a woman, as far as spiritual life is concerned. We think that the word puruṣa means a male person. It is not correct. Puruṣa means the soul that is present in either a male or female body. The meaning of the word puruṣa is the awareness spread all over the body (Puri śete iti puruṣaḥ). Another misunderstanding is related to the word gāyatrī. Gāyatrī means singing songs on God and not reciting a particular verse written in a Vedic metre named Gāyatrī (Tat Savitur vareṇyam). The ritual called upanayanam...
Śrī Bharat Krishna asked: If Maṇḍana Miśra was following the path of action alone (karma mārga) without knowledge (jñānam), he should not have got any fruit?. Even though he was not getting any fruit, why was he so greatly attracted to that path? Or, was he getting some divine fruit, even for the path of action (karma mārga) he was following? How could he have developed so much faith in that path...
Swāmi replied: Maṇḍana Miśra believed that he would get divine fruit for following the path of karma, which is performing sacrifice without knowing the meaning of the recited Veda during the ritual sacrifice. People following this path perform...
[Śrī Bharat Krishna asked: Usually, a worldly person is very active. But when he starts learning spiritual knowledge, he or she becomes inactive for a while. This is because the person realizes that he was going in the wrong direction so far and also, that he is unable to develop devotion due to some doubts that he still has. Hence, he is unable to do either worldly work or spiritual service and sacrifice (karma yoga). During this transition period, the person becomes inactive and suffers for not being able to perform well in spiritual or worldly life. Is there any way to avoid this?]
Swāmi replied: A person correctly understanding the true spiritual knowledge preached by Sadguru will not become inactive, but will become more active in both worldly life and spiritual life. Arjuna became inactive...
[Śrī Yagnesh asked: What is Your suggestion for a person who wants to learn astrology? Should he show his horoscope to an astrologer, in order to see if he has the capability to learn astrology and only then learn it? Is it true that if an astrologer identifies the defects (doṣas) in the horoscopes of people, those defects will come upon the astrologer? Also, by helping someone to get rid of their problems through astrological remedies, are we obstructing God’s will?]
Swāmi replied: Astrology can be learnt by anybody if the person has an interest in the subject. There is no need of checking the horoscope of the person interested in learning astrology. No problem comes to the astrologer...
[Śrī Pavan asked: Swāmi, we can usually identify some sins, if their negative impact is very high. But how do we also identify the minor sins that we do? It is very difficult to identify them because their negative effect is not so obvious. Will there be any amendments in the word of God according to the situation?]
Swāmi replied: First, you should concentrate on avoiding major sins, which have severe punishments, even during this life. Any sin becomes punishable provided there is an intention of doing the sin. When you are walking on the road, some ants might accidentally get crushed under your feet and die. It is not possible to walk on the road looking out for each and every ant. In that case, there is no sin because...
[Reply to a question by Smt. Ramasundari] Swāmi replied: A child does sins in ignorance, due to the lack of proper knowledge. In such a case, the intention to commit the sin is absent. A sage in his childhood killed a butterfly with the help of a thorn. Later on, the sage was killed by the king on false grounds by piercing with him a spear. After death, the sage also went to hell. The sage was told about his sin...
[Reply to a question by Śrī Ganesh] Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Karma saṃnyāsa means service. It is the sacrifice of work, which is energy. Karma phala tyāga is the sacrifice of wealth. Wealth is the fruit of one’s work, which is matter. As per the well-known equation in physics, E = mc², a lot of energy is equivalent to a very small amount of matter. Hence, the sacrifice of matter is always greater than the sacrifice of energy or work. When a person works, money or matter is paid for the work or energy. There are several unemployed people, who are ready to sacrifice...
Śrī Ganesh asked: In Gītā, it is told that karma phala tyāga is the highest (Tyāgāt śāntiranantaram…). In the verse, it is said that knowledge is better than blind practice (ābhyāsa), devotion (dhyānam) is better than knowledge (jñānam) and the sacrifice of the fruit of work is better than devotion. Beyond that, there is no higher state. The three steps in the spiritual path are knowledge...
Swāmi replied: You are correct in your doubt that karma yoga should have been mentioned as the next step above devotion. But instead of karma yoga, karma phala tyāga was mentioned, which is only one of the two parts of karma yoga. Your doubt is that karma phala...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Some people have a strong desire to earn a lot of money and become famous. Such people, if they are the devotees of the Human Incarnation of God, they might think, “Let me achieve my goal of earning a lot of money. Then, I will donate a part of it to my Sadguru as karma phala tyāga”. Is this the right way...
Swāmi replied: There are three stages of devotion. Let us call them the high, the higher and the highest stages. Let us consider the highest stage first. (a) The highest stage is earning money only for the sake of God’s work, foregoing self-enjoyment. While earning money in this manner, one should not commit sins. God is not in need of your money. In fact, whatever you possess now is also given by God...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Dr. Nikhil and I were discussing about the method taught by You to recognize a Human Incarnation of God. I said to Dr. Nikhil that the knowledge given by You (Swāmi) is excellent and perfect indeed. However, the major reason due to which I was able to conclude that this knowledge is coming from God was because You knew the question I had in my mind for a very long time and You answered...
Swāmi replied: Miracles are not confined to God alone, so it is not possible to recognise the Human Incarnation of God (Sadguru) in a straight way, simply by experiencing some miracles performed by Him. Even demons perform miracles. Of course, they have attained...
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The souls born as devotees and servants of God like Kaṇṇappā, the Gopikās, Śabarī etc., had already attained jñāna yoga or spiritual knowledge over the past...
Śrī Surya asked: Swāmi, You have said that karma yoga is the final step and that there is only peace after that (Tyāgāt śāntiranantaram…—Gītā). Why is it that prāṇeṣanā (the bond with life) is not mentioned as one of the wordly bonds and why is the sacrifice of the same not suggested along with the sacrifice of the other three wordly bonds?
Swāmi replied: Often, our visions of energetic forms are not true and they are only illusory. Of course, there are some true visions of energetic forms of God. But believing an illusory energetic form to be a true vision of God, if one sacrifices one’s life, it becomes suicide...
Kum. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: You said that the spiritual path is like a two-step chemical reaction, in which the first step from A to B which, which is spiritual knowledge (jñāna yoga) to devotion (bhakti yoga), takes a long time. The second step from B to C, which is devotion to practice (niṣkāma karma yoga) happens spontaneously. But practice, which includes service and sacrifice...
Swāmi replied: A long time or almost all the time is consumed in attaining true spiritual knowledge from the Sadguru. Stage A can be considered to be identifying the Sadguru, after which one has to gain knowledge from Him. So, gaining knowledge from the Sadguru...
Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Swāmi, some of my friends say that these days, there are a lot of fake Human Incarnations of God. There is a risk of ending up with such false Gurus. So, it is better to meditate within ourselves, so that true knowledge will be revealed to us. Even if we get a doubt later on, we can again meditate and find out the truth. I have also heard that some of the ṛṣis received...
Swāmi replied: Engineering education is lower than spiritual knowledge. If you can get the higher spiritual knowledge by meditation, why do you not get the lower engineering knowledge by meditation? If getting engineering...
[Dr. JSR Prasad asked: After listening from You (Swāmi), I remember a sūtram from Brahma Sūtras which starts as follows: “Tarkāpratiṣṭhānāt”. What is the role of one’s inner consciousness there (Satāṃ hi sandehapadeṣu vastuṣu...)? I ask this question in the context of the vision of an Energetic Incarnation and not in the context of the Brahma jñānam given by Sadguru.]
Swāmi replied:- The sūtram quoted by you is related to logic, which is your own subject since you are a professor of logic! It addresses the issue of whether one should leave logic since it is endless. The present theory will be contradicted or replaced by another future theory and so on ad infinitum. The sūtram says that leaving logic due to the above reason is not correct because leaving logic..
[Śrī Sattireddy asked: Is it true that, as per the Gītā, the worshippers of stones will become stones (Bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni…)?]
Swāmi replied: It is certainly possible for sinners to get inert births such as becoming stones. This happens when God wants to put them in a coma for some time to reduce their excessive tendency of doing sins. Devotees worshipping statues can also become stones, in case they feel that the inert statue itself is God. The inert statue is only a representative model for God and is used for developing...
[Reply to a question by Śrī Ganesh] Swāmi replied: Without the grace of God, nothing happens in the spiritual path. But apart from God’s grace...
[Śrī Jaisrimani asked: Swāmi, I used to strongly believe in the statement “Mānava seve Mādhava sevā, which means, “Service to man is service to God”. But when I donated something to some people, I know that few of them misused my donation. Hence, I do not feel like donating to people. I do not know any mantras or any rituals to worship. I know only the Gāyatrī Mantra. Then how should I do any service to God?]
Swāmi replied: Gāyatrī is only a mode of worship. It is not the name of any particular deity. Gāyatrī is also the name of a Vedic meter. The so-called Gāyatrī Mantra is the most famous mantra composed in that poetic meter and hence it is popularly called the Gāyatrī Mantra. The deity worshipped through that mantra is God (Gāyatrī chandaḥ, Savitā devatā, Paramātmā svarūpam). The actual Gāyatrī is worshipping God by singing...
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