Filters for Discourses
[Spiritual Preachings of Shir Datta Swami at Srisailam, 12-03-1993, 4.00 am.]
Pilgrimage is the body and experience is the mind in it,
What is the use of the body in the absence of the mind?
The experience in the pilgrimage reveals divine secrets,
Which are the main points of the spiritual knowledge.
There is no use of pilgrimage if spiritual knowledge is not attained in it. Mere pilgrimage without divine experience is just a picnic! Mind, word and action are the three instrumental forms of the spiritual effort or spiritual power (energy). Of course, you can use these three for the sake of essential needs and there is no objection here. But, don’t waste these three for unnecessary...
1) Shri Phani asked: My friend Shri Gopi Krishna is feeling very much for the comments of Shri Swarupaananda ji like calling Baba as ghost in burial ground.
Swami replied: Daksha also criticized Lord Shiva as leader of ghosts (bhutapati) living in burial ground. Lord Veerabhadra (He is the deity of our family or ‘Kula Daiva’) removed his head by very sharp sword in physical sense. The head is characterised by the intelligence or argument. I will cut such argument by My knowledge-sword...
Shri Pavan asked: Recently, again Shri Shankaracharya (Shri Swaroopananda ji) criticized Shri Shirdi Sai Baba on the following points: 1) People are worshipping the ghost (Baba) since the tomb (Samadhi containing His dead body) is being worshipped. People going to Shirdi temple are going to the burial ground only since tombs are present in burial ground only...
Swami replied: 1) This Shankaracharya belongs to the tradition of Adi Shankara. There is the sacred tomb of Adi Shankara near Himalaya Mountain. People go and worship the tomb of Adi Shankara. Now, will this Shankaracharya say that the worship of the tomb of Adi Shankara is...
[Questions on Bible] Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, Kindly give Your explanations to following verses/parables taken from New Testaments of Bible written by St. Mathew. Some of the verses are stand alone verses giving enough understanding still Your commentaries on those are highly appreciated for the benefit of all devotees...
Swami replied: Parables are elaborated similes presented as independent stories in the beginning and the concepts to be compared to them run below it. The points of concept are already covered in the simile and hence the points of concepts are also easily understood. Instead of giving the concept in beginning and parable later on, the reverse is followed because the reader is already familiar with the simile
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: Do You preach Nivrutti only to the devotees of Nivrutti level and not to devotees of Pravrutti level? You say that welfare of the world is the goal of Pravrutti and pleasure of God is goal of Nivrutti and You also said that God is pleased with Pravrutti. How to reconcile both?
Swami replied: I told only that you should maintain large extent of the subject of Pravrutti and a little Nivrutti shall be introduced as medicine in the food of Pravrutti. Certainly, in the overall picture of the spiritual knowledge, Nivrutti is the highest level and its fruit is highest and eternal without any risk (Nivruttistu mahaaphalaah). Nivrutti is higher than...
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: The human incarnation is very much confusing because sometimes you say that God and human being merged homogeneously and the human being is God for all the devotees. At the same time, you say that God is different from human being component for the sake of human being component. Both these points are confusing devotees. Please give full clarity on this point.
Swami replied: This topic is back bone of spiritual knowledge especially for humanity. In fact, in your above statement itself, the answer is very clear. For all the devotees, who like to talk with God and serve Him directly, the human being component itself is 100% God because the merge is homogeneous for all practical purposes...
Shri Anil asked (by phone): In the recent ‘Mahima Yamuna’, I read about curing various diseases. What is the place of medical treatment in this context?
Swami replied: I quoted the first line of the verse from ethical scripture in My previous reply to you on this topic (purvajanma krutam...). Your present question touches the second line of the verse (which I have not quoted in the previous message), which says that whenever a disease attacks you due to the previous sin or some other natural...
Shri Kartik asked: 1) Some people in this world have the ability to dream in a lucid manner. That is to say, they are aware of the fact that they are dreaming and in turn, successfully control their dream environment to a certain level. Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that has also been proved scientifically in recent times. My question to You is this - is it important for a soul to be aware of its dream...
Swami replied: There are two types of dreams: i) day-dream or lucid dream, which is just an imagination without sleep that causes ignorance of the reality. ii) Sleep dream is the dream that is created by certain thoughts where the dreamer is captured by ignorance and is fully controlled by the dream due to ignorance of the reality...
Shri Ani asked: In the recent second part (Vishnu Lahari) of the book called ‘Mahima Yamuna’, it is mentioned that every problem of health is having the reason as the sin done in the past birth. What is the main message of all these type of miracles in the spiritual knowledge?
Swami replied: The ethical scripture (Dharma Shastra) says “the sin done in the previous birth comes as suffering of illness (Purvajanma krutam paapam vyaadhirupena baadhate). As the fulfilment of the scripture, the sin is mentioned. The only message is to convey that one has to undergo the punishment for sin...
Dr. Prasad asked: Your spiritual knowledge is vast! People say that philosophy starts where science ends. But, you are giving lot of importance to science in your philosophy. Please explain.
Swami replied: The knowledge became vast because all the points of the spiritual knowledge are elaborated using a systematic scientific analysis maintaining the highest clarity covering the various levels of all devotees related to all the world religions for bringing peace and harmony in the world. I can’t help the vastness in view of the above parameters. Moreover, in the present time, there is no scarcity of paper and ink or the vast area of computer...
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: It is said that a sinner is born in sinful atmosphere and it is also said that sinful atmosphere makes the soul sinner. Prahlada is born in demons and not changed by the atmosphere. How to reconcile all these points?
Swami Replied: A sinner is born in sinful atmosphere and the surrounding sinful atmosphere increases the sinful nature of the soul. It is a double punishment. Both don’t contradict each other. A sweet, soaked in sugar solution becomes sweeter. A saltish bread in salt solution becomes more salty. It is only reinforcement and not a contradiction...
Shri Anil asked: In the recent book on Your miracles, I found that You controlled the situation in the function of foundation stone for temple at Ayodhya. Similarly, why don’t You control the India-Pakistan Issue?
Swami Replied: First, you should realise the meaning of the word ‘You’ expressed in your question. The meaning of the word ‘You’ in your question is God Datta and not this human form called Swami which is medium. Of course, Datta merged with Swami and hence, Swami is treated as Datta. In this way, you should realise...
Shri P V N M Sharma asked: How to correlate the two contradicting concepts: 1) the human being component is different from God. 2) The human form (human being) in which God exists Itself is God?
Swami replied: Due to this question only, the spiritual knowledge (Brahma Vidyaa or Brahma jnaanam) becomes most complicated to be understood by the devotees. The general saying in the world also resulted due to this complication only and the saying is “Is it Brahma Vidyaa?, So that we cannot understand that?” The confusion comes only when you see...
Shri Anil asked (on phone): “I am requesting for Your analysis on the following points: 1) Are the miracles so important before the unimaginable knowledge given by You?
Swami replied: The level of miracles is very very low (not low, not very low, but very very low) since miracles are just meant to give a proof for the existence of unimaginable God as the source of the unimaginable events called miracles. Such proof is needed only for the atheist, who is in far lower state than theist. Even these theists were atheists only...
Dr Annapurna, Professor, asked: “Lord Rama did not respond to the severe suffering of the greatest devotee, Ramadas, given to him by the king Taanishaa through punishment for constructing the temple of Rama. How to accept the kindness and justice of Rama?”
Swami replied: You have used two words: kindness and justice, which can’t go together like water and fire. The human incarnation of Rama was purely for Pravrutti of the humanity. He left even His dearest wife, Sita for the sake of justice in the administration of a ruler. A ruler should take care of the comments of every citizen...
[Evening Message] Shri Surya asked: “In the Gita repeated practice, knowledge, meditation and sacrifice of fruit of work are told in ascending order of importance (Shreyohi...). Please elaborate this concept.
Swami replied: 1) Shreyohi Jnaana Mabhyaasaat: This means knowledge (Jnaana) is better than repeated practice (Abhyaasa). This clearly means that there is no knowledge in repeated practice since both are told as separate entities and also it is told that the second entity is better than the first entity. This clearly proves that the repeated practice...
Shri Kishore Ram asked: The point of family bonds against God may be kindly elaborated more since it is a delicate topic.
Swami replied: Bond means love. Love means the feeling or mind. Mind means the nervous energy or awareness. This nervous energy or love has a finite value in every human being. Hence, when this finite quantity of nervous energy or love or mind is dedicated to a specific goal, it is said that your total love or bond is with that specific goal alone. The love or bond can have the units of energy. The units of inert energy can be expressed...
MESSAGE-1: Following are the objections raised by two users to Your recent article on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba: (forwarded by Shri Kartik)
Objections from user 1: 'The Swami has no idea what smaarta means. smaarta has no relation with Advaita as such (it only happened in the late 1700s on a mass scale with the rise of Kanchi Sankara maṭha). It simply means someone who performs the basic Śrauta karmans...
Swami replied: Thinking that I am also a person, who is master of none and jack of all trades, they have gone to the extent of climax of their ego and climax of jealousy (to others), to go to such level to say that I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘Smaarta’ (as user 1 says)...
MESSAGE-2: Expression of Individual Opinion Must To Start Debate
I (Karthik) posted another message (Message-2) from Swami, which deals with the importance of logical analysis in arriving at the conclusion of a specific interpretation of a statement from the scripture. User 2 submitted his criticism on the message of Swami and also on the replies given by me. Swami gives replies to the criticism of User 2 on:
A) Swami’s own message and
B) On my replies to his criticism separately.
A) Swami’s reply to criticism from User 2 and User 3 (Shabri): I once again request you to stress on the points and not to use words like ‘ridiculous’, ‘horrible advice’, etc. because such words neither convey any point nor support your points expressed. Both of you told that we should change our wrong conclusions, if such conclusions contradict...
(Recently some ardent devotees of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba approached Swami expressing their pain about the criticism of Baba from Shri Swamiji (Shri Swarupananda ji), the head of Dvaarakaapeeth. Swami gave the following message to them).
Swami replied: I shall answer all the criticism of Shri Sai Baba that came from Shri Swamiji, the head of Shankara Peetha of Dvaaraka. I can’t tolerate this attack and this is the issue of prestige of My ancestral dynasty, the precious chain starting from Lord Dattatreya, whose human incarnations like Shri Padavallabha, Shri Narasimha Saraswati, Shri Maanikya Prabhu, Shri Akkalkot Maharaj, Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, Shri Satya Sai Baba etc., who are the diamonds.
Union of Religions: Shri Swamiji differentiates Hinduism and Islam opposing the trials of Shri Sai Baba for the correlation of the two religions, which is totally unfair. Religion means the path of efforts...
Filters for Discourses