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Dr. Nikhil: “How to overcome the practical problems faced in this spiritual journey to reach God, the ultimate goal? These problems are very hard without any scope of solutions”.
Swami Replied: When you are travelling towards God, the problems come to test your determination. Certainly you will fail. As a result, you will have tension and lot of disturbance. Do not take this as a negative sign since you can easily find it as positive sign only on doing analysis. The lack of possibility to overcome...
[Swami’s reply for the questions by Shri Nikhil Kothurkar, Associate Professor, Amrita University, Coimbatore on 25-10-14. 1. Which of the two ways of serving the Human Incarnation of God is better? i) Like a servant promptly obeying orders: doing exactly what is told immediately and doing it only when told. ii) or like the devotee taking the initiative: Doing something useful for Him...]
Swami Replied: Is there any fixed percentage of marks to give gold medal to a student? Whatever may be the percentage of marks, the gold medal is awarded to the topper in the class. Therefore, there are no fixed norms and procedures in the service to please God. The top most theoretical devotion...
Dr. Nikhil asked about the pressures in the worldly life and their consequent effects on the spiritual life.
Swami replied: There are three stages. In the first stage, the human being is very much involved in the family life and is strongly bound by the family bonds. This deep attachment is the reason for disturbance and tension. You are watching a cinema. You are not attached to any role in the picture. You are totally detached from every role. You know that the whole story is...
[Deepavali Day] Swami replied to the questions of some students of Dr. Nikhil Kothurkar, working in Amrita University, Coimbatore as Associate Professor. 1. How can imparting spiritual knowledge to society from childhood control sin in society?...]
Swami Replied: The possibility of grasping the spiritual knowledge exists in certain souls only based on the intensities of the qualities developed during millions of births. Certain souls become completely adamant without any possibility of the entry of the spiritual knowledge. You can sow the seed in soil but not in a rock. Such condemned souls are called as demons. Kauravas are such demons...
Dr. Nikhil asked: “Swami Sampurnanda says that Sai Baba ate meat and hence, cannot be pious. He also says that Dattatreya is only the second son of sage Atri while the first son was Chandra or Moon and the third son was sage Durvasa. Hence, Saibaba as the incarnation of Dattatreya has no significance and calling Him as God is not correct.”
Swami replied: The first point was already answered by Me. Non-vegetarian food is certainly not justified since a co-living being is killed for that purpose. But, God follows the wrong culture also to become friendly with wrong people before diverting them from wrong path. The person, who jumps into the mud...
Shri Ramanath asked “What is the best way to please God? What is meant by sixth sense? I think that the best effort is that type of service for which the fruit is to become the human incarnation”.
Swami replied: What best pleases somebody should be expressed by that person himself. What best pleases you need not be the best that pleases God. People generally rub their liking on God and propagate that their liking is the best path to please God and hence, everybody should follow it. Suppose you are a good singer. You will propagate that God is always pleased...
Prophet Mohammad tried to bring the unity among religions in His region even facing terrible wars and hence, He should be praised as the pillar of the Universal Religion of the world. Similarly, Shankara tried to bring the unity of the religions in India and faced cruel fights like black magic and should be considered as another pillar of Universal Religion of the world. The concept of the Universal Religion is very important in the present days of violence created based on inter-religious splits. You can follow your religion sincerely without looking...
Shri Durga Prasad asked “You told that the realisation of unreal world with respect to the real God gives detachment, which forms the basis for the enjoyment of misery. But, You said that the intensive enjoyment of misery comes only from ignorance as in the case of Human incarnation. How to reconcile these two in the case of the human being, wishing to enjoy the misery?”
Swami replied: If you take the case of Human incarnation, It is a two component system in which the unimaginable God and imaginable human being co-exist. The nature of the human being is always ignorance and the intensive experience of the misery can be attained by God when God identifies with such ignorant human being...
Mr. Tanweer Ahmad responded to a message given by Swami on 11th August, 2014 regarding the topic that Mohammad is the last Prophet. His main points are: 1) the word ‘last’ (Khatam) means perfect and Mohammad was perfect and hence, this does not mean that after Mohammad no Prophet comes. 2) Since Mohammad is perfect, even if the Prophets come in future, they are like His shadow-reflections only and not as another light.
Swami replied: I appreciate the sincerity and devotion to Mohammad in the case of Tanweer Ahmad. Since he has given the clarifications of the word ‘last’ in excellent way, I consider him also as a Prophet after Mohammad. His explanation itself is a scripture. But, doubts always come on every scripture and further clarifications...
Shri Durga Prasad asked “Enjoyment of misery is not possible for any human being without the grace of God. Atheists can never dream this since they cannot get the grace of God”.
Swami replied: Enjoyment of misery is possible to any human being including the atheist. The atheist is also one of the children of God. In fact, the father pays more attention to the wrong child and helps it also. Every human being, being the child of God is entitled to the grace of God just like every actor including the villain is entitled for the remuneration..
Shri Anil asked “the Gita says that the knowledge burns all the past sins and hence, no need of any punishment. Can you achieve this by simply hearing and understanding the knowledge? Is it not sufficient if one hears this statement and follows it?”
Swami replied: If the knowledge is perfect and complete and if the receiver of the knowledge is also devoid of any defect, this concept is true because in such case since such knowledge brings real transformation in the soul. Once the real and permanent transformation is achieved, there is no need of any punishment further...
Shri Anil asked “Some devotees of Islam say that Mohammad is the last Prophet. They say that the final message of God is given through Him and therefore, there is no need of any more Prophet in the future”.
Swami replied: A human being may give message today and may correct it again and again so that on one final day the final form of the message is prepared. Do you mean that God also gave messages through the earlier Prophets through the process of continuous corrections and the finally corrected message is given through the last Prophet Mohammad? If you say that God need not correct the message...
Shri Durga Prasad asked “One retired judge said that the Bhagavad Gita should be introduced into the syllabus of every student. Another retired judge contradicted this. What do You say about this?”
Swami replied: It is better to say that spiritual knowledge should be introduced into the syllabus. If you take the name of the Bhagavad Gita, other religions will misunderstand. Spiritual knowledge is like a person and religions are like his different shirts in different colours. Religion is related to culture, language and a specific set of traditions. The word ‘secular’ should mean the basic spiritual knowledge...
Shri Anil asked “In Gaza, Israel bombed Palestines, who cried for Allah to protect them. Since the protection was not there, a misunderstanding that God is not protecting them may arise”.
Swami replied: There are two points. The first point is why God is not protecting the crying people. The second point is the basis of bombing against one religion by the other religion. The first point is understood by the proper understanding of psychology of God or the correct philosophy. Devotion to God (Nivrutti) is one side of the spiritual knowledge and right behaviour to the co-living beings in the society...
Shri Anil referred a question asked by some person ‘Karna and Ekalavya were insulted based on their low caste. Duryodhana encouraged them whereas Krishna did not condemn such insult for the welfare of the society in future’.
Swami replied: The concept of caste system should be understood with cool and balanced mind without emotions. Krishna talked about caste system in the Gita stating that the caste is based on qualities and actions (Gunakarma vibhagashah). More than 100 elements are discovered in science and these elements were classified...
[Guru Purnima Message] Several devotees asked: “Jagadguru Shri Swami Swarupananda Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka peetham made bitter comments about Shri Shirdi Saibaba by which the hearts of several devotees of Saibaba, the human incarnation of Lord Dattatreya are severely wounded. Please give a strong reply to his strong comments.”
Swami replied: Today is Guru purnima, which has become famous only due to Shri Shirdi Saibaba. Thus, today is the fittest day for such topic. Swamiji (Swarupananda Saraswati) has made such comments without sharp and deep analysis. His comments are contradicting not only himself but also his original preacher, the Adi Shankara. He himself is a follower of the path called Smaarta, which is a mixture of different religious cultures...
The story of the Mahabharat was going on in Star Plus Channel for quite a long time. The scene of the Gita started since two or three days back and this was keenly observed by Swami. Certain concepts delivered through the role of Krishna in preaching the Gita were pointed out and the correct clarification was given by Swami.
The comments passed out through the role of Krishna were: 1) God is creation and creation is God. God is both Duryodhana and Arjuna. 2) The soul is a tiny part of God, which has become impure...
Swami gave the following correct version so that the ordinary spiritual aspirants are not misled. 1. If God is creation, God should have been created by some other creator. Creation is the product, created by some creator. Pot is creation and pot maker is...
[Shri Guna Darsana, (Bali, Indonesia) asked: “Good evening. On Wednesday (May 21st), Hindus in Indonesia will celebrate ‘Galungan’ day (the victory of dharma over Adharma). Could I request Swami to give us His discourse please? According to old story, long long ago there was a bad king, who had height of power in Bali. The king is called as Maya Danawa. He considered Himself as...]
Swami Replied: I am happy to note the background of the festival Galungan, which is the victory of justice over the injustice. This concept is pictorially represented as the success of Indra over the destruction of the demon called as Maya. The meaning of the root word ‘Indra’ in Sanskrit denotes...
[Shri Pavan asked: “It is said that if Narayana and Nara exist in a place, all good fruits result (Yatra yogeswarah…). Please clarify this point. This point was raised by my friend.” Given below is Shri Swami’s response.]
If Lord Krishna alone is with you, all good fruits will come there and there is no necessity of existence of Arjuna (Nara). Wherever Narayana exists in human form, such human incarnation is a mixture of Nara and Narayana. The external medium is Nara and the internal God is Narayana. The Veda says that two birds exist on the single tree...
[Shri Ramanathan asked: “Please tell me about the significance of the word Samaadhi”. Given below is Shri Swami’s response.]
Every word has its true meaning and that alone should be taken for practice. When the true meaning becomes inconvenient, people try to link a false meaning with the word, which is very much convenient to them in practice. Such false meanings form the false knowledge, which is propagated by false preachers. The preacher, who propagates the true knowledge alone, neglecting the reactions from the disciples...
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