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[Discourse on Vijayadashami Day] Vijaya Dashami is the festival indicating the victory of Knowledge over ignorance. If the sinner is punished, the attitude of sin is suppressed temporarily only because the punishment is external and not internal. We find this in the world that the thief is punished again and again in the police station. The real transformation of the soul takes place only when the internal ignorance is destroyed by knowledge. Therefore, such internal victory only is real and permanent. The word ‘Durga’ also means that the Knowledge...
[Shri Phani asked: “You are preaching about equal enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness so that there is no need of devotion to God. When such state is achieved, really, there is no need of God. When there is no need, the reason for devotion disappears. Nothing can be generated without reason. Hence, devotion is not generated. In the absence of devotion, where is the need of the practical sacrifice in service to God. The Veda says that the sacrifice of money alone can lead to God (Dhanena Tyagena …). Hence, the Vedic statement also becomes meaningless in the present context. Can You please explain? Given below is Shri Swami’s explanation.]
There is lot of confusion of the concepts in the argument projected by you. The real ground of devotion and the false ground of devotion should be separately differentiated. The equality in enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness is related to the removal of false ground of devotion. This does not mean that the real ground of ...
Atheism, which does not accept the existence of God, has two stages. In the lower stage, the negation of God is associated with sin and injustice. In the higher stage, the negation of God is associated with good deeds and social justice. Even the atheist in the higher stage will be awarded with the temporary heaven since there is no reference of God. Similarly, the theism, which is the acceptance of God, has also two stages. In the lower stage, the devotee is reluctant to unhappiness...
[Shri Swami gave this discourse in response to Mr. Anil’s inquiry about the essence of the messages of Lord Jesus to this world.] After rigorous penance for about 40 days on a hill, Jesus presented the essence of all His future messages through the prayer followed by a miracle. Thousands of people gathered, who became very hungry in the hot mid-day. There were only four pieces of bread in the basket. Jesus lifted the basket up and did not pray God to provide...
Several devotees are posing a problem on the concept of equally enjoying the happy and unhappy scenes in the life like the sweet and hot dishes in the meals or like the happy and unhappy scenes in a cinema. The enjoyment of the scenes in the cinema may be different from the enjoyment of the sweet and hot dishes in the meals. In the cinema, the happy and unhappy scenes roll alternatively, but, those are related to the story...
This world consists of both happiness and unhappiness as in a drama or cinema. The meals also contain both sweet and hot dishes. Unless you develop the talent of enjoying both, you cannot have continuous bliss. It is foolish to think that you can have continuous bliss by involving in scenes of continuous happiness only. It is a childish thought because the child also likes to have continuous dishes of sweets only, avoiding the hot dishes. In such case, you get bored with...
The unimaginable God entered the human medium consisting of the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). You can see Sattvam, the spiritual knowledge, while preaching the Gita. You can see Rajas in constant fights with evil forces. You can see Tamas in stealing the butter and dancing with Gopikas. This human incarnation shows that God equally enjoys all the three qualities. God is not touched by any quality like the person...
[Evening Discourse] You think that a ritual should be performed with a specific procedure and specific materials involving the recitation of the specific Vedic hymns, which alone becomes fruitful. You think that the specific procedure and specific hymns alone can protect you, giving the desired results. People fear that the specific rituals should be strictly performed involving the recitation of specific hymns using specific materials in a specific...
The Veda says that God is Bliss (Anando Brahma…). This means that God is the possessor of bliss since the possessor is addressed by the name of the possessed object. This means that God is always in the state of joy since He is constantly enjoying. If bliss is the nature of God, God need not create this world for the sake of enjoyment. The Veda says that God alone could not enjoy and hence, this world is created by Him...
[A devotee asked: “Can You please explain how the actions of a soul in the life are recorded and how their corresponding fruits are delivered here and hereafter?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
The system of recording the actions and corresponding fruits is very simple. The individual soul (jeeva) made of awareness is a bundle of thoughts or qualities. The awareness without any thought is inert energy (atman) only. A specific work form of atman in a specific system, called brain and nerves, is called as jeeva. In deep sleep, the awareness disappears and only its basic inert energy remains...
[A devotee asked: Why does God choose only the human form for incarnation? Shri Swami gave the following answer.] God chooses the human form, which is convenient for communication with the humanity whenever He likes to interact with the humanity. God can enter a statue and speak due to His omnipotence. But, the receivers of the knowledge from the statue are excited with shock so that their minds get blocked. The doubts will not arise in such excited state due to fear in the expression. The human beings should be in the ground state so that doubts...
[A devotee asked a question: “God is said to be happy continuously without any break (Akhanda ananda swaroopa). But, we do not have continuous happiness. Why is this difference?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
People say that God is bliss or extreme happiness (ananda). This means that God is not the extensive happiness and it means only that God possesses the extensive happiness. It is the custom to call the possessor of some item by the name of that very item itself. You call the possessor of apples by the apples. You call “Oh Apples! Come here”. Similarly, the Veda says that God is the true and infinite knowledge...
[A devotee asked “What is the reason for the variation in scriptures and philosophies in preaching ethics (Pravrutti) and in the spiritual knowledge related to God (Nivrutti), which is the source of confusion and splits leading to hot debates? Why is the truth not revealed directly to avoid all this chaos?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
The truth can be revealed directly in simple language without twists and modifications if the receivers are in the uniform level of maturity to digest the revealed truth. In the same time, there are different people existing in different levels of digestion. The same truth has to be revealed in different ways and with necessary twists...
[Dr. Nikhil asked Swami that several participants in a spiritual meeting quoted the Veda and other scriptures, which speak in favor of non-vegetarian food. They asked him about Swami speaking against non-vegetarian food. Swami gave the following message in reply.]
Eating the non-vegetarian food is one issue and killing a living being, to collect the flesh out of it, is another issue. The first issue does not involve any sin because the non-vegetarian food or flesh or meat contains the same ingredients as those of a vegetarian item. The same carbohydrates, the same proteins, the same vitamins, the same minerals etc., exist in both meat and vegetables...
Guru means the preacher, who removes the ignorance so that we can see the truth clearly and differentiate the right from wrong. The ignorance is like darkness in which you cannot find the existence of an item and also you cannot differentiate the different items. Gayatri mantra says that the Guru is like the Sun, who removes the ignorance–darkness by knowledge-light that initiates the intelligence. The word Guru Purnima also indicates that Guru removes the darkness-ignorance like the full Moon in the night. Thus, Guru is compared to Sun...
The development of any limb of a human being is desirable as it grows from the childhood onwards. But, the growth of any limb should be within the proper limits. The growth of the finger should not be equal to the growth of the leg. Similarly, the development of science should not cross the proper limits so that there is no harm to the global environment and the health of humanity. In ancient India, sages also developed sciences. But, the sages were strong devotees of God and hence, the development of the research in science and technology did not cross the limits of danger by the grace of God...
The modern world thinks that the ancient people have wasted lot of time in the analysis about the unimaginable God. This is the first foolishness because these people do not know that the realization of the existence of God in the mind of a citizen is directly linked to the resistance towards crime and corruption that establish the peaceful social balance. The concept of God is the tremendous basis of the self control of every human being to reject crime and corruption in the society...
In ancient times, the total education was concentrated on the establishment of the existence of God, heaven and hell. If justice is followed, God rewards you with heaven and if injustice is done, God punishes you in hell. If you say that God exists, people may not believe and may commit sins by which the balance of the society gets disturbed. The existence of God is to be proved through very deep logical analysis and discussions. All the seminars and conferences in ancient India ran on single subject, which is about the existence...
The over attachment to worldly bonds is the source of sin. Every human being exists in this stage of over attachment to world. Pravrutti is the reduction of this over attachment so that limited proper attachment to the worldly bonds is reached and thereby, the balance of this society is achieved. Over attachment to worldly bonds is injustice and pravrutti is the justice. Nivrutti is total detachment from these worldly bonds so that total attachment to God results. The human being is inherently associated with the characteristic of attachment...
Whenever you want to do some donation, there are two important aspects, which should be well understood so that you can get good fruit for your good sacrifice. The first aspect is to detect the most deserving receiver and the second aspect is about the nature of your donation. What should be donated and to whom it should be donated are the two important enquiries. The Veda gives answers for these two enquiries. The Veda says that the most deserving person should be the scholar of divine knowledge, who shall not aspire anything...
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