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Shri Subhash Pawale: 1) Before reading discourses I used to chant and meditate but after reading discourses I have stopped it. Now I am not able to sleep more than 5 hours in the night and I remember the dreams once I wake up. so that means my sleep is not entering into Shushupti phase which comes after dream phase. So is this normal?-
Swami Replied: Your first problem is not related to spiritual side. It is related only to medical science. Please take some medicine, which restricts the allergy in your mind. That will give you deep sleep and perfect freshness after sleep...
[This message is regarding the holy thread marriage or Upanayanam ritual in Hinduism. Sons of some close devotees of Shri Swami were initiated by this ritual and Shri Swami gave this message on the auspicious occasion.]
Opponent: Upanayanam means nearing God through worship and hence it should be applicable to all human beings. Confining it to certain castes makes it appear that the ancient sages, who were Brahmins, have been partial. This is highly deplorable, since everybody has equal right to reach God, the Divine Father. In order to clarify this, an answer should be given by Lord Dattatreya, Who being the son of sage Atri, belongs to the caste of sages.
Defendant (Swami): Lord Dattatreya is the absolute unimaginable God, Who entered the medium of a human body that was born to sage Atri. In light of the medium, He is born in the caste of sages. In the light of the inner God Who identified with that body for the sake of the propagation of divine knowledge...
Opponent: A woman is also untouchable in the four days during the cycle of menses. Due to this reason, the woman is boycotted from the Vedic rituals.
Defendant: The monthly cycle of menses in the case of women is described as the 1/4th part of the sin in killing Vrutra asura by Indra as per the scripture. The 3/4th of the sin was distributed equally among scented earth, water with froth and flowers with pollen grains. Therefore, the sin is equally divided between women, water, flowers and earthen soil. If one is untouchable, the other three must be also untouchable. But, you are using - the scented soil (scent means the natural scent that comes from the soil) to prepare...
Shri Anil asked: “One Muslim devotee says that the worship of Allah is far superior to the worship of statues. Please enlighten”.
Swami Replied: The P.G. Course is far superior to L.K.G. course. This does not mean that you should blame the L.K.G. course and praise the P.G. Course. One day you were also a student of that L.K.G. course. The only point here is that you should not stop at the level of first step (L.K.G.) and you should climb to reach the last step...
Shri Phani asked “Self-praise is said to be a sin since it gives ego immediately. Of course, ‘I’ indicates the pure awareness or God and concentration of ‘I’ means meditation on God. Please clarify my point”.
Swami replied: “There is no doubt that self-praise brings ego and is a sin. The same self-praise can be used as medicine in the context of lowered self-confidence. The poison of snake is harmful in normal condition. But, the same poison is used in preparing a medicine called ‘Vishaamrutarasa’ (Ayurvedic medicine), which is used in the final stage of viral fever...
Shri Phani asked “when we say that the ‘I’ should be crossed, the meaning of ‘I’ is only basic ‘I’. In such case, ‘I’ means ego only”.
Swami replied: It is said that one should cross the ‘I’ and this is the meaning of cross on which Jesus was crucified. Here, the ‘I’ means the ‘I’, which is infected by ego. The suppression of ego can be done in two ways. The first way is praising the Lord. When you say that God is great, it indirectly means...
Shri Anil asked “Arjuna has no intension to kill Kauravas. Krishna rubbed His intension on Arjuna to kill them. Therefore, the fruit of this work should go to God only and not to the soul. Here, your concept is reversed. ‘I’ itself is ego. Without ‘I’, no work can be done. Shri Ramana Maharshi advised to concentrate on ‘I’. How to answer these three points?”
Swami replied: Arjuna has no intension to kill the Kauravas and the reason for such absence of intension is not non-violence but his relationship with them. If Kauravas were not his relatives, Arjuna must have killed them for their injustice. Killing the unjust people is protection of justice, which is the duty...
[Datta Jayanthi Day] Shri Lakshman asked: “Shri Ramana Maharshi gave lot of weight to the ‘I’, which is discarded by you now in order to eradicate the ego, which is a by-product. I like to hear your explanation in the light of the great sage Shri Ramana Maharshi”.
Swami Replied: Shri Ramana Maharshi did not give weight to the concept of ‘I’. Lot of weight was already given by Advaita philosophers to the ‘I’ representing the God. If Shri Ramana Maharshi colluded with this concept, He would have advised the spiritual aspirants to search for the ‘I’, which is the source of the entire creation...
Shri Phani asked: “God is the doer of every action in this world. The devoted servant of God is not the doer at all and this point is also sincerely felt in the heart of such devotee. Therefore, the best is to surrender himself to God and recognize that the doer of every action is only God. Such total surrender is the better way than doing the service with the feeling of doer-ship in the heart”.
Swami Replied: A patient suffering with fever is treated to reduce the higher temperature with the help of wet cloth on the forehead. Reduction in the temperature aims at the reduction of temperature, which is more than the normal temperature. It does not mean to reduce the temperature of the body...
Shri Anil asked: “Cancelling all the balance punishments can result even in the case of transformed atheist and hence, devotion is not necessary. Please explain”.
Swami Replied: It is perfectly agreed that devotion is not necessary to cancel the balance punishments. This advantage should be applied to every soul, which is perfectly and permanently transformed. However, this is not applicable to the case of an atheist, though, it is applicable on the basis of equity of justice. The only problem of its implementation in the case of an atheist is that the soul of an atheist is never really transformed. The reason for this...
Shri Phani asked: “How do you support the verse in Gita stating that the devotee constantly worshipping God is not a sinner (Apichet Sa Duraachaaro… Gita)”.
Swami Replied: There are two divine rules in the cycle of deeds. The first rule is that the fruit of a deed can be postponed with increasing interest like a loan or can be implemented even before the due date like a premature deposit. The second rule is that there is no need of implementing the balance punishments...
Shri Surya asked: “Shall we complete the knowledge (Jnana Yoga) in which we can clarify all the doubts and then only enter into the phase of practical implementation (Karma Yoga) so that all the hurdles, which are the practical forms of the uncleared doubts in knowledge, can be crossed over?”
Swami Replied: You can understand this point well if you take the example of the study of the course of science and engineering. After the completion of the course of engineering, the candidate is going to work in the industry where the work is totally practical. But, while studying the academic...
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...
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