Posted on: 19 May 2017
(The following queries made by some people through emotional arguments, which were captured by Dr. Nikhil, a scientist and best devotee to God, are answered by Swami.)
1) How do you justify the detachment from family in spiritual path that hurts and harms the family members?
Swami Replied:
Introduction: Some people submit criticism to know the truths in the spiritual knowledge. If we answer them without deviating from truth (since we don’t aspire anything from them), such people will certainly convince. But, there are some people, who put forward their criticism with some other hidden background like greediness, ego, jealousy etc., they will never convince because of their different personal background. Such people are not seekers of truth, but, defenders of their weakness only. Atheists are better than such double personalities because atheists are straight and homogeneous in and out. We can convince even atheists, who are sincere in their mind and word. We can never convince such theists, who play double game by keeping one thing in mind and speak something else. God excuses harshness of demons but not cheating from theists. You felt sorry for the extreme criticism (especially on Rama and Shri Baba) because you are a true devotee of God. It is said that not only scolding God is a sin but also hearing such scolding is a sin (Shrunoti tasmaadapi yassa paapabhaak). I appreciate your sincerity in passing on such bitter criticism also in view of answering doubts of anybody in this world. A doubt is based on partial knowledge and partial ignorance. But, such bitter criticism is based on ego and total ignorance twisted into playing double game. It is waste of time to awake such people, who are pretending to sleep.
Nobody should be detached from the family members and from the responsibilities to be done to the family members. At any cost, no other soul should be hurt or harmed. If a person is attached to an illegal prostitute and gets detached from the family, it is a severe sin. But, if a person is attached to God and gets detachment from family in a similar way, is it a sin? Here, the detachment from family without attachment to something else is impossible because the mind has always a tendency to attach to something. If the total bond energy of family is 100 calories and if the person is attached to some other item and the new bond energy is also 100 calories, the bond energy of the family becomes ‘0’ since the new attachment is complete. If the new bond is with a prostitute, certainly the person will go to hell since it is total injustice. But, if the new item is God and if one says that the person has to go hell because total injustice is done to family, this point is to be analyzed carefully. The reason is that such detachment is praised in scriptures like the Veda (Yadahareva virajeat tadahareva pravrajet). Several great devotees are seen with such total detachment and were praised as salvated. If one doesn’t believe scriptures and these great devotees also and is rigid of the concept proposed by him, there is no other way than to discuss the issue with logic alone. In such case, following points are to be considered:
a) Detachment from family denotes indirectly the attachment to the God. If one criticises the detachment from family in such case, it is the indirect criticism to God only.
b) Mere detachment from family without any other attachment is impossible due to nature of mind and hence such mere detachment need not be criticised, which is impossible.
c) Detachment from family due to attachment to a prostitute is condemned as sin and hence such detachment needs to be criticised.
d) Detachment from family due to attachment to God need not be criticised provided such detachment: i) does not hurt the family and ii) does not harm the family due to non-performance of family-responsibilities. (i) can be achieved if a trial is made to preach the family regarding the value of God or keeping one’s attachment to God as secret if the trial fails. (ii) can be achieved by performing all the family-responsibilities with detachment in mind and appearing externally as if attached to the family. Neither hurting nor harming family becomes possible in this path. One must have control on expressions so that the mental attachment to God is not detected by family. We say that hurting or harming anybody is a sin, be the new item is God. If family doesn’t co-operate one’s spiritual path, the above way should be followed. If the practical service to God is not liked by the family, such practical service also should be done in hidden way. If the hidden way is detected by the family, it should be also stopped since God is not in need of your practical service in anyway. It is done by yourself and God never aspired for it. When you do the practical service on your own accord, then only, it is real devotion. Such practical service should also be done without aspiring for any fruit in return. In view of all these parameters, you can’t blame God (human incarnation) in anyway. Under such conditions only your service is evaluated as a real by God. If you blame, blame yourself and not God in anyway.
e) One should not think that he is deceiving the family by hiding the truth about his devotion (theoretical and practical) to God and thus cheating the family. Even in worldly issues hiding the truth is not a sin in the context of protecting the souls from hurting and harming. A sage harmed a saint by telling the hidden address of saint to thieves and went to hell. Speaking truth is lower justice and non-violence is higher justice.
f) All these ways are provided to you provided you have real devotion to God. If you don’t have real devotion to God and if you have real love to your family only, all these points disappear and are out of context.
g) If God creates a situation in which you have to vote either to God or to family, we advise you vote for God since He is the real protector of yourself and your family. You must use your spiritual knowledge to understand that the Almighty does not need anything or anybody from you in reality and that He is only testing your devotion so that you know your true position in the spiritual path, which helps you to know the quantity of further concentration you have to put in the practical spiritual path.
h) The detachment from family is never aspired by God or scripture or spiritual knowledge. This is totally a misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The detachment from family was never aspired even by that prostitute. The attachment of the person to the prostitute is so strong from the side of the person that a spontaneous detachment from family resulted. At least, you can blame the prostitute for trying to attract the person towards her. In the case of God, He repels devotees and devotees are running after Him. You must blame the devotees and preach them not to be foolish to attach to God, which results in the detachment from families. In fact, Uddhava tried to preach Gopikas not to be foolish about human incarnation and preached about the abstract God, who is the soul itself. Gopikas could not even hear that preaching! If you were in the place of Uddhava, you must have returned calling Gopikas as mad to be admitted in mental hospital! Do you agree that there is at least a place where your points can’t enter? Uddhava didn’t return like you. He converted himself to a strong devotee of contemporary human incarnation! He was a student of Deva Guru (teacher of angels).
i) You have completely misunderstood the truth by thinking that some external agency (God or scripture) is washing the brains of people to try for detachment from family! My Lord! In this point, you are 100% mistaken. Spiritual knowledge says that detachment from family should not be tried at all. Krishna advised Gopikas to go back to their families and strongly threatened them that such detachment from families will lead to hell. Gopikas threatened Krishna that they will commit suicide if Krishna refuses them. My dear friend! The love of Gopikas to Krishna is not due to detachment from family (like family-quarrels etc.,), but, due to attachment to Krishna. Krishna never encouraged such attachment to Him resulting in spontaneous family-detachment. In fact, He not only discouraged it, but, also threatened showing the hell. Why do you blame Krishna? Blame Gopikas and if possible, turn them by your preaching, if you can do so.
j) My boss! You are thinking that the detachment from family resulted by the preaching of some external element and go on criticizing that external element concentrating your sight on one side only. Please see that the reason for such attachment to God is not propagated by any external agency and even God repelled it by creating several obstructions. Even God is unable to remove that attachment to Him! God will thank you if you can remove that attachment by your marvelous preaching! The natural consequence of such attachment to God is detachment from family. If you want to stop the family-detachment, the only way is to stop the attachment to the God. You may think that the abstract God is O.K. and the human incarnation like Krishna is the real culprit. Shankara was based on abstract God only and left the single family bond, His old mother! The only solution for this is to preach atheism, which alone can save the family bonds forever!
k) Nobody said that one will attain God through family-detachment. It is said that God is attained only by attachment to God. Detachment from X will not lead you to attach to Y. You may argue that detachment from X is a natural consequence of attachment to Y and hence attachment to Y must be discouraged. When you are unable to prevent a person to attach to even a prostitute, can anyone try to prevent any devotee to attach to the mighty personality of Almighty?
l) In spite of the propagation of the spiritual knowledge, only very few (countable on fingers) could be able to attach to God in real sense. Why do you bother about such minority? Almost all the souls are really attached to their families only and you need not tear your throat so much for such minority, which will never turn even if millions like you preach them! You tear your throat on unjust happenings due to things like corruption etc., affecting the large majority of the society. Ofcourse, I am not preventing you in adding false God-men to that quota. I am only requesting you not to add a genuine God-man in that quota criticized by you.
m) The detachment from family is a natural consequence of tasting the real devotion to God. By leaving the coffee, you can’t attain the divine nectar. Detachment from family is not a pre-requisite for the attainment to God. The detachment from family is a natural consequence of tasting the God in reality. The only path for you to stop the detachment is to propagate only the non-existence of God and not removing human incarnations.
n) Of course, we fully agree with you to condemn the exploitations and atrocities of false human incarnations and false God-men, who crave for fame, money, illegal sex, foolish superiority etc. But, because of these false exploitations, which may be 99% in this Kaliyuga, you should not discard the true human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc., also. You must also criticise the exploited public for believing false God-men without proper analysis. You have gone to a fraud doctor without analysis and if the patient died, you are also equally responsible. Due to your ambition for materialistic achievements, the false God-men are appearing and you are equally responsible for the exploitation. The person giving bribe and taking bribe-both are equally to be punished.
o) You must not criticise true incarnation and a true devotee doing service and sacrifice on his/her own accord without any force or cheating. There may be one such true diamond and you should not add that to other gravel stones.
2) The God-men are very dangerous in destroying the family bonds.
Swami Replied:
The God-men are of two types: Human incarnations and devotees to God. The true God-men never aspire anything or anybody from you. They never approach anybody for anything since omnipotent God is always with them. You, yourself approach God-men for right spiritual direction. Even after your approach, they do not aspire anything from you even in their minds since there is no need for any aspiration as long as God is with them. You must test the God-men to see any such aspiration in their minds. If any such aspiration exists, they are not God-men and they are only devil-men. It is your responsibility to test the preacher before you accept him as your guide. True God-men preach you about your such responsibility and give procedure of testing also. You can filter 99% false God-men through miracles. The rest 1% false God-men can be filtered by the spiritual knowledge (since devils also perform miracles). Your service and offerings to true God-men should be from your innermost consciousness only after doing sharp analysis from all sides. If you think that you are in higher spiritual plane, God (through God-men) conducts tests to show your actual position so that from that actual plane you will concentrate on the further journey. This is the responsibility of the human incarnation selected by you (remember that It didn’t approach and selected you). If the required guidance is not given by it to its devotee, it is not a true human incarnation. It does not fear for any reaction from you on showing the truth to you. False God-men certainly avoid displeasure from devotees and hide the truth since they expect some benefits from you. The Veda says that the spiritual knowledge given by God must be true (Satyam Jnaanam). Truth is first adjective used. Truth alone leads you to the true goal in true path. You must avoid false God-men by proper analysis and for the sake of false God-men, you should not criticise all the God-men. We shall not burn the house occupied by rats. You must capture the rats by using boxes and make the house free of rats.
Spiritual Knowledge Higher Than Eligibility Results in Violent Reaction
3) It is better to believe God and do social service like training the children, who need justified life in future.
Swami Replied: This is a stage of theoretical devotion on God and practical devotion on family and society. Certainly, this stage is better than atheism. In this stage the concept of contemporary human incarnation is totally eliminated. Here, only unimaginable God, energetic incarnations and representative models of energetic incarnations are believed. Even the photos and statues of past human incarnations are negated because these will certainly lead to the concept of human incarnation. The total eradication of the concept of human incarnation is done here and the reasons for this are: a) Greediness may restrict the practical sacrifice, which is the main hidden fact for avoiding even the worship of models and to confine to abstract form of God only and b) If ego and jealousy towards the human form is the hidden fact, practical sacrifice is done in worshipping the models, but, worship of contemporary human form of God is avoided. Thus, greediness, ego and jealousy are the main factors for such spiritual procedures. The true background of any selected procedure must be extensively analyzed. The spiritual knowledge is also arranged in stages. The eligibility of a specific devotee (Adhikaari) to a specific part of knowledge (Vishaya) must be analyzed in view of the suitability (Sambandha), which alone gives benefit (Prayogana) since he/she can grasp that much only. These four factors (Anubandha) must be carefully kept in mind before preaching any devotee. If you give spiritual knowledge higher than their eligibility, there will be violent reaction from their side. Jesus told that He and God (Father) are one and the same. This concept of human incarnation was revealed by Him to His close eligible devotees only. Unfortunately, this concept went to the ears of non-eligible devotees, who got Him crucified! Seeing this condition of the receiving society, the next Prophet Mohammad eradicated the concept of human incarnation. Swami Dayananda also eradicated not only this concept but also idol-worship seeing atrocities of false human incarnations and priests respectively. The seriousness of the time made them to take such extreme step. In normal condition, in which exploitations are absent, the true concepts must be protected. You can filter a false human incarnation very easily by analysis. In absence of exploitations by priests, idol worship develops theoretical devotion in the mind of devotee in preliminary stage.
If each bond with family and God has 50 and 50 calories, doing social service with faith in God is certainly a good step. Accepting concept of human incarnation is a better step. Accepting the concept of contemporary human incarnation is the best step. While doing social service in the good step, you must associate it with spiritual knowledge. The social service without spiritual knowledge is like the false projected hypocrisy of an atheist. The stress on the concept of God and on hell will certainly bring the resistance to sin in society. In this good stage, you must not leave the responsibilities for family, which should not be left even in the highest stage (Niyatam kuru... Gita). While doing all the responsibilities even in the highest stage (since you can’t leave the responsibility that was already accepted in marriage), it is better to have detachment from the family bonds in your mind. The reason is that these family bonds will bring mental tensions in future due to various reasons. If you are mentally detached, you are not disturbed by such mental tensions, which spoil your health affecting your effort to do social service with faith in God. Your Honour! This mental detachment is for your health only and not related to God in anyway.
In developing the children to lead justified life in future, the concept of God and spiritual knowledge is the basic foundation. Unless you preach about the omnipotent God, who punishes anybody for the sin in the hell or even here itself, even if one escapes the law here, the foundation will never be strong. The question “what will happen if I do sin and escape the judicial system here by tricks?” will certainly rise in the mind on one day or other. The inbuilt-resistance to sin by the concept of God is the only solution for your program. You are seeing the injustice ruling everywhere and the only reason for this is negligence of spiritual knowledge from the beginning in the education-system. In the olden days the situation was reverse and hence justice ruled everywhere. Education of children and social service to poor (who are easily diverted to vices) without spiritual knowledge become just dead bodies without life.
4) How can be human being be God?
Swami Replied: When a human being is possessed by evil spirit, neither human being becomes evil spirit nor vice-versa. At the same time, we treat that human being as the evil spirit for all practical purposes. The electrified wire is electricity, but neither electricity is transformed in to wire nor vice-versa. Possession of spirit is in the experience in the world and a similar case is the human incarnation. This can be accepted through logic. To fulfill the desire of some ardent devotees, the omnipotent God can become human incarnation. You may not like it and the human incarnation did not come for you. You can’t object the concept needed for the sake of those few devotees. If you don’t like it, does it mean that nobody should like it? You have your abstract God and they will have the human incarnation. Nobody should interfere with others. None should generalise his concept and rub it on others by force.
5) Miracles are false. It should be confirmed the presence of scientists. Rama is cruel in sending Sita to forest. Even if you say that Sita was punished by Rama for her verbal scolding towards Lakshmana, it is not justified. Dharma Raja is also not justified to play gambling and to tolerate de-clothing of his wife.
Swami Replied: Till now, you have criticised God-men and incarnations. I could tolerate that because false God-men and incarnations are many in this Kaliyuga. I also thought that you are criticising those false culprits only. I only requested you not to extend your criticism to true God-men. I am unable to tolerate your criticism on Rama in leaving Sita neglecting the family bond for the sake of false washer-man. I explained that Rama punished Sita for such cruel verbal insult shown in the case of Lakshmana, the highest devotee of God. You are not agreeing with My explanation also in the case of Rama.
i) Sita scolded Lakshmana with horrible allegation that his intention is to marry her if Rama dies. This is not an ordinary family quarrel referred to a judge in the family-court. If they are ordinary human beings, the warning from judge is justified. But, Rama is God in human form, the highest judge for the entire world. Lakshmana was the highest devotee. Even Sita is Shri Maha Lakshmi. This entire scene was created by God to project a very important point that God tolerates even if you criticise Him, but, can’t tolerate such horrible scolding towards such highest devotee. The scolding by Sita indicates that even very great souls can err. Rama did not ask Sita to enter into fire. It was the proposal made by Sita only. Rama simply told that Sita is liberated from Ravana and she can go to any place she likes. Rama told that she can marry Vibhishana to become queen of Lanka. This is exactly a retort for her scolding towards the highest devotee. The level of the devotee is so high that Rama gave punishment to her in action also by leaving her in the forest. Rama told Lakshmana that Sita should be left near the place of sage Valmiki and never told that she should be left in forest before cruel animals. The incident of washer-man was also created by God. Just like Sita blamed the purest devotee, the purest Sita was also blamed by the washer-man. The illiterate washer-man can be excused but not Sita. Rama never doubted Sita at any time. Rama also didn’t give punishment since she scolded Him. God Vishnu tolerated the demon’s criticism towards Himself. But, God didn’t tolerate the demon insulting His devotee, Prahlada. You have criticised Rama treating Him as an ordinary human being. If Sita is not punished here, she can’t enter His abode with that sin. Rama cleared the sin here itself and made her entry to His abode easy. This shows the real love of Rama towards Sita. I am asking you a simple point. So much long time has passed away and do you think that no intellectual is born so far to criticise Rama like you? Are you the only intellectual to expose the truth of Rama in this world? You said that judge will laugh on Rama and Sita for the family quarrel. Judge will laugh at you for treating Rama, Lakshmana and Sita as ordinary human beings!
ii) You think that materialization of matter alone is miracle, which should be done in presence of invited scientists. In fact, Shri Satya Sai Baba did miracles in presence of several to scientists. In the presence of a top professor of science, He converted the statue of an animal in to real animal when the professor thought that Shri Baba was creating inert materials only by magic. Don’t you give any standard to that scientist? God is giving various experiences to devotees in their lives by solving their impossible problems and don’t you think that these are miracles. Millions of devotees in millions of generations have experienced the miraculous powers of God in their lives in the case of variety of incidents in which the impossible incidents have become possible by His miraculous powers. Certainly, magic exists in this world and false God-men exhibiting magic in the name of miracles shall be criticised. But, what about various impossible incidents, which were made possible as experienced in the lives of millions of devotees since the creation of this world? Do you say that such experiences are also magic? Do you think that all these devotees are uneducated and unwise without analysis?
iii) Dharma Raja was not human incarnation. He was only a devotee. All the points raised by you like gambling etc., are certainly sins and He was punished for his sins by Lord Krishna. To err is human. In fact, you should have criticised Krishna, the human incarnation on several grounds and not a poor human being like Dharma Raja. Rama came only for Pravrutti, which is to vote justice against injustice. Rama never expressed His divine power to do any miracle. He left Sita just for the sake of the verbal sin committed by her towards the highest devotee. Leaving Sita for the sake of public criticism is not the real concept though it appears as real externally. In this external concept also Rama gave message to rulers that they should react to the public criticism by giving practical proof. The example shown by Rama was too much, but, from that the politicians will at least respond even in ordinary issues. (N+1) rule is applied here. Unless you fix the highest as the goal, the lower goal can’t be achieved by people practically and this is (n+1) rule. The issue of greatest devotee is the internal concept (Nivrutti) and the issue of public criticism to be answered is the external concept (Pravrutti). The message shall be taken in both ways.