Bhaagavata Suutram: Chapter-1 (Suutrams 25-28)

(Aphorisms (Sūtrams) Composed By Shri Datta Swami As Answers To Questions Asked By His Devotees)

25) Daivopāsakas śāntamanāḥ |

[Shri. Amudha asked if it is okay to talk with devotees when I feel low mentally? Shri Datta Swami answers that the goal of human life is to please God through practical devotion and the goal of human life is not to live a happy life with good mental peace. Always remember that you and your mind are different. The mind is your instrument that must be dedicated to the practical service of God. A true devotee, who is determined to serve God, will ignore the unstable mind to maintain consistency in God’s service. If that determination is not firm, the devotee tries to wait until the mind becomes stable and peaceful. This waiting period can also cost an entire lifetime, wasting the precious human life. The devotee must learn the art of ignoring one’s own mind, just like he/she ignores the words of atheists, who speak nonsense about God. Spiritual discussion (Satsaṅga) with co-devotees must be conducted with the intention of increasing devotion and making progress in practical service, but not to attain a peaceful mind to enjoy life. The intention to gain a peaceful mind also must be to serve God. Every devotee has limited time to please God. Therefore, time spent with fellow devotees should not become a place only for sharing personal complaints and emotional burdens, but should be used to support mutual spiritual growth and service to God.]

26) Antimāvataro dayā Dattaḥ |

[Shri. Amudha asked what we should do to be a good devotee near the human incarnation in the upcoming births? Shri Datta Swami answers that people have taken a lenient view of spiritual life because they think that human rebirths are possible for every soul and hence, they can slowly put the spiritual effort in their assumed future human births. Whatever may be the religion, every human being should think “Now or never”. This human birth is given to you not according to your file of karma because according to your file, you deserve the birth of animals. The Lord has given one chance to you to see whether you can please Him by your practice. If He decides that you will not change even if human rebirth is given, He will throw you into the everlasting fire, which is nothing but the continuous cycle of births of animals, worms etc. Most cases come under this category alone. But if the Lord finds a ray of hope about you, He may grant another human birth to you because the Lord is not bound by any rule and He is Omnipotent. Therefore, every day throughout your life, you should think that the present day is the last birth for spiritual effort to please God. Now itself you must try to become a good devotee near your contemporary human incarnation of God.]

27) Jñānādbhakti rākṛṣṭaṃ kiñcideva svayam |

[Shri. Amudha asked if it is okay to initially force ourselves to do good work? Or should everything eventually come naturally with love and interest? Shri Datta Swami answers that a devotee is attracted to God spontaneously, provided that the devotee has true devotion to God. If a devotee shows a lot of devotion from a young age, it means that he/she has been doing a lot of sādhanā (spiritual effort) since many past births. Although God has the most attractive personality, the nature of attraction to God can be obtained by a devotee only if the devotee has good spiritual knowledge about the divine personality of God and loves Him without aspiration for any fruit in return. God also puts tests in order to confirm the real devotion of the devotee. A strong magnet (God) attracts the magnetic materials (devotees) like steel, iron etc., but it cannot attract non-magnetic materials like plastic.  To get attracted, the material (devotee) shall change its nature into the nature of magnetic material (real devotion) in order to get spontaneous attraction. Since not all devotees are at the same level, different levels of effort are required by each. If you are not getting natural interest in serving God, or if you are unable to maintain consistency in service, or if you are not finding pleasure in sacrificing your wealth for God, it clearly means that you are in the initial stage of devotion. When in the initial stage, the devotee must make some forcible effort to learn spiritual knowledge and set aside dedicated time to serve God to develop such nature of attraction to God.]

28) Śamas sādhanam ādyaiva pratikriyā |

[Shri. Amudha asked how one can be peaceful always? Shri Datta Swami answers that in the initial state, attaining peace is essential for progressing in the spiritual path to please God. But, attaining peace must not be the goal by itself. Even an inert stone is always at peace, but it cannot please God. Any human being living a peaceful life without putting efforts to please God is as good as a stone. Unless you are relieved from the worldly bonds, you cannot be relieved from the tensions and you also cannot attach yourself to God completely. Your worldly bonds always bring problems and tensions. If something happens to you or your parents or wife or husband or children, you will always be disturbed. When you are disturbed, you will lose energy and become weak. In such condition, you can never serve God effectively. Therefore, in the presence of worldly bonds, not only does your bond to God becomes weak, but also your service to God becomes ineffective. Therefore, Hanumān and Śaṅkara avoided these worldly bonds in the beginning itself by not getting married since prevention is always better than cure. But, God likes every soul to be present in the worldly bonds and the soul’s bond to God should prevail over the other worldly bonds. Victory over the existing opposite force is always appreciable. If the opposite force is absent, it cannot be called as victory. Gopikās were completely immersed in the worldly bonds with their husbands and children. In spite of such strong opposite forces, they could run after God Kṛṣṇa and this is the victory over the existing opposite forces. Even in the presence of strong opposite forces, you can come out of the influence of such forces by detaching yourself from those bonds. You think that you are the body and hence, you think that all the bonds related to the body are your bonds. The bond with wife or husband is related to the external body only. The bonds with the parents or the children are related to blood, which is the main part of the body only. Therefore, by identifying yourself as the soul, you become inert like the inert energy without any worldly bonds. In such case, all your worldly bonds disappear and you will be free to attach yourself to God without any competition. You become mentally stable due to the absence of tensions of worldly bonds. Since the mind is related to the body, you become healthy in the external body also. Therefore, you can attach to God without any disturbance and serve Him effectively to get His grace forever. Therefore, Śaṅkara propagated the concept of identifying and attaching yourself to your soul so that you come out of the influence of all the worldly bonds even while you are immersed in the ocean of such worldly bonds. Gopikās are the best examples for the philosophy of Śaṅkara.]

To be continued...

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