Developing Devotion

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[On the occasion of Yugadi or New Year according to the Indian Calendar] The devotion to Lord should be done in the form of theoretical phase as well as practical phase by making God as the final goal. Such devotion only is real and the real devotees are Hanuman and Gopikas who should be our guides in the spiritual effort. But very few human beings can attain such level and God says in the Gita that one in millions only can attain such state. In such real spiritual path, all the items except God become means only, whereas pleasing God is the final goal. But majority of human beings is reverse to this real path. Most of the human beings make God as means to achieve their self-pleasure by crossing the difficulties in life. Even the devotees who worship the Lord for the upper world also belong to such path only because they are also making God as means to avoid the hell in the upper world. Crossing the difficulties and attainment of selfish pleasure is the only goal whether the place is earth or upper world. Hence, for ordinary human beings, it is almost impossible to attain such real devotion. Selfishness is the nature of the soul and can never be avoided like the curve of a dog-tail (Prakritim yaanti Bhutani – Gita). Therefore, for almost all the human beings, God becomes only the instrument or means to attain the selfish pleasure. Even the so called spiritual aspirants say that the goal of their spiritual effort is only to attain the bliss of God and in their view, it is only the selfish bliss and not to give bliss to God. If you take the case of Hanuman, He wanted to commit suicide in the service of His contemporary Human incarnation while searching for Sita. He thought that if Sita is not found, Rama will die and instead of becoming cause to the death of Rama, He thought that it is better to end His own life. Generally, people worship God to avoid pre-mature death. But Hanuman wanted the pre-mature death for the sake of God. Several demons worshipped God to become immortals without death. Thus, there is 180-degree difference between Hanuman and demons and hence, Hanuman is the bitter enemy for all the demons.

Therefore, to achieve real devotion towards God with a final aim of pleasing God at the cost of one’s own death is a matter of dream for human beings. Jesus tells that unless one is prepared to carry on his own cross for the sake of God, one cannot become the dearest disciple of God. Infact, crucifixion of Jesus was not only to save the real devotees from their sins but also to create kindness in the hearts of even cruel people so that they will be attracted towards spiritual path. Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus was completely a part of the divine program of God. Hence, Jesus accepted it to fulfill the work of God. The result of such sacrifice is that Hanuman became the future creator and Jesus sat on the right side of God. When Krishna left His body, Gopikas jumped into fire while their husbands were alive. They have sacrificed not only their lives but also the tradition of jumping into fire only on the occasion of the death of the husband. They attained Goloka, which is above the abode of God. Such examples of Hanuman, Jesus and Gopikas stand only as inspiring ideals for ordinary human beings so that atleast every human being can atleast get pass marks.

It is very clear that the human being can worship God only to cross difficulties and attain selfish pleasure (Maanushananda) and if possible to attain the bliss of God (Brahmananda). The difficulties may belong to this world or the upper hell but the philosophy is one and the same. In such case, how to keep the human being constantly in the devotion of God, which is certainly means only and not the end? Even in such low type of devotion, people forget God as soon as the problems get solved. For a few days, they may remember God with gratefulness but very shortly they forget God. People will remember the problems of the past forever provided there is a possibility of claiming the credit for their effort. This means people will remember the difficulties in the past and explain the scenes with lot of interest to others continuously till their date of death provided there is a possibility of mentioning their own capabilities as the means for crossing such difficulties. Therefore, the past difficulties are of no use to keep the human being in the devotion constantly because God has to be praised and not the self. Hanuman never told that He jumped over the sea by a single long jump to project His own capability. Even if somebody mentioned about that incident, He would say that He jumped over the sea with the grace of God only. But if you replace Hanuman by an ordinary human being, what will happen? For some days, he will say that he jumped over the sea by the grace of Rama. But slowly, as the time passes on, he will be saying that he jumped over the sea by a single jump. You can see such egoistic attitude in the conversations of even old people who always try to project their capabilities expressed in their past life incidents.

How to Achieve Spontaneous Devotion Towards God?

The only spontaneous devotion towards God (which ofcourse is not real since the devotion is only means) is the pressure of present problems. The artificial devotion shoots up spontaneously because God is only the final means for crossing such present difficulties. There is no need of any message or force for the devotee to maintain the devotion during the tenure of the present problems. But once the problem is solved and peace and happiness are attained, the human being forgets God completely after a very short time. This ungratefulness towards God is mainly based on the effect of ego because there is no possibility of keeping the self in the place of God in solving such problems. If there is even a trace of possibility of keeping self in the place of God, the fellow will be constantly remembering that incident till his date of death because it projects the self-praise. You may say that the only alternative is to continue the problems without end. Infact, Kunti asked the Lord for such a boon. She told that since difficulties alone can maintain the devotion alive in the case of human beings, she asked the Lord for continuous difficulties. But this is not possible because continuous difficulties also bore the soul and the attitude of God as the divine Father is to make the souls happy and not to bore. For this purpose, He arranged the cycles of the lives with alternative happiness and misery. Unless the soul is a demon, it cannot get continuous difficulties because a demon only does continuous sins.

A human being is neither a bad demon nor a good angel. He is a mixture of both (Anishtamishtam Mishramcha… Gita). Therefore, continuous problems cannot be accommodated in the cycle of deeds of human beings. Hence, happiness has to come after some period of misery like winter after summer or day after night. In such case, the problem of devotion to God during the period of happiness becomes impossible. Therefore, some clue should be adopted to foresee the misery in the future so that God can be worshipped even during the period of happiness to avoid the misery in future. The knowledge of alternating happiness and misery of the cycle of deeds is sufficient to realize the misery in the future. But for ordinary ignorant human beings such general concept will not give a real psychological effect. Unless an individual case is specified and unless the misery in the future is specifically indicated, the human being will not take up the worship of God with utmost care during happiness. For this purpose only, the subject of Astrology is born. By Astrology, an individual can foresee the misery in the future. Astrology is Jyotisha Shastram, which means the science of light. It is the torchlight to foresee the misery in the future. It shows both misery and happiness in the future. But a human being will be alert only to avoid the misery in the future by taking some action in the present as prevention. If the misery appears after a long time, the human being will again sleep in the present happiness. Therefore, the design of the recycling periods of the nine planets (Dasha) is arranged in a wonderful manner so that you can see some misery even in the next hour. This is done by the system of Dasha – Antardasha – Vidasha – Sukshma Dasha – Prana Dasha etc. Among these nine planets, some planets are good and some planets are certainly bad for any Zodiac (Raasi) in which one is born. By these systems of period, sub-periods, sub sub-periods etc., one can find the involvement of a bad planet (intensity may vary) even in the next hour. Based on this system only, astrologers can calculate the time of the incident very precisely even up to hours and minutes. Therefore, Astrology helps the human being to foresee the misery in the future and advises to avoid the misery by worship of God and by doing certain specified sacrifice (daanam). This covers both theoretical and practical devotion continuously throughout the life. Therefore, Astrology is justified because the ends justify the means. In fact, it is a part of spiritual knowledge because God is also mentioned as the ultimate light (Paramjyoti rupasampadya - Veda, Jyotiridhikaranam of Brahma Sutras). Hence, these torchlights of the planets acting as secondary lights help the human being to worship the main ultimate light (God).

Today, the human beings approach astrologers and hear the prophecy for one year. There was no difference between the Sadguru and Astrologer because the Sadguru adopts the method of Astrology for ordinary ignorant human beings to create interest in God. In the beginning, the interest may be as means but slowly on realizing the taste of God, they may become real devotees. This is the right spirit and direction of our tradition. If you observe today, you can find the fate of such well-established divine tradition. The astrologer is not at all a Sadguru. He is just giving the prophecy to collect some money on that day for the prophecy. He also designs the future plan of his work in the year to earn money through the remedies suggested and his prophecy is just the annual financial budget. He sows the seed of fear of future misery in the minds of some rich people so that the future remedies can give some financial benefits to him or to his secret partners who are the priests involved in such remedies. Astrology is a part of the divine philosophy because the planets are the executive authorities of implementing the cycle of deeds based on the constitution spelled by God. If you insult the astrology, God will also be furious because if a constable is insulted, the state police authority will feel seriously. Astrology is expected to lead the ordinary ignorant human beings into the spiritual path. If the astrologer realizes this truth and behaves accordingly, God will be pleased with him because astrologer will become a servant in the divine mission of the Lord. In such case, all the problems of the astrologer will be taken care of by the divine grace and he need not worry about himself any more. The ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of cane appearing before their eyes and such cane is the misery in the future indicated by the astrologer. Either devotion or fear (bhakti or bhayam) can give fruit. If devotion is impossible, the fear is used to develop the devotion at the ground level.

Purva Mimaamsa – Uttara Mimaamsa

The Sutras written by Jaimini are the fundamental basis of Astrology and also Purva Mimaamsa. Jaimini indicates various forms of God for remedy to various human beings according to their qualities. Vishnu (Saturn and Mercury), Lakshmi (Moon and Venus), Shiva (Jupiter), Skanda (Mars), Durga (Rahu) and some village deities (Ketu) are such divine forms mentioned by Jaimini. This shows that he is bringing up the ordinary human beings through cane of fear to the level of devotion. The Uttara Mimaamsa of Vyasa finally concentrates on establishing the unity (Brahman) of these divine forms. Both Jaimini and Vyasa constitute the two gradual steps in the spiritual progress. They are not opposite to each other. They sat as Judges for the debate between Shankara and Mandana Mishra and this shows the correlation between these two steps. Jaimini concentrates on sacrifice (Yajna) and even a large extent of the Veda gives stress on sacrifice, which is the donation of prepared food to a deserving guest. The food indicates sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) of the man and also the sacrifice of work (Karma Samnyasa) of his wife in the process of cooking the food. Hence, it is a complete sacrifice, which is the result of devotion. Devotion is the result of knowledge. Only the service involving sacrifice alone can yield the fruit. This is the spirit of stress on Yajna by the Veda. Without understanding it, people give importance to knowledge and devotion. Almost all the Veda is concentrating on Yajna. If Yajna is nothing, why the Veda has given so much importance by covering it to a very large extent? The followers of Jaimini gave importance to mere sacrifice without God. Mere social service without God is of very little use since it gives only temporary heaven. Hence, Jaimini joined the sacrifice with devotion to divine forms.

1. Devotees asked Swami about the eclipse on this New Year Day.

Swami replied: The eclipse is of no divine nature because today science explains everything about eclipse. It is a simile for a divine concept. Sun represents intelligence and moon represents mind according to the Veda. Rahu and Ketu represent the dark shadow of ignorance by which both intelligence and mind are eclipsed. The pity of our unfortunate tradition is that the concept disappears immediately and the apparent simile always stands forever and in course of time becomes the concept. A broker described the bride as a rose flower (metaphor and not simile). The bride escaped with her lover on the day of marriage. The broker brought a rose flower and kept it in the place of bride because he told already that the bride is just a rose flower! Today, the priests do not know even the meaning of the word ‘Veda’ from which they recite the hymns. Even if they try to understand the meaning of the word ‘Veda’, they will stop the recitation. The Veda means knowledge and not mere recitation of the words without knowing the meaning. The tradition has exploited this unfortunate situation also and tried to use it for the benefit of the uplift of ordinary human beings. The ignorance of this situation is used to cause fear and the tradition tried to induce fear into the minds of ignorant people so that they will at least step into the spiritual field by fear. Once this spirit is realized, there is no need of these similes (Jnate karma na Vidyate… Gita). If your brain comes out of these worldly illusions through knowledge and devotion and if you are determined to serve the Lord, there is no meaning of any eclipse in your case.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★