Divine Message on Samkranti - 2007

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

The word Samkranti means complete transformation. The Sun diverts himself from south to North. The South is called as Pitruyanam, which indicates the strong bond of love of parents. This is strongest among all the worldly bonds. The North is called as Devayanam indicating the bond with God. This festival represents the diversion of love from world to God. This festival is also called Pongal, which means a sweet prepared by boiling rice with milk and sugar. All these three are white indicating the purity. Rice indicates service. Milk indicates the spiritual knowledge. Sugar indicates devotion. In the final preparation of Pongal, only rice is seen. The milk and sugar penetrate into rice and such penetration is Samkranti. This means that the knowledge and love exist internally in the service. For example, when you are serving your child, the knowledge that the child belongs to you and the love on your child exist in your service. Without knowledge and love, the service cannot be born. The service is like the plant coming from the seed. The water is like the knowledge. The fertilizer is like the devotion. The water and the fertilizer penetrate into the plant and these two make the plant to grow into a big strong tree. The tree alone gets the fruit. The fruit cannot be achieved by the water or fertilizer or by both together without the plant. The plant also cannot be born from the seed if the earth does not supply water and minerals as fertilizer from the soil. If you do not identify your child, no love is born. Without love, the service cannot be born. Therefore, without knowledge, there cannot be birth of devotion and without devotion, there cannot be the birth of service. Without service there is no fruit. Brahma indicates knowledge. Vishnu indicates devotion. The dancing Shiva indicates action or service. Lord Datta indicates these three associated together.

Sundarakanda Describes Service of Hanuman

Hanuman served Rama in His personal matter. Hanuman knows strongly that Rama is God and this knowledge is constantly maintained in His service. His devotion on Rama was in climax in the service. When Sita was not found, He wanted to commit suicide. This shows His love to Rama in the service. You can find knowledge and devotion of Hanuman always in service only as per the Valmiki Ramayana. You can never see Hanuman in debates on God or in singing songs on God. He is always seen in service to Rama throughout the Ramayana and knowledge and devotion always exist in the service simultaneously. All the essence of His knowledge is only in identifying the contemporary human form of God. All the essence of His devotion is only in serving practically such alive human form. Sundarakanda means the beautiful part of the Ramayana since it describes the selfless service of Hanuman to the alive human form without aspiring any fruit in return. You have to read Sundarakanda to learn this aspect only. But people are reading that for getting success in selfish works! Hanuman did not accept even a garland for His service at the end. Such selfless service based on the spiritual knowledge learnt from god sun and devotion learnt from His mother, yielded the topmost fruit of becoming Brahma (God). Such selfless service integrated with knowledge and devotion is the Nishkama Karma yoga of the Gita.

Service is work and hence, called as karma yoga. Work is energy and matter (money) is energy. Hence, work and matter are one and the same. Therefore, both sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work (money) come under karma yoga or Seva yoga. The sages were always busy with knowledge and devotion to God. They did not do any service to Rama practically even though they identified Rama as God. The water and fertilizer without the plant could not get the fruit and they had to take another birth as Gopikas to get salvation. Hanuman got the topmost divine fruit in that life itself since He did not stop with knowledge and devotion. He extended His knowledge and devotion into service. The moment you recognize your child, it is Jnana yoga. Immediately, the love is generated and it is Bhakti yoga. Spontaneously, you start serving your child and this is karma yoga, which is Nishkama karma yoga since you do not aspire any fruit in return. In the case of your child, really no fruit is achieved. But in the case of God, for the same selfless service unimaginable fruit is given to Hanuman. Here, the transformation of knowledge into love and into service is spontaneous in the case of your child. But in the case of God, why is the transformation incomplete? I mean, why some stop at knowledge and why some stop at devotion? The reason is that their knowledge itself is fully wrong in not generating devotion. If the knowledge is partially wrong, devotion is generated but not the service.

If you identify God as formless, it is fully wrong knowledge and hence, no devotion is developed. If you identify God in human form, but worship statues of such human form, devotion is generated and not the service. If you identify the alive human form of God, service is generated. When you fully identify your child, the knowledge is fully correct and love and service are generated spontaneously. When you have a doubt in the identity of your child, your knowledge is partially correct. Then love is generated, which will not really transform into service. The service always includes correct knowledge and full love. The formless God has no expenditure of your work and money. The statues have partial expenditure like cleaning (sacrifice of work) and repairs (sacrifice of money). The alive human form of God has lot of recurring expenditure like feeding every day etc. The essence of sacrifice is deciding the concept of God. The Advaitin is very clever who says that he is God and feeding himself every day is accounted in the recurring expenditure in the account of God. The human form of God (Sadguru) alone can give the fully correct knowledge that transforms into devotion and service spontaneously.

When you are diverting the service or practical devotion from the world (family and society), which consists of the alive human beings to God, the God must also be in alive human form so that the service like feeding is diverted practically from one side to the other side. If your world contains only the photos or statues of your forefathers who are not alive today, then you can divert your service of cleaning the statues of your forefathers to the statues of God. The diversion of service should be in the same phase i.e., either all in alive human forms or all in forms of statues. There cannot be diversion of practical devotion from one phase to the other phase. Suppose you have offered ten kg of food to a statue of God and offered half kg of food to your son. You cannot say that you have twenty times more devotion on God than your son. Here, the comparison is not in one phase. If God comes in human form, will you offer half kg of food to Him daily as you are offering the same to your son? Therefore, the proof of diversion or transformation can be in a single-phase system only. Hanuman left His alive mother and worshipped alive Rama. He did not leave His alive mother to worship a statue in the temple or to meditate upon the formless God in a forest or to serve Himself feeling that He is God. Gopikas left the bonds with all alive forms (parents, in-laws, husbands, children etc.) only to worship a specific alive form who was Krishna in their time and one should note that Krishna was not having any relationship with them. If you understand the Ramayanam and the Bhagavatam, it is sufficient since these are practical demonstration of the entire spiritual knowledge. Even the alive human form of a devotee is sufficient to please God. The Lord came as a devotee to Saktuprastha and to the parents of Siriyala to test their diversion of service from family bonds to a representative of God. I assuredly tell you that if you serve a real devotee, God is more pleased than serving Himself. I doubt about the truth of Myself being the present human incarnation but I can assure you without any trace of doubt that all My devotees are the best devotees of God. I cannot assure the salvation for worshipping Me but I assure in the name of God that if you serve My devotees, the salvation is a must.

Human Form of God Tests Devotees

The human form of God conducts severe tests as you can see in the case of Rama. Hanuman is the most sacred bachelor and the topmost Saint. People of such level look the householder down to be in the inferior level. Rama is a householder and showed blind love on Sita by running after the golden deer to satisfy her. He asked Ravana to return back Sita. He told that if Sita is returned, He would go back without harming Ravana. In such case, Ravana would continue his torture of good people. This shows that Rama is ready to sacrifice the welfare of the entire world for the sake of Sita. Rama exhibited the climax of blind love but Hanuman continued to think Rama as God. Rama became helpless and wept in several problems. Hanuman saved Him through miraculous deeds. In such case, even an observer will conclude that Hanuman is God and Rama is His devotee. But Hanuman always declared that Rama is God and that He is His devotee. In the end, Rama except Hanuman honored all with rewards. Anybody in the place of Hanuman will shout at Rama. But Hanuman tore His heart to show Rama in His heart. All the tests by God were done in the practical service only. God did not test anybody asking the meaning of a hymn from the Upanishads or did not test anybody in singing devotional songs. Only sacrifice of work and fruit of work were tested and both these form the service. The clever people have diverted the right issue to a wrong issue and claim salvation. They think that the divine test is in taking cold water bath in the morning, chanting the name of God by counting the beads of Garland, number of fasting days by taking ten folded non-conventional food, breathing exercises, running away from the home in saffron cloth to earn money and fame etc. Based on these self-decided tests, people evaluate themselves and declare their own results! They declare themselves as the district collectors by fixing their own norms for the qualification of IAS degree. The shoe, in-shirt dress, tie around neck, belt around the waist etc., are their norms for getting the degree and the subsequent post!

The worldly bonds are found blind and foolish on analysis compared to the pious bond with God. The essence of all the worldly bonds is only the love on the means to achieve selfish happiness as per the statement of the Veda and the Gita (Atmanah kamaya…, ye hi samsparshajah…). Any soul in the world loves the other soul for the fact that the other soul is an instrument in giving self-happiness. If the other soul is giving constant worry, enmity and hatred replace the love. The medium of happiness is always money. Among these worldly bonds, the wealth linked with children is strongest. You can find the two extreme ends of this aspect in Dhrutarashtra and in the parents of Siriyala. Dhrutarashtra could not give even five villages even though God is directly asking. This is a climax of blind love on children linked with wealth. On the other hand, the parents of Siriyala killed their son to satisfy the desire of a devotee. The bond with God is excellent and is beyond words if properly analyzed. He has given human birth, long life, wealth, family etc., in spite of your most undeserving file of qualities. Still, you say that this favor is done to many souls in common way. If you analyze your previous life, there are several miraculous experiences in which God rained undue favor on you. If you are a real human being, tears should flow down. If you remove the layer of ignorance on which you are dancing, you will be surprised to know that yourself and all your beloved souls including your materials are just the modifications of His power only. In fact, there is no real meaning of your sacrifice. It is only an apparent test of your practical love towards God. It is only a test of your attitude and feelings towards God because in the basic reality, you have neither gained anything from the world nor lost anything through sacrifice to God. In fact, you have lost your things through sacrifice to the other souls who exploited you as means for their selfish happiness and do not even recognize you in the upper world. You are doing even sins like corruption, looting good devotees etc., for the sake of your so-called beloved souls. The illusion of your ignorance about the true spiritual knowledge is so strong that you are as blind as Dhrutarashtra in failing to show the practical love to God even after recognition. You cannot even dream about the word “salvation”.

Your first step should be to catch Sadguru who will give sight to your eyes through the surgery of preaching the spiritual knowledge. If you climb this first step, the final fruit is spontaneous since His spiritual knowledge is an escalator. The spiritual success of Hanuman is simply due to the Sadguru, Sun, caught by Him. Hanuman learnt the spiritual knowledge from Sun who is the radiator of the intelligence or the analytical faculty as said in the Veda. Hanuman adjusted Himself to the convenience of Sadguru in receiving the spiritual knowledge by moving His face constantly in circular way. All this means that you should take all the pains in receiving the spiritual knowledge from Sadguru. The Sun represents the Sadguru and radiation represents the spiritual knowledge. Arjuna saw Krishna as thousands of Suns in the cosmic vision. Krishna said that His first student was Sun. This means that Krishna (God) is thousands of liberated souls in spiritual knowledge. This means that Hanuman received the knowledge–cassette of God from His student and developed to such highest state! Arjuna heard the knowledge directly from God, but he forgot the Gita by the end of the war and asked Krishna to repeat it. Therefore, some devotees who have heard the knowledge directly from Me ask Me to repeat it by next day. Some devotees might have read My books given by My devotees and may reach the state of Hanuman. Therefore, the samskara or the level of maturity of the receiver is responsible for the success finally. All hear the same spiritual knowledge from Sadguru, but a few only succeed and this is due to their level of maturity attained already. Both the quality of the spiritual knowledge and the maturity of the receiver are important. The drop should be a water drop and the receiver should be the pearl shell to form a pearl. A conch shell cannot make the water drop into pearl. Similarly, a particle of dust fallen in the pearl shell also cannot become the pearl.

Swami answers questions of Shri Anil Antony

[Shri Anil Antonu asked; Padanamaskaram Swami, please grace Your answers to the following.]

1. You told that all the samskaras should be directed towards Lord? Family bonds are one of the samskaras. What are other samskaras?

Swami Replied: The essence of all the samskaras is love, which has the potency to materialize into service. Theoretical love, which cannot materialize into the service, cannot be the samskara. Various feelings of attachment made of this practical love are all the samskaras.

2. A mad person may be suffering due to highest sin, whether he will be aware of his pains while in the state of madness?

Swami Replied: A mad person is often insulted and sometimes is subjected to beatings and even electric shocks in the hospitals. All such things give pain to him and he experiences the pain. Therefore, madness is a punishment for sin.

3. If one gets good health by yogic exercises, is Karma Cakra violated?

[Some people by personal effort by doing yogic exercise attain perfect health. Then this may contradict the cause and effect of karma, since one is destined to suffer, but due to his effort he is overcoming that suffering?]

Swami replied: The person who gets health by such exercises is benefited, which is also a part of the implementation of the fruits of deeds. God arranges the fruits of good and bad deeds alternatively in the life cycle and this point removes the above objection.

4. Is sin relative or absolute?

Swami replied: When a good soul suffers due to the behavior of you, you are getting the sin. Therefore, sin is absolute in its fundamental sense.

5. You told that attachment to souls and other things are the root cause of disease, what about bacteria etc.?

Swami replied: Attachment leads to tension and anxiety, which is the root cause of several chronic diseases like heart attack, hypertension, etc., which have no involvement of bacteria. The bacterial attacks are due to the effects of sins.

6. In the Bible, it is told that unless you born of water and spirit, you will not enter the Kingdom of God. What is the meaning of this?

Swami replied: The spirit and water indicate knowledge given by Sadguru like Jesus, Krishna etc., which cleans your soul from the dirty ignorance so that you can be a citizen of the kingdom of God. Then, by your service, you will become an employee of the king and slowly you can become the Son of God and finally God in human form. This means that knowledge is the basis and Sadguru is the source of such true knowledge.

7. Why are beauty and qualities considered unreal by the Lord?

[The external beauty (form of matter) and good qualities (forms of awareness) are considered as unreal only by the Lord’ why it is so? Devotion is also a quality only?]

Swami replied: The matter and qualities based on the bond with God attain reality because God is the absolute reality. When these are based on the relatively real worldly bonds, these become temporary. A temporary item is always unreal according to the theory of Shankara (Yadanityam…).

8. How can light be both a particle and a wave?

[‘Datta, in another thread You claim to be Nostradamus' great genius. In another, You claim to be Christ re-incarnated. To be the great genius and rectify science and religion, You must surely know these answers to a simple question. How can light be both particle and wave?’ (A question posed in a discussion forum.)]

Swami replied: You have to study the quantum mechanics and wave mechanics in the advanced Science and this point is clearly proved. A Photon is treated as a particle of light, which is in the sense that is quantum. The dual nature of Electron to be a particle and wave has already opened the way. The quantum of light may not have mass, but the quantisation is considered to be supporting the particle nature. Einstein’s Photoelectric Theory is to be studied in detail.

9. What if the family bonds are temporary?

 [What if family bonds are not temporary? What if we retain those bonds after death? What if they are, indeed, temporary and this is all there is? What if, You are right and they are just temporary? Does that mean that we should not embrace these bonds? Shouldn't we love our children and parents? (A question posed in a discussion forum.)]

Swami replied: The love in the family bonds with respect to outsider in the society is justified as far as the field of world (Pravrutti) is considered. When God enters into this field (Nivrutti), these bonds become unreal. With reference to the absolute God, the bonds with the relatively real world are unreal. The merits of the bond with God are to be understood by the analysis and experience, which is widely discussed by Me. Jesus told that one couldn’t be His disciple unless one hates even the family bonds. This should be understood with reference to God only and not as a general statement.

10. How can we believe that family members are our vehement enemies?

[Family relations (Runanubandha rupena…) are our vehement enemies, but how to believe that because we have not seen our previous births?]

Swami replied: Today, there are several practical examples in the entire world to show the existence of previous births and the department of Parapsychology is established. The children are enemies and this is stated in Hinduism and this correlates with the statement of Jesus to hate these bonds because hatred is only in the case of enemies.

11. Is mind different from soul and body?

Swami replied: Soul is pure awareness like the lump of gold. Mind, which is a bundle of feelings, is like a bundle of golden ornaments. The strong feelings form the subtle body and the soul is the causal body. Awareness is a special work form of inert energy only. Gross body is matter, which is another form of inert energy. Therefore, all these three (soul, mind and gross body) are inert energy only, which is created by God and form the basis of creation.

12. Who is ‘Maitreya’, he claims to be Christ re-incarnate?

Swami replied: You have to decide the human incarnation of Lord based on the spiritual knowledge i.e., radiating from Him. The Sun is recognized by light. A solar battery, which also emits light, is a partial Sun only because the light of the Sun and the light of the solar battery are qualitatively same though differ quantitatively. Therefore, a partial incarnation of God charged by the power of God is also qualitatively God Himself. The quantitative difference need not be discussed because sometimes the devotees of lower level require only a partial true knowledge. You have to decide the incarnation of God from the quality of the spiritual knowledge forgetting the quantitative differences in the same spiritual knowledge. If the spiritual knowledge is darkness and ignorance, you have to reject such a person since he will be the incarnation of Satan. Therefore, you have to decide the incarnation of God based on the quality of the spiritual knowledge. The name, form and external culture are only the material of the cup, which cannot decide the material present in the cup. If the material in the golden cup is Satan like the salt water, such a gold cup is incarnation of Satan. If Nectar is present even in an ordinary ceramic cup, you have to take the cup as the incarnation of God. If the Nectar is full, it is complete incarnation of God. If little, it is partial incarnation of God. Therefore, Nostradamus stressed mainly on the material inside the cup, which is the Universal Spirituality and Science. The external physical signs like three seas, Thursday etc., should be neglected. You have to decide the genius of Nostradamus based on the knowledge radiated by such genius. You pay for the material inside the cup and not for the material in the cup, because you can swallow only the material present inside the cup and get the benefit.

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