Divine Satsanga on Shri Datta Swami's Birthday

Part-1

[A direct interactive spiritual discussion with Shri Datta Swami happened on the auspicious occasion of His birthday on February 24, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

1. If God knows there is a chance that the soul may misuse its free will, then why did God grant free will in the first place?

[Shri Hrushikesh asked: Swami, one of my friends recently read one of your discourses and had this question - When souls cannot utilize their free will properly, they do bad deeds and in turn, undergo punishments. At such times, the punishments awarded to the soul may also be postponed to a future date depending on the will of God. Also, God does not give anything that is bad for the soul no matter how much the soul may want it. If God knows there is a chance that the soul may misuse its free will, then why did God grant free will in the first place?]

Swāmi replied: I have given the answer to the question already in one of the older discourses. In Kruta Yuga, the souls became bored because of the strict discipline they were subjected to by God. Because they became bored, God had to give them free will. But free will comes with some disadvantages. To control these disadvantages, God provided ethical commandments to the souls by incarnating in every generation and through divine souls such as Rishis. God not only gave free will to the soul but also gave souls the means to lead a disciplined life by preaching divine knowledge.

Let us say there is a family with a few children. The children stay at home and study with discipline under the supervision of their parents. While living at home with discipline, the children may become bored at one point or another. In order to help them overcome this boredom, one day, the parents may take their children to the park or to a picnic so that they can enjoy relatively more freedom. But even when the parents take their children to the picnic, they will ask their children to be careful by establishing certain rules—don't go near the pond, don't go outside the park, etc. No doubt the parents took their children on a picnic so that they can enjoy their free will without too much discipline. But even there, the parents will establish rules to maintain some control. Disciplined free will is the outcome.

First, there is only discipline. Second, there is only free will. By mixing both of these, God grants disciplined free will. He enforces discipline so that free will isn't in excess. He grants free will within limits. God has taken a via media approach in this manner.

Everything in nature automatically moves towards indiscipline. D(S) is always positive according to the laws of thermodynamics. Any spontaneous process tends towards an increase in entropy. In this way, D(S) remains positive. The tendency of the universe is to move from order to disorder. A disciplined system will always try to move towards disorder. This is denoted by a positive D(s)—'S' here denotes entropy. Entropy means randomness. The direction of the universe is towards an increase in entropy. Meaning, the tendency of the universe is to move towards randomness. Randomness is nothing but freedom. This is why in Kali Yuga, we see the highest level of indiscipline in souls.

Finally, we see that free energy reduces as communicated by the reduction in D(g). In some processes, D(S) can be negative and spontaneity can still exist. The factor that we must look at in conclusion is D(g) or free energy, which is always negative in the sense that energy reduces.

The connection between free will and free energy is that when the soul has more energy, it desires free will. Once free will is granted to the soul, it gets spoilt and undergoes punishments. Subsequently, the soul's energy reduces. That is when the soul comes to a stable, ground state. There is no spontaneity when D(g) is positive. Where there is spontaneity, D(g) is always negative. D(S) is usually positive, but there are a few exceptions where a spontaneous reaction has a negative D(S). However, in all spontaneous reactions, D(g) is negative. This means that the soul naturally gets rid of excess energy.

When we have a lot of energy, we feel like engaging in one activity or another. Once we lose this energy after the activity, we become peaceful, disciplined, and orderly. For instance, if someone gets a lot of money, he will get excess energy in the sense that D(g) for him becomes positive. If someone eats a lot of food, D(g) becomes positive for him as well. This D(g) must then become negative in the sense that the excess energy needs to be reduced.

The inherent nature of every individual soul is to acquire greatness from others. If you see somebody great, you want to become great like him or her. Acquiring greatness and becoming the greatest is the inherent tendency of a human being. This tendency was satisfied by Adi Shankara. He said that everybody is God, and in turn, made everyone the greatest. When everyone is the greatest, then one will not be jealous of another. The unimaginable intelligence of Adi Shankara is such that He elevated everyone to the highest level and eliminated ego and jealousy. He simply said that everybody is equal because everybody is God. When there is no person greater than you or lesser than you, there is no ego or jealousy. The inherent tendency of a human being is always towards greatness, and never towards submissiveness. It is not a downward nature, but an upward one as seen in one's ego. This ego also brings jealousy. So if somebody is greater than you, you become jealous upon seeing him. That is why every human being shall worship Hanuman.

Hanuman is the greatest. He has all the powers and is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. If you take the Trimurthis, Lord Shiva is the Father, God Vishnu is the Mother and God Brahma is their Son. God Brahma is considered to be the son of Lord Vishnu. A lotus flower is said to have emerged from Lord Vishnu's navel, and from this lotus flower, Brahma was born. Saraswati, the wife of Lord Brahma, and Lakshmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu, are daughter-in-law and mother-in-law respectively. That is why they don't stay together.

2. How can we correlate Advaita philosophy with Your philosophy?

[Shri Ganesh asked: Swami, in Datta vedam, You've said that the world appears real to You because of self-imposed ignorance. Nikhil sir and I were discussing a recent discourse in which You said that even without ignorance, the world appears very real to a human incarnation. If this world is very real to You, how do I correlate Advaita theory with Your philosophy? Advaita says that everything is maya and that this world is not the ultimate reality.]

Swāmi replied: The world is unreal to God and not to the soul. The world is quite real to the soul because it is a part of the world. The world is unreal only from the viewpoint of God. For God, the world is unreal and so is the soul. Something that is unreal to something else that is unreal is, in fact, real in the same way that negative multiplied by negative is positive. The term ‘unreal’ means relatively real. I'm relatively real. For Me, what is the absolute reality? My relative reality is itself the absolute reality to Me. I cannot experience a reality more than My reality.

What is my reality? I am only a relative reality because I am part of the world. The reality that exists for the world is the same reality that exists for you as well. If the world is unreal, you are also unreal. If the world is absolutely real, then you are also absolutely real. You are actually a relative reality. A relatively real soul cannot experience a reality more than that its own reality. It cannot go beyond that. So, the soul’s own relative reality is an absolute reality for itself. That absolute reality of the soul is equal to the reality of the rest of the world because the soul is a part of the world. If you are absolutely real, then the world must also be absolutely real. Your experience confirms that you exist absolutely. Therefore, the world exists absolutely for you.

Your awareness is a specific work form of inert energy. Here, the Advaita philosophers start with their own reality as an absolute reality—since I'm absolutely real, God is also absolutely real. So, I am God. But, you are experiencing a reality that is absolute to you. However, you must remember that the absolute reality which you experience is a relative reality for God. God experiences His own reality as an absolute reality. Advaita mistakes both these absolute realities—God’s absolute reality and the soul’s absolute reality—to be the same. You are experiencing your reality as an absolute reality. But, you also say that you are experiencing God's reality as an absolute reality. Now, what is the experience of your reality to God?

There are four points here:

i)      Your experience of your reality is absolute.

ii)     God's experience of His reality is absolute.

iii)    Your experience of God's reality is absolute.

The 4^th question is what is the experience of your reality in the view of God. Is it absolute? No, it is relatively real. So therefore, for God, this world is relatively real.

Relatively real does not mean non-existent. Relatively real just means originally unreal. You see a rope and you mistake it for a snake. The snake by itself is unreal. But the snake appears as if it is real. The existence of the serpent is the existence of the rope itself. The reality of the rope is borrowed by the snake, and therefore, the snake appears as if it exists. So, that which has no self-reality and is unreal by itself, appears real by taking on the reality of its substratum. In the same way, the reality of this world is the reality of God. The reality of the snake is nothing but the reality of the rope. If the rope is absent, the snake is absent. If I borrowed some money from you and I keep it in My pocket, is it not My money now? So, I borrowed reality from you, and that reality is Mine now. Similarly, this world borrowed its reality from God and appears as real as Him. But its reality is not an inherent reality; it is only a borrowed reality. God may withdraw any time. The rope may appear to you at any time and the snake will disappear.

It is, in fact, self-imposed ignorance; there is no doubt about it. Here, you may take the example of a human being who imposes ignorance on himself and enjoys the imaginary world. But the defect in this example is that the world in which he is enjoying does not appear real—it is only imaginary. But in the case of God, He need not close His eyes; His imaginary world appears to Him as the real world appears to us. That is why it gives real entertainment to God.

For you, you have two options. You cannot derive enjoyment in your imaginary world. However, you can derive a great amount of enjoyment in the real world. This real world is an imaginary world for God. So, what you are saying is that the enjoyment that you get in this real world is not possible for God because this world is imaginary to Him. You are wrong in saying this statement. By His power, that imaginary world for Him also becomes this real world. You have two places. Your imaginary world and the real world. God also has two places—the imaginary world (your real world) and His absolute reality (unimaginable). God also imagines and His imagination becomes this world, which is real. But, at the same time, it is essentially an imaginary world. When He enters this world, it appears as if it is real to give Him entertainment, but when He wishes, He can pass through the bolted doors. Shankaracharya did the same when Mandana Mishra refused to allow him inside for a debate. The door was real, but essentially, it was unreal because the reality of this world is a reality of God itself. It is a borrowed reality.

As you enjoy this world, God also enjoys this world, but essentially, it is unreal for Him and thus, He can do miracles while you cannot. You are a part of the created world whereas He is the Creator. Due to His omnipotence, He can make His imaginary world appear as the real world. At the same time, it is also essentially unreal. That is why He can get full entertainment out of creation. For God, this world has two sides—reality and unreality. On one side, this world is real so that He can obtain full entertainment and on another side, this world becomes unreal so that He can perform any miracle. So, for Him, this world is both imaginary as well as real. Because it is real, He gets full entertainment and since it is also imaginary, He can do whatever he wants. This explains miracles.

If this world is an absolute reality and God is also the same absolute reality, God cannot do anything in this world. One absolute reality cannot create, maintain, control and destroy another absolute reality. So, this world is not equivalent to reality to God. In your imaginary world, you imagine yourself flying but you cannot fly in this real world. But for God, He can fly because this is both a real and an imaginary world for Him. This is what Shankaracharya also says. Shankara's philosophy is perfectly correct, but we also add a point here because we may think that since you don’t get full entertainment in your imaginary world, He also does not obtain full entertainment in His imaginary world. You may misunderstand in this manner. I gave this entire explanation to remove that misunderstanding.

As far as the reality of this world is concerned, it is mithya. Shakaracharya defined mithya as sadasat vilakshanah mithya. It is neither real nor unreal. You cannot say this world is unreal because it has borrowed its existence from God. However, you cannot also say that the world is real because God can take back the reality that the world has borrowed from Him. Therefore, we cannot say that this world is real or unreal. The absolute reality is God (Brahma satyam jagat mithya)—this is correct. However, Shankara also said that the soul is God—this is not correct. Did He say something that was wrong? No, He intentionally preached something incorrect not because of His ignorance but because of the need of that time. Let’s say that a small child is not eating. The mother may tell the child, “If you eat this food, the moon will come down.” The boy believes his mother’s statement and eats the food. After eating, he becomes healthy. So the mother has done something good even though she had to use a lie. Similarly, Shankara preached that every soul is God. Although He knew very well that every soul is not God, He had to preach the opposite of that truth because everyone surrounding Him were atheists at the time. No one then believed in the existence of a God other than themselves. If you tell such an atheist that a God other than you exists, he will not believe you. If you want to make him believe that God exists, you need to first tell him that he is God.

It is a three-step formula. First, the atheist should agree that God exists, and for that Shankara told him that the soul is God. Then, the atheist asked Sankara, how can I be God when I have no powers. Shankara told him that to attain God’s power, he needs to worship Him. Eventually, the atheists tasted the sweetness of devotion. Then came Madhavacarya, who told the atheist that he was not God and that he was only a servant of God. Will the atheist then go back to being an atheist? No, he will not because he has already tasted the sweetness of devotion. The atheist-turned-theist then lost the hope of becoming God and instead became a real devotee and surrendered to God. Now, he has become qualified to become God. If he had aspired to become God, he could never have become God.

When does God merge with another soul? When there is some work to be accomplished in this world. God loves His creation. Will the factory owner not come to his factory and work for its maintenance? Likewise, God always incarnates in this world for our welfare.

3. Swami, is becoming a Human Incarnation of God the final fruit that a human soul can achieve?

[A question asked by Kum. Laxmi Thrylokya.]

Swāmi replied: No, there is a higher fruit than this. Suppose a certain fruit has not been granted to you; this may indicate that a better fruit may come your way. If God didn’t merge with you, it means that you have not become God. But if you are always a devotee and your devotion to God is so high that you are welded to God, God becomes your servant! God does whatever you wish. Such an individual is called a dualistic incarnation.

Balarama is considered as one of the 10 incarnations of God. But he is not God, he is Adishesha, the servant of God. Yet, he is considered as one of the ten incarnations of God because he is a dualistic incarnation. There is not a lot of difference between the monistic incarnation and the dualistic incarnation. When God merges with you, the credit of whatever work he does will be given to you and people will think that you have done it. You don’t have to worry that you have not become an incarnation of God, when in fact you can become the master of God. Why should you bother about Advaita? You can remain in Dvaita and God will become your servant. He will do whatever you want and the credit will come to you. Radha is different from Krishna, but whatever Radha wants, Krishna does. Krishna sits at the feet of Radha, decorating her legs. Is this state not more than just an incarnation? Dualism is better than monism. There is another advantage to dualism as compared to monism. In monism, you have to take on the sufferings of your devotees. So in dualism, there are only advantages and no disadvantages.

The monistic incarnation appears like a golden crown, but inside, it is full of thorns that you cannot see. We see only the golden crown and we are attracted by its beauty from the outside, but we fail to observe the golden thorns! The golden thorns pierce and cause a lot of pain! This disadvantage is not present in a dualistic incarnation. In a monistic incarnation, you become one with God and His equal, but in a dualistic incarnation, you become the master of God while He becomes your servant. If you are wise, you will not aspire to become a monistic incarnation because there are so many problems involved. In the case of the monistic incarnation, the disadvantages are more in number than the advantages.

You may think that I have removed your difficulty, but you don’t know that I have taken on your difficulty. You may praise Me saying, “Oh Great God! you have removed my difficulty”, but you don’t know that I have taken on your difficulty and suffering. For removing your difficulty, you will be praising Me, but I will be weeping inside. However, in the case of a dualistic incarnation, he prays to God to remove your difficulty and God takes your suffering on to Him and cures you. In turn, you’ll praise the devotee (dualistic incarnation) who you approached for the removal of your problem even though he is actually not the one who suffers for your sake!

4. Swami, don’t you think that the rules of Creation are broken when You suffer on behalf of Your devotees?

[A question asked by Smt. Sudha Rani.]

Swāmi replied: That stage of the dualistic incarnation cannot be achieved by everyone—it is attained by only one in millions. It is not so easy. God does not openly display a board to everybody with the statement, ‘Diseases can be transferred here’. When a human being approaches and surrenders completely to the incarnation, the incarnation has to take up the devotee’s sins. The monistic incarnation has to suffer for the sins taken from deserving devotees as God has merged with the incarnation. Unless you mix copper with pure gold, pure gold cannot be drawn into wires (ductility) or beaten into sheets (malleability). Similarly, the monistic incarnation is like an alloy made of gold and copper while the dualistic incarnation is like a copper wire and a golden wire welded together. It is far better to be in Bhakthi Bandham—i.e., in a God-devotee bond—than to become God. This is why Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, “I don’t want to become the sugar that is bitten by ants. I want to become an ant that bites the sugar.” Paramahamsa’s decision is a very wise one! Without knowing this background, the poor Advaitin aspirants always chant Aham Brahmasmi. The one who has become Brahman will know the real pain involved in this statement! When the Advaitins obtain this understanding, they will immediately shout Aham jiivahasmi!

A devotee of Shri Satya Sai Baba once desired the state of Baba. Baba said, “Oh! Nobody had asked Me for this desire until now. Even I have been waiting for that day when someone like you will come and ask Me for this desire. I will definitely give you My state. Here it is.” Saying this, Baba placed His hand on the devotee’s head. The devotee immediately obtained the state of Baba. In the next minute, he could hear millions of people shouting in pain— “Baba, please save me!”, “Baba, please remove my pain!”, etc. By the end of that minute, the devotee’s head was ready to burst and he screamed in agony, “Baba, please remove Your hand from my head”. Baba then said, “Isn’t this what you had asked Me for?” The devotee, overcome by agony, immediately responded, “Baba, You please remove Your hand first. I cannot bear this pain.”

No one will aspire to achieve the state of a monistic human incarnation when they get to know all this. This non-aspiration of the soul to become an incarnation, in fact, qualifies a devotee to become an incarnation. When you say no to becoming an incarnation, God runs behind you to accept His state. When it happened to Me, I tried to escape the state because I very well knew the background of suffering involved in being an incarnation. I told Lord Datta, “Swami, I am ineligible to become an incarnation. There are many other deserving devotees for this task. I cannot propagate Your divine knowledge. I simply teach children how to clear the IIT entrance exams. How can I do justice to Your mission?” I just wanted a boon from Him to pass a job interview, that's all. But Lord Datta insisted, saying, “Who can be more deserving than You for this mission?” When I told Him that I have a lot of problems, Lord Datta immediately said, “Don’t worry, I will resolve all Your problems.” I tried My best to avoid becoming an incarnation, but He came running after Me, asking Me to become one.

On the other extreme opposite, we have false Advaitins who constantly chant Aham Brahmasmi, fighting with each other to achieve Godship! Not to mention those people who openly declare themselves as God on their own. All this is happening due to ignorance. These unfortunate individuals only see the golden crown on the outside and think, “Wow! What a beautiful golden crown! Let me keep it on my head!”. They are aspiring to keep the crown on their own heads not knowing the presence of the golden thorns inside.

To be continued...

★ ★ ★ ★ ★