Posted on: 15 Mar 2024
[Maha Shiva Raatri Satsanga on 8th March 2024 at Hyderabad]
[Ms. Swathika asked:- It is said that Agni (god of fire) brings wealth to any devotee. Does this mean that doing sacrifice (Homa to fire) brings wealth?]
Swami replied:- The fire is inert and if you pour ghee in the inert fire, nothing will happen because the inert fire without awareness can’t understand anything including your prayer and your need. A person is understanding your problem and your prayer since he is associated with awareness. The hunger fire present in a living being associated with awareness can understand your prayer and need. Hence, a hungry man is said to be the fire-god called Vaishvaanaraagni. The Veda says that a hungry guest is Vaishvaanaraagni or Devataagni or divine-fire. In the Gita also, hunger-fire is said to be God (Ahaṃ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā…). Hence, a divine person, who is hungry can be the fire-god. If you feed the hungry Sadguru, you are feeding God directly because Sadguru is the direct human incarnation of God. This is selfish (not in a wrong sense. This only means that we pertain to a self.) pleasure and there can be non-selfish pleasure also, which is the pleasure of the father on feeding his son. The poorest beggar is the dearest son of God. You must feed him and save his life as an emergent donation. In this case, you need not analyze the eligibility of the receiver. Even if the beggar is an atheist, you must feed him because there is a chance for the atheist to become a theist when his life is saved. The government and rich people shall concentrate on building beggar homes to give food, shelter, cloth and medicine to beggars. After covering the poorest, you can concentrate on poor and poorer layers of society. This means that you can implement all the welfare schemes after seeing no beggar on the streets of the country. The government is concentrating on poor and poorer sections for the sake of votes without covering the bottommost poorest layer.