Emphasis on Karma Phala Tyaga

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Smt. Padma, wife of Sharma passed on a comment ‘God is in money’. Sharma became angry and told her that she will be punished by God for commenting like that. Sharma came to Swami and complained about the matter. Swami told ‘You should not threaten anybody. You should analyze the topic and convince the people through knowledge. By threatening, the thought is only suppressed but not removed’. Sharma came back along with his wife and Swami delivered the following divine discourse to the devotees.]

Swami Replied:- People say that God is in money. It is correct because money is Goddess Lakshmi. Lord Narayana is in her heart always. The money is also in the heart of God because Goddess Lakshmi is in His heart. Whatever is in the heart of Lord, the same came out in His word, which is the Veda. The Veda says that sacrifice of money alone can please the Lord (Dhanena Tyagenaikena). The Lord came down in human form as Lord Krishna, who also told the same point with the highest intensity also. The Gita, the word of Lord Krishna, says that one should sacrifice the entire money possessed by him to please the Lord (Sarva karmaphala tyagam). Jesus told a rich man to sacrifice all the wealth possessed by him. Lord Vishnu said the same in the Vishnu Puranam ‘Yasyaanugrahamichchami Tasya Vittam Haraamyaham’, which means that the Lord is pleased by taking the money from the devotee. The Lord is Sadguru and one point is appreciable with Him i.e., whatever is in the heart He spoke it out. The present gurus aspire for money in the heart but speak against money in the words. It is said that great people think, speak and do the same (Karmanyekam, vachasyekam, manasyekam mahaatmanaam). Whatever the Lord told, the same thing was also done by Him. The Lord came as guest to Saktuprastha and took all the flour from him for eating, when Saktuprastha was going to eat the same, who was suffering without food for the past ten days in a drought.

Vashishtha asked Rama to submit gurudakshina (money) before preaching the Jnana Vaashishtham (Dhanamarjaya kakutstha). A sacrifice is useless if dakshina is not offered (Adakshina hato yajnaha). All the rituals involve sacrifice of food and dakshina (money) only. Sai Baba was asking for dakshina everytime. Yoga Vaashishtham says that money is the root of the world (Dhanamoolamidam jagat). Shri Yantram, which is based on Shri (money) speaks about the importance of money. Everybody should frankly accept that everything is revolving around money. If money is not there, all the family members will leave you and even the body leaves the soul if the food (form of money) is not there. The proof of the real love is only the sacrifice of hard earned money. The real love is only on children because all the wealth is given to them only in the end. Therefore, if you say that you have the real love for God, God will catch your money and will ask you to give it to Him. The real colour will come out. Therefore, sacrifice of fruit of work (money) is the real proof of devotion as praised in the Gita.

What is the difference between the Lord and ordinary human beings if money is only the criterion? No doubt, money is the criterion because the real love is tested by the sacrifice of money only. But there is difference between the account of God and the account of human beings. If you go to a booking clerk, he will give you a ticket for 100 miles-distance by taking Rs. 100 and he will not ask about the money leftover in your pocket after paying the hundred rupees. He will give you a ticket for ten miles if you pay Rs. 10 and will not ask about the balance in your pocket. This is the account of human beings. But if the Lord sits in the same booking section, His account is totally different. Suppose you have asked for a 100 miles-ticket. He will not tell the fare of the ticket. He will ask you about the amount present in your pocket. If you have only Rs. 10 and pay Him all the ten rupees, He will give you a 100 miles-ticket. Suppose you have Rs. 1000 in your pocket and give Rs. 100, He will give you a ten miles-ticket because you have paid 1/10^th of the money present in your pocket. This is the difference between the human beings and the God. God sees the extent of sacrifice but not the extent of sacrificed item.

Dharma Raja performed Aswamedha-sacrifice and donated lot of wealth to the sages. Let us assume the worth of his entire wealth as 7 crores in view of the value of rupee at that time. He donated the wealth worth of 3 crores. The Lord gave him the ticket up to the third world only, which is the heaven or Swarga Loka. The Swargarohana Parva of the Mahabharatam says that Dharma Raja has gone up to the heaven only. The topmost Brahma Loka is the seventh world from the earth. Therefore, we expect that the cost of the ticket for Brahma Loka is Rs. 7 crores according to the account of human beings, since Brahma Loka is the seventh world from the earth. But when the Lord came in the disguise of a poor hungry Brahmin to Saktuprastha, he offered the Lord a flour-meal which is worth of 7 rupees. According to the above account of human beings, the Lord can give a ticket for 7 miles on earth only. But the Lord gave the ticket to Brahma Loka for the Rs. 7! Saktuprastha sacrificed everything and nothing was leftover with him. This happened to be the total sacrifice of the fruit of work, which is Sarva karmaphala tyaga as mentioned in the Gita.

Shankara went to the house of a poor house holder. They gave a little food from their quantum of food that was prepared at that time. He gave blessings to them. Then, Shankara went to another house of a poor lady. She searched the whole house and found a small dry fruit. She immediately offered that to Shankara. Except that fruit there was nothing to eat in the house. She could have kept that for herself or her family to pacify at least a trace of hunger. Such sacrifice is Sarva karmaphala tyaga, as stated in the Gita. All these donors sacrificed without expecting anything in return from the Lord and hence, the sacrifice of all these people is very pure. But the sacrifice of Saktuprastha and that lady was pure and also a total sacrifice as mentioned in the Gita. Shankara recited a prayer spontaneously called as Kanaka Dhara and the gold was rained in her house immediately. Similar was the sacrifice of Sudama to whom the Lord gave immense wealth. Sudama gave a handful of parched rice to the Lord even though his family was suffering with hunger from several days. The same Sudama in childhood stole the same handful parched rice, which was the share of the Lord and was hit by poverty. This shows that enjoying the wealth of others, especially, the wealth of the Lord by cheating like corruption or business will lead to severe punishment. Therefore, the sacrifice should be without aspiring anything and also should be total to please the Lord. Jesus praised the sacrifice of one rupee of a widow as greatest among the other heavy donations from rich people for the same reason.

When the Lord came in the disguise of a poor Brahmin, Saktuprastha started offering the meals part by part. The guest looked like another poor human being only. Since He is a learned Brahmin and a devotee, he is a deserving person for the sacrifice. This means that the sacrifice should be done to a deserving devotee. This is the social service (Pravrutti) in which a deserving co-human being is served. In doing sacrifice to the co-human beings, the deservingness of the receiver should be estimated. Here the receiver is a devotee, a learned scholar and is hungry. The criteria of the receiver should be fixed in this way. You should not sacrifice to an undeserving person. Saktuprastha sacrificed 1/4^th of the flour in the beginning. This means that you should not exceed a certain limit in the sacrifice towards the society. The receiver was still hungry. This is the maximum limit of the social service because the family members of Saktuprastha are also suffering with hunger. This parting of the flour indicates the balanced judgment of social service and responsibility towards the family. Saktuprastha, his wife, his son and his daughter-in-law were the four members of the family hit by hunger for the past ten days in a drought. The guest looks like a co-human being with hunger. But that itself cannot be the criterion because the poverty and hunger are the fruits of the sins of a soul. But the hungry man is a Brahmin (Brahma Jnani), who looks like a devotee and a learned scholar from his appearance and words. Therefore, he deserves the charity. The flour was divided in to four parts. On seeing the guest, Saktuprastha gave his share only. But the guest remains still with hunger. Saktuprastha kept silent because he has no right on the other parts even though it was his self-earned food. This means that the charity should not exceed 1/4^th of the self-earned property for a householder having a family of 3 members.

Therefore, the self-earned property should be divided in to equal shares to the family members and one can donate his share only to the maximum extent provided the receiver is deserving. The wife gave her share to the guest on her own will only. Son and daughter-in-law followed the same on their own will. Here, the important point is that Saktuprastha did not force his family members to donate their shares on the basis that it was his self-earned property. This shows the sense of responsibility towards his family in the mind of Saktuprastha, which is justified. But the sacrifice of every family member is a total sacrifice with respect to individual member. Such total sacrifice is not justified because the guest is not identified as Lord in disguise. The guest was considered only as a deserving devotee. In such case, how the total sacrifice was done by each member? Is it not a foolish social service? If the guest is recognized as the Lord, then there is no problem because the Lord will give back in several folds. When the receiver is only a deserving human being, such total sacrifice is foolish and is not justified. If no food was leftover, even their lives are in danger. It amounts to suicide. The aim of the human life is lost, which is to please the Lord and not to please a co-human being.

The actual decision of the total sacrifice was the result of a collective thinking of all the family members step by step. When Saktuprastha gave his part, though it was a total sacrifice from his side, he will have his share in the leftover 3/4^th parts. It does not mean that if the guest goes away satisfied by the first part, the other 3 members will eat their parts leaving Saktuprastha. The donation of the first part was done by the mutual discussion of the four members inside the kitchen room. The guest was dining in the hall. Therefore, the sacrifice of the part of Saktuprastha to the co-human being was not a total sacrifice. This is not wrong because in the social service, total sacrifice is not justified. It is against the justice or Pravrutti. The outsider should not be more important than the family and the self. The family members of Saktuprastha are also as good devotees and as hungry as the arrived deserving guest. When the guest was still expecting, the second part was also given by the wife after mutual discussion only. When the guest desired for the second part, there was a doubt in the family of Saktuprastha whether the arrived guest is the Lord in disguise. The reason for this is that the guest crossed the limits of the justice or Pravrutti. No human being, especially a devotee and learned scholar like the guest will aspire for the second part in that situation. There are four members to eat the food and the guest was the fifth member. The guest deserves 1/5^th portion. But he got 1/4^th portion, which was more than his right share as per Pravrutti. Once he asked for the 50% of the food, he had crossed the justice. By crossing the justice, the guest also knows that he will get the sin. The learned guest will not dare to do such a sin. Normally even an ordinary human being will not ask for the second part. The family members of Saktuprastha are having the spiritual knowledge (Brahma Jnanam) and are experts in identifying the Lord in human form. The guts of the Lord to cross the boundary of Pravrutti is a hint for the identification of the Lord. With the part given already to the guest, the life of the guest can be saved. With the remaining food, the life of each family member can be saved.

If the guest is greedy and is not caring for others, Saktuprastha and his family members should deny further food explaining the same. The life of any family member need not be sacrificed to satisfy the greediness of the guest. The human life is precious and meant for realization and service to Lord and need not be ended for the sake of meaningless social service (Pravrutti). Therefore, if the guest is only a human being and not the Lord, at this point itself, the guest should be warned. The second part of food was given to the guest but the guest still desired for the third part. Now, family members have confirmed that the guest is only God, who came to test them. Assuming that the guest is greedy, he should have been satisfied by the 50% of the food because the other half has to be shared by four hungry devotees like him. Even the topmost greedy person will stop at this point. The family members concluded that the guest was the Lord even while serving the 3^rd part itself. The conclusion was reinforced when the fourth part was also desired by the guest. Even a person having the nature of a cruel animal also will not ask for the fourth part in that situation because if the fourth part is also eaten, all the four devotees will die with hunger due to his excessive eating. As expected, the guest appeared as the Lord and gave them Brahma Loka. Suppose the guest was really a cruel animal in nature and really cheated the family of Saktuprastha and went away after eating the entire food. What will happen? The guest will be punished by God with suitable action. Saktuprastha and his family members missed the Lord by a sharp margin only. Their total sacrifice was towards the Lord only in their minds. Therefore, the Lord will protect them and give the Brahma Loka. Therefore, there is no loss if you miss the Lord by a sharp margin because you have put all your efforts in the analysis and did not believe everybody blindly in doing the sacrifice.

Therefore, we should start first with the social service limiting ourselves to one part for charity. The family members should divide the property giving one equal share to the justice. The charity is only Pravrutti but still it is related to God if you select a deserving devotee as a receiver. Even the Lord in human form will test you in the Pravrutti only in the beginning. He will appear as a deserving devotee and will test you in Pravrutti. If you cannot climb the first step of Pravrutti, how can you suddenly climb Nivrutti? If the Lord appears in the beginning itself, everybody in the world will fall at His feet surrendering everything. Therefore, the Lord will come first as a deserving receiver in Pravrutti. Sometimes the Lord comes as undeserving receiver so that He is testing you about your knowledge of Pravrutti. If you are serving the undeserving person, the Lord will be displeased with you even though He is in the disguise of same undeserving person. Avoiding a charity to undeserving person and doing charity to the deserving person are the two important steps of Pravrutti. The knowledge of both these aspects constitutes the Pravrutti. People blindly do charity without discrimination. Such charity is ignorance and sometimes results in the accumulation of sin, if the receiver is undeserving. These ignorant donors support themselves in the name of kindness to everybody. Kindness to the deserving person is appreciated by God because it is for the welfare of the society. Kindness to the undeserving person harms the society and you are purchasing the sin.

If you give milk to the serpent it will bite you and others. By this, the balance of the society is lost and for this you are responsible and you will be punished by God. Therefore, the analysis and knowledge are necessary in the charity as the primary step. The Veda says that one should have analysis and discrimination of the receiver before doing the charity (Samvida deyam). The hunger of a serpent should not be sympathized because it will never change its nature. If you are following the Pravrutti (dharma), the good qualities and devotion should be seen in the receiver. The devotion is more important than good qualities, but if the devotion is selfless, the good qualities naturally exist. The devotion of a selfish devotee is not true love on God. Ravana was a great devotee but his devotion is selfish and therefore, such devotion is not true. If you are serving the devotees in Pravrutti, God will certainly come to you one day in the form of a devotee. Without Pravrutti, Nivrutti is not possible. When God comes in human form, certainly He will give you a hint of identification. If you are having the spiritual knowledge, you will certainly catch Him. He will neither cover Himself completely nor reveal Himself completely. He will be like a tough problem with a hint.

Suppose Saktuprastha alone has spiritual knowledge. Then Saktuprastha will sacrifice his share. In such case, the family members may not be in Nivrutti but they are in Pravrutti. They will not object the sacrifice of the part of Saktuprastha. But they will not sacrifice their parts. Of course, they will offer food to Saktuprastha from their shares. In such context, suppose the guest asked for the other parts also. Saktuprastha will have a severe fight with family members because Saktuprastha alone recognized the guest as the Lord. Even if the food was not earned by Saktuprastha, he will fight for the other shares to be donated to the guest because in Nivrutti a spiritual person will always try for a total sacrifice to the Lord irrespective of the justice in any angle. God is beyond both injustice and justice and He expects you also to rise above the justice and injustice in His case (Sarvadharmaan– Gita). If the family members are not even in Pravrutti, they will resist Saktuprastha even for his sacrifice. Such situations will complicate the tests more and more. The test becomes simple if all the family members are of the same spiritual level. Since all the members of the family of Saktuprastha are of the same level, God gave Brahma Loka to all of them at once. Today in Kali Yuga, the entire family including Saktuprastha knows neither Pravrutti nor Nivrutti. They will ask the beggar to get out in the first instance itself and there is no question of the Lord coming to their house in disguise as a guest.

Justice And Devotion

Justice (Pravrutti) and devotion to God (Nivrutti) are the two subsequent steps. The purvamimamsa (justice) of Jaimini and the Uttaramimamsa (devotion) of Vyasa are the two subsequent parts of the same spiritual path. Dharma or justice is the atmosphere into which the God descends down. You must serve the devotees first and please the God. This will create an atmosphere for the God to visit you one day or other. A selfish demon does not create this atmosphere and wants to sacrifice anything for God suddenly. He likes a jump to the second step suddenly. The reason for this is that he is selfish and wants to get maximum benefit from the Lord by such sudden excessive devotion. Such devotion may be excessive but not true. It is like the sudden excessive love of a prostitute. Ravana insulted Nandi, who is a devotee of Lord Shiva. But he sacrificed himself by cutting his head for the sake of Lord Shiva. He has no devotion for the devotees of Shiva. But he has spontaneous and infinite devotion for Shiva. His devotion for Shiva is also not true. His devotion for Shiva was only to get boons. The parents of Shiriyala were real devotees of Shiva, who were not aspiring for any boon from Shiva. They were worshipping the devotee of Shiva as Shiva. Shiva came in the form of a devotee and asked for the sacrifice of their son. They killed their son and offered to the devotee of Shiva. When Shiva appeared, they did not ask for any boon. Therefore, for Nivrutti, the Pravrutti stands as a background. Meera was worshipping the devotees of Krishna and finally Krishna came to her. Shiva did not come in the form of a devotee to Ravana to test his devotion because Shiva knows that the devotion of Ravana was only for boons. For such artificial intensive devotion of Ravana, boons were given, but Ravana was destroyed soon. The devotion of those parents was tested and permanent salvation was given to them. Ravana neglected the devotee of Shiva because the devotee is not useful in any way except sharing the divine experiences, which are not required for Ravana. The divine experience is desired only when true love exists on Lord. Ravana liked Lord Shiva because of the utility. Therefore, people with the mind of utility like to jump directly in to Nivrutti because the selfishness is hidden in them at least in their subconscious state.

The main aim of God is that you should have natural love on Him as you have the same on your child. You are not having the view of utility from the small kid, who is your son. You are attracted towards him. You do not aspire any benefit in return for your service and sacrifice of wealth to him. Your love is not disturbed even if he gives serious troubles. Such natural love should come on God. But unfortunately, the problem with God is that once you realize the God, the utility aspect of God comes in to your heart unconsciously. Everybody knows that God is omnipotent and this aspect brings the excessive love, which rises like a Tsunami. If all that infinite love is natural, God would be immensely pleased with you. He is not impressed with that huge quantity of love. He starts searching the reality or naturality in it, which is destroyed by the knowledge of omnipotent aspect of God. Your child is impotent and depends on you for everything. But still your love flows on him and that is natural. Therefore, if you have to develop the natural or real love on God, He must hide or mask His aspect of omnipotency by appearing as a human being. The human form masks His omnipotency so that your love on Him now can be real and natural. But unfortunately, when the human form masks His omnipotency and when He appears as an ordinary human being, even a trace of artificial love is not appearing on Him because He is just an outsider unlike your family member. Even the rules of Pravrutti do not allow to show more natural love on Him compared to your child. In fact, the natural love will not arise at all in your heart even in the natural way and there is no need of the rules of Pravrutti to oppose it. Krishna is the son of Yashoda, who is just a neighbour. Why should a Gopika love Him more than her son? There is no need of even a trace of natural love on Him because He is an outsider and even not a relative. If at all some love arises, it should be only artificial because He is the son of the ruler of that village. If the mask is removed, the reality or naturality of the love disappears. If the mask is completely covering the God, even a trace of artificial love will not rise in your heart because He is just a co-human being, who is as good as any outsider. Love appears on God but is not natural due to the appearance of omnipotency spontaneously. On an ordinary human being, even, the love will not be generated.

Suppose God becomes your son like Rama in the case of Dasaradha. Even now the problem is not solved because Dasaradha showed natural love on Rama as his son only but not as God because the God remained completely covered in the mask of the human form. When Krishna removed the mask by showing the world in His mouth to His mother, not only the naturality of the love, even the trace of love disappeared because she was shocked with fear and astonishment only. Therefore, the Lord immediately covered Himself with the mask and also made her forget the entire situation. Thus, there is one problem if the human incarnation reveals Himself as God and there is another problem if the human incarnation covers Himself completely. Similarly, Arjuna was shocked when the Vishwarupam was shown. Therefore, the only way is to cover Himself with mask and remove it now and then in a fraction of second to give a hint. The aim of such behavior is to reveal Himself as God but at the same time, the love and its naturality should not be lost. This is a very difficult training like introducing poison drop by drop. You should not misunderstand that He is playing this game for His entertainment. Everything is done only to uplift you. Your upliftment is the primary aim and the entertainment of the game is only a secondary aim, which is accidentally associated. By such saadhana, you will reach a final stage of Hanuman, Radha, Lakshmana etc., in which you will have the undisturbed natural love, while simultaneously recognizing Him as God. You are aware of the omnipotency but it will not create any awareness of its utility in your mind. God loves such natural love of the devotee, while the devotee is recognizing Him as the omnipotent God.

Some ignorant people think that God is doing all this for His entertainment only and therefore, He is cruel. Without the primary aim, which is the upliftment of devotees, the aspect of entertainment is not present. If you say that only the aspect of upliftment should be there without the aspect of entertainment, which is only accidentally associated, that shows your sadism or intolerance of enjoyment of others even if there is no loss to you.

Direct Worship of Human Incarnation

The direct worship of human incarnation gives satisfaction both to the subject and object. When you offer food to the human form of the Lord, you have the satisfaction of the offering and the Lord has satisfaction of enjoying that food. But when you offer the food to a statue of the past human incarnation you may have the satisfaction of offering the food but the satisfaction of taking the food is not in the statue. The angle of the worship of a statue differs from one devotee to the other. One angle is that you are so much attracted towards the past incarnation so that you want to serve it directly. But unfortunately, you missed the opportunity because you are in the present human generation and the Lord is not in the present human generation in the same human form. You like the Lord in that particular dress only. But the dress is now destroyed and cannot be regenerated. Your liking to the Lord in that human form is a combined love on the Lord and that particular dress. Therefore, there is no alternative for you except to worship the statue or photo of the same human form. You are not recognizing the present human incarnation of the same Lord. You may like the present external dress of the Lord but you are not recognizing the internal Lord. Therefore, your love on Him is the love on a co-human being only, which is just simply the external dress only. Even if you recognize the present human incarnation, you may like the inner Lord but not the external dress. In such case, your love or devotion is not full. But if you analyze carefully, the statue or photo is only a representative of the past external dress of the Lord and not even the direct dress. The Lord is not in the photo or statue (Natasya pratima– Veda). It is not even the exact external dress but your liking to that external dress is so fantastic that you treat the photo of that external dress as exactly the same external dress and also imagine that the Lord is present in this statue or photo.

You further imagine that the food offered by you is taken by the Lord. Therefore, your worship is just a net of imaginations only because neither the statue is the exact human form of the Lord, nor the Lord is present in the statue and nor the Lord has eaten your food. Therefore, if you analyze your devotion, you are just mad of that particular external dress only and not of the internal Lord. This cannot be the real devotion to the Lord. There is another angle of greediness in the worship of statue in the case of some other type of devotees. You have the love for the Lord, you are not mad of the external dress, you have recognized the Lord in the present human form (dress) and you like to serve the Lord and get His grace. Everything is alright with you. But you are very greedy. You want to get the grace of the Lord, but not even a single morsel of your food offered should be taken by anybody including the Lord other than yourself. You want to eat the entire food but at the same time, you want to attain the grace of the Lord like others. Others are fools, who offer food to the present human form of the Lord or to devotees in the name of the Lord for attaining the grace of the Lord! You are a genius. Therefore, you are attaining the same grace of the Lord without losing an iota of your food. The worship of statue or photo is the best path for such type of topmost greedy people. They go one step further and declare that they are the absolute God (Aham Brahmasmi). While eating the food they offer the same to the Lord present inside them. By this, the doors of sacrifice are completely closed from all sides. Thus, there are these two types of devotees, who worship statues and photos. The first type of devotees are ignorant or innocent and are not greedy. But they are mad of a particular external dress of the Lord that was destroyed in the past and worship a statue or photo of the same human form of the Lord imagining it directly as the Lord present in a living body. They treat the past human incarnation as the present human incarnation due to their madness. Their devotion is blind without analysis but they derive the happiness and satisfaction in their hearts which cannot be denied.

A mother who is very fond of her dead child becomes mad and treats a photo or a doll as her child and lives with it as if it is alive. She is deriving all the satisfaction and pleasure in her madness. Such devotees are not greedy, they are generous and good but they are simply mad without the analysis of the truth and the divine knowledge. Hanuman played a role of such mad devotee by not recognizing Lord Krishna. He was thinking of the past Rama only. He did not like the new name ‘Krishna’ and a new form of the Lord in the next human generation. But finally, Hanuman recognized Krishna as the same Lord present in Rama. All these mad devotees should take the concluding part of this story. The story did not simply end with Hanuman not recognizing Krishna and leaving Him in the illusion of Rama only. Had the story ended there, the state of these mad devotees who worship the statues of previous human forms of Lord is really justified. You must recognize the concluding part of the story in which Hanuman left the illusion of the past external dress (Rama) and recognized the same Lord in the present existing dress (Krishna). This does not mean that Hanuman became ignorant and then realized the truth. He just acted in the role of the present mad devotees of statues and showed them the path. All these mad devotees were present then also in different human bodies with different names. The same history repeats always. It is better to offer the food to the devotees of the Lord than to offer to the statue of previous incarnation of the Lord. The king feels happy if his son is honoured. Similarly, a devotee is very dear to God and God feels happy, if His devotee is worshipped. The king will be more pleased with the worship of his son than the worship of his photo or statue.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★