Posted on: 05 Jul 2016
Shri Anil asked: Recently you mentioned a case of devil in Parabrahma Gita. Could he not be reformed by the process of repentance?
Swami replied: I am presenting the entire case with all details neither to project Myself as doer of miracles nor to blame that devotee with vengeance. The main purpose is only that this will help the humanity to be aware of ego by which anybody will be destroyed. This devotee had all types of ego except the ego of wealth since he was suffering severely without job and income. This one defect controlled him suppressing all other types of ego. Types of ego are: 1) due to caste, 2) due to gender, 3) due to education and knowledge, 4) due to wealth, 5) due to beauty of body, 6) due to colour of body, 7) due to age of youth, 8) due to support and following of life partner, issues, disciples, relatives, friends, servants etc., (Maa kuru dhana jana yauvana garvam – Shankara) and 9) due to fame and praise from public. All these nine types of ego are obstructions in the path of progress in pravrutti or nivrutti, called as the nine masks of the eyesight (Nava avaranams). He became the top most devotee of Datta Swami aspiring some miraculous blessing to remove his poverty. You will be surprised to see the climax of his devotion before getting boon! He called Datta Swami as ‘Maama’ (maternal uncle) and Datta Swami used to call him as ‘Taatya’ (who was very close devotee of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba). He used to personally wash the clothes of Datta Swami. Once, a relative started criticising Datta Swami. This Taatya became very much violent shouting that Datta Swami is Lord Dattatreya Himself!
After some days, the parents of Taatya firmly believed Datta Swami as the incarnation of Datta. The parents have entered into a business deal with Datta Swami in Shrishailam. They requested Datta Swami that they will enter into propagation of spiritual knowledge provided their son (Taatya) gets a good job. Datta Swami agreed to this deal since in the initial stage miracles are inevitable for starting trouble of the engine. Shri Datta Swami agreed to this and promised them before the temple of Lord Shiva. Within one month, Taatya got an excellent job and within one year Taatya got salary of Rupees one lakh per month! The parents were also very sincere and entered into the divine service as per the promise.
Shri Datta Swami sent a sweet offered to God Brahma to Taatya through his sister with a message “take this offering of God Brahma for the sake of longevity of yourself (Taatya) and your only son”. Taatya threw away the sweet in to a dustbin shouting at his sister “that bloody red robed fellow blessing me! Why all of you serve him like slaves!” The points here are: 1) the offering was to God Brahma, who is not human incarnation that can be neglected. 2) He couldn’t have accepted the offering like devotees of other religions normally doing so. But, even other religions will not throw the offering in such insulting way. He being a Hindu is quite unexpected to do like that. 3) The offering is as per the tradition of the Hindu religion to which Taatya belongs. 4) Datta Swami never mentioned the above miracle done by Him at any time. Leaving the miracle completely, a human being should not use such bad language to other human being, especially in the absence of any reason and in the absence of any bad behaviour or language expressed by Datta Swami. After all, the mistake of Datta Swami is only to send a sweet offered to God Brahma with a message to accept it with devotion in order to protect his longevity and longevity of his son. The message itself indicates that there is a danger of life in his case and in the case of his son. Datta Swami is trying to protect him and his son through such offering by invoking the blessings from God Brahma Datta.
First, everybody shall know that the human incarnation is a product of three components: 1) unimaginable God, who is the source of everything and this is the highest merit. The simultaneous highest defect is that He can’t be captured even by top most intelligence and therefore is not available even for mental devotion and not to speak of practical service. 2) Datta, the energetic form in whom above unimaginable God merged permanently and therefore, 1 and 2 can be treated always as a single item (called as divine Father of heaven). 3) Swami, a human being as good as or as bad as any other human being in whom the component 2 (means 1 and 2) is merged for the sake of visual clarity of human incarnation to humanity. This component 3 has highest merit of visual clarity even for practical service, but, the highest defect is repulsion from co-human beings. The merge of component 2 may be forever or may be temporary, which depends on the deservingness of component 3. In case of permanent merge, the human being (component 3) becomes energetic form after death and the merge of component 2 in It continues forever. The main point is that Datta (actually component 1) alone is responsible for all the divine activities expressed by the human incarnation. Component 3 just serves the purpose of clear visual identity and is not responsible for any merit of Datta. If any defect is observed in the human incarnation, it goes to the component 3 only. However, such error of component 3 is generally controlled by component 2 since the error may be attributed to component 2. Therefore, Datta (component 2) alone is responsible in this entire case. The answer to this question is also given by Datta only and not by Swami. Swami serves the purpose of speaking through throat. Datta is the actual speaker. You can combine both and say that Datta Swami (Human incarnation or son of God) is speaking here.
You are a brother of that soul. God Datta is Father of that soul. Do you think that Father has not tried to reform His son? Who is more concerned? Father or brother? Repentance, reformation and non-repetition of sin are always tried as the first immediate alternative. Only, when this fails, the punishment is adopted since the soul has no hope of reformation. Punishment is inevitable since the soul taking birth again in this world should have the fear of punishment as psychological aspect that controls the soul at least to some extent from not doing sins in this society. Of course, we agree that punishment gives fear only and not the realization due to reformation, which comes alone by the devotional knowledge only. This fear is essential in the absence of reformation since it controls soul to some extent. Something is better than nothing. Some religions criticize Hinduism in saying that God in Hinduism takes the path of punishment whereas God in their religions takes the path of love and repentance. God is one and the same in all religions. In every religion, punishment of the soul in liquid fire, hell etc., is mentioned. Lord Krishna tried His level best to convince the Kauravas and He invited several divine sages to come and convince Kauravas. The sages were fond of seeing the cosmic vision and the ticket for such vision put by Krishna was to try to convince the Kauravas. In fact, the whole kingdom belongs to the father of Pandavas. Krishna requested Kauravas to give at least five villages to Pandavas. This shows how much Krishna tried for peace!
I shall reveal the actual history of this case in detail after the insult of the divine offering by Taatya. The sister of Taatya informed Datta Swami that she gave the offering to Taatya and that it was accepted by him with full devotion. The sister thought that Datta Swami will be happy by telling such a lie and also her brother will be also safe. Datta Swami is omniscient because Datta in Him is omniscient. Datta Swami asked His close follower, Shri Phani to go to the house of the sister of Taatya for two days and said that he can return after two days after finishing a small work, which will be known to him in proper time. On the evening of second day, Phani phoned to Datta Swami that he is bored there. Datta Swami told that the work will be over by that day and said that Phani can return next day. Immediately Phani happened to meet both sisters of Taatya and he started shouting “Why should your brother scold Swami, when Swami never used any bad word against your brother so far? In spite, Swami was very affectionate to your brother!” Phani, himself did not know what he is speaking about. The second sister was also astonished at this since she doesn’t know the incident happened, which was known to the first sister only! The first sister was shocked at the omniscience of Datta Swami and revealed everything to her sister. Both sisters advised Taatya to repent for the sin. Taatya refused and scolded Datta Swami further. Note that Swami (Datta) didn’t say that He gave the job and such high salary, even though the reality was that Swami (Datta) gave that job and such high salary by His grace only. If it is not so, a person trying for job for several years and suffering with severe poverty gets the job in one month from the date of promise of Swami (Datta) to his parents and within one year attains a salary of one lakh rupees! However, since this boon was granted to his parents and not to him directly, Swami (Datta) never referred this point of miracle through Phani. Swami (Datta) filed the case before his sisters based on very fundamental ground reason as expressed through Phani, which was only that one should not abuse any other person without any trace of reason. The case is based on very normal ground reason of Pravrutti only, which is a case between two souls (Swami and the ungrateful devotee).
The punishment was not given totally within very short period. Actually the punishment was given step by step waiting for a chance of reformation over a long period as explained below: 1) After three days, Taatya met with a car accident and all in car died except Taatya. The parents and sisters again advised Taatya to repent for the sin, but, Taatya refused. The parents and sisters prayed Datta Swami very sincerely. Taatya recovered within very short time and joined the job. 2) After a few days, the only son of Taatya escaped a fire accident with some burns on skin. Again, all prayed Datta Swami not to punish the boy. Datta Swami told “Datta is not punishing at all anybody. Datta is only withdrawing His protection”. Taatya didn’t realise now also even though all vehemently advised him. 3) After few days, his son was killed by his car only, while driven by himself. Yet, Taatya didn’t realise. 4) Taatya lost job and both kidneys got spoiled, died miserably with severe poverty.
Conclusion: Don’t be ungrateful to anybody in your life. You may not be grateful, but, don’t be ungrateful and insult the person, who helped you. Assuming that none helped you and that you came up by your talent alone, even then, you need not scold and insult somebody without any reason. If you scold somebody without any reason and especially if that someone is very affectionate to you, it will be just madness of your ego. Don’t insult any person, who may be looking with very low profile. Datta always looks like that only! Don’t criticise anybody and always criticize yourself. See an atom of good quality as hill and a hill of bad quality as an atom in others. Reverse this in your case. You see a hill of good quality as an atom and an atom of bad quality as hill in yourself. If every human being follows this principle, the peace in this world is surely attained. Don’t criticize any devotee or divine person since you are just a small human being. If there are defects in them, the omniscient and omnipotent God will take care of it. First, you take care of yourself. You don’t know in which snake abode, which type of serpent is living. The simplicity or defects in a divine person may be due to the external misleading illusion (Maaya) of Datta staying inside! We don’t know in which human form Datta is hiding Himself. Always avoid criticism of divine personalities and devotees. You observe your own level before criticising them. Divine personalities and devotees are always under the watch of God, who will take care of them. Don’t become God to criticize and rectify them. First, estimate your level and bow to everybody, who is greater than you. Always be careful about the ego, which is the black cobra that is always running with you waiting for the occasion to bite you!