Give up Rituals and Serve the Lord

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

A saint is not doing any worship using flowers, fume sticks, camphor, coconut etc. He is not burning the ghee or oil in the lamp. He is not doing any sacrifice by burning the ghee and food in the fire. Only the householders are doing with the help of the priest. When a saint comes all the householders including the priests are prostrating before the saint. What does this mean? The stage of the saint is certainly a higher stage. The saint is also not chanting the Gayatri Hymn. He removes the cross belt because he knows that the cross belt with three strings (Yajnopaviitam) is only a model representing the three qualities of the nature (Prakruti). This model indicates that you must catch a form of Prakruti (human form) only to worship the Lord. Prakruti is the nature, which consists of the three qualities viz., Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas.

‘Gayatri’ means any song related to the Lord and which protects us. Mantra means that which attracts the mind and protects us. Therefore, Gayatri mantra means the song on the Lord which attracts the mind and protects us. It can be any song. The so-called Gayatri hymn is not Gayatri at all because the hymn is only the poem and not a song. It is said that Gayatri mantra is greatest (Na Gāyatryāḥ paro mantraḥ). The reason is that a poem is more attractive than a prose sentence. A song is still more attractive than the poem. The Yajurveda is prose. The Rigveda is poetry. The Sama Veda is song. The Gita says that the song only (Vedānāṃ sāmaedo'smi) pleases the Lord.

The meter of the so-called Gayatri Mantra is named as Gayatri. Therefore, the hymn “Tat savituḥ…” is in the meter called Gayatri and the hymn itself is not Gayatri mantra. The deity of that hymn is “Savitaa” i.e., the Lord. Savitaa means He who creates and delivers this world. In the olden days, there was no restriction for Gayatri Mantram because any devotional song is a Gayatri Mantram. Upanayanam means becoming close to Lord. By such sweet devotional song, one becomes close to the Lord. In the middle age, the actual meaning of Gayatri Mantram was lost. A hymn (poem) in the meter called Gayatri became the Gayatri Mantram due to misinterpretation of some scholars. These selfish middle age scholars denied Gayatri Mantram to all the ladies, but still say that Gayatri is a lady (goddess)! This is the topmost fun of their ignorance. They extended this to Kshatriyas because they protect them. They extended this Gayatri to Vyshyas because they help financially. The agriculturists (Shudras) are doing sincere service to the society and the ladies are doing sincere service in the house. All the ladies and agriculturists were denied this Gayatri Mantram.

Gita says that the ladies and the agriculturists have right for salvation (Te'pi yānti parāṃ gatim). These ladies and agriculturists worshipped the Lord by devotional songs. See the mystery! The actual Gayatri stays with ladies and agriculturists only. The so-called Gayatri Mantra chanted by Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vyshyas is not at all the actual Gayatri. All this was done due to pride of caste and sex. The pride of sex is so intensive that Brahmins denied even their own ladies for recitation of the Veda and chanting of the so-called Gayatri Mantra. During the sacrifice, the priest asks his wife to recite two special Vedic hymns! When she had no right for recitation of the Veda how is she reciting here? All this is a mixture of foolishness, ignorance and egoism.

You are telling that the so-called Gayatri mantra is the greatest. At the same time, you are denying it to some human beings. Can this be a divine quality? The sage for the so-called Gayatri Mantra is Vishwamitra meaning He who is interested in the welfare of all the humanity! You are telling that the drink in your bottle is the best and you say that some people should not taste it. What a type of sadism is this! Therefore, Lord Datta cleared that the actual Gayatri Mantra is with those human beings that were denied by you. The Gayatri Mantra, which is with you, is not at all the actual Gayatri Mantra.

You are worshipping the idols and photos from the childhood and you are engaged in all these rituals. Are you sitting in the first standard only throughout your life? Should you not come to the college and the university subsequently? The Dharma shastra says that you should finally come to Samnyasa Aashrama in which the saint throws away all these rituals and worships and even removes the cross belt. You are considering the saint (Samnyasi) as the highest. Therefore, you are indirectly appreciating giving up the idol worship and rituals. You should have scolded him for removing the cross belt and for not doing rituals and worship. Your highest respect to him shows that leaving the so-called Gayatri Mantra, not worshipping the idols and not doing any ritual is the highest state. Therefore, the old tradition of our sages which remains till today proves which is the highest state.

Thanks to the ignorance of the middle age scholars who have forgotten this point and did not treat a Samnyasi as the worst fellow! Samnyasa does not mean wearing the saffron cloth. Whatever may be your clothes if you reach that highest state, you are the Samnyasi. You cannot say that a Samnyasi must chant Gayatri Mantram, must do all the rituals including Yajna and must perform the worship of idols. Dharma Shastra prohibits all these things for a Samnyasi, and you cannot contradict the Dharma Shastra. You cannot oppose this old tradition also because you are a patron of the old traditions. When the Vedas and the Shastras oppose you, the only remaining weapon for you is the tradition followed by your elders.

A saint is expected to know the divine knowledge and propagate it. The Gita says that the true divine knowledge will destroy all the rituals (Jñānāgniḥ sarva karmāṇi, Jñāte karma na vidyate). If the divine knowledge is propagated, at least some people will come forward to practice it. There are some good people in the society who are not practicing due to lack of knowledge. Therefore, the propagation of knowledge is essential for the sake of such good people at least.

The heart filled with egoism is a rocky soil. When the seed of knowledge falls on it the seed cannot generate the plant. The plant is selfless devotion to the Lord. The heart of some people is very fertile due to love. But the waste thorny bushes suck all the essence of the fertile heart (love). These bushes are family bonds. Some people love the fellow human beings and serve them through social work. All this is Pravrutti in which the love of the heart is sucked by thorny bushes. All the fellow human beings are ungrateful and therefore they are compared to the thorny bushes. This is the reason that why every human being is forgetting the Lord? The human being always asks for fresh boons and never expresses gratefulness for the past favour from the God. The very human birth itself is the biggest favour because according to your file you can never get the human birth. Such heart lost the fertility.

The seed of knowledge will generate plant but it cannot grow due to lack of fertility. When the seed of knowledge falls on fertile soil without any bush, it grows and becomes a big tree shortly. But while growing, the pest will attack. The seed is nothing but the knowledge of the Lord in the human form (Nivrutti) that comes in every human generation. A fellow with egoism will not accept this very idea like a rock soil. Another fellow recognizes the Lord in human form but cannot love Him because all the family bonds and fellow human beings sucked all his love. Only a person like Hanuman stored all his love in his heart for the sake of the Lord. He avoided the family bonds. When Ravana was disturbing the world, Hanuman could have killed him with one stroke and get the fame. He waited till the Lord comes in human form and gave all the fame of His battle to the Lord only. In the case of even great great devotees the pest that is egoism and jealousy is produced. Even great devotees will be jealous of the Lord at least for a fraction of a second. Hanuman destroyed this pest completely. Really this pest is all the devils and demons. This is the insect that destroys the plant. The Lord will tolerate even if you scold Him. But He can never tolerate the selfishness, which produces very bad odor. When you think of Swami you have put on the switch. The current is flowing in the wire, which is the human form. But when you try to communicate your problem either through your words or even through the mind, the Lord is repelled due to your selfishness. Some people convey their problems to the Lord in several cunning ways. All that is waste because the Lord is omniscient. When you have conveyed your problem, you doubted Swami and the switch is put off. Omniscient means He who knows everything. This is the aspect of knowledge, which is the very inherent nature of the Lord (Satyam, Jñānam anantaṃ Brahma). If you suspect the very inherent nature the Lord disappears and only the human form remains like a bulb without electricity. That human form cannot help you in any way like any other human being.

Therefore, remove the selfishness completely in your service. You serve Him as you serve your child without any trace of selfishness. In such a case the Lord will give infinite result to you because the Lord likes only the selfless service which is the sweet fragrance of the lotus flower like heart. The Veda says that one can enter the Samnyasa Aashrama on any day and there is no time limit for any Aashrama (Yad ahareva virajet). Samnyasa ashrama does not mean leaving the house and wearing the saffron cloth. Whenever you receive the divine knowledge and whenever you are propagating that divine knowledge in this world by discarding away all the rituals, the so-called Gayatri Mantra, the cross belt (which is only a model indicating that you should catch the Lord in human form) and idol worship, you have become the saint. The external dress is not necessary. The maturity of mind and the sharp analysis of the intelligence in search of truth makes you the saint. Leaving Grihastha Aashrama does not mean leaving the house and family. It means cutting your family bonds in your heart. Similarly taking Samnyasa Aashrama does not mean wearing the Saffron cloth. It means attaining the divine knowledge and propagating it in this world. There is no time limit and there is not external physical sense. All this is only in the internal spiritual sense. Any day, any one can become a samnyasi.

Shri Shirdi Sai Baba did not give any mantra to one woman who pestered Him a lot. Sai Baba told that He does not know any mantra. He never worshipped any statue or photo. He never recited any book. He told that all His mind was attracted towards Guru (Venkusa) who is the Lord in human form. Mantra means that which attracts the mind. Venkusa attracted the mind of Sai completely and so Venkusa is the Mantra for Sai. Sai told that all the credit of His miracles goes to His Guru only. By this, Sai clearly preached us that we should catch the human form of the Lord in that generation and not any temple or any photo or any mantra or any other form of worship.

Jealousy and Incarnations of the Lord

Man is always jealous of another man and therefore cannot recognize the human incarnation of the Lord. The first incarnation was in water as fish (Matsya) because a man could not tolerate any living being on the earth since he is living on the earth. As the jealousy decreased, the Lord came out as tortoise (Kurma) which lives in water for some time and on the earth for some time. Then the Lord came as pig (Varaha) which lives on the earth only. Then the Lord came as human being but the face was that of a lion (Narasimha) since the jealousy of a man is always concentrated on the beauty of the face of another human being. Then the Lord came as a human child (Vamana) since a man does not care much about a child even if it is beautiful. Then the Lord came as full human being (Parashurama) who removed the egoism of a man, which is the root of the jealousy. Then the Lord came as Rama, but He behaved like an ordinary man so that the jealousy of the man was satisfied. Then He came as Lord Krishna who exposed Himself as the Superman. For Lord Krishna there were several enemies to this reason. Krishna gave knowledge and also showed miracles. People gave importance to miracles. Then He came as Buddha. Buddha means a scholar of divine knowledge. Buddhi means intelligence and knowledge. Buddha never Himself personally associated with the jewels (miracles), which can be exhibited even by demons. The last human incarnation will be Kalki who will finally punish the egoism and jealousy completely.

The man was created after the creation of all the animals. The man possesses all the qualities of all the animals as a mixture. He is like a ‘Vegetable Biryani’. The cabbage remains as cabbage throughout and the potato remains as potato throughout. The tiger is always tiger and the fox is always a fox. But the man becomes tiger in one moment and becomes fox in another moment. Sometimes the man becomes a mixture of tiger and fox. The percentage proportions vary from one man to other man. Like this man is the most unpredictable living being. Hence His faith cannot be predicted.

The materialistic life must end and a new spiritual life must start. In the second life, the previous bonds are forgotten. In the spiritual life, only the devotees are the relatives. The blood relations are forgotten. Krishna gave infinite wealth to Kuchela who does not belong even to His caste. Krishna planned to kill Abhimanyu who was the only son of His only sister. Thus, Krishna can be said as the real ‘Dvija’. Dvija means born again. By putting the cross belt, one cannot become Dvija. When one forgets all his blood relatives and remembers only the spiritual devotees as the real relatives then only, he becomes Dvija. Any religion should not attract the people by false concept. Hinduism and Christianity are attracting the people by false concept saying that the Lord will cancel the sins and will give the results of good deeds, which are not done by prayer, worship etc. This may be useful in attracting the masses initially but this false concept grows and becomes a big tree in course of time and you cannot introduce the true concept. Therefore, such attraction is spoiling the very spiritual upliftment of a human being and is not relished by the Lord.

You must introduce the truth as seed itself irrespective of the number of followers. Let there not be majority because majority always goes to hell. Only minority reaches God according to the Bible and the Bhagavadgita. The teacher is not worried about the student who got forty marks. If that student is beaten, he may get forty-one marks, which is immaterial. But when a student gets ninety-nine marks the preacher will beat Him severely for that one mark. Similarly, a real devotee is put to the fire tests and is purified for the perfection. Whatever may be the relationship between the Lord and the human being the underlying common relationship is Master and servant only. If the Lord is treated as Father and the devotee as the son, Father is the Master and son is the servant. If the Lord is husband and the devotee is wife, then the Husband is the Master and wife is the servant. Therefore, whatever type of bond you may have with the Lord, the underlying common essence of all the bonds is that the Lord is the Master and you are His servant. There is no use of mere words and mere mind to please the Lord. Only work and fruit of work should be sacrificed to please the Lord really. Today people are trying to please the Lord with words (prayers) and with mind (meditation and devotion) in the leisure time. If some extra work for earning is available then the leisure time is also dedicated for the earning only.

Therefore, you cannot achieve the grace of the Lord by mere words and mind without the sacrifice of work (Karma Samnyasa) and Sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaaga). Both these put together is called as ‘Karma Yoga’ which is to be done without aspiring any fruit in return. Then it is called as Nishkaama Karma Yoga, which is the essence of the entire Gita. The very first hymn of very first Upanishad (Īśāvāsyam) preaches only about sacrificing the money and wealth for God’s work after storing for a minimum requirement. You cannot achieve the grace of the God by doing some Gymnastic exercises with words and mind and by external dress like garlands, sacred ash on the forehead etc.

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