Posted on 07 Jan 2003. Share

Hinduism Revealed (Part-1)

All the Vedas describe ‘Yajna’ (Sacrifice) only, which is nothing but the preparation of food only. The fire is lit and is called ‘Laukikaagni’ i.e., fire meant for cooking but not for worship. The three parts of the fire (Gaarhapatya, Ahavaniiya, and Dakshinaagni) are only the three stoves for cooking various items of food. “Fools put the cooked food in this fire” says Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the Bhagavatam. This food must be offered to the guest shining like fire, who must deserve.

The first preference is ‘Sadguru’ who is the human incarnation of God that comes in every human generation.
The second preference must be a poor devotee; God dwells in the heart of a devotee, as per Narada Bhakti Sutra.
The third preference must be a beggar who is incapable of earning food.

In this case, the beggar is a sinner punished by God. So you must turn him into a devotee by preaching knowledge and devotion. Food, cloth, shelter are only secondary like hostel for a student. Otherwise he may do sin after eating your food. Then, you will get that sin. A ‘beggar home’ is better than an independent beggar is. In a beggar home, the beggar is in controlled condition and the beggar can be converted into a devotee easily.

Dakshina (Money) must follow giving food (Yajna) for the other needs. ‘Adakṣiṇo hato yajñaḥ’ means that the Yajna goes waste without Dakshina. This Dakshina is ‘Karma Phala Tyaaga’ (Sacrifice of the fruit of your work) and is very much stressed in the Gita.

The Vedas and the Gita put together teach sacrifice of food and money. By such practical sacrifice only, God is pleased. Sacrifice of words (prayers) and sacrifice of mental feelings (meditation and devotion) are useless without practical sacrifice, which make God to hate you only.

Sadguru like Shirdi Sai Baba is the best deserving person, because, He will use the energy of your offered food also in preaching only. He knows the deserving devotee or a beggar and He will help them in a proper way. Thus, the money you offer to Him is fully utilized and you get the full fruit of your charity. For Him, the entire world is His family. A devotee confines to his family only and even if he donates to others, he may err, since both God and soul co-exist in his body. In the case of Sadguru, only God exists in His body. Sadguru comes in every human generation. Recognize Him with proper identity marks.

Short Cut of the Gita

Karma (work with selfishness) is the first step in which you do work for yourself and your family only with selfishness. Jnana (Knowledge) is the second step in which you identify the Lord who comes in human form in every human generation. The identity marks for recognizing such incarnation is His Jnana and not His miracles. Miracles are done by demons also. Bhakti (devotion) is the third step in which you become mad of that incarnation of Lord like Hanuman or Radha. You are permanently bonded with the Lord by your selfless love or devotion to Him. Your attraction to Him is only due to His divine personality. Karma Yoga (work without selfishness) is the fourth step, in which, you participate in the work of the incarnation, which is only to uplift the entire world. In such work, there is no selfishness because you work for the Lord aspiring nothing in return.

Now, the Gita says that you can straightly go to the 4^th step from the 1st step. You start diverting your work to God by reducing your selfishness. Let your Karma be transformed to Karma Yoga completely. Then, you have become Hanuman. You will be near the Lord here and there, which is called ‘Saayujyam’. In ‘Kaivalyam’ some souls enter the body of the Lord there (Gita says this ‘Nivasiṣyasi …’). Whenever the Lord incarnates these souls come out and incarnate whether they are near or in His body. This is the final salvation.

So, the Gita gives the short cut way from 1^st step to 4^th step straightly. The kindest Lord Krishna gave such facility to this world. Out of these 4 steps, the 1^st and 4^th steps relate to Karma (work). The 2^nd and 3^rd steps relate to mind and words. So, the final step is only Karma Yoga, which is work. The Jnana and Bhakti are only the intermediate steps. Jnana and Bhakti help you to transform your karma into karma yoga.

Karma Yoga consists of sacrificing the work (Karma Samnyaasa) and sacrificing the fruit of work i.e., money (Karma Phala Tyaaga). The Second, third and fourth steps are inter-linked and mixed in a homogeneous manner. If 100% Jnana is attained 100% Bhakti is automatically attained and he will do 100% Karma Yoga instantaneously. Out of these three, 1) Jnana Yoga, 2) Bhakti Yoga and 3) Karma Yoga, if any Yoga is achieved the other two are automatically attained. Therefore, in the Bhagavad Gita these three get mixed everywhere. Lord Krishna says ‘ekamapyāsthitaḥ…’ Which means that both Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga are same. The Karma Samnyaasa Yoga means leaving the works that are done with selfishness. When a bread is poisoned the bread has to be rejected. You cannot separate poison from it. Similarly, when you cannot separate the selfishness from your work, that work must be rejected. However, if you can separate the poison from the bread, you can eat the bread after removing poison. Similarly, if you can remove the selfishness from a work and sacrifice the fruit of that work to God’s work, then that work need not be rejected. For example, you are doing a job with some selfish outlook. Now if you leave the job for the sake of God’s work it is called Karma Samnyaasa, i.e., leaving the work to do God’s work. But suppose you continue the job and submit the fruit (money) of that job to the work of God, then your doing the job is Karma Yoga. Thus, by Karma Phala Tyaaga (sacrifice of the fruit of the work), the Karma becomes Karma Yoga. Lord says that this Karma Yoga is better than Karma Samnyaasa (Tayostu…) i.e., instead of leaving job for the sake of God’s work it is better to do the job and sacrifice the fruit of the job for the work of the God. Doing job with selfishness is the first step (Karma) and doing job for the sake of God’s work is the fourth step (Karma Yoga). The Gita gives this short cut, which is the high jump from first step to the fourth step directly. This is the essence of the entire Gita and the greatest short cut given to the humanity by Lord Krishna, who was the human incarnation of Datta. Lord Krishna asked Arjuna to fight (Karma) not for attaining the kingdom with selfishness but to destroy the injustice. Destruction of injustice is the work of God and so if Arjuna fights with that aim he is sacrificing the fruit of his fight to God only. In such case the fight of Arjuna becomes Karma Yoga and not Karma. So, when the fruit of the work is sacrificed to God, one can directly jump from 1st step to the 4^th step. This is the real heart of the Gita. The Gita preaches you not to leave the work but to leave the selfishness and sacrifice the fruit of the work to God. When you do such sacrifice your knowledge of God and devotion to God is full. Then your Jnana and Bhakti are perfect. Therefore, if you follow Karma Yoga, your knowledge and devotion are at the highest level which are proved through Karma Yoga. The Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of Kama (the desire to do the work for selfishness purpose) and not Karma (work). The sacrifice of Kama is proved only when you sacrifice the fruit of that work to God i.e., Karma Phala Tyaaga.

The Four Great Sentences

There are four great sentences (Maha Vakyas) taken from the four Vedas. The first sentence is ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’. This means that I am like the Lord externally. That means when the Lord comes in human form He looks like Me. Here the figure of speech is ‘Upamaa Alankaara’ (Simile). One mode of this figure of speech is ‘Lupta Upama Vaachaka’ i.e., the word ‘Like’ will be missing. Then the meaning should be taken in the following manner: Aham= I, Brahma = God (Iva = like), Asmi = Look. Now the meaning is: ‘I look like God’ i.e., when God incarnates in human form like Lord Krishna, He just looks like Me as far as the external appearance is concerned because the Lord is also in a human body. Similarly, the second sentence is ‘Tat Tvam Asi’. Tvam = you, Tat = God, (Iva = Like), Asi = Look. That means you look like God. This means that Lord Krishna looks like you externally. The third sentence is ‘Ayam Aatma Brahma’ i.e., Ayam Aatma = he, (Iva = Like), Brahma = God (Asti = looks). This means he looks like God externally. The essence of these three sentences is that Lord Krishna looks like you, him and myself, when He is viewed externally because the human body is same as any other human body. The fourth sentence is ‘Prajñānaṃ Brahma’. This means Brahma = God, Prajnanam = a scholar with special divine knowledge. The fourth sentence differentiates Lord Krishna from the other human beings because He possesses special divine knowledge, which nobody can possess in this world. This sentence relates to the internal form of the human incarnation.

All these four sentences conclude that God comes only in the human form in every human generation to avoid partiality to a particular human generation. The fourth sentence also indicates that you should recognize such God in human form by His special divine knowledge and not by miracles because miracles are done by demons also. The Lord is said to be the true and infinite knowledge by the Veda. The Bhagavad Gita says that the Lord comes to this world only through a human body (Mānuṣīṃ tanumāśritam…). The Gita did not mention that God comes in any other form. People have taken the direct meaning of these sentences and thought “I am God, You are God and He is God”. If you take the meaning like that, do you mean that everybody in this world is Lord Krishna? If so, Lord Krishna preached the Bhagavad Gita to Lord Krishna (Himself) only because Arjuna is also Lord Krishna!

To be continued...

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