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Knowledge of God and the Path

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Does God Favor the Rich?

[September 10, 2003, Discourse at Mumbai] The incarnation of God concentrates more on rich people, than the poor people. People are criticizing for this. But remember, that all the human beings are the children of God. Father concentrates on the child, who is suffering with cancer. Though cancer is incurable, still the father attempts to do something for the child. He is more concerned with that child and pays more attention. A rich man is a serious case and is very dangerous. He has all the powers to do sins and disturb the peace of the world. To keep him in the right path or at least, to control him temporarily, is very important for the peace of the world. So, the incarnation pays more attention to him, to save the world. A poor man cannot disturb the peace of the world, because he has no power of money, he is always involved in earning his livelihood. So, he is not dangerous. Without knowing this inner truth, people criticize God man.

Knowledge of the right goal and the knowledge of the right path, are very essential. Suppose your aim is to go the biggest city and enjoy. Then you must have the right knowledge of that biggest city. There are several big cities. Which is the biggest? First you must know it. Similarly, there are several forms of God. Which is the real form of God? You must know that. After knowing the name of the biggest city, then you must know the right path to reach that big city.

Similarly, you must know the right path to reach the real God. So, what is the essence of all this? Knowledge is very important. If you have no knowledge of biggest city, you may reach a small city. Even if you have the knowledge of the biggest city, if you don’t have the knowledge of the right path to reach that biggest city, you may travel on the wrong path and reach a forest.

So, the essential duty of a Guru is to preach the right knowledge to the people who approach him. These people are serving the Guru in several ways like pressing the feet, giving Bhiksha and giving Dakshina etc. If the Guru keeps silent, it is not justified. You pay the fees to the teacher and if the teacher keeps silent, is it justified on his part to take the fees? Some Gurus are giving wrong knowledge and they will be punished in the Hell, because they have misled the people, after taking the fees.

A doctor takes the fees from the patient and keeps silent. Another doctor takes the fees, gives the wrong medicines due to his inefficiency and kills the patient. Both such doctors are criminals. God punishes the Gurus who do not preach and the gurus who preach wrong knowledge, because they have taken the service from the people, who surrendered to them.

The Sadguru gives the right knowledge, even without your service. When you are convinced then only, you can do service to Him which will help Him, to help others. In fact a Sadguru does not need your service because He is the God. He can help others, by His own powers. But you will not have the right benefit, because you did not show, the gratefulness to Him. Suppose a doctor gives you medicines, without taking any fees and you get good health. If you are not paying the fees, even though you are capable, due to greediness, you will die, with a new disease. So, only for your safety, Sadguru advises you to participate in the service.

Service consists of two parts.

1. Paying the fees in terms of money, which you have earned by your work.

2. Doing some work for the Guru.

You can do either of these or both as per your convenience. When you have taken meals in the hotel, either you must pay the bill or do some work in the hotel or you can partly pay the bill and partly do the work. The first part is called as Karma Phala Tyaaga; the second part is called Karma Samnyaasa. Both, these put together, are called Karma Yoga or service. This is explained in the Bhagavad Gita clearly. So, either you must pay the fees to the doctor or do some help, by working as a compounder. Without doing either of these two, you come to the doctor, praise him by words or express your love by feelings. What is the use of all these?

Similarly, your prayers and meditation are of no use, without service. Your prayers and meditation are like pickles, served in the plate and the bread or rice, which is the service, is missing in the center of the plate.

You are offering the plate with pickles as meals, then God takes the pickles only, His stomach will burn and God will become furious on you. Even if pickles are absent, the rice or chapati can be eaten. Hanuman, participated in the work of God, and did prayer and meditation. That is like a plate of full meal, which is the service, associated with prayer and meditation. I’m only telling that prayer and meditation should be associated with the service. If you are unable to do prayer and meditation you need not bother. You do service alone. God will bless you.

Real form of God is Lord Datta. Scriptures say that God is only one and that one God only creates, rules and destroys the universe. Lord Datta is only one, who creates, through the face of Brahma, rules through the face of Vishnu, and destroys through the face of Shiva. In no other form of God, this definition of the scriptures is fulfilled. The right path is to do service to Him, without aspiring anything in return from Him. When somebody serves you, without expecting anything from you, how much happy you are with him. Similarly, Lord Datta, becomes happiest, with your selfless service. This is only the right path. Then, how to detect Lord Datta. Scriptures call Lord Datta as knowledge and the bliss. The Bhagavad Gita says that Lord Datta comes in human form only to satisfy the human devotees. You cannot get full satisfaction with a statue or photo because it does not talk with you and clear your doubts. The Gita says that if you worship inert objects you will be born as an inert object. If you worship the human form, you will get human birth again. Scriptures say, that God Datta is Guru. You call a teacher Guru. You are not calling a doctor or engineer or a lawyer a Guru. So that human form that gives you the knowledge, that creates bliss in your heart is Lord Datta and you have to recognize Him by this way only.

Today ignorant people are thinking that the Human form, which does miracles, is Lord Datta. Demons and devils also do miracles. Are they God? Even if they claimed themselves as God, sages did not agree. Miracles are only jewels of God, which can be given to others, by God. If the king donates his jewels to beggar, does the beggar become the king? Demons and devils are also children of God. They take the miracles from God, by doing rigid penance. If your child is rigid, for your gold chain, will you not give it to that weeping child? When the child wears that gold chain, will the child become the father? Similarly, by getting the powers from God, one does not become God. Knowledge is the shape and bliss is the beauty of God. The child can get the gold chain from his father, but not the shape and beauty of the father. Similarly, demons and devils may get the powers from God to do miracles. But they cannot get the knowledge and bliss of the God. A real devotee recognizes the God in Human form by His blissful knowledge and not by His miracles.

A Queen recognizes her husband who is the king, by the inseparable shape and beauty of her husband and not by his jewels. The foolish Queen requires the crown and jewels, to identify her husband. She rejects her husband, if he comes without crown and jewels. If some thief comes with that crown and jewels, the foolish queen recognizes him as her husband. Actually, people like miracles, because through miracles, they will detect the existence of the powers of God, in that human form. Then they want to use the powers for their selfish end, like getting wealth, curing disease etc. This is not selfless love and so it is not the right path to reach God. Hence miracles are harming the devotees. Hanuman recognized Lord Rama as God in Human form, even though Rama did not show any miracles and nobody is more intelligent than Hanuman in this spiritual path.

I’m not condemning statues and photos. They have limited use. When your son is in foreign country, you are keeping his photo with you, just to see him in his absence. For that one purpose only, photo is kept and you cannot talk with the photo. The Veda says “Draṣṭavyaḥ…” i.e., you must see Him. For this purpose only, temples are built. You can wash and decorate the idol. But there is no necessity of offering food. For maintaining the statue, the priest can earn his livelihood. Why to take the food offered to the statue? Why to earn based on falsehood, when there is an alternative to earn based on the Truth?

Guru must preach referring the Vedas, the Shastras and the Gita etc., which are the scriptures. An advocate while arguing must refer to the sections in the constitution. Mere talking without the Vedic authority is not valid.

Datta is incarnation of highest knowledge. Humbleness is the fruit of the knowledge. So, Datta is most humble without any trace of egoism. So any Datta avatars (incarnation of Datta) will not have a trace of egoism and He will attribute full credit of any great thing done by Him to the inner Datta only. Any incarnation is just a metallic wire through which the Datta current is passing. From the point of any of the devotee the incarnation must be treated as Datta only because the wire touched anywhere gives the shock of the current. The wire has attained all the characteristic properties of the current and so the electric wire must be treated as the electricity and this is Advaita. The current pervades all over the wire. Both the current and the wire are inseparable. So, the devotee must worship the incarnation as Datta as there is no other way to worship Datta (because one cannot have a direct contact with Datta).

So Advaita must be from the point of the angle of the devotee. But Advaita should not be from the point of the angle of the incarnation. The incarnation must always think that He is metallic wire only and not the current. Parashurama the incarnation of Datta, thought that He killed all the kings so He was insulted at the hands of Rama. Hanuman though not an incarnation (in public view) and is just a devotee only defeated even Rama because He always attributed the credit to Datta. Shirdi Sai an incarnation of Datta always said that He is the servant of God (Allah Malik). The incarnation may not say the Truth but He must always feel the Truth at least inside. If He says the Truth with His own mouth the Advaita angle of the devotee might be disturbed. But sometimes the incarnation says it with His own mouth to test whether the devotee is having the advaita angle or not. Here both Advaita and Dvaita coexist at the same time in two different angles. Hence, Shankara who thought Advaita is correct and Ramanuja & Madhva who thought Dvaita are also right. If the devotee thinks that the incarnation is Dvaita he is lost and if the incarnation thinks that He is an Advaita He is lost.

Datta hides in the incarnation and does everything and gives the credit to the incarnation. If the incarnation is real, He will immediately divert all the credit to Datta who is hiding in Him. If the incarnation is a man he should immediately pass on the credit to Datta at least by his mind. If he thinks that he has done that great thing then he is not the real incarnation of Datta because Datta does not reside where egoism exists. When you are incarnation of Datta you are Brahma and Brahma created the Vedas then why you are not quoting your own Vedas at every step of your preaching? This will clearly eliminate all the false incarnations of Datta.

Sometimes to satisfy the jealousy of the devotees the incarnation has to speak Dvaita. If Advaita is spoken the devotee gets repelled due to jealousy on any human being.

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