Knowledge to Service

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[2^nd Message on the Eve of Krishnashtami] The Lord Krishna proved that knowledge is always the highest because knowledge is related to intelligence (buddhi). Therefore, the Jnana yoga is also called as the Buddhi Yoga by which you can certainly attain God (Dadami...). The knowledge gives devotion and you can attain God by devotion. Unless you know that the boy is your son, you will not love him. When you know more and more about his greatness, your love increases proportionally. Therefore, knowledge generates devotion and also develops the devotion. Knowledge also leads to right action by which the goal can be achieved. Krishna told that He will not fight in the war but He will only advise. Advice means a flash of intelligence, which is superior knowledge. Only His advices at every stage brought victory to Pandavas. This proves that knowledge also leads to the correct action. If the knowledge is wrong, it also leads to action but the action is a wrong action. Therefore, in order to enter into right action, the right knowledge is needed which can be given only by Sadguru like Krishna. Pandavas could achieve the goal in this world (victory in the war) only by the guidance of Krishna, who is the Sadguru. Dharma Raja is very intelligent. Before the war starts, he approached Bhishma for the clue to defeat him. Bhishma told that he will reveal the clue latter on. However, due to tension in the ten days of war, Dharma Raja forgot this. Therefore, this means that the soul may be very intelligent and may be a great scholar who realized the truth. However, due to the tensions, ignorance hides the truth.

Dharma Raja knows that he should approach Bhishma to get the clue. However, he forgot the truth due to tension. Therefore, this means that the Sadguru is needed not only to know the unknown truth but also to remember even the known truth. Therefore, the soul has ignorance in two ways, the ignorance in not knowing the truth and the ignorance by forgetting the known truth. When Bhima was fighting with Duryodhana at the end, Bhima was becoming weaker and weaker by the blows of Duryodhana. Here Dharma Raja was worried and he does not know the clue to defeat Duryodhana. This is not the case of forgetting the truth. All the body of Duryodhana was made diamond by the sight of his mother except the thighs. Only Krishna knows the truth. Here also Krishna helped by indicating the blow on the thighs of Duryodhana. Thus, Sadguru is needed to reveal the unknown truth as in the case of Duryodhana and also to reveal the known truth that was forgotten as in the case of Bhishma. When Bhima hit the thighs of Duryodhana, Balarama became angry and was ready to kill Bhima because it was against the rule. However, Krishna convinced Balarama by saying that Duryodhana asked Draupadi to sit on his thighs and Bhima took oath to break those thighs. Krishna argued that inviting Draupadi to sit on the thighs was fundamental sin and therefore, the consequence need not analyzed. Balarama was convinced and Bhima was saved. Therefore, you can realize that the knowledge coming from the Sadguru is the real essence which will guide in to right action and there by you can achieve the goal. Shankara stressed on the knowledge and said that if knowledge is perfect, achievement of goal is a spontaneous consequence.

If you analyze the Mahabharata, Arjuna approached Krishna for the personal help. This is the lowest where God is involved in the personal service of soul. The whole war was essentially in the personal service of the soul only. However, Krishna analyzed this and showed another dimension, which is the social service. By destroying the injustice and establishing justice, the social service is done. Therefore, the war is for the social service also, which is an incidental angle of the service to the soul. The next higher level is Hanuman on the flag. In the Ramayana, Hanuman was involved in the personal service of Lord only. He was waiting only to serve Rama personally. He was not bothered about injustice done to Sugriva by Vali, even though He is capable of killing vali. The war in the Ramayana was purely personal service to the Lord and killing Ravana (social service) is again an incidental angle. Rama advised Ravana that if Sita was returned, He will not fight with Ravana. This means that killing Ravana (social service) was not the aim of the Lord. The Mahabharata is a low level because Arjuna approached Krishna for personal help. However, it became the high level when the incidental angle of destruction of injustice is explained by the Lord. The Ramayana is higher level than this in which Hanuman concentrated only on the personal service of Lord and social service (killing Ravana) is an incidental angle. Now if you see the Bhagavatam, it is the highest level where only the personal service to God is completely present. Even if you think that killing the demons sent by Kamsa can be called as social service, Gopikas were not at all involved in it even indirectly like Hanuman. They always wanted the physical presence of Lord Krishna and became mad for that. They were always involved in the personal service to the Lord only by giving butter and doing other personal services. Arjuna was born as a hunter. Hanuman became God. Gopikas became the masters of God. Thus, there is a transformation of your personal service to the personal service to Lord in the spiritual Journey. The social service is only a middle stage.

When the service to yourself is considered as selfishness, how can the service to the group of souls (society) cannot be selfishness? Whether it is a single zero or hundred zeros, it is immaterial. God is like the number one, which is greater than a single zero or hundred zeros. Shankara condemned the social service with reference to the service to God (refer to Loka Sevaka Mata Nirasa of Shankara Digvijayam). This entire society is the kingdom of God and is running under the divine administration of God. If there is a beggar, he is under the punishment of sins as decided by the judgment of God. No injustice can happen in His kingdom. Therefore, converting a beggar in to a devotee is primary work. Helping him in materialistic way is only a secondary activity since the punishment is only for the change of soul. Your effort to transform that soul to become devotee is appreciated by God because that is the very purpose of punishment also. Unless the soul is transformed, you cannot help the soul in anyway. If you are doing some service to a beggar, remember that you are doing it by the will of God only. Therefore, you cannot interfere in the divine administration in any way if you are saving a life of a beggar by giving food to a dying person, it is emergency-service. If the life is gone, there is no possibility for the soul to transform by devotion here. Therefore, this emergency-service should be done by everybody because the life is the basis for the transformation. However, remember that you are doing such service also by the will of God only. Otherwise the beggar may die even after eating your food. Providing the basic needs for the human beings is the emergency-service by which God is always pleased. If the fellow died after your service, it means that there is no possibility of transformation of that soul on earth. Only the special methods of torture in the hell can transform the soul. Therefore, the soul was sent to hell by the Lord. If there is possibility of transformation on the earth, God will give him food through somebody to save the life. Therefore, you should not get even a trace of egoism even in the social service because you are driven by God only everywhere. The social service is not greater than the personal service to God because God is above the society. When Jesus indicated the crossing of ‘I’ by crucification, it means that every soul is to be crossed in the same way. The society is not above the God and in fact, it is not above even your family. The family is grateful to you and so the business is fair. The society is not grateful to you after receiving help from you. The society is just thanking you by words after receiving your service, whereas the family is reciprocating your service through the service. Yourself and your family are certainly better than the society. Ofcourse, in the case of emergency-service, you can rise above yourself and family to help in the basic needs of the poor people because the life should be saved and the life should be settled for any spiritual effort.

The Actions of Lord Cannot Be Understood

Since we do not know the background of any soul, our impressions about any soul cannot be real. Suppose you are seeing the scene of hanging a prisoner, you will sympathize the prisoner and criticize the jailer. If you have seen the past scene of the prisoner in which he murdered several innocent people, you will kill him immediately on the spot. The judiciary system has taken so much time of enquiry to arrive at such punishment. Abhimanyu was brought up by Krishna and he was the only nephew of the Lord. Krishna diverted Arjuna from the war and saw that Abhimanyu got killed. Anyone will scold Krishna on this aspect as the most cruel person. However, Krishna knows the entire background of Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu was a demon, who killed several innocent people. Therefore, the actions of Lord cannot be understood because they are based on the total background. Your actions are based on the present scene only. Even in the present, you cannot know the internal nature. However, the Lord knows the internal structure of the soul. Ravana came as a saint begging for food. Sita sympathized him and tried to give food. Therefore, the human being cannot understand the internal quality of a beggar. Therefore, the social service should be done only based on the command from the Lord as told by Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The Lord has a small human body and at the same time has simultaneously the infinite body, which is the cosmos (Vishwarupam). Therefore, the personal service to His human body or to His macrocosmic body is one and the same. However, the will of the Lord is very important. The Lord is pleased if you act according to His will. After all, the final goal of the entire spiritual effort is only to please the Lord. Therefore, you should simply act according to the will of the God without any analysis. Your analysis is limited to the present and is also apparent. His will is the result of the total analysis done even at the deepest level. His will is not a blind will at random. It appears as if it is a blind will due to the lack of knowledge of total background. Krishna desired the personal service to His limited form from Gopikas. The same Krishna wanted the service to be done to His close devotees that is Pandavas. Rama wanted the total help from Hanuman etc., limited to only Sita who is His closest devotee being Maha Lakshmi. You misunderstand that the Lord is interested in His close relatives. However, you don’t know that some of His close relatives are the liberated souls. If you are in His place you will be interested in all the relatives.

Krishna got the Yadavas killed by war and by drinking wine at the end. He has given ten thousand Yadavas to Duryodhana to help him in the war. All of them were killed. In the end, all His close relatives including His sons and grandsons killed each other and He was a silent spectator. You think that Rama was fond of His wife and exploited Hanuman to save her. In fact, the whole war took place only due to the foolish desire of Sita for the golden deer. However, you do not know the background of Sita. She is the possessor of the entire wealth of this universe. Was she attracted by the petty golden deer? The drama was written like that by Rama. Shankara wandered all over the country to uplift the humanity. Here the Lord liked the social service at the cosmic level. Therefore, sometimes the Lord may be pleased with your service at the level of His human body. Sometimes He may be pleased with your service done to His devotees, who are in disguise as His relatives to test you. Sometimes He may require your service at the level of the entire society. The will of the Lord is important. The will of the Lord is always justified if the entire background is known. Jesus was pleased with the service of a woman who applied scent on His feet. It is purely personal service at the level of His body. A devotee commented that instead of doing such personal waste service for the enjoyment of Jesus, it is better to do the social service by feeding beggars. However, Jesus objected to that remark and supported the personal service of that woman. Jesus told that beggars will be always there but the human incarnation is very rare. The background of this is to be analyzed. The devotee became jealous with the service of that woman. If he was in the place of Jesus, he would not have passed the same comment. The society is not above the God. This is the concept of Jesus and Shankara. There cannot be uniform service to the souls because each soul has its own level of nature. The service should be multi-leveled and such capability lies with God only. The woman, who served Jesus was a liberated soul that accompanied the Lord and was far superior to any other soul in the world. Rama was very fond of Sita by blindly following her wish for the golden deer. His blind love was not on His wife but on Goddess Maha Lakshmi, who was a liberated soul.

We have started Sri Datta Seva Samiti which is a trust meant for this emergency-service. We are feeding the beggars with special food items which are not available to them in begging. Another advantage is that these special food items are durable for sometime so that they can satisfy hunger even if the food was not available in begging. Thus, the basic emergency-service is followed and we want that there should be no beggar in the world who is dying for food. Once this is achieved in the entire world, our next step is to settle the poor people in their lives to have the basic needs. A peaceful life is essential for preaching the spiritual knowledge. However, this is not the final goal.

Karma Yoga Done by Swami

In My spiritual knowledge, I have stressed on the sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work. It is My duty to reveal what I have done in this line, which is kept secret till today. I have practiced whatever I taught because the fullest and deepest knowledge is in My brain, which has resulted in determination and practice. I have been doing the sacrifice of work in the divine mission from My childhood. It is true that I wrote more than hundred books in Sanskrit before sixteen years of My age. However, all the books were on the spiritual knowledge only. Those books were at the level of traditional Sanskrit scholars in their level of Shastras. For the past fifteen years, I am concentrating on the modern educated people to propagate this spiritual knowledge in their minds. Thus, I am trying to cover all types of people. Apart from this sacrifice of work, I have done the sacrifice of fruit of work also. Since the fruit of My work is the hard-earned money, I did not like to do the sacrifice in exposed manner in terms of social service, which is generally done for fame. Since the fruit of work is not the money from the public in the form of donations, I was not controlled by any obligation. I have the full freedom to analyze a deserving devotee and help him or her secretly without any publicity. If anybody wants the proof, I am ready to give the addresses of the deserving devotees whom I helped intensively. If you observe the life history of Krishna, He did the charity only once in His life. He was waiting for the most deserving devotee. It was Sudama who came to Him in severe poverty. He and his family were almost at the edge of death. Still he did not beg Krishna for any materialistic help. Krishna took away the little parched rice from him, which was to be returned to a householder as a loan. Krishna kept silent and Sudama did not mistake Krishna even once even in the mind. Krishna gave away all His wealth to Sudama. My charity was like that. I was analyzing and analyzing the devotees who deserve the charity. Krishna also kept silent about His charity to Sudama. Sudama realized the charity only when he went back to his house. The devotees who were helped by Me belonged to all castes and religions. They were both in scholastic level as well as in the illiterate level. I never gave much money to My family. I hardly gave ten percent of My earnings to My family for their basic needs. My family members including Myself always suffered with severe poverty and led simple life. People were misunderstanding Me as a miser and that I saved a lot of money, which is kept secretly. When I left the service, My bank balance was zero and I had to search for food for Myself and My family. Seeing this situation, My devotees came forward to help My family. Ofcourse this is a story of My personal earnings about which I should not publicize. I am against the social service to be done open to all without discrimination. In such open blind service, undeserving people also get the benefit and thereby, we accumulate the sin. Not helping the deserving and helping the undeserving both are sins as told by Vyasa in the Mahabharata. The deservingness of a person to receive your help is the most important factor of all the sacrifice. People give importance to place and time but do not analyze the deservingness of the receiver of the donation. Suppose today is Krishnashtami and the place is Brindavanam. The place and time are excellent and therefore, the people are in hurry to do the charity. Tomorrow, they are leaving Brindavanam and Krishnashtami also ends. That is the hurry. In this hurry, they donate to some undeserving fellow and earn sin.

Lord Krishna waited for a long time in the search of a deserving devotee. When Sudama was found, that was not the day of any festival. The Lord did the charity to the maximum extent. Whenever you find the most deserving person, that day is Krishnashtami and that place is Brindavanam. Therefore, one should not be in hurry to do charity under the illusion of place and time. You must accumulate the wealth, which you want to donate to a deserving person. You must take lot of time to analyze the deserving person. If you find a deserving person, you donate all the accumulated wealth to him only. Since the deservingness is doubtless, there is no doubt in getting good fruit (Punyam) for it. If you do the charity without discrimination, under the illusion of place and time, sometimes you may get sin instead of good result. Therefore, I did not do any social service with publicity. Lord Krishna also did not do such public service by building hospitals, colleges, Ashrams etc. I opened the secrecy of My life in view of analyzing the concept of service. This should not be misunderstood as publicity for fame. If I had such desire, I would have done open public service or I should have publicized whatever I had done long back. The intention is only to support the main concept of service in this spiritual knowledge.

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