Sacred Time Is Whenever One Is Involved With God

[Divine Message on Makara Samkranti] Today the Sun is entering the Zodiac of Capricorn. The Sun represents the knowledge of the intelligence, which is in the final form called decision or determination. The Veda says that the Sun initiates the intelligence (Dhiyo Yo Nah). The Capricorn is famous for rigidity. When it catches something, it will not leave under any circumstances. Therefore, this whole physical model represents the rigid decision of divine knowledge. The Sun is diverting towards the north side. Indians consider the north side for divinity, because the pure white sacred snow hills called Himalayas and the sacred white river Ganga are present in the northern side. In the south side, a huge ocean of salt water is present, which represents this world. Thus, the North represents God and the South represents the world. This whole model now gives the following conclusion. The decision of knowledge should finally be diverted towards God and which must be rigid under any circumstances. This is the concept of the whole physical model. Once you take the concept, the physical model has no importance. When a student of Science looks at a diagram or a physical model in a laboratory and understands the concept of that, there is no need of the diagram or the model for him any more. In this month, all the crops yield grains and the food reaches the house. Till this month people are worried in the problems of agriculture. From today onwards, all the problems of agriculture are over and the food for the whole year has reached the house and thus, there is peace and settlement of the mind.

Therefore, from this month onwards till the rains start a person can completely divert his mind towards God. Again in the rainy season the person is involved in the problems of the agriculture, which is also essential for procuring the food. Without food the body cannot stand and cannot be involved in the worship of the God. Thus, from this month onwards six months are left for complete concentration to God. After six months when the rains start the other six months are meant for the work essential in procuring the food. These six months are sacred because the person can spend in the concentration of God. The other six months are not sacred because one has to involve in the worldly affairs to procure the food. Thus, these six months are called as ‘Uttarayanam’ or ‘Jnana Marga’ (path of knowledge), which is also called as Devayanam (the path of Angels). The other six months are called as Dakshinayanam or Karma Marga (path of work or Pitruyanam (the path of family affairs)). These two paths are explained in the Gita (Shukla Krishna Gatee…). Now, if the concept is understood there is no meaning in the time or in the festival. For a job holder in a city this concept remains as it is but the plan of time is completely different. Everyday consists of Uttarayanam and Dakshinayanam. When he goes to job at 10 a.m., and returns back at 4 p.m., the time between 10 a.m., to 4 p.m., is Dakshinayanam. The rest time is Uttarayanam. This means till one goes to job and after returning from the job, one has to concentrate on God. But people are not doing this and are converting the Uttarayanam also into the Dakshinayanam. When the person is in the home, he is involved in the family affairs only. Even if he finds some leisure, he is going to a cinema or watching a television, which again is related to family affairs only. Thus, the whole day is part of work and family affairs only.

Today even the villagers are also similarly involved in-group politics in these six months. Thus, they are making the whole year as the path of work and family and the world. Thus, Uttarayanam or sacred time is the time whenever you are involved in God. The unholy Dakshinayanam is the time whenever you are involved in the affairs of family or world. Therefore, the concept will enlighten a scholar regarding the internal significance of this festival called as Samkranti, which means transformation or transition. Whenever you are transited from worldly affairs into the affairs of the Lord, such transition is called as ‘Samkranti’. Unless this internal meaning is recognized and is practiced, there is no use of celebration of this festival by wearing new clothes or by drawing diagrams on the floor with white flour or by preparing pongal and other sweets. All these things or foolish and a mere waste and have no significance of divinity. People are calling this day as Pongal, which indicates the sweet rice to be prepared on this day. Thus, the external physical significance is only stressed by this word. But the word ‘Samkranti’ has the internal spiritual significance.

On the occasion of this festival ‘Samkranti’, I am also following its significance by transforming Myself into the third stage called as Dhyanam or Involution. This third stage is related to Lord Shiva and is called as Pratyahara or the part of the conclusion. I am withdrawing Myself from all the items of the world and I am going to remain in the innermost source. In this stage, I am not going to catch any devotee like the cat (Marjala Kishora Nyaya). I am leaving My hold on all the devotees and there is no need of telling that I am withdrawing My hold on all the worldly items. In this stage, those devotees who have complete faith on Me have to catch Me and have to keep their hold on Me like the baby of a monkey (Markata Kishora Nyaya). Till now, I am holding on My devotees with My grip like the mother cat catching its offsprings with mouth. But from today onwards the devotee has to catch Me with his or her own grip like the offspring of a monkey catches its mother. Therefore, My grip is transformed into the grip of the devotee. Thus, those who have very strong faith can alone have the rigid grip on Me and will follow Me to the eternal divine abode. There is a point up to which the teacher catches the student. In the elementary class, the teacher catches the student by force and makes him sit in the class with the help of a cane. But after sometime in the higher class the grip is reversed. The student has to catch the teacher and there is no need of cane in the higher class.

Therefore, those devotees who have the firm faith on Me alone will come along with Me. Those devotees who have weak faith will fall on the way and I cannot care for them because it is against the principle of divine schedule. In the higher class, the teacher will not care for the student if he is absent for the class. The student has grown-up and need not be caned. From now onwards the journey depends on your grip and not on My grip. If I have to carry you till the goal with My grip, I have to carry all the souls. The teacher teaches the whole year but in the time of examination the teacher has no grip. Everything depends on the student only in the time of examination. Till now My life has passed through the two earlier stages called ‘Jnanam’ (Knowledge) which is related to Lord Brahma. The second stage was ‘Gaanam’ (devotional songs or devotion), which is related to Lord Vishnu. During the first stage, I cleared the concept. During the second stage, I was catching My devotees who have faith towards Me and I was dragging them towards Myself. By these two stages, the academic year is over. Now this third stage belongs to the time of examination in which the teacher will not interact with the student in any way from His side. The preaching and guidance are stopped. If there is any doubt, the student himself has to approach the teacher for clarification during the preparation holidays. In this time, the student has to approach the teacher and the teacher will not approach any student. The teacher is prepared to clarify the doubts provided the student approaches with interest. When this third stage is also over, there will be examination, which is the enquiry about the soul in the upper world. After that the result is given to the soul. All this information about My involution is strictly limited to the circle of My devotees only and not to other general public. Therefore, this need not be misunderstood by others.

People are always under the illusion of majority. People think that whatever is done by the majority is always good. They expect their son to study, earn a job, marry and have children. The sons of majority are doing like this. Therefore, people think that this is the good path. Therefore, they expect their sons also to follow the same good path. If any son tries to deviate from this path the parents are worried. Ofcourse the deviation from this path may be towards positive or negative side. If one is leaving this earth, he may fly to the sky or may fall into the downward pit called Patala. Both are deviations. Similarly, if the son deviates from this normal path and becomes a lazy fellow and is trapped by bad habits the deviation is negative. In such case, the son should be forced to the normal path. He should be brought to the ground from the pit. But if the son deviates from the normal path and is turned towards God by becoming a monk, the parents should encourage and appreciate. If somebody is leaving the ground and is flying to the sky, it should be appreciated.

Therefore, the negative deviation should be condemned and the positive deviation should be appreciated. The Scriptures say that if a couple is not having a son, they will go to the hell called ‘Put’ (Punnama Naraka). Does this mean that Shankara, Rama Krishna Paramahamsa etc., who did not have sons have gone to the hell? Does this mean the demons that had sons have not gone to the hell? This statement of the scripture has to be understood with reference to the negative deviation. This means that one should marry and get a son by leading a disciplined regular family life and one should not be unmarried and should not be trapped by bad habits like moving with prostitutes. Thus, with reference to this negative deviation only the normal path is appreciated. This means that you should be on the ground and should not fall into the pit. This does not mean that you should be on the ground and should not fly to the sky. This is not with reference to the positive deviation. Therefore, the production of a son is appreciated with reference to a debatcherous life. But it should not be appreciated with reference to the life of a monk. Earning one rupee is appreciated with reference to the loss of money. But it need be appreciated with reference to earning 100 rupees.

The concept of majority is capturing the minds of even spiritual people. The spiritual preacher is encouraged to deliver the knowledge if a large gathering appears. When Krishna preached the Gita, there were lakhs of soldiers there. But He preached the Gita only to Arjuna because he was the only deserving devotee. If any spiritual preacher is in the place of Krishna, he would have requested for a mike so that he can preach the Gita to all the people in the war!! Datta is surrounded only by very few deserving disciples like Pingala Naga, Alarka, Parashurama, Skanda etc. Shankara preached the commentary only to the four deserving disciples. A Professor is surrounded by a very few research scholars engaged in discussions. If you visit a school teacher, he is surrounded by a hundred children, who are not listening anything.

The love towards the family is more important than love towards society. But the love towards Lord is more important than love towards family. The love towards society should be concentrated to the limited family and the love should be further concentrated to a limited human being, which is the human incarnation. This is explained in the Ramayana. Rama neglected the welfare of the society with reference to the love towards His wife. He told Ravana to return back Sita and if Sita is returned Rama will go back to Ayodhya along with His wife. In that case, Ravana would have tortured the world and Rama will not punish him. Rama behaved like an ordinary human being. Every human being should follow the life of Rama, which is exemplary. One should care for his wife, children, brothers, parents etc., i.e., his family than the society. The family is more important than the society. The family loves you more than the society and therefore, you should love your family more than the society. To teach this, Rama behaved in that way on the first day of the war. Some people sacrifice their families for the sake of the welfare of the society. The family is also a part of the society. In fact, the family is the best part of the society for an individual.

The Ramayana preaches the importance of the family bonds, which should be more important than the society. Sita stressed on the importance of love towards the husband. Lakshmana and Bharata stressed on the importance of the love towards eldest bother. Rama stressed the importance of love towards wife, brothers and parents. Dasharatha stressed the importance of love of a father towards the son. The love in these family bonds is demonstrated to the climax in the Ramayana. Lakshmana stood without food, drink and sleep for the sake of his elder brother for fourteen years. Such brotherly love is unimaginable and impossible in this world because Lakshmana left even his newly married wife for fourteen years for the sake of his elder brother. Can such brotherly love be possible in this world? It cannot be seen but then why such climax is demonstrated? The idea is that when you show the climax, people will follow at least to some extent. But if you show some extent only, they will not follow at all. But one should remember that all these family bonds are sacred and important with reference to the bonds with the society and not with reference to the bond with the Lord. All this is only within the limits of Pravrutti. Now to show such climax in the family bonds, the love in the family bonds cannot be sufficient. The meaning is that to show the brotherly love to such climax, the bond between two brothers is not sufficient.

If Rama and Lakshmana are simply brothers, such climax of brotherly love is not possible. Rama was the Lord and Lakshmana was His devotee, called Adishesha. The bond between Rama and Lakshmana is not simply the brotherly bond. It is the bond of a real devotee towards the Lord. That divine bond in disguise of brotherly bond can only show the climax. Lakshmana is aware of himself as Adishesha and was also aware of Rama as Lord Narayana. His love towards Lord is understood as brotherly love by the world. His love towards the Lord was hidden to the world, but was not hidden to Rama or Lakshmana. The proof for the recognition of Rama as Lord by Lakshmana was that Lakshmana was not astonished when he saw Rama converting the stone as a lady by touching it with His foot. If Lakshmana was not aware of Rama as the Lord, Lakshmana should have shouted with surprise and should have advertised that incident in Ayodhya after returning back. He watched that miracle with peace and silence. It means that Lakshmana is aware of Rama as the Lord. Therefore, Lakshmana could show such climax of love to Rama as the Lord and not simply as brother. But he never opened the secret and treated Rama only as brother because the purpose was to establish the brotherly love in the world and not to establish the love towards the Lord.

The external colour was ‘Pravrutti’ for the sake of the world, but internally it is ‘Nivrutti’ in the view of Lakshmana or Bharata or Sita. Thus, Dasharatha, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Sita played the Pravrutti part of the drama. The essence of Pravrutti is to give love and importance to the entire living beings of the world. Among the living beings, you must give more love and more importance to the humanity. Among the human beings (society), you must give more importance and more love towards your family. This is the field of Pravrutti. Neglecting the family for the sake of the society is foolishness. This is proved by Rama by neglecting the welfare of the society for the sake of His beloved wife, while asking Ravana to return back Sita. Similarly, neglecting the humanity for the sake of other living beings is also foolishness. The love should get more and more concentrated as you proceed from the world of living beings to the humanity and to your own family. Here ends the Pravrutti. The family of Rama played this part and preached Dharma or Justice. But while preaching the Pravrutti in all their family bonds actually Nivrutti was present in hidden state. Due to this hidden Nivrutti only the bonds of Pravrutti could reach the climax.

The second part of the drama is Nivrutti in which the Lord comes in human form who is not your family member. He is an outsider. Hanuman is not related to Rama through any family bond. His mother told Him that the Lord will come in human form and that He should wait on the mountain Kishkindha to meet the Lord. Thus, the recognition of the Lord in human form is open secret in Nivrutti. Hanuman left His family for the sake of the Lord in human form who is an outsider and was not His family member. Thus, the essence of Nivrutti is that you should leave even your family for the sake of the Lord when you recognize Him in the human form. You should leave the society for the sake of the family and you should leave the family for the sake of the Lord in human form. This is conveyed by the service of Hanuman to Rama. Thus, the love is reaching the climax of concentration at this single point of human incarnation. Jesus tells that one should leave all the family members and even must be prepared to carry on his own cross for the sake of Himself i.e., the human incarnation. He left His parents for the mission of the Lord. He never cared for His mother who came to see Him. When a woman shouted that His mother is sacred because she gave birth to the Lord, Jesus told that the statement is not correct. He told that the people who follow the word of Lord are really sacred and not His mother who just delivered the child like any other woman. This shows the importance of Lord over the family. Jesus gave importance to the Lord who is in the energetic form called as the Father of Heaven. The reason is that He cannot give importance to the human incarnation because He Himself was the human incarnation. But Gopikas, the devoted sages, proved the same truth in the case of the human form of Lord. For the sake of Lord Krishna, they left their families and wealth.

When Krishna left the body, they jumped into fire. When Krishna left Brindavanam, they roamed with full madness. It is easy and palatable to show the climax of love on the formless aspect of God but it becomes very difficult when the God is in human form. When Meera showed the love on the statue of God even that gave her lot of troubles. Imagine the trouble faced by Gopikas who showed love on the direct human form leaving their families. Hanuman was having all the supernatural powers and in fact, He helped Rama by using those powers. But Hanuman never got egoism even though Rama did not exhibit any supernatural power. This shows that you should not recognize the Lord simply by supernatural powers. It also indicates that you should not think yourself as the Lord by getting some supernatural powers. Hanuman recognized Rama as the Lord even in the absence of any supernatural power. Hanuman never claimed Himself as the Lord even though He possessed all the supernatural powers. Here the point is that even a devotee can attain the supernatural powers as in the case of Hanuman. The Lord may exhibit these powers as in the case of Krishna or may keep silent as in the case of Rama. These powers can also be attained by a demon like Ravana. These points must be well noticed when you are recognizing the human incarnation with the help of superpowers. Hanuman never worshipped the all-pervading formless aspect of God. He also did not worship any statue or even energetic forms like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva etc. Such forms are the most inconvenient media. When the same Lord is present in the most convenient medium called as human body, it is ignorance and rigid foolishness to worship the other inconvenient forms. These points must be understood from Hanuman and such a devotee can be called as the real devotee of Hanuman. Hanuman did not recognize Krishna for sometime but finally He recognized Krishna also as the same Lord and worshipped Krishna. In this, Hanuman acted as an ignorant for the sake of others. The message of such action of Hanuman is that even great scholars and devotees are not realizing the most important point, which is that the Lord comes in human form in every generation. Nobody can live like Hanuman for such a long time to be present in the time of Rama as well as in the time of Krishna. Hanuman was associated with two subsequent human incarnations. Sometimes you may have two human incarnations in the same generation and this point is conveyed by Hanuman through the above incident. Shirdi Sai Baba and Akkalkot Maharaj were existing side by side in the same human generation and both were human incarnations of Lord Datta. Similarly, Rama and Parashurama co-existed. Balarama and Krishna co-existed.

Ravana was similar to Hanuman in possessing all the supernatural powers. He is an example for a devotee who considers the Lord only by supernatural powers. He accepted Brahma and Shiva who gave him the supernatural powers. He worshipped the energetic forms like Brahma and Shiva. He neglected the human form while asking the boons from Brahma. This itself shows that Ravana can never believe that the Lord comes in human form. The Gita states that the Lord comes in human form and the Gita never stated that the Lord comes in any another form (Manushiim Tanumashritam). This means that the Lord comes in human form to preach the divine knowledge and other forms are not convenient for spiritual guidance. When Lord came in the form of Fish etc., such forms were limited only to kill the demons and not for any spiritual preaching. Therefore, Ravana could not recognize the human form of God. There are people like Ravana who do not believe that God comes in human form. Such people are egoistic and jealous like Ravana and do not accept any human incarnation present in their time. They worship God only in the formless aspect or energetic forms or statues. They claim themselves as Lord or Brahman. When Rama was not having any supernatural power, the negligence of Ravana was reinforced. Ravana was also an outsider and was not having any family bond with Rama like Hanuman. Ravana could follow neither Pravrutti nor Nivrutti. He neglected his wife Mandodari and was after Sita, who was an outsider. Sita was the wife of an outsider. Ravana craved for the love of Sita and loved Sita more than Mandodari. He neglected his family for the sake of outsiders. Thus, he violated Pravrutti. He could not recognize the human form of the Lord and opposed the human incarnation. Thus, he violated Nivrutti also. Therefore, he was completely ruined.

Thus, if you compare Lakshmana, Hanuman and Ravana the whole spiritual knowledge can be understood. Lakshmana stands for Pravrutti, who cared for his family. Hanuman stands for Nivrutti, who cared for the Lord in human form and loved Him more than His family. Ravana neither loved his family nor loved the human form of the Lord. He was thinking himself as the Lord and got ruined. Thus, the Ramayana is the essence of all the Upanishads and the Gita (Vedah Prachetasaat…). It is the practical conducted in the laboratory, which conveys the theory explained in the Gita. Therefore, Hanuman acted in the Ramayana and heard the Gita. Whatever He acted was found to be correct when He heard the Gita. Hanuman was on the flag of the chariot and Krishna along with Arjuna were in the chariot during the preaching of the Gita. This means that the practice of the spiritual knowledge is always in the higher plane than the theoretical preaching.

Whenever, you pray the Lord, be careful about the meaning of the prayer. You must utter that only, which you can really practice. In the prayer, you say that the Lord is everything for you. You cannot practice this. You cannot prove this as long as the Lord remains formless or in the energetic form or as the statue. But when the Lord comes in the human form and asks you to sacrifice a little for His sake, you will go back. For this inconvenience only you deny the human form. You like the statue or formless aspect or energetic form of God because they cannot ask you for any proof of your prayer. You want that God should believe your prayer and should blindly sanction whatever you ask. You think that God is innocent and should believe whatever you say without any practical proof or test. This is the main reason for the denial of human form of God. When you offer the food to the Lord, the formless God or the energetic form or the statue will not take even a single particle of your offered food. But if you offer the same food to the human form, you will not get back a single particle to eat. This is the reason for denying the human form of the Lord.

First you must be sure of the extent of value you give to God. Then, you must be sure of the extent of your faith when you meet the human incarnation and in recognizing Him as the Lord. If you have full value for the Lord and if you recognize the human incarnation, the full value to God must be proved practically in the case of that human incarnation. If you have full value for God but do not recognize the human incarnation, then there is no opportunity for you to prove your full faith to God. In such case, your full value to God is false and you are hippocratic. Jesus gave full value to God and sacrificed His life for the sake of God. In the end, He told the Lord that His will should be done. When He accepted the will of God to be done, He did not feel adversely in the crucification. Since the crucification was the will of the Lord, He followed it sincerely because He told that His will must be done. Therefore, whatever is told must be practiced. During crucification, He never asked the Lord to protect Him and stop the crucification. If He had asked for it, it would have been stopped immediately by the miraculous power of the God.

Therefore, unless you have the determination of practice, you should not utter anything before the Lord. Once you utter you must follow it at least in the case of the Lord. Most of our prayers are lies only and even one percent cannot be practiced. By doing such false prayers one invokes the anger of the Lord only and not the grace of the Lord. Whatever value you have for the God should be proved in practice and such value only should be mentioned in your words while praying the Lord. Whatever little love you have for God, mention that much only in words. The God will not be displeased for your little love. In fact, He is more pleased because you are telling truth before Him. There are some people who call every greater human being as the Lord. The purpose of such usage is only to have some benefit from that greater human being. Thus, the word Lord has become means to achieve the selfish ends in the hands of clever materialistic people. The false human incarnations may be trapped by such clever people. But, the real human incarnation will get reversed.

[Some devotee asked about the washing of sins by taking bath in the river Ganga because Shankara told that swallowing even a drop of Ganga River will wash away all the sins (Gangajalalavakanika…).]

People think that by taking bath in the river Ganga the sins are washed off. This is true but the process of washing is not recognised. The sin is punished in the hell and the punishment is more due to the interest accumulated for the whole lifetime of the human being. But the river Ganga gives immediate punishment for your sin so that the punishment is not grown by interest. Thus, the sin is washed away by the exact proportional punishment without interest. People think that the sins are washed away without any punishment. This is against the divine administration and the scriptures say that the fruit of the action must be received by the soul (Avashyam anubhoktavyam). Thus, any statement of the scripture should be carefully analysed and understood. A fast conclusion will be misinterpretation and will mislead the people. According to such misinterpretation people will do large number of sins and take a dip in the river Ganga in the end. Therefore, the correct interpretation reconciling with other doctrines of spiritual statements must be done.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★