25 Jun 2025
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QA:21-26
(Some of my friends, who are atheists, have asked these questions on sweet devotion and related topics. I have sent those questions to H.H. Shri Datta Swami, who has answered these questions. - Ms. Thrylokya)
21. Swami, what is the historical background of sweet devotion starting from the beginning of the creation or Kruta Yuga or Satya Yuga?
[A Series of Questions of Ms. Thrylokya]
Swami replied:- In Kruta Yuga, there was no sweet devotion. Even if sweet devotion existed, it was not against justice, which means that it was confined between husband and wife only. In that time, God never said that the devotee shall cross justice for the sake of God as said in the end of Dvaapara Yuga (Sarvadharmān parityajya… - Gita). Any type of justice was not crossed for the sake of sweet love. Coming to the next Tretaa Yuga, 25% injustice cropped into the minds of the souls in this Yuga. But, the influence of Kruta Yuga persisted in the beginning of the Tretaa Yuga. In this time, God Dattatreya was born to Sage Atri and divine Mother Anasuuya as the fruit of their penance. God Dattatreya was recognized as the human incarnation of God Datta, who was the first energetic incarnation of the ultimate original unimaginable God called Parabrahman. There is no trace of difference between God Datta and Parabrahman. God Datta is just mediated (energetic medium) unimaginable God and can be compared to the clothed person coming out of bathroom after bath, who is visible to everybody. Parabrahman was the same person taking bath in the closed bathroom without clothes and invisible to anybody (invisible here means unimaginable). God Datta, the first energetic incarnation of Parabrahman (Nirguna Brahman), is the original God called as Saguna Brahman, whereas the human incarnation of God Datta is called as Sage Dattatreya (Saguna Brahman) because He took birth in the family of sages. Sage Dattatreya married a girl called as Madhumati. Madhumati means the devotee of sweet devotion. Madhumatam means the divine path of sweet devotion.
In this beginning time of Tretaa Yuga, as I told, the justice was almost like that of Kruta Yuga and any illegal sweet love was not allowed in that time also. As Tretaa Yuga advanced, justice fell down gradually and became 75%. Hence, in the beginning of Tretaa Yuga also, sweet devotion was confined to husband and wife only and illegal sweet love in the form of darling was not allowed at all. Hence, Madhumati confined her sweet love to her husband, Sage Dattatreya only as per the surrounding conditions of the society. But, the fall of justice started slowly by 1%, 2%, 3% etc. The sweet love of Madhumati can be called as sweet devotion since Sage Dattatreya was fully recognized by her also along with all sages as the human incarnation of the ultimate God, God Datta. One day, Sage Dattatreya was doing the morning ritual called Sandhyaa Vandanam, which is singing sweet songs in the praise of God (Gaayatri). Although Sage Dattatreya is God Himself, He was doing this ritual for the sake of others to follow Him, which is called as Lokasamgraha (Lokasaṅgrahamevāpi… - Gita). This ritual is always done thrice every day (during Sunrise, Noon and Sunset). It was sunset time and due to the slight fall of justice, Madhumati was overcome by the sweet devotion towards God Dattatreya. She thoroughly knows that Sage Dattatreya is the ultimate God. She went and embraced Him strongly and thus, disturbed the ritual. Such disturbance to a ritual done for God was considered as injustice and sin. God Dattatreya cannot allow such sin in view of the conditions at that time. He immediately cursed her to be born as a demon in the form of she-buffalo called as Mahishii. Mahishii means she-buffalo and also means the Queen. God Dattatreya is the King of this creation and Madhumati is the Queen of this creation. Both are Divine Father and Divine Mother acting in such divine drama to preach the spiritual knowledge to souls. Such injustice is due to the quality of Tamas. Demon and buffalo are famous for Tamas quality.
God Dattatreya took the incarnation of Shaastaa (In Kali Yuga, Shaastaa incarnated as God Manikantha on earth in Kerala). He was the mixture of powers of God Shiva and God Vishnu. Both Shiva and Vishnu are the incarnations of God Datta. Hence, Manikantha is the incarnation of God Datta only. In fact, any energetic or human incarnation is God Datta only. God Datta, in the form of Manikantha, went and punished her by killing, which is simultaneously killing her ignorance (imposed by her as per the requirement of the role) also. She became Madhumati again with sweet devotion that doesn’t contradict justice in any way. God Datta called her as Anaghaa, which means sinless. Sin is removed by punishment. God Rama tells this point to Vaali in the Raamaayana that the soul punished by the Government (court) here on earth is relieved from the sin and goes straight to heaven after death to enjoy its merits (Rājabhirdhṛtadaṇḍāstu, kṛtvā pāpāni mānavāḥ, nirmalāḥ svarga māyānti, santaḥ sukṛtino yathā). The sweet devotion of Madhumati was perfectly justified as the highest merit of sweet devotion. But, disturbing the ritual, which is the highest form of worship of God, is also a strong injustice or sin. Similarly, Sage Kashyapa was also embraced by his wife, Diti, while he was worshipping God through Gayatri at the time of sunset. She gave birth to demons. His first wife, Aditi, who was following justice without doing any injustice, gave birth to angels. Sons of Diti are called as Daityaas (demons) and sons of Aditi are called as Aadityaas (angels).
During the same time of Tretaa Yuga, the sages in Dandakaaranya approached God Rama and requested Him to accept their hug offered to Him after becoming females using their divine power. It is just a male in female role embracing another male. Sages thought that they can break their spouse-bond for the sake of God by doing like this. God Rama refused it saying that it is injustice. God Dattatreya existed in the time of God Rama and He came along with other sages to attend the crowning ceremony of God Rama to become the King of Ayodhya after killing Ravana. God Dattatreya gave blessings to God Rama and left from there. God Rama and God Dattatreya are one and the same. It is a divine play to show that a king must take the blessings of sages. Here also, the illegal sweet devotion failed because of the predominance of justice at that time.
Gradually, justice fell down and the bad qualities drove away the good qualities from the minds of souls. When it was the end of Dvaapara Yuga, which was almost the present Kali Yuga, justice fell by 75% and remained as 25% only. Illegal sexual affairs started prevailing at that time. A married husband goes with other married ladies and a married lady goes with another married male. Due to complete change in the conditions of the society, the constitution in the world has to be amended, which always has connection with the changed atmosphere of the public in the world. In this Kali Yuga, the Supreme Court of India says that consensual illegal relationships are not a crime! It is an amendment of the constitution in effective sense. But, this cannot be accepted by the divine constitution of God. The amendment of the divine constitution is always done by God without disturbing the fundamental justice, which is whether it is male or female, sin is sin. The divine constitution says that both such illegal lovers will go to hell and will be punished severely. Both have to hug the red-hot copper statues having the forms of their illegal lovers. But, the bad qualities became very predominant and very powerful in this Kali Yuga and it is very much impossible to replace those bad qualities by good qualities. God wanted to help at least the devotees in this affair. Therefore, God Krishna amended the divine constitution saying that the bad qualities can be diverted towards God to avoid sins. He said that a soul can divert his/her bad qualities towards God and said that the injustice due to possession of sinful bad qualities will not be punished in the hell in such case (Ahaṃ tvā sarva pāpebhyaḥ… - Gita). Not only this, He also promised that such a devotee diverting one’s illegal lust to God can reach Goloka, which is above the abode of God. This is an extra incentive given by Him to encourage such diversion of bad qualities to God. Previously, the devotees were only given the abode of God as the highest fruit. Now, the highest fruit is Goloka, which is higher than the highest abode of God.
God Krishna showed the practical demonstration for this amendment of divine constitution. God Shiva took the birth as Radha and divine sages took the birth of Gopikas in this divine play to show this concept strongly. Radha married Ayanaghosha and left her husband for the sake of God Krishna. She crossed justice and did sin for the sake of God and not for the sake of another human being. She neither touched her husband after marriage nor allowed him to touch her. She remarried God Krishna secretly through ‘Gaandharva Vivaaha’ (change of rings), which is allowed by the ethical scripture. This type of marriage was agreed by the scripture as one of the eight types of sacred marriages. King Dushyanta married Shakuntala secretly through this type of marriage only by putting his ring to the finger of Shankuntala (Gāndharveṇa vivāhena, bahvyo rājarṣi kanyakāḥ… - Abhijnaana Shaakuntalam). Raadha became the Queen of Goloka. Some married Gopikas also diverted their bad quality, the illegal love, towards God Krishna and reached the same Goloka. Pravrutti is the earth, in which sweet love is towards husband. Nivrutti is the sky, in which sweet love is towards God. Dushpravrutti is Paatalaloka or hell, the lowest world, in which the sweet devotion is diverted to another human being as darling.
Later on, Radha was reborn as Miiraabai in this world in Kali Yuga and preached the same amended path to the devotees. She also neither touched her husband nor allowed him to touch her. In her time, she could not catch the human incarnation of God and hence, she worshipped the statue of Krishna as her darling. She wrote several sweet songs on God Krishna. One need not sing those songs only for God. The devotee can even divert a cinema song to the statue of God Krishna like the song “Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko, Nazar Nahin Churaana Sanam, Badalke Meri Tum Zindagaani, Kahin Badal Na Jaana Sanam…”. What a beautiful song of sweet love is this! Certainly, this song indicates the highest sweet love of a soul towards other soul. If this sweet love is diverted to God, it becomes sweet devotion. If a soul sings this song before the beautiful photo or statue of God Krishna, she will certainly reach Goloka. By this, the social injustice and illegal sins are reduced to a great extent and most of such devoted souls are protected from their serious punishments in hell.
22. Why Miiraa could not catch the human incarnation of her time?
[Why Miiraa could not catch the human incarnation of her time, when she was the incarnation of Radha? You said that God incarnates in every generation.]
Swami replied:- It is the will of God. Without the will of God, no devotee can catch the human incarnation in any generation. Of course, Miiraa was the incarnation of Radha. Radha already achieved the real form of God Krishna since she is the embodiment of the power (Hlaadinii Shakti) of God Krishna. She was also the incarnation of God Shiva, who is God Vishnu or God Krishna. In order to preach a concept to this world of devotees, Radha was born as Miiraa and worshipped the statue of God Krishna. As Miiraa, she represented Gopikas, who were soul-sages only. A statue is similar to illusory Krishna having the same form of real Krishna created by the real form of Krishna in order to lead the Gopika to Goloka. The God-component (unimaginable God) is absent in the illusory Krishna and also in the statue. But, the illusory Krishna and the statue having the same form of God Krishna can act as representative models of real Krishna or God (Parabrahman or unimaginable God merged with the medium of Krishna to become the real form of Krishna). The statue is also made of matter and inert energy. Of course, the statue lacks awareness and a devotee can treat the statue of Krishna as silent God. Many devotees like silent God (statue) because God will not speak anything against their sins, which is never liked by any soul. The gross body of illusory Krishna is also made of matter and energy. Radha represented the Gopika to show that Gopika also reached the same goal (Goloka) that was reached by herself.
Worship of representative model (statue or photo of God) is the indirect worship of God because God does not exist either in the statue nor in the photo or in an ordinary human being like illusory form of Krishna. But, if God wishes, the devotee of indirect worship also reaches the same goal obtained by the devotee of direct worship. This concept of indirect worship was propagated by Miiraa. God also responds to the prayers of the devotees through statue. As her indirect worship developed more and more, God Krishna was also appearing and talking with her (actually the words of God were overheard by people moving outside her room and hence, her husband asked her to drink a cup of poison as punishment). Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was also propagating this indirect worship of statue to the world of devotees by preaching that a devotee shall see His deity, Mother Kaali, as alive divine Mother.
23. Is the energetic incarnation of Goddess as ignorant as Her human incarnation?
[Swami, You told that female form of God is the personification of the power of God and acts in the role of a devotee by imposing permanent ignorance. Now, is the energetic incarnation of the Goddess as ignorant as her human incarnation to play the role as devotee?]
Swami replied:- Let us take the case of Goddess Anaghaa, who is the energetic incarnation of God like Goddess Sarasvati, Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Parvati. Goddess Anaghaa as energetic incarnation imposes ignorance in the upper worlds to suit to the level of angels, who are the souls in energetic medium. When she incarnates on earth, she imposes another layer of ignorance to suit to the level of human beings, who are the souls in human medium. Requirement of the situation is important in both places. Upper world or lower world is not the question since the type of ignorance and quantity of ignorance depends on the requirement of the program.
24. Krishna must give more appreciation to Gopika's devotion than Radha's devotion. Isn't it?
[Since Radha and Rukmini are the real forms of Krishna Himself, their love to Krishna becomes self-love. It is easy to love oneself. But, Gopika's love to Krishna is beyond self-love. Therefore, God Krishna must give more appreciation to Gopika's devotion than Radha's devotion. Isn't it?]
Swami replied:- Self-love is based on false monism between the body and one’s own soul. It means one individual loving himself/herself. But, the love of real Krishna with Radha/Rukmini is based on dualism of the medium. Hence, this argument is unsustainable. The only commonality between these three (Real Krishna, Radha and Rukmini) is the presence of God-component. The God-component will not interfere with the process of loving. The love is between two media (body, word and mind). Radha is made the “Queen of Goloka” because she is the incarnation of God Shiva. Also, the intensity of love of Radha towards Krishna is impossible for any soul including the 12 Gopikas, who passed all the tests of God. Radha did not touch her husband even after marriage and married Krishna again, which was also ethically impossible in those days. In the case of unimaginable God and His unimaginable power, self-love can exist in its real sense because there is no dualism between two unimaginable items. AdiShankara and Hanuman come under this category because there is no second medium of dualism. But, in the case of Krishna or Rama etc., the external medium (called human being-component) exists for the God-component. In the human being-component also, the individual soul and external gross body exist with clear dualism. In the same way, Gopika and the created Krishna have dualism in each of both cases (soul and body) and dualism between the two cases (two souls and two bodies). The same two-fold dualism exists between original Krishna and Radha. Hence, you cannot separate both these cases.
25. How was Narada able to distinguish between the real form of Krishna and unreal form of Krishna?
[How was Narada able to distinguish between the real form of Krishna and unreal form of Krishna when the Gopikas (highly learned sages), Radha (incarnation of God Shiva) and Rukmini (incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi) could not distinguish between them?]
Swami replied:- God Krishna covers Himself with ignorance for the sake of entertainment, but, He has simultaneous awareness of truth also since His role is God. Regarding Radha and Rukmini, both are exactly the same original Krishna since both are also the incarnations of the same one God. But, both are acting in the role of devotees to God to stand as examples for other devotees. Hence, both are covered with full ignorance and cannot get the awareness of truth unless the original Krishna preaches them. Both resemble ordinary devotees only. A divine soul like Naarada is blessed by God and hence, God will not cover him with Maayaa (Mama māyāṃ taranti te… - Gita). Naarada is a divine sage (Devarshi) and has the power to know the truth due to His constant devotion to God. God did not interfere with Naarada because His question that how God Krishna is managing so many wives should be answered thoroughly, which should also add to the spiritual knowledge as an important concept and this concept must reach all the three worlds since he wanders in all the three worlds.
26. How to distinguish between real Krishna and illusory Krishna?
Swami replied:- Same procedure is to be used, which is used in differentiating human incarnation from other ordinary souls. By excellent spiritual knowledge, by the unimaginable love towards devotees and by miracles, one can distinguish real Krishna from illusory Krishna.
To be continued...
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