29 Jun 2025
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| 32-36 | 37-39 | 40-47 | 48-53 |
QA:37-39
(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)
37. What is the main reason for God to encourage sweet devotion for reaching Him?
[A Series of Questions of Ms. Thrylokya]
Swami replied:- Only through the strongest bond with God, one can reach God. Some have sweet devotion bond as their strongest bond because the tastes of souls are always different (Loko bhinna ruciḥ). Hence, each soul has a different strongest worldly bond and if the soul superimposes such strongest worldly bond with God, then only the soul can develop its bond with God as the strongest bond. All the worldly bonds are justified even though they are selfish. There is only one unjust bond, which is the bond with darling. Some have taste for this bond even though it leads them to hell. This is their strongest bond and they cannot change to other bonds due to their personal rigid taste. Through this bond, Gopikas, Radha and Miira reached God. There is one Naarada Bhakti Suutra, which is deleted by some people, which says that the darling bond is the strongest of all bonds (Jāravat ca…). But, the darling bond should be diverted towards God and not to some other human being, which leads the soul to horrible hell.
Once, King Bhoja observed a household wife running into the house with fear just by hearing the sound of a crow. The king hid himself and waited near her house to examine her case. The same lady came out of the house in the midnight and walked alone to cross the dangerous Narmada River, which is full of crocodiles, just to meet her darling on the river bank of the other side! (Divā kākarutāt bhītā, rātrau tarati narmadām - Bhoja). Hence, it is inevitable for such rigid souls to reach God through their chosen path only. Actually, any bond directed to God is good and any bond directed to world is bad. Gopikas reached the highest Goloka through the illegal darling bond and Dharmaraja reached only heaven by performing a very big Vedic sacrifice! Due to such rigidity of the soul about its unchangeable strongest bond, God has to inevitably lead the soul through the path selected by the soul only (Ye yathā mām… - Gita).
38. When You say that a soul can at most attain the unreal form of God only, does it not discourage the spiritual aspirants to put efforts?
Swami replied:- By the Maayaa power of God, the spiritual aspirants will disbelieve whatever I told now. They disbelieve because their brains are under the control of the Maayaa Power of God. Disbelief means forgetting truth through the way of rejecting truth. In the path of rejecting truth, there are no two steps:- i) Accepting the truth and ii) Forgetting the truth because not recognizing the truth is the single step. This is the reason why we say that God is omnipotent. He told in the Gita that He can create the knowledge and also make the knowledge to be forgotten or rejected in the beginning itself (Mattaḥ smṛtiḥ…). The soul rejecting this knowledge does not like this knowledge just like any Gopika does not like this, which is to accept that Radha and Rukmini enjoyed the real form of God and that all the other Gopikas and wives did not enjoy the real form of God. The disliking of a point leads to rejection of that point. They will say “Only their biological father and biological mother produced them and not God and His power. ‘God produced them’ means that God wished them to be born. God did not participate in sexual life with His wife and produce them. Since God wished their birth, God is greater than their parents. Their parents are X and Y and neither X is God nor Y is power of God. Even the first soul was created by the will-power of God and not by sexual life of God since God has the unimaginable power of materialisation of His will (Icchā mātraṃ Prabhoḥ sṛṣṭiḥ).
Scripture says that five persons are fathers:- i) Biological father, ii) The person, who initiates you into divine songs (Upanayanam), iii) A person, who gives you education, iv) Father-in-law, v) Saviour of your life. All the five are not biological fathers. The other four are equal to biological father. It is a simile in which all points need not tally. In fact, God is greater than even biological father and even the equality disappears. The bond with biological father is also a worldly bond to be defeated before the bond with God. Even in the verse of the Gita (Ahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā…), the word ‘biija’ or seed need not mean the donor of the sperm to fertilize the ovum of the mother. Here, biija means the ultimate root cause, which is the will of God for the generation of the soul. Also, the word ‘pitaa’ need not mean biological father, but a simile only, which is the assumed father. Assumption is not reality. Hence, if God Krishna had sexual relationship with any devoted soul (of course on the desire of the devotee only), the real form of God can multiply and satisfy the desire of the devotee, which is that her bond with God must overcome the bond with her spouse, which is the test for spouse-bond”. In this way, God manages everything by igniting such logic in their minds. God can bring the logical memory or can remove the logical memory due to His power of Maayaa as said in the Gita (Mattaḥ smṛtir jñāna mapohanaṃ ca…). But, don’t misunderstand that God is using His power of Maayaa to mislead the devotees from right path to wrong path. God is using His power of Maayaa only to lead devotees from wrong path to right path and in this context, applying Maayaa becomes an inevitable step. In this way, devotees of sweet devotion are satisfied with their own powerful logical analysis. God allows it since God wants the devotees to get full satisfaction and proceed in the spiritual path. God will not disturb their logic and discourage the devotees from their progress in spiritual line.
In the case of male devotees, leaving the spouse for the sake of God becomes the test for spouse-bond. Ramanuja and Buddha can be taken as practical examples, who left their wives for the sake of God’s work. We must remember that God neither allows trace of sin nor allows shadow of sin to fall on Him since He remains the purest untouched by His creation. He allows everyone to think His unreal forms as real forms to satisfy the sweet devotees and encourage them in spiritual path, which is His professional duty. Here also, by the influence of the power of Maayaa, sweet devotees think the illusory Krishna as real Krishna. Again, one must be careful in recognizing the basic fact that God is not using His power of Maayaa to mislead devotees from right path to wrong path. By Maayaa, He is leading them to right path from wrong path. But, Radha is very possessive of God Krishna and becomes jealous about other Gopikas due to ignorance of her own personality (Radha is the incarnation of Shiva and Shiva is the embodiment of the quality Tamas, which is ignorance. If we go to the deepest level, we can realise that Radha is living in her role as an ignorant devotee because even possessiveness shows excess of mad love to God.). Then, God Krishna reveals the truth to Radha about His unimaginable power called Maayaa and convinces her that He always belonged to Radha only and is entertaining the Gopikas with His illusory forms to uplift them. Radha, due to her Tamas, does not believe in the statement of Krishna thinking herself as ordinary Gopika and therefore, even the real Krishna is taken as illusory Krishna by her and whatever Krishna told her is only seen by her as an Arthavaada to encourage her in the spiritual path. Krishna, unable to remove her ignorance, says to her that a doubting soul is destroyed and she would lose her real divine background if she continues doubting Him (Samśayātmā vinaśyati - Gita). Of course, by the grace of God Krishna, after sometime, Radha realises the truth because God is the main authority of the truth. All this drama is done by Radha to teach the devotees not to doubt God in any situation.
Radha is the incarnation of Shiva, who is the giver of spiritual knowledge and she cannot have a trace of ignorance in real sense (in the sense of actor and not in the sense of role). While playing the role of a devotee, God imposes ignorance on her to teach the spiritual lessons to the world of devotees. As an actor, Radha has complete spiritual knowledge. In her role, Radha imposes ignorance showing jealousy on co-devotees and doubts the love of God. Once a devotee believes that Krishna is God, no doubt shall be entertained by the devotee and such belief is the foundation of all answers.
39. Is the darling bond the only way to have strongest bond with God?
[The divine Sage Naarada himself told that darling bond is the strongest worldly bond in the creation. Even on crime news, we see some mothers killing both husband and children for the sake of illegal relationship. Therefore, can we conclude that the only way to build the most strongest bond with God is through the darling bond?]
Swami replied:- No doubt that the illegal darling bond is a very strong bond especially in this Kali age because such news is heard in this Kali age only and not in other earlier ages. Anyway, our discussion is also about reaching God in this present Kali age only. In such case, we have to accept that very strong bond is the illegal darling bond only. Now, the point is that the bond with God must be as strong as the illegal darling bond. Here, we need not take the illegal darling bond and superimpose it on our bond with God. The message here is that our bond with God must be as strong as this illegal darling bond. The Bhakti Suutra of Narada also says that our bond with God shall be like the illegal darling bond (Jāravat ca…). The word ‘vat’ means ‘like’. Here, the strength of bond is the main point and not the actual bond. If I say that one shall be as strong as Vaali, it does not mean that one shall be as bad as Vaali. As per Madhva, the basic bond between God and a devotee is the bond between Master (Sevya) and servant (sevaka). This means that the soul must be a servant to treat God as the Master whatever maybe the worldly bond including the illegal darling bond that is superimposed on this general bond and this Master-servant relationship told by Madhva exists as the basic bond because a devotee always serves God. The female illegal darling serves the male illegal darling. The wife serves the husband. The son serves the father. The younger brother serves the elder brother. The student serves the teacher. After the above Suutra, Naarada said the next Suutra, which is ‘like the bond of Gopikas with Krishna’ (Yathā vraja Gopikānām). In this later Suutra, the example for illegal darling bond was given as the bond of Gopikas with God Krishna. This bond was given as example because it was actually the illegal darling bond since Gopikas were married having children.
When the devotee is married and having children, all the three strongest worldly bonds (spouse-bond, children-bond and wealth-bond) called Eshanaatrayam can be tested. In testing the joint-bond of child and wealth, the real Krishna participated. But, in testing the spouse-bond, the real Krishna created illusory Krishnas having exactly His own real form so that the Gopika can feel that she is defeating her spouse-bond for the sake of God Krishna only. Therefore, the real ultimate aim is completely fulfilled whether the examiner is the real Krishna or an illusory Krishna. Here, the main point is not whether the real Krishna romanced with the Gopika or an illusory Krishna romanced with the Gopika. The main point is that whether the tested soul can leave her spouse-bond for the sake of God or not. Even if the Gopika knows that the real Krishna is different from the illusory Krishna, the Gopika treats the illusory Krishna as the real Krishna only thinking that the real Krishna multiplied Himself as several real Krishnas. The powerful Maayaa of God does not allow the Gopika to know whether the real Krishna multiplied Himself or the real Krishna created illusory Krishnas. In any way, the Gopika feels the illusory Krishna as the real Krishna only. In Brundaavanam, when Raasakeli dance was happening, the real Krishna created several illusory Krishnas, who danced with other Gopikas. Here, the Gopika knows that the real Krishna is standing at the centre and all other Krishnas created by Him are also real Krishnas due to multiplication of Himself. In this way, even though several Krishnas are seen by several Gopikas, the basic confidence that every Krishna is the real Krishna is maintained by God Krishna.
The illegal darling bond is inevitable in the case of a married female devotee like a Gopika. The spouse-bond test is inevitable because it is one of the three strongest worldly bonds. In some cases, God may waive this spouse-bond test because He thoroughly knows that even if the spouse-bond test is conducted, the candidate will certainly pass. But, God will not waive this test in the case of every soul because there are some souls for whom the spouse-bond is very strong and has to be tested. This test is not only for female souls, but also applicable for male souls. In the case of male souls, they leave their spouse for the sake of God’s work. This happened in the case of Buddha and Ramanuja. Some male souls also develop the illegal darling bond with God Krishna thinking themselves as females in their mental plane. Shri Chaitanya Mahaaprabhu was an example for this concept, who was suffering with high fever everyday and his fever was subsiding only when God Krishna embraced him!
What about the case of Radha standing as an example for Gopikas in sweet devotion? Radha was also a married lady and the spouse-bond test was inevitable in the case of Radha also. But, the speciality in the case of Radha was that she was actually unmarried even though she was formally married because she did not allow her husband to touch her. She neither got an issue from her married husband nor got an issue from God Krishna. This proves that she was dedicated only to God Krishna and was not fond of any child-bond also. In males also, you can find an exactly equivalent example, which is Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He neither touched His wife nor had any fascination for the bond for children. These two are the most wonderful examples and both are the incarnations of God. A soul cannot be like Radha or Paramahamsa. This is the reason why Radha became the Leader of Gopikas and also the Queen of Goloka standing as most excellent example in the devotion to God. Such an example in Kali age is Shri Paramahamsa.
Disliking the illegal darling bond in Pravrutti is perfectly justified. If somebody likes illegal darling bond even in Pravrutti, God will punish such soul. Another point is that not only the female soul shall defeat the spouse-bond for the sake of God, but also the same male-spouse must defeat his spouse-bond for the sake of God so that both can reach God. It should not be misunderstood that this spouse-bond test is confined only to a female soul. Once God enters the field, Pravrutti has to disappear and Nivrutti shall appear just like once the sun appears, the dark night must disappear and the bright day shall appear. The dark night is Pravrutti and the bright day is Nivrutti. In Pravrutti, several worldly bonds exist like stars and very strong bonds exist like the moon. When the sun appears, the moon and the stars shining in the darkness must disappear along with the darkness, which is the ignorance. You are worrying about these worldly bonds, which are not permanent even in Pravrutti once the death attacks the soul. That, which is temporary must be unreal and that, which is permanent must be real. The bond with God only is real, which is permanent in every birth. The worldly bonds are unreal, which change in every birth. In view of this brilliant knowledge-sun radiation, all the ignorance-light shall disappear along with all these various star-worldly bonds. If one is stuck with a specific worldly bond, the salvation from all the worldly bonds is impossible. There is no difference among souls stuck by one worldly bond or several worldly bonds or even by all the worldly bonds because the soul cannot see the day whether one star exists or several stars exist or only moon exists without any star in the night sky. Jada Bharata could not get salvation since he was bound by simply one bond, which is the love for a deer.
To be continued...
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