Posted on: 01 Apr 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
(Following Satsang took place at Hyderabad attended by Smt. Priyanka from Canada, Shri Kunal Chatterjee, Smt. Suchandra Chatterjee, Shri Soumyadip Mondal, Smt. Chhandaa Chhandra, Shri Surya, Smt. Bhagya and Shri Srivatsa Datta from Mumbai; Shri Phani and some other local devotees. Satsanga happened from 22nd to 25th March 2024 and on the last day, Swami gave Satsang continuously for 10 hours.)
1. Do we need to control unnecessary expenditure in Nivrutti also?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Swami, You advised us that we should not do unnecessary expenditure either in worldly life or in the service of God. But, You also told that Jesus appreciated a devotee, who applied costly perfume on His feet rather than serving beggars. Please correlate these statements.]
Swami replied:- A devotee purchased costly scent and was applying to the feet of Jesus. That is the high level of her deep devotion. Of course, spending unnecessarily in worldly work or in spiritual work is not correct. God Jesus was not aspiring for such service. But, this point was raised by the wicked Judaas, who has no real devotion to Jesus. He raised this point through a bad angle of criticizing Jesus for allowing such costly expenditure. His main jealousy was on Jesus and Jesus recognized his actual angle of criticism. Then, Jesus told that the devotee can continue with her service and that beggars are always present in this world. Jesus would have opposed the purchase of such costly scent if that matter came to His notice early. Now, the scent was already purchased and the costly worship can’t be reversed. Hence, He accepted such service in such circumstances and criticised Judaas for his angle of jealousy on the contemporary human incarnation of God. The same Judaas took some bribe and helped the soldiers to arrest Jesus in the later time. Jesus did not criticise the service because there would be no use at that stage. Moreover, if He had criticised that service, the serving devotee would also be unhappy while doing the service. However, Jesus was also not in favour of unnecessary expenditure even in divine service.
2. How does a parent know when the debt-bond of that parent has ended with his children?
[Shri Kunal Chatterjee asked:- Paadanamaskaaram Swami, how does a parent know when the debt-bond (runaanubandha) of that parent has ended with his children? Does this apply to spouse and pet animals also?]
Swami replied:- Runa means the loan, which can be in the form of money or material or physical service. The parents are paying the loan, taken in previous birth, along with interest to their children and this is actually the punishment given by God since it is a sin. In order to carry on the punishment under any circumstances, the parents are bound by the bond of fascination towards their children till the payment of the loan is completed. Even though the son/daughter becomes rude to the parents, the parents are unable to cut their fascination towards their issues because the divine force of implementing the punishment by God in the background continues since the balance of payment exists. If you see other bonds, the human being has freedom to form a bond or not. But, in the case of the bond with child, the fascination (Putreshanaa) is forced by God so that the punishment of the sin continues till its stipulated period. You will be given that much capacity to earn to clear the loan in one life and you will be given that much fascination so that you will clear the loan of the exact loan lender. This arrangement (capacity and fascination) of payment of loan by the parents is done by the divine administration in such a way that the payment continues throughout the life period of the parents and also after their life, based on the property-will written by them. Generally, the loan ends in that life. But, in case, it is not finished by one birth, the parents have to be born as parents and the issues have to be born as their issues again in the next birth. The departed parents will wait in the upper world till the issues also reach the upper world and the departed parents will be born first so that they can be born again as parents.
Every soul has a maximum upper time limit in the upper world, which is the time taken by three generations. Hence, the divine administration takes care of everything. This bond became the strongest bond even among the three strongest worldly bonds because in the background, there is divine interference that causes fascination for clearing the loan. Hence, nobody can escape this bond. In fact, even the divine background though existing as the backup, is unnecessary because the inherent fascination of the parents towards their child is unlimited and unimaginable! People not having children are also happy, if they are spiritually realised souls because the Veda says, “What is the use of these children, who do not assist us in our spiritual progress?” (Kim prajayā kariṣyāmaḥ eṣāṃ nāya mātmā). Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Shankara, etc., are such happy souls. Ignorant souls feel tortured in not having children, which is the climax of foolishness from the angle of spiritual life. People adopting a child are lending a loan to the adopted child so that the adopted child will become a parent and the parent will become its child in the future birth. In such cases, the parents are lending loans for the sake of future worldly bonds. If all the children lent loans equally, the parents will divide the property equally among their children. If one child has lent more loan, the parents will develop a special fascination towards that child and give more property. In the divine administration, no trace of injustice happens. We misunderstand the divine administration and blame God saying that injustice is winning. This is due to our knowledge of a partial picture and ignorance of the total picture. We say that X stole the money of Y. It may be that Y stole the money of X in the previous birth and by the divine administration, X is collecting his money from Y. If this is not a retort case, and a fresh case (fresh case means X is really stealing the money of Y), X will return back the same amount with interest to Y in the next birth. This is the best facility for investing for the next birth and such service is not done by any bank! Here, God has favoured Y because in the next birth, Y is becoming poor and needs that money very much. This is the arrangement done by God for the welfare of Y. In the ancient generations, based on the Runaanubandha concept (taking loan and not clearing it), the practice like Vaishvadeva (cooking own food with own food materials) and Aparigraha (not accepting any gift from anybody) existed strictly. This debt-bond applies to pet animals and spouse also.
3. Swami, can we take that the priests in the temples are connected to devotion?
Swami replied:- Generally, priests in the temples are connected to their livelihood and this is also not wrong because every human soul tries for livelihood as the first step in the life. Hence, all priests are not true devotees of God. But, actually, the priest in the temple is supposed to be the best devotee so that he becomes the spiritual preacher also. But, such an example is very rare like Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Shri Paramahamsa never confined Himself to the mechanical worship of the deity in the temple. He extended Himself as the best spiritual preacher. Every priest working in a temple must take Paramahamsa as the ideal example.
4. What is the meaning of the following statement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?
[Smt. Chhandaa Chandra asked:- Swami, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said "Krishna is the ocean of love and if one wants to win Him, he has to forget that He is God and love Him" - What is the meaning of it and why did He say so?]
Swami replied:- If you know that the contemporary human incarnation (God Krishna) is God, immediately you will know that God means omnipotent having all impossible powers. Today, you may not have any aspiration from God. But, on one day, the situation comes to such an extent that you are forced to aspire for some benefit from God. The devotion having aspiration for some benefit is like a living being without life. God Krishna stressed in the Gita again and again about Nishkaama Karma Yoga, which means that you must do practical devotion to God without aspiring for any practical benefit in return from God so that you can avoid business devotion. Hence, you must always forget that He is God so that you will never have any aspiration from God in return for your true love. If a girl loves a boy without knowing that he is the son of the king, such love of the girl is true love. Later on, even if she comes to know that he is the son of the king and if she retains that thought in her mind, in some situation, she may be provoked to use the power of the son of the king and in such case, her true love becomes business-love.
Hence, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is advising to erase that thought from the mind throughout her life so that her love to the son of the king remains as true love throughout her entire life. God Rama behaved like this without expressing any miraculous power as an ideal human being (Aadarsha maanushaavataara). This is the reason why the name of God Rama became the boat to cross this worldly sea (Taaraka Mantra). God Krishna expressed His divinity through miracles very frequently and hence, true love without attraction to His divine powers is not possible in the case of God Krishna. As the time proceeded nearing Kali age, the standards of the people have fallen and the devotees are always fond of the devotion with aspiration in return from God (Sakaama Karma Yoga). People do not consider God for His excellent knowledge, but consider God for His miraculous powers, which can be used by the devotees to solve their worldly problems. If you recognize the contemporary human incarnation by His excellent and unimaginable true spiritual knowledge (Satyaṃ Jñānam Anantaṃ Brahma, Prajñānaṃ Brahma - Veda, Jnānītvātmaiva…-Gita), you can forget that He is God by assuming Him as a great scholarly human being. In this way, you can erase your thought about Him as God simply by remembering again and again that He is only an erudite scholar. Another advantage is that you can freely mix with God and you will be always in ground state to ask any doubt with full freedom. In such a case, it is very easy to develop friendship-devotion, which is at a very high level, being the last but one in the nine steps of devotion (Sakhyamātmanivedanam).
5. Hanuman realised Rama as God and still His devotion is without aspiration in return throughout His life. Please comment.
Swami replied:- Hanuman belongs to the past time. You have to discuss about the devotees of the present time, which is Kali age. Due to the low standards of the present devotees of Kali age, even God changed the policy of Rama and performed several miracles as Krishna to attract people. The devotees of Kali age entertain the very concept of God solely as the only solution for their worldly problems. If this point is not served, even if God is preaching unimaginable spiritual knowledge, even a single devotee will not attend God to hear His knowledge because the entire aim is totally different. If this concept is announced by God, not only human beings, but also a living being like an ant also will not enter any temple. Hence, you cannot talk about Hanuman in the present atmosphere in which you are also living.
6. Swami, will I get salvation if I want to get it in this birth itself? If yes, what should I do?
[A question by Smt. Suchandra]
Swami replied:- You go on doing the necessary efforts, forgetting salvation immediately in this very minute, not to speak of this birth. Once you kill the ego and turn all your fascinations of the worldly bonds to your bond with God, salvation is possible in this very minute, not to speak of this birth. After salvation also, the soul can live in this world called as Jiivanmukta, which means living in this world after getting salvation. Salvation means liberation from the worldly bonds due to your attachment to God. The liberation from the worldly bonds shall not be attained by force. Due to the excessive attachment to God, the worldly bonds drop off spontaneously by themselves and such liberation is salvation. One may be liberated from all worldly bonds due to his mad love to a prostitute. Such liberation of worldly bonds is not salvation and in fact, that is falling of the soul even from the ordinary level. Therefore, you shall always try for improving your attachment to God so that all the other bonds will dropout by themselves. When you are very strongly absorbed in watching the cinema, you are not aware of the bites of mosquitoes and even blood-bugs in the seat. You are liberated from the mosquitoes and blood-bugs due to your attachment to the cinema. Simply, liberation from worldly bonds without attachment to God is not at all salvation. Such a salvation is impossible and is also meaningless. It is impossible because if you leave the drinking of coffee without tasting the divine nectar, you cannot leave coffee for a long time because you will drink a bucket of coffee after ten days. It is also useless because anyway, you are not tasting the divine nectar and you can let yourself use the facility of tasting coffee at least. Therefore, no single step is needed for mere salvation (liberation from worldly bonds). Every step is only to be put to increase your attachment to God and in such a case, salvation is spontaneous without a trace of your effort.
7. Why did the Veda mention about detachment from the world as a pre-requisite for leaving the house?
[Shri JSR Prasad asked:- Swami, Veda says that whenever you are detached from the worldly bonds, you can leave the house (Yadahareva virajet tadahareva pravrajet). Here, attachment to God is not mentioned as a pre-requisite for detachment to worldly bond. Please comment.]
Swami replied:- People have misunderstood that once you are detached from worldly bonds, you shall leave the house to become a saint to propagate the true spiritual knowledge in the world. This foolishly means that if there is a quarrel between you and your family, you can leave the house and become a saint! Hence, I have propagated this concept, giving the righteous reason that the attachment to God must be the reason for the detachment from the worldly bonds. Hence, the detachment from the worldly bonds mentioned by the Veda is due to the attachment to God only. The Veda also says that if you are attached to God, He will be available to you (Yame vaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyaḥ). The Gita also says the same (Bhaktyā tvananyayā labhyaḥ). Simply, detachment from the worldly bonds can only give detachment from misery temporarily. Attachment to God is the attainment of divine bliss permanently. If the divine bliss is obtained, misery is spontaneously detached. Arjuna tried to leave the war not because of his sympathy towards the soldiers, who may die, making their families orphans. If such great attitude was present in Arjuna, Arjuna would not have fought wars with several kings when the Raajasuuya sacrifice was done by Dharmaraja. Why did the same concept of kindness not come to Arjuna in those wars? At present, he saw his grandfather, Bhishma, by whom the Pandavas were brought up in their childhood. Due to this reason only, he wanted to withdraw from the war and all his other arguments were simply created by him to hide his main fascination to his grandfather. Hence, the basis is always important in any action and not merely the action.
8. Will the birth of a liberated soul also be based on Runaanubandha?
[Smt. Priyanka asked:- When the liberated souls take rebirth, will it be also based on runaanubandha (clearance of loan)? If not, how their family members are selected?]
Swami replied:- The concept of Runaanubandha is the basis of rebirth in the case of ordinary souls. The families of liberated souls reborn are due to the will of the omnipotent God. Such will of God is not bound by any rules of administration since God is the sole and ultimate authority in the divine administration. Since the rules of administration do not apply in these special cases of liberated souls, these souls are not entangled by the fascinations of worldly bonds.