Posted on: 02 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. Is this liberated state influenced by energy and awareness?
[Smt. Chhandaa asked:- Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching says, "Souls are influenced by matter in physical form and not influenced by matter in liberated state – these two statements are attributed to the ‘tatastha’ nature of the soul." Is this liberated state influenced by energy and awareness?]
Swami replied:- Matter is the gross state, and energy and awareness are subtle states. Energy is subtle and awareness is subtler. When the gross state itself is not influencing, there is no need to speak about subtle and subtler states. This world is made of three components, which are matter, energy and awareness. This totally means that an ordinary soul is influenced by worldly bonds (world) and the liberated soul is not influenced by worldly bonds. This means that when the liberated soul is reborn along with the human incarnation of God, the liberated soul is also not trapped by worldly bonds. Hence, even though the liberated soul takes rebirth, it is not taking rebirth because its birth is special due to detachment from all worldly bonds. This is the case of the human incarnation also.
2. If I have made total surrender to God, is Karma Phala Tyaaga necessary because I have surrendered myself completely to God?
[A question by Shri Kunal Chatterjee]
Swami replied:- Everybody is having the basic idea that their wealth can be increased by worshipping God. The existence of God is also agreed by everybody for this purpose only. The essence of the entire worship of God is only selfish welfare. Even if God is silent to respond to our prayer for the sake of our selfish welfare, we become uninterested in God because our worship of God is becoming useless. Even a fool will not do useless work (Prayojana manuddiśya, na mando'pi pravartate). This is the basic rock that is holding every soul fundamentally. The atheist thinks that all this basic dilemma will permanently end if we say that God does not exist. In such a case, any dilemma regarding God is closed forever. Even the theist, agreeing to the existence of God is praying to God for the sake of his welfare and welfare of his family only and there is no trace of true love to God, which must be free from any selfish aspiration in return from God. In such a case, we must be frank to say that there is no trace of difference between the so-called theist and the atheist.
A real theist is such soul, who loves God truly without any selfish aspiration and the reason for such true love is simply the attraction towards the excellent personality of God. We find an example in the world for such true love in the case of a fan of a cinema hero or a political leader. The fan spends from his pocket only for all the functions related to his hero without aspiring a single paisa in return from his hero. The impression of the personality is in climax because the fan commits suicide on hearing the death of his hero! When such unimaginable true love, free from any aspiration is seen in this world itself, how can you say that true love is impossible? Even parents are showing true love by sacrificing all their earnings to their issues even though the issues insult them in old age. The parents may scold the issue bitterly for its ungratefulness to them, but they will not change their property-will written to the issues even a little. Hence, you cannot say that such true love is impossible, when it is very much possible in this world itself. Practical devotion or sacrifice of service and fruit of work is the real proof for all theoretical devotion. Between the sacrifice of service and fruit of work, the latter is more important than the former. Service or work is energy and fruit of work is matter. Lot of energy is equal to a little matter as per the conversion principle of energy and matter (E=mc2). The Veda said about the sacrifice of the money or wealth (Dhanena tyāgena… - Veda), but God Krishna replaced the word ‘wealth or money’ by the fruit of hard-work because bond with hard earned money is greater than the bond with ancestral wealth.
Hence, God competes with the fruit of hard-work only, which is the strongest bond. If God defeats your bond with your hard-earned fruit, God becomes the strongest bond for you. If God is defeated, your hard-earned wealth becomes the strongest bond for you. Hence, God Krishna gave the highest place to the sacrifice of the fruit of hard-work and He said that there is no further spiritual effort after this (Śreyo hi jñānam…śāntiranantaram - Gita). As per the Gita, the sacrifice of the fruit of hard-work is the ultimate spiritual effort from the side of any soul and God Krishna says full stop after this effort. The word ‘Shanti’ in the above verse means full stop, which means there is no need of any further test. Total surrender is only theoretical, mentioned by the mouth and its practical proof is the sacrifice of fruit of hard-work (Karma Phala Tyaaga). Without practical proof, the theoretical statement has no practical value. God says in the Gita that He will give theoretical fruits for theoretical knowledge and devotion and He will give the practical real fruit for the practical sacrifice (Ye yathā māṃ prapadyante…).
3. Why is the kindest God not lifting the atheist?
Swami replied:- Suppose God uplifted all atheists, your very next statement will be, “When you are so kindest to uplift even the atheist, can’t you be kind to uplift all the theists by giving salvation?” Already, the atheists would have became theists and this means that finally, everybody would be uplifted. Where is the entertainment in such creation? If you declare every player as the winner and gift every player with a golden shield, not only the observer is bored, but also the player is bored. When there is real competition without any partiality of God shown anywhere, the real thrill comes not only to the observer but also to every player. I hope you will understand the real basic spirit in this creation, which is meant to entertain not only God but also the souls.
4. Why, in present times, are people not hearing the true spiritual knowledge?
Swami replied:- The present people are ruled by the Kali Purusha (Satan) and hence, every soul has climax selfishness. Almost every theist is attached to God for the sake of selfish welfare and for the sake of welfare of the family. Nobody is having true love to God, which was possible in the ancient ages only. Only selfishness is the basis of the entire spiritual life. These people of Kali age are always searching for the person having miraculous powers only, which can be used to solve their personal worldly problems just like the engineers are searching for the source of petrol, which is useful for any machine to work. In such a situation, if you preach the concept of true love for God without any aspiration in return, nobody will give his/her ear to your preaching. Hence, it is very much necessary for any human incarnation of God to show some miracles at least in the beginning time of the mission to solve the starting problem. First, people shall be attracted by miraculous powers in view of selfish utility and then only, they will at least hear the true spiritual knowledge from the human incarnation. The only purpose for any miracle is only to convert an atheist into theist by proving the presence of unimaginable God through the unimaginable event called miracle. For the theist, miracle is not necessary at all because he already believes the existence of God and for him, the required advanced part is spiritual knowledge, theoretical devotion and practical devotion. But today, even theists are desiring for miracles only, which can be used to solve their selfish worldly problems. Hence, the procedure for diverting people into spiritual path is only through projection of miracles as an introduction. Kids will not go to school unless you show the chocolates to them.
5. Why did human incarnations of God come from North India and spiritual preachers from South India?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Why human incarnations of God (like Rama, Krishna, etc.) came in North India and spiritual preachers (like Shankara, Ramanuja, etc.) came in South India?]
Swami replied:- The human incarnation is characterised by love, which is emotional mind and people in North India have such emotional devotion to God. The spiritual preacher is characterised by knowledge, which is deep logical intelligence and people in South India have such logical and analytical intelligence. This is only a superficial difference based on the psychology of religion. In North India, the human incarnation, God Krishna, gave unimaginable-analytical knowledge in the form of the Gita. Preacher Ramanuja established the emotional devotion towards God in South India. All these examples given here are the divine forms of omniscient and omnipotent God for whom everything is possible.
6. Is putting effort for once's own health, like taking proper medication, also come under selfishness for a spiritual aspirant?
Swami replied:- Certainly not. Moreover, it is the bound duty of the spiritual aspirant to protect his/her health through proper ways. A person suffering with illness is neither eligible for Pravrutti nor is eligible for Nivrutti. Hanuman is the best example of success in Pravrutti as well as in Nivrutti.
7. Why do some Hindu families not take food in the house of other people?
[Why do some Hindu vegetarian families not take food in the house of other people, who take non-vegetarian food? Isn't it insulting others?]
Swami replied:- It is not at all meant for insulting others. It only draws the attention of non-vegetarians to enter into discussion on the sinful angle of non-vegetarian food.
8. A person commented that Rama was a good human being but was not God. How to answer this, Swami?
Swami replied:- The person is correct in his comment because Rama never showed any divinity and behaved only as an ideal human being. The aim of this human incarnation was only to show the ideal path for an ideal human being. He was always hiding His divinity because if divinity was expressed, the effort to show Himself as an ideal human being would become a failure. Krishna showed His divinity frequently to preach about the characteristics of God. Rama is the path to God whereas Krishna is the God-goal that is to be reached at the end of the path.
9. When miraculous power is attained by pure devotion, miracle is linked with pure devotion. Is it correct?
[A question by Shri Abhiram]
Swami replied:- Miraculous powers are aspired by a devotee not for the sake of salvation from worldly bonds, but are aspired for getting name and fame in this world. Salvation from worldly bonds is pure because through such path only, the single-pointed devotion to God is eternal, which is also responsible for giving you total salvation from all the worldly bonds. But, by getting miraculous powers, only ego develops. Hence, miraculous powers cannot be linked with pure devotion. Only impure devotion aspires for miraculous powers. Sages always aspired salvation from God whereas demons always aspired for miraculous powers from God.
10. Why is Vali said to be the boon of Indra and Sugriiva is said to be the boon of god Sun?
Swami replied:- Vali was bad, born from Indra. Indra also did a bad thing like deceiving Ahalya for sexual union with her. Regarding god Surya, there is no such bad comment on him. Sugriiva was a good person and hence, deserved to be the boon of god Surya.
11. Is self-respect required for the devotees in the spiritual path?
Swami replied:- Self-respect and ego are separated by a very narrow margin. Self-respect is actually self-confidence or basic-ego, which is the thought of ‘I’. If you are confined to basic-ego only, there is no sin. But any trace of excess of basic-ego results in self-pride or ego, which is very dangerous.