Posted on: 04 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. God Krishna left Brundaavanam and never returned in His entire life. Is this not the most cruel act of God?
[A question by Smt. Chhandaa]
Swami replied:- Suppose some institution says that your son will be trained by them for three months with rigorous coaching and your son shall not leave the institution even for one day. If he undergoes that training, he is sure to get a very colourful career in his entire life. Will you agree to this proposal? You will not agree immediately because your son is not coming to home even for one day in these three months. Your wish is that your son shall come to your home for at least nine days per every ten days! You will do a thorough analysis and find out that this is in the best interest of his welfare. Later on, you will agree to this proposal rising above the fascination to your son. Similarly, God is interested in the welfare of the Gopikas. The devotion of any devotee increases tremendously when the devotee stays far from the contemporary human incarnation. The reason is that God has taken the human medium as His form and such medium has all the natural properties of an ordinary human being. When you are close to the incarnation, you will be observing all the natural properties of the human medium of God. Such continuous observation of the medium creates an impression in your mind that He is a human being only and not God. By this, the devotion decreases. The Veda says that if anybody stays close, such a person will be hated and if the same person stays far, such a person will be loved and this is inevitable even for divine angels (Parokṣapriyā iva hi devāḥ pratyakṣa dviṣaḥ - Veda). When this principle is inevitable to even angels, not to speak of ordinary human beings. Hence, God Krishna wanted to stay far from the Gopikas so that their devotion will tremendously increase and they can become eligible for Goloka, which is higher than the highest fruit (His abode). Welfare is more important than the fascination during the stay in this world.
2. Will the concept and the example suit perfectly in Your above-given example?
[In the example given by You, both the mother and son know the value of the future career and hence, both can control their emotions. In the concept, the Gopikas do not know the future fruit since they are not aspiring for any fruit in return for their devotion to God Krishna. In this way, the concept and the example do not suit perfectly.]
Swami replied:- Both the concept and example suit perfectly because just like the Gopikas are not aware of the fruit, the son just passing out of school is also innocent about the value of the future career and is always fond of coming home. In this example, only the mother knows the value of the future career. Similarly, in the concept, God Krishna standing in the place of the mother alone knows the future fruit and the value of the future fruit. In the example, the son insists that he should come home frequently, but the mother rigidly insists that the son should not come home even once during these three months. The mother may look very harsh and hard, but still, she has real love on her son about his future career. Similarly, God Krishna knows the value of the future fruit and hence, is rigid in not returning back to Brundaavanam even once.
3. Since the time frame is different, the concept and the example do not suit perfectly. Please elaborate.
[In the example, the time was just three months whereas in the concept, the time is an entire lifetime. Hence, the example and concept do not suit each other.]
Swami replied:- For ordinary souls like us, one life is a very long time. But, this long time experienced by human beings is a very very short time for God. Hence, He will not mind about this pain of the Gopikas that happens in one second for Him. You may argue that for the Gopikas, the experience is very long. But, in view of the value of the future fruit, God Krishna becomes rigid with a hard-heart so that the Gopikas will stand in the highest position permanently. The entire lifetime of the Gopikas is also very very short compared to their highest eternal position.
4. If a Sthitaprajna is given salvation by God because he was reformed, will the soul get salvation even if he has not cleared the loan to his children?
[A question by Shri Kunal Chatterjee]
Swami replied:- As soon as the reformation takes place, God gives salvation even though the soul is living on this earth and such a soul is called liberated while alive (Jiivanmukta). Even if the loan to the children is not completely cleared, the salvation will not be postponed till the loan is completely cleared because as soon as the salvation is given to the soul, all his pending fruits of actions disappear since all the actions are destroyed (Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi). The pending loan to the children is cleared by the divine government itself.
5. Does a liberated soul also slip from its original position?
Swami replied:- Very rarely, a liberated soul may slip from its already attained position of Yoga or association with God and it is called as Yogabhrashta. But, such a soul is born in a family of spiritual people, who are also rich. The soul will be trained by his spiritual people and will continue in the spiritual path since there is no need of earning for food because he has sufficient ancestral property. Every minute of his entire life, he can concentrate in spiritual life only without bothering about basic needs. Such a slipped liberated soul will catch back its original spiritual line and gets rectified from the mistake returning back to its original position. It is not a big crime, but only a small slip that can be easily rectified. All this is explained in the Gita (Yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ… - Gita).
6. When a human soul is thrown into the cycle of births of animals, it is punished forever. Please explain.
Swami replied:- God is the creator of all souls and is the Divine Father, who has million times more love on souls (Ahaṃ bīja pradaḥ pitā). Such a Divine Father will always be very kind to fulfill all the wishes of His created souls. When God finds a human soul, which is always interested in eating, drinking, sex and sleep and since the soul is not bothered about God except these four items only, in spite of the hectic efforts made by the Divine Father, the kindest Divine Father decides that such a soul must be given the birth of an animal so that the animal is completely confined to these four items only. In doing so, no injustice is done to the soul. You may argue that while existing as human soul, it enjoyed the feast in a marriage function, whereas it is eating the grass at present as animal and in such case, is it not a loss to the soul? There is not even a trace of loss to the soul because as per theory of relativity, the green grass is exactly the same feast meal (of a human being) for the animal. As you are seeing the feast-meal, the animal is seeing the green-grass as its feast-meal. You are misunderstanding this point because as a human being, you are seeing both the feast-meal and green-grass. Hence, God fulfilled the exact desire of the soul without any deficiency due to His everlasting kindness.
7. Can we attain the highest eternal fruit of spiritual work by performing certain rituals, which are traditional practices?
Swami replied:- You are talking about the performance of rituals and traditional practices, which are considered to be spiritual works and which are expected to give you the highest spiritual fruit. But, the Gita says that before you perform any work practically, you must analyse such work with deep logical analysis supported by the correctly interpreted scriptures (Jñātvā kurvīta karmāṇi - Gita). Regarding the scripture, we have not seen an audio-video cassette in which God is writing or dictating these scriptures. Then, how to believe that God is the author of these scriptures? The only way is that we must analyse the scripture with deep logical analysis and find that everything written by God is justified by the deep logical analysis. Since there is no proof for the direct dictation of the scripture by God, there might have been some insertions and deletions of the original scripture written by God. How can we find out those false editions made by wrong devotees of any religion? The founder of the religion must be the human incarnation of God and there might have been some real good devotees to follow that original scripture. But, in course of time, you cannot rule out the insertions done by faulty devotees since this world contains both good and bad people. This is the reason why the Gita says to do logical analysis before you believe in certain practices, to be sure that they were dictated by God only. If you do such deep logical analysis and find out the merit, you can practice such traditions. God is beyond logic but whatever He said is not illogical. Since the Gita came after the Vedas, the Gita commented on the Vedas and the Vedas did not comment on the Gita. Therefore, the Gita must be taken as the final authority in the case of the Vedas also.
8. Please guide me how to propagate Your knowledge?
Swami replied:- The propagation of spiritual knowledge can be done by two types of preachers:-
i) The preacher, who is unable to practice the learnt knowledge can propagate because he has a very good talent in explanation. A doctor or an engineer, who is unable to practice can become a teaching staff member in a college and help the new generations to learn the true spiritual knowledge so that at least some of them may practice. Such preachers are also paid salaries by the government. Similarly, such preachers are also blessed by God because due to continuous preaching, the knowledge gets digested in him/her, which is certainly transformed into practice so that such a preacher also gets the highest fruit in course of time.
ii) There are some preachers, who do not preach without their personal practice. Such a preacher is called the Sadguru. A lady brought her son to Shri Paramahamsa requesting Him to advise the boy not to eat jaggery. Shri Paramahamsa asked the lady to bring the boy after one month. When the lady brought her son after one month, Shri Paramahamsa advised the boy not to eat jaggery. When the mother asked Paramahamsa the reason for delaying for one month, Shri Paramahamsa told that He was also habituated to eat jaggery. He told that He took one month to avoid eating jaggery. He told that one should not preach without practicing the concept. We can take another angle of this concept also. The doctor may be a smoker, but, is very good in giving medicine to stop smoking. What Paramahamsa told above is from the angle of the preacher and not from the angle of the boy. Here also, the patient, who approached the doctor shall not worry about the smoking of the doctor. It is the angle to be thought by the doctor and not by the patient. The doctor may be the incarnation of God like Shirdi Sai Baba smoking the hookah. Hence, we shall not criticise the preacher about his practice. If the doctor is an ordinary human being, he will suffer for the smoking. Why should we criticise him? We have gone to him to cure our disease and not to cure his disease! The actual fact is that the patient, who has gone to the doctor blames the doctor stating that he will not take the medicine from the hands of such a doctor lacking practice. The reason for such blame is that the patient does not want to cure his smoking since he does not like to give up smoking!
9. When the climax of devotion is attained, does it not mean that all the pending punishments of sins get cancelled automatically?
[A question by Smt. Chhanda and Ms. Thrylokya]
Swami replied:- The cancellation of pending sins is a separate section in the divine constitution. Such cancellation of sins is done only through the reformation process. There is no other way than this to cancel the pending punishments. The procedure of reformation is realisation of the sin (Jnaana Yoga), repentance (Bhakti Yoga) and non-repetition of the sin in rest of the life (Karma Yoga). Even after getting climax of devotion, God Krishna says that such a climax devotee will be reformed shortly (Api cet…kṣipraṃ bhavati dharmātmā - Gita). This means that the climax devotee will be reformed shortly and this does not mean that the climax devotee is automatically a reformed soul. Since the Gopikas became mad due to climax devotion, they could not follow the procedure of reformation. Hence, God Krishna took all their past sins onto Him and enjoyed them. In the case of a Sthitaprajna, he will not become mad since he controls the madness and therefore, such a Sthitaprajna is referred in the above verse and is said to become reformed shortly. For a Sthitaprajna, reformation is very very easy.
10. Is lack of knowledge the reason for unhappiness?
[A question by Shri Soumyadip Mondal]
Swami replied:- Everywhere, illusion is bringing misery, whereas the realisation of truth is bringing happiness. When you see a rope and undergo the illusion that it is a snake, you are suffering with misery. When you realised it with the help of the torchlight (Sadguru), you get happiness because you can take that rope to your house and use it for some useful purpose. But, the knowledge must be a practical realisation, which means that mere theoretical knowledge cannot destroy your illusion. You might have learnt from a preacher that a rope in twilight appears as a snake. By such theoretical knowledge, only the theoretical illusion is removed. But actually, when you are walking and seeing a rope in twilight, you will not remember the preacher’s teaching and decide that the snake must be a rope. If you decide like that based on your theoretical knowledge, you may be damaged because the illusory serpent might be a real serpent. Unless you put the torchlight and practically realise that it is a rope, you cannot get the practical result. Hence, knowledge here means realisation of practical knowledge like the digested food on eating. Mere theoretical knowledge is of no practical use.
The theoretical knowledge is like a slip on which the list of necessary provisions to be purchased are written. This slip is the theoretical knowledge that must be kept in your mind till you purchase the items. You should remember this theoretical knowledge till you implement it. Once the provisional items are purchased from the shop, this slip can be thrown away, which is of no use. The purpose of theoretical knowledge is finished when it is implemented. The implementation of theoretical knowledge in practice is done either in worldly life for the sake of yourself and your family or is done in spiritual life for the sake of God. The former is called Karma (mere action) and the latter is called Karma Yoga (action done for the sake of God). The Gita says that a Yogi is better than a Jnaani and a Karmi. This means that spiritual knowledge is better than worldly knowledge and spiritual actions are better than worldly actions. Whenever the word ‘Yoga’ (Yoga means the association with God) is used, it means that you are in the constant association with God learning His spiritual knowledge (Jnaana Yoga) and doing His service (Karma Yoga). If you take the same phase (worldly phase or spiritual phase), action is better than knowledge. If you take both the phases, spiritual knowledge is better than worldly knowledge and spiritual actions are better than worldly actions.
11. How are some people happy without being spiritual?
[There are some worldly people living a happy life with a loving family and a successful profession. Even when they are not spiritual, how are they happy?]
Swami replied:- The word ‘better’ is better than the word ‘good’. But, the word ‘best’ is better than the word ‘better’. This means that worldly happiness is always temporary because the items with which the bonds are formed are always non-eternal and can disappear on any day by diseases like Corona, accidents, etc. The bond formed with the eternal God is always permanent. Eternal happiness is always better than non-eternal happiness. Of course, non-eternal happiness is always better than misery. Dushpravrutti gives misery in which injustice is followed. Pravrutti gives non-eternal happiness in which justice is followed. Nivrutti gives eternal happiness in which God is followed beyond even justice. Hence, there is always betterment as we proceed from Dushpravrutti to Pravrutti to Nivrutti. The happiness of Pravrutti is in the middle stage between 0 and 100. You are standing at 50 and if you feel contented with that, it is okay and alright. But, some clever people recognize the existence of 100 and proceed from 50 to 100. Hence, the scripture says that majority of the souls is standing in Pravrutti, but the fruit of Nivrutti is eternal and the highest (Pravṛtti reṣā bhūtānām, Nivṛttistu mahāphalā).
12. Why do many popular preachers say that happiness comes from within our own self?
Swami replied:- Shankara told that soul is God and God is bliss. This soul is within you and hence, bliss is also within you. You are unnecessarily running outside for the sake of bliss. Shankara told this Advaita philosophy on a special situation when the country was fully filled with Puurvamiimaamsakas and Buddhists, who were very strong atheists. To turn these atheists into theists, Shankara had to tell that every soul is God. Today, neither the preacher is Shankara nor such situation exists because the majority of people are theistic. The present preacher is preaching spiritual knowledge either for money or for fame. For this purpose, the majority of people must be attracted. Every fellow will run after you if you say that everybody is God and that everybody can become the very bliss itself. I do not experience any bliss from inside and on putting so much effort, I simply got vomiting from inside! When you join such preaching, the preacher washes your brain to think that you are God and hence, you are bliss. Such brainwash may work for some time since one can attain any unreal item for some time through illusion. You can think for some time through the illusion superimposed on you by the brainwash that you are the prime minister and enjoy dreaming the daydream. But, such illusory happiness will disappear very shortly. Even this so-called real world is inherently unreal and is experienced as absolute reality due to the gifted absolute reality from the God. This is the reason why even these worldly pleasures are also illusory and non-eternal. The Advaita preacher is washing the brain with a new illusion (that the soul is God) within this relative reality. This is simply enjoyment based on false assumptions.
13. How has devotion changed through generations?
Swami replied:- The ethical and spiritual standards of people are falling down tremendously with a high speed because this is the standard of people now just after completion of 4000-5000 years in the Kali Yuga. Had the falling rate been very high, by this time itself, a lot of serious damage must have been observed by us. But, it is not so. The actual damage done is very little than the expected damage. What is the reason for such a low rate of fall of the standards? The reason is that even though the influence of Kali Purusha (Satan) is very much leading the fall of the people at very high rate, in every generation, God is incarnating and preaching spiritual knowledge, which pushes devotees to the forward direction. Kali Purusha or Satan means not an external personality, but he is the embodiment of accumulated internal bad behaviour of humanity. Satan influences humanity in the internal domain that shows its influence on the external domain. If internal mental health gets spoiled, external physical health also gets spoiled. Even then, the resultant motion of the human devotees is towards the backward direction only, which is less in the final result. People say that the horse of a Nawab goes three steps forward and for every three steps, the horse comes back by four steps so that the resultant motion is one step backward. However, the resultant backward motion is least by one step and not a very high four steps. Similarly, due to the backward direction of four steps influenced by Satan, the human incarnation is pushing humanity three steps forward. This means that the influence of Satan is certainly greater than the influence of the incarnation, but the resultant backward fall is very much minimised. Due to this, the serious damage done by Satan requires a very long time and the balance of Kali age is still four lakhs twenty-eight thousand (4,28,000) years approximately.
14. Is worldly work greater than spiritual knowledge?
[A question by Ms. Bhanu Samykya]
Swami replied:- Worldly work is greater than worldly knowledge. Spiritual work is greater than spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is greater than worldly knowledge. Spiritual work is greater than worldly work. Now, you are asking that whether worldly work is greater than spiritual knowledge or not. The answer is that spiritual knowledge is greater than worldly work because worldly work cannot lead you even to spiritual knowledge and not to speak that it will lead you to spiritual work. But, spiritual knowledge can lead you to spiritual work since the fruit of spiritual work (Karma Yoga) is the greatest and the highest. Everybody is trying to reach this spiritual work by which the eternal spiritual fruit can be obtained. Neither worldly knowledge nor worldly work can lead you to such eternal fruit. Hence, spiritual knowledge is greater than both worldly knowledge and worldly work since spiritual knowledge can lead you to spiritual work by which you can attain the eternal greatest fruit.
15. In the absence of hard-earned money, one need not sacrifice the ancestral wealth. Is this correct?
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Swami, You said that God tests the devotee with its strongest bond of hard-earned money only and not about a less stronger bond with ancestral property. Suppose one has ancestral property only and You also told that if ancestral property exists, one need not waste time in earning the basic needs. In such a case, in the absence of hard-earned money, he should not sacrifice from the ancestral wealth. Is this correct?]
Swami replied:- When both types of wealth (ancestral money and hard-earned money) exist, the bond with hard-earned money is relatively stronger than the bond with ancestral money. In that case only, God competes with the stronger bond and aspires for your hard-earned money. In the case referred by you and also told by Me, there is no place of relative sense because only ancestral money exists. In such a case, all his fascination for money is only on the ancestral money and there is no question of a relatively stronger bond in this case. In such a case, all his fascination is concentrated on his ancestral money only and hence, God competes with his bond with ancestral money only as a test for Dhaneshanaa. A shopkeeper may not enquire you whether the price paid by you is from your ancestral money or hard-earned money because he is a business-man worried about the payment for his item purchased by the other. God is not a business-man like this. His idea is only to compete with the strongest bond so that if such a strongest bond is defeated by His bond, His bond will become the strongest of all and such a devotee is having one pointed devotion (Eka bhaktir viśiṣyate - Gita).
16. Will God ever create fascination in a soul towards worldly bonds to clear the loans to be paid if the soul is detached?
[Suppose a parent could cut his fascination with his son due to spiritual devotion, but by that time, the loan to be paid to his son is not exhausted. In such a case, even though the parent could cut his fascination for his son, the background divine arrangement that the father should completely pay the loan to the son will become active and regenerate the fascination in the mind of the parent so that the balance loan is also cleared off – does such a situation happen? If it happened, the effort of the parent in cutting his fascinations to worldly bonds become a wastage. How to answer this?]
Swami replied:- The arrangement of a soul to become the son of a father is arranged by God for the full payment of the loan. The fascination of the father is so much that this practical situation will never happen since the natural fascination of the father itself is enough to clear the loan of the son. Moreover, the father gives his property to his son through a will and such immovable property given to the son through the will is far far sufficient to clear the balance loan. Hence, in practice, even more payment is done by the father apart from the loan. Okay, let us assume your assumption that the father is spiritually developed and could cut all his fascinations to the worldly bonds and became the climax devotee of God and the father still has to pay some more loan to the son. Let us assume that the father also has nothing to write a will to his son. In such case, God will not allow this pending loan to stand as the hurdle because it is told that all fruits of actions get cancelled with the climax devotion and subsequent reformation. In such a case, God will clear the balance of the loan by favouring some extra luck to the son. Hence, the costs of such a case are written off by the divine government.
17. Why is it told that true spiritual knowledge must be obtained from God Shiva only and salvation is to be obtained from God Vishnu?
Swami replied:- It is told that the true spiritual knowledge must be obtained from God Shiva and the subsequent salvation must be attained from God Vishnu (Jñānaṃ Maheśvarāt ichhet, mokṣamichhet Janārdanāt). God Shiva is the masculine personality and hence, has the guts to speak the true concepts of spiritual knowledge. The preachers fear to speak true concepts of spiritual knowledge because they fear that the true concepts may hurt the hearts of the devotees by which some aspired benefits from devotees may be lost. God Vishnu is the beautiful feminine personality, becoming Mohini to become the wife of God Shiva. The true spiritual knowledge generates true love or true devotion, which is theoretical and practical. This true love is the blessing of God Vishnu, the female Mother of souls, whereas God Shiva is the male Father of souls giving righteous knowledge. Father is also called as Guru in Sanskrit since he is responsible for the son/daughter to learn knowledge. The mother is representing true love. The salvation from worldly bonds is the subsequent fruit of theoretical devotion followed by practical devotion. Hence, God Vishnu represents motherly love that leads the soul to be detached from worldly bonds. "Prajñānaṃ Brahma” (Veda)—means that God Shiva is giving spiritual knowledge, being in the place of Father. “Raso vai saḥ" (Veda)—means that both theoretical and practical love is God Vishnu, being the Mother. God Brahma is said to be born from the uterus like lotus, coming out from the navel pit of God Vishnu. Hence, God Brahma is our eldest brother. Scripture says that the eldest brother is like father (Jyeṣṭhaḥ pitṛ samo bhrātā). This means that God Brahma is also giving spiritual knowledge like the Father Shiva. God Brahma is the author of the four Vedas coming out from the four faces. Spiritual knowledge is from the Vedas. In this way, God Shiva, God Vishnu and God Brahma constituting God Datta cover spiritual knowledge, theoretical and practical devotion, which is the entire path that gives the divine fruit of salvation from all worldly bonds.