Posted on: 12 Dec 2022
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
If you want to go to Mumbai from Hyderabad through a train, there are three items (Triputi) here: 1) yourself, staying in Hyderabad, 2) Mumbai city, which is separate from Hyderabad and 3) the train starting from Hyderabad and reaching Mumbai. The details of these three items give the total picture of true spiritual knowledge.
1) You are not the Mumbai city and your Hyderabad is also not the Mumbai city. If you are Mumbai city or if you are in Mumbai city, there is no meaning in traveling to Mumbai city. Similarly, you are not God and you are not with God. Only then, do you make efforts to reach God. These spiritual efforts together are called sadhana and the person doing these spiritual efforts is called as sadhaka.
2) God is not the soul (yourself) just like Mumbai is not yourself. God is not with you just like you are not already in Mumbai city. God is unimaginable as told in the three Holy Scriptures of Hinduism. Upanishads (yato vāco…, yo buddheḥ…, naiṣā tarkeṇa…, yasyāmatam… etc.) say that God is beyond words, mind, intelligence, logic and even imagination. Brahma Sutras (Janmādyasya…) say that God is the creator, maintainer and destroyer of this entire creation. Such description of God is only an associated characteristic and not an inherent characteristic. The former characteristic (Tatastha Lakshanam) describes associated or related characteristics only. If somebody asks which is Rama’s cow, somebody may say that the cow, which is on the bank of the water tank is Rama’s cow. Standing on the bank of the water tank is only the description of associated characteristic, which is the bank of the water tank. If somebody says that the cow with red colour is Rama’s cow, the red colour is an inseparable inherent characteristic of the cow, which is called inherent characteristic or Svaruupa lakshanam. The identity of the cow cannot be given by the associated characteristic because by the time the searching person reaches the bank of the water tank, the cow might have gone to some field. Similarly, by describing God as the creator of this world, no inherent characteristic of God is given with the help of which only, we can identify God. The problem here is that God is unimaginable and for that reason alone, an inherent characteristic could not be given. Even in the Gita, God is said to be creator, maintainer and destroyer of this world and that God is only one (Ahaṃ sarvasya jagataḥ…, mayi sarvamidam…, Mattaḥ parataram… - Gita). In the Gita also, it is clearly told that nobody knows God (Maam tu Veda…). However, the Gita says that God takes human form as medium and human devotees insult God due to repulsion between common human media resulting in ego and jealousy (Avajānanti…). This human incarnation performs miracles, which are unimaginable events by which we have to infer that the unimaginable God exists in a selected human being to become human incarnation. God Datta enters this human medium and since unimaginable God is present in God Datta, the human incarnation also contains unimaginable God existing in God Datta. By this, the miracles of the human incarnation are explained. The concept of unimaginable God shall be taken in the beginning so that no religion can lay claim on the unimaginable God for only that religion and due to this, universal spirituality of all the world-religions can be achieved through unity.
God Datta also enters some selected energetic beings to form other energetic incarnations like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva etc. God Datta is having the three faces of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva performing the duties of creation, maintenance and destruction of the world respectively. This satisfies one definition of the Veda that God performs all these three divine duties (yato vā imāni…). Another definition of God is that God is only one (ekamevā…) and God Datta is only one personality. This proves that God Datta is the first energetic incarnation of unimaginable God or Parabrahman and is the ultimate understood original God. The energetic incarnations are relevant to the upper energetic worlds and the human incarnations are relevant to the humanity of this earth.
Either God Datta or any energetic incarnation can be seen only by doing very long penance that consumes the whole lifetime of the human being and in a such case, there is no time for doing any spiritual effort. The main purpose of the human incarnation is to save all this wastage of huge time so that all of the lifetime can be used for spiritual efforts. Hence, the journey towards the ultimate goal is only to recognise the contemporary human incarnation that gives the right direction for our human spiritual efforts and for this, no physical journey is required. Gita says that one in millions alone can identify the human incarnation (kaścinmām…) and the reason for this extreme difficulty in identification is ego and jealousy as told above.
3) The path to the goal now means both identification of contemporary human incarnation and the process of pleasing God in human form. The energetic incarnations and past human incarnations are worshipped by the devotees as statues and photos. These are inert items and are helpful in developing theoretical devotion in the beginning stage, but can’t be useful in getting doubts clarified in spiritual knowledge. Also, apart from this, the service and sacrifice done by the devotee to God can be enjoyed by God to get perfect satisfaction in the case of sincere true devotees. Otherwise, the materials wasted in worshipping the statues can’t come under the devotional service and sacrifice done for God. However, in the initial stage, the human incarnation can’t be recognised due to repulsion between common human media and hence, worship of statues can be done without wasting precious food materials to increase the theoretical devotion of devotees in the initial stage.
The first stage is intellectual learning of the true spiritual knowledge (Jnaana Yoga) from the Sadguru, who is the human form of God Datta. This gives all the excellent details of the wonderful divine personality of God to develop attraction (Bhakti Yoga) to God and such mental attraction is the theoretical devotion in the second stage. The final third stage is the practical devotion (Karma Yoga) that consists of service or sacrifice of physical energy (Karma Samnyaasa) and sacrifice of matter or money especially fruit of hard work (Karma Phalatyaaga). The Veda said simply about the sacrifice of money, but, the Gita tells about the sacrifice of hard earned money. The reason is that anybody is more attached to one’s hard earned money than to ancestral wealth. The whole point is that the bond with God competes with the strongest worldly bond so that the bond with God is to be proved to be the strongest. Practical devotion is a proof of theoretical devotion. God is not in need of your service and sacrifice and both these are to be understood as the need on the side of a devotee so that true love can be proved practically. Knowledge is water, theoretical devotion is manure and practical devotion is the mango plant for which alone the fruit will appear. Rukmini heard about the details of Krishna from Narada and developed theoretical devotion to Krishna. Finally, she wrote a love letter to Krishna through a priest (Karma Samnyaasa) after gifting him with her golden chain (Karma Phalatyaaga). She did not aspire for any benefit from Krishna and pressed His feet after marriage throughout her life as the incarnation of Mahalakshmi. This shows that in your service and sacrifice, no selfish aspiration must exist. After hearing the details of Mumbai (Jnaana Yoga), you are attracted to see the city (Bhakti Yoga), you walk up to the railway station (Karma Samnyaasa) and purchase the ticket to Mumbai (Karma Phalatyaaga) so that all the spiritual efforts of the devotee come to a full stop here as said in the Gita (Tyāagāaat śāntiḥ…).
Today, there is a lot of theoretical devotion, a lot of service and a lot of sacrifice in the worships of God. But, the correct angle of the worships is missing, which can be known from the true spiritual knowledge or Jnana Yoga preached by the Sadguru only. The wrong angle is that the devotees are doing all the above said types of worship only for selfish worldly benefits only and not for the true love that is generated from the complete study of the details of the divine personality of God. In this correct angle, there will be no aspiration for any fruit in return from God. All types of practical devotion take place only for the satisfaction of true love towards God. God also tests the true love of the devotee expressed through practical devotion not for His need at all. A grandfather bought and brought a biscuit packet, gave to his daughter-in-law secretly asking her to maintain secrecy of the purchaser of the packet. A biscuit is given to the grandson by his mother and the grandfather begs his grandson for a bit of biscuit to test the true love of the grandson. The secrecy of the purchaser of the packet is maintained because the grandfather does not want to get a bit of biscuit based on gratitude. Only the true love of the grandson on the grandfather is tested here. Similarly, God is the giver of all the wealth to us in a secret way so that we think that the wealth is our wealth and God comes as beggar to test our true love. From the beginning of the creation, God is in the role of beggar and is called as Aadi Bhikshu or beggar from the beginning.
Our false love to God is covered by the apparent true love like the tiger covered by the leather of a goat or like a pot of poison covered by a layer of milk on the surface. This love to God can be classified as four types:-
1) Prostitute devotion or Veshyaa Bhakti:- A prostitute talks very cleverly and sings devotional songs on the customers to steal the money present in their pockets. Similarly, this type of devotee is a scholar of spiritual knowledge and an expert in singing devotional songs so that the devotee aspires for practical boons from God by exchanging his/her theoretical devotion and this is the worst type of devotion.
2) Business devotion or Vaishya Bhakti:- This is some what better than the above because here the devotee wants to exchange his practical devotion to get practical boons from God like a business man selling an item for its rate.
Both these types belong to false devotion only because aspiration for fruit in return exists in the above two types.
3) Issue devotion or Apatya Bhakti:- The parents do service and sacrifice to their issues without aspiring for anything from them in return. Even if they become ungrateful, the parents may scold them but will not change their will written for them. This is true love and a devotee is expected to do service and sacrifice to God without aspiring for any fruit in return from God. Even if God gives difficulties (for testing), their true love towards God should not change.
4) Fan devotion or Unmaada Bhakti:- A fan of a cinema hero or a politician spends from his pocket in all functions without aspiring for anything from his hero. When his hero dies, the fan commits suicide! This is extreme devotion as in the case of the Gopikas. However, suicide is not relished by God since it is considered as a serious sin.
The most important points in this phase of path towards God are: -
i) Contemporary Human Incarnation of God is to be identified to save the wastage of lifetime, which can be fully used for spiritual efforts.
ii) Worshipping God through service and sacrifice without aspiring for any fruit in return from God since the worship is based only on true love towards God.
iii) Practical devotion done to God must be understood from the angle of the devotee and not from the angle of any need of God. Householders are expected to do both service and sacrifice whereas saints can do only service. Gita gives lot of importance to sacrifice since the Gita says that sacrifice of fruit of hard work is the ultimate step. This can be scientifically also understood because lot of energy is equal to a very small amount of matter (E=mc2) so that the sacrifice of small matter is far greater than the sacrifice of a lot of energy through service. However, this does not apply in the case of saints because there is no chance of sacrifice in their case. In sacrifice, one shall not misunderstand that God has gone in to the hands of rich devotees because the magnitude of the donated amount is not at all considered and only the percentage of it in the total possessed wealth is considered by God. A beggar donating one coin is doing 100% sacrifice and a rich person donating 1000 coins is doing 0.001% of sacrifice only. Saktuprastha donating little food and Sudama donating just two handful of grains of parched rice won the grace of God. Sudama stole two handful of grains of Bengal gram and got immense poverty (since he stole the share of Krishna also) and got immense wealth from the same Krishna for donating the same two handful grains of parched rice!