[When a devotee assumes that his/her death is going to take place in five minutes and if the devotee is in this mood forever, he/she will always be attentive about God. Even if a devotee is unable to practice the spiritual knowledge, he/she must at least do the propagation of it. If somebody is benefited by that knowledge, a part of the grace of God will come to the devotee also. God’s work is to bring peace in this world and to see that every human being gets the salvation. God wants the hell to be permanently closed. But, one should turn towards God without aspiring even for the liberation from one’s own sins. A devotee must participate in His service and yet, he/she should be ready to undergo the punishments of one’s own sins as per justice. The devotee should not ask God or even desire for such liberation from one’s own sins. Once a devotee desires for such liberation, he/she is indirectly asking the God to suffer for the sins. In such a case, the devotee is not His real devotee. God takes the sins and liberates the devotee when the devotee serves Him without any aspiration for such liberation.]

[God is omniscient and can’t be influenced by any soul. When God in human form is existing, the sincerity of the devotee alone is understood by God and even angels cannot divert God from His true opinion. Moreover, God does not require any report from anybody like the superior officer depending on the recommendations of the officers of lower cadre in giving a promotion to an employee. There is no question of seniority among the devotees because a junior devotee might have been the closest devotee of God for the past several births and the senior devotee might have been a fresh devotee in this birth only. Based on the knowledge of God regarding all the previous births of the soul, the first may become last and the last may become first. God is aware of all the previous, present and future births of a soul and the soul is not aware of even the present birth (Tānyahaṃ veda sarvāṇi… - Gita).]

[Generally, devotees show a lot of affection and unity with their family members, who change from birth to birth. A devotee is always accompanied by another devotee by the will of God so that the devotion of the devotee may continue and grow in the future births. The children and the life-partner are money lenders to the devotee in the previous birth and they are associated with the devotee in the present birth in order to collect their loans along with interest (Ṛṇānubandha rūpeṇa, paśu patnī sutālayāḥ). Every soul is licking their feet and paying the loan with climax love to its family members, who are going to be disconnected with the soul in the next birth itself as soon as the loan is cleared in this birth. But, the co-devotee is following the soul as co-devotee in the future births also by the will of God in order to help the soul’s spiritual progress. Any soul showing ego and jealousy towards such co-devotees is the biggest fool in this creation!]

[In the initial stage, every devotee concentrates on God’s work with full sincerity and pure mind. But, in course of time, the mind develops fascination for one’s own name and fame in this world. In God’s work, the devotee has to project the name and fame of God and not the name and fame of own self. Every soul must continue as the servant of God only till the end of one’s life and must not be attracted to any selfish projection, which will deviate from the divine spiritual path. If a devotee is deviated even slightly, such deviation will certainly lead the devotee to the liquid fire of hell. Every devotee must be beware of these dangers in one’s own spiritual journey.]

[Even in an ordinary program of doing social service, team spirit is maintained by all the participants, which alone makes the program to be completed with grand success. If all the devotees are not united in doing God’s service, it becomes equal to insulting God. It means that God is not efficient in giving the correct guidance to the devotees. This means that you are rubbing a false blame on God. The devotees must always reflect God’s preaching in their life activities or at least in their behavior towards co-devotees. A devotee following God’s preaching throughout the life is a pass candidate with distinction. A devotee following God’s preaching at least towards co-devotees is a pass candidate with first class. If God’s preaching does not appear in a devotee anywhere, it raises a doubt that whether God preached perfectly or not. There cannot be any doubt about the omniscient and omnipotent God in any of His actions. Hence, the defect must be with the devotee only.]

[A devotee hearing the preaching of God without implementing it anywhere is the junior devotee. A devotee hearing and implementing the preaching of God at least in the case of co-devotees is a senior devotee. A devotee hearing and implementing the preaching of knowledge everywhere in his life is the seniormost devotee. Seniority depends on the effective implementation of spiritual knowledge preached by God, which does not depend on the age of the devotee and mere period of association with the Sadguru or the human form of God. Shankara says that if a spiritual aspirant wants salvation while he/she is alive (salvation means detachment from worldly bonds due to the attachment with God), which is called as Jīvanmukti, the important step in this process is attachment to God. Such attachment to God results only due to the association with co-devotees, which is called Satsanga (Satsaṅgatve… —Shankara). Satsanga means association with co-devotees (Sadbhiḥ saha saṅgaḥ). Satsanga means association with God also because in the association with co-devotees, God also gets associated (Satā Bhagavatā saha saṅgaḥ).]

[Shankara says that Satsanga is the first step for Jīvanmukti. If the association is with worldly people, one will be born in this world entangled in worldly life only. If the association is with bad people (Dussanga), one will become a demon and will stay in hell forever. One must realize the importance of co-devotees responsible for Satsanga, which pleases God extensively. Hence, one must love co-devotees after loving God. God Himself told that He will stay with Satsanga (Madbhaktā yatra…Tatra tiṣṭhāmi— Bhāgavatam). Therefore, one must give topmost importance to your co-devotees, (who help you in developing your devotion to God) than anybody else. To remove ego, compare yourself with the omnipotent God and the ego will immediately disappear because soul is just like a petty lamp before the summer bright sun. To remove jealousy, think that any merit in any soul is given by God alone and can be taken back by God at any time. Regarding one’s behavior to devotees, one shall be submissive in nature so that the other devotees will learn that any devotee must be egoless. You shall never show ego on a co-devotee because the co-devotee also develops ego on seeing you. Whatever you show on others will appear in others as your reflection.]

[One shall not try to become God before the junior and innocent devotees. Self-projection is the poison that kills the life of devotion. A devotee shall be projected by God and the devotee shall never project himself/herself. As much as the devotee raises oneself, so much will the devotee be suppressed by God. As much as the devotee lowers oneself, so much will God raise the devotee up. It is demonic nature to pose anything extra and everybody should know that God destroys demons. God Datta appears as a beggar or as a bad man with negative qualities like a drunkard and being associated with prostitutes. In this world, a poor man tries to appear as a rich man and a person with bad qualities tries to appear as a good man! But, in God Datta, you find the total reverse behavior. The aim of such reverse behavior is that one should always hide one’s greatness and shall appear as the lowest person. Such reverse appearance of God Datta is preaching to us that we shall always avoid ego and false projection.]

[Even the truth about the self shall not be projected by self. Others only shall project your true greatness. What is the meaning of God Datta appearing as simple beggar? He is the original unimaginable God mediated for the sake of worship and meditation of souls. He created all this universe and He rules all this creation including all the souls. In the end, He is going to destroy everything and everybody. One cannot imagine His intelligence and power. Such greatest, greatest and greatest God is appearing like a beggar before everyone! In such a case, how should a soul appear before Him! Every soul shall appear as the lowest, lowest and lowest beggar before God. But, the soul is projecting itself to the climax! Unless one destroys one’s ego to the last trace, God will not even throw a single look on that soul! The force in the implementation of knowledge comes with continuously reading and remembering the knowledge only. It needs frequent remembrance of the concepts (abhyāsena tu kaunteya… Gita) in the initial stages at least. If one remembers these concepts every day at least for some time, he/she will implement the concept of love to co-devotees and eradicate his/her ego-based jealousy towards them. Wise people think about God throughout their lives and hence, they will be able to think about God at the end of their lives also.]

[It is said that if one thinks about God at the time of death, he/she would reach the abode of God after death. It is certainly a beneficial lie (arthavāda) to encourage souls to become devotees of God, at least in their old age or at least before death. It is based on the principle “Better late than never”. You should never give up any good work, thinking that it is late. Even if you reach late to class, it does not matter. You will learn at least something from the teacher, even in the last minutes of the class. Thinking that you are late, if you miss the class completely, you will lose even that little knowledge, which you could have heard from the teacher. The last desire of the soul for something is the result of the constant interest in that thing maintained by the soul throughout its entire life. When you soak fried balls made of milk and flour in a sugar syrup, they become sweet gulab jamuns in the end. When pieces of mango are soaked in salt and chilli powder in a pickle jar, they become salty and hot in the end. Hence, a soul cannot think as it likes in the end to achieve that desired result in the next birth. On the deathbed, the soul will only think what he/she has been thinking throughout the life. Therefore, one must think about God throughout one’s life.]

[It is not wise to think about earning money throughout one’s life because internal happiness is not related to the wealth possessed by the person. If God is pleased, the human being will be happy at all the times. There are several poor people, who are extremely happy. More money will bring several problems and ego too. As a result, the soul will neither have peace of mind nor will it be able to escape from ego. It will only take the soul far from God. Hence, a rich man can never reach God. The rich man is generally more attached to the world and it is only because of this reason that he became rich! Money is the total main root of the worldly life-tree and sex is only a branch of the tree or partial life. After participation in the sex, interest is lost. But, after earning some money, interest increases. There is limitation for sex but no limitation for the ambition to earn money. The difference between wealth and sex is the difference between the root and branch or total strength and partial strength. However, since sex is a part of the worldly life, which is totally supported by the money in long run, all the aspects related to corruption for money apply in toto to the aspects of corruption for sex also. If justice is violated in Pravrutti, which alone can develop the basic confidence on the soul in the mind of God, Nivrutti is out of question.]

[All the bonds of the soul other than the bond with God are worldly bonds because there are only two items—God and the world. The soul is also part of the world and is intertwined with the world from the beginning. The soul is like a wave in the ocean of water. It becomes extremely difficult for the soul to sacrifice its worldly bonds for the sake of God. Hence, the divine test is the most difficult one. The difficulty of the test is always directly proportional to the value of the fruit. Merely sacrificing one’s worldly bonds without devotion to God is utter foolishness. Detachment from the world must take place due to the attachment to God. Thus, the divine test involves two sides—God and the world—competing with each other. There are three very strong worldly bonds of a person and they are the bonds with one’s issues, one’s wealth and one’s life-partner. The fourth bond is the bond with one’s own life and it is the ultimate king of all worldly bonds. God competes with all these four bonds and success in all these four tests decides the ultimate divine fruit. This ultimate divine fruit can be of two types: (i) Forming a monistic bond with God by becoming a human incarnation and (ii) Forming a dualistic bond with God as His devotee, who becomes even the master of God. Such a devotee even controls God through his or her unimaginable dualistic love.]

[What God wants us to understand is that no human being can succeed in these divine tests unless the soul has put in a lot of spiritual effort, which is extremely rare. One should not be fascinated by the idea of becoming God because God has tremendous responsibilities along with unimaginable powers. It is always better and wise to choose the second type of fruit in which one remains a devotee, who has no responsibilities at all and the omnipotent God follows the wishes of the devotee. Śrī Paramahaṃsa says that He prefers to be an ant enjoying the sugar instead of becoming the sugar and being bitten and enjoyed by ants. In the Kali age, all people show climax fascination for God and the actual reason for such climax fascination is only their aspiration for the help from God for the welfare of self and selfish worldly bonds (especially the three strongest worldly bonds, which are bonds with wealth, issues and spouse called as Eṣaṇātrayam). Even if we find personality-based climax devotion without any selfish aspiration in the case of a worldly fan, unfortunately it is not on God, but it is on a cinema hero or a political leader (the fan sometimes commits suicide on hearing the death of the hero), who is again a worldly bond.]

[People always conveniently think that theory (spiritual knowledge and theoretical devotion) alone is the path to please God. Especially in the Kali age, people are not only very greedy to practically spend for God, but also are highly greedy to earn something practically from God through theoretical path. God always tests devotees in practical devotion and not in theoretical devotion or the depth of their spiritual knowledge. In absence of even an iota of true love without any aspiration in return from God, God becomes silent in Kali age. When there is no true love anywhere, why should God speak at all? And what can be spoken in such a worst context? This concept of practical devotion without aspiration is very important and the essence of spiritual knowledge, just like the life for a living body. Every day, devotee prays to God for salvation and when God tries to give it to the devotee by cutting its worldly bonds, the devotee weeps with misery and expresses dislike for it! Salvation means liberation. Liberation from what? From God? Or from worldly bonds? The liberation is only from the worldly bonds and not from God! The life of any devotee aspiring for salvation is full of difficulties created by God so that the devotee at least develops theoretical repulsion to worldly bonds. If a devotee cries due to the theoretical repulsion from worldly bonds, the devotee can think how far he/she is from the practical liberation of all the worldly bonds called as practical salvation!]

[A real devotee always welcomes difficulties, which drive the devotee towards God and does not like the benefits that take the devotee away from God. If one introspects carefully, one finds that difficulties are more beneficial than happy incidents in life. During difficulties, one’s mind is very active. The person gets deeply attached to God and is devoid of the most damaging ego. During happy incidents, one is self-satisfied and gets very lazy. The person gets overwhelmed by ego, neglects God and goes far from God. Thinking about death brings to mind the inevitable punishments in hell after death, making the soul alert about avoiding sin in life. If you see the life histories of great devotees, you will find that their lives were always filled with terrible difficulties. It is only due to those difficulties that the devotees become very dynamic in the path of devotion and attain the full grace of God. Even death has a positive angle because imagining hell and one’s future birth after death makes the soul think about God. The attachment to God or devotion or love to God increases by knowing the spiritual knowledge, which is a cinema projecting the personality of God appearing as incarnation. Certainly, the nearness to God creates repulsion, which is a common observation even in the case of worldly bonds. This is inevitable, especially when the medium of God is exhibiting the same natural principles as exhibited by soul’s medium.]