Śrī Rājīva Uvāca:-
[Śrī Rajiiv Spoke]:-

[Who achieves salvation? What are they liberated from? What is the main instrument here that can be helpful in attaining salvation? O Guru Deva! O Parabrahman! You are revealing every topic with topmost clarity.]

Śrī Datta Bhagavān Uvāca:-
[God Śrī Datta Spoke]:-

[You are staying in this worldly life, but you are always attracted towards spiritual affairs. If there is attraction towards something, it will result in union (Yoga) and scholars say that the salvation (Mukti) takes place from something that repels you.]

[If a soul is attracted towards the subject of God, such a soul will reach God. If a soul is attached to worldly affairs, it will either go to heaven or to hell.]

[Whatever is liked by the soul, that is achieved by the soul. All the souls are independent. There is freedom in selecting the action, but there is no freedom in selecting its result. Every action has a specified fruit bound to it and such fruit is inevitably obtained by selecting any action liked by the soul.]

[If a soul is liberated from the worldly bonds, such a soul will enter the ocean of infinite bliss. If a soul is associated with worldly bonds, such a soul will enter either the heaven temporarily or the hell for a long time.]

[The soul that attained God may be born in this world to serve in the mission of God. Even then, such a soul is in the state of salvation while alive in this world (Jīvan Mukta). Such a soul is said to be existing in the merged state with God even while living in this world.]

[God Kṛṣṇa sung in the Bhagavad Gītā that any soul on reaching and merging in Him will never return back to this world. Such a soul will never fall into the worldly bonds again. Such a rebirth is not a rebirth at all.]

[‘Not returning’ means not returning by mind and thoughts. ‘Not returning’ does not mean not returning by inert materials covering the soul. If the soul is attached to the world by the mind, such returning is called as returning. Returning does not mean returning by mere external inert body.]

[Mere taking birth again in this world is not called as rebirth. Even God is taking rebirth through human reincarnations. When God Himself is taking rebirth, is the liberated soul greater than God to avoid rebirth completely? When a king goes to a different place, is he not going along with his circle of employed human attendants?]

[Lord Kṛṣṇa sang in the Gītā that an intellectual must find inaction in action and its reverse. A ghost is not physically born in this world. But it is considered to be born due to its horrible actions based on its rigid worldly desires born from its mind. Similarly, a liberated soul is not considered to be born in this world even though it is physically born because of the continuous service done for God based on the firm divine thoughts born from the mind.]

[If a soul attains Jīvan Mukti (liberation while alive), such a soul alone gets Videha Mukti (liberation after death). Only a liberated soul, while alive, will get liberation after death. There will not be any specific change in the soul due to death.]

[The soul liberated while alive continues to be the liberated soul even after death in the same status. If you break a diamond, the resulting tiny particles are also still diamonds only and they do not become the tiny particles of a gravel stone lying on road.]

[In the world, these worldly people are ignorant of spiritual knowledge. They treat death as salvation! When a person dies, the relatives of the dead person write letters to other relatives to inform them of the news of the death that so-and-so person has attained closeness (Sāyujyam) with God Viṣṇu! They treat that by death itself, one merges with God Viṣṇu without any devotion! The reason for writing like that is their blind fascination towards such dead person.]

[Some people write that their related person died and reached heaven permanently, as if that dead person had never committed any sin during his life. The reason for writing like that is the blind fascination towards such departed soul.]

[The priests are also wonderful! In the rituals of a dead person, they express the aim that the departed soul shall go to the abode of God (Brahmaloka). After expressing this aim of rituals (Karma Saṃkalpa), they perform the donation of cow to a priest, which is believed to be used by the soul to cross the Vaitaraṇī (river of blood and puss) present before hell!]

[Like this, the mud water of ignorance splits into several streams and flows in this world. Everybody knows the truth completely, but acts wonderfully in dramas!]

[Those souls, who do penance throughout their lives about God alone will get the closest merge (Sāyujyam) with God. What is penance? Penance is the constant enquiry about God, which is like the closest hot radiation of the God-Sun globe.]

[The Veda praises “that is penance, that is penance”. This statement is told when sage Bhṛgu approached his father sage Varuṇa in order to learn about God or Brahman.]

[Sage Varuṇa preached to sage Bhṛgu that the God, who creates, maintains and dissolves this creation through His three divine faces is the absolute God or Brahman called God Datta. This is the process of remembering God Datta, who is Lord of five sheaths (food, life, mind, intellect and bliss) of the human body that help the penance of constant concentration on Brahman.]

[By the power of devotion, salvation can be attained. In the power of devotion, intellectual tricks should not be used. By using powerful intellectual tricks, one can earn the food by which the five sheaths can become energetic and capable of earning food and salvation.]

[When Sage Varuṇa said that food, breath, mind, intelligence and happiness are important, it means that these five sheaths are important to achieve good physical and mental health, with the help of which salvation can be attained. Here, the meaning of the word ‘Brahman’ shall be taken in the sense of importance and not in the sense that these five sheaths are God.]

[In the above verses, intellectual trick is condemned in attaining salvation. This doesn’t mean that we have totally condemned intelligence. In the above verses, we condemned only the bad intellectual tricks. We appreciate the intelligence that is recommended by the holy scriptures. Systematic intelligence is required for salvation and the crooked intelligence is only condemned.]

[Breath is also important and the exercise related to breathe is called as Prāṇāyāma, by which the blood is purified by the retained oxygen (Kumbhaka). By this, the physical health will always be very good. If the physical health is good, the mental health is also consequently very good.]

[If the mind is disturbed, it is impossible for the spiritual aspirants to attain salvation. Efforts for salvation by a disturbed mind are like the donation of food done by a beggar and like the medical treatment of a doctor without medicine.]

[Intelligence is also very important because it gives the decision about spiritual effort. The intelligence is always helped by discussions (Satsangas) with spiritual scholars. Such discussions will create spiritual concepts in the pure intelligence.]

[Happiness is most important because happiness means the absence of worry. If the worry is absent, the intelligence will be in a balanced state. This is told in the Bhagavad Gītā itself (Prasanna cetaso hyāśu, buddhiḥ paryava tiṣṭhati).]

[The human being is a combination of both inert body and conscious awareness. Such a human being trying for spiritual goal is very much helped by the constant peace of both body and awareness, like the food and water helping a traveller on the way.]

[During death, the bond with the body gives rise to mental worry resulting in unhappiness. At the same time, if the soul is going to attain salvation after death, resulting in happiness. The soul is both happy and unhappy due to both salvation and death respectively. Such a person is like the ocean, which on churning becomes associated with both divine nectar and horrible poison.]

[During death, the soul undergoes a lot of misery. It is actually the enjoyment of sorrow in the time of death. In this time, there is no simultaneous enjoyment of the happiness of salvation. But we can think about the happiness of salvation that is coming immediately. Not only does the actual rain brings a cool atmosphere, but also the wind coming over the clouds brings coolness. Similarly, not only the salvation brings happiness, but also the thinking about salvation brings happiness.]

[It is said that whatever you think happens. If your thinking is about good, God will help it and see that it happens. If your thinking is about bad, God will not help, but your own bad soul tries to help your thoughts become true. Therefore, in the time of death, we should continuously think about God and the closeness of God due to salvation.]

[Even the Gītā says the same point that whatever you think in the end time of death, it will happen in your next birth. If you think about God, you will get the pious birth, which is very close to God. The reason is that you will be helped by God since your last thoughts were about God only.]

[Anything will change its qualities if it is associated with different materials. If the soul is associated with worldly affairs throughout life, such a material will not get a new divine taste suddenly in the end.]

[If you put a sweet in the jar of a mango pickle, such sweet will become sour in taste. Similarly, if you put a piece of mango in the jar of honey, that mango piece will become sweet in taste. Hence, long association of materials induce their own taste into the piece of item kept in the materials.]

[If the soul is getting salvation while alive in this present life itself (Jīvan Mukti), such a soul will also get salvation in the next birth (Videha Mukti). If a person is cured from illness, such a person is certified as a healthy person afterwards also.]

[Generally, ignorant people, who consider themselves as scholars, feel that death itself is salvation. Such a soul completely misunderstands the truth and leaves God by living in the illusion of worldly bonds and worldly fascinations throughout life.]

Iti Śrī Datta Svāmi viracita Śrī Rājīva Gītāyāṃ Mukti Vicāra Yogo Nāma Trayodaśādhyāyaḥ|

[Like this, in Śrī Rājīva Gītā, composed by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami, the Thirteenth Chapter called ‘The Association of Enquiry of the Salvation of the Soul’ is completed.]