Some Aspects of Human Incarnation

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Datta is called as Unmatta Datta, which means that Datta is mad. The reason for this is that He gives the absolute divine knowledge from His absolute state, which is the absolute reality. In that state, everything except Him is relatively real including the souls. In this state, He is called as Nirguna Datta, which means that He is in the state of absolute reality without any relative reality. The entire creation including the souls is a relative reality only and is just His imagination or quality or feeling (guna) only. The guna is a property, which is not independent and depends on its substratum (guni) only. Such substratum is God or Parabrahman who is far from imagination. The knowledge radiating from that state is absolute truth, which cannot be digested by human beings who are in the lowest layer, called Maya. Therefore, Datta looks like a mad fellow, whose statements are beyond the normal digestion. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was going to Panchavati for meditation and was in that top state. A newly married person told Him that his wife is hindering him from participating in the spiritual discussion (Satsanga). Immediately, Paramahamsa told him just to divorce his wife. He was shocked. For the plane of normal human beings, such knowledge looks like the statements of a mad person. In fact, the souls are mad of the plane of lower relative reality. For mad people, a wise person is mad relatively.

Q. Can God’s Incarnation Have Ignorance?

[Shri Ramanath, a devotee of Swami asked Swami about the effect of ignorance on the human incarnation. Swami’s response is given below.]

Swami replied: The human incarnation is of two components. One is God like radiating sun of knowledge and the other is the soul like the black cloud of ignorance. The sun is covered by the cloud and are very close to each other (Sayuja sakhaya… Veda). Due to cloud, sun becomes dim. Due to sun, the cloud becomes bright. Now, both the sun and cloud are in equilibrium state of equal intensity. Both have become one unit since both are in the equal state of brightness or darkness. The total brightness of this single unit is 99% and total darkness is 1%. Hence, the human incarnation also falls into the grip of a trace of ignorance for a fraction of second. Krishna became angry to kill Bhishma, who is His own devotee, but His anger was just for a moment only and He did not kill Bhishma. Jesus was praying God for a minute to prevent the crucifixion but immediately, He was prepared for it. The dimness of sun or the brightness of the cloud is only relatively real. In absolute reality, the sun in the dim sun is 100% bright and the cloud in the bright cloud is 100% dark. Therefore, really God is not affected by ignorance. Only in the plane of relative reality, the dim sun or relative sun is dim. Since, the dim sun or human incarnation (God in soul) is in this world only, which is relative plane, the dim sun can only suit and not the absolute sun. The cloud is the human being (soul, subtle body and gross body) and is the cover or upadhi for God to enter this world. This human being in which God exists is called Son of God by Jesus and God is called as the Father of heaven. Both are so close that we can treat both as one and the same. The dim sun and bright cloud are one and the same in the intensity of light as well as darkness. This is the meaning of the statement of Jesus “I and My Father are one and the same”. Thus, in the relative plane (world) only, both are one and the same but in absolute plane, God is God and soul is soul simultaneously. People have taken this statement in absolute plane and mistook Jesus. Fearing for the fate of Jesus, Mohammad told that Father can never become son. This is true in the absolute plane, which is simultaneously true even in the relative plane. The absolute plane maintains its reality in both the planes. The relative plane maintains its reality only in the relative plane. Therefore, in the relative plane, both absolute reality (Advaita) and relative reality (Dvaita), co-exist and are true simultaneously. You must be careful to note that Advaita (dim sun and bright cloud are one and the same) is true in the relative plane (Vyavahara Dasha), whereas Dvaita (even in the dim sun, sun is totally bright and even in the bright cloud, cloud is totally dark) is true in the absolute plane (Paramartha Dasha). But the confused Advaitin states Advaita, in absolute plane.

One devotee possessed by God Datta saw Me and told “You are My representative in this world”. Then I asked for the vision of God Datta. The devotee laughed loudly for a long time and told, “How can You see Yourself? If You are fond of seeing Yourself, take a mirror and see in it”. If you analyze this, both Advaita and Dvaita are present here. The representative cannot be the original (Dvaita). When I have to see Datta as Myself in the mirror, I am one and the same with Him (Advaita). Both are simultaneously true in this world as explained above. Another devotee possessed by God Datta told, “I am Dattatreya”. Then I asked, “Then who am I?” The devotee told thrice “Myself and Yourself are one and the same”. Here, Dvaita is seen in the first two statements. Advaita is seen in the third statement.

Q. Why is Swami a householder instead of a bachelor?

[Shri Ramanath asked about Swami’s Ashram as householder (Gruhastha) instead of bachelor (Brahmachari) because generally Datta appears as bachelor.]

Swami replied: Rama with one wife and Krishna with several wives are householders and they are incarnations of Datta. Datta means God given in the same medium of devotees to such devotees. For human devotees, God is in human form. Then Rama and Krishna are Datta (given) only. Sages asked Datta about the Ashram of Datta because He was having red robe (Samnyasa) and was also having cross belt (Brahmachari or Gruhastha due to His wife Anagha). Datta replied that He is beyond all the four Ashramas i.e., Turiya Ashrama. The Ashrama is like a color of the human being existing on the skin. The Ashrama for a human incarnation is like the color of the shirt. You cannot be half black and half red in the body but the color of your shirt can be half black and half red. You have no color and you are beyond the color of the shirt. Therefore, the human being is having the three qualities and four Ashramas. But, the human incarnation is beyond all these in the view of absolute reality. The sun is 100% bright in the dim sun and there is no increase or decrease in His brightness. The sun is beyond darkness of the cloud, which is his external cover. But a human being is like a far dark cloud without sun or with little sunlight. Based on the various intensities of the sunlight (knowledge), the clouds may have classification of Ashramas, gunas, caste etc. In the cloud, which is very close to sun, there is no classification of intensities of light because such a cloud is most bright.

Past Human Incarnations of God

[Smt. Padma Ram asked whether to see the past human incarnation like Sai Baba in Swami or vise-versa.]

Swami replied: In the state of theoretical devotion, any view is right since there is no difference between drinking two different drinks in a dream. The point is whether your devotion is theoretical (songs, meditation etc.) or practical (service). The practical devotion is possible only in the case of the present live human incarnation. When you are sprinkling rose water on the shirt of a present live person, the person receives and enjoys your service. The shirt is the human body and the person is God in present live human incarnation. The past human incarnation existing as a statue or photo is like a photo of the non-existing past shirt of the same person. You will not sprinkle the rose water on even the existing shirt if the person is absent in it and not to speak of a non-existing shirt seen in a photo. If you sprinkle rose water on a photo in which a person who is away in a foreign country, it is also virtually the same. Similarly, the service to a photo of Vishnu existing in the upper world is as good as the service to a photo of Rama who existed in the past. Krishna asked Arjuna to surrender to Him only (Mamekam… Gita). Here Mam (Him) means the human incarnation. The word Ekam (only) means the present live one existing before the eyes of Arjuna. It means Krishna, who was the contemporary human incarnation. Direct service to God is possible only in the case of present human incarnation.

God sees the useful talent existing in you for His service and selects you. An employer also does the same and is not worried about the other defects. The employer pays the salary for the service done using a particular required talent. Similarly, God rewards you for the service done by using your specific talent. God is not bothered about your other defects and will not interfere in your cycle of deeds. If you are not aspiring the reward and feel that the service of God itself is a reward, the case is totally different. When you are doing the service with such a rewardless attitude, God takes the entire responsibility of yourself and if necessary, He may sacrifice Himself for your sake in the cycle of deeds.

Q. Why does Swami behave like an ordinary soul many a times?

[Several devotees asked Swami about the behavior of Swami as an ordinary soul many a times. They asked Swami about the possible interest of God to play in roles of ignorance.]

Swami replied: The interest of God to have entertainment to play a role of ignorance is only a minor point. This point is always associated with a major point of God taking the role of ignorant soul for guiding the ignorant souls through the practical path. If an ignorant soul sees another ignorant soul reaching the goal through the spiritual path, certainly it will be standing as a practical example of inspiration. God plays such a role and inspires other similar souls in a practical path. This is the actual major aspect of His program to act in different ignorant roles. Incidentally, the entertainment is also done so that you cannot blame Him as a bad person who enjoys a bad role. Rama went after the golden deer just to satisfy His beloved wife even though Lakshmana was opposing it. He faced a big tragedy due to that mistake of blind love on His wife and not listening to a learned advice. It is a role of total ignorance. But, the Lord gives message to such ignorant souls. When such good purpose is served, what is the harm of His entertainment in such ignorant role, which is inevitable in preaching of practical spiritual knowledge? In the case of a really ignorant soul, only the blind entertainment exists without such noble cause. Similarly, if you analyze the life of this Swami, you can clearly find such noble cause of practical demonstration of the spiritual knowledge emitted from Him. His life is His message of the spiritual knowledge preached by Him. In fact, it is a double role of human incarnation in some scenes and a devotee in some other scenes. Swami is a combined form of Rama and Anjaneya, playing both the roles separately in related scenes of requirement since He is very ambitious to have double remuneration! Perhaps, the external dress is one and the same causing confusion for both the roles, but you can distinguish both the roles by the corresponding dialogues and actions as in the case of a rehearsal of a drama. In a complete incarnation, this is inevitable.

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