Sparks of Divine Knowledge

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Sadguru is the preacher of spiritual knowledge and is the human form of the God. God is hidden in Him like the current in the live wire. God is indicated by the word Hiranya (gold), which means the best and most precious. Hiranyagarbha is the name of Brahma who is the first spiritual preacher or first sadguru. He is the energetic form charged by the hidden God, given (Datta) to angels. He is the first energetic human form of God given to the creation for the correct spiritual guidance. Today, all the false spiritual preachers also deserve the name of Hiranyagarbha. This word also means that the gold is hidden in their stomachs. This means that they are simply swallowing the money for preaching the false spiritual knowledge. The real Sadguru can be compared to the abode of snake, which is worshipped by Hindus who pour milk in it. If the snake hidden in it comes out, the devotees will run away. Krishna was like that abode of snake worshipped by the human beings. When the hidden energetic form in Him called as Narayana came out as Vishwarupa (Vishwam Vishnuh…), Arjuna ran away in a similar way. The human being is unable to perceive even the energetic form of God hidden in the human form. The energetic form of God is in no way different from human form and thus, Narayana is not all different from Krishna. In both, God is one and the same. The external cover (upadhi) only differs since the cover in Narayana is energetic form and the cover in Krishna is materialized human form. If this is the state, how is the human being imagining to perceive the unimaginable original God? It is impossible. It is impossible. It is impossible.

Even the intelligence, limited by the dimensions of space and time, cannot grasp God (Yo Buddheh…) who is beyond space and time. Only the most subtle item of the creation i.e., self (soul) can be grasped by the sharp intelligence (Drushyatetvagraya…). In the human incarnation also, the soul exists but the unimaginable God charges it. You can grasp the soul present in the human incarnation but you cannot grasp God who is beyond the soul and charged it. Current is quite different from the wire but charges wire. Hence, you can treat such soul as God like treating the live wire as current. It is this charged divine soul existing in the body of Krishna that was referred by Him in the Gita (Ahamatma…). Even the energetic body of God is intolerable and what to speak of the original God? Krishna referred to such original God as unknowable item to anyone (Mamtuveda Na Kaschana… Gita). When Hanuman tore His chest and showed God in His heart, such God was only the energetic form of Rama. Rama was fully recognized by Hanuman and was constantly maintained in the heart because there was no point of repulsion between common media. Hanuman is a monkey, whereas Rama is a human being in the higher level. Hanuman exhibited several miracles but the monkeys could not recognize Him as God due to same repulsion of common media. The monkeys accepted Rama because Rama is higher human being. Similarly, Arjuna could not fully accept Krishna due to same repulsion. But Arjuna could accept the higher energetic form of Lord Shiva since Krishna also worshipped Shiva. Similarly, the monkeys could not accept Hanuman as God because Hanuman also worshipped higher human form of Rama. Daksha, an angel with energetic form, could not recognize Shiva as God for the same reason of repulsion. This repulsion of common media is existing even in the angels (Paroksha Priyah... Veda). When God appeared before the angels in energetic form of light (Yaksha), they could not recognize God for the same reason.

All the human incarnations have the single common point, which is the spiritual guidance given to the human beings since that is the most important program. Other factors like the physical form, dress, language, culture and composition of the three qualities are not important and variation occurs as you can see Rama and Krishna. Therefore, God is represented by this common characteristic of true spiritual knowledge only (Satyam Jnanamanantam Brahma…, Prajnanam Brahma… Veda; Jnanitvatmaiva… Gita). Even the liberated soul should be in constant awareness of the Lord and even if the liberated soul is made to sit on the throne of God, it should remember that the Lord is the kingmaker. The wheel (Sudarshana Chakra) is always revolving around the finger of the Lord. The revolutions indicate constantly that Sudarshana is zero only. The finger of the Lord indicates the number one. All the zeros placed after one get values only due to the existence of the number one behind them. This must be the constant memory of the liberated soul even if it becomes the human incarnation. If ego enters, it will fall down and Sudarshana was born as Kartavirya with ego and was killed by the Lord Parashurama in the war. But Parashurama was also the human incarnation of a liberated soul only. Again, he committed the same mistake and Rama who was the original human incarnation of the God removed his ego.

Selfless love is like sugar that can be sometimes seen even in the worldly bonds, which do not deserve. The selfish love is the salt, which is also white like the sugar and is generally seen in the worldly bonds. The worldly bonds are like the pickles, which deserve the mixing up of the salt only and not the sugar. God is like the Badam Kheer (special sweet) and it deserves only the sugar. If you put the salt in Badam Kheer and sugar in pickles, you will lose the taste in both the places.

Goddess Lakshmi is deity of money and wealth. In the world (Pravrutti), she is the ruling queen. But she does not look like the queen. She is always sitting at the divine feet of the Lord in His service. What does this mean? The wealth is not meant for attaining power and prestige in the world but it is only meant for the service of the Lord in His divine mission.

1. He asked about his financial loss continuously due to the victory of injustice in this world.

[A question by Shri Partha Sarathi (USA)]

Swami replied: The injustice will never win because if it happens so in this divine rule of God, it is only blame to His administration. With the limited knowledge of this birth, you cannot decide the justice. In view of all the previous births and the deeds in the previous births, God gives judgment, which is perfectly justified in the wide range of all the previous births. If you criticize God, God will leave you with the due justice as per the cycle of deeds. If you are a devotee of God, God will compensate your financial loss through some other way at a later date. If you are wasting the present time in worry, the compensation of finance may be done but you cannot have the compensation of the lost past time. Hence, you should take the help of the spiritual knowledge and try to be happy even in the misery so that you will not lose both time as well as money. If you are worried, you cannot concentrate on God and your devotion also becomes week and your financial compensation in the future also gets correspondingly reduced. Therefore, you must be brave in the troubles without any worry and maintain the concentrated devotion to God.

The human incarnation is an association of God and the human soul in the same human body like the boss with his PA residing in the same house. This is the meaning of the Veda “Dvasuparna…”. This Veda can be also applied to the case of ordinary human being because even in the human body of ordinary human being, two items co-exist, which are soul and intelligence as the owner and driver of the chariot. Shankara gives this alternative application of the above Veda. In the Kurukshetra war, several chariots are seen with drivers and owners, which represent the ordinary human beings. In such chariots, both the owner and driver are ordinary human beings. Similarly, in the ordinary human beings both the soul and intelligence are the imaginable items of creation. But in the chariot of Arjuna, Krishna (the unimaginable God) is sitting as the driver and Arjuna, the owner is imaginable ordinary human being. This single chariot represents the human incarnation.

The Veda is divided into three parts, which are Jnana (knowledge), Upasana (devotion) and Karma (work or service). There is no contradiction between these three because these three are subsequent steps only. You have to decide whether these three steps are in the direction of God or in the direction of the world. Without realizing the real place of contradiction, preachers are fighting with each other regarding the non-existing contradiction within these three steps. They are beating around the bush and the bird is lost! All these three steps exist in God (Nivrutti) as well as in the world (Pravrutti). In Pravrutti, Jnana means the knowledge useful for earning money. Upasana means the blind attachment to the family. Karma means the sins like corruption done for the endless luxuries of the family. These three steps have same meanings in God in different directions. Jnana means the knowledge about God. Upasana means the blind love to God. Karma means the selfless service done for the sake of God, which may sometimes include even sins during the tests by God.

The sins are not cancelled by doing mere good social works. You will have the separate results for the good and bad deeds. Pandavas did lot of good works but did very few bad works. The lot of good did not cancel their little bad sin. The Pandavas went to hell for a short time to suffer for the little sins and then went to heaven to enjoy the good results for a long time. This means that the good works, which will have separate good results, cannot cancel the sin. Hanuman advises Ravana not to do injustice and says that good deeds like penance cannot cancel the sins, since both have to be enjoyed separately (Praptam Dharma Phalam… Adharmasyapiha Phalam… Ramayana). But the devotion to God can cancel the sin because God will suffer for the sins of His devotees (Ahamtva... Gita). The Gita says “Apichet… Bhajatemam”, which means that even the greatest sinner is protected if he serves the God. Some preachers take this verse and apply to the case of a theoretical devotee who sings songs etc. The verb Bhaja means service and not songs (Bhaja Sevayam…). This verb has also another meaning of attainment (Bhaja Prapane). You cannot say that the devotee will be saved if he attains God. Ravana reached Kailasha and stood near God and this is attainment of God, which could not save him.

2. A devotee referred to a story of a devoted boy by whose innocent devotion, the statue became live God and ate the offered food.

Swami replied: Several people create stories. I do not think that this is possible because no sincere devotee who can tell only the truth can say like this in spite of hectic devotion. There is no end to these stories. But you can draw a very good conclusion from this story. This means that the statue never eats the food. The statue has to be converted into human form to eat the offered food. This finally means that the human form of God alone can eat the offered food and therefore, the real service can be done only to the human form and not the statue. In the story, the devoted boy has taken the correct meaning of Nivedanam, which is offering food to God. He proved that the daily offering of food to God done by his father was not correct and he taught the truth to his father. Of course, God has the superpower to eat the food even through the statue without converting the statue into human form. Such special type of eating or conversion of statue into human form involves the unnecessary use of the special superpower because God is available in human form to eat the food offered by you.

3. A devotee asked about the bliss that can be derived in the fame obtained by doing the social work.

Swami replied: When the social work is done, people will praise you. Such praise will enter your brain and causes intensive happiness. Suppose, a person is imagining the same social work done by him and consequent praise, such imagination can also generate the same intensive happiness. The feeling gives happiness. In the first case, hearing the praise generates the feeling. In the second case, imagining the praise from the people can also generate the same feeling. Once feeling is same, the result of the feeling (happiness) is also the same. You are in no way greater than the second case. If you consider the eternal fame even after your death, you are in no way connected with it to derive happiness in the next birth. Therefore, do not fall in the illusion of fame, which is also Maya. If you serve the God and do the social service under the guidance of God, God is pleased with you. The pleasure of God is real and is not illusory as in the above case of the fame.

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