Posted on: 16 Mar 2024
1. Is it because of God's grace or past samskaras that a soul turns to God?
[Ms. Swathika asked:- Paadanamaskaaram, Swami. Swami, thank You for giving me the confidence and breaking the hindrance to ask questions. Please forgive the mistakes in the questions, Swami. Swami, please enlighten this ignorant soul on the following:- A soul is turning to God in terms of showing initial interest to know about God. Is it because of God's grace or past samskaras or the influence of surrounding environment or because of multiple factors?]
Swami replied:- All the factors mentioned by you become responsible. Among these three factors, the final factor is God’s grace, which comes after the three factors (initial interest, previous samskaaraas and present environment).
2. Why is there so much fascination for the feet of any Sadguru?
[Why is there so much fascination for the feet of any Sadguru or Human Incarnation? It is considered as a boat to cross the ocean of life. Please explain the inner sense of this.]
Swami replied:- Sadguru is the human incarnation of God. God is the most important personality compared to any item of the creation. It is an ancient tradition to catch the feet of a divine personality, which shows the highest reverence.
3. How to get the live experience when reading the knowledge from website?
[ I feel that live Satsang with You is like watching a movie in the theatre with all the visual and sound effects. You explain the concept with amazing modulations, expressions and emotions. I miss these while reading from Your website. How to get that experience when reading from the website, Swami?]
Swami replied:- The final essence is to know the knowledge and that is present in the website.
4. Does creation and removal of ignorance take same effort?
[In the recent Shiva Ratri Satsang, You have mentioned that same amount of self-effort is needed in going from point A to point B and in coming back to point A from point B. You have told this in the context of Shankara creating ignorance in the soul that all souls are God and removal of ignorance that all souls are not God. Swami, does creation and removal of ignorance take the same effort? I feel that removal of ignorance requires more effort. Please enlighten me.]
Swami replied:- Ignorance is the reverse of knowledge. The journey between knowledge and ignorance is a reversible equilibrium in which the rate of forward reaction is equal to the rate of the backward reaction. The journey is reversible from any point to another point and from the other point to the original point. Effort in both directions is equal. The same intensity of the effort is needed to make a scholar into an ignorant and vice versa.
5. How to enjoy happy and unhappy events like eating sweet and hot dishes?
[Swami, how to enjoy happy and unhappy events like eating sweet and hot dishes? Most of the times, I'm experiencing unhappy events like as if I'm eating a tasteless hot dish without any choice. Please advise.]
Swami replied:- All this depends on the development of your mental attitude. Everything lies in the angle of your view only and nothing exists in external affairs.
6. How to digest and assimilate Your knowledge correctly and fast?
[Swami, not everyone is able to digest Your Spiritual Knowledge because it is revolutionary and the hard truth. How to digest and assimilate Your knowledge correctly and fast?]
Swami replied:- My knowledge is certainly revolutionary but not hard to digest. Truth is always very plain and simple, and I have established only truth everywhere in the knowledge. But, it is very difficult to practice and this difficulty is expressed as the difficulty in understanding the knowledge. You cannot get the highest fruit without facing difficulties in practice. If the practice is easy, the fruit is always false.
7. If we pray for knowledge, isn't it indirectly praying for devotion?
[Swami, You said that devotion is purely from the side of devotee and God has nothing to do with it. You also said that we should not pray for devotion to God. Can we pray for Knowledge, Swami? If we pray for knowledge, isn't it indirectly praying for devotion?]
Swami replied:- There are several scholars, who do not get devotion even though they completed the spiritual knowledge. Unless the heart is pure, spiritual knowledge cannot generate theoretical devotion. This is the reason why Shankara insisted on the purity of mind (Citta Shuddhi) very much in the spiritual path.
8. How to utilise the brain that You have blessed me with to the fullest for spiritual progress?
[My brain is so dumb and analytical skill is very less. How to utilise the brain that You have blessed me with to the fullest for spiritual progress?]
Swami replied:- As I told you already, My knowledge is very simple, plain and frank. There is not much deep logic. Only common sense exists everywhere. As I told, the difficulty in practice makes you speak like this. The difficulty is not in understanding the knowledge, but the difficulty is in practicing the knowledge. People cover their inefficiency to practice by saying that the knowledge is very difficult in understanding since it involves a lot of analytical logic. In fact, this is an utter lie. People are depicting the practical difficulty as a theoretical difficulty. This is natural human tendency. This is a clever way to escape the practice by throwing blame on the simple theory.
9. When we have You as God Datta directly, why should we pray to other forms like Hanuman and Subrahmanya?
[Swami, when we have You as God Datta directly, why should we pray to Your other forms like Lord Hanuman and Lord Subrahmanya? For our Pravrutti, we pray to Hanuman and for Spiritual Knowledge, we pray to God Datta. Is it correct?]
Swami replied:- In fact, all the divine forms are the external dresses of God Datta only. Whenever you worship any divine form, you are worshipping God Datta only. When somebody is wearing a dress and you sprinkle scent water on that dress, the person wearing that dress will enjoy the scent. Similarly, all worships done to any divine form will reach God Datta only in the final stage. Since there is only one personality called God Datta in every divine form, both Pravrutti and Nivrutti are given by the same God Datta only. There is no second God so that you can allot Pravrutti to one God and Nivrutti to another God.
10. How to cultivate the quality of discipline and obedience?
[Why does the mind always protest against change? Though You do everything for our good only, most of the times, I fail to understand and convince my mind. How to cultivate the quality of discipline and obedience, Swami? How important are these qualities in spiritual progress?]
Swami replied:- These qualities are very important in both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. The effort is to be put up by the devotee against his/her inherent inertia that makes the soul to travel in a wrong path. Without any effort, the soul is attracted from the right to a wrong path. With a lot of effort only, one can divert from wrong paths to the right path. False preachers lead the soul from the right to wrong paths because in this case, attraction is very much and by this, they can become very popular. The benefit of the receiver of knowledge must be important for a preacher and not the easy attraction towards false selfish desires based on the exploitation of weakness.
11. How to remove the ego of being Your devotee?
[How to remove the ego of being Your devotee? Sometimes, I feel very low that I don't even deserve to be called as Your devotee and sometimes, I get this ego of being Your devotee. Please guide me on balancing, Swami.]
Swami replied:- Basic-ego is not dangerous. The over-growth of the ego is pride. The basic-ego is called as confidence, which is like the normal body temperature. Pride is like high fever. Under-confidence is also dangerous like the low temperature of the body. You are misunderstanding your confidence as pride and getting confused.
12. When will I realise Your true value, Swami?
[Getting this human birth is very rare and on top of it, recognising and accepting the contemporary Human Incarnation is very very rare. Swami, how to use this birth to the fullest when You have blessed me with Your presence, which I don't deserve at all? When will I realise the true value of You, Swami? How not to take this wonderful opportunity for granted, Swami? Thank You for always guiding me at every step.]
Swami replied:- You need not worry about getting human birth because you have already got the human birth. The only point on which you have to concentrate is about the true spiritual knowledge of the Sadguru or the contemporary human incarnation. You are missing the Sadguru because of your ego-based jealousy towards co-human forms. If this is reduced in your daily life, you can recognise the Sadguru. Even if you recognise the Sadguru and understand the true spiritual knowledge preached by Him very easily, you must accept that your deficiency lies in practicing that true spiritual knowledge. You must stop covering your deficiency in the pretext of difficulty in understanding the knowledge.