Swami Answers Questions of Shri Anil Antony

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

1. What is the inner meaning of 'Sarva Dharmaan…' mentioned in the Gita?

[Shri Anil Antony asked: What is the inner meaning of 'Sarva Dharmaan…', if one leaves worldly bonds for the sake of God, what is the responsibility of God to those family bonds?]

Swami replied: The inner meaning of ‘Sarva Dharmaan’ is simply total dedication of yourself to God from all sides. Anything or anybody opposing this is a sin. Anything or anybody encouraging this is the real dharma or justice. The worldly bonds are born to use yourself as the instrument of their happiness only as said in the Veda. Jesus also asks you to leave all the family bonds including even the bond with your life to become His real disciple. The responsibility of the people left by you is well known to God about which you should not worry. When you feel the responsibility, the detachment is not complete. The sage Narada told in His Bhakti Sutras that the devotee attracted to God is like a person who is attracted by a beautiful girl and subsequently leaving his wife for her (Jaravatcha…). The attraction was so powerful resulting in the state of madness, where the discussion of justice and injustice does not arise. The people who are left by the devotee in such attraction to God will have their own lines of samskara in which God may or may not take the responsibility of them based on His overall decision. He will inquire the merits and defects thoroughly and will take up the proper action. The mother of Shankara was granted salvation and the wife of Buddha was not granted salvation. The mother of Shankara suffered in this world after leaving Shankara but reached the abode of God finally. The wife of Buddha enjoyed all the luxuries here after leaving Buddha and did not get salvation. The souls have their own merits and defects for which you are not responsible. You are worried about them because you have not analyzed the worldly love, which has selfish motive only and in such case, where is the point of your responsibility to them? After crucifixion of Jesus, His mother Mary led her own line of life based on her own samskaras. When the love to God is in climax, this question does not find place in yourself. Actually, this question is posed by others to you when you have reached such climax of divine love.

2. Why is God not punishing the soul immediately after it sins?

[Suffering is the fruit of our previous sin, but why Lord delays the suffering, which sometimes do not make the soul understand that it is because of the particular activity that he is now suffering, in that case he may still do the old sin again?]

Swami replied: If there is a possibility of the change in the soul by immediate suffering of the sin, God certainly grants the punishment here itself immediately after the sin. When such hope is absent, God postpones the punishments so that his short span of life may be free so that one day or other he may digest the divine knowledge and transform. The human life is very short and also is very rare. Let this short human life be engaged in the service of God without any disturbance. If punishments are given immediately, no time is left to serve God and please Him. When the examinations are near and if a student is to be punished for a crime, a good principal postpones the inquiry to a day after the examinations so that the little time leftover may be properly used. After the examinations, the student has lot of time to face the inquiry and undergo the punishment. This shows the kindness and best administration of the principal.

3. Why is world so against Lord or why attachment to world is against Lord? After all the world is His creation only.

Swami replied: In a multiple-choice question, why is the wrong answer opposite to the correct answer? After all, both the answers are framed by the same examiner. Your love to God is tested by this way.

4. What is the root cause of diseases?

Swami replied: The root cause of diseases is anxiety and tension created in this world and its foundation is desire for things and souls other than God.

5. Why does a perfect God need devotion from someone else?

[Why does a perfect, complete being (God) need or depend upon devotion from something or someone else? (A question posted by a person in one of the discussion forums)]

Swami replied: God is not in need of love from others because He is always contented (Aptakamasya… Veda). The king goes to the forest for hunting, not for killing an animal and to eat it like a hunter (Lokavattu… Brahma Sutra). It is a game of entertainment with His own imagination (creation). You cannot take the example of king also here in complete sense because the king, forest, animal, hunting etc., are equally real. The love is the best and most sacred type of entertainment.

6. If one breaks the family bonds for Lord’s sake, then what is the guarantee that he will not make the bonds again?

[The samskaras are formed from millions of births… and its effect may be so strong. If one breaks the family bonds for Lord’s sake in one birth, then what is the guarantee that he will not make the bonds again in the next birth or not, since the samskaras may still be active?]

Swami replied: The liberation from bonds is not in physical sense. If leaving the family members is liberation, it is done by the death itself and then every dead person is a liberated soul. Such assumption makes people say or write about a dead person “So and so reached God”. The liberation means the complete burning of samskaras, which are the roots of the bonds. This can be achieved by the attraction developed to God associated with the knowledge of the unreality of bonds (Maya).

7. Is 'time' important in taking any important decision in our life?

Swami replied: Time is the most important parameter for a soul because the creation is defined by the three-dimensional space and the fourth dimension-time. Soul is a part of the creation and therefore, cannot cross the time like absolute God (creator), who is beyond space and time.

8. Why is others’ money so harmful?

Swami replied: Money is the real essence of the world around which all the bonds are revolving. When you grab others’ money, their heart is boiled because they are not liberated souls. You are also not a liberated soul. The law of divine justice gives severe punishment for this sin. They will be born as your wife and children to grab your wealth with compounded interest.

9. Some people say that because of your forefathers’ sin, you are suffering now. Is it true?

Swami replied: The sin of one soul cannot touch another soul and this is the basic truth. However, the underlying network has several parameters. When the wealth earned by you is through corruption which resulted in suffering of good devotees, certainly the wealth is like poison transmitted from one generation to the other.

10. Why is devotion not granted by God?

[You told that devotion cannot be granted but should be earned; but since being a soul, he himself will have his own limitations in this direction however he may try?]

Swami replied: The marks in your answer sheet have to be earned by you only from the examiner who corrects it, whatever may be your limitations. All the academic work done by you throughout the academic year is only meant for overcoming those limitations. Devotion or love is like the marks earned by the devotee from God.

11. How to experience the Lord’s love in the same way a father’s or mother’s love for his or her child?

Swami replied: The father and mother are ignorant and their love is selfish. They gave birth to the child based on their mutual attraction of bodies, which continues almost lifelong even after completing the production of children. Their love aspires your service to them in their old age. If you see the background, the relationship is between creditor and debtor. These relationships change from birth to birth. But the bond with God is constant since the beginning of creation and has no end. In no aspect, the bond with God can be compared with the worldly bond. God is addressed as Father and Mother in the sense of creator. Jesus did not give importance to His mother before the bond with God.

12. Why in the Bible the kingdom of God is told as similar to a mustard seed?

Swami replied: The mustard seed is very small indicating that the administration of God is also invisible. The oil of the mustard seed is pungent compared to the other oils, which indicates that the divine administration is very powerful. It is said that the mustard oil is very good for health and this indicates that the divine rule is always for the permanent welfare of the soul.

13. What is the reason of doubts?

Swami replied: Lack of direct divine knowledge from God in human form (Sadguru) is the reason for all spiritual doubts. Every soul will get one chance to meet the human form of God in their life cycles. If the soul misses that single golden chance, it is a loss forever. The knowledge given by the human preachers may be either correct and incomplete or wrong and complete. By such knowledge, either you will not reach the goal even though you are in the right path or you will proceed in the opposite direction and become more and more far from God.

14. Why in the Bible it was told that 'many will use force to enter the kingdom of God, but they cannot'?

Swami replied: The force of ignorance injected by the blind traditional priests and incomplete scholars cannot push them into the kingdom of God due to incomplete correct knowledge or complete wrong knowledge. The incomplete wrong knowledge is better than complete wrong knowledge relatively. Either you will go up to some stage in the divine path or you will go in the opposite direction. You can reach the ultimate goal in the spiritual path only by the complete correct knowledge given by human form of God directly. The knowledge given by the past human forms of God is complete and correct but the subsequent misinterpretations mask it and confuse you. The divine knowledge from the present human incarnation is complete and correct without misinterpretations since you are directly clarifying all your doubts from God.

15. How to maximize advantage of Your stay in this world with us?

Swami replied: By hearing and studying well, the divine knowledge given by Me and clarifying all your doubts, you will reach the stage of determination that results in practice. When you are doing the propagation, the force of your determination increases tremendously. Thus, the work of God is in fact your personal uplift only.

16. How to take the proper decisions as given by Lord in crucial situations, since in that state my voices will arise from inside?

Swami replied: If you are involved in the God’s work by propagating the divine knowledge in the world, your determination becomes very powerful and before that the voice of Satan becomes weak and finally disappears. Shankara told that Satsanga (propagation of knowledge by discussions) is the right step that leads to right goal. The inner voice of God and Satan has no physical sound to differentiate them. The voice is only in the form of an idea. Therefore, people are unable to distinguish the idea of God from the idea of Satan. For this purpose, analysis of the idea with the help of Sadguru is essential. Otherwise, people may follow the idea of Satan thinking it as the idea of God.

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