True Love and Service

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Swami sent four copies of Sri Datta Vani spiritual Magazine to four foreign countries. Two are Indians and two are foreigners. The two foreigners replied immediately and also extended support. The two Indians did not even acknowledge. Why this attitude differs in Indians and foreigners? For Indians the family bonds are very strong. Even if they have earned for ten generations, they will be working for eleventh generation. Foreigners send even their children (first generation) from the house to earn and live after certain age. The family bonds of foreigners are weak. Therefore, they are easily sacrificing money to the spiritual service of the Lord. Money is the fruit of the work. Bhagavadgita emphasizes the sacrifice of fruit of the work. The Bible also says “Wherever your money lies, there your heart lies”. Money is the fire test. Indians sacrifice words (prayers) and mind (devotion and meditation). The Lord gave good language, devotion and knowledge to Indians, which are related to the words and mind only.

Indians will not sacrifice money and so the Lord gave poverty to India. Swami Vivekananda faced the sky and wept asking, “Why my country is suffering with poverty in spite of so much spiritual Knowledge?” When Swami Ramatirdha was giving Spiritual discourses in USA, the Americans asked a question “Why the Indians are so poor in spite of so much spiritual knowledge?” Swami Ramatirdha replied “Our Indians preach philosophy. Foreigners practice the Philosophy”. This is the reason for our poverty and your wealth. Foreigners do not pray or meditate so much as Indians do, but they sacrifice the fruit (money) of their work. Therefore, the Lord blessed foreign countries with immense wealth. Indians cannot sacrifice money due to their strong love on their family bonds. Indians, unable to do this sacrifice misinterpreted the word “fruit of work (Karma Phala)”. They said that work means praying with words and meditating with mind. These eyes do not see the fruits of such work. Therefore, they sacrifice such fruits to the Lord with a spoon of water. The Lord is also very very intelligent. The Lord gave the fruits for their sacrifice of words and mind. The fruits are good language and good devotion and knowledge, which are related to words, mind and intelligence. The Lord approaches you in the same way as you approach as said in Gita (Ye Yathā māṃ prapadyante). If you praise Him with words, He will also praise you with words. If you love Him with mind, He will also love you with mind. If you serve Him practically, He will also give you the fruit practically. Service means both sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work.

Foreigners earn, enjoy and sacrifice for the work of the Lord. Indians earn and even do not enjoy. They simply store all their earnings for their future generations. Of course, enjoyment also should be limited. If enjoyment is more, more diseases attack. So, the nature itself is controlling the enjoyment. The Veda says in the first Upanishad and in the first hymn itself like this “All this world is the wealth of the Lord. Take whatever is required for your limited enjoyment. Of course, earn more than what you require but don’t store it. If you store, you are a thief and you will be punished”. The second hymn says “Earn continuously and always work. You have to store for your limited enjoyment and the rest should be sacrificed for the work of the Lord. Sacrifice the fruit of the work but not the work”. The Gita also emphasizes everywhere the same concept. The Gita does not agree to sacrifice work and become lazy.

The Gita always preached work and sacrifice of the fruit of the work. If you want the real grace of the Lord, you must also love the Lord really. You love really your children. You are doing sacrifice of work for them by bathing, dressing, carrying them to school etc., (Karma Samnyaasa). You are also sacrificing the fruit of your work for them by giving food, medicines and finally your property (Karma Phala Tyaaga). Both Karma Samnyaasa and Karma Phala tyaaga put together is called Karma Yoga (Service). Therefore, you are serving your children without aspiring any result in return. Even if they do not serve you back, you are still serving them only. This is the real love. To understand this there is no need of the Veda or the Gita or the Bible, which are spoken by the Lord. This world itself is a sacred scripture spoken by the Lord. You can get all the spiritual knowledge from this world. Scientists learn science from this world only. Similarly, you can learn the spiritual knowledge also from this world. Your children are preaching you about the real love that is to be shown to the Lord.

Avadhoota Datta preached Yadu about 24 preachers like a tree, a river etc., which are only the objects of the world. Therefore, the two proofs for the true love are only sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work as seen in the case of your children. You are not doing these two in the case of the Lord. Except these two, you are doing all the other things for the Lord like chanting, meditation, praying, Yoga etc., All these are related to words, mind and intelligence only. You are not doing all these things in the case of your children. If all these are proof of the real love, why are you not doing these things to your children also? Why don’t you chant the name of your child? Why don’t you meditate upon your child? Why don’t you write a diary on your child and study it every day as you are studying the Bhagavatam or the Bible? Why don’t you write a will sacrificing the fruits of all these works to your children? Why don’t you write a will sacrificing all the property for the work of the Lord? When these questions are put any scholar or any devotee will run away by the last question. You yourself divided the ways of love separately for the Lord and for the children. Why don’t you change the ways of love from one side to the other side?

Kannappa roamed in the forest in hunting. Finally, in the evening he got some flesh and offered it to the Lord. He neither ate nor gave to his family. He never chanted hymns, never meditated upon the Lord, never read the scriptures and never maintained any pious dress. He broke the bonds with his family and even with his body for the sake of the Lord. He plucked even his eyes for the sake of the Lord and got salvation. Saktuprastha could not get food for ten days during the drought. Somehow, he could secure a little flour of rice and cooked it. He was just prepared to eat that along with his family. But the Lord came in the form of a guest and he sacrificed the entire food, which is the fruit of his work. That sacrifice was not only a complete sacrifice but also it is the sacrifice of the fruit of his hard work. The Veda said that money should be sacrificed for the sake of the Lord’s mission (Dhanena tyāgenaike, Tyaktena…Kasyasvit dhanam).

The Veda used the word ‘money’, which may be the ancestral property also. But, the Gita used the word ‘fruit of work’ which means the self-earned money. The bond on the self-earned money is very intensive. Therefore, the Gita gave the strongest concept. But the Indians misinterpreted the meaning of the work as the work done by words and mind because they are unable to sacrifice the money of their ancestral property or self-earned money. Therefore, to avoid such misinterpretations every verse of the Gita should be referred in the Veda. The Gita is the essence of the Vedas. All the Vedas are cows and the Gita is the milk. The milk must be in the cow and the cow is not in the milk. Therefore, every verse in the Gita must have a reference in the Veda. The juice is in the sugarcane but the sugarcane is not in the juice. Therefore, this means that you should reject even a verse in the Gita if it has no reference in the Veda, because the Lord should not have told such a verse. Somebody might have written that verse and inserted in the Gita. Only the Veda was protected by the recitation and nobody could insert even a single word into the Veda. I sincerely thank all those great Indian sages who protected the Veda in those days when there was no printing and thereby protected the truth. But today there is no need of the recitation of the Veda because it is printed and even computerized.

Shastra says four parts of authority.

1)     the Veda (Sruti)

2)     Verses which follow the Veda (Smruti)

3)     Yukti (reasoning)

4)     Anubhava (Experience in the world).

The fourth part is very strong, which gives validity to the other three parts. If the fourth is valid, everybody in the world has to accept. The authority for the true love is from the experience in the world. You are sacrificing work and the fruit of your work to your children whom you really love. Therefore, these two are the ways of real love. Hence this concept gets the final validity from the experience in the world. Your real love to God also can be proved by such validity only. You are trying to fool the Lord without practicing these two ways and by practicing other false ways. Remember that Lord is the genius and knows everything. Just look at the sky. If you see the infinite number of galaxies, which are created by Him and with which He is playing, you will understand His intelligence and capacity. What is your foolish intelligence before Him? You are chanting His name so many millions of times. Did He ever reply by uttering a single word? When you call anyone by his name, he is responding to you immediately. But such a great Lord who has all the good manners is not responding to you in spite of your millions of calls. Can’t you understand by this, how much angry He is with you and how much He hates you? He is not after you for your love. You go on with your limited family and rotate in this wheel of world. Who objected you?

The Lord never asked you to love Him. You yourself went to the Lord and you want all the benefits from the Lord in this world and in the upper world. But you want to achieve those benefits through exposure of false love. You are trying to deceive Him and get those benefits. If you go to anyone and try to deceive him, will he not be angry with you? If you go in your way, nobody interferes with you. You limit to yourself and to your family and go for the enquiry in the upper world and get the corresponding results. The Lord is not bothered about you. You are after the Lord and trying for His grace. But you are unable to show even a drop of the true love, which you possess on your children. You want to sacrifice only words and mental feelings to the Lord and want all the benefits from Him. By such cheating you are making the Lord furious. If you really desire for His real grace, you should show a little of your true love that is shown on your children by sacrificing a little work and a little fruit of your work. In such case, the Lord will be equal to your child at least to a little extent though not to the full extent. You show at least a drop of your true love on the Lord. You put at least one step in the true path. What is the use of hundred steps in the false path? What is the use of your infinite number of feasts to Me in the dream? You give a handful of rice when you awake from the sleep. That is sufficient. The first step in true path will lead Him to the true goal in course of time. The first step in the true path is that, you should at least accept your false ways as false and accept the true way, which I preach as truth.

Acceptance is the first step, which will gradually lead to the practice. You want wealth for your words (prayers) from the Lord. When the same Lord comes as a preacher, He wants wealth (Guru Dakshina) from you for His words (preaching). You have made this way previously but now you are not following the same. Your words given to God were only soaping the Lord. The wealth given by the Lord to you was also temporary which you have to leave here itself. You are not benefited in that relationship of Lord and devotee. But now in the way of preacher and disciple, you are benefited because by giving Him your temporary wealth, you are receiving His words, which will lead you to the permanent goal. In the first relationship, both your words and the wealth given by Him are temporary. But in the second relationship you are getting permanent goal for your temporary wealth. Therefore, you are wise only in the second relationship. Therefore, do not ask the temporary benefits like wealth from the Lord but ask for the permanent knowledge. See the Lord as a preacher and not as God. The right half of Lord Datta is preacher (Guru) and the left half is God (Bhagavan). The right half is always greater than the left half.

The Veda and the Gita preach you the sacrifice of the extra fruit of work to the Lord and ask you to work always. But where is this Lord? How is He? If you do not understand this question, you may give the wealth of one person to the other person, which is the sin. Even if you are giving money to the statues in the temples or in the worship, the money is not reaching the Lord. The human beings are taking that money. Some are earning and some are wasting that money. Therefore, the Veda says that you should sacrifice the fruit of your work only on intensive analysis (Saṃvidā deyam). You are putting your money in the Hundi (a vessel kept before the statue). The statue is not taking that money. The devotees are taking that money when you leave the temple. They are spending that money. The statue is not telling them how to utilize that money in a fruitful way. The devotees are human beings and do not have the complete knowledge like the Lord. The Bible says that never a servant becomes equal to his master and never a disciple can become equal to his preacher. The priests are taking your money in the worship. The managing devotees are taking your money in the temple. There is no life in the statue as per the experience of the world, which is the strongest authority. It is also against the logic and your belief cannot be the authority.

The Veda says that the Lord is not present in any inert object (Na tasya pratimā asti, Nedaṃ tadyadida mupāsate). One can only meditate upon the inert objects as representatives of the Lord. But one need not do any service to them. One can meditate upon Sun as a representative of the Lord. Neither Lord is in Sun nor the Sun is the Lord (Ādityaṃ Brahmeti, Bhīṣodeti sūryaḥ, Na tatra sūryaḥ, and Neti neti). The representative is like the finger, which indicates the object. Once you see the object, there is no need of seeing the finger. You must see the object only. Sun is a representative of the Lord because the Lord also removes the ignorance by His knowledge as the Sun removes the darkness by light. Once you recognize such Lord there is no need of the Sun. This is the reason why a saint does not worship (Sandhyaa Vandanam) the Sun. But the representative is required for the sake of other ignorant people. The statues and photos of the Lord are in Human form and they indicate that the Lord comes in Human form. In the statues the priest does ‘life initiation’ (Praana Pratishthaa) indicating that the Lord is in Human form in the present human generation. The Lord comes in the Human form in every human generation. Otherwise, He becomes partial in case He comes only in one generation.

The Human form of the statue does not represent that every human being is the Lord. If so, the statue should have been in a general human form. The statue is in a particular Human form called Rama, Krishna etc. This indicates that a particular human being only is the Lord. If you are serving a statue by the sixteen modes of worship (Shodasa Upacharas), you will be born as a stone as per Gita (Bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni). If you worship the Human form of God, you will get the human birth (Yānti Mat yājino'pi mām). Gita said that Lord comes only in the Human form. Gita did not say any other form in which the Lord comes. The first three great sentences (Mahaa Vaakyas) of the Veda say that the Lord is like Me, like you and like him in external appearance. The fourth great sentence says that the internal form is with the special knowledge (Prajnaanam), which is impossible for any other human being. This is called as the preaching of four sentences (Mahaa vaakya Bodha). Shankara said that the eligibility for such preaching is the purity of the mind, which means lack of two qualities. 1) lack of jealousy (Anasuya) 2) lack of egoism (Atri). Such people (Anasuya and Atri) only can achieve the Lord. The achieved Lord is called Datta. Datta means achieved. The three faces of Datta (Human form i.e., achieved by the people) are understood. The three faces represent the three qualities called Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. All the good qualities represent Sattvam and the bad qualities represent Rajas and Tamas.

The Lord is beyond these three qualities. He is wearing the shirt, which has the three colors (qualities). He is not having any color. But the Human being (soul) is the three-colored shirt itself. This is clear in Gita (Guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate, Nānyaṃ guṇebhyaḥ kartāram). These three qualities are the Maya. This Maya is the external Human form. The internal form is of knowledge (Jnana), Bliss (Ananda) and Love (Prema) and contains all the superpowers as said in the Veda (Satyaṃ jñānam, Ānando Brahma, Raso vai saḥ and Satya Saṅkalpaḥ). The incarnation is a mixture of the internal Lord and the external Human body. The Lord and the Human body are inseparable like the current and metallic wire. Therefore, such a Human being is the Lord and this is the Advaita of Shankara. But, the disciples misinterpreted this and thought that every human being is the Lord. Then Shankara swallowed the molten lead and proved that He alone is the Lord. If everybody is Lord for whom is this spiritual practice? Who gets the salvation? The Lord said that He would throw the bad souls into the hell (Tānahaṃ dviṣataḥ– Gita). If every soul is the Lord, the Lord threw Himself into the Hell! In the Bible, Jesus Christ was addressed as ‘Emmanuel’ meaning that the Lord is coming to live along with the human beings on the earth. Therefore, the Lord comes down to the earth in human form to give the fortune of vision, touch, conversation and co-living to the devotees and finally to preach all the human beings.

The statue is inert but you force the Lord to come into the statue and hear your prayer. When He is in the Human body, He can talk and hear your prayer and this is not against the rules of nature. Why should the Lord use His superpower to hear your prayer through the statue? Anybody who hears can talk. Since the statue is not talking, it is not hearing. When there is a river for bathing, will a sage create a lake separately for the bath? If he creates by his superpower, we say that he misused the superpower and he is a fool with egoism. You are forcing the Lord to enter the statue to hear you. One fellow crossed the river by walking on the water, using his superpower for which he tried for thirty years. Shri Rama Krishna Parahamsa crossed the same river by paying one rupee to the boat. Shri Paramahamsa told that fellow that his effort for thirty years costs only one rupee. When the purpose is served according to the rules of the nature, the Lord will not use His special superpower. Whatever you are donating to the statue, thinking that the life is in the statue, the devotees who are behind that statue take that. The Lord in Human form will never take your money in that way. He will straightly ask for your donation (Guru Dakshinaa) like Shri Shirdi Sai Baba. The devotees cannot ask you like Him. As soon as you leave the temple, they are taking out the money from the Hundi and they are doing the management on that money. Such money is misused, which is used for social service. Only tax should be used for social service. The money of the Lord should be used in the propagation of devotion and divine knowledge. For example, with such money the management of the temple is giving food to every devotee who comes there. Several rich people are present in the devotees who do not require your food.

Some sinners are also eating that food and are doing sins again. Both donating to the sinners and not donating to the deserving people are sins according to Vyasa in Mahabharata. The managing devotees are getting such sin according to scripture (Kartā kārayitā caiva). It is a sin to be a manager in the temple as said by a dog in the court of Lord Rama. It is better to give food to poor children, poor old people, poor disabled and poor diseased persons by constructing beggar homes. But you must teach them the spiritual knowledge and devotion. Otherwise, God will be furious with you. The beggar is under the punishment of the Lord for his past sins. The punishment is for his change. If you are helping him, you are interfering with the administration of the Lord. Therefore, you must change the heart of the beggar by preaching spiritual knowledge. Then only the Lord will be pleased with you. Shri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa told that one should not directly enter into the social service for fame due to egoism without the association of the Lord in Human form. Therefore, you must join the work of the Lord as a servant. Let the Lord get fame by your money and your work. All your money belongs to the Lord. The Lord gives all your energy. You must participate in His service by complete surrender. Here the social service is not important. The Lord can uplift the society without any help from you. Your faith and your complete surrender alone bring you, His grace. You cannot get His grace by your sacrifice or by your service. Through your sacrifice and service, He is testing your faith and surrender.

One devotee was applying scent to Jesus. One disciple of Jesus told that it is better to sell that scent and serve the beggars with that money. Then Jesus told “Let her do this service. The beggars are always present but I am not always present here”. What is the meaning in this? The Lord is more important than even the service. The service is only the means to express your faith. The disciple of Jesus who spoke like that was jealous on the Lord and he was not kind to the beggars. If you donate anything to the statue it is a waste. If you donate to an undeserving person, it is a sin. If you donate to a poor beggar, it is good because the beggar is incapable of doing any sin at present. He is punished for his previous sin. Therefore, a beggar is better than a bad fellow. If you donate to a bad fellow, you will get the sin because you have given the milk to the serpent. When you help the beggar, don’t forget to preach him the divine knowledge. All the people whether rich or poor are eligible for the divine knowledge. In the propagation of the divine knowledge only the poor should be helped. In a college, classes are important which are meant for all the students. The hostel facility is for those students who came from outside. There is no use of creating hostel facility to a person when he is not a student. Therefore, help the poor while teaching the divine knowledge and devotion. The Lord in the Human form is the best eligible person for your service. When He is not available you can serve a devotee of the Lord. The place and time are not important for donation. If a deserving person is available, such a place is Varanasi and such a day is Mahashivaratri. Such sacrifice alone can give you the fruit.

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