23 Sep 2024
Why is Lord Datta seen in human form always? Because ‘Datta’ means donation. That means sacrifice. The Lord Datta is always enjoying the fruits of the bad deeds of His devotees and giving them eternal happiness. As per His divine constitution, at least 1% of the bad fruits must be experienced by the devotees as God Himself undergoes the remaining 99% punishment on behalf of devotees. This is like God Datta is paying Rs. 99/- towards a Rs. 100/- penalty imposed on devotees. It is a grave injustice if those who performed such bad deeds do not undergo even that 1% punishment. But, selfish devotees ask God Datta to undergo the remaining 1% of the punishment. In other words, the intolerant devotees impulsively demand God Datta that why He did not pay the remaining 1 rupee when He had paid 99 rupees of their penalty. So, they are ungrateful and smell like stinking cesspools. Knowing well their psychology, God Datta is curing the mental illness of such souls. How does He do it? He is removing the fruit of their 100% bad karma as demanded. But He is postponing the fine of Rs. 100/- to the next birth. In the next birth, the interest multiplies and the soul pays a fine of two hundred rupees. Not knowing all this, he thinks that because he is a great devotee, God Datta Himself has experienced the fruits of his bad deeds or that his bad deeds have been permanently canceled by the Lord.
The Gita says that in this way, they are falling into delusion because their knowledge is covered by ignorance (Ajnānenāvṛtaṃ jñānaṃ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ). But it does not mean that there are no sincere devotees with soft nature. They never beg for relief from their suffering. They are well aware of the consequences of asking relief from suffering. They know that Lord Datta will undergo it and suffer on their behalf. Therefore, they pray to the Lord that they be allowed to experience not only their suffering of the present but also the suffering of future births in this very birth itself. Their intention is that if the fruits of all bad deeds are exhausted now, there will never be a chance for the God to suffer on their behalf. Even the future fruits of the bad deeds of such selfless devotees, who are the embodiment of pure love, can be destroyed by the God. But how? He undergoes the bad fruits of their current and future births now itself and makes them permanently free from all sins.
Therefore, if you don’t have even an atom of selfishness, God will experience the fruits of all your bad deeds now itself and relieve you from those punishments to make you eternally free since He donated Himself to you and so He is called ‘Datta.’ But, you should not think that since God Datta is omnipotent, He has the power to undergo the fruits of all evil deeds at once. God Datta made an agreement with the God of Justice (Dharma Devata) as follows: 'I will experience through My human body the same kind of pain experienced by My human devotee and I will not use My divine power to cancel that pain while experiencing the fruits of karma'. The basic principle of God of Justice is that one should undergo the respective fruit whether it is a bad or good fruit (Avaśyam anubhoktavyaṃ kṛtaṃ karma). He is not only the servant but also a devotee of Lord Datta. That is why, God Datta made Himself a sacrificial animal continuously and permanently so that His servant devotee and the principle of God of Justice is not violated. This is the actual meaning of the statement – 'Abadhnan puruṣaṃ paśum' in the Shruti. It means the Almighty, who is the only Purusha, is tied as a sacrificial animal. Therefore, the human body of the incarnation of God Datta does not have the power to experience the fruits of all your evil deeds at once. So, the fruit of each of your bad fruit should be undergone one after the other. Many such deserving sincere devotees should be liberated by undergoing all such bad fruits gradually. That's why Lord Datta has to incarnate in this world in human form for eternity. Therefore, Shankara said that there is nothing beyond our perception about God and Parabrahman exists here itself in human form as an Individual soul. That individual soul is not someone like us. That was Shankara Himself, who incarnated during that time. That is why He said 'Ahaṃ Brahmā'smi' (I am Brahman). He also proved by drinking molten lead that every individual soul is not Brahman.
Therefore, 'Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām…' means that “I am incarnating in every Yuga (age) for the protection of the deserving devotees,” as the God said in the Gita. Here ‘age’ means that He is incarnating in every human generation. Yuga means year in one sense. A cluster of few thousands of years form different Yugas like the Kruta Yuga etc. Comparatively, a much smaller group of years is the human generation. Sometimes it can also mean that God incarnates once every year. In a particular human generation, the Lord will decide how many human incarnations should be taken to experience the fruits of the bad deeds of so many good devotees; but, by considering the limited capacity of the human body to bear that pain.
There can be many incarnations at the same time. Shirdi Sai and Akkalakot Maharaj used to exist at the same time. No one should foolishly say that he alone is Lord Datta. For example, while the electricity flowing through the wire rotates the fan, it is ignorance of the wire to think that it itself is the electricity and it rotates the fan. When the same current flows through four electrical wires at the same time; first wire rotates the fan, second wire lights the light, third wire plays the radio and the fourth wire heats the heater. If the wire connected to the fan says that I am only that electrical wire and the rest of the wires are ordinary wires, it shows the climax of ignorance like the claims of Paundraka Vāsudeva who blabbered that he is only the incarnation of Lord Datta.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★