Posted on: 20 Aug 2016
Shri Anil Asked: Padmanamaskaram Swami!! Kindly give your response to the following queries
1) In Para Brahma Gita, You mentioned that when one ask God for a boon, God will analyze and gives it to you, if it is good, but when boon is not obtained people catch and worship Shakti, divine mother of all souls being para and apara for grant of boons. When divine mother sanctions a boon, indirectly the Father-God only sanctions it? In Christianity also people pray St. Mary and other saints like St. Antony's, St. George etc to fulfil their wishes very fast. However such facilities are not there in Islam since they only accept Allah as God and no intermediates between Allah and them. Kindly enlighten on this.
Swami replied: In Islam also, Dargahs which are tombs of great devotees of Allah are worshipped by Muslim devotees (even Hindu devotees) for boons apart from their prayers to Allah. Such tradition is everywhere. To get the interview with prime minister, you try through his P.A. To get some work done, you will try through his wife and his issues. All this is based on the psychology of human beings. Of course, it is true that God becomes servant of such devotees of level of climax. Very very few are such climax devotees. Any work is done by God only either directly or indirectly. Normal works done by ordinary living beings are also done by God indirectly since He is the source of everything in the creation. When miracles are done, they are done by God directly. When miracles are done by devotees also, God only does all the miracles. When the devotee is doing miracle, being separate from God (unlike the case of human incarnation), the bond between God and devotee is servant and master respectively, if the devotee is in climax. Since the phase of medium happens to be same in the climax devotee and ordinary human being, the approach becomes easier to get a boon. But, the defects of such boon disturb the human being since the boon is granted by the climax devotee having the same human nature. Subsequently, the rectification is done by God. It is like mother giving sweet to the child crying for it, neglecting the negative effects of sweet. Father gives sweet to the child indirectly through the mother. Mother is satisfied. But, when the health of child is spoiled through the sweet, father treats the child in his clinic. Hence, father solves all the issues. The intermediate disturbance is not due to God but due to the human nature of the climax devotee and the human devotee crying for boon.
2) In Your knowledge You mentioned that grandfather of a family is born as the grandchild. Is it true in all cases?
Swami replied: It takes place only in the case where the grandchild already sympathised his grandfather on his face causing depression in the mind of the grandfather. This action should be neutralised in the next birth by equivalent and opposite reaction.
Q3) Kindly give your interpretations to the following verses of Quran
i) A Fly: Surah Al-Hajj 22:73 73: O mankind! A parable has been made, so listen to it: Verily, those on whom you call besides Allah, cannot create a fly, even though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly snatches away a thing from them, they will have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are the seeker and the sought. 74. They have not regarded Allah with His rightful esteem. Verily, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty.
ii) A Mosquito: Surah Al Baqarah 2:26 26. Verily, Allah is not ashamed to set forth a parable even of a mosquito or so much more when it is bigger (or less when it is smaller) than it. And as for those who believe, they know that it is the truth from their Lord, but as for those who disbelieve, they say: “What did Allah intend by this parable?” by it He misleads many, and many He guides thereby. And He misleads thereby on the Fasiqin (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah)
Swami replied: The soul is not God due to lack of power of creation. The soul resembles God in creating ideas in the theoretical phase, but lacks the power of simultaneous materialization. The materialization of ideas is in the sleep-dream since the items in the sleep-dream are realized as true by the creator-soul. Similarly, in the case of God also, simultaneous materialization (with respect to soul and not God) takes place and this world is a simultaneous creation of ideas for God and materialized creation for the soul. So also, the ideas of the soul in the awaken state can’t have simultaneous materialization for itself. The soul is captured by the truth of the sleep-dream after some time (after its imaginary world in it’s awaken state). This imaginary world of God is also a materialized dream for the soul even in it’s awaken state. Since soul is a part of the world (imaginary world created by God), the soul can’t come out of this real world, which has equal existence as that of the soul. Hence, soul creates imaginary world first and is caught by that converted in to sleep-dream due to self-ignorance for some time. Since soul is creator of its dream, it can come out of that dream shortly after awakening. But, the soul can’t come out of this real world (imaginary world of God) at any time since soul is not creator of this imaginary world of God and is only a part of it. Soul coming out of real world means disappearance of real world and in such state, the soul (being part of real world) also disappears. God can come out of this real world since God is creator of this real world (like soul coming out of its sleep-dream after awakening, being the creator of its sleep-dream). The soul has power of creation only in its imaginary world before its sleep-dream starts since the soul is absolute reality and its imaginary world is relative reality. Same point applies to God also with respect to the real world. The soul is captured by its own imaginary world becoming sleep-dream due to its ignorance in sleep-dream. It can realize that the sleep-dream was also unreal when it enters back into its own imaginary world or this real world after sleep. Based on this, the Advaita philosopher says that this real world felt as true (as in the case of sleep-dream) also will become unreal when the soul really awakens from this real world also. This is wrong because the soul coming back from sleep-dream to its imaginary world or this real world by awakening is seen daily. We never see the soul awaken from this real world going into its absolute state of reality of God. This is purely hypothetical based on intellectual feet! What is the guarantee of your hypothesis when even a single case is not seen so even on a single day! It is only the ambitious wish of the soul. This whole story of soul can be an exact parable for God creating His imaginary world, which is the real world for soul. Even in this parable similarity is not full since God never gets self-ignorance like the soul to be captured by His own imaginary world converted into sleep-dream.
The difference between God and soul is that God is never caught by His imaginary world converted in to sleep-dream whereas the soul is caught by its sleep-dream due to its entry in to ignorance of self. Such self ignorance can never come to God and therefore, this real world (for us) is always in relative reality only before absolutely real God. This point can be understood by the corresponding parable of the soul, which is that the soul is creating an imaginary world in it’s awaken state like God creating His imaginary world, which is real for us. The imaginary world of the soul never becomes real even to the soul even in it’s awaken state and only this real world (imaginary world of God) alone is real to soul.
The soul being the absolute reality (with respect to its imaginary world) can create anything in its imaginary world and this point is exactly similar to God creating anything in this real world for us (His imaginary world). In this awaken state, both God and soul are absolute realities in their relative imaginary worlds having full powers of creation, control and dissolution of their imaginary worlds since both don’t have self-ignorance in this state. The difference is that the soul leaves the awaken state, enters ignorance and gets captured by its imaginary world converted as sleep-dream in which the soul is not having any of these three powers (Even if all souls get united, such power is not obtained) where as God has all these powers since God is always in awaken state and never enters the state of ignorance (sleep). When the soul can’t create or control or dissolve its own dream due to its own ignorance in its sleep-dream, how can the soul has any of these three powers in this real world created by God (not created by soul as in the case of its imaginary world or called as day-dream)?
Of course, God doesn’t have real entertainment in this world (His imaginary world) just like the soul in awaken state can’t have real entertainment in its imaginary world. The soul can have always real entertainment only in this imaginary world of God since it experiences this world equally true as itself being its part. Such opportunity is not there for God to enter in to the imaginary world of somebody else for real entertainment by experiencing it in equal status of existence with Himself. Due to this limitation, God identifies with a human soul in His imaginary world and experiences His imaginary world also with equal existence through that identified human soul like an iron rod associated with hot iron rod experiences the heat equally like the original hot iron rod. Such entry of God in to world and identification of Himself with a human soul is the human incarnation. God remains in the awaken state even after identifying Himself with the human soul and hence, continues to have all these three powers for doing miracles. Since such God is invisible (Unimaginable also), the human soul appears as if it is doing the miracles. Hence, miracles are done by God only in the case of human incarnation. But, since such God, identified with the human soul, is invisible and unimaginable, there is no other way than to give credit to human soul and worship the human soul as God since the merger of the two is also true.
Here, the soul is unable to create in its own sleep-dream and also in the imaginary world of the God. The soul in the sleep-dream is only a simile to enlighten the soul in this real world. In the sleep-dream, the soul is inefficient due to self-ignorance. In the imaginary world of the God the inefficiency of the soul is due to its real inefficiency only and not due to ignorance, the reason being equal status of this world with it in existence. This real world is the concept and one should not mistake that the soul can become efficient if its self-ignorance is removed in this real world also! Such misunderstanding comes when you confused the concept for the simile. This point is also seen in the Brahma Sutras (Netaronupapatteh).
Even a fly and mosquito can’t be defeated by human being if God wishes so. This means that the creation is unreal by itself in view of God. The unreal quantities can’t have quantitative difference between them like one zero, two zeros, three zeros etc. In such case (in view of God) only, the unreal fly or mosquito, which is quantitatively very less (one zero) is expected to be defeated by a human being, which is quantitatively more (Ten zeros). Ten zeros can’t be greater than one zero in quantitative sense because any number multiplying zero becomes (qualitatively and quantitatively) zero only. Hence, this entire creation is not having even partially real quantitative value. Relative reality means that the reality of the biggest whole (world) and of smallest (ant) are one and the same (zero) qualitatively, in which a quantitative difference can never exist. All this is true with respect to the God, the absolute reality. But, within the relative reality, if the reference of absolute reality is not taken, certainly qualitative and quantitative reference exists as absolute reality and therefore, the fly or mosquito can be killed by a human being. When God interferes with absolute reality, then only the qualitative and quantitative differences disappear making any item of the world or the whole world as the same zero. Hence, if God wishes, anything can be done and He can play with a total zero composed of several zeros as components. The essence of all this is: 1) Absolute reality (Paramaartha dashaa): When the absolute reality (God) appears as reference, the relative reality (world) along with its components becomes zero. In such state, all the components (zeros) of world (zero) become unreal and equal. It is just like the entire illusory snake becoming unreal along with its components (head, body, tail, scales etc.,) when the actual real rope is seen by light. In such state, the unreal snake is equal to one unreal scale. 2) Relative reality (Vyavahaara dashaa): In absence of absolute reality or God (real rope not seen), the relative reality or world (illusory snake) becomes real and reality of world becomes absolute, since such reality of world is the very absolute reality of God only undetected since God is masked by the world. In this state both the scale and snake become absolutely real and quantitative difference between snake and scale also becomes absolutely real. In this state snake (world) is more powerful than the head (human being) and head is more powerful than scale (fly or mosquito). Here, the zero system disappears and only number system appears. An item which doesn’t exist only becomes zero. Snake (world) is 100, head (human being) is 10 and scale (fly or mosquito) is 1. 3) Relative reality in which absolute reality performs miracle (Mithyaa dashaa): The absolute reality (God) doesn’t damage the total relative reality (world), but interferes with a part of total world. In one place God interfered and hence, both human being and fly become equal zeros whereas in all the other places fly is 1 and human being is 10. In that specific place where both man and fly became equal zeros, even reverse number system can apply by which man becomes 1 and fly becomes 10 and man is defeated by fly. This means in that specific place, not only the relative reality becomes zero to make man and fly equally strong, but also by the wish of God, that specific part can become absolute reality like other parts of the world where even the general number system gets reversed by which man is defeated by fly! The conclusion is that God is not only the absolute reality but also unimaginable doing any unimaginable act or miracle.
It is said here that God is mad and misleads people since the fly or mosquito is always defeated and killed by human being. This is true if God is not interfering and the world runs on its own normal way acting as if it is absolutely real since God is masked by the world or we can say that God is beyond world.
Such people are confused since they are barking without understanding that what they say is true within the relative reality in absence of interference of absolute reality. However, the human being shouldn’t say that this world is zero since it is a component of the world. If the whole (world) is zero, its component (soul) also becomes zero. Even in that state, zero must be real to another zero and hence, world can never become unreal to any soul or even all souls put together. Shankara separated the two views as 1) unreal world with reference to absolute real God (Paramaartha dashaa) and 2) The unreal world becoming real based on the absolute reality of masked God, which becomes equally real to its component (soul).
iii) Dog who lolls out his tongue: Surah Al-A'raf 7:175-177 175. And recite to them the story of him to whom We gave Our Ayat, but he threw them away; so Shaytan followed him up, and he became of those who went astray. 176. And had We willed, We would surely have elevated him therewith, but he clung to the earth and followed his own vain desires. So his parable is the parable of a dog: if you drive him away, he pants, or if you leave him alone, he (still) pants. Such is the parable of the people who reject Our Ayat. So relate the stories, perhaps they may reflect. 177. Evil is the parable of the people who rejected Our Ayat, and used to wrong themselves.
Swami replied: Those, who reject God from their lives, always attached to materialism and to their limited worldly bonds only will cling to the earth only. Since the concept of God is absent, they will do wrongs (sins) whenever opportunity comes due to lack of fear for omniscient God and go to hell. Even if they are involved in social service without the concept of God, they may go to heaven for some time and come back to earth only. In this cyclic motion between earth and heaven, there is possibility of doing sins for which the cyclic motion between earth and hell also starts. Such people are always in these two cycles only and in every minute they are hunted by risk based danger only. God does not interfere with them in anyway and no injustice is done to them since they have not accepted God.
iv) Fertile garden Surah Al Baqarah 2: 265 265. And the parable of those who spend their wealth seeking Allah's pleasure while they in their own selves are sure and certain that Allah will reward them (for their spending in His cause), is that of a garden on a height; heavy rain falls on it and it doubles its yield of harvest. And if it does not receive heavy rain, light rain suffices it. And Allah is All-Seer (knows well) of what you do.
Swami replied: Heavy rain indicates heavy wealth. The garden on height will not store water (wealth) in it so that the plants will not decay. It means stored wealth leads you to several problems. If excess of wealth is flown to God, such problems will not come since He prevents those. Always, sufficient rain is given by God by which there is neither scarcity of water nor problem of stagnant water. If you aspire lot of wealth to be stored, you don’t have real faith on God. You show excess of devotion to God and get lot of wealth from His grace. Later on, you will forget God and immerse yourself in worldly bonds. Since wealth is stored, you think that you need not worry for God for the sake of wealth. You think that wealth brings everything. If an irreparable disease attacks you, can even the infinite wealth bring cure of it to you? All the wealth goes to hospitals and yet, cure is not attained! What is the final result? You are over intelligent but God is omniscient.
v) Falling from the Sky: Surah Al-Hajj 22:31 31. Hunafa' Lillah, not associating partners unto Him; and whoever assigns partners to Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky, and the birds caught him in mid air, or the wind had thrown him to a far off place.
Swami replied: This explains partial faith on God. You make effort to achieve some fruit. Making effort is not wrong. But, believing that effort is the only way to achieve fruit (as atheists feel) or believing that effort is a part of the way to achieve the fruit (as partial believers of God feel) brings the problem. You can make full effort, but, believe that God alone is the sole authority in giving the fruit. Your total effort becomes zero since your total belief is on God. This stage is intermediate since you have not reached that final stage in which you can get the fruit from God even without doing a trace of effort. People not understanding this, mock saying that without effort fruit can’t be achieved. If you analyze your life, most of the successful fruits are obtained only by accidental luck, which is nothing but the preaching of God to you that He is all in all. This intermediate concept of part time-God and partner-God will slowly develop to the final stage of full time-God and sole owner-God in course of time based on your seriousness to achieve it.
vi) Rain and Physical Growth: Surah Al-Hadid 57:20 20. Know that the life of this world is only play and amusement, pomp and mutual boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children. (It is) like a rain (Ghayth), thereof the growth is pleasing to the tiller; afterwards it dries up and you see it turning yellow; then it becomes straw. But in the Hereafter (there is) a severe torment, and (there is) forgiveness from Allah and (His) pleasure. And the life of this world is only a deceiving enjoyment.
Swami replied: This explains that the world is a place of initial hope and final collapse since everything disappears by final destruction or death. It is like the initial rain giving growth to plants and finally the plants become dry. It shows that the worldly life maintained by and for worldly bonds is not eternal being absent in the past and in future. Such temporary item is also false in the present time like a bond between roles in the shooting of cinema. This bond present in the drama was not true before shooting and will not be true after shooting. It is present only in the present time of shooting. If it is carefully analyzed, this drama bond is not true even in the present shooting time also and this is well known to the hearts of actors also acting in it. Shankara says that anything temporary must be unreal (yat anityam tat krutakam hi). Even the Veda says that the worldly bond loves you for its own happiness derived from you and not for your happiness (Aatmanah kaamaaya…). Such present false state is said as deceiving enjoyment.
vii) The Donkey: Surah Al-Jumu'ah 62:5 5. The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Tawrah, but did not carry it, is as the likeness of a donkey which carries huge burdens of books. How bad is the example of people who deny the Ayat of Allah. And Allah does not guide the people who are wrongdoers.
Swami replied: God comes to this world to preach spiritual knowledge, which gives the correct guidance to your life in view of your future here and your future after death in the upper world. There can’t be anything higher than the correct guidance given by true spiritual knowledge preached by God (Nahi jnaanena sadrusham… Gita). It is just like water for the plant giving life to your spiritual effort in your path. Fully agreed. But, what is the use of the water present in many tanks and not a drop of it given to the plant? Water is knowledge and plant is practice. What is the use of the knowledge present in your head if nothing of it is practiced? Your head is only a donkey load of books! You must have devotion to God, which helps the action to grow like plant to yield fruit. Water (knowledge) gives life and devotion (manure) gives growth (to yield fruit) to practice (plant).
viii) Grain of corn: Surah Al Baqarah 2: 261 261. The parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, is that of a grain (of corn); it grows seven ears, and each ear has a hundred grains. Allah gives manifold increase to whom He wills. And Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures' needs, All-Knower.
Swami replied: I really tell all of you that the easiest item to be donated for God is money. In His view, money is like cheap stone pieces. The statements of excellent spiritual knowledge are like precious diamonds in His view. This is stated by Lord in the Gita (Shreyaan dravyamayaat…). For us, this concept is exactly reverse! If this is the case, why God gives so much importance to the donation of the money from us? The Veda composed by Him says that sacrifice of money alone can lead you to God (Dhanena tyaagena ekena…). Even the Gita preached by Lord Krishna says everywhere that sacrifice of fruit of work (money) is highest (karmaphalatyaagaat…). Yes. Good question. God is not giving any importance to your money, being the owner of this entire infinite world or wealth. He gives highest importance to your highest sacrifice. What is the meaning of the word ‘highest sacrifice’? Highest sacrifice means the sacrifice of your bond with the item liked by you with highest love. Now, you yourself tell Me truly by putting your hand on your heart in the name of God— what is that highest bond, which is linked with the highest item in your view? It is certainly the money or wealth only. Hence, you yourself made money as a highest item and bond with it as the highest bond! Sacrifice of highest bond is indirect sacrifice of all other worldly bonds. Hence, people say that money is the root of all the worldly bonds (Dhanamulamidam jagat). If money is sacrificed, the bond with issues also gets sacrificed because all the wealth earned and accumulated by you is given to your issues only. The third bond is with your life-partner. These three bonds are the essence of your entire worldly life and nothing else, to be frank. Hence, Lord Krishna attacked on money (milk, curd and butter) first since it involves two bonds. After some time, He attacked the third bond also. The priests, who collect tax from public by misguiding people with false knowledge, mocked Jesus to be a tax collector! A tax collector collects tax by force. The priest collects tax by cheating. God in human form, like Jesus, Sai Baba etc., accepted the money offered by devotees without a trace of aspiration for it (no need to aspire) and were pleased by the value given to God through such sacrifice of highest bond and their pleasure is not on the sacrificed item. The Veda says that the two real deserving points of receiver (acceptor of your donation) are: 1) possession of scriptural spiritual knowledge that gives you correct direction (shrotriya…) and not mere recitation of scripture or shruti or the Veda and 2) lack of trace of aspiration for even a trace of your donation even in the mind (Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya…). A king (or elder relative) begs a child for the chocolate in its hand to see its love on him/her through the practical sacrifice of that chocolate to which the child is deeply attached and not for the sake of eating the chocolate given by the child!
ix) Spider: Surah Al-Ankabut 29:41-43 41. The parable of those who seek protectors from other than Allah is that of a spider who builds a house; but indeed, the weakest of houses is the spider's house -- if they but knew.
42. Verily Allah knows what things they invoke instead of Him. He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. 43. And these are the examples We give for mankind, but none will understand them except those who have knowledge (of Allah).
Swami replied: The house of the spider is very weak indicating the weak family bonds for which everyone is doing all climax sins. When Valmiki was robbing passengers for the sake of family, sage Narada asked him that whether the family members share his sins also? The family members denied sharing of sin because they said that they never provoked him to do the sin for the earning. These bonds love you since the money earned by you gives happiness to those, but refuse to share your sin done in the earning! Hence, the house (means family bonds) is very weak bond or even totally false bond as it loves you for its happiness in this world in spite of your fall in the hell for your sins in earning the money.
Punishment Given To Atheist Not For Atheism But For His Sins
x) Rain-laden clouds: Surah Al Baqarah 2: 19 and 20 19. Or like a rainstorm in the sky, bringing darkness, thunder, and lightning. They thrust their fingers in their ears to keep out the stunning thunderclap for fear of death. But Allah ever encompasses the disbelievers. 20. The lightning almost snatches away their sight, whenever it flashes for them, they walk therein, and when darkness covers them, they stand still. And if Allah willed, He could have taken away their hearing and their sight. Certainly, Allah has power over all things.
At Your Lotus feet. anil ANIL ANTONY
Swami replied: Disbelievers in God are not specially punished anywhere in this world since God is not like us taking personal vengeance. Belief in God is taken as his personal issue. Personal issue should not enter the office of a good administrator. Whether you believe in God or not, you should follow the commandments of God formulated by Him in order to protect peace and balance in this world. If you violate the rule of His divine constitution composed for Pravrutti, you shall be punished whether you are a believer or non-believer. People may be killed by thunder or lose capacity of hearing and may lose sight due to lightening as punishments of their intensive sins done in this world. No punishment is given to any atheist because of disbelief in God. Ignorant people say that the atheist is punished! It is wrong because the punishment given to the atheist is not for atheism but for his intensive sins only. You should not mistake that no punishment is given to anybody and God saves everybody from every punishment. God says that He will not interfere with the awards and punishments given to the soul as per its deeds since everything depends on attitude of soul that materialises in action (Naadatte ksyachit... Gita). God also says in the Gita that there is no personal enemy to Him (Na Me dveshyosti kashchana...).