Posted on: 04 Feb 2005
The materialistic field (Pravritti) consists of the day-to-day interactions in the world. The spiritual field (Nivritti) consists of the interaction with the Lord. Both these fields are quite opposite like darkness and light. The Veda says the same (Duramete Vipareete Vishuchi). This means that Pravritti and Nivritti are like the North and South poles. They are opposite in direction. The goal of Pravritti is the happiness of this body and your family members, fame, riches, etc. This goal is temporary and one has to struggle every time in an atmosphere full of risk. The goal of Nivritti is permanent and there is no struggle and risk. Pravritti is like doing a job and getting a salary every month. If you do not work, the salary is stopped. Nivritti is like getting interest on the fixed deposit and you work without any binding. The Lord is one and the same for both the fields and acts as the controller for both. But the nature of the Lord differs in these two fields. In the field of Pravritti the Lord is strict and follows the rules of justice. In the field of Nivritti the Lord is very kind and shows love in solving your problems even without your knowledge. Now you want to bring the advantage of Nivritti into Pravritti. You want to have the result of Nivritti while keeping yourself in Pravritti. People in the materialistic field pray to God to solve their problems related to this world.
The Lord has invented a way to deal with this kind of people too. He will solve your problems in response to your prayers. But He will postpone your evil results to the next birth or to hell (if rebirth is not believed) with increased interest. He will draw the good results from some future birth with decreased interest like a pre-matured deposit and hand it over to you as happiness in the present. You think that the evil result that you were facing at present has been cancelled and a good result was given to you without doing any good deed. If it is done in that way, justice is insulted. Hence only a rearrangement of deeds in the wheel (Karma Chakra) is done. By this your future births become full of difficulties and you will scold God in those births. However, if you are not bothered about the future and are only particular of the present, such rearrangements are done by the Lord. In the case of some people the prayers are not answered because there is no possibility of even such a rearrangement. All their good deeds have already got exhausted [due to such rearrangements done by them in the past] and therefore God keeps silent in spite of your prayers.
You are unnecessarily attached to the enthusiasm in the materialistic field, which consists of bonds with your body and your family members. These bonds were neither present before this birth and nor will they exist after this birth. They are temporary and therefore, unreal. All your anxiety and enthusiasm is for unreal bonds. This truth will be known if you do the analysis through Vedanta, which is called as ‘Sadasat Viveka’ by Shankara. It means the discrimination of reality from falsehood. Thus the materialistic field has strict and limited boundaries and you cannot cross justice in this field. There is no element of love and kindness in its real sense in this field. However, if you get full detachment from this unreality and attach yourself to the reality (God), you have entered the field of Nivritti. In this field you will have the only real bond with the real God. In such a case the Lord crosses the boundaries of justice and takes the nature of complete love and kindness. In this line you do not aspire for any happiness and your happiness lies only in the happiness of the Lord. You are prepared to undergo any misery if that pleases the Lord. You will realize that the sole purpose of your life is only the entertainment of the Lord. In that state, the Lord also becomes your true reflection. He will behave in such a way to maintain your happiness forever. For that, He will undergo all the misery, which is the result of all your evil deeds. As you are prepared for undergoing misery to please the Lord, the Lord is prepared to undergo misery to please you.
In following the Nivritti field, people think that the materialistic field [Pravritti] is spoiled. It is utter foolishness. If you only follow Pravritti, you gain ten rupees. If you follow Nivritti, you gain one hundred and ten rupees in Nivritti and lose ten rupees in Pravritti [Still there is a net gain of one hundred rupees]. Therefore, the loss in Pravritti is very much compensated in Nivritti. You will find wonders happen even in your materialistic life if you follow Nivritti. All your day-to-day interactions will be so perfect, that it will amaze not only yourself but also the entire world. It is indeed a far superior level. In fact you will be unable to bear the tremendous benefits that will fall on you as mountains, in your materialistic life. God’s real devotee is neither insulted in this world nor in the upper world. Your file in hell is completely closed. Your route is entirely different and leads to the permanent abode of God. The route of the pure materialistic person is towards hell and heaven. Even from heaven he has to return back into this world where the atmosphere is risky again and you have to overcome the attraction from sin to do good social service. The result of your social service is only the temporary heaven. Both these roads are clearly different as said in the Gita (Shukla Krishna Gatee…).