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Śrī Ganesh asked: Swami, I heard from You that listening to spiritual knowledge will generate devotion towards God. My question is that when I learn about an excellent scientific concept discovered by a scientist, I feel good and grateful to him, but after learning that concept, I do not start loving him. Then, why is it that learning spiritual knowledge from a Human Incarnation of God generates devotion towards God? How are both these kinds of knowledge different?
Swāmi replied: A scientific concept belongs to nature, whereas, the concept of spiritual knowledge touches God, who is said to be ‘Rasa’ in the Veda (Raso vai sah, Rasam hyevāyaṃ labdhvā ānandī bhavati). Rasa means interest...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Swamiji, before I started learning spiritual knowledge from You, I had met a spiritual preacher named Appaji. When I asked him to teach me Brahma Jñānam, his response was as follows, “Brahma Jñānam is not something which you can get from the market. You have to do a lot of sādhanā (spiritual effort) for it”. After listening to that I felt that there is a hidden message in it for me, what do You think, Swamiji?
Swāmi replied: Spiritual knowledge or Brahma Jñānam consists of three aspects. They are (1) knowing all the true details of God, which is that He is the creator, controller and the final destroyer of this creation...
Shri Bharath Krishna asked: Ṛṣyaśṛṅga lived a life in a remote forest, completely isolated from women and worldly life. He could completely focus on God alone and develop intense devotion. How can I live a life like Ṛṣyaśṛṅga? I might not get mokṣa in that birth. But in my next birth, I will definitely choose God over other worldly bonds when he tests my devotion, right? That way, would it not be useful to be away from all worldly matters like Ṛṣyaśṛṅga?
Swāmi replied: Marriage is in no way connected to salvation or mokṣa. Salvation means the liberation from your worldly bonds when you have worldly bonds. Escaping from developing any worldly bonds...
Shri Bharath Krishna asked: When will a Guru suggest to the devoted disciple to get married? Will the Guru do so on the basis of the devotee’s age or on the level of understanding that devotee has got from the Guru’s teachings?
Swāmi replied: When the devotee completes his education and gets financially settled with a job, the devotee is expected to get married and have children. Financial settlement is very important for marriage. This is the reason...
Ms. Thrylokya asked: Padanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! In one discourse, You defined yoga as equal enjoyment of both misery and happiness. You also said that if we could enjoy misery and happiness equally, there is no need of praying to or showing love towards God for removal of misery. Practically, I am not able to enjoy misery and want to escape from misery. You said that devotion should come out of the attraction towards God...
Ms. Thrylokya asked: I am feeling jealous that many new devotees and younger devotees are showing more devotion and doing better service to Swāmi than me. Compared to me, everyone seems to be at a higher level and I feel dejected and insecure sometimes. I know that comparison is a wrong thing, but I cannot help it. How can I constantly remember that God has equal love for every soul?
Swāmi replied: Comparing oneself with better souls and having jealousy towards them is a bad quality, as per your thinking. But you should know that even a bad quality has its good face. The good face is that this comparison...
Ms. Thrylokya asked: Swāmi, You have said that expecting the fulfilment of desires from God is not good because God is already giving the best to me. Instead of expecting worldly things, can I have spiritual desires like living close to Swāmi, going for a morning walk with Swāmi, playing sports with Swāmi, etc?
Swāmi replied: First you have to establish yourself in worldly life called pravṛtti. Only then can you think about nivṛtti, which is spiritual life. Your desires on the spiritual side show the climax of devotion. Your spiritual desires show the second last step in devotion...
[Reply to a question by Ms. Thrylokya] Swāmi replied: Spirituality is like science and devotion is a subject in it. Devotion is like physics in a B.Sc. course. There are three subjects...
Śrī Ganesh asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swamiji! When You say certain things it seems illogical initially. But upon carefully analyzing what You had said with patience, it becomes logical. I have cleared a doubt using such logical analysis. I would like to know Your comment on my logic given below and I request You to correct me if I am wrong. Firstly about homosexuality, You mentioned that homosexuality is a sin since it is not God’s will. Now, I had to ask myself why is it not God’s will? I have taken two facts as my starting point. 1. The existence of the unimaginable God. 2.The joy of giving birth to a child and raising the child...
Śrī Ganesh asked: You mentioned in one of Your discourses that the mention of the sacrifice of wealth (karma phala tyāga), automatically includes the mention of service (karma saṃnyāsa). I never understood this point until today. I always thought that both are different things. I understood that karma phala tyāga is greater than karma saṃnyāsa. My logical analysis is given below about how I understood the above point...
Swāmi replied: Karma phala tyāga is certainly greater than karma saṃnyāsa on a scientific basis. Karma saṃnyāsa is sacrificing or offering service, which is offering work or energy. Karma phala tyāga is the sacrifice...
Śrī Anil asked: While presenting Your divine knowledge in a discussion forum, a Muslim devotee commented as below. Swāmi, please give Your response to this. First, if God is beyond everything and unimaginable and all knowing and we cannot reach Him with our limited minds, then whoever is the Incarnate Being, born from His mother’s womb as a baby, who has been fed milk, who learns by trial over time, is definitely not God. He is regular creation and a human being. Second, you say God created this world for His entertainment...
Swāmi replied: The response to this person’s objections can be given in three parts corresponding to his three objections. The first part is about the concept of God’s incarnation. The electric current is invisible, but it has entered a visible metallic wire and has identified itself with the wire. Clearly, the wire is not the current and the current is not the wire. We agree to this because even a just-born baby would know this! But we consider...
Is God capable of experiencing grief?
[A devotee’s question brought to Swāmi by Śrī Anil] Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! God is omnipotent and is capable of experiencing anything He likes. As such, even human beings cannot relish the experience of happiness without experiencing grief. After eating a hot dish, the sweet dish...
Śrī Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! Please give Your reply to the following question asked by a person on the internet. The full verse is: John [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. [4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men. At Your Divine Feet -anil
Swāmi replied: The word ‘God’ itself is a word. The statement that the Word existed in the beginning means that God existed in the beginning. Actually, the original God existing in the beginning before creation, is unimaginable...
For Scholars Posted on: 18/01/2021Dr. JSR Prasad asked: Svāmipādebhyaḥ sāṣṭāṅga praṇāmāḥ! Recently, on a social media platform, there was a discussion on the concept of the Creator and creation in Vedānta. A member had asked questions like “Is creation different from the Creator?”, “How did the Creator go about creating creation?” and so on. A few Advaita scholars replied that creation is not different from the Creator...
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Why has spiritual knowledge become unpopular, even though it is the most important subject that helps all souls forever? The reason is that souls are not interested in reading the contents of spiritual philosophy. What is the reason for that? The only reason is that writers make the subject complicated and confusing because the writer himself...
Śrī Lakshman asked: Swāmi, when I read the life of Śrī Pūnḍi Mahān, I observed that He lived on a stone like bench at the veranda of a house for the last 25 years of His life, slept there and did everything at that place, He never had food unless fed by someone. I have the following question to ask: 1. Why this self-imposed condition by Śrī Pūnḍi Mahān, 2) Was the God component maintaining His body.
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Any unimaginable event happens due to the unimaginable power of the unimaginable God. The aim of such unimaginable events or miracles is providing...
Śrī Lakshman asked: Swāmi, in one of Your earlier discourse You had mentioned that, that man’s sperm which conjugate with female egg only contains the soul. If so can we conclude whether this act is predetermined?
Swāmi replied: In the Brahma Sūtra, Sage Vyāsa clearly stated that the individual soul comes down to the earth through rains. From the earth, the soul enters the plant, the grain, the food and finally a selected sperm cell...
Śrī Lakshman asked: While explaining the miracle of showing Yourself as God Datta with golden light to a devotee, You said that there are two possibilities. 1) that gold or God is hidden by creation as Veda mentions about Hiraṇyagarbha in whom the gold is hidden. Another possibility is that the gold comes out and hides the creation as told in Hiraṇmayeṇa pātreṇa. But the subsequent line of this verse in Veda says that, this external golden vessel hides the truth or God (satyasyāpihitaṃ mukham). Now, my doubt is that when gold is truth or God, how we can say that the golden vessel is covering the truth when it itself is the truth...
The word saṅkrānti means moving from one place to another for better progress. The word ‘sam’ means better progress. The word krānti means movement from one place to another. The movement from one place to another for better progress can also be done when the two places are located at the same level. A person leaves one place and goes to another place, which is located at the same level on earth for better progress. But one can also move from the lower level to the higher level for better progress. In a house, one can move from the first floor to the second floor for gaining...
Smt. Padmaram asked: If there is someone who cannot do karma phala tyāga or karma saṃnyāsa because the person does not have money or strength, how can the person get God’s grace?
Swāmi replied: Certainly, a devotee can get God’s grace equal to a devotee who has done full karma saṃnyāsa and full karma phala tyāga, provided the devotee is unable to do either of the two. Take the case of the oldest and poorest man. Being old, he cannot do karma saṃnyāsa (offering of service). Being poor, he cannot do karma phala tyāga (sacrifice of the fruit of his work). Devotees...
1. What is Your advice for a newly married couple on how they should live their life?
[Reply to a question asked by Smt. Sudha Rani.] Swāmi replied: At any time, turning towards God is very very important in human life. As such, the divine duty of a newly married couple is to try to have children and extend the human race, in the service of God...
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