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Shri Sabbella Satthireddy asked: Shri Datta Swami, śaraṇaṃ mama Swami! What is the purpose of my life, Swami? Who am I Swami?
Swami replied: Please read the answer given to Mrs. Lavanya on September 14, 2020. Please understand...
[Mohini Unukuru asked: Pādanamaskāram Swamiji! I am Your devotee. My question is about girls getting their monthly periods. During that time, parents tell the girl to not go to the temple, not touch anyone and not touch the pūjā gadi. This happens mostly in villages. What is the reason behind this, Swamiji ? If I have asked anything wrong, please forgive me.]
Swami replied: There is nothing wrong with the menstrual periods of girls from a spiritual point of view. The Veda says that Indra distributed his sin of killing Vṛtra to four items: (1) To the earth, due to which the earth began to give off the smell of soil, (2) To water, due to which it began to froth, (3) To flowers, due to which flowers began to give off pollen grains and (4) To women, due to which they began...
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: Dear Swami! One of my friends asked me if it is justified for a 30-year-old man to marry a 9-year-old girl? Why did the 23-year-old Shri Ramakrishna Paramahaṃsa marry the 5-year-old Śāradā Mātā? What is the ideal age difference that should be maintained between a boy and a girl who are to get married? Can a girl marry a boy who is younger than her? Why is it traditionally considered bad in Hinduism, if a man marries a woman elder to him?]
Swami replied: Marriage is different from the first night function. The norms of age are to be considered for the first night function and not for marriage. Suppose, a boy and girl are very strongly committed to be married in future and when the proper age comes, they are married. This is ok. You are objecting to their early marriage in childhood itself since it becomes child marriage. Suppose the marriage between both...
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: What is wrong with marrying a woman from the same gotra or lineage? Why is it said that a woman and man belonging to the same gotra are considered to be siblings and so, should not be married? In case they have to get married then either of them should be adopted into another family belonging to a different gotra.]
Swami replied: It is scientifically agreed that close blood relations should not get married...
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: What is the essence behind the concept of kanyā dānam performed during the wedding ceremony? Why is it said that seven generations of a family get uplifted, when one performs kanyā dānam, which is giving away one’s daughter in marriage?]
Swami replied: The generation of children through marriage is a sacred activity that pleases God. This is the main reason behind praising this kanyā dānam and associating it with some divine fruit. The reason for doing this particular ritual is that the bride be treated well by her in-laws. The girl is relatively weak and after the wedding, she leaves her parents to go and live with her husband and in-laws. So, her parents want to ensure...
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: A lot of food was wasted during the Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī celebration this year in one of the temples I visited. When I asked the temple authorities the reason why they cooked so much more food than needed, they said that they had expected many devotees to come on the festival day, but, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of people who turned up was less than they had expected. I said to one of my friends in the temple...
Swami replied: The wastage of food is considered to be the highest sin by the Veda and it must be avoided at any cost (Annaṃ na paricakṣīta). The argument of your friend is totally wrong because the microorganisms upon eating the wasted food will grow in number and attack good people causing harm to them in the form of diseases. We do not kill flies because they do not harm us directly...
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: Swami, You have given answers to many of these questions in the past. My apologies for troubling You, asking the same questions again. I should blame my laziness for not searching the answers in the past discourses. Your kindness and patience have no limits. It gives me an immense feeling of gratefulness and love when I think about the way You are guiding me all through my life...
Swami replied: You should not worry about the magnitude of your sacrifice to God. A poor beggar sacrificed just one coin to God and got the highest appreciation from Jesus, the Human Incarnation of God. On the other hand, God did not even mention the names of the rich people, who donated thousands of coins...
Mrs. Lavanya asked: Namaskāram Swami! Is there any significance in the dress code or the colour of the dress of Sadgurus? We see Śrī Satya Sai Bāba wearing orange robes, while Śrī Ramaṇa Maharṣi and Śrī Rāmakriṣṇa Paramahaṃsa wore white. As per the rules of the saṃnyāsa āśrama (sainthood), they should also constantly move from place to place and get their food in the form of bhikṣā (begging). But these Sadgurus were confined to one particular place, even though they visited a few places occasionally. This question was raised by my husband and he told me to ask You, Swami.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Dress code is not at all important because the dress code is only the code of the body, which itself is the dress for the soul (Vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni...—Gītā). The body contains the brain and the nervous system...
[Reply to a question by Shri Kartik] Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! There is a saying that unless a person’s madness is cured, his marriage will not happen and unless his marriage happens, his madness will not be cured. In such a situation, both should take place simultaneously, so that there is a gradual improvement or a slow, step by step cure. The attraction to the knowledge of the Sadguru, who is the contemporary Human Incarnation, must develop, so that our consciousness...
[Reply to a question by Shri Kartik] Swami replied: If seeing the Sadguru is also associated with conversation, involving the clarification of one’s doubts, then seeing is also important. Merely seeing the Sadguru, without the conversation is not at all effective...
[Reply to a question by Shri Kartik] Swami replied: Both are equally important. On studying the knowledge, no doubt might come to your mind immediately. But after discussing with fellow-devotees and after hearing some doubt raised by another devotee, you might also appreciate...
[Reply to a question by Kum. Mohini] Swami replied: There are several common points and several points of difference also. Unless you have a sharp intelligence and you follow a deep analytical procedure, you can easily mistake one for the other. Today, science is well-developed and hence, practical analysis has become very strong, unlike in the past, when logic was confined to the intellect alone, without any experimental proof. One person wanted to test Shri Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa to find out whether He was a Sadguru or not. The person secretly kept a one rupee coin under the bed of Paramahaṃsa. When Paramahaṃsa sat...
Shri Vijay asked: Greetings! My name is Vijay and I am from Madurai (India), which is two hours from Palani. Did Swamiji visit Madurai during the late 80s and early 90s? I have seen Him doing meditation inside the Meenakshi Amma Temple inside the sactum sanctorium. The only thing that I do not remember is whether it was inside the Meenakshi sannidhi or Lord Śiva’s sannidhi. Can you please confirm whether Swamiji was there? Also, Lord Muruga...
Mohini asked: I am Mohini and I am Your devotee. I am reading Your divine knowledge and have reached the eight volume of the Divine Discourses. But I cannot understand some of the topics clearly and I am not feeling very good. I get very little time and my concentration keeps changing. Sometimes, I get confused about what I want and I feel like stuyding books related to my career. So, please tell me how to improve my concentration...
Shri Ramakrishna Haran asked: Namaskārams Swamiji! I am a 50 year old male from Bangalore. I work in the government. Since my marriage in 2002, there has been no harmony or understanding. On the third day of our marriage, I and my spouse met with a life-threatening accident. Somehow, only by divine grace, we survived. I have a 16-year-old son. We are Tamil Brahmins. Both my wife and son do not speak to me at all. They hate the ground...
Shri Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swami! There is a misunderstanding among parents that if their children follow the spiritual path, their materialistic life will get spoiled. Due to this, the majority of parents are reluctant to allow their children to follow the spiritual path, especially under the guidance of a living Satguru like You. Swami, kindly grace us with Your response to this kind of thinking. At Your Lotus Feet – Anil
Swami replied: People do not know what is really good and what is really bad. They often mistake one for the other. God blesses souls, balancing...
Shri Anil asked: My question is related to John 17:25-26, where Jesus says: “Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. 26 I have made You known to them (disciples), and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”
Swami replied: Here, the word Father referred by Jesus means the Father of heaven or the first Energetic Incarnation and not the unimaginable God. The unimaginable God alone can know Himself. No soul can know Him because He is beyond the concept of space. The Father of heaven is the first energetic form with which the unimaginable God has merged forever and hence, there is no trace of difference...
[Shri Anil asked: This question is related to the Gospel of John 14: 7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” 8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Swami in Your knowledge, You have enlightened us with the concept of the contemporary Human Incarnation...
Swami replied: There are only two components: (a) the non-mediated unimaginable God and (b) The energetic or the human medium with which the unimaginable God merges homogeneously to become an Incarnation. The Father of heaven is an Energetic Incarnation and the son of God is the Human Incarnation. Since the same unimaginable God exists in both, there is no any trace of any difference between...
[Shri Anil asked: The prominent disciple of Jesus, Peter told that “I will lay down my life for You.” Jesus replied. “Truly, truly, I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Subsequently, when Jesus was arrested by the soldiers, after an initial brief protest by cutting the ear of a soldier, Peter ran away. Further at three places he rejected Jesus saying he never knew Him, when some of the people questioned him about his association with Jesus, though, he later repented about this and came back. I have learnt from Your knowledge that the Human Incarnation alone guides the devotees by giving right knowledge. He never forces it on the devotee. The devotee has...
[Ishita Iyyer asked: Swamiji, how does one become aware of one’s true purpose in life? Why are humans entangled in the same cycle like animals, where we eat, drink, sleep and live our life immersed in material problems. How does a soul attain liberation from all this? - Ishita Iyyer]
Swami replied: The difference between animals and human beings is only that human beings have the facility of a greater intelligence, which can be applied in their family life as well as in their spiritual life. Regarding the enjoyment of materialistic life, both categories have common aspects like eating, drinking, sleeping etc. One must please God in worldly life as well as in spiritual life. For animals, spiritual...
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