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[Discourse on Vijayadashami Day] Vijaya Dashami is the festival indicating the victory of Knowledge over ignorance. If the sinner is punished, the attitude of sin is suppressed temporarily only because the punishment is external and not internal. We find this in the world that the thief is punished again and again in the police station. The real transformation of the soul takes place only when the internal ignorance is destroyed by knowledge. Therefore, such internal victory only is real and permanent. The word ‘Durga’ also means that the Knowledge...
[Shri Phani asked: “You are preaching about equal enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness so that there is no need of devotion to God. When such state is achieved, really, there is no need of God. When there is no need, the reason for devotion disappears. Nothing can be generated without reason. Hence, devotion is not generated. In the absence of devotion, where is the need of the practical sacrifice in service to God. The Veda says that the sacrifice of money alone can lead to God (Dhanena Tyagena …). Hence, the Vedic statement also becomes meaningless in the present context. Can You please explain? Given below is Shri Swami’s explanation.]
There is lot of confusion of the concepts in the argument projected by you. The real ground of devotion and the false ground of devotion should be separately differentiated. The equality in enjoyment of happiness and unhappiness is related to the removal of false ground of devotion. This does not mean that the real ground of ...
Atheism, which does not accept the existence of God, has two stages. In the lower stage, the negation of God is associated with sin and injustice. In the higher stage, the negation of God is associated with good deeds and social justice. Even the atheist in the higher stage will be awarded with the temporary heaven since there is no reference of God. Similarly, the theism, which is the acceptance of God, has also two stages. In the lower stage, the devotee is reluctant to unhappiness...
[Shri Swami gave this discourse in response to Mr. Anil’s inquiry about the essence of the messages of Lord Jesus to this world.] After rigorous penance for about 40 days on a hill, Jesus presented the essence of all His future messages through the prayer followed by a miracle. Thousands of people gathered, who became very hungry in the hot mid-day. There were only four pieces of bread in the basket. Jesus lifted the basket up and did not pray God to provide...
For Scholars Posted on: 08/09/2012You must carefully understand the meaning of the three words: smiling, weeping and enjoying. These three words are totally different from each other and have independent status of meaning. Generally, people misunderstand that smiling means enjoying and weeping means not enjoying. This is not correct. Smiling and weeping are external phenomena, whereas enjoying is an internal phenomenon. While eating the sweet, you smile. While eating a hot dish, you almost weep since your tongue and lips vibrate and eyes shower...
Several devotees are posing a problem on the concept of equally enjoying the happy and unhappy scenes in the life like the sweet and hot dishes in the meals or like the happy and unhappy scenes in a cinema. The enjoyment of the scenes in the cinema may be different from the enjoyment of the sweet and hot dishes in the meals. In the cinema, the happy and unhappy scenes roll alternatively, but, those are related to the story...
This world consists of both happiness and unhappiness as in a drama or cinema. The meals also contain both sweet and hot dishes. Unless you develop the talent of enjoying both, you cannot have continuous bliss. It is foolish to think that you can have continuous bliss by involving in scenes of continuous happiness only. It is a childish thought because the child also likes to have continuous dishes of sweets only, avoiding the hot dishes. In such case, you get bored with...
The unimaginable God entered the human medium consisting of the three qualities (Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas). You can see Sattvam, the spiritual knowledge, while preaching the Gita. You can see Rajas in constant fights with evil forces. You can see Tamas in stealing the butter and dancing with Gopikas. This human incarnation shows that God equally enjoys all the three qualities. God is not touched by any quality like the person...
For Scholars Posted on: 04/08/2012The first action of the original-absolute-unimaginable God is a thought, which is the process of thinking. Except this thought, no other action is known to us before such thought. Such thought was to create this world constituted by many items. The reason for many items is that a single item will bore, resulting in non-enjoyment. Therefore, God alone could not enjoy and there is requirement of many items also for continuous enjoyment. Thought is the process of thinking and that is awareness itself. Awareness is knowledge, which is the process of...
For Scholars Posted on: 04/08/2012[Evening Discourse] God does not become imaginable since His existence, which is the inherent characteristic, is known. No doubt, the existence of an item is its inherent characteristic. But, this inherent characteristic is common to all the existing items. It is only a general inherent characteristic, which is common to all the existing items. It is not specific and hence, the knowledge of such general inherent characteristic does not isolate that item from other items. It does not give any specific information about the item by which you...
[Evening Discourse] You think that a ritual should be performed with a specific procedure and specific materials involving the recitation of the specific Vedic hymns, which alone becomes fruitful. You think that the specific procedure and specific hymns alone can protect you, giving the desired results. People fear that the specific rituals should be strictly performed involving the recitation of specific hymns using specific materials in a specific...
The Veda says that God is Bliss (Anando Brahma…). This means that God is the possessor of bliss since the possessor is addressed by the name of the possessed object. This means that God is always in the state of joy since He is constantly enjoying. If bliss is the nature of God, God need not create this world for the sake of enjoyment. The Veda says that God alone could not enjoy and hence, this world is created by Him...
[A devotee asked: “Can You please explain how the actions of a soul in the life are recorded and how their corresponding fruits are delivered here and hereafter?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
The system of recording the actions and corresponding fruits is very simple. The individual soul (jeeva) made of awareness is a bundle of thoughts or qualities. The awareness without any thought is inert energy (atman) only. A specific work form of atman in a specific system, called brain and nerves, is called as jeeva. In deep sleep, the awareness disappears and only its basic inert energy remains...
[A devotee asked: Why does God choose only the human form for incarnation? Shri Swami gave the following answer.] God chooses the human form, which is convenient for communication with the humanity whenever He likes to interact with the humanity. God can enter a statue and speak due to His omnipotence. But, the receivers of the knowledge from the statue are excited with shock so that their minds get blocked. The doubts will not arise in such excited state due to fear in the expression. The human beings should be in the ground state so that doubts...
The primary program of God is to give guidance in the path of worldly ethics and in the path of spirituality. God is called as the divine Father in...
Sat means existence. The only information about the unimaginable God is that God exists. Except this information, no other information regarding His...
I will illustrate this with the help of a visual program like the war fought by Arjuna guided by Lord Krishna. Here, Arjuna is the human being and...
It is the best prayer as you can see the title itself. The word ‘Mahimnah’ means that it is the prayer of the miracle. Miracle means the...
[A devotee asked a question: “God is said to be happy continuously without any break (Akhanda ananda swaroopa). But, we do not have continuous happiness. Why is this difference?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
People say that God is bliss or extreme happiness (ananda). This means that God is not the extensive happiness and it means only that God possesses the extensive happiness. It is the custom to call the possessor of some item by the name of that very item itself. You call the possessor of apples by the apples. You call “Oh Apples! Come here”. Similarly, the Veda says that God is the true and infinite knowledge...
[A devotee asked “What is the reason for the variation in scriptures and philosophies in preaching ethics (Pravrutti) and in the spiritual knowledge related to God (Nivrutti), which is the source of confusion and splits leading to hot debates? Why is the truth not revealed directly to avoid all this chaos?” Given below is Shri Swami’s reply.]
The truth can be revealed directly in simple language without twists and modifications if the receivers are in the uniform level of maturity to digest the revealed truth. In the same time, there are different people existing in different levels of digestion. The same truth has to be revealed in different ways and with necessary twists...
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