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[Message on Dasara, Day-3] Today, a most important concept is to be analyzed. By doing social service one will certainly reach heaven, which is a temporary place only. One has to return back to the earth and take again the risk as per the Gita. But the abode of God is permanent and if one attains such divine abode, one will not return back to the normal human birth. Such a divine soul is liberated and comes to earth as human incarnation along with the Lord. The same social service can be done as a secondary activity keeping the preaching of spiritual knowledge and devotion as primary activity...
[Message on Dasara, Day-2] Yoga means attainment. Attainment is meaningful if something other than yourself is attained by you. After traveling some distance if you say that you have attained yourself, it is meaningless. When you attain the superself (God), which is other than yourself, then only you can use the word Yoga. God in human form is attainable by your effort. God also has His limited family, which consists of a few liberated souls as you have your family. For you, your family is more important than the society, which consists of general public. You maintain business with society but love...
[Message on Dasara, Day-1] Goddess Durga fought with the demon called Mahishasura for ten days and got victory on the tenth day. Durga means protection. This protection has very little significance as far as the problems in this world are concerned. People do not realize the insignificance of these worldly problems because they have not witnessed the greatest problem, which is faced at the time of the death before going to hell. Unfortunately, this greatest problem is visualized at the exact moment of death when the person is unable to even express his feelings on seeing the messengers from hell. A line appears small only when a bigger line is present next to it. If the soul could witness the last scene during this life time itself...
For Scholars Posted on: 29/09/2006Observer (O): I cannot understand these discussions. You can give me the final conclusions like this: God is unimaginable and comes down through a human form called human incarnation. The ordinary human soul is not God by itself. What is the use of all these hectic discussions? We shall search for the human incarnation whose sign is the divine knowledge and serve Him to our best to get His grace. This is the essence in nutshell which is sufficient for us.
Respondent (R): If these conclusions are accepted by all without any variation, there is no need of any debate. But several people are deriving conclusions in different ways. Some body says that God is formless like space. Some body says that He is the energetic form. Some body says that He is the ordinary individual soul. We say that the God is unimaginable...
The present spiritual preachers who are conducting workshops on the relief of stress are just doctors and psychiatrists only. They preach Asanas (physical exercises) and pranayama (breathing exercises) which are the measures for the physical health. The preaching of Atma Yoga which is the dissolution of thought limiting to awareness is done under the headline of meditation. Meditation is a pious word used to limit yourself to the thought of God only forgetting all the other thoughts including the awareness of your awareness. I do not know how you are calling these as spiritual preachers and concentration on self as meditation...
[A devotee (Sai) from Pune asked Swami for the stress relief. Swami replied like this:]
The stress is developed whenever a problem causing misery arises. Today the spiritual preachers are stressing very much on this topic and are conducting workshops. There is a lot of response from the public. Every human being is very anxious about the solution of the problem and to get rid off the misery. This natural instinct is the reason for this big response, which is misunderstood as self-greatness by these preachers. Even the priests and astrologers are earning money exploiting this natural instinct. The desire for money and fame in the public is the main cause for the concentration on this topic by the preachers...
For Scholars Posted on: 25/09/2006Petitioner (P): You have to speak every spiritual concept within the limits of the scripture (Veda) based on ancient Indian logic alone. Do not bring science in o philosophy.
Mediator (M): Ancient Indian logic is as good as science. The Mithya Vada is exactly same as the present theory of relativity.
Respondent (R): Logic and science deal with the same subject, which is the study of the analysis of various items of the world. In the ancient logic also they were referring to experimental proof in the name of experience (Anubhava). The only difference between science and logic is that science needs experimental proof in every step, whereas in ancient logic (Tarka) the experimental proof is inadequate. Therefore, certain points like propagation of sound in vacuum as per the ancient logic...
It is a misunderstanding that the life history of every soul is written by God or destiny. God is certainly the creator of this whole world like the builder of the stage and the supplier of dress for a drama. He is responsible up to this level only. The story, dialogues and actions are written by the created self only. The self is pure awareness and is called as causal body, but is composed of several types of vibrations which are the feelings or thoughts or qualities. The various types result due to various mixing proportions of Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas. Some of these thoughts have become very strong since from several millions of births. Such solidified thoughts are like hard diamonds. The bundle of such diamonds is called as the subtle body...
Smt. Kandarpa Padma Ram is very much dedicated to Swami. She sang all the devotional songs composed by Swami with her extraordinary sweet voice. She also composed several songs on Swami. Swami never gave her any vision even though she was asking for it. Swami told that she is the lotus flower in the hand of the Lord and came for divine service and therefore no such proof is required for her. One day she was fighting with Swami on the phone from a far place. She asked Swami to show a vision to somebody at least there and let that person speak about the vision to her on phone. Swami scolded her and placed the phone down. At the same time, a lady visited the house in which Swami was sitting. She arrived from a far place on that day...
Today even a mosquito is killing the man by giving dangerous fever. The man used to say, “I will quash you like a mosquito.” This means that mosquito is the most negligible creature. But today the mosquito has become an instrument of Yama to kill the people! What is the reason for this? The situation is reversed. The souls must realize now about their own real strength. It has become zero. If the zero has a number behind it, it gets value of ten, hundred, thousand etc. But when the number becomes absent, any number of zeros is zero only. The soul becomes hero when it is backed by God. Arjuna realized this after the exit of Krishna...
The Scripture says that among the ten incarnations, Lord Krishna alone is the fullest incarnation (Paripurna Tamah Saakshat). If you compare Krishna with the other incarnations, the special point that lies with Krishna alone is the revelation of divine knowledge about God (Nivrutti) or Brahma Jnana. Buddha also gave divine knowledge. But He kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. All His preaching was concentrated on the behaviour of the human being towards other co-human beings and also towards other living beings. He concentrated...
[Shri Ramanath asked Swami whether Akkalkot Maharaj whose birth is not known is the fullest human incarnation as His devotees say. Following is Swami’s reply]:
For any concept, the scripture is valued. Otherwise everybody speaks whatever he likes and gives his own logic. The advocate has to quote the constitution and apply the logic in that line. Otherwise the argument has no base. The scriptures say that Sri Krishna is the fullest human incarnation (Shri Krishno Nanya Evahi). This is agreed by all since it has scriptural basis. But Krishna was born to Devaki. Therefore, the concept of fullest human incarnation...
The question is whether the Atman is knowable (Vijneya) or unknowable (Ajneya). There are statements in the Veda which say that Atman is unknowable (Yasyamatam tasyamatam, achintyam, etc.). There are also other statements in the Veda that say that Atman is knowable (Drishyatetvagraya Buddhya, Atma va are Drishtavah) These are two contradictory sets of statements. How can these two statements be correlated? The Advaita philosophers treat this problem in the following way: They say that Atman is unknowable (Ajneya) to ordinary people...
Awareness and Reflected Awareness: Now the Advaitins bring another point. They say that the awareness which is a product of the energy that one gets from food (Annat Purushah—Veda) is only a reflection (Chidabasa) of the original ultimate awareness (Chit). The Chidabhasa is present only in living beings and has defects but the defects are due to the reflecting medium (body). The Chit, which is beyond the reflected awareness, is free from defects and that it is the ultimate cause or God. Now if they say that this Chit which is beyond the Chidabhasa is the ultimate, then we have no objection; we accept it. However the objection comes when they say that the individual is the Chit. We say that the individual is Chidabhasa. The Chit (or God) is the cause of the Chidabhasa ...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/08/2006In a spiritual discussion, the two persons discussing, should have co-operation with each other because both of them are jointly searching for the truth. Thus the person questioning and the person answering are building up the search and their common aim should only be to find the truth. Whoever finds the truth should not feel like a winner and the other person should not feel like a runner-up (loser). Both are equal and responsible for finding the truth. Both the runner-up and winner are rewarded with prizes equally. Unless Arjuna had asked questions...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/08/2006Knowledge and God: Spiritual knowledge or philosophy (Vedanta) is generally based on logic (Tarka). God is certainly above logic and thus logic cannot touch Him (Naisha Tarkena—Veda). Nobody can show God by pointing with a finger. The Veda clearly states that God is beyond words, mind, intelligence and logic and the best way of explaining about God is silence. If that is so, there is no necessity of spiritual knowledge, because God cannot be known or imagined. Then what is the use of all these scriptures? Why are there so many discussions and debates? Lord Yama says in the Veda that angels and sages are still discussing about God and have concluded that God is unknowable. Here unknowable means unimaginable even by logic...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/08/2006Parabrahman—Beyond Brahman: The meaning of the word Brahman is ‘greatest’. Any greatest item within the boundaries of a category can be called as Brahman. In the Veda food (Annam), life (Prana), mind (Manas), Intelligence (Vijnana), bliss (Ananda) etc. are called as Brahman within the limits of certain specified categories. Awareness, due to the quality of knowledge is also called as Brahman. In the Gita, the greatest scripture (Veda) is called as Brahman. The greatness is estimated by not only the quantity but also by the quality. Inert energy, which is all-pervading and which is the material causing creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe is called as Brahman in the quantitative sense. Awareness or the soul is called as Brahman...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/08/2006Realized Soul: If you can learn from God regarding His state of continuous entertainment from the creation containing both pleasant and tragic scenes, you have become God in this very important aspect. God’s super power and producership of the world etc are not at all required. The spectatorship and entertainment is the only essence of this creation (Ekaki na ramate—Veda). The spectator of the ‘movie’ can enjoy equally with God even though the spectator has not produced the movie [creation]. The producership of the movie has no relevance to the enjoyment. In this aspect, the soul and Brahman become one and the same (Advaita). When the sole purpose of the creation is entertainment...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/08/2006Superimposition: You have introduced the concept of superimposition in that the person mistakes the body for the soul (Dehatmabhranti). By analysis, you have removed the illusion of misunderstanding the body for the soul. But you are captured by another most dangerous illusion that is mistaking the soul for God (Brahman), which can be called as ‘Atmabrahmabhranti’. Both these superimpositions are similar. An illusion or superimposition is born, based on one common property. When you see the rope in mild darkness [dim light or twilight], the physical appearance (the length, movement by air etc), which is the common property between the rope and a snake...
The word Dharma means the characteristic property which stands for the identification of an item. The Dharma of fire is burning by which it is identified as fire. It is the expected natural behaviour of an item in the creation. If the fire is cool, such coolness is Adharma which means that it is not the expected property of the specific entity. The human being in this creation is a specified entity and is expected to show certain characteristic properties (Dharmas) by which he or she is identified as the human being. If the human being shows the characteristic properties of other specified items, it loses its identification. When God created various...
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