Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.

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AIM OF HUMAN LIFE

Can We See and Talk to God?

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
Purpose of Human Life:
In the materialistic plane, a person says that the aim of his life is to
achieve a particular post [career objective] and then help his family
members. Another person says that the aim of his life is to serve
mankind. We appreciate the second aim as higher than the first one. The
highest aim of human life can be known only in the spiritual plane. The
sole aim of this creation is pleasing God through entertainment. Every
human being is a part of the creation and so the same aim applies to
every human being. Human life becomes fruitful if one serves the Lord
and pleases the Lord through the service. Service means the sacrifice of
work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work. Service is the proof of real
love. The mother serves her child by sacrificing a lot of work like
feeding, giving a bath, dressing-up the child etc., continuously for years.
The father serves the child by sacrificing the fruit of all his hard work to
the child [by providing for the child financially]. It is a clear practical
point that the proof of real love is only service. If you serve your family,
it proves that you love your family. If you serve the entire world, it
proves that you love the creation. If you serve the creator, it proves that
you love the Creator. It is a very simple point.
Love is the attraction of the mind towards anybody or anything.
When illness attacks the body, you take so much care to serve your
body. You love your body. Similarly you serve your father, mother,
wife and children because your mind is attracted towards them. What is
the first prerequisite for this love? When you love your child, you are
aware that a particular small living being is your child and you have the
differentiating knowledge of your child from other children who are
similar. Similarly, when you love God you must be aware of the form of
God, who must be differentiated from other forms, as your child is
differentiated from other children. You identify your child by certain
special characteristics like the shape of the face, voice etc; you do not
recognize your child by the clothes, which it puts on. Other children can
put on such clothes too. Similarly, you must distinguish the Creator
from the creation and then only love the Creator. You cannot love the
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entire creation as the creator. Do you love all the children as your own
children? Therefore, the prerequisite of love is the true knowledge and
the inseparable identifying characteristics of an object by which you get
attracted towards it. Therefore, what is the real form of God? And how
does it differ from other forms? What are the inseparable identifying
characteristics of God? The answers for these questions constitute the
detailed true knowledge of God. Only such true knowledge generates
attraction and love. When you know the separate special details of
Bombay, which are not seen in any other city, then only are you
attracted to Bombay and like to see it.
Before proceeding to identify the true knowledge of God, you
must also know the purpose of your attraction towards an object. You
love your child, and there is no purpose in it. You also love a doctor
when you are ill. But that love is not real. It is not love at all. It is only
an artificial apparent love, exhibited for a purpose. You want the doctor
to help you. Therefore, true love is that when there is no purpose in it.
False love is that in which there is some purpose. Generally almost all
people love God because God is omnipotent. He has miraculous powers
to do anything that is impossible for anybody on this earth. When a
problem comes and when one fails to solve it by all the means existing
in this world, one starts loving God to solve that unique problem.
Therefore, you love the position or power of God and not God Himself.
A poet shows a lot of love and appreciation for a king by his
spontaneous poetry because the poet loves the power and the wealth of
the king. He expects the king to donate some land or to give him some
money after being pleased with his poems. The poet does not love the
person, who is the king. He only loves the position of king. Will he
write the same poems if the king loses his kingdom and becomes a
beggar? In his poetry, the poet praised the king for his very beauty,
sweet voice and infinite wisdom. These qualities still remain with the
king even if he becomes a beggar. But the poet does not praise the same
qualities of that beggar because the beggar cannot donate anything to
him. The post of the king and the kingdom are separable characteristics,
whereas the qualities are inseparable characteristics. You can easily
identify the person by these inseparable characteristics and if your love
for him is real, you will love him whether he is a king or a beggar. Do
you not love your son and praise him whether he serves you or not? Sita
garlanded and married Rama who was to be the future king of Ayodhya.
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The love of Sita may be for Rama or may be for the kingdom of
Ayodhya of which she can become queen, or it may be both put
together. Rama tested her love by discarding the kingdom and by going
to the forest. Sita followed Rama to the forest. Her love was only for
Rama and not for the kingdom. Ravana further tested this. Ravana
offered her to become the queen. But she refused. Therefore, the love
for God should be analyzed and should be decided whether God is loved
or His omnipotent miraculous power is loved for our advantage.
Some people want to take advantage of this power in this world
and some others want to take the advantage of this power in the upper
world so that they can be protected from hell. In both cases the love for
God is not true. It is only the love for his associated power. Shankara
says that the true love for God should not have any desire related to this
world or to the upper world (Ihaamutra Phala Viragah). If the love is
only for the power of God, what is the use of the real form of God or the
inseparable characteristics of God? The poet loves anybody as the king.
For him whoever is on the throne is beautiful and wise. In such a case, if
the king donates the desired land or cash by seeing the poem written by
the poet, the poet does not bother to see or talk with the king again
[because he has achieved what he wanted]. Therefore, when we love
God’s power for some advantage, we need not worry about His form or
about seeing or talking with God. You can just chant some prayers. He
responds to your prayers and your desire is fulfilled. In such a case one
need not see God and God too does not want to see his or her bloody
face!
When a mother wants to see her child, she does not think about
any advantage out of it. Infact the mother presents some cash to the son
as a gift and if the son needs, she will even sell all her ornaments and
sacrifice for the sake of her son. Similarly, if the person has true love for
God, the person wants to see God not for any advantage, but even at the
cost of great disadvantage. For such a person, God appears and only
such a person can see, talk, touch and even live with God. Only for such
persons is there a need for the enquiry of the real form of God.
The real form of God is unimaginable as said in the Vedas and
there is no question of seeing or talking or touching the God. The Gita
also says that nobody can know God (Maamtu Veda Na Kashchana).
Such unimaginable God cannot be said to have a form and cannot even
be said to be formless. The Creator is beyond the creation, which is a
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four-dimensional network of space and time made up of with matter and

energy. The creation contains both formless items like space, energy and
air and also items with form like water, earth etc. If you say that God
has form or that He is formless, then God becomes a part of the creation
and not beyond the creation. The Veda says that no item in the creation
including the pure awareness or life energy is God (Neti Neti…). But
there are real devotees who have real love towards God and want to see,
touch, talk with and live with God for no selfish advantage, either in this
world or in the upper world. God, who has infinite kindness and infinite
love, cannot reject such real love.
God is omnipotent and can satisfy the desire of such real devotees
and the real devotees are crying for the fortune of His vision, touch,
conversation and living with God. God is capable and the devotees
deserve. Nobody can put his finger between these two. To satisfy the
real devotees, God comes in human form and all these four fortunes are
blessed upon the real devotees. If God comes in the form of space or
energy, which is formless or He comes in the form of statues, He cannot
grant these fortunes. He can talk, touch and live with the devotees only
when He comes in the human form. Only the human body can do such
things as per the laws of nature. Nature is His creation and the laws of
nature are the rules of His own administration. He will not violate these
rules except in the case of inevitable emergency. Why should He use
His special power (Maya) and talk, touch, or live with you in the form
of space, energy or statues? When the purpose is served through the
normal routine [following the laws of nature], why are you so rigid in
insisting on an abnormal way?
God need not pay any heed to the foolish rigid behaviour of some
human beings. Infact they want to pray to the formless God or God in
the form of a statue, only for the sake of their selfish convenience. You
can offer food to the formless God or a statue and then you can eat the
entire food. You are satisfied as if you have given meals to God and at
the same time you have not even a grain of rice. There are many
inconvenient losses and troubles with the human form of God. But the
real devotees are not worried about such loss and are infact happy to
lose anything if God can enjoy by that. They feel happy when God eats
the offered food. The mother visits her son and gives him some cash so
that he may enjoy. When the son is happy with that, she derives infinite
happiness and does not feel it as a a loss or trouble. The mother will stay
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with her son and serve him day and night if necessary and feels very
happy about it. Similarly, these real devotees feel happy to serve the
Lord and they are happy about the loss incurred in it.
The Lord came in human form as Krishna only for the sake of the
Gopikas and not for others. Only the Gopikas could recognize Him and
they served the Lord by offering butter. They felt happy in this sacrifice.
They did not feel any loss in this sacrifice. Krishna was not their child.
But they loved Him more than their children. They did not give butter
even to their own children and offered it to the Lord. Their love for God
crossed even their love for their children. When such real love exists,
God comes in human form and reveals His identity to you. Your love
must be real and must be practically proved by the sacrifice of work
(Karma Sanyasa) and the sacrifice of the fruit of work (Karma Phala
Tyaga) as emphasized in the Gita. Sacrifice of words, mind and
intelligence, which are freely supplied to you by God is like offering
drinking water to the guest, which was freely supplied by the
municipality. But sacrifice of work and fruit of work are like offering
meals to the guest and it is the sacrifice of your hard-earned money.
Ofcourse the meals must be associated with drinking water also and at
the same time, mere drinking water is almost nothing. Sacrifice, which
alone is the complete proof of your real love, becomes complete, when
you sacrifice mind, words, intelligence, work and fruit of work.
Sacrifice of words is prayer, sacrifice of mind is meditation, and
sacrifice of intelligence is spiritual discussion. Therefore, simply doing
meditation is the sacrifice of the mind, which is supplied freely by God.
Sacrifice of anything that is hard earned by your work, is the real main
sacrifice.
When the Lord exposes Himself as the source of all the infinite
super natural powers, all the people will run to Him with the same speed
and will sacrifice to their maximum. In such a case you cannot
differentiate the real devotee from a fraud devotee. The reason is that
the super natural power attracts all the people with equal force. When
acids are dissolved in water they show equal strengths because water
being a highly polar solvent attracts the hydrogen ions from all acids
equally so that their extent of ionization becomes same. The strong acid
cannot be differentiated from a weak acid. This is called as the leveling
effect. When the same acids are dissolved in glacial acetic acid, which is
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a weak solvent, the acids will ionize to different extents as per their
inherent nature.
When an important government official asks for some amount of
money, all the merchants will run to him with equal speed and give that
amount. In this case you cannot differentiate the real donor from the real
greedy merchant. But when a beggar begs for some money, a real donor
donates whereas a greedy person refuses. The real nature of the
individuals comes out only in the case of the beggar. Similarly, when
God comes in human form and exhibits super natural powers, all the
people rush to Him with equal speed and show equal love for God.
[Ofcourse God cannot be fooled in this way. He exactly knows who the
real devotee is and who the selfish devotee is, since God is all-knowing]
Even if God recognizes the real devotee by His all-knowing power and
rewards him, the other devotees will find fault with God. They will
argue that even though the extent of devotion of all devotees was equal,
the Lord showed partiality. Therefore, God in human form will not
exhibit miracles and will exhibit only His inseparable special
knowledge, which projects Him only as a Guru [Teacher] and not as
Bhagavan [God]. Datta means God donated to the devotees in human
form. His right half is Guru and the left half is Bhagavan. Only the right
half is projected and the left half is hidden. Only in this case can the real
devotees be filtered.
It is easy to approach the human incarnation of God and praise
Him as God. But the most important part is to retain the same faith
throughout one’s life. When following Datta becomes practically
inconvenient [He gives you problems to test your faith] your faith
should persist. The faith should be practical and permanent. The
recognition of the human incarnation must be done with the help of the
sacred scriptures like the Vedas, Brahma Sutras and the Gita. You must
take a long time to decide the human incarnation. Once you have
decided, you must stick to your descision in spite of all the troubles and
inconvenience, which you face practically. There is no use of catching
somebody in haste and then withdrawing the next day. You will
continue like this throughout your life. Therefore, you must study all the
scriptures and be thorough with the divine knowledge, which generates
devotion or love. If your devotion is real you must prove it by your
service. Real love is only a one-way traffic. Attaining the God, seeing
Him and talking with Him are useless. Demons have seen and talked
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with God after doing long penance. What is the use of it? They were
finally destroyed. Even if you don’t see or talk with God, if you please
Him through your proven real love, you are blessed. Rama never saw
Lord Shiva. But He was blessed. Ravana saw and talked with Shiva, but
was destroyed. Therefore, pleasing the Lord should be our final aim and
not mere vision or conversation.
If your aim is only to solve your problem in this world or in the
upper world or in both, you have nothing to do with the formless God or
the form of God. Your work is done when you pray for it sincerely. But
mind that your love is not for God but for the solution of your problem.
Then God gives the solution for your problems only in a temporary way,
which is not good for you in the long run. He postpones your bad results
and brings the good results from your future births to the present. By
this, you only enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have done and
you cannot enjoy the results of the deeds, which you have not done. It is
like sending your application to the officer through a peon [office boy]
after paying the necessary amount and getting back the application with
the signature of the officer. You have nothing to do with the personality
or the qualities of the officer. But when a girl loves the officer, she likes
to see the personality and know about his qualities. His position as an
officer is only one of the several aspects. Often, she neglects this aspect
of the post, when the personality and qualities have attracted her.
Similarly, a real devotee feels happy by knowing the details of God and
he is not worried about the benefit from God. In this case, the Lord
suffers for bad results of that real devotee and gives him eternal
happiness.
Some people are not bothered about God and go on doing worldly
works continuously. They only believe in themselves. Such people are
either athiests or just neglect God. But the so-called devotees also do not
love the God really. They show false love for God and all their real love
is only for the solution of their problems. They want to visit the Lord
and try to show their interest in the personality of the Lord. But all that
is only to please the Lord, who may be helpful in solving their future
problems. These devotees are not better than those atheists in any way.
But the Lord allows these devotees, because there is a hope of a change
in their attitude and their becoming real devotees. Prahlada was always
absorbed in the personality of the Lord and did not ask for any help even
when he was tortured. He was only remembering the Lord in those
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situations. Hanuman served Lord Rama, not for any gift in return. Infact
when Sita gave him a chain of pearls, He broke those pearls to see if
Rama was present in those pearls. Rama never announced the gift given
to Hanuman and Hanuman never aspired for any gift. Rama gave the
post of the creator of this world and the matter was not revealed to
anybody. By revealing that, Rama never wanted to reveal Himself as the
Lord. Hanuman was not even aware of that post because His mind was
fixed only on the personality of Rama. Similarly, Radha never aspired
for anything and she was given a specially created topmost world
(Goloka). Arjuna had partial devotion and therefore, the final fruit that
he attained was partly happiness and partly misery. Duryodhana invited
Lord Krishna for a big feast in His honour. Krishna never attended it
and finally destroyed them. All the respect and love shown by
Duryodhana were only to exploit Lord Krishna in the war. When
Duryodhana found that Krishna was found useless for him, he was
angry with Krishna and tried to chain Him. This shows that he did not
even recognize Krishna as the Lord. Therefore, the Lord gives vision,
conversation and co-living etc., only for the real devotees who do not
aspire for anything in return. The worst devotees want practical fruits
from the Lord by serving Him through words, feelings and intellectual
discussions. The middle class devotees sacrifice practically for the Lord
and aspire for practical results in return. These types of devotees are
businessmen and the above types of devotees are prostitutes. A
businessman invests some amount and tries to get back more amounts in
return. A prostitute tries to earn money from a person without investing
any amount but by investing only sweet words, sweet feelings and
artificial discussions. The last type of devotees serves the Lord
practically and do not aspire for any result from the Lord either
theoretically or practically. For such devotees alone does the Lord come
in human form, give His experience to them and save them in this world
as well as in the upper world.
Consequences of Suicide
[Shri Ramnath asked about the consequences of the suicide.]
Swami replied: “As I told you, the human life is almost
impossible. The Christianity and Islam do not agree re-human birth. In
Hinduism the re-human birth is admitted but it is said to be very rare.
When the same God is the speaker of all the religions, there cannot be
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contradiction. Therefore, this means the re-human birth is generally

impossible. But the omnipotent God can sanction the re-human birth to
a soul if there is a hope of its upliftment. The human birth is meant for
the human being having interest in spiritual knowledge. It does not
mean mere human form. Eating, sleep, emotions related to the
environment and sex to produce children are common to both human
beings and animals (Ahara Nidra Bhaya Mithunani...). The human birth
with spiritual knowledge and coming in contact with the human
incarnation happens only once. Such a human birth is called as
Brahmana. Here this word is not at all related to the present caste
system. The Brahmana means the human being belonging to any caste
having full interest in the spiritual field and comes in contact with the
human form of the Lord with faith so that he attains the perfect spiritual
knowledge (Brahma Jnanam). If such chance is missed, he will be born
as Kshatriya who believes only in his effort and efficiency with full
egoism. The next birth is Vysya having over attachment to wealth. The
next birth is Sudra who is always selfish. The next birth is fisherman
(Ganga putra) in which he kills the fish in the water. The next birth is
hunter (vyadha) who kills the animals in the forest.
The last birth of human form is Chandala who kills even the
animals that served him. Thus, the soul descends by seven births and
finally enters the cycle of animals, birds, worms etc. The soul existing
as Brahmana will never commit suicide. The souls of other levels only
commit suicides due to problems in the world. The Brahmana will never
commit suicide because he is well aware of the main divine aim of the
human life. Even if the soul of other types is alive there is very little
chance of its upliftment. The Veda says that by committing suicide the
soul enters the world of permanent darkness, which means ignorance
(asuryanaamate…). This means that the soul directly enters the cycle of
animals etc., on committing suicide. Thus there is only one chance of
the birth of Brahmana for a soul, which means that there is only one
chance for any soul to have the real fruitful human birth in which it can
meet the human incarnation. In the other births the soul has only a very
tiny trace of chance to meet and recognize the human form the Lord in
true spirit. All ready when the possibility of the upliftment of self is a
trace only, if suicide is committed, it looses that trace of chance also.
Thus, one in seven persons can only recognize the human form of the
God in the right spirit of the upliftment of the self. The other human
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beings do not recognize at all and even if they recognize, they try to use
the Lord for the worldly matters only.
The Real Suicide
The real suicide is that when the soul is not trying for its spiritual
upliftment and always is dragged by the worldly affairs only. Such a
soul will become a lizard which is always watching for an insect to eat.
All its concentration is on the insect only. Gopikas jumped into fire after
hearing the death of Krishna. But it is not suicide, because they have
realized the main aim of the human life, which is the Lord only. What is
the use of a soul, which is always immersed in worldly affairs and
worldly bonds only? Such a soul has really committed suicide already
because the soul killed itself (Naatmaana mavasadayet—Gita). When
the sage Sanatsujata came to Dhrutarashtra, Dhrutarashtra asked him
about the death. Then the sage told that the real death is that by which
the soul forgets God and is completely immersed in the world
(Pramadakhyo Mrurtyuh). Thus the soul, which leaves without any
contact with God, is already a dead soul, which committed suicide.
Gopikas are immortal even though the have committed suicide since the
sacrificed their lives for the love of God. This gross body is just like a
shirt according to the Gita (Vasamsi Jirnani...). Therefore, committing
suicide is not a big thing for a realized soul. It is just like changing the
cloth. But the purpose for which the suicide is committed is very very
important. If the purpose is due to any worldly matter, the soul is thrown
in to the permanent hell. The reason for this is that the soul has to detach
from the world and attach it self to God. Instead of doing this, the soul is
disturbed due to over attachment to the world and is committing suicide.
In the memory of Krishna Radha became mad and wandered in the
Brindavanam without food and water. She finally died in the madness of
Krishna. That is suicide due to over attachment to God, but the
consequence of such sacrifice of life is divine and has immortal fruit.
Jesus also sacrificed His life for the sake of God. He said that if one
does not carry on his own cross for the sake of God, he cannot be the
dearest devotee of God. The Gita says that a real devotee will even give
up the life for the sake of God (Matgata Pranah...). Therefore, the
consequence of suicide for any worldly matter is only the permanent
hell. When Meera was given poison, she swallowed it and was saved by
the Lord. Hanuman tore His heart with His own nails to show Lord in
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His heart. All these cases of attempt of suicide but have immense
spiritual value. Dhrutarashtra lived hundred and twenty years but he has
already committed suicide, even though he was alive, because he did not
listen to the advice of Lord Krishna even in the worldly matter.
Each Soul Independent in Sadhana
[Smt. Uma Ramanath asked that how a household wife depending
on the earnings of the husband can sacrifice the fruit of work especially
when Swami says that each soul is completely independent in the
spiritual field.]
Swami replied like this: Suppose the household wife is living in a
joint family having a child. Suppose her husband is giving all his money
to his father only who is the family head. Suppose the head is spending
that money on the family in impartial way. Suppose in such set up the
mother wants to do some special favour to her child, which involves
some extra finance. In this situation what the mother will do? Will she
say to the child that how she can help in that set up? No. Her strong love
on the child starts investigating the paths. When there is a will there is
always a way. She will say to her husband that the child belongs to him
also and therefore, the special favour should be done. Similarly, the
devoted lady can say to her husband that God is not only the creator of
herself but also the creator of her husband also. God is the father of all
the souls. Thus, she will convince him to do the sacrifice. Let us go to
the simile. Suppose the husband refuses to do the special favour to the
child in view of the disciplined system of the family set up. Now, the
mother will choose even a wrong path like stealing the money by
showing some wrong accounts of expenditure and does favour to her
child. Therefore, the intensity of love will always reveal a path. The
mother will not mind the injustice and the consequent hell for that. The
extreme intensity of love (Moha) on the child will not consider the
injustice and the hell. In this case since the Moha is on another soul, she
will certainly go to hell. But, if God is in the place of the child, there is
no trace of sin or hell because in whatever path, God is pleased, such
path is justice (Aham tva Sarva Papebhyah – Gita).
But the biggest fun is that the mother will favour child in any path,
but when God comes in that place, all the enquiry of the procedure and
justice starts. This shows the lack of intensity of love on God. Infact,
unlike the child, God will create more and more hurdles to oppose the
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sacrifice. The devotee is expected to cross even those special hurdles. If

the devotee is unable to cross even this natural hurdle, how can you
expect her to cross the special hurdles? The elder Gopikas loved
Krishna as their son whereas the younger Gopikas loved Him as their
boy friend. The elder Gopikas were going to Madhura to sell the butter.
When they found Krishna in the path, they used to feed Krishna with the
butter. When they returned to their homes, they were giving wrong
accounts. Similarly, the younger Gopikas were cheating all the family
members to go and dance with Krishna secretly. There was no concept
of injustice or hell in their brains. When Narada asked them to give the
dust of their feet to be applied to the head of Krishna to remove His
head-ache they immediately gave it. Narada told that they will go to the
hell for giving such dust. They replied that they are ready to go to the
hell for the happiness of Lord Krishna. This is the intensity of their
devotion and therefore Lord gave them a specially created highest
divine abode.
However, the sacrifice of fruit of work and work are one and the
same and can be done according to the convenience. The saints cannot
do the sacrifice of fruit of work. They compensate by sacrificing work.
Infact they are more quickly blessed by God than the householders are.
The requirement of God is the most important point for your sacrifice.
When Rama is searching Sita, He needs the sacrifice of work. Hanuman,
a saint, sacrificed work only and became God by His grace. Krishna as a
boy required butter for growth and the Gopikas (householders)
sacrificed the required butter (wealth). The fruit of work (money) is
another form of work only. Money is matter and work is energy. Both
are inter convertible forms. Therefore, one can participate in the mission
of the Lord even by sacrificing the work according to the convenience.
It is true that the soul is independent in the spiritual field
(Nivrutti). Only in Pravrutti the wife can share the fruit of good action
of her husband. Pravrutti is the stage of drama. The queen in the drama
has her share in the wealth of king. But when the drama is over and
when the actors receive remuneration from the producer of the drama,
the actor of the queen-role cannot have share in the remuneration of the
actor played in the king role. The Gita says that in the spiritual field the
self must uplift itself (Uddharedaatmanaa…). You must note that the
wealth of king in the drama is unreal and the remuneration of the actors
outside the drama is real. Similarly, the share in getting heaven etc., is
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possible because the heaven is within the relative reality. The grace of
God is like the real remuneration.
Does Enjoyment Lead to Yoga?
[Smt Gayathri Chandrasekhar asked that people say that Bhoga
leads to Yoga and whether such concept is correct.]
Swami replied like this: The word Bhoga [Enjoyment] by its root
meaning is taken as the meaning for even the basic enjoyment like
eating food. If you do not eat food how can you serve the God? The
Veda says that such basic enjoyment should be done (Bhunjeedhah…).
This is the Yogic meaning (meaning obtained from the word) of the
word Bhoga. But in Rudhi (general usage), the word Bhoga means the
over-enjoyment of worldly pleasures, which leads to Roga (illness).
This is proved by medical science also. If you become ill how can you
serve God and please Him? Such Bhoga should be left. Tyaga (leaving)
of such Bhoga will make you healthy and enable you to please God
(Yoga). The Veda refers to such leaving of over-enjoyment (Tena
Tyaktena …). Bhoga is based on the concept of intensive love on a co-
human being or a worldly item. The process of such intensive love is
good because God will be also pleased by such intensive love (Moha)
only. The object of such Moha should be replaced by God. A person is
running very fast in the opposite direction. Only the direction has to be
changed but the fast running is appreciable. By such fast running only
he will reach the goal quickly. Therefore, the basis of Bhoga, which is
Moha should be retained and by the spiritual knowledge the object only
should be changed. Thus, the essence of Bhoga, which is Moha will
certainly lead to Yoga or attainment of grace of God. Bilhana was going
in a forest immersed in the memory of his darling. He touched a sage by
his foot by mistake. The sage was meditating upon God. The sage
became angry to curse him. But Bilhana asked, “I am thinking about my
darling and I did not know that my foot touched you. But, you are
immersed in the memory of God like me and how you are aware of the
touch?” The sage realized and directed Bilhana to God. The sage learnt
the Moha from Bilhana. Thus God blessed both.
The attraction to the worldly bond can be directly transformed into
attraction to God. There is no need of achieving the detachment from
the worldly attraction. The detached soul cannot have the attachment
again because the soul is habituated to the continuous detachment only.
Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.com/user/dattaswami

Suppose a student is reading novels and not the class books. The
reading-habit is good. You have to replace the novels by class books.
This can be achieved by proper and talented counseling. Suppose you
give sleeping tablets to him so that he will stop reading the novels. By
this the student is not reading novels because he is always sleeping.
Now after this stage if you ask him to read the textbooks, he will refuse,
because he is habituated to sleep only without reading. Similarly, if you
bring the soul to complete detachment form the worldly bonds, it is very
difficult to development attachment to God. In Advaita philosophy such
detachment is achieved by which the soul becomes inert like the tree or
a stone. The devotion cannot be generated in such rock. The attraction to
the world can be taken as the training of development of the very
process of attraction. But the worldly attraction should take a turning
point on one day and should be transformed into divine attraction. If the
training continues for the whole life, there is no meaning of such
training because the re-human birth is very rare and it means almost
impossible. Moreover, the attraction to the world is accumulated form
millions of births and it is very difficult to bring down the attraction to
zero. Instead of this, it will be easy to replace the world by God. Any
way, even after bringing the attraction to zero you have to again raise it
to the sky. Therefore, conversion of the worldly attraction to God is easy
and also desirable. If you ask the mother to cut her bond with her child,
it is impossible. It is easy to replace her child by Krishna. Infact, the
Moha etc are created only to help you in spiritual path. You have
diverted it to the world and misused it. Now you say that Moha is a bad
quality. Moha in its original aim of creation is a good quality. You have
made it bad by giving wrong direction to it. Shri Ramanuja says that the
relationship between God and a real devotee is “Bhogya-Bhoktru
Sambandha”, which means that God is the enjoyable item (Bhogya) and
the devotee is enjoyer (Bhokta). The enjoyment of God is the real
Bhoga.
Meaning of Enlightenment
[Shri Ramnath asked about the meaning of the word
“enlightenment”]
Swami told “The word enlightenment means finding the truth
clearly after clarification of all the doubts. This can happen in any
branch of knowledge. But this word is generally used in spiritual
Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.com/user/dattaswami

knowledge. The Gita is the enlightened knowledge of Upanishads. My

divine knowledge is the enlightenment of the Gita. The enlightenment
means that the torchlight is put on and the illusions disappeared. The
truth is perfectly reveled and all the doubts are cleared when the soul
and the intelligence are simultaneously convinced by the divine
knowledge which analysis the spiritual concepts in coherence with the
scriptures. The enlightenment comes resulting in the determination that
leads into practice. Thus practice is the sign of enlightenment. The
enlightenment of the Gita is the realization of the essence of
Upanishads, which is the concept of the human incarnation. In the Veda,
it is mentioned that God entered the world for real enjoyment (Tadevanu
Pravasat). This point is clearly elaborated in the Gita because
everywhere in the Gita, Krishna has stressed that He is directly Lord.
The essence of Upanishads is this point only but it is stressed with full
clarity in the Gita and this is the enlightenment of Upanishads through
the Gita. In the Gita it is mentioned that the Lord will come again and
again whenever there is requirement. This point is stressed with full
clarity in My divine knowledge and thus the Gita is enlightened through
My divine knowledge.
Speciality of Divine Knowledge
[September 13, 2006] 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 on the elimination of desire, which is the
basis of the path to please God (Nishkama Karma Yoga). But since the
concept of God is absent, the elimination of desire is taken for achieving
the happiness of self itself. The followers misunderstood Buddha and
took all His knowledge for Pravrutti or social service only. By this,
Nivrutti disappeared in His knowledge. Similarly, if you take Rama, He
did not give any knowledge about Nivrutti. He followed the Pravrutti to
preach the humanity regarding the behaviour of a human being towards
other co-human beings. Ofcourse He showed faith and worship of God
Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.com/user/dattaswami

and thus He cannot be misunderstood as an atheist. If you take Vamana,

He also did not give any reference to Nivrutti. He was concentrating on
the charity towards a devotee, which is only related to Pravrutti. His
mission was to suppress Bali and protect Indra. If you consider other
incarnations, all were involved in the war to kill the demons and evil
people. Thus, there is no trace of Nivrutti in their actions. All their
actions were only to save the balance of the society, which is Pravrutti.
The inherent characteristic of Parabrahman is spiritual knowledge
as referred in the Veda (Prajnana…, Satyam Jnanam…). The real
knowledge is only the philosophy or spiritual knowledge, which relates
to God and regarding the achievement of His grace. Except this all the
other branches of knowledge are related only to the achievement of
worldly pleasures, which are temporary and unreal. Therefore, the
spiritual knowledge is called as Prajnanam. The letter Pra means the
best. In another Vedic statement the spiritual knowledge is told to be the
true knowledge (Satyam Jnanam…). This means that it deals with the
ultimate absolute reality i.e., God.
All the other branches deal with various levels of creation, which
are relatively real with respect to God and become totally unreal if
isolated from God. Therefore, based on this scriptural statement,
Krishna is considered to be the fullest incarnation. Even in the field of
spiritual knowledge, Krishna correlated all the levels and unified as a
single ladder to attain the grace of God. Before the revelation of the
Gita, some were thinking about knowledge (Jnanam) and some others
were thinking about devotion (Bhakti) as the real paths. Some others
were thinking that rituals (Karma) happen to be the path. Krishna
correlated these three levels. In the knowledge, He fixed Himself as the
goal, who is the then human incarnation. This shows that the
unimaginable God expressed through a convenient medium like human
body for humanity is the real goal. He clearly stated that He will come
again and again, which means that every generation will have the
opportunity of having the human incarnation. He explained the devotion
to be fruitful when it is directed to the then existing human incarnation
because such human form alone can feel and respond to your devotion.
Finally, He has uplifted the service (Karma) to the top most place. A
ritual is worship of God. Worship means the path to please the God.
When God is in human form, then only God can feel the service. He
corrected the old path of the rituals by eliminating the selfish desire in it.
Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.com/user/dattaswami

Such, ritual or service happens to be the path to please God directly.

When Arjuna fought the war as the service to Lord Krishna, Arjuna
could see the pleasure in the face of Krishna directly. In other forms
such direct evidence is not possible. The proof of real devotion is
service only, which is the sacrifice of work or fruit of work. The
Knowledge should lead to devotion and finally end with selfless service
to God. Thus, Krishna brought out the essence of all the Upanishads and
arranged a regular ladder. Thus, Krishna happens to be the fullest
human incarnation based on the revelation of the Gita only. Simply
doing miracles or destroying the demons is not the criterion, which is
common in the other incarnations also. Vamana occupied the entire
world and no miracle can be equal to this.
Again the conservative devotees say that Krishna is the only
fullest incarnation in the entire creation till today. But the above verse
was told with reference to the ten incarnations only because the
preceding verse speaks about the ten incarnations. This means that
Krishna was the fullest human incarnation among the ten incarnations.
Assuming that their argument is only correct, how can they deny the
appearance of God again and again as told by Krishna Himself (Yada
Yadahi – Gita)? Thus, you cannot rule out the reappearance of fullest
human incarnation in the world after Krishna. Whenever there is a need,
the fullest incarnation will appear again and again. Infact, God is always
pleased to take the fullest human incarnation as many times as possible
because such incarnation deals with the revelation of spiritual guidance
to His children. In the other incarnations He has to kill His evil children
and He is always reluctant to do this unless the inevitable situation
comes.