dattaswami

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJBx4VR4YpU&t=90s

The money of the public is the wealth of the public, which should be spent for public only giving priority to the poor people. This public money is very sacred and should not be enjoyed personally by any well-to-do person, unless he/she is extremely poor dying for food. One has to save the life even by doing the sin. In such a case, the sin is not a sin at all. Apart from this extreme condition, any attempt to steal the public money for the enjoyment of self and own family is the greatest sin. If one has livelihood already blessed by God, he/she should see the public money as the excretory matter. Nobody likes even to look at the excretory matter and in such case, there is no chance of any one to eat the excretory matter and to live always in the excretory matter itself! Therefore, everybody having the minimum needs satisfied should see the public money like excretion. Nobody should even look at the public money and not to speak of the thought to enjoy it. Anybody, who does the corruption of public money, will born as pig eating the excretion. More serious corruption of public money gives the birth of worms living in the excretion itself. You may argue that such enjoyment of excretion by pigs and worms need not be taken as the punishment because the pigs and worms enjoy the excretion like a human being enjoying a good feast. The ignorance of the previous birth of the soul as human being should make the soul to enjoy the excretion like a human being enjoying delicious food. The excretion for the pig should be like the delicious meal for an ordinary hungry person, if the ignorance of the previous birth masks the soul. This is correct if the pig is unaware of its previous birth. But, the actual fact is totally different since the pig or the worm eating the excretion is given the memory of the previous birth always by the will of God. Now, the soul realizes the difference between delicious food and wretched excretion and is pained deeply with full repentance being forced by the power of God to eat the excretion continuously along with the constant memory of the previous birth. Such a mental torture brings some realization in the soul at least after some births. This will bring a powerful change and thus the punishment is only to bring a significant change in the soul and not to revenge against the soul for its sin. The punishment involves lot of internally hidden technique so that the punishment is only for the transformation of the soul and not for the revenge. This horrible punishment is considered to be the climax of the list of punishments. The soul subjected to such terrible punishment is almost sure not to return to the human birth again. The question asked by you was exactly expressed by Me to Lord Dattatreya about ten years back. The Lord gave the above reply, which is presented here word by word. The Lord also showed Me the vision of such births, which showed the corrupt people on the left side and their souls becoming pigs and worms eating and dwelling in the excretion on the right side. I was so much irritated by that ghastly vision and suffered with illness for a long time, which was based on allergy. The illness was so serious increasing day by day and I thought that My death was very near. That wretched vision came to My brain again and again. Then, I prayed the Lord for protection through several prayers. The Lord appeared and touched Me with both hands from top to bottom smiling and saying that the answer is so as the question is. The Lord said that His knowledge is always characterized by the foremost quality called as truth as said in the Veda (Satyam, Jnanam...). Truth cannot be altered since it is harsh. I did not reveal this topic till now thinking that I should not harm the health of anybody. But, the Lord is forcing Me from inside to reveal the truth as revealed by Him to Me in the past. Since I cannot resist the force of the Lord, I am revealing. The Lord also says the reason for His force. The Lord says that the reason is that today the corruption for money spread even an atomic area of the creation. You also asked Me this question by His will only. We both are like the two sides of the drum alternatively beaten by the two hands of the Lord. Today, you made Me to expose the highest secret so far hidden by Me. The Lord also asks Me that this message should be translated into every language of the world and a print of this message should be kept on the notice board of the office of every public servant from top to bottom level. If anybody is affected by the allergy, I advise him to use the anti-allergic medicines immediately. I am extremely sorry for revealing this truth and I ask for the apology from everybody. Repentance followed by non-repetition of the sin certainly cancels the sin as per the divine offer given by God in this Kaliyuga. Remember that this offer did not exist in the previous 3 Yugas. But, there is an extra step involved in the sin of corruption for money. The sins are of two types: 1) the sin that can be cancelled by repentance and subsequent non-repetition. This type of sin has no possibility of rectification of the past sin already done. Ex: Ravana killed the bird Jataayu. He cannot give life to this bird after repentance. This sin is non-rectifiable. In this sin, repentance and non-repetition of the sin can cancel the past sin and here the total reformation is completed by these two steps only. 2) This type of sin is rectifiable with respect to the past sin. Therefore, repentance followed by rectification of the past sin and subsequently non-repetition of the similar sin can alone cancel the past sin. This type of sin involves three steps to burn the sin. Ex: Ravana stole Sita. This type of sin can be cancelled only by three steps. First is repentance of the sin done. Second is returning Sita to Rama. The third is not to repeat such a sin in the future. The corruption for money belongs to this second type of sin. You must return the money already earned by you through corruption to the same person from whom you collected it. The Gita says the same (Tairdattanapradaayaibhyo...Gita). The Veda says that while returning the money, you must analyse and you should not be blind in simply returning back the money (Samvidaadeyam). If the person from whom you collected the money is rich and bad, you need not return the money to him blindly to maintain the general norms of accounting. You should spend such money for the sake of good and poor people. A bad poor person can be helped in terms of material like food, clothes, medicines and shelter but not in terms of cash, which will be misused by him. Another situation of analysis is that, suppose you are not taking the money from a bad rich fellow by corruption, some other officer may take the same amount and use it personally. In such case, it is better that you should take the money through corruption and spend it in the above said right way. All this can be known only by the special knowledge called 'Samvit'. Don't donate the sinful money to the persons, who are already corrupt. You should donate this sinful money to good people only, who can spend that money in the proper way. Otherwise, if the returned money is misused by the undeserving persons, the sin will not leave you. You must take the responsibility in returning the sinful money for good cause and cannot leave the responsibility to others, who may misuse. You have to take all the pains in relinquishing your responsibility in proper way since the sin is done personally by you only. The first hymn of the first EeshavaasyaUpanishat of the first Rugveda says that you should not steal other's money, which speaks about the corruption only. By this, you can understand the importance given by the Veda to this most serious sin. It also says that you should enjoy the money associated with sacrifice to deserving receivers (Tenatyaktena...). The Veda also says that sacrifice of money alone is the practical philosophy that leads you to God (DhanenaTyagena). In the Gita, the Lord says everywhere that you should sacrifice the fruit of your work to Him. The essence of all these statement of scriptures is that i) you should avoid the corruption of money everywhere and prevent yourself in doing the sin. ii) If you have already committed the sin, rectification of the sin by returning it as said above should be done. iii) You should return the money to angels given by them to you (the Gita). This means that the angels are none but good people in this world. It means that you should never steal the money of a good person especially if he is poor. iv) When you donate to God, it should be the fruit of your hard work, which is the most pious money to be given to the most pious God. At least, it can be the money given by your parents (MadhyamamPituraarjitam). v) Donating money to the angels means donating the money to the devotees doing divine work of propagating the right spiritual knowledge so that the entire society gets rectified. This can be the already earned sinful money also since it is going to be spent for the rectification of the society only and the sinful money was collected from the society only. All these points constitute the steps of sharp analysis, which are necessary before you decide your action as said in the Gita (Jnaatvaakurvita). Rectification of the past sin is very complicated and sharp analysis is a must before taking decisions resulting in actions. Errors in such rectification will lead you to further sin. The basic concept in the donation of your hard earned money or paternal money or earned sinful money is that the donation should be done to the deserving receiver only and not to undeserving receiver. Not donating to deserving receivers and donating to undeserving receivers – both are serious sins as said in the Mahabharata. Your analysis should be based on this fundamental point. Shriyantra means correct plan of the sacrifice of money, which alone leads you to heaven in Pravrutti or to God in Nivrutti. This is the real interpretation of the worship of Shriyantra. Ignorant people worship Shriyantra to earn more money even through unlawful ways! In Kaliyuga, especially in the modern times, the corruption is spread everywhere and even the controlling agencies like Police, courts, etc., are also becoming corrupt. The basic reason for this chaos is that there is no inbuilt resistance to the sin in every citizen to be founded from the childhood through the education system. In the ancient days of Kaliyuga itself, the education system introduced by the Government (king or monarchy) contained lot of spiritual knowledge based on the concept of God, Heaven, hell, etc. Due to this inbuilt resistance, every citizen feared for God and hell to do the sin since the punishment from God can never be escaped. The present democratic government, especially in India, is spoiled due to the concept of secularism. The secularism is misunderstood as atheism so that no religion is favoured. It is actually strong theism favouring all the religions. Secularism means the universal spiritual knowledge present in all the religions. Secularism means taking the same medicine existing in different coloured bottles in small quantities from each bottle. But, today, the misunderstood secularism is not to take the medicine from any bottle! The government following a specific religion as conservative is far better than such misunderstood secularism. Such conservative government maintains a single coloured bottle only containing the medicine. At least, it takes the medicine from that single bottle. Corruption in such countries having conservative governments is found at very minimum level. Today, moral classes are introduced in the education system to very little extent. Morals are taught without the basic concept of God, Heaven and hell. Nobody likes to follow the morals if there is a chance to fool the courts. Morals are followed only for the fear of court punishments. If such punishments can be escaped by over intelligence, there is no loss at all in doing the sin and in such case also if the sin is not done it is mere foolishness! Instead, the concept of God as omniscient and the inevitable hell will control anybody to do the sin because over intelligence fails in the case of God. The ancient kings were very clever in developing the spiritual knowledge to large extent in the education system for creating the inbuilt resistance to the sin in every citizen from the childhood. Due to this, the sin became very rare and the controlling agencies were very few resulting in very smooth administration. In a large kingdom, there used to be a single court (Dharmasanam) in presence of the king since only very few cases of sin used to come from the entire kingdom. The police departments were almost non-existent. The reason was everybody feared to do the sin fearing for the omniscient and omnipotent God because even if you escape the court, you can never escape God. Therefore, the lack of place for spiritual knowledge in the education system is the main reason for such expansion of corruption. A specific course called philosophy exists, which can be taken by anybody if interested and we find very very few students only in such course! This is not correct. The philosophy or spiritual knowledge should be common to every student from L.K.G. to P.G. level since every citizen needs the inbuilt resistance to the sin. Introduction of the spiritual knowledge in the education system alone can bring a permanent solution, which is the fundamental rectification. People misunderstand that spiritual knowledge is limited to nivrutti (God & devotion etc.), which is the second part only. The first part of the spiritual knowledge is actually the pravrutti (social justice).You must remember that the Lord said in the Gita that He comes down to earth to establish pravrutti only (dharmasamsthaapanaarthaaya …). www.universal-spirituality[.]org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE SOLVES CORRUPTION Today our country is facing a very serious problem. The poor man does not receive the fruits of the schemes implemented by the Government, so the poor are becoming poorer day by day. This is the reason of the unrest and tension in the minds of majority of the public since the majority is poor. Every political party, which is voted to power, tries to serve the poor by implementing good schemes. But, the fruits of every scheme are filtered by a screen called corruption. The authorities involved in the implementation of the schemes snatch away the fruits, so the rich become richer day by day. All the wealth is concentrated with the minority of the public, which is involved in the implementation process. Sometimes, even the Government is a part and parcel of the implementation machinery. The persons involved in the Government are also becoming richer and richer day by day. Therefore, from this angle, we need not isolate the Government from the personnel involved in the implementation. Well! The exact problem is identified. But, nobody is recognizing the exact solution of this exact problem. The poor public is changing the political party everytime with great ambition expecting that the new Government will effectively implement the schemes. When a new political party appears, the poor public rise like a Tsunami wave with the greatest expectation and ambition in this direction. In the absence of the new political party, the majority of the public repeatedly changes the old parties expecting that the defeated party must have understood the reason for its defeat and will implement the schemes successfully on its turn. But, the same old story repeats whether a defeated party wins or a new political party wins. I do not blame any party for its failure because in the absence of the knowledge of the exact solution, no party can do anything. Sympathy And Fear Are Temporary Solutions Therefore, the identification of the exact solution is very important to eradicate corruption, which is the real filtering screen. You cannot control the implementing authorities by appeals or by threatening with punishments. If you appeal or threaten, there will be some partial control, which is also temporary. Both these methods cannot bring complete and everlasting controls. Christianity believed in creating sympathy through appeals. They always show the crucifixion of Jesus with the blood. They create more concern in your heart by saying that Jesus underwent crucifixion for the sake of your sins and try to transform the heart through kindness and love. This is certainly a good method to bring transformation. Islam tries to bring the transformation through fear by showing punishments. Of course, Christianity also shows the eternal Hell finally for the punishment. All these methods are good in the case of illiterate and ignorant people but the implementing machinery consists of high intellectuals who doubt the very existence of Hell and God. Their faith on God is theoretical and fails in practical implementation. The intellectual is always convinced by logical analysis. This is the reason for the extraordinary development of Meta physics in Hinduism. The different sects in Hindu Religion neither adapt the method of sympathy nor the method of fear to propagatetheir sects. The Vaishnava sect does not show the weeping Rama in the forest nor does the Shaiva sect show Lord Shiva drinking the fuming poison for the sake of the protection of the world. These sects never impose threatening policies to propagate their Gods. These methods may be good in the case of the illiterate masses and hence, were adopted in certain times, in certain places and under certain circumstances. The best method of propagation is always logical analysis and it is successful in all times, at all places and under all circumstances. Therefore, debates between the scholars of the sects of Hinduism take place even today. There is neither the element of sympathy nor the element of terrorism in the effort of propagation of their sects. The Scholars of Advaita, Vishishta Advaita and Dvaita continue the debates even today. Such debate is based on the quest for truth and there should be no enmity or hatred or any ill-feeling. Logical Analysis of the Truth is the Permanent Solution There are two types of terrorism. The first type is based on the ignorance of God, which is the result of atheism. If atheism spreads in this society, the immediate step will be terrorism. All the poor people will unite and kill all the rich people. In the first step, all the richest people will be killed. In the second step, all the richer people will be killed. Since there will be no uniformity in the concept of richness. All the people will kill each other and nobody will remain on this Earth. The second type of terrorism is to kill people to propagate their religion. The propagation of religion should not be through threat. It should not be also by sympathy. It should be through logical analysis, which will convince the intelligence of every human being. Once the brain is convinced, the acceptance will be total and eternal. Shankara, the incarnation of God adopted this method only for propagation. Atheism is ignorance. The conservative faith of a specific religion is wrong knowledge. Both ignorance and wrong knowledge are not correct methods of propagation of God. The logical analysis establishing Universal Spirituality to avoid the partiality of God is the best method to bring total and eternal transformation of humanity. Therefore, the correct solution to avoid corruption so that the fruits of the schemes implemented by any Government can reach the poor is the stress given on spiritual education. Today, the system of education is entirely concentrated on materialism only. There is no trace of place for spiritual knowledge in the present system of education. In the ancient days, the Governments run by kings always stressed on spiritual education. The concepts of existence of God and existence of Hell were established in the minds of the people even from their childhood. The fear for God and the fear for sin must fill the brain even from the childhood. This will totally eradicate corruption. Then, the fruits will reach the poor. The gap between the poor and the rich will be reduced. There will be social balance, which results in total peace. Without implementing this solution, changing Governments with new parties becomes only beating around the bush.

Dharmaadharma Prakaranam (Topic of Justice and Injustice) 1) Pīḍanaṃ copakāraśca, dvayaṃ sat pāpa puṇyayoḥ | Darśanānna tarka sādhyaḥ, nirṇayaḥ kṣīra vārivat|| [Some define justice as help done to others and injustice as the harm done to others. The higher form of this definition is different, which means that help done to good people and harm done to bad people is justice whereas harm done to good people and help done to bad people is injustice. Hence, the soul must have both capacities and qualities to do help as well as harm. Both these are to be used in proper contexts and such capacity is justice. If both these are used in improper contexts, it is injustice. Hence, one shall be wise and logical and shall not think that all that is white is milk and all that is black is water. Justice and injustice are decided by sharp analysis of the deed and not by simple observation of the deed.] 2) Śreṣṭhārthāt para śabdasya, Vyāsārthaḥ Kṛṣṇa gītayā | Yujyate Vaiṣṇavau dvau hi, paritrāṇa vināśavāk || [You should not doubt that how sage Vyaasa said helping others is justice and harming others is injustice. The answer is that if you take the meaning of the word ‘para’ as a good person instead of taking the meaning of the same word as other person, you can get the correct concept (Paropakāraḥ Puṇyāya, Pāpāya Para Pīḍanam) and this results in saying that helping a good person is justice and harming a good person is injustice. This correct concept is clearly told by Lord Krishna that helping good people and harming bad people are the purposes for the descending of God as an incarnation (Paritrāṇāya Sādhūnām, Vināśāya ca Duṣkṛtām— Gita). In this way, correlation between Vyaasa and Krishna are to be realized since both are the incarnations of God Vishnu and contradiction cannot be there.] 3) Pravṛttau dharma vijayo, Nivṛttāvapi tat priyāt | So'dhiko dharmatastrātā, dharmo'gro tasya śāstrataḥ || [In Pravrutti, justice is to be always voted for against injustice because the result of justice is happiness in heaven and the result of injustice is unhappiness in hell. A Pravrutti follower naturally votes for justice against injustice based on this point. Even the devotee of Nivrutti follows the same line because God likes justice and dislikes injustice. In Nivrutti, likes of God become the likes of the devotee and the dislikes of God become the dislikes of the devotee. Hence, this concept is the monarch in both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. A person who has failed in Pravrutti has no admission into Nivrutti. But, if God Himself competes with justice, God is to be voted for and not justice. God is the protector of the justice-cow. The ultimate aim of justice is also pleasing God only. Except this one context, justice is always upheld by God since justice is given the top most place in the divine constitution written by God.] 4) Sūtrābhyāṃ Nārado brūte, Parīkṣit praśnagottram | Vistaraṃ dṛśyatāṃ no'tra, saddharmo Bhagavān sadā || [King Pariikshit asked sage Shuka “why did God break justice by dancing with the married Gopikas, Himself being the preacher, founder and protector of justice? (Sa kathaṃ dharma setūnām… - Bhagavatam)”. Sage Narada gave the answer for this question in his Bhaktisutras by saying that since the lust in the Brundavanam dance is based on the devotion to God, it is justice only. If this devotion is absent, it would have been injustice or illegal lust that is based on the hormonal provocation as seen in ordinary living beings (Tatrāpi na…, tadvihīnam…). You are recommended to read our explanation given on Madhura Bhakti in detail. This means that when you vote for justice against God, on very sharp analysis, you will find that justice in that context is really injustice whereas God is on the side of the real justice!] 5) Dharmā dharmau vibhidyete, deśa kālair na maulikau| Vimarśaiḥ sattayā bodhyau, gahanā karma dharma dhīḥ || [Justice and injustice change as per time and place. But there are certain fundamental concepts of justice and injustice, which do not change at all with place and time. Such changing concepts are not that serious to harm any good person. Based on these changing concepts of justice and injustice, you should not change the concepts of basic justice and basic injustice. Sometimes justice appears as injustice and vice-versa, and you will understand the true picture only on deep analysis of a situation. Analysis of justice and injustice of deeds is very very complicated and is a very very deep subject.] 6) Saṅkalpaiḥ phala maśnāti, rakṣas tvatpada mānaya | Sattvamātraṃ khale daivam, bhinnaṃ svārthāśanaṃ na tat || [Any one will receive the fruit of the deed by the intension existing in the mind and the doer of the action must place himself/herself in the place of the victim and then only judge the intension as said in the Gita (Ātmavat sarvabhūtāni…). While killing a bird or animal for your food, you may argue that you do not have any ill intension against that bird or animal and with good intention of getting tasty and nutritious food only, you are killing it and hence, such action shall not bring any sinful result to you. This is not a correct argument because if you place yourself in the place of the bird or animal in the context of a demon killing you for his nutritious food, you will get a chain of correct arguments in your brain! Such idea comes only in the case of innocent beings and not in the case of bad souls, which are punished by God with death. In this context, only killing bad souls to uplift justice exists and there is no selfish act of eating the bad soul!] 7) Śākamāṃsāśanaṃ hyekam, bhinna manyatra cidvadhaḥ | Bahvaṃśā vistareṇoktāḥ, paśvājyajñā hi vaidikāḥ || [Once the flesh is collected from a killed animal, such flesh and vegetable food are same as per the composition. But, in the case of the flesh, the living being having awareness was killed and this brings sin to the eater of the flesh. You are responsible for the seller to cut the animal and hence, you have to get equal punishment of the sin since the doer, responsible for doing the act, the initiator and the supporter would share the sin equally (kartā kārayitā caiva…). Some argue that plants have life and eating them is also a sin. Plants have the inert respiration of taking oxygen and leaving carbon dioxide (Prāṇamaya Kośa), but, do not have awareness due to the lack of a brain-nervous system. The agony of being killed is experienced only by awareness. Sedation in killing is just added cheating in the sin. Even a big tree has inert respiration, but, not non-inert awareness (Manomaya kośa). However, even an amoeba having a single cell has a neuro spot. Both these are different subjects called Botany and Zoology. God clearly ordered in the Veda that food shall be from plants (oṣadhībhyo'nnam) only. Taking milk from a cow is not killing the cow. Killing of animals in sacrifices is another bogus insertion because the Veda aims at killing the animal nature and not killing an actual animal, and burning ghee in sacrifice also symbolizes burning desire (Manyuḥ paśuḥ, kāma ājyam). Symbolic killing of animals prepared by grain-flour was the correct procedure of sacrifices. We have to reject several wrong insertions in the scriptures done by wrong people through perfect logic. We have discussed several points on this topic in detail for the enlightenment of the truth.] 😎 Sadasadviveka ekaḥ, karadīpa ssato dṛśe | Saṃpradāyaśca śāstraṃ ca, tyajyatā mandha kūpagaiḥ || [Justice is always decided by logic and not by scripture or tradition because there is a lot of pollution in scripture and tradition. If tradition and scripture support a specific deed as justice, it should not be blindly accepted because of insertions and deletions in the stream of time. Prahlada did not accept the traditional custom of hating Vishnu and worshiping Shiva. Any concept stamped as justice shall be analyzed from top to bottom in all angles before accepting it as justice. Shankara stressed on logic to discriminate truth and false without which even scripture and experience were denied. Whether it is a point of justice or injustice or a point of spiritual knowledge, you must use your capacity of sharp logical analysis without which you shall never accept since truth shall convince your inner consciousness. Logic shall always be your torch light and without logic-light, you are forced to become blind and fall in the well!]

EARNING OF MONEY INCREASES INTEREST FOR IT Shri Surya asked: "You have given an excellent message on the consequences of financial corruption and rectification of it. Today, the corruption in the sexual life is also on the top. I would like to know what will be the fate of the souls involved in the corruption in sexual life”. Shri Swami Replied: The sex and corruption in sex take place in the time of night in which moon exists and not Surya (Sun). Hence, the Sun is asking about the subject of moon as the principle opposition party questions about the activities of ruling party. Of course, the activity of the sex in the night time is only traditional, but, in the modern times, it is also taking place in the day time! Hence, Surya is also concerned on this topic! Let us come to the subject since this is only a joke put to My friend, Surya. Surya may say that he is My devotee, but, I say that the devotional relationship (Bhakti) between the human incarnation and devotee can be in several ways and friendship (Sakhyam) is said to be one of these types. I am exposing this aspect to advise My devotees to be My friends in putting the questions without any hesitation or reservation. You can criticize or even scold Me if you find anything not correct in My knowledge similar to your dealing with you close friends. Please do not think that I will be hurt if you scold Me in the friendship. I am certainly ignorant but not ignorant to such low level to feel hurt when My friend criticizes My concept. Your criticism of My knowledge indicates the extent of your anxiety and your deep interest to know the truth in the concepts of knowledge given by Me to you. I will be more happy about such type of frank dealing with Me as a friend. Hence, strictly follow the mode of friendship–devotion towards Me while participating in this spiritual sacrifice or Jnana Yajna. Unless you are frank in your question, I cannot be clear in My answer. Unless My answer is clear, it will not be helpful to the humanity. Therefore, your frankness promotes My clarity in the knowledge resulting in the benefit of humanity. More you become frank and critic towards Me, more will be the benefit to humanity and more will be the quality of your service to God. Arjuna is said to be the example for the type of friendship-devotion. The reason is that this type of devotion is essential to enter the state of full freedom and frankness in getting the clarifications in the knowledge to the deepest level. This is the basis of the human incarnation in which God appears to be a human being so that friendship is possible, which is essential in preaching the knowledge. The human incarnation will never expose its unimaginable God-component because it is beyond the imagination of any human being. Hence, only the human being-component is always exposed since it can be only exposed. The only other way to expose the God-component is to expose the God component as the energetic form (energetic incarnation). Such energetic form like Vishnu or Shiva is also within the limits of the perception of human being. But, if the energetic form is expressed in its infinite climax, the highest quantity of energy (Vishvaroopa), it is visible, but, creates fear in the heart of the preceptor. Arjuna feared a lot on seeing such vision and prayed the Lord to excuse him if mistakes slipped from his mouth due to friendship. The human incarnation does not like to exhibit the lighter or heaviest energetic forms to its devotees because the concept of friendship is affected and the freedom is reduced or even lost. In such case, the sacrifice of knowledge will not be fully effective to give full benefit to the humanity. Giving visions of energetic forms is stopped by Me also since at present the Lord is seriously involved in the knowledge sacrifice, which requires frank questions from friends. This human incarnation also gave visions of divine energetic forms to several devotees in the initial stage before starting this program of knowledge just for attracting the people. In such attracted people, some learned devotees interested in the knowledge are selected for the participation and further propagation of knowledge. Now, the full freedom is given and maintained, which is essential for the present program. If you see the trend of questions from Arjuna after the vision of the form of cosmic energy, you can easily find that the trend is mild. Later on, the friendship of Arjuna with the Lord was also not to the full extent. Obedience entered Arjuna towards the Lord after this incident. The Lord never wished to give this vision to Arjuna. Arjuna compelled the Lord by asking for it. Best Worship of God - Read His Messages & Enjoy I also tell one more point. The best worship of the absolute God, Lord Dattatreya is only to read His messages and enjoy. The extent of your joy in such reading is directly proportional to the extent of the pleasure rising in His heart towards you. The Lord in the Gita says that He is pleased only by the sacrifice of knowledge (Jnanayajnena tenaaham…). When a professor publishes a Research paper and if you read deeply and enjoy deeply expressing the appreciation to that extent, the professor will be pleased towards you to the maximum extent. Therefore, all of you read the messages sincerely, enjoy and propagate in this world so that all will get this benefit apart from the real reformation for the sake of balance of the society. We are going out of the limits of the question asked by Shri. Surya. Still, I find this as proper to bring your hearts in lighter vein before we enter into the analysis of this serious and delicate topic. At least let us come to the present topic. Otherwise, the inherently hot Surya will become hotter if he is annoyed by further delay! The corruption in sex is just similar to the corruption in wealth because wife is the wealth of husband and husband is the wealth of wife. However, wealth is the total aspect where as sex is a partial aspect of the wealth. If wealth is there, you can get food, clothes, shelter, fame, even sex also and what not? There is a saying that even monkey will come down from the top of hill if money is in your hand. Another saying is that a coin is thrown on dead body while saluting it expecting that the life may come back due to the coin! If wealth is not there, even the wife/husband in the modern times will give you divorce. If the husband does not earn, the wife will be unhappy and as a girl, she will not marry him at all. If the wife is unemployed or does not bring dowry or some wealth in some other name, the boy also will not marry the girl telling some other reason and hiding the actual reason. If you do frank and deep analysis without any reservation and hesitation in expression, it is very clear that keeping silent about money in the context of selecting the alliance for marriage is only hypocrisy of the humanity. Money is the root of entire worldly life (Dhanamulamidam Jagat). Therefore, sacrifice of money is the real proof for the real love and hence the Veda said that sacrifice of money alone will bring the real proof of your real love to anybody including God (Dhanena Tyaagena). The bond with money is the strongest of all the bonds. In this also, the bond with hard earned money is the strongest because you realize the value of money when it is hard-earned. The ancestral property has come to you as a lot, which is hardly earned by you. However, since it is also your money, it comes to the second place. There are processions and revolutions of groups of human beings called as parties or associations in the case of fighting against injustice in financial matters in the society. Regarding the cases in sex, there are only individual cases of fighting filed in the court. Therefore, money is the total main root of the worldly life-tree. Sex is only a branch of the tree or partial life. After participation in the sex, interest is lost. But, after earning some money, interest increases. There is limitation for sex but not limitation for the ambition to earn money. The difference between wealth and sex is the difference between the root and branch or total strength and partial strength. However, since sex is a part of the worldly life, which is totally supported by the money in long run, all the aspects related to corruption for money apply in toto to the aspects of corruption for sex also. This is the difference between the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Ramayana shows corruption for sex. The Mahabharata shows corruption for wealth. In the case of the Ramayana, all the monkeys fought on the side of Rama due to their personal devotion to Rama. In the case of the Mahabharata, the war between the two sects (Pandavas and Kauravas) took place because the groups are interested in the common enjoyment of wealth. People also supported justified rule of Pandavas and were against the unjust rule of Kauravas and hence, were indirectly involved. The Ramayana is about the individual case of Rama and Ravana. The Mahabharata is a case of two groups (Pandavas and Kauravas). Even a saint lives without sex, but, cannot live without food, clothes and shelter. Therefore, corruption for money is the total problem and corruption for sex is a partial and personal problem. Coming to the topic in strict sense, the divine basis of sex is to extend the human generations so that the actors for the continuous series of dramas or film shootings are available forever, which is the basic requirement of the entertainment of God. Hence, the majority of humanity is always involved in this activity of sex, which is the effect of the materialised biological reactions. The other similar effects are hunger, thirst etc. If you view the sex in this angle, one need not feel shy regarding the sexual activity as one need not feel shy in eating food and drinking water. This is the reason why the sex education is being introduced in the educational system also. The statues of sexual activity are seen on the walls of the temples indicating that sex is an essential divine aspect of the commandments of God. If you do not understand this divine angle of sex, you will find fault with those statues appearing on the walls of the temples. It is only education of sex. After money (artha), sex (kama) is given the place in the four principle requirements of human life (purusharthas). God said that He is the sex, which is not against the justice being the activity confined between legal husband and legal wife (dharmaaviruddhah kamosmi… Gita). Here, God means sacred in this sense of context, not virtually the God. It means such sex is divine and sacred. The great sage, Vaatsaayana composed the sacred book called Kama Sutra. A sacred sage will never write unholy book. The angle of knowledge is important and not the inert activity (jnaatvaa kurvita karmaani- Gita). A doctor has to touch the private parts of the body in the examination during the diagnosis, which is the prior requirement for a treatment. As we hear the news, sometimes, a doctor exploits this and is involved in the unjust sex. Similarly, some Swamijis and some Babas. This sin exists in other religions also. Religion cannot do anything because the basic behaviour of the entire humanity is one and the same in the essential activities like eating food, drinking water, sleeping in the night, sexual activity etc. Since getting issues to extend the humanity is the ultimate goal of the sex, this activity related to issues should be mainly analysed. The issue is born from the womb of the mother. There is a saying that the mother only can inform to the child about its real father. But, now, this is not a problem because DNA test gives the proof of parents. We must appreciate science here. Whoever may be the father, the mother is certainly known because the child comes from her womb only and this information need not the doubted. Hence, the mother gives earning to her child. The doubt is about the father only since father also should be certain to give his property to his child. Therefore, corruption in sex is not only an ethical issue but also a legal issue in dealing with the heir of the property. In future, the corruption for sex may reach climax and a law may be introduced stating that the heir of the father’s property should produce the DNA certificate! But, ethics gives a solution here. Even though the issue was not generated by the father, the property of the father can come to the issue because issue can be treated as adopted, which is grown by father since, law says that adopted issue also is the heir of the property. No Sin Results From No Intention or Pure Intention Coming to ethics (Dharma or Pravrutti), it is also a divine subject. If justice is violated in Pravrutti, which alone can develop the basic confidence on you in the mind of God, Nivrutti is out of question. It is unjust to enjoy others’ wives or husbands, who are the wealth of others through secret stealing or corruption leading to paining others and also to legal problems. One may say that in such case, if the secrecy is maintained, paining others will not result and the legal problems can be avoided by taking medical care. One may also support his logic by saying that Lord Krishna danced with Gopikas (Rasaleela) in the midnights only to avoid hurting their husbands. The case of Krishna is totally different since that angle is completely a separate view. The angle of awareness called intention (samkalpa) is more important than the inert activity (karma). The intention leads to desire and the desire leads to activity (Samkalpa prabhavaan kaamaan- Gita). The inert activity also leads to desire and subsequent intention to do another sin. This is reversible equilibrium between the forward (intention leading to activity) and backward (activity leading to intention) reactions, which is called as the cycle of deeds (karma chakra). The first hymn of the first Upanishat says to avoid the inert activity also and considers it also a sin due to its inevitable further consequence (maagrudhah kasyasvit dhanam) resulting in continuous mobility of the cycle of deeds. It means that you should not steal others money or wealth whether you have intention or not. Even though there is a concept that mere inert activity is not a sin without intention, this concept is neglected because it is not possible in the case of an ordinary person. Certainly, the intention or angle is linked to the sin as in the case of sincere and false doctors touching the private parts of the body. Sita said that there cannot be sin when her body touched the body of Ravana while stealing her since she was under the forcible control of Ravana (yadyaham gaatrasamsparsham…). She refused to sit on the shoulders of Hanuman since the touch here is to be done by Her while She is in her own control. The angles or intentions differ in both the cases. Sage Vyasa also participated in the sex with the widow-wives of His brothers on the order of His mother for the extension of her race. Lord Krishna also participated in sex with married Gopikas in order to test the strength of their bonds with husbands (Dareshana) competing with God. In all these cases of Sita, Vyasa and Krishna, the cycle was struck at a point without further motion. The inert activity had no intention or other pure intention before it and also could not generate any intention further. This means that the inert activity was done without intention (Sita) and with other pure intention (Vyasa and Krishna). Vaatsayana says that touch of the bodies is also the preliminary external part of sex. Hence, Sita was blamed by washer-man though Agni (fire test) gave the certificate that She had no intention at all. In the case of Sita, the cycle was struck due to absence of prior intention and generation of subsequent intention before and after the activity respectively and hence, the blame is unreal and unjust. In the case of Krishna and Vyasa also, the cycle was struck because of other pure intentions (test of the strength of bond and extension of race respectively) existing before activity and no birth of intention after activity. No intention (Sita) and other pure intensions (Krishna and Vyasa) cannot be touched by sin as in the case of a sincere doctor touching the private parts of the body for diagnosis. Shri Hanuman while searching Sita in Lanka had to enter the bed room of Ravana, in which He had to observe several unclothed ladies lying on the beds to confirm whether Sita is forced into the bed room. He says there that He is not sinful by seeing such unclothed ladies due to the absence of prior and posterior intentional desires, which are the characteristics of mind (manohi hetuh...). Lord Vishnu cheated the wife of Jalandhara to do corrupt sex. But, here the intention is not to enjoy that lady, though she was a Gopika interested in Krishna (Vishnu). The intention here is to kill Jalandhara, who was fighting with Lord Shiva aspiring for Goddess Parvati. Such pure intention cancels even the sin involved in corrupt sex. Body of two inert parts (Anna and Prana) and the inert sexual activity of the inert bodies (karma) are sinless. The other three parts (Mind, intelligence and happiness) belong to non-inert awareness creating intention and desire. The sin is related to awareness (nervous energy) only and not to inert matter and energy. Some over intellectuals exploit this concept by saying that skin to skin, there is no sin! This is correct because the skin is inert. But, the nerves below the skin become aware of the inert activity generating desire and intention to repeat the activity again and again. The inevitable consequence of this activity leading to chain of sins brings the real sin. If the awareness is untouched by the activity, there should not be the repetition of the inert activity. The inertia cannot repeat itself. In these divine cases, the awareness is pure due to no intention or other pure intention devoid of sexual desire. Hence, these divine cases are out of punishment due to lack of sin. If you take the case of an ordinary human being, this inert activity of inert bodies (karma) generates the sexual desire that leads to another inert sexual activity. The case of ordinary human beings involves the continuous rotation of the cycle resulting in series of sins. In the divine cases, since the cycle is struck at the point of inert activity only without further generation of sexual desire, the cycle cannot continue. This is the reason why Sita refused to sit on the shoulders of Hanuman, why Vyasa did not participate in such sexual activity after that single incident and why Krishna did not dance with anybody after leaving Brundavanam. Similarly, Hanuman had the prior pure intention to search Sita only and after the activity of seeing the unclothed ladies, the desire to see again the unclothed ladies never was born in His mind that promotes such activity again. Punishment of Sexual Corruption Two cases came to Me for My advice. One is the case of a person whose wife was forcibly raped by the hijacker of a plane. I advised the husband to accept the wife since she had no intention and more over the husband failed in his duty to protect her. Another case was a fraud saint cheating a female devotee by saying that the sex with her is the will of God. The cheated lady participated in the sex due to her extreme devotion and was unable to recognise the exploitation. I advised the husband to accept her because her intention was not sexual desire with that saint but was the excellent devotion to God. This is a case of other pure intention without the corrupt sexual desire. Hence, not only the existence of intention but also the purity of intention is to be judged in deciding the sin and punishment. In these cases, the hijacker and the fraud saint will be certainly punished by God because their intentions were the corrupt sexual desires only. Hair split analysis is required not only in Nivrutti but also in Pravrutti. The corruption for sex in the case of normal human beings involving the secret sexual activity has prior corrupt sexual intention and also the subsequent generation of the same leading to the repetition of the same activity is generating chain of sins. The punishment for this chain of sins in the hell is very serious. A copper statue having the same form of male or female with which this corruption was done, is heated to the red hot stage and the other partner is forcibly made to embrace the statue again and again. You can never imagine the agony caused in this repeated punishment. The repetition of punishment is due to the repetition of the same sin again and again by the human beings controlled by the constantly rotating cycle of deeds. A single sin done without prior and posterior intentions cannot have the punishment. As per the bumper offer given in Kali Yuga to humanity by God, even the chain of sins can be cancelled if one realises and repents by stopping the chain due to avoiding the generation of further intention that can stop the repetition of sin. A follower of the atheist Charvaka wrote a verse stating that the incapable husbands unable to satisfy their wives and unable to control them in doing sexual corruption, have written on the palm leaves that a man should not touch others’ wives, which is their plan to bring control from the other side! Such promoters of sin will be subjected to the above punishment in the hell till the end of the creation. The punishment for the propagation of sin is very very serious compared to the punishment of an individual sinner. Hence, propagation of true knowledge is very important and involves high risk because propagation of wrong knowledge leads to endless punishment. This is the reason for the logical analysis to be done for filtering the wrong knowledge of insertions from the true divine knowledge given by God. Keeping silent without propagation is better than propagating wrong knowledge. Zero is better than negative sign. Shankara also performed sexual corruption with the wives of king Amaruka. This is a very special case and hence explained separately. While Shankara climbed the steps to sit on the throne of Sarvajna Peetham in south India, Goddess Saraswati blamed Shankara not to climb the throne since He is a sinner due to that sexual corruption. Shankara gave a wonderful reply saying since such inert sexual activity could not generate the corrupt sexual desire in Him, which is proved by the absence of repetition of such sexual activity again in the rest part of His life, the sin cannot touch Him (this aspect is well explained above). The second additional reason given by Him to support the absence of sin is that the original body of Shankara did not participate in such sexual corruption so that the inert domain is also pure without sin. The additional third supporting reason given by Him was that the body with which the sex done with the wives of Amaruka was the same dead body of the same husband, Amaruka, into which the soul of Shankara entered to make it alive, for such activity in order to learn the practical sexual education in which Shankara was challenged in the previous debate by Goddess Saraswati. In this reason, such sex was not corruption at all because the bodies involved were of the same husband and the same wives. In this reason, He argued further that the inside soul, Himself, was detached due to lack of prior and posterior intentions. In the special case of Shankara, both the domains of inertness and awareness are pure and hence the sin cannot be even imagined. The second and third reasons are only reinforcements of the first reason because by the first reason itself Shankara became sinless like Sita, Vyasa, Krishna and Hanuman. If you pass by forty marks, forty one marks will not affect the status of pass in any way and the extra one mark can be said to be the reinforcement of pass. Essentially, Sita, Vyasa, Krishna, Hanuman and Shankara were all passed candidates. Shankara being extra genius argued strongly His case from several angles. Stop Sinful Activity at Some Stage & Stop of Cycle of Deeds The angle of the intention is important in this critical analysis. If the sinful angle is absent, it is the case of no intention as in the case of the side of lady in forced rapes. If the same activity without force or cheating is done with some other intention, which is pure, such activity also cannot bring the sin. Each side should be individually analysed. In the case of Sita, she is pure without any sin. In the same case, Ravana is sinful due to his force and bad intention. The activity is same involving both but one side is sinless and other side is sinful. In the case of Vyasa also, His side is sinless and the other side is also sinless because of lack of any bad intention in the widow wives except the extension of race. In the case of Krishna, He is sinless because His intention is not bad, which is pure, being the final spiritual test of the holy sages in the form of Gopikas. In this case, the other side is equally sinless because the sages in the form of Gopikas proved that their bonds to God are stronger than any other worldly bond. In the case of Hanuman, He is sinless because of no bad intention and because of the other good intention to search for Sita. The other side, the unclothed ladies are also sinless because they were in the state of deep sleep as far as the activity of seeing them is concerned. Shankara is also sinless because of no bad intention and the other side was also sinless since the wives of Amaruka enjoyed the body of their husband only. He found fault with Goddess Saraswati being the root cause of the whole incident since She started testing Him in the sex education, which is irrelevant to the spiritual knowledge. She became afraid for this reverse attack from Shankara and immediately prayed Him to sit on the throne! In all these cases, the bad intention related to the sinful activity is absent resulting in the state of no intention. Even though some other intention exists, since it is pure, it cannot bring sin. All these cases are uniformly characterised by the non-repetition of the sinful activity again due to the non-regeneration of bad intention from such activity that can lead to the same activity again and again. As per the liberalised law of God in Kali Yuga, if the sinful activity is stopped at some stage resulting in stopping the revolving cycle of deeds, such case also can be listed as one of the above divine cases cancelling the total past sin. The idea is to stop the revolving cycle of deeds by putting a full stop to the sin somewhere at some time in the life. The non-repetition of the sin is the only real end of the sin. The aim of the punishment is also the same. A sinner is jailed not for the sin done in the past, but, jailing him is only to prevent him from the repetition of the sin in future by moving freely in the society. The sin, punishment, cycle of deeds etc., is the most complicated topic and analysis differs from one case to the other (Gahanaa karmano gathih- Gita).

ATTACHMENT TO WORLD CHANGES TO ATTACHMENT OF GOD IN FINAL STAGE Dr. Nikhil asked about the pressures in the worldly life and their consequent effects on the spiritual life. Swami replied: There are three stages. In the first stage, the human being is very much involved in the family life and is strongly bound by the family bonds. This deep attachment is the reason for disturbance and tension. You are watching a cinema. You are not attached to any role in the picture. You are totally detached from every role. You know that the whole story is an imagination of the writer. The lack of reality of the picture and also your detachment from all the roles form the basis of your entertainment without any tension. Shankara says that this world is unreal because it is temporary in the sense that there is continuous change (Yat anityam tat kritakam hi loke). Based on the same reason, all your family bonds also must be unreal because they are temporary limited to this life only. Truth is always eternal like the rope that exists in all the times. The illusory serpent is always unreal since it is temporary as it is seen for sometime only. Rope is present as rope only even during the time of illusion. Therefore, this world is not different from the cinema. Based on this philosophy of Shankara, you can get yourself detached from every worldly bond and enjoy this world as a cinema. You may argue that the family bonds may be unreal due to birth and death of every human being, but the world exists continuously and we have not realized the creation and dissolution of the world. By this, let us assume that this world is real. Still, you can be entertained due to your detachment from the unreal bonds even in the real world. Even if it is not cinema and even if it is the real story of some other family in this world, you are entertained by them and their story, since you are detached from them. You have to attain this second stage, which is the stage of God. Whether the world is unreal or real, God is entertained by it due to His detachment. For God, this world is actually unreal. Soul being a part of this world cannot treat the world as unreal because for unreal soul, unreal world is real. You can be entertained by the world as God is entertained. This is attainable characteristic of God. You can enjoy the cinema like His officer while sitting in the cinema hall. Entertainment by enjoyment is common in all the spectators and the status of anyone is immaterial and irrelevant during the period of the entertainment. If you can enjoy the world throughout your life, you are equal to God throughout your life having the same characteristic of entertainment. The producer-fluid-director is also enjoying like any other spectator only. The talent and power in the production and direction is irrelevant here. You can treat the irrelevant point as non-existent. In this sense Shankara told that world is unreal. You need not worry about the non-attainable characteristics of God like creation, control and dissolution of the world. These three capacities are non-attainable and differentiate you from the producer-fluid-director or God. Brahman is name of God used in the aspect of the spectator. Eeshwara is the name of God used in the aspect of the special power and talent of God. Jeeva or human being is Brahman (Jeevo Brahmaiva – Shankara) but not Eeshwara. Entertainment is the ultimate goal and hence Brahman is ultimate. Eeshwara is a special status of Brahman and the goal of all the efforts of Eeshwara is only to become Brahman and to make Jeeva also as Brahman. The producer-fluid-director does not mind if his peon is also enjoying the cinema on par with him. In fact, he wishes so only and is pleased with such state of everybody. The peon can say that he is also a spectator like his boss. There is nothing wrong up to this point. But, the problem comes if the peon takes undue advantage of such equality and says that he is the producer-fluid-director and puts his hand over the shoulder of the boss. One can say that he is Brahman, but should not say that he is Eeshwara since Brahman and Eeshwara are one and the same. The talent of production and direction of the cinema is hidden in the boss and only spectatorship is exhibited. Spectatorship is not only a partial characteristic but also an external associated characteristic since it did not exist before the creation. The talent and power of production and direction is internal and inherent characteristic that existed even before production and direction. Hence, you have not really become the real God. This second stage is the only answer for the problem of worldly tensions. You can solve your problem and be happy always achieving the attainable characteristic of mere spectatorship of God. God will not mistake you for attaining His characteristic to lead a happy life in this world. But, by this, you should not be egoistic to think that you are God. You have attained only a partial associated characteristic of God and you are not God in view of the other inherent characteristics. By this, you cannot attain the grace of God. If you imitate somebody to become happy, the other person will not mistake you. This does not mean that the other person shows his love to you. You have used God to be happy, but you have not served God to attain His grace. In the service of God, again the same tensions appear due to your over attachment to God. When Sita was not found in Lanka, Hanuman thought of even committing suicide. This is the third and final stage. Your attachment to the world is transformed into the attachment to God. Your worldly tensions are transformed into tensions in the divine service. The second stage is only an intermediate step to develop detachment from the world. In the third stage, you have to again develop your attachment to God. You must express your gratefulness to God for allowing you into the second stage. The peon should be grateful to the boss for allowing him into the cinema hall owned by the boss. Instead of this gratefulness, if you develop ego, you will be fallen. After all, if you are happy throughout this life and not protected after death, what is the use of your achievement? You should always have a long ranged foresight.

God said in the Gita that the creation is both in Him and not in Him. How to correlate this? [Sri JSR Prasad asked: Sashtanga Pranamas Swami. In the Gita, God said that the creation is in Him and also not in Him (Matsthāni sarva bhūtāni…, na ca matsthāni bhūtāni). How to correlate this?] Swami Replied: The clarification is given in other verses like ‘bhūtabhṛt na ca bhūtasthaḥ’ (I am the possessor of the creation and not present in the creation.), ‘mayi sarvamidaṃ protam’ (all this creation is possessed by Me), na tvahaṃ teṣu te Mayi (I am not in the creation but the creation is on Me.) etc., reveal that God is the basic substratum (ādhāra). The shape of the pot is based ‘on’ the mud atoms whereas, the shape of the pot is not present ‘in’ the mud atoms. The creation is present ‘on’ God (aupashleshika saptamii vibhakti), but not ‘in’ God (abhivyaapaka saptamii vibhakti). The saptamii vibhakti (locative case) in Sanskrit means both ‘on’ (aupashleshika) and ‘in’ (abhivyaapaka). I am possessing the shirt means that the shirt is ‘on’ me. I am possessing blood means that blood is ‘in’ me. Both these statements belong to the same locative case. If we take the locative case only, there is no difference between ‘on’ and ‘in’. Of course, it is clearly said that the locative case has both the separate meanings, which are both ‘on’ (aupashleshika) and ‘in’ (abhivyaapaka). In this locative case, another meaning is also said, which is ‘vaishayika’ (subject) and the example here is that I am a scholar ‘in’ grammar. But, this third meaning also is adjusted in the ‘in’ (abhivyaapaka) only as per English language. When we take similes for the creator and the creation, people take mud and pot as a simile in which we have already told that pot is based ‘on’ mud particles (aupashleshika). If we take the simile of magician and magic, the creation or magic is based ‘on’ the magician since the magic is appearing outside the magician. Here also, ‘on’ (aupashleshika) is used in the verse Aham ātmā… sarvabhūtāśaya sthitaḥ. Here, God is said to be the basic substratum of the creation. The word ‘jalaashaya’ which means lake, tells us that the lake is the basic substratum of water (jala). The word Aatmaa is used for God because just as the soul is the basic substratum of the body maintained, God is the basic substratum of the creation. The word Aatmaa means that which is extending (atati). God extends as the basic substratum for this entire creation. The word Aatmaa need not be taken as soul only, but, in general, can be taken as any basic substratum that extends below the supported items. God referred to in this context is the first mediated God called Iishwara or Naaraayana or Hiranyagarbha. Since medium has spatial dimensions, ‘in’ and ‘on’ are suitable for usage. But, if you take the unmediated, unimaginable God, He has no spatial dimensions and words like ‘in’ and ‘on’ have no meaning. In His case, we can only say that He is not affected or contaminated by the creation (asaṅgohyayaṃ puruṣaḥ- Samkhya). The reason is that the absolute reality of the creation is not inherent to the creation, but, the absolute reality of the unimaginable God (Parabrahman) is gifted to the creation by the unimaginable God Himself. Depending upon the nature of God and medium, we have to use the words like ‘on’ and ‘in’. Even in worldly items, we have to follow this. For example, in the case of space, we can never use the word ‘on’ because space is not showing its boundaries. We can say that the air is ‘in’ space, but, space is not contaminated by air (Yathākāśagato nityam… Gita). Krishna says that He is sitting at the centre of the entire creation rotating the entire creation (īśvarassarva bhūtānām). The word ‘hṛddesśa’ means the centre of gravity which is the essential part for rotation. We say the essential meaning of the poet as ‘kavi hṛdaya’, which does not mean the physical heart of the poet. God told that He is extending Himself for the entire creation as the basic support (mayā tataimdam). God also told that He is ‘Aatmaa’, which means the basic support that is extending for the entire creation so that no part of the entire creation is leftover without the support (Ahamātmā…). The word ‘sarva bhūtāśaya sthitaḥ’ can be taken as 1. sarva bhūtāśaya stitaḥ which means that God is standing as the support, 2. The word ‘āśaya’ may be taken as the alternative of ‘hṛddeśa’ or centre of gravity to rotate the entire creation. Logic says about four types of Abhaava (absence):- 1. Praagabhaava means that which did not exist before its production. 2. Pradhvamsaabhaava means that which will not exist after destruction. 3. Anyonyaabhaava that which does not exist in a different item and vice versa. 4. Atyantaabhaava means that which never existed at any time. This creation has praagabhaava because it did not exist before its first production. This creation has no second type of absence because in destruction, it only goes from gross state to subtle state. The creation has third type of absence because it exists based on God and God also exists in the creation as incarnation. The creation has no fourth type of absence because it exists forever after its production by God for the sake of His entertainment. The gross state is the film show and the subtle state is the film reel. The reel always exists after its generation because no fool destroys the reel after the first show and reconstructs it for the second show. The shape of the pot is always associated with the eternal existence of the mud and only a fool destroys the pot, which is useful to bring water.

worldly justice the foundation of the spiritual path or is the reverse true? [An online spiritual discussion was conducted on May 16, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Devotees’ questions answered by Swāmi are given below.] [Śrī Karthik asked: Previously, You have said that pravṛtti (the life of worldly justice) is the foundation upon which nivṛtti (spiritual life) is built. But in practical experience, it can be seen that worldly life progresses smoothly only when it is built upon a strong foundation of true spiritual knowledge. So, in this sense, spiritual life or nivṛtti effectively becomes the foundation for pravṛtti. Am I correct in my understanding, Swāmi? Please advise us in what context pravṛtti is the foundation of nivṛtti and in what context the reverse is true. At Your Divine feet, Karthik.] Swāmi replied: This is a good question. 1) Nivṛtti as basis of Pravṛtti:- Unless the establishment of the existence of the unimaginable God through perceived miracles is done to develop devotion or at least fear to soul, Pravṛtti will collapse. The main activity of an atheist is always to deny God and remove this foundation so that he can do any type of sin in the worldly life without fear of punishment. Even if devotion to God is not there, at least fear about God must be there to have a well-built Pravṛtti. Modern philosophers always attack on the concept of fear to attain the real freedom and go to the extreme end to say that God does not exist. These mad people do not know what they are doing since they are damaging the discipline and finally the peace of the world. They do not understand the positive side of the fear-coin. Without positive side no quality is created by God. The human being turns the coin and sees the other negative side. Every quality good or bad has both positive and negative sides. In the name of freedom, these philosophers are attracting people and finally make them to get ruined. They think that they are very clever in attacking the whole ancient tradition, but, they don’t know that they are burning their own house to remove a few rats that entered the house! 2) Pravṛtti as basis of Nivṛtti:- In Nivrutti (spiritual life), the most important aspect is not to aspire any fruit from God. Hence, every soul must be like an atheist in not aspiring any fruit from God except doing His service. For this purpose, the devotee must have well established worldly support either by having good ancestral property or by having a good job and after this only, the devotee must enter the spiritual life. If this is not done, the devotee will be forced to ask God to give support in the worldly life. Such devotion becomes business devotion. Here, Pravṛtti stands as the foundation for Nivṛtti.

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE SOLVES CORRUPTION Today our country is facing a very serious problem. The poor man does not receive the fruits of the schemes implemented by the Government, so the poor are becoming poorer day by day. This is the reason of the unrest and tension in the minds of majority of the public since the majority is poor. Every political party, which is voted to power, tries to serve the poor by implementing good schemes. But, the fruits of every scheme are filtered by a screen called corruption. The authorities involved in the implementation of the schemes snatch away the fruits, so the rich become richer day by day. All the wealth is concentrated with the minority of the public, which is involved in the implementation process. Sometimes, even the Government is a part and parcel of the implementation machinery. The persons involved in the Government are also becoming richer and richer day by day. Therefore, from this angle, we need not isolate the Government from the personnel involved in the implementation. Well! The exact problem is identified. But, nobody is recognizing the exact solution of this exact problem. The poor public is changing the political party everytime with great ambition expecting that the new Government will effectively implement the schemes. When a new political party appears, the poor public rise like a Tsunami wave with the greatest expectation and ambition in this direction. In the absence of the new political party, the majority of the public repeatedly changes the old parties expecting that the defeated party must have understood the reason for its defeat and will implement the schemes successfully on its turn. But, the same old story repeats whether a defeated party wins or a new political party wins. I do not blame any party for its failure because in the absence of the knowledge of the exact solution, no party can do anything. Sympathy And Fear Are Temporary Solutions Therefore, the identification of the exact solution is very important to eradicate corruption, which is the real filtering screen. You cannot control the implementing authorities by appeals or by threatening with punishments. If you appeal or threaten, there will be some partial control, which is also temporary. Both these methods cannot bring complete and everlasting controls. Christianity believed in creating sympathy through appeals. They always show the crucifixion of Jesus with the blood. They create more concern in your heart by saying that Jesus underwent crucifixion for the sake of your sins and try to transform the heart through kindness and love. This is certainly a good method to bring transformation. Islam tries to bring the transformation through fear by showing punishments. Of course, Christianity also shows the eternal Hell finally for the punishment. All these methods are good in the case of illiterate and ignorant people but the implementing machinery consists of high intellectuals who doubt the very existence of Hell and God. Their faith on God is theoretical and fails in practical implementation. The intellectual is always convinced by logical analysis. This is the reason for the extraordinary development of Meta physics in Hinduism. The different sects in Hindu Religion neither adapt the method of sympathy nor the method of fear to propagatetheir sects. The Vaishnava sect does not show the weeping Rama in the forest nor does the Shaiva sect show Lord Shiva drinking the fuming poison for the sake of the protection of the world. These sects never impose threatening policies to propagate their Gods. These methods may be good in the case of the illiterate masses and hence, were adopted in certain times, in certain places and under certain circumstances. The best method of propagation is always logical analysis and it is successful in all times, at all places and under all circumstances. Therefore, debates between the scholars of the sects of Hinduism take place even today. There is neither the element of sympathy nor the element of terrorism in the effort of propagation of their sects. The Scholars of Advaita, Vishishta Advaita and Dvaita continue the debates even today. Such debate is based on the quest for truth and there should be no enmity or hatred or any ill-feeling. Logical Analysis of the Truth is the Permanent Solution There are two types of terrorism. The first type is based on the ignorance of God, which is the result of atheism. If atheism spreads in this society, the immediate step will be terrorism. All the poor people will unite and kill all the rich people. In the first step, all the richest people will be killed. In the second step, all the richer people will be killed. Since there will be no uniformity in the concept of richness. All the people will kill each other and nobody will remain on this Earth. The second type of terrorism is to kill people to propagate their religion. The propagation of religion should not be through threat. It should not be also by sympathy. It should be through logical analysis, which will convince the intelligence of every human being. Once the brain is convinced, the acceptance will be total and eternal. Shankara, the incarnation of God adopted this method only for propagation. Atheism is ignorance. The conservative faith of a specific religion is wrong knowledge. Both ignorance and wrong knowledge are not correct methods of propagation of God. The logical analysis establishing Universal Spirituality to avoid the partiality of God is the best method to bring total and eternal transformation of humanity. Therefore, the correct solution to avoid corruption so that the fruits of the schemes implemented by any Government can reach the poor is the stress given on spiritual education. Today, the system of education is entirely concentrated on materialism only. There is no trace of place for spiritual knowledge in the present system of education. In the ancient days, the Governments run by kings always stressed on spiritual education. The concepts of existence of God and existence of Hell were established in the minds of the people even from their childhood. The fear for God and the fear for sin must fill the brain even from the childhood. This will totally eradicate corruption. Then, the fruits will reach the poor. The gap between the poor and the rich will be reduced. There will be social balance, which results in total peace. Without implementing this solution, changing Governments with new parties becomes only beating around the bush.

CONFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND HINDUISM [Christmas message] These discourses will bring a harmony between Hinduism and Christianity. The messages of a Hindu saint like Swami Vivekananda have spread in Christian countries. The messages of Christianity have spread in India. Thus there is a broad-minded brotherhood between Hinduism and Christianity. The tolerance of Hindus and the love of Christians are the reasons for such a bond of brotherhood. Spreading of these special discourses among your Christian friends will strengthen the feelings of brotherhood and love, which is the aim of Swami. When the people following these two religions mix together with love, it means that the two religions have mixed togther. Religion only means the people following those religions and therefore, the scriptures can also be mixed and correlated. God and Human Incarnation Lord Jesus was the Human Incarnation of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:40). The human body of Holy Jesus is like a metallic wire, which is pervaded all over by the Holy Spirit, which is like electric current. The Veda says “Antarbahishcha” which means that the Holy Spirit pervades all over the body of the Human Incarnation. Wherever you touch the wire, you receive an electric shock. Similarly, the entire human body of Holy Jesus is holy. Holiness is the nature of the Holy Spirit just like the shock is the property of electricity. As the electricity cannot be separated from the wire, the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from Holy Jesus. So here, the Holy Spirit is Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus refers to this Holy Spirit as His Father. He says that He was sent by His Father as a messenger. Although He and His Father are one and the same, He speaks like this for a practical reason; every human being repels another human being. A man cannot accept another man as God due to jealousy and ego. The Bhagavad Gita says, “Men insult Me when I come here in human form (Avajananti mam…). For this purpose, Holy Jesus wants Himself to be called only as a messenger of the Holy Spirit by His disciples, whenever He is introduced to the public. If He tells the truth to the egotistic public, they will not even listen to what He preaches and will simply reject Him. Therefore, He is telling His disciples to introduce Him only as a messenger. Of course, it is the disciples who are really the messengers of Holy Jesus. The Holy Spirit has taken over the human body of Holy Jesus and pervaded all over the body to preach divine knowledge to this world. The same Holy Spirit is sending the disciples for the propagation of the divine knowledge. Both the body of Holy Jesus and the disciples are instruments of the Holy Spirit chosen for different purposes. The Holy Spirit is preaching through the body of Holy Jesus and is propagating the divine knowledge through the disciples. Therefore, if you respect the disciple you are respecting the Holy Spirit indirectly. Even though both the instruments exist like this, the Holy Spirit is present in Jesus and is not present in the disciples. Due to this difference, the disciple is an indirect instrument while the direct instrument is Holy Jesus alone. The disciple propagates the divine knowledge only after hearing it from Holy Jesus. Therefore, when such a disciple is respected, Holy Jesus is respected first and then the Holy Spirit. But among the disciples, there may be some person who cannot repeat exactly what Holy Jesus preached. In such a case the Holy Spirit will take over the body of that disciple and preach (Mathew 10: 20). Such a disciple differs from Holy Jesus because the Holy Spirit resides in that disciple only for some time whereas the Holy Spirit resides in Jesus all the time. Holy Jesus says that He is the messenger of the Holy Spirit and He also says that the disciple is His messenger. He is giving the same status to Himself and the disciple by saying so. The reason is that some disciple may become jealous in the future if Holy Jesus says that He Himself is the Holy Spirit whereas the disciple is only His messenger. The difference in status may bring in jealousy. Therefore, He maintains equal status so that no devotee becomes jealous of Jesus in the future. Due to jealousy, the disciple might slip away from Holy Jesus. When Holy Jesus says that He is only a messenger, it shows His humility and submissiveness. He wants His disciples to be humble and submissive to the Holy Spirit throughout their lives. For this purpose, He sets Himself as an ideal. The Holy Spirit present in the human body of Holy Jesus is the essence of true and infinite knowledge as the Veda says “Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma….” Humbleness and submissiveness are the fruits of the divine knowledge. Therefore, the humbleness and submissiveness are the qualities of the Holy Spirit itself. This means, that whatever Holy Jesus speaks is the statement of the Holy Spirit Itself. The Only Love Lord Jesus has said, “If any one comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple (Luke 14:26 to 27; Mathew 11:34 to 38)’’. Knowledge is compared to a sword. The Bhagavad Gita says “Jnanasinatmanah chhitva”. This means that ignorance should be cut by the knowledge, which is like a sword. The bonds with your wife or husband and children are due to ignorance. Such bonds should break when the Lord in human form competes with them to conduct His test. The Lord comes in human form in every human generation to preach and give His direct presence. If the Lord comes only in one human generation, God becomes partial to that human generation because other human generations are not blessed with such an opportunity. To give the opportunity to see, touch, talk and live with the Human Incarnation, He comes down in response to the prayers of devotees. The Lord comes to preach and so He will not enter statues, animals or birds. The Veda says “Na tasya pratima asti’’, which means that God will not enter inert statues. The Gita says “Manusheem tanumashritam” which means that God enters the human body only because the main purpose is to preach to human beings. The Gita strongly says that he who worships inert statues will be born as an inert stone (“Bhootani yanti”). Christians should be commended on this point since they worship Holy Jesus alone, who is the most powerful Human Incarnation of God. The Veda says “Na tat samah” which means that nobody and nothing should be equal to the Lord in human form. One should leave everything and everybody for the sake of the Lord in human form. The bond with all human beings can be broken only by forming a new bond with another human being. This new human being must be very powerful [to cause all the bonds with other human beings to break] and can only be God in human form. A new bond formed with the formless God or statues cannot break the bonds that we have with human beings. Only the bond with another living being can cut the bond with living beings. The bond with formless God is impossible. The bond with an inert statue has no use. The above statements of Holy Jesus indicate that one should cut the bonds with his family and with wealth. In the Hindu religion too it is said that God (Datta) cuts all the bonds of family and wealth (Dattam chhinnam). Even the bond with the body should be cut for the sake of God. The Gita says the same thing as “Mat gata pranah”. Holy Jesus says that one has to carry his own cross (death) for the sake of the Lord. This means that one has to even invite his own death with his own hands for the sake of God. Holy Jesus did this as an ideal example for others. This means that you have to cut your bonds not only with your family and wealth but also with your life if necessary. Hanuman, a top devotee, tore his heart with his own nails for the sake of the Lord and was blessed by the Lord to be immortal. So when the devotee sacrifices his life, his life gets protected forever. The essence of this gospel is that love is proved only by practical sacrifice. The Veda says “Dhanena tyagenaike…” which means that the sacrifice of money alone proves real love. Money is the fruit of your work. So money is another form of work. If it is inconvenient to sacrifice money, at least you should sacrifice the other form of money, which is work for the sake of God [give up self-benefitting work and work (serve) for the sake of God]. All your family members are attached to you only due to the dependence on money. If there is no money, your entire family will leave you. You are also giving your money only to your family. Therefore, if the bond with money is cut and if the money is sacrificed to God, the family bonds are considered as vanished, even though the family may exist externally. The work of God in human form is the propagation of His divine gospel. For doing such divine work, the family also stands as an obstacle because most of your energy is diverted to the family alone. Therefore, you do not have any energy to work for the sake of the Lord. Hence, Holy Jesus wanted His disciples to leave their families for the sake of God. The propagation work needs both money and work. Generally, everybody works to maintain his family. In the name of maintenance, several luxuries are introduced, which look like essential needs and thus there is no end for your work to earn money for the sake of your body and your family. Your blindness increases and you will put more and more efforts to work and earn money for the sake of the family bonds. In such a case you can never even see the human form of God. You should at least remove your blindness by the divine knowledge even if you cannot cut the actual bonds. Only people of very high devotion can cut the actual bonds. You are giving money to your family but you are giving mere words to God by your prayers and you are giving your mind to God through meditation. You are giving love to your family through your work and money, and are calling the sacrifice of words and the sacrifice of mind as love for God. You are fooling God! Your real love is only for your family and not for God. Holy Jesus tests your real love for God by these statements. The Christian Pope and priests and the Hindu Acharyas and saints left their families and concentrated completely on the work of God. Only such pious souls can be the representatives of God in this world. Sacrifice of Wealth is the Way Lord Jesus has said “Do not lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth”. “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19 to 22; Luke 12: 33 to 34). He has also said “Not everyone who say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Hindus particularly, are sacrificing words through prayers and feelings through the expression of love for the sake of God. When the question of wealth or money comes, they only sacrifice it for the sake of their families. This is the reason why India suffers with poverty. Swami Vivekananda wept loudly facing the sky asking, “Why India with such high spiritual knowledge is suffering with poverty?” Foreigners are not so good in prayers and expression of love or meditation as compared to Indians, but they sacrifice their money for the sake of God with full vigor. Therefore, God blesses those foreign countries with wealth and prosperity. Indians only sacrifice words and mind to God. Therefore, Indians are blessed with very good pronunciation of language and excellent knowledge, which are connected to words and the mind. The Gita says “Ye yatha mam prapadyante” which means that God gives you the result in the same way in which you worship Him. If you only worship Him with words (prayers) He will also appreciate you with sweet words [in return]. If you love Him with your mind and concentrate on Him through meditation, He will also love you in return with high concentration of mind. If you sacrifice practically, He will also do everything for you practically. Indians must learn this practical sacrifice from foreigners as they have learnt science and technology from the West. Even in olden days, Indians were always doing exercises in the theoretical knowledge of God and in composing a lot of poems on God. Therefore, the same attitude entered even their education of science. They have become theorists even in science. The foreigners were less theoretical and more practical in spiritual things and therefore, that attitude entered their scientific education also and the foreigners have become the real practical scientists. Let Indians not be proud that they are masters in spirituality even if they are not [masters] in science. Though I am born in India, I deny this. Indians should follow the foreigners not only in science but also in spirituality by learning the practical aspect of both materialistic knowledge as well as divine knowledge. Today in the world, everybody agrees that the real power is money alone. Money is the fruit of your work and the Bhagavad Gita calls the sacrifice of money as ‘karma phala tyaga’. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said “Dhyanat karma phala tyagah” which means that devotion is greater than knowledge and the sacrifice of the fruit of work (money) is greater than devotion. Knowledge consists of intelligence and words. Devotion consists of mind and words. Sacrifice consists of heart and love. The proof of love is practical service, which is the practical sacrifice of work or money. Money is needed to publish the gospel in the form of books for the propagation of divine knowledge and devotion. When you sacrifice your money for this divine work, your treasure in heaven is built up. This means that God will help you after your death and you will enter the kingdom of God. [Presently,] you are giving your earnings only to your family and so your real love is only for your family. There is no need of any further argument on this point because it is very clear proof. This is the real fire-test for your love. You are sacrificing valueless words and valueless mind in your leisure time, which is valueless time. This cannot be the proof of the real value of God in your heart. You must give real value to God. You finish your morning prayers and meditation on God as soon as the time to go to your job draws near. Similarly, when some work for the family comes up, you immediately leave the presence of God. Therefore, you are not giving any value to God for all practical purposes. But you are telling lies in your prayers that God is everything for you. Money is the final test and it can be the only test since your entire family is associated with you for the sake of money alone. Even in your oldage, your family serves you only for your money. The true colors of your love can be seen, when you are required to sacrifice your money for the sake of God. Sage Vasishtha told Lord Rama to first bring money as Guru dakshina (pious offering to the preacher) before preaching divine knowledge to Him (Dhana marjaya…). The preacher tested Rama’s love for God in terms Rama’s willingness to sacrifice money. In the Vishnu Purana, Lord Vishnu says “Tasya vittam haramyaham” which means that he who sacrifices money for the sake of God, is really blessed. This looks quite odd for us that God would want our money! No, God does not want money because this entire world is His wealth alone as per the Veda (Kasyasvit dhanam…). You have taken money from His treasure for your needs and God permits this. But you have also taken extra money and you are storing it, which is not permitted by God. You have to return back that extra wealth to the Lord when He comes in human form for His divine work. Remember that you are returning His own money, which was stolen by you since He did not permit you to take extra money. Suppose you went to a friend’s house and he gave you a cup of milk. He permitted you to only take the milk but not the cup. You have stolen the cup also [extra earnings], which was not expected by your friend. You have to return that stolen cup to your friend secretly. Holy Jesus says that when you donate money to God by one hand, even the other hand should not come know about that donation. Since it is stolen money it should be returned secretly. A father purchased some sweets and gave them to his child. The father is asking for one sweet from the child just to test the attitude and love of the child for him. Even if you do not give back God’s money to God, you will have to leave that money here itself and quit this world with empty hands. That extra money is left in this world itself, which is the bank of God. The devotee who donates the extra money to God for His divine work also quits this world empty-handed. But the former goes to hell as a thief while the latter goes to the Kingdom of God because he returned the stolen money of God. When you return this extra money, you must be very careful to see that this money reaches God alone and not others. God dwells in two places: In the body of Human Incarnation of God (Son of God; God-man) In the heart of a real devotee. When money is donated to the Human Incarnation of God or the real devotee, that money is properly used to uplift humanity. In such social service the God-man or the real devotee will use a lot of discrimination due to their divine knowledge and the money donated by you will be properly spent. Instead of doing practical sacrifice of money or at least work [voluntary service], if you merely say prayers, express love and do meditation they are like serving God with only the side pickles in the plate of meals, without any central bread or rice. When God eats only the pickles which are served by you, His stomach burns due to high acidity and God becomes furious. Due to His anger the extra money stored by you goes waste through diseases etc. [If you pass on that money to your children,] your children might also lose that money and they will not blessed in any way in their lives. This gospel of Holy Jesus should open the eye of knowledge of all Hindus and make them learn practical sacrifice from foreigners. Holy Jesus referred to such people who do not give up their extra money for God’s work saying that they can never reach God even if a camel manages to pass through the eye of a needle. His Gospel refers to such selfish rich people, who are caught up in the net of their limited families. The Real Conversion “I indeed baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:1 to 8; Luke 3:1 to 18)”, is said in the Bible. The Veda says “Prajnanam Brahma” which means that the Holy Spirit is divine knowledge. The Gita says “Jnanaagnih” which means that knowledge is fire. This means that the acceptance of Holy Jesus should be through the knowledge radiating through His sentences, which are like diamonds coming out from His mouth. The acceptance should not be just by sprinkling some water. If you accept Holy Jesus just for some money or bread or some materialistic benefits, that is not the real conversion. Your spirit i.e., your soul should be attracted directly to His powerful knowledge. The holy water represents rituals without knowledge. Unless you study the Vedas (Upanishads) and the Bhagavad Gita and realize the knowledge by putting it in practice, you cannot be a Hindu. A true Hindu is always a true Christian because the practical sacrifice is the same in any religion. Whether you can leave your family and money and come to God or not remains the same in any religion. The knowledge is the same in all the scriptures. Whether you are a doctor who studied in the English medium or the French medium, you can cure the disease and perform surgery for any patient. Religions are only languages and knowledge is the content of the syllabus. Everybody does not understand the brotherhood of all religions. If you travel along the religion-river you will reach the spirituality-ocean. Live as a sea-fish and don’t be stagnant as a river-fish by stopping your journey halfway. Your journey means continuously progressing along with the flow of the religion–river [towards the spirituality-ocean]. If a Hindu insults Holy Jesus and the Holy Bible, he has insulted Holy Krishna and the Holy Gita. The same thing applies to the follower of any religion. Let each human being understand all the religions by reading the scriptures of all the religions. An Indian goes to a foreign country and gets a degree in medicine, studying the subject in that foreign language. If he comes back to India he can practice or apply the subject he studied, to any human being. He can perform a surgery on any person. When you purchase a diamond from a foreign country, do you throw it away since it is a foreign diamond? Don’t you use the fan, the electric bulb, the television etc., which were invented by foreign scientists? You use these things in your daily life. Why not use the diamond-like concepts from foreign scriptures like the Holy Bible in your spiritual life too? This question applies to followers of every religion. The Human Incarnation It is said in the Bible, “He will save His people from their sins” and “His name is Immanuel (Matthew 1: 21 and 23)”. Immanuel is translated as ‘God with us’. Holy Jesus is the human body into which the Holy Spirit entered like the electric current entering into a metallic wire. The Holy Spirit, without the union of husband and wife, created the human body. Of course the entire universe is the creation of Holy Spirit alone. In the creation of the universe scientific logic applies; with the concept of cause and effect. But this creation of the human body of Jesus in the womb of Holy Mother Mary was beyond scientific logic. Thus, the very human body of Jesus showed the superpower of God even in the formative stage. Hinduism calls such Incarnations of God as full-fledged Incarnations (Pari Purna Avatara). The Holy Spirit is called ‘Brahman’ or ‘Paramatman’ in Hinduism. Even Lord Datta was born to His mother without the physical union of His mother and father. He stayed in the womb of His mother for only nine days instead of nine months. He is considered as the full-fledged Incarnation of ‘Paramatma’ or ‘Brahman’. He is considered to be the topmost preacher and His preachings are embedded with excellent divine knowledge like the preaching of Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus is also the topmost preacher in the world. The Holy Spirit enters the human body only because the main purpose of the Incarnation is to preach to humanity. If God enters statues, trees, birds, animals etc., that preaching cannot be done. The Human Incarnation preaches to us and stays with us and so is called ‘Immanuel’. The Human Incarnation of God is better than the statues in temples (Matthew 12:6) because He preaches, whereas the statue is silent. He is the real and full form of God—in the human body. If you insult Him, you have directly insulted God (Matthew 12:31). The Gita also says the same (Avajananti…). You cannot approach the Holy Spirit directly because the Holy Spirit is of infinite power, and It is also inexplicable. But by that infinite and inexplicable power, the Holy Spirit enters the human body. The mighty ocean is now contained in a tiny water drop. ‘Maya’, the inexplicable power, operates when such a Human Incarnation is born as per the Gita “Sambhavami atma maayaya” which means that the infinite God enters the finite human body due to Maya. All the other human beings are only tiny water drops. The Human Incarnation is also a tiny water drop externally but the mighty ocean is hidden in it. He is the lion covered by the skin of the goat and He mixes with the goats. That way the goats can come near Him without any fear. Except for this way of the Human Incarnation, one cannot approach God directly (Matthew11:27). Another important purpose of the Human Incarnation is that He suffers for the sins of His beloved devotees, who have proved their love to Him by their sacrifice and service. In Hinduism also we find the Human Incarnations of Lord Datta suffering from diseases, which are the results of the sins of His real devotees (Matthew 8:17) that He has taken up to suffer in His body. A devotee should serve God in human form without aspiring for anything in return. Such service is the only real and full sacrifice. Otherwise, it is only business. Remember that Holy Jesus also suffered for the sins of His devotees only and not for the sins of all the people. Others who do not believe Him and criticize Him have to go to the ever-lasting fire. This is the case with any Human Incarnation. The criticism of the Human Incarnation by the fellow human beings is only due to the natural jealousy because likes repel each other (Matthew 11:6). The human body of the Incarnation, follows all the rules of nature so that He can come near the people but due to the same reason, human beings neglect Him (Matthew 11:19). Lord Jesus said “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or profits. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17)”. The right interpretations of the old traditional scriptures given by Holy Jesus appear to be quite revolutionary. But they are the real essence of the scriptures. Selfish scholars had misinterpreted these old scriptures and established a bad tradition and were misleading the public. Certain inconvenient portions of scriptures were removed and certain selfish portions were introduced. The scriptures were polluted and this happened in Hinduism also. Holy Jesus washed away all the dirt in the Christian scriptures. Similarly, in Hinduism the three preachers called Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva also washed away such dirt but the dirt collects often because the wind blows everyday carrying new dust. The religion becomes dirty in every human generation. Spirituality is the broomstick with which God in human form sweeps the dust away. For this purpose, He comes down in human form in every human generation. All that is old is not gold as per the statement “Puranam ityeva….” There is another similar statement “Taatasya kupoyam….” which means that only a fool drinks salt water from a well saying that it was dug by his forefathers [and hence the water must be sweet]. So, one should not blindly follow all that is old. Analyze it at every step and find out the truth. Krishna condemned the ritual portions in the Vedas by saying “Traigunya vishayah….” Similarly, Lord Buddha condemned the killing of animals in the name of sacrifices. The Veda says clearly “Manyuh pashuh” which means that one should kill his foolish animal-like behavior. But instead of doing that, people started killing animals in sacrifices. Holy Jesus also corrected several portions of the scripture and showed the true path. Even the Veda which remains now, is a very little portion of the original Veda. The lost portion of Veda is called ‘khila bhaga’. Holy Jesus also said that He had come to complete the scriptures, which means that some correct portions were lost. Rituals prescribe certain times and places for God’s worship. But Holy Jesus tells us that the spirit is important and not the place or time (Matthew 12:11 & 12). The Narrow Spiritual Path “Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it (Matthew 7:13 and 14)”. The Bhagavad Gita says “Manushyaanam sahasreshu….” which means that millions of people will try to reach God but only one can reach God. This means that the spiritual path is narrow with just one or two devotees who can reach God. So you should not follow the majority example in the spiritual path. The majority goes to hell. Will you also go to hell? Diamonds are in minority and gravel stones are in majority. In worldly matters you can follow the majority. But in the spiritual line there is only one Jesus one Buddha one Shankara etc., If you are in the association of the majority, you will be polluted by them since they induce the worldly poison through their conversations (Luke 13:20 & 21). If you are in the association of the Sadguru you will be spiritually strengthened by His gospel. Judge by Knowledge Suppose there are two teachers and one is a Hindu and the other is a Christian. You must judge the teacher by His knowledge and way of preaching. Accept that teacher whose teaching enters deeply into your heart and makes you understand the subject. Such knowledge will definitely lead to practice. Similarly, judge any scripture by the value of its knowledge and its way of preaching the knowledge. Do not be biased in your judgment because you will be helped by the knowledge of the teacher and not by the teacher. If you insist that Lord Krishna is the only God and the Holy Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture by which one can get the salvation, it is not correct. I will put a question here. If what you say is correct, the information about Lord Krishna and the Holy Bhagavad Gita should have been given to the entire world on one day and in the same minute. Then those who follow it may get salvation and those who do not follow may go to hell. Only then can God be impartial to all the human beings. But Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita existed in India thousands of years ago. The information about Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita reached other countries only about 500 hundred years back when Vasco-da-gama discovered a route to India. Before the discovery of India, Indians were blessed by Lord Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita, but what about foreigners? They did not have any information. In the absence of information how can they follow Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita? It is not their fault when the information itself was absent. All foreigners before 500 years went to hell according to your argument. That is not justified because they were not informed. This means God became partial to India. But God is impartial. All the human beings in the world are His children. Therefore, such a rigid and conservative argument is foolish. Of course this applies to every religion, which follows such conservatism. Be open-minded and read all the scriptures and judge by the merit. You must judge the teacher by his knowledge and way of preaching only and not by the teacher’s caste, sex and religion. Therefore, I advise all the Hindus to read the preaching of Holy Jesus and get spiritual benefit out of it. His teachings are very sharp and shrewd like the powerful rays of the radiant sun and will help you in your spiritual effort. Do not be biased by the external culture, which is only apparent. Are you not using the fan, the electric bulb, television etc., which were invented by Christian scientists? Similarly, you should use the diamonds that came out from the mouth of Holy Jesus in your spiritual efforts and get benefited. Message of Swami on Christmas I am killed by My children on the cross. The revenge is mine. My revenge is not to kill them, but to kill their ignorance. My most powerful weapon is infinite love. If you love Me I will allow Myself to be loved by you so that at last, you will find that you loved yourself by loving Me. Similarly, if you deceive Me I will allow Myself to be deceived by you and at last, you will find that you deceived yourself by deceiving Me. Your real love is proved only by money. You love your children truly. Therefore, you are giving all your money to your children. Similarly, if you love Me you will give your money to Me for My work. This is the practical fire-test of your real love. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are just like pickles (side dishes) in the plate. The sacrifice of a part of the fruit of your work (money) and the sacrifice of a part of your work at least, are the central bread in the plate. Both these two parts put together is called divine service. Without this practical divine service, there is no use of mere prayers and meditation. Without divine service, if you are only offering prayers and meditation to Me, you are offering Me a meal-plate with only pickles and without the central bread. When I eat only the pickles, My stomach burns and I become furious. This is the reason why I am not answering your prayers and meditation in the absence of service. Of course if you are incapable of sacrificing your money towards My work, at least sacrifice your work for My work. If you are really incapable of sacrificing both these, then alone will I accept mere prayers and meditation from you, because [I know that] you cannot do anything more than that. In that case alone, will the pickles offered by you, become pieces of sweet fruits and I shall answer your prayers positively.

UNIVERSAL SPIRITUALITY FOR WORLD PEACE - OVERVIEW The same Swami appeared in the decorations of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Scientist, Rama, Krishna, Shiva etc., to show that the same God exists in different incarnations. Unfortunately in the pictures of Gods [or the past human incarnations] such a concept is not obvious. When we see different pictures or images of Gods, they appear quite different from each other and give the psychological impression that the ‘Gods’ are different. Even in Hinduism, in which the same God is supposed to have taken different forms, this concept is not clearly reflected. The face being the important identity of any person, uniformity in the faces of different incarnations of God is essential. This alone will bring out the true concept. It has not been done with the idea of self-projection or self-advertisement. This is done with the background of the most important concept that all the forms of God, not only in Hinduism but also in other religions, are merely different roles taken up by the same Actor, who is the Universal God. Do Hell and Heaven Exist? This universe is infinite. I am unable to show the existence of these super worlds to you. I accept my My incapacity. But you are also incapable of directly proving the non-existence of these super worlds. Have you searched all over the universe and said “Here ends the universe. Beyond this point there is no universe. This is the compound-wall of space. Your super worlds do not exist anywhere”? Therefore, there is an equal chance for the existence and non-existence of the super worlds according to the theory of probability. Now let us analyze both our cases. Both of us are eating to live. The basic needs are satisfied in both our cases. You have spent your extra time in earning more money, which may give you some problems of health like diabetes and blood pressure, due to over-enjoyment. I have not earned more money and I am healthy due to normal food. None of us will carry the money with us after death. The money given to the children may also be lost in several ways. Therefore, I do not find much difference between us, once the basic needs are satisfied. I am poor because I have spent My extra time in the service of God. Suppose after My death, you are correct and there are no super worlds. In such a case what I have lost? There is no loss for me. But after your death, suppose I am correct and there are super worlds. You have lost every thing and God will not save you. Thus, even if we assume equal probability of existence and non-existence of heaven and hell, it is better to serve the Lord by sacrificing your extra time and energy for the Lord, after meeting your basic needs. You must read the theory of probability, which is perfectly a scientific theory. Which is the True Religion? If you say that your religion is the only path to God and that other paths lead to hell, I have one humble question for you. This question applies to followers of every religion without any trace of partiality. The simple question is: Today I have heard about your religion and if I follow it, I reach God while if I refuse, I will go to the hell for my own fault. This is very much reasonable. But before your ancestors discovered the country I come from, the scriptures or even the name of your religion was not known to My ancestors and they could not reach God for no fault of theirs. On the other hand, your ancestors followed your religion and reached God at that time. Even if I assume that My ancestors will take rebirth in the present time and will follow your religion to reach God, such a possibility is ruled out because you say that there is no rebirth for the soul. Thus My ancestors suffered forever for no fault of theirs. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that God must be partial. Had God been impartial, He would have revealed your religion to all countries at the same time. Had that happened, My ancestors might have also reached God as your ancestors did. Therefore your statement proves your own God to be partial. The only way to make your God impartial is that you must accept that your very God appeared in all the countries in various forms at the same time and preached that only true path of your religion, in various languages. He did not appear in the same form everywhere and neither did He preach in the same language. However the subject matter was the same—divine knowledge. The syllabus and explanations were one and the same, though the media of instruction (languages), external looks and names of teachers were different. Thus the religion that God gave to your people and country is not different from the religion that the same God gave to other people in other countries in different languages. Can you give any alternative reasonable answer to my My question other than this? Certainly not! Whenever you claim your religion to be the one and only path to God and whenever you condemn other paths, remember that any person belonging to any religion can pose this question to you. Moreover every religion claims that their God alone created this world. Unfortunately this world is only one and every God cannot create the same world; there are not many worlds to justify each God creating His own world. Therefore any human being with an iota of commonsense has to agree that there is only one impartial God who created this one world. He alone came in different forms to different countries and preached the same path in all the languages, simultaneously at one time. Sword of divine knowledge Let the sword of the divine knowledge and logic cut the rigid conservatism of religious fans [fanatics] in this world to establish universal peace. I need not beg all these religious followers to be united and harmonious with each other for the sake of world peace. Enough of such begging and appealing was done in the past. The religious fans feel that although there is no unity in the religions in reality, they have to be united, since their kind hearts are melted by these appeals. Thus only temporary changes were brought about by such appeals. At the most, a generation of the followers remained united. The next generation resumed their fights with each other because they felt that there was never any real unity between the religions. They feel so due to lack of unity in their religious scriptures. Thus a permanent solution for this does not lie in appeals, which may or may not unite the followers of different religions, and even if they do unite them, the unity will be only temporary. Only when the real unity in all the religious scriptures is revealed through a logical analysis of divine knowledge, the followers will be united for generations together. Therefore, My attack is not on the hearts of the followers through love and kindness. My attack is through the intellectual logical analysis of divine knowledge given in all the religious scriptures. Unity of hearts through love can only be temporary. Unity of brains through intellectual analysis of divine knowledge alone will be permanent. Hearts agree but brains realize. Agreement is temporary, but realization is permanent. Thus this is the first trumpet of My divine conch for the permanent unity of all the religions aimed at eternal Universal Peace. Learning from Each Other Suppose a teacher has two students. The first one is good in theory and the second one is good in laboratory practicals. The teacher wishes that both the students should exchange their efficiencies so that both become proficient in both the fields. The teacher is equally skilled in both the fields and is teaching the theory and demonstrating the practicals in a uniform way to both the students. The variation in the skills of the students came due to different psychologies of the two students. God is like that one teacher. The divine knowledge in the religious scriptures of all countries is uniform. Indians and people of other countries including the West are all students of the same God. Indians are good in deep theoretical knowledge. People in western countries (westerners) such as those in Europe and America, are good in their firm faith and sincere practical implementation. This difference is reflected not only in the spiritual field but also in the present education and development in science and technology. Practical sacrifice of westerners Any depth of theoretical knowledge is useless without practice. An Indian should learn this aspect from westerners to achieve the real grace of God. A westerner on the other hand has to learn from the Indian about logical analysis in spirituality, which gives precise direction to the spiritual effort. The practical side of spirituality is the dedication or sacrifice of at least a part of the work (efforts of the individual) and a part of the fruit of the work (money) towards the mission of the Lord. Both together can be termed as service and this service alone brings the true grace of God. The westerner is excellent in this practical side and this is the reason why western countries have been blessed with a lot of materialistic wealth by God. Indians are very poor in this practical aspect. Indians are very strong in this practical aspect when it comes to working and getting money for themselves and their families. They fully concentrate on the work and sacrifice the fruits of all their work for the welfare of their families only. In short, their service is directed only towards themselves and their families but not to God. Indians are experts in dedicating their words freely in the form of prayers to God. They also dedicate their minds freely to God in the form of meditation. They dedicate their intelligence freely to God in the form of logical spiritual discussions. However they dedicate their words, mind and intelligence to God only in their leisure time; when they are not involved in any work for themselves or their families. The Lord always gives back to His devotees in the same way as the devotees serve Him. The Lord gave good language, good mental devotion and good intellectual logic to Indians, who worship Him by donating their words, mind and intellect. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that the Lord approaches devotees in the same path as devotees approach Him. Jesus told the same thing in different words when He said in the Bible that one reaps what one sows. The westerner is good at practical service (sacrifice of work and the fruit of work) to the Lord. Therefore God has blessed the West with a lot of wealth and comforts. However the westerner is weak in metaphysics and the analysis of the divine knowledge. It will be better for him to also attain a deep understanding of divine knowledge, which convinces the intelligence. Such intellectual realization maintains the constancy of the practical service, at which he is already good. Thus the practice needs the support of knowledge. Unfortunately in the case of Indians such practice has not even germinated in spite of a deep realization of divine knowledge. At this point, we must note that there are two types of Indians. Those of the first type are scholars who have realized the true knowledge, but are unable to practice it and cover their inability by the mask of misinterpretation. There is no use of preaching the right knowledge to such fraud scholars because they can never change. Indians of the other type are those who are misled by the misinterpretations conveyed by the fraud scholars and preachers. This true divine knowledge is meant for these people of the second type. Lord Jesus gave the essence of divine knowledge in the form of final conclusions to the ancestors of today’s westerners because there was no need of a deep analysis for those people. They were practical people with a firm faith, who immediately implemented the final conclusions given by Him without any further questions or analysis. If a systematic logical analysis is also given to such practical people, it forms a permanent base that is more solid than emotion-based faith. Thus, there is a need of exchange of skills between Indians and westerners, who are actually brothers and sisters of each other, because all are the children of the same Father (God). Indians are proud of their strong family bonds but they do not realize that these bonds in fact hinder their spiritual practice. Unless one is released from these worldly bonds, one cannot have a strong bond with the Lord. One cannot join a new institution unless he is released from the old institution. Jesus preached through the Bible that one should leave these family bonds with parents, wife, children etc., and that one should be prepared to sacrifice even his life for the sake of the Lord. Only by such sacrifice can one become dear to Him. Such final conclusions of knowledge made westerners implement the spiritual knowledge in practice. As a result their family bonds are weak and they are able to serve God practically. Deep spiritual analysis of Hindus The Vedas in Hinduism also say that the children and family cannot protect the soul. The Vedas also say that one should get detached from the limited family as soon as one attains realization. The deep logical analysis of such a statement is not necessary for westerners and so Jesus did not give it. But Shankaracharya in Hinduism, gave a powerful analysis of this statement. Inspite of such acute analysis, the Indian family bonds could not be broken. However that deep analysis of Shankara is noteworthy. He states that these bonds are temporary since they are limited only to the present human birth. He establishes that, that which is temporary is always unreal. The temporary bonds neither existed in the previous birth nor will they exist in the future birth. Any thing that did not exist before and will not exist later, is indeed temporary and such a thing does not exist (in reality) during the present. Such a thing is said to be totally unreal. For example, the bond (relationship) between two actors in a drama neither exists before the drama nor exists after the drama and therefore, does not exist even during the drama. That which is real is always permanent; existing in the past, present and future. For example, the employer-employee relationship between the producer of the drama and the actors is always real during the drama, before the drama and after the drama. Thus the bond with God, who is the Producer of this world, is always permanent and real. This logical analysis brings about a permanent detachment and a realization that remains alive forever. Therefore such analytical knowledge, which is very clear and satisfies the intellect, maintains the detachment forever. Deep analytical knowledge of the scriptures is required for all westerners and for all the Indians who are being exploited by tradition and the misinterpretations of some selfish preachers. The selfish preachers spread false knowledge, which is convenient to both themselves and their followers, and thereby attract followers in order to get money and fame. One should remember that the right knowledge is always inconvenient. Jesus said that the path leading to God is very inconvenient and narrow. Lord Krishna said in that the Gita that only one in millions reaches Him and that too after millions of births. Lord Krishna stated in the Gita that He is the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of this world (Aham Sarvasya…). While interpreting this statement, it should be noted that Lord Krishna is referring to the internal God, who pervaded the human body of Lord Krishna. It is wrong to interpret that the human body of Lord Krishna is the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of creation. It is as if the electric wire is referring to the current which pervades in it, as the mover of the electric fan. The inert wire cannot be called as the mover of the fan. Arjuna missed this important point. He thought that Lord Krishna had referred to His human body. Therefore he got confused and asked Krishna “You are recently born. How is it possible?” (Aparam Bhavato Janma…)”. True knowledge is very difficult to accept and easily repels human beings. The crucifixion of Jesus was an extreme result of such repulsion. But Jesus, as a true preacher, never cared for fame and preached the right knowledge fearlessly. Such a preacher is called as Sat-Guru (Sadguru), or “Preacher of the Reality”. Westerners can borrow another precious gem from Hinduism, which is their unity in diversity. Hinduism is a mini-world in itself. There are various branches or sects of Hinduism with widely varying beliefs. They are similar to different religions in the world. The scholars of all these branches or sects argue with each other by quoting either common or their specific scriptures. In spite of many disagreements between the branches, the main trunk of the tree of Hinduism is common to all and is the uniting factor in the scriptures. The branches may spread in any direction but they all arise from the same tree-trunk. Of course these differences in Hinduism never resulted in fighting with the swords, which shows the tolerance of Hindus. Unification of religions—Universal Spirituality The effort of Lord Dattatreya through this human body is to bring about unity among the various religions and sects in Hinduism in India and also to bring about a unity among various religions in the world. Thus the effort of the present human incarnation is to establish Universal Spirituality at the national as well as the international level. The unity among world religions will be a broader reflection of the unity among the different sects of Hinduism. The concept of Universal Spirituality aims to stop all the communal and religion-based wars in the world. Thus, this theoretical concept, if interpreted properly, has lot of practical application to achieve everlasting peace in the world. If world peace is disturbed, the peace of the individual is also lost. When individual peace is lost, the individual spiritual effort, which involves the sacrifice of work and fruit of work, is also disturbed. The individual is unable to follow the spiritual path and cannot achieve the grace of God. The secret of the individual spiritual effort lies in the practical sacrifice of the westerners. The secret of peace in the world, which is required for the individual spiritual effort, lies with Indians. Both are essential and are mutual. Thus the exchange is very much helpful for all. The West must learn from the East regarding world peace. The East must learn from the West about the real practical spiritual effort of an individual. No one should be egotistic in claiming that he is perfect in all aspects or that there is no need of learning anything from others. Those who make such egotistic claims go further and insult other religions. God is not pleased with such rigid and conservative followers. In fact, God gets furious with them and punishes them severely. God, who is the Father of all human beings in this world, wishes that every human being should reach the ultimate spiritual goal because every human being is His own child. All human beings are brothers and sisters and must help each other by such mutual exchanges in the spiritual pursuit. They should exchange their gems with each other and should throw away their useless stones. The useless stones are the misinterpretations, which were made by selfish preachers, and which were handed down to them over the generations. Factors Affecting World Peace Religious differences and communal wars: Every religion says that their God created this entire world. Since there is only one world, there should be one God, who must be impartial to all the children in the universe. That one God must have preached the same spiritual knowledge in different languages and different countries, which were disconnected and had no communication in olden times. At that time, had He preached the true spiritual knowledge to one country only, God would become partial because some generations in other countries would have passed away without receiving that spiritual knowledge. Had those generations got that spiritual knowledge, at least some of them might have reached God. Of course today, all the countries are connected due to modern communication. Therefore even if God preaches the true and special knowledge in one country it is immediately communicated to people from other countries. Since it is communicated to all people in the world evenly, disbelievers in any country must go to hell. But what about the people of those old generations who went to hell for the single reason that they were not lucky enough to receive the true knowledge due to lack of communication. They went to hell for no fault of theirs. The assumption that those unfortunate souls could have the possibility of taking human rebirth in present times to hear that special knowledge on this earth is also ruled out since you say that there is no rebirth for the soul. All this makes God partial. Let us assume that God taught that special knowledge in that old time to a particular country alone because only that country contained all the deserving human beings present in the world at that time. It is just like an intensive coaching given to a special class containing only the topmost students in the school. This is also ruled out because at that time, even the worst souls were also present in every country. When Lord Jesus preached His special knowledge to the ‘deserving souls’ of that land, there were people in the same country, who were absolutely the worst. In the end they crucified Lord Jesus. When Lord Krishna preached the special knowledge in the form of the Bhagavad Gita, many devilish people fought against Lord Krishna and tried to kill Him on several occasions. Similarly, Prophet Mohammed too had many enemies who opposed and tried to kill Him. Therefore saying that God preached the true knowledge only to one country, because that country alone contained all the deserving souls, is not justified. [The above examples prove that all countries had good and evil souls at any given time.] In spite of that if you blindly say that God is partial to a particular country irrespective of deserving and undeserving souls, God would have to be blind like you. Faith. Faith is the final part of the path to reach God. But faith should not be blind. It should be the result of true knowledge, which is the fruit of logical analysis. Scientists also believe in certain concepts. But the concepts must have been established by practical experiments followed by a detailed logical analysis. Such faith stands permanently and will appeal to the hearts of scholars and ordinary people alike. Such faith alone can be universal. If you want faith without logic then what would you do if a fanatic terrorist tries to kill you? It is his faith to kill innocent people. Would you respect his faith and get killed by him? No, you would resist him, get him arrested and take him to court. You expect the lawyers and the judge to ask for reasons and causes. You want them to hold logical arguments. What if the lawyers are not interested in bringing out the truth or having logical arguments? What if they hold on to their own faiths and the judge decides the case based on his own faith? Would you be satisfied with that? Interpreting statements of exclusivity in scriptures. In the scriptures of every religion, the corresponding human incarnations gave statements proclaiming their own uniqueness and the uniqueness of their preaching or path. Some examples of such words of Lord Jesus in the Bible are: “I am the light”; “I am the path”; “I and My Father are one and the same”; “One can reach My Father only through Me”. Every fanatic religious follower follows the human incarnation, who preached his religion. The fanatic quotes such statements of uniqueness and exclusivity preached by that human incarnation in the scriptures of his religion. Suppose there is a neutral person. Which religion should he join? It is as if every shopkeeper is shouting that his shop alone is the best. Each shopkeeper is bent upon proving his point to the single customer in order to invite him into his own shop. The above concept of one God as the creator of this one world clearly demands a unity in all the human incarnations and religious scriptures of the world. Statements of uniqueness in different scriptures, if interpreted properly can achieve this unity. For example, in the above statements of Lord Jesus, the word ‘I’ means the human incarnation in general. It is called Emmanuel in the Bible, which means that God comes to live with human beings. The Bhagavad Gita also says that God enters the human body. God pervades all over the human body of the incarnation like electric current pervading all over a live wire. The current and the wire become one and the same. This is the interpretation of oneness of the Father and the Son. One can experience God only through a medium and that medium must be the same as the person trying to experience God. Thus human beings can experience God only through the human incarnation of God. This is the interpretation of the statement that one can reach the Father only through the Son. The human incarnation preaches the special knowledge clearly like a bright light revealing every minute detail. Such interpretations reveal the real universal meaning of scriptures. Other literal or conservative interpretations are bound to lead to misunderstandings. When a mother says to her children “All of you must serve me”, she does not mean that all the children in the world should serve her. Obviously children in some other part of the world cannot serve her. Her statement should be limited to her children only and you should limit her as the mother of those children only. If you want to generalize her as any mother, then her statement means that every child should serve his or her own mother. Therefore limitation and conservatism is ignorance and generalization is the true universal knowledge. A limited or literal interpretation may have a certain limited benefit or utility. Generalization based on the universal knowledge gives the maximum benefit. Generalization based on conservative or biased ideas, which are the result of ignorance, lead to fanaticism. This is a great loss. Poverty and suffering A poor man suffers due to his poverty. Actually any suffering is the punishment given for the previously committed sins of the soul. If you help such a poor person, you are cutting short his punishment and interfering with the administration of God. Punishment is always given for a change. God wants the person to realize his mistake and correct himself. That is the purpose of the punishment. Therefore you need not sympathize with him or give him money to remove his poverty. The parental love of the Lord for that poor person is greater than your brotherly love for him. Only the grace of God can end the punishment forever. Therefore you should help him get that grace rather than remove his poverty. Your goal should be to preach divine knowledge and devotion to him. Removal of his poverty may be a secondary or complementary goal. The divine knowledge and devotion will bring about a change in him. Thus the purpose of the punishment will be served, even if the punishment is cut short by you. Then God will be pleased with you and will also show His grace on the poor person. His poverty will vanish forever. Thus social service must be integrated with the spiritual mission. Shankara meant the same when He condemned the sect called Loka Sevaka Matham, who claimed that ‘Service to man is service to God’ (Loka sevaka matha khandanam). Mother Theresa too did social service but she did it as a part of her spiritual mission. Mere social service is like free boarding and lodging given to hostel students without any teaching or classes. Education is primary. It must be given to the students first. Lodging and boarding may be provided to students as secondary or complementary to education. Without education it is meaningless as the students will not make any progress but may on the contrary get into bad company and habits. Some extremist groups rob the wealth of rich people and pass it on to the poor. Such extremism gives only temporary and apparent relief whereas social work based on the spiritual mission alone is a permanent solution. The discoveries of scientists were expected to serve the society. However they did not have any spiritual basis and therefore have harmed the society. This becomes clear when we read of so many environmental problems facing our world today. Corruption Corruption is grabbing the wealth of others for the sake of comforts of one’s own body and family. The body is like a seat in the train and you, the soul, are the passenger. The family members are like just bench-mates in the same train. For the comfort of yourself and your bench-mates, if you trouble other passengers in the train, it is corruption. Life is just a matter of a short one-hour train journey. Your bench-mates will get down at their respective destinations and will not remember you thereafter. Even you will have to leave your seat and move on. After death, you have to leave your family members, who will not recognize you in their next birth. After getting down from the train of this life, you have to face the interview with God. There he will decide if you are to be granted permanent happiness or permanent misery. Therefore, you must concentrate on the preparation for this grand interview even during your journey through this life. Do not worry about the comforts of your own seat and that of your bench-mates. You will have to leave your own seats and all the bench-mates behind anyway. The bonds with your bench-mates (family members) are temporary and unreal. Shankara says that whatever is temporary must be unreal. The bond, which did not exist before and will not exist in future, does not exist even in the present time. Such spiritual realization is a must for getting a permanent control over corruption. Atheism The atheists believe in logical conclusions based on practical experience and in things present before the unclothed eye (perception). The real spiritual knowledge can satisfy all these requirements. The human incarnation of God is right before the eyes; in flesh-and-blood. All the bonds with family and wealth are before the eyes and liberation from such bonds, which is called salvation, is also before the eyes. One can experience God through the human incarnation in this world itself and in this very life itself. Infinite love and bliss derived from the special divine knowledge preached by the human incarnation are enjoyed here itself. Enjoyment of love and bliss is the goal of any worldly bond. This is called Jeevanmukti, which means ‘salvation while living’; right here. Whatever one achieves while living, that alone continues with the soul after death. Thus perception is the basis for even the invisible future. The Human Incarnation—Avatara God in a form? Most religions cannot accept the concept of God with a form. Further, some religions do not allow the acceptance of God in a human form. Yet every religion agrees to the fact that the Lord is all-knowing and all-powerful. If this is true, then He who is beyond all forms, can take up any form by His Will. If there is even a single form that He cannot take up, then He is not all-powerful. Therefore one must accept that the Lord can take up even the human form. He can take up a human form and come to earth as a human being. Such a human being is called the human incarnation of God or an Avatara. Not only that the Lord is capable of incarnating in human form but He has also done so in every age and continues to do so even today. He alone came to the world as all the prophets and human incarnations of the Lord (Avataras) in the past. Need for human incarnation The important question arises as to why He needs to come down in human form in the first place. The answer to this is simple. He comes to the world for the sake of His devotees. The devotee is an individual. An individual consists of three bodies namely; the causal body (soul), the subtle body (mind, intellect and past impressions) and the gross (physical) body. The gross body is the exterior-most body and is made out of matter. The causal body is pure awareness or life energy. It can be compared with standstill water without waves. The subtle body can be compared with waves in water. Past impressions, which are waves in the pure awareness, form the subtle body. As the waves cannot be separated from water, so also the subtle body cannot be separated from the causal body. The gross body is like a cup containing this disturbed water (water with waves). At the time of death, the external gross body is given up. The causal body (soul) along with the subtle body ascends to the upper worlds. The subtle body and the soul together are called as jeevatma (‘jeeva’ is the subtle body and ‘atma’ is the causal body). In the new world, the jeevatma, takes a new external body called as the energetic or luminous body (taija sharira). This body is made up of inert energy while the jeevatma is made up of life energy. If the jeevatma goes to heaven the energetic body that it takes up is called a ‘body of enjoyment’ (bhoga sharira). This body is the result of good worldly deeds or dharmic actions. If it goes to hell then the energetic body that it takes up is called a ‘body of suffering’ (yatana sharira). This body is the result of sinful worldly deeds or papa karma. Souls, who do dharmic or good worldly deeds such as serving people, society or country, go to heaven. There they enjoy the results of their good actions and fall back to hell to suffer the results of their bad actions. They are caught up in the endless cycle of birth and death. This shows the limitation of good deeds. A few rare souls serve the Lord in His human incarnation on earth with full devotion and effort. These souls reach the highest heaven or Brahma loka. Here the soul takes up an energetic body, which is highly refined and is called as a divine body or divya sharira. This body is the result of actions performed in the service of God. Such souls are very near and dear to God and do not have to be reborn except along with the human incarnation of the Lord, to serve Him in His divine mission on earth. A soul interacts, perceives and enjoys or suffers in each world only through the medium of the external body. On earth the external body is the gross physical body. In heaven the external body is the energetic body. Now the soul can only perceive other bodies of its own kind. When the soul is on earth it has a physical body and therefore it will perceive only other physical bodies. It cannot perceive energetic bodies, which belong to another world. If a soul on earth has to perceive God, it means that God must come in a physical body. If He comes in an energetic body, then an individual on earth cannot perceive Him. In other words, the human being can perceive only the human incarnation of the Lord. Likewise in heaven when the soul is ‘wearing’ an energetic body, it can perceive God who too is ‘wearing’ an energetic body. Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma are examples of God in energetic bodies. They cannot be perceived by humans on earth. An individual on earth has a physical body, and is surrounded by a physical world. He has five senses, which are his only means to knowledge or perception. The five senses cannot perceive Absolute God as He is. Absolute God (Nirguna Brahman) is beyond space, time and pure awareness. He is beyond creation. Any form is within the limits of space and time. The human mind cannot go beyond these bounds. All that we can say about God is that He exists. Questions such as ‘How is God?’, ‘Where is God?’, etc cannot be answered since ‘How’, ‘Where’, etc. have meaning only within space and time. We cannot even say that He is Formless, since the concept of ‘form’ is implied in it. Space, energy, air etc. are formless. They are not God. If you imagine God like them, your imagination, made of nervous energy, is also a formless energy. You should say that God is unimaginable. When you try to imagine Him in any way, imagination itself being a form of energy, you are actually conceiving God only through energy. Energy is a part of the creation. It becomes a medium to perceive God but it is not God Himself. Yet if one accepts conceiving God through one medium it is a significant achievement. The unimaginable God can be conceived through the medium of any part of the creation, which is nothing but a modification of the same awareness, matter and energy. Matter and energy being inter-convertible, they can together be called as inert energy. Awareness can be called as life energy. These two energies constitute creation. The Lord can take up any form in the world that He has created. A human being can attempt to perceive Him in different forms that He takes up. However we cannot perceive the Lord in His Cosmic Form (Vishwaroopa), which is the Lord in the form of the entire creation. Neither can the human being perceive the Lord in an energetic body. All these are different mediums to perceive God. The human body is also a medium. The Lord can be perceived by humans only through this medium. Since we can perceive the Lord only in a physical human body, the Lord has to take up a human body in order to fulfill the desire and devotion of His devotees. Fulfillment of devotion When human beings who are extremely devoted to God, yearn for the Lord, He in all His compassion, comes down in human form to satisfy His devotees. In the human form alone, can the devotee serve the Lord, feed Him, live with Him, talk to Him and love Him fully. One cannot serve, love, or talk to the Lord in the Cosmic Form or as the Formless One. The only other option for the human being is worshipping an idol, which is not the Lord but represents Him. It is like a lover, who holds on to the photograph of his beloved one, who is in some far away land. The idol or picture is not the same as the original person. You may pretend that you are feeding the idol, decorating it, loving it and so on. However it is obvious that it is mere imagination. The idol never eats the food you offer. It never shows satisfaction and pleasure on eating the food as a real person would. You can sing hymns and songs to the idol but the idol will still be as motionless and lifeless as ever. Thus in reality, you have no opportunity to serve, worship, decorate or praise the Lord in the form of an idol. Worshipping God, as the Formless One is also not possible because first of all, The Formless One is not God Himself but His formless power called as Maya. In worshipping the Formless Maya, one does not know where to start since the mind can only perceive limited forms. No matter how devoted you are, you can never attain the fulfillment of your devotion and worship if you limit yourself to worshipping the Formless or idols and images. You can never be satisfied by your worship. The only way that you can actually serve, worship, love, talk and sing to the Lord is when He comes down as a human incarnation or Avatara. Recognition of the Human Incarnation Recognizing the human incarnation of the Lord is recognizing the Lord Himself. Service to the human incarnation of the Lord is service to the Lord Himself. The Lord, who is beyond the perception and reach of the devotee, offers the medium of His human body to reach and serve Him. However herein lies the difficulty. The Lord offers humans the opportunity to reach Him through His human body, which is human; like any other human body. Therefore it becomes extremely difficult for the human being to distinguish the human incarnation of the Lord from any other human being. The body of the human incarnation is also subject to the rules of nature and outwardly shows no special quality. A blade can cut the shirt of a king and that of a beggar alike. The difference lies in the persons. There is no difference between the external shirts of the two. Likewise there is no difference between the human bodies of a human incarnation of the Lord and an ordinary human being. One can recognize the human incarnation, not by certain qualities of that body but by the expression of the three inseparable characteristics of the Lord: Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Bliss and Infinite Love. He brings all three to your experience. Thus your recognition of Him is based on your direct experience. It is not a question of blind faith. Although the human incarnation is capable of performing miracles using His super powers, the miracles cannot be the criteria of identifying the human incarnation. The super powers are His associated characteristics and not His inseparable characteristics. They can be given to others. Thus we find that great ascetics (tapasvis), yogis and even demons can perform miracles. God can grant these powers to anyone who does enough penance for them. Lord Dattatreya The Lord thus ‘gives Himself’ to his devotees and the world as the human incarnation and is called as Dattatreya or Datta (He, who is given). Datta is any human incarnation of the Lord. Datta is God in the three aspects of Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer. Datta thus includes Brahma (God in the aspect of Creator), Vishnu (God in the aspect of the Sustainer) and Shiva (God in the aspect of the Absorber or Destroyer). All other forms of God represent only a certain aspect of God. Datta is the highest conception of God that the human mind can imagine. Beyond that, God in His Universal (Cosmic) form, is unimaginable to us. Datta is the Adi Guru (the Primal or Original Guru), who has come down to teach man, about the Divine Knowledge. He is the Sadguru (Sat-Guru or the teacher of the Truth). Datta is God who has given the ultimate. He has given Himself to the world. He is the example of the total sacrifice. He sacrifices His body for His devotees. He gives His body to His devotees not only for worship, but He also transfers the results of their evil deeds and suffers on their behalf. [Datta donates His body for worship and sacrifices His body to remove the results of the sins committed by His devotees.] Datta in all times and places Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Jesus, Prophet Mohammed, Lord Buddha among many others are examples of human incarnations of the Lord. They came to the world for the sake of the devotees. They were worshipped by devotees and they suffered for the devotees. Human incarnations of the Lord are to be found in every land, in every age. The purpose of this is to give an equal opportunity to the people of each land and time to approach and serve Him. The complete incarnation The Bhagavad Gita says that the Lord incarnates in every age when there is a downfall of humans, to re-establish justice (dharma). In different incarnations, the Lord undertakes different tasks according to the need of the time. The highest human incarnation of God, the Pari Purna Avatara, means that the Lord who has come down in human form, dwells in that human body from its birth to its end and also expresses His inseparable characteristic of the True, Infinite, and Divine Knowledge. Lord Brahma (the Lord in the aspect of Creator) came in such a full form as Sage Vashishta who preached the ‘Yoga Vashishtam’ or ‘Jnana Vashishtam’. Then Lord Vishnu (the Lord in the aspect of the Sustainer) came in such a complete form as Lord Krishna and preached the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Shiva (the Lord in the aspect of the Destroyer of Ignorance) came as Adi Shankaracharya and preached the ‘Bhashyam’. The Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, together, called as Dattatreya or Lord Datta has now come down as a Pari Purna Avatara, to impart Divine Knowledge to humanity. He stands before you as Shri Datta Swami. The Paripurna Avatara is that human incarnation of the Lord who radiates the true Divine Knowledge completely. Such a human incarnation can be treated as being identical with the Lord. Let us further analyze the concept of a human incarnation of God and how people understand and approach Him. Let us take an example. Electricity by itself is beyond our reach. It has no form and cannot be seen. However, it can be felt (as an electric shock) only through the medium of a live wire. Without a wire, electricity cannot be felt by us. Thus from the point of view of our perception, electricity is identical with a live wire. The Lord, who is beyond the reach of the devotee, offers the medium of the human body of an incarnation to reach Him. It is indeed the wish of God that the devotee considers the human incarnation of God as God Himself. The devotee who accepts and worships God in the human body of the incarnation indeed worships God Himself. But alas, not all devotees can do this. Devotees who have completely conquered their ego and jealousy towards other human beings, alone can accept the human incarnation of the Lord as the Lord Himself. Those who have only partially conquered ego and jealousy can at the most accept that the Lord dwells in the human incarnation as the major component. They still think that there is a minor component of individuality in the human incarnation. It is equivalent to stating that in the live wire, electricity and the wire both exist but that electricity is the major component. The electricity and the wire represent the concepts of the Father and the Son in Christianity. In this case God is believed to exist in the human incarnation as if a king were living as a guest in the house of his friend. These people, who have partially conquered their ego and jealousy, accept an underlying unity in duality. In devotees whose hearts are full of ego and jealousy, the human incarnation cannot be accepted as God either fully or in part. They simply cannot accept the entrance of God into a human body. All they can accept is that the person in question is a prophet or messenger from God in whom, the power of God exists but not God Himself. Thus, based on these three categories of devotees, the human incarnation can be taken as identical with God, an abode of God (in whom God lives) or a servant of God. In both Hinduism and Christianity, all these three approaches to God are present. In Hinduism the three great preachers (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) separately preached about each of these three angles respectively. The three approaches are called Advaita, Vishishthadvaita and Dvaita respectively. The three preachers gave a systematic analysis of their respective approaches and developed the three angles as elaborate philosophies. In Christianity Lord Jesus alone preached about these three angles briefly. Islam preaches only the last angle in which they do not recognize any human incarnation of God. At the most, they accept prophets and messengers of God. There is a certain advantage to this approach. False preachers who either claim to be God, or who claim that God lives in them, are avoided. Thus Muslims treat even Prophet Mohammed as a messenger of the Lord and not as a human incarnation. Now when it is stated that Shri Datta Swami is a Complete Incarnation of the Lord (Paripurna Avatara), it does not mean that other incarnations of the past are incomplete or in any way inferior. It only means that Sri Datta Swami preaches the complete true knowledge, whereas other incarnations have not given the true knowledge completely. The same Lord was present in all incarnations and He possessed the complete true knowledge in all the incarnations. However earlier incarnations preached it only partially. This is a reflection not on the incarnations, but on the devotees to whom they preached. The world has progressed a lot in the past thousands of years. The entire population is far more educated and aware today than before. Science and logical reasoning have spread to all levels of society. In ancient times, science was in an undeveloped state. It was bound by the chains of blind beliefs and false logic. Logic (tarka shastra) of the time was based on what was known then. Often times it was outright wrong. E.g. in the analysis of the constituents of creation, space (akasha) was said to have the quality of sound. Modern science has showed us that sound cannot travel in empty space. It needs a medium. Therefore sound cannot be a quality of space. Advancement in modern science has refined human knowledge and logic. It has made it possible for the public to accept and assimilate the complete truth. I give this elaborate explanation because it is very easy to misunderstand.

BOOK OF SPIRITUALITY Removing Religious Differences All the religions in the world are different feathers of the same bird i.e., different colors on the same God. There is only one God and there is only one universe. Similarly, man is also one. Man should aim for that one God. Man should belong to all the religions in the universe. He should pick up the diamonds of all religions and use them in his spiritual path. One can have love towards his nation. Every nation has some physical boundaries. All people living in that nation have that nationality. Thus, there is a meaning in the nationality because it has some physical basis. But in the case of religion and spirituality, there is no physical basis. Every religion belongs to every man. Therefore, in religious and spiritual matters all religions can be used. The Human Incarnation in every religion announces that He is the Universal Preacher. The message of Lord Krishna i.e., Bhagavad Gita, is for the entire world. The message of Lord Jesus i.e., the Bible, is for the entire world. The message of Mohammed is for the entire world. So there is no need for religious conversions. In science, the discoveries and theories of Einstein are useful for the whole world. Similarly, every religious preaching is for everybody. Scientists belonging to different countries have made many discoveries and inventions. The field of science includes all the discoveries. If any discovery is removed from science, it becomes discontinuous. Similarly, spirituality consists of the preachings of preachers belonging to various countries. Spirituality must be built up by the preachings of all Human Incarnations such as Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira and others. Spirituality means the truth, like science. Different religions are following their respective preachers and they have put the essence of their scriptures into practice. This is how traditions are formed. Such traditional practices are comparable to the experimental part of science. The scriptures of different religions are comparable to the theoretical part of science. Scriptures of each religion are like different chapters in this theoretical part of spirituality. In science, a student does not discriminate between scientists based on their nationality. Similarly, in spirituality, one should not have repulsion or attraction to any scripture or tradition in the world. Collecting the Jewels of Each Religion Spirituality requires divine virtues, which are emphasized in various religions. The firm faith of Islam, the infinite love of Christianity, the tolerance of Hinduism towards other religions, the social service of Buddhism and the non-violence of Jainism are important virtues that a spiritual person must acquire. These are practical traditional aspects of various religions, which are more precious than their scriptures. These traditions bring out the most important essence of the respective scriptures. Firm faith of Islam One must praise the firm faith of a Muslim in God, which is accompanied with strict regularity and discipline. Other people worship God either in their leisure time or on a holiday. But a Muslim worships God everyday, whether it is a holiday or not. He worships God at regular intervals of time whether it is leisure time or work time. The faith in God and the importance given to God supercedes everything and every activity in his life. This aspect is a page in the book of spirituality. Infinite love of Christianity Another page in the book of spirituality is the tradition of Christianity, which is infinite love. Lord Jesus says in the Bible “The revenge is mine”. Christians love even their enemies and prove that their love is infinite. Love is God. God is infinite and so love is infinite. Such infinite love alone can attract God. The proof of love is in sacrifice through service. Christians sacrifice a lot of their money for spiritual work. Their love is so unlimited that they sacrifice money even to the spiritual centers of other religions. Even if some religion is opposing their religion, they fund the other religion. This shows their love even for their enemies. Their love for their family bonds is very weak. So the love remains stored in their hearts without much wastage. This concentrated love in their hearts flows entirely towards God and so they sacrifice a lot of their earnings for the work of God. Also, they do not store their wealth for their children, and they ask their children to earn and live on their own after a certain age. Thus, they are able to sacrifice their earnings for God without worrying about saving for future generations. Tolerance of Hinduism Hinduism should be another page in the book of spirituality. The house of every Hindu contains pictures of different forms of God. At the same time, Hindus see only one God (Parabrahma) in all those forms of God. They treat the different forms of God as different dresses worn by the same Divine Actor. This indicates that there is only one God for the entire world and Lord Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and Mahavir are only different dresses of the same God. This understanding brings about, not just tolerance of other religions, but also the brotherhood of all human beings in the world. Social service of Buddhism Another page in the book of spirituality must be Buddhism. Buddha kept silent about God because the Veda says that God is beyond even imagination. Buddha’s silence about God is often misunderstood as atheism. He concentrated on the society, which represents the entire universe. All human beings in this universe must be uplifted through the right knowledge. Buddha means knowledge. Any Incarnation of God carries out this same work in the world. Non-violence of Jainism Jainism is another page. Jains believe in non-violence and non-harming of living beings. They do not kill living beings even for food. The highest justice (Dharma) is non-violence (Ahimsa). God has given life to all living beings. What right do you have to kill and eat other beings? Only if a living being or even a human being disturbs the peace and justice in human society, can the killing of that living being or person be considered. The Lord Himself killed evil people since they harmed society. However, killing a living being, which does not harm you in any way, is the highest sin. God has given sufficient vegetarian food to feed everyone. In fact, science proves today that non-vegetarian food is not even good for health. Religions are rivers but spirituality is the ocean Similarly, there are many more precious traditions of other religions, which should be copied on different pages of the book of spirituality. This book should be just like a book of science. Spirituality is the most important practical field necessary to achieve the grace of God. Spirituality must also be a universal subject like science. Nations may have physical boundaries but spirituality has none. Spirituality is the single ocean in which all the rivers of different religions mix and become one. Every human being in this world must enter this ocean through a river and settle there as a fish of the infinite ocean. Man should not end his journey while he is still in the river of his own religion. He should follow the journey through the river up to the very end, where he can find the boundless ocean. Unfortunately, today man is not flowing along with the river of his religion to merge with the ocean. In doing so he is becoming stagnant as a river-fish, who refuses to swim to the ocean.

How do you justify the caste system in Hinduism? The Gita says that the caste is based on the qualities and profession (Guna Karma Vibhagashah) of the person. [The four castes are Brahmins (priest caste), Kshatriyas (caste of warriors or noblemen), Vaishya (businessmen caste) and Shudra (laborer caste)]. Qualities were always respected. Rama and Krishna were non-Brahmins. Yet Brahmin priests wash the statues of Rama and Krishna and swallow the washings as sacred water. In the Bhagavatam it is written that Sūta, who was a low-caste person, was made Brahma in the sacrifice [in a sacrifice, the chief officiating priest is called Brahma]. Ravana was a Brahmin but was condemned. Every human being is a Shudra by birth and can become a Brahmin only by practicing the true meaning of the Vedas (Janmana Jaayate). Brahmana [Brahmin] means he who knows Brahman. Brahman also means the Veda in Sanskrit. Every caste contains good people as well as bad people. Shabari and Kannappa belonged to the family of untouchables [lower than Shudras]. Nobody is untouchable by birth. In the Veda only four castes were mentioned. How did this fifth caste come into existence? All the bad people in the four castes were expelled from the village just like a bad student is expelled from the school. Thus untouchability is due to the qualities and deeds and not by birth. Brahmins are worshipping the pictures of Shabari and Kannappa in their prayer rooms.

Science does not bother about God and is confined to the present life alone. Scientific rationality is confined only to physical knowledge. Even though there are several genuine miracles happening in this world, science does not bother about them. Atheists attempt to examine these miracles like scientists. But they differ from the silent scientists in their invariable strong negation of the miracles at the end of their investigation. Unless miracles are accepted, scientists and atheists will not believe in the existence of the unimaginable God. A scientist may become a believer in God, but an atheist will never believe. For believers in God, miracles are not necessary since they follow the advanced knowledge of nivṛtti. The unimaginable God is beyond space and time and He remains unimaginable due to this reason only. From the unimaginable God, imaginable space etc., were generated, which form this entire imaginable world. In the worldly logic, there is no single example of generation of imaginable item from unimaginable item because in the imaginable domain (world), there is no unimaginable item at all — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. The unimaginable God alone is the absolute truth and this world created by Him can’t be equally true with Him. If it is true like Him, it can’t be created or destroyed by Him. One truth can’t create or destroy another truth. Such creation, modification and destruction of worldly items by the unimaginable God are called as miracles or unimaginable events, which are seen in this world indicating His existence directly through scientific analysis. The soul is a part of this untrue world, hence, untrue, can’t stand as equal truth with the unimaginable God. World is not true before God, but, true for the soul — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. Space is something or subtle energy and not nothing. Nothing can be neither generated nor can disappear. Space is said to be generated by the Veda and is said by Einstein to disappear when all the matter disappears in the world. If it is nothing, it can’t bend along the boundary of the object. This means space is something like the other four subsequent elements, which are air, fire, water and earth. Of course, space is nothing like the other four elements with reference to unimaginable God since world is relatively true with reference to the absolute truth, called as the unimaginable God. Imaginable space can’t exist in its cause or unimaginable God before its generation itself. If it exists, its generation becomes false. This link between unimaginable God and imaginable space is also unimaginable due to absence of such link in the world. We can find the generation of imaginable item from another imaginable item only in this imaginable world. By this, not only God, but also, His link with space is unimaginable — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. The space or world looks to be infinite because its boundary is not attained by us even in our imagination. This universe is finite for the omniscient God since nothing is unknown to Him. If we reach the boundary of imaginable space or world, we will certainly touch the starting boundary of different unimaginable God and this can never happen. Due to this reason only, the space or world is constantly expanding so that even angels can’t reach the boundary of this space. Angels having energetic bodies move with tremendous velocity. The ending boundary of the water of sea is the starting boundary of different region, called as soil. The boundary of the universe exists, but, is unreachable to us, which means infinite, but, does not mean really infinite. If you follow the track of smoke generated from fire, you will touch its cause or fire. Similarly, if we reach the boundary of space, we will reach its cause or unimaginable God. This can never happen since unimaginable God having no space in Him before its generation, is beyond space and is always unimaginable to us — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. The unimaginable God created subtle energy or space so that an energetic body is created from subtle energy and remaining subtle energy is in the form of space, which is occupied by the created energetic body to be called as absolute space since such first energetic body will never disappear. The unimaginable God enters this first energetic body called as first energetic incarnation or Eshwara or Lord or Father of heaven called as Datta meaning that the unimaginable God is ‘given’ to the world for clear vision. Such incarnation is called as descended God because the omnipotent unimaginable God can alone cross the unimaginable link between God and space to come down. This first energetic body bound by space can’t cross this link to become ascended body. This first energetic incarnation enters other energetic bodies and human bodies to become energetic and human incarnations respectively in future. This Father of heaven merged by unimaginable God creates the five elements and souls gradually due to His unimaginable power, which form this entire world — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. Awareness means to know something (result) and also means the nervous energy that causes the knowledge (cause). The unimaginable God knows everything (result), without nervous energy (cause). The awareness of soul knows only little (result) since it is done by the nervous energy (cause). Soul is just a specific work form of inert energy functioning in a specific nervous system. It is only the rule of this creation that anything to know must be nervous energy and this rule doesn’t apply to unimaginable God. He knows everything (not little like the soul) without being nervous energy. By this speciality, the knowledge of unimaginable God is called as unimaginable awareness. Similarly, He can burn anything without being the fire. Hence, every soul is not unimaginable awareness or unimaginable God. Only the soul of first energetic incarnation and other souls pervaded by Him in the incarnations become unimaginable awareness. A soul becomes unimaginable God by the selection done by God and not by the effort of the soul — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. When the unimaginable God merges with imaginable medium like energetic or human body, we need not discuss this merge as monism or internal dualism or perfect dualism since these three mechanisms are confined to merge of imaginable items only. Since climax devotees desired to see the unimaginable God with their eyes, God becomes the medium through perfect monism only so that devotees are not discouraged. These climax devotees have no ego and jealousy due to which these devotees can digest the perfect monism. If the devotees have some ego and jealousy, the merge will be simultaneously external monism with internal dualism due to non-isolation of soul from God. If the devotees have full ego and jealousy, the merge will be perfect dualism simultaneously. This merge is confined to the incarnation only and not to be extended to every soul. However, Shankara applied perfect monism of God to every soul in the case of atheists having full ego and jealousy (I am the light). After sometime, ego and jealousy were reduced and Ramanuja told that soul is a part of God (Part of light is in me). After sometime, ego and jealousy disappeared and Madhva told that the soul is different from God even though both are awareness (I am in the light). The grading done in the incarnation shall be understood with reference to the then existing state of devotees since the real preacher cares more for the uplift of devotees from their existing state than the truth of the concept. Now, Datta Swami established that awareness or nervous energy is only imaginable soul and not the unimaginable God because today devotees developed excellent scientific analysis to digest the ultimate truth also along with devotion. By this, God became visible as well as unimaginable in nature — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. The first energetic incarnation along with merged unimaginable God is the common item in every medium and thus, same God is common in all religions even though media differ. Hence, only one God exists in all religions. Religion is the path to please the same one God. Religions differ due to the difference in the level, language, culture, etc., of different souls in different regions. The starting point or soul and ending point or God are same in every religion. Hinduism with many sub-religions is a mini representative model of world with various religions and in both (sub-religions of Hinduism and religions of world), we find internal unity in external diversity — like this, if one realizes, let him belong to Eastern religion or Western religion, such a person is omniscient. This is My logical conclusion. Science Vs Atheism Science keeps silent on the unimaginable God because it is unable to explain the unimaginable events called as genuine miracles, the source of which is unimaginable God. In any book of science, you don’t find a chapter called as ‘Refutation of God and Miracles’, whereas the books on atheism have only this one chapter! The silence of science is perfect indicating that God is beyond imagination being beyond space and this point is told by the scriptures also. Atheism blindly says that all miracles are magic without perfect examination and analysis. Ofcourse, certain fraud miracles also exist, which are actually magic and by this you shall not conclude that every miracle is magic. Atheism is always emotional and the intelligence sleeps in emotion. Science is always open to observation and analysis unlike atheism. Science also says that a hypothesis shall be accepted till it is disproved by the subsequent theory. Hence, you shall believe the explanation of the performer of genuine miracles at least till you disprove the genuine miracle also as magic. Science accepts the existence of unimaginable domain by accepting the unimaginable boundary of the universe. The unimaginable boundary of the universe and frequently exhibited unimaginable-genuine miracles establish the existence of unimaginable God, who punishes the sinners through unimaginable ways even if they escape the law here through tricks. By this, pravrutti is protected on which only nivrutti is based. If an atheist asks you to show the hell in this space, you must give the following argument:- In this infinite space, I can’t show the existence of hell to you. Similarly, since space is infinite, you can’t take me all around the space and prove the non-existence of hell to me. A 50:50 probability of existence and non-existence results here. A wise person shall select the probability having lesser risk. If you believe in the hell and do not do any sin, you are not lost in any way even if the hell is absent. If you take the other probability of non-existence of hell and do sins, you are totally damaged if the hell exists! Even an atheist shall think about this, if the atheist is wise enough.

In the time of the divine Prophet Mohammad, the atmosphere of a specific region was horrible in which several religions appeared with several Gods and all were fighting with each other. The fight brought climax of Chaos and people were killing each other based on the religious differences. Then, Allah appeared in human form called Prophet Mohammad. He established a religion which is the actual Islam proposing only one God called Allah. If this religion gets established, the quarrels will stop and killing each other will end. There was a vigorous necessity to establish Islam even by force to stop mutual fights. Naturally, those ignorant and blind religions opposed the Prophet. This means that their religions should continue and the killing also should continue without end. To bring them to the concept of one God and to avoid the mutual fights and mutual killing, the Prophet went to the last resort of even killing those leaders and rigid followers of various religions so that eternal peace will be established for future generations. Hence, orders like ‘fight non-Muslims’, ‘cutting off the hands and feet of those against Allah and His messenger’ etc., were passed in that context and in that specific region in which such worst situation existed. These comments of the Prophet were confined to that time and to that region only where people were fighting and killing with each other based on different religions. In normal situations same Prophet Mohammad advised the followers to protect anybody in problem and to become the escort up to his/her house. Then, preaching about Allah should be done and to leave him/her without any force. Here, in this context, the world Allah means one God only and not several Gods since He established His religion in the context of rejecting many Gods only. Similarly, Lord Krishna, a human incarnation conducted a mighty war to destroy the injustice completely in a specific region and in a specific old span of time. This does not mean that whenever injustice grows, a mighty war is always inevitable. In a specific region and in some span of specific old time, a divine human incarnation preached the required spiritual knowledge to that place and that context of time and underwent crucifixion silently so that the hearts of those people get reformed by repentance. This does not mean that any spiritual preacher of any time in any area should undergo crucifixion silently to reform the hearts of the people. Today, crucifixion is never allowed on the grounds of spiritual knowledge and even on the grounds of political issues. Today, in all regions of the world all religions co-exist with mutual love and respect to each other. Even if there are differences in religions, situation is limited to some hot discussions and debates or at the maximum abusing each other very rarely. You can’t bring those comments of the divine Prophet confined to that context and that place to the present context and present world. You should not implement those punishments on non-Islamic religions because that situation was very serious and this situation is very normal. The divine Prophet Mohammad means ONE GOD as the meaning of the world Allah because the entire lifelong context in which He was placed was horrible fights based on religious differences establishing different Gods. The punishments suggested by Him were in the context of forcible suppression of multiplicity of God by even wars to stop mutual killing based on wrong spiritual knowledge. Today also, many religions and many Gods based on wrong spiritual knowledge exist, but, the situation is not as worse as that of that time. In that context, wars and severe punishments were inevitable and in this context of today, propagation of right spiritual knowledge is sufficient. You should not extend the statement of one context blindly to other different context of the same event also. Today, the solution can come by cutting the wrong arguments with the help of right arguments and hands and feet need not be cut with knives. The whole problem arises by blindly bringing the comments of God made in one context to another different context due to ignorance without little common sense and a trace of analysis! Similarly, issues of inheriting the property, control of women, concepts of marriage, the status of adopted sons etc., present in that context and in that region were analysed with justified logic and judgements were passed by the divine Prophet Mohammad. Everywhere, every time, we must not miss the basic point that these judgements were specific to those situations only. If the situation is exactly same, anytime, anywhere, you can simply extend and apply the same judgement word to word. But, if situations were different, the same judgement of past different situations should not be applied to the new situations without suitable modifications. How to tranform a terrorist Even a terrorist has some logic by which only he is practically behaving in that particular way. By your sharp analysis, you have to change that logic and then only reformation and realization comes even in terrorist. You must enlighten the misinterpretation of the scripture like Jihad, which is the fight for justice in the context of killing each other due to difference in the religions existing in the time of Prophet Mohammad. The situation of killing each other can be controlled by fight and sometimes in extreme conditions by removing some limbs like hands, legs etc. Killing can be stopped by fights or such severe punishments. Today when such context of killing is not there, you cannot bring the concept of Jihad to the context of today. Today, only oral arguments and oral fights are going on between religions. In this context, only perfect rational analysis is sufficient to rectify the situation. Like this, we must understand the word of the Prophet with reference to the then existing context. You should not generalize a specific context to all the times and all the regions. Then only harmony between religions and world peace is possible. You must also remember that the Prophet told to teach about Allah to a human being after helping it and the final decision is left to the free will of the human being. Shri Datta Swami gives clarification on the some of the controversial verses in Quran A woman inherits half of what a man inherits: Qur'an 4:11 A woman's witness testimony is half of that of a man's: Qur'an 2:282 Women(Qur'an 4:11, 2:282, Qur'an 4:34): In that old context, women were terribly suppressed in all aspects by the ignorant men. This situation existed in every religion and in every region of the world. When you suppressed by somebody, he/she will react and revenge in silent or open ways. Women couldn’t revolt in open ways due their weaker physical strength compared to men. Showing difference by caste and gender is the climax of ignorance and stupidity. Naturally, women revolted in silent ways by becoming more alert and intelligent than men. Women became experts in cold war. They were trying to retort injustice through curved ways called cheating. Men blamed women as cunning liars. This was true in that situation but such retort was not unjust since diamond should be cut by diamond only. You cannot blame those women in view of their unjust suppression. Hence, the witness of two women was felt necessary for the truth to come out because of the non-unity of women in those days. Wife being left half of the husband, witness of one man was said to equal to the witness of two women. Suppression of women from education and property made them to become weaker sex. The divine Prophet gave equal right of property to the women because wealth or money is the basic strength of the entire world. Even in Hinduism the Veda said (Putrebhyo daayam...) that issues (Putra) should divide the property equally. As per Sanskrit grammar (Ekashesha sutra) the word ‘putra’ means both son and daughter. But, the word putra was misinterpreted by men to have the only meaning ‘son’. Selfish souls always pollute the scripture and analysis is the filter to be used for cleaning. Discipline of the family is essential and one head of the family should exist, be father or be mother. In the old context father (man) remained as head and the entire family including mother (woman) was obeying the head. In the case of disobedience, the family looses unity and discipline. In such case beating was recommended just to induce fear and control. In this way, if understood properly, this gives justified colour. If misinterpreted in wrong way, it shows atrocity against women. This topic should be carefully and patiently understood and everywhere misinterpretation drags you to side. Today, there are several families in which the woman is the only earning member and happens to be the head of the family. In such case if the husband or children become disobedient, she, as the head of the family can beat her husband or children. Headship is important and not gender. In the old context, the head was always male, it is said that a disobedient wife should be controlled even by beating. Here, head controlling others is real focus and man controlling women is misinterpreted false focus. If the discipline comes by punishment, the anger should no more continue and no injustice should be done to anyone in anyway keeping past in mind (‘do not seek a way against them...’). A man may marry the wife of his adopted son: Qur'an 33:4 Adopted son(: This son is not given by God. This type of son is got by the man only. There is no blood relationship between father and adopted son. The widow wife of such adopted son can be married by the father provided both are willing. This applies to a case of mutual willingness and not force to be applied in every case. Extension of it to all cases is again misinterpretation of selfish people. Turned into Apes: Qur'an 2:65 Apes: Those who oppose the word of God, become undisciplined criminals to be treated as animals and not at all human beings. Animals have no ethics at all. In the animals also apes are very much unstable in psychology. Hence, such unstable criminals doing various types of sins without ethics are best addressed as apes. A man can have sex with prisoners of war: Qur'an 33:50 Prisoners: The widows of prisoners are to be supported by providing peaceful family life. Here, wedding means maintenance. Husband means he, who maintains a woman (Bibharti iti bhartaa) and wife means she, who is maintained by the husband (Bhriyate iti bhaaryaa). The wedding with Prophet or human incarnation means that such unfortunate widow shall be maintained and supported by God. The word wedding should be taken as in the sense of supporting the widow and her children. If the widow and the supporter (man) are mutually willing, both can get further children through the sex. This applies to specific cases only to avoid the secret sexual dealings of a widow with many men and marriage with a man is better than that bringing deceases. Rules of ethics differ from case to case and no single rule exists that should be applied to all the cases in all the contexts. A man can marry a girl who hasn't reached puberty: Qur'an 65:4 Marriage before puberty: This existed in Hinduism also in a specific span of time and not necessary for all the times. The Manusmuruti says that a girl should be married in her 8th year (Astavarshaa bhavet...). The Veda says that the girl should be married after 16th year (Maa me dabhraani...). This difference is based on the different contexts. A time was there when the girls were forcibly taken away for marriage. But, if the girl was married, she was leftover. To this context the first scripture applies. The normal context of all times was that such danger of looting unmarried girls was absent, which is even in the present time and to this context the second scripture applies. In such normal span of time, a grown up girl has grown up mentally also to select her husband. This process called svayamvaram existed in which a grown up girl interviews various grooms directly and makes her own selection with full freedom. Hence, such rules are specific for specific contexts only and this is very very important point. A man may marry four wives: Qur'an 4:3 Four wives: This rule again applies to a specific context of time and region in which a man was marrying many many girls based on his power of money and rowdy nature. Such infinite number is reduced to four and here one is also suggested. Hence, from case to case the number varies from one to four. A soul can’t do justice to more than four based on the condition of health in that time. "Cut off their hands": Qur'an 5:38 & Qur'an 5:33 Cutting hands of thieves: This again differs from context to context. When the sin of stealing reached climax and not controlled by any punishment, the last resort of the punishment was this. This can’t be applied to another context where the sin is under control. Sura 5:33 orders the cutting off of the hands and feet of those who wage war against Allah and his Messenger. Cutting hands and feet of opponents of Prophet: Jesus was the Prophet before Mohammad as agreed by Islam also. His hands and feet were cruelly nailed. Such criminals opposing God should be given this punishment. Jesus indicated that He and His father are one and the same (Monism). The anger for crucifixion came at this point. Jesus told the absolute truth as said by Shankara. The ego and jealousy of other co-human beings reached climax and Jesus was brutally killed. To avoid this horrible crime from which no involved soul can ever be excused by God, Prophet Mohammad established dualism (God and soul are totally different) and separated Allah from His messenger. Though He was human incarnation of Allah, to avoid such anger of God on souls, He rejected monism based on the context. In fact, both theories are correct and one and the same. When current flows through wire, current (God) is inseparable from the wire (messenger) and the electrified wire shows the property of electricity (shocking) whenever and wherever touched. For all practical purposes though both are different, remain as one and the same. The electrified wire is called as electricity itself. Prophet Mohammad criticized Jews and Christians in old context only and not in all contexts of all times. The reason for such criticism was only in the context of crucifixion of Jesus, since He was crucified on twisted background of political offence of anti Government, though the hidden real reason was the disliked spiritual knowledge of Jesus. He was aiming at the religious leaders and their followers only, who plotted the crucifixion in most cunning way and hence friendship with such people should not be done. The latter generations should repent to do such act again and this was the main aim of criticising their latter generations after a long time and this criticism subsequently applies to all. ---------------------------------- - By Shri Datta Swami (Universal Spirituality for World Peace)

UNITY OF RELIGIONS IN THE UNIVERSE (Conversation between Swami and a Christian Father) [Following is the divine experience of Shri Phani Kumar, a devotee of Swami as narrated by him.] Recently, I had the fortune to accompany Swami in a train journey from Narasaraopet to Vijayawada. A Christian father was our co-passenger. The conversation between Swami and the Christian father took place as given below.] Father: Those who do not have faith in Jesus Christ will be sent to the flames of liquid fire in hell. This is the declaration of our faith. Swami: Does that mean that there is no salvation to all the generations of devotees who lived on this earth before the incarnation of Jesus Christ? If so, all those devotees were subjects of the partiality of God since they were deprived of the revelation that their successors had! Father: God is impartial in this matter. He gave Jehovah to mankind for their salvation before the incarnation of Jesus. Swami: Fine! That may be true, but devotees of this land (India) had no knowledge of either Jehovah or Jesus Christ prior to the arrival of Vasco da Gama. Vasco da Gama discovered India and only later on, did the Christian literature that speaks of Jehovah or Jesus come to India. All those innocents, who lived before the arrival of Vasco da Gama were deprived of the revelations of either Jehovah or Jesus Christ and were sent to the flames of the ‘liquid fire’ for no fault of theirs. Moreover, they did not even have the opportunity to take human rebirth birth later and reclaim salvation since the doctrine of the faith that you follow, has no place for the rebirth of the soul. Does this mean that God intended to provide the revelation only to a handful of people in a small country and deny the opportunity to all those living in rest of the world? Why did God reveal Himself at a particular point of time, in a particular land and to a particular section alone? Does that not accuse God of partiality? Father: No faith is free from such blame. Does your faith also not warn those who do not believe in your faith, of the same danger of hell? All mortals in other lands, who are not aware of the virtues of your faith, are also subjected to the same punishment in hell! Does this also not accuse God of partiality? Swami: There are fanatic enthusiasts in every faith. Christian enthusiasts claim that non-believers in Jehovah or Jesus Christ shall be subjected to the flames of the liquid fire. Hindu enthusiasts claim that non-believers in Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva shall be subjected to punishment in hell. These enthusiasts further introduce ideas that salvation is possible only for devotees who follow that particular path, while others will go to hell. Followers of different sects criticize each other by such warnings. All these enthusiasts fail to recognize the unity in all the world religions. All these ‘approaches’ to God, accuse Him of partiality. The only way to keep God free from blame is to understand His generosity correctly. The same single God revealed Himself in different forms, in different places, in different times, to different people. He granted the same enlightenment [knowledge] to all in different languages. All those who are faithful to Him attain salvation upon receiving the enlightenment. Those who fail to accept it, are subjected to the liquid fire in hell. This approach towards God makes Him free from any blame of partiality. The God of all religions is one and the same. He may appear to be different due to differences in His approach to different people, in different times, in different forms and in different languages. He uplifts all with the same compassion. The sea receives all the rivers in the same way, whether they are straight or curved. Devotion is important; not the religion or the path. If the straight river becomes proud and mocks at the curved river, God will see to it that the straight river will never reach Him. By His will, people will build a dam on that river to divert all the water! Everyone needs to follow the path assigned in his faith to attain salvation. Every religion has different levels of spiritual enlightenment. One should move up to the higher level for achieving total enlightenment. Such enlightenment alone is the means of salvation. These levels of enlightenment in each religion are similar to the different levels in education such as school and college. Different religions are similar to different language mediums. The curriculum is same in all the language mediums. A pupil of a certain language medium should strive to reach higher levels of knowledge in the same medium of his choice. He is a pilgrim in pursuit of divinity. His medium is his opportunity. It is neither superior nor inferior to any other medium. He need not move on to another language medium to uplift himself. All the language mediums are different religions with different levels of knowledge. A school student studying science in a particular medium (language) need not change his medium, because even if he changes, the syllabus will not be changed. He should strive to change his syllabus by raising his standard of knowledge i.e. he should graduate from the school level and reach the college level while remaining in the same language medium. The school and college levels exist in every medium. A school student does not become a college student just by changing the medium of his class. He becomes a college student only when the level of his knowledge rises. Similarly, a devotee of any religion should try to reach the higher spiritual level in his own religion. His spiritual level is not raised by changing his religion. Every religion has the lower and higher levels of spirituality meant for devotees of corresponding stages. Religion is the medium and spirituality is the curriculum or syllabus. This syllabus (spirituality) has different levels, such as school level, college level etc., present in the same medium (religion). One should strive to reach the higher levels of knowledge that are present in his own faith. No one needs to move to another faith for getting a higher level of knowledge or for final salvation. All faiths lead to the same destination. In any path, you will have to proceed vertically to reach the goal. At any point, if you travel horizontally to another path, you will still remain at the same level, which is a waste. The realization of this truth alone ensures harmony among different faiths in the world. Failure to recognize the truth will not make anyone enlightened. [When Swami concluded in this way, the Christian father stood up, touched his heart, traced a cross over it and said the following words.] Father: We believe that Jesus will be born again. Yes. Jesus is born again now. Nobody else can explain like this. I am fully convinced”. [When we returned to our house, Swami said the following to me.] Swami: See, the Christian father did not rigidly limit his mind with conservatism. Every religion contains good and broadminded devotees. My effort in the propagation of this knowledge is for such devotees, who are present in every religion in this world.

THE PATH OF SELFLESS SERVICE Karma and Karma Yoga Nishkama karma yoga is a word that often comes in the Bhagavad Gita. Karma, akarma and vikarma are also mentioned in the Gita (Karmanohyapi…). Karma means the work done with a selfish desire for the limited circle of one’s family. Karma yoga means the work done for the sake of Lord. Akarma means inaction; not doing either karma or karma yoga. Vikarma means action, which disturbs the peace of the world by harming good devotees. For Arjuna, participating in the Mahabharata war was both karma and karma yoga. It was karma because Arjuna could get back his rightful kingdom, which represents money or wealth. It was karma yoga, because the war was the mission of God. The Lord was destroying injustice by fighting the war against evil people. Participation in such a war is karma yoga. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary for Arjuna to participate in this war and destroy the Kauravas, who stood as his enemy. The war happened to be the personal work (svakaryam—self-serving or self-centered work) and also the work of the Lord (Swami karyam). Svakaryam is another word for karma and Swami karyam is another word for karma yoga. ‘Karma’ is common to both terms: karma and karma yoga. This means that a person always has to work. The soul is born in this world only for doing work; therefore, one cannot remain idle or avoid work. The Gita says the same thing as “Nahi Kashchit....” Now in order to do any work or karma, an aim (sankalpa) is essential. Without an aim, no work (karma) can be done. In your body the blood circulatory system, the digestive system etc., are all working with the aim of keeping your body fit to do some work in this world. You are born in this world with a purpose. The purpose is that you should do minimum karma and maximum karma yoga. Unfortunately, you are doing maximum karma without doing even a minimum of karma yoga. That is, most of the work that you do is self-centered; you do it for yourself or for your limited family. Work of the Lord While you work for your limited family, the Lord works for the whole world, which is His family. Helping Him in His work is karma yoga. He comes down in human form as a Human Incarnation or Avatara, very frequently. He even comes down in different human forms at the same time for the upliftment of the entire human race. His work involves uplifting people present at various levels to higher and higher levels. One Incarnation may concentrate on converting atheists into believers of God by showing miracles, which are beyond scientific logic. That is the main work for that Incarnation. Another Incarnation may promote worship of God. He may introduce worship of God through names and forms. He may encourage traditional worship, prayers and worship in temples. The believers in God (aastikas) can climb only this step in the beginning. Another Incarnation reveals the Absolute Truth, which is Brahma Jnana (Real Knowledge of God). That is His chief purpose. Human Incarnations—A Spiritual Educational Complex Human Incarnations of various types, such as described above, form a complex of various educational institutions. In this complex, there are different levels of institutions such as school, college and university. At each level the Human Incarnation represents the head of that institution. There is the headmaster for the school, a principal for the college and a chancellor for the university. Various types of assisting staff to assist all the three are also present. The three levels of institutions perform their duties within their limited circles. School level: Atheist becomes a believer An uneducated person is first admitted into a school. He then goes to a college and finally to a university. The uneducated person cannot enter the university directly. Similarly, an atheist should first become a believer of God by seeing divine miracles. Converting atheists into believers is the main purpose of the first type of Human Incarnation. College level: Believer becomes a devotee After becoming a believer in God (theist), a person should become a devotee through different types of worship and devotional songs. The second type of Human Incarnation works for this. The above two types (school and college) of Incarnations, work for the purification of the mind of the person. Only when the mind is completely freed from jealousy and ego, is it said to be completely purified. Prayers, worship and traditional practices, promoted by the second type of Human Incarnation, purify the mind. Thus, the person becomes eligible for jnana yoga or the knowledge of God. Lord Shankara has said that the traditional practices bring about the purification of mind, which makes one eligible for receiving jnana yoga. University level: Devotee becomes a Jnani At the university level, the devotee becomes a Jnani (possessor of knowledge). Having gained the eligibility to acquire this knowledge, he works to get established in this knowledge, in this step. This third level is the most important level. However, if the mind is not completely purified, jnana yoga cannot be achieved. Once the person is established in jnana yoga, he is liberated. When you have this jnana yoga, you will be astonished as said in the Gita (Ashcharyavat pashyati…). The third Incarnation reveals the whole true knowledge in order to convert the devotee to a Jnani. This third Incarnation is called the Pari Poorna Tamavataram. The words ‘Pari’ and ‘Tama’ both indicate the superlative degree. The use of a double superlative degree is to emphasize that there can be no greater Avatara or Human Incarnation than this. He is God who is fully revealed. He says vehemently that He is God. Lord Krishna is the highest and fullest Incarnation (Pari Poorna Tamavataram). Only He can reveal the true knowledge, which can open all the knots of your heart. All your doubts are cleared with this knowledge. Your heart is immersed in the ocean of Bliss. This Avatara reveals jnana yoga. Serving the Lord Nirvikalpa samadhi Lord Datta, who is the Human Incarnation of God, reveals Himself fully to deserving devotees and declares that He exists in that human form. If you recognize His human form and fix Him in your mind forever, such a state is called nirvikalpa samadhi. Nirvikalpa means not getting doubts after the decision. Samadhi is the unshakeable decision. Hanuman and Radha are the best examples for nirvikalpa samadhi. Both of them recognized the Human Incarnations of their time, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna respectively, and worshipped them with total faith. Both Hanuman and Radha did only Swami karyam and gave up their svakaryam. Radha and Hanuman—Ideal servants of God Radha preached firm devotion to the world. Hanuman proved his firm devotion by always doing selfless service to the Lord. Radha lived with the Lord when the Lord had not commenced His work. Therefore, Radha did not get the opportunity to participate in the work of the Lord. Hence, she did personal service to the Lord. Swami (the Lord) started His work only after leaving Radha. Radha was a simple milkmaid and could not participate in war and the destruction of evil. So she could not assist Lord Krishna in His mission on earth, which was to destroy injustice. Satyabhama, Lord Krishna’s wife, on the other hand, who was well versed in the art of warfare, helped Lord Krishna during the war with the demon, Narakasura. Hanuman was far from Lord Rama before the work of the Lord began. The reason for this was that Hanuman was a warrior and could help Lord Rama in His mission to destroy evil. Therefore, he got associated with the Lord in the latter part of the life of Lord Rama, when He needed Hanuman. Radha was associated with Swami (Lord) in the earlier part of the Lord’s life. Hanuman was associated in the latter part of the Lord’s life. When Lord Krishna left Vrindavanam, Radha did not go home. She wandered on the banks of river Yamuna till she died. Thus, Radha outwardly exhibited love for the Lord. Hanuman too had the same extent of love for the Lord in his heart. However, Hanuman did not exhibit it. He proved it in the performance of service. For all ordinary individuals, both exhibition of the love for God and proof of love through service are necessary. Arjuna, the ordinary What happened in the case of Arjuna? Arjuna refused to fight and get back his kingdom. What is the meaning of this? Arjuna did not want to perform svakaryam (self-centered work). Lord Krishna advised Arjuna to fight the war not for the sake of Svakarma but for the sake of participating in the Lord’s work, which was the destruction of injustice. So Arjuna did not participate in the war as svakaryam (karma), but fully participated in the war as Swami karyam (karma yoga). So far it was good. But there is one important point here. Arjuna had not refused to do his karma (fight the war for selfish desire) due to his devotion for the Lord. Had he left the war due to pure and extreme devotion for the Lord, it would have been good. Had Arjuna left the war due to true detachment from his kingdom (wealth), it would also have been good. But Arjuna refused to fight because of his blind attraction to family bonds. That is why the Lord advised Arjuna to first look upon the war as karma itself. The Lord wanted Arjuna to realize that the war was his duty as a warrior and was in fact beneficial for him even from the selfish point of view. Refusing to fight this war would not only mean a personal loss of kingdom, wealth and power for Arjuna and his family, but would also bring eternal ill fame to him. Arjuna did not have as much love for the Lord as Radha had for the Lord. Hanuman, who was also a warrior, had that much love. Therefore, Hanuman never had such doubts. Arjuna did not consider the war as karma yoga (the work of the Lord); in fact, this thought never even entered his mind. Therefore, the Lord first taught him karma, then taught Bhakti (devotion) through Jnana (knowledge), and then taught jnana yoga (knowledge of God) after the purification of mind through Bhakti. Lord Krishna revealed Himself as God in jnana yoga and finally advised him to participate in the war as the work of God—karma yoga. The essence of the Bhagavad Gita can be told in one sentence: Kill Duryodhana not for the sake of your kingdom, but as a servant participating in God’s mission to destroy injustice. Desireless service Hanuman’s case was different. He participated in the war as a servant of the Lord (Lord Rama) and not for any personal benefit. Therefore, nishkama karma yoga means the participation in the work of the Lord in human form, without any selfish aim. The work of the Lord is only to uplift humanity. Such participation results only through Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion). In case of Lord Rama, the fruit of the war (freeing His wife Sita and the killing of the evil Ravana), went to Lord Rama alone. Hanuman did not get any benefit even though he fought the war by risking his life. Thus, you must give the fruit of your work to the Lord. To do so, you must get rid of selfishness. Then even in performing karma, you will not have any selfish aim. This lack of selfish aim is called nishkama. If you do not have any selfish aim, you will not be attached to the fruit of karma. Only then can you give the fruit to the Lord. Types of Devotees Highest devotees—Divine beings If one leads a life like Hanuman, who completely concentrated on the work of God, such a person can go from Brahmacharya (celibate-student stage in life) directly to samnyasa (stage of a renounced monk). A renounced monk is called a sanyasi and he too does work. But he surrenders the fruit of his entire work to the Lord. Hanuman was a brahmacharya sanyasi (one who directly took up the life of a renunciant after student life). That means that he did not marry and surrendered his whole life and work to the Lord. He did complete Swami karyam without doing any svakaryam. Adi Shankara, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi etc., are others of this highest category of people. Mediocre devotees—Human beings People of the second category are called madhyamas (mediocre). These are people who take up family life after student life. They remain with their family for most of their life and do both svakaryam and Swami karyam. Among such people, the amount of Swami karyam that they do, is in proportion to the devotion (bhakti) they have and the amount of Svakaryam that they do is in proportion to their selfishness. In the case of Arjuna, by fighting the war, he got back his kingdom and also participated in the work of the Lord, which was the establishment of justice. Thus, he achieved both Svakaryam and Swami karyam with this one action of fighting the war. Arjuna is called Nara. Nara means a human birth. Hanuman was granted the post of the future Creator (Brahma) of the universe, in the next cycle of creation. Therefore, those of the first category become divine forms. People of the second category get human rebirths. Selfish non-devotees—Animals and demons There is a third category of people. Such people remain in Svakaryam during their entire life. That means, their time, work, energy and money are completely devoted for themselves, for their family members and for their blood relations alone. These are utterly selfish beings. They cannot recognize God in human form. They go on worshipping pictures and statues alone for their selfish ends. Duryodhana belonged to this type. He was always interested in having even his cousins’ kingdom for himself and for his blood-related family. He did not recognize Lord Krishna as God in human form. He did not participate or help in the Lord’s mission. Instead, he went to Lord Krishna to ask for His help even though Duryodhana’s cause was selfish and unjust. Even there Duryodhana was not interested in Lord Krishna but wanted Lord Krishna to give the vast and invincible Yadava army to Duryodhana. Such people are not devoted and even the worship that they perform is only to achieve their selfish ends. They will never help the Lord in His work but go on worshipping Him for their selfish ends. Duryodhana went to a terrible hell (Patala) forever. Such people are reborn as worms in pits of mud and excretory matter. They are caught in the cycle of such births forever. The Gita says that this is indeed the lowest category of people (Samsareshu Naradhaman). Your choice Therefore, you should make sure that you do not fall under the third category under any circumstances. The first category is like the sky, which you cannot reach. At least remain in the second category and attain human rebirth (Nara). That is why Lord Krishna preached the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna who was called Partha [1], the Nara. Ninety nine percent of people can reach the level of Nara by their sadhana (spiritual effort). It is better to remain on earth rather than falling to the lowest hell called Patala. The upper world (heaven) contains divine forms like angels, the earth, which is the middle world, contains human beings and lower world contains demons. This statement can be understood in the above sense. [1] Partha literally means the son of Pritha (Earth). Thus, in general, it means a human being (nara), who is a resident of Earth. More specifically, one of the main characters in the epic Mahabharata, Arjuna, was commonly referred to as Partha. He was the son of Kunti (also known as Pritha). Arjuna was an incarnation of sage Nara and Kunti was the incarnation of the Earth Goddess, Bhu Devi.

APPROACH TO GOD God and Your Efforts: In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says “Bahuni me...” i.e., “Several births have passed for you and for Me. I remember all of them but you do not remember.” Sometimes the sadhana (spiritual effort) done by a devotee during this birth may be little. Yet God shows a lot of grace on that devotee. The reason for this is the penance done by that devotee during his previous births. Even that devotee forgets the penance done by him. Other devotees, who are doing a lot of penance to God in this birth, become jealous of that devotee. They do not know that their penance done in this birth is far less compared to the penance done by that devotee in his previous births. The wealth of a person should not be decided by looking into his current account only. His fixed deposits, which are like the fruits of the penance of his previous birth, should also be taken into account. Only the Lord can see these fixed deposits; ordinary people cannot. Swami Vivekananda came to Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for the first time. Paramahamsa took him into a room and placed a sweet in his mouth and wept with folded hands. Vivekananda could not understand this and was confused. Paramahamsa was the Incarnation of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna together. Vivekananda was the reincarnation of Arjuna and he did not remember his previous births. But Paramahamsa remembered all the previous births. The other disciples could not digest this and became jealous of Vivekananda. Once, Satyabhama kicked Lord Krishna on the forehead by her left leg. Yet Krishna pressed her feet stating that her foot might have been pained. This looked very odd for all the other devotees. They thought that Krishna had become a slave of her beauty. Any external beauty in this world cannot attract the Lord. Only the internal beauty, which is the sacrifice and love, attracts Him. Satybhama was the incarnation of Goddess Earth. She was bearing the violence of all the demons that were strengthened by the boons of God. Thus she was tolerating God indirectly. She was tolerating the feet of all the living beings upon her. She is the other name of tolerance. Even though the Lord killed her son Narakasura, she had kept silent. In fact, she herself had helped the Lord in that war. She had crossed the wheel of ‘Anahata’, which is connected, to children. Nobody could have more tolerance than the Goddess Earth. God knew all this background. Without eligibility, God will never give anything to anybody at any time. But the devotee must take the first step towards God. The necessity is for the devotee. The Veda says “Aptakamsya” i.e., “God has attained everything and there is nothing which He has to achieve”. You have come near the sea with a pot. You should take a step into the water and make an effort to fill your pot. Then the sea moves in to fill the pot with its water. Therefore, human effort is necessary even in the case of God. When God is in human form, He is bound by the manners of humanity. The properties of human body co-exist with divinity. The electric wire has both the qualities of the wire and electricity. Giving an electric shock is the property of electricity. Being thin and lean is the property of the wire. The property of the wire is clearly seen by the unclothed eye. Similarly, the properties of the human body of God are clearly seen by people. As people misunderstand the live electric wire to be a common wire without electricity, the human body of God is also misunderstood to be that of an ordinary man. As the electric current is not seen, the divinity in the human form of the Incarnation is also not seen. But whenever a necessity arises, the electricity becomes intensive in the wire and heat is radiated out. Similarly, the divinity in the human form exposes its divine qualities like Jnana (knowledge), Love, Bliss and miracles, whenever necessary. Goal of your spiritual efforts Sudama felt bad about aproaching Lord Krishna, who was his classmate, even though Sudama was suffering with poverty. Lord Krishna also kept silent, even though He was ready to give infinite wealth to Sudama. But Sudama did not put even one step towards Dwaraka city to meet Krishna. Sudama was chanting the name and worshipping the statue of Krishna. But even a trace of his poverty was not removed because he neglected the human form of God. Until he approached the human form of God and did karma phala tyaga by offering some rice, the Lord did not respond to his need. From his level, the offering of that handful of rice to Lord Krishna was the best sacrifice. So, Lord Krishna too gave Sudama infinite wealth, according to His level. When Sudama went to meet Lord Krishna, he did not ask Krishna to remove his poverty. He was prepared to undergo the result of his sins and suffer in poverty. At the same time, he did the highest sacrifice of that handful of rice. His family was starving and if that handful rice had been cooked, at least a little food could have been given to his children. But he offered it to the Lord instead. He did not ask for anything in return and also did not even think of asking. Thus, a devotee should not ask or even think about the removal of his difficulties by God. He should be prepared to undergo the results of his sins. He should offer Guru Dakshina (donation) to the human form of God to his level best. Then God will remove his difficulties. Swami sees only the quantity of love in you and not the things you are offering to Him. The squirrel rolled in tiny sand particles and showered them into the sea with full faith, in order to contribute to the building of the sea bridge, which was the mission of Lord Rama. So the Lord patted it. The monkeys[1] were bringing big stones and tossing them into the sea but they were not patted by the Lord since their faith was not firm. Both the stones and sand particles were drowning in the water. The squirrel did not stop putting the sand particles but the monkeys got disheartened and stopped putting the big stones. So the Lord does not view what you have surrendered (sacrificed). The Lord only views the spirit with which you surrendered it. So, surrender what you have with full faith and love. Whatever the sin that may be associated with the fruit that you surrender to the Lord, will be cleansed due to your sacrifice of it to the Lord. In fact, such an offering becomes the most pious deed. Kannappa hunted animals and offered their flesh to the Lord. That is the greatest sin. There is no greater sin than killing harmless animals. “Ahimsa Paramodharmah” i.e., the greatest sin is to kill innocent harmless beings. Yet Kannappa attained the same salvation that Shabari attained when she offered fruits to the Lord. The real dharma (duty) is to please God. God created everything; He created us and is present with us in every minute of each life, as our greatest well-wisher. Nobody should be dearer to us than God. Sudama went back home without begging anything from the Lord. Yet Sudama wanted to beg to Krishna in the heart of his heart. That is not nishkama yoga (desirelessness). He was caught by the influence of prestige. While going home to his place, he was suffering mentally, thinking about his poverty. Krishna saw all this and kept silent. But Krishna is also ocean of kindness. Therefore, Krishna finally yielded. Here the victor is Lord Krishna. Kuchela (Sudama), due to his prestige, was defeated. Krishna defeated His principle [Krishna yielded] and so came out of it. Sudama gave importance to the manners of the external human body and could not understand the Lord as the Ocean of Love. The Veda declares the three qualities of God: Jnana belonging to Brahma. (Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam Brahma) Love belonging to Vishnu (Rasovai Sah) Bliss belonging to Shiva (Anando Brahma) If one quality is present, the other two must also co-exist. When Lord Datta takes the human form, all these three qualities are transmitted out. These three are the electric current present in a live metal wire. It is like the heat coming out of the fire covered by ash. If the ash is absent we will not be able to tolerate the heat. The ash controls (reduces) the heat to the extent of our tolerance i.e., the human body works like the ash. Even angels like Indra cannot see the inner form of the Lord. If the inner form of the Lord is exhibited or comes out, the entire universe disappears. Therefore, only through the human form, can one worship or enjoy the essence of Lord Datta. Nobody can establish a direct bond with Lord Datta, because, when Datta appears, the devotee disappears along with the universe. So you cannot attain Datta except through a human body (of the Incarnation). Jnana (knowledge), Prema (love) and Ananda (bliss) cannot be obtained either from the formless God or from inert statues of God. Therefore, for a human being, the Narakara (human form) is the only source. If you neglect the human form, you cannot get a human rebirth, and you will therefore be put to a permanent loss. The Veda says the same “Ihachedavedit atha satyamasti nachedihaa vedit mahati vinashtih”. Datta in Human Form Datta means the God given to the world. The Veda says that the only one God (Parabrahman) creates, maintains and destroys this world. The Veda also states that this God cannot even be imagined by people. Sage Atri saw this ultimate God through a form for the first time. This form, which was given to (seen by) Atri was called Datta. God Himself told Atri that He gave Himself to Atri through that form. Datta means the form that is given. Datta is the only form, which satisfies the definition of God as said by the Vedas. Datta is only one (one God) and He, through His three faces, creates, maintains and destroys this world. [Datta is represented pictorially as human form with three faces, to illustrate this concept]. This form of Datta is also called an Incarnation of God (Parabrahman). But this is the only fullest Incarnation of God among all His Incarnations. Therefore, this Incarnation is the original form of God. In this form called Datta, God is present. You cannot imagine God if you go beyond this form. So if you want to imagine God, Datta is the only original form that is imaginable. The limit of your imagination is Datta. If you leave Datta your imagination ends. Therefore, do not try to imagine God beyond Datta. Such imagination is impossible for anybody. So God means only Datta. This Datta is very powerful as He radiates energy of infinite millions of suns. Only Atri who became very powerful (and deserving) by penance, could see Datta. All the deities and all the planets are just Datta’s external dresses. Datta hides in deities and planets with the help of His inexplicable power called Maya. The planets, which we see in the sky, are not the planets, which I mentioned here. The planets and the sun, which you see in physical form, are inert. The planets, which are mentioned by Me, are divine forms. These physical planets are just symbolic representations of those divine forms. The Veda says “Adityam Brahmeti” i.e., “Worship the sun as God”. People started thinking that the sun is God. So the Veda again says “Nedam tat” i.e., this sun is not God. The deity form (divine form) of the sun is invisible. Therefore, the planets in their original sense (deities) and all the other deities are invisible forms. The planet-deities and the other deities put together can be called as deities in general. These deities are also very powerful and are like the radiating sun. Of course, they are not as powerful as Datta. A man can see different deities with some effort and care (spiritual effort). But you cannot touch them. We can talk with them for a while at the most. But they cannot live with us because of their radiation. We should not consider Datta as [actually] the Incarnation of God because God is beyond imagination. [In other words, we should not consider the unimaginable God to be actually modified into the human body of the Incarnation. It is true that Datta is said to be the Incarnation of God. But neither is the inert body God, nor is God modified into the inert human body. God is unimaginable. God, by His miraculous power Maya, enters the inert human body, in order to make Himself available to devotees. Thus, the human body of the Incarnation is God for the devotees effectively; not actually.] Hindus call this God beyond imagination as Parabrahma. This God is called Jehova by Christians and Allah by Muslims. You cannot say that this God is even formless because the formless object can also be imagined. For example light is formless and can be imagined, but God is beyond imagination. Therefore, we have no direct right even to mention the word God. The word ‘God’ indicates only that unimaginable thing. That unimaginable thing can be understood (inferred) only as something existing due to its effects. The Bhagavad Gita says “Avyaktahi…” i.e., “Worship of the unimaginable God is impossible and leads to grief.” So the form of Datta is inevitable and we should start with Datta. Now the word God should mean Datta. However, if you are particular of worshipping only the unimaginable God, you should understand that you can pray to Him but you cannot worship Him. Therefore, do not call God formless. Call Him unimaginable. If you imagine Him as a formless light, again your imagination is only His Incarnation. Any imagination of yours cannot be the unimaginable God. The Veda says “Na Medhaya”, “Naisha Tarkena” etc., which means that God is beyond imagination and logic. When you were imagining the light, your mind contains some limiting boundaries for it and so the light that you imagined cannot be formless. Moreover, light is made of particles called photons. Each photon is a packet of energy. So light is not formless. In this way also you cannot imagine a formless object. You can only submit your prayer to the unimaginable formless God. But this does not satisfy devotees. They want to describe Him. They want to see Him. They want to touch Him by embracing. They want to talk with Him. They want to live with Him throughout their lives. To give full satisfaction to devotees, Lord Datta takes the human form, which is made of five elements. The Bhagavad Gita says “Manusheem tanumashritam”. Just like Datta takes up radiation bodies (divine bodies made out of light) and becomes the deities; Datta takes up human bodies. Those deities and the human bodies taken by Datta are all Incarnations. An Incarnation is a two-in-one system. The first part is the inner form, which is Datta. The second part is the external form, which is either a deity or a human body. The inner form pervades all over the external form like electric current in a metallic wire. The whole wire is the current (since it gives the effect of current). Wherever you touch the wire the current gives an electric shock. It is as if there is only one thing—electric current. Similarly, in the Human Incarnation, it is as if there is only one thing—God. So the purpose of the devotees is served. Through the Incarnation, they see and touch God. They talk and live with God. Recognizing Datta How to recognize Datta in human form? He performs miracles. He gives blissful knowledge because he is both bliss and knowledge. He quotes from all the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita because He Himself spoke the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, which are the Word of God. He treats this entire world as His family. He always tries to uplift all living beings. He is the embodiment of love and kindness. The Incarnation of Datta is filled with all these divine qualities. Do not decide a person as Datta by miracles only. Even demons and devils perform miracles. Do not decide an ordinary scholar as Datta just because the scholar can give knowledge by quoting the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. The knowledge of Datta gives bliss. The bookish knowledge of a scholar cannot give bliss. A scholar can explain the Veda and the Bhagavad Gita based on the meaning given by another scholar. These scholars cannot grasp the actual view of God present in the Veda and the Bhagavad Gita. The Veda says “Brahmavit Brahmaiva…” In this sentence the first word Brahma means the Veda. The second word Brahma means God. The meaning of this sentence is that God (Datta) alone can give the real meaning of the Veda. So, only Datta can give the real interpretation of the Veda and the Gita. Such real knowledge is called Prajnanam. The fourth great sentence (Maha vakya) says that by such Prajnanam, one should recognize Datta. Such Prajnanam is the characteristic property of the internal form of God in the Incarnation. The first three great sentences (Maha vakyas) say that the external form of God is like me, you and him i.e. like an ordinary human being. Foolish people think that God is an ordinary man by seeing the external human body, which follows all the rules of the nature. The Gita says the same “Avajanantimam Mudhah…’. The aim of God in such a human body is that He wants to suffer by taking the sins of His devotees in a real way. He will not suffer really if His body is beyond the rules of nature (if He comes in a divine body). If He took a body that was above the rules of nature, it would amount to cheating the deity of justice. Another aim of God in coming in a human body is that all the other people, who are not devotees, should not be able to recognize Him. If all recognize and follow Him, the drama of this world gets disturbed. He came only for His devotees and not for all. Only His devotees had prayed for Him. Only strong devotees can recognize Him. He will not allow weak devotees to recognize Him by deliberately talking or acting negatively (Maya). Generally people are not interested in recognizing God in human form due to their jealousy and ego. One in thousands tries to recognize. One among those recognizes and reaches Him. This is told in the Gita as “Manushyanam....” [1] Lord Rama was helped by the Vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers in locating his kidnapped wife Sita, building a sea-bridge to Lanka and fighting a battle with the evil demon-king Ravana.

UNITY OF RELIGIONS IN THE UNIVERSE (Conversation between Swami and a Christian Father) [Following is the divine experience of Shri Phani Kumar, a devotee of Swami as narrated by him.] Recently, I had the fortune to accompany Swami in a train journey from Narasaraopet to Vijayawada. A Christian father was our co-passenger. The conversation between Swami and the Christian father took place as given below.] Father: Those who do not have faith in Jesus Christ will be sent to the flames of liquid fire in hell. This is the declaration of our faith. Swami: Does that mean that there is no salvation to all the generations of devotees who lived on this earth before the incarnation of Jesus Christ? If so, all those devotees were subjects of the partiality of God since they were deprived of the revelation that their successors had! Father: God is impartial in this matter. He gave Jehovah to mankind for their salvation before the incarnation of Jesus. Swami: Fine! That may be true, but devotees of this land (India) had no knowledge of either Jehovah or Jesus Christ prior to the arrival of Vasco da Gama. Vasco da Gama discovered India and only later on, did the Christian literature that speaks of Jehovah or Jesus come to India. All those innocents, who lived before the arrival of Vasco da Gama were deprived of the revelations of either Jehovah or Jesus Christ and were sent to the flames of the ‘liquid fire’ for no fault of theirs. Moreover, they did not even have the opportunity to take human rebirth birth later and reclaim salvation since the doctrine of the faith that you follow, has no place for the rebirth of the soul. Does this mean that God intended to provide the revelation only to a handful of people in a small country and deny the opportunity to all those living in rest of the world? Why did God reveal Himself at a particular point of time, in a particular land and to a particular section alone? Does that not accuse God of partiality? Father: No faith is free from such blame. Does your faith also not warn those who do not believe in your faith, of the same danger of hell? All mortals in other lands, who are not aware of the virtues of your faith, are also subjected to the same punishment in hell! Does this also not accuse God of partiality? Swami: There are fanatic enthusiasts in every faith. Christian enthusiasts claim that non-believers in Jehovah or Jesus Christ shall be subjected to the flames of the liquid fire. Hindu enthusiasts claim that non-believers in Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva shall be subjected to punishment in hell. These enthusiasts further introduce ideas that salvation is possible only for devotees who follow that particular path, while others will go to hell. Followers of different sects criticize each other by such warnings. All these enthusiasts fail to recognize the unity in all the world religions. All these ‘approaches’ to God, accuse Him of partiality. The only way to keep God free from blame is to understand His generosity correctly. The same single God revealed Himself in different forms, in different places, in different times, to different people. He granted the same enlightenment [knowledge] to all in different languages. All those who are faithful to Him attain salvation upon receiving the enlightenment. Those who fail to accept it, are subjected to the liquid fire in hell. This approach towards God makes Him free from any blame of partiality. The God of all religions is one and the same. He may appear to be different due to differences in His approach to different people, in different times, in different forms and in different languages. He uplifts all with the same compassion. The sea receives all the rivers in the same way, whether they are straight or curved. Devotion is important; not the religion or the path. If the straight river becomes proud and mocks at the curved river, God will see to it that the straight river will never reach Him. By His will, people will build a dam on that river to divert all the water! Everyone needs to follow the path assigned in his faith to attain salvation. Every religion has different levels of spiritual enlightenment. One should move up to the higher level for achieving total enlightenment. Such enlightenment alone is the means of salvation. These levels of enlightenment in each religion are similar to the different levels in education such as school and college. Different religions are similar to different language mediums. The curriculum is same in all the language mediums. A pupil of a certain language medium should strive to reach higher levels of knowledge in the same medium of his choice. He is a pilgrim in pursuit of divinity. His medium is his opportunity. It is neither superior nor inferior to any other medium. He need not move on to another language medium to uplift himself. All the language mediums are different religions with different levels of knowledge. A school student studying science in a particular medium (language) need not change his medium, because even if he changes, the syllabus will not be changed. He should strive to change his syllabus by raising his standard of knowledge i.e. he should graduate from the school level and reach the college level while remaining in the same language medium. The school and college levels exist in every medium. A school student does not become a college student just by changing the medium of his class. He becomes a college student only when the level of his knowledge rises. Similarly, a devotee of any religion should try to reach the higher spiritual level in his own religion. His spiritual level is not raised by changing his religion. Every religion has the lower and higher levels of spirituality meant for devotees of corresponding stages. Religion is the medium and spirituality is the curriculum or syllabus. This syllabus (spirituality) has different levels, such as school level, college level etc., present in the same medium (religion). One should strive to reach the higher levels of knowledge that are present in his own faith. No one needs to move to another faith for getting a higher level of knowledge or for final salvation. All faiths lead to the same destination. In any path, you will have to proceed vertically to reach the goal. At any point, if you travel horizontally to another path, you will still remain at the same level, which is a waste. The realization of this truth alone ensures harmony among different faiths in the world. Failure to recognize the truth will not make anyone enlightened. [When Swami concluded in this way, the Christian father stood up, touched his heart, traced a cross over it and said the following words.] Father: We believe that Jesus will be born again. Yes. Jesus is born again now. Nobody else can explain like this. I am fully convinced”. [When we returned to our house, Swami said the following to me.] Swami: See, the Christian father did not rigidly limit his mind with conservatism. Every religion contains good and broadminded devotees. My effort in the propagation of this knowledge is for such devotees, who are present in every religion in this world.

Permanent Solution for the Coronavirus Pandemic Shri Phani asked: How to overcome such calamities as all the world is facing now due to the present horrible virus? Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! A king passed a rule in his kingdom which was to be followed by all citizens. The citizens who failed to follow the rule were to be punished. Some citizens violated the rule and were punished by the court of law (dharmāsanam) present in the kingdom. Now, suppose these punished violators praise the king a lot and pray to him, will the king cancel their punishment using his supreme power? The other citizens who followed his rule were not punished, even though they never praised the king. Hence, the main point here is to follow the rule of the king. Whether citizens praise the king or not is immaterial. If you replace the king with God and the kingdom with this entire world, you will be able to relate the above story to the present context. God has given the divine constitution called the Dharma Śāstra, to humanity through ancient sages. Every soul is expected to follow that divine constitution of God. The constitution recommends doing certain meritorious deeds and prohibits sinful deeds. If one does not do the meritorious deeds, one only misses some benefit like going to heaven. But if one commits sin, one faces inevitable punishment. The punishment includes being sent to hell after death and undergoing suffering there. But it also includes hell-like punishment here on earth, when the sin committed is highly intense (Atyutkaṭaiḥ pāpa puṇyaiḥ, ihaiva phalamaśnute). The present calamity is punishment given by God to souls here on earth. Hence, it is indeed the result of the intense sins done by the souls in this world. Following justice, doing meritorious deeds and not committing sin is the path of pravṛtti or worldly life. Devotion to God, which includes praising God, is the path of nivṛtti or spiritual life. A soul’s efforts in nivṛtti do not save the soul from the punishment of violating pravṛtti. Hence, praying to God will not stop this calamity, since it is the punishment for the sins committed by souls in worldly life (pravṛtti). Pravṛtti and nivṛtti are independent fields and nivṛtti never interferes with pravṛtti. Even if a soul is an atheist, but if he or she follows pravṛtti (worldly justice) strictly, the soul will not face any punishment. By avoiding sin, one certainly avoids the punishment of sin. Such a person will escape the infection even in the present epidemic. The three main sins mentioned in the Gita “Kāmaḥ krodhaḥ tathā lobhaḥ…” are given below and briefly explained: 1. Illegitimate sex: Sex with anyone except one’s legitimate married life-partner is sin. 2. Illegitimate anger: The unjust anger or violence shown towards good people and harmless living beings is sin. Not showing the appropriate anger or force towards bad people is also a sin. 3. Illegitimate greed: All forms of corruption, and theft are sin. Being miserly and avoiding donation to deserving recipients is also sin. Further, irrationally donating to undeserving receivers is also a sin. These three main sins are to be strictly avoided by all people. Being ethical, following justice and strictly avoiding sin is the minimum and maximum expectation of God from any soul, be it a theist or an atheist. If the people of a country can pray to God in the following manner, this calamity can be avoided in that country. Even people who do not believe in God can make the following resolve and abide by it. They too shall be protected. The prayer or resolve is as follows: Let me propagate the message of doing meritorious deeds and not doing sins, extensively in society. By repeatedly propagating this message of living ethically in society, not only do I imbibe it fully, but the public also imbibes it fully. It brings reformation in me as well as in the society around me. At the very least, it reduces the intensity of sin. All souls including me will, at least, sincerely try to reduce the intensity of their sin. Even atheistic countries and atheists within different countries can make this resolve because it makes no reference to God. However, atheists must accept the inevitable force with which the sins of mankind get punished by nature. This mere invisible virus has brought the whole world to a halt and left even the world leaders trembling in fear. At the time of the final destruction, the final Incarnation of God called Kalki, using the electric sword (vidyut khadga) given by Lord Śiva, will destroy almost all the souls in the world with unimaginable speed. It will be a million times faster than the spread of the present virus! =============== -By Shri Datta Swami (Visit our website: www.universal-spirituality.org) Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Permanent Solution for the Coronavirus Pandemic Shri Phani asked: How to overcome such calamities as all the world is facing now due to the present horrible virus? Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! A king passed a rule in his kingdom which was to be followed by all citizens. The citizens who failed to follow the rule were to be punished. Some citizens violated the rule and were punished by the court of law (dharmāsanam) present in the kingdom. Now, suppose these punished violators praise the king a lot and pray to him, will the king cancel their punishment using his supreme power? The other citizens who followed his rule were not punished, even though they never praised the king. Hence, the main point here is to follow the rule of the king. Whether citizens praise the king or not is immaterial. If you replace the king with God and the kingdom with this entire world, you will be able to relate the above story to the present context. God has given the divine constitution called the Dharma Śāstra, to humanity through ancient sages. Every soul is expected to follow that divine constitution of God. The constitution recommends doing certain meritorious deeds and prohibits sinful deeds. If one does not do the meritorious deeds, one only misses some benefit like going to heaven. But if one commits sin, one faces inevitable punishment. The punishment includes being sent to hell after death and undergoing suffering there. But it also includes hell-like punishment here on earth, when the sin committed is highly intense (Atyutkaṭaiḥ pāpa puṇyaiḥ, ihaiva phalamaśnute). The present calamity is punishment given by God to souls here on earth. Hence, it is indeed the result of the intense sins done by the souls in this world. Following justice, doing meritorious deeds and not committing sin is the path of pravṛtti or worldly life. Devotion to God, which includes praising God, is the path of nivṛtti or spiritual life. A soul’s efforts in nivṛtti do not save the soul from the punishment of violating pravṛtti. Hence, praying to God will not stop this calamity, since it is the punishment for the sins committed by souls in worldly life (pravṛtti). Pravṛtti and nivṛtti are independent fields and nivṛtti never interferes with pravṛtti. Even if a soul is an atheist, but if he or she follows pravṛtti (worldly justice) strictly, the soul will not face any punishment. By avoiding sin, one certainly avoids the punishment of sin. Such a person will escape the infection even in the present epidemic. The three main sins mentioned in the Gita “Kāmaḥ krodhaḥ tathā lobhaḥ…” are given below and briefly explained: 1. Illegitimate sex: Sex with anyone except one’s legitimate married life-partner is sin. 2. Illegitimate anger: The unjust anger or violence shown towards good people and harmless living beings is sin. Not showing the appropriate anger or force towards bad people is also a sin. 3. Illegitimate greed: All forms of corruption, and theft are sin. Being miserly and avoiding donation to deserving recipients is also sin. Further, irrationally donating to undeserving receivers is also a sin. These three main sins are to be strictly avoided by all people. Being ethical, following justice and strictly avoiding sin is the minimum and maximum expectation of God from any soul, be it a theist or an atheist. If the people of a country can pray to God in the following manner, this calamity can be avoided in that country. Even people who do not believe in God can make the following resolve and abide by it. They too shall be protected. The prayer or resolve is as follows: Let me propagate the message of doing meritorious deeds and not doing sins, extensively in society. By repeatedly propagating this message of living ethically in society, not only do I imbibe it fully, but the public also imbibes it fully. It brings reformation in me as well as in the society around me. At the very least, it reduces the intensity of sin. All souls including me will, at least, sincerely try to reduce the intensity of their sin. Even atheistic countries and atheists within different countries can make this resolve because it makes no reference to God. However, atheists must accept the inevitable force with which the sins of mankind get punished by nature. This mere invisible virus has brought the whole world to a halt and left even the world leaders trembling in fear. At the time of the final destruction, the final Incarnation of God called Kalki, using the electric sword (vidyut khadga) given by Lord Śiva, will destroy almost all the souls in the world with unimaginable speed. It will be a million times faster than the spread of the present virus! =============== -By Shri Datta Swami (Visit our website: www.universal-spirituality.org) Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Permanent Solution for the Coronavirus Pandemic Shri Phani asked: How to overcome such calamities as all the world is facing now due to the present horrible virus? Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! A king passed a rule in his kingdom which was to be followed by all citizens. The citizens who failed to follow the rule were to be punished. Some citizens violated the rule and were punished by the court of law (dharmāsanam) present in the kingdom. Now, suppose these punished violators praise the king a lot and pray to him, will the king cancel their punishment using his supreme power? The other citizens who followed his rule were not punished, even though they never praised the king. Hence, the main point here is to follow the rule of the king. Whether citizens praise the king or not is immaterial. If you replace the king with God and the kingdom with this entire world, you will be able to relate the above story to the present context. God has given the divine constitution called the Dharma Śāstra, to humanity through ancient sages. Every soul is expected to follow that divine constitution of God. The constitution recommends doing certain meritorious deeds and prohibits sinful deeds. If one does not do the meritorious deeds, one only misses some benefit like going to heaven. But if one commits sin, one faces inevitable punishment. The punishment includes being sent to hell after death and undergoing suffering there. But it also includes hell-like punishment here on earth, when the sin committed is highly intense (Atyutkaṭaiḥ pāpa puṇyaiḥ, ihaiva phalamaśnute). The present calamity is punishment given by God to souls here on earth. Hence, it is indeed the result of the intense sins done by the souls in this world. Following justice, doing meritorious deeds and not committing sin is the path of pravṛtti or worldly life. Devotion to God, which includes praising God, is the path of nivṛtti or spiritual life. A soul’s efforts in nivṛtti do not save the soul from the punishment of violating pravṛtti. Hence, praying to God will not stop this calamity, since it is the punishment for the sins committed by souls in worldly life (pravṛtti). Pravṛtti and nivṛtti are independent fields and nivṛtti never interferes with pravṛtti. Even if a soul is an atheist, but if he or she follows pravṛtti (worldly justice) strictly, the soul will not face any punishment. By avoiding sin, one certainly avoids the punishment of sin. Such a person will escape the infection even in the present epidemic. The three main sins mentioned in the Gita “Kāmaḥ krodhaḥ tathā lobhaḥ…” are given below and briefly explained: 1. Illegitimate sex: Sex with anyone except one’s legitimate married life-partner is sin. 2. Illegitimate anger: The unjust anger or violence shown towards good people and harmless living beings is sin. Not showing the appropriate anger or force towards bad people is also a sin. 3. Illegitimate greed: All forms of corruption, and theft are sin. Being miserly and avoiding donation to deserving recipients is also sin. Further, irrationally donating to undeserving receivers is also a sin. These three main sins are to be strictly avoided by all people. Being ethical, following justice and strictly avoiding sin is the minimum and maximum expectation of God from any soul, be it a theist or an atheist. If the people of a country can pray to God in the following manner, this calamity can be avoided in that country. Even people who do not believe in God can make the following resolve and abide by it. They too shall be protected. The prayer or resolve is as follows: Let me propagate the message of doing meritorious deeds and not doing sins, extensively in society. By repeatedly propagating this message of living ethically in society, not only do I imbibe it fully, but the public also imbibes it fully. It brings reformation in me as well as in the society around me. At the very least, it reduces the intensity of sin. All souls including me will, at least, sincerely try to reduce the intensity of their sin. Even atheistic countries and atheists within different countries can make this resolve because it makes no reference to God. However, atheists must accept the inevitable force with which the sins of mankind get punished by nature. This mere invisible virus has brought the whole world to a halt and left even the world leaders trembling in fear. At the time of the final destruction, the final Incarnation of God called Kalki, using the electric sword (vidyut khadga) given by Lord Śiva, will destroy almost all the souls in the world with unimaginable speed. It will be a million times faster than the spread of the present virus! =============== -By Shri Datta Swami (Visit our website: www.universal-spirituality.org) Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Permanent Solution for the Coronavirus Pandemic Shri Phani asked: How to overcome such calamities as all the world is facing now due to the present horrible virus? Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! A king passed a rule in his kingdom which was to be followed by all citizens. The citizens who failed to follow the rule were to be punished. Some citizens violated the rule and were punished by the court of law (dharmāsanam) present in the kingdom. Now, suppose these punished violators praise the king a lot and pray to him, will the king cancel their punishment using his supreme power? The other citizens who followed his rule were not punished, even though they never praised the king. Hence, the main point here is to follow the rule of the king. Whether citizens praise the king or not is immaterial. If you replace the king with God and the kingdom with this entire world, you will be able to relate the above story to the present context. God has given the divine constitution called the Dharma Śāstra, to humanity through ancient sages. Every soul is expected to follow that divine constitution of God. The constitution recommends doing certain meritorious deeds and prohibits sinful deeds. If one does not do the meritorious deeds, one only misses some benefit like going to heaven. But if one commits sin, one faces inevitable punishment. The punishment includes being sent to hell after death and undergoing suffering there. But it also includes hell-like punishment here on earth, when the sin committed is highly intense (Atyutkaṭaiḥ pāpa puṇyaiḥ, ihaiva phalamaśnute). The present calamity is punishment given by God to souls here on earth. Hence, it is indeed the result of the intense sins done by the souls in this world. Following justice, doing meritorious deeds and not committing sin is the path of pravṛtti or worldly life. Devotion to God, which includes praising God, is the path of nivṛtti or spiritual life. A soul’s efforts in nivṛtti do not save the soul from the punishment of violating pravṛtti. Hence, praying to God will not stop this calamity, since it is the punishment for the sins committed by souls in worldly life (pravṛtti). Pravṛtti and nivṛtti are independent fields and nivṛtti never interferes with pravṛtti. Even if a soul is an atheist, but if he or she follows pravṛtti (worldly justice) strictly, the soul will not face any punishment. By avoiding sin, one certainly avoids the punishment of sin. Such a person will escape the infection even in the present epidemic. The three main sins mentioned in the Gita “Kāmaḥ krodhaḥ tathā lobhaḥ…” are given below and briefly explained: 1. Illegitimate sex: Sex with anyone except one’s legitimate married life-partner is sin. 2. Illegitimate anger: The unjust anger or violence shown towards good people and harmless living beings is sin. Not showing the appropriate anger or force towards bad people is also a sin. 3. Illegitimate greed: All forms of corruption, and theft are sin. Being miserly and avoiding donation to deserving recipients is also sin. Further, irrationally donating to undeserving receivers is also a sin. These three main sins are to be strictly avoided by all people. Being ethical, following justice and strictly avoiding sin is the minimum and maximum expectation of God from any soul, be it a theist or an atheist. If the people of a country can pray to God in the following manner, this calamity can be avoided in that country. Even people who do not believe in God can make the following resolve and abide by it. They too shall be protected. The prayer or resolve is as follows: Let me propagate the message of doing meritorious deeds and not doing sins, extensively in society. By repeatedly propagating this message of living ethically in society, not only do I imbibe it fully, but the public also imbibes it fully. It brings reformation in me as well as in the society around me. At the very least, it reduces the intensity of sin. All souls including me will, at least, sincerely try to reduce the intensity of their sin. Even atheistic countries and atheists within different countries can make this resolve because it makes no reference to God. However, atheists must accept the inevitable force with which the sins of mankind get punished by nature. This mere invisible virus has brought the whole world to a halt and left even the world leaders trembling in fear. At the time of the final destruction, the final Incarnation of God called Kalki, using the electric sword (vidyut khadga) given by Lord Śiva, will destroy almost all the souls in the world with unimaginable speed. It will be a million times faster than the spread of the present virus! =============== -By Shri Datta Swami (Visit our website: www.universal-spirituality.org) Universal Spirituality for World Peace