dattaswami

Why God has to come in human form at all… God is unimaginable and hence, cannot be even imagined by even sharp intelligence. Therefore, there is no possibility of any kind of interaction with God. God knows all of us, but, we can never know God. Hence, the interaction with unimaginable God is one sided only. But, we like to have an interaction, which is in both sides. We like to know, see, talk, touch and live with God. We like to serve God because service is the practical proof of love or devotion to God. For this purpose, God comes down in the same medium in which we exist. Hence, God comes in human form. If God comes in the form of an inert object, our service becomes impossible. For the sake of inert objects, He has to come in the inert form. But, the inert objects do not interact at all. If He comes down as a bird or animal, the birds and animals may interact and the human beings cannot interact. In such case, you cannot talk with God since you cannot talk with a bird or animal. We cannot clarify our doubts with God in such case. If God comes down in the energetic form, we cannot touch God and cannot live with Him for a long time. Therefore, the human form is the best suited to the human beings. The energetic form of God is relevant to the departed souls existing in the energetic bodies in the upper worlds. But, the human form of God is not easily available. Even if it is easily available, most of the human beings suffer with ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. Any human being does not agree the greatness of a co-human being. Therefore, the human incarnation interacts with those few selected devotees only, who conquered the ego and jealousy. For other human beings, the human incarnation behaves like a co-human being only following the usual social norms. Krishna behaved like a human being only with all the people and behaved like God for His close devotees. Therefore, God comes down for the needy only. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Selfish devotees do not require human incarnation! In general, the major lot of humanity does not require the human incarnation. Even if they require, they cannot recognize due to their inherent ego and jealousy based on the repulsion between common media. Therefore, there is no use of human incarnation for the major humanity. But, they also require God. For their purpose, God is represented by statues and photos of energetic forms. Since the energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc, are not available, a photo or statue representing them can be only worshipped. Even, the past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc, can be worshipped through the photos and statues. Since direct photo is not possible, only imaginary photos and statues are worshipped. Even the alive trees, animals, birds etc, are worshipped because they are not alive human forms. But, all these statues and photos represent human form only indicating that the final goal is the alive human incarnation only. The Shivalingam is just a round stone, which indicates that the human beings in this world can interact only with matter and not with the unimaginable God directly. The Shivalingam is in the form of the energetic wave representing energy and there by indicates that energetic form is necessary for the worship of unimaginable God by the departed souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper world. Therefore, the Shivalingam denotes both matter and energy, which are the media required for the expression of unimaginable God in this world and upper world respectively. Even the body of human incarnation is matter only. Therefore, the Shivalingam represents the first step of interaction, which is matter. The second step is the carved human form in the matter (stone). The third step is the alive human incarnation. Hence, the idol worship is meant for the major lot of humanity suffering with ego and jealousy in the initial stage. Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba told that just like the finger indicates the flower, the idol indicates the goal. Once the flower is seen, the finger is not necessary, Baba said. It means, once you catch the alive human incarnation, these photos and statues of energetic forms and past incarnations in human form only are not necessary. The goal of all these statues and photos is alive human incarnation only with which you can interact and serve in all angles including the clarification of your doubts. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

The complete information on Idol worship The idol worship is not wrong, but is limited to the initial stage. It serves good purpose in the initial stage by developing devotion. Even service and sacrifice is done in the idol worship. People sacrifice lot of their earnings to serve the temple containing idols. Devotees are ready for practical sacrifice to God even in the initial stage. But, the ego and jealousy to a co-human form prevents them to do sacrifice and service to human incarnation. This weak point is exploited by some bad priests to earn. This is the negative angle of the idol worship. To remove this negative angle, the idol worship is condemned by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who was also a human incarnation. He opposed the concept of human incarnation like Mohammad since there are some negative aspects of this concept. The genuine human incarnation may not be properly received by the public suffering with ego and jealousy and their violent reaction was seen in the case of Jesus. The other negative angle is that the fraud human incarnations may exploit the society. The policy of the programme of any human incarnation depends on the psychology of the public with which it has to interact. Swami Dayananda rejected the idol worship since a rat was stealing the food offered to Shivalingam in a temple. Swami told that there is no Lord in the Shivalingam since it is only a stone. This concept arrests the exploitations of the idol worship. This does not mean that Swami is unaware of the merits of idol worship. Sometimes, the concept should be de-rooted completely in order to condemn the strong exploitation of the concept. Once the exploitation disappears, the concept can be again re-installed. Shri Ramakrishna Parama Hamsa also existed in the time of Swami Dayananda. Shri Parama Hamsa was a priest in the temple worshipping the idol. He supported the idol worship. He said that you should view the idol as the alive form. This means that you must catch the alive form of God through the idol. Shri Parama Hamsa Himself was another human incarnation and declared that He was Rama and Krishna. This means, He never asked you to sit in the stage of the idol worship. The sense of His statement is that you should feel as if you are worshipping the alive form during the service of idol. Then only, the real devotion grows. The total story is that on onside Swami Dayananda condemned the negative sides of idol worship and on the other side Shri Parama Hamsa supported the positive sides of the idol worship. The same God spoke simultaneously through both these human forms. The conclusion is that you should utilize any concept, accepting the positive views and avoid the negative exploitations of the same concept. Ignorant people misunderstand that Shri Parama Hamsa and Swami Dayananda opposed each other. All the preachers existing in theism should always be correlated in other concepts since the fundamental point of existence of God is not violated. The difference in Them is only due to the existing circumstances in their times, which have to be reformed. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

The main aim of human incarnation The knowledge given by God is always true and hence, will be harsh The main aim of human incarnation is the spiritual knowledge, which is like a torch light for a traveler in the darkness. The materialistic boons are like the food packets required by you while sitting in the intervals of the journey. If you avoid the journey and constantly sit eating the food packets continuously, your health will be spoiled. You may not require the torch light while sitting and eating the food packets. But, once you start the journey, the torch light is essential. The journey in the right path guided by the torch light only helps you to reach the goal quickly. If you constantly sit at one place eating the food continuously, you will not only reach the goal but also become sick. If you don’t have torch light in the journey, you may travel but will not reach the goal since you are trapped in the wrong path. Therefore, the main aim of the human incarnation is only the spiritual knowledge, which guides you in the right path. Hence, only the spiritual knowledge is the identification mark of God in human form as said in the Veda (satyam jnaanam anantam Brahma…). The knowledge given by God is always true and hence, will be harsh. God will not go back in giving the true knowledge because He does not aspire anything from you in return. Such true knowledge is infinite because it is the chain of clarifications of infinite number of doubts coming from infinite number of human beings. Truth and infinity are the two adjectives given by the Veda, which qualify the knowledge of God. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Why you reject persent human incarnation…!!! Human incarnation Vs Idols & Energetic From You cannot exploit God continuously. The photo or statue of Vishnu or Krishna (or any past human incarnations) does not speak to you. You like this very much because you can express any unjust desire before God and pray for its fulfillment. If Krishna or Vishnu exists in the place of that statue or photo, certainly God will speak to you and warn you against the unjust desire. The statue or photo keeps silent to your unjust prayer and hence, you live with a hope of its fulfillment by God. For this purpose, you do not want God to exist before you and hence, God is not present in the photo or statue. You are rigid of your desire and hence, the presence of God is not liked by you. This is also the reason for your dislike to human incarnation since it criticizes you to turn you to the right path. If there is a photo or statue of Krishna in the chariot, Arjuna would have spoken his argument and simply would have returned from the battle field. Majority of humanity belongs to such type of rigid ignorance and hence, worships the idols only. God also responds to their prayers fulfilling their unjust desires. What is the reason for such behavior of God? God knows that you will not change by preaching the spiritual knowledge. Since the stage of transformation has not come, God fulfils your desire so that at least your faith in the existence of God is strengthened. In future, you may believe the human incarnation as God and thus, accept Its spiritual advice given by It and transform yourself. The already strengthened faith with God will help you to implement the spiritual advice immediately in practice. Some people recognize the human incarnation as God, but, do not implement the advice of God due to lack of strength in the faith. Dhrutarashtra knows that Krishna is God, but, could not implement His advice in practice due to lack of strength of faith in God. Hence, the idol worship is not waste and should not be criticized. It helps in strengthening faith and devotion in God in the initial ignorant state of human being. It is a sort of training in created false atmosphere. The soldier is trained to shoot the target, which is inert. In the actual war, he has to shoot the counter soldier, who is alive. Since the target is inert, you should not say that the training is useless. Therefore, the statues and idols are sufficient to fulfill your materialistic desires. Even though God is not present in the statue or photo, the omniscient God hears your prayer and responds to it. Even if you pray in open place thinking that God is formless, the omniscient God hears your prayers. But, if you do not come to the real path by recognizing the human incarnation, you cannot exploit God continuously. After sometime, He leaves you to your fate, which is the cycle of your deeds only. The chocolates are given in the initial childhood to go to school. If you continuously demand the chocolates, the practice is discontinued because excess of chocolates will lead you to diseases. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Oh! Blind you reject human incarnation!! The energetic incarnation like Vishnu, Shiva etc., is energetic body charged by the unimaginable God. It is like a letter delivered in Bombay from USA. But, you are in Hyderabad and therefore, that letter delivered to the citizen in Bombay is irrelevant to you. Of course, you are attracted to the special envelop of USA, which is externally different from the Indian envelop since it is made of costly paper. The same letter comes to you in the Indian envelop and this is the human incarnation of the same unimaginable God. The human form is mostly made of matter with little energy. But, the energetic form is made of fully shining energy only. The internal letter in both the envelops is one and the same. Similarly, the internal unimaginable God is one and the same in both the incarnations. The contents of the letter are also one and the same. Similarly, the spiritual knowledge given by God is also one and the same. Hence, there is no difference between Vishnu and Krishna except that the external body of Vishnu is made of fully energy, whereas, the external body of Krishna is made of matter and little energy. In fact, matter and energy are inter-convertible forms and thus, there is no basic difference. The USA cover and Indian cover are basically made of paper prepared from wood only. The USA cover has more luxtre and the Indian cover has less luxtre. The energy shines more and the matter with little energy shines little. Your special attraction to USA cover is due to your constant exposure to Indian covers only and lack of your exposure to USA covers. The constant exposure of anything develops negligence and repulsion, which is the basis for developing ego and jealousy towards the present human incarnation. Coming to the idol worship, it is like the envelop prepared by you, which is not stamped and also does not contain letter in it. The idol or photo is prepared by you, which is not chosen by God to come to you. It only resembles a postal envelop. It does not give any message of guidance. But, the envelop prepared by you is made of the same paper even though it has no practical utility. Similarly, the photo or idol contains the same matter or its inter-convertible form of energy that constitutes the basic material of USA cover or Indian cover. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

God-like state Thus, one does not see any difference between the three gunas (three fundamental qualities in creation). The qualities of Rajas (activity, passion) and Tamas (ignorance, rigidity) are the so-called bad qualities. They are represented by Lord Brahma (Creator) and Lord Shiva (Destroyer) respectively. Sattvam (purity, knowledge) is the good quality, which is represented by Lord Vishnu (Maintainer). Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are said to be equal. This means that the qualities that they represent are also equal. Good and bad are equal. Chillies and sweets are equal. All the three qualities are equal because they are equally important as means for getting complete entertainment in creation. The chillies are necessary to enjoy the sweet later on. The hero and the villain of a movie, both get equal remuneration. Both are equally important in giving entertainment to the audience. None is to be rejected or criticized. This is the highest perspective. It is called the Brahmi Sthiti (God-like state). The person, who is established in this state, is never disturbed by the joys or tragedies of the world. Even as he breathes his last, he enjoys his own death, like God (Esha Brahmi Sthiti…Brahma Nirvana Mrichchhati… Gita). This was the state of Lord Krishna. He enjoyed throughout His entire life. He enjoyed as He cheated the Gopikas and stole their butter (Vanchate Parivanchate… Shri Rudram, Veda). Even the Gopikas enjoyed that cheating. That is the highest state of devotion, which is possible only with the highest knowledge. Krishna enjoyed even His own defeat by running away from Kalayavana. Finally, He enjoyed His own death too. This shows how Krishna and His devotees (Gopikas) practically saw the oneness in the three gunas and derived constant entertainment. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

God Grants Devotion As Well As Deviation [Phani asked Swami to always keep him in the state of devotion.] When a person is having his meals, the server serves both hot dishes (chillies) and sweet dishes to him. The alternate combination of the contrasting flavors gives real enjoyment to the eater. If the server serves only hot dishes or only sweet dishes, the eater will get bored with the same flavor. God is that server. He grants us devotion as well as ignorance (Maya) or temporary deviation from devotion. Here, you must remember that He, who gave the hot dish, will also give you the sweet dish. Both are necessary for full enjoyment. Even continuous devotion will become boring. The devotee, who thinks he can maintain continuous devotion to God, is ignorant. He will get bored in that state and fall from it anyway. Hence, deviation from devotion is given as an interval. In fact hotter the hot dish, the greater will be the pleasure in eating the sweet dish later on. Thus, deviation from devotion is given only so that one enjoys the devotion even more. The one, who understands this, will never blame God when he slips from his state of devotion to God. In fact, he will never ever blame God for anything in life. Even that slipping from devotion is the grace of God. God is the Master Caterer and knows the perfect art of catering. He knows, which dish is to be served, when and in what form. The person, who has complete knowledge, understands God like this. He never rejects anything or anybody in creation. He understands that all the tragedies and comedies of life are all necessary for the highest entertainment in this world. He will be grateful to God for them all. He will thank God every moment of his life; even during the greatest tragedy. God Himself enjoys creation in this way. Lord Rama enjoyed even through the many tragedies in His life. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Purity Supersedes Quantity in Practical Service Purity in service is more important than quantity The sadhaka must focus on developing purity in practical service Purity is the most important factor in practical service. It is far more important than the quantity of service. Let us take an example. Let us say there are four samples of sugar. There is one gram sample of impure sugar, one kilogram of impure sugar, one gram of pure sugar and one kilogram of pure sugar. Clearly, the one gram and one kilogram samples of pure sugar are appreciable while the two samples of impure sugar are both useless, irrespective of their quantity. A devotee offers some food offering in a temple (Naivedyam) and expects the satisfaction of some selfish desire by God. His sacrifice of that food is a small sacrifice and it is also impure. It is like one gram of impure sugar. Ravana chopped off his own heads and offered them to Lord Shiva. His sacrifice was great but he had a selfish interest in doing so. So, his sacrifice was like the one kilogram of impure sugar. Both these cases are worthless. Shabari fed a few berries to Lord Rama with a pure heart, completely free of any selfish desire. Her sacrifice was like one gram of pure sugar. Kannappa plucked out his own eyes and donated them to the Lord. He expected nothing in return. His sacrifice was like one kilogram of pure sugar. Both Kannappa and Shabari are appreciated. The quantity of Kannappa’s devotion might appear huge in comparison to that of Shabari. But in fact, that difference in quantity is not very significant. This is because, both Shabari and Kannappa were pure (selfless). The difference in the quantity of their service was only due to the context of the situation. There was no requirement for Shabari to donate her eyes to Lord Rama. All that Lord Rama needed from her was some food and directions to find His lost wife, Sita. Shabari merely responded to the requirement of the situation with full purity. If there had been a requirement to even sacrifice her life for the sake of Lord Rama, she could have done it since she was already selfless (pure). Thus, in spite of the apparent quantitative difference between the practical sacrifice of Kannappa and Shabari, both their sacrifices can be considered to be almost equal. Hence, the sadhaka must focus on developing purity in practical service. The quantity of service will be decided by God’s requirement in the situational context www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Achieving God’s State of Unattached Spectatorship [Nikhil expressed the difficulty in keeping one’s attention focused on God. It is common for a seeker to get distracted by the world and get attached to it.] The case of Gopikas is that of the final stage of sadhana (spiritual effort). They were able to focus their attention on God and disregard the world. It is called siddhi (successful attainment). However, sadhakas (seekers) have to go through all the earlier stages, where they can get distracted by the world. When selfishness enters one’s mind, one falls from the state of pure (selfless) devotion. But, in spite of these failures, one must repeatedly practice turning to God again. The Gopikas were sages in their past birth. They too had gone through all these stages earlier. Turning to God means developing attachment to God. Attachment to God will automatically reduce the attachment to the world. It is not necessary to forcibly detach from the world. Such forcible detachment is worthless and it will never be permanent either. In fact, one should not try to do it. Forcible detachment is going on the path of becoming an Avadhuta. This is certainly not the goal. One should taste divine nectar (Amritam). The attachment to coffee or any other worldly drink will automatically vanish. There is no need to take any special effort to forcibly develop detachment from coffee. One should take efforts to develop attraction towards one’s studies; not forcibly abstain from watching the television. Thus, one’s effort should only be towards developing attachment to God. The weakening of the attachment to the world will be an automatic consequence. Attachment to God is called devotion. Prahlada never tried to detach from the world (Vairagya). He only developed devotion (Bhakti). His detachment towards the world was automatic. Thus, Vairagya is an automatic consequence of Bhakti. Devotion is the product of knowledge. Without knowledge, there cannot be devotion. Jnana Yoga (path of knowledge) is the foundation of Bhakti Yoga (path of devotion). Therefore, Lord Krishna started preaching the Gita with the Sankhya Yoga (path of knowledge). Even Rukmini first got knowledge about Lord Krishna from sage Narada. That knowledge of the Lord automatically developed devotion for Him in her heart. Through knowledge, the devotion for God gradually increases in our heart. Proportionally, our attachment to the world also weakens. Bhakti or devotion automatically leads to practice (service). Service need not be considered as a separate step. It is the second part of devotion called as practical devotion. In fact, knowledge too is not different from devotion since it causes devotion. It can be said to be the causal factor or foundation for devotion. Thus, devotion encompasses all three knowledge, which is the foundation for devotion devotion itself, which is the strong determination in the mind service, which is practical devotion or the proof of one’s devotion. Thus, Jnana Yoga (knowledge) and Karma Yoga (service) are included in Bhakti Yoga (devotion). The three steps of knowledge, devotion and service can be reclassified in any way as per one’s convenience. In fact, they are only one. Hence, Lord Krishna says that the one, who sees knowledge and action as one, is the true seer (Ekam Sankyam cha yogam cha… Gita). Knowledge and action (service) can be seen to be one in the intermediate step called devotion. The two merge in devotion. Turning towards God or developing attachment towards God means all these three. Sadhana, thus includes knowledge, devotion and service. No doubt the sadhaka will slip and fall on this path of sadhana. But, he has to rise again taking the support of the rope of knowledge. The knowledge will again generate devotion to God. That devotion will be tested in the sadhaka’s ability to do practical service for the contemporary human incarnation of God. Thus, he has to proceed persistently. The state of continuous entertainment through unattached spectatorship is Paripurna Advaita (full and complete oneness with God) and it can be attained by such persistent effort. This is the state of the human incarnation of God. This state is even higher than the state of the Gopikas. This status is given to that soul, who has attained the grace of God through his spiritual effort (sadhana). God enters such a soul and he becomes a human incarnation of God Himself. Then, He can enjoy the world as a cinema without getting affected by it. He can enjoy like God because He has become God. This is Paripurna Advaita.

The State of an Avadhuta [Nikhil asked whether the Avadhutas, who appear completely detached from the real world like madmen, are actually enjoying only this temporary phase of unattached spectatorship of the world. Swami responded as follows.] The Avadhutas are totally disconnected from the world. They are not even enjoying. Their state is similar to a coma. In the earlier analogy of watching the cinema, they are the people, who have closed their eyes and stopped watching the cinema altogether. They are like the person, who has taken a sleeping pill in the cinema hall. This state is far from the state of God, who is consciously watching the cinema and deriving enjoyment out of it. Such Avadhutas are souls, who fearing the attachment to the world have completely disconnected themselves from the world as if by taking a sleeping pill. They tried to be like God in one aspect i.e., not being affected by the joys and tragedies of the world. But, unfortunately, they chose the path of disconnecting themselves from the world. So, they have even lost the enjoyment or entertainment from the world. In this aspect, they have gone far from the state of God. God’s state of unattached spectatorship is very different from such Avadhutas. God is unaffected while enjoying the creation where as avadhuta is unaffected by disconnecting himself totally from the enjoyment. The final effect is one and the same but there is lot of difference in the background. The state of the Gopikas is different from the Avadhuta. Their case is like that of the helper, who sits in the cinema hall with the producer, but stops watching the cinema and instead turns towards the producer to win his favor. The Avadhuta is one, who stops watching the cinema but does not turn to the producer either. He simply goes off to sleep. The Gopikas turned away from the world and turned towards Lord Krishna. They knew that only through His grace, it is possible to enjoy the creation-cinema in an unattached manner. So, they turned to Him to attain His grace, through practical devotion (service). There is one thing common between the Gopikas and the Avadhuta—they both have stopped watching the creation-cinema. But, the major difference between them is that the Gopikas are turned to the Lord and are taking effort (sadhana) to achieve His grace. They have surrendered to God. There is hope that they will attain His grace and with that grace, they will attain the God-like state of constant entertainment as an unattached spectator of creation. The Avadhuta has no such hope, since he is not even trying for the grace of God. He foolishly thinks that he is already God, simply because he has disconnected himself from creation and is not affected by it. He is actually full of ego and he will never attain the state of God. In fact, he has no hope of even attaining the state of the Gopikas. This path of turning away from the cinema and turning towards God (like the Gopikas) is called as Nivritti. Nivritti contains Pravritti. Nivritti is impregnated with Pravritti. They are not different. The reason for the detachment from the world must be the attachment to God.

Equal Enjoyment Only Through God’s Grace Shankara thus proved that God and the soul can equally derive entertainment or enjoyment from watching the creation-cinema consisting of tragedies, comedies and a variety of other scenes and situations. However, there is an important practical difficulty in this. The essential secret of being constantly entertained by both the tragedies and comedies is in remaining unattached or uninvolved with the creation. This is the biggest challenge for the soul. In theory, the soul can have the God-like state of constant entertainment as long as it considers itself to be Brahman (awareness) alone. But, the question is, how long can the soul remain in that state without getting involved in the world? For God, who has produced the creation-cinema, it is natural and automatic to realize the unreality of creation and remain unattached to it. He has created every scene and situation in the creation-cinema. Every moment, it is crystal clear to Him that this world is His own creation that is meant for His own entertainment. Creation is very obviously unreal with respect to Him. So, He can effortlessly remain in the state of an unattached spectator and continue to enjoy creation. Even when God enters creation as a human incarnation and is an active participant in the creation-cinema, He can internally remain the same unattached spectator. This is seen from the life of Lord Krishna, who enjoyed even the tragedy at Prabhasa that caused the end of His entire family. Moreover, He also witnessed and enjoyed the death of His own body when He was shot in the foot by a hunter. However, the soul is made of the same fundamental elements and qualities that constitute creation. It is a part and parcel of creation. The soul was not involved in the process of producing this creation. Unlike God, the soul does not have the experience of creating this world. So, the soul cannot realize the creation to be unreal. Whenever a soul watches creation, it gets attached to it. Additionally, the soul is also a participant in the creation-cinema. This makes the soul even more susceptible to getting attached to the creation-cinema. Once attached to the creation-cinema, the soul loses its constant entertainment through the tragedies and comedies of creation. It becomes the ‘doer’ and the ‘enjoyer’. It suffers and enjoys alternately. Thus, the constancy of the soul’s entertainment is interrupted. In fact, the soul, right from its birth has always been in the attached state. It is the soul’s very nature to get attached to creation and the soul is totally helpless in this matter. It has never experienced the God-like state (Advaita) of being an unattached spectator of the world. Hence, the soul has only enjoyed the world intermittently. It has never achieved the ideal God-like constant entertainment throughout all the happy and miserable moments in life. Thus, Shankara’s reduction of the difference between God and the soul to zero (Mithya) is merely a theoretical assumption. Practically, there is a huge difference in the status of God as the Creator of the world and that of the soul as a created item. This difference cannot be neglected. Then, how can the soul ever attain the God-like unattached spectatorship or Advaita? Shankara said that the soul can achieve that state only with the grace of God (Ishwaraanugrahat eva… Shankara). This is the most profound and critical statement. It clearly marks the main obstacle in the attainment of that state and it also indicates the direction that one must take to attain it. Without His grace, it is impossible to remain as an unattached spectator of creation. Yet by reminding oneself repeatedly that one is awareness (Brahman) alone, the soul can experience that state of unattached spectatorship for short periods. This is helpful in removing the stress developed from the miseries and problems that one faces in the world. But, alas, it is only temporary.

Shankara’s Advaita is Context-Specific O Learned and Devoted Servants of God, [July 03, 2011] The true Advaita of Shankara is only in the aspect of enjoying this creation by a soul just as God enjoys it. The following analogy is given to understand this concept. The director-ejaculate-producer of a cinema, after producing the cinema, himself sits in the audience to watch and enjoy it. His helper also sits along with him and enjoys the cinema. In this aspect of enjoying the cinema as spectators, there is no difference between the two. Of course, this similarity does not make the helper identical with the producer of the cinema. In the context of the producing of the cinema, the difference between the two always remains. But, once the cinema is already produced, there is no relevance of bringing in that difference, which is present in the context of production. Only the context of watching and enjoying the cinema is relevant. In this context, there is no difference between the helper and the producer. God is that director-ejaculate-producer of the cinema of creation. The ordinary individual soul is the helper. In the context of producing the cinema, there is obviously a difference between the two. God has created this creation while the soul cannot even create an iota of creation. But, once the process of creation is over and it is time to merely watch it like a cinema and enjoy it, there is no need to bring in that difference between God and the soul. God enjoys all the aspects in this creation-cinema. He is not disturbed by the tragedies or comedies in it but derives equal enjoyment from both. Likewise, the soul too can derive equal enjoyment from both if the soul can remain uninvolved with the creation. Hence, Shankara said that the soul is the same as God. This is Advaita or monism. For the process of watching and enjoying the cinema of creation, awareness (Chit) alone is required; no creative powers are required. This awareness is the essence of this common spectatorship of both God and the soul. Shankara called this common awareness as Brahman. In the aspect of this awareness (Brahman), both Jiva (soul) and Ishwara (God) are said to be equal. Hence, Shankara’s view is also called as Chinmatra Vada—the view that awareness (Chit) alone is true (relevant). The Jiva can remain in the same God-like state of an unattached spectator as long as it considers itself to be Brahman (awareness) and does not get attached to the world. In this context of spectatorship, the status of God as the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer of creation is irrelevant. Similarly, the status of the soul as a created item is also irrelevant. To indicate this irrelevance and to highlight that awareness alone is relevant for spectatorship, Shankara reduced the difference between the Jiva (soul) and Ishwara (God) to zero by calling it Mithya (unreal).

The complete information on Idol worship The idol worship is not wrong, but is limited to the initial stage. It serves good purpose in the initial stage by developing devotion. Even service and sacrifice is done in the idol worship. People sacrifice lot of their earnings to serve the temple containing idols. Devotees are ready for practical sacrifice to God even in the initial stage. But, the ego and jealousy to a co-human form prevents them to do sacrifice and service to human incarnation. This weak point is exploited by some bad priests to earn. This is the negative angle of the idol worship. To remove this negative angle, the idol worship is condemned by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who was also a human incarnation. He opposed the concept of human incarnation like Mohammad since there are some negative aspects of this concept. The genuine human incarnation may not be properly received by the public suffering with ego and jealousy and their violent reaction was seen in the case of Jesus. The other negative angle is that the fraud human incarnations may exploit the society. The policy of the programme of any human incarnation depends on the psychology of the public with which it has to interact. Swami Dayananda rejected the idol worship since a rat was stealing the food offered to Shivalingam in a temple. Swami told that there is no Lord in the Shivalingam since it is only a stone. This concept arrests the exploitations of the idol worship. This does not mean that Swami is unaware of the merits of idol worship. Sometimes, the concept should be de-rooted completely in order to condemn the strong exploitation of the concept. Once the exploitation disappears, the concept can be again re-installed. Shri Ramakrishna Parama Hamsa also existed in the time of Swami Dayananda. Shri Parama Hamsa was a priest in the temple worshipping the idol. He supported the idol worship. He said that you should view the idol as the alive form. This means that you must catch the alive form of God through the idol. Shri Parama Hamsa Himself was another human incarnation and declared that He was Rama and Krishna. This means, He never asked you to sit in the stage of the idol worship. The sense of His statement is that you should feel as if you are worshipping the alive form during the service of idol. Then only, the real devotion grows. The total story is that on onside Swami Dayananda condemned the negative sides of idol worship and on the other side Shri Parama Hamsa supported the positive sides of the idol worship. The same God spoke simultaneously through both these human forms. The conclusion is that you should utilize any concept, accepting the positive views and avoid the negative exploitations of the same concept. Ignorant people misunderstand that Shri Parama Hamsa and Swami Dayananda opposed each other. All the preachers existing in theism should always be correlated in other concepts since the fundamental point of existence of God is not violated. The difference in Them is only due to the existing circumstances in their times, which have to be reformed. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Selfish devotees do not require human incarnation! In general, the major lot of humanity does not require the human incarnation. Even if they require, they cannot recognize due to their inherent ego and jealousy based on the repulsion between common media. Therefore, there is no use of human incarnation for the major humanity. But, they also require God. For their purpose, God is represented by statues and photos of energetic forms. Since the energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc, are not available, a photo or statue representing them can be only worshipped. Even, the past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc, can be worshipped through the photos and statues. Since direct photo is not possible, only imaginary photos and statues are worshipped. Even the alive trees, animals, birds etc, are worshipped because they are not alive human forms. But, all these statues and photos represent human form only indicating that the final goal is the alive human incarnation only. The Shivalingam is just a round stone, which indicates that the human beings in this world can interact only with matter and not with the unimaginable God directly. The Shivalingam is in the form of the energetic wave representing energy and there by indicates that energetic form is necessary for the worship of unimaginable God by the departed souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper world. Therefore, the Shivalingam denotes both matter and energy, which are the media required for the expression of unimaginable God in this world and upper world respectively. Even the body of human incarnation is matter only. Therefore, the Shivalingam represents the first step of interaction, which is matter. The second step is the carved human form in the matter (stone). The third step is the alive human incarnation. Hence, the idol worship is meant for the major lot of humanity suffering with ego and jealousy in the initial stage. Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba told that just like the finger indicates the flower, the idol indicates the goal. Once the flower is seen, the finger is not necessary, Baba said. It means, once you catch the alive human incarnation, these photos and statues of energetic forms and past incarnations in human form only are not necessary. The goal of all these statues and photos is alive human incarnation only with which you can interact and serve in all angles including the clarification of your doubts. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Why God has to come in human form at all… God is unimaginable and hence, cannot be even imagined by even sharp intelligence. Therefore, there is no possibility of any kind of interaction with God. God knows all of us, but, we can never know God. Hence, the interaction with unimaginable God is one sided only. But, we like to have an interaction, which is in both sides. We like to know, see, talk, touch and live with God. We like to serve God because service is the practical proof of love or devotion to God. For this purpose, God comes down in the same medium in which we exist. Hence, God comes in human form. If God comes in the form of an inert object, our service becomes impossible. For the sake of inert objects, He has to come in the inert form. But, the inert objects do not interact at all. If He comes down as a bird or animal, the birds and animals may interact and the human beings cannot interact. In such case, you cannot talk with God since you cannot talk with a bird or animal. We cannot clarify our doubts with God in such case. If God comes down in the energetic form, we cannot touch God and cannot live with Him for a long time. Therefore, the human form is the best suited to the human beings. The energetic form of God is relevant to the departed souls existing in the energetic bodies in the upper worlds. But, the human form of God is not easily available. Even if it is easily available, most of the human beings suffer with ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. Any human being does not agree the greatness of a co-human being. Therefore, the human incarnation interacts with those few selected devotees only, who conquered the ego and jealousy. For other human beings, the human incarnation behaves like a co-human being only following the usual social norms. Krishna behaved like a human being only with all the people and behaved like God for His close devotees. Therefore, God comes down for the needy only. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

The reason behind terroris and its solution Now, we shall examine the problem of terrorism. There can be many religions on the earth, based on the difference in the culture and the civilization existing in the various parts of the world. In the above topic we have seen that the traditions are different, but the essence of the traditions is one and the same. Similarly, religions may differ, but the essence of the religions, which is the spiritual knowledge, is one and the same. The spiritual knowledge says that there is only one God for this entire earth or even for the entire creation. This point is agreed by all religions. The names and forms of the absolute unimaginable God are different in different languages and different dresses of culture. Krishna and Jesus are one and the same, dressed differently as per the difference in the culture of the regions of this earth. If you say that Krishna alone is God and the Gita alone is the scripture, several generations passed away without the knowledge of Krishna and the Gita in the past, when there was no communication between the countries, till the discovery of India by other countries. In such case, those generations have gone to hell since they did not worship Krishna and did not here the Gita. This is not their fault due to lack of inter-continental contact. In such case, God becomes partial without reason. It means, God should have been mad. God is the Father of every human being and He cannot be partial to some children only without reason. If God is impartial, He should have appeared as Krishna in all countries and delivered the Gita simultaneously. Had it been done, it becomes justified to say that those, who worshipped Krishna, went to God and those, who refused Krishna, went to hell. This argument applies to the conservative followers of every religion. The solution for this is that the same God appeared in different forms and delivered the same knowledge in various parts of the world simultaneously. The forms may be different but God is one and the same. The languages of the scriptures may differ but the essential knowledge is one and the same. Thus, there is simultaneous delivery of knowledge to everybody in the creation. Hence, God, the Father, is impartial to His children, who are all the human beings. If this single truth is realized, there will be no violent terrorism in the name of God. The terrorists always kill the followers of other religion. They do not know that they are killing the devotees of their own God. Suppose there is a police officer. He sits in his office in the uniform and another police officer is his best friend. The police officer sits in his house in civil dress. He has another friend in civil dress. The son of the police officer is always exposed to him in the civil dress. Hence, the son praises the friend of the father in civil dress and scolds the other friend in uniform. The ignorant son does not know that his father in the civil dress is the same person in the uniform. He mistakes his father in the uniform as an outsider and even scolds him. Both naxalism and terrorism should be removed to bring the peace in society, which is the main essence of pravrutti. Unless you follow the ethics, which is the commandment of God, how can you please Him in nivrutti or spiritual path? If you disobey God in pravrutti, you cannot please Him in nivrutti because God is one and the same in both the subjects. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Dear devotee of Shri Sathya Sai baba: The following book is for your reading and please ciruculate among your friends and relatives and devotees of Sai Baba Excellent book which answers all the controversies on Shri Sathya Sai Baba http://www.esnips.com/doc/2e6fc20e-f1f0-4621-a90e-e61f2e7d6b7a/Book-on-Shri-Sathya-Sai-Baba or http://www.mediafire.com/?rg4xb3nivvky7im -By His Holiness Shri Dattaswami www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

Anwering the controvery on Sathya Sai Baba-4 Some people say that Baba was harmed by some of His followers. Is this possible? Can a human being harm God? Assuming that somebody harmed Baba, it must be the will of Baba only. Jesus was crucified by some people and it was done by the will of God only. If there is any sin in the followers, God will take care of it by giving punishment in the appropriate time. Why should you worry about it? You follow all the messages of Baba and try to practice so that God will be pleased with you and you will be protected by the grace of Baba. You are wasting your valuable time and energy in unnecessary things neglecting the essential aspects related to your future welfare. Jesus, while carrying on the cross told the weeping people that they should weep about themselves and their children. The reason is that after the momentary pain of crucifixion, Jesus will sit on the lap of God whereas the people will go to the permanent hell after this short happy life. You try to stand on the principles preached by Baba and you neither worry about Baba nor about others. Whether others follow or not, you follow the principles preached by Baba. Everybody thinks that he or she need not follow these principles since others are not following. The entire society thinks like that only. The king asked for the donation of one tumbler of milk from each house. Everybody thought that one can pour one tumbler of water, which will be mixed in the milk poured by others. Finally, the whole drum was full of water only! Everybody should follow the principles preached by Baba not caring for others [following]. If you are interested in their welfare, you preach them also after personal follow-up. If there is no change, even the entire mass will be punished, which is going to be the future action of Kalki. Don’t think that since it is an issue of the mass, there will be excuse.

Anwering the controvery on Sathya Sai Baba-3 Another issue is that Baba told that He will rise after three days from death of His body. Even in the case of Jesus, such a statement was made and this shows the similarity between Baba and Jesus. Shirdi Sai Baba also rose after three days after death. This miracle is not necessary in the case of Baba, who arose a dead person, which shows that Baba is the controller of the life. When Baba can rise other dead persons, can’t He rise Himself? Both the miracles establish the same concept. The point is that whether Baba can do it or not. If it is established by one type of miracle that Baba can do it, another type of miracle establishing the same concept need not be done again. For a wise person, one miracle, which is an unimaginable event, is sufficient to understand that the unimaginable God exists in that body. Rama has not done any miracle except one i.e., converting the stone into a woman by the touch of His foot. Is this one miracle not sufficient to establish that Rama is God? All the sages understood Rama as God because they are learned scholars. Rama performed this miracle in presence of the sage Vishwamitra and Vishwamitra propagated this miracle to other sages. Krishna performed many miracles. But there were many enemies for Krishna. Kauravas saw the top-most miracle, which was the cosmic vision, but still did not believe Krishna as God thinking that it is illusion of eye. For a human being, with the faculty of intelligence working, demonstration of one unimaginable event is sufficient. For human beings, burning with ego and jealousy, even if thousand miracles are demonstrated, all will be treated as magic or illusion of the eye.

Anwering the controvery on Sathya Sai Baba-2 Another issue is that why He saluted the devotees with folded hands on the last occasion. You can find a similar situation in the case of Jesus also. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on the last occasion of His departure. Jesus explained the reason of His such act. Jesus wanted that the disciples should never become egoistic and should treat their disciples with respect always. The devotees are human beings and their devotees are also human beings. One human being should respect the other human being. The case of Baba is different. Baba is God and the devotees are human beings. Baba need not respect His devotees. But, later on, some of His disciples may have again disciples and they may imitate Baba thinking themselves also as human incarnations. All these points stand as the basis for such acts of Jesus and Baba. Baba is giving the message that you should express gratefulness to anybody irrespective of the status. Baba is also giving the message that you should remain as devotee only with folded hands before God. You should never claim that you are the human incarnation with a blessing hand always, falling in the trap of the praise of your disciples.

Anwering the controvery on Sathya Sai Baba-1 The controversy is that Baba told that He will live up to 96 years, but the death is preponed by about ten years. An astrologer told that Baba lived up to 96 years according to the theory of the cycle of 27 stars. So much strain is not necessary in this issue. God has full freedom to postpone or prepone the lifetime of any human being including the human incarnation. It is not like the one hour bell for a teacher in the classroom. The case of the divine preacher is different. Generally, we find the teacher spending leisurely the rest of the period if the topic is over since he cannot quit the class before time. He is bound by the rules of the institution. But, if the principal enters and speaks for sometime, there is no binding on the time. Whenever the principal finishes his speech, he can quit at anytime and the concerned teacher follows the rest of the period. The human incarnation is the head of the creation. In fact, the life period of any human being can be preponed or postponed by God. If the human being is found to be useful, its life is extended. If the human being is found useless, its life is shortened and is thrown into the lives of birds and animals, which live only to eat and sleep. The extension and shortening of life period is mentioned in the ethical scripture also. It says that if you sleep after sunrise, your life is shortened. It also says that your life is extended if you serve the elders. Therefore, the life period is not a fixed item. Baba might have preponed the exit since He found that the humanity will not change really and might have been vexed with the changeless behavior of the human beings.

Everybody thinks that he is God!!! The Veda is a collection of poems and poetry always involves the figures of speech. People have misunderstood this tradition of poetry and took God actually as awareness. Hence, everybody thinks that he is God. Shankara used this misunderstanding to introduce theism to atheists. The atheist will never agree to the existence of the separate God. He will accept the existence of God only if he is said to be God since nobody denies his own existence. This trick was used by Shankara to make atheist believe in the existence of God at the very outset. If the existence is not accepted, further details will never be heard. When the details were completely heard and analyzed, one will easily be convinced that he is not God. This is the development of teaching method as per the psychology of a set of students. Shankara practically demonstrated to His disciples that everybody is not God by swallowing the molten Lead and by asking them to drink it similarly if everybody is God. The Advaita philosopher does not still leave the hope by saying that he is unable to drink molten led since his memory power that he is God is not fully restored. He continues the efforts to regain the full memory power that he is God. He will memorize this concept through [out] his life time and cannot go even near to molten Lead even at the time of death. What more foolishness can be there in this world than this?

The soul is said to be the form of knowledge The real meaning of the word Atman The word Atman not only means the self but also the body covering the self as per Amarakosha, the standard dictionary in Sanskrit language. The word Atman is derived from the verb ‘atati’, which means that, which extends or grows or pervades. The body occupies some space and grows in course of time pervading some more space. The soul is a specific form of ordinary inert energy. Actually, it is a specific form of work involving transfer of information from the senses with help of neurons and the receipt of the information by the brain in the form of impression is a subsequent step, which is also involved in this specific work. This step of receipt of the information by the brain is called knowledge or the process of knowing (jnaanam). Hence, the soul is said to be the form of knowledge. This specific work takes place in a specific system called nervous system. The soul also pervades all over the body through nerves since the soul is a form of inert energy. Since the inert energy is always in the form of waves occupying some space, the soul can be called as the Atman that pervades some space. Therefore, the word Atman means both the body and the soul. Therefore, the word Atman means totally a human being, which consists of two parts called body and soul. Body stands for matter and the soul stands for energy. Both matter and energy are like the two friendly classmates and none is a boss or a slave to the other. Rama and Krishna are two friends. You can call Rama as Krishna’s friend or Krishna as Rama’s friend. If you superimpose the ‘I’ on the soul, you will call the body as ‘My body’. If you superimpose the ‘I’ on body, you will call the soul as ‘My soul’. Neither body belongs to the soul nor does the soul belong to the body because both belong to God, the ultimate single owner.

What is Atmajnaanam The ultimate conclusion of the meaning of the word Atman is only an individual human being, which is composite of body and soul. The meaning of the word Atman is very very important in spiritual knowledge because this word misled several people. The word Atmajnaanam is very important because by achieving this, one gets the salvation. People think that the word Atmajnaanam means the knowledge of self and start analyzing the soul leaving the body. Such analysis is based on the error that Atman is confined to self only. Even if you realize that Atman stands for both self and body and go on analyzing the self and body, you will not get the salvation. No doubt the Atman stands for both self and body. But, the word Atmajnaanam does not mean the analysis of self and body. It only means the analysis of identification of a specific human being, which is the composite of both self and body that is pervaded by the unimaginable God (Human incarnation). Here, the word knowledge means the identification of that specific human being pervaded by the unimaginable God, which exists in this world of humanity like a specific water drop in the ocean. The word knowledge stands for only the identification knowledge of the specific human being immersed in this vast humanity and it does not mean the analysis of any human being. If somebody says “do you have any knowledge of that fellow?”, it only means the knowledge of whereabouts of that fellow. It does not mean the knowledge of anatomy of that fellow, which is as good as the anatomy of any fellow.