Black Spirituality Religion : Existence of God

The way to cancel your sins


Punishment given for a sin is only to change the mind of the soul and purify it. There is no trace of revenge in this. The hell is an indication of the intensive love of God to the souls through which God wants to reform the souls. The hell indicates the hectic effort of God put on the soul to reform it and not to leave the soul for its fate.

A father may leave his son since he is not changing inspite of all his efforts. But in the hell God puts serious effort and succeeds to change the soul. Therefore, even thousands of fathers cannot be equal to God. God is not leaving the soul without changing it and this point is indicated by the punishment and hell.

Therefore, there is no point of excusing the Prarabhdas if this true basis is understood. God will try to change the soul through preaching as far as possible. Punishment in the hell is the last resort. Once the soul is reformed all the sins are smashed since there is neither the necessity of preaching nor the necessity of punishment.

The Divine Father is taking the best care of each soul. Even the punishments given by God here on earth and hereafter in hell, only indicate His anxiety to reform the sinful soul, which is His child. Hell is the reflection of God’s highest kindness, which helps in reforming souls. Hell is not the reflection of His anger or desire for revenge. If we understand this very subtle point, we will be very peaceful about things taking place in this world. There is no error taking place in the divine administration. Everything taking place in this world is the result of the most perfect working of God’s wonderful administration. No soul can even dream of running the world in a better way than the way it is being run. It is our utter ignorance that causes us to misunderstand God and stray (stay) away from the path of self-purification. We are ignorant of the deeds of other souls. We are ignorant of the most wonderful divine administration working in the background. We are ignorant of God’s supreme talents and capabilities in administering and reforming souls. Above all, we are ignorant of the supreme kindness of God towards all souls.
We are worried about things, about which we need not be worried at all! People were worried about Jesus when He was carrying the cross. He told them not to worry about Him. He was under the direct supervision of the kindest Lord. Instead, He told them to worry about themselves and their children. He might have suffered for a few hours, but He was going to sit forever on the right lap of the Divine Father! These people, who were worried about Him, might be living happily on earth for a little while, but they were going to be thrown into the liquid fire forever along with their future generations! So, who should be worried? The spectators or Jesus?
A person may finish off the punishment of his or her sin by suffering for it here. The person may then get a wonderful new divine birth in the immediate future. Another person, who is wasting his time in sympathizing with this suffering person, instead of focusing on his own reformation, may finally get thrown into the liquid fire forever! Hence, it is always advisable to focus on self-rectification than unnecessarily wasting time in investigating and judging God’s administration of this world.



All the punishments are only for reformation of the soul and not for revenge. The hell is created by God not with vengeance against sinners but due to kindness to reform the souls. God is always kind to reform the souls, which are His children since the souls are created by Him.

The father will never have even a trace of vengeance towards his issues. Jesus always addressed God as father and He propagated this concept by saying that all your sins will be excused by God if you are reformed. Practical knowledge, the practical realization, which is the reformation, will cancel all your previous bad deeds or sins as told in Gita (Jnanaagnih….). Except this one way, there is no other way to cancel the sins and escape from all the present problems in the world and future torture in the hell.

If you are not doing any sin, you are excused for all past sins

The results of all your good actions will be separate and will not interfere with the cancellation of sins. God will give you good results for all your prayers and any prayer will not cancel even a trace of your sin. Similarly, your charity.

If these good actions can reform you, then, your sins will be cancelled. Therefore, reformation of the soul is the only way by which God is pleased to cancel your sins. Even if you do not believe in God, it does not matter. If you are not doing any sin, you are excused for all past sins and you will live with immense happiness in the world and after death also.

If you are doing a sin, you are going against the will of God

You cannot please God by prayers and service simultaneously doing sins. If you are doing a sin, you are going against the will of God and you are insulting God. You cannot please and insult God simultaneously. Therefore, every devotee and servant of God should be careful about the concept of the sin and about the only path to cancel the sin.

Several devotees belonging to the nivṛtti (loving and serving God) line treat pravṛtti(obeying justice) as if it were a lower level. They even commit sins, violating the justice of pravṛtti. This is totally wrong. Pravṛtti is not lower than nivṛtti. It is only the prior step before nivṛtti. If You cross one station and reach the next station, do You think that the first station is lower than the second station? Moreover, the same God is the Chief Controller in pravṛtti as well as nivṛtti.
If You damage a factory’s administration, which is like pravṛtti, and do some personal service for the factory-owner at his house, which is like nivṛtti, do You think the owner will be pleased with Your personal service? If You do not damage the factory and help in its administration, the owner will be pleased with You even if You do not do his personal service.
Even if You do not choose the path of nivṛtti, God does not bother about it. He will be pleased with You even if You follow pravṛtti, which is supporting justice in the world and avoiding sin. The path of sin is called duṣpravṛtti. If You support pravṛtti and also follow nivṛtti, God is greatly pleased with You. It is like the factory-owner, who is extremely pleased with the servant doing personal service for him at his house as well as doing good service in the factory.

In any religion, and in any region of the world, God-in-human-form gives a lot of stress on reaching the human level (pravṛtti) and warns souls to not fall down to the animal level (duṣpravṛtti). This is because the major lot of humanity is only in the bottommost animal level. Even if a soul rises to the human level or to divine level (nivṛtti), which is above the human level, it can easily slip and fall to the basic animal level due to its inherent human nature.

Hence, a major part of any holy scripture is confined only to the glorifying pravṛtti and warning against duṣpravṛtti. Falling from nivṛtti to pravṛtti is not that bad since the fall affects only that individual whereas the fall from pravṛtti or nivṛtti down to the lowest level of duṣpravṛtti is very dangerous since it affects the peace of the surrounding world. Maintaining the peace of the world is very important for God. The world is like a board-game of Snakes and Ladders.
Both ladders for climbing up and snakes for sliding down are present. Spiritual knowledge is thought to be mere theoretical gossip mainly related to nivṛtti. This is totally wrong since this very knowledge of nivṛtti also ensures at every step that the soul does not fall to the basic animal level. Thus, spiritual knowledge is highly essential for pravṛtti or practical life in this world

If you avoid the three sins, you will be happy without any misery

My dear disciple! Listen Me. If you avoid the three sins, you will be happy without any misery. By taking only one instrument, which is devotion to God, you can travel in one path only succeeding in both pravrutti and nivrutti.

[Pravrutti is attachment to worldly bonds seeking protection (of the self and own worldly bonds) from God. Hence, in Pravrutti also, the soul tries to please the God. In the process of pleasing God, the inevitable fundamental step is not to make God to become angry with you and punish you for your sins. God is unimaginable and will punish you here as well as in hell after death even if you escape the law here. All your worldly miseries are due to your sins only. Excessive sins are punished here itself.

You can’t escape the punishment of sins by worship of God (which is false concept propagated by priests for their earning). The only way to escape the punishments for all sins done is realization from spiritual knowledge, repentance and non-repetition of sin in practice from today onwards. This will cancel all the pending sins (samchita) and avoids future sins (aagaami). If you are true in this and a sincere devotee of God worshipping Him without aspiration for any fruit in return, God will cancel the punishment that already started (Praarabdha) also.

Devotion to God giving you the fruits of becoming human incarnation and becoming master of God are personal to God and hence, God is not much worried about this Nivrutti, in which, He often creates obstructions to test your devotion.

But, God is very particular about pravrutti since your sins disturb the world by hurting others. The world is established by God, in which His peaceful administration is expected. God says that illegal sex, violence to hurt or to kill any good living being and greediness to steal others money and wealth through corruption are the three main gates for hell. If you control your over fascination to yourself and your family bonds, you can avoid sin and succeed in Pravrutti.

In Nivrutti, this fascination totally drops by itself spontaneously due to devotion to God. You and your family members may not like Nivrutti and God also doesn’t like nivrutti for your kind information. But, if you keep nivrutti as your ultimate theoretical goal, you will succeed practically in pravrutti at least and hence, for this purpose only, nivrutti is preached for pravrutti aspirants also.

If you start with devotion to God from the beginning, you will succeed in Pravrutti (since devotion to God weakens the fascination that provokes you to do sins) and as the devotion develops slowly to reach climax, Nivrutti is also achieved. Hence, Pravrutti is only an intermediate station in the path of Nivrutti.]


[The general rule is that all the fruits of deeds done in this world are given to the soul in the upper world (hell or heaven) only, which is called as bhogaloka or world of enjoyment of fruits. This is for the sake of giving freedom to the soul in this world called as karma loka or world of deeds. If the soul is stressed by the fruits of the deeds in this world, the soul will not have freedom to learn the spiritual knowledge and get itself transformed.

Hence, the human birth in this world is a golden opportunity for the soul to get transformed and escape all the pending punishments forever through realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin from today onwards! God is following every soul in this world as well as in the upper world like a doctor following the health checkup of the patient continuously. God has the special power to break this general rule and give fruit of past good deed or bad deed in any place at any time depending on the requirement for encouragement or rectification of the soul.

God is like the teacher following continuously the academic progress of his student to take required steps anywhere at any time. Moreover, there is a special rule that intensive sins or good deeds give immediate results here itself. In view of all these rules, adjusting with each other, it is always better for the soul to avoid the sin even if good deeds are not done! The soul must remember one point very strongly, which is that the unimaginable God will punish the sinner, even if he/she escapes the law of the land here!]


It is always better for the soul to avoid the sin even if good deeds are not done!

God is following every soul in this world as well as in the upper world like a doctor following the health checkup of the patient continuously

Intensive sins or good deeds give immediate results here itself.

My dear disciple! Listen Me. For freedom of realization here, fruits are given in the upper world. But, He can break any rule like a doctor or teacher. None can escape the unimaginable God anywhere at any time.

[The general rule is that all the fruits of deeds done in this world are given to the soul in the upper world (hell or heaven) only, which is called as bhogaloka or world of enjoyment of fruits. This is for the sake of giving freedom to the soul in this world called as karma loka or world of deeds.

If the soul is stressed by the fruits of the deeds in this world, the soul will not have freedom to learn the spiritual knowledge and get itself transformed. Hence, the human birth in this world is a golden opportunity for the soul to get transformed and escape all the pending punishments forever through realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin from today onwards!

God is following every soul in this world as well as in the upper world like a doctor following the health checkup of the patient continuously. God has the special power to break this general rule and give fruit of past good deed or bad deed in any place at any time depending on the requirement for encouragement or rectification of the soul. God is like the teacher following continuously the academic progress of his student to take required steps anywhere at any time. Moreover, there is a special rule that intensive sins or good deeds give immediate results here itself.

In view of all these rules, adjusting with each other, it is always better for the soul to avoid the sin even if good deeds are not done! The soul must remember one point very strongly, which is that the unimaginable God will punish the sinner, even if he/she escapes the law of the land here!]


God gives you the fruits in the same phase (theoretical or practical ) in which your effort exists. Almost all spiritual aspirants miss this basic nut. Everybody wants the cancelation of the punishment of his/her sin through theoretical phase like praying God, repenting in mind and words etc. The punishment is in practical phase and can be cancelled by God only when you practice the non-repetition of such sin. You desire a practical fruit from God through your theoretical step! The reason is that you doubt the practical fruit from God for your practical step involving expenditure of money, done before since there was no written agreement signed by God. Due to this reason, for safety, many people promise practical worship to God after getting practical boon from God (payment after delivery)! Due to the same reason i.e., absence of written agreement, people try to avoid this promise also!

There was a case of this type in which Sai Baba demanded a specific amount of offering from a devotee, who promised the same after getting practical boon from God! The Gita says that God approaches devotee with fruit in the same phase as the devotee approaches God with sacrifice (ye yathaa maam ...). The Veda also says the same (Rupam rupam Pratirupo babhuva).


Whenever a suffering person approached Jesus, Jesus always told him that let his sins be excused. He never told that let His suffering disappear. The reason is that suffering is the punishment of the sin. Punishments of emergent severe sins will be given in this world itself and punishments of other sins are given in the hell. Punishment is never for vengeance.

It is aimed only to bring realization followed by repentance resulting in the non-repetition of sin again. Spiritual knowledge alone can bring the realization. True spiritual knowledge is always preached by God in human form only. In the absence of such true spiritual knowledge, punishment acts as a temporary devise to suppress the psychology with fear so that repetition of sin can be avoided at least for some time.

Except this one way, there is no other way like worship of God, Yoga etc.,

[The three main sins (illegal sex, corruption of money, violence like killing animlas for food etc) told as the main gates of hell in the Gita are related to the three vargas (categories) called as Purushaarthas and three strong bonds called as eshanas constitute the sin, which is born in the pain and loss of others and this shall be avoided by every human being sincerely if it wants to escape the miseries and tensions.

The only way is realization from spiritual knowledge that generates emotional repentance and finally ending in practical non-repetition of sin, which again shows the order of knowledge, emotion and practice. By this, all the sins are destroyed even though their fruits are not yet enjoyed by the soul. This is the best festival offer from God to souls! Except this one path, a soul should not be exploited by false advertisements like worship of God, Yoga, etc., to escape from the present misery and future misery to be enjoyed also in one stroke



Actually, God is postponing the punishments to future, which accumulate interest.


[Every human being is worshipping through both theoretical and practical devotion in the stage of total surrender to God only whenever a misery along with tension attacks it. The aim of this misery is only to remind you about its corresponding sin done by you, which is called as realization. Realization is very easy since you can detect the nature of sin from the nature of misery.

The misery continues to make you to repent seriously so that you will not practically repeat that sin in future. Without understanding this background of the punishment for a sin constituted by God, you are forcing God through worships to remove the misery without your realization, repentance and practical non-repetition of the sin in future. In such worships, you flatter Him through prayers and even you bribe Him with practical sacrifice of work and fruit of work. You are thinking that God can be flattered like a foolish king or God can be dealt with practical sacrifice like bribe like a businessman involved in business dealing with practical exchange. In this business deal, some clever devotees promise that they will do practical service after getting the practical boon from God!

This shows the lack of faith in the ethics of business on the side of God! The most clever God postpones your punishments to future with accumulated interest and you are satisfied that God is fooled by flattery or satisfied with the practical exchange deal of business. You are thinking that the Omnipotent God has cancelled all the punishments. Actually, you are fooled since you have to enjoy greater punishments in the future if you don’t realize, do not repent and repeat the sins.]


The reason for the delay in answering your present prayer is only the basic sin, which is forgetting all the past favours.

[Even this temporary relief (postponing punishments with increased interest) given to you by God is not acknowledged by you in your prayers mentioning the help done to you several times in the past, which is the ungratefulness mentioned as the highest sin among the five horrible sins. Your prayers are always regarding your present misery to be removed.

You never pray God with gratitude for the past thousand favours done to you. Getting human birth itself by not opening your file is the biggest favour done to you by God. After this, several times, you prayed and your prayers were answered. Never and not a single prayer was done by you based on the gratitude for the past favours. This is the basic sin done by the human being, which is the actual reason for the delay in answering its present prayer!]





- By Shri Datta Swami




Universal Spirituality for World Peace
 
The Journey of Souls Doing Worldly Deeds



Swami spoke: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! After death, the individual soul (jīva) enters an energetic subtle body and reaches the immediate upper sub-world called Preta Loka. There the soul waits for ten days for the inquiry of its deeds by God. During this period, its subtle body gets food from cosmic energy. Individual souls have different shades in their energetic bodies based on their qualities and deeds done.



The first world, Bhū Loka, is subdivided into four sub-worlds called Martya Loka, Preta Loka, Naraka Loka and Pitṛ Loka. This earth on which human beings exist is called Martya Loka or Karma Loka, which is the first sub-world of the first world, called Bhū Loka. This first sub-world is the place for doing deeds and hence, it is called a karma loka. Above this first sub-world, the other three upper sub-worlds of the Bhū Loka and the other worlds existing above the Bhū Loka, are invisible to human beings due to the unimaginable power of God. But by the grace of God, some souls can see them.



When the inquiry is over in the Preta Loka, the individual soul with its subtle body, travels along one of four channels starting from the Preta Loka which is the junction. The channel along which a soul is sent depends on the inquiry of its deeds and the corresponding fruits that are to be enjoyed by the soul. The Naraka Loka and the Pitṛ Loka, which are the two uppermost sub-worlds of Bhū Loka lying above the Preta Loka, are called bhoga lokas. All worlds lying above the Bhū Loka are also called as bhoga lokas, which are the places meant for the enjoyment of the fruits of one’s deeds. The four possible channels through which souls are sent after the inquiry in the Preta Loka are:



The third sub-world immediately above the Preta Loka is called Naraka Loka, which is hell. All sinners go to this world. Their souls are present in bodies which resemble black smoke. This body of smoke is called as dhūma śarīra. Note that the ‘food’ for all energetic bodies is cosmic energy itself. But for the souls in the dhūma śarīras this ‘food’ from the cosmic energy, is almost not supplied. The souls constantly suffer from terrible weakness. Very very little cosmic energy and that too very rarely, is supplied to them now and then; just to maintain the very mild energetic bodies. Naraka Loka (hell) is headed by Yama Dharmarāja. In the region just above this regular hell, special hells headed by Kālabhairava also exist.



2) The uppermost sub-world of Bhū loka is called Pitṛ loka to which all neutral souls go. This sub-world is located on the moon. The body of the soul here is made of mild moonlight and is called as a pitṛ śarīra. Food for these bodies is supplied in the form of the light energy of the moon.



3) The next immediate world above the Bhū loka is called Dyu loka. It is also called as Jyotirloka or Bhuvarloka. Souls who have done social service for fame on this earth, reach this world. In this world, the soul gets a body, which is like a little bright light and is called a jyotiḥ śarīra. Food is supplied to these bodies from the cosmic energy. This world lies is between Bhū Loka and the sun.



4) Above this second world, exists the Suvarloka or Svarga Loka starting from the globe of the sun up to the pole star (Dhruva). It is also commonly called heaven. Souls reaching this world are those who have done good work of social service, which is not for fame. The here gets a body called a bhoga śarīra. Food for this body to is supplied from cosmic energy.



Once a soul attains an energetic body, material food is not at all required by its body. It is said that the material food given to deserving priests, reaches the departed souls. But this is only an arthavāda, which is a lie told for a good purpose. It ensures that even a greedy person performs the death rituals and donates food to deserving receivers. It is very important to ensure that the receiver of our donation during any ritual is deserving of our donation. Donation to the deserving brings merit, while donation to the undeserving incurs sin.



Do not think that the donation of food, clothes and money done to undeserving receivers is a mere waste. Actually, it yields punishment since such donation is sin. The Veda says that a receiver is deserving only if the person possesses the following two things (Śrotriyasya chākāmahatasya):



Spiritual knowledge of the Veda (or of the holy scripture of one’s particular religion) and



ii) The lack of aspiration for receiving anything in return from the donor or performer of the ritual.



The priest is the principal receiver of the donation of money (dakṣiṇā) offered by the donor. Hence, the priest must explain the spiritual knowledge to the donor and other people assembled so as to improve their devotion. If this is not done, the whole ritual is a sheer waste! If the priest does this divine duty in the service of God without any aspiration in return, God will take care of everything for the priest.



Money cannot be the solution for everything whereas God’s grace solves all problems. The merit earned in donating to deserving priests protects the departed soul as well as the performer of the ritual. I am not saying that the ritual should not be performed. What I say is that the ritual must be performed properly with perfect knowledge of the background (Jñātvā kurīta karmāṇi—Gita). By doing the rituals perfectly, good fruits are attained and the punishment for the sin of doing the rituals wrongly can be avoided.



For souls who are on the path of pravṛtti, which is the path of worldly justice, we discussed the four channels along which they are sent depending on their good and bad deeds on earth. These four channels are limited to the Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka and Suvarloka. The individual souls after enjoying the good and bad fruits of their deeds in the upper worlds or the sub-worlds of Bhū Loka, return to earth. This cyclic rotation always continues in pravṛtti. In the path of pravṛtti, there is no spiritual knowledge or devotion to God. There is only doing good deeds to serve society and avoiding bad deeds which harm society. Social service is the highest merit in this field.



The Journey of Souls on the Spiritual Path



The second path is nivṛtti. It is the path of progressing in devotion, which is based on true spiritual knowledge. On this path too, the devotee does social service but it is not for heavenly fruits. It is done on the command of God, only to please God. Here, God is more important than the social service. The fully ripened soul who follows this path, leaves this earth after death in a very bright energetic body called a divya śarīra and directly reaches the ultimate seventh world called Brahma Loka. Brahma Loka is the abode of God Datta or Father of heaven. Ripened devotees having some deficiencies, reach the three upper worlds, which lie between Suvarloka and Brahma Loka. These three worlds are called Maharloka, Jana Loka and Tapoloka. In these worlds, these highly devoted souls, get some special spiritual advice and guidance from divine preachers, who too are present in energetic bodies in these three worlds. In these three worlds, the souls also enjoy the fruits of their spiritual progress. These are the destinations of souls on the path of nivṛtti.



Uncertainty about the Departed Soul’s Destination



When a person dies, we do not know in which world the soul has gone. But during the ritual, the priests pray to God for the journey of the soul to the ultimate Brahma Loka (Śāśvata Brahmaloka nivāsa siddhyartham). This is only our good wish and hope for our departed loved one. The reality depends only on the merit of the soul. We even inform others about the passing away of the person by writing that the departed soul has reached heaven (Svargasthaḥ). This too is only our good wish for our departed elders and the reality depends only on the merit of the soul.



We also perform annual ceremonies for the departed souls every year assuming that the soul is in heaven. The assumption behind doing the rituals is providing food for the departed souls every day as per the duration of a day in their world. As stated earlier, traditionally it is assumed that donations of food and items made by us to deserving receivers here on earth reach our departed ancestors. One day in heaven (Svarga Loka) is equal to one year on earth, whereas one day in Pitṛ Loka is equal to one month on earth. Up to one year, we perform monthly ceremonies assuming that the soul has gone to Pitṛ Loka. We even call our departed relatives as pitṛ devatās assuming that they are in Pitṛ Loka.



If they remain in Pitṛ Loka, we should continue to perform these ceremonies every month since one day in Pitṛ Loka is equal to one month on the earth. But we do these ceremonies monthly only up to one year. After the first year, we perform this ritual annually. Perhaps, this is done due to the inconvenience in doing it every month! But at least as per our assumption, it means that the soul stays in Pitṛ Loka for one year and then moves to heaven (Svarga Loka) after one year. Yet we still continue to call our departed relatives as pitṛ devatās, which means that they are still residents of Pitṛ Loka! By our assumption that the departed relatives have moved to heaven after the first year, we should call them as devatās (angels), who are the residents of heaven! Of course, we must remember that even if some departed souls actually reach heaven, they are only temporary residents there. These temporary devatās get temporary energetic bodies and are different from the permanent devatās, who are present there in the energetic bodies forever. After the fruit of their good deeds is exhausted upon enjoyment in heaven for the stipulated time, the temporary devatās have to return to earth.





In spite of all the above assumptions made in the traditional death rituals, we donate a cow to the priest during the ritual. It is said that the donation of a cow to the priest is necessary since it allows the departed soul to cross the river of blood called Vaitaraṇī and reach hell. This donation of a cow is performed for everybody. It means the soul certainly goes to hell alone after death. This variety in the steps and rituals followed during the death ceremonies of departed souls is due to the uncertainty regarding the exact direction of the journey of the souls after their death.



The Essence of the Death Rituals



When a loved one dies, the surviving relatives of that person, due to their grief, get temporary detachment from worldly issues. This is called śmaśāna vairāgyam or crematorium-detachment. This condition, when their minds are temporarily free of worldly attachments, is congenial for introducing the fear of sin in them. So traditionally, the relatives are supposed to read the secondary scripture called the Garuḍa Purāṇam, in which horrible punishments are described for the corresponding sins. Either devotion to God (bhakti) or the fear of hell (bhayam) is essential to control the sinful nature of the soul. Actually, the Garuḍa Purāṇam can be read at any time by anybody and it need not be confined only to the death ritual.



There is one important precaution that must be taken during the death ritual or any other ritual. That is that the priests should explain the spiritual knowledge of the holy scripture which is recited, to all the people attending it, so that it improves their devotion to God. Usually, the priests simply recite the scripture blindly in an unknown language (Sanskrit) without knowing or explaining its meaning. In that case, it is the responsibility of the relatives of the departed soul, who are performing the ritual to demand that the priests explain the meaning of the scripture. The performers of the ritual donate money to priests so they are like the customers who pay the priests for their services.



It is said that the customer is like God. So, the donors, who are the customer-gods, must demand the explanations of the scripture from the priests. That is the only way to change these priests who have been blindly reciting the scripture for generations. It will force them to study the scripture instead of wasting time in blind recitation without knowing its meaning. There is no need to memorize the scripture and recite it. It can easily be read from the printed book. What is important is that its deep meaning should be properly explained. This deep meaning is the actual sacred spiritual knowledge. Merely reading out the translation of the Sanskrit verses is not sufficient. If the explanation of the deep spiritual knowledge becomes the main essence of the ritual, then it will benefit everyone. The people assembled will get a chance to leave their sinful behavior and get reformed. They will also develop devotion to God. Similarly, the priests themselves will get a deep understanding of the spiritual knowledge, which will reform them and develop devotion in them. If this is not done, then any type of donation to priests is not only a total waste, but it is also a sin that brings punishment upon the performer as well as the departed soul!
 
Bhartṛhari has explained the secret of why people quarrel with others (Paraguṇa paramāṇūn parvatīkrutya...). Your own hill-sized defect appears to you as a mere trace, while a trace of defect in others appears to you as big as a hill. Conversely, a trace of goodness in you appears to you as a hill and a hill of goodness in others appears to you as a trace. If you want to avoid quarrels, you must reverse your mentality. You should see a trace of your own defect as hill and a hill of defect in others as trace. Similarly, you should see your hill of goodness as a trace and a trace of goodness in others as a hill.



Whenever there is an issue in the family, do not scold anybody. Even if someone scolds you, do not scold them back. Speaking harshly with others will only worsen the quarrel. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba said “The one who gets scolded must thank the person scolding him because the scolder is clearing the sins of the scolded.” Pointing to a pig, Baba said, “The scolder is comparable to this pig, which cleans the surroundings by eating excrement.”



Shri Satya Sai Baba has said “If you keep silent in response to the scoldings of the scolder, the scoldings return to the scolder like unaccepted registered letters that get sent back to the sender”. This step of silence is very important. It is the primary step in bringing peace. By your silence, you are leaving the law in the hands of the omniscient God. He alone can know the truth behind the case. He will certainly punish the sinner at the appropriate time and place.



Avoid biased judgments of people



Everyone must understand that every human being has both merits and defects. Only angels have all merits and only demons have all faults. Human beings are in between angels and demons, having both merits and faults as said in the Gita (Aniṣṭamiṣṭaṁ miśram ca...). A human being may exhibit a merit in one context and a fault in another context. Taking just one particular context, you cannot decide that a person is totally meritorious or totally faulty. Our observation about any person is only partial because we are unable to study the person throughout his or her life. Moreover, the person might appear to be of a certain nature externally, but internally he or she might be something else. We are unable to know any person in and out. Based on a situation or incident, whenever we say that a certain person is either good or bad, we have made an error of judgement. You should never conclude that any person is 100% good or 100% bad. The inquiry into the incident must be impartial; without the influence of caste, gender, blood relationships and so on. Such an impartial inquiry can only be done by the omniscient God.



Impartially listen to both sides in a quarrel



In any quarrel, there is invariably the contribution from both parties. It takes two hands to produce a clap. You must be extremely careful and avoid forming your impression about a person based on someone else’s report. You should never be influenced by the report of only one party without hearing the other party’s report. You should always keep your mind neutral till you hear the counter-argument from the other side. Then, you should use your sharp intelligence to analyze and find out the truth. But to arrive at the truth, you must pray to God for His help. The Veda says that one should be impartial till both sides are heard (Alūkṣā dharmakāmāḥ...). Keeping yourself neutral and impartial till you hear the other side, is called balance of mind. A person who has it is called a sthitaprajña (Sthirabuddhirasammuḍho...—Gita).



Reverse the quarrel-causing attitude



The basic cause for a quarrel is the attitude inherent to every human being that “I am 100% correct and the other person is 100% bad.” Bhartṛhari has said that if we want to avoid quarrels, we must reverse this attitude (Paraguṇa paramāṇūn parvatīkṛtya...). According to him, quarrels take place when you see a trace of your own merit as a hill and a hill of your faults as a trace; similarly, when you see the hill of others’ merit as trace and a trace of others’ faults as a hill. Quarrels will not occur when you reverse this attitude and start seeing a hill of your own merit as a trace and a trace of your fault as a hill; similarly, when you see the trace of others’ merit as a hill and a hill of others’ faults as a trace. Unless we change our attitude in this way and fix this new attitude in our mind constantly, peace is not possible.



Avoid ego, provoking words, threats and revenge



Showing your ego, using provoking words and threatening the other person must be totally avoided. If you use any of these in a quarrel, even a beggar will not bend before you. Finally, you alone will end up in a total loss. You must know that even a beggar is protected by God. You should always express peace, kindness and love for everybody. If you do this, even a demon will eventually change and in the end, you will get total benefit. You must know that even in a demon, there is the possibility of change. Whether it is a total loss or a total benefit, the other side will also equally share it with you. Can the loss to others provide even a trace of benefit to you? Never! But if you provide even a trace of benefit to others, it will yield a hill of benefit to you, in due course of time.



In the Mahābhārata, Dharmarāja, the eldest of the five Paṇḍava brothers, was terribly cheated and insulted by their evil cousin, Duryodhana. In spite of that, Dharmarāja wanted to avoid a war against Duryodhana. He was prepared to accept just five villages in the place of his due share of half the kingdom. Eventually, due to the ego of Duryodhana, the war did take place and it caused a hill of loss to Duryodhana and his brothers, the Kauravas. Unfortunately, an equal hill of loss was also suffered by Dharmarāja and his brothers. All the sons of the five Pāṇḍavās, were killed. Knowing this possibility of unacceptable damage to both sides, Dharmarāja had wanted to avoid the war at any cost. But his wife, Draupadī wanted revenge and was rigidly bent on having a war. Revenge should never be taken by our hand; it should always be left to God. When a person slaps you once, you slap him back once in revenge. But if you leave the revenge to God instead, God might slap him a hundred times!



Jesus said “The revenge is Mine”. One human being cannot punish another human being for his or her faults since only a faultless person can punish the other. But it is impossible for a faultless human being to exist. The omniscient God knows every human being fully. He knows everyone; not only in this life but also in all their past lives. He knows each one both externally as well as internally. He also knows each and every deed done by all. Hence, God alone can judge any human being perfectly. He alone is eligible to decide the most appropriate punishment for each person and give that punishment to the person. When a prostitute was about to be punished by the public, Jesus told the people that the first person punishing her should be the one who has not committed a single sin! We do not know any person fully because we are not with the person all the time, throughout the person’s life. Besides, we can only know the person externally. Whatever goes on inside the person is unknown to us. Our knowledge is neither full nor deep.



On the other hand, the administration of God is always perfect and no injustice can ever happen in it. There may be some delay in punishing the sinner because God gives some time to the sinner for rectification. If you keep silent during that period, God will compensate your loss. If you are determined to have your revenge, you will also be punished by God without any compensation to you! Had Draupadī kept silent and given up the idea of revenge, God would not only have destroyed evil Kauravas, who refused to change, but He would have also saved the children of Draupadī from their deaths. But Draupadī could not give up her continuous burning attitude of revenge and as a result, she was left childless. Besides, Draupadī was not a hundred percent free of blame. Duryodhana had not cheated the Pāṇḍavās and abused her for no reason. Draupadī had laughed at Duryodhana when he fell in the Mayasabhā, the wonderous court of the Pāṇḍavās. She had spoken hurtful words to him. If she had not done that, Duryodhana might not have got the idea of revenge towards Draupadī. Of course, Duryodhana was highly sinful since the magnitude of his revenge was extreme, even for the small sin of Draupadī. Hence, Duryodhana was punished by God severely. Even Dharmarāja was punished by God in that he was forced to leave the kingdom and live in the forest for twelve years. Dharmarāja’s sin was that he should not have accepted the invitation for gambling. Gambling is a sin that is prohibited by the ethical scripture.



Focus on the spiritual path



The analysis and method of arriving at correct conclusions is similar in both pravṛtti (worldly life) and nivṛtti (spiritual life). Rigid fools who are full of ego are like demons who neither know what is correct in pravṛtti nor what is correct in nivṛtti (Pravṛttiñca nivṛttiñca, janā na vidurāsurāḥ—Gita). Such people are always dominated by rajas (ego) and tamas (ignorance). Due to ego, they do not listen to others and due to ignorance, they do not know what is right by themselves. Even God cannot convince such people. Still more dangerous are those who are not actually asleep but are pretending to be asleep. Among the two paths, pravṛtti (worldly life) and nivṛtti (spiritual life); one should concentrate on nivṛtti. The fruit of nivṛtti follows the soul forever in all the future births and it leads the soul to the eternal goal. The soul travelling in the main line of nivṛtti, should not get disturbed by issues related to pravṛtti or worldly life. (Vimūḍho Brahmaṇaḥ pathi—Gita).



A student pursuing the main line of studies in an educational institute should not get disturbed by issues related to the hostel-administration. If you have the talent and capacity to simultaneously do well in both, it is good. But if your capacity is limited, then you must confine yourself only to the main line of nivṛtti. Even if it initially appears that your pravṛtti is not going very well, the divine administration of God will ensure that everything will get rectified in due course of time. All you need is a little patience and the understanding that your knowledge is limited and superficial.



Criticism must be always taken as friend, which provokes you to analyse yourself and rectify to uplift you. Praise must be taken always as enemy, which makes you blind preventing you to see your defects and creates false impression of possessing those superimposed merits to down you. You should be pleased on hearing your criticism and should be furious on hearing your praise. Every human being has some defects without exception and existence of merits is not certain. Hence, you will never be disappointed in the analysis to find out your defects mentioned by the criticism.



You may be disappointed to find merits in you by analysis on hearing your praise. The critic is interested in your welfare whereas the person praising you is interested in his welfare through your help! In the very first instance, you should become positive to your criticism and should become negative to your praise. People are reverse to this and become negative to criticism so fast to criticise the critics immediately as tit for tat!



Similarly, they become positive to the praise and help or at least praise back the people praising them! You should apply this policy regarding yourself and your religion also. Every religion was very good due to very good establishers and followers in the past and is very bad due to the present followers, who are very bad at large. Hence, at present, defects are inevitable in yourself and in your religion. You can be proud of the past state of your religion and the same pride shall not be extended to the present state of your religion. When somebody criticises your religion, you become angry thinking about the past state of your religion.



You must receive the criticism in view of the present state of your religion. Whenever you criticise anybody or any religion, you must establish in the beginning about your only intension, which is for the rectification and for the welfare through rectification. Unless one is convinced about your intension, don’t open your criticism on the individual or the religion to which that individual belongs. This will develop good atmosphere for receiving any point from other person.



Whenever discussion takes place, both of you must revise the following points before starting discussion:- i) The defeat of any person is not personal, but defeat of a point only with which no person can be identified like identifying himself with his body! A point in your brain is not like your registered property so that its loss can pain you. ii) Both of you must realise that you are discussing to find out the truth only, which will benefit you both.



The person, who lost his point, shall feel himself benefited since he avoided the loss due to his wrong point. The person, who won in his point, shall not feel as if he has defeated the opposite person in the war and should feel satisfied that he helped somebody to rectify his wrong point, which is the service of God. The winner shall also thank the runner for giving an opportunity to confirm his right point. The runner is also congratulated in the end of the game for playing well in the game.



The Only Starting Point in Life:-



The only starting point in life, which (life) is both worldly (Pravrutti) and spiritual (Nivrutti) for a human being, is acceptance of existence of God with unimaginable powers and development of devotion to Him. In fact, Pravrutti and Nivrutti are not separate lines to have separate beginning points. In the line of Nivrutti itself, the distance from the beginning point up to the intermediate station (success in Pravrutti) is Pravrutti. Hence, the beginning point as well as further journey up to intermediate station is a part of Nivrutti only. This means, both Pravrutti and Nivrutti have the same beginning point as mentioned above.



Nivrutti is development of devotion to God to become close to Him and hence, Nivrutti needs the acceptance of existence of God and development of devotion to Him. But, surprisingly, both these (existence and devotion) are similarly required as foundation steps in Pravrutti also, if you analyze Pravrutti. Success in Pravrutti is resistance to the attraction towards sin. This attraction is based on your excessive attraction to your worldly bonds.



If your attraction is diverted to God having more attractive personality, your attraction towards worldly bonds, at least, decreases coming to normal level, which is sufficient to resist your attraction to sin. Based on this logic only, the Gita says that the devotee of God succeeds soon in Pravrutti by becoming supporter of justice or opponent to injustice (Kshipram bhavati dharmaatmaa...). Hence, without succeeding in Pravrutti, you can’t travel further in Nivrutti since Pravrutti itself is the front part of Nivrutti.









Universal Spirituality for World Peace
 
Universal spirituality is the solution for problems in the world.. The Universal Spirituality is the basic universal knowledge or philosophy. The one God, who created this entire creation and who is the kind Father of all humanity, preached the same common universal knowledge to people in different places and times. The Universal Religion is the universal practical path of worshipping that one God and maintaining justice and peace in the world. The mode of worship is a part of culture and the variations in it are a matter of personal choice. The spirituality and religion are thus the theoretical and practical parts of the spiritual path and both are universal.

Universal Spirituality and Universal Religion have been established by God Datta now through this Datta Swami. Earlier, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had experienced the unity of all religions by practicing every religion for some time. Śaṅkara had similarly, established the unity of all the sub-religions within Hinduism. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba and Shri Satya Sai Baba too had established the unity of world religions. Every religion will lead a person to the same God. So, conversion to another religion is the biggest foolishness that any devotee can do. When all roads lead to the same center, is it not the height of foolishness to leave your road and laterally cross over to another road that leads to the same center? Good times for this entire world are very near. This Universal Spirituality and Religion will bring tremendous unity among all religions. You said that you are following the philosophy of Hinduism. In the spiritual knowledge or philosophy there is no name of any religion since knowledge is always universal.

Parents take complete care of their children during their childhood. The efforts taken by the parents for their children is service, which is also known as the sacrifice of work. Finally, the parents also transfer all their wealth to their children through their will. This transferring of the wealth is called the sacrifice of the fruit of their work since wealth is the fruit of work. So, the sacrifice of the parents for the sake of their children in terms of the sacrifice of work and the fruit of work is complete. Yet most parents save some wealth for their own old age believing that they will live until they become old. They feel there is a risk in sacrificing their entire wealth to their issues while they are still alive. There is a possibility that if their children are not good, they might not take care of the parents in the future when the parents become old. Sometimes, even if the children are good they could be incapable of serving their parents due to some unfortunate circumstances.

The case of God is different from one’s children. God is not bad; He is extremely good. He is also never incapable. In fact, He is omnipotent. Another important difference is that while one’s children are seen with one’s eyes, God is not seen. There is insecurity for those who depend on the children who are seen by their eyes. But there is complete security for those who depend on the unseen God. Ignorant souls only believe in perception. Giving more importance to their unreliable children who are seen, they shower their real love upon the children. The proof of real love is karma yoga. The sacrifice of work and the fruit of work together are called karma yoga. It is the proof of real love since we practically serve and sacrifice our money only for those whom we truly love. Ignorant people truly love only their children and so they do this karma yoga only for their children who are unreliable. They do not truly love God and they do not do karma yoga for Him even though He is supremely reliable, just because He is unseen. Real devotees are the ones who believe in God through inference. They believe in the unseen, unimaginable God by observing His miracles which are visible but unimaginable. Inference, of course, includes perception since the miracles are perceived. This mentality of the majority of human beings is the climax of blind ignorance. Such blind ignorance is actually not based on either perception or inference but is based only on solidified worldly fascination!

Not only can one adopt any mode of worship, but one can also pray to any form of God belonging to any religion, based on one’s personal liking. The different forms of God of various religions are not different since the one and only God exists in every one of them. When this is the truth of even the forms of God in different religions, then what to speak of the different modes of prayer in religions?

One can adopt any mode of prayer of any religion if you like it. This is the basic right of every person in the Universal Religion, which is based on Universal Spirituality.

You must first know that God is the greatest as said in the Veda (Na tat samaḥ) and in the Gita (Mattaḥ parataram...). The common object of all the above rituals and forms of worships is the same greatest unimaginable God existing in different divine forms. From the point of view of the common God who is the greatest, every worship becomes the greatest. Similarly, all religions are like different roads converging to the common center, which is the greatest God. Hence, every religion is the greatest.

We should get rid of all fanatic behavior towards our religion. It causes us to look upon other religions as inferior to our religion. Every religion says that God alone created this earth and humanity on it. If the Gods of different religions were different, there would have been different earths. But unfortunately, there is only one earth. So, we are forced to accept the existence of only one God! The God of the other religion is also the God who created us and the God of our religion is also the God who created them. There is only one God and one created earth! The external names and forms of the same God differ from religion to religion, but the internal God is only one. If you disrespect the form and the name of the God of another religion, you are disrespecting the God of your own religion. Do you respect a person only when he wears a certain dress and disrespect the same person when he wears another dress?



Universal Spirituality or Universal Religion is like the central government of India and the specific religion followed by any person, is like the state government of any one state in India. The citizen belongs to both the central and state governments simultaneously. This means that you can be a follower of Universal Religion while still being a follower of your own religion. Universal Religion pervades all religions in the world. It means that you can continue to follow your own religion. There is no need to convert to any other religion. The important point you have to learn from Universal Religion is that you should never criticize other religions. The same God appeared in different forms at different places, in different times. Each time the form taken up by Him was according to the specific culture of each place. He preached the same spiritual knowledge in different languages. All religions have some merits and some defects. The merits are due to the original preaching of God whereas the defects are due to wrong ideas introduced by the followers later on. You have to be selective and pick only the merits of all religions.



Each religion has its own special merits that are seen prominently in that religion. It does not mean other religions do not have those merits but it is just that they are more prominently seen in a certain religion. Spiritual knowledge is the merit of Hinduism. Knowledge is the intellectual part of the spiritual effort which is called jñāna yoga. Devotion to God, which is known as bhakti yoga, is the merit of Islam. It is the emotional part of the spiritual effort. The practical part of the spiritual effort is service and donation. Donation of one’s hard-earned money is said to be the sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work. Service and donation together are called karma yoga and it is the merit of Christianity. Purifying one’s devotion to God by making it free of any worldly aspiration or desire is the merit of Buddhism. Practicing non-violence towards all souls is the merit of Jainism. Apart from the various religions, science too has its merit and it has a place in Universal Spirituality. The sharp analysis of any concept without blind belief is the merit of science.



Thus, on your spiritual journey towards God, you must pick the merits of all religions. Universal Religion or Universal Spirituality is not a specific religion to be listed along with the religions of the world. It is meant for the establishment of peace and harmony in this world. Since I am born as Hindu, I follow My religion. But I realize that all other religions are the equally-correct paths starting from different directions but all leading to the same God at the center. The six religions or philosophies mentioned above are like six bottles containing the same medicine of spiritual knowledge. Secularism means consuming the medicine-like spiritual knowledge from any one of the six bottles, realizing that the same medicine is present in all the six bottles. But the so-called secularism of today is false secularism. It rejects all religions. It is like saying that since all the bottles contain the same medicine, there is no need to consume the medicines from any of them!

Let us analyse ‘Why did Jesus on the cross pray to God to excuse His offenders since they were ignorant?’



The prayer of Jesus on the cross tells us that we should have tolerance even towards our bitter enemies. This is a very important and basic concept in the context of Universal Spirituality. Often, some followers of another religion criticize our religion so bitterly that we are unable to control ourselves. So, we retort to them even more bitterly. This further enrages them and the quarrel becomes more and more bitter. Sometimes, it even ends up in physical violence. To avoid this, we should do the opposite. As our enemy becomes more and more bitter, we should become more and more cool and calm. With our minds calm and without any bitterness, we should respond to the basic points in the opponent’s arguments and criticism. Emotions are momentary and they subside in a very short time. If emotion is your answer, you will never be able to answer any question posed by your opponent. Tolerance and a calm mind are essential in any debate.



It is far better to have debates on spiritual knowledge in writing rather than orally. In oral debates, quick answers are expected. The debaters, in their haste, sometimes use improper words unintentionally. But these slips of the tongue can create an impression in the opponent’s mind that is very different from the speaker’s original intention. This can lead to misunderstandings between the debaters and the healthy debate can quickly degenerate into an ugly quarrel. In olden days, writing technology was not well-developed and it was very difficult to write a large amount of text and send it to another person. Publishing and mass printing, of course, were non-existent in those days. Hence, debates in the field of spiritual knowledge used to be oral, in which the improper presentation of one’s ideas often leads to misunderstandings.



But today, writing is very convenient. Not only can we easily write and print on paper but we also have the technology to write and instantly send the written material to another person using email and other electronic media. This is the preferred mode of engaging in a spiritual debate. One can take sufficient time to understand the opponent’s arguments. Then one can think and analyze thoroughly with a cool and balanced mind. Finally, one can carefully choose the proper words to express our ideas and intentions.



Jesus wanted to bring reformation in the hearts of those ignorant priests, who had conspired to have Jesus crucified. Hearing Jesus pray to the Lord for the forgiveness of His offenders, moved the hearts of at least a few of the priests. It gave them a chance to analyze what they had done. It was a door to reformation for those souls. The reformation of sinful souls was the main aim of Jesus. His approach of praying for the forgiveness of His own offenders is so effective that it can bring true reformation even in a hard-hearted person. Eternal punishment in the liquid fire may only develop the fear of committing sin in a soul. The fear may reduce the tendency of the soul to commit sins in the future birth of the soul. But the effect is only temporary. The reformation through fear is thus only partial and temporary. But the approach of Jesus was goodness and kindness. It was based on His extreme tolerance and peaceful nature. Such an approach is capable of bringing a permanent reformation even to a cruel heart. It is the most powerful way of bringing realization, repentance, and non-repetition of the sin in a soul. Realization, repentance and non-repetition are the three steps in the permanent reformation of a soul.



Preaching spiritual knowledge is the preliminary step. Practicing that knowledge and thereby becoming an ideal for the followers, is the final step. In a time when harshness and cruelty were at their climax, God used this path of kindness to reform souls. This path of kindness was like a stream of fresh water used for washing away dirt. But first, He burnt the harsh and hard impurities to ash, using the fire of spiritual knowledge. Then He washed the ash with a stream of the water of kindness. God is omniscient. He knows the best way of dealing with every specific situation in any given time.









Some people critisise that non-veg food is followed by certain religion and they condemn them.

Sin is sin irrespective of the religion a person follows. No divine scripture allows any human being to follow sin. But when a certain sin is inevitable and when no single person can change it among the people belonging to a certain religion or region, the divine scripture neglects for the time being. The scripture, in its preaching, concentrates on the control of other sins at least. Even in Hinduism, non-vegetarian food is consumed by people belonging to several sects. You cannot blame Muslims alone for consuming non-vegetarian food since non-vegetarians are present in almost all religions. There are several good and bad qualities in every religion. You should not blame any specific religion for non-vegetarianism since it is found in almost all religions. Even in Buddhism, which is famous for non-violence, people consumed non-vegetarian food right from the time of Buddha. Except for Jainism, non-vegetarianism has always existed in every religion of the world.

Eating non-vegetarian food is a sin because it involves the killing of animals and birds to obtain their meat. There is no sin in merely eating non-vegetarian food if it does not involve the killing of harmless creatures. Eating non-vegetarian food obtained from naturally dead animals is not considered to be sin. Kāpālikās in Hinduism eat the meat of naturally dead living beings and it is not counted as a sin. Hence, eating either vegetarian or non-vegetarian food is not a sin directly. Eating non-vegetarian food becomes an indirect sin due to the killing of animals for their meat.

We should not provoke quarrels among the followers of religions by finding faults with other people’s religions. Faults are present in all the religions in one form or another. Such fanatic behavior must be avoided to bring peace to this world. An atom of goodness in us appears to us as a mountain while the mountain of badness in us appears to us as an atom! In the case of others, we reverse the policy: an atom of badness in others appears to us as a mountain and the mountain of goodness in others appears to us as an atom! Such biased behavior results in quarrels among religions. Actually, we must look at things in exactly the opposite manner. We must see an atom of badness in us as a mountain and a mountain of goodness in us as an atom. Similarly, we must see an atom of goodness in others as a mountain and a mountain of badness in others as an atom. By looking at things in this manner, we can avoid quarrels, not only with other religions but also with all our fellow-human beings. Such behavior is the basis of bringing peace in our family, in our city, in our state, in our country and finally in this entire world. If there is any human being who is trying hard to bring peace in this world, God likes that person to the greatest extent because God wants this world, created and maintained by Him, to run peacefully. Anybody violating this main aim of God becomes the object of His terrible anger.

In Hinduism, people kill animals in a ritual called yajña, which means sacrifice. But the Veda clearly says “Manyuḥ paśuḥ”, which means that the ‘animal’ to be killed is the rigid, animal-like foolishness, which makes a human being follow blind traditions without analysis. As a symbolic representation of this concept, it is suggested that the flour of useless non-germinating grains be shaped into the form of an animal and that form be cut with a knife. The form of the animal made out of flour is called a piṣṭapaśuḥ. This practice of cutting the flour-animal exists in the sacrifice or yajña which is performed with knowledge. Such a yajña is called iṣṭi. But people who were fond of non-vegetarian food exploited this concept by replacing the flour-animal with an actual animal in order to justify the killing of animals for meat. Such people will not stop killing animals for food even if the Veda orders them to stop.

For the sake of such people, the Veda introduced the concept of offering the meat to God after killing the animal. That way, the killer is at least introduced to the concept of the existence of God. He is reminded of the concept that all his sins, including this one, will inevitably be punished by the unimaginable God. The punishment is delivered to him in an unimaginable way so he can never escape from it. In the procedures of such yajñas, the Veda describes the killing of the animal only as an inevitable incidental step. It does not mean that the Veda is ordering you to kill the animal. The description of killing the animal is being included in the procedure since, due to your taste for meat, you will kill the animal anyway and you will not stop even if the Veda orders you to stop killing. We should be clear that the Veda is not encouraging people to kill animals.

When the sin is inevitable due to people’s hard-to-change habit, the Veda is temporarily allowing it, with the hope of changing the habit in the future. After killing the animal, at the very least, people can offer the meat to God before consuming it themselves. It will strengthen the concept of God in people’s minds. Once the concepts of God, His unimaginable omnipotence and His punishment of sins are firmly established in their minds, changing their habit of meat-eating will be easier. So, the Veda contains descriptions of even the inevitable killing of animals, which is incidental to offering the meat to God. The blind ritualists (Pūrva Mīmāṁsakās) take these incidental descriptions of the killing of animals in the procedures of the Vedic sacrifices as orders given by the Veda to kill! In this context, Śaṅkara clarified that the Veda is only stating the incidental step of killing, which you will do anyway and that it is not ordering or encouraging you to kill (Jñāpakam na tu kārakam). So, one can never put the blame of this sin on the Veda!

Similarly, the Quran also states the incidental step of killing the animal, while describing the procedure of offering the meat of the animal to Allah (Bismillah). These people who are in the habit of eating meat will not stop killing animals for their meat even if the Quran orders them to stop. So, you cannot blame the Quran for supporting the killing of animals. If you blame the Quran, you will have to equally blame the Veda too! The intention of the scripture is only to temporarily follow the rigid ignorance of people who kill animals so that the crucial concept of God as the Punisher of sins can be established. Once this concept is established, controlling these people becomes a lot easier. The same God revealed both the Veda and the Quran and hence, the concepts of the two divine scriptures cannot be different. Using this analysis, every human being in this world must develop Universal Spirituality, which is based on one God as the single Source of all divine scriptures and religions. Spirituality means the theoretical knowledge or philosophy. Religion is the practical path of worship of God and maintaining justice in the world. Upon understanding Universal Spirituality, each one must join the Universal Religion, while staying in one’s own religion.








Universal Spirituality for World Peace
 
There are three stages in the spiritual development of any human being in this world. They are duṣpravṛtti(doing bad deeds), pravṛtti(doing justice), and nivṛtti(complete love and surrender to God). They are related to a person’s fascination (overattachment or Moha) to worldly bonds. The three main worldly bonds of a soul are the bond with money, the bond with one’s life-partner and the bond with one’s child. A limited attachment to these worldly bonds is acceptable as long as it does not cross the boundaries of justice. Excessive attachment to these bonds causes the soul to commit injustice.



Duṣpravṛtti is the lowest stage in which the soul is completely affected by the six vices. The six vices are lust, anger, greed, overattachment, ego, and jealousy. Such souls always support injustice and are severely punished by God here as well as after death in hell. They are attached to illegitimate worldly bonds and they often neglect or even cause harm to their legitimate bonds. In other words, they engage in illegitimate relations and illegitimate ways of earning money. Pravṛtti is the middle stage in which the soul possesses good qualities and always supports justice. Such a soul is blessed by God with happiness here and happiness in heaven after death. This soul rejects illegitimate bonds while maintaining a limited attachment to the legitimate bonds.



Nivṛtti is the stage in which the soul is completely filled with the real love for God. Such a soul goes beyond justice and injustice. This soul rejects all worldly bonds, both legitimate and illegitimate, and is totally fascinated with having a single bond with God (Ekabhaktirviśiṣyate—Gita). In this stage, all the worldly bonds drop off naturally, as a result of the divine bond to God. There is not the slightest force involved in this detachment from worldly bonds. Nivṛtti means total detachment since all worldly bonds are totally dropped in this stage.



If a person leaves his lawful wife due to his attraction for a prostitute, he is on the downward journey from pravṛtti to duṣpravṛtti. If a person leaves his lawful wife due to his attraction for God, he is on the upward journey from pravṛtti to nivṛtti. A soul starting from the lowest stage of duṣpravṛtti must first reach the middle stage of pravṛtti before proceeding to nivṛtti. The first part of the journey, from duṣpravṛtti to pravṛtti, is described in the Rāmāyaṇam and the Mahābhāratam. The second part of the journey, from pravṛtti to nivṛtti, is described in the Bhāgavatam. The Bhagavat Gita speaks about both these parts of the journey in both the upward and downward directions. Hence, it is recognized as the total authority for both ethical knowledge (pravṛtti) as well as spiritual knowledge (nivṛtti).

True Nivṛtti



Nivṛtti does not mean the dropping of all bonds since the mind cannot remain without any bond. Nivṛtti means the natural dropping off of all worldly bonds due to the formation of a single, extremely strong bond with God. If the mind is forced to not have any bond, it is both unnatural and impossible. A person’s soul is awareness and the thoughts and qualities in the awareness are the mind. The mind naturally seeks objects and develops bonds. Forcing the mind to be without bonds or thoughts is forcing oneself to become inert, like a stone.

It is a pity that Advaita philosophers take a lot of effort to attain this unnatural forced state. They try to drop all their worldly bonds, feeling that the world is unreal and illusory. If all the worldly bonds drop off naturally due to the strong bond with God, then that state is correct. But these Advaitins do not have any bond with God because they feel that they are already God. Having a bond with oneself is meaningless! They neither have a bond with God nor do they have a bond with the world. This is a forced state of the mind which they call as the state of Advaita or monism. But unfortunately, it is neither the true state of monism nor can it be sustained for a long time.



The Advaita philosopher Totāpuri criticized Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for His inability to reach this forced state of ‘monism’. Later, one day, Totāpuri developed a severe stomach-ache. It was so unbearable that he even tried to end his life. But even that failed. Then, the universal Divine Mother appeared to him and preached to him the path of devotion to God, which is based on the fundamental dualism between God and the soul. It was the path that Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had followed all along.



Hence, in all the three stages of duṣpravṛtti, pravṛtti, and nivṛtti, the soul always remains in a state of dualism with God. It cannot reach the state of God in which this world becomes unreal to the soul. Therefore, nivṛtti does not simply mean the dropping of all bonds. It only means the dropping of all worldly bonds due to the formation of a very strong bond with God, which is based on a fundamental dualism between God and the soul. From the angle of the soul, this fundamental dualism alone is true at all times. Monism is true only from the angle of the absolute God.

Overcoming the Six Vices in the Journey

Duṣpravṛtti is the result of the attachment to illegitimate sex (kāma), illegitimate anger (krodha) and illegitimate greed (lobha). The three are said to be the three main gates to hell in the Gita. Naturally, pravṛtti means rejecting the above three vices and adopting the opposite good qualities, which are legitimate sex, legitimate anger, and legitimate greed. Overattachment (moha) to illegitimate worldly bonds leads to duṣpravṛtti while limited attachment to legitimate worldly bonds leads to pravṛtti. Excessive attachment even to the legitimate worldly bonds is a danger because it provokes the soul to commit sins.



The attachment to legitimate worldly bonds can be reduced by developing attachment to God. The attachment to illegitimate worldly bonds can be completely eliminated with a combination of the fear of hell and the faith in God. Faith in God, the fear of hell and the development of devotion to God together completely reform the soul. The soul then rises from the first stage of duṣpravṛtti, through the middle state of pravṛtti, all the way to the third stage of nivṛtti.



The last three vices are illegitimate attachment (moha), ego (mada) and jealousy (mātsarya). They automatically get associated with the first three vices which are illegitimate lust, anger and greed. Moha is the overattachment towards worldly bonds. But the worldly bonds are related to lust and greed. So, overattachment is related to lust and greed.
Similarly, one develops pride or ego due to materialistic achievements, which are related to greed. One also develops jealousy (mātsarya) towards fellow humans based on their worldly achievements. So, the last three vices are based on the first three vices. Therefore, only the first three are stressed in the Gita as the three main gates to hell.



Avoid bad side of both good and bad deeds

Let us examine the six so-called bad qualities or vices and see how each of them has both meritorious and sinful sides. Among them, the first three, are responsible for the majority of sins in the world. They are said to be the three main gates to hell as per the Gita.

1)

Lust or sex (kāma):
The meritorious side of sex is to generate issues which form the next generation. Sex with one’s rightful wife to produce children is perfectly justified (Dharmāviruddhaḥ bhūteṣu kāmo’smi—Gita). Even the intense desire for sex, which causes a person to engage in sex with one’s married partner frequently, is also justified. There are several uncertainties arising from gynaecological and other factors in conceiving a child. The time of the release of the ovum is uncertain, the life of sperm is short and so on. Hence, frequent sex becomes necessary for producing children. Thus, lust, which drives a person to have frequent sex, has a good side.

But when a person using his or her freedom, chooses to engage in sex with an unlawful partner, in violation of God’s laws of worldly justice, the sex becomes sinful. It is this sinful side of the sin alone which is to be given up. An ordinary human being on the path of pravṛtti should not blindly give up sex completely without recognizing this internal sub-classification of the good and bad sides to each quality. A very few exceptional souls of the nivṛtti path, like Śaṅkara, Ramakrishna etc., left sex completely. But they did not leave it by any forced effort. It was a natural consequence of their extreme attachment to God. Such exceptional cases are out of the scope of pravṛtti or karmādhikāra. Karmādhikāra means the eligibility to do worldly work. People who follow the rules of justice given by God are said to be eligible to perform worldly work, which is the path of pravṛtti. But the eligibility of these exceptional cases, who are the stars of the nivṛtti path, far exceeds karmādhikāra.

2) Violence or anger (krodha): The originally-created good side of anger or violence is that teachers or parents can show anger towards their students or children, whenever they go on the wrong path. With this quality, teachers and parents can bring their students or children back to the right path in pravṛtti. An Incarnation of God like Krishna killing a devilish soul is the good side of violence (Vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām—Gita). Even a court putting a criminal to death is the good side of violence. However, an individual should not take the law into his own hands. Even God Rama, the embodiment of justice and peace, is described in the Rāmāyaṇam as “Sthānakrodhaḥ prahartā ca,” which means that He showed anger and even killed in the appropriate situation. The sinful side of anger and violence is getting angry with good people and hurting or killing them.

3) Greediness (lobha): Greed causes a person to not share his wealth with others. The original good side of greed is that a person does not donate his precious wealth to undeserving receivers but donates it to only to deserving receivers. The sinful side of greed is donating to undeserving receivers and not donating to deserving receivers. Unless you save money by avoiding undeserved donations, you cannot make well-deserved donations since most people have limited financial resources. Very few people are rich. Even if you are rich, the sinful side of greediness must be avoided and its meritorious side must be practiced. In the Mahābhāratam it is clearly told that both donating to the undeserving and not donating to the deserving are sins.

The fourth, fifth and sixth vices namely moha, mada and mātsarya, also have both good and bad sides. As long as these three are within limits, they are not as dangerous, and they do not yield punishments in hell. But if they cross their boundaries and lead to sinful deeds, they become punishable.

1)

Fascination (moha): Fascination to one’s family is the good side of fascination in pravṛtti. Fascination or moha towards God is even better in pravṛtti, and of course, it is essential in nivṛtti. But moha in unlawful relationships is sin in pravṛtti. Also, having fascination only for the worldly bonds of child, spouse and wealth, without having any bond with God, is the bad side of fascination in both nivṛtti and pravṛtti. Having a fascination only for the worldly bonds is not a punishable sin by itself. It is bad because it stops spiritual progress. But an extreme moha for the worldly bonds without any moha for God may lead the soul to commit punishable sins in pravṛtti. So, on the whole, moha for God is the good side of moha and moha for the worldly bonds is the bad side.

5) Pride (mada): The good side of mada is having self-confidence and the bad side is to have an ego. Limited pride is self-confidence. It is like the normal body temperature. If the pride grows beyond limits, it becomes ego, which is like a fever. If confidence drops down below a certain limit it is like an abnormally low body temperature, which is also dangerous. Low self-confidence makes the person afraid of even doing normal activities. In nivṛtti, a devotee can be proud of being a disciple of God Datta. But this pride should not take the negative direction of looking down upon other forms of God Datta. This is the bad side of pride which results from the ignorance of the spiritual knowledge preached by God Datta.

6) Jealousy (mātsarya): The good side of jealousy is to develop competition with people, who are better than us. It drives us to make efforts to reach their level or even surpass them and become the best. It is said that envy brings growth in knowledge, “Spardhayā vardhate vidyā”. The bad side of jealousy is pulling down those who are better than us, by false blame in order to become equal with them or suppressing others and pushing them below our own level in order to become better than them.

In the cases of ego and jealousy, there is an additional danger. When both are directed to the wrong side in the case of the contemporary Human Incarnation of God, they lead to repulsion from the Incarnation. After passing into the energetic world, the soul also feels repulsion from the Energetic Incarnation. Owing to the repulsion from the Human Incarnation here on earth and the energetic Incarnation in the upper-world, the soul misses the chance to attain God here as well as there. So, avoiding ego and jealousy towards the Incarnation is very important in nivṛtti.

Just as the so-called bad qualities have meritorious and sinful sides, the so-called good qualities also have both sides. Worshipping God is generally a good quality. The good side of this quality is worshipping God out of true love without aspiring for any fruit in return from Him. The bad side of this quality is worshipping God due to artificial love shown for Him. In such a case, the person’s real love is for the fruit that he aspires from God. Serving society is a good quality, which also has both good and bad sides. A politician doing social service to impress the public for the sake of getting votes is bad. His actual intention is to win the election, secure a powerful position and earn sinful money.

The social service done by Mahatmā Gandhi, Mother Theresa etc., with the goal of genuinely helping needy souls, in the name of God, is the good side of social service. In ancient times, yajña was also a form of social service. During the yajña, hungry people were fed, and spiritual discussions and prayers to God were conducted. This is the good side of the yajña. The bad side of yajña is to do the same yajña for achieving heavenly pleasures after death or achieving worldly pleasures in this life, without developing any spiritual knowledge or devotion to God. During the time of Śaṅkara, the Pūrva Mīmāṁsā philosophy had turned to this bad side of yajña, and as a result, it was condemned by Śaṅkara.











Universal Spirituality for World Peace
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top