June 2017 archive

Jun 15 2017

Datta maata 19: The ideal social life which takes the person towards liberation?

June 15, 2017

Everybody knows that human is a social being. Why was this structure of society framed? What is its inner meaning? Let us understand this.

The feeling that they do not have protection makes the beings as social beings. In a jungle, the deer, monkeys wish to live and roam in groups. While coming to humans, he made his social life much stronger with his intelligence. He is very proud of doing so. Hence, when he gets a bit of control over the society, he tries to make it his slave. He wants to become the leader and wish others to be his slaves. He wants others to listen to him and he wishes that everything should happen according to his will. This kind of attitude will lead to troubles.

Societal life is not the result of your intelligence. It is a method devised by God to safeguard the weaker sections of the ommunity. It is only a plan to protect the orphans. The first aspect here is that we must understand that this society is for the weaker beings. Another result here is that with the help of societal relationships, the eligible humans can attain divinity. This is the main purpose of living in a society. That is why, since ages, there is a relation that every individual must be of some help to the society in this God’s creation.

The beings other than humans have only physical strength whereas humans have different strengths like wealth, education, jnana. There is another important aspect for us to observe. Education refers to the worldly education whereas jnana refers to spiritual knowledge which is also called experience.

Those who have the power of wealth must help the poor and needy. Those who possess education must become role models to others around. Those who have spiritual experience must teach about the Absolute Truth. This is the inner meaning behind societal life.

Doing in this way will make your societal life happier. In this way, those who have attained such superior qualities will become eligible to attain divinity. One must remember that in the societal life, one must offer selfless service. You must never think you are the leader and that everyone else is inferior. You must remember that very well. We must practice to live in society. We must also get in our mind that leading a societal life implies doing God’s service. Serving the weaker is serving God.

It is wrong to think that they (the weak) are poor/weak or that they do not have knowledge and so on. We must try to bring them to our level. That is the real societal life. You must not wish others to be in poverty such that they will listen to you. It is very wrong to think that such people should not come to the fore front, into power, so on and so forth. If you stamp them down like that, it cannot be called social life. No. Hence, you must try to bring others around you to your level. You must remember this.

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Jun 15 2017

Datta maata 18: Relentless practice and detachment are both required to obtain success

June 15, 2017

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Jun 15 2017

Datta maata 17: Both spiritual paths lead to the same goal.

June 15, 2017

There are two predominant teachings in the spiritual path. One says that the entire world is an illusion. So, you must leave attachment. You must not have desire for attachment. You must leave the attachment for the body. The other is to love all and see God in everyone. Serving humanity is serving God. We are confused to adopt either ways. All these are wonderful but which way to adopt is the doubt of many. All these ways appear different but their goal is one.

Shankara bhagavadpada said that the world is an illusion. The hatred, relationships, fights are the creations of the mind – this is what he said. All the sacrifices seem to be great but if we observe carefully, we understand that they are meant for selfish motives. You must leave the affection on relatives and your own body too. You must forget yourself by contemplating on God. This is the way to attain liberation. This is good. We can discuss about leaving the attachment later in detail. This way is called the path of vairagya (dispassion).

Coming to the other way, if we observe the holy books like Bhagavatham, we understand that we are all the children of God. We are all different parts/organs of the Vishwaroopa of God. There is no happiness for the being when there is any trouble for any of the parts of the body. Similarly, if we are suffering, then God will not be happy. Everyone must try to help the fellow beings in any possible manner. We have already told that the entire universe is a part of God. If you cannot help someone directly, then you can at least wish good for all the beings. When we observe externally, we do not see any close relationship between these two ways. They are in fact the same. The key for the spiritual practice is to think that everybody in the world belong to us. Just like we said that the entire world is a part of Paramatma, we must think that everyone in the world belong to us. This is one way. Thinking that one’s body also does not belong to oneself is another way. Though these two ways appear contradictorily, they are in fact not so. If we can remove the layers of attachments from our mind, then the feelings like ‘they belong to me’, ‘they do not belong to me’, vanish. We then only see paramatma everywhere. This is what is told by Shankaracharya. This is called vairagya.

Every individual always wants his relatives to be benefitted. It is needless to teach this to anyone. If such feelings are not limited to the individual and instead become universal, then they will not lead to attachments. God will then manifest himself subtly in the form of every being. This is way of Bhagavatham.

In one way, by shunning the feelings of affection and hatred, one becomes sanctified. In another way, by spreading one’s affection universally, one gets purified. One way is a journey to the center of the inner self whereas another is a journey to the center of the universal self (vishwatma). When the journey ends, we understand that both of the centers are one and the same. Good devotees must not waste the time by commenting that ‘this way is great’, ‘that way is great’ or ‘my way is superior’, ‘their way is inferior’ and so on. By following any way, they will surely reach the goal.

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Jun 15 2017

Datta maata 16: Excessive greediness leads only to sorrows

June 15, 2017

Excessive desires are very strange. Atyāsā prāna hariniḥ! If the desires exceed the limit, it can also take away the prāna (life). Hence, greediness that causes sorrow is not good for anybody. Too much of desires are dangerous with respect to anything. Eating excessively is as dangerous as earning excessively because it will harm the stomach. Humans must possess desires but he must never succumb to excessive desires. Hence, it is said “Ati sarvatra varjayēt”

There is a bee which flew onto different kinds of flowers and consumed honey. After some time, its stomach was full. It then got the greediness of taking honey to its children. In a nearby pond, it saw few nicely spread lotuses. Seeing them, its intensity of the desire doubled. Within a while, the sun is about to set. Irrespective of that, the bee went and sat on the lotuses for honey because of its greediness. It forgot itself totally in the delectable taste of honey. The honey was so tasty that it went on savoring it forgetting about its house and children. Drinking too much of honey made the bee intoxicated. Dusk was falling rapidly and the lotus shrank. The bee was locked in the lotus. It then understood that this is because of the result of her greediness. Immediately, another idea struck the bee. It was thinking that upon the arrival of dawn, the lotus will soon outspread. Within no time, its desires were totally destroyed. An elephant came to the pond and stamped all the lotuses in the pond and uprooted it. The bee had to leave its body while it was still thinking about its desires. This is the proof to say that the results of greediness are so strange. Hence, we must never succumb to desires. There are many stories that teach us that many lives are lost because of possession of excessive desires.

There is a story about a deer. It was killed by an arrow. A jackal on its way saw the deer lying dead. Instead of eating the deer’s flesh, it first started to eat the flesh that was present on the arrow. In the process of eating, the arrow hurts the jackal and it too dies. How greedy the jackal is! This is a very beautiful story. We shall discuss about it later.

Atyāsā paramam duhkhaṁ! Too much of desires will only give us sorrow. We must be satisfied with what we have instead of being greedy. We must protect what we have and stop for excessive wants. There are many who involve in lottery. They already would have won in some lottery by sheer luck. Out of greediness, they again invest the money in some other lottery and finally end up losing everything. Many earn very hard. Just because someone has given them the idea of doing a business, they invest everything and end up in losses coming to streets. This is atyasa (greediness). We must have contentment in what we already have. Hence, it is said “Atyāsā paramam duhkhaṁ”. This greediness also takes lives. I bless you all such that you remember this moral every time.

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Jun 14 2017

Datta maata 15: What is Mugdha bhakti (innocent devotion)?

June 14, 2017

Bhāva vasyō hariḥ sadā! Sri hari surrenders to the devotion of his devotees. If one worships him with love, fear, greediness or with any other feeling but with unswerving devotion, then he will definitely be pleased.

Once, a haridāsa (servant of Hari) was narrating a story. As part of the story, he was describing about the appearances of Balarama and Sri Krishna and the ornaments that they were wearing. This is a wonderful story in Bhagavatham. A thief was carefully listening to this story. As soon as haridāsa finished telling the story, the thief approached him and asked the address of Balarama and Sri Krishna because his desire was to steal their ornaments. What can he do now? If he does not tell the address, he would be killed by the thief. After thinking a lot, he said that Balarama and Krishna reside at Brindavanam.

The thief left for Nanda Gokulam. The whole night, he spent thinking about Balarama and Krishna and waited to meet them. As soon as the sun rose in the morning, he heard the soothing sounds of flute, chirping of birds, jingling sounds created by Krishna’s ornaments of the feet. It was a beautiful environment. Balarama and Sri Krishna arrived there. As soon as he saw them, the thief asked them to give their ornaments. Krishna smilingly saw Balarama and both of them gave their ornaments. Wrapping those ornaments in a fine cloth, the thief took them away and came back to haridāsa. He was surprised seeing them.

He asked the thief whether he had really seen Balarama and Sri Krishna. Haridāsa felt the thief to be very lucky. He requested the thief to take him to them. He then described the greatness of Balarama and Sri Krishna. As requested by haridāsa, the thief took him to the place where he saw Balarama and Sri Krishna, requested them to manifest in front of haridāsa. They immediately appeared. But, haridāsa could not see them whereas the thief could. Krishna told the thief that haridāsa does not possess unwavering devotion and hence he could not see them. Then, Krishna said the thief to touch him first and then touch haridāsa. As soon as he did so, haridāsa also could see Krishna.

Here, the thief contemplated deeply on Balarama and Krishna only for their ornaments. He could see them only because of his innocent devotion upon them. This is the result of such devotion. It is needless to say about the benefits of contemplating on God purposefully. The more and deeper the devotion, the earlier is the result. I pray Lord Datta to bless you all with pure devotion.

Permanent link to this article: https://puttugam.com/datta-maata-episode-15-what-is-mugdha-bhakti-innocent-devotion/