Category: Q&A

Datta maata 16: Excessive greediness leads only to sorrows

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.

Permanent link to this article: https://puttugam.com/episode-16-excessive-greediness-leads-only-to-sorrows/

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

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/

Datta maata 14: How to conquer negative tendencies

There is a key to win over durvasanas (bad attributes). We get bad thoughts many a time. The more we try to prevent them, the more they pop up.

Long ago, there lived a king who became bald. He invited all the famous doctors in his kingdom and told them to make him get rid of his baldness by growing hair on his scalp. In those days, there were no wigs. The king also told that he would reward the doctor who is successful in his attempts. But, if they fail, then their heads would be chopped off. Many came forward because of their desire for the reward. But, many heads were chopped off for failing in the attempts. The kings used to be very strict. If their orders were not obeyed, they simply chopped off the heads.

Finally, one doctor devised an idea. He promised to bring back hair on the king’s scalp. The doctor prepared a pill by spending huge sum of money. He gave that to the king and told him that the pill is like Sree Rama’s arrow and that it would certainly make way for the hair growth. But, the condition here is that while consuming the pill, the king must not remember an inverted copper vessel. There is also another similar story about Guru and mantra. We can talk about it later. The doctor clearly stated that if the king remembers the inverted copper vessel, then his hair will not grow. Hence, the king must consume the pill when he does not remember the copper vessel.

The king thought that this very easy. He simply neglected. But, whenever the king wanted to consume the pill, he would remember the copper vessel. In the state of despair, he did not consume the pill. Even after 15 years, the king could not find even a minute to consume the pill.

Here, the seekers also face the same trouble every minute as that of the king . The bad thoughts haunt us when we do japa (repeating the mantra) or pooja (worship). We can say that such bad thoughts come to us only because of the bad deeds committed knowingly or unknowingly in our previous births.

To overcome them, one fights with them (bad thoughts). We know that if we fight with somebody face to face (directly), half of our strength goes to them. We can learn this moral from Vali and Sugriva’s story (Ramayana). Lord Rama killed Vali by hiding at the back of a tree during the combat. The bad in us also has to be killed by seeking shelter behind the tree called God and using arrows called ‘divine stories of Lord’. This means that we must engage ourselves in recollecting the divine glories of almighty instead of remembering our old vasanas (bad attributes).

By doing so, the bad thoughts automatically leave us. It is said that to win over the mind (manojayam), one has to observe the bad thoughts that crop up in the mind instead of trying to avoid them. By doing so, the spiritual practice will go ahead.

Permanent link to this article: https://puttugam.com/episode-14-how-to-conquer-negative-tendencies-and-unwanted-thoughts/

Datta maata 13: Seeing oneness in all practices helps aspirant quickly reach supreme goal

Man always wants something new in every minute and in every context. If we give toys to a child, he will keep aside all the old toys and plays only with the new ones. The children always want new books, pens, toys etc. Even the youngsters also crave for new fashions. In this way, the people in all walks of life run to embrace novelty. We find people running behind novelty even in spirituality.

There are hundreds of spiritual practices prescribed by our holy scriptures and there are thousands of teachers/Gurus in this world. Also, in our country (India), there are crores of demigods. The seekers keep on running from one Guru to another, one way to the another and one demigod to another. Even though doing so is a mistake, the intention of such seekers is only to reach the goal at the earliest possible. Here we have something to observe.

You must remember that whichever religion or path you follow, whomever you follow; either a Guru, demigod or a person – all of these are mere indications of the divinity one has to reach. We must remember that all the idols, gods, mantras are symbols that make us reach the divine.

Why then do we keep such indications?? When we are unable to understand about the actual goal, we keep such indications.

Hence, they are always inferior to the actual goal (the superior one). We must always remember that they are superior because there cannot be any other object which is equal to the paramatma in any world. Hence, in order to worship God, we must have some reference or idol.

The various spiritual paths, religions, Gurus are like the representatives of God. Identifying this truth, seekers must develop devotion on God seeing all the objects. We must see all the Gurus as one and we should believe that all religions are equal. With such a feeling, you will attain divinity at the earliest by following any way. Instead, if you keep on running from one way to another, you will only strain yourself. We must be careful. Our life is fleeting because we have only 100 years of lifetime which is very less. Instead of wasting our life, we must select a way and continue with our spiritual practice.

Permanent link to this article: https://puttugam.com/episode-13-seeing-oneness-in-all-practices-and-in-all-objects-helps-the-aspirant-quickly-traverse-his-path-and-reach-the-supreme-goal/

Datta maata 12: Who is a disciple? How does he identify his Spiritual Guru?

Who is a disciple? Let us discuss about it. The words ‘Guru and ‘Shishya’ (disciple) are mutually related. Guru and disciple always go hand in hand. Only when we understand who a Guru is, we can know the definition of disciple and vice-versa. A disciple who is in the spiritual pursuit will have a wanting for a Guru. How can we identify that one has got enlightenment?

With such a doubt in mind, you are in search of a Guru. When you get an opportunity of seeing holy men, at some point of time, you will experience peace and joy very unexpectedly. The power of such divine presence is so much that you will forget all your problems effortlessly. You will get a strong feeling that all your troubles will be solved. Moreover, you will develop a feeling that ‘He is mine’, very naturally. When you get a strong opinion that you will be happy in his divine presence and that your problems will vanish, then you can accept him as your Guru.

In this way, in fact Sadguru is coming to you. But, even though he is around you, he will not manifest in front of you till you get the eligibility. He will not accept you too. The craving for having a Guru is itself the eligibility. When you long for him, he will manifest to you in the form of peace of mind. For Guru to get that compassion, you must meet the eligibility criterion.

The path of worship, Nāma sankērthana (chanting the divine glories), dāsya bhakti (serving with devotion), listening the divine stories, serving the good devotees of Lord – all of these are the ways to increase your eligibility indirectly. By enhancing such qualities, you will meet the criteria to become a disciple. Once the eligibility is obtained, the disciple must continue his spiritual practice and he must understand that everything is only the grace of his Guru. With the grace of Datta Sadguru, may you all understand these aspects and may you become good devotees of Guru and obtain his blessings.

You must not worry that our Guru has not accepted you as his disciple. Guru will never think that he has to accept every one as his disciples. He only manifests himself when the disciple gets the eligibility. In fact, when you get the eligibility you cannot talk anything verbally because your heart is filled with happiness for your Guru. There is an inherent relation between the Guru and disciple. The inner meaning of Guru and shisya is understood by both of them. Neither the Guru nor the disciple has any necessity to announce about their identity. Hence, the relationship of Guru and shishya is a heart to heart divine relation.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://puttugam.com/episode-12-who-is-a-disciple-how-does-a-disciple-identify-his-spiritual-guru/

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