transformation Sankranti(transformation)

[dattaswami]

The word Samkranti [Sankranti] means complete transformation.  The sun diverts itself from south to north [from winter solstice to summer solstice]. The south is called as Pitriyanam, which indicates the strong bond of love of parents.  This is the strongest among all worldly bonds.  The north is called as Devayanam, indicating the bond with God.  This festival represents the diversion of love from the world to God.  This festival is also called as Pongal which means a sweet prepared by boiling rice with milk and sugar.  All these three ingredients are white indicating purity.  Rice indicates service. Milk indicates spiritual knowledge.  Sugar indicates devotion.  When pongal is finally prepared, only rice is seen.  The milk and sugar penetrate into rice and such penetration is Samkranti.  This means that knowledge and love exist internally in the service.  For example when you are serving your child, the knowledge that the child belongs to you and the love for your child exist in your service.  Without knowledge and love, there cannot be service.  Service is like the plant coming from the seed.  Knowledge is like water.  Devotion is like fertilizer.  The water and the fertilizer penetrate into the plant and both make the plant grow into a big strong tree.  The tree alone yields fruit.  The fruit cannot be achieved by just the water or fertilizer or by both together without the plant.  The plant also cannot be born from the seed if the earth does not supply water and minerals as fertilizer from the soil.  If you do not identify your child, no love is born.  Without love, service cannot be born.  Therefore without knowledge there cannot be the birth of devotion and without devotion there cannot be the birth of service.  Without service there is no fruit.  

Brahma indicates knowledge. Vishnu indicates devotion. The dancing Shiva indicates action or service.  Lord Datta indicates these three associated together.  Hanuman served Rama in Rama’s personal matter. Hanuman knew very well that Rama was God and this knowledge was constantly maintained in his service.  His devotion to Rama was at its climax in his service.  When Sita was not found, he wanted to commit suicide.  This shows his love for Rama in the service.  As per the Valmiki Ramayana, you can always find the knowledge and devotion of Hanuman in his service alone.  You can never see Hanuman involved in [philosophical] debates on God or singing songs on God.  He is always seen in service to Rama throughout the Ramayana and his knowledge and devotion always exist in the service simultaneously.  The whole essence of his knowledge was only identifying the contemporary human form of God.  The whole essence of his devotion was only serving practically such a living human form. 

Sundara Kanda means the beautiful part of Ramayana since it describes the selfless service of Hanuman to the living human form without aspiring for any fruit in return.  You have to read the Sundara Kanda only to learn this aspect.  But people are reading it for getting success in their selfish works!  Hanuman did not accept even a garland for his service in the end.  Such selfless service based on the spiritual knowledge learnt from the Sun-god and devotion learnt from his mother, yielded the topmost fruit of becoming Brahma (God).  Such selfless service integrated with knowledge and devotion is the nishkama karma yoga of the Gita. 

Service is work and hence is called as karma yoga.  Work is energy and matter (money) is also energy.  Hence work and matter are one and the same.  Therefore both sacrifice of work and the sacrifice of the fruit of work (money) come under karma yoga or seva yoga.  The sages were always busy with knowledge and devotion to God.  They did not do any service to Rama practically even though they identified Rama as God.  The water and fertilizer without the plant could not yield any fruit and they had to take another birth as the Gopikas to get salvation.  Hanuman got the topmost divine fruit in that life itself since he did not stop with knowledge and devotion.  He extended his knowledge and devotion into service.  The moment you recognize your child it is jnana yoga.  Immediately love is generated and this is called Bhakti Yoga.  Spontaneously you start serving your child and this is karma yoga, which is nishkama karma yoga since you do not aspire for any fruit in return.  In the case of your child, really no fruit is achieved.  But in the case of God, for the same selfless service, unimaginable fruit was given to Hanuman. 

Here the transformation of knowledge into love and service is spontaneous in the case of your child.  But in the case of God, why is the transformation incomplete?  I mean, why do some stop at knowledge and why do some others stop at devotion?  The reason is that their knowledge itself is fully wrong in not generating devotion.  If the knowledge is partially wrong, devotion is generated but not service.  If you identify God as formless, it is fully wrong knowledge and hence no devotion is developed.  If you identify God in human form, but worship statues of such human form, devotion is generated but not service.  If you identify the living human form of God, service is generated.  When you fully identify your child, the knowledge is fully correct and love and service are generated spontaneously.  When you have a doubt in the identity of your child, your knowledge is partially correct.  Then the love that is generated will not really transform into service.  Service always includes correct knowledge and full love. 

The formless God results in no expenditure of your work and money.  The statues result in partial expenditure like cleaning (sacrifice of work) and repairs (sacrifice of money).  The living human form of God has lot of recurring expenditure like feeding Him every day etc.  The essence of sacrifice is deciding the right concept of God.  The Advaitin is very clever and says that he himself is God and feeding himself everyday is accounted in the recurring expenditure incurred for God.  The human form of God (Sadguru) alone can give the fully correct knowledge that transforms into devotion and service spontaneously.

When you are diverting the service or practical devotion from the world (family and society) consisting of living human beings, towards God, that God must also be in a living human form. Then alone can the service like feeding etc. be diverted practically from one side to the other.  If your world contains only pictures or statues of your forefathers who are not alive today, then you can divert your service of cleaning the statues of your forefathers to doing the same for the statues of God.  The diversion of service should be in the same phase i.e., either all in living human forms or all in the forms of statues.  There cannot be diversion of practical devotion from one phase to the other phase.  Suppose you have offered ten kilograms of food to a statue of God and offered half a kilogram of food to your son.  You cannot say that you have twenty times more devotion for God as compared to your son.  Here the comparison is not in one phase.  If God comes in human form, will you offer half kg of food to Him daily as you are offering to your son?  Therefore the proof of the diversion or transformation can be in a single-phase system only. 

Hanuman left his living mother and worshipped Rama while He was alive.  He did not leave his living mother to worship a statue in the temple or to meditate upon the formless God in a forest or to serve himself, feeling that he is God.  The Gopikas left the bonds with all living forms (parents, in-laws, husbands, children etc.) only to worship a specific living form, Krishna, who was alive in their time. One should also note that Krishna was not related to them either.  If you understand The Ramayanam and the Bhagavatam, it is sufficient since these are practical demonstrations of the entire spiritual knowledge.  Even [service to] the living human form of a devotee is sufficient to please God.  The Lord came as a devotee to Shaktuprastha and to the parents of Siriyala to test their ability to divert their service from family bonds to a representative of God.  I assuredly tell you that if you serve a real devotee, God is more pleased than receiving the service Himself. 

I doubt about the truth of Myself being the present human incarnation but I can assure you without any trace of doubt that all my devotees are the best devotees of God.  I cannot assure salvation for worshipping Me but I assure in the name of God that if you serve My devotees, salvation is a must [one will certainly achieve salvation].  The human form of God conducts severe tests as you can see in the case of Rama.  Hanuman is the most sacred bachelor and the topmost saint.  People of such level look down on the householder considering him to be of an inferior level.  Rama was a householder and showed blind love for Sita by running after the golden deer to satisfy her.  He asked Ravana to return Sita back to Him.  He said that if Sita were returned, he would go back without harming Ravana.  In that case, Ravana would have continued his torture of good people.  This shows that Rama was ready to sacrifice the welfare of the entire world for the sake of Sita.  Rama exhibited the climax of blind love but Hanuman continued to think of Rama as God.  Rama became helpless and wept when faced with several problems.  Hanuman saved Him through miraculous deeds.  Any observer will conclude that Hanuman is God and Rama is his devotee.  But Hanuman always declared that Rama is God and that he is His devotee.  In the end Rama honored all those who had helped Him, with rewards, except Hanuman.  Anybody in the place of Hanuman would have shouted at Rama.  But Hanuman tore his heart to show Rama in his heart.

Tests in Practical Service

All the tests by conducted by God were only in the matter of practical service.  God did not test anybody by asking the meaning of a hymn from the Upanishads. He did not test anybody in their ability to sing devotional songs.  Only the sacrifice of work and the fruit of work were tested and both these together form service.  Clever people try to divert the right issue to a wrong issue and claim salvation.  They think that the divine test is in taking a cold water bath in the morning, chanting the name of God by counting the beads of garlands [rosary], number of days they fast by eating ten times the usual amount of non conventional food, doing breathing exercises, running away from the home and taking the saffron cloth to earn money and fame etc.  Based on these self-decided tests, people evaluate themselves and declare their own results!  They declare themselves as the district collectors by fixing their own norms for the qualification of the IAS degree [Indian Adminsitrative Services].  Polished shoes, tucked in shirt, tie around neck, belt around the waist etc. are their norms for getting the degree and the subsequent post!

Worldly bonds are found to be blind and foolish on analysis as compared to the pious bond with God.  The essence of all worldly bonds is only the love for the means to achieve selfish happiness as per the statements of the Veda and the Gita (Atmanah Kamaya…—Veda; Ye Hi Samsparshajah…—Gita).  Any soul in the world loves the other soul for the fact that the other soul is an instrument in giving him self-happiness.  If the other soul gives him constant worry, then enmity and hatred replace the love.  The medium of happiness is always money.  Among these worldly bonds, the wealth linked with children is strongest.  You can find the two extreme ends of this aspect in Dhritarashtra and in the parents of Siriyala.  Dhritarashtra could not give even five villages [to the Pandavas] even though God was directly asking. [He wanted the entire kingdom for his own cruel son Duryodhana although it rightfully belonged to the justice-loving Pandavas]. This is a climax of blind love for one’s children linked with wealth.  On the other hand, the parents of Siriyala killed their son to satisfy the desire of a devotee.  The bond with God is excellent and is beyond words if properly analyzed.  He has given human birth, long life, wealth, family etc., in spite of your most undeserving file of qualities [your file of past deeds and resulting qualities].  Still you say that this favor is done to many souls commonly.  If you analyze your previous life, there are several miraculous experiences in which God rained undue favors on you.  If you are a real human being, tears should flow down.  If you remove the layer of ignorance on which you are dancing, you will be surprised to know that you and all your beloved souls including your materials are just the modifications of His power.  In fact there is no real meaning of your sacrifice.  It is only an apparent test of your practical love towards God.  It is only a test of your attitude and feelings towards God because in the basic reality you have neither gained anything from the world nor lost anything through sacrifice to God.  In fact you have lost your things through sacrifice to the other souls who exploited you as a means for their selfish happiness and do not even recognize you in the upper world.  You are doing sins like corruption, looting good devotees etc. for the sake of your so-called beloved souls.  The illusion of your ignorance about the true spiritual knowledge is so strong that you are as blind as Dhritarashtra in failing to show practical love for God even after recognition.  You cannot even dream about the word ‘salvation’.  Your first step should be to catch the Sadguru who will give sight to your eyes through the surgery of preaching spiritual knowledge.  If you climb this first step, the final fruit is spontaneous since His spiritual knowledge is an escalator. The spiritual success of Hanuman is simply due to the Sadguru, Sun-god, caught by him.  Hanuman learnt the spiritual knowledge from Sun-god who is the radiator of the intelligence or the analytical faculty as said in the Veda.  Hanuman adjusted himself to the convenience of the Sadguru in receiving the spiritual knowledge by moving his face constantly in a circular way.  All this means that you should take all the pains in receiving the spiritual knowledge from the Sadguru.  The Sun represents the Sadguru and the radiation represents spiritual knowledge.  Arjuna saw Krishna as thousands of suns in the cosmic vision.  Krishna said that His first student was Sun-god. This means that Krishna (God) is thousands of liberated souls in spiritual knowledge.  This means that Hanuman received the knowledge-cassette of God from His student and developed to such a highest state!  Arjuna heard the knowledge directly from God, but he forgot the Gita by the end of the war and asked Krishna to repeat it.  Therefore some devotees who have heard the knowledge directly from Me ask me to repeat it by next day.  Some devotees might have read My books given by My devotees and may reach the state of Hanuman.  Therefore, the Samskara or the level of maturity of the receiver is responsible for the final success.  All hear the same spiritual knowledge from the Sadguru, but only a few succeed and this is due to their already attained level of maturity.  Both the quality of the spiritual knowledge and the maturity of the receiver are important.  The drop should be a water drop and the receiver should be the pearl shell to form a pearl.  A conch shell cannot turn the water drop into a pearl.  Similarly, a particle of dust fallen in the pearl shell also cannot become a pearl. 

Swami Answers Anil

Q) What are the different samskaras that should be turned to God other than family bonds?

A) The essence of all the samskaras is love, which has the potency to materialize into service.  Theoretical love, which cannot materialize into service, cannot be a Samskara.  Various feelings of attachment made of this practical love are all the Samskaras. 

Q) Will a person suffering with madness due to a great sin done by him, be aware of his pains while in the state of madness?

A) A mad person is often insulted and sometimes is subjected to beatings and even electric shocks in the hospitals.  All such things give pain to him and he experiences the pain.  Therefore, madness is a punishment for sin. 

Q) Does attaining perfect health through yogic exercises violate the law of karma?

[Some people by personal effort in doing yogic exercises attain perfect health. Then this may contradict the cause and effect of karma, since one is destined to suffer, but due to his effort he is overcoming that suffering?]

A) The person who gets good health by such exercises is benefited, which is also a part of the implementation of the fruits of deeds.  God arranges the fruits of good and bad deeds alternately, in the life cycle and this point removes the above objection. 

Q) Is sin relative or absolute?

A) When a good soul suffers due to your behavior, you get sin.  Therefore, sin is absolute in its fundamental sense. 

Q) You have said that attachment to souls and other things are the root cause of diseases. Then what about bacteria etc?

A) Attachment leads to tension and anxiety, which is the root cause of several chronic diseases like heart attacks, hypertension, etc., which have no involvement of bacteria.  The bacterial attacks are due to the effects of sins. 

Q) In the Bible it is told that unless you are born of water and spirit, you will not enter the Kingdom of God, what is the meaning of this?

A) The spirit and water indicate the Knowledge given by the Sadguru like Jesus, Krishna etc., which cleans your soul from the dirty ignorance so that you can be a citizen of the kingdom of God.  Then by your service you will become an employee of the King and slowly you can become the Son of God and finally, God in human form.  This means that Knowledge is the basis and the Sadguru is the source of such True Knowledge. 

Q) Why are only external beauty (form of matter) and good qualities (forms of awareness) considered to be unreal by the Lord? Isn’t devotion also a quality?

A) Matter and qualities based on the bond with God attain reality because God is the absolute reality.  When these are based on the relatively real worldly bonds, these become temporary.  A temporary item is always unreal according to the theory of Shankara (Yadanityam…). 

Q)  How can light be both a particle and a wave?

[Question posed to Anil on a discussion forum: Datta Swami claims to be Nostradamus’s great genius. He also claims to be Christ re-incarnated. To be the Great Genius and rectify science and religion He must surely know the answer to this simple question.]

A) You have to study quantum mechanics and wave mechanics in advanced science and this point is clearly proved.  A photon is treated as a particle of light, which is in the sense that it is a quantum.  The dual nature of an electron of being a particle and wave has already opened the way.  The quantum of light may not have mass, but the quantization is considered to be supporting its particle nature.  Einstein’s photoelectric theory is to be studied in detail. 

Q) Whether family bonds are temporary or not, why should we not embrace them?

[Question posed to Anil on a discussion forum: What if family bonds are not temporary and we retain those bonds after death?  Alternatively, what if they are indeed temporary but there is no after-life.  Even if they are temporary and there also is after-life, does it mean that we should not embrace these bonds? Shouldn’t we love our children and parents?]

A) The love in the family bonds with respect to an outsider in the society is justified as far as the field of world (Pravritti) is concerned.  When God enters into this field (Nivritti), these bonds become unreal.  With reference to the absolute God, the bonds with the relatively real world are unreal.  The merits of the bond with God are to be understood by analysis and experience, which is widely discussed by Me.  Jesus told that one couldn’t be His disciple unless one hates even the family bonds.  This should be understood with reference to God only and not as a general statement. 

Q)  How can we believe that family relations are our vehement enemies because we have not seen our previous births?

[The Yoga Vashishtha says that our family members are our enemies from past births and are now put together with us so that they can take their revenge from us or get their payback (Runanubandha rupena…)]

A) Today there are several practical examples in the entire world to show the existence of previous births and the field of para-psychology has been established.  Children are enemies and this is stated in Hinduism and this correlates with the statement of Jesus who asks us to hate these bonds because hatred comes only in the case of enemies. 

Q) Is the mind different from the soul and body?

A) The soul is pure awareness like the lump of gold.  Mind, which is a bundle of feelings, is like a bundle of golden ornaments.  The strong feelings form the subtle body and the soul is the causal body.  Awareness is only a special work-form of inert energy.  The gross body is matter, which is another form of inert energy.  Therefore, all these three (soul, mind and the gross body) are inert energy, which is created by God and form the basis of creation. 

Q) Who is ‘Maitreya’ who claims to be Christ re-incarnate?

A) You have to decide the human incarnation of the Lord based on the spiritual knowledge radiating from Him.  The sun is recognized by light.  A solar battery operated lamp, which also emits light, is a partial sun because the light of the sun and the light of the lamp are qualitatively the same although they differ quantitatively.  Therefore, a partial incarnation of God, charged by the power of God, is also qualitatively God Himself.  The quantitative difference need not be discussed because sometimes the devotees of lower level require only a partially true knowledge.  You have to decide the incarnation of God from the quality of the spiritual knowledge forgetting the quantitative differences in the same spiritual knowledge.  If the spiritual knowledge is darkness and ignorance, you have to reject such a person since he will be the incarnation of Satan.  Therefore, you have to decide the incarnation of God based on the quality of the spiritual knowledge.  The name, form and external culture are only the material of the cup, which cannot decide the material present in the cup.  If the material in the golden cup is Satan like salt water, such a gold cup is an incarnation of Satan.  If Divine nectar is present even in an ordinary ceramic cup, you have to take the cup as an incarnation of God.  If the cup is full of the Divine nectar, it is a complete incarnation of God.  If there is only a little nectar, it is a partial incarnation of God.  Therefore, Nostradamus stressed mainly on the material inside the cup, which is Universal Spirituality and science. The external physical signs like three seas, Thursday etc., should be neglected.  You have to decide the Great Genius of Nostradamus based on the knowledge radiated by such A Genius.  You pay for the material inside the cup and not for the material of the cup, because you can swallow only the material present inside the cup and get benefit from it.

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[1] The 33 crore deities correspond to similar mental tendencies that people exhibit. The One compassionate Lord takes these varied forms to suit those varied tendencies

[2] A great saint who lived in the 13^th century who propounded a treatise discussing various philosophies including atheism and Buddhism

 

Universal Spirituality for World Peace