modern age(kali yuga) Will it be practical to propagate the divine knowledge in this Kali yuga?

[dattaswami]

Will it be practical to propagate the divine knowledge in this Kali yuga?

Ms. Arsha asked: Padanamaskaram Swamiji! This is Arsha. I hope You are fine Swamiji. I had some questions that were making me restless. So I wanted to ask them to you and clear my doubts. I would be really blessed if You would clear them. Swamiji please forgive me if there is any mistake in any of my questions or in my way of asking the questions. Please always be with me Swamiji. The three questions are given below. Yours Lovingly, Arsha.

 

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In this cruel yuga where there is violence and misunderstanding everywhere, will it be practical to propagate the divine knowledge?

Why is it important to propagate knowledge, when we know that this is the Kali Yuga, in which people criticize, kill, insult and argue with each other having no peace of mind and no patience to listen to each other’s suggestions and queries. Will it not be a waste of time? Is it worth propagating knowledge in this cruel yuga? Please clear my doubt and enlighten my path so that I can walk on it without any sorts of doubts or queries in my mind.

Swami replied: We are doing the propagation of spiritual knowledge as the work of God, whom we like the most. We are not doing this work with an aspiration for any fruit from God in return as our salary. We know very well that the fruit of God’s work is in the hands of God alone. We also know very well that God is very very potent to do His work and always get a positive fruit. In fact, God can get the fruit of His work in a fraction of a second just by His will. If He wishes, the positive fruit can be achieved in a fraction of a second; however impossible it might be to succeed in that work. In spite of all this background, why is God expecting us to do the work? It is, after all, His work alone, and success in His work depends only on His will.

The answer for this is very clear. God wants to see whether we have the sincere intention to do His work, in spite of all the hurdles in the path. Our firmness to do His work with an unshakable intention for success shows our unshakable devotion to Him. God is testing the strength of our devotion to Him, which is the strength of our love for Him. If we withdraw from the work due to the hurdles, our love is not very strong and complete. God is not testing us about the success or defeat in doing His work. He is only testing our firmness and consistency in doing His service, which is the practical devotion to Him. This has been clearly stated by Him that our responsibility is only limited to the work and that it does not extend to the fruit (Karmanyevaadhikaaraste...—Gita). Actually, this verse refers to the work done by us in His service. People apply this verse to their personal worldly work too. Such application is also correct since the statement of God is always multi-dimensional. Even in our worldly work, when we concentrate only on the work without thinking about its fruit, we are doing work with detachment from its fruit. The attachment to the fruit consumes our energy in the form of mental worry. It leads to a deficiency of energy available for doing the work. This is clearly understood through the first law of thermodynamics. The law states that the energy supplied to a system in the form of heat (Q), is partly used to increase the internal energy (E) of the system and only the remaining part of it gets converted to work (W). It is represented by the following equation:

Q = E + W

In a broad sense, the law can also be applied to human beings. The energy in our body which is available for doing work (Q) is partly wasted by us in unnecessary worries and tensions, which are like the increase in internal energy (E). Only the remaining part of our energy can be used for doing work (W). Attachment to the fruit of our work causes worries and tensions. If we are detached from the fruit of the work, we become free of worry. No energy is wasted in it. Hence, all the energy available (Q) is completely utilized to do the work (W). It brings a hundred percent efficiency to our work.

This principle is very useful especially for students, who become nervous and weak due to tension about their examinations and the results of the examinations. The right answers to the examination questions are present in the student’s brain, which is like a computer disc. But the electric signal coming from the brain (Q) is mostly used up in the mental tensions (E). The remaining signal is too weak or even absent and so, it never reaches the student’s conscious memory, which is like the computer screen. Hence, the student is not able to answer the question (W = 0). This principle applies to everybody in doing any work during one’s entire life.

The attachment to the fruit comes due to selfishness. It means that when you do any work, you think that it is your work. If you think that you are doing others’ work, you will be detached from the fruit. When the client of a lawyer in a court case is cross-examined by the opposing lawyer, the client gets confused. This is because the client is attached to the fruit. The client thinks that it is his case and that he is personally affected when he wins or loses the case. But the lawyer of that client argues very well in the court since the lawyer is detached. He knows very well that it is not his own case. He is only fighting the case on behalf of his client and that he is not personally affected by either success or defeat.

Let us take the example of the squirrel serving God Rama in the construction of the bridge across the sea to Lanka. All the powerful monkeys and bears were dropping big stones and trees into the sea to construct the bridge. But the tiny squirrel could only carry a few grains of sand. But she worked constantly and sincerely, carrying the few grains of sand from the shore and putting them into the sea. She did not think about the fruit of her work. She knew that those few grains of sand were almost useless in the construction of the bridge. But due to her immense love for Rama, she was doing the work. Her blind love was not allowing her brain to think about the negligible possibility of success in that work. Even if the squirrel were a scholar, she would have still continued her work thinking as follows:

“God Rama is omnipotent and does not require this bridge to cross the sea. He can cross the sea in just a fraction of a second by His divine will. In fact, even that is not necessary. He can kill Ravaṇa and get back Sita in a fraction of a second by His divine will. He is doing all this drama to test the practical devotion of these monkeys, who are the incarnations of angels and have come to serve God. All this is an opportunity given by God to these souls to serve God and get uplifted. Hence, let me serve the Lord to the best of my capacity continuously throughout my life, without thinking about the fruit of my service to the omnipotent Lord.”

Such work done with full detachment from the fruit enables the worker to do the work by spending his total energy without any loss in worrying about the fruit. Such totally dedicated work shall succeed one day or another. This shows that both a person having full ignorance (tamas) with blind love or a person having full knowledge (sattvam) with wise determination are successful. On the other hand, a person with half-knowledge will start the work and then drop it or he might not even start the work due to doubt. In doing personal worldly work, one can think about the impossibility of one’s success. For instance, you should not start taking efforts to lift a hill without thinking of the impossibility of success. But in the work of the omnipotent God, you should never think about the impossibility of success. You should work continuously knowing that God is only testing the strength of your love for Him through the consistency shown by you in your practical devotion (service and sacrifice).

 

(First question is completed.)

 

(To be continued…)