CONFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND HINDUISM

[dattaswami]

CONFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND HINDUISM

[Christmas message] These discourses will bring a harmony between Hinduism and Christianity. The messages of a Hindu saint like Swami Vivekananda have spread in Christian countries. The messages of Christianity have spread in India. Thus there is a broad-minded brotherhood between Hinduism and Christianity. The tolerance of Hindus and the love of Christians are the reasons for such a bond of brotherhood. Spreading of these special discourses among your Christian friends will strengthen the feelings of brotherhood and love, which is the aim of Swami. When the people following these two religions mix together with love, it means that the two religions have mixed togther. Religion only means the people following those religions and therefore, the scriptures can also be mixed and correlated.

God and Human Incarnation

Lord Jesus was the Human Incarnation of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:40). The human body of Holy Jesus is like a metallic wire, which is pervaded all over by the Holy Spirit, which is like electric current. The Veda says “Antarbahishcha” which means that the Holy Spirit pervades all over the body of the Human Incarnation. Wherever you touch the wire, you receive an electric shock. Similarly, the entire human body of Holy Jesus is holy. Holiness is the nature of the Holy Spirit just like the shock is the property of electricity. As the electricity cannot be separated from the wire, the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from Holy Jesus. So here, the Holy Spirit is Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus refers to this Holy Spirit as His Father. He says that He was sent by His Father as a messenger. Although He and His Father are one and the same, He speaks like this for a practical reason; every human being repels another human being. A man cannot accept another man as God due to jealousy and ego. The Bhagavad Gita says, “Men insult Me when I come here in human form (Avajananti mam…). For this purpose, Holy Jesus wants Himself to be called only as a messenger of the Holy Spirit by His disciples, whenever He is introduced to the public. If He tells the truth to the egotistic public, they will not even listen to what He preaches and will simply reject Him. Therefore, He is telling His disciples to introduce Him only as a messenger. Of course, it is the disciples who are really the messengers of Holy Jesus.

The Holy Spirit has taken over the human body of Holy Jesus and pervaded all over the body to preach divine knowledge to this world. The same Holy Spirit is sending the disciples for the propagation of the divine knowledge. Both the body of Holy Jesus and the disciples are instruments of the Holy Spirit chosen for different purposes. The Holy Spirit is preaching through the body of Holy Jesus and is propagating the divine knowledge through the disciples. Therefore, if you respect the disciple you are respecting the Holy Spirit indirectly. Even though both the instruments exist like this, the Holy Spirit is present in Jesus and is not present in the disciples. Due to this difference, the disciple is an indirect instrument while the direct instrument is Holy Jesus alone. The disciple propagates the divine knowledge only after hearing it from Holy Jesus. Therefore, when such a disciple is respected, Holy Jesus is respected first and then the Holy Spirit. But among the disciples, there may be some person who cannot repeat exactly what Holy Jesus preached. In such a case the Holy Spirit will take over the body of that disciple and preach (Mathew 10: 20). Such a disciple differs from Holy Jesus because the Holy Spirit resides in that disciple only for some time whereas the Holy Spirit resides in Jesus all the time.

Holy Jesus says that He is the messenger of the Holy Spirit and He also says that the disciple is His messenger. He is giving the same status to Himself and the disciple by saying so. The reason is that some disciple may become jealous in the future if Holy Jesus says that He Himself is the Holy Spirit whereas the disciple is only His messenger. The difference in status may bring in jealousy. Therefore, He maintains equal status so that no devotee becomes jealous of Jesus in the future. Due to jealousy, the disciple might slip away from Holy Jesus.

When Holy Jesus says that He is only a messenger, it shows His humility and submissiveness. He wants His disciples to be humble and submissive to the Holy Spirit throughout their lives. For this purpose, He sets Himself as an ideal. The Holy Spirit present in the human body of Holy Jesus is the essence of true and infinite knowledge as the Veda says “Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma….” Humbleness and submissiveness are the fruits of the divine knowledge. Therefore, the humbleness and submissiveness are the qualities of the Holy Spirit itself. This means, that whatever Holy Jesus speaks is the statement of the Holy Spirit Itself.

The Only Love

Lord Jesus has said, “If any one comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple (Luke 14:26 to 27; Mathew 11:34 to 38)’’. Knowledge is compared to a sword. The Bhagavad Gita says “Jnanasinatmanah chhitva”. This means that ignorance should be cut by the knowledge, which is like a sword. The bonds with your wife or husband and children are due to ignorance. Such bonds should break when the Lord in human form competes with them to conduct His test.

The Lord comes in human form in every human generation to preach and give His direct presence. If the Lord comes only in one human generation, God becomes partial to that human generation because other human generations are not blessed with such an opportunity. To give the opportunity to see, touch, talk and live with the Human Incarnation, He comes down in response to the prayers of devotees. The Lord comes to preach and so He will not enter statues, animals or birds. The Veda says “Na tasya pratima asti’’, which means that God will not enter inert statues. The Gita says “Manusheem tanumashritam” which means that God enters the human body only because the main purpose is to preach to human beings. The Gita strongly says that he who worships inert statues will be born as an inert stone (“Bhootani yanti”). Christians should be commended on this point since they worship Holy Jesus alone, who is the most powerful Human Incarnation of God.

The Veda says “Na tat samah” which means that nobody and nothing should be equal to the Lord in human form. One should leave everything and everybody for the sake of the Lord in human form. The bond with all human beings can be broken only by forming a new bond with another human being. This new human being must be very powerful [to cause all the bonds with other human beings to break] and can only be God in human form. A new bond formed with the formless God or statues cannot break the bonds that we have with human beings. Only the bond with another living being can cut the bond with living beings. The bond with formless God is impossible. The bond with an inert statue has no use. The above statements of Holy Jesus indicate that one should cut the bonds with his family and with wealth.

In the Hindu religion too it is said that God (Datta) cuts all the bonds of family and wealth (Dattam chhinnam). Even the bond with the body should be cut for the sake of God. The Gita says the same thing as “Mat gata pranah”. Holy Jesus says that one has to carry his own cross (death) for the sake of the Lord. This means that one has to even invite his own death with his own hands for the sake of God. Holy Jesus did this as an ideal example for others. This means that you have to cut your bonds not only with your family and wealth but also with your life if necessary. Hanuman, a top devotee, tore his heart with his own nails for the sake of the Lord and was blessed by the Lord to be immortal. So when the devotee sacrifices his life, his life gets protected forever. The essence of this gospel is that love is proved only by practical sacrifice. The Veda says “Dhanena tyagenaike…” which means that the sacrifice of money alone proves real love. Money is the fruit of your work. So money is another form of work. If it is inconvenient to sacrifice money, at least you should sacrifice the other form of money, which is work for the sake of God [give up self-benefitting work and work (serve) for the sake of God]. All your family members are attached to you only due to the dependence on money. If there is no money, your entire family will leave you. You are also giving your money only to your family. Therefore, if the bond with money is cut and if the money is sacrificed to God, the family bonds are considered as vanished, even though the family may exist externally.

The work of God in human form is the propagation of His divine gospel. For doing such divine work, the family also stands as an obstacle because most of your energy is diverted to the family alone. Therefore, you do not have any energy to work for the sake of the Lord. Hence, Holy Jesus wanted His disciples to leave their families for the sake of God. The propagation work needs both money and work. Generally, everybody works to maintain his family. In the name of maintenance, several luxuries are introduced, which look like essential needs and thus there is no end for your work to earn money for the sake of your body and your family. Your blindness increases and you will put more and more efforts to work and earn money for the sake of the family bonds. In such a case you can never even see the human form of God. You should at least remove your blindness by the divine knowledge even if you cannot cut the actual bonds. Only people of very high devotion can cut the actual bonds. You are giving money to your family but you are giving mere words to God by your prayers and you are giving your mind to God through meditation. You are giving love to your family through your work and money, and are calling the sacrifice of words and the sacrifice of mind as love for God. You are fooling God! Your real love is only for your family and not for God. Holy Jesus tests your real love for God by these statements. The Christian Pope and priests and the Hindu Acharyas and saints left their families and concentrated completely on the work of God. Only such pious souls can be the representatives of God in this world.

Sacrifice of Wealth is the Way

Lord Jesus has said “Do not lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth”. “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19 to 22; Luke 12: 33 to 34). He has also said “Not everyone who say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Hindus particularly, are sacrificing words through prayers and feelings through the expression of love for the sake of God. When the question of wealth or money comes, they only sacrifice it for the sake of their families. This is the reason why India suffers with poverty. Swami Vivekananda wept loudly facing the sky asking, “Why India with such high spiritual knowledge is suffering with poverty?” Foreigners are not so good in prayers and expression of love or meditation as compared to Indians, but they sacrifice their money for the sake of God with full vigor. Therefore, God blesses those foreign countries with wealth and prosperity. Indians only sacrifice words and mind to God. Therefore, Indians are blessed with very good pronunciation of language and excellent knowledge, which are connected to words and the mind. The Gita says “Ye yatha mam prapadyante” which means that God gives you the result in the same way in which you worship Him. If you only worship Him with words (prayers) He will also appreciate you with sweet words [in return]. If you love Him with your mind and concentrate on Him through meditation, He will also love you in return with high concentration of mind. If you sacrifice practically, He will also do everything for you practically. Indians must learn this practical sacrifice from foreigners as they have learnt science and technology from the West.

Even in olden days, Indians were always doing exercises in the theoretical knowledge of God and in composing a lot of poems on God. Therefore, the same attitude entered even their education of science. They have become theorists even in science. The foreigners were less theoretical and more practical in spiritual things and therefore, that attitude entered their scientific education also and the foreigners have become the real practical scientists. Let Indians not be proud that they are masters in spirituality even if they are not [masters] in science. Though I am born in India, I deny this. Indians should follow the foreigners not only in science but also in spirituality by learning the practical aspect of both materialistic knowledge as well as divine knowledge.

Today in the world, everybody agrees that the real power is money alone. Money is the fruit of your work and the Bhagavad Gita calls the sacrifice of money as ‘karma phala tyaga’. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said “Dhyanat karma phala tyagah” which means that devotion is greater than knowledge and the sacrifice of the fruit of work (money) is greater than devotion. Knowledge consists of intelligence and words. Devotion consists of mind and words. Sacrifice consists of heart and love. The proof of love is practical service, which is the practical sacrifice of work or money.

Money is needed to publish the gospel in the form of books for the propagation of divine knowledge and devotion. When you sacrifice your money for this divine work, your treasure in heaven is built up. This means that God will help you after your death and you will enter the kingdom of God. [Presently,] you are giving your earnings only to your family and so your real love is only for your family. There is no need of any further argument on this point because it is very clear proof. This is the real fire-test for your love. You are sacrificing valueless words and valueless mind in your leisure time, which is valueless time. This cannot be the proof of the real value of God in your heart. You must give real value to God. You finish your morning prayers and meditation on God as soon as the time to go to your job draws near. Similarly, when some work for the family comes up, you immediately leave the presence of God. Therefore, you are not giving any value to God for all practical purposes. But you are telling lies in your prayers that God is everything for you. Money is the final test and it can be the only test since your entire family is associated with you for the sake of money alone. Even in your oldage, your family serves you only for your money. The true colors of your love can be seen, when you are required to sacrifice your money for the sake of God. Sage Vasishtha told Lord Rama to first bring money as Guru dakshina (pious offering to the preacher) before preaching divine knowledge to Him (Dhana marjaya…). The preacher tested Rama’s love for God in terms Rama’s willingness to sacrifice money.

In the Vishnu Purana, Lord Vishnu says “Tasya vittam haramyaham” which means that he who sacrifices money for the sake of God, is really blessed. This looks quite odd for us that God would want our money! No, God does not want money because this entire world is His wealth alone as per the Veda (Kasyasvit dhanam…). You have taken money from His treasure for your needs and God permits this. But you have also taken extra money and you are storing it, which is not permitted by God. You have to return back that extra wealth to the Lord when He comes in human form for His divine work. Remember that you are returning His own money, which was stolen by you since He did not permit you to take extra money. Suppose you went to a friend’s house and he gave you a cup of milk. He permitted you to only take the milk but not the cup. You have stolen the cup also [extra earnings], which was not expected by your friend. You have to return that stolen cup to your friend secretly. Holy Jesus says that when you donate money to God by one hand, even the other hand should not come know about that donation. Since it is stolen money it should be returned secretly.

A father purchased some sweets and gave them to his child. The father is asking for one sweet from the child just to test the attitude and love of the child for him. Even if you do not give back God’s money to God, you will have to leave that money here itself and quit this world with empty hands. That extra money is left in this world itself, which is the bank of God. The devotee who donates the extra money to God for His divine work also quits this world empty-handed. But the former goes to hell as a thief while the latter goes to the Kingdom of God because he returned the stolen money of God. When you return this extra money, you must be very careful to see that this money reaches God alone and not others. God dwells in two places:

In the body of Human Incarnation of God (Son of God; God-man)

In the heart of a real devotee.

When money is donated to the Human Incarnation of God or the real devotee, that money is properly used to uplift humanity. In such social service the God-man or the real devotee will use a lot of discrimination due to their divine knowledge and the money donated by you will be properly spent. Instead of doing practical sacrifice of money or at least work [voluntary service], if you merely say prayers, express love and do meditation they are like serving God with only the side pickles in the plate of meals, without any central bread or rice. When God eats only the pickles which are served by you, His stomach burns due to high acidity and God becomes furious. Due to His anger the extra money stored by you goes waste through diseases etc. [If you pass on that money to your children,] your children might also lose that money and they will not blessed in any way in their lives. This gospel of Holy Jesus should open the eye of knowledge of all Hindus and make them learn practical sacrifice from foreigners. Holy Jesus referred to such people who do not give up their extra money for God’s work saying that they can never reach God even if a camel manages to pass through the eye of a needle. His Gospel refers to such selfish rich people, who are caught up in the net of their limited families.

The Real Conversion

“I indeed baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:1 to 8; Luke 3:1 to 18)”, is said in the Bible. The Veda says “Prajnanam Brahma” which means that the Holy Spirit is divine knowledge. The Gita says “Jnanaagnih” which means that knowledge is fire. This means that the acceptance of Holy Jesus should be through the knowledge radiating through His sentences, which are like diamonds coming out from His mouth. The acceptance should not be just by sprinkling some water. If you accept Holy Jesus just for some money or bread or some materialistic benefits, that is not the real conversion. Your spirit i.e., your soul should be attracted directly to His powerful knowledge. The holy water represents rituals without knowledge. Unless you study the Vedas (Upanishads) and the Bhagavad Gita and realize the knowledge by putting it in practice, you cannot be a Hindu. A true Hindu is always a true Christian because the practical sacrifice is the same in any religion. Whether you can leave your family and money and come to God or not remains the same in any religion. The knowledge is the same in all the scriptures. Whether you are a doctor who studied in the English medium or the French medium, you can cure the disease and perform surgery for any patient. Religions are only languages and knowledge is the content of the syllabus.

Everybody does not understand the brotherhood of all religions. If you travel along the religion-river you will reach the spirituality-ocean. Live as a sea-fish and don’t be stagnant as a river-fish by stopping your journey halfway. Your journey means continuously progressing along with the flow of the religion–river [towards the spirituality-ocean]. If a Hindu insults Holy Jesus and the Holy Bible, he has insulted Holy Krishna and the Holy Gita. The same thing applies to the follower of any religion. Let each human being understand all the religions by reading the scriptures of all the religions. An Indian goes to a foreign country and gets a degree in medicine, studying the subject in that foreign language. If he comes back to India he can practice or apply the subject he studied, to any human being. He can perform a surgery on any person. When you purchase a diamond from a foreign country, do you throw it away since it is a foreign diamond? Don’t you use the fan, the electric bulb, the television etc., which were invented by foreign scientists? You use these things in your daily life. Why not use the diamond-like concepts from foreign scriptures like the Holy Bible in your spiritual life too? This question applies to followers of every religion.

The Human Incarnation

It is said in the Bible, “He will save His people from their sins” and “His name is Immanuel (Matthew 1: 21 and 23)”. Immanuel is translated as ‘God with us’. Holy Jesus is the human body into which the Holy Spirit entered like the electric current entering into a metallic wire. The Holy Spirit, without the union of husband and wife, created the human body. Of course the entire universe is the creation of Holy Spirit alone. In the creation of the universe scientific logic applies; with the concept of cause and effect. But this creation of the human body of Jesus in the womb of Holy Mother Mary was beyond scientific logic. Thus, the very human body of Jesus showed the superpower of God even in the formative stage. Hinduism calls such Incarnations of God as full-fledged Incarnations (Pari Purna Avatara). The Holy Spirit is called ‘Brahman’ or ‘Paramatman’ in Hinduism. Even Lord Datta was born to His mother without the physical union of His mother and father. He stayed in the womb of His mother for only nine days instead of nine months. He is considered as the full-fledged Incarnation of ‘Paramatma’ or ‘Brahman’. He is considered to be the topmost preacher and His preachings are embedded with excellent divine knowledge like the preaching of Holy Jesus. Holy Jesus is also the topmost preacher in the world.

The Holy Spirit enters the human body only because the main purpose of the Incarnation is to preach to humanity. If God enters statues, trees, birds, animals etc., that preaching cannot be done. The Human Incarnation preaches to us and stays with us and so is called ‘Immanuel’. The Human Incarnation of God is better than the statues in temples (Matthew 12:6) because He preaches, whereas the statue is silent. He is the real and full form of God—in the human body. If you insult Him, you have directly insulted God (Matthew 12:31). The Gita also says the same (Avajananti…). You cannot approach the Holy Spirit directly because the Holy Spirit is of infinite power, and It is also inexplicable. But by that infinite and inexplicable power, the Holy Spirit enters the human body. The mighty ocean is now contained in a tiny water drop. ‘Maya’, the inexplicable power, operates when such a Human Incarnation is born as per the Gita “Sambhavami atma maayaya” which means that the infinite God enters the finite human body due to Maya. All the other human beings are only tiny water drops. The Human Incarnation is also a tiny water drop externally but the mighty ocean is hidden in it. He is the lion covered by the skin of the goat and He mixes with the goats. That way the goats can come near Him without any fear. Except for this way of the Human Incarnation, one cannot approach God directly (Matthew11:27).

Another important purpose of the Human Incarnation is that He suffers for the sins of His beloved devotees, who have proved their love to Him by their sacrifice and service. In Hinduism also we find the Human Incarnations of Lord Datta suffering from diseases, which are the results of the sins of His real devotees (Matthew 8:17) that He has taken up to suffer in His body. A devotee should serve God in human form without aspiring for anything in return. Such service is the only real and full sacrifice. Otherwise, it is only business. Remember that Holy Jesus also suffered for the sins of His devotees only and not for the sins of all the people. Others who do not believe Him and criticize Him have to go to the ever-lasting fire. This is the case with any Human Incarnation. The criticism of the Human Incarnation by the fellow human beings is only due to the natural jealousy because likes repel each other (Matthew 11:6). The human body of the Incarnation, follows all the rules of nature so that He can come near the people but due to the same reason, human beings neglect Him (Matthew 11:19).

Lord Jesus said “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or profits. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17)”. The right interpretations of the old traditional scriptures given by Holy Jesus appear to be quite revolutionary. But they are the real essence of the scriptures. Selfish scholars had misinterpreted these old scriptures and established a bad tradition and were misleading the public. Certain inconvenient portions of scriptures were removed and certain selfish portions were introduced. The scriptures were polluted and this happened in Hinduism also. Holy Jesus washed away all the dirt in the Christian scriptures. Similarly, in Hinduism the three preachers called Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva also washed away such dirt but the dirt collects often because the wind blows everyday carrying new dust. The religion becomes dirty in every human generation. Spirituality is the broomstick with which God in human form sweeps the dust away. For this purpose, He comes down in human form in every human generation. All that is old is not gold as per the statement “Puranam ityeva….” There is another similar statement “Taatasya kupoyam….” which means that only a fool drinks salt water from a well saying that it was dug by his forefathers [and hence the water must be sweet]. So, one should not blindly follow all that is old. Analyze it at every step and find out the truth.

Krishna condemned the ritual portions in the Vedas by saying “Traigunya vishayah….” Similarly, Lord Buddha condemned the killing of animals in the name of sacrifices. The Veda says clearly “Manyuh pashuh” which means that one should kill his foolish animal-like behavior. But instead of doing that, people started killing animals in sacrifices. Holy Jesus also corrected several portions of the scripture and showed the true path. Even the Veda which remains now, is a very little portion of the original Veda. The lost portion of Veda is called ‘khila bhaga’. Holy Jesus also said that He had come to complete the scriptures, which means that some correct portions were lost. Rituals prescribe certain times and places for God’s worship. But Holy Jesus tells us that the spirit is important and not the place or time (Matthew 12:11 & 12).

The Narrow Spiritual Path

“Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it (Matthew 7:13 and 14)”. The Bhagavad Gita says “Manushyaanam sahasreshu….” which means that millions of people will try to reach God but only one can reach God. This means that the spiritual path is narrow with just one or two devotees who can reach God. So you should not follow the majority example in the spiritual path. The majority goes to hell. Will you also go to hell? Diamonds are in minority and gravel stones are in majority. In worldly matters you can follow the majority. But in the spiritual line there is only one Jesus one Buddha one Shankara etc., If you are in the association of the majority, you will be polluted by them since they induce the worldly poison through their conversations (Luke 13:20 & 21). If you are in the association of the Sadguru you will be spiritually strengthened by His gospel.

Judge by Knowledge

Suppose there are two teachers and one is a Hindu and the other is a Christian. You must judge the teacher by His knowledge and way of preaching. Accept that teacher whose teaching enters deeply into your heart and makes you understand the subject. Such knowledge will definitely lead to practice. Similarly, judge any scripture by the value of its knowledge and its way of preaching the knowledge. Do not be biased in your judgment because you will be helped by the knowledge of the teacher and not by the teacher.

If you insist that Lord Krishna is the only God and the Holy Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture by which one can get the salvation, it is not correct. I will put a question here. If what you say is correct, the information about Lord Krishna and the Holy Bhagavad Gita should have been given to the entire world on one day and in the same minute. Then those who follow it may get salvation and those who do not follow may go to hell. Only then can God be impartial to all the human beings. But Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita existed in India thousands of years ago. The information about Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita reached other countries only about 500 hundred years back when Vasco-da-gama discovered a route to India. Before the discovery of India, Indians were blessed by Lord Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita, but what about foreigners? They did not have any information. In the absence of information how can they follow Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita? It is not their fault when the information itself was absent. All foreigners before 500 years went to hell according to your argument. That is not justified because they were not informed. This means God became partial to India. But God is impartial. All the human beings in the world are His children. Therefore, such a rigid and conservative argument is foolish.

Of course this applies to every religion, which follows such conservatism. Be open-minded and read all the scriptures and judge by the merit. You must judge the teacher by his knowledge and way of preaching only and not by the teacher’s caste, sex and religion. Therefore, I advise all the Hindus to read the preaching of Holy Jesus and get spiritual benefit out of it. His teachings are very sharp and shrewd like the powerful rays of the radiant sun and will help you in your spiritual effort. Do not be biased by the external culture, which is only apparent. Are you not using the fan, the electric bulb, television etc., which were invented by Christian scientists? Similarly, you should use the diamonds that came out from the mouth of Holy Jesus in your spiritual efforts and get benefited.

Message of Swami on Christmas

I am killed by My children on the cross. The revenge is mine. My revenge is not to kill them, but to kill their ignorance. My most powerful weapon is infinite love. If you love Me I will allow Myself to be loved by you so that at last, you will find that you loved yourself by loving Me. Similarly, if you deceive Me I will allow Myself to be deceived by you and at last, you will find that you deceived yourself by deceiving Me. Your real love is proved only by money. You love your children truly. Therefore, you are giving all your money to your children. Similarly, if you love Me you will give your money to Me for My work. This is the practical fire-test of your real love. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are just like pickles (side dishes) in the plate. The sacrifice of a part of the fruit of your work (money) and the sacrifice of a part of your work at least, are the central bread in the plate. Both these two parts put together is called divine service. Without this practical divine service, there is no use of mere prayers and meditation. Without divine service, if you are only offering prayers and meditation to Me, you are offering Me a meal-plate with only pickles and without the central bread. When I eat only the pickles, My stomach burns and I become furious. This is the reason why I am not answering your prayers and meditation in the absence of service. Of course if you are incapable of sacrificing your money towards My work, at least sacrifice your work for My work. If you are really incapable of sacrificing both these, then alone will I accept mere prayers and meditation from you, because [I know that] you cannot do anything more than that. In that case alone, will the pickles offered by you, become pieces of sweet fruits and I shall answer your prayers positively.