Quotations of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami

[datta]

Quotations of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami​

All creation is not God

If God is the creation itself, again God becomes alone and cannot have any entertainment. For entertainment only, He wanted a second item, which must be different from Him (Sadviteeyamaichchat). The support is quite different from the supported item. You cannot say that both are one and the same. Entertainment is of two types. In the first type, you see the drama from outside.

God is unimaginable

The analysis to know that God is beyond analysis is also analysis only. Therefore, the direct meaning of the word Aakasha Deepam is that God is unimaginable, since He is beyond spatial dimensions. The extension of this concept is useful to the spiritual aspirant. The entire creation is within the dimensions of Space. Since God is beyond Space, it automatically means that God is beyond creation

Know Unreality of worldly bonds for peace


Spiritual knowledge emphasizes the unreality of these worldly bonds. Your family members were not related to you in the previous births and will not be related to you in the future births. These family bonds are present only in this birth and therefore they are temporary. Anything that is temporary is always unreal.

Identity mark for recognizing the human incarnation of the Lord

The real characteristic properties of the Lord as declared by Veda are the Special Knowledge (Prajnana), the Love (Rasa or Prema) and the Bliss (Ananda). Veda also says that these three characteristics must be experienced by others if the possessor is having really those characteristics. The characteristic property of the fire is heat. Any person who is near the fire should experience the heat and then only we can say that the fire is hot. Similarly the Lord in human form must make others to experience the Jnana, Prema and Ananda. Veda says ‘Esha Hyeva Anandayati’, which means that He creates Bliss in the hearts of others.

Human form of God is recognized after His death only:

The Gita clearly says that God comes in the form of a human being (Manushiim…). But the serious objection to the human incarnation is that if there were only one human incarnation like Krishna, only one human generation would be blessed [to be in contact with Him] and therefore God must be partial. To avoid this blame, Krishna said that He would come again and again (Yadayadahi…). But the same human body of Krishna is not seen again and again. This means that God is beyond the human body and hence God is beyond this entire creation.

Knowledge from the Sadguru:

The Sadguru (teacher of true knowledge of God, who is also a human incarnation of God) gives the right knowledge, even without your service. You can serve Him only when you are convinced. Your service to Him will help Him help others. Infact a Sadguru does not need your service because He is God Himself. He can help others by His own powers. But you will not get the right benefit from Him, because you did not show gratefulness to Him. Suppose a doctor gives you medicines for some illness without asking for fees and you get cured. If you do not pay his fees due to your greediness, even though you are capable of paying, you will die with a new disease.

Speciality Of Lord Datta & His Best Devotee

Generally we do some service to the Lord and expect something good in return from the Lord. This is the norm of the general worldly business. The specialty of Lord Datta is that He announces His policy in the beginning itself. His policy is one-way traffic. You have to do service to Him but He will not do anything good in return. Thus the business completely disappears. At this stage itself majority of the devotees drop out. Some devotees come to Him prepared for doing the service without any good fruit in return. After some time He opens His second policy. This policy is two-way traffic but it is different from our two-way traffic.

The three point in the spiritual path

There are three points in the spiritual path. The first point is about your self. If you know that you are not the God and also that God is not in you, the first point is over. You are only on the support of God since you are a part and parcel of the creation and the whole creation is supported by God. Again here, the contact of the support also does not exist as in the case of a table supporting an object standing on it. The creation stands just by the will of God. The direct support of the creation is the will, which is a mode of awareness. In this way, you can say that the divine awareness is support of this universe.



Violation of justice in Pravrutti & Nivrutti

Eshanas are strong bonds with – Life, Children, Husbands or wives
And wealth, Gopikas were liberated – From all the Eshanas.
Hanuman also is example – For the total sacrifice to God.
He was prepared to sacrifice life – By opening heart with nails.
Dharma Raja could not sacrifice – The justice for the sake of Lord,
He did not tell the lie – Even if the Lord ordered to do so.
Arjuna fought with Krishna – To save Gaya, who surrendered to him.
He could not cross the justice of – Kings to protect the surrendered.

Ego & jealousy reject God in human form

You are unable to recognize such human forms of God due to your inherent and inevitable egoism and jealousy. Instead of the human incarnation, you can worship the best devotees also. In fact, the human incarnation is very rare and even if it is identified, it is very difficult to accept and worship it due to egoism and jealousy. The devotees are widely spread and easily available. To worship a devotee, egoism and jealousy will not hinder so much because the constant thought that the devotee is after all a human being like your self, will satisfy yourself. Moreover, if you worship the devotee, God is more pleased than His direct worship.

Service My devotees

A duck is laying a golden egg every day. You should take that egg and use it for your needs. It is unnecessary for you whether the gold is present in its stomach or whether it is stealing the golden egg from outside and is giving to you. You need not analyze Me to see God in My human body which is just like cutting the stomach of the duck, which becomes useless. You may say that you want to worship God directly through the human form so that you can please the God since it is your absolute aim. But I say that God is more pleased if you worship His real devotees. If you worship the devotees God existing outside or existing in Me is more pleased than direct worship to Him

Pravrutti and Nivrutti

Veda Vyasa was very good in Pravrutti and Nivrutti both in theory and practice. But he could not over come the worldly bonds, when he entered the family life. He was attracted by the dancer from heaven and was in blind love for his son. He went up to Tapo Loka. The sage Shuka avoided the family life for the fear of the attraction of worldly bonds. Bhagavatam says that he did not come out of the womb of his mother for a long time fearing for the world. He went to the divine abode of the Lord. Gopikas were in the climax of Nivrutti and violated even Pravrutti for the sake of Nivrutti. They went to Goloka which is above the divine abode of God.

The only person who can throw away any quality completely is God

The Lord says in Gita clearly that any amount of control of the nature of the soul is useless in complete eradication of the nature of the soul, at least in some occasions and at least in mental plane (Nigrah Kim Karishyati?…Gita). The only person who can throw away any quality completely is God, because He is associated with the qualities and not constituted by the qualities. God is like a colourless person having a red shirt on His body. The soul is that very red shirt itself. Now the red shirt is mocking at the person for the red colour! Your criticism to any human incarnation like Krishna or Jesus is similar to this

God is loving every soul:
God is loving every soul and is helping every soul in this world. He never hates any soul. The punishment in the hell is also to reduce madness of materialism of the soul. Suppose, one son becomes mad, the father will take him to the doctor and admits him in the mental hospital where shock treatments are given. Can you say that the father is angry with the son? Similarly, the hell is for the last sort of trial to transform the soul. The madness is never cured and the son has to be retained in the hospital only forever.Same is the concept of the permanent hell. These souls cannot be brought into this world because they will bring Chaos in this world.

Express your gratitude to God


Never bring present and future before God. Confine to the past always before God. Look back at your past life. Hundreds of incidents are there where you were helped by God. Even if you dispose some incidents through the incidental probability of success or through the efficiency of your efforts, certainly there are plenty of instances in which the help from God is clearly evident. At least remember those few incidents and express your gratefulness along praise to God for His kind help that was already done. The word Krutajnata means remembering the past help. Kruta means the past help done. Jna means identifying it by analysis.

 

[datta]

Do not ask anything from God

Do not ask any thing from God which is either related to present or future. When you ask some thing in present or some thing in the future, it clearly means that you are reminding Him about the corresponding reaction that is to be immediately implemented in the need. This indirectly means that God is not alert as you are. This is insulting God. Due to such sin the requirement is not answered. If you are asking to protect yourself or somebody else, it indirectly means that He is not aware of the things to be done due to the irresponsibility and this also indicates that He is not as kind as yourself. It means that God has potency to help but not kind enough to render the help.

Brahma Yoga Vs Atma Yoga

The preachers are stressing on the relief of the worldly stress only. The preacher should not stop at this point. He should impress on the minds of disciples regarding the greatest stress that is to be received at the time of and after the death. The solution for the worldly stress is attainment of self (Atma Yoga). This solution is also not real because it does not solve worldly problems. It only gives you the detachment like a sleep tablet. Even in this field of Atma Yoga, if you want the solution for the problem so that you will be relieved from the stress through the solution only, God has to be introduced (Brahma Yoga).

Accept the truth

Do not bother that you are unable to practice the highest truth today itself. At least accept the truth in theory. That first step is sufficient. One day or the other, either in this life or in some future life (human life is assured for any one who tries constantly) you will succeed. If you accept theoretically, you have put your foot on the first step of right path. Journey and achievement of goal are inevitable. It is only a matter of time. But if you deny the truth even theoretically, you are in the wrong path. You want immediate fruit and so you want to lower the goal. You want to sleep at 8 PM and want to become IAS officer.

Fulfillment of devotion
When human beings who are extremely devoted to God, yearn for the Lord, He in all His compassion, comes down in human form to satisfy His devotees. In the human form alone, can the devotee serve the Lord, feed Him, live with Him, talk to Him and love Him fully.

Recognition of the Human Incarnation
Recognizing the human incarnation of the Lord is recognizing the Lord Himself. Service to the human incarnation of the Lord is service to the Lord Himself. The Lord, who is beyond the perception and reach of the devotee, offers the medium of His human body to reach and serve Him. However, herein lies the difficulty. The Lord offers humans the opportunity to reach Him through His human body, which is human; like any other human body. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult for the human being to distinguish the human incarnation of the Lord from any other human being.

Lord Dattatreya

The Lord thus ‘gives Himself’ to His devotees and the world as the human incarnation and is called as Dattatreya or Datta (He, who is given). Datta is any human incarnation of the Lord. Datta is God in the three aspects of Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer. Datta thus includes Brahma (God in the aspect of Creator), Vishnu (God in the aspect of the Sustainer) and Shiva (God in the aspect of the Absorber or Destroyer). All other forms of God represent only a certain aspect of God. Datta is the highest conception of God that the human mind can imagine.

Datta in all times and places

Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Jesus, Prophet Mohammed, Lord Buddha among many others are examples of human incarnations of the Lord. They came to the world for the sake of the devotees. They were worshipped by devotees and they suffered for the devotees. Human incarnations of the Lord are to be found in every land, in every age. The purpose of this is to give an equal opportunity to the people of each land and time to approach and serve Him.

Dattaswami the complete Human incarnation:

The Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, together, called as Dattatreya or Lord Datta has now come down as a Pari Purna Avatara, to impart Divine Knowledge to humanity. He stands before you as Shri Datta Swami.

The complete incarnation:
The Bhagavad Gita says that the Lord incarnates in every age when there is a downfall of humans, to re-establish justice (dharma). In different incarnations, the Lord undertakes different tasks according to the need of the time. The highest human incarnation of God, the Pari Purna Avatara, means that the Lord who has come down in human form, dwells in that human body from its birth to its end and also expresses His inseparable characteristic of the True, Infinite, and Divine Knowledge.

God can be perceived only through the medium:

The Lord can be perceived by humans only through this medium of human body. Since we can perceive the Lord only in a physical human body, the Lord has to take up a human body in order to fulfill the desire and devotion of His devotees.



God has to come in human form only:

If a soul on earth has to perceive God, it means that God must come in a physical body. If He comes in an energetic body, then an individual on earth cannot perceive Him. In other words, the human being can perceive only the human incarnation of the Lord. Likewise in heaven when the soul is ‘wearing’ an energetic body, it can perceive God who too is ‘wearing’ an energetic body. Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma are examples of God in energetic bodies. They cannot be perceived by humans on earth.

God comes in every generation:
Not only that the Lord is capable of incarnating in human form but He has also done so in every age and continues to do so even today. He alone came to the world as all the prophets and human incarnations of the Lord (Avataras) in the past.

Spiritual Goal:
God, who is the Father of all human beings in this world, wishes that every human being should reach the ultimate spiritual goal because every human being is His own child. All human beings are brothers and sisters and must help each other by such mutual exchanges in the spiritual pursuit. They should exchange their gems with each other and should throw away their useless stones. The useless stones are the misinterpretations, which were made by selfish preachers, and which were handed down to them over the generations.

Learn each other:


The West must learn from the East regarding world peace. The East must learn from the West about the real practical spiritual effort of an individual. No one should be egotistic in claiming that he is perfect in all aspects or that there is no need of learning anything from others. Those who make such egotistic claims go further and insult other religions. God is not pleased with such rigid and conservative followers. In fact, God gets furious with them and punishes them severely.

 

[datta]

Truth is very harsh:


True knowledge is very difficult to accept and easily repels human beings. The crucifixion of Jesus was an extreme result of such repulsion. But Jesus, as a true preacher, never cared for fame and preached the right knowledge fearlessly. Such a preacher is called as Sat-Guru (Sadguru), or “Preacher of the Reality”.

Where we lack:

Indians are very strong in this practical aspect when it comes to working and getting money for themselves and their families. They fully concentrate on the work and sacrifice the fruits of all their work for the welfare of their families only. In short, their service is directed only towards themselves and their families but not to God. Indians are experts in dedicating their words freely in the form of prayers to God. They also dedicate their minds freely to God in the form of meditation. They dedicate their intelligence freely to God in the form of logical spiritual discussions. However they dedicate their words, mind and intelligence to God only in their leisure time

Practical aspect is most important:

Any depth of theoretical knowledge is useless without practice. An Indian should learn this aspect from westerners to achieve the real grace of God. A westerner on the other hand has to learn from the Indian about logical analysis in spirituality, which gives precise direction to the spiritual effort. The practical side of spirituality is the dedication or sacrifice of at least a part of the work (efforts of the individual) and a part of the fruit of the work (money) towards the mission of the Lord. Both together can be termed as service and this service alone brings the true grace of God.

Why God blessed west:


The Lord always gives back to His devotees in the same way as the devotees serve Him. The Lord gave good language, good mental devotion and good intellectual logic to Indians, who worship Him by donating their words, mind and intellect. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that the Lord approaches devotees in the same path as devotees approach Him. Jesus told the same thing in different words when He said in the Bible that one reaps what one sows. The westerner is good at practical service (sacrifice of work and the fruit of work) to the Lord. Therefore God has blessed the West with a lot of wealth and comforts.

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Practice is important

Indians are proud of their strong family bonds but they do not realize that these bonds in fact hinder their spiritual practice. Unless one is released from these worldly bonds, one cannot have a strong bond with the Lord. One cannot join a new institution unless he is released from the old institution. Jesus preached through the Bible that one should leave these family bonds with parents, wife, children etc., and that one should be prepared to sacrifice even his life for the sake of the Lord. Only by such sacrifice can one become dear to Him. Such final conclusions of knowledge made westerners implement the spiritual knowledge in practice.

Deep spiritual analysis of Hindus


The Vedas in Hinduism also say that the children and family cannot protect the soul. The Vedas also say that one should get detached from the limited family as soon as one attains realization. The deep logical analysis of such a statement is not necessary for westerners and so Jesus did not give it. But Shankaracharya in Hinduism, gave a powerful analysis of this statement. Inspite of such acute analysis, the Indian family bonds could not be broken. However that deep analysis of Shankara is noteworthy.

Unification of religions—Universal Spirituality:

The effort of Lord Dattatreya through this human body is to bring about unity among the various religions and sects in Hinduism in India and also to bring about a unity among various religions in the world. Thus the effort of the present human incarnation is to establish Universal Spirituality at the national as well as the international level. The unity among world religions will be a broader reflection of the unity among the different sects of Hinduism. The concept of Universal Spirituality aims to stop all the communal and religion-based wars in the world.



God comes in human form:


Most religions cannot accept the concept of God with a form. Further, some religions do not allow the acceptance of God in a human form. Yet, every religion agrees to the fact that the Lord is all-knowing and all-powerful. If this is true then He who is beyond all forms, can take up any form by His Will. If there is even a single form that He cannot take up, then He is not all-powerful. Therefore, one must accept that the Lord can take up even the human form. He can take up a human form and come to earth as a human being. Such a human being is called the human incarnation of God or an Avatara.

Convincing atheists

The logic of atheists is based on perception (Pratyaksha Pramana), which was propagated by the sage Charvaka. Perception means the knowledge derived from the observation with the naked eyes. In fact in the logic (Tarka Sastra) all the means of knowledge are based on perception only. In the inference (Anumana) also, the fire on the hill is inferred by its smoke. But the relationship between the fire and smoke is perceived with the naked eyes only. Similarly other means of knowledge are also based on the perception only. Thus Charvaka forms the basic of the entire logic and without logic there is no knowledge.

 

[datta]

Spiritual knowledge is the most complicated path

Brahma Vidya or Brahma Jnanam or spiritual knowledge is the most complicated path and even to achieve the correct knowledge is hectic affair (Kashinmamvetti…. Gita). Correct knowledge is the first step and even in this first step, lot of complications exist and people are mislead even in this first step. The whole complication lies only in one point i.e., you must conquer your ego and jealousy completely and recognize the contemporary human incarnation existing before your eyes acting as an ordinary human being and some times acting as worst human being. You have to recognize God beyond good and bad.

Only practical sacrifice has value:


Practical sacrifice alone can bring the real fruit and the theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion should lead to the practical sacrifice. Theory is essential for the appearance of practice. Theory is like the seed and the subsequent practice resulting from it is like the tree. The tree alone can give the fruit. The knowledge and devotion are like water and fertilizer, which are essential for the seed to grow into the tree. Therefore, knowledge and devotion are important but without practice (Service), which is the work, there is no fruit.

Real love:


Hanuman ( top level devotee of God) tore His chest and heart to show God in His heart and this also shows the sacrifice of bond with life for the sake of God. Krishna also sacrificed the bond with His life and the bonds with His children, wife and relatives for the sake of God’s mission. To establish justice and devotion on this earth, which is the primary aim of God’s mission, Krishna supported Pandavas by all means and for this sake, He received the curse from Gandhari due to which all His family and even His own life has to be sacrificed. Such practical sacrifice with all worldly bonds including life for the sake of God’s mission alone could prove that God is the top most.

You should give top most importance to God:

Jesus says that His dearest disciple must be prepared to carry on his own cross for the sake of God. This means that one has to sacrifice even the bond with life for the sake of God. In fact, Jesus sacrificed the bond with His life for the sake of God’s mission through crucifixion.

Bond with God should be the highest:


The bond with inert money is only to see the happiness in parents, wife and children (life). The bond with one’s own life happens to be the top most bond from birth to death and before this bond the other bonds may be rejected or this bond may be rejected before the other bonds. It varies from one individual to the other. The bond with God is also like the bond with money. People love God and money for the sake of happiness of self (life), parents, wife and children only. Money and God are only the instruments to achieve happiness for the sake of self, parents, wife and children. If these bonds are absent, the bond with God and money disappears.

One cannot become My dearest disciple unless one hates the worldly bonds

Purity means oneness. Pure gold means the single gold metal without the second metal like copper. When a single bond exists without a second bond, such single bond is called as pure love or devotion and this is the highest stage. In the lower stage, even if several bonds exist, one bond only becomes the top most, before which the other bonds get rejected in case of competition. In the childhood the paternal bond is top most. In youth the bond with beloved or wife is top most. Afterwards the bond with children becomes top most, which continues throughout the life.

Essence of past history

(Swami watched a film on the T.V. titled “Yashoda Krishna”. Devotees requested Swami for a message on the film). Swami spoke: You must take the message from the past history, which shall be useful to your present. Otherwise, history is only a time pass entertainment and is useless. By seeing the past human incarnation Krishna and His past devotees, you, the present people must become devotees of the present human incarnation in a similar way as far as possible. Then only the picture serves the practical purpose of its aim. You have seen God in human form and the love of His devotees in various bonds selected as per their taste.

The real love to God


Shankara says that a real devotee should serve God without aspiring anything in return in this world as well as in the upper world (Ihamutraphalaviragah…..). This is a very clear point for the real love as can be observed in the worldly life also. The parents love their children and serve them without aspiring anything in return from them and hence the paternal love is said to be real and pure. On this point, no scripture is needed as evidence because it is a very much-established point even in the worldly affair.

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God is always unimaginable

The experience of the existence of the absolute God does not reveal any trace of the nature of the absolute God and hence God is always unimaginable. The only information about the absolute God is that God exists. “Aum Tat Sat” means that God exists and no more information about God is available. The word Tat means that God is beyond your imagination. The word Aum denotes that God is the creator, ruler and destroyer of this world. These three adjectives indicate the works (Creation, rule and destruction) of God only and not the nature of the God. This is called as the information about the existence only (Sanmatra vada). God comes in human form, which is characterized by the awareness

The absolute knowledge of the absolute God is impossible

The absolute knowledge of the absolute God is impossible because the absolute God is unimaginable. The absolute God comes in human form to give you the experience of His existence, in absence of which, you may deny the very existence of the absolute God and may become atheist (Astityeva….Veda). The identification of the human form in which the absolute God exists is the knowledge of God (Brahma Jnanam or Brahma Vidya).