How to recognize a true Saint- Part 2

Why can't a Saint perform any action after God-realization?  This is because firstly, the goal of every action performed is the attainment of the Divine Bliss, which a Mahapurush has already achieved.  Therefore, there is nothing left to be achieved or accomplished thereafter. That is why, if nothing is to be achieved then why would a Saint perform any action?  Secondly, if he performs any action i.e. good or bad, then it will be a cause of bondage.  Therefore, having freed himself from all the bondages, why would a Saint engage in such actions again?  Thirdly, before attainment of God, Maya is the controller of the soul and after God-realization, God governs and directly controls the soul.  Hence, every action a Mahapurush performs, is governed and inspired by God.  All the actions of the Saint are performed by God.  

Therefore, every action of his is respected and honoured, as God becomes the governor of the Saint and directs his every action.  For example, a driver drives a car.  If the car meets with an accident, the car is not to be blamed as it is a material object.  It is the driver that is to be blamed and punished.

Hence, there is no need for a Mahapurush to perform any good or bad actions.  Yet, why does a Saint appear to perform such actions? What reason does he have to perform actions thereafter?

All the scriptures and Saints say that a God-realized Saint does not perform either good or bad actions.  This is because, after God-realization, all the actions of that soul are governed and inspired by God Himself.  The soul becomes eternally absorbed in the Divine Bliss of God, and God performs all its actions. 

sadā paśhyanti soorayaḥ tadviṣhṇoḥ paramaṁ padam

Now, if we assume that a Mahapurush, Saint realizes the presence of his beloved God in every entity and experiences His Divine Bliss all the time, then souls under the influence of Maya can raise a question.  The question is: if Mahapurushs realize God everywhere and are beyond Maya, then why did so many Mahapurushs in history rule kingdoms for thousands of years, fight wars and have children?  Dhruv, Prahalad, Prithu, Vibheeshan, Arjun, Yudhishthir, etc. all did this.  When they were God-realized, how and why did they perform these worldly actions?  Is there anything more left to do after God-realization?  Does any desire arise in their mind?  Are there any desires left after God-realization?  Moreover, their actions are so immense and colossal that a person under Maya does not have the power to make such desires, or fulfill them.  

The answer to this question is:

hari harijan ke karya ko, kāraṇ kachhu na lakhāya |

par upakār svabhāv vaśh, karat kārya jag āya ||

The one and only reason behind any action of God and Mahapurush is the welfare of humankind, which is their nature.

The Vedas state:

poorṇamadaḥ poorṇamidaṁ poorṇāt poorṇamudachyate |

poorṇasya poorṇamādāya poorṇamevāvaśhiṣhyate ||

God is infinitely complete and fulfilled in Himself.  Hence, if you remove a part out of an infinite entity, what is taken out is complete, and what will remain is also infinite and complete.  So, there is no question of any selfish motive behind the actions of these God realized Saints, who have achieved their goal and are completely fulfilled.  Since before God-realization, a Saint had been under the influence of Maya, like us, he is familiar with our sorrows and pain.  That is why he wishes that the individual soul should also attain God, and experience the same unlimited Divine Bliss that he is experiencing.  Thus, with this praiseworthy desire of welfare of all living beings, a Mahapurush performs all types of actions, with the single aim of well being of all souls.  

Those actions may not be comprehensible to everyone, and the world could oppose such actions.  But because of the aim behind these actions is solely the welfare of human kind, those actions become praise worthy.  Even the most intellectual cannot comprehend the actions of a Saint.  This is because these actions are performed by a Divine power called Yogmaya, which is a special personal power of God.

Just as we cannot listen through the eyes, since hearing is not the subject of the eyes, similarly, we cannot grasp divine subjects with our material mind, because God as well as the Saints are not the subject of the material senses, mind and the intellect.  This is the reason why from infinite lifetimes we have never understood many Saints who descended on this earth.  That is why we have never benefited from them until now, and not attained our goal.  We tried to judge and observe them though our material minds.

In the case of Mother Parvati, who was overcome by Maya, Lord Shankar clarifies: "O Parvati! You have neither doubts nor ignorance.  You are not under the influence of Maya.  Nevertheless, you pretended to be misled by Maya, as your intention was just to warn people not to apply their material intellect to the Divine actions and pastimes of God."  If they do so, they will harm themselves.  In order to teach this lesson to us souls, Mother Parvati herself applied her intellect and showed, "Look what happened to me.  You people do not make this mistake."

In the same way, after reading about the examples of Garud and many other Saints, we will find that all these acts were done just for the welfare of humankind.  Hence, the Vedas say that one should imitate only good actions of a Saint and nothing else, otherwise it can lead to downfall of a person.  

Just like Lord Shankar drank Halahal, the most dreadful poison, and was designated with the title "Neelkanth," but if we try to imitate this action and drink even a drop of poison, we will surely die.

Therefore, we have now understood that the actions of a true Saint are Divine, and hence, beyond the comprehension of the material intellect.  We have to obey his instructions, which will result in the purification of the heart. Then, he will bestow his Divine grace and power with which we will be able to know God and relish His Divine Bliss.

Thus, we now have to recognize a true Saint, so that by surrendering to him, we can achieve our goal of life.  Otherwise, we will never be able to attain Divine love of God.  This leads us to question, that when it is impossible for even Lord Brihaspati and Goddess Saraswati to recognize a true Saint, then how we will recognize him? If we are not able to recognize him then we will never attain our goal?  Will we always be under the clutches of Maya?

Regarding the definition of a Mahapurush, we have understood till now that a soul, who has attained God, and whose actions are performed by God's will, that soul is called a Mahapurush, a true Saint.  Also, it was proved by all the Vedas and Scriptures that there is no difference between God and Mahapurush, because all the actions of the Mahapurush are performed by God.  In fact, for a devotee, Mahapurush is the most important because it is only through a Mahapurush one will attain all the spiritual knowledge related to preliminary stages of sadhana, devotion, and without whose guidance, the individual cannot even take a step forward towards God.

āchāryavān puruṣho hī veda | (Chhandogyopaniṣhat 6-14-2)

Because all the scriptures as well as Saints have told various kinds of paths to achieve the supreme entity - God.  Finding solutions to the innumerable Upanishads, Puranas and differences of arguments of learned scholars, and understanding their correct meaning and selecting the best path is impossible even for Lord Brihaspati and Goddess Sarasvati.  So how can it be possible for an ordinary person?  Only a Mahapurush knows the correct and most suitable solution for an individual, and can direct the individual towards the correct path.

We already know that since infinite lifetimes, we are making a continuous effort for the attainment of the Divine Bliss of God.  During endless lifetimes, we might have walked towards God but surprisingly until now, we have not attained that eternal bliss.  The reason for this is that we never surrendered ourselves to a true Saint.  Whereas, there is rule in this material world, that only by following the instructions of a teacher, we attain knowledge about any subject.  If we follow half of the instructions of our worldly teacher and apply our own intellect to the rest of it, then we will never be able to progress to the next class.

When we are sick, we follow the instructions of a doctor.  Otherwise, we know the consequences of not following the full instructions.  In the same way, since countless lifetimes we applied our material intellect in the deep and intense subject called God, and because of it, instead of moving forward in the spiritual realm, we kept on moving backwards.  That means our downfall has been continuous.  According to the Vedas and Shastras, God-realization is the easiest work in this world.  There is no hard work in this. Yet, we have not attained our supreme goal till now.  The reason behind this is that we have not accepted a Mahapurush to be a Mahapurush.  And if we do not realize a true Saint to be a true Saint, we will never surrender completely.  And without complete surrender, we cannot move forward towards achieving our goal. 

Continue reading in part 3

Read part 1

How to recognize a true Saint- Part 1

In the last lecture (Importance and role of Guru)  it was explained that every individual, whether Indian, American, Chinese or Canadian, young, old, male or female, performs various actions only with the aim of attaining happiness.  The Vedas say that, even the most learned scholars cannot know God, because God is beyond human intellect.  Although the Vedas are filled with knowledge about God, nobody can understand the Vedas even after infinite lifetimes, as they are God's voice, and hence Divine.  

Therefore, Ved Vyas states: 

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śhreya uttamam
śhābde pare cha niṣhṇātaṁ brahmaṇyupaśhamāśhrayaṁ (Bhagawat)

This means, "To know God, one has to surrender to a genuine spiritual master."  

The Geeta states:

tadviddhi praṇipātena paripraśhnena sevayā

"One who desires to attain the Divine knowledge of God, will have to surrender to a true Saint who has thorough knowledge of the scriptures and also has practical experience of God.  Question him with a sincere mind and serve him with dedication."

The Ramayan also says:

guru binu bhavanidhi taraī na koī

Hence, we understand that the Vedas and all the other scriptures together state that, without the guidance of a Guru, one cannot know God. 

So, how do we recognize a genuine Saint or a Mahapurush? 

It is very difficult for an ordinary person to determine whether a soul has attained God or not.  Because like God, a God-realized Saint can only be known by a Saint of the same level.  Just as God cannot be grasped by the material senses, the mind or the intellect, similarly, a Mahapurush cannot be identified by the same senses.  Nevertheless, a Saint has to be recognized by perception, interaction, and scriptural evidence, otherwise no one would have ever attained God until now.

In general, there are two types of Saints and two categories of 'fake' Saints that should be understood, before solving the problem of recognizing a Mahapurush.

1.   The first category of Saints is the one who have attained God, and they have complete knowledge of God.  Their behavior is simple and according to the notion of Saints.  Hence, it is easy to recognize them.  In other words, they appear to be same from outside as well as inside.

2.  The second category of Saints were Mahapurush from inside but appeared and acted as worldly persons from outside.  History bears evidence to the fact that most of the Saints belonged to this category.  Because, we usually judge others by external behavior, it becomes difficult to recognize such Saints.  It is the nature of Saints:

gopanīyaṁ gopanīyaṁ gopanīyaṁ prayatnataḥ

They hide their love, their true identity, and perform worldly actions called Leelas.

3.   Now, the first category of worldly people are those who are worldly from inside and perform worldly actions from outside.  These types of people are the most common in this world, and we do not get cheated by assuming that they are Mahapurush.  They can easily be identified.

4.   The second category of cheaters is one who is worldly from inside but acts like a Mahapurush from outside.  They give discourses on Vedas and Shastras, they dress up as Saints, and have disciples also.  It is extremely difficult to identify such cheaters because we normally judge persons by their external behavior.

So, now we have to understand the people who are true Saints or Mahapurush, and the ones who pretend to be saints.  Since we have not been able to identify these two types of personalities till today, we have not found a true Saint.  You may say that the one who is truly a Mahapurush, can never be worldly from outside.  It is a well-known truth that, after attaining perfect knowledge of God, one can never be overcome by Maya, lack of knowledge, and ignorance.  

But our history is filled with Saints who performed many worldly deeds.  We have had great Saints like Prahalad, Dhruv, Janak, and Ambrish who after God-realization, ruled for millions of years.  Hanuman and Arjun fought a war, killed crores of people but were experiencing the Divine Bliss of God from within while performing those actions.  It is a well-known truth that from the very moment a person attains God, he can never come under the clutches of Maya again.  The Vedas say:

sadā paśhyanti soorayaḥ tadviṣhṇoḥ paramaṁ padam

A Saint always experiences Divine Bliss eternally.  If that eternal Bliss, eternal knowledge is snatched away one day, why would one strive for it for many lifetimes?  Just like a grain of wheat or rice loses its power to germinate forever when roasted, similarly, after God-realization, one is liberated from Maya forever.

Historically, in spite of being beyond Maya, Saints acted as if they were under Maya. In Satyug, we have the example of the creator of universe, Lord Brahma.  He had four sons, who were eternally liberated souls. Once, they were on their way to Vaikunth.  At the entrance, they were stopped by the gatekeepers, Jai and Vijay.  The sons got angry and they cursed Jai and Vijay to turn into demons.  Just imagine, an eternally liberated soul is so absorbed in the Bliss of Brahm that he neither sees, hears, or thinks other than the self.  So, how come they saw Jai and Vijay and in spite of being beyond Maya, cursed them in anger?

We have now understood that to attain unlimited happiness, i.e. God, we have to first surrender ourselves to a Saint who has attained the Divine Bliss of God, and has complete knowledge of Him.  That means, we have to recognize a Shrotriya Brahmanishth Mahapurush (Shrotriya means one who has full and thorough knowledge of the scriptures; and Brahmanishth means one who has practical experience of God).  By surrendering to such a Guru, attaining our goal becomes easy.  But if we try to understand God merely through our intellect, we will not be able to know Him even in infinite lifetimes, because God is not a subject of the human intellect.  Thus, let us throw light on the entity called Mahapurush, or Guru, else our journey towards God cannot begin.

Earlier in our discussion about Mahapurush, we learnt that it is extremely difficult to recognize a true Saint because his external behavior is different from his internal personality, and our intellect only judges by observing external behavior.  We have had great Saints like Dhruv, Prahalad and Ambarish, who were beyond Maya from inside, but they performed worldly deeds.

In Satya Yuga, the four sons of the creator Lord Brahma who were eternally liberated souls and constantly realized Brahm everywhere, cursed the two gatekeepers of Lord Vishnu in anger.  Once a soul is liberated from Maya, no Mayic thought can enter that person's mind.  Then, how can a person who is liberated from material bondage and God-realized be overcome by anger?

In Ramayan, there is an episode where Lord Ram is in search for His wife Seeta in the jungle.  Parvati could not understand this.  She thought, "God is omnipresent, He experiences neither union nor separation from any one, and is ever Blissful by His own self.  He is neither sad nor happy by being separated or united with any one."

kabahooṁ yog viyog na jāke |

dekhā pragaṭ viraha duḥkha tāke ||

Again she says, "How is it possible for the formless and omnipresent God to take a personal form?"  Even a simple, uneducated person would not get this kind of doubt.  Everybody knows that the soul is formless, but takes a personal form (body) and keeps revolving within the 8.4 million forms of life.  Similarly, God, who created this universe by just smiling, can definitely take a personal form.  

So, to clear her misunderstanding, Parvati assumed the form of Seeta, in order to test Shree Ram.  However, the All- Knowing Lord Ram saw her and recognized her immediately.   He addressed Parvati in the form of Seeta "O Mother". 

Similarly, when Lord Ram was performing His leela of being bounded by the Naagpaash, or rope of snakes, His eternal servant, Garuda was watching the event.  He was confused and thought, "By just taking the very name of God, the individual soul becomes free from the bondage of material actions, deeds and relationships.  Then how can God Himself be bound by the ropes of a mere demon?"  
He then approached Kaag Bhushundi.  He said, "Maya has bewildered you.  It is not surprising.  Even great personalities like Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva come under the clutches of powerful Maya."
Now think about the Braj Gopis who are considered to be the supreme amongst all classes of Mahapurush.  Lord Brahma performed severe austerities for sixty thousand years to attain the dust of the lotus feet of the Gopis but was unable to attain it.  These Gopis are giving birth to children.  Arjun, even after attaining the knowledge of 'The Geeta' got infatuated with Naagkanya and had sons.  Arjuna and Hanuman, who felt the presence of God everywhere and at all times, killed people in war.
All examples above are of Saints who behaved like worldly people from outside, although they were, in fact, eternally liberated and ever-Blissful personalities.  An ordinary person who is under the influence of Maya can never understand the actions of these Saints.  He understands that a Mahapurush can perform only righteous deeds.  It is difficult for him to comprehend that  a Mahapurush can also perform unrighteous deeds without his mind getting absorbed in that action.  Saints do this with a power called Yogmaya.  We souls who are under Maya cannot understand the actions of Maya. 
In reality, a Mahapurush, or Saint, is a person who does no work whatsoever, either righteous or unrighteous.  Just as a seed gets destroyed with the appearance of a sprout, and flower with the emergence of fruit, in the same manner, after the attainment of God, a Saint is no longer in need of attaining anything, and becomes self-contented.

Continue reading in part 2

Importance and Role of a Guru

The Vedic scriptures have clearly established that the only way to attain God is through bhakti, devotion.  Although, all the descensions of God are equal in terms of Their power and Divine bliss, the highest level of love is revealed in the loving pastimes of  Shree Krishna.  A soul can love God through different sentiments.  We can love God by considering Him as our Master, and ourselves as His servants.  This type of devotion is called Daasya bhav.  Similarly, we can love Him as our friend, son or our Beloved.

The highest form of devotion is considering God as our Beloved, and loving Him without any material desires.  The only aim should be to make Him happy.  This form of worship is called Madhurya bhav, or devotion in the conjugal sentiment.  We can receive this Divine love of Madhurya bhav by the grace of our guru, after purification of our heart by Sadhana, devotion. Hence, it is extremely essential for all spiritual aspirants to gain knowledge of the supreme form of love and about the grace of a guru

Guru tattva is knowledge about God-realized Saints.  We will aim to learn what is revealed about guru tattva in the Vedas and these are not my personal views.  Hence, you must listen with great sincerity and devotion, because the Vedas are the authentic word of God, and revered by all.  The Vedas are eternal and flawless.

There are three types of personalities:

1. Soul or a human being - purush.

2. A God-realized personality or Saint - Mahatma or Mahapurush.

3. The Supreme soul, God -  Paramatma or Parampurush.

Of the three personalities, God is beyond maya, since it is His own power, and He rules over it.

māyāṁ tu prakṛitiṁ vidyānmāyinaṁ tu maheśhvaraṁ

God says, "This material energy, Maya, is one of My powers, and it is subordinate to Me".  Maya in its original form is lifeless and has no power.  Maya gets its energy and power from God, and we souls have been under the control of maya since eternity.

Who is a Mahapurush?  When a soul attains God, its personality changes from a purush to a Maharapurush.  That soul is no longer under the influence of maya, nor does the soul rule over maya.  He is now beyond the reach of maya.  Such a personality is called a God-realized Saint, a Mahapurush or a Mahatma. There are many names used to describe such personalities.

Continue reading the translation of lecture  delivered by Shree Maharajji

Who Am I ?

The entire world seeks to answer two questions.  The first one is, "What do we all want?" and the second, "How will we attain it?"  All the knowledge in the world, right from the worldly to the Vedic, attempt to answer these two questions. "What do we want and how do we attain it?"  How surprising it is that in countless lives, we have not been able to answer them. The day we find the answer, our relationship with this material world will come to an end.  With that, our wandering in the 8.4 million life-forms, the five sorrows - joy and suffering, love and hatred, fear of death, ignorance, ego (pride) and the five sheaths of maya will also come to an end. 
Let us take up the first question.  What is it that we want?  It is a very simple question and can only be answered when we understand who we are.  We use the pronouns I, we, you.  What is this 'I' that we refer to?  Once we understand the true 'I', we will automatically understand what 'I' want.
What is this 'I'?  You have two things in your possession - one of them is conscious and the other is not.  The body, the sense organs, the mind and the intellect are insentient - devoid of consciousness.  You may disagree and say that they are conscious.  After all, your hands and feet do move, the eyes see and the ears listen.  Every sense organ is working.  The mind thinks and the intellect takes decisions.  All of these appear to be conscious.
You can say that a chair or a table is not conscious.  This statement is true.  But, how can you say that the body, mind and intellect are not?  Furthermore, if you stick a pin at your body, you experience pain, don't you? Yes! Well then, how can that which is not conscious, experience pain?  So, understand that the sense organs, the mind and the intellect, are all included within the body.  We are two - the body and the soul. We sometimes say, "My body is old; my body is ill; my body is fat; my body is thin."  We say 'My'.  'My' means, 'that which belongs to me'.  This means that the body is 'mine', and that 'I' am not the body.  Moreover, we observe our body daily, and we feel that it is conscious.  After the entity referred to as 'I' has left the body, do you call the body conscious or non-conscious?  That body starts decomposing in 24 hours.

ghar ke kahahiṁ vegi hī kāṛho,  bhut bhae kou khaihaiṁ
jā din man pachhi uṛi jaihaiṁ

What does this mean?  It means that there is an 'I' within the body.  When this 'I' leaves, the body loses its consciousness. In other words, it is the 'I' that keeps the body conscious.  The body itself is not conscious.  The entity called 'I' is responsible for keeping the body alive.  When the 'I' leaves, the body returns to its original form.  The original form of the body is that it is a puppet made of five gross elements.
The Vedas, Shastras and Saints have given a name to the entity referred to as 'I'.  They call it 'Soul'.  Soul means that which is alive and which keeps others alive as well.  The soul has two functions - It remains alive by itself, and keeps others alive.  It is conscious, and as long as it remains within the body, it keeps the entire body conscious.
Let us now understand the characteristics of the soul.  Scriptures talk about two types of characteristics; svaroop and tatastha (marginal) characteristics. Svaroop means the natural characteristic of the soul.  The soul is conscious; it is a power of God.

Continue reading the translation of lecture  delivered by Shree Maharajji

Love for World and Love for God !!

* Extracts from Shree Maharajji's lecture *

Yesterday, I told you about the importance of the mind in loving the Beloved.  It is the mind alone which has to love.  You know what it means to love, even though you do not know how to do it correctly.  Right now, you love for your own self-interest. You have to learn to love for the sake of the Beloved.  Just add this knowledge to what you know already about love and loving.  It is a very clear concept.  Just as we love the world in order to attain worldly property, likewise we must love the Divine Beloved for spiritual attainments.  Pay attention to both statements.  Our past practice is to love worldly objects for the sake of worldly ends.  Now, we have to love the “Divine Beloved” for the attainment of Divine love and nothing else.  Other than this, the practice of love remains exactly the same.  There are two modifications only.  The first is that we must love for a spiritual end; and the second is that love should be directed towards Divine personalities – God and His Saints.

Why should we have a spiritual goal?  The straightforward answer to this is that we are spiritual beings.  We are not the body; we are the soul.  If we were the body, it would have been proper for us to love material objects.  But we are spiritual; we are eternal parts of God.  Therefore, we cannot attain our happiness through material objects.  What does “our” mean?  It means “that which belongs to us.”  And who are we?  The soul.  The body is not us; it belongs to us.  When someone dies, we say, “He left the world today.  Many people have gathered to pay final respects to his dead body.”  What they are paying respects to, is the corpse.  The soul has left.  This corpse was there before, but because the soul was present we called it a live body and when the soul leaves we call it a corpse.  The body is devoid of consciousness and is made of five gross elements.  The combination of ether, air, fire, water and earth, goes into the making of our body.  In fact, everything in the world is a combination of these five elements, and the body is just one them.  As you know, there are different types of bodies in existence.  Humans have a unique body.  Animals have a completely different kind of a body.  The body of a bird is again very distinct.  You have seen many types of bodies yourself.  Who has created these?  We do not care to investigate who has created them; we are just fascinated by the different bodies and their unique features.  Some creatures can live only in water; some can live only out of water; some can live both in water and on earth.  This world is so awe-inspiring that we have not been able to comprehend what goes into the making of even a blade of grass.  The greatest minds of the world have spent billions of dollars on research, but have not succeeded in knowing how the world came into being in the first place.  The cause of this awe-inspiring creation remains a mystery.  Look at a flower.  How colorful it is!  Who made this flower?  A seed was planted in the earth and one day it became a flower.  Did scientists have to make great efforts to grow a flower?  No, not at all.  The tree grew on its own; leaves came on the tree by themselves; branches came about; fruits and flowers grew by themselves.  To build an aircraft, thousands of workers are employed in a factory.  Still things go wrong with the machinery.  On the other hand, this creation came into being by itself, without a visible creator.  And it continues to be created daily.  In the summer all the trees dry up because of intense heat.  The entire forest looks barren.  Then it rains and everything is green once again.  No human interference is needed.  You have witnessed a handful of these miracles in the world.  You have no idea of the astonishing things that take place in the infinite universes?  You have no means of knowing them?  However, all these miracles witnessed in creation are a play of the five material elements.