I CONSIDER SPIRITUALITY TO MEAN ONENESS WITH GOD, BOWING DOWN AND RECOGNIZING A POWER HIGHER THAN YOURSELF. IT'S AN AWARENESS TO ALL THAT SURROUNDS YOU AND HOW YOU RELATE TO IT. IT'S BEING ABLE TO BE OPEN , TO RECIEVE WISDOM , KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.TO ABLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE BEAUTY AND SEE THE GREATNESS OF GOD IN ALL THINGS.

To me spirituality is knowing who I am, why I am here, where did I come from and where I will be going from here. If I can find the answers to these questions, I think I will know who I am and what I am really.

But the search for these answers is the true spirituality for me because while searching for answers, we transcent this physical existance and see into the real me who is unseen to the world but only felt by me.

Religion Vs Spirituality

Every Religion in this world wants you to get rid of bad qualities at least from today for the admission into that religion which is practically impossible. The reason is that these bad qualities were grown like hills for the past millions of births. This small human life is insufficient even to move them, not to speak of removing them. People can control the bad qualities to some extent by their efforts. These bad qualities are frequently sparking in the minds of even the most pious sages. If one says that he is good and he is devoid of all the bad qualities, it only cheating others, which in turn is cheating oneself. Due to this practically impossible condition, for the religious admission, people have developed allergy towards any religion because the eligibility for admission is impractical.

The religious preachers have confused the whole situation by fusing religion and spiritualism. Religion is the context of GOD to establish peace and justice in this world. In this context, you must control your bad qualities so that you will not disturb the peace and justice and will not harm any good person in this world. If you disturb the world by your bad qualities, God will punish you. But, in this context, it is sufficient if you control the bad qualities since you cannot remove them. The Religion ends here. Some religions strictly end here without any spiritualism.

The spiritualism is the context in which you have to make efforts to reach God. In this context, you need not even control your bad qualities because, God has no personal objection towards your bad qualities. These bad qualities cannot be obstacles in any manner in this context. Moreover, when you turn these bad qualities towards the God, they become your helpers. Any quality whether good or bad, is created by God only to help you in reaching Him. If you realize the original aim of all these qualities, good or bad, why should you control these qualities, which are with you as a helper? No fool controls his helpers. So, any quality when involved in spiritualism is used for its original aim, it becomes a good quality. So all your qualities become good in spiritualism and you need not put any effort to remove or even control them. When the qualities are not used for their original purpose, they become bad qualities. Therefore, whatever qualities turned towards the world, are bad qualities. In this spiritualism, there is no need of any effort even to control these bad qualities.

Then, for what, our effort should be made? Our effort should be concentrated to achieve “Bhakthi� which is the love on God. “Bhakthi� is achieved and is grown by the knowledge of God. For example, you came to know that Bombay City exists. This is the knowledge of existence of Bombay. By this you want to see Bombay. As you know the details of Bombay more and more, your desire to see the city becomes more and more. Knowing details about the Bombay City is again the further knowledge. So, knowledge is directly proportional to desire. First Rukmini heard that there is Lord Krishna on this earth. As she heard more and more about Lord Krishna from Sage Narada, her love on Krishna increased enormously. Narada means he who gives knowledge. Therefore, ‘Jnana�(knowledge) generates and develops “Bhakthi (devotion)�. Due to Bhakthi, the Lord is attained. Gita says the same ‘ONLY BY BHAKTHI I AM ATTAINED’ (‘Bhaktya………’).

In the spiritual path all your effort must be concentrated in acquiring the knowledge of God day by day. Once this knowledge based Bhakthi (devotion) is achieved, your qualities good or bad are immaterial. Whatever may be the vessel, the drink in it is important. The value paid in a hotel is for the drink only. If you have taken a cup of coffee, you are paying the cost of the coffee only whether the cup is made of glass or metal. Similarly, God gives value only for your Bhakthi and not for your quality. I will give a beautiful example here. “Sabari� is with good qualities and offered fruits to the Lord Rama who is Vishnu. A hunter called “Kannappa� gave flesh to the Lord Siva. Sabari reached the ‘World of Vishnu and Kannappa reached the World of Shiva�. Both have reached the same Lord because Veda says, “Shiva is Narayana�. Both of them have been given the similar value by the Lord because in both cases, the intensity of the devotion is the same as both gave even their food without eating. Therefore, this proves clearly that the Lord has no objection for your bad qualities. Hence, all the effort should be only to achieve and increase the intensity of love devotion or Bhakthi on God. It is not necessary to bother about your qualities that are inherent coming from millions of births. They are the born qualities. The tail of the dog is curved. Any effort cannot make it straight. By force, we can keep it straight but it has not become straight. Similarly you can control your bad qualities for not disturbing peace of the world by some force. When you come to God, you come in your natural state because you can deceive the world showing that your banded tail is straight but not the God. Whether the river comes in straight path or curved path, the ocean receives only the water with equality. Similarly, God receives your love irrespective of your quality. He received “Sabari� and ‘Kannappa� equally. Sabari with good qualities and Kannappa with bad qualities reached the same Lord, as their devotion is of same intensity.

A piece of gold is wrapped in an old cloth. A stone is wrapped with a metallic foil. Which has more total value? Similarly, the love with high intensity covered even by a bad quality has more total value than the love with lesser intensity covered by a good quality. When the blood flew from the eye of the Lord, the Priest who is a person with good qualities is trying to apply the medicine. But, his devotion is less. In the same situation, “Kannappa� plucked his eyes and donated to the Lord. Kannappa is a person with bad qualities but his devotion is the highest. Devotion is the highest good quality. Now let us evaluate the total cost of the priest and Kannappa. The devotion in Kannappa is +100. The bad qualities in Kannappa are –10. The total cost is +90. The priest with good qualities is +10. The devotion in him is +20. The total cost is +30. So, of the two who is good? Obviously it is Kannappa. Gita says, that, “Even the worst is best by Bhakthi� (Api chet….).

Therefore, what is the eligibility for the admission into our religion of Guru Datta? The eligibility is that you should be a living being. Even animals and birds are eligible to reach God irrespective of their qualities. Even serpent, spider and the elephant got salvation in Sri Kala Hasthi. The serpent has all bad qualities. God did not insist the serpent to get rid of all the bad qualities. Even if God says, the serpent is unable to understand put the efforts. When such a serpent is eligible, why not a man? All the people are depressed and dejected with the eligibility conditions stipulated by various religions. For example if an Institution stipulates the eligibility condition as that one should remove his head and come, nobody can be admitted. Similarly the religions stipulate the removal of all the bad qualities, which is impossible. Only a temporary control is possible which is necessary for you to live in this world with peace. This control is possible. In our religion also we are stipulating this condition, which is possible. So, in our Datta religion, the eligibility condition is that if your bad qualities do not disturb the world, the Lord has no personal objection to them and you need not even control them. Moreover, they will help you in spiritualism.

How to turn the bad qualities towards God and make them helpers in reaching the God? There are six bad qualities that are inherent in any living being since millions of births. They are Lust (kama), Anger (krodha), Greediness (Lobha), ego (mada), Blind attraction (Moha) and Jealousy (Matsarya). Anger, greediness, ego and jealousy come under Rajas quality. Lust and blind attraction come under Tamas quality. I give you an example to divert your bad qualities towards the Lord, which can be used as powerful vehicles. Example:- Love in cinema songs can be diverted to the Lord by little change in words. Then, the powerful tune that created sweet feelings in you is now a powerful vehicle to make you to reach the Lord.

A film song ‘Churaliya Tumne ……’) instead of ‘Sanam’ replace the word with ‘Hare’. All the sweetness of your mind is now on the Lord Krishna (Vishnu). See how a person, mad after cinema songs become a powerful devotee in his own way without any change! You can sing this as your prayer for which you need not put any effort by force. Your worship should be natural and spontaneous, which alone can be true.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

What is Dharma?

The word Dharma means the characteristic property which stands for the identification of an item. The Dharma of fire is burning by which it is identified as fire. It is the expected natural behaviour of an item in the creation. If the fire is cool, such coolness is Adharma which means that it is not the expected property of the specific entity.

The human being in this creation is a specified entity and is expected to show certain characteristic properties (Dharmas) by which he or she is identified as the human being. If the human being shows the characteristic properties of other specified items, it loses its identification. When God created various items in this world, He has assigned certain characteristic properties to be associated with the corresponding items. Therefore the possession of Dharma is the will of God. The balance of the creation is maintained when specified items exhibit their specified properties assigned by God. All the inert items like fire, water etc. are strictly following the will of God. God created this universe for entertainment. The entertainment is disturbed if the natural balance is upset. God has given freedom to the human beings, which is the inherent desire of the souls.

God has full freedom to change any characteristic property of any specified item. When He wished, the fire could not burn, the air could not move and the water could not quench even a dry grass blade. Since He is omnipotent, He has unlimited freedom. But the souls have very little potentiality. Their freedom is naturally conditional and limited. The living being has little freedom within its specified boundary of its potentiality. If freedom is not given, it is not a living being. Among the living beings, the human being has full potentiality due to analytical faculty (Buddhi) and thus relatively more freedom is granted to it. The human being should understand the limits of its capability and should freely behave within that specified boundary.

Such behaviour is Dharma which is expected by God. If the limits are violated and the behaviour of some other category like animals is shown, the soul is punished and the soul is pushed into the life cycle of animals. Such animal lives in the forest and can have its characteristic behaviour which does not upset the balance of animal kingdom in the forest. But when a human being lives in the society of human beings and behaves like an animal, the society of human beings is disturbed. The humanity is the most advanced race of the living beings into which God often enters in human form (Manusheem Tanumasritam –Gita). Dharma is called as Pravrutti which is the expected behaviour of the human being with the other co-human beings to maintain the balance of humanity. Only in humanity, the spiritual effort is taken up by some blessed and realized human beings. Therefore the behaviour of the human being should not upset any other human being. Therefore if a co-human being is a devotee of God and a spiritual aspirant, he or she should not be even hurt. God excuses even the atheist who abuses Him but will never spare if the atheist even hurts the devotee.

You should not hurt the feelings of any co-human being except in the case of punishment. Even in the punishment, your aim should not be to hurt the sinner but to change him. Even if you are an atheist you must respect the devotees also because they are your co-human beings. Whether you are an atheist or theist, you are expected to maintain the balance of the human society. The highest Dharma is only not to hurt any soul including birds and animals. Even a tree is a living being and you should not cut any green tree. Non-violence towards the living beings is the essence of Dharma (Ahimsa Paramo dharmah). Ungratefulness is said to be the highest sin (Adharma). An atheist who may have any number of good qualities is the highest sinner because he is ungrateful to the creator. A theist who may have any number of bad qualities is good with reference to such atheist (Apichetsa –Gita). Of course you are expected to be a theist with good qualities.

An atheist with bad qualities is the worst, called as demon and will be punished by God immediately. Therefore gratefulness to the creator and not hurting any soul except in the punishment is the essence of Dharma. As long as you are not disturbing the balance of society, God does not distinguish the good and bad qualities applied in the path of the spiritual journey. The hunter who gave flesh as offering to the Lord attained the eternal abode of God. He killed a rabbit which is a harmless animal but neither he nor his family took that flesh. He did not sell the flesh. This sin was excused by God due to lack of selfishness and immense love to God. As long as Lord does not enter into your life, you have to reject Adharma and vote for Dharma.

But when God enters your life, you have to vote for God only even against Dharma, if required (Sarvadharman-Gita). Dharmaraja did not tell a lie even though the Lord asked him to tell a lie. He voted for Dharma against God. The result of Dharma is temporary and he went to heaven for some time. He did not go to the permanent abode of God. In fact, dharma need not have any reward because it is expected behaviour. The heaven is only a consolation gift to encourage not to do Adharma. Arjuna killed His grandfather Bhishma on the instruction of the Lord and he was permanently associated with the Lord Narayana as Nara. God is the greatest and is beyond even dharma.

After all, the aim of Dharma is only not to displease God. In Pravrutti which has no reference to God, you should not displease any co-human being. In Nivrutti, you should please God at the cost of even sacrificing Dharma. In Pravrutti, you should not leave your old parents, your wife and your children. But in Nivrutti, Shankara left His old mother, Prahalada got his father killed, Buddha left His wife and child and Meera left Her husband. The result of Pravrutti is not to displease God whereas the result of Nivrutti is to please God. One should not confuse with these two fields (Pravruttincha Nivruttincha –Gita). The expected behaviour (Dharma) differs in these two fields separately. You have to follow Dharma corresponding to the field in which you exist.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

The whole world is the kingdom of God

You must realize that the whole world is the kingdom of God as stated by Jesus. Any injustice will be punished by Him and you need not worry about it. Your view of the punishment is revenge but His view of punishment is to transform the soul. If somebody has stolen your money, don’t pray to God to punish that person. Everything is recorded by Him unlike the courts which register the case only when a complaint is given.

The enquiry by God takes place immediately. Sometimes you find no punishment from God and you are scolding God. The silence of God means that the enquiry was completed and the judgment was “no punishment�. In the previous birth, you might have stolen money from that person and today you paid along with the compound interest. In this case there cannot be punishment and the enquiry was over. Since you do not know this, you mistake God for His silence.

Suppose such background is not there, then you will get your money with interest in some other way which is compensated by God. That person will lose the money along with the interest. You will see it with your eyes. But suppose you cursed that person with revenge, you will receive the punishment in addition to the above. Kauravas stole a share of wealth of Pandavas and finally they lost their whole kingdom. Pandavas gained the total kingdom which is double the share. But Draupadi was cursing Kauravas aspiring always for the revenge.

She was also punished for this as she lost all her children. Therefore, we should not scold even our enemy even by words or mind. God takes care of the entire case. If the injustice wins, it is a black mark for His administration only. He is well aware of it and will take the necessary action. He is more serious in your case than yourself.  Unlike the court, He does not require registration of case or witness or advocate. When Hiranyakashipu tortured Prahlada, Prahalada kept silent and did not curse him in any way.

The Lord took very serious action in that case. Thus you have to keep God at every step as the basis in the worldly life also (Pravrutti). Jesus told that unless you excuse others, you cannot be excused by God. Your enemy will be punished if he does not excuse others. Such behaviour which indicates the full faith on God at every step of the life is divine Dharma in Pravrutti or Nivrtutti.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org

Social service Vs Service to Lord

When the service to your self is considered as selfishness, how can the service to the group of souls (Society) cannot be selfishness? Whether it is a single zero or hundred zeros, it is immaterial. God is like the number one which is greater than a single zero or hundred zeros. Sankara condemned the social service with reference to the service to God (refer to Loka Sevaka Mata Nirasa of Sankara Digvijayam). This entire society is the kingdom of God and is running under the divine administration of God. If there is a beggar, he is under the punishment of sins as decided by the judgment of God. No injustice can happen in His kingdom. Therefore, converting a beggar in to a devotee is primary work.

Helping him in materialistic way is only a secondary activity since the punishment is only for the change of soul. Your effort to transform that soul to become devotee is appreciated by God because that is the very purpose of punishment also. Unless the soul is transformed, you cannot help the soul in anyway. If you are doing some service to a beggar, remember that you are doing it by the will of God only.  Therefore, you cannot interfere in the divine administration in any way if you are saving a life of a beggar by giving food to a dying person, it is emergency-service.  If the life is gone, there is no possibility for the soul to transform by devotion here.  Therefore, this emergency- service should be done by every body because the life is the basis for the transformation.  However, remember that you are doing such service also by the will of God only.

Otherwise the beggar may die even after eating your food.  Providing the basic needs for the human beings is the emergency-service by which God is always pleased.   If the fellow died after your service, it means that there is no possibility of transformation of that soul on earth.  Only the special methods of torture in the hell can transform the soul.  Therefore, the soul was sent to hell by the Lord. If there is possibility of transformation on the earth, God will give him food through some body to save the life.  Therefore, you should not get even a trace of egoism even in the social service because you are driven by God only everywhere.  The social service is not greater than the personal service to God because God is above the society.  When Jesus indicated the crossing of I by crucification, it means that every soul is to be crossed in the same way. The society is not above the God and in fact it is not above even your family.  The family is grateful to you and so the business is fair.  The society is not grateful to you after receiving help from you.

The society is just thanking you by words after receiving your service, where as the family is reciprocating your service through the service.  Your self and your family are certainly better than the society.  Of course, in the case of emergency-service, you can rise above your self and family to help in the basic needs of the poor people because the life should be saved and the life should be settled for any spiritual effort.

Since we do not know the back ground of any soul, our impressions about any soul cannot be real. Suppose you are seeing the scene of hanging a prisoner you will sympathise the prisoner and criticize the jailer. If you have seen the past scene of the prisoner in which he murdered several innocent people you will kill him immediately on the spot. The judiciary system has taken so much time of enquiry to arrive at such punishment. Abhimanyu was brought up by Krishna and he was the only nephew of the Lord. Krishna diverted Arjuna from the war and saw that Abhimanyu got killed. Anyone will scold Krishna on this aspect as the most cruel person. However, Krishna knows the entire background of Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu was a demon who killed several innocent people.

Therefore the actions of Lord cannot be understood because they are based on the total background. Your actions are based on the present scene only. Even in the present you cannot know the internal nature. However, the Lord knows the internal structure of the soul. Ravana came as a saint begging for food. Sita sympathized him and tried to give food. Therefore the human being cannot understand the internal quality of a beggar. Therefore the social service should be done only based on the command from the Lord as told by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The Lord has a small human body and at the same time has simultaneously the infinite body which is the cosmos (Viswarupam). Therefore the personal service to His human body or to His macrocosmic body is one and the same. However, the will of the Lord is very important.

The Lord is pleased if you act according to His will. After all, the final goal of the entire spiritual effort is only to please the Lord. Therefore you should simply act according to the will of the God without any analysis. Your analysis is limited to the present and is also apparent. His will is the result of the total analysis done even at the deepest level. His will is not a blind will at random. It appears as if it is a bind will due to the lack of knowledge of total background. Krishna desired the personal service to His limited form from Gopikas. The same Krishna wanted the service to be done to His close devotees that is Pandavas. Rama wanted the total help from Hanuman etc limited to only Sita who is His closest devotee being Maha Lakshmi. You misunderstand that the Lord is interested in His close relatives. However, you don’t know that some of His close relatives are the liberated souls.

If you are in His place you will be interested in all the relatives. Krishna got the Yadavas killed by war and by drinking wine at the end. He has given ten thousand Yadavas to Duryodhana to help him in the war. All of them were killed. In the end all His close relatives including His sons and grandsons killed each other and He was a silent spectator. You think that Rama was fond of His wife and exploited Hanuman to save her. In fact the whole war took place only due to the foolish desire of Sita for the golden deer. However, you do not know the background of Sita. She is the possessor of the entire wealth of this universe. Was she attracted by the petty golden deer? The drama was written like that by Rama. Sankara wandered all over the country to uplift the humanity.

Here the Lord liked the social service at the cosmic level. Therefore sometimes the Lord may be pleased with your service at the level of His human body. Sometimes He may be pleased with your service done to His devotees, who are in disguise as His relatives to test you. Sometimes he may require your service at the level of the entire society. The will of the Lord is important. The will of the Lord is always justified if the entire background is known. Jesus was pleased with the service of a woman who applied scent on His feet. It is purely personal service at the level of His body. A devotee commented that instead of doing such personal waste service for the enjoyment of Jesus, it is better to do the social service by feeding beggars. However, Jesus objected to that remark and supported the personal service of that woman. Jesus told that beggars will be always there but the human incarnation is very rare. The background of this is to be analyzed. The devotee became jealous with the service of that woman. If he was in the place of Jesus he would not have passed the same comment.

The society is not above the God. This is the concept of Jesus and Sankara. There cannot be uniform service to the souls because each soul has its own level of nature. The service should be multy leveled and such capability lies with God only. The woman who served Jesus was a liberated soul that accompanied the Lord and was far superior to any other soul in the world. Rama was very fond of Sita by blindly following Her wish for the golden deer. His blind love was not on His wife but on Goddess Maha Lakshmi who was a liberated soul.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org