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DEVELOPING DEVOTION

Selfishness of Human Devotion

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,
[March 19, 2007 On the occasion of Yugadi or New Year
according to the Indian Calendar.] Making God as the final goal, the
devotion to Lord should be done in the theoretical phase as well as the
practical phase. Only such devotion is real, and the real devotees are
Hanuman and the Gopikas, who should be our guides in the spiritual
effort. But very few human beings can attain this level and God says in
the Gita that one in millions alone can attain such a state. In this real
spiritual path, all items except God are only the means, whereas
pleasing God is the final goal. But the majority of human beings is
reverse to this real path. Most human beings make God as means to
achieve their self-pleasure by crossing the difficulties in life. Even
devotees, who worship the Lord for attaining the upper world, belong to
this path alone because they are also making God as the means to avoid
hell and attain the upper world. Crossing difficulties and the attainment
of selfish pleasure is the only goal, whether the place is earth or the
upper world. Hence, for ordinary human beings, it is almost impossible
to attain such real devotion. Selfishness is the nature of the soul and can
never be avoided like the curvature of a dog’s tail (Prakritim yaanti
Bhutani—Gita). Therefore, for almost all the human beings, God only
becomes the instrument or means to attain selfish pleasure. Even the so-
called spiritual aspirants say that the goal of their spiritual effort is only
to attain the bliss of God, but in reality, they only want selfish bliss and
not giving bliss to God. If you take the case of Hanuman, He wanted to
commit suicide in the service of His contemporary human incarnation
while searching for Sita. He thought that if Sita were not found, Rama
would die and instead of becoming the cause of the death of Rama, it is
better to end His own life. Generally people worship God to avoid pre-
mature death. But Hanuman wanted pre-mature death for the sake of
God. Several demons worshipped God to become immortal and avoid
death. Thus, there is a 180-degree difference between Hanuman and the
demons and hence Hanuman is the bitter enemy of all demons.
Therefore, to achieve real devotion towards God with a final aim
of pleasing God at the cost of one’s own death is a matter of dream for
human beings. Jesus says that unless one is prepared to carry his own
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cross for the sake of God, one cannot become the dearest disciple of
God. Infact the crucifixion of Jesus was not only to save the real
devotees from their sins but also to create kindness in the hearts of even
cruel people so that they will be attracted towards the spiritual path.
Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus was completely a part of the divine
program of God. Hence, Jesus accepted it to fulfill the work of God. The
result of such sacrifice for God is that Hanuman became the future
Creator and Jesus sat on the right side of God. When Krishna left His
body, the Gopikas jumped into fire while their husbands were still alive.
They sacrificed not only their lives but also the tradition of jumping into
fire only on the occasion of the death of the husband. They attained
Goloka, which is above the abode of God. Such examples of Hanuman,
Jesus and the Gopikas stand only as inspiring ideals for ordinary human
beings, so that every human being can atleast get passing marks.
It is very clear that the human being can worship God only to cross
difficulties and attain selfish pleasure (Maanushananda) and if possible
to attain the bliss of God (Brahmananda). The difficulties may belong to
this world or the upper hell but the philosophy is one and the same. In
that case, how to keep the human being constantly in the devotion of
God, which is certainly only a means and not the end? Even in such low
type of devotion, people forget God as soon as their problems get
solved. For a few days they may remember God with gratefulness but
very shortly they forget God. People will remember the problems of the
past forever provided there is a possibility of claiming credit for their
effort. This means that people will remember the difficulties in the past
and explain the scenes with a lot of interest to others continuously till
the day of their death provided there is a possibility of mentioning their
own capabilities as the means for crossing those difficulties. Therefore,
the past difficulties are of no use to keep the human being constantly in
devotion because God has to be praised and not the self. Hanuman never
mentioned that He jumped over the sea in a single long jump to project
His own capability. Even if somebody mentioned that incident, He
would say that He jumped over the sea only with the grace of God. But
if you replace Hanuman by an ordinary human being, what will happen?
For some days he will say that he jumped over the sea by the grace of
Rama. But slowly, as time passes, he will say that he jumped over the
sea in a single jump. You can see such egoistic attitude in the
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conversations of even old people, who always try to project their

capabilities expressed in their past life-incidents.
The only spontaneous devotion towards God that we have (which
ofcourse is not real, since our devotion is only a means) is due to the
pressure of present problems. This artificial devotion shoots up
spontaneously because God is only the final means for crossing such
present difficulties. There is no need of any message or force for the
devotee to maintain the devotion during the tenure of present problems.
But once the problem is solved and peace and happiness are attained,
the human being forgets God completely after a very short time. This
ungratefulness towards God is mainly based on the effect of ego
because there is no possibility of keeping the self in the place of God in
solving such problems. If there is even a trace of possibility of keeping
the self in the place of God, the fellow would constantly remember that
incident till the day of his death because it projects self praise.
Astrology Helps in Continuous Devotion
You may say that the only alternative then is to continue the
problems without end. Infact Kunti asked the Lord for such a boon. She
said that since difficulties alone can keep devotion alive in the case of
human beings, that the Lord should give her continuous difficulties. But
this is not possible because continuous difficulties also bore the soul and
the attitude of God as the Divine Father is to make the souls happy and
not to bore them. For this purpose He arranged the cycles of lives with
alternate happiness and misery. Unless the soul is a demon, it cannot get
continuous difficulties because only a demon does continuous sins. A
human being is neither a bad demon nor a good angel. He is a mixture
of both (Anistamistam Mishramcha—Gita). Therefore, continuous
problems cannot be accommodated in the cycle of deeds of human
beings. Hence, happiness has to come after some period of misery like
winter after summer or day after night. In that case the problem is that
devotion to God during the period of happiness becomes impossible.
Therefore, some clue should be adopted to foresee the misery in
the future, so that God can be worshipped even during the period of
happiness to avoid misery in the future. The knowledge of alternating
happiness and misery of the cycle of deeds is sufficient to realize the
misery in the future. But for ordinary ignorant human beings this
general concept will not give a real psychological effect. Unless an
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individual case is specified and unless the misery in the future is

specifically indicated, the human being will not take up the worship of
God with utmost care, during happiness. For this purpose alone, was the
subject of astrology born. By astrology an individual can foresee the
misery in the future. Astrology is Jyotisha Shastram, which means the
science of light. It is the torchlight to foresee the misery in the future. It
shows both misery and happiness in the future. But a human being will
be alert only to avoid the misery in the future by taking some action in
the present as prevention. If the misery appears after a long time, the
human being will again sleep in the present happiness. Therefore, the
design of the recycling periods of the nine planets (Dasha) is arranged in
a wonderful manner so that you can see some misery even in the next
hour. This is done by the system of Dasa-Antardasha-Vidasha-Sukshma
Dasha-Prana Dasha etc. Among these nine planets, some planets are
good and some planets are certainly bad for any Zodiac (Raasi) in which
one is born. By these systems of period, sub-periods, sub sub-periods
etc., one can find the involvement of a bad planet (intensity may vary)
even in the next hour. Based on this system astrologers can calculate the
time of the incident very precisely, even up to hours and minutes.
Therefore, astrology helps the human being to foresee the misery in the
future and advises to avoid the misery by worship of God and by doing
certain specified sacrifice (Daanam). This covers both theoretical and
practical devotion continuously throughout the life. Therefore, astrology
is justified because the ends justify the means. Infact it is a part of
spiritual knowledge because God is also mentioned as the ultimate light
(Paramjyoti rupasampadya—Veda, Jyotiridhikaranam of Brahma
Sutras). Hence, these torchlights of the planets acting as secondary
lights help the human being to worship the main ultimate light (God).
Today human beings approach astrologers and hear the predictions
for one year. Earlier, there was no difference between the Satguru and
astrologer because the Satguru adopts the method of astrology for
ordinary ignorant human beings to create interest in God. In the
beginning the interest may be as a means but slowly on realizing the
taste of God, they may become real devotees. This is the right spirit and
direction of our tradition. If you observe today, you can see the fate of
this well-established divine tradition. The astrologer is not at all a
Satguru. He is just giving his predictions to collect some money on that
day for his predictions. He also designs the future plan of his work in
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the year to earn money through the remedies suggested and his
prediction is just an annual financial budget. He sows the seed of fear of
future misery in the minds of some rich people so that the future
remedies can give some financial benefits to him or to his secret
partners, who are the priests involved in such remedies. Astrology is a
part of the divine philosophy because the planets are the executive
authorities of implementing the cycle of deeds based on the constitution
spelled out by God. If you insult astrology, God will also be furious
because if a constable is insulted, the state police authority will feel
insulted. Astrology is expected to lead the ordinary ignorant human
beings to the spiritual path. If the astrologer realizes this truth and
behaves accordingly, God will be pleased with him because the
astrologer will become a servant in the divine mission of the Lord. In
that case all the problems of the astrologer will be taken care of by
divine grace and he need not worry about himself any more. Ordinary
human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to
fear of the cane before their eyes and such a cane is the misery in the
future indicated by the astrologer. Either devotion or fear (Bhakti or
Bhayam) can give fruit. If devotion is impossible, fear is used to
develop devotion at the ground level.
The Sutras written by Jaimini are the fundamental basis of
astrology and also Purva Mimamsa. Jaimini indicates various forms of
God for getting a remedy to various human beings according to their
qualities. Vishnu (Saturn and Mercury), Lakshmi (Moon and Venus),
Shiva (Jupiter), Skanda (Mars), Durga (Rahu) and some village deities
(Ketu) are such divine forms mentioned by Jaimini. This shows that he
is bringing ordinary human beings upward to the level of devotion,
through the cane of fear. The Uttara Mimamsa of Vyasa finally
concentrates on establishing the unity (Brahman) of these divine forms.
Both Jaimini and Vyasa constitute the two gradual steps in spiritual
progress. They are not opposite to each other. Both Vyasa and Jaimini
sat as judges for the debate between Shankara and Mandana Mishra and
this shows the correlation between these two steps.
Jaimini concentrates on sacrifice (Yajna) and even a large extent
of the Veda gives stress on sacrifice, which is the donation of prepared
food to a deserving guest. The food indicates the sacrifice of the fruit of
work (Karma Phala Tyaga) of the man and also the sacrifice of work
(Karma Sansya) of his wife in the process of cooking the food. Hence, it
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is a complete sacrifice, which is the result of devotion. Devotion is the

result of knowledge. Only the service involving sacrifice can yield fruit.
This is the spirit of the stress on Yajna laid by the Veda. Without
understanding it, people give importance to knowledge and devotion.
Almost all the Veda concentrates on Yajna. If Yajna were nothing, why
would the Veda give so much importance to it by covering it so
extensively? The followers of Jaimini gave importance to mere sacrifice
without God. Mere social service without God is of very little use since
it gives only temporary heaven. Hence, Jaimini joined the sacrifice with
devotion to divine forms.
Ignorance of Knowledge Induces Fear
[Devotees asked Swami about the Eclipse on this New Year’s
Day. Swami replied as follows.]
The eclipse is of no divine nature because today science explains
everything about an eclipse. It is a simile for a divine concept. The sun
represents intelligence and the moon represents the mind according to
the Veda. Rahu and Ketu represent the dark shadow of ignorance by
which both intelligence and mind are eclipsed. The pity of our
unfortunate tradition is that the concept disappears immediately and the
apparent simile always stands forever and in course of time becomes the
concept. A broker [matchmaker] described the bride as a rose flower
(metaphor; not simile). The bride escaped with her lover on the day of
the marriage. The clever broker brought a rose flower and kept it in the
place of the bride because he had already said that the bride was a rose
flower! Today the priests do not know even the meaning of the word the
Veda from which they recite the hymns. Even if they try to understand
the meaning of the word the Veda, they will stop the recitation. The
Veda means knowledge and not mere recitation of the words without
knowing the meaning. The tradition has exploited this unfortunate
situation also and tried to use it for the benefit of the upliftment of
ordinary human beings. The ignorance of this situation is used to cause
fear and the tradition tried to induce fear into the minds of ignorant
people so that they will atleast step into the spiritual field by fear. Once
this spirit is realized, there is no need of these similes (Jnate karma na
Vidyate—Gita). If your brain comes out of these worldly illusions
through knowledge and devotion, and if you are determined to serve the
Lord, there is no meaning of any eclipse in your case.