Jnaana Saraswathi
Spiritual Discourses by Shri Datta Swami
Explore spiritual discourses covering all aspects of universal spirituality, philosophy, and divine wisdom from Shri Datta Swami.
Showing 15 of 5828 discourses
GOD AND HUMAN COMPONENTS IN AN INCARNATION
Even a real human incarnation of God will not say that He is God. Krishna never said that He is God except on one specific occasion, which is [during] preaching the Gita to Arjuna. The human incarnation is a two component system in one phase. It is like the alloy of gold and copper existing in single phase. The human incarnation results when God enters a liberated soul, which is a human being. The human incarnation appears as an ordinary human being only. When copper is alloyed with a trace of gold, it appears as copper only. Unless you see it through a powerful microscope, you will not be able to find out the existence of gold in it. Similarly, the human incarnation appears as human being only and unless you are capable of intensive spiritual analysis...
SPIRITUAL CONCEPTS IN BRIEF
Smt. Kandarpa Padma Ram is very much dedicated to Swami. She sang all the devotional songs composed by Swami with her extraordinary sweet voice. She also composed several songs on Swami. Swami never gave her any vision even though she was asking for it. Swami told that she is the lotus flower in the hand of the Lord and came for divine service and therefore no such proof is required for her. One day she was fighting with Swami on the phone from a far place. She asked Swami to show a vision to somebody at least there and let that person speak about the vision to her on phone. Swami scolded her and placed the phone down. At the same time, a lady visited the house in which Swami was sitting. She arrived from a far place on that day...
MOST STRESSFUL TIME: DEATH AND AFTER
[Message on Dasara, Day-1] Goddess Durga fought with the demon called Mahishasura for ten days and got victory on the tenth day. Durga means protection. This protection has very little significance as far as the problems in this world are concerned. People do not realize the insignificance of these worldly problems because they have not witnessed the greatest problem, which is faced at the time of the death before going to hell. Unfortunately, this greatest problem is visualized at the exact moment of death when the person is unable to even express his feelings on seeing the messengers from hell. A line appears small only when a bigger line is present next to it. If the soul could witness the last scene during this life time itself...
HINDUISM - MERITS AND DEMERITS
Today even a mosquito is killing the man by giving dangerous fever. The man used to say, “I will quash you like a mosquito.” This means that mosquito is the most negligible creature. But today the mosquito has become an instrument of Yama to kill the people! What is the reason for this? The situation is reversed. The souls must realize now about their own real strength. It has become zero. If the zero has a number behind it, it gets value of ten, hundred, thousand etc. But when the number becomes absent, any number of zeros is zero only. The soul becomes hero when it is backed by God. Arjuna realized this after the exit of Krishna...
KNOWLEDGE TO SERVICE
[2nd Message on the Eve of Krishnashtami] Lord Krishna proved that knowledge is always the highest because knowledge is related to intelligence (Buddhi). Therefore, the Jnana Yoga is also called as the Buddhi Yoga by which you can certainly attain God (Dadami...). The knowledge gives devotion and you can attain God by devotion. Unless you know that the boy is your son, you will not love him. When you know more and more about God’s greatness, your love increases proportionally. Therefore knowledge generates devotion and also develops the devotion. Knowledge also leads to right action...
EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS
Sometimes we find a very young boy or girl to be outstanding in education. We appreciate for the exceptional God-given gift. On this point there are two angles of analysis. In one angle such exceptional caliber is appreciable because this present caliber in the Pravrutti (Materialism) will certainly continue in the Nivrutti (Spiritual effort) also in the future. A person who is active in worldly affairs is similar to a person, who is having exceptional speed in running. Unfortunately, he is running in the opposite direction. We have to simply turn him to the right direction. He will achieve the goal very fast...
SAMNYASA SIGNIFIES UNIVERSAL SPIRITUALITY
The saffron color of the cloth of a saint indicates the color of ripened fruit, which stands for the ultimate knowledge in the spiritual path. Without such knowledge, the saffron cloth is meaningless. Krishna never wore the saffron cloth, but He had the ultimate knowledge even from the childhood as we can see from His discourse given to the villagers in resisting the sacrifice to be performed to please Indra. The cloth is only a symbol of the concept and symbol alone without the concept is meaningless. Krishna is the saint without symbol and every present saint is not a saint having symbol only. Shankara is the saint with the symbol. Krishna and Shankara are equal because the inner concept is one and the same and the symbol is not at all important...
THE CLOSEST INDICATOR FOR THE UNIMAGINABLE GOD
The existence of any item is experienced in two ways. 1) In the first way, the existence is realized by direct perception. You realize the pot existing on the floor by looking at it with your eyes. This is direct knowledge. 2) In the second way, the existence is realized by indirect inference. You infer the existence of fire on the hill by seeing the smoke generated from the fire and surrounding the fire. This is indirect knowledge. In the case of unimaginable God, the existence of God is realized by indirect knowledge only. Observing the unimaginable events generated by God called as miracles, which mainly include the unimaginable knowledge, you infer the existence of unimaginable...
LORD PRAISED KNOWLEDGE AT OUTSET IN THE GITA
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...
THE SOUL HAS BEEN MISTAKEN TO BE GOD
[Shankara Jayanthi] If the spiritual knowledge is perfect and complete, the devotion and practice are the spontaneous subsequent steps for which there is no need of any effort. If the practice is perfect and complete, the fruit is spontaneous. Therefore, all the efforts should be put only to gain the perfect and complete spiritual knowledge. Hence, Shankara told that knowledge alone can achieve fruit (Jnanadevatu…). The perfect and complete spiritual knowledge is possible only from God. But, God is unimaginable and therefore, the unimaginable God comes down in human form to give this perfect and complete knowledge. For this purpose, which is most important, God will never enter inert medium. The human form means the soul or awareness associated...
TRUTH ABOUT SHRI SATYA SAI
Devotees’ Enquiry: [The following question was asked by Devi and Nikhil to Swami: Padanamaskaram Swamiji, We are aware that You have said that Shri Sathya Sai Baba is a complete incarnation of Lord Datta and we completely believe that. We beg Your forgiveness for the impudent nature of this question. It is based on the perceptions of the majority of ignorant people, including ex-devotees of Shri Satya Sai... Lord Datta Answers:To answer this question, Lord Datta Himself has to come forward. I prayed to Lord Datta to answer it through My mouth and now Lord Datta is speaking through My mouth: I enter the human body to establish both dharma in Pravrutti as well as the path to please Me through Nivrutti. By following the Pravrutti Dharma, the souls will not displease Me, because the foundation of the society which is the stage for My divine play is to be protected. I enter several human bodies at a time for various programs from time to time according to the requirement. This type is called as Purnaavatara...
More Advaita Questions-I
In a spiritual discussion, the two persons discussing, should have co-operation with each other because both of them are jointly searching for the truth. Thus the person questioning and the person answering are building up the search and their common aim should only be to find the truth. Whoever finds the truth should not feel like a winner and the other person should not feel like a runner-up (loser). Both are equal and responsible for finding the truth. Both the runner-up and winner are rewarded with prizes equally. Unless Arjuna had asked questions...
ESSENCE OF RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES - I
[This is telephonic Divine Discourse given by Swami on June 25, 2006, in response to questions asked by devotees from various places in the world. The questions asked by devotees were pertaining to practical worldly problems faced by them. Swami has answered the questions based on the essential message of all the religious scriptures of the world such as the Veda, Bible, Gita, Quran, the Puranas and the great epics.] Guru Selection: Mrs. Bhargavi (USA), who has created a website on the human incarnation and is a devotee of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, bombarded Swami with a question: “Why have You advertised Your miracles in Your website and propagated about Yourself? We are in search of a Guru, please guide us”. Swami replied, “If you give Me the appointment order to join the duty as your Guru, I shall join at once. I shall be very happy if you select Me as your Guru after conducting an interview and analyzing Me patiently.” A saint from Varanasi came to see Sai Baba. On his arrival, he found a procession in which Baba was walking for relaxation...
THE SECRET BEHIND LORD KRISHNA'S ROMANCE
[One converted Christian from Hinduism (Shri Shastri), who is a Sanskrit scholar, visited Swami on this festival day. He told that he was attracted to Christianity by the spotless character of Jesus and was very much repelled by the bad character of Krishna regarding Gopikas. Swami replied him, which is given below as the divine message on Deepavali. After hearing the reply from Swami, which was spontaneous discourse, Shri Shastri bowed to the divine lotus feet of Swami with tears and went away silently.] Reply of Swami: If you are converting your religion just for the sake of your liking to Jesus, there is no objection, because liking has no reason. But, if your conversion is based on repulsion to Krishna, I will not agree to it. Similarly, if a Christian is converted to become Hindu, due to liking on Krishna, I have no objection. But, his conversion should not be due to repulsion to Jesus...
THE AIM OF HUMAN LIFE
The Scripture says that among the ten incarnations, Lord Krishna alone is the fullest incarnation (Paripurna Tamah Saakshat). If you compare Krishna with the other incarnations, the special point that lies with Krishna alone is the revelation of divine knowledge about God (Nivrutti) or Brahma Jnana. Buddha also gave divine knowledge. But He kept silent about God indicating that God is unimaginable. All His preaching was concentrated on the behaviour of the human being towards other co-human beings and also towards other living beings. He concentrated...