Dattaswami answers questions from a Christian devotee
Q1) The Bible (Matthew 19:12) says regarding becoming a eunuch (napuMsaka) for the sake of the kingdom of heaven “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it”. Does it mean that anyone who feels capable of remaining a celibate (brahmachari) for the sake of God should become one?
A. The word eunuch means the removal of male egoism. Krishna asked the saints to be born as maidens to receive the salvation. Celibate means the person is always interested in the search of the God. It is has nothing to do with marriage. In Sanskrit the word Brahmachari indicates a person who is always aware of the Lord.
Q2) How can I handle Rajas and Tamas in me?
A. Rajas or Krodha means emotion. Tamas means ignorance. Both these can be removed by Sattvam, which is the true knowledge given by your selected spiritual preacher.
Q3) The Bible has a concept of the "Holy Spirit" that comes down to dwell in people who have put their full faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Where does that fit into Hinduism?
A. The Holy Spirit means pure Sattvam. Sattvam indicates the knowledge and all the good qualities associated with it are indicated by the word Holiness. All the devotees of God are blessed with this pure Sattvam as you can find in Gita. This pure Sattvam is always associated with the Lord as said in Gita.
Q4) You say that you are the human incarnation of God. Then how come I never got even a little bit of Bliss from you? Even if Bliss is not the goal, I should get atleast some in order to identify you as per your method of identifying the human incarnation—Knowledge that gives bliss and generates love.
A. I never said that I am the human incarnation of God. Only when the devotees stress on this concept even after my serious opposition I agree to it because if you analysis the word human incarnation, it does not mean that I am God. It means that the God is present in this human body as a guest visiting your house for his work. My inert human body is the house. I am the soul and owner of this house. The God visited my house for his work. When the guest in your house speaks you are not speaking. Therefore, when God gives this spiritual knowledge I am not speaking. You need not fear that I have become God. You say God in flesh. This word indicates the concept. The word flesh indicates the inert human body and the soul in it. The word God indicates the guest that visited the human body. This spiritual knowledge has given bliss to some people and has not given bliss to you. This means that the defect is with the soil and not with seed.
If the seed is defective, the seed should not germinate in any soil. Similarly my knowledge should not have given bliss to anybody. As soon as you hear the knowledge, the harsh truth in it may not give bliss to you. But some devotees may get bliss on hearing the truth even if it is harsh. Did the knowledge of Jesus give bliss to all in His time? In that case why He was crucified by majority of the people? According to your version, all the people should have got bliss. When the doctor says to a patient that an injection of medicine is to be given, the child weeps. The child does not get bliss from the medicine immediately. But in long run the child gets good health and gets bliss permanently.
A grown up person is happy by seeing the injection because he realises that the medicine injected will act quickly. A child is not getting immediate bliss on seeing the injection. But the same injection is giving bliss to an elder person. Your heart is pure and innocent like that of a child. When the knowledge is practiced, then only the eternal bliss dawns on you. But you should not satisfy yourself there. You must give bliss to the God through sacrifice. If your ultimate goal is only bliss, you are in no way greater than any ordinary human being who also craves for the same bliss. You have taken God as the means to achieve the bliss. The other fellow has taken the wine as means to achieve the same bliss. Your aim is on the bliss only and not on the God. You should keep God blissful through suffering by sacrifice. The God also will keep you blissful by attracting your sins on Him. Such sacrifice of yourself or God is the real love. Such real love is practically experienced in the case of your love on your family members. It is not impossible. If it is impossible, it should be impossible everywhere.
Q5) After Jesus Christ left his disciples, the disciples continued to teach that one should follow and worship Jesus Christ only. Even though they were the ones representing God and the Holy Spirit was supporting them, they did not ask people to worship them. How come you are indicating that it would be good for people to worship you now?
A) I am speaking about the God in flesh, who comes in every human generation. I am telling that you should identify such human incarnation and worship Him. The disciples cannot be the human incarnations and so the disciples of Jesus were correct. Whoever is the human incarnation like Jesus, Krishna etc, should be worshipped. I have given the signs of the human incarnation as present in scriptures. I have also asked you to use your logic in such identification. After all this, if you identify me as the human incarnation, then only you have to worship me. I never say that I am the human incarnation and you should worship me.
Krishna also told Arjuna to worship Him as the human incarnation. I never told like that. I only say that after the analysis of the scriptures, whoever is found as the human incarnation, He should be worshipped. If you are found as the human incarnation you should be worshipped. How can I force anybody to worship me? I have accepted the worship of those devotees only who have firm faith in Me even after My several negative tests. That does not apply to your case. Whomever you find as the human incarnation you worship Him. My information to you is that the human incarnation exists in every generation to avoid the partiality.
Q6) The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will be your guide in all things until Jesus Christ comes again. And, there will be other preachers, but Christ himself will not come down until the time and manner specified. You are saying you are re-incarnation of Jesus Christ, and we should worship you. Please explain this.
A) As I told you the Holy Spirit means the divine knowledge. The recorded divine knowledge can certainly guide people to some extent. But the direct explanation from the God cannot be given by anybody. God gives such direct explanation to every human generation directly. If one generation is blessed by such direct contact and other generations are having only the indirect guidance by Holy Spirit, again the partiality arises. Therefore, either there should be continuous guidance by the Holy Spirit for every generation from the beginning of the creation or God must be coming in every generation. Gita says that God comes down whenever there is necessity. You stick to one scripture only and argue. What about the other scriptures?
Q7) What is your explanation of the Millennium prophecies in the Bible?
A) Any prophecy carries the internal meaning, which is present in every human generation and it is not limited to a particular period of time.
Q8) According to your lectures, the same people of your inner circle are born again and again in this world. Does this mean that these people cannot reach the permanent abode of the Lord?
A) The inner circle devotees of God have reached already the permanent abode of God. These devotees take human births whenever God comes down in human form. When the mission is over God will go to the permanent abode along with these liberated souls. In fact wherever God exists, that is the eternal divine abode. These devotees will never come to the routine cycle on this earth. From that angle they have no re-birth. Any soul is having the equal opportunity to enter the inner circle provided the soul has strong wish and puts efforts.
Q9) You say it is necessary for God to incarnate again and again since Christianity and Islam do not accept re-incarnation for the soul. But later you explain your theories assuming reincarnation of the soul. So what is your actual stand; do you accept reincarnation of the soul or not? If you do, then how can you reconcile with Christianity and Islam, which absolutely do not accept it?
A) The liberated soul will never have re-birth in this routine cycle. But the soul will be born as human being to associate and serve the God, whenever God comes down in human form. Regarding the ordinary soul also, it will not get the re-birth having the same spiritual chance. Therefore, one should try to please God in this human birth itself without postponement. Thus, there is no re-birth from this angle. But the soul can be born as an animal or animal like human being and thus re-birth exists. Like this the contradiction can be removed. If you pass a hard and fast rule that the soul has no re-birth at all, do you mean that omni potent God is also bound by your rule? The Lord can sanction the human re-birth to a soul with the equal spiritual chance also, provided He feels that the soul can uplift itself if a chance is given. Of course, such chance is very rare and one should not depend on it.
Q10) In your attempt to reconcile reincarnation vs. permanent heaven/hell, you say that repeated animal births is also a permanent hell. The Bible clearly says that in hell, the souls retain the ability to feel pain and reason (thinking). Animals do not think and do not remember their past births. If you say they are being punished, they do not even know why they are being punished. They will not learn anything from the punishment and will continue with their sinful ways if they get human birth. Also animals cannot be said to be suffering because they do not even know any better life. How can this be the hell described in the Bible?
A) The sinners are like animals. You can see a thief continues with his quality in spite of intensive third degree treatment in the police station. According to your version, he should realise his mistake because he is a human being and not the animal. How do you know that the animal is also not realising since it keeps silent? You are depending always on one scripture and your argument is always unidirectional. If you read life history of Shirdi Sai Baba, one day He found a snake swallowing a frog. Sai told His devotees that both the snake and frog were human beings in the previous birth and that they stabbed each other for the sake of property.
Then Sai told the snake and frog “Are you not ashamed of your behaviour which continues from the previous birth”? The snake left the frog and went away. Animals have realised on the warning from the Lord. Sometimes you find two human beings fighting with each other and do not separate inspite of your repeated warnings. If you simply depend on the Bible or Gita only, there is no use of any discussions with you. You must be a sea frog and not well frog as said by Swami Vivekananda. You must examine all the scriptures impartially and then only you can arrive at the true knowledge. I see yourself as pure colourless crystal with pure innocent heart like child and imbibing the colour of any substance near yourself.
You say that logic should be avoided. This means you must follow whatever some body says to you without analysing it. Now I will also say some thing and just follow it without analysis. You always analyse my statements because I said that you should analyse every statement. But I mean that you should analyse every statement of every person. Some one says that you should follow his statement without analysis. You simply accept that without analysis. What I mean is that you should analyse both of us and arrive at the truth. If you are against the logical analysis, why are you analysing my statements only? You must follow my statements also blindly. Is it said that the statement of any Indian guy should be analysed and your version of “Beyond the logic” does not apply to the Indian guys?
Q11) The Bible mentions the coming again of the Christ. It does not say anything about repeated incarnations of Jesus. It accepts only two: One that came 2000 yrs ago and the second, which will come after the tribulation. Specific events described in the Bible about the time of second coming of the Christ have not yet taken place. How can you then claim to be the re-incarnation of Jesus?
A) The word Jesus means the eternal God present in that human body. The same human body will never come again. Therefore, Jesus will come in another human body. If you restrict to only two human incarnations according the direct meaning of statement, then Bible contradicts Gita. Gita says that God will come in human form any number of times whenever there is necessity. I have to speak keeping all these scriptures in my view. You speak only keeping one scripture in your view. This is the reason for the gap between us. To solve the contradiction I will say that Jesus will come again and this does not mean that He will come once only again. The tribulation is present in every generation and is not limited to a particular period.
Q12) The Bible indicates that the world will not know perfect peace until after the tribulation period. Is perfect peace the aim of your mission?
A) In every human generation the tribulation comes and the tribulation may be very serious in the end. The cyclones come often and Tsunami comes rarely. Both the cyclone and Tsunami should be controlled. The efforts of human incarnation may vary in their intensity. Perfect peace is the initial aim of God (Pravrutti), which is the establishment of balance of the society. The higher aim is liberation of the soul (Nivrutti). Unless the first aim is achieved, the second aim cannot be thought of. Unless the class is kept silent, there is no use of teaching.
Q13) I think that you are the Anti Christ since it is written in the Bible that the Anti Christ will win the hearts of people by pretending to preach world peace and unity of all religions. What do you say?
A) You are saying that the anti-Christ tries for world peace. This means that Christ is against the world peace! This simple logic crushes your statement because Jesus is the very embodiment of peace. Even in Hinduism, the followers of Ramanuja say that Sankara was the incarnation of a demon. They quote some verses from the “Bhavishyat Purana” written by sage Vyasa, which show the same meaning. The question to such people is “Have you recorded the Purana from the mouth of Vyasa directly by a tape recorder? Or at least have you got a written hand script of Vyasa?” Certainly this statement was introduced in to the scripture by some guy later on.
Q14) If Jesus died for my sins and the sins of the whole world, then my sins are washed when I confess and accept Him as my only savior. Why do I need you or anyone else for reaching heaven or attaining salvation?
A) It is written on the first page of Bible that Jesus came to save His people. His people mean His devotees and it does not mean that He saved every human being without any discrimination. I ask a simple question with simple common sense. According to Christianity the soul has no re-birth. All the souls before the birth of Jesus have gone either to God or hell permanently. Now Jesus suffered for all the sins of all the souls. Does this mean that all the souls present in the permanent hell were immediately relieved from the hell and hell is vacant? Now you say that your sins are also cancelled.
How He has cancelled the sins of the future generation? Suppose you say that He has cancelled all the sins of all the souls of past, present and future, this means no soul was in the hell and no soul is in the hell and no soul will go to the hell. What is the use of that hell which is always vacant? The people have propagated the misinterpretations due to their anxiety to attract the people towards Christianity. They show this as their special point, which is not present in any other religion. They want to attract the innocent masses by such statements and forget the simple logic and their committed blender. The real interpretation of this statement is that Jesus suffered for the sins of His real devotees.
Such behaviour of sacrifice exists in Hinduism also. Krishna tried to give away all His wealth to Sudama and tried to transfer his poverty on to Him. But Sudama is His real deserving devotee. Incarnations of Datta like Sai also showed the suffering of sins of their real devotees. With such interpretation only this concept becomes universal and justified in all religions. Do not be carried away by the interpretations of the human beings.
You read the Bible and think about the meanings. Your pure heart will certainly receive the real meaning if you do not hear any body. You read the knowledge of any body and try to assimilate it with your own brain. Do not allow other brains for understanding the scripture. God has clearly explained in the scripture and you can yourself understand by using even little common sense. The word of God is very clear.
Q15) You base your arguments on the impartiality of God. However the Bible gives indications that God favored some places and people over others. The truth is that partiality/impartiality, logic, reason, justice, equality and fairness are all concepts of the human mind. You cannot judge the works of God based on these human concepts. Why do you try to fit God in the limited boundaries of human rationality?
A) The partiality of God is justified provided it is shown on good people. But His partiality to a small country, which contains majority of bad people, is not justified. Therefore, you have to judge the partiality in the light of justice because God will never do injustice.
Q16) You say in the Rohit Gita that the son will be sent to hell if he leaves his parents for the sake of a girl (woman). However Jesus does not condemn it. Since man and woman were made by God and are united into one soul, in marriage, why should it not be justified for a man to leave his parents for a woman in order to start his family?
A) When a person leaves his parents, due to attraction of a girl, I mean leaving the attachment to parents. It does not mean physical separation, which is necessary for setting up the family. Jesus told that one has to leave all his family and even one has to be prepared to sacrifice the life for the sake of God in order to become His dearest disciple. How do you explain your own Bible in this point? His path is full of thorns and truth is always harsh.
Q17) You said that we all play roles here in this earth. Some people play good roles, and some people play evil roles. But, both the roles get their remuneration after death equally. Jesus Christ said that 'Evil trials must come, but woe to those through whom they come'. Why is there woe to the evil person who brings trials to the good then, like the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus? This also seems to go against the philosophy of Heaven and Hell. Please explain.
A) When the human incarnation comes down along with the inner circle of devotees, the roles are assigned for the divine drama. In such case, there is no discrimination of good and bad roles. Ravana was the gatekeeper of the Lord. But you should not extend this to the entire world and say that every bad fellow is in the divine role. Ravana went to the abode of the Lord after the death. But every bad fellow will not go to the abode of Lord. The divine drama is enacted for the sake of the world. Judas Iscariot acted in his bad role. His repentance and suicide prove that he belongs to inner circle only.
My friend! Since you have not accepted me I address you as My friend and not as my disciple. This is the inner meaning when I told that you were my friend in Brindavanam. I will never say to you or your category that I am God or God is in me. I say only that I am a devotee like you. This is the reason for sending Rohit Gita to Dr. Nikhil only and not to you directly.
I say God is in me to such devotees who have partial faith on me. But to my inner circle devotees I say that I am God. The statements differ one devotee to other. Jesus also told in different ways “ I am messenger from God”, “I am son of the God” and “I am the God since I and my father are one and the same”. These different statements relate to different levels of devotees. One level cannot absorb the statement of other level. For example you take the case of Ajay Bhaiah.
He always sings the devotional songs composed by me. He has full devotion on me while singing the Bhajans. He always participates in Satsanga and receives knowledge through his intelligence. He always works for the mission. He sacrificed all his ancestral wealth to the mission during the time of past ten years and the cost of that wealth comes to about one crore rupees. He has children and lives on his salary only. He has several debts in the Banks.
I tried several times to pay his debts but he did not accept. I tested him in several ways but his faith did not shake. In fact I am defeated by him. He saw the vision of Viswaroopam (Cosmic form) in me. The God in me gave that vision to him and I have nothing to do with it. When I said that the God in me gave the vision, he never agrees and says that I am the God. Therefore, I declare to him only that I am the God.
This declaration is personal and is limited to his case only. Krishna never told that He is God to any one in His lifetime. Only when He was teaching Gita to Arjuna He declared He is God and gave the vision of cosmic form. Therefore, you do not touch the statements of other levels. I will speak to you in your level and you can treat me as a mere human being and as your good friend.
At the Lotus feet of Datta Swami
