dattaswami

ADVICE ON YOUR FOOD HABITS The Veda says that you should not take food more than twice in 24 hours. If you take food more than twice, you should work like the animal ( dvirahnaah manushyaah trirahnaah pashavah… Veda). But, you are taking the food three times and not working like the bull in agriculture. Due to this, the sugar levels rise in the blood leading to several calamities of the health. When you become rich, you like to eat oily foods and sweets, which are fast vehicles to death. Poverty controls all the desires and gives best health and best happiness in the life. Hence, Shankara told that the poor man is the most fortunate fellow ( Kaupeenavantah khalu bhagyavantah ). If you realize this wonderful truth, your ambition to become more and more rich even through corruption and crime disappears. Such realization comes only through spiritual knowledge and not through the study of science and management of business administration. Hence, the education system must be thoroughly rejuvenated to fill more with spiritual knowledge and less with materialistic line of learning . If this is done by the Government, there need not be any effort to bring balance in the society with peace and happiness in the humanity. You must eat to live and not live to eat! The food must be in limited quantity. If the food is eaten in limited quantity, it is eaten by you (adyate) and if it is eaten more, you will be eaten by it (atti) since it (unlimited food) brings illness to kill you! This is said by the Veda ( adyate atticha bhutaani tasmaat annam ). Only little food is converted into energy. All the rest remaining food brings disease only. More food is eaten due to ambition for self only. Limited food is converted into limited energy. Since the energy is limited, you should not waste your energy in luxuries and in killing the time by useless entertainments. The digestive system is not a machine generating endless energy since the system has limits of work and efficiency. You may be very rich to procure unlimited quantity of food, but, your digestive system has limit in its work-efficiency. Hence, whether you are rich or poor, you have to take care about eating limited food and preserving the limited energy generated. This limited energy should be carefully and precisely used in worldly activities so that as far as possible more and more energy can be available for divine service. Full meal gives sleep. It means that sleep is indicating the full meal. Exactly half of this full meal should be taken so that half vacant stomach is partly filled with water and partly filled with moving gas. The food must be suitable to your body ( hitam ), limited ( mitam ) and just cooked ( hutam ), which alone gives perfect health ( hitabhuk mitabhuk hutabhuk ). You must rest a little after lunch and walk a little after dinner in the night ( katipaya padachamkramanah ). You must never resist urine and motion for a long time ( anibaddha mutra pureeshah ). You must have little frequency of sex as far as possible ( streeshu yo jaagarti ). All these are tips of health science given by yoga scripture. Health is the real wealth not only in Pravrutti (social justice) but also in Nivrutti (serving God). Extreme steps must be avoided as per authority also. [Both extreme steps of fasting and overeating to pain the soul shall be avoided as said in the Gita ( naatyashnatastu… , karshayantah… ). Fasting gives weakness in doing ritual and overeating brings drowsiness. Even the Veda recommends light food in rituals ( payo braahmanasya... ).] The food must be in three ways, devoid of three defects and first of three qualities. [Precautions must be taken in taking food: 1) It must be limited in quantity, but, high in quality. 2) It must be well cooked to eliminate bacteria and 3) It must be non-allergic to be known by test of a specific human being ( mitam hutam hitam ). The food must avoid three defects also: 1) Gas (vaata), 2) Damage of liver (pitta) and 3) effect of cold (sleshma). The food must be selected for the first quality and the other two qualities must be limited: 1) Sattvam with neutral taste, 2) Rajas with salty, chilly and sour tastes and 3) Tamas with killed taste due to long delay after cooking.] Deep sleep must be 1/3 or 1/4 of the day without the three types of dreams. [Sleep must not be lesser then 1/4 and must not be more then 1/3 of the duration of a day (24 hours). This sleep must be deep devoid of any dream. Dream comes for three reasons: 1) God may use it for communication with the soul. 2) The strong feelings of subconscious state of previous births may appear and 3) Some strong feelings from general conscious state of awakening of present birth may appear.] Gas generated from potato etc., cold generated from sweet and cool foods, indigestion coming from oil etc., spoil the health. You must stop the journey in rainy season since you will be attacked by illness. The secret of Chaaturmaasya (staying in one place during rainy season) is only this. You must have proper quantum of sleep to keep mind fresh and body also healthy. You must adapt yourself carefully according to changing seasons. Association with worldly people is not holy. Association with spiritual people makes you holy. Don’t aspire to become popular in this society of worldly people. This is the reason for the sages to go to forests to live in association with birds and animals, who do effort for the meals of that day only. The worldly people in cities and villages always put efforts even if they have earned wealth sufficient for 10 future generations! Take even simple food offered by spiritual people and don’t take even a feast offered by worldly people. You have to spend 1/3rd time of day (24 hrs) for sleep. Sleep is very essential for the brain and body. In the rest 2/3rd time (16 hrs), spend as much as possible for the sake of God after finishing your duties for earning and other responsibilities of your family. Rest a while after lunch and walk a while after dinner. The food taken should be 1/4th of your stomach. Water should be in another 1/4th part. Another 1/4th part should be for the movement of gas. The last 1/4th part should be free space. The scripture of Yoga prescribes this. Control of external and internal senses is the very foundation of Yoga. Doing regular exercises and avoiding polluted air by exposing to fresh and pure air are the associated steps for good health. You must take lot of care about your health, which is very much essential for the spiritual journey. You must always analyse food you take regarding its effects on your body. The food also affects your mind and intelligence. Food is the source of good health as well as disease. The qualities of food and its quantity should be always analysed. You take food through your mouth and similarly you hear the sentences through your ears. You must analyse the quality and quantity of speech grasped by your years. Both these decide your spiritual future. The effects of food on the body and mind We are talking about the force used by God to influence the thoughts, words, and deeds of souls in the Kṛta Age (initial ages) on earth. Earth is called Martya Loka which is a karma loka. It means that it is a world in which souls choose their own actions. It is only in this world that above-mentioned little freedom is possible. The upper worlds are called bhoga lokas in which the soul is destined to enjoy the fruits of its actions without the slightest freedom to alter the fruit. Hence, we need not touch the upper worlds in which there is not the slightest possibility of getting even a trace of freedom. In this karma loka or earth, during the Kṛta Age, all human beings ate only the prescribed food, which helps the soul in thinking, speaking and doing good alone. The state of the soul was like that of a hospitalized patient, who has the restriction of eating only the prescribed food. Food is said to influence the physical state of the body as well as the thoughts and the state of the mind (Annānurūpāṁ tanurūpabuddhiṁ, Kāryam nidānāddhi guṇānadhīte). Today, after getting freedom from God, human beings can eat any type of food. They can speak and do anything they want. If required, they can even do things that they want secretly! But the scriptures, the preachers and finally the Human Incarnations always exist in every generation to give souls all the information with full clarity about merit and sin. The ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it! Freedom can be enjoyed while simultaneously taking the necessary precautions of avoiding sin. The freedom allows you to do any type of meritorious action. Within the boundaries of meritorious action, there is a great variety of actions that one can do. Meritorious actions are like sweet, mild and good food which is called sāttvika āhāra. One has the freedom to choose any such good food for good physical and mental health. Hot and spicy dishes are like sins. You must take precautions to avoid all types of hot and spicy dishes in order to maintain good health. There are actually several saints who eat only sweet and mild food in limited quantities. They totally avoid hot and spicy dishes. The majority, like us, chooses to eat some spicy dishes too since God has given us the freedom of choice. Would you not criticize God if He had not given this freedom to us? Further, you may avoid sin and do only meritorious deeds. But if you do the meritorious deeds with the aspiration for heavenly enjoyment, here is a warning for you. It is like eating sweets which causes diabetes. Avoiding sins and doing meritorious deeds must be associated with true devotion to God. The devotion is like preventive medicine. It prevents the disease. The type of food we consume affects our mind. The qualities inherent in the food we eat produce corresponding qualities in our minds, which force our decision-making. But we must clearly note that it is we who are responsible for these forces acting on our mind arising from the qualities in the foods consumed by us. After all, we use our freedom to choose what we eat. God has given us intelligence and has also described the effects of different types of foods in the scripture such as the last chapter of the Gita. We had the freedom to choose any type of good food. Yet we also chose some food that is not good. Thus, we see that within certain limits, we have full freedom. We can similarly analyze the association with good and bad people. We have the freedom to associate with bad people just as we can choose bad food. But we can also use our intelligence and follow the divine instructions given by God. With right analysis, we can select the company of good people which is like good food. Among good people, we have full freedom to select any type of good people. In the Kṛta Age, souls only had the freedom to choose any type of good company. They had no freedom to choose bad company. Later on, God even granted the freedom to choose bad company. Some souls used that freedom, chose bad company and got spoiled. For that one cannot blame God because He always preaches to us all about good and bad without any partiality. You must not kill any living being for the sake of your food. () The killing is the greatest sin () You must not kill any living being for the sake of your food. God has given enough vegetable food that contains all the ingredients present in the non-vegetarian food. After all, the source of ingredients of any flesh is only vegetable kingdom only. Eating the non-vegetarian food is not a sin because same ingredients exist in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. But, you have to kill a living being for the sake of non-vegetarian food. The killing is the greatest sin. You may argue that you have not killed the living being directly. Such argument cannot stand. Since you are eating the non-vegetarian food, the living being is killed. You are responsible for its killing. Therefore, you are the principle shareholder of the sin. There is nothing wrong if you eat a living being after its natural death. In Hinduism, there is a sect of people called ‘Kapalikas’, who eat the dead living beings. Therefore, they do not acquire sin. The tsunami is always due to anger of God since you are killing the living beings present in water for food. The earthquakes are due to killing of living beings that exist on the earth. God in the form of Buddha and Mahavir preached the non-violence and severely opposed the killing of living beings. God in some other human forms might have followed the practice of non-vegetarian food in order to join with non-vegetarian people so that, certain other higher aspects to be preached might have been taken into consideration. That does not mean that God has encouraged the killing of living beings through non-vegetarian food. He might have kept silent on this issue in order to give importance to other serious issues. God follows the ignorance of the students in order to become friendly with them. To control a running bull, you have to run along with it for some distance before controlling it. All these are the basic concepts of nivrutti, which are the core of pravrutti. By following the ethics of pravrutti, you will avoid God becoming furious with you. Then, through nivrutti, you can please God. On one hand, you are making God furious by not following the ethics of pravrutti and how can you please God through nivrutti simultaneously? NEVER KILL ANIMALS! IT IS A GRAVE SIN My dear disciple! Listen Me. Non-violence is the roof of the justice. The animal nature shall be killed and not the animal! If you succeed in pravrutti, God will drag you in Nivrutti also. [The greatest sin is violence (ahimsaaparamodharmah), which means hurting or killing any good living being. People have misunderstood that animals are to be killed in sacrifice done for God. The Veda says that the animal to be killed is the rigid ignorance and stupidity of the animal-nature and not the actual animal itself (manyuhpashuh - Veda)! The word ‘ajaa’ means goat as well as food grains stored for three years (so that they are not useful for germination) from which the flour is prepared and a paste of it is used to prepare the statue of the animal. Such statue of animal is to be cut as a symbolic act. Without understanding the latter intended sense, people have started killing the goats in sacrifice! Any animal including cow or bird of soft nature should not be killed for the sake of food. Scripture says that a Brahmin should not be killed, but, Ravana (Brahmin) was killed by God. Brahmin means any living being (including human being) that does not harm you even if you harm it (ghaatamnaghaatayetviprah). The deity of justice surrendered to God Datta in the form of a cow. Cow slaughter means slaughter of justice. If justice is slaughtered, the cow is slaughtered and not reverse. Any soft-natured animal including cow or bird or human being should not be slaughtered. Slaughter of justice is the whole and slaughter of Cow is a part of it. This is the essence of the climax of justice. If you are not doing the three sins mentioned in the Gita, God will be very much pleased with you and pushes you in the path of Nivrutti also to make you His nearest and dearest!] Avoid unnecessary expenditure of money and energy also We should use electricity with utmost care only whenever we have a real necessity. People leave the lights and fans ON even after they leave the rooms. They try to show off their false generosity and richness; that they can pay the electricity charges even for the electricity that they do not need. Yes, I agree that you are very rich and have the capacity to pay the electricity bill even though it was spent unnecessarily. It is not the question of your capacity to pay the extra electricity charges. Electrical energy is generated only in a limited quantity; not in an unlimited quantity. If it were generated in an unlimited quantity, your wastage of electricity need not be criticized. Everybody is wasting some amount of electricity. If all these small quantities of electricity are conserved and the wastage is reduced to zero, a lot of electricity will be saved. This large amount of electricity saved would be useful for poor farmers who need electricity for pumping water from their borewells and irrigating their fields. This will allow plenty of food to be produced, which in turn would prevent the hunger deaths taking place on the streets. The saved energy could also be used for other real necessities like industries, which give employment to the poor. Unless we are concerned about the wastage of energy which is generated in limited quantities, we are not helping this world function peacefully. The peaceful functioning of the world is the main aim of God. Similarly, human energy is also very much limited. You may have a lot of food in your home since you are very rich. But can you continuously eat food and continuously generate human energy? Are you like an engine, which can continuously generate energy by continuously consuming fuel? Actually, even an engine, if operated continuously, will lose its efficiency and get spoiled in a very short time. Our digestive system is even more delicate. It does not even allow food to be eaten continuously, not to mention producing human energy continuously. It can only take in a little quantity of food twice or thrice in a day and it can generate a very limited amount of human energy. If we waste our human energy in unnecessary worldly issues, no energy is left for our spiritual efforts. We must control the wastage of human energy in unnecessary worldly vices. A small part of the little amount of available human energy should be used for fulfilling the bare worldly necessities. The rest of the available human energy should be used for our spiritual efforts. Unless we develop the habit of controlling the wastage of external energy, how can we save our external physical energy and use it for useful worldly tasks? Unless we develop the habit of controlling the wastage of our internal human energy, how can we save the internal human energy and use it for the spiritual effort? Conservation of energy, time and money, without wasting them on unnecessary expenditure is not miserliness. It is real wisdom to conserve them so that they may be used for the right purposes. If one conserves these three and does not use them even for the right purposes, such a person is a real miser. Controlling the unnecessary expenditure of these three is not miserliness at all. You are conserving them by resisting their wastage so that they can be spent in full quantity for the right purpose and that the need is perfectly and effectively met. Generally, we waste energy, time and money thinking that we are spending them in very very small quantities. But thinking like this we waste them in small quantities many many times. If only we could put all these small wasted amounts together and see the full extent of the wastage! We should withdraw our senses from these worldly vices to save our energy, time and money, remembering that drops of water put together formed the mighty ocean. Such withdrawal of senses from the unnecessary wastage of these three is called as pratyāhāra, which is the fifth step of yoga. This step is the main gate of the real spiritual effort, which is represented by the next three steps called as dhāraṇā, dhyāna and sāmādhi. Unless the leakages in the water-tank are arrested, the pipelines running from the water-tank cannot yield water at a sufficient pressure to fulfill your needs. The first four steps of yoga are: yama, niyama, āsana and prāṇāyāma. They are related to conserving one’s physical health. Physical health is also the basis of mental health. So, these four steps ensure that you attain a sound mind in a sound body. Only after attaining this preliminary requirement, does the actual path of yoga start with the fifth step called as pratyāhāra. In this fifth step, you have to withdraw the senses from the false attractions of the world so that you can put in the initial effort with force and enter into the subject of God (spiritual knowledge). After digesting the subject of God, there is no necessity of any effort for the detachment from the unnecessary worldly issues. The attachment to God naturally brings detachment from the world. But before attaining that attachment to God, you have to put in special effort for worldly detachment. This is just an initial starting trouble. For this initial effort, we need the help of this fifth step of yoga. Unless you have a sound body with a sound mind along with the achieved interest in God, you cannot serve God effectively like Hanumān, who has a strong body and a strong mind with a strong attachment to God. By Shri Datta Swami www.universal-spirituality[.]org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

[Shri satthireddy asked: Mee Paada Padmalaku Namaskaram Swamiji, Swamiji, the entire earth is Karma Loka, and every soul is here to do karma based on their samaskaras. I heard on TV channels that a few astrologers are saying that India is karma bhoomi and America is Yaksha bhoomi, and some places on earth are saying Tapo bhoomi where human incarnation is present, we are calling it Datta Loka on earth. My question is intensity of doing karma differs from one place to another? Swamiji, if anything wrong is there in writing question itself please teach to this beggar satthireddy 🙏🙏🙏] Swami replied:- Not only the intensity of action, but also the nature of action varies from one place to the other. The word ‘place’ here means a specific atmosphere. The atmosphere belongs to the specific mental activity and the subsequent activity of action. This means that people of a specific activity reside in a specific place. Your activity always is forced in the direction of your surrounding atmosphere. Your association is responsible for your thinking and your subsequent activity. There is a saying, “If you say about your friends, I’ll say what you are”. This means that the association of surrounding friends always influences your every mental as well as physical activity.

THE FIRST COUPLE-ADAM AND EVE God created human beings in the beginning of the first phase of creation (Kruta Yuga), in which all the human beings were just following the instructions of God like the robots following the programme fed in to the machine heads. In such stage, there is no freedom of soul. All the instructions from God were always exceptionally good and there is no bad information. There is no need of knowing good and bad when the brain is totally surrendered to God (Tameva sharanam gachcha... Gita). Once you have full faith in God, your idea will be that whatever is said by God must be good. You will not verify the word of God through your analysis and examine whether it is good or bad. God takes the total responsibility of soul in such total surrender (Yogakshemam... Gita). This Adam and Eve represent the males and females of the humanity existing in Kruta yuga, in which total surrender from one side and total responsibility from the other side exists. They must abide to the word of God whatever it may be. The concept of God here is that a totally surrendered soul need not have the knowledge of good and bad when the soul is simply following the word of God without any trace of freedom. When freedom is given to the soul, then, there is a need of exposure of good and bad through exposure of scripture and the soul has freedom to decide to choose good or bad. When this situation comes, the responsibility of God goes away and this is said by God to them. The tree of knowledge of good and bad was created by God since the time has come to give freedom to the soul. Adam and Eve violated the word of God based on the freedom of soul only. Change from continuous trend is inevitable in the nature. The change from the trend of continuous total surrender has already come in the minds of the souls and hence God wants to give freedom to the souls to relieve them from the stress of continuous specific trend. It is the will of the divine Father only to give freedom to His children on one side and on the other side is also warning them to be careful about the bad. Giving freedom is inevitable and at the same time, the warning of God withdrawing His responsibility to protect them is also paining the heart of the divine Father. Do not forget that such tension also gives entertainment to God and do not misunderstand God as the unfortunate victim of the tension! Full freedom and total responsibility of protection do not go hand in hand. Since freedom is decided by God, the warning is given so that human beings read the ethical scripture of God and be careful in selecting good. In the stage of freedom, the additional problem is the pollution of scripture and deep analysis is to be done to isolate the word of God from the insertions done by human beings affected by Satan. Adam and Eve were also affected by Satan. Satan appeared as sweet and good like the insertion in the divine scripture. They followed the advice of Satan as the word of God due to incapability in the analysis. The divine Father is very much concerned for the happiness of souls created by Him. Hence, He gave freedom to souls, which was misused by the souls to get punishments of their sins. Even though the sins were done continuously, the punishments were not arranged continuously following strictly the sequence of deeds. The punishments (tensions) were arranged alternatively with fruits of good deeds (happiness) so that the boredom of continuous happiness disappears. By this, the problem of boredom was removed. But, some people are seen with continuous tensions and so they criticise God for not doing such above said arrangement. The reason for a specific situation like this is that the souls worshipped God to solve their problems and get happiness. God was forced to do this. But, the basic principle of His constitution is that no fruit of good deed can be given without doing good deed and the punishment of a bad deed can never be cancelled unless the soul is reformed. Based on this, God postponed the present punishment to future life cycles with interest added so that the present punishment disappears. He brought the good fruits arranged with increased values from the future life cycles with lesser values to the present birth and gave happiness. The ignorant soul is thinking that the punishment is cancelled and good fruit is given by God even though it did not do any good deed. Due to this, the future life cycles are leftover with punishments only without good fruits in the intervals. Hence, we shall never worship God for getting any benefit and our true love to God must be without aspiration for any fruit like removing the tension or granting benefit. Without understanding this background, we criticize God unnecessarily. Actually, we must criticize ourselves only. While clarifying your doubt, we must carefully understand the comparison of a human being with a robot. If God had not given any freedom to human beings, there would hardly be any difference between a human being and a robot. For some time, let us think that God did not give any freedom to human beings, which was actually the condition during the Kṛta age. In the Kṛta age, human beings were exactly like robots in the sense that both act as per the information available to them. But there is a slight difference between the Kṛta Age-humans and robots. The Kṛta Age-humans got information directly from the external world. Robots, on the other hand, get information only from the information-chip inserted into them by the scientist who designed them. The scientist, after all, draws information only from the external world. So, the information fed to the robot is indirectly from the same external world. Thus, at this point, the difference between Kṛta Age-humans and robots disappears. In the case of the Kṛta Age-humans, no scientist inserted any information-chip into them; they themselves filled it with the information directly grasped by them from the external world. The robot, however, is dependent on the scientist to feed information into its information-chip. Leaving aside this matter of detail, the Kṛta Age-human, who did not possess freedom, is exactly like a robot in the aspect of acting as per the information available. As time passed, the Kṛta Age humans felt bored. Robots, of course, never get bored and can go on working mechanically as per the program in their information-chip. This again is another difference between a human being and a robot. A robot plays a game of chess using the ‘intelligence’ programmed in its chip by the scientist. It merely executes actions based on the various possibilities of moves in the game. The Kṛta Age-human being was also just like the robot playing chess. Based on these similarities, it was stated that human beings in the Kṛta Age were just robots. Considering the large number of similarities, it was stated that human beings in the Kṛta Age were robots in the sense of a metaphor. Saying that a person is like a lion is a simile, while saying that the person is a lion is a metaphor. Both the simile and the metaphor indicate similarity between two items, while also acknowledging their differences. Neither the simile nor the metaphor suggests an identity between the two items compared. But in the case of a simile, the differences between the two items compared are larger than in the case of a metaphor. Once God gave freedom to human beings, after the Kṛta Age, the differences between human beings and a robot increased. The robot continues to play chess based on the program in its information-chip whereas the free human being does not play as per any fixed program or policy. The freedom given, allows the human being to freely choose to follow its information-chip or not follow it. This freedom creates a huge difference between a free human being and a robot which never has any freedom. It is due to this freedom given by God to humans that God can never be blamed for the wrong choices made by human beings. Human beings alone are responsible for their own choices. If human beings had continued to be like robots, which never have any freedom, then God, who is like the scientist, would be held responsible for the behavior of human beings. Also, there is no need to blame this freedom given by God. In spite of giving this freedom, there are some human beings who still continue to follow their information-chips like robots. All human beings have not exercised their freedom. All have not deviated from the policy of behaving as per the information chip. Had all human beings deviated, it would be correct to blame the freedom and its Giver. But after granting this freedom, some human beings deviated from their programmed behavior while others did not. Hence, you cannot file a damage suit against God for granting this freedom. If upon granting freedom to human beings, all human beings had universally deviated from the programmed behavior, your advocate could have argued your case. But due to the absence of any such uniform behavior, you cannot support your case with arguments. In that case, your damage suit will be disposed with no costs! ---------------------------------- - By Shri Datta Swami (Universal Spirituality for World Peace)

People are killing the innocent birds and animals to eat their flesh for proteins. Buddha started the revolution by opposing the killing of animals and He is the embodiment of love and kindness to animals and birds. He left the home on seeing a bird wounded by arrow. Jesus is seen with love on a lamb in His hands and this indicates the love on animals. Once, a devotee asked Mohammed for the way to please the God. The first thing mentioned by Mohammed (Sallam) to please God was not to kill any innocent living being like bird and animal. He told that if you kill one living being it is equal to killing the entire humanity. You cannot justify the killing of animals for the purpose of eating protein-flesh because God, the capable administrator who created this humanity, already served the purpose by creating protein rich oils. Hence, their killing of animals is without cause and is not acceptable to the concept of Mohammed. In Hindu Manusmruti, lot of stress was given to avoid the non-vegetarian food. It imposes restrictions on place and time in killing the animals and finally recommends complete restriction called as the Mahavratam. It says that the greatest justice is not to kill any living being (Ahimsaa paramodharmah…). The Veda says to kill the animal nature present in yourself but not the actual animal in yajna (Manyuh pashuh…). The tsunami in the sea and the quakes in the earth are only the anger of God in killing the life in water and the life on the land respectively. Even the modern medical education recommends the natural proteins in vegetables to be better for health than the synthesized proteins in the animal flesh. Science is the principle of nature, which indicates the will of God because nature is creation of God only. The highest justice (Dharma) is non-violence (Ahimsa). God has given life to all living beings. What right do you have to kill and eat other beings? Now you may kill a living being or even a human being if he disturbs the peace and justice of human society. The Lord Himself killed evil people since they harmed society. However killing a living being, which does not harm you in any way, is the highest sin. God has given sufficient vegetarian food to feed everyone. Infact science proves today that non-vegetarian food is not even good for health. One day Mohammad went to devotees house, they prepared soup with vegetables and meat. The first thing Holy Mohammad did was to selectively eat the vegetables from the soup. Seeing this the disciple accompanied Him also did so, and there onwards the disciple take more interest in vegetable than in meat. In another occasion, Holy Muhammad was given the fried meat of lizard. Mohammad right away rejected it saying that these lizard can be a rebirth of person lived long back!! See how Holy Mohammad slowly tried to bring His close devotees to the path of non-violence through such examples. If Muhammad say that you have to leave non-veg then only you can follow Me, then all of them will get reject because they were staunch non-veg eaters from years together hence they cannot stop it all on a sudden also they will not hear other divine knowledge from Muhammad. Due to this Muhammad did not say straight away that one shall complete stop non-veg. Muhammad also mingled with them eating some non-veg so that they will become near to Him. By this those people did not objected Muhammad preaching and become close to Him and further learned divine knowledge. This never means that Muhammad is encouraging the killing of living beings for food. Muhammad never encourages killing of living beings for food, but the situation in which He came was such a low level, people are continuously involved in killing and eating, without caring the suffering of living beings they kill. To bring such cruel people to a level of spiritual maturity Mohammad first concentrated on other aspects. Therefore the kind Muhammad never supports killing of living beings for food. Killing is greatest injustice. A good devotee of Allah who wish to become near and close to Allah shall stop eating non-veg to begin with.

YOUR FOOD HABITS The Veda says that you should not take food more than twice in 24 hours. If you take food more than twice, you should work like the animal ( dvirahnaah manushyaah trirahnaah pashavah… Veda). But, you are taking the food three times and not working like the bull in agriculture. Due to this, the sugar levels rise in the blood leading to several calamities of the health. When you become rich, you like to eat oily foods and sweets, which are fast vehicles to death. Poverty controls all the desires and gives best health and best happiness in the life. Hence, Shankara told that the poor man is the most fortunate fellow ( Kaupeenavantah khalu bhagyavantah ). If you realize this wonderful truth, your ambition to become more and more rich even through corruption and crime disappears. Such realization comes only through spiritual knowledge and not through the study of science and management of business administration. Hence, the education system must be thoroughly rejuvenated to fill more with spiritual knowledge and less with materialistic line of learning . If this is done by the Government, there need not be any effort to bring balance in the society with peace and happiness in the humanity. You must eat to live and not live to eat! The food must be in limited quantity. If the food is eaten in limited quantity, it is eaten by you (adyate) and if it is eaten more, you will be eaten by it (atti) since it (unlimited food) brings illness to kill you! This is said by the Veda ( adyate atticha bhutaani tasmaat annam ). Only little food is converted into energy. All the rest remaining food brings disease only. More food is eaten due to ambition for self only. Limited food is converted into limited energy. Since the energy is limited, you should not waste your energy in luxuries and in killing the time by useless entertainments. The digestive system is not a machine generating endless energy since the system has limits of work and efficiency. You may be very rich to procure unlimited quantity of food, but, your digestive system has limit in its work-efficiency. Hence, whether you are rich or poor, you have to take care about eating limited food and preserving the limited energy generated. This limited energy should be carefully and precisely used in worldly activities so that as far as possible more and more energy can be available for divine service. Full meal gives sleep. It means that sleep is indicating the full meal. Exactly half of this full meal should be taken so that half vacant stomach is partly filled with water and partly filled with moving gas. The food must be suitable to your body ( hitam ), limited ( mitam ) and just cooked ( hutam ), which alone gives perfect health ( hitabhuk mitabhuk hutabhuk ). You must rest a little after lunch and walk a little after dinner in the night ( katipaya padachamkramanah ). You must never resist urine and motion for a long time ( anibaddha mutra pureeshah ). You must have little frequency of sex as far as possible ( streeshu yo jaagarti ). All these are tips of health science given by yoga scripture. Health is the real wealth not only in Pravrutti (social justice) but also in Nivrutti (serving God). Extreme steps must be avoided as per authority also. [Both extreme steps of fasting and overeating to pain the soul shall be avoided as said in the Gita ( naatyashnatastu… , karshayantah… ). Fasting gives weakness in doing ritual and overeating brings drowsiness. Even the Veda recommends light food in rituals ( payo braahmanasya... ).] The food must be in three ways, devoid of three defects and first of three qualities. [Precautions must be taken in taking food: 1) It must be limited in quantity, but, high in quality. 2) It must be well cooked to eliminate bacteria and 3) It must be non-allergic to be known by test of a specific human being ( mitam hutam hitam ). The food must avoid three defects also: 1) Gas (vaata), 2) Damage of liver (pitta) and 3) effect of cold (sleshma). The food must be selected for the first quality and the other two qualities must be limited: 1) Sattvam with neutral taste, 2) Rajas with salty, chilly and sour tastes and 3) Tamas with killed taste due to long delay after cooking.] Deep sleep must be 1/3 or 1/4 of the day without the three types of dreams. [Sleep must not be lesser then 1/4 and must not be more then 1/3 of the duration of a day (24 hours). This sleep must be deep devoid of any dream. Dream comes for three reasons: 1) God may use it for communication with the soul. 2) The strong feelings of subconscious state of previous births may appear and 3) Some strong feelings from general conscious state of awakening of present birth may appear.] Gas generated from potato etc., cold generated from sweet and cool foods, indigestion coming from oil etc., spoil the health. You must stop the journey in rainy season since you will be attacked by illness. The secret of Chaaturmaasya (staying in one place during rainy season) is only this. You must have proper quantum of sleep to keep mind fresh and body also healthy. You must adapt yourself carefully according to changing seasons. Association with worldly people is not holy. Association with spiritual people makes you holy. Don’t aspire to become popular in this society of worldly people. This is the reason for the sages to go to forests to live in association with birds and animals, who do effort for the meals of that day only. The worldly people in cities and villages always put efforts even if they have earned wealth sufficient for 10 future generations! Take even simple food offered by spiritual people and don’t take even a feast offered by worldly people. You have to spend 1/3rd time of day (24 hrs) for sleep. Sleep is very essential for the brain and body. In the rest 2/3rd time (16 hrs), spend as much as possible for the sake of God after finishing your duties for earning and other responsibilities of your family. Rest a while after lunch and walk a while after dinner. The food taken should be 1/4th of your stomach. Water should be in another 1/4th part. Another 1/4th part should be for the movement of gas. The last 1/4th part should be free space. The scripture of Yoga prescribes this. Control of external and internal senses is the very foundation of Yoga. Doing regular exercises and avoiding polluted air by exposing to fresh and pure air are the associated steps for good health. You must take lot of care about your health, which is very much essential for the spiritual journey. You must always analyse food you take regarding its effects on your body. The food also affects your mind and intelligence. Food is the source of good health as well as disease. The qualities of food and its quantity should be always analysed. You take food through your mouth and similarly you hear the sentences through your ears. You must analyse the quality and quantity of speech grasped by your years. Both these decide your spiritual future. You must not kill any living being for the sake of your food. The killing is the greatest sin You must not kill any living being for the sake of your food. God has given enough vegetable food that contains all the ingredients present in the non-vegetarian food. After all, the source of ingredients of any flesh is only vegetable kingdom only. Eating the non-vegetarian food is not a sin because same ingredients exist in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. But, you have to kill a living being for the sake of non-vegetarian food. The killing is the greatest sin. You may argue that you have not killed the living being directly. Such argument cannot stand. Since you are eating the non-vegetarian food, the living being is killed. You are responsible for its killing. Therefore, you are the principle shareholder of the sin. There is nothing wrong if you eat a living being after its natural death. In Hinduism, there is a sect of people called ‘Kapalikas’, who eat the dead living beings. Therefore, they do not acquire sin. The tsunami is always due to anger of God since you are killing the living beings present in water for food. The earthquakes are due to killing of living beings that exist on the earth. God in the form of Buddha and Mahavir preached the non-violence and severely opposed the killing of living beings. God in some other human forms might have followed the practice of non-vegetarian food in order to join with non-vegetarian people so that, certain other higher aspects to be preached might have been taken into consideration. That does not mean that God has encouraged the killing of living beings through non-vegetarian food. He might have kept silent on this issue in order to give importance to other serious issues. God follows the ignorance of the students in order to become friendly with them. To control a running bull, you have to run along with it for some distance before controlling it. All these are the basic concepts of nivrutti, which are the core of pravrutti. By following the ethics of pravrutti, you will avoid God becoming furious with you. Then, through nivrutti, you can please God. On one hand, you are making God furious by not following the ethics of pravrutti and how can you please God through nivrutti simultaneously? Avoid unnecessary expenditure of money and energy also We should use electricity with utmost care only whenever we have a real necessity. People leave the lights and fans ON even after they leave the rooms. They try to show off their false generosity and richness; that they can pay the electricity charges even for the electricity that they do not need. Yes, I agree that you are very rich and have the capacity to pay the electricity bill even though it was spent unnecessarily. It is not the question of your capacity to pay the extra electricity charges. Electrical energy is generated only in a limited quantity; not in an unlimited quantity. If it were generated in an unlimited quantity, your wastage of electricity need not be criticized. Everybody is wasting some amount of electricity. If all these small quantities of electricity are conserved and the wastage is reduced to zero, a lot of electricity will be saved. This large amount of electricity saved would be useful for poor farmers who need electricity for pumping water from their borewells and irrigating their fields. This will allow plenty of food to be produced, which in turn would prevent the hunger deaths taking place on the streets. The saved energy could also be used for other real necessities like industries, which give employment to the poor. Unless we are concerned about the wastage of energy which is generated in limited quantities, we are not helping this world function peacefully. The peaceful functioning of the world is the main aim of God. Similarly, human energy is also very much limited. You may have a lot of food in your home since you are very rich. But can you continuously eat food and continuously generate human energy? Are you like an engine, which can continuously generate energy by continuously consuming fuel? Actually, even an engine, if operated continuously, will lose its efficiency and get spoiled in a very short time. Our digestive system is even more delicate. It does not even allow food to be eaten continuously, not to mention producing human energy continuously. It can only take in a little quantity of food twice or thrice in a day and it can generate a very limited amount of human energy. If we waste our human energy in unnecessary worldly issues, no energy is left for our spiritual efforts. We must control the wastage of human energy in unnecessary worldly vices. A small part of the little amount of available human energy should be used for fulfilling the bare worldly necessities. The rest of the available human energy should be used for our spiritual efforts. Unless we develop the habit of controlling the wastage of external energy, how can we save our external physical energy and use it for useful worldly tasks? Unless we develop the habit of controlling the wastage of our internal human energy, how can we save the internal human energy and use it for the spiritual effort? Conservation of energy, time and money, without wasting them on unnecessary expenditure is not miserliness. It is real wisdom to conserve them so that they may be used for the right purposes. If one conserves these three and does not use them even for the right purposes, such a person is a real miser. Controlling the unnecessary expenditure of these three is not miserliness at all. You are conserving them by resisting their wastage so that they can be spent in full quantity for the right purpose and that the need is perfectly and effectively met. Generally, we waste energy, time and money thinking that we are spending them in very very small quantities. But thinking like this we waste them in small quantities many many times. If only we could put all these small wasted amounts together and see the full extent of the wastage! We should withdraw our senses from these worldly vices to save our energy, time and money, remembering that drops of water put together formed the mighty ocean. Such withdrawal of senses from the unnecessary wastage of these three is called as pratyāhāra, which is the fifth step of yoga. This step is the main gate of the real spiritual effort, which is represented by the next three steps called as dhāraṇā, dhyāna and sāmādhi. Unless the leakages in the water-tank are arrested, the pipelines running from the water-tank cannot yield water at a sufficient pressure to fulfill your needs. The first four steps of yoga are: yama, niyama, āsana and prāṇāyāma. They are related to conserving one’s physical health. Physical health is also the basis of mental health. So, these four steps ensure that you attain a sound mind in a sound body. Only after attaining this preliminary requirement, does the actual path of yoga start with the fifth step called as pratyāhāra. In this fifth step, you have to withdraw the senses from the false attractions of the world so that you can put in the initial effort with force and enter into the subject of God (spiritual knowledge). After digesting the subject of God, there is no necessity of any effort for the detachment from the unnecessary worldly issues. The attachment to God naturally brings detachment from the world. But before attaining that attachment to God, you have to put in special effort for worldly detachment. This is just an initial starting trouble. For this initial effort, we need the help of this fifth step of yoga. Unless you have a sound body with a sound mind along with the achieved interest in God, you cannot serve God effectively like Hanumān, who has a strong body and a strong mind with a strong attachment to God. By Shri Datta Swami www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace

QUALITIES CHANGE BY KNOWLEDGE ALONE Shri Anil: Please explain the Sanchita, Praarabdha and Aagaami in the case of an example so that these can be clearly understood. Shri Swami: The Samskaras are the qualities only and are responsible for all the activities. Fruit is always associated with the action that is represented by the quality. The fruit may be awarded for certain actions like burning the finger introduced into the fire with or without the intention or quality. But, such fruits do not come under the divine cycle of deeds, which runs with the intention based actions. If an action is done without intention, the fruit is not awarded as in the case of killing an ant without intention while walking. Sometimes, intention may be there and action may not take place due to lack of opportunity. There also the intention is punished. The punishment is always aimed at total destruction of the qualities in absence of which the actions do not take place. But, the punishment can never eliminate the quality except decreasing its intensity. The decreased intensity may not be effective in generating the action due to which the external world is not disturbed. Let us take a specific soul going to the upper worlds along with the lump of Samskaras or qualities or attitudes. Let us express the power of intensity of this lump as two hundred volts. Samskara or quality is made of mind and since mind is neuron-energy such units are justified. The composition of the qualities in this lump represents the number of qualities (which is a qualitative expression) and the intensities of the qualities (which is a quantitative expression). The soul goes to the upper worlds and receives rewards in the heaven and punishments in the hell. The soul going to upper worlds is only mind or a bundle of qualities called as individual soul or Jeeva, surrounded by the subtle body made of energy in plasma state as said in the Veda (Manomayah Praanashareeranetaa). After this enjoyment of the fruits in the upper worlds, the lump is reduced to the micro level. This micro lump has the same number of qualities and thus, there is no qualitative change. But, after the enjoyment, the intensities are reduced and now the total intensity of the lump is only ten volts. This means all the efforts in the upper worlds can only reduce the intensity of a quality, but can never eliminate the quality. The only way to eliminate the quality is hearing the true knowledge from Satguru as said in the Gita (Jnanaagnih Sarvakarmaani…, Yasya sarve samaarambhah…). ‘The knowledge burns the deeds’ means that the knowledge burns the qualities, which are the generators and promoters of the deeds. Now, the soul coming from the upper world has the lump of Samskaras with intensity of ten volts. These ten volts are called as Sanchita associated with the soul just before re-birth. When the soul comes to the earth, the above said Sanchita is awarded with a fruit in the form of the re-birth and its atmosphere. The composition of Sanchita varies from one soul to the other. Therefore, the conditions of the re-birth and the states of atmosphere also differ from one soul to the other. Some souls are born blind, some are born as dumb and some are perfect. Some are born in rich families, some are born in poor families and some are born in middle class families. We have already seen the policy in the upper world that the enjoyment of fruits can only reduce the intensity of the lump and the qualities are never eliminated. Therefore, the ten volt lump is again reduced in its intensity to one volt after receiving the re-birth as fruit. The nine volts are spent for the re-birth on this earth. These nine volts are called as Praarabdha. Now, the soul is left over with a lump of one volt, which is the balance of Sanchita after enjoying the Praarabdha. Thus, Praarabdha is confined to the formation of a new body in this world and its conditions in and around. Praarabdha is the spent intensity and hence, cannot be revoked as told by Shankara in the commentary of the verse ‘Jnanaagnih Sarva Karmaani…’. The reason is that Praarabdha is not in the form of quality that can be destroyed by the knowledge, but, it is in the form of already converted fruit. The version here that the knowledge burns all the deeds is also correct in the sense that the remaining balance in the form of qualities (lump of one volt) is totally burnt since all the deeds represented as qualities are eliminated by the Knowledge. The child with the lump having least voltage (one volt) looks very beautiful and sometimes is compared to pure and pious God. But, in course of time, the intensity of this lump increases with the external atmosphere of the world and the same beautiful child becomes young demon! The increase in the voltage differs from one soul to the other depending on the various possibilities of different environments. This world gives full freedom to the soul in choosing the environment. Such freedom is the characteristic of this world (Karma Loka), which is absent in the upper world (Bhoga Loka). The chosen environment decides the extent of increase of voltage of the lump. Let us take the same specific soul already selected by us as above. Let us say, the increase of the lump is ninety nine volts and the total voltage of the lump is hundred volts after addition to one volt. These ninety nine volts will be associated with the soul in future while going to the upper world and are called as Aagaami. The same cycle repeats again and again. The soul can come out of this cycle of deeds (Karma Chakra) with the help of the true knowledge of Satguru. The quality is a thought, which can be erased by another powerful convincing thought. The knowledge is lump of powerful thoughts, which can alone cut the existing thoughts or qualities. Diamond cannot be cut by any instrument except diamond. Therefore, the qualities can be changed only by knowledge and not by other methods like meditation, penance, worship, fasting, etc. Dr. Nikhil: The intensity of a quality can be increased by the subsequent activity in the presence of proper opportunity. In absence of such opportunity, it may not increase. Hence, the activity and opportunity also affect the quality even without the context of knowledge. Shri Swami: We never said that other factors cannot change the intensity of the quality. The efforts like rewards and punishments, which are other than knowledge, have changed the intensity of quality. We have mentioned the knowledge only in the context of elimination of quality. Apart from elimination, knowledge also changes the intensity of the quality like other factors. It depends on the nature of the soul in choosing the factor i.e., knowledge or hell. But, no factor except knowledge can eliminate the quality. The example you have mentioned may work in reverse direction also. The subsequent activity helping the earning may increase the desire for earning or sometimes may also decrease the desire for earning. Again, this depends on the nature of the soul. Satguru Dattatreya uses this reverse method in some souls. He grants excess of worldly pleasures (Bhoga) by which the soul gets detached by developing allergy to Bhoga. Hence, the Lord is called as ‘Bhoga Moksha Prada’, which means that the Lord sometimes gives salvation by granting excessive enjoyment of luxuries. The final action depends only on the chart of qualities and their intensities irrespective of the factors. The possessor of the quality not doing the action due to lack of opportunity is called as ‘Mithyaachaara’ in the Gita, who is also punishable. Therefore, the ultimate aim of the reward or punishment is only aimed at the reduction of the intensity of the quality and not at the subsequent inert deed as revenge.

When the majority follows the worldly line, how will the minority follow the spiritual line? [Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Swami, I see even retired people are also immersed in worldly works only continuously without spending even sometime for God. When the majority is like this, how will the minority proceed in the spiritual line? Majority influences minority everywhere.] Swami replied:- Out of 788 crores of world population, only 140 crores in India wash the anus with water after excretion. The majority (648 crores) cleanse their anus with paper after excretion. Why don’t you propagate the majority rule to the Indian minority in this context? It is not the question of majority and minority. It is the question of truth and false. Jesus said that the path leading to Him is very narrow and rarely one will be coming through that path whereas the path leading to hell is very wide like national highway, always filled with crowds of people. Valuable diamond is very rare whereas the valueless gravel stones are many. Majority is valuable in elections because the needs of the majority are important for a democratic Government. Spiritual life must not be compared with materialistic life like the above said narrow path and national highway! This is the reason why God is asking the minority to propagate the spiritual knowledge among the unfortunate majority.