Divine Messages - 62 : Who Are Avatars? - Speaking Tree

Who Are Avatars? – Swami Sunirmalanandaon – Appeared in Speaking Tree on October 16, 2011.

SWAMI SUNIRMALANANDA walks us through the concept of divine incarnations. 

We worship Rama, Krishna, the Buddha, Christ, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and other incarnations and prophets. They, too, are like us. They don’t have any wings or horns. They walk, eat, talk, suffer, endure, just like us. Yet we adore them. Why is that so?

Sri Krishna has answered in the Bhagavad Gita: “My birth and activities are divine.” This is the fundamental difference between us and incarnations and prophets. Dasaratha performed a sacrifice and the fire-god, Agni, presented a bowl of sweetened milk. After drinking the sacred milk, Kausalya, Rama’s mother, conceived. The Buddha’s mother, Mayadevi, dreamt that a white elephant was entering her womb. Krishna’s birth was announced long before his advent. Jesus’ immaculate birth was foretold as well. 

Ramakrishna’s birth was also extraordinary: his mother, Chandramani, stood before the Shiva temple, immersed in prayer, when a huge light emanated from the image and entered her person. She fell down unconscious. Ramakrishna’s father, the truthful and pious Kshudiram, had a dream in Gaya when he heard a divine pronouncement that He would take birth in Kshudiram’s hut.

Secondly, the actions of incarnations are divine: Every little act they perform is instructive. How? Suppose the head of some country wishes to see how buses run, and enters a bus incognito. He has to endure the crowds. However, he can get down any moment, enter the car waiting for him, and narrate his experiences in amusement. Not so, the ordinary passengers. They have to travel by bus and suffer. So the lives of incarnations appear similar to ours, but there is enormous difference.

Desire-driven Actions

Our births and actions are human; they are desire-driven. Every action we perform, called karma, produces an effect, called karmaphala. Karmaphala has two divisions: one, vasana or seed of desire, which prompts us to repeat our actions; two, karmashaya, the repository of results of actions which lead us to newer births, experiences, and deaths. 

It means we are not free. We are bound by our past actions. We enter the world, live here and depart — all driven by our past actions. Yet, we continue under the delusion that we are free. Not so, the incarnations. They are avatars, they descend; they come down out of compassion for us, to show us the way out of suffering. They say, as Swami Vivekananda declared: ‘If the Buddha is the evolved amoeba, the amoeba was the involved Buddha also. 

Infinite Potential

We are not miserable creatures — we have infinite potential: we are Divine. So the incarnations and prophets, out of compassion, come to show us this truth. They show us that we are confusing misery for happiness because we are ignorant. This ignorance is a superficial covering, and has to go. We can remove ignorance by seeking knowledge. Knowledge of what? Of our true nature. 

We had considered ourselves to be helpless creatures, but we are the Divine Self — the Atman. Call it God, Atman, Divine — names are immaterial; we are this infinite One, the source of all happiness and bliss. It has been covered by ignorance due to our past actions but we can remove it. Avatars show us the way to know who we really are, not just by preaching and lecturing, but by example. What do they teach? They teach us to seek God. 

From Error To Truth

Sri Ramakrishna is the recent example of how the incarnation leads us from error to truth by example. In just 50 years, he lived a life of thousands of years of human aspiration for God and attained Him through all the known paths. He instilled faith in God and in our Divine nature. Incarnations are special — they live God and represent God on earth. Their exalted lives of absolute purity, truthfulness and godliness are examples for us to emulate.

We are here to learn, to evolve. We are not here to go around in circles. The world is a gym which makes us strong in the strength of truth within. Avatars are the best teachers who lead us by example.

Speaking Tree Web Site – speakingtree.in

Divine Messages - 61 : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by 'M'ahendranath Gupta - Free Will

Extracts from the book “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” by ‘M’ahendranath Gupta (conversations between Sri Ramakrishna, the Master, and his disciples / devotees)

Meaning of free will

"It is God alone who has planted in man's mind what the 'Englishman' calls free will.  People who have not realized God would become engaged in more and more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of free will.  Sin would have increased if God had not made the sinner feel that he alone was responsible for his sin.

"Those who have realized God are aware that free will is a mere appearance.  In reality man is the machine and God its Operator, man is the carriage and God its Driver."

Free will and God's will

VAIDYANATH: "Sir, I have a doubt.  People speak of free will.  They say that a man can do either good or evil according to his will.  Is it true? Are we really free to do whatever we like?"

MASTER: "Everything depends on the will of God.  The world is His play.  He has created all these different things-great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious.  This is all His maya, His sport.  You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind.”

"As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free.  It is God Himself who keeps this error in man.  Otherwise sin would have multiplied.  Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it.”

"But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: 'I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator.  I am the house and Thou art the Indweller.  I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver.  I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.'

(To Vaidyanath): "It is not good to argue.  Isn't that so?"

VAIDYANATH: "Yes, sir.  The desire to argue disappears when a man attains wisdom."

The Master, out of his stock of a dozen English words, said, "Thank you!" in the most charming way, and all laughed.

MASTER (to Vaidyanath): "You will make spiritual progress.  People don't trust a man when he speaks about God.  Even if a great soul affirms that he has seen God, still the average person will not accept his words.  He says to himself, 'If this man has really seen God, then let him show Him to me.' But can a man learn to feel a person's pulse in one day? He must go about with a physician for many days; only then can he distinguish the different pulses.  He must be in the company of those with whom the examination of the pulse has become a regular profession.”

"Can anyone and everyone pick out a yarn of a particular count? If you are in that trade, you can distinguish in a moment a forty-count thread from a forty-one."

Self-surrender to God

(To Shrish): "Surrender everything at the feet of God.  What else can you do? Give Him the power of attorney.  Let Him do whatever He thinks best.  If you rely on a great man, he will never injure you.

Story of "the will of Rāma"

A DEVOTEE: "What is that story about 'the will of Rāma'?"

MASTER: "In a certain village there lived a weaver. He was a very pious,soul.  Everyone trusted him and loved him. He used to sell his goods in the market-place. When a customer asked him the price of a piece of cloth, the weaver would say: 'By the will of Rāma the price of the yarn is one rupee and the labour four ānnās ; by the will of Rāma the profit is two ānnās . The price of the cloth, by the will of Rāma, is one rupee and six ānnās .' Such was the people's faith in the weaver that the customer would at once pay the price and take the cloth. The weaver was a real devotee of God. After finishing his supper in the evening, he would spend long hours' in the worship hall meditating on God and chanting His name and glories. Now, late one night the weaver couldn't get to sleep. He was sitting in the worship hall, smoking now and then, when a band of robbers happened to pass that way. They wanted a man to carry their goods and said to the weaver, 'Come with us.' So saying, they led him off  by the hand. After committing a robbery in a house, they put a load of things on the weaver's head, commanding him to carry them. Suddenly the police arrived and the robbers ran away. But the weaver, with his load, was arrested. He was kept in the lock-up for the night. Next day he was brought before the magistrate for trial. The villagers learnt what had happened and came to court. They said to the magistrate, 'Your Honour, this man could never commit a robbery.' Thereupon the magistrate asked the weaver to make his statement.

'The weaver said: 'Your Honour, by the will of Rāma I finished my meal at night. Then by the will of Rāma I was sitting in the worship hall. It was quite late at night by the will of Rāma. By the will of Rāma I had been thinking of God and chanting His name and glories, when by the will of Rāma a band of robbers passed that way. By the will of Rāma they dragged me with them; by the will of Rāma they committed a robbery in a house; and by the will of Rāma they put a load on my head. Just then, by the will of Rāma the police arrived, and by the will of Rāma I was arrested. Then by the will of Rāma the police kept me in the lock-up for the night, and this morning by the will of Rāma I have been brought before Your Honour.' The magistrate realized that the weaver was a pious man and ordered his release. On his way home the weaver said to his friends, 'By the will of Rāma I have been released.'

"Whether a man should be a householder or a monk depends on the will of Rāma. Surrender everything to God and do your duties in the world. What else can you do? A clerk was once sent to prison. After the prison term was over he was released. Now, what do you think he did? Cut capers or do his old clerical work?

"If the householder becomes a jivanmukta, then he can easily live in the world if he likes. A man who has attained Knowledge does not differentiate between 'this place' and 'that place'. All places are the same to him. He who thinks of 'that place' also thinks of 'this place'.

Sri Ramakrishna Web Site – belurmath.org

Divine Messages - 60 : Quotes from Speaking Tree

Some quotes from Speaking Tree.

·         While genius is novel, novelty is not genius. – Thomas M Easley

·         Practise meditation before you preach it. – Swami Chinmaya

·         It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. – Buddha

·         The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed. - Buddha

·         'That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit, Eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss, Single, indivisible, whole and living, Shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness. That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity of the heart. This self is neither born nor dies, Neither grows nor decays, Nor does it suffer any change. When a pot is broken, the space within it is not, And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal. – Ramana Maharishi

·         The more you think of yourself as shining immortal spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free of matter, body, and senses. This is the intense desire to be free. – Swami Vivekananda

·         IT is good to love God for hope of reward, but it is better to love God for love's sake; and the prayer goes: O Lord, I do not want wealth nor, children nor learning. If it be Thy will, I shall go from birth to birth. But grant me this, that I may love thee without the hope of reward--'love' unselfishly for love's sake. - Swami Vivekananda

·         Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two. - Buddha

Speaking Tree Web Site – speakingtree.in

Divine Messages - 59 : Quotes from Speaking Tree

Some quotes from Speaking Tree.

·         The ego tends to equate having with Being: I have therefore I am. And the more I have, the more I am. - Echart Tolle

·         We don’t realize that our future is being consumed by our past. - JZ Knight

·         All emotions, if practiced regularly, grow in size. - The Dalai Lama

·         The separate self can never discover the truth–in the end, the truth just awakens to itself through you. - Stephan Bodian

·         When I cease to own [physical or emotional pain], I liberate myself from its bondage and see it simply as it is. - Tony Parsons

·         The very search for pleasure is the cause of pain. - Sri Nisargadatta

·         God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. - Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr

·         You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself. – Swami Vivekananda

Speaking Tree Web Site – speakingtree.in