Narrow Spiritual Path

[dattaswami]

Narrow Spiritual Path

MATTHEW 7 : 13 AND 14

“Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it”.

Bhagavathgita says “Manushyaanam Sahasreshu…..” which means that millions of people will try to reach God but only one can reach God. This means that the spiritual path is narrow with one or two devotees only who can reach God. So you should not follow the majority as example in spiritual path. Majority goes to Hell. Will you also go to hell? Diamonds are in minority and gravel stones are in majority. In worldly matters you can follow the majority. But in spiritual line there is only one Jesus one Buddha one Sankara etc., If you are in the association of majority you will be polluted by them since they induce the worldly poison through their conversations (Luke 13: 20 & 21). If you are in the association of the Satguru you will be spiritually strengthened by His gospel.
At Thy Lotus Feet His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org
Universal Spirituality for World Peace

[revribhav]

I am proud of the part of common people who have desire to live despite the problems of inflation,natural calamities ,corruption and injustice.
It is easier to teach
But difficult to live.

[dattaswami]

In spiritual path, majority always goes to hell. Gita says that one in thousands can only reach the God. Even that one person will reach the Lord after several births (Kaschit Maam Vetti, Bahunaam Janmanaam). Jesus also says that the path leading the hell is very wide with full of rush. The path leading to the Lord is very narrow and only one or two persons will be travelling. The path to the hell is filled with flowers and the path to the Lord is filled with thorns. Therefore the path to the Lord is not acceptable to all. Then shall I recommend the path filled with flowers to all the people, which is easily acceptable to all of them?

I am universal because I am preaching the narrow thorny path to all the people. But the path is not universal. I cannot help for that. In the spiritual path only minority exists. There is only one in millions like Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Jesus, Sai, Vivekananda etc., in the spiritual path. The gravel stones are in majority. There is only one Kohinoor diamond, which is valuable. The fraud Gurus shows that flowery path which is “Amrutha Visham” i.e., it looks like nectar but it is actually the poison. The Satguru shows the thorny path, which is “Visha Amrutham” i.e., it looks like poison but it is actually the nectar. Gita says the same (Yat Tat Agre Vishamiva).

[revribhav]

I am happy here,it is birth of human being that is said to be great than that of "Devata".

[dattaswami]

I am happy here,it is birth of human being that is said to be great than that of "Devata".

OK. But we have to make use of this birth to please God.

God grants certain desires also – to uplift the soul gradually.
God is preacher in this world – He uses the fruits of your deeds
To develop you spiritually, - this world is called as Karma loka,
Where you develop yourself – guided by God acting as preacher.
This world is not to consume – fruits of your good and bad deeds,
For that the upper worlds exist, - they are called as Bhoga Lokas.
God uses fruit of your bad deed – from the list of your punishments
To create devotion in you, - souls are like ignorant children only.

They will never become devotees – by the real devotion here.
They study for five minutes – on giving a small stroke with cane.
They become again mischievous – forgetting the effect of cane.
Similarly, a trouble is a cane, - you will become devoted to God.
You derive happiness, again – you forget devotion, become yourself.
The fruit of your good deed – acts as a gap between two troubles.

The happiness gives a gap – making you fresh for re-devotion
That comes again in the next – trouble, another stoke of cane.
Like this God uses your deeds – in any sequence He likes as per
The requirement of your spiritual – development in this world.


When you are not changed – you will face final enquiry after
This rare human birth and – you will be thrown to hell forever.
If you are good for society – without any devotion to God,
You will be sent to heaven – till the duration of fruit exists,
You will come down to earth, - God acts as a judge only after
Your exit from this human birth, – not as a preacher at all.
Therefore, there is no re-birth, - certainly no human re-birth,
Only for few exceptional cases, - in which there is hope of
Future spiritual development, - God grants human rebirth.
The liberated souls by His – devotion are always with God
Taking human re-births – to assist God in human form here.

[revribhav]

I would again like to be born as an astrologer instead of a preacher.
I hope you shall forever remain in Heaven,will you be ... there?

A priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.

'Come with me', said St. Peter to the taxi driver.

The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St. Peter to a mansion. It had anything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size pool.

'Wow, thank you', said the taxi driver.

Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rugged old shack with a bunk bed and a little old television set.

'Wait, I think you are a little mixed up', said the priest. 'Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion? After all I was a priest, went to church every day, and preached God's word.'

'Yes, that's true. But during your sermons people slept. When the taxi driver drove, everyone prayed!'

[dattaswami]

I would again like to be born as an astrologer instead of a preacher.
I hope you shall forever remain in Heaven,will you be ... there?

A priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.

'Come with me', said St. Peter to the taxi driver.

The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St. Peter to a mansion. It had anything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size pool.

'Wow, thank you', said the taxi driver.

Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rugged old shack with a bunk bed and a little old television set.

'Wait, I think you are a little mixed up', said the priest. 'Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion? After all I was a priest, went to church every day, and preached God's word.'

'Yes, that's true. But during your sermons people slept. When the taxi driver drove, everyone prayed!'

An astrologer is also an instrument in the hands of God to make people understand the one has to undergo their own fruits of the deeds and hence one should divert his time in this world for working for GOd instead of solely working for selfish ends. The astrologer is also a preacher to make people understand the divine administration of cycle of deeds and importance of salvation and lesser concetration on worldly matters and more concentration of work of GOd and identification of GOd in human form and participating in His mission without any expectation.


Thus astrologer is also endowed with huge responsiblity of leading people to God and let them learn the divine knoweldge of God in human form!

Astrology is designed to bring ordinary human beings to level of devotion


The Sutras written by Jaimini are the fundamental basis of Astrology and also Purva Mimamsa. Jaimini indicates various forms of God for remedy to various human beings according to their qualities. Vishnu (Saturn and Mercury), Lakshmi (Moon and Venus), Shiva (Jupiter), Skanda (Mars), Durga (Rahu) and some village deities (Ketu) are such divine forms mentioned by Jaimini. This shows that he is bringing up the ordinary human beings through cane of fear to the level of devotion.

The Uttara Mimamsa of Vyasa finally concentrates on establishing the unity (Brahman) of these divine forms. Both Jaimini and Vyasa constitute the two gradual steps in the spiritual progress. They are not opposite to each other. They sat as Judges for the debate between Shankara and Mandana Mishra and this shows the correlation between these two steps. Jaimini concentrates on sacrifice (Yajna) and even a large extent of Veda gives stress on sacrifice, which is the donation of prepared food to a deserving guest. The food indicates sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) of the man and also the sacrifice of work (Karma Sansya) of his wife in the process of cooking the food. Hence, it is a complete sacrifice, which is the result of devotion. Devotion is the result of knowledge. Only the service involving sacrifice alone can yield the fruit. This is the spirit of stress on Yajna by Veda.

Without understanding it, people give importance to knowledge and devotion. Almost all Veda is concentrating on Yajna. If Yajna is nothing, why Veda has given so much importance by covering it to a very large extent? The followers of Jaimini gave importance to mere sacrifice without God. Mere social service without God is of very little use since it gives only temporary heaven. Hence, Jaimini joined the sacrifice with devotion to divine forms.

[revribhav]

Astrology ,like other branches of knowledge was earlier a luxury for the rich and the powerful.
It is means of communication and the commitment of several selfless people that it has become accessible to the common people.
The ignorance of people was always exploited by the religious fundamentalists.
"By 1616 the attacks on the ideas of Copernicus had reached a head, and Galileo went to Rome to try to persuade the Catholic church authorities not to ban his ideas. In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, delivered him an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre."
Gemini astrology is regarded in high esteem by every astrologer but what you call his observations of sacrifice need not be essentially followed by every astrologer. It has no direct correlation to your concept of heaven anyway. If large majority of people is destined to remain in hell ,as per your observations ,I would personally,prefer to remain in hell to serve people with my knowledge of astrology.

[dattaswami]

Astrology ,like other branches of knowledge was earlier a luxury for the rich and the powerful.
It is means of communication and the commitment of several selfless people that it has become accessible to the common people.
The ignorance of people was always exploited by the religious fundamentalists.
"By 1616 the attacks on the ideas of Copernicus had reached a head, and Galileo went to Rome to try to persuade the Catholic church authorities not to ban his ideas. In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, delivered him an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre."
Gemini astrology is regarded in high esteem by every astrologer but what you call his observations of sacrifice need not be essentially followed by every astrologer. It has no direct correlation to your concept of heaven anyway. If large majority of people is destined to remain in hell ,as per your observations ,I would personally,prefer to remain in hell to serve people with my knowledge of astrology.

Punishment given for a sin is only to change the mind of the soul and purify it. There is no trace of revenge in this. The hell is an indication of the intensive love of God to the souls through which God wants to reform the souls. The hell indicates the hectic effort of God put on the soul to reform it and not to leave the soul for its fate. A father may leave his son since he is not changing inspite of all his efforts. But in the hell God puts serious effort and succeeds to change the soul. Therefore, even thousands of fathers cannot be equal to God. God is not leaving the soul without changing it and this point is indicated by the punishment and hell. Therefore, there is no point of excusing the Prarabhdas if this true basis is understood. God will try to change the soul through preaching as far as possible. Punishment in the hell is the last resort. Once the soul is reformed all the sins are smashed since there is neither the necessity of preaching nor the necessity of punishment.



Astrology should be understood in right perspective

Continuous difficulties bore the soul and the attitude of God as the divine father is to make the souls happy and not to bore.

For this purpose He arranged the cycles of the lives with alternative happiness and misery. Unless the soul is a demon, it cannot get continuous difficulties because a demon only does continuous sins. A human being is neither a bad demon nor a good angel. He is a mixture of both (Anistamistam Mishramcha….- Gita). Therefore, continuous problems cannot be accommodated in the cycle of deeds of human beings. Hence, happiness has to come after some period of misery like winter after summer or day after night. In such case the problem of devotion to God during the period of happiness becomes impossible.

Therefore, some clue should be adopted to foresee the misery in the future so that God can be worshipped even during the period of happiness to avoid the misery in future. The knowledge of alternating happiness and misery of the cycle of deeds is sufficient to realize the misery in the future. But for ordinary ignorant human beings such general concept will not give a real psychological effect. Unless an individual case is specified and unless the misery in the future is specifically indicated, the human being will not take up the worship of God with utmost care during happiness. For this purpose only, the subject of Astrology is born. By Astrology an individual can foresee the misery in the future.

Astrology is Jyotisha Shastram, which means the science of light. It is the torchlight to foresee the misery in the future. It shows both misery and happiness in the future. But a human being will be alert only to avoid the misery in the future by taking some action in the present as prevention. If the misery appears after a long time, the human being will again sleep in the present happiness. Therefore, the design of the recycling periods of the nine planets (Dasha) is arranged in a wonderful manner so that you can see some misery even in the next hour. This is done by the system of Dasa – Antardasha – Vidasha – Sukshma Dasha – Prana Dasha etc., among these nine planets some planets are good and some planets are certainly bad for any Zodiac (Raasi) in which one is born.

By these systems of period, sub-periods, sub sub-periods etc., one can find the involvement of a bad planet (intensity may vary) even in the next hour. Based on this system only astrologers can calculate the time of the incident very precisely even up to hours and minutes. Therefore, Astrology helps the human being to foresee the misery in the future and advises to avoid the misery by worship of God and by doing certain specified sacrifice (Daanam). This covers both theoretical and practical devotion continuously through out the life. Therefore, Astrology is justified because the ends justify the means. In fact it is a part of spiritual knowledge because God is also mentioned as the ultimate light (Paramjyoti rupasampadya - Veda, Jyotiridhikaranam of Brahma Sutras). Hence, these torch lights of the planets acting as secondary lights help the human being to worship the main ultimate light (God).

Today the human beings approach astrologers and hear the prophecy for one year. There was no difference between the Satguru (God in Human form) and Astrologer because the Satguru adopts the method of Astrology for ordinary ignorant human beings to create interest in God. In the beginning the interest may be as means but slowly on realizing the taste of God, they may become real devotees. This is the right spirit and direction of our tradition. If you observe today you can find the fate of such well-established divine tradition. The astrologer is not at all a Satguru.

He is just giving the prophecy to collect some money on that day for the prophecy. He also designs the future plan of his work in the year to earn money through the remedies suggested and his prophecy is just the annual financial budget. He sows the seed of fear of future misery in the minds of some rich people so that the future remedies can give some financial benefits to him or to his secret partners who are the priests involved in such remedies. Astrology is a part of the divine philosophy because the planets are the executive authorities of implementing the cycle of deeds based on the constitution spelled by God.

If you insult the astrology, God will also be furious because if a constable is insulted, the state police authority will feel seriously. Astrology is expected to lead the ordinary ignorant human beings into the spiritual path. If the astrologer realizes this truth and behaves accordingly, God will be pleased with him because astrologer will become a servant in the divine mission of the Lord. In such case all the problems of the astrologer will be taken care of by the divine grace and he need not worry about himself any more. The ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of cane appearing before their eyes and such cane is the misery in the future indicated by the astrologer. Either devotion or fear (Bhakti or Bhayam) can give fruit. If devotion is impossible the fear is used to develop the devotion at the ground level.

[revribhav]

Quote:
"The ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of cane appearing before their eyes".
It was Kabir who defied fear.
"Kabir Yeh Ghar Prem Ka, Khala Ka Ghar Nahin
Sees Utaare Hath Kar, So Pasey Ghar Mahin "

Kabir, this is the abode of love
Not the house of an aunt
Only that one can enter here
Who has relinquished all pride


Kabir explains valor and fearlessness in love and devotion. A person who is able to defeat the passions of Anger, Carnality, Attachment, Greed and Enmity - the enemies within - is the valiant one. To be a lover or a true devotee is the job of a warrior and not of a coward. Such act demands complete surrender of one's ego and a spirit full of compassion and poise.

[dattaswami]

Quote:
"The ordinary human souls are always like children who will sit and study only due to fear of cane appearing before their eyes".
It was Kabir who defied fear.
"Kabir Yeh Ghar Prem Ka, Khala Ka Ghar Nahin
Sees Utaare Hath Kar, So Pasey Ghar Mahin "

Kabir, this is the abode of love
Not the house of an aunt
Only that one can enter here
Who has relinquished all pride


Kabir explains valor and fearlessness in love and devotion. A person who is able to defeat the passions of Anger, Carnality, Attachment, Greed and Enmity - the enemies within - is the valiant one. To be a lover or a true devotee is the job of a warrior and not of a coward. Such act demands complete surrender of one's ego and a spirit full of compassion and poise.

The total surrender of your self is possible if you know that you are a tiny part of His movable property. A goat is a part of the movable property of the butcher. Every drop of the blood and every bit of the flesh is the property of the butcher only. The butcher is going to enjoy the entire flesh and blood of the goat and therefore there is no individuality for the goat. Similarly, every atom of your gross body and every wave of the energy in your gross body belong to the God. All your qualities (subtle body) and your entire pure awareness (soul or causal body) belong to God only. Hence, total surrender of your self is the complete justice (Tameva Sharanam Gachcha….Gita). To signify this concept, the Lord is called as Pashupati or the owner of the souls, which are like the animals