Purpose of human life

In the materialistic plane one person says that the aim of his life is to
achieve a particular post and then help his family members. Some other person
says that the aim of his life is to serve the mankind. We appreciate the second
aim as higher than the first one. The highest aim of the human life can be
known only in the spiritual plane. The sole aim of this creation is pleasing
God through the entertainment. Every human being is a part of the creation and
so the same aim applies to every human being also. The human being becomes
fruitful if it serves the Lord and pleases the Lord through the service.
Service means the sacrifice of work and sacrifice of the fruit of the work.
Service is the proof of the real love.

The mother serves her child by sacrificing lot of work like giving bath,
dressing etc., for years together continuously. The father serves the child by
sacrificing the fruit of all his hard work to the child. It is a clear
practical point that the proof of the real love is only service. If you serve
your family you love your family. If you serve the entire world you love the
creation. If you serve the creator, you love the creator. It is a very simple
point.

Love is the attraction of mind towards anybody or anything. When the illness
attacks the body you take so much care to serve your body. You love your body.
Similarly you serve your father, mother, wife and children because your mind is
attracted towards them. What is the first pre-requisite for this love? When you
love your child, you are aware that a particular small living being is your
child and you have the differentiating knowledge of your child from other
children who are similar. Similarly, when you love God you must be aware of the
form of God, who must be differentiated from other forms as your child is
differentiated from other children. You are identifying your child by certain
special characteristics like shape of the face, voice etc; you are not
recognizing your child by the clothes, which it puts on. Other children put on
such clothes also. Similarly, you must distinguish the Creator from the
creation and then only love the creator. You cannot love the entire creation as
the creator. Do you love all the children as your own children?

Therefore, the pre-requisite of love is the true knowledge and the
inseparable identifying characteristics of an object by which you get attracted
towards it. Therefore, what is the real form of God? And how it differs from
other forms? What are the inseparable identifying characteristics of God? The
answers for these questions constitute the detailed true knowledge of God. Only
such true knowledge generates attraction and love. When you know the separate
special details of Bombay, which are not seen in
any other city, then only you are attracted to Bombay and like to see it.

Before proceeding to the identifying true knowledge of God, you must also
know the purpose of your attraction towards an object. You love your child, and
there is no purpose in it. You also love a doctor when you are ill. But that
love is not real. It is not love at all. It is only artificial apparent love
exhibited for a purpose. You want the doctor to help you. Therefore, true love
is that when there is no purpose in it. False love is that in which purpose is
present. Generally almost all the people love God because God is omni-potent.
He has miraculous powers to do anything, which is impossible for any body on
this earth. When a problem comes and when one fails to solve it by all the
means existing in this world, one starts loving God to solve that unique
problem. Therefore, you love the position or power of God and not the God. A
poet shows lot of love and appreciation on a king in his spontaneous poetry
because the poet loves the power and the wealth of the king. He expects the
king to donate some land or to give him some money after being pleased with his
poems. The poet does not love the person who is the king. He loves the king
only. Will he write the same poems if the king looses his kingdom and becomes a
beggar? In his poetry the poet praised that the king is very beautiful with
sweet voice and infinite wisdom. These qualities still remain with the king
even if he has become the beggar. But the poet does not praise the same
qualities of that beggar because the beggar cannot donate anything to him. The
post of the king and the kingdom are separable characteristics, whereas the
qualities are inseparable characteristics.

You can easily identify the person by these inseparable characteristics and
if your love on Him is real, you will love him whether he is a king or a
beggar. Are you not loving your son and praise him whether he serves you or
not? Sita garlanded and married Rama who will be the future king of Ayodhya. The
love of Sita may be on Rama only or may be on the kingdom of Ayodhya
for which she can become queen or may be both put together. Rama tested her
love by discarding the kingdom and by going to the forest. Sita followed Rama
to the forest. Her love was only on Rama and not on the kingdom. Ravana further
tested this. Ravana offered her to become the queen. But she refused.
Therefore, the love on God should be analyzed and should be decided whether God
is loved or His omni-potent miraculous power is loved for our advantage. Some
people want to take advantage in this world and some others want to take the
advantage in the upper world so that they can be protected from the hell. In
both cases the love on God is not true. It is only the love on his associated
power. Sankara says that the true love on God should not have any desire
related to this world or to the upper world (Ihaamutra Phala Viragah). If the
love is on the power of the God only what is the use of the real form of God or
the inseparable characteristics of the God?

The poet loves anybody as the king. For him anybody on the thrown is
beautiful and is very wise. In such case if the king donates the desired land
or cash by seeing the poem written by a poet, the poet does not bother to see
or talk with the king. Therefore, when we love GodÂ’s power for some advantage,
we need not worry about His form or in seeing or talking with God. You can just
chant the prayers. He responds to your prayers and your desire is fulfilled. In
such case one need not see the God and the God also does not want to see his or
her bloody face.

When a mother wants to see her child, she is not thinking about any
advantage out of it. In fact the mother presents some cash to the son as a gift
and if the son needs, she will even sell all her jewels and sacrifice for the
sake of her son. Similarly, if the person is having true love on God, that
person wants to see God not for any advantage, but even at the cost of
disadvantage. For such person only God appears and such person only can see,
talk, touch and can even live along with the God. For such persons only there
is need of the enquiry of the real form of God.

The real form of God is unimaginable as said in Vedas and there is no
question of seeing or talking or touching the God. Gita also says that nobody
can know God (Mam tu Veda Na..). Such unimaginable God cannot be said to have a
form or formless. The Creator is beyond the creation, which is a
four-dimensional network of space and time along with matter and energy. The
creation contains both formless items like space, energy and air and also
formful items like water, earth etc. If you say God as formful or formless,
then God becomes a part of the creation and not beyond the creation. Veda says
that no item in the creation including the pure awareness or life energy is God
(Neti, NetiÂ…). But there are real devotees who have real love towards God and
want to see, touch, talk and live along with God for no selfish advantage
either in this or in the upper world. The God who has infinite kindness and
infinite love cannot reject such real love.

The God is omni-potent and can satisfy the desire of such real devotees and
the real devotees are crying for such fortune of vision etc. The God is capable
and the devotee deserves. Nobody can put his finger between these two. To
satisfy the real devotees God comes in human form and all these four fortunes
are blessed upon the real devotees. If God comes in the form of space or
energy, which is formless or in the form of statues, He cannot grant these
fortunes. He can talk, touch and live with the devotees when He comes in the
human form only. Only the human body can do such things as per laws of nature.
The nature is His creation and the laws of nature are the rules of His own
administration. He will not violate these rules except in the case of
inevitable emergency. Why should He use His special power (Maya) and talk or
touch or live with you in the form of space or energy or statues? When the
purpose is served through the normal routine, why are you so rigid about the
abnormal way? God need not heed to the foolish rigid behaviour of some human
beings. Infact they want to pray the formless God or God in the form of a
statue for the sake of their selfish convenience only. You can offer food to
formless God or statue and then you can eat the entire food. You are satisfied
as if you have given meals to God and at the same time not even a grain of rice
is lost. There are many inconvenient losses and troubles with the human form of
God. But the real devotees are not worried about such loss and infact they are
happy to loose if God can enjoy by that. They feel happy when God eats that
food. The mother visits her son and pays him some cash. When the son is happy
with that she derives infinite happiness and does not feel it as a loss or
trouble.

The mother will stay with her son and serve him day and night if necessary
and feels very happy about it. Similarly, these real devotees feel happy to
serve the Lord and they are happy about the loss incurred in it.

Lord came to the human form as Krishna for
the sake of Gopikas only and not for others. Only Gopikas could recognize Him
and served the Lord by offering butter and they felt happy in such sacrifice.
They did not feel such sacrifice as loss. Krishna
was not their child. But they loved Him more than their children. They did not
give butter even to their own children and offered it to the Lord. Their love
to God crossed even their love to their children. When such real love exists,
God comes in human form and reveals His identity to you. Your love must be real
and must be practically proved by the sacrifice of work (Karma Sanyasa) and
sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma Phala Tyaga) as emphasized in Gita. Sacrifice
of words, mind and intelligence, which are freely supplied to you by God is
like offering drinking water to the guest, which was freely supplied by the municipality.

But sacrifice of work and fruit of work are like offering the meals to the
guest and it is sacrifice of your hard-earned money. Of-course the meals must
be associated with drinking water also and at the same time mere drinking water
is almost nothing. Sacrifice becomes complete, which is the complete proof of
your real love only, when you sacrifice mind, words, intelligence, work and
fruit of work. Sacrifice of words is prayer and sacrifice of mind is
meditation, sacrifice of intelligence is the spiritual discussion. Therefore,
meditation alone is the sacrifice of the mind i.e., supplied freely by God.
Sacrifice of anything, which is hard earned by your work, is the real main
sacrifice.

When the Lord exposes Himself as the source of all infinite super natural
powers, all the people will run to Him with same speed and will sacrifice to
their maximum. In such case you cannot differentiate the real devotee from a
fraud devotee. The reason is that the super natural power attracts all the
people with equal force. When acids are dissolved in water they show equal
strengths because water being high polar solvent attracts the hydrogen ions
from all acids equally so that their extent of ionization becomes same.

The strong acid cannot be differentiated from a weak acid. This is called as
leveling effect. When the same acids are dissolved in glacial acetic acid,
which is a weak solvent, the acids will ionize to different extent as per their
inherent nature. When an official asks for some amount of money, all the
merchants will run to him with equal speed and give that amount. In this case
you cannot differentiate the real donor from the real greedy merchant. But when
a beggar begs for some money, a real donor donates whereas a greedy person
refuses. The real nature of the individuals comes out in the case of the beggar
only. Similarly, when God comes in human form and exhibits the super natural
powers all the people rush to Him with equal speeds and show equal love on God.
Even if God recognizes the real devotee by His power and rewards him, the other
devotees will find fault with the God. They will argue that even though the
extent of devotion is equal, the Lord showed partiality. Therefore, God in
human form will not exhibit miracles and will exhibit only His inseparable
special knowledge, which projects Him as Guru only and not Bhagavan. Datta
means God donated to the devotees in human form. His right half is Guru and the
left half is Bhagavan. The right half is only projected and the left half is
hidden. In such case only the real devotees can be filtered.

It is easy to approach the human incarnation and praise Him as God. But the
most important part is to retain the same faith through out the life. When
Datta becomes inconvenient in practical way the faith should persist. The faith
should be practical and permanent. The recognition of human incarnation must be
done with the help of the sacred scriptures like Vedas, Brahma sutras and Gita.
You must take a long time to decide the human incarnation. Once you have
decided you must stick to that in spite of all the troubles and inconvenience,
which you face practically. There is no use of catching somebody in haste and
then withdraw by the next day. You will continue like this through out your
life. Therefore, you must study all the scriptures and be thorough with the
divine knowledge, which generates the devotion or love. If your devotion is
real you must prove it by your service. The real love is only one-way traffic.
Attaining the God, seeing Him and talking with Him are useless. Demons have
seen and talked with God by doing long penance. What is the use of it? They
were finally destroyed. Even if you donÂ’t see or talk with God, if you please
Him through your proven real love, you are blessed. Rama never saw Lord Siva.

But He was blessed. Ravana saw and talked with Siva, but was destroyed.
Therefore, pleasing the Lord should be our final aim and not mere vision or
conversation. If your aim is only to solve your problem in this world or in the
upper world or in both, you have nothing to do with the formless God or form of
God. Your work is done when you pray for it sincerely. But mind that your
sincerity is not on God but it is on the solution of your problem. God in a
temporary way only does the solution for your problems, which is not good for
you in the long run. He postpones your bad results and brings your good results
from the future births. By this, you have to enjoy the results of the deeds,
which you have done and you cannot enjoy the results of the deeds, which you
have not done. It is like sending your application to the officer through a
peon paying the necessary amount and getting back the application with the
signature of the officer.

You have nothing to do with the personality or qualities of the officer. But
when a girl loves the officer, she likes to see the personality and know about
his qualities. His position as an officer is only one of the several aspects.
Often, she neglects this aspect of the post, when the personality and qualities
attracted her. Similarly, a real devotee feels happy by knowing the details of
God and he is not worried about the benefit from the God. In such case, the
Lord enjoys the bad results of that real devotee and gives him eternal
happiness. Some people are not bothered about God and go on doing the worldly
works continuously. They believe in themselves only. Such people are either
athiests or just neglect the God. But the so-called devotees also do not love
the God really. They show false love on God and all their real love is only in
the solutions of their problems. They want to visit the Lord and try to show
their anxiety about the personality of the Lord. All that is only to please the
Lord who may be helpful in the future problems. These devotees are also not
better than those atheists in any way. But the Lord allows these devotees
because there is a hope of change in their attitude and become the real
devotees. Prahlada was always absorbed in the personality of the Lord and did
not ask for any help even in the torture.

He was only remembering the Lord in such situation. Hanuman served the Lord
Rama not for any gift in return. In fact when Sita gave the chain of pearls, He
broke those pearls to see Rama in those pearls. Rama never announced the gift
given to Hanuman and Hanuman never aspired for any gift. Rama gave the post of
creator of this world and the matter was not revealed to anybody. By revealing
that, Rama never wanted to pose Himself as the Lord. Hanuman was not even aware
of that post because His mind was only on the personality of Rama. Similarly,
Radha never aspired for any thing and she was given a special top most world
(Goloka). Arjuna had partial devotion and therefore, the final fruit was partly
happiness and partly misery. Duryodhana invited Lord Krishna for a big feast in
His honour. Krishna
never attended it and finally destroyed them. All the respect and love shown by
Duryodhana were only to exploit Lord Krishna in the war. When Krishna was found
useless for him, he was angry with Krishna
and tried to chain Him. This shows that he did not even recognize Krishna as the Lord. Therefore, the Lord gives
vision, conversation and co-living etc., only for the real devotees who do not
aspire anything in return.

The worst devotees want practical fruits from the Lord by serving Him
through words, feelings and intellectual discussions. The middle class devotees
sacrifice practically for the Lord and aspire practical results in return.
These types of devotees are businessmen and the above type of devotees are
prostitutes. A businessman invests some amount and tries to get back more
amounts in return. A prostitute tries to earn the amount from a person without
ordained any amount and ordained only sweet words, sweet feelings and
artificial discussions. The last type of devotees serves the Lord practically
and do not aspire any result from the Lord either theoretically or practically.
For such devotees only the Lord comes in human form and gives His experience to
them and save them in this and as well as in the upper world.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness, Sri Dattaswami

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