Should we not ask God for help?

If you are ordinary person you should follow the rules of your deeds and nature. If you are a devotee, even then, you should not ask God for help. Your devotion must not aspire any result. You are asking God for help means that you want God to violate his own natural rules. The impression of millions of angels and sages is disturbed if God violates his own rules. That will give a poor impression on God. You are putting God to inconvenience by forcing him to use his supernatural power. Whether you are a devotee or not, you must always try to solve your problems by putting your best effort.

If you fail, even then, do not ask God to help you. Then, you think that it is your fate and worship God as usual. Arjuna was fighting with his grandfather, Bhishma. Arjuna was not putting up his best effort to kill Bhishma. He was having sympathy to Bhishma, who has brought up Arjuna. Noting this, Krishna took His Sudarshana chakra and ran to kill Bhishma. That means the Lord tried to solve the problem of Arjuna through His divine power. Arjuna did not agree to this and forced Krishna to stop, because Arjuna knew about his inadequate effort. But when Sindhava was to be killed, Arjuna tried his best, because Arjuna took an oath to kill Sindhava before sunset and otherwise he promised that he would enter the fire.

Since the sunset took place apparently due to the Maya of Krishna, Arjuna stopped fighting and wanted to enter the fire. He was just going to jump into the fire but he never asked for help. He thought that was his fate. Therefore, the Lord helped him secretly. Therefore, if you put your best effort, still fail because it is beyond your limits, if you happen to be a real devotee and do not ask for the help from God, then you will be helped by the superpower secretly. The secrecy is due to preservation of the sacredness of his administration in the eyes of others.

41. Can sin be cancelled by prayers or charity?

The sin can never be cancelled by any remedy except the realization and reformation of the soul. Realization comes through knowledge and the determination and subsequent practical implementation of knowledge brings reformation of the soul.
Knowledge is always inherently related to soul. With the help of knowledge you can change the states of matter and energy easily, but with lot of difficulty only you can change the state of soul since knowledge is inherently related to soul. Knowledge with top most intensity only can change the soul. The intensity of knowledge increases as the knowledge is coming closer to the truth. The true knowledge means the knowledge that is totally identified with the truth, which can be given by the human incarnation of God only and hence Veda said that the true knowledge is the real inherent characteristic of God (Satyam Jnanam..). Except the human form of God, no other form can deliver the knowledge and this is the exceptional value of human incarnation. You may say that God can speak even through inert forms or other living beings due to His omnipotence but such exhibition of unimaginable power without real necessity indicates the brainless administration of God. When the human form is naturally available to serve the purpose, there is no meaning to use superpower through other forms for the same purpose. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was crossing the river by a boat paying one rupee to the driver. Another saint crossed the same river by walking on water to show his super power. Paramahamsa told him that the cost of his super power is just one rupee! God is not such foolish saint, but God is such wise Paramahamsa! Realization is the process of effort to change the soul and reformation is the actual change of the soul. If the soul is reformed, the proof for it is that the sin is not practically repeated. If this result is achieved, there is no need of punishment. The punishment is not for the sake of past sin, since past is past. The punishment is only to change the soul so that in future the sin is not repeated. The day you have stopped repeating the sin, you are excused by God for the past sin. This is the only way to stop the punishment of sin, which is in the form of problems of life. If you have stopped all the sins, your life will be the happiest and for this you need not pray even God. Prayer to God will not cancel even the trace of the sin. Ravana prayed Lord Shiva in several ways, but, he could not escape the punishment of his sin. If you are committing sin, you are violating the word of God and going against the will of God. God wants you not to commit any sin. His word is the ethical scripture, which says that you should not commit any sin. The sin will disturb the balance of the society since it hurts the co-living beings. Non-vegetarian food by it self is not a sin since the analysis of it shows that its contents are the same as exist in vegetarian food. The sin comes by killing a co-living being, which does not harm you at all. If you stop taking non-vegetarian food, killing of living beings is proportionally controlled. Do not say that you are not getting sin since you have not killed the living being directly. Killing is the highest sin, which gives highest pain to the living being. In the next birth, the killed living being will be born as human being, you will be born as the living being and you will be killed similarly by the human being so that your soul will realize the pain and get reformed. All the punishments are only for reformation of the soul and not for revenge. The hell is created by God not with vengeance against sinners but due to kindness to reform the souls. God is always kind to reform the souls, which are His children since the souls are created by Him. The father will never have even a trace of vengeance towards his issues. Jesus always addressed God as father and He propagated this concept by saying that all your sins will be excused by God if you are reformed. Practical knowledge, the practical realization, which is the reformation, will cancel all your previous bad deeds or sins as told in Gita (Jnanaagnih….). Except this one way, there is no other way to cancel the sins and escape from all the present problems in the world and future torture in the hell. The results of all your good actions will be separate and will not interfere with the cancellation of sins. God will give you good results for all your prayers and any prayer will not cancel even a trace of your sin. Similarly, your charity. If these good actions can reform you, then, your sins will be canceled.

At the lotus feet of Shri Dattaswami
-Durgaprasad

40. How do you justify the caste system in Hinduism?

The Gita says that the caste is due to qualities and profession (Guna Karma Vibhagasah). Qualities were always respected. Rama and Krishna were non-Brahmins. The Brahmin priests wash the statues of Rama and Krishna and swallow it as sacred water. In Bhagavatam it is written that Bhuri Sravasa, who is a pot maker was made Brahma in the sacrifice. Ravana was a Brahmin but was condemned. Every human being is ‘Sudra’ by birth and can become Brahmin by practicing the true meaning of the Vedas (Janmana Jaayate). Brahmana means he who knows Brahman. Brahman also means the Veda in Sanskrit. Every caste contains good people as well as bad people. Sabari and Kannappa belong to the family of untouchables. Nobody is untouchable by birth. In the Veda only four castes were mentioned. How this fifth caste came into existence? All the bad people in the four castes were expelled from the village just like a bad student is expelled from the school. Thus untouchability is due to the qualities and deeds but not by birth. Brahmins are worshipping the photos of Sabari and Kannappa in their prayer rooms

39. Is Lord responsible to feed all living beings in this world?

[Please protect the job of my son. Is it not the responsibility of the Lord to feed all the living beings in this world?]

Had your statement been correct, there should have been no death due to hunger in this world. This means there is no such responsibility for the Lord. This is explained in the Gita (Na Kartrutvam). Every living being attains anything including food according to its own deeds. Therefore one should not aspire for any fruit from the Lord and thus one should be always selfless. The Lord protects such human beings only who are selfless and serve the Lord. The Lord protects them by transferring all the sins to Him. First you cut your blind bond (Moha) with your son. He was your enemy in the previous birth. You grabbed his property. He is now born as your son to collect his money with interest (Runanubandha Roopena). In the previous birth you prayed the Lord to punish the same fellow. The Lord neither punished him in the previous nor will protect him in this birth. The punishment and protection follow him as per the fruits of his deeds. All the living beings are dearer to the Lord in all the births. For you, one soul becomes dear in this birth and the same soul becomes enemy in another birth. You are recommending him to Me! Suppose a guest comes to your house and recommends your son to you, how do you feel? The Lord punishes anybody only to bring realization in that soul. Did you not punish your son in the childhood? Did I interfere then in your punishment? I have more responsibility than your case. Guru is greater than even the parents. If you recommend anybody to the Lord, you are insulting the Lord. It shows as if you are more concerned about him than Me. Therefore you think about yourself and leave him to Me.

38. Why my son, a devotee is killed in accident? Is lord cruel in not protecting him?

[My son who died in an accident was an excellent devotee of the Lord. The Lord who has to protect him killed him. Is He not cruel?]

Your question shows that you are not the real devotee of the Lord. Your son must have been a real devotee as expressed by your own words. He was born to you by his previous action (Prarabdha). In your association he will be certainly spoiled. Therefore the Lord wanted to change him as a son of another real devotee. He allowed some time to see whether you will change as a real devotee so that your son may continue with you. But you have not changed because you are scolding the Lord for cutting your bond with your son. Actually all the family bonds should be cut for the sake of the bond with the Lord. Just like you change your son from a school containing bad students to a school with good students, the Lord changed your son to the atmosphere of a real devotee. Thus the Lord protected your son. In His view, removing this external body is just like removing the shirt. In your view, such removal of shirt is cruelty. Therefore always be firm that the Lord is always the protector and He is kindest towards all His real devotees.

37. I am very much anxious to get a child and good health?

You are getting everything according to your present deeds and also the past deeds. The Lord has arranged the cycles of your births. In each cycle happiness and misery are alternatively arranged leaving the sequence of good and bad deeds. Even if you have done two sins subsequently the fruits of the two sins are not given to you subsequently. The result of a good deed is penetrated in between these two sins. Like this the Lord has arranged all your life cycles at present and in the future. If you are pestering Him, He will bring the result of good deed from the future cycle to the present cycle as a pre-matured fixed deposit with reduced value. By such interference your future life cycles will be filled with misery. Then you will scold the Lord crying “Oh! Lord you have given me misery from birth to death”. You don’t remember your foolish interference in the past birth. The other way is that the Lord in human form should transfer your sin on Him and should suffer for your sake. This path is possible only when you don’t aspire for this path and worship the Lord in human form by sacrificing all your bonds of the world. This is possible only for a true devotee who never wishes that the Lord should suffer for his or her sake. Such true devotee will be worshipping the Lord without aspiring anything in return. One has to understand the theory of Karma and the devotion towards Lord. The Lord suffers for the sins of His true devotees only who are really serving the Lord in practice by doing Karma Sanyasa (Sacrifice of work) and Karma Phala Tyaga (Sacrifice of the fruit of work) in His mission without aspiring anything in return. In such service even an iota of desire should not be present even in any biological cell of the human being. This is called ‘NISHKAMA KARMA YOGA’ AS EMPHASIZED IN THE GITA.

36. Can we have bond with the Lord along with the family, as duties are inevitable?

[The duties are inevitable due to responsibilities of the family. Then how can one cut the family bonds? One can have a bond with God along with the family bonds.]

The Gita says ‘Eka Bhakthih Vishishyate’ which means that the person having only one bond with the Lord alone is liberated. The liberation itself means destruction of all the bonds in this world. Without full liberation, one cannot have a strong bond with the Lord. Unless one is completely relieved from the world, one cannot join God. The joining report in the new institution is not possible without complete relief from the previous institution. You cannot partially join the new institution. It cannot be a side employment. Ofcourse such partial bond can be treated as the intermediate stage and is better than no bond. But the aim should not be such partial bond. If you aim at 100 marks, you may get 40 marks and pass. But if you aim at 40 marks only, you will fail. Therefore, let the aim be total liberation from the world and single bond with the God. The bond consists of three parts. The service in terms of sacrifice of work and fruit of work comprises ninety-nine paise. Love with mind consists of 2/3rd paise. Remembering through words consists of 1/3rd paise. If you take the case of Shankara, He has donated the whole rupee to the Lord. His love for His mother, words to praise mother and service to mother are diverted towards the Lord. He left His mother for the sake of the Lord. He has donated all the one hundred paise to the Lord. He is the top most beloved of the Lord. He should be our aim. In the beginning stage you cannot divert your work, which is called duty and mental attachment, which is called love to the Lord. Atleast make a humble beginning by donating the words to the Lord. Go on reading spiritual books and go on chanting his songs. By this you have donated 1/3rd paise to the Lord. Remember that you cannot purchase any item from any shop with 1/3rd paise. Therefore, do not aspire anything in return from the Lord, for this 1/3rd paise. In the next stage you try to divert your mind towards the Lord, which is 2/3rd paise. Do your duties to your family members, but without mental attachment. Such mental detachment has several added advantages. If one is mentally detached from the family members, he will not be hurt if they insult him in future. He will not be disturbed when their behaviour is not correct. He will not suffer if death attacks them. Such mental detachment brings full peace and balance of mind. Due to this he will be always energetic with good health. Therefore, such mental detachment is needed even for an atheist. The detached mind cannot keep silent because it is habituated to the attachment. Therefore, attach the mind to the Lord. Such attachment will always give infinite bliss in the life. When you are successful in attaching the mind to the Lord, you are called as devotee. But a devotee can be disturbed. The devotion becomes firm if his intelligence takes a firm decision through knowledge. Therefore, Knowledge gives firm decision to the intelligence (Buddhi) and this makes the devotion of mind (Manas) to be firm. Therefore, the Gita started with Buddhi Yoga or Jnana Yoga in the second chapter. When the mind is fixed on the Lord with the help of the knowledge of the intelligence, the work will naturally change and will follow the mind. The mind is like the king. The words are like his ministers. The intelligence is like his preacher or Guru. The work is like his army. Therefore, with the help of the words the mind should be diverted to the Lord and it is fixed with the help of the intelligence. The words divert the mind, whereas the intelligence fixes the mind. Therefore, when you have donated words and mind to the Lord and when you are strengthened by the spiritual knowledge your duties and responsibilities, which form the work will naturally be diverted towards the Lord. The work is always inert item and is controlled by the mind and intelligence.