Dharma

QUESTION: Dhananjay, hi

On one one hand there is Dharma [one's duty to take responsibility for parents/wife/child etc] and on the other there is this strong urge to find God.
How does one balance the two. The urge to find God in Mahatma Budh was so high that he left all to find God and he did. I believe, based on past births etc, his final time had come, he had reached a state where he knew that all of this did not matter when compared to realising god. How does one reconcile the above? i.e. Dharma & Longing to realise god?
Can one who is honestly involved in following his dharma and is doing sadhna too, realise god?
And does it really help to renounce all to find god, after all there are different ways to find god and renouncing is not the only way.
Also, I wanted to ask, you keep mentioning that the world is illusory [maya] and asath [unreal]. Even if one keeps this in mind I always wonder, why? why did god create this unreality? what was the purpose of god creating the world and then letting humans suffer due to ignorance etc, with the ultimate human objective being self realisation.
Apologies if I am sounding vague.
Thanks for your help, Manish

ANSWER: 1. One should follow one's Dharma (duty) by honestly striving to complete one's duties in the path shown by destiny which is nothing but the will of God and set aside the rest of one's time for God-thought and activities required for self-realization. One's destiny is governed by God's will and ones 'Prarabdha' (past karma which will be worked out in this life). As these karma-s slowly work out and more positive or negative karma is not accrued by avoiding wrong actions and surrendering good actions as a service to God with the practice of Yoga and Brahmacharya; one's worldly duties, responsibilities and commitments slowly start reducing in volume. With sustained efforts in this direction, the honest and sincere Yogi will gradually & eventually reach a stage where God reduces his worldly commitments to a bare minimum and pave way for the Yogi to concentrate more time and energy in those activities required for self-realization. This then becomes the new Dharma of the Yogi to which he has to give his heart and soul. In such a man, there will be a strong longing from within to find God through self-realization. His mind and activities come back towards those required for God-realization in spite of engaging in worldly activities done out of necessity.

One wishing self-realization should initially strive in this direction sparing what little time and energy one can towards the practice of Yoga & Brahmacharya with devotion to God. With sustained efforts spanning many years or even lives depending on past karma and the will of God, he reaches a stage where his mind is constantly filled in God thought most of the time. Correspondingly, God arranges for lessening of his worldly duties and increases his spiritual practice. This is the case with all people who have persevered in this direction. The more advanced the person becomes, the lesser become his worldly responsibilities through the grace of the Lord. In cases of saints and sages, the advancement has reached such a stage that there is no further world experience or world duty remaining for them except possibly guide others in a similar path. The Jivatma (embodied soul) is nearing its time for release. A mammoth force of great intensity then takes hold of them to concentrate on spiritual practice and attain to Yoga (final union) which they comply with, for what greater happiness and joy than to tread the path chosen and offered by God himself to reach God himself?

The wise man does not plan, hope or desire for anything except realizing God, for he has realized the world and its offerings to be harbingers of pain, being Asath (unreal). The undependable senses promised him much pleasure but cheated him with pain. He has had enough of being fooled. He now wants to break free of their grip and attain to his real state of eternal bliss which comes only on attaining to self-realization (the knowledge that He, the Atman (soul) is no different than the Paramatman (the Almighty)). He forsakes doership and performs the part of an instrument or medium, all the time associating himself with the fact that God is the doer and he is only the medium. His mind is ever fixed on God and God-realization. To him, the world and the worldly activities he has to perform due to his 'Prarabdha' (past karma) are akin to the role played by an actor in a drama. He is involved, yet not involved. This world is his stage, life is the drama and its experiences and his work there are a part of his acting. Just as a drama actor does not let his role affect his real life when he gets home and just as the drama actor does not really die because he died in the drama, the wise do not let the happenings or non-happenings of this life drama to affect their real purpose of existence. They carry out the job of acting as per the wishes of the master director (God) and again keep the mind still, focused on God and God alone.

Each and every creature has been given a particular Dharma that it has to perform. That which man proposes is fueled by his personal desire stemming from the individual ego. That which ultimately happens or what is called as fate or destiny is willed by God taking into consideration one's past karma. Only that which God wills happens, try how hard one may to do the opposite. When one's desire coincides with that of God's, it appears as though one is the doer. At other times one cannot understand why something does not happen in spite of one's efforts. The reality is that God alone is the decider and not we. This is because God is the master of this creation, this body, mind, its faculties and the world. All these are God's divine dream. He alone is the architect of everything that one can see and not see. Hence what he decides alone transpires.

Knowing it to be such, the wise yogi does not hope or not hope, desire or not desire and plan for any endeavor except attaining to his true state of self-realization. Those activities concerning the world, he carries out based on that forwarded by his destiny. If he is a doctor, he treats his patients with honesty and sincerity, for this is what destiny (God) wills and then reverts his mind to God-thought/activities. If he is a fisherman, he goes about his daily routine of catching and selling fishes and again reverts his mind back to God at the earliest. With such practice, one reaches a stage where worldly work is carried out correctly and efficiently without ever releasing one's grip on God-thought. Even whilst working in the world, the mind of such a man thinks of it as a service to God and not separate from his Dharma (for it is God, the master of destiny who has decided that the man should perform that particular occupation or job)

This world is like a movie that is displayed on the cinema screen. Do the characters in the movie, the happenings or the locations in the movie exist in terms of reality? No. They are only moving forms of light thrown on the white screen from the projector. As soon as the person manning the projector switches it off, all forms of moving images which were thrown on the screen are sucked back into the device and all the people, locations and happenings in the movie disappear. Then, the person manning the projector alone remains. This universe with innumerable stars, planets, mountains, rivers, people (in terms of dualistic individuals) etc.. are all a part of the movie called 'Samsara' (dualistic world) projected from God's mind (projector) and fully controlled by him alone. So one only has to attend to the path shown by God as a service to HIM and revert one's mind back into Adhyatma (spirituality) the rest of one's time. Then, a very fine balance occurs between the world and one's spiritual state and they eventually merge into the one and only reality.

2. The Buddha didn't decide to desert his kingdom and family as a person in his individual capacity. What he did was to follow the will of God. He only acted as per the dictations of his inner voice (that of the Atman). In cases of some souls such as the Buddha, the Jivatma needs abrupt withdrawal from Samsara (dualistic world) by breaking and abandoning all ties, all of a sudden. The will of God deems it necessary for such an action in some cases. It might be that the wife and parents of the Buddha had such a Prarabdha (past karma) that required suffering arising from separation of a loved one. It might have been that the Buddha himself had to overcome such an attachment in order to proceed to higher spiritual domains. Then, such souls harden themselves to the possible repercussions of such a move and carry on their way out of Samsara. The necessity of such a move gets revealed to them from their very inner voice which is the voice of God. Variety and array is the nature of God's Leela (divine play). In the state of human perception limited by the intellect, we cannot understand HIS ways and means and why he makes some behave in one manner and others in another. We will know it when we reach that state of oneness with HIM through self-realization.

This is clear from the fact that all those in the path of self-realization did not abandon
their family or needed to do so. They only did what God proposed. There are many instances of realized souls who attained to liberation whilst being in the midst of family. Merely deserting one's family physically serves no purpose. The mind of such a man who has merely separated physically from the objects or people to whom he is attached to will crave and long for them even if he were to dwell in a cave deep in the forest. What is required is renunciation of attachment and desire. What is required is mental distance, detachment and Vairagya (dispassion) from attachment to anything except God. When this is achieved, the city itself becomes a forest and one's residence itself becomes a cave. It does not matter to the person whether he lives in the forest or the city, for his mind is on God and not on the senses. So the wise Yogi does not become attached to the city or to the forest. He is not attached to any happening or non-happening. He does not hope, aim or desire for anything except the knowledge of God. He leaves to God what should happen or not happen in his life with a neutral mind and perspective, for he is convinced that everything God does is for his Good and not for the bad. If God wills him to move into a forest, then so be it. If no, then so be it. With such an attitude of neutrality, he accepts destiny with an ever smiling demeanor as the will of God. Bound by his personal desires he is not.

3. Only the one who follows his Dharma and his Sadhana realizes God, not one who runs away in a cowardly manner from the responsibility thrust by God himself. If one's efforts at Sadhana (spiritual practice) are genuine, God himself will reduce worldly responsibility. The wise Yogi does not increase or decrease his responsibility. These, he leaves to God.

4. In case of such a Yogi, the objects renounce him. He need not take the effort to renounce them!

-- The possibility of renunciation exists as long as there is an internal craving for some object which the person then tries to get over through efforts at control or surrender. Where is the question of giving up something which one does not have? One can renounce the desire for money when he has the desire for money. How can one renounce the desire for money if he has no desire for money? Similarly the question of renouncing the world exists as long as one is attached to it. How can one renounce the world if it is no longer an innate mental part of the person? If it does not form a part of his thinking or contemplation? This is true renunciation. The real Yogi is like this, for his contemplation is on the Supreme and not on his surroundings consisting of worldly happenings. All advice for the beginner in scriptures regarding renunciation is devised to help him reach this stage. What is important is to slowly renounce attachment to anything other than God.<b>

5. We the Atman (pure soul) are actually a part of the Almighty, as a drop of sea water is a part of the ocean. But we have forgotten out true nature and consider ourselves as individuals. We can neither manifest the powers and abilities of the Almighty nor accept ourselves as being God himself. To remove this wrong conception and establish us back into our true state has the great Lord devised this life drama of Samsara (finite world) which is like the image emanating from a projector. It is Asath (unreal), for it is only the means used by the Lord to make the Jiva (individual) finally become aware of its oneness with HIM. The self-realized man realizes himself to be the Almighty itself and no different from it. This is how he becomes able to manifest many of the powers of God.

Someone I met the other day asked me with sarcasm and mockery  -"If upon self-realization we become God himself and can do all the things which God does, can we then create immense riches, luxury, wealth and pleasure for ourselves? Can we create planets, stars and galaxies?" -- This person has obviously not understood what it means, even in the theoretical sense when the self-realized sages said "Aham Brahmasmi" - "I myself am the Almighty". When you have merged into God and have become God himself through self-realization, where is the question of 'YOU' thinking of creating stars or planets?? That which 'GOD' thinks happens even then as it is happening even now, for then there is no 'YOU'. There is only 'GOD'. This 'YOU' has disappeared. This 'YOU' has become 'GOD' further to removal of ignorance around the Atman (soul). There is nothing separate, no duality. The two concepts that earlier existed namely 'YOU' & 'GOD' have now become one concept 'GOD'. So if at that point of time 'GOD' wills to create a star or a planet, then it happens. Else it doesn't. How can 'YOU' think of creating a star or planet when 'YOU' no longer exist??... But have merged into the ocean of existence called 'GOD'?

<b>ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dhananjay, hi

Thanks very much for the elaborate answer, I really appreciate it.
Is the real battle then to eliminate YOU and merge with GOD?

Regards, Manish