Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

51. The Real Religion Is Love of God

(Darshan given in December 1998)

A visitor: When we die, we say we get reborn. How long does it take?

Swamiji: It depends upon the kinds of desire that a person was entertaining in the mind. If a person had rapacious, terribly insisting desires, that person may take birth immediately. But if the desires are very mild, it will take a long time to mature. And if the desires are just simple desires, they will take even any number of years. So the intensity of the desires with which a person dies determines the length of time that it takes for rebirth.

We are discussing that we don't want rebirth, so why are you asking that unnecessary question now?

Visitor: No, I just want to know.

Swamiji: We don't want rebirth. You decide: I will not take birth. I am a child of God. I am a ray of the sun of God. Why should I take birth and suffer here unnecessarily? I become cosmic. I become universal, all-pervading, eternity. That is my destination. I have come from there; now again I will return to that place.

Visitor: So this world is actually the hell.

Swamiji: You can say in one way, because topsy-turvy thinking is taking place here. The world, which is prior to you, you consider as outside you. You came after the creation of the world, and you think you are very important. You are considering yourself as the subjective side, and the world as the objective side. But the world came first. Why do you call it an object? It is the subject, which is looking at you. That is egoism of the human being. The world is not an object of perception; you are the object, but you think you are the subject. This is called topsy-turvy perception. Why should you get entangled in these things? It is due to wrong thinking, wrong education, and greed.

Visitor: Why are some people born deaf, dumb, blind, and others are born rich?

Swamiji: That depends upon what they have done in the previous birth. If some harm has been done to somebody in the previous birth, it will be reflected in the experience of this birth. It may be eye or head or whatever it is – something. As you do, so you will be given. That is the law of nature. If you serve, you will be served. If you harm, you will be harmed. If you abuse, you will be abused. It is tit for tat, like that. You are a part of nature, so it is automatic, computer-like. It reacts. Whatever you are thinking, others will think about you. Whatever you are doing, that they will do to you. Whatever you think about people, that they will think about you.

Visitor: What about the different religions that exist in the world?

Swamiji: That is all useless. There is no necessity for religion. Love of God is the only religion, ultimately. These religions that you are speaking of are fundamentalist religions. When one religion does not agree with another religion, and there is a parochial thinking, that religion will lead to bondage, conflict, and religious wars even, as it is happening in this modern world. The real religion is love of God. Whoever loves God intensely is a religious person, and if all are lovers of God, there is only one religion in the world. If God is one, religion also is one. The aim of life also is one only. People are unnecessarily racking the head without understanding properly. They have no guide, they have no education, they have no teacher.

You come and stay here for some days and refurbish your thoughts. You require a new type of education altogether in the light of the cosmic structure. The modern education is nothing. It has no meaning. It is good enough for earning bread and salary, but it cannot help your soul finally because your soul is cut off from God while you are earning money for the sake of glory in this world, etc. The soul is crying, and the ego is rejoicing. What is the good of that? This is topsy-turvy action taking place in the world. Nobody can be happy. Everybody has forgotten God. They don't even feel the need for Him. They doubt whether He exists or not. So a new transformation has to take place first.

Visitor: What happens to the Christians and the Muslims who pray to their Gods?

Swamiji: I told you there are no Christians and no Muslims. There are only human beings. Why do you call them Christians and Muslims? A policeman also is a human being. Why do you call him a policeman? It is a social custom that has caused him to be called that name. Whether it is a judge or a policeman or a shopkeeper or a doctor, he is a human being basically. God does not create doctors, He does not create policemen, He does not create major generals, and all that. He creates simple human beings, and that is their real nature.

That condition in which you leave this world, that is your real nature. When you leave the world, you don't go like a major general going. You go as a poor man, like anybody else. So the assumed personality – I am a major general, lieutenant general, president, prime minister – there are no such things in the world. God created one uniform thing. All are His children only. God has created human beings, but not kings and ministers. He doesn't create such things. These are all unnecessary assumed spectacles that we are creating for socially getting on. Before God, you are a soul. You are not a doctor, you are not Malaysian, you are nobody. A soul is wanting God. God is the universal soul, you are the individual soul. The individual soul is trying to sink into the universal soul. For that, so much of struggle is going on everywhere, rightly or wrongly, and they call it religion – Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and all that. God has no connection with all these things. You don't want religions, you want your soul, which has to be dedicated to the Almighty Being, and He will take care of you. He will take care of you better than the police. Don't be afraid.

Visitor: Is it wrong to pray to Jesus or Allah?

Swamiji: You can pray to anyone, provided you consider Him as a ray of the Absolute or the Supreme Being Himself. But there should not be another God afterwards. You can call God by any name, but he is the only God existing. Afterwards you should not compare Him and contrast Him with somebody else. Jesus is different from Allah – you should not say like that. If you have chosen Jesus, okay, Jesus, but it is a ray of God only. If it is Allah, all right, it is Allah, but there should not be two Gods. There are not two Gods, only one God, call Him by any name.

Another visitor: Why doesn't He show Himself?

Swamiji: He is showing Himself in the form of the universe, but you are thinking it is a little matter. You are not seeing the world through your soul, you are seeing through the sense organs. That is the mistake; your mistake it is. God is spread out everywhere. His fingers are operating through the rivers, through the mountains, through the sun and moon and stars, whose operations are allowing you even to breathe. You cannot exist in this world without the free gift of sunlight and fresh air and water. You have not manufactured sunlight; you have not manufactured anything. You are a helpless person. But God's gift is there, which takes care of you. If you purchase air, how much air can you purchase? How much water you will purchase? Your brain and lungs and all these are working automatically. Are you contributing anything to them with your wisdom? When you are sleeping, the heart is working. Why should the heart work? It also can go to sleep. But God says, “No, I will keep you awake.” When you are sleeping, why your heart is not sleeping, why your breathing is not sleeping? There is some higher force which keeps you alive, for your benefit.

You should not say, “Where is God?” He is everywhere. Whatever you are seeing with your eyes is God only, but with the sense organs you are distorting it so they look like mountains, and all that.

Another visitor: Is there any harm in being a non-vegetarian?

Swamiji: A non-vegetarian diet is supposed to make you, in your mentality, that thing which you are eating. If you eat an animal, the flesh of the animal will percolate into your bloodstream, and it may affect your brain, your mind, everything, and animal traits also might be manifested. And it is not pure food. Why should you eat an animal? Then you can eat a human being also. Why don't you eat a human being for your breakfast? Why only the animals? If human beings should not be eaten, animals also should not be eaten.

Visitor: Why did God create these animals then?

Swamiji: Why did He create you? For the same reason He has created them. They are in the evolutionary process. We were all animals once upon a time. We were stones, we were plants and vegetables, we were animals, we were frogs and snakes, everything. Now we have come to the level of human beings. Now we have to ascend further into the state of the super being, the angels of the heavens, then finally God Himself.

First visitor: For that you have to have a pure mind in meditation.

Swamiji: Very, very. Certainly. You must have a pure mind, and every day you must do meditation.

Another visitor [a child]: What happens if you die and you end up in hell?

Swamiji: When the deeds which have caused you to go to hell lose their momentum by experience in hell, then you will be released, just as people who are sent to prison will be released when the time limit of their imprisonment is over. So a person will not be in hell always. The hell experience is only a repercussion of bad deeds. When the deeds exhaust themselves by that experience, then he is released and he will go.

Visitor: So he will come back?

Swamiji: He will come back to the normal condition.

Visitor: So it's the same thing when you're in heaven. You will just get reborn again, and if you are good you might go to heaven next time, right?

Swamiji: Even if you go to heaven due to your good deeds, you will come back when the good deeds exhaust themselves. Only if you go to God Almighty, then there is no coming back, because you don't go to God by your deeds, but by your thoughts and meditations. Deeds cannot take you to God, only thoughts and meditations.

Good boy. Very intelligent.

Another visitor: You have to see God from the eyes of the heart and not with your physical eyes.

Swamiji: Yes, you have to see God with your soul.