Doing service to God in whatever way you like is not correct

[dattaswami]

Doing service to God in whatever way you like is not correct

Dr. Nikhil asked: How to avoid attention towards bliss? People are attracted to bliss and not to God, if God does not give bliss to them.

Swami replied: Veda describes the concept of bliss in the AnandaValli. Certainly you must discuss about the subject of bliss. You must avoid the attention of attaining the bliss by yourself. But you must concentrate on the service to God that gives bliss to Him.

This means that doing service to God in whatever way you like is not correct because God does not require your service in any way like a human being. One has to render the service in whatever manner God likes it. The service should be for the pleasure of God and not for the requirement of God because God has no requirement.

Even pleasure is not necessary for God because He is the infinite of ocean of bliss (Naanavaaptam… Gita). He is only testing the devotion of the devotee regarding its quality and magnitude of intensity. God always asks the devotee to sacrifice the item with which he has the strongest bond. If the devotee succeeds in this test, God is not pleased for attaining that sacrificed item, but God is pleased for the love in the attitude of total sacrifice towards Him.

For example God came in disguise to Saktuprastha ( a devotee), who was without food for several days along with his family in severe draught. In that situation the strongest bond will be naturally for food to save the life. He got somehow a little food and he was ready to eat it along with his family. God came in human form to test him. The guest asked for the entire food to eat. Saktuprastha gave the entire food and proved that God is more valuable than life. The human form of the God in such situation with such extreme abnormal behavior gave a hint about God. Here, God is pleased not due to the food offered by him since God has no hunger. Here, God is pleased only towards the attitude of total practical sacrifice through this incident.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

Universal Spirituality
Universal Spirituality for World Peace

[The Pilgrim]

I must differ with you. I am indeed one of those who has found his own way to God and thus my own way of worshipping Him. For me it is about perpective. Look at man and mankind from God's point of view. There are many people and they are spread all over the world. All of them are aware of God's presence. They each have their own culture and worship God accordingly.

God is Love. Would that love not be extended to every culture? Universal spirituality will not be achieved by insisting only one way is right. It can only be done by embracing every believer.

When my daughter laughs I am the happiest man in the world. I believe God laughs when we laugh. What joy can there be in having mankind strive to strive? No I am sure He approves when we strive towards happiness. And I don't mean materialistic happiness. There is no happiness in the capitalist system; it is simply the lure to keep you striving. Happiness is found through freedom. It scares one to consider it because it means ones has to sacrifice everything that restricts you. The bad ones, like prejudice and hate, would be easy to give up, but seemingly good ones too must go, like a moral code. That is what freedom is; the blessing to do as you like, even 'bad' things. (I could explain that statement further but that would digress)

PLease be careful using the word 'Wrong' too readily. It isolates you from everyone that has a different opinion.