How Can You Say for Sure That This Is Not There in Our Scriptures?

What is the purpose of life?

Simple, straightforward — to become God, to merge into God — which is also called moksha.

Normally, we consider ourselves to be separate from God. Relief from this state is called moksha, which is to be one with God, to look like God, to be as powerful as God.

This is attained through action.

This is what devas in Swarga did. They were born on earth, then they did yajnas and became Gods in Swarga.

This is one way of doing it. So, it is progress — spiritual progress — from humans on earth to devas in Swarga.

This is not the ultimate. Still, they are separate from Paramatma. They still have to progress — which they will keep on doing by taking birth again and again, and every time doing noble activities and increasing their divine content until they become one with the ultimate power, the supreme power — Parabrahma or Paramatma.

Why can’t we just live like primitives, fully driven by emotions?

Imagine, there is no education. Nobody tells you or teaches you how to behave.

Children are taught throughout their childhood how to be a good child, how to behave, what not to do.

Why is this so?

You don’t have to teach the young one of a bird how to fly, how to peck on food, how to eat grains or fruit — it is natural to the bird.

You don’t have to teach the cub of a lioness how to chase a prey.

But a human child — you have to teach everything.

Even for walking, you have to hold his hand and make him walk.

Even as basic as eating, you have to teach and train — from brushing of teeth to bathing — everything we have to teach.

Why is this so?

Because God has done it that way.

The human child comes neutral — with minimum instincts — so that you can impart.

If the child is going to come into the world with a full set of hardwired instincts, then we will have to remove them first before imparting anything new.

God has made our job easy.

It is like a hard disk that comes blank — you can store whatever you want in it.

It is like a mobile phone that comes with nothing in its memory except the basic operating system.

This is because the individual has to progress, and humanity as a whole also has to progress.

This is the intention of God.

If you look at lions as a species, they are still doing the same thing that they did five hundred years ago.

They will continue to do the same things even after a thousand years.

But we humans are not like that. We are constantly progressing. Our intellectual level is advancing with every generation.

This is because we can pick up from where the earlier generation has left.

This is what we should do.

This is why Veda says —
अनुव्रतः पितुः पुत्रः
The son follows what the father does.

The son should follow what the father does. This is what he has to do first.

Then there is improvisation, which he can do. He should do.

But not a total deviation from what the father is doing. Otherwise, the system will collapse.

If a hundred thousand people start doing things the way they want, then the whole system will collapse.

So, the primary task of the new generation is to accept what the earlier generation is doing and then improvise on it.

You don’t have to challenge each and everything that they are doing and prove that you are a better generation or a smarter generation.

This is not just about generations.

If you want to be a good cricket coach, then you have to be a player yourself first.

Otherwise, how will you know what is wrong with the present playing or present strategies?

For that, you have to be a player yourself first, playing as per the present rules and strategies.

Then you will know its deficiencies. Then you can come with your own techniques and improvisations.

This is how every system works.

You join a scientific organisation. You can't just go in, throw out everything that is already there, saying that they are all wrong, and start with your own theory.

That's not how it works. It doesn’t work that way anywhere.

This applies to spirituality also. This applies to religion also.

You can’t discard every practice, every existing practice, saying that they are all retrogressive.

This we are trying to do with the worldview we have acquired in thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years.

The other day, I heard a Guruji saying — 'I am against organized religion. I stand for spirituality.'

What is the difference?

Organized religion is what gave us spirituality all this while.

The spirituality that you are talking about came from the Upanishads, from Yoga.

They didn’t drop from the sky or come from the West. They are all part of the Vedic system.

Veda is at the foundation of all these.

Veda is at the foundation of the organized religion called Sanatana Dharma.

How can you disown the Vedas and say that my method is the best method or my method is the only method?

What kind of exposure do we have?

This religion is built over millions of years — improving generation after generation.

Suddenly you come in after reading a few books in English, after listening to some gurus with radical ideas, after you do yogasana and pranayama for a few years — claiming to have attained realization, claiming to be a know-all — giving statements like, 'this is not there in our scriptures', 'that is not there in our scriptures.'

Does this even make sense?

If someone comes in and says that modern medicine has got it all wrong — if someone is infected with a bacteria, then you should inject him with more of the same bacteria — then the body will go into crisis management mode and react faster.

Will you accept this?

When you are in religion, spirituality — be responsible.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi