QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Now there are two questions from you I want to answer.
Q: Why is divorce not allowed in Vedic marriage?
Because our Masters understood that constantly changing the outer man or woman is not going to help. Why is divorce not allowed in the Vedic system? We don't have divorce. You take vow in front of agni (fire) saying that till death these vows will be practiced. You don't say, till I divorce these vows will be practiced.
No. And in the Vedic system, the witness for all the vows is the life energy and cosmic consciousness, not any lawyer or any priest. The fire and the cosmic energy is the witness. We don't have an equivalent word for divorce in Sanskrit. Only in later Sanskrit, the equivalent word for divorce was created. In the traditional system we don't have the word for divorce.
Our Masters are very clear, by changing the outer man or woman, the problem is not going to be solved. When I read the book 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,' I felt that it was too close - Mars and Venus are too close, maybe it should be men are from Mars of some solar family and women are from Venus of some other solar family!
Anyway, usually if you change constantly again and again, you will never realize, changing the outer woman or outer man is not going to help. Only changing your ideas is going to help. That is why our Masters want to stop the possibility of changing in the outer world.
They want to tell you, 'Do not waste your time, enough. Try once, when you find it is not working, now it is time to turn inwards.' If you can't cope up with one person, how do you think you are going to live by changing the other person? Because you are going to carry the same mind. Changing the inside is more important. That is why in our tradition we do not have the very concept of divorce.
There was one another question which yesterday somebody wrote and gave about going and listening to other religious Masters or other traditional Masters. It is a very important question we need to analyze.
There were two enlightened Masters living at the same time. Both of them had so much of reverence and respect for each other but they always told their disciples not to go to the other Master. One disciple asked one Master, 'Bhagavān, you don't even put your feet in the direction where he is staying. You have so much respect for him but you say not to go to him or listen to him, why?'
The Master replied, 'Fool! Whenever I work on you, when you feel pain during the operation, you will try to escape and go away to him and when he works on you, when he does some operation on you, you will try to escape from there and come here. You will not allow the operation to be completed either by me or by him. You will escape from both the Masters. That is the reason, I tell you not to go there.'
In those days, may be for that reason they would have told at some point, do not listen to other religious Masters. But now I feel it is time to update some of these beliefs. I feel now you are intelligent enough to learn what is right and what is wrong.
See, you can go around and pick up the best flowers and make a beautiful bouquet, nothing wrong wrong. It is time to update yourself. So I always tell people, learn the best things from all possible sources. Pluck flowers from all the gardens, make a beautiful bouquet and make a garland for yourself.
There are only two possibilities. If I tell you, 'Don't go,' either you will listen to my words and not go, or you will just go and see what is going on there. If you really feel connected so much to me, even without telling you will not go anywhere. If you really want to go and search, even if I tell you to not go, you will go.
Understand, if you completely feel connected through the heart, even if I give you the freedom to go, you will not feel like going. If you are really not feeling satisfied, even if I tell you not to go, you will be going. So this 'don't go' word has no use in modern days. I think it is time that we update ourselves.
We must remove this idea of not listening to other traditions and not appreciating the great things from all traditions. It is time that we learn the best things from all sources and enrich our life. Let you all learn, learn and learn.
One more thing, your ego is such, it will not die even if it is attacked from so many corners, from so many sides. So how do you think it will die just by one person teaching! So learn, nothing wrong. Let you learn and experience and radiate eternal bliss, nithyananda. Thank you.