The Ashrama for a human incarnation is like the color of the shirt

Shri Ramanath asked about Swami’s Ashram as householder (Gruhastha) instead of bachelor (Brahmachari) because generally Datta appears as bachelor.
Swami replied: Rama with one wife and Krishna with several wives are householders and they are incarnations of Datta. Datta means God given in the same medium of devotees to such devotees. For human devotees God is in human form. Then Rama and Krishna are Datta (given) only. Sages asked Datta about the Ashram of Datta because He was having red robe (Sanyasa) and was also having cross belt (Brahmachari or Gruhastha due to His wife Anagha). Datta replied that He is beyond all the four Ashramas i.e., Turiya Ashrama.

The Ashrama is like a color of the human being existing on the skin. The Ashrama for a human incarnation is like the color of the shirt. You cannot be half black and half red in the body but the color of your shirt can be half black and half red. You have no color and you are beyond the color of the shirt. Therefore, the human being is having the three qualities and four Ashramas. But the human incarnation is beyond all these in the view of absolute reality. The sun is 100% bright in the dim sun and there is no increase or decrease in His brightness.

The sun is beyond darkness of the cloud, which is his external cover. But a human being is like a far dark cloud without sun or with little sunlight. Based on the various intensities of the sunlight (Knowledge) the clouds may have classification of Ashramas, gunas, caste etc. In the cloud, which is very close to sun, there is no classification of intensities of light because such a cloud is most bright.


At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

Universal Spirituality
Universal Spirituality for World Peace
antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org