Double Minus is Plus You want to leave the misery of the world, and on attaining God, you think

that you will derive bliss or eternal happiness. By leaving the worldly attachment, you have left the minus [negative]. Then, you have attained the intermediate state of absolute peace, which is zero. Now on attaining God, you have attained the plus [positive], which is bliss in your view. The plus sign is a double minus in which, two minus signs are arranged one over the other at right angles. This double minus indicates that you have to work more and face more misery in the service of God. The work and misery in worldly affairs is very much less compared to the misery in the work of God. The plus sign indicates the cross and the servant of God has to sacrifice even his own life to please God in the divine mission. You need not sacrifice your life for the sake of your family at any time. Unless you have developed the attitude of enjoying misery, you cannot face misery in the service of God. Sugriva lost his wife because Vali took her away by force. Sugriva did not go to fight with Vali for the sake of his wife due to the fear for his own life. His life was more valuable to him than his wifes. But the same Sugriva went to Lanka to fight in the war, putting his life at full risk, for the sake of getting back Lord Ramas wife, who had been captured by Ravana. Thus, one has to even sacrifice ones own life for the sake of God even though one may not sacrifice ones own life in any worldly matter. Jesus said that unless one is prepared to carry his own cross for the sake of the Lord, one cannot be His dearest disciple. The plus sign appears as a double negative to threaten you by its facial expression. The final result of the plus is not negative at all because its value is only positive. Similarly, if you are prepared for the double minus and intensive sacrifice for God, you will derive bliss at the end. God tests you to find out your attitude. God wants to know whether you have approached Him for bliss or to work and do the total sacrifice for His sake. Once God is fully convinced about the reality of your attitude, the result is quite different from the test. Finally Sugriva was given a place in Brahma Loka (Vaikuntha), where Sugriva lived with bliss. Ramayana is always taken as a guide in pravritti (worldly life) by taking Rama as a good son, good husband, good father, good friend etc. Rama was always taken as a human being externally and the inner form of Rama as the Lord was always hidden. All the monkeys were incarnations of angels and hence they could recognize Rama as the Lord. No Advaita scholar has become Brahman so far. Only Hanuman, who served Rama as the Lord in the form of the contemporary human incarnation became Brahman. Only Hanuman became Brahman, but He still says that He is the servant of Rama. Therefore, Ramayana, which gives the path for any soul to become Brahman, is the only scripture of the Advaita philosophy in a practical sense. The total surrender of your self is possible if you know that you are a tiny part of His movable property. A goat is a part of the movable property of the butcher. Every drop of its blood and every bit of its flesh is the property of the butcher alone. The butcher is going to enjoy the entire flesh and blood of the goat and therefore there is no individuality for the goat. Similarly, every atom of your gross body and every wave of the energy in your gross body belong to the God. All your qualities (subtle body) and your entire pure awareness (soul or causal body) belong to God alone. Hence, total surrender of your self is the complete justice (Tameva

Sharanam GachchaGita). To signify this concept, the Lord is called as Pashupati or the owner of the souls, which are like animals. Written by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami website address: http://www.universal-spirituality.org e-mail address: swami@universal-spirituality.org Jai Guru Datta