Swami teaches....Part 118

Links to Swami Teaches - Part 117

Light and Love
 
  Swami teaches... 24 - 27 January 2008
 
  Part 3. Education, Science - With Love
 
   There are innumerable stars in the sky. Imagine the distance between the Earth and stars. When the creation itself is such an infinite and indescribable phenomenon, how mighty and powerful must the Creator be! He is beyond all definition and God's creation is most wonderful and mysterious.

  Many describe science today as a powerful acquisition, but, science holds before humanity only a great opportunity.

  The duty of science is to promote love, sympathy, brotherhood and charity. By bible to enter Heaven, human must transform into an innocent infant. To enter the heaven of science, human has to mould into a humble, unselfish seeker. This is as true as the former statement.
 
  Value-based education is not merely the gathering of scientific knowledge; it should endow human with heroism in action. It should instruct human to decide on what has to be done and how. Education must aim at enlarging the heart and awakening the latent intelligence and skills and strengthening the character. If education is devoid of 'design' students (and adults also) character, it brings disaster. It can then cause evil and wickedness. Intelligence can be found to be very high among clever thieves. So, similarly, scientific knowledge can be misused for destructive purposes.
 
  The ancients attached the highest value to good character. They considered that if character was lost, all was lost. (Today, people consider that if wealth is lost all is lost).

  
  There are significant obligations and compulsions relating to humans' daily life and the duties which have to be discharged to the family, society, environment and nature. For these purposes and for earning a living, knowledge of the natural and social sciences and culture entwined with human values required.
 
  Albert Einstein was the greatest among the scientists. He discovered the profound truth about the relationship between matter and energy. Einstein, who was near to spiritual outlook, did not have expensive equipment, like those you have in modern laboratories, to make  their researches. All that he had was a pencil, paper and a waste paper basket. He lived up to the motto: simple living and high study.

   Many famous scientists 'entered' into deep state of concentration and depth of thought that they would reach to their maximum inspiration and creativity. For example, it is said, the "special theory of relativity" was postulated by Einstein in the state a deep concentration. Einstein himself has noted, "Imagination is everything; it is the preview of life's forthcoming  attractions." 

 

   Time passes and present days science needs a 'mountains' of money to create the ‘clever’ machines for researches. Scientists today want more and more expensive equipments...  

 

  All scientific investigations are based upon the intellect. All spiritual explorations are based on the heart. (Usually scientists put their faith in machines). Science is caught up in this constant process in most cases of rejecting the old and discovering the new. In the realm of spirituality, there is nothing like old or new. It is ever full, ever-whole.

  But when scientist's intellect turns at the same time also to the spiritual 'wave', the collaboration with science and spirituality is possible. Many modern scientists have demonstrated a healthy spiritual outlook to the Universe, objects, processes and events in It.
  
  At present time scientists explore not only molecules and atoms, but peep what is within protons and neutrons (the core constituents of atoms) and how these tiny 'creatures' behave under various conditions and interactions.

  Today’s less or more spiritually oriented particle physicists search this 'ever-whole entity' and have reached quite close to this spending an infinite amounts of money for construction the machine - Large Hardon Collider (LHC).
 
  Studying the world with a resolution a billion times finer than atomic scales, particle physicists seek a deeper understanding of the everyday world and the evolution of the Universe.

 It is the realm of physics that comes into view when two elementary particles smash together with a combined energy of around a trillion electron volts, (TeV) in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).

 

  LHC now being completed underneath a circle of countryside and villages a short drive from Geneva, will peer into the physics of the shortest distances and the highest energies ever probed. The mammoth machine, after a nine-year construction period, is scheduled to begin producing its beams of particles later this year.

 

  It is the radically new phenomena from nuclear reactions (millions of electron volts) to the area trillions electron volts that particle physicists have been investigating.  What lies in wait for us at the terascale? No one knows.

 

  One man declared, "I alone am one who knows everything." After some investigation, he found that there was a power greater than himself. He then declared, "I am also a Pandit."  After further enquiry, he realized that there was a greater power than himself in the world and declared, "The Pandit is one who views equally everything." Proceeding further, he came to the conclusion, "I know nothing."

 

  The entire creation is a conglomeration of subatomic particles. These may appear as particles and as waves of energy. All of them emanate from the same source of energy. Even the scientist who knows all about electrons does not seek to find the primary source of all energy - the Supreme Principle.

  Today's science is engaged in trying to explore the infinitesimally minutest particle in matter. Spirituality is concerned with exploring the Infinite what is vaster than the vastest. It is concerned with "expanding" the consciousness.

 

   Scientists hope to peep to the terascale and beyond, they will hope for the first time in human history to know what we are made of and how the place where we briefly live operates at bottom. Studying the world with a resolution a billion times finer than atomic scales, particle physicists seek a deeper understanding of the everyday world and the evolution of the Universe.

 

  Significant new physics is expected to occur at these energies, such as the elusive Higgs particle and the particle that constitutes the dark matter that makes up most of the material in the Universe. (Present time many astronomical observations indicates that we live in an approximately flat universe dominated by dark matter and an unidentified form of dark energy that drives cosmic acceleration).

 

  Elementary particles of matter such as quarks and electrons would have no mass. Physicists assumed that proton and neutron represent matter of a novel kind. (Luminous matter is made mostly of protons and neutrons in stars).

  The mass of a proton (core of hydrogen atom), is only a few percent of its constituent masses. (In fact, three quarks inside proton account for not more than 2 percent of the proton’s mass.) Most of the mass arises through the original form of Albert Einstein’s famous equation, m = E/c2, from the energy stored up in confining the quarks in a tiny volume.

  Neutron (the companion-particle in atom's core, also with three quarks inside) is slightly more massive than the proton. In our world, a neutron sprung from a nucleus decays into a proton, electron and antineutrino in about 15 minutes. If quark masses were to vanish, a free proton would decay into a neutron, positron and neutrino. By theses analyses  physicists have reached to bizarre conclusion that hydrogen atoms could not exist at all. The lightest “nucleus” would be one neutron rather than one proton/.

 

   Different structure of atoms result in objects of different kinds like copper, gold or oxygen, which have varying utility and value. But the primary energy which manifests itself in different kinds of atoms and objects is one and the same.


  The Vedas indicated this truth when they declared, "The One willed to become the Many", "The Reality is one, the wise call it by many names."
 
  If the Universe is itself the manifestation of the one primary energy, everything in it is also an expression of that energy. For instance, a wall which you see as a solid block can be seen as a vast congregation of minute particles when it is viewed through a microscope. Empty space between different particles can also be noticed.

 

  The power of Sakthi (energy) is incalculable. A small stone cast on a tumbler of water causes a ripple on the surface. A storm in the sea has the power to sink a ship. Both are manifestations of the power of particles under varying conditions.

 

  There is a difference between the appearance of objects as we observe them in daily life and their inner reality.

  The rising of the Sun in the East and its setting in the West are everyday experiences. But when it is noted that the Earth is a globe revolving round itself and going round the Sun, these phenomena have a different reality.

  Directions like East and West and North and South and the apparent motion of the Sun are seen to be mistaken. Similarly, when we are seated in a moving train, we are moving along with the train, though we may be stationary. Though the Earth is revolving at a speed of several hundred miles an hour, we are not aware of its motion at all. It is simultaneously moving in orbit round the Sun at 66,000 miles an hour, carrying with it all things on the Earth. The Earth seems firm and unmoving, while the Sun and planets and stars appear to be going round the Earth.

 

  Though the scientific reality is one thing, we are guided by the daily experience in which the reality is different. Even the scientist who knows about the Earth's movements, uses the language of daily experience with reference to directions like East and West and the rising and setting of the Sun.
  
  The external appearance is based on the inner reality. It is the basic truth of the internal which enables us to experience the external.

  The basis is the power of the primal energy which is in matter. This basic truth was proclaimed in the Vedic statement:

"Anoraneeyaan Mahatho maheeyaan" ("It is subtler than the subtlest and vaster than the vastest"). This means that what is subtle can become the immense.
 
  All experiences in daily life are variation in form of the basic reality and not different from it. Experience of this basic reality will reveal how the changes in the primary energy bring about the emergence and the disappearance of material substances.
 
   In the Standard Model (the modern combination of two theories of particle physics into a single framework to describe all interactions of subatomic particles, except those due to gravity) the Higgs mechanism differentiates electromagnetism from the weak force. Experiments have tested the electroweak theory, a key element of the Standard Model, over a staggering range of distances, from the sub nuclear to the galactic.

 

(The Standard Model requires a particle known as the Higgs boson*, or a stand-in to play its role. The Higgs, in turn, poses deep questions of its own, whose answers should be found in the same TeV energy range).

  By physicists the Higgs particle - the last (?) remaining undiscovered 'piece' of our current theory of matter. After this 'last' will appear other particles more last... more, more last, and so on...
 
  Before Buddha attained Nirvana, his disciples gathered round him and asked him what stage they have reached in their spiritual journey. Buddha took out a handful of leaves from the branch of the tree under which he was sitting and said, "Children, can you reckon the leaves in all the trees in all the forests all over the Earth? What you have learnt is equal only to the handful of leaves in my palm, compared to what is to be known (that is, all the leaves in all the forests).
 
  Physicists contemplate that an atom’s radius is inversely proportional to the electron’s mass, so if the electron has zero mass, atoms - less than a nanometer across in our world - would be infinitely big. Even if other effects gave electrons a tiny mass, atoms would be macroscopic.

   A world without compact atoms would be a world without chemistry and without stable composite structures like our solids and liquids.
 
 It is not the world of Atmic Reality - The Great One?

 All is one Atmic Reality by Swami.  Vedas stated this many thousands years ago. The Atma is a synonym for Brahma, which is nothing but the Chaitanya permeating every human being. Chaitanya that is present in the human body is called "conscience". The all-pervasive Chaitanya is called "Universal or Cosmic Consciousness". 

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "Limbs of the Divine Body," Chapter 14; Sathya Sai Speaks.  Vol. 10. "Pride and the fall," Chapter 1; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 15. "Character training," Chapter 18; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19. "Human values are for everyone," Chapter 5; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 36. "Strive for Unity, Purity, and Divinity," Chapter 1.

  Les Prix Nobel en 1930, Editor Carl Gustaf Santesson, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1931.
 
http://www.sciam.com/physics).
 
 * Bosons - several types of subatomic particles (including also photons) with integral spin that is governed by the Bose-Einstein statistics.
 
Namaste - Reet


  Swami teaches... 20 - 23 January 2008
 
  Part 2. Education, Science - With Love
 
  The Upanishad exhorts, "Arise, awake, approach the wise and learn." This direction as underlines that true beauty lies in true education. Vidhya is the hidden treasure. It guards us like an intimate kinsman, standing by us, behind, beside, before. Vidhya is that process which makes us aware of the bondage we are in, the suffering we live through and the darkness within.

  Intellect, education, prolific scholarship,
  Victory in verbal battle,
  Vanquishing the adversary in physical strife,
  Sovereignty over kingdoms vast,
  Charity profuse of cattle and gold,
  Piercing vision counting the countless stars,
  Numbering each of creatures unnumbered,
  Achieving the mystic eightfold powers,
  Or even stepping on lunar dust -
  All these are easy to the man of strength.
  But to restrain the urges of body and its parts,
  To turn the senses inward,
  Difficult far is it to attain the vision
  And still the mind in supreme peace.
  (Telugu Poem)
 
  Education has to open the doors of the mind.

  Use the mind as a plough a vast field of heart. Treat the gunas (qualities) as bullocks. Use the viveka (intelligence) as a whip. With these aids, cultivate the field of your heart. What is the crop that is to be grown in it? Sathya, Dharma, Santhi and Prema are the seeds, Bhakti is the rain, Dhyana is the manure, Brahmananda is the crop.


   Gold is in the form of deposits in the gold mines. When you take it out and purify it, it becomes pure 24 carat gold. It acquires great value. However, when you add other metals like copper, its value comes down. Not only that. Its brightness also comes down. If you add some more metals, it loses its value altogether. Our heart is like a temple of gold. It should always be bright and shining.

  (Human's life is like a block of ice which is melting away every moment. Before it spends itself, devote it to the service of others). Education in human values is designed to prepare everyone for this life of dedicated service.
 
   You may have whatsoever profession. For all spiritual seekers seva (selfless service) is the best sadhana (spiritual discipline). But do not believe that you can by means of seva re-form or re-shape the world. You may or you may not. That does not matter. The real value of seva, its most visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you. Do not strut about that you are improving others; improve yourself.

  The primary duty of human is to understand properly his/her own innate nature and then putting it into practice.

  (The value and significance of human nature is beyond all estimation. Human is but a spark of Divinity. That is why Lord Krishna said in the Gita, The eternal Atma in all beings is a part of My Being).
 
  Rivers are dammed and the waters are stored in reservoirs. Through canals, they have to be taken to the fields to feed the crops in order to appease the hunger of millions. So too, we store the knowledge available in libraries in our heads as reservoirs. It has to be utilized through canals of service in order to fertilize and feed the minds of one's fellowmen and make them more intelligent, more skilled and more loving.
 
  Sevak meets many types of people; some who are very cooperative, some who are cantankerous, some who obstruct, some who argue, some who threaten, some who question your motive or authority. They toughen sevak's character and train to welcome with equal joy both praise and blame.

  Sevak must be neither elated nor dejected; he/she must adhere to the middle path. Without the positive aspect of love, all service you render becomes negative in nature. You should give up the feeling that you are serving others. You are serving your own Self when you serve others. You should consider all as yours. Others are not others but the very forms of God. (This is your education to be aware of it).
 
  So seva is a great opportunity to see the God indwelling in all. (Rama could have rescued Sita unaided; but He chose to grant the seva to the monkey hordes, for they were the gods who had come to claim that chance).
 
  When you serve Swami's bhakthas, you see Swami in them, you seek to please Swami in them, you revere  Swami in them.

   Swami has no special brand of grace for those who are at His door. Swami has no geographical "far" and "near"; His "far" and "near" are not calculated by physical nearness.

 However far you are, if you but stick to Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi and Prema, you are close to Swami and Swami is close to you. Those are the milestones that mark the road to Swami. 

  Swami's place is among devotees, with devotees and wherever work lies. Even in devotees own places, when they do bhajan or some other type of adoration, like serving children or the sick or the poor, Swami is not apart and distant. Swami does not believe He is on the pedestal; He is a part of devotees, a partner and partaker in all devotees  efforts, inspiring and instructing, when they ask or need inspiration and instruction.
 
 The sankalpa of Sathya Sai is to offer, for serving humanity, heroes of action and heroes of self-sacrifice. These heroes of action and heroes of self-sacrifice are endowed with the infinite Divine power. A piece of red-hot iron can be put to better use than the fire itself. The body can be compared to an iron piece and the divinity within to fire.
 
  On the other aspect everyone's body is as a workshop. This body is a machine. The limbs and organs are integral parts of the machine. Every organ shares in the pains and joys of every other part. The body demonstrates the organic unity of every limb and organ.

  (If we fully understand the workings of this human workshop, we will have no need to study any other workshop. When the mind desires to acquire an object, say, a fruit in a tree, all other organs, the feet, the hands, etc. cooperate in getting it. After the fruit is eaten, the stomach helps to digest it and supply blood to the heart for distribution to the entire body. In the process, every limb or organ has done its duty in harmony with the others).

  This kind of mutual cooperation and unity could be experienced in our daily actions. For instance, when you are walking, your eyes may notice a thorn on the road. By a mysterious process of communication from the eyes to the feet, your legs automatically avoid the thorn. There exist the remarkable link between the eyes and the feet.

  All parts of the body, from head to foot, are equally important and have to be cared for with love and regard. Love should become the ruling principle of our life.
 
   At present time many students in Sai schools and beyond over the planet are concerned with education in human values. The cultivation of human values together with worldly knowledge is real, true education. Whoever tries to understand the human values of Truth, Righteous conduct, Peace, Love and Non-violence properly, who practices these values and propagates them with zeal and sincerity can alone be described as a truly educated person. When you experience another's suffering as your own that your human value is manifested.

  External beauty and charm are flimsy, they are ephemeral. Real beauty consists in empathy, virtue, self-control and selflessness. Sundaram (beauty) arises from Shivam (goodness) and Shivam from Sathyam (truth).
 
  In this world every object has five aspects, namely, sath, chith, ananda, rupa, and nama (being, awareness, bliss, form, and name). Being, Awareness, and Bliss are the three core attributes of a human. They are true and eternal. Name and form are transitory; name and form are momentary.

  Names and forms have no value without the eternal virtues. Human suffers from various ailments, some internal and others external. A doctor can cure the external ailments. The Atmic feeling is the only remedy for all the internal ailments.

 However, human is being deluded by names and forms and is losing the very precious gem of divinity. Human has become a slave to own senses, and is wasting time on trivial matters.

  (Today the sanctity of human life seems to be totally lost. Human life has no value. People are killed like ants and mosquitoes).

 

  In fact, the inner voice keeps reminding human's Divine nature day in and day out. But human is not making any effort to listen to his/her inner voice.

  Once human realizes own innate nature, Sath-Chith-Ananda and experiences it, he/she becomes verily God and can accomplish any mighty task.
 
  No other form of life has the mighty intellect and capacity for inner peace but the human kind. Human has got infinite capacity for spiritual thoughts and spiritual quest.

 

  Humans are the embodiments of infinity. Human should always remind him/herself as the embodiment of Truth, embodiment of Love, embodiment of Bliss, etc. 


  Always be happy and cheerful, for your innate nature is bliss. You need not go in search of happiness. Bliss emerges out of Atma. Whenever you wish for it, you will get it.

   Always keep your thoughts steadily fixed on the Divine power that fills your heart with bliss. The Divine power is infinite. The more you contemplate on the Divine, the more and more the bliss gets multiplied.

  Happiness is union with God. Once you are in the company of God, happiness will follows you like a slave as you are verily the embodiment of Divine Atma.
 
   In this world, there are two types of intellectuals. The first type is the scientists who are, as a rule, materialistic in their outlook. They have in their mind the physical and worldly goals and gains. They are fascinated by the external appearance of a gigantic tree with its numerous branches and twigs, but they are not interested in finding its "roots".
 
  Vedantins (philosophers) are the second type of intellectuals, who are not fascinated by the external appearance of the tree but evince great delight in finding the "roots". (People who are purely worldly in outlook waste their time in watering the "branches", whereas, the Vedantins water the "roots" and thereby enjoy the "fruits"). Several present day scientists try to turn their views to "roots," and try to peep to infinite the Atmic Reality. (About this in the next part).
 
  Once, the asuras (demons) and devas (demigods) churned the ocean of milk with the hope of acquiring divine ambrosia (amrita). They used the Manthara mountain as the churning rod. But, initially, they had to put up with the emergence of deadly poison. The demons were frustrated and disheartened to see poison emanating instead of (amrita). They wanted to give up the churning process. But the demigods relentlessly continued the churning with courage and determination.

   Their sustained efforts yielded rich rewards in the form of the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi Devi, Iravatha (divine white elephant), Kamadhenu (wish-fulfilling cow), Kalpatharu (wish-fulfilling tree), and ultimately the Divine ambrosia itself.

  In the same manner, human should churn his/her mind and try to know his/her "roots" and  should not be deterred or depressed by the initial impediments and obstacles that beset the path.

  (Human, as a rule, is tossed about from one want to another, one grief to another, until he/she is blinded by despair and exhausted by foiled pursuits. Most illnesses are due to this despair and this exhaustion).
 
  We have to transform the Divine power latent in us into skill in whatsoever area of ours professions. When one's interest is rooted in some field of knowledge, be it science or art or something else, attention on it becomes firm and memory will enshrine it in the mind.

 "Better far to fail in bagging a tiger than succeed in killing a lame jackal," says a Telugu proverb. Aim high and strive for grand victories.

   When knowledge is converted into skill to service society, you acquire balance in life. In such a state of equanimity, you will develop insight. With such an insight and Divine power the service activity, will be most fruitful and beneficial to the society.
 
   In this world, only truth and goodness will remain with us for ever. So, we should strive to develop truth and goodness in us. Human's activities yield the desired result only when the kala, karma, karana, and kartavya (time, action, cause, and duty) are in harmony with each other. Hence, one should make sincere efforts and wait for the right time. When the action fructifies, one should utilize it in accordance with the time and circumstances.

  Humans very right is the fulfillment of the duty laid on them. Discharge your responsibility without demur or deviation, to the best of your ability. That is your right. Plunge into work whole-heartedly. 

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "Limbs of the Divine Body," Chapter 14; Sathya Sai Speaks.  Vol. 10. "Pride and the fall," Chapter 1; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 15. "Character training," Chapter 18; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19. "Human values are for everyone," Chapter 5; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 36. "Strive for Unity, Purity, and Divinity," Chapter 1).
 
  Namaste - Reet


  Swami teaches... 16 - 19 January 2008
 
  Part 1. Education, Science - With Love
 
  We build our future thought by thought,
  For good or ill, yet know it not.
  Yet, so the universe was wrought.
  Thought is another name for fate;
  Choose, then, thy destiny and wait,
  For love brings love and hate brings hate.
  (Henry Van Dyke)

 

  There is only one royal road for the spiritual journey. Love for all being, as manifestation of the same Divinity that is the very core of oneself. This faith alone can ensure the constant presence of God with you, and endow you with all the joy and courage you need to fulfill the pilgrimage to God.

  Love alone can root out the weed of pride from the heart. Love all, as so many forms of God, appearing in these various roles. A heart without Love is as dreary as a town without a temple.

  What is the one thing that you crave for most? Grace, is it not? Favor, is it not? So long as your words and deeds are in conformity with Sathya and Dharma, so long as your words and deeds are sweetened by Prema (Love) and lightened by Shanthi (Peace), you need have no worry; you have the Grace in ample measure.

 

  Every country, wherever it may be and whatever its stage of progress, must have three requisites material resources, protective power and a proper educational system (producers, security personnel and teachers). The peace and prosperity of the world depend on the work of these three classes of people. They form the legs of a tripod. Even if one leg is weak, the other two cannot sustain. When production is plentiful, it has to be guarded against loot and plunder. When soldiers and security men become powerful, they turn into a menace to the country while production declines. When production and protection are adequate, if the educational system takes a wrong track, the country is weakened.Teachers decide the prosperity or poverty of a country. Their profession is the most responsible. Teachers have the task of sculpturing the leaders of peoples.Teachers should not descend into politics; their status is far too high. 

  Teachers of past ages were embodiments of renunciation; they had no illusions; they saw clear and deep. (The instructors of today do not often deserve the appellation of teachers or preceptors or gurus). 

  The development of material resources and the defense of the country ultimately depend on the kind of education that is imparted.

  But a tripod is not only three legs. How can one sit on three legs? There should be a plank, resting on them - the plank of love, that is to say, love of the Country. (Country means the human community inhabiting the territory). Love here means the sense of inter-relationship and involvement of the individual with that community.

  (This degree of love is absent now in many highly educated, highly placed persons. As a result, the process of education too is suffering from misuse. And since education affects the other two sections too, even the money spent on the producers and protectors does not yield full fruit).

 

  Teaching ends with the school, but learning ends only when life ends. Vidhya (spiritual education, spiritual knowledge, learning, that which illumines, that which gives light, supreme teaching) does not mean mere attendance at school or college, mere study of some books, or mere mastery of a few subjects. Living, not for the sake of food but for the sake of an ideal, that is the goal of education. The human personality must blossom into enthusiasm for work, into eagerness to raise society to the highest level. When one's interest is rooted in some field of knowledge, attention on it becomes firm and memory will enshrine it in the mind. Steady interest is essential in order to master worthy knowledge.
 

  However, the human values should be regarded as basic requirements for every human being. In spreading the message of these values to the world, you should cooperate with each other and act in harmony. Whatever may be the experience in everyday life, the basic inner Truth should not be forgotten.

 Together with worldly education, cultivate the human values and undertake spiritual discipline. Oil imparts life to a lamp to keep it burning. Love animates the entire life. Love is like oil.
 
  People who work toward achieving their goals, also build their confidence at the same time. People needs not only to set goals, but also to stay motivated. You'll be filled with inspiring energy and motivation to start successfully setting and achieving your highest goals which have a kind of magic of their own. However, know that the real criterion of moral conduct is harmony between one's profession and one's practice. Morality consists in acting up to the rules of right conduct prescribed by society at a particular time and place for an individual or group. If there is no connection between what one professes in words and his actions, morality cannot exist.

 

  Fill the reservoir with water; then, when you turn the taps, the buckets will be full. Cultivate love and devotion; then your activities will be saturated with compassion. and charity; they will yield the golden harvest of joy and peace. The water must be pure; the Love must be unselfish and universal.
 
  Are you content with your achievement? Examine it yourself - pronounce the verdict on yourself, by your own discrimination. Purity of motive is the best guarantee that you will have peace. An uneasy conscience is a tormenting companion. Righteous action will leave no bad effects, to disturb your sleep or health.
 
  But never forget the words Gandhi, "Knowledge without character is a powerful evil." All education must be oriented towards the attainment of character for leading clean simple lives. Only practice promotes vidhya.

  Without character, human becomes the plaything of every passing whim, a kite whose string has broken, or a counterfeit coin, without benefiting any one.


  The great scientist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888 - 1970, the Nobel Prize in physics 1930 for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the “Raman effect”) is known all over India and world. 
  When Sir Raman was the director of the Indian Institute of Science he had to interview candidates for jobs. One young man did not give the correct answers to some of his questions and so, Raman advised him to try his luck somewhere else and asked him to leave. The candidate descended the steps and stood alone in the foyer.

  After sometime, when Raman came down, he noticed that he was still hanging around. He repeated him once again that he should give up all hopes of being taken for the job.

  The young man replied, with folded hands: "Sir, I am only waiting for the office to open. I have been paid five rupees extra by them as fare and daily allowance through wrong calculation. I shall return that amount and leave." On hearing this, Raman's heart melted; he patted the candidate on his back; accepted him and gave him a job. Character is the best qualification.
 
  /Briefly about Raman's work.

  He sought to find the explanation of the anomalies in asymmetry observed in the molecules. During these studies Raman made (1928)  the unexpected discovery that the scattered light showed not only the radiation that derived from the primary light but also a radiation that contained other wavelengths, which were foreign to the primary light.

  Raman investigated the universal character of the phenomenon by using a large number of substances as a scattering medium, and everywhere found the same effect.

  The explanation of this phenomenon, which has received the name of the "Raman effect", helps of the modern conception of the nature of light. According to that conception, light cannot be emitted from or absorbed by material otherwise than in the form of definite amounts of energy or what are known as "light quanta". The energy of light would possess a kind of atomic character. A quantum of light is proportionate to the frequency of rays of light, so that in the case of a frequency twice as great, the quanta of the rays of light will also be twice as great.

  Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman's years long experiences brought to discovery of the Raman spectrum what has extraordinarily great importance for knowledge of the structure of molecules and indirectly for atoms/.
 
  There are various types of pramanas (experiences) in this world.

  They are pratyaksha pramana (direct experience),
  anumana pramana (experience based on inference, presumptive experience),

  dvaita pramana (experience based on duality),
  and advaita pramana (experience based on non-duality).

  As God is beyond all these pramanas, He is known as Aprameya (immeasurable and indefinable). God is present in the heart of every human with all His Divine powers.

  Love is the pratyaksha pramana (direct experience) of divinity in every human being. God is Love and Love is God. Similarly, Truth is God. Countries may be different;  Truth and Love is one and only one.

  When you see smoke emerging from the hills, it is an indication that there is fire. When you see the fire directly, it is called pratyaksha pramana (direct experience). If you see only the smoke and not the fire, you presume that there is fire behind the smoke. It is only a possibility. It is anumana pramana (presumptive experience). It is possible that sometimes fog appears as smoke and, actually, there may not be fire in the hills. Scientific researches are mostly anumana pramana (presumptive experiences), especially in the area of research work subatomic particles. Anumana pramana gives rise to doubt.
 
  God's Creation is most wonderful and mysterious. Since He is the Creator of all beings, He is called Prajapati. Since He is the most intelligent One, He is called Dakshinamurthi. In this manner, God has infinite names. Human attributes names and forms to God based on the limited understanding and worships Him. God is attributeless, pure, final abode, eternal, unsullied, enlightened, liberated, and embodiment of sacredness.

 

  (When such a Divine Principle is present within his/her own self, why does human consider him/herself to be small and feeble)?

  The stories of God cannot be described in mere words. Human imagines and describes Him based on own estimates.

  All that you have seen and experienced in life will appear before you in your mind, the moment you try to recall them. This means that the entire Universe is within you. All that you see is "a reflection of the inner being." All that you speak is a reflection of inner thoughts. All that you do is a reflection of inner action. Hence, to act according to your inner impulse is Dharma.

  There is no greater being than the human being. The power latent in human is not found anywhere else.

 

  When you have the very embodiment of fearlessness installed in your heart, why should the slightest tremor of fear affect you? Many ones are considering such a sacred human birth as trivial. As you think, so shall it become. These petty thoughts are the result of ones petty mind.

  The inner individual reform and reconstruction and not outer reform and rebuilding are essential. The task of Swami's devotees is not to game of word-building, (where out of one big word a number of small three-letter words are derived and paraded) but the the real world-building where out of a large number of straight and sincere individuals the new human community is ushered in.

 Try to find out your own measure, your limits, your bounds, and act, do not develop jealousy towards others, whose measures are more, who have less limitations, less narrow bounds. Hold firm the step which you have reached in sadhana. Have a clear vision of the goal.  

  When you are engaged in the simple operation of threading a needle, note how much concentration is needed for success. The same care has to be taken when any other operation is to succeed.

   So, be righteous; avoid all prejudices against others on the basis of caste, creed, color, mode of worship, status, or degree of affluence. Do not look down on any one; look upon all as Divine as you really are. (Spiritual pride is the most poisonous of all varieties of pride; it blinds and leads the person suffering from it into ruin).

  If there is righteousness in the heart
  There will be beauty in character;
  If there is beauty in character
  There will be harmony in the home.
  When there is harmony in the home
  There will be order in the nation.
  When there is order in the nation,
  There will be peace in the world.
  These Swami's famous verses, are as hymn for all Swami's devotees and spiritual aspirants over planet.

 (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "Limbs of the Divine Body," Chapter 14; Sathya Sai Speaks.  Vol. 10. "Pride and the fall," Chapter 1; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 15. "Character training," Chapter 18; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19. "Human values are for everyone," Chapter 5; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 36. "Strive for Unity, Purity, and Divinity," Chapter 1. 

 Les Prix Nobel en 1930, Editor Carl Gustaf Santesson, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1931).
 
  Namaste - Reet


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