Swami teaches....Part 63

 

Links to Swami Teaches.....62

Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches... 17 - 18 April 2006

Spiritual and Worldly Aspects. Instructions to the Teachers. Part 2.

The Motto:

Regard all humanity as one family. "Let us live together, strive together and rejoice together."

Swami is always specially interested in the service done to the young generation. Here is several of His instructions with explanations and pictorial stories as examples to the teachers.

What does the word student mean? It means a person dedicated to study. He is called vidhyaarthi because he seeks vidhya (knowledge). Vidhya means proceeding from darkness to light, that is to say, from ignorance of the Atma (Divine Self) to the awareness of the Atma. People usually do not seek the jyothi (light) that can lead them from thamas (inertia) into wisdom. The reason is they have no steadiness in their sadhana (spiritual effort).

To what extent are you putting into practice Swami's Teaching? Practise silence for at least ten minutes in a day. Meditate on Swami's Teaching at that time. Realise that in this transient world the Eternal is immanent. Hold fast to God. Experience the bliss of union with the Divine. Make love your life-breath. With love of God in their hearts the ancient sages could transform - even the wild animals in the forests.

In order to escape the nefarious influence of this ego, cleanse the heart with constant contemplation of God. Contemplate the vast, so that your heart too might overstep its limits and become vast. How much bliss will you derive from devoting five minutes out of the twenty-four hours of a day, to worshipping God?

Promote love in your hearts and share it with others. That is the best form of worship. Remember that the Divine Love is Swami's only property.

The important directive Swami gives is to be more concerned with own progress, own correction. How it is possible to teach without it?

Teaching is no imposition from above; it is an inspiration from within as for teachers so for students. Human virtues cannot be acquired from others. They cannot be nourished from mere study of books. Nor can they be got ready made from teachers. They have to be cultivated by each person individually.

1. As soon as you rise from bed in the morning, examine for a few moments your thoughts, plans, habits and attitudes to others, which are about to pounce on you and decide the shape of things to come, throughout the day. Identify in the motley crowd the vicious, the wicked, the evil, the harmful, the one that are born in anger, that breed on greed and assert that you are not willing to be led by them. Throw your inclination on the side of the good, the constructive, to renounce, and rise up a purer, stronger and happier person than when you went to bed.

2. Three basic changes should take place in tiny or adult student and in the whole humanity. That is the truth contained in the Sai principle. S" stands for Spiritual change. "A" stands for "Associational" (or National) change. "I" stands for Individual change. By this triple change the nation will prosper. Explain this to the students through pictorial examples from your own country.

3. Of all human values, three are most important. The foremost is love of God. Where there is love there is sacrifice. There arises purity of heart. There should be a fusion of love, sacrifice and purity. They are not mere human qualities. They constitute vital organs of a human being. They are as essential for a human being as the head, hands and legs for the body.

Love and devotion to God illustrates the ancient story.

One of the Tamil kings was very fond of horses and sent his Prime Minister to buy horses. During his journey the minister came across a holy man named Thirukannan. He was attracted by the teachings of the holy man. Inspired by these teachings, the minister decided to give up his mission (of purchasing horses) and used the money given to him to build a temple for Shiva. Meanwhile, the king was worried about what had happened to his minister and why he had not come back. He came to know that the minister had used the money, given to him for purchasing horses, to build a Shiva temple. He had the minister arrested and put in prison. The minister was unaffected. Later the king realised his mistake. Minister explained: "Oh King! I used the money for God. What God had given, I gave it back to Him. Without the grace of God no one can have anything. Without the power of the Divine not a cell in the human can move, not a blade of grass will move. It is out of a realisation of this truth that I offered the money, given to me for buying a horse, to the Divine." The king ordered the freeing of the minister and allowed him to lead a spiritual life after his own heart.

From that moment he started composing hymns in praise of God. This work is known as "Thiruvachakam." The author is known as "Maanikka vaachakar." His writings are spiritual aphorisms containing the sublimest spiritual truths.

4. A baby has no I or mine. It easily gives up anything from its grasp; the I hardens with the increase of intelligence, and it does not part with a doll or toy. Do not allow the role of the separate I to damage the springs of love and sacrifice, in your heart and in the hearts of tiny students.

5. You have to inspire and instruct the tiny students to become heroes of action, whose lives are dedicated to work as worship of the one God who resides in all. They must be trained to take part gladly and intelligently in "activity programmes" filled with the spirit of service. In order to make the primary schools succeed in this endeavour, see that you run them with patience and love. (Today after spending thousands of rupees or dollars or other currencies and mortgaging or selling their lands and houses, the parents are happy that their sons and daughters have got a degree. Instead of education for doing the work of society, we are having education for jobs which society has to create to give them work).

6.. Treat the the tiny students as your own.

7. Don't tax tiny students memory overmuch. Short stories, 20 to 25 lines long will be the best. Don't make them learn by rote, for, what they learn under pressure will soon be forgotten. It will not transform the mind by soaking into it. The incidents and the morals they illustrate have to be imprinted on the heart. They must learn not 'by heart,' but for and through the heart.

8. When you relate stories to the tiny students,select such stories as have some reference to the background of the children's home life. Tell them stories which will implant in the mind genuine disgust for evil sights, evil entertainments, evil deeds and evil habits. Tell them how they must forget the wrong done to them by others and the good that they do to others. Make them take up some positive task and the negative attitudes will fall off. Good habits will drive out bad ones.

A story by Swami as an example.

A wicked man once went to a Guru (preceptor) for initiation into spiritual life. The Guru asked him to give up at least one of his bad habits; he gave up uttering falsehood. That night, when he went to the Royal palace to commit theft, he found on the terrace another person, who said, he too was a thief. He too announced that he was a thief and both broke into the treasury and divided among themselves the diamonds found there. The other person was none other than the king; he pretended to be a thief and he knew where the keys of the treasury were. While the diamonds were shared, the honest thief felt pity for the King of the realm who was losing his entire stock; he asked his companion to leave one diamond behind, in the safe. And, it was done.

Next morning, when it was discovered that the treasury was looted, the Minister was sent by the King (who had acted as thief the previous night) to assess the loss. The Minister found the diamond, that had missed the eyes of the thieves. He quietly transferred it to his own pocket and reported at court that all the diamonds were gone. One step in the right direction leads to another (and also vice versa). The King had got from the honest thief his address, the previous night, while they parted company, with their separate bags. So he sent for him and when stood in court before the King, he confessed that all but one of the diamonds were stolen by him and his unknown associate. The diamond was discovered in the pocket of the Minister and the King dismissed him for the lie. The honest thief was appointed Minister, instead, and he gave up his other evil habits too and pleased his Guru, by his fame as a virtuous administrator.

9. Instruct tiny students in meditation too, for a short while, each day. Let that habit be inculcated even at this age. Five minutes of prayers and another five minutes of meditation will be a good exercise, whose taste itself will persuade the children to make it a habit. The tender mind has to be fed, with tenderness.

The children of the Sathya Sai Bala Vihaar must know the Sathya Sai that is residing in their hearts. Teachers also must take it as a puja (ritual worship) of Sai Rama. How to reveal the Sai Rama residing in their hearts to the children? That is the problem that must be directing teacher's work. Sai Rama has to move about in the jungles of your heart; so, render the tracks wide, smooth, free from thorn and pebble. When teachers serve Sai Rama in these children, by this service they realise the Self.

From very early years from kindergarten and primary school education must confirm the result in the development of viveka (wisdom) and vinaya (humility). Later the adult educated person must be able to distinguish between the momentary and the momentous, the lasting and the effervescent. The educated person must know how to keep the body in good trim, the senses under strict control, the mind well within check, the intellect sharp and clear, unhampered by prejudices and hatreds, and the feelings untouched by egoism. The educated person must know the Atma; that is his/her very care; that is the effulgence which illumines inner and outer selves. This knowledge will ensure joy and peace and courage for person's throughout life.*

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 1. "Nara and Naaraayana," Chapter 11; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 11."Prahlaadhas for the present age," Chapter 2 and "Good and bad, " Chapter 21; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 14. "What is Vidhya?" Chapter 23 and "Partial education," Chapter 24; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 17. "The most precious period," Chapter 1; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 29. "The triple transformation," Chapter 11 and "The quest for truth," Chapter 12).

PS: The same qualities of spiritually educated person has been described in one of previous serial in the beginning of April 2006. I repeated this qualities once more, as the essential outcome of all Swami's educational system and Swami's Teaching.

Namaste - Reet


Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches... 15 - 16 April 2006

Spiritual and Worldly Aspects. Instructions to the Teachers. Part 1.

Termites appear insignificant and innocent in the beginning; they are named 'white ants,' as if they deserve admiration and attention, rather than extermination. For, they multiply fast and destroy in silence the entire structures of the houses.
Bad habits, imitative tendencies like drink and drugs, gambling and gangsterism - they secure entry into individual and social behaviour noiselessly, in various disguises and then destroy the career of even the toughest and the most upright.

Here is a story about one evil and bad habit, if acquired, will lead to a whole gang of them taking possession of the mind.

A King once announced that he will honour with a big girl; any Brahmana who will agree to do any one of three evil things: 1. He must aver that the Vedhas are false. 2. He must drink liquor, 3. He must elope with another's wife. For a long time, no one within the seven seas came forward to do any one of these atrocious things. At last a poor Brahmana on the verge of starvation came into court and offered to drink liquor, an evil which he considered the least reprehensible of the three. But, as soon as he got drunk, he began to swear and in the excitement of intoxication, he shouted in the streets that the Vedhas are a tissue of lies; he entered the house of his neighbour and assaulted the lady of the house, like the worst criminal of the land.

The prime cause for this tragedy is the neglect of the spiritual and moral aspects of the human personality. Human feels no obligation towards family, society, nation or mankind. Person worships own ego, more than anything else.

Look at the confusion and the conflicts in the political, economic spheres of life. Person has not been able to overcome greed, pride and hatred in the national and religious aspects. Today, human is madly engaged in accumulating money for the sake of the comforts it can bring. Human's ambitions are increasing every day everywhere. Contemporary civilisation is piling fear upon fear on all parts of the world.

Person has become a plaything in the hands of selfishness. No step is taken without regard for self interest. This intense selfishness has resulted in the total decay of human values. This monster of selfishness has pervaded every field of human activity? the physical, the social, the economic, political and moral fields.

People pay more attention to material pleasure and the earning of money by any means to have what they hope will give happiness in the future. Steady effort in these directions is simply running after a mirage. All efforts must be directed towards the realisation of the truth, goodness and beauty which are latent in people as the Atma. Pure and lasting bliss which will not cause harm to anyone can be got only from the inner search.

Humanity as a whole is in need of God's grace. To receive this everyone has to fill his heart with love, render service to fellowmen and thus redeem own life. Everyone has to embark perpetually on the quest for truth. In every thought, word and action this quest must go on. Truth is changeless and beyond time. Rooted in the spiritual, it is valid universally. Truth is infinite. Everything is based on Truth. Today people have to adhere to Truth. Truth is God. People should contemplate on God as the embodiment of infinite bliss, the bestower of all happiness, as the transcendental Lord, as the Eternal witness in the hearts of everyone, the One Absolute, immaculate Being, free from the three gunas and the pure embodiment of supreme wisdom.

Humans' life is determined by their actions, whether they are good or bad. (The other determining factor is time what rolls on without beginning or end).

Usually there is a belief that consequences of sin and bad actions can be diminished by the consequences of acts of merit, done by the same person; ten sins and eleven meritorious acts mean that the balance is favourable to the doer. But, this system of accounting does not hold good in the spiritual field. The consequences are there, but, they do not cancel out. It is like this: a human scatters seeds of thorn plants as well as of fruit trees. Both grow together, and both have to be endured. They sprout distinctly and as ruled by their own innate dharma. You may have in an orchard of 1000 fruit trees one thorn bush, but, that will not turn into a fruit tree, by association with the rest. What has to be done is to pull out and destroy the bush. Identify it as thorny and harmful; and, then, by discrimination, pull it out by the roots. By the roots - for, when the rains come, the tree will sprout again, if the slightest trace of life is in it.

Only very few are now able to spot out the thorny bushes and uproot them; so, they have to suffer the thorns, even while they are enjoying the fruits. Reap the mixed harvest, you must, if you do not take note in time. Be vigilant about your steps. Do they lead you along the road that will take you to the goal you have in view? Or do they turn away from it? How can you reach the east, when your steps lead west?

The life games you play may be compared to the Mahabharata war. On one side were ranged the forces of evil, the Kauravas, and on the other the powers of good, the Pandavas. They played the game of life with empire as the football. The Pandavas, who had completely surrendered to Krishna, achieved ultimate victory. The contest could be described as one between the evil qualities of desire, hatred, envy, pride, etc. on the one side and good qualities like truth, virtue, tranquillity, nonviolence and love on the other. The body is the battlefield. The captain of one team is the embodiment of good qualities. The captain of the other is the embodiment of mundane desires.

Devotion is the cord that binds God. The Ganges of true devotion arises from the devotee's heart.

But, on the other aspect devotion itself is an expression of the Divine Grace. What we witness today in the world is a great deal of play-acting. All appear as devotees and all proclaim their spirit of sacrifice. One must enquire whether it is the devotee who is seeking God or whether it is God who is searching for a true devotee. Is the sadhaka serving God or is God serving the sadhaka? Offering to God what God has provided is like offering to the Ganga water from the Ganga. The truth is it is God who is rendering service to the devotee. All the capacities given by God should be used in the service of the Divine.

Render yourselves pure, steady and unselfish. Then only can you deserve the chance of worshipping the God within. Until then, the temple will be a ruins, infested with bats that revel in the darkness. Keep the mirror of the heart untainted by kaama (desire), and its chief attendant krodha (anger); then, the God i.e. Atma within clearly shines therein.

In order to realize the Atma you must have faith in your success and in the fact that the Atma exists and that it can be brought into consciousness all the time. Faith is essential for success in any undertaking. However little, you can progress in education only if you have faith in your abilities. When success comes your way, you become proud and uncontrollable; when defeat encounters you, you become dejected and desperate. It is only spiritual education that can tell you that both success and defeat are inevitable in life and both must be faced with an equal mind.

Education is now sought after, more for securing a means of livelihood. The attempt of many parents give to their children education for skill which will give them a good job, in a factory or business establishment or bank, on a decent salary. Of course, human must live and live comfortably. So, it is necessary that the useful skill is mastered. But, human needs things much more satisfying, much more essential, than comfort. Human must have faith in Self. This trust in the Self lies at the very root of joy.

There are many who have stacked libraries in their brains; who have visited and venerated all the holy places between the Himaalayas and the Cape; who have sat at the feet of every one of the contemporary sages and saints; who have performed all the rites prescribed in the sacred texts, but, who do not know the answer to the simple question how to bring about the union between jivi and Brahman, the individual and the Universal. You must feel the pain of others as your own; you must be happy when others are happy. That is the main way to realise the unity between the individual and the Universal. Above all, be vigilant; for, the fruits of sadhana may be destroyed by negligence.

Education has lost its meaning when it does not instruct what an individual should render to society, how he/she has to control own ego for ensuring the common good. One individual has the right to exercise freedom, only so long as he/she does not obstruct the freedom which is equally the right of another. Honouring the right of the other person to freedom is your duty. The right and the duty are both fundamental.

People repeat the word 'duty' day after day and during all hours of the day, without any clear conception of what that word means.

The real criterion of duty is as an expression 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/her actions, morality cannot exist and one's duties, as a rule, will transform into selfish and compassionless actions to the other person/persons.

Just as the Sun can be seen only by his own light, the love of the Divine can be acquired only by Divine Grace and not by trivial spiritual practices*. These sadhanas (spiritual practices) are invariably motivated by selfish objectives. There is an element of selfishness in every service which human undertakes. (The erection of temples, the installation of images or idols, the pomp and show, fireworks and fanfare, processions and pedantries - these are helpless in the realm of jnana. However, these sadhanas are significant, as they are pinpointers to the highest stage of spiritual awareness).

Maybe you are proud that you have written the name of Sai ten million times; you talk about it whenever you get the chance, so that others may admire your faith and fortitude. But, it is not the millions that count; it is the purity of mind that results from genuine concentration on the name. Only when the sadhaka's heart is filled with the Divine, will he/she be able to entertain pure and sacred love.

*During the saguna (quality-oriented) worship, the basic nirguna (quality-less) aspect of God has to be sustaining the mind; no description can exhaust the Glory, no word can approximate the Majesty. During the nirguna meditation, the faith that God does not diminish His Glory of Majesty by being with Form, Attributes and Name must be the sustaining force. The final step, however, must be the right foot, considered auspicious, the nirguna step.

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 11."Prahlaadhas for the present age," Chapter 2 and "Good and bad, " Chapter 21; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 14. "What is Vidhya?" Chapter 23 and "Partial education," Chapter 24; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 17. "The most precious period," Chapter 1; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 29. "The triple transformation," Chapter 11 and "The quest for truth," Chapter 12).

Namaste - Reet


Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches... 11 - 14 April 2006

The Mirror of Prema Reflects the Atma Within

The Motto:

You are the whole, the infinite, the all.
You as body, mind and soul are a dream;
but what you really are
is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss.

You are the God of Universe.
You are creating the whole Universe and drawing it in.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday and He rose from the tomb on a Sunday. That is why Sunday is taken as the day of worship and service in churches. (But do not contemplate much on death; it is just an incident in life. Contemplate on God, who is the master of all life; beware of Him all through life).

God has no birth and no death. The Atma within is but a reflection of God and it is the same in all beings as an eternal witness. God has no preferences and prejudices; His is but reaction, reflection and resound. He comes, to confer Ananda, to foster Ananda, to teach ways of acquiring and activating Ananda.

Swami, as Christ takes upon Himself the pain and sorrow of the world, in order to prepare the hearts of people for Love. The Divine Love must start with love for beings that have form. It must be extended to all beings.

Christ sacrificed His life for the sake of those who put their faith in Him. He propagated the truth that service is God, that sacrifice is God. Even if you falter in the adoration of God, do not falter in the service of the living God, who has assumed human shape and is moving all around you in such large numbers and wearing such manifold costumes of apparel and speech. Christ preached this truth and taught the people that the body should be used for service to society. Christ taught people to love all beings and serve all with compassion. The Divinity within should be reflected in every action. The seat of Truth is in your heart. Worship means loving others with your full heart.

Christ performed many miraculous deeds, relieved the sufferings of many in distress, preached sublime truths to the people, and ultimately sacrificed His life. For over a hundred years after his martyrdom, Christ's message did not have any impact. Four centuries later, Christianity was accepted by Roman emperors. Even after many centuries humanity is yet to realise the inherent Divinity of human being.

As the carpenter shapes the wood, the blacksmith shapes iron, the goldsmith shapes gold, so the Lord shapes in His own way, as the fancy suits Him, Prakrithi or the Created Universe, the Manifold, woven of Space and Time and Guna. Prakrithi and Paramatma (creation and Creator), are like the two halves of a bean; and seedling sprouts from between them.

An empty iron box gets valued when it contains jewels; the body is honoured when it contains the jewel of consciousness and the valuables called virtues. Life has to be lived through, for the sake of the chance to unfold the virtues. Life is a steady march towards a goal, it is not a meaningless term of imprisonment or a stupid kind of picnic. Be patient, humble; don't rush to conclusions about others and their motives.

When fire rages, you try to put it out by throwing sand or water, and you keep a stock of these in readiness. But, you have six fires raging inside - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hatred. What have you in store to put them out? Keep ready sathya; santhi, dharma and prema. They will help you to scotch the flames.

The grace of God cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the contortions of yoga or denials of asceticism. Love alone can win it, love that needs no requital, love that knows no bargaining, love that is paid gladly as tribute to all living. People today worship inanimate idols and images, but makes no attempt to love his fellow human beings in flesh and blood. If a human cannot love a fellow human being who is visible before his eyes, how can he/she love what is not visible?

Certainly Swami does not deny the worship of idols and perform the rituals. Such kind of worship is a significant part of Bharath's spiritual culture. Swami points that idol's worship is a special stage of spiritual development with the aim of recognize the Divine Atma with in and without as the Great Unity in diversity. Everything in its own good time, they say; the fruit has to grow and ripen before the sourness is turned to sweetness. The system of worshipping Divinity in many forms including plants and stones, which originated in Bharath, has been prevalent for a long time in other countries also.

The great poets of the past are the pioneers who mark out the road for human progress along the lines of love and unity - love which binds them with all creation and unity of all beings in God. Poems that deal with the fundamental problems of life and death, truth and delusion, virtue and vice will last for centuries and will help human in all climes. (The poet is called in the scriptures, kavi, a word which also means, who is able to visualise essential spiritual formulae in own intuitive moments. The Bhagavad Gita describes the Lord as Kavi. Poet or kavi is aware of the past, the present and the future, the kavi transcends time and can dip into the past, roam in the present and peep into the future, for kavi has sharper vision than ordinary people).

All that Swami tells about the spiritual disciplines have been told often before; human's capacity, nature, talents are all ancient possessions and so the advice regarding how to use them is also very ancient.

The new thing is human's perverse behaviour - the directions in which person has been wasting talents, misusing capacity and playing false to own nature. Person has been forgetting the path prescribed in the scriptures.

There are three types of buddhi (intellect), according to the predominance of one or other of the three gunas: the thamas, which confuses sathyam (truth) as the asathyam (untruth) and takes the asathyam as the sathyam; the rajas which like a pendulum swings from one to the other, hovering between the two, unable to distinguish between them; and the sathwa, which knows which is sathyam and which is asathyam.

The world today is suffering from rajobuddhi (passionate intellect) rather than thamas (inertia); people have violent likes and dislikes; they have become fanatical and factious. They are carried away by pomp and noise, show and propaganda. The world (and not God who is expressed through it and beyond it) is the centre of attention at the present time. The reaction to the world depends on the feelings which prompt the dealings with it; the feelings depend upon the experience gained already; the experience is coloured by the desire which urged the contact and drew the reaction.

To reach the goal, sathwabuddhi (equanimous buddhi) is essential; it will seek the truth calmly and stick to it whatever the consequence. The first step in Atma vichaara (enquiring about the Self) is the practice of the truth that whatever gives you pain gives pain to others and whatever gives you joy, gives joy to others. So do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Thus, a kind of reciprocal relationship will grow between you and others and gradually you reach the stage when your heart thrills with joy when others are joyful and shudders in pain when others are sad. This is not the kind of affection towards those who are dear to you or those who are your kith and kin. That is a sign of delusion; but this sharing of joy and grief is automatic, immediate, universal. It is a sign of great spiritual advance; then the wave knows that it is part of the ocean and that all waves are but temporary manifestations of the self-same sea having the same taste as the ocean itself.

The world is Maya, a mixture of fact and fiction, built on the basis of fact. The fact is Divinity; the fiction is variety. This deluding agent is God, for, the fact is hidden and the fiction is imposed by the leela (play) of God. And, God is but the appearance in Form of the Formless, Intangible, Immanent, Absolute, the Nirakaara Paramatma, the akasha (space) within the hridhaya (heart) of human and all living beings as well as of all the other principles, unbound, without beginning or end.

Discover the immortal 'I' and know that it is the spark of God in you; live in the companionship of the vast measureless Supreme and you will be rendered vast and measureless. Consider all objects that you collect here as given on 'trust' to be used in this caravanserai, during your pilgrimage, in this Karmakshetra (the field of action). You have to return them when you leave; they belong to another.

Individual reconstruction is more important than the construction of temples. Multiply virtues; practise what you preach, that is the real pilgrimage; cleanse your minds of envy and malice, that is the real bath in holy waters.

Education must result in the development of viveka (wisdom) and vinaya (humility). The educated person must be able to distinguish between the momentary and the momentous, the lasting and the effervescent. The educated person must know how to keep the body in good trim, the senses under strict control, the mind well within check, the intellect sharp and clear, unhampered by prejudices and hatreds, and the feelings untouched by egoism. The educated person must know the Atma; that is his/her very care; that is the effulgence which illumines inner and outer selves. This knowledge will ensure joy and peace and courage forperson's throughout life. (Be like a bee, drinking the nectar of every flower; not a mosquito drinking blood and distributing disease in return). So the real purpose of education: the unfolding of the Divine in human personality.

Every individual should regard the enquiry into nature of the Atma as the primary purpose of life. Putty of thought, word and deed is essential for this enquiry. Each one eats to assuage own hunger; so too each one must discover the best way to appease own spiritual hunger. Do not be led away by the scorn of others or by the recommendation of others. Contact your own reality in the silence that you create by quietening the senses and controlling the mind. There is a Voice that you can hear in that silence. The true witness of your having listened to that Voice is your behaviour. A tree is held and fed by the roots that go into the silent earth; so also, if the roots go deep into the silence of your inner consciousness, your spiritual blossoming is assured.

Really, you are even now dedicating everything to God; only, you do not do it consciously, with the joy that is your due. You say, "I do it for my pleasure. I go there to be happy. I am reading it for my satisfaction, for my progress." Who is this I that is doing, going, acting, reading, enjoying, being pleased? It is the I that sees, that hears, that thinks with the eye, the ear, the brain, etc. This I is in every one. It is the individualised Atma in each, it is the Universal that is reflected in the particular.

In every human being, there are four kinds of potentialities, namely, animal, demonic, human and Divine.

The one with the Divine quality will be a Brahma-Nishtha or one engaged in the contemplation of the Atma within and will enjoy Atmic bliss and sanctify every moment of life by doing good deeds. Such individual is a Brahma Jnani or Atma Jnani, a realised soul, who is aware of the truth that revering others is revering the Lord and hurting others is hurting the Lord. Such persons radiate divinity though they are in a human body.

The "human" type of persons follow the path of Truth and Righteousness. They are engaged in activities in strict accordance with Sathya and Dharma (Truth and Righteousness), using their sense of discrimination in the fight manner. They discharge their responsibilities without craving for position, power, pelf or fame. Such a person lives in harmony with his fellow beings and discharges his duties with firm belief in the three precepts: fear of sin, love of God and morality in society.

The next type is the demonic person. Such a person does not care for the code of conduct for human beings, indulges in the shameless pursuit of sensual pleasures, is filled with ego and pride, and does not hesitate to hurt others for selfish purposes.

One who lacks wisdom is like an animal. Such a person's life is centred only on sense gratification. Such person deems the transient earthly pleasures as heavenly bliss and lives in delusion devoid of discrimination.

Spirituality involves total extinction of the animal and demonic qualifies in human and the manifestation of his/her inherent divinity. When some one asked a water carrier whether his leather bag was clean, he replied, "It is cleaner than the bag into which you pour the water." Look to the inner purity rather than the outer one.

In the Annamaya kosha (material sheath), that is to say, when human is established in the physical, and in the Pranamaya kosha, when human is in the nervous and vital spheres of activity, person feels that life is fulfilled by means of food, recreation and a contented, comfortable existence. When person rises up into the Manomaya kosha (mental sheath), the imagination opens further vistas, and human gets glimpses of the glory and majesty of the Divine, which makes him/her adore and revere. The next kosha, the Vijnanamaya kosha (intellectual sheath), then steps in and makes person inquire into the validity of the experiences and leads on to the fifth kosha, the Anandamaya, the stage of Bliss, with the confirmation of the hypothesis of the Divine, that the intellect framed.

This liberates human from fear and doubt. Wisdom alone can grant full freedom. Just as the end of culture is progress, the end of knowledge is love, so, the end of wisdom is freedom.

To comprehend the unity of body, mind and Atma is to realise a fundamental truth. The body is gross. The Atma is subtle. It is the mind that links the two. If the Atma is ignored, human is reduced to the level of the animal. When the body and the Atma are ignored and the mind alone is active, the humanness comes to the fore. When the body and the mind are kept out and the Atma alone is experienced, Divinity is attained.

The Upanishads say, "Get up, arise, awake"; time is fleeing fast. Use the moment while it is available, for the best of uses, the awareness of the Divine in all. When you die, you must die not like a tree or a beast or a worm, but, like an individual who has realised that he/she is Madhava (God).

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 1. "Nara and Naaraayana," Chapter 11; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 5. "Awake! Arise!" Chapter 14, "The bird on the swinging bough," Chapter 28 and "The Poet's role," Chapter 48; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 10. "Bring me the pain," Chapter 39; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18. "Thyaga and Bhoga," Chapter 3; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 25. "Unity Based On Divinity," Chapter 39).

Namaste - Reet


Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches... 9 - 10 April 2006

The Particular Is the Universal One, No Less

Like food to a starving person, like showers on a parched field, the Vedic science of spiritual self-discovery is the life-saver for humanity sliding down to destruction because it has lost its hold on truth, morality, peace and love. Practise and demonstrate, do not simply assert in words and deny in deeds. Listen in silence and patience; watch with sympathy. In his own silent way, God will transform the mind and turn it towards sadhana and successful spiritual pilgrimage. He cannot allow his children to lose their way and suffer in the jungle. When you approach God and seek His help and guidance, you have taken the first step to save yourself. You are then led to accept His will as your own. Thus, you achieve, shanthi.

But human is a creature of society and owes everything to society. Any society cannot find its fulfilment, any social ideal can fructify, without the blossoming of the spirit. Humanity cannot realise the Divinity whose expression it is, without careful and constant attention being paid to the cultivation of the spirit. How else can this Divinity express itself than in and through individuals? We can apprehend only the jagath (world of change), this moving, inconstant, fantasia; we cannot see or hear, smell or taste or touch the Director of the fantasia, God. In the same manner, we can apprehend the individual, but not the entity named society. For, society is no separate, distinct, complex formed out of elemental components. Society is the Divine proliferation produced by the Will Supreme.

The Sea is considered holy, holier than any river, because all the rivers pour themselves into it. The conclusion, is that individual's duty is to see in society the expression of Divinity, and to use all skill and effort to promote the welfare and prosperity of society.

Human can be educated or nurtured into higher levels of consciousness. There can be no privilege without responsibility. So human has to observe very many regulations and restrictions and abide by duties and directions. The higher the status, the heavier the burden.

Individual is equipped with a conscience and the faculty of reasoning which can present before him/her the pros and cons of every step in thought, speech and action. When his/her reason tells that a certain thought or speech or action is wrong and he/she sets aside the judgement, preferring the evil, the wrong and the low, he/she sins. (When an insane person commits evil no court of justice punishes him/her; it is only when a person, capable of distinguishing good from bad, deliberately chooses the bad, that his/her act is pronounced a sin).

Human has the duty to observe consistently and sincerely the codes of morality. The codes are framed for the guidance of living beings who can uplift themselves by their own efforts and determination.

Others cannot utilise them or revere them as texts meant for instruction. However arduous and affectionate the training given to a tiger may be, it can never be made non-violent. One can feed a cat on milk and sweets for long but, when it sees a rat, it pounces on it and relishes its taste more than all the fine fresh food one has given for months. A beast has to be always beastly. But a vicious person can transform him/herself into a saint. Person may be born and bred in wicked surroundings, but can be shaped into a good person through the influence of precept and example.

Every human's life is filled with actions. Actions performed selfishly with egoism and desire for reward are karmas (that bind). Actions done unselfishly, without ego and any expectation of reward, become Karma Yoga. But together with activities associated with self-interest, every human should also take part in service activities. Through service to others, divinity can be experienced.

Society is composed of the affluent, the middle class and the poor. Social service means service to one's fellowmen. A wealthy person has been able to acquire riches with the help of others.

(The term wealth is usually applied to material riches. But it applies equally to the wealth of knowledge and to physical strength. One having this triple strength should devote it for the well-being of society. In rendering service to the poor, people should feel that they are serving the Narayana (the Lord) who dwells in the hearts of the poor. Of course, there is no meaning in preaching spirituality to a starving person. Feed the hungry. Offer solace and encouragement to those in distress and despair. The educated should try to teach the illiterate and open the minds of the ignorant to wider vistas of knowledge).

Service demonstrates the unity of society that underlies the apparent diversity. Society cannot justify itself by planning to divide the spoils gained out of Nature either in equal shares or unequal shares. The consummation that must inspire society has to be - the establishment and elaboration in every social act and resolution, of the knowledge of the One Universal Atma and the bliss that knowledge confers. Human is mortal, but, within shines Atma, as a spark of the immortal flame.

The ideal of a high standard of life, instead of a high level of living, has played havoc with human society. A high level of living insists on morality, humility, detachment, compassion; so the competitive greed for luxury and conspicuous consumption receives no encouragement. Now, human is the slave of desires and does not know how to arouse the Divine Consciousness that is latent within everybody.

Mere moral practices or instruction cannot help to achieve this truth. It can be done, by spiritual sadhana. For, it is a basic transformation. It involves the elimination of the worldly activity of the mind, which is the arch-obstacle in the path. Grace of God, if invoked and won, can endow person with power. And, the Grace is available within, awaiting the call. Person must act ever in the consciousness of the innate Divinity. When that is done, three-fold nature (composed of the three gunas - thamasik, rajasik and sathwik) will automatically express itself through the Divine channels of Atmic Reality.

Another aspect. The argument may be raised: if one has to give up the desire for comfort, luxury and pleasure, why should one be embroiled in society? This presupposes the belief that society is justified only by the provision of such worldly joys. But, what kind of society can one build on such slender foundation? If built, it can be a society only in name, it will not be bound by mutual love and cooperation. The strong will suppress the weak. Social relations will be marred by discontent. Even when attempts are made to divide the resources of Nature equally among all, the cordiality will be only on the surface. It will not be spontaneous. We can limit the resources available, but, we cannot limit greed, desire and craving. Desire involves seeking beyond the limits of possibility.

What has to be done is, to pluck out desire by the roots; the desire for objective pleasure, based on the illusion that the world is manifold, multicoloured etc., and not that the world, nature, all creation, is One. When one is conscious only of the One, who desires which? The Atmic Vision destroys the desire for objective joys, for, there is no object distinct from the subject.

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One of the most important experiments on the end of the 20th century what may change the face of science has done at the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect. Later the other teams of physicists received the same kind results.

By this experiment in certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons, photons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. The particle seems to know what its partner particle is doing. Physicist David Bohm from University of London concluded that the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are extensions of the same fundamental something.

The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides humans with new way of understanding organization and order. A hologram shows that if we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get the smaller wholes.

The electrons from brain, body, eyes etc. are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every galaxy, star, tree, every heart that beats.... At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. Thath thwam asi (That thou art) by Vedas and Swami. Standford's University neurophysiologist Nobel Prize winner Karl Pribram has also become persuaded of the holographic nature of reality.

****

Here modern science views (which are 'about 20 years old') as fuse into the Swami's Teaching and Vedic wisdom. Swami asks to experience the unity: "the whole world is one family." This is the true function of society - to enable every member to realise this Atmic Vision. People bound by mutual interests in a society are not merely families, castes, classes, groups, or kinsmen, kinswomen; they are One Atma on the level of Atmic Reality.


Swami does not direct, "the Atma has no death, therefore, kill the physical sheaths, the bodies." Swami does not encourage wars. Swami directs to recognise the Atma as closest kin, closer than the members of your family, your blood-relations and your dearest descendents.

The attachment to the Divine activates human as nothing else can: it confers on him/her during the process of doing duty the highest wisdom. Hence the advice, do not enter the objective world in the hope of realising the Atma; enter the objective world, after becoming aware of the Atma. Then you see the objective world in a new and creative light.

When the Atmic Unity is realised, it will promote the new way of life through Love. What is now 'mercy' or legally enforced mutual 'help' will then be transformed into 'Divine Love' that can effectively purify the recipient and the giver. This consummation is beyond the region of common politics, ethics or economics. They cannot transform the receiver and thrill the giver, however much they attempt to equalise. They do not have the appeal and they have no power to sustain. The equality they establish will be haunted by a shadow, the shadow of the ego. This shadow can disappear when identity as One is known and felt.

It may be underlined that not all desires are wrong; the rajasik ones which harm and exploit others can be condemned; but should one renounce the sathwik desires? Desire is desire, though the object may be beneficial and pure. The fruit of effort, the mind that seeks it, the vitality that activates the mind, life itself - every one of these has to be turned towards the Lord, with devotion born out of the vision of the One.

Co- travellers and the world must be seen ever in the mirror of Sath-Chith-Ananda (Being, Awareness, Bliss Absolute). Kinship based on this recognition will alone last.

Good and evil are based on the reactions of individuals; they are not inherent in things or events. Vedanta (Vedic philosophy) or Ateism is accepted or rejected, when one likes or dislikes it. They do not depend on logical acceptance or rejection.

Divinity is fully immanent in every one, it is patent for the eyes that can see dearly and deeply. Whoever denies this is only cheating oneself of one's own reality. Anybody cannot dismiss it by denial, either from him/herself or others. People must cultivate this expansive feeling, this inclusive thinking and this intuitive vision.

The brotherhood of people can be translated into life only on the basis of the Atmic Vision. All people thirst for peace, happiness and bliss. They are the precious heritage which is their right, for, they are God's Treasure. All people are of one lineage; they are of the Divine Lineage. All people are cells in the One Divine organism, in the Divine body. That should be every one's faith, fortune, forte, and fullness.

Every child must learn to live in peace and love with other children and other families. The idea that one can live for oneself and that one need not worry about the wants and weaknesses of others has to be removed quite early in life. Encourage the youth generation to cultivate the pleasure of 'togetherness.' Tell them, "Don't indulge in fault finding and in picking quarrels with others. Don't desire to have the best things for yourselves only. Share with others around you the good things you are given." They will certainly enjoy it; and, you will be sowing the seeds of social peace. The seeds will grow into Universal Peace and Universal Bliss.

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "From every throat, his melody," Chapter 7 and "The obliterating flood," Chapter 17; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 12. "Cells of the body of God," Chapter 29; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 13. "Parents beware!" Chapter 3; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 16. "The human destiny," Chapter 20; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 23. "Service as duty," Chapter 30).

Namaste - Reet


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