Examine carefully all the texts and scriptures that deal with Bharathiya culture and traditions. Find out whether in any of them there is mention that Moksha or Liberation or the Highest Realisation is available to those who are Bharathiyas only, and not to others.   

    The basic truth of Nature is the One in the Many; that is the key to its understanding. The Bharathiyas grasped this truth. For each aspect or variation of feeling and thinking, volition and action, they made available a distinct Name and Form, and provided modes of worship and ways of adoration, in accordance with the emotional needs and intellectual calibre of the aspirants and devotees. Of course, a few had no need for such special consideration and treatment. But, many took advantage of this concession, and advanced in their march towards wisdom and liberation.

    But, this line of thought is not correct. When the individualised Jivi becomes fixed in the totality or Samasthi (the whole) he loses all ideas of distinction and is ever in the consciousness of the totality, the One that subsumes the many. He will then be aware that the reality of each is the reality of all and that Reality is the One Indivisible Atma. He will not exhibit any consciousness of distinction between individuals.

    How can Jivi  experience separateness? No, he cannot. The rays of that ananda illumine all regions. The sages and the great rishis became aware of the Bliss. Their teachings were not only simple, but varied to educate and elevate all levels of understanding.

    A small example:

    One feels happy when one has the knowledge that this one little body is his, does he not? Then, when he knows that two bodies are his, should he not be twice happy? In the same way, with the knowledge that he has an increasing number of bodies, the experience of happiness goes on increasing; when the whole world is known to be one body, and world-consciousness becomes part of the awareness, then the Ananda will be full. To get this multi-consciousness, the limited egocentric prison walls must be destroyed. When the ego-self identifies itself with the Jivi or Atma, death will cease. When the ego-self identifies itself and merges with the Bliss of the One, sorrow will cease. When it merges with Jnana or the Higher Wisdom, error will cease. "Material individual-ness is born out of delusion; this body which creates that impression is only an ever-evolving atom of a boundless ocean; the second entity in me is the other Form, namely, the embodied Self; when the ego of mine merges with the Self in me, then, the delusion disappears, through the upsurge of its opposite knowledge".

    Acts done on the basis of faith in the Atma, the Reality within, cannot be dubbed as superstitious or foolish.

    We will find it impossible to love God or adore Him, unless we meditate on some Form; this is as essential as breathing for sheer living. That is a necessary stage in the process of living. One has to accept it as such. Child is the father of old age. Can old age condemn childhood or teenage, as evil? To experience the Divine Principle, idol-worship is and has been a great help to many. How then can the aspirant and the practitioner of spiritual disciplines condemn idol-worship after passing through that stage and deriving benefits from it? (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Vahini, "From Truth to Truth.")  

    Since God is in every heart, the Inner Voice is the signal that Dharma (righteousness) gives while approving or disapproving any line of action. The Dharma that you have to follow is indicated by that Voice. That is the Swadharma for you. It is the Inner Witness that is the real I,  which illumines the eye, the ear, the taste and the touch. The cells are activated by the reflection of (the energy of) the Aathma.

    Of course, all the 'Worship' carried out with the idea that the idol is life-less wood or stone or bronze, is so much waste of time. But if it is done in the full confidence that the image or idol is alive, saturated with consciousness and power, then, image worship can bestow the Realisation of God-head itself.

    There was once a spiritual seeker who approached a guru for guidance. The guru gave him an idol of Vishnu and instructions for daily worship. But the saadhaka found that, even after some months of meticulous puuja, he did not get any spiritual reward or elation. He reported his dissatisfaction and the guru gave him another idol of Shiva. The disciple came after another six months demanding another idol, because even Shiva had failed him.

    This time, he got a Durga idol, which he duly installed in his domestic shrine. The two previous idols were standing, dust-ridden and neglected, on the window sill. One day, while Durga-puuja (ritual worship of Goddess Durga) was going on, the disciple found that the perfumed smoke from the incense-stick was being wafted by the breeze towards the idol of Shiva.  He got wild that the ungrateful stone-hearted God who was deaf to his powerful entreaties should get the perfume intended for his latest idol! So, he took a piece of cloth and tied it round the face of Shiva, closing up the nostrils that were inhaling the perfume.

    Just at that moment, to his immense surprise Shiva appeared in His splendour and Glory before the saadhaka ! But, what had really happened? The saadhaka for the first time believed that the Shiva idol was alive, conscious,and it was that belief which forced him to tie the bandage to the nose. The moment he realised that the idol was full of Chith (consciousness) he got the Realisation he was struggling for. Therefore, the saadhaka should see, not the stone which is the material stuff of the idol, but the Power that is inherent in it, that is symbolised by it, the same Power that is inherent in his own heart and that pervades and transcends all creation.

    Spiritual seekers should acknowledge the powerful aspects of Omnipresent Divine Incarnation by little example.  

    You have a tiny spark of fire at the end of the incense stick that you burn in the shrine; you have slightly more fire at the tip of your cigarette; the stove over Which you cook is a bigger fire; the forest fire is also flame. But, the incense stick will be scotched even if by accident it touches the wall. The fire will go out. The forest fire can reduce to ashes the greenest of trees.  So too the Divine, in the Incarnation, is inexplicable, incredible, impenetrable. It is the Fire of Love plus the Fire of Enlightenment, the Fire of Cosmic Creation as well as the Fire of Cosmic Destruction.

    (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 10, "The Inner Witness," Chapter 12 and "The sword and the scabbard," Chapter 28);