Swami teaches....Part 101
Links to Swami Teaches - Part 100
Light and Love
Swami teaches... 10 - 12 April 2007
Part 3. Develop the Crucial Skill
In the Treta Yuga, Sri Rama came to establish the reign of Sathya and Dharma
(Truth and Righteousness). In the Dwapara Yuga, Sri Krishna came with the
mission to promote Prema and Shanthi (Love and Peace). In the Kali Yuga
Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, and Prema are the purposes of the Divine Mission.
When you adhere these four principles, Ahimsa (Non-violence) issues as a
natural result.
The Bharatiya Culture, which laid emphasis on the four Purusharthas (the
basic aims of life - Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha), looked upon life as a
journey to the Divine - the attainment of Moksha (Liberation).
The sage Narada referred to Purusha (the Supreme person, soul, self,
indweller) as Pumaan and declared that whoever realises Pumaan (the Supreme
person) becomes saturated with Divine Bliss. Thus, the terms Purusha can be
applied only to the Divine.
(In the Sanskrit language, personality is described as pourusham - the
hallmark of a purusha (perfect person, soul, self, indweller). Although
"personality" and pourusham may have the same meaning, they are words
pregnant with significance. People who do not know the inner meaning of
these terms, use them casually).
One who manifests the indwelling, invisible Divine Principle is qualified to
describe as a purusha who should manifest the Divine power in him/her.
The word Dharma, which is really bound up with an infinite variety of
meanings, is being inadequately described by one word, duty, in modem age.
Duty is something, which is connected with an individual, a predicament, or
with a particular time or country. On the other hand, Dharma is eternal, the
same for everyone, everywhere. It expresses the significance of the inner
Atma. The birthplace of Dharma is the heart. What emanates from the heart as
a pure idea, when translated into action is called Dharma.
(Overall, there are two types of human beings - the degraded and the
sublime. The degraded are those who seek or receive things from others and
not only forget to repay the obligation, but even try to harm those who have
helped them. The sublime are those whose natural trait is to go to the help
of others. If they give a word, they will try to honor it whatever the
difficulties and obstacles).
To grasp the grand Truth of the immanence of Godhead (Sarvam Vishunumayam
Jagath), and to won a right to be called purusha, the first path is bhakthi
(devotion). Through bhakthi, when it is intensified, one sees in all, the
form of God that he reveres.
Real bhakthi is also a matter of the inner consciousness, not of the outer
behavior. There are people who complain that their devotion to the Lord is
limited and shaped by the worldly bonds that bind them. It is not the world,
which binds them; it is they, who bind themselves to the world.
Bhakthi means giving up all other desires and dedicating all actions and
thoughts to God. When you offer every act of yours to God, it becomes
worship. The body has described as the temple of God. You must fill yourself
with the feeling that God is in you, beside you, around you, and with you,
wherever you go. When you Love God with this awareness, consciousness, the
Love results in Self-realization.
Here is an example. Uddhava was an adept in the path of Jnana Yoga
(Knowledge and Wisdom). He wanted to teach the gopikas the path of Wisdom.
So, he approached Krishna. Krishna told Uddhava: "The gopikas are totally
devoted to me. Their devotion is fundamental to their life and reaches My
heart! Their putty and devotion are like a light that shines. You cannot
understand the hearts of such devotees! I am completely enshrined in their
hearts." Uddhava doubted whether ignorant illiterate gopikas could
understand the Divine.
To dispel the doubts of Uddhava, Krishna sent him to Repalle. Uddhava
summoned the gopikas and told them: "I will teach you the path of dhana to
realise the Divine." The Gopikas came to Uddhava and told him, "We are not
interested in learning any sastras. Teach us one simple means by which we
can realize Krishna. We are not aware of any yoga or bhoga or mantra.
Krishna is everything for us, our yoga or bhoga. Please, therefore, tell us
the means by which we can obtain Krishna. We do not want to waste our time
on yoga.
Uddhava asked the gopikas: "How can you become one with Krishna?" One gopika
answered: "If Krishna were a flower, I would be a bee whirling round Him. If
He were a tree, I would be a creeper twining round him. If He were a
mountain, I would be a river cascading from its top. If Krishna were the
boundless sky, I would be a little star, twinkling in the firmament. If He
were the deep ocean, I would be a small stream, joining the ocean. This is
the way I would be one with Krishna and merge with Him." Another gopi said:
"If Krishna were a flower, I would be a bee which goes on sucking every drop
of honey in the flower raising the nectar that is there. This is our
approach to God." So, spiritual sadhana means to regard a mountain or a
tree, or a flower, or the ocean, as a means of God-realization.
Today the world is plunged in chaos, violence, and wickedness. It is for the
young people to see that these demonic forces are routed for accomplishing
any objective two things is needed: Krishi (individual effort) and Kripa
(Divine Grace). The two are like the negative and positive poles of a
magnet.
In spite of all destructive forces, human body remains the most wonderous
machine in the world. It has a bewildering multiplicity of limbs, organs,
veins, nerves and cells that cooperate to maintain it under varied
conditions. If anyone of these rebels or refuses to rescue another, the body
is bound to suffer. So too, a society, community, or nation can be safe,
secure and happy only when the individuals comprising it are mutually
helpful and bound together in skillful and sincere service.
The spiritual awareness of higher life depends on the cultivations of the
five cardinal virtues - Truth, Right Conduct, Love, Peace, and Non-Violence.
These virtues elevate the individual as well as the society of which he/she
is a part. Connected with these virtues moral education is the primary
requisite in life for every student, for every person.
If you engage yourselves in right action, you will not be bound by the
consequences of karma. Because of past karma, you have got the present life.
By your present karma, you can ensure freedom from birth. Through Love, you
develop faith; through faith and earnestness, you acquire knowledge; through
knowledge, you develop sadhana, and through sadhana, you achieve the goal.
So, for practicing sadhana, you require wisdom, and for acquiring wisdom,
you require Sraddha (earnestness and faith) and for Sraddha you must
cultivate Love.
"The integral Knowledge is something that is already there in integral
Reality. It is not a new or still non-existing thing that has to be created,
acquired, learned, invented or built up by the mind. It must rather be
discovered or uncovered, it is a Truth that is self-revealed to a spiritual
endeavor: for it is there veiled in our deeper and greater self; it is the
very stuff of our own spiritual consciousness, and it is by awaking to it
even in our surface self that we have to possess it." - Aurobindo, "The Life
Divine."
Every generation has to receive education and training in such intelligent
cooperation and service. The institutions, which ought to have been temples
of Saraswathi (the Goddess of transformation through learning) have become
in all lands temples of Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth). The ideal held
before the tender, innocent, unselfish children is lucrative job rather than
a life of peace, contentment, and love. Narrow loyalties, contest, and
competition are polluting the minds of children. Parents, teachers, and all
interested in the progress of mankind have to take note of this situation.
The value of the teaching process lies in raising the level of consciousness
of the learner, in heightening the sense of wonder and awe and in
emphasizing the unity of one with all. The destiny of a country is decided
by the ideals implanted by the teachers in the minds of the boys and girls
entrusted to their care.
Education can claim success when it results in the student gaining awareness
of the Divinity inherent in him/her and others. No academic degree can
confer as much self-confidence and self-satisfaction and lead human as
quickly and gladly to self-sacrifice and self-realization as that awareness.
It has to be transmitted by teachers who have it through a sense of duty and
in a spirit of love. It has to be accepted by students who have cultivated
faith in the teacher and reverence for teacher's role.
If the teacher has the responsibility to inspire and illumine, the student
has the responsibility to respond to the Love and Light, discarding all
contrary thoughts. Thoughts that arise from the region of the pleasant (Preyas)
cannot co-exist with those, which arise from the tough challenges of higher
life (Sreyas). The student must be equipped to prefer the latter to the
former.
Every person, young and adult should possess shanthi (peace), sathya
(truth), nirahankara (absence of egoism) and absence of asuya (envy).
Suffusing all the four is Prema (Love). These qualities are not got through
studies, from a teacher, or as a gift from someone. They can be acquired
only by one's own effort.
These noble qualities have to be developed from childhood itself. If from
the beginning you learn to speak the truth, you will find it easy. However,
once you take to lying, to return to the ways of truth is very difficult.
When teachers do their duty in this spirit, they will be imbuing the
children with the spirit of Universal Love. Only if you fill their hearts
with love will the world have genuine peace.
"Sathyameva Jayathe", says the Upanishad. (Truth alone triumphs). Truth is
adherence to what is true in thought, word, and deed. Often many untoward
situations arise which render such adherence difficult. (Children, for
instance, out of fear of punishment or scolding by parents or teachers
indulge in prevarication or falsehood and avoid admitting the truth. This
tendency results in due course in vitiating their entire life by making them
lead double lives).
You should not give up truth, whatever difficulties you may encounter,
whatever troubles or trials may come your way. This is the lesson to be
learnt from the inspiring story of Harishchandra, who won undying fame
because of his preparedness to sacrifice everything for upholding truth.
Material prosperity or positions of authority may come and go. But the
reputation for truth and integrity will last for ever.
Cultivate forbearance. Forbearance endows you with the strength to face "the
slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Together with truth and
forbearance, you have to cultivate freedom from envy what is like the pest
that attacks the root of a tree. It can destroy one's entire life.
We may be enjoying many things in life - knowledge, wealth, position, power
and the like. But if the virus of envy enters our minds, it can pollute
everything. To be free from envy is a divine quality. It makes you feel
happy over others' happiness or success.
You should learn to make sacrifices for the sake of others in need.
Sacrifice means going to the help of others to the extent of your capacity.
If you are not in a position to help others, you must at least refrain from
doing any harm. Even that is a form of sacrifice (giving up the tendency to
do harm to others).
(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6.
"Which is real? This or that?" Chapter 44 and "The cleansed heart," Chapter
45. Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 16. "Be exemplars of Sai ideals," Chapter 31;
Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18. "One God : basic truth of all faiths," Chapter
30 and "Students and Satwic Purity." Chapter 31; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19.
"The teacher and tomorrow," Chapter 29).
Namaste - Reet
Swami teaches... 8 - 9 April 2007
Part 2. Develop the Crucial Skill
So the truth is: human has emanated from the Atma thathwa, (principle,
truth, essence).
As the waters of the sea evaporate and form clouds to fall as rain and flow
as streams and rivers to rejoin the sea, so, human too must reach the
source.
It is difficult to understand the adwaithic conception that my reality and
the reality of the Universal Absolute are the same. "I am That"; this can be
realized only through the sharp intellect and clear discrimination. This
cannot be established in the consciousness, by external argument or efforts.
The basic Brahmic unity makes every one equal; this equality can be realized
only at that high level of experience. Until then, all talk of treating all
as equal to one another is more self-deceit. Why, even such a simple thing
as the advice to speak the truth leads to complications, which can be
resolved only by compromise.
People today make no attempt to discover their true nature or their real
destiny. Forgetting the great truths given to the world by Bharatiya sages
and seers, people are leading utterly meaningless lives, unaware of the
potentiality of the human to become the Divine.
There is, for instance, the simple gesture of folding hands when one greets
another in offering "Namaskar." What is the inner significance of this
gesture? For one thing, the coming together of the two palms is a
demonstration of the unity that subsumes the multiplicity. For another, it
represents the offering of the five sense organs and the five organs of
action to the Lord as an act of surrender.
Another parable as example (from the different angle) by Pyotr Demianovich
Ouspensky, a Russian philosopher and educator, 1878 - 1947. From his book
"The Fourth Way").
"Let us compare a horse-carriage with an aeroplane. An aeroplane has many
possibilities that an ordinary carriage does not have, but at the same time,
an aeroplane can be used as an ordinary carriage. It would be very clumsy
and inconvenient and very expensive, but you can attach two horses to it and
travel in an aeroplane by road. Suppose the man who has this aeroplane does
not know that it has an engine and can move by itself and suppose he learns
about the engine--then he can dispense with the horses and use it as a motor
car. Suppose that the man studies this machine and discovers that it can
fly. Certainly, it will have many advantages, which he missed when he used
the aeroplane as a carriage. That is what we are doing with ourselves; we
use ourselves as a carriage, when we could fly."
Is human a bundle of the senses or the physical frame, or the mind or
consciousness, with all it levels? Where did all these come from? How far
can one decide the shape of one's journey? These are the questions to seek
answers for. "Who are you?" you often ask, but, you seldom stop to ask
yourself, "Who am I?" You are drawn by the news of the world, not by news of
your own inner world. Of what avail is all the knowledge you gather, if the
knowledge about yourself is absent?
You are the breath. So long as there is breath, you are Shivam; when that
leaves, you become shavam (a corpse). So, treat the world as a two-day fair,
treat life as a two-hour play, treat the body as a two-second bubble.
Develop Love and devotion to the highest ideal, God.
However, that path is beset with hardships. They help; they do not hinder
your forward steps. They serve as the shears that trim a growing bush. No
one can escape these vicissitudes while on the journey. Fix attention on the
goal that is the means to be happy and peaceful. Whatever the obstacle,
God's Grace can transform it into a help for you. Educate your mind to view
hardships as helps. The mind it is that binds or liberates. It is a web of
desires and wishes. Why multiply desires and get bound, by the mind? Use it
for liberation, instead.
Your hearts are shrines of the Divine. The whole of Nature is your
playground; all the things in it are your playthings. Regard yourselves as
masters of the Universe and not its bond-slaves. Once you surrender to the
Divine, Nature becomes your servant.
Two things to be given up are: all remembrance of (1)
the evil that others do to you, and (2) of the good that you do to others.
The two things to be practiced are: (1) belief that death is certain and
inevitable, and (2) God exists and yields to prayer and purity.
(Usually people do not forget the evil that others do
or the good that has done by them; they forget the fact of death and the
fact of the existence of God).
The Grace of God is immeasurable. Contemplate on Him as Love, recite His
Name as the embodiment of Love, revere His as Love. This is the easiest path
to God. Some feel despair that to them. God is far distant, because they
have no resources to visit holy places and prostrate before famous shrines
sanctified by saints and sages, no time or talent to master the Vedas. This
is quite wrong for God does not measure out Grace in proportion to these
external achievements. He is not moved by quantity. To appease you hunger,
the grain in all the granaries of the world is not needed; a handful is
enough. To slake your thirst, you do not crave for all the waters of all the
rivers; a glassful suffices.
Similarly, one lime act of surrender is enough to win
His Grace forever. Years of asceticism or study or sadhana are not called
for. "You and nothing else," fix this in the mind and live in that
conviction. That will transmute all your acts into worship invaluable puja.
When an act is done in spirit of surrender to the Lord, it becomes a yajna;
when it is done in spirit of egoism, it ends in a battle. Dhaksha, the
Emperor, performed a yajna; but, in his pride, he neglected the Lord and His
shakthi (power). So, the yajna was upset by a fight. When there was no
egoism minting the battle, it became sublimated into a yajna. That is the
alchemy which sharanagathi (total surrender) can accomplish.
First, self-assurance that you are Dhasoham (I am His instrument); then,
through the winning of His Grace, the consciousness that you are Shivoham (I
am Shiva) or Soham (I am That) will become your unshakable experience.
Your life-story is regarded as made up of childhood, growth, achievements,
thoughts, and ideals. But what is fundamental to a human's life is the moral
stature. Neethi (moral standards) is delved from the Sanskrit word Nitha.
Neethi means right conduct. It is the path that leads one to the sublime.
Good character, putty of thought and selfless sacrifice are all covered by
Neethi. The ancients regarded Neethi as fundamental, without which the
society will be mined. For this purpose, even the body has to be made pure
and hence good health is essential.
Good health is the basis of everything else in life.
(The condition of the children in the backward
countries is pitiable. Most of them lack nourishing food, proper clothes,
and roofs over their heads. People should go to the help of the poor and the
weak not in a spirit of condescension or of extending patronage. They must
offer help out of genuine sympathy and fellow feeling. They must regard such
sympathy as one of the primary aims of meaningful living. Do not demand
wages calculated and bargained for. The work done for wages will not be as
sincere and as joyful as that done through love, reverence).
The word 'health' has derived from the Anglo-Saxon word 'helig,' meaning
(wholeness) or inner spirit. What is the wholeness that is to be achieved?
The body consists of the sense organs, the mind, the intellect, the
consciousness, and the indwelling Spirit. "Wholeness" means that all these
elements should be whole.
To achieve such a state of mind, it is necessary to
understand the meaning of everything and every situation. (For instance, if
a student has failed in an examination, he should not get depressed.
Instead, he should examine the reasons for his failure, whether he had not
studied properly or understood the subjects correctly. If he finds that his
failure is due to inadequate preparation, he should resolve to do better in
the future).
Swami turns to the students to promote ten kinds of purity. However, these
advices are universal, for everyone.
To develop one's moral and mental strength, one should
practice sadhana for disciplining the mind. For this purpose, one has to
promote ten kinds of purity (sathwa).
It is needful to remember that the Lord cares for the purity of the motive
behind the act, not for the pomp and the show.
(Sudhama,s wife directed him to proceed to Dwaraka -
Capital of Krishna, and pray to his boyhood churn Shri Krishna for material
help in running the family. Sudhama was nervous about the success of his
mission, for, he fixed his attention on the externals, namely, the fort,
palace, bodyguards, and all the paraphernalia of kings. He compared them
with his own dress, appearance and the low value of the offering that he was
taking to Him).
1. The first is purity of the place in which one lives. It is necessary to
fill the room in which one resides or studies with a sathwic atmosphere. The
pictures or other objects you see should fill you with peace and pure
thoughts. The room should be clean and free from anything that is impure.
2. In the family in which you live, there should be mutual understanding and
cooperation, and a sense of harmony. A harmonious atmosphere will give you
true peace of mind.
3. Using sathwic food. This means that none of the edible items should be
excessively sour, bitter or hot. You should eschew rajasic food like fish or
meat. Even good sathwic food should not be taken in excess. It is only
sathwic when you sit for the meal with a light stomach and get up from it
with a light stomach.
4. Whatever fluids you take should also be sathwic. You should not drink
whatever water is available. It should be pure water. Alcoholic splits
should be eschewed.
5. Sathwic thoughts and feelings are of great importance. Only if your
thoughts and feelings are pure, can you get the full benefit of a clean
room, a good family, and pure food.
6. If you want to develop sathwic feelings and thoughts, your vision must be
pure. All Srishti (Creation) is based upon drishti (sight). When you have
wrong vision, you have wrong thoughts. You should not commit the sort of
offences, which you will not tolerate in others.
7. Whatever books you read or whatever you write should be pure. A good book
makes for a good mind. Any book you may study about physics or chemistry or
other subjects, does not affect your character. However, books, which are
literary, are not always good literature. If improper books are prescribed
for study, treat them as mere textbooks and do not attach any high value to
them as guides for life.
8. Pure sathwic service. With regard to service, you have to decide what is
sathwic and what is rajasic. We go and clean streets, build roads in
villages or dig wells and do them all as a service to the community.
However, the kind of service, which we do, should give real happiness to the
people.
Narayana has two forms: one is 'Lakshmi Narayana', the
other is 'Daridra Narayana'. This 'Lakshmi-Narayana' is full of wealth. He
will be able to get many persons to serve him. But, for 'Daridra Narayana'
there is nobody to serve him. It is to such persons that we should do
sathwic service.
(People today usually are eager to receive help from
others, but have no desire to render help).
9. Sadhana. This is spiritual discipline. This must be sathwa. Some people
do Hata Yoga. Some strive to develop the Kundalini Sakthi Some invoke evil
spirits, to do harm to others. These forms of sadhana are not sadhana at
all. The individual is Chith (Consciousness), God is Sath (The Eternal
Absolute). When Sath and Chith combine, you have Ananda Sath-Chith-Ananda.
Only the sadhana undertaken to realise Sath-Chith-Ananda is true sadhana.
Where is this Sath? This Sath is in everybody. You must
perform sadhana in the spirit that the One pervades the many. In this
process, you must cultivate the feeling of Love.
By the way, there are two forms of Love. One binds you
to God. The other binds you to the world. The mind is responsible for either
of these states. It is like a lock. If you turn the key to the right, the
lock opens. If you turn the key to the left, it gets locked. The heart is
the key to the lock of the mind. If you turn the key towards the world, you
have attachment (bondage).
10. Your occupation or profession. It should be work, which can benefit the
nation, the community. You must ask yourself, "What is the service, what is
the help I can do for the community?" You must see that there is no untruth
in any work you do, no unfairness, no fraud, no evil motive.
Absorb the teachings of all the great seers and prophets. Do not despise
anyone. Everyone is entitled to accept what is good from any source.
Differences of creed and caste are irrelevant. Swami's famous quotation
declares, "There is only one caste, the caste of humanity. There is only one
religion, the religion of Love. There is only one language, the language of
the heart. There is only one God, He is omnipresent."
It is said that atom bombs will reduce the world to
ashes. However, those who are promoting religious bigotry and hatred are
doing worse damage than what the atom bombs can do. They are destroying the
love and compassion in human hearts. They are breaking up mankind into
fragments. There is no greater sin than this.
What the world needs today is the redeeming and unifying force of Love -
Love that continually expands and embraces more and more people.
(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6.
"Which is real? This or that?" Chapter 44 and "The cleansed heart," Chapter
45.Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 16. "Be exemplars of Sai ideals," Chapter 31;
Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18. "One God : basic truth of all faiths," Chapter
30 and "Students and Satwic Purity." Chapter 31; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19.
"The teacher and tomorrow," Chapter 29).
Namaste - Reet
Swami teaches... 5 - 7 April 2007
Part 1. Develop the Crucial Skill
People boast that they know much, but of what use is all that knowledge if
they do not put into practice and win peace and contentment? Fundamentally,
the inquiry that makes living worthwhile is, "Where-from have I arrived?
Whither am I going?"
King Janaka used to gather many rishis in his palace
and take delight in discussing with them about spiritual problems; he was a
great adept at sadhana and he attained the highest stage of samadhi through
Raja yoga. One day, while in the midst of the court, with the Queen and the
maids, even while he was conversing with them, he fell asleep. He had a
dream. He dreamt that he was deprived of his kingdom, that he was roaming
half-mad, hungry and deserted in the jungle, begging for food from whoever
he met, that he came upon some men washing dishes and vessels after a feast
which they had shared, that he ran towards them seeking some crumbs, that
they gave him some little quantity of rice scraped from the vessels, that he
was about to put it into his mouth when a big bird flew in and swooped it
out of his grasp; so, he yelled in pain and grief, and the Queen heard it
and she woke him up.
Of course, when he woke, he knew he was the King. He
remembered that a second previously, he was a beggar. He questioned within
himself, which is real, this or that? To every one who inquired what the
matter was, he put the same question. "Am I a king or a beggar?" The queen
and others were frightened at this behaviour; they sent for the ministers
and with them came, Ashtavakra, the preceptor. He discovered the situation
as soon as he saw the King; so, to the question that the King put him, he
answered, "Raja! This is unreal; that is unreal; you, who experienced this
as well as that, you alone are real."
The waking stage is real until the sleeping stage; the
sleeping stage is real, until the waking stage. But, both are unreal,
because one cancels the other. So, why take life so seriously, so
frantically? All efforts, all talk, all pleasures end with the graveyard.
Gain, gain; that seems to be the refrain of life in every human's activity.
The wise hold that there is another gain which is far more desirable -
attaining the presence of God, merging in the Supreme Bliss that God is,
liberating oneself from the little pleasures which divert us from the
pursuit of the highest pleasure, Divine Bliss.
Try to earn the Grace of God by being helpful to your fellow-beings.
Different branches of knowledge are like rivers, while spiritual knowledge
is the ocean. Even as the rivers merge in the ocean, all types of knowledge
merge in spiritual knowledge.
You must bear in mind the company you keep. Kabir said,
"I salute the bad and also the good!" Kabir was asked: "We can understand
you?re offering salutations to the good, but what is the point in offering
salutations to the bad?" He replied, "When I salute the bad, I am saluting
them, saying, please remove yourself from my presence. I salute the good,
saying, please come to me!"
Avoid the company of those who are evil-minded.
Association with the good is pure yoga. You should pursue this kind of yoga
and confer happiness on all people with whom you are associated. By
cultivating the company of the good, you can raise yourself, because your
bad qualities get diluted by association with the good, like sewage water
when it enters the sea.
In the Ramayana, we see that by his association with Hanuman, Vibhishana,
the brother of Ravana, was transformed into a devotee of the Lord. On the
other hand, Kaikeyi, because of the influences of the evil-minded Manthara,
brought infamy and widowhood upon herself and estranged herself from her
noble son Bharata.
In the Mahabharata, we have the example of Dharmaraja, who had to endure
many difficulties and humiliations because of indulgence in gambling with
dice during a brief association with the wicked Kauravas. Association with
the evil-minded can lead to endless troubles. The company of the good takes
you near to God. Without God, everything else is valueless.
Attach yourself to the good and earn detachment; detachment will liberate
you from illusions; that will make you steady in the faith; that faith will
liberate you. Therefore, certain disciplines have to be followed to realize
the truth about oneself.
This is emphasized in Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Religion). Nevertheless, due
to political and cultural forces, Sanathana Dharma itself has neglected in
much. The goal of life should be the earning of Atmic faith. That alone
confers great joy that alone is true religion.
People glibly say that religion too is a convention of
human, fashioned for the moment. No, religion is much more useful than that,
much more established. It is rooted in intelligence, individual
discrimination. It insists on unity of all this in one basic principle,
Brahman. It does not advocate or preach difference and manifoldness.
All faiths have emphasized one common factor - that there is only One God
and Truth is His form. There are no differences between Hindus, Muslims and
Christians on this basic concept.
Jesus sacrificed his life for the regeneration and
welfare of mankind. Today there are some who exaggerate the so-called
differences between different faiths and, for their own selfish purposes,
exploit these differences and thereby bring a bad name to the great founders
of these religions, who were spiritual giants. No prophet or messiah asked
his followers to hate other religions or the followers of other faiths.
Every religion has declared that God is One and that the Divine dwells in
every being. Jesus proclaimed the truth that the One Spirit resides in all
beings.
All religions, all scriptures, all spiritual teachings
point only to one truth - the Unity of Dignity. You may profess whatever
faith you like. But you should not disparage another's beliefs.
It is a characteristic of the Kali Age that one
religion is pitted against another. This only reveals the small-mindedness
of the followers and is not the fault of the founders. It stems from envious
intolerance and egoistic conceit. No one should cast aspersions on the
deities or founders of other faiths.
Sanathana Dharma teaches us there is no other system or faith. All
religions, all faiths are but phases or facets of the same Universal Faith
and Discipline. It is like the seven blind men who examined the elephant and
described it to others. The man who held the tail in his hand saw it as a
snake; the man who felt the leg said it was a pillar; the man who examined
only the ear swore that the elephant was like a winnowing basket. This story
has a deep inner meaning. The Atma is one, but each one sees a fraction and
judges it differently. It is the integrated sum of each of these facets of
reality.
When Jesus was addressing the dews, an ethereal voice declared, "All lives
are one, my dear Son. Be alike to everyone." When Jesus has crucified, the
same ethereal voice declared that the human body is only vesture for the
Spirit. The body is subject to constant change. However, the indwelling
Spirit is immoral. This was the truth proclaimed by Vedanta when it said,
"The body is a temple in which the Eternal Spirit resides as the Indweller."
The inner meaning of this is that wherever you may go, the Eternal Spirit
remains with you. You must regard the body as the temple of the Spirit; bear
in mind that Divinity is ever within you. Only when you realize this truth
can you begin to experience the Divine.
Godhead is described in the Vedas as Shahasra Sheershah, thousand-headed. It
does not mean that God has a thousand heads. The heads are thousands in
number but the heartbeat is the same in all. So too, God is activating all
the heads, as the same electric current activates the fan, the stove, the
bulb, the mike, the machine, the tube, etc. The current is the same, but the
wattage of the bulb differs and causes the difference in light. The
individual is different but the indwelling force is the same. In the basic
substance, there is no high or low; the difference is caused by difference
of the instrument, the container.
Students and spiritual seekers have to be encouraged to, "Follow the Master
(the inner voice of Conscience), Face the Devil (the down-dragging
anti-social urges), Fight to the End (until one is able to overcome the
inner foes of lust, anger, greed, undue attachment, pride and hatred) and
Finish the Game (of life on the Earth)." This duty is referred to in the
Gita as swadharma (one's genuine obligation to oneself); the duties that one
gets involved in, while dealing with others is defined as paradharma. Of
these two, swadharma is more vital and valuable.
The best way to gain happiness is to choose God as the
leader and guide. Then, He will guide and guard, from the heart itself.
Devotion implies faith in God. A tiny bird that perches
on a bough is not scared when the bough sways in the gale. Why? Because it
relies not on the bough, but, on its wings. You on the other hand rely on
the grip you have on the branch of Samsara, or the world and its
ramifications; you do not rely on the Atma or the God within, who buoys you
up. That is the reason why any little shake in the bough frightens you. Have
faith in your Divinity, in Divinity as such, and nothing can harm you. That
is the crucial skill you must develop.
A man was crossing the Ganges in a boat; he asked the boatman if he had no
watch and when he laughed at it, the man said," No; need or no need, whether
you know how to consult a watch or not, unless you own a watch, a quarter of
your life is as good as having gone into the Ganges."
Sometime later, he asked the boatman whether he had a
radio receiver and when he learnt that he did not possess one, he said that
another quarter of his life can as well be considered sunk in the Ganges.
'"You are not up-to date at all; every one worth anything has a barber's box
contrivance called transistor hanging round his neck at the end of a strap."
A few minutes later, he asked, whether he read any
newspaper and when the boatman apologized for his illiteracy and his lack of
interest in news, the man squarely said that another quarter of his life can
be pronounced to be liquidated in the waters of the Ganges. Just then, the
overcast sky became dark and furious and forks of lightning threatened a
thunderstorm and a heavy downpour of rain; it was now the turn of the
boatman to ask a question. He said, "Do you know swimming?" and when the man
pleaded that he did not have the skill, the boatman replied, "In that case,
your whole life is as good as liquidated."
Learn the art of swimming across the sea of life, with
its waves of success and failure. That is the real skill to acquire.
The Beacon of the Spirit is the Lighthouse for the
storm-tossed ships carrying humanity across the furious waves of the ocean
of life. Instead of earning that light and saving from wretch, human is
getting lost in travails, torrents of trouble, worry and agony and vain
voyages in search of attaining the absent treasure. Unless that light is
present ever with human, unless efforts are made to have it shining, clear
in the heart, all the activities of life are shrouded in the darkness of
ignorance. One wonders whether he/she has to appreciate or discard the
charms of nature and the external world, whether to laugh or weep at their
illusory attractions.
Blind to the real characteristics of this world, human has become a pendulum
between birth and death. Human spins like a top, human is immersed in
incessant effort; but what does human win? Nothing. You do not try to find
out what you were before birth, after birth, and after death. The potter
digs up clay to make his pots. The pots are short- lived and so, they
represent the jivis, the individuals. Clay is the Brahmic substance, which
underlies all creation.
For, what has to be sought after first is spiritual
progress. Devoid of the principle of Godhead, no activity can be worthwhile.
Brahman, the Universal Absolute, is all this; It is the source, the
substance, the sense; it is as cotton in the cloth, mud in the pot, wood in
the chair, the basic substance.
People say that the body is real, that it is permanent,
that the senses give correct information, that the emotions are real. The
mind has to be fixed on any object so that it can be seen, heard, or become
the target for any sense. The ajnana - afflicted mind will feel objects to
be pleasurable and permanent. The ajnana has to be overcome by means of
spiritual discipline.
People trap monkeys by placing big pots with small
mouths in the gardens and putting some groundnuts inside them. Then they
wait nearby. The monkeys come, put their hands inside the pots, and fill
their fists with the nuts. Now, they find that the hands full of nuts cannot
be taken out of the pot, for the mouth is too small for the fists. In this
helpless condition, they can be caught easily. They fall a prey to the
trappers. If only they drop the nuts, they could escape from the burden of
the pot and get free. However, the attachment to the nuts spelt disaster to
them.
So too, human gets attached to sense-objects and gets
entangled in the world forgetting the purpose for which he/she has come.
The other legend tells that once a stranger monk a defect in the eye
diagnosed the illness of a rich lord and he was advised to cast his eyes on
a single color only. The lord collected all the paint he could get and all
the painters of the region and daubed everything green - walls, roofs,
fences, roads, tree stumps.
When the monk returned after some months, he was surprised at the stranger appearance of the town. He asked the lord the reason for this and he was told that it was in accordance with his own prescription. The monk chided him for taking all that trouble and spending all that money, for, he could have gained the same end by putting on a pair of green glasses. When the vision is clarified into Brahma i.e. Atma thathwam (principle, truth, essence), then, all will be seen as the One Basic Brahman.
(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6.
"Which is real? This or that?" Chapter 44 and "The cleansed heart," Chapter
45.Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 16. "Be exemplars of Sai ideals," Chapter 31;
Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18. "One God : basic truth of all faiths," Chapter
30 and "Students and Satwic Purity." Chapter 31; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19.
"The teacher and tomorrow," Chapter 29).
Namaste - Reet