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Swami teaches... Manava, God and Religion

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Light and Love

 

Swami teaches... (8 January 2005)

 

Manava, God and Religion

The body (Deha) is like a boat. Our life is like a river and we have to

cross that river and reach our destination. Our destination is the destination

of divinity. Our life, the present one, is one of living in the contemporary

world. In this process of our trying to cross the river of life and reach the

destination of divinity, the boat that we have to use, namely, our body, has to

be safeguarded and taken great care of.

The indestructible divine strength, which has come into this destructible

body, has been called man's soul or the human spirit. Because the body contains

this indestructible divine spirit, the live body has also been called 'man'. In

the very word Manava, which stands for man, we are able to see the divinity

that is present in man.

Manava includes three syllables. The first one 'Ma' stands for Ajnana or

ignorance, absence of knowledge.

The second one 'Na' stands for the desire that ignorance and absence of

knowledge should disappear.

The third one 'Va' conveys the injunction that one should conduct oneself in

a manner as to remove ignorance. /Here is essential to signify the role of

religions which really are parts of one and single religion of Prema (Love)/.

The religions of the world have two aspects - philosophy and spiritual path.

The first represents the qualities of the head, and the second the qualities of

the heart. If there is no heart, there is no use having the head.

Through head we should make all the necessary enquiries relating to

philosophy and then should attempt to reach the heart. The first one concerns

itself with the information and the second one with the transformation. If we

do not gather the information, it is not possible to achieve transformation.

Spirituality and philosophy are two things which are closely related to each

other and which follow each other.

Our ability to comprehend and acquire complete knowledge is defective and

has in many cases disappeared. That is the reason why when we look at a

religion, we do not comprehend the whole of it but we take a bit of it and form

an opinion.

There is the story of a number of blind men reaching an elephant and

touching it. One blind man who happens to touch the trunk of the elephant gets

the feeling that it is like a big root of a big tree, and therefore, he thinks

that the elephant is like the root of a tree. Another blind man just happens to

touch one of the legs and he feels that it is like a pillar and concludes that

an elephant is like a pillar. Another blind man happens to touch the ear of the

elephant and he thinks that it is like a big fan and so concludes that the

elephant is in the shape of a big fan. Another blind man touches the stomach or

the tummy of the elephant and thinks that it is a huge wall and concludes that

an elephant looks like a big wall. Thus each one of these people, having

touched only a part of the elephant, comes to the conclusion based on the

impression which that part has created, that the elephant looks like that

particular part.

Thus, when people of different countries look at any world religion, each

one who looks only at a part of a world religion thinks that religion is only

that part. The real religion is a combination of all the individual components,

which each one of them is getting at. This religion is in essence like sacred

Prema or love. It is essential to develop the feeling of Prema which is the

highest experience proclaimed by Vedas and the other sacred texts. It is much

more sacred and sanctifying to fill our hearts with Prema than to fill our

heads with all kinds of books on spiritual matters.

God is one for all the Universe and concequently for human beings. God is

beyond and above all five senses of perception and five elements earth, water,

fire, air and sky (space). He has none of the five qualities or attributes of

matter. He is present everywhere. It does not matter whether you look at this

description from a spiritual angle or from a scientific angle, the truth of the

statement which has now been made will have to be accepted by everyone. That is

why God is described as 'Anoraniyaan, Mahato Mahiyaan'. This statement means

that God is like an infinitesimal being amongst the infinitely small ones. God

is like an infinite being amongst the infinitely large ones. (Reet's

extracts-compilation from: The Divine Discourse Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba,

"Vedic Truths belong to the Whole World," Summer Course in Spirituality and

Indian Culture, May 1972, Brindavan).

 

PS: Reet's notes in brackets in black.

(The next "Swami teaches..." after some days)

 

Namaste - Reet

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