Swami teaches... The Spiritual Message of Bharath

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (8 February 2005)

 

The Spiritual Message of Bharath

 

The spiritual texts of Bharathiya are the most ancient in the whole world;

they are the earliest studies and discoveries of the Atma, on Personal and

Impersonal God, and on Codes of Conduct, individual and social, based on those

revelations and discoveries. In no other country, among no other peoples have

such ancient teachings seen the light. The Vedic literature pictures not only

spiritual inquiries by the sages and Sadhaks and their results, but also, their

lines of thought, their yearnings and aspirations, their secular struggles and

temporal problems.

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.

Spiritual awareness of Bharathiya has limitless vastness, and immensely high

ideals; it is a full stream of sanctifying ideations, flowing along with no

decline or diminution, straight and smooth to the Ocean of Divine Grace.

Bharathiya Religion fostered the faith that the Self in human being is no

other than the Overself or God. Bharathiya Religion directs long journeys by

men and women, through varied paths, confronted and controlled by varied

circumstances, but, encouraged and enlightened by various types of faith

towards the goal of the splendour of God-consciousness or the Consciousness of

the Divine. Though the practices and rites might appear on the surface to be

crude, they are not opposed to the ultimate Truth. The seeming contradictions

have to be interpreted as incidental to the need to inspire people with varied

intellectual, moral, economic and social backgrounds. For example, the light

that comes through a tiny piece of coloured glass is of the same origin as

bigger clearer light. The extent, clarity, brightness etc. of light depends on

the medium only. The source of all light is the One Truth, the Source of All,

the Basis of All, the Goal of All, the Reality in All, and the Centre in All.

As the thread on which pearls are strung as a rosary, God or the Overself is

interpenetrative in all beings. In all beings - that is the message of Bharath.

 

 

The source of all spiritual principles recognised and revered by Bharathiyas

is God; He is the one supporting Pillar. Therefore, no other support is needed

for faith. Bharathiya spiritual knowledge is the very foundation of all other

faiths; it stands on the very summit. It has achieved victory over many

opposing faiths, confronting them with many valid arguments and theories.

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.

 

Fullness means wholeness. Wholeness implies One and not two or three. There

cannot then be any place for the individual. When an individualised Atma or

Jivi, the particularised differentiated self, has become full and whole, there

is no possibility of his return to the consciousness of the objective world.

Some doubts may arise in the minds of many.

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".

Moralists, metaphysicians, philosophers, adherents of the path of Devotion,

and the foremost among the virtuous in all parts of the world have all agreed

that idol-worship is highly beneficial. So long as attachment persists to the

material body and possessions, worship of a material symbol is necessary. It is

but a means. But, many decry it as a superstition. It is not the right approach.

 

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.")

 

Namaste - Reet