Swami teaches... Shivaraathri - Festival of the Divine inspiration

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (25 - 26 February 2005)

Shivaraathri - Festival of the Divine Inspiration

 

Bhaarath is the name of a way of life, not an extent of land between the

seas and the Himaalayas. It is another name for tolerance and mutual love,

which have made it a garden of multicoloured religions and philosophies, creeds

and faiths.

It is the land where the identity between human being and God has been

declared by persons who have attained that realisation. Every directive

given in the scriptures on discipline is intended to help the saadhaka

(spiritualaspirant) to realise this identity and to derive the Aanandha which

recognition of this Unityconfers. All spiritual endeavour has as its aim the

attraction of the Grace of God on ourselves. That is why when you go to a

temple and stand before the main shrine, you strike the bell hung there; the

sound will draw the attention of the Lord to the supplicant just arrived.

 

On Mahaashivaraathri Festival, you have to impress on your consciousness

that Nature is alive, since God is life; that Nature appears ever-lasting,

since God is eternal; Nature is but a reflection of God. He lends the colour of

order, purpose, and activity to inert Nature. Without themotivator, Nature is

helpless and powerless. Appearance is but a reflection of reality; Ishwara

isbut a reflection of Brahman, the intelligence behind the Awareness of all.

Shivaraathri inspiresus to learn this basic Truth and shape our lives in the

light of that illumination. For this you must have faith, faith in God and

Grace. (Now, many people have no faith; what is worse, they laugh at those who

have, they scorn those who create and promote that faith).What is the sanctity

of Shivaraathri? The Linga is in everyone of you. In the Angam (body) there is

Jangam; (the movement of the mind towards the external objects); in Jangam,

there is Sangam (through this movement, there arises attachment); in Sangam

there is Lingam (through attachment and consequent suffering, the individual

learns the need for and the efficacy of the Linga, or God, who is His innermost

core). Witness the Aathma Linga (Spirit of the Soul) that emerges.

The Linga created during this festival is just a symbol, a sign, an

illustration, of the beginningless, the endless, the limitless. Its shape is

like the picture one imagines the Niraakaara (Formless) to be. It is the

fittest symbol of the All-pervasive, the All-knowing, the All-powerful.

Without an intellectual grasp of the fundamentals of the Divine Principle,

all vows, fasts andvigils are imitative, routine, mechanical activities that

involve waste of time and energy. It is bestthat you impress upon yourself the

need for this basic step on this Mahaashivaraathri, for, thisraathri (night) is

the night that has to usher in the dawn of realisation.

 

Spiritual effort should not becomes mechanical repetition of set formulae or

execution of dryformalities. Attachment is born out of this Maayaa only. It

acts like a veil to hide the reality behind all this multiplicity. Maayaa is

the vesture of Maadhava (God). Thyaaga (renunciation) alone can grant the

immortality of merging in God. You must be unaffected, ever in calm joy, in the

inner depths; it does not matter if the waves play on the top, heaving and

falling, for that is but the action of wind upon water! In Bhakthi

(devotion), there are two classes, Sahajabhakthi and Viseshabhakthi.

Sahajabhakthi is satisfied with worship, bhajan, naamasmaran, vratha (group

singing, remembrance of Lord, vow-keeping), pilgrimage, etc. Viseshabhakthi

craves for purity of character, suppression of impulses, practice of daya,

prema, shaanthi, ahimsa (compassion, love, peace and non violence). There is

another higher class named Paraabhakthi, too. Cleverness can correct and solve

external problems; concentrated saadhana alone can correct and solve internal

crisis.

Become attached to God. Feel His Presence, revel in His Glory. Do not cause

Him'disappointment' or 'distress' by any act or word which He does not approve.

He has none, but if you love Him deeply, you will be concerned about Him, just

as if He is your Lord and Love. God will serve you; He will save you and be by

your side ever - only you have to cultivate yourcharacter and polish your

interior so that He might be reflected therein. Consider all whom you meet

as the Lord your Master. Show untarnished Prema towards all who come to you.

What is the service that the ocean with all its mass of water does? It

cannot slake the thirst ofsingle human being. What is the profit if a miser

lives a hundred years? Do not exhibit anger or grief or pain. Be happy, spread

happiness around you and do not fall into actions of stupid fanaticism; modify

its rigour by a little discrimination. Be reasonable, considerate, sympathetic,

full of toleration of the other points of view.

Life is a short and fast-flowing chance; you will have to put every minute

to the best use: that is, the discovery of your own Reality, which gives you

the highest joy.

Expand your hearts; enlarge your vision; enlarge the circle of kinship; take

more and moreof your fellow beings into the tabernacle of your hearts. And,

adore them in loving worship.

A small story concern to selfless action.

A father sent his son to the market with a sum of money to bring home some

fruits. Whilebringing them home, the boy saw a few beggars on the road and

heard their wails; he realisedthat they were very hungry and that they needed

the fruits more urgently. So he gave the fruits tothem and came home

empty-handed. When the father chided him, the son replied, "I havebrought you

invisible fruits that are sweeter and more lasting." Yes; the fruits of

charity,rendered to the deserving, are really sweeter and lasting. Seek all

chances of doing such goodacts.

Wisdom is compassion at its highest; for, through sympathy you enter the

heart of another and understand him through and through, you go behind the veil

of pretence and punditry, convention and custom; you go behind good manners and

fashion that people put on to hide their agony and ignorance from the rest of

the world. Finding the unity in this diversity of roles is true wisdom.

The Grace of God cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the

contortions of Yoga or the denials of asceticism. Divine Love alone can win it.

There is no strength more effectivethan purity, no bliss more satisfying than

love, no joy more restoring 'than bhakthi (devotion), notriumph more

praiseworthy than surrender.

The achievement of aanandha through prema (of the highest bliss through the

highest love) is the teaching of Vedhaantha. Vedhaantha is an often

misunderstood school of philosophy. It does not mean the study of profound

tomes, or the calculated breathing, through trained nostrils of measured

quantities of air, or even eating as a dog does and sleeping as a jackal does,

(wandering without any assured abode or source of sustenance) as the saying

goes! Right living, balanced living, true living is the prescription of

Vedhaantha.

The fair face of Vedhaantha has been disfigured by fanatics and false

interpreters. They sought manifold meanings behind the axioms of Vedhaantha and

landed themselves amidst a medley of wrong meanings! They created confusion

where clarity existed and so people lost faith in spiritual discipline itself.

Vedhaantha is the philosophical basis for Love. Love should not be rationed,

on the basis of caste, creed or economic status or intellectualattainment of the

recipient. It should flow full and free, regardless of consequence, for, it is

one's nature to love, to seek out the dry dreary wastes which love can water

and make fertile.

Wherever there is a vacuum, in any heart, Love flows into it and is glad

that it can fill theemptiness. It is never held back; it is offered in

abundance, without guile or deceit; it does notwear the cloak of falsehood,

flattery or fear. The tendrils of love aspire to cling only to the garments

of God; it senses that God resides, in His Infinite Splendour, in every heart;

so, it probes silently into the innermost recesses of allpersonalities around

it to discover the seat of God, so that it may bloom therein. That is

realbhakthi (devotion) and worship.

The Vedhas prescribe forms of worship through rites and formulae for

different Names andForms of the single Godhead, so that people of different

stages of growth and different standard of intellectual attainment can draw

inspiration therefrom. The Unity of all the names and forms was, however,

emphasised throughout. Each name and form when it was adored was described as

All-powerful, All-knowing.

But, Names and Forms were taken as essentially distinct and each became the

centre of a sect, creed, with all its divisive consequences. Thus, we have a

multitude of warring factions, each swearing by its own favourite Form and

Name, to the exclusion of all the rest like Gaanaapathyas, Souras, Shaivas,

Vaishnavas, Veerashaivas, Veeravaishnavas etc.The real harvest of Aanandha for

which the spiritual operations of rites and manthras (sacred formulae) were gone

through has been neglected, while the weeds of calumny, cynicism and conflict

have grown wild over the fields. The evil influence of kaama (lust) is at

the bottom of this tragedy. The Geetha (Gita) asks you to be, not Balavaan

(possessor of physical prowess), not Dhanavaan (possessor of acomfortable bank

balance) but, Aathmavaan (having the prowess arising out of the awarenessthat

you are the Aathman). Being established in the Aathman, never worried about how

to be happy (for the Aathman is ever Blissful), this is the prescription of the

Geetha.

In chapter 5, shloka 28, the Geetha says that the Muni (ascetic) who is

eager to attain liberation must be the master of his senses, mind and intellect

and he has also to give up raaga (likes and dislikes and preferences), bhaya

(fear, at something unpleasant or undesirable happening) and krodha

(resentment, anger, at those who cause disappointment or grief or loss). The

shloka goes on to say that such a person is already liberated; he has nothing

else to do! The prescription to scrutinise always the purity of the means,

and not worry about the acquisition of the fruit of the activity; and the

description of yoga as the stoppage of all modifications of consciousness -

both emphasise the same advice of the Lord. The regulation and restriction of

the senses purify the intellect. A single seed of kaama (desire) if it gets

stuck in the soil of the heart, is very difficult to dislodge. The thinnest

shower of rain, a slight change in circumstance which promises to be

favourable, will suddenly make it sprout and spread its tentacles. Kaama can be

suppressed and mastered only by Raama (attachment to God) and prema (love for

all beings, prompting sacrifice of joys and comfort for others).

 

Swami's nature is unaffected by His movements and activities. He is away

from any attachment. Train your minds to follow the Divine path, of which I am

revealing to you the trail.

Let your mind have no waves; let it be silent, level, calm, accepting right

and rejecting wrong. Dive into the depth of silence can hear the Cosmic Om.

By the way, sound is of three kinds: Saamaanya, Varna and Mooka; Saamaanya (the

common): the sound produced by things falling, or breaking apart or fusing, all

the sounds of the objective world, of rain and thunder, of rivers gurgling, of

valcanoes and earthquakes and the like, even the dropping of dew on a tender

petal of rose, the sailing of a feather from a bird's wing through the air! The

second kind is the sound of Varna (the spoken word): this carries a specific

meaning and is armed with intention, to inform, or instruct or inspire. This is

the flow of the heart-beat of one into the heart of another. The third kind is

Mooka (the sound of silence): when one dives into the depth of that silence,

one hears oneself, the primeval Cosmic Om, the Pranava that emanates from the

praana (the vital vibration) that fills the Universe. To hear that sound, one

has to approach, as near as possible, the core of one's being. That is why the

Upanishath calls itself so; it urges you to go near, delve deep, dive to the

very floor of the lake. Upa means Near; Nishath means Sitting. Go and sit

near, so that you can hear the whisper of the Super Soul to-the soul. Om

summarises the Vedhas and their teachings. Om thath sath, says the Geetha.

Thath (that) which Sath (is) is Om, the One.

Whatever the handicap, howsoever you are tempted to loosen the grip, hold

on to God; there is always a calm, after the storm. Love ennobles the least and

the lowest. Love your self for the God that it embodies; love others, for the

God that is enshrined in them, that speaks and acts through them. When you

have here the very embodiment of love as your dearest treasure, why welcome

into your hearts the waves of hatred, faction, fear and doubt? Why turn them

into volcanoes of cruelty and wickedness, when they can smile as green valleys

of fragrant flowers? When you Have fear in you, the reaction of' fear greets

you. When you have hatred in you, it resounds from all whom you come across.

All around you echo the sentiments that you carry in your own heart! You become

what you yourself feel.

You consider Shivaraathri to be a great event, a sacred festival. Some

superficial scholars say that Shiva was born this day, some say that He started

thapas (penance) today, and some others that today marks the conclusion of His

thapas! Even this is due to attempt to drag Divinity down to human level, so

that human can peer into the face of God and move as His servant or slave! The

affinity should elevate both, not degrade the outer and the inner Divine. No

low desire or vulgar ambition should be ascribed to Godhead by the meanness of

human being.

To adore such a Formidable Limitless Principle, one spends a few minutes out

of the 24 hours, and uses a minute before an idol or image or picture! It is

practically futile. Adore Him so long as you have breath, so long as you are

conscious. Be steady, have Faith, and reach the goal safe. It is not enough

if you believe that God is everywhere and at all times, and that you are

yourself no different from Him. When you are God yourself, to whom are you to

surrender what? Think over this deeply and attain to that realisation. Swami

is God. In fact, everyone is God, limiting himself into this particular name and

form. If you believe yourself to be the label that is now affixed on you, and

call your self by the name that others have given you, you can never know your

reality and have unshakeable joy.This is the lesson that Vedhaantha teaches.

Each one is "Sathyam jnaanam anantham Brahma(Truth, Total Knowledge and

Infinity is Brahman)." Every one must get convinced that he is the Aathman,

not the body which is its material residence. To instruct you about this is the

special purpose of the festival of Mahaashivaraathri. (Reet's compilation from,

Sathya Sai Speaks.Vol. 7, "Stagnation in the same class," Chapter 2 and "Angam

and Lingam," Chapter 6. Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 11, "This and that," Chapter 11;

"Love, the sine qua non," Chapter 12 and "Shivaraathri: its significance,"

Chapter 13.

 

Namaste - Reet