Swami teaches....Everything comes and goes; pulsation of Atma remains

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (4-5 April 2005)

 

Everything Comes and Goes; Pulsation of Atma Remains

 

The process of living is the swinging of a pendulum from smile to tear.

Childhood is too tenderand innocent; youth is too full of folly and faults,

middle age is muddled with problems andpossible remedies; old age is spent in

regret over past failings and falterings.

Death will not give any advance intimation, or say, 'Ready' and wait until

you are ready.Therefore, be ready always, so that you may produce a good

impression with His Name on yourlips and His Form in your cleansed heart.

Death affects only the body-mind complex. The body is the tape, the voice

of God is immanent. Equip it with faith and tune it with Love. A pure heart, a

cleansed mind, a God-filled consciousness will help to listen to the voice of

the God within everyone. Nature is the vesture of God. It images the Supreme.

It shines through the machinations of the mind. The inner core of each living

thing is God.

Death is considered as something to be afraid off as something that should

not bespoken about in happy circumstances. But, death is neither good nor bad.

You have no choice inthe matter. You can't get it sooner if you welcome it; nor

can you avoid it if you condemn it asbad. It is a consummation which is

inevitable. Some reach the place quicker than others, some go by a round about

route and arrive late. That is the only difference, between human beings.

Human should leave the world better and happier than when he/she came into

it. Everyone must remember the Lord, with his last breath. Humans would be

always attentive to the signs of His Glory and His Mercy and His Omnipresence.

Cultivating the habit of remembering the Lord with every breath a person can

remember Him with the last breath.

Arjuna addresses Krishna as Purushotthama, for He only is Supreme amongst

the Purushas.Purusha means He who is in this Pain (fortified town), namely,

this body. Each body has thePurusha in it and the entire Universe has the

Purushotthama immanent in it. So, after all, whatdies is the body, not the

occupant of the body, the Purusha. The faith that you have the Purushain you,

will cleanse the mind of all evil and the senses of all evil propensities.

Without minds cleansed by that discipline, the study of the Vedhas is a barren

exercise.

The mind flutters about and squats on all and sundry objects in the

Universe. It refuses to stay only on one idea, God. Like the fly that sits on

fair and foul, but denies itself the pleasure of sitting on a hot cinder, the

mind too flees from all thought of God. The fly will be destroyed, if it sits

on fire; the mind too is destroyed, when it dwells on God.

Mind does not have even this short interval between one thought and the

next. And in the continuous succession of thoughts, there is no order or

relationship. This adds to the confusion and concern. Wandering from wish to

wish, flitting from one desire to another, is mind's nature. So, it is the

cause of loss and grief, of elation and depression. Its effects are both

positive and negative. It is worth while for human to know the characteristics

of the mind and the ways to master it for one's ultimate benefit. The mind is

prone to gather experiences and store them in the memory. It does not know the

art of giving up. However, with the help of the mind a person can rise from the

level of the human to the highest level of divinity. If only the mind can be

taught thyaaga (sacrifice), one can become a yogi (spiritually serene person).

Devotion has to fill and overflow the heart. Look at the lotus; its roots

are in under-water slush. Itgrows through water and floats on it. But, it does

not get tarnished by slush or wetted by water!The wonder is, it cannot survive

without slush and water, but it rises up to the air and the sun,nevertheless!

Our life has its roots in the Atma and it grows through the agitated waves of

living.

Until one is not aware of the Atma, one is certain to be tossed from grief

to grief,with intervals of joy. The grief has three sources and so, it has

three characteristics:

1. Grief caused by the unreality of the apparent.

2. Grief caused by want of knowledge or wrong apprehension on account of

the limitations of perception and inference or on account of the mystery of the

Divine phenomenon that subsists in everything.

3. Grief caused by the death, disintegration or dissolution of things which

we held to be real.

 

When one is established in the awareness of the truth of the Jeevi (the

individual being), the Jagath (Cosmos) and God, the Creator, there is no grief

or fear any more.

 

There is example by Buddha. He studied all the extant scriptures of

different faiths. He met many holy men. He visited numerous holy shrines. All

these exercises gave him no satisfaction. What was the reason? All external,

physical and ephemeral activities are valueless.

Once Buddha had an encounter with Ananda, the son of his stepmother. Buddha

had attained the state of Nirvana. Watching Buddha in this state, Ananda burst

into tears. Buddha was about to give up body.

Buddha summoned Ananda to come near and said: "Ananda! This is not a time

for grief. You should also seek Nirvana. Looking at the dead, the living lament

over death. Death awaits the living in due course. Where there is birth, there

is also death. "Only the Divine (Purushothama) is free from birth and death. He

is eternal, with no beginning, middle or end. He is the Eternal Witness" Except

for the Divine, birth and death are natural to all human beings."

Why suffer between birth and death? Vyaasa taught that human has a far

greater task to do, between birth and death - to learn and practise the Divine

Path.

More than the Guru, the Guri (Goal) is essential for attaining the Divine.

The very pursuit of thegoal will evoke the Sathwa guna (quality of serenity)

and weaken the hold of the inferior Rajasand Thamas (qualities of passion and

inertia) in your composition. Dhaanavathwam(fiendishness) is caused by Thamas

and Maanavathwam (human nature), is stabilised by Rajas;but, Sathwa alone can

guarantee the elevation into Divinity. Sathwa guna fertilises the

upwardtendencies; it cleanses the mind, removing the weeds of evil.

Matham (religion), wherever it is practised, by whomsoever established, lays

down the rules andregulations by which the Sathwa guna can be fostered and the

impact of the two other gunas(human qualities) lessened. Therefore, it is very

necessary that the adherents of religion spreadthe knowledge of these rules,

both by precept and example.

 

Naaradha once told the Lord that the Earth was the grandest in creation,

doubt was raised, because the ocean occupies more than two-thirds of it. But,

the ocean was drunk dry by the sage Agasthya, who is but one single star in the

vast firmament. Can we then Count the sky as thegrandest in creation? No, for

the Lords Thrivikrama strode the sky with His one Foot. However,even the Lord,

who encompasses the three regions, is imprisoned by the bhaktha in his heart.

Therefore, it was decided that the bhaktha is the supremest in creation. Such

is the glory of thebhaktha, a glory that is conferred by his close study and

practise of the Shaasthras.

The body is the tabernacle of God, the chariot in which He is seated in all

majesty. Do notidentify yourself with it and its modifications and

transformations. You are the Atma. Nearly every story of the cycle "Swami

teaches..." repeated this axiom in different frames. Cleanse your mind so that

God may be reflected therein. God cares more for the motive behind the deed,

depth of feeling, not the outer pomp.

 

In daily experiences, there are a number of instances which reveal the

existence of Divinityin every person. Consider a cinema; on the screen we see

rivers in flood, engulfing all thesurrounding land. Even though the scene is

filled with flood waters the screen does not get wetby even a drop of water. At

another time, on the same screen we see volcanoes erupting withtongues of flame,

but the screen is not burnt. The screen which provides the basis for all

thesepictures is not affected by any of them. Likewise in the life of human,

good or bad, joy or sorrow,birth or death, will be coming and going, but they

do not affect the Atma In the cinema of life. In other words, the entire

phenomenal world is made up of Eswara, appearance of Brahman, who causes

creation, preservation and dissolution. This has also been described as

Sathaamaatra Chaitanya (Pure Consciousness). This eternal, all-prevasive and

permanent principle of Chaitanya exists unseen.

Eswara has two aspects. One is Saguna (attributeful) and Sakara (formful)

and the other is Nirguna (attributeless) and Nirakara (formless). Associated

with the mind and thoughts, and responding to the joys and sorrows, the pain

and sufferings of human beings, various forms of Divinity have been visualized.

 

If one wants to get rid of birth forever, one has to worship the Nirguna

Nirakara, the formless and attributeless principle, which is represented by the

Omkara. When we are rid of delusion, then we will also be free from the

illusion of Maya. Then will we be free from sorrow and will finally be able to

reach the Paratatva, the transcendent principle. This may also be described as

Paramatma, the transcendent principle within us. As long as we have the mind

and the tendencies, we can only be described as Jivatma. Jivatma and

Paramatma are not two different entities. The characteristic of Jivatma is to

wastethe entire life in worldly things and associate the mind with this

phenomenal world. If you turn your mind inwards, it will be free from delusion.

Then it is one with the principle of Paramatma.

Ignorance and wisdom are not two different things; they are basically the

same. They they are the opposite polarities of the same underlying principle.

 

The state that transcends both wisdom and ignorance is Paratatva. It is a

stage which is notassociated with any comings or goings, where birth and death

do not occur. So long as there isbirth for the body, death has to follow. It is

only the body which has taken birth. Humans are permanent Atmic entities. Often,

in comparision with Atmic Reality in general we consider the body as inert, but

more exactly the body is not inert. Even in the physical matter making up this

body there is the Divine Consciousness in deeply hidden form. (Reet's

compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks.

Vol. 3. "Purusha and Purushotthama," Chapter 30;

Vol. 4. "Beacon in the dark," Chapter 50;

Vol. 7. "Be a Snake Charmer," Chapter 21;Vol. 16. "The daily prayer," Chapter 2.

Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba. The Divine Discourse "The Path of Nirvana." 14 April

1998, Kodaikanal.

 

Namaste - Reet