Swami teaches.... Food, sacrifice, seva and smarana

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (13 - 14 May 2005)

Human's activity is dependent on the quality and quantity of energy and

biochemical/chemical components received from food. It is important to correct

the habits of dietary before steps towards spiritual development. Without

energetic harmony received from food (as also from water and air) between body,

spirit and Nature path of Vedhas and Swami's Teaching is hard to follow. The

most external of the five sheaths that enclose the Aathmic core - the Annamaya

kosha (physical sheath), has impact on all the remaining four - the Praanamaya,

the Manomaya, the Vijnaanamaya and the Aanandhamaya (the vital, mental, wisdom

and bliss sheaths or coverings). The Annamaya Kosha is the sheath, consisting

of the flesh and bone, built by the food that is consumed by the individual.

Food is an important factor which determines the alertness and sloth, the worry

and calm, the brightness and dullness. The Vedic scriptures classify food as

Saathwik, Raajasik and Thaamasik and relate these types to the three mental

modes (gunas) of the same names. Human boils, fries, melts, mixes and adopts

various methods of cooking in order to satisfy the cravings of the tongue, the

eye and the nose. As a consequence, the food value of these articles are either

reduced or destroyed. When the seeds are fried, they do not sprout; that is

clear proof that the 'life-force' is eliminated. Therefore, uncooked raw

pulses just sprouting, are to be preferred. Also nuts and fruits. The coconut,

offered to the Gods, is a good Saathwik (pure) food, having good percentage of

protein besides fat, starch and minerals. Food having too much salt or pepper

is Raajasik (passion rousing) and should be avoided; so also too much fat and

starch, which are Thaamasik (disposed to inactivity) in their effects on the

body, should be avoided. An intake of too much food is also harmful. We have

air all around us but we do not breathe in more thanwe need. The lake is full

but we drink only as much as the thirst craves for. But overeating hasbecome a

social evil, fashionable habit. The stomach cries out, 'Enough,' but the tongue

insists onmore, and human becomes the helpless target of disease. Moderate food

is the best medicine to avoid bodily life.

The type of food that you consume decides the degree of concentration you

can command; itsquality and quantity decide how much your self-control is

lessened or heightened. Polluted airand water are full of maleficent viruses

and germs and have to be avoided at all costs. There arefour pollutions against

which anyone has to be vigilant - of the body (removable by water); of themind

(removable by truthfulness), of reason (removable by correct knowledge) and of

the self(removable by yearning for God).

 

The Vedhas have in view is to make human Divine, through a series of

spiritual exercises. They lead human from the animal stage, when one believes

is being body suffering hunger, thirst and desires into the state of

human-ness, far higher than an animal and later, the Vedhas persuade human to

use the intelligence and discrimination to sublimate passions and emotions to

the Divine level where human being is in eternal bliss. The cosmic

principle is amenable to the mystic formulae and sound patterns that the

manthras of the Vedhas represent; the four fundamental urges of human (Dharma,

to be righteous; Artha, to earn and accumulate; Kaama, to desire and get the

desires fulfilled and Moksha, to expand and get liberated from the 'here and

now' into the ever and everywhere') get sanctified and sustained by the Vedhic

path.

 

The individual 'I' believes it is limited; but, that is an illusion. It is

the same Universal Spirit, imagining itself to be limited. This awareness can

come to human either through a flash of intellectual analysis or a flash of

Universal Love. The awareness is an act of identification which involves and

insists on Love.

Your lives are essentially of the nature of Shaanthi (Peace); your Nature is

essentially Love; your hearts are saturated with Truth. Rid yourselves of the

impediments that prevent their manifestation; you do not make any attempt

towards this, and so, there is no peace or love or truth in the home, the

community, the nation and the world. The Divine must be revered at all times;

what pleases the Divine must be understood and followed.

When you yearn to transform the human into the Divine, you must pull down

the pieces through detachment, melt them in the sacred fire of jnaana

(spiritual knowledge, wisdom), and pour the mind stuff into the mould bhakthi.

Then, the entire consciousness takes on the Divine Name, Form and Substance.

Then, whatever is spoken or done or thought assumes the splendour and purity of

the Divine.

However, there can be no progress without yajna (sacrifice, also holy

ritual). By Vedhas Yajna maintains the order of the Universe. The highest and

the most fruitful sacrifice is that of the ego. Crucify it and be free.

Dedicate it to God and be rich beyond all dreams. Prepare yourself for this

supreme status, by engaging in holy karma, that is to say, karma cleansed in

the crucible of dharma, and attain Brahman (the One Indivisible Absolute),

which appears as all this multifarious Universe.

The word yajna and the word yaaga are both translated as sacrifice. Yajnas

are useful because they support the ideal of sacrifice, and condemn

acquisition. They emphasise discipline, rather than distraction. They insist on

the concentration of the mind, the tongue and the hand on Godhead. The effects

of yajna on the character and the consciousness cannot be measured or weighing

in metres or grams. It is somethingimmeasurable, though actual and

experienceable. The grain and ghee offered in the sacred fire to the

accompaniment of Vedhic formulae cleanse and strengthen the atmosphere all over

the world. Otherwise, the Avathar will not encourage or revive these Yajnas.

This Yajna was gone through for the sake of the welfare of the whole world.

You should merge your welfare with the welfare of the world. How can you be

happy when your neighbour is in misery? Therefore, I call upon you to give up

praying for your own advancement; pray for the peace, prosperity and happiness

of all humanity, irrespective of clime or colour.

Pray intensely and with faith. When the heart is soaked in Love, it cannot

be contaminated by egoism and its evil consequences. Just as you crave for

physical health, which means health for the limbs of the body, you should

strive for the health of humanity, which means peace and joy for all sections,

in all nations. If you dwell in that wider outlook, you will start feeling less

and less for your own troubles and worrying more and more for troubles of

others. That is the initial offering of yourself in the great "yajna" called

"living."

Ignore the temporary and trivial Name and Form of the embodiment of the

Divine spirit; then, all distinctions of worm and wolf, of atom and avathaar,

disappear and the knowledge that basic Truth is One is realised. It is the One

that is all this. It is the integer 'I' that fills the zeros after it with value

and validity. The realisation of the function of the 'I' and the ignoring of all

the zeros that come after it, is the end and aim of human endeavour. When the

mind is unruffled and the intelligence is sharpened, this realisation will take

place, without further effort.

Through the discipline of selfless service, it is possible to cognise the

One of which the many are appearances. He who serves a master with his eye on

the pay packet cannot be called a sevak. He is the servant of the pay packet.

Service has to be rendered either from a supreme sense of duty or as a humble

dedicatory offering to the Highest, or in a spirit of total surrender to the

Will of God leaving all thought of the consequence to His Grace. Done with

these pure motives, the act of service will develop detachments, but, will not

encourage sloppishness.

You say, "Thank you," when someone offers you a cup of coffee; how much more

grateful should you be to God, who gave you this wonder-filled world to live in

and this elaborately equipped body to know it and use it, for realising the

grandeur of the Creator of both. Don't you feel that the master of the house

will be pleased when you give him due homage and reverence, obedience and

honour? What, then, about the Master of the Universe; the vast unfathornable

firmament and the vast inscrutable infinitesimal. As a sign of this deed of

surrender and in order to sustain it, nothing more is enjoined than constant

remembrance of the Name. Smarana (remembering) is enough. Bhajan extolling the

Names which summarise the Glory must become an unbroken stream of Bliss on your

tongues and in your hearts; it must confer on you the uninterrupted awareness of

Soham - of the Unity of I and He, of This with That. It is called unbroken japa

of the Hamsa manthra, Soham (inner sacred sound formula).

Smarana is the surest means of mastering the wiles of the mind. The

Upanishaths declare that God is the ten-inch-symbol of the kaala (time), desha

(space) - manifestation of divinity, as described by Sage Kapila, the

incarnation of Naaraayana Himself.

Have faith in God; He sees everything; He is everywhere; He is all-powerful.

God listens to the agony of the heart. He is in every heart. He is all this.

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 10. "The seven-day

sacrifice," Chapter 26 and "Feast of Grace," Chapter 36; Sathya Sai Speaks.

Vol.12. "You are freed! "Chapter 28 and "The Vedhic rite," Chapter 46; Sathya

Sai Speaks. Vol. 14. "Food and health," Chapter 31).

Namaste - Reet