Swami teaches... Spiritual means for inner development

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love Swami teaches.... (8 - 10 August 2005)

Spiritual Means for Inner Development

There are three entities in the Universe, with which human has to deal:

Paramathma, Prakrithi and Jeevaathma - God, Nature and Human being. God is to

be worshipped by human, to be realised through Nature (Prakrithi). Nature is

the name for all the various items that impress upon human, the glory and the

splendour of God. It is called Maayaa too. Maayaa is the vesture of God which

hides as well as reveals His Beauty and Majesty. Human being must learn to use

Nature not for own comfort or entanglement to the utter forgetfulness of the

God behind the joy he/she derives, but for the better understanding of the

intelligence that guides the Universe. How does human learn about the stars and

space, except by the inspiration of the joy and the intelligence which He who

resides within endows? Approach Nature in a humble, prayerful mood; then your

future will be safe.

The highest awareness to which all spiritual effort leads is: "Brahman is

real, the world is mythical." Every atom and cell is a bundle of energy,

expressing the Divine will. Matter and energy are not really separate. It is

all one Will concretising, pervading, prompting and continuing. To experience

the world as such, one must transcend all dual categories and reach the unique,

unitary base, identifying It and establishing oneself in It.

When the eye is filled with Jnaana (Vision of God), the world will be seen

as Brahman (the Eternal Absolute). Then the world and the entire complex of

being and becoming will assume One, the Brahman and you will have perfect

equanimity, unaffected by any modification. Yearn to reach that stage of

perfect unshaken Bliss. True education is the awareness of this immortal spirit

within, which is the spring of joy, peace and courage. Life has to be spent in

accumulating virtue and safeguarding virtue, not riches. For this

acknowledgement is no imposition from above; it is an inspiration from within.

 

 

The mind is not an organ that can be identified physiologically; it cannot

be touched or operated on by doctors or surgeons. It is an intangible bundle of

resolutions and hesitations; of wishes and wants; to pros and cons. It has as

warp and woof of the wishes that human entertains with reference to outward

objects and sensations. It easily rushes out after external pleasures and

assumes the shapes of the things it seeks. It can also be turned back into

searching for inner contentment and inner joy. That is why the mind is said to

be the instrument for both bondage and liberation. Allow the senses to lead it

outward; it binds. Allow the intelligence to prevail upon it to look inward for

bliss; it liberates. But, if people let lose their thoughts, words and deeds,

calamity will be the consequence.

The mind has a way of being drawn away by passing fancy. The waters of the

maanasa-sarovara, the lake of the mind, are never calm; they are seldom level.

The slightest shiver in the air affects the layer and creates a series of

wavelets which takes a long time to spend itself out. The mind too is stirred

by the objects of the outer world and the impressions they make on the inner

senses; the mind is either disgusted or drawn towards the objects. This

disturbs equanimity; duality is ever the basis of sorrow and pain. Sorrow is

the temporary absence of joy; joy is the temporary disappearance of sorrow.

Both are not everlasting, except when joy is won by spiritual means.

 

It is fact that the mind is the puppet of the food that is consumed. It is

prompted one way or the other by the subtle pull of the food it is fed on. The

quality of the food determines the direction of the desire that diverts the

mental flow. That is why in the Geetha as well as in all scriptural texts,

saathwik (pure) food is recommended for the upward seeking individual. Mind

means desire, sankalpa (resolve), something sought for. When the Formless

desired Form, the Universe arose; so, mind is the creative principle, the

Maayaa, that desired the very first desire, to be many. When it is now fed on

raajasik - passion and emotion, activity and adventure - it gallops into the

world with the plunge of desire. Inner peace is lost when the senses feed human

on inflaming wants and infructuous desires. It brings human deeper into the

morass. When it is fed on thaamasik (impure) food, which dulls, inebriates,

blunts reason, and induces sloth, the mind is callous, inert and useless for

uplifting man. The sounds heard, the sights seen, the tactile impressions

sought or suffered, the air breathed, the environment that presses for

attention, appreciation and adoption - all these are too 'food.' They have

considerable impact on the character and career of the individual. The sounds,

the sights, the impressions, the ideas, the lessons, the contacts, the impacts

- all must promote reverence, humility, balance, equanimity and simplicity. If

the impressions are raajasik, the mind will get agitated, vengeful, fanatic and

fearsome. If they are thamaasik, the mind will not even be aroused into the

awareness of its own innate handicaps. It is only the saathwik 'food' that will

keep the mind on an even keel, fully concentrated on the Aathma on which one

must contemplate in order to attain peace.

Note that the quality of the food is determined by the vibrations that it is

charged with, through the thought processes of the persons who handle it,

prepare it and serve it. The company in which food is consumed, the place, the

vessels in which it is cooked, the emotions that agitate the mind of the person

who cooks it and serves it - all these have subtle influences on the nature and

emotions of the persons who takes the final product in.

Just as you prescribe minimum qualifications for every profession, the

minimum qualification for Grace of God is surrender of egoism, control over

senses and regulated food and recreation. All spiritual endeavour has as its

aim the attraction of the Grace of God on ourselves. That is why when yougo 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. The

bell must be accompanied by a sincere prayer from the heart.

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), etc., and inquiry into the why and wherefore of human.

Then there is another higher class named Paraabhakthi, too. Cleverness can

correct and solve external problems; concentrated saadhana alone can correct

and solve internal crisis.

 

The Universal can be cognised in the wink of an eye; the Bliss is available

within a flash; but, you have to know the technique. You may have fresh

vegetables, fine rice, excellent dhaal (lentil), clean tamarind - all the

requisites for preparing a good lunch; but, if you have no knowledge of the art

of cooking, of what avail is all this? You must learn, strive," struggle, and

then, success will be yours. Start the process, take the first step; listen

with attention, ruminate over what has been heard and try to put into practise

a thing or two of what has been told. Nowadays you can bribe your way to

success in every sphere. But God cannot be won by tricks or through short cuts.

He can be won only by the hard way of straggle, detachment and tough discipline.

Human is innately Divine; the Divine comes automatically into his consciousness.

But the curtain of Maayaa prevents that thrilling contact, that illumining

revelation. This Maayaa is also a Divine Artifice, it is a vehicle or Upaadhi

of theLord. There is a story that once the Lord got angry with Maayaa and

wanted 'her' to disappear, for people are being led astray by her wiles. Maayaa

said, it seems, "I am the veil that you wear; I am the fog that has arisen out

of your own will; I am as widespread as You are; I am wherever You are; give me

a place where You are not; I shall take refuge there." It is Maayaa (illusion)

that makes human take the name and the form as real. Attachment is born out of

this Maayaa only. It acts like a veil to hide the reality behind all this

multiplicity. By saadhana, a human can escape from the enticement of Maayaa and

realise that it is all false, for it does not subsist for all time.

Move about in the world like an actor, but be conscious all the time that

you are on the way home, to be with the Lord from whom you have come. Whenever

the feeling that the drama is real enters the mind, deny it firmly. Do not

identify yourself with the role that you play. Such identification will retard

your progress.

Human denies the innate excellence of the world around too. Person refuses

to see in it the handiwork of God, evident in beauty, harmony, melody, truth,

goodness, love, sympathy, law and learning, in everything that strikes the eye

and fills the mind. Person prides him/herself in own blindness and raises it

into a philosophy called atheism.

The only ray of hope in the enveloping gloom of fear, violence, and

cruelty of enforced conformity, of hatred and persecution, is the Peace that

one can win through self-control and saadhana. That Peace will pervade and

purify the inner consciousness as well as the outer atmosphere. Silly human

craves for the air that will destroy, the food that will torment and the drink

that will defile. People also are not trained to recognise the true from the

false, the temporary from the eternal, the right from the wrong, the socially

beneficial from the socially harmful. They dismiss all old customs and manners,

old texts and rites, as useless simply because they are old; they adopt new

customs and fashions simply because they are new. That is the tragedy of

civilisation.

Human beings feel that they are the masters of the Universe and that the

Universe is existing only under their sufferance. Human must be humble and

realise that knows so little; even about own self.

Men should give up the attitude of putting down women. They are not

'servants' to be orded over; they similarly have self-respect and

individuality. In fact, women have devotion, sympathy, the spirit of sacrifice,

fortitude and other virtues in greater measure than men. But yet, the feeling

that if their advice is taken, it is somehow demeaning, is prevalent among men.

 

The taints of "I" and "Mine" have to be removed by rigorous saadhana; chief

among the disciplines being Naarnasmarana, because when you dwell on the names

of the Lord, His Majesty, His Grace, His Potency, HisPervasiveness, these get

fixed in the consciousness and one's own capacities and capabilities get

eclipsed in the Divine. So, humility increases and surrender is possible quite

easily. This is the very purpose of human existence, to see God and merge in

His Glory. All other victories are futile. The Vedhas proclaim this to be the

final goal of human. The Upanishadhs declare the path. The Geetha illumines it.

The saints and sages proclaim its grandeur. Avathaars come when people stray

from it and get lost in the wilderness and the wastes.

 

If Sanaathana Dharma (the eternal religion) is extolled to the skies, as the

cure for all the individual, social and national discontent prevalent among

mankind, the discontent will not decrease a bit. You must extol it with faith;

extol it out of the depth of your experience. You have to experience it and

stand witness to its validity; you have to attain the state of perfect and

lasting joy.

The base metal of modem civilisation has got mixed up with the gold of

Sanaathana Dharma, and so the separation has to be done in order to get the

pure gold. You acclaim the feat when some one is shot up into space and starts

revolving round the Earth or racing to the Moon. You do not realise that people

on Earth are being starved of resources by this costly adventure and that it is

at the same time being tainted by hate and pride. One single rocket costs as

much as the total budget of all the universities of India for twenty years. The

net result of all this 'progress' is just this: mankind is living precariously

on the brink of a holocaust; it is terrorstricken; human startles at the echo

of his own steps.

Human tries to map the craters and canyons and the volcanoes on the moon, but

ignores the craters within his own heart; how then can he acquire peace? Human

undergoes enormous trouble to guard wealth, but does not spread an iota of

energy to guard own inner consciousness. You say, "Seeing is believing; I

believe in God only if I see Him, but are all things seen or heard or touched

or tasted as real as they seem? Is it the eye that sees? Your eye may be open

and turned in that direction, but if your mind is wandering elsewhere, you will

not notice anything at all. You see things only through the illumination of the

Aathma; you love only because the Aathma is Love; you know because the Aathma

is knowledge. You have shaanthi, for the Aathma is the source and repository of

shaanthi. The subtle effect of manthras mentioned in the Vedhas cannot be seen

or heard by the senses; they have to be experienced inand through the inner

consciousness.

All the sufferings today can be traced to the false sense of values. First

things must come first. First, self; then, help. Serve yourself first, that is

to say, understand who you are, whither you are going, whence you came and why

you journey. After having discovered the answers to these questions from the

scriptures, the sages and one's own undisputed experience, human being can dare

lead others. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "Stagnation in

the same class," Chapter 2; "No mirror, no image," Chapter 7; "The key the

sages own," Chapter 10 and "The prop you need," Chapter 12. Sathya Sai Speaks.

Vol. 8. "Offering poison," Chapter 12. Sathya Sai Speaks . Vol. 11. "Forms of

food," Chapter 8).

Namaste - Reet