Swami teaches... Key to spiritual development from Vedic sages

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches.... (19 -22 August 2005)

Key to Spiritual Development from Vedic Sages

In the Earth all the time, every moment some activity or other is going on:

Meritorious actions and actions in the discharge of Purusharthas (the four

goals of human life); marriages and festivities; births and deaths. All these

take place all the time and life goes on in merriment or sorrow. There is no

end to this.

Evolving from the animal, human developed the mind and in due course was

able to invent whatever was necessary for personal comforts. Many things Have

discovered, but not, for example, the cause of birth and death. What is the

secret of this phenomenon? Death is certain for one who is born. But one does

not know whether a dead person is born again. The ancient sages sought to

unravel the mystery of birth, death and rebirth. They found that this secret is

beyond the human's perception. They realised that this was due to the Divine

Will and not the result of human effort. Innumerable things are happening in

the world without any effort on human's part. For example, the functioning of

heart, blood circulation, respiration, ect. are not dependent on human effort.

They are the result of the Divine Will. No one can alter what is destined by

the Divine Will. Hence the sages advised mankind to pray to God for His

grace.The ancient sages prayed to God to shower the rays of His grace on

mankind.

So you must be prepared for any sacrifice, offering everything to God. Only

then you can acquire extraordinary powers. Whatever studies they pursued,

whatever great knowledge they acquired, the ancient sages were never filled

with conceit. Humility is the hallmark of knowledge. People boast about the

achievements of science. But there is still a long way to go. (It is only when

everything is dedicated to God that our actions can be carried out smoothly and

successfully. However, today's devotees and sadhakas do not resort to

dedication. They tend to behave like shareholders in a company. They want to

strike deals with the Lord, saying., "I shall do my work, you give me the

benefits." They want to go into partnership with God. This won't work. You make

your offering. God will see to the rest).

Mankind discovers in the process some secrets of Nature. However, there is

always an awareness that what is not known is far more than what is known.

There is a power at work which cannot be seen by the eye or heard by the ear or

conceived by the mind. That this power transcended the human was dimly inferred.

For every kind of power, proofs may be sought by direct perception or by the

process of inference. People sought to find out by what direct proof they could

experience this transcendental power. Ancients They found the proof in the Sun.

Without the Sun there will be no light at all. Nor is that all. All activities

will come to a standstill. Hence, the ancients concluded that the Sun was the

visible proof of a transcendental power. They also found some subtle secrets

about the Sun. Hence, they adored the Sun as the principal deity in the Gayatri

mantra. "Dheeyo yo nah prachodayaath." (May the Sun illumine our intellects in

the same way he sheds his effulgence).

This Gayatri mantra is not related to any particular time, place or person.

"Bhur Bhuvas-Suvah"(occurring in the mantra) indicates that it relates to the

three aspects of Time - the past, the present and the future. "Tat Savitur

Varenyam, Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi, Dheeyo yo nab Prachodayaath" (Light dispels

darkness). Without light darkness will not go. "Bhargo devasya" signifies that

the Sun is the dispeller of darkness. In this manner, the ancients believed

that there was a supreme power and looked upon it as God. In course of time,

ancients started studying numbers. Among these numbers, the primary number is

one and the others are derived from it by a process of addition. They regarded

one as the primary number. "Ekam Sath Vipraah bahudhaa vadanthi" (The Ultimate

Reality is one, but the wise call it by many names). This is one of the

declarations of the scriptures. The same truth was proclaimed by the Vedas in

the statement: "Eko-ham bahusyaam" (I am One, let me become many). Without one,

there cannot be other numbers. Through the study of numbers also, the ancients

came to the conclusion that God is one only. The One has assumed innumerable

names and forms and permeates the entire Universe. On the basis of this truth,

the ancients declared: "Isaavaasyam idam jagath" (The Divine is the indweller

in the Cosmos). The ancients gave the name Aditya to the Divine. Aditya, as one

of the 12 Adityas, was worshipped as Vishnu. Vishnu here does not mean the deity

bearing a conch and discus. Vishnu refers to the One who permeates the entire

Cosmos. For this omnipresent principle, a form was conceived: Vishnutva means

that which is all pervading. How was Aditya looked upon? You have vessels

made of gold, silver, brass, copper and clay filled with water. In all of them

the same reflection of the Sun is perceived. Innumerable vessels may be kept,

but the Sun's reflection will be one and the same. The ancients concluded that

the contents may vary in value, form and name but the image is the same in all

of them. Proceeding from this, they considered the body as a vessel made of

mud. In this vessel made out of mud, they found that Chinmaya (consciousness as

Spirit) was present. This spiritual entity was called Hiranyagarbha. Expanding

his comprehension in this manner, human came gradually to realise that there

was only One Reality and that was Divinity. Another name given to this Divine

entity was Easwarah. That is, the Divine was regarded as the possessor of

infinite and inexhaustible wealth. What is this wealth?

Material riches are one kind of wealth. Knowledge, virtues, wisdom, are all

included in the term Aiswaryam (wealth). They realised the truth that Easwara

is the embodiment of every kind of wealth.

Probing further into the mystery of the Divine, they described Him as Siva.

Siva means the Onewho is free from three gunas (Satwa, Rajas and Tamas). He

was also called Suddha-Satwah. Siva is that pure untainted Satwa quality. It

represents the principle of Mangala (auspiciousness). This means that onlywhen

the gunas are absent, auspiciousness appears.

As their comprehension developed, they began to describe the Divine as

Sambhavah. Sambhavahmeans the One who can manifest Himself at any place, at any

time, in any form, according to the requirements of the situation. This is borne

out by the sloka in the Gita where Krishna says: "Whenever Dharma faces decline

and Adharma rears its head, I manifest Myself. For the protection of the good

and the destruction of the wicked and establishment of Righteousness, I make my

advent from age to age."

Another name given to the Supreme was Isa. It is essential to understand how

the ancient sages sought to explore the innumerable facets of the Divine. The

term Isa refers to the possession of the six forms of Aiswarya by the Divine.

These are wealth, riches, wisdom, fame, glory and vairagya (non-attachment).

As human's comprehension of the attributes increased with the growth of the

intellect, God has described as Aprameyah - One who is beyond any kind of proof

and who is immeasurable. It may bepossible to measure, the vastness of the ocean

or the boundless sky. But there is no methods by which God can be measured. God

transcends the three kinds of proof: direct perception inference and the

authority of the spoken word. Ancients concluded that this infinite and

immeasurable Divine entity is allpervading. If such a Divine Principle did not

exist, the cosmos will not exist. Whether human believes in it or not, this

Divine power is present everywhere. The human has come from the Divine. Krishna

has emphatically declared in the Geetha: “Mamaivaamso jiva loke jiva

bhutassanaatanah" (The human being in the world of beings is a fragment of

Myself).

In Thelugu, Geetha means a streak. And, in the Upanishadhs God is

described as a "streak of lightning, flashing through a thick blue cloud;"

Krishna is 'blue,' of the blue cloud; the Vedhas say, neela thoyadha; the

Bhaagavatham says, neela megha. Both mean that He is as deep as the sky or the

sea and so His colour is that of the sea and the sky. When you have to be

shown the moon, they say, "Look at the tip of that branch of that tree!" But

really there is a long long way to go, to reach the moon. You can see it from

afar, as a round disc emitting cool, comfortable light. So too, the

Bhaagavatham and other epics and poems show the Lord and help you to see Him

enough to arouse the keenness to approach Him nearer; that is all. Each book

leads you from one stage to another, revealing more and more of the beneficence

of God, until you are filled with insatiable yearning for Him. That yearning is

its own reward; it will transform the Will of God into the Form you long to

see. A rolling stone, it is said, gathers no moss; the stone that stays put is

encrusted with moss. The mind that rolls from book to book, that delineates the

charm of Divinity, cannot get encrusted with the moss of material desire. The

human baby, born as innocence in Dharmakshethra (in the realm of Dharma), in the

fullness of Sathawaguna, gathers, as the years roll by, the moss of Rajas and

Thamas, and lands itself in the conflict-ridden area of Kurukshethra. That is

the story of Mahaabhaaratha in each life. Kuruskshethra is a battlefield

between Maamakaah (our people) and Paandavaah (the fair people). That is what

the very first shloka of the Geetha announces. What does this really mean?On

one side stand the Raajasik (passionate) and Thaamasik (impure) impulses fed by

the sense of mine and our; on the other side stand the Saathwik, fair, spotless

attributes of love, forbearance, truth and righteousness which are Divine and

fostered by God. The combat between the two forces - the down-dragging and the

uplifting - knows no armistice. The daily bath ensures cleanliness, the daily

battle keeps the evil foes at arm's length beyond capacity to harm.

It is said that during the Kurukshethra battle which lasted for 18 days,

sage Vyaasa had his mind torn with contrition, for the contestants were both of

his lineage. So, he could not cast his eyes on the fratricidal carnage. One day,

he was so overcome by remorse that he hastened beyond the bloodsoaked plain,

where another day's holocaust was about to begin. Hurrying along, he saw a

spider scurrying forward on the ground! "Why so fast?" inquired the sage; the

spider ran off the road, climbed up an ant-hill by its side and from that

eminence, it replied, "Know you not that the war chariot of Arjuna is about to

pass this way. If I am caught under its wheels, I am down." Vyaasa laughed at

this reply; he said, "No eye gets wet when you die! The world suffers no loss

when you are killed! " The spider was touched to the quick by this insult. It

was shaking with rage. It ejaculated, "How is that? You feel that if you die it

will be a great loss, whereas I will not be missed at all. I too have wife and

children whom I love. I too have a home and a store of food. I too cling to

life with as much tenacity as you folk. I have hunger, thirst, grief, pain,

joy, delight and the agony of separation from kith and kin. The world is as

much in me and for me, as in and for human beings and others." Vyaasa hung

his head and moved on in silence, muttering the line, "for man and beast, these

things are common." But, he told himself, "Enquiry into the Ultimate, yearning

for beauty, truth and goodness, awareness of the underlying unity, these

attributes of Wisdom are the unique treasures of mankind," and went his way.

Through this wisdom, human can see the indwelling God in the spider and in every

being that exists within the bounds of space. The receptacle may be different,

but the Divine content is the same. The taste of the Divine can be experienced

in the atom or the cosmos, the friend as well as the foe, the virus and the

Universe. This is the Realisation, the Liberation, the Illumination, the

Revelation. The world is God filled This sphere of change is surcharged with

the Omnipresent Divine. Krishna is in the bower and the battlefield, blowing

the conch or playing on bewitching flute, wielding whip and wheel, the unseen

force behind every thought, word and deed of human everywhere at all times.

The ancient Vedic sages functioned in this spirit. The mystery of the Veda

is unfathomable. But it will become clear to those who have Sraddha and Bhakti

(earnestness and devotion). You have to open the eyes of Sraddha and Bhakti,

which are not physical eyes. When you have acquired the Eye of Wisdom, the

light of the Divine will be visible to you everywhere. When one takes to the

spiritual path, everything is alike and differences and distinctions cease. As

long as you are in the phenomenal world, you have to observe the phenomenal

appearances. Differences will remain as long as you think in terms of "I,"

"you" and "he/she." These three different entities have to beeliminated. That

is the state of the Atma.

It is meaningless to compare the knowledge of the ancient sages with that of

modern scientists.How many sages performed arduous penances to acquire divine

potencies. Today's doctors perform surgical operations. They acquire this skill

after long training here and abroad and after many successes and failures. They

use sophisticated instruments. But in ancient times, there was a highly skilled

master of medicine and surgery, the sage Bharadwaja. He taught surgery to the

world. He was the author of the science of Ayurveda - the Science of Life.

People consider that Ayurvedic medicines do not yield quick results. Quickness

may operate both ways. Today antibiotics are used. A few drops of the medicine

brings down the fever. But later fever goes up. There are also adverse

reactions. In the treatment employed by the ancient sages there were no such

reactions. Because of their penance, their vision transcended the barriers of

distance. They could directly converse with the powers of Nature. When the mind

was purified and divinised, they could acquire super-human powers.

The ancient sages knew more than the scientists of today. One of the

greatest scientists in ancient times was Hiranyakasipu. He was the master of

all the five elements (ether, air, water, fire and earth) and explored the

depths of the ocean, all the regions of the Earth and the farthest reaches of

the sky. He probed the secrets of the atom. But with all this vast knowledge,

he did not know his own reality similarly as the most modern scholars.

Raavana and Hiranyakasipu are mahaathmas (great persons); Thaataki, described

as an ogress, is also a mahaathma. That is to say, they had superhuman prowess

and mysterious powers. All are Divine; God is the inner motivator of everyone.

They are Raajasik mahaathmas, enslaved by their emotions and passions, quick to

hate and slow to forget the slights inflicted on them. Raama and Lakshmana are

Saathwik mahaathmas, embodiments of the prowess and powers that righteousness

and virtue can endow.

Human obtains the potentialities of higher levels through various stages

development. No one is a scholar of knowledge at birth. There is nothing that

cannot be achieved by determined efforts. You should not give up the effort out

of a feeling of incapacity. The ancient sages persevered ceaselessly in their

quest. They succeeded in their efforts after going through every kind of

ordeal, braving heat and cold, gain and loss, joy and sorrow.

Efforts and paths of spiritual development are in human's hands; success or

defeat rests with the Divine. So, when you rely on the Divine, success will be

yours. (Reet's compilation from. Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 9. "The spider in the

same web," Chapter 17; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 16. "In Human Form," Chapter 16;

Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 24. "The perennial quest," Chapter 8).

Namaste - Reet