Dhyana Vahini by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba - Pages 11-15

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Dhyana Vahini by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai BabaPages 11-15

It is possible through Dhyana to bring into memory the Paradise that is one's

empire, discarding as a dream and a delusion the transitory creations of the

mind. By engaging oneself to Dhyana, systematically and calmly Dhyana can be

made effective and tranquil. Thus, the road towards the highest experience is

laid. A new understanding dawns, clear and unruffled. When the heights of

Dhyana are reached, this understanding becomes so strong that one's lower

nature is destroyed and burnt to ashes! Then, only 'You' remains. The entire

Creation is a delusion of your mind! One alone IS, Sathyam, the Lord,

Satchidananda, Paramatma, Sivoham - the ONE.

The Sathya, the Truth, is so subtle and so soothing. Once that is reached, there

is no meditation, no meditator; no Dhyana, no Dhyatha; all merge into one. That

is the fixed, illumined experience. Exulting within himself that is Pure

Knowledge, the Jnani will be aware only of Atmanubhava, Atmic Bliss. That is

the Goal, the fruit of Immortality. Attaining the transcendent experience, the

Yogi finishes his Dhyana and moves among men resplendent with divinity! In him,

the Vedas find fulfilment. He is transformed into a pure being. Dhyana and

Dhyana alone has the capacity to make a person transcend the vicissitudes of

time and make him ever the same equanimous individual, as if he is another

Creator himself.

Once the Jivi is on the way to the goal, he will derive contentment from himself

and discover within himself the source of bliss. The cravings and ambitions, the

delusions and falsehoods and the animal needs and antics which were worrying the

Jivi till then, all vanish. Since the Atma pervades all equally and steadily,

the Jivi also loses the 'I-ness' and gets immersed in its inherent Divine

status. Such a person is the real Mahatma; he is the Jivanmuktha. Fullness is

Ananda; Ananda is Santhi. Those who do not give up the Vichara Marga or Path of

Discrimination, receive the Grace of the Lord; and they also realise this Atma.

They will always be seeking the eternal Truth that lies behind the dreamlike

illusions of this world.

Control the Jnanendriyas which run helter-skelter; the origins of the disease

will be destroyed. Let the mind keep watch over its gymnastics; dam up the mad

flood of thoughts and plans and schemes; then there will be no worries and

anxieties in the mind. To diminish the wanderings of your thoughts, repeat the

name of the Lord; that will keep out your sorrows and troubles. Without the

effacement of the mind Jnana cannot dawn. The full man is he who has succeeded

in this. The Sadhaka must first learn the secret of the 'inward sight', the

'vision directed inwards' and take his attention away from the exterior.

 

You have heard so far little about the inner world; but Divine Life is nothing

but this method of 'inward living'. Just as the baby, after learning to watch

and understand, tries to toddle here and there at home, so also the Sadhaka

learns to toddle in the inner world and understand it. A healthy baby in the

cradle waves its arms and legs in glee, watching the lamp on the wall and lisps

in joy; the Sadhaka also healthy in body, mind and soul, lying in the cradle of

life, watches the Inner world and claps his hands ceaselessly in great glee at

that inner joy.

Besides, every thought, every word, every deed has to proceed from the full

consciousness of knowledge. Direct your intelligence not to wander about but to

dwell constantly in the inner world! This is the inward vision; Dhyana is the

most important instrument needed for this.

Into the Inner Realm, the Sadhaka can enter through the gate of

Self-examination. That gate accords welcome for every Sadhaka endowed with

humility and devotion into the highest and holiest status possible in Life.

The Dhyani considers the realisation of Atmic Bliss as important; but the

promotion of the welfare of the world is also an equally important aim. For

carrying out that aim, he must bring under control certain physical, verbal and

mental tendencies. These are usually known as the ten-fold sins: the three

physical, the four verbal, and the three mental. The physical tendencies are:

injury to life, adulterous desire and theft. The verbal sins are: false alarms,

cruel speech, envious talk and lies. The mental attitudes are: greed, envy and

the denial of God. The person intent on following Dhyana must take every care

that these ten enemies do not approach him. They have to be eschewed

completely. He needs tendencies that will help him to progress and not those

that will drag him back.

He must speak and act only Subham, for Subham alone is Mangalam, and Mangalam

alone is Sivam. This is what the Sastras also say. The Good is the Auspicious.

The Auspicious is the spiritually helpful. If man is to merge in Sivam, the

Subham is his instrument. Through the Subham or the Good, he can achieve this

world and the other; he can promote his welfare as well as the welfare of

others. Welfare is the fruit of knowledge; illfare is the fruit of ignorance.

Through welfare alone can peace, joy and progress be attained. The basic duty

of man is the welfare of all beings! Promoting it, contributing to it, is his

right task. Living out one's span of life in discharging this task is the

ordained path.

The Buddhi in us is the witness of all things in this objective world. The

latter limit and colour the former they affect it and mould it into Chaithanya,

or Consciousness. Maya is only the Buddhi as warped and twisted by the

impressions of everything. Therefore, the Chaithanya which is unaffected by

Maya, upon which the world has failed to produce any impression, that

Chaithanya is Iswara. The person who is striving to reach the stage of Iswara

must, therefore, be unaffected by Maya unimpressed by the world. How to remain

so unaffected? Through analysis, ratiocination, fearless inquiry, pure reason.

To acquire this Viveka or analytical reason, the sharing in the task of

promoting the welfare of every being in Nature is essential.

 

The Jagath, this passing show, is based on Maya. That is why it is branded

'false'. But do not conclude that a mere recognition of the falsity of the

world or an awareness that one has certain shortcomings will lead man along the

higher path and take him to the Highest Truth. If he has not got a good

character full of sterling qualities, he can never achieve progress in the

spiritual field. Progress depends on the worth and quality of the individual,

as the harvest depends on the fertility of the field. Upon a worthy piece of

land, sow the seeds of sterling qualities and irrigate with the waters of

reason and analysis; the plentiful harvest will be ready in due time! On lands

where the seedlings of good qualities are not planted and tended, useless weeds

multiply; and where orderly gardens could have been formed, thorny bushes create

a jungle of impenetrable confusion.

Even if a person through perversity or blind conceit, has so far not cultivated

good qualities, he can at least make a try or carry on efforts to secure them!

If this is not done, he cannot taste the excellence of life; his life is a

waste; its worth is nil. The mind, by sheer force of these opposing forces,

gets lost in false values and is unable to develop on the right lines. Such a

mind, turned away from good, might cause indescribable evil. All progress won

by the Sadhaka might be destroyed by such a mind in an unguarded moment like a

spark falling, due to a second's negligence, on a keg of gun powder!

There are some who try to be quality-less; but they achieve only living death.

Their pale faces reveal only lack of zest and interest. This is the result of

unreasoned haste in spiritual discipline. Though becoming quality-less is

ultimately needed, there should be no hurry to reach the goal; even though a

person may have the ardour, it very often leads to dilemmas, which many solve

by means of suicide! First, one must accumulate the wealth of character. Since

they evince no interest in earning this qualification, many stalwart Sadhakas

have lost their way and not regained it in spite of years of effort! Others

have slipped into the morass through which they were wading!

Therefore, the path of achieving the absence of qualities is strewn with

dangers. One cannot exist without activity; so, one must of necessity act

through 'good' qualities. One must put down all desires and become free. The

mind filled with good qualities will help in this process; for it will bear

other's prosperity gladly. It will give up doing injury; it will seek

opportunities to help, to heal and to foster. It will not only suffer, it will

also pardon. It will not incline towards the false, it will be on the alert to

speak the truth; it will remain unruffled by lust, greed, anger and conceit; it

will be free from delusion; it will seek always the welfare of the world. From

such a mind will flow an uninterrupted stream of Love.

When this mind matures and attains fruition, it easily becomes free of all

qualities - placid, calm and pure. It easily merges in the One Atma without a

second.

 

Unfortunately, though man has the unique chance of tasting the inner peace that

such a mind can grant, he is a stranger to the joy and equanimity that is his

birthright. Dhyana is the only island of refuge in the ocean of life for all

beings tossed on the waves of desire, doubt, dread and despair.

The Vedantic truth must be present in the mind, even while the Vishaya world is

being attended to!... Consider the condition of this world hundreds of

thousands of years ago. At that time this globe was the scene of two things

only. On one side was the fiery lava which poured forth from the volcanoes and

crevices that scarred the surface of the earth. The flood of destruction

descended on all sides and spread fear and death in the regions around, as if

the end of everything had come. On another side, the scarcely noticeable

molecules of living matter, the microscopic amoeba floated on the waters or

clung to the crevices among the rocks keeping the spark of life safe and well

protected. Of these two, one, boisterous and bright; the other, quiet and

secluded; upon which would you have built your trust? At that time, surely no

one would have believed that the future was with the amoeba o the animalcule!

Who could have forseen that these minute specks of life could hold out against

the gigantic onslaught of molten lava and earth-shaking upheaval? Those specks

of chaithanya or Life-Consciousness won through nevertheless. Unheralded by

fire and dust, by swooping gale or swallowing floods, the amoeba, in process of

time, by the sheer force of the Life principle it embodied, blossomed into

goodness and strength of character, into art and music, into song and dance,

into scholarship and Sadhana and martyrdom, into sainthood and even Avathars of

Godhead! In all these, the history of the world is found summarised.

In the confusion of overpowering events, we see men sometimes placing faith in

loud and noisy men who are enslaved by their own passions. But this is a

passing phase, it will not last. When things are placid, calm and unruffled,

man can get himself merged in the atmosphere of Maya-less Chaithanya; that is

the highest he can reach. The Santhi he tastes there is subtler than the

subtlest. He must ascend to it through effort guided by reason, through Dhyana.

When the enjoyment is full and complete, it is no other than the Status Divine,

the coveted Goal of Life. Men do not generally strive for it, because they know

nothing of its supreme attraction. Dhyana gives them the first inkling of that

Bliss.

Therefore, every one must now strengthen the mind and make it aware of the happy

moment of Bliss. Otherwise, there is a likelihood of the mind discarding all

effort to reach what it now dismisses as 'empty' and 'useless'. But once it is

convinced that the moment of attunement with Chaithanya is a moment of complete

Power, then the effort will not be slackened. The Sadhaka can reach, without

further interruption, the Atmic realisation.

With this as the ideal, carry on Dhyana and mental Japa, henceforward. The step

immediately after Dhyana is Samadhi. Dhyana is the Seventh of the Eight-fold

Yoga. Do not give up this Royal Road that leads you on to that sacred goal.

Dhyana is the very basis of all Sadhana.

 

People are engaged in various forms of cultivation but the most important of

these is the cultivation of spiritual experiences. All cultivation is based on

spiritual cultivation. It is the King of Cultures. The King makes laws but he

is above and beyond them. So too, all rules and laws, all distinctions of right

and wrong, of sin and virtue, of joy and sorrow, affect only the Jivi, which

attaches importance to the inexperienced Manas and Buddhi and not to the Atma.

So, cultivation of the Atmic experience is essential for all, the Atmic

experience which is pure, convincing and self-transcending. It is also easy,

for the Atma is as the mother to all and hearkening to the Atma is like the son

hearkening to the mother. Every one is competent to have that experience; in

fact, it is everyone's right to have it. This is why the Atma Sadhana is being

treated by me as so important. The Atma is also known as Brahma; so the

learning of the Atma Vidya or Brahma Vidya is to be considered as

the objective by every student.

Such students have to earn some primary qualifications. Then only do they

deserve the status of studentship. They are Viveka, Vairagya and the Six-fold

Wealth; that is to say, Discrimination, Renunciation and the six qualities that

constitute a good character. Aspirants who have these three can hope to attain

the Atma, with confidence and without much difficulty.

Paramatma has six chief characteristics; completest Jnana, completest Vairagya,

fullest Beauty, the fullest Splendour power, undiminished Fame, and

inexhaustible Fortune. His Nature is Sat (Full existence), Chit (Full

knowledge) and Ananda (Full bliss). These are also related to Man through the

Atma in him. So all humanity has a right to realise and enjoy these

characteristics and this nature. It is the ordained duty. The travail of the

world today is due to Man not performing this ordained duty.

The common man is acting in daily life quite contrary to the dictates of the

Dharma of the Grihastha, or householder. He does not follow the path laid down

by the Sastras and by the Manusmrithi. He does not have an iota of truthfulness

in him. Truth is the most holy virtue. So, leading a primitive type of life, he

loses courage at the slightest upset and gives up the adventure of life. He

develops a kind of pseudo-renunciation. If only he entered upon the

house-holder's life with the attitude of performing one's duty, then he need

not run away from it and seek caves and forests. Each one can realise the Lord

through each one's assignment of duty, in each one's Dharmic life.

The contemplation of the Lord must proceed in union with the Dharmic life. This

type of life has no need for status, scholarship or vanity. The latter only

lead men astray. It is only through this life that the mind and the intellect

can be controlled, the Atma Vidya cultivated, the Will sublimated.

(To be continue)

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Sathya Sai Baba Dhyana VahiniTranslated from the Original TeluguPublished by Sri

Sathya Sai Books and Publications TrustIndex:

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