Swami teaches...The mirror of Prema reflects the Atma within

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches...

The Mirror of Prema Reflects the Atma Within

The Motto:

You are the whole, the infinite, the all. You as body, mind and soul are

a dream; but what you really are is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss.

You are the God of Universe. You are creating the whole Universe and

drawing it in.

 

Jesus was crucified on a Friday and He rose from the tomb on a Sunday. That

is why Sunday is taken as the day of worship and service in churches. (But do

not contemplate much on death; it is just an incident in life. Contemplate on

God, who is the master of all life; beware of Him all through life).

God has no birth and no death. The Atma within is but a reflection of God

and it is the same in all beings as an eternal witness. God has no preferences

and prejudices; His is but reaction, reflection and resound. He comes, to

confer Ananda, to foster Ananda, to teach ways of acquiring and activating

Ananda.

Swami, as Christ takes upon Himself the pain and sorrow of the world, in

order to prepare the hearts of people for Love. The Divine Love must start with

love for beings that have form. It must be extended to all beings.

 

Christ sacrificed His life for the sake of those who put their faith in Him.

He propagated the truth that service is God, that sacrifice is God. Even if you

falter in the adoration of God, do not falter in the service of the living God,

who has assumed human shape and is moving all around you in such large numbers

and wearing such manifold costumes of apparel and speech. Christ preached this

truth and taught the people that the body should be used for service to

society. Christ taught people to love all beings and serve all with compassion.

The Divinity within should be reflected in every action. The seat of Truth is in

your heart. Worship means loving others with your full heart.

Christ performed many miraculous deeds, relieved the sufferings of many in

distress, preached sublime truths to the people, and ultimately sacrificed His

life. For over a hundred years after his martyrdom, Christ's message did not

have any impact. Four centuries later, Christianity was accepted by Roman

emperors. Even after many centuries humanity is yet to realise the inherent

Divinity of human being.

 

As the carpenter shapes the wood, the blacksmith shapes iron, the goldsmith

shapes gold, so the Lord shapes in His own way, as the fancy suits Him,

Prakrithi or the Created Universe, the Manifold, woven of Space and Time and

Guna. Prakrithi and Paramatma (creation and Creator), are like the two halves

of a bean; and seedling sprouts from between them.

An empty iron box gets valued when it contains jewels; the body is honoured

when it contains the jewel of consciousness and the valuables called virtues.

Life has to be lived through, for the sake of the chance to unfold the virtues.

Life is a steady march towards a goal, it is not a meaningless term of

imprisonment or a stupid kind of picnic. Be patient, humble; don't rush to

conclusions about others and their motives.

When fire rages, you try to put it out by throwing sand or water, and you

keep a stock of these in readiness. But, you have six fires raging inside -

lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hatred. What have you in store to put

them out? Keep ready sathya; santhi, dharma and prema. They will help you to

scotch the flames.

The grace of God cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the

contortions of yoga or denials of asceticism. Love alone can win it, love that

needs no requital, love that knows no bargaining, love that is paid gladly as

tribute to all living. People today worship inanimate idols and images, but

makes no attempt to love his fellow human beings in flesh and blood. If a human

cannot love a fellow human being who is visible before his eyes, how can he/she

love what is not visible?

Certainly Swami does not deny the worship of idols and perform the rituals.

Such kind of worship is a significant part of Bharath's spiritual culture.

Swami points that idol's worship is a special stage of spiritual development

with the aim of recognize the Divine Atma with in and without as the Great

Unity in diversity. Everything in its own good time, they say; the fruit has to

grow and ripen before the sourness is turned to sweetness. The system of

worshipping Divinity in many forms including plants and stones, which

originated in Bharath, has been prevalent for a long time in other countries

also.

The great poets of the past are the pioneers who mark out the road for human

progress along the lines of love and unity - love which binds them with all

creation and unity of all beings in God. Poems that deal with the fundamental

problems of life and death, truth and delusion, virtue and vice will last for

centuries and will help human in all climes. (The poet is called in the

scriptures, kavi, a word which also means, who is able to visualise essential

spiritual formulae in own intuitive moments. The Bhagavad Gita describes the

Lord as Kavi. Poet or kavi is aware of the past, the present and the future,

the kavi transcends time and can dip into the past, roam in the present and

peep into the future, for kavi has sharper vision than ordinary people).

All that Swami tells about the spiritual disciplines have been told often

before; human's capacity, nature, talents are all ancient possessions and so

the advice regarding how to use them is also very ancient.

The new thing is human's perverse behaviour - the directions in which person

has been wasting talents, misusing capacity and playing false to own nature.

Person has been forgetting the path prescribed in the scriptures.

There are three types of buddhi (intellect), according to the predominance

of one or other of the three gunas: the thamas, which confuses sathyam (truth)

as the asathyam (untruth) and takes the asathyam as the sathyam; the rajas

which like a pendulum swings from one to the other, hovering between the two,

unable to distinguish between them; and the sathwa, which knows which is

sathyam and which is asathyam.

The world today is suffering from rajobuddhi (passionate intellect) rather

than thamas (inertia); people have violent likes and dislikes; they have become

fanatical and factious. They are carried away by pomp and noise, show and

propaganda. The world (and not God who is expressed through it and beyond it)

is the centre of attention at the present time. The reaction to the world

depends on the feelings which prompt the dealings with it; the feelings depend

upon the experience gained already; the experience is coloured by the desire

which urged the contact and drew the reaction.

To reach the goal, sathwabuddhi (equanimous buddhi) is essential; it will

seek the truth calmly and stick to it whatever the consequence. The first step

in Atma vichaara (enquiring about the Self) is the practice of the truth that

whatever gives you pain gives pain to others and whatever gives you joy, gives

joy to others. So do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Thus, a

kind of reciprocal relationship will grow between you and others and gradually

you reach the stage when your heart thrills with joy when others are joyful and

shudders in pain when others are sad. This is not the kind of affection towards

those who are dear to you or those who are your kith and kin. That is a sign of

delusion; but this sharing of joy and grief is automatic, immediate, universal.

It is a sign of great spiritual advance; then the wave knows that it is part of

the ocean and that all waves are but temporary manifestations of the self-same

sea having the same taste as the ocean itself.

 

The world is Maya, a mixture of fact and fiction, built on the basis of

fact. The fact is Divinity; the fiction is variety. This deluding agent is God,

for, the fact is hidden and the fiction is imposed by the leela (play) of God.

And, God is but the appearance in Form of the Formless, Intangible, Immanent,

Absolute, the Nirakaara Paramatma, the akasha (space) within the hridhaya

(heart) of human and all living beings as well as of all the other principles,

unbound, without beginning or end.

Discover the immortal 'I' and know that it is the spark of God in you; live

in the companionship of the vast measureless Supreme and you will be rendered

vast and measureless. Consider all objects that you collect here as given on

'trust' to be used in this caravanserai, during your pilgrimage, in this

Karmakshetra (the field of action). You have to return them when you leave;

they belong to another.

Individual reconstruction is more important than the construction of

temples. Multiply virtues; practise what you preach, that is the real

pilgrimage; cleanse your minds of envy and malice, that is the real bath in

holy waters.

Education must result in the development of viveka (wisdom) and vinaya

(humility). The educated person must be able to distinguish between the

momentary and the momentous, the lasting and the effervescent. The educated

person must know how to keep the body in good trim, the senses under strict

control, the mind well within check, the intellect sharp and clear, unhampered

by prejudices and hatreds, and the feelings untouched by egoism. The educated

person must know the Atma; that is his/her very care; that is the effulgence

which illumines inner and outer selves. This knowledge will ensure joy and

peace and courage forperson's throughout life. (Be like a bee, drinking the

nectar of every flower; not a mosquito drinking blood and distributing disease

in return). So the real purpose of education: the unfolding of the Divine in

human personality.

Every individual should regard the enquiry into nature of the Atma as the

primary purpose of life. Putty of thought, word and deed is essential for this

enquiry. Each one eats to assuage own hunger; so too each one must discover the

best way to appease own spiritual hunger. Do not be led away by the scorn of

others or by the recommendation of others. Contact your own reality in the

silence that you create by quietening the senses and controlling the mind.

There is a Voice that you can hear in that silence. The true witness of your

having listened to that Voice is your behaviour. A tree is held and fed by the

roots that go into the silent earth; so also, if the roots go deep into the

silence of your inner consciousness, your spiritual blossoming is assured.

Really, you are even now dedicating everything to God; only, you do not do

it consciously, with the joy that is your due. You say, "I do it for my

pleasure. I go there to be happy. I am reading it for my satisfaction, for my

progress." Who is this I that is doing, going, acting, reading, enjoying, being

pleased? It is the I that sees, that hears, that thinks with the eye, the ear,

the brain, etc. This I is in every one. It is the individualised Atma in each,

it is the Universal that is reflected in the particular.

In every human being, there are four kinds of potentialities, namely,

animal, demonic, human and Divine. The one with the Divine quality will be a

Brahma-Nishtha or one engaged in the contemplation of the Atma within and will

enjoy Atmic bliss and sanctify every moment of life by doing good deeds. Such

individual is a Brahma Jnani or Atma Jnani, a realised soul, who is aware of

the truth that revering others is revering the Lord andhurting others is

hurting the Lord. Such persons radiate divinity though they are in a human

body.

The "human" type of persons follow the path of Truth and Righteousness. They

are engaged in activities in strict accordance with Sathya and Dharma (Truth and

Righteousness), using their sense of discrimination in the fight manner. They

discharge their responsibilities without craving for position, power, pelf or

fame. Such a person lives in harmony with his fellow beings and discharges his

duties with firm belief in the three precepts: fear of sin,love of God and

morality in society. The next type is the demonic person. Such a person does

not care for the code of conduct for human beings, indulges in the shameless

pursuit of sensual pleasures, is filled with ego and pride, and does not

hesitate to hurt others for selfish purposes.

One who lacks wisdom is like an animal. Such a person's life is centred only

on sense gratification. Such person deems the transient earthly pleasures as

heavenly bliss and lives in delusion devoid of discrimination.

 

Spirituality involves total extinction of the animal and demonic qualifies

in human and the manifestation of his/her inherent divinity. When some one

asked a water carrier whether his leather bag was clean, he replied, "It is

cleaner than the bag into which you pour the water." Look to the inner purity

rather than the outer one.

In the Annamaya kosha (material sheath), that is to say, when human is

established in the physical, and in the Pranamaya kosha, when human is in the

nervous and vital spheres of activity, person feels that life is fulfilled by

means of food, recreation and a contented, comfortable existence. When person

rises up into the Manomaya kosha (mental sheath), the imagination opens further

vistas, and human gets glimpses of the glory and majesty of the Divine, which

makes him/her adore and revere. The next kosha, the Vijnanamaya kosha

(intellectual sheath), then steps in and makes person inquire into the validity

of the experiences and leads on to the fifth kosha, the Anandamaya, the stage of

Bliss, with the confirmation of the hypothesis of the Divine, that the intellect

framed.

This liberates human from fear and doubt. Wisdom alone can grant full freedom.

Just as the end of culture is progress, the end of knowledge is love, so, the

end of wisdom is freedom.

To comprehend the unity of body, mind and Atma is to realise a fundamental

truth. The body is gross. The Atma is subtle. It is the mind that links the

two. If the Atma is ignored, human is reduced to the level of the animal. When

the body and the Atma are ignored and the mind alone is active, the humanness

comes to the fore. When the body and the mind are kept out and the Atma alone

is experienced, Divinity is attained.

 

The Upanishads say, "Get up, arise, awake"; time is fleeing fast. Use the

moment while it is available, for the best of uses, the awareness of the Divine

in all. When you die, you must die not like a tree or a beast or a worm, but,

like an individual who has realised that he/she is Madhava (God). (Reet's

compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 1. "Nara and Naaraayana," Chapter

11; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 5. "Awake! Arise!" Chapter 14, "The bird on the

swinging bough," Chapter 28 and "The Poet's role," Chapter 48; Sathya Sai

Speaks. Vol. 10. "Bring me the pain," Chapter 39; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18.

"Thyaga and Bhoga," Chapter 3; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 25. "Unity Based On

Divinity," Chapter 39).

Namaste - Reet