Swami teaches... Mind's development, heart's refinement and new scientific views

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

Swami teaches...

Mind's Development, Heart's Refinement and New Scientific Views

The Motto:

Life is a challenge - Meet it!

Life is a game - Play it! Life is love - Enjoy it!

Life is Awareness!

Bharath has been conveying profound truths to the world from ancient times.

It proclaimed theuniversal message: "Let all people everywhere be happy."

Unfortunately, because of attachment to the things of the world, the people

have lost this sense of universal well-being.

In all countries and in all languages, people are praying more and more,

turning towards the Lord for the blessing of courage and equanimity. More

and more lectures, more and more books, more and more spiritual groups are

evident; more people go on pilgrimage; more and more temples are being

renovated; all types of yagnas (sacrificial rites) are arranged and gone

through; thousands gather and disperse.

In the world there is fear, division and distress ; people need consolation

and support. Even scientists who were all along proud that they could explain

the Universe and put it into a formula are getting humble on seeing the vaster

and vaster vistas spreading before them at every step. By modern physics the

Universe is more like to an Universal thought where the essential role plays

the observer's consciousness and all pervading quantum fluctuations. Such is

the the statement of modern science what is closely similar to truth about the

Reality, explained by Swami from huge different angles and levels.

 

Scientists open one door after another with tremendous effort, only to enter

a corridor which has a dozen closed doors. It is a never-ending process, this

pursuit of Prakrithi (objective world), this attempt to unravel the mysteries

of Maya (illusion).

The world must become Paramatma-Mayam; that is all, however many names and

forms that Paramatma (Supreme Soul) may have on the lips of people and before

their mental eyes. The same Divine substance appears in different times and

places, assuming different names.

Love and compassion are inherent in every person. Each has to share love

with others. Failure to share one's love is gross ingratitude to society, to

which one owes everything. One should give one's love freely to others and

receive love in return. But when the forces of evil and hatred overwhelm them,

the Good accept the Lord as the Charioteer and He enables to overpower foes.

 

Swami is the ever-merciful Mother, the all-wise Father and the goal of

spiritual efforts. When you are groping in a dark room, you must seize the

chance when some one brings a lamp into the room. Similarly, make the best of

this chance when the Lord has come in human form to your very door and get

ready to save yourself from disaster.

God can be known by experience and not by experiments. People can experience

God if they adhere to the path of truth. (Sadhana is needed for this purpose.

Every educated person should engage himself or herself in selfless service to

society, with humility and a pure heart).

The experience of that bond will come to you unawares. Your duty is to await

the moment.Believe and be blessed. You are now worshipping Shiva or Narayana or

Rama or Krishna or Swami. How you got started. What experience did you have,

before you began?

While painting a picture of a thing you have not seen, you have every

freedom to draw it as the whim directs you; but try to draw a picture of a

peacock, a bird you have seen; then you will realise that it is a very hard

job; so too, it is difficult to get a true idea of Swami, whom you see,

although you are adepts at imagining Rama and Krishna to be of this form or

that.

 

There are hundreds of images and idols and pictures of the precious body

that are abhorrent caricatures, for you have no correct picture in your minds.

Even while faith has sprouted as a tender sapling, some one whispers a story

and doubt attacks the plant like a deadly pest; for the mean and the small see

everything as mean and small. They relish only the small and the mean. Search

for the good, the noble, the elevating - and you will see only those things

around you. Do not seek like the crow for carrion and offal. If you have faith,

the Lord who is the core of your being will manifest Himself; He is within your

grasp, prodded you extend your hand. Do not try to cover up your faults or hide

your vices under a cloak of religiosity. Be sincere yourself. Be aware of Him,

who is the eternal Witness.

Stick to your faith; do not change your loyalty as soon as something happens

or some one whispers. Unless you go through the rough and the smooth, how can

you be hardened? Welcome the light and the shade, the sun and the rain. Do not

think that only those who worship a picture or image with pompous paraphernalia

are devotees. Whoever walks straight along the moral path, whoever acts as he

speaks and speaks as he/she has seen, whoever melts at another's woe and exults

at another's joy - is a devotee, perhaps a greater devotee.

 

People are generally hankering after academic education and worldly

attainments, but forget theSuper Power, who is the basis for all knowledge and

the entire cosmos.

Hence, to recognise the Divine in human, humanness should not be divorced

from the Divinity. People consider themselves as mere human beings. But, all

of them are manifestations of the Divine. It is because people do not recognise

this fact, all kinds of confusions arise in respect of human activities in the

phenomenal world.

The confusions also arise that human's mind runs about swiftly. This is

based on the power of the thoughts. When a stone is cast in a well, a series of

ripples start from the point where the stone fell. From there, the ripples go

upto the edge of the well and cover the entire well.

In the same manner, when the stone of thought is cast on the lake of the

mind, the ripples startedby it fill all the senses and limbs in the body. When

the thought is a pure and sacred one, the ripples emanating in the mind fill

all the senses and limbs in the body; from head to toe, with pure reactions.

All that is good or bad in human is based upon good or bad behaviour. This

conduct is traced tothe mind, which itself is dependent on thoughts. Therefore,

to have good thoughts you mustcultivate good company Good thoughts appear small

in the beginning like one's shadow at noon.But as the day advances, the shadow

lengthens. Likewise, the influence of the good thoughts also grows as time

passes. In due course it acquires a magnificent form. It attains a highly

sacred place. It confers divine bliss and redeems one's entire life.

(Good company, by promoting good thoughts, leads to the highest achievements

in life. Bad company, on the contrary, is like the shadow caused by the morning

sun. At dawn, the shadow produced by the sun is long. As the morning progresses,

the shadow gets shorter and shorter. Ultimately, it gets limited to one's feet.

This is how the effects of bad company operate. At the beginning the gains seem

to be large. But as time goes on, the gains vanish. Human values get destroyed).

 

Human exists in three states waking, dream, and deep sleep. In the waking

state all senses and mind are at work, while in the dream state only the mind

is active, and in deep sleep everything merges in the Self and one enjoys

bliss. Human should make efforts to experience the reality beyond all the three

states. That is the task for every Swami's devotee.

 

Everyone is proud about the body, the mind and the intellect, forgetting the

indwelling Atma, which is the basis for all of them. It is the basis on which

the superstructure of life rests. God is the Indweller in the human heart

(spiritual heart). The Indweller in the heart is directing the whole show. That

is the Atma.

All academic distinctions or even observance of spiritual practices are of

little use if there is nolove in the heart. The heart is called Hridhaya. It is

made up of the two words, Hri and Dhaya (compassion). The Lord is described as

Hridhayavaasi (the Indweller in the heart).

 

By the scientific medical researches human heart is not only a motor. In the

last ten years, new evidence has accumulated for the function of what is being

described as the "little brain in the heart." This "little brain" has the

capacity to process sensory information arising from within the heart and this

information is then sent to the brain. The information the heart sends can have

profound effects on brain activity and function. (For complete information

examine references below). This studies are a step ahead towards integration of

science and spirituality.

Heart intelligence is the intelligent flow of awareness and intuition that

we experience once the mind and emotions are brought into coherent alignment

with the heart. It can be activated through self-initiated practice. Heart

intelligence underlies cellular organization and guides and evolves organisms

towards increased order, awareness and systems coherence.

There are a number of studies that have been done by different scientific

institutions and health care professionals. For example, a study with

congestive heart failure patients was conducted by a research group at Stanford

University; a study with middle school children was done by the Miami Heart

Research Institute; an investigation on test-taking in high school students was

conducted by the Minneapolis Public School District and an independent clinical

psychologist; and a study on employee retention was conducted by Delnor

Hospital (Geneva, Illinois).

 

The human body is constituted by the Pancha Bhuthas (five elements), Pancha

Koshas (fivesheaths). While other living beings have only the first three

sheaths, the human species alone has all the five. Human is encompassed by

attachment to worldly desires, which produce delusions of various kinds related

to the three gunas.

Five sheaths encase the Atma and hide its splendour from revealing itself.

Make all these pureand shining. The Annamaya Kosha (physical sheath) must be

purified by good, clean, pure food;the Pranamaya Kosha (vital sheath) by calm,

steady breathing and an equanimous temper; theManomaya Kosha (mental sheath) by

holy thoughts and emotions, untouched by attachment tosenses or unaffected by

joy or grief; the Vijnanamaya Kosha (wisdom sheath) purified bycontemplation of

the reality and the Anandamaya Kosha (bliss sheath) by getting immersed inthe

ecstasy of the Divine Bliss - God-realisation.

 

Life Principle animates the human. From the Life-Principle you should seek

to enquire into the nature of the Divine.

The Atma is all-pervading. That is termed Sath (Being). Chith (Awareness) is

subject to change and movement. Even if it is carried to a high level, it rends

to come down. When you mix sugar in water, you have neither sugar not water,

but only syrup. When Sath, which represents the Divine and Chith, which

represents the Life Principle come together, you have Ananda (Bliss). This is

Sath-Chith-Ananda, it is like an ocean in which a myriad creatures come into

existence and disappear like waves.

Just as the ocean, the wave and the foam contain the same water, the Spirit

that is present in the body; in the individual being and in the Supreme is one

and the same. To experience this spiritual oneness, your way of life should be

holy. Where there is humanity there is the Divine.

The divinity in every being should be revered. Beings are many, but breath is

one. You should cultivate unity as the children of God and live in harmony in

the company of the good and the godly. Chant the Lord's name which will help

you to cross the ocean of mundane existence.

You must yearn to be free, to be rid of the chains that are binding now; the

iron chain of poverty or the golden chain of riches. The Lord will not be drawn

by noisy pomp or empty show. He willyield only to the claim of kinship, the

call of Atma to Paramatma. There is no paucity of books promising to help human

to discover him/herself; there is no dearth of discourses to guide human's steps

to the goal.

When a house is to be certified as habitable, the engineer tests the

foundations. The Lord tootests the foundations whether faith is true and deep.

The legend tells about Shiruthondar, a devotee of Shiva was also similarly

tested by Shiva who came as an ascetic. When Shiruthondar showed that he had no

attachment to the world, Shiva revealed Himself and said, "Worship Me as your

own Self." Then Shiruthondar demands, "Reveal to me your Immanence in all

Creation and then I shall worship Me, for then I can know that I am really

You." Shiva blessed him and he saw all as Light. The vision was the finale of

his career in Maya. He merged as light merges in Light, without noise and

without announcement. Even his body became a streak of light which rose up into

the depths of space.

 

In reality people far from spiritual wisdom little contemplate about such

meaningful legends. Very few pray to God for His Grace. Most people pray for

material benefits which are ephemeral. Everyone in the world loves objects or

persons or even God, for his or her own selfish purpose. No one loves God for

God's sake.

People are stricken with the maladies of the craze for wealth and power.

There is one other disease with which all are afflicted to varying degrees. It

is the disease of egoism. There is no basis at all for this conceit. Them is no

mason at all for anyone feeling proud about one's wealth or any other

possession.

The only thing about which one should feel proud is one's goodness. (Reet's

compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 2. "Sai as Hrudhayasthaayi," Chapter

2 and "Aathma calling Paramaathma," Chapter 20; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 27.

"Share your love," Chapter 16 and "Purity in thought leads to Divinity,"

Chapter 17; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 28. "Akruura's vision of the Lord" (From

the discourse on 28-5-1995); Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 30. "The Saints of

Thamilnadu," Chapter 9).

References: http://www.heartmath.org/research/our-heart-brain.html ;

http://www.heartmath.org/store/e-books/index.html

Namaste - Reet