SATHYA SAI SPEAKS [Volume I (Ch.20, 21, 22)]

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Om Sri Sai Ram

SATHYA SAI SPEAKS [Volume I (Ch.20, 21, 22)]

20. NEITHER SCRIPTURES NOR LOGIC

VAARANAASI Subrahmanya Shastri spoke for long on two types of inquirers at the

present time and the conflict between the two, namely, the Shaasthravaadhins

(expounders of scriptures) and Buddhivaadhins (expounders of intellectual

reasoning). He said the former accepted the wisdom of the ancients as recorded

in the Sasthras, as authentic and authoritative, and the latter preferred to

follow the path of reason, and take as authoritative only such things as will

satisfy their logic. Of course, he showed the defects of the latter group of

people by taking a number of examples and exposing the fallacies of the

Buddhivaadhins. He quoted profusely from the scriptural texts and made his

discourse abstruse and scholarly. I feel that most of what he said went above

your heads and so you have missed the crux of what he wanted to communicate.

Buddhi (intellect) revels in discussion and disputation; once you yield to the

temptation of dialectics, it takes a long time for you to escape from its

shackles and efface it and enjoy the bliss which comes from its nullification.

You must all the while be aware of the limitation of reason. Logic must give

way to Logos and Deduction must yield place to Devotion. Buddhi can help you

only some distance along the Godward path; the rest is illuminated by

intuition. Your feelings and emotions warp even

your thought processes; and they make reason into an untamed bull. Very often,

egoism tends to encourage and justify the wildness, for a person is led along

the wrong path by his very reason, if that is the path he likes! You very often

come to the conclusion you want to reach!

Scriptures are only road maps or guide books

Unless you are extra careful to examine the very process of reasoning, even

while the process is going on, there is the danger that you may be following

only the trail you yourself have laid down. Reason can be tamed only by

discipline, by systematic application of the yoke, the nose-string, the whip,

etc. That is to say, by means of dhaya, Santham, kshama, sahana (compassion,

calmness, forbearance, endurance), etc. Train it to walk quietly along small

stretches of road at first and then, after you have become sure of its

docility, you can take it along the tortuous road of the six fold temptations:

the road of lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy.

Bhasmaasura got vast power through the Grace of God, even the power to burn into

ash any one on whose head he placed his hand; but his instincts had not been

tamed, his reason had not been purified, and so, in his greed and egoism, he

tried to reduce the very Giver of the Gift into ashes!

The Sasthras are only road maps; they are guidebooks at best, describing the

road and giving the directions for the journey. It is the actual journey that

will reveal the hardships, the delays, the landslips and the potholes, as well

as the beauty of the scenery encountered and the magnificence of the final

goal. No second-hand account can equal the first-hand experience. Moreover, the

Sasthras might speak about a thing in many different ways, just to elaborate it

for better understanding; even the Vedas extol a thing in ten different poetic

forms, from different angles and standpoints; but some scholars try to treat

each such statement as distinct and as having a different connotation; and so

they add to the confusion, rather than reduce it.

Both have good points as well as limitations

The symbols on the map are interpreted differently by different scholars

according to their pre-conceived notions, predilections and pet theories. So

the Shaasthravaadhins too are not always right; they can be led astray by the

desire to score a point over their adversary; they belong to certain schools of

thought and this too acts as a brake on their freedom to seek and know the real

meaning of the Sasthras.

I am neither a Shaasthravaadhin nor a Buddhivaadhin. I am a Premavaadhin

(expounder of love). So, I have no conflict with either the scholar who adheres

to texts or the devotee of reason. Both have their good points as well as their

limitations. If you acquire Prema, then you can dispense with the Sasthras, for

the purpose of all the Sasthras is just that: to create the feeling of Sarvajana

samaana Prema (equal love for all); and to negate egoism, which stands in the

way. Reason too, if it comes in the way of this love, is to be discarded as

'perverted'.

All the time and energy spent in pursuing the Sasthras are a sheer waste, if

study and reflection do not help you to recognise that the mind is worse than a

drunken monkey. Pilgrimage too are for elevating the heart, sublimating the

impulses and leading the lower self to higher levels of thought and action.

Reason serves the same purpose, or at least, it ought to. Reason seeks to know

the unity of the universe, the origin and goal of it all, the laws that govern

the anu (microcosm) and bruhath (macrocosm); and it peeps behind the

ever-receding

curtain to get a glimpse of the Suuthradhaara (puppeteer), who pulls the strings.

Do not run after devious desires

Do not engage yourself in Ichcha krishi (the cultivation of or the promotion of

wants and desires). That is never-ending process of sowing and reaping; you

will never reach contentment; one desire when satisfied will fan the thirst for

ten more. This year is named Vikaari (crooked)! So, be warned! Do not run after

devious desires or crooked satisfactions. All roads leading to the realm of the

senses are tortuous and blind; only the road that leads to God is straight.

Cultivate neethi (the path of straightforwardness) in everything. That will

reveal the Atma. Neethi will enable you to overcome the three Gunas. The

treatment you have to give these Gunas is to grind them to a paste so that a

new taste of Ananda might emerge; just as you grind salt, chillies and tamarind

together to get a tasty chutney for your meal. No single guna should dominate;

all must be tamed and diverted to fill the lake of Ananda.

It is the internal Ananda that matters, not the external, the sensory, the

objective, and the worldly. If the inner poise or inner equilibrium is

undisturbed by external ups and downs, that is real success. Every day is the

same as another, the rising and the setting of the Sun, the waxing and waning

of the Moon, the seasons, etc., but when 365 days are over, we call it a New

Year and give it a new number; but the Sun and the Moon are unaffected by it.

Be like the Sun and Moon. Do not care whether they ring out the old year or

ring in the new.

Train the mind to disperse the clouds

No one need do anything positive to discover the Atma; when the 'cover' of

illusion is denied and destroyed, it will reveal itself in all its glory. What

is needed is the removal of the fog, the cloud, the miasma, and the casting off

of all the clinging curtains that limit the self into the body and its adjuncts.

How to remove the fog? How to clean the mirror so that the Atma may be reflected

clearly and without distortion? The mind that makes you believe in Sasthras as

the ultimate authority and

14.5pt">Buddhi which makes you believe that reason is the supreme

authority---both have to be scrubbed and polished; they get tarnished pretty

quick! They require constant attention. Like a brass vessel that has to be

scrubbed with tamarind and washed and dried so that it may shine like new, the

mind too has to be treated ever with goodness and service, repetition of the

Name of the Lord, execution of beneficial plans, taking up good deeds and

contemplation of the welfare of all. The Sun is up here in the sky; it is the

passing cloud that hides him from your vision. The sensory world is the cloud

that hides the Atma, ever shining in the firmament of your heart. The same mind

that gathers the clouds can also disperse them in an instant; for it is as the

wind which collects them from all the quarters and renders the sky dark; and

the next moment, changing direction, sends them in a scurry to wherever they

came from! Train the mind to disperse the clouds, not to gather them. Every

aspirant has to do this by following a systematic discipline.

You cannot reach the peak in one Jump; it is a hard job to negate the evidence

of the senses; one has to overcome the tendencies that have grown through

hundreds of births. The world is an illusion and all is Brahman only for one

who has reached the ultimate goal; but until Realisation dawns, one has to wait

patiently, hoping and preparing. The growing baby cannot be fed on adult food;

you have to adjust the food to the needs and capabilities of the child. You

should not verdo or avoid doing anything. Both lead to disease and ruin health.

Develop Bliss through cultivation of Love

I do not consider Sasthras Vaadha (Intellectual Scholarship) as very essential

for the spiritual aspirant. I advise you to develop Ananda (Bliss), not through

these difficult and even doubtful means, but through the cultivation of Prema

(love), which begins in the home and family and spreads to all creatures. Put

down the sharp-edged weapon that seeks to analyse and chop the arguments of the

opponent, to cut his point of view to pieces. Take up the laddu

14.0pt">(sweet pudding) of love which spreads joy and wins over recalcitrant hearts.

That is My path, the path of Prema along which I shall take you. That is why I

offer My visiting card to every one of you when you come to Me. I know your

name, your degrees, your profession, your status and your history. But you do

not know mine. I have no need to know all about you from a perusal of your

cards; but I want you to know something of My Glory; and so I give you a

glimpse of it, as a Mahima (Divine Miracle ). But I also give you enough of My

prema so that you can mix a little of it with whatever you do or feel or think

and make it sweet and palatable.

Venkatagiri, Adhyaathmik Conference, 12-4-1959

Each has his allotted task, according to the status, taste, tend now and earned

merit. Do it, with the fear of God and of sin, deep in your heart. Welcome pain

and grief so that you take both success and failure as hammer strokes to shape

you into a sturdy Sadhak Inner content is more important than outer prosperity.

- Shri Sathya Sai

21. JADA AND CHAITHANYA

YOU have all tasted the sweetness of the Name of the Lord for twenty-four

hours, as Akanda Bhajan. Akanda means uninterrupted, without any gap. I am glad

you sang without any gap and also that you selected the Naamaavails of the

manifold Forms of God, instead of singing one particular Naamam throughout, as

if God had only one facet of personality. The same man is father of his

children, uncle to his nephews, brother to some, cousin to many others and son

to his parents. So, God too has many aspects and when you conduct Bhajan, you

must try to satisfy all who take part by reminding them of the manifold

manifestations of the Lord, not simply Rama or Krishna or Sairam.

Again, Akanda Bhajan means that it should not be just a twenty-four hour affair

or even a seven-day affair; it must go on, from birth to death, this

contemplation of the Source and Goal of things. The procession to the cremation

ground starts immediately on birth and the beating of the heart is the drumbeat

for the march towards that place. Some take a longer route, some reach quickly,

but all are on the way. Therefore, Bhajan has to start in childhood and has to

continue. It must be the constant companion of man, his solace and strength. Do

not postpone it to old age, for it is the essential food for the

mind.

There is no consistency in man's behavior

This Bhajan here has thrilled you all and you are glad that you got the chance

to join. But this is just a temporary feeling. You who shared in this

glorification of the Lord will tomorrow as enthusiastically join in some other

gathering where falsehood and injustice are honored! There is no consistency in

your behavior. What you feel as correct and what you do are poles apart. That is

not the mark of a Bhakta. If there is no Shraddha (faith), how can you have

Shanthi and santhosha (peace and happiness)?

People seek frantically for peace and happiness in a thousand ways along a

thousand roads. Dr. Bhagavantham was telling Me just prior to My coming here,

at the Tata Institute of Science, that there is something beyond all this

objective world, some mystery which becomes deeper and more mysterious with

every advance of science. When one door is opened, ten doors, which are closed,

reveal themselves to the surprised scientist. So real Shanthi is to be got only

in the depths of the spirit, in the discipline of the mind, in faith in the One

Base of all this seeming multiplicity. When that is secured, it is like having

gold, you can have any variety of jewels made from it.

It is all a matter of one's own experience. And the joy of that experience, the

profound exhilaration which accompanies it cannot be communicated in words. All

shravanam and keerthanam (hearing and singing God's Names) is to take you nearer

that experience. Shravanam is the medicine that you take internally and

keerthanam is the balm you apply externally. Both are needed. So also dharma

(virtue) as well as karma (sanctified activity) are necessary; karma is the

very foundation of Bhakti (devotion to God). It is the basement on which

devotion is built. Dharma is the attitude in which action is done, the truth,

Prema and equanimity with which the mind is activated, when it seeks to do

things.

Do karma regardless of the fruits thereof

Karma has to be done in and through dharma. Those dominated by thamas

(ignorance) do karma solely for the sake of the fruits thereof and they resort

to all subterfuges in order to gain from it; for them, the end justifies the

means. Those dominated by rajas (passion) are proud and pompous and boast that

they are the doers, the benefactors and the experiencers. Those dominated by

Sathwa guna (quality of calm serenity) will do karma, regardless of the fruits

thereof, leaving the result to the Lord, not worrying whether it leads to

success or failure, conscious of their duties and never of their rights.

As a matter of fact, there is more joy in the actual doing than in the result

that accrues. This must be your experience. All the elaborate arrangements that

the master of the house makes for a wedding in the family; the reception, the

feeding, the illumination, the music, these are thrilling while they are being

planned and executed; but they do not give so much pleasure, once the thing is

done. In the end, when the bills come, they might even cause disgust and grief!

So it must be easy to discard the fruits of action, provided you spend some

thought upon the process of karma, and the worth of the fruit.

The Jivi (individual soul) has come to this birth in order to reveal the

splendor of the spark of Godhead, which It is. The body is the wick of the

lamp, yearning for God, is the ghee, which feeds the flame. But like the rat

which, attracted by the strong smelling cheap stuff inside the trap, neglects

all other articles of food in the granary and falls a prey to its foolishness,

man too neglects his real sustenance and wastes his life in pursuits of mortal

riches.

Various types of Bhakti

You should see and wonder at the nithyam (eternal) in all this anithyam

(temporary). This drama has only two actors jada and Chaitanya (the insentient

and the Supreme Consciousness), who play a million roles. Just as Violinist

Chowdiah here who played ten ragas (musical tunes) now and can play 400 ragas

on the four strings, jada and Chaitanya together play all these roles. Out of a

mere 26 letters of the alphabet all the words in the dictionary are formed and

millions of books get written, read and understood. But you should see through

this drama and discover the Director who is none else than God.

This can be done through Bhakti, based on nishkaama karma (desireless action).

Bhakti is of various types, according to the samskara (purificatory acts) of

the devotee and the state of his mind and the stage of his development. There

is the shaantha Bhakti (peaceful devotion) of Bheeshma, the Vaathsalya Bhakti

(parental devotion) of Yasoda, the Madhura Bhakti (sweet loving devotion) of

Gouranga and Meera and the Anuraaga Bhakti (deep attachment) of the Gopis. Of

these, the dhaasya (devoted servant) attitude is the easiest and the best for

the ajority of aspirants at this time. It means Saranagathi or Prapatthi (total

surrender). It grows out of Shaantha Bhakti.

Bhakti has to be developed by several means or indeed by all means. The mind and

the intellect have to be trained and controlled, that is the aim. They can take

you as far as the Visishtaadhwaitha (qualified dualism); later, adhwaithic

(nondualistic) experience depends upon His Grace; the Saayujyam (merging in the

Absolute) is in His Hands. The chief means are sravanam, keerthanam, smaranam,

paadha sevenam, vandhanam, dhaasyam, sneham and Atma nivedhanam (hearing,

singing and remembering Lord's Name, prostration, salutation, servitude,

friendship and self-offering). Sneham (friendship) is placed just before Atma

nivedhanam (offering of the Self), because between friends, there is no fear,

no doubt or disbelief or hesitation.

Mission on which the Lord comes on this Earth

It is to clear the path of spiritual progress of Man that the Avatar (Divine

Incarnation) has come. The Ashanti (restlessness) in which man is immersed has

to be curbed. That is what is meant by, parithraanaaya saadhoonam---"the saving

of Sadhus," the saving of all good Jeevies (individual beings) from the

tentacles of Ashanti (grief) caused by want of knowledge of the relative

unimportance of worldly things. All jeevis must get Shanthi and santhosha; that

is the mission on which the Lord comes again and again on this earth. He selects

a place full of avithrathwam (holiness) and Dhivyathwam (divinity) and takes on

the human form, so that you may meet Him and talk, understand and appreciate,

listen and follow, experience and

benefit.

The tragedy is that when Godhead is invisible, formless, you concretise it as

you like and pray to it and get consolation and strength out of it; but when it

is before you, concretised in human form, you doubt and discuss and deny! People

fall before the stone Naaga (snake) and pour milk on it and wash it lovingly

with sacred waters; when it materialises into an actual cobra, they flee in

fear! But a true Bhakta has no fear or disbelief.

Feel no shame in walking on the right path

Prahlada was shivering at the Narasimha (Man-Lion) Form when it appeared from

the pillar and when the Lord asked him why, he replied that it was due not to

fear at the form of God, for as he said, all forms of His are lovely as they

are Divine; it was due to fear that the Form might soon disappear and he might

lose the splendid Vision of the Lord. The father was so full of rajoguna

(quality of passion) that he saw the terrible Narasimha Form; but Prahlada did

not see It so. To Him, the Lord appeared beautiful and full of grace, for he

was saturated with Bhakti.

You must dive deep into the sea to get the pearls. What good is it to dabble

among the waves near the shore and swear that the sea has no pearls in it and

that all tales of its existence are false? So also if you must realise the full

fruit of this Avatar, dive deep and get immersed in Sai Baba. Half-heartedness,

hesitation, doubt, cynicism, listening to tales, all are of no avail.

Concentrated complete faith---that alone can bring victory. This is true to any

worldly activity, is it not? How much more true must it be, therefore in the

spiritual field? But if you have already attached yourselves to some one Name

and Form, do not change it, do not choose another in place of the Prema

Swarupa (embodiment of Love).

A hundred people might come to your house and even treat you with affection, but

you do not address them as Papa or Daddy. Have your mind fixed on one; do not

now and then allow clouds of doubt, like "Is He Great?Is He God?" to dim

your faith. Be bold. Acknowledge the glory that you have witnessed; proclaim

the joy that you have experienced; confess to the Grace that you have earned.

When people ask you whether you too are going to Puttaparthi, for example, and

whether you too are doing Bhajan, say "Yes" proudly, for there is no shame in

walking on the right path!

Shanthi cannot be won by study of books

There are some Gurus who insist on implicit obedience, who advise their

disciples even to beat any one who cavil at their master! I have contempt for

all such and I have come to give them proper advice. The Guru can never usurp

the position of Shiva; it is better that you have Shiva Himself as your Guru,

rather than have these power-mad and egoistic teachers, who revel in hatred and

aggrandizement. Leave all those who cavil, severely alone, with their karma

14.0pt">and their thamasic Ananda, not merely those who are ignorant of Me, but

even those who deride all forms of God and the very idea of God.

Develop faith in yourselves, so that you can stand like a rock braving the

rushing waters of the flood of negation. That faith will make you forget the

changing circumstances of the outer world.

Ramadas, when he was put in jail, thanked Rama for the great blessing for he

felt that he could now carry on his Namasmarana undisturbed by the world, which

was mercifully shut off by the high prison walls!

The first steps are the most hard in the pilgrimage

It all depends on the point of view whether you are happy or unhappy, that

colors all attitudes and options. Ramadas sang the exploits of Anjaneya in

Lanka and, while doing so, he mentioned the white lilies of the island.

Anjaneya heard him sing it and immediately took exception to the description.

He said that he had never seen a single white flower there; the lilies of Lanka

were red, he declared. Ramadas, however, insisted that they were white. Anjaneya

got annoyed at the impudence of poets who tried to pit their imagination against

a first-hand expert witness and appealed to Rama for intercession. Rama agreed

with Ramadas! He said that Anjaneya saw them red because his eyes were affected

by Raajasik anger at the entire

Raakshasa (demonic brood)!

So, if you have Shanthi, the world will appear a quite peaceful place; if you

have Ashanti (restlessness), the world will be full of Ashanti. Shanthi is to

be won by Sadhana, not by study of books. One judge reads huge big volumes and

writes one judgment for a suit; another judge reads the same huge big books and

writes quite an opposite judgment for the same suit! Books are just guides for

some bit of the road. Afterwards, you have to find the way yourselves and it

gets easier as you go. One Naya paisa and another make two, four more make an

anna and a hundred make a rupee. The first steps are the most hard; the

pilgrimage to Kaashi is to begin with the first step.

Keep the flame of Vairagya (detachment) with tiny sticks until it grows into a

big bonfire; welcome all chances to develop Viveka. If you are good for the

world, then the Lord of worlds will shower Love on you. Become a blossom, exude

the fragrance of Seva (selfless service) and Prema (love); then I shall gladly

wear the garland composed of all of you.

Take the name of the Lord and repeat it always. I was listening to the Bhajan

you did here yesterday and today. Your voices were low; they could scarce be

heard outside this Hall. I know that in a certain institution where they

decided to do Akanda Bhajan, they had to hire a few persons at so much per hour

so that their plan could succeed. Do Bhajan with faith and enthusiasm. Let the

whole city shake with devotion you put into every Name that you sing. The Name

promotes comradeship and establishes

concord; it stills all storms and grants peace.

Bangalore, Akanda Bhajan, 10- 7-1959

All the joy you crave for, is in you; but, like a man who has vast riches in the

iron chest, but who has no idea where the key is, you suffer. With proper

directions, dwelling upon them in the silence of meditation, it is possible to

secure the key, open the chest and be rich in joy. - Shri Sathya Sai

22. THE SCREEN WITHIN

IT has become a convention to address such a gathering as "Brothers and Sisters"

though no speaker is prepared to live up to the ideal that such a form of

address implies. Many such empty formalities have entered into daily conduct.

For example, it was mentioned now, that today is a 'red letter day' in the

history of Tirupati. Red letter days or days, which have to be recorded in

letters of gold, are becoming quite cheap nowadays. Only four days, remember,

deserve that honour: the day on which Bhaktas (devotees) gather to sing the

glow of God; the day when the hungry are fed; the day when one meets a great

sage; and the day on which Viveka

14.0pt">dawns on the individual. This day certainly falls in the category and so

the secretary's description is, for once, right. I like the work on which this

Committee is engaged in; and so, I hurried to this place from Bangalore, where

yesterday there was an Akanda Bhajan (uninterrupted singing of devotional

songs) by many devotees. I like Saint Thyagaraja. My affection for him is not a

matter of today. It is centuries old. And Thyagaraja and Tirupati are also

attached to each other. He prayed here that the screen hiding the Light that

was inside him might be moved aside by the Lord's Grace. This Committee has

been trying heroically to erect a place of worship for the Saint and a hall to

celebrate the Thyagaraja Festival and to encourage the study and practice of

his songs. I was sorry when I heard their report and listened to the journeys

these people have made to distant places and the driblets of donations they

have received so far.

The means for collecting donations must be pure

Though the report is evidence of their devotion and sacrifice, it reveals the

false sense of values, which people are developing nowadays. 'Dabbu' (money)

must also circulate like 'blooddu' (blood)! Otherwise, that too will cause ill

health. There is no better method of using 'dabbu' than for promoting Bhakti,

for then the entire system, individual and social, will benefit by it. If money

is stored and not circulated, it will cause social swellings

and the swellings may become boils and burst.

I learn that the Secretaries in their despair have thought of running a lottery

for completing this structure. I am very much against this plan. A lottery

attracts money from persons who are moved by greed; it holds out the attraction

of quick riches and tempts men from a wrong angle. It will be tainted money to

sell lottery tickets and distribute prizes and use the balance. Though it is

for a good purpose, the means must be pure. Every one who gives even a paisa

must give it out of real devotion and knowing that the paisa will be used for

the building which he wants to get built. Do not receive money given

half-heartedly or with some other motive than devotion. Then only will the

building be worthy of Thyagaraja, who spurned the nidhi (wealth) offered by the

Rajas of Tanjore and preferred the 'Sannidhi' (proximity) of the Lord to the

favours bestowed by human donors.

It is when diseases are rampant that doctors are needed more; and now, when the

standard of moral conduct has fallen very much, people must turn to doctors

like Thyagaraja who dispense the drug of Rama Nama in their own sweet palatable

versions. All have equal right to share in the health-giving properties of that

drug. In every linguistic group we have great vaidhyas (doctors) who treat this

bhavaroga (disease of worldly existence) successfully: Surdhas in Hindi,

Raamalingaswaamy in Tamil, and Purandharadhaasa in Kannada---to give just one

example in each language.

Thyagaraja’s songs impart Ananda

Thyagaraja is in a class by himself, not because he sang in Telugu, but because

his songs are marked by the rare excellences of sincerity of devotion, poetical

beauty and musical melody. The raga (tune) suited to the emotional tempo of the

idea elucidated in the song; the thaala (marking of time) quite appropriate to

the movement of the meaning; the words which automatically dictate the thaala

and guide the musician along the notes and the entire structure of the song

helping the arousal of

the yogic urge in the singer---such spontaneous mastery of the science and art

of both music and Sadhana is seldom found in the history of any language or

country. He sang unaware, out of the fullness of his realisation, and so the

songs have that strange communicative force imparting Ananda to the singer as

well as the listener.

Devaki gave birth to Krishna but Yashodha in Brindhaavana brought up the child.

Yasoda had all the delight, which the child could give. So too, the Tamil

devotees of music have adopted Thyagaraja and have practiced his songs more

than the Telugu speaking people. They are the Yasoda of Thyagaraja. The Tamils

specialize in Raga and Thaala and they sing with scrupulous adherence to these.

However, since they do not grasp the full meaning of the text, distortions

painful to the Telugu ear often occur. More and more Telugu devotees have to

learn to sing Thyagaraja krithis so that the nuances of the Telugu language in

the songs may not be missed. After all, the raga, thaala and the notations are

to help in the more easy assimilation of the message contained in the song and

in the transmission to the singer and the listener of the live emotion out of

which the song arose in the first instance. This can happen only if the meaning

is clear.

Bhakti is the reservoir for all the temples

Music as a vehicle of peace is universally popular; men, women and children of

all lands are amenable to its subtle influence. Even animals and plants are

susceptible to music. The Lord has said: madbhakthaah yathra gaayanthe, thathra

thishthaami, Narada— 'Where My devotees sing, there I seat Myself." So,

the songs of Thyagaraja sung well and with the full realisation of the context

and the meaning is excellent media for the spread of Bhakti. That is why I came

today, to encourage and bless this Committee, which is celebrating Thyagaraja

Uthsavam

14.0pt">(festival). Three things combined to bring Me here: iccha, Shraddha and

anukoolam---their yearning, faith and conjunction of convenience! The

Thirumalai Tirupati Devasthaanam must foster the nurseries of Bhakti wherever

they are found. For, it is through Bhakti that pilgrims flock to the Hill and

pray before Venkateswara; if the springs of Bhakti dry up, with what are the

minds of men to be watered? That is the reservoir for all the temples of this

land. So, the Devasthaanam can well come to the rescue

of this Committee. It is doing the work of the Devasthaanam, by promoting the

krithis (musical compositions) of Thyagaraja, which develop the spirit of

devotion. He was Valmiki himself come to the south of India to sing the glow of

Rama and spread the Rama thaaraka mantra. He had always the welfare of the

individual as well as the world in view. He had the experience of the constant

presence of the Lord, so that Rama had to give him Darshan (audience) and come

to his help a number of times. His Bhakti made him ever at peace and joyful.

India is on the threshold of a new era

Prayer and contrition are the two disciplines by which the mind can be cleansed

of egoism and hatred; Thyagaraja is a fine example of how this can be done. He

was ever engaged in the process of examining his words and deeds and evaluating

them on the touchstone of Bhakti. As the bee in search of honey wanders in

search of the flowers, as the creeper clings fast and fondly to the tree lest

it fall, as the rill runs to the river and the river rushes to the sea,

Thyagaraja pined for Rama; his songs are pure fragrant blossoms of Bhakti and

therefore, immortal.

Every man seeks rest, but the dust of sense-craving accumulates on the mind,

producing rust and threatening to 'burst' it; so he has to test it, off and on,

keep it in perfect trim. To remove that rust, the music of Thyagaraja’s

krithis will be useful. Lay aside your cynicism for a while and listen to the

captivating tunes and imbibe the sense. The science of spiritual culture and of

the control of the mind has been developed and practiced in this country for

thousands of years; and that is why Indian civilization has stood the shock of

ages and the fury of typhoons that swept whole peoples off their feet. India is

still green and fresh, on the threshold of a new era, under the leadership of

her own ancient

ideals.

The taste for good music has also gone nowadays with the coming of catchy lilts

and croonings from the cinemas and the craze has spread for imitating them even

in Bhajans! Sing the krithis of Thyagaraja in the classical ragas and I am sure

they will have great appeal. They are not mere paatalu (songs), they are

mootalu (bundles) of precious stones; they

take you along the baatalu (roads) to God. If Thyagaraja gets neglected, this

Holy Hill will lose height, for the Hill stands so high because it rests on the

pedestal of Bhakti. Neglect of Thyagaraja can happen only when the people of

this land become desperately worldly, deaf to the whisper of the God within.

Tirupati, Thyaagabrahma Uthsava, 11- 7-1957

TO BE CONTINUED...

With Sai love from Sai brothers ''

Source and Courtesy: http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume01/sss01

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