SAI BABA GITA – Part XXII – Answers for all questions

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time, King Janaka sent a message to the people in his realm, saying, "If there

be amongst you a great scholar, a pundit, a mahatma, a yogi, a sage, whoever he

may be, let him come and teach me the knowledge of the atma." In his message he

said that he expected to attain self-knowledge within a matter of a few moments

of being properly instructed. Even while climbing onto his horse and before he

was completely settled onto it, he should have gained self-realization. He

said, "If the person offering to teach me self-knowledge cannot assure me this

experience of instant illumination, then he will be banished from my domain

even if he is the greatest scholar or the most learned person or the highest

educated person in the land." Well, all the pundits and sages were a little

frightened by this requirement. They saw that this

would be a severe test on their scholarship and learning, and so no one dared to

come forth and offer himself to instruct the king and meet the conditions that

had been posed. It was at this point that the boy Astavakra entered the

kingdom. While he was going on the road towards the capital city, he met a

number of people coming from there, including quite a few scholars and pundits.

All of them had long faces, looking worried and grief-stricken. Astavakra asked

them what the cause was for their worry and grief. They explained to him all

the things that had happened. But Astavakra could not understand why they

should get frightened over the king's pronouncement, if they had truly mastered

the teachings and realized their truth. He said, "I will gladly solve this

problem for the king." So saying, he directly entered the court of

Janaka. Astavakra addressed the king, "My dear king, I am ready to teach you the

knowledge of the atma. But this sacred knowledge cannot be taught so easily.

This palace is full of rajas and tamas. We must leave here and enter an area

that is pure satva." So they left the palace on horseback and went along the

road leading out of the city towards the forest. As was the custom, whenever

the king went outside the palace walls, the army followed close behind. But,

when they approached the forest, King Janaka directed the soldiers to remain

outside, and not follow them into the forest. Astavakra and Janaka went deep

into the forest. Astavakra told King Janaka, "I am not going to teach you the

knowledge of

the atma unless you accept my conditions. I may be only a young boy, but since I

am to teach you, I am in the position of the preceptor. You may be an

all-powerful emperor, but since you are going to learn from me, you are in the

position of the disciple. Are you prepared to accept this relationship? If you

agree then you will have to offer the traditional gift to the teacher, the gift

that is given by the disciple to the guru. Only after you give me your offering

will I start my instruction to you." King Janaka told Astavakra, "The

attainment of God is the most important thing to me, so I am prepared to give

you absolutely anything you want. You can have my crown and the kingdom

itself." But Astavakra replied, "I don't want any material things from you. All

I want is your mind. You must give me your mind." The king answered. "All right,

I

offer my mind to you. Up to now I thought this was my mind, but from now on it

is yours alone." Janaka achieves Self-Realization Astavakra told Janaka to

dismount from his horse and leave it by the side, and then he told the king to

sit down in the middle of the path. Astavakra walked further into the forest

and sat quietly under a tree. Outside the forest, the soldiers waited for a

long time. Neither the king nor Astavakra showed up, although it was long after

the customary time when the king would have his repast. Both the officers and

the soldiers who loved their king and were very faithful to him, became anxious

to find out what had happened to him. So, one by one, they stole into the forest

to look for King Janaka and

the little boy who was with him, suspecting some foul play. When they went along

the path leading into the forest, they were relieved to find the king seated

there, in the middle of the path. His horse was standing next to him. The king

had his eyes closed and he sat motionless. The boy, Astavakra, was not to be

seen. The officers addressed the king, but he did not answer. They feared that

Astavakra might have exercised some magic spell over the king and had made him

lose consciousness. They went to look for the prime minister. The prime

minister came and addressed Janaka, "O king! O king! O king!" But Janaka did

not open his eyes. He did not move at all. The prime minister became very

frightened. Not only the prime minister but

all the other officials from the palace who had come, were now getting

thoroughly concerned. The king had always kept to a rigorous schedule. He took

his supper at the same time every day. Now that time had long since passed but

the king still had not stirred. In this way, the day went on and evening came,

but the king did not move from his position, sitting there immobile on the

ground. Left with no alternative, the prime minister sent the chariot back to

the city to bring the queens, thinking that if the queens spoke to the king he

would surely respond. The queens came and addressed the king, "Maharajah!

Maharajah!" The king did not stir; there was absolutely no response from the

king. Meanwhile the soldiers searched throughout the whole forest for

Astavakra. At last, they found him under a tree. Astavakra was immersed in

divine

ecstasy. The soldiers called out to him and exhorted him to answer their

queries. Astavakra came out of his self-absorbed blissful state. They implored

him to come to the place where the king was. Astavakra asked them, "Why are you

all so worried? The king is safe and everything is all right." But they insisted

that Astavakra come along with them and brought him before the king seated in

the middle of the path. The king had his eyes closed. His body was completely

still. The soldiers said, "Here, look for yourself! See what has happened to

the king!" Until that time, whether the prime minister, or the other ministers,

or the queens, or any of the court officials or soldiers or common people, had

called out and addressed the king, he neither opened his mouth in answer nor

opened his eyes in acknowledgment. But now, Astavakra came and spoke to the

king. King

Janaka immediately opened his eyes and replied, "Master!" Astavakra questioned

the king, "Well, the ministers have come and the soldiers have come, and also

many others have come. Why did you not reply to their entreaties?" Janaka

answered, "Thoughts, words and deeds are associated with the mind, and I

offered my mind entirely to you. Therefore, before I can use this mind for

anything, I need your permission. What authority do I have to speak to anyone

or use this mind in any way? Without your permission and command, I am not

going to do anything." Astavakra told Janaka to put one foot in the stirrup and

get up on the horse. By the time he had climbed up and seated himself on the

horse and put his other foot in the stirrup, he had attained the direct

experience of the atma. Then Astavakra said to him, "You have attained the

state of

God-realization." For Self-Knowledge Total Surrender of the Mind is Required

Once a person has offered up his mind, and with it all his words, deeds and

thoughts, then he will not have the authority or the power to perform any

actions without the permission of the one to whom he has surrendered his will.

As was the case with Astavakra and Janaka, so also with Krishna and Arjuna.

Krishna told Arjuna, "Arjuna, offer everything to me. Surrender all your

actions to me. I will take care of you and I will guide you towards liberation

and deliverance." So also, you need to offer all your physical, mental,

spiritual and worldly duties, all your various actions, thoughts and words, to

the Lord, the inner director installed in your

heart. But, you may wonder, if every duty and desire is relinquished and offered

to the Lord, then does that mean that even the desire for liberation has to be

given up? After all, that is also a type of thought. No. The real meaning is

that when you offer up your load of desires and duties and responsibilities to

the Lord, and allow him to make all your decisions, then he will carry all your

burdens. And then you can be one-pointed in the one worthwhile goal of life,

that of self-realization. All this education that you acquire, all this

learning that you pursue, is associated with the three qualities of delusion.

Only when you transcend these three qualities will you be able to gain

self-realization. In celebrating a marriage, a

benediction is given so that the couple might be blessed with a successful

career, with material prosperity, and with a fine family. These are three of

the four primary goals of human life. The first refers to duties and

responsibilities and position, the second refers to the accumulation of wealth

and the third refers to the desire for progeny and the continuation of the

family line. All three of these goals have to do with the worldly life. But

there is a fourth goal of human life. That final and most important goal is

liberation. The fourth goal relates to the spiritual life. The first three of

these goals of human life cannot be considered equal to the fourth, which is

liberation. Offer up all your little acts involving these first three goals.

Give them all to the Lord, and trade them in for the one priceless treasure

which he will give you in return, namely, liberation. Consider the following

example.

justify">In Indian currency, the smallest denomination is a paisa. It is a small

metal coin. One hundred paisa is equal to one rupee. Conversely, 100 rupees is

equal to 10,000 paisa. If you should have to carry these 10,000 paisa around

with you, it would become a very large unwieldy bundle. Also, it would be quite

difficult to hide and protect such a big bag of coins. If you were to heap all

of these 10,000 paisa into one small cloth, the cloth would soon get torn and

before long the coins would fall out. Krishna told Arjuna, "Arjuna, I will give

you a hundred rupee note. You give that whole pile of change that you are

carrying, consisting of 10,000 paisa, to me. This one 100 rupee note and these

10,000 paisa are equal in value, but what a great difference there is in the

burden of carrying them around with you. It

is the same with all these many little duties and worries and thoughts of

various types that burden you. Offer all 10,000 to me; I will give you a single

100 rupee note and relieve you of your load." All your various thoughts, all

your wishes and wantsŠ all these small desires may be compared to individual

paisa. When you have so many small paisa, unless they are all put together,

they will not be equal to a one rupee note. Krishna said, "Arjuna, all these

small desires can never be equal to the grace that I can shower on you. So give

them all to me." This is how King Janaka was able to attain liberation after he

had offered up his entire mind, all his thinking and doing and speaking, to

Astavakra. Offer up your Mind to the

Lord The sum and substance of all this is that you should offer up your mind to

the Lord. In everything you do and think and say, follow his directions,

emanating from the purity of your heart. That is what is meant by becoming

mindless. Do not allow your mind to follow desires. Offer all these desires up

to the Lord and follow only his dictates. Until you have done that, pleasure

and pain, happiness and sorrow and all the other pairs of opposites will be

present within you. If you want to become free of these opposites and treat all

things equally, you have to become mindless. That is why it has been said in the

Vedanta that it is the mind which is responsible for liberation or bondage. As

long as you retain the mind, rajas and tamas will not leave you. So long as you

have rajas and tamas, you will have no steadiness.

Why is the mind so unsteady, constantly hopping from place to place? It is

because of desires. These desires all relate to the body. Consider for a moment

that you have poured a little water into a vessel; when the vessel moves, the

water also moves. If the vessel is steady then the water remains steady. In

steady water you will be able to see your own image. In moving water your image

will be blurred and indistinct. It follows then that if you want to enter the

still state of meditation and have a vision of your true self, you must keep

your body steady. The body is like a vessel; the mind may be compared to the

water inside. If the body moves, it is like the movement of the vessel. Then

the mind inside will also move. Therefore, if you want to keep your mind

steady, you must keep your body steady. Considering how much you move the body,

think of how much

more the mind will move. If you throw a stone into a well, ripples will start.

These ripples or waves, which arise from the stone hitting the water, will soon

spread to the far end of the well. In the same way, once you put a thought into

the well of your mind, it spreads to the entire body. And whatever be your

thoughts, they will subsequently influence your actions. So, you must

constantly keep good thoughts, positive thoughts, in your mind. When you are

having good thoughts, there will also be good feelings in your heart. If

negative thoughts enter your mind, then, in whatever you see, in whatever you

hear, in whatever you say and wherever you go, these negative thoughts will

lead to harmful actions and grievous results.

Roman">Steady your Mind and your Body When you are sitting, the posture should

be erect... not like that of an old person, all bent over. You should be steady

and straight. You should not go to the other extreme either, of raising your

head up; nor should you turn your head to one side or the other. For

meditation, it is very important to have an erect sitting posture. If you were

to imagine a line going vertically down through the top of your head, it should

go straight to the base of your spine, the center of subtle energy at the bottom

of your spine. That way the entire spine will be in proper alignment. The

kundalini power will then be able to travel unimpeded from the lowest energy

vortex to the highest at the crown of your head. Therefore, keep the body

steady and straight. If from youth it is bent, then by the time you become old

you will be completely bent over. Be it your head, your neck or your torso,

there should be no bend. This is extremely important for students, and equally

so for devotees. Therefore, I will be telling you this quite often. Why are you

studying at all? What is the goal of your studies? Truly, you are studying in

order to steady your mind and body. Except when you are playing, you should not

be moving too much. Even when you are talking or when you are singing, you

should be steady. In this way, right from childhood, if you can keep your body

under control, it will be very useful to you as an instrument to achieve

meditation. Krishna gave these instructions to Arjuna in the Gita, in order to

turn Arjuna into an ideal

representative of mankind, one who would serve as a model for all of humanity.

Krishna told him, "Arjuna, I am taking you as my instrument so that by your

example you may teach all of mankind." Arjuna became an ideal person. Since his

wavering mentality was due to the rajas and tamas qualities, Krishna told Arjuna

to systematically rid himself of these two qualities, and offer them to the

Lord. Eventually, he would even have to give up being controlled by the third

quality, the satva quality. In the second chapter of the Gita, the chapter on

the wisdom teachings, Krishna explained a number of ways in which the three

qualities that have been discussed here, can be conquered. When you have

completely expunged them from your mind, you will become transformed into a

sage, a wise being, one who is steeped in the highest

wisdom. TO BE CONTINUED With Sai love from Sai brothers – ‘’

Source: http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/saibabagita/

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