SAI BABA GITA – Part XXIV – Answers for all questions

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known demon in ancient lore, who slept for decades at a time. There was still a

third demon whose heart was good and who surrendered himself at the feet of

Rama. He is the exemplar for the satva quality he chose the side of good, but

nevertheless, he was a demon. All three of these demons are brothers. If you

allow the first two into you heart, they will lead you into endless harm and

grief. If you let the third one dominate you, he will lead you into activities

and ways of living that are good. But, nevertheless, he will also keep you

immersed in delusion and forgetful of your true divine nature. If you want to

enter the kingdom of liberation, you must remove all three of these demons from

your heart. All three belong to the same demonic family. That is why the Vedanta

has been teaching that you must transcend the three qualities and offer them to

Lord Shiva. He will watch over them with his three

eyes and render them harmless with his three-forked trident. What is the best

way to remove these three qualities? If you are out in the wilds and a thorn

were to enter your foot. You need not take a big sharp knife to remove it. You

just take another thorn and remove the first with the second. Once that has

been accomplished, you throw away both thorns, without making any distinction

between them. In the same way you have to remove the tamas quality with the

help of the rajas quality. Then you have to remove rajas with the help of

satva. Finally, you give up satva also. Before you can enter into the kingdom

of God realization, you have to cast out all three of these qualities that keep

you bound up in delusion. That is why Krishna directed Arjuna to transcend all

three qualities. He warned Arjuna that he would have to make a maximum effort

and take great care to permanently

rid himself of these three qualities. After having taught Arjuna to recognize

these various qualities, Krishna showed him how to rise beyond them. In that

way, Krishna transformed Arjuna into a truly wise man. The primary cause of

these three qualities is the mind. It is impossible to transcend this human

nature and realize your divine nature until your mind loses its wavering nature

and becomes still. Therefore, the best way to transcend these qualities is to

offer your mind to the Lord. After you have offered your mind to him

completely, God will take care of you in all respects. Here is a small story to

illustrate this. King Janaka's Challenge to Gain Self-Knowledge Once upon a

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. 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 wants 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. 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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