Swami teaches... The spirit has to emanate from the heart

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Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches...

The Spirit Has to Emanate From the Heart

 

The Motto - Parable

 

Granite stones are everywhere

But you have to search for diamonds.

 

Differences in beliefs and cultural practices among people are well-known. Although climatic

conditions may be the same in the various regions of the world, the ways of living and practices

of people are diverse. It is not a defect but an ornament.

 

India is the birthplace of the Vedas and of the Sastras, epics and Puranas that have elaborated the principles enunciated therein for the education of the common person. It is the nursery of music and other fine arts, inspired by the noble passion of consecrating human skills for adoring the Divine and communicating the supersensuous. It is the staff and sustenance of the mystic and the ascetic, the intellectual and the dynamic adorer of God; it is the field where the science of Yoga was cultivated and systematised..

(The intuitive vision of the highly sensitive inner eye of the Indian yogis was able to discover

many secrets of the Universe and to peep into the past or the future, as far as they desired. Indian yogi has predicted more than five thousand years ago that India will free itself from the rule of a strange race from the far west, in the year Nandha. India achieved independence from

Western rule in the year Nandha. The Bihar earthquake was accurately foretold two years previously, by the Indian astrologers. This prediction has based on intuitive spiritual experience).

 

The duty of Indians is to foster these traits and sow among human communities the seeds of love, so that they may grow and fill the world with the fragrant blooms of tolerance and reverence. No country can play its role alone and unrelated to the others on the world stage. One bloodstream circulates through all the limbs; one Divine principle circulates through all the lands and peoples.

The transformation of the world is related to the transformation of the individual. The world will change when the individual changes. We tend to attach importance to the external forms of social institutions. We lay stress on the conditions prevailing in the political, economic, social and environmental spheres. Changes in these spheres alone are not enough. Mental and spiritual transformation is more essential.

Whatever one's education, position or intelligence, every one desires two things. To achieve greatness and wishes to be a good individual. No one wishes to be lowly and despised.

( What is the difference between a great person and a good person? Greatness is based on worldly attributes. The great person is able to attract people. The good person tries to sustain him/herself by own efforts. The great person enjoys many luxuries and amenities. The good person experiences the bliss of the Divine. Greatness is often associated with persons who have likes and dislikes, attachments and hatred and who have an inflated ego. Goodness expresses itself in pure joy and unselfish service to others. Greatness has a rajasic quality. Goodness bears a satwic quality).

 

Education, wealth and strength are necessary for everyone. But the value of each of them depends on the way you use it. When a good person gets the benefit of education, it ripens into wisdom. But when a bad person gets educated, he/she gets immersed in disputations and education itself gets polluted. When a good person gets wealth, it is used for charity and righteous causes. But wealth in the hands of a bad person promotes arrogance and pride and ultimately causes person's downfall. Strength in a good person enables to help the weak and serve the society. Strength in a wicked person encourages to cause harm to people and harass the weak. Thus education, wealth and physical prowess derive their value from the way they are used.

 

Knowledge is said to be acquired when you pursue the analytical method and divide things,

feelings, experiences into categories, pleasant and unpleasant, harmful and beneficial, lasting and

temporary. The higher knowledge however unifies, it makes one aware of the one which appears

as many, it reveals the truth, on which falsehood is superimposed. To discover this truth, the

classic texts have laid down two codes of discipline, one external and the other internal - the

outer and the inner. The outer is nishkama-karma (desireless activity) - activity that is engaged

in as dedication and worship; or, activity that is gladly carried out, from a sense of duty, regardless of the benefit that may accrue, with no attachment to the fruits thereof. The inner is dhyana (meditation on the splendour of which one is but a spark). Karma (activity) has to be regulated by dharma (righteousness) then it will lead one on to Brahman (the basic truth of the Universe, including oneself).

 

The Vedas have declared: "Tath Twam Asi,Aham Brahma-asmi,So-Ham" ("Thou art that,I am Brahman,I am He"). The first sutra (aphorism) in the Brahma Sutras declares: "Athhatho Brahma Jignaasa" (Then thereafter seek to know the Brahman). The Vedic dictum, "So-Ham," is confirmed by the inhaling and exhaling that go on in everyone. But no one believes in it. People believe in the films, in novels and newspapers and many other sources. But one does not believe in the truth of own Atma (Self). As a result, human is growing weaker and losing humanness because of the, lack of faith in own Self.

The cosmic Divine Lord is governed by Truth. That Truth is governed by a Uthama (supremely wise person). Such a noble being is the very embodiment of God. (Do not bend and cringe and barter your self-respect. Do not believe that you are this little lump of body. You are the indestructible, immortal Atma, of the same nature as the Absolute Reality, Brahman itself).

All are ostensibly engaged in the pursuit of Truth, many are devoting their time to God. They go on

pilgrimages. But even in these trips, not all of them concentrate their thoughts on God for a few moments. They don't make any internal enquiry.

To seek the Truth and experience God, there is no obligatorily need to go out anywhere. By going to a forest or visiting temples, the inner being is not purified. Renouncing all worldly things, one must explore own inner life. This prescription of sacrifice is what the Vedas recommended for attaining immortality.

Renunciation of desires is not a virtue that can be got by a message from others or as a result of prodding by someone. However many books you may read, or discourses you may listen to, or advice you may receive, the spirit of renunciation has to emanate from the heart within you. (Buddha's father, Suddhodana, tried every conceivable means to prevent his son from developing detachment. But he could not prevent Buddha from renouncing the kingdom and family and leading the life of a renunciant).

 

The greatest formula that can liberate, cleanse and elevate the mind is the name of Rama. (However, Rama is not to be identified with the hero of the Ramayana, the Divine offspring of Emperor Dasharatha. He was named Rama by the Court Preceptor who said that he had chosen that name since it meant, "He who pleases.") Rama is the free universal Self who pleases. The Self is therefore referred to as Atma-Rama, the Self that confers unending joy.. Rama, the mystic potent sound, is born in the navel and it rises up to the tongue and dances gladly thereon.

To realise one's own true Self is Liberation or Moksha. It does not mean attaining some Divine state. Divinity is within you. From this aspect there is no need for any search or for any sadhana. Whatever you do, do it as an offering to God. Do not make a distinction between "my work" and "God's work." When you make a division, you give rise to enmity, because of differences.

Practice is more essential than the mere acquisition of knowledge. Charles Webster Leadbeater, influential theosophical writer (1847?or 1854? -1934) has declared that the correct recital of the Gayatri Mantra with the orthodox modulation of the voice and the higher, lower and even accents can produce experienceable and authentic illumination, whereas incorrect pronunciation and wrong accent result in thickening the darkness. Therefore, instead of scoffing at the disciplines of recitals, meditations, prayers, formulary worship and mantra-utterances, their values have to be accepted and their results tested and confirmed by practice and exercise.

How is one to seek the knowledge of the Brahman? This quest can begin after one has acquired knowledge of Dharma - that is, after the stage of Dharma Jijnasa (the Knowledge of Karma) has been

completed. When is Dharma Jijnasa accomplished? When Karma Jijnasa, the knowledge of Karma, has been mastered? There are three stages. Karma Jijnasa (Knowledge of Karma) Dharma Jijnasa (Knowledge of Dharma) and Brahma Jijnasa (Knowledge of Brahman). This means the progress is from Karma to Dharma and from Dharma to Brahman. Dharma is the basic goal of life. Dharma will compel integration of thought, word and deed.

Like underground water, the Divine is there, in everyone, remember. He is the Atma i.e. Brahman of every being. He is not more in a rich being or bigger in a fat being. The sun shines equally on all; His Grace is falling equally on all. It is only you that erect obstacles that prevent the rays of His Grace from warming you.

 

Kali Yuga is the age of discord. The world is faced with such dangers from man-made calamities. One of these is the thinning of the ozone layer above the Earth. As a result, there is the threat of fire disasters. There is discord everywhere - between husband and wife, between preceptor and pupil, and in every other relationship. What is the reason for this discord? The absence of mutual trust. No one trusts another. As a result, hatred and bitterness are growing in the social, ethical, political, economic and every other field. There is discord even in the scientific field. The lack of trust has blinded people towards each other. People have belief in things which should not be believed, but do not believe that which they ought to believe.

Now most worship and rituals are for the better comfort and more luxurious consumption of the worshipper him/herself. Devotion has been vulgarised into a business deal. I shall give you so much, provided you give me so much in return. If that shrine promises more, this shrine is given up; if even there, you do not get quick returns, somewhere else, some other God might be more profitable. That is the way in which worldly people wander about in their panicky rounds. Today's aspirants

treat the heart as a musical chair. They go on from one "Swami" to another and shift from one kind of sadhana to another. Of what avail is this kind of merry-go-round?

 

In every human, animality, humanness and Divinity are present. Human, unlike an animal, is endowed with a mind, which confers on him/her Vicharana Shakthi (the power to enquire into the how and why of things). This Divinity has to manifest itself from within. It has to be realised by own efforts.. The Atmic Principle is based on an internal source.

Seeds of the search for Bliss are dormant in the hearts of people. Some nurture them; some tend them, until they blossom. Many have not recognised their existence; they cultivate thorns and thistles, trees yielding bitterness and ugly hate.

Human is not merely a creature thrown up by nature in the process of an evolutionary gamble. Individual has a special meaning, a special mission, a unique role. Human is a child of immortality, set in the background of this mortal world, in this mortal flame. Human's mission is to merge in the God from whom he/she has emerged. Heaven is not a supra-terrestrial region of perpetual Spring; it is an inner experience, a state of supreme bliss.

 

There are four kinds of temples: One, Vidyalaya (the Temple of Learning); second, Bhojanalaya

(the Temple of Food); third, Vaidyalaya (the Temple of Healing) and Devalaya (the Temple of

God). All the four are equally places of worship for human. But because of the infirmities in human

nature, they are not all treated alike. People go to a Bhojanalaya (hotel), eat whatever food they

like and come out happy. They go to a Vaidyalaya (hospital), relate their illness to the doctor,

and receive the prescribed medicines. In a hospital you can only ask for medical treatment. When you go to a Vidyalaya (an educational institution) you must seek only knowledge in the subjects you are interested in. When people go to a Devalaya (temple of God) they do not always conduct themselves properly. Instead of concentrating the mind on the Divine, the mind is allowed to wander hither and thither and think about useless mundane affairs. With the result that people tend to forget that if they secure the grace of God all other things will be accomplished easily.

 

Devotion to God is not to be calculated on the basis of the institutions one has started or helped,

the temples one has built or renovated, the donations one has given away, nor does it depend on

the number of times one has written the Name of the Lord or on the time and energy one has

spent in the worship of the Lord. These are not vital at all, no, not even secondary. Devotion is

Divine Love, unsullied by any tinge of desire for the benefit that flows from it or the fruit or

consequence of that love. It is love that knows no particular reason for its manifestation. It is of the nature of the love of the soul for the Oversoul; the river for the sea; the creeper for the tree,

the star for the sky, the spring for the cliff down which it flows. It is not the pickle, which only lends a twang to the tongue and helps you to consume a little more of the food. It is an unchanging attitude, a desirable bent of the mind, standing steady through joy and grief. For the Divine Bliss comes through knowledge of the Self; the Devotee is the true witness.

 

Krishna Chaitanya once went to the temple of Jagannath, at Puri. He was a handsome youth at

that time. He addressed Lord Jagannath in these terms: "Oh Lord! You are not merely Jagannath

(the Lord of the world). You are the Lord of all the worlds, of the Cosmos, the Lord of Life, the

Lord of the Spirit, the Lord of all embodied beings. You can accomplish anything. I do not seek

from you the powers of yoga or physical strength. I seek only the power of your Love. Your love

will give me all the strength I need. It will be my real strength."

Hence the only strength we should seek from God is the strength of love.. With that strength all the powers can be acquired. Chaitanya declared that: "The Lord is the indweller in my heart" because according to the Lord's own declaration, "My Atma abides in all beings as the indwelling Spirit." He is present everywhere in the Cosmos. He is timeless. You must try to develop the awareness of this omnipresent Divine in your heart. You must consult your conscience and find out whether your devotion is genuine. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 4. "Amrithasya Puthraah," Chapter 12; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 8. " Unity in unity," Chapter 17 and "Name, the never-failing fountain," Chapter 18; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 21. "Wealth Or Grace?" Chapter 20 and "The Great and The Good," Chapter 22; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 26. "Through Self-enquiry to Self-realisation," Chapter 11).

Namaste - Reet