Swami teaches... Education, spirituality and five life principles as life-style

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches... 26 - 28 April 2006

Education, Spirituality and Five Life Principles as Life-style

 

Studies are the roots of the tree of life. (The tree of life is dried up if the roots are eaten up by greed or envy or hate. Education must train children to love, to co-operate, to be brave in the cause of truth, to be helpful, to be sympathetic and to be grateful). The aim of all study should be the cultivation of good qualifies, the development of virtuous habits, the raising of the standard of values, of one's own self-respect. The real subject of study for people is the study of the means of ending death and birth.

The attachments which the individual develops towards kith and kin, the objects of the world, the ideals and the goals, the fancies and fashions - all these form the branches and twigs. The blossoms which the tree produces are the intelligence and its manifestations. The blossoms yield the fruit of Ananda (Joy, Bliss).

The fruit of Ananda confers the sweetness called character. The essence of character is virtue. It is in virtue that the tree of life justifies itself. The root of education fulfils itself in the fruit of virtue. Taps the very spring of eternal Joy and Strength and Wisdom. That is the path of spiritual discipline, steady intellectual and moral discipline. That is the basic, the essential study. The cultured person is the person who has cultured the spirit, not the person who caters to the senses and enslaves himself to their attractions.

When the buddhi (intellect) is thus transmuted, human attains siddhi (fulfilment). The mind has to be hale and hearty, joyous and peaceful, free from agitations and worries. That can be done by the recitation of some holy name or the performance of some holy act which conduces to welfare. This is the study that will confer lasting joy. When moral discipline is absent, human reduces into a brute.

Largely modern education is incomplete and even ineffective if the educated have not known the Reality or at least the means of knowing it. The means of knowing it is to cleanse the intelligence of delusion and deluding prejudices. To cleanse the intelligence, virtue has to be practised, along with reverence, humility and detachment. That is the message of Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Universal Religion), which is the precious gem in the necklace of Mother India. Years ago, the copy books in primary schools had the lines, "Jayaraam Jayaraam Jai Jai Raam,Suddha Brahma Paraathpara Raam," introducing the children to the glory of the Name of the Lord and the Brahmic substratum of all creation.

(Now, they are taught to sing, "Ding dong bell, pussy is in the well" or, "Baa, Baa, Black sheep, have you any wool?" reducing them to the level of sheep or pussies. The sense of human dignity is destroyed by this tinsel type of education).

 

Spirituality is a way of life. It is not something separate from life. In order to acquire a worldly degree, you need to study various subjects. But in spirituality there is only one subject and that is love. Human birth is gifted to serve others, not just to eat, drink, sleep, and make merry. The highest sadhana (spiritual practise) is to transform love into service. Human should make proper use of mathi (intellect), gathi (destination), stithi (situation), and sampathi (wealth). Wealth here does not mean worldly treasures. It refers to the power of the senses. This power should be utilised for service of society.

Love is most important in life. Whatever you may say with love, it is bound to be true. Any work you undertake with love is dharma.

Only love has been constantly with you right from birth. It is love that remains with you all the time, not your relatives or friends. This love is God. Love is the binding force that brings together the entire world as one family. Absence of love is the root cause for all the unrest in the world. (Modern youth do have love, but their love is artificial. It is limited up to saying "hello, hello," and is in fact hollow within).

 

Human can rise to the level of the Divine through the path of service. It is the best way to understand the innate Divinity. Service should be for self-satisfaction, not for name and fame. Experience the bliss that you derive from selfless service. Share it with others. Before serving others, serve yourself by making your mind broad and pure.

When human is not able to understand humanness, how can he/she understand Divinity? The difference between God and human is very subtle. Human and God are not two different entities; they are nearly one and the same. (By today's modern science human is a holographic pattern of Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness). As long as you do not understand the truth about your real Self, you remain a human being. Once you recognise it, you are God.

The Divine power latent in human in the form of human's consciousness is not found in any other being on the Earth. Since human is unable to understand own Divine nature, he/she is undertaking various spiritual practices such as penance, meditation, and yoga which are as pinpointers towards the Divine Self.

 

Life on this world is a bubble that is formed in a second and bursts the next second. It is a fair, that lasts a portion of a day. The entire career of a person starts and finishes in a matter of two hours. All the pomp and parahernalia that human seeks and flourishes are of the stuff of dreams. Some of you reading the serial "Swami teaches..." You feel that this is true. But, how long is this true? So long as you are in the waking stage. This night, when you start dreaming, the dream is as real to you as all this. Both are dreams, a night dream and a day dream. Only one idea is permanent, throughout the dream, the deep sleep and the waking, the idea of the 'I.' That 'I' is the truth and nothing else.

The question may arise, if there is only one 'I', which is the Eternal and the Absolute, why do all

the individuals have different experiences? The newly educated worry themselves with such

questions. For, the same current activates the fan and gives air, illumines the bulb and gives light, heats the stove and cooks, moves the wheel around and works the machine. The instruments are different, but, the inner energiser is the same. Have a powerful bulb, and the light is strong. Change it, it is dim. Name and form are not essential; the inner current is the truth.

Who is this 'I' that seeks happiness and is happy or is not happy? "Who are you?" Why should the body be kept in good trim? Why should human be fed, clothed and housed comfortably? Why should human live well or rather, live at all? Try to think of answers to these questions and enquire into this.

You are the master. Master the mind and be a mastermind. Body, mind and intellect are mere instruments. (Identifying yourself with these instruments is absurd).

Human life is a journey from 'I' to 'We'. This journey is subtle and the goal is very near, but human takes many births to reach the destination. Why should human take such a long time, undergoing hardships, to attain the goal, which is so near?

What is called modern civilisation might give a little more comfort, health and personal happiness, but real mental strength and peace are absent in it. Only virtue and truth can award these two. Modern youth are making every effort to know all that is happening in the world but are not making any effort to understand the fundamental truth of human life. There are thousands of intellectuals, scholars, and eminent educationists in the world today. But all the worldly knowledge and skills will be a mere waste if one does not know oneself. First, know thyself, your Divine Self.

Five life principles (pancha pranas) have to be observed for realising the Divinity. They are: Ahimsa (Nonviolence, Noninjury), Sathya (Truth), Soucham (Purity), Daya (Compassion) and Asthikyam (Faith in God).

 

Nonviolence (Ahimsa): It is a supreme virtue. But, in daily life, almost at every step some harm

or other is being caused. When we breathe in or breathe out, countless microbes perish. Complete nonviolence is not a practicable ideal. What should be ensured is that there is no deliberate causing

of injury or harm to anyone.

 

Truth (Sathya): Truth is Divine. Where there is Truth there is Divinity..

By Ramayana Dushyanta forgot that he had given a ring to Sakuntala when he met her near the sage Kanva's ashram, Sakuntala declared in the open court of the king that Truth was the supreme Dharma and a king should uphold truth at any cost. While the king was ruminating over this exhortation to uphold truth, some fishermen brought to the king a ring which they had found in a fish caught by them. The king then remembered the incidents that happened when he had gone for hunting near sage Kanva's ashram, his encounter with Sakuntala and the ring he had exchanged with her. He accepted Sakuntala as his queen and the child born to them was Bharata, after whom India has been named.

 

Purity (Soucham): Both internal and external purity are essential. Ancients Indians used clay for cleaning the body. In naturopathy mud bath is used for the treatment of many physical ailments.

The importance of physical cleanliness could be illustrated from a story in the Mahabharata. Once, the disciple of a Guru, after completing his studies, requested the Guru to state what he would like to receive as Guru-dakshina (offering) from the disciple. The Guru asked the disciple to offer the earrings worn by a certain queen. The disciple ascertained who the queen was and went to the king to inform him of the mission on which he had come.. The king permitted him to visit the queen's apartments to make his request.

But he could not see the queen anywhere and reported his failure to the king. The king then told

him that no person who was physically and mentally impure could see the queen. The disciple then went through a process of purification and was able to see the queen.

 

Compassion (Daya): Daya is not mere display of kindness or sympathy to someone in distress. It calls for complete identification with the suffering experienced by another and relieving that

suffering as a means of relieving the agony experienced by him/herself.

There is the story of a calf which was caught up in a slushy pond while trying to reach a small

pool of water. A crowd of urchins were watching with glee the plight of the calf which was unable to move forward because of the slush. An ascetic who was passing by saw the plight of the calf and taking it out of the mud, carried it on his back to the pool of water. The urchins asked him why he had done this, while they were watching to see how the calf was going to get near the water. The sanyasi told them that the sight of the struggling calf caused him great anguish and to relieve himself of his agony, he had gone to the relief of the calf. You must feel you are helping yourself when you are helping another.

 

Faith in God (Asthikyam): Faith in God implies recognition of the omnipresence, of the Divine

in the Universe and seeking to experience that Divinity within one's Self. All troubles should be treated as tests and challenges to be faced with courage and faith.

As example of the test Swami has performed His Great Miracle many years ago. He was very seriously ill eight days. He told that He has taken illness on, in order to save the devotee. He added that this had to happen, this stroke and the cure. He revived and cured Himself by sprinkling water during the Darshan. Swami also declared on the very day when He decided to disclose His Identity, His Mission and His Advent, that He belonged to the Code of conduct and the Bharadhwaja Gothra (lineage).

 

This Bharadhwaja was a great sage, who studied the Vedas for full one hundred years; but, finding that the Vedas were endless he did thapas for prolonging life, and from Indhra he got two extensions of a century each. Even then, the Vedas could not be completed, so, he asked Indra (the Lord of Demigods and King of heavenly planets) again for another hundred years. Indhra showed him 3 huge mountain ranges and said, "What you have learned in 3 centuries form only 3 handfulIs from out of the 3 ranges, which the Vedas are. So, give up the attempt to exhaust the Vedas. Do a yaga (ritual sacrifice), instead, which I shall teach you: that will give you the fruit of Vedic study, full and complete."

Bharadhwaja decided on performing the yaga; Indra taught him how to do it; all preparations

were completed. The sage wanted that Shakthi (Consort of Shiva, also vital core, power) must preside and bless the yaga. He went to Kailaasa (Shiva's mountain abode). Shiva and Shakthi were engaged in a competitive dance, trying to find out who could dance longer. Eight days passed thus, before Shakthi noticed Bharadhwaja standing in the cold. She just cast a smile at him and danced along as before! The sage mistook the smile as a cynical refusal to notice him. He found his left leg, hand and eye put out of action by a stroke. Shiva saw him fall; He came up to him and consoled him. Shiva revived him and cured him, sprinkling water from the Kamandalu. Both Shiva and Shakthi granted the sage boons: They would both attend the yaga, they said.

After the yaga was over, Shiva said that They would take human form and be born in the Bharadhwaja Gothra (lineage) thrice: Shiva alone as Shirdi Sai Baba, Shiva and Shakthi together as Sathya Sai Baba and Shakthi alone as Prema Sai, later. Then Shiva remembered the illness that had suddenly come upon Bharadhwaja at Kailaasa on the eighth day of the waiting in the cold on the ice. He gave another assurance. "As expiation for the neglect which Shakthi showed you at Kailaasa for 8 days, this Shakthi will suffer the stroke for 8 days, when We both take birth as Sathya Sai and, on the 8th day, I shall relieve her from all signs of the disease by sprinkling water, just as I did at Kailaasa to cure your illness."

By this way the assurance given in the Thretha Yuga had to be honoured. So too, the disease had to be gone through, the bhaktha had to be saved, the assurance to be carried out, the mystery had to be cleared, the Divinity had to be more clearly announced by the manifestation of this Grand Miracle. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 3. "Shiva Shakthi," Chapter 15; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6. "Studies," Chapter 25 and "To the Students," Chapter 26; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 19. "Purity and Unity," Chapter 9 and "Spiritual Pancha Sheela," Chapter 11; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 32, part 2. "Youth should transform the world," Chapter 12).

 

PS: The spelling by Glossary Vahinis: http://www.sathyasai.org/refs/vahiniglossary/tentries.htm

 

Namaste - Reet