Swami teaches... Mind can be broadened through the Divine contemplation

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches... 1- 3 May, 2006

Mind Can Be Broadened Through the Divine Contemplation

 

Is it possible to build a temple for God who pervades the entire Universe? Your heart is the temple

of God. Turn your vision inward and find Him there. God and the individual are not different; both are one. Lead your life with the feeling that you are Divine. A true human being is one who has the noble qualities of adherence to Truth, Duty, Devotion, Faith and Discipline. There is nothing greater than having the Divine Love for God what is connected all these noble qualities.

Right from an early age, students should develop devotion to God. It will be of immense help in old age. Start early, drive slowly and reach safely.. Take to the right path right from your young age; otherwise you are bound to repent in your old age. It is difficult to think of God in old age if person squanders precious time in worldly matters in the early stages of life. Their hand turns the rosary, mouth utters 'Ram, Ram, Ram,' but the mind wanders in the market, goes to the club and starts playing cards as they might have indulged in all this earlier in life. (Today also several the so-called elders are discouraging the young from taking to spiritual path).

 

Try to know yourself while you are alive. Contemplate on God till your last breath. That is your primary duty. Discharge your other duties also such as taking care of your family and children, but consider even that as God's work and treat all your family members as divine. All actions should be undertaken for the pleasure of God.

Saint Thyagaraja said, "O mind, tell me what gives the real happiness, is it nidhi (wealth) or the Eswara Sannidhi (the Divine proximity)?" Consider Sannidhi (proximity) as your Pennidhi (Great Treasure).

It is useful to remember that there is no need to talk about spirituality which all cannot understand. It is enough to hold on to the principle of Love in daily life. The principle of Love is the same in everybody. One's life will be redeemed once one know that he/she is the spark of the Divine..

To every human born on Earth Truth is the visible manifestation of God. The entire Cosmos composed of moving and immovable objects has emerged from Truth, isnsustained by Truth and merges in Truth.

The Upanishads, the Gita and the Puranas have all declared that there is no greater Dharma than

Truth and that victory goes to those who have Truth and Righteousness on their side.

Since times immemorial, Bharat has been the treasure house of spirituality and has been

radiating peace and serenity to all the other countries.Remember that Bharatiya culture transcends the limitations of time, space and circumstance. Endeavour to know its unique greatness.

Ancients pursued the four Purusharthas (goals of life) and shared the benefits and joys derived therefrom with others. Of the four Purusharthas - Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha - most of today's people have given up Dharma and Moksha and are only pursuing Artha (material welfare) and Kama (sensual desires). As a consequence, disorder and insecurity have grown in society. The loss of peace and security is the direct result of forgetting Truth and Righteousness.

The Upanishads have expounded the characteristics of Sathya (Truth). "In any circumstances do not give up Truth. Overcome all difficulties by adhering to Truth," is the teaching of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and other texts. "Sathyam vada; Dharmam chara" (Speak the Truth, pursue Righteousness).. This is the great pronouncement of the ancient Upanishads and scriptures of Bharatiyas. Truth and Righteousness are the stepping-stones to human greatness. The puranas have also declared: "Sathayameva Jayathe" (Truth alone triumphs). Victory adores Truth, "Sathyaanaasthi Paro Dharma" (There is no greater Dharma than Truth), declare the Puranas.

The same truth was revealed by Bhoodevi (the Goddess of the Earth) in context in the

Bhagavatha. Bhoodevi lamented: "Oh Lord! I can bear the burden of any number of sinners. But

I cannot bear to carry those who have betrayed Truth."

Students should understand and cherish Bharat's cultural heritage and to learn how to harmonise this ancient culture with the needs of the modern world and to lead lives governed by Truth and Righteousness. Position or power is not important. They are transient. One should not be proud about wealth, progeny or youthful vigour.

What is truth and what is untruth? What is permanent and what is temporary? What is good and what is bad?

It is not easy for all people to recognise the Truth about God. Socrates was condemned to death for turning the minds of the youth away from worldly concerns to spiritual matters. Socrates preferred to end his life by drinking poison received from the hands of his disciples rather than die at the jailor's hands. This means that more value was attached to spiritual purity than to the physical life.

The saint Thyagaraja lamented: "Oh Rama; the people do not understand the greatness of the Bhakti marga (path of devotion). People prefer the Bhukti marga (the path of enjoyment).

 

What is devotion? It is not doing japa or sitting in meditation or singing bhajans. Whatever you do

out of love for God is devotion. You may engage yourselves in the ordinary duties of life. Only

convert them into acts of worship by offering them to the Divine. The Vedas declare: Sarva karma Bhagavad preethyartham (whatever you do, do it with a desire to please God).

It is enough if you have God with you. All the worldly dharmas are like ten thousand naya paisas. A hundred rupee note is equal to ten thousand naya paisas. It is rather difficult to bundle up ten thousand naya paisas and carry them with you. So, offer all ten thousand 'naya paisas' to God. He will give you a 'hundred rupee note', which is light in weight and also safe and secure.

 

Srinatha was a great scholar and writer who was the Court poet of the Andhra ruler,Singabhupaala. He came to his brother-in-law, Pothana, who was living in poverty, and entreated him to dedicate his Bhagavatham to Singabhupaala. "If you dedicate your Bhagavatham to that ruler, he will reward you with all kinds of riches," said Srinatha. Pothana replied: "Sri Ramachandra is Lord above all kings. When I have Sri Ramachandra, the King of Kings, what need is there for me to submit to earthly rulers? It is God who offers spiritual benefits, earthly benefits and other benefits to everyone. Cannot the protector of so many countless beings, take care of me?" Pothana firmly held to this belief.

Provoked by Pothana's stubborn attitude and attributing it to Pothana's conceit, Srinatha conveyed his feelings to Singabhupala. The ruler became furious. He sent his soldiers to wrest the Bhagavatham from Pothana. Pothana was prepared even to give up his life, but would not surrender the Bhagavatham. On the orders of the ruler, his men set fire to Pothana's house. Pothana prayed: "Oh Sri Ramachandra! Will you not protect atleast your own life-story, apart from protecting your devotees?" Appealing to Sri Rama to protect the Bhagavatham, Pothana closed his eyes in meditation. Except the Bhagavatham, everything else was consumed by the flames.

Singabhupala heard about this remarkable phenomenon. From that moment he became a devotee

of Rama. It is only when one's devotion is firm, pure and unwavering that the Lord is ready to

extend every kind of protection.

 

Human should achieve physical health, mental satisfaction, and Atmic bliss. The body performs actions, the mind enquires, and the Atma remains a witness. These three are essential for the human life to blossom.

In what way should you live in the world? You should enjoy the world with a spiritual outlook. You should realise that you have come down from the Atma to the realm of Nature. Today the reverse view prevails among sadhaks.. They wrongly think that they are proceeding from Nature to the Spirit. You have emerged from the Atma and not evolved from Nature. You are the children of immortality. You are sparks of the Divine.

 

The mind, the senses and the body undergo decline, or development every moment and finally disintegrate and die. Like the Sun hidden by the clouds, embers covered by ash, the retina overlaid by cataract, the sheet of water veiled by moss, the consciousness is coated thick with likes and dislikes; how then can the splendour of Atma shine through?

 

There are only two entities' the Drsya (the seen), and the Drk (the See-er). Drk is Atma, Drsya is

the Creation. The Drk is Conscious; Drsya is inert. So long as human is immersed in the inert and

the See-er the Witness or the Atma is neglected or negatived, he/she cannot escape from distress and despair. The Rishis knew that the 'seen' cannot last or provide lasting joy. They renounced the lower cravings and the transitory comforts. Thyaga (renunciation) was, for them, the genuine Yoga (path to merge with the Divine).

There are three levels of Akasa (space) in human of which two are Drsya and the Drk is the third.

The first comprises the Earth, the solar system and billions of heavenly phenomena, reaching out

to stars whose light, though emanated, has not yet reached this globe. This physical space is

named Bhootha Akasa The second level subsumes the first and retains it in a miniature form. It

comprises the area cognised and imagined by the mind and is therefore named Chittha Akasa (mental space). Even this area is a dot when compared to the Akasa (space) enfolded by the Atma, named Chidaakasa (space of Awareness or Consciousness). The two other spaces are but tiny fragments to the See-er, the Atma, the Brahman. The human being has this journey, towards the Ananda that Chidaakasa can offer, as the precious prerogative. Worldly life is pravritti marga (outward path) and spiritual life is nivritti marga (inward path). The journey does not lead outward; it has to be inward, towards one's own Reality. (The musk deer runs around frantically in its search for the source of the fragrance that fascinates it. When at last it is too exhausted to continue, it discovers that the source has been within itself all along).

The human's body is a receptacle designed to keep safe a precious treasure. Legends announce

that cobras guard hidden treasures. The name of the cobra that prevents access to the priceless

treasure hidden in human is Aham (egoism), the fascination for oneself and for one's belongings. In order to reach and recover the Ananda treasure, human has first to destroy the snake of Aham.

Human expects Ananda in a career, in a job, in business or farming and believes that the satisfaction one derives from these was worthwhile. But, person can soon arrive at lasting Ananda, if his/her career is converted into sadhana, business is transformed into calm serenity and interest in farming is sublimated as cultivating devotion in the well ploughed weedless mental field.

Ananda is all around us and within us. It is own Ananda that person is receiving back. After a term of deep sleep, human declares that he/she had unbroken Ananda. The mind and the senses, even the faculty of reason, had no contact then with any object, nor did they have any impact from objects. So, the Ananda was derived, during sleep, from within own reality.

 

The sages who declare the uniqueness of this Ananda yearned to discover their Reality and to

identify that Reality with the Reality that projects, protects and absorbs the Cosmos; that is to say, to submerge their Truth in the Truth of Truths. This can happen only by Prajnana (total awareness), not by logic or reason.. The Vedic declaration "Prajnanam Brahma" (God is constant

Integrated Awareness) supports this conclusion.

Once human glimpses this, he/she can experience God in everything and everyone. "Everywhere His Foot and Hand, His Eye, Head and Face," is what the Gita states about Him. (Investigators do not visualise God in all that they study; they see the apparent, not the genuine. So they are misled into the realm of multiplicity, instead of being led into the all-comprehensive region of Atmic Light).

 

People complain of grief, sorrow, distress. It is a reaction to the loss of something gained or the failure to gain something desired. Therefore, the only way to escape grief, sorrow, etc., is to conquer desire for the illusory. See the world as God (Brahmamayam). That vision will scotch desire. When the desire is limited to God and concentrated on God, success is assured and each step contributes its Ananda.

 

During this Kali-yuga (age of the all round moral decline), two sadhanas (spiritual disciplines) are important - Naamam and Daanam.

1. Naamam means the name of the Lord. It must activate every thought, word and deed and render them full of Love. The name, the sound, is the material which can reveal the non-material, the jada which is the door to the awareness, the Chaitanya enshrined in it. This is the purpose of the sadhana-to recognise both the Kshetra (Field) and the Kshethrajna (the Master and Manipulator of the Field) as the Lord.

2. Daanam, the second sadhana, means gifting, caring and sharing. The gift of food to the hungry

gives immediate contentment and relieves the pangs of hunger. Annam Brahma (food is Divine)

says the Upanishad. Gifts are to be given without inflating the ego of the giver or deflating that of the receiver. They should be offered with understanding, humility and love.

 

Love is quality, essential for propitiating Divinity. People may argue that rituals performed meticulously are effective for the same purpose. But the scriptures themselves announce that ritual worship and rites can at best contribute only to the purification of one's mind and heart. Or, as the promise reads, the rites might raise the person to Heaven. But, one can be there, only as long as deposit of merit lasts.

Love is the most direct means of attaining God. Love is the prime feeling of human. All other feelings originate from the Divine Love. Once you understand this, you can understand the entire Universe. Love is within you. The whole world is within you. The power of Love is infinite. None can fathom its depth.

The Divine Love is Nirgunam, Niranjanam, Sanathana Niketanam, Nitya, Shuddha, Buddha, Mukta,

Nirmala Swarupinam (attributeless, pure, final abode, eternal, unsullied, enlightened, free and embodiment of sacredness). Such Divine Love is all-pervasive. Love is the magnet that attracts everybody. Love is the cause of attraction between us. You are not merely human beings; you are Virat purushas (Cosmic beings). There is limitless power in each one of you.

(Here is a small example to illustrate the nature of worldly love. When a young man gets married, he considers his wife as his very life for the first two or three months. If he happens to find a thorn on the way while going out for a walk, he pulls her aside immediately with great concern, fearing that it might prick her feet. After a period of six months, if the husband finds a thorn on the way while walking together, he merely cautions her. After one year if the same situation arises he will shout at her, saying, "Can't you see? There is a thorn on the road. Worldly love declines in this manner day by day, but the Divine love will never decline).

 

There are three obstacles which stand in the way of the full free flow of Love from human to God. They are human's inveterate foes - desire, anger and greed. Fortunately ancients in Bharat have devised three holy texts which, when assimilated, can equip human to confront and conquer these wily enemies. They are the Ramayana, the Mahabharatha and the Bhagavatha.

The Divine Love and Peace cannot prevail in the individual and society until he/she develops faith in the Unity of mankind, in spite of the apparent differences. One has to renounce all thoughts of difference and derive delight from the Vision of the One, in the tiniest and the most tremendous of the God's Glory. The saint Thyagaraja recognised the omnipresence of the Divine in everything from the smallest to the vastest. That was why Thyagaraja sang: "Oh Rama! May the Brahmam, which is present as love in the ant and in the Supreme, protect me!"

 

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 20. "Shivoham," Chapter 5; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 23. "Sathyam vada; Dharmam chara," Chapter 8 and Vol. 23. "The Glory of Bharat," Chapter 9; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 32, part 1. "Royal Path to Divinity," Chapter 10; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 33. "Love Can Unite The Entire World," Chapter 14).

 

 

Namaste - Reet