Sai Baba Gita – Part III

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Om Sri Sai Ram

 

  SAI BABA GITA – Part III

 

  The Way to Self-Realization and Liberation in this

Age

 

  Part One

 

  II. Surrender - Transformation of Man into God

  Krishna declared in the Gita, "If you surrender

yourself fully to

me and take shelter in me, you will be protected by

me. I will drive

away your sins and guide you towards

self-realization." You must

treasure this statement in your heart. Steadfastly

follow the path of

surrender to the Lord and he will look after you and

take you to him.

  Embodiments of Love,

  God's power is immeasurable and unlimited. The huge

diversity you

see when you look out at the universe is all the

result of the

illusory power of God. The physical universe visible

to your human

eyes is just a very small part of the infinite power

of the Lord. All

the worlds can be covered by a fraction of the foot of

the Lord. It

is impossible to understand the greatness of the Lord.

He pervades

the entire universe, gross and subtle. No place exists

where he is

not.

  The Universe

  The universe is the body of God. He has embodied

himself in the

creation. To understand the divine principle on which

the universe

rests, you can begin by considering the vast size of

the universe.

The moon is hundreds of thousands of miles away from

the earth. The

sun is many tens of millions of miles away. Even the

nearest of stars

is millions upon millions of miles away; and beyond

that, in the

furthest reaches of the visible universe, there are

stars that are

still billions of times further away. But, all of

this, which

constitutes the physical universe, and which to our

limited view is

so infinitely vast, is only the minutest part of the

subtle universe.

Compared to this subtle universe, the whole grand

physical universe

is no more than the size of an atom.

  The subtle universe, which is so indescribably huge

when compared

to the physical universe, is itself only a microscopic

part of a

much, much vaster aspect of the universe, which can be

described as

the causal universe. It is known as the causal

universe because it is

out of this finest aspect that the gross and subtle

worlds arise. All

of these three worlds, the physical, the subtle (or

mental), and the

causal, are so enormously big, the scriptures have

declared that they

cannot possibly be understood by the human mind or

depicted in words.

They are beyond the imagination, beyond the ability of

the mind to

grasp. And yet beyond all these, transcending the

gross, the subtle

and the causal, is the divine principle, the ultimate

cause of all.

 

  God is beyond the gross, the subtle and the causal.

But, as Lord,

he rules over all of them. He is the master of time,

past, present

and future. Human beings have been given limited

capacities and may

find it very difficult to understand this divine

principle. In that

case, the easiest path to follow is the path of

devotion. This is

what Krishna taught Arjuna. Krishna described the path

of devotion in

three steps.

  ·         First and foremost is: Work for God! ­

You may not be

aware of it, but every bit of work you do is already

being done for

God. He is the supreme master of this world and

everything in this

world belongs to him. Knowing this, consciously make

every action you

undertake an offering to God. Devote all your labors

to him, while

being ever mindful that God is not outside of you.

  ·         The second step is: For the sake of God

alone! ­ Up

to this point you have been thinking only about

yourself. But who are

you? Who is this I that you use to refer to yourself?

Krishna

said, "It is I who am shining in you." This word I

does not belong to

the body, neither to your own body nor to Krishna's.

This I emanates

from the highest self, the immortal self, the atma.

This I should not

be equated with the body or the mind or the intuitive

faculty or any

other aspect of the individual. It transcends the

limited personal

self of the individual. This I relates only to the

unlimited,

impersonal self, the divine self, which is the real

self of everyone.

  The limited personal self by calling itself "I", has

associated

itself with the universal. But the personal self is

not the real

self. It is merely a reflection of the one immortal,

divine self.

Whatever you have been doing has been for the

satisfaction of the

divine self alone. Not realizing this sacred truth,

you have been

caught up and swept away by delusion. Krishna told

Arjuna, "Whatever

you do, do it for my satisfaction, for my sake. Do

everything you do

for me. Perform all your actions on my behalf. Act as

my agent." This

me or my or I which Krishna is speaking of, is not God

outside of

yourself. It refers to the atma, your divine self. Do

everything you

do for the sake of God alone, who is none other than

your highest

self.

  ·         The third step is: Be devoted only to God!

­

Understand the inner secret of this directive.

Devotion is the

expression of love, and the emotion which is called

love emanates

from God, your highest self. Love comes from God and

is directed

towards God.

  Love has nothing at all to do with worldly feelings

and secular

things. Love, which is just another word for devotion,

is the very

name of your highest self. This principle of love

emanating from the

core of your heart must saturate every action, word

and thought. This

will happen when you think that everything you do, say

or think is

for the satisfaction of God alone.

  Your Highest Self is God

  In the waking state, you may think that you are

doing everything

for the sake of your body and mind. But in deep sleep

you are not

conscious of your body or your mind. Then for whose

sake are you

enjoying the rest and peace of sleep? It is for the

sake of yourself.

Sleeping, taking food, all the various activities of

your daily life,

are performed only out of love for yourself. You

believe that you are

doing all these for your personal self which you

experience to be

separate from God, but the I that you call yourself

really emerges

from your highest self which is no different from God.

Whatever you

do out of love for yourself reaches your highest self

and, therefore,

reaches God. So you must do everything with the

awareness that

whatever action you undertake, good or bad, will

certainly reach God.

Devotion means making all your actions sacred and

dedicating them to

God alone.

  In the ancient scripture we find a conversation

between a sage and

his wife in which the sage explained these inner

meaning to his wife.

He said to her, "For whose sake are you loving me? If

you examine

your deepest intentions you will discover that it is

for your self.

The wife does not love the husband for the husband's

sake. It is for

herself that she loves the husband and that self is

the true self,

her highest self. You may think that the mother loves

the child for

the sake of the child, but it is not so. It is for

herself that she

loves the child. Again, it is for her highest self.

You may feel that

the teacher loves the student for the student's sake,

but it is

really for the teacher's sake that he loves the

student. Similarly,

the devotee does not love God for God's sake; it is

really for

himself that he loves God."

  When the devotee feels the deep joy of love for God,

he believes it

is his personal self that is feeling this joy. And so

his love for

God is tinged with selfishness. But, God's love for

the devotee is

totally different. God's love for the devotee is not

selfish. It is

only for the devotee's sake. Herein lies an important

hidden truth

which can be found behind every spiritual practice.

God has no sense

of individuality or separation. He does not feel that

some things are

his and others are not his. When there exists a

feeling of difference

and individuality, then selfishness and the sense of

I-ness and my-

ness arise. But God does not limit himself to any

particular form. He

has no separate feeling of mine and thine. He has no

selfishness.

These three injunctions, "Work for God!... For the

sake of God

alone!... Be devoted only to God!..." are given for

your sake. They

are not given for the benefit of God but for your

benefit. They are

intended to help you realize your true self by

removing all traces of selfishness and separation

which becloud your

truth and keep you from being one with God.

  The Unlimited Power of God

  If you want a little breeze you may take a hand-fan

and wave it so

that you get a little air. On the other hand, when

there is a

powerful whirlwind you find very big waves crashing

against the shore

of the ocean and even huge trees being uprooted. The

breeze you can

get from a hand-fan will be very limited, but the

power of God is

tremendous; it is unlimited. Consider some other

examples. When you

try to draw water from a well, you can draw only a

very small

quantity. But when there is a heavy downpour, streams

will become

rushing rivers which join together in one great flood.

One comes from

the limited power of man, the other comes from the

unlimited power of

God.

  Take the example of wanting some light in your

house. You may light

a candle or switch on an electric lamp. But at dawn

when the sun

rises, the whole city and forest will soon be flooded

with the sun's

light. The little light of your lamp is very weak

compared to the

splendor of the sun, shining magnificently everywhere.

Again, this is

the unlimited power of God, compared to the limited

power of man. How

can you reach this unlimited power of God? How can the

limited

capacity of a human being be transformed into the

unlimited capacity

of God? The means is surrender.

  The Lord has declared in the Gita, "I will destroy

all your sins

and raise you to the supreme position which is my

own." How can that

happen? The physical world that you see with your

human eyes is the

gross aspect of the universe. When this gross aspect

takes a subtle

form in the mind you have the subtle universe. And

when the mental

takes a still finer and more subtle form in the heart,

then you have

the causal universe. The infinite Lord is beyond all

these. He is the

biggest of the big, but he takes the form of the

smallest of the

small, and installs himself in the very heart of the

devotee, deep in

the causal aspect. The wonderful truth is that such a

vast, unlimited

and powerful Lord allows himself to be imprisoned in

the heart of the

devotee. Here is a story to illustrate this.

  The Devotee is even greater than God

  Once upon a time, sage Narada came into the presence

of the Lord.

The Lord asked him, "Narada, in all your travels

through the world

have you been able to discover the principal secret of

the universe?

Have you been able to understand the mystery behind

this world?

Everywhere you look you see the five great elements,

earth, water,

fire, air and ether. Which do you think occupies the

first place? Of

everything that is to be found in the universe what is

the most

important of all?"

  Narada thought for awhile and then answered, "Lord,

of the five

elements the densest, biggest and most important is

surely the earth

element." The Lord answered, "How can the earth

element be biggest

when three-fourths of the earth is covered by water

and only one-

fourth is land? Such a big earth is being swallowed by

the water.

What is bigger, the thing that is being swallowed or

that which is

swallowing it?" Narada acknowledged that water must be

bigger because

it had swallowed the Earth.

  The Lord continued his questioning. He said, "But

Narada, we have

the ancient tale that when the demons hid in the

waters, then in

order to find them, a great sage came and swallowed up

the whole

ocean in one gulp. Do you think the sage is greater or

the ocean is

greater?" Narada had to agree that without doubt the

sage was

certainly greater than the water he had swallowed.

"But," continued

the Lord, "it is said that when he left his earthly

body, this same

sage became a star in the heavens. Such a great sage

is now appearing

only as a small star in the vast expanse of the sky.

Then what do you

think is bigger; is it the sage or is it the sky that

is bigger?"

Narada answered, "Swami, the sky is surely bigger than

the sage."

Then the Lord asked, "Yet we know that one time when

the Lord came as

avatar and incarnated in a dwarf-body, he expanded

himself so hugely

that he was able to cover both the earth and the sky

with his one

foot. Do you think God's foot is bigger or the sky?"

"O,

God's foot is certainly bigger," Narada replied. But,

the Lord

asked, "If God's foot is so big, then what about his

infinite form?"

  Now, Narada felt that he had come to the final

conclusion. "Yes,"

he said exultantly, "the Lord is the biggest of all.

He is infinite

beyond measure. In all the worlds there is nothing

greater than he."

But the Lord had still one more question. "What about

the devotee who

has been able to imprison this infinite Lord within

his own heart?

Now tell me, Narada, who is greater, the devotee who

has the Lord

locked up or the Lord who is locked up by the

devotee?" Narada had to

admit that the devotee was even greater than the Lord,

and that,

therefore, the devotee must rank first in importance

over everything,

surpassing even the Lord.

  You can bind God with the Power of Love

  Such an enormous power which can bind even God, is

within the scope

of every devotee. Whatever be the immensity and

capacity of any

power, however magnificent it may be, if it is bound

by something

else, then that which binds it must be considered more

powerful. The

awesome power of God has been bound by the power of

love; therefore,

in this path of devotion, you can tie up the Lord

himself and keep

him locked in your heart.

  If you take a drop of water from the ocean and keep

it in the palm

of your hand, compared with the ocean the drop appears

very, very

small. But put that same drop of water back into the

ocean and it

becomes a part of the infinite ocean. If your

smallness as a human

being is joined together with the vast power of the

Lord, you become

infinite and all-powerful; you become one with God. In

the scriptures

it is said, "The knower of God verily becomes God." In

other words,

the very process of knowing God merges you into

oneness with God.

This process which joins God and you together is

called the path of

devotion.

  Unfortunately, many people today choose not to even

recognize God;

instead they prefer to rely only on their own limited

strength and to

be impressed only by human achievement. They are

prepared to bend low

before a village officer or a petty government

official, but they

refuse to show humility and obedience to the

all-powerful cosmic

personality, who is the master of the universe. God,

who is the

origin and cause of everything seen and unseen, is

being ignored. The

reason for this sad state is that very few have been

able to

understand the underlying truth behind this vast

manifested universe.

If they were to see that everything is but a

reflection of the one

divinity, they would never follow the wrong path.

  If you have a wish-fulfilling tree in your courtyard

why search for

wild fruits in the forest? If you have the all-giving

celestial cow

in your house why wander around the market place

looking for milk to

buy? If you recognize the unlimited benefits you

derive from having

the celestial cow, you would never look elsewhere and

get caught up

in trivial pursuits. For little minds even small

things look very

big. You get what you deserve; think little and you

become little.

Little thoughts breed little natures. You are

attracted by small

things because you think that your power is limited.

But truly

speaking, your power is unlimited.

  From Duality to Non-Duality

  You remain small by identifying yourself with the

body. You

think, 'I am the body'. This thought keeps you in a

state of

littleness. But expand your view from 'I am the body'

to 'I am the

soul, the spark of the divine.' In this way rise up

from the stage of

dualism to the intermediary stage of qualified

non-dualism. Then, you

must expand further from 'I am the soul, a part of the

divine' to 'I

am the divinity itself, I am no different from God.

God and I are

always one.' That is the highest spiritual stage, the

stage of

complete non-dualism. The feeling you start with, that

you are the

body, is steeped in dualism; it is the very birthplace

of sorrow. As

long as you are immersed in duality everything is

sorrow and grief.

If you identify yourself with the supreme self

everything will be

happiness and joy.

  You must elevate your thinking and always identify

yourself with

your highest self, thus giving up the false

identification with the

body. This is the proper attitude for worship. Worship

in Sanskrit is

called upasana;, which means sitting near to God. But

it is not

enough to just sit close by and be near. The frog sits

on the lotus

but does it benefit from the sweet nectar that is in

the lotus? Just

being near the Lord is of no use; you must also be

dear to him. You

must be able to taste the honey.

  Your neighbors may be very near to you, but you do

not get too

deeply affected by whatever problems and difficulties

they may be

experiencing. Compared with this, if your husband or

son is half a

world away and you don't get a letter for even one

week, you begin to

worry. In this case the body is far away, but your

mutual love makes

you near and dear. Your relationship with your

neighbors is not

charged with the same love, although they are very

near. Consider

another example. In a house there may be some mice and

ants running

around. Do you call them your friends? Along with

physical nearness

there must also be dearness. A deep feeling of love

must develop and

permeate the relationship. You must be near and dear

to the Lord.

  Near and Dear

  What benefit will you derive by being near and dear?

If you sit

close to a lamp you get light, and with the help of

its illumination

you are able to do some useful activities at night. If

you sit under

a fan you get a cool breeze and the heat that was

causing you

discomfort will be dispelled. During the cold season

of the year, if

you sit near a fire you will be protected from the

cold which may be

bothering you then. In each case, one quality is

removed and another

takes its place.

  Similarly, if you are close to the Lord, if you

become dear to him,

then you will get his love, and soon all the bad

qualities in you

will vanish away and be replaced by the good qualities

that God

embodies. Develop your love so that you may get ever

nearer and

nearer and dearer and dearer to God. The easiest way

to get closer to

God is to remember him in whatever you see, whatever

you say and

whatever you do. Think only of God and how to get

nearer and dearer

to him.

  On the path of devotion it is not enough for you to

love God but

you must also engage in activities which are pleasing

to the Lord, so

that you can evoke God's love and feel his love for

you. There are a

number of characteristics that a devotee should

possess which will

endear him to the Lord. Treat censure or praise, heat

or cold, profit

or loss, joy or sorrow, honor or dishonor, or any of

the other pairs

of opposites, with an equal mind. Do not get dejected

when you are

criticized or elated when you are praised. Do not be

overjoyed by

profit or come to grief when there is loss. Treat heat

and cold with

an equal attitude, they can both be a source of joy to

you.

  During the winter warm clothing will be desirable

and being near a

source of heat will give you comfort from the cold.

But, during the

summer you will want thin clothes and you will welcome

the cold. Heat

gives joy sometimes, cold gives joy at other times;

the way you use

them determines whether you experience this joy or

not. Heat and

cold, profit and loss, and, in fact, all the various

pairs of

opposites and everything else in the world have their

usefulness.

Everything has been created for a purpose; but you

need to use them

in a way which is appropriate to your life and your

stage of

development.

  Show no Hatred towards any Being

  It would be utter foolishness to give a golden cup

to a child or to

give a sword to a madman. A golden cup, which is

highly valuable,

should be given only to a person who would appreciate

its value. Such

a person will derive great joy from it and know how to

use it. In the

same way, the one who knows the value of devotion will

use it to fill

himself and others with pure joy. Genuine love will

never give

trouble to anyone, it will never lead one to hate

another. In the

12th chapter of the Gita the desirable qualities of a

devotee are

enumerated; they start with 'Let there be no enmity

directed towards

any creature in the world.' Repeating parrot-like,

"Lord, I love

you", "Lord, I love you", while at the same time

giving trouble to

others cannot be considered devotion.

  You become a devotee, filled with love and devotion,

when you

surrender yourself completely and are ready to carry

out every

command of the Lord. Arjuna, out of pride and egoism

was feeling

dejected; but after listening to the Lord, Arjuna fell

at the divine

feet and said, "Lord, I am your disciple. Teach me

what is good for

me. I surrender myself fully to you." Up until that

time they were

treating each other as brothers-in-law. Arjuna was

married to

Krishna's sister. But once Arjuna said, "I will do as

you say. I will

carry out your commands!", he became a devotee. The

transformation

took place in his mind, as he changed the relationship

from a brother-

in-law to that of a disciple, with the Lord as his

teacher. Such a

mental transformation is absolutely essential for a

devotee. Without

this, whatever level of closeness you feel you may

have developed

with the Lord, your devotion will remain fruitless and

useless.

  Being aware of these high principles, do your duty

in life.

Maintain an even mind and make sure that the work you

do is good, and

that it is always appropriate to the occasion. These

verses from the

Gita should not merely be memorized but they must be

put into

practice. When you fully understand their meaning and

practice them

in your daily life, your worries will soon leave you

and all your

sorrows will disappear.

 

   TO BE CONTINUED

 

  Source:

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

 

 

 

 

 

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