Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! We visit temples religiously. We go on pilgrimage once in a

while. We continue to do our rituals and religious acts. But there is

no cognisable change in our life-pattern. Why is this so, Swami?

 

Sai Baba: Worship, penance, meditation, bhajan, etc., are sacred

activities that make your life meaningful, purposeful and useful. But

you can't brand them as spiritual. All these are good actions and

help you to spend time in a sacred way. Anything that you do with

your mind (ego, `I- ness') can't be spiritual. The true spiritual

path is atmavicara , self­-enquiry.

 

The seeker should know that he is not the deha, body, the manas,

mind, or the buddhi, intellect and that his atma, true self, is

beyond time and space. The self is not a ndma, name, or a rupa, form

with which it is identified in this transient world. Atma is eternal,

pure and nondual. True spirituality is the awareness of atma. This is

Brahman, the divinity which is spread all over in all creatures

according to the scripture which says eko vasi sarvabhutantaratma.

True spirituality alone can make you experience this awareness. But

you find many forms of religious practice in the name of

spirituality. The prasadam or sacrificial food offered to God is

actually eaten by the devotees. They just show it to a picture or an

image of God and the whole lot of it is eaten by them only (cupulu

and mepulu, in Telugu). If God really starts taking anything offered

to Him, I am sure, no one would offer Him anything.

 

Always remember that tyaga, sacrifice, is the highest and the best

form of sadhana. You have to sacrifice your time, money, resources

and energy. You should at least offer a tulasi leaf to God in

worship. So, tyagenaike amr tatvamanasuh. Sacrifice makes you attain

immortality. Tyaga is yoga, spiritual exercise.

 

Love expresses itself as sacrifice. Love without sacrifice is

meaningless and totally selfish. You have to sacrifice the body

feeling or attachment to the body. You have to sacrifice your wicked

thoughts and bad feelings. Sacrifice is your true nature. Sacrifice

is a divine quality gifted to man. In fact, you are not doing

anything great and special by sacrifice. You are doing it for your

own self.

 

A yogi noticed a cow struggling for life in a river. He went and

rescued it. Someone asked him, " Why did you save the cow? " The yogi

replied, " I saved the cow for my, own happiness. I couldn't see the

cow struggling and suffering. " Many might have passed that way and

noticed the cow in its miserable plight But none did a thing to save

it. Therefore, sacrifice is an opportunity given to man.

 

There is another small story. A householder one day wanted to serve

food to a Brahmin as part of a ritual he was performing. He could get

one poor old Brahmin who agreed to dine at his house. The Brahmin

came and hurriedly started eating the food placed before him. The

householder felt like this: " What a Brahmin is he? He didn't even

take his bath and do any puja before taking the food. It is not pun

ya , meritorious to feed such a man " . He grew so angry with the old

Brahmin that he beat him with a stick and drove him out holding him

tight at the neck. On that day when the householder was asleep, he

had a dream in which God appeared and said to him " Why did you invite

the old Brahmin for food and beat him? Why did you turn him out

wringing his neck? After all, you could not feed him even for one day

while I have been giving him food all these eighty years! What a

shame! "

 

Tyaga is above any restrictions and stipulations. A mother is ready

to sacrifice her life for her child. Why? It is only love that makes

her sacrifice. Trees sacrifice fruits so that you may eat them. No

tree takes its own fruits. Rivers flow and sacrifice water to quench

your thirst. The cow yields milk and sacrifices it for all of you to

drink and nurture your body. Your body too is intended for sacrifice,

paropakarardhamidam s'ariram.

 

Worship, bhajan and such other external activities are less than seva

and sacrifice. The hands that serve are holier than the lips that

pray. Love of God is devotion, which has to be expressed as

sacrifice. Love is sacrifice. Sacrifice is prema yoga, the path of

love to God. Sacrifice is yoga. Be that this faith, devotion and

steadfastness would get, strengthened and deep rooted. Through the

path of jnana, which is self-enquiry, proceed to atmavicara , follow

and experience God. It is said, jnanadeva to kaivalyam, the practical

wisdom obtained from tyaga is the only way to kaivalyam, liberation.

This is a process beyond the mind and the activity performed by the

body. Then only will you achieve the expected results and attain

ananda.