Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! We often hear the word srti. Does this word have any bearing

upon the life of the ordinary man? This sr ti , is it only for

scholars? For us, the common people, does it have any relevance?

 

Sai Baba: Srti is divine. Mati, mind, is human, worldly, and

conditions your progress. Srti guides buddhi, intellect, and

furnishes it with fundamental discrimination. Mati functions at the

level of the separate individual. In man, three nitis or principles

operate: manavaniti , the human code, rajaniti , the political code,

and daivaniti , the divine code. Man's estate and fortune depend on

the code he follows. For instance, Bhishmacharya taught rajaniti ,

principles of kingship, to Dharmaja. On another occasion, following

daivaniti, he passed on to Dharmaja the celebrated Visnusahasranama ,

the thousand names of Vishnu. But, when he led the war as the

Commander-in-chief on the side of the Kauravas, he forgot the divine

sr ti , and lost his fundamental discrimination. He followed his

mati, mind, which is his own individually. Because of this, he had

to lie down on the bed of arrows for so many days.

 

In contrast, note the role of young Abhimanyu. For that day's

fighting in the Mahabharata war, Drona had designed the military

manouvre called Padmavyuha, the lotus maze. The forces of the enemy

were spurring Abhimanyu on to take up the challenge. Noticing that

the heroic Abhimanyu was getting ready to fight, his mother said, " My

son! Your father is not at home now. Your uncle Krishna too is not

here. You know your wife is pregnant. It is in these circumstances

that you are planning to enter the battlefield. Please desist from

this! " Abhimanyu's response reflects his adherence to rajaniti : " How

come, mother, that you din into my ears words of cowardice? When the

enemy challenges you to fight, is it consistent with rajaniti to say,

`no'? Does it accord with the dharma of a Kshatriya warrior? What an

insult it would be to my father, the greatest of heroes, Arjuna!

Won't he hang his head down in shame? O Mother! Bless me to return

victorious, routing the enemies like the young lion leaping on to the

elephant in must! " This indeed, is rajaniti . In this manner,

manavaniti takes the cue from the mati, mind, of an individual even

as sr ti , being divine, stimulates the intellect into fundamental

discrimination. Thus, Abhimanyu, who behaved the way he did, died

heroically. Similarly, in life the good meets with only the good.

Evil necessarily encounters only evil. This law never failed.