Swami teaches... Part 1. Efforts for Inner Transformation

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Light and Love

 

Swami teaches... 11 - 13 October 2007

 

Part 1. Efforts for Inner Transformation Success, health or happiness ect., is not a game of chance. It springs from deep within us, from our deepest thoughts and beliefs. One person cannot change the whole world, but he/she can change him/herself. After this action, pictorially as a new world is born for this person.

 

The sage Thyagaraja asked: "Is wealth the source of happiness or serving the Lotus feet of Rama?" Real Ananda (Bliss) can be won only by means of the transformation of the impulses that agitate the mind. It is not to be found in wealth. Constant dwelling with the Name of the Lord gives unshakeable happiness and peace, unaffected by the vicissitudes of life. Attach yourself to Him; then your attachment for these temporary objects will fall off; or at least, you will start seeing them in their proper proportion as having only relative reality. Human carries the twin burdens of joy and grief tied to the ends of a single pole slung across shoulders. Courage is the tonic for getting both physical as well as mental health and strength. Do not give any chance for these to strike root in your mind. Pray that you may carry your duty well. God will certainly answer your prayer. Knock, the doors of Grace will open. Open the door - the Sun’s rays waiting outside will flow silently in and flood the room with light. Human being by means of the inner Divine strength with which he/she is equipped, can achieve anything; he/she can even become Madhava (God, name for Krishna). As it is said, Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavathi (the knower of Brahman becomes verily Brahman). If you perceive yourself as Divine, you become Divine. If you consider yourself a human being, you will remain so. There is the Atmic Principle in you. To recognize this Atma, you have to keep your heart pure and empty. To help you to give up hesitation, fear, and doubt, keep the Name of the Lord always on your tongue and in your mind. Dwell on the endless forms of the Lord, His limitless Glow, while you repeat the Name. (When you get violent and angry with any one, quietly repeat the name of the Lord to overcome it or drink a glass of cold water or spread your bed and lie down until the fit of fury passes. Five minutes of anger damages the relationship for five generations, remember). In your heart, there is the symbol of Atmarama, the Rama that confers eternal joy. So, it is joyfully to repeat the name Rama, the Sun that can make the lotus in the heart bloom. Rama is not only the son of Emperor Dasaratha but of the ruler of the dhasha indriyas (ten senses). Name 'Rama' has a form and you should picture the form also when you repeat the Name; then the name becomes concrete and japam (soft prayer or repetition of the name of God) is easier. By ancient story Narada (sage-bard; traveled the world chanting Narayana; famous for creating disputes, resulting in solutions for the spiritual advancement or victory of the virtuous; author of texts on dharma) one day boasted before Vishnu /the Preserver in the trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu and Shiva (the Destroyer)/ that no devotee could excel him. However, this boast was against the very first qualification of a bhaktha - freedom from egoism. So, Vishnu spoke of a ryot , who was tilling his little plot of land as a greater devotee and recommended that Narada should visit him and learn 'the art of devotion' from him. Narada felt badly humiliated; but he proceeded to the village. He found the ryot engrossed in his round of duties on the field, in the cattle shed and at home. In spite of the most vigilant watch, he could not hear him speak the name of the Lord more than thrice a day, once when he woke up from bed, another time when he took his midday meal and the last, when he retired for the night. Narada was naturally incensed that he was deemed inferior to this poor, pale specimen of a bhaktha. He was always singing melodiously the leelas (the Divine sport) of the Lord and spreading everywhere the message of devotional singing of the Lord's name and here was a hornyhanded son of the soil who remembered the Lord only three times a day, whom Vishnu judged superior to him.

 

Narada hurried to heaven, his face flushed with anger and ignominy; but Vishnu only laughed at his plight. He gave him a pot full to the brim with water and asked him to carry it on his head and go round a certain course without spilling even a drop. Narada did so, but when asked how often he had remembered the Name of the Lord, he admitted that in his anxiety to walk without shaking the pot and spilling the water, he had forgotten the Name completely. Then Vishnu told him that the ryot who was carrying on his head more precious and more spill able burdens than a pot of water and who had to be careful not to take any false step, must perforce be admired for remembering the Lord at least three times a day. Do not give up your worldly duties, but do them with the name of God on your lips. When you spend your hours in thoughts about God, you are free from evil ways. You will not be tempted to abuse others or harm them in any way. Do not involve yourselves in the affairs of your neighbors or others to the extent that you get so entangled you cannot extricate yourselves. Nevertheless, worry and grief there will always be, of one type or other, in the past, present and future: while walking, dreaming, and sleeping. However, place faith in the Lord and do your tasks as dedicated to Him and they both will vanish. Accept all the events of life as His Gifts. Force your mind to breathe the grander atmosphere of the eternal by reminding it of God and His Glory, every second, with every breath, when you repeat any one of His Names. Hearts dedicated to these noble ideals are indeed golden. Everyday before you begin work, pray to God a few minutes at least; and, at the end of the day, when the work is over, offer grateful thanks to the Lord. View the beauties of nature that are spread out before you in earth and sky; green expanses of the crops you have raised, cool breezes that waft contentment and joy, the panorama of colored clouds, the music of the birds. Sing the glories of the Creator as you walk along the bunds of the fields and the banks of the canals. Do not talk hatefully; do not disturb the sky with your shouts and curses.

 

Shine your light in the world and do what you love. We all have different unique talents to offer the world. What the world needs is work done in spirit. Remember always that it is easy to do what is pleasant; but it is difficult to be engaged in what is beneficial. Not all that is pleasant is profitable. Success comes to those who give up the path strewn with roses, and brave the hammer-blows and sword-thrusts of the path fraught with danger. There are spiritual guides with many different various names. Because of this, human’s mind gets confused. However, there is only one Divinity. Stick to any one God of your choice and hold firm to it. Unnecessarily, do not go around to various places, confuse yourself, and ruin your faith. If you keep transplanting a sapling from one place to another frequently, how can it grow healthily into a tree? You have to plant it in one place and feed it with fertilizer and water regularly until it grows into a firm, strong tree. This is true devotion. If you keep changing your spiritual guides frequently, your devotion gets adulterated. Trust that God is in all, but if one keeps on changing from one God to another, it is false devotion. Worship God in any form or with any name. In fact, God has thousands of names and a myriad forms. Worshipping the Lord with a thousand names, you should be fully aware there is a single Divinity you are addressing. Therefore, your mind should be focused on God. Consider this as lock and here is the key. Put the key in the lock and turn it to the right and the lock opens; turn it to the left and it is locked. Your heart is the lock and your mind is the key. Turn your mind to God and you are free. Turn it to the world and you are bound. Our mind is constantly turned towards the world. Of course, the world is there, but our experience there is impermanent, ephemeral. There is only one truth and that is spiritual. To become spiritual is to ‘merge’. The worldly life is as if a ‘marriage’ no, not even a marriage, actually a ‘mirage’, an illusion. A mirage is visible but there is no reality behind it. This Asthipanjaram (skeletal cage or body) is the Hasthinapuram (capital city of the Pandavas and earlier the Kauravas), where we have the blind king, Dhritharashtra (father of Kauravas), holder of ruling power, the symbol of ignorance as well as Yudhistira (eldest brother of the Pandavas; also called Dharmaraja) the symbol of Wisdom. Let the forces of Yudhishtira win, with the help of Krishna; let the tongue, accustomed to the bitterness of the margosa (A large tree of the genus Melia (M. Azadirachta) found in India. Its bark is bitter, and used as a tonic) fruit of worldly triumphs and disasters, taste the sweet honey of remembering of Lord's Name. Experiment this for a time and you will be surprised at the result. You can feel the vast improvement in peace and stability, in you and around you. Learn this easy lesson, get immersed in joy and let others also share that joy with you. Individual effort and Divine Grace are both interdependent; without effort, there will be no conferment of Grace; without Grace, there can be no taste in the effort. To win that Grace, you need only have faith and virtue.

Your devotion must be such that God seeks you. Like a child crying ceaselessly till the mother rushes to pacify it, like a calf calling for its mother-cow, like a forlorn wife praying for the return of her husband, the devotee should feel the yearning for His coming. Spiritual discipline is based on faith in the unity of all beings based on the all-pervasive immanent indwelling Atma. We are all the limbs of that One Cosmic Body, the Purusha, who is far more expansive than the Universe. The Universe is but a small fraction of His Splendor. You are the Cosmic Consciousness, God; temporarily in the role of 'I.' The body-mind-complex is the instrument to be utilized for that Will. This is the message of Rig Veda. (first Veda composed by the sages, consisting of 1028 hymns. Oldest religious text in world). Keep this thought in your mind, “I am not a mere human, I am the embodiment of God.” In garland, quickest to strike the eyes are the flowers, while the thread upon which they are strung has to be inferred; it is not so patent. Nevertheless, without it, they will all fall off. So too, without that bond in Brahman (the Supreme Absolute, i. e. Creator, i. e. God, i.e. Cosmic Consciousness), we will fall off as unrelated entities. The Divine current flows through each one and activates each. On that Ekam (One), all anekam (many) - is strung. Based on the Great One, the many secure support. Conscience is deathless. The Universal Consciousness has neither birth nor death. It has no beginning, middle, or end. (How can you comprehend such an entity? All your conceptions are mere reflections of this reality). So, you are not the body, the mind, the intellect, the brain, the heart, the denotable diminutive ego. You are the Infinite Universal Absolute. You have to get yourselves established firmly, unshakeably in this awareness. Paramahamsas (ascetics of the highest order) have that awareness. Every one can attain that state; it is your destiny, your duty to yourself. Sage Viswamitra performed intense penance and revealed the sacred Gayatri Mantra that is prefixed with the triple syllable Bhur Bhuvah Suvah. Bhur represents materialisation, Bhuvah - vibration and Suvah - radiation. The Universe is entirely constituted out of these three components. Radiation is Divinity, vibration is the life principle, and materialization is the body. All these three are in you. When you recognize these realities, you achieve your humanness. Do not get too muchattached to your body. So long as you are alive, naturally you must keep your body in a healthy condition as without body spiritual awareness is impossible. For Karma Yoga, body is the basis. For meditation and worship, mind is the basis. For realization, heart is the basis. You must recognize the unity of all these three. The world is a furnace and factory, where human has to shape destiny by his honest untiring efforts. One, who takes up this challenge and spends the allotted years and the skill and intelligence with which he/she is endowed, in purposeful activity, is really entitled to the status of Karma Yogi. The entire humanity of the world is a single family. Individual’s existence is a reflection of the world’s condition. Whether you are an atheist or a theist, youth or aged, you should recognize that you are all part of the single race of humanity. You have to develop human values. Without this, you are human merely in form not in fact. Keep the heart pure, unsullied by evil or vice. Let the rays of Love illumine it. Let thefoul bats of hatred and greed fly away from the cavity of your hearts; let the clean air of mutual cooperation and help render the cavity safe and sweet. (Reet's compilation from. Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 1. "The wise ryot," Chapter 14; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6. "Diminish desires," Chapter 11; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 12. "Full circle or half circle?" Chapter 30 ; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 12. "To those who are Mine," Chapter 31; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 12. "The second visit," Chapter 32; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 22. "The One in the many," Chapter 17; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 33. "Happiness In Union With God," Chapter 17). Namaste - Reet