Just some stray thinking

August 8, 2009

Sai Ram brothers and sisters,Today's thought for the day at Puttaparthy was related to Atma Gyan- strive

to find the self from within you by self questioning, seeking etc. For

reaching self realisation this alone may be enough. Today Sai Buddha spoke out to guide us for the day.Look into yourself Swami has told us today. That had me thinking. Look out for what? What shall I find within myself if I start delving into the recesses of my heart. Which part of self realisation would I realise today? I started the exercise all the same.

THE SWAMI IN ME STARTED TO ECHO OUT AND I KNOW THE ECHO COMES FROM AN EMPTY SPACE. THE REVERBERATIONS OF THE SOUND FILL THE ENTIRE EMPTINESS.

In the world of Maya, which is like a prison in which we are caged

and deluded, where we donot know how to find the right Guru or as it

happens sometimes- when the Guru does not seek us out, Swami tells us

not to worry. Look for the Swami within you. The rest falls into place

gradually, in a sequential manner. That is Swami's job. Do your Karma,

dedicate the good and the bad to Him and watch the fun.

It is as though He is offering a very delicious cup of tea. As

we sip the tea and enjoy it we forget the trouble He has taken to give

it to us as a near- perfect beverage. HOW WAS THIS TEA PREPARED?There

has to be a clean, washed vessel- our body, a fire source- life. He has

put the water (our soul) to boil, thereby making the water reach the

right temperature to add the tea leaves, as well as for disinfecting

it. THE TESTS AND EXPERIENCES IN OUR LIFE ARE TO PURIFY OUR TAINTED

SOULS SO THAT WE CAN START ADDING COLOUR TO IT WITH OUR KARMAS.

At this point we think we can take over from Him (we forget to

dedicate our work or we decide that we alone can take credit for this

action initiated by the Almighty) and we add the black tea leaves- our

Karmas. Again we add the quantity we think should be right. The black

coloured tea leaves are brewed in that water- most often the quantity

is never right- there is either too much or too less quantity of tea

leaves. The tea leaves eaten just like that taste only like dust and

the brewed solution is too bitter. In short We add flavour and colour to our lives- all the bitterness and suffering- our karmas have resulted in a bitter drink that is unpalatable.

Just when you wonder how to drink this bitter black concoction, He adds sugar,

from his limitless stock of LOVE, thereby sweetening it and making it

slightly tolerable- He shows us the path to bring positiveness into our

lives. This black tea is STILL too strong or too light for most of us.

We seek for a solution from Him and ask Him for help.

So as a final touch He adds milk- the Divine energy- to it. The

pure white milk of Divinity when mixed with the dark tea of our Karmas

makes the tea palatable and delicious. Life becomes worthwhile. It -

the addition of a little bit of Divinity into our dark lives- gives us

energy, alertness, satisfaction and we feel ready to take on the Day.

But before this there is one most important step that I

deliberately failed to mention. Before serving us the delicious drink,

He filters away the bad and gives us the clean warm solution to drink. He holds the filter in His hands.

BUT WE NEED TO HAND OVER THE HOT VESSEL TO HIM. If we touch it with our

bare hands we will burn our fingers- the effects of the karmas on our

souls boiled by the tests put forth by life can be deleterious to us.

Hence we need to find a cloth or paper or some metal device like a pair

of tongs to hold it and hand it over to God- that is our religion and

our mortal Guru. At times we use the end of our sari- Atma Gyan- the

Guru from within us. They help us from getting scalded.

The hot vessel has been handed over to the Divine- our Swami. We

have surrendered the drink that Swami has finally made palatable, in

order to take away the negative and resultant debris of our karmas.

He filters off the tea leaves and hands us the warm palatable drink.

The drink is handed in a beautiful cup of goodness with the instruction

that we should sip it with care as it is still too hot. If we become

impatient and sip it hot- religious FANATISM- we are more often than

not going to burn our tongue.

Hence we need to cool the drink to a reasonable temperature- use our discrimination-

and sip it slowly so as to enjoy it. If we are not sure how to do it,

Swami Himself will blow it cool for us. We only have to ask. At the end

of the entire process Swami has taken away the Negativism, the

bitterness of our karmas, thrown it away and given us the

unadulterated form of the energetic drink, minus the debris that cannot be ingested and given our soul back to us for us to handle with care.

No matter how much tea leaves we add, He still makes the drink of

our karmas palatable, by adding the right amount of sugar and milk

(LOVE AND DIVINITY). The perfection of the cup of tea ultimately

depends on the cleanliness of the vessel ( physical fitnessof the

body), the water (our atma) , the temperature when the tea leaves were

added (the tests put forth by life), the amount of tea leaves added

(our karmas), the amount of time the tea brewed (how long we continued

to live and act the way we did while doing do our karmas) , the

quantity of sugar and milk added (How much love and divinity we

accepted in our lives), how we hand over the hot vessel to Swami and

the temperature at which the final concoction is sipped. Swami does His

work with perfection- He has given us a clean soul, the perfect life to

help shape our souls and despite us not asking for it, He loves us.

Despite our tainting our souls He still takes away the Bad and gives

our souls back to us in a palatable form. the perfection of the drink

depends on our karmas.

So what could be the perfect solution to get the perfect drink from

Him? Give Swami the container that contains the tea leaves and let Him

decide how much tea leaves to put, at what temperature to put and the

quantity of sugar to add. Then let Him take over the task of lifting

the hot vessel from the fire after the milk is added. He will strain it

and give you the perfect drink- the ambrosia of bliss.

-- laxmi

August 31, 2009

Sai Ram,

Thank you for your emails. It is so refreshing to see this

obsession for the Divine. I too am aspiring to get obsessed about Swami so that

I only see Him, breathe Him, hear Him, speak of Him, digest Him, live Him.

These days there is a beautiful serial on Meera Bai being

telecast in one of the Hindi channels. I feel a special bond with Meera Bai,

because I enacted her character for a Fancy dress competition in my sixth

standard and won the competition. Then for the annual day I was asked to do the

same act. Well, being a myopic I was finding it difficult to see the steps in

front of me for the competition. So decided that I would wear my spectacles. I

did that and I sang Mere To Giridhar

Gopala.

I usually get stage fright. But this was one occasion when I

was unaware of feeling any nervousness. I could actually sense her devotion to

Lord Krishna. Only I needed my spectacles. My physical vision was and is weak.

But my inner vision does help me out. Swami becomes my spectacles when I become

near blinded.

I apologise that I am straying from the topic. When I

started seeing the serial, my first thought was that Meera Bai was so self

centred. She did not care that she was hurting her family by not conforming to

the traditions of the then Rajput society. She could have worshipped Goddess

Kali also. But she refused to acknowledge any form of God but for Krishna. She was not a dutiful child. She was never a

dutiful wife or daughter-in-law. She was not a dutiful woman as per the

standards demanded by the society. EVEN Swami has several times told us the

duties of every woman. Was not this devotion not selfish?

THEN WHY WAS SHE SO DEAR TO THE LORD?

Meera Bai was obsessed with Krishna to the extent that as

far as she was concerned there was nothing beyond or without Krishna.

She was like Sabari who could dare to feed Lord Rama with fruits bitten by her

because she was not conscious beyond the ‘Rama -Consciousness’ that she had.

Meera Bai only knew to love her Lord. She did not know the

right from the wrong nor was she interested in finding out. She did not love

God because she wanted something for herself or for others. She loved Krishna

because she knew of nothing and no one beyond her Krishna.

She had totally surrendered herself to the Lord. Hence she was beyond human

judgement- she was beyond good and evil. She was beyond the karmas and their

fruits. She was beyond religious controversies. She was beyond ego. She

was beyond herself. As far as she was concerned, she would continue

only to live Krishna with every single breath

she took irrespective of whether others agreed or not. She had only one thing

that she gave her beloved Lord- HERSELF. SHE WAS NOT AWARE OR CONSCIOUS

OF ANY OTHER EMOTION.

As for Divine opinion, we all know she attained Sharanangati-

the much sought after asylum at the Lotus feet of the Lord. What a simplicity;

what an innocence, what a devotion, what an obsession, what a love, WHAT

DIVINITY!

If obsession is a mental disease then let us pray to get

diseased with a similar obsession for the

Lord. As for the society, there is no harm in feeling sad when we see the

behaviour of people around us. Swami recently said that there is not harm in

feeling sad for someone else.

We have two choices- either we start a revolution to change

it with just one weapon- goodness. This

weapon can take several forms- a kind word that makes someone feel good; a

smile that makes the receiver want to smile at the next person he meets, a

morsel of food fed to a hungry mouth (once the pangs of hunger are tackled, the

mind becomes more receptive for good thoughts—Narayana Seva that our Swami

encourages us to do), a word of encouragement, set an example (for example when

someone yells at us we give them a gentle smile instead of reciprocating their

angry attitude or if we see a banana peel on the road we throw it into the

nearest dustbin instead of lamenting about the misdeed of the person who ate

the banana) etc. etc.

The second choice is

that we ignore what is happening. BUT for that we need to be unaware of everything

else but God. Here most of us are aware of everything else including God. We

need to strive to be like Meera Bai to reach the aware state of unawareness

wherein we are justified in our ignorance. We all go to Puttaparthi in search

of Paradise. Why don’t we try to build our own

Prasanthi Nilayam within our hearts? Then every home, every state, every

country would be Puttaparthi. Swami says that He wants His life to be His

message.

Which paradise has been perfect for ever? If the Devas in

Heaven were always insecure of their own future as per our legends, if the

various God figures had to go through various problems and they often behaved

like humans, then can we humans not make mistakes during our attempt to walk on

the correct path to Divinity? This is where our faith in our Sadguru comes.

Swami often said in His Shirdi Avataar and He has often reiterated the same in

this Avataar, that a Sadguru is a must to guide us on this path, for the

Sadguru had already treaded this difficult path and hence knows the ups, downs,

pitfalls etc.

Because we are unable to seek out this Sadguru, Swami out of

his love for us comes seeking for us. Let us not let go of this Divine

opportunity. Hold on to Him! We are aware that the boat is rocking over the

turbulent waters at every place including Puttaparthi. But with Swami as the oarsman

need we fear?

I was reading the Garuda Purana yesterday. The easiest and

best atonement for all our sins, the most convenient and simple as well as the

most effective solution to our miseries is Namasmarana. Swami has been telling

us this from day one. Swami Himself has told us to have faith in our

scriptures. After all we are striving for world and universal peace are we not?

Unless our family is happy how can we alone experience that happiness, unless

we reach that aware state of unawareness as did Meera Bai?

LOKA SAMASTHA SUKHINO BHAVANTHU! OM

SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIH! HARI OM!

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 12:32 AM, ranganatha rao <ranganathabekal wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------ranganatha rao <ranganathabekal

Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 11:34 PMRe: Fwd: [saibabanews] Just some stray thinkingsai_sravanthi_999, laxmisanky

AUM SAI RAM

Humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan.

Dear Saibandhu,

i am extremely glad to receive your mail after a long gap. Your understanding that you learn to live in the society and try to be true to yourself,and not to worry about the society is perfectly right and as per the Dharma(Righteousness). Let us not worry about the societies- these societies will be as they are, can not change completely and we shouldn't worry about them--. Daily we walk on the road from our home to office, Shops, or any other place. While walking on the road, en route we see so many varieties of dirty things. Cautiously we avoid them by changing our steps or changing direction. We don't expect the Government to keep the road perfectly clean and safe, only we have to take care to avoid any obstruction. Similarly we are to be cautious in spirituality. Your thinking is in line with the spirituality. Pl. do not worry.

Tomorrow i will be proceeding to Swami's super speciality hospital for service for one week. i was in the processing of packing. Meanwhile i opened the mail and saw your mail which i have already replied. Now i will complete my packing.

Now i am forwarding this to saibandhu Smt.Laxmi.S.

Sai Ram.

Your's Saibandhu,

Ranganatha.Rao

,

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 7:19 PM, Sai Sravanthi <sai_sravanthi_999 wrote:

Sai Ram!

This is beautiful to read, thank you so much for thinking of me and forwarding this conversation - I really enjoyed it.

Just this morning, I was thinking of how man lives in society, and gets bound by society's morals and rules. I know Swami talks a lot about how to live in society, but societies are different in different places - and the rules and morals and what's acceptable are different - and there are microcosms of societies within the larger societies. My life is planted in one such society (or more truthfully, a few such societies), just like everyone's is. And I learn to live in it, and try to be true to myself, and not worry about the society. But I was thinking how beautiful it would be to be part of a wise society! Rather than worry about conforming to this worldly society, I'd actually be learning from a wise society. In my imagination, I was thinking of living with or around Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, or Ramana Maharshi. But then, I have lived in Prashanthi Nilayam, and I guess it's not really all-wise. It is a society, just like any other - with competitions, comparisons and jealousies, but there is of course the Lord God himself in the middle of it all, so we put up with everything else, and sometimes even get sucked into these human tendencies - and I guess that's when our failings are spotlighted, and we have to work on them - which is our Sadhana.

Sorry, I'm rambling. My point is that your email gave me a glimpse of what I was thinking of this morning - to be a fly on the wall in a wise society - to be able to listen (in this case, read) to a spiritual conversation that cuts through all that's base, and talks solely about the divine. PS: I was going to include Smt Laxmi S on this email, to thank her too, but wasn't sure - please forward if you think it's ok.

I loved reading about many things in here, but the underlying tone I get is about awareness of God in my daily life I remember often an email you had sent me a few months ago describing it just as eloquently. This has been my mantra or meditation in the recent times - to completely focus on the present moment - so that I sense God in the birds, the trees, and the food I eat, the sun, the rain and tea too (coffee for me ), down to each and every cell of my body - this is really a time when the mind and thoughts step aside even if for just a few moments (I guess like the no-mind you talk about), and my vision becomes crisp and clear. When I really do feel this, it brings an exhilaration, a smile that just feels truly amazing!

I hope you are well. Thank you again, for this email! Sai Ram.

ranganatha rao <ranganathabekalsai_sravanthi_999

Friday, August 28, 2009 2:54:32 PMFwd: [saibabanews] Just some stray thinking

AUM SAI RAM

Humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan.

Dear Saibandhu,

Sai Ram.

i am just forwarding an e-mail to you. This was a spiritual conversation between me and Saibandhu Laxmi Sankaranarayanan some times back. Since i know that you are a genuine seeker in the spiritual field , i thought this would be of interest to you, hence forwarding.

Sai Ram.

Your's Saibandhu,

Ranganatha. Rao

---------- Forwarded message ----------laxmi sankaranarayanan <laxmisanky

Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 9:24 AMRe: [saibabanews] Just some stray thinkingranganatha rao <ranganathabekal

Sai Ram,Thank you. Yours happened to be the first mail I read this morning. At that time I was getting ready to start the day and was busy planning and thinking unnecessarily, when I could have sung a bhajan instead.

Your mail about EMPTYING ourselves and becoming a receptacle for the Divinity immediately has lightened my heart. Swami spoke to me through today.

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 5:49 PM, ranganatha rao <ranganathabekal wrote:

AUM SAI RAM

Humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan

Dear Saibandhu,

Sai Ram,

Thank you very much for your kind reply. i am highly delighted to know that Swami Himself had given Spiritual talk to you. It is such a great Blessing for you to directly hear from Brahman.

The important revelation to me of your e-mail is Swami has told that it is impossible for any Sadhaka to know or get the entire knowledge even after aeons / several births and what we need to do is to become AWARE of SWAMI within us and dissolve the distance between us and SWAMI. Yes, this is the End of Knowledge, when the slightest difference or distance between devotee and God diminishes and merges into ONE. It is such a great Revelation to me. When the Sadhaka knows this, the unnecessary effort used to get the spiritual knowledge becomes non-essential, the effort becomes automatically effortless. Effort is done in the expectation of Something, and effort is continued till that something is gained. So long the effort is there, the mind exists. So long the mind exists, the No-Mind can not exist, So long the No-Mind can not happen AWARENESS is not possible. When sadhaka knows that there is nothing to gain or not possible to gain or not required to gain or the uselessness of gaining, then the mind which always hopes and hop into the future in the expectation to gain ' That Something' abruptly Stops. Then the mind evaporates to nothing. Then there happens N0-Mind. In such situation only AWARENESS is possible.

In the language of spirituality,when there is No- Mind, Emptiness happens and that Emptiness is filled by SWAMI. That means knowing the futility of gaining knowledge, the mind stops its effort for knowledge ( the mind has formed because of the thoughts to gain knowledge in the future-- mind can also form if the past

thoughts and experiences occur-- if there are no thoughts of future ,then there is no necessity for mind to form, hence there is no-mind; if there is no mind then Emptiness happens and this Emptiness even it happens only for less than a second and in that Emptiness Enters what we always Wish i.e.,SWAMI ). Now i understand that Swami had advised all of you not to waste precious time by bothering much about gaining bookish knowledge ; instead empty the mind so that SWAMI who himself is the KNOWLEDGE / WISDOM fills the Emptiness created by the absence or dissolution of mind. This would make the devotees to be AWARE of Swami always.

Swami has also given the clear example of Sage Bharadwaja who was asked by Indra what the sage would do if he were given a longer life. Sage Bharadwaja replied that he would continue meditation and learn more about vedas. Indra told Bharadwaja that that was his third life and he spent his last two lives in understanding vedas. Indra then materialized three mountains and took three handful of soil from the mountains and said to Bgaradwaja that three vedas are like three mountains and what Bharadwaja learnt was equal to those three handfuls of soil,but that did not mean he learnt a little. Even he had gained more knowledge than the gods. Vedic knowledge was endless and gaining the knowledge is important but spreading it is equally important.

Trying to derive Atmic knowledge in all the matters that we come across daily really leads us to attain higher stages of Spirituality, like your understanding with regard to the Preparation of the Tea. It is really wonderful, because millions of people daily prepare the tea , but fail to recognise Divinity in it. If you can extend recognising Divinity to all the areas and matters you come across, it would immerse you in the AWARENESS of SWAMI IN ALL YOUR ACTIVITIES AND YOU WILL BECOME BLISSFUL BECAUSE SWAMI IS BLISS/BLISSFUL BRAHMAN

You can visualise SWAMI, for example, in the effulgent Sun [ in his rays containing heat and light],in Moon [in its coolness,shape and brightness], in Flower [in its petals, its colour, its fine texture, its smoothness,its beauty, in the artistic arrangement of petals where the top portion of petals is open spreading wide as if smiling and the bottom portion joined firmly for stability, its fragrance, the green leaves attached to enhance grandeur ], in vegetables say tomato [ in its shape,its colour, in the smoothness, in the fragrance , in the sweet juice, in the skill how the sweet juice is safely sealed inside the Tomato etc. ] , similarly in other types of vegetables; Similarly also visualise Swami in various fruits . To also visualise SWAMI in various food provisions, in the preparation of eatables from those food stuffs [ similar to your preparation of the Tea ] . Also to feel SWAMI in the cool breeze, in the rain drops, in the sound of lightening, in the flash of lightening, in the thunder, in the clouds, in the river collected by rain drops, in the ocean, in the waves, in the flood, in the tsunami. To also visualise Swami in all the vegetation, in all the creatures [ animals, amphibians,birds, insects etc], in all human beings including us, in our biological system- in our breath, in our blood and its circulation, in our bones, in our nerves, in all the parts of our body, in our mind,in our Intellect, in our ego,in our Anthakarana

The above indicates all the possibilities of experiencing Swami in each and every thing our mind can think of. There is no end for that since the possibilities are Infinite. That is the Grandeur of ALL PERVASIVENESS OF BRAHMAN/SWAMI. But to visualise Swami in all the things mentioned above , we need to transcend His Beautiful Form to Formless ,this is because the REALITY IN ITS FULL SPLENDOUR IS POSSIBLE TO EXPERIENCE AND ENJOY IN ITS ULTIMATENESS/EXTREMENESS ONLY IN THE FORMLESSNESS, What is this ULTIMATENESS? (1) Suppose we see a beautiful Rose flower, we can enjoy its beauty to some extent by seeing it closely; we get further more happiness when we feel the flower in our hand and on our face , maximum happiness we get when we take it in our hand and smell deeply its fragrance and this is the ULTIMATENESS/EXTREMENESS because this is the maximum happiness we can derive without disfiguring/spoiling the flower.[ If we think that we can get max. enjoyment by eating it, it is a folly, for the flower gets destructed.] Therefore this is its Extremeness. (2) Another example; A sweet gulab jamoon. By only seeing the jamoon some happiness we get; by taking in our hand more happiness we get; but by eating the jamoon we get max. happiness which is its Extremeness/Ultimateness. There is no destruction here and the sweet melts inside us (3) When we see a small baby,we get happiness. When we take it in hands more happiness we get. Further happiness we get when we hug the baby,say some loving sentences and plant kisses on the baby. This is the maximum happiness which is its ULTIMATENESS. So many such examples are possible. Finally, let us talk of SWAMI. When we hear of Swami, read books on Him, see His photos we get happiness. When we get the physical Darshan of Swami from a long distance we get more happiness. When we get close Darshan of Swami we get great happiness. When we get Darshan ,Sparshan, ,Sambhashan of Swami our happiness is indescribable. Suppose we embrace SWAMI, the happiness is also indescribable because this reduces the distance between us and SWAMI. But it is not the Ultimate, because though this reduces the distance between us and Swami, however there is a smallest gap existing between us and Swami. This gap is due to the Body/ Form of Swami. If this smallest gap can be reduced to Zero and then and then only the maximum happiness i.e, EXTREMENESS / ULTIMATENESS IS ACHIEVED. How to achieve this ULTIMATENESS? This is possible only in the FORMLESSNESS OF SWAMI. When the FORMLESS SWAMI ENTERS IN US THE ULTIMATENESS OF HAPPINESS IS ACHIEVED. This is named as the BLISS OF SWAMI / AWARENESS OF SWAMI.

It is not possible for anyone to be always ( 24x7) physically with SWAMI. The form of SWAMI has limitation and SWAMI as FORMLESS is Limitless and infinity; it is PURE ENERGY OF LOVE . IT can penetrate to anywhere. When that PURE LOVE ENERGY OF SWAMI PENETRATES US THAT IS THE FINAL. There will no more a sadhaka. As told by SWAMI to you all, in this STATE OF AWARENESS THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND HIM.

These matters are told to you only because you have the Blessings of the Lord SWAMI to go deep into the Enquiry of Atma and the above could Elevate you.

Sai Ram.

Yours Saibandhu,

Ranganatha.Rao

,

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 1:17 PM, laxmi sankaranarayanan <laxmisanky wrote:

Sai Ram, Thank you. You said it beautifully. My awareness was limited to making the tea and drinking. You helped realise that awareness doesn't end. Swami gives us a little more with each dose or each sip. in the end we drink the tea safely and thoroughly enjoying each sip. the knowledge we can gain through this is infinite. Take away some and there is still an unending supply.

Swami Himself has told us that it impossible for us to know everything no matter how great a sadhaka we are, we can never get the entire knowledge, even after eons or even after several births. Swami tells us of a story where in a great Muni- I believe it was Sage Bharadwaja, who went on asking for prolonging His life for several hundred years so as to enable him to learn the Truth from the Vedas and the scriptures. Yet he was unble to do what he sought.

But you know something- He has revealed the secret to us, in the Kaliyuga. Are we not fortunate? Swami says that all we need to do is become AWARE of the Swami within us and then there is no difference between Him and us. We need to reach the bottom of the cup to sip in the last drop of tea- a thing which Swami Himself says had been impossible till now. He shows us how to make the impossible possible. That is what differentiates an Avatar form other Gurus.

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 1:29 PM, ranganatha rao <ranganathabekal wrote:

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 1:50 AM, ranganatha rao <ranganathabekal wrote:

AUM SAI RAM

Humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Swami.

Dear Saibandhu,

Our Swami has emphasised in the ' Thought for the Day' on 8th August, as put on the paper , that we have to acquire the real JNANA or WISDOM i.e, the Knowledge of the Atma only by " Enquiring into the nature of the Atma " and the Atmic knowledge can emerge from the Inner Consciousness and not by any other means. Our Bhagavan is surely holding the hands of us to lead us through some of the noble paths of spirituality i.e., Karma yoga, Bhakthi yoga and finally the Jnana yoga, though all these paths are interconnected at their highest peak or intensity.

Saibandhu Smt. Lakshmi Narayanan has already, as it appears to me, delved into the Atma Vichara. Because the initial steps to ' Enquiry of Atman' commences,when one embarks on to a path of sadhana ( here Atma Vichara is an highest type of Sadhana ) very much different from the routinely sadhana. In all seriousness other routinely sadhanas are also very important, but we tend to stick to and satisfied with these routinely sadhanas and do not make effort to extend it to farther. Deep Enquiry into the Atman only will finally lead us to the Self Realisation and Atmic BLISS.

Only when Sadguru or God prompts from the inner recess that the true Atman Enquiry begins. How great is the example of preparation and drinking of Tea vis a vis the human body subjected to different karmas culminating in receiving a cup of delicious Tea i.e., receiving the Limitless Divine LOVE. The dry tealeaves undergo various arduous processes before it is converted to pure Delicious Perfect Tea as similar to the human body with its mind,Intellect,Ego and Chitha undergo different types of Sadhanas ( Karma, Bhakthi, Raaja, Dhyaana,and Jnana yogas ) and unconditional surrender to SWAMI, before the Jeevatma gets the Self-Realisation, the Ambrosia of BLISS

Such a simple Tea can lead an aspirant to the Highest Realisation when it is subjected to True Atma Vichara. As Swami has proclaimed GOD RESIDES IN EVERYTHING, HE IS OMNIPRESENT. With the True Atman Enquiry and the emergence of Knowledge of Atman from the inner consciousness, our Saibandhu Realises the ATMAN / BRAHMAN / SWAMI not only in the Delicious Tea,but in the whole processes of preparation of Tea. Truly Great!!!

Sai Ram.

Yours Saibandhu,

Ranganatha.Rao

P.S: i remember one story. A zen monk got Realisation. He was drinking a cup of Tea. Another monk asked him what difference he felt after the Realisation. Nothing much, replied the Realised Monk except that he drank the same tea before Realisation also, now also he is drinking the same tea. But the big difference is in the AWARENESS while drinking. Earlier he was simply drinking due to habit and to quench the thirst. Now he is drinking the tea with Awareness. Awareness throughout the action of drinking.

What is that Awareness? When we drink tea normally what we would do? or rather what are the activities involved throughout the act of drinking of tea? Bringing to our attention each and every activity of drinking the tea is the Awareness. Let us start drinking the tea. i am sitting on a chair in front of a table on which a cup of the divine tea is placed. Now the action starts. First i am observing the tea cup. My mind desires to drink the tea. It gives orders to the appropriate limbs of my body and the limbs follow the orders. The upper portion of my body slightly bends forward and simultaneously,say,my left hand slowly moves forward towards the tea-cup.The fingers of my left hand touches the handle of tea-cup. Next the fingers grasp the handle and tighten the grip on the handle.The hand along with the fingers slowly lift the tea-cup, bring the cup towards my lips and when the top edge of the cup touches my lips stops the movement of the hand. My lips continue to hold the top edge of the tea-cup. Now the fingers, maintaining its grip on the handle of the cup, slightly tilts the cup till a small drinkable quantity of the tea touches my lips and further tilting of the cup is stopped & simultaneously with the syphon action my lips suck that quantity of tea into the mouth and through my throat into my stomach. My mind feels satisfied with this sip. This completes one sip. Next my fingers further slightly tilts the tea-cup so that some more small quantity of tea touches my lips.-------The cycle repeats several times till the whole cup is emptied of the tea and each time all the actions remains the same except that the cup is tilted towards my lips more and more, say from zero degree to approx. 135 degree, when the last drops of the tea enters my stomach.

Throughout the above drinking of tea, there is the total Awareness to all the activities. ( Further small activities also can be derived ). Next, how these activities happened? By different appropriate limbs of my body with the full co-ordination of each limb. Who is the coordinator? Surely the Mind. As our SWAMI says the mind is a bundle of thoughts woven together to form the mind. Where from these thoughts are originating to form the mind? When this mind is formed of thoughts who is deciding whether the action done by each limb is proper or not? There must be someone to discriminate the right and wrong who is above and controlling the mind! Yes it is the Intellect. Where from or who is the cause for Intellect to happen? And some energy/power is required to carry out all the aforesaid activities for enabling to drink tea. Where from the energy has originated?. Further deep enquiry will lead us to the role of Ego and Anthakarana responsible for all the activities,and the God/ SWAMI who is residing in us as Atma who is the prompter and cause for such " Enquiring into the nature of Atma " himself will reveal the Grand TRUTH.

The Awareness makes us to live in the Present. GOD is revealing in the Present. Other matters pertaining to the Past is the memory, though sometimes appear to be very exhilarating; and the Future is a beautiful imagination. GOD is available NOW in the PRESENT in every moment, from moment to moment HE is available. When one moment travels to another moment and within this small gap between the two moments also GOD/SWAMI is Present. Everything becomes OLD from one moment to another moment, though the gap between these moments may be microscopically small, BUT GOD/SWAMI/BHAGAVAN ONLY IS PRESENT FROM ONE MOMENT TO OTHER MOMENT AND IN BETWEEN ALSO . Because HE IS VERY FRESH AND NEW, because HE IS NUTANA. ALSO HE IS SANATANA. Whatever was there in the Past and would be there in the Future are either old or imagination respectively and only GOD WAS THERE IN THE PAST AND WILL BE THERE IN THE FUTURE AND EXISTING IN THE PRESENT BECAUSE HE IS SANATANA AND IN THE SAME BREATH NUTANA.o

Sai Ram

Yours Saibandhu,

Ranganatha.Rao

On Sat, Aug 8, 2009 at 12:22 PM, laxmi sankaranarayanan <laxmisanky wrote:

Sai Ram brothers and sisters,Today's thought for the day at Puttaparthy was related to Atma Gyan- strive to find the self from within you by self questioning, seeking etc. For reaching self realisation this alone may be enough. Today Sai Buddha spoke out to guide us for the day.

Look into yourself Swami has told us today. That had me thinking. Look out for what? What shall I find within myself if I start delving into the recesses of my heart. Which part of self realisation would I realise today? I started the exercise all the same.

THE SWAMI IN ME STARTED TO ECHO OUT AND I KNOW THE ECHO COMES FROM AN EMPTY SPACE. THE REVERBERATIONS OF THE SOUND FILL THE ENTIRE EMPTINESS.In the world of Maya, which is like a prison in which we are caged and deluded, where we donot know how to find the right Guru or as it happens sometimes- when the Guru does not seek us out, Swami tells us not to worry. Look for the Swami within you. The rest falls into place gradually, in a sequential manner. That is Swami's job. Do your Karma, dedicate the good and the bad to Him and watch the fun.

It is as though He is offering a very delicious cup of tea. As we sip the tea and enjoy it we forget the trouble He has taken to give it to us as a near- perfect beverage. HOW WAS THIS TEA PREPARED?There has to be a clean, washed vessel- our body, a fire source- life. He has put the water (our soul) to boil, thereby making the water reach the right temperature to add the tea leaves, as well as for disinfecting it. THE TESTS AND EXPERIENCES IN OUR LIFE ARE TO PURIFY OUR TAINTED SOULS SO THAT WE CAN START ADDING COLOUR TO IT WITH OUR KARMAS.

At this point we think we can take over from Him (we forget to dedicate our work or we decide that we alone can take credit for this action initiated by the Almighty) and we add the black tea leaves- our Karmas. Again we add the quantity we think should be right. The black coloured tea leaves are brewed in that water- most often the quantity is never right- there is either too much or too less quantity of tea leaves. The tea leaves eaten just like that taste only like dust and the brewed solution is too bitter. In short We add flavour and colour to our lives- all the bitterness and suffering- our karmas have resulted in a bitter drink that is unpalatable.

Just when you wonder how to drink this bitter black concoction, He adds sugar, from his limitless stock of LOVE, thereby sweetening it and making it slightly tolerable- He shows us the path to bring positiveness into our lives. This black tea is STILL too strong or too light for most of us. We seek for a solution from Him and ask Him for help.

So as a final touch He adds milk- the Divine energy- to it. The pure white milk of Divinity when mixed with the dark tea of our Karmas makes the tea palatable and delicious. Life becomes worthwhile. It - the addition of a little bit of Divinity into our dark lives- gives us energy, alertness, satisfaction and we feel ready to take on the Day.

But before this there is one most important step that I deliberately failed to mention. Before serving us the delicious drink, He filters away the bad and gives us the clean warm solution to drink. He holds the filter in His hands. BUT WE NEED TO HAND OVER THE HOT VESSEL TO HIM. If we touch it with our bare hands we will burn our fingers- the effects of the karmas on our souls boiled by the tests put forth by life can be deleterious to us. Hence we need to find a cloth or paper or some metal device like a pair of tongs to hold it and hand it over to God- that is our religion and our mortal Guru. At times we use the end of our sari- Atma Gyan- the Guru from within us. They help us from getting scalded.

The hot vessel has been handed over to the Divine- our Swami. We have surrendered the drink that Swami has finally made palatable, in order to take away the negative and resultant debris of our karmas. He filters off the tea leaves and hands us the warm palatable drink. The drink is handed in a beautiful cup of goodness with the instruction that we should sip it with care as it is still too hot. If we become impatient and sip it hot- religious FANATISM- we are more often than not going to burn our tongue.

Hence we need to cool the drink to a reasonable temperature- use our discrimination- and sip it slowly so as to enjoy it. If we are not sure how to do it, Swami Himself will blow it cool for us. We only have to ask. At the end of the entire process Swami has taken away the Negativism, the bitterness of our karmas, thrown it away and given us the unadulterated form of the energetic drink, minus the debris that cannot be ingested and given our soul back to us for us to handle with care.

No matter how much tea leaves we add, He still makes the drink of our karmas palatable, by adding the right amount of sugar and milk (LOVE AND DIVINITY). The perfection of the cup of tea ultimately depends on the cleanliness of the vessel ( physical fitnessof the body), the water (our atma) , the temperature when the tea leaves were added (the tests put forth by life), the amount of tea leaves added (our karmas), the amount of time the tea brewed (how long we continued to live and act the way we did while doing do our karmas) , the quantity of sugar and milk added (How much love and divinity we accepted in our lives), how we hand over the hot vessel to Swami and the temperature at which the final concoction is sipped. Swami does His work with perfection- He has given us a clean soul, the perfect life to help shape our souls and despite us not asking for it, He loves us. Despite our tainting our souls He still takes away the Bad and gives our souls back to us in a palatable form. the perfection of the drink depends on our karmas.

So what could be the perfect solution to get the perfect drink from Him? Give Swami the container that contains the tea leaves and let Him decide how much tea leaves to put, at what temperature to put and the quantity of sugar to add. Then let Him take over the task of lifting the hot vessel from the fire after the milk is added. He will strain it and give you the perfect drink- the ambrosia of bliss.

-- laxmi