Sai Baba Gita Reading for Today - Only the Formless is the Permanent Aspect...

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Sai Baba Gita Reading for Today

October 22, 2003

 

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Only the Formless is the Permanent Aspect of the Lord

 

When you come to hear Baba give a spiritual discourse, you will be

with about a thousand others seated in the temple. This will be

happening in the physical domain, and may last for one to two hours.

Associated with this experience is a given time and activity. But

this very same experience can be re-experienced even after you go

home. Whenever you want to think of it, it will be there in your

mind... one thousand people seated in the temple and Sai Baba giving

the discourse. In the external vision and in your experience in the

waking state, you can see that all of you are sitting in the temple.

What happens when you are back in your home? You find this temple

will be in your heart and can be recalled to your mind at any time.

 

You were there for one hour, but this can become a permanent

experience for you forever, even after you leave the ashram. Having

initially had the physical experience in the phenomenal world, it

becomes a permanent record in the subtle universe of the mind, which

can then be recalled at some later time. As you repeatedly recollect

this experience and ruminate on Baba's teachings, its message

becomes permanently embedded in your heart.

 

Without first having had the actual experience in the hall, there

would have been no permanent impression in your heart which you

could later re-experience in your mind. Once the impression has been

made in the mind, there is no need for actually being physically

present in the temple or seeing Baba's physical form. In the same

way, once you have experienced God in form, you will certainly be

able to get the experience of the formless God later on. The form is

momentary whereas the formless is eternal; but the formless will

live on as a permanent entity for you only after first having

experienced the divine form and imprinted it on your heart through

worship and devotion.

 

Consider another example. Suppose you want to teach the word 'chair'

to a small child. If you merely utter the word 'chair' it does not

become clear to him what its form is. However, you can show him a

chair like this and ask him to look it over carefully. While he is

doing this you repeat the word 'chair'. Then later on, whenever he

sees a chair he will remember the word associated with the form you

have shown him and he will repeat to himself 'chair'. The form of

the particular chair you used to teach him the meaning of the word

may be impermanent. That chair will change, but the word 'chair' and

the type of objects it represents will remain. Unless he sees the

impermanent form he will not learn the permanent word 'chair'. The

permanent element is understood through the impermanent one.

Therefore, though divinity is formless, you first have to associate

it with a particular form to understand it.

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

Source:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita023.html

 

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Sai Baba Gita

Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903

Online Edition: http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/index.html