Sai Baba Gita Reading for Today - The Veil of Illusion

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Sai Baba Gita Reading for Today

October 30, 2003

 

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The Veil of Illusion

 

At first it is difficult to experience this principle of surrender

because there is a very big veil between you and God. Due to this

veil, you are easily subject to doubt and confusion, and then you

feel yourself unable to surrender completely. This veil is illusion.

What is the meaning of illusion? Illusion refers to that which does

not exist. When you are under the spell of illusion you imagine that

which does not really exist to exist. And you imagine that which

really exists to not exist. What never changes really exists and is

true. What changes does not really exist and is not true. The one

thing which always exists, which is true and unchanging is God, the

one without a second. The world, when thought to be devoid of God,

will be seen as constantly changing. Since it is changing, it cannot

be true and, therefore, cannot really exist. But, in this, you are

not seeing the world correctly.

 

When you are under the spell of illusion, you see the world as

separate from God. You do not see the divinity as the principle

underlying everything in the world, and as a result, you become

afraid and find it impossible to surrender yourself completely. It

is like seeing a rope and thinking that it is a snake. But there is

no snake there at all. You are subjected to fear and tension by

imagining that there is a snake where there really is no snake, at

all. What is the reason for this fear? Imagining things which really

do not exist, as existing, is the cause of fear. This feeling is

responsible for all your troubles. If you were to see all this in

total awareness, you would find that there is only a rope; there is

no snake. Then you would have no fear whatsoever. You would not be

afraid to reach out to it, to hold it and to play with it, because

you would realize that all there is, is only a rope.

 

You are subject to many sorrows because you forget the fact that the

entire world is the embodiment of God. It is not just the world as

you think it is. You see the world only from the phenomenal point of

view; you are not looking at it through the eyes of inquiry. If you

were to look at the world correctly, you would realize that it is a

stream of continuous change. This ongoing, uninterrupted flow of

change is the basic characteristic of the phenomenal world. But

within and governing that flow of change, is the one divine

principle which is forever unchanging.

 

It can be likened to a river. The water in the river will flow

continuously and give rise to the apparent effect of a steady

stream, flowing without end. But at any given period of time, and at

any particular place along the river, the particles of water rushing

by will all be different; some will be muddy, some will contain

rocks, some will be foamy, some will be pure water. Although the

flow is continuous, the exact makeup of the water is constantly

changing. We see that the river is a combination of both changing

and unchanging elements.

 

In a similar way beings, which are the expressions of life, are born

and die. Although they come and they go, there is a continuity of

life in the world. Life which goes on continuously can be considered

to be truth, whereas living beings which are born and die and are

constantly changing, represent untruth. Therefore, the changing

expressions of life are untrue, but life itself, which is a steady

stream whose essence is the divinity, is true.

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

Source:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita031.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