Swami teaches... How to be in accord with a symphony of joy and sorrow?

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Preface

Swami indicates the significant role of His Teaching to the students -

seekers of truth and to all others who are interested in their spiritual

development. Let His words be as a preface to the subsequent Swami's lesson for

devotees and followers "Swami teaches...".

All of you have great love and adore Swami but that love and adoration are

of no use if you ignore the teachings of Swami. Even if you do not adore, if

you believe in the truth of the word and enforce it in your daily life, Swami's

grace will always be with you in your life. It is no use if you simply utter the

name of the Lord and do not follow the good things that go with the Lord. It is

just like uttering the name of penicillin when you are running a high

temperature. Only when you take in the penicillin will the temperature come

down. When you are hungry, the hunger cannot be satisfied by uttering words

like potato and Chapati. If you eat them, it will be satisfied. It is no use if

you only read or listen. You must try to remember the teachings, put them into

practice and judge for yourself how far you have acted according to the word.

 

Swami teaches... (18 January 2005)

 

How to Be in Accord with a Symphony of Joy and Sorrow?

 

All human beings born in this Kali Yuga are getting confused because they do

not know how to differentiate between good and evil, between sin and virtue and

between joy and sorrow. The sense of discrimination is being put to a severe

test in us because what seems to be good at one time, seems to be bad at

another time; what seems to be desirable at one time, seems undesirable at

another, what seems to be conducive to our health at one time, seems to be

dangerous to our health at another and so on.

 

From the same heart we find two emotions, one anger and the other mercy.

Some people argue that man is born just for the gratification of his senses.

Some people think that they should amass food and wealth for the sake of joy

and happiness only. A human being is not born to go in quest of food but to go

in quest of the Atma.

 

We should develop intelligence, because our intelligence enables us to

distinguish good from bad through the process of constant thought and

discrimination. The discourses of elders and the messages of great books point

out the great principle of finding unity in diversity. But this principle

remains only theoretical if it is not implemented in our daily lives. If we

want to recognise unity in diversity, we must first know the meaning of these

words. We may glibly say that the elimination of sorrow and acquisition of joy

is the simple path which leads to spiritual illumination.

However, life is a symphony of joy and sorrow, a mixture of pleasure and

pain. It is not possible for us to have joy without sorrow or sorrow without

joy. Therefore, one must cultivate the attitude of equanimity towards joy and

sorrow.

 

Human life is made up of several stages. Birth, growth, ageing, getting

debilitated and death are the various stages of the changing body. In this

field which is full of change, the principle which remains unchanged is

divinity. Why do we nourish and protect the body which is the Kshetra?

Kshetragna (Paramatma) is residing in this body. These are referred to in the

Gita as 'Kshetra' and 'Kshetragna'. 'Kshetra' is the body which is the field

and the 'Kshetragna' is Paramatma.

It is said that this body is your temple and within this body God, the

eternal principle dwells. But today this body has unfortunately degenerated

into a dwelling place of the devil. You must understand the difference between

the dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of the devil. If you do not

kindle the flame of pure thoughts in the temple of your body, then bats will

befoul it and it will be densely dark. Kindle the flame of love, the flame of

knowledge and the flame of devotion in your hearts.

 

Always avoid bad friends and fill your minds with noble and elevating

things. When you get up in the morning, sit on your bed and think of the Lord.

As soon as you get up, throw your troubles and burdens at the feet of the Lord

and pray to Him to guide you through life and give you only good thoughts and

noble ideas which always serve as uplifting factors in life. When you go back

to bed at night, imagine that to be a state of death. Tell yourself that during

the day, you have acted according to the Lord's orders. Ask for forgiveness if

there is anything wrong and ask to be led on the path of righteousness. If you

begin and end your day with such prayers, it will help you reach higher

attitudes of living.

When you take food, all the evils are eliminated if you offer the first

morsel to God. The food then becomes Prasad of the Lord bestowed on man. It may

not be possible to insist that the vessel be pure, that the man who cooks the

food be pure and that the food be pure, but if you offer the first morsel to

God, it becomes utterly pure.

Always try to help those who are in distress, those who are suffering and

the poor. Once upon a time, there lived in Tamil Nadu a poet and holy man who

used to sit on a veranda in his house in front of the Lord's picture and chant

beautiful songs. One day, it was raining heavily and he sought shelter in

another little veranda in the village. One other man came and asked him if he

could also take shelter there. The Bhakta said he could. He said, "There was

place only for me to stretch out, but now that you are here we will sit up."

Later, another man came and asked for shelter. The Bhakta consented saying,

"There was place for the two of us to sit. Now that you also have come, let us

all stand." He thus taught the principle of helping one another and not sending

anyone away who needed help. Such is a tiny example how to practice in daily

life the great principle of finding Iswara (i. e. God, Paraatma, Atma) in every

creature. (Reet's compilation from: Divine Discourse of Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba

"Pleasure and Pain" during the Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian Culture.

May 1972, Brindavan).

 

Namaste - Reet