A Dialogue with Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (On Chith... Pure Consciousness)

[Guest guest]

Bhaktha: Swami, last month You said something about “Chith” (awareness) and You

were pleased to say that You will explain more about it this month.

Swami: Have you understood what has been told so far? Understanding does not

mean mere mugging up! By practice and experience, have you realised in thought,

word and deed, and with full equanimity, the true nature of the World, that the

World is Unreal?

Bhaktha: It is only by understanding that, isn’t it, Swami, that one can ever be

immersed in thoughts of Sai, the Lord, giving up all other activities and

duties? Had I not understood that much, I would have wasted this precious time.

Swami: Good, my dear boy! How sad will the ryot be if the seeds he has planted

do not sprout and yield harvest! So too, if the seeds of True wisdom that I sow

do not come up as good saplings and give good harvest, I too am affected. On the

other hand, if they grow well and fructify into a harvest of Ananda, how happy I

would be. That is My food.

This is the Seva (service) you should do to me. There is nothing higher than

this. Without flinging away the good words and true, spoken for your sake, if

you practise them and derive joy therefrom, the essence of that joy is my food.

 

When what is said is allowed to deteriorate without being put into use, if

people come and ask me to speak and speak again, what is to be said?

Bhaktha: Swami! To practise the Divine Words too the Lord’s Grace is the basic

need just as for everything else. Without that, nothing can happen. It is

everpresent, as You said.

Just as the Sun is hidden by fog, Grace can be obstructed by the darkness of “I”

and “mine.” But these can be overcome by practice and discipline. That is why if

we understand well the meaning of what we hear and follow, it is so easy. This

is my experience; I do not know of others.

Swami: True. True. What you say is correct. You have understood it well. Without

grasping the meaning, if various interpretations are given, that distorts

Reality. And if a wrong sense is imputed, it falsifies Reality.

But if it is clearly understood, practice becomes easy.

Now consider this. Are all born at the same time? Do all die at the same time?

Similarly, the highest Wisdom will dawn, in this person or that, at different

times. If you go on singing, song after song, you learn music.

Bhaktha: Swami, we are like lumps of iron; the Lord is like the magnet. Both are

related to each other. But if that lump of iron has to be changed into an

article of use in God’s hands, it has to be heated in the fire of anxiety and

beaten by the hammer of pain, so that it may obey and respond. So in order to

shape lumps of iron like us into instruments, You have to take much trouble.

You have said that this is Your Mission. Now please tell me about the “Chith”

which you mentioned last month.

Swami: Yes. “Chith” has also another name, Suddha Sathwa; i.e., Pure

Consciousness. It is as opposed to the Impure Consciousness as Vidya is to

Avidya.

Impure consciousness is inherent in the Pure, as much as Darkness is inherent in

Light. Since many words are spoken, don’t get confused my dear boy!

Vidya-Avidya, Jnana-Ajnana, Suddha Sathwa-Malina Sathwa (impure consciousness),

all indicate the same idea, not different ones.

Have you heard the word, the opposite of “Prakriti”?

Bhaktha: When I studied grammar, I learnt that the opposite of Prakriti is “Vikriti.”

Swami: What does Vikriti mean?

Bhaktha: Vikriti means Vikaaram, changed, transformed, derived. Agni is the

original; Aggi is the derived word. So, too, Jama is derived from Yama, Janna

from Yajna, and so on.

Swami: So also, the Lord’s Prakriti is known as Vidya, and its derived or lower

form or Vikriti is known as Avidya. For Vidya or Suddha Sathwa, Avidya or

Malina Sathwa is the lower form.

Bhaktha: How is that, Swami? Vidya is effulgent in the Lord and Avidya is

apparent only because of Vidya.

That is to say, the Universal Cosmic Principle is in the Lord, and this

Universal Principle itself appears as individual different from individual (by

the external characteristics of name and form, the appearance of individuals is

caused).

This Avidyasakthi or the power of Ignorance also manifests as an inseparable

entity. For, the Lord is the only Existence. Therefore, that One Existence is

the Basis or Foundation for the Universal and the Particular, the Totality as

well as the apparent Parts. This is Your meaning, isn’t it, Swami?

Swami: That is why the Lord is referred to as Sathya (Truth) and Brahmam. This

Sathyam is Akhanda or Indivisible.

It is Adwaitha, Non-dual. It is Anantha, without End.

In the Upanishads, this Sathya (associated with the unmanifested Maya Sakthi) is

called the Purna, “Adah” and the Sathya associated with the manifested Maya

Sakthi is called the Purna, “Idam”. This is the secret of the Upanishadic

Manthra, Purnamadah Purnamidam….

Bhaktha: Oh, what fine teaching! Just like giving unto the hand a fruit peeled

and ready to eat! This manifested total cosmos or Purna arose out of the Purna

of Unmanifested Indivisible Reality, this is what you spoke of, is it not?

Swami: It is on account of this that we say Vasudevassarvamidam, Sarvamkhalvidam

Brahma, etc. The words Vasudeva, Brahma are different but there is no difference

in meaning at all. Did you understand?

Excerpt

from: Dialogue 4. “SANDEHA NIVARINI”CLEARANCE OF SPIRITUAL DOUBTS A Dialogues

withBhagawan Sri Sathya Sai

Baba