Swami teaches... Spiritual virtue to travel light

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

Swami teaches...

Spiritual Virtue to Travel Light

This objective world is as ageless as God. Who knows when God resolved upon

the Universe? It is as beginningless as God; we cannot determine when it came

into being but we can determine when it will end, at least for each of us.

The purpose of the ancient religions of India are to plant the seeds of Love

in the human heart so that they may sprout into saplings of endurance, and

blossom into tolerance, yielding ultimately the fruits of Peace. The pinnacle

of Indian thought in Adhwaitha, the experience of the One, of the negation of

duality. Bhaarath has, from time immemorial, sought to infuse in the

individual, the lesson that human can be free only when he realises the

identity with all beings. Human is kin to all, that is the teaching of

Sanaathana Dharma (eteral religion). Samskrithi, the word for culture and

cultivation, is derived from the word, samskaara, which means the dual process

of removing the dust and dirt from the mind and planting the virtues of Sathya,

Dharma, Shaanthi and Prema. Know that envy is the stickiest dirt. The toughest

fibre is anger, it is the stickiest dust. When you get angry, you forget

mother, father and teacher; you descend to the lowest depths. You lose all

discrimination in the excitement; even Hanumantha set fire to the whole of

Lanka when he was incensed by the demons who set fire to the tip of his tail;

he lost sight of the fact that Seetha was in the Ashokavana.

Samskaara is also the name for certain obligatory rites of initiation and

purification prescribed by the Vedhas for the spiritual upliftment. Their

number is forty-eight in all; but, they could be reduced to ten and, if needed,

even to one; the final and fulfilling One, of recognising one's identity with

Maadhava or Shiva or Brahman. Nara (human) is but Naaraayana (God); Jeeva

(individual soul) is Brahman, seen through the limitations of primal ignorance.

Proceed along that path, inspite of halts and handicaps, inspite of the

approval or disapproval of kith and kin, of praise or blame from society. What

exactly is praise or blame? Sound waves coming from across the air; waves that

strike your ear. Let them strike only the outer ear.

Have Love towards the Lord, but do not become depressed with envy when

others also love him or get attached to Him. Develop close association with Him

and He will reveal Himself to you. If you have the capacity to draw the Lord to

yourself, He will Himself come to you and be with you. Be like the flute, a

hollow reed, straight, light, with no substance to hinder His breath. He will

breathe divine music through you, playing upon you with a delicate touch. In

His hand, the infinitesimal will be transmuted into the Infinite, the anu

(light atom) will be transformed into the ghana (heavy solid).

You may benefit from God, but you cannot explain Him. You may benefit from

electricity, and use it in a thousand ways, but you cannot explore and

completely explain its mystery. Usually you give the brain more value than it

deserves. The Parathathwa (Supreme Truth) is beyond the reach of the brain;

standing on the rock, you cannot lift it! Standing in Maayaa, you cannot

discard it.

In your heart of hems, you know that you are the Pure, the Full, the

Eternal. You are the limitless, timeless, spaceless Aathma, the changeless,

characteristicless Self. That Aathma persists in your dreams, in deep sleep, in

the varied activities of the waking stage. It persists during childhood, youth,

middle age, old age and senility. It is the entity which declares itself as I:

I slept, I dreamt, I awoke, I was a child, I am too old to walk erect, etc. My

eye, my word, my idea, my plan, my resolution, my experience, you say; thereby,

you announce that you are not any of these. You are separate from these, but

yet, you are involved with them. How to experience the Aathma? What is Sathya

and what is Dharma? The Raamaayana and the Bhaagavatha reveal this knowledge,

through story and example, so that any one, however poor or illiterate he may

be, can understand it and practise it and benefit by it.

 

For those who know, Sai Raama, Krishna Vishnu, all are One; the distinction

is only in the Upaadhi (the form and the name). The power, the glory, the

mission, the message are all the same, though the particular achievements may

be different, according to the needs and purposes of the age.

If only the culture of India, which is based on the Vedhas and expounded in

the Raamaayana and the Bhaagavatha, is practised with a true understanding of

its value, people can ensure for themselves perpetual joy or bliss. Walk in

the path laid down in the Raamaayana, and Mahaabhaaratha and the Bhaagavatha.

All the teaching you need for liberation from grief and worry, you can get

there.

You will have to re-live, for example, the Bhaagavatha in your own

experience; become a Nandha or Yashodha fondling the child Krishna; become a

Gopee yearning for the company of the Lord, as the soul craves for the

Supersoul, as the river craves for the sea; become one with the cows whom He

tended, or the boys with whom He played, or the Murali (flute) which He

breathed through to give the world the music that captivates.

Revere Knowledge as you revere your father, adore Love as you adore your

mother, move fondly with Dharma, as if it is your own brother; confide in Dhaya

(compassion) as if it is your dearest friend; have Shaantham (calmness) as your

better half; treat Sahana (fortitude), as if it is your own beloved son. These

are your genuine kith and kin. Move with them, live with them, do not forsake

or neglect them. Living with these kinsmen is the best recipe. That is the best

atmosphere to ensure the discipline and detachment needed for mind control. Mere

prayer will not do. You will have to swallow and digest the morsel that is

putinto the mouth; repetition of the name of the dish is of no use. Hearing

discourses and nodding approval or clapping in appreciation are not enough.

Whichever the book, whoever the guru, whatever the institution, the goal is

the same. The path is the ancient one, laid down by the saintly pioneers. Or,

you can picture it as a fourstoreyed mansion, the ground floor being Karma Yoga

(union with God through action) and the succeeding ones being bhakthi, jnaana

and vairaagya (devotion, spiritual knowledge and nonattachment). When it is

just a nascent fruit, it is karma. That is, the activity that all are capable

of, and so it is the first step in saadhana as well. When it matures and is

rendered free from egoism and greed, it becomes worship, and so, it leads one

on to the second floor, bhakthi. When it is ripe and sweet, that is to say,

when the bhaktha (devotee) achieves complete self-surrender, then, it is the

acquisition of jnaana; when the fruit drops from the tree, it marks full

detachment (vairaagya); the fourth floor of God's mansion is then reached.

Prema (divine love) is the motive power in Karma Yoga; it is the very breath

of Bhakthi Yoga. Bhakthi can grow only on prepared ground. (The method of

preparation is given in the Vedhas, which speak also of things that have to be

avoided). It is universal and infinite in Jnaana; it sees the Lord everywhere

and in everything, when vairaagya has been achieved. More about vairaagya. When

you go to a temple you break a coconut before the idol. Now, if you try to break

the nut as it has fallen from the tree, will it break? No. Moksha (liberation)

results from the breaking of the mind with all its vagaries and wishes. Remove

them and dedicate the mind to God and smash it in His presence. That moment,

you are free. So the final consummation is moksha; that is the very crux of the

problem of life. Moksha means liberation from bondage to both joy and grief,

which are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Moksha is the recognition

of the truth; but, though it is so simple, it required the cultivation of

viveka, vairaagya and vichakshana (discrimination, detachment and ability).

Viveka is necessary to decide what is dharma. Each one must decide for

himself the dharma one must choose for uplift; this required viveka, the

recognition of the permanently beneficial source of pure and lasting joy.

Virtue is the life-breath actions dedicated to God; character is the backbone.

Without that, no meritorious act will fructify. A characterless human is like a

pot with many holes, useless for carrying water, or storing it. Renounce and win

peace; have and win troubles. Below are several pictorial comparisons and

directions to obtain spiritual virtue for meaningful and happy life dedicated

to God. The eagle is pestered by crows so long as it has a fish in its

beak. They swish past that so they could steal the fish out of its mouth. They

pursue the bird wherever it sits for a little rest. At last, it gives up the

attachment to the fish and drops it from its beak; the crows fly behind it and

leave the eagle free. So leave off sense pleasures and the crows of pride,

envy, malice, and hatred will fly away, for they want only carrion. The

snake moves in curves, not in a straight line; human too, following the senses

has to move in a crooked path. Human has greater poison within than the snake;

venom is to be found in eyes, tongue, hands, mind, heart, thoughts - whereas

the cobra has it only in its fangs. The cobra raises its hood and sways in joy

when it hears music; so too human when realises the stage of niruvikalpa -

steady unchanging establishment in the Ultimate Reality - dances in heavenly

bliss.

A millionaire pays income-tax with tears in his eyes; a headmaster joyfully

gives up the furniture and laboratory appliances of his school when he is

transferred to some other place. Why? Because the headmaster knows that he is

only the caretaker, not the owner. He is not attached to these articles; he

knows that they belong to the government. So, too, feel that your family, your

house, your fields your car, are all the Lord's property and that you are only

the trustee; be rely to give them up without a murmur at a moment's notice.

The eye, the ear and the tongue lead to anxiety and malice. It is even

difficult to put into practice even the truths of which you are intellectually

convinced. That it is not what you hear that is beneficial, but what you put

into daily practice. Develop renunciation about your own needs and wishes. When

you pile up things in your apartments, you only promote darkness and dust; so

also, do not collect and store too many materials in your mind. Travel light.

Have just enough to sustain life and maintain health. Life becomes too

difficult to bear if you put into it too much of "desire." Do not run after

fashion and public approval and strain your resources, beyond repair. Keep to

your own dharma and the code of rules that regulate life or the stage you have

reached. Do not place your needs first, your joy first. Consider the needs

of others, the aanandha of others, as even more important.

Worship in any temple, any form, under any name. Make your house itself a

mandhir, meditate in your own shrineroom. Sing bhajans in your own home; above

all, be an example to others by means of sweet speech, humility, reverence to

elders, truthfulness, faith and steadfastness.

The Lord looks for sincerity, simplicity and steady joy in the contemplation

of His name and form. If you lose yourself in the depths of unconsciousness

after a bout of drink, you will not be counted as a person who has achieved

Samaadhi. Who has an eye on the profit one can derive from service to God,

cannot be a true devotee. They praise Raama to the skies one day and decry Him

the next, if their fortune gets dry.

 

Very often individuals (and even institutions) trespass into the realm of

others, compete with fellow workers, and sometimes try to establish

superiority, by means fair or foul. Power and position have to be deserved,

before they are desired. Learning the technique of service, cultivating the

impulse to serve, these are steps in equipping a person for leadership.

Those of you who have had the privilege of serving your unfortunate brothers

and sisters will stand witness that there is no discipline equal to Service to

smother the ego and to fill the heart with genuine joy. Attune your hems so

that it will vibrate in sympathy with the woes and joys of your fellowmen. Feed

the hungry, the ones who have not had so far the delight that a full meal alone

can give.

 

The laws governing Nature were made by God and everyone is subject to them.

The body is subject to the laws of Nature. Even the Divine has to submit

Himself to His own laws governing Nature. If the mind had been all time

dwelling on the pain, the pain would have been greater. The best medicine for

the pain is diverting the mind. The pain can be mitigated by prayer and by

diverting the mind.

If you have the Grace of God, no graham can harm you; maleficent influences

even from the most powerful combination of planets with which the astrologers

terrify you will disappear in a trice. Now, engage yourself in spiritual

discipline, spiritual thoughts, spiritual company.

Past Is past, It won't come. Future, you are not sure of. The given

moment is now (Present). This Present is Omnipresent. So, let the past go

its way. Have faith in any one Name and the Form indicated by that name. If you

revere Shiva and hate Vishnu, the plus and the minus cancel out and the net

result is zero. You can never attain the Lord through hatred of one or more of

His many Forms and Names. Avoid factions, quarrelling, hating, scorning,

fault-finding; they recoil on you. You find fault in others because you have

faults in you. Remember every one is a pilgrim towards the same goal; some

travel by one road, some by another. Raavana, Sisupaala, Danthavakra - they too

reached the feet of the Lord, by inviting Him to end their earthly careers.

(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 4. "Be a care taker," Chapter

28; "Genuine kinsmen," Chapter 30 and "How old are you really?" Chapter 31;

Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 9. "Elephants and the Lion," Chapter 18. Sathya Sai

Speaks. Vol. 21. "The Divine and The Devotee," Chapter 23).

 

Namaste - Reet