Swami teaches...Gita, secrets of spiritual science and creative education

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Sai Ram Light and Love

Swami teaches...

 

Gita, Secrets of Spiritual Science and Creative Education

 

What is humanness? Essentially it means unity in thought, word and deed.

When what one thinks differs from what one says and does, he/she ceases to be

human and becomes a demon. True human qualities can grow only in a heart filled

with spiritual aspirations, like a seed sown in a fertile soil and not on a

piece of rock.

Human is not aware of the grand goal of the pilgrimage. Human is straying

into wrong roads which lead towards disaster. Human puts faith in outside

things and plans to derive joy, from and through them. But all joysspring only

from the spring that is inside. Human only envelopes the outer things with own

joy and then, experiences it as though from that other thing - that is all.

When you try to prepare a meal, you may have with you all the materials you

need: rice, dhal, salt, lime, spices, vegetables. But, unless you have the fire

in the hearth, you cannot get the edible meal. So too with life Jnana (of your

own Reality, as just a wave of the ocean of divinity) is the fire which makes

the material world and the external activities and experience, edible and

tasty, assimilable and health-granting and joy-giving. That joy is called

Ananda; it is uplifting, it is illuminating, it is constructive.

The spiritual meal for all humanity is the Gita. The Gita is a text book

giving the secrets of spiritual science in clear and simple terms. But it will

be useful only when the reader has as much detachment as Arjuna had when

Krishna started the discourse.

Only a patient ailing from a disease is entitled to the specific which will

cure it. What business have others with it? What profit can they draw from it?

The Gita will act on the mental system only when the symptoms of grief are

strong. Anyone anywhere who reaches the stage of spiritual surrender (as

Arjuna reached) will get the response from Krishna and He will teach the Gita

from the chariot which is driven by Him, that is Arjuna's own heart.

The purpose of the Gita is to remove the delusion which overwhelmed Arjuna

and made him feel that he was the doer, whereas the truth is, he was but an

instrument. So Krishna asks him at the very end of the discourse, "Has the

delusion born out of ajnana (ignorance) been fully destroyed in you?" For, like

a good teacher, Krishna is evidently quite willing to resort to some other means

or to discourse a little longer, in order to make the pupil understand the

teaching. But Arjuna is a good student; he declares, "Destroyed is the delusion

I have gained recognition." Now what is the recognition he has gained? The

recognition of the Self or Atma. He has seen himself as basically Atma, and he

has seen the world and all objects as superimpositions on the Atma, due to

ignorance or Maya.

A person walked on the beach played with the waves, and had a dip in the

water; his feet are wet. There is no miracle in this. This is what happens to

many a scholar who wades in the sea of the Gita. The Pandith may have great

pomp before others but to himself, in the secrecy of own conscience, he/she is

a small human being indeed. Greatness depends upon the sadhana (spiritual

discipline) and the success achieved in it, in practice of spiritual

austerities and in firm adherence to it.

"Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached," it is said. But one

need not march towards the goal. It is not some place where you have to go. It

is jura the opening of the eye, the removal of the veil, the waking fromthe

dream, the lighting of the light of spiritual wisdom. There are people who

argue that the Gita teaches yoga more than any other; that shows only their

partisan nature. The Gita is the greatest harmoniser of all yogas. Once the

Gita is made the guiding star, the way you act will be Karma Yoga, the way you

feel will be Bhakthi Yoga, the way you reason will be Jnana Yoga. It will

become automatically so. What you do must be in line with Dharma; what you feel

must foster Prema; what you think must reveal Sathyam.

Through bodha (knowledge, teaching) alone can Dharma be saved in the modern

Kali Age. When you scatter seeds on the surface of the soil, they do not

germinate. You have to keep them inside the soil. So too, bodha, if it is

scattered on the surface, it will not germinate, grow into the tree of

knowledge and yield the fruit of wisdom.

The Vedas and Sastras, since they were won by penance and travail by sages

and seers who were interested in the welfare of humanity and the liberation of

individual are the greatest repositories. Know that the basic reality is God,

Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent. Become aware of it and stay in that

awareness always. Whatever the stress and the storm, do not waver from that

faith. By means of any one of His Names, any Name that is fragrant with Divine

Perfume, any Name that is reminiscent of His Beauty. His Grace, and His power.

Realisation of that reality can come only to the aspirant who deserves it.

Arjuna had reached the highest stage of surrender when the teaching started and

during the process, he had unexcelled concentration. No wonder he was blessed.

Unless one has the same degree of surrender, the same yearning and the same

concentration, how can one expect the result that Arjuna attained? It is not

easy path, that the Gita lays down. The seed that is dried in the sun will

sprout when planted in the soil; it has janana (birth) and marana (death); the

cycle of birth and death cannot be got rid of by study and scholarship.

Let the pretty wishes for which you now approach God be realised or not, let

the plans for promotion and progress which you place before God, be fulfilled or

not; they are not so important after all. The primary aim should be to become

Masters or yourselves, to hold intimate and constant: communion with the Divine

that is in you as well as in the Universe of which you are a part. But

individual who has emerged from God, is an embodiment of love. Instead of

limiting love within narrow confines, human should extend it to all and thereby

make the life purposeful and worthy.

There is an example from the Mahabharata to illustrate this situation.

Because of Sri Krishna's grace, all the Pandava brothers survived the

Kurukshetra war. All the hundred Kaurava brothers died in the war. Seeing the

plight of Gandhari, not one of whose sons had survived the war, people blamed

Krishna for such a calamity. Krishna went to Gandhari to console her. On seeing

Krishna, she burst out in anger: "Krishna! Being Divine, should you exhibit such

favouritism? Could you not have saved at least one of my sons?" Smilingly

Krishna replied: "Mother! Did you set your eyes on even one of your sons? When

you yourself did not choose to cast your eyes on your sons, how do you expect

God to look at them?" (Gandhari had blindfolded herself from the time of her

marriage to her blind husband, Dhritarashtra, and had never removed the bandage

out of devotion to her husband).

Life is not a simple affair; it is not governed by uniform laws which can be

discovered and applied. Twice two may not always be four, in life, though it may

be so in arithmetic. Each one has own strength and weakness, foibles and fears;

skills and handicaps, and so no one prescription can be suggested for all. One

day is sunny, but, the next may be rainy. One person may come upon a treasure

while walking on a road; the person behind on the same road may lose purse and

all that person possessed. Each one must proceed from the place where one is, at

own pace, according to own light. But, if each has caught a glimpse of the Atmic

Reality, of thesource from which he/she has emerged and the goal into which

he/she is to merge, then all will reach the goal of the journey, sooner or

later. Once that glimpse is received either through grace or through a Guru or

through some other means, the fascination for the body and the senses which

dominate it, and the world which feeds the senses, the fascination for the

vainglorious adventures in search of fame and fortune, will become meaningless

and will fade away.

No object in the world of Maya can be without a creator. Here is a

loud-speaker. Someone must have produced it. For everything which human enjoys

in daily life there is a creator. But we are also seeing objects which are

beyond human capacity. The stars which twinkle in the sky demonstrate their

existence. The glory of the Sun and the Moon which illumine the world is also

visible to us. The supreme power which has the capacity to create such

marvellous things has been described by the Vedhas as Aprameya, which means,

one who is beyond all proofs and all limitations. He cannot be described in

words. The primary object of human must be to seek to understand this Infinite

Power. To recognise the Creator, there are certain criteria. There are three

types of evidence determining the existence of a thing. The first is direct

perception, the second is inference, the third is the authority of revealed

scriptures. We generally consider direct perception as the most important

type of evidence. We are able to see how many hands we have, how many legs we

have, how many eyes, and so on. We boil milk and add some curd to it at night

and the next morning find that the milk has turned into curd. For the

conversion of milk to curd, our ownaction provides the direct proof. The

evidence of our own eyes is enough to convince us about how the change from

milk to curd has occurred. Inference is another form of proof. We see smoke

on the top of a distant hill. We infer from the smoke that there must be a fire

on the hill. Although we see only the smoke, we infer that there is fire. To

infer the existence of the "unseen" from the presence of what is "seen" is

inferential proof.

But these methods of determining facts are applicable only to the external

universe. We cannot understand what is meant by Atma. For determining the

Divine Principle we must depend only on the Vedas. When the Divine is

described as without attributes, eternal, ever-existing, pure, free, and

self-effulgent, this description will not make the Brahman (Atma, Infinite

Power) visible to us. You cannot grasp God. He can only be experienced in the

heart.

All subjects in the Universe have three characteristics, which are derived

from the Divine. These are asthi, bhaathi and priyam. (These qualities are also

otherwise represented by the terms Sath, Chith and Ananda - Being, Awareness and

Bliss). The existence of an object is derived from asthi (as Being). What it is,

is known from bhaathi (as Awareness), that is, from how it appears to our eyes.

That it is a useful or enjoyable object is derived from the quality of priyam

(as Bliss). These three are fundamental qualities. While human can change the

forms and names of objects, human cannot create the basic materials out of

which the various objects are made. Equally the scientist makes use of

materials available from nature for conversion to various uses but the primary

material or energy, itself is not created by scientist .

What all you see is Divine. What you eat is Divine. The air you breathe is

Divine. Your nature is Divine; what has happened is that delusion has covered

it with dirt. The washerman does not make your clothes white; it is white

already; what he does is to manifest its whiteness by removing the dirt that

has hidden the genuine native colour, white.

 

One of the first equipment that is necessary for the Brahmachaari (young

spiritual aspirant) is a rigorous self-examination. In scriptures has described

the ceremony of Brahmopadesam (Upanayanam) which means, "taking near," taking

Brahmachaari near Brahman, introducing him/her to desire to know Brahman, the

path of Brahman. It is one of the Samskaras (purificatory acts), rites which

reconstruct the personality, reform the mind, purify it and rebuild it. It

makes the person receiving it a Dwija (a twice born). The person is born first

into the world; now, he/she is born into the Sadhaka world and becomes a person

who walks towards Brahman.

The initiation was done by the Upadesham (instruction) of the Gayatri Mantra

- a Universal Prayer that can be used by people of all climes and creeds. It

calls upon the Glorious Power that pervades the Sun and the three worlds to

arouse, awaken and strengthen the Intelligence, so that it may lead to intense

Sadhana and Sadhanamay lead to success. Every little moment or incident

results in sound; only, you may not be able to hear, because the range of your

ear is limited. The falling of an eyelid over the eye makes a sound, the

dropping of dew on a petal makes a sound. Any little agitation disturbing the

calm is bound to produce sound. The sound caused by the primal movement that

resulted in the enveloping of Brahman by self-evolved illusion is OM. The

Gayatri is the elaboration of that Om (Pranava).

The sound of a Gayatri is as valuable as its meaning. Even a poisonous cobra

is quietened by music; sound has that allaying property. In the case of the

Gayatri, the meaning too is easy and profound. It asks for a dear intellect, so

that the Truth may be reflected therein correctly, without any disfigurement.

The Brahmachaari has vowed him/herself into a life of spiritual discipline.

What are the requisites for the discipline? First: Faith, that can stand the

ridicule of the ignorant, the cavilling by the worldly, the laughter of the

low-minded.

Second: Do not worry about ups and downs, loss or gain, joy or grief. You

are yourself the maker of the ups and downs. If you but care, it can all be one

smooth level. You crave for a thing and when you get it, you call it joy; when

you don't, you call it grief. Cut the craving off, and there will be no more

swinging from joy to grief. Third: Reason out and get convinced of the

truth, All is Brahman i.e. Atma. He is all-pervading, even more than ether or

anything more pervasive than that. His nature is beyond all human vocabulary,

beyond all human mathematics. Have this conviction well stabilised in your

intellect. Fourth: Be steady in spiritual practice, and never hesitate once

you have decided on it.

You have not yet got started into secrets of sacred wisdom? Still you demand

Shanthi; you demand Grace. How is it ever possible? Start! Then, everything

will be added unto you.

 

The foremost need today is to live the life of the Spirit. For the progress

of the world, it is not some factory or industry that is needed. The world

needs good students and good men and women. People do not realise that as their

desires increase, their happiness diminishes. There is no limit to desires. They

multiply like ants in an anthill. There is no sense of satisfaction, however

much one may possess or enjoy. Animals and birds have contentment. They have

neither the selfish propensity to hoard nor the sinful quality of exploiting

others. Human alone is prone to acquisitiven hoarding and exploitation.

People crave for peace and happiness but they do things which can only bring

unhappiness and worry. Youare essentially sparks from the Divine, but like

sparks coming from a furnace which after a time turn into ash, you are

forgetting your divine origin. While pursuing your education for worldly

purposes, you should also pursue the spiritual discipline, which will lead you

to the Divine. The number of students in schools and colleges is sky

rocketing. We proclaim that formal education, which was for long the privilege,

of a few scholars and the sons of the rich, is now provided at the very doors of

everyone. We rejoice when schools and colleges rise up more and more in every

country of the world, without realising that what is happening through them is

the worsening of the sickness of the community. Unrest, fear and anxiety are

increasing as a result of improper and incomplete, education. Education can

yield peace and prosperity only when, along with technical skills and objective

information, students are equipped with moral ideals, righteous living, and

spiritual insight.

(Each one desires to loll on sofas in airconditioned office rooms. Can this

be named pleasure? Can this be the ideal for an educated person? This state

will only breed physical and mental illness. How can a student be regarded as a

success, if at the end of the course, he knocks at the door of every office,

exhibiting the diploma he has secured, and clamouring like a beggar asking for

jobs? Education has conferred on student this disgraceful role).

The educated person must serve the people through sweat and toil. Education

has to inspire youth to offer service, to sacrifice and to help. Education

without right conduct is of no value. You must make use of what you have

learnt, not only for earning a living but for service to society. Whatever job

you may take up, wherever you may be working, you must continue to practise

spiritual discipline and aim at Self-realisation. Without a spiritual basis,

education is futile.

Whatever learning one may acquire, whatever positions one may occupy,

however great a scientist one may be, if one lacks human values, one is no

human being at all.

Of what avail are speeches and exhibitions if these values are not

practised? The world will not be reformed by propaganda. It is only when there

are living examples of these ideals that they become meaningful and inspiring.

How can Grace enter when you do not seek It? Open the door of endeavour; the

Merciful Lord will then come in, with the Crown of Success. (Reet's compilation

from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 2. "The ideal disciple," Chapter 10; Sathya Sai

Speaks. Vol. 4. "Upanayanam," Chapter 18; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6. "Hitha and

priya," Chapter 6; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 15. "Vidhyaarthis and Vishayaarthis,"

Chapter 2; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 22. " Let practice prevail," Chapter 7).

Namaste - Reet