Swami teaches... The power behind the creation, sustenance and dissolution

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Sai Ram

Light and Love

Swami teaches...

The Power Behind the Creation, Sustenance and Dissolution

The Glory and Majesty of the Lord is immanent in the Universe, as fragrance

in the air, of heat in fire, or as butter in milk. He is the string that passes

through and holds together all the beads. To know Him as such, to realise that

He is the source, sustenance and summum bonum of all this Creation is the end

and aim of human life. That is the sum and substances of the teachings of all

the scriptures that man has inherited from the past, in all languages and in

all climes. Without this all-pervading Divine light, anybody will not be able

to live for a moment. As the whole Universe, so the human body are to be

sustained well, they need the sustaining power of the Divine. The Vedanta

(the concluding essence of Vedas) declares, "All this is enveloped by God." The

rules and disciplines laid down in all religious systems have as their aim the

application in daily life of this great Truth, the Immanence of God. Sathya

and Dharma (Truth and Righteousness) are the two eyes of every religion that

has emanated from the primal Sanathana Dharma: of Buddhism, Christianity, and

Islam.

All religions are but essays at demarcating the path towards that

consummation. Swami's desire is that you should not censure other religions.

God is One. Love is One; it transcends caste, colour and creed, if it has to be

genuine. Truth is One. The Goal is One; for, all roads must lead to the One God.

(Why then should people quarrel and fight over the Eternal and the Absolute)?

Bharatheya culture has emphasised that nothing should be done to damage any

one's faith in God or in own Self. Faith is a tender plant and it needs all the

nurture that you can give.

Bharath is the land where this precious knowledge was gained and spread by

ardent seekers and sages.

Sathya and Dharma are the two cardinal principles of Sanathana Dharma

(ancient but eternal spiritual code, Eternal Religion). They are the goals of

all faiths, the teaching of all saints, the core of the achievements of all

sages, the under-current in all scriptures. They spring out of the essential

nature of the Self, which is the lesson taught in the Gita. If any one

challenges you to show them one text where the principles of Sanathana Dharma

are succincity stated tell them about the Bhagavad Gita. It is the essence of

the Vedas and the Sastras and the Puranas. It is like a bottle of fruit-juice

obtained from a basket of fruit. It will not get dry or rot like the fruits,

for the juice has been well extracted and preserved. Its taste and excellence

will persist until the end of this Yuga (Age) and then it will merge in the

Vedas.

Yugas are aeons what are imprinted into holy festival in Bharat and invested

with profound inner significance. Yugadi is commonly believed that this marks

the beginning of a new year. But it is really a beginning of a yuga (aeon). The

Lord is the beginning and the end of every aeon. Hence, He is called the Creator

of yuga and described as a sustainer of the yuga.

Yugadi is also celebrated as Samvatsaraadi (the festival of the new year).

Samvatsara means God, the One who dwells in everything. For Samvatsara (the

year), the underlying spirit is Atma. Another name for Samvatsara is Kala

(time). Because time is subsumed by the Spirit, God is known as Kala Atma (the

Time Spirit). God is also known as Vatsara, the Divine indweller in all beings.

 

Yugadi represents the form of the Divine. The four yugas (aeons) - Krita,

Treta, Dwapara and Kali - are permeated with Divinity. Hence, God has also the

name Chaturatmaka (the fourfold Spirit). This fourfold Spirit is manifested in

four forms with distinctive attributes though their powers are one and the

same. They are Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna. All the four are

combined in the Avatara (the incarnation of the Divine in human form).

Vasudeva is the first form of fourfold Spirit. This name signifies that the

Lord is immanent in everything in creation and bears within Himself everything

in the Cosmos. He is omnipotent. He is resplendent. He remains unmoved in any

condition, in any circumstance, while being present in every limb and every

cell. He is the vital essence. Thus, everything is permeated by God and there

is nothing outside Him.

Sankarshana is the second form. Sankarshana is the One, who at the time of

Pralaya (the Great Dissolution), absorbs within Himself the entire Cosmos. The

Sankarshana represents the Divine attribute of eliminating grief and giving

happiness, removing mental agitation and conferring peace, destroying weakness

of spirit andinstilling fortitude. This is no ordinary attribute. It is a

Divine quality which is present in every human being.

Aniruddha is the third form. It refers to one who has a unique quality. He

confers this quality - Sampada (wealth) on whoever prays to Him. He is the Lord

who confers both material and spiritual benefits on those who adore Him. In this

aspect, He shines through His effulgence. This illumination is not derived from

outside. He Himself is the source of His light and also the light that

illumines everything. This principle of Aniruddha is essential for every human

being.

Pradyumna is the fourth form. He represents the invincible Divine power,

which cannot be overcome by anyone. He has no equal. He is His own example. He

is His own law. There is no one below Him or above Him because He is even in

those below Him. The Pradyumna principle is all-pervading and omnipresent.

God is not different from human. Vasudeva is Paramatma (the Omni-Self).

Sankarshana is Jivatma (the individual Soul). Pradyumna is the mind. Aniruddha

is Aham (the ego). It is the combination of all these four forms which

constitute humanness.

If any one of these four constituents is absent, human cannot live in the

world. If it is asked whether Ahamkara (egoism) is also essential, the answer

is: Aham (the ego) should be present but not Aham-kara (the feeling of egoism,

the sense of separate identity associated with the body consciousness). Aham

means "I."

I" should not be identified with the physical form. "I am the Brahman.I am

not the body." This Aham is theessence of everything. Aham means the principle

which is present in everything in the cosmos, from the atom to Brahmam.

The sages have laid down various regulations, disciplines, practices and

paths. They have laid down, five yajnas for every human being, wherever he/she

may be. These yajnas are not elaborate ritual exercises, accompanied by Vedic

recitation, prescribed for the attainment of specific states of Bliss in

after-life or specific victories of a worldly nature. They are simpler and more

democratic. They are being performed, casually and without the awareness of

significance, by human being everywhere. They are indispensable steps in

spiritual progress. The five yajnas (sacrifices) are: (1) Sacrifice for

God; (2) Sacrifice to propitiate the sages; (3) Sacrifice to propitiate the

progenitors; (4) Sacrifice to propitiate the visiting fellow humans; and (5)

Sacrifice to propitiate the animal companions. They are called Daivayajna,

Rishiyajna, Pithruyajna, Athithiyajna, and Bhuutha-yajna, in Sanskrit.

1. Daivayajna

It is commendable practice, the allotment of one small room for the shrine,

while building houses. In every Hindu home, we have a domestic temple or altar

or shrine, where the members of the family, singly or all together, can adore

God. Usually, there is a picture or idol placed there to remind them of the

Vast Immeasurable which it represents. Daily worship is offered at this shrine

prayers are poured forth before it, meditation is done in that quietness, the

Name of God is taken on the tongue. This is the Daivayajna; it purifies the

household and brings God into the consciousness of human through all his

activities.

 

2. Rishiyajna

It is used for the activities of human that propitiate the sages. They are

mostly: the study and practice of sacred scriptures, that are the treasure of

wisdom gained by the arduous asceticism of the sages. The Vedas are the

earliest, the most compendious, philosophically the deepest, texts, the most

practical of all the scriptures, and the most universal. Then there are the

great epics Ramayana, the Mahabharatha, the Bhagavatha and other narratives of

the eternal struggle between right and wrong and the everpresent Grace of God

which helps the triumph of the Right. These and other books cleanse and

console, elevate and uplift, correct and convince, and fill the mind with

courage and humility.

 

3. Pithruyajna

The command of the Vedas is "Maathru dhevo bhava; Pithru dhevo bhava" -

"May the mother be your God; may the father be your God." The stanza is

repeated ad nauseum today, but, there is no sign of reverencetowards the

parents anywhere. A generation that does not respect and foster its parents is

bound to end in disaster.

There is a fine story mentioned in the Puranas about this. The Divine

Parents, Shiva and Parvathi, once laid down a test for their two sons -

Ganapathi and Subrahmanya. They were to go round the whole world and return to

them; he who does it quicker will win the prize. Subrahmanya started quick

and fast, and was pacing through highlands and lowlands; but, Ganapathi walked

quickly round the parents and claimed the prize. He said, the parents are all

the world - and the statement was accepted as correct. The moral of this story

is that parents have to be cared for, and obeyed. That is the realPithruyajna.

 

4. Athithiyajna

It means acts done to please and comfort the A-thithi (he/she who comes

only for a day), that is to say, the stranger, who comes to your door seeking

food or shelter. Give him these, as an act of worship. Treat him/her as having

been sent by God or as God Himself. This is a sacred rusk enjoined by the

Vedas. Share your meal with whomsoever asks for food when you are about to eat

it.

 

5. Bhuuthayajna

It means steps to comfort and keep happy the animal collaborators and

companions one has around him--bullocks, cows, goats, horses, which help you by

their toil, and dogs, cats and other pets which make your home pleasant and full

of joy. You should not keep them hungry or overwork them.

 

Love and reverence - these are the real springs for sacrifice or yajna. The

duality of appearance and nonappearance can be overcome by jnana.

Jnana teaches do not worry about worldly comforts. Do not waste precious

life-time in distracting doubts about the existence of the Lord in human form,

here and now. Cultivate love towards all; that is the greatest service you can

do to yourself for, all others are but you yourself. You should bend, only

before love (prema) and truth (sathya), not before hatred and cruelty and

falsehood. Today often human is a contradiction in him/herself.

Without harmony within how can human contribute to harmony in the community and

in the world? That is the misfortune in the world today. Human has therefore to

understand own dignity and own inner spiritual reality, then only will human

have the right perspective. Otherwise, it is like the story of the ten foolish

disciples. Each one of them does the count and finds there are only nine and

wails for the tenth missing man. Each one of them has forgotten to count

himself and has plunged not only himself but others too in grief.

 

Human has to understand the reasons for sorrow. First human would try to

understand what Prakrithi is. It is something which has come in between; it is

a relative value. We should therefore transcend the consciousness of Prakriti.

>From moment to moment Prakriti is changing. The experiences Prakrithi gives us

in the waking state get obliterated in the dream state, and those of the dream

stage cease when we wake up from the dream. The dream experiences are our

creation. And so are the waking state experiences too. What we see is nothing

but our own creations. The vision-experience of the world is but a projection

of our mind and the reflection of our own inner thoughts. If you view things

with prema, with a loving heart, the whole world, the whole creation will

appear to you as a reflection of prema.

The selfishness fouling our love is veiling Divinity from our vision. What

is the reason for the selfishness which is veiling Divinity from us? It is

simply our attachment to the body; it is the weakness of our mind and our

enslavement to our senses. But the body is not we, the sensory organs are

not we; the mind is not we. The body is just a vesture of the Atma. The body is

described in the Upanishads as a chariot, the rein is the mind, the senses are

the horses, the intellect is the charioteer and the Atma, the Lord, is seated

inside.

On one occasion, someone came to Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and wailed,

"My mind is troubling and torturing me". Ramakrishna gave a very witty reply:

“Oh, is your mind giving you so much trouble? Catch hold of it and bring it to

me. I will punish it". Ramakrishna wanted to stress only that the mind is but

his imagination. It is our desires alone that create the phantom of the mind.

If desires are subdued, the mind vanishes.

We must delve beyond the body, beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond

the buddhi (intellect) and reach the source of all these - the Atma. It is the

substratum, basis and source of all else.

 

The faculty that decides between good and bad and what course one should

take is buddhi. Buddhi is the superior most amongst all the faculties, and its

pre-eminence is due to its proximity and closeness to the Atma. The charioteer

sits close to the master inside. The brilliance of the Atma directly falls on

buddhi which derives the maximum benefit and strength from the Atma.

The buddhi should exercise its control over the mind, and the mind over the

senses. But what happens generally is that the buddhi does not exercise

discrimination; the mind arrogates to itself superiority over the intellect and

the senses arrogate to themselves superiority over the mind. The chariot runs in

the wrong direction.

To avoid this, buddhi has to act in the Atmic light, and the mind in

subordination to buddhi. It is not as if our daily life is different from

Adhyatmic life. In our day-to-day life, if we use the buddhi to discriminate

between right and wrong, and the buddhi follows the dictates of the Atma, then

everything will be right. This is the Divine prescription and panacea for life.

What is therefore required first is faith in the existence and supremacy of

Atma. (If one has no faith in Atma, no self-confidence, and if one goes ahead

with own egoistic vanity, how can person ever benefit by the divine light and

guidance)?

Today, people argue in various ways, forgetting the source of the reasoning

power is itself God. People should depend not on their physical or intellectual

strength, but on the power of God. Do not worry about the world; concentrate on

God. For devotion to God, only two things are needed faith and experience. Both

these are rooted in love.

All branches of knowledge are like rivulets which flow into the sea. Just as

all rivers flow into the ocean, all types of education will find their true

fulfilment when they lead and end up in spiritual knowledge and wisdom only.

So, true, complete education is Atma Vidya. The other branches of education are

the relatively true, relatively complete. In general worldly life and spiritual

life are not different. Worldly life should be blended and harmonised with

spiritual life.

Give each problem the attention it deserves; but do not allow it to

overpower you. Anxiety will not solve any difficulty; coolness comes from

detachment. Above all, believe in God and the efficacy of prayer; the Lord has

said that he who does good, thinks good and speaks good will not come to harm.

That is the way to get equanimity, santhi.

 

PS: People ceaselessly talk about bhakti (devotion). But what is this

devotion? What are you doing for the land of your birth? Gratitude to your

native land is the real index of devotion. Your deha (body) and your desa

(nation) are one. Therefore, the welfare of the nation is your welfare.

Remember this always.(Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol.3. "Bend

before Prema and Sathya," Chapter 7; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 9. "Love and

reverence," Chapter 5 and "Cults and culture," Chapter 7; Sathya Sai Speaks.

Vol. 15. "Day of Dedication," Chapter 5 and "Eternal harmony," Chapter 8;

Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 22. "Make every moment holy," Chapter 8).

 

Namaste - Reet