A Discourse for Devotees, by Michael Goldstein. M.D. - PART III

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A Discourse for Devotees, by Michael Goldstein. M.D. – PART III

WHAT IS OUR PLAN TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL?

Heaven is a mental state, a state free of egoism. Heaven is a mental state in

which we experience and live So Ham: I am That. We become that. That is divine

consciousness, which saturates all our experience of infinite bliss. The

absence of ego, being free of attachment is a state of infinite bliss. It is a

state of self-realisation. That is heaven. Swami assures us that we can reach

heaven in these human lives. We can live in heaven now. All we have to do is to

search within ourselves and find heaven.

>From this it comes that hell is also a state of mind and we can convert our

lives into hell if that is what we choose. Hell is characterised by incessant

desires. As each desire is satisfied, this gives origin to another desire to

obtain more. Desires of power and of pleasure. Desires which can never be

satisfied in an everlasting manner. This gives origin to deception and

frustration, to pain and discouragement. We become frenetic and foolish,

running madly around the desert chasing every mirage which appears in the

exterior world.

Heaven or hell. The choice is ours.

Suppose we all choose heaven. We make a decision. We choose heaven and we repel

hell. What do we do next?

Spiritual transformation is the awakening of our latent divinity. Our Lord,

Bhagawan Baba, transforms us in many ways. The Lord is inscrutable and

mysterious. We cannot understand his way of working with our lean mental

capacities. We can understand, up to a point, through our intuitions, when He

inspires us. Then the attained knowledge is experienced knowledge, not

knowledge learnt by memory. This distinction between learnt knowledge and

experienced knowledge is very important.

When we really know, we do not accept the knowledge, we are the knowledge. This

is true knowledge. That is wisdom.

Swami has taught us that God is consciousness and that the nature of

consciousness is unconditional love. He advises us to dig deep into our hearts

and that this is how we can find this consciousness. How do we do this?

We are all very different as individuals. But our differences are superficial.

We are brothers and sisters of the divine mother and father. That is the unity

of our essential nature in spite of the diversity of our appearances and

external circumstances. For each one of us the most efficient method of moving

us spiritually will be something different. Although, do whatever we do, and

however we do it, this must be compatible with the divine teachings. I will

explain a simple example. It is based on my own experience with Swami and his

teachings.

I have talked about this before. It is important to have a spiritual plan. To

make a plan for oneself which embraces Swami’s teachings, which satisfies our

needs and is befitting to our lives. Have a spiritual plan. Then you can

dedicate yourselves to your spiritual purpose.

This plan consists of 9 points. 3 points are about perspective, 3 points are

about attitude, and 3 points are about actions. The perspective, the attitude,

the action. What we think about things, how we feel about them, what we do with

them.

It is necessary for each of us to determine his perspective, his attitude and

his actions. We must examine what we think, how we feel and what we are doing

to move in the right direction. I don’t want to give you the impression that we

can make a package deal of spirituality. But you can think about this and put it

into practice in an orderly manner. I will describe the nine points. I will give

you examples of experiences with Swami wherever possible.

Firstly, the nine points are:

In the category of perspective:

· 1 - do not worry about the past, but learn from the mistakes made.

· 2 - do not worry about the future, but make appropriate plans to achieve one’s objectives.

· 3 - do not worry about what other people are thinking about you or about

events in the world around us. Consider everybody as divine brothers and

sisters and all the events as God-given opportunities to serve.

In the category of attitude:

· 4 - Be loving with all, always.

· 5 - Always be happy within.

· 6 - Always be silent and pacific within.

In the category of action:

· 7 - remove all unworthy thoughts from the mind before they make an impression

causing emotion or action. Allow noble thoughts to mature till they become

uplifted actions.

· 8 - Follow the conscience and act without delay with complete confidence upon

the base of the conscience.

· 9 - focus upon Swami, His name, His form, His love, His words, His actions, in

all of Him, for He is all.

Now we examine each of these points with examples of Swami wherever possible.

Point 1 is to forget the past, we must live in the present.

We must learn from the past, but not be worried by it. We must learn to live

now, in this moment. We must not let sadness nor past errors contaminate the

present nor the future.

In my first journey to India I knew I would be a devotee of Swami for the rest

of my life. I knew that I had met the love of my life, the fountain of the

realisation of my life. This happened more than 26 years ago. I knew I would

always follow Swami.

What does `follow Swami’ mean? It means that one will follow a spiritual path.

What is the final result of following a spiritual path? It is union with God,

self-realisation.

I had lead a very mundane life and I worried that my past transgressions could

prevent my spiritual progress. The last day of my first visit to India, I was

sitting in the Mandir for morning Bhajans, just before leaving the Ashram.

While sitting in the Mandir listening to the Bhajans I started to worry about my

past errors. I felt useless and without hope because of my past. I felt that

although I knew I would always follow Swami, my past would not allow me to

reach the end of the spiritual path. I thought past – past – past, an

unsurpassable obstacle. Then suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was

Swami. He had entered the Mandir by the back door, coming up to me from behind.

He simply put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me in the eyes and said.

"Forget the past", he then carried on walking. He left me and I cried. I felt

redeemed.

The Lord said, "Forget the past". The heavy load of past errors, the sadness and

the guilt were removed.

That is the power of the Lord!

Point 2 is do not worry about the future, live in the present.

A long time ago there was a Sai devotee who had cancer. His doctors had given

him chemotherapy. Then his cancer regressed.

He was a devotee of Swami and he used to go to see Swami periodically to ask for

his divine intervention. The man lived many years more than the doctors had

given him. One day this man came to me and he said that he had just arrived in

India and he had refused to be treated with chemotherapy prescribed by the

doctors.

He pleaded that I ask Swami to intervene. As Swami had spoken to the man on many

occasions, I told Swami that this man was in the Ashram, and that he was afraid

of dying and I asked Swami to intervene and to save his life.

Swami then said to me, "This man has had cancer for twelve years. Each time that

he came to Swami during the last twelve years he has been thinking about the

cancer and death. Swami has given him twelve years of life, but he has not used

this time that Swami has given him to live. He has only been thinking about

death during those twelve years". None the less, Swami received the man and he

continued to live.

We must not worry so much about the future that it stops us appreciating the

present. Swami tells us to live in the present, the omnipresent.

Point 3 is we must not worry unduly about the events in the world or about other

people’s reactions towards us.

Swami teaches us that we are three people. The one we think we are, which

corresponds to our body; the one others think we are, which corresponds to our

mind; and the one we really are, which corresponds to our spirit. We are not

the body, we are not the mind, we are the spirit of God, enclosed in this human

form. So, our emotions and actions must not be based on other people or on

exterior facts. Our motivation, direction and destiny must be governed by the

owner, our conscience.

The three points 4,5 and 6, under attitude are: be loving, be happy, and be

silent and pacific within.

Point 4 is be loving

Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba, our beloved Swami, has come to light the lamp of love

in the heart of humanity. The qualities of light are purity and the absence of

egoism. The powers of light are redemption and transformation.

To love spiritually is to love without egoism. This means love without desire.

Love without the need to possess the object of love. That is pure love,

unconditional love, divine love. We learn to love as humans in our diverse

relationships to be able in time to love God as he loves us. This is the most

important of the nine points. If we are really loving, everything else will be

given to us.

All creation is like God’s thought and life is like God’s dream. Our chosen form

of God is the thinker that planned the universe and the dreamer that conceived

life. The Lord has all his creation and is immanent in all. But God is bigger

than the creation that has originated from Him. In the same way, divine love

contains and includes the feelings, which we are capable of harboring as human

beings, such as affection, respect and veneration.

But as God is greater than his creation, in the same way divine love transcends,

and is greater than, our human family expressions and our experience of love.

The qualities of divine love are purity and the absence of egoism. The powers

of divine love are redemption and transformation.

[Cintinued in Part IV]