Sai Inspires - 9th April 2006 from Prashanti Nilayam

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color:red">SAIRAM.

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mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;color:red">MESSAGE FROM H2H, RADIO SAI E-JOURNAL

TEAM, PRASANTHI NILAYAM BEING FORWARDED....

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mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;color:red">SWAMI BLESS US ALL

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Dear Reader,

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Loving Sairam from

the Heart2Heart Team.

 

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Scroll down to read

our Sunday special -

'THE GREATEST DISEASE OF THEM ALL'

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font-family:Arial;color:maroon">Swami beautifully explains today how we can

receive God's Grace?

color:white">Did you read

"What

Should We Learn

>From 'Lingodbhavam'"?

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Click here to read it now.

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color:white">Sai Inspires - 9th April 2006

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font-family:Arial;color:#0066FF">Only when you turn your vision towards God

will He turn His vision towards you. Even if God's vision were to turn

on you, if you had not, at the same time, turned your's towards Him, you

would not have been able to experience His beneficent gaze. Now, all

your vision is concentrated on the body. The effulgence of the shining

sun may be all around you, but its light will not have entered the room where

you are staying. What is the reason for this? You have put

curtains and shutters on the windows, and kept the warm rays of the sunlight

out. Only when you break open these dark curtains and shutters will the

effulgence of the sun enter your apartment. In the same way, you have

covered your vision with shutters of doubt and ego and thick body-consciousness,

so the rays of grace are not able to penetrate through and enter your

heart. You might say that you have not been able to obtain the grace of

God, but how will you get it if you do not turn your gaze on Him?

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- Divine

Discourse on the Bhagavad Gita, 1984.

color:white">Love is the key to open the doors locked by egoism and greed. -

Baba

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color:green"> THE GREATEST DISEASE OF

THEM ALL

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Loving Sai Ram and greetings

from Prashanti Nilayam. These days, there is a lot of concern about killer

diseases like TB, AIDS, Malaria, and so on. In recent times, even greater

concern has arisen about the so-called Bird Flu. As of now, Bird Flu has

not yet become a pandemic, but everywhere there is great fear that if the

H5 N1 virus that is responsible for Bird Flu were to undergo one deadly

mutation, then hell can break loose and millions would die in a matter of

months if not weeks. Mass outbreaks of flu leading to millions of quick

deaths have happened in the past and therefore the present global concern

including in the WHO, is not without a basis.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Today we would like to discuss

another disease, somewhat of a different kind though, but which is very

dangerous and has already infected almost every single human being. And

yet, the amazing thing is that hardly anyone is paying attention to it! You

do not believe this? Well, read on and see if what we are trying to say is

correct or not.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">The disease we are referring to

is called body-consciousness [bC]. At this point, a good many of you might

feel cheated and possibly yawn, “Oh that? It is ridiculous and preposterous

to suggest that BC is a killer like AIDS or Bird Flu. Looks like the H2H

Crew has gone bananas!” Well, that is the way BC might appear to most

people who have not sat down to ponder over the consequences of BC.

However, we are choosing to focus special attention on BC because

protection against BC is as important for the welfare of mankind, as the

protection against TB, AIDS, Bird Flu etc. Allow us to explain.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">We wonder how many realise that

Swami has discussed BC repeatedly over the decades. Would He do it if BC

were not something we ought to guard ourselves against? This being the case,

let’s get down to business, and examine what exactly BC is and how it can

affect the individual as well as Society.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">We start with Swami’s reminder

that every human being is actually a union of three distinct entities – the

gross body [

bold">B], the subtle Mind [M], and the Eternal Atma

[A]

or Soul, whatever you wish to call it. That is why Swami sometimes says we

are all

bold">MBAs!

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Agree that every human being is

a conglomerate of three entities. The question now arises: “What is the

hierarchy, what is the pecking order, who is the boss?” Two scenarios are

possible. In scenario 1, the body along with the senses get into the

driving seat and weaken the Mind. In this case, the Mind slavishly follows

the body and the senses and allows itself to be dragged excessively into

the external world, and that is not good.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">You might wonder: “Not good?

Why? What’s wrong with the so-called external world? After all, is it not

God who created this world? Why then shun it? Something seems to be very

cock-eyed here!” By the way, a person who is a slave to the senses is

suffering from acute BC! To get back to what we were trying to say, this is

the way people suffering from BC would tend to look at the entire argument.

18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">

18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Let us examine the whole matter

a little more closely and dispassionately. We must start by asking which is

more important – the transient or the Eternal. This question is not as

ridiculous or irrelevant as it might appear to some people. The long term

is very

important and if it were not, why then all the hue and cry about the

environment, the eco system, the danger to the planet and all that? Do

people say: “Let’s have a ball right now, and forget about what happens to

the planet? If the people who come later inherit a planet that is screwed

up from top to bottom, well, that is their problem.” Do people talk like

that? In fact, can we ever talk like that? Can we summarily dismiss future

generations? Absolutely not! In the same way, we as “individuals” must also

examine what is supposed to be our “long-term” future.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">The nature of our ultimate

destiny has been spelt out very clearly by Bhagavan Baba on innumerable

occasions. He says, “O man, I have granted you the invaluable blessing of

human birth, not for you to fritter it away in meaningless pursuits, as in

fact you are doing now, but to recognise the Divinity latent in you. Live

so that this Divinity within finds expression in all aspects of your daily

life. This and this alone would help you to return to your true home. From

God you have come and to God you must return.”

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Question: “All this is fine but

what has BC got to do with all this?” Our answer is: “Everything.” You see,

BC makes us think we are the body but are we? Swami conveys the same

beautifully: “You drive a car and travel. Are you the car? NO! In the same

way, the body is just a car. Who is the driver? The Indweller. That

Indweller is none other than the Real You. Instead of realising you are

the actual owner of the car and behaving as such, you are going about

acting as if you are the car. You know what happens to a car? After a few

years it becomes junk and is scrapped. That’s what happens to your body!

Your body may perish but the Real You will not and cannot. The

moment you realise this and adjust your life to this truth, you would come

to me.”

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">So it all boils down to this. If

we do not consciously fight BC and allow ourselves to be dominated by it,

then we will start hurting Society without being aware of it. There are

innumerable ways in which one can hurt, starting from smoking, to offering

and receiving bribes. You might ask: “How can smoking and corruption be

related to BC? This is too far-fetched!” Is it? People smoke because the

body craves for it. If the person is not attached to the body, would the

person smoke? As for corruption, why does one pay or receive a bribe? To

get some personal advantage. Why this craving? To satisfy greed, ego, etc.

So once again, BC enters the picture.

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">If we think carefully, the explosive

growth in the consumer industry is a direct result of an exponential growth

in desires, which in turn is due to BC becoming more virulent than ever

before. Drug addiction, alcoholism, AIDS – all these can be traced to BC.

It is thus the mother of all infections! In which case, should we not give

some thought to fighting it?

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Swami says that no matter how

devoted we are to God, if we do not try to fight BC, then we are doomed to

be born repeatedly and face the music, that is to say all the problems of

life over and over again. In Gitavahini, Swami makes it very clear

that we must live this life so that we are not born again, and that this

death would be the last one. Human birth is thus a precious opportunity to

escape forever, the cycle of repeated births and deaths. The question is:

“Do we want to blow this opportunity?”

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18.0pt;color:navy;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Think about it! Thanks for

allowing us to spend some time with you, and see you again next Sunday.

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With Love and Regards,

"Heart2Heart"

RadioSai's e-Journal

Team,

In Sai Service.

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