Swami teaches... Clarity and courage of vision are both needed

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches... 24 - 26 May 2006

Clarity and Courage of Vision Are Both Needed

 

We have been receiving Swami's Teaching that will sweeten and lighten life itself. Let us pray that we may get this feeling all through life.

 

There is a language of the heart, which all can understand and all would like to hear. That is the language which Swami speaks. When heart speaks to heart, it is love that is transmitted, without any reservation. The trials and turmoils, the throes and thrills, the search and sorrow - these are the same in quality for all mankind. The responsive heart listens to these with sympathy and answers with love.

When the night grows chill, you draw the rug tighter around you, is it not? So too, when grief

assails you, draw the warmth of the name of the Lord closer round your mind.. To pour the nectar of grace, the vessel must be cleansed. Clean it and demand the nectar; do not grieve later that you missed the chance, when it had come within reach.

 

Each has own allotted task, according to the status, taste, tendency and earned merit. Do it, with the fear of God and of sin, deep in your heart. Inner content is more important than outer prosperity. Let the flagrant smoke of the Divine thoughts, full of love to all, rise around you; why try to scatter fragrance from scent-sticks available in the market? The flame of jnana (experiential knowledge of Supreme Reality) can reduce to cinders the impulses inherited through many births and many experiences.

You have come into this lokha (world) to enter the presence of the Lokesha (Lord of the world). So do not tarry in wayside inns, mistaking them to be the goal. The Lord too will be longing for the arrival of the lost. He is like a cow yearning for its calf.

 

You are eternal. Just as the water you drink is eliminated as perspiration, the karma that you accumulate is eliminated through karma, gladly borne. So, bear both 'mirth and moan' with equal calm. Like the akasha (space) in the pot merging with the akasha outside the pot, silently, fully, with no trace of separation or distinctness, merge with the Universal.

To get peace, to become unaffected by the ups and downs of life, is the result of years of training in Vedanta. It can be well established only on the basis of the belief that all material things which fall

within the range of sensuous experience are fundamentally non-existent.

Sadhana (spiritual effort) requires regular habits and moderation in food, sleep, and exercise.

Fasting weakens the intellect and reduces the strength of discrimination. The body, the mind and

the spirit, all three must be equally looked after. Unless you have "muscles of iron and nerves of

steel," you cannot contain in your head of your being the Universal itself, the Eternal Reality itself.

No fuel, no fire. No sadhana, no sankalpa (desire). Pour oil and light the wick. You are on a pilgrimage to the beyond, so, you cannot long dwell in this beneath. Some time or other, sooner or later, this birth or the next, you have to realise that this is but a dream you took to be true; you have to pack up and march. This is asath (non-Being); go towards the Sath (Being). Proceed towards the jyothi (effulgent Light); proceed towards the realm where immortality reigns.

Every one is eager to be happy; every one wants to work less and gain more, give little and get amply, but nearly no one experiments with the other method, that is, wanting less and giving more. Most people spend the lifetime allotted to them or earned by them in the partaking of rich but

harmful food and drink and indulge in glamorous but more harmful pastimes. Accumulation of sofas and chairs, cots and tables, shelves and curios clutter the hall and render movements slow and risky.

 

Reduce wants, live simply, that is the way to happiness. Be like the lotus on water; on it, not in it. Water is necessary for the lotus to grow; but, it will not allow even a drop to wet it. The objective world is the arena of virtue and the gymnasium for the spirit. But, use it only for that purpose; do not raise it to a higher status and adore it as all-important.

(You may have a costly transistor or watch or phonograph with you, but if you do not know how

to use it efficiently they are mere lumber. Now, imagine what a wonderful machine you yourself

are. Should you not know how to operate it and get the best results out of it? What is the benefit,

if you use a sharp silver hilted sword to cut vegetables)?

 

Indian seers discovered the art of operating this human machine. In ancient times, the sages and seers maintained purity in thought, truth in words and righteousness in deeds.

(But today their descendants have allowed that art to decline. The teachers have no desire to learn it, have no qualification to practice it, or enthusiasm to discover it. The leaders of the people, who are in charge of Government are unaware of it).

 

Vyasa collated the Vedic texts and composed the Brahma Sutras (spiritual texts of Vedantic teachings in short maxims) stringing together in epigrammatic form the essential teachings of Veda and Vedanta. He also placed humanity under a deep debt of gratitude by elaborating the moral and spiritual lessons of Veda and Vedanta in the magnificent poetic philosophical epic, Mahabharatha, and in the sweet bhakthi- saturated collections of stories called Bhagavatha.

While the Brahma Sutras* may be helpful only to a limited number of intellectual seekers, the

Mahabharatha and the Bhagavatha are for the common person, the unlearned seeker. The Puranas** and the epics teach the path of devotion and surrender. They ask that human should do every deed in a spirit of dedication.

By imbibing the teachings of the Bhagavatha, your thamo guna (quality of inertia) will be

raised into rajo guna (quality of restless activity) and purified into sathwa guna (quality of poise

and serenity). It is like the fruit growing by the combined influence of the Earth and Sun first into

full sourness, then to partial sweetness and finally complete sweetness, in three stages. Human too

by the twin forces of the Grace from without and the yearning from within, grows into the complete sweetness of Ananda and Prema.

(Provided there is the thirst to know it, even one sage who is adept in that art is enough; many can

light their lamps at the flame of that sage. Vyasa is one such sage, the foremost and the first.

That is why he is described as Narayana Himself).

The Vedas deal with rituals and worship, which imply a dualism between the worshipper and the object worshipped. Vedanta spells out the principle of Adwaitha (non-duality). It is

interpreted in different ways, but the real basis of the Adwaithic principle is Ekatma Bhava (being, becoming) that is the feeling that there is only one Atma pervading everywhere and none else. Wisdom lies in the perception of Oneness.

(Sage Yajnavalkya taught his wife Maithreyi the principle of oneness. The same Parabrahman or the Supreme Self is present in everyone in the form of Awareness).

 

The Upanishads are a set of the most ancient treatises constituting the primary source of Vedanta metaphysics. Though the Upanishads are termed as Vedanta (the end of the Vedas) they are actually the siras (head) of the Vedas. They preach oneness, based on the concept of unity in diversity. Upa means "near," ni represents "nishtha" and shath (shad) means "sit". Upanishad means that one should sit near the preceptor to acquire the Supreme Spiritual Wisdom.

The Upanishad originated during different periods of time. That is why we find that the teachings of the different Upanishads are not based on the circumstances obtaining at one particular time, but they are applicable universally at all times as they teach only what is vital for the welfare of humanity.

The Upanishads stress the importance of human knowing own Reality, transcending the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect. The Upanishads declare: "Lead me from untruth to Truth, from ignorance to Knowledge, from death to Immortality." They proclaim that the real nature of human is love, compassion and selflessness. The Upanishads teach the difference between pleasure and pain. If you shed your ego and experience Divinity you will get rid of your pain and enjoy lasting bliss. The Upanishads teach it through stories the subtlest truths. Their inner significance is possible to understand through inner purity of heart what leads to Siddhi - Self realisation.

Love, compassion, self-confidence and sacrifice are the real human qualities. Purity in thought, word and deed is a basic requisite for human. Patience is another ideal quality one should develop. The third quality is perseverance which is indeed a prime need for any one in any field but more so in the spiritual path.

With premabhava (feeling of pure love) you can realise your oneness with the world. Every

object has five attributes, namely asthi, bhathi, priyam, name and form. The first three -

existence, cognisability and utility are permanent and changeless, while name and form

are subject to change. Human beings with different names and forms are just like waves on the

ocean of Sath-Chith-Ananda. They are also same Sath-Chith-Ananda. The essence is the same

in all names and forms. The realisation of this truth is spirituality. This is the message of the Upanishads.

Some topics from the Eeshaavaasya Upanishad. This scripture emphasises right action has to be done for achieving purity of heart. When you get rid of bad feelings, evil thoughts and evil deeds, you can experience your Inner Self. (Prakrithi is like a mirror which reflects whatever object is placed before it. When you look into the mirror there are three entities - yourself, the mirror and the reflection. But if you remove the mirror, there is only one left and that is 'you.' The reflection is gone. Because of worldly feelings, you look at the reflection. Remove the worldly feelings, you see your Inner Self which is the Reality).

The Eeshaavaasya Upanishad stresses that the mind and the body will change but the Atma is the unifying, changeless and permanent entity. Sathyam (Truth) is changeless. It is the basis of the Sanathana Dharma that has been followed in Bharath.

The Eeshaavaasya Upanishad teaches how to combine bhoga with thyaga (enjoy the world with an attitude of sacrifice). One imbued with the feelings of thyaga (sacrifice) will not revel in mundane pleasures. Sacrifice and sensual pleasures cannot coexist just as water and fire cannot coexist. What, then, is the inner significance of this directive that human should enjoy bhoga (pleasurable experiences) with thyaga (renunciation)?

It means that though one is not interested in mundane things, one has to do his/her duty. Person cannot escape doing karma. Person should shed ego while doing the work and should not consider him/herself as the doer without any desire for the fruits thereof. When work is done with a selfless attitude there is no difference between bhoga and thyaga.

God is the great Unseen, the vast Unknowable. Though you do not see the roots or know how far or how wide or deep they are clutching the ground, you pour water round the trunk, so that it may reach them. You expect that when the roots contact the water, the tree will yield fruit. Recognise, similarly, that there is God, as the very basis of Creation; pray to Him, and He will shower fruit. If you think of God and pray to Him with sincere devotion, every deed done by you will be a yajna (holy ritual, sacrifice, or rite). The mind is the altar of this yajna. You must offer all the evil qualities at the altar of the mind. When human sacrifices own bad qualities, he/she is transformed into the Divine.

 

In Thretha Yuga (the second in the cycle of four eras) Viswamitra (sage; early counselor of the young Rama) took the help of Rama to ensure the conduct of the yajna without hindrance from the demonic forces. His ashram was called Siddhaashrama. Actually the heart of every human being is a Siddhaashrama. The moment evil thoughts or bad feelings arise in human, that is the beginning of all sins.

The senses say, "Why struggle? Eat, drink and be merry, while you can," but, the Guru says, "Death lands on you without notice; overcome its fear now, before he calls." Death stalks your footsteps like a tiger in the bush.. (It is true that the Guru who taught you cannot do anything to haul it; he can only guide. The control of the senses, changing the mode of life, the habits of thought, have to be done by you).

The seven-walled fort - mamakara (feeling of mind and one's own) and the six evil tendencies, kaama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (infatuation), madha (arrogance) and mathsarya (jealousy) - has a garden in the centre and a lake, where the hamsa (divine bird) plays. It is the image of own true Self; become aware of it. When the heart is polluted with such sinful thoughts, one should seek the help of Atma Rama, just as Viswamitra sought the help of Rama to put an end to the ogress Thaataki and achieve peace. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 3. "Sweeten and lighten life," Chapter 5; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 6. "Sweetness in the fruit," Chapter 17; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 9. 'In it,' not 'of it', Chapter 8; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 26. "The message of the Upanishaths," Chapter 33, "The quest for happiness," Excerpts from Discourse on 19-10-1993 and "Unity in diversity," Excerpts from Discourse on 21-10-1993).

PS:

*1. Sutra is concise rule or aphorism; that which, through a few words only, reveals vast meanings; text consisting of aphorisms or maxims; a thread; something, like a thread, that runs through and holds everything together.

**2. Purana is a collections of ancient legends and lore embodying the principles of the Universal, eternal religion and ethics.There are 18 Puranas.

 

Namaste - Reet