Swami teaches... Part 1. Keep devotion and faith

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Light and Love Swami teaches...

 

Part 1. Keep Devotion and Faith

From the Sath (Existence, Being) has emerged all there is, The Sath permeates the whole of creation, Nothing exists without the power of Sath, Behold the glory of this eternal Sath. People need today the Spirit of Sacrifice, devotion to God and love of the Motherland. Because people are filled with pride, selfishness, and self-interest, they are ceasing to be human. It is supremely important that the qualities of devotion to God, patriotism and self-sacrifice should be developed among the people. For this, the first requisite is the elimination of "my" and "mine." The readiness to sacrifice one's pleasure and comforts for the sake of the nation should be promoted. When there are many high-minded, spiritually oriented people, the nation will achieve peace and security.

We who are crossing the ocean of Samsara (the chain of birth and death, worldly life) need to cultivate the art of swimming through contemplation on God. However, learned we may be, if we do not have this training and cultivation, we are bound to sink. Life is a boat, which enables us to cross the ocean of Samsara with the aid of meditation on God. Devotion and faith are the two oars with which you can take the boat across the sea of Samsara. A person once told Dr. Johnson, the famous English thinker, that he could seldom get time to recite the Name of God, what with the hundreds of things he had to do from morning until nightfall and even far into the night. Dr. Johnson replied with another question. He asked how millions of people found space to live upon the face of the Earth, which is two-thirds water and the rest is too full of mountains, deserts, forests, icy regions, river beds, marshes and similar impossible areas. The questioner said that human somehow struggled to find living space. So too, said Dr. Johnson, human mustsomehow find a few minutes a day for prayer to the Lord. "What is the difference between human and God?" it is asked. The answer is: the individual jivi is a changing entity. God is unchanging and eternal. However, every individual jivi is a carrier of the same and alone reflection of the God, (Cosmic Consciousness, Atma), within. There are bulbs of different colors and their voltage also differs. However, whatever the color and whatever the voltage, current that flows is the same. This kind of thinking is highly essential today.

 

The world needs an ideal, as a human body requires recoupment. Body is an assembly of various organs. No single organ can constitute a body. When the various organs get separated, the human body gets weakened and even loses its existence. Similarly, if a nation is split up into different parts, it gets disintegrated. There may be different states in a nation but there should be feeling of one nation throughout the country. We should develop a habit of visualizing unity in diversity. The Lord is a mountain of Love; any number of ants carrying away particles of sweetness cannot exhaust His plenty. He is an Ocean of Mercy without a limiting shore. Bhakthi (devotion) is the easiest way to win His Grace and also to realize that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything! Sharanagathi (total surrender), leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of bhakthi.

 

 

A child told the mother when she went to bed at night, "Mother! Wake me up when I get hungry." The mother answered, "There is no need, your hunger will itself wake you." So too, when the hunger for God comes, it will itself activise you and make you seek the food you need. God has endowed you with hunger and He supplies thefood; He has endowed you with illness and He grows the specifics you need. Your duty is to see that you get the proper hunger and the right illness and use the appropriate food or drug. When bhakthi is just emerging as a sapling, a fence is needed to protect the tender plant; that fence is Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Religion) and its rules, regulations and restrictions, directions and commands. When the fruit is green, it will not fall even when the gale is furious; but when it is fully ripe, it drops to the ground even in the silence of the night. A small fire will go out in smoke even if a little green is placed on it, but the forest fire will reduce to ashes even the greenest tree, which impedes its fierce march. What is needed is the conquest of the ego. There are three types of devotion.1.The vihanga method, where like a bird swooping down upon the ripe fruit on the tree, the devotee is too impatient and by the very impatience he/she loses the fruit, which falls from his hold.2.The markata method, where like a monkey, which pulls towards it, one fruit after another and by sheer unsteadiness is not able to decide, which fruit it wants. The bhaktha too hesitates and changes his/her aim much too often and thus loses all chances of success. 3.The pipeelika method, where like the ant which slowly but steadily proceeds towards the sweetness, the devotee also moves direct, with undivided attention towards the Lord.

 

Some actions of devotion as examples. The mendicant goes along the streets, singing the glories of the Lord. He has the sounding cymbals, two of them, the eternal duet of good-bad, joy-grief, pain-pleasure in his right hand and he twangs the thambura (stringed musical instrument) of Samsara with his left. Samsara is the tune to which his songs have to be adjusted; it is the sruthi (sacred revelations orally transmitted from generation to generation, musical note). But both the sruthi and thala (marking of time) are for the purpose of heightening the effect of the song which issues from his mouth, the song of the glow of God as his way of faith and devotion to God. An another example. By legend once, a Brahmin was crossing a riverbed near which some men were washing clothes. Finding a nice new silk shawl on his shoulder, they fell upon him in a group, shouting that it belonged to the Palace and had been given to them to be washed, but had been stolen and had not been traced. The poor Brahmin yelled 'Narayana, Narayana,' when the blows rained on him and so, Narayana rose from His Seat in Vaikunta (heaven) and proceeded forward; but in a moment, He walked back and resumed His Seat much to the surprise of His Consort who asked Him the reason for the strange behavior. Narayana said, "I wanted to help that poor Brahmin who has fallen into a den of scoundrels, but he has started beating them, blow for blow; My Help is no longer needed." There is a widely prevalent habit now of judging others and labeling them as theists or atheists. What do you know, what can you know of the inner working of another's mind? An ancient story tells there was once a queen who was a great devotee of Rama; she felt so sad that her husband, the Raaja, never even uttered the name of Rama and had no bhakthi. She had vowed that the first occasion on which she got evidence of his bhakthi or at least respect for Ramanaama, she would conduct puja (ritualistic worship) in all the temples and feed the poor on a lavish scale. Then, one night, while fast asleep, the Raaja uttered the name of Rama thrice plaintively and prayerfully. She heard the Namasmarana and was happy at the discovery of her husband's devotion to Rama; she ordered general rejoicing throughout the kingdom and the feeding of the poor. The Raaja did not know the reason for the celebration for he was only told that it was an order of the Raani, which the officers carried out. Similarly, ahusband may not be aware of the excellence of a wife's spiritual attainments. The Raaja who spoke in his sleep the sacred name of Rama felt very sorry, according to the story, that he let Ramanaama out of his mouth, for he believed that no one should know of his 'love' for Rama. Many will not shout about their Guru or their favorite Name and Form. Whether you declare them to others or not, keep them ever in your consciousness. There is another fragment.

A couple was proceeding through a thick jungle on pilgrimage to an inaccessible shrine. The husband saw on the footpath a precious stone, shining brilliantly when the sun's rays fell upon it from between the leaves. He hastily threw some sand over it with a movement of his foot so that his wife may not be temped to pick it up and become a slave to the tinsel. The wife saw the gesture and chided the husband for still retaining in his mind a distinction between sand and diamond. For her, both were the same.

 

You are fully aware of the characteristics of the Kali Yuga (age of conflict) we are passing through. You find around you injustice, irregularities, immorality and untruth with all their devilish attributes and atrocities.

Nevertheless, we have to march ahead in spite of all these with a quiet, tolerant, and benign attitude towards life. Almost all the fields and occupations of life are polluted with these poisonous feelings, but the field of education being the most prominent organ, needs our special attention. The main reason for this disorder is that the human’s mind has haunted and dominated by two devilish blemishes, viz., selfishness, and ambition. These forces are standing in the way of human beings in realizing the human values, which go to make up humanity. It is not becoming of a human to exchange the valuable life - as precious as gem - for worldly desires and ambitions, which are as worthless as a coal stone. Human becomes immortal neither by deeds, nor by progeny nor by wealth. What makes individual eternal is the spirit of sacrifice. Why must you compete and quarrel? Nothing in this world can last as such for long. The Buddha diagnosed this correctly. He declared, "All is sorrow; all is transient; all are but temporary contraptions of ephemeral characteristics." Why should these finite things as fatally fascinate you? Strive to gain the eternal, the infinite, the universal. One day, you have to give up the body you have fed and fostered. Trivial thoughts and desires award only sorrow; holy thoughts and desires award the Divine peace. Therefore, cultivate good and beneficial feelings and desires. Keep away from bad company and bad thoughts. Realize the holy purpose of life through pure thoughts and words and selfless service to your fellow-beings. This human birth is a rare chance. Use it for spreading joy, not grief. Of course, it is natural for human to resent,to grow angry. But you should not allow anger free and furious scope. The raging floods in the Godavari have to be restrained by bunds, and dams so that the water may reach the sea without scouring the fields on either bank. You must set limits to your own anger and hate, and honor those limits. Every person must engage in sadhana with devotion, discipline and a sense of duty. Do not feel that your role is low and the other person's high. Do not be depressed when you find your role is minor; do not be proud when you discover that your role is a major one. Give your best to whatever role is allotted to you. That is the way to earn Grace. Bring bhakthi and lay it here and take from here spiritual strength. Bring what you have, namely, your sorrows and grieves, worries and anxieties, and take from from Swami joy and peace, courage and confidence. In this Avatar (Divine incarnation), the wicked will not be destroyed; they will be corrected and reformed and educated and led back to the path from which they have strayed. The white-ant infested tree will not be cut; it will be saved. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 1. "Sharanaagathi," Chapter 2; Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 13. "Thirty-five and sixty-five," Chapter 10; Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 15, "Light and warmth," Chapter 10; Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 19. "The ways of the Divine," Chapter 6 and "Sanctified by three Avatars," Chapter 19.; Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 21. "Earn God's Love," Chapter 4). Namaste - Reet