Swami teaches... Part 1. Do Your Duty as Dedication to the Divine

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Light and Love Swami teaches...

Part 1. Do Your Duty as Dedication to the Divine When the Sun rises, not all buds of lotus in the lake will open out in full bloom. Only those which are full-grown can blossom; so the rest have to bide their time and grow. So are with human beings. Some people are on the very beginning on the path of Sathyagraha (the path of the Truth and Love), some are yet far of this path and some are steadily stepping along this path. You are trying to discover God searching for Him throughout the Universe, but you omit to investigate His existence within yourself, as the very core and keystone of your Being. Arjuna told Krishna, "I came into this battlefield a brave person. I have now become, a man in distress for I am but an instrument in your hands." Arjuna was an embodiment of the Divine Consciousness, not as he imagined, a mud filed body. He was suffused with Divine Consciousness, not earthly inertia. Only, he was not aware of it. When you discover yourself all wailing ceases and you attain supreme happiness. This is real self-knowledge. You come to know that you are a spark of the Divine Flame. Very soon, you realize that others too are sparks from the self-same fire. How then can hate, anger, envy, or greed survive in the sunlight of this vision?

 

You are now having your feet on the very first rung of the ladder, which will take you to the heights of Bliss and Peace. The climb is arduous and full of the dangers of slips. However, you have to bear them in steady perseverance, having in view always the glory of the Goal. (How much agony the stone has to suffer in order that it might be turned into an exquisite entrancing idol). The saints Jayadheva (Jayadeva, Sanskrit poet; wrote the Gita Govinda, which describes the early life of Krishna), Thukaaraam (Tukaram, well-known Maratha 17th century writer who abandoned the world and became a wandering ascetic), Kabeer (Kabirdas, Kabir - 15th century mystic poet; preached equality before God of all creatures and the religion of love/devotion, which was aimed at the union of the soul with God), Gouranga,(Chaithanya's name - 15th century Vaishnava mendicant reformer; taught the path of love and devotion to the Krishna), Ramakrishna Paramahamsa,1836 -1886 (Raamakrishna Paramahamsa; celebrated mystic, mastered all types of Yoga, Christian and Islamic practices. Swami Vivekananda took his message of universal religion to the West), Raamadhaas (Ramdas; Maratha 17th century saint; author of work on religious duty; guru of the great King Sivaji) - all had to go through travail and tragedy, so that they could see God and merge in Him. They have won permanent niches in the temple of human memory. The pilgrims on the spiritual path often treat obstacles that come in the way with a certain amount of resentment; but these tests are to be treated as ensuring safety. You drive a nail into the wall to hang a picture thereon; but before hanging the picture, you try to see whether the nail has well driven by shaking it. When you are certain it does not shake even when all your strength is used, you become bold enough to hang the picture on it. Pandits (scholars) are the instruments through whom you can gather the key to the understanding of the mystery of God; they give you the gist of the Sastras (Holy Scriptures; sacred text; that which commands, orders, directs with authority) in easy, simple style and interpret them in the light of whatever experience they have earned. You have to listen to them with sraddha and bhakthi (faith and devotion), in a mood of humility. The Sastras lay down steps in sadhana, so that human can have peace, contentment, and joy.

So long as you are entangled in the sensual world, you cannot distinguish the real from the unreal. Nevertheless, you have to discover the real, through discrimination; there is no avoiding that responsibility; you have to do it, now or later. Power, status, wealth, authority - these are useless in this adventure. Since you do not know the real nature of the Self or Atma, you do not recognize the Self at all; when this knowledge is communicated by the Guru or scripture, the ignorance of the Self disappears. The main requisite for achieving Brahmananda (Supreme Bliss) is a pure heart. Spiritual sadhana begins with the purification of the heart. When the heart is filled with sathwic qualities, it becomes like a milky ocean. Only then does it become a worthy dwelling for the Lord (Vishnu) whose abode is described as Ksheerasagara (the ocean of milk). (By yielding to thamasic and rajasic impulses, human today has turned the heart into Kshaarasagara i.e. the ocean of salt). The very first step is to remove the weeds in the garden of your heart, plucking by the roots the briar and bush of lust and greed, of hate and pride and plant in the ground thus cleared the fragrant flower plants of Prema (Love) and the sweet fruit trees of Dharma (Virtue). Cleanse the heart, by listening to spiritual discourses, by seeking the company and comradeship of righteous, simple, sincere, seekers, by cultivating goodness of character and sweetness of disposition. Fill your hearts with the sweet fragrant waters of the Divine Love. Then, every act of yours, every word of yours (which are like the water drawn from the tank through the taps - tongue, hand, brain, etc.) will be sweet and fragrant. Remember always: perform selfless service, seek chances of helping others. Never lose an opportunity of using your skills and enthusiasm for the alleviation of sorrow, pain, or distress. You can thereby transform work into worship. (Each one should perpetually examine whether good thoughts and impulses are growing in the heart or whether bad thoughts are getting rooted). For spiritual growth, nine-fold path of devotion has prescribed for humanity. Shravanam (hearing God's glory), Keerthanam (singing His Glory), Vishnunamasmaranam (remembering the Lord's name constantly), Padhasevanam (serving the Lotus Feet of the Lord), Archanam (offering worship), Vandhanam (prostrating), Dhaasyam (doing service as a servant to the Lord), Sneham (worshipping as a friend), Atma-nivedhanam (total Self-surrender).

You have to listen to the glory of God being chanted, and do service to humanity. You should have the attitude that all are embodiments of God, that the whole Universe is a manifestation of God. In Vandhanam you should dedicate all the ten organs of perception and action as an offering to God. This is symbolized by bringing both your palms together and offering namaskaram (respectful salutation). Namaskaram also implies that "nothing is mine." Dhaasyam means that you should render service to humanity considering the persons whom you serve as masters. Sneham means friendship. It is not the type of friendship that you generally cultivate by saying "hello." You must keep the heart hollow so that it will be filled only by Divine thoughts. (All human relationships are based on the body, while the relationship with God is from heart to heart).

You should avoid following the body or the mind and follow the conscience. The purpose of life is to help others and not to indulge in meaningless sensuous pleasures. (From dawn to dusk, people mostly are engaged in acts for the sake of maintaining their bodily comforts. What have they achieved by this? Only mental unrest and physical weariness or illness).

Service involves thyaga (sacrifice). You should sacrifice that which you consider very dear to you. (Sacrifice brings about real communion with the Divine while carnal pleasure results only in disease).

Will power motivated by God is the active force available for human's whatsoever uplift. This is called Sankalpa Bala. Develop it by concentration and japa (soft prayer or repetition of the name of God). The mind must be compelled to submit to the dictates of the will. Now, you are easily led astray by the vagaries of the mind. Watch your words, actions, thoughts, character, and heart. If the watch reminds you every second of the need to watch these five, you can be quite happy. The mind swings like a pendulum between one pleasant object and another. To stop the pendulum, the easiest means is to stop winding. That will put an end to the swing. So too, stop encouraging the mind by following its whims and fancies. (When we beat another or cause harm to one, we justify it as only right and proper; when one beats us or harms us, we revolt and call it wrong and punishable). The mind is a double-edged sword - it can save, but it can also bind. By learning and practicing the disciplines of yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, prathyahara dharana, dhyana and samadhi (abstention from evil-doing, various observances, postures, control of breath, restraining the sense organs, concentration, meditation, absorption in the Atma), the seeker can overcome and eliminate the mind.

 

When the mind is eliminated, the reality will become patent. It is like the discovery of the lost "tenth man." Ten friends waded across a river in floods, and when they reached the bank opposite each one took a count and found only nine, for he did not count himself! So, they inferred that "the tenth man" was drowned and began lamenting his loss. Then, a passer-by came along and counted them; he found that all were there; the tenth man too was there; only ignorance had kept him unrecognized. Ishaavaasya Upanishad mentions that ajnana (ignorance) is the greatest sin. The karpanyadhosha (that the Gita mentions) is another name for the same ajnana. Ajnana afflicts the majority of humanity. Swami recommends the spiritual seekers have to study the Gita daily. He recommends to read a few slokas and meditate on the meaning yourself; it will dawn on you in the silence of your heart. Each word in the Gita is a gem. No more do you need gemstones for the ear, the nose, and the neck; have the gem of the Gita slokas in your heart, let them activate your intellect and your hands.

Arjuna had the faith to concentrate on the Gita teaching, even in the midst of the battlefield, on the eve of the fight that was to decide the fate of his family. Arjuna had the Lord Himself for company. He had bhakthi enough to compel Krishna to show him the Viswarupa, (Cosmic Form, Form of Creation, name for the Sun) the Viratswarupa (the Cosmic Form of God, Universal Cosmic) Itself.

Krishna aroused the rajasic (passionate) qualities again in Arjuna, by prodding him and laughing at him for his cowardice and un-kshathriya (warrior) attitude of renunciation; thus, the thamasic qualities of sloth and ignorance were removed. Later, Krishna transformed him into a sathwic (noble, pious) hero, fit for the dharma yuddha (war of righteousness) that he was to wage. The mind is ever unsteady; it has to be educated; its quicksilver quality has to be curbed; it is really Chaithanya-swarupam (embodiment of Cosmic Consciousness) and it will become steady only when it is merged in Chaithanya, that is, the Divine. (It is impossible to be merged in Chaithanya without dedication all human duties to the Divine). There may be ice on a lake; ice is jada (inert); but, move it all to one side, presses it aside and the sahaja swarupam (usual form) of water, the Chaithanya reveals itself. That Chaithanya has no joy or sorrow. It is ever in perfect equilibrium "I am That" I am not affected, unchanging Wisdom.

Remove the cataract and the vision becomes clear. So too, remove the feeling of inferiority that dwarfs you now; feel that you are Atma-swarupa, Nithya-swarupa, Ananda-swarupa (Absolute, Eternal and Blissful); then, every act of yours becomes dedicated to the Divine as a yajna (sacrifice), as a puja (ritual worship). The ear, the eye, the tongue, the feet all become tools for your uplift, not traps for your destruction. Transform thamogunam (quality of inertia) into thapogunam (quality of austerity) and obtain awareness of your changeless nature.

 

The human's qualities (sathwic, rajasic, thamasic) depend on the state of senses. The senses are the prime motive forces for the mind and the illusion it suffers from. Five elements affect and attract one of the five senses. Sound (ether), which fascinates the mind through the ear; touch (air) which draws the mind to itself through the skin; form (fire) which manipulates the mind in its favor through the eye; taste (water), which enslaves the mind through the tongue and smell (earth), which attracts the mind through the nose. Contact with the external world is maintained by the senses for the sake of these experiences - which yield joy or grief. In order to escape being tossed about on the waves of joy and grief, one should cultivate unconcern (upeksha), an attitude of welcoming either, as a sign of Grace. Shri Ramakrishna said that if you must avoid the sticky fluid in the jackfruit from contacting your fingers when you peel it, you have to apply a few drops of oil on them. So too, said he, "If you do not want the world and its reactions to stick to you, have a few drops of 'unconcern' applied on your mind." This unconcern leads to the deepest yearning for God. Human is subject to sorrow, from birth to death; joy, or what human calls happiness is an interval between two sorrows that is all. These sorrows arise as a result of three reasons: Adhi-atmic (pertaining to the individual soul, spirit, or manifestation of Supreme Brahman), Adhi-dhaivic (pertaining to divinity or fate), and Adhi-bhauthic (pertaining to the physical or material world; the fine spiritual aspect of material objects).The material objects - that one craves for, endeavors to acquire and laments when lost - are all bhauthic. The Self is the witness of both, inertia and activity, joy and sorrow, exultation and examination. When you ignore the existence of the witness, when you divorce your daily life away from the awareness of that seat of peace, you invite sorrow to torment you. That is the Adhi-atmic or the spiritual quality, the cross that each person carries along the trail of life. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 3. "Thamo gunam, thapo gunam," Chapter 22; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 7. "The miracle of love," Chapter 32 and "The windows of the mind," Chapter 36; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol.10. "Beside, behind, before," Chapter 10; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 20. "The Lord and the Devotee," Chapter 9; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol.27. "Time is God: make best use of it," Chapter 11). Namaste - Reet