The Divine Lifestyle (3b)

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I AM ALWAYS ENGAGED IN ACTIVITY...FROM DAWN TO DUSK AND FROM DUSK TO DAWN(Chapter 3)- continuation -

'The

whole cosmos is made up of thought waves. Hence the scripture declares

: The mind is at the root of the cosmos. There is no place or form or

action wherein the mind is absent. Hence, all thoughts of man should be

turned in the right direction. When good thoughts, good feelings and

good intentions are developed, the mind becomes pure. Only when the

mind is pure can actions be pure.'(Sanathana Sarathi August 1993 - pg 211)Often

we hear priests urging us, masters teaching us, parents howling and

elders shouting, 'Have pure thoughts! Have pure thoughts!' The call has

been made throughout ages to all civilizations by passing from

generation to generation. Here is the simple meaning on how to achieve

purity. Hence if we continue to give the excuse of 'no time', it merely

means that we have abdicated the control of our mind to the wild

external sense pull which distracts us from our purpose. Bhagavan

places a lot of emphasis on thoughts as this is fundamental in making

the mind and the personality. The direction of thought flow influences

the purity of thought. 'When flowed in the right direction......'We

must pause and reflect on the word, direction. When thoughts

excessively flow outward, sensuously untamed, selfishly confining to

self interest and self gain, there can never be purity in one's

thoughts, words or deeds. Even a priest bathing the idol in temple,

doing so only to please the devotees so that his 'dakshina' or reward

will be higher, will never be able to execute his task with dedication

and devotion. A taxi driver, driving with utmost care and providing

comfort to all his passengers with cheer and love, dedicates the day's

effort to the LORD may be considered a greater karma yogi. His earnings

is saved for wanting to fulfill the ideal of educating his son to be

worthy doctor so that the son can serve and be useful in the future to

the community. Such noble actions can only spring from a mind that has

gained a greater purity in thought, word and deed. Hence the objective

and motive of every action is what determines the direction of thought.'Thoughts

constitute the very basis of one's life. It is the mind that lends

life, sustains it and ultimately brings it to an end.'(Summer Showers In Brindavan 1993 - pg 37)Bhagavan

is advising us that we must be careful and be vigilant over our

thoughts. Herein lays the kernel of the discussion point. 'It is the

mind that lends life'. Simple as it sounds; upon contemplation, we

would be able to peel layers to reveal the practical essence of this

statement. Life is to gain experiences and as we travel through the

vicissitudes of life, every struggle with life's challenges leave us

with either happy or sad experiences. Every experience leaves an

impression that will contribute to knowledge. Accumulated knowledge

confers us an inner wisdom that provides a gyroscope to steer our ship

to ports of success. The acumen directly responsible for this great

journey is the mind. The quality and type of activities is determined

by the texture of the mind. The objective and motive of the thought

becomes the matrix of the mind which determines happiness or sorrow of

every experience. No school or institution teaches this fundamental

truth. Hence, every student leaving the school or university ground

knows how to apply the mind to the fields of work but very little

effort is made to develop a sound mind composed of well interwoven

thought matrix reflecting nobility and purity of objective and

intention. Hence, if such strong matrix is not developed from

childhood, how then can the direction of the flow of thoughts entering

into the mind from the world gets discriminated?'Thoughts

outlast the human body. Thought waves radiate very much like heat

waves, radio waves and light waves. The thought waves are the cause of

man's joy or sorrow, health or disease, birth and death. The potency of

these waves has to be understood by man and his conduct has to be based

on his awareness.'(Sanathana Sarathi August 1993 - pg 211)Nature's

constant demand of our attention by throwing at us ugly typhoons,

sweeping floods, fiery droughts and other catastrophic natural

calamities are testimonies that nature is retaliating against man. It

is interesting to note that, in recent years, an increase in social

crimes, negative behavior, drug problems and violence provides enough a

testimony that the world of man is equally troubled. There is an

interesting correlation that both nature and man have equally increased

its turbulence and agitation. 'Thought outlast human body.' Poignant

thought and a serious reflection on this statement can surface a truth.

The

thought waves man release today filled with envy, jealousy and other

negative qualities stain the cosmos. Multiply the thoughts by a

hundred, a thousand, a million. Imagine a city filled with people

materialistic in their outlook, interested in hoarding and wanting,

greed and lust. Imagine if such waves were sent out all the time.

Environmental pollution with waves of this nature is enough to cause a

tilt in the balance of harmony and rhythm which cascades and causes

confusion in nature. Hence, Swami is reminding us again to be watchful

of our thoughts. It has potency not just to cause an influence in our

life, but more than that, play an integral part in maintaining balance

and harmony in nature. Many unprofitable thoughts rob us of our time

and mostly our energy. Even as we drive from our home to our work,

witness the rumbling of the mind. We are so accustomed to the agitation

that a person who has a home near an airport cannot sleep peacefully,

when away on a holiday at a hill resort, for want of the sound of the

plane engines. Like a mosquito buzzing near the ear, the mind continues

to chatter. This chattering drains energy.'The

habit of thinking is long standing. Even if the habit is broken, there

is a slow cessation. For example, a fan continues to revolve for a time

after the switch is turned off. But the train of thought can be

changed. One train of thought can stop another. The best way is to

divert the train of thought to a spiritual topic.'(Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba - pg 56)It

is not easy to stop the chattering. Whilst the eyes of the reader of

this text can be on the words, the mind would have wandered off. An

untamed horse is of no use to anybody unless harnessed. Likewise, the

mechanical energy of the turbulent waterfall of water, unless

controlled and curbed, will not be useful to generate the much needed

electrical energy. Hence here, Bhagavan provides simple but practical

method to harness unprofitable flow of thoughts. It is difficult to

stop the train of thoughts from rushing forward, however, if there is

another thought track on which the train can pass to, then the

direction and flow of thoughts can be influenced.The example of

a child who refuses to part with a knife which he has picked up. The

plea by the anxious mother only tightens the grip on the knife is a

good one. The clever mother dangles a chocolate bar. The eye of the

child which catches the attention of the swinging bar of chocolate

loosens the grip on the knife and shifts his mind to the dancing

chocolate. As the mother picks the dropped knife, she thrusts the

chocolate into the waiting finger of the child and hence saves the

child from a possible injury. The analogy is self-explanatory and needs

no further elaboration. Bhagavan is suggesting that unless the mind is

challenged with higher ideals and greater goal, no amount of strength

or force can change old habits. Hence the mind needs to be slapped or

jerked out from the present state to visualize greater and grander

vision. This will jump the track and provide the thoughts ampler fields

to roam and play. Only activities undertaken with nobler intentions

will allow the mind to develop quality.

'Time

is the body of God. He is known as 'the form of time'. It is a crime to

misuse time or waste it with idleness. So, too, the physical and mental

talents given to you by God as capital for the business of living

should not be frittered away.'(Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba - pg 66)On

spiritual parlance, words used often by Masters does not just denote

information but provides an opportunity to visualize. 'Time is the body

of GOD.'Time is described as an interval between two

occurrences. What happens between two occurrences constitutes an

experience. The usage of time to maximize the quality of experience

denotes spiritual living. On further contemplation, the Master is

suggesting that we are living to generate experiences and Life is

nothing more than a stream of experiences. These experiences can endow

knowledge and talents. With such sharpened inner equipments, the

performance in the world would always lead to great and grand results.

However, due to our own ignorance, we live identifying ourselves to be

finite entities, withering away time in useless and profitless endeavor

that brings neither benefit to self nor any glory to family or society.Time

is God and time is given to all of us in equal measure. The proper

intelligent usage of this commodity makes or breaks a man. Hence it is

critical to self audit the usage of our time, reevaluate our existing

lifestyles and redirect our dissipating energies so that both quality

and quantity of experience can be enhanced. Ultimately, we must bear in

mind that it is the mind that becomes responsible to achieve this

ideal. Hence all scriptures convey their teachings in contemplative

language so that the mind is sufficiently trained to be disciplined.

This might appear to be a tall order to the uninitiated. Hence the ever

loving father in Bhagavan points to the seeker the dangers of

uncontrolled mind.'Excessive

talking must also be avoided as it is a waste of energy. When one gets

weak due to wastage of energy, he is prone to get angry and develop

hatred. You must, therefore, use the God given energy for God purposes.

Energy is a Divine gift. By curtailing unnecessary talk and keeping

silent, you can conserve energy. Talk less and work more is the golden

rule that must be adopted.'(Sanathana Sarathi May 1994 - pg 118)Here

Swami is using a simple example to illustrate why the mind fails to

gain a steady and constant balance in executing excellent work.

Unnecessary talk waste energy. In today's world without talking, we

cannot transact or communicate our experience. The Teacher is not

hinting that we should stop talking once and for all. In order to

communicate the thoughts that flood, the mind must be strong enough to

prompt the tongue to wag the contents out to the listener. Therefore,

mind constantly produces thoughts. The Master is merely stating that

excessive talk, fruitless gossips and unnecessary chatter should be

curbed to free the mind from wayward thoughts.

'Many

people come from different places and gossip a lot. In this way, energy

is lost. With loss of energy, there is loss of memory. All this talk

takes you away from God. Develop only satsang. Share love with at least

10 people. I and you are one - wrong... I and you are we.'(Kodaikanal Discourse April 9th, 1996)The

reason why Bhagavan is busy churning programs for the welfare of

humanity and the reason we get tired and provide endless excuses not to

live this ideal is due to dissipation of energy. The deep contemplative

ones bordering to brilliance generally are quiet and will only talk

unless it is necessary. Their thinking is usually deep and the points

generated would be penetrating compared to those who unnecessarily

chatter and whatever the subject matter discussed will generally be

shallow and superficial. This might be a sweeping generalization but

very often this truth will become more apparent if we scrutinize

diligently.Excessive talking does dissipate energies. The

current technologies, e-mail, sms, handphones, internet chatting

continue to provide opportunities to connect and communicate although

not verbally with others. It is a paradox that at present times, on one

hand technology blesses humanity to be connected and on the other,

increasing crime and other anti-social behavior, isolate one another

with fear and prejudice. This might be due to the fact that all these

communication tools have clouded the mind with thoughts arising from

the urge to communicate. This increases the thickness of the mind

screen which prevents rays from the subtler domains of the intellect

from shooting out thus sinking man into animalistic behavior.The

prescription for man to possess greater energy had been given. In

short, good thoughts create higher energy. The more energy one has, the

more one can perform. The next time when someone is asked to undertake

any programs or participate in organizational matters, before we sing

the same melody of 'No Time', let us pause and reflect. 'No time' just

means that we have not bothered to tap the inner powers for that extra

energy. We have not managed to control and purify our thoughts and

hence, find it difficult to juggle commitments and obligations. We have

not utilized the latent Divine Energy waiting to be summoned to go that

extra mile.

'The

most important, the most needed factor is time. One should not waste

time. Time should be spent in a useful manner. Time should be

sanctified because everything in this creation is dependent on time.

Even our scriptures say that God is referred to as time and as

non-time. God is not limited by time. He is beyond time; He is time; He

restricts Time. Time is the embodiment of God. Everything depends on

Time.'(Sathya Sai Baba quoted from Voice of Sai II - pg 235)Hence,

'time' to Bhagavan is sacred and one must know how to spend this. Youth

who are constantly engaged in their own work continue to give excuse of

no time to spare for service activities to society. Sacrificing time

for society from one's own usual routine will confer stamina and

strength to meet all the other commitments and obligations.Dwell

your thought on God! A common instruction is often given to all who

pursue this path. It can also mean doing whatever the best way you can

and dedicate the fruits to the Lord or carrying out the missionary work

of spreading love and peace to one and all. This is the secret to

redeem lost energy. Service reinstates time with interest. It confers

greater enthusiasm to finish the daily expectations of life, thereby

saving the effort and time.'Because

you are so much entangled with the aspects of the body, mind and

intelligence, you feel that you are subordinate to time and that time

will swallow you. However, if you can develop an aspect by which you

can feel above the aspects of body, mind and intelligence, it will be

possible for you to get control over death and regard it as part and

parcel of the evolution of the immortal element in you.'(Baba the Breath of Sai - pg 180)THIS

IS THE KEY TO HAVING MORE TIME TO DO MORE FOR SOCIETY AND GOD. FEEL

ABOVE BODY, MIND AND INTELLIGENCE. CONNECT TO THE SPIRITUAL CORE AND DO

MORE!The Divine Utterance is a reminder that when Man achieves

a Divine state, he will always work for the sake of the world and will

be forever engaged in activities that are pure and noble. He will not

rest; in fact Bhagavan has said that a change of activity is rest.

Therefore, if one is tired of his usual routine work and changes his

activity to service or engage in programs that promote the development

of other skills, this itself is rest. Through this way, an individual

develops ambidexterity and becomes a multi-faceted individual. He is

able to better focus and thereby increase efficiency which would enable

him to find time to engage in spiritual activities.'Time

should be used properly; the minute that has elapsed is beyond your

grasp. I want you to be active, fully engaged. For, if you have no

activities, time will hang heavily on your hands. Our objective should

be to recognize the nature of time and utilize it in a sacred manner.

Do not waste a single moment of the allowed span of life, for Time is

the body of God. He is known as 'the Form of Time.' Time is Divine,

therefore, we must utilize time for performing good action without

aspiring for the fruit thereof.'(Baba the Breath of Sai - pg 193)(From : THE DIVINE LIFESTYLE by DR SURESH GOVIND,With the consent of Sathya Sai Central Council of Malaysia) Visit : Sai Divine Inspirations : http://saidivineinspirations.blogspot.com/ Sai Messages : http://saimessages.blogspot.com/ Love Is My Form : http://loveismyform.blogspot.com/