Swami teaches... Part 2. Attach yourself to God with Love and Faith

[Guest guest]

Light and Love Swami teaches... 18 - 21 April 2007 Part 2. Attach Yourself to God with Love and Faith The mind is the eleventh sense and like the other ten, one must reduce it through experience to the status of an obedient instrument in the hands of the intellect.

There is impossible to obtain whatsoever experience without attention. To control the senses and mind need much more attention as one's profession and other worldly actions. The study by D.H. Weissman, K.C. Roberts, K.J. Visscher, and M.G. Woldorff, "The Neural Bases of Momentary Lapses in Attention," published in Nature Neuroscience, 11 June 2006, tried to find out what the brain is doing when attention fails. The study reveals some intriguing dynamics underlying lapses of attention, confirming things we already know and showing us some new brain tricks as well. Special areas in the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes focus and sometimes fail to focus. This finding draws a strong link between specific brain activity and subsequent behavioral outcomes. Although it is well established that not attending to a task leads to poorer performance, the study goes further by suggesting the source of this impairment: instead of putting all resources into the task, sometimes our cognitive resources are overtaken by our own internal noise, such as daydreaming. Instead of attending to the task, you ponder your grocery list or calculate how much longer you have to lie in the fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner pressing buttons. This finding suggests that your attentional system is disturbed not only by irrelevant noise in external environment but also with the 'noise' within own head. It seems that the role of faith and devotion is eliminating these disturbing factors. By the way, Isaac Newton attributed his genius to his "patient attention," and today Yale economist Robert J. Shiller declared that "the ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence." If attention accounts for much of what we accomplish, it accounts too for our consciousness, since it largely controls what dominates our thoughts and awareness. Pay attention! It is the first requirement in school and necessary for most of what we learn and accomplish in the rest of life. Attention is a key part of what neuroscientists and psychologists call "executive control," the ability to focus the thoughts and behavior on what we have decided is important. We tend to succeed or fail at most things largely according to how well we can concentrate on them. Solving a work problem, writing, playing, or talking with friends at dinner, we can be keenly focused one minute and distracted the next. Such lapses can rise from trying to multitask, daydreaming about events from past or future, or attending to any of other countless distractions any day in life presents. To find out what happens during attentional lapses, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to try to identify how these brain areas behave when attention is paid and when it flags.

(In the study subjects had to identify the appropriate letter denoted either by large letters or small letters in various configurations. Scanning people while they did the task revealed new dynamics in how our brains modulate attention. The researches showed that the slower reaction times were associated with reduced activation in prefrontal regions. This reduced activity generally occurred before the stimulus was presented. Focusing the mind just before a stimulus or task, then, seems vital to dealing with it effectively. Researches found that lapses were also associated with reduced activation in the sensory-processing areas at rear, as if those areas had not properly alerted by the distracted prefrontal areas. However, it is an intriguing suggestion, and whether and how prefrontal areas alert those at rear is a ripe question for further study using methods with finer temporal resolution, such as magneto encephalography. They revealed two mechanisms that may help people regroup and focus. First, in the trials in which people seemed distracted beforehand, greater activity in the prefrontal and parietal regions once the task began - extra attention, presumably - did indeed compensate for the reduced pre-stimulus attention; this extra focal activity producing slowed reaction times but allowed the subjects to avoid mistakes. The study also uncovered a second compensatory mechanism, one that seemed to let a subject apply a lesson learned about a lapse on one trial to the focus of attention on the following trial. There has found some intriguing trade-offs between internally focused attention and outward focused attention, suggesting that some lapses may simply be a failure to switch from internal thoughts and feelings to external tasks - an idea that certainly matches well with subjective experience).

Scientists can weigh, measure, and analyze materials that already exist. They can, by means of permutations and combinations, put into currency strange forms and shapes from out of existing matter. However, no scientist can deal with things from the very beginning of existence. Their activities are confined to nature, which is but the part-manifestation of the Divine. The scientific results of brain's study add the knowledge what helps to understand more deeply the psychic functions of mind and senses which is wise to keep under control.

Make the mind, the voice and the actions agree in harmony. Pay attention to this, if you can. This study of modern science reveals the mistakes caused by brain work when there is lack of attention and too many tasks to solve all at the same time. When the mind goes, there is more moha (deluding desire and attachment) and the kshaya (decline) of moha is moksha (liberation). When the mind goes, a thorny bush with the name ‘egotism’ flows ahead. Egotism makes enemies of fast friends and ruins many good causes and projects. Grief follows it like a shadow. The ego brings wave after wave of wants and wishes before your attention, and tempts you to attempt to gain them. It is a never-ending circle. So try to reduce your wants and expand the range of your love in order to be free from the coils of your ego. Living involves many confrontations, companionships, separations, conflicts and neglects. The ego attacks the sage, the scholar, the teacher and the devout spiritual aspirant, even more than ordinary people. Their ego makes them proclaim that they can defeat all others in controversy, that they are the most learned, and that they are the ones nearest God. Attach yourself to God, and the delusion of the world will automatically fall off. (Take the case of Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu, Kamsa, Ravana and the rest. They had all the wealth and power to be happy and peaceful. But they were ruled over by their ego, which finally led them to ruin).

 

Consider this incident: parents suddenly lose their son and are in great grief. So a neighbor goes to them and tries to console and comfort parents by various arguments and anecdotes. "My dear friends! Why is a human born? Why does human die? The reason why human was born also explains why human died. Birth means death. Fate plays strange games with us. We are but puppets in the show. What is the good of grieving over the dead?" He pours into the ears of the bereaved parents all the Vedanta's philosophy of detachment he knows. Nevertheless, the grief continues as before until the parents become aware of the truth themselves, unaided. A few months later, the neighbor loses his son. Now the parents who received all the Vedanta a few months ago come to him and repeat the same questions. They says that one lives only so long as one's karma (destined activity) lasts, and that one's life is cut short when one has no more karma to atone for. However, these statements donot console the aggrieved neighbor, for the loss is entirely his. When ego is awake, no wisdom can appeal. The feeling, 'my son,' is the root cause of one's grief and another's calm.

 

Another example. We build a house for ourselves and are happy it is 'ours.' When some one pastes a cinema poster on the wall, we feel 'our house' is tarnished and we even go to court to punish the offender. When the election time comes around the walls are disfigured by loud and loathsome slogans, and we quarrel with all and sundry for defacing 'our' walls. Some time later, we sell 'our house' to someone and move off. After that, even if the house is bombed, we are not in the least worried. It was the ego that caused all the worry so long. How does this egotism get into our system? Is it a weed that grows in us and is cultivated by us until it destroys us root and branch? Where was this ego in the beginning? Where were we before we were born? Where will we be after we die?

All our ideas and inferences are but products of the period between birth and death. We ourselves develop attachments, as a cohesive and stabilizing factor in life. Nevertheless, we then allow attachment to grow into huge dimensions, until it hinders our spiritual progress. Love your wife and children and do your duty towards them as a husband and a father. Always hold on to the true values. Do not lose your sense of proportion.

 

Take this illustration: There is an areca-nut palm, swaying, tall and slim, in the wind; it has a long shadow, also swaying, on the sandy ground below. God is the truth and the world is His shadow. You desire to pluck a few nuts, but mistaking the shadow for the tree, walk along the thin dark line and clutch the shadow nuts. But climb the tree, the truth. You get the fruits, while your shadow also appears hopping along the thin dark line plucking nuts. So proceed on the path of love, and you can get both the worlds. Love will expand your heart so much that you cannot escape from your duties to your kith and kin, friends, and society.

 

Swami notes that some gurus, who have religious institutions under them, laugh at you when you tell them that you are proceeding to Puttaparthi. "So you have also become a victim of this Sai Baba madness?" Answer them politely, "Good! You should gladly go to any place where you can get peace of mind, where you can acquire bliss and become aware of Divinity. I am glad you have secured such a place. God is One and is Omnipresent." God is present everywhere, in everyone. Swami directs you to go to any place where you can carry on sadhana quietly, where you sense the atmosphere of Divinity and where you receive Love and can cultivate Love in turn. Wherever you may go, worship God as Atmaswarupa. Give up body consciousness and develop Atmic awareness. Only when you lead a spiritual life, will you be able to visualize the Atmaswarupa. Have faith that Swami is the Atmaswarupa. Do not identify Swami with the physical body. He is not Dehaswarupa (body), but Dehi (the Indweller). It is a mistake to confine God to a particular form. So long as you limit God to a form, you cannot attain Him. You should realize that God is attributeless, formless and He is the very essence of life. Physical form is bound to change. You will remain the same. You are the embodiment of God. Once you understand this truth, you will not be affected by physical changes. Divinity has not made up of material substances; it is rather the Divine Energy. Give up the materialistic standpoint. Realize that your Swami is not constrained by Akara (Form), He is full of Ananda (Bliss). When you develop such faith, you too will experience Ananda.

You can see for yourself what an exalted position you will attain once you give up body attachment. You may be weak physically.Wwhen you develop Atmabhimana, all your weaknesses will vanish in a trice. Establish yourself in the firm faith, "I am God". Realize the Atma as your very life. Every one of you is endowed with Divine energy. You are not the body; you are the Life principle. Body is meant to serve as an instrument in your quest for truth. Do not lose faith in yourself; you are the Divine encased in the body. Use the body as a boat to cross the ocean of life, with devotion and detachment as the two oars.

 

Only the healthy person can afford to forget the body and dedicate his thoughts to God, and derive Ananda therefrom.

However, do not thought all the time about your body; some people worry always about health, and they are never satisfied with the care they bestow on the body. The unnecessary worry causes the 'noise' within own head and sick illusions, what disturb the brain's work, as the brief description of the study above shows. Regular prayers twice a day will give strength and courage, which can withstand illness of the body. The Grace of God will confer mental peace and so, good sleep and rest for the mind. Feel that you are a hundred per cent dependent on God; He will look after you and save you from harm and injury. When you go to bed, offer thankful homage to Him for guiding and guarding you throughout the day. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 9. "Seaworthy boat," Chapter 21; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 12. "The ladder and the steps," Chapter 17 and "You are freed!" Chapter 28; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 14. "Enemy number one," Chapter 12; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 17. "Make adoption meaningful to villagers," Chapter 13; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 36. "GIVE UP DEHABHIMANA, DEVELOP ATMABHIMAN," Chapter 14).

Namaste - Reet