Sathya Sai Vahini - Chapter 02

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Sathya Sai Vahini

 

Chapter two

From Truth to Truth

 

Questions may be asked, and doubts expressed by many, about the state

of a person after he has attained fulfilment, the fullness of

awareness. His life will be saturated with unexcelled Ananda, and he

will experience one-ness of thought, emotion and knowledge with all.

He will be in ecstasy, immersed in the One and Only, the Eternal

Divine Principle, for, that alone can confer joy during the process

of living. Genuine joy is this and no other. God is the embodiment of

eternal ever-full joy. Those loyal to Bharathiya culture, whatever

the sect or faith which they claim as their special mould, accept

this axiom, that " God is the highest source of joy " . This matha

(conclusion) they accept as abhimatha (dearest and most pleasurable).

 

Fullness means wholeness. Wholeness implies One and not two or three.

There cannot then be any place for the individual. When an

individualised Atma or Jivi, the particularised differentiated self,

has become full and whole, there is no possibility of his return to

the consciousness of the objective world. Some doubts may arise in

the minds of many.

 

But, this line of thought is not correct. When the individualised Jivi

becomes fixed in the totality or Samasthi (the whole) he loses all

ideas of distinction and is ever in the consciousness of the

totality, the One that subsumes the many. He will then be aware that

the reality of each is the reality of all and that Reality is the One

Indivisible Atma. He will not exhibit any consciousness of

distinction between individuals.

 

The Divine that he knows, as the core of each 'thing and being' is now

recognised by him as the Divine that he himself is; and, so, he will

be deeper than ever in the fullness of Ananda. How can he then

experience separateness? No, he cannot. The rays of that ananda

illumine all regions. The sages and the great rishis became aware of

the Bliss. They communicated that experience to the world in easily

understandable language. The unreachable moon is made known by

pointing a finger in the direction where it can be seen! So, too,

they brought within the purview of men, according to the state of

consciousness which each of them had attained, the Truth that lies

beyond the reach of mind and speech. Their teachings were not only

simple, but varied to educate and elevate all levels of understanding.

 

A small example:

 

One feels happy when one has the knowledge that this one little body

is his, does he not? Then, when he knows that two bodies are his,

should he not be twice happy? In the same way, with the knowledge

that he has an increasing number of bodies, the experience of

happiness goes on increasing; when the whole world is known to be one

body, and world-consciousness becomes part of the awareness, then the

Ananda will be full. To get this multi-consciousness, the limited

egocentric prison walls must be destroyed. When the ego-self

identifies itself with the Jivi or Atma, death will cease. When the

ego-self identifies itself and merges with the Bliss of the One,

sorrow will cease. When it merges with Jnana or the Higher Wisdom,

error will cease. " Material individual-ness is born out of delusion;

this body which creates that impression is only an ever-evolving atom

of a boundless ocean; the second entity in me is the other Form,

namely, the embodied Self; when the ego of mine merges with the Self

in me, then, the delusion disappears, through the upsurge of its

opposite knowledge " . When man's thought matures in process of

time, undoubtedly all schools of thought have to reach this

conclusion.

 

A tree's value is estimated, with reference to its fruits. Take idol

worship, for example. Moralists, metaphysicians, philosophers,

adherents of the path of Devotion, and the foremost among the

virtuous in all parts of the world have all agreed that idol-worship

is highly beneficial. So long as attachment persists to the material

body and possessions, worship of a material symbol is necessary. It

is but a means. But, many decry it as a superstition. This is not

correct. It is not the right approach. Such an attitude is just an

outburst of foolishness.

 

Is it not a fact that the belief in one's being the body, a

superstition? Can the body last for ever? Is it not a skin doll with 9

apertures, in which life is so perilously existent that a sneeze may

cause collapse? Again, should we not characterise the life people

lead, believing in the reality of this world, is another

superstition? Is not all the self-importance assumed by people who

have positions of power and a great quantity of riches, another

foolish pose? But, acts done on the basis of faith in the Atma, the

Reality within, cannot be dubbed as superstitious or foolish. For

every opinion one expresses, if proper reasons are given, all will

rejoice. But, do declare as superstitious all that one does not like,

is a sign of frenzy, foolishness or egoism.

 

We will find it impossible to love God or adore Him, unless we

meditate on some Form; this is as essential as breathing for sheer

living. That is a necessary stage in the process of living. One has

to accept it as such. Childhood is the father of old age. Can old age

condemn childhood or teenage, as evil? To experience the Divine

Principle, idol-worship is and has been a great help to many. How

then can the aspirant and the practitioner of spiritual disciplines

condemn idol-worship after passing through that stage and deriving

benefits from it? That would indeed be very wrong, and inappropriate.

 

The Bharathiya march towards the Supreme Reality is not from Untruth

to Truth. It is from truth to Truth, from incomplete truth to complete

Truth, from partial truth to full Truth. For, what are Sadhanas? Every

effort made by men, from the remote forest-dwellers and the

unsophisticated tribals, who adore the gross forms of Divinity, to

those highly evolved seekers who adore the Full and the Absolute, is a

Sadhana. Each such effort will take man a step forward in progress.

 

Each individual Jivi is comparable to a bird; it can, by longer and

higher flights, rise up into the sky. And, a stage may finally be

gained when it can fly right up to the full-splendoured orb of the

Sun.

 

The basic truth of Nature is the One in the Many; that is the key to

its understanding. The Bharathiyas grasped this truth; they held fast

to this key. People of other countries were content to lay down

certain axioms and enforcing belief in them. They insisted on the

acceptance of these axioms and the observance of rules and

regulations that arise out of them. They held one single coat before

the individuals of the society where they lived and required every

one to wear the same coat; if it does not suit the size of any one,

there was no alternative coat for such people. They had to live

without a coat to protect them against the chill wind.

 

The Bharathiya approach was quite different. For each aspect or

variation of feeling and thinking, volition and action, they made

available a distinct Name and Form, and provided modes of worship and

ways of adoration, in accordance with the emotional needs and

intellectual calibre of the aspirants and devotees. Of course, a few

had no need for such special consideration and treatment. But, many

took advantage of this concession, and advanced in their march

towards wisdom and liberation.

 

For one thing, never was it laid down as part of the Bharathiya

spiritual endeavour, that idol-worship is a must or that it is a stage

that has to be gone through: But, there is one fact which each one

must preserve in his memory, it is this: Bharathiyas may have

attachment to their bodies; they may be attached to the upkeep and

development of their standards of living; but, they would never yearn

to cut the throats of others. The Bharathiya who is fanatic about his

religion would rather immolate himself in flames raised and fed by

him, rather than through hatred burn alive those who do not accept

and revere his religion. Bharathiya spiritualism negated the

destruction of the Atma, the One inextinguishable Truth.

 

For, the Bharathiya Religion fostered the faith that the Self in man

is no other than the Overself or God. Bharathiya Religion directs long

journeys by men and women, through varied paths, confronted and

controlled by varied circumstances, but, encouraged and enlightened by

various types of faith towards the goal of the splendour of

God-consciousness or the Consciousness of the Divine. Though the

practices and rites might appear on the surface to be crude, they are

not opposed to the ultimate Truth. The seeming contradictions have to

be interpreted as incidental to the need to inspire people with varied

intellectual, moral, economic and social backgrounds. For example, the

light that comes through a tiny piece of coloured glass is of the same

origin as bigger clearer light. The extent, clarity, brightness etc.

of light depends on the medium only. The source of all light is the

One Truth, the Source of All, the Basis of All, the Goal of All, the

Reality in All, and the Centre in All. As the thread on which pearls

are strung as a rosary, God or the Overself is interpenetrative in

all beings. In all beings - that is the message of Bharath. All

beings everywhere, anywhere!

 

Examine carefully all the texts and scriptures that deal with

Bharathiya culture and traditions. Find out whether in any of them

there is mention that Moksha or Liberation or the Highest Realisation

is available to those who are Bharathiyas only, and not to others.

Can you produce a single statement on those lines? It can be

emphatically asserted that you cannot discover a statement like that.

Bharathiya Spiritualism has limitless vastness, and immensely high

ideals; it is a full stream of sanctifying ideations, flowing along

with no decline or diminution, straight and smooth to the Ocean of

Divine Grace. The journey is direct, along a royal road towards the

supreme Goal.

 

Another point: The source of all spiritual principles recognised and

revered by Bharathiyas is God; He is the one supporting Pillar.

Therefore, no other support is needed for faith. Bharathiya

spiritualism is the very foundation of all other faiths; it stands on

the very summit. It has achieved victory over many opposing faiths,

confronting them with many valid arguments and theories. Bharathiyas

have no need to follow any religion or spiritual discipline, besides

their own. For, nowhere else can you secure a discipline or truth

that is not existing herein. Other faiths have only adopted some one

or other of its beliefs and principles and placed them before people

as ideals to be adopted.

 

What has to be borne in mind is this: Bharathiya texts on spiritualism

are the most ancient in the whole world; they are the earliest studies

and discoveries of the Atma, on Personal and Impersonal God, and on

Codes of Conduct, individual and social, based on those revelations

and discoveries. In no other country, among no other peoples have such

ancient teachings seen the light. There may be perhaps, some misty

ideas or brief glimpses; but they do not deserve the name, spiritual

text or literature. The Vedic literature pictures not only spiritual

inquiries by the sages and Sadhaks and their results, but also, their

lines of thought, their yearnings and aspirations, their secular

struggles and temporal problems.