Sathya Sai Vahini - Chapter 6

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Sathya Sai Vahini - Chapter 6

Religion is Experience

 

This wave-like movement of proceeding and receding, of merging and

emerging, has been happening since Time; it will happen till Time

ends; it is eternal in its feature - this is the belief of

Bharathiyas. Man is not just this gross body; in it, there is a

subtle component called mind; inside it, as its prompter and spring,

there is an even more subtle principle called the Jivatma

(individualised Soul); this Jivatma has neither beginning nor end, it

knows no death, it has no birth - This is the basis of the Bharathiya

faith.

 

One other article of faith: This is a unique feature of Bharathiya

mental equipment. Until the individualised soul gets liberated from

the individualisation and merges in the Universal, thus attaining

moksha or liberation, it has to encase itself in one body after

another, and go through the process called living. This idea is held

by no other people. This is the Samsara idea, which the ancient texts

or Sastras of India reveal and propagate. Samsara means " the movement

into one form after another " . All the different schools and sects

among the Bharathiyas accept this fact that the Atmas (apparently

individualised) are eternal and incapable of being affected by

change. They may differ in describing or denoting the relationship

between the Atma and Iswara or God. One school of thinkers may posit

that the two are ever separate; another may declare that the Jivatma

is a spark in the universal flame of fire that Iswara is; a third may

assert that the two are undifferentiated. But, the Truth remains that

the Atma is beginningless and endless; since it is not born, it has

no death. Its individualised image has to evolve through a series of

bodies, until it attains fulfilment in the human. All schools are one

in upholding this faith, in spite of the variety of their other

interpretations.

 

We shall now come to the foremost among the glorious Truths, the most

astounding of the basic Truths that the human intellect has attained

in the spiritual field; the Atma is by its very nature, Purity,

Fullness and Bliss (Parisuddha, Paripoorna and Ananda). This is the

belief that animates all schools of thought, whether they are the

worshippers of Sakthi, or Siva, or Vishnu, or whether they are

Buddhists or Jains. Every Hindu acknowledges it. The Dwaithins

(Dualists) believe that the fundamental genuine nature of the Atma is

Ananda; this is diminished and desiccated by the consequences of

human actions, in life after life and therefore, has to be restored

and revitalised by the Grace of God. The Adwaithins (the Monists)

believe that there can be no diminution or desiccation. They assert

that the Atma is fully splendorous; only,through the influence of the

deluding effect of ignorance (Maya) which superimposes false

impression on what is really true, it appears as if it has

diminished. Whatever may be the differences in interpretation,

when we take our stand on the central core of the Truth on which all

agree, between the " East " and the " West " , there will be discerned a

vast deep passage, where both do journey to the goal. The people of

the Eastern countries seek in the inner regions of their selves the

realisation of this gloriously beneficent consummation. While

worshipping, we close the eyes and endeavour to visualise God inside

ourselves. People of the West lift up their faces and visualise God in

outer space, in the beyond. They believe that their scriptures have

been recorded by Persons under the direction of God. Bharathiyas

believe that the Vedas - their sacred scriptures - were the very

breath of God conveying meanings to the sages who had installed Him

in their hearts.

 

There is another point which we have to understand: We have to hold

fast to it always. Unless a belief is held unshaken throughout night

and day, it cannot be used to achieve victory. No success is possible

otherwise. When a person asserts that he is low and mean and that he

knows but little, he become low and mean and his knowledge shrinks.

We become what we believe we are. We are the children of Almighty

God, endowed with supreme Power, Glory and Wisdom. We are Children of

Immortality. When we dwell in this thought, how can we ever be low

and ignorant? Bharathiya spiritual culture enjoins on every one to

believe that the real nature of man is supreme and that he should

ever be conscious of this truth.

 

The Bharathiyas of past ages had faith in their great Reality. They

achieved victory in their endeavours as a result of this faith and

rose to lofty heights. They reached the peak of progress. We have

slided down into the present decline, mainly because we have lost

faith in the Atma in us. This was the beginning of our fall. For,

loss of confidence in the Atma or Self involves loss of faith in God

Himself. That Omnipresence, that Inner Motivator of all, who is the

warp and woof of our body and mind, our emotions and intellect -

strengthening faith in Him is the only means of realising the highest

goal of man. This is the lesson that Bharathiya spiritual history

longs to teach.

 

Children of Bharath! Teach your children this life-preserving,

glorious and heart-expanding Truth from the early days of life. The

sanctifying vision that Bharathiyas secured is this: the Atma is full

and free. It is a wonderful discovery, a thrilling thought! The Atma

is by its very nature full; fullness need not be attained or

accomplished and added to It. If fullness is added to it, it can also

be subtracted by the passage of time; what is built up must

disintegrate. If man is impure by nature, even though he may succeed

in achieving purity for five minutes, he has to wallow later in

impurity, for the purity that comes in the middle will be easily

swept away by circumstances. So, all Bharathiya spiritual

thinkers declared that Purity is our very nature and that Fullness is

our genuine reality. They said that we are never really 'wanting'.

This was the lesson that Bharathiyas taught the world. This is the

stream of spiritual strength that flowed from India and fertilised

the world.

 

At the end of life, one should bring to the consciousness the great

thoughts one has attained in life, the high feelings one entertained;

this was the directive of the sages of India. They did not demand that

one should bring to memory the faults and errors one committed in

life. These are inevitable and universal. But, the sages declared

that one should be aware always of one's Reality and one should be

engaged ever in contemplating its grandeur and glory. That, they

said, is the greatest step to progress.

 

There is another fact that we have to pay attention to, more than all

else. For Bharathiyas, religion means 'experience' and nothing less.

It is indeed pitiable that we forget this important fact, very often.

This secret must be imprinted on the heart of every one. Only then

can one be safe and secure. Not only this. It is not the way of

thought of a Bharathiya to say that all things can be attained by

self-exertion; the Bharathiya knows that Divine Will is the basis of

everything. Religious principles have to be practised and their

validity experienced. Listening to their exposition is of no use;

learning some one set of arguments and conclusions and repeating them

parrot-like are not enough. If they appeal to one's intellect and are

approved by it as correct, that will not help at all. It must

transform us. The reason why Bharathiyas posit God and declare that

God is Being and Becoming is their experience, which is the highest

proof. The declaration does not originate from the head, from the

faculty of reason, the yukti. The forefathers asserted that there is

the entity, Atma, in each and that the Atma is but a spark of the

Universal Atma, for they had become aware of it, deeply and without

doubt. There were, in the past, thousands who had sought the

experience and won it. Even today, such persons are not

absent. In future too, they will be present. It is a thirst that

affects man. Unless he contemplates God and confronts Him in bliss,

unless he wins the awareness of the Atma that is his reality, man

will be tormented by the thirst, the agony that he is 'lacking

completeness'.

 

Man must first grasp the Truth. All religious factions and fights will

vanish, as fast as man grasps the Reality. For, the name 'follower of

theistic code of morals,' can be allotted only to one who has

experienced God and realised His Glory. Only those who have realised

Him in their hearts can have the bonds, that chain their hearts to

the wheel of birth - death, broken. Mere platform orations do not

indicate awareness of the Truth that has to be attained through

religion.

 

Theistic faith is based on genuine experience. Once we accept this,

self-examination starts and one is able to measure how far he has

journeyed towards the goal or away from it. He will then realise that

He is groping in the dark and dragging others into darkness to grope

with him. Only then will men give up factional hatreds in the name of

religious war on those professing different faiths. Those who revel in

religious wars should be asked: " Have you seen God? Have you become

aware of the Divine Atma? Or else, what authority have you to decry or

deny this name of God? Are you, struggling in the darkness, attempting

to draw me too into that darkness? Can a blind man lead another blind

man along the road? That is an impossible task. Therefore, understand

your Truth before you defame or deny mine " .