Swami Sivananda Vani

[Guest guest]

THE REAL SADHU: During the Master's epoch-making All-India Tour, a

large number of people had gathered under a shamiana (canopy)

erected for Satsang in the compound of Sri Wahi's house at

Allahabad. The Master would not lose an opportunity of serving his

children. He stood up, sang and delivered his discourse.

 

" If you find mercy and humility in a person, then alone can you know

that he is a Sadhu. His heart will melt at the suffering of others.

Man has a sin-hardened heart. When it begins to melt, the Lord

manifests Himself. A Sadhu need not deliver lectures on the

Panchadasi. He need not necessarily be able to deliver eloquent

discourses on the Gita. He may not be able to comment for three

hours on a single verse of the Brahma Sutra, but a sweet aroma will

always be emanating from him. This will attract you to him. It will

give you peace and inner bliss when you approach him. All your worry

and anxiety will disappear as you approach him. His very look will

elevate you. His words will inspire you and engrave themselves on

the tablet of your heart. Your nature will be transformed by his

very look. You will turn a new page in your life. Such will be his

power! Such is the glory of true mercy and humility!

 

" People have a hard heart, a heart harder than granite, harder than

diamond, on account of wrong actions done life after life. This

heart should melt. Only then can they have Self-realisation. Note

well that there is no short-cut to Self-realisation. A man without

mercy, love and humility cannot realise the Self. You must

understand this clearly. You must engrave these words in your heart.

You must write them in bold letters on placards and place them in

your rooms and offices. The Lord cannot manifest Himself in a sin-

hardened heart. It must melt like butter before He can reveal

Himself.

 

" This melting is done by Kirtan and untiring selfless service

rendered with the feeling that all are forms of Lord Narayana. Then

you will develop a feeling of oneness with all. Listening to the

scriptures and contemplation will be of no avail if there is no

purification of the heart. Vedantic Sadhana at this immature stage

will only fatten your egoism and harden it. The bonds of worldliness

will grow tighter and the veil of ignorance become thicker.

 

" Without purifying the heart no progress in Sadhana is possible.

Therefore, practise Japa, sing Kirtan, do untiring selfless service.

Be generous. Give, give, give. Kill vanity. Worldly people have

their own vanity, but much harder is the egoism of a Sadhu. He

thinks that he is superior to a householder because he knows the

Gita by heart and he can deliver thrilling lectures for weeks on end

on each verse of the Upanishads. This spiritual pride is extremely

difficult to eradicate.

 

" Maya assumes many different forms. The ego assumes various shapes.

Just as water takes on the form of the vessel into which it is

poured, so also the ego adjusts itself to all circumstances and

persists in its work.

 

" You renounce the world so that you can get rid of the vanity of

wealth and material desires. Now you acquire another vanity--the

vanity of renunciation. In order to crush the ego you do scavenging,

though you are highly educated. Now the ego assumes the subtle form

of the vanity of service. You bow to all, you prostrate to all, in

order to develop humility. This indefatigable ego comes up there

also--you now have the most dangerous vanity of humility. You feel

inwardly that you are humbler than others. This ego is your terrible

enemy. It wages guerilla warfare with you. Beware! Beware! Beware!

 

" If you are sincere you can eradicate this ego through Japa, Kirtan

and selfless service. Sincere people are very rare in this world.

You can count them on your finger-tips. Sincerity--it is a very rare

virtue! It is a combination of several virtues--of truthfulness,

straight-forwardness, simplicity, absence of vanity, courage,

fearlessness, tenacity of purpose, love and humility. All these go

to form sincerity. A sincere man is immediately respected and

trusted by all. Only if you have this virtue will there be rapid

spiritual progress. Only then will you realise the fullest benefits

of the Japa, Kirtan and meditation that you practise daily.

 

" Introspect and find out how you are progressing in the cultivation

of these divine virtues. You are not practising introspection

regularly. You have not the strength of mind or the power of

discrimination to introspect. You think that you are very much

advanced, but when a test comes you fail miserably. It is because

there has been no real progress, no real spiritual advancement. It

is vanity that makes you think that you are very advanced.

 

" Apply this acid test on yourself: does your heart melt at the

suffering of others? Has charity and generosity become your very

nature? Your money belongs to the Lord. You have no business to keep

more than you need. How can you accumulate wealth when your God in

the form of a poor man is starving? How can you take food four times

a day when the beggar--Lord Narayana--is starving outside the door?

These are the tests of spiritual progress.

 

" Do you run to a poor man walking along the street and offer him

food? Do you rush to the aid of a sick or injured man lying on the

roadside and ask, 'My Lord, in what way may I serve thee?' If you do

so, then you are really advancing on the spiritual path. You will

soon develop cosmic love, which is the threshold of liberation.

 

" If you really want God, then all these things must be done. You

should have mercy. You should feel that you are only a trustee of

your money; you are like a gatekeeper. God has given you money. You

should share it with others. Purchase blankets in winter and

distribute them to the poor lying on the roadside. What a joy you

feel! The man who has not shared what he has with others has a poor

heart indeed, though he may be a millionaire. Even the man who has

nothing to eat is the richest man in the world if he has a large

heart, if he shares what he has with others.

 

" The real Sadhu is one who has nothing to call his own except a

large, magnanimous heart--not one who can skillfully argue about the

existence of God or the falsehood of creation, who is an expert in

intellectual acrobatics, who is proficient in the coining and use of

a few phrases. You can discover him on the station platform. He will

quarrel for half an hour with a porter for the sake of two annas!

 

" If you are Ramprasad, feel that all are Ramprasad. One Divine

Consciousness pervades all. It sees through all, It works through

all. All ears are yours. Feel as such. What an expansion of heart

you experience! All barriers are now broken down. Everywhere you

behold the one Lord, one Krishna, the God who is both immanent and

transcendent. " The aspirant should be very careful. Not even an

angry look or the slightest trace of irritability should arise in

his heart. He should possess a sweet heart and a sweet tongue.

 

" You should remain under a Guru. Serve him. There is no greater

Sadhana than service of the Guru. The Guru will teach you the

appropriate Sadhana for your development. " May God bless you all

with health, long life, peace, prosperity and eternal bliss! "

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" If you take one step towards God, He takes ten steps towards you. " -

Swami Sivananda