The Sai Ganga

[Guest guest]

The Sai Ganga that flows deep within each of us

 

Our beloved Swami has given us many deeper lessons, insights, and

examples to help us fully realize the Truth within this story. I am

just a small servant at His Divine Feet. I am sure I do not have the

real answers to the role of man-made devastation in the overall goal

of spiritual journey and human development towards mergence with the

source – the Divine Love, our beloved Bhagawan. I am sure the multi-

dimensions and complex issues the Farakka Barrage has caused, can be

intellectually discussed from all perspectives without a common end

or agreement by all parties involved for as long as we have time.

 

The opportunity I would like to propose to you, dear reader, is to

explore the deeper lessons using Swami's teachings from this story.

 

There is Ganga flowing within all of us. What is it? It is the Divine

Sai Love. We have been chosen by Lord Shiva to be on the bank taking

a bath in His Physical Presence. How beautiful an opportunity! Only

few can live near Mother Ganga – we, the Sai Devotees, are those

chosen ones.

 

Most of us are too busy and have taken this Mother Sai Ganga for

granted, even though She is always there to purify our sins and bless

us everyday. We have become too busy to recognize the true mission of

Sai Ganga – to lead us back to our heavenly origins. We have taken

Sai Ganga for granted, as did many when building the barrage. Even

though we live on the banks of Sai Ganga, we have lost the vision of

the inner beauty and sublime power it has – to cleanse and heal all

who come.

 

Instead, we have chosen to dump our worldly desires and attachments,

in the form of pollution, at the feet of Sai Ganga. We continue to

hurt Her, without much regard to what it might be doing to

Her `health'– physically. Regardless of how much we make Her suffer

and make Her unhappy, she continues to sing the glorious sound of

heavenly Love to all those who take daily dip in Her thoughts. The

Sai Ganga absorbs all of our pollution, bad thoughts words and deeds,

everyday. Just as the Ganga River, Sai Ganga does not waiver her

healing power to anybody who comes to Her.

 

How beautiful is Ganga and Sai Ganga? It never stops its flow to

think about Herself, and it only wants to take all who swim in Her

glory to help them reach their original source – the ocean of Love.

We, as Sai Devotees, are the few chosen who have been blessed to

reside at the `Sai Shore' – where we can bath in the glory of Mother

Sai. The Mother has been taking care of our livelihood everyday as

Ganga does for the local villagers on shore. Ganga 's pollution is a

result of Man's complete recklessness to fulfill unending depth of

desires without a limit – as our beloved Bhagawan has said – lack of

Ceiling on Desires.

 

Experiencing the beauty of Sai Ganga means limiting all outside

influences that prevent us from seeing it -

that is, placing a ceiling on our material, social, and ego-based

desires

 

In the same way, do we really appreciate the grandeur and the beauty

of Sai Ganga in our life? Do we truly appreciate the invisible flow

of the Sai Ganga being poured upon us? Do we truly welcome the

opportunity we have been given, on the shores of Sai Ganga, to

finally get out of the life-and-birth cycle which our Atma has been

longing for?

 

We continue to exploit our relationship with Sai Ganga by allowing

the deep self-deception within us to exist - for the unreal. We might

have convinced ourselves that we are Sai Devotees, so we don't have

to be perfect, because Swami is in our lives; He will take care of

things. If we have problems, we will just `surrender' them to Swami.

We even go far as, singing the glory of Sai Ganga's name, without the

beauty and the heritage of each word. Does such self-deception please

our beloved Sai Ganga?

 

Just as the Hindu tradition honors the healing powers of Mother

Ganga, for us, we have an opportunity to take a dip in the Love of

Mother Sai Ganga. What a blessing!

 

The Farakka Barrage Within All of Us The Farakka Barrage's original

intent was to divert some of the Ganga's flow from its original

direction instead towards Calcutta. Mother Ganga did not decide that;

Man decided that. All those who were involved, somehow, were able

to `see' what was at that time. The experience and expertise

available was utilized to build the barrage. Decades of intellectual

assessment, between governing bodies that lead to the final decision

to construct the barrage, was strictly designed through the `physical

eye' – the mind, the intellect, and the knowledge of humans involved.

 

As human beings, we build bridges and barrages within us all the

time – using the `physical eye'. We have been trained to `see' the

world at physical and emotional levels, then evaluate what we `see'

against the experiences and lessons from our past, then, using our

intellect to rationalize and synthesize, we finally make decisions –

generally to serve our self and our ego (or our collective ego). By

the way, we make these decisions quickly – especially in today's

global business and social cultures, without trying to quiet the

mind. Why? Because we don't have time! Again we see the self-

deception at its best, running our life, on auto pilot.

 

We have not been trained to lead our life using our `spiritual eye'.

For many of us, Swami has been guiding us to develop this `spiritual

eye' for last eight decades. Even then, we are struggling, suffering,

and spinning.

 

Bridge or Barrage, Looking Past the Mirage

 

As was the case with the Farakka Barrage, it can be assumed that,

there was lack of authentic decision criteria available at that time.

There was lack of `spiritual eye' available by the parties involved.

 

I would like to propose the notion that there is a Farakka Barrage

being built, or it is already constructed, within all of us at this

time. Remarkably on surface, these `inner constructions' actually

look magnificent (our careers, or businesses, or luxurious homes, or

beautiful cars, etc.) as bridges and not as barrages. Without deeper

inquiry, we have convinced our self that these bridges, to our future

happy life, will give us endless peace and joy. In reality, they are

all barrages within. They undoubtedly only give temporary joy. They

fix a short-term problem, without our inability to recognize the

future negative impact it might have upon us in this journey of life –

towards the ultimate goal. Most inner barrages were rooted in the

worldly attachments and ambitions. They were built using only the

mind and the unregulated ego energy.

 

As Sai devotees, we have known this as well. But, we continue to keep

building these inner barrages every day, not realizing the long term

impact it might have upon us and our families.

 

Swami has told us that the world and our body is our universal

classroom towards enlightenment. If that is true, we need to dive

deeper into such stories to find real answers for our Dharmic growth.

We must demand answers from our selves, using our spiritual eye, for

our inner growth.

 

So, let's accept the fact that the story of Farakka barrage is not at

all an accident. It is here and now. It has been designed to teach us

something. This is true of all that happens to us, everyday. There is

no point in devoting negative thoughts towards things that have

happened already. Our Dharma should be to learn from it – in a deeper

way, once we have accepted that all that happens in the world, near

and far, is not by accident but a Divine Will for our own good.

 

If nothing is by accident, then there is absolutely no doubt, it has

a come to us with a deeper meaning and it is ultimately best for all

of us. This is very hard to do for most of us. It is hard, because

here lies one of our barrages within. We don't like to change. We

don't like to get outside of our comfort zone. We don't like to be

One (the reminder of Unity, Purity, and Divinity from our Sai) we

prefer to stay in the illusion of body consciousness – that we are an

individual and others are not part of us. This is one of the most

complex and strongest inner barriers.

 

Ram Chugani

Kobe, Japan

rgcjp