Atma Vichara - SSSB teachings

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Know Thyself:

 

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai

Baba

 

on Self-Enquiry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Nirmal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vancouver: Author, 1996

 

 

(Copyright declined.

 

You are welcome to copy freely.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Chapter One. Setting Out

 

Chapter Two. Illusion and Discrimination

 

Chapter Three. The Self

 

Chapter Four Self- Enquiry

 

Chapter Five. The Nature of the Body

 

Chapter Six. The Nature of the Senses and Mind

 

Chapter Seven. The Nature of the Desires, Ego, and Buddhi

 

Chapter Eight. Successful Self-Enquiry and Its Place in Spiritual

Practice

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I were asked to give a personal opinion of the central tenet in

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's teachings to humanity, I would say that

it would be

character transformation through purification of the heart. Seva,

bhakthi, Atmavichara -- all of which result in Liberation -- are the

means of

purifying. As Swami puts it: " All spiritual practices are aimed at

purification of the heart. " (1 -- See footnotes at each chapter's

end.)

 

To battle against the tendency of body-identification, and to win the

Grace of God as the only means of victory, spiritual exercises have

been laid

down, such as philosophical inquiry, ... sense-control (dama), and

other disciplines. ... The practise of these will ensure the

purification of the

consciousness; it will then become like a clean mirror that can

reflect the object; so, the Atma will stand revealed clearly. (2)

 

 

While many enlightened masters teach purification through the

following of a single path, Bhagavan seems consistently to rule that

course out. Instead

He offers a well-rounded, integral path which He Himself calls

" Purushothama Yoga. " What is it? It is a blend of Dharma, Jnana,

Karma, Bhakthi,

Vairagya, and Dhyana.

 

 

Sometimes He speaks only of the Triveni of Jnana, Bhakthi, and Karma,

which may be thought of as its core technologies or disciplines. Here

is His

chief enunciation of this version:

 

 

For the Purusha to become Purushothama, the path is Yoga, or Jnana won

by Karma and Bhakthi. (3)

 

 

Each individual deed must be full of the spirit of Seva, of Prema and

of Jnana. In other words each group of life's activities must be

saturated with

Karma, Bhakthi and Jnana. This is verily the Purushothama Yoga. (4)

 

 

Later in this booklet we shall hear Him explain their relationship and

how they form developmental stages in our march towards Liberation. We

shall

hear him say that Bhakthi without Jnana is too light and Jnana without

Bhakthi is too dry while Karma gives the hands something sacred to do.

(5) We

shall also hear Him say that Karma is the primary school; Bhakthi the

high school; and Jnana the university of the soul. (6) Among the

three, He says,

" There is no difference; all are one, but in different stages of time

- evolving. " (7)

 

 

At times He leaves Vairagya (non-attachment, renunciation) for Karma.

Vairagya is one of the prime qualities that the Karma Yogin develops

out of

doing Seva: " Vairagya or Non-attachment also depends upon Jnana as

well as Bhakthi. Deprive Vairagya of that basis and you will find it

crumbling

fast. " (8) When one of the three is isolated from the others, each is

ineffective.

 

 

Never therefore develop conceit and declare that you are Bhakthas or

Jnanis or Vairagis (Recluses). Sadhakas must dip in the Triveni of

Bhakthi-Jnana-

 

Vairagya. There is no other way to salvation. (9)

 

 

Swami uses many vivid examples to illustrate the relationship of the

Purushothama disciplines. Here is one example:

 

 

A white cloth that has become dirty is dipped in water, cleaned with

soap and warmed and beaten on a slab in order that it may be restored

to its colour

and condition. So too to remove the dirt of Ajnana that has attached

itself to the pure Sath-Chit- Ananda Atma, the water of un-blemished

conduct

and behaviour, the soap of Brahman-reflection, the warming of Japam

and Dhyanam and the slab of Renunciation are all necessary. Then only

can the

fundamental Brahman-hood of the Atma shine forth. (10)

 

 

Thus, Bhagavan's Atmavichara is not similar to Sankara's or Ramana

Maharshi's. Whereas these Advaitin masters may recommend Self-enquiry

alone, Swami always recommends a fuller range of prescriptions. Since

the ego is subtler than the Buddhi, He recommends that the new

aspirant

engage in as much seva as possible to rid the Buddhi of the impurity

of selfishness. Since only love can cause the aspirant to expand his

vision to

universality, Swami is prescribes loving the Atma and all living

beings, in whom It resides. Given that this non-Jnanic counsel comes

in a discussion

of Atmavichara, a Jnanic discipline, Swami's views are unique among

teachers. Their uniqueness points to the incredible vantage point from

which

God, in the form of Sai Baba, speaks.

 

 

All through His discourses, Bhagavan sprinkles in references to the

way in which God designed life. He tells us in this booklet about the

design of the

various limbs and organs of the body. He tells us the purpose of our

lives. The more we read of Baba, the more we are privy to what He

calls " the

Divine Plan. " (11) Only He has knowledge of these details and He

freely releases that knowledge to His children. Moreover, He promises

to offer more

and more of His precious truths to those who follow His commandments.

 

 

If you ... act according to My words, and put them into daily

practice, I will gladly tell you more and more, for that is the reason

why I have come. (12)

 

 

How are we to work with the authoritative descriptions of body,

senses, mind, ego, and buddhi given here? We are to take these into

either

contemplation, witnessing, or meditation and see if we can discern

their activities. We are to see if we can observe the flitting of the

mind, the outward

movement of the senses, the fact that both are centred in the outer

world, the assertion of ego and possessiveness ( " I " and " mine " ), the

discriminating

power of buddhi. Baba says that, these recognized, they can be

transcended. We are to recognize them and see whether or not Baba's

words prove true.

We are also to extend our love inwards towards the Self or Atma, to

love it with all our strength and all our heart and all our might. We

are to feel it,

sense it, and finally know it. This is the exercise known as

Atmavichara, according to Baba.

 

 

If we can imagine how He must operate (and we can only imagine), we

can glimpse the tremendous opportunity His words represent and the

great

difficulty that arises in trying to apply them to one specific topic.

For instance, His advice on a subject like bhakthi may be meant for

one person in the

crowd that has come to see Him. It may differ from advice He may have

given in the interview room that same day. Just because the words came

from

the same precious Source does not mean that their meaning is

universal, generic, or obvious. In reading Him, we are obliged to put

aside our

expectations and assumptions. We must somehow judge the circumstances

if and as we can and intelligently apply what He teaches. It is seldom

an easy

task.

 

 

We have heard how difficult it is for Presidents and Prime Ministers

to make themselves comprehensible to a wide range of groups without

offending

someone. Much misunderstanding and hurt feelings arise. Try to intuit

for a moment the situation the embodied God must face to make Himself

understood by the whole world at any one moment. If you were He, how

would you address the people? What would you choose to say? Many of us

will recall the experience of the woman who asked to know Baba's mind

for one minute. When Baba allowed her to hear what He hears, she faced

a

storm of voices, all imploring Bhagavan's mercy. Unable to stand the

din for even a few seconds, she begged Him to release her from her

request. Not

one of us ever faces the assignment that God Himself faces when He

takes a body. Therefore, if we are honest, the rest of us would have

to admit that

we utterly have no idea, and can have no idea, why Baba says what He

says and no way to judge what His statements mean. We can only test

His

assertions in the workshop of our own lives and, if we are fortunate,

prove the truth of perhaps one of them in a lifetime through direct

experience.

 

 

As an editor, I've found the task of working with Baba's words the

easiest I've ever engaged in and the most difficult, at one and the

same time. It is the

easiest because everything Baba says is so wonderfully eloquent.

Arranging His words is a joy. When has any editor had thoughts of such

simplicity,

profundity, and felicity to work with? At the same time, one ends up

wondering why he was ever bold enough to start the task. I'm

increasingly certain

that I have no idea -- no, not even an inkling -- of the truth of

anything Baba utters. My most mature opinion, after working with

Baba's words for

some years now, is that it would be utter audacity for me to claim to

understand Him. I have only opinions. I aim only at being as true to

His words as I

can in terms of their arrangement and plead my utter ignorance of

their true meaning.

 

 

Turning to editorial matters, I have retained the original British

spelling in Baba's answers but have Americanized the spelling in the

questions posed to

Him. I have taken a few, minor liberties with other spellings. I have

changed " inquiry " to " enquiry, " " Brahmam " to " Brahman " and " Atman " to

" Atma, " etc. I have also tried to standardize some Sanskrit spellings,

I hope not arbitrarily. I have made these departures for reasons of

consistency and

comprehensibility. I apologize to readers who may be offended by my

editorial license.

 

 

In publishing this booklet, I'd like to acknowledge the Sai-net

editors who assisted in the collection of many of its quotes during

1995-6. I am

currently working on an expanded edition of the Sai Dictionary of

Quotations, drawing on their material. I'd also like to acknowledge a

real-life

Northern Californian devotee who wishes to remain anonymous, but who

has, without being asked, supported these publishing efforts in many

ways for

many years now. He is the original of the Questioner.

 

 

Baba's current Form has now been with us seventy-one years. You and I,

lucky beings that we are, have been privileged to witness this

unparalleled

chapter in human history. But Baba cautions us:

 

 

You have won this chance, this unique good fortune of being able to

get Darsan of Sai. Plunging deep into the waters of this tumultuous

ocean of

Samsara, you have heroically emerged from its depths with this rare

Pearl in your hands - the Grace of Sai. Do not allow it to slip from

your clasp and

fall into the depths again. Hold on firmly to it. Pray that you may

have It forever and be filled with the joy that It confers. That is

the way by which you

can render this life fruitful. (13)

 

 

We stand a mere four years away from the departure of what Swami has

metaphorically called His divine jet into the golden skies of Sai.

(14) It

becomes increasingly important to turn our minds to sadhana if we are

to purchase a ticket on Sai Garuda. This booklet is designed to serve

the

practitioners of the sadhana of Self-enquiry. To all of you I wish

" Godspeed " as you prepare for the next chapter in Bhagavan's Golden

Age. May you

be blessed with the vision of the Self, the vision of Sai Baba, that

awaits you at the culmination of successful Self-enquiry. May wisdom

fill your heart

and separate it forever from the flitting mind, just as Baba

promises.

 

 

 

Joy and peace to you,

 

 

Nirmal

 

10 December 1996

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 CSSB, 44. See Bibliography for full citations.

 

2 SSV, 5-6.

 

3 SSS, IV, 78.

 

4 PV, 9.

 

5 SSS, III, 26-7.

 

6 SS, 30, Feb. 1987, 38.

 

7 SNA, 5, Autumn, 1995, 6.

 

8 JV, 39.

 

9 Loc. cit.

 

10 JV, 35.

 

11 Sathyam, III, 68.

 

12 LBSSSB, 225.

 

13 SSS, IX, 8.

 

14 Says Swami: " When an airplane is about to take off, it must first

approach the runway. When it reaches the runway, it must make a full

turn in order

to face the direction of takeoff. This turn is navigated slowly by the

aircraft. After the turn has been completed, the airplane receives a

signal from the

tower and begins to accelerate rapidly for takeoff. When the craft has

reached sufficient velocity, it leaves the ground. Swami's mission has

made this

turn to face the runway. The 70th birthday was the signal from the

tower to accelerate. In the 75th birthday, the airplane will leave the

ground. " (Sri

Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA, Winter 1996-1997, 31, 2, 29.) My thanks to

Bon Giovanni for finding this quote for me.

 

 

 

Chapter One. Setting Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Bhagavan, I've come to You again with questions from Your devotees

in Northern California. This time, some of our questions come from Sai

youth. This is a unique opportunity for them and I know they'll be

most grateful for Your answers. We've chosen a theme for our

questions. This being

the Year of Truth, we'd like to explore Atmavichara, or enquiry into

the Truth of the Self. With Your leave, Swami, I shall ask our first

question --

What is the goal of life?

 

 

Sai: The realisation of God is the goal and destiny of human life. (1)

The same basic entity exists in all beings. It is called Atma. It is

also called

Brahman. Another name for it is Hridaya (the spiritual heart). It is

also called Aham (I). All these different names refer only to the

Atma. (2) The holy

duty of man is to be ever aware of the Atma [or Self] that is

installed in every living being. (3) Whatever one learns or does not

learn, one must, after

being born as man, learn about the Atma, for that alone can confer

Bliss and Immortality. (4)

 

 

Without the individual realising his true nature, all other

accomplishments are of no avail. Man is exploring the most distant

regions of space, but is not

moving even an inch towards understanding his heart. He must turn the

mind inwards. Turning the mind towards the external world can only

breed

sorrow. Enduring bliss can be got only by directing the mind towards

God. That is the real sadhana. (5)

 

 

Q: What exactly is the Self or Atma?

 

 

Sai: Atma is Chith and all else is jada. Atma alone can know, nothing

else is capable of knowing; and Atma knows that all else is Atma. ...

The Atma in

man knows even the inert that is of the senses. (6)

 

 

The Atma is not subject to material or worldly limitations or laws. By

Its very nature, It is free; It is Unbounded; It is Purity; It is

Holiness; It is

Fullness. But, since It is associated with material, inert bodies, It

imagines that It is also a product of material composition. This is

the wonder, the

mystery, the miracle that It manifests! To unravel this mystery, and

explain this miracle are beyond the capacity of any one. (7)

 

 

You have to go back to the source from which you came. You have come

from the Atma and you have to return to the Atma. (8) It is a waste to

have

come into this world if it is not known wherefrom you came and whereto

you go. The letter will go to the dead letter office! The Jivi will be

caught in

the cycle of birth and death and can never find itself. (9)

 

 

Q: I seem to have two " I's " -- a self or surface identification and a

Self or deep identity. Can you explain these two " I's " to me, Lord?

 

 

Sai: There are two " I's " in everyone: the " I " that is associated with

the mind and the " I " associated with the Atma. Consciousness of the

Atma is the real

" I. " When this " I " is wrongly associated with the mind, it becomes

Ahamkara (the Ego). When the " I " associated with the Atma experiences

Atmic

bliss, it realises that the universal consciousness is One, though it

may be called by different names. When you eliminate the Anatma bhava

in you (that

is, the body consciousness), you will have the Atma-bhava, the

consciousness of the Universal within you. (10)

 

 

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. (11)

 

 

Q: I have difficulty grappling with something which seems abstract to

me. Doubts arise.

 

 

Sai: If you have doubts regarding the Atma, it is because you have no

steadfast love for the Divine. To develop firm love for anything, you

have to get

the conviction that " it is mine. " Unless you acquire such a conviction

regarding the Atma, you cannot become a Sthithaprajna (a man of

steadfast

wisdom). You will not achieve real bliss. You cannot reach the

permanent state of Self-realisation. (12)

 

 

Q: The Sthithaprajna becomes a Jivanmuktha, does he not, Lord? Please

describe the accomplishment of the Jivanmuktha to me.

 

 

Sai: The Jivanmuktha [one who is liberated while yet alive] is

established firmly in the knowledge of the Atma. He has achieved it by

dwelling on the

Mithya [mixture of truth and falsity] of the world and contemplating

its failings and faults. By this means, he has developed an insight

into the nature

of pleasure and pain and equanimity in both. He knows that wealth,

worldly joy and pleasure are all worthless and even poisonous. He

takes praise,

blame and even blows with a calm assurance, unaffected by both honour

and dishonour. Of course, the Jivanmuktha reached that stage only

after long

years of systematic discipline and unflagging zeal when distress and

doubt assailed him. Defeat only made him more rigorous in

self-examination and

more earnest about following the prescribed discipline. The

Jivanmuktha has no trace of the 'will to live': he is ever ready to

drop into the lap of Death.

(13) The great souls who have won this Atmajnana deserve worship. They

are holy; for they have attained Brahman. (14)

 

 

Q: What constitutes this Atmajnana or knowledge of the Self?

 

 

Sai: It is the realisation of the unity that underlies the diversity

which constitutes Atmajnana. (15) All the myriad forms you see are

reflections ... of

your own image. You are ignoring the primary form and are concerned

about the images. This is the delusion you are affected with. (16)

When the

individualised Jivi [soul] 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.

(17) In truth the other is you yourself. Awareness of this Truth is

Liberation, Moksha. (18)

 

 

Q: Atmajnana seems to go by so many names -- Brahmajnana, Moksha,

Nirvikalpa Samadhi. What is their relationship?

 

 

Sai: Liberation from the tentacles of the mind can be got by the

acquisition of Brahmajnana, the knowledge of the Absolute. This type

of liberation is

the genuine Swarajya, self-rule. This is the genuine Moksha

[Liberation]. Whoever grasps the reality behind all this passing show,

he will be

untroubled by instinct or impulse or any other urge; he will be the

master of the real wisdom. (19)

 

Moksha is only another word for independence, not depending on any

outside thing or person. (20) [brahman] is the Kingdom they seek, the

honour

they aspire [to]. This is the great mystery, the mystery elucidated in

the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Sastras. The solving of this mystery

makes life

worthwhile; it is the key to liberation. (21)

 

 

The mind has to be caged in the cave of the heart. The final result of

this discipline is no less than Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the Equanimity

that is

undisturbed. (22) [Nirvikalpa] Samadhi is ... Brahmajnana..., the

Jnana that grants release or Moksha. (23) Nirvikalpa Samadhi gives

full knowledge of

Brahman, and that, in turn, results in Moksha or Liberation from Birth

and Death. (24) [To attain] this, Atmavichara, and for the successful

arrival at

the correct answers, Sadhana are essential. The answers must become

part of your experience. (25)

 

 

Q: Lord, how am I to reconcile knowledge of the Atma with the love of

God? I am of both dispositions and I fear giving up one or the other

will cause

me sorrow.

 

 

Sai: The Atma is the one and only Loved One for man. Feel that it is

more lovable than any object here or hereafter -- that is the true

adoration man

can offer to God. (26) [The Atma] can be known only through Love; all

claims to the contrary are spurious and missing the mark. (27)

Whatever you do,

eating or walking or seeing or speaking, do it with the Atmic

consciousness. (28) Love is the spontaneous nature of those who are

ever in the awareness

of the Atma. (29) Love Him, adore Him, worship Him - say the Vedas.

This is the grand philosophy of Love as elaborated in the Vedas. (30)

 

 

Q: Lord, what is meant by the enduring bliss of the Atma or

Atmananda?

 

 

Sai: What is meant by Atmananda or bliss of the Atma? Man thinks that

he is enjoying himself when he has all physical and bodily comforts to

the

fullest extent. Actually, physical bliss is very, very small. ...

There are several types of bliss far above [ it.] The highest of these

is the bliss of the Atma,

which is one hundred times to the power of seven (1,000,000,000,000)

or one trillion [times more powerful than physical bliss]. Once you

have

experienced this Atmic bliss, how can you remember anything else? We

forget everything else, and we merge and immerse ourselves in the

bliss of the

Atma. There is no place in the world that is not filled with this

bliss. Every object in the world contains this innate bliss. (31)

 

 

Q: What is our greatest defect today as aspirants after this

Atmajnana?

 

 

Sai: The greatest defect today is the absence of Atmavichara, the

enquiry into the nature of the Atma. That is the cause of all this

Asanthi; if you are

eager to know the truth about yourself, then even if you do not

believe in God, you will not go astray. The pots are all of mud, the

ornaments are all of

gold, the clothes all of yarn. There is unity where one saw only

diversity; the basic substance is one and indivisible. That is

Brahman, that is the Atma,

which is your own basic substance too. (32)

 

 

People have love for their parents, wife, children and other kinsfolk

because of the relationships. But these relationships are essentially

impermanent. In

cultivating these ephemeral attachments, men are failing to love the

Atma. (33)

 

 

Q: For the follower of Atmavichara, Lord, how is it best to conceive

of God?

 

 

Sai: The Lord is ... everywhere, in everyone, at all times. (34) [He]

has no birth or death. (35) It is only Prakrithi [Nature] that

undergoes all these

modifications or at least gives the impression that it is so modified.

The Purusha [the Supreme Being] is ... the Ever-inactive, the

Modification-less.

(36) He is capable of everything; He is the Universal Witness; there

is nothing He does not know. (37) [He is] enthroned in every heart as

the Highest

Wisdom, the Prajnana, the Eternal Witness. (38)

 

 

In the Vedas, Divinity is compared to a flash of lightning amidst the

blue clouds. (39) [Divinity,] the individual life-force, or

jivathathwam resides like

a lightning flash in the womb of a blue cloud between the ninth and

the twelfth rings of the spinal column. (40) It is present as a 'line'

in the

'Sushumna Nadi'. (41) It will be alert and awake only when sadhana of

any type is done after the cleansing of character and habits. (42) The

Immortal

in [man] is awaiting discovery to confer bliss and liberation from

birth and death. (43) You can contact [Him] easily, in the depths of

Dhyana

[meditation]. (44) A single gasp, a tiny gesture, an anguished cry ...

is enough to win [His] answer. (45)

 

 

Q: Is God found only in the heart, Lord?

 

 

Sai: God [permeates] every cell of his body. But if you cut a person

to pieces, you cannot find Him in the different parts. You will only

find flesh,

bones, blood, etc. (46) Proper methods must be adopted by man to

discover the Divinity within him. It is because people do not make

efforts in the

proper way that we have at present confusion, chaos and discontent

everywhere. (47)

 

 

Q: Please tell me the proper methods to know the latent Reality within

me, to develop wisdom.

 

 

Sai: Wisdom emerges from inner inquiry. It is the spiritual practice

of looking deeply into the essential nature of everything. If you

faithfully pursue

this inquiry, you will gradually reach the supreme state of peace and

bliss. (48) As fog before the Sun, Ignorance melts away before [this]

Knowledge.

(49) All that we see is a mirage, the superimposition of something

over the Real and the mistaking of that for this. ... When all is

subsumed by

involution, or Pralaya, only ... the Causal Substance endures. Only

the unmanifested Cause survives the universal dissolution [of

Brahmajnana]. (50)

Your duty is to deny this veil and let [the] Sun of Awareness shine

forth and illumine your thoughts, words and deeds. (51)

 

 

Q: What must I keep uppermost in my mind about God if I'm successfully

to know Him?

 

 

Sai: First be fixed in the consciousness that your self is the

immortal Atma, which is indestructible, which is holy, pure and

divine. (52) You are the

Pure Essence Itself; you are the Supreme Self. (53) Some people resort

to meditation in the belief that there is some power greater than

themselves

which they must experience. People also undertake arduous exercises to

realise some secret, mysterious and marvellous power other than

themselves.

This action is born of ignorance. As long as you think that there is

something higher than yourself, you are steeped in ignorance. There is

nothing higher

in the world than yourself. (54) Only when one enquires within [has

one] the chance of realising [this] Divinity. (55) Once [man] has

discovered who he

is, there is no need to know who is God, for both are the same. (56)

 

 

Q: Under what circumstances will my Self-enquiry bear fruit, Lord?

 

 

Sai: [Your] sadhana must be done in a disciplined systematic manner,

in an atmosphere of virtue. (57) Knowledge is acquired by

uninterrupted enquiry.

(58) [it] must be without break. (59) Be ever and always immersed in

the search for Truth; do not waste time in the multiplication and

satisfaction of

wants and desires. (60)

 

 

Man spends his childhood in pranks and play, his boyhood in sport and

games, his youth in pleasure and pastimes, his middle age in plans and

schemes

to pile up a fortune, and his old age in hospitals and nursing homes

trying to bolster up failing health by means of failing wealth. He has

no time for

anything else, his hands are too full. Earning and spending, he fills

his time with work and worry. He has no peace, no spare time for

sitting quiet in one

place.

 

 

All appeals to him to pay attention to his essential needs for light

and joy are in vain. Of what avail is illumination for a blind man? Of

what avail is

good counsel for the man who has closed his ears for things that

really matter? Man is busy with a number of attempts to earn

happiness, but success is

small and short-lived. He does not know the panacea for all his ills,

the effort that will result in total victory: the control of mind,

which is the master

of the senses. Every sense is an outlet for the energy of man in a

direction that binds him to the objective world. The senses are

induced by the mind to

move out and attach themselves to objects. Man must make the mind

submit to Viveka or Intelligence which discriminates, and then the

mind will help

him instead of harming him. (61)

 

 

Q: Does worldly knowledge make a significant contribution to my growth

and unfoldment?

 

 

Sai: Worldly knowledge can bring you fame and prosperity. But only

Atmajnana can confer the peace that passeth understanding. (62) Of all

categories

of knowledge, the highest is the knowledge of the Self (Atmajnana).

(63) Atmajnana is that which reveals the unity in multiplicity, the

eternal in the

perishable. One who has attained Atmajnana is all-knowing. ... When

communion with the Divine, who is the source of all knowledge, is

established,

one has access to every kind of knowledge. Hence each one should

strive to attain Self-realisation through purity of mind and heart.

(64)

 

 

Q: What if, during this process, I become immersed in thoughts of

Thee, O Lord, and lose my desire and ability to look after myself? Who

will see to

my well-being then?

 

 

Sai: I have to bear the ... burden of welfare of those who are

immersed in thoughts of Me alone. (65)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 SS, 30, May 1987, 126.

 

2 DIS, III, 256.

 

3 SSS, X, 65.

 

4 SSS, X, 184.

 

5 DIS, III, 258.

 

6 JV, 57.

 

7 SSV, 22.

 

8 SS, 39, October 1996, 255.

 

9 SSS, I, 155.

 

10 DIS, III, 257.

 

11 SSV, 9-10.

 

12 DIS, III, 257.

 

13 JV, 7.

 

14 JV, 47.

 

15 DIS, I, 131.

 

16 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234.

 

17 SSV, 8-9.

 

18 SSS, X, 235.

 

19 JV, 13.

 

20 JV, 6.

 

21 JV, 47.

 

22 JV, 45.

 

23 Loc. cit.

 

24 JV 10.

 

25 SSS, I, 155.

 

26 SSV, 4.

 

27 SSS, X, 119.

 

28 DIS, III, 257.

 

29 SSV, 9.

 

30 SSV, 4.)

 

31 YOA, 15.

 

32 SSS, I, 79.

 

33 DIS, III, 257.

 

34 GDOE, 67.

 

35 SS, 36, Nov. 1993, 297.

 

36 JV, 26.

 

37 DV, 61.

 

38 SSS, V, 7.

 

39 SHWR, 1979, 22.

 

40 SSS, X, 117.

 

41 SHWR, 1979, 22.

 

42 SSS, X, 117.

 

43 SSS, V, 7.

 

44 SSS, IX, 97.

 

45 SSS, V, 11.

 

46 SSS, XI, 45.

 

47 Loc. cit.

 

48 SBG, 25.

 

49 JV, 1.

 

50 JV, 2.

 

51 SSS, X, 150.

 

52 SSS, I, 40.

 

53 JV, 41.

 

54 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 235.

 

55 SS, 36, Nov. 1993, 296.

 

56 SSS, VI, 3.

 

57 SSS, I, 155.

 

58 JV, 1.

 

59 UV, 81.

 

60 JV, 11.

 

61 SSS, V, 75.

 

62 DIS, I, 128.

 

63 Loc. cit.

 

64 DIS, I, 128.

 

65 SSS, VI, 273.

 

 

Chapter Two. Illusion and Discrimination

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Lord, this morning I beg Your answer to questions on illusion and

discrimination as a prelude to examining the Self and Self-enquiry.

Let me begin

with a question from a young student on the subject: Bhagavan, what is

ignorance and what is illusion?

 

 

Sai: Ignorance is just a mistake, mistaken identity of the body as the

Self! (1) Illusion refers to that which does not exist. When you are

under the spell

of illusion you imagine that which does not really exist to exist. And

you imagine that which really exists to not exist. What never changes

really exists

and is true. What changes does not really exist and is not true. The

one thing which always exists, which is true and unchanging is God,

the one without

a second. (2) Your mission is to drive out ignorance [and illusion]

and keep [them] far away. (3) The ever-moving waves of the lake have

to be stilled

so that you can see the bottom clearly. So too the waves of ignorance

that ruffle the mind have to be stilled. (4)

 

 

Q: What happens to us when we are under the spell of ignorance and

illusion?

 

 

Sai: When you are under the spell of illusion, you see the world as

separate from God. (5) You see Paramatma in this form of Prakrithi,

and take it to

be mere Prapancha, or the world, and you are afraid. (6) You do not

see the divinity as the principle underlying everything in the world

and, as a result,

you ... find it impossible to surrender yourself completely. (7)

 

[under the spell of ignorance, you labour under] the delusion that

some people are nearer to [you] than others and the desire to please

them more than

others, leading to exertions for earning and accumulating for their

sake. (8) It is on account of [ these delusions] that you have become

a victim of ...

varieties of weakness and you are declining through doubt and

illusion. If you see [things] right, the delusion will vanish; the

fear will disappear; the

faith that it is Paramatma [that underlies the world] will be firmly

and boldly established in you. To get that firmness, the lamp of

Viveka is necessary.

(9)

 

 

Q: Another student asks that you explain the meaning of Viveka or

discrimination, Lord.

 

 

Sai: The secret of a happy life [is] the discrimination between the

real and the unreal -- which is the genuine training you need. ... The

cultivation of

Viveka is the chief aim of education. (10) It is Maya that produces

the illusion of Jiva and Easwara and Jagath. (11) The ignorance which

prevents and

postpones the enquiry into the nature of the Atma makes Maya flourish.

Maya fostered by this attitude becomes as thick as darkness. (12) The

Jnana

won by the analysis of the mental process can alone end Maya. Maya

flourishes on ignorance and absence of discrimination. So Vidya spells

the doom

of Maya. (13) When the flame of Jnana illumines, the darkness is

dispelled along with the illusion of Jivi, Jagath and Easwara. (14)

 

 

Q: What is Maya's effect, Lord?

 

 

Sai: From the subtle inner unconscious and sub-conscious to the gross

outer physical body, everything is due to Maya or the power of

super-imposition

of the Particular over the Universal. That is the reason why these are

referred to as An-atma, Non-Atma. They are like the mirage, which

superimposes water over desert sand. (15)

 

 

Brahman alone is, was and will be. The conviction that this Jagath is

but a superimposition is the real Vidya. This Vidya is the end of all

ignorance.

(16) Whatever becomes meaningless, valueless, untrue, baseless and

existenceless when knowledge grows, that you can take to be Maya's

manifestation.

(17) It can be destroyed only by the vision of Brahman or Atma. (18)

 

 

Q: Doesn't Maya play the chief role in giving rise to this Vidya?

 

 

Sai: The experience of Maya ... gives rise to Jnana, or the 'revealing

wisdom'. The child Vidya kills the mother as soon as it is born. The

child was

delivered for the very purpose of matricide, and its first task is

naturally the cremation of the dead mother. (19) Another interesting

point is this: it may

be argued that, since Maya produces Vidya, Maya is right and proper

and deserving of respect; but the Vidya that arises out of it is also

not permanent.

As soon as Avidya is destroyed through Vidya, the Vidya too ends. The

tree and the fire, both are destroyed when the fire finishes its work.

(20)

 

 

Q: How does Maya produce the illusion of the individual and the world

separate from God?

 

 

Sai: Maya, by means of its power of hiding the real nature and

imposing the unreal over the real, makes the one and only Brahman

appear as Jiva,

Easwara and Jagath, three entities where there is only one! (21) Only

the ignorant will stick to Maya as Truth; the wise will at best

designate it as

" Indescribable " or " Beyond explanation " , for it is difficult to

explain how Maya originated. We know only that it is there, to delude.

(22)

 

 

Philosophers of all lands and all times have sought to discover the

truth about God, the objective world and man, as well as their mutual

relationship.

Maya is the will that causes all three. It is a clear, flawless

mirror. When the Sathwic nature is reflected in that mirror, God

results; when the Rajasic

nature is reflected, the jiva or individualised self results. It is

ever-anxious to grow, to garb, to survive and to be secure. When

Thamasic nature is

reflected, matter (the objective world) is the result. All three are

Paramatma, but they derive their Reality as Its reflections. When

undergoing

reflection, they attain different forms and combinations of

characteristics. The One becomes many; every one of the many is Real

only because of the

One in it. Maya too is a component of the One; by the emphasis on that

component, the One transformed Itself into the many. (23)

 

 

The world is [therefore] an illusion, which on account of the play of

Maya seems to be subject to the evolution of names and forms and

involution of

the same until the whole is dissolved in Pralaya or Universal Fire, an

Illusion disappearing with the Illumination of Jnana, as Light dispels

the delusion

of the snake with which the rope was covered! Then the knowledge that

the Atma is All fills and fulfils; one is Atma through and through!

(24)

 

 

Q: How can we judge the knowledge we arrive at through the use of

discrimination?

 

 

Sai: All knowledge that is limited by the three Gunas is Ajnana, not

the Jnana of the Transcendental, which is above and beyond the

Thamasic, Rajasic

and even the Sathwic motives, impulses and qualities. How can such

limited knowledge be Jnana? Knowledge of the Transcendental has to be

transcendental too, in an equal measure and to the same degree. (25)

 

 

Q: Is discerning the real from the unreal the only role discrimination

plays?

 

 

Sai: Discrimination will [also] reveal the dangers lurking in becoming

a bond-slave of the senses. (26) Man is endowed with the

discriminating power

to control his desires. This power must be used to decide whether any

action is right or wrong. (27)

 

 

Q: Lord, a student asks, has any other living being the power of

discrimination?

 

 

Sai: No other living being has been endowed with intelligence and [a]

discriminative faculty, heightened to this degree, in order to enable

it to visualise

the Atma. This is the reason why man is acclaimed as the crown of

creation, and why the Sastras proclaim that the chance of being born

as man is a

very rare piece of good fortune. Man has the qualifications needed to

seek the cause of Creation; he has in him the urge and the capacity.

(28)

 

 

Q: Why is discrimination often compared to a pearl, Lord?

 

 

Sai: The pearl is won by diving into the depths of the sea so it

symbolises the Viveka ... that is won after diving into the secrets of

the objective world.

(29)

 

 

Q: Lord, so often I see only darkness in me. Am I therefore weak and

ignorant?

 

 

Sai: How can there be any spiritual light until the inside is clean?

And inside work is quiet enquiry and discrimination. (30) Cleanse your

mind of the

temptations and tenets of ignorance; make it free from dust so that

God may be reflected therein. (31) Do not call yourself a Deena (weak

person); how

can you be a Deena when you are endowed with Dhee? (Dhee indicates

Intelligence, Discrimination.) With this Dhee as support, start your

sadhana,

without wasting precious time in wails. That is the highest duty you

owe to yourselves. (32)

 

 

Q: Thank you for correcting my error, Lord.

 

 

Sai: Recognising one's error is the first excellence of a good

disciple; it is the beginning of wisdom. Only the foolish will feel

they know all and suffer

from the dire disease of a swelled head. (33) Wisdom can grow only

where humility prevails. It thrives when man is afraid of vice and

sin, and is

attached to the Divine in himself and in all else. The crisis of

character which is at the root of all the troubles everywhere has come

about as a result of

the neglect of this. (34)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 SSS, I, 29.

 

2 SBG, 28.

 

3 EVJC, 73.

 

4 JV, 40.

 

5 SBG, 28.

 

6 SN, 51.

 

7 SBG, 28.

 

8 PRV, 25.

 

9 SN, 51-2.

 

10 SSS, XI, 145.

 

11 JV, 48.

 

12 JV, 50.

 

13 JV, 49.

 

14 JV, 50.

 

15 JV, 16.

 

16 JV, 50.

 

17 JV, 52.

 

18 JV, 16.

 

19 JV, 51.

 

20 JV, 52.

 

21 JV, 48.

 

22 JV, 51.

 

23 SSS, X, 242-3.

 

24 JV, 55-6.

 

25 JV, 28-9.

 

26 SSS, V, 9.

 

27 SS, 36, Dec. 1993, 314.

 

28 SSV, 1.

 

29 SSS, X, 146.

 

30 CSSB, 34.

 

31 SSS, V, 4.

 

32 SSS, VI, 26.

 

33 GV, 17.

 

34 SSS, X, 3.

 

 

Chapter Three. The Self

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Lord, let us now examine this knowledge that Viveka or

discrimination brings. I have brought several questions from our youth

this morning

relating to the general topic of the Self. I'm eager to hear Your

answers. Here is the first one: Bhagavan, what must I know to be

forever happy?

 

 

Sai: The Vedanta declares that he who knows himself knows all. (1) You

must get convinced that 'you' are but the shadow of the Paramatma and

you

are essentially not this 'you' but Paramatma itself. That is the

remedy for sorrow, travail and pain. (2) Man is wilfully unaware of

the activities that

will lighten the burden of his life and also illumine the Atma [self].

(3.)

 

 

Q: Another question from our youth: Am I a clever machine designed by

God?

 

 

Sai: [You are] not a machine, contrived by a clever combination of

legs and hands, head and heart, mind and matter. (4) You are not the

body, senses,

mind, intelligence, etc., with which you now identify yourselves. (5)

In these and over these, there is an immanent yet transcendent Entity

which is

called the Atma, the Overself. (6) You are That; you are a Spark of

the Divine. You are God, only caught in deluding yourselves that you

are bound by

this body. (7)

 

 

The Vedas and the Upanishads originated to satisfy the need of man to

become aware of this mysterious Entity. (8) [They] remind man that the

non-physical Atma is in the physical 'him', that the embodiment of

Truth is the Supreme Atma, the Paramatma. (9)

 

 

Q: Where in the Vedas is Atmavichara best elucidated?

 

 

Sai: Atmavichara is best found in the Upanishads. Just as a river's

flow is regulated by bunds and the flood waters are directed to the

sea, so too the

Upanishads regulate and restrict the senses, the mind and the

intellect and help one to reach the sea and merge individually in the

Absolute. (10)

 

 

Non-dualism is the means to experience Bliss (Ananda). ... Vedanta has

declared that the elimination of the ego ( " I " and " mine " ) alone can

lead to

Realisation. The " I " has to be rooted out. As long as you adhere to

the " I " , you are bound to the phenomenal world. You cannot attain the

Higher

Knowledge. (11)

 

 

" Tat-Twam-Asi " ( " That thou art " ). What art thou? Unless you know what

" That " is, you cannot understand the real meaning of this Upanishadic

declaration. (12) That alone is real and permanent; the rest is all

transitory, evanescent. (13) Study the Upanishads with a view to

[acting] accordingly,

to [putting] the advice into practice. (14)

 

 

Vedanta has shown how by a process of elimination -- " Not this " (Neti)

-- you arrive at what remains, namely, the Atma. When you find out

that

what you call the " I " is different from what you describe as your

body, mind, etc., what remains is the " I, " which is the Self. You have

to strive to

recognize the Atma Principle in you. This is the message of Vedanta.

(15)

 

 

Q: Another youth asks: It is so hard to know myself. I seem to change

a lot. Everyone has a different opinion. I want to know from You,

Swami: Who

am I?

 

 

Sai: You are not one person but three -- the one you think you are,

the one others think you are, and the one you really are. You think of

yourself as

your body and its sense cravings, others think of you as a

personality. You are truly Infinite Spirit Divine. (16) All the myriad

forms you see are

reflections in a mirror of your own image. You are ignoring the

primary form and are concerned about the images. This is the delusion

you are affected

with. (17)

 

 

The husband loves his wife for the sake of the 'I' and the wife adores

her husband for pleasing her 'I'. And who is this 'I' that is

persistently inherent in

everyone? It is God Himself. ... He is the Atma is every being. ...

You, in your ignorance have hidden It under the twin sheaths of mind

and body, and

you believe that the mind and body are the real 'you'. ... You think

you are the body, others think you are the mind, while you really are

the Spirit or

Atma. (18) [The Atma] is our true nature. (19)

 

 

Man is Atma, lives as Atma and merges in Atma. Anything conceived

besides Atma is false. The fear and anxiety, the grief and pain, the

defeat and

distress of man's earthly existence -- these are the result of his

identification with falsehood. (20) The ultimate goal is the

uncovering of Truth. (21)

 

 

Q: Swami, the Atma or Self is the object of Atmavichara. Please say

more about It.

 

 

Sai: The Atma ... illumines all, but man is in the dark about its

existence. (22) The Atma principle ... is all-embracing,

all-revealing, all-explaining

and all-powerful. (23) All that you see in the cosmos -- the moving

and stationary objects -- is a manifestation of the Atma. In the

spiritual realm,

what you hear at every step is the Atma. What you see is Atma. ...

What makes you forget is also Atma. (24)

 

 

The Atma ... shines with its own splendour; it is the witness of the

activities and consequences of the three Gunas; It is immovable, ...

holy and pure, ...

eternal, ... indivisible, [and] self-manifested; It is Peace; It has

no end; It is wisdom itself. [Out of Self-enquiry] such an Atma has to

be cognised as

Oneself! (25) Know the Atma which is your Reality; know that it is the

.... Inner Force of this Universe. (26)

 

 

Q: What is the difference between God and the Self, or Brahman and

Atma?

 

 

Sai: Brahman and Atma are the same. (27) Brahman [is] the Atma

Principle in its universal aspect. (28) Brahman refers to the

Universal Consciousness

that is present in all beings. The consciousness that is present in

the body is called Atma. It is called Conscience. The difference

between the Conscience

and the Universal Consciousness should be noted. Conscience is a

reflection of the Consciousness. When the Conscience (or Atma)

ultimately leaves

the body, it merges in the Universal Consciousness and becomes one

with it. This process may be likened to the oneness that occurs when

the air within

a balloon joins the atmospheric air outside. This is the process of

the many merging with the One. The individual self is the Bhutatman.

The Universal

self is the Paramatma. The individual self confined within a body is

like the air confined within a balloon. When the individual self sheds

its

attachments relating to the body and develops universal love, it

overcomes the confines of the body. It merges in the vast, infinite

Love. This merger is

described as Mukthi, Moksha or Liberation. The correct name for this

consummation is " Sayujam " (oneness with the Universal). It is

comparable to the

merger of a river in the ocean from which it had its origin. (29)

 

 

Q: That is God and the Self, Lord. What about the individual and the

Self?

 

 

Sai: Atma, individualised or universalised, is One only. The Jivatman

and the Paramatma are one and indivisible. (30)

 

Q: Now another question from our youth, Lord -- God is there, as You

are. I am here. How then can I know God by knowing myself?

 

 

Sai: The Divine is not somewhere outside. He is within you. (31) You

can know yourself [only] by developing inner vision rather than

outward vision.

(32) The attention has to be fixed on God, the God within. (33)

Imagining that Bliss is available in the outer world, men stray away

from the inner path

and are caught up in misery. They seek it in the family -- the wife

and children -- and to keep up a standard of living for them, take to

evil ways. The

fundamental flaw is their belief that the body is the be-all and the

end-all of existence. They ignore the Indweller, who has to be

recognised, revered

and responded to. (34)

 

 

Q: Another youth asks -- Lord, does the Atma grow, develop, or

change?

 

Sai: In the universal, eternal sea of change, the Atma alone is above

change. (35) The Atma is ... devoid of agitation or activity. (36) The

objective

world is ever changeful; it is fitful and flickering, but the Atma is

eternal, adamant, unaffected by time, space and causation, which are

only

modifications it is supposed to undergo! (37) The attachment to the

Atma will not undergo any modifications; even when the senses and the

body fall,

the Atma will remain and infuse bliss. It is unlimited and

indestructible. (38) [Therefore] we should cultivate Abhimana

(attachment) towards the

Atma and not our bodies. (39)

 

 

Q: Has It gender?

 

Sai: [Gender is a] distinction based on the Upadhi, the mask, the

Limitation. The Atma is neither masculine, nor feminine, nor neuter;

it is the form that

limits and deludes and that wears these names. (40)

 

 

Q: Has It form of any kind?

 

 

Sai: The Atma ... has no form. It is capable of assuming the form of

the container which it fills. (41) The physical eye cannot see [it];

the other senses

too cannot comprehend It; It is beyond the realm of the " Seen. " All

that is sensed, all that is comprehensible by the five senses, is " the

Universe " , the

Jagath (ever-moving, ever-changing Cosmos). The " seen " exists on the

basis of the " unseen " ; " the tree " is seen but the root that sustains

it and bears it,

is invisible. (42)

 

 

When space is enclosed in a pot, it appears limited and small. But

once released from the container or upadhi, it again merges in the

infinite sky. The

sky is not reduced or transformed in shape or quality by being held in

the upadhi. So too the One Atma that is pervading the bodies and lives

of billions

of beings does not get affected by the upadhis [containers] to which

it adheres for some time. (43)

 

 

Q: Why does the Self assume a form or body?

 

 

Sai: The Spirit or Atma takes on a form and body to experience and

cognise the Jagath or universe, just as cotton takes on the form of

yarn to be

cognised and experienced as cloth. The cloth is both, the yarn and the

cotton. Cotton is the fundamental base, the Atma. It assumes name and

form and

becomes yarn (the body), and is finally known as cloth (the Jagath),

the product of the thoughts emanating from the body. (44)

 

 

Q: If the Self assumes a body, what is Its relationship to the body It

assumes?

 

 

Sai: The Atma enters the body as the Inner Motivator and awakens the

thoughts and feelings. In the absence of the Atma, the body is inert;

in the

absence of the body, thoughts do not arise and in the absence of

thought, the universe is not apparent; it is non-existent to the

individual. The three are

inextricably interdependent -- the body (with all the powers of

consciousness enclosed in it), the universe, and the Atma, either

individualised or

universally immanent. (45) The Atma has no bounds. Its centre is in

the body, but its circumference is nowhere. Death means the Atma has

shifted

from one body to another. (46)

 

 

Q: We say that this Supreme Self somehow resides in man. Where can the

Self be said to reside?

 

 

Sai: In the heart and centre of every Jivi, Paramatma exists, minuter

than the minutest molecule, larger than the largest conceivable

object. (47) We do

not keep gold, jewels and valuables in the verandahs and quadrangles

of our homes. We keep only pots and baskets there. We keep the jewels

in an iron

safe in an inner room, away from public gaze. ... In the box called

the body is treasured the Atma. (48)

 

 

Q: Which heart does Paramatma reside in, Lord -- the physical heart,

the heart chakra, or the Hridayam?

 

 

Sai: Heart here does not refer to the physical heart. " Heart " is not

related to any particular place, time or individual or country.

" Hridayam " (heart)

refers to that Divine principle which is equally present everywhere,

at all times and in all people in every country. This heart has no

form. What is

regarded as heart in a human body is a transient thing. (49) [The real

heart] is the Atma. It is Brahman. (50) To perceive [it], you have to

turn your

enquiry inwards. (51)

 

 

Q: If the Self is blissful and It alone is real, how can objects be

appealing?

 

 

Sai: What the Atma does is to superimpose upon the external,

evanescent object its inherent bliss and thus envelop that object with

a certain

attractiveness. (52) Objects are taken to be pleasure giving, but they

are not really so; they only add to the grief. It is ever changing,

this affection

towards things seen through the deluded eye; it is limited, not

unlimited. (53)

 

 

Q: Can there be anyone who is not attached to the Self?

 

 

Sai: Every one [is attached] to the Self, or Atma. (54) The Atma is in

the ant and the elephant, in the atom as well as the atmosphere. (55)

The Atmic

principle ... is the One that pervades the entire Cosmos. It is the

universal consciousness. It is impossible for it to be present in some

and not in others.

(56)

 

 

Q: So all of Prakrithi (Nature) is Atma (Self).

 

 

Sai: The whole world is enveloped and sustained by this subtle Atma.

(57) The Atma is the basis of the outer world and the world within.

(58) [it] is the

substance of all the objective world, the basic Reality behind all

this appearance. (59) Atma is the ocean, Prakrithi is just a wave of

that vast, ageless,

boundless ocean and the Jivi is just a drop of that wave. You cannot

give up the wave or the sea. You can only merge, leaving name and form

of the

drop. Once you enter the depths of the sea, it is all calm, it is all

peace; agitation, noise, confusion -- all are only on the outer layer.

So also in the

innermost recesses of the heart, there is a reservoir of santhi, where

you must take refuge. (60)

 

 

How can it be said that there is nothing outside the Atma? For this

reason: the Atma is the Cause of all this, and there can be no

distinction between

Cause and Effect. The Cause cannot be without the Effect, and [the]

Effect cannot be without the Cause. ( 61)

 

 

Sai: If you are eager to know the truth about yourself, then even if

you do not believe in God, you will [not] go astray. The pots are all

of mud, the

ornaments are all of gold, the clothes are all of yarn. There is unity

where one saw only diversity; the basic substance is one and

indivisible. That is

Brahman; that is the Atma, which is your own basic substance too. (62)

The attempt in which man is engaged today is to deny the clay and

build faith in

the pot! This process is doomed to fail. The cognisable universe which

is dismissed as untrue must have Truth as its base.... That Basic

Truth is the

Atma. (63)

 

 

Q: Thank You, Lord.

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 SHWR, 1993, 2.

 

2 SSS, I, 23-4.

 

3 SSS, X, 248

 

4 SSS, XI, 21.

 

5 SSS, X, 165.

 

6 SSS, XI, 21.

 

7 SSS, X, 165.

 

8 SSS, XI, 51.

 

9 SSV, 7.

 

10 SSS, I, 32.

 

11 DIS, V, 106.

 

12 SS, 30, Dec. 1987, 320.

 

13 SSV, 7.

 

14 SSS, I, 32.

 

15 DIS, V, 99.

 

16 SSS, XI, 15.

 

17 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234.

 

18 SSS, X, 235-6.

 

19 EVJC, 83.

 

20 SSS, X, 167.

 

21 SSS, X, 168.

 

22 SSS, X, 248.

 

23 SSV, 4.

 

24 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 233.

 

25 JV, 2-3.

 

26 SSS, V, 8.

 

27 SS, 35, April 1992, 64.

 

28 SSS, XI, 51.

 

29 SS, 35, April 1992, 64.

 

30 JV, 242.

 

31 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 228.

 

32 SHWR, 1993, 3.

 

33 SSS, VI, 2.

 

34 SSS, XI, 15.

 

35 SSS, X, 40.

 

36 JV, 54.

 

37 Sathyam, III, 84.

 

38 JV, 56.

 

39 SHWR, 1979, 22.

 

40 PRV, 42.

 

41 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 236.

 

42 SSS, XI, 21.

 

43 SSS, X, 244.

 

44 SSS, X, 264.

 

45 SSS, X, 262.

 

46 SSV, 22.

 

47 JV, 8.

 

48 SSS, XI, 33.

 

49 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 241.

 

50 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 242.

 

51 SSS, XI, 33.

 

52 JV, 56.

 

53 Loc. cit.

 

54 Loc. cit.

 

55 JV, 43.

 

56 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 236.

 

57 JV, 8.

 

58 YOA, 15.

 

59 SSS, I, 67.

 

60 SSS, I, 172.

 

61 JV, 55.

 

62 SSS, I, 32.

 

63 SSS, X, 263.

 

 

Chapter Four. Self-Enquiry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Yesterday, Lord, You said that the we must turn our attention

inward and enquire to know the Atma or Self. You described the object

of enquiry,

the Atma, in much detail. It is now time to look at the method of

enquiry. Bhagavan, what exactly is Atmavichara or Self-enquiry?

 

 

Sai: What exactly is Atmavichara? Not the study of the attributes of

the Atma, as given in books, but the analysis of the nature of the

'I', laying bare the

enveloping sheaths, the Panchakosas, through concentrated

discrimination, directed inward. It is not the Vichara [study] of the

external world or the

outer objective world or the academic scholarship directed towards the

interpretation of texts. It is the analytical perception of the secret

of the Atma,

achieved by the keen edge of intellect. (1)

 

 

The study of the external world [leads] nowhere. [The rishis] diverted

their attention to the internal 'regions' of their consciousness. (2)

The Sadhaka

has to direct his attention away from the external world and become

insighted; he has to turn his vision towards the Atma. He must analyse

the process

of the mind and discover for himself wherefrom all the modifications

and agitations of the mind originate. By this means, every trace of

'intention' and

'will' has to disappear. Afterwards, the only idea that will get fixed

in the mind will be the idea of Brahman. The only feeling which will

occupy the

mind will be the feeling of Bliss, arising out of its establishment in

the Sat-Chith-Ananda stage. (3)

 

 

Q: Lord, what entitles one to embark on Atmavichara?

 

 

Sai: To entitle one for embarking on the enquiry into the Atma, one

must be endowed with the Sadhana Chaithushtaya or the Four

Qualifications.

Scholarship in all the Vedas and Sastras, asceticism, mastery of

ritual, dedication to japa, charity, pilgrimage -- nothing will help

in granting that

authority. ... Equanimity, self-control, withdrawal of the senses,

steadfastness -- these alone confer that title; not caste, colour, or

social status. Be it a

Pandit versed in all the Sastras, a Vidwan or an illiterate, a child

or youth or an old person, a Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha or

Sanyasin, a

Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, or even an outcaste, man or

woman, the Vedas declare: " Everyone is qualified, provided one is

equipped with the

Sadhana Chaithushtaya. " (4)

 

 

By the accumulative fruits of the educative influences and good deeds

in the past births, it is possible to become qualified for Atmavichara

in this birth,

without Sastric study. (5) The merit acquired in past births appears

now as a keen thirst for Liberation, as a sincere endeavour to

approach a guru, as a

determined struggle to succeed in Sadhana, and comes to fruition with

the realisation of the Atma. (6)

 

 

Q: What factor more than any other will bring me success?

 

 

Sai: Success comes to those who have Sraddha [earnest faith] more than

anything else. Without Sraddha, the prompting to translate what has

been read

in the Sastras will be absent and scholarship will hang as a burden on

the brain. (7)

 

 

Q: Lord, please tell me more about the role of Sraddha.

 

 

Sai: Atmajnana can be got only by firm faith. Develop faith in

yourself and faith in God. This is the secret of greatness.

Self-confidence today is

manifest only in matters relating to worldly achievements and

self-centred pursuits. Faith and confidence are not in evidence in the

spiritual field.

Without unwavering faith, the Divine cannot be experienced. (8)

 

 

Q: And the role of the guru and the Sastras or scriptures?

 

 

Sai: Who is the one who enables man to achieve this state of fullness?

.... It is the guru. Guru refers to one who has transcended the gunas

and has no

form. (9) Until one gets firmly fixed in the path that the guru or

Sastra has shown, one has to obey the rules and directions steadfastly

and be in their

company or be associated with them one way or the other. Because one

can progress very fast if one keeps close to the Wise Person who has

realised the

Truth, one must with unrestricted renunciation and sincere earnestness

follow the instructions of the Teacher and of the Sastras; this is the

real Thapas;

this Thapas leads on to the highest stage. (10)

 

 

To know the self, the Sastras are indispensable; having known it, they

are unnecessary. But all that is inferred from the Sastras [is] only

indirect

experiences; direct perception is impossible by any means other than

Sadhana. Direct understanding alone is Jnana. (11)

 

 

When one has the Grace of the Lord, the guru becomes very often

superfluous. He makes everything known. (12) Your true guru is God

alone. He

transcends all gunas. He is beyond all forms. He is the only one who

can dispel the darkness of ignorance and light the lamp of Supreme

Wisdom. ... Do

not go in search of gurus. Strengthen your faith in the Atma. Seek to

enjoy the Atmic bliss. Strive to develop the conviction: " I am the

Atma. " ... When

you have grasped this Truth, all other things are unnecessary. (1 3)

 

 

Q: So many people search for God in the outer world, Lord. Is their

quest fruitless?

 

 

Sai: How can you discover your source or your true Self by searching

for it elsewhere [than within you]? ... When you are yourself the

Atma, if you

pray to someone outside, how can you recognise the Atma? (14)

Oblivious to the presence of this sacred Divine within himself, man

embarks on the

quest for God. He behaves like a man who goes to his neighbour for

milk, forgetting his wish-fulfilling cow in his backyard. (15)

 

 

Anything misplaced in the home must be sought in the home itself; how

can it be recovered by a search in the woods? The Brahman covered by

the five

sheaths must be sought in the five-sheathed body, not in the woods of

Sastric lore. (16) There is no need to seek Truth anywhere else. Seek

it in man

himself: he is the miracle of miracles. Whatever is not in man cannot

be anywhere outside him. What is visible outside him is but a rough

reflection of

what really is in him! (17)

 

 

After long searches here and there, in temples and churches, in earth

and above, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you

started.

You come back to your own soul and find that He, whom you had been

seeking all over the world and for whom you have been weeping and

praying in

churches and temples, and whom you thought was the mysteries, shrouded

in the clouds, is your own self, the reality of your life, body and

soul. (18)

 

 

Q: How then shall I " search " for Him?

 

 

Sai: Search for Him with the heart, not with the eye of externals. The

Super-power has to be sought in the super-state itself, not in the

lower states.

Then if you have the eyes that are fit to see and the wisdom to

understand, you will find Him. (19)

 

 

Develop the Inner Vision.... Do a little Atmavichara, study the

Upanishads and the Sastras: they might help you a little. Remember,

only a little. They

are but maps and signposts. You must put them into practice; act and

experience.

 

 

Meditate on the truth and you will find that you are but a sparkling

bubble upon the waters; born on water, living for a brief moment on

water and

dying upon its breast, merging in it. You owe your birth to God; you

subsist on God; and you merge in God. Every living thing has to reach

that

consummation; why, every non-living thing too. So do it now; take the

first step, purify the heart, sharpen the intellect or at least begin

the recital of

the name of the Lord. That will give you all the rest in due time.

When a man plants a mango seed, he is not sure whether he will live to

eat the fruit;

but that is beside the point. To plant, to nourish, to guard, to grow,

that is his duty; the rest is His look out. (20)

 

 

Q: You've mentioned the gunas, Lord. Can you discuss their impact on

the sadhak please?

 

 

Sai: Only he who is saturated in Sathwa guna can witness the image of

the Atma within. It is when the Sathwic is mixed with the Thamasic and

Rajasic, that it is rendered impure and becomes the cause of Ignorance

and Illusion. This is the reason for the bondage of man. The Rajasic

quality

produces the illusion of something non-existent being existent! It

broadens and deepens the contact of the senses with the external

world. It creates

affection and attachment and so, by means of the dual pulls of

happiness and sorrow (the one to gain, the other, avoid) ... it

plunges man deeper and

deeper into activity. These activities breed the evils of passion,

fury, greed, conceit, hatred, pride, meanness and trickery. And the

Thamasic quality?

Well, it binds the vision, and lowers the intellect, multiplying

sloth, sleep and dullness, leading man along the wrong path, away from

the goal. It will

make even the seen, the 'unseen'! One will fail to benefit even from

one's actual experience, if one is immersed in Thamas. (21)

 

 

Q: Lord, what other obstacles present themselves to the successful

practice of Atmavichara.

 

 

Sai: There are four obstacles to be overcome. (22)

 

 

Q: Would you kindly describe them, Lord?

 

 

Sai: Laya or sleep: when the mind withdraws from the external world,

it enters into deep sleep or Sushupti, on account of the overpowering

influence

of Samsara. The Sadhaka should arrest this tendency and attempt to fix

the mind onto Atmavichara.... He must keep watch over the mind so that

he may

keep awake. He must discover the circumstances that induce the

drowsiness and remove them in time. He must start the process of

Dhyana again and

again. Of course, the usual producer of drowsiness and sleep during

Dhyana is indigestion. Overfeeding, exhaustion through too much of

moving about,

want of sufficient sleep at night, these too cause sleepiness and

drowsiness. (23)

 

 

Vikshepa or waywardness: the mind seeks to run after external objects

and so constant effort is needed to turn inwards, away from the

attraction of

sensory impressions. This has to be done through the rigorous exercise

of the Intellect, of Enquiry. Discriminate and get the conviction

driven into you

that these are evanescent, temporary, transformable, liable to decay,

and, therefore unreal, Mithya not Sathya. Convince yourselves that

what are sought

after as pleasureable and avoided as painful are only the fleeting

products of sensory contacts; train yourselves in this way to avoid

the distractions of

the external world and dive deep into Dhyanam. .... Vikshepa is ...

the urge to run back into the world from one';s shelter [in the Atma].

The removal of

Vikshepa alone will help the concentration of the mind in Dhyanam.

(24)

 

 

Kshaya or decline: The mind is drawn with immense force by all the

unconscious impulses and instincts of passion and attachment towards

the external

world and its multitudinous attractions. It therefore experiences

untold misery and might even get lost in its depths. This is the stage

called Kshaya or

decline.

 

 

The state of inertia into which one is driven by despair cannot be

called Samadhi.... [it] is due to attachment, to the temptations of

the outer world ... the

planning within oneself of various schemes to better oneself in the

future as compared to the past. The basis for both is the attraction

of the outer world.

Attachment brings about desire; desire leads to planning. (25)

 

Rasa-aaswaadana or enjoyment of bliss: When Kshaya and Vikshepa are

overcome, one attains the Savikalpananda, the Bliss of the Highest

Subject-Object Contact. This stage is what is called Rasa-aaswaadanam

or the Enjoyment of Bliss. Even this is not the Highest or Supreme

Bliss,

which one does not attain or acquire, but simply IS, becomes aware of,

so to say. The Rasa, or the sweetness of the Subject-Object Samadhi is

a

temptation one has to avoid for it is only second best. It is enough

joy to act as a handicap. The joy is as great as that of a person who

has just deposited

a huge load he has long been carrying, or as that of a greedy person

who has just killed a serpent guarding a vast treasure he wanted to

grab. The killing

of the serpent is Savikalpa Samadhi, the highest stage. (26)

 

 

Q: Can you summarize all the impurities, the blemishes or black spots

that the sadhak must overcome?

 

 

In man there are sixteen black spots: the six enemies (lust, anger,

greed, infatuation, pride, and envy), the two gunas, Rajas and Tamas,

and the eight

types of conceit (mada) based on lineage and scholarship, wealth,

youth, beauty, position, and penance. It is only when man gets rid of

these sixteen evil

traits that he will be able to realise his oneness with the Divine.

(27)

 

 

Q: Atmavichara strikes me as doing something negative, Lord. My mind

keeps telling me I need to do something positive. Is there merit in

this view?

 

 

Sai: No one need do anything positive to discover the Atma; when the

'cover' of illusion is denied and destroyed, it will reveal itself in

all its glory.

What is needed is the removal of the fog, the cloud, the miasma, and

the casting off of all the clinging curtains that limit the self into

the body and its

adjuncts. (28) Remove the impediment; that is all you have to do.

Shine forth in your real nature and the Lord will draw you into His

Bosom. (29)

 

 

Q: But the sadhanas I do help me calm my mind.

 

 

Sai: What you have to do is to eliminate the thought process of the

mind altogether. Calming the mind is only a palliative. The mind will

get agitated

again. Only those sadhanas which aim at eliminating the mind will be

of use in the Atmic quest. (30) All agitations ... cease the moment

one enters on

the enquiry, " Who am I? " This was the sadhana that Ramana Maharshi

achieved and taught to his disciples. That is also the easiest of all

the disciplines.

(31)

 

 

Q: Is Ramana Maharshi's technique a complete form of Self-enquiry?

 

 

Sai: The Ramana Maharshi enquiry ... must be combined with meditation.

(32)

 

 

Q: I know You've said that all agitations will cease the moment I

begin Self-enquiry, Lord, but, supposing agitations arise? How shall I

still them?

 

 

Sai: As a single soldier in a vantage position can successfully tackle

hundreds of enemy personnel who come in single file through a narrow

gap, one

has to tackle each agitation as and when it emerges in the

Consciousness and overwhelm it. The courage to do this can be got

through the training

derived by practice. (33) The [full and final] ceasing of all Vrittis

or agitations is the sign of the person who really knows the Reality.

(34)

 

 

Q: Is there any preparatory work I must do before entering into

Self-enquiry proper?

 

 

Sai: The first step in the enquiry into the nature of the Atma

(Atmavichara) is the practice of the truth that whatever gives you

pain gives pain to others

and whatever gives you joy gives joy to others. So do unto others as

you would like them to do unto you; desist from any act in relation to

others that if

done by them would give you pain. Thus, a kind of reciprocal

relationship will grow between you and others, and gradually you will

reach the stage

where your heart thrills with joy when others are joyful and shudders

in pain when others are sad. (35)

 

 

Q: Please tell me the stages of Atmavichara.

 

 

Sai: First, there must be the Subhechchaa, the desire to promote one's

own welfare. This will lead to the study of books about Brahman and

its

principles, the search for the company of the good, the withdrawal

from sensory pleasure and the thirst for liberation. (36) [Then] begin

.... inquiring

into the very heart of everything. This is the process of inner

inquiry.... Then you must make use of the deep insights you have

gained by applying the

spiritual teachings to every detail of your daily life. (37)

 

 

[The] Aham is so persistent that it will disappear only through

ceaseless meditation on the implications of " Thatwamasi " and

all-inclusive Atma or

Brahman. (38) [seek] the unity underlying everything in existence.

Then, having become aware of it, you live your life by applying this

great truth to

all your daily activities. (39) This is the Vicharana stage or

Bhumika; the Bhumika, subsequent to the Subhechchaa stage.

 

 

By these means, the Mind can be fixed very soon on the contemplation

of Brahman. Each stage is a step on the ladder for the progressive

rise of the

Mind, from the concrete to the subtle and the subtle to the

non-existent. This is the Thanumanasi or the last stage. (40)

 

 

The three stages referred to above and the disciplines they involve

will destroy all desires and cravings and illumine knowledge of the

Reality. The

Mind is rendered fully holy and saturated with Truth. This is called

A-samasakthi, or the stage of No- attachment or No-contact. That is to

say, all

contact with the exterior World or even with one's own past is wiped

out. No attention is paid to the internal and the external; the

Sadhaka reaches

Abhaavapratheethi, as it is called. He has no Padaarthabhaavana of his

own: that is to say, no object can create any sensation in his

consciousness. He,

the perfect Jnani, will be ever immersed in the Bliss of the Atma. He

has no awareness of the seer, the seen and the sight, the triple

thread. This is the

Thuriya, the Fourth, the Beyond Stage. (41)

 

 

Q: Can You give me an example of Self-enquiry, Lord?

 

 

Sai: Let us consider the body, the senses, the mind, the life-force

and all such. They move and change; they begin and end; they are

inert, Jada. They

have three Gunas: Thamas, Rajas and Sathwa. They are without basic

Reality. They cause the delusion of reality. They have only relative

value; they

have no absolute value. They shine due to borrowed light only. (42)

Man can have no fear when he negates his objective composition,

declaring, " I am

not the body, the sense, the mind or the intellect. " (43)

 

 

Q: What attitude is it best to practice in Atmavichara?

 

 

Sai: Caught up in the coils of change, it is very hard, well-nigh

impossible, to realise one is just the witness of all this passing

show. So the Jivi must

first try to practice the attitude of a witness, so that it can

succeed in knowing its essential Brahman nature. (44)

 

 

Undergoing the sorrows of Ajnana and seeking solace in the study of

Vedanta, one infers that there must be a witness, unaffected by the

passing clouds.

Later, the Sakshi or Atma, which one knew by reasonings, is realised

in actual experience, when the superimposition of the illusion of the

world is

removed by Sadhana. (45)

 

 

Q: How shall I achieve the stance of the witness?

 

 

Sai: So long as 'I' persists, the state of Sakshi [Witness] is

unattainable. The Sakshi is the inner core of everything, the

'immanent', the embodiment of

Sath, Chith and Ananda. There is nothing beyond it or outside it.

(46)

 

 

The sages have laid down methods by which man can attain the status of

a witness. Dhyana is the most important of these. (47) Dhyana is the

process

by which the positive and negative aspects of the mind are regulated

out of existence. (48) It is the penultimate of eight steps, the last

one being

samadhi, [which] grants the wisdom to be completely unaffected. The

sixth stage is dharana. Dharana is the stage when japa, puja and other

practices

are engaged in, in order to prepare the mind for dhyana. (49)

 

 

Q: Where is the witness during the states other than wakefulness?

 

 

Sai: [During dreaming] it is in the Jivi; it not only witnesses but it

also weaves and creates everything it sees. [During deep sleep,] it is

in the Full (the

Modificationless) Reality. [in the fourth state, beyond deep sleep,

the Thuriya,] it is merged in the Easwara-sthana, this changeless

Entity. (50)

 

 

Q: You've counselled us to negate the objective composition. What will

happen when I am rid of body-consciousness?

 

 

Sai: When you get rid of the body-consciousness, you will realize your

Divinity. (51) When man realises his true form, he is liberated. (52)

Just think

of this for a while. You are in this body, in this receptacle, in

order to realize the God you really are. This body is the cocoon that

you have spun round

yourselves, by means of your impulses and desires. Use it to grow

wings so that you can escape from it! (53)

 

 

Q: On other occasions, Lord, I have heard You say my body must be

strong for me to realize the Self. Why must my body be strong?

 

 

Sai: When the body is weak, the mind, too, gets weak. (54) The Atma

cannot be gained by the weak..... Believe that you have in you the

strength and

skill you need. (55)

 

 

Gemstones have to be sought deep underground; they do not float in

mid-air. Seek God in the depths of your self, not in tantalising,

kaleidoscopic

Nature. The body is granted to you for this high purpose; but you are

now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the

gem-studded

gold vase that came into his hands as an heirloom. (56)

 

 

Keep it clean, fresh and fragrant through developing Compassion and

Love. (57) Use [this] Temple of God only for holy thoughts, words and

deeds. Do

not demean it by using it for low, trivial and unholy tasks. (58) Do

not identify yourself with it and its modifications and

transformations. You are the

Atma and so you are above these affections of the body. (59) Wherever

you are, whatever you do, have this resolution steady and strong.

(60)

 

 

Q: I think I see. I can neither forget the body utterly nor serve it

only. Am I correct?

 

 

Sai: A certain amount of attention has to be paid to the body and its

care, as well as to escape the overpowering handicaps of poverty. (61)

Be careful

about your physical health.... Satisfy the demands of nature; the car

must be given the petrol which its needs. ... How can thoughts of the

Lord be

stabilised in a weak frame? (62) [but] do not allow your body and

senses to dictate your moves. The body is the cart, the Spirit is the

horse. Do not put

the cart before the horse. ... Do not be slaves to your sensual

desires. (63) [The body] does not deserve all the attention you now

pay to fulfill its whims.

(64)

 

 

Do not forget the purpose of this body when you are tending it. ...

Remember that you have come embodied so that you might realise the end

of this

cycle of birth and death. For that sake, use the body as an

instrument, that is all. (65) You must be ever cautious that you are

not caught in the coils and

[do not] forget the transitoriness of all this. Bring your thoughts

constantly back to the Atma. (66)

 

 

Q: Swami, what role does academic study play in the understanding of

the Atma?

 

 

Sai: The Atmic principle ... can be understood only by direct

experience. (67) The scholarship which revels in the number of texts

mastered is of no use;

one may know the Sastras and the Upanishads upside down; he may have

all the seven hundred slokas of the Gita in his head, but if Achara

and Vichara

are non-existent, it is a burden which is best avoided. Achara means

application in practice. Vichara means continuous self-examination.

(68)

 

Q: Is it impossible to realise the Atma through a study of the

Sastras?

 

 

Sai: It is not possible. ... How ... is it to be seen? By unravelling

the Five Sheaths that cover the personality, by negating each of them

and experiencing,

" Not this " , and passing beneath and beyond to the substratum of the

Atma, the Brahman, which all the while appeared varied and manifold.

(69) By

constant meditation on the Atma and its Glory, one can come out of the

tangles of the world. (70) That is the means of liberation. (71)

 

 

Q: Is it possible to carry my awareness of the Atma into the sleep

state? What will I discover if I do?

 

 

Sai: If you seek to know where is the Atma, it is the Consciousness

(Chaitanya) between one state of consciousness and another. ... That

which is

conscious between waking and sleeping states is the Atmic principle.

The waking state represents the Rajo guna. Sleep represents the Tamo

guna. In

between is the Satwa guna - that is, the Atmic Consciousness. (72)

[Therefore] meditate upon the feeling between waking and sleeping.

Know how

immediate, how close, how deeply compatible it is. There is the

feeling of really giving up; the body is limp; awareness too is limp.

Let the feeling of

God overcome you like sleep. (73)

 

 

Q: How shall I know that I have full knowledge?

 

 

Sai: One has to actually 'see' the Brahman, the Witness of the Five

Sheaths of the individual (the Annamaya, the Pranamaya, the Manomaya,

the

Vijnamaya and the Anandamaya). (74) One should constantly be engaged

in the enquiry on the nature of Brahman: the reality of the I, the

transformations that occur to the individual at birth and at death and

such matters. ... It is only when full knowledge is won that one can

get liberated,

or, in other words, attain Moksha. (75)

 

 

Q: Lord, your exposition is invaluable to me and yet I still detect a

subtle diffidence within myself. What is the reason for this, Lord?

 

 

Sai: As long as the Atma is not considered as your own, your interest

in the Atma is ... with mere information. Once you know that the Atma

is the

Self that is present in everyone, the process of transformation takes

place. (76)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 JV, 65-6.

 

2 SSV, 25.

 

3 JV, 8.

 

4 JV, 63-4.

 

5 JV, 64.

 

6 JV, 65.

 

7 Loc. cit.

 

8 DIS, I, 128.

 

9 DIS, III, 258.

 

10 JV, 1-2.

 

11 JV, 65.

 

12 JV, 67.

 

13 DIS, III, 259.

 

14 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234.

 

15 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 225.

 

16 JV, 66.

 

17 SSV, 25.

 

18 FG, frontispiece.

 

19 SSG, 11.

 

20 SSS, I, 79.

 

21 JV, 15.

 

22 JV, 3.

 

23 Loc. cit.

 

24 JV, 4.

 

25 JV, 4-5.

 

26 JV, 5.

 

27 DIS, III, 258.

 

28 SSS, I, 120.

 

29 SSS, I, 13.

 

30 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234-5.

 

31 JV, 17.

 

32 CSSB, 133.

 

33 JV, 16-7.

 

34 JV, 18.

 

35 YOA, 18.

 

36 JV, 17.

 

37 SBG, 25

 

38 JV, 17.

 

39 SBG, 26.

 

40 JV, 17.

 

41 Loc. cit.

 

42 JV, 26.

 

43 SSS, X, 281.

 

44 JV, 60.

 

45 JV, 59.

 

46 JV, 61.

 

47 SSS, X, 248.

 

48 SSS, X, 279.

 

49 SSS, X, 248.

 

50 PRV, 19.

 

51 YOA, 49.

 

52 SS, 36, Oct. 1993, 273.

 

53 SSS, IV, 12.

 

54 SSS, X, 111.

 

55 SS, 30, Feb. 1987, 35.

 

56 SSS, IX, 82.

 

57 SSS, X, 87.

 

58 Loc. cit.

 

59 SSS, V, 4.

 

60 SSS, X, 87.

 

61 SSS, I, 66.

 

62 SSS, I, 36.

 

63 SSS, XI, 15.

 

64 SSS, X, 19.

 

65 SSS, I, 36.

 

66 SSS, I, 66-7.

 

67 JV, 67.

 

68 SSS, IV, 136.

 

69 JV, 66.

 

70 JV, 22.

 

71 DV, 49.

 

72 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 237.

 

73 Sathyam, III, 43

 

74 JV, 52.

 

75 JV, 1.

 

76 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 237

 

 

Chapter Five. The Nature of the Body

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: By Your Grace, Lord, I'd like to look at subject of the body today.

Can You begin, please, by describing the five bodies, or Panchakosas,

for me?

 

 

Sai: Man has five sheaths covering his individuality -- the annamaya

(material), pranamaya (vital), manomaya (mental), vijnamaya

(intellectual) and

the anandamaya (blissful). (1) The body, the mind, and the

intelligence are different from our real self. We are all [mistaken]

when we regard this body

as the reality. ... If we enquire, we get the answer that we are not

the body, or the mind, or the senses, or the inward tendencies, or the

ego. (2)

 

 

To fill the material body with felicity or ananda, the vital, mental

and intellectual sheaths need to be sublimated. All the kosas have to

be finally

merged in the Illumination of Jnana, Beatific Wisdom. The homa or the

oblation in the sanctified flame is a symbol of this consummation.

(3)

 

 

When man turns from the objective world to the subjective world within

him, he can unsheathe his individuality and reach his Bliss Nature.

But most

men revel in the very first sheath -- the material sheath - -- and

remain engrossed and entangled in material pursuits and pleasures. (4)

Enquiry alone

can bring into human experience the Atmic base which upholds the

objective sensory world. (5)

 

 

Q: Please tell me then about the nature of the outermost sheath, the

physical body.

 

 

Sai: The outermost sheath or kosa is the annamaya kosa, composed of

the material body made of anna (food). Anna, the body built by anna,

and the

man, all are products of the self-same substance, bhumi (soil, earth).

(6) This body grew in the womb of the mother with the help of the Anna

or Food

taken by the mother. Besides, even after birth, it has grown and is

being sustained by food alone. After death, it becomes part of the

Earth which

produces Food. So it is called Annamaya. (7)

 

 

Q: By what power does it function?

 

 

Sai: The body is functioning through the power of Integral Awareness

(Prajna Sakthi) which is directing the functioning by the combination

of three

forces: Radiation, Vibration and Materiality. The body is just matter

only. It is called Prakrithi. Sakthi makes it vibrant. This vibration

is directed by

the Prajna Sakthi which is consciousness (awareness). Thus man's life

is a combination of consciousness, vital force and matter. Without

realising this

fact, man is always keen on looking after the body alone, with the

wrong conception that the body is all powerful. (8)

 

 

Q: What is its role?

 

 

Sai: The sthula deha, the gross body, ... suffers grief and exults in

joy. (9) [but] this habitation of flesh and bone, of fear and feeling,

of doubt and desire

is the residence of the One Indivisible, All-pervading God. (10)

 

 

Q: What was the intended purpose of its various limbs and organs?

 

 

Sai: Everyone should realise that every limb and organ in the body has

been given to man to be used for a sacred purpose. (11) You are

endowed with ...

feet for going to the Lord's temple and not to loiter in alleys and

bylanes. All organs and limbs have been given to man for adoring the

Lord. (12) He

has given you ears not to hear accusations of other people but to

listen to sacred words. He has given you a nose to inhale pure air and

not to take in

snuff. He has given you a tongue to taste the sweetness of God's name

through constant repetition and not to slander or shout at others. The

tongue is

there only to enable you to speak softly, sweetly and gently always.

(13) These organs should not be used for frivolous and unholy

purposes. Sanctifying

every one of the sense organs, man should purify the mind and

contemplate ... God. (14)

 

 

Q: My body goes with me wherever I go. It's hard for me to think of it

as separate.

 

 

Sai: What of your shadow? Is it not something separate from you? Does

its length or clarity or career affect you in any way? Understand that

the same

is the relationship between the body and yourself. If you take this

bundle of flesh and bone as yourself, consider what happens to it, and

how long you

can call it 'mine'. Pondering over this problem is the beginning of

Jnana. (15)

 

 

Q: Chiefly, what characteristic of the body can persuade my mind that

I am not it, that it is not ultimately real?

 

 

Sai: The body has no permanence. It is like a bubble on the water; it

arises in water, expands in water, and merges in water. Man is like

the bubble;

Narayana [God] is the water. Without water the bubble cannot come into

existence. All human bubbles are born in Narayana, grow in Narayana,

and

ultimately merge in Him. Why rejoice over the birth of the bubble or

mourn its disappearance? (16)

 

 

The body is known as deha, which means 'that which is consumed by

fire'. It is burnt on the pyre when life departs and consumed by the

flames of

desire when life persists. It burns on the pyre of anxiety and fear,

even when alive! There is another word, sareera, meaning 'that which

wastes away',

which also means body. While living, it is afflicted by wants and

wishes which rob it of peace. When dead, it becomes dust. Starting its

career as a ball

of flesh, it soon appears as a tender, charming baby and an active

child; it transforms itself into a straight, strong, attractive youth

and is reduced later

to the pathetic shape of old age. (17)

 

 

Only ignorance will take it as Real; only the uneducated will attach

value to it as permanent and eternal. Did this body exist before

birth? Does it

persist after death? No. It appears and disappears, with an interval

of existence! Therefore, it has no absolute value; it is to be treated

only as a cloud or

the shadow. (18) As long as you have a body, engage yourself in sacred

tasks, dedicate all your thoughts and actions to the Divine. (19)

 

 

Q: Body consciousness is a pervasive and persistent human problem, is

it not?

 

 

Sai: The root cause of [man's] failure [to achieve ananda] is his

identification of himself with his body and senses, and his belief

that physical and

sensual pleasure can give him the ananda which will appease his

hunger. (20) The identification with the body and the slavery to the

senses that it

breeds ... cause all the cruelty, injustice and violence that stalk

the world. (21) The identification with the body [causes] the ego

( " Aham " ) to flourish

and grow. The feeling " I am the doer " , " I am the enjoyer " , " I am

achieving success " , is growing constantly in man. (22)

 

 

Humans ... assume that they are only bodies. Convinced of this

illusion, [they] suffer and weaken under the burden of countless

worries about physical

concerns. (23) The pandit who is capable of a little ratiocination and

enquiry feels that the jivi in the body is " I " . But those wise men who

can see the

Anatma as separate from the Atma, they know that the truth is: " Aham

Brahmasmi " and they do not stray from that conviction. (24)

 

 

Like the paddy-seed which contains rice, the husk is the Maya which

covers the seed within; the rice is the Jiva and the essence of the

rice, the

sustaining element, the Anna, that is Paramatma. (25) As you remove

the husk that covers the rice, so too the Ignorance that adheres to

the mind has to

be removed by the frequent application of the abrasive Atmic enquiry.

(26)

 

 

The seed of bodily attachment has to be given up for the tree of life

to grow and yield the flower of Jnana (wisdom) and the fruit of Ananda

(Bliss).

(27) Man should ... realise his essential nature and not be deluded by

identifying his true being with the body-consciousness. (28)

 

 

Q: Swami, why not simply cast aside this body and be free?

 

 

Sai: Among all types of living bodies, only a human body allows a

being access to ... wisdom. (29) [The body] is equipped with very

valuable

instruments which can help you in the journey but which you seldom

use. The senses bring you impressions from the outside world but you

do not

evaluate these impressions by the touch-stone of a clear reason or a

balanced mind. You do not proceed from one step to another in a clear

march

towards the elimination of the ego and mergence into the One. (30)

 

 

One must protect and preserve [it, because it] is a Divine gift, a

boat equipped with instruments which takes man across the Sea of

Perpetual Change to

reach Divinity. This goal of life has to be reached before the

body-boat develops leaks and disintegrates, through illness, sloth and

senility. Physical,

mental and spiritual health have to be fostered with vigilant care.

(31)

 

 

Don't play about forever in the Deha-bhava, the consciousness that you

are just the five-foot body; transcend the attachment to the family,

the home,

the village, the community, the district, the state, the nation. You

must acquire not the independence denoted by the political fact of

Swarajya, but the

freedom of the spirit called Swarajya, dominion over oneself. (32)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 SSS, X, 117.

 

2 SHWR, 1979, 22.

 

3 SSS, X, 258-9.

 

4 SSS, X, 117.

 

5 SSS, XI, 1.

 

6 SSS, X, 258-9.

 

7 PRV, 28.

 

8 SS, 36, Feb. 1993, 43-4.

 

9 PRV, 28.

 

10 Sathyam, III, 27.

 

11 SS, 35, April 1992, 70.

 

12 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 227.

 

13 DG, 14.

 

14 SS, 35, April 1992, 70.

 

15 JV, 19.

 

16 SSS, XI, 63.

 

17 SSS, X, 273.

 

18 JV, 19.

 

19 SSS, XI, 63.

 

20 SSS, X, 291.

 

21 SSS, V, 38.

 

22 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 235.

 

23 EVJC, 72.

 

24 DV, 47-8.

 

25 SSS, I, 79.

 

26 JV, 1.

 

27 SS, 30, Dec. 1987, 320.

 

28 Loc. cit.

 

29 EVJC, 74.

 

30 SSS, X, 19.

 

31 SSS, XI, 67.

 

32 SSS, III, 29.

 

 

Chapter Six. The Nature of the Senses and Mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: The second sheath is the Manomaya Kosa. What does " Manomaya Kosa "

mean?

 

 

Sai: The sphere of the five Jnanendriyas [organs of knowledge or

senses], plus mind, of which they have become the instruments. It is

inside the

Pranamaya Kosa. (1)

 

 

Q: I know from past conversations with you, Lord, that sense control

is important. In regard to making the enquiry into the Self, what

advice would

You give me on controlling the Manomaya Kosa.

 

 

Sai: You must master your senses, instead of being enslaved by them.

Your mind, reasoning faculty, passions and emotions must be the tools

you handle

and not the instruments that handle you. (2) The instincts and

impulses or Vasanas are too strong to yield easily; they make the

senses active and greedy

and bind the person tighter and tighter. Attention has therefore to be

paid to the sublimation and subjugation of the senses and the

promptings behind

them, to the development of self-abnegation, the relentless pursuit of

reason and discrimination in order that the mind may not get mastery

over man.

When the mind is won, the dawn of Jnana is heralded. (3)

 

 

The Sadhaka, who is earnest for ... results, has to be ever vigilant.

The senses might, any moment, regain their lost mastery and enslave

the individual.

He might lose much of the ground already gained. That is the reason

why Sadhakas are warned off from the attachments of the world. (4)

 

 

Q: Which are the most important senses?

 

 

Sai: Among the senses, two are most important: ... the eyes and the

tongue. Because of their exceptional importance, the Lord has provided

them with

the means of restraining their activities. The Lord points out: " You

silly man! Take note that I have provided natural means for closing

the eyes and the

mouth. If you do not want to see anything undesirable, you can close

your eyes with the eyelids. The ears and the nose have no such devices

for closing

them. The mouth has lips which can seal the tongue. Observe,

therefore, restraint in speech and control the tongue. Control your

eyes. When you

control your eyes and tongue, you can easily control all other

senses. " (5)

 

 

Q: What constitutes the wise use of the senses?

 

 

Sai: Every sense organ has to be used with the consciousness of the

limit inherent in it. Beyond the limit it becomes misuse, sacrilege of

a God-given

instrument. For example, the nose is to be used legitimately to help

in breathing and for the selective enjoyment of fragrance, but many

stuff it with

snuff and degrade its real purpose. The tongue is polluted by using it

to eat rajasic and thamasic food and to swallow intoxicants which

demean man.

All sense organs are thus spoiled by man through improper,

unauthorised, or illegitimate use. The consequences for man are mental

distress and

physical disease. (6)

 

 

Q: What activates and rules the senses?

 

 

Sai: The five senses are all bound up with the mind; it is the mind

that separately activates the senses and is affected by their

reactions. (7) The

sensations that arise in the sense organs are more powerful than the

senses themselves -- sound, taste, sight, and smell. Mind is the

master of all five of

these senses. Intellect is the master of the mind; the individual soul

is the master of the intellect; and God is the master of the

individual soul. When the

senses are in union with the mind, the mind in tune with the

intellect, the intellect with the individual soul, then you will

understand the unity between

the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. (8)

 

 

Q: Swami, please tell me exactly what the mind is.

 

 

Sai: What is this mind? It is Maya (delusion). It is desire. It is

ignorance. It is Prakrithi (the phenomenal world). (9) The mind is a

bundle of Vasanas;

verily, the mind is the Jagath itself; it is all the world for the

individual. ... The Jagath is born, or 'enters the consciousness' and

dies or 'disappears from

the consciousness', according to the cognitive power of the mind. When

therefore the mind is destroyed, the world too is destroyed and one is

free, one

is liberated; one attains Moksha. (10)

 

 

Q: Most people regard the mind as a part of the body, do they not? Yet

it is not a part of the body, is it?

 

 

Sai: Men are accustomed to treat the mind as part of the body. This

relates only to the sensory activities of the mind. This mind is made

up of thoughts

and doubts. But the mind that is associated with the Divine Atma

transcends the body. Consequently, it is only when the ordinary

thought processes are

extinguished that the Divinity within can be experienced. The

consciousness that goes beyond thought is a reflection of the Atma.

(11)

 

 

Q: Swami, is the mind one or many? Please place it in its Divine

perspective for me.

 

 

Sai: The mind, because it is engaged in various thoughts and motivates

various desires and actions, is described as " Antahkarana " (the inner

instrument).

It is known as 'mind' (manas) when it is engaged in good and bad

thoughts. It is called Buddhi when it exercises the discriminating

power. When

expressing the will, it is called " Chitta. " As a manifestation of the

Divine in the individual, it is known as " Aham " (the " I " ...).

Antahkarana is the

collective name for the mind (manas), Buddhi (intelligence), Chitta

(will) and Ahamkara (ego-sense). There is a fundamental principle that

is at the

base of all these. It is known as " Prajna. " (12)

 

 

Q: You have mentioned this Prajna before, Lord. Will You describe it

for me in more detail please?

 

 

Sai: Prajna is the state of unchanging and permanent bliss described

by the Upanishads. Prajna is the permanent entity that exists equally

in the waking

state as the body, in the senses as the Antahkarana (the Inner

Motivator) and in the deep sleep state as the Atma. It is for this

reason that it is

characterised as Constant Integrated Awareness. (13) It is not

different from Brahman or Atma. (14)

 

 

Prajna has been described as Viveka (discrimination), intelligence,

comprehension and the like. These are not quite correct. " Prajna "

really refers to the

Brahman in man. The Vedas have declared: " Prajnaanam is Brahman. " ...

It is the Constant Integrated Awareness that is the source of all

values in man.

This Prajna is permeated with love. Truth is the echo that resounds

from the love-filled Prajna. All actions that arise out of this

love-filled Prajna are

reactions, constituting Dharma. Santhi (Peace) is a reflection of this

Truth and Dharma. (15)

 

 

Q: I have also heard the point of view that there really is no mind.

What is true, Lord?

 

 

Sai: There is no mind as such. (16) Mind is only a name for a bundle

of desires. Just as a bundle of threads becomes cloth, so also a

bundle of desires

becomes the mind. (17) If we remove the thread one by one and thus

remove all the threads, there is nothing left, there is no cloth. In

the same manner,

if we pull away all our desires, one by one, diminish the number of

desires, then the mind also will become less and less and will become

peaceful. (18)

 

 

Peace of mind is no desires, and in that state there is no mind. Mind

is destroyed, so to speak. Peace of mind really means ... complete

purity of

consciousness. All spiritual practices are aimed at purification of

the heart. (19)

 

 

Q: Then what is the mind's function, Lord?

 

 

Sai: The mind is the means of comprehending everything in the world.

(20) The mind experiences all that relates to the world made up of the

five

elements (Pancha Bhutas) through the sense organs, the eyes, the ears,

the nose and mouth. (21) [The mind] can master the senses, and become

aware of

the Universal Inner Truth of the multiplicity called the objective

world. (22)

 

 

Q: How is the mind an obstacle to Self-realization, Bhagavan?

 

 

Sai: The mind ... causes bondage and grants liberation. (23) Control

the mind and you remain unruffled. That is the secret of Santhi. (24)

 

 

The mind ... continually interposes itself against the Atma. Like the

cloud, formed out of the water vapour produced by the sun, which hides

the sun, the

mind, which has arisen from the Atma, covers the Atma. As long as the

mind exists, man cannot comprehend the nature of the Atma or realise

the

Atma. Only the person who is aware of the Atma in all the different

states of consciousness can be said to have direct vision of the Atma

( " Sakshatkara " ). (25)

 

 

Q: Why does the mind turn towards the world and pursue exterior

objects?

 

 

Sai: The mind pursues exterior objects only either because of the pull

of the senses or because of the delusion caused by superimposing on

the external

world the characteristics of permanence, etc. So it has to be again

and again brought back to travel to the correct goal. (26)

 

 

The mind ... offers only external objective joy. But the wise man

knows [that joy] to be fleeting. For him the Atma is enough to fulfil

all desire for

happiness -- complete and permanent. So he will have no need for the

external world. (27)

 

 

Q: What happens when I try to satisfy the mind?

 

 

Sai: All actions done by man today are intended to satisfy the mind.

But however much you may try to satisfy the mind, it can never feel

contented. (28)

[it] cannot keep still even for a moment. (29) The mind is the

birth-place of unsteadiness. (30) You may manage to keep your mouths

shut, but it is next

to impossible to keep the mind shut. (31)

 

 

Q: Can a man reach Self-knowledge through the use of the mind?

 

 

Sai: As long as the mind dominates spiritual exercises, the goal of

Self-realisation cannot be attained. The mind is like a thief, who

will not allow

himself to be caught. There is no use in relying on the mind to

realise the Self. When the vision is centred on the Self, the mind

fades away. (32)

 

 

By special discipline, the turbulence of the mind can be calmed; as a

result of this, it becomes possible to taste the bliss of the Atma,

free from its pulls.

The mind attracts him outwards and offers only external objective joy.

But the wise man knows them to be fleeting. For him the Atma is enough

to

fulfil all desire for happiness - complete and permanent. So he will

have no need for the external world. (33)

 

 

Q: What is the importance of purity of consciousness?

 

 

Sai: Purity of consciousness leads to realisation of the Self. (34)

Liberation is the goal and the mind must help the pilgrim at every

step of his journey.

The mind should not admit any activity that is contrary to dharma or

injurious to spiritual progress. (35)

 

 

When the mind is turned towards God or goodness, it becomes human. If

it is turned towards thoughts and wicked egoism, it becomes demonic.

When

we turn the key to the right, it opens the lock; when we turn it to

the left, it fastens it. The same key does the two opposite

operations, according to the

direction of turning. If mind is turned towards good thoughts, it

establishes detachment. Turned towards thoughts of 'I' and 'mine' it

causes attachment.

Attachment means bondage; detachment, Liberation. (36)

 

 

Q: Please describe to me the difference between the pure and impure

mind?

 

 

Sai: When the mind is free of the dirt and impurities of the

sense-organs, it is described as Chitta. When it is associated with

the sense-organs, it is

Manas. Manas is nothing but a bundle of thoughts; it can be conceived

of as the process of thinking itself. In this process of thinking it

gets dirty. It

absorbs the impure impressions of the sense-organs and becomes impure.

(37)

 

 

Q: Please describe impurity for me in terms of the gunas.

 

 

Sai: Desire, anger, greed, malice, hatred and jealousy, ... [the] six

enemies of man, are the children of Rajas and Tamas. You won't be able

to reap the

bliss of Atma as long as these weeds remain with you. (38)

 

 

Q: Lord, will You summarize for me please the process of the mind's

affliction.

 

 

Sai: The mind is prone to afflictions from [three] sources. One is

through delusions (bhrama) which make the mind see objects differently

from what

they really are. Because of this, man forgets his inherent divinity

and gets immersed in the transient and the impermanent. Ignoring the

Indwelling

Spirit, he gets attached to the perishable body. This delusion results

in the state called " Pramaadam " (perilous or critical condition). The

entire

personality is affected by the delusion.

 

The result is the next stage, called " Karanapatanam " , the weakening of

the sense organs. The mind by itself has no power of perception. It

has to

perceive everything through the sense organs (indriyas) such as the

eyes, the ears, etc. The mind acts on the basis of the impressions

received through the

sense organs. When the senses are weakened and the impressions

received through them is misleading and unreliable, the mind is also

affected. The

mind goes astray by association with wrong impressions. That is why in

the spiritual field, the efficacy of association with good people is

emphasised.

 

 

The [third] affliction to which the mind is prone is envy

( " Vipralipsa " ). This is an evil quality. The envious man cannot suffer

others being prosperous

or happy. He has a carping spirit. He always wishes ill for others.

Envy converts man into a veritable monster. This is a most sinful

vice. (39)

 

 

Q: In addition to these afflictions, I have heard You say that the

mind is also affected by Klesas or complexes. Can you describe for me

the various

klesas that impact the mind.

 

 

Sai: Man's mind is subject to five types of distortions or complexes

(Klesas). ... [He] becomes a prey to ... afflictions due to narrow,

deluded feelings

such as " I am the body, " " I am a Jiva or Individual Soul, " and " I am

separate and different from God " . This is called Avidya Klesam

(Ignorance

Complex), which demeans the status of man and results in many kinds of

sorrow....

 

 

The mind is the abode of all desires, sorrows, likes, dislikes,

attachments and aversions. In spite of knowing that the mind is the

culprit, which causes

attachment to " Samsara " (transmigratory existence) and the attendant

miseries, man is unable to detach himself from his mind or otherwise

control its

vagaries and thereby to escape from sorrow and suffering. This is

termed as Attachment Complex....

 

 

The world is full of various sense objects (or vishayas) which entice

the weak-minded persons who go on flirting from one sense object to

another, not

realising that these " Vishayas " or sense objects will ultimately turn

out to be " Visham " or poison which deprives them of all sense of

discrimination

and dispassion. As a result of this men are plunged in endless

suffering throughout their lives. This is termed as Asthitha Klesam

(the Complex caused

by mental unsteadiness)....

 

 

Labouring under the delusion that the goal of life is to acquire gold,

wealth, vehicles, mansions, and the like, man toils ceaselessly from

dawn to dusk,

to acquire and hoard such possessions beyond his needs. In the process

he foregoes even food and sleep, thereby endangering his health. In

spite of

knowing that all such possessions are temporary, he pollutes his mind

by excessive greed and falls a victim to untold suffering and sorrow.

This is

known as the Lobha Klesam (Greed Complex). ...

 

 

For his own selfish ends, man gets trapped in a maze of unending

desires of various kinds. And when his desires are not fulfilled, he

unreasonably

blames it all on other men as well as on God Himself and thus he

develops hatred against both man and God. Hence this is designated as

" Dwesha

Klesam " or Hate Complex.

 

 

All these complexes are nothing but mental aberrations which are

injurious to man himself. Having become a victim of such aberrations,

man forgets

his real Atmic nature and falls a prey to all kinds of sorrow and

misery. (40)

 

 

Q: How can I turn the mind towards Brahman?

 

 

Sai: The mind is so influenced by the passion for objective pleasure

and delusion of ignorance that it pursues with amazing quickness the

fleeting

objects of the world; so it has to be again and again led on towards

higher ideals. Of course, this is difficult at first; but with

persistent training the

mind can be tamed. ... The mind can be trained by following the

methods of quiet persuasion, the promise of attractive inducements,

the practice of

withdrawing the senses from the outer world, the endurance of pain and

travail, the cultivation of sincerity and constancy and the

acquisition of mental

equipoise, that is to say, the methods of Sama, Dama, Uparathi,

Thithiksha, Sraddha and Samaadhaana. (41)

 

 

The mind can [also] be turned towards Brahman and the constant

contemplation of Brahman by the study of the Upanishads, the adoption

of regular

prayer, the sharing with others of the ecstacy of Bhajan and the

adherence to Truth. ... The final result of this training is

Nirvikalpa Samadhi or the

Unlimited, Unmodified Bliss-Consciousness. (42)

 

 

If nicely controlled and trained, the mind can lead one to Moksha. It

must be saturated in the thought of God; that will help the enquiry

into the nature

of Reality. (43) Whoever succeeds in controlling the Chitta or the

Consciousness can have a vision of the Atma. Consciousness is the

grown-up tree;

the seed is the " ego " , the feeling of " I " . When the seed is cast

aside, all the activities of the consciousness also vanish

automatically. (44) The Self will

shine in all its perfection when Man becomes perfect. (45)

 

Q: Please supply me with criteria, Lord, to help me judge when I have

attained perfection?

 

 

Sai: Man will become perfect when the following sixteen aspects of the

mind are eliminated:

 

 

(1) The Arishdavarga or the six internal enemies of man - Kama,

Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya - Desire, Anger, Greed,

Attachment, Pride,

Jealousy or Envy.

 

 

(2) The eight kinds of pride: pride of money, learning, caste,

affluence, beauty, youth, position or authority and spiritual

pride....

 

 

(3) The two qualities of Rajas and Tamas. (46)

 

 

Q: Purity and perfection are the same, are they not, Lord? How is

purity of mind to be achieved?

 

 

Sai: How is purity to be achieved? Fill your minds with thoughts of

God, dedicate all your actions to God and consider God as the inner

motivator. (47)

If you turn the mind away from the sense-organs and towards God, you

will be able to free it from all the troubles and sorrows associated

with impure

thoughts. ... Turn [the mind] inwards towards God.... Then you will be

using the mind properly. (48)

 

 

External observances like bathing several times a day and smearing

Vibhuti all over and mouthing mantras mechanically will not serve to

cleanse the

mind of impurities. These are only outward show, with nothing

spiritual about them. (49) Unless you cleanse the mind with Love, the

Full Moon of

Spiritual Wisdom cannot shine therein. The recital of the Name, the

observance of vows and vigils, of fasts and festivals, may scintillate

on the Inner

Sky of the mind, as stars stud the sky, but, until the Lamp of Love is

lit, the darkness will not vanish. (50)

 

 

He who has subdued his mind will be the same, in good times and in

bad. Grief and joy are but aberrations of the mind. It is only when

the mind is

associated with the senses and the body that it is affected and

agitated and modified. (51) Train the mind not to feel attached to

things that change for

better or for worse. Do not hold before it the tinsels of worldly fame

and riches; attract it towards lasting joys derived from springs

inside you. That

will bring big rewards. The mind itself will then become the guru.

(52)

 

 

Every thought leaves an impression on the mind so be ever alert that

contact with evil is avoided. Ideas which are opposed to spiritual

tendencies, that

narrow the limits of Love, that provoke anger or greed, that cause

disgust -- these have to be shut out. For the sadhaka this is a very

essential

discipline. He must sublimate such thoughts before they cause an

impact in the mind, and should concentrate on the very source of the

thinking process.

This can be achieved by the practice of equanimity, unaffectedness or

balance. This attitude is the mark of the Jnani and is called

Jnana-sakthi, or the

power of wisdom. (53) Not to be affected in any way by the world; that

is the path to self-realization; it cannot be got in Swarga or in

Mount Kailasa.

(54)

 

 

Q: In terms of Atmavichara, what purification processes must take

place?

 

 

Sai: The mind must be attuned to the contemplation of Brahman; one

must strive to tread the path of Brahman and live in Brahman, with

Brahman.

Atmajnana can be won only by the triple path of 'giving up Vasanas,'

'uprooting the mind " and 'the analysis of experience, to grasp the

reality.'

Without these three, the Jnana of the Atma will not dawn. The Vasanas

or instincts and impulses prod the mind on towards the sensory world

and bind

the individual to joy and misery. So the Vasanas must be put down.

This can be achieved by means of discrimination (Viveka), meditation

on the Atma

(Atmachinthana), enquiry (Vicharana), control of the senses (Samam),

control of the desires (Damam), renunciation (Vairagya) and such

disciplines.

(55)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 PRV, 29.

 

2 SS, 30, Feb. 1987, 39.

 

3 JV, 45-6.

 

4 JV, 11.

 

5 CSSN, II, Nov. 1989, 7.

 

6 SSS, X, 279.

 

7 JV, 41.

 

8 YOA, 25.

 

9 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 235.

 

10 JV, 10.

 

11 SS, 35, April 1992, 64.

 

12 SS, 30, Oct. 1987, 269.

 

13 SS, 30, Nov. 1987, 291.

 

14 Loc. cit.

 

15 SS, 30, Oct. 1987, 269.

 

16 CSSB, 44.

 

17 BSSS, 65.

 

18 Loc. cit.

 

19 CSSB, 44.

 

20 SS, 35, Oct. 1992, 227.

 

21 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 239.

 

22 SSV, 15.

 

23 JV, 20.

 

24 SSS, I, 107.

 

25 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 233.

 

26 JV, 44-5.

 

27 JV, 47.

 

28 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 235.

 

29 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 239.

 

30 SS, 30, Dec. 1987, 324.

 

31 SSS, VII, 57.

 

32 SS, 30, Dec. 1987, 319.

 

33 JV, 47.

 

34 DIS, I, 128.

 

35 SSS, X, 168.

 

36 SSS, X, 188.

 

37 BHG, 137.

 

38 BHG, 210.

 

39 SS, 34, Jan. 1991, 6.

 

40 SS, 36, Oct. 1993, 260-1.

 

41 JV, 9.

 

42 Loc. cit.

 

43 JV, 6.

 

44 JV, 10-11.

 

45 TOB, 178.

 

46 Loc. cit.

 

47 SS, 36, 12, Dec. 1993, 315.

 

48 BHG, 137.

 

49 SS, 30, Dec. 1987, 334.

 

50 SSS, IX, 98.

 

51 JV, 11.

 

52 SSS, I, 52.

 

53 SSS, X, 72.

 

54 JV, 6.

 

55 JV, 10.

 

 

Chapter Seven. The Nature of the Desires, Ego, and Buddhi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Lord, today may we begin by discussing the relationship between the

mind and desire please? How does the process of the mind's desiring

operate?

 

 

Sai: The mind ... presents before the attention one source after

another of temporary pleasure; it does not allow any interval for you

to weigh the pros

and cons. When hunger for food is appeased, it holds before the eye

the attraction of the film, it reminds the ear of the charm of music

and it makes the

tongue water for the taste of something pleasant. The wish very soon

becomes the urge for action; the urge gathers strength and soon

becomes

uncontrollable. The burden of desires soon becomes too heavy and soon

man gets dispirited and sad. (1)

 

 

The mind flits fast from one idea to another; it fondles [an idea] for

a moment and forsakes [it] the next. (2) This mental activity results

in the

formulation of resolutions or in their dissolution, sankalpa and

vikalpa. The mind has, as warp and woof, assertion and negation, do's

and don't's,

sankalpa and vikalpa. It has no existence apart from these. It is ever

engaged in them until sleep stops its activity. Sometimes when the

sankalpa or the

determination behind the resolution becomes too strong, the mind

overleaps its limits and man is rendered insane. (3)

 

 

Mind is of that nature; it is woven so, out of the yarn of desire. Its

characteristic is to flutter and flit, hither and thither, through the

outlet of the senses,

into the external world of color, sound, taste, smell, and touch. (4)

 

 

Q: How long do desires persist?

 

 

Sai: As long as the mind exists, desires will persist. When desires

are present, attachments and possessiveness cannot be got rid of. (5)

 

 

Q: Should I concentrate on ridding myself of desire or the mind,

Lord?

 

 

Sai: The flame of desire cannot be put out without the conquest of the

mind. The mind cannot be overcome without the scotching of the flames

of

desire. The mind is the seed, desire is the tree. Atmajnana alone can

uproot that tree. So, these three are interdependent: mind, desire,

and Atmajnana.

(6)

 

 

The seeker must divert his attention inwards from the external world;

he must find out the origins of the agitations of the mind. This

process [of

Atmavichara] will diminish and destroy the activities of the mind

which make you doubt, discuss and decide. From that stage onwards, the

exhilaration

of being Brahman oneself will be constant. This will stabilise the

Sath-Chith-Ananda arising from that experience. (7)

 

 

When the wind agitates the serene waters of a lake, wavelets dance all

over its face, and a thousand suns sparkle. When calm descends and the

waters

are still, the shadow of the sun within the lake is one full image.

When one fixes one's entire attention on the sun instead of on the

images and the water

that caused them, there is only the one sun that is [the] Real. (8)

 

 

Q: Bhagavan, the ego seems most clearly a construction of thought, a

child of the mind. How does the mind construct the sense of ego?

 

 

Sai: The Atma, the Buddhi and the Mind are three in one. This unified

consciousness transcends the sense of " I " and " mine " . It may be called

" Aham " .

" Aham " means Consciousness. In the Atma, the " Aham " abides as a subtle

entity. When the " Aham " acquires a form, it becomes " Ahamkara " , the

Ego.

The distinction between " Aham " and " Ahamkara " should be understood. To

identify the " Aham " with the corporeal form is " Ahamkara " - the Ego

feeling. " Aham " transcends the " Ahamkara " (the physical form). (9) The

" I " not associated with the mind is Atma. The " I " associated with the

mind is

" mithya-atma " (pseudo-atma). There is only one Atma. That is the real

" I " . (10)

 

 

Q: And 'egoism " , Lord?

 

 

Sai: Egoism [is] the belief that the little self has to be satisfied

at all costs. (11) [it] is the crown of all evils. (12) The springs of

egoism ... arise from

ignorance of the Basic Truth. (13) Identification with the body

[causes] the ego ... to flourish and grow. (14) Egoism is a common

mundane condition.

(15)

 

 

The mind is perverted when it is centered on the ego (body

consciousness) of a person but when it is directed towards the Atma,

it becomes sublime.

One puffed up with ego forgets Divinity. Thinking on the physical

plane and looking at the external world, man is not able to understand

the Divinity

within him. (16)

 

 

Q: How are my desires related to my ego? And where does their

relationship fit in with my total predicament?

 

 

Sai: Most people live [only] in the material world of their desires

and ego. (17) As long as the mind exists, desires will persist. When

desires are

present, attachments and possessiveness cannot be got rid of. And

these sustain the ego. While the ego lasts, the Atma cannot be

experienced. Atmic

bliss and Atmic vision cannot be had till the ego is eliminated. (18)

Desires and selfishness are the root cause of all problems. (19) The

ego brings wave

after wave of wants and wishes before your attention, and tempts you

to ... gain them. It is a never-ending circle. (20) Moksha (the gift

you value) is

packed between [the] two ideas ... -- the idea of ego and the idea of

desire. So, all I have to tell you is, " Remove the packing, and take

the gift, moksha.

Have no ego, discard desire, you are liberated. " (21)

 

 

Q: I make what I desire " mine " and then protect it. Please tell me

more about ego and possessiveness.

 

 

Man is dominated by the delusions of ego and possessiveness (Ahamkara

and Mamakara). (22) When [the two] come together in a man, he is

utterly

ruined (23) A true devotee should be totally free from the sense of

" I' and " mine. " (24) [They] are ... destruction-causing sparks. Man

must attach

himself to guides who are devoid of these. (25)

 

Q: Is there a disease worse than selfishness?

 

 

Sai: The worst disease to which man is subject is selfishness. (26)

Selfishness is at the root of all afflictions plaguing man. (27) One

who constantly

thinks of his own body, his own family, his own wealth, and his own

comfort is a truly selfish man. (28) When man neglects the Divine

aspect of [his]

nature and fails to pursue the sadhana that ensures the awareness of

the Omnipresent and Omnipotent Om, he falls prey to the impulses and

instincts

dominated by the ego and develops faith in material gains. He spends

his life in amassing wealth, power and authority over fellow beings

and believes

that holding others under his sway is a desirable achievement. (29)

The egoist cannot recognize the Atma. Therefore, first crush your ego.

(30)

 

 

God cannot be realised through ostentation and self-conceit. The basic

requisite is the shedding of selfishness and possessiveness so that

one can engage

oneself in actions in a disinterested spirit. Any person is entitled

to embark on this quest without regard to sex, age, caste or

community. (31)

 

 

Q: Then ego brings about our fall?

 

 

Sai: The ego brings about the fall of man. When egoism is absent, the

Atma shines in its native splendour. The Atma is Bliss. It is beauty

and Wisdom.

But we allow It to be tarnished by the ego. Engage in humble service

and egotism will fade away. (32)

 

 

Egoism is a thorny bush which, when planted and fostered in one's

heart, [obliges one] to pay the penalty. Egoism makes enemies of fast

friends and

ruins many good causes and projects, for it does not allow two good

men to work together. Grief follows it like a shadow. Where there is

no ego, joy,

peace, courage, co-operation and love flourish. When man is aware that

the same Divine Consciousness that motivates him is equally motivating

all

others, then Love ousts the ego ... and takes charge of man's

activities, words and thoughts. (33)

 

 

Where there is no egoism, there will be no cognisance of the external

world. When the external world is not cognised, the ego cannot exist.

The wise

one, therefore, will dissociate himself from the world and behave ever

as the Agent of the Lord, being in it but not of it. (34)

 

 

Whoever subdues his egoism, conquers his selfish desires, destroys his

bestial feelings and impulses and gives up his natural tendency to

regard the

body as the self, he is surely on the path of Dharma; he knows that

the goal of Dharma is the merging of the wave in the sea, the merging

of the self in

the Over-self. (35)

 

 

Q: Please describe to me the destruction of mind and ego.

 

 

Sai: The mind undergoes two stages while being destroyed, Rupa-laya,

annihilation of patterns of the mind, and Arupa-laya, annihilation of

the mind.

The agitations of the mind stuff are the Rupas. Then comes the stage

of equilibrium where there is the positive Ananda of Sath and Chith,

where also

the Arupa or formless mind disappears. (36) Wisdom, when it dawns,

separates the mind and keeps it aloof from all contact. (37) Wisdom

clarifies the

heart and returns it to a state of order and beauty. (38)

 

 

When man is aware that the same Divine Consciousness that motivates

him is equally motivating all others, then Love ousts the ego ... and

takes charge

of man's activities, words and thoughts. (39) When [he] renounces

selfish desires, his love expands unto the farthest regions of the

Universe until he

becomes aware of ... Cosmic Love. (40)

 

 

Q: Please tell me what Buddhi or intellect is, Lord.

 

 

Sai: Buddhi is the divine element in man, which is shining effulgently

always. ... What passes for the intellect today is divorced from the

Divine and is

not Buddhi in its real sense. This intellect is limited in its

capacity and is motivated by self- interest. (41) Man has been endowed

with Buddhi or

[intellect] so that he might at every turn decide what is beneficent

for observance and what is detrimental. (42) [it is] the special

instrument that God

has allotted man. (43)

 

 

The five constituents Sraddha [faith], Sathya [truth], Ritha [order],

Yoga [union] and Mahat Tatwa [supreme Principle] are parts of Buddhi.

.... To treat

an attribute that is related to these five significant entities as an

ordinary quality in man is the result of viewing it from a mundane

perspective. (44)

Without Buddhi, with its five important associates, all mental

faculties are useless like a fruit without juice. (45)

 

 

Q: What is its function?

 

 

Sai: In daily life, many difficulties and problems arise like waves,

which man has to solve. What is the basic agency for resolving these

difficulties? It

is the Buddhi. Without the intervention of the Buddhi, none of our

problems can be solved. (46)

 

 

In a world replete with ... opposites, man has to make constantly the

choice between what is right and proper and what is wrong or

undesirable. A man

who has no such discriminating faculty is an animal. Man should not

let himself be guided by the mind. He should follow the directions of

his

intelligence (Buddhi). As long as you follow the mind, you cannot

obtain Madhava (Divinity). (47)

 

 

Sukham (happiness) cannot be derived through the senses. Sensory

pleasures are perceptive and transient. True happiness is permanent

and real. Men

can realise this only through the intellect (Buddhi). (48) The

intellect is characterised by earnestness and steadiness. (49) [it]

.... has to be used by man to

become masters of these down-dragging senses, ... to judge and decide

the means for the upliftment of the human to the Divine. It has to

help man to

realize God.... Nevertheless, it is now misused in finding others'

faults and belittling others' excellences. It is like using a mirror,

not to improve one's

appearance, but to ridicule the appearance of others! (50)

 

 

Train the mind to turn towards [the Buddhi] for inspiration and

guidance, not towards the senses for adventure and material gain. That

will make it an

instrument for reducing your vagaries and saving time and energy for

more vital matters. (51)

 

 

The intellect ... will be sharp if it is devoted to discrimination

between the transient and the eternal. (52) Then the Unity in nature

will become evident.

(53)

 

 

Q: Is the Buddhi subtler than the senses, the mind, and the ego?

 

 

Sai: The senses are subtler than the body. The mind is even more

subtle than the senses. The Buddhi is far more subtle than the mind.

The Atma is the

subtlest of them all. (54) If it is said that Ahamkara (the ego) is

able to envelop the Buddhi, it must be deemed subtler than the Buddhi.

The ego is

extremely subtle. It is all-pervasive. It enters into all one's

actions. This is the reason why man is unable to transcend the ego and

comprehend the

Atma. (55)

 

 

Q: What shall we do to stop the ego from enveloping the Buddhi, Lord?

 

 

Sai: Efforts must be made at the outset to throw off the cover imposed

by the ego on the intelligence (Buddhi). The Buddhi is very close to

the Atma,

and is therefore well situated to receive ... illumination from the

Atma. The Buddhi is in a position to receive 90 percent of its energy

from the Atma.

The mind derives its power from the Buddhi. The mind in turn activates

the senses. The power of the senses is spread over the body. ...

[Therefore] the

illumination emanating from the Atma when it passes through the Buddhi

to the mind, from it to the senses, and from them to the body, gets

considerably dimmed by the time it reaches the body. If the Buddhi is

kept totally pure and untainted, it will be possible to transmit to

the body the full

power of the Atma. Hence man has to strive to keep the Buddhi pure and

holy. (56)

 

 

Q: How does the Buddhi know where to lead the mind, Lord?

 

 

Sai: Buddhi is directly influenced by the Atma. (57) [it] is

two-faced; it draws light from the Atma to which it is closest; it

illuminates with that light,

the mind and the senses. It regulates the passions and emotions, the

impulses and instinctive reactions. (58) Therefore, if the mind

follows the Buddhi it

will be able to lead the senses along the right path. (59)

 

 

The Buddhi ... reduces confusion, calms conflict and [resolves] doubt.

When we say, 'my inner voice has resolved thus', it is Buddhi that is

referred to.

Buddhi is also referred to as the 'inner self', the antaratman. (60)

To reach the goal, Sathwabuddhi is essential; it will seek the Truth

calmly and stick to

it whatever the consequence. (61)

 

 

Q: What role does the Buddhi play in Self-enquiry?

 

Sai: The Buddhi (intelligence) is the instrument for making the

enquiry into the Real. Buddhi is superior to intellectual talent. The

ancients accorded a

higher place to Buddhi because it confers the power of discrimination

between right and wrong, between the permanent and the passing. Modern

man

attaches higher value to intellectual ability. The falsity of this

view was demonstrated centuries ago in a debate between Adi Sankara

and Mandana

Misra. In that debate Sankara conclusively proved that Buddhi ( the

power of discrimination) was superior to intellectual ability

(medhas). (62)

 

 

If you want to see the Divine in you, you have to use your Buddhi,

just as you need a mirror to see your own eyes, which are able to see

everything else

in the world. It is folly to seek the Divine elsewhere. God is nearer

to you than your own mother. With purity of heart, you can experience

the Divine

within through your intellect. Love is the means to have this

experience for Love is God. (63)

 

 

Q: What are its impairments, Bhagavan?

 

 

Sai: The light from the lamp will be effulgent if the soot inside and

the dust outside are removed. In the case of the Buddhi, the soot

comes from

Ahamkara (ego) and the dust from Mamakara (attachment). These two

reduce the effulgence of the intellect. They have to be removed to

make the

Buddhi shed its light fully. (64) The [buddhi] has to be purified and

trained; otherwise, it is impossible to give up attachment to the

fruits of action.

(65) Every man who aspires for experiencing the Divine should strive

to remove the blemishes affecting the Buddhi by getting rid of egoism

and

attachment. When the ego goes, attachment also can be given up easily.

(66)

 

 

There are precious gems of wisdom within your hearts which require

excavation in order to be of some benefit to you. Intelligence is the

instrument

you have to use in order to gain them. At the very start you will

encounter a boulder barring your way; that is the body-consciousness,

the ego. Desires

are the loose rocks that have also to be dug out and kept aside. Then

you come to a bed of sand -- good thoughts, good words, good deeds.

When this

stratum is reached, you are nearing success. (67)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 SSS, X, 5.

 

2 SSS, VII, 57.

 

3 SSS, X, 279.

 

4 SSS, VII, 57.

 

5 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234.

 

6 JV, 7.

 

7 JV, 43-4.

 

8 SSS, X, 45.

 

9 SS, 35, April 1992, 64.

 

10 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 233.

 

11 SSS, X, 259.

 

12 SSS, X, 151.

 

13 JV, 41.

 

14 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 235.

 

15 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 239.

 

16 SS, 36, Nov. 1993, 295.

 

17 SM, 244.

 

18 SS, 33, Sept. 1990, 234.

 

19 DG, 6.

 

20 SSS, X, 216.

 

21 SSS, VII, 502.

 

22 SS, 31, Dec. 1988, 312.

 

23 SS, 36, Oct. 1993, 255.

 

24 SS, 35, April 1992, 60.

 

25 PRV, 14.

 

26 SS, 35, April 1992, 77.

 

27 DIS, III, 257.

 

28 YOA, 21.

 

29 SSS, X, 201.

 

30 YOA, 26.

 

31 DIS, I, 128.

 

32 SSS, X, 191.

 

33 SSS, X, 215.

 

34 JV, 22.

 

35 DV, 4.

 

36 JV, 63.

 

37 JV, 46.

 

38 BHG, 211.

 

39 SSS, X, 215.

 

40 SSS, X, 77.

 

41 DIS, V, 22.

 

42 VOA, II, 13.

 

43 SSS, XI, 9.

 

44 DIS, V, 21.

 

45 DIS, V, 21-2.

 

46 DIS, III, 261.

 

47 SS, 31, Mar. 1988, 70.

 

48 DIS, V, 21.

 

49 Loc. cit.

 

50 SSS, XI, 9.

 

51 SSS, X, 5.

 

52 SSS, V, 9.

 

53 SSS, VII, 8.

 

54 DIS, III, 262.

 

55 Loc. cit.

 

56 DIS, III, 263.

 

57 SHWR, 1979, 75.

 

58 SSS, XI, 9.

 

59 SHWR, 1979, 75.

 

60 SSS, X, 280.

 

61 SSS, I, 66.

 

62 SS, 34, Jan. 1991, 6-7.

 

63 DIS, V, 24-5.

 

64 DIS, V, 22.

 

65 GV, 35.

 

66 DIS, V, 24.

 

67 SSS, X, 30-1.

 

 

Chapter Eight. Successful Self-Enquiry and Its Place in

 

Spiritual Practice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Lord, today is my final day with You. I shall be most grateful if

You would consent to answer my remaining questions about Atmavichara.

My first

question is: Who is it that realizes the Self when Self-enquiry

succeeds?

 

 

Sai: The Jivi who is the 'I' is a mutable entity, a Vikari. How can he

possibly grasp [brahman]? A destitute cannot realise that he is a

monarch; so, too,

a mutable entity like man cannot grasp the immutable Brahman, or posit

that he is Brahman. (1) Reflecting on this problem, he will see that

the 'I' is

the immutable permanent witness, the Atma, which forgetful of its real

nature considers itself affected by change, through sheer ignorance.

When he

deliberately spends thought on his identity, he will know, " I am not a

Vikari, I am the witness of the ego, " the ego that suffers continuous

modification;

then, from this step, he will proceed to identify the immutable See-er

or Witness (or Sakshi) with himself. After this stage, there is no

difficulty in

realising " Aham Brahmasmi. "

 

 

How can it be said that it is the Sakshi who realises Aham Brahmasmi?

Who is it really that realises it? Is it the Sakshi? Or the Jivi, who

calls himself I

and undergoes modification? If we say that the Sakshi so understands,

the difficulty is that it is the witness or the 'I' and it has no

egoism, or Aham

idea. If it is said that it is the Aham, then how can it be the

Witness also? It will have to be subject to modifications if it is

Aham. The Sakshi too then

becomes a Vikari! It can have no idea like, " I am Brahman " ; so it can

never understand, " I have become Brahman " . Therefore, there is no

meaning in

saying that the Sakshi realises, " Aham Brahmasmi " . (2)

 

 

The experience of Jnana is available only to the Jivi, for it alone

has Ajnana. So it is the Jivi, not the Sakshi, that knows " Aham

Brahmasmi " . After the

dawn of that knowledge, 'I-ness' will disappear. He becomes Brahman.

Now, who is it that saw? What is it that was seen? What is the sight?

In the

statement, " I saw " , all these are latent, isn't it? But thereafter, to

say " I saw " is meaningless; it is not correct. To say, " I have known "

is also wrong; by

merely seeing the immutable once, the mutable Jivi cannot be

transformed into Sakshi! ... The mutable Jivi cannot realise " Aham

Brahmasmi " without

first getting transfused into the Sakshi. (3)

 

 

Q: Then please tell me truly, Swami: Is the Jivi the same as Brahman

or God?

 

Sai: The Sruthi does not declare that the Jivi is Brahman, as the

statement Aham Brahmasmi will indicate. It allows a limited,

restricted identity. That

is to say, the I-ness of the Jiva has to be got rid of by reasoning;

then, Brahman remains as balance, and knowledge dawns of " Aham

Brahmasmi " ; this

is the restricted process of identity. Continuing as Jivi, one cannot

grasp the Brahman essence. (4)

 

 

Q: After realizing the Self, is it possible to fall back from the

consciousness of the whole to the consciousness of the individual or

part?

 

 

Sai: 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. (5)

 

 

The human personality has to be discarded by inner devotion and

discipline and the acquisition of the Divine; then the knowledge dawns

that one is

divine. Limitation of the Jivi has to be overcome before Brahman-hood

dawns. (6)

 

Q: What kind of life will the Jnani then live?

 

 

Sai: The Jnani who has had a vision of the Atma in him will never

suffer sorrow. ... Such a Jnani will be unaffected by joy or grief,

for he will be fully

immersed in the ocean of Atmananda, above and beyond the reach of

worldly things. (7) [He will lead a] life ... saturated with

unexcelled Ananda, and

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

all. He will be in ecstacy, 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.

(8)

 

 

Q: Lord, You have not said in our discussion that You consider

Atmavichara in itself to be a complete path. What is the complete

path, of which

Atmavichara plays a part? Please tell us the complete truth of sadhana

and end our wondering.

 

 

Sai: For the Purusha to become Purushothama, the path is Yoga, or

Jnana won by Karma and Bhakthi. (9) Each individual deed must be full

of the

spirit of Seva, of Prema and of Jnana. In other words each group of

life's activities must be saturated with Karma, Bhakthi and Jnana.

This is verily the

Purushothama Yoga. (10) Buddhi, Chitta and Hridayam -- these are the

three centres in the individual, where reside Jnana, Karma and

Bhakthi. (11)

 

 

Do Karma based on Jnana, the Jnana that all is one. Let the Karma be

suffused with Bhakthi.... Let Bhakthi be filled with Jnana; otherwise,

it will be as

light as a balloon, which drifts along any current of air, or gust of

wind. Mere Jnana will make the heart dry; Bhakthi makes it soft with

sympathy and

Karma gives the hands something to do, something which will sanctify

every one of the minutes that have fallen to your lot to live here.

(12)

 

 

Q: Is one path prior to another?

 

 

The Karma path can be hailed as the Primary School stage which equips

one for the Upasana or Bhakthi marga, the High School and the College,

the

Jnana path. Jnana alone can help the awareness of Reality. (13)

Bhakthi must be cultivated; this is the bud. Then you must undertake

Karma, good

actions. This is the flower and all this will evolve into Jnana, the

fruit. There is no difference; all are one, but in different stages of

time -- evolving.

(14)

 

 

The Unmanifested, Nirguna Brahman [seen] at the climax of the

Jnanamarga [Jnana Path] cannot be grasped by the sense-centred

individual without

great travail and trouble. This is the reason why the Puranas dwell so

much more on the Saguna aspect than on the Nirguna aspect of Godhead,

First,

the aspirant has to practise the Sadhana related to the Saguna aspect

of God; this will endow him with concentration and later, according to

the law of

procedure from the gross to the subtle, he can merge his mind in the

Nirguna Brahman. (15)

 

 

Vairagya or Non-attachment also depends upon Jnana as well as Bhakthi.

Deprive Vairagya of that basis and you will find it crumbling fast.

(16)

Bhakthi includes Jnana; if Vairagya (Detachment) is isolated from

Bhakthi and Jnana, Jnana is isolated from Bhakthi and Vairagya and

Bhakthi is

isolated from Vairagya and Jnana; each is ineffective. The best that

each isolated path is capable of is to give some training in purity.

Never therefore

develop conceit and declare that you are Bhakthas or Jnanis or

Vairagis (Recluses). Sadhakas must dip in the Triveni of

Bhakthi-Jnana-Vairagya. There

is no other way to salvation. (17)

 

 

Q: Can You epitomize for me the entire process of sadhana leading to

liberation, of which Atmavichara plays a role?

 

 

Sai: The love which has the Atma as its basis is pure and sublime;

but, since man is bound by various pseudo forms of love, he believes

himself to be

just a Jiva, isolated and individualised, and deprives himself of the

fullness and vastness of Divine Love. Hence, man has to win the Grace

of God; when

he secures that Grace, the Jivi or the individual will be released

from identification with [the] body and can identify himself with the

Atma. This

consummation is referred to in the Vedas as 'Liberation from Bonds'

.... or 'Release' (Moksha). To battle against the tendency of

body-identification,

and to win the Grace of God as the only means of victory, spiritual

exercises have been laid down, such as philosophical enquiry, ...

sense-control

(dama), and other disciplines. ... The practise of these will ensure

the purification of the consciousness; it will then become like a

clean mirror that can

reflect the object; so, the Atma will stand revealed clearly. For

Jnanasiddhi (the attainment of the highest wisdom), Chitthasuddhi (the

cleansing of the

consciousness) is the Royal Path. For the pure in heart, this is easy

of achievement. This is the central truth of the Indian search for the

ultimate Reality.

(18)

 

 

Q: And Grace, Lord? There is always Your Grace to consider.

 

 

Sai: Whatever else a person may have, if he is blessed with the Grace

of the Lord, he can certainly have a vision of the Atma, however

deficient he may

be in generally accepted qualifications. (19)

 

 

Q: By Your Grace, Lord, I have the complete answer at last and can now

pursue my Atmavichara knowing its nature and where it fits with other

practices. Lord, I have one final question for You, which lies so deep

within me that I find it difficult to put it into words. When I lose

myself in

meditative contemplation of You, oblivious to bondage and liberation,

will I discover that there is ever any end to that Dhyana?

 

 

What is generally called the end is the end of the I and the merging

of all in the One Form. Dhyana [itself] has no end. (20)

 

 

Q: Thank You, Lord. I have no further questions. Please accept my most

sincere expression of gratitude, Lord, for making plain to me and my

sathsang

these precious gems on Atmavichara and Liberation.

 

 

Sai: Ponder over the ameliorative and curative advice I have given you

out of the fullness of My Love; try to cleanse your minds through

repentance of

wrongs committed or contemplated; resolve with unshakeable firmness to

shape your lives anew; rid it of deep-rooted deleterious habits of

speech,

thought and action; and lead it in conformity with the Divine Plan.

(21) The constant feeling, " I am Brahman, " is the panacea for all the

ills of man.

Liberation comes through this " Aham Brahmasmi " idea itself. That is

the real duty of man, to cultivate that feeling and enter upon that

experience. (22)

 

 

Footnotes

 

 

1 JV, 59.

 

2 JV, 58-9.

 

3 JV, 59-60.

 

4 JV, 61.

 

5 SSV, 8.

 

6 JV, 62.

 

7 JV, 8.

 

8 SSV, 8.

 

9 SSS, IV, 78.

 

10 PV, 9.

 

11 SSS, III, 26.

 

12 SSS, III, 26-7.

 

13 SS, 30, Feb. 1987, 38.

 

14 SNA, 5, Autumn, 1995, 6.

 

15 DV, 67.

 

16 JV, 39.

 

17 Loc. cit.

 

18 SSV, 5-6.

 

19 JV, 67.

 

20 SN, 100.

 

21 Sathyam, III, 68.

 

22 DV, 47.

 

 

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