Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Out of karma is born every Jiva. He grows and moves in the path of Karma. These aspects of work are equivalent to God so far as individuals are concerned. Karma is responsible for both sorrow and pleasure in this world, “Svayam Sarvam Vedati Iti Vedaha”. In the context of this description of Veda, it has been said that Veda will remove one’s ignorance and will enable one to become wise and acquire knowledge about everything.

While explaining the features of Agni, the Sruthi has said “Brahman Agnihi.” It has identified Agni with Brahmana. The Vedas have also taught that Bharatha is a name synonymous with Agni. Agni is used in sacrificial rites for purifying the offerings, it is also called by the name Pavaka. So Bharati is also referred to as Pavaka or one who purifies. Further it has also been said that because agni bears Pavakas, it may also be called Pavakavahana. In the name Pavakavahana, there is a meaning according to which it is called Jataveda.

It becomes clear to us in this context that Veda has come with a view to expound the meaning of Bharatha and to make known to people the aspect of Paramatma. In order to know for whom and from whom Veda has originated, they also referred to Agni as Jativeda in the statement “Agnih Jativeda.” It is necessary to make clear to ourselves that there is no difference between the words Agni and Bharatha. These are alternative names for the same thing.

In the triune aspect of God, the names Ida, Saraswathi and Bharathi are the three aspects that have been taken from the three Vedas, Rig, Yajur and Sama. On the same analogy, it has been established that the divine has three aspects - Sath, Chith, Ananda - and He is called the Sathchithananda Swarupa.

In the ritual of the sacred yajnas with which we are familiar in this country, the master of the yajna and his wife have to perform certain duties. The wife has to utter some manthras describing Agni and Veda. In this context, she uses the terms Rig, Yajur and Sama and addresses the God of Yajna as one who is Jnatha, Data and Bharatha. The word Bharatha is thus used in this context. In this context, we have to understand that the three words Jnatha, Data and Bharatha are only alternative ways of addressing Agni.

The three sacred words - Bharatha, Bharata and Bharathi - appear together in several places in Veda. In the Yajna, there is a word called Kusamushti and this word has a specific meaning. Here it becomes clear that Veda has come for the sake of Bharatha and for giving the meaning of the term Prajapati.

It is only when we go deeply into the meaning of the Veda that we can understand the manthras that occur in the Vedas. Unless we recognise that there is a close and inseparable relationship between these words and the manthras in the Vedas and God Himself, the Vedas will appear like any other trivial writing of some unknown author and just a conglomeration of various words and letters. The Vedas are indeed much more comprehensive than a mere grouping of words and letters.

It is an ardent desire on the part of the citizens of Bharath to translate the message of the Vedic culture into their daily life. While performing religious ceremonies like naming their children, they whisper three times into the right ear of a child a word like “vac”. This is to tell the child that he is no different from the Veda and he is the successor to the Vedic tradition and Vedic culture. It is also common that in addition to giving a worldly name, a divine name such as Devadatta by saying “vedosi” is also given.

In this manner when they say vedosi, it means “you are born in this world for upholding the Vedas” “God has given you this human form so that you may fulfil what is contained in the Vedas” and that is why the child is given in adoption to the deva himself. In our tradition, it is common to adopt a child if one has no children of his own and this is called (dattaka) adoption. Giving one to God in adoption means that one is entitled to receive from God His divine strength and power and therefore, inherit His capacity. There is a further meaning here which says that the birth, growth, decline and death of the human body are all coming from Prajapati. He gives all these things as a gift for a human body.

In the aspect of Bharatha is implied and latent the aspects of Agni as well. You have already been told that Agni is an alternate name for Bharatha. From the sun comes agni and from agni comes vayu and from vayu comes rasni and from rasni comes Bharatha. In this sequel we must understand that life in the body consists of these five aspects. For the breath that we inhale and exhale, the vayu is responsible in the form of Prana. For our intelligence and thinking capacity, the sun is responsible. This is to say that there is a divine basis for all the material constituents of our body and that they can flourish only in the aspect of God. This is an interpretation given by the Vedas in this sequence of words. Agni with the name Bharatha has the capacity to purify anything that it comes into contact with in addition to burning it up. This is one other aspect in the Vedas.

Because of this, Bharatha the equivalent of agni, is also taken to mean the form of truth. On the basis of this, dharma has taken a form which everyone knows as equivalent to truth. That is why it has been said Satyan nasti Paro dharmaha. There is no truth which is different from dharma. Prajapati, the embodiment of truth, takes the form of dharma and gives to the world the Ashthanga Yoga calling upon them to follow the Ashthanga Yoga and thus understand the significance of Prajapati.

Here we should take the word sathya and divide it into “sa, ta, ya”. We get the meaning that ya stands for discipline or controlled conduct which is regulated life, Ta stands for thapas and if we do thapas with a rigorous discipline, then we will release the sa which stands for Sathya. To reach truth, discipline, a regulated life and thapas are essential. We should not think of doing thapas alone. The thapas that we do should be controlled by various rules and regulations. Only then will we realise the truth.

The word discipline here means that one has to discipline oneself and control one’s organs. It is only the control of the outer and inner organs that constitutes discipline here. You can give them freedom only to the extent of performing specific allotted tasks. By giving it such a meaning and by performing your tasks and developing an intense desire to become one with God, that becomes thapas. Through such thapas you can comprehend truth. Thapas does not mean giving up everything and going to a forest but still leading a life devoid of thought of God. If in your thapas you have not surrendered to God and if your heart does not appreciate and learn to flourish in the aspect of God, it is not possible to realise truth.

If we cannot love and respect the one God who has given us life, our existence and by whose strength we live and die, and if we cannot prosper in the thought of God, we cannot reach or comprehend truth. God is the Master of everything that we see around us. It is wrong for us to think that man is the Master and that he alone is responsible for everything. While God in the form of Atma inside your body, is making you utter the word “I”, it is utterly foolish on your part to identify such a divine “I” with your destructible and material body. Any feeling of attachment to the body and the illusion that the body is real is tantamount to death. On the other hand, the realisation that you are the Atma is tantamount to immortality and permanence.

We should fix our thoughts on the Atma, and all our actions involving the body have somehow to be reconciled to the feeling and recognition of the Atma. All prosperity and material wealth are like shadows. If these shadows are in your front and ahead of you, they will continue to be so, however much you may run to overtake them. The underlying meaning here is that this shadow of wealth or prosperity goes ahead of you always. If you do not wish to allow this shadow of wealth to be ahead of you but keep it behind you then as you go farther and farther, the shadow also moves with you, behind you and accompanies you. It does not overtake you. The inner meaning of the word Aiswarya here for which we have been using the word wealth is the aspect of Easwara. Easwara is one who possesses all kinds of wealth and prosperity. The only way in which you can achieve it is to have the aspect of divinity in front of you. Prosperity will then follow you. The rishis of our country realised that the aspect of truth and dharma would enable them to reach God and become one with Him. This is the way one has to spend one’s life if one wants to have Aiswarya or Easwara with him.

Our rishis realised this and they always followed the path of truth to realise God. Our rishis never worried even if their very breath of life had stopped. They were not worried even if their entire body lost its shape. They always lived in bliss because they believed that all the power in them, all that they have in them belonged to the Lord and therefore if the Lord decided to remove something from them, it was done by the Will of God.

They felt that whatever they did was only for the purpose of reaching the Lord and realising Him. From the point of view of the worldly usage, Bharatha was used to signify meanings synonymous with those of agni, vayu and rasni. It has thus become necessary to recognise four different aspects namely, Mahima, Ida, Saraswathi and Bharathi. Prajapati is the embodiment of dharma. The name Bharatha has come from him and it is not correct to give the name only to a piece of land with geographically limited boundaries. An individual may be named Rama but it does not follow that this Rama is the same Rama as the son of king Dasaratha. Similarly, we may name an individual Krishna but he would not be the same as Yasoda’s son Krishna. Similarly the name Bharatha is to be taken as one of the many names of Prajapati, and this has been given to the country in which we live. Unless the country acquires all the qualities associated with Bharatha or Prajapati, the name will not reflect the original meaning with justification.

Unfortunately, Historians have been explaining that this name has come from one of the names of the Kings that ruled this country or from one of the philosophers who preached in this country at one time or other. This is not correct. We find the usage of the word Bharath in several contexts in the Veda itself. In coming to assign an origin for this name, we must ask ourselves whether the Kings came first or the Vedas. Similarly whether the philosophers came first or the Vedas. The philosophers and their expositions came much later than the Vedas themselves. In fact, the Veda came earlier. If the word Bharatha occurs in the Vedas themselves, we have to interpret that the origin of the word Bharatha is in the Vedas themselves.

Therefore, the words, Bharatha, Bharati, and Bharath have their origin in the Vedas. In the very beginning when one starts learning the alphabet, one prays to Goddess Saraswathi and equates her with Bharati. Thus in the very beginning of our education, we use a Vedic term Bharati. Our writers have frequently been using the words Saraswathi and Bharati synonymously. Saraswathi, Bhagavati and Bharati have been described as “Purnendu Bimbanana”. This can be a description of the Vedas only because it implies something which is Purna i.e., full and only the Vedas are complete in every sense. Therefore, the word Bharati refers to the Vedas. The world itself is not complete. The only thing which is full in the universe is divinity. This aspect of fullness is to be found only in Prajapati or Brahman and therefore, when we use the word Bharati or Bharath it can refer only to the aspect of the Brahman or the Vedas. The desire and the ability to work and the knowledge of how to work, all together will represent the aspect of Bharatha.

The same thing is described in terms of three different paths - namely the path of Karma, the path of Upasana and the path of Jnana. These three have also been referred to as Sruthi, Raga and Tala or the rhythm, song and the beat respectively. An appropriate combination of these three represents Bharath. We can also see that if we split the word Bharath into “Bha” “Ra” “Ta”, we can get a correct description of our country. The synthesis of Bhava, Raga and Tala - or the synthesis of the thought, the song and the beat - represents our country. The oneness of thought, word and deed is characteristic of our country. The oneness of these three aspects has also been called Triputi.

If the thought takes one form, the song another and the beat yet another form, such uncoordinated music will be very unpleasant to listen to. The song should accompany a proper thought and should be appropriate to the thought. The song must be tuned to a proper beat. Thus there should be unity between thought, song and the beat. The strength to think out some line of action and to put that thought to work and then lead the work properly to its fruition is contained in the statement that the proper study of mankind is man. If man is such that he has one thought, says something else and does something different, he should not call himself a man. In other words, if there is no co-ordination between one’s thought, word and deed one would not be possessing human qualities. In fact, such an individual may rightly be referred to as an animal. A human being should speak out the thoughts that are in his mind and should act in co-ordination with both his thought and word.

This name Bharatha is a Vedic word and has been the sacred name of our country. Hence, it is essential that all citizens of this country should make an effort to justify this name. This is the reason why rishis laid down strict regulations and principles of morality and ethics for our conduct. They emphasised that human civilisation can be preserved only if we work within these limitations and controls. In this sacred land of Bharath, the quality of forbearance is the most beautiful quality which we can claim. In all our actions, that particular action of sticking to truth is the noblest act. The sweetest of all ideas we accept is the idea of love and affection to a mother. According to the traditions of our country, nothing can be sweeter than the affection for a mother.

Knowing full well that our character is much more important than even our own life, yet we have let the standard of our character fall very low. Today we have landed ourselves in a situation where we are borrowing our standards and morals from foreign countries. Our interpretation of freedom is taking the peculiar form of an unsteady and fickle minded person. Alas! how shall I describe the manner in which our country is being ruled? Like the elephant which does not know its own strength, our people, although intrinsically strong, do not know their own strength and have become weaklings. The elephant is very strong and yet it can be tamed easily by its trainer. It will do exactly what the trainer directs it to do. So also, citizens of Bharath are forgetting their inherent strength and adapting the ideas given by foreigners. What has happened to our traditions and why have we forgotten the great strength that is contained in them?

Imitation is one of the greatest weaknesses of a human being. We have a heart of our own, a life of our own and strength of our own. Why do we have to imitate someone else’s strength and someone else’s way of life? This is one of the greatest weaknesses. Today we are imitating others from the trivial to the vital things. If someone wears a sideburn, another person who looks at him also wants to wear a sideburn; if someone wears a tight pant, others want to do the same thing. If someone grows a bushy hair, others want to do the same thing. This kind of imitation simply means that you have become a slave. What has happened to your own strength and your capacity to think? Why do you have to imitate others’ always? Do not become a slave to others. You should become a slave to yourself or a slave to Paramatma.

In this context, if you realise that the Paramatma is within you, then it means that you should become a slave to yourself. By this, we mean that you should understand yourself. Until you understand yourself, you are a slave. The moment you understand who you are, you become God himself. God is the embodiment of truth, purity and dharma. If you develop this aspect of truth and purity, you become one with God. The strength and capacity that are in God cannot be understood by anyone. The only thing that you can do is to enjoy that bliss and follow them and experience them. To describe God as such and such and to say that He is like so and so is not correct. It has been said that “Bhramavid Brahmaiva Bhavati” (one who knows Brahman becomes Brahman himself). If an individual is unable to comprehend his own self, how can he comprehend the aspect of Brahman?

It is in this context that Mira had sung a song with a very significant meaning. “How are we to know you and your nature? Oh Lord! some people say that we can attain you very easily. Yet some others say that to attain Divinity is a difficult task. How are we to reconcile these two statements? Some pray for you in the solitude of a forest while some others say that you are in a mansion. How are we to know the truth of these statements? It is only for Radha, who had surrendered everything to Lord Krishna and totally merged in His thought, to understand and recognise the aspect of the Lord”.

Here we must ask ourselves who this Radha is in reality. This is only symbolic and signifies the continuous chanting of the Lord’s name. If we take the name “RADHA” and look at it in a cyclic order, we get the next word as “ADAR” and the next as “DARA” and the next as “ARAD” and finally back to “RADHA”. From this we can see that Radha is one who continually takes to the aradhana of the Lord. One who does this aradhana continuously is Radha. One who always has the thought of God is Radha.