Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

THE Ocean is a vast mystery. It is boundless and as old as time. It has, in its womb, chaotic whirlpools, raging currents, and it has a face with furious moods. No one can hope to sail over it from one shore to another land-bank, without a sturdy reliable boat. So too, man requires the sturdy boat of Divine Grace to cross the raging ocean of this samsara (ever-changing, ever agitated flow of life). This Ocean too is vast and full of mystery. It has its unplumbed depths! It tosses man about from birth to death and again from death to birth; it inflicts on him many uprisings and downfalls, many illnesses and morbidities; in it roll the waves of desires and resolutions; it frightens man by its monstrous denizens, greed; it draws the reason of man into the whirlpools of doubt.

To equip oneself with the Ocean-worthy boat of Grace, one has to develop in himself the qualities of faith and discipline. One has to clarify and purify the chiththa (past impressions). Time is the gift that God has blessed man with, for this purpose. So, man should use it as an instrument for the clarification and the purification. Contemplating the glories of God, discovering His presence in beauty, goodness and truth seen anywhere, meditating on His Form, repeating His Name - by these means the process can be made successful. Of course, these are not possible without virtuous living and kindness towards all beings. Thus, the mind will be rendered harmless, beneficent and even of great help in one's spiritual pilgrimage. Through the purified mind, one can transmute himself into the divine. Manava (human) can become Madhava (God) Himself. For, it is the destiny and the fight of every human to attain that status and immerse himself in the limitless Anandha (Divine Bliss) that it confers.

All the religions emphasise the importance of devotion and dedication to the Supreme Sovereign. The means of reaching that stage may be different; the description of the ecstasy that one can experience in the final stage and all along the path may be different; for it is beyond all attempts at description. Bhakthi marga (path of devotion to attain liberation), which is only another name for this devotion and dedication, will certainly cleanse the mind. And, the mind will be illumined into divinity.

Man has fallen into ignorance, egoism, and greed, because he has forgotten his real nature, which is unaffected by loss or grief. In truth, man is the embodiment of all the great virtues - love, peace, righteousness and truth. He has not realised this; he runs after low vulgarising pleasures, and so, entangles himself in falsehood, injustice, and violence. He has to cure himself of these by the remedies of thyaga (voluntary sacrifice) and yoga (renunciation and self-control). And, along with these remedies, he must regulate his ways of living and follow the regimen of faith and devotion.

As butter is inherent in milk, God is immanent in the Universe. When it is churned, the butter separates itself and becomes cognisable. So too, by means of love and the discipline of the recitation of the name, God can be concretised. Temples in villages are the places where such concretisation has been effected. The temple is for the village as the heart is for the body. In fact, the temple is conceived on the basis of the body, being the temple man carries about him. A body with no heart, a village with no temple and a tank with no water are all three without function or value. So you must maintain and foster the temple in your village as carefully and as constantly as you attend to your own heart and its condition. When you belch, you get the taste of the food you have eaten; the quality of the bread depends upon the quality of the flour; as the steadfastness in faith is, so is the devotion; as the devotion is, so is the realisation. As your sadhana (spiritual effort) is, so will be the truth revealed to you.