Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

The three gunas: sathwa, raja and thama, are the three weapons which God has specially given to us in this world. Presently, because man does not know how to use these weapons properly, we are getting into all kinds of difficult situations. There are various circumstances which make these three qualities manifest themselves in different ways. The first one is the creation around us. It is the nature of creation that it continually changes. This has been used as the main instrument in the hands of God. The creation is also called Prakruthi. Prakruthi is that which continually changes.

The second is avidya or ignorance. It is the opposite of vidya or knowledge. This promotes the Thamo Guna in man and gives rise to his likes and dislikes. This will drive man to justify the faults that are in him. This Thamo Guna has got the quality by which it can make man recognise the truth and un truth, and sometimes make the mistake of recognising untruth as truth. It is the duty of man to remove such ignorance by various methods.

The third one is maya. Maya creates all kinds of surprising things and illusions. There is nothing which maya cannot do. Maya has the strength to create the entire world and to make the world play the drama by which even to destroy the whole world. Maya is responsible for man’s birth as well. Foolish people are born in maya, grow up in maya and end their life in maya. Their lives are totally steeped in maya. Why seek such a life which is full of maya and which ends in maya? Because God wears Prakruthi as His clothes, Paramatma is also called maya. Paramatma’s own maya is His cloak. This is the reason why we refer to Parameswara as one who is having maya as His face. Depending upon the circumstances, we come across these three different forms. The three different forms are called Prakruthi, avidya and maya. These three - particularly avidya and maya - differ only in degree and not in essence, only in name and not in the end-result. They are inseparable from each other and are indeed connected with each other. If we can under-stand divinity and how it works, we can make an attempt to get rid of these illusions in our life.

There are four different kinds of sadhana. By using four methods of sadhana, we have an opportun-ity to conquer them. The first is to discriminate and distinguish between things which are permanent and things which are transient. By having such capacity, we can achieve a lot of good. By listening to the sacred Sruthi and Puranas, we should be able to understand the meaning of “Brahma sathyam, Jagat mithya.” If we get our belief in Brahman being the truth only by reading books and by attending discourses and not by our own personal experience, it cannot have a lasting effect on us. In our daily life, we are always seeing changes coming about. What we now regard as truth, becomes untruth after some time. What we now regard as untruth, after some time may turn out to be the truth. Depending upon the situation and the environ-ment around you, truth can change into untruth, untruth can change into truth. These changes are only characteristic of man’s mind and arise out of man’s behaviour, but they cannot be characteristics of truth.

Truth is One and will never change with time. All those that change should be regarded as untruth. Some things come and go but these things which come and go are neither sath (truth) nor asath (untruth), but they are called sath-asath (truth and untruth). Why do we call such things sath-asath? Because, when they come, we think they are true, and when they go, we think they are untrue. This combination of truth and untruth is called sath-asath. Another word for it is mithya, and this is the characteristic of many things in the world.

Here, we see that the basis is the unchanging truth, and what has appeared to us as changing is un-truth. To this world, everything changes from moment to moment. All these are coming into the world and going out of the world. The only thing which has neither to come nor to go is the aspect of Brahman and that is the basis. It is possible to recognise this basic truth and to experience it by learning from those who know or from elders who had experience of such aspects. The second one is to give up the enjoyment of the consequences of your actions. The essence of this statement is to tell us that the events, which we consider as pleasures, are transient under all circum-stances and the enjoyment of such material pleasures is likely to cause an illusion in you that they are good, but in reality they lead you to sorrow and pain in life.

Man always wants to experience pleasure which he has already experienced once. At all times, and as long as one wants, if one wants to experience the same pleasures which one had already experienced before, this would surely lead him to sorrow. All the worldly pleasures and enjoyments are transient. It is not right on our part to submit ourselves to such transient and temporary pleasures. Our ancestors thought that this was like eating stale food. To eat stale food that has been vomited by someone else is the quality of a dog and not of a man. Similarly, the desire to want to ex-perience the same material pleasures again and again is the quality of a dog. To understand this and try and give up such desires becomes the sacred quality of man. It is very essential for us to understand this aspect of experience in this world and make an effort to reach a stage of desirelessness.

The third one relates to the sama and dama, i.e., control of working and sensory organs. Sama will imply that you do not turn your thoughts towards the organs and sensory pleasures, but try and direct it towards knowing the significance of Atma. The world you see around you is a creation of your own vision. Your vision should be used to see and realise the sacred Atma. This also means a change of external vision into internal vision. It is only when we can develop an inward vision that we will achieve detach-ment from the outward vision. Dama represents your having a control over your internal sensory organs and thus a control over all your actions. It is only when you have no control over your internal sensory organs will your external organs become dominant. To be able to control these outward working organs, we should de-velop the necessary strength to control the senses as well.

If the inward sensory organs get the control over you, they become excited; and it will not be possible for you to control the outward working organs. The true sadhana, in this context, is the effort undertaken to control the inner sensory organs. If we make an effort to control directly the outer organs, this cannot be the correct and right way of doing it. We must try and understand the nature of the inner organs. If the inner organs are excited to a large extent, we develop defective vision, defective hearing and faulty thinking. When your thoughts are such that they are going to excite the inner sensations and your working organs, you must make an attempt to ask, whether the consequence is going to be for your good or for your bad. You should constantly introspect and ask if this act is worthy of being undertaken or not. Having obtained this sacred birth of a human being and having truth in you in the form of Atma, you should conduct yourself in a manner consistent with your status as a human being.

The third sadhana is uparathi. The meaning of this uparathi has been given by several people by say-ing that it connotes giving up the world and becoming a sanyasi or doing only such work for which there can be no consequences. The true meaning of this word is to recognise that the mind is responsible for exciting the inner sensory organs. Mind is the master of your inner organs. When the mind, in the position of a master, can put these organs along the right path, it will be possible to control these organs by controlling your mind. Either to excite the organs or to keep them cool and relaxed, mind is responsible. If the mind, which is in the position of a controller, is not going to control these organs, the blame rests on the mind. This is why it is said that mind alone is responsible both for the bondage of man and for the liberation of man, because mind alone controls the inner organs. Thus, to be able to control the inner organs, we should try and put this mind of ours along the right path.

To be able to put your mind along the sacred path, we must first understand the significance of sadhana and of good company. For this purpose, we shall have to undertake such things as japa and thapa, sadhana, yagna and yaga. If you cannot do such things, you must at least make your mind take the path of service to the community in the name of God and for the pleasure of God. The mind should be told that all aspects that are present in everyone is the same aspect of Atma. The truth that divinity is omni-present should be impressed on the mind. To our mind, some things may appear to be trivial and look as if they are tiny things. We should make the effort to elevate things to a higher position. But God, who is in a high exalted position, should not be brought down to the level of these little things.

The kind of sadhana which we would do is to elevate things from a low level to a high level. You must worship a picture as God but not worship God as a picture. This means that this piece of paper is God, this tumbler is God, this microphone is God, every-thing is God. You must attempt to take these things from a low level to the status of God. Unfortunately, today, people regard God as paper, regard God as a tumbler, and so on. Thereby we are bringing God from a high position to the position of these trivial things. We should be able to recognise that in every human being, the aspect of Easwara is present, and this aspect is one and the same in all. In all these things, you should try and get the vision of your own Atma. This is the good which uparathi can do for you.

The next sadhana is called tithiksha. In this sadhana, we should try to regard all things as the creation of God and develop equal-mindedness. Whatever the material may be, whatever the object of your attention may be, we should not show any distinction. We should be able to accept contrary things like darkness and light, heat and cold in an equal minded manner. These opposite qualities are simply coming out of changes in time. Such changes which come about only by a change of time are regarded as inherent changes and they do not exist permanently. Although what we see is one and the same, we regard it as good or bad depending upon the time.

Well-prepared and properly-cooked food today will become poison after three days. We need not go so far. We can take an example which we see in our daily life. If we eat fresh food today, by tomorrow it gets changed into excreted matter. We may think that the food that we are eating is good. What we excrete tomorrow is bad. Both good and bad are thus really the same, but the time and circumstances are different. In this manner, by change of time, we are calling things good and bad; but there is no intrinsic difference.

Every event will give us some pleasure and happiness and sorrow. Pain and pleasure always come together. It is not possible for anyone to separate them from each other. Pleasure alone, isolated from pain, is never possible. When pain fructifies and gives its fruit, it becomes pleasure. Pleasure has no separate form of its own. We should promote the strength in us by which we can accept both pain and pleasure with an equal mind.

It is by sraddha, or care that one can become wise. If you have sraddha, it will be possible for you to acquire any amount of wisdom. What kind of sraddha should we promote? Sraddha in vairagya, sraddha in sacred things and sraddha in how to help the com-munity. We should also develop this care and sraddha in selfless work, in doing things which will give pleasure and happiness to others. On the other hand, it will become dangerous to us, if we develop sraddha in bad ideas and bad conduct. Here sraddha has been interpreted by saying that listening to Vedanta itself is sraddha.Vedanta means to acquire wisdom, the wis-dom relating to Brahman, to be able to recognise what Brahman stands for, and come to the conclusion that what is omnipresent is Brahman and to understand the truth that there is no place where Brahman is not present. If we can recognise this truth regarding the omnipresence of Brahman and that there is no form which does not belong to Brahman, then we shall be able to rest in equanimity and equal-mindedness.

The word samadhana means that whatever you may do, it should be such that it causes satisfaction in you, samadhana in your mind. If there is no satisfaction in your own self, there is no use doing that work. Unfortunately today, although there is no satisfaction in one’s own self, in order to cause satisfaction to the community around, several ways of doing things are being followed. In this process, one’s whole life is being changed into an artificial life. What is the use of un dertaking such actions that do not give satisfaction to your own self? The desire should sprout from within you. In that context, with a peaceful idea, with a sacred heart and with a clean mind, you should try and plan your action. Your thought, your word, your action should all be synthesised properly and be in harmony. After acquiring a human birth, having been told to behave as a human being, if we cannot understand the meaning and the need for this harmony, one’s life will simply turn out to be useless.

The word manava means that you should be-have in a manner which does not connote ignorance on your part. The feature that is characteristic of this ignorance is avidya. All the learning that we acquire these days can really be called avidya. What you are acquiring is all for the sake of eking out a livelihood in this world. At least, some part of your learning should be such that it will enable you to understand yourself.

The fourth type of sadhana is called mumuk-shatwa. Mumukshatwa has been explained by some people by saying that while one’s own house is burning, all attempts on his part to save himself from the burning house will be called mumukshatwa. This means that when one is burning in the fire of his karma, entangled in the cycle of birth and death, to be able to rescue himself from that fire and save himself is called mumukshatwa. If you are able to have detachment and not think that some people belong to you and some people do not belong to you, and recognise that the only truth is the Atma and get out of this fire of samsara, it is mumukshatwa. The sadhana which enables you to decrease your attachment and your moha is called mumukshatwa. To give up one’s desires and experience and enjoy the bliss of detachment is called mumukshatwa. One can also explain mumukshatwa by saying that it is to get rid of your sorrow and to enjoy bliss. How do we attain this? There is an easy path. Truly, when you have an intense desire to achieve this, there is no other path easier than this. It is difficult for us to get attached to things. It is easy to give up things. You feel that the world is attaching itself to you and because of this attachment, it causes pain to you. If you think that while you make an attempt to detach yourself from the world, the world is not getting detached from you; it is wrong. You have attached yourself to the world. The world has not attached itself to you.

There is a small story. In this country, it has been the tradition for some people to trap monkeys. What they do is to take a big pot with a narrow mouth and put something attractive into that pot. They put the pot where the monkeys move about. The monkey easily puts its hand into the earthen pot. The monkey gets the material that is in the pot into its hand by clasping it. Its fist is full of that material and the fist gets bigger and is blocked. The monkey cannot remove the hand. The monkey then thinks that someone in-side the pot is catching hold of its hand. There is no one inside the pot holding the hand. What is holding the food inside the pot is the hand of the monkey. The moment it can give up what is in its hand, the hand can come out of it. Alas! the monkey does not realise this.

In the same manner, this enormous pot of the world has got what may be called a selfish mouth. We enter into this pot through this selfish mouth of the world in order to satisfy our desires. For that reason, we are getting caught in it. If we simply give up what we have caught, then there is no bondage. This is called vairagya. Vairagya does not mean giving up your home, giving up your wife and children and going to the forest. To make an attempt to decrease your desires is called vairagya. This has also been described by saying less luggage and more comfort make travel a pleasure. If we can decrease the luggage of desires, then our journey of life will become a pleasure.

Our life is a long journey. In this long journey of our life, we get attached to many desires in the form of luggage and the journey becomes a long and weary one. Less luggage or decreasing this luggage of desires has been called vairagya in the parlance of Vedanta.

Our ambitions and attachments should be decreased to some extent. Better than promoting your desires, promote your sacrifice. By more desires, more attachments will come to you but satisfaction will not come. These things always keep on adding as plus, plus, plus. By decreasing our desires and by promoting sacrifice in us, we will be able to rise to the heights of glory and do good to our country.

Those of you, who are young and youthful, should promote these sacred ideas and do service to the country and to your parents. You should resuscitate the ancient culture of Bharath. You should, by practice, become examples to others. If you take such steps, very soon it will be possible for you to raise this country to the very heights of glory, to take it back to the time when it was known as a Thyaga Bhumi and a Yoga Bhumi. You must do that.