Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Yesterday and the day before, I spoke about the disciplinary life. that you should lead. I was a harsh task master then. But today, I shall be soft, and My words will be like the Himalayan breeze, cool and invigorating. That harshness had a reason, for there can be no effect without a cause. This coolness and that warmth are both parts of the same Person, and you cannot accept the one and reject the other. Good and bad, right and wrong are two sides of the same coin. As for Me, My nature is distinct; I do not identify with anything. Those who have neither authority nor adeptness have to hear, study, analyse, and judge. Authority is the right of the Atma alone. It is the Atma that can command. For Me, the purity of your feeling is important, not the depth of your scholarship. That is why I was harsh yesterday and the day before to compel you to examine your feelings and remove the blemishes. Today, I assure you, I shall not be so harsh. In fact, you may have noticed, I called you Embodiments of Divine Love (Premaswarupulara) in the beginning, when I began to speak! Usually, in human calculations, value is attached only to sharpness of intellect; but that is incomplete. Emotional clarity is also important. You purchase an article from a shop not merely because it serves a useful purpose but also because it is beautiful and attractive; that is to say, it appeals to the intellect and the emotions. Innate disposition gives beauty or, as they say in Telugu, andham . That is why I often say, andham is anandam (beauty is bliss); you cannot have one without the other.

Andham and anandam, beauty and truth, harmony and ecstasy are found in Oneness (Ekathwam), the discovery and experience of Unity. Unity must be as symbolised by the experience of unity of mud and gold; the sight, the seen, and the seer, that is, the search and the success. Ramakrishna prompted this yearning, promoted this agony in Vivekananda and others who came to him. Try with all your strength, test with all your doubt, earn it the hard way, and enjoy the fruit of your exertions - that was the teaching he gave. The music of all the transmitters of the world is everywhere. If you care to listen, get a radio receiver, learn the wave length of the station you want to hear, and switch on and tune in. The key to liberation has to be cast and forged and filed and fitted by each aspirant. It cannot be obtained in one moment by one word. Ramakrishna himself sought for it through years of inexplicable anguish - how, then, can we short-circuit the process for another? No one can just pass it on, saying, “Take!” The flower has to yield the fruit, and the fruit has to grow, ripen, and fall. Jealousy and anger are the twins born of Mother Ahamkara (self-conceit). Destroy the twins, and take away the karam (meaning, in Telugu, “the hot taste”) of the Ahamkaram and keep it simply as Aham (I), so that you can get the thrill of “Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman)” with that instrument. That is the stage to be reached, the height to be scaled. The karam in the Ahamkara (I in the self-conceit) is like the single seed that, if allowed to sprout, multiplies a thousand fold and produces many bags of seed. It has to be crushed in the very first instance. Then the analysis of the Aham starts and ends in the conclusion, “this Aham is the Atma, which is Brahma (Ayam Atma-Brahma)”. The two - That and This, Thath and Thwam - are identified, and This is found to be only That when “Thou art That (Thath thwam asi) is realised. Well. What is the thing called That (Thath)? What is Brahmam in other words? The fourth great aphorism (mahavakya) declares it to be: the Highest Wisdom (Prajnanam), Unity, One.

All these sacred, great aphorisms (mahavakyas) relate to the Glory of the One, which is a veritable Ocean of Grace: The vapour rising from It is, “Supreme Consciousness is Brahman (Prajnanam Brahma)”, The cloud is, “This Atma is Brahman (Ayam Atma Brahma)”, The shower of rain is, “Thou art That (Thath thwam asi)”, The river is, “I Am Brahman (Aham Brahmasmi)”. Prajnanam Brahma is symbolised by the Andapinda Lingam - the vision of the one entity in all the manifold entities, the expansion of the individual into the universal, and the enlargement of the I into the vastness of the “He and We”. ‘When you knock at another’s door and a voice from inside accosts you with the question, “Who is it?” you automatically answer, “It is I.” That does not satisfy the questioner, so another question eliciting further information follows. Only then will the door open. The door of liberation can also open only to those who can explain who the “I” truly is. This reveals “I am in the Light” to the individual soul (jivi). The second aphorism, “This Atma is Brahman”, tells the individual soul that, “The Light is in Me.” Slowly the truth dawns on the mind! The Light that I imagined as enveloping me, the Supreme Consciousness, which I identified as the basis of all this appearance, is in me, too. My innermost truth is also that Supreme Consciousness, that Light. This is represented by the vision of the Eternal Siva (SadhaSiva Lingam). In their spiritual exercises, spiritual aspirants see the Light that dispels the darkness of ages. They are told that they are Light and nothing else, “Thou art that (Thath thwam asi).” They then become immune to spasms of ignorance, which make them forget their nature. Just as a beginner learning the violin lapses easily into grinding out distressing sounds from the strings, aspirants grind out discordant notes of discontent and grief. When pain becomes unbearable, a person faints and loses consciousness; that is a consolation. Beyond a certain limit, you are not to suffer pain. Similarly, when this identity feeling is established, no more activity is possible. One becomes “unconscious” of the world, or, rather, one passes beyond the realms of consciousness - un-consciousness, sub-consciousness, and even super-consciousness; the river has reached the sea. “Thou art that (Thath thwam asi)” is symbolised by the vision of enlightenment (the Jnana Lingam). “I Am Brahman (Aham Brahmasmi)”, the last of the four aphorisms, is associated with the Atma Lingam . The fourteen higher worlds and the fourteen lower worlds cannot be shown and demonstrated in models; they are symbolic of the levels of consciousness in the geography of the spirit and in the journey of the mind toward the Goal. No books can teach you the topography; the journey is the best teacher, each step making the next one easier. Radha, Meera, Sakku, Surdas, Ramakrishna - all followed the guidance of their own inner call. The body (angam) is the meeting point (sangam) where spirit and matter meet; the moving (jangam) phantasmagoria where spirit and matter meet is the meeting point (sangam). From this meeting point, one has to evoke the Lingam (Divinity in its aforesaid four forms, one after the other). The Lingam is just a sign: a sign of endeavour, a sign of success. For example, the Andapinda Lingam signifies the egg-shaped universe, which is how it is even according to experts in science. The outer cover is the anda, and the inner matter is the pinda . They are dependent on each other. You are all basically the universe (andapinda), with the outer shell of materialism and the inner core of Divinity. The body is a vessel to contain the Consciousness or Effulgence of Divinity (Chaithanya).

The sentiment, “I Am Brahman (Aham Brahmasmi)” explicit in the aphorism gives a sense of kinship, as when this Linga confronted by that Linga proceeds to alingana (embracing). That sense of belonging has great psychological value: when you hear a child cry and find on enquiry that it is your child, you get far more anxious than when you are told it is another’s child. The attachment will lead to merging (for the Andapinda Lingam is this body, this nature, which we see) and imbibing and building into our consciousness. Even God, when He comes with human body or as materialised form, is Andapindam, whether it is Vishnu, Siva, Rama, Krishna, or Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Jnanalingam symbolises the divine wisdom (jnana) that you are the totality of all beings and that that totality is in you. Divine wisdom itself is Brahmam. Divine wisdom is not a quality of Brahmam, it is Brahmam itself, for Brahmam has no quality. The liberated person, though in the world, has Inner Vision, which makes the person fall away, just as the dried leaf, which has no more need of attachment, falls from the twig. Atmalingam (the vision of form of the Self), the ultimate phase, is the stage of gold, when the names and forms of gold jewels have been subsumed. Water freezes into ice; Atma freezes into the individual. The Atmalingam is just the pot that contains sea water, immersed in the self-same sea. Both are identical, only the name and the form are different.

You can realise your truth by following the path that will lead to that knowledge. Only, you must be prepared for the discipline and the travail. When I give you a drug, you must take it in the prescribed dosage and adhere strictly to the regimen of food, sleep, and exercise I recommend. Of course, the anxiety to get cured quickly is commendable; but there is a timetable for all this. Moderation is productive of better results than excess. Women know that when they add water to a cooked dish in order to reduce the taste of excess salt, they have to also add necessary quantities of other ingredients in order to make it tasty. In the same way, I have to reduce the excessive attachment you have for the things of the world, and when I do that, I have to correct by various other methods. I shall cure you, slowly and patiently; the more slowly I do it, the more lasting it will be. I shall reveal to you the Atmalingam without fail. Yes, great days are coming; let not your sloth stand across and deprive you of the chance. When you listen to My story, you forget the story of the world and live only in My story, until there is no separate story for you to relate or live. Well, to make you story-less is the scheme of My story. SadhaSivalingam indicates the person who is ever of the form of Siva. Here and everywhere, night and day, in joy and grief, the person is sivam - happy, auspicious, graceful. Bliss (anandam) is their breath, their motive force, their demeanour, their inner and outer expression; Sadha - always and for ever. Sivam - auspicious. There is no room here for controversy or intellectual rivalry and competition, like the ones indulged in by pandits and scholars, misusing the valuable paper manufactured by the mills of this country. Install SadhaSivalingam in the consciousness and all things will be revealed to you, step by step, by the Grace of the divine Indweller.