Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Even to place one foot forward, man needs an inner urge, a purpose, a prompting. His will is moved by his wish. Therefore, man must endeavour to wish for higher and holier goals. His mind is a bundle of wishes; turned hither and thither by the dictates of each wish, man wastes the time allotted to him and the skills he is endowed with. He slaves his conscience believing that he is acting right.

But, man has to recognise the preciousness of time. Not even a fraction of a second should be wasted. He must be engaged always in the investigation of his own Truth and his own Duty to himself. Life is dripping away, drop by drop, from the leaking pot! Time hangs over every head like a sharp sword, ready to inflict the mortal slash. But, man pays no attention to this everpresent calamity.

Cynics declare that statements like "Man is the crown of Creation" are only for text-books and platform. But really speaking, human life is holy, sublime, sacred, ever-new, ever-fresh. The Upanishadhs try to arouse and awaken man into the awareness of this Truth for man is slumbering in ignorance, wrapped in his ego and his desires. "Awake and adore the Sun and recognise your Realty in the light of his rays," that is the call reverberating from the Upanishadhs. But, man is deaf to this entreaty. Three eshanas (ardent desires) are holding man back: he is enamoured of wealth, wife and children. These obstruct him at each step and act as handicaps to spiritual advance. Of course, wherewithal is essential for the process of life and labouring for it cannot be avoided. But, beyond a limit riches foul the mind and breed arrogance. They must be used for good purposes, promoting virtue and well-being, fostering Dharma (virtue) and fulfilling one's duties along the Divine path. If riches are spent for realising fleeting desires, they can never be enough and the ego discovers newer and more heinous ways of earning and spending. It is indeed deplorable that this eshana (craving) for dhana (money) has laid hold of the people of this holy land, where Divine Incarnations have taught the lessons of selflessness and service.

People are ignoring the very beacons which illumine the darkness and reveal the path of liberation from the bonds of incessant struggle, endless pursuit, bewildering agony and ceaseless activity to gain the ungainable! What is the reason? The mind guides him, not the faculty of the intellect. The intellect discriminates; it probes, it analyses. But the mind follows blindly every whim or fancy. The intellect helps one to identify one's duties and responsibilities. Slavishly bound to the vagaries of the mind, man hops from one spot to another, without rest or peace. He runs to catch a bus, rushes to the office, to the cinema hall, to the club and has no moment of calm silence. Peace has to be attained through spiritual efforts, that is to say, through spiritualising every thought, word and deed. What has to be planned today to set the world aright is not a new spiritual order or institution but men and women with pure hearts. They alone can uplift this land from the morass. To purify the heart, one must practise shama, dhama and other sadhanas which can control the senses of perception and action. These may seem difficult in the early stages but any work that is worth doing has that drawback. Take riding a bicycle, for example. You will have to go through many falls and scrapes and lose many square inches of skin before you learn to balance and pedal on an even line. But once you have mastered the art, you can ride safe without holding on to the handlebar. It is the same for a person learning to drive a car. At first, when you keep your foot on the clutch, you cannot hold the steering wheel; you cannot lift the foot from the clutch, when you hold the wheel and when you manage both, you forget the brake. When you attend to all three, you do not watch out for pedestrians who run across. But when you have mastered the art, you are aware of the ups and downs, the stops and lights, and the roads - along and across - quite spontaneously and you can drive safe and fast conversing with the persons sitting to your left and on the back seat, and even singing a song to win their acclamation.

Control gives power; regulation gives greater strength; discipline reveals divinity. People pine for happiness. But, can one gain it by allowing a free rein to the senses? Can one be happy eating four meals a day, or riding prestigious cars or living in many-roomed bungalows? No. Happiness consists in helping others. It is brought about by giving up, not by hoarding. Catering to the senses makes man bestial. They will drag him into dirt and disgrace. The yogi is the person who has fixed his mind on the Divine, not on the mundane. The Geetha exhorts man to transform himself as "Sathatham Yoginah " - "ever a yogi ." But man is a yogi in the morning, turning into a bhogi (sensuous man) at noon and a rogi (disease-stricken person) when the day ends! Man lives today without faith. (the base) and without ideal (the superstructure). Dharma should be the base and Moksha (liberation), the superstructure, but the world has neglected both and it relies on artha (wealth) and kama (desire) for happiness and liberation. How can mankind progress without the first of the Purusharthas as the faith and the last, as the ideal?