Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Without the flower, the plant yields no fruit, Without the emerging fruit, ripeness cannot happen. Without intense karma, bhakthi cannot emerge., Without bhakthi, how can jnana be found? Somaka, the wicked, spumed and suppressed the Vedas; but, did he reap any happiness? The ten-headed monster coveted and kidnapped another's wife; but did he achieve any gain? The close-fisted Kaurava refused pin-point land to his closest kin: but did he keep his loot? The terror-bound Kamsa sought out and slaughtered each new-born baby; but did he escape from death? Wicked men, even now, shall meet this fate. Take this Sai word as the Word of Truth. The visible universe is the substance of our bodies, the subsistence of our minds and the source of our progress. The everchanging universe has in it the unchanging Absolute principle. Both are aspects of the ever-full Brahman. The individual is the Be coming of the Being. The individual consciousness is the projection of the same. Universal Consciousness and both are complete in themselves. Even after the body decays and disintegrates, the individual consciousness remains unaffected; it is as full as ever. The Vedas declare: "That is Full; this is Full. When the Full has projected the Full, the Fullness remains Full." The lhsavasya Upanishadh describes this truth clearly and elaborately. It lays down that this Jagath or Cosmos is the dwelling place of God, "Ihsavasyam idam Jagath." It is a short Upanishadh, having only 18 verses; but 18 is a very sacred number. It is a number symbolising jaya or success. The Geetha has 18 chapters; the Mahabharatha has 18 sections, the Puranas are 18 in number!

The Upanishadh reveals another special feature of the truth of the Universe. The visible Universe has an invisible base! It has a material cause and an efficient cause, a Nimittha and an Upadhana. But man pays attention only to the efficient cause and not the material. This cup has silver as the material cause; the cup is the efficient cause. The cup is seen, but the silver is not cognised. The Cosmos is seen but God is not cognised. God is the material cause; He is in and through the entire Cosmos as the silver is in and through this entire cup. The Ishavasya is the most important of all Upanishadhs. It is the essence of Vedanthic scriptures. It contained them all in a nut-shell. There is no text as sacred and as valuable as this one. It demonstrates the Cosmos as Divine and the Atma as immanent in all. It teaches that the Atma is unaffected, supreme over all else. "Inside and outside all, everywhere Narayana pervades." The five elements abide in Narayana, God. There can be no seed without a shell or husk. The husk is the Cosmos; the seed is God. They are both interrelated, and abide together. One must try to understand this fact through steadfast inquiry, jnana. The ignorant ascribe validity to the husk; the wise probe into the basic Atma. The ignorant person believes that the Universe is all that is, and reduces himself to a status worse than an animal, Animals harm only other animals; but the ignorant person causes injury to his own self! The Upanishadh directs man to progress through four types of sadhana: (1)some that have to be necessarily performed, (2) some that have to be experimentally performed; (3) some that have to be performed while observing vows; and (4) some that have to be performed for the sake of the experience they confer. These are all conveyed through manthras, These are not to be confused with mono-syllable, five-syllable or multi-syllable formulae. Manthra means a formula to invoke the All-pervading, Almighty Presence.

Embodiments of Love! You learn this as well as many other Upanishadhs and recite them over and over. You recite the sacred "Thousand Names." of Vishnu and of Lalitha, You study many other holy books. Of course, the time spent in these activities is thereby rendered holy. But, these are not helping you to transform the work you are engaged in and making it more valid and acceptable to God. Are you putting into practice at least one percent of what you read or recite? Milk, it is true, contains butter; sesame seeds contain oil; cane yields sugar. To benefit from this knowledge it is not enough to read about it or recite it. Holding milk in the hand, you cannot get butter; filling the lamp with sesame you cannot light the wick, shaking the cane will not result in a shower of sugar. When you keep heaps of sweets on a plate in front of you and recite 108 times. "Heaps of sweets", "Heaps of sweets," "Heaps of sweets," can your tongue relish or stomach receive the stuff you describe? The poet asks: Can the hungry man be satisfied When one praises the menu for him to hear? Can the agony of the poor be allayed When one glorifies wealth for him to hear? Can the suffering of the sick end When one sings aloud of medicines in his ear? Speech and song are not enough to cure the dire disease of recurrent birth and death. God has to be planted firmly in the mind, the omnipresent God has to be enshrined in the heart; God has to flow with the blood in the veins. God has to be visualised through the inner eye.

There can no 'This' without the 'That"; no creation without the Creator. You are now attempting to possess the Creation, with no faith in the Creator. You are not even aware of the Creator. The body has a head above and feet below. Though the body, with all its limbs, forms one organic unit, the feet are despised and the head honoured. Nevertheless, when we invite a person to our homes, we cannot welcome the head and dismiss the feet. So, too, since 'Ihsavasyam idam Jagath,' the Cosmos is permeated with God, we cannot welcome one and dismiss the other. Man can earn wisdom only in and through the challenges the world offers and the opportunities for awareness that it confers. When once jnana is attained, the world can be left to itself; one need not be involved in it or with it. It is like the daily newspaper. When it has been read once, only an insane person will start reading it again. Today's newspaper is tomorrow's waste paper. When one has experienced the world, it would be a sign of insanity to wish for experiencing it again. Man relishes consuming the same meal day after day, washing the face every morning, listening to the same story on every occasion; he does not advance towards the Joy that awaits him.

Utilise the world as the means to an end; do not desire to stay on it. It is a caravanserai, where you can rest awhile during your pilgrimage to the Source. It is a bridge, wide and strongly built; can any pilgrim build a house thereon for himself? The Cosmos is changing constantly. The minutes that are past cannot be retrieved even if tempted by a billion rupees. The past is not ours any more; the present slips from our grasp; the future is uncertain. You come naked into the world; you go out of it, without informing the survivors of the address where you can be contacted. In spite of this, attachment grows and you cultivate bonds. This is the great illusion.

How can the Omnipresent Divine be delineated and described? There is a Nepali story which says: "A person was asked, 'Who is your father'? He answered, “My father is so and so”, but, how can you assert so? On whose authority do you declare him to be your father?" the questioner persisted. "My mother. Her word I believe to be the truth." So, too, when asked. "Who is the Father in Heaven," man answers, "God." "On what authority do you rely for that statement"? Man replies, "On the authority of Mother Veda (Veda Matha), the scripture, the Upanishadhs, which contain the genuine nectarine truths, which these seers churned out of their ascetic denials, discovered in the depths of their purified hearts and earned for the welfare of all mankind. But unfortunately the Vedas have been riddled with commentaries which endeavour to parade personal predilections. Each scholar interprets them as his fancy dictates and so, faith in the Divine has declined yielding place to atheism. The Divine is the Omnipresent ONE. It is the minute in the minutest, it is the vast in the vastest. The Atma that is not born, that does not die, that cannot be killed, that is the Universal, Eternal, Witness, the Brahman itself. This is the Truth which the sages visualised. How can any one describe to another the sweetness of sugar? One's experience alone can be the proof. It is foolish to doubt or deny the experience of another. Such behaviour can only promote friction and fear. Many stand forth and argue that there is no God. But, since others do not retort, "What right have you to insist that I should not believe in God. God may not exist for you; but I experience God and God exists for me," they continue their prattle.

Life is impossible without breath. Life is also impossible without faith. All of you who have come to this gathering came here in the faith that you can return home. If that faith was absent, you would not have come at all. Some declare, "Experience first, faith next." This is similar to the declaration, "Swim first, water next." Have faith enough to practise the advice; learn to revere the directives. Then you attain the experience. How can the stomach be full without eating the meal? So, take up the effort. Plunge into action. Do not hesitate or doubt. Action, that is the Divine Task. That is the reason why the very first section of the Vedas is the Karma Kanda, the "Stage of Action." The Ihssavasya Upanishadh directs the sadhaka to cultivate the Inner Vision so that he can experience God, the Ishwara, the warp and woof of the Universe. He is the basic gold in the diverse jewels. What I wish to emphasise now is that you should ruminate over these truths underlying Creation, and bring about a transformation, however small, in your habits, attitudes and actions so that you can realise the goal of life. Animals seek tasty things, ruchi. Man must yearn for fulfilment, abhiruchi. Cultivate that yearning, and attaining that goal, finish the game. This is my blessing to you today.