Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

For all people in this world, there is a common thought freely expressing itself in their minds. They feel that one should not commit sin, one should not speak untruth and that one should not harm others. But mere feeling and not putting into practice has become a feature characteristic of them. Knowing that to speak untruth is going to cause harm, yet people speak untruth. What is the meaning of this? Even after recognising that causing harm and hurt to others is going to reflect back on him some day or other, people cause harm and hurt to others. What is the inner motivation which makes one do these bad things even after knowing that they are bad? Not only this, man desires to get good fruit by doing punya and yet in actual practice, he does only papa. Man does not want to get the result of committing a sin, yet he undertakes to commit a sin. What is it that is inside him which promotes such action? In general, there are three kinds of qualities namely Sathwa, Rajas and Thamas. Amongst these qualities, Rajas and Thamas are difficult and very harmful. The quality of Rajas has a son who has demoniac features in him. His name is Kama or lust. This son, who goes by the name of Kama or lust, enters the minds and hearts of several people and makes them do all kinds of bad things. He has a quality by which he can destroy many people by going near them. If this quality of Kama comes close to a person, even his good qualities will be removed and subdued. Ravana was a great sage. He was a devoted person. Towards the end, because of the bad quality of Kama or lust, he had done things which destroyed his entire dynasty and all his friends. Not only this, the third quality, namely Thamas has also got a son. He is a very cruel person. He is one whom we can call Anger. The moment Kama gets hold of the mind of man, this other son Anger, will also get hold of him and will break the pot of wisdom which is contained in a human being. These qualities, lust and anger, do not promote good human nature. On the other hand, they destroy human nature and they take man to the very depths of destruction and barbarity.

The quality of lust has no satisfaction under any circumstances. This quality of lust has often been com-pared with fire. Fire has also got another name called Anala. Anala means something which has no sufficiency at any time and which is insatiable. The mean-ing of this is, however much you may experience and enjoy, there is no satisfaction. You will always want more and more. As you put more and more fuel into the fire, the fire goes on increasing. The fire can never be extinguished by adding fuel. In the same manner, by your trying to satisfy your desires, the desires will go on increasing. They will never decrease by satisfaction and appeasement. Without submitting himself to this kind of lust, Hanuman earned the grace of Rama.

In the search for Sita, he entered Lanka, and he started searching for her in several mansions. If he wants to find Sita, he should look for a woman, and he has to search for her amongst women, and not amongst men. Not only that, Ramachandra gave some description which could be used by Hanuman for the purpose of identifying Sita. He was looking for those features amongst several women. He was looking at the eyes and ears of women who were in the king’s apartments with a view to see if the features given to him by Ramachandra could be found in the eyes and ears of those women. But after some time he found some disgust in his own mind. He came to the banks of the ocean. When he came to the ocean, he told himself how much sin he should have committed by having to look at the faces of all those women. Having looked at the faces of so many women, he was wondering how he could go back to Ramachandra. He preferred to commit suicide by drowning himself in the ocean rather than go back to Ramachandra.

For some time he thought of the sacred name of Rama and repeated the name of Rama and purified his own mind. Recognising that Rama was present as the self, as Atma, in everybody, if he committed suicide, it will be committing suicide of his own self, of Rama as the Atma. He satisfied himself by thinking that he was only obeying the orders of Rama when he entered Lanka. He had the courage to make such a decision that all things done by him, only to obey the orders of Rama, will never hurt him. Then he entered Ashoka Vana. He was such a clear-headed person that he was quite sure that if he obeyed Rama’s orders, he will not have committed any sin.

It is necessary for the young people of today to recognise and understand the path taken by Hanuman so that no faults could be pointed out at the work that they do. When he looked at a woman, the feeling in him was of her being his mother. He asked himself the question, could this lady be my mother Sita? That was how he was looking at any women. It is this sacred idea in the mind of Hanuman that kept him away from all sins.

Not only this, in the story relating to Hanuman there are several incidents which are ideal examples for us. Rama wanted to proclaim Hanuman as an ideal person to the world. At the time of the coronation of Rama, he was giving presents to various people. Although he had given presents to everyone, he did not give any present to Hanuman. This caused some trouble in the mind of Sita. Sita was directly involved in the life they led in the forest, and she saw how Hanuman was always fulfilling Rama’s orders. So she was wondering why Rama had not given any present to Hanuman, and she was sorry for this. She could not bear this injustice to Hanuman. She quietly and slowly told this to Rama; and Rama said that if she felt so strongly, she could give Hanuman any present which she liked. She had a very valuable necklace of pearls around her neck. She removed it and gave it to Hanuman.

Hanuman held this very valuable pearl necklace in his hand, began to remove all the pearls, one by one, from the necklace and break them. He put each pearl near his ears and began throwing it away. In this way, he was throwing away all the pearls of the necklace. Looking at this sight, Rama and Lakshmana were very surprised. Sita became somewhat angry, but she knew very well the situation. She called Hanuman with a view to proclaiming to the world Hanuman’s nature, and she asked Hanuman why he was throwing away the pearls and thus behaving truly like a monkey?

Hanuman told Sita that he was examining if by breaking the pearl, he could listen to the name of Rama out of each pearl. He said that if he did not hear the name of Rama, the pearl was of no value to him and so he was throwing such pearls away. Hanuman said, even if it be a pearl, if there is no sound of Rama in it, the pearl is no better than a stone for him. Sita asked if he could hear the name of Rama even in lifeless matter. Hanuman said that he did not want anything to remain on him if it did not produce the sound of Rama. Sita asked, in return, if he meant that his entire body is filled with the name of Rama. Hanuman then plucked out one single hair from his body and put that hair at the ear of Rama and Sita. Sita found that even that little bit of hair was uttering the name of Rama. Here we see that Hanuman’s entire body was filled with the name of Rama and so where was the room for kama on the body of Hanuman? It is an established truth that where there is Rama, there cannot be kama, where there is kama, there is no place for Rama.

Hanuman established and proclaimed that to look at other women, and to talk to other women was a great sin. When Hanuman was moving about in the Ashoka forest, all the rakshasas caught hold of Hanuman, tied him up and took him to Ravana. Ravana then asked a series of questions. However, Hanuman did not answer even one of them. The moment he looked at Ravana, Hanuman became very angry. Even there, under those circumstances, Hanuman undertook to tell Ravana what good qualities are and how one should strive to have good qualities. He addressed Ravana and he asked him to realise at least then that what he had done was wrong. He told Ravana that in bringing Sita, he brought the mother of creation herself into Lanka and kept her imprisoned in Lanka. He threatened to destroy the whole of Lanka and teach Ravana a lesson.

Women can be compared with mothers of creation. We call our country motherland, we do not call it fatherland. Here Hanuman is teaching young people how they should treat women as mother. This kind of attitude is very essential for young people today. It is only when we promote such qualities amongst us that we will be able to resuscitate the glorious culture of Bharath. If we have no good quality, our entire life becomes useless. For the good of the world, people with good qualities are very necessary. As one of the speakers told you this morning, you may acquire several degrees, you may acquire first ranks and first classes, but what is the use of all these degrees and these ranks? Whatever education you may have, if you do not have the good qualities and the morality and the ethical attitude, all your education will become quite useless. Truth and morality are the things which make man’s heart sacred.

In the world today, there are several kinds of powers which we see. All power that we generally come across is the worldly power, material power and the power connected with politics. But of all types of powers, the most powerful one is the political strength, which is the strength to be acquired by ruling a country. In that context, we are apt to think that dharmic strength or spiritual strength is not good enough. Students, for us to think that political power, power based upon politics is even stronger than the adhyatmic strength or the dharmic strength is not correct. We should have the attitude that all these worldly types of powers are derived from divine strength. The political powers can cause changes only on one’s body. But the spiritual and the dharmic powers can transform and will have an effect on one’s mind. Without transformation of mind, any change in the body is not sufficient. The change of mind today is very necessary. The political power is like the bush coat which you wear on yourself. You may wear the bush coat today, and you may take it off tomorrow.

On one day when you wear a particular bush coat, you may feel that it appears very nice on you. The next day when you remove it, you may feel that it is ugly. Such bush coats are not permanent. But because the effect of dharmic power and spiritual power is on the mind, whatever transformation and effect it has produced is going to remain permanent.

People like Lal, Bal and Pal had taken part in politics in many ways, and they served the country through politics. But how long will their reputation or the value of their work remain in this country? Of these people, because Balgangadhar Tilak, whom we refer to as Bal, had translated Bhagavad Gita, and had written commentaries on scriptures, his name has remained, to some extent, in this country. However, Buddha and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa are the names which have remained permanently because they followed the spiritual path. Persons like Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind have helped the country to become prosperous and also gave spiritual strength to the country. This is the reason why they are so much respected. Jesus Christ, too, worked for the prosperity of the entire mankind and gave happiness to the people. He sacrificed his very life and that is the reason why the name of Jesus Christ has remained permanently. You must recognise that all our education should not be concentrated only on worldly matters. It should also contain spiritual and ethical aspects. It is only when all these three aspects, the worldly aspect, the spiritual aspect and the ethical aspect come together that education will acquire some meaning. To make out that education is only for acquiring degrees is not correct. Do not be ambitious to get only these cheap degrees. You should work for the prosperity of the country. You must have these degrees and yet work with your own hands for the benefit of the people. A BA degree is like a begging bowl. Instead of holding the begging bowl in your hand, going from office to office, begging for a job, if you can work with your own hands and help yourself as well as others, it will be more useful.

The purpose of establishing the present system of education by the foreign rulers of this country was to make us serve those people and to make us follow and imitate their methods and their ways of living. The objective of this education, which was given to us by foreigners, was only to fulfil their selfish needs but not for the good of our country. Education should not result in the slavery of one’s own thought and mind. Real education, which has significance for our country, is that education which gives you the courage by which you go and act wherever there is injustice, unkindness and untruth. Our education, connected with the culture of Bharath, is one which should enable you to stand on your own legs.

We should make an attempt that, in education which is appropriate to us, the aspect of kama or lust does not enter our mind but the aspect of prema or love does enter. With the aspect of prema, we should enter the society in this country; and we should be able to do service to the society with prema.

One of the speakers this morning said that since 1000 students have assembled here, you should trans-form yourselves into 1000 messengers. Truly, all the students should be able to proclaim the ideals that are being taught here and put them into practice. You should show others the path of truth and prema. You should promote the aspect of prema in yourself, and that will itself improve the relationships that should exist truly between man and man.

To propagate such a path of truth, the story of Ramayana will help us very much. On one occasion Kausalya, mother of Rama; Anjani, mother of Hanuman, and the mother of Rishi Agasthya were all sitting together and were conversing with each other. Here the mother of Hanuman began to ask if the others had recognised the power and strength of her son. She said that her son has been able to cross, in one leap, miles and miles of the ocean. The mother of Rishi Agasthya said that while Hanuman jumped over the ocean, her son had swallowed the entire ocean in one gulp. Kausalya, mother of Rama, said that Hanuman jumped over the ocean in one leap, and Agasthya swallowed the ocean in one gulp, and that both these things were done by their constantly uttering the name of Rama. She said that with the help and power of the name of Rama, Agasthya could swallow the whole ocean and Hanuman could jump over the ocean.

Hanuman was a very innocent person. He had no deceit in him. Today human beings are covered by considerable amount of deceit. We think that such people are very clever people. One who takes to the path of truth and one who does not know how to practise trickery is an innocent person. However, today we regard all such innocent persons, who do not know trickery, as people who are not clever at all and who do not know how to get on in the world. This is not right. An innocent person is really a very strong person.

On one day, because it was Rama’s birthday, he invited a number of people for a feast. On that day, Hanuman was very close to Rama. The dinner was over and the conversation was pleasing to everyone and they left for their respective homes in a happy mood. Hanuman was always living with Rama. He had no house of his own. On that day, he had the desire to stay with Rama and Rama agreed to this. As the time was getting on and the night came, Sita was taking a jug of water and was proceeding to her bedroom. Afterwards Rama also entered the room. Behind Rama, Hanuman also entered the room. Rama told Hanuman in a soft language that he can go and rest. Hanuman asked why he should not come into the bedroom? Sita had come. When Sita had come, why not Hanuman? Rama then pointed out the sindura, the red paint that Sita was wearing on her head, and said that this entitled Sita to come into Rama’s bedroom. This implies that Rama is showing the feature which indicates that Sita is as much as half the body of Rama. Hanuman, realising the situation, went out into the town and looked for shops in which he could get the red paint, and he emptied all the red paint in the shops and put the red paint over his entire body and went back to Rama and said, “If a small amount of red paint on Sita’s head could entitle her to enter your bedroom, I have now red paint all over my body, and why can I not enter your bedroom?” Here is to be seen the intense desire to be close to Rama at all times, and it is this that made Hanuman innocent.

There is another incident which shows Hanuman’s devotion. Because Hanuman’s devotion and faith were very sacred, whatever work he did, he was always victorious. Because Hanuman was all the twenty-four hours with Rama, he was attending to all the services which were needed for Rama. Sita, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Satrughna found that there was no service left by which they could serve the Lord.

Lakshmana, Bharatha and Satrughna one day went to Sita and made a complaint and said that Hanuman was with Rama all the twenty-four hours, and that he is not giving them any opportunity for doing service to Rama. They requested her to arrange that whatever services have to be done to Rama, be distributed equitably amongst them. Then they made a long list of services to be rendered to Rama from the morning till the next morning. They also prayed to Sita that all these services be approved by Rama. Rama looked at the list and approved all the services and suggested that they be distributed amongst themselves. He suggested that they go and tell Hanuman that nothing is left so far as Hanuman is concerned. When these brothers met Hanuman, they told him that the entire list of services has been drawn up and that they were distributed amongst themselves. They said that no service was left for him and that he would have nothing to do from the next day.

Hanuman thought for a little and thought of the name of Lord Rama and then he asked Lakshmana that if any other service was left over, it may be allotted to him. The three brothers looked at the list very carefully and came to the conclusion that nothing was left. They agreed that if anything is left, Hanuman may take the service. Hanuman said, there was one service, which was left over and he requested that this be given to him. When kings or elders or wealthy people yawn, at that time it is customary to make a noise with the fingers in front of the mouth. Hanuman asked that this service be allotted to him. From that time, Hanuman insisted that wherever Rama went, whether it is in his bedroom or in the bathroom, Hanuman must be present. Thus he insisted, because one does not know when Rama will yawn. When Rama yawns, he should be present there. Thus, it so turned out that the little service which was left to Hanuman necessitated his continuous presence and made Hanuman stay close to Rama always.

What we should see here is that in spite of all the attempts made by Lakshmana, Bharatha and Satrughna not to leave any service for Hanuman, it is the sacredness of Hanuman that has resulted in his getting a service by which he can be with Rama at all times. No one can separate a real devotee present from his Lord.