Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

MAN's mind is too full of the world; his stomach is demanding too much of his time and energy. His desires and wants are multiplying too fast for his capacity to satisfy them; his dreams are far too real for him; they lead him into false victories and absurd adventures. Engrossed in the analysis of the material world, he has lost all sense of spirit, sweetness and sublimity; under this new dispensation, truth has become just a word in the dictionary. Compassion is reduced to a meaningless travesty. Humility patience, reverence - these are as invalid as a flameless lamp in the far distance.

The only hold that man has in this dreadful darkness is the name of God. That is the raft which will take him across this stormy sea, darkened by hate and fear, churned by anxiety and terror. People admire the phenomenal advance of science. But the advance has been from fear to greater fear, from destruction to more destruction. In prehistoric times, men killed each other using bows and arrows; now they kill entire populations with the help of atom bombs; this is praised as remarkable advance! The scientist cannot stop the rise of greed and hate in the human heart; he can only forge the weapons they require and improve upon their lethal efficiency. Mankind lives in daily dread of extinction as a result of the discoveries of science; for, any moment, the storm of hate may rain the bombs on their homes! Science has deprived man of self-confidence. He is not sure of even himself. He is afraid of himself for at the slightest provocation, he is transformed into a wild and vicious beast.

You must be thankful that here at least you can calmly consider your own inner nature and resolve upon ways and means by which you can mould your destiny along the lines of Love and Contentment. The ideals laid down by Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Religion) for ensuring a happy peaceful life for man, individually and for society are valid even today; the disciplines marked out therein are as beneficial today as when they were first ordained in the Shasthras. Their value is unchallengeable, unchangeable. Do not imagine yourselves as Hindhus for the reason that you are born in Hindhusthan. You are too entangled in the rules of caste, the ceremonial of rituals, and the coils of astrology to grasp your own inner reality. You do not realise the spark of divinity in you and try to raise it into a flaming fire of Divine Splendour, reducing your pretty 'I' into ashes. Sanathana Dharma tells you about that spark and teaches you how to foster it and develop it. When you ignore this Dharma and allow science to entice you, you are bringing disrespect to your culture, and disowning your country. Seekers from overseas are trekking towards this country attracted by its ancient lessons, teaching the way to acquire inner calm and inner light. They are apprehensive of the calamity towards which their countries are heading. They have confirmed the validity of many practices which you have been led to discard as superstitions. They have opened your eyes to values which you had neglected, with an air of superiority born of little acquaintance with science. They have found that manthras (sacred formulas) have potency to transform nature, that Vedhic recital can infuse harmony, that wrong pronunciation of manthras has deleterious effects.

The Name of God, with all its halo of glory and majesty, can cleanse the mind of passion and emotion and make it placid and pure. When the Name is repeated without concentration and without reverence, it cannot cleanse the mind. The vice and wickedness will remain. The Rakshasa (demonic) heroes, Ravana, Kumbhakarna and others, performed thapas (penance) and drew the Lord to their presence; but, though they got the desired boons from Him, they persisted in their vicious ways. We value cows for the yield of milk. We value men for their character, their friendly sympathetic attitude, their readiness and ability to serve, safeguard and save.

The Truth that there is perfect identity between the individual and universal is proclaimed at every breath by the silent announcement your breath makes' Soham (I am He). God is the closest, the fondest, the most reliable companion. But Man, in his blindness, ignores Him and seeks the company of others. God is present everywhere, at all times. He is the richest and the most powerful guardian. Yet you ignore Him. The Lord is here, near, loving, accessible and affectionate. But, many do not open their eyes to the great opportunity. The Name will bring Him nearer to you. Now, the Name is on the tongue, the world is in the mind and the owner of the Name is in the heart. The world and its attractions are distracting you, obliterating the answer the Lord gives to the call of the Name.

Reason is a bad guide in spiritual matters, unless it is rinsed of all traces of ego. Else, it discovers arguments to support the point of view that is pleasant to the person. A merchant had a fierce dog in his garden, to guard his house against trespassers. One day, when a traveller was passing along the road, the dog flew at him with bared teeth; so he hit it on the head with the thick stick he was carrying. The dog gave a howl of pain and slunk into the house. The master was enraged at this; he was not satisfied with the explanation of the traveller. He dragged him to the magistrate where he charged him with cruelty to his pet. "Why should he hit him on the head? He could have hit him on the tail," he argued. The traveller replied, "He jumped towards me with intent to bite me head foremost; if he had threatened to bite me with his tail, I would have certainly hit the tail." The magistrate let him off.

Do not attempt to justify your own prejudices and preferences by specious arguments; that will lead to self-deception not self-knowledge. That will heighten egoism, not lower it. God resides in every one as Lingam, in the subtle Form. In the anga (body), there is sangam (contact with the outer and inner world); in the sangam, resides the jangam (the moving, traversing, changing place) and as the basis of the jangam, there is the Lingam. Linga is a word of two syllables; Lin and ga, Lin means "that into which everything merges (li-yathe),"ga means "that into which everything goes (gam-yathe)." The Linga is a symbol of the universal into which all particulars merge, from which all particulars emerge. The Linga is the Swa-swaruupa (the real Form of the Reality). The Lingodhbhava (materialisation of Linga) is an announcement of the advent of the Avathar (Divine Incarnation), as the Guide and the Leader.

The way in which the Avathar has to be used for one's liberation and uplift is: watch His every step, observe His actions and activities, follow the guiding principle of which His life is an elaboration. Mark His love, His Compassion, His Wisdom, try to bring them into your own life. Man has become artificial, crooked, twisted out of his normal shape. He has left behind the simple natural ways and made his mind a lumber-room for ideas, worries, anxieties and terrors. He can live on very much less, with much greater joy for himself and others. If only he remembers that he is a treasure chest with Divine spark in it he will be more loving and more useful.

God incarnates for the revival of Dharma (righteousness) which includes morality, truth, virtue, love and a host of other qualities that uphold the communities of man as well as the individual. The other purposes usually given, such as serving the devoted, destroying the wicked, reestablishing the sacred tradition - these are all secondary. For, he who is righteous will be guarded from harm by righteousness itself;, he who is unrighteous will fall into disaster through the evil that he perpetrates. The one task includes all else. I shall fulfil that task, whatever the comments that others may make. Comment is a natural corollary. I do not pay any attention to it; nor should you. The higher the hill, the deeper the valley. Praise or blame will not affect Me in the least. The unshakable foundation on which My work is proceeding is Anandha (Bliss). I cannot be moved away from it by any one, at any time. The Pandavas knew best. That is why the Avathar, Krishna, was the heart of the FiVe Brothers. Dharmaraja was the head, Arjuna was the shoulders, Bheema was the stomach, Nakula and Sahadheva were the legs. That was the one living body that fought and won the battle of good versus evil, at Kurukshethra (battle field of Mahabharatha war).

Dedicate your heart to God; God will be one with you, the heart of your heart. Do not exaggerate the creation and the manifestation of the Linga; it is only the manifestation of an atom of My majesty. In Me, who can create worlds, and fill the Universe, there are things more worthy of adoration; universal love, the teaching of dharma (virtue), the revival of the Vedas, the fostering of the good, the benediction on sadhakas (spiritual aspirants). Do not yield to cleverness, causistry and cunning and lose faith. A boy told his father, who asked him how many oranges there were, after he had given one to him and was holding one in his own hand. "There are three." Asked to explain, the boy impertinently said, touching the oranges with his finger, "One, two...one plus two is three." Well, said the father, "you eat the third orange; I will have these two." That put an end to the conceit of the young fellow. Be straight; follow the straight path; you will reach the goal.