My Guru Gives Me Lessons Around the World: Whenever I Am Ready He Teaches
The author, a longtime devotee of His grace Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, lives in Pacific Palisades, California. He is preparing [in 1965] an American-English edition of the Biography of Sai Baba as written by the editor, Mr. N. Kasturi, M.A., B.L.
Whether it is at sunrise or sunset, it seems that before my dhyana [meditation] is completed I have received answers to any particular subject that I would like to have explained. Recently, during a very deep dhyana I had the glorious experience of a question and answer session. I was able to ask anything I wished concerning myself, my work on the book, and why I should be allowed to perform such a wonderful period of helpfulness. I was reluctant to `return to this world’ that I always knew was here. My return was pleasantly all right.
We are the instrument
My first `experience’ was in the third week of July of this year [1965], and so I wrote to His Grace, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and thanked Him for the lesson. Let me tell you about this and other glorious lessons, so that you, too, may enjoy the experience of this knowledge.
I had a minor skin infection in the toes of my feet. During dhyana they both began to burn. I asked my guru what I should do, and He told me to grasp both areas of the feet and count to 100, `saying My name with each number.’ This I did, and it seemed my grasp tightened and tightened and finally I came to the end of my `Sai-Baba-count.’ of 100 and released the feet to find that the burning had stopped. It was then that I received my first lesson. Sai Baba said, “Remember, it was not you that did that. You were only the instrument. Do not forget, ever, you are only the instrument.” This last statement was repeated strongly, over and over again. “You are only the instrument!” On this subject I wrote to His Grace. In His letter of August 11th, 1965, to me, He confirmed my lesson by giving me a clearer understanding.
He wrote, “Remember you are but an instrument in the hands of the Lord, but you are not jada or inert. You have intelligence, discrimination, and the power to detach yourself from the world. These three are called viveka, vichakshana, and vairagyam. The more you develop these, the better instrument you will be. Intelligence must be able to subdue the senses; discrimination must show the path to attain the eternal and the absolute; vairagyam must attach you only to the higher goals.”
Story of the shadow
Another lesson concerns the knowledge of the shadow. In my letter to my guru dated July 25th, 1965, I wrote, “The other lesson was about the importance of seeking the presence and yet crying not too loudly for the form. During my dhyana Sai Baba said, “When you are overwhelmed by the beauty of the shadow of the leaves, do you have to find the leaves?”
In His letter dated August 11th, 1965, He continued the lesson when He wrote, “When a person walks along the road, his shadow falls on the heaps and hollows, the thorns and dirt, that happen to be by the side of the road, but he is not affected by what happens with his shadow. You are the substance, not the shadow. You are the divine spark that is encased in the body, not the body.
Imagine a palm tree standing on the ground; its shadow stretches along the ground. The shadow is the world; the tree is the reality. Climb the tree and reach the fruits on top; your shadow, too, reaches the shadow fruits. That is to say, do sadhana [spiritual effort]; attain the goal; you will thereby attain worldly happiness and peace also.”
Lift the hand for Him
A third lesson has inspired me greatly; in fact, it has lightened my life, made everything joyously easier. During another meditation my teacher, Sai Baba, said to me, “Every time the hand is lifted, lift it for Him.” I wrote my guru and thanked Him for the Lesson, and in a letter to me He more fully explained the meaning, for, He wrote, “If you lift the hand to serve, to help, to console, to encourage another man, you are lifting it for God. Because God is in every man. The body is the temple of the universal soul. Use all your talents for serving others; that is the best way of serving yourself as they and you are one entity.”
In addition to these wondrous lessons received during meditations, I also learn my lessons from all the things I hear about, or read about, or see.
Raiment not to wear
This morning, September 20th, 1965, I learnt yet another lesson. I asked just how one should be `dressed’ or `prepared’ for Brahmamarga [path to the divine]. He said, “Before starting on Brahmamarga and commencing your sadhana, disrobe, undress—but not in the usual manner. The clothes you cast off may vary in number. Some may be more heavily garmented. Some may have already discarded most of their unwanted apparel! In whatever order you choose, cast off the clothing of jealousy, hate, anger, pride, greed, desire and, you know, all the others.”
Then I was told, “But you shall not be cold, for there is one garment you leave on, and that is the raiment of love. This one piece has many thicknesses to keep you warm and protected on the coldest nights. It will let you survive the greatest storms; for what is this love? It is the love of joy, the love of giving, the love of survival, the love of living. Yes My bhakta [devotee], this one raiment is all you need when you come to Me in the quietude and stillness of your dhyana, although you do not have to wait until then to come, for I am always near.”
In concluding this, my first contribution to your blessed publication I would love to quote you another treasure from Sai Baba’s letter to me dated July 16th, 1965, as it concerns the last few words of the last lesson just quoted.
How my guru comes
He wrote, “The guru need not always come in actual concrete form; he prompts higher impulses and urges through a friend or a book or an event that reveals the reality in a flash. After this awakening, the rest is mostly in the hands of the aspirant. The guru can, at best, watch and guide. Do not get agitated or lose heart. You will be guided, however far you may be geographically. I am as near you, as you are near Me. Be steady, dear Charles, in your sadhana and you can certainly attain shanti [peace].”
And so dear readers, on this blessed eventful day of bliss when we all join in thanking Him for our day of birth, may I finish this by quoting one final paragraph written to me by His Grace? “When the name is remembered, the form is evoked; when the form is recollected, the name is evoked. The name and the form are inseparable. That is the meaning of presence.”
~Charles Penn
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Nov. 1965
