Our Roles
Many of us have celebrated numerous birthdays, and while we have blown out more and more candles on bigger cakes, our resolutions and wishes have `gone with the wind!’ Year after year we have walked deeper and deeper into the darkness of selfishness, admiring very false images of ourselves.
As a practicing doctor in Washington I have been advising my patients, “On your birthday, do one little service to yourselves and to those who count on you! Get your body thoroughly checked up, to find out whether it will stand up to another year of activity; and, if it cannot, then adopt the right way of living, thinking, and planning.”
The birthday we celebrate at Prasanthi Nilayam is our genuine birthday, when we have to assess our bodies, thoughts, emotions, feelings, impulses, attitudes, and ideals against the touchstone of Sai teachings.
The Golden Jubilee of the advent of Bhagavan is a golden opportunity to better our lives by rigorous self-examination, self-control, and self-development.
Bhagavan has graciously given me the badge of a volunteer, to serve those who have come from western countries, as a liaison between the streams merging here in the Sai consciousness. The badge reminds me that I have to be humble, honest, and always aware of His presence in me and beside me. He has said often that service to humanity is service to God; that we must revere every one as the embodiment of the Divine, whatever the outer, physical, economic, or social appearance.
Baba teaches us the path of loving service, so that we might discard our ego and recognize the basic unity of all beings in Him. The service has to be prompted by love (prema) that is different from kama or the low, limited, binding passion that caters to its masters—ego and the senses. Prema, on the other hand, is expansive, elevating, liberating, and self-effacing, besides being free from the degrading demands of the senses. Prema is an urge that emanates from the Divine in us, whereas kama emanates from the animal from which man has risen.
Those who are drawn to the Sai way progress toward self-realization have to cultivate prema and avoid the contamination of kama. It will be noticed that Bhagavan insists on separate male and female sections while singing the praise of God and chanting bhajans [devotional singing], as well as at gatherings for study and meditation. This is a means of achieving one-pointedness, the orientation of all thoughts, feelings, and vibrations of the entire being toward God. This rule lessens distraction from lower, physical, or material feelings during absorption of the mind. This is the traditional seating pattern in the East, especially in India, and it has the wisdom of centuries of introspection and instruction by the best minds as its justification. At the World Conference Bhagavan directed that this rule be followed by Sathya Sai Centers everywhere.
The bhajan session is a special occasion when we reach out and cling to God, dedicating our skills and wills to Him and for exalting His glory. We should fill ourselves with this high purpose, and render every minute of the hour as an offering to Him. This is the reason why Bhagavan discourages any attempt to make the sessions, however remotely, `get-togethers’ or `eat-togethers’! On every such sacred occasion, Bhagavan has directed that the most desirable symbol of God’s grace that can be shared by all the participants is vibhuti or sacred ash, which has vast spiritual potential for the receiver. It is acclaimed as the symbol of the ultimate in Vedic texts, and it is a reminder of the evanescence of the physical sheath that encompasses the vital, mental, intellectual, and bliss sheaths of man, as well as the atman that activates all these. “Dust thou art and unto dust thou returnest,” is the lesson the Bible teaches.
Let us yearn to contribute our love, our compassion, and our capacity to serve humanity and share in the task of uplift that Bhagavan has incarnated for. The greatest of lessons that Bhagavan is teaching is, “Do good, see good, and be good.” Let me confess that my daily prayer to Him is, “Lord! Even when I cannot help anyone let no harm happen to any one through me.”
~Dr. K. C. Pani, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1976
