Achieve Nil Balance
During a Dassara festival, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba spoke about the benefits and the significance of the various rituals and programs conducted during the holy week.
You will find that the Dassara Program presented here has various items like Vedaparayanam (Vedic chanting), puja [ritual worship] for Divine forms, the feeding of the poor, plays, music, Harikathas [oral narratives of scriptures], reading of Puranas (moral epics), and lectures on Shastras (scriptural texts), etc.—all designed for various purposes that may not be evident on the surface. You may be under the impression that all this is but customary and traditional. No. Each item has a deeper significance; it is intended to bring about a definite benefit for some section or the other. The Vedas are for all mankind; they have prayers for peace, subjugating the anger of the elements and of human communities; they invoke the forces of nature to be calm and beneficent. So the parayanam (recitation) of the Vedas promotes world peace and human welfare. For those who derive joy when the names of the Lord are recited—each name evoking one facet of the splendor of God—we have the pujas.
For those thirsting for directions along the path of sadhana [spiritual exercise], we have the discourses by the pundits [scholars]. Musical recitations and discourses transmit the teachings of the Shastras and Puranas in pleasant and palatable ways. The plays are visible representations of the essential lessons embodied in our scriptures. All these unfold the petals in the heart of man.
The lotus in the heart of man pines for the Sun, the splendor of the Lord. But to attain it is hard. Withdrawal of all affection toward the world alone can win it. God is the nearest and dearest entity, but ignorance hides Him from the eye. The love that God bears man is unequalled; yet, He appears to man as a distant, formidable, and a unapproachable phenomenon. The stars appear as dots of light, for they are at a great distance from us. So, too, God appears insignificant or ineffective to many because they are keeping themselves too far from Him. If some people say there is no God, it only means that they are too far away to be aware of Him.
Be free from desires
A green gourd sinks in water, but a dry one floats. Become dry, rid yourselves of attachments and desires, and avoid anxieties and worries. Then, you can float unaffected on the waters of change and chance. Even water, when it becomes steam, can rise into the sky. Become light, lose weight, and bail out so that you may rise higher and higher. Yoga [union with the God] is defined as chitta vritti nirodha—the prevention of impulses that agitate the inner consciousness of man. These impulses add to the ballast. Be free from desires that drag you down; have only the yearning to come face to face with the truth. That truth is shining inside you, waiting to be discovered. Like the dhobi (washerman) in knee‑deep water is dying of thirst, man, too, suffers with the panacea in easy grasp.
God is the antaryami (indweller), and so, when He is sought in the outer world, He cannot be caught. Love Him with no other thought; feel that without Him nothing is worth anything; feel that He is all. Then you become His and He becomes yours. There is no nearer kinship than that. Fifty others may be peeping into the kitchen, hungry and expectant, but if you are the child of the master, you will be served first.
The namam (holy name) can light the spark of that love. When two branches of a tree grate hard on each other for some time, enough heat is generated to set the tree on fire. So, too, when one name and another rub together quick and hard, spark of jnana (spiritual wisdom) ignites the mind. “Jnanaagnidagdha‑karmaanam—the flames of jnana reduce to ashes the effects of all activities,” says the [Bhagavad] Gita [the divine song]. Thus, they do not affect man any more. Like a rope that has been reduced to ash, it can bind no more. So long as the consequence of karma [actions] persists, man is bound to take birth to finish the consumption thereof. The slate of karma has to be wiped clean so that the account of birth and death can be closed with nil balance. Desire is the prompting behind all activity. Desire is the urge. No activity arises in those who have attained all desires, for they rest in the atma [self] that has no desire.
Balance of karma‑consequence
Any balance of karma‑consequence will involve some years of imprisonment in the body. The Shastras advise man to wipe off the balances by four steps: by scotching all sparks from the fire; by getting rid of all signs, symptoms, and causes of fever; by paying off all balance of debt; and by suffering off all consequences of karma. A spark may start another fire; a virus may quickly multiply and bring about relapse; a little unpaid debt will soon assume huge proportions through high rate of interest; and a karma, however trite, done with intention to benefit by the fruit thereof, will involve birth in order to eat the fruit.
The first stage is karma jijnasa—the execution of karma on proper lines, with proper mental attitude; then comes dharma jijnasa—the observance of moral codes for the upkeep of society and the discharge of one’s duties and obligations; and last comes Brahma jijnasa—resulting in the appreciation of namasmarana [repetiting the holy name] as the primary sadhana. The name is sugar; you can make sugar dolls of any shape; call it by any name appropriate to the shape, cat or rabbit, eagle or elephant; the sweetness and the calorific value are the same. So, too, when engaged in the sadhana of namasmarana, you can select Om Shakti, Om Narayana, Om Shrinivasa, Om Paramatma, Om Sai Rama [God’s names]—the curative value, the cleansing value, is the same; the sweetness on the tongue is the same.
Start on the journey to God & travel light
Namasmarana will make you stick to the thought of God. Now you are like a mouse caught inside the mridanga [drum]. When the player beats on the right, the mouse runs to the left; when the left is beaten, it runs in terror to the right. So, too, you run from Paramatma [the Lord] to prakriti (objective world), reluctant to stick to God and at the same time, retreating from the denials and disappointments of worldly activity.
You have come from God; you are a spark of His glory; you are a wave of that ocean of bliss; you will get peace only when you merge in Him again. Like a child who has lost his way, you can have joy only when you rejoin your mother. The ocean drop rose as vapor, joined the congregation called cloud, fell on earth, flowed along the ravines, and at last, reached the ocean. Likewise, reach the ocean you have lost. Start on that journey and travel quickly and light.
Mrs. Macrae is so full of devotion that she considers every spot connected with Me as sacred beyond words. So she went into the village the other day and collected stones and pebbles from the ground on the site of the house where this Sai again appeared with body. Every stone that lay there appeared attractive and precious to her mind; so she brought a big bucketful to her room, not realizing that it would be too heavy a luggage for her when she emplanes for Teheran, Rome, and New York. Do not store much, for one day you will have to discard them. Have devotion in the mind, and cultivate the feeling, attitude, and dedication. That is enough.
It is only in Sanathana Dharma (the eternal moral code) that the importance of karma in shaping the destiny of man, the fact of the individual undergoing many births in his progress toward birthlessness, and the mighty grace of God’s coming as man among men to gather them around Him in holy companionship for saving them and saving the world through them, is laid down so strongly and clearly. If you doubt any of these great truths, you are certain to suffer and grieve. Every one of you must be saved, sooner or later, by the grace of the All‑merciful. Make it sooner rather than later. Keep the goal clear before the eye and march on.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 6
