Advice to Seekers
In this discourse given by Sai Baba on Good Friday in 1975, He strongly admonishes seekers to stop searching for God outside themselves and o work on practice and transformation within.
If somebody says Sai Baba’s powers have been given to him, then we run to him. Sai Baba’s powers are such that they are not given to anybody else. Nobody has the ability to take powers from Sai Baba, or the ability to give them to someone else. You should not be led away by such statements. Each one’s power is within him; it is not possible to give such power to another person. In this manner, by allowing a weak mind to get control over us, if we begin running from place to place, when are we going to get strength of mind and control our own mind? We must be able to follow one thought, one path. One does not have to search for spiritual power by going around the world and spending a lot of money. Be in your own house; develop it in yourself; such spiritual power is in YOU! You don’t have to run for it here and there. God is not external; God is not outside you; God is inside you.
You are not a man, you are God yourself. You are not one person, but three: the one you think you are (physical); the one others think you are (mental); and the one you really are (spiritual), that is God. Don’t be under the delusion that God is somewhere and you have to search for Him. God is in you, and when you are able to realize that and develop the spiritual power from within you, then you will see God. You are going on the path of worldly consciousness. When you take the path of super-consciousness, you will get realization and be able to see the truth.
Don’t let the physical body wander
The first thing you have to do is develop self-confidence. People who have no confidence in their own self begin to wander and waver and take to various paths. When you take your body to different places, and when you go about moving aimlessly, the mind also goes to different places. First, steady your physical body. If the body is moving all the time, the mind is also moving. Take a container filled with water. If the container is continually moving, then the contents also will be continually moving. So, to not keep moving our bodies and our limbs in an aimless manner is a very essential part of our meditation practice. Why do we ask people to sit straight and quiet in meditation? Because when the body is straight and quiet, the mind inside is also straight and quiet. If you cannot control your body, how can you control your mind? The basis for the mind wandering is that your physical body is also continually wandering. So the first thing you have to do is to give up this continual wandering of the physical body.
Concentration or meditation?
Many people think that concentration is the same as meditation, and they take to a wrong path. But there is no such connection. Concentration is below your senses, whereas meditation is above your senses. We apply concentration involuntarily in our daily routine life. Just look at this: I am now reading the newspaper. My eyes are looking at the letters. My hand is holding the paper. My mind and intelligence are thinking. Thus, when the eyes are doing their work, the hand is doing its work, when the intelligence is doing its work, and the mind is also doing its work, then I am able to get the contents of the newspaper. This means that if I want to get at the matter contained in the newspaper, all these enumerated senses are concentrated, coordinated, and working on the newspaper.
Not only this, if one wants to drive a car on the road, one cannot do it unless one has concentration. All the normal routines, like walking, talking, reading, writing, eating, we do only as a result of concentration. It is a part of your daily life. What we have to practice is beyond these normal senses. We must rise from being below the senses (that is the state of concentration), to the senses (that is the middle position, called contemplation), and from there we must rise above the senses, that is called meditation.
Between concentration and meditation there is a border area that covers both, and that is the area of contemplation. If you break away from all the routine attachments in the world, then you will enter the region of contemplation. When you have completely broken away from all your attachments, you break through this area of contemplation and you get into the area of meditation.
First develop self-confidence
These steps can also be described as starting from self-confidence, and then getting self-satisfaction, and then self-sacrifice, with the last step being self-realization. The ultimate step of self-realization depends upon the base of self-confidence. You must, therefore, first develop confidence in your own self. Without that, if all the time you talk of and depend on some power being with someone else, and if you thus travel all the time, when are you going to acquire any power and confidence in your own self? Peace and bliss are within you; they are not external to you. You may think of going to the Himalayas for getting peace. Yes, your body may go to the Himalayas, but your mind may be left behind in the city. How are you going to get peace? You have brought your body to India; but if you have the same habits that you are used to in America, what is the use of bringing the body to India? Body is not the essential thing. The transformation should be in your mind; the change should occur in your mind.
Many people collect a lot of information, but they do not use it to bring about a transformation of their own self. Information is useless; it is the transformation in you that is important. If you go on mentioning the names of many eatables, are you going to relieve your hunger? But if you actually eat only one thing, you are going to relieve your hunger. Therefore, instead of talking about so many things (all that is simply book knowledge), if you are able to put into practice one of the things you say, that is going to be useful.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. XIII
