Alms and Qualms
In January 1969 while celebrating the Uttarayana [northern transit of sun] festival, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said that we should yearn with anguish to win His grace. The grace is always there but it is the yearning that manifests it.
From this day of the Tropic of Capricorn the Sun appears to move from South to North, so this Summer Solstice day has been celebrated as an auspicious festival since ages. But you must be concerned more with your own journey that is nearing its end with every sunrise. You are engaged in an incessant struggle with the Sun to survive the onslaught of time. You yearn to escape the consequences of birth and the aftermath of death. You desire peace and joy; for this, you have to cleanse the mind so effectively that it is completely eliminated. This is possible only when you identify yourself with the Atma [higher self], rather than with the body that is the casket of the Atma, and is earned as a reward for one’s activities of mind and body. When you live in the consciousness of the omnipresent Atma, you live in love that is flowing and flooding in and through you and all else.
Every morning, as soon as you sit up in bed, ask yourself this question: “For what purpose have I come into this world? What is the task set for me? What triumph is it that I am being prepared for? What is the grand victory that I have to strive for?”
You must have witnessed the annual festivals in the famous pilgrimage centers. The colossal chariots of the temple are gorgeously decorated with flags and festoons; stalwart bands of men draw the chariots along the broad roads to the music of blowpipes and conches; and acrobats, dancing groups, chanters, minstrels, and all others precede it and add to the exhilaration of the occasion. Thousands crowd around the holy conveyances and line the streets. Their attention is naturally drawn toward the entertainments provided, but they feel happiest only when they fold their palms and bow before the idol that is installed in the chariot. The rest is all subsidiary, even irrelevant to many. So, too, in the process of life, the body is the chariot, and the Atma is the idol installed therein. Earning and spending, laughing and weeping, hurting and healing, and all the various acrobatics of daily life are but subsidiary to the adoration of God, the attainment of Atma.
Yearning & anguish win grace
The body is the chariot; buddhi (intelligence) is the charioteer; desires are the roads through which the rope of sensual attachments draws it; moksha (liberation) is the goal; Moola‑Viraat‑Swarupa (the primal all-pervasive Divine) is the master in the chariot. The body that you carry about has to be treated thus. Instead, men are wildly milling around in dreary circles, from birth to death, pulled by wishes or pushed by needs. No milestones on the pilgrim’s road are crossed; no bridges are negotiated; and no progress is registered. The very process of the journey is ignored.
You may say that progress is possible only through My grace; but though My heart is soft as butter, it melts only when there is some warmth in your prayer. Unless you make some disciplined effort, some sadhana [spiritual exercise], grace cannot descend on you. The yearning, the agony of unfulfilled aim melts My heart. That is the anguish that wins grace. Regardless of the Navarathris and Shivarathris [holy days] you may attend at this place [Prashanthi Nilayam—the residence of Sathya Sai Baba in India], unless you illumine your heart and make it shine clear and pure, it will be shrouded in darkness, immersed in ratri (night) only.
Sadhana must make you calm, unruffled, poised, and balanced. Make the mind as cool and comforting as the moonlight, for the Moon is the deity holding sway over the mind. Be calm in speech and in your response to malice, cavil, and praise. You complain that others are disturbing your equanimity; but you do not know that though your tongue does not speak, your thoughts can unsettle the equanimity of those around you.
Detached person is content
Detachment, faith, and love—these are the pillars on which shanti [peace] rests. Of these, faith is crucial; without it, sadhana is an empty rite. Detachment alone can make sadhana effective, and love quickly leads to God. Faith feeds the agony of separation from God; detachment canalizes it along the path of God; and, love lights the way. God will grant you what you need and deserve; there is no need to ask, no reason to grumble. Be content. Nothing can happen against His will.
I am reminded of Karna [from the epic Mahabharata]. In his last moments, he asked from the Lord just one boon, “I do not mind if You condemn me to be born, to face death in an endless cycle; only, bless me that in all my many lives, I am not constrained to stand before another with hand extended, pleading ‘give’; and bless me also that in all my lives, I am not constrained to send away a supplicant with the word, ‘No’. Let not these two words, dehi (give) and nasti (no) emerge from my mouth.” A person fixed in detachment and self‑control will never say dehi and can never hear the reply nasti for he is ever content and ever full.
Once a cynical critic asked Vivekananda why he paraded his renunciation through the ochre robe. He [Vivekananda] replied, “This is no parade; this is a protection. I am wearing this ochre robe because seeing this no one will approach me for alms or monetary help. So, that word ‘No,’ which I am averse to pronounce, need not be spoken by me. At the sight of this robe, only seekers of salvation will come near me; for them, I have enough to give. I am moved when distressed people come near; but I have no money to give them. This dress helps me to escape such painful situations.” You should so regulate your life that these two words are not used by you, while you live.
No bird or beast is to be despised
Do not grieve nor be the cause of grief. The very embodiment of ananda (bliss) is in you as in others and in all else. In spite of a multiplicity of containers, the contained is the same. That is the principle of sat, chit, and ananda (being, awareness, bliss). The minutest atom and the mightiest star—both are basically one. All are, in truth, Brahman, the Divine. You read in the sacred books that Vishnu (God in charge of preserving, protecting and fostering the universe) has the Garuda (Eagle) as His vehicle. Shiva (God in charge of mergence, disintegration and destruction of the universe) has the Nandi (bull) as His vehicle, while Brahma (God in charge of the emergence, evolution and creation of the universe) rides on a Hamsa (Swan).
Subrahmanya (the General of the divine army) rides on a peacock; Shani (the God who directs Saturnine influences) has the crow as his vehicle; and Ganesha (the God who helps to overcome obstacles) rides on a mouse, even though he is stupendously corpulent and has the head of an elephant. This does not mean that the Gods are helpless without these animals and birds as instruments of locomotion. It only reveals that no bird or beast is to be despised, for, the Divine is using each as His vehicle. Seen as deha (body), all are distinct; seen as dehi (the embodiment), the Brahman, all are One.
See unity in all religions
Sadhana will disclose to you this identity. But be careful; sadhana can foster even pride and envy as the by‑product of progress. When you calculate how much or how long you have done sadhana, you are tempted to look down on others who have done less [sadhana]. You are proud that you have written the name of Sai ten million times; you talk about it whenever you get the chance so that others may admire your faith and fortitude. But it is not the millions that count; the purity of mind that results from genuine concentration on the name is what counts. Your sadhana must avoid becoming like drawing water from a well in a cane basket. You cannot get any water regardless of how often you dip and pull the basket up. Each vice is a hole in the bucket. Keep the heart pure and keep it whole.
All religions exhort man to cleanse his heart of malice, greed, hate, and anger. All religions hold out the gift of grace as the prize for success in this cleansing process. Ideas of superiority and inferiority arise only in a heart corrupted by egoism. If someone argues that he is higher or that his religion is holier, it proves that he has missed the very core of his faith. Leaves, flowers, and fruits—these may be peculiar to each species; but pay attention to the trunk, and you will find similarity emerging. Sadhana will reveal, likewise, the unity in the fundamental teachings of all religions. It is, of course, a hard path; but it is a path that everyone has to take now or later.
Signs of success in meditation
There was a fellow who clamored for an easy path to moksha. He approached a guru [spiritual teacher] and asked for the quickest means of attaining moksha. “Know yourself,” said the guru. “O that I know! I am just now your disciple. So, do I have the moksha I want?” he asked. But the guru said that it was not as simple as that. The guru told him that God was behind and beyond the body, manipulating the senses, the intelligence, and the ego. He was the Atma, residing in the very core of the five sheaths—the annamaya (the food or physical sheath), the pranamaya (the vital, the nerve‑centered), the manomaya (the mental, imagination‑centered, symbol-dealing), the vijnanamaya (intelligence-centered, reason-based, logical), and the anandamaya (intuition‑centered, experience‑based, blissful).
The guru, however, gave him a tabloid prescription: “Repeat the name of God, from the heart, with yearning to visualize Him.” He said, “If you remind yourself continuously of God being your innermost Being, this awareness will come to you in a flash through His grace.” The fellow shied at this; he queried whether he couldn’t employ anyone to do the repetition for him. At this, the guru asked, “Do you employ someone to eat or sleep on your behalf? When you fall ill, do you get someone else to swallow the drug or take the injection?”
You sit in dhyana (meditation) for ten minutes after the evening bhajan (devotional chanting) sessions, so far, so good. But when you rise after the ten minutes and move about, do you see everyone in a clearer light, as endowed with Divinity? If not, dhyana is a waste of time. Do you love more, do you talk less, and do you serve others more earnestly as a result of dhyana? These are the signs of success in dhyana. Your progress must be authenticated by your character and behavior. Dhyana must transmute your attitude toward beings and things, or else it is a hoax. Even a boulder will, through the action of sun and rain, heat and cold, disintegrate into mud and become food for a tree. Even the hardest heart can be softened so that the Divine can sprout therein.
You come to Prasanthi Nilayam as cars come to a workshop. You must go out with new paint, having replaced the damaged and loose bolts and nuts, with the engine cleaned and reconditioned, and, every part spick and span, beautiful, trouble-free, in perfect trim, and ready to speed on the journey that lies ahead. Every bad habit has to be replaced by a good one, no trace of vice must be allowed to persist, and, the heart must be drained of all egoism. This is the fruit of this pilgrimage that you must acquire. Let this be your resolution, on this Uttarayana Festival.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 9
