Amritha Vani
They speak of two types of karma [action]: dehika and daivika (physical and spiritual). But this division is absurd and even dangerous. All acts and activities are spiritual, the body is but an instrument for spiritual progress and attainment. Modern education emphasizes the physical and neglects the spirit, which is crucial. It teaches that joy derived through the senses alone are worthwhile. It does not give even a glimpse of the deeper and more lasting joy derivable through the spirit that is your real self, and it is, in essence, ananda, shanti, jnana—sathyam, shivam, sundaram (bliss, peace, spiritual knowledge—truth, goodness, and beauty).
You must have noticed that I never address you as ‘Bhaktulaara’ for how can you be only that? You are Bhagavan, youbecome that by just shedding the avidya (ignorance) that makes you imagine that you are limited. That is why I address you either as Shanti-swarupulaara or Ananda-swarupulaara or Divyatma-swarupulaara (embodiments of peace or bliss or divine soul). That is your real nature, but you are not even told who you are. Your misery is traceable to this failure to know yourself.
Educators today do not teach the ways and means of crossing the sea of misery, of facing success and defeat, of remaining calm and collected. The brain is stuffed with information, the hands are trained in skills, but the senses are not tamed, the intelligence is not curbed, the mind is allowed to run amok. That is the cause of the tragic crisis in the world today.
Do karma full of joy and enthusiasm
You have been born in this karmakshetra (land of spiritual activity) and your duty is to engage yourself in continuous uninterrupted karma. Do not be bogged in gloom and sloth; do karma full of joy and enthusiasm, as if each act is an offering at the feet of the Lord. Bharat desham (India) is the Guru-peetham (seat of the spiritual teacher) of humanity. That is the role it has played and must play. But as a consequence of undue attachment to the senses and the world, fostered by blind admiration and snobbish imitation, the role has been forgotten, to the great loss of ourselves and of the rest of humanity. The restrictions, regulations, and rules of guidance for individual, family, community, nation, and humanity are either not remembered or brushed aside as obsolete. The joy, peace, and contentment that one gets by observing them are themselves witnesses of their worth.
The Pundits and scholars who have assembled here for the Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha being inaugurated now have therefore a great responsibility for they must hold fast to the prasanthi (total peace) that the study and practice of the Vedas and Shastras [scriptures] has conferred upon them. They must also share that prasanthi with all humanity. They must be bold, free, and happy always, for they know that this is all an unreal dream. They know the goal of life and they are marching steadily toward it with every passing minute.
Grief is the greatest friend of man
All that is padartha (matter) must be transformed into paraartha (spirituality); that is My plan. The jnana that the Vedas and Shastras have given to these people must be distributed. At present these scholars have no self‑confidence because they are losing faith in what they themselves have hitherto considered invaluable. They send their children to technical courses and secular studies, for they are heavily pinched for the means of livelihood. What is the good in having an umbrella that allows the Sun to burn you and the rain to soak you, they have started asking! But the Vedic treasure house has vast riches, which are urgently needed today. It is to conserve, develop, and utilize it more fully that this Sabha[assembly] is inaugurated now.
The Vedas are the basis of dharma, which is like the Mother in its loving care for man. Bharatabhumi (India) is Yoga Bhumi, Karma Bhumi, Tyaga Bhumi, not Bhoga Bhumi (land of spiritual union, spiritual activity, renunciation, and not a land of enjoyment). The Kauravas failed because they stuck to empire and greed for power and fixed their minds on bhoga (enjoyment). The Pandavas secured Divine guidance and won because they stuck to spiritual joy, ascetic self‑control, simplicity, and sincerity. To follow the same path is the sign of wisdom. That is the Path of dharma (virtue) from which mankind has strayed away. Grief is the greatest friend of man, for it opens the eyes and shocks you into the search for the secret of shanti and santosha (peace and happiness contentment).
There is no need for tears or despair
A monkey put its hand into a pot of nuts and tightened its fist full of the food, but it could not take its hand out of the narrow neck because the fist was too big for it. Unless the nuts were dropped back into the pot and the fingers released, the hand could not be got out! That is the situation of man today. His greed is giving him great pain, but he has not discovered the fact; so, he clings to his possessions and tries to pull his hand out; that gives him great pain. There is no use blaming the nuts or the pot. The fault is in the monkey itself. Prakriti (nature) is the pot, and the sensory objects are the nuts.
A bird sits on a tiny twig in perfect confidence! Where does it get the confidence from? Not from the twig, but from the wings that can take it aloft at the slightest sign of danger. The twig is prakrithi (objective world), sit on it lightly, gaily, confidently; but rely more on the wings, namely the Grace of the Lord who can lift you aloft, away from prakriti at the slightest premonition of danger. The twig is not very reliable, but the wings are always there to save you.
The revival of that dharma is a task that the rulers have not planned for; it is a program that the people are not keen upon. Then who must take it up? It was said that I have taken up this Form in answer to the prayers of Sadhus (noble souls) and others. There are some mothers who feed the baby only when it starts crying; the more considerate and loving type of mother knows when the baby is hungry; she need not be called to its side by a loud wail. This Mother is that type of Mother. I have come because I felt I had to come. I resolved upon this. There is no need now for tears or despair either among the repositories of the Vedic wisdom or among the good, who suffer from the cruel winds of adharma (vice). This campaign will succeed; it will not fail. The welfare of the world will be ensured through the fostering of the Godly everywhere, and more particularly of these reservoirs of the ancient wisdom of this land.
Love is God. God is Love. Where there is Love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people, love them more and more intensely; transform the love into service, transform the service into worship; that is the highest sadhana [spiritual effort].
~Sathya Sai Baba
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 3
