Angam and Lingam
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba extols the need for ardent spiritual discipline to secure God on the glorious Shivaratri [the holy day that celebrates Shiva] night in this divine discourse.
The glory of India reaches the ends of the world. She is the embodiment of spiritual victory. She has given birth to indomitable heroes who have assailed the inner foes, and adventured far into the region of the reality. These [spiritual values] have been laid down to guide mankind through various disciplines in order to achieve similar triumphs. Among these, the ceremonial observance of holy days, dedicated to intense meditation on various aspects of Godhead, is highly important. One can understand the ridicule that Westerners, in their ignorance, pour on these observances; but it is pathetic to find Indians doing the same! They too have become blind to the meaning and significance of their heritage. They have not tasted the fruits of the discipline, as they have not practised it. How then can you value their judgement?
The state of the Indian nation can be summarized in the proverb: “Father is happy with his second wife; children are miserable with their step‑mother.” The technological civilization of the West, the culture that honors the standard of living more than the means by which that standard is attained, the culture that flies to the moon but is afraid to peep into the mind, has become the favorite wife; the children who are to be fed on mother’s milk of Sanathana Dharma (the eternal religion) are miserable, for they have no training to secure it. Born to a rich heritage, the children are growing up destitute and helpless. Each one is the repository of divine might, of the imperishable atma (soul). Contacting this reality is the prime purpose of life, but this is neglected. Precious days are spent in inferior pursuits.
Man wants peace & cultivates worry
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (a famous Indian saint) lamented every night that one more day had gone by where His prayers had failed to help him visualize the [Divine] Mother as a living Mother. That is the yearning that man must cultivate instead of the competitive greed for sensory pleasures that are false and fleeting. Man must engage himself in such tasks as will confer on him peace and lasting joy. Man must examine for himself the merits of various activities, and choose only those that are beneficial. He desires peace but cultivates worry and anxiety. He plants a lime tree, but hopes to get mangoes from it. This is sheer ignorance or willful blindness, or the result of being misguided.
It is foolish to wash coal with milk to make it white; instead the milk too will become black. In fact, you have to heat the coal until it is red-hot, and continue the process until it is transformed into white ash. The ash remains ash forever. Similarly, the tamasic (dull‑witted and ignorant) mind (black) has to be transmuted into the rajasik stage (red or active and passionate) and then, to the satwic stage (white or calm and pious) by the process of spiritual discipline (heating). The blackness and the redness are produced by the qualities of greed and lust.
Regular treatment with the drug of self‑control will cure you of these. These holy days have been prescribed to inaugurate the treatment. The shastras [Hindu scriptures] extol the drug (of spiritual discipline], and lay down the method of administration. The lives of saints encourage you to seek it, and save yourself by it. Through these [disciplines], man can ascend from the animal to the human level, and from the human to the divine. Yes, you too can become divine; I have nothing that you too do not possess. It is latent in you, while it is patent and potent [in Me] here; that is the only difference [between you and Me]!
Sanctity Shivaratri
Life is a short and fast‑flowing chance. You will have to put every minute to the best use; that is, discover your own reality and that will give you the highest joy. Do not spend time inquiring about the whence and wherefore of others. Inquire about yourselves. When an election comes along, you wander from door to door, and fall at the feet of all and sundry to earn their votes. Instead of demeaning yourselves in this manner, if you fall at God’s feet and become worthy of His grace, people themselves will press you to stand for election, and fill the ballot boxes with votes for you. For this you must have faith in God and earn the grace of God. Now, most people have no faith; what is worse, they laugh at those who have faith, and they scorn those who create and promote that faith.
What is the sanctity of Shivaratri? You answer: “linga (the ellipsoid-shaped object which represents the universal energy that is Shiva) emerges from Swami’s udara (abdomen).” In fact, the linga is in every one of you. In the angam (body) there is jangam; (in the body composed of limbs, there is always the movement of the mind toward the external objects); in jangam, there is sangam (through this movement, there arises attachment); in sangam there is lingam (through attachment and consequent suffering, the individual learns the need for and the efficacy of the linga, or God, who is one’s innermost core). Witness the atma-linga (spirit of the soul) that emerges; derive bliss from there but become worthy of it.
Spend Shivaratri night in vigil
Let Me tell you why this day is considered holy. Today is the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month when the moon is all but invisible; just a minute fraction of the moon is visible to man. The moon is the presiding deity of the mind. The mind is the source of all the entangling desires and emotions. The mind is, therefore, almost powerless this day; if this night is spent in vigil, and in the presence of the Divine, it can be fully conquered and man can realize his freedom. So, every month, the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month is prescribed for more intense sadhana (spiritual disciplines) and once a year, this Mahashivaratri, the great night of Shiva, is laid down for the great consummation.
Vigilance this night is to be secured by sadhana, that is by means of bhajan (singing holy songs), or reading sacred texts, or listening to the reading of such texts. It is not attained by watching movies, gambling, or playing cards. Be engaged in seeing good, listening to good, speaking good, thinking good, and doing good; that is the program for the vigil tonight. Make it also the program for your entire life.
A father sent his son to the market with a sum of money to bring home some fruits. While bringing them home, the boy saw a few beggars on the road and heard their wails; he realized that they were very hungry, and that they needed the fruits more urgently. So he gave the fruits to them, and came home empty handed. When the father chided him, the son replied, “I have brought you invisible fruits that are sweeter and more lasting.” Yes, the fruits of charity, rendered to the deserving, are really sweeter and lasting. Seek all chances of doing such good acts.
Now, I shall unfurl the Prasanthi flag. No good will come if I merely unfurl it on this building. Prasanthi or the highest peace can be won only when each one of you unfurls it in your heart. Ruminate on what I have said when you reach home, and digest it, and let it add to your strength and forbearance. Dedicate all your deeds, words, and thoughts to Sarveshwara, the supreme sovereign.
The emergence of the linga (the ellipsoid shaped representation of the formless Divinity) will happen today. Do not, in your anxiety to secure sitting space, sit in the sun from 3 p.m. onward. Do not disregard the rules of health. Do not exhaust yourself. So long as you are here, do not waste a single moment in worthless talk. Now, I shall go up to the terrace and unfurl the flag. Do not fall upon each other and struggle to pick the flowers showered from above. Be restrained and be orderly. Afterward, move to the auditorium where abhishekam (ritual bathingof a sacred idle) will take place. Witness everything and derive full joy.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 7
