Chitta Shuddhi Yoga
Man is sathyam, shivam, and sundaram (truth, goodness, and beauty). That is why he is drawn by the true, the beautiful, and the good. He hates being labeled a liar or an ugly person or a bad character. Man has to go out of his way, take special pains, to tread the path of falsehood; it is more difficult for him to sustain a lie than support the truth. So, man is turning back on his destiny when he revels in falsehood, ugliness, and wickedness.
Rama and Lakshmana, though born of different mothers, were drawn to each other by mysterious ties of fraternal reverence. When just a boy, Lakshmana used to weep inconsolably while with his mother. Sage Vasishta, the court preceptor, suggested that the child may be placed in the same cradle as Rama, born a few days earlier, and, when this was done, he slept sound and sweet. The two were bound by the same destiny. Man, too, is bound to God (Rama) by the same destiny. He can get sound and sweet sleep only in the lap of God. Separated from Him, he can only wail.
Have the name of God on your tongue, in your breath, ever. That will evoke His form as the inner core of every thing, thought, or turn of events. That will provide you with His company, contact with His unfailing energy and bliss. That is the satsang (good association) that gives you maximum benefit. Converse with God who is in you; derive courage and consolation from Him. He is the guru most interested in your progress. Do not seek the guru outside you, in hermitages or holy places. The God in you is father, mother, preceptor, and friend.
For peace man must rely on God
You know how the Pandavas felt about Lord Krishna. As soon as Dhritarashtra, the head of the Kaurava clan, learnt that Krishna had promised to be on the side of the Pandava cousins in the war that was to begin soon, he asked Krishna, “O Krishna! We, too, are your kinsmen, yet why do you throw your weight on the other scale, the side of those Pandava brothers?” Krishna replied, “Kinsmen! But what a difference! You are fire and they are water! Water that quenches the thirst of wanderers in the desert!” Dhritarashtra said that the attachment He had for his cousins was something inexplicable.
Krishna declared, “I shall explain. Dharmaraja, the eldest brother, is as My head. Bhima, the second, is as My shoulders. Arjuna, the third among the brothers, is as My arms. And Nakula and Sahadeva (the twins) who are the fourth and the fifth among them are as My feet!” Notice how intimate they had all become to God! And this in spite of all the long trail of loss, infamy, calamity, exile, and poverty that they suffered while in His keeping as non‑believers may say! They bore all boldly and in undiminished bliss.
Without firm reliance on this ever-present God, man cannot have peace. In western countries now God is denied, and man is relying on himself. He exaggerates his own intelligence and sense of adventure and prides himself on the advance he has made through science and technology. But intelligence without equanimity is filling mental hospitals.
Peace is fleeing from the hearts of men and women. Social harmony is becoming a distant dream. International concord is a mirage, pursued by a few. Man travels to the moon, but does not explore his own inner levels of consciousness, and understanding them, cleanse them and control them.
Prepare the heart to live in love
The instrument through which he is able to master nature is itself not really understood by man. When once that is understood, all that is understood through it, will become plain. This is what the sages of India did; they sought to know that which if known, all else can be known. The Upanishads lay down the process of this discovery.
The expression of that discovery in practical life is love; for, it is love that creates, sustains, and engulfs all. Without love no one can claim to have succeeded in deciphering God and His handiwork, the Universe. God is love; live in love–that is the direction indicated by the sages. Love can grow only in a well‑ploughed heart, free from brambles. So, the heart has to be prepared by means of namasmarana (constant recital of the name). It can then be called a yoga, like bhakti, jnana, or karma (devotion, wisdom, or action). It can be called “Chitta shuddhi yoga,”–“The path of consciousness‑cleansing.” Charge every second of time with the Divine current that emanates from the name.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 8
