Close the Windows and Save the Lamp

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says that by complete surrender to the Lord we close the windows and doors. Thus we are bereft of “ego” and are not affected by joy or grief. It makes us draw upon the grace of the Lord for meeting all crises and it renders us heroic, more stalwart,
and better prepared to face the world.

The Mukkoti Ekadasi, is also known as Vaikunta Ekadasi (day sacred to Lord Vishnu). [The two speakers who address-ed the audience before Swami spoke, described the traditional legend of the churning of the ocean, recounting all the details and characters from the Bhagavatha [Hindu scripture] of the ocean of milk including the Kurma Avatar (Vishnu’s incarnation as tortoise), the Mandara Mountain, Vasuki (venomous serpent), the asuras and suras (demons and celestials), and the various items that appeared from the ocean during the process of churning, culminating in the amritha (the nectar that gives immortality).] That legend has great value because you too must churn the ocean of your heart and win the nectar for yourself. The legend is only a reminder, an example, and a call.

The heart full of sathwaguna (purity and poise) is the ocean of milk. The steady contemplation of the Divine, either internally as your own reality or externally as the ideal to be reached, is the Mandara Mountain which served as the churning rod. Vasuki, the serpent that was wound around the churning rod like a rope, emitted poisonous fumes during the process of churning and frightened the asuras who held the head. The rope is held by the good and the bad impulses and both struggle back and forth with the churning process, eager for the result which each has set as its goal.

The lesson of the legend

The grace of God is the Tortoise incarnation, for the Lord Himself comes to the rescue once He knows that you are earnestly seeking the secret of immortality. He comes, silently and unobserved, as the tortoise did, holding the manana (reflection) process unimpaired and serving as the steady base of all spiritual practice. Many things emerge from the mind when churned, but the wise wait patiently for the appearance of the guarantor of immortality, and seize upon it avidly. That is the lesson of the legend. It is a summary of atmavidya (the science of the self).

The song bhajagopalam (be attached to Krishna, the Divine) carries the same message, perhaps in a simpler and easier form. Remembering the Lord’s name is the method for crossing over the ocean of worldly life for this age; it is enough to save man. The Lord is anandamaya (the nature of bliss); He is also ananda (divine bliss), which is to be tasted through His name. It is sath‑chith-ananda (being‑awareness‑bliss Absolute). One may doubt whether such a small word like Rama or Sai or Krishna can take you across the boundless sea of worldly life. People cross vast oceans on a tiny raft; they are able to walk through dark jungles with a tiny lamp in their hands. The name, even the pranava (Om) which is even smaller, has vast potentialities. The raft need not be as big as the sea.

The recitation of the name is like digging a well to tap an underground source of water. It is like the chisel‑stroke that will release the image of God imprisoned in the marble. Break the encasement and the Lord will appear; cleave the pillar, as Prahlada (Lord Vishnu’s devotee) asked his father to do, and the Lord who is always there will manifest Himself. Churn and release the butter that is latent in the milk.  In the spiritual field, you learn that spiritual practice from yogis (God‑centered men), who have gained and offered that navaneetham (fresh butter) to Krishna.

Curing the infection of Samsara

There are many who ridicule these yogis and scoff at them. They call them selfish, anti‑social, self‑centered idlers who run away from their obligations and seek asylum in solitude and silence. But being near does not ensure usefulness, and being far does not imply hatred or fear of company or uselessness. Viruses enter the bloodstream and, though nothing can be nearer to you, they are mortal enemies. Members of the same family are envious and suspicious of one another; those born as brothers or sisters fight in courts of law and fill the pockets of lawyers.  It is not nearness that counts.

These yogis moved out into lonely spots and sought teachers of the inner path, much like young technicians do today, going to Japan or America or Russia in order to learn skills that will help to build a better India. They do not give up kith and kin and their chances to make a fortune because they are afraid of facing the harsh realities of life, nor do they flee from loss or defeat. They go to seek the secret of eternal joy; they win it for themselves and, by their lives, they inspire others to win the precious secret by treading the path they have found useful.

No one calls the man who has gone abroad to equip himself better, as an engineer or a doctor, selfish.  Why then should the man who undergoes greater deprivations to equip himself better as an engineer of the mind, utilizing its undoubted powers not for bondage, but for liberation, be considered ego‑centric? This only shows ignorance of true values. There are isolation hospitals where patients suffering from chronic infectious diseases are treated and cured. The hermitages in the forests are such hospitals, where people who want to be cured of the infection of worldly life can undergo the treatment and come out free in order to serve other patients.

Ajnani sees the same self in all

Today is the day when, during the churning of the ocean, nectar emerged and was distributed to the Gods. The Gods had slid into the calamity of losing their immortality! Man too is the child of immortality, and that is the reason why he cannot force himself to believe he will die. One may see one’s neighbor die, but still believes that he can somehow escape it. The man of realization (jnani), however, is ever ready to cast off this encumbrance and escape from the prison of name and form. Emperor Janaka [Rama’s father-in-law] was such a realized person. He never lost awareness of the Oneness.

Once, Sulabha, the celebrated woman dialectician, visited his court and during the discussion, she challenged Janaka to treat her also as his queen for, “as a jnani, you should make no difference between persons,” as men of realization see the same self in all. But, Janaka retorted, “As a jnani, you should recognize oneness; there is no validity in talking of men and women as distinct.” Thus he taught her real jnana, the highest wisdom.

Mere drinking of the nectar that I create will not confer immortality on you. Everything that is born must die; everything that is constructed will disintegrate. But you can escape death by not being born again. When you know that you are the limitless atman (the soul which is the infinite consciousness), then you are no longer subjected to the limitation of birth. That is the secret. How is one to know that? It is the result of a long process of sharpening the intellect and purifying the emotions and the impulses. You may do the most rigorous japa (repetition of holy name) or practice the most extreme austerities, but if you are not virtuous, all of it is a sheer waste.

You are the limitless atman

You may have the best of vegetables, you may be the most capable cook, but if the copper vessel in which you prepare the vegetable soup is not tinned, the concoction you cook will be highly poisonous! So “tin” your heart with sathya, dharma, shanti, and prema (truth, right conduct, peace, and love) and only then will it become a vessel fit for repeating the holy name, for meditation, religious vows, pilgrimage, ritualistic worship, and the other offerings you make with it.

It is an uphill task to reform one’s tendencies and character. A man may study all the textbooks of spiritual practice, all the scriptures, and he may even lecture for hours on them, but he will slip into error when temptation confronts him. Like land that is parched, the heart may appear to be free from any crop of evil, but when the first showers fall, the seeds and roots underneath the soil change the waste into a carpet of green.

There was a wandering mendicant once who refused to reveal his caste or creed, origin or destination. A shrewd housewife discovered it quite easily; she fed him well and when he lay fast asleep snoring, she applied a red‑hot rod on the sole of his foot and the man shrieked “Allah.” The real core can never be altered, hidden, or suppressed.

But what is the real core? It is not the particular religious belief, the name, or the language that one has learned from one’s mother. It is the Absolute Reality that you are. You know in the very depth of your being that ‘you are and will be’—that is the characteristic of sath (real, conscious). You are also eager to know, to expand by knowledge, to reach out. All beings have this urge for expression. That is the characteristic of chith (awareness). You seek joy; all beings do so. That is the characteristic of ananda (divine bliss). The ananda in you seeks its kin everywhere, in everything. That is why it is said; sath‑chith‑ananda is the link between thath and thwam, the particular and the universal. Everything is asthi (exists), for, it is sath (truth); it is bhathi (expressing itself), because it is chith; it is priya (pleasant), because it is ananda.

If you are able to equip your mind with this consciousness you are a person of realization. Otherwise you are a masquerader. There are three types of minds: (1) minds like ginned cotton, ready to receive the spark of highest wisdom and to give up the weakness and prejudices of ages in one instant blaze, (2) minds like dry wood, that succeed but only after some time, and (3) minds like preen logs that resist the onslaught of the fire of jnana with all their might.

The little game that the Lord plays

Herds of cattle run towards a mirage to satisfy their thirst, but you ought to be wiser. You have discrimination, and renunciation. You can detach yourself consciously from pursuits that you find to be harmful. Sit quietly for a few minutes and ponder over the fate of those who run towards the mirage. Are they happy? Do they have the strength to bear distress and distinction with equanimity? Do they have a glimpse of the beauty, the truth, the grandeur of the universe, and the handiwork of God? Do they have the vision of themselves as the center of the universe?

You have read that the Lord, melted and moved by a seeker’s acute penance, came and asked softly and sweetly, “My dear child! What is it you need?” He has manifested Himself to give, but consider the grace that leads Him to ask, “What is it you need?” He wants you to express in words what you have yearned for, and ask the Lord whom you have brought before you through the exercise of silence. That is the little game He plays. And sometimes He wills that the question is answered in the way His plan demands! Ravana’s brother Kumbhakarna was blessed with a timely twist of the tongue and so he asked for nidra (the power to sleep), instead of nigrah (the power to slaughter)!

The seer should not attach himself to the seen; that is the way to get free. The contact of the senses with the object arouses desire and attachment and this leads to effort and either elation or despair. Then, as a result, there is the fear of loss or grief at failure and the train of reactions lengthens. With many doors and windows kept open to all the winds that blow, how can the flame of the lamp within survive? That lamp is the mind, which must burn steadily unaffected by the dual demands of the world outside.

Complete surrender to the Lord is one way of closing the windows and doors, for then, in that stance of complete surrender to God, you are bereft of “ego” and as such, not affected by joy or grief. Complete surrender makes you draw upon the grace of the Lord for meeting all the crises in your career, and it renders you heroic, more stalwart, better prepared for the battle.

Resolve on this auspicious day to enter upon the quest of truth. Uttarayana [when the sun begins its northward journey] is the best time. For the morning of Uttarayana day, the great Bhishma waited for a long time on his bed of arrows, the morning when the Sun turns North, the direction of the Gods and where Siva resides. The Sun is the deity that controls the eye, the vision of man, and so these six months, when the Sun is proceeding Siva‑ward, are very propitious for man to do likewise.

The real heavenly nectar

There are some who deal in timber in the East Godavari district here. They know that logs are floated down the Godavari River during the high floods and they are retrieved from the waters after miles and miles of journey at Rajahmundry. Railway sleepers are floated down from the Himalayan forests through the Ganga and caught at Haridwar in the thousands. By joining the flood and the flowing stream, the journey becomes easier. So too, if you practice spiritual discipline to attain the Lord, when the deity of vision is moving towards the divine region, you can get the benefit of the momentum. Today, it is also Vaikunta Ekadasi. Many of you expect Me to go to the Chitravati riverbed and create nectar and give it to all. Well, on the road to the river, you meet herds of cattle that move to the river and return. You have earned this Vaag‑amritham (word‑nectar), from this discourse, which you can treasure in your minds and act upon. This is the real heavenly nectar; know its worth, do not allow it to be wasted, garner it to become Godly.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. V