Eschew Envy: Uphold Truth

Sathya Sai Baba gave the discourse below on January 19, 1989, at the Sri Sathya Sai Hostel, Prasanthi Nilayam, in South India. Although this discourse is directed to students of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, we devotees are also His students, and so the discourse is relevant for us, too.

The scriptures have declared that it is difficult to acquire a human body. Humans are the highest among all living beings in creation. With all these endowments, if a human being lacks wisdom, he or she is no better than an animal. Wisdom distinguishes humans from other animals.

In spite of possessing a body with sacred capacities, humans pursue the wrong path and indulge in misdeeds, thereby degrading their precious heritage. Those who ought to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of the Divine—the inward path—and experience bliss become a slave of the senses and waste their life in pursuit of the external—the out-moving path. They direct all their efforts toward cultivation of sensual pleasures instead of aiming at realization of the power of the spirit within them.

Of what avail is the human form if their actions and thoughts are not conducive to the realization of their inherent divinity? By focusing only on the demands of the body, they are forgetting the divine essence within them and are immersed in material pursuits. This preoccupation with the mundane is at the root of all the insecurity and unhappiness they experience. They are perennially filled with discontent and dissatisfaction. Discontentment affects people in two ways: lack of peace of mind and unhappiness resulting from this lack.

How to banish envy

What is the root cause of discontentment? It is envy. This has been the besetting vice of the human community since the beginning of time. Only when you eradicate envy from your heart will you have self-satisfaction. When you are contented, you enjoy peace. How does envy arise? Envy arises when you compare yourself with those who are better off, hold higher office, score higher marks, or are more handsome and you suffer from a consciousness of your own inferiority. Discontent over what you lack gives birth to envy.

To get rid of this evil quality, you have to look at those who are worse off than yourself. For instance, when you look at those who got lower marks, you can derive comfort from the fact that you have done better than others. Likewise, when you view the status of those holding lower jobs, you can feel satisfied with your own position. Thus, if you want to get rid of envy, you have to undertake this sort of comparison with those who are worse off. In due course, you will develop a sense of equal-mindedness, both toward those who are better off and those who are worse. Such equal-mindedness is a divine quality. There is nothing wrong in aspiring for higher positions. But you should not feel envious of those who are in such positions. It is a crime to entertain such feelings.

The need for triple purity

Students should bear in mind that to achieve anything worthwhile in life you need a healthy body and a healthy mind. To realize such a doubly healthy state, purity in thought, word, and deed is essential. In Vedantic parlance, this is described as “purity of the three instruments: mind, speech, and hands.”

The Vedas are divided into three sections: rituals, worship of the personal God, and knowledge of reality. These sections are associated with three types of yoga: the yoga of action, the yoga of devotion, and the yoga of knowledge or wisdom.

First let’s look at the yoga of action. To perform any action, you need hands. All the actions you do with your hands should be sacred, pure, helpful to others, and purposeful. The hands become sanctified by such actions. Hence, the first step is to make the hands pure and holy.

By pure actions, the mind also gets purified. But mere purity of mind is not enough. The mind has to develop concentration. For cultivating concentration, bhakti (devotion) is of great value.

Bhakti means “getting rid of the separation from God.” You must realize that the Divine is omnipresent and that you cannot separate yourself from God. To remember the omnipresent Divine, to chant His glories and adore Him, you need the tongue (the power of speech). Jayadeva [pseudonym of a 12th-century Indian poet-saint] hailed the tongue as the God-given instrument for glorifying the Lord. This sacred instrument should not be misused in any way by speaking ill of others or causing unhappiness to them. As enjoined in the Bhagavad-Gita [Song of God], you should avoid unpleasant speech and use only words that are true, comforting, and good. Harshness in speech should be avoided. Only when you use the tongue in this way can it become pure and sacred. When your speech is sanctified, your life becomes sanctified.

Uphold a promise at any cost

There is no righteousness higher than truth—     truth alone triumphs. Emperor Bali [good but proud ruler in ancient India] asked, “Is there a greater sin than going back on your word?” Once you have given a promise, you should not go back on it under any circumstances (Bali demonstrated this truth). When you take a pledge or give a promise, you should uphold it even at the cost of your life. Once you give your word, you must make every effort to fulfill it. Nowadays there is little respect for the plighted word. Promises are made freely and broken freely. People make pledges and bury them from moment to moment. Such people are no better than living corpses.

Truth is the life breath of speech;
An army is the life breath of a fort;
Justice is the life breath of society.
The signature is the life breath of a note.

You must remember that once you begin treating your promises lightly, it will become a lifelong habit. Harischandra [a king in ancient India] gave up his kingdom, his wife, and son and even became a pitiable watchman in a cremation ground for the sake of upholding his plighted word. His supreme example as the votary of truth shines like a beacon light across the millennia of human history.

If you wish to earn a name for truthfulness, you have to adhere to truth steadfastly. Among the attributes of God, truth is foremost. God is hailed as Protector of Truth, Propagator of Truth, and Embodiment of Truth. “Truth is God” goes the saying. Purity in speech is the second purity you have to ensure.

Students, this crucial period in your lives is the stage in which your divinity can blossom forth. It is the right time for you to strive to sublimate your speech and learn to honor your words. Most people are content to use words to suit the needs of the moment. They attach no lasting value to what they say and therefore do not live up to their words.

The Lord protects His devotees

In the Gita, the Lord gave a promise that He would take care of the yogakshema [safeguarding of happiness here and hereafter] of all those devoted to Him exclusively without any other thought. What is this yoga?

You can see for yourself what a sacred privilege you are enjoying, what extraordinary opportunities you are getting here. Every day innumerable persons come here from many remote countries, spending thousands of rupees [Indian currency]. They wait for long periods just to hear one word from Swami, which is enough to fill them with bliss. There are hundreds of thousands of such devotees. Here you are receiving the blessing of Swami’s company without any expenditure on your part, with no effort at all, and without spending any time.

How indifferent you are to this great opportunity! You are taking it all for granted and are unmindful of its infinite value. You have received this blessing thanks to merit earned in previous lives. You should regard such a blessing itself as yoga. When you try to protect this yoga, you have yogakshema. Kshema means “protection of what you have.” Mira [Mirabai, 16th-century Krishna devotee and poet-saint] prayed, “Oh Lord, I dived into the depths of the ocean and found a pearl. Will you let me lose hold of it?” Mira and Sakkubai [another famous woman Krishna devotee-saint] secured God’s grace through many ordeals and difficulties and they prayed to the Lord to see that that grace was not taken away.

Opportunity to ensure well-being

By a stroke of supreme good fortune, you have come to the Lord. You must not let this opportunity slip by. It is your chance to ensure your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Not realizing that truth, you are wasting this golden opportunity. It is easy to lose a precious thing. You are not aware of what is ahead of you, what the future holds for you. What pains Swami is the thought of the difficulties you will have to face in the future, of which Swami alone is aware.

You may imagine that you can make whatever promises you like while you are here and pursue whatever course you choose after you leave the institute. This way of thinking is a grievous mistake. Sooner or later, you will have to reap the fruit of your decisions. You must see that these consequences are not unfavorable. What you regard today as a laughing matter may prove tragic later.

Keep a strict watch over what you say. If the foot slips, you may suffer from a fall and sustain a temporary injury. But a slip of the tongue may cause lasting harm. Never go about criticizing others. When you point to the speck in another’s eye, you forget the beam in your own eye. With plenty of faults of your own, you have no right to point out the faults of others. It is a grievous sin to indulge in faultfinding. He or she alone is wise who is conscious of his or her defects. The person who is looking for faults in others will acquire those faults by a process of reflex action.

Churchill—the effective public speaker

You have to learn from the example of Churchill, who, though he did not fare well at school, became prime minister of England through sheer self-confidence and self-education. He enlisted in the army at a young age. When he later entered politics, he trained himself to become an effective public speaker. Before going to a meeting, he would practice his address, including his gestures and movements, in front of a mirror to see the impression he would make on his audience. By correcting himself in this way, he developed great self-confidence and acquired an impressive public personality. He became a master in the art of repartee.

Once at an election meeting, he was railing against the opposition without mincing words. A woman in the audience, who was greatly provoked by Churchill’s attack, got up and shouted “Shut up.” She remarked, “If I had been your wife, I would have administered poison to put an end to your life.” Churchill coolly replied, “If I had been your husband, I would have thrust the poison down your throat.” The woman was put to shame and remained silent thereafter.

On another occasion, an opposition member of Parliament was replying to Churchill’s speech. As the member talked, he noticed Churchill, with eyes closed, appeared not to be listening to him. The opposition member complained that Churchill was asleep while he was making his reply. He said that this behavior was unparliamentary. Churchill immediately got up and said, “I would have been immensely happy if I had gone to sleep. It was because I could not get to sleep that I had to endure the member’s speech.” That reply plunged the House in laughter. You have to practice the art of silencing criticism by humorous replies.

After purifying the hands and tongue, you have to learn how to purify the mind. It is said to be constantly wavering and out of control. But when it is directed in the right way, it will be in the proper state. The rectification of the mind is the yoga of wisdom.

You have to aim at achieving the triple purity. This achievement will enable you to get rid of all evil qualities and make you unselfish. Today you seem to be self-centered even in simple matters like looking at a group photo or seeing examination results. You are concerned only with locating your picture in the group or your number in the results. You must develop a broader outlook and derive joy from the successes of others instead of being concerned only with your own result. Our institute students must learn to transcend such narrow attitudes and develop a wider outlook.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 22