Four Steps
In this discourse delivered on a past birthday, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba urges us to strictly follow the ancient prescription laid down for different stages of life to attain mental peace and equanimity.
The culture of this ancient land is as deep as it is vast; it is built on strong and sustaining principles of human development. But, Indians at the present time neglect its lessons, and entangle themselves in the search for material joys and pleasures. They ignore the true and eternal values. They turn a deaf ear to the call of the Divine; instead, they respond to the siren voice of the worldly. This is the twentieth century, the age of science and technology. Material comforts and sensual pleasures are easily available. Driven by an insane urge for the temporal and trivial, man rushes into ruin, and loses the precious heritage of atmic [spiritual] treasure that the culture promises him.
Stages of life
If only man knew the purpose and plan of life, he would not waste his years and skills in the pursuit of temporary joys. It is his misfortune and ignorance that he is engrossed in these endeavors. Indeed, man has lost faith in himself and hence in God as well. Only those who have self-confidence can acquire knowledge of God, and confidence in God. Know thyself first; then, your attempt to know the world will be rendered simple.
Indian culture emphasizes four ashramas or stages for individual development to ensure everyone with the education needed to know himself. For atmavicharana [analysis of one’s self], ashrama-dharma [practice of the ashrama] is essential. Through adherence to the regulations and prescriptions of conduct and study assigned to each stage, acquiring knowledge and wisdom is made easy and automatic. Regarding work as worship is the only way to acquire wisdom. The ashramas help man to sublimate all activities into worship.
Just as we have four stages of childhood, youth, middle age and old age, likewise, we have four corresponding ashramas of brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sanyasa—namely, stages of student, householder, recluse and monk. During childhood and teenage years, man has to equip himself with the information necessary to share in the work of society to derive health and happiness and thereby, be acquainted with the tools of knowledge and the paths that promise wisdom.
As a householder raising a family and sustaining a society, he has to uphold the ideals of justice and truth, and promote them by his actions. He must learn the innate majesty of mankind, and live in accordance with that high status. As a recluse and monk, in old age, he has to be the guide and teacher of the people around him, imparting to them the fund of wisdom he has won through his experience.
What do the Shastras say?
The Shastras [Hindu scriptures] lay down the lines along which man has to direct his thoughts and activities. Sincere adherence to these laws and limitations can alone guarantee wisdom or jnana. Otherwise, man drifts aimlessly along the crosscurrents and whirlpools of life, and ends up ignorant about the nature of the loka (world) and the glory of Lokeshwara (God).
The higher path must be trodden from childhood; it cannot be adopted at an advanced age. The child must learn to be truthful in word and deed, and avoid the cowardly habit of falsehood. Later, boys and girls have to consciously direct their senses, instead of slavishly following them. Heads of families have to adhere to the schedules of rites and worship prescribed for them; they have to supervise the behavior and conduct of the members of the household; they have to be hospitable to guests and charitable to the needy; they also have to equip their sons and daughters with the processes that will bestow mental peace and equanimity under all conditions. Forces of atheism have strengthened because these obligations have been neglected for some generations.
The ripening fruit
When the seeds are ridden with defects, how can the tree yield rich fruits? When parents and elders do not provide good examples to the children growing under their shade, how can the country prosper, and be free from anxiety and fear? You cannot separate the rind, pulp, and seed of a green tamarind fruit. However, once it ripens, separation is quite easy. So, too, until a person becomes ripe in experience and can be pronounced wise, he cannot discard his identification with the body, senses, and mind. He will not be able to differentiate between atma [self] and non‑atma, kshetra [body] and kshetrajna [the lord in the body], prakriti [nature] and Paramatma [super self], guna [characteristics] and trans-guna, and other such entities.
Let me tell you a small example: Krishna killed the serpent called Kaliya that had poisoned the Kalindi River, and destroyed all traces of life for miles around with its deadly fumes. As soon as Kaliya was killed, the `wives’ (serpents) of his harem prayed to Krishna for succor, and surrendered to Him. This is the story, according to the Bhagavata [a Hindu epic]. Now, what does this signify? In the lake of the mind (the manasa‑sarovar) of man, there lurks a poisonous serpent called desire. When that is destroyed, the various frailties and frivolities, triumphs, trials and failures, pains and pleasures that desire brings in its train surrender to God.
Desire can be killed only when faith in the atma as the very core of one’s being is firmly established. Since all efforts are now directed to the accumulation of material goods and the satisfaction of sensual desires, man is tossed about on the waves of fight, faction, falsehood, and greed. The individual is intimately related to society, and so his restlessness affects society.
The individual will is ultimately responsible for the welfare and well‑being of the world. The world is but a mental image of the individual. How this happens is a mystery. One can only say that just as sleep is the cause of dreams, maya or the basic ignorance is the cause of creation. Doctors ascribe dreams to various reasons: indigestion, compulsions of thought, confusions of mental pictures etc. But, we can be certain only of one reason, namely sleep. Dreams are nullified when the person becomes a jnani (one who is aware of the truth). At that stage, one gets rid of the night‑dream as well as the daydream.
The grand design
The four ashramas were devised to awaken man’s inner wisdom, making him a jnani[wise one]. Education today packs information in the brain and skills in the hands. It merely parades scholarship, dialectical controversies, and mutual recrimination. It, however, does not instill humility, a sense of balance, and equanimity. Moreover, spiritual training is totally absent. Perhaps, the feeling is that spirituality is a solitary pursuit, which can be undertaken only in the silence of the forest. No! True spirituality is the awareness of the fundamental unity of man in God.
People celebrate the birth of a child; they are happy when the child grows tall and strong. But, the fittest event for such celebration is when the child justifies its birth by achieving good fame as a benefactor of man or a servant of mankind. Emperor Dhritarashtra [in the epic Mahabharata] had hundred sons! He must have celebrated their birthdays, too. But, none of them did any good; they were all arrogant, greedy, and full of spite. Therefore, they accomplished only the extinction of the entire dynasty, and all who were attached to it.
Sons and daughters are now keen to share the properties of their parents. They do not care for the much more precious wealth of experience that their forefathers have earned for their sake. They waste their years in fallow efforts so much that even their health is destroyed; children wear glasses when barely ten; they dye their hair when barely fourteen; they age fast and show signs of senility when barely sixteen. To praise the habits that people adopt today as `modern’ or `conducive to progress’ is ridiculous to say the least.
As the ancients emphasized, food and recreation habits have to become satwic [sublime] so that they do not arouse and feed the passions of man, or make him dull and stupid, idle and listless.
Above all, everyone must realize that the main mission of man here [on earth] is to achieve the ideal of unity and peace.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Jan. 1975
