Lost and Found
In His Navratri discourse, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba asked His devotees to sharpen their intellect and cleanse their consciousness to attain peace and security through satsang, japa, dhyana, and namasmarana, (holy company, chanting, meditation, and constant thought of the Lord).
The two pundits who spoke now elaborated on the path of bhakti [devotion] in words that were sweet and inspiring, quoting the experiences of Gargi, Maithreyi, Janaka, and Nachiketa [great scholars of ancient times], and pouring out the nectar of Upanishadic thought on the beauty of the Divine form and the delicious charm of the Divine name. But all this has now become the possession of a few scholars, and pious persons are themselves by their conduct belying their professions of the validity of what they proclaim as true! Faith in God is declining, more as a result of the hypocrisy of the pious than the renunciation of the impious! We are now face to face with the crisis of the “Failure of Faith.” So believers like you have to demonstrate by your courage and conviction that faith in God can be genuine and beneficial. The Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabhahas been assigned this mission of watering the roots of faith and reviving drooping spirits by example and, to a lesser extent, by precept.
The Bhagavad-Gita describes the delusion that the mind of man contrives to confound him with, and says that it is well nigh invincible. Pundit Somasekhara Shastry confessed that in spite of all his mastery of Vedantic dialectics, he found the task impossible, and so he advised that you should resort to the path of bhakti or dedication and devotion. He said that the most effective prescription for controlling the wayward mind was to tie it to the Lotus feet of the Lord! Then, he said, all its [mind’s] freakishness, panic, license, and agitation will stop.
Man is born with inherited twists and turns
What then is the method by which you can bind this wild elephant to the feet of God? The heavy tons comprising the scriptures of all faiths and systems proclaim the answer in just two words: know thyself. Every school boy today knows about the Sun, the Moon, the stars, about the outermost regions of space but, not even the most learned scholar knows the answer to the very elementary query, “Who am I?” I is the most frequently used word; it recurs many times a second in conversation—I said, I saw, I went, I heard, I have this, I am King, I am a ryot [peasant], I am a child, I am a pundit, I am tall, I am lean; but who is this I that has these attributes and possessions? The Upanishads declare that the I is not the personalized individual; that is a delusion. It is not limited to the body that it inhabits. It is the most universal of categories; it is the eternal absolute, the Paramatma (Supreme Self). It is the omnipresent Universal Consciousness, the sat-chit-ananda (being-awareness-bliss).
How to know this truth as an indelible and authentic experience? That is the key to liberation, to eternal joy, to the conquest of grief. The trouble is man is shaped into a basically incompetent individual by the activities of many lives; he is born with inherited twists and turns, knots and nays. Only faith and steady practice can overcome this handicap.
He is burdened with the delusion that the true is the false, that the temporary is eternal. Long identification has trained him so; so he has to be re-educated into the right vision. The truest thing, the fact that persists unchanged, is this I itself. All else is unreal although it appears as real. You may ask, how can this I be true? I grow, I am healthy, I fall ill, and I grow old. But in and through all the growth and decay, the I persists. “I slept nicely,” you say after the sleep experience, when you were not aware of the body, the senses, or even the mind, not to speak of the external world.
Three desires that man cannot escape
There are three desires that every ‘I’ cannot escape from. I must live, is the first. The will to live is overpowering and paramount. This is the urge for immortality. The desire to know is the second. This, too, is an unquenchable thirst and is an indication of the omniscience of which the I is the inheritor. The desire for joy is the third, prompting man behind the senses into the outer world for pleasures. This evidence shows that deep in the core of the I, there is a spring of ananda [joy] that seeks its mate and its fulfillment. When we speak of a yard of cloth, a liter of honey, the foot or yard, these are first fixed and then the measure or length is interpreted in terms of the already determined standard, isn’t it? So, too, the I is Sat (immortal existence), chit (universal knowledge), and ananda (absolute bliss). Individuals are measured and weighed according to the approximation of each to the standard of the Universal I.
Dharma(righteousness) is the measure of jnana (wisdom). Intellectual enlightenment, cosmic consciousness, these must result in elevation, elation, and exaltation, but a quickening of the moral sense. The jnani has the highest moral character, after the illumination he has achieved. By the subjugation of his impulses and propensities to his cleansed will, and the subjection of his will to the ideal of goodness that is God, he becomes the embodiment of dharma. This is what has made Bharat[India] the land that could lead other nations along the moral path.
Righteousness will save and sustain man
Life has flowed here along the threefold current of BHA-va (pure emotion), RA-ga (sweet melody), and T-ala (even tempo), and so, BHA-RA-T got a profound meaning. It is a piece of good fortune to be born in this land and be heir to this grand heritage. Living up to its claims, developing it according to one’s capacity is indeed greater fortune.
Vyasa and Valmiki [saints] have both painted on the golden canvas of their poetry the eternal values of dharma. Vyasa has drawn the picture of the Pandava brothers, hunted, tortured, persecuted, exiled, impoverished, humiliated, but yet unbroken because they relied on righteousness, emerging triumphantly at the end through the grace of God that is the reward. Valmiki, too, has depicted Rama bearing with perfect equanimity the different phases of fortune, carrying the torch of dharma with its flame unquenched even in the wildest storm. Dharmo rakshati rakshitah—”Be right, righteousness will save you”—this is the refrain of the Mahabharatha of Vyasa and the Ramayana of Valmiki. Practice it loyally; it will save you, sustain you, and strengthen you.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, you will find Krishna asking Arjuna to ‘offer Me,’ ‘surrender to Me,”leave everything to Me.’ This Me is no other than the I that is the God within everyone, the I that makes everyone declare I shall do this, I own this, etc., the I that prompts the amoeba and the Avatar into activity. ‘I’ makes the tiger feel “I am hungry, I must seek prey.” It makes the eagle soar high so that it may spy its meat down below; it makes the banyan tree spread wide so that it may get more sunlight on to its leaves; it makes the jasmine creeper cling to the tree so that it may not drag on the ground and be denied the caressing wind and the warming sun. That ‘I’ can never grow weak, or fall ill, or falter; it is sat, chit, or ananda. It is eternal everywhere.
Man is something beyond time and space
Some desperate persons torn by anguish confess, “I am killing myself; I shall put an end to this misery; I shall be happy after that at least!” He is certain that his ‘I’ will survive death. He knows he is something beyond time and space and causation. This I throbs in every heart, exults in every body, and knows through every brain. It is a spark of the Universal I that is God. The punditssaid that bhakti, the path of devotion, is easy and can be adopted by all. Well, it is not as easy as they depict. For, surrender of the little i to the greater I is a hard process. One has to overcome a series of obstacles with alacrity and pleasure. When you yearn to come to Puttaparthi, you gladly bear all the obstacles; but when the yearning is absent, you magnify the difficulty of alighting at Guntakal Junction, crossing platforms, boarding another train toward Dharmavaram, transporting yourselves with luggage to the bus stand, and traveling by bus to Puttaparthi; perhaps you give up the idea as beyond you! First cultivate the yearning, foster it, then everything is easy.
God is the seed of all beings
Learn from the experience of elders who have tasted the bliss of knowing the I as a wave on the breast of the limitless ocean of grace. Or since you are known only to yourself or to the God that is inside you, investigate it unaided, alone. When you ask another the question, “Who am I?” he can answer only when he knows himself as well as yourself. It is easy to explain and expound that all is I (Sarvam Brahma mayam), but it is hard indeed to realize it. You know that you die, that others die, and so you find it difficult to believe that the I does not die. The pot may die, but clay remains; this silver box may die, but, the silver remains. The body may die, but the I does not die. The jivi (soul) survives. The elements that composed the body also reach back to their elemental stage.
The Lord declares that He is the seed of all beings, “Beejam maam sarva bhootaanaam.” Watch a tree! The roots, the trunk, the branches, the twigs, the shoots, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits all look different in form, taste, hardness, and smell; they have different uses for the tree and for us. But all this manifold variety is produced, sustained, subsumed, and served by one single seed. And each fruit contains the same seed! He is the seed, He is the tree, and He is the fruit. Love is the seed, love is the tree, and love is the fruit.
The tree of creation is hanging down with its roots in heaven; or else it will dry for want of sustenance; it is called Ashwattha, the Horse Tree, for Ashwa or Horse is in Indian tradition the symbol of restlessness, wavering agitatedness. The Banyan Tree, that is the Ashwattha, shivers in every leaf with the slightest whisper of wind. You must have heard of the Ashwamedha or Horse Sacrifice, a great rite in the past. The inner meaning of that rite is the destruction of the wayward mind, the Ashwa!
Wildness of the mind can be controlled by practice
Arjuna prayed to Krishna how the wildness of the mind can be controlled. Krishna prescribed abhyasa (practice). You learn to talk or walk, eat and write, all through trial and error, constant practice, don’t you? The mother feeds the baby using many a song and ventriloquial demonstrations and distractions, but later, through the force of habit born out of daily exercise, it starts feeding on its own, its hands taking the food to its mouth, even in pitch dark! Take the mind to God and keep it there for a short time every day morning and evening.
God is so merciful that He will come ten steps toward you, if you but take one step toward Him. Vibhishana, Ravana’s brother, inquired from Hanuman whether Rama would accept his homage and take him under His protection. He said, “I am the brother of His worst enemy, whom He has vowed to destroy; I am a member of the demonic race; I am unacquainted with the Vedas or Shastras or the rituals of the Aryans. “Then Hanuman replied, “O you fool! Do you think He cares for ritual correctitude, or family status, or scholarship? If so, how could He accept me, a monkey?” That settled the matter. Vibhishana was assured of grace.
Later when Vibhishana went to Rama, He asked the elder monkeys around Him whether He should accept Vibhishana into the fold. Of course, He did not need any counsel from anyone; others never influenced Him. But still, just to bring them into the picture, He consulted them and made pretense of not having made up His mind yet. When Sugriva said ‘no,’ Rama reminded him that he, too, had come to Him first giving up his elder brother. When Lakshmana said that the only treatment he deserved was to be thrown back into Lanka, Rama said, “Yes! I am resolved to crown him as the emperor of Lanka after Ravana’s demise.”
Rama accepts surrender on the spot
Whoever surrenders, Rama accepts on the spot without reservations. When someone suggested that Vibhishana should not be promised a throne, for Ravana may fall at the feet of the Lord and earn pardon for his iniquity, Rama replied, “In that case, I will hold both hands of Bharatha and beg him to make Vibhishana Emperor of Ayodhya, our ancestral domain; we both Bharatha and I will spend our time happily in the forests.”
You must discover your identity; only then can you have peace. You are like a man who has forgotten his name, his address, and his mission in life. Realize it and try to delve into yourself, so that you may know who you are. Then, you get security and peace. Sharpen your intellect and cleanse your consciousness for this purpose, through satsang, japa, dhyana, and namasmarana, (holy company, chanting, meditation, and constant thought of the Lord). That is the advice I give.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 10
