Offer the Vessel Bright
Sinking and rising, struggling in the Sea
of tasteless, futile, birth‑death waves
Do you not see the Boat of Bhakti that Sridhara the Lord,
In His compassion, has brought to rescue you?
Life is a precious gift. It must be sustained by breath. But there are victories to be won during life, at the cost of life itself. However, many successes man wins, he pictures before his mind many more and advances from one venture into another. He has no contentment (santrupti) despite all his achievements. He relishes new and newer wants and never reaches fulfillment.
Combined effort is the natural mode of living. Co‑operation among individuals grouped as society guarantees security and stability. It is, as the sages call it, Sri Rama Raksha, the mark of Divine Grace. The surest sign of man’s awareness of his Divine Nature is the recognition by him of the bond of kinship with other men. When the 700,000,000 people of India bind themselves together… this land can achieve success in all fields and limitless ananda [happiness].
The bond of kinship has snapped and, as a result, life has been rendered meaningless. The evil spirits of greed and pride, of envy and hatred, are executing their demonic dance in the hearts of mankind. Men cannot appreciate the value of the air they breathe, the greatness of the sun’s rays that illumine the world, the drops of rain that sustain life, and the subtle power that underlies every object in nature. Humans have become low and people who have dedicated their lives to high ideals are nowhere to be seen. What needs to be done today is “fostering men who are determined to stand and suffer, even risking their lives, for realizing the holy goals of peace and prosperity for the entire world.”
Dedicated service
The phrase “our country” denotes not the dumb ground that does not speak to us, but the living beings thereon with whom we are involved. You must grasp this fact. We are ignoring this truth today. Each one must regard the prosperity and joy of others in the community as one’s own. Then only will India or any other country deserve that prosperity and joy. One’s happiness is bound up with the happiness of society. One’s physical, mental, and intellectual strength and skills have to be dedicated, not merely to one’s progress, but equally to the progress of society. Members of the units of the Sathya Sai Organization must try to benefit themselves and their societies through such service. Use the strength, skills, and spirit of service for such work. An unused machine gets rusted if it is not used, the human machine, too, gets rusted if it is not put to constant meaningful work. The pulse is not the correct indicator of your being alive; work, activity, that is the evidence and the value of real living.
Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita, “There is nothing in the three worlds that I am obliged to do, nothing unaccomplished that I have to accomplish, but I am still engaged in karma (activity).” For, if God is inactive, the Cosmos will grind to a halt. Man’s role is to translate his strength into activity along the path of duty. The young follow the lead of elders. So elders must consistently hold on to ideals and work toward their realization so that mankind can attain prosperity and peace.
What or who is God? When the answer to this question is sought, one discovers that God is the glory immanent in Nature. Nature must indeed be laughing at the sterile frenzies, the endless pursuits, the countless miseries that man submits himself to in his search for achieving the unachievable! Man must search in Nature for the sacred lessons it holds for him; then he can understand how deep, how everlasting are the meanings it can convey. The earth rotates on its axis at a speed of 1000 miles an hour. Consequently, we have alternations of day and night, which help us to live on this globe. Besides, it moves around the sun at the rate of 66,000 miles an hour, causing the seasons that bring rains for crops and vegetation that sustain human life. The earth does not profit in the least by these rotations, but man exists and prospers on account of them. Mother Earth teaches her children this lesson of service and sacrifice.
Character is all
The line of conduct must be the main key to the life of man. That line must be along the path of virtue. It is the ‘way of living’ that keeps one in the memory of people long after his death. If it is not the virtuous way, the person is as good as dead. It is often declared that knowledge is power. No. No. Character is power; nothing can be more powerful on earth than character. Riches, scholarship, status, authority are all frail and flimsy before it. A strong virtuous character cannot be earned from the study of guidebooks; it is earned only through intimate involvement with society.
There is no dearth of books today; nor is there any lack of Gurus. Educational institutions spread knowledge all around. To all appearances, the Sun of Knowledge, the Jnana Bhaskara, is showering His rays in plenty. But one can hardly notice those who imbibe the nectarine wisdom thus offered and dwell in the ecstasy it can confer. The thick binding encasing the books seems to prevent the wisdom from emerging. The mountain range with lust, anger, hatred, envy, and pride as the peaks shuts out the splendor of the Sun. Charity, compassion, fortitude, sympathy, sacrifice, these arise from the higher levels of consciousness while opposite tendencies breed in the lower levels. The latter cannot confer ananda; they can only plunge us in grief.
Not one of the higher qualities or virtues or expressions of love is evident today. So it has become impossible to discover ‘man’ among the inhabitants of the world. Man, Man, Man! What are the characteristics of the God‑made Man? No man knows what they are, no man demonstrates them in life. Is anger a human quality? Or pride? Or self-centeredness’? No. They reveal the animal, though people infected with these faults gain currency as ‘men’. Man must reveal by his conduct that he has evolved higher; he should not inflict pain, nor should he be affected by pain.
Man is not merely flesh and bone. A gramophone record is not merely a circular plate with grooves on it. Each record looks like every other—grooves, lines all over! In every groove is hidden voices, words, songs. In man, too, is latent the possibility of all karmas. Every object, event, or experience of ours since childhood is impressed and lies dormant in us. The rivers, mountains, and stars we have looked at are all latent in us. ‘Us’ means not flesh and bone. For, these experiences cannot be subsumed in flesh and bone. Why? We have in us the past, the present, and even the future. We are all that was, is, and will be.
Man sees Nature as cruel because his mind is cruel. Clear the eye, purify the mind, and you can see that Nature is divinely loving. Do not seek faults and vices. Seek the right, the correct, and the good. Develop sympathy and compassion. Cultivate vairagya, the attitude of detachment.
You may doubt whether there are any who have achieved vairagya. Let me tell you there are not only a few, but many. They have no sense of I and Mine; they dedicate all acts to God and free themselves from attachment. To feel there are none is a sign of self‑deception. Out of ten evil persons, there will surely be at least one who can be guided into the good path; and out of ten such, at least one will accept God; and out of ten such, at least one will be eager to live in accordance with Divine Law.
In fact, the Cosmos is activized by one single Chaitanya, Consciousness, and Intelligence. Man has only a role (paatradhaari) in the Divine Play. God is the Director, the sutradhaari. That Intelligence, the Omni-will, urges all men to play roles decided on by It, and think and work as It directs. The scriptures declare that the body is the temple and the ‘I’ is the God installed therein.
Or you may take it that the body is a vessel for cooking food, given on loan for us to use while hosting a festival. Can we return it to God, who has loaned it, in a worse condition? Should we not scrub it and clean it and return it bright and free from rust and dust? When the festival of life began and we received the body from Him, it was innocent of evil, pure, fresh, and bright. While using it, we have inflicted dents, leaks, and other damages through lust, greed, hatred, anger, and envy. Only the lowest would offer it back in that condition. Offer it as pure as He gave it; you can then be classed as the worthiest of grace.
Remember always the high purpose for which we have come into this world, equipped with potentialities to acquire and utilize all levels of knowledge. Have faith in Divine grace, the grace of Gopala on the go (cows), of Pashupati on pashu (the bound animal). Wear the Garland of Devotion Gems round your necks and saturate your thought, word, and deed with Divine Love.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, April 1982
The mind must become bhaktimaya (saturated with devotion); the intelligence must be transformed into jnana-deepti (the splendor of universal wisdom), or jnana (divine knowledge); the body must be a willing and efficient instrument for sad-dharm-acharana (the practice of righteousness). Such a life is indeed the crown and glory of humanity. The rest are contaminated, contained, caged lives!
~Sathya Sai Baba
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