Shivaratri: its Significance
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Baba in His discourse on Shivaratri in 1971 explained the significance of the Lingam, the Lingodbhavam, and why Sita was separated from Rama during the exile.
The scriptures composed by the sages of Bharath [India] are testaments of genuine experience. They are to be interpreted and observed in practice after reverential study by persons who have clarified their intellects by rigorous disciplines. They can confer eternal ananda (bliss) when they are thus utilized. But scholastic or philological or grammatical inquirers that seek to comment and confuse can only lead to the neglect and loss of the precious content. They are ready to teach the truth and lead the student toward the goal of ananda; they are eager to grant immortality and save man from the dreary round of birth and death.
Really speaking, children of Bharath are fortunate to have this invaluable heritage. The Vedas and Sastras (scriptures) speak of this fortune; the sages extol this land on this score; the Upanishads (scriptures) acclaim the people who have such gurus [teachers] and guides; the achievements of generations of aspirants and seekers stand witness to this treasure and its worth. But some blind cynics discard the treasure and condemn it as something that draws men away into futility! One can only pity them for their lack of vision. Bharath is the name of a way of life, not an extent of land between the seas and the Himalayas. It is another name for tolerance and mutual love, which have made it a garden of multicolored religions and philosophies, creeds and faiths.
Dharma [righteousness] means a lot of things, do’s and don’ts
It is the land where the identity between man and God has been declared by persons who have attained that realization. The individual is encased, while God is unbound; the individual believes himself bound, as having name and form, as the body and its appurtenances. The fire that is latent in the fuel can manifest only when it is lit by external fire. So, too, the divinity of the intellect, the mind, and the inner instruments of cognition can manifest only when the atma [soul] is prompting and urging them. Otherwise, if they are prompted and urged by the senses, they will lead only to perdition and delusion.
Every directive given in the scriptures on discipline is intended to help the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) to realize this identity and to derive the ananda that recognition of this unity confers. For example, take the exhortation in the Gita shloka [verse] that says, Sarva dharmaan parityajya maam ekam sharanam vraja. What is the dharma that has to be given up? Are all duties and responsibilities to be discarded? Or does dharma here refer only to some of these? Dharma is an omnibus expression, which means a lot of things, attitudes, behavior patterns, and more. Often it includes mere rules, which are known as vidhi (fate) and nishedha (do’s and don’ts). If you are anxious to catch a bus, board a plane, or entrain for some place, you have to be at the stop, port, or station before a particular time. That is a vidhi. When two brothers divide among themselves the possessions left by their father, they share half and half; this is dharma, that is to say, right and proper, moral, approvable. Now, Dharma of this nature is laid down and observed so that we get peace and content, so that sukha (happiness) may be promoted. It belongs to the relative world; the Absolute has no concern with these relative advantages or benefits. It is in the realm of ajnana (ignorance) that sukha is desired and dukha (sorrow) is avoided.
Know that you are the ever full, ever blissful Kama (desire) is the urge for karma (action). It is regulated and modified by dharma (righteousness) so that happiness may be gained and sadness avoided. Kama is the product or expression of ajnana. So when the Gitadirects that all dharma be given up what is meant is that ajnana that induces kama, the progenitor of karma that has to sub-serve dharma, is to be conquered and overcome. Acquire jnana (spiritual wisdom); know the truth of thyself. Then you will be free from lust and hate, because you will know that you are the ever full, the ever blissful.
Imagine a person searching for things in a room. His eye falls on all the articles he wants to secure, but he does not notice the person who searches! The seeker does not see himself! When you give up the search for objects, for things other than yourself, you see yourself and know yourself. When the draishta (seer) is seen, the drishya (seen) is negated; when the drishya is seen, the drishta is ignored!
Tideman [the previous speaker] said just now that in the very first meeting he had with Me, I told him that I am God. In fact, everyone is God, limiting oneself into this particular name and form in which one is encased! If you believe yourself to be the label that is now affixed on you and call yourself by the name that others have given you, you can never know your reality and have unshakeable joy. This is the lesson that Vedanta teaches. Each one is “Sathyam jnanam anantam Brahma (truth, total knowledge, infinity is Brahman).” But sunk in the morass of ajnanathat multiplies endlessly the desires that haunt the mind, man forgets the core of his being. Everyone must get convinced that he is the atman, not the body that is its material residence. To instruct you about this is the special purpose of the festival of Mahashivaratri.
Linga is the symbol of the beginingless and endless. People ask, “Why does Swami produce the Lingam (formless form of God) from within Himself on this day?” But let Me tell you, it is impossible for you to understand the attributes of the Divine and to measure Its potentialities, or to gauge the significance of the manifestation of Divinity. It [Divinity] is agamya (unreachable) and agochara (un‑understandable, mysterious). Therefore, in order to bear witness to the fact that Divinity is amidst you, it becomes necessary to express this attribute. Or else the atmosphere of hatred, greed, cruelty, violence, and irreverence will overwhelm the good, the humble, and the pious.
The Linga is just a symbol, a sign, an illustration, of the beginningless, the endless, and the limitless—for it has no limbs, no face, no feet, no front, or back, no beginning, or end. Its shape is like the picture one imagines the nirakara (formless) to be. As a matter of fact, Linga means—leeyathe (that in which all forms and names merge) and gamyathe (that toward which all names and forms are proceeding, to attain fulfilment). It is the fittest symbol of the All‑pervasive, the All‑knowing, and the All‑powerful. Everything is subsumed in it; everything starts from it; from the Lingam arises jangam (universe), from the jangam arises sangam (association, attachment, activity), and as a result of the sangam one realizes the lingam (attributeless atma). Thus, the circle is completed—from the beginningless to the Beginningless. This is the lesson that Lingodbhavam (emergence of the Linga) teaches. The lingasharira (the causal body) that is inhabited by the atma is but a vesture worn for this particular sojourn! Many a vesture has this soul worn, though its reality is eternal!
The lesson that Ramayana teaches
People have not imprinted on their hearts the lessons that the ancient Hindu scriptures and epics seek to teach. I have been, for example, asked often why some persons who have associated themselves with Prasanthi Nilayam for years leave and do not appear again! The reply is evident for those who have studied the Ramayana well. After 10 or 12 years of ‘devotion’ suddenly these people take a turn for the worse and stray away. As the Shastras say, “When the accumulated merit gets spent, they slip into the depth of mortality.” Sita is the daughter of earth, of prakriti (nature), seeking the eternal comradeship of Purusha. She weds the Purusha, the Lord come as Rama. When Rama agrees to go into exile and proceeds to the forest for a stay of 14 long years, Sita, too, gives up all the luxuries she was accustomed to. She braves the perils of jungle life for the sake of being in the presence of Rama. She renounced desire from her heart for the sole goal of Rama.
Thirteen years she spent with the Lord in perfect bliss as a consequence of the sacrifice she dared to make. Then quite suddenly desire sprouted in her mind and carried her away, far away from the Lord! She saw a golden deer and she coveted it! She who had renounced huge treasures of gold and diamonds was attracted by a fantasy and this led to the agonizing separation.
So, too, for those long attached to Me there arises some desire—for lands, jobs, family life, fame, position, possessions—and they move away! But Sita repented for her mistake, and her mind suffered extreme anguish at the separation. She called on her Lord to redeem her, calling out in contrition, Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama, with every breath. And, finally, Rama Himself moved toward her and restored Himself to the devotee! So, too, if you are agonizingly repentant and aware of the loss and anxious to re-join, craving for the presence, this Sairam, too, will move toward you and grant you grace.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 11
