The Banana and the Peel

At the Onam festival in 1974, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said that–”You must take this as the Onam message—strive to manifest, cultivate, and express love, and suppress pride and egoism, so that you can win the grace of God.”

Tulsidas [the great poet] has said in his Ramacharitamanas [spiritual epic] that he composed the great epic on the story of Raghunath for ‘swantasukhaya,’ that is to say, for his own sukha or happiness and joy. He engaged himself in that self-imposed task, not to [please] any patron or even Rama, but to please himself. He derived great ananda (divine bliss) while writing it and when it was finished. That was the urge that moved him. In fact, all that a man does, is, ultimately, traceable to this urge—the urge to earn self-satisfaction.

A man builds a house, writes a book, enters a job, executes a plan—all because he gets joy therefrom. The cuckoo coos sweetly and derives joy therefrom, far more than those who happen to listen. The rose blooms on the plan, because of an inner urge, not an outer prompting. The father fondles his baby and receives thereby more joy than he ever gives. The various disciplines undergone by sadhakas (spiritual aspirants), monks, ascetics, and those on the march along the path of self-knowledge are all adopted and adhered to because they give joy to oneself and fulfill an inner need.

Sacrifice is at the very basis of bliss

This day is celebrated by you as the day when Emperor Bali was both humiliated and blessed by God in the form of Vamana. Emperor of the three worlds–Bali called himself so, for he had bala (power) more than anyone else. He was saturated with egotism. God came to him, while he was busy with a Yaga (an offering), in the form and guise of a Brahmin boy and asked for a gift of just three foot-measures of land. Bali told him that he could ask for infinitely more riches and lands. But the “boy” insisted on that tiny gift only. Bali’s preceptor warned him about the identity and bona fides of the strange mendicant; he mentioned that he may be God Himself. This made Bali happier, for if it was true, he was so mighty that even God came to his door as a mendicant. Such was the measure of his conceit.

But when Vamana drew Himself up to cosmic proportions and measured the entire earth with one foot and the vast expanse of space with another foot, Bali was humbled. He offered his own head as the third foot-measure and let himself be trod-down into the nether world. This day marks the day when the incarnation of Vamana happened in order to teach this lesson that pride meets with doom. Once the ego was thus suppressed, Bali became cleansed and God blessed him with various boons. He assured him that He would ever be his guardian. He permitted him every year on Onam day to come up into the world and see for himself his empire and receive therefrom the homage of his people. So this is the Festival of Vamana’s Advent as well as Bali’s Transformation.

This day also extols the merit of gifts, renunciation, and charity, however little, to anyone for all are images of God. Tyaga (renunciation or sacrifice) is at the very basis of bliss, of grace, of immortality. Na medaya na prajayaa danena, thyagenaike amrithathwam anasuh—say the Vedas. (“Not by intellect, not by progeny, not by riches, but by renunciation alone can the bliss of immortality be attained”). Onam is the festival that instills this message into those who observe it with an eye on its inner significance.

Every obstacle is a step that leads to ananda

Kerala [state in Southern India] has contributed a great deal to the preservation of Vedic culture, and Sanskrit learning. Keralites have a name for faith and dedication. Witness the age-old privilege the Nambudiris [brahmins] of Kerala enjoy, priest-hood of the great Vaishnavite shrine thousands of miles away from their land, namely Badrinath among the Himalayas.

Of course, wherever faith and dedication to God are evident, forces that tend to ridicule it, diminish its strength, also are found. Where astika (believer in God) is, there nastika (atheist), too, will raise its head. But disbelief in God or in some Supreme Will can be only a pose, assumed for the sake of personal aggrandizement or advertisement. It cannot stand the light of reason or of experience. Even so-called atheists have love in their hearts, honor truth while dealing with society, and live on the basis of some eternal basic principles of justice. So they are believers in sat-chit-ananda (being, awareness, bliss supreme).

You have the duty to stand witness in your lives to the courage, joy, strength, generosity, humility that true spirituality and faith can impart to man, while faced with disappointment, distress, defeat, defamation, and other calamities against which the atheist has no such shield. Gold gains in value when it is melted in the crucible. A piece of diamond when it is cut into a many-faceted gem is thereby rendered more brilliant and more costly. The dull stone is not sought after by all. Prahlada, the grandfather of emperor Bali, was subjected to torture by his irate father; but that only added to his luster. Bali himself shone all the brighter for the punishment he received from the compassionate Lord. This is the lesson you have to garner today. Every obstacle is a step that leads you to the ananda that can never be destroyed or taken away.

It is natural for man to raise himself up

There is another duty that you owe to yourselves, which you must recognize today. The world is the playground of nara (human) and Narayana (God)–Nara transforming himself into Narayana and Narayana transforming Himself into nara and playing their roles in unison. You know full well that Narayana has come in human form for reestablishing dharma (morality) in the world, for feeding the roots of faith in God, and for interpreting God to man. You must be assured that it is natural for man, too, to raise himself up through spiritual discipline, moral elevation, expansion of love, and other means to become Narayana. But man is unaware of this high destiny. He misinterprets his skills and strength and is so absent-minded that he slides down the scale into a monster or a monkey. Of course, there are many who struggle with these downward dragging tendencies and endeavor to elevate themselves; these most often grope in the dark and are badly led.

Devotion must flourish unaffected by time

There are two truths that must be accepted by every pilgrim or devotee: (1) Devotion must be full, free, and comprehensive; (2) Divinity must be conceived as full, free, and comprehensive. On the other hand, devotion today is almost always only ‘part-time.’ That is to say, whenever disease, defeat, or disappointment happen to assail you, you turn to God and pray for His grace; but when you are happy, prosperous, healthy, and in good shape, you ignore God and claim that they are all due to your own abilities and achievements. God is ignored in sunshine; He is wanted only when there is night. Devotion must persist and flourish unaffected by time, place, or circumstance.

God, too, has to be experienced in His fullness, and the ananda of that experience made one’s permanent possession. Kasturi recited that poem, which was sweet to the ear and full of Sanskrit words. But words seldom come out of actual experience. It is impossible to experience God and also talk about him. Words like sarvajnana, sarvavyapi, meaning that “He knows all,” “He is everywhere”, are used by people since elders and saints have used them from ancient times. It is impossible for anyone to have the fullest and most comprehensive experience of these qualities of the Divine and also speak about that experience.

The Gita [Song of God] speaks of God as achalam chalam evacha, “immoveable as well as moveable,” which strikes one as impossible. God appears to move, to act, to bless, to save, to test; but He is unconcerned basically with these. Look at a tree. The branches, leaves, etc. might be moving with the wind; but the trunk is steady and unmoved. God is but appears as not is. The body moves, the intellect moves, the mind moves, but the atma is unaffected; it is steady, firm, and unchangeable. The lake is unmoved; the surface is tickled into wavelets by every passing breeze. The colorless unmoved curtain or screen is unaffected by the pictures of fire, faction, floods, and glaciers that appear upon it in a realistic manner. When the pictures are seen, the screen is unseen; when the screen is seen, the pictures are unseen. But without the screen (Brahman), the pictures have no meaning, carry no message, and tell no story. They impart no ananda.

God is the stealer of hearts

You may carry a matchbox in your pocket with no danger of fire emanating though the components are there in that box. So, too, there are the components of Divinity in you; only, it is not patent, it is not expressed. Take a stick and strike its head against the chemical coating given on one side of the box, and suddenly in a flash you get the flame of fire. So, too, take the jiva (the individual) and strike it on the Brahman-principle that is immanent in the Universe, make it aware of it, so to say, and the individual, too, manifests the Divinity latent in it. The tree is the individual; the forest is the Brahman. The one apart from the many is the individual. The many and the manifold is the Brahman; Kasturi standing alone, apart, is vyashti [individual]; when he goes and sits among you, the thousands who have come here for Onam, he merges in the samashti. Samashti is Brahman; vyashti is the jivatman.

Prahlada’s grandson, Bali, whom you honor today extolled the Lord standing before Him as master of the entire Cosmos, as “Arch thief among thieves,” (Dongalalo gajadonga). For, God steals the most precious possession of man even when its owner is awake. He steals the chitta [mind]; He is the chitta apahari, the stealer of hearts. I disappointed you; I even requested you not to come so far away from your homes for this festival; but yet your hearts have been stolen by Me and so you could not stay away.

Onam is the day when you Keralites feast on the banana. When you eat a banana, you have first to remove the skin, so, too, when we desire to eat a mango or a lime fruit. The sweet substance has to be reached after removal of the bitter skin. For Bali to be received and accepted by God, the bitter cover of egoism and power-mania had to be removed. Ignorance, maya (delusion), illusion, pride, all are the components of the skin.

Onams come and Onams go, but people are no nearer the goal. This is because though Onam is given a hearty send-off, generosity, renunciation, love, and the spirit of service are not given an equally hearty welcome. You must take this as the Onam message—strive to manifest, cultivate, and express love, and suppress pride and egoism, so that you can win the grace of God.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 12

I ask only that you turn to Me when your mind drags you into grief or pride or envy. Bring Me the depths of your mind, no matter how grotesque, how cruelly ravaged by doubts, or disappointments. I know how to treat them. I will not reject you; I am your mother.

~Sri Sathya Sai Baba