The Faith and the Ideal
To place one foot forward, man needs an inner urge, a purpose, a prompting. His will is moved by his wish. Therefore, man must endeavor to wish for higher and holier goals. His mind is a bundle of wishes, turned hither and thither by the dictates of each wish. Man wastes the time allotted to him and the skills he is endowed with. He enslaves his conscience, believing that he is acting correctly.
Man needs to recognize that time is precious. Not even a fraction of a second should be wasted. He needs to be constantly engaged in the investigation of his own truth and his duty to himself. Life is dripping away, drop by drop, from a leaking pot. Time hangs over every head like a sharp sword, ready to inflict the mortal slash. Still, most pay no attention to this ever-present calamity.
Cynics declare that statements like “man is the crown of creation” are only for textbooks and platforms. But truthfully speaking, human life is holy, sublime, sacred, ever new, and ever fresh. The Upanishads [ancient scriptures] try to arouse and awaken man into the awareness of this truth for man is slumbering in ignorance, wrapped in his ego and in his desires. “Awake and adore the sun and recognize your realty in the light of his rays.” That is the call reverberating from the Upanishads. But man is deaf to this entreaty.
Three eshanas (ardent desires) are holding man back: he is enamored of wealth, wife and children. These obstruct him at each step and act as handicaps to spiritual advance. Of course, wherewithal is essential for the process of life; laboring for it cannot be avoided. But beyond a certain limit, riches foul the mind and breed arrogance. They must be used for good purposes, promoting virtue and well being, fostering dharma (virtue) and fulfilling one’s duties along the divine path. If riches are spent for realizing fleeting desires, they can never be enough. Then the ego discovers newer and more heinous ways of earning and spending. It is indeed deplorable that this eshana (craving) for dhana (money) has laid hold of the people of this holy land, where divine incarnations have taught the lessons of selflessness and service.
Peace through spiritual efforts
People ignore the very beacons that illumine the darkness and reveal the path of liberation from the bonds of incessant struggle, endless pursuit, bewildering agony and ceaseless activity to gain what is ungainable. What is the reason? The mind, not the faculty of the intellect guides us. The intellect discriminates; it probes, it analyses. But the mind follows blindly every whim or fancy. The intellect helps one to identify duties and responsibilities. But without rest or peace, man hops from one spot to another, bound to the vagaries of the mind. He runs to catch a bus, rushes to the office, runs to a cinema or a club and has no time for calm silence. Peace has to be attained through spiritual efforts, that is, through spiritualizing every thought, word, and deed. What can set the world aright is not a new spiritual order or institution, but men and women with pure hearts. They alone can uplift this land from the morass.
To purify the heart, one must practice sama [sense control], dama [self control], and other sadhanas [spiritual efforts] that can control the senses of perception and action. These may seem difficult in the early stages, but any work worth doing has the same drawback. Take riding a bicycle, for example. One goes through many falls and scrapes and loses several square inches of skin before learning to balance and pedal an even line. But once proficient, one can ride safely even without holding onto the handlebars. It is the same for a person learning to drive a car. At first, you keep your foot on the clutch and cannot hold the steering wheel. You can’t lift your foot from the clutch. When you hold the clutch and the wheel, you forget the brake. When you learn to manage all three, you do not watch out for pedestrians in front of you. But when you have mastered the art of driving, you are aware of the ups and downs, the stops, the lights, the roads, all quite spontaneously. You can drive safely and fast even while talking to people in the back seat. You can even sing a song while you drive.
Happiness is in helping others
Control gives power; regulation gives greater strength. Discipline reveals divinity. People pine for happiness. But can one really gain it by allowing free rein to the senses? Can one be happy eating four meals a day, riding in prestigious cars or living in a many-roomed bungalow? No. Happiness consists in helping others. It is brought about by giving up, not by hoarding. Catering to the senses makes man bestial. The senses will drag him into dirt and disgrace.
The yogi is the person who has fixed his mind on the divine, not on the mundane. The Gita exhorts man to transform himself as “Sathatham Yoginah”—ever a yogi. But man is a yogi in the morning, turns into a bhogi (sensuous man) at noon and a rogi (disease-stricken person) when the day ends.
Today man lives without faith (the base) and without ideal (the superstructure). Dharma [righteous action] should be the base and moksha (liberation), the superstructure, but the world has neglected both and it relies on artha (wealth) and kama (desire) for happiness and liberation. How can mankind progress without [having] faith as the first of the purusharthas (four goals of human existence) and the ideal as the last?
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 15
