The Mind Stuff

In His discourse during His birthday celebrations Bhagavan Baba spoke about how the mind has to be watched vigilantly and warned against its own tricks. Keep the mind occupied with namasmarana [repeating the name of the Lord] so that it does not play games with you.

It is a vain task to divide the things of the world into good and bad, and it is also sacrilegious! For when all are the products of His will, how can anything be extolled or condemned? Besides, what is good for one may be bad for another; what is good at some time may be bad at another time; what is good in small quantities may be bad in large quantities. The crow relishes the bitter neem fruit; the cuckoo eats the tender leaves of the mango tree. People find joy and satisfaction in a variety of things and experiences of the most contradictory character. Therefore, one can only infer that it is the mind of each that directs one to seek this thing as good and avoid that other thing as bad.

Philosophy tells us that the mind decides not merely the goodness or badness of a thing or experience, it creates all things and all experiences. Without the mind, there can be no object or feeling or emotion. No mind, no matter! The mind revels in name and form; it imposes name and form, and thus helps in creating things and experiences. It cannot contact or operate upon anything without name and form. That is why the mind is helpless when meditation has to be done on the nameless and the formless. It clings ever to name-form. Mental pictures have concretized themselves as objects and as ideas; so the Shrutis [scriptures] declare: “Yad bhavam, tad bhavati” (“As the thought, so the consequence”).

Realization of God instills divine bliss

But God is beyond name and form; He is all names and all forms, and yet incomprehensible and mysterious. How then can God be apprehended by means of dhyana (meditation) on name- form? This is a legitimate question. It can be answered by means of a simile. Water drowns man; water also helps him to swim. It draws in and it buoys up both. Only, man has to learn the process by which he can keep afloat. In the same way, name and form that appear to be limitations and handicaps can serve as instruments and helps to transcend name-form and realize God.

The realization of God instills ananda (divine bliss), which has no form but only a man-made name. It springs and wells up in the heart and pervades the entire body and expresses itself in the face. The face is the index of inner bliss. Sadness, anxiety, fear, hope, determination, doubt all are reflected on the face, and can be easily spotted.

The mind can remain unaffected by the storms of emotion only by bending to the yoke of buddhi (intellect). It should escape from the grips of the senses, and yield to the reins of the reasoning faculty, and obey unquestioningly its dictates. The senses are inert so long as the Self keeps them away from inducing the mind to accept the information submitted by them. This mike before me helps those who are sitting all over this vast Auditorium to listen clearly to My words. But the mike and the loudspeakers are inert metallic things. A few minutes ago, the College student made a speech that was interrupted for a few minutes since the electric current failed. Without that current activating them, they cannot work at all.

The eye that sees is inert; all objects ‘seen’ are inert; only the seer is ‘intelligent.’ And the current of intelligence is supplied by the Atma, which is your Reality. When the current does not activate, the eye might look on, but it does not see; the ear might be hearing, but, the hearer does not react or recognize. For the mind is elsewhere. It has to function with the help of the Divine Consciousness within.

The mind has to be watched vigilantly

The mind is like a fragrant flower; it emits fragrance whether it is held in the right hand or in the left, whether the person who holds it is good or bad. It walks blindly along, irrespective of the lie of the land. It is blind, and so someone has to take it on tow. When you invite ten blind people for dinner, you have to lay twenty plates. For each blind person brings with him [and has to do so] a guide who can lead him to your home. So the mind, too, must have a guide who knows the way, the obstacles, the shoals, and ferries.

The mind has to be watched vigilantly and warned against its own tricks. It is a clever actor, embroiling you in many a close adventure. The mind is like the revered old gentleman who appeared alternately in the houses of the bridegroom’s party and the bride’s party during a marriage festival and issued orders to all and sundry, which were honored by both, since each party thought he was a person with authority coming from the other party! Before long his very pomposity aroused the suspicions of both, and when they jointly sought him and asked him who he was, he took to his heels and made himself scarce. The mind, too, is just like the gentleman. Catch it and inquire wherefrom it secured credentials to order you about; it will disappear in no time!

Let your mind repeat ‘Soham’ all the time

The only method that you can adopt to escape from the coils of the mind is the cultivation of pure intelligence. This is the sum and substance of all spiritual discipline. And the intelligence gets cleansed of all partiality and prejudice, hatred and greed, only by the adoration of God through love poured out to all the beings created by God and standing witness to His glory and beauty. Share love with all; earn the treasure of love, store it in your heart and invite all to share in it. When you try to distribute the property earned by your grandfather or father, legal, moral, economic, and practical obstacles will stand up before you. But when you are distributing your ‘self-earned’ property, nothing legal or otherwise can stand in the way.

Remember the mind is a very talkative imp, it can never keep quiet even for a second. You have been listening to Me since more than an hour and perhaps you are under the impression that your mind has been quiet all that time. No. The mind has been holding conversation with itself when it is supposed to be silent! Give it perpetual tasks. Ask it (as some rishi did to a demon who acted as his servant but threatened to devour him the moment he did not have any task allotted to him) to climb a pillar and slide down it whenever it has no other work. The pillar is Soham, (I am That), a mantra (sacred formulae) that the breath is repeating from birth to death, ‘So’ when you inhale and ‘ham’ when you exhale. Let it repeat Soham all the time.

Bhajans (congregational devotional singing) have to be sung and offered to God in an attitude of utter humility. They are not to be taken as exercises in an exhibition of talents and as competitions for mastery of musical skill.

They have to please the Lord, not your fans. With each bhajan (song), the mind must be rendered purer, freer from passion, and stronger in faith. But you find that you do not succeed in this task. The adoration does not arise from the heart; nor is it addressed to the Supreme by the sincere Self. It is tainted by the admixture of envy, pride, and hate. How can prayers so fouled reach God?

Devotees should not develop attitudes of difference

For example, I find that when any new devotee sings, others leave him alone and do not sing lines after him! They ignore him and insult him in this manner. But when one of them, one of the usual group, leads with a song, they join enthusiastically. This kind of group politics has no place among Sai devotees and cannot be tolerated in Sai bhajan groups. I find this evil trait spreading in most bhajan mandalis [bhajan groups]—members divided into rival groups competing for chances to sing, trying to attract the attention and appreciation of the people. Urged by this selfish motive, they discourage the sincere bhajan singers. They keep mum when they offer their songs; this means either that they have lost their voice or that their hearts have been so deadened by selfishness.

Attitudes of difference and distinction should not enter the hearts of devotees so far as this sacred sadhana (spiritual discipline) is concerned. Nor can the song of such people be pleasant to the ear; for it is only when the feeling arises in the heart that the song will appeal to the hearts of others. It would be far better for all parties if such self-important and conceited folk stay away from bhajan rather than pollute the sacred atmosphere by the spirit of rivalry and factionalism.

All are sons and daughters of Sai Mata

When devotees taking the name of Sathya Sai behave in such a manner, that is to say, people to whom the world is looking for guidance and inspiration, when they descend to such levels, what is to happen to the uplift of the world and the restoration of dharma (righteousness)?

Bhajans where you quarrel and compete and revel in putting down others and raising yourselves might give yousatisfaction, but let Me announce here: they do not please Me at all. I am pleased only when love is the keynote, when the feeling of unity prevails, when the melody comes from a cleansed God-loving heart.

The office-bearers in the Units of our Organization should be ever vigilant that this poison does not creep into the working of the Units, either in bhajans or in the activities of the Mahila Vibhag or Seva dal [ladies wing or the service wing].

Remember, all are the sons and daughters of Sai Mata (Mother SAI). How can I tolerate when the sons and daughters quarrel among themselves and divide themselves into rival groups? Unless you sing bhajans for your own joy, you cannot bring joy to others.

The Sathya Sai Organization has been established to provide sacred tasks for every moment of wakeful life to make people conscious of the vagaries and vanities of the mind, and teach them the processes of disintegrating the mind and establishing the reign of the pure intellect, by which alone the One behind all this multiplicity can be realized as the only Reality.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 12

Certainly every human being must be educated irrespective of race, religion, caste, color, or creed. But like the foolish mother who is happy when her child’s limb swells with disease, believing that it is getting stronger, we, too, mistake this increase in size and number as a healthy development! In reality, we are only witnessing a disease that results in debility, greed, hatred, and envy.

The flowers in nature always fade, droop down, lose fragrance, and also develop an odor that is not pleasant. Instead of worshiping with such worldly flowers, which are impermanent, and receiving impermanent rewards from God, we should worship Him with what is truthful and thereby attain a stage that is higher.

~Sri Sathya Sai