The Novel Night
The Navaratri (nine nights) is the festival to commemorate the victory of good versus evil. The embodiment of divine power in its various manifestations as Mahasaraswati (satwic—pure), Mahalakshmi (rajasic—activity) and Mahakali (tamasic—dullness) was able to overcome the forces of vice, wickedness, and egoism during the nine days’ struggle. Finally, on Vijaya Dashami (or Dasara, the tenth day commemorating victory), the valedictory worship is done.
It is a festival of thanksgiving. Gratitude is divine; ingratitude is demonic. But, while offering the homage of gratitude, you must also try to discover who was killed and who was saved and why. The six enemies of man, embedded in his own inner consciousness, are eating into his vitals. They are the demons to be killed. They are lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride, and malice. They reduce man to the level of a demon. They have to be overpowered and transmuted, by the supreme alchemy of the divine urge. Then the nine nights of struggle will give way to a new type of night (nava means both new and nine) devoted to the purification of the mind and the illumination of the soul.
To celebrate the Navaratri at the Prasanthi Nilayam is indeed a rare chance, replete with wonder and joy. For this is the abode of peace, the peace that ensues when the six enemies are destroyed forever. The Prasanthi flag that will now be hoisted is the symbol of this consummation—the conquest by man of the six enemies and the illumination within him of the flame of wisdom, installed in the lotus of the heart. It is the flag of swaraj (dominion over oneself), the true independence, when you can genuinely claim to be master of the realm most intimately related to you. It is the flag that flutters in the breeze of ananda [bliss], the flag that announces the arrival of inner splendor; it is the flag that heralds the dawn of the highest wisdom and the deepest peace.
Man is proud that he is flying far into the sky and even landing on the moon. But he is incapable of living at peace with himself or his neighbors. His life on earth is full of fear and anxiety, but he proclaims without shame that he is the summit of creation! He does not know how to put down the fire that burns within him, but he is able to destroy entire cities by fire emanating from bombs!
Swaraj means full mastery over your senses, mind, and intelligence through the recognition of the atma (soul). You must not be dependent on another for services that you can well do yourself. What is the use of tiring out a servant in serving your wishes and yourself sitting lazily in meditation? Engage in activity, devote yourself in worshipful acts, do everything for the glory of God—that is far more fruitful than the meditation which you are relying on.
Just as a thermometer indicates the heat of the body, your talk and behavior indicate your mental equipment and attitudes, and they show how high is the fever of worldliness that afflicts you. These have to be satwic (pure), untinged by passion of emotions like hate or pride. Talk in peace, promoting peace in others. What is the use of chanting the divine name and doing meditation when your talk and conduct are not even human? How can you hope to approach the Divine while groveling in the slush of the bestial? [On] the first day of the Dasara festival, resolve to cleanse the mind of impurities so that you can imbibe the inspiration it is intended to convey.
Aspirants for mental peace also have to reduce the luggage they have to care for: the more the luggage, the greater the bother. Objective possessions and subjective desires, both are handicaps in the race for realization. A house cluttered with lumber will be dark, dusty and without free movement of fresh air; it will be stuffy and suffocating. The human body, too, is a house; do not allow it to be cluttered with curios, trinkets, trash, and superfluous furnishings. Let the breeze of holiness blow as it wills through it. Let not the darkness of blind ignorance desecrate it. Life is a bridge over the sea of change; pass over it, but do not build a house on it.
Hoist the Prasanthi flag on the temple that is your heart. Follow the prescription it teaches—subdue the six enemies that undermine the natural bliss in man, ascend the yoga stage when the agitations are stilled and allow the splendor of the divinity within to shine forth, embracing all for all time.
Extracted from “The Novel Night”
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. IX
