The Priorities
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba spoke about how we should control our senses and achieve victory over them.
The contented person is the happiest of all; the happy person is rich in equanimity. Under modern conditions, though there is a surfeit of things and facilities for satisfying urges and desires of all types, people have neither happiness nor equanimity. In all countries, they are beset by anxiety, fear, and turmoil of the mind. They can regain contentment and equanimity only when it is realized that life is but a chain of dreams, and start evaluating it as it deserves. But, when attachment leads to delusion, life is rendered bitter and barren.
When the Mahabharata battle [legendary battle in ancient Hindu epic] was about to begin on the field of Kurukshetra, Krishna had to administer counsel to Arjuna, the foremost of heroes. Arjuna who had prepared himself for that crucial struggle for years, and had equipped himself by the acquisition of special weapons and powerful allies, suddenly lost heart and talked of surrender and renunciation. He was emotionally distraught and the superior value of an ascetic life of beggary appeared to him more virtuous than destroying the enemies arrayed against him and the winning of his rightful share of the Empire.
Krishna Himself had previously proposed to take steps to prevent the encounter of arms; He had Himself proceeded to the enemy’s court in order to win them over into the acceptance of compromise proposals. But, at that time, this same Arjuna had protested, saying, “Yours is a vain attempt; their hearts are too full of poison to yield nectar; you are seeking jasmine flowers from those flames of fire; parleys for peace will not be welcome to them, however much you may cater to their vanity.” “We and they,” he said, “are as far apart as the North pole and the South.”
Yet, on the battlefield, when the bugles and conches, the war drums and trumpets were sounding, and the fight was about to start, he discarded his bow! Why? “O Bhishma and Drona may die in battle; my kith and kin may lose their lives.” Suddenly, he felt that they were his; ego enveloped him; he dreaded the consequences because he felt that he was the doer. That is the delusion, caused by ignorance of truth. Ignorance hid from him his real reality. The owl cannot see during day; the crow cannot see at night; but, the ignorant man cannot see the reality both night and day. Delusion, blinding fascination, overwhelming desire—these are the offspring of ignorance.
Man cannot exist apart from the world. Shankaracharya, the great exponent of monism, declared that the world is a myth and that Brahmam alone is real. But, that did not prevent him from establishing for the betterment of the world, four centers of spiritual teaching presided over by his disciples, and arranging for their continuous and efficient working! For, he wanted to inspire men to discover the truth embedded in the myth.
You may wonder how any one can grasp that truth? It is a process very much like waking from a dream. The dream itself awakens you! When some frightful event happens in the dream world, in which you are busy while asleep, you are aroused into the fact that you are not really in that frightful situation, but, that you are in bed in your own home, safe and secure. So, too, by some flash of intuition, or blow of circumstance, or twist of fortune, you are awakened into the recognition that this world too is a half-true, half-false phenomenon. Happiness is not bred by happiness; it is formed in the crucible of hardships.
People have to be told the truth of the world and its components—pleasure and pain, and the other inevitable dualities—early enough in life. They have to know the vagaries of their senses, the vacillating nature of their minds, and even the inefficiencies of their reasoning faculty, so that they may voyage through life with joy and confidence. They must be assured of the beneficent influence that faith in God can exert upon them, and how much courage can be won through the realization that God is the very core of their existence.
There was a middle-class household in a small town, where the wife was daily pleading with the husband to spend some little time in prayer and reverential worship of God. But the husband refused to yield, for, as he said, he had no time to spare for such pastimes which are best taken up during old age, when the process of earning and spending receives a natural setback and there will be ample leisure. The pious lady could not derive any consolation from this reply. She could only wait for an auspicious opportunity when her advice would fall on receptive ears.
Meanwhile, the husband was affected by serious illness and he was bed-ridden for a few weeks. The doctors advised him to take some tablets three times a day. The wife accepted the task of administering the tablets and kept them with her. However, she did not give him even one!
The husband was upset by her intransigence. He demanded the tablets, but she was firm in her resolve. She said, in reply to his question, “Are you conspiring to kill me?” “Wait, wait. Why hurry to take the medicine so soon? Let the illness become more serious, why all this haste? Go slow, go slow. There is enough time, just as you said when I wanted you to pray and do namasmarana [chanting the Lord’s name].” The husband then realized that his stand was foolish. So, he mended his ways and cured himself of both types of illness.
Life is full of worry, fear, doubt, and trouble. Worry is the worst disease. But, when once the thought of God enters and fills the heart, all worries vanish. To spend an entire lifetime, trying to unravel the tangled skein of worries and fears, is sheer waste of precious time and skill. It is a sin to fritter away the days of life. And, when you plead that there is no time left for God, it becomes the height of foolishness. Two young men studying in the same college challenged each other to see who could eat 20 bananas faster than the other. They decided upon impartial umpires and stood before the banana baskets.
One young man thought that if he ate the skins first, the sweet soft fruit inside would be no problem later; the other youth decided that once the soft portions were eaten fast, he would have enough time to chew the skins. But, after finishing the skins the first young man had no stomach to swallow the kernel because he was too full. The other man had to stop as soon as he had finished the soft insides, for he had no more space inside him for the skins. Both failed in the competition, but what a difference they had in their experiences!
The one had an excess of bitter; the other, a surplus of sweet! People resolve to experience God and Godly company only after going through most of life. They eat skins and have no appetite for the sweet fruit. The first place must be accorded to God; then, joy and peace will follow.
This day is celebrated as Vaikuntha Ekadasi. Ekadasi means the 11th day; the inner meaning of the word when used for this festival is—the indriyas [senses] are ten and the mind is the eleventh. Gather all the senses which wander far and wide, collect them in the 11th, (the mind,) and offer all the eleven to God; then, you will attain Vaikuntha, that is to say, the state of no desire and no disappointment, no disease or distress.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1976
