The Ultimate Attainment
Bhagavan Baba candidly urges all to follow His maxim—Do good, see good, and be good—as the royal path to Him, the source of pure joy and love—in this divine discourse delivered three decades ago on the auspicious Dasara day.
When man acts on earth the way he talks
He is no longer man, he is a noble soul.
When man doesn’t act the way he talks
He is no longer man, he is only a beast.
Embodiments of the Divine atma (self), Bharat (India) has ensured the peace and security of nations for generations through instructions on spiritual development. She herself has been an example to others for spiritual virtues. ‘May all the worlds be happy’ is the prayer echoing from the Vedas [scriptures] through centuries and over the globe. The sages, monarchs, scholars, and women of past ages dedicated their lives to solve the fundamental problems of the human situation and promote world prosperity. They accepted sacrifice as their duty and destiny. Due to the degenerate time‑spirit today, self-interest has polluted the thoughts, words, and deeds of man! He acts as if things and persons have to be sought and loved simply because they are useful for him. This is just another instance of selfish love.
Activated by desire, man plans the designs to win what he desires. Human life is a process where man awaits the harvest of the desires he sows. The desire has to be not for self‑advancement but for peace, happiness, and prosperity for all; only then can the Vedic prayer mentioned above be realized.
Time is but a mirror that reveals to us our fancies or our fantasies. It has no preferences or originality. It has no ideas of its own or sympathy with others. The joy or grief that time presents to us is only the reflection of our own deeds, good or bad. The reflection may appear in the mirror quickly or delayed. The seed turns into a tree only after years, and the fruit takes a few more. Every deed is a seed that inevitably yields fruits, either sweet or bitter, which one has to eat in joy or grief. So, man has to resolve to do good, see good, hear good, and be good.
Goodness is the real nature of man. Bad tendencies are unnatural; they are imposed by circumstances. Through sheer bad luck, man is welcoming the accretions and ignoring the core. One has to place his faith in divinity that is in everything, always and everywhere. The Vedas declare:
Poornam adah Poornam idam
Poornaath Poornam udachyathe
Poornasya Poornam Aadaaya
Poornam eva vasishyathe.
‘That is wholly divine; this is wholly divine. From the totally divine arose the totally divine. When the totally divine is taken from the totally divine, the total remains. “That” means “the thing afar, apart”, and “the entity that is beyond the reach of the human instruments of perfection.” “This” means the visible world, the objective world cognizable through the senses and amenable to experience. This, too, is as divine as the rest.
Asti (existence), bhaati (knowability), and priyam (likeability), sat [truth], chit [existence], and ananda [bliss], are the characteristics of divinity, and these are found in everything. Name and form that everything possesses are transitory and subject to change. The [silver] smith can covert this silver tumbler [glass] into a cup, plate, or just a lump of metal. But silver exists and is knowable and likeable. It is asti‑bhaati‑priyam. A piece of silver taken out of the lump is also ‘totally silver’. A lump of jaggery (brown sugar) is sweet; a bit, a pinch or a kilo (kilogram) of jaggery is also as sweet as the lump. They are all ‘totally sweet’, and ‘totally jaggery’.
Similarly, the cosmos that the Divine projected is divine; the jagat (universe) is Brahman (Immanent Principle); nothing is outside it or beyond it. This is the truth because that is truth. This is as true as that. No one can assert that this cannot change, and that has to change. A person decides out of his own limited experience that this is bad and that is good, but since all is equally divine, the distinction is not real.
What exactly is the Divine? What are Its characteristics? How can It be defined? No person can authoritatively announce Divinity’s attributes, the activities through which Divinity can be identified, and the form in which Divinity can be recognized; and, no one has the power to assert that no other attributes or activities or forms can be divine. It is sheer effrontery and foolishness to make pronouncements on the nature and work of God. When Divinity is imminent in everything conscious and unconscious, in every form of being and becoming, how can a thing be condemned as bad or commended as good?
Water quenches thirst and drowns people. Fire gives light and warmth, but also burns and reduces things to ash. Sound terrifies and also thrills sweetly. They are all divine, and so divinity becomes inscrutable. The Divine will is ever free and fresh. The Divine has no selfishness, pride, greed, or envy. But, you suffer from all these illnesses. So your judgment is narrow and crooked. The Divine can function as It pleases and wills, for It has no wants.
Every object is innately genuine. When it is not, it degenerates. When fire loses its capacity to burn, it reduces itself to cold coal. Sugar can no longer be sugar if it loses its sweetness. God is identified with the heat in fire, and sweetness in sugar. You may deny God or affirm God—that is dependent on your predominant mood. But God is in all; God is all. You may accept or reject, but Divinity will adopt any means It wills in order to revive reverence for scriptures and observance of morality. You cannot gain by discussing those means and pronouncing your opinions on them. You have only to cultivate faith, watch, and exult.
Vishnu— the Lord’s name—means ‘Present everywhere’. The question is asked, ‘Why then is He not seen anywhere?’ But do we see the air that is all around us? Can we say then that there is no air? God is also said to be minuter than the minutest and vaster than the vastest. The Taitiriya Upanishad (Hindu scripture) describes God as “that which has nothing bigger, and that which has nothing smaller.” It is in accordance with this statement that Thyagaraja (a Hindu sage and composer) sang, “Thou art in the ant, as You are in Brahma, Shiva, and Keshava (names of God). O Rama! Save me.” The Vedas also describe Him as the farthest and the closest! Someone dear to you may be far away in America, but your love keeps him close to you. When your neighbor is an enemy or a stranger to you, he is ‘far’ away. It is the mind that pushes and pulls, hates and loves. You are what you feel. Take My example:
I am ‘yes’ to those who say ‘yes,’
I am ‘no’ to those who say ‘no,’
‘No and ‘yes’ are words from you;
From Sai it is always ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’.
Due to one’s attachment to the body in which one is enclosed, egoism grows deep, devoid of belief in atma (self). The Telugu (an Indian language) proverb says, ‘When boiling milk rises, it falls into the fire.’ The lesson it enshrines is: ‘pride reduces one to ashes.’ Humility can be built only on a foundation of charity, detachment, and tyaga (sacrifice). Tyaga gives man the greatest joy. He who is ever ready to sacrifice his comfort for helping another is the genuine devotee.
People cling to comfort, luxury, and high standards of worldly life. But for how long can they so cling? You cannot run a race when a mountain faces you. The world is bound by time and space, and people’s stay on earth also is for a limited period. To seek joy in the world of objects is as foolish as gathering dewdrops from lotus leaves mistaking them for diamonds or wading through mirages hoping to collect water in pails. Joy, pure and plentiful, can be earned only from God and through obedience to divine laws and directions.
One day, while Sita and Lord Rama were living in exile in the forest, Sita (Lord Rama’s spouse) noticed a golden deer. Fascinated by it, she requested Rama to capture it for her. As He left the hermitage in pursuit of the deer, Rama directed His brother Lakshmana to be on guard and not leave Sita alone on any account. The golden deer was the decoy employed by Ravana (Sri Lanka’s ruler) to draw Rama away from the hermitage so he could kidnap Sita. The deer (Maricha, the demon) cried out, imitating Rama’s voice, as if Rama was in great pain, ‘O Sita! O Lakshmana!’ Believing that Rama was hurt, Sita appealed to Lakshmana to go to his brother’s rescue.
Lakshmana knew Rama too well to be worried. As a true servant of the Lord Rama, he stayed on to guard Sita. When the call was heard again, Sita could not contain her anger at Lakshmana’s intransigence. She used certain unspeakable words to persuade Lakshmana to disobey Rama. “Are you plotting to possess me on Rama’s death?” she asked. Lakshmana could not bear the imputation; leaving her alone, he moved toward the place where the voice came from.
Therefore, what was to happen did happen. When the brothers returned, the hermitage was empty, and Sita had been kidnapped. Rama told Lakshmana, “You disobeyed Me, acted against My order, and this calamity was caused.” Whatever happens, however critical the situation, one has to discharge fully and correctly the duty that lay upon him. Whoever speaks, however harshly, one should not weaken one’s resolution. Whatever the enormity of the calamity that threatens, one should not budge. Lakshmana repented the lapse throughout his life.
A question may be raised here about the golden deer. Did not Rama know that it was a decoy, a demon in that form, sent by Ravana to help in his evil design? Of course, he knew it all. He knew that the episode was but the prologue to the completion of the task on which He had come. He could bring Sita back from Lanka and, in a moment, He could turn the city into a heap of ash. But He secured Sugriva (King of the monkeys) as His ally, and took the appropriate steps to retrieve Sita and punish Ravana. Why?
In order to accomplish the welfare of the world, foster righteousness among men, and cause destruction of the wicked, the Lord can freely choose any path, any time, any person or persons, and any means or method that he prefers. Ignorant persons who are unaware of the ways of God cannot understand this. He might on His own involve Himself in activities that serve as ideals and guides for mankind. If Rama had not devised the drama of the golden deer and Sita’s abduction, how could the devotion of Hanuman (Rama’s foremost devotee) be immortalized?
Take the Krishna Avatar for example. Are there grounds to doubt His divinity and suspect Him to have been a thief, a liar, or a gallant? God has no prejudice or partiality, and no preference or aversion. When He is all, what can He steal? Whom can He desire to possess? Imputations such as these emanate from individuals suffering from greed, envy, and lust. One moment you declare, ‘God, is One, God is truth, purity, stab-ility, all‑knowing, the witness beyond feelings and thoughts, devoid of the three gunas (sublime, aggressive, and passive characteristics),’ and the next moment you impose feelings and faults on the same God! How then should we understand the acts of God?
You must welcome them gratefully and gladly, for whatever is done and whatever is got done are for the world’s good. People who picture God as partial and unjust are only describing themselves. People assert that God is in the ant as much as He is in the cosmos. They adore ants and feed them, and place rice grains around ant‑holes on the ground. But let an ant be bold enough to sting, it is killed that very moment! The animal in man overpowers him, and he cannot restrain himself to act in accordance with his declared beliefs.
Man must speak sincerely what he thinks and act in conformity with his words. That alone can reveal that there is a spark of the divine in him. You should not construct a picture of God according to your needs and norms and then complain that God does not conform. God is all‑powerful, all-knowing, and all‑pervading. How then can limits be prescribed for Him? It would be foolish to judge Him; it would be sinful to impute blemishes.
The evil tendencies, attitudes, and habits that have persisted through many lives and continue in this life also prompt people to hold such conclusions. No one has the authority to lay down rules regulating God’s deeds. God is inherent in every living being and in every inanimate thing. No distinction can be posited, for all are God. In order to grant joy or enable man to derive joy, God plays pranks, designs, and directs dramas. He causes tears and quenches tears; He cures madness and inflicts madness. He exercises mania for fame and fortune; and He inflames the mania for God and grace.
This day is a Poornahuti day when the valedictory offering in the sacred fire concludes the seven‑day-long Yajna (this may also be called tapas or sadhana). Samapti is the word used for ‘conclusion’. But that word has a more significant meaning in aapti or attainment of sams or equanimity or balance as when the river merges in the sea or the self merges in the Self, the jivi (individual self) merges in Brahmam (the universal self).
The river loses its name and form, and the water loses its taste and flow when the sea is reached. All acts of ours must be elevated to the level of yajna, an offering to the Lord. That is to be the goal and consummation, and nothing else is to be desired or expected. When the offering reaches God, the person is most happy because the God is in Him. When one yearns to please the God residing in him, one has to please others for He resides in them also. Also, one has to be ever conscious of the name of God.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1982
