The Unseen Cause
Following is an excerpt from a message sent by Bhagavan Baba on the inauguration of Prasanthi Vidwanmahasabha.
You, who are in reality atmaswarupa [embodiment of the self], here is My blessing to every one of you. What exactly is atmajnana [knowledge of the self]? It is the understanding of the reality of atma [self] and of the absence of any distinction between you and it. The realization of this basic fact is the only means of happiness for man. Not to realize it makes a man a fool, however learned he may be, even in spiritual matters.
Man is not unaware of his environment or of the nature of the world as beasts are. His goal is the Absolute that is the guarantor of all power and the grantor of all courage. To reach it, one has to make extraordinary effort. Every being and thing in nature has immeasurable power enclosed in it but it is only in man that it is revealed as jnana [knowledge]. Man is not a lump of clay and neither is he a lump of flesh. He is truly a fountain of ananda [bliss]. The head, hands, and feet do not form his personality; his personality is his atma. For, his ananda is derived not through wealth and status, power and prestige, lands and laudation, but, through the realization of the atmic basis of personality.
Ananda derived from the exterior world is short-lived and double-edged; unaware of this, man still seeks ananda in the mirages and cloud-castles of cinemas, cigarettes, restaurants, and radios, and a host of other flitting fancies. He flies about like a bird seeking a perch; he groans like a beggar before every door seeking the alms of ananda, not realizing that the residents are themselves empty handed. Why has this disaster befallen man? Because he has not known that he himself is ananda-swarupa.
Man comes into this world, holding a ticket to death, for the length of the journey he has to make. During; the journey, he might sing and dance, rise and fall, earn and spend, but, the train moves steadily to the destination, viz. the cemetery. The traveler might forget the destination but the train does not. Remembering this, man must learn how to avoid this recurring fate: birth-death, death-birth. To be caught in this wheel and plead helplessness is not worthy of man.
Death for you must be for the end of death. That is to say, before death, one must learn the secret of immortality. When one is born, one weeps through ignorance. But when he dies, he should not repeat the performance. If he does so, what is the tremendous achievement that one has to his credit, after years of life? Consuming tons of food, being a burden on the earth—are these the only achievements to his credit? Food is for sustaining life; life is not for consuming food. If life is allotted, food will be available somehow. Therefore, live so that he who was born with the query koham, ‘Who am I’ on his lips should pass out of the world with the answer, soham, “I am He” on his lips.
The end of sorrow is the consummation that every one hankers after. This is so not merely for man alone; it is also for birds and beasts, even insects and worms. This is not all. As soon as man achieves adulthood, he becomes nervous at the approach of old age and death which comes with steady steps towards him, and he tries to avoid them, by all the means he can command. What a ridiculous ambition! No one can escape these situations, and in trying to avoid them, man falls into further grief. What is the reason?
Man takes refuge in things that are in maya [illusion] without taking refuge in the ‘master of maya.’ He establishes himself in the belief that he is the body and not in the belief that he is the atma. To relieve the pain one feels in the dream, or to allay the fear one gets in the dream, no drug or magic formula can help. The only cure is “waking him up”. Then, both fear and pain will vanish instantly. So too, in the spiritual field, one has to awake and become aware of the atma, to get rid of the grief produced by the attachment to the delusions of the world.
Man has to know that his mind is the maker of his fortune and misfortune. For the ignorant, the mind is an evil genius; and for the wise, the mind is a ministering angel. When the mind is tainted he becomes a devil when the mind is pure, he becomes a saint. An impure mind makes an impure man. The Vedas and the Sastras have emerged just for this emergency. Their main purpose is to purify the mind and remove its imperfections.
Nothing will happen in the world without a cause. For the seen effect, the unseen is the cause. To reveal the unseen cause is the task which the Vedas and Sastras have taken upon themselves. The evil brood of ignorance, egoism, hatred, malice, and the rest has multiplied in the land because the Vedas and Sastras have been left behind and man has taken to crooked paths. Humanity is drawn into the filth of wickedness and sin because the nobility of human heritage has been forgotten. Peace has fled from the heart of man and from the human community.
Today, therefore, this Prasanthi Vidwanmaha-sabha is showering on all the knowledge of the atman the reality behind all this illusion; it reminds all of the moral code; it makes all recognize the sat chit and ananda as the Paramatma [Godhead] Himself. Recognize this as the very reason why this sabha [assembly] has been established. May truth be installed in all the hearts.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1965
