The Victory of Victories

Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba says that we should be like the river which strives, yearns, and struggles to merge with the sea from which it comes. Sivarathri, which falls on March 12, is a night of vigil to control our mind and turn the darkness into light that purifies us and prepares us for the journey to our source.

The spiritual path is the path of detachment, of sense control, of rigorous mind training. Parvathi sought to win Siva first by the glamour of physical charm; she had the stratagems of the God of Love, Manmatha, to support her allurements. But Siva reduced the God of Love to ashes and rejected her advances. Thereafter, she entered into an arduous period of ascetic austerities, and through them she was able to win Siva’s grace to such an extent that she became the left half of His sacred body. Man must first decide, after vigorous self-examination and continuous discrimination, the path that he wishes to traverse. Moksha (liberation) means the removal of the bonds of ignorance that cloud the truth and create a mirage of untruth. In fact, living is only another name for the process of achieving alternately misery and happiness, hunger and contentment, illness and health, desire and fulfillment. Man reaches out to a new desire the moment one is realized. He is ever struggling and ever unhappy, for he does not seek the eternal, the lasting, the source and the substance. He is content with the transient, the trivial, and the temporary.

Use the body as a chariot for reaching liberation through truth. It is your duty to see that on the four wheels of sathya, dharma, shanti, and prema (truth, righteousness, peace, and love), the chariot moves along the road to the goal. It will move on that road only if it has less luggage—less desires, less worries, and less fears. Desires, worries, and fears are multiplied when man thinks he is the body, with all its appurtenances, and not the owner of the body. Karma, bhakti, jnana (work, worship, wisdom)—these are the three paths to God. But through desire, karma is warped; through greed, devotion is vitiated; through anger, spiritual wisdom is befogged. But through love one can easily conquer desire, greed, and anger.

Learn a lesson from the insignificant ant. When an ant spots a lump of sugar, it does not hide the fact and seek to consume it all alone. Instead, it moves around to collect its friends and kinsmen, for it loves to share with others the feast it has come upon. The crow, a bird that is despised and often outcast, when it discovers a little heap of food, caws repeatedly until its kith and kin gather at the place. What is shared is more tasty; what is held back is bitter stuff. Life is short and full of misery, so do all you can to derive joy from making others happy. If others are miserable, how can you be really happy?

The greatness of man lies in the fact that by conscious effort it is possible to remove the evil in him. But in the case of other animals, however much they may be subjected to training and education, their base instincts will only lie low, ready to spring up at the slightest provocation.

By observing Sivarathri (night of Siva), through spending one full day fasting and one full night in vigil (as symbolic of conquering the senses by sleeplessly watching their antics and preventing them from inflicting harm), darkness can be turned into light, shavam (corpse) can be sublimated into Sivam (God).

Why should this creature, man, endowed with extra sensitivity to share sorrow and joy with others, be born in this changing world of time and space? Nothing that is born can escape death; nothing that is built can withstand disintegration. Why, then, has man been sent onto this stage of fleeting experiences? There is a purpose behind all the activities of the Divine. Man has to manifest the Divine in him and lead and guide all living beings in that adventure. He has to liberate himself by his efforts and liberate all life by his example. He must become free and secure in his own source. This is what is called moksha. He is liberated from littleness into vastness, from bondage to boundless bliss.

The ego-alloy enters man only when he is misled by the apparent diversity into positing multiplicity in creation. The reality that is misconstrued in the dull dusk of ajnana (primeval ignorance) is God. To see through the fog that projects many where there is only the One is the purpose of all spiritual sadhana. If, even after years of sadhana (by whichever religion it be prescribed), the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) continues to see differences, distinctions, and diversities, we can conclude that he has a long way to go before he can fulfill the aim of this human existence.

Awareness of the One ensures unshaken tranquillity, prasanthi. When the One is realized, there can be no fear. For how can the One fear itself? There can also be no desire, for when there is no second, how can the desire to possess arise? Neither can there be envy, hatred, greed, pride, or any of the evil passions that torment man and allow him no peace. The One (call it God, Paramatma, Brahman, or the Universal Absolute), is all love, all knowledge, all wisdom, all sweetness. Raso vai sah (He is sweetness) says the Upanishad (Hindu scriptures). How then can there be any bitterness in Him or in man’s real nature, for man is manifested by Him, from Him, and for Him?

A goat cannot be born of a tigress. What emanates from God must perforce be Divine. Hence, in the Upanishad, the appellation, “amrithasya puthraha” (child of immortality) is used for man. The atman (soul) in him, which has come from the Param-atman (supreme soul), is also immortal. Sparks emanating from the flames of fire have the same incendiary quality as the fire. The body is a temple of God; it has been organized for the sake of God, who decided to install Himself therein. Until man realizes the God within, and thus comes to understand that He is the ‘mystery’ that was evading him while he wandered about in the wilderness of the world, he has to attend assiduously to the upkeep of the body.

He can earn that awareness only by leashing the wayward mind and directing it inwards. Sivarathri reminds all mankind of the goal of mind-control. The moon is the presiding deity of the mind, according to the sages. Even modern science has discovered a subtle relationship between the vagaries of the mind and the phases of the moon. In the dark half of the month, the moon is seen less and less as the days move forward; symbolically it may be inferred that the mind, too, is undergoing a process of decline. This day is the 14th night and there is very little left of the moon to influence the earth or the mind of man. A spurt of spiritual effort through the vigil of bhajan (devotional singing) and fasting done on this rathri (night) or period of ignorance will result in the mind’s extinction and, with it, the conquest of all tendencies and attitudes it has entangled man in. Thus this night can be sublimated into the heavenly splendor of Siva.

Strive—that is your duty. Yearn—that is your task. Struggle—that is your assignment. If only you do these, sincerely and steadily, God cannot keep back for long the reward of realization. The river strives, yearns, and struggles to merge with the sea from which it came. It has that consummation ever alert in its consciousness. It attempts to make itself pure and pellucid so that it may be welcome by its source. It overcomes every obstacle of terrain in order to journey successfully towards its goal. Man too must utilize all the physical, mental, moral, and material endowments that God has granted him so that he may journey to the goal of realization.

Do not be misled by belief in the existence of two entities: this world and the next, here and hereafter. Realize the hereafter here; this world is interwoven with the next. There is no truth in the disparity between the secular and the spiritual, the godly and the materialistic, the heavenly and the earthly. In all the worlds, it is His command that runs. Not even a blade of grass can quiver without His will guiding the wind and agitating its position. The bulb of life is illumined by the current coming from the eternal, universal powerhouse, working according to His laws and drawn through the cable of love.

When that prema is tainted by selfishness, it cannot illumine at all. Self is lovelessness; love is selflessness. Self gets and forgets; love gives and forgives. Love can never entertain the idea of revenge, for it sees all others as one’s self (One self). When the tongue is hurt by the teeth, do you seek vengeance against the teeth? No, for they both belong to you and are integral parts of your body. So, too, when some other person insults you or inflicts pain, allow wisdom to have mastery over you. Discover the truth and do not rush to conclusions, always keeping love as your guide.

Of course, it is a difficult task, but not beyond the capacity of man. A task that can be finished without struggle and sustained effort is not something to be proud of. It is the difficult task that provides the challenge and brings forth the best and highest in man. Embark upon this task with ardor and faith; that will be sweeter. Once victory is achieved, the rest will be added unto you.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 13