The Voice of the Ocean
In 1969 Bhagavan spoke on Guru Poornima Day. He said that each body you see before you is a mirror in which, if only you open your eyes, you can see the image of God. The God in you is in each one of them, too.
The seeker has to be very vigilant about his point of view, the things he seeks to visualize, the things he longs to cast his eyes on. For, it is drishti (the view) that decides attachment, sorrow, passion, etc. You are the noblest being yet created, and so you must develop a sight that sees no high or low, that sees all as suffused with divinity, and therefore not different one from another. Shankara [Indian philosopher] declared, “Make your drishti charged with jnana (wisdom), then the seen will appear in its true light as Brahman.”
Such sight is called divine, supernatural, super‑sensual, and auspicious. Each body that you see before you is a mirror in which if only you open your eyes you can see the image of God. The God in you is in each one of them, too. Do not imagine the others to be distinct; they are only you in so many mirrors. The world is filled with your kith and kin; all are sparks from the same flame. The Gita [The Song of the Lord] says, “Pundits (the learned) see Brahman in the scholar, the sage, the venerable and the venerator, the cow, the elephant, the dog, and the eater of canine flesh.” Such pundits are very rare on the face of the earth; men claim to be pundits on the basis of the scholarship they parade, not the vision they have won.
Some pundits explain the Gita verse, which declares that God incarnates when dharma (virtue) declines, in this way: “Dharma stood on four legs in the Kritha (golden or fulfilled) Age; it had only three in the next age, the Tretha, (three legged) later, in the Dwapara (twin based) Age, it stood precariously on two and now in the Kali (iron or harsh) Age, it has only one leg to stand on!” They say also in the same breath that God incarnated as Rama in the Tretha Age, and as Krishna in the Dwapara Age, with the avowed purpose of restoring dharma! According to them, when Krishna incarnated dharma had two legs, but, when His human career was closed, dharma lost one more leg and had to survive in agony, having only one solitary leg. Can such absurdity be ever believed? No. The incarnations of God have always fulfilled their tasks. Dharma has always been restored in full.
Truth is the lamp that dispels darkness
What they re‑established on firm foundations is sathya (truth). For, as the Vedas (sacred scriptures) announce, there is no dharma higher than truth. Truth gets hidden, appears distorted, is declared as failing, so the Avatar (Divine incarnation) asserts its validity and value once again. God wears truth; the good seek truth; the bad are rescued by truth. Truth liberates; Truth is power; Truth is freedom. It is the lamp that illumines the heart and dispels doubt and darkness. The effulgence of God is truth. Welcome God in your heart. Install Him there as a result of yearning. Be always concerned with Brahman; then you are entitled to be known as a Brahmin. If you are concerned with the skin and all that it contains, that entitles you only to be known as a Chandala (outcast), who works on leather and skin!
There was Kanaka, born in a low caste. He was an ardent devotee, yearning in unbearable anguish to see Krishna. So he went to Udipi, where there is a famous Krishna Temple established by the great sage Madhvacharya, himself being of low birth, but he could not enter the temple and see the charming idol of Krishna. He stood before the outer door, but the idol was hidden by the flag‑post in front of the shrine. He went round the outer wall and sought some crevice amidst the stones through which he could earn a faint glimpse. He saw a stone was loose: with his fingers, he scooped out the mortar and he made a narrow chink. When he looked eagerly through it, he saw only the back of the idol. But he was overcome with delight! He danced in ecstasy, singing the glory of Krishna. Just at the moment, the idol turned toward him and Krishna granted him the full vision of His charm and majesty. Yearning was rewarded with grace. Yearning leads to surrender, and surrender gives the highest joy. Leave everything to His will; accept whatever happens, whether pleasant or painful.
Have firm faith in God and His compassion
There was once a rich merchant in Baghdad, who was leading a virtuous God‑fearing life. He had a daughter whom he adored greatly, for she was the very embodiment of virtue. The father decided that he would marry her only to a young man who was intimately devoted to God, regardless of any other excellence or handicap. He searched for such a groom in caravanserais, mosques, and places where holy persons were likely to gather. One Friday, he noticed in the mosque a fair young man on his knees even after all else had left, crying out to God most endearingly and with great sincerity. He approached him and asked whether he would marry his daughter. He said, “I am the poorest of the poor; I have a leaky roof over my head and a gravel floor whereon I sit. Who will wed such a beggar? I shall marry someone who would not object to my spiritual sadhana, and consents to share my poverty.”
The merchant felt that he was the most eligible groom, and the wedding was celebrated soon. His daughter came to the fakir’s (mendicant’s) residence and started cleaning the floor. She was happy that her husband was of her own heart; she, too, was pilgrim on the road to God, a practitioner of spiritual exercises. While sweeping the floor, she found in a corner a plate with a piece of bread on it. She asked her husband why it was kept there, and he replied, “I kept it by lest tomorrow when I go on my rounds, we may not get enough to eat.” At this, the wife replied, “I am ashamed of you. You have so little faith in Allah. He who gives us hunger, will He not give us bread, too? I shall not live with a person of this nature. You have no faith in God and His compassion.” After saying this she left the fakir to himself.
Live without being inimical to any being
The Gita says that if you give up all dharma and take refuge in Him alone, then He will save you from sin and wipe your tears. Giving up dharma does not mean that you can bid farewell to virtue and righteous action. It means you have to give up the egoism that you are the ‘doer,’ be confirmed in the faith that He is the ‘doer’ of every deed. That is the genuine giving up. There are in the world Bhojanalayas (hotels), Vaidyalayas (hospitals), Vilasalayas (homes of entertainment, theatres), Viharalayas (places of sport, gymkhanas), Vichitralayas (museums, palaces of art,) etc. But however they are named, they are all Dukhalayas (homes of sorrow). The only Anandanilaya (home of joy) is the Devalaya (temple of God), that is to say, one’s own body where God is the inner guide and guardian.
On this Guru Poornima Day, the counsel that I can give you is: Do not hate anyone, follow the Gita prescription to spiritual health, adwestaa sarva bhoothaanaam (without being inimical to any being.) The reason for this injunction is that God is the inner atma [soul] in everything that exists. So, injury inflicted on any being is sacrilege, self‑injury. Love is transformed into poison if hate contaminates it. Love some, but do not hate the rest, for that hate will foul the love and make it mortal. Love comes automatically to the realized soul; but the spiritual aspirant has to cultivate it by means of service and inquiry into the unity of the atman. Love must flow not from the tongue, or from the head only, but chiefly from the heart.
Poor progress in sadhana is as bad as failure
You get the marks that your answers at the examination deserve, not more, not less. Sometimes, if you secure only 5 or 6 out of a total of 100, even the 5 or 6 may be cancelled and you will be assigned just a zero. For, there is not much to choose between zero and the 5 or 6 you were able to collect. But if you get a number very near the minimum needed for a pass, the 2 or 3 that you fall short of will be added on as grace marks and you are very likely to be promoted. This is true of sadhana [spiritual practice] also. Poor progress in it is as bad as failure, whereas good progress will be appreciated, and grace will pull you through.
On the Guru Poornima day, people generally take initiation into spiritual life from some preceptor or get directions for some vow or fast or vigil. These preceptors cannot claim the status of the guru as delineated in the shloka: Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheswarah; Guru sakshaat Parabrahma, etc. The guru extolled therein is the sage who has transcended name and form and is beyond the effect of the three gunas or attributes. He is neither good nor bad; neither passionate nor dull; neither enthusiastic nor uninterested. He is unaffected, calm, and content. He is the atma, having realized that the atma is the one and only. He makes you cast off the fear of death and birth, he renders you fit for the vision of the eternal absolute truth.
Only dedication will take the prayers to God
If you do not come across such preceptors, do not get downhearted, pray for guidance and from your own heart you will receive the Gita that you need from the ‘Charioteer’ who is there. You can easily get many preceptors the moment you seek; it has now become a profession, full of competing practitioners, each one trying to collect as many disciples, as much money, and as wide a reputation as he can. There are some who have developed swollen heads, while others suffer from short sight or bitterness or itching palm. How can persons challenging each other for dry disputations be revered as gurus? When they do not possess, along with the elation of scholarship, the ecstasy of divine experience, they are not entitled to that holy mission.
However superfine the paper, however artistic the envelope, however poetic the composition of the letter, it will not reach the addressee by post when it lacks the 20 paise stamp! So, too, the trappings, vestures, shawls, robes, and rosaries are ineffective; they cannot reach the addressee, God. What will take their prayers to the addressee is the 20 paise stamp—dedication or bhakti.
He who seeks a guru can find him in every word spoken within his hearing, in every incident that happens around him. The Deity, Dakshinamurthy (primal Divine teacher of eternal spiritual wisdom) was walking along a wide seashore alone, immersed in deep meditation. He turned toward the waves and watched the unending succession of breakers. He saw a dry little twig on the crest of a wave in the distance; it was being passed on from one wave to another, from trough to crest, from crest to trough until it was cast on the sands on the shore near where He stood! Dakshinamurthy was astounded at the egoism of the ocean that would not give asylum to even a tiny twig. Sensing His reaction, the ocean declared in words that He could understand, “Mine is neither egoism nor anger; it is only the duty of self‑preservation. I should not allow the slightest blot to deface my grandeur. If I allow this twig to mar my splendor, it will be the first step in my downfall.” Then Dakshinamurthy smiled within Himself, admiring the vigilance of the mighty ocean. He pictured the incident as a great lesson in spiritual endeavor. The slightest twig of desire, if it falls on the mind, has to be immediately lifted out of the pure waters and thrown off. That was the lesson to be learnt.
Three stages in the journey to reach God
The Ramayana teaches that Sita had to suffer separation from Rama as a result of a tiny little desire: to own the golden‑hued deer! If only she had cast it off her mind, as the ocean did! Be free from the bondage of desire—this is the refrain in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata, the Bible, the Quran, and all the scriptures of mankind.
Each religion exhorts those who are attracted by it to meditate on God in certain form known by a certain name; but one who is aware that He is all names and all forms will adopt a sound that is profoundly significant, which summarizes all names, namely, the Pranava (OM sound) the Akshara (unchanging, indestructible). Through the changing to the unchanging, that is the journey. From the kshara to the Akshara. There are three steps or stages in this journey. “I am yours”; “you are mine!” and, finally, “I am you!” Every sadhaka [spiritual practitioner] has to walk from one to the other and reach the journey’s end. Move on, don’t halt.
It is good to be born in a church, but it is not good to die in it. Grow and rescue yourselves from the limits and regulations, the doctrines that fence your freedom of thought, the ceremonials and rites that restrict and re‑direct. Reach the point where churches do not matter, where all roads end, from where all roads run.
There is no shortcut to attain Self‑realization
Dutt from Calcutta said that it is a pretty hard assignment to listen closely, reflect deeply, and practice faithfully, the three stages prescribed in the Shastras [scriptures]. Of course, it is. Attaining Self‑realization is not done by a trick, or a ruse; it has no short cut. Listen to what happened to Sage Ramadas of Bhadrachalam, the singer who was imprisoned by the Nawab of Golconda for misappropriation of public funds (to renovate the Rama Temple at Bhadrachalam), whose liberation from jail was affected by Rama and Lakshmana themselves paying the Nawab the sum appropriated!
Ramadas had piled up a large mass of Palmyra leaves; on each one them he had written with his style a song on Rama. When his eyes fell on the heap a thought struck him: Did I compose these songs for my pleasure? Or for pleasing Rama? He wanted to know the songs that had pleased Rama and fling away those that did not. He decided to throw the whole bundle into the Godavari River and let Rama save those that He approved. Almost the whole lot sank in the depths; only 108 floated and were recovered. They alone had arisen from the heart; the rest smacked of cleverness, artificiality, punditry, pedantry. Prayers must emanate from the heart, where God resides, and not from the head, where doctrines and doubts clash.
Faith in God being within the heart, faith in His constant presence and constant guidance—these will confer courage, virtue, and illumination. The Shastras say, have faith in the doctor, so that you may get cured of illness; have faith in the mantra (holy formula) with which the preceptor initiates you, for then alone can your sadhana be fruitful; have faith in the sacredness of the temple, for then alone is your pilgrimage profitable; have faith in the astrologer’s predictions, for without that, why bother yourselves with him and his abracadabra? Have faith in the guru, for then alone will your steps be steady and firm on the path to Self‑realization. Faith in the guru should bring faith in the atma (individual divinity), or else the guru is a handicap.
When worship is rendered with a view to fulfill desires and realize wishes, the precious prize will be lost. Worship must cleanse the heart so that the indwelling God may shine in all His glory, but desires tarnish instead of cleansing.
~Sathya Sai Baba
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 9
