Unity and Purity: Message of Ramzan
In July 1983, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba spoke about the significance of fasting, and other observances of the holy month of Ramzan. He emphasized that all religions teach that the way to attain God is by practicing love, compassion, tolerance, and sympathy.
All founders of religions have heard the impersonal voice of God revealing the atma [divine self] that activates the entire creation. Just as the Vedas (sacred scriptures) were ‘heard’ and propagated verbally, so too the Quran was ‘heard’ by Hazrat Muhammad [the prophet]. The Quran has salat (prayer) and zakat (charity) as the two eyes. Those who consider charity as a high duty and elevate their consciousness through prayers and continuous meditation on God are Muslims. Islam is a word that denotes not a particular religion but a state of mind, the state of total surrender to the will of God. Islam means dedication, surrender, peace, and tranquility.
Islam comprises the social community whose members have achieved supreme peace through surrender to the all-merciful, all-powerful God, and who have vowed to live in peace with their fellow men. Later, the term ‘Islam’ came to be applied to communities that considered themselves separate and different and, so, hostile to the rest. However, the religion taught something higher. It directed attention to the One in the many, the unity in diversity, and led people to the reality named God.
Every human being has three needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Seeking to fulfill them, man has developed a variety of foods to fill his stomach, ignoring the purpose of eating them. Clothing has to be worn to protect the body from cold. But we are attaching enormously exaggerated value to clothing. Of course, one must have a house to live in and lay the body down for rest. Khalil Gibran, a poet and philosopher from Lebanon, asks: why build these gigantic dwellings then? They are erected not for oneself, but to hoard one’s treasure and riches and eventually these mansions pass on to the living after death.
Hazrat Muhammad announced to the townsmen of Mecca the message of God that he had heard. At that time, people did not heed the divine declarations. They forced him to leave the place. But Hazrat Muhammad knew that truth would win and God would prevail. He knew that the insult and injury were only for the body; the atma [soul] could never be hurt.
All religions prescribe periods of fasting. The Hindus, Zoroastrians, and Christians have allotted for themselves specific months for the same purpose. The Ramzan month is set apart for the holy task of remembering and practicing the teachings of Hazrat Muhammad and for attaining that stage of unity and purity that is truly divine. Islam gives importance to the Moon, which regulates the months. Hindus consider the Moon as the deity presiding over the mind. With the sighting of the New Moon, the Ramzan fast begins; and when the new Moon is seen again, the fast ends. The fast, which is observed most rigorously, starts at sunrise and is broken only after sunset.
Fasting during Ramzan does not consist of merely desisting from food and drink. Waking as early as 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. (in the powerful Brahma muhurtha—the early hours before dawn), prayer is started; and throughout the day, the follower seeks to experience the constant presence of God. This is the meaning of “fasting” (upavasa). Also, during the Ramzan month, rivalry is avoided, hatred is suspended, husband and wife live apart though in the same home, mother and children both follow the same spiritual regimen, and an atmosphere of brotherhood is maintained. The body, the senses, and the mind are subject to rigorous discipline.
The Quran lays down that all men should cultivate the sense of unity, of interdependence, of selfless love, and of the immanence of Divinity. Generally, all men take food for the body five times a day: an early cup of coffee in bed, breakfast two hours later, a heavy lunch at noon, tea at four, and dinner at nine. Islam prescribes food for the spiritual nature of man and directs that it be taken five times a day as prayer. For the arousal of the divine consciousness, for earning spiritual joy and for promoting the manifestation of divine illumination, prayer is prescribed as many as five times a day, from the dawn of discretion up to the moment of death.
Prayer, in Islam, is also a congregational activity. Prayer in a group produces beneficial vibrations. Islam promises a greater flow of ecstasy when God is adored by a huge concourse of yearning hearts. All of them bow low at the sight of the Mosque. They sit in rows on their bended knees and lean forward until their palms and foreheads touch the ground in humble submission to God’s will. Misunderstanding, conflict, and enmity should not disturb the serenity of the occasion.
Islam teaches that God’s grace can be won through justice and righteous living. Wealth, scholarship, and power cannot earn it. Holy love alone can please the Lord. Islam also emphasizes the One in the many and the need to yearn for God. Unity is the basic teaching of every religion. Faith in unity is cardinal. Without it, no system of belief and conduct can be a religion. God is One and the teachings in all faiths that exalt Him are all on love, compassion, tolerance, and sympathy. Unfortunately, neither the Mohammedans, nor the Hindus, nor the followers of other religions are practicing these teachings in their daily life. They adopt the rules that they like and break those that they find exacting. So people become narrow-minded. They rationalize their defects and justify their failings. They have become habituated to this practice of self-deceit.
Since Islam teaches surrender to God, all people who live in a spirit of surrender and dedication—and in peace and harmony in society—belong to Islam. Islam insists on harmony of thought, word, and deed. Muslim holy men and sages have emphasized that we must inquire into the validity of the ‘I’ that feels it is the body and the ‘I’ which feels it is the mind, and reach the conclusion that the real ‘I’ is the self yearning for the Omni-self, God. The Ramzan month, the fast, and the prayers are designed to awaken and manifest this realization. All religions emphasize unity, harmony, and equal-mindedness. Therefore, cultivate love, tolerance, and compassion, and demonstrate the truth in daily activity.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. XVI
