Voices and the Voice
In this discourse, delivered on Gurupoornima in 1974, Sai Baba says it is ignorance of the One that leads man to the dichotomy of guru and disciple. Who is the guru and who is the disciple when there is only One!
Of the many billions of living beings, man alone has the privilege of being entitled to investigate the truth of the universe and to merge in the bliss of its realization. But man is lost in the pursuit of wrong goals; he is struggling in the fog of doubt and divisive loyalties. He is frittering away his energies and time in activities that bind him still further in the tangles of material wants. This attachment to action flows from delusion and leads to further delusion.
Man must soon outgrow this tendency and turn towards moral activity, idealistic activity, activity that sublimates lower instincts and impulses and transforms every deed into an act of dedication. When this attitude is confirmed and consolidated, all action becomes divine activity. Man merges in the universal and loses the inhibiting individuality. That is the action the soul craves for and delights in.
Even in the first stage of attachment to action, man should endeavor to charge his activities with divine love. For such love will channel the activities imperceptibly into the path of righteousness and lead systematically into the further stages of human progress towards divinity.
What then is divine love? It cannot be earned, taught, or acquired; it is the natural endowment of man. It cannot be refused or thrown off by the mind of man. If directed toward sensual objects, it may well spell ruin; if directed away from them, it can well ensure salvation.
“Love” is a much-misused word. Any positive response to attraction is called “love;” any feeling of attachment, however trivial or transitory, is characterized as ”love.” We must certainly coin new words or set aside specific words to indicate the forms of love. The attachment of parents to their children, or of the children to the parents, must be called “affection.” The response to the attraction of sex is best described as “fancy,” “fascination,” or “delusion.” The feeling of kinship or comradeship evokes “dearness.” The pleasure you get through a sense of possession, especially of material objects, can be known as “craving.” The yearning to reach for the sublimity that lies inherent in truth—this alone is entitled to be called by those holy words, “divine love.” For that is the sweetest, the most charming, and the most satisfying possession of man.
Divine love is strong and steady enough to overcome all obstacles, confront with equanimity all changes of fortune, and defeat all attempts to delay or deviate. It does not judge one incident as good and another as bad; it does not ascribe these incidents to different agencies. Just as the same sun causes both day and night, the same Divine will causes joy and grief, so the devotee does not wince when ill or exult when well.
The fault lies in man’s fascination with the many instead of with the One; he pursues the diverse and forgets the unity in the universe. Really speaking, the many are but different vehicles for the expression of the One. Take the example of electric current. When the fan whirls, we say that the current is flowing; when the fan stops whirling, we note the absence of the current. When the bulb is on, we notice its presence; when the bulb is off, we note its absence. The current, by itself, is invisible; although it is formless, it activates various things, and so we recognize it. So, too, divinity is in all things and behind all activity. To understand it and to recognize it, we need instruments, vehicles.
The eyes see, but can they see themselves? They cannot function without the prompting of the divine soul within. The brain thinks, but can the cells perform the process all by themselves? No. They must be activated by the divine within. The One is the basis, the cause of the manifestation in the many. Through divine love alone can the inherent, the immanent One be recognized. For the Divine is love more than anything else. All this is enveloped by Me, activated by Me, says the Lord. All is one. The One appears as many to the prejudiced eye. Clear the eye of the cataract of ignorance, and it cognizes all as One. In fact, your eyes see only yourself everywhere. You talk only to yourself, no matter to whom your speech is addressed. You are pleased with yourself; you hate yourself; you harm yourself. There is no other!
Even when the Divinity comes down as an avatar, man is unable to pierce the veil and revere the Divine. Krishna [avatar of the sustainer deity, Vishnu] said that people were unable to recognize the Divinity that is He because they deemed Him merely human. Only those who are aware of the current within, the soul, can identify the source of power before them. Three disciplines are essential to become aware of the Divinity in all and in the avatar: No activity should be taken up with individual aggrandizement in view; intellect and emotion must be directed to revealing the resident in the heart, the soul; every act should be done sincerely, with love, with no yearning for acquiring personal profit, fame, or benefit.
Above all, listen to the voice of God within. As soon as you contemplate a wrong act, that voice warns, protests, and advises giving it up. The voice pictures the shame that has to be suffered, the punishment that has to be faced, the disgrace that the act entails. It would appear as if there are two personalities inside you, the one that prompts and the one that prevents. The warning signal, the timely advice, is given by the spirit of right in the physical body. This spirit reminds you of the absurdity and danger inherent in identification of the Self with the body; it encourages you to discriminate between right and wrong. It is God enthroned in every heart as the highest wisdom, the eternal witness whom you can contact only in the depths of meditation.
In fact, when you examine your mind, you will find there holding sway not one but many “counselors,” with their contrariness, causing confusion. For example, no sooner have you planned to come to Puttaparthi to see Swami then these counselors start playing their game. One voice advises you to start only after ascertaining whether Swami is actually present there. Another voice suggests that you can put through a call to a named person and discover whether Swami is in Bangalore or Puttaparthi. A fourth lays before you alternative routes and means of transport and causes a good deal of headache. This group of voices plays around the spirit of right, trying to distract it.
Another voice might say, when the others have finished, “Well, my dear man, consider from all points of view this desire of yours. You may go there, putting yourself to a lot of expense and bother, but think of this possibility also: you may or may not get an interview with Swami.” Another voice might intervene and say, “O considering all the wrongs done and all the faults committed, it is very doubtful that Swami will grant you an interview.” In the wake of this voice, another will begin its argument of assurance. It will comfort, saying, “No, Swami is the very embodiment of compassion. He will certainly pardon all errors.” This principle that guides and guards you along the spiritual path is the lingam in the center of the group clustering round the spirit of right.
The lingam is in the very core of the man’s heart and is the sole purveyor of bliss power and illumination. Cultivate the vision directed inward so that the lingam might grant you these two. The mind will then be illumined with the cool comforting light of love—wisdom. That is why the mind has as its presiding deity the Moon. Hence, the celebration of the day of thankfulness for all gurus and the prime guru Vedavyasa [the ancient sage who arranged the Vedas] is done on the full moon day.
Unless you cleanse the mind with love, the full moon of spiritual wisdom cannot shine therein. Reciting God’s name, observing vows and vigils, fasts and festivals, may scintillate on the inner sky of the mind, as stars stud the sky overhead, but until the lamp of love is lit, the darkness will not vanish.
This day is a day set apart for the worship of the guru. Who is the guru? How can a person who has not reached the goal guide you toward it? When he is himself groping in the dark, how can he illumine your path? Most gurus who profess to lead are themselves not quite sure of the road or quite convinced of the rightness of their path. Gu means “darkness” or “ignorance;” ru means its removal. So the guru must know the process by which ignorance can be removed in another. How can he do that when he has not done so for himself? The blind cannot lead the blind.
Guru has a further meaning too. Gu means “beyond the three qualities,” the three strands of which the cosmos is composed, and ru means “devoid of any particular form.” Now no mortal has transcended quality and form. God alone can be described as unaffected by these. And God is the guru right in your heart, ready to lead and enlighten. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-pervading.
Scatter the dark clouds of ignorance and egoism that cover the face of the sun shining in the sky of your heart. Your parents might disown you; your kinsmen might desert you; your friends might give you up; your treasured possessions might leave you. But God will be ever near, ever dear, ever ready with counsel and courage. People will gather around you so long as you have pelf and power, but they will leave you severely alone when you lose these two. They eat like swarms of frogs that infest a full lake, croaking flattery, sitting all along its shores, but disappearing to the last frog when the lake is dry in summer.
You rush here for the Gurupoornima festival, but there is no need to await this annual event for revering the guru. People spend this day in worshipping the guru and seeking his directives. This can be done all days of the year! Selecting a special day smacks of superficiality and exhibitionism. I desire to discourage this attitude of yours; I want you to cultivate not these external ceremonies and festivals but internal spiritual disciplines, inner vision, spiritual longing.
I do not claim that I am a guru or consider you as disciples or pupils. When I am All that is, who can be separately specified as guru and who as disciple or pupil? The guru is He; the disciple, too, is He. Ignorance of the One leads you to this dichotomy. Realization of the truth will end this distinction. None need teach, none need learn. All are fundamentally will. This is the reality.
The teacher—that is the more correct appellation—should not feel superior; the pupil should not feel inferior. Both are spirit in reality. There is no high and no low. All are waves in the ocean of bliss.
When your body is healthy, charming, fully content, consider how happy you are. Now, know that the bodies of all beings are you—really speaking. And when all those other bodies are happy, healthy, strong, and full, calculate how much bliss you can cherish in your heart.
The vision of the cosmic form is given to those who surrender their ego, taking refuge in the Lord (as Arjuna [friend of Krishna; literally, “Pure One”] did) and who imbibe with care the Bhagavad-Gita [The Song of the Lord], sung by the Lord in the silence. God is omnipresent; He is the inner motivator of every particle in the universe. To declare that He is amenable only to your style of worship, that He will answer only to the name that you have learned to use, is to insult His omniscience and His glory. See Him in all, serve Him in all. Revere Him in all. Pray, “Let the whole world prosper; let all mankind be happy.” This is the special message I give you on this day.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, August 1974
