You are Freed
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba brought forth the wondrous ten-inch lingam in 1974 on the auspicious Mahashivaratri day, in the process granting liberation to all who witnessed the event.
Do not be misled by what you see; what you do not see with your eyes is much more significant. Why waste your life without achieving its purpose—namely, knowing and experiencing the truth? Come; come with Me; you can make your life worthwhile, and you can succeed.
Man has in him all the bliss, as well as all the equipment needed to unravel it; but he is ignorant about his own inner resources. He can have supreme peace, but he does not strive to earn it. His attempts are weakened by doubt and indecision, and hence doomed to fail. Of course, there is the flow of water underneath the ground. But how can we benefit by it unless efforts are made to dig down into that source? A good deal of desire for sense gratification has to be removed before that inner spring of peace and joy can be tapped.
Your lives are essentially of the nature of shanti (peace); your nature is essentially love; your hearts are saturated with truth. Rid yourselves of the impediments that prevent their manifestation. Since you do not make any attempt toward this exercise, there is no peace, love or truth in the home, the community, the nation, and the world. The husband and wife do not live in concord; the father and his sons are involved in factions; furthermore, even friends do not see eye to eye! Even twins take different paths because they live in a competitive, warring world of passions and emotions. It is only when God is the goal and guide can there be real peace, love, and truth. The Divine must be revered at all times; what pleases the Divine must be understood and followed.
Skills & strengths are God’s gifts
The Ramayana gives two examples of such consecrated lives, those of Anjaneya (the monkey devotee of Rama) and Lakshmana (Lord Rama’s younger brother). Anjaneya (also known as Hanuman) dedicated every moment of his life, every wave of thought, and every twitch of muscle to his master, Rama. When Rama sent him (Hanuman) in search of Sita, he was neither elated on being thus recognized as an efficient instrument nor depressed at the dangerous nature of his task. Hanuman knew that Rama would confer on him the skill and strength needed to fulfill the errand; in fact all his skill and all his strength were Rama’s gifts. To feel that he was too weak an instrument was, Hanuman concluded, an insult to Rama’s omniscience and grace.
Lakshmana, too, was a mighty hero for he drew strength from the Divine (Rama) itself; he had no other strength. Once, while moving about in the forest as exiles, Rama instructed Lakshmana to choose a nice spot and erect a parnashala (green-bower) there in for Sita and Himself. Lakshmana was so shocked with pain at hearing this that he fell to the ground lamenting that he had fallen from grace. Rama told him that he had risen instead, for he was asking Lakshmana to select the site himself. That was the very reason why Lakshmana felt he had fallen: “Have I a will apart from yours? How could you ever imagine that I could exercise my judgment independently and select a site myself? Tell me where and how; it will be done. But I have no judgment of my own; I have surrendered it long ago.” That was Lakshmana’s reply.
Bhajan is a stream of bliss
You, too, declare that you have surrendered; but that is just a verbal statement. If you sit in a car, you ride along with it; on the cycle, you move with it; on a horse, you go wherever the horse takes you. But in this instance, you say and perhaps, you believe that you have placed yourselves in My hands and so you are going along the path I have laid down. But your mind and your heart are not fully in Me, and so the surrender is only in name.
However, for the act of surrender and sustenance, nothing more is enjoined than constant remembrance of the name. No regimen of exhausting sadhana (spiritual discipline) is prescribed. Smarana (remembering) is enough. You have sung bhajans (group singing of devotional songs on Lord’s names) extolling the [Divine] names that summarize the glory all through the night after the emergence of the Atmalinga (symbol of the elemental form of Shiva). But this is only an appetizer. Bhajan must become an unbroken stream of bliss on your tongues and in your hearts; it must confer on you the uninterrupted awareness of Soham—which represents the unity of I and He [the Divine], of This with That. It is called Akhanda hamsa japa—unbroken recitation of the Hamsa mantra, Soham (inner sacred sound formula). I will ensure freedom from anxiety, fear and grief.
Mahashivaratri is dedicated to the disintegration of the aberrations of the mind, and so, of the mind itself by dedicating oneself to Shiva God. The mind and the moon have16 phases. On the Shivaratri night, 15 of these phases [of the moon] disappear, and there is just a streak of the moon in the sky. On the new moon that follows, even that streak will not be visible.
Symbol of divinity
The mind too must be mastered every day until, on the 15th day, 15 phases have disintegrated, and only a streak remains to be removed by a final flourish of effort. That is the sadhana that you did through the night, the bhajan, vigil, and fast. When the mind goes, then there is kshaya (decline) of moha (deluding desire and attachment), which is moksha (liberation).
Smarana is the surest means of mastering the wiles of the mind. You are, indeed, blessed since from among the billions of people on this earth you alone were able to come into this congregation and this presence on this occasion. People gather in many a sacred place for Shivaratri, but you were able to be here on this thrice-holy day and witness the emergence of the Dasangula Swarupa. the Upanishads declare that God is the ten-inch-symbol [the lingam] of time and space—manifestation of divinity as described by sage Kapila, [who was] the incarnation of Narayana [another name for Vishnu, the form of the divine responsible for sustenance] Himself. When Kapila, who also, was the personification of time and space, was born, he called upon the various Gods to gather in the presence and take darshan (audience). When the Gods came, Kapila asked them, “Don’t you know who I am?” Even now all human babies ask the same question as soon as they are born—koham? (Who am I?)
Having had the unique good fortune of witnessing the emergence of the time-space-embodiment in the Linga form, I assure you that you are released from the bondage of birth and death. Recollect (and live in the recollection of) that moment of emergence and meditate on the significance of the Linga form. This is the chance that is seldom gained through the performance of yajnas or yagas or other elaborate rituals, or as a result of years of arduous sadhana. When you are asked what happened at Prasanthi Nilayam, tell them that your life’s mission has been fulfilled, that you were able to witness the Lingodbhava, and see the Linga that emerged during the auspicious hour.
Shiva’s three-pronged spear
The Linga, as you can see, is dasangulam, ten inches in circumference. It has within it shining with native light the Trisul (three-pronged spear) of Shiva, symbolizing the three phases of time—past, present, and future, and the three dimensions of space—earth, sky, and the nether regions, as mentioned by Me already. Time is measured in units of ten (60 vighatikas, 60 ghatikas, and 360 days for the year); and in this Linga, as you can see even from where you are sitting, the color of the Trisul inside the Linga changes every ten minutes. The handle of the Trisul demonstrates the One, of which the three are manifestations. This is the grand mystery that has been revealed to you. You have witnessed the Divine creation; you have seen the Divine symbol; and, you have shared the bliss. Of the world’s population of many crores [billions], you alone secured this fortune. The Shrutis [the Hindu scriptures] declare the Purusha [original Self] as splendor, as Jyoti [light.] You have seen the splendor when the Linga emerged; you have seen the triple Jyoti in the Linga itself. No greater fortune can befall a man.
Live hereafter as befits the recipient of this rare grace. Thyagaraja, the saint-singer, sang of the Ramanama as being composed of two vital sounds Ra and Ma, Ra being the life-sound of the mantra devoted to Vishnu (Om namo naRAyana) and Ma being the life-sound of the mantra devoted to Shiva (Om naMAshivaya). The two sounds became Rama, the One which became Vishnu and Shiva, just as the Linga is the One from which all forms manifest, the elementary form, which symbolizes the first emergence of the will of the Divine. I repeat that you who have experienced the sublimity and splendor of this Divine event thereby have acquired merit enormous enough to save you from the cycle of birth and death.
Dwell on this mighty moment, this holy hour that you were privileged to spend here; contemplate the majesty of the event that you witnessed; sanctify your days by thoughts that are sacred, words that are suffused with love, and deeds that are in accordance with the grace you have won this day. Alert yourselves whenever you are prone to deviate from this responsibility. Be ever vigilant that you do not stray or weaken or vacillate.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, April 1974
