Baba’s Teachings Vary
Hislop: Swami says that ‘All is done by the Lord, and not by you.’ But the world over, there is the concept that man is responsible for his own actions.
Sai: You are God. As long as you are being human, there may be such thoughts.
Hislop: ‘As long as you are being human’—does that imply the human state as an act of one’s will?
Sai: Not an act of will, just a matter of being confused. It is a delusion. You come here with doubts. Swami knows that, so he gives you a chance to ask. If a jnani comes, a man with direct experience of the divine, Swami does not ask him what are his doubts. The fact that you have questions is evidence that you are on the worldly level.
Baba’s teaching will vary according to the level of the person. A teacher in a school at the same time may be a renowned Vedic scholar, but when teaching a child to read he can only say, ‘This letter is A. This letter is B’ and so on. Mother may feed one child at the breast, give soft food to another, tell the cook to serve food to another, and tell the eldest to serve himself. But though her treatment of each child may be different, her love is equal for all.
There are four different stages in which man finds himself, and God gives different but appropriate help to each: first are those persons who are in distress, second are those desiring prosperity, third are those engaged in enquiry as to what is truth, and fourth are the wise ones. At present in you there is a mixture of conscious and subconscious. For this reason there is confusion and doubt. In the subconscious state there is no doubt, there is decision; in this state there is no body and no mind, although there may be visions.
There is still another state beyond the super-conscious. This is divine consciousness where God alone is. In the super-conscious state there is still a very slight tinge of duality, of giver and receiver. In the ordinary state there are the three: giver, gift, and receiver. In divine consciousness there is the giver only. Really, all other than the One is false.
Even sadhana [is false]. Here a doubt may arise: how can sadhana, something false, result in something other than false? It is like this; a dream is unreal, but the dream may become so strong, so terrifying that because of the dream one awakens. It is likewise with sadhana. For sadhana to become so strong that from it one awakens to reality, the sadhana must persist into the super-conscious level where both body and mind are transcended. It is from the deep transcendent state that truth blazes forth.
Source: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
