Questions and Answers With Bhagavan

A Visitor: Can I wear shorts while here at the ashram?

Sai: No. That should not be.

Sai: In spiritual life, the fastest progress is made when the boat sails with the wind, and if the boat has to sail against the wind, progress is slower.

A Visitor: Well, Swami, the trouble is to determine which way the wind is blowing.

Sai: That is really very simple. With practice, a driver of a car learns to be so skillful at driving that a wide boulevard or a narrow road makes no difference to him, he drives both with equal confidence. In the same way, a guruis necessary in order to learn how to take advantage of the wind in the sea of the spirit. The trouble is that nowadays it is very difficult to find a guru. As soon as a person puts on a yellow robe he considers himself a guru and wants to teach people. The best way to determine whether or not a guru is genuine is if his words are full of wisdom and if in his life he practices and is the same as his words.

If the guru speaks only words of wisdom, and this is an age where people speak wisdom without being wise, the words of wisdom will produce no result whatsoever and are useless. The best gurutoday is God. In the spiritual world, the guru is a doctor who takes the temperature of the aspirant and from the temperature is able to gauge his condition and what is best for him. But if the guru himself has a temperature, then the temperature of the guru would distort the temperature of the aspirant. So the best guru today is God.

A Visitor: Swami, one hears talk of mantras.

Sai: Just the repetition of a mantrum is of no value, but if the mantrum is chanted with full knowledge of its significance, it has a great effect.

A Visitor: How can we improve memory?

Sai: There is not much use thinking about the past, because it is gone. Trying to memorize is not of much value. We will naturally remember that in which we are interested. A small story: Arjuna was an 85 year old middle-aged man. In those days people lived much longer. Arjuna said, ‘Lord, how is it that you can remember all the past lives, and I cannot?’ Krishna replied, ‘Well, ten years ago on the third day of the month, what were you doing?’ Arjuna said, ‘I do not know.’ Then Krishna said, ‘Well, you were alive then.’ Arjuna replied, ‘Yes, I was alive.’ Krishna then said, ‘Look back, Arjuna, 60 years to the day you were married, do you remember that?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ replied Arjuna, ‘I remember that.’ ‘Then, look further back, Arjuna, to the day you met your guru and were taught the martial arts. Do you remember?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Arjuna, ‘I remember.’ Then Krishna said, ‘It is obvious that men remember that in which they are interested, that in which they are sufficiently intense to cause them to remember the incident. But that in which they are not intensely interested, they do not bother remembering. Now, you do not remember 20 years back, but you know you were alive then, therefore the memory is there, but you cannot recall it. Now, I remember everything, Arjuna, because I am interested in everything.’

A Visitor: (carrying a professional camera) Can I take your picture now?

Sai (in English): How many are here? Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten… twelve.

A Visitor: Twelve disciples.

Sai: This is my camera. (Swami opens His hand and there are 12 small pictures of Himself. Much exclamation from the group.) Keep them in your purse. See, twelve! Full address also! Address here in India. No camera, no film, no flash. A visiting card. Puttaparthi is the address.

A Visitor: Master, yesterday you said this is ego and that is God. Does this being here help?

Sai: Oh, yes. When you make friendship with God, then all the three gunas [qualities] go away from you. This ego and anger and jealousy. Scientifically also, the blood goes to the top and then circulates back. When it goes there and turns, there is speed; it goes faster. This is a most important point in life.

A Visitor: How does one get devotion to God?

Sai: Confidence is necessary. Food is the start. The body is made from food. Without health, it is very hard to do anything. The stomach is of four parts: 1/4 part air, 1/4 part food, and 1/2 part water. Too much food is taken nowadays; there is no room for water. In India, rice and wheat are standard. They are all right if taken in moderation. But people eat too much and get dull. Too much food results in dullness of mind. Food in moderation does not result in sickness. Swami travels to various parts of India and does not get sick from food. Swami becomes sick only when taking on the sickness of a devotee. Otherwise, never. Too much milk is bad. It is rajasic.

Visitor: Sai Baba, this is for me, this is not for anybody, just for myself, my food. Meat is important. Meat is my food.

Sai: Food is important for the body. Even for being born, food is the reason. Mother and father have been nourished with food and they then give birth to a child. The parents have grown up on food. The whole body is a food bundle. The type of food you eat, that kind of thoughts will come to your mind. If you have satwic food, there will be a satwic effect. Fruit and milk everything that is cool and not hot like strong onions. Meat gives the blood its effect, like passion and similar qualities. Dirty thoughts come with fish. Although fish is always in water, it has a bad smell.

 A Visitor: How about lamb?

Sai: Meat is all right for those who concentrate on the body and want to have strength, but for spiritual aspirants it is not good.

A Visitor: But the proteins that come from meat?

Sai: Yes, with meat the body will get the proteins, but mental proteins will not be there. If you are keen on spiritual life, eating meat is not worthwhile; but if you are keen on worldly life, it is all right. There is another spiritual reason. When you kill an animal you give him suffering, pain, and harm. God is in every creature, so how can you give them pain? Sometimes when someone beats a dog he cries, he feels so much pain. How much more pain is there in killing. Animals did not come for the purpose of supplying food to human beings. They came to work out their own life in the world. When a human being is dead, the foxes and other animals may eat, but we have not come to provide food for those that eat the human body; we have not come for that purpose. Similarly, man eats the animal, but the animal has not come to provide man with food. But we have taken to eating meat as a habit.

A Visitor: But we take milk, which is from an animal.

Sai: Anything that comes from the cow, a little milk, butter, cheese, is all right for the spiritual aspirant. There is no harm to the cow, and it is of benefit to take it. In Dwapara Yuga, before Kali Yuga, 5680 years back, milk came into favor. Eleven thousand years is the full length of the Kali Yuga.

A Visitor: Does Kali Yuga still continue?

Sai: Yes.

Visitor: Because in America several books say Kali Yuga has ended and another is in force.

Sai: No. Before the Kali Yuga ends, there is a space in between. The situation is similar to the motion of a fan. When the fan is started there is an interval before it picks up speed, and when the switch is turned off, the fan continues to run for a time. The world is also turning round like the fan. Even if the Kali Yuga stops, it still has a few more revolutions to go before the final ending. The situation is somewhat as found with a string of light poles. There is a distance of about a furlong between each pole. The light from a pole extends about half way to the next pole and at some point the light of the next pole is faintly there also. There are four Yugas. The sequence is circular, and when the last is finished, the whole cycle starts all over again. Kali Yuga still has 5,320 years before ending.

A Visitor: How does Kali Yuga fit into the astrological signs?

Sai: The predictions made in astrology are somewhat different from each other in their readings, and this implies some error. It is difficult to pinpoint time factors precisely, and this leads to errors. Astrology is able to view the stars from only one angle of vision; the stars are not seen totally and this is a source of error. Everything changes. People change and so also do the stars. Astrologers do not take these changes into account and this is a source of error. Astrologers do not know their science perfectly and this leads to errors. Astrologers are not living lives of great purity and for this reason spiritual help is not fully within their reach, and this leads to errors. With all these errors, astrology cannot be relied on and it is not worth bothering with.

Source: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba