Swami’s Teachings
Hislop: What is the subtlest point of Swami’s teaching, and then in the circle around that point, what are the things to do in order to realize that subtlest aspect of His teaching?
Sai: The subtlest aspect of Swami’s teaching is love. The circle around that subtle point, in order to realize it, is the spiritual practices such as meditation, repetition of the name of the Lord, talking with good people, directing the mind away from harmful thoughts, and so on.
In themselves, these spiritual practices are of no value. The only thing of real value is love itself. In dealing with people, Swami looks to the good and ignores the bad so as to intensify the good. Swami’s teaching, in a way, is like one going into a store to buy sugar. Then one looks at the sugar and buys the sugar and does not bother to become acquainted with all the other details present in the circumstances of the store: the history and character of the storekeeper, his personal relationship with other people, his personal looks, whether he is tall or short or old or young, and so on.
The central part of Swami’s teaching in regards to living in the world is to see in other people that essential quality that is God and to love that quality and not be bothered by all the other actions, qualities, misbehavior, and characteristics of the person. The love of God in the person with whom one is dealing is spiritual love and not physical love. That does not mean in terms of the worldly nature of the being in whom one sees the Lord, and it does not mean that one condones or admires, or does not scold the misbehavior of the worldly part of that person.
Even though one sees and loves and really pays attention to God in that person; nevertheless, that person, should be scolded, his attention called to his failures and misbehavings, and so on. And such is not really cruelty. The factor there is the intention; just as in a street fight amongst laborers, one man might scratch the hand of another man with a penknife and cause no wound at all, and yet the police would come and take that man to jail. Whereas in a nearby hospital, a surgeon might take a sharp knife and cut a five-inch gap into a man’s body in order to remove an appendix, and that action would be highly rewarded. So in one case the doctor is severely wounding a person and getting praise; and in the other case, a laborer merely scratching a person gets a jail sentence.
The whole thing is the intention of the person. Swami sometimes finds it advisable to operate on a person, that is to wound that person, to say something to that person that may hurt him, or to reveal the bad points of that person instead of just looking at the good points. But when Swami does that, the intention behind it is to help the person, and not hurt or harm the patient.
Source: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
