Value of Culture

Question:  Swami, many speak of culture. What is the value of culture?

Bhagawan: Culture is very important because your life and its value depend on it. Culture is a way of life. Culture enables you to experience divinity in your life. Culture helps one to know unity in diversity. Without culture, man becomes a demon. He falls down in stature and ultimately ruins himself.

You know that sea water is saline or salty. Human life is like a vast sea. God’s grace is like sunlight that falls on the sea. Because of the heat of the sun, the seawater becomes vaporized. This is the vapor of bliss that settles as clouds in the sky to fall down to the earth as rain. It is the rain of love. The seawater is salty but the rainwater is sweet. Why? Where does the difference lie? Seawater is refined by sunlight. So also our life must be cultured and refined. The value of life will then go up. A piece of iron worth less than a rupee can be made into a beautiful costly watch after it is processed and refined. This is due to the culture it has undergone.

So long as a boulder remains itself, it is bound to be neglected. But once it is in the hands of a sculptor, chiseled and hammered and shaped into a beautiful Krishna idol, it starts receiving respect and worship. Why? It is only culture that makes all the difference. A boulder, once trodden by everyone underfoot and now in the form of an idol, occupies a place at the altar in a temple and is worshipped everyday. This is the value that culture confers.

Without culture, one develops a foolish view of life, finding diversity in unity. For example, take a needle. It stitches pieces of cloth into a garment. The needle stands for culture. But scissors cut the cloth into pieces. This is the condition in the absence of culture.

Question: Swami! Have people come closer to God in this modern world?

Bhagawan: The modern world is completely superficial and artificial. Outwardly, all say ‘hello’ ‘hello’ to each other. Everyone says ‘thanks’ for every small thing. This is all mechanical, routine, courtesy, and those words don’t mean anything. You find utter selfishness everywhere.

Modern science has enabled man to land on the moon. But man has forgotten to step into his neighbor’s house. Yes, he can reach chandra, the moon, but can’t see Ramachandra in his heart. Modern man can swim in water like a fish, and fly like a bird, but can’t walk a mile with his two legs on the ground. With his physical eye, which is not even two inches in size, he is able to see a galaxy several thousand miles away from him, but he is not able to see himself. The eye and the ear are so near but they don’t see each other, do they?!

God reclines on the ksirasagara , ‘ocean of milk’, located in your heart, but today we find that the ‘heart’ has become ks arasagara, ‘ocean of poison’. How do you expect man to realize Divinity?

Even after having become a very rich country, France lost the Great War. Why? It was because of her reckless youngsters and the vices of the day. This trend is increasing today among people. Man is living and working for the fulfillment of his as’alu, lowly desires, but he should live for as’ayalu, ideals. People with high ideals alone can come closer to one another spiritually.

Question: Swami! How can we come up in life?

Bhagawan: You have to work for it. It may be difficult, but it is desirable to achieve it. In fact, everyone should strive to come up in life, So, it is said, ‘Aim high. Low aim is a crime.’ One has to travel in the right direction and reach the goal. Birth as a human being is meant for this purpose. Man has to realize that he is essentially divine. One has to attain Divinity. But this is not as easy and as simple as it seems. After all, a fall is easy and quick, too.

Take this example: As you come to Kodaikanal by bus, climbing the hills, the bus makes a lot of noise. Lorries also struggle and make loud sounds climbing these hills and reaching Kodaikanal. But the very same bus or lorry finds it easy to go downhill. So is the case with human life too. You have to struggle and work hard to come up in life. But to fall from a height and ruin yourself is easy, simple, and quick.

Take another example: When you shoot an arrow, the more you pull it backward closer to the string, the arrow goes farther. Similarly, if you work more, your success will be equally greater. A rocket, the moment it is launched with force, jerks backwards and thereafter it gets released into space where it rises with burning flames. So, in life the amount of effort you put in decides your rate of success.

Source: Satyopnishad, Vol. 1