Why Fear when I Am Here
Sai: Mr. ‘X’ is a great scholar with various degrees and a lifetime of sadhana in the Himalayas and elsewhere.
Hislop: I suppose degrees are O.K., but the only scholarship of interest to this individual is scholarship in Swami’s teachings. It is like locating the greatest deposit of gold in the world. Why work at anything else?
Sai: The mention of gold is important. Deposits of gold are not limited to one place in the world, but gold is found only by certain individuals. God is not limited to one place only. He is everywhere and He may be found at any place by those who are pure of heart. And by that, I mean where there is love in the heart.
Hislop: No doubt gold is in every place, but great treasures of gold are seldom found. It is the same with great springs of water. In Baba, one finds the spring of divine sweetness.
Sai: Waters from springs are often impure. Pure water may be found by digging for it. One person may dig 100 feet and another person may find pure water at 40 feet or at 10 feet. It is the same in the spiritual life. The amount of work needed to find the divine sweetness depends on purity of heart.
Hislop: Is it only by the strength of one’s love for God that he comes to union with God? Or are there other essential factors?
Sai: The most beneficial thing that can happen to a person is that he should draw God’s love to himself. His love for God is of less importance because it is an imperfect mixture of divine and worldly love. The most important action whereby to gain God’s love is righteousness, dharma. Spread out on a flat surface there may be gold, silver, copper, iron filings, diamonds, rubies, silks, and other things of value. But a magnet pays no attention to all the riches, it selects only the iron filings. It is the same with devotees. God does not select on the basis of wealth. He looks to the purity of heart.
Hislop: Swami speaks of ‘facing’ God. Please explain.
Sai: When two people face each other, each enters the eye of the other, and they are different only in name and form. Otherwise, they are the same. So, it is important to face God directly and be one with Him. That is why one naturally closes the eyes in a temple, so as to use the eye of wisdom instead of the physical eyes.
A Visitor: The word, ‘sadhana’ is used in so many different places.
Sai: Sadhana is just replacement of the bad tendencies of the mind by the divine attributes of the atma. Mind has two principal bad characteristics: its tendency not to go straight, but to move obliquely; and its tendency to desire and grasp all objects that it sees. It is compared to the snake, which moves by twisting and bites all it sees. The mind must go straight to God by facing Him directly.
Hislop: Baba says, ‘Why fear when I am here’. That must have a wide and deep meaning. Will Baba speak of it?
Sai: ‘I am,’ refers to the atma, who is always everywhere. The atma is like the lion, without fear. ‘Fear’ refers to the body, which is subject to worry, depression, trembling, fear. Body is like a sheep, wavering this way and that way. Body is always looking for information, gathering information, questioning. Whereas atma, like the lion, is full of courage and without fear. ‘Atma’ is God. You are God. God is omnipresent. This ‘I’ is you. That ‘I’ is you. You are all.
A Visitor: What is ‘Janna’?
Sai: Jnana is ordinary knowledge, knowledge about living in the world. Special knowledge is wisdom. Love is giving and forgiving. Selfishness is getting and forgetting. Love is expansion, and selfishness is contraction.
Source: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
