The Voice of Youth
Sri Umamaheswara Rao (18), a student at the Sri Sathya Sai College of Arts and Science, addressed a gathering in the Divine presence in Hyderabad on the Telugu New Years day. The following is the English rendering of his mellifluous Telugu speech.
They say Shiva resides on the Kailasha mountain peak; we see Shiva Sai here in ‘Sivam’ [Swami’s official residence in Hyderabad]. They say the river Ganga flows in splendid glory from Shiva’s locks. We witness the captivating stream of sweet, sustaining love flowing in awesome glory from Shiva Sai here. They say the crescent moon is the jewel Shiva wears on His matted hair; we see the source of cool, comforting grace as the jewel Sai wears. They say Shiva’s throat is blue, for He drank the poison that threatened the world; we see Sai’s throat as the flute that fills the world with song capable of turning poison into nectar. They say Shiva has a third eye; we see Sai has the eye that can see the future, in addition to the two that can see the past and the present.
They say Shiva has a passion for snakes, which He gladly allows to roam over His frame; Sai, we know, has compassion sparkling from His eyes, smiling from His lips, emanating from His heart. He radiates charm from His entire frame. The three pronged trident, it is said, is the weapon Shiva holds; the three-faced time is the weapon that Sai wields. Shiva is described as wearing a tiger-skin; Sai has all creation as His vesture. They say Shiva loves to dwell on the cremation ground; we know Sai loves to install Himself in the heart where the ego and all its vile brood have been burnt to ashes. Nevertheless, don’t we know that Shiva is Sai and that Sai is Shiva? The distinctions are superficial; they are not fundamental. The core, the truth, and the reality are One. I bow down to the Shiva that is present here as Sai.
The holy day Yugadi has come, ringing in the New Year and ringing out the old. It has ushered the new into all lives, high and low, fortunate and wanting. Sai has come with the gift of joy, to endow it on all, whatever the age, the creed, the caste, and the color of the skin. Yugadi has brought new clothes to man, woman, and child in every home; Sai has brought new strength, new tasks, new inspiration, new light, and new love to man, woman, and child, on every continent. The Yugadi feast brings sweet, bitter, sour, and salt to the tongue; Sai festival ensures all tastes in the Divine banquet—Sanathana Dharma [the eternal religion], Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. Accept the ananda [bliss]; do not delay out of dullness, doubt, or distracting desire. The hour that is past will not come again; the hour on hand is the precious treasure.
When the New Year dawns, and Yugadi is celebrated, we plan to live new lives and enjoy new pleasures. But does the ‘new’ consist merely of new dress, new slang, new sights, new attractions, and new fashions, adopted from strange lands and cultures? Do we need to strut about as images of ultramodern pomp trying to draw curious eyes on our absurdities? Does the New Year dictate that we should let body and mind wander unchecked in the wilderness of futile imitation? We call this festival Yugadi; the dawn of a new era.
What exactly is the ‘era’? Is it a novel fashion era? Like the newspapers of today, the fashions of today are cast away as waste when tomorrow arrives. Yugadi gives us an additional, far more significant message. It urges us to welcome more constructive thoughts; it encourages us to plant new ideals in our hearts; it pleads with us to desert the by-lanes and instead take to the royal road of truth, sacrifice, and service. It condemns our desires to imitate others, thereby giving up our innate glory. It asks us to be proud of our land and its heritage. It enlightens us to the fact that the fox who tries to display stripes on its body by drawing red hot rods along the skin in order to make us believe it is a tiger, is only proclaiming that it is a fool.
Life is short; days are rushing by; every tick of the watch on our wrists is a scissor clip on the strand of life. However, we still fritter these precious days in purposeless pursuits. We spend hours to ‘beautify’ ourselves; we run after mirages; we are drawn by tinsel toys. Like the frog that is proud of its dear little well, we are happy with our dear little body, with its tantalizing senses and titillating pleasures. Is this the purpose of our existence? I ask people of my age-group: Are we born to achieve just this? Have we fulfilled our destiny if we have managed to satisfy our senses? No. Surely there must be something higher for which we are born into this world, at this period of its history!
We come alone into this world and depart alone. People crowd around us from birth to death; we gather kinsmen and friends; but no one accompanies us into the beyond. While we go through life, we have to always be conscious of the inevitability of our departure. But, that should not encourage us to live like beasts from moment to moment, intent on the pursuit of physical satisfaction; only a serpent in its hole lives like that. This is a great chance given to us, this human life. We are served all varieties of experience, a mixed dish, as mixed as the Yugadi chutney we relish today. Joy and grief, gain and loss, pain and pleasure, combine to make our life a matter of rose and thorn, of slush and lotus. Exercising the faculty of discrimination we possess, we have to benefit by this pabulum of opposites.
Of course, we young men are not entirely responsible for our present plight. The snake-gourd will grow crooked when the gardener does not hang a stone to its lower end; when the elders do not insist on discipline and are not examples of discipline themselves, how can youth grow straight? When the youth of the land grow up with no love for the culture of the land, how can there be continuous and correct progress? The training of the spirit is as important as the training of the hand and the brain. That alone can reveal our oneness with others and inspire us to love and serve.
Faith in God is the very foundation for the life of the spirit. People ask, “Does God exist?” not realizing that if He did not, the word ‘God’ would not be current at all. ‘Castles in the air,’ presupposes the existence of ‘castles’ and ‘air’. ‘Is there a chair’ presupposes the existence of an article of furniture called ‘chair’. God is in the mind of everyone; He is denied only by the tongue. You may call God by many names—intelligence, power, grace, or even mystery. But, even the atheist has to accept a supreme sovereign idea. The youth of today have to rid themselves of absurd doubt, vulgar conceit, and vain pursuit.
Sai is here to confer faith on the doubtful, humility on the proud, and meaning to life. We have experienced Him and seen that when He moves, thousands move with Him; when He speaks, thousands of hearts are filled with courage and confidence; when He raises His hand, thousands of heads bend in grateful homage; He is in every cell, atom, and grain, as bliss and as energy.
We have heard many times the phrase—‘Youth is the backbone of the nation.’ It has become a cliché; but it is a profound truth. We have to be alert and active now; postponement of tasks that have to be done and done well during youth is harmful. We must not forget the creative aspect of the intellect and the imaginative faculty, and we must not yield to the wiles of imitativeness. When we learn in schools and colleges, let us be wholly engaged in that process, which cannot be postponed to later years.
The master of archery, Drona, asked his pupil Duryodhana one day to aim at the eye of a vulture sitting on a tree. When the pupil took aim, he asked, “What do you see?” Duryodhana said, “I see the branch, the leaves, and a few flowers; I see the vulture and its eye.” Drona asked Arjuna to aim at the same target and asked him when he had taken aim, the same question. Arjuna said, “I see the eye.” When asked, “Naught else?” He replied, “Only the eye.” It is no wonder that Arjuna became the greatest bowman in history.
We, the students of the Sathya Sai College at Brindavan can claim to be conscious only of our duty to learn; we are like television sets, not radio receivers, for, radios reveal only words while televisions reveal action and how the words are put into practice. The mind runs about like a horse that has no bit in its mouth; we have to control our thoughts and rein in our emotions.
We must not accept our norms from the populace around. Vibhishana dared to differ from the people among whom he lived, and he made his name immortal. Swami’s teachings have soaked into each and every cell of the students at Brindavan and transformed them. “You see yourself in Me; I see Myself in you. Love travels faster than thought.” This was what Swami wrote in a message that He sent from Puttaparthi to us, His dear students at Brindavan.
We know the aptness and authenticity of those words. Swami is in us; we are in Swami. How then can we think ill or act ill? Everyone is we ourselves, seen in a world of mirrors. How then can we look upon one person as a friend and another as a foe? All have God as their very core. Ponder over this fact that is within every one’s experience: Though we all know that death is certain, each one believes he is free from death! This is because of the immortal atma [one’s divinity, soul] that is the reality. Even the ugliest person resents being called so; he likes to feel that he is beautiful and charming. This is because the atma within is really beauty; so also our conscience insists that falsehood is unnatural and should be avoided.
Man is intrinsically the atma, which is truth. The atma is sathyam, shivam, and sundaram—truth, goodness, and beauty. When we revel in falsehood, wickedness, and vulgarity, we are shrouding the glory of the atma we are. The effulgence of the sun is hidden by clouds for a little while; but it is never really lost. So, too, our intellect, which is truth; our emotions, which are good; and our impulses, which are beautiful, are concealed by the clouds of ignorance. A storm scatters the clouds, and the sun shines again in all its glory. The dewdrops on the leaves of trees evaporate when the sun rises and elevate themselves into the regions above.
Let us also awake and arise when the sun of the New Year (named Nala) has risen. Let us pray, “Swami! Fulfill our wishes. Satisfy our desires. Transform our thoughts into deeds. Bless us that our wishes, desires, and thoughts are pure and saturated in selfless love”
Let us not ride on two horses at the same time. Our bodies may be in a cool place but the mind traverses a desert! Youth is today ploughing the sands with might and mind. We march away from the sun and so we are pursuing shadows. Let us proceed steadily toward the sun and the shadows will be behind us. God is the sun and the objective world the shadow. Street dogs run hither and thither in search of selfish joys; street lamps shed light and guide the passersby. Students of the Sathya Sai College aspire to be street lamps.
We know that Swami is ever with us, before us, beside us, behind us. We are eager to shower love on dedicated hearts and plant therein the seeds of Swami’s message of strength and service. We are dedicated to the task of rebuilding India on her ancient foundations of truth, righteousness, peace, and love. Every one in this land must be a precious gem that mother India will be proud to wear. We know we can succeed, for we have the blessings of Bhagavan in our endeavor. We are the harbingers of the Sai Era of peace and prosperity.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, May 1976
