Friend, Do Not Tarry
Does life have meaning, or it is simply a purposeless sojourn on earth? Are we merely driven like dumb cattle from the cradle to the grave? What is the journey like? It is only a trip through a dark vale of tears with occasional flashes of what is commonly called happiness. It looks as if we are drawn by an inexorable force; we find limitations binding us from every side. These thoughts naturally torment every thinking mind.
Friends, if you sincerely desire to find the answers to these and similar questions, go to Puttaparthi where the supreme guru is ready to give you knowledge and peace. See Him, hear Him speak, grasp the way of life that He is teaching by His own life. Watch the compassion and patience that is evident in His every act, the limitless grace that He showers, the tireless enthusiasm He has for the uplifting of humanity, and the spontaneity with which all these divine qualities are flowing from Him. If you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and the capacity to think, it will not take you long to arrive at the truth.
Life is a beginningless and unceasing manifestation of the one and only truth, sath-chith-ananda (being, awareness, bliss). Good and bad, happiness and sorrow, and other similar dualities are mere concepts of the mind. You are, in fact and reality, sath-chith-ananda and not the material elements of body, mind, and intellect. The latter change from moment to moment, but you are the non‑changing entity—the unchanging witness.
The ego, or jiva—which is no other than a thought, but, nevertheless, the root of all other thoughts centering on the notion of “I” and “mine”—is the cause of all this mischief. It parades as though it had an independent existence, when in reality it does not. It cannot exist apart from the one truth. Wrong identification by the jiva or “I‑thought” with the body, the mind, and the intellect makes it share the vicissitudes to which the latter, by their very nature, are subject. If this identification is erased and you feel one with the ceaseless flow of sath-chith-ananda that is deep down in your own heart, the meaning of life stands revealed. The passing panorama, which we call nature, the world including the ego, is mere appearance, fleeting over the canvas of truth, of pure, absolute consciousness.
Friends, we take pride in calling ourselves intelligent. We explore the earth, the sea, and space, but we do not know who we are. We misuse intelligence to tyrannize one another and the rest of creation. We use it to amass riches and pander to the senses—futile pursuits, since we all must die, leaving all the gains we strove to win. Nor do these pursuits give us a sense of fulfillment. One “achievement” fans the desire for more.
Baba tells us that we are seeking happiness through these means because our nature itself is happiness or bliss. We resent limitations because we are really infinite by nature. The ego seeks infinite or permanent bliss, but in its ignorance, it seeks it in the finite world. Baba tells us that we are, in fact, seeking our own nature in striving to find bliss here and now. But we have to find it in our-selves, not outside ourselves. It is the kernel of each of us. Reverse the process, Baba says. Instead of running after the fleeting pleasures that the world can offer, try to shut out the mind from the outside world, and from the turmoil of thoughts gurgling within. Install Sarveswara (the Lord of all), embodied in whichever form you like—or, without form, as a principle or power in simple awareness—and train the mind to abide there. A day will come when the truth will dawn in a flash, and the witness within us will reveal itself. Try to reach the source from where the ego springs, says Baba. “Abide there and you will realise your nature, which is sath-chith-ananda.”
Baba is not only the haven of the sincere seeker. He is the refuge of the maimed, the sick, the ailing, the unhappy, the persons afflicted with all kinds of material desires. Each and every one derives comfort and joy from Him.
What is most important is that all are ultimately weaned from worldly entanglement and snares, and directed to the abode of truth, guided along the road leading to it in conformity with his power of understanding and inclination.
Prasanthi Nilayam (the abode of peace) is where the all‑pervading truth has come to preside in human form. It is spreading the gospel of sathyam, sivam, and sundaram (truth, goodness, and beauty) for the benefit of troubled humanity.
Friends, if you have not found your way to Prasanthi Nilayam and surrendered at the feet of Baba, make haste. Now is the time. Life is short. If you tarry, great is your loss.
~A. Venkata Rao, B.A., B.L.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, February, 1970
