Human Values in Daily Life
Sathya Sai Baba says, “The inner meaning of all spiritual discipline is to make man realize his true nature.” What is this true nature?
Baba says that we are God, not different from God. “I am the indivisible, supreme absolute. I am sat-chit-ananda (being, awareness, bliss). Grief and anxiety can never affect me. I am ever content; fear cannot enter me.”
Many of us understand this intellectually, but do not reflect this idea in our daily lives. It seems such an easy task. Why, then, are we forever seeking?
Perhaps we can find some answers in a short piece, All I Ever Wanted to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, written by Robert Fulghum, a minister in a Unitarian church in Washington State. He says, “Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at the nursery school.
“These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Stick Together
“When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seeds in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
“And then remember the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: Look. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The golden rule: love, basic sanitation, ecology, politics, and sane living.
“Think of what a better world it would be if we all had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true; no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”
How did we understand all this in kindergarten? Jesus said, “Be ye like children and you will know the kingdom of heaven.”
What happened to us? How can we regain our innocence and reawaken to what Swami says is inherent in us—“I am God, I am not different from God.”
Education in Human Values for all
Baba has created a program for us called Education in Human Values (EHV). Do not be misled that this program is only for children. It is for all of us—teachers, devotees, and all others who are privileged to have the experience of EHV.
Baba says that the goal of education is to build character. Education continues long beyond school. All of us are engaged in education, and thus engaged in character development. The end result of character is to be able to control the mind, to learn discipline.
Let us examine the road that Baba has offered to help us develop. He has proposed five teaching techniques for EHV. Compare them to what we as devotees do in our Sai Centers. Quotations are used in EHV. In our centers, we use prayers. Silent sitting is another component, comparable to the center’s meditation. The glory of group singing is experienced by members through bhajans. Story-telling is similarly shared when we tell Baba experiences or conduct study circles. Finally, we use group activities—seen in the Sai Center in the form of service projects.
I view EHV as the three wings of the Sai message: sadhana [spiritual effort], service, education. S-S-E—Sathya Sai Excellence. Therefore, we are all experiencing EHV. But do we take the experience beyond the centers? Do we sing and pray and meditate at home, as we ride trains, as we work in our workplaces? Do we go beyond feeding the homeless and serve our own families—our husbands and wives, children and friends—with the nourishment of kind words, smiles, and patience?
Let us look at some of specifics of daily life, beyond the intellect and generalities. Do we want truth? Then we have to know that we can change tomorrow by making today different.
Recently, I opened a Chinese fortune cookie that read, “It is better not to see an insult than to avenge it.” That is something we can follow. For another example, a Mother Goose rhyme comes to mind:
“A wise old owl sat in an oak.
The more he heard, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?”
Do we want to conduct ourselves righteously? Then we have to be responsible, we have to fulfill promises, and we have to stop gossiping.
Do it with love
Carl Hirsch, a teacher of ceramics, is a devotee who understands the qualities reflected in EHV. Though he does not teach a standard EHV class, you can see the underlying essence in an article he wrote, “Teaching Clay—Taught by Clay.” He tells how ceramics students learn the process as they “…feel themselves fighting the clay, having the clay resist their intentions and desires. The students find that even though a skill has been taught, making it happen requires multiple effort and practice. In this way, persistence and endurance are taught.” He goes on to say that we must learn to respect the qualities of clay and that failures in the use of the material “…are considered to be positive and necessary steps in learning and never as sources of embarrassment.” Carl often tells his students to “do it with love” and “to enjoy the process.” “Doing it with love points directly to craftsmanship, the quality of doing something with dignity, grace, and rightness—things that are so lacking in our society…” The craftsmanship is based, he says, on “…faith in one’s own ability to accomplish a given task.”
Do we want peace? In a recent interview Baba asked a group of us, “Who am I?” He went on to remind us, “You are the master, not the servant. Do not be a servant to your senses. Be the master.” Pointing around the room, He said, “My table, my property, my chair, my body. No, no, not mine! Comes and goes, comes and goes.” We will not find peace until we understand this. When life hands us a lemon, what can we do? We can make lemonade. Peace must be both outside and inside.
In the Chinese language, the word “crisis” has two meanings: danger and opportunity. May we face our crises and view them as opportunities to learn.
Do we want love? What can I say of love, except that we need to remember to think of Baba, to remember how He says to each of us, “I will take care of you. I bless you.” Think of Baba as He walks on the sands of Prasanthi Nilayam, seemingly above us all. Yet He pierces each of our hearts. We call out to Him with our worries and problems, with love, with fear and disappointment, with questioning, and sometimes with resentment. Yet He loves us. Think on Swami each day, for that is the only way I really know to find love. Perhaps it is in this way that I can turn to the world in love.
Do we want non-violence? Then we need to practice more self-awareness. We need to become more conscious of our reaction when someone rails at us, when we feel threatened, when someone disagrees with us. Just as kings used to send out heralds prior to their visits, we constantly send out messages—in concrete form through letters, phone calls, and conversations. But also, and perhaps with more devastating results, through our thoughts. What kind of messages are we sending out with our minds each day?
Nonviolence also means to stop dropping candy wrappers, tissues, or the dirty car-washing rag on the street. It means to stop wasting food and to stop filling our minds with television violence.
3HV: Love in action
These may be small stepping-stones, but small stepping-stones can carry us across the ocean of life and prevent turbulent water from pulling us down.
Baba told Dr. Goldstein that EHV is really 3HV. (Here once again, we see the magic in the way Swami uses words.) 3HV—head, heart, hands. Baba says that all information is taken in by our senses and then goes through our minds. He says that we must not act impulsively through the mind. Instead, we must take our thoughts, desires, and decisions and filter them through our hearts. Then in love, we shall take action. That is EHV for all of us—from the head, through the heart, to the hands.
Baba’s first-aid box
Let me conclude with the advice Baba once gave a devotee. He told the man to carry a first-aid box. “Carry in it a few tablets of discrimination and detachment, an ounce or two of self-control, a packet of love, a band-aid of fortitude. Only then can you effectively render first-aid to people suffering from a stroke of ego or a bout of greed, jaundiced vision, or an allergy to serving others.”
I like to think of this as an EHV box. Discrimination and detachment—a part of truth. Right action through fortitude, sense-control bringing peace, a packet of love, and finally, serving others—nonviolence.
Let us all begin to carry Swami’s first-aid kit and come to know our true nature. Being-Awareness-Bliss-Atma, B-A-B-A, BABA.
~Bea Flaig, New York, USA
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1988
