The Heritage of Man

While playing cricket, if the ball streaked toward the boundary in a perfectly timed shot, one felt elated, but was conscious that this was not the purpose of life. When one achieved a prize at school, or attained professional college standing at the top in the university examinations, one was happy but felt that this also was not the purpose of life. When one made his way in the world, married, had a family, one was again happy and grateful, but felt at the same time that this was not the ultimate goal of life.

When one met Bhagavan one immediately felt, “Yes this is the purpose of life.” Life has been called sleeping in plants, dreaming in animals, and awake in man. The body of man is the tabernacle of God, and man amongst all of creation is endowed with the intellect to recognize his divine birthright and claim the empire of liberation to which he is heir.

This is essentially the same as the Christian doctrine of “the Christ in you” or the Buddhist doctrine of the “Buddha-mind” that is to be realized in oneself, or the Zoroastrian concept of “the divine flame within”.

This idea is also part and parcel of the eternal universal flame, or the Hindu concept of atman, which is the same as Brahmam that is both omnipresent and the substratum of existence, and which, when it is spoken of as dwelling in any particular form, is called atman.

This is also similar to the Sufi idea of the “wine bearer” (the teacher), serving “excellent wine” (true wisdom) in his “tavern” (the school) and creating “intoxication” (realization) so that the beloved (God) appears unveiled, and separation is now discarded as a delusion.

In these days of strife and strain, of confusion and degradation, of disunity and narrow mentality, how is man to rise above the bonds of “maya” [illusion] and lay claim to his spiritual birthright?

“To know Him, to cling to Him, to merge in His immeasurable splendor—that is the highest goal of man”. To achieve this goal a guru is necessary. Who is the guru? The word is derived from the root “gri”, that is, to “utter”. The guru is one who “utters”, who vibrates the “name”.

The guru also means one who is the ”light in darkness.” ­The guru, with his vibration of the “word” purifies, illuminates, and leads the disciples through darkness into light and leads them on to the ultimate realization.

In the case of the perfect guru, a curious paradox arises. The perfect guru is in constant conscious identity with the Self. He is the formless Self and that Self is within all of us. He appears outwardly only “to guide” us. For him there is no duality. The guru, who is the Self-incarnate, is both within and without. Without, he creates conditions to drive us inward; within, he prepares the interior to fix us at the center.

Such a “guru” is Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who in His infinite mercy and grace has taken pity on man floundering in the mire of delusion, and is guiding him in the right path until he realizes the Self within.

~Dr. Keki Mistry
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1968