The ‘I’ Disease
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said, “The Buddha saw one sick man, one old man, one corpse, and one sanyasin [religious mendicant]; that was enough for him to leave his palace and seek the cure.” We see several such things and witness terrible misery all around. But yet we do not seek the reason or the remedy. The cause for our apathy is the ‘I’ disease. This Sai Avatar has come to cure us of this ‘I’ disease.
The ‘I’ is a disease, so it is not the real nature of man. There is, of course, a real ‘I’, which is God’s energy, activating us. That ‘I’ does not require any cure. It is ever free and happy. Bhagavan’s prescription is to cure the false ‘I’ or ego that is also the existing mind. This false ‘I’ exists because of the impressions of the past and of the effect of prakriti [nature] on our minds. Bhagavan’s teachings are directed to our mind and our intellect. He instructs the mind and the intellect to give up their association with the ego and merge in the true ‘I’, or atma [higher self].
The mind is nothing but a stream of thoughts that passes over the consciousness. Of all these thoughts, the first and the most harmful is the wrong thought, “I am this body.” This gives rise to further attachment. When anything happens to the beings or things associated with the ‘I’ in this manner, the ego feels happy or unhappy, the mind gets agitated, angry, envious, or proud. All the misery and misunderstanding that we witness today are due to this disease of ‘I’ and mine. It makes man forget that everything is His, all are He, that it is His leela [divine play], His will.
Bhagavan’s prescription to root this ‘I’ out is dhyanam [meditation], namasmarana [repetition of the holy name], bhajan [devotional singing], and satsang [good company]. For us to take up any of these seriously, faith in God is essential. Due to the enormous increase in material progress, we have lost faith in God and the real ‘I’ or atma. To develop faith He is prompting us forward by miracles. He says that we treat ourselves like watches, readymade. We feel that watches have existed by themselves; we never seek the maker of watches. We feel we are readymade human beings; we do not bother about the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer—God.
Baba cures diseases of the body so that we can concentrate on following His prescription that will cure this ‘I’ disease. He grants mental courage and confidence for the same purpose. Let each one of us get rid of this dire disease. Let us pray that Bhagavan will cure the ‘I’ disease on a mass scale and make the world a happier place to live in.
~G. N. Acharya
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Jan. 1968
