Knowledge of the Atma

Will a snake be killed by mere rubbing of its hood?” Will mere punishing the body stop the sensual desires? Will giving up hunger and thirst result in the knowledge of atma? Without self-realization can one know the philosophical truth? First and foremost one must know oneself for that is the very purpose of human life. “Who am I?” Am I the body? Am I the mind? Am I the intellect? Or Am I the inner sense?” No, it is ‘my’ body; I am different from my body. Therefore I am not the body. This body is a means, vesture likened to the clothes one wears. Hence one cannot claim that one is the body. One only punishes the body for the mistakes committed. But there is no fault in the body. All the fault lies with the mind.

Sathya Sai Speaks, Radio Sai

One should not follow one’s body or mind as ‘mind is like a mad monkey’ and ‘body is like a water bubble’; so one should not follow the body or the mind but should follow the conscience. From where does one get the ‘conscience’? The ‘conscience’ has come from the all-pervading ‘consciousness’. This consciousness is called as the ‘Chaitanya’ or life force. And from this life force emanates the ‘witness’. This witness is the ‘conscience’. This conscience is also called as mind. Hence the consciousness is ‘atma’. Body is the conscious. So there are three aspects: Conscience, Conscious, and Consciousness. Conscious is the body, which is made up of the senses. Mind is associated with the witness. Atma is associated with the Chaitanya or the life force. Therefore, conscious is ‘the one you think you are’. ‘The one others think you are’ is the conscience. Consciousness is ‘the one you really are’.

Sathya Sai Speaks, Radio Sai

Though atma does not have legs, nothing can move faster than it! The atmadoes not have hands; but it can hold everything. The Atma does not have eyes, but there is nothing that it cannot see. Love is the only path to understand and get hold of such atma. That love exists as “Rasa Swaroopam” the life fluid in all. The poets describe it as the “Nava rasa”, nine life fluids, but there exists only two rasas, life fluids. One is “karuna rasamu”compassion, and the other is “shoka rasam”misery or sorrow. All the rest of therasasare found in these two. The ‘Karuna rasa’, compassion, is the rasa of love. Once one has the rasaof love, one has God! That is why Swami says, “Love is God, Live in love!!” Man should live with such love. Years may roll by, seasons may change, wars may take place, but with just a drop of Lord’s grace man can overcome anything.

Sathya Sai Speaks, Radio Sai