Saturday, February 12, 2022

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 20

 



Chapter VIII

 

Bondage

 

People can discard as many gross bodies in which they take temporary residence as the number of times they pare their nails. But the subtle body cannot be changed; it lasts and persists. This is the most secret doctrine of Indian spiritual thought. Going further along this line of discovery, it can be revealed that person means: a complex of the gross body, subtle body, and individual soul (jivi). Vedantic philosophy would declare that the individual soul shares the quality of eternal, unchanging, everlastingness (nithya).




The objective world (prakriti) is also eternal, but with a difference: it undergoes perpetual change. It is never the same, but it persists forever. The basis for the objective world, namely the life force (prana) and space (akasa), are eternal, but they act and interact without rest and manifest variously and manifold.

 

The individual Atma (the jivatma) did not have its origin in either space or the life force; it is not material in nature. It is eternal, without change. It did not happen through the impact of the life force on space or space on the life force. Things brought together will disintegrate.

 

But things that are themselves ab initio cannot so come apart. For, disintegration means resuming the original nature, becoming what it originally was, reducing itself to its native substance.

 

The gross body is the result of the combination of the life force and space, so it dissolves itself into its components. The subtle body also dissolves, but only after a long long time.

 

The embodied soul (jivi) is not brought together, so it cannot fall apart. It has no birth. It cannot be born. A unitive part-less being can have no moment of origin.

 

The objective world, consisting of billions of varied things, forces, and events, is governed by the will of God. God is all-knowing, all-penetrating, all-pervading; He is activating the objective world and acting through the objective world all the time. Creation is ever in His care. His sovereignty is beginning less and endless. This is the doctrine of the dualists (dwaithins).



 Ignorance, the source of evil

 

This gives room for a question. When the world is ruled by God, how does He permit it to be so wicked and evil? The answer given is that God is not responsible for the grief and pain.

 

The sins we commit are the progenitors of the grief we suffer. Joy and sorrow are the consequences of the good and evil that people perpetrate.

 

God is the Witness. He doesn’t punish or cause grief. The embodied soul (jivi) is beginning less, that is to say, has no birth, but it involves itself in incessant activity and thus has to go through the inevitable consequences of that activity. This is the experience of everyone, the characteristic of everyone’s mind. This is the unbreakable law of the objective world.




 

Grief or joy is the image of the activity in which one engages. It is the resound, the reflection, the reaction. The individual soul can be the witness without concerning itself with the good and bad of the activity. When involvement happens, good has to be experienced when good is done; evil, when evil is done.

 

Vedanta asserts that the individual soul is, by its very nature, pure and unblemished. This is the accepted doctrine, according to Indian (Bharathiya) thought. But this truth has been befogged by ignorance and neglect, so illusion (maya) pollutes the experience, and the shade of ignorance breeds evil.

 

But when beneficial activity is engaged in, the clouds of illusion are scattered and the reality of the Self is realized. All beings, all souls (jivis) are pure, by their very nature. Good acts can remove the taints of evil deeds and preserve this essential purity. Then, the soul is led into the Godward path. The Godward urge will transform the thoughts, words, and deeds of the individual.

 

Essence


1)               In the first part of today’s post, Swami describes and reveals that the gross body and the subtle body are bound to perish, though the subtle body takes longer time to perish

2)             However, the Soul /Atman is beginning less and therefore endless.

3)             Then Swami touches upon the belief that Easwara is the creator and sustainer of this creation and everything is as per His will, as per one of the Hindu Philosophy.

Swami writes, “The objective world, consisting of billions of varied things, forces, and events, is governed by the will of God. God is all-knowing, all-penetrating, all-pervading;

In one of the speeches, a monk of Rama Krishna Parama Hamsa ashram says, “In Christianity, In Islam in few other religion, it is stated that God watches and punishes the sinners, God even dissolves the creation . On one hand, we say God is ever merciful and on the other hand, we imagine Him as a harsh force, punishing the sinners. Is this not contradictory”?

4) Swami is bringing the same thought here in today’s post. God is ever compassionate and can never punish anyone for their mistakes, howsoever grave the mistakes are. If this is so, then why the world is so cruel? Why there is so much pain and sorrow in this world created by God?

Swami answers, “The sins we commit are the progenitors of the grief we suffer. Joy and sorrow are the consequences of the good and evil that people perpetrate”.

Swami’s statement unveils and reveals us the indisputable theory of Karma, which we Hindus, believing in rebirth, do and must accept without any doubt.

Is there any end to this continuous vicious cycle of Death-Rebirth-Death, for undergoing the results of our deeds?

5) Swami’s words come to us , soothing our heart and soul, like the breezy air that flows and cools us within. Swami says, “when beneficial activity is engaged in, the clouds of illusion are scattered and the reality of the Self is realized. All beings, all souls (jivis) are pure, by their very nature.

Good acts can remove the taints of evil deeds and preserve this essential purity. Then, the soul is led into the Godward path. The Godward urge will transform the thoughts, words, and deeds of the individual.

 

Love.




 

 

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