Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 33

 

Chapter XII

 

Values in Later Texts

 

Soon after the propagation of  Vedanta through the Upanishads and other texts, the sages (rishis), steeped in  austerities (tapas) and spiritual experience gained therefrom, composed the codes of law ( smrithis ), expatiating upon the codes of conduct for the people during the various stages of life as well as when they occupied various statuses in society. The codes of law, however, did not acquire the authority that the Vedantic texts had, for they dealt with rights, responsibilities, duties and obligations.

 

Ancient law codes and Atmic reality

 

Such codes of law can be found in sacred scriptures adored by followers of other religions. They consider such social codes and individual guidelines given by their prophets and seers as valuable and binding. We, too, revere them and should continue to revere them as regulations set up for the good of society and the progress of humanaity. For we must admit that they were framed by outstanding sages and well-wishers of the people.

 

But, in the process of time, the codes of law suffered change by omissions, additions, and differences in emphasis. The sages allotted for each era (yuga) a particular code of law as authoritative, for too many codes of law with divergent counsel caused confusion and doubt.

 

They said that those in the Kritha era have to consider one code of law as specially laid down for them, those in the Thretha era have to follow the dictates of another, those in the Dwapara era have to observe the path prescribed in a third, and those in the Kali era have to resort  to a fourth.

 

When centuries roll over the land one after another, new problems arise and new situations and predicaments confront one, so the laws and limits of the past have to be altered here and there. Indeed, such adjustments are a part of the design. The people have to be shown the path to spiritual progress under the altered circumstances, so the code of law that suits the new era is declared as binding.

 

Nevertheless the following has to be borne in mind and carefully noted in memory by the readers. The Atma dharma (divine dharma) enunciated in the Vedanta is eternal, unchangeable. It can never be watered down or “adjusted to the needs of the times”. The lasting teaching is: Faith in the Atma as the core, the reality, the goal is true for all time.

 

The truths of Atma-dharma are based on the eternal foundations of the core of a person and nature (prakriti), which is the projection of the divine will. So, they are beyond the reach of change. They are as relevant and as valid today as they were thousands of years ago. Even when a thousand more years roll by, their relevance and validity cannot be affected in the least. Vedanta will stand firm, regardless of the past becoming the present and the present flowing on into the future.

 

However, the moral codes and ideals of good conduct, the spiritual disciplines that one can adopt to control the mind and senses and purify the intelligence have to suit the conditions of the people and the bonds they cultivate among themselves and other groups. With the changing face of social conditions, they also have to undergo adjustments and modifications. They could be appropriate and beneficial under certain circumstances of time and space, but they might be not so under other circumstances.

 

For example, food regulations that are prescribed during certain periods are withdrawn and new rules are laid down during other periods. Climatic conditions dictate the type of food needed. Traditional codes of law (smrithis) recognize the need and allow changes in food habits, in order to maintain health.

 

The same attitude is also seen in other matters. For the same reasons, under modern conditions, it is desirable to have changes in the regulations and limits that govern society. Of course, the fundamental principles of dharma must remain unaffected. They can never be shaken or unloosened.

 

Love.

 

 

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

 

"Do not ever think that you and God are separate. Think always, "God is with me; He is inside me; He is around me. All there is, Is God. I myself am God. I am the Infinite, the Eternal. I am not two; I am one, only one. There is no one else besides me. I and God are one and the same." To realize this Unity, the first step is to develop Self-confidence. It comes when you realize that God is not outside of you."

 

- Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 32

The four goals of human life

 

Whatever may be the diversities in contents, commentators agree that the essential teaching of all four Vedas is the same. The sections dealing with rites, modes of worship, and conclusions of inquiry help to achieve the four goals of life: dharma, wealth (artha), desire (kama), and liberation (moksha). 

Since it is very hard to master the Vedas, we have developed a vast literature on traditional laws (smrithi) to expound these texts that were “heard” and passed down orally (sruthi texts) — the epics and historical legends (puranas and ithihasas). Farsighted seers composed these out of historical and legendary incidents and events.

Activity (karma) and spiritual wisdom (jnana) are related as cause and effect, so the sections of the texts and laws that emphasized activity led to the discovery of new facets of truth and rendered the ideas of a transcendent God clearer and nearer. So too, the discovery of clearer concepts of God through spiritual inquiry along the path of wisdom fed “activity” with better meaning and higher purpose. The benefit of activity was proportionate to the faith, and the faith in activity was proportionate to the awareness of God won through wisdom. 

 

For involving oneself in good activities, spiritual wisdom is an essential prerequisite. That wisdom has ultimately to be derived from the Vedas; it is based on the teachings of the Vedas.

 

Dharma: the cornerstone of spiritual life

 

Activity (karma) is, really speaking, the practice of dharma. The Upanishads give us guidance on what has to be done and what has to be avoided on the spiritual journey. They direct us to revere the mother as God, revere the father as God, revere the preceptor as God, and revere the guest as God. They also warn us that truth and dharma should not be neglected. So, there are both positive and negative instructions — follow these counsels, not others. Whatever conduces to your progress in goodness, accept; avoid other counsels. Thus do the Upanishads instruct.

In these centuries, the King himself studied in hermitages at the feet of Upanishadic sages and helped others to study by granting economic aid profusely to the centres of learning that shone as repositories of Vedic lore. As the king, so the subjects. 

Fostering the Vedas meant fostering the Vedic scholars and practitioners. At the present time, encouragement is afforded and scholarship is honoured in other branches of learning. Vedic scholars are not given similar encouragement and emoluments. This important aspect has to be attended to.

Dharma protects those who protect it (Dharmo rakshati rakshitah), says the scripture. If people come forward to foster the sources of dharma, that good act, by itself, will help foster those who do it. Save the ageless Vedic culture!

The study of the Vedas has become today the task of the economically weak. People have reconciled themselves to this situation. They associate the study with such a sad and pitiable picture. Vedic studies have come down to this deplorable pass. 

The very pundits who have attained scholarship in the Vedas are using it as a commercial item that can be sold. They do not demonstrate the value of Vedic study in the peace and harmony of their lives and thus win reverence for the Vedas by personal example. 

The Vedas are being misused by them for earning a pittance, rather than for liberation and peace. This is why dharma is receiving a setback and anxiety and fear are spreading among people. The world can win back peace and harmony only when such people are persuaded to practise the ideals laid down in the Vedas and thereby serve as beacon lights to guide mankind aright. Otherwise, downfall is inevitable.

The Indian (Bharathiya) spiritual stream has, until the present times, fertilized Vedic learning and practice. Its message has always been, “Journey forward along the Vedic path.” One may dilate on Vedanta and Vedas, but unless one holds forth the value of these ideals on the basis of one’s own experience and practice, it is a waste. 

This truth has been forgotten by these people. Let them awake in time and save the traditions and values of the ageless Vedic culture.

 

Love.

PS - Since these posts are self-explanatory, further essence has not been given for the same.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 31

Chapter XI

Values in Vedas

 

Knowing, knowledge, is Veda (Vetthi ithi Vedah). That is, from the Vedas, one can know the code of right activity and the body of right knowledge. The Vedas teach one’s duties from birth to death. 

They describe one’s rights, duties, obligations, and responsibilities in all stages of life —student, householder, recluse, and monk. In order to make plain the Vedic dicta and axioms and enable all to understand the meaning and purpose of the do’s and don’ts, the Vedangas, Puranas, and epic texts appeared, in course of time. So, if one is eager to grasp one’s own significance and true reality, one has to understand the importance of these later explanatory compositions also.

 

Rig Veda

 

Of the Vedas, the first is the Rigveda. It is generally considered to be composed of ten sections. In the first nine sections, hymns in praise of God under the names Agni, Indra, Maruth, etc. are found. Historians and re- searchers have suggested certain theories to explain how these hymns of praise arose. People in those days realized that fire (agni), air (vayu), wind (maruth), etc. were far more powerful than them, so they described their divine qualities and propitiated them.

 

Yajur veda

 

The second Veda, the Yajur-veda, has two recensions (reviews): the Krishna (black) Yajur-veda and Sukla (white) Yajur-veda. This Veda refers to the river Ganga (Ganges) and its region. It is the source of the later (uttara) Mimamsa school of thought and interpretation. The people had by then demarcated the forest areas from the cultivable areas around the villages and had taken to habitation in the villages. 

 

A prominent reason prompted the separation of certain portions of the Veda into the Yajur-veda. The Yajur-veda had seven sections called forest texts (aranyakas), indicating by that very name that they referred more to disciplines and spiritual exercises that can be practised only in the seclusion and silence of the forest.

 

Sama veda

 

The third Veda is the Sama-veda. Many of the hymns (riks) of the Rigveda are repeated in it, but with additional musical notes so that they may be sung during Vedic rituals and ceremonies. So the Sama-veda is mainly musical notation. 

 

The Sama-veda is also referred to as the Bell Veda (Ghana-veda) in order to highlight its musical nature. All musical schools are derivatives of the styles that are marked out by the Sama-veda. All tones and notes are embedded in that Veda.

 

Atharva veda

 

The fourth is the Athar-vana or Atharvaveda. It has been described in many diverse ways. Some have even denied it the status of a Veda. Others say that it is made up of what remained after the collation of the rest. 

In the other Vedas, the might and mystery of the Gods are described. But this Veda mentions the possibility of acquiring certain powers and mysteries by one’s own effort and exercises. This is its speciality. Hatha-yoga (the yoga of postures), the skill of rendering oneself invisible by repeating certain mantras, the eight parts of yoga or communion (ashtanga-yoga) —these are made available for humanity only in this Veda. Of course, by winning the grace of God, one can acquire even skills that are otherwise impossible to attain.

In short, it must be realized that the Vedas are very important and that they cover the entire range of knowledge. They are the source and spring of Indian (Bharathiya) culture. They are the recordings of visions and divine experiences; their source is not someone definite person. 

They were revealed by God Himself, of His own innate mercy. The Vedic inheritance has been preserved pure and unsullied even to this day, because it was handed down from master to disciple in regular succession. Since it is timeless and author less, it is worthy of acceptance. No one can afford to neglect or deny its value.

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 30

Experience Godhead with faith in the Vedas

 

One fact has to be noted here. Just because people have this knowledge of the immanence of the Divine, and even of its transcendence, they cannot be honored as people of wisdom (jnanis), for the knowledge has to be digested through actual experience. This is the crucial test. It is not enough if the intellect nods approval and is able to prove that Godhead is all. The belief must penetrate and prompt every moment of living and every act of the believer. 

Wisdom should not be merely a bundle of thoughts or a packet of neatly constructed principles. Faith must enliven and enthuse every thought, word, and deed. The self must be soaked in the nectar of the spiritual wisdom.

The intellect is a poor instrument, for what the intellect approves as correct today is rejected tomorrow by the same intellect on second thought! Intellect cannot judge things finally and for all time. Therefore, seek the experience. Once that is won, the Atma can be understood “as all this”. That is the yoga of wisdom (jnana-yoga).

According to the Indian (Bharathiya) way of thought, the Vedas are taken as the voice of God. Thus, the Vedas are the primary source of all knowledge for Indians. Everything is tested based on the Vedas. The ancient sages have laid down that what agrees with the Vedas is agreeable to people and what does not thus agree cannot agree with them. 

The Vedas were not spoken by humans or composed by men and women. They were heard and recorded by sages and transmitted by guru to pupil for generations by word of mouth. The guru recited, and the pupil listened and recited just as the guru did, with the same care and correctitude. Thus, the Vedas have been handed down for centuries. No one can determine the exact dates when the Vedas were first heard or recited. Therefore, they are taken as eternal (sanathana).

Vedas: the voice of God in eternity

 

At this point, we have to keep in mind another important truth. All other religions prevalent in the world hold as authoritative communications made to some holy persons by God Himself in His corporate Form, or through some superhuman personalities or embodiments of parts or portions of Divinity. Indians do not follow this line. They declare that the Vedas are based on no human authority; they do not depend on any person for their validity. They are emanations direct from God; they are primeval; they are their own authority and validity. They were not written down or composed, constructed, or put together.

The cosmos or creation is limitless, eternal, with no beginning or end. So too, the voice of God, namely the Vedas, have no limit; they are eternal; they have no beginning nor end. Vid, the root from which the word Veda is derived, means “to know”. When knowledge began, the Vedas manifested. Sages (rishis) visualized and announced them. They are the “see-ers of mantras”.

The Vedas have two major sections: the Karma-kanda and the Jnana-kanda. 

In the Karma-kanda, a number of different sacrifices are mentioned, in which oblations are offered in the sanctified fire. Most of them have been given up by Indians in recent times, since it has become difficult to perform them with the exactitude the Vedic rules prescribe. Some still continue in a very attenuated form. In the Karma-kanda, moral codes are insisted upon very much. The moral rules and restrictions regulating life and conduct refer to the student (brahmachari), house- holder (grihastha), recluse (vanaprastha), and monastic (sanyasa) stages. Also, the Karma-kanda declares what is right and wrong for people following various professions and occupying different statuses. These are being followed here and there, in some thin form, by people in India.

The Jnana-kanda is called the end of the Vedas (Vedanta), the goal, the finale. It is enshrined in the Upanishads. Adherents of the dualistic, qualified non-dualistic, and non-dualistic (dwaitha, visishta-adwaitha, and adwaitha) schools of philosophical thought, worshipers of Siva, Vishnu, Sakthi, Surya, and Ganapathi —all accept the supreme authority of the Vedas. They may interpret the Upanishads and other texts according to their own predilections and intellectual calibre, but no one dare question the authority of the Veda or Vedanta. So, it is possible to use the words Hindu, Indian (Bharathiya), and Vedanthin for the same person.

Currently, the various schools of philosophical thought may appear difficult to comprehend or as derived from unripe understanding. But when the matter is thought over in quiet, or the texts are studied in silence or investigated without prejudice, it will become clear that they have all relied on the points raised and the conclusions arrived at in the Upanishads. The Upanishads are being symbolized and worshiped in image form in temples and in private shrines, as a tribute to this universal appeal. They have entwined themselves, inseparably, in our lives.

“The Vedas are endless (Anantho vai Vedaah).” But they were reduced into four collations, and their essence was preserved in them. For promoting peace and prosperity in the world, the four were taught and propagated. They are the Rig-, Sama-, Yajur-, and Atharvana-Vedas. They uphold righteousness (dharma), proclaim the reality, and promote peace and harmony by developing among people the attitudes of worship, music, and adoration and also by cultivating skill in weaponry and war. They present the ideal before people and exhort them to follow it.

Whether the Indian is aware of it or not, invariably, every right act of the Indian will have some Vedic injunction or prohibition behind it as the regulator or the illuminator. From marriage rites to funeral rites and even rites for the propitiation of the ancestral spirits, the Vedas are the guides. A true Indian should never forget the Vedas or be ungrateful to them. The dualists, qualified monists, monists — all direct their lives according to lines laid down in the past by sages. But they do not now know the origin and the purpose of these guidelines. If only they did, the fruit would be much more plentiful and permanent."

Today's post, taken from SS Vahini, is self-explanatory and readers should be able to understand on reading the post sincerely.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 29

Essence of Jnana yoga, taken from SS Vahini and posted in an earlier post is taken up in this post.

 

Extract from Swami’s writing on the path of Jnana

 

•       “In the vast ocean of ISNESS, or truth (sath), all objects are but drops, in a jnana yogi’s view. 

•       Wisdom-yogis also yearn to merge in the centre, the core of reality, away from the tangle of apparent diversity. 

•       They exert themselves to become the Truth, not only to become aware of it. Of course, as soon as they are aware of it, they become it. 

•       They see and experience only one unbroken, unchallenged stream of bliss-consciousness. 

•       They realize that the power and energy that vitalize the tiniest of the tiny and the vastest of the vast is the same divine Principle. 

•       They see all elements — earth, fire, water, wind, and sky — as the divine itself and all beings — humanity, beast, bird, and worm — as emanations from God and therefore fully divine.

•       It is not enough if the intellect nods approval and is able to prove that Godhead is all. The belief must penetrate and prompt every moment of living and every act of the believer. 

•       Faith must enliven and enthuse every thought, word, and deed. The self must be soaked in the nectar of the spiritual wisdom.

•       The Vedas were not spoken by humans or composed by men and women. They were heard and recorded by sages and transmitted by guru to pupil for generations by word of mouth. 

•       The guru recited, and the pupil listened and recited just as the guru did, with the same care and correctitude. 

•       Vid, the root from which the word Veda is derived, means “to know”. When knowledge began, the Vedas manifested. Sages (rishis) visualized and announced them. They are the “seers of mantras”.

•       The Jnana-kanda is called the end of the Vedas (Vedanta), the goal, the finale. It is enshrined in the Upanishads.” 

 

Swami Sivananda writes on this path, thus:-

 

All-pervading ocean of Light I am OM OM OM

Infinity I am OM OM OM

All-pervading infinite Light I am OM OM OM

Vyapaka Paripoorna Jyotirmaya Brahman I am OM OM OM

Omnipotent I am OM OM OM

Omniscient I am OM OM OM

All Bliss I am OM OM OM

Satchidananda I am OM OM OM

All purity I am OM OM OM

All glory I am OM OM OM

All Upadhis (limiting adjuncts such as body, mind, etc.,) will be sublated. All Granthis (knots of heart, viz., Avidya, Kama and Karma – ignorance, desire, and action) will be cut asunder. 

The thin veil, Avarana, will be pierced. The Pancha Kosha Adhyasa (superimposition) will be removed. You will rest doubtless in Satchidananda state. You will get highest Knowledge, highest Bliss, highest Realization and highest end of life. ‘Brahma Vit Brahmaiva Bhavati’. You will become Suddha Satchidananda Vyapaka Paripoorna Brahman. Nasti Atra Samsayah’, there is no doubt of that.

There is no difficulty at all in Atma-Darshan, in Self-Realization. You can have this within the twinkling of an eye as Raja Janaka had, before you can squeeze a flower with fingers, within the time taken for a grain to fall when rolled over a pot. You must do earnest, constant and intense practice. You are bound to succeed in two or three years.

No flowery talk or verbosity can make a man Brahman. It is constant, intense, earnest Sadhana and Sadhana alone can give a man direct Aparoksha Brahmic realization (Svanubhava or Sakshatkara) wherein he sees Brahman just as he sees the solid white wall in front of him and feels Brahman, just as he feels the table behind him. Practice, practice, practice and become established in Brahman.”

 

Love.