Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Divyatman,

The above pour of pours is pregnant with the  4 mahavakyas from Upanishads.

1.  Prajnanam  Brahma - Consciousness  is  Brahman   in the  Aitreya  Upanishad  from  the  Rig  Veda.   

2. Aham Brahmasmi - I am Brahman in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad from the Yajur Veda.

3. Tat Tvam Asi - That thou art in the Chandyogya Upanishad from the Sama Veda; and

4.  Ayamatma  Brahma -  this  Self  is  Brahman in  the Mandukya Upanishad from Atharvana Veda. 

All the Mahavakyas are inter-connected which can be explained thus:   

The disciple approaches the Guru and wants to be taught about the nature of the Ultimate Truth. The Guru first defines the Truth to the student as Prajnanam Brahma and this is a statement of definition.  

The student reflects on this teaching and comes to understand that the Consciousness, the subject, which is experienced as the 'I' is what is being talked about, but he still has doubts whether the Ultimate Truth is different from him. So he goes back to the Guru who gives him the next Mahavakya, Tat Tvam Asi, which clearly declares that he, the seeker himself is the sought. This is a statement of instruction. 

The student now sits in meditation and his doubts are removed and he is certain that he is not the mind, body, intellect and other conditions and he comes to directly experience the Self as Brahman. Aham Brahmasmi and this is a statement of experience. 

Now that he has experienced his real nature, the Guru advises him to ever revel and abide in this knowledge. Ayam Atma Brahma is the nature of this abidance and the student never loses sight of this knowledge even when he transacts with the world and this is a statement of constant practice. 

Now, after 4 months of extensive and elaborate writing on various themes, can the author request all sincere readers to connect the 4 mahavakyas explained above with the Swami's pour?

It will be wonderful if few readers can connect the 4 mahavakyas with Swami's quote and take the alignment deep within and revert to the author with the inner experience and post the same as comment. It will benefit all other readers as well.

A clue for introspection - In the above pour of Sai, both words of instruction (when He is addressing you) and words of introspection and experience (when He pours as "I") are there.

Hari Aum Tatsat.

Swami Vivekananda

Dear All,

"We are responsible for what we are"

"What we are now has been the result of our own past actions"

The above 2 lines are all about the results of our past actions in our previous births which we carry forward to this birth as sanchita karma which get fructified as our prapta or our prarabdha  karma.

This has been extensively dealt under KARMA theme.

Also, How Karmas are done, how the impact of karmas get stored as impressions in our chitta etc., have been again dealt in great detail under MBCA theme.

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"We are responsible for whatever we wish to be"

"Whatever we wish to be can be produced by our present actions"

"We have to know how to act"

These lines are about our purushartha or free-will or limited freedom which can be gradually expanded to unlimited free-will. These things have been explained in detail in the KARMA theme posts.

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"We have the power to make ourselves"

At the highest level, this powerful mantra has to be experienced as:-

"WE HAVE THE POWER TO KNOW AND BE OUR TRUE SELF".

Dear All,

We, only we human beings, have this power to discover our true divine nature and then abide by that nature at the end of our spiritual journey.

That is what Sankara said - "Jantunaam Nara Janma Durlabham". 

In the entire creation, it is the rarest and most precious opportunity to be born as human beings, bestowed with discrimination to know what is right and what is wrong, to choose the RIGHT path and to discard the WRONG path, pursue the RIGHT path with intense craving to reach the ONLY goal - God realization and at the end, merge with Lord and emerge as victorious. 

JAYA VIJAYI BHAVA.

Love.

Chinmayananda Saraswati

अज्ञानतिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जनशालाकया

चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः

Ajnana-Timirandhasya Jnananjana-Salakaya; 

Chakshurunmilitam Yena Tasmai Sri Gurave Namah.

(Prostrations to that Guru who, by the collyrium-rod of Knowledge, opens the eyes of those who are rendered blind by the darkness of ignorance)

"The Guru is God Himself manifesting in a personal form to guide the aspirant. Grace of God takes the form of Guru. To see the Guru is to see God. The Guru is united with God. He inspires devotion in others. His presence purifies all. 

The Guru is verily a link between the individual and the Immortal. He is a being who has raised himself from this into That, and thus has a free and unhampered access to both the realms. He stands, as it were, upon the threshold of immortality; and bending down, he raises the struggling individuals with his one hand, and with the other lifts them up into the empyrean of everlasting joy and infinite Truth-Consciousness. "

(Swami Sivananda)

Dear All,

If the author has to actually justify the quote of Chinmaya above and then Chinmaya's Guru Swami Sivananda's saying given above, then a whole volume has to be written and still  the author would be falling short of vocabulary to actually describe what these masters have written.

Swami Chinamaya says - All rituals, all worships, all efforts by any person (Japa mala, sitting in the assembly hall for attending satsangh etc.) are of little use in one's spiritual upliftment  unless the aspirant is fired up with mumukshatva (intense craving for God realization) and a realized master comes to him, holds his hand and says "Run with Me" (in the path of sadhana as per Guru's instructions)

And about learning by watching Guru's actions, Guru's silence, Guru's words, only those blessed ones who have had opportunity in their lives to be in the presence of a realised Master can actually explain this inexplicable learning process otherwise.

In the earlier days when almost each child used to be sent to the Acharya, to stay in the hermitage of the Guru, the learning that the disciple used to get by observing his Guru is something which no one can describe and no one can understand. 

Sri Chinmaya has written about his experience and learning on observing Tapovan Maharaj, Swami Venkatesananda, Swami Krishnananda etc., have written in detail about their learning on watching their Guru Swami Sivananda, Muruganar has written poems after poems on his learning under the feet of Sri Ramana where the learning was totally in silence as Ramana hardly spoke on spiritual aspects explicitly.

How can Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda be left out in the list? He has written many pages in "Autobiography of Yogi" about his observing and learning from his Guru Sri Yukteswar. 

It so happens that in the hermitage of a Guru, a dozen disciples undergo training for 10 years but out of them, only one or two come out as outstanding and spread the fragrance of their learning from their Guru to the world. This is because of the tuning which Chinmaya has mentioned in his quote. 

There may be many direct disciples of Tapovan Maharaj but only Chinmaya went on to become world renowned saint. Same is the case with Sri Krishnananda or Chidananda under Swami Sivananda and so on.

Such chosen disciples, out of their prarabdha on one hand and due to their intense purushartha on the other hand, end up tuning themselves 100% to their masters and are able to grasp each and every gesture, each and every word, each word of compassion or even scolding of their Master and are able to almost peep into the heart of their Masters and grasp everything that their Master has to give to them.

There are volumes of books on Guru's contribution in Disciple's emancipation like  GURU BHAKTI YOGA by Swami Sivananda  or GURU VACHAKA KOVAI based on Sri Ramana's teachings and GURU TATTVA by Swami Sivananda and many more. 

Love.