Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 7

 

Eschewing dogmatism and violence

(Relevant extract)

 

The basic truth of nature is the One in the many; that is the key to its understanding. The Indians (Bharathiyas) grasped this truth; they held fast to this key. People of other countries were content to lay down certain axioms and enforce belief in them. 

They insisted on acceptance of these axioms and observance of rules and regulations that arose out of them. They held one single coat before the individuals of the society where they lived and required everyone to wear that same coat; there was no alternative coat for people it did not fit. They had to live without a coat to protect them against the chill wind.

The Indian approach was quite different. For each aspect or variation of feeling and thinking, volition and action, they made available a distinct name and form and provided modes of worship and ways of adoration in accordance with the emotional needs and intellectual caliber of the aspirants and devotees. 

Of course, a few had no need for such special consideration and treatment, but many took advantage of this concession and advanced in their march toward spiritual wisdom and liberation.

The message of India (Bharath)

(Relevant extract)

The ancient Indian religion fostered the faith that the Self in a person is no other than the Over self, or God. Indian religion directs long journeys by men and women toward the goal of the splendor of God consciousness or the consciousness of the Divine — through varied paths, confronted and controlled by varied circumstances, but encouraged and enlightened by various types of faith.

Although the practices and rites might be crude, they are not opposed to the ultimate truth. The seeming contradictions must be interpreted as incidental to the need to inspire people with varied intellectual, moral, economic, and social backgrounds. 

For example, the light that comes through a tiny piece of colored glass is of the same origin as bigger, clearer light. The extent, clarity, brightness, etc. of light depends only on the medium. The source of all light is the One Truth, the Source of all, the Basis of all, the Goal of all, the Reality in all, and the Centre in all. 

Like the thread on which pearls are strung as a rosary, God or the Over-self is interpenetrative in all beings. In all beings. That is the message of India (Bharath). All beings everywhere, anywhere!

Indian spiritualism has limitless vastness and immensely high ideals; it is a full stream of sanctifying ideations, flowing along with no decline or diminution, straight and smooth to the ocean of divine grace. The journey is direct, along a royal road toward the supreme goal.

Another point: The source of all spiritual principles recognized and revered by Indians (Bharathiyas) is God; He is the one supporting pillar. Therefore, no other support is needed for faith. Ancient Indian spirituality is the very foundation of all other faiths; it stands on the very summit. It has achieved victory over many opposing faiths, confronting them with many valid arguments and theories. 

What has to be borne in mind is this: Indian (Bharathiya) texts on spirituality are the most ancient in the whole world; they are the earliest studies and discoveries of the Atma, of personal and impersonal God, and of codes of conduct, individual and social, based on those revelations and discoveries. In no other country, among no other peoples, have such ancient teachings seen the light. 

There may be some misty ideas or brief glimpses, but they do not deserve the name “spiritual text” or “literature”. The Vedic literature pictures not only spiritual inquiries by the sages and spiritual aspirants and their results but also their lines of thought, their yearnings and aspirations, their secular struggles, and temporal problems.

Introspection

Here, Swami brings out the vastness of Indian philosophy as per the ancient Hindu scriptures, as compared to the limitations and restrictions imposed by few other religions, with the analogy of single coat with no option available as alternative coat.

Swami goes on to clarify that though, depending upon the aptitude, intellect and other attributes, there may be apparently diverse practices, rituals etc. in Bharath, when  one gets into the subtler aspect of each of them, they all point out towards only one thing- “Consciousness”. Swami describes this as “Over Self”.

Sai upholds the ancient Vedic scriptures as the most ancient scriptures when He writes, “The Vedic literature pictures not only spiritual inquiries by the sages and spiritual aspirants and their results but also their lines of thought, their yearnings and aspirations, their secular struggles, and temporal problems”.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 6

Significance of idol worship

 

Swami writes,

"A tree’s value is estimated with reference to its fruits. Take idol worship, for example. Moralists, metaphysicians, philosophers, adherents of the path of devotion, and the foremost among the virtuous in all parts of the world have all agreed that idol worship is highly beneficial. 

As long as attachment to the material body and possessions persists, worship of a material symbol is necessary. It is but a means, but many decry it as a superstition. This is not correct. It is not the right approach. Such an attitude is just an outburst of foolishness.

Is it not a fact that the belief in one’s being the body is a superstition? Can the body last forever? Is it not a skin doll with nine apertures, in which life is so perilously existent that a sneeze may cause collapse? 

Again, should we not characterize the life people lead, believing in the reality of this world, as another superstition? Isn’t all the self-importance assumed by people who have positions of power and a great quantity of riches another foolish pose?

But acts done on the basis of faith in the Atma, the Reality within, can’t be dubbed as superstitious or foolish. For every opinion one expresses, if proper reasons are given, all will rejoice. But to declare as superstitious all that one doesn’t like is a sign of frenzy, foolishness, or egotism.

We will find it impossible to love God or adore Him unless we meditate on some form; this is as essential as breathing is for sheer living. This is a necessary stage in the process of living. One has to accept it as such. 

Childhood is the father of old age. Can old age condemn childhood or teenage as evil? To experience the divine Principle, idol worship is and has been a great help to many. 

How then can the aspirant and the practitioner of spiritual disciplines condemn idol worship after passing through that stage and deriving benefits from it? That would indeed be very wrong and inappropriate.

The Indian (Bharathiya) march toward the Supreme Reality is not from untruth to truth. It is from truth to truth, from incomplete truth to complete truth, from a partial truth to full truth. 

For what are spiritual exercises? Every effort made by people, from remote forest dwellers and unsophisticated tribals who adore the gross forms of Divinity to highly evolved seekers who adore the Full and the Absolute, is a spiritual exercise. Each such effort will take one a step forward in progress.

Each individual soul (jivi) is comparable to a bird; by longer and higher flights, it can rise up into the sky. And a stage may finally be gained when it can fly right up to the full splendored orb of the sun."

 

Introspection

 

Instantly, whatever the author had read on the subject, written by Swami Sivananda, comes to his mind.

Swami ji writes,

“Idol or Murthy (Vigraha), Sun, Fire, Water, Ganga, Saligram, Linga are all symbols or Prateekas of God which help the aspirants to attain one-pointedness of mind and purity of heart. A symbol is absolutely indispensable for fixing the mind. The Christians also have got the symbol 'cross'. 

A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a prop or Alambana; a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol. Even a Vedantin has the symbol of OM for fixing the wandering mind. In the beginning concentration or meditation is not possible without a symbol.

The devotee superimposes on the concrete idol the Lord and His attributes. He does Shodasopachara for the idol, the sixteen kinds of paying respects or service to the Lord such as Padyam (water for washing feet), Arghyam, Asana (seat), Snana (bathing), offering clothes, Achamana (water for sipping), applying sandal paste, offering flowers (Archana), burning incense, waving of lights and camphor; Maha Naivedyam, etc. 

The wandering mind is fixed now in this form of worship. The aspirant gradually feels the nearness of the Lord. He attains purity of heart and slowly annihilates his egoism.

For a Bhakta or a sage, there is no such thing as Jada or insentient matter. Everything is Vasudeva or Chaitanya-vasudevah sarvam iti. The devotee beholds actually the Lord in the idol. 

How sublime is Hindu philosophy and Hindu mode of worship! It does not stop or end with worship of idol alone. The Sadhaka is taken step by step to higher stages of devotion and Samadhi or communion through the worship of the idol. Though he worships the idol, he has to keep before his mental eye the all-pervading Lord. 

A piece of ordinary white paper or coloured paper has no value. You throw it away. But if there is stamp or picture of the King or Emperor on the paper (currency notes), you keep it safe in your money purse or trunk. Even so, an ordinary piece of stone has no value for you. You throw it away. 

But if you behold the stone Murti of Lord Krishna at Pandarpur or any other Murti in shrines, you bow your head with folded hands, because there is the stamp of the Lord on the stone. The devotee superimposes on the stone Murti his own Beloved and all the attributes of the Lord. Image worship is very necessary for beginners.

Even by worshipping a Pratima (idol) Ishvara is very much pleased. The Pratima is made up of five elements. Five elements constitute the body of the Lord. The idol remains as an idol. But the worship goes to the Lord. There is nothing wrong in worshipping an idol in the beginning. You must superimpose God and His attributes on the idol. You must think of the Antar-Atma that is hidden in the idol.

Hear the divine whisper in silence. Realise the power of faith. Feel God's sustaining Grace. Know the way of escape. Build the shrine of love or the temple of devotion in your heart. Enter the silence. Enjoy the life transcendent."

Swami’s writing and Sivananda ji’s writing on “Significance of Idol worship” is so complete in itself that there is nothing to elaborate on the same.

As long as one is having one’s own body identification, He can imagine, visualize and worship God only with form. Hence, Idol worship is important for him.

As he evolves in his devotion, as his devotion evolves into supreme love for God, he loses his body identification in the ocean of love that he exists as. 

Only when he loses his body identification, the form of God is also transcended and the bhakta reaches the state of Samadhi and abides in SELF.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 5

Merging of the individual in the Total

 

One feels happy when one has the knowledge that this one little body is one’s own, right? Then, when one knows that two bodies belong to one, shouldn’t one be twice as happy? 

 

In the same way, with the knowledge that one has an increasing number of bodies, the experience of happiness goes on increasing. 

 

When the whole world is known to be one body and world consciousness becomes part of the awareness, then the bliss will be full. To get this multi-consciousness, the limited egocentric prison walls must be destroyed.

 

When the ego-self (or jivi) identifies itself with the divine Atma, death will cease. When the ego-self identifies itself and merges with the bliss of the One, sorrow will cease. 

 

When it merges with spiritual wisdom (jnana), error will cease. “Material individual ness is born out of delusion; this body, which creates that impression, is only an ever-evolving atom of a boundless ocean; the second entity in me is the other form, namely, the embodied Self; when the ego of mine merges with the divine Self in me, then the delusion disappears through the upsurge of its opposite, supreme knowledge.” When one’s thought matures in the process of time, undoubtedly all schools of thought have to reach this conclusion.

 

Introspection

 

Swami is giving us the highest vedantic truth today in the above part in 2nd chapter of this vahini.

 

Let us try to understand the merger of individual in total, the subject of today’s post from SS Vahini, in this way:

 

The terms Brahman and Atman are used interchangeably in the Upanishads and in the Gita and other scriptures. So, from one aspect they are synonyms.

The definition of Brahman is given in the Taittiriya Upanishad as:–

 

'That from whence all beings are born, that by which, when born, they exist, that into which they enter at their demise, seek to know that. That is Brahman.'

 

It further goes on to say that Brahman is qualified by SAT (Being), CHIT (Consciousness) and ANANTA (limitless) - some texts substitute ĀNANDA or Bliss for ananta - but both refer to the limitless divine love and bliss.

 

So, Brahman is the fabric or network of the Universe described a BEING - there is no before or after, up or down, in or out - THAT simply IS - time-space. Brahman is the Unified Field.

 

Consciousness pervades the Universe and is integral to the fabric of the Universe itself. Bliss, love – infinite and spacious is the very nature of Brahman.

 

Now the Atman is a mode, or moiety of Brahman known is Sanskrit as amsa. Each and every amsa of Brahman is qualified by the same three essential attributes but in a state conditioned by KARMA.

These are known as:–

 

asti — existence - limited by time, space and causation.

bhati – consciousness - defined by 

(1) perception, (2) cognition and (3) experience.

Priti or priya – love. Every living sentient being has love - firstly self-love - then love of partner, children, friends etc. in every expanding circle of inclusion. 

 

In less developed creatures it never goes beyond self-love and in the advanced stages of spiritual evolution love is inclusive of all sentient and insentient beings.

The external universe in which we exist is comprised of nama-rupa — name and form.

 

When the individual ego/Jiva, transcends the limitations of Asti, Bhati, Priya, as described above, then the limitation of the Jiva atman as an amsa is transcended and the amsa , jiva atman, merges with the whole, Parama atman or Brahman.

 

What are the limitations which a jiva has to transcend in order to merge with God/Universal consciousness??

 

1)   Limitation of time, space, objective (Asti)

2) Perception and experience based on objects (Bhati)

3) Love, based on individual, limited relationships (Priya)

Upon transcending the above three, one easily goes beyond the limitation of his name and form as well as names and forms of all others in the creation and the jiva merges with God, Atman merges in Brahman.

 

Love.