Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 9

Unity in diversity

 

Hymns (riks) arose on various deities and divine forces because the sages (rishis) knew that each person can cognize “One alone is” only from their own viewpoint and that it is different for different persons, depending on the stage reached in clarifying and purifying the vision. 

The sages announced through that statement their discovery that the One is the subject that all the sages and saints, seers and poets, hymnists and composers adored and praised in various languages, during various moods, through various styles of expression.

Thus, consequences of the highest value to the world emerged from the declaration quoted above, “One alone is; the wise speak of It as many.” 

For example, many are surprised that India is the one country where religious fanaticism is absent, and no one hinders or harms the religious observances of another. This country has theists, atheists, dualists, non-dualists, monotheists, and others; they live together in peace and harmony, without causing or suffering injury.

Materialists stood on the steps of temples (held sacred by brahmins and used by them for worship) and defamed and denied God. They called upon all to follow them. They declared that the idea of God is but an insane fancy. 

They condemned God, scriptures, codes of morality, righteousness, and guiding principles and said that they were all superstitions designed and developed for selfish aggrandizement by the brahmins. They roamed the land and propagated these conclusions. No one hindered them.

Buddhism, which systematically slighted Hindu rites and religious beliefs, was allowed to coexist in an atmosphere of respect. The Jains too did not accept the Vedas and the Vedic Gods. They asked in derision how such Gods could exist and be believed in. Examples of the spirit of tolerance rooted in the revelatory statement quoted above are innumerable. 

Until the ravaging Muslims sprang on this country, no one in this land of India (Bharath) knew what violence meant. Only when foreign hordes fell upon them and resorted to violence did the people come to know how intolerant humanity can be.

Indians (Bharathiyas), grown up in the culture of India, have deep faith in the equality of all faiths. Whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, or Christianity, they believe that no one should talk lightly of the worship of God. 

They believe that when anyone talks lightly of any one of the names of god or any of the forms of God whom others adore, they are insulting the one God. This was the message held forth by the Indian way of spiritual life. Those who have learned this truth and adhere to it are the real sons and daughters of India.

This truth is beyond the grasp of all; not all can achieve this knowledge: Who is the ruler of the Universe? Who is it that stands outside it and guides it? What is the cause of the existence of this cosmos? Whence did this originate? How did it happen? What caused this existence? The Vedas have many hymns (riks) dealing with these mysteries. Indians have probed them.

 

Differences due to past actions

 

Creation involves putting substances together; what is put together must come apart in course of time and get liberated. The individual is created, so disintegration and death will happen. Now, some are born happy; some enjoy healthy, happy lives. Some are born miserable; others are born without hands or legs. Some are born feeble minded or as defectives. Who hurt them or injured them? 

God is proclaimed as just and kind. How can such a God be so partial and prejudiced! How can such differential treatment come into the realm ruled by God? Such doubts are natural. 

But the vision of the sages of India who molded the thought of this land revealed to them that God is not the cause of these differences; they are the consequences of the acts indulged in by the individual in lives before the present one. They result in happiness and misery, health, and handicaps.

Good and bad are self-made, the effects of what was done in previous lives. Can the bodies of people and their conditions, the ups and downs people meet in life, can they not be the accumulated result of hereditary impacts and tendencies? 

When an item of work is done again and again, it becomes a habit, a skill; doesn’t it? Therefore, the skill or habit that a newborn exhibit must be due to constant repetition indulged in long ago. 

Of course, such practice must have taken place in a previous life or many lives. So, it is necessary to posit the validity of the belief in past and future lives, for all living beings. This is a basic belief in Indian spiritual thought.

 

Introspection-Summary

1)     Buddhism, Jainism- all these did not accept vedas. They asked in derision how such Gods could exist and be believed in.

2)    Materialists/Atheists denied existence of God, condemned worship of God.

3)    However, everyone existed in this great land of Bharath in peace, until the Muslims invaded our country. Swami writes, in this context, “Only when foreign hordes fell upon them and resorted to violence did the people come to know how intolerant humanity can be.”

4)    Who is the ruler of the Universe? Who is it that stands outside it and guides it? What is the cause of the existence of this cosmos? Whence did this originate. How did it happen? What caused this existence?

For all these questions, Vedas probed and concluded- “consequences of the highest value to the world emerged from the declaration, “One alone is, the wise speak of It as many.”

This “one alone” is Brahman, beyond manifest and unmanifest, as concluded in the previous post as well.

5)    Swami touches upon the theory of Karma towards the end of today’s part from the 3rd chapter and says, God can never be unkind to punish any one or cause misery to anyone. All sufferings/ happiness is on account of one’s own past action.

Swami writes, “Good and bad are self-made, the effects of what was done in previous lives.”

 

Love.