Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 49

Triple yearnings, triplets of divinity

 

It is only natural and reasonable to expect that this vast flow, this constant movement must have something fixed and unmoving as its base and support. This is exactly what is posited as Atma or the Supreme Brahman (Parabrahman). 

 

The very first vibratory movement on that base happened when the Supreme Brahman became the Highest Godhead (Parameswara) and expressed the three thirsts for wisdom (jnana), wish, and action. That very movement was known as the primordial act (karma), the act of Being, transforming itself into becoming, the act of creation (srishti).

 

The importance of action (karma) necessitated the triple aspects of Divinity: Brahma (who causes creation), Vishnu (who supports and sustains) and Maheswara (who dissolves and destroys). The law of karma rules the motions of the stars, the planets, the galaxies, and other heavenly bodies in space. The same law directs and con trols all that happens in all the worlds. It is inscrutable in its very essence. No one can penetrate the time or space when karma was not. What, why, when, and how events happen is beyond the capacity of people to predict with accuracy. They are laid down from eternity to eternity.

 

Experience non-action in action and vice versa

 

Just as a work being done or an activity that is engaging one can be referred to as karma, no work being done and no activity being engaged in are also karma! On seeing people silent and calm, sitting quiet and doing nothing, we infer that they are free from activity. How, then, can they be described as doing activity? What is meant by saying, “They are not doing any work; they are not engaged in any activity”? That statement means only that “They are engaged in keeping themselves away from any work or activity.” 

 

So, it can be affirmed that people sometimes are busy doing work and sometimes busy keeping work away from their attention; that is to say, they are engaged in activity (karma) as well as inactivity (a-karma). If they are not engrossed or attached with the action they do and are engaged in it as their duty, as their way of worship, and if they are not attached to the fruit of their action, then they can practice inactivity even in action. This is the highest spiritual discipline.

 

The very first act with which the career of a living being starts is “breathing and vibration of vital airs”. When one thinks of it, it is wonderful how it happens. It is an amazing mystery. No human being resolves, at the moment of earthly life, to draw in and breathe out the air that exists around him. It proceeds without being willed or wished for. Not only people but every living organism is evidence of this great marvel.

 

Doubts may be raised: How can anything happen to people without their knowledge or their resolution? It is best to answer this doubt by confessing that people can’t unravel such secrets. Even if an attempt is made to reply that nature is the cause, the question still remains: What exactly is nature? Breathing begins when life begins; it is an automatic, natural act, it is said. But all this is only saying the same thing in other words. They do not explain anything. It can as well be said that we are ignorant how it happens just when it is most essential. It is indeed surprising that the act of breathing is a mystery even to the person who breathes.

 

As you think, so you become

 

When we reflect on the fact that yogis exercise their will and stop their pulse beats and their inhaling-exhaling process, we realize the power of will in inducing action (karma). Action, we can infer, is not something hanging loose in midair! Unless we become doers, deeds do not emanate. An axiom in the Nyaya Sastra says:

 

As one knows, so one wishes; as one wishes, so one acts (na jnathi, icchathi yathathe). The Vedanta Sutras also proclaim the same truth.

 

That on which attention rests, that is the thing wished for (yad-dhyaayathi, thad icchathi). That on which the wish rests, that is the thing for which deeds are done (yad-icchathi thad karothi).

 

That for which deeds are done, that is what he becomes (yath karothi, thadbhavathi). The manifest nature of the individual is moulded by desire. One shapes oneself in line with hopes, aspirations, attempts, and achievements. Even one’s own future life is designed through one’s decisions and deeds. The force that one’s “reason” exerts on oneself and that directs one’s will in specific directions is known as nature (prakriti). When once it is discovered that one’s own level of intelligence is the prime factor in determining one’s inclinations and desires, then, it is easy to follow the means by which one can win release from the hold of nature.

 

continued...

 

Love.

 

 

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 48

Chapter XVIII

 

Activity and Action

 

Spiritual versus materialistic lands

 

The countries of the world fall into two categories: countries in which the people are devoted to activities with spiritual motivation (karma-bhumi) and countries in which the people pursue the pathways of the senses (bhoga-bhumi), with no higher purpose to guide them. The categories emphasize the ideals of the people down through the ages. India (Bharath) is the land of Godward activity, where the people have discovered the proper goal of all activity, namely the glorification of God resident within and without.

 

Activity (karma) is inevitable; it is immanent in every thought. It is of two kinds: material and spiritual, connected with this world and drawn from the Vedas or scriptural injunctions. Activities that merely sustain life are material. Activities that elevate the human into the divine are based either on the Vedas or on later sacred texts (sastras) or codes of law (smrithi). The activities can be mental, emotional, or physical. They are also determined by the activities that the individual has adopted in either previous lives or this life. 

 

Secret of actions and reactions

 

The Vedas (sruthis) and the codes of law (smrithi) of India have thus classified karma on the basis of the consequences it creates in the life of the individual. The word karma is short and crisp; it is used freely by all and sundry. But the idea and ideals it conveys are of great significance to mankind. Karma is not simply physical; it is mental, verbal, and manual. Each one can read into it as much value and validity as their reason can unravel.

 

Karma subsumes every activity of people — worldly, scriptural, and spiritual. All three strands are, in truth, intertwined. The worldly karma entails merit or demerit; the scriptural karma is saturated with the experience of generations of good seekers; the spiritual devotes itself to the cleansing of the heart so that the indwelling God may be reflected therein. Karma is a stream that flows ever faster and faster, turning the wheel of life and keeping it incessantly active.

 

Karma means movement, or that which urges the movement. Air moves in space; the moving air results in heat. It is the friction caused by aerial motion that makes the latent heat manifest. 

 

Living beings are able to maintain the temperature of the body as long as air is breathed in and out. The quicker the breath, the warmer the body. Warmth is the characteristic of fire. Fire is the origin of water. The Sun, as one can see, raises clouds. 

 

The particles of water get mixed with other elements and then harden into “earth” (ground, soil). The earth produces and fosters plants and trees, which feed and foster humanity, keeping people hale and hearty. These plants give the grain upon which people live, and the seminal fluid that produces progeny is the gift of the grain. Thus is the activity (karma) of creation effected and continued. This is how the codes of law texts (smrithi) summarize the process.

 

In short, activity (karma) is observable here as movement, as progress, as evolution, and as hereditary effect.

 

continued....

 

 

Love.

 

 

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 47

 

 

India: Holy land of Godward action

 

India (Bharath) is designated as the Holy Land of Godward activity (karma-bhumi or karma-kshetra). All people everywhere are pilgrims trekking toward the Holy Land of Godward activity. Karma is the sine qua non of India; it holds forth the divinity of activity and turns all activity into spiritual discipline (sadhana). This is the reason for the names by which India is known.

 

The sacred scriptures (sruthi) of this land loudly proclaim that the individual is the architect of their own fate, high or low status in society, luxury or poverty, liberty or bondage. “Whatever form the person craves now, while alive in this world, that form the person attains after death (Sa yatha krathurasmin loke purusho bhavathi; thathethah prathye bhavathi)”, declare the Vedas. 

 

Therefore, it is clear that karma decides birth and that luxury or poverty, character, attitude, the level of intelligence, the joys and grief of this life are the earnings gathered during previous lives. 

 

Birth, progress based on desires, activities

 

Some people, though of noble birth, engage themselves in evil deeds. Others, though born in castes considered low, are engaged in good deeds. Why? This problem agitates us often. Some people born as brahmins perform bad deeds; in other words, they descend into passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (thamasic) levels. People born in inferior castes rise into the pure (sathwic) level and do good deeds. Brahmins of the type mentioned are brahmins by birth only and not by virtue of their deeds. The others are low only by birth and not low at all by virtue of their deeds. The Vedas require coordination of birth and behaviour in castes.

 

Let us consider an example. Kausika was a warrior (kshatriya), that is to say, a person of passionate (rajasic) nature. However, as the result of his deeds in previous lives, pure (sathwic) tendencies and attitudes entered his consciousness, and he went about adhering strictly to truth. He transformed himself and sublimated his consciousness into a pure state. The mantra that he uttered and that emanated from that level of consciousness is the Gayatri. He is known as Viswamitra, the friend (mithra) of all (viswa), for he became the well-wisher of the entire world! 

 

Brahmins have accepted and acclaimed that mantra as a divine gift; they have revered and recited it and derived immense bliss from it. Kausika was therefore a warrior by birth, but he became a brahmin by activity, and he was accepted as such by the Vedas, which emanated from the voice of God.

 

Social divisions reflect time, place, circumstance

 

Modern thinkers may have some doubt about this. This is quite natural. Let us see what that doubt is. When it is said that divine will laid down the castes, should they not exist in all lands? Surely, they should not be confined to this country, India (Bharath), they say. But there is no rule that whatever is created is necessarily to be found to exist everywhere! It is not possible to realize that expectation.

 

It is only natural that restrictions and preferences concerning the process of living comprising the code have to be established with reference to each region, its atmosphere and climate, its peculiarities and specialities. 

 

Only God knows and decides what should happen to which, and where, and why. All else are powerless. Events like birth are determined by circumstances of space, time, causation, and the like. They are not bound by our needs or reactions, favourable or unfavourable. For this reason, mere observation and study of what is patent will only lead to confusing doubts about castes. Such doubts are inevitable, for they are bred by the ego. The core of reality is separate and distinct from the fabrications of the ego. When people start acting according to the whims of fancy and speak whatever comes to mind, we can only characterize them as models of sheer ignorance.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 46

 

Chapter XVII

 

Fourfold Social Division

 

Creation of caste

 

Hindu dharma and its rules of life are based on caste (varna) and stage of life (asrama). Let us take first the principle of caste in religion. 

 

The codes of law (smrithi) declare, “The four castes are created by Me (chaathur varnyam, maya srishtam)”; and the Vedas (sruthi) say, “The brahmin emerged from the face, the warriors rose from the arms, etc. (brahmanosya mukham aseeth; baahuu-raajanyah krithah, etc.)”. It is clear that the caste system is created by the Lord. If it is propagated that the caste system has brought about disastrous distinctions, the fault lies in misinterpretation of the word.

 

 

Names and forms: handiwork of God

 

To prove that trees exist, the word “tree” is enough. A word is just sound, but it indicates something that exists. The sound “elephant” is proof of the existence of that animal. 

 

The sounds were there even before us. We were born into the tangle of sounds. We did not originate them. So, for every current word, a meaning must adhere. The words with their implications are there already, even before our birth. We just use them, whichever we want, whenever we need.

 

Similarly, the words brahmin and labourer (sudra) inform us that there were persons answering to those words. The questions “Who is a brahmin? Who is not a brahmin?” are irrelevant in this discussion. What is being made known is only the conceptions of “word” and “meaning”. The entire cosmos is subsumed under “word” and “meaning”; it is sheer name and form (the name being the word; the form, the meaning).

 

The Vedas (sruthis) declare: “Name and form are one single indivisible unit (vaachaarambho vikaaro naa- madheyam)”.

 

Since they are based on the divine Lord, who is the splendour of wisdom and the repository of innate glory, the darkness of delusion, ignorance, or nature should not overpower us. Where light is present, darkness has no place. The Lord declared, “I shall become many,” and that Will resulted in the cosmos and is directing it forever. 

 

Therefore, name and form are the results of that Will, and not of any human will. It would be an absurd claim for people to pretend that they originated them. The All-powerful Lord alone has willed so. That is why He is designated as the Supreme. To the question, “Does God exist?”, the existence of the word God is the indisputable proof.

 

The world consists of multifarious objects, each with a name. No one has discovered how or why these names got attached to these objects, nor is it possible to explain this. Even if an attempt is made, the result can be only a guess and not the truth. So it is best to conclude that it is divinely descended. Words used between birth and death, or current before birth or after death, words indicating mother and children, or words like righteousness (dharma), unrighteousness, heaven (swarga) and hell (Naraka) are certainly not human artifices but divine dispensations. The Vedas are the authority for this declaration.

 

So, when it is declared that the brahmin manifested from the face (brahmanaasya mukham aaseeth) or that the four castes (varnas) were created by Me (chaathur varnaym mayaa srishtham), doesn’t that also posit that there must have been castes that are denoted by the word and people who could be described as examples or representatives of that word? Don’t these declarations make plain to us that the very God who created them grouped them on the basis of their tendencies and activities as castes?

 

Primal qualities created by innate desires

 

So the word caste (varna) can be understood in all its bearings only if deep inquiry is made and clear thought is directed on it. The meaning of caste, the most common among the people and current everywhere, is “colour”. But how this word came to be attached to that meaning is not known to many. This has to be known in order to grasp the true significance of the word. 

 

In the word varna, the root vri means description, elaboration, and also the process of counting. The roots r and rn that form words like ramana mean enjoyment, pleasure, etc., so varna signifies “accepting with pleasure after elaborate consideration”.

 

Individuals take birth according to the tendencies they appreciate, aspire for, and adopt. So the castes into which they are born are determined by themselves and not by any external authority. Which particular tendency they choose to cultivate depends on their intellectual level. It is generally believed that desires shape the intelligence. 

 

Intelligence molds the activities, and activities decide the character and nature of life. This is the correct interpretation of the expression Guna karma vibhaagasah.

 

While the Vedas (sruthis) and the codes of law (smrithi) indicate so elaborately the causes that lead to the individual’s birth, life, and death in particular castes, religions, families, and sections, people who are unable to understand them lay down theories according to their own limited intelligence and derive satisfaction therefrom.

 

What else is this but sheer ignorance? Or it may be egotist pride exhibiting that they know everything, for isn’t egotism itself the progeny of ignorance? The conclusion is that caste, social status, family and even religion are determined by quality (guna) and karma. They are not amenable to human manipulation. The Vedas declare so; they posit that it has been so decided by divine Will.

 

Love.

 

Swami Vivekananda

 

You are strong, omnipotent, and omniscient. No matter that you have not expressed it yet, it is in you. All knowledge is in you, all power, all purity, and all freedom-why cannot you express this knowledge? Because you do not believe in it... Believe in it, and it must and will come out.

 

Swami Vivekananda

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 45

 Chapter XVI

 

Mankind and God

 

For the consummation of human evolution and the realization by people of their highest goal, religion and spiritual discipline are very essential. Religion is the link between the individual and the universe, between the individual soul and God (jiva and Deva). 

 

If the link does not exist, life becomes chaos. A cow caught on a hill, wanting to go to the opposite hill but confronted with a flooded river in between, needs a bridge between thetwo. That is what religion is. Between the hill of individual life and the region of the Universal runs the flooded river of nature, with all its confusions and complexities. It is difficult to discover where it comes from, how it accumulates all that uproar, and where it ultimately ends. But, fortunately, in every human community we have bridge builders who help people to cross.

 

Vedic religion sourced in God, non-Vedic religions in God-man

 

We may have more than one bridge, but the purpose of each is the same. The bridge built by the sages and seers of India is known as the bridge of Eternal Religion (Sanathana Dharma). It is called so because it is an eternal, everlasting bridge based on the ageless foundation of the Vedas, and it can be used reliably by all, in all countries and at all times. That is why it is sometimes called the Vedic bridge and the Vedic path, also as the Aryan Path. 

 

All attempts to trace those who have laid this path have failed. This is why people have given up the search in despair, characterizing the path as undesigned. They assured themselves that the Lord himself was the designer.

 

All religions and spiritual paths laid through the ages are indeed sacred, for they have all been designed by messengers of the Lord, chosen because they are the foremost of people. Buddha, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, Mo- hammed — such names are known worldwide. Their doctrines, ideals, and thoughts have all become so valid for their followers that their names have been identified with their religions.

 

Doctrine of rebirth unique to Vedic religion

 

In the Christian religion, it is stated that individual beings were created as they are. It is said that Allah did the same. Even Zoroastrian and Buddhist religions describe creation more or less on the same lines. But Vedic religion has a different version. The individual is as eternal as God. He is a spark of God. If there are no beings (jivis) there is no God (Deva). 

 

This is especially emphasized in the Vedas. Followers of other religions are, in recent times, recognizing this truth. The present life of each is only an interval between previous and future lives. It is but a step toward the next. This is indicated in the Vedas. The Vedas instruct about the relationship between the previous and future births. No other religion has revealed so much about previous and future births.

 

Another point: Among the four objectives of life — right action, wealth, desire, and liberation (dharma, artha, kama, and moksha) — various religions describe the stage of liberation in various ways. Each one lays down some doctrine and insists upon faith in it. Therefore, there is no agreement or identity between the experiences they describe. 

 

The Hindu description of the experience, however, can be gained by followers of all religions. There may be agreement in the details of the descriptions in various religions, but the total experience is not described in the same manner. The reason is this: the Hindu religion, which has come down from the timeless past, is really supreme. 

 

Vedic rituals: stepping stones to God

 

In the Hindu religion, rituals and ceremonies were laid down, to be observed from sunrise to nightfall, without intermission.

But these rituals and dedicatory ceremonies were not enough, and elaborate disciplines of living were also laid down. No other religion has so many and so elaborate rules of living. Therefore, it wouldn’t be correct to declare that all religions are the same. They might have adopted a few or many of these rules of living from Hinduism, since Hinduism has laid emphasis on them from the beginning.

 

In order to carry out this heavy schedule of ritual or action (karma), one must have devotion, spiritual wisdom, and self-control (bhakthi, jnana, and yoga). Dharma is the taproot of the great tree of religion. It is the eternal source of its strength. It is fed by waters of devotion; the leaves and flowers are renunciation and other virtues, and the fruit is understanding.

 

Past actions influence future births

 

It is a great source of peace to be content with one’s present conditions because one knows oneself to be the cause and knows that doing good and meritorious deeds now can build a happy future. 

 

Vedic religion is holistic, not partial

 

Religion cannot be, at any time, a mere personal affair. It may be possible to assert so, since each one’s faith is rooted in himself and since each one expresses that faith in their own behaviour and actions. But how far is that statement valid? 

 

The works of Vyasa and Valmiki are very ancient. Such writings of past ages are aptly called Puranas. But, though centuries have flown by since they were born, age is powerless to affect them. 

 

Manu’s code of law is unequaled

 

The Manu Dharma Sastra is unique; no text compares with it in any country throughout history. The doctrines of the Hindu faith and the scriptures (sastras) that enshrine them do not offer homage to material sciences. 

 

The scientists of today call this attitude blind faith; they want it to be discarded. They want every subjective and objective fact to be examined and put to rigorous tests. 

 

There is no need to dig up and lay bare new doctrines. Every principle and path is readily available. Understanding is the only thing we need aspire to. 

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 44

 

Chapter XV

 

Levels and Stages

 

"The Hindu religion authorizes the worship of a variety of Gods; this has resulted in sectarian feuds and factions, which fill the land with fear and unrest. The unthinking verdict of many observers is that the insights and agitations in the country can be traced to this one basic defect. But this judgment is not correct. It is a flimsy flight of fancy, indulged in by people devoid of the faculty of reason. 

 

Sectarian conflicts within a religion

 

In the West, the inhabitants of all lands are, more or less, adherents of the Christian religion. Though all of them adore one God, they have been slaughtering each other by methods far more horrible than wild animals resort to. 

 

Don’t they wage wars in which peoples remote from the scene of conflict are wiped off the earth by merciless fire power, including innocent women, children, and the aged? 

 

Is their religion the basic cause for such heartless, disgraceful, stupid, and demonic devastation and fratricide? Of course, they belong to one religion and they adore one God, but there must be some poisonous trait lurking behind the facade of adoration, polluting the entire personality. Religion cannot be the cause, even to the slightest extent, for factions, fights, and wars.

 

Germany had no place for caste groups and sectarian conflicts. It had achieved extraordinary progress in science and technology. It shone in the forefront of nations by means of its strength, courage, and heroism. Such a nation was cut up into four bits by the four victorious powers, each bit being ruled by a separate nation! 

 

Japan, which has no problems of religious differences and sectarian conflicts, had to suffer the vengeance of the nations for some years! What was the reason? For the downfall of nations, religion alone cannot be the cause.

 

Differences are due to innate characteristics

 

No one can even imagine a world in which differences do not exist. Differences are born from the inner springs of intelligence based on the cumulative effect of impacts. The life of every being is the external expression of this intelligence and its effect. Inert as well non-inert entities are but manifestations on different levels of this intuitive intelligence. 

 

The parrot casts its eyes in a distinct way; the crow does the same, quite differently. The jackal reasons out situations differently from the dog. The nature of animals is of one type; the nature of human beings is of another.

 

Between person and person, there are differences in the knowledge gained. Even in physical characteristics and personal charm there are countless variations. Their likes and dislikes, their thoughts and feelings are shaped in diverse ways by the knowledge they have and the professions in which they are engaged. We have no need to go so far. Even twins growing together in the same womb are not often identical; they manifest different natures. What is the reason for this? The reason lies in differences in the development of the intelligence.

 

Therefore, at no time can mankind be free from differences; universal equality is an impossible aspiration; the desire to have it established on earth is a fantasy; it is a search for flowers in the sky. 

 

The animal lives with the awareness that it is an animal, the bird has the consciousness that it is a bird. A woman engages herself in the activities of the world, conscious that she is a woman; so also does man.

 

As you think, so you become

 

The consciousness one has, until sleep overwhelms, continues without change after waking from sleep. The living being continues activities as before sleep; so too, one continues in this life the activities broken off by death, from where they were ended.

 

One gives up the body at the end, remembering the feelings that moved one ever so strongly (Yam yam vaapi smaran bhaavam, thyajathyanthe kalebaram).

 

And in the Gita, One attains that status itself to which the feelings were all the while directed

(Tham thamaivethi Kauntheya, sadaa thadbhaava bhavithah).

 

The nature of the next life is in accordance with feelings that occupy the mind when one casts off the corpse. For those feelings will be in accordance only with the feelings that motivated the living days. On deeper thought, it will be evident that the basic truth is just this: everything depends on the progress attained in the sublimation of intelligence.

Outer forms express inner differences

 

Though in outer form a certain uniformity may appear, there exist vast and varied differences in inner nature. A genus or species is decided mainly on outer characteristics, which are really the manifested expressions of the inner intelligence. An individual is primarily a form. Person, tree, hill, sparrow, fox, dog, cow, snake, scorpion — these “sounds” denote members of the species with these forms. The individuals may undergo destruction, but the species will continue. Many people die, but mankind persists. Trees may fall and be reduced to ash or dust, but the genus cannot ever suffer destruction. The living genus is eternal; total destruction can never happen.

 

If we analyze and inquire into even the small things that we experience in our daily lives, these truths will be clearly evident before us. We say that everyone in the human species has human characteristics, but when we evaluate one person, we pay special attention to their virtues and habits, present status, and future prospects.

 

Cows — all of them — belong to one species, but when we want to purchase a cow, we try to find out its parentage. We look for auspicious marks on its body. It must give us plenty of milk; it must be a pretty little quiet animal. We purchase only cows with these desirable qualities. We are not attracted by the fact that it is a cow like the rest of the species. We do not purchase a barren cow or a wild unruly cow. Therefore, though all people are more or less uniform, each is to be evaluated only on the basis of their own qualities.

 

Innate qualities designed by divine will

 

When an inquiry in depth is made into another topic, it will be clear that feelings of difference between high and low are natural reactions. Though urine and feces are uniformly unclean, the urine of the cow is treated as holy. Sanctity is not attributed to the urine or feces of other animals; these are definitely unholy. Take the instance of fire (agni). Fire is fire, whatever the form. We light lamps at home; we have fire in our hearths. We have the sacrificial fire, rising up in flames. This fire is revered and worshiped; people prostrate before it. But the fire in the lamp and the hearth are not evaluated so highly. The flame of a fire used to burn a corpse on the cremation ground is not considered pure enough for any other use. No one will bake “rotis” over it; no one will revere it or offer prostrations before it. It is treated as low, unholy, polluted.

 

Similarly, though people have the same physical form, because of the peculiarities of each body and of the other sheaths in which each is encased, as well as the nature of their qualities and activities, distinctions among them have necessarily to be made. Some must be treated as “high”, some as “low”. Electric bulbs don’t all emit the same quality of light; some are bright, some dull. There is the same current in every bulb, though some express it in full strength and others are not able to do so.

We have to accept that for the world to evolve, levels of awareness, stages of excellence, distinctions like high and low, holy and unholy, religious and irreligious are essential requisites; they are inevitable. They are designed by divine will."

 

Love.