Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 57

Self-inquiry and four stages of life

 

In order to achieve victory while inquiring into the nature of the Atma, one has to pass through the asramas— the four stages of life recognized and recommended by the scriptural texts of the eternal Vedic religion (Sanathana Dharma). Each one, while passing through each stage, aware of the duties and responsibilities prescribed in the texts, learns for themself a quantum of the knowledge that leads to Atmic awareness.

 

Only after the childhood years will the routine of the four stages have an impact. Until then, one cannot gather any special knowledge about one’s duties and responsibilities. People have childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age, and old age as stages of growth; there are also corresponding stages in the growth of wisdom.

 

In the first stage of childhood, one is led from ignorance and “innocence” into the world of knowledge, when one is accepted as a pupil by a preceptor (guru). After that, one has to serve and obey the guru, without feeling burdened and bound. 

 

In the second stage of youth, one has to share with society the means and measures for its progress and security; one has to start earning a livelihood and spending one’s income with intelligent care; one also has the duty to provide examples to younger people and guide them into socially useful paths. At the same time, one must follow the footsteps of elders and learn lessons for one’s own advancement from them.

 

In the third stage of adulthood, intelligent attention has to be paid not only to one’s own advancement and the advancement of the family and society but also to the advancement of people generally. That too is the responsibility of the grown-ups, and they must acquire the necessary skills. They must have wider visions of the peace and prosperity of all mankind and try to contribute to both, within the limits of their capacity and resources.

 

Old age is the fourth stage. By the time one reaches this stage of the journey, one must have discovered that joys available in this world are trivial and fleeting. One must be equipped with the higher knowledge of spiritual joy, available through delving into the inner spring of bliss. Through experiences, one’s heart must have softened and be filled with compassion. One has to be engrossed in promoting the progress of all beings without distinction. And one must be eager to share with others the accumulated knowledge and the benefit of experiences.

 

Occupations and attitudes

 

Thus, occupations and resultant attitudes have been assigned to the various stages of human life. Practice is as important for confirming one in wisdom as reading is important for confirming one in knowledge. Alongside of knowledge, youth has to cultivate the good qualities of humility, reverence, devotion to God, and steadfast faith. Youth has to engage in good works and enjoy them for the sheer elation they confer. 

 

During adulthood, along with the earning of wealth and involvement in the improvement of society, attention must be paid to the promotion and preservation of virtues and to the observance of moral codes. Steps should be taken to improve one’s righteous behaviour and spiritual practice (sadhana). All levels of consciousness have to be purified and then directed to holy tasks.

 

During middle age, besides fostering the family and society, one has to live an exemplary life to inspire one’s children and hold forth before society elevating ideals that are worth practising. No attempt should be made to belittle society and benefit only the family, for it is bound to fail. 

 

The Brahman principle can be realized only by purifying one’s activity and utilizing that activity to serve oneself in all. It can never be realized as long as one relies on the caste into which one is born, the intellectual equipment one has added unto oneself, or the mastery of the Vedas.

 

Continued,,

 

Love

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 56

 

 

Science of absolute truth

 

Vedanta is the legitimate property of every section, caste, community, and race, of the followers of any faith, and of people of both sexes. Vedanta means supreme spiritual wisdom (jnana). Wisdom relating to which field of knowledge? Knowledge of the Atma. This wisdom is the highest gain that can be earned in life. 

 

The object seen is clearly separate from the subject who sees. This is a universally accepted truth. Who is this “I” that sees? All things that have form are recognized and seen by the sense organ, the eye. The body is also a thing that the eye sees, along with the rest. So, how can we conclude that the body is the I?

 

Then, who really is this “I”? Fire burns and also brightens. It burns things by heat and brightens them by the light it sheds. Fire is different from the things it acts upon. Now, who is it that knows this truth — the truth that fire and the things that burns are different? 

 

It is the Atma, the divine Self. When log burns, the fire is present and active in all of it. Similarly, the Atma pervades the entire body and enables it to perform deeds and to move itself and its limbs. 

 

 

Never-changing Self-reality

 

Now about the self, or “I”. It operates in two fields, so it has two meanings: (1) egotism (ahamkara), the body consciousness, the exterior “I” and (2) the inner “I” (pratyagatma). People who do not know this distinction confuse themselves and assert that “I” is applicable to the body consciousness, but this is wrong. As we have seen, the body is a tool, it is an object, it is the seen and not the see-er. How can the ego, identified with it, be the Atma? 

 

This ego also is of the “seen” category. It is absent in sleep and plays false in dreams. Truth has to persist unaffected, in the past, present, and future. How can that which is absent in two states be true?

 

 

Atma is its own proof

 

The Atma is consciousness, as fire is heat and the sun is light. It has no affinity with distress or delusion; it is supreme everlasting ecstasy (paramananda). It is the core, the heart of all beings; it is the awareness in all. It is the seer of everything “seen”; it sees all objects seen.

 

The scriptures (sastras), which are texts supplementary to the Vedas, declare that God resides wherever six excellences are evident: enthusiasm, determination, courage, good sense, strength, and adventure (utsaha, sa- hasam, dhairya, sadbuddhi, sakthi, and parakrama). The inaugural prayer has to be directed to God (Ganapathi) to gain these six gifts, which can purify consciousness and reveal the Atma. One has to undertake the discovery of one’s Atmic core with bravery in the heart; this is no exercise for cowards. Wicked people, waverers in faith, doubting hearts, woeful countenances, are destined to go through life as sick persons (rogis) and not dwellers in Atma (yogis).

 

This is the distinguishing mark that separates the wise (jnani) from the unwise. Krishna spoke, laughing with an outburst of joy; Arjuna listened, overpowered by sorrow. The wise one is always full of joy and laughs. The unwise one is afflicted with sorrow and weeps.

 

Continued…

 

Love.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi

The mind is only a projection from the Self, appearing in the waking state. In deep sleep, you do not say whose son you are and so on. As soon as you wake up you say you are so and so, and recognise the world and so on. 

The world is only lokah, lokah = lokyate iti lokah (what is perceived is the world). That which is seen is lokah or the world. Which is the eye that sees it? That is the ego which rises and sinks periodically. But you exist always. Therefore That which lies beyond the ego is consciousness - the Self. 

In deep sleep mind is merged and not destroyed. That which merges reappears. It may happen in meditation also. But the mind which is destroyed cannot reappear. The yogi’s aim must be to destroy it and not to sink in laya. In the peace of dhyana, laya ensues but it is not enough. It must be supplemented by other practices for destroying the mind. 

Some people have gone into samadhi with a trifling thought and after a long time awakened in the trail of the same thought. In the meantime generations have passed away in the world. Such a yogi has not destroyed his mind. 

Its destruction is the non-recognition of it as being apart from the Self. Even now the mind is not. Recognise it. How can you do it if not in everyday activities. They go on automatically. Know that the mind promoting them is not real but a phantom proceeding from the Self. That is how the mind is destroyed.  

 

                   "Talks with Ramana Maharshi"

29 Sep 1935

Sri Ramana Maharshi

D.: I want to know how I can gain that peace of mind. Kindly be pleased to advise me.

M.: Yes - devotion and surrender.

 

D.: Am I worthy of being a devotee?

M.: Everyone can be a devotee. Spiritual fare is common to all and never denied to anyone - be the person old or young, male or female.

 

D.: That is exactly what I am anxious to know. I am young and a grihini (housewife). There are duties of grihastha dharma (the household). Is devotion consistent with such a position?

M.: Certainly. What are you? You are not the body. You are Pure Consciousness. Grihastha dharma and the world are only phenomena appearing on that Pure Consciousness. It remains unaffected. What prevents you from being your own Self?

 

D.: Yes I am already aware of the line of teaching of Maharshi. It is the quest for the Self. But my doubt persists if such quest is compatible with grihastha life.

M.: The Self is always there. It is you. There is nothing but you. Nothing can be apart from you. The question of compatibility or otherwise does not arise.

 

D.: I shall be more definite. Though a stranger, I am obliged to confess the cause of my anxiety. I am blessed with children. A boy - a good brahmachari - passed away in February. I was grief-stricken. I was disgusted with this life. I want to devote myself to spiritual life. But my duties as a grihini do not permit me to lead a retired life. Hence my doubt.

M.: Retirement means abidance in the Self. Nothing more. It is not leaving one set of surroundings and getting entangled in another set, nor even leaving the concrete world and becoming involved in a mental world. The birth of the son, his death, etc., are seen in the Self only. Recall the state of sleep. Were you aware of anything happening? If the son or the world be real, should they not be present with you in sleep? You cannot deny your existence in sleep. Nor can you deny you were happy then. You are the same person now speaking and raising doubts. You are not happy, according to you. But you were happy in sleep. What has transpired in the meantime that happiness of sleep has broken down? It is the rise of ego. That is the new arrival in the jagrat state. There was no ego in sleep. The birth of the ego is called the birth of the person. There is no other kind of birth. Whatever is born is bound to die. Kill the ego: there is no fear of recurring death for what is once dead. The Self remains even after the death of the ego. That is Bliss - that is Immortality.

 

D.: How is that to be done?

M.: See for whom these doubts exist. Who is the doubter? Who is the thinker? That is the ego. Hold it. The other thoughts will die away. The ego is left pure; see where from the ego arises. That is pure consciousness.

 

 

Extract from “Talks with Ramana Maharshi”

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 55

Chapter XXII.

 

The Eternal Truths

 

The Veda is the Mother of all the scriptures (sastras). The Veda emanated from God Himself as inhalation and exhalation. The great sages, who were the embodiments of the treasure gained by long ascetic practices, received the Veda as a series of sounds and spread it over the world by word of mouth from preceptor to pupil.

 

Since it was “heard” and preserved by generations, the Veda is known as sruthi, “that which was heard or listened to”. The Veda is endless.

 

The Vedas: divine revelations

 

Who composed the Vedas? Until today, it has not been possible to unveil their names. Those who recited it had perhaps no desire to earn renown, for the names are nowhere seen mentioned in the Veda. Perhaps they attached no importance to their names, clans, or sects, or it is likely they had no kith or kin or clan. 

 

The word Veda originated from the root vid, meaning “to know”. “That which reveals and makes clear all knowledge is Veda (Vidam thu anena ithi Vedah).” The Veda can be mastered neither by limited intellect nor by limited experience. The sacred Veda instructs in all that one requires for spiritual advancement. It instructs in the means and methods of overcoming all sorrows and grief. It instructs in all the spiritual disciplines that can give unshaken peace.

 

No one has understood correctly the beginning or end of the Veda, so it is hailed as beginningless and eternal. Since the first and the last of the Veda are not known, it is everlasting (nithya). The intelligence of humans is tainted, but since the Veda has no trace of taint, it is concluded that it cannot be a human product. So the Veda is also characterized as non-personal (a-pourusheya).

 

The Vedas: a unique source of all religions

 

The Veda is its own authority. Each Vedic sound is sacred because it is part of the Veda. Those who have faith in the Veda and its authority can personally experience this. The great sages were enriched by such experiences, and they have extolled it as the source of wisdom. 

 

Human intelligence can operate only within certain limits. (Buddhi-grahyam atheendriyam). But the Veda is beyond the reach of intelligence, which is restricted and can deal only with facts discoverable by the senses and experiences related to these. It can act only in the area of the visible, the viable.

 

The Vedas: source of all sciences

 

Mother Veda has been kind to her children —the human race. To sanctify its cravings and to uplift the race, she has posited the concept of time —and its components, the years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Even gods were declared to be bound by time. The individual (jiva) is caught in the wheel of time and space and rotates with it, unaware of any means of escape. But really, the individual is beyond the reach of time and space. The Veda is bent upon the task of making it know this truth and liberating it from this narrowness. Mother Veda is compassionate; she longs to liberate her children from doubt and discontent. She has no desire to inflame or confuse. Wise ones know this well.

 

The Vedas: drawn toward India

 

The atmosphere in India was congenial for the revelation and growth of the Vedas. The Vedas were drawn toward the hearts of the sages of this land, this land of Godward activity, this land of yoga, this land of renunciation. Since in India the spiritual quest was sincerely pursued, along with material objectives, people here had the good fortune of Mother Veda incarnating.

 

The heroic sages of India (Bharath) were able to receive the Vedic message as a result of their spiritual practice (sadhana) of denial and detachment, as well as their capacity to concentrate and to experience the bliss resulting from practicing it. 

 

The scriptural texts of India —the Vedas, limbs of the Veda (Vedangas), Upanishads, law codes (smrithis), Puranas (didactic ancient legends), and historical epics (ithihasas)— are repositories of profound wisdom. Each is an ocean of sweet sustaining milk, sacred and sanctifying.

 

Sanskrit: mother of all languages

 

A person who wants to understand clearly the sacred books and scriptural texts of India, to imbibe their message, must learn the Sanskrit language; that responsibility, that duty, cannot be avoided. The very mention of Sanskrit immediately arouses in many among us a prejudicial attitude. “It is the dead language of a dying culture; it is boosted by the fanatic attachment of antiquated conservatives”, contemporary moderns declaim.

 

Sanskrit is an immortal language; its voice is eternal; its call is through the centuries. It has imbedded in it the basic sustenance from all the languages of the world. Revere Sanskrit as the mother of languages. Do not ignore its greatness or talk disparagingly about it.

 

Contd...

 

Love.

 

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 54

Men and women, rich and poor, all are eligible to kindle in themselves the flame of spiritual wisdom. Distinctions of race, religion, caste, and creed do not come in the way. 

 

Young people have to spring into the sphere of action and strive to the best of their ability to build up a resurgent India and a happy peaceful world.

 

Even as it is the duty of children to serve and please their mother, it is the bounden duty of every child of mother India to make her happy. To serve the motherland selflessly should be the sacred ideal of one’s life. 

 

Thus, it is the duty of all Indians to engage themselves in the dedicated service of Mother India. Such an obligation on one’s part may even be described as forming part of the nobility of character of the individual vis-a-vis their motherland. 

 

Four inheritors of wealth 

 

There are four inheritors of hoarded wealth. The first is charity; the second, the king; the third, fire; the fourth, the robber. The first claimant is charity, and the major share goes to it. Students should recognize the profound significance of this truth and utilize the wealth they acquire for the welfare of mankind.

 

Sacrifice is the highest step. One who has the true spirit of sacrifice gives even their dearest and highest possession to others without any hesitation or reservation, smilingly and gladly. Surrendering the fruit of action to the Lord is real sacrifice. 

 

A renunciant (thyagi) does not shrink even to give up their body, regarding it as worthless straw. Sacrifice means something more than giving up of wealth, gold, and material objects. 

 

There is no happiness greater than that obtained from sacrifice. Only those who sacrifice are the children of immortality, because they live forever. Spirit of sacrifice When we study our epics and legends, we come across numerous figures who embody such spirit of sacrifice. 

 

Every young Indian should be enriched once more by the spirit of sacrifice. Sacrifice is sweeter than enjoyment. Sacrifice should become the aim of life. Only through sacrifice can one attain peace. 

 

The Upanishads have proclaimed in a full-throated voice that sacrifice alone leads to immortality. Sacrifice is the chief trait of the pure. Therefore, every student must imbibe and display the spirit of sacrifice in their life. One should not become a victim of the disease of enjoyment. 

 

End of education

 

Wisdom is illumination, and the aim of education is to radiate that light of wisdom. Such wisdom bestows real power upon a person. Wisdom enables us to recognize the mutual relationship of objects and individuals and to know the precedents and antecedents of each object. 

 

How can this illumination enter one’s being? 

 

By listening to and going through great books like the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Upanishads, the Koran, and the Granth Saheb, the biographies of noble souls, and books dealing with physical and technological sciences and psychology, one gains this light. Along with wisdom, the discriminatory approach and logical thinking can be gained by reading them. One should not depend entirely on knowledge derived from sacred texts but also upon wisdom arising from experience. 

 

Love.

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 53

Chapter XXI

 

The inner enquiry

 

Sage Vasishta explains to Rama on “creation”

 

From where did the cosmos originate? How did it emerge?

 

The questions “how did it emerge?” and “from where did it originate?” are exactly on a par with the question, how did the “serpent” appear on the “rope” and cause the “terror”? 

 

Only the rope exists there; the serpent was imposed thereon, at dusk, by the defective intellect of the onlooker — that is to say, on account of illusion created by reasoning. 

 

In other words, ignorance is the basis of the misapprehension. Brahman is the rope; the cosmos is the serpent, superimposed on it by reason afflicted by illusion. 

 

We cognize Brahman as the cosmos; we take one thing as another as long as this affliction holds sway. Therefore, it is best to conclude that the cosmos is an object that originated in our own intellect (buddhi) and emerged out of the same faulty faculty. 

 

An object born of such a delusion and confirmed by only an infirm intellect can never be true. When the delusion goes, when the infirmity disappears, the cosmos so caused also disappears. 

 

Non-dualism dispels primal ignorance If you seek to destroy the ignorance that separates and stultifies, this attitude must be transformed and the conviction that “I am the embodiment of happiness, I am the one who has realized desire” has to be cultivated.. 

 

The reason we are unable to realize the above truth lies in the absence of four requisites: 

 

(1) attention to spiritual progress, 

(2) steady faith, 

(3) devotion, and 

(4) the grace of God. 

 

Even if one of these four is absent, people cannot experience the highest bliss of the Absolute. Our inquiry should not be directed to the obvious and the superficial. 

 

The Inner Inquiry edge without personal experience is futile. Wisdom lodged within us will be of no avail if it is static. It will only assume the form of mere scholarship. If such learning is brought within the ambit of practice, it is creditable. Acquiring and hoarding wealth will be of no avail if it is not consecrated and spent for the welfare of the world. 

 

Similarly, mere acquisition of knowledge from books is a futile exercise. Knowledge becomes blessed only when it is translated into actions that promote the good of humanity. This translation of knowledge into experience is possible only when you pass through the three stages of knowing (jnatum), visualizing (drashtum), and entering (praveshtum). 

 

First, you must learn about the precious truths contained in the sacred texts from veterans in the field. When you learn about them, you naturally take an interest in them. Then you develop an urge to visualize those truths at any cost. 

 

In the second stage, you carefully peruse, examine, and collect such sacred texts wherever they are available. You read and directly visualize them. With great perseverance you enquire, comprehend, and enjoy them. Thus, you derive some satisfaction that you have discerned certain profound truths. 

 

By entering the arena of experience, one should feel complete identification with the ideal. What has been heard, seen, and understood should be put into practice at least to some extent. This is the stage of entering. 

 

Though one may gain renown and recognition in the world, one will not experience happiness without self-knowledge. “Knowledge of the soul”, “knowledge of God”, “spiritual knowledge” —all these expressions connote the wisdom that promotes full awareness of soul and God. Self-knowledge is that knowledge by which everything else is known. 

 

Human effort constitutes the prime step in one’s Endeavour to attain this highest state of Godhood. God’s grace is the second essential factor. Anyone can strive for and attain self-knowledge. 

 

Contd....

 

Love.