Dear All,
As usual,
as it has been with all the earlier themes, the SAI within commands and
this precious treasure "RAMA KATHA RASA VAHINI" happens to be the
next theme in this blog post.
As usual
and as indispensable, the post starts with extracts from the "introduction"
to this Vahini by Late Prof. Kasturi ji.
Love.
PREFACE BY
LATE SRI. KASTURI.
 |
| Prof. Kasturi with Sri Sathya Sai Baba |
The Rama
Story, Stream of Sacred Sweetness, has been for millions of men, women and children,
for many centuries the perennial source of solace during sorrow, vitality when
floored by vacillation, illumination while confounded, inspiration in moments
of dejection and guidance while caught in quandaries.
It is an
intensely human drama, where God impersonates as man and gathers around Him, on
the vast world-stage, the perfect and the imperfect, the human and the
sub-human, the beast and the demon, to confer on us, by precept and example,
the boon of Supreme Wisdom. It is a Story that plays its tender fingers on the
heart-strings of man, evoking lithe, limpid responses of pathos, pity,
exultation, adoration, ecstasy and surrender, rendering us transformed, from
the animal and the human, into the Divine which is our core.
No other
story in human history has had such profound impact on the mind of man. It
transcends the milestones of history and the boundaries of geography. It has
shaped and sublimated the habits and attitudes of generations. The Ramayana,
the Story of Rama, has become a curative corpuscle in the blood stream of
mankind, over vast areas of the globe. It has struck root in the conscience of
peoples, prodding and prompting them along the paths of Truth, Righteousness,
Peace and Love.
Sai (Isa,
God), whose Thought is the Universe, whose Will is Its History, is the Author,
Director, Actor, Witness and Appraiser of the Drama that is ever unfolding in
Time and Space. He has now deigned to tell us Himself the story of this one
epic Act in that Drama, wherein He took on the Rama role. As Rama, Sai
instructed, inspired and invigorated, corrected, consoled and comforted His
contemporaries in the Treta Age.
As Sai Rama,
He is now engaged in the same task. Therefore, most of what the readers
of Sanathana Sarathi perused, month after month, (during these
years) with ardor and pleasure, as instalments of this narrative -- The
Ramakatharasavahini -- must have appeared to them "contemporary
events and experiences", and "direct counsel to them in the context
of contemporary problems and difficulties". While reading these pages,
readers will often be pleasantly struck by the identity of the Rama of this
Story and the Sai Rama they are witnessing.
"Science"
has moulded this earth into the compactness and capsularity of a space-ship in
which mankind has to live out its destiny. "Sai-ence" is, we
know, fast moulding this space-ship into a happy home of Love.
This book
must have been willed by Sai as a paramount panacea for the removal of the ills
that obstruct that Universal Love - the morbid itch for sensual pleasure, the
mounting irreverence towards parents, teachers, elders, spiritual leaders and
guides, the disastrous frivolity and flippancy in social, marital, and familial
relationships, the demonic reliance on violence as a means of achieving immoral
ends, the all-to-ready adoption of terror and torture as means of gaining
personal and group gains, and many more evils besides.
Sai Rama has
recapitulated herein, in His own simple, sweet and sustaining style, His own
Divine Career, as Rama! What great good fortune, this, to have in our hands, to
inscribe on our minds, to imprint on our hearts, this Divine narrative! May we
be processes by the study of this Book into efficient and enthusiastic tools
for consummating His Mission of moulding mankind into One Family, of making
each one of us realize Sai Rama as the Reality, the only Reality that IS.
Sai has
declared that He is the same Rama come again, and that He is searching for His
erstwhile associates and workers (bantu, as He referred to them in
Telugu) in order to allot them roles in His present Mission of resuscitating
Righteousness and leading man into the Haven of Peace. Let us pray, while
ruminating over the first half of this Story, that we too be allotted roles and
may He grant us, as reward, the Vision of that Haven.
Love.
Rama is the Indweller
in every Body. He is the Atma-Rama, the Rama (Source of Bliss) in every
individual. His blessings up-surging from that inner Spring can confer Peace
and Bliss. He is the very embodiment of Dharma of all the Codes of Morality
that hold mankind together in Love and Unity. 
Sita gave up the
luxuries of Ayodhya and so, she could be with Rama, in the period of 'exile'.
When she cast longing eyes on the golden deer and craved for it, she lost the
Presence of Rama. Renunciation leads to joy; attachment brings about grief. Be
in the world, but, not of it. 
DASARATHA
