The Ideal Disciple

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Geetha Sathsang, Nainital, 24 June 1961
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Sep 1, 2001

Swaami Vidyaanandha, in the Hindi address which he read just now, welcomed Me to this Naini Tal, describing its beautiful scenery and praising its climate. Well, that is taking Me to be an outsider, who has to be formally invited and welcomed. I am in your Sathsang, for wherever the Geetha is studied, I am, and will be present. I do not care for the external beauty of nature as much as the beauty of 'character and of conduct' which you are seeking to acquire by the constant study of the Geetha. I came to the Geetha Sathsang to see all of you, because I bless all efforts by man to raise himself by study and Saadhana. "Madhbhakthaah yathra gaayanthe, thathra thishtaami, Naaradha" is the declaration - "Wherever My Bhakthas sing of Me, there I install Myself." Why, the Lord is always there and everywhere, whether you sing of Him or not. The singing only makes Him manifest, like the radio receiver which catches the tune from the ether when it is switched to the correct wavelength. The current is flowing ever; when you fix the bulb, you will get the light.

The Bhagavadgeetha is a text book for all mankind, giving the secrets of spiritual science in clear and simple terms. But it will be useful only when the reader has as much detachment as Arjuna had when Krishna started the discourse. If you have as much Vishaadha (despair) as Arjuna had, you have the Adhikaara (competence) to get the teaching which removed the grief. Only a patient ailing from a disease is entitled to the specific which will cure it. What business have others with it? What profit can they draw from it? The Geetha will act on the mental system only when the symptoms of Vishaadha (grief) are strong.

Spiritual Surrender will get God's Response

Arjuna, the greatest bowman of those days, anxious since years to destroy the wicked Kauravas who had angered him by merciless and systematic vendetta, suddenly gets disinterested in everything that he thought precious until that moment! "Of what avail is victory in the field of battle?" asks this hero of a thousand encounters! "Nor do I see any good from killing kinsmen in battle," says the warrior who had vowed to wipe out the Kuru clan! "I do not wish to kill them, though they may wish to kill me; I shall lay down my arms; I shall die unresisting" wails this foremost Kshathriya (warrior); "I would rather beg from door to door and live an alms," says this scion of an imperial line. In short, his mind had become ripe for the illumination. He has the Lord Himself as Guru by his side and he knows it. He asks Him: "I am struggling in ignorance; I am confused; I do not know which is Dharma and which is Adharma." He seeks disciple-hood and lays himself at the feet of Krishna in self-surrender!

Anyone anywhere who reaches that stage of spiritual surrender will get the response from Krishna and He will teach the Geetha from the chariot which is driven by Him, that is his own heart.

End Delusion and gain Recognition of the Self

The purpose of the Geetha is to remove the Moha (delusion) which overwhelmed Arjuna and made him feel that he was the doer, whereas the truth is, he was but an instrument. So Krishna asks him at the very end of the discourse, "Has the delusion born out of Ajnaana (ignorance) been fully destroyed in you?" For, like a good teacher, Krishna is evidently quite willing to resort to some other means or to discourse a little longer, in order to make the pupil understand the teaching. But Arjuna is a good student; he declares, "Destroyed is the delusion (Nashto Mohah). I have gained recognition." Now what is the recognition he has gained? The recognition of the Self or Aathma. He has seen himself as basically Aathma, and he has seen the world and all objects as superimpositions on the Aathma, due to ignorance or Maaya.

An emperor, while sleeping, dreams that he is a beggar; he wears tattered clothes and cries piteously before other people's doors for a morsel of food; no one listens to his clamour; he can no longer contain his sorrow. He weeps aloud and wakes up his mother. She comes and wakes him up from that dream. Now, the mother need not tell him, "Listen to me, you are the emperor. You are not a beggar." He knows it as soon as he awakes. The recognition of the Self happens as soon as the delusion goes, the delusion that this dream-world is real!

A prince who falls into the hands of a forest tribe while yet a child, and behaves like one of them, does not thereby lose his prince-hood. Rescue him and he knows he is a prince. So too, Arjuna says. "Smrithir labdhvaa" - "I got back my memory, I have gained recognition. I know Myself; I am Thyself!"

Geetha is the greatest Harmoniser of all Yogas

The study of the Geetha must end in this result; your Sathsang must have this consummation as your goal. Do not be enamoured of the skill exhibited by some Pandith who can recite the Geetha in record time, or write the whole of it on a post card, or repeat it upside down or reel off commentaries. A man walked on the beach, played with the waves, and had a dip in the water; his feet are wet! No, there is no miracle in this. This is what happens to many a scholar who wades in the sea of the Geetha. In the Durbar hall, when the Mahaaraaja is arriving to seat himself on the throne, the courtiers call out his polysyllabic titles - but in daily conversation his short name is used; his principality is but a tiny state. Similarly, the Pandith may have great pomp before others but to himself, in the secrecy of his own conscience, he is a small man indeed. Greatness depends upon the Saadhana (spiritual discipline) and the success achieved in it, in Anushthaana (practice of religious austerities) and in Nishtha (firm adherence to it).

"Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached," it is said - "Uththishtatha, Jaagratha, Praapyavaraan nibodhatha." But one need not march towards the goal. It is not some place where you have to go. It is just the opening of the eye, the removal of the veil, the waking from the dream, the lighting of the Jnaana Dheepa (light of spiritual wisdom).

To get this fruit of Geetha-paaraayana (discourse on Geetha), Ekaagratha (one pointed concentration) is essential. Krishna asks Arjuna, "Has this been heard by you with an attentive mind? Have you heard it without distraction?" For, the battlefield where they were, had plenty of distractions to disturb the concentration of Arjuna's mind from the invaluable lesson he was receiving from Krishna. It is really admirable that Arjuna seated in the chariot between the two armies manages to master his mind and rid it of all the passions with which it was filled when he rode in for the fray! Truly, he is an ideal disciple. You should thank him for eliciting the Bhagavadgeetha for humanity.

There are people who argue that the Geetha teaches this Yoga more than any other; that shows only their partisan nature. Once you begin to practise the Geetha, such ideas as trying to exhibit your superior scholarship by propounding a new theory or meaning will vanish. The Geetha is the greatest harmoniser of all Yogas. As a matter of fact, once the Geetha is made the guiding star of your life, the way you act will be Karma Yoga, the way you feel will be Bhakthi Yoga, the way you reason will be Jnaana Yoga. It will become automatically so. What you do must be in line with Dharma; what you feel must foster Prema; what you think must reveal Sathyam. Then this Sathsang will be blessed with Shaanthi, with even Prashaanthi.