The Prison Walls
Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Maddhur, 24 May 1962
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Sep 22, 2001
Even enthusiasm must be under control; devotion must be regulated; there is no meaning in simply running behind and before My car. See, what happened on account of your over-enthusiastic welcome! This meeting, which Raaghavan and others had fixed for six in the evening, is starting now at nine! Of course, I was prepared to stay until midnight or even later if that would help. Only, I have to return to Whitefield this night itself. So what happens? Your restlessness has deprived you of My Darshan for a longer time. I am also making My talk very short.
What a pity! Had you been quiet and disciplined from the very beginning, I could have spent more time with you. This is how man loses the chance that he gets. Each one of you felt just a little inconvenience and discomfort and you argued about it and lost your patience over it. Well, I felt the discomfort and the discontent of all of you. Still, I am ever ready to give you Aanandha; only, you must be ever ready to receive it from Me.
The Niranjana Bhajana Mandali is regularly doing Bhajana (devotional music by group singing) here, I know. Do not think I am coming here for the first time; I am here, whenever you sing the glory. That is why I have come physically to this place to tell you to carry on this Naamasmarana. Just as the times have changed and conditions of living have changed, the rigours of Saadhana have also to be modified. Doing severe Thapas (penance) was a great and rare achievement in those days; now, repeating the name of the Lord is becoming as difficult a Thapas. Hence, it is said that Smarana (remembrance) is enough; Smarana that can be done along with all other activities of living. It is the inner purity that matters, not the outer movement of the lips. Smarana being an inner activity helps that inner transformation.
Evoke the Divine in you by Naamasmarana
This meeting has something to do with the Divine Life society also. Well, human life is divine life. That is the reason, the justification, the goal of human life. Reading books in the society library is no good; scholarship reeks with pride; it is eager to win scholastic victory; it jumps at any chance to outwit an opponent; it strains after recognition and honour. Raavana was a famous scholar who had mastered the Vedhas. But that did not endow him with character; he fell into the abyss, nevertheless. It is certainly a wasteful way of spending precious time in mere study without any attempt to translate it into action. You need not give your word to Me now; but try to put into practice at least a few of the good things that appeal to you and that are helpful in giving you peace and contentment. To evoke the divine in you, there is no better method than Naamasmarana.
Your Bhajana Mandali is called Niranjana, after the Niraakaara Swaruupa (formless personified) of the Brahma Thathwa (principle of supreme reality). Now, there can be no Bhajana of the Niranjana - the unmanifested, pure, absolute principle. You can limit by name and form that Niranjana Thathwa and make it Saakaara (with form and attributes) for the sake of visualising it. Then, by slow stages, you will find that particular form enclosing all beings and therefore assuming a universal nature. It will gradually drop its boundaries of time and space and like the blueness of Krishna, pervade the sky and sea and become a symbol for the depth of eternity.
The only sane Man in this mad World
Without surrender, there can be no liberation. So long as you cling to the narrow "I," the four prison walls will close in on you. Cross out the "I" and you are free. How to kill the "I"? Place it at the feet of the Lord and say, "You", not "I" - and you are free of the burden that is crushing you. Associate always with the Niranjana - the vast, the unlimited, the divine; dream and plan to merge with the absolute; fill your ears with the call from the beyond and the boundless. Transcend the walls, the bars and bolts, the locks and chains. You can do so easily by fixing your mind on your own infinity.
Do not condemn the mind as a monkey, etc. It is a fine instrument with which you can win either liberation or bondage. It all depends on how you manipulate it. It will carry out your orders to the minutest detail. It will lead you, if you so desire, along the royal road, right up to the door of realisation. Or it will make you wander about in the blind alleys, where every step lands you in dirt.
You should hang your heads in shame when you find from the papers that human beings like you are today inventing and testing weapons which can wipe out millions and injure even coming generations. But you feel proud of man's intelligence and cleverness! Some people even admire such inventors! By all means feel proud of persons who invent something which will help man to live happy lives, but use the proper words when you have to describe those who manufacture such killers of entire populations. In the mental hospital, you will find all kinds of madness affecting man; some spit on others, some bite, some scratch, some throw stones, some hurl abuses. These mad men are engaged in hurling bombs; that is their madness.
The world is full of people who suffer from insanity, but who are still outside the asylums! Suddenly, when hatred envelopes a country, even ordinary sane people go mad and behave like savages. But in the mental hospital, you will find sometimes one type of "mad man." He sits in a corner, resting without a break, watching the pranks and the wildness of the other inmates. The doctors will be thankful to him, for he needs no care; he causes no trouble. His madness may be melancholia or he may be a Jnaani (realised soul). The God-bound man is like that. He is the only sane man in this mad world.
Whatever happens to you, take it as a lesson to harden your character and toughen your nerves and heighten your Vairaagya (non-attachment). That will give peace and joy.
