Who am I?

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Dharwar, 15 May 1971
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Mar 17, 2002

Being a human is itself a great piece of good fortune; and, getting born in India, with its precious heritage of spiritual discipline is a blessing for which you must feel grateful indeed! Four items of enquiry have been emphasised for ages by the sages of India, who built up the heritage of which you are proud today. They are: Dheham, Naaham, Koham and Soham. First, the body where you dwell, in which you are encased. It is called, meaningfully, Dheham, that is to say, that which is combustible, liable to be burnt. How can anyone feel attachment to such a transient tinsel? It is subject to growth and decay; it is the harbour of worms and viruses, of foulness and illness. It is subject to impulses and the impact of passion and emotion. It is the seat of disease and unrest; of fancy and fantasy and fear. It calls on you enticingly to invest yourselves wholly in its care and cure. It entangles you to much in its coils that you forget you are its master, as you are the master of the car in which you ride to office or the home to which you return from office.

When you delve deep into the transience of the Dheham, you get well rooted in the next idea: Naaham, I am not the body, which I had mistakenly taken to be me! Naaham means, 'not-I'. The Dheham is Naaham, the body of 'not-I'. I am the owner, the temporary user, occupier of this instrument or bundle of instruments; that is all.

Man is a Spark of the Divine

People keep on asking others, "Who are you? What is your name? Where are you from? Whither are you bound?" - but, they seldom ask these questions of themselves or try to discover answers to these mysteries! When you get thirst, you are in the Koham stage. Koham means, "Who am I?" "I am a highly evolved ape," say some. "I am conglomerate of chemicals," say others. "I am a contraption with a limited life, I begin at birth and end at death," say some. "I am an eternal entity, and this is but one sojourn of mine here on earth," say others. 'I' is a false limitation imposed by ignorance; "I am a wave of the ocean and so I am the ocean itself," declare others! The last announce that the I is Soham, 'I am He'. 'He,' meaning the eternal, universal absolute, the Brahaman, the boundless, beginningless, endless entity. When that axiom is meditated upon and made one's own deepest experience, man has the highest bliss, the bliss of merging into the Aathman from which he felt long he had been displaced.

Man is a spark of the divine; he must manifest in every activity of him, the divine. Activity is his lot; he cannot exist without the physical activity of breathing, or the mental activity of thought. With every breath, he must inhale the experience of Soham; with every thought, he must express and experience his divine affiliation. God is love; love is the divinest quality that man can cultivate and confer on himself. Be born in love, die in love; live in love. That is to say, emerge from God and merge in God; be the wave on the ocean of love. You should not die; you should merge and fulfil yourself. That is the destiny, that is the destination.

You are not limited by any name; a baby has no name stuck on to it when it is born. The name is a label fixed later, for the sake of social convenience. But, you start identifying yourself with the label! You answer giving your name, when you are asked, Who? The name separates; it distinguishes; it announces the divisive characteristics of language, religion, caste, race, etc. Go beyond the name to the individual, beyond the individual to the God who is installed in the heart. Then, kinship is cognised and love streams forth! Spend the years of life, the wherewithal you earn or possess, in the service of others who are in distress. Love grows on such service. Service is the sincerest form of adoration of God.

Get beyond the Horizon of Body, Mind and Intellect

When man moves away from his moorings, hate spreads far and wide. In the past ages (the Kritha, Thretha and Dwaapara ages), the fumes of hatred poisoned human relations off and on; but, at no time were they so insidious and so infiltrating as now. Now, the evil has contaminated relations in the family, the village, the community, the school, the state, the nation and the international organisations. In no field of human activity is it absent! When the members of the same family are engaged in faction, how can the nation be free from it and how can national affairs be conducted in the spirit of tolerance and mutual co-operation? It is wrong to spend the days in the prison of dualities, the seesaw of grief and joy, pain and pleasure, success and defeat. Get beyond the horizon of body, mind and intellect, and be one with the vastness. Brahman means the vast, the expanse without horizons.

God is the inner Truth of all, content of every Body

Peace is what everyone seeks; but, it can never be secured form the outside world. Alexander had no peace; Mohammed of Ghazni had no peace. The millionaires are harassed by fear and anxiety. Accumulation of riches or power cannot endow peace. Peace can come only form the fountain of peace, within. An old woman dropped her needle, while mending a tear in her Saree. She had poor eyesight; so, she could not locate the needle in the pail where she sat. So, she went under the street light on the road and looked searchingly on the patch of light; some boys returning from school saw her plight and offered to help. They asked her what she had dropped and what she was searching for. She replied, "I dropped my needle in the pail of my hut; but, it is dark there! I am half blind. There is some light here; I can see better. Therefore, I am searching for it here!" The boys laughed and told her, "Grannie! How can you get your needle back form here? Search for it where you have lost it!"

You have lost peace, vision and wisdom in the region of the self; how can you get them back, if you seek for them, in the world, which can be contacted only by the senses? Search where you have lost them; in your heart! There you will recover them; for, they are only attributes of the divine, which is installed there. God is the inner truth of all; He is latent, in this vast assembly. He is patent in this universes, which is His vesture.

You talk fluently about this; but, your actions are not moulded by that inspiration. The food on the plate must reach the stomach; its calories must reach every limb and organ in the body. So too, the sense of the divine must be infused into every word, deed and thought. You may have a chalice of ambrosia by your side; you may know its composition, fragrance, colour, density, etc.; but, unless you place a spoonful or a drop on your tongue, you have not fulfilled the purpose of winning it. God is the content of every body that you see around you; but you do not make any effort to know Him!

Each Country is but a Room in the Mansion of God

Serve others with reverence - that is the easiest and best method to cognise the divine content in each. Since all are His forms, His sparks, His children, feel that kinship with every community; pray for the welfare and prosperity of all mankind, whatever the political boundaries which might shut them from one another. Until recently, there was no Pakistan. It is a creature of political strategy, of human weakness, or foible. Do not think of them as anything but artificial arrangements; let not your love be curtailed. Pray that tolerance and understanding shall prevail and that love and co-operation hold sway, more and more among mankind, whatever appellation may be - Russian, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian or American. Each country is but a room in the mansion of God. Small minds select narrow roads; expand your mental vision and take to the broad road of helpfulness, compassion and service.

Pain and Grief toughen your moral Fibre

Saadhakas (aspirants) of self-realisation are like mansions; they have to lay brick, and raise the wall higher and higher. That is the upward vision. Others are akin to well-diggers; they get lower and lower; that is the downward vision. Be like the spire, piercing the sky. Shower Aanandha on others; lead them along the godly way; be an example in sincerity and earnestness. Partake in Bhajan and Naamasankeerthan (singing of God's names); share in the singing loudly and with enthusiasm. Some ask Me, "Why should we sing aloud? Isn't it enough if we feel it in the silence of the mind?" I know all this is mere dry Vedhaantha! They are prepared to advise others in the Samithi, but, are unwilling to practise the advice themselves!

Two friends were remarkable for their sloth; one of them had to catch a train at 3 a.m. So, he asked his friend to wake him up at 2.30 a.m. itself, for he had no faith in himself. The friend was even more of a sloth! He wanted that he should be awakened by his friend at 2.15 a.m. so that he could wake the same fellow at 2.30! How can anything be accomplished by such men?

Develop a calm unruffled serenity of mind. Welcome pain and grief, for they toughen the moral fibre, they reveal hidden sources of courage and hardihood. They appear to affect your career; but, the real 'you' is unaffected. The real 'you' is the 'I' that wakes, dreams and sleeps. While asleep, you are unaware whether you are a man, a bird, a beast or a tree!

Curious Assortment of Family Members of Shiva

Here, at Dharwar and Hubli, we have a large number of Shivabhakthas, devoted to the Shiva aspect of divinity. Shiva is the supreme exemplar of serenity! Shiva, according to the Puraanas has a curious assortment of family members. Yet, each one is so calm and without agitation, that the divine family exists in peace and concord. Shiva has snakes on His arms, round His neck, on His head, around His waist! One of his sons, Kumaara rides on a peacock, which attacks snakes; another rides on a mouse, which the snakes feed on! One son has the head of the elephant, which whets he appetite of the lion, which is the vehicle used by Dhurga, the consort of Shiva, who is so inseparable that she is the left half of the body of Shiva Himself. Nor is the lion friendly by nature to the bull, which the Lord Shiva Himself has as His vehicle! Shiva has fire on the central point of His brow, and water, the river (Ganga) on His head, incompatibles both! Imagine how loving, how co-operative the various components have to be, to render life in Kailaash smooth and happy!

It all depends on the mind and its proper discipline. The weapon of love will disarm every opponent. Love begets love; it will be reflected back, it will have only love as reaction, Shout 'love'; the echo from the other person's heart will also be 'love.'

Walk on the path of righteousness, Dharma. That is what all appreciate. Dharma means morality, the control of passions and emotions and directing them along beneficial channels. If you have no greed or hatred, you will get good sleep, also. There is no need to swallow sleeping tablets! Now, life has become artificial, there is no art or heart in life! It has become mere 'fishial' type of life - for, consider how fish stinks, though all its life is spent in water!

Better to be mad for God, than be mad for Money

Wake up every day, to the singing of the glory of God for if God does not exist, what is it that exists? Live every day, in that joy, with that inspiration as your companion. Some Samithis have reported that they are beginning Nagara-sankeerthan one day in the week, or two days in the month! This is no sincere Saadhana. What do you lose, how much of ancestral property you have to sell (!), if you have Nagara-sankeerthan every morning? Have it every day, immerse yourself in that discipline and imbibe the bliss. Do not fear people who call you mad! When you know and when your heart tells you that it is a joyful experience, carry on, in spite of calumny and criticism. It is far better to be mad for God than be mad for money, or wife and children. If only more people suffer from this madness, the world will be a much happier place!

"Thyaagenaike Amruthathwam Aanashuh:" "It is by renunciation alone that immortality can be experienced"! Renounce the petty pleasures and tread the path towards the supreme Aanandha which is God. You say, "enjoy"; but, it is when you "end joy", that you can really enjoy. These petty joys must end; the pursuit of tawdry tinsel should stop; then, the mind will fix itself on the highest joy. I find here a vast ocean of piety and spiritual aspiration. When there are such large numbers of seekers in Dharwar, why is the city overclouded with anxiety and dread? Carry to every door the name of God and let the clouds be illumined by love and reverence.

Let every street in the towns, every village in the state, ring with the adoration of the almighty, every sunrise sing of Raama, Ishwara, Shankara or Krishna - any name is effective, provided it is suffused with the divine essence 'love.' Branches, twigs, leaves, flowers and fruits may appear to be different in colour, feel, taste, smell, etc., but, all are products of the earth, drawing sustenance from the soil and the sun. Live together in love; live in peace; live in service. I bless that you succeed in this noble endeavour.