To three Pandits

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 3 Dec 1972
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Feb 17, 2002

The wise are those who know the Aathma (divine self). They distinguish between 'That' and 'This', Thath and Thwam, the absolute and the relative, the universal and particular, that is falsely conceived as separate from the universal. When he experiences the truth that he is the absolute Aathma, man is endowed with supreme bliss. It is sheer waste if one has no such experience but has pored over mountains of spiritual texts or earned fame as a deep scholar.

Man alone has the ability to understand the phenomenal world around him. He can grasp the ways and waywardness of the world; he can delve into its evolution and involution, its contraction and expansion. Therefore, he has to give it only a relative value, and follow as his only goal, the search for the Aathma and the attainment of the Aathma. And, the search has to be through continuous, consistent Saadhana. Boundless spiritual potential is encased in every being. In man, it expresses itself as Jnaana (supreme wisdom).

Man is neither a bit of clod, nor a bundle of flesh. He has in him the inexhaustible spring of Aanandha (divine bliss). A person is not just the body, with its limbs and other mechanisms. The Aathma is the divine person. The soul is the personality. And the person realises Aanandha only when the Aathma is cognised. This achievement cannot be won through riches or authority of office, scholarship or status, fame or force. Discarding this perennial Aanandha, man imagines the sensual pleasures to be Aanandha and he spends his life in fruitless pursuits. He wanders about in the thorny jungles and desert sands. He humiliates himself and crawls and cringes for favours from all and sundry. This is the consequence of the ignorance that blinds.

Man must die triumphant over Death

Man is equipped with a return ticket, when he takes birth. Holding it in his grasp, he earns and spends, rises and falls, sings and dances, weeps and wails, forgetting the end of the journey. But, though he forgets, the wagon of life moves towards the cemetery, which is its terminus. It brings no glory to man if he is tied helplessly to the wheel of birth and death. His glory and greatness consists in disentangling himself from that revolving wheel.

Before death nips life, and thrusts on to another birth, he must by means of Saadhana learn the mystery of the Aathma. When death comes one must be glad to meet it since he comes for the last time and there will be no more birth for him. Man weeps when he is born; he should not weep when he dies. He must die triumphant over death. Otherwise, he lives only to consume tons of food, as a burden upon the earth. You seek to escape pain and grief; but, they are inescapable.

Life is as a dream. In the dream, you experience joy and grief; but when you realise that both joy and grief are unreal, when you awake into the consciousness of the Aathma, you will no more have the thrill of joy or the despondency of pain. You will not have any longer fear or anxiety, fear of death or anxiety about the future.

The mind is the architect of your progress or decline. For the fool, the mind is a formidable dinosaur; for the intelligent, the mind is an angle. The trained mind is torn by fear; the pure elevated mind is placid and unruffled, like that of the homeless sage. The Vedhas teach how to purify the mind and render it a useful tool.

Pandiths must themselves shine as Inspirers

Nothing is uncaused in the universe. Every being, object, incident has been caused by the primal cause and its direction or guidance. The Shaasthras (spiritual sciences) yearn for the discovery of that unseen principle. Through sheer ignorance and perversity, the Shaasthras have been ignored and set aside, and man is misleading himself into the belief that his fancies are true, just and beneficial. Man has thrown his "humanness" into the crater of cruelty forgetting his best interests, under the influence of hatred, envy, conceit and power. He has cast aside the expanse of his culture. As a result peace has flown from the heart of man, from the fold of society and the boundaries of nations.

The Pandiths and scholars who have gathered today under the auspices of the Prashaanthi Vidhwan-Mahaashabha must promote and set themselves up as pioneers and examples for the task of making people aware of the greatness of Sanaathana Dharma, and of the Vedhas and Shaasthras in which is enshrined Dharma (righteousness). They must teach the people the principle of the Aathma, and themselves shine as inspirers through their own practice of what they teach. Immersed in Sath-Chith-Aanandha (sheer bliss in the total awareness of the supreme reality) themselves, they must communicate that joy and that wisdom to others. Plant in every heart the seed of truth; I bless that you succeed in leading men into that bliss of fullness and fulfilment.