Man's Attempt should be to Merge with God

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba during the Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian Culture
held for College Students at Brindavan, Whitefield, Bangalore District in May 1973
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Apr 25, 2002

Divyatma Swarupas! Sanctity of human life is implied in our culture, yet man attempts to get rid of rebirth. We are born as human beings as the result of the divine wish. We have to perform certain obligations and duties. The primary purpose of life is to realise one's self. In fact, in wanting to get rid of rebirth we are acting contrary to God's wish by trying to be away from God's creation.

On the other hand, one should try to be identical with God. This cycle of births makes you see the multiplicity or duality, whereas Jnana makes you see the oneness or non-duality. This is the difference between man and the supreme being, the Lord. It is possible for us to attain the Advaita Darsana or the feeling of universal oneness by practising the prescribed Sadhanas and by accepting the authority of the Veda. There are three ways of doing so. The Sathwic path will be to recognise unity in diversity, and to see the divine as the one without a second, free from all differences, identifying with the Atma and attaining the state of bliss. The Rajasika path implies the feelings of mine and thine, binding the ego to various differentiating feelings, distinguishing between happiness and sorrow. One remains under the spell of name and form and is unable to recognise the oneness of the Atma. The Thamasika path is utterly contrary to truth. Following this path, one perceives diversity, having no belief in the oneness. An ordinary person spends all his life in looking after his body which he considers to be primarily real. In this belief one ties one's self up unnecessarily with several bondages by entering into manifold physical relationships.

For example, a youth of about 20 years was living with his mother aged 60 years. He had been enjoying the affection of his mother for all the twenty years and he had been regarding the body of his mother as his mother. By passage of time, the mother died. On the death of his mother, the boy wept and expressed his sorrow by saying, "Oh mother! You have left me and gone away?" The body was in front of him and if the body was his mother, there was no meaning in his saying that his mother had left him and gone away. That which had truly left him and gone away was the life in his mother's body. So long as life remained in that body, he had been treating that body as his mother. Therefore, the truth is that the life in the body was his mother and so long as life was in it, he had been caring for the body with affection and he was calling it his mother. In fact, without his realising it, he was caring for the life inside the body and not the body.

By establishing relationships with the outward appearances, we are binding ourselves with bodily attachments and we are not able to understand the real significance of life. When a person says 'this is my house', 'this is my mother', 'this is my wife', what he is saying is something coming from within him. It is not an external connection of one body with another. This 'I' in him is something which is quite distinct from the body and is simply looking at events as a witness. The first thing which you have to do is to recognise the Atma which is only a witness and is not subject to pain and pleasure which the body experiences. All occupations and all the work which we do with the body are only connected with the gross body. This may be referred to as Jiva Pragna. This Jiva Pragna is the ordinary or outward kind of work.

Then there is work which is connected with the subtle aspect of the body. This is called Iswara Pragna. The subtle qualities tend to bind you subtly. We can acquire freedom from attachments only if we cultivate good qualities. Although at times bad qualities appear to yield temporary pleasure, but in the long run they will harm us. Satsang - good company is important. It helps to cultivate good qualities. Suppose you set fire to a small piece of wood in a forest. That piece will not rest till it sets fire to the whole forest. The bad qualities are like a forest fire. The bad people ruin themselves, and try to spoil everyone around them. They inject their bad qualities into their surroundings and they ruin their friends and relatives.

Good people sacrifice their personal interests, and purify the atmosphere of their environment. They are like an incense stick which goes on burning and radiating fragrance to everyone who comes close to them, even while burning themselves out. One who always thinks of helping others and harbouring sacred feelings in the mind, will be improving day after day. A person endowed with sacred qualities can be compared to a man who builds a wall. The man who builds a wall will continuously climb up and he will never climb down. On the other hand, individuals who are always causing trouble, harm and hurt to others, who are jealous of the prosperity of others, can be compared to the persons who are digging a well. The persons engaged in digging a well will continuously descend lower and lower, while the persons who are building a wall will ascend higher and higher. We must shape ourselves like the ones who are building a wall, and not like the ones who are digging a well. A person will be called a Jnani, that is, living in the orbit of the Atma, if he can recognise the Atma pervading the entire universe. Such a Jnani or a wise person continuously thinks of God. Although he lives in the world, he does not allow the world to live in him, as he cannot think of anything else other than God.

For explaining this situation, a description of Radha Bhakthi is most appropriate. This has been misinterpreted and erroneous impressions have been created, although there is no room for wrong impressions in this type of devotion. To regard Radha as the name of a particular woman or to regard that her devotion was like human love is not appropriate and correct. In God's view, there is no difference between man and woman. That is why Narada described only the Jiva that is in both and did not distinguish between man and woman. These differences are related only to the body, and not to the Jiva or the Atma. Both men and women experience joy, sorrow, hunger, thirst, pleasure and pain irrespective of their sex. The experience is the same in essence. There may be only minor differences. Women show their sorrow outwardly and shed tears while men show greater forbearance and experience sorrow internally. In regard to the external conduct, there may thus be some differences of showing, but when we take up the inner significance, it is the same for both sexes. We should therefore regard Radha's devotion as something sacred and distinctive. To attribute our own interpretations for this is wrong and sinful. Her devotion is a matter of complete surrender and thereby she imprints herself completely on the heart of Krishna. She had thus made her life sacred. The aspect of such a surrendered mind, whether it is that of a man or woman, is the aspect of Radha. The form of this is the form of Radha.

There is a small example for this. Whether you use the English language or the Telugu language, some sounds have to be put together to make a word. We shall take this word Radha as consisting of four sounds 'R A D A'. If they are uttered in that sequence we have the word Radha but if they are uttered beginning with the last letter, we get the word Adhar. If we start with 'D', we get Dhara and if we begin with 'A' we get Aradh. Thus, this way of looking at the matter gives a beautiful definition of Radha. That is, Aradh is the Adhar for Radha and Dhara. The Aradhana of Dhara is Radha. The meaning of this is that at all times, at all places and under all circumstances, Radha is simply thinking of Aradhana of God. Any person who makes such an attempt will be termed as Radha. This means that if you want to enter such a path, with your gross body and with your subtle and causal bodies as well, you must join good company and always entertain good ideas in your mind.

There is a small example for this. In a clock there are three pointers or hands moving at different speeds. One is the seconds hand, the second is the minute hand and the third is the hour hand. As the seconds hand moves and covers a large area, the minute hand moves only through one division. As the seconds hand covers sixty divisions, the minute hand covers only one division. When the minute hand covers sixty divisions, the hour hand covers only one division. We are easily able to see the movement of the seconds hand and even that of the minute hand but the movement of the hour hand is such that we cannot see it. In this case what you cannot see visually is of utmost importance. It is only in the context of the hour hand that the minute hand and the seconds hand assume any importance. If the hour hand is not there, the seconds and the minute hands are of little use.

Our body does many things and is like the seconds hand of this example. After this gross body does a considerable amount of good, the subtle mind will be able to move a little. After the mind does many good things, the causal body or the sacred Atma will be able to move a little bit. The causal body is like the hour hand. We have to recognise here that the gross body and the subtle mind are existing for the sake of the causal body or the Atma. They have little or no meaning by themselves. We have to bear in mind that the causal body is the most important thing. We may, in that context, allow the gross body and the subtle body to take part in various sacred tasks. It is only then that we will be able to render useful service to our causal body.

The ocean is like the grace of God. When we are able to converge our intelligence - intelligence corresponding to the sun's rays - on this ocean of Anugraha or grace, we will get the vapours of thoughts and ideas. These vapours are converted into the clouds of truth. These clouds of truth will result in the rain of Prema. Drops of Prema join together and begin to flow as the river of Ananda. The origin for this Ananda are the raindrops of Prema and the origin for those raindrops is the cloud of truth. The cloud of truth arises from the vapour of thoughts and the thoughts themselves arise from the ocean of grace. Such Ananda arises from the ocean of grace, undergoes all these transformations and finally rejoins the ocean of grace.

Ocean water is saltish when taken directly from the ocean, and can be compared to 'Sastra Gnana' or book knowledge. The water obtained from the river has changed in taste and is sweet. This water may be compared to 'Anubhava Gnana' or wisdom obtained through experience. More than the knowledge that you can get from reading the Sastras, you should value the wisdom that you can get from experience. By taking the knowledge from the Sastras, you can convert it into the wisdom of experience by putting the knowledge into practice in your daily life. Knowledge obtained from books is like an allergy. You have no energy in you because you lack experience. Truly, young people like you should have such energy that if you go and hit a piece of stone, that piece of stone should break and you should not get hurt. It is surprising to see how weak you are.

There is also one small example to illustrate this weakness in man. Man appears very strong only outwardly. Even if a mosquito sits on the tip of his nose, at first he just drives it away by a gentle flap. If it returns and sits for a second time, he tries to hit it hard. If it comes a third time, he begins to fight with it. This is the strength which young people have these days. They are unable to tolerate a mosquito. Such strength, physical or otherwise, is not our real strength.

Our real strength lies in our resolutions to practice our ideals. For this, we need the grace of God and the strength which divinity can give us. Strength of the human body, when one cannot control his senses, is like the strength of an animal. Our attempts should be to strengthen our mind and not to strengthen only our limbs at the expense of our intelligence. We should not do things which will cause great excitement. To undertake such things and to bring about anarchic behaviour is bringing disgrace to ourselves. Your learning must be such that it goes to your heart and not to your head. You should make your heart a photographic negative so that you can get as many prints out of it as you wish. It is very important that the education you receive during this stay of one month for this summer course should be imprinted in that manner on your heart. You will then grow into responsible citizens of our great country and uphold its traditions in your future lives.