The Sunday Talk Given by Anil Kumar
January 23rd, 2005
“The Spiritual Aspirant”
OM…OM…OM…
Sai Ram
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
the three Categories of Aspirants
Welcome back to this morning’s session. I want to share some important thoughts with you this morning, having to do with ourselves as aspirants. All over the world, we aspirants, we seekers, we devotees can be categorised under three headings. We all belong to one of these three categories, whichever country we are from, whichever era we live in. Today let me share and discuss these categories with you.
THE First CategorY – THOSE WHO LIKE TO ASK QUESTIONS
The first category encompasses people who ask question after question, one after another, always asking without even awaiting a reply. As you start to answer their first question, they are already thinking about their next. This then is the first category - people whose interest is to ask questions, without interest in knowing or hearing the answers.
They are something like a child who asks, “Father, why are the stars up there in the sky?” But as the father scratches his head and begins to answer, this child is ready with the next question, “Why is there honey in a flower?” Instead of the child listening to the answer, he instead immediately asks another question, “Why do cows yield milk?” All his questions are asked just for the sake of asking. Some devotees keep asking questions just because they think that’s what a good devotee should do.
This first level, constantly asking questions without real interest in hearing the answers given, is called asakthi, interest -- just interest. A devotee or spiritual seeker starts his journey at this point of mere interest. This is a prerequisite. It is fundamental. If we have no interest, then where is the desire to know anything at all? Therefore, first we start or evolve from this very necessary stage of asakthi or interest. But we should not stop there. This stage of asakthi should be a step we take toward a higher level, toward the next stage.
The Second Category –those who Try to know
The next stage emerges as we try to understand - not merely asking questions, but also wanting to know the answers. We start truly investigating, enquiring, and we try to analyse the answers given. We are no longer just generating a barrage of questions, but we become patient enough to listen to the answers as well. This is the second stage of a spiritual seeker’s development.
The first stage of a spiritual seeker is asakthi, that of an interested man. The second stage of a spiritual seeker is jignasu, which means that one is interested in hearing and knowing the answers to his questions. He is now prepared to do an in-depth analysis. He is ready to hear and receive the profundity of spiritual thought. He is ready to receive the innermost secrets of Vedanta philosophy.
Of what benefit is this second stage? What does this interest to know, jignasa, help me to become? At this stage, I may become a scholar. I can become a philosopher. Perhaps I may become a good preacher and give good sermons. I can be a very good temple priest. I can engage an audience for a long time. I can be scholarly in my approach. This is what you get by arriving at this stage of jignasa, this stage of interested learning.
The first stage of asakthi, interest, is only a beginning. If we stop there, yes, we don’t get any results from it. Asakthi should take us to the next stage of jignasa, the stage in which we try to know. Jignasa will make us resourceful, knowledgeable, informed, analytical and logical. All these things will happen due to our entering this stage of jignasa. We will have a pool of knowledge and information from which to operate; but it should not stop there.
the spiritual journey does not end by gaining knowledge
If I stop at the second stage of jignasa, of only wanting ‘to know’, I become a machine. I turn into a computer. My brain acts just as a computer chip, or as a floppy disk or CD, with mere recorded data. Mere learning, mere reading and mere acquisition of information, no doubt, will make you resourceful and a scholar; but this alone cannot make one a true spiritual seeker.
To be a true spiritual seeker, one should not stop at this second level of being a man of knowledge. We respect a man of knowledge, but we don’t adore him. He has a special place in society. But a man of knowledge is not a role model because he is just a scholar who can repeat verbatim that which is contained in texts. Some people are very clever and intelligent and can quote any Sanskrit verse from any book. They can quote any episode from any one of the epics. Yes, we appreciate them, but they are not our role models. This person may be a good student of philosophy, a good student and good speaker of Vedanta, but he lacks experience.
So the spiritual journey does not come to an end merely by gaining knowledge. Some people ask, “Where is God? What is the nature of the individual? What is the nature of the cosmos? The reason for creation?” Very good questions. We can have the answers if we have that jignasa, that interest to know. However, my friends, all the information I have put in my head may make me a scholar, but it does not transform me. It does not make me a realised man -- one who has experienced the Self. All that knowledge has just made me an expert on the given subject.
Therefore the spiritual journey, my friends, should not stop at this second stage. The first stage is having an interest, or asakthi. The second stage is being interested in knowing, jignasa, which makes me an expert. We should not stop at that level, however, but progress on to the third stage.
The taste of the pudding is in the eating of it
The third stage is what we call mumukshu. Mumukshu is the third stage one has to reach, or to travel to, while journeying on the spiritual path. What does this stage represent? The third step, mumukshu, is for a man who seeks realisation. A man after liberation is the mumukshu. This is the third and final step. What does he think about it? What is this stage?
My friends, I do not know how many times I have told this story before, but it is worth repeating. A person once went to a mango garden and saw a person taking care of the trees. He called him.
“How many mango trees are here?”
“Sir, there are five hundred.”
“OK. So, how many mangos do you get?”
“Many thousands.”
“How much money do you get for them?”
“So much.”
“How long will it take to pick them?”
“This long.”
“How many people work here?”
“So many.”
“How many days does it take for the seed to germinate?”
“So many days.”
“How many years before the trees bear fruit?”
“So many years.” This person in charge of the mango garden had grown tired of these questions. He was totally exhausted by this interrogation!
He then said, “Sir, be quiet, please. I will give you a fruit. Please sit down and eat it, and don’t ask anything more. (Laughter) I will give you a fruit. Eat and be happy. Why are you interested in knowing about the field, the manure, the time taken, the leaves and the branches? Is it not tiresome? Is it not a waste of time? Do you think that all this data will help you? Do you think that all this minute information, the unnecessary details, will give you an experience equal to that of tasting the actual fruit?”
When you taste the fruit, that is the end of it. You can know the details, but that is only a comma, and not a full stop. You can go on learning the answers to these questions. If you earn this much, how much is the other fellow earning? If you have so many trees, how many trees does the other fellow have? But the answers are just data and statistics. All that will not give you as much satisfaction as eating these delicious fruits. The taste of the pudding is in the eating of it.
the third Category – those who Experience all that is known
So, my friends, the third stage of a spiritual seeker is experiencing all that is known. All that is known is to be experienced. Why? Because God is a living reality. God is not an idea or merely a theory. God is not merely a concept, much less a dogma or a fanatic system of belief. God is not a goal. God is not a person. God is not an object. Because of these incorrect concepts, we are deluded and divided. Because I think God is an object, I want to possess Him. However, you cannot possess Him. An evil spirit can possess you - we come across people like that quite often. You cannot possess Him, however, as you might possess a pen, articles, gifts or objects.
You cannot say that God is a person either, because if you think of God as a person, you will want to always be near Him. Later, you will want to be the only man near Him. Later, you will want to see those who think they are near Him. So when you mistake God as a person, there are all these limitations. All these things that are not true come into the mind. God is not a person to be near. God is not a person who stays away from you. This has to be realised.
So, the third step of Mumukshu is the realisation of this basic fact that God is in you and that you are God. That is the aim, that is the objective, and that is the destination of a devotee or seeker.
Life should be one of experience
Having begun with the stage of interest, man then progresses into a stage of knowing and then he evolves into a stage of experiencing. Most of us are in the second stage. We consider a person who is an expert in speaking about the Vedanta to be a spiritual man. My friends, that is not correct. We can say that he is an expert, that he is a resourceful man, a pundit and a scholar, but not that he is a spiritual man, because if you want to call him a spiritual man, he should be able to live what he believes and demonstrate what he talks about. He should be a role model. In fact, his life should disseminate all that he believes in and propagates.
A role model should not be like a drunkard who serves as the Minister for Prohibition. (Laughter) A role model should not be like an illiterate, unlettered fellow serving as the Union Education Minister. He should not be like a very unhealthy fellow who is the Union Health Minister. Our scholarship, however, is such a thing if we are bereft of experience. Our knowledge is just such a travesty without experience. Therefore, my friends, life should be one of experience. One gains experience if one experiments. One should be ready to experiment once he has the explanations and answers. So without adequate explanation, we cannot proceed because we tend to imagine - our minds are like that.
Experiences must be backed by Scriptural Sanction
Adi Shankara clearly and emphatically said, “You should not go by the vagaries and the whims and fancies of your mind, by your imagination. You shouldn’t just speculate. All your thoughts, all your procedures, and all your experiences must be backed by scriptural sanction.”
We have a fund of spiritual knowledge, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma Sutras and Yogavasistha. We have a vast mine of spiritual wealth, but unless our experiences and our methods have the approval of scriptural sanctions, let us not think they are the final word. Why? Because if we ignore the scriptures, what will happen? Every fellow becomes a prophet!
A person comes and says, “Swami appeared in my dream and said that I am God.”
“OK. I see. If you are God, why should Swami appear to you, separately?”
We must use some common sense at least.
One lady came to me and said, “I am married to Bhagavan.”
I said, “Not to my knowledge.” (Laughter)
And she said, “You do not know.”
Then I said, “I need not know that which I don’t want to know.” (Laugher)
If you yourself say that getting married to Bhagavan is symbolic, I accept that. If you say it in the literal sense, then you should have a psychiatric examination. (Laughter)
If it is a question of the union of the individual with the cosmos, if it is the identification of a drop with the ocean, if it is a spark being within fire, then yes, it is spiritual wedlock. By all means, it is spiritual union. But if you say that the marriage is physical and literal, well, I will need to keep a respectable distance away from you! (Laughter)
So Adi Shankara is very clear in asserting that, unless there is scriptural sanction, you must not take things as true and real. Because we are each mad in our own way; and we compete with each other, so we become madder and madder…even the very personification of madness!
Imagination, HOPE or promise are not religion
A person came to me and said, “Sir, Swami looked at me.”
I said, “Oh? How do you know that He that looked at you? A thousand people feel the same when Swami stares their way, so how can you say He looked only at you? Everyone feels that way, so how can you say that Swami was looking only at you, that yours was an exclusive experience?” No, it is an inclusive experience. He only imagined that it was exclusive.
So my friends, let be careful about imagining things. Imagination. Speculation. Prediction. Hope. Promise. None of these are the stuff of religion, and if we know what is not, we also know what is. Religion is here and now. Religion is in this moment. It is the present. Religion is existence, the totality of existence. Religion is the reality of life.
A Man of Liberation is always interested to become God
Therefore my friends, we should strive for the third stage, that of the mumukshu, that of a person who is 100% spiritual. He is not bothered about knowing details. He wants to know the end, not the path, and not the variations in the path. He doesn’t care to explore the differences of opinion that exist. After all, whether the cat is made up of wood or mud, the cat is there to eat the rat. That is the nature of a cat and it doesn’t matter if it is made of wood or mud. Therefore my friends, the end point for jignasu, knowing, is mumukshu, the final stage of being, becoming one.
Manu Satwa Mumukshusatwam Maha Purushaya Samsayaha.
Mumuksathwam is the final stage, which you achieve as a result of God’s Grace. Divaanugraha hethukam is the proof of God’s Grace, and one is a mumukshu through His special Grace.
Anyone can have asakthi, interest, and many people do…most every Tom Dick or Harry. One can be a jignasu simply by being a philosophy student, by getting a postgraduate degree in philosophy. To be a mumukshu, however, we need His special Grace.
Above all, most of us are interested in knowing where God is, and knowing what His attributes are. This mumukshu, however, is not interested in knowing about God. He wants to become God. He wants to be aware that he is God. He wants to live in a constant integrated awareness of God, of His reality. He does not care about the details of God. The one who dwells on the details of God is just a jignasu, or a man of interest; but this is a man of real knowing, a man of realisation, a mumukshu, a man of liberation. Such a man is always interested in becoming God, not simply in knowing about God.
Bhagavan Himself said in one of His poems, “By looking at a map, can you have the satisfaction gained by going there?” My friends, here is a map. Here is Puttaparthi. Thank you! (Laughter)
What did He mean? He meant that looking at a map will never give you the thrill and the joy of experiencing the place depicted by going there. A map can never satisfy you like that.
Imagine if you were very hungry and I offered you a menu and then sent you on your way, saying, “Thank you for coming; see you later.” A menu will never appease or satiate your hunger, nor quench your thirst.
Imagine a man whose health is grave, just listening to me explain about the biochemistry of his medicine, its pharmacology, where it was manufactured, and from where it was imported. By the time he listens to all these things I say, he will collapse. (Laughter) So, mere details of pharmacology or biochemistry, the mere awareness of the ingredients in the syrup, capsule or tablet, the mere knowledge of physiology, is not going to effect a cure in the patient.
Bhagavan has also given another example: If I talk about accounts, economics, budgets, credit, debit, and balance sheets to a beggar who does not have even one square meal a day, he is going to say, “What is all this? I need money now, not knowledge of accounts and economics.”
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa always said, “I don’t want any knowledge or information - I want the visualisation. I want the manifestation of the Divine Mother right in front of me right now.” He was a mumukshu. As Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, “When the fiancée has been away from her beloved for five or six years, how eagerly he waits for her return!”
Just as the calf is eager to suck milk from the udder of the mother cow, so too is the feeling of a mumukshu toward God. He wants to attain liberation, not know the details of liberation. He wants to be God, not know about godliness, or of the details of God. It is really revealing and instructive to know how a mumukshu acts and what a mumukshu wants and does.
you say you are God?
All of us know or want to know what the body is. What are the senses? What is the mind? What is the intellect? We are all interested in the dynamics of life.
To put it all in one sentence, and to quote Swami in this context:
You are not the body. The body is like a water bubble.
Do not follow the body.
You are not the mind. The mind is a mad monkey.
Do not follow the mind.
You are the soul.
You are Atma.
You are the Self.
Follow the Self. Follow the Consciousness.
That is what Baba tells us. It is nice to that hear we are in the second stage of knowing, jignasa.
Ask any boy studying in our colleges and schools, “Who are you?”
He will say, “I am Atma.” Aha! Good!
One boy gave the same reply to Swami Himself. Swami asked him, “Who are you?”
That fellow said, “Swami, I am God.” (Laughter) Aha! Aha!
Then Baba said, “Yes, you are God. You go and give darshan now on My behalf.” (Laughter)
That fellow said, “No.”
When you say you are God, you should then be able to give darshan, so that you are not only saying it. In this way, things are not just spoken, expressed, or imagined, but they are experienced in reality. They are lived. Instead of speaking about consciousness, instead of knowing about the details of consciousness, or of super-consciousness, a mumukshu wants to be ‘That’.
Realisation is when the name and form are gone
A book has been published based on ‘That’ with the title of ‘I AM THAT‘. Tatwamasi = I am That. That = Tat. I = Twam. The meaning is ‘I am That’.
The mumukshu is always eager to declare Tatwamasi. He is always ready to experience the state of Tatwamasi, of ‘I am That’. When he continually feels this ‘I am That, I am That,’ what finally happens to him? He is then That, with no ‘this’. As you think, so you become. Therefore as the seeker, as a mumukshu, continues to think, ‘I am That; I am That’, he becomes That and the ‘I’ is gone.
For example, there is a drop of water on my palm. While looking at the ocean, it continuously says, “Look here, I am That. I am That.” Say I throw this drop of water back into the ocean, and I then ask, “Oh drop, where are you?” I will get no answer because ‘this’ drop has become ‘That’ ocean. It’s ‘this’ is gone. That is the final stage.
So my friends, realisation and liberation mean that name and form have been totally forgotten, totally lost, totally annihilated.
Realising ‘That’, however, is more easily said then done. I make no special claim of being One with the whole or the cosmos. I am not that mad, yet. We are all fellow pilgrims. We are all fellow devotees. These satsangs (spiritual gatherings) are organised every day so that we may think together and move together, so that we can investigate together and encourage each other along the onward journey to His Feet.
So, my friends, that day when our belief in the name and the form are withdrawn, on that day, at that moment when the name and form are gone, you do not exist, and only ‘He’ remains.
Three qualities that are shared between he (god) and I
With name and form, ‘I’ and ‘He’ remain, and He and I share three qualities. I even have two extra qualities, two more than God! So He (God) and I share three qualities. What are they?
THE First Quality – EXISTENCE or sat
God is existence. Sat means existence. ‘I’ exist. Everyone wants to exist. No one wants to commit suicide! No one wants to die, and everyone thinks that he will live on forever. If you tell anybody that so-and-so died, they will say, “Poor fellow, he died. I am not going to die!”
If a fellow says that so-and-so met with an accident, you might think, ‘Poor fellow, he didn’t get the proper medical treatment.’
Unknowingly, unwittingly, unconsciously, there is a feeling of permanence within each and every one of us. There is a feeling of eternal life within us: ‘He died, but I won’t. I have so much money, so I can afford expensive treatment I need to live.’ Oh, so you will have a costly death! (Laughter)
My friends, that feeling of eternity or Immortality, that feeling of continuity, this is present within everyone. This is what is called ‘existence’. So, this ‘existence’ is Divinity when you speak about God, and this ‘existence’ is ‘I’, when speaking about me.
Existence is the first quality that both of us share, God and I. ‘I am That.’ ‘That’ and ‘I’ share here the first quality of existence, Sat, because God is existence.
The Second Quality – Awareness or chit
The second quality that both of us share, God and I, is that of awareness or chit. We want to know everything. A simple example: I go to bed every night. The next morning, I get up. Who wakes me up? There are many people who die in their sleep. Those people don’t get up. ‘Rest in peace.’ (Laughter) The parcel is returned to the Sender. So who wakes you up?
The moment you get up, you start identifying with everyone; you start connecting yourself to everybody, to all matter, men, and material. It is something like the Internet. Once you connect to the Internet, you are connected to the whole world. Who is the one who connects you to the Internet of the cosmos? Who is the one who connects you to the Internet of the inner Divinity and reality? What is His email address? (Laughter) If possible, could you tell me His password too? (Laughter)
My friends, it is so, so simple. The one who connects you to the Internet of eternity, of Divinity, is God Himself within you. The password is OM. That is all. “Open to the public.” This is the awareness with which I know ‘who is who’, that ‘I am what I am.’ This is chit. This is the second quality I share with Him. He, there, is sat; I, here, am sat. He, there, is chit; I, here, am chit.
The Third Quality – Bliss or ananda
The third quality that God and I both share is bliss, ananda. God is bliss. Bliss is God. We need not be blissful; but understand this - we are bliss. Why? Sometimes we may not be blissful -- in the morning we are happy, so-so in the afternoon, and then by evening, we are miserable. (Laughter) As Baba says, we start the day with yoga, discipline. We spend the day in bhoga, pleasure, and end the day in roga, disease. So, having started with the day with yoga, we fill our day with bhoga, and end up in roga. That is the tragedy of life.
Sometimes, however, we are blissful. But God is not blissful because He is bliss itself. What do I mean here? As a human, I may say, “I am loving. I love people. I am a lover.” But God is not a lover. God does not love. God is Love itself. God is Love personified. God is Love embodied. God is Love and has come here in human form, in the name of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. And, as He and I are bliss, this third quality of ananda or bliss, He and I share in common.
the Nature OF BLISS
Ananda or bliss is permanent, eternal, and non-dual; but we do not experience ananda in our daily life. We experience only ‘happiness’. Happiness -- unhappiness. We also experience joy. We know how to be joyful, and we also experience misery. So happiness -- unhappiness, joy -- misery, these are all dual experiences; but bliss is non-dual.
Joy is of a much lesser degree than bliss. When I drink a hot cup of coffee, I am joyful. When I eat ice cream, it’s good and I am joyful. A pie, cheese, doughnuts or Kentucky Fried chicken! (Laughter) These all give us momentary joy. But perhaps you have bought a house or landed a job. You don’t say, “I am joyful” when this happens. That which lasts over a prolonged period of time is happiness; that which happens on the spur of the moment is joy. Both are dual.
Suppose a cup of hot coffee gives you joy, but not iced tea. When I serve you iced tea, your joy turns to anger and you show your true colours, shouting at me. You see? This joy and happiness are dual experiences. But bliss is non-dual and spiritual. It is our true nature.
So, sat, chit and ananda, existence, awareness and bliss, are my qualities and His qualities, too; qualities that both He and I share. I am That.
the Two Extra qualities – Name and Form
Of course, the separation between ‘I’ and ‘That’, Tatwamaasi, still remains. Why? Because I have two extra qualities. God has only three, but I have five! What are these two extra qualities of mine? Some cars or scooters have extra features; others come supplied from the company with standard features only. So, what are our two extra features or qualities? They are rupa or form, and nama or name. These are the two extra features added to the three original standardised features of the ‘company designer’ -- the ‘company designer’ being Sathya Sai Baba! Yes, He is the ‘manufacturer’!
So, along with His three features (existence, awareness, bliss), we have these ‘extras’ called nama and rupa, which is why you say, “I am That.” But once the two extra features are removed, what happens? You will say, “There is no person here to say, ‘I am That’.”
The ‘That’ remains, but the ‘I’ is gone. ‘I am Brahmasmi’. ‘I am I.’ That is what Baba says. That is all. ‘I am God’ and ‘I am That’ have gone. All you are then is ‘That’, and all of ‘That’ is God.
This is the pure, unsullied, crystal clear, unpolluted stage of primordial fundamental reality that we reach when we have given up nama and rupa, the name and form. This is the end of the journey. This is the where the road ends. This is what is called sayujya, or merger. When the drop is one with the ocean, when the spark is one with the fire, this is the ultimate goal, the one that we need to remember.
Bhagavan is Beyond Time
But my friends, are we ready to receive all of this? Are we ready to know all of this? Are we ready to experience all of this? No, we are not, and that is because our attraction toward the world is greater than our attraction toward the Divine. All of our commitments, attachments, obligations, duties and responsibilities dominate our thoughts, and override our purpose in life.
This is why, when a person reaches Prashanti Nilayam, they first ask, “What time is He expected?” (Laughter) He is not a plane expected at an airport terminal, where you are told when his flight will reach the gate. He is not a train arriving at a railway platform either. You can’t be told His arrival and departure times.
“What time is He expected?” What reply can I give? Shall I give a time? (That will never happen, you can be sure about that!)
Anyway, what I say is this: “What time can I give for the One who is timeless? What time can I say about He who is beyond time?” Bhagavan Baba is Kalathitaaya, beyond time. Kalaya namah – He is Time. How can you know when He, the Master of Time, is expected? I cannot do that.
Why do you need an interview?
Some people ask me, “Is it possible to get an interview?”
There are other friends who ask me, “Can you help me to get an interview?” (Laughter)
I can only say, “My friend, you don’t have to ask for an interview.”
Then these people are full of questions, “What! I have come for an interview! Why do you say that you don’t have to ask for an interview?”
My answer is this: “If Baba had not already been there in your inner-view, you would not be here in Prashanti Nilayam!”
My friends, we are not here because we seek an interview, but because we are in Baba’s ‘view’ already. He brought us here. Do not think that we are so good that we are here of our own volition. We know our own temperament. I am sure that if we were unprejudiced, unbiased, free and frank, most of us would say that, left to ourselves, we wouldn’t be here.
Why do I say that? There are many, many people who want to be here, yet could not be. There are many people who had their luggage packed, ready to go, but who could not be here. There are many people who never expected to be here, who never planned or desired to be here, yet here they find themselves! (Laughter) With reluctance, they are pushed, pulled, and drawn here; whereas the fellow who wants to be here, he must wait for another time. Is that not enough proof, my friends, to show you that you are here because He wants you to be here?
When He brought you here, when He prompted you to come, He wanted you to enjoy peace and bliss, to have a taste of bliss in your lifetime. So, why do you need an interview? The so-called interview that you want is external. You may have an interview this morning, but you can’t have it again this evening. You may have it today, but not tomorrow. Life cannot be full of interviews. That would be impossible, and it isn’t necessary. When you feel Him within, or when you develop a live contact with Him, you do not need an interview.
No Mediators between Swami and you
Their next question is then, “Would you help us to get an interview?”
This is my answer: “If there was someone who could help you to get an interview, Baba would not be God.”
Baba does not need any mediators. If you seek an audience with a head of state, you need somebody to make an appointment for you. Middlemen or intermediaries are required so that the VIP knows of your desire to meet him.
But from my own experience, my friends, I can tell you frankly that if we take advantage of a middleman here, an interview is delayed further. Our live contact with Swami is gone. If it is left to yourselves, you may get an interview today or tomorrow; but with an intermediary, it won’t come until the next life! (Laughter) Because Baba says, “I have no mediators because I am there within you. When I am there in you, where is the need of a mediator?” So let us not seek a middleman to take us to Baba.
Baba’s Divinity – To be experienced
Baba’s Divinity can be very well realised or experienced by being a little watchful or wakeful. If we are wakeful to the reality of Him, we will understand Baba’s Divinity. Tonight at 8:30 PM, on Samskar TV, there is a telecast, ‘The Sri Sathya Sai Drinking Water Project Extended to Chennai Citizens’. All the details of the project are given in this long programme. If you watch it, you will certainly learn what the project was, and how the people worked to achieve it. What a tremendous, magnificent, stupendous and unparalleled work did Bhagavan Baba undertake so as to successfully quench the thirst of forty lakhs people in and around Chennai, in record time.
Up to now, they had been drinking polluted water at a high cost; plus, because of the pollution, they fell sick. No government could help them until now. We know all government projects take too long and waste money and human resources. But here, for the first time, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has provided water unconditionally, and in record time, to an area like Chennai, a metropolitan city with no previous supply of drinking water. (Applause)
Baba doesn’t expect a word of thanks from you. He doesn’t expect gratitude, or for you to accept Him as God. He doesn’t expect you to visit Him. He doesn’t expect anything, because He is Love Incarnate, unconditional Love. He is Love eternal and immortal. He is Love Himself. Love has no expectations. Love is not a bargain. Love is not political. Love is not speculative, like a business deal. Love is neither provisional nor seasonal, neither accidental nor incidental. Love is life unparalleled. Without Love, one is dead; life without Love is death. Yes, Bhagavan allows His Love to flow like the torrential Niagara Falls. Bhagavan’s Love flows unceasingly.
a Water Supply to People in need
Imagine a God-forsaken place, the Ananthapur District. Not everybody would like to live in this district, which is notorious for drought and famine. It is well known for water shortages. This area is thought of as being cut-off from civilisation, culture and modernity.
In the life of Adi Shankara, we come across a beautiful lesson. Adi Shankara was the most extraordinary, the most precious gift of God to mankind -- unparalleled, unsurpassed in every way. Adi Shankara was the greatest. During his life, this tale happened.
One day he returned home and was waiting for the arrival of his aged mother. Despite waiting and waiting for a very long time, she still didn’t return. So Adi Shankara went in search of his mother, walking and walking in the hot summer sun; but he could not find his mother. Then, at last he saw her lying on the ground, with a pot full of water by her side. His poor mother had gone to the Poorna River to fetch a pot of water. Being so hot, she became unconscious and fell.
Adi Shankara then helped his mother home. Once home, he prayed to his Divine Mother Saradha, the Goddess Saradha: “Oh Mother, are You not compassionate? Oh Mother, are You not merciful? I am in agony, Mother. I could not bear to see my mother fall unconscious on the road again. Should she have to walk such a long way to fetch water?”
He prayed to the Goddess Saradha all night. The next morning the Poorna River started flowing quite close to his house! Adi Shankara could change the direction of the river so that it that it would flow next to his house! It still runs there today, in the village of Kaladi.
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has no cause to direct water here, but He caused the water to flow to about 1200 villages in the Ananthapur District. Water is available there, not just in one village today, but also all over the district. That is Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Just imagine that! If you are really interested to know about Divinity, there are many, many events like this.
Sathya Sai Baba gives to devotees
It was also Adi Shankara who went to an old woman for alms. In those days, the monks or gurus lived on food offered by the householders. They would go with a bowl and stand in front of the house, and the householders would feed them. As Adi stood in front of this old woman’s house, she started crying.
The old lady said, “My Lord, I don’t have anything to give you, my son. I am poor. What can I give you?”
Adi Shankara closed his eyes and there he prayed to his Mother. Then there was a shower of gold in the old woman’s hut.
I can tell you about thousands of such instances in the lives of Sathya Sai devotees – people who are nobody, and who struggle so hard. Today they are settled comfortably in life. They are very comfortable, with enough to eat and enough to offer to others. I can give you any number of examples. Each would take a long time to tell, time that I don’t want to use here and now. I know many of those people.
Understand, my friends, Sathya Sai Baba gives you what you want now, so that you may become what He wants you to be. Baba will give you all that you pray for, until you begin to long for Him only. That is what I think anyway.
The Divine Introduction
When Adi Shankara once went to his guru, the guru asked, “Who are you?”
He did not reply, “I am Adi Shankara; my mother’s name is so-and-so; these are my identification marks, and this is my date of birth.”
Instead he said, “I am one with eternity. I am birth-less. I have no end. I am beyond all want and desire. I am the eternal spark of the Divine.” That is how Adi Shankara introduced himself to his guru!
Do you know how Bhagavan Baba introduced Himself when He approached a group of saints during His visit to the Himalayan Mountains? “I am God. No worries or vexations ever trouble Me. I am immortal. I am eternal. Nothing can stop the fulfilment of My Divine vision. Oh mind, understand there is a limit in knowing Me, in judging Me.” That is how He introduced Himself! What a parallel to the words of Adi Shankara!
Unity of religions and nations
It was Adi Shankara who established spiritual centres in five places all over the country, and today the Sathya Sai Organisation is spread all over the world. There is no country where there is no Sathya Sai Organisation.
Adi Shankara united all the different sects and unified the Hindu religion. He condemned all that is anti-social and violent. Adi Shankara himself is Divine because of his intellect, awareness, and wisdom. Today we need not only someone to unify the Hindu sects, but we also need a personality who can unite all religions, all nations, and all peoples. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is that personality. It is He who has established Love as a thread to bind people! (Applause)
Adi Shankara speaks of the eternal Self, of the Atma. In every talk, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba also discourses on the Self or Atma.
Three things we should have
Well, my friends, I do not know how I got onto recounting Adi Shankara’s entire biography, but before I take leave of you, my friends, remember that Baba said we should have three things:
Have the head of Shankara.
The head of Shankara is unique because it is always in pursuit of vicharana or enquiry.
Adi Shankara had a searching and enquiring mind.
Have the heart of Buddha that melts,
that is touched, that reacts to any grief, tragedy, or suffering.
Have the hands of Janaka,
the king who served everyone.
Let us try to acquire these three: the head, the heart, and the hands -- the three H’s. These people are given to us as examples to follow, through Baba’s gift of Divine discourses to humanity.
May God bless you. Thank you very much.
He concluded his talk with the bhajans, “Sri Radhe Shayana Narayana”.
OM…OM…OM…
Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrtyormaa Amrtam Gamaya
Om Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti