The Sunday Talk Given by Prof. Anil Kumar
84th Birthday of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Part 2:
“Constant Integrated Awareness”
November 22, 2009
OM…OM…OM…
Sai Ram
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
Let me first of all greet you on the eve of Bhagavan’s birthday. As you know, we are going through a busy schedule of programmes, coinciding with the 84th birthday celebrations. We had the procession of the chariot with the local deities’ idols on the 18th. And later, on the 19th, we celebrated Ladies Day.
Yesterday, the children of Sri Sathya Sai Primary school made a presentation on the great epic Ramayana. And today, the 21st, we are going to witness a drama entitled “The Nectar of Wisdom” presented by the students of Sri Sathya Sai University in the Divine presence.
Tomorrow morning, the 22nd, we are going to have the Convocation of our university, and the chief guest happens to be Dr. Sandweiss from California, USA. Dr Sandweiss needs no introduction. He is very well known to all Sai devotees. We eagerly look forward to his message tomorrow morning.
I pray to Bhagavan to shower His blessings on all of you such that we lead a comfortable, happy life in security, plenty and prosperity, and growing devotion and in service.
I would like to speak on one important theme, which will help us to celebrate Baba’s birthday in the true spirit, with full understanding of its significance.
WHAT IS CONSTANT INTEGRATED AWARENESS?
Constant Integrated Awareness is very much talked about and frequently stressed by Bhagavan in His discourses. What is this Constant Integrated Awareness? Why is it necessary? Do we have it? Exactly how to develop it? What connection has it with Baba’s birthday celebration? These are the aspects of Constant Integrated Awareness that I would like to deal with this morning.
We can understand Baba and we can experience Him if we develop this Constant Integrated Awareness. This birthday calls for cultivating the attitude of constantly thinking about integrated awareness. What is this integrated awareness? I shall highlight some of the points.
The first thing that we need to know is this: we as humans, we as individuals, are limited. We have our own limitations. For example, our lifespan is limited. I am not going to live forever. The body has a limited personality. The eyes’ perception is limited; our auditory capabilities are limited. So the human body with its senses are all under limitations.
We are not limitless, but Divinity is limitless. Divinity has no boundaries. Divinity is infinite, all-pervading, vast, and expansive. To have an understanding of that limitless Divinity, what should I have? What is it that I can do with this limited body and limited perception, with limited cognition, and with limited faculties? How am I to understand the limitless?
This is the challenge; this is the point of our eternal quest. This is what is called an eternal journey. We march ahead in this Constant Integrated Awareness. How to know the limitless with this limited identity? How to experience that vastness with this limited personality? My friends, since the senses are limited, they will be able to perceive only that which is limited.
TRANSCENDENCE MEANS GOING TO A STATE OF NO-MIND
Eyes can see to some distance, can tolerate some light intensity; beyond that, eyes cannot see. Ears can bear sound to some extent; beyond that, they cannot. So, all our senses are functional, within certain limits.
With these limited senses, we are not able to experience God. Why? He is limitless. Why? He has no boundaries. Why? He is infinite. Being here, I cannot see anything else in other places. Being here, I cannot hear anything beyond this area. Therefore, it is very, very clear that God is beyond our senses. God is beyond our mind.
Our mind is limited. So, the limited senses and the limited mind have to be transformed. We have to grow beyond our senses. We have to grow beyond our mind. We have to know the mind, K-N-O-W, and then go to the state of ‘no-mind’, N-O. So, from this ‘KNOW’ to the other ‘NO’, that is what is called transcendence. When I transcend my senses, I can experience Him; when I transcend my mind, I can experience Him.
In other words, what I want to share with my friends this morning is this: our experience today is within the framework of our senses and our mind. But our attempt is to know the limitless, infinite, ever-pervasive, omniscient, omnipotent Divinity. This is possible only when we go beyond the senses and the mind.
This is what is called awareness. There is awareness within the limitations of these senses and the mind, and there is awareness of that which is beyond. So the awareness includes both, within the limitations and beyond the limitations. That is total understanding. As Baba always says, awareness is complete comprehension, total understanding. So that kind of total understanding should be kept in our mind throughout our life. That’s why it is called ‘constant’.
Constantly from womb to the tomb, from the beginning till the end, we should constantly ruminate and ponder over this particular aspect of knowing the limitless, by transcending the senses and the mind. This is the first aspect of Constant Integrated Awareness.
THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE MAKE THE TOTALITY OF LIFE
The next point is this: we know our beginning point. What’s our beginning point? The date of birth is our beginning point; but we do not know our end point. However, Constant Integrated Awareness demands us to know our end point also. Let us not spend all our life at this beginning point. Let us know our potential to know our ultimate state, our end limit also.
In this context, we should know that there are two things that exist here in the universe: one that is visible and the other that is invisible. Awareness means to know both the visible and the invisible, and its totality of existence, which is awareness. So what I see here, what is visible is quite possible to grasp within the mind and with my senses. But to grow beyond that, to know the invisible, I should transcend my senses, and I should go beyond the mind.
So, there is the visible through senses, as well as the invisible beyond the senses. Likewise, there is the visible within the mind, as well as the invisible beyond the mind. So these two make the totality of life, the whole existence; that’s what we have to understand. That’s what we have to take note of this morning under this title, “Constant Integrated Awareness”.
Though the eye sees, there is an optic nerve behind the eye; that optic nerve also has another centre. I do not see these things; they are invisible. So, the invisible is inside, while the visible is outside. That which is visible on the outside is possible because of the invisible which is inside. The invisible which is inside is a cause for the experience of the visible that is outside. So what is my life now—invisible plus visible?
The food that I eat is outside, but the digestion, ingestion, and assimilation are all inside. What am I now? Both visible and invisible. If I think only the visible food is the whole thing, I am wrong. If I think all this digestion, ingestion, assimilation—the inner invisible is the only reality, I am also wrong. Food outside is as much a reality as digestion and assimilation inside. That experience or knowledge is integrated. This type of understanding is awareness. To bear that in the mind throughout our life is Constant Integrated Awareness. This sort of Constant Integrated Awareness will help us to go nearer and nearer to the Divine, closer and closer to God, gaining in spiritual experience thereafter.
Let me give you another example. With my eyes closed, I may still see you; but sometimes even with open eyes, I may not see you. What does it mean? When all that is visible does not appear, even with my eyes open, it is the same as if the eyes are closed. Sometimes students keep their eyes opened, but don’t hear your lesson in class. Sometimes they open their eyes, but they are asleep also! This is an extra faculty these days! (Laughter) So, even with your eyes open, you need not see. We don’t see everybody even though our eyes are open. It simply means all that is visible has not gone inside.
On the other hand, we can still see sometimes, even with the eyes closed. What does it mean? I am thinking of you; therefore my eye, though it is closed, still sees you. Therefore my friends, eyes open or an eye closed is immaterial. The seer is important. The seer is inside. When the seer wants, he will see with the eyes open or with the eyes closed.
Seer is inside. This seer, who is inside, exercises this process of seeing the seen, which is outside. That which is seen, the process of seeing, and the seer are three in our vision. We think only one is true. No! I see you, so you are the seen. I am seeing; that ‘I’ is the seer. ‘I’ is the seer, the process is seeing, and you are the seen. These three have got to be harmonious. These three have got to be blended, combined, coordinated, and integrated, so as to have complete understanding or awareness.
SEEING, SEEN, AND SEER
So long as I concentrate on the seen, I cannot see the seer. Simple example: some people watch a movie where the heroine cries, and the fellow in the audience also cries. Why? It is only a movie. This happens when someone is seeing only the outside; they are being influenced by the seen, which is outside. The heroine is harassed, the heroine is put to difficulty by the villain; therefore people cry. This scene outside causes pain to them. However, if we forget about the seen and focus only on the process of seeing, then there is no response. There is no reaction.
Sometimes Baba, in darshan line, looks at people. ‘Has He looked at me, the seen?’ Maybe! ‘Has He looked at you?’ Probably! But He focuses on seeing, not on the seen—please understand this! When He wants to give you an interview, He will see the seen. The rest of the time it is only the process of seeing, not looking at the seen. That’s why even sitting on the dais, He goes on moving His hands like that, looking into empty air.
‘I am here! Can’t You look at me?’ No, no, no. He goes on looking like that. Focusing on the seen is out of the question. Why? He is seeing, but not me, the seen. Why? The reason is seeing will take him into the seer. Focusing on the seen will take Him away from the seer. When I look at the seen, I will be seeing the seen and enjoying, describing it. But when I don’t see the seen but only see the process of seeing, that will make me experience the seer inside, the Divinity inside, the Brahman inside.
Therefore, Baba with His eyes open, waving His hands like that, with this process of seeing, not focusing on the seen, is the seer, Divinity, Atman, Brahman. Therefore my friends, let us see even without seeing the seen. That is the right process of seeing. And this right process of seeing (without seeing any scene outside) will take you to the seer inside. That is the point I want to draw to your attention this morning, which comes under this subject of “Constant Integrated Awareness”.
I would also like to say another thing that Baba always says:
Kasta Sukhambulu Kalasi Vundu Vida Deesi Gadupa Raadhu.
“Pleasure and pain go together; you cannot separate them.” What does this mean? As I walk, there is a shadow behind me. Can I ask my shadow, “Please get out.” No! “Oh shadow, where are you?” “I am with you, my boy. Wherever you are, I follow you,” will answer my shadow. Similarly, pleasure will be followed by the shadow of pain. Birth will be followed by the shadow of death. Light has its shadow, darkness. Light and shadow or dark, and birth and death seem to be opposites; but they are integrated.
THE COMPLETE TRUTH IS A COMBINATION OF OPPOSITES
My friends, the second point I want to tell you on this happy, birthday occasion is this: let us know the totality of truth, the complete truth. What is complete truth? Complete truth is a combination of opposites.
Yes, a simple example. How is it now? Well, today, right now, it is a beautiful morning; I see bright light. Correct. You are right. But it is only a half-truth. What is the other half? By 6 o’clock in the evening, it is going to be dark. So that darkness which comes in the evening is other half of the truth. So what is truth now? Light in the morning and darkness in the evening, together is total truth; separately, they are only partial truths. So, complete truth contains both pairs of opposites, see that.
CONSTANT INGRATED AWARENESS MEANS ACCEPTING OPPOSITES
Examples are birth and death, victory and defeat, success and failure. The flower opens in the morning, and blossoms into a beautiful flower. Just a half-truth! By evening it fades away, another half-truth. So, the complete truth is a combination of opposites, a combination of positive and negative. Our problem is that we are choosy. I want only birth; I don’t want death. Impossible! I want only the flower that will not fade. Then choose plastic flowers! Real flowers are sure to fade.
Therefore in Constant Integrated Awareness, integration means accepting opposites—light and dark, young and old, birth and death, success and failure. Accepting these two contradictions, accepting these two opposites is what is meant by Constant Integrated Awareness. Accepting both, this integration is very important. If I de-link these two opposites, what happens? Life is only a half-truth. If there is no death, birth loses its value. If there is no birth, death does not arise at all. So birth and death go together.
Therefore, on this birthday, let us have this integrated awareness. “Oh Lord, good and bad are Your gifts; success and failure are Your will. I accept them both. I integrate them both and will have understanding, awareness. I will think of this throughout my life.” That is Constant Integrated Awareness, which is what I want you to be aware of this morning.
THE REAL ‘YOU’ IS INFINITE, LIMITLESS, AND TRANSCENDENT
Therefore, my friends, I think I am one; however, I am not one, but three, as Baba says. Our students also joke in the college. In the night, they eat chapattis. It seems that they are supposed to eat two chapattis. So the teacher is giving two to each and everyone.
One M. Tech boy came and said, “Sir, I want three.”
The teacher said, “No, only two chapattis.”
“No, sir, I want three.”
“Why?”
“Baba said, ‘You are not one, but three.’ So I want three chapattis.”
Though the student was joking, it is also the truth. “I am not one, but three.” What does it mean? The two opposites, two aspects! Beyond these two is the third aspect. That’s what Baba says: “You are not one, but three: the one you think you are, the one others think you are, and the one you really are.” The one you really are is transcendence, limitlessness, infinity, the vast expanse of the universe. It is existence without boundaries. That is the One. That is who I am really.
The one I think I am and the one that others think I am are two opposites. A simple example: some people may think I am a very peaceful; but if you ask my wife, she will tell you how peaceful I really am! You may think I am a great man; but I know how great I really am. So there are two different things, just as visible-invisible, good-bad, success-failure—two aspects.
LIFE IS A PANORAMA OF OPPOSITES
Life is a drama. It is a panorama of opposites. The panoramic view, the panoramic view of life, has got these two aspects: the one you think you are and the one others think you are—two opposite dimensions of our existence. This is the two-sided picture of our life. Here I would like to tell you my friends, if we know this, if we know that this life is a drama, that this life is two-sided—the one I think I am and the one others think I am—two opposite dimensions of life, the more awareness I have of this, the more integrated I will be.
I live with the thought that I know I will also die some day. I move, but I also know that some day I will not move. So, these two are there. You know, everyone thinks that he is permanent. Is anybody permanent? Nobody is permanent. To know this is awareness. So live with the awareness of death. Enjoy with awareness of displeasure or pain. Have pleasure, but be also aware that there will be pain some day.
LIBERATION IS ACCEPTANCE OF LIFE’S TWO OPPOSITE DIMENSIONS
That is the key to success in life. That is the secret of life: being aware of these two aspects, where one follows the other necessarily like a shadow, is liberation. Liberation is choiceless awareness. Choiceless: I cannot say I want only day, nor can I say I want only night. No, these two are there. So unconditional acceptance, readily, happily, of the two opposite dimensions of life is liberation.
But accepting only one aspect while rejecting the other, acceptance of one while denying the other, is bondage. “I want to be happy.” Be happy, alright. There is nothing wrong in wishing to be happy. But you will be unhappy when you lose your happiness. In happiness, if you are aware that there will be unhappiness some day, it will not cause as much a pain as when you are not aware of it. When I know that something that was destined to happen happened, I will not be ruffled; even in that moment, I cannot be shaken.
So, what is liberation? Liberation is acceptance of the two opposite dimensions of life. And this is the drama of life. Who is the Director? The one I really am; the one who you really are! The one others think you are, is only one dimension. The one you think you are is just another dimension. The one you really are is eternal, immortal, non-dual, beyond these two dimensions—the third dimension. Two dimensions we know; this is the third dimension, the one you really are.
Now, what are you? All these three. That is integrated-ness. So, the integrated three aspects of life have to be understood. This is called awareness, and has to be remembered constantly. That is what is meant by Constant Integrated Awareness.
My friends, there is no point in simply quoting these sentences of Baba’s without application, without reasoning, without elaborate thinking, without extensive exploration, without getting into the depth and profundity of such large statements. If we simply repeat like that, there is no difference between us and a parrot. Parrots also repeat whatever we say. No, no. We have to analyse every statement and apply it to our life situations. That is the virtue of celebrating His birthday. The virtue of celebrating His birthday is to develop this Constant Integrated Awareness.
THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL
Now I would like to take you to another important aspect of life. How beautiful is this life? In fact if we just watch our own life, we will enjoy it thoroughly. Could you ever imagine that death and eternity can go together? Why not? It is the body that is born, it is the body that will grow, and it is the body that will die. But the in-dweller in me has no death; it is permanent, eternal. Now, who am I? I am immortality in death; or I should say, death comes to the body, but the soul is immortal.
Baba’s birthday wants us to know this immortal soul. The body had a beginning, and will some day face its end also. So life is a combination of death and eternity, of mortality and immortality, the transient and that which is permanent. Therefore, I should develop this awareness. I should grow and live in this awareness.
That is what a spiritual life is all about. It is unfortunate if we think spiritual life is meant only for doing some bhajans and eating prasadam. It is one aspect, but it is not complete. It is not total. There is something more, not simply bhajan and prasadam. Awareness is more important. So the 84th birthday will remind everybody to develop this awareness. What kind of awareness? Integrated awareness! When? Constantly! That’s very much required.
GOD AND YOU ARE LIKE THE WAVE AND THE SEA
All of us know the sea. As you stand near the seashore, what do you find? Wave after wave comes near you. A wave is separate from the sea because a wave has a form; the sea has no form because it is infinite. Wave has a size, while sea has no size. Wave has a limit, while sea has no limit. Wave can be seen, while the sea cannot be seen. The sea exists in depth—calm, unruffled, undisturbed. The sea’s depth cannot be seen. So here are two: the sea and the wave. Wave is limited, while sea is unlimited; wave is seen, while the depths of the sea are unseen. Wave has a form and size, but sea has no form and size.
Though they seem to be opposites, wave is born out of the sea. Though separate, a wave cannot be free from the sea. So, it is of the sea and yet separate from the sea, but cannot exist without the sea. That’s what I and my God are. I am different from my God. Oh I see, because I have a name and a form and a size. God is the sea and I am the wave. I am born, I originated, I emanated from Him. I grow in Him and I merge back into Him, like a wave that comes out of the ocean: it grows in sea and then goes back into the sea. Though wave is separate from the sea, it cannot exist without the sea.
That is the relationship between wave and the sea. That is the relationship between me and my God. That is the relationship between you and your God. Your God is the sea, who has given birth to you, a wave with a name and a form. And you, the wave with a name and form, will go back to your God.
My form goes on changing. The wave might appear to be too big; but as it emerges and comes slowly to the shore, the size of the wave goes on decreasing as it comes closer and closer to the shore. So also, I grow and grow; and then gradually, my sense of self (ego/body) weakens and weakens till I slowly become nothing, and go back to my place of origin. That is integration. So, this integration refers to both the emergence and the re-merging back together.
Life is integrated. On this birthday, let me know: “Oh God, I am the wave, while You are the ocean. You are the One out of whom I have emerged. You are the One in whom I grow, and You are the One into whom I will merge back.” That is my awareness. This I think throughout the day, constantly. I also understand the wave integrating back into the sea.
So Constant Integrated Awareness is a beautiful phrase coined by Baba, which He frequently uses in His Divine discourses. I request each and every one of you, the viewers and listeners of saiwisdom.com website, to focus your attention on this Constant Integrated Awareness, which is nothing but the transcendence of these two—the one you think you are and the one others think you are. The one you really are is the Divine, the totality of existence.
As Baba’s devotee, as one who has total trust in Him, what is it that is necessary at this moment on the eve of Baba’s birthday? One example: lamps are of different colours and sizes, but the light is the same. Lamps represent different religions; the light is God, only one. “There is only one God who is omniscient,” says Baba. “There is only one language, the language of the heart; only one religion, the religion of love! There is only one God, who is omniscient.” That oneness of Divinity is the light, while the outer lamp is the religion. As Baba’s devotees, let us think of the light, focussing our attention on the light, not the lamp, because one lamp is sure to be different from another lamp (like the differences in religions).
Here is another point to think about on this day of the celebration of Baba’s birthday. We are carried away by the outer, so we don’t realise that there is something inner. We don’t understand there is something deeper. A simple example: we think the earth is stable. That’s why I construct my house and have a table and chair. But is the earth actually stable? No. It goes on revolving around itself and revolving around the sun.
Reality is different from day-to-day experience. If I say that the sun rises and the sun sets, it is correct, isn’t it? But the sun does not rise nor set. It is only the earth that rotates. The surface that faces the sun experiences sunrise, while the surface which does not face the sun experiences sunset followed by darkness. It is only the earth that moves; the sun neither rises nor sets. But we say the sun rises and the sun sets.
So, similarly, my friends let us go to the reality. Another example: here is a stick. When you put the stick in water and observe, we seem to see that the stick is bent. Outside the stick is straight, but in water it appears to be bent. The truth is that it is straight, but its appearance is bent. Where? In water.
I am the stick; I am straight, Divine but appear to be bent, deluded and ignorant, with mistaken identities—body identification, ego problems, in the ‘water’ of family, community and society; in the ‘water’ of sensual pleasure, in the ‘water’ of the world. So, I am the reality, straight, Divinity; but I appear to be bent in the ‘water’ of life. Both are true. One is delusion, while the other is the reality.
Therefore, on this holy birthday, let us know that we are essentially Divine! Because of this body identification, our life seems to be ‘bent’. In life, we face bumps and jumps, ups and downs. Why? Because of this ‘water’ of body identification, because of this ‘water’ of identification with the senses, and interaction with the outer world.
So basically I, the reality, am comparable to a stick that is straight. That is the awareness. What are you? You are bliss in reality, but you experience unhappiness. Why? Due to illusion! What is illusion? The ‘water’ of ignorance! What is ignorance? Body identification! This understanding is what is called awareness. Constantly develop a blended or integrated (outer and inner) awareness. This is what is called Constant Integrated Awareness.
BABA NEVER INFLUENCES ANYONE BECAUSE HE IS THE DOER
Finally, we often say, “I came under the influence of Baba.” People say, “I came under the influence of Baba. He has influenced me.” It is wrong to say that. Baba is not here to influence you. He need not influence you. You are not influenced, and He is not influencing you. To use this word ‘influence’ is wrong in the spiritual field.
You can influence me and I can get influenced by you because you and I are separate. There is a distance between you and me. There is time to influence you; there is time to get influenced by you because we are in time and space. But when God is in you, when Baba is in you, when you and Baba are one, who is influencing whom? Are you influenced? Is He influencing you? No!
Then what is happening? Awareness! Awareness of the fact that He is in me, awareness of the fact that He is the seer, that He is the doer, that He is the indweller, that He is the invisible, unseen reality, the limitless, vast, expansive, immortal, blemishless, eternal oneness of Divinity, the Truth. This should go into our minds, deeper and deeper, as we celebrate His birthday.
The other day I was speaking about what Baba wants us to do—the real way of celebrating His birthday. This morning I want you to apply this aspect of celebrating His birthday: in full awareness, with Constant Integrated Awareness, enjoying Him within, wherever you are, whatever you do, whatever you think, whenever you act. This is Constant Integrated Awareness. Then you will know that you are fully Divine. That is the true spiritual path; that is the true spiritual sadhana.
Because of differences, we are not able to enjoy; because of body identification, we are not united; because of this possessive ego, we are proud. Hatred prevails; there are no human values amongst us because we have no awareness that we are Divine.
Human values are possible only if there is awareness. Human values can be practised if we are integrated personalities, and if this constantly felt experience is preserved and sustained in our lives. So, Constant Integrated Awareness of the Divinity within me will help me to practise the human values.
Today Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is amidst us, as a human being, to tell us that He is within us. Never think that He is outside you! Never think that you can be away from Him. Never think that you are the doer. No! He makes you do that. The tyres cannot move unless there is a steering that directs the wheels to move; the light cannot illumine unless there is a switch behind it on the wall. So let us know the Divine Director through this process of Constant Integrated Awareness.
May Bhagavan be with you forever and ever! May He bless you in your individual sadhana and also in your community sadhana, so that we lead a perfect spiritual life! Sai Ram!
OM…OM…OM…
Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrtyormaa Amritam Gamaya
Om Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavantu
Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavantu
Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavantu
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
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