Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

If man has to attain salvation, he requires Vidya and thapas. Vidya is of two kinds. One is the Vidya relating to the external situation. The other is the Vidya relating to the internal situation. The first one enables you to eke out a living and the second enables you to reach your destination. We have to discuss and come to a conclusion as to what constitutes true Vidya. The kind of education that we are getting today in the schools and colleges cannot be called true Vidya. This will only lead you to occupy some kind of a position and lead your daily life without too much trouble. This may also be described as education that enables you to eke out your livelihood. It relates to the material world. From the sweeper upwards to the Prime Minister, they will all be working to eke out a livelihood. There may be a difference in position and status, but what all these people do will be related to the material world.

Brahma Vidya is something that will take man to his ultimate destination. In this world and in the spiritual world, in your life now, and after this life, what gives you happiness and bliss is the Brahma Vidya. What we call Brahma Vidya is superior to all other types of education. All types of education are like the rivers while the Brahma Vidya is like the ocean. All the rivers go and merge in the ocean, all types of education lead us to Brahma Vidya. What we call Brahma Vidya demonstrates the aspects of Para Brahma. This teaches you about Para Brahma. But, thapas takes you and merges you in Para Brahma. The ability of an individual to convey the meaning of Atma and Para Brahma to the seekers makes him a guru. A guru really means a great person. When we talk of the greatness of the guru, we mean the capacity of the guru to experience the aspects of Brahman and teach them to others. So, when we talk of the position of the guru, it cannot mean what we generally talk of today. Here the “gukara” is something that is above gunas and “rukara” signifies something which is above a form. The guru must thus be able to experience creation without being affected by the form and the gunas in the creation. We should try, through Sadhana, to acquire the position of such a guru.

Thapas does not mean running away from a home and a family and living in a forest by eating leaves. This cannot be the true meaning of thapas. It also does not constitute thapas if you stand upside down like bats. One aspect of real thapas refers to our ability to bring your thought, word and action into harmony. You should be able to unify your work, mind and talk. Thapas gives you the ability by which you can do this. Vidya, which we have identified with Brahma Vidya and thapas will enable one to experience Brahman. To a guru, both these things should be like his two eyes. If we want to clean a cloth that has gathered dirt, we need clean water as well as soap. Similarly, if we want to get rid of the dirt that has gathered in our mind, we need Brahma Vidya as well as thapas. Generally, we think that an ordinary person cannot acquire Brahma Vidya. Brahma Vidya gives you the ability to control your mind and action and turn them toward God. It has been established that this creation is filled with Easwara. It is not a great sacrifice to give away one’s material possessions. It is truly great to be able to give up one’s self. Bhagavatha is sacred in teaching these aspects. The guru that comes in this story and the disciples that sit at the feet of such a guru are good examples; and if we can understand them, it will lead us to the right path. Krishna is the central figure for Bhagavatha.

Arjuna was also a principal character in this play. Arjuna is an ideal example of a disciple. Krishna is an ideal guru. Here, the best of human beings, Arjuna, is the disciple; and the greatest of Gods, Krishna, is the Guru. Arjuna holding the Gandiva is the disciple. Krishna the Yogeswara is the guru. It is not easy to find another parallel to such a confluence of a guru and a disciple. Bringing such a disciple and a guru together and teaching the sacredness of this confluence to the people of Bharath is the basis of Gita. Guru is a person, who can wake up a sleeping and ignorant devotee, by the alarm bell of prajnana. The guru keeps saying, “Awake, arise, wake up to the fact that you are not an ordinary human being but that you are divine.” This is the work of a true guru. One who is called a guru should have himself had the experience of Para Brahma.

Once upon a time, one individual undertook a journey and on the way, he met a big river. Since the river was new to him, he did not know how wide or deep it was. While he was feeling that there was no one to help him, he found two people sitting under a nearby tree. When he asked them about the depth of the river, they said that it can be crossed easily and that it was not very deep. When he examined these people carefully, he found that one of them was lame and the other was blind. The blind man cannot see the river and the lame man cannot walk. He thought it is foolish to try and cross the river based on the assurances of the blind man or the lame man. This was very prudent behaviour on his part.

Today, we want to cross the river of our lives along with a heavy luggage in the form of a family. There are several gurus who, like the blind and the lame, neither understand the depth of the river nor the effort involved. This is the reason why there are several unsacred actions entering the conduct of the students. If, therefore, we can put the gurus in the proper path, the students will not pursue the wrong path. It is in this context that the Sathya Sai Bala Vikas gurus, with their sacred hearts and their experience, should train the students carefully. There will no doubt be a good future for Bharath. The Bala Vikas gurus should take into their minds at least one or two good things and teach them to the children. It is said that for our life, there are twelve gurus. It is not as if these twelve gurus have twelve forms. The different aspects of teaching are to be identified with the twelve forms. To be born is a guru, to live on the earth is a guru, to be happy is a guru, to be strong is a guru. It is not right to have a guru only in the school or college. Even when we do business, there is something to learn. When we cultivate land, there is something to learn. In this way, everywhere there is something for us to learn; and in fact, the entire world is like a university. Not only this, all the creation around us is in the position of an important guru. Without any difference of caste or creed, the tree proclaims equality of every one. The mountains are teaching to us that we should not have so much attachment to and care of our body by showing how patiently they can stand in rain, sun and cold. The birds teach us to be unmindful of the changing days. The world is not permanent. The family is only an illusion. So says the man who is leaving the world after death. You have no right to keep on saying that this belongs to you or that belongs to you. The creation around you keeps on reminding you that nothing belongs to you. If you really want to understand nature, creation is the best school. The guru is Sripati himself. All that is contained in the creation - the mountains, the trees, the rivers - are teaching us constantly. The education that nature around us gives us is much more than the education given by a guru or a mother or a father. Therefore, if we can really understand the secret of the creation around us, our minds will not go after the attractions of the material world. There is nothing more wonderful or awe-striking than God’s creation.

Students: if we want to produce a spoon or a cup, we make a mould and from that mould, we keep on producing more and more copies of the same piece. We try to duplicate everything. In God’s creation there are millions of individuals, millions of insects, mountains and trees. Do we see any one piece of creation resembling identically any other piece? Even twins, born from one mother will be different in some way or the other. They will never be completely identical. There is no similarity between one piece and another. All these flowers are jasmine flowers, but there is no complete identity between one jasmine flower and another. Can there be anything more startling than this? How many lessons can this teach us? Who can create such things? This is great work of God. If we can make an attempt to understand this aspect of God, we can understand everything. A guru who can make us alive to this situation is very necessary today. Teachers, who understand the Para Thathwa or the aspect of God are very necessary. The gurus of Bala Vikas should make an attempt to teach the students with love, forbearance and with a sacred heart. The guru should not become a lazy person. If our own children are children born to us out of kama, the children who come to us as students must be treated as children of prema. We must treat them with more affection than what we show to our own children. We should not treat them differently. Our teachers must have an equalmindedness and should not give place to any difference due to caste, religion and such other aspects. In the training camp that has just been held, you have learnt several new things. You should regard this as a great opportunity. We should regard inculcating the idea of service in the minds of the children of this country as a sacred task. I am hoping that the teachers will undertake to help the students and thus help to re-establish the ancient culture of this country. You must go on teaching the children from the beginning, the essence of our Vedic statement, “Mathru Devo Bhava, Pithru Devo Bhava.” We should also teach the children that they should conduct themselves with humility when they meet their elders. We should teach them that whatever they eat, they should eat it after offering it to God. In the absence of such practice, the conduct of the children is taking a very distorted path. To some extent, the children are shaping themselves on the lines of the conduct of their mothers. In the ancient days, the ideas and thoughts of the women were very sacred. At the time when the women were in the family way, they used to listen to many sacred stories like the story of Prahlada, or of Markandeya, or Dhruva or Krishna. In these days, the situation is such that women in the family way see three cinemas a day. As a consequence, all the bad ideas contained in a cinema enter their mind and the children born are “Cinema Children” full of wrong ideas and emotions. It is very difficult to correct and reform such children. We will have to undergo a lot of trouble in this task, but it is necessary for the sake of our country and of our people. In this large world, each one of you is like a tiny screw or a bolt. We must make an attempt, without ego, to learn our responsibility and do our duty. We should not give room to any ego. When there is ego, you cannot be a good guru. I am hoping that you will be able to put the decisions taken by us into practice and teach good things to the children.