Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

The devotees who recognise God, the jnanis who recognise wisdom and the sakteyas who recognise eternal truth, are all one and the same. This is what the Upanishads have described by saying that truth is one, but the people who have described it in many ways are different and diverse. When our mind contemplates on a situation, the mind itself gives it many different forms. So, also, the primordial power which is the basis of this world takes many different forms. Vedas have described this situation by saying that what exists is only one, and that is recognised by many people in diverse ways.

In the night, during a dream, we feel that we are travelling in a dense forest, and that we have slept on a hard rock. At that time, what you see appears to be truth to you. You wake up from that sleep, the entire world of the dream disappears altogether. The experience which you have during the dream is a truth at the time of the dream. The experience which you have during the waking state is a truth during the waking state. In a dream, it is not possible for us to recognise anything relating to the waking state. In the waking state, it is not possible for us to recognise anything relating to the dreaming state. In the waking state, there is no dream. In the dreaming state, there is no awareness of the waking state. But in both these states, the dreaming state and the waking state, the life-force in you, which is described by you as ‘I,’ is commonly present.

Not only this, during your dream, you see many things, mansions, trees, fruits, and so on. Where have these mansions, trees, rocks come from? It is the life-force in us that creates these mansions, fruits, and rocks and gives them a form. In the same manner, the Creator puts His creative force in all the things that He has created. This sacred aspect has been men tioned in the Vedas by saying that the aspect of Narayana is present inside, outside and everywhere. All the five elements and all the materials that come out of the five elements depend upon this one primordial strength. In all the things that we see around us in the creation, the power or the Sakthi is one and the same. So, in that context, if we can enter deeply into dhyana and think of something, then the Sakthi in that life force, which is the object of your dhyana and the Sakthi in you come together and merge into each other. The names and forms of different things may appear to be different from one another, but the life-force or the Sakthi which is present in all of them is really one and the same.

There is one small example for this. By using melted sugar, we prepare many different kinds of sweets. We can make it into the shape of a fox, a doll, a box, a horse, and so on. The names and forms appear to us to be different, but the content of all these names and forms is one and the same, and the common factor is sugar. From any one of these forms, we may break a small bit and put it in our mouth. What we experience will be the sweetness of sugar which has nothing to do with the form from which this bit has been taken.

All religions will ultimately teach this aspect of oneness. While the teachings of all religions are one and are sacred, yet those who taught and preached these aspects of different religions, have created some differences because of their attitudes being different. To hate other religions or to look down on them is a very wrong thing to do. Creating differences by stating that one religion is at a lower level and that another is at a higher level, simply shows your ignorance. People who have such ideas, will begin to strengthen their faith in differences between these religions rather than their faith in God.

You should not enter into arguments, which go into the nature of different religions, but you should recognise the essence and the commonalty between all the religions and the main goals that they point to. All the religions come together to teach one thing and that one thing is good. If your mind is good, how can any religion be bad? Remember that all religions teach only good things.

Today, if people are taught that human nature is quite different from divine nature, man is simply creating these differences; and since he has not got the discriminating power, he believes them to be different. Man is God, nara is Narayana, people are Divine. Some day or other, it is inevitable that nara will become Narayana and Narayana will come as an Avathar and will become nara. In that confluence of nara and Narayana is the manifestation of all creation. It is this confluence that has been described to us in three different ways, namely dualistic philosophy, non-dualistic philosophy and qualified non-dualistic philosophy. Here, the dualism recognises two distinct things and says, “I am in the light,” whereas the qualified non-dualism says, that “Light is in me.” Adwaitha, the highest form of non-dualism says, “I am the light.” This Divine spirit which is omnipresent is seen by different people in different ways because of their varying degrees of attachment to their own human body.

Truly, when we look at it from the aspect of the human body, we only think of a name and a form of that body. Depending upon one’s own background, we also decide what is good and what is bad. To both good and bad, the Atma is only a witness. It is in that context that it has been said that you are not one person but you are three different persons, namely: the one you think you are, the one others think you are, and the one you really are. These are the three different aspects. When once we recognise the totality of truth and the totality of divinity, then we will experience the identity of all these three aspects of human personality.

Today, the reason for our getting these different ideas and different opinions is that there is no co-ordination between our thoughts, our words and our deeds. The preaching is on one footing and our notions are quite different. We teach and we believe that these qualities, the quality of truth, the quality of prema, the quality of ahimsa are very great and very strong; but in our daily life we conduct ourselves in a manner very different from what we say. Not only this, we believe that truth is our sacred religion, but we are ready to dispense with all this and what we do not seem to need is truth itself. Man is not making an attempt even to find what is good relating to himself. Man utters the word ‘truth’ repeatedly, but he is not able to establish the truth relating to himself. This is the reason why he is not becoming a total human being. When he himself is unable to become a total human being, how is he going to rise to the level of God?

This morning, one of the speakers told you that man is God and that the Lord is present in all human beings. He mentioned that from the position of being a gorilla, one could rise to the position of being a human being. Here, we should recognise that the world has disappeared from being in the form of a mineral and reappeared in the form of a tree. The creation again disappears from being in the form of a tree and reappeared in the form of an animal. Again the creation disappeared from being in the form of an animal and reappeared as a human being. In that evolutionary series, one should disappear from being as a human being and reappear only as God. The upward evolution is from a mineral to a tree, from a tree to an animal, from an animal to a human being, from a human being to a divine, each stage improving and learning from its previous state.

Thus, today, if man can rise to greater heights, he will become a divine being; but if he slips lower down, he will become an animal. We should always try and take the path of promotion and not demotion. In every human being, the aspect of divinity is present. The aspect of Atma is much closer to us than all friends and relations. This kind of consciousness in regard to the relationship of the A t m a to us should be promoted. All our ideas should be so refined that they are not narrow but are broad enough. We should not take the view by which we are concerned only with our family, our home and our self. This will be too narrow an approach to life. Our ideas should be so broadened that we move from home to one village, from one village to one district, from one district to one province, from the province to the country and from the country to the world.

In the same manner, in our dhyana, we should broaden it so that we regard the Param Jyothi which is present in ourselves as the same Param Jyothi, which is present in everyone else, and that is the same Param Jyothi which is present everywhere in the universe. By that feeling, we will be able to broaden our ideas and realise the meaning of the statement that there is only one truth that exists, and that this one thing is being seen by many people in different forms. We are always looking at things which keep on changing. We are looking at creation which is not permanent, and we make the mistake of identifying such creation with Divinity. We do not realise the truth.

The world is only an illusory projection and God is the basis. But to understand this situation, one has to make an attempt. This auditorium is now visible to us with all its nice windows, all the good carpets; and it presents a beautiful appearance to us. The roof is resting on these walls as a support. Looking at the roof and looking at the walls, we think that they are the important constituents of the auditorium. This is not correct. We should realise that the foundations, which we do not see, are really the basic support for this big auditorium. So, also, for everything that we see, there must be some basis which we do not see. In order to realise and understand that basis, which is not visible externally, we should adopt the path of adhyatma. Such people who do not recognise the existence of the very basis and who only confuse the external appearance, which is a consequence of that basis, as the truth, are really ignorant people.

Today, people only see the consequences of the existence of Sakthi and argue that there is no Sakthi and say that there is no basis for what we see. This statement is like saying that, in the ocean, there are waves because I see the waves and that there is no water. They are unable to recognise the basic truth that is contained in our ancient Vedic statements. If we examine this carefully, it will then become possible and, in fact, quite easy for us to see the oneness of Divinity.

What we have to establish today is not a new society, not a new religion nor a new organisation. What we have to do is to recognise the contents of what we have already had in our ancient times and bring them up to the present day. Young people, who are capable of making sacrifices, are very essential today. Not only this, we need very urgently, courageous young people who can proclaim to the world the Omnipresence of Divinity. It is necessary to have young people who can face, and fight with courage, situations arising from injustice, unkindness and cruelty. It is necessary to have young people who will not depend only upon worldly and material benefits, but will give sufficient importance to the ethical and spiritual aspects; young people who are prepared to give up imitation, give up selfish ideas and be able to serve the community in a selfless manner. Young people who can, by their own experience, proclaim and tell others that Atma is the most important thing, are very necessary.

The divinity that is present in everyone is one and the same. Divinity is not present only in Sri Sathya Sai Baba. You are all divine. Divinity is present in everyone. The fact that divinity is present in millions of people has been conveyed to us by our Vedas in a slightly different manner by stating that God has thousands of eyes, thousands of legs and thousands of heads. It has also been said that you will find Him wherever you look for Him. This is why we say that God is always available to you, is behind you, is with you whenever you are in trouble and pain. To save you from trouble and pain, He is with you, behind you, in you and is looking after you.

One individual, on being told that God is with him and behind him, turned back and looked for God behind his back; found none and was very much dis-appointed. This ignorant and foolish person, thinking that God will be behind him, turned round to find God. Alas! he does not understand that when he turned round and looked, he was not looking behind him and that what was behind him has now become his front. When he turns round, God is still behind his back.

It is in that context that you must first strengthen your faith that God is behind everything. There are various steps to be taken in this context. The first thing is self-confidence, next comes self-satisfaction, then follows self-sacrifice, then self realisation. In everyone the principle of ‘I’ is self-effulgent. He is in the form of the self-effulgent Atma in every human being. There may be millions of people in one place. In all of them, Paramatma is only one. In this apparent diversity, we must make an attempt to recognise the Unity.

There is a small arithmetical example for this: one plus one plus one plus one plus one becomes five. This is the correct answer in common parlance. But you can put a number of ‘I’s,’ I+I+I+I+I and the net result will be only one I. In this divine way of thinking, you should try and search for the ‘I’ in each heart.

A man is not able to promote in himself the kind of broad ideas that we can find even in insects and animals. There is one small example for this. If an ant locates sugar in some place, that ant is not going immediately to eat the sugar and fill its stomach in a selfish manner. This ant which has located the sugar will go round and collect ten more ants and all of them together will go and eat that sugar. Look at the broadminded nature of even a small creature like the ant. See, how selfless the ant is and how it tries to help other ants. Not only this, when we look at a crow, we generally feel disgusted. We take a stone and throw it at the crow. Such a crow, if it finds food anywhere, immediately begins to call other crows; and they will all join together and eat that food. Even a crow, when it locates some food, it wants to share that food along with other crows, its friends and its relations. But today, if man finds anything which he can use he wants to leave others out. A husband leaves out his wife and thinks that his own pleasure is the most important thing. A mother leaves out her son and wants to be so selfish and acts for herself. Because of such broad and sacred ideas, the ants and crows are reborn as human beings and the human population is thus growing from day to day.

You should not misunderstand and misinterpret what I say. It is my duty to convey to you the truth as it exists. Today, the reason why the human population is increasing is because of the attitude of the people. For man to eke out his living, to fill a small tummy of his, God has created plenty in the world. God has created a large amount of rice, a large amount of fruit, a large amount of wheat. While such good food has been created by God, yet we go and eat meat and fish. And all the fish which we kill and eat are reborn as human beings.

I want to give you another instance. Even a hard stone can melt and can flow and can ultimately take the form of a human being. Here is one example. There is a big huge rock. If in that rock, you can bore a hole and put a seed, that seed is not going to sprout and become a tree. After some time, the rock gets dried up by the sun and gets soaked in the rain water and gradually crumbles and becomes dust. If in that dust, which has come out of that rock, we put a seed, that seed will sprout and become a plant. The plant will become a big tree. From that tree, we will get fruit. Man eats that fruit. The food that has thus gone into him again becomes a source of a new human birth. Here we see that a hard stone changes into soft dust. Out of that soft dust, came a plant. The plant became a tree and the tree gave fruits. Fruits were eaten by man and out of the co-ordination came another human being.

Thus, if we enquire in some depth into these things, we will realise that whatever the nature of that material may be, the divinity that is contained in man can transform that material into another human be-ing. As has been said in the Bhagavad Gita, in addition to recognising that one God who has no second parallel is manifested in different ways. He has also declared that He is the seed for all creation. All the branches, the leaves, the fruits and all that we see on the tree have come from one single seed. In the same manner, all the forms that we see in the creation have come from one seed of divinity. The individual who recognises this truth becomes wise and becomes one with divinity. The individual, who is ignorant and who does not recognise this truth, goes down to the depths of ignorance.

Man wants to get happiness, peace and bliss. But he is not making efforts consistent with what he wants to have. How do we get bliss and happiness? It is only possible when we know and understand what we should know and understand. We will get bliss only when we give up what we should give up. We will get bliss and happiness only when we reach the destin-ation which we should reach. What is it that we should know? We should know the truth about the creation around us. What is it that we should give up? The feeling that the human body is real and permanent. What is the destination. that we should reach? We should reach divinity which is the permanent state of Atma. It is only then that we can experience true bliss. That is the reason why it has been said with Upanishadic prayer:

From this world which is untrue, lead me to truth. From this darkness of ignorance, lead me to light From death, lead me to immortality.

What does that mean here? Death here means moving to rebirth and immortality connects freedom from rebirth. What is the way to immortality? Removal of mortality is the only way to immortality. Narrow and immoral ideas like being unjust and unkind, causing harm to others, must be set aside. What is the reason for this? One should accept that whatever exists in another person is also the same divine spirit which is in you. How can we then have jealousy or hatred towards another?

When sometimes other people conduct them-selves badly, then you should pray to God that they be purified and they should not conduct themselves badly. But do not subject yourself to jealousy and bad conduct. I am hoping that you would recognise the divine aspect of Atma, the one aspect for which there is no parallel and that you will promote your sacred ideas.

You must all make an attempt with determination to co ordinate your thought, word and deed. It has been said that the proper study of mankind is man. It is only when you do that and it is only when you recognise human nature, will you be able to understand true divinity. But today there is no proper study of mankind. This is the reason why human nature has sunk down to the very lowest depths and man is notable to live like a human being.