Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

I AM neither man nor God nor an aerial spirit; I am neither a Brahmin, nor a Kshathriya, nor a Vaishya, nor a Suudhra; I cannot be described as Brahmachari or a house-holder, or a recluse or a monk; describe me as a Teacher of Truth, as Sathyam (Truth), Shivam (Goodness) and Sundharam (Beauty). Your reality too is Sathyam, Shivam and Sundharam. Without Truth there cannot be Goodness; without Goodness, what does Beauty avail? The effect of truth on the mind is goodness; the joy that flows from goodness is the genuine Beauty that artists love. The three are really one and indivisible. Experience this Truth; this Truth as Goodness and this Goodness as Beauty. That gives the highest Bliss. Let not lesser ones distract you. Do not fritter away your energies playing the silly game of gaining and losing, gathering and scattering, winning temporary fame, fortune and felicity. Go, straight on the royal road that leads to self-realisation, and don't stray into the bye-lanes of counterfeit bliss. This does not mean that you have to give up kith and kin and foot it all alone. The community in which you find yourself is the arena where you can win the victory, the gymnasium where you develop the skill to win. The spiritual journey lies through compassion, sympathy, mutual help, and service, and these are fostered by society and are to be used for society.

Ravana was the mightiest potentate of his day, as Valmeeki describes him. His capital city was an impregnable fortress, filled with rare treasures. He was the master of the four Vedas and the six spiritual sciences. Dhuryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas, was, as Vyasa describes him, unsurpassed in the number and strength of his army and armaments, and in diplomatic skill. Yet, these two are execrated by young and old for centuries. Why? Because they descended from the human to the bestial level, instead of rising from the human to the Divine level. Both had the same flaw - greed. They did not know the secret of contentment. They were afflicted with kama, incessant desire. Rama and kama cannot co-exist. The inner shrine of man can accommodate only one Deity, Rama or Kama. If you love another person, you will not covet lordship over him; you will not covet his property; you will have no envy when he prospers, no joy when he suffers. Love is the strongest antidote for greed. This therefore, is the fundamental spiritual discipline: give love and receive Love. You might have heard of bhootha-bali, a word that is interpreted as a sacrifice in order to satisfy spirits. Bali means 'tax' as well. Bhootha-bali which everyone is enjoined to give is tax to be paid, to the Bhoothas (elements), for this splendid chance of human birth. For all the good words that come your way, all the good deeds you benefit by, and all the good thoughts that spread peace in your heart and light on the road you trod, you have to pay tax.

Love persuades you to consider the distress of the other, whenever you are overcome by it. You are drawn to those who have equal ground for grief. You become engrossed in the sorrow of others and so forget your own. Dhroupadhi bewailed her lot before Krishna, She cried, "Krishna! When a mother loses a child, snatched away from her lap by death, she is drowned in grief. Now, Aswatthama slaughtered in cold blood at dead of night while they were sleeping soundly, all my children! I have lost all, all of them. How can I be consoled? How can I get those children back?" Krishna said, "Sister! You braved the insults that the wicked Kauravas inflicted on you in open Dhurbar (court); brave this blow with equal courage. Look at Gandhari, the Mother of Kauravas. She has imposed on herself the blindness which her husband is suffering from; she has lost all her one hundred sons! Not one is left." Krishna consoled her, presenting before her the picture for greater fortitude borne by another mother. Consider the agony of others, and the means of sharing the grief they have. Feel for them, more than you feel for your own calamity. This is the sign of a genuine Sai Bhaktha. He should have compassion, tolerance and sympathy; if he does not possess these, he will be the target of ridicule. And with good reason. People ask sneeringly, "Where is your God? How does He look? What does He do?" etc. They sneer because those who have experienced the majesty and glory of God are very few. God is Truth, Goodness and Beauty, but only those who have had experience of Him can assert so and convince. You may have a pot full of amritha, but unless you place a drop on your tongue, how can you assert about its fragrance and sweetness? Through you, Sai Bhakthas. a transformation has to be brought about in the minds of people; so your responsibility is very great.

When the Mahabharatha War was imminent, it was said in circles that knew the evils of the age, that only a thick shower of arrows could smother the flames of hate. Now, it is the other way: only a thick shower of Love can smother and destroy the flames of anger, fear and anxiety that envelop the world.

A group of scholars who had come to Me recently asked Me, "Swami! You talk of flames of anxiety and fear; but, surely, you appreciate the great step forward that man has taken by landing on the moon!" I told them, it was wrong to spend billions of dollars and roubles on such enterprises. They argued that though there may not be any immediate profit from all that capital lost, its potentialities for good are very great. I said, "It is a question of priorities; first things first. When so many nations upon the Earth are undernourished, undereducated, underhoused, it is sheer absence of discrimination to spend time, skill and money for this spectacular competitive adventure. Later, when the earth has been made the home of a happy family of peoples, such enterprises can be planned." The Earth is the natural habitat of man. Why should he venture out of the range of the elements of which his body is composed and go places where to he has to take water, air and other essential requisites with him? When he goes to the moon, he does not leave anxiety, fear and falsehood behind. The moon that man has to voyage into is the MIND, not this dead satellite, with no capacity to illumine itself. The Ramayana mentions that Ravana. skilfully prepared a wax head similar to that of Rama and arranged that it be presented before Seetha as the severed head of her Lord, so that, she might give up all thought of living with Him again, and surrender to the wiles of her captor, Ravana. The moon is like that lifeless imitation head of Rama. The real Rama is vibrant, active, somewhere else. The real Moon for man is in the firmament of his 'heart,' where the mind and the intelligence (the real Sun) revolve.

When that Moon is mastered, Shivam illumines the Night, and it is transmuted into Shivarathri. Or else, it is shava-rathri (the Night of death). When man sleeps unaware of himself and of his divinity, he is as a corpse.

The sages of India laid down various rites, ceremonies, disciplines, modes of behaviour, conventions and festivals to help cleanse the emotions and confirm faith, I shall speak today of the importance of one of these - of the disciplines that they laid down for food. Take in only simple pure clean food - what is called Sathwik food by the sages. That is to say, food which will not arouse the impulses and emotions, sharpen the passions, upset the equanimity, hamper health. Food offered to God is free from the evil vibrations that injure the individual in subtle ways. Food offered to the hungry and then eaten has also the same beneficial quality. Since food has a subtle impact on the feelings and thoughts of man, you have to be vigilant ever.