Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

When the cause is known, one can know all consequences. The entire universe, that is, the moving and the unmoving, everything formed from the five primordial elements and hence named composite of the five elements (prapancha), was projected by the divine Will. It is a consequence of the will of God, which is the cause.

No consequence can happen without a precedent cause. However, the cause has two aspects, the material cause (upadana karana) and the efficient cause (nimitta karana).

The material cause is primary, earlier than the product. It is the entire basis, the total basis on which the product rests. Consider a silver cup, for example. The cup has no existence apart from silver. When the silver, which can be shaped into a cup, is absent, the product is also absent. Silver is the material cause. In other words, before the form “becomes”, the “Being” is and has to be.

The cup is the form imposed on silver by the efficient cause. It is the consequence of art, artificial. Silver is the pre-existent cause. A silversmith prepares the cup. Once the cup is ready, the smith has no affinity with it, but the cup and silver have close affinity forever.

God is the material cause of creation, of the cosmos, of the universe. He is the substance, the basis, the material cause. God is also the efficient cause. He is both transcendental and phenomenal, both Being and Becoming.

Like silver in the cup, the cosmos is all God. He has been manifesting Himself as all this. He has willed to become all this. In every thing (padartha), He, the highest Truth (Param-artha), is immanent. In the absence of this highest Truth, no thing can exist. Each one is sustained by the all-comprehensive Reality.

This wondrous mystery is beyond one’s grasp. The intelligence cannot unravel it. With distorted vision, one sees only the name-form, the appearance. One is deluded into confusion. One is tossed by likes and dislikes, pleasure and pain, elation and depression. One is aware only of the unreal many, parading diverse names and forms.

Correct vision makes one see the One in the many. It reveals unity in diversity and confers supreme delight, for one becomes aware of the One immanent in the multiplicity, the supreme Truth. Liberation is the realisation of this awareness, this achievement of Brahmahood. Each and every living being has to attain this consummation, this goal, the Brahman. That is its true destination. Some day or other, the urge to win release from the shackles of grief and joy and the bonds of “I” and “mine” will awaken and emerge. The path that is taken then inevitably leads to freedom (moksha). Seeking that path is the sign of the intelligent person.

Instead of this search, when one considers the objective world as all-important and feels drawn toward its charm, life is barren and of no consequence. Nature is the embodiment of matter. One must be drawn to the Person who designed the principle that underlies nature, the embodying process. What benefit can a destitute gain if he seeks another destitute? How can a bound person be released from bonds by another who is also bound? The bound person who relies on one who is not bound can get rid of the bonds and move about freely.

The person who is deep in grief must seek refuge in one who is floating on spiritual bliss (ananda), filled with joy. Bondage plunges one into sorrow, while the Lord is total Bliss personified. Therefore, one can be completely cured of grief only by resorting to the inexhaustible spring of delight, the Lord. And what exactly is liberation (moksha)? It is release from grief, the absence of grief, and attainment of spiritual bliss. The supreme Self, the sovereign Lord, is the embodiment of indivisible sweetness (rasa), the treasure house of bliss. Hence, those who seek and secure His grace gain eternity Itself.

The eternity thus gained has no place for the sense perceptions of sound, touch, form, taste, and smell. It has neither beginning nor end. One must gradually and steadily endeavor to acquire that victory. One must proceed progressively from the gross to the subtle, from the subtle to the causal, and, from the causal level, one must finally merge in the Prime Cause. That is to say, the spiritual journey has to be from gross (sthula) to subtle (sukshma) to causal (karana) to mergence in the supreme Cause. This is the regular route.

However, ordinary humans struggle to win material happiness and exterior pleasures. They do not seek the spiritual bliss (ananda) that the Atma, their inner reality, can grant. They lose the great opportunity of experiencing it, and they don’t take any steps appropriate for the purpose. All the time, their attention is directed only to the external world. It does not turn inward.

Looking outward is the characteristic of animals, not of people. The important organs of sense perception in the human body - the eye, the nose, the tongue, etc. - all open outward in order to contact external objects, so one has to conclude that the physical urge, the body’s vision, is all external.

The inner world is not as easily accessible as the outer world is. Perhaps only one among many, one in a million, does contact and win this inner Atmic reality through inward vision. That person is the wise one (jnani).

The person born with a sense of the true mission of human life has to gain the goal, the goal of spiritual bliss, the fundamental eternal spiritual bliss. That supreme attainment renders life valid, meaningful, and worthwhile.

In fact, the external world and the inner world are not distinct and distant. They are indissolubly knit together.

The belief of the common person is that the body is the medium through which one sees, hears, experiences, and delights. No, another force rules and regulates the senses, mind, and intellect. That force is the Atma. The aphorism under study directs one to be aware of this and, with that awareness constant, to contact the world through the senses, the mind, and the intellect.

The rain falling on the mountain range slides down the sides into many valleys and flows as turbid streams.

The same rain falling on fresh water lakes or limpid rivers remains pure and clear. The sages who are cognizant of their Atmic reality are transformed into the purity, equanimity, and charity that it represents. They are ever in the full awareness of the Atma, their inner core. In the purified consciousness of these persons, there is the experience of identification. Likes and dislikes, sense of “I” and “mine”, anxiety and calmness, elation when praised and depression when blamed - these cannot contaminate or agitate a person who has attained that state. These opposites become balanced and are accepted with equanimity as waves on the Atmic consciousness. This is the authentic Atmic attitude, the Brahman in-look, the unitary vision.