Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

DEAR Students/What man has to achieve are not the four Purusharthas - Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha (Righteousness, Wealth, Fufilment of desires and Liberation). The primary goal of man should be the purification of the Antahkarana (The Inner Activator) and subduing it. The world is based on the mind. All that happens in the world - joy or sorrow, sin or virtue, truth or untruth - has its origin in the mind. The mind is like a mirror; it has no inherent power of its own. It is dependent on the indriyas (sense organs). It sees through the eyes. It cannot see by itself. It hears through the ears and has no inherent hearing capacity. Likewise it functions with the aid of the sense organs. Consequently, the offences committed by the senses are reflected in the mind. The senses are associated with the mind's various processes. If anything goes wrong, who is to blame - the senses or the mind? No blame attaches to the mind by itself. It is the association with the senses which pollutes the mind.

The scriptures have declared that there are three defects relating to the mind' Mala, Vikshepa and Avarna.

Man commits many offences, knowingly or unknowingly, not only in this life, but also in previous lives. The imprint of these actions is carried by the Chitta (the associative memory) over many lives. When the mirror of the mind is soiled by these relics, the mind cannot perceive anything in its true state. This is the reason why man is unable to recognise his own true nature. Hence, it is necessary to cleanse the mirror of impurities on it. How is this to be done? By regulating one's food and recreational habits. It is important to ensure that the food that is eaten is obtained by righteous means. Many of the ills which men suffer today are due to the fact that the things they consume have been got by unrighteous means.

Hence, to purify the mind the first prerequisite is pure food. But it is not always possible to ensure such purity in every respect at all times. To get over this difficulty, the way out is to make an offering of the food to the Divine and regard it as a gift from God. To the question, "Who is God?" the answer is given in the Gita sloka which declares that the Lord dwells in everyone as Vaisvanara and digests the food that is consumed. When before eating, the food is offered to God, it becomes Prasada (a gift from God). All the impurities in the food are thereby removed. This helps the process of cleansing the mind. This practice has to be kept up continuously. Vikshepa is a defect in the mind caused by wavering and lack of steadiness. Arjuna confesses that he is unable to control the mind, which is restless and ever-changing like the wind. Various practices like meditation, concentration and prayer have been recommended for steadying the mind. Students are not trying to cleanse their minds by the proper methods. Instead they are polluting their minds in all possible ways. It is only when you have the body, the senses and the mind under your control, that you will be master of yourself.

Why is the country today afflicted with so much disorder and chaos? Because people are preoccupied with the external and are totally ignoring the Spirit within. The entire educational process is vitiated by selfishness. Without any regard to whether the methods adopted are righteous, fair and just, or not, educated people are engaged in acquiring money and position by any means. It is the same motive that is impelling many students to go abroad. Why this crazy obsession over acquiring wealth? Real wealth consists in the practice of virtue. Learn to love and serve the land of your birth.

Of what avail is your life if you cannot love your own Motherland? Take a pledge to serve your country with all the knowledge you have acquired. Use your talents for the benefit of others and not only to enrich yourself. When you develop such broad-mindedness, your mind will come under your control spontaneously. Your foremost duty is to show your gratitude to your parents to whom you owe everything. You have to take care of them in their old age. Such discharge of duty is itself a Sadhana, a form of Yoga. No other spiritual discipline is necessary. By this means you can divinise yourself. Avarana is the covering which envelops the mind and prevents it from seeing things properly. It makes you feel that the body is your true self. The cover which distorts your vision is made up of the six enemies of man - lust, anger, greed, pride, delusion and envy. Of these evil qualities the worst is mada (pride). Students should totally eschew pride and cultivate humility and reverence, which are the hallmark of true education. To get rid of Avarana, love has to be developed. You have to be rid of the sense of Ahamkara ("I") and Mamatva ("mine").

Students! The mind, the intelligence, the Chitta (memory or will) and the Ahamkara (ego) together constitute the Antahkarana (the Inner Activator). What is the Antahkarana? Karana means an instrument.

Antahkarana means the inner instrument. There is no need to get bogged over the meaning of Antahkarana. For instance, the eyes see the external objects. The ears hear sounds from outside. The mouth speaks to those outside. The nose recognises smell coming from outside. The hands are engaged in external actions. All these organs have a form. But the mind, the Buddhi (intelligence), the Chitta and Ahamkara (ego) have no form. The Antahkarana is the formless combination of these four.

The Antahkarana is subject to four kinds of defects. One is Bhranthi (delusion). The second is Pramadam. The third is Karanapatana. The fourth is Vipralipsa. These four defects sully the Antahkarana.

Bhranthi is the deluded state of mind in which one mistakes a rope for a snake and a snake for a rope, regards the unreal as real and the real as unreal, the temporary as permanent and the permanent as temporary.

These delusions lead to Pramadam (dangerous situations). If you hold on to a snake, thinking it is a rope, you are bound to have trouble. Man today regards the body as real. This is not correct. The body is like a water bubble. It will perish some time or other, somewhere, somehow. It is a bag of bones. Treating the body as real, people are forgetting the power that can use the body on right lines. If it is the sense organs that enable one to see, hear, and so on, how does it happen that even when all the organs are there a dead man is unable to see, or hear? This is because the power which enables the organs to function is not there. The body may be compared to a torch-light. The eyes are like the bulbs. The intelligence is the switch. If with all these, there is no light, what may be the reason? There are no battery cells inside. The blood cells in our body are like those battery cells. They carry a divine energy in them. There may be cells, but if the divine power has left them, we cannot make the senses function. It is only as long as that divine power remains in the body that it can do many wonders. But to regard the body as real by itself, is fraught with danger. You attach value to various relationships. All these are temporary and passing. No doubt you have a duty to do by your parents. But this applies to every relationship, which carries its own specific obligations. All relationships arise in course of time and end in due course. They have nothing permanent about them. Hence they are not Sathya (unchanging truth), but Mithya (momentary).

The third defect is Karana-apatana. Karana means instrument. Apatana means weakness. The weakness of the organs is the third defect. The senses are prone to certain kinds of afflictions. These afflictions affect the mind and cause mental illnesses.

What are the types of illness to which the senses are liable? The senses never function in their fullness to perceive totally things as they are. They tend to behave according to the circumstances. This may be illustrated by a story. In a village there were two farmers, one the village headman, the big landlord of the village, and the other a small farmer. One day, the bulls of the two farmers were involved in a fight as a result of which the head man's bull died. The small farmer was deeply worried about the incident and was at a loss how to explain the matter to the village chief. In his nervousness and fear, while relating the incident to the big landlord, he stated by mistake that his bull had been killed by the headman's bull in a fight. Immediately the landlord started consoling him, saying, "Even intelligent human beings kill each other. When unintelligent animals do so, you should not make much about their conduct." Meanwhile the small farmer realised the mistake he had committed. He hastened to inform the big landlord that it was the latter's bull that had died in the encounter between the two animals. Immediately the landlord got enraged and asked: "What nonsense is this? It is a serious matter if your bull has killed my bull. You must be very arrogant indeed to let your bull commit such an outrage. You have to pay a penalty of Rs. 500." The big landlord considered it a natural occurrence if his bull had killed another's bull. But he considered it a crime for another's bull to kill his animal. It is because the senses are prone to such varying responses according to circumstances that they tend to view right as wrong and wrong as right.

The senses lose their natural capacities when they are ailing. For instance, when a man suffers from malaria, the tongue loses its natural capacity and finds everything bitter including sweets. When one suffers from jaundice the eye fails to distinguish colours in their true hue and sees everything as yellowish. Karanaapatana refers to the ailment the mind suffers from on account of afflictions affecting the senses.

Vipralipsa refers to jealousy. It is a very bad quality in a man. He cannot endure the happiness or prosperity of another. There is no cure for this disease. Feel happy when you see someone who is happy. Do not give room for envy. Develop fraternal feelings towards your fellow-students. Rejoice in their achievement, without any feeling of envy. All that you have to do to achieve purity in thought, word and deed is to follow these five injunctions: See no evil; see what is good. Think no evil; think what is good. Hear no evil; hear what is good. Talk no evil; talk what is good. Do no evil; do what is good. When you adhere to these five prescriptions as the very breath of your life, you will achieve purity of mind and experience ineffable bliss. From this moment, you have to cultivate control of the body, the mind and the senses, when you have the vigour and strength of youth. Acquire God's grace in abundance now, when the time is opportune. Your future will then be bright and secure.

Remember, God never forgets devotees, it is the devotees who forget God. God never gives up the devotee; only the devotee leaves God.