Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Swami: Well! You look so full of joy today!

Swami: Then you must always be in this mood; do you remain so?

Swami: Why do you say “trying”? Doesn’t sorrow flee the instant reality is known?

Swami: All that “is” is unreal! The efforts you undertake, the words you utter, are all unreal; when you know this, the reality will be evident. Remove all the unreal ideas, opinions, and acts and the truth that is hidden can be seen.

Swami: First, understand who is experiencing all these. You refer to the body as “I”, don’t you? That is unreal.

Swami: Oh! a good question indeed! Is it more to solve your doubt or the doubt of a dead person?

Swami: Well it is only when you have awakened from deep sleep (sushupti) that you are aware there is an “I”, right? In the same manner, there is the Atma in the corpse also.

Swami: If you discriminate properly, there is no dying and no living. A moving body is called living and a still one dead. In dreams, any number of living bodies and corpses are seen. On waking they do not exist. Similarly, this world, both moving and still, is non-existent. Death means the fading out of the “I” consciousness. Rebirth happens when the “I” consciousness comes again. This is what is called birth and death, my boy! Ego (ahamkara) is born, ego dies, that is all.

Swami: Of course you do! When the “I” consciousness is there, you exist. When it is not there you also exist. You are only the base for the awareness; you are not the awareness.

Swami: Understanding the root of death and birth, one must destroy completely the awareness of the separate “I”; that condition is “liberation (mukthi)”.

Swami: Who said “No”? That feeling of One when you are firmly established in it, there is nothing separate at all.

Swami: It is only when you have so many “I”s that you need someone’s support, is it not? When all is One, why seek another? Still, until that “I” (aham) fades out, this speaking “I” and this listening “You” have to be there.

Swami: Chidabhasa means the “I” awareness conditioned by the consciousness (chit) that One became three, the three became five, the five became many. The “I” awareness (purity, sathwa) became three on account of contact with passion (rajas) and ignorance (thamas); in these three, the five elements (bhuthas) arose; and through those five, the manifold happened. This is what causes the illusion that the “I” is the body. Speaking in terms of ether (akasa), there are three: chidakasa, chitthakasa, and bhuthakasa.

Swami: That is the Atma.

Swami: Its deflection. That is to say, the mind stuff (chittha). When this mind stuff changes into mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), and ego (aham-kara), it is called anthah-karana, a word that means the internal senses (indriyas).

Swami: Atma (Chidakasa) conditioned by mind stuff (chitthakasa). When it sees the elemental ether (akasa), it is mind-ether; when it sees the object, the real, it is pure consciousness (chinmaya). That is why, my dear fellow, it is said, “The mind (manas) alone is the cause of both bondage and liberation.” The mind manufactures any amount of delusion.

Swami: When you grasp its secret through inquiry, the many merge in five, the three in one, and the I exists as I.

Swami: No, my boy. It is only for those whose mind stuff (chittha) has become ripe.

Swami: Now we have come to the place from which we started! Don’t you have things like soft prayer (japa), meditation (dhyana), worship, and breath control (pranayama) for this? Steadily, through these, you become ripe and become capable of understanding the “I” by inquiry into reality. For ripe people, the Atma is not something different from themselves or yourself. All is Atma!

Swami: The illumination of the soul is silence! How can there be silence without the Atma being illuminated?

Swami: Who said so? If you don’t use your tongue, if you are silent in order to keep out the external obstacles to spiritual exercise, you certainly can develop your thoughts, you can desist from disturbing others, you can escape criticism and worry from others, you will get concentration. Your brain will be saved from unnecessary burdens, and it can improve much. With such a brain, you carry on remembrance (smarana) of the Lord’s name better. You will realise all these advantages when you do spiritual exercises.

Swami: There is no fully wise person in the world! Such a person is in no need of the world itself, so why would they need all this?

Swami: The silent men I spoke about just now. “Spiritually wise one (jnani) is a term applied by courtesy; a full jnani is non-existent in the world. The jnani must know “All as one”! Your jnanis are all either experts in logic or experts in knowledge of world; they haven’t known the Reality.

Swami: One who knows the Atma as Atma will know themself as milk added to milk, oil to oil, or water to water.

Swami: It arises out of each one’s spiritual exercises (sadhana) and resolve (sankalpa). Eat a mango, and you belch its smell. How can you prevent it? The belch brings the perfume of the thing eaten.

Swami: Without limitations, how can work get on? They also have it. But only in a subtle form, until they attain transcorporeal liberation (videha-mukthi).

Swami: Their acts are like the line drawn on water, seen while the line is being drawn but absent as soon as it is finished. While being done, you notice it; in an instant it is not noticeable anymore.

Swami: That is true! Renunciation is the hallmark. If out of the traits of previous birth one gets attached, one must know that it is only for the body and not for oneself. This attachment damages the bliss of liberation-while-alive (jivan-mukthi). Spiritual wisdom (jnana) is most important for transcorporeal liberation.

Swami: What a foolish question! How can the fruit be sweet without ripening? Renunciation cannot arise except from spiritual wisdom. There is no liberation (moksha) without renunciation. Be sure of that!

Swami: We have come to the very beginning again! Before spiritual wisdom (jnana) comes devotion. Before devotion, affection. But all these are one. Affection is the flower, devotion the fruit, which ripens into wisdom; renunciation (vairagya) is the sweet juicy final stage. Without one, you cannot have the next. In order to tend the fruit until the juice and taste are developed, you must practise daily prayer, etc., as mentioned above. But, from the first, have in view the Oneness of all. Understand that there is no “other”.

Swami: Of course, you may have to say so. But simply because you say so, what need is there for you to feel separateness between I and You? When you travel in a carriage, do you take the carriage as “I”? Look at the Sun.

Swami: Exactly. Inquire into that first. Of course, for those who are not competent, this will be too hard. So, those experienced in this line say that such people should not be told these things. If you say, “You are Yourself Brahman, You have attained liberation (moksha), You are in that stage,” to those not competent, they won’t do any spiritual exercises. They will act without any rule or order, and they will pay no regard to right and wrong.

Swami: The eye of the spiritually wise sees all things as Brahman! The ignorant person (a-jnani), the person without wisdom, cannot understand whatever is said! So, all spiritual texts (sastras) are intended to benefit the middlings.

Swami: Yes. The teaching of Vedanta is about “Who am I?” Only those equipped with the four instruments are competent to make this inquiry. The purpose of the four is to realise that the Atma is real and that all else is unreal and to discriminate between Atma and all else.

Swami: By inquiring into the nature of the Atma! First they do all varieties of spiritual exercises and finally enter upon this. While a child, they teach you A, B, C, right? Even M.A. and B.A. curricula consist of the A, B, C, D and their permutations and combinations! But to realise this fact, one has to complete one’s studies! The spiritual texts (sastras) are based on a-kshara; meaning both letter and the Imperishable. All paths are based on the path of inquiry (vichara-marga).

Swami: Wonderful fellow! How can there be inquiry in samadhi? When you sleep soundly, do you have any thoughts about the world around you? Samadhi is like that.

Swami: The mind that persists in sleep will be there also.

Swami: Beyond the waking, dreaming, and deep-sleep stages.

Swami: Those three stages are the characteristics of I-ness. Ego (ahamkara), the person with mind (manas), who does all acts. That will not be present in the “beyond” stage. It would have disappeared long ago. For them, it is all the same, with eyes open or with eyes closed. It is all One.

Swami: What was “I” in the beginning is transformed into the true entity (swarupa) when the reality is grasped; this is referred to as the destruction of the mind (mano-nasanam).

Swami: Well, my boy, all samadhis are merging (laya), not destruction. The spiritual-aspirant stage is when you have both construction and destruction.

Swami: Don’t sit quietly, merely appreciating it. Practise it in daily life. All right, you can take leave.