Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

BRAHMAVIDTH Brahmaiva bhavathi (He who knows the vastest becomes the vastest), say the rishis (sages). Brahman is the word used for what they indicate as the vastest, which words cannot reach nor the imagination conceive. There is a Brahma, the First of the Trinity, with four heads, the Creator, from whom we have to distinguish this vast immanent Principle. This Brahman is described, not as one of three, but as the One without a second. The Vedhic statement Sarvam Brahma mayam ("All is Brahman") is the key to the understanding to the Universal Eternal Principle. The Brahman need not be sought, at some far distant spot, on the Himalayas or in the depths of space. Some cosmonauts when they landed on Moon reported that God does not exist, because they did not spot Him anywhere in their spatial journey, as if He lives and moves in space and accosts all who dare flit through His corridors! Brahman is the Reality of the seeker, the Cosmonaut, the person who asserts its existence as well as of the person who doubts or denies. To say that the Divine is a fiction of some one's fancy is to be false to one's own genuine truth. The Divine is what integrates and unites all this diversity into one single essence.

We can easily become aware of it, if we observe the prescribed course of sadhana (spiritual discipline) and have the elementary faith to impart sincerity for that sadhana. One must sharpen the intellect and widen the imagination to be able to conceive of Brahman, which is subtler than the subtlest, vaster than the vastest. Brahman is the very urge behind all aspiration and all achievement, even the aspiration to know Brahman. It is the activity in every atom and cell, as well as in every star and galaxy, Brahman also means sound, voice, word, manthra (sacred formulae), and, through the sound OM, as well as through various other manthras, it is possible for man to develop the superfine intellect necessary to grasp the immanent and transcendent principle called Brahmam. Brahman means Brh or big, the biggest, the vastest. It is described as bigger than the biggest, vaster than the vastest. The Universe is the body of Brahmam that emerged from it when the desire to become many arose in it. The Universe rose when Brahman uttered the first word, and so, the vak (word) is also called Brahman. The word is also called padha and all created things are referred to in Samskrith as padha-artha (the meaning of the spoken word). For, when the word was uttered, the thing was created or became manifest. The word produced its meaning, namely, the thing!

The Infinite Eternal Brahman can be cognised as having three attributes, for the convenience of awareness: Sath, Chith and Anandha. The minutest particle in the Universe has these three characteristics, and the vastest too. Man too is the embodiment of Sath-Chith-Anandha (Being, Awareness, Bliss absolute); but, since he is too attached to the body and its impulses, he is unable to dive deep into his reality and benefit from the springs of Chith and Anandha that are there.

The attraction that the vast Brahman has for the anu (the small) is the attraction of the whole for the part. It is the basis of all love - the love of the mother, of the father and son, of the friend, the spouse and even of the devotee towards God. The jeeva (the individualised being) loves the Brahman or the totality of which it is part. See all as parts of the same whole to which you belong; then there can be no hatred or envy or greed or pride. Saraswathi, the Consort (the potent power) of Brahma is celebrated as the Goddess of vak (word) or the urge to express, to manifest. Her vehicle is, according to the Vedas, the Hamsa (Celestial Swan), the pure bird that is endowed with the rare power of discriminating between water and milk, even when they are mixed and receiving only the milk (that is to say, separating the valid from the invalid, the lasting from the fragile, the true from the untrue). Moreover, Hamsa is a symbol of Soham, the seed-manthra that is uttered by human breathing (Soham- Soham; Soh means He and ham means I; He is I). I and He are the same from birth to death, meaning that the Jeeva is Brahman, no more and no less. There is certainly difference in quantity but there is no difference in quality, between the two. A drop of sea water is as brackish as any other; you need not taste the entire sea to know that. The jeeva is Sath-Chith-Anandha; the Brahman is also Sath-Chith-Anandha. That is the reason the jeeva is asked to announce itself as "Aham Brahmasmi" - "I am Brahman." It is .as true as the drop of sea water saying, "I am the sea." Yogis (spiritually advanced persons) can cognise this easily. That is why one yogi sang, "'Go, mind! Rush to where the Ganga and Jamuna are." This does not mean that the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) should go on pilgrimage to Prayag, Allahabad where the two rivers meet. Ganga and Jamuna are the Ida and Pingala, the two nerve-channels through which the Kundalini (soul power) is uplifted and Prayag is the Bhru-madhyasthan (the spot on the brow where they meet between the eyes). When the Yogi is able to concentrate on that spot, his 'serpent power,' he can become aware of the sea and transcend the name-form of the drop. That is the meaning of the Call.