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Log inA CONVERSATION WITH SRI SATHYA SAI BABA
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A CONVERSATION WITH SRI SATHYA SAI BABA
by Sarveswara Sun May 04, 2008 5:55 am
A CONVERSATION WITH SRI SATHYA SAI BABA
The following conversation between a devotee and Sai Baba took place in Prashanthi Nilayam many years ago and was first published in an early issue of the Sanathana Sarathi, the official ashram magazine.
Devotee: Swami! The world is very cruel to me.
Sai Baba: That is its nature. The purpose of the world is frustration; it has to engender need. When the need is strong enough, the individual seeks fulfillment.
Devotee: And fails!
Sai Baba: Only when he seeks fulfillment without! Within him, he can get it. The within is accessible always; it is ever responsible. There is pain only so long as attachment for outer forms remains. Ultimate relief from pain can come only with the loss of ego, the neutralisation of that which reacts to something as pain and something else as pleasure, whose memory, whose conditioning, helps to recognise the dualities of joy and grief.
Devotee: But the world, Swami?
Sai Baba: The world is pain. Expect nothing from the world but that. I willed the totality of your conditioned existence to be pain, in order to draw you to me.
Devotee: Which I can, at best, only hope to attain.
Sai Baba: God asks for neither hope nor despair. They are subject to relativity. Universal Being is beyond both hope and despair, both certainty and doubt. It knows no lingering in its conclusions. It is ever flowing, in all directions, and in none of them.
Devotee: What then shall be my direction?
Sai Baba: Take what works today for today. What works tomorrow for tomorrow. One day at a time, each day for itself, each moment for itself, without a past, without memory, without conclusions.
Devotee: Conclusions?
Sai Baba: Yes. Conclusions bind; they press on the mind. The newborn baby is not confined to conclusions. All conclusions enslave. Most men are slaves to the conclusions into which they have fallen.
Devotee: Does that mean I have to give up my practice of concentration?
Sai Baba: The question that bothers you is one of fixity. You tried to fix your thought and attention on a word and later on a form, but you discovered that nothing lasts, that everything has to change. But I tell you; awareness can remain, even when form subsides, even when the word melts away.
Devotee: I find it difficult to hold my attention on form or word.
Sai Baba: Because when you try to meditate, the very trial invites the success-failure conflict onto the scene. You say to yourself, it is good to meditate on this and not that, or to meditate on that is wrong or foolish. Practice choicelessness; no objective, no intention. Be yourself. Choose no particular form, for all are equally His. Choose no particular word or sound, for all are His.
Devotee: I am often tossed between contradictory beliefs.
Sai Baba: Contradictions are inevitable. It is the very nature of this world and of the mind. But you can choose, either to be buffeted endlessly by the apparent contradictions or to remain in the calm center of the cyclone. This is the problem of all problems, the problem of peripheral or central being.
Devotee: The circumference or the center, the rim or the hub of the wheel?
Sai Baba: Yes. The hub is calm, steady, unmoved. But the mind will be drawn along the spokes, the objective desires, to revolve over mud and stone, sand and thorns. It will not believe that it can get bliss from the center, rather than from the circumference, without undergoing a rough journey over turbulent terrain.
Devotee: Ultimately, it means the conquest of the mind?
Sai Baba: Learn to let all the conflicts spawned by the mind play themselves out, and cancel each other out. Be the witness to the holocaust. The ultimate solution to the conflict is not decision or even choice, but passive being. Dare to remain inconclusive. See the endless quandaries of the mind as a divine Leela, God's sport, as the natural function of the bundle of desires called mind. Do not believe in mind; do not rally to its assertions and appetites. Watch the mind from a distance; do not get involved in its tumbling and turnings. Then everything becomes insignificant. When everything recedes into meaninglessness, you are in the hub, in equanimity.
Devotee: Swami, you are the hub, the spokes and the rim.
Sai Baba: Do not be concerned with who I am! Concern yourself with who you are and how you can be ever aware of that truth. Do not be a willing captive of the endless stratagems of the mind. Abstain from all that draws you into its web. I will lead you, if you rely on me. The alternatives of the world will not bring you happiness, for the mind, which revels in alternatives, is but a will-of-the-wisp, flitting before your vision. I do not judge you for what is never yours, really. Your imperfection is no obstacle for me.
Devotee: I confess that I have not always observed the rules of conduct of the Sathya Sai Organisation.
Sai Baba: Your mind keeps asking for rules. But when you get the rules, you find you cannot keep them. Rules engender rigidity, they force. They do not bloom out of love or spread love. There is always a way of doing a thing without the strain of a rule. See how unperturbed I am with your restlessness! I live thus, so that I may afford a lesson for you to learn.
Devotee: I am restless, Swami, because I yearn for rest and do not get it.
Sai Baba: It is your reaction to restlessness that is bad, not the restlessness itself. Restlessness is only the rise and fall of a wave on the ocean that you are. Nothing matters, so long as the depths are secure. Success is not important: failure does not matter. The river of eternity is flowing ever into the ocean of the Supreme Will.
Devotee: How long am I to be torn apart from that Supreme Will?
Sai Baba: You are a fraction of that Supreme Will. That is why you are afflicted with the hunger to seek It and to merge in It and to find fulfillment and bliss thereby. Turning to the world for solace and sustenance to appease that hunger has been tried by countless generations, including your own, but the hunger is gnawing still.
Devotee: What then is the proper reaction to the attractions of the world?
Sai Baba: Let go. Don't cling. Be still. Establish yourself in the homelessness of the mind; physical homelessness will not earn the victory. There are many spiritual aspirants still caught in the coils of greed, envy, pride and power seeking. They have not escaped from their homes. They have built prisons around themselves. I describe homelessness of the mind as mind abiding nowhere.
Devotee: And wandering everywhere?
Sai Baba: Do not exclude anything. Be the witness of everything. The exclusive cannot endure. God is all. Your restlessness came from exclusion, the pressure exerted by the excluded into the area from which it was excluded. All is God; how can you push God out of His Domain? Your mind concludes that the cause for the restlessness is whatever concerns it at the time. The actual cause is not that. You limit God by your assumptions, hence the restlessness. For you too are divine, and your reality protests against that limitation.
Devotee: Swami! Sometimes I feel so sad that I am so strange, so different in habits from the rest of those that come to you for succor.
Sai Baba: If your path contrasts entirely with those around you, believe that it is my will for you. Every way is my way and ways seemingly indirect may be the most direct for some spiritual seekers. For me there are no impossible cases, no incorrigible cases. Practice Choicelessness as hitherto prescribed. Choicelessness is constant contentment.
Devotee: Swami, I am addicted to tea drinking, which hurts me. How can I stop this practice?
Sai Baba: Heaven is not refused to those who drink tea! A rajasic person is rendered hyperactive by tea, but to an invalid it is a welcome lift. But do not adore tea as the only reality. Now with regard to these habits that have gripped you, there are two methods by which you can discard them. The first is deprivation, denial. This can yield only temporary success. When one's determination relaxes, the habit reasserts itself and it becomes difficult to resist. The second method is to become so absorbed in something far more pleasing that the habit falls off by itself. Remember, what is transient is not important. What is important is eternal. My prescriptions are varied; they differ from person to person, from stage to stage, even in the case of the same person. All prescriptions work. Let people come to me through Bhajan, through Japa, through Meditation, through Mantras, through Tantra or Seva ­ as I ordain. Every one will come to me; everyone has to come to me. There are no exceptions.
Devotee: We rely on your grace Swami, we yearn for it. Make us aware of it.
Sai Baba: I never asked you to earn me. I want only that you should need me. Your path is not one of merit. Bring the recurring desires of your mind to me, every time they emerge. They cannot shock me, for I willed them! Bring me your confusion, your fear, your craving, your anxiety, your inability to love the world, your hesitation to serve, your jealousy, all the deficiencies that defy your spiritual disciplines.
Devotee: How are we to do Seva if we feel the urge to do so? What if the urge is absent?
Sai Baba: There are many ways to serve the world. You can serve, if not actively, at least by your serenity. Everyone need not do all things. Your Western heritage reveres active work. But if your being tends towards serenity and solitude, take it as the best. Do not be sorry for it. Only a small minority can delight in serenity and remain still. God has willed it so, otherwise, how could the world function? If stillness is your destiny, dare to be so. If you are a recluse, be a recluse, but a recluse with me. You may not be a saint, but you can peacefully be nothing. Let each be as he is, remembering, however, his source and his reality. None is as he is but for me.
Devotee: I have yet much to learn.
Sai Baba: You wish to learn from me. Well, if you are preoccupied by the body's needs, by the arrangements for its traveling, its accommodation and the food it demands, time will fly. That student learns best and fastest who does not spend his time constantly shifting from one classroom to the next. You will learn everything worth knowing in my classroom. I will expose you to all states of being, so that you may learn to rest in me in all of them. There are no insurmountable obstacles to me; there are no pre-requisites for me. I am unconditional.
Devotee: But you are absent so often and away for so long at your headquarters.
Sai Baba: Always, at every time, at every place, I am where you need me. All things without are subject to the limitation of time and space, to the material laws of Nature. My outer form is no exception! If you would perceive my physical form, it must come within the range of your gaze, so position yourself so that you can see it. And even then, it may not gaze at you. But, I am omnipresent! The limitations of the body and the outer senses do not hold for the inner vision. Therein, you can see me at any time and any place and receive Darshan. The outer vision is purposely insufficient, instantaneous, transitory, casual, so that you may crave for and accomplish the inner Darshan. If I have separated you from my physical image off and on, it was only to bring you to me and to establish my presence within you. That alone will replenish you and refresh you, I know. None of my absences was a rejection or rebuke. So far as you are concerned, I intended them all. And, always, I willed that you return to me.
The following conversation between a devotee and Sai Baba took place in Prashanthi Nilayam many years ago and was first published in an early issue of the Sanathana Sarathi, the official ashram magazine.
Devotee: Swami! The world is very cruel to me.
Sai Baba: That is its nature. The purpose of the world is frustration; it has to engender need. When the need is strong enough, the individual seeks fulfillment.
Devotee: And fails!
Sai Baba: Only when he seeks fulfillment without! Within him, he can get it. The within is accessible always; it is ever responsible. There is pain only so long as attachment for outer forms remains. Ultimate relief from pain can come only with the loss of ego, the neutralisation of that which reacts to something as pain and something else as pleasure, whose memory, whose conditioning, helps to recognise the dualities of joy and grief.
Devotee: But the world, Swami?
Sai Baba: The world is pain. Expect nothing from the world but that. I willed the totality of your conditioned existence to be pain, in order to draw you to me.
Devotee: Which I can, at best, only hope to attain.
Sai Baba: God asks for neither hope nor despair. They are subject to relativity. Universal Being is beyond both hope and despair, both certainty and doubt. It knows no lingering in its conclusions. It is ever flowing, in all directions, and in none of them.
Devotee: What then shall be my direction?
Sai Baba: Take what works today for today. What works tomorrow for tomorrow. One day at a time, each day for itself, each moment for itself, without a past, without memory, without conclusions.
Devotee: Conclusions?
Sai Baba: Yes. Conclusions bind; they press on the mind. The newborn baby is not confined to conclusions. All conclusions enslave. Most men are slaves to the conclusions into which they have fallen.
Devotee: Does that mean I have to give up my practice of concentration?
Sai Baba: The question that bothers you is one of fixity. You tried to fix your thought and attention on a word and later on a form, but you discovered that nothing lasts, that everything has to change. But I tell you; awareness can remain, even when form subsides, even when the word melts away.
Devotee: I find it difficult to hold my attention on form or word.
Sai Baba: Because when you try to meditate, the very trial invites the success-failure conflict onto the scene. You say to yourself, it is good to meditate on this and not that, or to meditate on that is wrong or foolish. Practice choicelessness; no objective, no intention. Be yourself. Choose no particular form, for all are equally His. Choose no particular word or sound, for all are His.
Devotee: I am often tossed between contradictory beliefs.
Sai Baba: Contradictions are inevitable. It is the very nature of this world and of the mind. But you can choose, either to be buffeted endlessly by the apparent contradictions or to remain in the calm center of the cyclone. This is the problem of all problems, the problem of peripheral or central being.
Devotee: The circumference or the center, the rim or the hub of the wheel?
Sai Baba: Yes. The hub is calm, steady, unmoved. But the mind will be drawn along the spokes, the objective desires, to revolve over mud and stone, sand and thorns. It will not believe that it can get bliss from the center, rather than from the circumference, without undergoing a rough journey over turbulent terrain.
Devotee: Ultimately, it means the conquest of the mind?
Sai Baba: Learn to let all the conflicts spawned by the mind play themselves out, and cancel each other out. Be the witness to the holocaust. The ultimate solution to the conflict is not decision or even choice, but passive being. Dare to remain inconclusive. See the endless quandaries of the mind as a divine Leela, God's sport, as the natural function of the bundle of desires called mind. Do not believe in mind; do not rally to its assertions and appetites. Watch the mind from a distance; do not get involved in its tumbling and turnings. Then everything becomes insignificant. When everything recedes into meaninglessness, you are in the hub, in equanimity.
Devotee: Swami, you are the hub, the spokes and the rim.
Sai Baba: Do not be concerned with who I am! Concern yourself with who you are and how you can be ever aware of that truth. Do not be a willing captive of the endless stratagems of the mind. Abstain from all that draws you into its web. I will lead you, if you rely on me. The alternatives of the world will not bring you happiness, for the mind, which revels in alternatives, is but a will-of-the-wisp, flitting before your vision. I do not judge you for what is never yours, really. Your imperfection is no obstacle for me.
Devotee: I confess that I have not always observed the rules of conduct of the Sathya Sai Organisation.
Sai Baba: Your mind keeps asking for rules. But when you get the rules, you find you cannot keep them. Rules engender rigidity, they force. They do not bloom out of love or spread love. There is always a way of doing a thing without the strain of a rule. See how unperturbed I am with your restlessness! I live thus, so that I may afford a lesson for you to learn.
Devotee: I am restless, Swami, because I yearn for rest and do not get it.
Sai Baba: It is your reaction to restlessness that is bad, not the restlessness itself. Restlessness is only the rise and fall of a wave on the ocean that you are. Nothing matters, so long as the depths are secure. Success is not important: failure does not matter. The river of eternity is flowing ever into the ocean of the Supreme Will.
Devotee: How long am I to be torn apart from that Supreme Will?
Sai Baba: You are a fraction of that Supreme Will. That is why you are afflicted with the hunger to seek It and to merge in It and to find fulfillment and bliss thereby. Turning to the world for solace and sustenance to appease that hunger has been tried by countless generations, including your own, but the hunger is gnawing still.
Devotee: What then is the proper reaction to the attractions of the world?
Sai Baba: Let go. Don't cling. Be still. Establish yourself in the homelessness of the mind; physical homelessness will not earn the victory. There are many spiritual aspirants still caught in the coils of greed, envy, pride and power seeking. They have not escaped from their homes. They have built prisons around themselves. I describe homelessness of the mind as mind abiding nowhere.
Devotee: And wandering everywhere?
Sai Baba: Do not exclude anything. Be the witness of everything. The exclusive cannot endure. God is all. Your restlessness came from exclusion, the pressure exerted by the excluded into the area from which it was excluded. All is God; how can you push God out of His Domain? Your mind concludes that the cause for the restlessness is whatever concerns it at the time. The actual cause is not that. You limit God by your assumptions, hence the restlessness. For you too are divine, and your reality protests against that limitation.
Devotee: Swami! Sometimes I feel so sad that I am so strange, so different in habits from the rest of those that come to you for succor.
Sai Baba: If your path contrasts entirely with those around you, believe that it is my will for you. Every way is my way and ways seemingly indirect may be the most direct for some spiritual seekers. For me there are no impossible cases, no incorrigible cases. Practice Choicelessness as hitherto prescribed. Choicelessness is constant contentment.
Devotee: Swami, I am addicted to tea drinking, which hurts me. How can I stop this practice?
Sai Baba: Heaven is not refused to those who drink tea! A rajasic person is rendered hyperactive by tea, but to an invalid it is a welcome lift. But do not adore tea as the only reality. Now with regard to these habits that have gripped you, there are two methods by which you can discard them. The first is deprivation, denial. This can yield only temporary success. When one's determination relaxes, the habit reasserts itself and it becomes difficult to resist. The second method is to become so absorbed in something far more pleasing that the habit falls off by itself. Remember, what is transient is not important. What is important is eternal. My prescriptions are varied; they differ from person to person, from stage to stage, even in the case of the same person. All prescriptions work. Let people come to me through Bhajan, through Japa, through Meditation, through Mantras, through Tantra or Seva ­ as I ordain. Every one will come to me; everyone has to come to me. There are no exceptions.
Devotee: We rely on your grace Swami, we yearn for it. Make us aware of it.
Sai Baba: I never asked you to earn me. I want only that you should need me. Your path is not one of merit. Bring the recurring desires of your mind to me, every time they emerge. They cannot shock me, for I willed them! Bring me your confusion, your fear, your craving, your anxiety, your inability to love the world, your hesitation to serve, your jealousy, all the deficiencies that defy your spiritual disciplines.
Devotee: How are we to do Seva if we feel the urge to do so? What if the urge is absent?
Sai Baba: There are many ways to serve the world. You can serve, if not actively, at least by your serenity. Everyone need not do all things. Your Western heritage reveres active work. But if your being tends towards serenity and solitude, take it as the best. Do not be sorry for it. Only a small minority can delight in serenity and remain still. God has willed it so, otherwise, how could the world function? If stillness is your destiny, dare to be so. If you are a recluse, be a recluse, but a recluse with me. You may not be a saint, but you can peacefully be nothing. Let each be as he is, remembering, however, his source and his reality. None is as he is but for me.
Devotee: I have yet much to learn.
Sai Baba: You wish to learn from me. Well, if you are preoccupied by the body's needs, by the arrangements for its traveling, its accommodation and the food it demands, time will fly. That student learns best and fastest who does not spend his time constantly shifting from one classroom to the next. You will learn everything worth knowing in my classroom. I will expose you to all states of being, so that you may learn to rest in me in all of them. There are no insurmountable obstacles to me; there are no pre-requisites for me. I am unconditional.
Devotee: But you are absent so often and away for so long at your headquarters.
Sai Baba: Always, at every time, at every place, I am where you need me. All things without are subject to the limitation of time and space, to the material laws of Nature. My outer form is no exception! If you would perceive my physical form, it must come within the range of your gaze, so position yourself so that you can see it. And even then, it may not gaze at you. But, I am omnipresent! The limitations of the body and the outer senses do not hold for the inner vision. Therein, you can see me at any time and any place and receive Darshan. The outer vision is purposely insufficient, instantaneous, transitory, casual, so that you may crave for and accomplish the inner Darshan. If I have separated you from my physical image off and on, it was only to bring you to me and to establish my presence within you. That alone will replenish you and refresh you, I know. None of my absences was a rejection or rebuke. So far as you are concerned, I intended them all. And, always, I willed that you return to me.
Sarveswara- Administrator
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Number of posts : 869
Age : 65
Location : NSW Australia
Job/hobbies : Spiritual Messenger
Humor : Life ... is complexly simple!
Registration date : 2007-11-30 -
Continuing on with ... Part one of ...
by Sarveswara Sun May 04, 2008 7:41 am
SAI BABA'S TEACHINGS On ADVAITA or NON - DUALISM
Devotee: Swami, what is the best way to relate to the world?
Sai Baba: Do not think about the world. Do not spend time thinking about the world or about your relationships to individuals. These are all impermanent. They will not last. Pay attention to that which lasts, to that which is permanent. All things involving the world and human relationships have to do only with the body. The body is like a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. So do not follow the body or the mind. Follow the voice of God. It is the voice of unchanging truth inside you. It will direct you toward your highest good.
If doubts come, do not follow them. Jesus had some doubts on the cross when the soldiers were tormenting him. Then he heard the voice of God telling him, "All are one, my dear son. Be alike to everyone." At that point the last doubt dropped away and Jesus declared, "I and my Father are one." He realised the truth of the oneness of Self and God. This is the state of Advaita, of complete Non-Dualism, where there is only unity. If you listen to the voice of God inside you, it will tell you that there is no difference between you and God. There never was a difference. It was your imagination only. The sense of difference was only in your mind. There is no separate I or God which has to become one. There never was any other. Always there was just the one, without a second. To reach this highest truth, do not think that you and God are separate. Think always "God is with me. He is inside me. He is around me. He is above me. All there is is God. I, myself, am God. I am the infinite. I am the eternal. I am not two. I am one, only one. There is no one else besides me. I and God are one and the same." That is called self-confidence; it is the confidence that you are Atma, the one Self. You develop self-confidence by thinking all the time "God is doing everything, without God I cannot be." When you realise that God is not outside of you and separate from you, then you gain self-confidence. Then there is love, there is peace, there is truth and there is God. So first there must be self-confidence and love of God. What are you thinking about now? You are thinking about the body, but the body is just a water bubble. The body is just a dress, only a dress.
Devotee: Swami, you say that everything is God, but isn't the body also God? If everything is God, then the body must also be God?
Sai Baba: You are asking about the body. You are thinking about the body, not of God. If you only think of God, then, for you, there will be only God. But now you are thinking of the body. The body is an instrument; it is made of matter; and matter is always changing. The world also is always changing, but God is never changing. God is the one unchanging spirit.
Devotee: Is Swami's body also just an instrument?
Sai Baba: Swami's body is like all bodies. All bodies are just instruments. All bodies are only temporary. They have birth. They have death. The indweller of the body is permanent. That is the Atma, the one Self. That is you. That is the real you. You are the immortal Self, not the body.
Devotee: Swami, how do we rise up to that highest level? How do we become perfect?
Sai Baba: Through love, only through love. Develop divine love or Prema. Divine love is completely selfless. Human love is mostly selfish. All the time it thinks only of this little 'I'. This little 'I' is the ego. Ego is a bad quality. It sees everything as separate. It sees everything as dual. Remove this ego and you will see only unity. Where there is duality, divinity will not be present. Think only of the basis of everything. Think only of God. Now for you at present there is only desire, desire, desire: I want this! I want that! Desires are just passing clouds. They come and they go. One moment they give pleasure and the next moment they give pain. They cannot give permanent joy. Desires make up the mind. The mind is nothing but a bundle of desires. Every thought in the mind comes from desire. Don't follow the mind. Don't follow those passing clouds. Desire comes, desire goes, but morality comes and grows. Morality is very important. Follow morality; practice it.
Devotee: Swami, should we think of God as being both father and mother?
Sai Baba: Your physical mother is only with you for some years. She is your temporary mother. Your physical father is also only temporary. The real relationship is different. Truth is the real father. Truth is permanent. Truth has no birth; it has no death. Prema, divine love, is the real mother. Devotion is the real brother. Wisdom is the real son. Peace is the real daughter. For all of these relationships there is no change; there is no birth, there is no death. They make up your permanent relationship, your relationship with God.
Devotee: Swami, if Divinity is my permanent relationship and all these others are only temporary relationships, then do I still have to take care of my family at home?
Sai Baba (very firmly): You must! That is your duty. Do your duty. Take care of your family.
Devotee: Even if it takes me away from God?
Sai Baba: No! No! No! No! Do not abandon your family. You must take care of your husband and your children. Do your duty. Duty is God. Work is worship. Do not forsake your duty.
Devotee: But Swami, not even when God calls?
Sai Baba (laughingly): God is in you. He is with you. He is above you. He is below you. He is around you. He is not calling or sending for you. He is always with you. He is you. You, yourself, are God. Always think like that. "I am God. I am God. I am Atma. I am everything." Think like that and do your duty at home. God is not sending for you or asking you to come from somewhere. You are God. He is always with you.
Devotee: Swami, is everything predetermined? Is the time we take to merge already mapped out? When we finally merge and get realisation, is that moment already written on our foreheads?
Sai Baba: For Atma there is no time and there is no space. It is beyond time and beyond form. In this Self all are one. Remember that unity. Live in that unity. Make that your goal. All are one. Be alike to everyone.
Devotee: Then Swami, what is the relationship between the Self and the individual?
Sai Baba: Where is Self? It is everywhere. How do you know? You do not know. You have no experience of it, so do some Sadhana, some spiritual practice. Experience it. Practice it. Live it. Realise it.
Devotee: But Swami, what I wanted to ask is "Do I have an individual higher Self? Is there an individual higher Self that is specifically related to me?"
Sai Baba: The individual exists only in your imagination, in your mind. It is just an illusion. It is not real. When the one Self is everywhere, when it is one without a second, then where is the individual? It is only in your imagination. The Self alone is real. Realise it.
Devotee: Swami, is there really no higher being related uniquely to this body, judging me or guiding me?
Sai Baba: You are still in one hundred percent body consciousness. Do not stay with this body-consciousness. Remove it. Take it away. What will remain will be God-consciousness. Then there will be no anger, no hatred, no envy, no jealousy, no desire, no ego, only pure joy, only complete bliss, only bliss, bliss, bliss.
Devotee: Swami, what is the best way to relate to the world?
Sai Baba: Do not think about the world. Do not spend time thinking about the world or about your relationships to individuals. These are all impermanent. They will not last. Pay attention to that which lasts, to that which is permanent. All things involving the world and human relationships have to do only with the body. The body is like a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. So do not follow the body or the mind. Follow the voice of God. It is the voice of unchanging truth inside you. It will direct you toward your highest good.
If doubts come, do not follow them. Jesus had some doubts on the cross when the soldiers were tormenting him. Then he heard the voice of God telling him, "All are one, my dear son. Be alike to everyone." At that point the last doubt dropped away and Jesus declared, "I and my Father are one." He realised the truth of the oneness of Self and God. This is the state of Advaita, of complete Non-Dualism, where there is only unity. If you listen to the voice of God inside you, it will tell you that there is no difference between you and God. There never was a difference. It was your imagination only. The sense of difference was only in your mind. There is no separate I or God which has to become one. There never was any other. Always there was just the one, without a second. To reach this highest truth, do not think that you and God are separate. Think always "God is with me. He is inside me. He is around me. He is above me. All there is is God. I, myself, am God. I am the infinite. I am the eternal. I am not two. I am one, only one. There is no one else besides me. I and God are one and the same." That is called self-confidence; it is the confidence that you are Atma, the one Self. You develop self-confidence by thinking all the time "God is doing everything, without God I cannot be." When you realise that God is not outside of you and separate from you, then you gain self-confidence. Then there is love, there is peace, there is truth and there is God. So first there must be self-confidence and love of God. What are you thinking about now? You are thinking about the body, but the body is just a water bubble. The body is just a dress, only a dress.
Devotee: Swami, you say that everything is God, but isn't the body also God? If everything is God, then the body must also be God?
Sai Baba: You are asking about the body. You are thinking about the body, not of God. If you only think of God, then, for you, there will be only God. But now you are thinking of the body. The body is an instrument; it is made of matter; and matter is always changing. The world also is always changing, but God is never changing. God is the one unchanging spirit.
Devotee: Is Swami's body also just an instrument?
Sai Baba: Swami's body is like all bodies. All bodies are just instruments. All bodies are only temporary. They have birth. They have death. The indweller of the body is permanent. That is the Atma, the one Self. That is you. That is the real you. You are the immortal Self, not the body.
Devotee: Swami, how do we rise up to that highest level? How do we become perfect?
Sai Baba: Through love, only through love. Develop divine love or Prema. Divine love is completely selfless. Human love is mostly selfish. All the time it thinks only of this little 'I'. This little 'I' is the ego. Ego is a bad quality. It sees everything as separate. It sees everything as dual. Remove this ego and you will see only unity. Where there is duality, divinity will not be present. Think only of the basis of everything. Think only of God. Now for you at present there is only desire, desire, desire: I want this! I want that! Desires are just passing clouds. They come and they go. One moment they give pleasure and the next moment they give pain. They cannot give permanent joy. Desires make up the mind. The mind is nothing but a bundle of desires. Every thought in the mind comes from desire. Don't follow the mind. Don't follow those passing clouds. Desire comes, desire goes, but morality comes and grows. Morality is very important. Follow morality; practice it.
Devotee: Swami, should we think of God as being both father and mother?
Sai Baba: Your physical mother is only with you for some years. She is your temporary mother. Your physical father is also only temporary. The real relationship is different. Truth is the real father. Truth is permanent. Truth has no birth; it has no death. Prema, divine love, is the real mother. Devotion is the real brother. Wisdom is the real son. Peace is the real daughter. For all of these relationships there is no change; there is no birth, there is no death. They make up your permanent relationship, your relationship with God.
Devotee: Swami, if Divinity is my permanent relationship and all these others are only temporary relationships, then do I still have to take care of my family at home?
Sai Baba (very firmly): You must! That is your duty. Do your duty. Take care of your family.
Devotee: Even if it takes me away from God?
Sai Baba: No! No! No! No! Do not abandon your family. You must take care of your husband and your children. Do your duty. Duty is God. Work is worship. Do not forsake your duty.
Devotee: But Swami, not even when God calls?
Sai Baba (laughingly): God is in you. He is with you. He is above you. He is below you. He is around you. He is not calling or sending for you. He is always with you. He is you. You, yourself, are God. Always think like that. "I am God. I am God. I am Atma. I am everything." Think like that and do your duty at home. God is not sending for you or asking you to come from somewhere. You are God. He is always with you.
Devotee: Swami, is everything predetermined? Is the time we take to merge already mapped out? When we finally merge and get realisation, is that moment already written on our foreheads?
Sai Baba: For Atma there is no time and there is no space. It is beyond time and beyond form. In this Self all are one. Remember that unity. Live in that unity. Make that your goal. All are one. Be alike to everyone.
Devotee: Then Swami, what is the relationship between the Self and the individual?
Sai Baba: Where is Self? It is everywhere. How do you know? You do not know. You have no experience of it, so do some Sadhana, some spiritual practice. Experience it. Practice it. Live it. Realise it.
Devotee: But Swami, what I wanted to ask is "Do I have an individual higher Self? Is there an individual higher Self that is specifically related to me?"
Sai Baba: The individual exists only in your imagination, in your mind. It is just an illusion. It is not real. When the one Self is everywhere, when it is one without a second, then where is the individual? It is only in your imagination. The Self alone is real. Realise it.
Devotee: Swami, is there really no higher being related uniquely to this body, judging me or guiding me?
Sai Baba: You are still in one hundred percent body consciousness. Do not stay with this body-consciousness. Remove it. Take it away. What will remain will be God-consciousness. Then there will be no anger, no hatred, no envy, no jealousy, no desire, no ego, only pure joy, only complete bliss, only bliss, bliss, bliss.
Sarveswara- Administrator
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Number of posts : 869
Age : 65
Location : NSW Australia
Job/hobbies : Spiritual Messenger
Humor : Life ... is complexly simple!
Registration date : 2007-11-30 -
Continuing on with ... Part TWO of ...
by Sarveswara Sun May 04, 2008 7:54 am
SAI BABA'S TEACHINGS On ADVAITA or NON - DUALISM ... Continued
Devotee:But then what is reborn? When we reincarnate, what is born?
Sai Baba: The body is born. Birth and death only have to do with the body. Ego relates only to the body. Reincarnation relates only to the body. Do not think of the body, think of the Atma. It is one. It is unchanging. For that one Self there is no incarnation; there is no reincarnation.
Devotee: Swami, do I, as an individual, exist at all?
Sai Baba: I! I! I! Always this I. First you must ask "Who is this I? Who am I?"
Devotee (persisting): But Swami is there no individual anything?
Sai Baba: When you realise the Self, then there is no separate individual. You can think of individuals as different light bulbs. There will be differences in wattage. There will be differences in age, in colour, in form, in name. One is a tube light and another is a bulb light. There will be differences in shape, but everywhere the current that powers them is the same. That current is you. You are not a bulb that appears different from any other bulb. You are the current, the one current that is found in all the bulbs. That is who you are.
Devotee: Swami, is there any difference between God and me?
Sai Baba: You are God. You are not the ego. You are God! You are God!
Devotee (incredulously): I am God???
Sai Baba: Yes! Yes! You are Atma, the one Self. You are permanent. The physical body is not permanent. The physical is not the Self, but you are the Self, not the physical. You are God. Think like this always. Do not think about the body. Think about God. The body comes and goes. For the body there is birth and death, but you are not the body. The body is just rust and dust.
Devotee: Swami, I do healing and I wanted to ask...
Sai Baba (interrupting): Healing comes from God. Think of God. God is everything. He will always do what is needed. Think only of surrendering to God. You may say, "I am healing others", but this is just your ego speaking. Healing cannot come through the ego. Thinking that you are doing healing is very harmful. You are not the one who is doing the healing. You are only the instrument. God does everything. Think only of Him. Love Him.
Devotee: Swami, how can we love something we don't understand?
Sai Baba: Develop self-confidence, then love will follow. It will come naturally, from within. In that way the love will be pure. Your journey starts with self-confidence and ends with the realisation of the Self. That Self is you; it is God. This is who you really are. Self-confidence is unwavering love for the divinity within. What will help you to develop this confidence? Be equal-minded. Be satisfied with what you have. Don't hanker for anything outside. Be happy! The secret of happiness lies not in doing what you like but in liking what you have to do. That is a great truth. Always have complete faith in God, Who takes care of everything.True greatness can only come from faith. Now there is no confidence in you. Without confidence your faith will be shaking and wavering. Then where is there room for grace to come in? Where is the room for the Divinity to come inside? If you shut the door, how can the spirit be revealed?
Devotee: Lord, I want to merge with you. What do I have to do? I am ready.
Sai Baba: Through love, only through love. Love is everything. Love is God. Live in love. Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God.
Devotee: Swami, how do we develop this selfless love?
Sai Baba: Only through God's Grace. Prema, divine selfless love, comes only through God's Grace. Without Grace you cannot do anything. First do your duty and think about God all day, from morning until evening. See everything as God and be happy. Think to yourself "O Lord, you are my everything. You are my goal. You are my breath." Do not think that this is mine or that is mine or that this is not mine. Instead, think, "All is you, Lord. All is yours." Think, "I am beyond the body. Mind is just a mad monkey. I am the Self. I and God are one." Think like this "Before this body was formed, I was there. After this body goes, I will still be there. I am omnipresent. I am the all." To reach this truth you have to do some spiritual practice.
You have to inquire: What is God? Who is God? Who am I? The first step in self-realisation is to always think of God and after some years you will know that you are one with God. Jesus spent twelve years in the desert before he realised this fact. In the beginning you can think that this whole world is just like a stage and you are only an actor. God is the director. All of Humanity is actors. God is directing everything. But do not stop there. Move on and identify only with God. Think God. Be God.
Devotee: Swami, shall we go out and tell these things to other people?
Sai Baba: Do not talk so much. Do some spiritual practice. First do. Then be. Then you can talk, but only a little. Do some meditation. Do everything with love. Be good, see good and do good. After you develop self-confidence and love for God, you can share with others, but it is a good rule not to talk too much. Talk very little, even about God. In spiritual practice there will always be internal talk with God. You will give up all attachments and attach only to God. For this, purity of the heart is very important. Where there is no purity, there is no unity. Without unity, you cannot attain divinity. Then your whole life is just a waste. First purity, next unity. Then you realise divinity.
Devotee: And purity comes from service, Swami?
Sai Baba: Yes, purity comes from selfless love, from doing selfless service. All are one family, so serve all, not just the Sai family, but the whole world family. All are brothers and sisters. All are one. Be alike to everyone. That is unity, the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.
Devotee: Swami, even in a country like Germany, where there is not much spiritual feeling?
Sai Baba: Germany, Japan, America, Italy, France... the countries are all different but the heart is the same. God is everywhere. Everywhere you can do service and develop your love. Wherever you are, do everything with devotion and love. You have Swami's blessing. Know that, always.
"You are divine, that is the truth.
You and the Universal are one.
You and the Absolute are one.
You and the eternal are one.
You are not the individual, the particular, the temporary.
Feel this. Know this. Act in conformity with this."
Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Devotee:But then what is reborn? When we reincarnate, what is born?
Sai Baba: The body is born. Birth and death only have to do with the body. Ego relates only to the body. Reincarnation relates only to the body. Do not think of the body, think of the Atma. It is one. It is unchanging. For that one Self there is no incarnation; there is no reincarnation.
Devotee: Swami, do I, as an individual, exist at all?
Sai Baba: I! I! I! Always this I. First you must ask "Who is this I? Who am I?"
Devotee (persisting): But Swami is there no individual anything?
Sai Baba: When you realise the Self, then there is no separate individual. You can think of individuals as different light bulbs. There will be differences in wattage. There will be differences in age, in colour, in form, in name. One is a tube light and another is a bulb light. There will be differences in shape, but everywhere the current that powers them is the same. That current is you. You are not a bulb that appears different from any other bulb. You are the current, the one current that is found in all the bulbs. That is who you are.
Devotee: Swami, is there any difference between God and me?
Sai Baba: You are God. You are not the ego. You are God! You are God!
Devotee (incredulously): I am God???
Sai Baba: Yes! Yes! You are Atma, the one Self. You are permanent. The physical body is not permanent. The physical is not the Self, but you are the Self, not the physical. You are God. Think like this always. Do not think about the body. Think about God. The body comes and goes. For the body there is birth and death, but you are not the body. The body is just rust and dust.
Devotee: Swami, I do healing and I wanted to ask...
Sai Baba (interrupting): Healing comes from God. Think of God. God is everything. He will always do what is needed. Think only of surrendering to God. You may say, "I am healing others", but this is just your ego speaking. Healing cannot come through the ego. Thinking that you are doing healing is very harmful. You are not the one who is doing the healing. You are only the instrument. God does everything. Think only of Him. Love Him.
Devotee: Swami, how can we love something we don't understand?
Sai Baba: Develop self-confidence, then love will follow. It will come naturally, from within. In that way the love will be pure. Your journey starts with self-confidence and ends with the realisation of the Self. That Self is you; it is God. This is who you really are. Self-confidence is unwavering love for the divinity within. What will help you to develop this confidence? Be equal-minded. Be satisfied with what you have. Don't hanker for anything outside. Be happy! The secret of happiness lies not in doing what you like but in liking what you have to do. That is a great truth. Always have complete faith in God, Who takes care of everything.True greatness can only come from faith. Now there is no confidence in you. Without confidence your faith will be shaking and wavering. Then where is there room for grace to come in? Where is the room for the Divinity to come inside? If you shut the door, how can the spirit be revealed?
Devotee: Lord, I want to merge with you. What do I have to do? I am ready.
Sai Baba: Through love, only through love. Love is everything. Love is God. Live in love. Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God.
Devotee: Swami, how do we develop this selfless love?
Sai Baba: Only through God's Grace. Prema, divine selfless love, comes only through God's Grace. Without Grace you cannot do anything. First do your duty and think about God all day, from morning until evening. See everything as God and be happy. Think to yourself "O Lord, you are my everything. You are my goal. You are my breath." Do not think that this is mine or that is mine or that this is not mine. Instead, think, "All is you, Lord. All is yours." Think, "I am beyond the body. Mind is just a mad monkey. I am the Self. I and God are one." Think like this "Before this body was formed, I was there. After this body goes, I will still be there. I am omnipresent. I am the all." To reach this truth you have to do some spiritual practice.
You have to inquire: What is God? Who is God? Who am I? The first step in self-realisation is to always think of God and after some years you will know that you are one with God. Jesus spent twelve years in the desert before he realised this fact. In the beginning you can think that this whole world is just like a stage and you are only an actor. God is the director. All of Humanity is actors. God is directing everything. But do not stop there. Move on and identify only with God. Think God. Be God.
Devotee: Swami, shall we go out and tell these things to other people?
Sai Baba: Do not talk so much. Do some spiritual practice. First do. Then be. Then you can talk, but only a little. Do some meditation. Do everything with love. Be good, see good and do good. After you develop self-confidence and love for God, you can share with others, but it is a good rule not to talk too much. Talk very little, even about God. In spiritual practice there will always be internal talk with God. You will give up all attachments and attach only to God. For this, purity of the heart is very important. Where there is no purity, there is no unity. Without unity, you cannot attain divinity. Then your whole life is just a waste. First purity, next unity. Then you realise divinity.
Devotee: And purity comes from service, Swami?
Sai Baba: Yes, purity comes from selfless love, from doing selfless service. All are one family, so serve all, not just the Sai family, but the whole world family. All are brothers and sisters. All are one. Be alike to everyone. That is unity, the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.
Devotee: Swami, even in a country like Germany, where there is not much spiritual feeling?
Sai Baba: Germany, Japan, America, Italy, France... the countries are all different but the heart is the same. God is everywhere. Everywhere you can do service and develop your love. Wherever you are, do everything with devotion and love. You have Swami's blessing. Know that, always.
"You are divine, that is the truth.
You and the Universal are one.
You and the Absolute are one.
You and the eternal are one.
You are not the individual, the particular, the temporary.
Feel this. Know this. Act in conformity with this."
Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Sarveswara- Administrator
-
Number of posts : 869
Age : 65
Location : NSW Australia
Job/hobbies : Spiritual Messenger
Humor : Life ... is complexly simple!
Registration date : 2007-11-30 -
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