Depart Without Debt… Bhagawan is hailed in the Arathi song as “Sadgurudeva”. He is the Divine Teacher of Supreme Truth. He makes use of every conceivable occasion to drive home the profoundest truths in the most compelling and interesting manner. The students and small group of devotees who were present at the evening gathering in “Trayee Brindavan” after Bhagawan’s return from Ooty on 11 May were blessed in many ways. Besides Bhagawan’s darshan and prasadam at the end of the meeting, they had the unforgettable privilege of listening to Bhagawan’s informal discourses which were mainly concerned with what may be compendiously described as “practical spirituality”. Bhagawan spoke one evening on what is true friendship. On another evening, He illustrated from a crucial episode in the Mahabharata how it is sinful to be silent witnesses to the perpetration of a grievous crime. One evening, Swami related instances from the lives of Socrates, the Greek philosopher, and Prophet Mohammed to pinpoint the lesson that one should not leave any undischarged debts before one passes away. In relating the story of Socrates in His own gripping manner, Swami described how the young men in Athens were attracted to Socrates because of the way in which he inspired in them a deep interest towards the basic problems of life. Because too many young men chose to remain with Socrates, the authorities in Athens condemned him to death. Rather than allowing himself to be put to death by others, Socrates chose to end his life by drinking a cup of hemlock. Swami described the last scene in which Socrates was surrounded by his numerous young disciples. With no fear of death, Socrates spoke to them cheerfully. Before receiving the cup of hemlock from the hands of his disciples, Socrates told one of them that he owed a hen to a neighbour. He asked the disciple to give a hen to his neighbour so that he may be free from any debt to anyone before his passing. He then received the cup of hemlock from the disciples’ hands and drank it calmly. Incidentally Swami described how Alexander, a student of Aristotle—who was himself a pupil of Plato, the guru of Socrates—met an Indian ascetic during his invasion of India and learnt from the sage the supreme value of detachment (Vairagya) and the impermanence of worldly acquisitions. Referring to Prophet Mohammed’s life, Swami described how on one occasion when the Prophet was fleeing from Mecca, he had to use the services of a camel-driver for carrying him across the desert. The Prophet had no money to pay to him at the time. Later, when the Prophet was about to leave the world, he called one of his disciples and asked him to discharge the debt the Prophet owed to the camel driver. Swami related these incidents to the students to impress on them how important it is in life to discharge one’s obligations to others. The ancient Indian sages, Swami said, believed that if a person dies without discharging his debts he cannot escape the obligation to be born again to discharge the unpaid debts. Our ancients attached the highest value to honouring one’s pledged word. Harishchandra was the supreme example of one who was prepared to undergo every kind of trial and humiliation to fulfill the promise he had given. Swami recited a Telugu poem which says: The signature is vital to a promissory note;The army is vital to a fortress;Character is vital to a community;Truth is vital to speech. ] True Friendship One evening, Swami asked the students to define the characteristics of true friendship. Various answers were given and the examples of Krishna and Arjuna were cited. Bhagavan said that He wanted examples from human beings alone. The relation between Krishna and Arjuna was that of the Divine to man. Swami then gave the answer Himself and illustrated it with an example from ancient Italy. Swami said true friendship is present when the friends regard themselves as two bodies with one heart and soul. Swami then related the story of Damon and Pythias. Pythias had been sentenced to death by a ruler (of Syracuse) for an offence against the State. Pythias’s friend, Damon, came to the ruler and said that as the sentence was to be executed a month later Pythias might be released from prison to see his wife and children. The ruler agreed to release Pythias on condition that Damon agreed to be in prison for a month and was willing to suffer the death sentence in case Pythias did not turn up on the due date. Damon readily offered to take Pythias’s place. Pythias was freed and permitted to go home to meet his family. On the day prior to the date of execution a large crowd had gathered at the prison to see whether Pythias kept his word. Tension mounted as Pythias had not arrived by the evening. Damon was cheerfully ready to mount the scaffold in case Pythias did not turn up. Late in the night Pythias came running to the prison to save Damon from execution for his sake. The next morning the ruler was astonished at seeing both Damon and Pythias and was struck by the extreme devotion between the two friends. He pardoned Pythias and took both the friends into his service.

Blissful Smile… How Bhagawan often goes an extra mile to bring an extra smile on His devotee’s face… Sri N.V.N. Somayajulu shares an incident depicting His special touch of grace, fulfilling an earnest desire of one of His devotees. It happened in 1979. One year after arriving in Switzerland, my wife met by chance a Sai devotee in a super market. She recognised my wife as a Sai devotee by seeing Baba’s locket in her chain. She became friendly and later introduced us to another lady devotee, living at a distance of about 30 km from Berne. In a few months time, a housewife of a family living in the same building as ours started showing interest in Baba. One day my wife and I were going round shopping and found three small photo frames, oval in shape and made of brass. They were of the size 7 x 4 cm and had a little design on them. An idea occurred to my wife that it would be nice to present the three frames with Baba’s pictures to those three ladies on the occasion of Diwali. Incidentally only three of these photo frames were available in that shop. We took the frames home and realized, then only that they were too small to contain any picture of Baba, we had at home, even with necessary alterations. Around this time, interesting thing used to happen at the dressing table in our home. We kept a bunch of vibhuti packets in one of the drawers of the table. One vibhuti packet used to appear now and then on the top of the dressing table. I would keep it back inside, thinking that my wife might have by mistake kept it on the table. My wife would also notice the same thing from time to time and would keep the packet back inside the drawer supposing that I might have kept it, by mistake, on the table. We came to know from each other of this phenomenon only later. After having failed to procure picture of Baba of the requisite size, as Diwali was fast approaching, I decided to make use of the picture on the vibhuti packets, lying in the drawer of the dressing table. Those pictures were of ordinary quality. So, on one sunday morning, I went to the dressing table to take out the vibhuti packets from the drawer. But I saw on the table itself a vibhuti packet green in colour. As the packet carried a picture of Baba on it, I opened it to empty the vibhuti and to later cut out the picture. But, then what a surprise! I found three small colour pictures of Baba inside the packet. The pictures were nicely painted on a glazed paper and at the bottom of the pictures were printed the words “Blissful Smile”. I was so much shocked that I took a few minutes to call my wife to explain the incident. She was of course equally surprised at the event and told me about the phenomenon of one vibhuti packet appearing on the table now and then, which I explained earlier. To satisfy our curiosity we opened all the vibhuti packets lying in the drawer to see if they also contained any picture of Baba. There were none. As the three pictures were obviously meant for the three devotees mentioned above, we fixed the three pictures in the three frames and presented them in time for Diwali. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

Three Bags Full!!! Master punner He is… we have often seen Bhagawan doing jugglery of words, in His discourses and ‘casual’ conversations, only to give an impetus to His broader intentions… and how subtly He connects every word that He utters, aptly suiting the situation. Sri VK Narasimhan presents an Australian experience inside the Interview Room, with his editorial comments. From Sanathana Sarathi, May 1992. Peter Rae, an Australian devotee of Bhagawan, has been engaged for some years in erecting a Mandir near his home in New South Wales, for the use of devotees in the area. He has described an incident which happened during an interview at Prasanthi Nilayam, when he brought a pair of sandals to be blessed by Bhagawan before they were placed at the Altar in his Mandir. He writes: “Swami took us into the private Interview Room, where the sandals belonging to the Sai Temple of Peace were placed on Baba’s cushion for His Feet. When Baba came into the room and saw the sandals on His cushioned footstool, a beautiful smile came on His face and as He sat in His chair, He pulled up the lower part of His Robe and held up His Feet. Then placing both hands as in blessings, palm down, He said: Three bags full, three bags full, three bags full.” One of the ladies, Valmai, asked Swami, what He meant by “Three bags full.” Baba answered “the fullest of everything. The three worlds, Bhur, Bhuvas, Suvaha, Harmony, Happiness, Health, Full of happiness, Full of Love, Full of Santhi, Everything is there.” (The significance of Bhagawan’s use of the phrase “Three bags full” was apparently not clear to the Australian devotees. Bhagawan was indirectly reminding them of the words in the nursery rhyme:   “Ba-ba black sheep! Have you any wool?” The devotees had come from the land of sheep to Baba and Baba was giving them “Three bags full” of blessings, unlike the sheep in the poem which gave “three bags full” of wool.)

Unlock Your Heart God dwells in a pure, unsullied heart. Where the heart is inundated in malicious, wicked possessions, God – The Indweller remains always hidden. It is for man to unlock his heart to eschew the tainted and unwanted to find his ‘sole-possession’ within… Pure Love – Innate Divinity. Former Editor of Sanathana Sarathi, Sri VK Narasimhan writes quoting Bhagawan from one of the Trayee sessions in Brindavan, Whitefield. Shakespeare described jealousy as “that green eyed monster.” In one of His informal talks to a group of devotees and students assembled around Him at Brindavan, Bhagawan dwelt on the great harm which the evil trait of envy can do to a person. Envy, Swami said, can drag a person down to the lowest depths. Among evil qualities in a human being, it was worst. It closed one’s heart to all that is good and great in man. It is only when one opens out one’s heart that the Divine in him can emerge. Swami pointed out that there were two doors, krodha (anger) and dwesha (hatred), which closed the entry to one’s heart. ahamkara (egoism) was the latch on the doors, asooya (envy) was the lock on the latch. When a person is filled with envy, nothing good or Divine can enter his heart. He develops egoism, anger and hatred and stoops to the lowest levels and indulges in every type of evil to achieve his ends. Envy operates in many subtle ways. It is to be found even among scholars and persons in high and responsible positions. Unless one learns to eschew envy and control one’s ego, anger and hatred, one cannot hope to discover the Divine that dwells in every one’s heart. “Open the lock of envy, remove the latch of ego and throw open the doors of krodha and dwesha, and Prema (Divine Love) will flow out of your heart. This is the way to realise Ananda – the Bliss that passeth understanding.” Swami pointed out that Duryodhana’s envy towards the Pandavas led him to perpetrate innumerable wrongs and ultimately it resulted in the complete destruction of the Kauravas. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

Aham Is The Name Of The Lord Does God have a Name? …and if so, what is that Name. The Supreme Godhood Who is beyond any names and forms, any attributes, has a ‘Name’, the Name that is indicative of Supreme Atman and that Name is Aham… an enlightening piece of Divine discourse from Bhagawan. You are what you are, not somebody else. Whether it be a pauper or a millionaire, a pandit or an ignoramus, a child or an old man, a man or a woman, when they introduce themselves everyone uses the word, “I”, “I”, “I”, (Nenu in Telugu). If birds and animals could speak, they would describe themselves as “I am a cat, I am a monkey, I am a dog” and so on. Thus “I” is found everywhere. The cosmos is based on the consciousness of “I”. “I” is not only the basis, it is the very form of the cosmos. Wherefrom has this “I” originated? In fact, it has no origin. It is a principle which exists in all beings at all times. If we examine the phenomenal world, we can see that terms like “you” and “he” and “we” came into existence only after the term “I”. What is this “I”? Who is this “I”? It is the embodiment of the Atma. Where does the Atma dwell? It is all pervading. The Shrutis have described this all-pervading Atma as Hridaya. Hrid+daya is Hridaya. “Daya” means compassion. That which is the embodiment of compassion is Hridaya. Therefore, the term “I” refers to that which is filled with compassion. If a student is asked “Who are you”? He may reply, “I am Rangayya or Ramayya”. If you ask him “When did you come?” he will reply, “I came on May 20 for the Summer Course.” What is it that has come? It is the body. It is in relation to the body that the student says that he came on the 20th. Here the reply is based on identification of himself with the body. The next day the same student says, “My stomach is upset”. When he says, “My stomach”, there is an obvious distinction between him and the stomach. When one refers to “my hand”, “my head”, “my belly”, “my leg” and so on, obviously he is different from these organs. When one says, “This is my towel”, the towel is separate from the owner. The question naturally arises, “Who are you”? This question has to be fully explored. One makes himself separate from all physical objects. The entire cosmos is thus made up of two elements. “This” and “I”. “This” refers to what is seen (drishyam). “I” is the seer. We use the terms, “This is a table”, “This is an auditorium”. We cannot refer to any object without first using the word “This”. By the use of the term “This”, the particular object that is referred to is made clear. That which is seen is perceived only because there is a Seer. When there is no Seer, there is no Seen. People say that the eyes see. But on what basis do the eyes see. It is not the eyes that see. There is something more basic. For instance, when a bulb sheds light, it is not the bulb that illumines. It is the current that makes the bulb shed light. Likewise all the objects in the world that are present are perceptible and made manifest by the perceiver. Thus the principle of “I” is all-pervasive. People may call themselves by different names. But the one thing that is common to all of them is the concept of “I”. The very first word in the universe was “I”. I (Aham) is the first Name of The Lord. “Aham Brahmasmi”; Aham comes first and Brahma comes afterwards. This means that “Aham” is the Name of The Lord. For everyone, therefore, the term “I” is always present. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

The Legend Of Vamana Kerala’s ‘legendary’ Onam festivity comes with the paramount spiritual message of absolute surrender to the Supreme One, citing the ideal of Emperor Mahabali.  The festival that had celebrated its ‘golden jubilee’ in Prasanthi Nilayam last year always relished the most incomparable Physical Presence of Bhagawan, Who invariably delivered Divine discourses every single Onam occasion. Read on the beautiful Divine narration of the legend of Lord Vamana. (Onam Divine discourse on 16-9-1994) Good and bad always co-exist.  Without pain one cannot have the enjoyment of pleasure. Without darkness one cannot feel the value of light. Man should learn to enjoy the dualities of good and bad, pain and pleasure, in moderation. Food consumed in excess causes indigestion. If it is inadequate it results in starvation. Man can even have ego in a limited measure.  If he balances his feelings he can have peace and happiness. Kashyapa and his two wives, Dithi and Adithi, were the parents of devas (demigods) and asuras (demons). Indra, the king of devas, went to fight with the king of the asuras, as it was common practice in those days for one king to invade the kingdom of another to acquire additional territory. Mahabali  vanquished  Indra  in  the  war  and  proceeded  to  annexe  the territory of Indra and occupied his capital Amaravati. Kashyapa had gone to the Himalayas to do penance. Lamenting over the defeat of her son, Indra, Aditi was in great grief. When she was wailing, Kashyapa came to her. Instantly, he was able to recognise the cause of her grief by divine insight, which he had acquired as a result of his penance. He consoled his wife Aditi saying that nothing happens in the world without God’s will and people should go on doing their duties. He asked her to pray to Lord Narayana and taught her a vrata (ritual) to be followed strictly, known as Payovrata (milk ritual).  It has to be observed from the twelfth day of the bright half of Karthika (suklapaksha dwadasi). She observed the vrata as prescribed. A devotee’s sincere prayer will never go waste. Since she carried out the vrata with a pious heart, Narayana appeared before her and informed her that He would Himself take birth in her womb and help Indra. Aditi was very happy and true to the word of the Lord, she gave birth to a son of uncommon effulgence on the twelfth day of the bright half of the month of Bhadrapada. That child was Vamana Murthi. Even as a child He demonstrated His Divine power by doing marvelous deeds. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II