Love and Silence Love is the most direct way to God: love of God and love of all beings. Every human being feels love in some form or in some way. Why then are so many caught in a labyrinth, trying to find the way, or just are unhappy, not even aware that here is a way? The essence of love is giving. The one real thing any of us can give is ourselves. And this is where the problem lies. Most love between people is an exclusive, possessive type of love. It is not unselfish giving but is anxiously waiting for return. Even well-meaning people often deep down consider love as a kind of an investment. We love now and will reap the benefits later…. This is particularly prevalent in the relationship between parents and children. Little wonder that the children brought up with this won’t give love unselfi­shly either. Love is often carefully port­ioned, as if there was only a finite amount of it for distribution. This applies even more to the return of what we feel is our due. We expect that return and want it to be exclusively ours. The whole situati­on is like trying to read fine print by candlelight, when the sun is shining outside. To ensure and preserve the feelings of others, we strive to “own” them. We try to manipulate them, often by evoking guilt, so they give us what we erroneously conceive is their love. This only leads to great anxiety and unhappiness. And it forms binding karma too. Why do we do this? It is because of fear and insecurity. Most of us certainly don’t stand securely on the ground. As Swami said, “There are three selves.   The one we think we are, the one others think we are, and the one we really are.” Our self-­image is poor. We want to gain confidence by seeing ourselves through the mirror of others, through their affection for us. We are unable to stand on our own feet, so we use the love of others as a crutch. How to stand straight? How to gain self-confidence? First, we must begin to see ourselves the way we really are. Then, we must be able to accept the truth. Each of us should spend some time alone in silence. It is then that we meet real self. At first it is not easy. This is one reason why people are afraid to be alone and quiet. But it is in silence that we can realize that we are loved, loved by God far beyond what any human can give us. No matter what happens, that Love will always be there. We can close the shutters of our window to the sunlight. We can turn off our ability to feel this Love. The sun will keep on shining, but with shutters closed, the room stays dark and cold. Many people keep the shutters closed all the time and most of us do so some of the time. But in the quiet calm of that silence, we can find the way to open ourselves to Divine Love, and in its warmth we feel more secure. This Love will not be a crutch. Nurtured by it we can stand securely on our own feet, and receiving it we will have the courage to love selflessly, without thought about the return. And then we will also understand and realize that Love is not a finite quantity to be rationed out. It is infinite, freely given and received, all radiating from the one Source­. ~Peter HackerSource: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1981

Tension is Good! The other day, a friend of mine told me that he had requested Baba to relieve him of a position he held since it had added considerably to his mental tension. He said that Swami told him: “You must continue doing the job!” And with His characteristic smile added, ‘Tension is good!’ This unexpected statement set me thinking. Baba never makes such a statement unless He meant something significant not only to the person concerned but also to others like me. The continuance of tension is contrary to what we understand by spiritual living. We believe that once we are on the spiritual path there will be no more tension! But Baba told my friend, ‘Tension is good!’ Baba sows such seeds of thought that have often led me to exploration and adventure in the realm of thoughts and ideas. I delved a little more deeply into the word tension. In today’s common usage tension has come to mean, “stress, strain, anxiety, apprehension, dread, nervousness, fearfulness, etc.” Baba surely could not have meant that sort of tension! Was He trying to say that it is only under tension that we will think of Him? It is only under tension that whatever we have learnt is put to test. An examination is usually a period of tension, and very often we do our best under certain tension. I recalled the occasion when I was under severe tension as I was gheraoed by my office staff; that was the time when all that I had tried to learn from Swami was put to test. Baba says, “Love thy enemies. Start the day with love.” I prayed, “Swami! These people are using all sorts of abusive terms against me. The union leader is doing his job. Let me not hate him, Swami.” I prayed. My tension decreased and a solution was eventually found. Most important of all, I had no ill‑will against him and all those who shouted, and I maintained good relations with them. Swami says, “Welcome the test, for thereafter you are awarded the certificate. It is to measure your progress that tests are imposed. So do not flinch in the face of grief: The Lord bestows a favor when He decides to test you, for He is impressed by your achievement and wants to put upon it the seal of His approval. Rise up to the demands of the test. That is the way to please the Lord.” I continued my exploration. I thought of the veena [stringed Instrument] and the violin, which are tuned by stretching the strings, i.e., by tension. Each string has to be stretched correctly so that it will produce a particular note, and all the strings will be under proper tension so as to produce harmony— “the simultaneous combination of tones especially blended into chords pleasing to the ear.” This gave me some new dimensions to the term tension. I recalled that while tuning the strings of a veena to a particular note, we not only tighten the string, but the final tuning is done by moving a string so that at a particular position that is very critical, the string resonates on plucking. In the case of the violin, a screw is adjusted to get the same effect. To tune properly, we have therefore to achieve the correct tension; less tension or more tension will not produce the correct note. Too much tension will snap the string. I tried to apply this concept to our day-to-day life. Is not much of our problems due to the fact that we tighten our strings too taut? In fact, we are under such tension so often that the slightest touch snaps our mental equilibrium, and we shout back in anger at the first victim! Somehow we seem to be unable to learn the art of correct tuning. When you get angry, Baba has told us, “Lie down on the bed; drink a glass of cold water.” We are under too much tension when we are unable to cope with a situation. Then as our emotions take the upper hand, we forget all the good advice that Baba has been giving us, and we burst out! Spirituality means correct tuning of all our faculties. Our mental dispositions must be well balanced—Sama Dheeh. This led me to the statement of Lord Krishna who told Arjuna that “Yoga is skill in action” (Yogah Karmasu Kausalam). Skill implies sharpening of our capabilities when we achieve the best under any given circumstance. This is possible when we are tuned properly. The term yogaitself implies one-pointed attention without which such skill will be impossible. It is because we have not learnt the correct tuning of our abilities that we are unable to have mental equanimity. Spiritual life therefore means tuning ourselves to the correct tension so that our body, mind, and spirit, thought, word, and deed are in harmony. If we are unable to produce music, it is because we are out of tune. Some of our strings have snapped under too much tension; others too lax to be able to produce the correct note. Spirituality does not mean that we relax. It is not a state of being lax with little or no tension; such a state is Tamasic and not Satwic! A spiritual life means proper tension! It requires attention, at‑tension! The Sanskrit word for a type of spiritual practice viz, tapas, translated in English as “austerity”, means heat. This certainly does not suggest an inactive state. All such states are the result of the proper type of tension tuning! Baba is Himself the best exemplar of proper “tension”. He is always busy and all His actions and activity display kushalam (proper manner). Watch the steps He takes as He walks, the way He receives a letter, or blesses a picture with His signature; when He speaks to a small group or to a lakh of eager listeners; when He pats on the back of a student or allows a devotee to have the much‑coveted Padanamaskar. If we want to understand what Baba

Being Near Sathya Sai Baba From countries all over the world, people come to a small place in India called Prasanthi Nilayam, “the abode of peace,” to observe and be near the Avatar, Sathya Sai Baba, that again, like Krishna promised 5000 years ago, has descended upon earth to restore dharma. Normally, we all think that we have to come near Him for one particular reason or another so that He really can see us and pay attention to us and thereby better hear our prayers. Maybe by seeing us face to face He can cure our disease, fulfill our long-cherished desire, or fix all the problems that have become so enormously unbearable back home. But is this the only way to get attention from the Lord, to sit in first line at darshan in Prasanthi Nilayam? That is a question that should be contemplated upon at least once before going there or while staying in the Ashram. Sai Baba Himself has said so many times that people come to Him for so many reasons, but very few indeed do come for that which He has descended upon the earth to give humanity. We can never understand Him, He has warned us, but can we understand that mysterious thing He wants to offer us? To make it short, Sai Baba has revealed that what He offers, the solution to all our difficulties, is Self-knowledge. So don’t we know ourselves well enough? Are we not the only ones that know our own needs and longings, our pleasures, and difficulties? That could be, but the one we think we are, the person we know, is not the one Sai Baba teaches us that we are. The individual that has travelled so far to be near Sai Baba, the person with likes and dislikes, with hopes and fears, with desires and attachments is no other than the person Swami wants us to get rid of. We are born with one reason, He says, that is to die. He does not refer to our physical body, because to die physically is the easiest thing to do. What has to die is the ego, the mind, our tendencies that have been clinging to us life after life, not wanting to let go, and that may not seem quite easy. But remember, the world is just like a film, Baba says, and having seen the film once we know the story and we don’t need or want to see it over and over again. Same with the world. Why come back again and again to the same show? Rather, we should pay attention to the screen on which the film is played, that is to say, to our own Self. Maybe we already have tried that, gone to courses to live out the ‘real me’, tried psychotherapy, tried to get in touch with our deepest feelings, anger, sorrow, happiness, and so on, and live them out in the moment they arise. This is the only way to cling to the false, because identifying with feelings and thoughts is no better than identifying with the body. As many great teachers have taught, these misperceptions are the cause of all sorrow. The biggest illusion is to think of oneself as separate from that which is, from the only thing that always has been and will be. To think that these tendencies are us is to believe that there are two Selves, one that can be known and one that is knowing. As we can agree that we can know or look at our own thoughts, see our own feelings, there must be one that these vrittis or actions is pertaining to. We should turn our attention toward That. Since mind, as the Gita says, is part of prakriti, matter, it can be turned toward purusha, spirit, and That which is beyond both these, but it can never experience the Real. Mind can only experience the external world; atman can only be what it is. By asking ourselves “Who am I?” we can only layer by layer disclose what we are not, neti neti—not this, not this, as the scriptures say. The paradox of creation is that the seeker can gain its goal only by losing itself. If we want to be near God, we must pay attention to Bhagavan’s teachings, try to absorb them and then practice them. His teachings are based on the understanding that God is in everything, everything is in God. What the body is for the individual, jiva, the world is for God. To be near God is thus not equivalent to be in Puttaparthi. To be near God is to be near your own heart, the essence of being. When we move from the circumference to the center, we will find that Sathya, Truth, like Sai Baba, the Divine Mother and Father, is everywhere. It is the only thing Which is. Why should we ask our Lord for small things when He can give us the only thing worth having, atmajnana, direct experience of the True Self? Why should we try to get in the first darshan line, why should we pray to Swami to look at us, why should we expect this or that only to get more disappointed when it does not happen—when we know that nothing but God’s Will can happen? What is meant to be will be, no matter how much we try to prevent it. What is not meant to happen can never happen, no matter how hard we try to make it be. If we could only be at ease in that conviction, totally surrendered to God, nothing can be difficult, nothing is to be gained, and nothing is to be lost. Peace is inside, it can never be attained by gaining this or that in the world. Peace is nearness to God and can be attained in the world but not of it. The Avatar descends upon the earth, guides us, gives us directions in life, gives us His love, shows us how to do service to society, not because He needs our help or the world needs

Love and Laughter Baba means Father. Our beloved Baba is, as the Vedas extol, the Fatherliest of Fathers, the Motherliest of Mothers, and the Childliest of Children. When we celebrate the golden birthday of our golden Baba, it occurs in our minds that Baba is born every day, in the hearts of those He loves and who love Him. The Rig Veda (10-123-1) says of the Lord, “This is the Loving One, driving the issues of the many-colored; the Spring of Light, in the chariot of splendor; Him, at the meeting of the waters and the sun, the sages with their hymns caress as a CHILD.” Blithe of spirit, light of mind, lithe limbs—He has the eternal Child in Him. This Child has for its play, the entire world. Every human being is Its toy. The Divine Mother is referred to in the Hindu Scriptures as a Child, Bala. She revels in Play, as Leela-vinodini. But the play is not whimsical or capricious. Bound in dharma (law), yet reveling in leela—that is the enigma of Bala as well as Baba. Baba is so simple, and open, like space, that you do not feel anything enigmatic in this Babe. Baba says about Himself, “Baba never rests. He is never tired. …Endless work, in all the world! Easy, no weight, always happy! That is the miracle. Other so-called miracles are not miracles!” Yes. “Easy, no weight, always happy”! That makes and marks Baba the Babe. Baba explains, “Baba has taken this body, without any tendencies, completely free, no desires, no attachment.” This marks the eternal play-boy. “Strain-less, spontaneous life”, that is the characteristic. Baba advises: “Let go. Don’t cling. Be still. Establish yourselves in the homeless­ness of the mind. Be the witness of every­thing. Abandon all your plans, even the `best’ ones. Abandon all the theories you cherish; the doctrines you hold dear; the systems of knowledge that have accu­mulated.” We too must become children like Him. For Baba, it is all fun and frolic, even the most breath-taking wonders. See Him heaping soft sand on the seashore near Dwaraka! It reaches the height of a cubit. He flattens the top and levels the sand. He draws with evident glee a three slanted line, with His finger. People look on with amazement and curiosity. He enjoys their amazement.       He adds a small triangle over the circle, on top of the slants. Another short line across the circle, and He chuckles, `It is ready’. While the gathering is perched on the verge of suspense, the `Child’ digs its hands deep into the heap, and draws forth a bright golden idol of Lord Krishna, about 15 inches high! The three-slanted line has become the tribhangi body of Govinda; the circle on top, His Head; the triangle, the peacock-feather crest; the line across the circle, the flute! Sai’s golden Will has manifested it­self as the golden idol. But the dazzling magnificence has been completely scattered by the disarming coolness of His child-like felicity. Take another instance. Tagore sang of the baby who wanted to catch the moon with its hands and Dada scolding it, “You are the silliest child I have known. If the moon came nearer, you would see how big it is.” But, when Baba the babe has it in His palm, it is not so big at all! Recently while conversing with some students of the Whitefield Sathya Sai College on a night, Baba said, “Ask for anything you want of me.” One boy made hold to ask, “Baba please bring the moon down here.” “Oh, yes” said the wonderworker, whose wondr­ous love shears his wonders of their eerie weight. And right in his palm was a splendorous globular object pouring out of soft cool moonlight. “Look up at the moon in the sky”, Baba said. The `original’ moon up above had by then lost its luster and appeared a plate of paper; Baba folded his fingers and closed the `moon’ in his palm and then asked the boys to once again see the moon above. Now it had regained its splendor. On Baba opening His palm again, the sky-moon lost its radiance but the same moonlight emanated from the object in His palm. Baba repeated the `same’ again and again. What ought to have been an astounding miracle was alchemized to a baby’s prank. It was all a matter of love and laughter. Sacred relaxation is as much religion and spirituality, as intense concentration—and this is what Baba conveys through His child­like way of performing wonders. Babe, not only in what He does! He is just Babe at times. During Bhajans when he is seated on the throne, what a variety of bhavas [expressions] He manifests. One moment He glows in all Majesty. Next moment He is the mellow mother. Then the mother too melts in an ocean of serenity, and he looks the picture of peace. And next he is Child. With immaculate innocence, the Child goes on feeling the small bouquet placed in the arm of the chair. Then It twirls it with obvious relish. If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, Thou! whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy Soul’s immensity­— Thou, little Child, yet glorious in the mightOf heaven-born freedom on thy Being’s height The mischievous, Baba-babe plucks petals from the flower bunch. A smile lites Its face. Its light lightens our wearied hearts too. It is: That blessed moodIn which the burthen of the mysteryIs lightened. Not only the mystery of our life’s turmoil, but the supreme mystery of Baba too! Behind and beyond the mystery He is the loving, loveable Baby. “Delight and liberty, the simple creed of childhood, whether busy or at rest”—The delight of brahmananda, the liberty of moksha so silkily breathed into us, without any philosophy, ritual, exercise. Krishna lived to be a centenarian and yet we adore Him only as a Balagopala. Sai Krishna, whether 50 or 500, will be the eternal Baba to us, blessing us with the highest bliss by his very Baby-ness. The Philosopher-Prince of the Bhagavad-Gita himself becomes a Gita (song) when He is child; paandityam nirvidya Baalyena tisht­haset (Casting off

The Most Astonishing Miracle Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is now a phenomenal institution rather than a matchless personality. It is impossible to deal, even meagerly, with any single facet of His supreme versatility. In fact, it is in vain to attempt to assess what is elusive, enigmatic, and unknowable. A humble tribute such as the present effort only sets forth in broad outline salient points, more in an explorative than in an empirical manner. Several persons, out of ignorance, prejudice, or presumption, look upon Baba as a miracle monger and base His title to fame upon the countless wonders He performs. They blab or believe that His supernal powers are the outcome of magic or hypnotism. Let them hug this illusion and stew in their own juice. However, an old devotee of Bhagavan, a fortunate recipient of His blessing, once told the writer of this article that the greatest miracle that Baba does is to provide the inner guidance to a person and to thoroughly transform his character, habits, and life. The change He brings about, all-embracing in nature, is silent, steady, and sustained, and does not usually call for the footlight or the bouquets. Yet it is really breathtaking though not specta­cular, and is effective, complete, and fundamental. In this role as the Pilot from within, Bhagavan “plays” His most astonishing “miracle”. To make Him the Guide and Guardian sharanagati (submission without any reserve) is absolutely essential. Self-surrender postulates the complete negation of the ego, the monstrous issue of misleading maya. The devotee must know the relative position of himself and of his `mentor’. He must have full and implicit faith in the Guide, and sincere and unwavering reliance upon His wisdom and regard for His charge, not only during the novitiate but throughout. As in feudal hierarchy, service is to come from below and protection from above. There should be no demand or desire, either material or spiritual, for God knows what is good or necessary for His ward. No selfish motive is to be entertained, except perhaps the pardonable general longing for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Possibly even this last vestige of `clinging’ to the self is to be given up; for it implies a lingering doubt in God’s solicitude for the devotee and also in His omniscience. A unique prayer says:­ Bhagawan! Bhoota-bhavesana jaane hitam aatmanah!Twameva sanchintya vibhohitam me karthum arhasi. (Lord, master of what has happened and what is to be, I know not what is good for me. You alone think well and do me what is beneficial). An earnest and systematic attitude of humility and self-abnegation has to be sedulously cultivated. Mere bhakti (devotion) will not do; Bhagavan has stressed the need for shraddha, nishtha, and jnana (faith, steadfastness, wisdom). On the basis of faith, the other qualities have to be securely ‘built’—close attention to word and deed and scrupulous performance of work; and ultimately Truth will flash across the prepared and purified mind. Work has to be done with a sense of dedication and not with regard to reward or emolument. Gradually a golden (yet adamantine) bond will be forged between the individual and the universal. The devotee will come to realize his relative position in the baffling scheme of creation and will know that he is only a tool to carry out the inscrutable Divine purpose. He will outlive the idle curiosity of his (earlier) spiritual infancy, the fussy hankering after the riddle of the world. He will acquire self-confidence, strength, vigor, and courage to face with equanimity the pulling puzzles of life, the din and bustle of the struggle for existence. Untouched by any dual polarizations, he will be more or less a witness, and though a participant, not a partisan. One matter has always to be kept in view and should on no account be relaxed or compromised. The devotee should not be vindictive towards anyone who may have done him an ill turn and should not think of paying off an old score. Anger, envy and malice are evils, and they sharply cut both ways. In every object there is God’s presence in some measure, according to the law of evolution. The above qualities—they are indeed vices—imply a perfunctorily negative attitude that is not only morally imperfect, but positively injurious and will harmfully tell upon the person concerned, bringing out real trouble and retarding progress. There are examples of great saints forced to take birth again, often in a lower form, because of some unworthy action they did by chance or by choice. Such instances signify need for caution and vigilance not only in the early stages of sadhana but for the whole span of life. The elephant for all its bulk may slip; even the tallest tree seldom touches the heavens… Baba has clinched this question in an unanswerable manner: “Whom do you hate? I am in every person. Even your so-called enemy enshrines Me within”. The Gita refers to this all-pervasive nature of God:­ Yachaapi sarva bhootaanaamBeejam tadaham Arjuna! (Arjuna! I am the seed of all living things, whatever they may be) Matthah parataram naanyatKinchidasti Dhananjaya.Mayi sarvamidam protamSootre mani ganaaiva. (Dhananjaya! nothing exists apart from Me. All are strung in Me like beads by a thread). When a person realizes his indwelling spirit, it is just like his deciphering his permanent address. The identity must be experienced. God is ever watchful without being known or seen. He is behind the side-curtain, directing the play on the stage, and nothing escapes His Argus eyes. Even a blade of grass does not grow without His will… God reveals His infinite mercy (let it be mentioned in passing that none, however wicked, is to be damned forever, to burn in the quenchless flames of hell) and redeems and sustains him here and hereafter. There are four types of such `good souls’, according to the Gita: Aarto jijnaasurarthaarthi,jnani cha, Bharatharshabha (He who suffers, he who seeks to know, he who aspires for some object, and he who knows the reality). A devotee is par excellence, unique,