Satyopanishad – Part Twenty Seven Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER VII: Sadhana, The Inner Door Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! What are the sources of our peace, happiness, wealth, comforts and conveniences? How do we get them? Why are some denied these most coveted things? Bhagavan: You don’t get anything in life for nothing. One gets these things in life because of any one of the following three reasons. Take one simple example: You know banking. You are an account holder. Suppose you want some money. What should you do? You go to your bank and get the amount. But you should be having enough money to your credit and by submitting a cheque, affixing your signature you can withdraw the money you want. If you have nothing to your credit in the account; you don’t get any money. Yet, you need money. How to get it? If you mortgage your permanent assets like gold or landed property, the bank will give you some money proportionately. You may not have permanent assets. Still you want money. Then, if a rich man stands as a surety or guarantor, the bank will give you the amount you need. Thus, these three are ways of getting money from the bank. Here money is God’s grace. If you are doing some good deeds in the present i.e. depositing some amount of money in your account, you can withdraw the money of God’s grace in the future. If in the present there is no such credit, at least the good deeds you did in the past, that is to say, your permanent assets when mortgaged to the bank, entitle you to receive money. Without these two good acts you may still be eligible to draw money from your bank if a rich man i.e. God or an Avatar or a Sadguru stands as your guarantor. So, you receive God’s grace either because of your past merit, or present merit, or if a rich man stands as a surety or guarantor. There is no other way. These are the reasons for a person’s affluence, luxury, life of happiness, comforts and conveniences. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! You tell us that we are not mrnmaya (dust thou art), but chinmaya (you are awareness). Therefore, we devotees should know that we are not simply the body, but awareness. You also repeatedly say, You are God. Then, when I am God, aham brahmasmi, why should I pray? Where is the need for all this spiritual exercise, then? Bhagavan: whether you know, agree and believe or not you are God indeed. “Mamaivamso jivaloke.,” said Krishna in the Gita, which means “You are Mine, you are the spark of My Divinity.” The three divine attributes sath, being, chith, awareness, and ananda, bliss are in you. Prajna, conscience in you is divine. So, it is said, prajnanam brahma. The great mahavakya, the supreme statement, also says, tattvamasi, That thou art. We have today intelligent people who observe plurality or multiplicity in unity. But good, noble, and pious persons who find unity in diversity are rare. Once it so happened that a little tiger cub got mixed up in a flock of sheep. Thus, moving about with the group for some time, the cub thought that he was also like the sheep and belonged to their families.One day a tiger came that way and attacked the sheep. On seeing the tiger, the cub started shivering, and said, “Oh! Don’t kill me. I am one of the sheep, after all, so weak”. Then the tiger spoke to the cub, “Why do you fear? You are not one of the sheep. You are a tiger. Come on! Follow me.Look into the river and see your reflection there in this water and compare your figure with mine. You will find the same stripes on the coat of your body, a moustache on your mouth and a roaring sound in your voice. Why do you think you are one of this flock of sheep. Oh dear one! You have forgotten your true identity and nature”. The cub then realised its true nature and abandoned fear from its mind. Similarly, in the field of spirituality, a guru, through his upades’a, divine teaching, tells you your true identity. Once you separate yourself from all that is not your true Self, spirit or atma, you will experience your reality, i.e. atma. Therefore, self-enquiry is very essential. I say “You are God” but this truth has not come into your experience. You should continue your spiritual practice until you’ve experienced it. You have to continue your bhajans, meditations, etc., till the reality is experienced. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! By now we have known about divinity very well. What more do we need in this world? Bhagavan: You are mistaken. It is not enough if you merely know. If you spend your lifetime reading books when are you going to experience bliss? It is experience which is important and not bookish or scriptural knowledge. The Gita refers to three specific steps in spirituality, jnatum, knowledge, drastum, sight and pravestum, experience. Suppose you want to eat a delicious item. What do you do first? For example, you know about the delicacies kurma and pulao. Then in the next step, these two items are to be served in a plate. It is not enough if you know(jnatum) the items and see them (drastum). You have to eat and enjoy the dishes (pravestum) and experience. Mere information and knowledge are useless. You should practice and realise. This is wisdom and when you attain it, you find yourself immersed in bliss and you remain speechless. The same thing has been explained in the Brahma sutras also. The first principle is: athato brahma jijnasa which means, athato, hereafter, brahma, about God, jijnasa, developing interest. But what is meant by ‘hereafter’? When exactly should we develop interest in Brahman? This word “athato“, is interpreted in several ways by scholars and visionaries; they run to volumes. But what is first needed is karma jijnasa, interest in action, later dharma jijnasa, interest in discrimination, and finally brahma jijnasa, interest in divinity. Here is a simple example: Suppose you want to eat coconut chutney. What do you do first? You procure

Satyopanishad – Part Twenty five Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER VIII: HUMAN VALUES Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! Very often, You refer to Human Values. Restoring these values is, indeed, a task this Avatar had set for itself. Kindly enlighten us on how we may cognise their importance. Bhagavan: A man lacking human values has only the semblance of the outer form, and is not a man in action at all. The supremacy and the distinction of mankind depend on human values. Man’s birth has a purpose: cherishing his humanity and rising to divinity. Sathya (Truth), Dharma (righteousness), Shanti (peace), Prema (Love) and Ahimsa (Non-Violence) – these five may be said to be the vital airs which together constitute the breath. Without the vital airs of prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana, can man exist? Afraid that truth may land man in difficulty, he has moved further away from Truth. He is in such a sorry plight that he does not know what Righteousness is. Actually, man should never abandon these values, however troublesome the circumstances may be. Giving up these values which are so sacred is tantamount to committing suicide. When Truth is given up, it amounts to losing one of the five vital airs. The dictum, satyam vada, dharmam chara (Speak the Truth, Act Righteously) is the foremost in the culture of Bharat, and crucial to spiritual advancement. What is the principal cause of today’s turmoil? It is the total abandonment of Truth and Righteousness. That is why Love is fast vanishing. In the absence of Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Love, Non-violence is on the rampage. In the home and the village, in the city and the state, even in the nation at large, we witness orgies of violence. Terrible, cruel, and heinous crimes are being committed. Human life has become empty. Even now, through faith in God, we can cultivate our human values. Like a parent grieving over a dimwitted child, Mother India is crying over the dearth of human values in her citizenry. Moral, religious, and spiritual values have sunk to the bottom. The qualities expected of a human being are called ‘human values’. In My opinion, if you develop Love all the other values will follow. Love is the chief quality. Love is God, God is love. Love is life. You have Love no doubt, but it is narrow. It is limited to you and your family, only I and mine. Love is not contraction as you have now. It is expansion. Note how different is King Dushyanta, who was educated in the city but lacked all values, is from his son, Bharata, who imbibed human values through education in an ashram. Education for livelihood is not worth the name. True education trains pupils to cognize the highest goals of life, and spurs them to realise human values. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! Why do we need human values? What is their role in our lives? Bhagavan: In this world every individual and material has a value. Each one has his/her or its own value. There is nothing in this world that has no value. Unfortunately, today it is only man who has lost his value. His life is spent as if his life has no value. Hence, man has become worse than an animal. Even the body of a bird or a small animal like a rabbit, even after it is killed, has a value; its flesh or meat is useful. But man, even if he were an emperor, has no value soon after he dies. So, there is every need to live with values. You should fill your lives with values make it valuable. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! How can we acquire human values? Bhagavan: It is not enough if you repeat like a parrot the five human values – Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Love, and Non-Violence. It is not enough if you give lectures or read books on human values; they have to be practised. Just as ice is cold and fire is hot, a human being also should have human values in a natural way. If you limit these values to mere lectures, they lose their value. An ounce of practice is better than a ton of precepts. Your looking at the map of India doesn’t amount to your going round the country, does it? So also, by reading or lecturing on human values, you do not gain anything. If you sincerely practise any one of them, the rest will follow. A tree has the dharma (nature) of a tree. An animal similarly has an animal dharma. Then should not a human being follow human dharma? The qualities expected of a human being are called ‘human values’. In My opinion, if you develop Love all the other values will follow. Love is the chief quality. Love is God, God is love. Love is life. You have Love no doubt, but it is narrow. It is limited to you and your family, only I and mine. Love is not contraction as you have now. It is expansion. Love is selflessness, self is lovelessness. Be it a theist or an atheist, there is none in this world without love. You can win God’s grace only by love. It is the bond of love that exists between you and God. What had made Lord Rama be so pleased with that squirrel in the Ramayana? What scholarship had the boatman Guha had that impressed Rama? What status and riches did Sabari have to win the love of Rama? What accomplishments did the Gopis of Brindavan had to become so close and intimate to Lord Krishna? In all these instances, it was only pure love that made them enjoy proximity to God. Love excels physical strength, intelligence, wealth and authority. God looks for love in a devotee. Where there is Love, there is Truth. For instance, if your son, after playing in the field returns home with his friend and asks you for a laddu (sweet), you may be tempted to say that there is no stock of sweets at home. But, if your son returns alone and asks for the same, you immediately get

Satyopanishad – Part Twenty-Three Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER VII: Sadhana, The Inner Door Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! How can we realise the divinity within us? Bhagavan: Look! In college, you have elective subjects like M.P.C (Mathematics. Physics and Chemistry), B.P.C (Biology, Physics and Chemistry) and so on, haven’t you? Similarly, to realise the divinity within you, you have to take a group of three subjects. They are bhakti (devotion), gyana, (wisdom) and vairagya (renunciation). Without devotion, you can’t acquire wisdom – Bhakti leads to gyanam. Without wisdom you can never develop detachment or renunciation. Wisdom takes you to renunciation. A flower, after a while, turns into an unripe bitter fruit, which ultimately becomes a sweet ripened one, doesn’t it? It is a question of time that brings about the change. Devotion transforms itself into the wisdom that leads to detachment. This detachment helps you in visualising the divinity within yourself. The fruit then drops down from the tree of life. Gyana (wisdom) contributes to sharanagati, surrender. You should remember one point here. Gyana, Japa, Yagna (Wisdom, chanting and performing sacrifices) are not important as such. Your love for God is more important than any other such rituals for success in spiritual pursuit. Intense love for God is bhakti, devotion. Knowledge, broadly speaking, is of two types: one is physical, which is secular, material and worldly knowledge, while the other is spiritual, which is metaphysical, transcendental and divine knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is non-dual, and helps the seeker to realise and experience his/her own divinity. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! How are we to attain bliss? Bhagavan: It is a pity to find many a confused and disturbed person even in the spiritual field. Though a person is in an ashram or a spiritual centre, he/she undergoes shrama, suffering. It is a matter of shame if a person calls himself or herself a devotee without following a single teaching or practicing it for his transformation. The life of a devotee should be pure, calm, peaceful, and detached, and he should pine for the knowledge and experience of the Self, or the spirit, or the atma. Infinite desires, meaningless worries and anxieties to get all that one doesn’t really deserve are obstacles in spiritual life. That is why many don’t enjoy divine bliss. Body attachment makes things much worse. You should cultivate four main qualities which are the prerequisites of a devotee of God. The first one is maitri, friendship, second, karuna, compassion, the third mudita, feeling happy at others’ progress, and the fourth quality is upeksa, detachment. Four qualities are very essential for the attainment of divine bliss: samam-damam that is, control of the outer and inner senses, trupti, which is contentment, vicharana or enquiry, and satsang or good company. They confer divine bliss on the seeker. You have got to know how this most valuable divine bliss is contained within the human body, which is itself transient, and is of lesser value than the spirit. The body is composed of two bucketfuls of water, one bucketful of lime, a quantity of iron that equals four two-inch nails, the amount lead used in six pencils, phosphorous contained in nine hundred and twenty matchsticks, and the fat held in four Lux soaps. Herein lies the atma, the divine spirit. Divine bliss can be attained by investigating, realising and experiencing the inner core of this body, viz. atma. Prof. Anil Kumar:Swami! Many spiritual practices are suggested, such as, namasmarana, that is, singing the glory of God, dhyana or meditation, puja or worship, etc. But, none of these confer total satisfaction. We are not able to practise and follow continuously even one of them. Dissatisfaction over not being able to succeed and frustration about not receiving the rewards for the little we do is overpowering us. Why does this happen? Kindly show us the way. Bhagavan: You have to plough the land, remove the weeds, manure and water it. Isn’t it so? Without tilling the land, removing the weeds and watering, even if you sow the best of seeds, will it be of any help? Similarly, if you want to achieve the four purusharthas, the four objectives of life (which are right conduct, prosperity, desire, liberation) you should follow any one of the nine paths of devotion, and adopt the eightfold path of yogic practices, that is, the astanga yoga. Follow the spiritual path scrupulously. You will not be able to see clearly the reflection of the Sun or of the moon alike in containers filled with different kinds of water. One container may have very dirty water where you can’t see the reflection of the Sun or the moon clearly. This is how the tamasika quality acts, cutting you off from reality. In another container, water may be found shaking and not still. Then also the reflection of the Sun will be unclear. Then, the question is how to achieve the pious quality or sattvika nature and the purity of heart or chittashuddhi to recognise and experience awareness of atma? He who can find out his own faults and others’ merits can keep his heart steady and pure. If you can identify your own mistakes and rectify them, it doesn’t matter wherever you are. Take a simple example. Your room may be full of mosquitoes. But if you have a mosquito net you will not be affected by their presence and you can sleep well. On the other hand, if there are mosquitoes inside the net, how can you sleep? Whose mistake is it? Similarly, see that there are no mistakes in you. Always remember that sadhana is intended for devotion and steadfastness. Sadhana done for selfish gains will be of no use and it can never give you bliss, peace and satisfaction. You can’t do sadhana in such a case intensely and fervently. Two things are with God only and are not present elsewhere. What are they? They are Bliss and Peace. True devotion is what urges you to pray to God for these two divine assets. Bhagavan:Listening to your accounts of sadhana, it appears you do not know what sadhana is. The practices you call ‘spiritual’ are undertaken by the mind. They give you only temporary happiness

Satyopanishad – Part Twenty-One Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER VII: Sadhana, The Inner Door Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! The Gayatri mantra is being chanted over many ages here in this holy land. But, we hear that women are prohibited from chanting Gayatri and so are non-brahmins. Should we chant that mantra at specific times and not at anytime of our choice and convenience? What is the importance and significance of the Gayatri mantra? We shall indeed be very fortunate to hear from Your divine lips about this subject. Bhagavan: Everyone must chant the Gayatri. It transcends the barriers of caste, community, gender, nationality, time and space. It is the one mantra that all should repeatedly chant. There are three main things in the Gayatri mantra. First of all, you should know that Bhur Bhuvah Suvah in the Gayatri are not separate worlds. You think they are three different worlds. It is a mistake to think so. They are within you. Gayamulu means senses. Since Gayatri deals with sense control, it is called so. The body has senses of perception and action. This first aspect of Gayatri is called materialisation or Gayatri. The body can function only if there is life in it. The pulsatory activity is due to life. Therefore, the life principle vibrates in the body, which makes it functional or operational. This second aspect of Gayatri, which is the life force, is called vibration or Savitri. The third aspect of Gayatri is the primal sound Omkar, which springs upwards from the navel. Om is a combination of three sounds, ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘M’. ‘A’ is uttered as it starts from the navel. ‘U’ starts from the throat. ‘M’ comes out of the lips. ‘Soham ‘ is chanted in our breathing process though we are unaware of it. This is called ‘Japa Gayatri’. As we breathe in, we make the sound ‘so’ and as we breathe out the sound ‘ham’ is made. The ‘soham’ mantra is repeated everyday 21,600 times in our respiratory process. In the mantra, ‘soham’, the second sound in ‘so’, i.e., ‘o’ and the second sound in ‘ham’, ‘m’ together constitute ‘om’. This soham is repeatedly chanted in all the three states; waking, dream and deep sleep. The entire alphabet is formed out of the mother of letters, the primal sound ‘OM’. To illustrate this, let me give you a small example. In the English alphabet, we have 26 letters from A to Z. All words and sentences are spoken and written using these letters only, aren’t they? You notice that the harmonium has reeds. As you press the bellows the air gets in and as you press the reeds, you get musical notes like sa re ga ma pa dha ni. By means of these seven sounds only, different tunes or ragas are composed. Are they not? You know the violin. It has strings on which you can play any tune. So also, omkar is the primal, primordial sound out of which the rest of the sounds originated. God desires from you only one thing, and that is love. This love is not your property either. It is not your ancestral property. This love is not gifted to you by anyone. It is not a commodity to be manufactured by any company. It is not to be acquired from a guru. You are born with love. It is the gift of God. Therefore, it must be given to Him. It is His and so you should return it to Him by loving Him incessantly. When you close both your ears tight, you will listen to the Pranava, the Omkar within you. You go very close to an electric pole and listen with your ear touching it; you will hear that primal sound Omkar. This is the sound (internal) in silence (external). This is the divine sound heard in the depth of silence, (nissabdamu loni sabdabrahmam, in Telugu). You can hear the footsteps of God only in silence. This third aspect of Gayatri that pertains to this Omkar, the primordial sound, the speech faculty and the chief source is known as radiation or Saraswati. Therefore, at the body level it is Gayatri, materialisation. As the life principle, it is Savitri, vibration, and finally as the chief source of sound, it is Saraswati, radiation. These are the three aspects of Gayatri mantra. In other words the atmic power, divine source, is radiation (Saraswati) that enters the body as vibration or life principle (Savitri), so that this body made of material becomes functional which is called materialisation (Gayatri). Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! How should we adore You? How should we serve You? Kindly show us the way? Bhagavan: God does not need your service. He does not require your worship. God desires from you only one thing, and that is love. This love is not your property either. It is not your ancestral property. This love is not gifted to you by anyone. It is not a commodity to be manufactured by any company. It is not to be acquired from a guru. You are born with love. It is the gift of God. Therefore, it must be given to Him. It is His and so you should return it to Him by loving Him incessantly. Bhagavan: These two levels of consciousness are not separate from each other, as you have stated. When suffering is removed, you derive happiness. Absence of happiness is the cause of misery. Both are interrelated. Absence of light is darkness: Where there is light there is no darkness. Absence of one of the two is the presence of the other. So, if you explore the methods of removing suffering, happiness naturally and automatically dawns. If you investigate the reason for misery, you will know that ignorance is the cause of all misery. What is responsible for ignorance? It is the ego. What is ego? It is attachment. What is attachment? It is the body, consciousness. So, misery occurs due to attachment to the body.But, one can be happy physically as well as spiritually if one’s senses are under one’s control. In fact, sadness is not natural to man. Primarily you should know that the mind is the

Satyopanishad – Part Nineteen Direct Directions from the Divine Chapter 6: Parallels and Polarities Prof. Anil Kumar: Out of the two, faith and love, which precedes the other? Is it true that we love if only we have faith, or is it the other way round? Kindly tell us about it. Bhagavan: You should definitely have faith first in order to love. Do not doubt this. Unless you have full faith that so and so is your father, mother, son, wife or husband, you will not be able to love any one of them. If you have no faith, and if you are not sure of the dear ones how can you love them? Is it possible for you to love the one you doubt? So, faith comes first and love next. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! We meet many persons who say that they can believe only after going through an intimation of divinity; that is they can develop faith only after they experience. But, many also feel that only strong faith gives us that experience. So, which of the two precedes the other? Please tell us, Swami. You cannot learn it on tar roads or cement roads. You can learn it only in water. Here water is faith and the art of swimming is experience. So, faith precedes experience. Faith, which comes first, gives you experience. You must have unwavering faith in order to experience. Faith is the foundation. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! Is it proper to say that ‘I am in God’? Or should I say that ‘God is in me’? Which of the two is appropriate? Bhagavan: Our scripture says, sarvam vishnu mayam jagat, God is all pervasive. He encompasses the entire Universe. Vasudevas sarvamiti, isavasyam idam sarvam are our scriptural dicta. They make it very clear that the entire cosmos is in Him. It is correct to say that you are in God. It is not correct to say that God is in you. Of course, when the whole universe is in Him, naturally you are in Him. How? A small example: You are holding in your hand a rose flower. It means that the rose flower is small and you are big. Since God is infinite, the world is in Him. But, if you put it in the reverse order by saying that God is in you, you become bigger than God. This is not a proper feeling. You are a spark of that divine. mamaivamso  jivaloke jivabhutah sanatanah, says the Gita. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! How is it possible not to be attached to the family and to rise above the feeling of ‘mine’ and ‘thine’? Bhagavan: A small example here. A rich man who resides in a big bungalow has an Alsatian dog. This dog is always vigilant and will not permit anyone to enter the house. Now what can be done to get into that house? You are left with two ways. Either you should tame the dog and get in or call for the rich man to escort you. Otherwise, the dog will not permit you to move forward even an inch. Similarly, to pass through the main gate of attachment, you have to tame possessiveness, like a dog. This is karma marga, the path of action. Alternatively, you can call for the help of God and get in. This is bhakti marga, the path of devotion. Hence, karma, selfless action and bhakti, devotion, are the two alternatives for developing detachment and giving up possessive instincts Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! We come across certain terms used in philosophy and get very much confused. For instance, ‘conscience’ and ‘consciousness’. Are they not synonyms? If not, what is the difference between the two? Scholars, when consulted, add to the confusion. I am at a loss to know what these two terms ‘conscience’ and ‘consciousness’ mean. Bhagavan: There is difference between the two. They are not definitely synonyms. You should know here three terms: ‘subconscious’, ‘conscience’, and ‘consciousness’. That which works below the senses is the subconscious. But, ‘conscience’ is above the senses. ‘Consciousness’ is all pervasive. A small example: You have air all around. You fill a balloon with air. It gets inflated. Now, there is air in the balloon and also outside it. If you pump in more air into the balloon it bursts with the result that the air in the balloon gets merged with the air around. You can equate the air within the balloon with subconscious and the air all around with conscience. The divinity within the individual is conscience while divinity in everyone, which is all pervasive, collective, and universal is consciousness. Spirituality refers to many subtle things. You must understand them very carefully. Bhagavan: It is impossible for an egotistic person to know and experience God. This is very certain. Just as water flows always downwards, so also a proud man is sure to fall. You may say that you love God. But, God also must acknowledge your love. Should He not? Suppose you send a registered letter to your friend, should you not get the acknowledgement? Similarly, God also should be touched and moved by your devotion to Him in order to respond to your love. This will never happen so long as there is ego in you. One day Krishna and Arjuna noticed a Brahmin who was holding a sword and eating a dry blade of grass. They were very surprised to see such a peculiar Brahmin. Slowly, they approached him and softly asked him why he was carrying a sword as he was a Brahmin. The Brahmin said, “I am in search of four persons, whom I have decided to kill”. Krishna asked, “Who are they?” In reply, the Brahmin said, “The first person I want to kill is Narada, the celestial singer. He sings continuously the glory of Narayana all the time and everywhere he moves making Narayana, my God, restless. So, I must kill him. “The second person I am going to kill is that boy Prahlada. His father put him to suffering of all

Satyopanishad – Part seventeen Direct Directions from the Divine Chapter 5: Concepts Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! One cannot escape from the effects of fate or destiny. Things are preordained, and accordingly events happen in our life. This being inevitable, we suffer and face difficulties. Would you please tell us the way out of this? Bhagavan: Everything in life is nothing but a reflection of your own thought and deed of your earlier life or lives. You pretend happily to think that none can notice you. But God within you knows fully well all your thoughts, feelings and deeds. God is everywhere. You cannot hide anything from Him. One day or other you must face the consequences of your actions. This is the supreme truth. You think and blame someone else, holding him responsible for your troubles. You are thoroughly mistaken here. Your actions are responsible for both the good and the bad you experience in this life. God is an eternal witness of all human activities. He created this world and gave it to man for his enjoyment, but on one condition that he must face the consequences of his own actions. God is like a postman. He is least bothered about the contents of the letters that He hands over to people. It is all a matter of the relationship that exists between you and the one who writes you a letter. God is not concerned in any other way about the matter. Well, you receive a wedding card, you don’t pay complements to the postman, do you? If you receive a threatening letter from someone, you don’t blame the postman either. The postman is merely an instrument in the process of delivering letters. But prayer does help you to withstand tensions and problems with courage. Intense prayer, deep devotion, strong faith, sincere repentance, constant yearning and supreme love for God can alter the sequence of events in life. They can make even God reverse His own will.Take for example, the life of Markandeya. Fate granted him only sixteen years of life. But his devotion to Lord Siva was so intense that He made him immortal. God had to review and revise His own master plan in response to the prayers of Markandeya. Take another example. There is a prisoner punished according to the laws of the penal code. During the period of imprisonment, if the character and conduct of the prisoner are found to be good and if he follows all the rules, regulations, and code of discipline imposed by the jail authorities, there is scope for the reduction of his jail term. There is another point you should note. Suppose the appeal of a person in a criminal case is lost in all the courts from the district level to the High Court and even the Supreme Court, and when punishment like a death sentence or life imprisonment becomes imminent and inevitable, the President of India can still order his release from jail on grounds of mercy and for special reasons. Similarly, though you are bound to suffer and destined to face difficulties as a result of your past actions, God in response to your sincere prayer and repentance will change the course of your life and save you from your suffering. God confers special grace on you being pleased with your single-minded devotion to Him. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! The Bhagavad Gita wants us to give up the fruits of our actions, karmaphalaparityaga, both good and bad. Since we do good rarely, there is very little or none to offer you as the fruits of our good actions. We feel that it is not proper to offer evil or bad to You. What is to be done? Bhagavan: You have to surrender both good and bad to God. Never get yourself attached to the results of your actions, be they good or bad. God is beyond these two opposites as He is non-dual. Any water, pure or impure, when mixed with Ganga, you will notice, does not affect the sanctity of Ganga. The sanctity never diminishes. Similarly, whatever you put into the fire gets burnt. The fire is in no way affected or polluted by those things that are put into it. Hence, if you offer both good and bad to God, ultimately you will be benefited. A small example: Suppose you have a five hundred rupee currency note in your pocket, and you need to go out on some business and return later. You will be very careful to see that you do not lose it. You keep your hand on the pocket if you go to a cafeteria for a cup of coffee so that no one will pick your pocket. Even in a theatre, you will be vigilant. But on the other hand, if you deposit that money in the bank, it will be credited to your account and it will be safe.Then, you don’t need to bother about it further. So also, if you surrender all the good you have done to God without attaching any value to the results, what happens is that you will be humble and simple. Here you do not take the credit. You thank God. Then, how about the evil or bad to be offered to God? You may feel that it is not proper to do so. Yet, you will notice that it will help you finally. Here’s a small example for you in this matter. Suppose you have with you a spoiled, dirty and half torn five hundred rupee note. You don’t throw it away as it is a valuable currency note. But you have not been able to use it; no one will accept that note. You are not in a position to buy anything. So, you can neither throw it away nor use it. But, if you deposit the very same currency note in the Reserve Bank, they accept it and give you a brand new note. One thing is very necessary. The number on the currency note should

Satyopanishad – Part fifteen Direct Directions from the Divine Chapter 5: Concepts Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! We hear about pancha koshas, the five sheaths, the pancha pranas, the five vital airs, and panchendriyas, the five organs. Do they cover our spirit, atma? Are they obstacles to atmic bliss? What exactly is their position and role in our body? Bhagavan: The whole world is made of five elements: Earth, fire, water, air and space. Man is the product of these five elements, besides his temperament. Raga or attachment, dvesa or hatred, and bhaya or fear, originate in akasa, space. Our breathing process, movements like walking or other body movements are due to vayu, wind. Hunger, thirst and sleep are the effects of agni, fire. Phlegm, blood, bile, urine, etc., are the outcome of jala, water. Skin, muscles, bones, nails, hairs, nerves are of prthvi, matter. Therefore, all the five elements are equally distributed in everyone. No one can truly be considered superior to any other. The human body has five sheaths, the Pancha koshas. The first one is annamaya kosha, the sheath of food, the second is pranamaya kosha, the sheath of life, and the third is manomaya kosha, the sheath of mind. The fourth is vigyanamaya kosha, the sheath of knowledge and finally anandamaya kosha, the sheath of bliss. One sheath encloses the other. You know rice grains are enclosed within husks. Therefore, a rice grain is within the sheath of husk. For the tamarind seed, tamarind pulp is the sheath. An embryo is within the sheath of its mother’s womb. Annamaya kosha is a sheath which covers pranamaya kosha. This encloses manomaya kosha, the sheath of the mind. This covers vigyanamaya kosa, sheath of wisdom, which finally encloses anandamaya kosa, the sheath of bliss. Then comes manomaya kosha, the mental sheath consisting of five organs of perception (jnanendriyas), and the mind, which is full of thoughts and counter-thoughts. The fourth is vigyanamaya kosha, the sheath of knowledge, of sound, touch, form, taste and smell, which constitutes the buddhi, intellect. Everyone has an equal right to know and experience the atma, self. To attain such an awareness, self-enquiry is very necessary. However, an intense and deep desire is essential to know and experience atma. The innermost sheath is anandamaya kosa (sheath of bliss). In order to enable yourself to experience this state of bliss, you will have to practice all that you theoretically know and do what you are supposed to. Likewise, you should understand the principle of samatva, equality, and ekatva, unity, and experience daivatva, divinity. This leads you to a state when you will not hate anyone. Everyone has an equal right to know and experience the atma, self. To attain such an awareness, self-enquiry is very necessary. However, an intense and deep desire is essential to know and experience atma. Just like a seed within a fruit, as a copper wire within a plastic covering, butter in milk, sugar in the sugarcane, oil within sesame seeds and fire in wood, atma is encased within pancakosas, pancendriyas and pancapranas (five life sheaths, five sense organs and five life principles). Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! We come across words like manas (mind), buddhi (intellect), citta (consciousness), and ahamkara (egoism). How are we to understand and correlate them? How do they differ from one another? It is our good fortune that Swami explains in simple ways, terms ever so complex. Bhagavan: Here is an illustration. Consider a Brahmin. When he conducts ceremonies like weddings, you call him purohit, priest; when he reads out from the almanac at your home the tithi, lunar phase, the varam day of the week, naksatra, star, etc. you call him the pancanga Brahmin; when he prepares food in your home, you call him the brahmin cook. Another illustration. Your wife addresses you in Telugu as emandi, (Oh, you! Please, Sir!) because addressing the husband by name is not considered proper. Your child calls you ‘Father’ and your student addresses you as ‘Sir’. But, you are, after all, only one individual, aren’t you! One and the same faculty has different names: manas or mind when engaged in thinking; chitta or awareness in a state of equanimity devoid of plans or decisions; buddhi or intellect while exercising discrimination; and ahamkara or egoism when introducing oneself or referring to oneself as ‘I’. All these are one, but named differently according to their function. What is to be controlled is the mind. When you have that nigraham (control), you obtain God’s anugraham, grace. Once you consider something as evil, do not allow it to enter the mind. The behaviour of trees and animals is regulated by prakrti, Nature. Only man is disobeying the commands of God and has become depraved. There is only one solution. What is to be controlled is the mind. When you have that nigraham (control), you obtain God’s anugraham, grace. Once you consider something as evil, do not allow it to enter the mind. The behaviour of trees and animals is regulated by prakrti, Nature. Only man is disobeying the commands of God and has become depraved. There is only one solution. Another little illustration: Tie up kamadhenu, the wish fulfilling cow, of your body with the pasha, rope, of prema, love, to the post called nama, chanting the Name of the Lord. That is enough. You gain control over the mind. Then, on the chitta, awareness, devoid of the turmoil of thoughts, is imprinted the form of God. Buddhi undertakes fundamental discrimination; the ‘I’ which has been egoistic cognises its own true nature as atma and realises the innermost Self in all beings. This is adhyatmika, spirituality. Prof. Anil Kumar:Swami! You stress chittasuddhi, purification of our heart, but how is one to accomplish it? Take for example, this kerchief. This is white in colour. It becomes dirty as I use it. I give it to a washerman to wash and return it. When he brings it, it looks white and bright as before. It was so before and it is so after a wash, but it was dirty in between due to use. The washerman did not paint the kerchief white. He only removed the dirt. So too, like a kerchief, your mind is also pure which becomes impure due to your desires and thoughts. Once you remove the impurities from the mind, it will become pure. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! Swami! Now it is clear that chittasuddhi is lacking in us due to our bad thoughts and bad deeds. We have certain weaknesses, lapses, bad qualities and thoughts. As you have said unless we get over them, chittasuddhi cannot be attained. The mind gets polluted very

Satyopanishad – Part Thirteen Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER 4 – THE OUTER DOOR Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! We have on one side the most invaluable spirituality, while on the other, we have also friends and relatives diverting our attention towards the world. No doubt, it is our fault to pay heed to their words. Yet, we face the conflict. What is to be done? Bhagavan: Today no one has true friends. Who are the friends of today’s world and of what sort are they? (Addressing the students) After all, your friendship lasts for two or three years until you complete your studies here and leave the hostel. Later, you separate from each other and go your own way. So long as you have money in your pocket and your father is in a good position, everyone would come to you and say “hello”, but the day your pocket is empty and your father retires, you will be left with none even to say ‘good bye’. Can you still call anyone your friend? Friendship in Sanskrit is known as ‘maitri,’ pronounced as ‘mythree’. Here ‘three’ represents the harmony in thought, word and deed. Are there friends with this purity? Nowhere! Who is your true friend then? God is your real friend. God is the only friend for you, as He is always with you and in you: Don’t consider anyone else as your friend. Further, you should be very careful with people or your company. It is said, “Tell me your company, I shall tell you what you are”. Therefore, all and sundry can’t be your friends. A warrior of outstanding stature and an expert in archery, Karna fell into disrepute because he was in bad company, and so he is branded as one among the wicked four, (the dustachathustaya) – Duryodhana, Dussasana, Sakuni and Karna. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! It is most unfortunate that there is no tangible change in our lifestyle though we have been here and listening to Your divine discourses over the years. We do not know the reason why it is so. Kindly show us the way. Bhagavan: Lack of practice is the only reason. When there is no power supply and it is dark all over, can darkness be dispelled by just saying “lamp” unless you light it? The hunger of a starving man can never be satiated by merely looking at the menu of the most delicious items. He has to eat some of them to appease his hunger, shouldn’t he? Can a sick man be cured of a disease by merely listening to the formula and composition of the medicine without his taking it? Can the suffering of a poor man be alleviated with all the knowledge of economics and accountancy? Can you attain liberation (mukti) by reading books without practicing any of the instruction found therein? Instead of saying something without doing, it is better to do and not say anything. I repeatedly tell you that until you practice what you say, there is little effect even after listening to talks for years together. Take a small example here. Suppose you have with you a matchbox full of matchsticks and you want to light a lamp. You will now have to open the box, pick up a stick and strike against the side of the box to light it. Similarly, you are drowned in the water of worldly desires and attachments. Therefore, you can’t light the lamp of wisdom. Dry your mind with all its limitless desires and thoughts of worldly comfort in the sunlight of renunciation; only then can you light the lamp of wisdom. You may be here listening to any number of discourses for any length of time, but you will not be able to achieve the expected results if you fail to translate the essence of one discourse into your daily life. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! Because of wrong direction in our thinking, we feel dejected, restless and often fail in our attempts. Kindly show us the way out of it. Bhagavan: For all these agitations, disturbances, disappointments, depressions and failures, what is responsible is your wrong way of thinking. Whatever may happen in life, you should think, “This is good for me”. You should know that everything that happens ultimately turns to be for your own good. This is called positive thinking. Today you are full of negative thoughts. How do you expect to know and experience God? Your body, mind, intellect and the senses are completely negative, but your spirit, conscience, or atma is positive. God is your conscience. Do you know why you are not able to realise and experience God? It is entirely due to these negative thoughts and attitudes. So, positive thinking and positive actions are very essential for spiritual progress. Only then will you be peaceful, blissful and successful. Take your own example. (To the students) It is absolutely because of positive thinking that you are able to plan your academic programme and prepare yourself accordingly, as also aim to secure a good rank in the examinations and later a job. But planning to study whatever would fetch you a very fat salary, help you to go abroad, earn more money and marry a girl who would get you a large amount of dowry, is negative thinking. Today we should fill our hearts with all positive thoughts like divine feelings, divine sentiments and good thoughts. Only then you will experience God, who is satchitananda, the absolute positive principle. Therefore, it is necessary for you to take everythingas good for you. A small story: there was a king who had a fancy to cut sugarcane all by himself to small pieces and eat it piece by piece. One day, while he was busy doing this, as ill luck would have it, he cut his finger. The minister, who was by his side, remarked, “Oh King! You have cut your finger. This is good for you.” On hearing this remark, the king grew wild, and thought, “What! How can this be good for me? What would

Satyopanishad – Part Eleven Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER 4 – THE OUTER DOOR Prof. Anil Kumar: Bhagavan! Should we follow any discipline or regulation in our food habits? Is that necessary for our spiritual pursuit? Sai devotees all over the world are vegetarians because of Your teachings; this is amazing. However, we have none today to tell us matters relating to our food habits. Kindly direct us. Bhagavan As is the food, so is the mind. As is the mind, so are our thoughts. As is the thought, so is the action. As is the action, so is the result. Therefore, the result depends on the food you eat. Meticulously and unerringly, you should follow discipline in your food habits. Food, Head, and God are to be viewed in this sequence. As is your food, so is your head; as is the condition of your head, so is the manifestation of God in you. You should not eat too much. You eat to live and never live to eat. Eating in excess is a tamasika quality. If you eat once a day, you are a yogi; if you eat twice a day you are a rogi (sick). If you take sattvika, soft, and balanced food in moderate quantity, you develop sattvika or a pious mind. However, if you eat rajasika, spicy, hot food you will have rajasika or an emotionally agitated mind, and if you have tamasika food, that is meat, alcohol, and so on, you will have tamasika or a bestial, dull, and passive mind. So, it is food that shapes the mind, and on this your actions depend, leading to their corresponding consequences. You should also think of patrasuddhi, the cleanliness of the vessels and utensils used; padarthasuddhi, purity of the materials; pakasuddhi, clean method of preparation or cooking; and bhavasuddhi, purity of the thought of the person who cooks the food. You shouldn’t eat food offered to you everywhere. A few years ago, there lived a sanyasi (ascetic) who on invitation dined at the residence of a businessman. That night this sanyasi, a celibate and spiritual seeker, could not sleep. Somehow, he fell asleep very late, and had a dream in which he saw a sixteen-year-old girl shedding tears Since the sanyasi ate the food cooked for the occasion, the girl who had died appeared in the dream with tears in her eyes. The young girl’s father was very poor and could hardly maintain his family. So, much against her wish, he gave her in marriage to this aged businessman. Out of frustration, she committed suicide by jumping into a well. The businessman had been performing her customary funeral rites and on the eleventh day requested the sanyasi to come over to his house for meals. This is the whole story behind the sanyasi’s dream. Hence, without discrimination, you shouldn’t eat any food offered to you. You should mix some water in your milk before drinking. You should have a minimum interval of four hours between two meals. You should take food, which gives you enough calories needed for the body. You shouldn’t have too much of oily and fried curries. Sleep a while after lunch, and walk a mile after dinner. You should work hard and eat well. A similar thing happened once to a disciple of Swami Nityananda. One day, he went out of the ashram and ate food outside. While returning, he stole from a house a silver tumbler and brought it to the ashram. But soon, he felt very sad over this action of his. He cried and repented. The next morning, he went to his guru and confessed the whole incident. Because of his spiritual power, Nityananda could find out the reason. He said to his disciple, “Well, the food you had outside the ashram was prepared by a cook who at one time happened to be a thief, and as a result you developed the instinct to steal.” Therefore, cooks must have purity of thought. Further, you should feel your body as light after eating, as before eating. The best thing is to keep half of your stomach empty. The remaining half should be filled in with water and other foodstuffs. Tubers are not good for the body. You should not drink whole milk. Prof. Anil Kumar: Swami! In Your organization or your institutions, workers, students, teachers, devotees and doctors wear the white dress always. Why? What is the reason? Bhagavan: White symbolizes purity and cleanliness. A pure white cloth may be compared to a clean mirror. If dust gathers on the mirror, you will not be able to see your reflection clearly. Similarly, buddhi or intellect is like a clean white cloth. It is only then that you will be able to find out your own faults and apply your discrimination to rectify them. Today, this does not happen. People are able to see clearly the mistakes of others but don’t find their own faults. If you stand in front of a mirror, you see your reflection. But, if you turn it towards another man, naturally you will find his reflection. Isn’t it so? Similarly, the mirror of your buddhi or intellect is turned towards others, and this makes you see the mistakes of others. Even the slightest spot or mark is very clearly visible on a white dress. If you wear a colored dress, you don’t see dirt, spots, or any other stains. This is wrong. You should never hide and cover the dirt on your person. You should immediately wash it off. You should share the good with others. Neither good nor bad should be in you. You should shed the bad in you and share the good with others. But, some of you keep the good to yourselves and distribute the bad to others. It is a mistake on your part to do so. Lord Siva offers you the best way by setting forth an ideal to this world. He kept and retained poison in His throat. So, He is Nilakantha, the blue-throated God. But, the cool and comforting moonlight from the moon over His head is distributed to others. It is for this purpose of sharing comfort with others that He kept the moon

Satyopanishad – part Nine Direct Directions from the Divine CHAPTER 3 – YOUTH Anil Kumar: Swami! Everywhere we hear people speaking of ‘brain drain’. Statistics indicate that every year the number of educated people going abroad is increasing. Is this good? Bhagawan: This is not good. It is not proper on the part of the young people to leave this country and settle in foreign countries. Here, in Bharat (India), according to tradition, you have five mothers almost equally venerable. These five are the most revered and ranked along with one’s own mother. Who are those five mothers? For the simple reason that a woman you meet happens to be more beautiful than your mother, you will not call her ‘amma’, mother. This message is conveyed in the Ramayana. At the end of the war, after Ravana had died, Lakshmana said to Rama: “O Brother! This Lanka is prosperous and exceedingly beautiful. Our enemies have all died, and we have every right to rule this land. O Lord! Why don’t you become its king? Bharata has been already been there for fourteen years as the king of Ayodhya. We can as well ask him to continue his reign there, and we stay here and rule this kingdom.” Then Rama replied, “O Lakshmana! Your motherland is greater than heaven itself. Your mother may be ugly and another woman you have seen may be beautiful. Yet, you don’t address the beautiful woman as ‘amma’.” Whatever may be the country you belong to, it is your Motherland. Everyone must be patriotic. Everyone must love his or her own country. You should serve your country. Anil Kumar: Swami! What are your comments on brain drain? Many highly educated professionals like engineers, doctors, computer experts plan to go abroad and settle there for better and higher prospects of income and placement in life. This is the cause for worry in many circles, both government and private. What do you feel about this? Bhagawan: It is most unfortunate that this trend is on the rise. This is not good at any point of time anywhere in the world. You are born in this society. So you grow up, educate yourself, make money, name and fame in this society. Only through this society can you get your clothing, food and shelter: Have you come up on your own without the society you live in? Could you make a career for yourself without its support? Should you not express your sense of gratitude to it for all it has done for you? Man should never be an ungrateful creature. The best way to be grateful is to serve. You know, our people put in greater effort, and work more sincerely abroad. While they are here, they don’t show the same spirit and zeal in their work. They are not as sincere and industrious here as they are in foreign countries. In fact, the emoluments they get here by doing their best will be the same as they get abroad, a fact they fail to realise. To some extent, parents also are responsible for this problem of brain drain. They don’t properly inculcate in children the values of work, patriotism, sacrifice, love and gratitude. Anil Kumar: Swami! Modern youth, in the name of the generation gap, are not prepared to pay heed to their elders. Advise and give us Your message. Bhagawan: This is meaningless. What are the changes you notice in the name of the generation gap? The sun rises only in the east and never in the west. Don’t you wash the same face every day? Don’t you clean the same utensils every day? Don’t you wear the same clothes? So, all important things need to be done time and again. In the name of the generation gap you should not neglect doing things that need to be repeated. You shouldn’t turn a deaf ear to the advice of your elders branding them as senile, old hags. No. They are persons with rich experience. They are your well ­wishers. You must listen to them, obey and follow their instructions. Anil Kumar: Swami! We have on one side our parents pulling us towards the world and on the other, the divine teachings we have been fortunate enough to receive from You. We wonder which of the two will dominate and influence us? Bhagawan: If the ideas of your parents are against God, you should choose God and definitely not your parents. You must clearly explain and appeal to them, and then convince them of the value and importance of the spiritual path. Among the Bal Vikas children, there are a large number who have brought about a change in their parents. There are many who have been influenced and transformed by the children of the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School, Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School and the students of the Sri Sathya Sai University. There should be a change in the family of the children first, then in the society. Take a simple example. You fill a container with sweet milk pudding, payasam. If the container has holes, you will expect the same sweet pudding to come out of these holes. Will you not? Similarly, when you know that you are from God, your words, thoughts and actions will be divine. Anil Kumar: Swami! We are progressing in Science and Technology. At the same time, our modern youth are not able to face life’s problems courageously. They are depressed by the slightest problem. They are not able to bear any suffering with patience, and easily take to drink and drugs. What is Swami’s message to our youth? Bhagawan: Today, many young men and women go to Colleges and Universities for studies. There are many specialisations in every branch of knowledge. This is, on the whole, good. But the pity of it is that we find innate, vital human qualities deteriorating fast and disappearing altogether. Education is not for living, but it is for life. Education is not for transmitting information, but it is for transformation. Education is for elevating the