CONVERSATIONS WITH SAI Satyopanishad 

Satyopanishad – Part Seven

CHAPTER 2 – TRENDS IN SOCIETY

Anil Kumar: Swami! Many speak of culture? What is the value of culture?

Bhagavan: Culture is very important because your life and its value depend on it. Culture is a way of life. It enables you to experience divinity in your life and realise unity in diversity. Without culture, a person becomes a demon. He falls down in stature and ultimately ruins himself/herself.

You know that sea water is saline or salty. Human life is like a vast sea. God’s grace is like sunlight that falls on the sea. The seawater, because of the heat of the sun, becomes vaporised. This is the vapour of bliss that settles as clouds in the sky to fall down to the earth as rain. It is the rain of love. The seawater is salty but the rainwater is sweet. Why? Where does the difference lie? Seawater is refined by sunlight.

So also, our life must be cultured and refined. The value of life will then rise. A piece of iron worth less than a rupee can be made into a beautiful and expensive watch after it is processed and refined. This is due to the culture it has undergone. So long as a boulder remains itself, it is bound to be neglected.

But, once it is in the hands of a sculptor, chiseled and hammered, and shaped into a beautiful Krishna idol; it starts receiving respect and worship. Why? It is only culture that makes all the difference. A boulder, once trodden by everyone underfoot, now in the form of an idol, occupies a place at the altar in a temple and is worshipped everyday. This is the value that culture confers.

Without culture, one develops a foolish view of life finding diversity in unity. For example, take a needle. It stitches pieces of cloth into a garment. The needle stands for culture. But scissors cut the cloth into pieces. This is the condition in the absence of culture.

Anil Kumar: Swami! Have people come closer to God in this modern world?

Modern science has enabled man to land on the moon. But, man has forgotten to step into his neighbour’s house. Yes, he can reach chandra, the moon, but can’t see Ramachandra (God) in his heart. Modern man can swim in water like a fish, and fly like a bird, but can’t walk a mile with his two legs on the ground. With his physical eye, which is not even two inches in size, he is able to see a galaxy several thousand miles away from him, but he is not able to see himself. The eye and the ear are so near but they don’t see each other!

Do they? God reclines on the ksirasagara, ‘ocean of milk’ located in your Heart, but today we find that the ‘Heart’ has become ksarasagara, ‘ocean of poison’. How do you expect him to realise Divinity?

Even after having become a very rich country, France, lost the Great War. Why? It was because of her reckless youngsters and the vices of the day. This trend is increasing today among people. Man is living and working for the fulfillment of his asalu, lowly desires, but he should live for asayalu, ideals. People with high ideals alone can come closer to one another spiritually.

Anil Kumar: Swami! Kindly tell us how to achieve greatness in life?

Bhagavan: Never allow this sort of idea to get into your head. You are mistaken if you think that you have achieved something very special and unique by becoming great. It is not true at all. Becoming great in life should not be your aim.

There are several great people in society. I don’t think this is important or matters the most. Goodness is superior to greatness. Instead of aiming to be great, try to be good. It is far more important to be a good man than a great man.

What is the difference between the two? A great man sees man in God, while a good man sees God in man. Ravana, as portrayed in the Ramayana, was undoubtedly a great man. He considered Rama, the Lord, a mere man.

You should not give any scope for laziness. All employees should work most sincerely doing justice to the salaries they receive every month. Otherwise, it will amount to cheating or betraying their fellow beings or the government. People should cultivate samarasyam, integration, samagrata, coordination, samaikyata, unity, and saubhrdtrata, fraternity.

Look at this piece of cloth. This is very strong because the threads are closely interwoven. But if you separate the threads, you can cut it with your finger. Everybody should know that strength lies in unity. India could achieve independence but not unity. You are free to walk waving your walking stick, so long as it does not hit the nose of another pedestrian and your freedom does not rob the independence of others.

Fundamentals applicable to all must be followed. The individual is less important than the community or society. It is always better that you manage to employ yourselves in learning those things that are needed for society. Your education should help you to better the community.

t is good to know the news that comes from the outside world. What about nuisance that comes from within you? Know that and correct yourself.

Anil Kumar: Swami! What is essential for us now?

Bhagavan: If you have love, it is enough. Everything will be added unto you. Service, sacrifice, humility, devotion, discipline, etc. are contained within love. It is only love that prompts and promotes all virtues. Where there is love, there will be no ego, hatred, jealousy and such other low and mean animal qualities.

There was a lady in Paris. She led her life with the little money she had. One day she saw some helpless footpath dwellers shivering in the cold. She was deeply moved by this sight. Everyday she used to take a few blankets along with her and offer them to those poor, needy and forlorn.

This had gone to the notice of the elders and finally the government. They decided to honour her. A few youngsters came to her to congratulate her. She said that she was not happy since she could not help everyone, when the compassionate Almighty God was helping everyone always. She further added that she felt ashamed and frustrated, as her help could not be extended to everyone.

I will tell you another story. There was in an army a soldier who lost both his legs in a war and had to move with the help of crutches. Since his service was relatively short, he was not eligible for all the retirement benefits. The Major of his unit gave him some money and asked him to return.

After a couple of weeks, the Major happened to pass the same way and noticed the soldier. The major was surprised to see him, for even after a long time he had not yet reached home. He found that it was due to paucity of funds. The Major also learnt how the soldier was managing himself all these days.

In the meantime, the girl came and served chapatis to the soldier. The Major followed her and went to her house. On seeing him, her parents thought that their daughter must have done something wrong and therefore he had come to make an enquiry.

When they were about to punish her, the Major intervened and said to her parents, “You are indeed very lucky! How many of us have such children with magnanimity, love, concern for the needy, and the spirit of service?” He was about to give some gold coins to her parents who said, “Sir! We don’t want all this. We can live with our hard earned money. Who can guard these gold coins at home? Please leave us alone, Sir!” The Major felt happy and left for his native place where he found an eligible bridegroom for this girl and performed her marriage. This is the true wealth of love. ‘Expansion of love is life. Contraction of love is death’.

Satyopanishad – part Eight

Direct Directions from the Divine

CHAPTER 3 – YOUTH

Anil Kumar: Swami! We go to colleges and universities for studies and acquire knowledge. We take up some employment thereafter. We draw our salaries, but, the pity is whomsoever we meet they say, “I don’t have peace of mind”. Why is this so? What is to be done?

Bhagavan: Mere education will not give you peace of mind. Sage Vyasa compiled all the Vedas, wrote the great epic Mahabharata, the eighteen Puranas and the Brahmasutras. Yet, his mind was restless; he was without peace. At this stage of Vyasa’s anguish, sage Narada advised him to write the Bhagavata, a work, which incorporated the leelas (Divine Sport) of the Lord and life sketches of some of the most outstanding devotees of the Lord who sang the full glory of His miracles.

It was only then that he enjoyed peace and bliss. Neither position, nor status, nor scholarship, nor influence, nor wealth, nor fame – no, none of these achievements can ever give you peace of mind. It can’t be received from anyone nor can it be located at a place. No external objects, articles, or possessions can give you peace of mind.

The root cause of loss of peace is the bundle of desires. So, I often tell you “less luggage, more comfort, makes travel a pleasure” – the maxim of the Indian Railways. Therefore, a ceiling on desires is most important.

Many come to me and say, “I want peace”. I tell everyone, “The answer is in your request itself. When you say, “I want peace”, there are two components “I” and “want”. “I” is mamakara or the ego or attachment, and “want” is kama or desire. When you give up these two – ego and desire, peace is already there.

Anil Kumar: Swami! Many of us are helpless when we interact with youngsters. They often say, “Don’t interfere with us; it is our freedom. We are independent and act in the way we choose.” We find it difficult to convince them about what we think is right, and to guide them in the right direction. What should we do in the present circumstances?

Bhagavan: From your statement, it is very clear that modern youth do not know what freedom is. They use terms like sveccha, freedom and svatantra, independence, indiscriminately without knowing their correct meaning.

What is freedom? What is independence? If freedom means behaving as we like, without any norms, in what way then are we different from birds and beasts which act as they like? They move about freely without any restrictions.

They also procreate producing dozens and dozens of young ones. If that is what the youngsters mean and want by ‘freedom’, insects, birds, and animals, without attending any universities and getting degrees are able to manage to secure food and shelter and live freely as ordained by nature. Then, in what way does your freedom benefit you? What is your specialty? What is your education for? Animals are better than you, as they have some reason and season. You have neither reason nor season.

What is sveccha, freedom? If the Sanskrit word sveccha is analysed properly, it is sva + iccha. Sva means ‘yourself’, i.e. soul, spirit, Atma, iccha means ‘will’. Thus, sva, (Atma) plus iccha, (will), means ‘the will power of Atma (Self)’. So this relates to our Atma. Is it that sveccha that our youngsters want today? The pity is they do not know the meaning of the word they use.

Then, modern man says, “I have svatantra, independence, to do anything I like. Can’t I be independent?” Here, also youngsters do not know the meaning of svatantra. Does svatantra mean reckless, careless, and irresponsible behaviour? No. If you think that moving and roaming around, eating and drinking anything to your liking, are the signs of independence, don’t you see that cats and rats also enjoy themselves in the same manner? Does independence mean food and drink? You are spending your entire lifetime anyway on these two: food and drink. Life has come down to the level of just loading and unloading.

herefore, a student should be seated at a lower level than a teacher who occupies his seat at a higher level on a chair. Water always flows downwards, so does knowledge. Fire travels upwards. Similarly, the fire of wisdom of a student travels upwards.

Anil Kumar: Swami! Today we find imitation in all spheres of life. In particular, this imitation is very common among youngsters. What does Swami say about it?

Bhagavan: Imitation is weakness. This is a defect in the modern youth. Imitation is human, creation is divine. Imitation makes you forget your natural behaviour too.

Anil Kumar: Swami! Today many people, particularly youngsters, are wasting their time. Many are lazy, and idle away their precious time. So, in spite of rich resources, the country is not progressing. Kindly suggest a cure for this malady.

Bhagavan: There is no dearth of anything in this country. We have sufficient resources. People are also highly resourceful and talented: There is nothing in the world outside which is not here in Bharat (India). As the Kannada saying goes, enna bharate tanna bharati.

Time will not follow you. God is time, samvatsaraya namah. Time is God. Kalaya namah, kalatitaya namah, kaladarpadamanaya namah are some of the epithets of God, depicting Him as the Master, the Designer and the Controller of Time. The Namavali emphasises this aspect of Divinity. So, if you waste your time, it is a sin. You should spend time in the most sacred way.

ee no evil, see what is good. Speak no evil, speak what is good. Hear no evil, hear what is good. Do no evil, do what is good.’

Therefore, it can be concluded that ‘casting evil looks, hearing evil words, talking evil, thinking evil and acting evil’, amounts to a waste of time.

You should work hard. “Thou shalt live by the sweat of thy brow,” says the Holy Bible. But, today it is not like that; people would rather like to have their earnings without putting in any effort. Any work you do, do it with Namasmarana, repeating God’s name. This is bhakti marga, the path of devotion. Such work turns itself into an offering to God. This is anubhava jnana or Wisdom borne out of experience or Practical Knowledge.

Swami has no holiday. You have at least a Sunday as a holiday during the week. I receive thousands of letters everyday. I read them all. I attend to all my work. I walk miles everyday moving amidst you. I supervise, monitor, guide and direct all matters relating to the University, the Super Specialty Hospital and the Water Project personally, besides thousands of Sai Centres spread all over the world. I don’t take rest; I don’t have any interval or a holiday. Your happiness is My happiness. God incarnates to show you the ideal way of life. So, don’t waste time. By Karma, proper action, uphold Dharma, righteousness, and merge in Brahman (Divinity), and thus redeem your lives.

Satyopanishad – part Nine – A sacred dialogue of truth, love, and inner wisdom