Let us look a bit
deeper into the two options mentioned above. Option 1, as already mentioned,
results in rebirth, that is to say, the Eternal Atma in combination with good
old Mind derived from an earlier birth, has a go at life functioning in a new
body and as a new person. OK, but if that be the case, when does case 2
operate, if at all? Now that is what may be called a good question. And the
answer is, if during the life one has, one makes an active effort to realize
that one is neither the body nor the Mind but the Atma, then at the time of
death the Mind disappears, following which the Atma within merges with the Universal
Atma, rather like the wave disappearing into the ocean and the air in the
balloon mixing with the free atmosphere. This is what is usually called
liberation or Moksha. Putting all of the above together, we now get the
following guideline given to us by both Krishna [in the Gita that is] and Swami
in numerous Discourses. In simple language, the essence of this message can be
paraphrased as follows:
O man! Do you know
what the purpose of life is? It is to live life in such a manner so that when
the body is gone, you merge with the Eternal and Omnipresent God. In practical
terms, it means you must lead a life such that your life reflects the nature of
the Atma within.
This is where the
point about motivation for action made earlier becomes important. If this motivation
comes from the Atma, then there would no trace of selfishness; there would be only
Pure Love and Compassion. Going back to the Divine, let us see what it has to
say concerning this aspect. It says:
O man! While you
live, most of your actions are motivated entirely by worldly considerations. As
a result, all of them tend to be tainted with selfishness, to say the least.
However, if you are
focused all the time on Atma, the motivations would then themselves come from
the Atma. As a result, the feeling emerging from your Heart would be Pure, the thoughts
these feelings trigger in your Mind would be Pure; as a result, the words you
speak and the actions you perform would also be Pure. When such Purity becomes
the very breath of your life, it is inevitable that when death occurs, your
intrinsic nature would reunite with its infinite aspect, rather like the water
in an individual wave merging into the ocean from which it was born.
In principle, this
advice is not too difficult to follow but in the mind of the keen seeker, a certain
doubt is bound to occur, which may be stated as follows: “Suppose a person is
born in a royal family and becomes a king. He would have to live like a king
amidst luxuries; surely that would be detrimental to his seeking to be his true
nature which is the Atma. What should one do under the circumstances?” The
answer to that is given at the very beginning of the quote.
Pleasures which are
experienced with a sense of detachment cease to be bhogas (enjoyment of
material comforts) and become a form of Yoga.
The key word here is
detachment. One can adorn the trappings of office but must not become either
attached to them or have craving for them. King Janaka is often held as an exemplar
of such an attitude. As a working king, he wore a crown, sat on a throne, and conducted
the business of ruling. But his mind was far from power and self, being focused
on the Atma. In such a case, the Mind remains pure, helps the individual to
realize his/her true nature as the Atma, and merge with the Atma when the body
is shed.
One may say this is
not easy. Yes, it is by no means easy; on the contrary, as Lord Acton famously
said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And yet, people
of strong willpower have not allowed that to happen. There is the classic
example of Harry Truman who succeeded Roosevelt in the middle of the World War
II as the President of America. He had to take many a tough decision like
dropping the atom bombs, and firing Gen. MacArthur for insubordination at a
time when the prestige of the General was much higher than that of the
President himself. In other words, Truman really was a powerful man.
Yet, when he
relinquished his presidency in 1952, he simply got into his car with his wife
and drove all the way back to his hometown in Missouri. No driver, no secret
service and not even a driver. He stopped and filled gas himself and stayed in
inexpensive hotels on the way. That is what is meant by being detached from the
trappings of office. It can be done, but it needs strong will power. To say it
is not possible, is 1) a sign of moral weakness, and 2) an indication that one
loves trappings more than one loves God, who is none other than the Atma.
Think
about it!
Part 12
If we wish to
understand the Divinity that transcends human understanding, we should seek to
reach a level above the human. Till that is reached, we have to experience
everything at the human level alone. Living as a human being, how can one
recognize that which transcends human capacity? This can be done by developing
the faith that though one has a form that is externally human, what is actually
donning this human form is Divine. Once one develops faith in this fundamental
truth, it would also dawn on the person that all actions must be performed in
harmony with the attributes of the Divine spark within. In other words, the
easiest and the best way to transcend the limitations of human thinking and actions
is lead a life of dedicated service. This becomes possible only when one allows
Pure Love to saturate one’s life, at which point one’s very nature becomes
Love, allowing one to experience Bliss. In short, the best way to Love God is
to Love All and Serve All.
–
Divine
Discourse, April 26, 1993.
REFLECTIONS
Sai Ram. The Sai
quote above is a very important one. Do you know why? Because it explains the
essence of the oft‐quoted statement: LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL. We all repeat it tirelessly,
put it on greetings cards, banners and what not; but ask people what it exactly
means and what Swami is trying to tell us via that most powerful phrase with
just four words, and you would find that people start fumbling. Swami gives the
answer we all think we know but do not, and so let's take a minute off to
understand what exactly Swami expects of us when He tells us, 'Love All and
Serve All'.
We start with human
behavior, which varies over a wide spectrum. Even in the case of a single
individual, there can be a substantial variation, depending on the
circumstances. At times the person may be kind, gentle and compassionate, while
at other times that very same person may appear stone‐hearted or even bawl like
a bulldog. In other words, the same person can swing all the way from being an
angel to a devil to an animal. Keeping this in mind, the scriptures of India
place all people in three major behavioral characteristics or gunas as they are
called. They are respectively, tamasic which essentially means beastly, rajasic
which in the worst case means devilish, and sathwic which means the
gentle type. These are the generic types, meaning that on the average, the
person is of the tamasic, or rajasic, or sathwic type. In what follows,
we keep this average behavior in view rather than the occasional fluctuation.
For example, even a cruel and ruthless dictator could at times be pleasant and
gentle; that is an exception and a deviation from his norm rather than his
regular behaviour. Thus, on the average, everyone except his cronies would consider
him nothing but a devil; keep that in mind. Now the first point Swami makes is
this:
O humans! I call you
humans because the body you are having is that of a human. Does it not follow
that the behaviour expected of you is also that appropriate to a human? A clown
must naturally act like a clown but can the King of a respected country act
like a joker?
Translated into the
guna language, it means: Do not be a person of the tamasic and rajasic type.
Rise above them as quickly as you can and get to the sathwic stage.
However, this is NOT the end of story. Swami now adds:
O humans! Do not
think that you have achieved a great thing by rising to the level of a sathwic
person. That is just the base camp and the peak of the Everest is way above.
Remember, you have come to the base camp just in order to go to the summit!
So, that is it and
this is where the ascent really begins. What does that mean for the spiritual seeker?
Swami is hinting that having come to the base camp, we must never forget that
we are here because we have come to climb the Everest. And to get there
eventually, we must do a lot of preparations, including getting acclimatized to
living in a rarefied atmosphere, conserving energy so that all of it would be
available for the climb, etc. And all the while, our minds must be entirely
focused on one thing and one thing only, namely, we have come to reach the
summit and nothing else. That core objective must never be lost or forgotten
even for a single second!
OK, how does all that
translate into the journey and purpose of life? Becoming sathwic may be
the equivalent of reaching the base camp. But what is the ‘Everest’ and what is
the acclimatization drill? Swami explains that also, and let us now pay some
attention to what He says in that context. Here is an extract from the Sai
Quote, repeated for closer examination.
This can be done by
developing the faith that though one has a form that is externally human, what
is actually donning this human form is Divine. Once one develops faith in this
fundamental truth, it would also dawn on the person that all actions must be performed
in harmony with the attributes of the Divine spark within.
There are essentially
two points Swami makes: Firstly, though you have a human form, verily you are
God, like Rama and Krishna for example. Secondly, once you develop this faith,
automatically, your actions would have the Divine fragrance than merely being
those expected of even sathwic humans. Elsewhere, Swami has explained,
as Krishna did earlier, that all gunas are like chains that bind. Even the
highly desirable quality, sathwa is a chain, though of gold maybe. God
grants the special blessing of human birth to rise ABOVE to the level of God.
It is to stress this
that we have used the analogy of climbing the Everest, describing a sathwic
individual as merely the equivalent of arriving at the base camp. Thereafter,
one has to go through many drills and preparations before the climb itself
starts, which is arduous, to say the least. Here is where Swami offers a
beautiful and simple way of getting to the top, almost like going there by a
helicopter, one might say.
Swami’s recipe is
simple. In effect it is:
O man! Remember, that
verily you are God within. That also means that everything around you is God
and nothing but God. So why don’t you go through daily life serving God who is
everywhere around you? Service does not mean wearing a scarf, going to a village
and sweeping the roads. Say you are a teacher. In that case, enter the class
smiling. Put your heart and soul into the teaching as if you were teaching Baby
Krishna. If you find some student not paying attention, go to that child and
find out what the problem is. Say a few kind words to boost that child’s
confidence. Act in such a manner that you inspire every child to become a good
person like you. Then you know what? You would be doing layers and layers of
service. First you would be serving all the children, directly. Next, you would
be serving your school by earning it a good reputation. Thirdly, you would be
serving all the parents by molding their children even better than they can,
because they spend so many more hours with you. And lastly, you would be
serving the country itself by helping the students to develop their character.
This can be done by
people in all walks of life, be the individual a policeman, a doctor, a nurse,
a judge, a hotel manager, or even a grandfather or grandmother. Swami
compresses all these innumerable possibilities and gives it to us as a simple
Message: LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL.
The message is brief,
but when you unravel it, all the innumerable possibilities show up. However,
they are all variations of just one theme which is ‐ First cognize the God
within you. Then see God everywhere, and after that seize every opportunity to
serve that God in whatever manner you can, all the time. That is the equivalent
of the direct helicopter ride to the top of the Everest. Think about it!
Jai
Sai Ram.
