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The Quest for Liberation
The following talk was given by
David Jevons to an audience of Sai Baba devotees, who had gathered
for the annual Spring Retreat that was held at the Lord Wandsworth
College, Long Sutton, Hants, in the UK, over the weekend of April
9th/11th 1999. It has been edited, but only for the purpose of
reproducing it in this Newsletter.
As many of you know, Ann and I
now live in British Columbia, in Canada but, even so, here we are
again at a Sai function in England. It seems like we are always
travelling. I looked at my diary recently and noted that in the
past year we have spent over ninety days away from our new home
and so it comes as no surprise to me that I am here speaking to
you today. I would like to begin by saying that it's a great joy
for Ann and I to be back in the bosom of the UK Sai family. We
travel all over the world, meet many Sai families and attend many
Sai functions, and it is from this perspective that I can tell you
that you are privileged to be present at such a special event.
The devotion here is so great and Sai Baba's presence is so
strong that it's just like being with him in India. Now every
time that I leave Swami after a visit to Prasanthi Nilayam I say
to myself "Can it get any better than this? Can the
experience get any deeper?" and each time that I return I find
that it does. Similarly, every time that I return to this Spring
Retreat I find that it gets both better and deeper. This, of
course, is in no small way due to Joan and Richard Brake and the
organising committee and they deserve our thanks for both the
planning and the organisation of this event.
Why are you here? At the
beginning of the retreat Joan Brake quite rightly said that you
are not here because of her, but because of Sai Baba. You are not
here because Joan invited you, but because Sai Baba invited you,
every one of you. He invited you here because of all your good
deeds, not just in this life, but also in many past lives. You
are his guests and it is both an honour and a privilege for you to
be here, in his presence, but recognise that you have earned it
through meritorious actions in the past. What is important at
this time is that we are aware as to why Swami has called us here
and this is the theme of my talk to you today - The Quest for
Liberation. Now Ann and I have just come back from Puttaparthi. We
spent three weeks with Swami and our family was blessed with three
interviews. Sai Baba told us many things, but before I talk about
that I would like to focus on one particular subject, which has
been a cause of concern amongst some devotees recently, namely,
the falling away of certain well known devotees, who have either
turned against Swami or who have been thrown out of the ashram in
disgrace. When Ann and I were in Puttaparthi several people came
up to us and asked for our opinion as to what was going on, as to
why such events were taking place. I was inspired to read the
last chapter of The Ramayana, which is entitled 'Ending the Play'.
This story of the life and times of Lord Rama is published by the
ashram press in two volumes and it's one of the world's great
spiritual books, containing as many spiritual teachings as are to
be found in the Bible.
In the last chapter of Volume Two,
indeed, in the very last words of that chapter, I found this
amazing statement, which I would like to read to you now. Please
bear in mind that Lord Rama is simply Swami in an earlier
incarnation. So for Rama you can substitute Sai Baba.
'Meanwhile, the news that Rama was contemplating returning to his
own place - this means that he was planning to leave his body and
return to the higher planes of life - came to be known by the
people of Ayodhya; they came in immense numbers to his presence
and prayed that their requests be listened to. Their request was
that they too be taken by him to his divine Home - this means that
they too should be allowed to leave their physical bodies and be
granted liberation. The Lord said that it was a right request and
he agreed to do so. He was glad at their affection and the
devotion and dedication towards their Lord. Lakshmana (Rama's
half brother) led them all. Lord Rama then goes on to allocate
duties and responsibilities to the great souls who have helped him
to triumph in his battle against the evil forces of Ravana. Finally
he turned to Vibhishana and Jambavan, two of his loyal generals,
and he says to them. "Vibhishana! You have to rule over Lanka:
you will attain my Presence in the end." He blessed him thus.
Then he turned to Jambavan and told him "Jambavan! Be on the
Earth till the end of the Dwapara age. Then, incarnated as
Krishna, a fight with you will happen to me. You will then
recognise me as now." He blessed him in that manner.' Then
Lord Rama and his followers walked into the Sarayu River and they
merged with him and attained liberation.
Now what is amazing about all of
this? It is the fact that a close devotee of Lord Rama, Jambavan,
who by all rights should have merged with Rama along with all the
other devotees, is given a role by Rama to stay on the Earth for a
further 5,000 years and then to fight against Rama, who he loves
and recognises as God incarnate, when Rama reincarnates as
Krishna, because he then will not recognise him as God incarnate!
Truly life on the Earth is a drama, a game, and God is both the
author and the director of this drama to the extent that a loyal
devotee of the Lord in one cycle is given the role of opposing
that same Lord in the next cycle. So where are our standards of
good and bad when we judge the roles of other people? We are all
allocated roles in the great drama of life, roles that are
designed to illustrate the glory of the Lord and to test our faith
in Him. So it is not for us to worry about or to judge the roles
of others, about the karma we believe that they are creating
through their actions. All that we should worry about is our
reaction to them, is our karma. The little dramas that are now
manifesting in Puttaparthi are tests for us, to test our faith in
Swami and in his stated mission. We should not be concerned about
the fact that they are happening. I feel that we are going to
hear many more rumours, and face many more tests, before the end
of this Kali Yuga. What is really being tested is our faith in
the avatar of the Age. If we keep our faith alive, if we stick
with him, then nothing can harm us, nothing can hurt us. Swami
came to me in a very powerful dream about three weeks ago and at
the very end of the dream he came close to me, until his face was
almost touching mine and, looking straight into my eyes, he said,
"Remember my face. One day it will save you." That message
is as much for you as it is for me.
In one of our interviews Sai Baba
said that the Earth was sick, that the hole in the ozone layer was
getting bigger and that the Earth had a temperature. He compared
the body of the Earth to the human body and said that when our
body's temperature rises even a degree, then, the body gets sick,
it has a fever. That is the body's way of cleansing itself and it
is the same for the Earth. The Earth has to cleanse herself. He
also said that Humanity is unbalancing the Earth by taking too
many minerals and too much oil out of the surface of the Earth for
short-term gain. He said that the Earth was hollow and that the
outside shell was very delicate and was becoming imbalanced. He
then formed his hand into a ball, to represent the Earth, and
turned it sideways, representing a shift of the axis. Now what
this means I do not know, but I feel that we are in for a pretty
rough time in the not too distant future. Most importantly of all
he again made reference to his plane taking off. He always jokes
with me about his plane because I was an airline pilot. He once
put his arm around my shoulders at the conclusion of an interview
and said, "You're my pilot but, remember, I'm your pilot."
I feel that the crisis in the Balkans is just a preview of what
is to come. We all have to start preparing for the great changes
that are going to happen and our only protection in all of this is
Sai Baba's grace. Remember his words "Why fear when I am here."
We are all protected in so many ways of which we are hardly aware.
We are privileged to be here on the Earth at this time, to
witness the ending of a great drama. What is going to happen,
nobody but Sai Baba knows, but we are all destined to play
significant roles in that drama. In order to do this we have to
rise above the drama, to remember that we are the observers of the
drama and not allow ourselves to be affected by it. I like to use
the analogy of a doctor. If a doctor is called to the scene of a
horrendous road crash, with injured and dead people all around him,
he has to stay calm and detached if he is to truly help the people
in the crash. He has to remain detached in order to serve. If he
becomes part of the suffering he cannot properly serve those in
need.
As I said earlier, you are all
here in this room because Sai Baba has called you. You did not
choose to be here, you were summoned. You were summoned because
Sai Baba's plane, the plane of liberation, is about to take off
and you are being offered the opportunity to be on it. If you
truly want liberation, then this is the greatest opportunity that
you will ever have to attain it. Sai Baba is the pilot of that
plane and we should follow his instructions carefully. Listen to
his words.
"I have come to give you the key of the treasure of bliss, to
tell you how to tap that spring, for you have forgotten the way to
blessedness. If you waste this chance of saving yourselves, it is
just your fate. You have come to get from me tinsel and trash,
the petty little cures and promotions, worldly joys and comforts.
Very few of you desire to get from me the thing that I have come
to give to you, namely, Liberation itself! And even among those
few who do, those who stick to the path of spiritual practice and
succeed will be a handful."
Let us not be in any doubt that
Sai Baba is in a gathering process. Let us return to the analogy
of the plane. On his 65th birthday Sai Baba said that his plane
was taxiing out for departure. On his 70th birthday he said that
the plane was lined up on the runway, revving up its engines. Now
he tells us that on his 75th birthday, which is next year, the
plane will take off. So we have just over eighteen months in
which to collect our boarding cards! Of course Sai Baba is not
talking about a physical plane, a 747 or something like that, he
is talking about a collection process, a sifting of consciousness.
So if you are not spiritually ready by that date, then, you won't
get on the plane. The import of this is that we have to prepare
ourselves now for that all-important date. We all have an
appointment with Swami and, as such, we have eighteen months in
which to transform ourselves, to follow the spiritual path that
Sai Baba has laid out for us, if we truly want to attain
liberation in this lifetime. Now if the idea of losing your
personal identity and merging with the Source is frightening to
you, then, that's fine. You can catch a later flight. But why
miss this great opportunity unless, like Jambavan, the Lord has a
role for you to play in the future.
In our interviews Sai Baba gently
and lovingly reiterated to us that we have to keep God in our
thoughts every minute of the day. We have to live, breath, think
and even dream God. God has to be with us every minute of our
waking lives, to be sitting on our shoulder motivating us,
directing us in all of our actions. When we wake up in the
morning God is sleeping in bed along side us. When we drive to
work God is sitting in the seat beside us. In our workplace God
is working alongside us. When we deal with a customer, recognise
that we are dealing with God. When we break for lunch God has
lunch with us too and so it goes on. There is never a time when
God is apart from us. If we keep God in our minds at all times,
then, we are on the royal road to liberation. If we follow God's
Laws, walk in His footsteps, then, we are on the path to
liberation. In one sense God can be compared to the water in
which a fish, which symbolises you and I, swims. The water is all
around the fish at all times and a little bit of the water is even
inside the fish. If the water were not there, then, the fish
would die. That is the reality of God. Of course the one thing
we have to remember in all of this is that we don't have to
achieve liberation, because we are already liberated. Sai Baba
says that Man's original sin was to believe that he was not
liberated. We are already liberated! All that we have to do is
discover that fact by dispelling the clouds of maya and ego that
surround us, by recognising that we are not the body, that we were
never born and so we can never die. We are eternal beings. We
are no different from God. When we know that as a fact, then, we
will be liberated.
Now in this Age there are two
paths that we can walk to achieve union with God. There is the
path of Devotion and the path of Wisdom or Self-knowledge and, at
this time, Sai Baba says that the path of Wisdom is a very
difficult path to tread unless you become a sannyasin and go and
sit in a cave in the Himalayas, but the path of Devotion is a
relatively easy path to walk and is open to us all. Sai Baba
gives us the analogy of the monkey and the cat to illustrate the
difference between the paths of Wisdom and Devotion. He says that
the path of Wisdom is when we unite with God through our own
striving and the path of Devotion is when God unites with us
because of the efforts that we have made. The path of Wisdom can
be compared to the baby monkey, which has to cling to the mother
monkey in order to go with her. It is the baby monkey's own
efforts that decide whether or not it goes with its mother. The
path of Devotion can be compared to the kitten. It has to do
nothing because the mother cat always picks up the kitten in her
mouth and takes it to wherever it needs to be and places it there.
The kitten's life or destiny is entirely in the hands or, more
literally, in the mouth, of the mother cat. So Sai Baba is the
mother cat and we are his kittens. If we will but trust him he
will place us exactly where we have to be, to do just what we have
to do, in order to gain the prize of liberation.
I would like now to share with
you three stories of what happened to me during my last visit to
Prashanti Nilayam, a few weeks ago, which all illustrate the above
point. The first story is about the fact that when Ann and I were
planning our visit to Sai Baba we decided very firmly, even though
several people had asked if they could come with us, that we would
not be taking a group. We know, from listening to the experiences
of other group leaders, what a lot of hard work is involved in
taking a group to the ashram. Well, as the saying goes, if you
want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. Eventually we took a
group of fifteen people and Ann was even given that number in a
vision some time before we departed! Now Ann and I had carefully
selected the days of our visit to the ashram so as to arrive just
after the students' sports day was over, when we knew that Swami
would be very busy and we wouldn't get much attention, and to
leave just before the festival of Shivaratri because of the vast
crowds that come to celebrate that festival. What we hadn't taken
into account, of course, was the Hindu calendar and when we got
there we were horrified to find that Shivaratri was very early
this year and would coincide with the last day of our stay at the
ashram. We had miscalculated. Luckily for us, Swami hadn't. Sai
Baba, the mother cat, had picked us up and had put us down just
where we needed to be. He had ensured that we were present for
what was, perhaps, to be one of the most significant events in our
lives so far.
As the festival of Shivaratri
approached the ashram became very crowded and the normal routine
changed rapidly and, often, at very short notice. Advertised
events didn't happen at the published time and confusion abounded.
The morning before the night of Shivaratri I went down to join
the lines of people queuing for darshan only to find that the seva
dals had abandoned the cosmic lottery - the normal system by which
devotees are admitted to the darshan area by the drawing of tokens
- without telling anybody, and that entrance was now to be on a
first come, first in basis. Many people were outraged by this
high-handed decision, but there was nothing that they could do
about it. Those people who turned up at the normal time found
themselves right at the back of the darshan area with only a
distant view of Swami. As I walked out of morning darshan I
thought to myself, "Right, I'll have to play this game their
way, especially since my position in afternoon darshan will decide
my position for Shivaratri night, when I know Swami will give a
discourse." So I immediately joined the queues that were
forming in preparation for the afternoon darshan lines, even
though it was early morning. I felt that I had been very smart.
I was in the first line and I knew that I was going to get a good
position in afternoon darshan. So the queuing process began. I
might add here that in totality I sat on my bottom for nineteen
and a half hours that day! Eventually, at around one o'clock, the
seva dals allowed the pre-darshan lines down into the darshan
lines area in preparation for entering afternoon darshan. Then,
for the first time that I have ever known, the men, who are
usually so well behaved, broke ranks and surged down en-mass to
the darshan lines. I was nowhere near the first line. All my
queuing had been in vain! I was cross. I said inwardly
"Swami, I've been dharmic, I've demonstrated my willingness to get
close to you and now look what you've done. You've made a
complete shambles of everything!" As you can see, I was not
amused by the turn of events.
About twenty minutes went by and
then the seva dal in charge of the darshan lines suddenly
announced, in the face of growing discontent, that there would be
a cosmic lottery after all. I was very happy with this decision,
especially since there were now close on thirty lines of men
trying to get in. As you can see, the ashram was packed. So I
sat there waiting patiently for the lottery to take place. I
though to myself "Well this is Shivaratri, Shiva's day, so I
had better chant a Shiva bhajan or mantra to try and get some good
karma here, because I certainly need it." So I started
singing quietly to myself as a mantra 'Shivaya Namah Shiva,
Shivaya Namah Shiva, Shivaya Namah Om Namah Shivaya'. I kept this
up for almost half-hour, until the cosmic lottery took place when,
to my utter amazement, I was in line one and was the fifth person
into the darshan area. As I walked in I offered a silent prayer
of thanks to Swami and I sat down in the best seat in the house,
right in the very front row, close to Swami's chair. I was very
happy and I struck up a conversation with a delightful gentleman
from Columbia in South America to help pass the time. After a few
hours had passed, as I was feeling a little bit tired and sore
from all the sitting, I announced to my newfound friend that I was
going back to my apartment for a shower and a short nap. He
looked at me in amazement and said "Sir, you cannot leave. You've
got the best seat in the house, you could sell this seat for 5,000
rupees or more to anyone inside this ashram and, moreover, if you
go, any one of the ten thousand Indians behind you will instantly
occupy it if you are gone for too long." A little
shamefacedly I said "Oh, is tonight that important?" He
replied "Don't you know what's happening tonight? It's
Shivaratri, the night when you can achieve so much, when you can
still your mind and establish control over it for the rest of your
life. Moreover Swami always gives very special blessings on this
day." So I remained in my seat as he told me about the
Shivaratri festivals of old when Swami used to produce lingams.
Eventually Sai Baba came in and
gave his evening discourse in which he expounded on the benefits
of Shivaratri, asked us to stay up throughout the night and to
sing bhajans and so purify our minds. He also alluded to the
possibility of a lingam coming. Well, the moment he said that,
the whole energy in the darshan area changed. Instead of leaving,
as was the usual practice, everyone remained in their seats and
the energy level just rose and rose. The only unfortunate thing,
as far as I was concerned, was that I was sitting right behind one
of the big pillars that supported the roof and so I could not
actually see Sai Baba when he gave his discourse and I was quite
upset by this. So I prayed to Swami to get his seat moved back so
that I could see him in the morning and, amazingly, after a short
time, two seva dals came and did just that, and I offered up a
prayer of thanks. Unfortunately, early the next morning, they
returned to move the chair back to its original position so that
when Sai Baba came in I could not see him sitting in his chair.
After only a very short time he produced this beautiful golden
lingam out of his mouth. He also said that those who saw the
lingam emerge from his mouth would gain liberation in this life
and that those who saw him holding the lingam up after it had
emerged would also gain special blessings. This was the first
time that Sai Baba has produced a lingam in public for twenty two
years and Ann and I were privileged to be there to witness it. I
could not help remembering that we had planned our visit to avoid
Shivaratri and yet here we were, thanks to Swami's planning,
getting immeasurable benefits from being here! I offered up a
silent prayer of gratitude.
Now Ann, who was sitting by the
first arch, in the VIP section, had a wonderful view of the whole
proceedings and Swami, of course, has told her that she is going
to get liberation at the end of this life. So it was right and
proper that she should see the lingam as it emerged. I, on the
other hand, sitting behind this pillar, certainly did not see it
emerge, even though I saw it seconds later, which meant that I am
not getting liberation in this life, at least not so far! Swami
said that there were great blessings and benefits to be gained
from seeing the lingam as he held it up, but not liberation. Now
this is interesting because when I went to have a reading from the
Book of Brighu last year, this book contains a record of the lives
of certain souls who are listed in it, I was told that I was to
have one more life with Swami when he incarnates as Prema Sai. I
am destined to be born in Southern India in my next life and I
will spend most of my life in Swami's ashram and will attain
liberation at the end of that life. Now do you see the reality
of what took place, even to the extent of placing me behind a
pillar, so that I was unable to see the emergence of the lingam,
because it wasn't in my destiny to do so. The mother cat had
placed its kitten exactly where she wanted it to be. It didn't
matter that I didn't see the lingam emerge, because it wasn't my
time to see it. This is what happens when you follow the path of
devotion. If you walk hand in hand with Swami he will place you
just where you need to be.
My final story is even more
amazing, amazing to me anyway. In Swami's ashram at Puttaparthi
it is sometimes possible to get into the small temple for morning
bhajans. The significance of this is that Swami comes and sits on
his throne in the temple and so you get half an hour's close
darshan. Depending on how many ashram staff and students occupy
the space in the temple first, which is their right, perhaps about
fifty people can get in after them for this wonderful experience.
Now in order to get into the temple six short lines form in the
darshan area after morning darshan is over. To join these lines,
unless you are actually sitting where the lines form, is like
joining a rugger scrum. Some people literally just dive in to the
melee to try to get a place. Well for days I had been trying to
get into a line but had got nowhere. I had decided to give up and
to stop wasting my time and my energy. On one particular day,
however, something inside me told me to go and try again. So I
tried, but by the time that I reached the lines I was too late.
The six permitted lines had already formed and were full. The
situation was hopeless, but then an illegal seventh line began to
form. I sat down in this illegal seventh line knowing that I was
going to be asked to leave by the seva dals but, amazingly, on
that day they allowed this illegal line to stay.
When the cosmic lottery for these
seven lines took place I found that I was in line one and was
amongst the first people to go inside the temple. Now,
unbeknownst to me, Ann, on the lady's side, following a similar
inspiration, had joined the lady's lines and she too had chosen
line one and was amongst the first ladies to enter the temple. We
both sat down in the temple alongside each other in a mirror
position, she on the ladies' side and I on the men's side! Now
when you think that there must have been over 10,000 people in the
ashram that morning, all wanting to do the same thing, given all
the many variables and the cosmic lotteries, what are the real
odds of such a thing happening? Only the hand of God could have
arranged it. So Ann and I sat there beaming inwardly and smiling
at each other. Just before bhajans began Swami entered the temple
and walked up to where we were sitting and Ann, who is never
exactly shy in talking to Swami said "Swami, my husband is here."
Swami looked at her and in a very amused voice said, "Yes, yes, I
know" and then he turned and talked to me. It was a wonderful
moment, more precious than any interview, because it proves to me,
and I hope to you, that the omnipresent Sai is so powerful, so all
knowing, that you are always placed exactly where you are meant to
be. It was the mother cat at work again. Just let go and let God.
You have nothing to worry about if you place your hands in Swami's
and let him lead you. The odds of such a meeting happening in
real life are probably greater than those of winning a public
lottery.
We are all bound for liberation,
and for some of us it can be achieved in this lifetime. It can be
achieved. Swami says that such an opportunity will not happen
again. The avatar is personally here to lead us along the path of
liberation and to invite us to fly in his plane. Now if you enjoy
life on the Earth, if you want to live hundreds of more lifetimes
on the Earth, then, know that you can choose to do that. There is
no pressure on you at all to choose liberation, but if you truly
feel that you want to merge with the Source of all Life, to know
all things, to be at one with everything in creation, then, surely,
this is the time to seize the moment and to make every sacrifice
possible to gain this great prize. We are being offered the prize
for which great spiritual beings have quested over many lives.
The Lord of the Heavens is here on the Earth offering it to us. All
that we have to do is to follow the path that he is now walking,
is to place our lives in his hands, is to follow the spiritual
disciplines that he has laid out for us. We must observe and
exemplify the nine-point code of conduct. We must love all and
serve all. We must follow the disciplines that he has asked us to
follow, namely, to stop eating meat, to stop drinking alcohol, to
stop gambling and to stop smoking. We must learn to love everyone,
to see the God in everyone, to treat everyone as an equal
regardless of race, colour or creed. We must see the God in
everyone if we are to bring forth the God in ourselves. Finally,
let us remember Swami has said that in this time of Kali Yuga the
path of devotion is the easiest and the fastest path to God.
There are three kinds of
liberation. Firstly, there is the liberation that happens without
you even seeking it! As you walk down the street, suddenly, out
of nowhere it happens. You are one with everything, you know
everything, you are full of peace and bliss, you feel love for
everyone and everything. Unfortunately, such a feeling usually
only lasts for a few minutes and then it goes, but you have had a
taste of the reality of the Godhead. Secondly, there is the
liberation that comes from the practice of following certain
spiritual disciplines. This is the path of many sanyasis in
India. They are taught certain techniques by a guru, they
meditate, they study sacred texts, they sit alone in caves, they
become ascetics and lead a life that is devoted to the search for
liberation. They devote their lives to it and often can achieve
liberation for varying periods of time, but often never on a
permanent basis. Thirdly, there is the liberation, the gift,
which Swami is offering to us, which is eternal liberation, which
is the liberation we experience when we merge with the oneness of
God never to return to the Earth again. When we merge with the
Source, we become the Source; we have all the knowledge and wisdom
of the Source. So at this time we don't have to follow a lot of
spiritual disciplines, we don't have to read a lot of spiritual
books, we don't have to follow a lot of austerities and become
ascetics. We simply have to place our hand in Swami's and walk
hand in hand with him. He will take us to our goal.
Finally I would like to read to
you something that Sai Baba said in his discourse on the morning
of Shivaratri. I feel that it's important that we all look at
this aspect of our relationship with Sai Baba, because some
people, I know from experience, form a very co-dependent
relationship with him. So let us just listen to his words of
warning.
"Do not get deluded just
because I talk, laugh, walk and eat like you. Don't get deluded
by this body feeling. All my actions are selfless, selfless,
selfless. There is no trace of selfishness in me at all. Have
firm faith in this truth. If you have total faith, wherever you
are, all your desires will be fulfilled without your asking. Only
those who don't have total faith will suffer, so develop
self-confidence, that is the first spiritual discipline that you
must follow. You must undertake this now. Liberation can be
gained in this lifetime. Millions know me, millions will come to
me, but only a handful will obtain liberation." May you all
be in the handful that will gain liberation in this lifetime.
Source: Ramala Centre Newsletter,
September 1999,
http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter09_99_01.htm
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