Chapter 12  ·  Contents  ·  Chapter 14

13. GOD IS PERMANENT, THE WORLD IS TEMPORARY

Embodiments of Divine Love,

Let us remove all of the impurities from our minds and install only pure, sacred thoughts therein. We will then have the vision of wisdom that the entire universe shines as Brahman Himself who created everything out of Love. The lasting happiness that man desires is not of this temporary ephemeral world which is mainly one of worry and misery. Happiness and comforts from this world are neither stable nor permanent. It is possible for man to attain eternal Bliss when he realizes that the universe is the form of the Divine. He who views the world as the world only, is a fool. "The differences lie in one's vision and not in the creation, but man forgets the Divine feelings and views the world only from a material perspective. All of the apparent world should be seen only with the Divine outlook.

"The world is made up of atoms. From the macrocosm to the microcosm there is only Divinity; God is therefore the biggest as well as the minutest. God is within the atom and permeates through the entire creation which consists of atoms. If we develop sacred Divine Love we will discover Divinity in the world.

Heads are separate so thoughts will also vary. Here is a small story to illustrate this. Once four students visited a temple in India. "They argued among themselves that the idol there consists of different colours and materials. The first student saw the idol as consisting of white marble, another as red stone, the other as blue, and the last insisted that it was green. "They made a very big noise while arguing as is the fashion in the modern age, and this noise attracted the attention of the priest. He exhorted them to maintain peace as they were in a sacred temple. "The students then asked the priest the colour of the idol and he replied that it is black. He said that he had been worshipping this idol for the past twenty years so he could certainly affirm that it is black. "The priest understood that the students' quarrelling was due to their level of intelligence which has been developed through pursuing knowledge only through books. He distributed prasad to all of them and then removed their eye glasses. "They were then able to see that the colour of the idol was indeed black. With Divine vision one can perceive Truth. But sometimes one is not able to perceive the proximate Divinity due to distorted vision. Today knowledge has progressed in technology and all other fields, but has led to diversity in our vision with the result that individual Divine vision has been lost.

Man has learned to travel to the moon at great expense but not an inch within himself. He has developed the outer vision only; he does not look inside himself which is cost free. The reflection of Divine Light on the mind is known as the "moon." Man has not bothered to see his own moon (mind), but travels to the moon to bring back dust. Why do we need to go to the moon for dust when we can get truck loads full of mud here on earth? Man has developed a steadfast endeavour to experience that which is far away rather than his own nature. From afar a mountain looks smooth, but when one goes near it he can see that it is full of stones.

All modem education is like building castles in the air. The knowledge man has today is only like a small mustard seed, but man claims that it is the size of a pumpkin. This pride is characteristic of the modern age. In the present day man has invented weapons for killing people; the newspapers constantly report many deaths. Oh! mad man, is your intelligence only to be used for inventing weapons to kill the outer enemies? Man has so many internal enemies like ego, anger, pride and envy, but he does not kill them; instead he goes on killing outer enemies. First one should kill the enemy ego and the deadly enemy jealousy. Man has been acting ignorantly. When he conquers his inner enemies, then he will have the right to conquer the outer ones. One who is subject to internal enemies is a slave and does not know the human qualities. To be truly human and develop one-pointed vision to the Divine, man should be the master of himself, not a slave. Baba sang,

The jewel for one's hand is performing acts of charity,
The jewel for one's neck is speaking the Truth,
The jewel for the ear is hearing the sacred texts,
What need is there for any other jewels?

Beauty is Truth. Charity is the real decoration. Listening to sacred texts is the decoration for the ears. Try to understand the distinction between Truth and untruth. As man today has no discrimination. Truth is taken as untruth and vice versa. There is no other cosmic form beyond this world that one perceives with the senses and the mind. Who has created all these lands and worlds that man sees? Oh! Krishna, the cosmic form is not separate from You. Every person being a part of the cosmic form is Divine. You, yourself, as Atma, are God and are also ancient. God has descended to the earth in all these human forms. If we realize this Truth, that we are not this human body but Atma, we will not have low and mean thoughts. Convince yourself that, "I am God," the eternal, ancient, ever-new one. After such an investigation into yourself, you will know that everything is sacred. However, today mankind is not proceeding in this direction.

In India, when you enter a bus, the first person to enter sits in the front seat and the last person takes the last seat. The first person to board the bus gets off last and the last person to enter gets off first. In the plane also it is the same. The first person to board gets down last and the last person gets down first. In life you should understand what is meant by first and last. "First" stands for Divinity. One who understands Divinity goes slowly and merges first with the Divine. In the beginning he is in the first stage of Divinity. If he keeps anything in his bag, while sitting on the bus, if it is valuable he has to look for it, so he has to be on the bus for a long time. This is called prapti (deservedness). Likewise, for many years now, you have been taking darshan (seeing), sparshan (touching) and sambashan (talking) of Swami. Though you have come first you are going last. The one who has a pure heart, even though he may have come to God late in life, comes out first (attains liberation). Wash off all the dirt from your mind and fill it with pure thoughts and thus gain the vision of wisdom. Then the universe will shine for you as the cosmic form of God. Einstein stated that the universe is a combination of atoms. Everything in creation is dancing to the cosmic tune which consists of vibrations. Long ago the ancient saints declared that the whole universe is Divine. Oh! mind, dwell on Rama, the Divine principle; sages called this Divine principle Rama, while today science calls it atoms. The only difference is in the name. The ancient culture of Bharat is very sacred with lofty principles.

Tyagaraja, a saint who lived in India, prayed, "Oh! mind, please tell me what will confer happiness. Does happiness come from pleasure or proximity to God? What is freedom?" Tyagaraja learned that thinking of the Divinity confers Bliss; that there is nothing more in life than this. One envies others because they have material plentifulness and seem to be happy, but the point is that you will become happier by dwelling on God. They have bhoga (riches) and roga (diseases). You should feel happy that you don't have roga. One should have only sacred thoughts but humans today are attracted in the wrong direction. What is the reason for this? It is due to the samskaras (tendencies) from their past lives. If one is cleansed of past life samskaras, one's life can become sacred. Man wants everything without eliminating all of the bad qualities from past lives. Listen to one word, one good word; do not follow others and play mad games. Give up the mistakes and bondages. Chant the name of Sri Sathya Sai! Sri Sathya Sai!. Nowadays man is not listening to the good things but is eager to listen to the bad. Why have the eyes been given? Is to see everything? No; they have been given only to see God. Why have the legs been given? Have they been given only to wander around? Only for earning a living to buy food? No; they have been given to serve mankind and gain liberation. All one's physical limbs should be offered for service with this attitude in mind. All one's limbs are of God and indicate that, "I am God." "I" is the first name of God. We must inquire clearly. We say "I am Swami, or I am a man, I am a woman, I am a Brahmin, I am a Vaishya." When I say, "I am Swami," "I" is first and Swami is next. Likewise, when I say, "I am a woman," "I" is first and woman is next. So "I" is always first. When you ask anyone his name, he will say Rama or Ramaya, but first is "I" and next is the name. Once when a devotee prayed to God, God appeared and declared, "I am the Deity of your prayers." Even God says "I" first. The world is bound by "I" (universal).

The reason for the existence of "I" (personal) and "mine" is the feeling of attachment one has towards things as well as one's own body. If after you sold your car, it met with an accident, you would not bother about it or become sad. If someone hung a poster on the walls of your house you would become very annoyed and fight with him, but after you sell your house, you would not bother even if a bomb fell on it. If you have money in the bank (Love of God), you can draw a cheque, and withdraw it at anytime. In every aspect of life, as long as one carries the sense of me and mine, there exists attachment. When there is no attachment one will not be affected, and this attitude of non-attachment will lead one to the realization of Divinity. All attachments should be directed towards Divinity as God is the one reality. The prayer,

"Twameva Matha cha Pitha twameva
Twameva Bhandu cha Sakha twameva
Twameva Vidya, Dravinam twameva
Twameva Sarvam, Mama Deva Deva"

means, "You are my Mother and Father, You are my Relative and Friend, You are my Knowledge and Wealth, You are my Everything." Instead of saying "This is mine," say "God is mine and Everything is God." Such a relationship has seldom been developed today and that is the cause for unhappiness.

How should one understand this detachment? One should not claim that the body, mind, intellect, etc, are his. How can one say that they are not his? Say, "Na Deham," which means, "I am not the body"; "Na Buddhi," "I am not the intellect"; "Na Manas"', "I am not the mind." Here we are referring to the external mind; the other aspect is the internal mind that consists of inner Bliss. As this Bliss is within man, no search is required to locate it. One cannot acquire this Bliss from outside through one's status or position but can attain it only through Love. Without expressing Love, no one will Love you. The entire drama of life consists of dancing puppets. Man, do not be so proud of your beauty because you lie on the doorstep of old age when you will not be able to walk, your skin will be full of wrinides and all will laugh at you. Realize now that you are only a puppet. The human body has been gifted to do sacred action to realize that work is God and to know that Truth is God Who is infinite.

Swami ended His Discourse by singing "Sathyam, Jnanam, Anantham, Brahma......:"

April 18, 1996

Chapter 14