Dear Seeker!
Bhagavan has announced Himself as the Divine Teacher of Truth,
Beauty and Goodness. By precept and example, through His writings
and discourses, letters and conversations, He has been instilling
the supreme wisdom and instructing all mankind to translate it
into righteous living, inner peace and universal love. When the
Ramakatha Rasa Vahini, the uniquely authentic nectarine stream of
the Rama story, was serialised in full in the "Sanathana Sarathi",
Bhagavan blessed readers with a new series which He named
"Bharathiya Paramartha Vahini" (The Stream of Indian Spiritual
Values). While these precious essays on the basic truths, that
foster and feed Indian Culture since ages before history began,
were being published, Bhagavan decided to continue the flow of
illumination and instruction under a more comprehensive and
meaningful name, "Sathya Sai Vahini" - the Ganga from the Lotus
Feet of the Lord - "The Flow of Divine Sai Grace". This book,
therefore, contains the two Vahinis that have merged in one master
stream.
Inaugurating these series, Bhagavan wrote, for publication in
the Sanathana Sarathi, "Moved by the urge to cool the heat of
conflict and to quench the agonising thirst for 'knowledge about
yourself' that you are afflicted with, see, here it comes, the
Sathya Sai Vahini, wave behind wave, with the Sanathana Sarathi as
the medium between you and me." With infinite compassion, this
Sathya Sai incarnation of the Omniwill is giving millions of
persons in all lands freedom from disease, distress and despair,
narcotics, narcissism and nihilism. He is encouraging those who
suffer gloom through willful blindness to light the Lamp of Love
in order to see the world and the Lamp of Wisdom to see
themselves. "This is a tantalising true false world; its apparent
diversity is an illusion; it is One, but is cognised by the maimed
multiple vision of humans as Many", says Bhagavan. This book is
the twin Lamp He has devised for us.
Lord Krishna aroused Arjuna
from the gloomy depression into which he led his mind, at the very
moment when duty called on him to be himself - the far famed
warrior, ready and eager to fight on behalf of right against
might. Krishna effected the cure by reminding him of the Atma
which was his reality and of Himself being the Atma he was.
Bhagavan says that we too are easily prone to get caught "in the
coils of cleverness and the meshes of dialectical logic. The key
to success in spiritual endeavour (and, what is life worth, if it
is not dedicated to that high endeavour?) is philosophical inquiry
and moral advance, both culminating in the awareness of the Atma,
the source and sum of all the energy and activity that is." We are
all motivated by fear, doubt and attachments as Arjuna was. We are
all hesitant at the cross-road between the This and That, the wave
and the ocean.
But, as created by Him, we are "the miracle of miracles".
Bhagavan says, "Whatever is not in man cannot be anywhere outside
him. Whatever is visible outside him is but a rough reflection of
what really is in him." "The Atma is free. It is Purity. It is
Fullness. It is unbounded. Its centre is the body but its
circumference is beyond the beyond." Man has been endowed with a
superintellect that can recognise the existence of the Atma,
strive for bringing it into his awareness and succeed.
However, very few are human enough to seek to know who they
are, why they are here and wherefrom, and whither they go from
here. They move about with temporary names, encased in evanescent
ever-changing bodies. So, Bhagavan accosts us, "Listen! Children
of Immortality! Listen! Listen to the message of the Rishis who
had the Vision of the Most Majestic Person, the Purushothama, the
Foremost and the First, who dwells beyond the realms of Illusion
and Delusion. O ye Human beings! You are by nature ever full. You
are indeed God moving on earth. Is there a greater sin than
calling you 'sinners'? When you accept the appellation, you are
defaming yourselves. Arise! Cast off the humiliating feeling that
you are sheep. Do not be deluded into that idea. You are Atma. You
are drops of Amrith, Immortal Truth, Beauty, Goodness. You have
neither beginning nor end. All things material are your
bondslaves; you are not their bondslaves, as you imagine now."
Bhagavan says, "Through the unremitting practice of Truth,
Righteousness, and Fortitude, the Divinity quiescent in the
individual has to be induced to manifest itself in daily living,
transforming it into the joy of truly loving." "Know the Supreme
Reality; breathe It, bathe in It, live in It, then It becomes all
of you and you become fully It." A material object is not
self-expressive or swathah-prakaasa. It depends wholly on the
capacity for knowledge or chith-sakthi of the individualised Atma
for its manifestation or prakasa. The relative world of objects is
dependent upon the relative consciousness of the jivi or
individualised Atma. When the object is further scrutinised and
the true basis of the Plurality is grasped, Brahman or the
Oversoul as the First Principle is acknowledged as a logical
necessity. Subsequently, when sense control, mind-cleansing,
concentration and inner silence are achieved, what appeared as a
logical necessity dawns upon the purified consciousness as a
Positive Permanent Impersonal Will (Prajnaanam Brahma), whose
expression is all this.
Sathya Sai Vahini reveals to us in unmistakable terms that the
self in man is 'no other than the Overself or God'. We are told
that this is true not only of mankind but of all beings,
everything and anywhere! In fact, "Will causes this unreal
multiplicity of Cosmos on the One that He is. He can by the same
Will end the phenomenon." "Being (God) is behind the Becoming and
Becoming merges in Being. This is the eternal Play," says
Bhagavan.
As Bhagavan writes, "the supreme end of education, the highest
purpose of instruction, is to help us to become aware of the
universal immanent Impersonal." Sathya Sai in His role as the
Teacher of Teachers is instructing us herein for this supreme
adventure of the soul. Seekers proceeding on this pilgrimage have
in Him a compassionate guide and guardian, for He is the
embodiment of the very Will that planned the Play.
As we are led through the valley of this Vahini by Bhagavan who
holds us by the hand, He exhorts us to admire, appreciate and
adore the seers and sages of many lands who have pioneered into
this realm and laid down limits and bounds, preparatory
disciplines and practices, to smooth the path and hasten the
discovery of Truth. He writes of the Vedas and later spiritual
texts, of the Forms of Worship that have stood the test of
centuries of loyal acceptance, and of the Disciplinary Codes laid
down for the four stages of human life and for humans with
pronounced inborn characteristics - the vertical uplifting
Sathwic, the horizontal expansive Rajasic and the dull declining
Thamasic. He clarifies the role of Karma and its consequence.
"Like a frail ship caught in a stormy sea, man climbs up a
gigantic wave and reaches its froth-edged peak. The next moment,
he is hurled into the trough, only to rise again. The rise and
fall are both the consequences of his own deeds. They design the
palace and the prison for man. Grief or joy is the resound, the
reflection or reaction of one's own actions. The Jivi can escape
both by cultivating the attitude of a witness, not involved in the
activities he has to do." Bhagavan writes of 'Yoga' as the process
of the "coming together of Jivatma and Paramatma, the Self and the
Overself" and He elaborates on the path of Love (Bhakthi), of
Selfless Activity (Karma), of mastery over the mind (Raja), of
sublimation of Consciousness (Jnana). Bhagavan analyses the rights
and responsibilities of the individual and society and reveals to
us that they have the one underlying purpose of spiritual
fulfilment.
To sum up, the Sathya Sai Vahini is the Geetha given to us by
the Person who, as Sanathana Sarathi, eager and ready to hold the
reins of our senses, mind, consciousness, ego and intellect, and
guide us safely to Prashanthi Nilayam, the Abode of Supreme peace,
the Goal of all mankind.
May we all be blessed by His Love and Grace.
- N. Kasturi
