SPREADING THE MESSAGE OF PURE LOVE
IN THE NEW WORLD

PROF. G. VENKATARAMAN

Why the Atma is more Important than the Mind and the Body

After all this, I hope you would agree about two important things. Firstly, each of us without exception is made up of three entities: the gross body, the Mind and the Atma. Secondly, this Atma is embodied, that is to say, it is not quite free. Swami explains this to us by drawing attention to a balloon. There is of course air within the balloon as also outside the balloon. However, the air within the balloon is trapped. If that air has to join the air outside, the balloon must be made to burst. What this tells us is that though there IS Atmic aspect within us, it cannot give full expression to itself because the Atma is held or bound by the Mind and the body. This precisely is where Swami’s question, “WHO AM I?” becomes very important.

Swami’s point is simple. He says: “Listen, you are made up of three distinct entities. To which of these do you give importance?” He Himself gives the answer, which is: “You must give importance to the Atma.” Why? Because Atma is God; clearly God is our Master, and that is why we must give importance to the Atma more than to the body or the Mind.

This idea is not difficult to understand. Swami says suppose there is a King. He is married and is therefore also a husband; and he has a son which makes the King a father too. In addition, there is also the fact that he is the King. This means that when he is with his family, he no doubt plays the role of a husband and father, but in public he must always act as the King. In fact, he must never forget that he is the King. Thus, if his son were to commit a crime, then he cannot pardon him just because the accused is his son; instead, he should treat him like every other person accused of a crime. In other words, his role as the King overrides his role as the father – that is the important lesson we should draw from this example.   

This now raises the question: “Suppose we do not like to follow the Atma and choose instead to give importance to the body or the Mind? Why is that not good?” The answer is that if we allow the body to dictate our actions, we would be rather like an animal, guided merely by base instincts. On the other hand, if we allow the Mind to dictate our actions, then there is much greater danger. Why? Because the Mind is extra-ordinarily powerful. Driven by hatred, one could even become a Hitler. Alternately, driven by greed one could be a huge swindler.

In fact, if you think about it a little, you would quickly realise that much of the financial crisis the world is now passing through is purely the result of the enormous greed of just a small number of people. Imagine that! Just a handful of people in important banks and other such financial institutions can drag an entire country like the United States [and indeed a good part of the world along with it] into a huge economic collapse. In short, if one follows the body or the Mind, it can not only cause harm to the individual, but to a large number of people. The drug problem, the terrorist problem and even the climate change problem etc., all these result when people become slaves to the body or the Mind.

OK, what happens now, if one does not take orders from the body or the Mind, but from the Atma within? Swami has explained that also, many, many times. Since the Atma is God, listening to the Atma within means we put God in the driving seat and let Him run our life. That cannot be bad, can it? In fact, if God runs our life, our actions would be highly virtuous, full of Love and compassion. That can do only good and every action would be beneficial to others. That is what Swami does all the time, and He does so by way of setting an example to all of us. In fact, that is why He constantly tells us: “Your life should be My Message!” I hope you are able to follow that. By the way, the Atma within is also called the Conscience, and that is why Swami often says:

FOLLOW THE MASTER. YOUR CONSCIENCE IS YOU MASTER!

Why Pure Love Must Govern All Our Actions

The question now arises: “Is there anything more?” Of course there is, and that is what I would like to discuss next. If you look back in history, till Swami came along Spirituality was largely about the individual becoming saintly and godly and eventually becoming totally liberated from sensual desires, all kinds of worldly wants, etc. That objective continues to remain important. However, one’s Spiritual quest should not and must not stop there. That is a very important point and to my knowledge, Swami alone has been stressing that. In fact, I am astonished how much He has been stressing the need to go beyond seeking individual liberation. This message is extremely important and crucial, especially in this age of globalisation and enormous inter-connectivity [via the satellite, TV, internet, etc]. Let us examine all this carefully. But before I do that, I would like to recall a crucial point that Swami makes about how exactly we should guide our actions. He says:

Your actions are almost always in response to circumstances related to the external world. This means, your actions HAVE TO BE in this world. However, that does NOT mean that your actions must be determined by worldly considerations alone. Rather, your actions must be governed by Eternal Values [i.e., Sathya, Dharma, Prema etc.]

What exactly does this mean? Actually, this is really a restatement of what was said earlier, namely, that our actions must be governed by the Atma [within]. The words “Eternal Values” tells us that actions must be in conformity with Sathya [Truth], Dharma [Righteousness], etc. All that might sound rather complicated and so Swami makes it simple. He says, “Just allow all your actions to be governed by Pure Love.” This sounds simple no doubt, but we must be clear about what this really means.

People use the word Love ever so often; that is because there IS a lot of love in life, such as the love a mother shows her children, the love that a wife has for her husband, and so on. However, this type of love is quite different from what Swami means by Pure Love. Why? For a simple reason; all the love between different human beings is really at the body level. Take, for example, the love a son has for his mother. There is nothing wrong about it; in fact, it is a very good thing. Say the mother dies. The mother is gone but the son still loves his departed mother. Say after a few months, his mother is born as a baby in the neighbour’s house. Is this son going to love the baby next door as much as he loved his mother? No! Do you get the point?

Thus it is that Swami says that while worldly love is no doubt good and is derived from Pure Love, it is restricted because it related largely to the body level. Further, it is diluted with attachment and selfishness. We see this when a lady has a son and also a step-son. Almost invariably, the lady would be very partial to her son and treat the step-son with less consideration. In other words, when Swami says Pure Love, it means Love that is free of any trace of selfishness or self-interest. This is extremely important. It is the Pure Love of Swami that you see in His free education program, His hospitals, and His various water projects.

Swami just cannot bear to see other suffer. When He sees someone suffer pain and agony, His heart melts and He rushes to help. The annual Village Service program that Swami’s students do every year started because in 2000, Swami read one day in the newspaper that a lady gave poison to all her children and then consumed poison herself, because she simply could not feed her family. That was when Swami said to his students, “All of you must spend a few days going to the villages, taking clothes, food and sweets and offer them to the villagers with love and convey Swami’s blessings.”

People ask: “What can a few days of village service do to help the villagers?” That is one way of looking at matters. However, there is another side to the story. I know from personal experience that when students go to the villages day after day for ten consecutive days, and do this for four or five years, it does make a deep impression on our students. Thus, even after they leave the University, our students all over the country spend their week-ends largely in group service in the villages in their area.

With that background, let us now examine how Pure Love can really tackle some of the difficult problems humanity now faces. Let us start by looking at the issue in reverse, that is to say, let us ask why is there, for example, a climate-change problem? The problem started when people in the rich countries consumed enormous amount of energy year after year, largely for maintaining a very high standard of living.

For these people in the developed countries, their high standard of living was something “very sacred” and could never be compromised. All that reckless and non-stop energy consumption pumped huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in turn causing a rise in global temperature. For years, few people paid attention to all this; in fact, most people did not believe in climate change.

Since standard of living is connected with earning money, people in not so rich countries also tried to earn money in their own way. For example, people in Indonesia began burning huge sections of their forests so that they could plant palm trees for making palm oil which had a big export market. Similarly, in many South American countries, people began cutting huge chunks of the precious Amazon forest so that they could do farming, set up industries, etc.

Now the rain forests in the Amazon and in Indonesia [which are really God’s gift to humanity] are like the two lungs of the planet earth. When their size began to shrink, it only helped in increasing the carbon burden on the atmosphere. And then came the rapid development of China and to a certain extent India, which accelerated the carbon dumping, making the climate-change problem urgent.

You might say, “OK, I know all this but what has this got to do with Pure Love?” Good question. Just consider this. Today, everyone knows that climate change is for real, and is happening alarmingly fast. In fact, those who have actively campaigned for doing something about saving the atmosphere have even been awarded the Nobel Prize. That is one side of the story. Now look at what politicians and the big business leaders are doing about the climate change problem – that is the other side of the story. Big business is clearly not in favour of strict control on carbon emission; carbon is emitted all over the place, by power plants that produce electricity, by airplanes, by even trains [that run on diesel], by automobiles, and so on.

Trillions of dollars have been invested in all these industries, and if controls have to be imposed, big business is going to be severely affected, with its profits going down sharply. So, what do the corporate executives do? They get in touch with politicians, give them a lot of money and make sure the politicians apply pressure on their governments. The corporate executives further pump money into the media and make it tell the public that scientists are exaggerating, what would a mere 2 degree rise do, etc.

So you see what is happening?

Why? Because the self-interest of a few is exerting a strong pressure on taking the measures needed to save the planet. When greed, selfishness and self interest dominate strongly, it blinds what Swami calls Fundamental Discrimination. That type of discrimination is the name given to the capacity to judge objectively between right and wrong, between what is good for all and what would benefit a few at the expense of harm and even danger to many.

So, what is the solution? Clearly, Swami’s teachings. What do Swami’s teachings tell us that is pertinent to this situation? They tell us the following:

1. We may have different bodies; that is certainly true but only at the worldly level. If, however, we look at a higher level, we are all ONE because the same Atmic principle in all of us. Remember the saying: “Bulbs are many but current is one.” And also remember that is why Swami says, quoting Jesus: “All are One; therefore be alike to everyone.”
   
   
2. Therefore, we must always reject solutions based on the idea we are different. Such solutions are never satisfactory and soon lead to differences, enmity, hatred, and even conflict.
   
   
3. That is because such solutions are always based on selfishness, local self-interest, and advantage for just a few. This usually happens at the end of a war in which one side wins and the other side loses heavily. The two sides no doubt sign a peace treaty but one that is humiliating for the loser. Result? The loser becomes bitter and soon there is war again. That is precisely what happened in the first half of the 20th century. In 1918, a humiliating Peace Treaty was imposed on the loser Germany. Germany could not take the punishment for too long. What happened? Bitterness became hatred, and soon a Hitler rose to seek revenge; and that is how the First World War led to the World War II.
   
   
4. So you see where climate change is concerned, the rich nations must not seek solutions that favour them alone. Such selfish solutions can at best give only a temporarily advantage. Eventually, Nature would take its own course and the consequences of climate change would hit the ENTIRE planet. When that happens, every nation without exception would suffer, because Nature does not distinguish between rich and poor countries! Which means people in both rich and poor countries would end up paying a big price. 
   
   
5. If we take all these factors carefully into consideration, then you would quickly realise that the only viable, meaningful and sensible solution is for everyone, everywhere, to adopt immediately a strong ceiling on desires, voluntarily curbing a luxurious life style, ruthlessly cutting out all excessive energy consumption, etc. In Bombay, for example, millions live in slums while a billionaire with a family of just four or so is building for himself a skyscraper with 22 floors, complete with a rooftop swimming pool, a theatre which can accommodate five hundred, parking for 1000 cars, hundreds of guest rooms, and what not. This is one example of conspicuous consumption. Is it really necessary when millions are suffering all over the world, including in Bombay itself? 
   
   
6. Following Swami’s teachings would not only help in solving the climate change problem but also lead to other side benefits.
   
   
7. or example, if people in rich countries and rich people in the developing countries immediately curb conspicuous consumption, then that would automatically reduce carbon emission, making the air better for breathing.
   
   
8. People would use cars less and walk or cycle more.  They would stop eating junk food. All this would improve health and reduce the expenditure required on health care. Our life style would slow down and reduce tension; that in turn would decrease depression, and so on.

The great benefits of ceiling on desires are not difficult to understand. And yet when I share these ideas with some of the people who come here, they all smile, shake their heads and say, “Listen, what you say no doubt sounds nice. But IT SIMPLY WOULD NOT WORK. Don’t you know America tired to introduce prohibition? What happened? Why, here in India, inspired by Gandhi, they tried prohibition, but now? Be realistic. Human behaviour cannot be changed.”

To many it would seem that humans are born to be greedy, jealous, cunning, scheming and so on.  I strongly disagree. Why? Because Swami repeatedly tells us that God has given us birth in the precious human form for a very special purpose. Baba says that from God you have come and to God you must return. Now what does the statement to God you must return mean? Many technical interpretations can be given but Swami [essentially] says:

Basically, when you live here on earth, your true nature must show up in your various actions. Now what is your real nature? Your real nature is represented by the Atmic component rather than by the body and Mind. Since the Atmic aspect within you is essentially Divine, your actions must have the flavour of goodness. It is simple really since goodness is nothing but godliness. Now you might ask: ‘What is the meaning of being good?’ The answer is that one is truly good whose actions are always based on Sathya, Dharma and Prema.

I hope you get the point. Humans are NOT born to be greedy, and spend all their time in sense gratification, self indulgence, pleasure seeking and enjoyment. That idea is planted into us by those who want us to spend our money in the “entertainment industries” which they have established. In fact, things have gone to such an extent, that some cities are proud of calling themselves as sin cities. You do not have to take my word for it. Just look at what happens at Christmas time. So much of time is spent in shopping, partying, etc., and very little on reflecting on the sacrifice made by Jesus and the remarkable teachings He gave.

It is time to stop listening to advertisers who want to take away everything from us, especially the money we have earned through hard and honest work, the time we should reserve for community service, for the promotion of peace and global harmony, etc. and the attention we should be giving to our children and family so that the family shines as a model one for Society as a whole. The news I get from Leonardo Gutter and John Behner tells me that Latin America is doing real good work in the area of service. That is good. May I suggest that you might like to supplement that with equally strong effort in promoting study circles so that people understand what Spirituality really means and why it is important?

Dear Reader, did this article inspire you in any way? Would you like more such stories from devotees who have been touched by His Love? Please write to us at h2h@radiosai.org mentioning your name and country. Thank you for your time.