'Like' us on Facebook

Follow us:

Posted on: June 11, 2016

Guru Poornima Special Offering
(Daily Episode)

Part - 3

In 2006, eager to start a service which will help everyone to connect with Bhagawan's teachings on a daily basis, Radio Sai began 'Sai Inspires'. All who subscribed to this service, received an email from us which had a concise message of Baba accompanied with His image. This daily offering was received well, and soon the subscriptions grew. Today nearly 100,000 people from all corners of the world wait for this message to help them tide over their day with peace and ease. The power inherent in these discourse capsules is indeed tremendous. How much we benefit from it and how best we harness this energy depends purely on how seriously we ruminate over these words and how sincerely we put our learning into action. To help us in this noble and elevating exercise, Prof. G. Venkataraman has taken time out to elaborate on these messages. His reflections will not only give us a deeper understanding into what the Lord is communicating to us but also give us tips to translate them into our daily practical life with more ease.

The best way to value the Master is to master His values. As we prepare to celebrate Guru Poornima (July 19), when we pay our respects and obeisance to the Divine Master, let us work to offer Him the tribute that the Lord loves the most from us - to make our lives His message, to make His love and wisdom shine in us. To aid us in this endeavour we have this series where Prof. Venkataraman for the next 26 days from June 9, 2016 shares his insights on select Sai Inspires messages. We hope this will help us to understand His teachings better and bolster our determination to walk on the sacred path.

Sai Inspires Message

UNLOCKING THE DIVINITY WITHIN

There was a famous sculptor in Italy known as Michelangelo. A friend of his found him one day chiselling a big piece of rock. The friend asked, “Why are you working so hard with this rock? Why don’t you go home and take some rest?” Michelangelo replied: “I am trying to release the Divine that is in the rock. I wish to bring out of this lifeless stone the living Divinity that is embedded in it.” If that sculptor could create out of an inanimate piece of stone a living image of God, can not human beings vibrant with life, manifest the living Divinity that resides in the Heart?

REFLECTIONS

That was a wonderful Swami quote, and I am sure most of you must have read it before in various forms. However, while you might have heard it, did you ever take a minute off to reflect? Doesn’t matter if you have not, for together let’s all make up for it now.

Let’s start with Michelangelo’s statement:

I am trying to release the Divine that is in the rock.

In a sense, that is the essence of what Swami is telling us all the time via His innumerable Discourses. What He is effectively telling us is:

O Man! You think you are the body, but you are not merely that! In truth, you are the body plus a very powerful Mind and the Supreme Atma, which is the greatest source of clean and pure Power that you can ever get. If the body and Mind mesh properly and plug into the Atma for real, quality power, there is nothing you cannot do. In particular, you can solve almost all the mountainous problems that confront you, both in your individual life and via society. Why do you keep forgetting that basic truth and instead allow your Mind to connect to cheap and fake batteries that run out in no time? Have you not seen so many people getting into trouble by using fake batteries? Why then do you also want to do so?

That is my decoding of Michelangelo’s remarks, of course through the lens of the teachings of Bhagawan Baba. Several points stand out from what I just mentioned. They are:

• We must live our lives such that the Divinity latent in us becomes patent and clear enough for all to see.

• This latent Divinity must shine through our thoughts, body language, words and actions, and reflect the loving and compassionate nature of the Atma within. In other words, no pushing, no bulldog-like barking, no getting angry, rough and violent behaviour, etc. Alas, we see a lot of it all the time, even in the Ashram, and indeed even in the Sai Kulwant Hall. Do we really want to pollute that holy place with our own ego wars?

• The Divinity within us must shine not merely for others to see and admire. Rather, people and society at large must benefit from the Atmic light radiating from the virtuous person, enabling others also to progress spiritually forward.

• Michelangelo talked about chipping the stone so as to reveal Divinity, meaning that he wanted to create a statue of a god. What does chipping mean in our case? Simple; it means removing and scrubbing away the layers and layers of spiritual ignorance or ajnana that is covering our Heart. It is that ajnana that is preventing the latent Divinity from shining forth, making clearly evident that humans are really the Embodiments of the Divine.

That might have been a heavy overload, delivered a bit too fast. So, let us digest all of the above slowly, in the process linking them to the remarks made earlier about fake batteries, etc. We start with the fact that as far as actions in the physical world are concerned, it is the Mind that is the primary engine. It is when the Mind gives a command that the physical organs and the senses go into action. Thus, the Mind is like the CPU while the organs are like the I/O (Input/Output) devices.

Now in a computer, the CPU as well as all the other devices require power, which usually comes from a battery. Alternately, the computer can be plugged to the regular power source, in which case the battery merely plays a supplementary role. Something similar happens in the human situation also.

In the human being, the basic power source is the Atma, meaning that the energy for all action, be it that of the body organs including the brain and the Mind, all come from the Atma. However, there is also in a body a kind of power source called the Prana Shakti or life force that is like a battery.

Now this is an important point and needs to be noted carefully. What I am saying in effect is that the body-Mind combination can function without having any communication with the Atma within or the Mind can explicitly take orders from the Atma and operate. We thus have two cases of functionality.

Case 1: The person operates entirely on Prana Shakti, or battery power in our language. The person can go through life, have achievements etc., but since the Mind is not connected to the Atma or Conscience, this person is more than likely to be a rude and crude person, or even a polished by scheming, and dishonest person. The important point is that being battery-driven, Divine qualities hardly radiate from such a person. He may be a hero in worldly terms but a perfect zero in the eyes of God.

Case 2: In this case, the person takes care to plug into the main power source, meaning he decides to be in constant touch with the Atma within or Conscience, if you prefer. The power cord that connects the Mind to Conscience is buddhi. If the cord is not defective, the Mind is able to take guidance from the Atma 24/7, as a result of which, the Divinity within constantly shines forth.

Let us now consolidate all of the above in a few crisp points and create a do-it-yourself kit. The summary of what I just said then reduces to the following:

• We have to be our own Michelangelo.

• Having made that decision, we plug the power cord into mains power; by that is meant that care must be taken to ensure that the buddhi is in constant touch with the Atma within, another name for which is the familiar word Conscience.

• If this is done, the Mind would be guided by the Conscience always; and that is when the words spoken and the actions performed would have the flavour and fragrance of Divinity.

Incidentally, all this assumes that the power cord is in good working condition so that there is uninterrupted power flow. What is the meaning of the power cord being in good working condition? How do we ensure that?

That is simple. As Swami says, there are three things we must do.

• Avoid bad company, which means everything from bad thoughts to bad TV programs to bad friends.

• Even if by chance there is some contact and a contamination as a result, one must scrub the Mind clean. What is usually referred to as sadhana is nothing but a spiritual sterilisation procedure.

• The best sadhana is constant chant of the Name of the Lord. It is such a powerful antiseptic, that no spiritual virus dare come near!

To put it all simply, when Swami says seek good company, what He really means is be always with God since that is the best company possible. Since God is in our Heart, it means being in constant touch with our Heart. That in turn means plugging the power cord called buddhi to the Conscience; which then calls attention to keeping buddhi in working order. In one sweep, chanting the Name takes care of all these diverse steps.

To sum up, the chisel is in our hands; the decision to be our own Michelangelo rests with us; and it is up to us to decide whether we would like to remain a rough rock or a living and radiant reminder of the God who pervades everything.

Think about it!

Other Episodes

Radio Sai Team