'Like' us on Facebook

Follow us:

Posted on: June 17, 2016

Guru Poornima Special Offering
(Daily Episode)

Part - 9

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

UNITY OF BODY, MIND AND SOUL CANNOT BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT SACRIFICE

To comprehend the unity of body, mind and Atma (spirit) is to realize a fundamental truth. The body is gross. The Atma is subtle. It is the mind that links the two. If the Atma is ignored, man is reduced to the level of the animal. When the body and the Atma are ignored and the mind alone is active, the humanness comes to the fore. When the body and the mind are kept out and the Atma alone is experienced, Divinity is attained. How is this to be achieved? An essential requisite is Thyaga, the spirit of sacrifice.

• Divine Discourse, January 20, 1985.

REFLECTIONS

This Sai quote comes from a Discourse delivered in January of 1985, the year of the sixtieth Birthday. If you hear the audio clip carefully, you will notice that word Atma occurred five times during that brief period, showing how focused Swami was on the Atma even then. This should not come as a surprise, if you recall that almost the very first thing that Swami as Lord Sri Krishna told Arjuna was,

“Arjuna, you think of yourself almost entirely in terms of your body and all the connections it has in this transient world. But, Arjuna, you are not merely the body, but the Atma. Your body and your Mind are mere dressings or coverings on the Atma, to fulfil a certain function that needs to be done right here on earth. And that job must be done bearing in mind the fact that at the core, you are nothing but the Atma in all its glory, while the body is but a mere trapping, a uniform you wear to carry out the task ahead of you.”

Swami here is repeating that same teaching imparted five thousand and odd years earlier, with some important explanations that are vital for this Kali Age. To understand them better, let us start with what Swami often told His students - that they were not just the gross body made up proteins and various other molecules, but Atma, wrapped up in the gross body. The Atma was the cause while the body was gross. Connecting the two was the mind, which is subtle, meaning you cannot simply do a chemical analysis of it at all. Subtle means it is not really of this Universe but beyond. We hardly realize this but it is true.

Thus, Swami tells His students,

Students! You think you are the body, the gross body, but you are not. Truly speaking you are the gross body, plus the subtle Mind and the causal Atma. A simple way of remembering this is to say that you are a MBA (Mind + Body + Atma).

Let us accept that for a moment. Now why on earth did God create such a being? Krishna explains that in the 13th Chapter of the Gita. He says,

“Arjuna, your body is like a chariot, while your mind is like the horses harnessed to the chariot. And the Atma which is Me is the rider of the chariot. Life’s journey may thus be compared to a ride I wish to take, using your body and your Mind. Now imagine what would happen if the chariot was in repair or if the horses were unruly; I would not be able to go where I want; right? That is exactly what happens when people do not realize that the purpose of life is to take God where He wants to go.”

Keeping that advice of Krishna to Arjuna, let us go back to the Sai quote and see what it says. Swami is telling us that if the MBA thinks he is merely the body, it is like having a defective chariot. In practical terms, the person lives rather like an animal, his behaviour being crude and vulgar, short-tempered, ready to blow his fuse, become violent, etc. If you have heard about what are called gunas, such a person would be described as being of the tamasic type.

On the other hand, the person may be dominated entirely by the Mind. Remember, the mind is a bridge between the Atma and the body; and in Krishna’s language, it represents the horses that drag the chariot. A person dominated by the mind means that person’s mind refuses to take orders from the Atma, meaning that the horses of the chariot would be running wild. You know what happens then, don’t you? In practical terms, the person though clever and all that, is ambitious, ruthless, focussed only on his success and achievement rather than anything else, and is thus ready to do anything for achieving his goal. In today’s rat race, we see such people all over the place; in terms of gunas, they would be classified as rajasic. Such a person would readily trample over Sathya and Dharma without batting an eyelid, never show even a trace of compassion. In other words, he would be nothing short of the devil in human form. Clearly, God would not want us to behave in that form, would He?

Now if you remember all that I have said thus far, it would be clear that in life, both the body and mind must bend before the Atma, and take orders from it. In other words, though we have a body and a Mind, we must remember that the Atma is the real boss. Incidentally, Conscience is the word sometimes used to refer to the Atma within, which also is why Swami often says:

Follow the Master. Your Conscience alone is your Master!

By way of winding up, let us revisit the last sentence of the Sai quote. It says:

When the body and the mind are kept out and the Atma alone is experienced, Divinity is attained. How is this to be achieved? An essential requisite is Thyaga, the spirit of sacrifice.

What it means is that when the body and the mind bow to Atma or Conscience, call it what you will, then the Lord seated in the Chariot would be able to go home. In translation, it means that the purpose of life’s journey would be fulfilled and you would be back where you ought to be, which is to be reunited with God. And this can be achieved only with sacrifice. Swami does not explicitly describe in this quote what exactly is to be sacrificed but elsewhere He has done that. What is to be sacrificed is what is called dehabhimanam or body-consciousness. In simple terms, we should never act as if we are the body or the mind, i.e., give in to their preferences. The Master is the Atma within, and whatever the body and the mind do, must be entirely in accordance with the dictates of the Atma. That would be possible only when we give up the attachment to the body and the mind, and giving up this attachment is what is referred to as sacrifice. It is not easy, but certainly becomes possible if you love God dearly.

Think about it! Jai Sai Ram.

Other Episodes

Radio Sai Team