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Posted on: June 30, 2016

Guru Poornima Special Offering
(Daily Episode)

Part - 22

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

TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE! HENCE USE EVERY SECOND TO MOVE TOWARDS GOD!

Time waits for no one. Concentrate all your efforts on the realization of God. The primary requisite is the elimination of the ego. Without getting rid of the ego, the bliss of Divinity cannot be experienced. Ostentatious worship is of no use. Wealth, power and position are of no avail in the spiritual quest. They cannot confer peace or remove the fear that haunts man all the time. Only the man of faith is completely free from fear. Hence, develop faith in God and lead a God-directed life... What is happening now is that men are forgetting God in the pursuit of wealth. They are seeking annam (food) instead of Atma (Self). When the Atma is realized all other things will be got without any great effort.

• Divine Discourse, December 25, 1987.

REFLECTIONS ON THE ABOVE

Sai Ram and greetings. I am sure there is hardly anyone who has not heard the proverb, “Time and tide wait for no man.” The Sai Quote above deals with the same theme but goes further to explain why that old saying is of crucial importance to everyone without exception. And the key to understanding that importance is an important phrase in the Gita in which Krishna makes a reference to action in inaction and inaction in action; and so let me start with that.

Swami says:

What is happening now is that men are forgetting God in the pursuit of wealth.

Lots and lots of devotees come here everyday, and almost all of them would strongly contend, including all the wealthy ones, that this criticism does NOT apply to them. Alas, that is sadly untrue. Before I discuss this issue further, let me first focus your attention on another remark that Swami makes, which is:

Wealth, power and position are of no avail in the spiritual quest.

Many would strongly protest arguing, “Come on, you know for a fact that there were many kings who were deeply spiritual. There was Emperor Janaka going back a long time, and then there was Ashoka whose contributions towards spreading the philosophy of Ahimsa are still there for all to see.” Very true, and this really is where Krishna’s profound remark comes into play.

If you study Swami’s teachings carefully, you would find that He never condemns wealth per se; the same is true of the Gita and the Upanishads. In fact, the ancients of India worshipped Lakshmi as the Goddess of Wealth. All of this says that it is not wealth which is at fault, but our attitude to it. Please keep that in mind as I try to unravel the Sai Quote of the day.

Let us start with the obvious fact that people are eager to make money, acquire wealth and property, achieve fame, etc. Individually, people might give various answers if you ask them why they are after all this, but the fact is that almost everyone subconsciously imagines that all these are the best means of achieving happiness. Swami says that such a belief is nothing short of delusion. A man of wealth, power, etc., may undoubtedly experience thrill and pleasure about what his money and prestige might be able to command; however, he is also worried all the time about competition that might pull him down. It is this fear that drives the high and mighty to become hyperactive in preserving what they have and, if possible, improve their power and status, so that they are able to command more prestige, etc. That is why one sees so much of activity on the part of the big shots of the corporate world, for example.

OK, there is all this constant wheeling and dealing, jetting round the world, and so on; but does it make these corporate tycoons feel more secure? Are they able to get rid of the fear nagging them all the time deep within? Hardly. Why? Swami has the answer; He says:

They (meaning wealth, power, etc.,) CANNOT confer peace or remove the fear that haunts man all the time.

What it means is that all the hyperactivity that I referred to is really of no avail, and that is why Krishna says that all such action amounts to zero or inaction. If so, what is the fix? How to get rid of the latent nagging fear? How to act in a meaningful manner? Those are the questions Swami is answering for us. What He is telling us is the following:

O man, stop being foolish. Sustained happiness and a life free from fear are not possible, if you waste your time chasing wealth, power and so on. They may titillate you for a while, but you would be gnawed by fear and insecurity from within. Seek instead the Bliss of Divinity. That is available in unlimited amount in the Atma within you, and the road to Atma is spirituality. Hence, make life a spiritual pilgrimage in quest of the Atma, but, while doing so, you do not carry the excess baggage called ego. This is what Krishna would describe as REAL Action. Unaware of all this, humans today are forgetting God and are busy chasing wealth. You are going after wealth because subconsciously you are thinking that is where happiness lies. No real happiness or Ananda would be available unless you realize that you are the Atma; and to get to that state, give up ego, develop strong faith in God, and keep moving. You know something? God may even shower wealth, power, fame, position, etc. But do not let that fill you with ego. Accept these with humility as tools meant to serve humanity. Serve in that spirit and offer all that service to God. This way, you would not only be not wasting Time but in fact sanctifying it precisely the way God wants.

So live in the world. Be a part of it. Be active in it. But don’t lose control of Time by being swallowed by it. That would be possible only when you make life a spiritual journey; and in that journey the only thing you are allowed to carry is faith; if you try to smuggle in ego, your boarding pass would be revoked! This life is given to you to make that all-important journey, and the question before you is: “Do you want to be on board or not? If you waste time and do not get ready the way you do, then you would get left behind, with all that useless baggage you were busy picking up! I have warned you, and now, it is entirely up to you!”

So dear reader! That in brief is a free translation of today’s Sai Quote. Think about it!

By the way, some of you might have noticed that I have not explained the phrase ‘action in inaction’ used by Krishna in Gita. That is reserved for another day!

All the best and Jai Sai Ram.

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Radio Sai Team