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Posted on: Jan 18, 2018

Spirituality: The Inward Path

Part 02

How Do We Access God?

After Swami took Mahasamadhi on April 24, 2011, so many people felt suddenly bereft.

Now where did Swami go? Why did He ever leave? Where is He now? When is He coming back? Is Prema Sai coming now? How could He have gone anywhere else if He says we must find Him in our spiritual heart? Maybe He is communicating through someone else! Oh, but no, no, no... Let us look at what Swami Himself has said regarding this.

“There are others who claim I am speaking through them and answering questions put to them. These people must be either insane or hysterically affected or possessed by some ghost or by the greed to earn money thereby. I can only tell you that I do not speak through them.

“I do not need media; I do not need substitutes or subsidiaries or representatives. That I am supposed to ‘possess’ such people, or speak through them, or shower My Grace through them, is an assumption of which one ought to be ashamed. How then can anyone believe it I wonder? Treat all such people and their agents as brokers, as you would treat cheats: if you do not treat them so, then you are accomplices in the cheating process.” - Divine Discourse, November 22, 1970

Brigadier S.K. Bose, who was in-charge of ashram construction for many years, shared with the students in Trayee Brindavan the three great lessons he had learned over the years of serving Bhagawan.

• When we do our work with devotion, without a trace of ego, Bhagawan will bestow on us complete success by removing all the obstacles in our path.

• Swami is present with us all the time. We need not wait for a particular time or place to contemplate on Him.

• Since our heart is His abode, we should strive to keep it pure and clean by not allowing the dirt of evil feelings like anger, jealousy and hatred to enter there.

Our heart is His abode. But how does it feel? What does it look like? How do we operate from the heart, listening to its perfect guidance, the Divine Voice of Sai - without the confusing, regular interference of an argumentative and flitting mind and an educated and logical brain trying to run the show?

Professor G. Venkataraman liked to illustrate this by drawing a picture of a human head and torso in profile. Then he would add a brain and a heart with a line connecting the two. He would comment that there is an unseen channel connecting the brain and the spiritual heart. If the channel is clear and uncluttered, brain and heart can and do act in perfect harmony and unison.

Professor cautioned that a kind of molecular soot or phlegm also builds up along this channel, impairing its perfect decision making. Too many desires, ego, vasanas (tendencies), excessive body consciousness, misunderstood words and ideas, false or misleading information, lack of harmony in thought, word and deed, prejudices, fault-finding, cynicism, hatreds, obsessions and short-sightedness - all of this contribute to this murky and densely clouded build up.

My heart is His abode. How can I make this an unshakeable reality for myself? All of us have heard it said: God is Love.

Most people long to “find” God in a human form they can love or worship - a master, a guru, a teacher, cherished friend, life partner, helpmate, romantic interest, lover, etc.

The energy called love is so powerful that it literally provides the momentum that makes this planet spin on its axis. Love is rain, sun, wind and cloud. Love is the power that sings and dances, pushes a pen or a paintbrush, sweeps the floor, plants the tree, comforts the child, feeds the hungry.

Sound and word arise from the spiritual heart, powered by the breath. The state of the heart determines the genuineness or the falseness of the feelings one expresses to the other.

Pushing hard to “make something happen” in one’s life will not ultimately work, because outcomes are powered by an energy that has its own qualities and obeys certain cosmic rules.

Knowledge of the Swami within the spiritual heart and its makeup, will enhance our ability to make the right decisions and conclusions in this lifetime of lifetimes, when we have Sai’s guidance with us always, at any time, in any situation, place or circumstance.

If we listen to His Inner Voice which emanates from the spiritual heart it is accessible in both the deepest silence or in the noisiest of streets. He always, always, always counsels speaking softly and sweetly. It can be an instantaneous answer, or it may take some time to hear that Voice Within. Time should not matter – because He IS Time Itself.

Becoming a Perfect Instrument through the Spiritual Heart

In Japanese spirituality, a proverb says that the lotus is like a man’s heart, while the autumn sky is like a woman’s heart (Onma-no kokoro, aki-no sora). Men are more practical and logical as a rule, while women tend to be more changeable. Think shifting sunlight, then cloud, then sun again, then cloud, rain, mist. It is so true.

Women are deep down, still emotional at heart; moon-like, with many hourly ups and downs, phases of waxing and waning – running hot and cold – though modern education and workforce attitudes dictate that they must develop and exhibit a certain toughness in order to compete with the male workforce.

Yet Swami points out that women's hearts are softer than men’s, that they are better able to feel and exhibit compassion. The best maxim is again from Bhagawan wherein He says, “Your heart should be soft as butter, hard as a diamond”. It should be able to melt with compassion but hard enough to withstand such assaults as trickery, deception, cruel words, and taunts by others, hardship, illness, being cheated, and the temptation for wrongdoing.

Becoming a perfect instrument starts with proactively identifying and getting rid of one bad quality that we have. Bhagawan has always pointed out that this is all He asks of us – “Get rid of one bad quality”.

Many devotees at some point become overwhelmed by His teachings, they feel they cannot possibly live up to His ideals. Not so. We have to focus on lessening and eliminating just one bad quality. If we cannot identify one, we should brave up and ask someone we trust. It’s that simple.

As one bad quality is tackled with sincerity, gradually others too will leave the heart, where they had their domain.

All treasures, including the Presence of God whom we seek, our beloved Sai whose form is no longer visible, are contained within our hearts, waiting for us to discover when we turn inwards and cease running behind external mirages.

Part 01

- Radio Sai Team