A sage once said, we are just walking each other home. Yet, walking home is no easy task, given the vagaries of the world. We need a helping hand along the way. Those helping hands often come by way of a sage or guru. Here I have put together a few nuances, tips and teachings from past masters who have lived among us in recent years. Let’s take a minute to reflect on their words once more. Bottom page. Video from Rowdies, those early devotees to have visited Sathya Sai Baba’s ashrams in South India.
Osho
“One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap to reach to the ultimate realization of truth. You will have to create the path by walking it yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don’t leave any footprints. You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.” ~Osho
blessing
Words of the masters
“Just as the gross material body consists of many cells, organized into a
working whole, so our personality consists of a network of interdependent psycho-noetical images. The cells of our personality, as we might call them, are precisely, one by one, the thought-forms which we create and project as a result of our desires and weaknesses, strengths and virtues.” ~ Daskalos
“With every thought, each glance, idea, distraction or feeling we create thought forms. Even as we sleep, we are emitting thought forms that will affect us and those around us.” ~ Daskalos
Sri Yukeswar who wrote the Holy Science
Thay
Sai Baba with a student – Prashanthi Nilayam
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“The thought forms are emitted with an intensity corresponding to the strength of the desires which gave birth to them. When they have reached their goal and served their purpose, they return to their creator to be projected once again with ever increasing power. This procedure is repeated many times, creating within our personality, either a terrible environment of darkness if the thought forms are of low degree, or a strong atmosphere of love if they are good thought-desires.” ~ Daskalos
Rowdies – video from 1990s – a wealth of experiences from their time with Sathya Sai – A video well worth watching.
Perhaps one of the best videos from the first Westerners to visit Sathya Sai Baba, with vivid details of their experiences. Their special good chances would not be experienced again by a second wave of Europeans/Americans that came afterwards.
Here’s an interesting article from Al Drucker recently published on his website. (link provided.) I will provide more information on this post at a later date when I have the time. I am still away in India, this being my last week. I found here at the ashram as always, a sublime peace that permeated everything, and everywhere. The vibes in the Mandir, hall and surrounding area remain as blissful as ever.
God alone is real. Besides the One God (who is also known as Brahman or Atma) nothing else exists. A world without God is utter illusion. Such a world can never exist. From the standpoint of Reality, a God-less world is nothing. No matter how real it may appear, it is totally illusory, a momentary perturbation in Eternity, signifying nothing.
On the other hand, when you see the world and yourself as firmly implanted in God Awareness, vitalized and governed by God Presence, your perception radically changes. As you become filled with God you become subsumed in God, and you, as you previously knew yourself within, disappear. Though you may continue for a time as a body, your separate identity as an individual in the world dissolves, and you shine forth as the unchanging God Awareness, the one universal person masquerading as the many.
As long as you live your whole life in the deluded state of separation, unaware of your non-dual Reality, you will see a world of variety, a world of many separate objects, countless beings and things outside of you. In your curiosity you ask the question, “Who created all this multiplicity, who caused this world of variety to spring forth?” You will hear stories of creation which attempt to answer that, and they may satisfy you for a moment. But they cannot give an enduring, believable, uncontroversial answer to your question. Why? Because your question makes no sense! Your question, “Who created all this variety?” is meaningless – precisely because there never was, is, or will be, any multiplicity in Truth. No being, force, circumstance or accident, produced a world of multiplicity. How could it have arisen? Where would it have come from?
The most likely candidate to spin out such a separative world is the egoic, dream-making wizardry of the human mind! But, despite its creation stories, multiplicity can never occur. The One remains as One. It’s just that you mistook It and spun it into the many.
God, the Supreme Reality, did not change into a relative world, just as at dusk, a rope lying on the path did not suddenly change into a snake. In the twilight, you imagine the rope to be a frightful snake, and convince yourself the snake is really there, threatening you. But the rope is still a rope, and remains a rope. It’s just that you mistook it to be a snake.
In a similar way, God is God forever, but your ignorance of this fact made you see God as a world of many. In your deluded perception, you look on the One God, but unable to identify It, you concoct an illusory world in which you unknowingly label God by all the myriad worldly names and forms that you give meaning to. You believe all these to be real, but they are unreal, for no separate objects can exist in Reality. Only God exists.
You think you see an objective world outside of you, but there is nothing outside of you. What you see is always only what you yourself made up and projected to appear to be outside. Wherever you look, you always see only yourself. You see either your True Self, which is one with God, or your false self, which appears in the form of the objects and beings of the illusory world of separation. This latter path, driven by false perceptions, will keep you bound.
Don’t subject yourself to that suffering! Correct your vision! Remove your delusion! Focus and dwell on God, who alone is real!
The world stands on one leg, Maya, namely, illusion. Kick down that leg and the whole world falls. Maya is not real. It is nothing. It disappears when you give it no further support and stop feeding it with your energy and belief.
You now experience the absence of this multiplicity, the disappearance of this world based on illusion, every day in deep sleep. But when you return to waking consciousness you do not hold on to that experience. That is a great tragedy! When you are deep asleep, what happens to your world? Where does all that multiplicity disappear to? What is the source of joy that sound sleep brings? Deep sleep keeps a tiny trace of the ego as a seed, a memento of the false world. When you awaken, you grab hold of that seed, and the next instant you again find yourself to be the same deluded individual you were before you fell asleep, again pestered by creatures of your own fantasies, imaginary boogeyman that you yourself made up!
Sathya Sai Baba as I remember him
Sai Baba said, “I often tell you not to identify me with just this particular physical build-up; but you do not understand. You call me by only one name and believe I have only one form. But, there is no name I do not bear and there is no form that is not mine. And what is true for me is equally true for you.”
“You are God, you are the Atma, you are the One Self. You are not this temporary body or the separate personality it has identified with in the world. You are not an individual in a world of illusion. Correct your perception. It is said, ‘Dust if you think, dust you are; God if you think, God you are.’ Be the God you truly are! Nothing is ever outside of you. You, your Self, are God! Realize It and be happy! ”
– Based on a talk given by Sai Baba 11/24/62, and expanded on by Al Drucker, 4/1/15
Sathya Sai Baba with Dear Sai Geeta – now passed on.
I do hope Sai devotees and others will enjoy this sweet letter from Ted Henry. (with thanks.)
Love as Thought is Truth.
Love as Action is Right Conduct.
Love as Understanding is Peace.
Love as Feeling is Non-violence.
Duty without love is deplorable.
Duty with love is desirable.
Love without duty is Divine. -Baba
~ THE MAIN EVENT
All is well here. Sai Baba is everywhere and his hand hand can be seen here in everyone’s lives. From dawn to dusk people talk of amazing first person experiences, from dawn to dusk my head spins from what I hear, see, learn and understand. Enough said.
~ LIFE IS BUT A BREEZE
Somewhere from deep within the Deccan Plateau comes an evening breeze that regularly cools off the still tiny town of Puttaparthi. Following the evening bhajans and darshan, the walkway back to Round House 1 is a good place to catch the breeze that always seems to bring the day’s best relief from the hot winter sun. Yes, it is winter here, but who would know? Daily the temp climbs to the high 80s with seldom a cloud in sight.
I do tend to go on about the ambiance of Sai Baba’s beautiful ashram. Actually I can’t help it. The late day’s devotional singing in the open air prayer hall clearly sets the stage for the brief program that remains at the end of each day here, a good dinner and a long read of one of the hundreds of Baba books available in the ashram. Jody is the chief reader in our apartment, but I manage to get in some good reading as well. And to my credit, as of heading into our sixth week here, I have yet to read a single word in any of the novels I brought to India with me.
The evenings are anything but lively here. You’ve got the sound of the crickets outside, the occasional howling dog off in the distant, and the ever present whirring of the two ceiling fans in our flat.
~ SOULJOURNS INTERVIEWS
We spent time with Jay Jethna yesterday. Jay is from Austrailia and works for the United Nations. On video he told us three amazing stories, not the least of which occurred back in 1968.
Jay was 13 at the time living in Uganda, where he was born. A friend told him that he had heard that God was coming to town in two days. Jay couldn’t wait and was extremely excited even though he had no idea if “The Blessed One” had a name or what he looked like. Jay and his family showed up to wait for Baba at the 6 pm appointed hour. It wasn’t until 1 o’clock in the morning that the country’s important guest finally arrived. Several people got out of the car but there was no sign of Him. When Jay asked someone about this he was told that the man in the orange clothes with fuzzy hair was who everyone was waiting for and that his name was Sai Baba. Jay had seen this man get out of the car earlier but thought he was one of the security guards.
The next day Jay sneaked into the backyard of the people hosting Sai Baba trying to get another view of the important visitor. Baba was blessing people in the yard when he spotted Jay in the back. When he went up to Jay, Baba told Jay that he was not well, which was true since Jay had suffered from a serious life long asthma condition.
And then Baba said, “Go”, but Jay thought this meant Baba wanted him to leave, to go back to school. But Baba wanted to see Jay for an interview, of course and later, once inside the host’s home Baba produced a fluid from the palm of his hand and applied it to Jay and said, “Go, no more sickness”.
Jay left and from that day forward he has never suffered from asthma again in his life. Twenty two years passed before Jay gave much thought to Baba again. At the age of 33, he was visiting a shopping mall with his wife in Hong Kong. On the sign board were the words, “Sai Baba and this made him think.” This prompted Jay and his wife to visit the tenth floor offices of the local Sai Baba center. As they entered, bhajans were underway, something Jay and his wife, Julie had never been exposed to, but they stayed anyway and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Needless to say, Jay reconnected with Sai Baba in his life and has become an ardent devotee coming to Prasanthi countless times since turning 33. Jay has two additional stories to share on Souljourns, both of which are blockbusters. Look for them soon at vimeo.com/souljourns and/or youtube.com/souljourns.
Also look for the many other Souljourns interviews we’re recording in India. So far we have about 30 of them recorded, and in their own way they’re all powerful. Many of them include useful guidance for additional spiritual growth.
Al Drucker is a prolific writer and, with his background in Physics, he is well able to write from his scientific background about Sai Baba. Many things are said about Sathya Sai Baba, both good and bad. There was always much “doings” – untoward, within the Sai Org. itself. Yet, Sai’s keen followers never doubted him, despite the general setup around him. What they, themselves, experienced and had verified by many an in-depth conversation with their guru, their lives were changed.. Here is Al’s bio, also an interesting write-up about his Kodaikanal interview with Sai Baba way back in the 1980’s.
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AL DRUCKERS DETAILS
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He completed his undergraduate and graduate work in Electrical Engineering and Physics. During his technical career following university, he became a specialist on air-to-air and intercontinental missile guidance systems, and became part of a special team responsible for the technical management of the country’s ballistic missile programs (Thor, Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, Polaris). During this time he was also on various governmental committees, serving with NASA, the National Academy of Sciences, the Federal Aeronautics Administration and other governmental bodies.
While thus engaged for many months in Washington, he became active in the early days of the Civil Rights and Voter Registration movements. This led him to rethink his societal aspirations, and shift his focus from developing missile systems to more humanitarian pursuits. After studying for some years in both the US and abroad, he changed his profession to become an acupuncturist, a homeopath, an herbalist, a group therapist, and a Rolfer. He joined the staff of Esalen Institute, at that time a recently-founded humanistic growth center in Big Sur, California, where he conducted a clinic utilizing natural healing modalities and taught a live-in course for health professionals on alternative systems of natural healing.
One day, while piloting an airplane over the California mountains, he was caught in a major storm front. After hours trapped in the violent storm, lost and running out of fuel, with his little plane coming apart, and after many unsuccessful attempts to raise a response from the ground to his emergency call, in short, when all hope for a providential rescue had faded, a calm, clear voice suddenly and inexplicably came on the radio above the din of the storm. Unbidden, the voice guided him around the worst cells of the storm towards a small mountain strip 300 miles off course. Miraculously, for just a few minutes, the field was clear of the blizzard, which allowed the plane to be set down, literally on its last remaining drops of fuel, as the engine quit just after touch-down.
Seeking the source of that beneficent voice that saved his life, but which had never identified itself, Al followed various unmistakable but mysterious leads, that led him on a metaphysical journey to India. There, Sai Baba, a great spiritual leader, spoke to Al, and without prompting, related all the details of the airplane experience, identifying himself as the voice that suddenly appeared, and told Al that it was he who had called him to India. (Not an easy pill for one trained in the sciences to swallow!)
Subsequently, Al made over 25 trips to Sai Baba and finally stayed in India for nine years to immerse himself in spiritual studies, while at the same time reverting to some of his earlier interests, by teaching classes and lecturing on astrophysics and aerospace subjects at the nearby university, as a visiting professor. At the ashram he also gave talks on spiritual topics to hundreds of overseas visitors, and published a number of books, including modern versions of the ancient Indian classics, Bhagavad Gita and Astavakra Gita. Returning to America he co-founded Atma Institute, a nonprofit school based on spiritual principles.
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Sai Baba giving darshan – here he is blessing gifts.
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Excerpts from an Interview given by Sathya Sai Baba and recorded by Al Drucker
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(Following are the highlights of an interview given by Sai Baba to all the Western devotees (about 40) who, in the first few days, had found their way to the Srinivasan bungalow, where Baba was staying and giving darshan. This was during Baba’s first trip to Kodaikanal, circa 1984 and was compiled from notes taken by me. I consider it one of the most succinct expositions of Baba’s advaitic message, and believe it to be particularly relevant to Western devotees.)
– Al.Drucker…
Devotee: Swami, what is the best way to relate to the world?
Baba: Do not spend your time thinking about the world or your relationships to individuals. These are all impermanent. They have only to do with the body. The body is just a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. Do not follow either the body or the mind. Follow the Self, the Atma. It is beyond the mind. It is permanent. It is the unchanging truth within you.
Most important, do not ever think that you and God are separate. Think always, “God is with me; He is inside me; He is around me. All there is is God. I myself am God. I am the Infinite, the Eternal. I am not two; I am one, only one. There is no one else besides me. I and God are one and the same.”
To realize this Unity, the first step is to develop self-confidence. It comes when you realize that God is not outside of you. Self-confidence means thinking all the time, “God is in me… God is doing everything… without God I cannot be… all this is God… I only want to think of God.” When there is self-confidence then there will be love, there will be peace, there will be truth, there will be God. Without self-confidence there cannot be God. So, first there must be self-confidence and love of God.
Devotee: Swami, how to do we rise up to that highest level?
Baba: Through love. Only through love. Develop divine love. Divine love is completely selfless. Human love is mostly selfishness; all the time it thinks only of the little ‘i’. That ‘i’ is the ego. The ego is a very bad quality. Ego sees everything as separate; it sees everything as dual. You must remove this ego and see only the Unity. Think only of Unity; think only of the Atma. Atma is the one unchanging Truth, the one Reality that is the basis of everything.
Devotee: Swami, is everything predetermined?
Baba: For the Atma there is no time and there is no form. It is beyond time and beyond form. In the Atma all are one. Remember that Unity. Live in that Unity. Make that your goal. All are one… be alike to everyone.
Devotee: Baba, what is the relationship between the Atma and the individual?
Baba: The Atma is everywhere. But, do you know that? No, you do not know. What you say now all comes from your imagination. You have no experience. Do some Sadhana. Realize the Atma! Always think like that… “I am the Atma. I am all.” The individual exists only in your imagination. It is just an illusion. When the Atma is one without a second, when the Atma is everywhere, where is the individual? Only in your imagination. The Atma alone is real. Realize it through meditation.
Devotee: Then there is really no higher being related to this body, judging me and guiding me?
Baba: You see, you are still in 100% body consciousness. Do not stay with this body consciousness. Remove that. What will remain will be Atma-consciousness. Then there will be no anger, no hatred, no envy, no jealousy, no hunger, no desire… only complete Ananda… only bliss, bliss, bliss!
Devotee: But then, Swami, what is reborn in reincarnation?
Baba: The body is born. Birth and death only have to do with the body. Ego also relates only to the body. Similarly, reincarnation relates only to the body. Do not think of the body. Think of the Atma. The Atma is one; it is unchanging. For Atma there is no incarnation, there is no reincarnation.
Devotee: Swami, do I exist at all as an individual?
Baba: When you realize the Atma then there is no individual. You can think of individuals as different light bulbs. There will be a differences in wattage and in color. There will be differences in shape, but everywhere the current is the same. That current is who you are. You are not the individual bulb. You are the one current in all.
Devotee: Is there any difference between I and God?
Baba: You are God. You are not the ego. You are God!
Devotee: I am God?
Baba: Yes. You are the Atma. You are permanent. The physical is not permanent. The physical is not the Atma. You are the Atma, not the physical. You are God. Think like this always. Do not think about the body. The body comes and goes; for it there is birth and there is death. But you are not the body. Body is just rust and dust. Think only of God. Love God.
Devotee: Swami, how can we love something we don’t understand?
Baba: Develop self-confidence, then love will follow; it will come naturally from within. And that way the love will be pure. First comes self-confidence, that is the foundation. Then comes self-satisfaction. It is like the wall. Next comes self-sacrifice, it is like the roof. Finally the house is complete and the Indweller is installed inside; that is self-realization. It starts with self-confidence and it ends with realizing the Self. That Self is you. It is everything. It is God. That is who you really are.
Devotee: Does self-confidence mean confidence in the Self?
Baba: Yes, self-confidence is confidence in the Atma; it is an unwavering love for the Divinity within you. That is very important. What will help you to develop that confidence? Be equalminded, be satisfied with what you have. Be happy. The secret of happiness is not in doing what you like but in liking what you have to do. That is a great truth. Always have complete faith in the indwelling God who takes care of everything. True greatness can only come from faith.
Devotee: Lord, I want to arrive very early to You. What do I have to do?
Baba: Through love, only through love. Love is everything. Love is God. Live in love. Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God.
Thoughts are boomerangs, returning with precision to their source. Choose wisely which ones you throw. ~ Author Unknown ~
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Brahman Alone Is Real
Do believe that there can be anything other than Brahman (the eternal Absolute), is sheer ignorance. This ignorance is the cause of every possible sorrow. But ignorance is not real. In fact, every teaching and every sadhana (spiritual practice) deals only with dream activities, which, ultimately, are just illusory mind concoctions. In Truth, every being is already free and forever remains free, equal to Brahman in every way and not different from Brahman in any way. There is neither bondage nor ignorance which must be removed, or can be removed by spiritual practice. Every teaching and every sadhana is just a dream effort, much like taking dream water to slake dream thirst. Its purpose within the dream is to remove the mistaken notion which obsesses the dream character, that he is anything other than the ever-pure and unchanging Brahman. Sadhana dehypnotizes him from the hypnotic idea that there can ever be anything other than Brahman, that there can be a world or individuals that are real. But separate individuals are not real and were never real.
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All efforts and teachings within the dream have relative value only for relative beings. They have no real value in Truth, because the ever-free, ever-awake Atma (the true Self) is not affected by any dream effort, and the illusory, asleep, dream character will not transcend the dream as a result of it. Along with the awakening, when it plays out within a dream of awakening, the story takes on the character of spiritual awareness and spiritual effort. In such a dream, awakening and sadhana are linked to each other, with sadhana appearing to be the cause of the awakening. But in Reality there is no such connection, because these activities have no real existence, and therefore, nothing is happening. It is just that in the story playing out within the dream, the heightened spiritual effort and awareness engaged in by the individual appear to be the cause of awakening. But, though sadhana and awakening seem to be related, they are much like a crow landing on a coconut palm just as a coconut happens to fall. There is no causal connection between them. They are coincidental happenings within an illusory story, appearing to be causally related.
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In Reality neither sadhana nor awakening has any effect or any meaning. There is ever only one meaning to everything, and that is Brahman. Reality has nothing to do with dreams of awakening, or of individuals and their experiences, or of a world in which they exist separate from Brahman. Reality is Brahman alone. There is nothing else. Brahman is not the cause of anything. It does not create. It does not transform Itself into unreality. It does not become something else. It ever is all there is. Illusory dreams may play out for a moment, appear and disappear like passing clouds. You may believe you are an individual and that you and others inhabit a world extending all around you. But that is total delusion. It cannot be. All there ever is is Brahman and only Brahman. It alone is who you are. It is the One Self, the Atma, which is another name for Brahman, and therefore, exactly the same as Brahman. Atma has nothing at all to do with individuals, bodies, minds, or circumstances. It is you, the real you. You cannot not be It. You cannot be anything else. You were never born. You’ll never die. You remain as Brahman alone. Unchanging. Unchangeable. And that is all there is. Ever.
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Many thanks to Al Drucker’s summary of commentaries by Shankara, Gaudapada and Nikhilananda on the Mandukya Upanishad:
Swami tells us that it is only in the depths of silence that the voice of God can be heard. There is another story that speaks of this profound silence that is the Divinity. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana, while in the forest, came into an Ashram where there were many rishis and their wives assembled. Rama and Lakshmana joined the men, Sita sat with the ladies. As all the men were sanyasins, they all looked pretty much the same. Even Rama and Lakshmana wore the same simple bark dress as these forest dwellers, and they had their hair in matted locks, as did most of the men there. Sita was of a royal family, brought up in a secluded atmosphere; she was the very embodiment of modesty and morality. In the presence of these sages, Sita bowed her head in humility and did not look up.
One of the rishis’ wives asked Sita, “Did you come alone or with your husband?” Sita indicated that her husband was there and that he was seated among the sanyasins; then she remained silent. When Sita gave no further information, the lady asked her, “Is that one with the knot of hair on his head your husband?” Sita only moved her head a little from side to side to intimate that, no, that was not her husband. “Then is it the one with the long beard?” Again Sita discretely motioned her head to indicate a negative answer. “Is it the one with the long whiskers?” Again a negative movement of the head. “Is it the one with the long nails?” One by one, she was saying ‘no’ with a little movement of her head. When finally the question clearly pointed to Rama, the splendorous one with the bow and the blue skin, Sita remained motionless and silent. Paramatma can be known only in silence.
We are born as human beings. Are we the body? Are we the life-force? Are we the mind? Are we the intelligence? Swami reminds us of the Vedantic answer, ‘Not this, not this, not this.’ When every question, one after the other, has been answered like this in the negative, then at the end one last question alone remains, ‘Are we the Atma?’ Then there will be no answer, only the silent recognition of the great truth. So, the meaning of Sita’s response, Swami says, is to reveal the True Self; and when that Atmic Truth was pointed out she confirmed it by answering ‘yes’ through her silence.
Swami often speaks of the five sheaths, each of which is successively more subtle, fitting one within the other:
First, there is the Annamaya or food sheath, the most outward sheath, which makes up the grossest aspect of the being and relates to the physical body.
Secondly, there is the Pranamaya or vital sheath, sometimes also called the astral body, which accounts for the coursing of the life energy and makes up the densest part of the subtle body of the being.
Thirdly, there is the Manomaya or mental sheath which is associated with the projecting power of the mind, and is also included in the subtle body of the being.
Fourthly, there is the Vignanamaya or the intellectual sheath, associated with the Buddhi, the intuitive and deliberating faculty, and which makes up the finest aspect of the subtle body.
Fifthly, there is the Anandamaya or bliss sheath, the most subtle aspect of being, which makes up the causal body and is associated with the veiling power of the mind.
The gross, the subtle and the causal bodies, made up of these five sheaths, are each associated with one of the three states of consciousness, the waking, the dream and the deep sleep states. They also correspond to each of the three letters making up the AUM, the primal sound, out of which the mind has projected the universe. All these sheaths within sheaths, make up the Upadhis, the limiting physical and mental equipment of the individual soul, the Jiva. They also make up the physical and subtle aspects of the world. They are the stuff of Maya, the illusory fabrications of the illusory mind. Beyond all these is the basis for all these; that is what is called the fourth, the Turiya, and what is also called the Mahakarana, the primal cause. It is the Atmic Principle which is the one true reality… the one unchanging existence on which all these illusory projections come and go.
The five sheaths making up the three states of experience, the five gross and subtle elements, the five senses of perception, the three gunas, and the various aspects of mind, are all different ways of speaking of Maya, and different ways of accounting for the grand illusion of names and forms that make up the multitude of beings and things in the world. Maya is another name for mind, which in turn is born of ignorance. Vedanta teaches us that ignorance is the grand delusion that gives rise to the grand illusion of world. All the names and forms making up this illusion of world, play on their basis, the infinite ocean of Sat-chit-ananda, just like the ever-changing waves and bubbles play on the surface of the deep unchanging sea.
The story of Shiva and Parvarti, as also the wonderful story of the enlightenment of Brighu, which is given in the Taittariya Upanishad, illustrate the successive removal of these sheaths, one overlaying the other, as soon as the spiritual aspirant is ready for the highest wisdom. The presence of the guru catalyzes this process of penetrating deeper and deeper through one’s levels of illusion, until one reaches the very source, the unchanging truth of the Self. In the story given, the clear, pure breath was associated with the vital plane, the beautiful image of the Lord was associated with the purified mental plane, the splendorous light was associated with the effulgent Sun of the Gayatri, which wakes up the intuitive intellect, and is related to the plane of Buddhi, and the OM, the pure sound of creation was associated with the causal plane. Beyond all these is the silence of reality, the eternal Divine Principle, the Immortal Self.
When the sishya, the student, is ready for the final beatitude, the guru instructs him to search out That which, when known, all else will be known… That, by which all is seen but which itself can never be seen… That, by which all is heard but which itself can never be heard… That, out of which everything arises, in which everything exists, and into which everything again dissolves. As he discovers for himself these layers within layers, the guru urges him to go on, not to remain stuck in any place, but to go deeper and deeper.
When all the sheaths are stripped away the answer reveals itself in the silence of reality. The guru doesn’t instruct on what truth is; he points out what is not truth, and goads the sishya on. If the sishya bogs down at some level and strays away, the guru will seek him out to keep him moving on the path, until he reaches the highest wisdom.
I Only Wanted Swami To Talk To Me! – A Darshan Story
On one of my visits to Puttaparthi, I had a really great experience with Swami. (I think it was during 1999). I was feeling very down and out. I was feeling very small and insignificant and unworthy of even talking to anyone. I was just keeping to myself. then I prayed to Baba to talk to me because that would make me feel better and worthy of being talked to by others also. With that thought, I went inside sai kulwant hall after having drawn 4th token (or something near to that no.) and I was sitting in the second row in darshan on the men’s side.
Then the music started and Baba came out from the Poornachandra Auditorium. He used to walk then. He shuffled forward taking letters, blessing trays. Finally he was opposite my row. He spoke to someone there. Then He suddenly turned towards our side. There was a Russian sitting in front of me. Baba said something to him. Then suddenly He was looking at me and saying something in Telugu (I think because I heard something like “neevu” which is a Telugu word). My head was spinning. I couldn’t believe Baba was talking to me !! At the same time the thought passed thru my head “could Baba be mistaking me for some other guy, some Telugu guy”?? I dismissed that thought as soon as it came because i knew that Baba knows everything. He doesnt make mistakes. Then Baba repeated what he must have said earlier, in English. He said “Where have you come from ?” I was still too stunned to reply. Baba spoke a third time. This time in Hindi. He said “Keedhar se aayaa?” meaning again “where had I come from.” I managed to say “SAI, Mumbai”. Then Baba threw up His hands in the air as if I had given the wrong answer and He said “Oh!! Bombay!”
Then He proceeded to make vibhuti right in front of me and gave some to a Telugu farmer sitting next to me. Others nearby stretched out their hands and Baba kept giving vibhuti to all. Finally I also picked up the courage to stretch my hands out for vibhuti. But Baba just turned away. When i was praying to Baba earlier in the day, I had told him that “I dont want vibhuti or anything else, Baba, please just talk to me.” By turning away Baba displayed His omniscience. He proved to me that He knew my thoughts. What a proof !! I sat there with tears flowing down my cheeks and couldn’t stop crying long after darshan. People would just look at me and I was not able to say anything. They just nodded knowingly and said “Ananda” meaning bliss !! Baba does hear and answer our prayers. He knows everything.
A wonderful video worth watching. Three ladies talk about their visits to Sathya Sai Baba during the early 1970’s, onward. My first visit to Prashanthi Nilayam was near the end of 1990 but, by then, personal access was already limited to group interviews and VIPS interviews. Now and then, Swami would speak to people in the front line, but not often. Still, there were our very own innerviews and, of course, his wonderful vibration. His vitality and energy did not decrease until the very end. I say end! but really not then, darshan vibrations are still readily available to people who seek comfort in his presence. (Meaning the darshan area.)
“Who moves the world” – From the Upanishads:
Kena 1:4 What cannot be spoken with words, but that whereby words are spoken: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit; and not what people here adore.
Kena 1:5 What cannot be thought with the mind, but that whereby the mind can think: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit; and not what people here adore.
Kena 1:6 What cannot be seen with the eye, but that whereby the eye can see: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit; and not what people here adore.
Kena 1:7 What cannot be heard with the ear, but that whereby the ear can hear: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit; and not what people here adore.
Kena 1:8 What cannot be indrawn with breath, but that whereby breath is indrawn: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit; and not what people here adore.
Children Of Light 