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| Swami inside the interview room at Prasanthi Nilayam |
October 5, 1991
Today morning at about 8.30 am, Swami suddenly asked for
the I year MBA students much to their pleasant joy. He blessed them with an interview. Swami asked if the boys had any problems.
Student:
Swami, examinations are going on. Lot of tension and the pressure is too
much.
Swami: You must not have such tensions. In fact, you
should be happy to write exams. Write and finish the exams one by one and there
by progressing higher and higher. Remember that the sooner you finish the exams, the faster you
progress onward.
Hence, you must not have any tension over an exam.
A cyclist was going on the road without a light, so a
policeman chased him and tried to stop him. But, the cyclist shouted, “Don’t
try to stop me. I cannot stop because I have no brakes!” The policeman chased him, caught him and
extracted a double fine. The light is the light of wisdom, brakes are the
self-control. The road represents the path of our life, Police is Nature. If we
do not have self-control and wisdom, Nature ensures that we undergo punishment.
Yet another example, A group of students once went to
Bandipur forest for a picnic. They wanted to cook food, so they brought three
stones to make a stove. The three stones are the three Gunas (qualities). The
first thing to do is indeed to balance the stones, i.e., one must balance one’s
Gunas. On this balanced plane, the pot
is placed, the pot is the body. The water put in may be compared to the mind.
The rice boiled is the desires. The fire used is fire of wisdom. The fire
cannot burn the desires directly. At first it heats the pot, which boils the
water and cooks the rice. When wisdom thus burns the desires, there will be no
re-birth. When even a small speck of dirt is in the ocean, it gets washed
ashore at once, by a number of waves.
You are always thinking of the past and future. You must
think only of present. You have all come here now. You have Swami’s grace with
you. Thinking of this, you must live only in present and hence derive joy. Here
is an example. Suppose that cauliflower curry has been served to you. If you
start thinking about what dirty land this was grown in, what dirty drainage
water was used to water it and what fertiliser was used, you will never enjoy
the curry. Eat it without thinking of anything else. In the same way, do not
get worried thinking of the past and the future. Think of the present. Derive
joy from the present.
Take a piece of wood. If it comes into contact with fire, it
becomes coal. One cannot wash this coal and make it white by using soap and
water. The fire may be compared to your past Samskaras (tendencies). Incomplete
burning of wood gives coal. Completely burning the wood gives ashes. Ash is
light and white. To clean the black-coloured coal and make it white, you must
again put it back into the fire of good Samskaras. It will then burn into ashes
which is white. The white signifies purity. The light signifies freedom.
When you are born as a baby, you cry ‘Koham, Koham’ (Who am
I). When you grow up, you say ‘I am….’ But you must actually say, ‘Soham
Soham’ (I am that). I am not the body. The body is a gift from parents. You
must attain the light of good – the light of God.
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