Discussion with Sri Sathya Sai on Secular Subjects in the Spiritual Context – Part 1

July 1, 2002 (Monday) 

Sometime, Swami reveals His deep understanding of various management, sciences and arts subjects, often integrating them with the highest of spiritual truths. On this day, after the interview, Swami came to the third block. 

Swami : (To Prof. Anil Kumar) What are you teaching? Bioscience? 

Prof. A. K. : Yes, Swami. Workshop… 

Swami : (Looking at some files) Who teaches Chemistry? What is Chemistry? Rasayana Shastram? What do I know about all this?

(To Principal – Prof. U. S. Rao) When is the Workshop, 5th to 7th? 

Principal : Yes Swami. Swami, please give a discourse on that day. 

Swami : Discourse? I don’t know how to give discourse? (Smiling) How can I know all these subjects? Where are these speakers coming from? 

Principal : Swami, one is from Sundaram. 

Swami : Sundaram, Madras? And the other one is from U.S.A.? 

Principal : Yes, Swami. 

Swami : How many students will attend? Is it for both 1st year and 2nd year students? 

Principal : No, Swami. Only for 1st year students. 

Swami : (Looking at a book in Prof. Anil Kumar’s hand) Dunnapota. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, this book contains discourses given by Swami on Management. There seem to be lots of pages in this book. 

Swami : (To a teacher) What are you teaching Ramamoorthy? Finance? 

(Prof. V. E. Ramamoorthy is a senior professor from the School of Business Management in Swami’s University.) 

Prof. V. R. : Yes, Swami. 

Swami : No money anywhere! (Called two students) What is your name? 

(To other student, referring to the chain Swami had previously given) Are you wearing the chain? The pendant is too big for the chain. 

(Swami created another small pendant and attached it to the chain and put it round the student’s neck.) 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, it is very nice. 

Swami : So you have cast your looks! (To the students) Are you from Chemistry? 

Student : Biosciences, Swami. 

Swami : (To the other student) How about you? 

Student : B.A., Swami. 

Swami : +D (degree), BAD. M.A.+D, MAD. Which year? 

(Editor’s Note: Swami would always pun on the degrees to indicate that if not used well after completing education, they may mean nothing, and would be as trivial as their acronyms turn out to be.)

Student : Second year, Swami. 

Swami : You should try to become a doctor. Will you? 

Student : Yes, Swami. 

Swami : After Bioscience, you should become a doctor. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, fees are very high. 

Swami : Three and a half lakhs. Even if you put it in the bank, you can live on the interest. (Looking at the student) Marriage is like mirage. It looks as though there is water, but there is really nothing there. Only illusion. 

(To a teacher) Do you know what is Marketing?  

Teacher : Swami, ‘give and take’ is Marketing. 

Swami : You are describing it as though it were a very simple thing. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, even give and take of false notes takes place. How can one call that Marketing? 

Swami : That is your market. The whole world is a market.

(To the Principal – Prof. U. S. Rao) You should teach the subject well. Students should know how, what, where, when and why of everything. (Referring to the M.B.A. workshop) What is the workshop about? 

Principal : Swami, it is a workshop on Development. 

Swami : (To a teacher) What is Marketing? 

Teacher : Swami, ‘giving and taking’, ‘Heart to Heart’ is marketing. 

Swami : What? Heart to heart? (In a jovial manner) Then the person will die if he gives heart! 

Teacher : Swami, when there is no love, there is no Marketing. 

Swami : Love is everywhere. How can you say that? Worldly knack is Marketing. First, there is knack. Then it becomes crack! 

(To another teacher) What is Marketing? 

Teacher : Swami, creating a demand for things, which are really not necessary, is called Marketing. 

Swami : See, short fellow is very smart. This is worldly knack.

(To a research scholar) What is Marketing? 

Scholar : Swami. It is exchange of goods. It is like breathing. Inhalation and exhalation. 

Swami : No. That is bad. Breathing is bad. You exhale and someone else inhales it. It is dangerous for him. Diseases breed like this. 

Scholar : Swami, but that is the nature. 

Swami : That is not nature. What is nature? It is ‘Bhoomandalam’. There, it is all heat. No oxygen. What is oxygen? It is ‘Praana Vaayu’. Everything should have a limit. After the limit is crossed, everything becomes poison. 

Teacher : Yes, Swami. 

Swami : What is most fundamental for everything? It is the electron. It is in hydrogen, oxygen, etc. What does hydrogen do? It comes from the sun. And from hydrogen all other things come into existence. When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed, water comes into existence. Two parts of ‘H’ and one part of ‘O’. Isn’t it so? 

Teacher : Yes, Swami. 

Swami : Where does all this come from? It comes from the sun. Helium is present in the sun. What comes from helium? It splits into hydrogen. Helium is therefore important for hydrogen. 

Teacher : Swami, it is said that the Sun’s power is diminishing. 

Swami : No, it is only changing. Slowly, hydrogen changes to helium. So it is neither destroyed nor created. It only undergoes changes. When two watches are kept beside each other, which have a time difference, after some time, you will see that they both show the same time. This is due to magnetic power. Similarly, when an iron filing is kept beside a magnet, it also starts attracting other iron filings. 

Prof. A. K. : It behaves like a magnet. 

Swami : Not like a magnet. It becomes a magnet itself. This is what is meant by the Vedic injunction ‘Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavati’ (The knower of Brahman becomes the Brahman Himself). Everything is magnet. What is the smallest thing? What is ‘Anu’ and what is ‘Paramaanu’? 

What is ‘Anu’ and what is ‘Paramaanu’? 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, one is molecule and the other is atom. 

Swami : Is atom the smallest? No. Even smaller things exist. You cannot see them even if you use a powerful microscope. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, proton, electron and neutron are smaller than the atom. 

Swami : They constitute the atom. Paramaanu is the Shakti (power) behind all these. It is Agocharam. It is invisible. What is it? 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, it is infinite. 

Swami : It is energy. What name did Einstein give it? 

Teacher : Brahman, Swami. 

Swami : Two names were given, one by Einstein and the other by Newton. 

What are they? Newton gave it the name ‘Gravitation’ and Einstein gave it the name ‘Psychotronic’ power. 

Prof. A. K. : Yes Swami, You had mentioned this in a discourse once. 

Swami : Yes. It exists as Shakti and is invisible. It is very subtle. What did Newton say? Who is he? 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726), one of the greatest physicists of all time

Prof. A. K. : Swami, he is the one who discovered gravity. 

Swami : How? 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, we were only taught that he discovered gravity and that he gave three laws of motion. How he found and all the rest of it, we don’t know. 

Swami : He was trying to find something else. He discovered this accidentally. He used to think too much and that led to his going mad. 

Prof. A. K. : Did he lose mental balance, Swami?  

Swami : Yes, he used to think too much. There should be a limit to everything. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, then what is ‘Medha Shakti’? 

Swami : That is the intellectual capacity. But there is a limit to that. 

Prof. A. K. : Swami, how to know where the limit is? 

Swami : When you know that a car is approaching, you don’t go and jump in front of it to see how much it will hurt you. The knowledge that it will is internal. So he will automatically know where to stop.  

Prof. A. K. : Very nice example, Swami. 

Swami : He will know when he has given enough thought. If you think too much, there is nervousness. Then, he should stop. If he doesn’t, it leads to confusion and depression; loss of memory follows. One shouldn’t cross the limit.  

Continued in Part 2…

Source: Students with Sai: Conversations (2001-2004)