Sri Sathya Sai Landmark Messages in Coastal Andhra Pradesh – Part 1

Sunday, March 21, 1965 to Tuesday, April 06, 1965 

Visakhapatnam and East Godavari Districts 

A grand welcome to Sri Sathya Sai at each of the venues

Swami’s journey began from Sullurpet in the district of Nellore from Madras on the 21st of March, 1965. On the 22nd morning, He laid the foundation stone for a chowltry and blessed the gathering with His Divine Discourse. He proceeded to Kakinada via Manikonda on the 23rd. He was welcomed by the members of Sai Bhakta Mandali at Kakinada. On 24th, Swami inaugurated the Sai Baba Temple in the old town and also the 3 day session of the Prashanti Vidwan Maha Sabha.

'Bodies are different but Divinity is same': 

Sri Sathya Sai inaugurates the Sai Baba temple

Swami emphasized the essentials of Sanathana Dharma in His Discourse given at the public meeting held on the 25th at the Sports Stadium of the Engineering College. MLA Dantu Bhaskara Rao presided over the meeting. He said: 

“You must tread the spiritual path with an uncontrollable urge to reach the Goal; you must cultivate the yearning for liberation from all this encumbrance. Remember that you have to dwell in a house built on four stout pillars: Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (righteousness, wealth, desire and liberation); Dharma supporting Artha, and Moksha being the only Kama or desire. However much you may earn either wealth or strength, unless you tap the springs of Ananda (bliss) within you, you cannot have peace and lasting content. There is Satyatwa, Nityatwa (reality of truth and eternity) in you; you need not earn them from anyone else. The four pillars of Purushartha (goals of human effort) are made firm and stable by fixing them on the bedrock of the Nitya Satya Tatwa (reality of eternal truth) in every man, the Divine in fact, on which the human is superimposed. 

Manava (man) means a person who has no trace of ignorance! And so, if you seek to deserve that name, you must remove it by incessant activity, moved by good impulses. But, while your efforts are little, your expectations are great. Your achievement is little, your boast is great. When someone asked a water carrier whether his leather bag was clean, he replied, "It is cleaner than the bag into which you pour the water." Look to the inner purity rather than the outer one. Examine yourself, do not venture to judge others. Search for the pearl, not the shell; the gem, not the tinsel. 

Everyone can achieve Moksha 

You must have heard of people seeking Moksha (liberation) and getting Moksha; many may be under the impression that it is some rare honor that only a few secure or that it is some area like Paradise or a Colony of the Elect or a Height that some heroic souls alone can climb up to. No; Moksha is something which all must achieve, whether they are heroic or not; even those who deny it have to end by realizing it. For, everyone is even now seeking it when he seeks joy and peace; and, who does not seek joy and peace? Moksha is when you have lasting joy and lasting peace. Tired with temporary joys and transient peace, man will at last endeavor to know the secret of permanent joy and peace, that is to say, of Moksha, Liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

If only men knew the path to permanent joy and peace, they will not wander distracted among the bye-lanes of sensual pleasure. Just as the joy felt in dreams disappears when you wake, the joy felt in the waking stage disappears when you wake into the higher awareness, called Jnana. So, the Upanishads say, ‘Get up, arise, awake’; time is fleeing fast. Use the moment while it is available, for the best of uses, the awareness of the Divine in all. When you die, you must die not like a tree or a beast or a worm, but, like a Man who has realized that he is Madhava (God). That is the consummation of all the years you spend in the human frame. This essential teaching is absent in modern curricula; men and women live many years without knowing the secret of joyful, peaceful living. The educated are today more discontented than the uneducated, whereas they ought really to be calmer and less subject to agitations of the mind. Education today is a thin veneer that heightens egoism and hypocrisy. 

Someone was found writing ‘pepper’ on a tin of sugar and when asked the reason, he said, "It is only to cheat the ants"! The label "education" on the present system of teaching and training the young cannot cheat any thinking person, who looks for the real purpose of education: the unfolding of the Divine in human personality. Humility and an attitude of reverence are essential for man. They are not promoted by the educational process of today; the processes recommended in the Upanishads ensured these two. 

‘Revere the mother as Divine; revere the father as Divine; revere the teacher as Divine; revere the guest as Divine’, they exhorted. Everyone has the Divine in him; so no one should be slighted or neglected. The parents who gave you this wonderful chance to realize the reality and the teacher who opened your eyes to the treasure within you, the guest who gave you the splendid chance to render service to the living embodiment of God right in your very home, all have to be revered, and served with humility. The educated man is like the man who asks for a ticket at the booking office of a railway station, but does not know to which place he is going! But all men are travelers, pilgrims rather, to God, who is drawing them to Him.” 

Thousands gathered to have Sathya Sai Darshan and listen to His Discourses 

On 26th morning Swami visited the village Sampara. Prior to this visit of Swami, a large group of devotees from Sampara had undertaken a pilgrimage to Puttaparthi to seek Swami’s Darshan braving a lot of difficulties. Swami was so pleased with their sincerity that He rewarded them with His Darshan and Divine Discourse at their very own hamlet. Swami was accompanied by Brahmasri Varanasi Subramanya Sastry and Brahmasri Bulluru Appanna Sastry. The Prashanti Vidwan Maha Sabha Sessions at Kakinada were presided over by Sri Lakkaraju Subbarao, former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University. After this meeting, Swami left for Pithapuram on the 26th accompanied by Brahmasri Varanasi Subramanya Sastry. He addressed a huge gathering of devotees at Pithapuram: 

“This ancient fort is a reminder of the evanescence of earthly glory and the essential futility of all efforts to achieve worldly glory and conquests. These walls and bastions were once the symbols of power and wealth; now, they are symbols of the fickleness of fortune. They have themselves become pathetic ruins, teaching you that Time is the greatest conqueror. Everything material undergoes change; nothing can remain the same. Today merges into tomorrow; it is itself the consequence of yesterday. It is a constant flux, Samsara, the flow of Time, the flood of change. Really speaking, this Fort built centuries ago for purposes of defense and aggrandizement has realized its goal today, when this vast gathering of eager seekers meets under the shadow of the walls to hear from Me the message of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema. The kings of Pithapuram have done many meritorious acts of charity, encouraging the study of the Vedas, Shastras and scriptures, constructing and maintaining houses of worship and temples. Acts such as these will never go unrewarded; good seeds sown must sprout and yield. Many scholars have flourished here and I must reveal to you that I came here today primarily because of the Prema that Varanasi Subrahmanya Shastri bears towards Me and that I bear towards him. The fact that in spite of the very short notice of My arrival at this place on my way to Yelamanchilli, you have come here in thousands, is to be ascribed to your yearning for the higher life and your earnestness to contact the Divine. I know this already. This too is a reason for my stopping here for some hours. 

The beaming joy on the faces of this vast multitude is the food that I live upon; I am refreshed when you are happy and content. My thirst is quenched by the joy which lights up your eyes. Your Ananda is My Ahara (food). I do not feel like talking to you at all, for I desire only to communicate to you My Joy and to get into communion with your Joy. This mutual fulfillment is the essential thing; talking and listening are subsidiary. Moreover, this visit was thought of just while we were starting from Kakinada and you have all gathered at this late hour of night; so, I am not quite pleased at this hurried affair. I shall certainly come again and be with you longer and confer on you more Joy. 

I shall leave one message for you to ruminate upon, that is the message of Prema. Love is God, God is Love. Where there is Love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people, love them more and more intensely; transform the love into service, transform the service into worship; that is the highest Sadhana. There is no living being without the spark of love; even a mad man loves something or somebody intensely. But, you must recognize this love as but a reflection of the Prema Swaruupa, (the embodiment of Love) that is your reality, to the God who is residing in your heart. Without that spring of Love that bubbles in your heart, you will not be prompted to love at all. Recognize that spring, rely on it more and more, develop its possibilities, try to irrigate the whole world with it, discard all touch of self from it, do not seek anything in return for it from those to whom you extend it. In your daily affairs, do not create factions, or revel in hatred. See the good in others and the faults in yourselves. Revere others as having God installed in them; revere yourself also as the seat of God. Make your heart pure so He can reside therein. 

The consequence of Karma can be wiped out only through karma, as a thorn can be removed only by means of another. Do good karma to assuage the pain of the bad Karma which you have done and from which you suffer now. The best and the simplest karma is the repetition of the Name of the Lord; be ever engaged in it. It will keep out evil tendencies and wicked thoughts. It will help you radiate love all round you. The sages of ancient times divided karma into Vikarma (that is intentionally done) and Akarma (that is done without any intention to gain the consequence). Follow the latter and you will save yourselves from suffering. All other activities, the earning of wealth, of reputation, of fame and publicity, result in suffering. Gain internal peace, internal joy; that can be done only when you act without an eye on the gain. The act must be its own reward; or rather, the act must be according to the prompting of the God within, so that its consequence is left to Him. Practice this attitude consistently and you will find great Peace welling within you and around you.” 

Swami proceeded to Yelamanchili in the Vizag District late 26th evening. On 27th morning, Swami inaugurated the Prashanti Vidwan Maha Sabha meeting at Yelamanchili and also addressed a huge gathering of a lakh people gathered there. He said: 

“For three years the people of Yelamanchili have been persuading Me to come to their village and give Darshan to the people of this area, and at last, their wish has been fulfilled. I see about fifty thousands have gathered here. This chance to grant you joy has come this day; for, everything has its proper time and cause (Kalam and Karanam). 

Sri Sathya Sai delivering the Divine Discourses

The Pandit spoke of ‘Matam’ and how it has become quite frequent for people to change their religion, from one to another, without knowing the principles of either or even without any attempt to follow the principles of the one they already know. Matam means opinion, conclusion, point of view. ‘This is my religion’, it is often said by disputants, in Sutra literature. So, when Mati (intelligence) changes or grows or deteriorates, Matam also suffers a change. That is only natural. Even among the followers of one Matam or religion, since Mati and its standards are different, all are not endowed with the same faith. So, there is no use following reason; very often reason follows the dictates of prejudice or predilections; one must follow the dictates of the rishis who were above all pettiness and egoism. They say, ‘Iti Vedanushasanam’, (this is what Veda enjoins). They do not even claim it to be their discovery. Chit Shakti (Grace), revealed to them the basic truths for the progress of man. 

The same God who revealed, out of His Grace, the Vedas, has to come again and again, whenever people seek to pitch their petty intelligences against the Eternal Intelligence. The petty intelligences are but the bond-slaves of the senses; they lead man astray, fascinated by the 'will-of-the-wisp' of sensual pleasure. The Vedas, on the other hand, beckon them towards eternal, undiminishable joy; but man does not pay heed. He wanders in the dark, seeking in the outside world what he has lost in the inner world of the spirit! 

The scriptures lay down various stages of spiritual development and the rigor of the discipline for each stage is tuned to the level reached by the aspirant. As a child is fed on breast milk for some months and then, on cow's milk, and later given bread and crisp bitable bits when the teeth have grown, so too, man is given by the Vedas spiritual food suited to digestive development. In the early stages, the Jnana of the Unity (which is misread as Diversity) cannot be grasped. So Bhakti or Upasana is recommended. Bhakti comes naturally for it is only the expansion of the love that is inherent in man. To get grounded in Bhakti, good activity, good company, good listening and good behavior are essential. 

Look at the self-control and humility of Lakshmana. When the ornaments (thrown over by Sita while being carried through the sky by Ravana) were placed before him by Rama and he was asked to identify those whom he could recognize as Sita's own, Lakshmana could recognize only the 'toe-rings' of his sister-in-law! He said he used to see them when he fell at her feet in reverence, as the first duty of the day. As regards the other personal ornaments and jewels of Sita, he could not say anything, for he had never lifted his head and looked at her. How many brothers can claim today that depth of reverence towards their sisters-in-law? Now, young men behave rudely, they peer at girls insultingly, they follow them along the roads and make life miserable for the girls. 

Or look at Dharmaraja, who preferred the life of a step-mother’s son to the life of either Bheema or Arjuna when the Yaksha offered to grant him the life of any one of the four who were dead – Bheema, Arjuna or the stepmother's children, Nakula and Sahadeva; his magnanimity saved the lives of all four! Who will act so today when faced with such a choice? 

There is now no love among even uterine brothers and sisters, what to speak of step-brothers? This high moral standard once ensured individual progress and social cohesion. Now, both are missing. The body, the tongue, the ear, the eye, are all being misused by man. Only wild beasts inflict terror; only cattle get frightened; man is neither and so he should not do either. Man is truly incapable of fear, he is the embodiment of Love; he is a child of Immortality, he is the temple of God. That is the essence of Vedic teaching, as found in the Upanishads. Love has first to gladden the home. There is no love now between the elders and the youngsters in the home; children do not revere parents. This moral decline will certainly undermine unity and strength. Moral decline is worse than military decline; it will lead to greater disaster. If you always repeat the idea of “Naadhi” (mine, mine), how can you be useful to others? Sacrifice is the 'salt' of life; Yaga or Tyaga is the secret of peace and joy. 'Go' means ‘Indriya’ or the senses; so, the word 'Go-pala' means, he who controls the senses. And, why should they be controlled? So that they may not stand in the way of Tyaga or sacrifice. All the senses are self-centred, egoistic. They must be educated to be inward-directed, towards the Atma which is Universal. That is gained by trusting to Go-pala by entrusting the senses to Him. Everyone must pass through Satkarma or good deeds, into the realm of expanding Love and from Love he learns the lesson of sacrifice, of dedication, of surrender to the One Overlord. This takes him on to faith in the supremacy of Godhead, everything else being but His shadow, His being the One and Only Reality. 

Since such things have happened in this region, I must tell you one thing more. There are many Swamis and Gurus who go round from place to place, with the avowed object of collecting money from their devotees. This is a heinous act, especially for Sanyasins (renunciant) to engage in. Many persons have also started using My name for the purpose of collecting money for various purposes or material. If such men come to you, send them back with the admonition that they are doing wrong. I ask for Bhakti, Shraddha, Sadhana (devotion, faith and spiritual discipline) - purification of hearts, that is all. Only beggars ask for money; I will never associate Myself with the temporary, the tarnished, the tawdry, and the mean. Then, there are some who proclaim that I am ‘coming upon someone’ and speaking through them! They pretend to be My mouthpieces and communicate to others My advice and My suggestions, as if I have 'authorized' them or as if I am Myself telling so through them. Now hear this. I never speak through another; I never possess another or use another as a vehicle of expression. I come direct, I come straight, I come as I am, to confer peace and joy. I do not accept from you flowers that fade, fruits that rot, coins that have no value beyond the national boundary. Give Me the lotus that blooms in your Manasa Sarovara, the clear pellucid waters of the lake, of your inner consciousness; give Me the fruits of holiness and steady discipline. I am above all this worldly etiquette, which enjoins you to see elders with some fruit or flower in your hand. My world is the world of the spirit; there, values are different. If you are happy, with faith in God and fear of sin, that is enough ‘service’, enough Kainkaryam for Me. It pleases Me so. In the East Godavari District and hereabouts, persons who claim to be ‘possessed’ by Me are appearing recently in large numbers, with their own gangs of brokers and agents. Order them out, wherever you come across them. Do not yield to their tactics and lower your own dignity as devotees of the Lord.” 

Swami left for Amalapuram the same night. 

Continued in Part 2… 


Source: Sri Sathya Sai Digvijayam (1926-1985)