Sunday, March 21, 1965 to Tuesday, April 06, 1965
Nellore and Guntur Districts
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| Sri Sathya Sai Darshan |
Swami visited Kavali (in Nellore District) and Razole (in East Godavari District) on the 3rd, from where He proceeded to Sathyavada. On 4th morning, He addressed a large gathering of devotees at Sathyavada. He gave the clarion call to uplift villages. He said:
“The very first function in the New Year Vishwaavasu is this vast gathering at Sathyavada, a veritable ocean of humanity, formed by rivers and streams from miles around, an ocean of joy, rather than an ocean of humanity! Man is born for the attainment of that joy, not for sheer eating and reveling. Real and lasting joy can be won only by a life led along the path of Dharma. Dharma makes the inherent Divinity of Man shine forth; that illumination is the purpose of Life, of the recurring sequence of birth and death. Man has in him the spark of Divinity, which is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and immanent in the entire Universe; in order to become ever aware of this innate Reality, man must learn the technique laid down by the scriptures, revealed by the same Divinity.
The very first lesson in the primer of this spiritual text is the control of speech. Speech is the armament of man; other animals have fleetness of foot, sharpness of claw, fang, horn, tusk, beak, talon. But, man has sweetness of speech, which can disarm all opposition and defeat all the designs of hatred. Sweetness makes you Pashupati, (Divine); harshness makes you Pashu (bestial). Mere outward politeness or sweetness is hypocrisy! Sincere speech must flow from real sweetness of heart, a heart full of love. Remove all evil from the Manasa Sarovara, (the pellucid Lake of your Mind), and make it a fit abode of Godhead.
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| The Thundering Discourse |
Dedicate the deed and its consequence to God
Do not aspire to be a servant of God, working for wages; you reduce yourself to that level if you ask for this and that from Him in return for the praise that you offer or the sacrifice you undergo; even if you do not ask, if the bargaining attitude is in your mind, or, if you feel disappointed that God did not give you desirable objects in return for all the trouble you took to please Him. Do not calculate profit; do not count on returns; do not plan for the consequence; do, since you have to Do, since it is your duty. That is real Puja. Dedicate the deed as well as the consequence to Him. Then you become His own, not a coolie, demanding wages. That is the highest level a Bhakta can reach through Sadhana. That is the reason why Nishkama Karma (desireless action) is so highly extolled in the Geeta by Krishna. The heart has the precious treasure of Ananda, but man does not know the key to open the lock; that key is Namasmarana - the repetition of the Name of the Lord with a pure heart. Purify the heart with the four instruments' Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema. Always endeavour to do good to others, to think well of them and to speak well of others. This endeavour will wear away your egoism and attachment to things that cater to your pleasures. Do not behave like birds and beasts, always engaged in earning a living or rearing a family. Struggle for higher things; use the higher talents with which you are endowed.
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| Sri Sathya Sai Darshan in the Village |
Man becomes a prisoner of his own desires
Some consider themselves great because they have vast territory, some because they have finance, some because they have arms, some because they have vast populations; but, the real wealth, real greatness is virtue which earns the Grace of God. The Kauravas had everything that the world honoured and envied; arms, ambition, friends, allies, forces, riches. But, God was not on their side, for, they were wicked; and they reaped disaster and disgrace. All things that people pride themselves on having, give Anandam only when they come, but they have grief when they disappear, as they must some day or other. But the Grace of God is Satya, that is to say, persisting without change at all times and at all places; it is Nirmala, uncontaminated by any blemish, full, complete, almighty; it is Nischala, unaffected by modifications. Instead of earning that Grace and the Ananda that flows from it, man spins a cocoon around himself from the sticky fluid of objective attachment and becomes a prisoner of his own desires. ‘I’ and ‘mine’ are the two poison fangs of the cobra of worldly life. Pluck them from your make-up and you are no longer dangerous to society, and to yourself.
Discover the prime purpose of human life
I know that you have to lead an exacting life in the villages, waking with the cock-crow and sleeping when the birds start sleeping. Of course, you have to work for your food, raiment and housing and for your family, to keep all those depending on you happy and comfortable. But, I want to ask you a question: Is this all? Does this complete the task? What has happened to the prime purpose of human life, which you have earned after ages of struggle? Of what avail is all the long years spent in this body if you have not discovered the answer to the essential question: "who am I?" Know that, become masters of your own realm, the realm of the senses, the intellect, the feelings, the impulses, the instincts, the attitudes, the prejudices. Then only can you claim to have Swarajya. When in your own household, the sons rebel against the parents and brother harbours hatred against brother, how can you call yourself 'master'? So, too, when your senses drag you in one direction and your intellect in another, how can you claim to have Swarajya?
I must warn you against two infectious diseases that are rampant in the country now; selfishness and the habit of reviling others. Investigate, examine, and then you have the fight to pronounce judgement. Investigate, examine and then, you will realise that the self is better served by serving others; you will realise that there are far more useful ways of spending time, the little time that you have here in this life than reviling others or praising them. Rather than, concerning yourselves with the faults and excellences of others, care more earnestly for your faults; foster more carefully your own excellences. That is My advice to you today.”
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| On the Dias before the Discourse |
He further proceeded to Repalle (in Guntur District). At Repalle, He discoursed to the devotees on the 5th and 6th. Giving His New Year Message at Repalle, He said:
“The New Year is called Vishwavasu and you must take it as a call to strengthen your Vishwasa (faith); faith in your own Atma, your own Divinity, which manifests itself as Love, as desire for immortality, as detachment, as admiration of virtue, the awe and wonder that Nature provokes. But, man is neglecting a grand opportunity, the opportunity of imbibing his own genuine grandeur. He prefers to burn the sandalwood trees for sale as charcoal, for, he does not know the value of the wood. The Divine he takes to be just human; the goal he has set before himself is the winning of Sukha and Shanti; that is the proper thing to do, but, he stops after a few steps, mistaking the pseudo for the real, that is the tragedy. He believes that if he gets two full meals a day, a few yards of cloth to wear, and a roof over his head, with a few sundry superfluities, he has reached the goal; but the joy he derives is paltry, mixed with grief, easily turning into pain, harmful to others, full of pride, envy, malice, greed and other harmful ingredients. The body that is sustained on food which will not keep fresh for even a few hours, how can it be fresh for long? That which is made and marred cannot for that very reason be truth; for, truth cannot be made and marred. It is, was and will be, without any modification.
What is the immortal part of man? Is it the wealth he has accumulated, the residences he has built, the physique he has developed, the health he has acquired, the family he has reared? No, all that he has done, developed or earned are destroyed; he has to leave them all to the ravages of time. He cannot take with him even a handful of earth, the earth he loved so much. If only the dead could take with them a handful each, earth would have become so scarce that it should have been rationed by now! Discover the immortal 'I' and know that it is the spark of God in you; live in the companionship of the vast measureless Supreme and you will be rendered vast and measureless.
Consider all objects that you collect here as given on 'trust' to be used in this caravanserai, during your pilgrimage, in this Karmakshetra (the field of action). You have to return them when you leave; they belong to another. When you hold a currency note in your hand and say proudly, 'This is mine" that note laughs at you, for, it says, "O, how many thousand persons have I known, who have prided themselves like this!" The body is but a tent. Don't fondle that delusion; pant for the Dehi (Indweller), He who resides therein and makes it active, makes it ponder and conclude and act.
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| Sri Sathya Sai with the Villagers |
The body is but a tent for the pilgrim
As the carpenter shapes the wood, the blacksmith shapes iron, the goldsmith shapes gold, so the Lord shapes in His own way, as the fancy suits Him, Prakriti or the Created Universe, the Manifold, woven of Space and Time and Guna. Know that the Lord is the basis; and lose all fear. The tiny sparrow sits on the storm-tossed bough, because it knows that its wings are strong; it does not depend upon the tossing bough to sustain it. So too, rely on the Grace of God; earn it and keep it. Then, whatever the strength of the storm, you can survive it without harm. Discriminate; discriminate all the time; use Viveka and Vijnana (spiritual knowledge) and experience of the waking stage, the dream stage and the stage of deep sleep. In the dream stage the senses are negated; Buddhi (intellect) does not work; only the mind is the master: it creates its own 'world'. A tiger mauls you in the dream; a snake strikes deep into your leg. You feel all the pain and all the fear. How do you cure the unhappy man? There is no need to bring a doctor or a magician with his charms. Wake him; he is cured! He knows that there was no tiger or snake or bite or pain. So too, Jnana will immediately remove all the dual experiences of joy and grief, derived from these non-real objects.
You have six fires raging in you
When fire rages, you try to put it out by throwing sand or water, and you keep a stock of these in readiness. But, you have six fires raging inside you - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hatred. What have you in store to put them out? Keep ready Satya; Shanti, Dharma and Prema. They will help you to scotch the flames; they are effective extinguishers. Each one eats to assuage his own hunger; so too each one must discover the best way to appease his own spiritual hunger. Do not be led away by the scorn of others or by the recommendation of others. Contact your own reality in the silence that you create by quietening the senses and controlling the mind. There is a Voice that you can hear in that silence. The true witness of your having listened to that Voice is your behaviour. A tree is held and fed by the roots that go into the silent earth; so also, if the roots go deep into the silence of your inner consciousness, your spiritual blossoming is assured.
Yesterday, a very large number of old men, women and children were put to great trouble, since there was great rush and jostling for space. Since all were moved by Prema towards Me, I felt responsible for all that. I sometimes feel that I should not thus move out to places, for when lakhs of people come, quiet becomes difficult. The loudspeakers too joined in adding to the confusion by going out of action. You must learn not to lose patience, but to wait and put the chance to the best use.”
From Repalle, Swami left for Madras on 6th. He completed one of the most insightful and action-packed trips to the Coastal Regions of Andhra Pradesh.
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