Vijaya Dashami gives the Message of Unity

The Dashara Festival has filled your eyes, ears and minds with Ananda for ten days. And, with the bodies transformed by this rich experience, you are returning to your places. Let me tell you something which will grant light, so that weight will be less for the journey of life. Man has always tried to conquer nature. In this contest, he has employed all his physical, mental and intellectual skills. Nature is a composite of the three Gunas: the pure, passionate and dull. Therefore, it can be overcome only by developing the qualities of truth, love and tolerance. When man taps the energy of the Divine in him, he can easily master Nature, which is only the vesture of the Divine.

Drawing on the Divine that is inherent in you is the lesson of the Geeta. When you picture to yourself Arjuna in the two-wheeled chariot, four white horses yoked to it, Krishna sitting in it holding the reins and answering the queries of Arjuna, then, you miss a great part of the significance of the scene. 

Arjuna is the Jeeva (individual entity) and Krishna is the Deva (Divine entity). When both are in contact, impregnable might results. You may have enormous quantity of electricity, but, it can demonstrate itself as work only through some medium or instrument. So too, Krishna had to work in and through Arjuna, so that the reign of Dharma is re-established. Arjuna means: "white, pure, unblemished;" hence, he is the proper instrument. The other four brothers are the horses, they are also without blemish! Arjuna provided the appropriate heart-throne where the Lord could install Himself. The five brothers represent the five elemental principles - the earth, water, fire, air and the ether (sky). They also symbolise the five vital airs that activate man.

God is to be recognised in all human beings

The hundred Kaurava cousins were all destroyed, because they stood for aggrandizement and justification of means, provided the end is gained! The Pandavas surrendered completely to the Will of God and so, they could draw on the Divine, and gain victory. When they gave up everything in the end and tramped along the road to the Himalayan silence, one by one, they dropped dead; only the eldest was able to reach the abode of the Gods. His name, significantly, is Dharma Raja (the Monarch of Righteousness)!

People are satisfied with repetition of cliches, even in the field of religion. Ask any one where God is, the reply is "Everywhere". But, the hearts of many have not been filled with Him. Probably, "everywhere" does not include the inside of their hearts! It means only their tongues, presumably) "Worship God," that is the road to victory. This is another cliche. But, God is worshipped only in pictures, images, idols; He is not recognised in all living beings, in beauty, harmony, melody, truth, goodness.

Devotion must be undeviating

Let Me tell you one fact, in order to warn you against hoping too much. Worship such as this, offering of incense, flowers, repetition of hymns of praise and other rites are only commendable ways of utilizing time; good activity! Unless they cleanse the heart, widen sympathies and deepen faith in one's own divinity, they are unworthy of the name Sadhana. Among those who label themselves as theists (believers), 99.75% can be heard complaining, "I believe in God, but, He is making me miserable; that fellow is an unbeliever, but, the same God is heaping one joy after another on him!" Can this be devotion, dedication?

Devotion must be undeviating, whatever happens. Prahlada had that unshakable faith; he had surrendered so completely to the Lord that no torture could turn him away from fidelity. When you start judging and pronouncing judgements on the basis of your own prejudices and information, you only demonstrate that your faith is shallow, it is only a fair-weather phenomenon.

Those attached to God, aspiring for God, aware of God, adoring God have certain distinct marks by which they can be identified. Pronouncing judgements like this is quite contrary to the nature of dedication. Again, such people have a compassionate heart. If a person tums the rosary on the fingers, and is intently engaged in watching the tip of his nose, unmindful of the distress that dances around him, we can at best name him a sloth, that is all. Get up, place the rosary in its bag, and engage yourselves in relieving distress that is the true spiritual path.

Do not waste all your years with stone images, pictures or idols. Learn to see in every living vital active person, the embodiment of all energy, all beauty, all beneficence, namely, God. God is subtler than ether, filling the smallest crevice with His Majesty. Know this and serve His manifestations, wherever you meet them.

Turn the mind vigorously towards God

Some institutions profess to train persons in Dhyana and hold Dhyana classes! How can any one put trust in these? It may be possible to train to sit aright, and to go through various contortions of the body; but, how can any one help another to concentrate more keenly? Love God and no distraction can turn you from the thought of God. Valmeeki was a highway robber, terrorizing the travelers and killing without mercy. Rajas (passion) was the predominant quality in his make-up. When he chanced to meet the Seven Sages and listen to their counsel, his heroism, bravery and persistence turned God-wards in a flash; he became so ardent an ascetic that an ant-hill grew over him as he sat unmoved. 

You need not rely on another for success in Dhyana and Japa and await contact with some sage in order to get from him a Mantra for recitation. Pray to the God within you and you will receive the needed guidance. Turn your mind towards God; dedicate yourselves to God; then you will find life one continuous stream of Ananda (bliss). Have a fan in your hand and sweep it towards you; then, you feel comforted. So also, use the mind as the instrument, and turn it vigorously towards God; then, it can give you the Ananda of liberation.

Rama is the name for Ananda that is inherent in every heart; recite His name, let the Ananda respond and upsurge. Do not pretend and get charged with hypocrisy. Be genuine, sincere and true inheritors of Bharatiya culture! You have to outgrow the idol, picture and image; they are the kindergarten materials in spiritual schools; seek to know the Divine Energy, that is burdened with no Name and no Form. Rise higher into the empyrean heights of the Pure, Attributeless, Transcendent One...

God will be your Guru from within

Carry on Sadhana for your elevation, from one stage to another. God Himself will be your Guru from within. He became Himself the Guru of Meera and Hemareddi Mallamma.

Do not proclaim that this Name of God is superior or more efficacious than the other. To assert that Rama is superior or that Shiva is superior, or even that Sai Baba is the Avatar that is the fullest of all - all this only reveals that you have not understood what Divinity is. Rama is a Name that combines the Ra of Narayana and the ma of Namah Shivaya, the Mantras of the Vaishnavas and that of the Shaivites. So, Rama means, the quality of Shiva and Vishnu. Or, Rama has the Ra of Hara (Shiva) and the Ma of Uma (the Shakti aspect of Shiva); so, Rama is the name of Shiva Shakti! How can faction arise when each name is so resonant with the lesson of the unity of all Names?

Some persons pray to Me, "Swami! All my people go on pilgrimage to Tirupati; why don't you turn their minds and make them come to you?" What an absurd question? What colossal ignorance of My reality as well as of the manifold majesty of God!

Cleanse your minds of evil thoughts. I find some of you spread your handkerchiefs on the carpets and then sit upon them; you feel that the carpets, which have upon them the dust of the feet of countless devotees, is unclean! Now, when you take so much care to see that the place where you sit ought to be free from dirt, how much more attention should you pay to clean the heart, where you expect the Lord to seat Himself.

Clean your heart with detergents Japa and Tapa

Clean the heart with the detergents - Japa and Tapa (penance) using the water Prema. Detergent alone will not do; water too is essential. Carry on the duties of the position in which you are as if they are the dictates of God. Every act that you dedicate to Me reaches Me. Do not grieve that you are not able to come to Puttaparthi to have Darshan (audience). Offer Me Namaskaram (the homage of prostration) wherever you are; it reaches Me at the same time as it is offered.

Resort to the recitation of the Name when your mind is agitated by fear, anxiety or grief. To make a cup of coffee, it is not enough to have decoction in one cup and milk in another. You have to pour one into the other and mix well. Mix the decoction of Vairagya (sense-control, detachment) with the milk of Bhakti-Shraddha (devotion-steadfastness). And you get the drink that satisfies. Return to your homes with these words enshrined in your hearts, ruminate over them alone and in silence. Then it will be easy for you to put a few of these ideas into daily practice and ascend step by step the heights of spiritual achievement.

Source: Divine Discourse on Vijaya Dashmi at Prashaanthi Nilayam on October 11, 1970.