SATHYA SAI SPEAKS VOLUME 11 - Chapter 06.3
Manikandan Govindasamy
God knows what is good for individual souls
To adore Name and Form is against the basic teaching of Vedhaantha; for, one has to educate oneself into ignoring the evanescent, the temporary, the superficial. Unless one has discovered his identity with all, the identity of all with him, one cannot have the waveless calm, the steady flame. Thyaagainaike amrithathwam aanashuh; give up, give up the fancy for the fantastic objective world, give up, until you reach the stage, when there is no "giver-gift-giving," when there is no "beginning-continuing-ending." Naaradha learnt from the sage Sanathkumaara that he can acquire Shaanthi only when he knows that he is Shaanthi and nothing else! A-shaanthi (restlessness) is something that has possessed him, like a phobia which has no footing. Shake it off; exorcise it. He is free. It is the role that is tragic; not the actor. He has only to remind himself that it is a play and that he is playing the role of a tragic hero! This Naaradha learnt and his equanimity was never again disturbed.
This day, every home is swept clean, the floors are polished, the walls whitewashed and painted, and before every house, women draw auspicious designs in flour. They place in the middle of that design a lump of cow dung, and stick on that lump a big yellow flower of golden hue, of the sweet cucumber. Why the cow dung lump? It symbolises the cow, the Go which Gopaala feeds and fends. Go (cow) also means, beings, souls, individuals. So that, Gopaala is He who tends the souls, keeps them away from harm, encourages them to graze in peace, and drives them back into the sheds when evening falls on earth. Individual beings too are under the loving care of God, who knows what is good for them and saves from ruin. Thus, each trivial detail of the festival rites has a meaning, which can vibrate the participant, in its proper time.
Sathsang will keep you young and fresh, full and free
Again, this day, you are requested to eat sweet rice cooked in milk. That is the food called Saathwik (pure), which promotes elevated thoughts, mildness and humility. But, food does not end with what you take in through the mouth. What you take in through the eye, the ear, the nose, the skin, through your greed your hunger for excitement, your thirst for variegated experience of the objective world---all is food. And, every particle of it has to be Saathwik, so that your progress towards self-realisation may be quick and fruitful.
You are really fortunate that you are able to drink through the ear the discourses on the glory of the Divine; Vedhaantha is the best and highest food which man can consume; it keeps your propensities pure, your body in perfect trim, your passions well controlled, your emotions clear and lucid, your thoughts simple and sincere. Sathsang (noble company), is more nutritious than fruits and nuts, milk or honey. It will keep you young and fresh, full and free, beyond the disintegrating influence of time and space.
These holy days are reminders of the discipline, which you have strayed away from. It is a grim world, from out of which you have to squeeze yourself out, into freedom and fulfilment. A train whistling past in full speed over the rails drawn by a giant locomotive cannot be stopped by a million hands; but by merely pressing a button, the driver can bring it to a halt! Installing that button, that mechanism in your mind that rolls along behind the senses is the purpose of saadhana; installing and operating it.
The knowledge that you are the architect of your fortune and that you can, by steady effort, rebuild it or foster it, that you are ever laying on or pulling down the structure of your career, will be a great inspiration, provided you welcome it.