Divine Discourse 1 August 1996

Bliss Is Your Real Form Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Prasanthi Nilayam 1 August 1996

Editor’s note. A condensed version of this discourse appears in the Sathya Sai Speaks series. This more complete version was published in Sanathana Sarathi, June 2013.

The who propagate the truths One bilva leaf with three petals offered to propounded in the and Sastras three-eyed Lord Siva, (scriptures), Who is the embodiment of the three attrib- The kings who are prepared to sacrifice utes (gunas) and their body for the safety and security of Who holds the trident in his hand, the nation, Destroys the sins accumulated over three The businessmen who do business with eth- births. ics and morality, The noble farmers who lead a happy life Tridalam trigunakaram working in the fields to raise crops, Trinetram cha triyayudham; —All should contemplate the divine Name Trijanma papa samharam without wasting time and thus sanctify Eka bilvam Sivarpanam. their life. (Telugu Poem) is immanent in the entire creation Students! Brahman signifies the unity of these three Just as tarakam, sankhyam, and amanaskam principles. Absolute reality denotes Atma and form the three main types of as pro- the empirical denotes the “I” (aham). Some pounded by , three main concepts re- people, out of ignorance, think that Atma and late to what constitutes truth, namely abso- Aham are separate from each other. In fact, lutely real, empirical, and illusory (paramar- Atma is like the ocean and Aham is like the thika, vyavaharika, and pratibhasika). waves. The absolutely real can be compared to an When you turn your vision inward and en- ocean, the empirical is like ocean waves, and quire, you will realise that both are one and the illusory is the foam that is generated by the same. Waves are not different from the the waves. Without the ocean, there can be no ocean. waves, and without waves there can no foam. Just as there is fire in wood, oil in sesame In the final analysis, water forms the basis of seeds, and sugar in sugar cane, similarly, the all three: ocean, waves, and foam. Therefore, empirical (vyavaharika) is inherent in the do not consider the three as separate from absolutely real (paramarthika). There can be each other. They are as closely linked to each no waves without the ocean, and there can be other as the divine trinity, the three attributes no son without a father. In the same manner, serenity, passion, and sloth (sathwa, rajas, there can be no empirical without the abso- and thamas), and the three periods of time. lutely real.

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God is extolled as Bhavaya Namah. What is Brahman is Supreme Consciousness (- the meaning of Bhava in Vedantic parlance? nam ). Prajnana is the life of every Bhava signifies the Supreme Being, who has being, and water is the basis of life. There- this visible world as His very form. Lord fore, chit is compared to water. is the cause, and the world is the When sugar and water are separate, sugar is effect. The entire creation is the play of cause sugar and water is water. When they combine, and effect. you get syrup. Similarly, when sat and chit God incarnates in various forms in this world come together, bliss is the result. Bliss is your to demonstrate the unity of all names and real form. Sat is nothing but the principle of forms. Just as the peacock looks beautiful Atma, which is eternal. Without the principle with its colourful plumage, the divine prin- of Atma, the world has no existence. ciple of Vishnu appears most wonderful with its myriad forms in the entire creation. Faith has great significance in Vedanta This is stated in the Vedic dictum: The Cos- You write a charming poem in beautiful let- mic Being has thousands of heads, eyes, and tering on a super special paper, put it in a feet (sahasra seersha purusha sahasraksha glittering cover, and post it. The paper is most sahasra pad). The cosmic form of the Lord valuable, the letters are beautiful, the poetry is consists of thousands of heads and thousands sublime, the cover is attractive, and the of eyes. It means that everyone is the embo- address is also written correctly. But the letter diment of Vishnu. does not reach the addressee. Why not? The God has another name, Kutastha, which sig- reason is that you did not affix the required nifies that He permeates every being in crea- stamp on the cover. tion. Just as the waves, foam, and ocean are You sing with tune and rhythm (raga one and the same, creation, sustenance, and and tala). The tune and music may be attrac- dissolution are three inseparable aspects of tive, but it does not reach or please God if you Divinity. lack self-confidence. Confidence in you, con- Everything emerged from the ocean of Truth- fidence in God; this is the secret of greatness. Knowledge-Bliss (Satchidananda). When you This is what you have to know today. realise this truth, the fountain of bliss will What is the use of sending a cover with beau- emerge from the lake of your mind (mana- tiful poetry written in beautiful letters unless sarovar). Bliss (Ananda) results when truth you affix the stamp of confidence on the co- (sat) and knowledge (chit) come together. Sat ver? That is why Vedanta has given utmost means truth, chit means knowledge. When importance to confidence/trust (viswas) and they combine, they give the experience of steadfast faith (sraddha). Love is the basis of bliss. both. Sat is like sugar, which imparts sweetness to When you have love, you have sraddha; whatever it is mixed with. Put it in coffee, it when you have sraddha, you have viswas. becomes sweet; put it in tea, it becomes sweet; put it in water, it becomes syrup. Just as foam, waves, and ocean are not differ- Therefore, sweetness is permanent. ent from each other, sraddha, viswas, and love (prema) are inseparable and interdepend- That is why it is described as Sat or Being, ent. These three form the fundamental basis which means changeless and eternal. Chit of Vedanta. signifies Constant Integrated Awareness (pra- jnana), which is described in Vedanta as:

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Vedanta also talks about three principles: Others cannot force you to do something un- swechchha, parechchha, and daivechchha. less you have an inclination to do it. How can What does swechchha mean? Students today others influence you or encourage you or think swechchha means to talk, move, and force you to do it? Their encouragement only behave in an arbitrary manner. This is not the reinforces your own inclination. Therefore, be inner meaning of swechchha. Swa + ichchha prepared to face the consequences without is swechchha. Swa means Self (Atma) and any regret and without blaming others. ichchha means desire. True swechchha means The third one is Daivechchha, which means to follow the dictates of the Self. to surrender to the Will of God and perform The also explains two types of good actions without any expectation of the : swadharma, and paradharma. fruits of actions. This is not the result of the actions performed by you of your own accord What is swadharma? People think swadhar- or due to the encouragement or under the in- ma relates to their caste and religion, just like fluence of others. You should accept whatever warrior () dharma, dharma, comes as the divine Will. businessmen (vaisya) dharma, etc. But this is not the real meaning of swadharma. In fact, whatever happens in accordance with divine Will will do only good to you. What- Swa means Atma. Therefore, Atmadharma ever actions you perform by surrendering to (divine duty) is swadharma. dehadharma the Will of God will give you peace, happi- (duties related to the body) is paradharma. ness, fulfillment, and victory. But people Similarly, there is the single letter ‘I’ and the today do not understand the significance of three-lettered ‘eye’. The single letter ‘I’ repre- surrendering to the Will of God. sents Atma and the three-lettered ‘eye’, the People do not undertake meritorious deeds body. Without the body, one cannot realise but want to derive their fruits; the Atma, and without the Atma, the body They indulge in sinful activities, cannot exist. Yet want to escape their consequences. Therefore, the unity of Atma, the individual Punyasya phalamichchanthi, soul, and the body is called Triputi or Trikuta Punyam nechchanthi manava, (coming together of three aspects). In this Na papa phalamichchanthi, Papam kurvanthu yathnatha. manner, Vedanta explains most profound ( verse) truths in simple and subtle terms. Swechchha means to think, decide, and per- Man is the embodiment of Satchidananda form an action with full confidence, on one’s own, and to be prepared to face its conse- People are not prepared to face the conse- quences wholeheartedly, be it pleasure or quences of their sinful deeds, but they are pain, happiness or sorrow. always in the forefront to perform such evil actions. Why do you perform sinful deeds Parechchha means to perform an action with when you do not want to face their conse- encouragement or under pressure of others. quences? There is no doubt that if you per- This is not something you do of your own form bad actions, their results are also bound accord. You do it under the influence of to be bad. others. But when you have to face its conse- quences, you should not regret, saying, “This People want to enjoy the fruits of meritorious is not something I have done willingly. I have deeds but are not prepared to perform such done it because I was forced to do it.” sacred actions. They aspire for one thing and

3 Divine Discourse 1 August 1996 perform actions just contrary to it. All your chit-ananda. One suffers through ignorance actions should be according to what you of this truth. desire. Having performed a sinful deed, be prepared Acquire practical knowledge and dispel to face its consequences. Whether you touch illusion the fire knowingly or unknowingly, it will Students! burn you. Sometimes, you may touch the fire unknowingly, but it is not going to take pity Here is a small story to illustrate this. Suppose on you and spare you. a marriage celebration is going on. The bride- groom’s party and the bride’s party are stay- Similarly, whether you like it or not, you have ing in two different houses. Some intruder to reap the consequences of your actions. This starts acting as an intermediary between the is empirical (vyavaharika) truth. But absolute- two parties. ly real (paramarthika) truth is different from this. When you reach the absolutely-real He goes to the bride’s party and threatens level, you will not get burnt even if you touch them, “What is this? You aren’t supplying the fire. even coffee and tiffin from time to time. We thought that you would celebrate this wedding How does it happen? It happens due to the in a grand manner, but you aren’t coming up grace of God. Sometimes, God Himself will to our expectations. You aren’t showing due caution you and prevent you from touching respect to the bridegroom’s party.” the fire. Fire, which is one of the five ele- ments, is also an aspect of Divinity. After some time, he goes to the bridegroom’s party and questions them, “What is this? You Everyone uses the word “I” (Aham) while re- aren’t coming for food in spite of our repeated ferring to themself. You should enquire where requests. The food is getting cold. Come this “I” originates from. “I” is born from the quickly.” Atma. Thought (sankalpa) is born from “I” and speech (vak), from thought. Therefore, The bridegroom’s party thought he was an “I” is the son of Atma, thought is its grandson, elderly person from the bride’s party. Similar- and speech is its great grandson. ly, the bride’s party thought he was a close relative of the bridegroom. Both parties put So, Atma, “I”, thought. and speech belong to up with his misdemeanour for some time. the same family. Thus, “I”, thought, and speech have equal right to the property of But when he started crossing limits, they be- Atma. gan asking each other who that person was. When someone from bridegroom’s party went What is this property? This property is Sat- to the bride’s party and asked about his chit-ananda, which is equally accessible to identity, they said they didn’t know him. The the ‘son’, ‘grandson’, and ‘great grandson’. In bride’s party got a similar reply from the fact, it fully permeates all three. bridegroom’s party. As both started consult- One can never say that one is devoid of bliss; ing each other, the intruder realised that he it is verily the right of humanity. A person was exposed and quietly disappeared from the desires to be permanent and eternal. That is scene. the nature of consciousness (chit, prajnana), Similarly, (illusion) takes sides some- which is present in everyone. Therefore, one times with the Atma and sometimes with na- need not go in search of Sat-chit-ananda ture and confuses humanity. When you start elsewhere. All are the embodiment of Sat- enquiring about the relationship between Self

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(Atma) and non-Self), using your power of their mind is focused on the principle of unity. discrimination, the delusion caused by Maya That one alone is considered a jivan muktha. disappears. People today do not ask what Then, who is a videha muktha? All the quali- Atma is, what an-atma is, what is worldly, ties present in a jivan muktha are present in a and what is other-worldly. That is why people videha muktha. What is the difference have become victims of delusion. One should between them? A jivan muktha has body have the right type of knowledge to conduct consciousness whereas a videha muktha does such enquiry. not. A videha muktha does not feel even the Knowledge is of four types. All the learned pangs of thirst or hunger. people know that what they acquire from Since King Janaka had no body conscious- study of books is only bookish knowledge, ness, he was also called Videha. As long as which becomes superficial knowledge with one has body consciousness, one is bound to the passage of time. Along with bookish experience happiness and sorrow. One who knowledge, you should acquire general has no body attachment is free from all types knowledge and discrimination knowledge. of attachment. That is the state of amanaska, Moreover, do not limit yourself to individual a state devoid of mind. When there is no discrimination; you should exercise funda- mind, how can there be thoughts? mental discrimination. Only when you have discrimination knowledge will you have prac- Here is a piece of cloth. It is made up of tical knowledge. threads, which come from cotton. Without cotton, there can be no threads; without Practical knowledge is the true knowledge. threads, there can be no cloth. So, thought is Try to acquire such true knowledge. When cotton, desires are threads, and mind is the you go on enquiring like this, you will ulti- cloth. The mind is nothing but a bundle of mately realise the truth. desires. When there are no desires, there can Vedanta talks about two types of liberation: be no mind. That is the state of amanaska. jivan mukthi and videha mukthi. A jivan Humanity has become a victim of Maya, muktha is one who considers everything as which consists of 25 aspects. the manifestation of God and experiences the When you unravel the mystery of these unity of past, present, and future. Past is the 25 aspects, tree, from which we get the seed of present, Maya will disappear. which in turn grows into the tree of future. (Telugu Song) Therefore, past is the tree, future is the tree, present is the seed. These three are, in fact, What are these 25 aspects? one and the same. Five organs of cognition (jnanendriyas) Without the tree of past, you cannot get the Five organs of action (karmendriyas), seed of present, and without the seed of pres- Five life principles (pranas), and ent, you cannot get the tree of future. Five sheaths (kosas) One who realises the unity of three periods of sum up to 20. Add to these the mind, intellect, time is a jivan muktha. That one is equal- subconscious mind, ego, and individual soul minded in both happiness and sorrow, praise (manas, buddhi, chitta, , and jivi) and censure, prosperity and adversity. That and the total becomes 25. one knows that everything is temporary, like That which is constituted by these 25 aspects passing clouds, and nothing is permanent. is called pinda. What does pinda mean? This That one has absolutely no worry because body itself is pinda. Vedanta talks about

5 Divine Discourse 1 August 1996 anda, pinda, and Brahmanda. Those that are When you put a drop of water on your tongue, born out of the egg are called andaja, and you will know that sugar is present in every those that are born from the womb of the drop of it. mother are called pindaja. The cosmos, which Students know this. pervades everywhere, is called Brahmanda. Here is a cup, and you have poured some fruit But there is an underlying unity between the juice in it. The cup holds the juice to the brim anda, pinda, and Brahmanda just as there is but does not know its taste. You put a straw in unity between individual soul, God, and the cup and drink the juice. The juice goes nature (jiva, Iswara, and prakriti). into the mouth through the straw, but the straw does not know its taste. Only when the Immerse the mind in the Atma juice reaches the tongue can we know its The principle of also signifies this taste. unity. ‘Ra’ signifies Atma and ‘Ma’ denotes Our body is the cup, and Divinity is the juice Maya. When Maya and Atma combine, they present in it. God is in the form of essence form the principle of Rama. (Raso vai sah). God permeates the body in the People chant the name of Rama, saying Ram, form of essence. But the body is not aware of Ram, Ram. But one should not do it mechan- it. ically. The mind should be absorbed in the Our senses are like the straw, which also contemplation of Rama. It means the mind cannot experience Divinity. The intellect should be immersed in the principle of the (buddhi) is like the tongue, which experiences Atma. That is the real Rama chanting. That is the taste of Divinity. The tongue enjoys the the real principle of tarakam. taste of the juice but does not keep it to itself. Without coming under the veil of forgetful- It sends it to the digestive system (jathara). ness, The digestive system also does not experience In waking, dream, and deep sleep states, the sweetness of juice. It separates waste from One should constantly be aware of the So- juice and supplies its sacred essence to all ham mantra, limbs of the body. That will enable one to realise the Atma Principle. Before partaking of food, you offer it to God, (Telugu Poem) chanting Brahmarpanam … He replies from within: Tarakam signifies the unity of the three states, namely waking, dream, and deep sleep I am present in all beings in the form of di- (jagrat, swapna, and sushupti. It is not gestive fire. enough if you merely chant Ram, Ram, Ram United with exhalation and inhalation (pra- na and apana), without understanding the principle of tara- It is I who consumes the four kinds of food. kam. You should immerse the mind in the Atma. Aham vaishvanaro bhutva Praninam dehamasrita There is water in the tumbler, and you have Pranapana samayukta brought some sugar in your hand. Put the Pachamyannam chaturvidham. sugar in water and mix it thoroughly. The sugar disappears. The sugar that you brought God is one, goal is one with your own hand is not there now. The sugar that you have seen with your own eyes God says, “Oh simpleton! I am present in has become invisible. Where has it gone? your stomach in the form of vaishvanara,

6 Divine Discourse 1 August 1996 digesting the food you eat and supplying its Therefore, do not entertain unnecessary essence to the entire body.” thoughts and do not indulge in unwanted talk. When you enquire the teachings of Vedanta, Do not hurt others’ feelings. Do not cause you will understand that there is only unity in trouble to anyone. the entire creation. God is one without a second (Ekameva adviteeyam Brahma). Ve- Students! danta emphatically declares that Divinity is You have exams from 5th onward. I want to one, not two. It does not say that Divinity is discontinue these daily Discourses for some one in a mild tone, it says it in an emphatic time in order to give you freedom to prepare manner. It preaches and propagates this truth for exams. Your actual purpose of coming to the entire world in unequivocal terms. here is to study. You have not come here to God, Allah, Jesus, Rama, Iswara, Vishnu — learn Vedanta. all are one. The Persians say Zarathustra is Therefore, concentrate on your studies. Only supreme, the Sikhs accord the highest place to then will you be able to fulfil the task for Guru Nanak, devotees of Rama and which you have come. extol them as the greatest. In this manner, devotees attribute various names and forms to Your parents have sent you here with high God according to their tastes and feelings. But hopes, and it is your duty to satisfy them. God is one. They are the very forms of God. Revere your mother and father as God (Matru Devo bhava, Depending on their taste, people desire burfi, pitru Devo bhava). jilebi or mysore pak. In all these forms of sweets, sugar is the same. Truth is one, but Focus your mind on the purpose of your stay the wise refer to it by various names (Ekam here. Swami will also be happy when you sath viprah bahudha vadanti). study well. Do not go to the rooms of others and indulge in unnecessary talk. Concentrate You may attribute any name and form to God, on your studies and get an ‘O’ grade. Bring a but God is one, goal is one. Therefore, do not good name to the Institute, and make your criticise people of any faith. There is no parents happy. Fulfil the task for which you difference between one faith and the other. have come and go back happily. All are one. Only when you realise this unity in diversity can you experience bliss. (Bhagavan concluded His Discourse with the , “Hari Bhajan Bina Sukha Santhi Beings are many, breath is one. Nahi …”) Stars are many, sky is one. Nations are many, earth is one. From Bhagavan’s Discourse in Sai Kulwant Jewels are many, gold is one. Hall on 1 August 1996. You should understand this truth clearly. Do not cause divisions based on your likes and dislikes for a particular religion. When you recognise unity and practise it, you will certainly experience unity. When you do every work with the feeling, ‘I am God, I am God,’ ultimately, you will become God. You become what you think.

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