We are happy to start the feature Conversations with Sai from this issue. They are taken from the famous book ‘Conversations with Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’ by John.S.Hislop. This will continue for the next few months.

Imagine you are sitting before the Lord. Imagine it is you who is asking the questions. And listen very attentively when the Lord answers. Do not try to immediately understand what He says. Go about it slowly and ponder over it. As Swami says, language is only a limited means to communicate about GOD. As you keep turning his words in your mind, with a prayer in your heart, He will surely give you the understanding in time.

Get ready, the conversation is starting any moment now!

CONVERSATIONS WITH SAI
PART 1

JANUARY 1968

HISLOP: We do not perceive life with absolute clarity, and yet we are acting all the time, and unclear action makes for a confused life. We are unhappy about that confusion, and in an effort to remove it we accumulate ideas of Truth, God and Reality. But those imaginings do not remove the confusion. Life is still confused. So, the question is: what is the big factor that prevents us from seeing the Truth of life clearly?

SAI: You say that Truth, God and Reality are imagination. Why do you think they are imagination? They are not. Time, work, reason and experience; these four in harmony together, that is Truth. When the four are found to be out of harmony, then you feel it is untruth. An example: yesterday you came to Bangalore and from there to Puttaparti by car. Travel is work. It took you four hours to come from Bangalore. That is time. You came here to see Swami. That is the reason. Having seen Him you felt happy. This is the result.

On the other hand, last night you dreamed you were in America and were shopping. In this, the four factors were not involved. There was no work, there was no time expended, and where is the result? This is untruth. That experience was imagination, only mind work. This is the difference between truth and imagination.

H: But truth, that is, in terms of work, time, reason and result – you look around the world and you see those things in operation; and the world is in a mess. So, there must be more to it than that?

SAI: When you don’t have absolute faith in the result, then doubt arises. An example: now it is daylight and the objects in the room are seen very clearly, and there is no doubt in regard to them. At night when it is fully dark and you have to grope around and do not see any of the objects, there is no doubt about that situation. But at dusk, when it is half light and half dark, doubt can arise and you may see a rope and imagine it to be a snake and be frightened. Light is not full and vision is not clear. Full light is wisdom, and full darkness is ignorance. Doubt arises when there is half darkness and half light. The half light is wisdom and the half darkness is ignorance. When you have partial ignorance and partial wisdom then you have doubts. Now you are in the middle stage when you have this little bit of wisdom and also some ignorance, where ignorance and wisdom are mixed. You are not fully experienced. When you have proper experience, the doubt will vanish. Because you are not fully experienced you are having this doubt.

A small example: while suffering from malaria, you eat a sweet but feel it has a bitter taste. It was not that the sweet was bitter, but in your experience it was bitter. It is not the fault of the sweet. Ignorance is also a disease like malaria. And the cure for this disease of ignorance is Sadhana. Man has doubt only when he does not know the Truth.

Once you experience the Truth, doubt will vanish. Truth is one and for all time Truth is Truth. Whatever changes, know that as untruth. Once you were small and you grew bigger. That is also untruth. Where is the body of the ten-year-old? All has merged into the present body. First untruth; then, when we have the experience we know the Truth. Darkness and light are not different; they are one only.

A small example: last night you ate some fruit. In the morning it becomes stool and you pass it out. It was fruit yesterday, but the bad and the good are the same, only one. In one form it was fruit; in the other form it was stool.

It is the same with light and darkness. When the light comes, the darkness goes. But really, the darkness does not go to any place and the light does not go to any place. When one comes, the other is unknown; it does not go anywhere.

H: This mixture of light and darkness, of ignorance and wisdom which creates unhappiness, which creates trouble – Swami says that the mixture which creates confusion fades away with the right experience. The question is what is the basic factor that prevents us from having that right experience?

SAI: We don’t have the intensity that is required. How much effort is needed even to study books and come to the stage when we can read difficult books. How many years, how many hours of toil we put into it. If you have the same intensity in spiritual practise, you will surely know the Truth. But we are not as intense as we should be on the spiritual path. We do not apply concentration and one-pointedness. Full concentration is needed even in the world, in walking, talking and reading. We cannot do anything without concentration. We must concentrate even in small worldly tasks.

But when we try to think of God, we get restless, and the mind becomes unstable. Why do we do the things of the world with full concentration? Why? Because we are fully interested in it. And with God we have these doubts. We have full concentration in whatever work we love deeply. Concentration is not full when we do work that we don’t love deeply.

A small example: you are driving a car. At the same time you are talking to some passengers. The road becomes narrow and dangerous. You say, “Please let us not talk now, I must give full concentration to the driving.” Why do you say this? It is because you deeply love your life and you must concentrate thoroughly to avoid an accident. Because you have this love for your body, you concentrate on its safety. When you have profound love for God, then concentration on Him will come automatically.

H: But that is the point, there is the whole point.

(To be continued…….)