Sai Ram. This Sunday, we bring you the important points made by Swami during His Divine Discourse, delivered while inaugurating the World Youth Conference on Thursday, 26 th July 2007 . The highlights are presented as bullet points. The full text of the Discourse would of course appear later in the SanathanaSarathi..
- Man is the pinnacle of Creation. That is why the scriptures declare: Jantunaam Narajanaman Durlabham, which essentially means that human birth is a rare blessing.
- Man being a part of Creation, he is composed of the very same five elements that make up the Universe. However, man is special, because he has something beyond the five elements namely, the power of Spiritual Discrimination.
- Today, the slogan is Knowledge is Wealth. But how far can worldly wealth take a person? Not very far, because even as worldly knowledge is rapidly advancing, Spiritual Discrimination is diminishing rapidly at the same time.
- Is this good? Not at all, since man, having lost his power of Spiritual Discrimination, is not able to see clearly the difference between good and bad. And when discrimination is lost, the practice of human values also declines sharply.
- Discrimination is therefore very important for man because worldly knowledge without Spiritual Discrimination amounts to nothing! When man loses the capacity to appreciate the vital need for human values, he becomes a zero.
- Man today is busy multiplying his wealth. But what about Spiritual Discrimination? Is he doing anything at all to improve it? None at all!
- Man is not spending even one minute to ask: “Why should I seek more wealth? Is more wealth good for me?” Instead, he is busy accumulating more and more wealth, all to no purpose.
- The Mind is the root cause of all these aberrations. The Mind mirrors human personality and behaviour.
- The Mind is very powerful and capable of enormous self-deception. When the Mind drags man deep into the trap of illusion, man loses the capacity to go the basics.
- [Holding up His kerchief]: What is this? This is a piece of cloth. Where does cloth come from? From yarn. Where does yarn come from? From cotton. In this way, if we enquire deeply, we can go the root, to the basics.
- These days, man is no longer bothered about enquiring about his true roots and his true nature. As a result, man becomes deluded and develops false notions about his identity. The degradation of the environment is one result of wrong thinking and the absence of real discrimination.
- Who are you? You are not one person but three: The one you think you are, the one others think you are, and the one you REALLY are!
- In the Gita, the Lord says: Mamaivamso jeevalokhe sarvabutha sanathanaha, meaning essentially, “I pervade the entire Universe being immanent in every entity, animate and inanimate.”
- Divinity is your real root! Divinity is latent in man but what is the use? Man is doing nothing to make it patent or evident through his actions!
- Many seekers today say they are searching for God. But do you realise that you yourself are God?! Why then search for God?
- Man is unable to understand that he is verily the Spark of the Divine because his Spiritual Discrimination has become blunted.
- Spiritual Discrimination becomes blunted when man develops strong body consciousness, that is to say when man identifies himself with the body.
- Is it correct to identify yourself with your body? No, because the body lasts only till death; thereafter, it is returned to the elements. You are not just the body but something much more than the body! You are verily the embodiment of God and therefore eternal, immortal!
- People often say: “This kerchief is mine; this is my leg” and so on. What is the identity of this entity referred to via the words ‘my’ or ‘mine’?
- The ‘my’ and ‘mine’ are to not be associated with ego or the lower self but your Real SELF or the Higher Self. Ego is represented by ‘i’ while the Real Self is represented by ‘I’.
- Man is NOT the small ‘i’ but the BIG ‘I’! However, he wrongly identifies himself with the small ‘i’ because his Discrimination has become blunted.
- When Discrimination diminishes, ego asserts itself. But when Discrimination grows, ego diminishes. Thus, development of Buddhi [Spiritual Discrimination] goes hand in hand with the elimination of ego.
- Everything in the Universe is God. In fact, there is only God and nothing except God. [Pointing to various objects]: This table is God, this object is God, this stand is God.
- When we lose the power of Discrimination, we forget the immanence of God in everything in the Universe and become overwhelmed by the apparent diversity.
- There is no doubt an empirical diversity in the physical Universe. However, man must see beyond the apparent diversity and go to the roots. If he does so, he will see nothing but Unity, Purity and Divinity. If, however, his discrimination becomes blunted, he would see only the diversity that is superficial, and from this illusory perception, many problems follow.
- People say the world is full of problems. All problems arise from the process of Reflection, Reaction, Resound.
- Reflection, Reaction and Resound originate from man making the wrong identification. Man is not ‘i’ but ‘I’.
- When man makes the wrong identification of his nature, he becomes a prey to the senses, which then rapidly cause his downfall.
- Man must therefore not allow his senses to dominate his personality. Instead, he must ensure that the senses and the Mind follow his Heart, the seat of God within.
- There is a simple way of setting things right. First, have firm faith in God.
- Strong faith in God promotes Selfless Love.
- Where there is Selfless Love, there is Peace.
- Where there is Peace, there is Truth.
- And where there is Truth, there is God!
- You do not have to go here and there in search of God. You are yourself God! All you have to do is recognise that.
- Modern education encourages you to explore the outside world, in the process totally ignoring the infinite world within. Educare, on the other hand, takes you deep inside and helps you to bring forth what is latent within.
- People have all kinds of notions about Sadhana. In simple words, Sadhana makes patent what is already latent within.
- Many would tell you that are engaged in Sadhana. What is it that they do? They meditate, do Japam, and so on. All this is symbolism, not of much use except as a starting point. When overstressed, such drills become very artificial. Real Sadhana is that which helps to uncover your true nature as a Spark of the Divine.
- The artificiality of modern life has a lot to do with the excessive stress on Science. Science is below the senses whereas Spirituality is beyond the senses. When life is governed wholly by the sense-Mind combination, Buddhi becomes blunted. And when Buddhi is blunted, problems inevitably follow.
- To develop Buddhi, start with unshakeable Faith. If you do that, the road to God would automatically open up.
- Man today is busy wasting Time! Don’t do that! Do not waste Time for Time waste is life waste!
- Use every moment of your life to realise and recognise your true nature.
- If you make TRUTH the goal of your life, all problems would melt away!
- Man falls when he becomes weak. Man becomes weak when he forgets human values. Man forgets basic values when he wrongly identifies himself with the lower self or ‘i’, which is wrong!
- Love is all important in life but with wrong identification, Love becomes fragmented. Such fragmented love ceases to be pure, and is tainted by desire, attachment and so on.
- Love is ONE and NOT many! The fragmentation of love, so very common, is due solely to man being bound by body consciousness; it is due to wrong identification. All this happens because of the absence of Spiritual Discrimination.
- Making the wrong identification, man allows ego to dominate and Love to be fragmented. That is the root cause of all troubles the world is facing today.
- Avoid wrong identification and identify yourself with your true nature ‘I’. This would then help you to discover Peace, Love and Truth.
- Live always in Love. With the help of Pure Love, it is easy to experience God. No problem at all!
- There is nothing beyond Pure and Divine Love.
- Do not become a slave to ego and deny yourself the Bliss offered by Pure Love. Do not fall for the false allure of fragmented love, desire and attachment.
- Divine Love is vast, like an infinite ocean. It is something that must be experienced rather than just talked about.
We hope you would study carefully the points made by Swami and reflect on them. Remember, Arjuna got the Divine teaching only once and humanity is trying to get so much out of that one teaching. However, now in this Kali Age, the Lord is repeating again and again His Divine Message for our personal benefit, but are we devoting enough time to reflect upon and understand the vital importance of His teachings?
We seem to have so much time for so many things but have we got a minute for God?! Has not Swami said how we should spend time? Think about it!
See you again next week. Jai Sai Ram. H2H Team.
