Vision of the Atma

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Vision Of The AtmaOne may be able to repeat Vedas and

Sastras by rote.One may be able to sing ornate poetry

melodiously.If one lacks purity of heart, one is

bound to be ruined.The word of Sai is verily the truth.

(Telugu Poem)

Embodiments of Love!

IF you lack purity of heart, you will not be ableto understand the principle of Atma, irrespective ofyour educational qualifications. You may be a highlylearned person but you are not able to see your ownbody when you are in deep sleep. On the contrary,even an illiterate person can see himself and thesurroundings if he opens his eyes. Just as ash coversthe live embers, man’s vision is clouded by delusion.

Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume 33 26

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Consequently, he is unable to realise his true nature.Man should understand the intimate relationship be-tween himself and Divinity. You can acquire immensepower and strength once you develop purity of heart,gain spiritual knowledge and understand Divinity. Sa-dhana or spiritual practice does not mean undertakinggood activities like japa and dhyana. True sadhana liesin removing the veil of illusion that covers theantahkarana (inner instrument). It is said, Pas-hyannapi cha Napashyati Moodho (he is a fool whosees yet does not recognise the reality). O man, is it notfoolishness on your part to think that you have not seenGod though you see Him in the form of the world. Fireis seen if you blow the ash from live embers. You cansee the pellucid waters only after removing the moss.A person’s vision is clouded when he has cataract inhis eyes, but when the cataract is operated on, he getsback his normal vision. Similarly, as long as a personis under the influence of the mind, he identifies himselfwith the body and experiences pleasure and pain. Oncehe transcends the mind, i.e., maya, the dualities of theworld do not exist for him. He visualises Divinityeverywhere. Today man tries to know Divinity with hismind. In order to visualise Divinity, you should under-stand the principle of Atma or ‘I’. The Atma is form-less. So long as you are attached to your form, you willnot understand what Atma means. Everyone introduceshimself using the letter ‘I’, which is nothing but the


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Atma. Though not seen, the Atma is present in one andall. This Atma is all-pervasive.

Atma Is The Greatest

There are three types of ethereal dimensions,namely, Bhutakasha, Chitthakasha and Chidakasha.Bhutakasha is engulfed by Chitthakasha, which in turnis encompassed by Chidakasha. The Bhutakasha,which consists of the earth, the sun, the moon and thestars, is very vast. The sun is much bigger than theplanet earth having a circumference of 8000 croremiles. But it looks small to our eyes, as it is at adistance of 9 crore miles from the earth. The stars arestill farther away and are much bigger than the sun insize though they look like small diamonds adorning thesky. Light travels at a speed of 180 thousand miles persecond. Some of the stars are at such a great distancefrom the earth that the light emanating from them isyet to reach the earth. All the stars, the sun, the moonand the earth, form a part of Bhutakasha. All these arepresent in Chittha in a subtle form. So, Chitthakasha ismany times bigger than Bhutakasha. You feel the sunis self-effulgent, but in fact, it is the Atma, whichillumines the sun. So, the Atma is the greatest of all. Itsvastness cannot be described in words. All the fiveelements are made up of atoms, whereas the Atma isnot made up of atoms, as it is formless. What do youmean by vision of the Atma? It is visualisation of theall-pervasive effulgence. The Atma is present in every


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cell of the human body. In order to understand this,you have to transcend form. All the material objectshave a definite form, but in due course of time theylose their identity and merge into the causal dimension,i.e., in the Atma. So, man should make an effort to gobeyond form and merge into the Atma. All the activi-ties that are related to the form correspond to Pravritti(outward path) i.e., Bhutakasha, which is made up ofatoms. All this will ultimately merge into the Atma.What is Atma? Bliss is Atma.

Atma Transcends Name And Form

In the days of yore, many sages made concertedefforts to recognise the nature of the Atma. Ultimately,they declared to the world, Vedahametham PurushamMahantham Adithyavarnam Thamasa Parasthath (Iknow the Supreme Being who shines with the efful-gence of sun and who is beyond Thamas (the darknessof ignorance). O people, the Atma transcends nameand form. It is self-effulgent. In order to have the vi-sion of the Atma, you don’t need to go to the forest andundertake penance. You can see it everywhere onceyou dispel the darkness of ignorance from within.Efforts in this direction amount to true Sadhana.Divinity is latent in humanity, but you are attributingvarious names and forms to it and are trying to visual-ise it through worship and rituals. As a result, you aresubjected to frustration and depression. First of all, youshould make efforts to realise the divinity that is latent


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in Bhutakasha. But how can one understand Divinitywhen he fails to understand humanness. In the firstplace, man should understand what humanness means.

Only when you transcend Bhutakasha and Chi-tthakasha, can you understand Chidakasha. Bhutaka-sha is like a small star in the sky of Chitthakasha. Thesame can be said of Chitthakasha as compared toChidakasha. Chidakasha is nothing but the Atma.There is nothing beyond this. To understand the form-less Atma, you should go beyond form. In the begin-ning, you meditate on a specific form, but graduallyyou should go beyond that form and realise the form-less Divinity. So long as you are attached to the form,you are bound to experience pleasure and pain.

The formless Atma is experienced in the deepsleep state (Sushupti) in which you lose the identity ofname and form. In the deep sleep state, there are nofeelings pertaining to Bhutakasha. So long as yourmind dwells on Bhutakasha, you identify yourself witha form. Though the modern man is highly educated, heis unable to comprehend the principles of Bhutakasha,Chitthakasha and Chidakasha. He is keeping himselfaway from such an enquiry, thinking them to beabstruse philosophical truths. It is not mere philosophy.They are the eternal truths, which are to be understoodand put into practice in daily life.


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In Bhutakasha , beings are many, but theunderlying Atmic principle is the same. Right from hischildhood to old age, man uses the letter ‘I’ whileintroducing himself. Man passes through differentstages of life, but the ‘I’ in him remains the same. Thatchangeless ‘I’ is verily the Atma. Oblivious to thepresence of such divine principle within, man is afterthe worldly and ephemeral pleasures. This correspondsto Pravritti. But the Atma is related to Nivritti. As manis engrossed in Pravritti, he is not able to realise histrue nature.

Divinity Pervades The Entire Nature

All that you see in the external world is nothingbut the manifestation of God. All of you who haveassembled here are the embodiments of God. Even thishall is a manifestation of God. In fact, you are yourselfGod. Though you see God everywhere, still you searchfor Him. Here is a small example. The hostel boys seeSai Gita every day, so they are not excited about it. Butif they happen to see even the tail of an elephant in aforest, they would feel thrilled. Likewise, though yousee God in the form of people around you, you are notexcited. But if you see a person with three heads, youwill become ecstatic thinking that you had the vision ofDivine Cosmic Form. You should understand thatDivinity pervades the entire nature. Lord Krishnadeclared in the Gita . Mamaivamsho JeevalokeJeevabhuta Sanathana (the eternal Atma in all beings


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is a part of My Being). I and you are not separate. Weare one and the same. Once you understand this truth,you will not go in search of God here and there. Allthat you find in the external world is nothing but ViswaVirat Swarup (cosmic Divine form). All forms are His.Form is associated with Pravritti. It is the root cause ofdelusion. What is Maya? That which leads to mistakenidentity is Maya. When you mistake a rope for a snakein the darkness, you are scared. But when you flashtorchlight on it, you realise that it is a rope and not asnake. It is the mistaken identity that has given rise tofear in you. Once you know the reality, you becomefearless. Due to the influence (Prabhava) of worldlyobjects, you have forgotten your Swabhava (truenature). Once you recognise your Swabhava andstrictly adhere to it, there will be no scope for delusionor fear. Where is the question of fear when you areeverything and there is nobody other than you? Anactor once came to the Court of a King to give per-formances. That day, he had come dressed as Sankara-charya. He gave a scholarly exposition on the philoso-phy of Adi Sankara. He preached thus:

Janma Dukkham, Jara Dukkham, Jaya DukkhamPunah Punaha,

Antyakale Maha Dukkham, Tasmath JagrataJagrataha


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(Birth, old age and worldly life are full ofmisery. Death too is miserable. Beware of thistruth.)

Matha Nasthi, Pitha Nasthi,Nasthi Bandhu SahodarahaArtham Nasthi, Griham Nasthi,Thasmath Jagrata Jagrataha

(Parents, friends, relatives and wealth are likepassing clouds. Beware of this truth.)

The King was very pleased and offered a lot ofgold. The actor said, “O King, a Sanyasi does not needgold. I cannot accept this gift.” The next day the actorappeared in the Court as a dancer. He danced beauti-fully and pleased everyone present. At the end of theperformance the King offered a small gift of just a fewcoins. The actor said, “O King, this payment is meagreand not enough.” The King was astonished and asked,“Yesterday, you refused a substantial gift but todayyou are demanding more. What is the reason for thisstrange behaviour?” The actor replied, “O King, anactor will not be true to his profession if his words donot match the costume he is wearing. Yesterday, Iplayed the role of a Sanyasi and therefore, spurnedwealth. Today, I am a dancer, and a dancer alwaysexpects a handsome reward! My conduct must be inconsonance with my garb.” Today, though man has puton the garb of a human being, his conduct is not in


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accordance with his ‘dress’. Having been born as ahuman being, man should lead his life with self-confid-ence and uphold his self-respect.

Abraham Lincoln

You are aware of how Abraham Lincoln, thoughborn in a poor family, rose to become the President ofAmerica because of his self-confidence. He was bornin a poor family. His schoolmates used to heckle himfor his dress and poverty. Lincoln, unable to bear thishumiliation, approached his mother and said, “Mother,I am subjected to a lot of ridicule by fellow students.Please get me a new dress.” Then the mother told him,“Son, we are not well-to-do. You must act according toour family condition. Don’t be deterred by other peo-ple’s taunts. Develop self-confidence and uphold yourself-respect. From that moment, Lincoln strictly fol-lowed the advice of his mother. After some time, hismother passed away, and his father married again. Hisstepmother was also quite affectionate towards himand encouraged him to persevere on the path shown byhis mother. After his father’s death, Lincoln, who wasaged 16 years then, left home to earn his livelihood andstarted selling newspapers. There also he continued touphold his self-respect. Seeing his good qualities, hisfriends encouraged him to contest the elections. Lin-coln stood for elections and won with a thumping ma-jority. He was made the President of America. Thoughborn into a poor family, he rose to an exalted position


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because of his self-confidence and self-respect.

Students!

Uphold your self-respect. First of all, understandwhat Atma means. The principle of ‘I’ that is presentin everybody is Atma. The Vedas declare. AhamBrahmasmi (I am Brahma). But in My view, even thisis not complete truth because the presence of ‘I’ andBrahma symbolises duality. Truth is one, not two. Manshould hold on to the principle of non-dualism andsanctify his life. Once you develop faith in this prin-ciple, you will have all the purity and prosperity.

Today is the very auspicious day of Sivarathri.Siva stands for auspiciousness. What is so special andauspicious about Sivarathri? Mind has 16 aspects, ofwhich 15 are merged on this night and only one isremaining. Make proper use of this holy night byundertaking Sadhana with devotion and steadfastness.What sort of Sadhana you must undertake? Cleanseyour heart of all evil qualities. Evil qualities arise inyou because of the misuse of the senses. It is the rootcause of all sins. Sadhana does not mean doing Japaand meditation. You should develop pure and divinefeelings in you. Consider everyone as divine. Respectthem. “All are Mine and I belong to everybody.” Onceyou have such firm conviction, you can enjoy immensehappiness in life. There will be no trace of worry in


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your life

Have Firm Faith In God

Once while Sankaracharya was going to riverGanga with his 14 disciples, he came across a Brahminwho was memorising some Sanskrit passage, “DukrunKarane”. The Acharya asked him, what he was doingand the Brahmin replied that he was studying Panini(the great grammarian). “What do you gain out of thisstudy of grammar”, the Acharya asked. He replied, “Ishall become a great scholar and go to some royalCourt or the other and become an official scholar andearn all the wealth that I need. With wealth earned likethat, I shall lead a happy life.” “How long will you livelike that?” “I shall live as long as I am alive.” “Whatnext?” asked the Acharya. He replied, “I don’t know,”Then, Sankaracharya made his famous pronouncement,“Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Govindam BhajaMoodhamathe, Samprapthe Sannihite Kale Nahi NahiRakshati Dukrun Karane,” (O fool, chant the name ofGovinda. When the hour of death approaches, thenuances of grammar will not come to your rescue).The Acharya said, “You fool, you will enjoy all thepleasures of the world as long as you are alive, butafter this body passes away, what will you do? So,keep chanting the name of Govinda incessantly anddon’t waste your time in these mundane studies. Thesestudies are all related to Pravritti. This helps only for avery short time. You are proud of your youth; how


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long does youth last? Soon you will be an old man. Donot put your faith on your youthful prowess, place yourfirm faith in God.” Realise your self-confidence. Self-confidence leads to self-satisfaction and self-satisfac-tion leads to self-realisation.

Students!

‘I’ is a permanent reality. Consider this Atma asGodhead itself. Without a substantial basis, there willbe no manifestation. The basis for the waves in theocean is the water therein. In the same manner, Atmais the basis for the phenomenal world. All the good andbad, praise and blame that happen are all mere passingclouds. The baby, the boy, the youth and the old manare all differences in form but the Atma in the person isthe unchanging entity. While traveling in the train, yousee out of the window, trees, mountains and lakesfleeting past. This is an illusion. Sometimes, in theskies, you see as if the moon is moving fast, while inreality the clouds are moving. This again is an illusion.The moon is not moving at the same pace as theclouds. In the same way, the Atman does not change ormove; it is only our feelings that change.

Total Understanding Is Awareness

Embodiments of Love!

Today is a very holy day. The time at 6 o’clockis highly sacred. At that time, the Atma Lingam will bemanifested. God is sometimes called the Hiranya-


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garbha. The golden Lingas emerge from Hiranya-garbha itself. Don’t conclude that only Swami is Hi-ranyagarbha. All of you are manifestations of Hiran-yagarbha. You are also eternal and self-effulgent. Holdthis truth firmly in your heart. Keep this awarenessfirm.

We have ‘Awareness classes’ in our Institutions.Knowing this or that bit of information is not completeawareness. Awareness implies total understanding.Having seen just the tail of a rat, how can you claim tohave seen the rat itself? Today what the scientists haveknown is only a fraction of the total truth. But theythink that they know everything.

First of all, you should understand what human-ness means. In accordance with your form, you shouldhave human qualities. Of what use is your life if youbehave like a monkey? Understand that you belong tomankind. Do not have a monkey mind. One whoseheart is full of compassion alone is a true human being.Today man talks of the need for compassion but hasfilled his heart with demonic qualities like anger,greed, jealousy, etc.

Excessive Desire Causes Imbalance In Nature

Man should put a ceiling on his desires. Asman’s conduct is perverted, today we find naturalcalamities taking place. You are aware of the devas-tation caused by the earthquake in Gujarat. Thousands


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of people lost their lives. The reason for this is that,man is entertaining excessive desires. God maintainsperfect balance in His creation. In God’s creation, theearth and the oceans are endowed with balance. Butman is indiscriminately exploiting the earth for extract-ing oil. Every day tonnes of fish are caught from theoceans. This indiscriminate exploitation of natureresults in imbalance in earth, which is playing havocwith human lives. Only when man is free from Kam-pam (unsteadiness) within, will he not be troubled byBhukampam (earthquake). Not only the people ofBharat but also the people of the entire world shouldstrive to maintain balance. The five elements arenothing but manifestations of the Divine. Man’s lifewill be secure only when he realises this truth and actsaccordingly. A few days ago, I had sent Lorry loads ofrice, grams, etc., to the earthquake victims of Gujarat.Some people asked “Swami, why should you take thetrouble of spending so much money for sending therelief material to Gujarat. You could have as wellaverted the earthquake.” I replied, “My dear, man hasto blame himself for the earthquakes. Due to excessivegreed for wealth, he is disturbing the balance of theearth. Hence the earthquake. That is the law of Nature.You have to express your love for man by helping theneedy. Love is your nature. Just as balance is verymuch essential for Nature, so also love is very muchneeded for man. Know that whatever God has created


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is for your own welfare. You should enjoy Natureaccording to your need. You should not rob Nature ofits resources to satisfy your greed. Here is an example.Once a greedy person owned a duck, which used to laya golden egg every day. One day, he ripped open thestomach of the duck thinking that he would get manygolden eggs at a time. Today man also is indulging insuch foolish and greedy acts. Instead of being satisfiedwith what Nature is giving him, he aspires for moreand more, and in the process, creating imbalance inNature.

Today scientists are interested in new inven-tions. The advancement in science and technology hasalso led to imbalance in Nature. As a result, there areearthquakes and no timely rains. Science should beutilised only to the extent needed. Science has itslimitations, and crossing those limits leads to danger.

You have a long way to go. Adhere to truth andrighteousness. Our ancient sages said, SathyamBruyath, Priyam Bruyath, Na Bruyath Sathyama-priyam (speak truth, speak pleasantly and do not speakunpalatable truth). Make proper use of natural resour-ces and do not put them to misuse. Help everybody andmake them happy. Share all the good things you havelearnt with others. This is your foremost duty.

Sivarathri, 21.02.2001, Prasanthi Nilayam.

Documents

Vision of the Atma