The
Call
While hoisting
the Flag of Prasanthi on the Nilayam on the 23rd
November, 1962, Baba referred to the Chinese who
were pouring across the Himalayan valleys into
the plains and announced, "My Birthday Festival
will not be marred by any dispiriting news; you
will get positive cheerful news.
Sanathana
Dharma
will suffer no harm." And, true to this
Declaration, the Chinese who were in the full
flush of advance had started withdrawing, since
midnight of the 22nd beyond the mountain ranges
for some as yet undisclosed reasons!
That evening,
when the Minister for Planning in the Andhra
Government opened a school donated by Him in the
village of Puttaparthi, Baba spoke on the
colossal waste that education involves at
present.
"Look
at the village roads, the village home, the
village children, and tell Me whether 50 or
60 years of teaching the rules of health and
hygiene has had any effect. If even these
lessons affecting health and well-being and
life itself are thus neglected in practice, I
need not say that other subjects laboriously
taught in schools produce even less
effect."
Baba pointed
out the imitative trends which have cut children
off from native currents of culture and made
them rootless and dry. "You teach children
nonsense rhymes like "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,
have you any wool" or "Jack and Jill went up the
hill"; sustaining and elevating lines
like
"Suddha
brahma paraath para Ram, Kaalaathmaka
parameswara Ram" (Ram, the pure Essence, the
Supreme Beyond Ram, the Time Principle, the
Lord of Lords) have been dismissed as out of
date and burdensome. Of what worth is an
India that has discarded its nature and
become a fake Russia or a fake America? Make
the country more really Indian", He advised.
"For the illness of greed, hurry, hatred and
conceit that this country, along with the
rest of the world is afflicted with, those
who plan the education of the children must
get ready to teach them the first few steps
in spiritual Sadhana,
silence, repetition of the Name of the Lord,
meditation on the Creator of this wondrous
Universe, positive acts of service to others,
detachment from demeaning habits,
etc."
Dr. M. Chenna
Reddy, the Minister, referred during his
presidential address to the pilgrimage that he
had made to Shirdi a few weeks ago, "I consider
my coming to Puttaparthi so soon after that, as
a piece of good fortune, for the Sai Baba of
Shirdi has taken Avathar
here as Sathya Sai Baba", he said. Baba told him
as well as the gathering, "I am all Names, not
only these two - Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba.
To call that manifestation Sai Baba or this as
Sathya Sai Baba is only one of the many methods
of designation. Then as well as now, Sai is all
Names and all Forms." Truly, a glimpse of the
Universality of the Divine, Baba invites us to
seize the chance of His Grace and save ourselves
with alacrity. "By seizing this chance, you can
elevate yourself step by step, steadily. A
stomach ache or a fever, some loss or grief
brings you to
Prasanthi
Nilayam.
You start liking this place and its atmosphere,
the Omkara, the Bhajan,
the calm quiet that prevails. You see Me and
observe My movements, words and actions; you
leave with hope and courage, confidence and
strength, with a Bhajan book and picture,
perhaps before long you forget the ache or
fever, for it has either disappeared or lost its
acerbity; you have developed a new ache - for
Prasanthi, (Unshaken Peace) for
Darsan
Sparsan,
Sambhashan,
for Japam,
Dhyanam,
and Sakshathkaram (Realisation). Follow My
instructions and become soldiers in My Army; I
shall lead you on to victory." Then he made this
grand declaration, this great Call: "When some
one asks you in great earnestness where the Lord
is to be found, do not dodge; give them the
answer that rises on to your tongue from your
heart. Direct him to
Puttaparthi
and invite him to share your
joy."
In December,
1962, Baba was in Madras City. He inaugurated
the Sathya Sai Nivas, a Prayer Hall set in the
centre of Perambur Suburb, where there is the
colossal industrial complex radiating from the
Integral Coach Factory and the Railway
Workshops. Baba said, "This is a Light-house for
this region, to save those endeavouring to cross
the ocean of Samsara;
it will point out to them the treacherous rocks
of greed and hate, and signal the storms of wild
egoism."
In the very
first week of 1963, on the 6th January to be
exact, the Vaikunta Ekadasi had to be
celebrated, according to the Calendar. Baba's
Calendar marks out that Day as Amrithodbhavam
Day, when Divine Nectar emanates from His Hand.
The Day is observed as the day when the Gates of
Heaven are opened for all in the great
Vaishnavite temple Srirangam, where the Lord as
Ranganatha, the Director of the World-stage,
presides over the Drama of Birth and Death with
a few scenes of Living, in between. For those
who are near this Sri Ranganatha in Human Form,
the gates of heaven open when He gives them the
Nectar He creates, that day. On 6th January,
Baba took many devotees to Mahabalipuram on the
Eastern Sea, a place where the waves whisper to
man the wonderful tales of long ago. It is a
place hallowed by centuries of history. Here,
chisels held by left hands inspired by
Karmayoga,
directed by eyes sparkling with the light of
Bhakthiyoga,
trained by brains illumined by
Jnanayoga
have shaped rebellious rock into rapture-filled
paths. When the party settled around Baba on the
seashore and began singing Bhajan songs, the
waves must have recalled bygone days when the
temple deities of Tamil Nad were installed for
worship on the seashore and the shore was
filled, not with picnic-minded crowds, but with
masses of devout hearts and humble seekers of
God. They surged, one behind the other, in
serried ranks to catch a glimpse of Baba and to
hear the lilt of the song divine. Even the
elephants, deer and monkeys carved in stone
strained to escape from the rock and sit
around.
Baba
created that evening three charming idols of
Vishnu,
Narayana
and Krishna,
and when the group of devotees around Him were
exulting over their luck, the mute image of
Arjuna
doing penance must have turned and folded hands
in a sudden inspiration to pay homage. The three
idols, Baba explained, symbolized the
Sathwic
aspect of God, the aspect that confers
Amritha
or Immortality to man.
Vaikunta
is the place or stage of no 'kuntitha' or
dullness or stupidity, mutilation or misery. On
the Ekadasi Day, dedicated to the winning of
that stage, the gates of Vaikunta are open for
those who have achieved success in the struggle
for overcoming the handicap of ignorance. "When
the mind obeys the whims of the senses, you get
bound; when the mind listens to the warnings of
its master, the Budhi or Reason, you are saved.
So, train the mind to heed the intelligence and
not the vagaries of the senses," Baba advised.
After granting the devotees this Bodhamritham,
Baba created the Amritham, which was generated
by the
Devas
and
Asuras
on that auspicious Day by churning the Ocean of
Milk, (as described in the Bhagavatham).
[Srîmad Bhâgavatam,
1-3-16,
2-7-13,
see also Ramakatha Rasavahini, Chapter
7b]
He gave it to all present, with the warning that
the tongue that has tasted Amritham must not be
contaminated by Anrtham (Falsehood)
thereafter.
Returning to
Prasanthi Nilayam, Baba called upon the devotees
who had made it their home to follow the
rigorous discipline that He had prescribed.
"This Avathar
has Bhaktha-rakshana (the fostering of
Bhakthas)
as one of its tasks. So, strive to be Bhakthas.
Give me your mind, fully and without
reservations; give it to Me with all its
fickleness and waywardness. That is the only
thing you need do. Then, you become Bhakthas;
you will be liberated from grief. Not only you,
but, every being in the Universe has to be
liberated and will be," Baba said. A few days
later, the Ceremony of Initiation into
Brahmacharya
of about 30 boys was celebrated. Finding that 16
of them had not gone through the preliminary
'ear-piercing' rite Baba waved His hand and
produced as many ear-ring wires of gold as were
needed; He Himself pierced the ears of the
novitiates. He gave each of them the robes for
the ceremony and the copper vessels they have to
use. Brahmin Priests had come from many towns,
accompanying the parents of the boys who were to
be initiated. Baba spoke to them of the
accretions that Time has piled on the simple
Vedic rite; He directed them to discard these
exhibitionists, the social and the convivial
frills of the Vedic vesture and adhere to the
simpler schedule that He had decided on. They
gladly agreed; they were happy that Baba has
come to separate the chaff from the grain. "I
shall be their Mother", He said, when the
priests suggested that the mothers must stand
behind the boys during the rite. "Some among the
boys have lost their mothers; when they see
other boys with mothers behind them, they will
shed tears at their own misfortune; I do not
want any boy to shed tears during the rite when
he is being given the 'grief-destroying'
Gayathri
manthra;
so, let us not have mothers behind the boys."
The mother has to pour the first handful of rice
when the initiate starts his student career and
says, "Bhavathi,
bhikshaam dehi"
(Lady, Give me alms); but, Baba said, "I shall
be the Mother. I shall fill their hands with
gifts". What great good fortune, this!
The
Sivarathri Festival was celebrated in the wake
of the Upanayanams. Two
Lingams
- one golden and the other, crystal - emerged
from Baba, having formed themselves in Him, as
is the wont since 1940, prior to this Sacred Day
every year. Baba explained that the Linga was a
'mark' or 'symbol' representing the merging of
the Particular in the Universal, the dissolution
of the mind (with its agitations, aspirations
and accomplishments that attach and adhere) in
the Atma-awareness. The wise realize that the
mind and the vast phantasmagoria that it weaves
are all subsumed in the Linga, in the
beginningless endless Ocean of
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.
After
Sivarathri, Baba left for Rajahmundry for
presiding over a Three Day Adhyathmic
(Spiritual) Festival of Discourses. Hundreds of
villages in the region around Rajahmundry, the
vast fertile Deltaic tract of the Godavari
river, were looking forward to this visit, which
they hoped would be extended to their area too.
But, Baba announced that "visits to other places
have been postponed: all can, however take
Darshan
at Rajahmundry during the meetings". Therefore,
while Baba was motoring along the Grand Trunk
Road on the East Coast of India towards the
Godavari Town, thousands were speeding towards
that place by car and omnibus, train and boat,
on cycles and rickshaws and by bullock carts
from far and near. Trains puffed into the
station heavy with human throngs and left it
empty, for, all were anxious to reach and none
was prepared to pass beyond or leave the coveted
town. Old men who had seen the mammoth
gatherings that the River Festival of Pushkaram
attracts into Rajahmundry swore that the record
was broken into bits. Baba Himself remarked, on
the 29th, when He addressed the gathering which
was packed to bursting point in the largest
maiden of the Town, that it was a reminder of
the Viswavirat-swarupa Itself. That is to say,
of the multitudinous manifestation of the Great
Unknown. Baba had to change the venue to the
vast open spaces of a suburb, where He could
speak to them from a house-top, that commanded
the entire area. The fourth day of Baba's stay
at Rajahmundry was Rama Navami, the Birthday of
Rama,
the Avathar
of God, worshipped as the embodiment of Dharma
from Himalayan valleys to Kanyakumari homes.
India was fragrant with incense, tinkling with
temple bells, that night. Baba sat that night on
a patch of sand in the center of the broad
river, as Rama must have sat long long ago,
while He was on His peregrinations in the South.
It was an epic hour; a turning point in the
history of the World. For, Baba announced in
that hour His Plan for the spread and
propagation of Vedic Dharma throughout India and
the World.
Baba teaches
that
Karma
has to be suffused with
Bhakthi
so that
Jnana
may be won. He has pointed out that the Vedas
have three Kaandas or Sections, the first one
dealing with Karma, which is the most voluminous
and the second, shorter in size, called Upaasana
or Worship. The third or the Jnana section is
the Upanishad literature, which is shorter
still, the Vedantha or the Consummation of Vedic
discipline. He compares these three to the
'tender fruit', the 'ripening fruit' and the
'ripe fruit'. The ripening fruit becomes filled
with sweetness, in much shorter time than the
tender fruitling takes to grow into the ripening
fruit. The sweetness for which all this is a
preparation, is Jnana.
Baba agrees
with the Vedic dictum that Jnana alone can
confer Liberation, that Karma and Bhakthi are
preliminary stages that each seeker has to go
through. Jnana alone reveals the essential
one-ness of the Universe, the one-ness of matter
and matter, of time and space, of the most
distant star with the smallest speck glittering
in the sunlight.
Baba spoke of
this One-ness, this non-duality, A-dwaitha on
the birthday of Sankara who was the most
vigorous exponent of this Vedanthic truth. "This
interpretation satisfies the most complex
demands of the intellect and reconciles all the
discoveries of science. A-dwaitha is the
awareness of the One in full measure, in all
things, at all times. When you know that the
'many' is a figment of your own imagination born
out of your incomplete knowledge, you become
sole Master, and all fear vanishes; you are free
from the thralldom of the many-faced
Samsara",
Baba said.
On the 10th of
May, Baba inaugurated the Factory of the Rao
Insulating Company at Whitefield. He addressed
the employees and gave them His Blessings and
advice. He told them that each one of them was a
link in the chain of production; sloth,
slackness, negligence or inefficiency of a
single person will nullify the skill, vigilance,
efficiency and enthusiasm of the rest. Be
tolerant of the other man's point of view, be
aware of the other man's difficulties; respect
the other man's needs as much as you respect
your own. He said He knew the British
Technicians who were collaborating with them and
so He could congratulate them on securing such
earnest and loving friends from
abroad.
Baba lays His
finger on the crux of what is often exaggerated
as the labour problem, for, He sees it as a
human problem of acquiring peace and joy. At
Srisailam, when He saw the thousands of masons,
stone cutters and mechanics engaged in building
a Dam across the Krishna River, He gave them
advice, which leaders and guides of labour can
well take to heart. "Do not go about this work
in a haphazard way; this is a sacred task which
will provide food and happiness for
crores
of men, women and children for centuries. Truly,
your lives have been worthwhile. You, who toil
to curb the waywardness of this mighty river
must toil to curb your own waywardness too. Dam
the roaring flood of passion, which endangers
the peace and joy of your own homes. Canalize it
into useful fields. Just as you obey the rules
of health for fear of falling ill, obey the
rules of mental control too so that you may have
abundant peace. Spend a few minutes every
morning and evening in the silence of your home
before the altar, spend them with God. Practice
the constant presence of God, see Him with you
always under all conditions. Rely on Him; it is
His Drama, you are but a role, an
actor."
From
Whitefield, Baba went to Mysore City and the
Nilgiris and from thence He proceeded to
Tinnevelly, Mukkudal, Maduraj and the Kodaikanal
Hills, reaching Prasanthi Nilayam in time for
the Festival of Guru Pournima. The miraculous
events that preceded that Festival and that made
it unforgettable deserve a separate chapter, a
chapter which has to be inscribed in letters of
gold.
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