In the story I told in this chapter, Pedda Botu felt the beginning of rain and spontaneously uttered a mantra and received an instant response from Sathya Sai Baba. He felt her prayer and immediately left his room. It should be remembered that Pedda Botu lived in the ashram for many years and practiced various mantras millions of times.
Most importantly, she was deeply devoted to Sathya Sai Baba and her sincere love for her teacher was so endless that it is simply impossible to put it into words. It should not be thought that a single repetition of the mantra was enough. However, the mechanical repetition of the mantra is also meaningless.
Sathya Sai Baba jokingly said that if the mere amount of repetition of a mantra were sufficient, then the first person to achieve enlightenment would be a tape recorder. Great joke!
51. "You are perfect!"
Sons of men, remember that you are made in the image and likeness of God. You are perfect!
(Sathya Sai Baba – “The Stream of Divine Love”, 1993)
The Vedas and the Bible say that God created man in his image and likeness. In every person there is a divine desire to know the Absolute Truth. This is the desire to comprehend one's source. The highest level of the search for Truth is meditation on the fundamental question: who am "I"? Going deeper into his Spiritual Heart, a person gets to his original source, to God, who is the True Self.
Sathya Sai Baba says: "You are perfect!" You strive to know the Truth and you will know the Truth; it turns out, you are the Truth itself. Your thoughts, words and actions are for the good of all, because you are made in the image and likeness of God. Since God is your True Self, it turns out that you, as a person, are created in the image and likeness of your True Self.
Speaking and thinking about the fact that God created you, you should remember that God is your Higher Self, which means you are "self-created". There is no external force that created you because there is no external force; everything is in your consciousness.
52. Jnana Yoga – the path to self-knowledge
The sage draws absolute bliss from his Higher Self, he does not seek bliss in the surrounding space.
(Sathya Sai Baba – Jnana Vahini)
These wonderful words of Sathya Sai Baba are taken from a book called Jnana Vahini, which translates as "stream of wisdom." One of the highest branches of yoga is called Jnana, which means wisdom. The main method of this direction of yoga is contemplation and reflection on the nature of one's Self. There are many ancient texts on the philosophy and practice of Jnana Yoga. One of the most basic treatises in this trend is the Avadhuta Gita; a text I quote often in my books.
The source of bliss is located in the Spiritual Heart. It cannot be found in outer space. If you realize yourself as an individual being, then the whole of life turns into a series of impermanence where joy is replaced by suffering, and then again, this is only a temporary joy, which comes.
It is your perception that allows you to truly enjoy the circumstances of life. If a person is fabulously rich, but at the same time depressed, then wealth will not be able to make him happy. A huge number of people after having achieved financial wealth found only problems, disappointment, and fears, instead of happiness. Only a true philosopher can enjoy material well-being because material well-being in itself has not yet made anyone happy.
Sathya Sai Baba lived a long life in an ordinary human body, which sometimes got sick, grew old and eventually died. Everything happened to him, it would seem, just the same as to all other people. However, one should not be deceived by their seeming commonness. People live in mortal bodies because of their Karma, but Sathya Sai Baba did not have any Karma. He incarnated in this world at will with a special and divine mission.
Some wondered why Sathya Sai Baba did not create an immortal golden body for himself? Why did he live in an ordinary human body? The energy of the immortal light body is so pure that few people can withstand such perfect vibrations.
If Sathya Sai Baba were in a golden immortal body, then almost no one would be able to get close to him and get the experience of direct communication. Sathya Sai Baba shows an example of the possibility of achieving harmony while living on Earth. That is why he lived in an ordinary body in order to enable more people to see him and even communicate with him personally.
One of the most prominent philosophical texts of Jnana Yoga is the Avadhuta Gita, in which the sage Dattatreya says:
“Purifying myself with meditation and dissolving into infinite bliss, I spontaneously sing this song about Divine Consciousness. I do not desire material wealth because I already enjoy abundance, I do not desire enlightenment because enlightenment is my nature. The Self is beyond desire because the whole world originally belongs to me, the Self do not follow religious precepts because they are illusory, the Self do not seek liberation because the Self is free.”
The subtlety of the philosophy of the True Self lies in the fact that this doctrine in no way denies an active life in society and the possibility of embodying one's talents. Some mistakenly think that if we are talking about the True Self, then it is necessary to deny human happiness and creative self-realization in science, art, business, and social activities. The philosophy of the True Self assumes the correct self-identification – the understanding of the eternal as eternal, and the illusory as illusory. A true understanding of oneself turns the activity in society into a process of pure meditation.
Divine Grace descends on all planes of human existence, transforming human nature into divine. Spirit is fully manifested in matter, and matter is spiritualized in spirit. Practicing yoga, a person gradually comes to a harmonious state of mind, returning to his original divine nature. Having reached the integral realization, the yogi carries out the divine transformation of human nature and becomes a Godman.
When you realize yourself as the Universal Self, you transcend the cycle of duality and impermanence. Meditation prepares the inner world for the descent of the divine current and leads to the perfect realization of Truth. As a result of the practice of meditation, a person goes through a gradual transformation on all planes. The perfect human life consists in the realization of unity and the realization of divinity on all planes of one's being.
53. The Real Guru
Who is a real teacher? It is he who leads the way, destroying delusion and ignorance. Who is the true student? This is the one who seeks to control the restless mind.
(Sathya Sai Baba – Gita Vahini, Chapter 11)
The real Guru is the Highest Self. This truth Sathya Sai Baba proclaimed all his life. It is this true teacher who eliminates ignorance, which consists in the erroneous perception of oneself as being separate from the surrounding world. A student is an individual self who learns from his own Higher Self.
Restlessness of the mind leads to uncontrollable craving for objects of desire, a false sense of separateness, fear, and suffering. In fact, you are learning from yourself – your Higher Self teaches your individual Self. However, most often the teacher appears as a wise and experienced person; such a person we call, Guru.
In Vedic philosophy there is a deep concept of the “principle of the teacher.” A teacher is not so much a personality as a cosmic principle that can be embodied in various people who teach us throughout our lives.