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Anil Kumar's Sunday Satsang at
Prasanthi Nilayam
August 10, 2003
The Sunday Talk Given by Anil Kumar
“You, From You, To You”
August 10th, 2003
OM… OM… OM…
Sai Ram
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am so glad to be with you again this morning. The topic of the
day is this: You, From You, To You. I repeat: You, From You, To
You. That is the topic. Here we have three aspects. First one is
you; from you is the second ‘you’, and to you is the third ‘you’.
So, though you appear to be one, but you are three. Bhagavan
always says, “You are not one but three: the one you think you
are, the one others think you are, and the one you really are.”
So, everyone here is not one but three.
You, From You, To You: Following this topic of the day, I will
bring your attention to certain points along this line of thought.
Many people in the mundane world are not aware of this aspect of
trinity – the three you's or the three I's -- the one I think I
am, the one others think I am and the one I really am (or the one
you really are). So, these are the three aspects. But many people
do not know this unless they are in the spiritual line of thought.
How do we get to know that? How do we become aware of the three?
You -- that you are from you, and that you will go back to you --
how to know that?
Closer and Closer to God
The first and foremost point, which I want to draw your attention
to, is that as you come closer and closer to God, you will know
this. If you are closer and closer to the world, you will never
come to know it. I will be able to know my true Self; I will be
able to experience my true identity, when I am closer and closer
to God.
Many may say, "Yes, I am closer and closer to God. How do you
question me? Do you doubt me?" You may question in this way: “I am
closer to God. Why do you doubt me?”
The answer is simple. None of us will get up and dare to say, “I
am closer and closer to God.” I do not think that anyone would
dare to say that. Why? As you come closer and closer to God, you
evaporate more and more. You evaporate, you disappear, you become
non-existent, you vanish, and you do not exist. Therefore, if I
say I am closer to God, it means that this ‘I’-ness is still
present. You are just boasting that you are closer to God, but you
are not in reality.
So my friends, the first point is that you evaporate, you
disappear, and you vanish when you more and more come closer and
closer to God. You get exhausted like camphor. At the time of
aarati you must have seen how they light the camphor. By the time
they sing “Mangala aarati anduko”, the camphor is fast
disappearing. And it is completely gone by the time aarati is
over. That is the symbol of being non-existent. That is the
expression of disappearance. That is the sign of self-annihilation
and self-effacement, which is the hallmark of spiritual awareness.
Be God-Loving
The second point I want to draw your attention to is that all of
us need to be God-loving and not God-fearing. We always say, "He
is a God-fearing man." I am sorry. God-fearing is secondary.
God-loving is primary. We should be God-loving people and not
God-fearing people. When we have a God-fearing tendency, or
God-fearing temperament, or God-fearing attitude, we feel like
keeping a distance from Him. We want to be away from Him.
God is not to be feared. One is not to be afraid of God. Instead
we have to develop Love of God and fear of sin. Have fear of sin,
but Love of God. Once I develop this Love for God, I will
understand the reality.
When There Is Love, There Is no Fear
The third point is that we should be very clear that where there
is Love, there is no fear. Where there is fear, there is no place
for Love. If I say, “God-fearing man”, then I can say there is no
Love that is lost any longer. When I say that I love God, I cannot
be fearful. Fear and Love will never go together.
I will tell you what Bhagavan said: "Why fear?” What is the cause
for the fear complex? The reason is that where there is a mistake,
there is fear. Where there is a mistake, there is fear. So, when I
think of mistakes, I get frightened or I am fearful. But in fact,
God is forgiving. God is forgiving! Therefore, there is no need to
be afraid of Him. It is only your guilty conscience that makes you
run away from Him. If you do not have that feeling of guilt any
longer, you don’t need to be afraid of Him. You can come still
closer and closer.
To substantiate my statement, I can tell you one thing. A person
came here and like many, he said, “Bhagavan, pardon me. I
committed so many mistakes. I committed so many blunders. With all
the mistakes I made, I have come here in front of You. Please
forgive me.”
You know what Baba said? “Past is past. Past is past. Forget the
past. From today, you lead a new life.”
This is the concept of resurrection. Resurrection is a beautiful
concept in Christianity. “Unless you are born again, you shall not
enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” says the Holy Bible. You die and you
are born again.
“Well, I am not prepared to die because I am not sure whether I
will be born again or not!” My friends, that is physical death.
Well, I don’t mean that. You die in this sense: “Let the ME die –
let there be death of the past, death of all past ideals and
notions and concepts, so that I will be born again. Through such
resurrection, I am born again.” Resurrection. This ‘second life’
indicates that all your mistakes are forgotten and all your sins
are forgotten. They are written-off, that’s all. God is capable of
that.
But we don’t want those things to be written off, as we are
comfortable with feeling guilty. That’s the reason why in our
centres of worship we find people with long faces, who do not
smile. (Laughter) People smile in theatres; people smile at the
Holiday Inn; yes, or when they enjoy a hamburger or a soft drink,
they smile. But they don’t smile in places of worship!
I go to church, I go to temples, or I go to the mosque. But I only
see looong, looong, looong faces! (Laughter) Why? Is God waiting
to see these castor oil faces? (Laughter) Is He not waiting to see
smiling faces? Will He not be happy and smile when you smile? You
think, ‘No! Oh God, You deserve my face, my looong face.’ Why do
we put on that long face particularly in places of worship? You
ask any man who goes to church. He smiles till the doorstep all
right, then stops. Why? It is only a reflection, reaction and
resound of our own ideas: ‘I committed a mistake, which will not
allow me to smile inside.’
My friends, the moment the sun’s rays appear on the horizon,
darkness disappears. First, there is the sunlight. “But yesterday
was darkness.” Please get your eyes tested! Get your vision
corrected! With the dawn of the sunrise, there is no question of
darkness anywhere around. Similarly, with the very thought of God,
with the very sight of God, with the very utterance of God’s Name,
everything is gone. All kinds of mistakes are written off.
“Oh, I see. Is that possible?”
“Why not?” God is beyond good and bad.
Sometimes we get a doubt in darshan lines: "Oh Bhagavan, I am so
regular in going to. I am very prompt for all bhajan sessions. Why
don’t You call me for an interview? Why? I see You calling some
fellows who never attend our Sai centre activities. I pass some
fellows with questionable character coming to You. I know some
people who do not enjoy the confidence of the society. I see those
people being given interviews. Why not a man of my type, who is
very prompt, very regular? Why not?"
My friends, good and bad are the norms or the parameters according
to your thought, according to your estimate. God is beyond. God is
beyond right and wrong as per our calculation. God is beyond the
pleasure and pain of our experiences. God is beyond the victory
and defeat of our knowledge or of our awareness. God is neither
avoidance nor indulgence. God is transcendence. Let me repeat this
beautiful sentence. God is transcendence. He is neither avoidance
nor indulgence. That’s the reason why He calls anybody.
You cannot say, "Oh God, I kept some people in the front row who
participate in service activity, and some in the second row who
regularly attend the nagarsankirthan, plus group I, group 2 and
group 3 activities. You may prefer to call them for interview
anytime You choose." Who are you to say that? Who am I to declare
that so-and-so is good? “Judge not lest thou shall be judged.”
Judgment is the worst of all sins ever possible. Let us not judge
anybody.
Therefore my friends, unless I stand in front of God without any
mask, without any covering, without any ‘dress’ or ‘apparel’ of
artificiality, I will not be able to know my true Self. I will not
be able to know my true Self unless I remove all my masks, all my
‘apparel’. I have the ‘mask’ of my educational background; I have
got the ‘dress’ of my profession; I have got the ‘garment’ of my
status in society. So I am fully dressed, fully clothed and
artificial with the synthetic fibre of position, class and caste.
So, God will never look at us. God will never look at us unless we
are free from all these masks. That is clear. Let us drop all
these deceptions -- deceptions that we very well know.
"Bhagavan, here is a person who is a man of activity. He is the
president of our Sai centre. Please talk to him."
"That’s the reason why I don’t talk to him," He responds.
I see! A reason which I find deserving, You say is the very reason
for being undeserving! Why? Because this man does it with a sense
of pride, with a spirit of ego, which is as much as not doing
anything at all. Better we don’t do anything than do something
with a sense of pride and ego. So long as ego and pride exist,
there is no chance of coming closer and closer to God. And unless
we come closer and closer to Him, there is no chance of knowing
the real Self.
God Is not an Idea
God is an idea, according to most of us. Why do I say that? You
talk to anybody. They go on interpreting: “God, you know, is
all-loving.” If you ask another man, “He is all-compassionate.” If
you meet another devotee: “He is all-forgiving.” Why? Why do we
speak of God like that? Why do we identify God with an idea?
God is not an idea. Why do we say that? For example, I need His
kindness now because I am going through some difficulties. So, I
say, "Oh God, You are all-kindness. Be kind to me.” My present
position makes me say that He is all-kindness. “I want Your
kindness as I am passing through the worst of times.”
When my present position is a position of isolation, when
everybody leaves me because of certain acts or certain feelings of
my own making, when I have become almost an untouchable in the
society, at that time I pray to God. “Oh God, You are
compassionate.” Or when I commit so many mistakes I say, "Oh God,
You are the Lord with a forgiving nature. Giving and forgiving is
Your noble quality.” So all our attributes, all our thoughts, all
our praises are related to our existing state of mind and way of
life at that moment.
Friends, let us be very clear. God is not an idea. God is a living
reality. You live in Him and He lives in you as a reality, not as
an idea or a concept. Then, why is the name ‘God’ there? ‘God’ is
the name that symbolises the totality of existence -- the organic
and the inorganic as well. So, we should think of Him as being the
whole totality.
God Is the Cosmos
That’s what we call ‘God’, the cosmic form. ‘God’ is the cosmos.
Yes, ‘God’ is the name representing the whole cosmos. It is
something like a map on paper. A map on paper is not the be-all
and end-all. A map does not speak of geography. It does not speak
of the climatic, environmental and societal features of the land.
All that is something beyond. A map is just a symbol.
Likewise, ‘God’ is just the name given. But, He is the totality of
existence -- the plant world, animal world, human world and
mineral world. The whole cosmos is God. You cannot simply limit
Him. God is not an object to be possessed. He is not a person to
be feared. He is the One to be experienced. He is the One to be
felt. He is the One to be visualised. He is the One to be
contacted within.
‘Cut Darshan’, not ‘Shad Darshan’
Here is a very important point. Since last year, Bhagavan stopped
coming towards the men’s side. Because that happens to be the
route, the women are blessed. Had we been there, He would have
come there. That has been the regular route. Men have been avoided
since last year’s evening sessions. We got used to ‘cut darshan’.
‘Cut darshan’ means He cuts across the middle of the hall and goes
straight up to the veranda because we stopped reading the ‘shad
darshan’.
There are six schools of philosophy. Shad means ‘six’; darshan
indicates ‘philosophy’. So, as we stopped experiencing ‘shad
darshan’, God has chosen to cut darshan! And since the beginning
of this year (since His return to Prashanti Nilayam in July), He
is avoiding morning darshan also. So what shall we do now? Shall
we cry and join in chorus? Not this time! That time is up. Perhaps
the time is mature now, and we have to feel Him from within. We
have to experience Him from within.
When He discontinued the padanamaskaar, there was a hue and cry
everywhere. “No padanamaskaar? Oh boy, what is wrong? No
padanamaskaar…why?”
Swami made it amply clear. The padanamaskaar had become a sign of
boasting, publicity and propaganda. Some used to go on inquiring,
“Did you get padanamaskaar? No? You know, I got it.” The person
would inquire only to let you know that he got it. So
padanamaskaar had become a matter of propaganda, a sign of pride,
a feature of publicity. So He just cut it.
What a spiritual explanation He has given: “You and I are One.
When you and I are One, what is the point of doing namaskaar to
Me? It is better you do namaskaar to your own Self. You and I are
One.”
There is a long way to go. Well, I have not yet come to that
stage, experiencing You and I as One. There is a long way to go.
Yet, it is the only way. This time or next time, this life or next
life, that is the only thing. That is the only route to experience
Him within. Turn inward. Turn inward. Instead of bolting from
inside during the nighttime, we want to bolt our doors from the
outside so that it is easily accessible to everybody!
We have to open within. We have to seek God within. “Seek the
Kingdom of Heaven within you,” declares the Bible. The Kingdom of
God is within you. God is within you. That kind of experience will
enable us to feel Him and to experience Him.
Swami Whispers
Somebody once asked me, “How does God talk to you?” I am going to
answer that here.
Right now, we have two courses going on there in the Sri Sathya
Sai Institute of Higher Learning. I just excused myself from the
deliberations of the conference. (I didn’t want to disappoint any
one of you here, as my name was already there on the bulletin
board yesterday evening. I didn’t want you to return in
disappointment, so I came.) So right now, two conferences are
going on. One is an in-service teachers training camp for teachers
coming from the southern states, plus a few from the North. Also,
a national seminar, sponsored by the Department of Biosciences and
attended by scientists of national and international fame, is
going on there.
Many people are here for the first time. They ask me, “Does Baba
say something every day? Has He messages to convey to you every
day? Does He talk to you every day? Baba talks to you.”
What shall I say? I only say, "Day after day, I am waiting.”
(Laughter) Day after day, I have been waiting.
Then I said, “My friends, Baba’s speech is speechlessness. Baba’s
words are wordless. It is soundless. Baba‘s speech is silence.
Silence is greater eloquence. Swami talks to you by not uttering a
word. Baba communicates to you, without giving any speech. Baba’s
speech is wordless. Baba’s speech is silence.”
I am not playing with words. I am a student of literature. In
fact, Swami talks to you, but not necessarily by words. Swami’s
gestures communicate. Swami’s looks are themselves beautiful
vehicles of communication. His gestures, His movements, His looks
convey more than a formal talk or more than any word ever can.
Words are limited, my friends. Those of us who want to express
through words may not know the futility. Words fail to communicate
the depth of every word. Words communicate only superficial
sentiments. Words fail. So how do you expect God to talk to you
through words? Therefore, Bhagavan will never make use of words to
communicate every time with everybody. Instead His looks
communicate.
A mother need not have to talk to the child. The child will feel
the vibrations of motherly love. The beloved, the sweetheart, the
one whom you love, will know your feelings without having to
speak. Once the beloved starts looking at you, volumes and volumes
are spoken. The moment you think of your beloved, volumes and
volumes of sentiments are expressed.
So my friends, that which is unexpressed verbally is expressed at
higher intensity. Therefore, to this question, “Does Baba talk to
you?” my answer is, “He talks to me, but not necessarily verbally,
as words are futile.”
Words are simple expressions by simpletons, including this self
here, as Love cannot be expressed by any words. If there is
anybody who can express Love verbally, vocally, if anyone tries to
do that, alas, his understanding is limited. If I express Love by
verbal expression, by language, by words, it shows limited
understanding. Can Truth be expressed by words? No. Most sacred
things cannot be expressed in words. So God’s language is silence.
That’s the reason why He insists that we be silent -- so that we
can listen to His whisper. He whispers into your ears.
Bhagavan said one time, “Boys, I want you to be silent. You know,
God is walking behind. You may miss the sound of His footsteps.”
When God walks behind, you will miss the sound of His footsteps
when you go on talking. You will not be able to listen to His
footsteps. Therefore, in silence, the voice of God is heard. The
voice of God is heard in silence. Further, silence is ‘Sai-lence’.
Silence is ‘Sai-lence’, where there is a greater projection of Sai
on the screen of our heart – amplified and magnified far greater
than any possible verbal communication.
Blessed are those who are not spoken to by Bhagavan till now -- I
really mean it -- as they feel Him from within. They feel Him.
There are thousands and thousands of devotees all over the globe
who have not been here till now. Still they feel Him from within.
I met a devotee in Milwaukee in the State of Wisconsin in the
United States. She works there in a hospital as a nurse. She came
to me and told me. “Sir, Baba tells me to do these things.” I was
spellbound.
I responded, “How much do you know Baba?”
She answered, “As much as you know Him.”
“Oh, I see!” (Laughter) As much as I know Him!
She said, "Yes.”
Then I said, "Sister, please correct your English. You know Him
more than I know Him, not as much as I know Him. You know Him more
than I know Him. Those of us who are very near, go only by
physical proximity. Those who see Him day-in and day-out take
things for granted. We are deluded by His physical presence,
whereas you, who have never met Bhagavan physically till now,
receive messages every day. So, you can proudly declare, 'Mr. Anil
Kumar, I know Baba more than you know Him.' Yes, you do. I know
something only if Swami talks to me through words, only if I
listen to His speech or talk, or only if I hear Him when He is
talking to somebody else.”
Be Childlike, not Childish
We find some people go on peeping when Swami is talking to others.
I don’t know. It is viral infection! (Laughter) When Swami is
talking to you, when you are asking something personal, I go on
interfering, and see to it that you will not be able to see His
face. He wants to talk to you; He wants to communicate something
to you. But I go on jumping like a frog. No!
We have to be childlike. We should not be childish. Be childlike,
but never childish. When Swami wants to communicate something to
someone personally, then what is the fun of jumping in like a
frog, standing between that person and Bhagavan, just extending
the neck like a giraffe? If we want a video of our own faces and
necks, we do not have to visit His zoo at all. (Laughter)
Entertainment is provided free-of-cost. No tollgate or any fee is
required at the entrance because we are the exhibits! You can just
watch and see.
So my friends, God has a message He wants to convey to you. In
trying to hear what He wants to tell you, I will be misguided. I
will be misguided, and I will be misdirected, because it has got
nothing to do with me. Why does one do that? Why does one jump
like that -- shift from one place to another place? It is nothing
but ignorance; it is nothing but delusion. It is nothing but a
physical approach to spiritual Swami.
I want to go by train across the sky. I want to make use of
aircraft on land. What a fool I am! To approach Bhagavan, I cannot
have physical manoeuvring, physical worldly manipulation. What a
disgusting thing it is! What an unfortunate thing it is! When are
we going to evolve ourselves to higher levels of consciousness?
So, we will be able to understand the reality if only we try to
see Him within. Perhaps the time is ripe enough now. Swami has got
His own ways of teaching. By talking to you, by talking to me, He
wanted to correct us, so long as He approached His 78th birthday.
We may say, “Bhagavan, You may be 150 or 200, but I want to
continue there in my nursery school level of experience. I want to
continue this same state of learning of the alphabets. I do not
want to grow.”
Now God has to become a surgeon. He picks up a cane. Now He wants
you to learn. So long as He has been speaking to us softly and
sweetly, so long He has wanted us to evolve to a higher level. But
we refused.
"All right then, I will make you forcefully evolve by avoiding
you."
This God does not cane. This God does not whip. More than
whipping, more than caning, He has got a higher level of
punishment -- avoiding you totally. On a day when you manage to
get the front row, He does not come along that line at all. Why?
He knows that the best treatment is to avoid you. So my friends,
it is not an occasion to feel sorry or to feel badly.
“Oh God, You have chosen another channel - DD2, Doordarshan,
Channel 2. When the channel 1 is not clear to me, You are taking
me along the second channel of avoidance so that I may try to
evolve, so that I may try to look within.” That’s what we have to
understand.
Swami Has Chosen Me
We should also try to learn another important point. I told my
friends from different parts of this country, some leading
scientists, “Let not any of us say that I have chosen Baba as my
God. Let not any of us say that I have chosen Swami as God. No.
Instead of that, let us say, 'Swami has chosen me. Baba has chosen
me. I cannot say that I have chosen Him.'"
When you say, "I have chosen Swami as my God," it is nothing but
ego. How do you know that He is God? What is your eligibility?
What is your capacity? What is your ability? What is your level of
understanding? How do you say, “I have chosen”? No, nonsense! “You
have chosen me, God. Swami, I am very grateful to You.”
Now, what is my responsibility? When I say, “I have chosen You,” I
have a responsibility. When You have chosen me, it is Your
responsibility. (Laughter) It is a convenient philosophy, yes? No!
“Swami, You have chosen me so that I may hunger for You. I may
develop a thirst for You. I may die for You, as You have chosen
me.” Well, God! How compassionate You are! How loving You are! How
abundantly merciful You are because You have chosen me. And my
responsibility now is to live up to Your expectation, to rise up
to Your level of expectation.
When I have chosen, it is my option to be with You or to be away
from You. When He has chosen you, you cannot get out. Finished!
You are no more. There are many people who want to go out from
this place, but they cannot go. Physical imprisonment is seen;
spiritual imprisonment is unseen. You cannot get out of this
because you are chosen by Him.
A simple example: One gentleman had forgotten Swami totally for 20
years because he was not happy with Him. He expected so much of
money and all that. But after some 20 years, life proceeded in a
negative direction. He started losing more and more. He had to
sell off his own house. He had no place to live in -- no shelter.
At that moment, he received a letter from Baba. “My dear son,
don’t cry. I am with you. You are passing through this crisis.
Why? I want to teach you a lesson. You should learn a lesson out
of this crisis so that you may remind yourself of the existence of
God. You cannot get away from Me. From tomorrow, things will be
set right.” He received that letter. Next day, like a windfall, he
got cheques and cheques from his near and dear.
So my friends, God has got His own method of coming closer and
closer, because He has selected you. He has chosen you. And it is
up to you to develop hunger for Him, thirst for Him, because it is
not an easy selection. Election -- you can work for it; selection
-- it is not your choice.
“You May Leave Me, But I Will not Leave You”
Bhagavan went a step further and said, “You may leave Me, but I
will not leave you." He will not leave you! “You may leave Me, you
fellow. I will not leave you.” Why? Because of the spiritual
affinity: Spiritual togetherness is inseparable. My dress and I
are separable. When I remove this shirt, I am separated from this
shirt. But I cannot separate me from myself because I am I. How
can I separate myself? Impossible! So, when Swami is in you (and
you are in Swami), how can you be outside of Him? How can you be
away from Him? You cannot be free from yourself. You cannot be
away from yourself.
A Spiritual Contract Is Permanent
Similarly, Baba is YOU and you can never be away from Him. This
spiritual contract is permanent. With a spiritual contract, it is
not seasonal, incidental, and not accidental. It is permanent,
from womb to the tomb to eternity. We will be having a number of
lives to come and this bondage will continue.
You must have gone through the biographical notes of Walter Cowan
where he mentions who he was in his earlier lives and his death
experiences. All that was published in the form of a small
booklet. Most of you must have gone through that, where Walter
Cowan describes his death experiences so that we may know our
life’s living experiences. Walter Cowan goes on to say what he was
in his earlier lives -- how he was earlier in the company of God.
So my friends, it is not by accident that we are here, no. It is
by Divine Will. It is a Divine ‘master plan’. When Swami talks to
you today, He has got a master plan. Many people must have hardly
imagined that they would settle here. Persons, who have had name,
fame, a car, etc., have given up everything and decided to stay
here. How did it happen? Let me be very clear. It happened in
spite of them.
Lead a Choiceless Life
Why don’t we reconcile? Why don’t I lead a choiceless life? If I
lead a choiceless life, it is going to be an exemplary life. What
is choicelessness?
“Swami, I will be leaving at 5 o’clock. To be at the station or at
the airport, I need to be there one hour before. So, I should be
leaving by 3:30. Why don’t you complete Your darshan by that time?
Why not? Swami, today is the last day of my stay. Why don’t You
grant me an interview?”
This shows that I have some preferences; I have certain choices.
So long as I have got some choice, I am bound to be disappointed
one day or another. One day or another, we are bound to be
disappointed when we lead a life of choice.
When you lead the life of choicelessness, you say, "Oh God, it is
up to You. I go on in my own way, thinking of You." That’s enough.
That’s what is called surrender. Surrender is choicelessness.
Surrender is leading a choiceless life. That makes you feel very
happy, so happy.
I met one gentleman. He was all smiles. He said, "I have been here
for the past one week. I enjoyed my stay. I am leaving now, Anil
Kumar. ‘Bye. I hope to see you very soon."
Well, innocently, as ill luck would have it, I put an inconvenient
question. “Did Swami see you? Did Swami see you?"
What was his reply? “I have not come for that purpose. I have come
to see Swami. I have no answer when you ask me, ’Did Swami see
you?’ No, I have come here to see Swami.”
"I see. Could you please elaborate on that?”
What he said is this: “Swami sees me anywhere, wherever I am, all
the time. He sees me everywhere, anywhere, every time. But I will
not be able to see Him unless I come here. So, it is more
important that I see Him. And I don’t have to say that. I don’t
bother at all if He sees me or not because He is in me, above me,
below me, around me.”
What an answer! That is why I say, blessed are those who have got
such lofty ideals! Blessed are those who have got that high level
of understanding, that high level of awareness. “I have seen Him.
That’s enough. He sees me all the time.”
I met a villager, unlettered and illiterate. Well, he was very
happy packing his luggage to leave. I know him. I said, “How are
you, sir?”
“Very fine. I am going.”
“I see, good. Did you have any chance to sit in the front row as
you have been here for the past 15 days? Any such chance?”
Then he said innocently a wonderful statement that still rings in
my ears! I'd like to share it with you, my friends. What did he
say?
Villagers may hail from villages, cut off from the madding crowd,
unsophisticated. We may prefer to call them ‘uncivilized’; but
yet, as Bhagavan repeatedly says, “If there is any culture, it is
there in villages, but not in cities.”
In the cities, everything is artificial, synthetic. Even smiles
are artificial. People say, “Very glad to see you”, while
thinking, ‘Most disappointed to see you in reality.’ (Laughter).
Or, one says, "See you again", while thinking, ‘Not for a lifetime
I hope!’ That is the true feeling within. (Laughter)
So, with city life, with this urbanisation, this so-called
‘civilisation’ has made our life totally artificial. We don’t mean
what we say. The real culture -- if at all there is any harmony of
thought, word and deed anywhere -- is there in the villages.
So, going back to that villager, that ignorant yet innocent man,
unsophisticated and half-naked, what did he say?
“Sir, I heard Swami telling that the whole world, in fact the
whole universe, is in Him. When the whole universe is in Him, how
is it that I will be outside of Him?”
My friends, please understand the depth of his statement. “When
the whole universe, the cosmos, is in Him, how can I be outside of
Him? Therefore, I am happy being one with Him. I am very happy to
be in Him. I am not bothered whether I get the first line, or
fifth line or the thirtieth line.”
“Aareh Baba! Let me touch your feet first! I will touch Baba’s
feet next.”
I very well remember Baba saying one thing. What did He say? “When
I hold this paper, it only means I am bigger than this paper. So I
am able to hold this, right? So if you say, “God is in me”, it
means that you are bigger than God. On the other hand, if you say,
“I am in God, God is bigger than you!”
Oh, oh! This villager conveyed to me this Divine message
indirectly. When you are conscious of the fact that you are in
Divinity and of Divinity, then there is no question of being far
or being near -- because you are essentially Divine.
Baba Chooses YOU to Find Him
Another point, which I want to draw your attention to, is this:
When Bhagavan chooses you, He desires you to find Him. Please
follow the sentence. When He chooses you, He desires you to find
Him. Oh, I see.
Our good Lord is an expert in the hide-and-seek game. When He
comes in that battery-operated cart, He will take the attendance
there itself -- who is here and who is not there – finished! When
you are close to Him, He looks in the opposite direction --
because the attendance was already taken there at the entrance
itself!
When He has chosen you, He desires that you find Him. Therefore,
you should go on waiting; you should go on looking within; you
should go on longing; you should go on pining for Him. God chooses
you so that you may find Him. God chooses you so that you may love
Him. God chooses you so that you may hunger for Him, so that you
may thirst for Him. That is why He chooses you.
So my friends, as there is a national conference going on where I
am supposed to speak immediately after this, I beg your pardon and
seek your permission to conclude my talk a few minutes before the
schedule. Now join me in chorus.
Anil Kumar concludes his talk with the bhajan,
“Bhajamana Narayana Narayana Narayana”.
OM… OM… OM…
Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrtyormaa Amrtam Gamaya
Om Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
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