Many
people are perplexed when they try to fathom the meaning
of the word ‘Soul' or ‘Atma'. They assure and presume
the meaning , according to their own intellectual wave
length and remain contended and satisfied.
According to the
author's perception, the definition of the Soul or Atma is as
follows :
Soul =
Spiritually Oriented Universal Light.
Atma =
Automatic Timely Moving Aspect.
In truth, the
Atma is that supernatural power (The Inertia) created by God with
His Sankalpa (Will and Command), which always was, still remains,
and will always be present. The Atma never perishes, nor it ever
dies. It always remains because it is the Truth. It is God.
Electricity is
supplied from the power house to all the inanimate objects, all
over the world, known as various gadgets, such as Ovens, Cookers,
Refrigerators, Air-conditioners, Washing machines, Televisions,
Theaters, Automobiles, Computers and many more such gadgets.
Though the supply of the electricity is the same, yet the
functions of each and every individual gadgets is entirely
different.
In a similar
manner, the Atma is the supernatural power or the energy created
by God and supplied by God, not only to all the human beings all
over the world but even to the birds, bees, plants, inanimate
objects, planets and to the entire Universe. Without this Atmic
power or energy, the entire Cosmos will come to a standstill, just
as in the case of electricity, when the supply is cut off, nothing
functions and there is chaos and turmoil all over.
Now the
difference between the electrical supply from the power house and
the Atmic energy from the source of God is that the electricity is
generated and produced through the human intellect and resources,
and can also be destroyed through the human resources, like a
sabotage operation or by waging a war. But the Atmic energy cannot
be destroyed, unless it is withdrawn by God Himself as per His
Will or Command. Because Atma is God.
Many people
always quote and it is also firmly believed that, "Not even a leaf
moves without the Will of God". This statement is also confirmed
by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in His present human form. But
people try to mis-interrupt the above statement and put the blame
on God for everything they do whether good or the bad. God is only
a witness to the circumstances. He is not the doer of all the
actions committed by the human beings. The fact of the above
statement is that the Atmic power which is God who resides in our
hearts, prompts us through His energy to act this way or that way.
Without that energy, we will not be able to perform any action but
will be like a dead log. So, Atmic energy is the Will of God, and
not the actions deliberately done by the human beings could be
considered as the Will of God. This illusion is the cause of the
greatest error on the part of the human beings. God is Love. God
cannot hurt anybody or harm anyone. God is Caring, Consoling and
Healer of the all the wounds. How can He ever be revengeful? It is
a bad and vicious judgment on the part of the human beings to hold
God responsible for all their deeds and actions.
The most oft-used
question of all the human beings today is, "Why God created this
Universe, with all the misery, agony, hatred and confusion?" The
answer is, "God never Willed it this way. It is we human beings,
who are the cause of all this turmoil in this beautiful creation
of the Loving God, who is so Compassionate and Perfect".
As the story
goes..God was all alone and He felt the urge of loving Himself. He
could not do it single-handed. If one wants to express love or
experience love, one needs at least two people. So God said, "Let
Me become many". This He did in order to experience to love
Himself. As per His Will He became many. Then He thought of the
pleasure and comfort of so many people created by Him. So He
created the entire Universe, with the intention to provide all the
comforts and happiness to them, because everybody was Him and Love
was the Source. He then implanted the secret knowledge in the mind
of human beings, to enable them to come back to Him, as and when
they so desired. Along with this true knowledge He also gave them
a little of free will, to enable them to know and understand the
purpose of their creation and ultimately to go back to the final
source that is Him. The human beings used this little free will
for their own benefit and physical comforts and got themselves so
entangled in the graph, they themselves planted around them that
they forgot the way back to their true home land and are wandering
hither and thither aimlessly and are constantly blaming God for
taking their memory away as they are not able to find the way to
their true home land.
The Merciful God
is now caught up, in His own plight of creating this wonderful
Universe which has now become a vicious circle. He even cannot
undo now what He has already Willed to do. But still out of His
own Compassion, He has been kind and generous enough to take this
human body as Sri Sathya Sai Baba and is doing His utmost to
revive the memory of all the human beings after entire world and
is personally guiding them and showing them the way to reach their
true destinations, the aboard of Eternal Peace that is Bhagavan
Baba Himself.
He says, "As you
eat nourishing food to sustain your body and keep it healthy, so
that you can enjoy life, you must also give proper food to your
Soul (Atma) to remain fit and trim and that food for the Soul
(Atma) is doing Namasmarana (Singing the glory of the Lord through
the Chanting of the Bhajans) every day. This will sustain your
Soul (Atma) and keep it healthy". He further says that it is only
through the healthy body and the purified Soul (Atma) that you can
reach your destination - that is you can get Moksha (Liberation).
Let us all
resolve today and put an effort to lead our lives and move to the
path as shown by Bhagavan Baba, so that we all the individual
Atmas can get merged with Paramatma (The Power House of all the
Atmas).
I cannot refrain
but to mention here a small story about the Love and Compassion of
the Lord which I read somewhere, and cannot get it erased from my
memory.
There was a man
who always believed in God. Since the very young age, he trusted
God, and was sure that God was all the time moving along with him
walking, talking and guiding him all the time. When he became old,
he tried to recollect all his past thoughts. He saw a vast forest
and could always see the two pairs of footsteps imprinted on the
sand of the forest; only to find out that act the fag end of his
life, when he was passing through a desperate situation of his
life, he could notice only one pair of footsteps on the sand. He
then cried and prayed to God and said how can He the all Merciful
Lord leave him alone when he needed Him the most. There came the
reply from the God, "Oh, my dear precious child, when you see the
one pair of footsteps on the sand they are my footsteps because
during that period of time, you were so exhausted that I was
carrying you in my lap". This consoled the man and tears came to
his eyes.
Let us also
learn to cry for the mercy of the Lord. We cry for so many things
in life; whenever desires are not satisfied, or when something we
want, we do not receive. But have we ever cried for the God
Himself? Cry for the Love of Bhagava Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Tell Him
that your eyes are yearning to see Him, and to have His Darshan.
Cry out to Him that you cannot live without Him. And see
the Miracle of all the Miracles to happen.
Amen!