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Expect Miracles
The following
talk was given by Yaani Drucker to an audience of Sai Baba
devotees who had gathered at the Vancouver Sai Baba Centre on
December 3rd 2000 for the usual Sunday morning
satsang. It has been edited, but only for the purpose of
reproducing it in this Newsletter.
I would like to speak to you of my
process of awakening to the truth of who I am. It is the only
thing that matters to me. I know that awakening to the truth is
also your only true focus and so I want to share with you some
possibilities, some totally new ways of seeing, that may
significantly save you large chunks of time. In recent years,
during my many trips to Sai Baba’s ashram, I found myself totally
absorbed in studying, reading and re-reading A Course in
Miracles. I could not put it down. Waiting to go in for
darshan, at darshan, later in my room, I found myself eagerly
drinking in the pages. Sai Baba has told Connie Shaw that A
Course in Miracles is the advaita (the highest spiritual
non-dualistic teachings) for the West. Its study brought Sai
Baba’s teachings to life for me in a totally new and profoundly
deeper way.
One of my favourite Sai Baba
teachings is “There is no freewill.” What does this mean?
Am I powerless, merely a puppet on a string? That concept never
appealed to me, nor did it feel like the whole picture, and it
doesn’t gel with Sai Baba’s instruction to repeat: I am God, I am
God, I am no different from God. I am the infinite supreme, the
one reality. In His 1996 Christmas Message Sai Baba said
“There is no one greater than you. The whole universe is within
you. Everything is within your power.” Am I powerless or
all-powerful? I wanted to know the truth, and I knew that I had
the right to know.
In my determination to understand, I
found myself going back to the beginning. Sai Baba says, “I
separated myself from myself that I might love myself.”
At times Sai Baba can be heard sweetly repeating a mantra from the
Isha Upanishad: “Poornamidam, Poornamada, Poornat,
Poornamudachate, Poornasya, Poornamadaya, Poornamava Vashishyate”
which means “From the fullness comes the full and the fullness
remains ever full, and that which is created is ever full.” Sai
Baba, who encompasses ALL being, extends as is His God nature, and
in that ever full expansion, He created you. He created you with
the full power of divinity, with no need to learn anything. He
created you exactly like Himself. You were created eternally
peaceful, eternally joyful and eternally creating, just like Sai
Baba. God cannot create less than Himself, therefore it is
impossible for you to be less than Sai Baba.
While it is true that Sai Baba
created you, at the same time, you are seamlessly one with Him.
That oneness simply means Sai Baba has an all-consuming love for
you, His creation, and you have an equally exquisite love for
Him. In that never-ending love you and He are eternally one.
That is pure Advaita, pure non-dualism. In a moment I think it
will become clear where I'm headed with the distinction that Sai
Baba created you and yet you could not create Sai Baba. For now,
let us look at this small example. You give birth to your
children. They have children, just like you did, but the process
is not reciprocal. They cannot give birth to you. You cannot be
father to your father.
Sai Baba’s name means divine Mother
- Father. He cannot be a parent without children. Sai Baba’s
creations are creations of love and light. They are eternal, and
when my will is in alignment with His, then so are my creations
eternal love and light. So, do I see only creations of love and
light in the world, since the world is merely a projection of my
mind? No, to be perfectly honest with you, I see and experience
sickness, suffering and death all around me, and I find it
heart-wrenchingly intolerable. You may wish to protest and say
that there is so much good in the world, and Sai Baba teaches us
to see only good. Yes, I agree with you, there is plenty of good,
and that good is the love and light of creating with Sai Baba. It
is real. All the lives of exemplary character and deep love for
God and fellowman throughout the ages are real, and contribute to
the well-being of all. Every loving thought is real. Every act
of kindness, however small, is real. All noble deeds replete with
sacredness and purity are portals to awakening.
But what about the rest? What about
the wars, the violence, the rape, the murder, the starvation, the
anger, the greed, the other endless horrors, any and all words and
acts of separation, even a minor irritation or a slight frown?
Can I look on all those demonstrations of separation and see only
good? Maybe I could simply turn my back on them and thereby
manage to see only good. But isn’t that a form of denial?
Suppose that since every form of separation is not from God, it
is nothing. Then I would not see it as good or bad, I would
simply recognise it as unreal. I will expand on this idea in a
moment. For now, let me just say that my study of A Course in
Miracles has revealed to me that any act of separation, be it
in thought, word or deed, is a product of freewill, a product of
my will not being in alignment with God’s will. It is me acting
in defiance of the truth of who I know myself to be. It is me
trying to prove to myself that I am separate from God. What
purpose could separation possibly serve?
Remember that I pointed out earlier
that God created me and that I could not create my Creator. The
frank and naked truth is that I refused to accept that, although I
am a creator, I was created. I had an authority problem, a
problem of wanting autonomy. Following the thought that I wanted
to be self-created, I set out to be different from how I was
created. To accomplish this I had to use free will so I could act
differently from how God creates. Thus I invented an opposite to
love, even though love can have no opposite. I came up with fear
and hate and convinced myself that they were real. I had to come
up with an opposite to that which is eternal, so I made up time
and death, and convinced myself of their reality, though only what
is eternal can be real. I had to come up with an opposite to
light, so I made up darkness and evil. I wanted an opposite to
oneness, so I made up separation. As long as separation is my
experience, it must be that I am choosing ego as my father rather
than Sai Baba. This explains why Sai Baba says that you can only
choose for God or for ego. In choosing ego we choose freewill,
and in choosing God we choose the Divine Will, our true will. In
my willingness to expose my authority problem, that I could not
create God, the whole platform of maya-illusion crumbles. It is
no longer an inexplicable mystery. I made an ego so that I could
be the creator of my father. It is really absurd when seen
clearly. And it is impossible! Therefore, I could not succeed.
Only God and God’s will are real. Hallelujah!
Though I could not succeed, I am
still all-powerful, as I was created. So, whenever I think
unloving thoughts or fear-based thoughts I am contributing to
suffering, separation and death, and thereby I am strengthening
maya’s hold on me. The unreal is real only for as long as you
believe in it and for as long as your thoughts, words, and deeds
are not in alignment with the holiness that you really are, you do
believe in it. There are those who call themselves Advaitins,
non-dualists, who say that they are God, and that it doesn’t
matter what they do since nothing they do can change who they
are. Ultimately they are correct, but unless your thoughts, words
and deeds are in alignment with the divine will, you’ve managed to
get yourself stuck in one of the slipperiest of the ego’s snares.
You end up making time rather than collapsing it, until you see
what you are doing and change your mind.
When I am at the ashram and Sai Baba
speaks to anyone, or chooses anyone for interview, or expresses
His Divine love in any way to anyone, my heart leaps for joy.
That continues to be a wonderful surprise, over and over again,
because it is a direct confirmation of my oneness with everyone.
Now that has not always been the case. I used to get quite
jealous when Sai Baba spoke to anyone, or when He invited someone
in for an interview, especially if they received numerous
interviews, while I was being ignored. In my determination to be
whole, I dared to look at jealousy and to see it truly for what it
is. In exposing it, it became the nothingness that it always
was. Now it no longer catches me. Your thoughts can be pure. It
gives so much joy. Jesus said “Be ye perfect as your Father in
Heaven is perfect.” We were created perfect, therefore to be
perfect is natural. What is difficult is to be imperfect.
Once my husband, Al Drucker,
commented to Sai Baba that the spiritual path is so difficult.
Sai Baba, reaching for a handkerchief and closing his hand over
it, said sweetly “The spiritual path is easy. What is
difficult is holding on to and making that which is unreal real
for you. What is easy is letting go and allowing that which is
real to be real now.” He opened His hand and let the
handkerchief waft to the floor.
There are no neutral thoughts. My
mind is all-powerful. When I think loving thoughts, I am thinking
with God, and those thoughts contribute to the welfare of all of
Humanity, because we are all one. Those are real thoughts. Those
thoughts weaken maya’s hold and move me towards waking up. That
is why Sai Baba constantly urges us to watch our thoughts, words,
and deeds. That is why Sai Baba encourages seva. When you help
anyone, you help everyone. That is why Sai Baba tells us to
constantly repeat His name.
Can you now see the deeper
significance of Sai Baba’s teaching that there is no free will?
Anything that comes from free will is not real. Therefore there
is no free will. It is not that we are powerless. It is simply
that when we don’t choose for the Divine will we are
mis-appropriating our unlimited power and are using it to make
something out of nothing. All that we’ve really managed to do is
to convince ourselves of the reality of that which is not real,
and of the unreality of that which is real, so that sickness,
lack, suffering and death are our experience, and eternal peace,
love and joy are not our constant state. What a feat! We’ve
managed to turn everything inside out, upside down and backward!
What an insanity! To the extent that my experience and the
experience of everyone around me is less than exquisite peace and
eternal delight, it must be that I believe that what I see is
real. The good news is that it is impossible to alter the truth.
There is no free will. Sai Baba loves us too much. If there were
such a thing as free will, we’d probably have used it to
self-destruct a long time ago!
But there’s more good news. Since
all the effects of freewill are unreal, they can be undone
instantly, simply by removing our belief in them. All sickness,
lack, suffering (karma) and death have nothing to do with Sai
Baba. We are responsible for them. But that doesn’t make us bad,
so we don’t have to feel guilty. If we can step into
self-responsibility without guilt, then Sai Baba can show us that
what we have accomplished through our use of freewill is, indeed,
nothing. Then we have broken the code and Sai Baba can undo our
mis-creations instantly.
That is a miracle! A miracle simply
undoes what never was. But any lack of willingness to step into
self-responsibility for the unreal attests to the fact that we
still think that the unreal is real! You may think to yourself
that this or that is too horrible for words, that you wouldn’t do
that. So then you think that it is horrible instead of unreal.
In the past I have shared in depth a rape experience that I had
and how I came to the point of recognising its unreality. (If you
wish for more understanding about this, then please refer to an
article in the September 2000 issue of the Ramala Newsletter
entitled “What is Real and what is Unreal”.) All suffering
is self-inflicted and we can choose to stop it whenever we want
simply by seeing that we are doing it to ourselves. Sai Baba has
the power to end all suffering for all of Humanity, but you don't
see Him waving His hand and making it go away. We have to do our
part. We have to take personal responsibility. Everything that
happens in your world is exactly as you want it, because it serves
your purpose. There is nothing opposing your will. Sai Baba can
only undo your mis-creations when you no longer want them, and you
no longer want them when you no longer want the purpose that they
serve. Sai Baba will not overstep our choice for freewill.
The idea that Sai Baba is the only
doer has been much misunderstood. When we are one with our source,
we create with Him, but separate from Him, creating is
impossible. Nothing is happening. All doing without Sai Baba is
ineffectual. He created you wholly without pain, without
suffering of any kind. It is when you deny Him that you bring
pain and suffering into your mind, because of the power that He
gave it. It is not his doing but yours that made all the wars,
all the nightmares. Only when you choose your oneness with Him
can real doing take place through you. We tend to think that all
that is real and all that is unreal are Sai Baba’s doing, but He
knows nothing of unreality. It makes no sense to Him. He is the
only doer, because He is the source of all that is real and only
that which is real.
Sai Baba created a perfect world, a
real world, with peace and plenty for all and He has come to show
us how to have that as our direct experience again. He has given
me glimpses of that real world, and it is glorious beyond
description. Everything here pales before the majesty of that
splendour. But we must step into personal responsibility for the
state of the world today and not blame Sai Baba. We should not
ask what Sai Baba can do for us, but rather what we can do to help
Him bring about the Golden Age. Sai Baba’s 75th
birthday signifies a monumental turning point in his mission. We
each have our assignments, our roles to play. It is the destiny
of our planet to go through a quantum leap in consciousness in the
very near future. Sai Baba says that even old people will see
world peace. How can we help this to happen? We must take a
mighty leap forward in our own consciousness.
I once had a dream in which I was
talking to Arjuna, one of the principal players of that great -
The Bhagavad Gita. In it he was telling me in minute detail how
the whole Mahabharata war had played out in his inner vision
before it had ever started. I exclaimed in dismay, “Oh Arjuna,
does that mean that everything is pre-determined, that I have no
say in what happens to me?” “No, Yaani,” he gently explained,
“When consciousness changes, destiny also changes.” What does
that mean? I refer you to the last two lines of the Gayatri
Mantra: ‘Bhargo Devasya Dhemahe, Dhe Yo-yo Na Prachodayat’ which
translates as ‘Let my limited consciousness be merged with the
limitless consciousness that I am in truth’. Sai Baba embodies
that limitless consciousness, and all I have to do is merge my
consciousness with His. This happens so effortlessly for me,
especially when I am at the ashram. Any ideas of being less than
Sai Baba are simply not true. Jesus said that all we need is
faith and we can move mountains. All my life all I’ve ever wanted
for myself was to somehow alleviate the suffering for all of
Humanity. Now I know that it is possible. Wouldn’t you want to
be about that task if you knew it to be within your power? A
Course in Miracles says “As long as a single slave
remains to walk the Earth, my salvation is not complete.”
I can choose limitless consciousness
instead of limited consciousness, I can choose God consciousness
instead of separate consciousness. When I expand my consciousness
I affect a change for all Humanity because the world is a
projection of my mind. How will that alter my experience of
sickness? Sickness is a defence against the truth. If there is
sickness anywhere it is only because we believe that we can be
other than how we were created. I have personally undergone a
number of instant healings. Sai Baba healed me, but I had to have
no further purpose for the illness. Of myself I can do nothing,
but with God all things are possible. Once, while staying at Sai
Baba’s ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam, I had a nasty foot infection.
My foot was badly swollen, and it was almost impossible for me to
walk. One day, as I was hobbling to my room, I jokingly asked Sai
Baba in my heart “What shall we do, shall we cut it off and throw
it into the fire?” Instantly, I felt a wonderful, warm healing
energy on the wound. By morning my foot was completely healed.
Another time, whilst sitting in
darshan, I had a nasty cold. I had gone through all of my
Kleenex, but then it suddenly dawned on me that I had absolutely
no need of that congestion. Amazingly, almost instantly, my head
cleared and that was the end of that. When I see sickness, I
don’t call it good, I call it nothing, and when I truly do that,
the very statement of that truth can undo the untruth, and
wholeness is restored. Then I truly do see only good. These are
little examples, but when you know that sickness is unreal, you
can generalise and see that all sickness is unreal. Unreal is
unreal, no matter how severe it may seem. There are no levels of
illusion.
One day a friend of mine who had
suffered all her life from congenital heart disease shared with me
concerning her fear of her imminent death. I told her that I was
holding her wholeness and perfection and that when she felt ready,
she could join me there. A few days later she joyfully exclaimed
to me that for the first time in her life she was experiencing a
regular heartbeat. She realised her weakened condition was
impossible, since she was whole and perfect as she had been
created. We can experience miracles when we realign our will with
God’s, and we can help each other because our minds are joined.
When you hold someone’s truth it becomes easier for them to find
the truth in their own mind. When you meet me in the truth that
sickness is unreal, and together we can rid the planet of
sickness.
Let’s look at the idea of lack. In
truth, lack is impossible. The very idea of God is
limitlessness. Brahma means expansion. Lack is constriction.
Therefore there can be no lack, and a shift in consciousness will
permit that to be my direct experience. There are millions of
starving people in the world. What about them? Do we just excuse
their suffering as their karma or do we justify turning our backs
on them in some other way? Or do we stand still and recognise
that lack is impossible and therefore unreal, and expect abundance
to replace lack for all of Humanity. After all, I am one with all
of my fellowman. If there is lack anywhere it is my lack. With
God all things are possible, but I have to do my part. I have to
see the lack for what it is, that it is not real. Then it can be
undone, especially as more and more minds join in the common
purpose of peace and plenty for all of Humanity, but it will not
be a true change of minds until our deeds are in alignment with
our thoughts. We see Sai Baba constantly giving. To give without
limit is Sai Baba’s will for you, because only this can bring you
the joy which is His, and which He wills to share with you.
Can a shift in consciousness alter
the Law of Karma? Karma is simply my belief that I must suffer
punishment as a penance for my sins. If I act hurtfully toward
you, it can only be to prove to myself that we are indeed
separate. Since I could never totally hide the truth of my deep
love for you, my oneness with you, I cannot help but feel guilty
when I hurt you. This guilt binds me to the Law of Karma. Ramana
Maharshi was once asked if there were any circumstances under
which the murderer might escape punishment. He said that the
murderer could if he could act without guilt. Rest assured that
I’m not advocating murder, but what I am saying is that it is our
guilt for past actions that keeps us tied to karmic consequences
in the present and nothing else.
Please do be ever alert to the ego’s
survival tactics, especially in light of this knowledge. Do be
aware that it is impossible to act against anyone and not feel
guilty. Recognise that allied with the ego, we have worked out a
scheme to help us to get around our guilt feelings. We made other
people outside of us to be the bad guys, to be the guilty ones,
but the fact is that we are either all innocent or all guilty.
There is no in-between, because we are all one. When I realise
that I could never hurt you, because you are not a body, you are
as God created you, I realise that I do not have the power to
adversely affect your happiness, your invulnerability. This
alleviates my guilt, and permits me to be karma free instantly.
What about death, when I choose a
leap in consciousness? When I was at Prasanthi Nilayam June/July,
2000, for the celebration of Guru Poornima, the children from
Maharashtra State performed a gorgeous play on the life of a 15th
century saint called Tukaram. He was so passionately devoted to
God that his every breath was suffused with his deep love for the
Divine. Because his love had so merged him with God, God Himself
came down in a chariot and took him home to heaven, just as
happened with Elisha and Enoch of the Bible. In contemporary
times, a saintly woman called Anna Lise is also known to have
ascended. And of course there are numerous others. The point is
that death is also a choice. Death is a statement that something
other than eternal life is possible. It is just another lie.
Expand your consciousness to eternity and be victorious even over
death!
I have shared with you that all pain
and suffering is our responsibility, not God’s, as it was never
God’s will for us. In my mind I only see you as you were created,
whole and perfect. When you meet me there, maya looses its hold
on you, because we are one. Then sickness, lack, suffering and
death must literally fall away, by Sai Baba’s grace. The world is
a projection of my mind, and it is saved when I realign my will
with my ever-loving Source and admit that free will was a really
dumb idea.
More than anything I want to leave
you with the idea that I love you so very deeply, and that I love
Sai Baba, my source and my sustenance, with all my heart. Let us
celebrate our most profound good fortune that our Creator is in
our midst, showing us how to regain our eternal happiness. We
have lost our way. We have felt lonely, abandoned and forsaken,
but Sai Baba did not do this to us. We did this to ourselves. In
fact, we abandoned Him, and He has been pining for us. He longs
for our holy constant communion and our longing is just as intense
as His. Let us anguish Him no longer. Let us come running into
His ever-loving arms.
= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -
= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =
“There are three things which one
should keep in mind, namely -
I will not think of anything else
except God.
I will not do anything else without
the permission of God.
I will have my attention completely
fixed on God.
It is only when you accept and put into
practice these three things that the Lord will look after your
welfare. Today you are not bothering about the injunctions which
God has given you but, instead, you are arguing with God and
asking Him why He is not looking after your welfare and your
safety. By simply reading and repeating the text of the Bhagavad
Gita, by merely thinking about the contents of the text, you are
not going to get any benefit out of it. It is only by
understanding the meaning of the text, by ruminating over the
meaning in your mind and by digesting it completely and by making
it part and parcel of your life, that you will get the benefit out
of it.”
Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Source: Ramala Centre Newsletter,
March 2001,
http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter03_01_03.htm
Visit Ramala Centre Website:
http://www.ramalacentre.com
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