By: Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji
Sai Baba’s way of life speaks of the ‘belonging’ that emerges from a deep and almost instinctive human need. Yet, it is this very need we consider ‘our own’ that creates the category of non-belonging or ‘the other’.
When I look up at the stars, I feel the presence of something powerful. After years of hard ‘sadhana’ and chanting of Vishnu Sahasranama, I have everything to be happy about. Generally, one excitement needs a bigger one to be satisfied. I thought that people live happily as long as they had enough money, but I could still feel an emptiness.
There was a function at my house one day in our village. After the guests had left, I was alone beside the rivulet of Kaveri flowing in front of our residence. My thoughts strayed to my growing up years in our village. In those days, I was not regular to school but roamed amidst nature. My stomach ached with hunger and my pulse throbbed with the anxiety of an uncertain tomorrow. I never walked alone. All around me was the undeniable presence of that living web from which all things are born and continually unfold. That moment, I knew the cause of my unhappiness at once. ‘That’ presence was missing. I was satisfied, but I was not happy
That was when I decided to get to the bottom of this feeling of unhappiness. Over a period of time, I found myself asking the question: Who am I? I was in a rat race like most other young men who do not have the time to think. Moreover, I had my inhibitions to overcome. I met several saints and sages. I remained unhappy. When I met my Guru, Sri Narasimha Swamiji, I asked him as to why I have remained unhappy. I remember what my Guru said, “Happiness is an inside job. It can’t come from the outside.”
When I joined Sri Narasimha Swamiji and relocated to Madras, I was entrusted with the task of rearranging books in the library. Moreover, the Theosophical Society was also close by. I decided to study religion and did so for ten years. What I found blew my mind. I realized that there is a higher power just like the ‘Brahma’ that Vedanta describes, and it pervades all space without exception.
I resolved to pledge myself to working in concert with others with a common desire to forge a new alloy of spirituality and science, strong enough to withstand the centrifugal forces of our age.
The fact is, we need to believe in a higher power that is universal, and much bigger than us. In all spiritual traditions, we have the desire to communicate with that entity. Happiness does not come from outside; it comes from inner experience and clarity. With constant repetition of Vishnu Sahasranama my mind became clear in course of time. Then I felt one with the source. That is how I developed a great peace of mind.
Money is necessary; you cannot renounce everything and go to forest. For spiritual progress, total renunciation is not required. Simplicity is a must.
Attachment is what causes problems and you need to guard yourself against it. I may have all basic requirements like bed, pillow, blanket, mosquito-net but I am not attached to them. I can enjoy a comfortable life; I can take it or leave it
We have five thousand years of tradition; Sai Baba says that attachment causes suffering. Relieving suffering by giving up everything is not the right way, you do not have to renounce everything and go away, although it is easy to do so.
Sri Narasimha Swamiji in his masterpiece ‘The Life of Sai Baba’ has stated that everyone of us is ‘paripurna’ or totally fulfilled, completely satisfied. For some reason you may not know it. Ignorance of your fullness causes an imaginary void. Sai Baba accepts you as his own and gives knowledge of your fullness. Once you experience fullness, you will be independent of the world. Sai Baba also prescribes the technique of obtaining the world so that you are comfortable at any stage in life. In short, devotion to Sai Baba enables you to gain the world and not be bound to it.
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