LIBERATION - QUOTES FROM SATHYA SAI SPEAKS

Liberation means the removal of the bonds of ignorance that cloud the truth and create a mirage of untruth. In fact, living is only another name for the process of achieving alternate misery and happiness, hunger and contentment, illness and health, desire and fulfillment. Man reaches out to a new desire the moment one is realized. He is ever struggling and ever unhappy, for he does not seek the eternal, the lasting, the source and the substance. He is content with the transient, the trivial and the temporary. SSS13, Chap. 30

We talk of Moksha. What is it? It is only giving up the Anatma, the unreal. Suppose you want a tumbler of fruit juice. Unless you throw away the water already in the tumbler you cannot pour the juice in the tumbler. Similarly unless you give up materialism, atmabhava (spirituality) cannot come to you. Moksha is not a distinct and different sadhana. It is only giving up unnecessary desires. Through anger, wisdom is lost; disharmony is the cause of anger; of disharmony, jealousy and of jealousy, ignorance is the cause. SSS14, Chap. 54

Arjuna entered the battlefield, fully equipped and fanatically determined to destroy his enemies. But, when he stood between the serried ranks in his chariot driven by Lord Krishna, he saw 'my teachers', 'my grandfather', 'my kinsmen', my cousins' and he was moved so much by this sense of I and mine that he discarded the bow and desired to return, poor and beaten. He said that he would much rather put on the ochre robe and beg for his livelihood than sit on a throne won by bloodshed! The I that has really nothing to do with earthly possessions deludes him and makes him identify himself with things that are not really relevant. This is the moha (delusion) from which he was saved, by the Bhagavadgita. Be unmoved by 'duality;' that is the lesson. Let not defeat or success affect your inner calm, inner joy. See yourself as yourself unrelated to others or to the objective world. When you know your self as yourself, you are liberated: that is Moksha. Moksha is not a Five starred Hotel, or a Deluxe Tourist Home. it is just the awareness of your reality and the rejection of all contrary conceptions. You can recognize yourself quickly and clearly, if you purify your heart by manthra or by the singing of the glory of God. Both will grant you the boon. SSS10, Chap. 25

All who come embodied are Avatars - that is to say, advents of the Divine, manifestations of God. What, then, is the special feature of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Christ? Why do you celebrate their Birthdays with such reverential enthusiasm? The specialty is this: they are aware; you are unaware of the Atma which is the Truth. Awareness confers Grace, Glory, Majesty, Might, Splendor. Awareness confers Liberation from bonds, from time, space and causation, from sleep, dream and wakefulness. For you, sleep is fiction, dream is fantasy and wakefulness a many-directional storm. Avatars are ever alert, aware, alight. SSS11, Chap. 50

You must have heard of people seeking moksha and getting moksha; many may be under the impression that it is some rare honor that only a few secure or that it is some area like Paradise or a Colony of the Elect or a Height that some heroic souls alone can climb up to. No; moksha is something which all must achieve, whether they are heroic or not; even those who deny it have to end by realizing it. For, every one is even now seeking it when he seeks joy and peace; and, who does not seek joy and peace ? Moksha is when you have lasting joy and lasting peace. Tired with temporary joys and transient peace, man will at last endeavor to know the secret of permanent joy and peace, that is to say, of moksha, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. If only men knew the path to permanent joy and peace, they will not wander distracted among the bye-lanes of sensual pleasure. Just as the joy felt in dreams disappears when you wake, the joy felt in the waking stage disappears when you wake into the higher awareness, called Jnana. So, the Upanishads say, "Get up, arise, awake"; time is fleeing fast. Use the moment while it is available, for the best of uses, the awareness of the Divine in all. When you die, you must die not like a tree or a beast or a worm, but, like a Man who has realized that he is Madhava (God). That is the consummation of all the years you spend in the human frame. SSS5, Chap. 14

You must tackle this problem, straight from where it starts. Ignorance can be cured only by knowledge; darkness can be destroyed only by light. No amount of argument or threat or persuasion can compel darkness to move away. A flash, that is enough; it is gone. Prepare for that flash of illumination; the light is there already, in you. But, since it is heavily overladen by repressing factors, it cannot reveal itself. "The liberation from night" which happens when the light is revealed, is called moksha. Every one has to achieve it, whether he is striving for it now or not. It is the inevitable end to the struggle, the goal to which all are proceeding .... [D]o not be afraid of reaching the goal of moksha ! Do not conceive that stage as a calamity. It is the end of calamity. It is death to all grief; the birth of joy, - a joy that knows no decline, the death of grief, grief that will never more be born. SSS4, Chap. 9

In the deep sleep stage, the senses do not work; one is immersed in the I consciousness only; that is to say, one is in Samadhi, or the state of Bliss. Only, one is not aware of it, at the time. There is just a trace of ignorance. During the waking stage, there is knowledge, but no Ananda. In deep sleep, there is Ananda, but, no knowledge. That is why it is said, liberation is attained the moment one is able to fix himself at the point, where there is the experience of both jagrath and sushupthi (waking and deep sleep). SSS11, Chap. 15

Love is the bridge which helps passage from birth to deathlessness, from death to birthlessness. When you rise from the Jiva sense to the Deva sense, (humanness to Godness), then, there is no more birth or death. Liberation happens when you Love every being so intensely that you are aware of only ONE. Soak your heart in Love, soak your acts in righteousness, soak your emotions in compassion: then you attain God soonest. SSS11, Chap. 31

Intelligence being the special mark of humans, every effort must be made to amplify and sharpen it so that it may be a fit instrument for understanding the inner and the outer worlds. Along with intelligence, character, too, has to be cultivated in equal measure, for then alone can that intelligence be used to serve society. The readiness to renounce one's pleasure in order to relieve the burden of another is a prime virtue of character. Moksha means liberation; renunciation, too, involves giving up, or liberation. The secret of both is the same. SSS13, Chap. 21

Vedanta is the consummation or the finale of the Vedas. Milk when curdled is rendered separable into butter and whey, and butter when melted and clarified becomes ghee; ghee is the finale, the anta (the final stage) of milk. So too, man's final, irrevocable transmutation is Liberation, Moksha. When you prepare yourself for victory in this battle with your inner foes and the senses, the Lord gives you the reinforcements you need, for you are proceeding to Him and He takes a hundred paces towards you for every ten you take towards Him! SSS7, Chap. 8

Bhakthi is defined as the means of discovering the Divine Reality within each being. Four steps are laid down in the scriptures to help man succeed in this effort: discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent, withdrawal from the process of catering to the senses, positive control of the feelings, thoughts and pursuits, incessant yearning for Liberation from all bonds. Bhakthi is the urge which manifests as all these four endeavors. But, that word is applied to all sorts of desires and disciplines, so widely and so indiscriminately that it is identified even with epicureanism! Bhakthi is derived from bha or Bhagavan or God. It directs man to have God ever in mind and to cultivate love for God within him. It advises him to rid himself of egotism, to curb sensual desires, and to rise to the height of one's aspiration and achievement. SSS12, Chap. 36

We should realize that in order to get one thing, something else must be sacrificed. Bali demonstrated through his sacrificing nature that if one sacrifices everything, one will attain liberation. The real sacrifice involves two things: first, to realize the cause of our bondage in this life, and second, to sever this bondage. Man mistakenly thinks that wealth, a family, etc., are his bondages and that by severing connections with them he will be able to sacrifice everything and become eligible to attain moksha. But these are not the real bondage of man. His real bondage is his ignorance in identifying himself with his body. He who cuts off this bondage, as Bali did, will attain moksha. For cutting off this bondage, a purification of the heart is very necessary. Purification of the body with soap and water and by applying perfume does not result in the purification of the mind. In this Kali Yuga, namasmarana (constant remembrance of God) is the easiest way to purify one's mind; and surrendering to God with a pure mind is the surest way to attain moksha. SSS14, Chap. 30

The giving up of external struggle is not enough, nor is it a great achievement. The real struggle is internal - the withdrawal of the extrovert senses into the mind and making them ineffective through the exercise of the intellect or discrimination. Investigate each material object that entices the senses by beauty, fragrance, sweetness and softness. Realize that these are all momentary, depending on your mental condition, physical health and emotional balance. Man is enamored of flitting phenomena; he accepts them as valid and valuable. He is entangled in these unrealities and he strays far away from the path of liberation. SSS14, Chap. 34

Of course you cannot instantly eliminate all desire from the mind. So you should nourish the one desire prescribed by the Vedas. The Vedas lay down four goals before man: righteousness, wealth, desire, and liberation. Since the first and the last are difficult to attain without detachment and deprivation of sensual pleasures, man has given them up as impracticable and is struggling, in all lands and climes, with the middle two: wealth and desire. All the fear and misery of life can be traced to this dire mistake. What has to be done is to take the four as two inseparable pairs .... That is to say, earn wealth through righteousness, and use wealth for the promotion of righteousness. And let liberation be your only desire. SSS13, Chap. 24

The mind of man is not an organ that can be identified physiologically; it cannot be touched or operated on by doctors or surgeons. It is an intangible bundle of resolutions and hesitations; of wishes and wants; pros and cons. It has, as warp and woof, the wishes that man entertains with reference to outward objects and sensations. It easily rushes out after external pleasures and assumes the shapes of the things it seeks. It can also be turned back into searching for inner contentment and inner Joy. That is why the mind is said to be the instrument for both bondage and liberation. Allow the senses to lead it outward; it binds. Allow the intelligence to prevail upon it to look inward for bliss; it liberates. SSS11, Chap. 8

In Chapter 5, Sloka 28, the Githa says that the muni (ascetic) who is eager to attain liberation must be the master of his senses, mind and intellect and he has also to give up Raga (likes and dislikes, and preferences), Bhaya (fear, at something unpleasant or undesirable happening) and krodha (resentment, anger, at those who cause disappointment or grief or loss) .... The sloka goes on to say that such a person is already liberated; he has nothing else to do! SSS11, Chap. 11

Examine this question, for example; is man enslaved by external objects and the attraction they exercise over him, or, is it some inner impulse that urges him forward to shackle himself to sorrow? I shall give an example: There are professional monkey catchers in the villages, who employ a crude device for the purpose. They place in the orchards or gardens infested by the marauders a number of narrow necked earthen pots, with a handful of peanuts inside each. The monkey approaches the pot, knows that it has the delicious nuts inside, puts its long hand in and collects the nuts in its fist. Now, it finds it cannot take its arm out: the neck is too narrow for the nut full fist! So, it sits helpless and forlorn and is easily caught and transported! It thinks that there is someone inside who is holding back its arm, when it tries to take it out! If only it had loosened the grip and got rid of the attachment to the nuts, it could have escaped! So too, you are the victims of desire and the attachments that the desire entails. You are bound by the shackles you have yourselves fastened around you! Liberation too is in your own hands. Contemplate the unchanging Glory of God; then, desire for the transient baubles of the earth will fade and you can be free. SSS10, Chap. 10

Rama learnt from Vasishta (it is part of the game of the Avatar to bestow on the preceptor Vasishta the merit of having taught the way of liberation) the method of conquering desire and he demonstrated by his equanimity that he could go into long exile, with as much exaltation as he could go towards the throne for his Coronation. 'Rama' means the Joy that comes of Love. He loved bird and beast, demon and sage, to prove to the world that God saves those who love His children. SSS11, Chap. 11

Seeing one's own reality is the opening of the doors of liberation; for this, the mirror of the heart has to be prepared, by coating the back of the heart with Sathya and Dharma. Otherwise, the image will not appear. In every act of yours, if you observe truth and justice, then you can see your own reality revealed. You may say that the burden of past acts and their inevitable consequences have to be borne; but, the Grace of the Lord can burn that burden in a flash; the revelation of reality will, in a flash, save you from that burden. If you see yourself in all and all in you, then, you have known the reality, says Krishna in the Gita. Therefore, you have to develop the same quantity and quality of Love that you have for Me towards all others. When you are the Universal, where can you say, your street is or your house is? You are then no longer an individual; you are the Universal. Get that idea fixed in your mind. The Lord will be easily moved; He is like butter, a little warmth is enough to melt His heart. SSS5, Chap. 26

In one of the poems read today, the question was raised why God should give eyes that look outward and then blame when they wander in the outer world. No, the eyes do not wander; it is as the messenger of the mind that the eye wanders. If the mind orders them to keep aside, the eyes have to obey. The poet also charged God for equipping man with an insane mind; no, the mind is not insane; it can be used for tightening bonds as well as for loosening them. Bandha and moksha can both be effected through the mind. You have the choice. It is an instrument for either. Condemn the use, not the tool. SSS6, Chap. 35

The Lord who incarnates to restore Dharma, Himself advises the renouncing of all Dharma for the sake of the ultimate Liberation or Moksha, and in the same Bhagavadgita He recommends in the last Chapter, the giving up of even the craving for Moksha or Liberation, for there is in reality, "no bondage and no release". It is only a delusion born of ignorance, which disappears when the Light of knowledge is allowed to illumine the place where Darkness prevailed. SSS7, Chap. 20

There was a fellow who clamored for Liberation (moksha) the easy way. He approached a Guru and asked for the quickest means of attaining it. 'Know yourself,' said the Guru. 'O, that I know. I am just now your disciple. So, have I the moksha I want?' he asked; but the Guru said, it was not so simple as all that. He was, the Guru told him, behind and beyond the body, manipulating the senses, the intelligence, the ego; he was the Atma, in the very core of the five sheaths - the annamaya (the food or physical sheath), the pranamaya (the vital, the nerve centered), the manomaya (the mental, imagination centered, symbol dealing), the Vijnanamaya (intelligence centered, reason based, logical) and the Anandamaya (intuition centered, experience based, blissful). The Guru, however, gave him a tabloid prescription, 'Repeat the Name of God, from the heart, with yearning to visualize Him'. He said, 'If you remind yourself continuously of God being your innermost Being, this awareness will come to you in a flash, through His Grace'. The fellow shied at this; he queried whether he cannot employ any one to do the repetition for him! At this, the Guru asked, 'Do you employ some one to eat or sleep on your behalf ? When you fall ill do you get someone else to swallow the drug or take the injection? SSS9, Chap. 1

For liberation from bondage to desire, the mind is the only instrument available to man. Turn it towards the objective world, you are bound; turn it towards God, you are on the road to liberation. The mind refuses to be calm even for a fraction of a second. When a continuous shower of stones is falling on the waters of a lake, how can the surface be calm and unruffled? So too, man is throwing stone after stone of desire on the Manasa Sarovar, the calm lake of the manas or mind. Bhakthas - indeed all Vyakthis (those who seek to manifest their inner Reality) - should therefore prevent the stones (desires) from disturbing the equanimity of the mind. The fly rests one moment on the sacred food offerings on the altar of God and the next moment on filth. The mind seeks refuge in holy thoughts and things; the next moment, it revels in some fearsome foul ideas. The mind is like the elephant. The mahout gives it a nice bath, he scrubs it clean and chains it to a shady tree. But, it gathers dust with its trunk and scatters it all over itself!. Man too, urged by the senses, pours into his own mind dust and dirt. SSS15, Chap. 46

This morning, while conversing with a group of persons - the problem of suffering was analyzed; it was ascribed to one's own past deeds and one's own mental tendencies. It is wrong to cast the blame on others. But, some one pointed out that God was the originator of both joy and grief, that without His Will no blade of grass can waver in the wind. Yes. If that Truth be firmly established in the heart, one gets the unique bliss of liberation. God gives everything; whatever we get is His Grace. You have no right to judge whether what you get is good or bad. SSS12, Chap. 12

Padmapada, the favorite disciple of Sankaracharya confessed that Guruseva is enough scholarship for him. Prahlada declared that the name Narayana is enough for progress and liberation from grief. University degrees without mental equanimity and the control of the senses are but handicaps, extra burdens that one has to jettison before becoming free and happy. If you seek to fulfill low desires, why come here? Come here, only if you seek to earn Grace. Go to a hospital only when you are resolved to take the drug the physician prescribes and go through the regiment he lays down. So, obey the directions that I give, whatever others may say or however difficult they may appear to be. You have not come to Prasanthi Nilayam to please those others; you have come to please Me. SSS8, Chap. 33

You sit before the Idol and offer praise the incense of worship, but you do not now try to grasp the significance of the Divine that you see in the Idol. Inquire into the Will of God, discover the Commands of God, guess what will please him most, and regulate your life accordingly. Let this be your New Year Resolution. Do not get caught in the sticky tangles of outer Nature. Do not harden your heart through greed and hate. Soften it with Love. Cleanse it through pure habits of living and thinking. Use it as the shrine, wherein you install your God. Be happy that you have within you the source of power, wisdom and joy. Announce that you are unconquerable and free, that you cannot be tempted or frightened into wrong. So long as a trace of 'I-am-the-body' consciousness persists in you, you have yourself to search for God; you have to approach the mirror, the mirror will not proceed towards you, to show you, as you really are. Open the twin doors of Lust and Anger, remove the bolt of greed, then, you can enter the sacred precincts of Liberation, Moksha ! SSS10, Chap. 2

Youth, wealth, reputation, status, authority are subject to quick ups and downs. When motives are pure, knowledge will be pure, when knowledge is pure, liberation is ensured. SSS11, Chap. 24

"Without surrender; there can be no liberation. So long as you cling to the narrow 'I' the four prison walls will close in on you. Cross out the 'I' and you are free. How to kill the 'I'? Place it at the the feet of the Lord and say 'You' not 'I' - and you are free of the burden that is crushing you." SSS2, Chap. 38