By: Sharmila Sanka
The greatest Philosophy of life is to dig within one’s own
self. Even greater boon for me is that, Swami (Sri Sathya Sai) himself is my Philosopher. I
was fortunate to earn my graduation and post-graduation degrees in Sri Sathya
Sai University. He is the embodiment of Philosophy. His philosophy of selfless
love made me trust Him blindly with no trace of doubt. He is my ultimate
spiritual goal. He gives me all the easy techniques and clues to lead a divine
life and to set a goal to merge with Him. He is the one who taught me the
meaning of life and that life is worthy to live only, when we have touched at
least one soul on this earth plane. Unknowingly, all of us touch many souls
craving for divinity through our experiences of Swami. It is at the feet of
this philosopher, that we students learnt meditation, tasted the thirst for
God, learnt to be selfless to the extent possible, to love all, not to hurt
anyone unnecessarily, to discipline our lives and above all to be spiritual. He
was the one who taught us not to be lazy but to do our best. “Try is dry, do or
die” became our motto in life. Swami is the one who taught me the meaning of
Philosophy.
Once I dreamt in which Swami created Vibhuti and applied it
vertically on my forehead saying, ‘andangaa unnavu’ which means ‘you are
beautiful.’ He also asked me, “mukti kaavaala” which meant, “do you
want Liberation?’ What else do I need from the Lord? That is the only purpose
of my life, to remain beautiful inside and get merged in the ultimate bliss of
ocean to curb the endless habit of multiple births and the wish of being
reborn. I very well know I am not worthy for this boon but understanding
Swami’s sayings not to underestimate ourselves as sinners, I still move forward
with this hope to merge with Him. I do not want to get crushed in the wheel of
births and deaths.
Bhagawan always emphasizes on silence. He doesn’t encourage
students who talk unnecessarily. He says that it is a waste of energy. Silence
is modesty but not ignorance. Speak only what is necessary. Think more, speak
less. "For attractive lips, speak words of kindness." so said a great
soul. Usage of language opens our mind letting others to read us. Our speech
needs to be worthy and meaningful. Our language plays a vital role in depicting
ourselves. Our words have immense power leading it to take the form of
practicality, be it good or bad. Our expression should be situational and we
should not waste our speech in uttering useless, worthless and meaningless
words. Silence is better than speaking non-sense. Silence in the worldly sense
is being quiet and calm, and to speak only when necessary. A silent person
doesn’t mean he is ignorant and not brainy. In fact, chances are that he will
be smart enough to grasp things fast as he doesn’t waste much energy in talking
unnecessarily. We all talk limitlessly the whole day. Imagine the amount of
energy being consumed by our endless speech. A silent person reserves all this
energy and utilizes it for a better purpose, be it to sharpen his brain or
memory power for which all the educated yearn for.
One night, all of us sat down for singing bhajans in the
prayer hall in the hostel and someone made an announcement that one of the
students lost her mother and that we were to chant ‘Trayambaka mantra ‘ for her
soul to be in peace. Sitting in the prayer hall, I felt very sad and cried
helplessly and was also singing bhajan while my mind was wandering and
oscillating with innumerous questions in ignorance. ‘Dear Swami, is this a game
for you? Why do you take the lives of people? What do you achieve with all
these deaths? I want an answer right now.” My little mind was busy thinking of
petty thoughts and suddenly I felt something moving on my body. Suddenly my
hand squeezed it unknowingly and spontaneously and I found it to be a tiny
insect which died the very next moment. I was flabbergasted to receive my
answer so spontaneously. I thought thus-“What did I achieve by killing that
small insect, which didn’t even harm me. Did I want to play a game with its
life?” No. It happened; it just happened. It was then I realized God is like a
spectator watching all that is happening on this earth, because we are the
doers and he is mere audience. The quote that was read out after the bhajans
for that night in the prayer hall was- “Never leave God, never believe the
world, and never be afraid of death.” Swami gave me a clear message to remain a
spectator and not to get disheartened by the happenings around me.
Yes, we should not fear death. Death is not an invitation
which foretells but it is an untold accidental snatcher. We should not regret
when the hour of death knocks the door of our ‘life.’ We have to sanctify our
lives and be ready to die at any moment with the confidence and faith that we
have performed our duty as human beings and we have worked towards our ultimate
goal of mergence with the divine. God is like a natural photographer. Smile at
life in order for him to hang our picture on the walls of His heart. Breathe
the name of Lord every moment for, it may be your last breath. All questions
can be answered by the all-knowing but some questions should not be asked
because nothing, absolutely nothing happens in the creation of God by mistake.
Swami being a philosopher, has easy ways to make us understand the philosophy
of life.
I always doubted-‘what is the use to face the result of our
sins in our next birth when we can’t even remember the sins we committed?’ I
was reading a book called, ‘Loving Divinity’ and the conversation goes as
follows between the author and Swami.
Author asked Swami, “Why doesn’t God make people suffer for their
sins in the same life time? Why in other lives when they cannot know why they
suffer?”
Swami answered, “Then how would you account for the punya
they do? They have to enjoy the benefits of their punya too. All that, may not
always be possible in one life time.”
What a great truth Swami taught me through this book! Every
question gets answered when God shadows our lives.
