JOIN USI like this. I hate that. I will be the first one to say yes to fun, and the last to say no to it. I want full-time electricity, gentle neighbors, and fat juicy lemons. My attachments are strong, but my Guru’s teachings are stronger.
Sri Sathya Sai has said, “The primary reason you have acquired this body is to enable you to engage in activities which allow you to reap the rewards of your past actions, your past karma. But why did you accumulate this karma in the first place? The reason for karma is desire or attachment you have for some things and dislike or repulsion you have for other things. Then what is the reason for this attraction and repulsion? The reason is duality. You believe that this world is real and is filled with objects and things which are separate from yourself. Where did this duality come from? The reason for this duality is ignorance, the dark well which covers the knowledge of your true reality. You have forgotten the fundamental unity of all beings. You have become unaware of the divine basis of all things. You have lost sight of the Atma, your real Self. It is on account of this ignorance that you experience so much grief and sorrow. If you want to be free of this darkness of ignorance, you must obtain the light of wisdom.”
It was shocking to discover that the world is not real.—more shocking than when I discovered there was no Santa Claus. I didn’t want to be connected to everyone and everything. Hitler? No, never! But my own Preceptor was telling me I am one with all. How could I adjust? Swami had already prepared the way.
He said, “Association with good people and Sadhana (spiritual practice, self effort, spiritual discipline) are essential for discovering the divinity latent in the individual. The real purpose of human life will be achieved only when all our time and all our efforts are concentrated on realizing the divinity that is inherent in us. This realization is possible for every human being.”
During some periods of my spiritual studies, the only thing I was sure of was my ignorance.
By the grace and beneficence of the Almighty Sai Avatar more light has come through.
The Lord of Puttaparthi said, “Your Reality is the Atma (God viewed as the particular), a wave of the Paramatma (God viewed as the Universal). The one object of this human existence is to visualize that Reality, that Atma, that relationship between the Wave and the Sea. All other activities are trivial; you share them with birds and beasts; but, this is the unique privilege of Man.”
He has clambered through all the levels of animality, all the steps in the ladder of evolution in order to inherit this high destiny. If his years between birth and death are frittered away in seeking food, shelter, comfort and pleasure as animals do, man is condemning himself to a further life sentence.”