Sai Baba on consciousness

Horticulturists advise us to communicate with our plants; and gardeners say it works. When I pick certain flowers, I tell you, I hear other flowers complaining that they are not being selected. Fallen blossoms want me to gather them up for further use. I simply can’t resist the call of magenta bougainvillea blooms sweeping across the pavement.

Avatar Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said that everything has consciousness. For instance, while Swami was at his Bombay ashram, Dharmakshetra, he asked that about a hundred saris be brought so that he could select some for distribution to the women workers at Anantapur who were helping build the Sathya Sai College there.

He narrated, “I selected 96 and asked them to return four to the shop. I kept the four aside and the 96 were placed in my room. Later, when I passed the table on which the four discarded saris were kept it was noticed that the cardboard box which contained the four were dripping tears! These saris were weeping that they could not get appreciation from me and were declared unfit. Yes! They had shed tears! You may ask whether this is ever possible, I answer there is nothing in this world which has no heart, which is incapable of feeling joy or grief! Only you must have the eye to see, the ear to listen, the heart to respond.”

As a youngster I had many personal experiences, not only with gardens but with greenhouse and indoor plants as well.

Puttaparthi Baba noted, “It is difficult to understand the nature of this principle of consciousness. There are three aspects of this consciousness, depending upon its association with specific aspects of human personality. When this consciousness or awareness is associated with the senses, we use the term ‘conscious’. When it is associated with the mind, we call it ‘conscience’, and when it is associated with the self, it is pure consciousness. How do we know if we are on the right path? According to Bhagawan, “Heart is the consciousness… Consciousness is a reflection.” So, the next time you are holding a rose, try communicating with its consciousness. You may notice an increase in the scent of the rose as it speaks to you.