Immanent in you

You have heard four people speaking now on the magazine Sanathana Sarathi and the value derived from it by readers. I know that you have been squatting for an hour or so, and you will come again for longer sessions later in the day, which will continue the whole night. Let Me tell you that far from sympathising with you, I commend your endurance, for such hardships make your lives worthwhile. To call it a hardship is a sign of delusion and ignorance of values.

Just now, the entire country is under the shadow of a fear, the fear of the conjoint effect of eight planets that converge in one line for some short time. In order to ward off the evil, persons who have so far never spent a paisa on charity are spending lavishly for holy rituals, worship rites, and the propitiation of planetary powers. So far, so good; let some money flow from one pocket to another that is more needy. Let money circulate. Let the spirit of charity grow, even out of panic.

But calamity, danger, and death cannot be avoided for all time; they are inevitable factors of life, and you have to learn to live bravely with them. This can be accomplished only by uninterrupted prayer, and not by spurts of worship actuated by sudden fear. Purify your hearts and your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and speech; strengthen your nobler impulses. Then, no panic can unnerve you; nothing can shake your stability, your inner peace (prasanthi).

Lord’s play to reveal the nature of devotion

Your prayers will be heard and answered; the Lord has no distinction of big or small, of high or low. There was in Bengal a devotee named Madhavadasa, who realised when his wife died that he had lost his home, for his wife had passed away; so he gave all his riches to the poor, donned a yellow robe, and wandered alone as a pilgrim to the Jagannatha Shrine. There, he did such deep penance that the concrete image soon became the abstract reality and the abstract reality became a perpetual vision. He lost all sense of time and space, of awareness and ignorance Then the Lord, with Subhadra, His Sakthi-aspect, moved toward him and placed before him the gold plate used by the priests to keep food in front of Jagannatha in the sanctum sanctorum. When Madhavadasa awoke to his gross surroundings, he saw the gold plate with the pile of delicious food upon it; ate his fill, and returned to his inner paradise, which he had left for a while.

Meanwhile, the plate was reported lost, assumed to be stolen, and discovered by the seashore near Madhavadasa, who was promptly arrested and led to the lock-up by some very efficient policemen. He was beaten mercilessly but did not seem to mind it a bit. That night, the chief priest had a dream in which Jagannatha asked him not to bring food for the Lord again into the shrine, for, “You bring Me food, and when I eat it, you start beating Me!” Then he realised that it was all the Lord’s play (leela) to demonstrate the devotion of Madhavadasa and teach others the real nature of devotion.

The Lord will not allow a devotee to be harmed

Some scholars and pandits of Puri did not feel happy at this sudden rise to fame of a stranger from Bengal; so, they called Madhavadasa into their midst and challenged him to an intellectual duel. Madhavadasa was not a pandit of that type: he had learnt the scriptures only as a staff to help him walk, as a guide to action, not as a stick to beat others with. So he accepted defeat even before the bout began and signed a statement to that effect, which the leading pandit was only too glad to accept, because Madhavadasa had a reputation for scholarship that was really frightening.

The pandit hurried to Kasi with that token of victory. He waved it before a gathering of scholars and demanded that they all pay him homage as superior even to Madhavadhasa. But the Lord will not allow His devotee to be humiliated. When the signed statement was opened and read, they were all amazed to find that it was a statement declaring that it was Madhavadhasa who had achieved victory and it was the pandit who had signed underneath acknowledging his own defeat! The Lord will not be silent when the devotee is insulted or harmed.

But, remember, the word is devotee. Well, who is a devotee, and how can you claim the privileges of that position? Unless you have unshakable faith, you do not deserve that name. If you are rooted in that faith, success is yours, without a doubt. But do not think that I am angry or displeased with you on that account. This evening, the emergence of the egg-shaped stone of Siva (Lingodhbhava) is My duty, My responsibility, rather My nature, which must reveal itself on this holy day.

I gave Kasturi and Thirumalachar shawls and blessed them at the beginning of this meeting, since they wrote My Life in English and Telugu — the book called Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. Some of you might have wondered why I liked the publication of this book on My life. Well, I like the production of all kinds of things, so why should I not like this? I responded to the prayers of devotees and allowed them to write it. “He who pleases is Rama (Ramayathi ithi Rama).” The joy of the devotee satisfies the Lord; the joy of the Lord is the reward of the devotee.

Truth is the basic reality of you all

The title, Sathyam Sivam Sundaram is full of meaning. It speaks of Me as immanent in every one of you, remember. Sathyam (Truth) is the basic reality of you all; that is why you resent being called a liar. The real “you” is innocent; the real “you” will not accept an imputation that is false. The real “you” is sivam (joy, happiness, auspiciousness) — but not shavam (corpse). It is beautiful (subham), permanent (nithyam), bliss (anandam). How then can you bear being called otherwise? The real “you” is beauty (sundaram) so you resent being called ugly. The Atma has got entangled in the body, which it does not like; it is weighed down by shame when you identify it with the body and attribute to it the weaknesses and deficiencies of that physical vehicle.

The magazine Sanathana Sarathi is the result of My resolve, My venture, My bliss. Nothing can stand in the way once I have decided on any step. When the principle of Supreme Soul assumes human form and appears —not with the Supreme Power and Form but with the power and form of illusion— it is difficult to comprehend it, especially when you are in an uncertain vacillating mood. Once you understand the purpose and the procedure, all doubts will cease.