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Sathya Sai Baba

Many years after I first started to receive the counselling method I use, I heard about Sathya Sai Baba, a world teacher who lives in Southern India. He was born in 1926 in a tiny remote village and has been quietly and patiently teaching all those who are willing to listen to his message which, like that of Jesus and other spiritual teachers of the past, is based on unselfish love.

Since 1972, when I first heard about Baba, I have visited him many times in India and have been able to watch him in many different situations and with thousands of people.

No ordinary human being could do even a fraction of what he accomplishes every single day, year after year. Each day’s activities represent a superhuman feat which I doubt anyone could match. And he accomplishes it all with such unhurried, unruffled serenity and, above all, with immense love. Sai Baba’s life is his message, as he often avers. I have certainly found this to be true. Experiencing Sai Baba’s influence is a challenge to bring our lives into line with his teachings. In so doing, we can give a clear example to others who may be in need of guidance.

Sai Baba, in his wisdom, knows that we all need to be taught carefully and clearly, one step at a time, like children. So he has initiated several different programmes to help all those who wish to advance, each at his own pace, and bring their lives in line with his teachings.

Particularly at present there is an acute need for ground rules or a model upon which we can mould our lives. This could help to provide a clearer picture of how far short we fall from the model we have chosen to follow. For how can we sense when our lives and behaviour are out of line unless we have a well-defined outline to follow which we know really works?

From my personal experience, as well as that of many with whom I have worked individually and in groups, Sai Baba’s few simple and clear programmes have proved to be an excellent and workable system. They can help all those who so desire to work on themselves. Eventually, they will discover who they really are beneath the many coverings of habits, desires and roles which hide their real self not only from their own view, but also from the eyes of others.

So I shall use Sai Baba’s models first to illustrate how people can conduct their own lives and, secondly, how to train their children. However, I do not wish to convey the impression that Baba’s is the only way. It is important, in fact imperative, to choose a model that really works, and continue to use it until the results are experienced. I will keep my presentation of Baba’s teachings as brief as possible. If more details are desired, there are many books devoted entirely to his teachings taken from his numerous discourses, as well as many others written by devotees citing their own experiences.

Essentially, Baba teaches that love is the most important and effective force in the universe. One of his oft-quoted sayings illustrates this point: ‘Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love, end the day with love. That is the way to God.’ Now that sounds wonderful and we are all inclined to agree, but do we practise it, even occasionally during the day, let alone all day? We argue that we are too busy, that life is too hectic, that we forget. These are excuses. If we could practise it even a small part of the time, now and then, we would begin to observe that our lives gradually, almost imperceptibly, do become calmer and less rushed. We would also find we had time for much more than we ever dreamed possible.

Baba further advises that we should undertake everything we do as an act of worship. That means that when we are faced with an unpleasant or menial task we should do it as an offering to the universal God-force. Likewise, when the occasion arises to serve another person, instead of doing so with a subservient attitude, a patronising one, or feeling resentful or put-upon, ‘we should consider the other person as a manifestation of God. This is true even though it is often buried out of sight behind an unpleasant personality.

Baba does not advocate the exclusive use of routines and rituals in our present period of history. He recommends that, instead of rigidly adhering to a fixed programme of meditation, prayer and other practices, we should endeavour to live the entire day as a continuous meditation. Baba materialised for me a japamala which is like a rosary. It is composed of 108 crystal beads. When I asked him if I should use a mantra with it for meditation, he said, ‘No, it must be continuous meditation all day.’

Education in Human Values

Baba’s Education in Human Values (EHV) programme can be very helpful for parents and teachers as well as for children of all ages. In preparing for parenthood, it can be used to help both parents to compare their lifestyle with this model. The basic tenets are Truth, Right Action, Peace, Love and Non-Violence. The list may be rather intimidating at first glance. However, when it is broken down in detail, it proves to be a most practical and positive method for guiding both children and adults towards a more fulfilling way of life.

Naturally, parents and teachers will find that they are not able to put all these values into practice immediately. It takes time to weed out old negative habits, attitudes, thoughts and feelings to make room for more positive ones to take their place. Only one small step at a time should be attempted, otherwise the prospect of such a colossal task can become overwhelming.

In my counselling work, I use a method which has proved to be very helpful in clarifying the steps. I suggest to the person with whom I am working that they purchase a package of multi-coloured postcards or paper. They can designate a card of a chosen colour to represent each of the five tenets. For instance, a pink card could be for love, a white card for truth, blue for peace, yellow for right action, and green for non-violence.

It is advisable to allow one week at a time to work on each value. After that they can be repeated as often as required. Daily incidents that indicate whether the particular value has been adhered to, or the reverse, can be recorded on the applicable card each day. This record gives a very clear picture of how far a person is succeeding in applying these principles to daily life. Merely reading or hearing about such a programme is not enough. It is necessary to apply it and experience it in action to bring about the necessary changes in oneself in the context of everyday life. Only then are the teachings absorbed on many levels and not solely by the mind.

Truth

So, in the first week, Truth could be the subject under scrutiny. If the adults responsible for teaching children are not adhering to truth in their lives, how can they expect the children to learn to be truthful? There are many different aspects to truth besides the obvious one of honesty or telling the truth. Thoughts, attitudes and actions need to be checked against this value, as well as words. So, thought, word and deed must be integrated and based in Truth.

Right Action

It is difficult to find one word to give a precise interpretation of the Sanskrit word dharma, but the nearest equivalent in English is probably Right Action. It literally means the intrinsic nature of a person or thing, that which makes it what it is, its essential essence – or aroma, its ‘isness’. A bell has a tone, a flower a perfume, a fruit a taste which is its own. A pomegranate cannot taste like an apple. Likewise, a man’s dharma cannot be the same as a dog’s, a butterfly’s or an oak’s dharma. Nor can one man’s specific duty be the same as another man’s.

Everyone and everything in the world contains a spark of divinity clothed or housed in a certain tangible form through which it can be manifested. It is similar to electricity, which needs to be harnessed to, or directed through, different appliances or avenues to create certain effects. It can heat through a fire, a heating pad or an oven; cool through a freezer, a fan or an air-conditioning system, and so on. The universal God-force is manifested in the world through the multitudes of things, minerals, plants, animals and human beings.

People need to make an effort to allow this force to be expressed in their lives since they alone possess the free will to make that choice. In other words, it means surrendering to the High C their true identity and obeying Its subtle directions instead of allowing the five senses, with their myriad attachments and desires, to control their lives.

So, when we understand and start to live according to Right Action, or are inwardly directed by the High C, we will find that we are in the right place, at the right time, engaged in the right activity, for the right reason or motive.

Actually, the only way Right Action can be successfully incorporated into our lives is by daily asking the High C to express Itself through us. That will circumvent the habitual ego-motivated way of life so apparent in the world today.

I have found it helpful to start each day by asking in meditation for the High C to think, speak, feel and act through me and to remember to use as a mantra, ‘Surrender, Trust and Accept’, throughout the day. This daily practice helps me to bring about Right Action in my life.

When we have begun to understand Truth, Right Action will naturally follow and when they have become habitual, peace, love and non-violence will naturally be incorporated into our lives.

Peace

Being at peace results from High C -directed living. When we relax and allow the High C to take over, we will not be plagued by the previous swarms of doubts and indecisions and the proliferation of desires which cause so much stress and unrest. In today’s world, television and advertising in the media constantly lure us to seek peace in possessions and activities rather than from within ourselves. Eventually, we discover that we are left with the opposite of peace as we search frantically for what we hope will give it to us.

Love

When we are really trying to be motivated by the High C, instead of our egos, we will be more and more in touch with our Reality. As Its very nature is Love, it will be quite natural to begin to express Love in thought, word and deed.

To quote Baba, ‘Love as thought is Truth. Love as action is Right Action. Love as feeling is Peace. Love as understanding is non-violence or harmlessness.’

Non-Violence

Non-violence means doing nothing consciously to hurt or harm anyone in any way by thought, word or deed. But non-violence has a much wider meaning than is generally recognised. Not only are vegetarianism and the majestic turning of the other cheek non-violence, but so are the care and concern we express for our planet and its life-forms.

Ceiling on Desires

A further help to prospective parents in reorganising their life-style before inviting other souls to share it is Sai Baba’s Ceiling on Desires programme. It is designed to reduce waste in four different categories: money, food, time and energy.

This programme was offered by Baba to ensure that families could benefit to the optimum from the various resources at their disposal. When any of these are wasted, the family suffers a reduced standard of living.

• Unless the available money is put to good use, the family will not be assured of basic necessities.

• If food is wasted or does not provide adequate nourishment, the family will not be strong and healthy.

• If time is frittered away on wasteful activities, the children will suffer from lack of parental attention they need to assure them of their own worth.

• Similarly, if the parents waste their energy in indulging in emotions such as fear, anger, envy and jealousy, or debilitate themselves by becoming addicted to such things as alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, gambling or any of the host of other destructive habits, they will have too little energy to devote to their children’s needs and, equally important, in enjoying healthy family pursuits with them.