Underlying unity of religions

Reproduced from:
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/03/07/the-transcendent-unity-of-religions/

The following quote from Lord Northbourne in the book The Underlying Religion is indicative of the immanent diversity and the transcendent unity of religions and emphasizes the necessary function of such diversity.

“Paths that lead to a summit are widely separated near the base of the mountain, but they get nearer together as they rise. The wise climber takes the path on which he finds himself and does not worry too much about people on other paths. He can see his path but cannot see theirs properly. He will waste an enormous amount of his own time if he keeps on trying to find another and better path. He will waste other people’s time if he tries to persuade them to abandon theirs, however sure he is that his is the best.“

The phenomenon of "I" - the Supreme Self

Reproduced from
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/03/12/the-immortal-one/

Two simple propositions, taken from Vedantic philosophy, summarize the whole of truth and the way to attain it. One is from the verse 2:16 of Bhagavad Gita and the other is from Upanishads:

1) The Real cannot not be; the unreal cannot be.

2) That which begins must end.

We needed nothing more if we were intuitive rather than discursive and fond of intellectual currencies, beliefs. All religions and mythologies express the same thing, and all philosophies and sciences strive to grasp it.

These two statements, complementary in nature, must be realized. To go a little in depth we can add the following:

If the Real cannot not be, then all things that begin and end are unreal though apparent. And that which is unreal does not exist whether it is apparent or not; it can exist only as appearance.

Reflecting on things that begin and end we see that there is nothing that is excluded except the one for whom things begin and end. Standing here I see that my body is totally different from the body with which I was born; all those cells have already died and these too will die. Thus, I cannot be the body; because if I were I could not possibly say that I am the body! Change is meaningful only against an unchanging background. Change which means distinction and differentiation is possible only for an agent who remains the same throughout these changes so to be able to perceive them as change as such. I can see two different things if and only if the eye that sees the first is the same eye that sees the second so to establish their difference.

Also I cannot be the mind since all the contents, thoughts and emotions, change overtime, more so overnight; they begin and end while I subsist. I am the same “I” that I was when I was 5 while nothing about it, including body mind, emotions and personality, remains the same; they all begin and end while the “I” remains the “I.” This enduing I has no personality, because personality, the collection of thoughts and emotions and inclinations, changes, it begins and ends, while the “I” subsists. The “I” is the bearer of personality, the substratum upon which personality is superimposed. Thus, personality too cannot be real; it is an artifact of the impermanent flux we call the world.

Everything begins and ends except the “I” for whom things begin and end, the witness “I” or the I-witness if you will. The “I” cannot not be. When I, as this I, say that I die I really mean the personality and its ego, its thoughts and emotions and body; but these were not real to begin with since they always began and ended even while this “I” is said to be living. The “I” still remains in the world but only perceived as this I or that I, as you or someone else. It is essentially the I in all of us that is the Real component, for it cannot not be. Notice that if I say “but there was a time when no one was but the world was” it is because I first am. This world that I claim to exist without me is the world known in and through the I; it is the world in I and not I in the world. It is the world in the eye of the I. Without the “I” I cannot posit the independent existence of the world, hence I must not only precede the world but also subsist in it. Notice that whenever and wherever the “I” is, the world too is; and whenever and wherever the “I” is not, the world too is not.

The subsisting “I” is the Real and also inexpressible One. To say anything about it is to hide it because all sayings and thoughts begin and end; they cannot be Real. The “I” is that which expresses; it cannot be pronounced, for it is He who must do the pronouncing. The Immortal One is the Inexpressible.

My friend, this “I” who is the immortal One and no one’s I is nothing but the I of God which is the same as the eye of God, for God is pure seeing, pure Being, pure bliss. Realize this and be free of all conditioning: You were never born; how can you ever die? How can you not be!

Swami arathi

Essence of advaitha vedantam

God became man so that he could 'know' Himself

reproduced from

https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/04/09/time-consciousness/

Time is nothing but the ecstasy of consciousness, that is consciousness experiencing itself as conditioned and partitioned. It is this partitioned and fragmented consciousness that appears to us as diverse experiencing subjects. In reality there is only one subject, but this subject cannot experience itself unless it objectifies itself into the manifold of its own infinite possibilities. Each person is one possibility for the being of one and the same consciousness.

Consciousness undergoes the same self-objectification into multitudes in the case of dream experience: In a dream one and the same consciousness, that of the dreaming subject, projects itself into a world of diverse objects and experiencing subjects. All the conscious agents that appear in our dreams are the possibilities inherent within the dreaming consciousness. It belongs to the nature of consciousness to project itself outwardly in such a way that it appears to itself as something fragmented and embedded inside a world as if it were only a part of that world. In our dream we appear as a person among others inside an infinitely extended world of objects, but all persons and objects are one and the same consciousness, only appearing to itself as if it were outside itself. Consciousness inside itself is the dreamless sleep, but consciousness outside itself is the world. It is in this sense that I see the world as the ecstasy of consciousness.

Creation is an expression of God in an attempt to 'know' Himself

Reproduced from
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/04/20/the-inexpressible-reality/

“We did not come to return; we have come to rise above.”

Man is a deep well connecting the oblivion of Godhead to the personified God. He is not something suspended in the abyss; he is the abyss itself. He seeks God, not knowing he is the very ground upon which God stands. The Absolute is void, and man fills this void by relative utterances of hopes and desires. Man seeks to be enlightened, not knowing that he is the light of the world.

Know thyself?! What is to be known, and who is to know it?

Ask yourself: Who is in there? Who is looking out into this world of empty appearances? And who is looking in? No “I” is to be found. Why? Because the “I” is the one always looking. How can anything be found where the only thing that is is seeking?

God became man so to find Himself as God, and yet in this becoming He lost himself in the midst of himself. He was a whole that has become a part. Dear, don’t give too much thought to this, for to think is to make apart. You have become too partitioned; your way back is to accept you are but a paradox.

God is never known if He doesn’t fall into pieces that can reflect His face. God remained unknown even to himself unless He becomes the other, the not-God, man.  He becomes whole precisely through becoming partitioned. Man isn’t the fallen Adam; man is the fallen God.

Sit back, relax; this world has never come into being, neither did your beloved personhood. Look again deep into your own eyes and see the bottomless well that you are. Don’t be the ocean wave seeking its own source; the wave and the ocean are never apart; it is all water. Zoom in and you see only the wave, the separation; zoom out and you see only the ocean. This god of yours and its creation are akin to the ocean and its waves. How can one be without the other? They are one and the same.

You are crucified by your own beliefs. You are bound by your own bonds. Use this body only to surf this life. The surfer who thinks he is surfing the wave little knows that waves too are surfing him. Surfers don’t last; waves never cease to be. You are that wave and not the surfing body; you are the ocean itself.

These words too are nothing but waves; don’t dwell in them, for they too shall be forgotten. Words need meaning but meaning doesn’t need words. You too need no words, for you are that which is meant throughout all empty appearances. You are the inexpressible Reality.

Zero and infinity - two sides of the same coin

Reproduced from
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/04/09/wholes-parts/

The whole is always infinitely greater than the sum total of its parts. Thus, the content of the whole, God, becomes both immanent and transcendent with regard to the manifested content.

One such example is the real line in mathematics. We know from Real Analysis that the interval between numbers 0 and 1 has the same size as the interval between 0 and 1000 or the interval between 0 and infinity! For our purpose we can pick the interval from 0 to 1. Every number between 0 and 1 is a finite number; in fact they are all smaller than 1. But as the length of the interval is infinite, any amount of addition among the numbers within the interval is always infinitely smaller than the length of the interval. Still fascinating is that despite the essential inadequacy of the parts in reconstructing the whole, the size of the interval between any two numbers within a larger interval is always the same size as the larger interval itself. For instance, there are the same amount of numbers existing between 0 and 0.00001 as there are between 1 and 10000.

In number theory we see that the distance between any two infinitely close numbers is always infinitely large, no matter how close the numbers become to one another. Number being itself something finite can never fill the gap between itself and another number. In light of this, every atom is essentially infinitely big as every universe is infinitely small. In terms of size, an atom and the universe are of the same size. Yes then, size matters; but it is either zero or infinite. But we also know that zero and infinity are the two sides of the same coin; one doesn’t exist without the other. Nothingness is God’s back. The choice is ours: Live in His face or die behind His back.

The One Remains, the Many Change..

https://mahaperiyavaa.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/the-one-remains-the-many-change/

There was a discussion with Swamigal about how famous English poets like Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson had expressed the principles of Vedanta in many places! I showed Swamigal an example of how Keats, though considered to be a Romantic poet, had spoken about Adwaita.

Swamigal replied: “Keats and Shelley should not be dubbed solely as ‘Sensual Poets’ (phrase used by Him). You gave an example of Keats. Has Shelley also spoken about Adwaita?”

I started to think but could not recollect.

Swamigal gave me a clue, “How about Shelley’s work in the poem Elegy?”

I still could not recall!

Swamigal Himelf continued, enjoying the beauty of Shelley’s words:

“The One remains, the Many change
Heaven’s Light forever Shines, Earth’s shadows Fly
… Life like a dome of many-coloured Glass
Stains the White Radiance of Eternity!”

“Is there a better way to explain the Adwaitha’ Oneness and the Illusion of Dwaitha’s Divisions?!”, said Swamigal.

*****

Narrated by the Supremely Blessed, Ra Ganapathi Anna.

224th birthday of that famous poet Percy Shelley who was born on August 4th in the year 1792 in England.

Shankara.

You are what you think..

https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/04/25/you-are-what-you-think/

  The world that science tells us exists independently is only an abstraction from what we see intuitively; that world exists only in the mind or equations. But even these thoughts and equations exist in consciousness. It is meaningless to speak of a world existing independently of consciousness, and by this consciousness I do not mean mine or yours since we are themselves things perceived; I mean rather the absolute consciousness of god which is the real perceiver of our thoughts and actions; His knowledge is the knowing that runs through all our acts of consciousness, though which we know what we know; this knowledge is god’s and not ours; it is in this sense that he known us, and everything about us, better than we know. He knows first and only later we know, and only through him. He knows what is in our hearts, for all knowing is His...

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Truth and our fundamental relation to it creeps into our everyday language whether we want it or not. This is so because in a manner of speaking we are the truth, though we may be oblivious to this truth. Let us take a look at the way we express our actions in the present tense, exactly where we always are:

I say “I am thinking,” “I am imagining,” “I am remembering,” “I am going,” etc. If we pay attention to the structure of these expressions we see that they can be viewed and meant from a different perspective:

I am the thinking; I am the imagining; I am the remembering; I am the going. etc.

I am the thinking because I have become that thinking, being the thinker and the thought at once.

I am the imagining because the “I” has transformed itself into the form of imagination.

I am the remembering because I am transformed to the memory.

That is why at each moment I am at liberty to withdraw myself from these regions, and upon my withdrawal, the withdrawing of my attention, those regions too disappear: The imagining and the remembering cease once I stop being the imagining and the remembering. It is never the case that the imagination is still there whether or not I am imagining anything.

In all these cases the formless “I” which is never grasped in itself has become the perceptible form; I perceive the “I” now as thought and then as imagination, etc. because I can at will flow into the space of perception or imagination, hence making, i.e. projecting, forms that appear to have become the objects of knowledge. In all these instances, it is the “I” that projects itself into this or that form. This ability to project oneself into forms has been known as the creative power of Gods, i.e. their Maya. The “I” at the center of human experience has this power due to its being constituted in the image of God, hence inheriting the power of projection from the Lord, and the human form itself is nothing but a projection of the “I.” With projection comes concealment, the two being the sides of the same coin. It is the projections of the “I” into this or that form that conceals the essential identity of the “I,” i.e. Atman, with its principle, i.e. Brahman. This Supreme Identity is realized immediately and with absolute self-evidence the moment the “I” ceases to project itself, the end of projection being coincident with the end of the “I” as empirical ego.

The I which is the abode of infinity can project itself into various regions of beings: It can project itself into the space of perception and become the perceivable object; I then say “I am seeing the desk” which is really “I am the seeing of the desk,” for I have become the seeing of the desk. Projecting itself into the space of perception the “I” produces the appearance of a perceived world; it produces the perceivable objects from its own depths. We must only add that this becoming is only apparent from the empirical point of view, while from the metaphysical, i.e. transcendental, point of view there is no becoming, for all things exist in their potential form in the simultaneity of the eternal present.

The objects of sight are embedded within the seeing; it is not as if seeing just bumps into objects in the world. The objects are always already constituted within the ceaseless flow of seeing before we make the abstraction that they exists outside our seeing. The objects of sight are made of seeing and not of atoms. The objects of touch are made of touching, those of thought are made of thinking, etc.

The “I” can also project itself into the space of thought and appear to us as the thinking. The space of thought is a region of Being whose beings, objects, have the form “thought.” When we are thinking we never have to inspect a thought to make sure if it is a thought and not a perception or a smell, etc. The thoughtfulness of a thought is self-evident, and its self-evidence comes from the self-evidence of my “I” to myself.

We may suspect the reality of the objects of consciousness but can never suspect the reality of the acts of consciousness. When we are seeing we cannot doubt that we are seeing, though we may doubt the reality of what is seen. You may think that the seen object before you is a fantasy, an imagination, a dream, etc., but when you are seeing you cannot doubt that you are involved in the act of seeing. The reason that acts of consciousness are indubitable is that they are transformations, i.e. projections, of the indubitable “I.” We cannot doubt an act of consciousness because it enjoys the same absolute certainty and self-evidence as the “I.” It is my own “I” that in each and every case appears as perception, imagination, etc.

The world is constituted in and through the acts of consciousness. it is always in consciousness that we know the world, whether as laymen or as scientists. Even the idea that “the world exists independently of consciousness” is itself an idea produced and held in place by an act of consciousness, in this case by the act of thinking and abstracting and theorizing. Everywhere we look, whether with the eye of everyday commonsense or with the eye of modern science, we are in fact looking at perceptions, thoughts, abstractions, experimentation, etc. all of them being acts of consciousness performed within the manifold of conscious experience out of which we can never step, and this because there is no out of experience, this idea being itself a production of consciousness and hence already inside experience. And these are nothing but the transformed “I.”

When you fear you are fearing only yourself, for nothing exists but the contents of your consciousness.

When you are looking at the world know that you are looking at your own infinitude appearing to you as this boundless world. Everywhere you look you are seeing yourself, for you are the seeing itself, the seer itself, and the seen itself. And know that when you seek you are indeed seeking yourself. To be found is to stop seeking.

Periyava experiences..

Om Namo Bhagavathey Kamakoti Chandrashekaraya..

Om Namo Bhagavathey Kamakoti Chandrashekaraya..

Om Namo Bhagavathey Kamakoti Chandrashekaraya..

The unlimited us...

Reproduced from a comment in below link:
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/05/04/truth-eclipsing-time/

We are the unlimited but our unlimitedness is not something that can become an object of knowledge in thought because that presupposes duality. Our unlimitedness is however something that can be realized, realization being higher than objective knowledge. The fact that our thoughts never end, though the thoughts itself are finite, indicates the infinitude of our awareness. We are the space in which thoughts come and go. It is pretty much like empty space; we do not directly perceive empty space as an object but still we are aware of it; it is something realized by the Buddhi.
The act of seeing is an archetype of this kind of realization. Notice when you are seeing, the objects are all there before you but are not touching or effecting you. Seeing is the most detached mode of perception. In seeing you see objects that are finite, but the seeing itself is an infinite field within which objects appear. Now to go one step back notice that when you are seeing you also know that you are seeing; you don’t confuse seeing with hearing or touching. The seeing that sees your seeing, hearing, touching, etc is infallible; you are that ray of knowing that sees your seeing, sees your hearing and feeling, sees your thinking, etc. That cannot become an object of rational knowledge because it is the very light by which rational knowledge is known as what it is. We cannot grasp that by thinking about it or though scripture, etc because we are it. We can however realize it when we drop all notions whatsoever. For me something that helps me go to that place of detachment is meditation where I stop thinking about truth or reality or using concepts. Then I see again that I am the very light behind all things. The reason that thinking and seeking doesn’t get us there is that we are ourselves that. Where there is only one thing existent (I mean your true Self) how can anything be found by seeking? Seeking presupposes a duality, the seeker and the sought. When the notion of this duality is dropped then you realize your unlimitedness which is never accessible through concepts and thoughts.

WORLD IS THE SHADOW OF GOD..

Reproduced from
https://tomajjavidtash.com/2015/05/10/world-is-the-shadow-of-god/

This world is the shadow of God; it is not a thing, not an existent entity; rather, it is the lack of a thing, lack of light, as are all shadows.

Our relation to the absolute principle is paradoxical from the point of view of our mundane intelligence: First, there is nothing but God; but then, we are separated from Him! How can this be?!

Well, paradox and contradiction did not keep physicists to develop quantum physics which is a very successful science though it will always appear paradoxical to our mind. What seems paradoxical in one level of reality resolves itself into unity in a higher level of reality. God is paradox-free.

How can a shadow understand the object of which it is a shadow?!

We ask: If God is everything, then how can we be separated from Him? Well, from the point of view of God, a contradiction in terms since God is absolute and owns all points of views at once, there is no such thing as separation; even our existence is only a pure possibility for God and never a concrete reality, much similar to the way dream characters are real relative to one another but only subconscious possibilities relative to the dreamer.

God is everything and yet we are separated from Him! But this is not really a paradox since the two situations cannot be realized simultaneously: The second condition follows if and only if the first condition is not fully satisfied, or realized if you will. We feel separated from God as long as we don’t truly believe that He is everything; but once we have realized that God is everything, then we won’t feel any separation; our separation too is nothing but God himself appearing as void.

Our feeling of separation is not a result of God’s absence but an adverse effect of an acute case of forgetfulness: The Fall is nothing but a fall into forgetfulness. Forgetfulness is the original sin; salvation and return to His bosom is a possibility always in the here and now, something immediately realized once we realize He is all that there is, that I am Him, my thoughts and feelings, my pain and suffering, my hopes and worries, my joy and happiness, are all Him and nothing but Him. Then we cease to fight, for any fight would be a fight with Him, a fight with our own being. True surrender is the most intelligent decision we can ever make.

A concise way of articulating our relationship with God is this:

My being is God’s knowing 

Prayer of surrender

Prayer of SurrenderWhy get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them. I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything. Say farewell to all fears and discouragement. You demonstrate that you do not trust Me. On the contrary, you must rely blindly on Me. To surrender means: To turn your thoughts away from troubles, to turn them away from difficulties you encounter and from all your problems. Leave everything into My hands saying "Lord, Thy will be done. Thou think of it." That is to say: "Lord I thank you for you have taken everything in your hands, and you will resolve this for my highest good." Remember that thinking of the consequences of a thing is contrary to surrender. That is to say, when you worry that a situation has not had the desired outcome, you thus demonstrate that you do not believe in My love for you. You will prove that you do not consider your life to be under My control and that nothing escapes Me. Never think: How is this to end?... What is going to happen? If you give into this temptation, you demonstrate that you do not trust Me. Do you want Me to deal with it...yes or no? Then you must stop being anxious about it! I shall guide you only if you completely surrender to Me and when I must lead you into a different path than the one that you expect, I carry you in My arms. What seriously upsets you is your reasoning, your worrying, your obsession, your will to provide for yourselves at any price. I can do so many things when the being, as much in his material necessities as in his spritual ones, turns to Me saying: "You think of it." then he closes his eyes and rests quietly. You will receive a lot but only when your prayer will rely fully upon Me. You pray to Me when in pain so that I intervene, but in the way you desire it. You do not rely on Me, but you want Me to adjust your requests. Don't behave like sick ones who ask a treatment to the doctor, all the time suggesting it to him. Do not do that; but rather, even in sad circumstances, say: "Lord I praise and thank You for this problem, for this necessity. I pray You to arrange things as You please for this terrestrial and temporal life. You know very well what is best for me." Sometimes you feel that disasters increase instead of diminish. Do not get agitated. Close your eyes and tell me with faith: "Thy will be done. You think of it." And when you speak thus, I accomplish a miracle when necessary. I only think of it when you trust me totally. I always think of you, but I can only help you completely when you rely fully on Me. —Sathya Sai Baba

Swami.. experiences

http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/interviewjagadeesan.htm

David : What was the nature of your spiritual background before you came in contact with Sai Baba?

Jaga:  Spiritual background, I cannot really say, because what is spiritual, but my religious background, I can tell you, was nil.  Sai Baba, in my second interview, told the people sitting there that I was an agnostic.  I thought that I was an atheist, so I went back home and checked the dictionary.  I realised that he may have been more accurate than me!  The dictionary defines an atheist as someone who does not believe in God and an agnostic as someone who thinks something may be there, but he is not really concerned about it.  So I probably was an agnostic.   Actually I wasn't a bad fellow, I kept a very strict code of conduct for myself.  My father died when I was about  seven years old and as a teenager I used to go out with a pretty wild crowd.  My relations told my mother that I was going to get totally out of line, but my mother told them "I trust my son" and I never betrayed that trust.  I never smoked and I never drank, even though I was mixing with a crowd of the biggest smokers and drinkers.  So I did believe in God, but not in the God of any one particular spiritual path.

When I was thirty two I first came into contact with Sai Baba.  I thought he was a fraud and I attacked him viciously.  I used to make fun of him.  I would say "Well, if God is imagination, then the Avatar is double imagination!" and "Did God create Man?  No, Man created God because, being weak-minded, he needed a crutch.  So God is an invention of Man!"  I used to meet Sai Baba devotees, who told me that he could materialise things with a wave of his hand, to which I would reply "And that is why he wears long sleeves, to hide all the stuff that he brings out."   Devotees also told me that vibhuti would often appear on his pictures.  I used to make a joke out of this by going to devotees homes and removing any dust that was on them saying "See, this is vibhuti.  If you don't clean your house for a whole week, you will get a lot of vibhuti!"   I told them that they were being naïve, believing in all this vibhuti nonsense.  It was just not possible, it was unscientific.  Anyway that was my state of mind, so to speak.

David:  Tell us a little bit about your conversion.  It must have been quite a shock.

Jaga:  The conversion was very dramatic.  I can even specify the exact time when I became a Sai Baba devotee!  It was 10.30 PM  on June 8^th 1976.  I was in my home in Malaysia and there of was a gentleman from Sri Lanka, called Mr Rajah, many Sri Lankans know him because he was a famous singer, staying in my aunt's house across the road.  He was a devotee of Sai Baba and was talking about him all the time and so I wanted to make fun of this man.  I used to go to my aunt's house every evening.  On the evening of June 8^th 1976 I went across to the house as usual, and it was a surreal evening.  The moment I stepped into the house Sai Baba took over.  I saw this book on the table with Sai Baba's picture on it.  I looked at it, and in my mind I said "Avatar?  I don't think so".  I felt very arrogant in my mind.  I curiously flipped the pages open and came across a picture of an old man.  I asked my aunt who it was and she said that it was Shirdi Sai Baba.  I asked "Who is that?"  She replied "A previous incarnation of Sathya Sai Baba".  I said "Oh my God, you mean these guys come in series!".  My comment started the argument again and we argued from eight o clock to ten thirty.  It was a two and a half hours debate, with my aunt and Mr Rajah defending Sai Baba and me attacking him.  At ten thirty, at the height of my arrogance, I mentally challenged Sai Baba, saying "If you are who they say you are, give me a sign" and almost immediately vibhuti began to appear on the picture.  Now at that time none of us had ever seen any vibhuti, none of us had ever seen any manifestations like that.   The funny thing was that at the end of the evening everybody in the house started accusing me of putting the vibhuti on the picture as a joke, and I was the only one who knew that I hadn't done it!  This was the ultimate proof for me, because if someone had called me to the house and shown me the vibhuti I would never have believed them.  I would have thought that they had put it there.  I now had to protest my innocence, and no-one would believe me!  It was a very strange phenomenon. So this was the actual moment of my transformation.  For the first time in my life I realised that there was a power beyond science, and that this power was not a blind, unhearing power.  This power could hear me and could respond to me.  For me, the most important thing was that this power could come into my physical world in the form of holy ash.  Whether this power was in heaven or in space didn't bother me, but if this power could come into my world, I thought to myself, then, why am I wasting my time.  This was my first yearning to seek the source of this power.

David:  Tell us about your first visit to see Sai Baba.  What happened on it?

Jaga:  My first visit was very interesting.  At the time I was working for the Ministry of Industry and we used to go to Europe and America and Japan for conferences four or five times a year.  I was actually due to go to Paris for a conference and so I decided to take four days leave and on the way there to go and visit Sai Baba.  I must tell you a little side story here.  Before I left on the trip my mother said to me that if I was going to India for only four days perhaps it would be prudent to make an appointment to see Sai Baba.  So I called a friend who worked for an Indian company in Malaysia, and who owed me a favour, and I asked him to make an appointment.   He assured me there would be no problem.  He would contact his headquarters in Bangalore and they would make the appointment to see Sai Baba.  This man did not know much about Sai Baba!  He called back one week later and said "Sir, my headquarters tells me that they can fix a meeting for you with any minister in India,  but with Sai Baba it is impossible!".  I was actually very pleased about this in a way.  Anyway I went to India and a lot of miracles happened to me on the way but eventually I ended up in Puttaparthi sitting in darshan and on the third day Swami spoke to me.

I was sitting in this huge crowd at darshan and, of course, being of the Indian race, I merged with the ocean of faces that was there since I looked  like any other Indian.   I have to say here that visiting India was a big culture shock to me and I was sitting there feeling very lonely.  Sai Baba walked through the crowd and he came straight up to me and he looked at me and said "Hi, Malaysia".   I was so amazed that all I could say was "Yes, Sir".  Then he called me for an interview and what was wonderful about this was that on this particular day I was the only one that he called.   In the interview room he started speaking to me like a father.  Now my father passed away when I was only seven years old.  At the age of 32 years old I found my father again. It was Sai Baba.  He treated me like a little child.  He hugged me, he pinched my cheek, he patted my head and he showered me with so much love.  Now we all think that love is an emotion, but standing in front of Sai Baba I realised that love is not an emotion, it is an energy.  His energy was just enfolding me and standing in front of him I felt this incredible love flowing all over me.  A feeling of great humility welled up inside me and I said to myself "My God, feeling this divine energy of love, how could I ever have opposed him?  I had better apologise to him".  Now I could not bring myself to tell him that I had been actively opposed to him, so I thought I would put it mildly and I said "Swami, please forgive me, because only four months ago I was a disbeliever".   Sai Baba replied "Not only a disbeliever, but strong opposition, strong opposition".  My knees gave way and I just collapsed on the floor crying, not silent tears but like a child, really loudly.   Sai Baba said "Ssshhh, people outside will hear.  Don't cry, don't cry, Swami knows everything" and he raised me back on my feet again.  

 Now my mother tongue was Tamil, but for most of my life I never spoke Tamil because I used English.  My wife and I  spoke English.  My Tamil is very bad but, nevertheless, on the night of the incident that I have described, when vibuthi appeared on the photograph, I went back home and I composed my first song to Sai Baba in Tamil.  This was the start of an ongoing process.  To date 950 songs have come out of me and I have produced many tapes in both English and Tamil.   At the time that I first went to see Sai Baba I had produced 32 songs and I had written them down in a little booklet.  I handed this over to him and I said "Swami, thank you for the songs" because, for me, there was no question but that he was the composer.   Swami held me by my shoulders and said "Don't worry, you are my instrument.   Spread it, spread it".  At the time I did not understand the meaning of this but now I see that I am indeed playing a small role in his mission.  "Swami" I said "In Malaysia I am singing to your picture, can I sing one song directly to you now".   He said "Oh, no.  You come this evening and you bring the other Malaysians with you."   Now I did not know that any Malaysians were there at that time, so I said "Swami, I came alone, I don't know any other Malaysians."  Sai Baba replied "There are 32 Malaysians in the ashram, come this evening."  Now what is strange about this is that normally Sai Baba  is always asking "How many in your group?" but this was the first and the only time that he told me how many people were there.  This is the game that he plays with us.  It is the curtain of Maya that he keeps throwing in front of us, confusing us and deluding us.  We must realise that Sai Baba is not here to prove every minute that he is God, he is here to make us understand that we are divine.  He is not here to prove his divinity but, if we are lucky, he may, just for a minute, open the curtain of Maya and let us glimpse his divinity.  Then he will close the curtain again and once more we will get caught up in the drama.  This is the thing that people fail to understand.   Sai Baba is not here to prove that he is God.  A father does not have to prove to his children that he is their father.   You expect the father to give his children gifts and, of course, on occasions, to scold or to punish them.   Swami is just like that.

David:  What is it about Sai Baba's teachings that appeals to you?

Jaga:  Somebody once asked me that if the incident of the vibhuti had not happened in my life, would I have ever become a Sai Baba devotee?  I honestly don't know, but having found Swami I know that he has given me direction in my life.   He called me twice the first time that I was there.  In the second interview, in front of everyone, he said "Jagadeesan, I want you to go back to Malaysia and I want you to be president of the seva dals."   I did not even know what seva dal meant and I thought that he was asking me to be president of the Sai Organisation in Malaysia, so I said "Not me, Swami, I am too young, find somebody older".  He said "No, no, you go and get the devotees to do service."   Now in my life in Malaysia I was a director of investment in the Ministry of Industry, I would get about fifteen invitations to cocktails and  dinners every week.  I had a very busy lifestyle and so I told Swami that I did not think that I would have enough time to do this.  Swami just turned away and asked me to sing.  Anyway, when I went back to Malaysia my life changed.  I told all my associates not to entertain me after office hours because my time was far too precious.   From the time that Swami revealed himself as the Avatar until today he has given an ocean of speeches, but we do not need not drink the whole ocean to know the taste.  So when I talk to devotees I simply say that I am going to give you some drops from the ocean of Swami's teachings so that you can know the taste.

 There are five principle drops in the ocean.  (1) Belief in God.  Believe that He exists.  This belief should be unshakeable.  He is known by many names, by many forms, and the fact that He does not answer your calls sometimes, does not mean that He is not listening.  It could be because your question may be wrong or you may not be deserving of an answer.  (2) Follow your own religion, no matter what religion you follow.  If you are a  Christian, then become a better Christian,  if you are a Hindu, then become  a better Hindu, if you are a Buddhist, then become a better Buddhist.  Every religion can teach us the path to Godliness and to goodness.  (3) Respect.  Whereas many in the World talk about religious tolerance, Sai devotees are not supposed to have religious tolerance because tolerance implies that you don't like their religion but you will tolerate it.  Sai Baba says that you must respect and revere all religions.  All religions teach the one primal truth, namely, that all religions come from the one God and so we should respect and revere all religions.  (4) Uphold human values.  Human values are the essence of all the religions and Sai Baba teaches that there are five great human values - truth, right-conduct, peace, love and non-violence.  First uphold these values in your own life and then promote them in society.  (5) Selfless service to all Mankind.  If you truly believe in the brotherhood of Man and the fatherhood of God then go out and serve your brothers and sisters.  Everything that Sai Baba says is based on these five principles.  This is what he wants us to do.  I have dedicated my life now to service.   Whilst doing this service and, in particular, working with the different faiths, my life has been one great adventure, interspersed with amazing miracles.  I have tried to bring people together.  In Malaysia there are many different religious groups and so I tell them that although we may not be able to pray in the same temples, surely, outside the temples we can all serve God together.  So perhaps the greatest thing that Sai Baba has done for me is to free my mind from compartmentalisation.  He has freed me from individual distinctions and made me a more universal person.

David: What is the greatest manifestation or miracle you have witnessed with Sai Baba?

Jaga:  I think, for me, the greatest miracle was my conversion, which I have already told you about but, following on from this, I began to see Sai Baba everywhere.  It was so funny, and I would not only see him, but I would also see Ganesha, Krishna and Buddha as well.   I was seeing Sai Baba along side me on the roadside when I was out jogging, at work, at home, in fact everywhere.   It was so strange.  I felt that I was going mad.  When I was in my second interview with Sai Baba I told him about this phenomenon.  He said "You think it is imagination, but it is not.  It is a vision.  Cultivate, cultivate."  I thought that he was going to call me again for a third interview on the day that I was due to leave, but he didn't, he ignored me, and that really upset me.  As I was leaving Prashanti Nilayam in my taxi I thought to myself "Swami, I am going now, surely you could at least wave goodbye to me".   As we drove down the road away from the ashram I decided to stop to take a film of  Sai Gita, Swami's elephant, with the little 8mm camera that I had.  At that time, 1976,  Sai Gita was quite small.   I had finished taking the film and was walking back to my taxi when my eyes looked up at the hill behind.  I saw an  incredible sight, huge figures of Sai Baba, Krishna and Lord Subramanyam were all standing there and waving to me!  I was stunned, I couldn't take it in and so I put my head down and walked towards the taxi.  I felt tears welling up within me.  Once inside the taxi I looked out of the window.  I could still see them there, waving to me.  I just started crying.  I cried and cried and cried and cried, and I dared not lift my head up, because every time I lifted my head up I could see them standing there on the hill waving to me.  No one else in the taxi could see them, only me.  It took me about an hour before I could calm down.  That was a very dramatic manifestation for me.   I have, of course, seen him materialise and transform many objects but the thing that is the greatest miracle for me is his transformation of people.  I am a classic example, but there have been many others.  He has transformed selfish, alcoholic, drug-addicted, materialistic people into incredibly selfless people, who exist only to serve society.  For me, personally, that is the greatest miracle of Sai Baba.

David:  Would you like to share with us how Sai Baba interacted with you over the death of your wife?

Jaga:  I was in Prashanti Nilayam in November 1996.  Whilst there Swami gave me two responsibilities, firstly, to organise the Chinese New Year programme and, secondly, to organise a world-wide Sai conference.  I had reached Madras airport on my way home, when I received a telephone call from my daughter telling me that my wife had passed away.  Now my wife was the healthiest person in the world, I never knew her to be ill at all, so I was completely stunned by this news.   The day before her death she had telephoned many people to arrange a meeting at six o'clock the very next evening, because  I was coming back.  A big programme was planned.  At six o'clock, when everyone had come, she was still in her room and my kids, wondering why she had not come down, found her room locked and there was no reply.  They broke the door down and they found her dead, in what is called the padanamaskar position, that means as though she was bending down and touching someone's feet in front of her.  They, of course, tried to resuscitate her and took her to the hospital but it was all to no avail.  After her cremation I kept some of her ashes and I decided that as she loved to be in Prashanti Nilayam so much I would take the ashes there.  So fifteen days after her death I and my four kids went to Puttaparthi to see Sai Baba.  I had left there only a short time before as a happy man and now I was returning as a sorrowing widower.

Swami called us for an interview almost at once.  Now I knew all about the things that he had told other people on the death of their spouses, so I was fully prepared for what he was going to say.  I knew that he would say "I was there" and "She has come to me" and so on, but as we entered the interview room for the first time after my wife's death I started to cry.   Just like a whiplash Sai Baba said "Jagadeesan, where is your spirituality?  Who was your wife before marriage?"  Then he turned to my children and said "Who was your mother before birth?"  When Swami makes statements like this, all sorts of things begin to explode in your mind.  It is not what he is saying verbally that counts, it is what it brings forth from within you.  I knew that he was saying to me "Whose wife and whose mother are you crying for now? Let us have no more nonsense about this." Then, having been sharp with us,  he was very kind and he materialised rings for my two sons and pendants for my daughters and a ring for me.  He then called us into the inner interview room.  There he said to me "Jagadeesan, your wife used to pray to me, saying ‘Swami, I want to merge with you, I want to merge with you' and now her time has come."  I must tell you here that Sai Baba is on record as saying that the moment that a person is born, so the date of their departure is also fixed, but it is hidden from you.  Neither your doctors nor your medical technology can change this date by one minute.  God's grace can intervene, but why should He intervene except for extraordinary reasons.  Sai Baba then said "I was there."  I knew that he was going to say that, but I never expected what he was going to say next.  He said "I was there and she did this to me" - he then got out of his chair and he bent down and imitated the padanamaskar position in which my children had found my wife - "And she came to me." This demonstration of his omnipresence and omniscience was, for me, a shattering thing and for my children it was a healing moment. 

David:  You must be aware of all the scandalous stories that are now circulating about Sai Baba.  How is it affecting Malaysia and how are you personally handling it?

Jaga:  I say this to people.  Look, on the one side we have one hundred tons of the good deeds of Sai Baba and then on the other side there is one pound of these negative stories.  Why do you focus on this one pound?  First examine the one hundred tons of his good deeds and then I will talk with you about the one pound.   Tell me which spiritual leader in the world from Krishna to Christ has escaped vilification and opposition?  Avatars need the opposition to make their light shine brighter.  It is difficult to attack Sai Baba because he does so much good, so this is a good opportunity for some people who want to attack him!  Attacks on Sai Baba go in waves.  About twenty years ago there was a book called ‘Lord of the Air'.  There was a big fuss at the time, but then it all died down.  There have been other waves since then.  Recently a negative video about Sai Baba was shown on our TV.  As a result, a journalist came to speak to me to get my comments about the video.  I said that I didn't want to see the video and she said "Aren't you in self-denial?".   I replied "No.  I don't need any proof to know that the sun exists, so why should I watch a video which says that the sun doesn't exist?"  I then showed the journalist the evidence of all the incredible Sai work that we have done in Malaysia, our human values programme, our voluntary service etc.   She was so amazed that when her report came out in the newspaper she produced a very positive report.  She turned the whole thing around.  So in Malaysia people know about the good deeds that Sai Baba has done and they are ignoring all this gossip.  Christ said "By your works you will be known."

 It is a fact that no one can avoid negativity.  People have attacked me on many occasions  but the more they attacked me, the more attention I got from Swami and so I did not mind how much people attacked me!  Let me tell you a story.  Some years ago there were many independent Sai centres in Malaysia.   I was trying to get them to come together, so I went and asked Swami for help.   Now there were a lot of people sitting in the interview room at the time when I asked him.   I had some questions, typed out on a piece of paper, ready to ask him.  I said "Swami, should I form the Sathya Sai Council of Malaysia?" and he said "Yes, go and do."  I replied "But Swami, if I go home and say that, they won't believe me."  So Swami took my piece of paper and under the questions that I had typed he signed his name to show his approval.  Now when I got back to Malaysia a few days later my wife asked me what had happened in the interview room, because people were saying that I had given Swami a piece of paper asking for his authority to form the Sathya Sai Council of Malaysia and that he had torn it up and thrown the pieces of paper in my face!  I couldn't  believe it!  How can people lie like this and this story must have come from someone who was in the interview room.  Here is a classic example of someone who has become negative in his mind and who therefore propagates negative stories. 

David:  Sai Baba has talked about a Golden Age that is to come and of the big changes that are soon going to take place.  What are your feelings about the future of the planet and of Humanity on it?

Jaga:  I cannot predict what is going to happen, but it seems to me that not everyone is going to experience a Golden Age.  I believe that we all have to find our own Golden Age.  For example, here in British Columbia, today has been a lovely Golden Age day for all of us, but for the poor man living in Somalia life has been full of problems.  We must make the Golden Age for ourselves by creating one around us.  The Golden Age will not be a time when no problems exist.  That may be true of Heaven but not here, though, perhaps, even Heaven has problems!  The Golden Age to me means that you are in a state of inner peace and contentment come what may.  There may be earthquakes, plagues and droughts etc., there certainly were in the past, but if we all find the Golden Age for ourselves, then, the aggregation of all the individuals who find it will make the Golden Age for society as a whole.  I am sure that in twenty years time there will still be people who will never have heard of the Avatar, it was so with Rama and Krishna, it will be the same with Sai Baba.  It is up to us to empower ourselves.

David:  In the many years of your relationship with Sai Baba has he revealed to you who he is?

Jaga:  That is a very interesting question.  For me, personally, he is my father, but when people ask me if Sai Baba is God, I am very frank with them.  I say "I don't know, because I have never seen God, I don't know what He looks like."  If a man was to come from the jungle and I was to show him this microphone and ask him what it is,  he will tell me that he doesn't know.  He hasn't seen one before.  However if I tell him that it is a microphone, then, for the rest of his life he will know what is a microphone.  We recognise everything from a point of reference, and we have no reference for God.  Nevertheless, all the holy scriptures describe God not by His physical form but by His characteristics - omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.  Now Sai Baba is manifesting to all who come to him many of the attributes ascribed to Divinity.  Therefore, to that extent, I say that Sai Baba is a manifestation of a divine principle and note that I say divine principle not God, because every religion has a different concept of God, indeed, if you are a Hindu, then, you have more than one God!  The fact that Sai Baba has manifested physically all the energies of Divinity still doesn't mean that he is God, except in the sense that, as Sai Baba teaches, we are all God, we are all no different from God.  This viewpoint is surely acceptable to all who come to him irrespective of the form of  God that they choose to accept and worship.

Rationalism, creationalism, evolutionalism, Tharkavaadam..

http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/Kural110N1.htm

புத்தி ஆராய்ச்சியே செய்யாமல் பகவானையும் சாஸ்திரங்களையும் பூர்ணமாக நம்பிக் கொண்டு இருந்துவிட்டால் அது ரொம்பவும் சிலாக்யம்தான். ஆனால் இப்படிப் பூர்ணமாக நம்பிக் கொண்டு அதிலேயே ஈடுபட்டு ஆத்மாவைக் கடைத்தேற்றிக்கொள்ள நம்மால் முடிகிறதா? அப்படி முடியாத நிலையில் தெய்வ பரமான சிந்தனையோ, ஆத்மாவைப் பற்றிய நினைப்போ இல்லாமல், அதே சமயத்தில் எந்த விதமான அறிவு விசாரணையும் செய்யாமல் வெறுமே தின்று கொண்டும், தூங்கிக் கொண்டும் சோம்பேறியாக இருப்பதைவிட, புத்தியைக் கொண்டு ஆராய்ந்து, "ஈச்வரன் இல்லை; நாஸ்திகம்தான் சரியானது" என்ற முடிவுக்கு வந்தால்கூடத் தேவலை என்பேன். ஸத்ய தத்வத்தைத் தெரிந்து கொள்ள ஒரு முயற்சியும் பண்ணாத சோம்பேறியைவிட, தன் மூளையைச் செலவழித்து ஏதோ பரிசிரமப் பட்டு ஒருத்தன் நாஸ்திகமான முடிவுக்கு வந்திருக்கிறான் என்றால், இந்தச் சோம்பேறியைவிட அந்த நாஸ்திகன் உயர்ந்தவன் என்பேன். அந்த நாஸ்திகன் இன்னும் ஆராய்ந்து கொண்டே போய் புத்தித் தெளிவு ( clarity ) பெற்றானானால் அப்புறம் நாஸ்திகத்தை விட்டுவிடவும் வழி பிறக்கும். ஆனால் இந்த சோம்பேறிக்குத்தான் ஒரு வழியும் இல்லை!

இதனால்தான் 'சார்வாகம்' என்கிற நாஸ்திக ஸித்தாந்தத்தையும் ஒரு மதமாக ஆதியில் வைத்தார்கள். சாரு+வாகம் என்பதே சார்வாகம். அதாவது கேட்பதற்கு நன்றாக இருக்கிற வாக்கு என்று அர்த்தம். "சாமி, பூதம் என்றெல்லாம் அலட்டிக் கொண்டு விரதம், தபஸ், இந்திரிய நிக்ரஹம், மனோ நிக்ரஹம் என்று அவஸ்தைப்பட வேண்டாம். மனம் போனபடி, இந்திரியம் போகிற வழியில் ஆனந்தமாயிருப்போம்! என்று கேட்பதற்கு ரம்யமாகச் சொல்வதால் சார்வாகம் என்று அதற்குப் பேர்.

ஆனால் அப்படி நடக்கும்போது ஆனந்தத்தோடு துக்கமும் தானே வருகிறது? அது தானே அதிகம் வருகிறது? இந்த துக்க நிவிருத்திக்குத்தான் மெடீரியலிஸமாக இல்லாத மற்ற மதங்கள் வழி சொல்கின்றன.

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http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/Kural113.htm

"ஆரம்ப வாதமுமில்லை. பரிணாம வாதமும் இல்லை. பிரம்மம்தான் மாயா சக்தியால் இத்தனை ஸ்ருஷ்டி மாதிரி வேஷம் போட்டுக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது. பரமாத்மக் குயவனுக்கு வேறாக ஒரு மண்ணே இல்லை. அதனால் ஆரம்பவாதம் சரிப்படாது. பரமாத்மா ஜகத்தாகப் பரிணமித்தது - பால் தயிராகப் பரிணமித்த மாதிரி என்றாலும் தப்பு. அப்படிச் சொன்னால் பால் தயிரானபின் தயிர் தான் இருக்குமே தவிர பால் இருக்காது. இம்மாதிரி பரமாத்மா ஜகத்து பரிணமித்தபின் இல்லாமல் போய் விட்டார் என்றால் அது மஹா தப்பல்லவா? அதனால் பரிணாமமும் இல்லை. தான் தானாக சுத்த ஞான ஸ்வரூபமாக ஒரு பக்கம் இருந்துகொண்டே இன்னொரு பக்கம் மாயையால் ஜீவ-ஜகத்துக்களாகத் தோன்றுகிறார். இதெல்லாம் ஒரே ஸத்வஸ்துவின் தோற்றம்தான், வேஷம்தான்! ஒருத்தன் ஒரு வேஷம் போட்டுக் கொள்கிறான் என்றால் அப்பொழுது அவன் அவனாக இல்லாமல் போய் விடுகிறானா என்ன? அப்படித்தான் இத்தனையும் வேஷம், கண்கட்டு வித்தை! இத்தனையாலும் பாதிக்கப்படாமல் ஸத்வஸ்து ஏகமாக அப்படியே இருந்துகொண்டேயிருக்கிறது" என்று ஒரே அடியாக அடித்துவிட்டார். இதற்கு "விவர்த்த வாதம்" என்று பெயர்.

ஒரு கயிறானது பாம்பு மாதிரித் தோன்றுவது விவர்த்தம். கயிறு என்ற உபாதான காரணத்தை வேறு ஒரு நிமித்த காரணம் பாம்பாக மாற்றவில்லை. எனவே இது ஆரம்ப வாதம் இல்லை. கயிறு பாம்பாகப் பரிணமிக்கவுமில்லை; அதாவது transform ஆகிவிடவில்லை. கயிறு கயிறாகவே தான் இருக்கிறது. ஆனால் நம் அஞ்ஞானத்தால் பாம்பு மாதிரித் தோன்றுகிறது. இப்படியே அஞ்ஞானம் அல்லது அவித்யை என்பதால் பிரம்மம் லோகமாகவும் தனித்தனி ஜீவர்களாகவும் நமக்குத் தெரிகிறது.

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ஒரு வஸ்துவைப் பார்த்தால் அதைப்பற்றிய ஞானம் உண்டாகிறது. சில ஞானங்கள் சரியாய் இருக்கின்றன. சில தப்பாய் இருக்கின்றன. ஸ்படிகத்தைக் கற்கண்டு என்று நினைக்கிறோம். அது தப்பான ஞானம். கற்கண்டைக் கற்கண்டாக நினைப்பது சரியான ஞானம். சரியான ஞானத்தைப் ப்ரமா (prama) என்பார்கள். தப்பான ஞானத்தை ப்ரமா (bhrama) என்று சொல்லுவார்கள். ஸம்சயஞானம் என்றும் நிச்சய ஞானம் என்றும் இரண்டு விதம். இது சரியான அறிவா என்ற ஐயத்துடன் கூடியது ஸம்சயஞானம். ஐயமில்லாமல் உறுதியுடன் அறிவது நிச்சயஞானம். சில சமயங்களில் ஒன்று தப்பாக தோன்றினாலும் அப்போதைக்கு நிஜமாகத்தான் தோன்றுகிறது. அப்பொழுது இந்த ஞானம் பிரமாணம்தான் என்று தோன்றும்- ஸ்படிகக் கற்கண்டு மாதிரி. சில ஞானங்கள் தோன்றும் பொழுதே பொய்யாகத் தோன்றுகின்றன. குளத்திற்குள் தலைகீழாகத் தெரிகிற மரத்தின் பிரதி பிம்பத்தை அறியும் பொழுதே அது நிஜமல்ல, அப்ரமாணம் என்றும் தோன்றுகிறது. ஞானம் வரும் பொழுதே பிரமாணம் என்று தோன்றுவதும் அப்ரமாணம் என்று தோன்றுவதும் ஆக இரண்டு வகை. வரும் காலத்திலே இது நிஜந்தான் என்று வருகிற ஞானம் பிராமாண்ய க்ரஹ ஞானம்; தோன்றும் பொழுதே அப்ரமாணம் என்று தோன்றுவது அப்ரமாண்ய க்ரஹ ஆஸ்கந்தித ஞானம். ப்ரமை (pramai) யில் போலவே, ப்ரமை (bhramai) யிலும் பிரமாண ஞானம் உண்டு. அதனால்தான் ஸ்படிகத்தைக் கற்கண்டாக நினைக்கும்பொழுதும் நம்முடைய நினைப்பு பிரமாணமாகத் தோன்றுகிறது.

இப்படியாக ஒரு வஸ்து தோன்றும் போதே அது நிஜமானது (ப்ரமாணம்) அல்லது பொய்யானது (அப்ரமாணம்) என்றும் தோன்றுகிறதே, இந்த ப்ரமாண அப்ரமாண அறிவானது வஸ்துவைப் பார்க்கிற நம்முடைய ஞானத்திலிருந்து ( subjective -ஆக) தோன்றுகிறதா, அல்லது ( objective -ஆக) அந்த வெளி வஸ்துவிலிருந்து தோன்றுகிறதா? நம்மிலிருந்து தோன்றினால் 'ஸ்வத: ப்ரமாணம்'. நாம் அறிகிற வஸ்துவிலிருந்து தோன்றினால் 'பரத: ப்ரமாணம்'.

இந்த இரண்டில் எது சரி என்றுதான் மண்டனர் வீட்டுப் பெண் கிளிகள் வாதம் செய்தனவாம்.

நமக்கு உண்டாகும் ஞானம் பிரமாணமானது அல்லது அப்பிரமாணமானது என்று ஏற்படுகிற உறுதி நம் ஞானத்துள்ளேயே ஸப்ஜெக்டிவ்வாக இருப்பதில்லை. அது நாம் அறிகிற வஸ்துவிடமுள்ள குணத்தால் ஏற்படுவதுதான். அந்த வஸ்துவிடமிருந்து நடைமுறையில் பிரயோஜனம் அடைய முடிந்தால்தான் நம்முடைய ஞானம் சரியானது அல்லது தப்பானது என்று ஆகிறது. அதாவது நம் ஞானம் சரியா தப்பா என்பது ஆப்ஜெக்டிவ்தான் என்பதே நியாய சாஸ்திரத்தின் கருத்து. மண்டனமிச்ரர் போன்ற மீமாம்ஸர்களின் அபிப்ராயமோ இதற்கு மாறானது. நம் ஞானம் பிரமாணமானது என்கிற உறுதி நம்முடைய அறிவையே சேர்ந்த விஷயந்தான்; ஆனால் நம் ஞானம் பிரமாணமில்லை (அப்ரமாணம்) என்று தெரிவது வெளிவஸ்துவைப் பொறுத்த விஷயம்- "ப்ராமாண்யம் ஸ்வத: அப்ரமாண்யம் பரத:"- என்பது அவர்கள் கட்சி.

இந்த வாதங்களெல்லாம் தர்க்கத்தில் வரும்.

"வாதம்" என்றாலே இந்தக் காலத்தில், தான் சொன்னதே சரியென்று பிடிவாதம் பண்ணுவது என்று தப்பாக நினைத்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள். வாஸ்தவத்தில் வாதமென்பது நாமும் பேசி எதிராளியையும் பேசவிட்டு இரண்டையும் ஆலோசித்துச் சீர்தூக்கி உண்மையை அறிவதுதான். அநேக இடங்களுக்குப் போய் மண்டனமிச்ரர் போன்றவர்களிடம் ஆசாரியாள் வாதம் செய்தார் என்பது இப்படித்தான்.

http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/Kural114.htm

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Realizing Supreme Beatitude

Realizing Supreme Beatitude

by Sunil Gavaskar

Every devotee of Bhagavan Baba has his own connection with Him and the beauty is that in spite of so many millions trying to connect with Bhagavan, He has time for all. Most of them have had some experience of Bhagavan's Divinity. Not only is the experience a very personal one and very, very dear, but there is also the feeling that since it does not concern anyone else, the others may not be interested in hearing or knowing about it. But 75th Birthday Celebrations of Bhagavan is a joyous occasion and it is the joy of sharing that prompts me to write this piece. I will try and write to the best of my ability knowing fully well that no one can really do full justice to writing about Bhagavan.

Swami's Vision to my Mother

Since the day my mother got the vision of Bhagavan, my family has been a Sai devotee. Like any middle class family, we too believe in God and participate in all the festivals which are celebrated in the year. We have a small Mandir where idols of various Hindu gods are kept and prayers offered there daily by the family members.

However in 1970, things changed suddenly. My mother was in the kitchen and there she saw a vision of Swami on the wall. She was restless and wanted a picture of the vision, and so she immediately rushed out of the house and went to the newspaper vendor at the corner of the street who also kept pictures of various Hindu gods. She looked at the pictures one by one but could not find the picture of the vision that had appeared in front of her. She went further down to see if any other shop had the picture she was looking for. There was none, so she came back to the first one and requested him to have a look again, and lo and behold, there was a picture of Bhagavan with His hand raised in blessing exactly as she had the vision of. The newspaper vendor refused to take any payment saying that since he had not ordered the picture and had no idea how it got there, he would not accept any payment.

That photograph was put up in my bedroom, so that every morning when I woke up, my first glimpse was of Bhagavan. That photo could also be seen by any visitor to the house particularly if the bedroom door was open and I do believe that it was after seeing that picture of Bhagavan that my late father-in-law decided that his daughter's hand could be entrusted in mine. And when he passed away in May this year, his last action was to fold his hands in prayer to Bhagavan and his last words were "Sai Ram".

Miracle of Vibhuti

I remember one incident very clearly. We were in Australia and in one of the tour matches, I slipped and tore a thigh muscle. In those days, the Indian team did not carry their own physiotherapist. So, we had to ask the local state team's physiotherapist to have a look at the injury. He examined me and announced that since I had a torn muscle, it would take about three weeks of therapy and one more week of training before I would be able to play again. With the First Test Match due to start in just over a week's time, this simply was a blow that was too much.

As soon as this news reached my family, they sent me packets of Swami's Vibhuti through some media persons who were coming for the coverage of the Test series. These arrived just about three days before the start of the First Test. I was taking physiotherapy regularly but the improvement had been marginal. I could barely put weight on my leg to walk.

However after I started applying Vibhuti, there was marked improvement and on the eve of the Test Match, I requested the team management not to rule me out but to have a fitness test on the morning of the Test Match. From barely being able to put weight on my leg, I was able to walk comfortably in just two days. But there was a stiff soreness that was worrying.

On the morning of the match, I applied Vibhuti to the leg and went to the ground. This was going to be my first attempt to try and run in about eight days' time. Even as I stepped on to the ground to give my fitness trial, I realised that the stiffness was almost gone. At the Queensland Cricket Ground in those days, you had to descend a few steps to the ground and it was these few steps which were painful previously and I had to step down gingerly. But on this day, I felt confident enough getting down these steps normally and not the one step at a time as on the previous couple of days. I took a light jog around the ground and with every stride I could feel the soreness going away. Though I did not do anything silly a quick dash or sprint, I felt confident enough to play in the Test and so informed the management who accepted it and included me in the playing eleven. It was unbelievable. Nobody including me had given myself a chance of playing the Second Test, leave alone the First Test and here I was, thanks to the Vibhuti, playing in the First Test Match.

In the Presence of the Supreme Being

About a year later, I was in Chennai (Madras then) and heard that Swami was going to be in the city. It was here that I had my first Darshan of Bhagavan. My counterpart in the West Indies team, Alwin Kallicharan was also keen to have Swami's Darshan. Fortunately in those days, there used to be a rest day in the Test Matches and we were taken for Swami's Darshan.

Nothing had prepared me for that experience. I had seen plenty of Swami's photographs but seeing Swami in person for the first time is an unforgettable experience. When Swami glided in, there was a glow around His face and His smile was so beautiful that it immediately brought smiles on everybody's faces. Both Kalli and I were standing together and automatically our hands folded in Namaskar as we saw Bhagavan. That first sight of Bhagavan was the most humbling experience of my life. It made me realise that there was a superior being, the Supreme Authority. He was standing in human form and sending these happy vibrations to all who had come there! It was the kind of happiness that even a century or a victory for the side could not bring about. It just made one's heart feel lighter. I have been lucky to experience it time and again since then and I consider myself blessed to do so.

That day both Kalli and I were hoping that Swami would bless us just a little bit more than the other, for the Test Match was evenly poised. Of course, Swami when He gave us an audience did not take sides, but the Indian team also had another Sai devotee in G.R. Viswanath and it was Vishy who took us to victory the next day.

Grace Unbounded

Later on, both Kalli and I had the rare privilege, honour and good fortune to be the masters of ceremonies for Swami's 70th Birthday Celebrations. How that came about is a story in itself. I received the invitation card for the celebrations of Swami's 70th Birthday more than a month earlier. When I went through the celebrations planned and the VIPs that were due to come to Puttaparthi starting from the President of India and the Prime Minister to other cabinet ministers, I thought to myself that with all the security for them there would be no way to get even a glimpse of Swami. But I said to myself that if Swami wants me to be there for His Birthday, then somehow I would be there in Puttaparthi.

Just two days before the Birthday, I got a call with the words "Indian, how are you? What are you doing in Mumbai? Why aren't you in Puttaparthi?" It was Alwin Kallicharan who was already in Puttaparthi. we always called each other 'Indian' which is how people of Indian origin call each other in the West Indies. I explained to him that I was beginning to shoot for a new TV serial for the forthcoming 1996 World Cup and so would not be able to come to Prashanthi Nilayam. I had fixed those dates for shooting, so that my mind would concentrate on the shooting of the serial and I would not feel the pangs of missing Swami's Birthday Celebrations. Kalli informed me that they were trying to organize air transport for me and would let me know about it the next day. When he called to tell me that a charter had been arranged, I could not believe it and my joy knew no bounds. After all, I was going to be present at my beloved Swami's Birthday Celebrations. When I landed there, I was told that I was to be the master of ceremonies, something which  I had never done before in my life. But with Swami present, I was sure that He would help me not to forget my lines.

A few years later, I was privileged to arrange the players for the Unity Cup Cricket Match. Swami has always said, "Life is a game. Play it.". Bhagavan wanted to show that there could be unity among different countries, cultures and communities through sports. So, the Unity Cup was played with players from all over the world including Pakistan.

Several senior retired players were honoured and had the good fortune to be blessed by Bhagavan. Who can forget Bhagavan patting Sachin Tendulkar on the back and telling him, "I am with you!" What a season Sachin had after that as he virtually single-handedly demolished World Champion Australia with his batting that seemed to be of a totally different dimension after that pat from Bhagavan!

Devotees who have had Swami's Darshan even from afar know how it becomes a craving and if Swami even glances at you fleetingly, you feel an incredible joy that cannot be described in words.

Swami is eternal. We are blessed to have Bhagavan with us and we must strive to join Him in serving humanity and helping the poor and the downtrodden. we can do it in our way, quietly and without fanfare. We can start by promising that every day we will do at least one good deed.

Sunil GavaskarFormer Captain Indian Cricket Team; has made/broken several records in Cricket; an ardent devotee of Bhagawan.

http://saibaba.ws/experiences1/realisingsupremebeatitude.htm