Life Is A Challenge, Meet It!

By Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

In India, The Land of Contrasts, Sri Sathya Sai Baba teaches that both education and medicine are a God-given right for all men and women, regardless of their financial status, caste, creed, race, or religion. In accordance with this philosophy, He has established The Sri Sathya Sai University and The Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medicine, offering superior educational opportunities and medical care for all, free of cost. Students are instructed in astronomy, mathematics, ecology, architecture, and other subjects. From primary school through post-graduate study, the educational program emphasizes the development of self-discipline and character, as well as the acquisition of knowledge and attainment of skills.

In this book, the author, a retired public school administrator, describes how Sai Baba provides a highly individualized learning program for each of His hundreds of thousands of devotees all over the world, relating her own challenges and lessons she has learned in her eleven-year relationship with this unique spiritual preceptor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sri Sathya Sai Sadhana Trust, Publications Division
• Release date: Sep 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9789350691823

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju on November 23rd, 1926 in the village of Puttaparthi, in the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. Even as a child, His spiritual inclination and contemplative nature set Him apart from other children of His age, and He was known as 'Guru' and "Brahmajnani' among His peers and others in the village. On October 20th, 1940, He made the historic declaration of His Avatarhood and the world at large learnt of this divine phenomenon. Today, millions of devotees worship Him as an 'Avatar' and an incarnation of the Sai Baba of Shirdi.Revealing the purpose of His Advent, Sai Baba has said that He has come to re-establish the rhythm of righteousness in the world and repair the ancient highway to God, which over the years has systematically deteriorated.Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is an integral manifestation who combines two very significant roles. Firstly, He is a great spiritual Master, famed for His simple and sweet exposition of the greatest and most intricate of spiritual truths which form the fundamental teachings of all the religions of the world. His formula for man to lead a meaningful life is the five-fold path of Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema, and Ahimsa. Love for God, fear of sin and morality in society - these are His prescriptions for our ailing world.Secondly, He is an inexhaustible reservoir of pure love. His numerous service projects, be it free hospitals, free schools and colleges, free drinking water supply or free housing projects, all stand testimony to His selfless love and compassion for the needy and less privileged. True to His declaration - "My Life is My Message", He has inspired and continues to inspire millions of His devotees worldwide by His personal example to live the ideal that service to man is service to God.Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a beacon of hope in the world. A devotee said, "Bhagawan Baba is nothing but Love walking on two feet."

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

THE CHALLENGE OF CONTROLLING THE MIND

To write a book about life’s challenges is a challenge in itself. However, looking back over the past sixty-five years, I find many incidents that were something of a preparation for doing just that. One in particular comes back to me as I begin this chapter on controlling the mind.

At the age of fifteen, I was a student in Coral Gables High School and also attended a Christian Science Sunday School regularly. Being naturally thirsty for knowledge, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to both secular and non-secular studies. But my scholarly endeavors were never allowed to interfere with the total enjoyment I found in water sports and the scenic beauty of the Florida beaches. One day, my mother and I decided to drive to Key West, combining our pleasure in the dramatic sea views with a visit to friends. We had not gone very far when Mother glanced at the heat gauge and said, I think the engine is getting hot. She referred to this suspicion several times on the way to Key West. After a nice visit with our friends, we began the drive home. Again Mother said, I do believe the engine is overheating. When we had nearly completed the trip, Mother said, Oh, dear, the radiator is boiling; we will have to stop. I replied, Well, Mother, I’m surprised it has taken so long. You’ve been working on getting it to warm up ever since we left home.

My mother, being a Christian Science practitioner, was not offended at my remark. Instead, she thanked me for it. She sat quietly for a few moments, declaring the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of God, and the thermometer responded by showing a normal reading. I grew up witnessing the power of focusing the attention on God, having knowledge of the principle behind the resulting phenomena, and even actively practising the principle in my daily life, but it has been only recently, with the help of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, that I have come to genuinely understand the power of thought and the urgent need to control the mind.

Thousands upon thousands of people have seen Sathya Sai Baba, with a graceful motion of His hand, produce rings, pendants, earrings, candy, fruit, statues, holy ash (vibhuti), or any little object which He knows will bring pleasure to a visitor. When Baba was answering a devotee’s question in regard to how He can produce an object from the ether, He replied, The instant I think of it, it appears. Just as Jesus told His disciples, The works that I do you can do also, Baba tells us that we are not different from Him. Our origin is the same, our substance is the same, our reality is the same, and our potential is the same. The only difference between us at this time is merely a difference in our level of realization. Baba knows who He is and what His power is. We are still trying to realize who and what we are and we only occasionally catch a glimpse of the power which is available within us.

Baba tells us that the mind not only decides the goodness or badness of a thing or experience, it creates all things and all experiences. He goes on to say, Without the mind, there can be no object, feeling, or emotion. No mind, no matter! The mind revels in name and form; it imposes name and form on thoughts and experiences.... Mental pictures have concretised themselves as objects and as ideas; as the mind operates, so the matter is decided.

Because of the time lapse between the thought and its manifestation, we are frequently completely unaware of the direct cause and effect sequence. However, I recently created an experience so quickly that it was quite obvious what had happened. Upon placing a little container which held several small objects on the end of a table, the mind suggested, Wouldn’t it be awful if this got knocked off? It created a picture of those tiny items lying on the carpet and suggested how difficult it would be to collect them all again. As I was not alert to exercise control over this negative thinking, within two hours I had knocked the container off the table and all of the contents were strewn on the carpet. While retrieving them, I resolved not to allow the mind to create such experiences for me in the future. With proper attention and determination, coupled with understanding our true Identity and the creative power wielded by that I, we could save ourselves so many of the trials and challenges we have to deal with each day.

On a day when my husband, Raye, and I had many chores and obligations, we both were rushing, accepting the mind’s suggestion of limited time, and in doing so, each of us misplaced one of our belongings. Raye somehow had misplaced the nine-gem ring, which Baba had manifested for him. He is always so very careful with it, rarely taking it off, and when he removes it for its protection, he is very particular about where he puts it. However, the sense of rush has a tendency to wipe out even our best habits. So, he was going through everything in his room in an effort to locate the ring. Meanwhile, I was searching frantically through stacks of papers in an attempt to find a document needed to complete my chores for the day.

Suddenly I remembered that I did not have to allow the mind to create such a disturbance and to take away my cherished equanimity. I simply stopped what I was doing in mid-stack. My thought was, We just don’t have to let ourselves be taken in like this. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. Almost before the thought was complete, my eye fell on the paper I needed. And at the same moment, Raye called out from the bedroom, Here it is! We both expressed gratitude for seeing through the illusion of loss so quickly. Baba has said that the mind must be controlled by the intellect and that seemed to be what was done here. It was just the recognition of the truth of the situation that harmonized it instantly.

Every challenge which presents itself can be conquered by controlling the mind. And this is certainly not new information! Techniques for controlling the mind were taught by the Vedas over five thousand years ago. The book of Proverbs in the Bible has given us an often quoted but little understood statement, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Shakespeare said, Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Jesus told many of those whom He healed of illnesses and deformities, Thy faith has made thee whole. It was the thought that Jesus could and would heal the disease, entertained in the mind of the one healed, that enabled the creation of wellness to appear.

A story has been told about a king whose realm was in a state of chaos. There was so much work to be done that it seemed impossible that all could be accomplished without help. The king therefore prayed unceasingly to God for help. Finally, the Lord spoke aloud to the king, telling him that he had heard his prayers and would send him a helper. God warned the king that he must be very careful to keep his helper continually busy, because, if the servant became idle, he would destroy the master. As there was so very much needing to be done, the king was not worried in the least. He asked God to please send the helper quickly.

The servant arrived and the king put him to work setting everything in the kingdom in order. To the king’s amazement everything was done very quickly and very well. Soon, he realized that he was running out of things for his servant to do and he remembered that God had said that if the helper became idle, he would destroy the king. Not knowing what to do, he began beseeching God for an answer. God appeared to the king and told him to have the servant build a wall. When the wall was finished, the king should have him build steps going up to the top of the wall and down to the ground on the other side. When there is nothing else for the servant to do, just have him climb up to the top of the wall, go down the other side, then back up again and down, until you have another task for him to do. As long as you keep him going up and down the steps, he will not destroy you, said the Lord.

It is easy to see that the servant God has given us, through which we can accomplish many worthwhile tasks, is the mind. As long as it is working on its assigned tasks, it is invaluable. It is only the idle mind that becomes dangerous. The repetitious tasks that occupy the mind, when it is not engaged in performing assigned duties, are spiritual exercises (sadhanas). Baba has given us many good practices from which to choose. The repetition of a name of God, whatever name you love. The repetitions may be done in writing or verbally, silently or aloud, in speech or song, using a necklace with 108 beads (japamala) to count the repetitions, or not. Another exercise which is very valuable is contemplation of a statement of truth from scripture or from any of Baba’s writings (Vahinis) or from transcripts of His discourses (Sathya Sai Speaks).

Whatever concentrates the mind on the present moment, the task at hand, prevents the mind from jumping about like a mad monkey, going from memories of yesterday to plans for the future. Baba tells us that the past is gone and the future is not here yet. He also assures us that He will carry the burden of our welfare. Therefore, if we live in the now, never allowing the mind to idly create challenges for us to meet, our experiences will bear witness to the careful control which we are exercising.

If you examine the nature of the mind, you will find that it is very much akin to the lens of a camera. The body is the camera, the mind is the lens, the heart is the photographic plate, the thought is the flash, and the intelligence, the switch. Turn the lens toward the source of happiness, not to the seat of anxiety and fear; then you will be rewarded with a fine picture imprinted on your heart. It is difficult, nay, well nigh impossible, to turn the lens in the direction that we have been given by saints and sages; for the mind is very truly characterized as a monkey! Why, it is even more wayward than a monkey, for it jumps from one perch to another that is miles away in space and centuries away in time, in less than a wink! The mind jumps from one desire to another and entangles us in its coils. Reduce desire, evict the ego, eject anger, and the mind will be your slave instead of your master.

—Sathya Sai Baba

Voice of the Avatar, Part I

CHAPTER TWO

THE CHALLENGE OF MISTAKES

It is very easy to become addicted to wanting everything to be perfect. The desire for perfection is born in children from whom love is withheld until their behavior is perfect. This deprivation produces feelings of guilt, self-criticism, lack of worthiness, and rejection of ourselves, which quickly become projected out as criticism, blaming, and condemnation of others or reflected back to us as rejection of ourselves by others. Whatever thoughts we entertain, we will see and experience everywhere.

As a child, perfection was demanded of me and my background as a public school teacher and administrator as well as my current activity as an editor all lend themselves to reinforcement of the addiction to perfection. Baba’s gentle reminder to me came in the words, I know; I know. You always want to do everything just right. When I didn’t understand the message, I was given the experience of being loved and nurtured by a dear person whom I judged to be imperfect. Finally, the message got through to me, but the necessary change in thought and behavior is slow to come about. Awareness of the addiction, however, is the first step toward healing and is cause for much gratitude.

In the next stage of Baba’s treatment, one is placed under the stress of circumstances and must adjust his behavior and attitude or else suffer the inevitable consequences. For me, this stage was quite in evidence after the publication of my first book. There were mistakes all the way through it. The first leela came about when the floppy disks on which the book was recorded could not easily be converted to the typesetter’s equipment. In order to proceed with the work and meet her own deadline, the typesetter rekeyed the first sixteen chapters. At that point, the conversion was accomplished and the remainder of the text was set from my own disks. However, I was now faced with sixteen chapters of raw copy. After having spent four years working out the absolutely correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, I was back to square one.

Due to awareness of addiction to perfection, which was developed by Baba’s statement in regard to my wanting everything to be just right, I did not go into a tailspin over this one. I would have preferred every word to have been perfect, but I was able to see the imperfections and remain reasonably centered. As I pondered the experience, not wishing to let it go until it blessed me, I pondered the fact that whatever Baba does is perfect in my sight. He doesn’t make mistakes. Everything that He does is purposeful, whether we can immediately recognize it or not.

As is my custom, I asked Baba in my heart to reveal to me what I needed to know. After several days and nights of petitioning His guidance and listening for His answer, I heard the words quite clearly: Better a mis-take than a take! Well, OK, Baba. Here we go again, I replied. I’ve come to know this scenario quite well. It’s the game Baba and I play, and I love it. Unravel the puzzle inherent in the pun and the answer to the whole problem becomes clear. Each one of Baba’s puns is user-specific. This mis-take clearly was not the same as the one He used when He told one of the young men in His college, Do not Mis-take! I haven’t been giving any young ladies rides on the back of a motor scooter, as that young fellow had. What have I been doing?

Well, for one thing, I’ve been regretting the mistakes that found their way into Life Is a Game, Play It! Even though much more subtle than in the past, the self-criticism, self-blame, and self-condemnation were still there. Why was it that I could recognize Baba’s freedom from mistakes, but not my own? That’s simple. Baba is God. But then, if I believe Him when He says so, so am I. No wonder He has told us to repeat the words every day; they’re so easy to forget when we become entangled in the multiplicity of our doings. And so, back to the mantra: I am God! I am God! I am no different from God! If I can know that He never makes mistakes; then I can also know that I never make mistakes.

But what did He mean when He said, Better a mis-take than a take. Where does that fit into the picture? What’s a take? Well, of course, anyone living in Southern California, the land of Hollywood and moving pictures, knows what a take is. It is the process of photographing a performance without stopping the camera. A number of takes may be made, but only the one judged to be perfect is printed and released to the public. When the director is satisfied with a performance, he calls out, Print it! The mistakes are discarded and forgotten, but the perfect take is permanently recorded and may be duplicated over and over again. Of course! That’s what those of us who are addicted to perfection have done. We have demanded perfect performances from ourselves and others. And when we have been able to achieve a sense of perfection in this dualistic, shadow-picture world, it has worked for us. When we considered ourselves to be the doers and then were able to do something perfectly, the feelings of security and pride were imprinted indelibly in the mind, resulting in ever greater, stronger