The Nature of God

When the moon is just a little arc in the sky and one desires to see it, a person indicates it by pointing a finger towards it. Or, when one desires to look at a particular star, a person says, "There, just above that branch of this tree." The moon is far away, and the star is much farther. At the moment it could be seen just above the branch, but that is only a temporary location. Soon, the location changes. The finger can no longer be correct, for the star or moon moves across the sky. But the genuine characteristic never undergoes change. The form may suffer change; the name may change; times may change; and the space it occupies may change. But the core of Truth will not change. That core is denoted as existence, luminescence, and attractiveness (asthi, bhathi, priyam) in Vedantic texts. The above three together are the nature of God. On these as the basis, forms are constructed by the mind, and names for the forms follow.

Baba

What a beautiful picture in that thought for the day and the problems we have in the center we can explain just like that. The finger is pointing at the moon and it is above the branch of this tree, it is a temporary location and so it is with agreement we had once ten or even twenty years ago in the center and the finger is still pointing at that place, but the moon has moved away long time ago, only the finger not it is still pointing at the same place.

The study circle is very important, because it has the aim to listen to Baba’s words and to think it over and it seems there is someone, she is a passionate violin player and she makes always music, but that is not the same as thinking over Baba’s words and listening to him.

I guess it feels like she did the study circle in the same way practicing only during the circle telling her thoughts not in listening to Baba’s words really and sharing it with others, but in responding to the circle. So when we were sharing insights, she said she could not tell anything anymore and she felt that negative, but she was that used to her way of doing it that she thought she was right and we had to be wrong, what put everything upside down.

It is like a feeling that we don’t understand the world anymore, she didn’t enjoy to listen to Baba’s words, she was on an all different place like not part of the circle, but somewhere else and that was again the case in the last circle.

Baba tells us, ‘without enthusiasm, courage, devotion, energy, readiness and sincerity nothing can be achieved’.

We should listen, think it over to be able to absorb the wisdom, but it was really like she never had thought it over before and her way of dealing with it is out of the moment only not sharing it with others. Baba also is telling us if we do not see it in our own life, we cannot understand it.

So the question is how do we understand it?

Usually we read it and forget it again, but that cannot be right, it is not absorbed if we forget it again. That is what most of people do or they don’t even read it, because they forget it on the spot again, so what is the use to listen to Baba’s words, if we read it now and a moment later it is again forgotten.

If we take enthusiasm and we are in a group with nine people for example, we don’t do anything to disturb it to not destroy the enthusiasm out of respect for Sai Baba and his words and teachings. If that person comes and disturbs the circle in telling, we have an agreement that we should only do it until 7 o’clock, because he wants to sit down and it was maybe true once in the past, twenty years ago probably when he was the center leader, it is rude and lacking respect for Baba’s teaching and wisdom. He is taking it lightheartedly and casual and it doesn’t matter if he disturbs everybody and he seems to be that finger pointing at that place where the moon had been, but it moved away.

But last time his wife was part of it and enforcing it. So I told them they should do the study circle as I am already in the fourth year and that they could do it in intervals, once she and once he can do it. It came up and I took the opportunity to tell that it is already the fourth year and that after four years usually someone else should take care of it and if they do it themselves, they have to learn not to disturb the circle, because Baba is part of it in the oneness of togetherness and in the core of it as he is telling us here and we should have the courage to look at our own mind and not look for faults in others. If we look for faults and criticize the circle, we are disturbing and Baba said the circle can go on as half a circle forever if we don’t go deep into the meaning of his words and that is devotion, we do it actually for him and he is present in all and not just one, if we disturb one, we disturb all.

It is about energy and that is the forth quality he has mentioned, it is about good energy and good contributions and good thoughts and if it has to be critics, it should be good critics and there will be a good experience, but if it is negative energy it is disturbing energy and it will disturb the whole circle and we will be on the mind level and not feel Baba’s presence, but Baba’s absence.

And there is the fifth quality, readiness what means always ready to learn and to question it and to face our own mind and to change it for the better and sincerity tells us that we should take it serious and we don’t make fun of it and disturb deliberately the circle what shows that we have no concern and consideration for others and that we have no real understanding of Baba’s words and the teaching of oneness, what he thinks it probably fun, it in reality the worst he can do, because he is destroying by that the feeling of the divine presence and that is what we want to realize, isn’t it. People too casual and light hearted are doing mistakes without even noticing it, they are like that pointing at the place where the moon had been years ago not aware that the moon has gone on and it is not at the same place anymore and that it is part of our lesson we have to learn to see that difference and it is not a sign of wisdom or even a ‘good devotee’ if we make fun of it.

Those people feel like troublemakers and that thought for the day is a great help to illustrate the issue. They would like to be seen as the best devotees and somehow it turns around and they seem to be a disturbance to all.

Looking at it this way, it is different. But if we listen to Baba’s words and see it in our own life, we study it and if we have a feeling for it, we are also able to tell something about it in the circle. If we don’t listen and we just respond to the circle that is not what it should be, it is about Baba’s words. After all it is about discrimination.

Even in the study circle we have to do an effort to read it and to think it over and to reflect on it to find something to tell and when she said she cannot tell anything, it feels now more like she just takes words out of the circle and the inspiration is not Baba’s words, but what the others tell. She seems to have no idea about thinking it over and seeing it in her own life, but it is probably also not that easy. If I wouldn’t write about it and thinking it over in writing it down, it would also be much more difficult.

They don’t listen to Baba, they do their own thing and they feel like both point with the finger at a place where the moon has been, but it moved away.

The delusion of the mind is as Baba said all-pervasive and if she thinks because she is practicing her music, she knows Baba and she went into Ayurveda study instead of studying Baba’s words and listening to him, that already shows that something is missing and she even told me once that something was missing.  It is a couple and they are both not listening to Baba and it is difficult to take a couple when they come together, doing the same thing and that is why it felt like Waldorf School and not like Sathya Sai Baba, because they had their daughter in Waldorf School and they project it on Sai Baba and they are not listening to him, they are just doing their thing, whatever that is, but it takes all enthusiasm away, the enthusiasm we find again when listening to his words.

It gets bad and it feels like pressure and harassed in the background coming from their side and that is so contrary to Sai Baba’s teaching. I asked them to do the study circle and if they want to  know better, they should do it and I think it would be actually good for them to do it and to think over Baba’s words more often and not just sing and make music as they do and think they are good devotees elevating themselves with all those activities what is not real devotion anyhow. It just makes them feel good, but they didn’t learn to discriminate.

It feels like nobody was listening to Baba until now and they all just made music more or less and shared a text together, but it was no study and going deep into it. She is in the mean time that convinced that her thing is right pointing her finger at the place where the moon had been some time ago, that she cannot see that the moon has moved away. She is convinced that her version of it is right and we have to be wrong and even if her energy is negative, she doesn’t notices it.

When the moon is just a little arc in the sky and one desires to see it, a person indicates it by pointing a finger towards it. Or, when one desires to look at a particular star, a person says, "There, just above that branch of this tree." The moon is far away, and the star is much farther. At the moment it could be seen just above the branch, but that is only a temporary location. Soon, the location changes. The finger can no longer be correct, for the star or moon moves across the sky.

We can use that example very well and apply it to the attitude of people in our study circle, what has been right years ago and they still point at that place, has changed and moved away and it is not the same way anymore and it feels like they stood still on some place still pointing at that place thinking that it has to be right like that.

That means the pointing finger cannot be anymore correct and the moon has moved away and his pointing out with the finger shows a place they are and stand still and didn’t learn anymore probably thinking that they know it all and they have nothing really understood, for sure not the core of it, otherwise, they wouldn’t be that negative.   

 But the genuine characteristic never undergoes change. The form may suffer change; the name may change; times may change; and the space it occupies may change. But the core of Truth will not change. That core is denoted as existence, luminescence, and attractiveness (asthi, bhathi, priyam) in Vedantic texts. The above three together are the nature of God. On these as the basis, forms are constructed by the mind, and names for the forms follow.

 What is the genuine characteristic that never undergoes change? It is only the core of truth that will not change. To get to that truth we have to go in the center of it into the higher self.

Baba tells us here about the core and that it is denoted as existence, luminescence, and attractiveness (asthi, bhathi, priyam) in the Vedantic texts.

Asthi is existence, just being, bhathi is luminescence, as I told you already the higher self is light a bright white light and as soon as we have light, we have also darkness on the other side.

With the higher self the light goes on and attractiveness, it is all we love, all we want, all we actually desire.

That is the nature of God, great, isn’t it! Don’t you think it is great.

In the moment we see the higher self it is present as light and beauty, it is attractive and love, it is that beautiful, it puts everything else into the shade, nothing really matters, no desire really does matter, and there is just the divine. But as it was an experience of the higher self, it was not that easy to realize that the same qualities belong to God.

The above three together are the nature of God. On these as the basis, forms are constructed by the mind, and names for the forms follow.

If these three together are the nature of the divine and on this bases forms are constructed by the mind and names for the forms follow, we are all the same. We could tell that if we experience the higher self, we experience the core of it and it is the mind that takes all those forms and names. But that is his teaching, that is the meaning of oneness, we are all the same and divinity is one, what makes us aware that we are all the same.

Isn’t it just amazing to listen to Baba’s words … and to think it over and to get aware like that of the core of all beings …!

To listen to his words make the enthusiasm come back and it feels great to share it.